WASHINGTON REDSKINS (7-9)
OPEN CAMP: July 26 Jordan Whitehead Jersey Buccaneers , Richmond, Virginia
LAST YEAR: Injuries, ineffective running game and porous run defense derailed playoff hopes. Nine starters were on injured reserve by end of season, including left tackle Trent Williams, tight end Jordan Reed, and linebacker Mason Foster. Quarterback Kirk Cousins surpassed 4,000 yards for third straight year, threw for 27 touchdowns and ran for four, but had three interceptions in season finale that turned out to be final game with team. Blowing 31-16 lead at New Orleans in November ended realistic postseason hopes before Thanksgiving. Receiver Josh Doctson showed hope for future with 35 catches for 502 yards and team-high six TDs. First-round pick Jonathan Allen flashed elite ability on defensive line before foot injury halted season five games in. Defense allowed 348 yards and 24 points per game. Offense couldn't keep up while down several key weapons.
IMPORTANT ADDITIONS: QB Alex Smith, WR Paul Richardson, LB Pernell McPhee, CB Orlando Scandrick Marshall Newhouse Color Rush Jersey , rookie RB Derrius Guice, rookie DL Daron Payne.
IMPORTANT LOSSES: Cousins, WR Terrelle Pryor, WR Ryan Grant, TE Niles Paul, C Spencer Long, LB Will Compton, CB Kendall Fuller, CB Bashaud Breeland.
CAMP NEEDS: Sort out crowded field of running backs that includes Guice, previous starter Robert Kelley, Chris Thompson, and 2017 fourth-round pick Samaje Perine. Guice has talent and pedigree to emerge as feature back. Smith must get on same page with coach Jay Gruden and develop chemistry with Reed Mason Cole Color Rush Jersey , Doctson, Jamison Crowder and rest of targets after years of them working with Cousins. Williams will get opportunity to show he's healthy after surgery to repair torn tendon in right knee. On defense, Scandrick will compete with Fabian Moreau and Quinton Dunbar for starting spot along with Josh Norman. Three days of joint workouts with Jets after two camps without outside competition should help Redskins prepare better than years past.
EXPECTATIONS: Winning season is realistic if Smith is as good as or better than Cousins and running game gets on track. Defense should be better with Alabama products Allen and Payne and return of Brown. Best case is competition for playoff spot behind NFC East favorite Philadelphia, while worst case is significant step back that endangers Gruden's long-term job security.
Down 3-0 after a disastrous opening 20 minutes, there was no flipping of tables or peeling of paint off the walls in the Winnipeg Jets‘ locker room.They instead spent the first intermission calmly trying to figure a way out of that deficit.
”We got kicked in the teeth a little bit,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. ”Our goal was just to win the second period and give ourselves a chance.”
They did that, and a whole lot more.
Wheeler scored on the power play with 4:59 left after Winnipeg roared back from that early deficit to defeat the Nashville Predators 7-4 on Tuesday night and grab a 2-1 lead in their second-round playoff series.
”It’s definitely not how you draw up a first period, but nobody panicked,” said Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba, who finished with a goal and an assist.
”We just regrouped. It wasn’t really any different in here than if it was a tie game or if we were winning.
”We just went out there and played a little bit faster and played with a little bit more confidence.”
Dustin Byfuglien had two goals and an assist for Winnipeg, and Paul Stastny added a goal and two assists.
Wheeler, who also had an assist Youth Baltimore Ravens Jerseys , scored the first of two empty-net goals in the final minute, with Brandon Tanev getting the other.
Mark Scheifele added two assists to become the first player since Sidney Crosby in 2010 to have five consecutive multi-point games in a postseason. Connor Hellebuyck made 26 stops.
Filip Forsberg and P.K. Subban each had a goal and an assist for Nashville, while Mike Fisher and Austin Watson also scored. Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Johansen both added two assists for the Predators, who got 38 saves from Pekka Rinne.
”We just stopped playing,” Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis said. ”You can’t win hockey when you stop playing.”
Johansen said the Predators stopped skating after blowing the lead.
”We stopped moving our legs,” Johansen said. ”We did a lot of things poorly and they got better. Momentum swings in playoffs, they can be deadly.”
Game 4 is Thursday night in Winnipeg before things shift back to Nashville for Game 5 on Saturday.
After the Predators surged ahead on goals by Fisher, Subban and Watson in the first period, the Jets roared out of the gate in the second to tie it during a frantic three-minute stretch.
Stastny got the comeback started at 2:38 when Trouba’s bouncing shot from the point struck his skate in front and ricocheted in off the crossbar and straight out.
The veteran center raised his arms in celebration, but play continued for a few seconds before officials blew the sequence dead to check if the puck crossed the line.
Wheeler then missed a wide-open net after Rinne’s turnover before getting cleaned out by Watson along the boards.
Scheifele came to Wheeler’s defense to nullify what would have been a Winnipeg power play, but the Jets seemed to get a boost from the exchange and made it 3-2 when Byfuglien blasted his second of the playoffs past Rinne at 5:11.
Then with the teams still playing 4-on-4, Trouba took a slick pass from Wheeler just 18 seconds later to send the white-clad crowd Bell MTS Place into its third frenzy in quick succession with his second of the postseason.
”That was chaos http://www.buccaneersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-m.j.-stewart-jersey ,” Stastny said.
Winnipeg imposed its physical will as the period wore on, hitting Nashville’s defense at every opportunity, and the pressure finally paid off with 45 seconds remaining when Patrik Laine passed to Byfuglien for his second of the game.
The big defenseman celebrated by removing a glove and dancing – a far cry from the playful punches he threw at teammates after Winnipeg tied Game 2 late in regulation.
”You guys only see him on the ice,” Trouba said. ”I see him dance all the time.”
But Nashville punched back to even the score 4-4 at 7:40 of the third when Forsberg wheeled across the top of the slot on the power play to beat Hellebuyck with his fifth goal of the postseason shortly after Laine hit the post.
Trouba then turned the puck over at the offensive blue line to send Viktor Arvidsson in alone on a breakaway, but Hellebuyck was there with a big glove stop.
Winnipeg got its third man advantage of the third with 5:59 remaining when Subban went off for high-sticking after failing to clear the puck twice late in a previous Jets power play. Wheeler scored the winner from a tight angle after Rinne stopped Scheifele from the slot.
”Our fans are huge. It’s real, too,” Wheeler said. ”Our crowd noise is from the crowd. It’s not from speakers or music or live bands or whatever.
”That’s people making noise and that goes right through your body.”
Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor missed on a breakaway that would have sealed it on another man advantage before Nick Bonino hit the post at the other end for Nashville.
Wheeler and Tanev then sealed it into an empty net in the final minute.
The Jets opened the series with a 4-1 win in Nashville before the Predators picked up a 5-4 double overtime victory in Game 2.
The Predators silenced Winnipeg’s fans just 4:53 in Tuesday when Fisher poked a loose puck over the goal line for his first of the playoffs after Hellebuyck couldn’t squeeze Ryan Hartman’s tip of Ekholm’s shot from the sideboards.
Wheeler then took an offensive zone tripping penalty, and the Predators capitalized when Subban scored his second of the playoffs, and second in as many games, through Hellebuyck’s legs at 10:06.
Watson made it 3-0 with 2:25 left when he .
