Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, under siege during limited action against the Detroit Lions on Thursday, suffered a concussion in Washington’s 21-17 preseason victory.
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Redskins head coach Jay Gruden said it was unclear how long Griffin would be out of action, or whether he would recover in time for next Saturday’s preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens.
There are reports that Griffin will probably be cleared to play in the critical third preseason game against the St. Louis Rams once he gets through the league’s concussion protocol.
He was 2-of-5 for eight yards, got sacked three times and was hit hard on several other occasions while playing four series.
On Thursday, Griffin was diving to recover a fumble when Lions defensive lineman Corey Wooten dove on top of him and landed on his head.
It was Griffin’s second fumble that ended his night.
When Griffin got hurt, he stayed down on the field for about 5 minutes and was tended to by trainers, while some teammates kneeled nearby. He gave a thumbs-up to the crowd. But the fact of it is, whether Gruden kept his quarterback in or not, Griffin’s fate was inevitable. He was able to get back some of the yardage lost on the sack but nothing went wrong here.
Gruden said after the game that he had “no idea” how long Griffin will be sidelined.
Next week, the Lions will go back on the road for a matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars in their “dress rehearsal” for the regular season. The Redskins also have two inexperienced blockers on the right side in rookie guard Brandon Scherff and second-year player Morgan Moses. Griffin later was driven to the turf by linebacker DeAndre Levy on a delayed blitz, and he was slammed down by defensive end Phillip Hunt, who blew past backup left tackle Willie Smith. “I think we need the work”.
“We’ll have to wait and see”, Gruden told the Associated Press.
“It felt like we were picking Robert up after every pass play”.
This second preseason game exposed the weakness of the Redskins’ offensive line, which started four of its five starters with left tackle Trent Williams out with a sore knee.
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Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy are the backup quarterbacks in Washington. “He did a good job of executing the offense today”. The rest of the line couldn’t do a thing to keep the Lions from getting to the quarterback-seeing that, the critics’ logic goes, it’s up to Gruden to make sure that quarterback isn’t the starter.
