Washington Redskins rookie head coach Jay Gruden believes the team could be in a much better position than the 3-6 hole they're in right now.
"When you go back and look at what's going on, being 3-6, you look at the six losses and there's a play here, a play there where we're just so close to being 7-2 instead of 3-6, and that's the way the NFL is right now," Gruden said to Mike Jones of the Washington Post.
Perhaps it's Gruden's callowness when it comes to coaching, but by his logic, the team could also be one or two plays away from being 0-9. Gruden, however, prefers to look at the positives.
"I think the big thing is we have to continue focusing on situational football, whether it's third downs, whether it's two-minute drill, whether it's we have the ball at the plus-40 and we need 10 yards to get a field goal for overtime or a touchdown," he said.
"We've had situations like that over the course of a season where we've not converted other than Tennessee. So it's very important for us to continue to - and Dallas, obviously, we did a good job getting off the field and making plays. But those other games we lost, it's just about that. We've got to focus in on crunch-time plays. Let the big-time players make big plays in crunch time. Then obviously, the rest of them, creating turnovers and not turning the ball over, and third downs."
Washington has lost two games by a field goal, including last week's loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The Redskins have also turned the ball over at crucial moments in several games, allowing late leads to evaporate. Sloppy mistakes such as that are the tell-sale signs of a sub-.500 team, not a 7-2 playoff contender.
