RG3 played in nine games this season due to a dislocated ankle injury he suffered during Week 2 versus the Jacksonville Jaguars. In this breakdown we will look at the five touchdowns he scored, four through the air and his last on the ground during the 2014 regular season.

Season Stats

RG3 – 147/214 (68.7%), 1,694 yards, 7.9 y/a, 4 TDs, 6 INTs, 38 rushes for 176 yards and 1 TD

Before we begin looking at some of his plays, I wanted to take a look at the recipients of RG3’s four touchdowns:

Receiver Breakdown

DeSean Jackson 2 Roy Helu 1 Chris Thompson 1

Quarter Breakdown

1st Quarter 0 2nd Quarter 2 3rd Quarter 1 4th Quarter 1

Down Breakdown

1st Down 2 2nd Down 2 3rd Down 1 4th Down 0

As well as the distance and location of the touchdowns:

Distance Breakdown

Fewer than 6 Yards 4 Between 6 and 15 yards 0 More than 15 yards 0

Location Breakdown

Deep Left Deep Middle Deep Right 0 0 0 Intermediate Left Intermediate Middle Intermediate Right 0 0 0 Short Left Short Middle Short Right 2 0 2

If you notice, all of his touchdowns were fewer than 6 yards on a short pass either left or right. Finally here is the route breakdown:

Route Breakdown

Screen 2 Swing 1 Slant 1

Only one of his passes was beyond the line of scrimmage and it was on a slant pass. Let’s take a look at the plays:

Play 1

Situation: 1st and 10 at MIN 13

Description: Q3 – (7:28) RG3 pass short right to D.Jackson for 13 yards, TOUCHDOWN. The Replay Official challenged the runner broke the plane ruling, and the play was Upheld. The ruling on the field stands. K.Forbath extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-T.Way.

Opponent: 9. MIN

Offensive Formation: Singleback Ace

Offensive Personnel: 12

Defensive Formation: Cover 1

RG3 takes the snap and finds the safety sitting back in Cover 1 over the middle of the field. He then instantly finds WR11 Jackson running a slant route on the right side of the field against bump-and-run coverage. RG3 delivers an excellent pass allowing his wide receiver the chance to bring it in for the score across the front of the endzone for the score.

Situation: 2nd and 6 at TB 30Description: Q2 – (:19) (Shotgun) RG3 pass short left to R.Helu for 30 yards, TOUCHDOWN [L.David].K.Forbath extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-T.Way.Opponent: 11. TB

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Trips Right Near – “Rex” Call

Offensive Personnel: 11

Defensive Formation: Cover 1

This is a simple RB screen pass to Helu. RG3 takes the snap and finds the safety faking like he’s going through his reads and then dumps the ball to Helu. Helu does most of the work on the ground following his blocks. Give credit to C78 Lichtensteiger for getting up the field and sealing the defenders out of the play.

Situation: 3rd and 4 at NYG 9Description: Q2 – (8:24) (Shotgun) RG3 pass short right to C.Thompson for 9 yards, TOUCHDOWN. K.Forbath extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-T.Way.Opponent: 15. NYG

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Left Near

Offensive Personnel: 11

Defensive Formation: Cover 0

RG3 takes the snap and scans the field seeing there are no safeties playing deep. He instantly reads the right side looking at WR88 Garcon running a fade route to the back of the endzone while noticing that LB53 McClain was approaching the line of scrimmage. RB37 Thompson releases from the backfield completely free for an easy score. On the Giants’ defensive side there must have been a miscommunication with LB53 McClain and FS27 Brown as one should have stayed with the runningback. Most likely it’s McClain that is at fault here since Brown is already halfway up the field.

Situation: 1st and 10 at WSH 31Description: Q1 – (8:55) RG3 pass short left to D.Jackson for 69 yards, TOUCHDOWN. K.Forbath extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-T.Way.Opponent: 17. DAL

Offensive Formation: Singleback Slot Left

Offensive Personnel: 12

Defensive Formation: Cover 2

This play is a screen pass to WR11 Jackson sitting in the slot. RG3 fakes the handoff to RB46 Morris on what appears to a be an outside zone run to the right and then he dumps the ball to Jackson. The block set up by LT71 Williams is what clears the path for the long score. Watch as Williams cut blocks SS42 Church to the ground. Overall great play design and terrible defensive adjustment leaving Jackson alone. Even if this was a standard passing play or even a running play this would be an easy presnap read by RG3 to audible to get Jackson the ball instantly off the line of scrimmage.

Situation: 2nd and 2 at DAL 2Description: Q4 – (6:52) RG3 scrambles left end for 2 yards, TOUCHDOWN. PENALTY on WAS-P.Garcon, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced between downs. K.Forbath extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-T.Way.Opponent: 17. DAL

Offensive Formation: Power-I Strong Right

Offensive Personnel: 21

Defensive Formation: Cover 1

RG3 goes through his reads on the right side of the field and starts feeling the pressure coming by DT96 Hayden running a stunt from the weakside 1-tech spot through the strongside B-gap. RG3 steps up to the left to avoid it sprinting through the opposite/weakside B-gap to scramble for a touchdown. This is a good case of RG3 using his scrambling ability to get the score, but I’d like to see RG3 attempt the pass here on 2nd down to TE82 Paulsen who is breaking at the backside of the endzone.

Too many times throughout the season we saw RG3 hesitate with the ball and even though this was a still a touchdown, he wouldn’t have had to risk getting hit scrambling.

Overall, it’s hard to make a definitive analysis on his play based on these five plays. In my opinion, however, Play 5 is the most telling as it shows his main problem with hesitating with the ball. Play 1 is a good counter example showing him thread the ball to DeSean Jackson on the slant route, but still there were too many times RG3 just held onto the ball too long. Here is a complete breakdown of his play throughout the season comparing to the other Redskins quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Kirk Cousins (found here).