It was a perfect preseason for the Washington Redskins in a couple of ways, both of which were sealed with Thursday's victory. Robert Griffin III was medically cleared to play in Week 1, for one, but that had nothing to do with Washington closing out its preseason with a 30-12 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to finish 4-0 in the exhibition season.
Redskins vs. Buccaneers: Washington’s near-perfect Thursday concludes preseason play
It’s hard to imagine anything going much better for Washington on Thursday. Tampa Bay had a little bit of a different story.
Al Messerschmidt
Griffin sat out Thursday’s game like most of the Redskins’ starters, but Griffin has not played in a game this preseason even though he’s been practicing for a few weeks. The crew that pieced together the 18-point win was largely made of backups trying to win jobs and young players trying to survive roster cuts.
One job that was still up for grabs was punt returner, and Chris Thompson seemed to have won that job, UkRedskin at Hog Haven wrote.
Chris Thompson won himself the return job after returning a punt for a long touchdown. His speed was obvious as he ran past the defense, but the more impressive thing for me was his patience. He took a few stutter steps after he secured the punt to set up his blocks, before demonstrating the incredible burst and cutting at speed that he showed in college.
Thompson, afifth-round pick out of Florida State, scored a 69-yard touchdown return late in the first quarter put the team up 17-0.
If one team took a 17-0 lead in the first quarter, that means the other team fell behind 17 points in the first quarter, and Sander Philipse at Bucs Nation wrote accordingly. Actually, Philipse wasn’t as displeased with the defense —which scored a touchdown on an interception return in the second quarter — as he was the offense.
(Backup quarterback) Mike Glennon looked uncomfortable, the pass protection was not holding up and the communication with the receivers seemed to be off as well. Two turnovers, one a lost fumble and one a bad interception. The only points the Bucs put up in the first half came as a result of an interception returned for a touchdown by Najee Goode - with the ensuing PAT being missed by Derek Dimke.
Goode’s 37-yard pick-six was the Buccaneers’ only touchdown of the game. They added two second-half field goals to settle up to the final score.
Tampa Bay finished its preseason 1-3.
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