FOXBOROUGH, MA - AUGUST 9 : Head coach Jay Gruden of the Washington Redskins looks on during the preseason game between the New England Patriots and the Washington Redskins at Gillette Stadium on August 9, 2018 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Scapegoat syndrome strikes again.

If you follow my work (I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t), then you probably saw this coming.

Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden is not completely absolved of blame in the team’s 21-9 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. But it seems as though the loss itself is a fireable offense in some corners. The hate for the head coach moves swiftly, and unforgivingly.

It’s easy to see why. He’s the one wearing the headset. He’s the one looking on from the sideline. If a play call doesn’t work, it’s Gruden’s fault. If the failure of the play is caused by improper execution by players… then the players aren’t ready. And it’s Gruden’s fault.

It’s a unique paradox of belief. Football itself is a team game, with almost too many moving parts to count. 53 players, 45 of which are active on a given game day, and 11 of which are on the field for a given play. One head coach. An assistant head coach. An offensive coordinator. A defensive coordinator. Nine position coaches. Additional strength, conditioning, and training staff.

All of these pieces, and somehow, every time the team falls short, all the blame can be centered on Gruden.

It’s the easy way out. To pile on the head coach. A classic case of Scapegoat Syndrome.

Was Gruden perfect on Sunday? No. He came into Sunday’s game with a plan similar to that which he used successfully against the Cardinals. The plan that drove the Redskins to a 24-6 win. But it didn’t work. And he wasn’t able to adjust.

Why didn’t it work against the Colts?

Yes, there were individual plays where the Colts had the Redskins number, but the brunt of the blame shouldn’t go to predictable play calling. It should go to improper execution. If the lead blocker gets to the second level on a zone run, Adrian Peterson gets momentum. If Shawn Lauvao doesn’t fall backward from a phantom push, Alex Smith completes a pass to Jordan Reed up the middle.

The fact of the matter is, no game plan can work if the players fail to execute on the field. Failure to execute is exactly what happened on Sunday. The offensive line, which dominated against Arizona, had a number of uncharacteristically bad plays and missed assignments, whether it was an incorrect double team, or a weak pull, or just a bad rep. The line didn’t play up to par. And when the offensive line doesn’t play well, it’s hard to run, and it’s hard to pass. The Colts did well covering deep with Cover 2 all game, and when they took this option away, the bad offensive line play snuffed out the running game and essentially made the offense one-dimensional.

Alex Smith said it himself on his podcast after the game: It was a culmination of an excess of uncharacteristic failures by personnel. It was just a bad day. And it’s hard to scheme around a bad day. Is it an excuse? No, it’s just what happened.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. The players didn’t execute because they weren’t ready. It’s Jay Gruden’s fault. Fire Jay Gruden.

At what point do the players take on any kind of responsibility to put the product on the field? Gruden can only do so much from the sideline. It’s up to the players to put his plan into action. The plan worked against Arizona because they played well. It didn’t work against Indianapolis, because they didn’t. It’s amazing, that in such a complex game, things can be so simple.

Gruden was not perfect. And he will need to make adjustments with offensive line injuries on the rise. But the anti-Jay Gruden rhetoric is abhorrently premature. It’s Week 3 of the 2018 regular season. The Redskins are 1-1, tied with the Eagles and Cowboys. Teams on the schedule such as the Saints, Titans, Texans, and Falcons look strangely beatable. There is hope yet.

It is possible to both acknowledge the adversity that Jay Gruden has worked through and address the areas in which he can improve. The affliction that many onlookers suffer from is extreme polarization. Gruden is either a saint, or a scourge on quality football. He’s either withstood adversity, or been saved by excuses.

The conception that coaches have ‘excuses’ is a myth. The truth is labeled as an excuse when it impedes the labeling of a scapegoat. Someone has to be blamed. Someone has to be punished. Always. Failure is an end product of a culmination of factors, but the head coach inherently becomes the masthead for said failure.

The truth, as crazy as it may seem, lies somewhere in the middle. Jay Gruden is an NFL head coach. He has his strengths, like all head coaches. His offensive mind is well-renowned, and the players openly respect him. And like all head coaches, he has his weaknesses. He sometimes finds himself entrenched in a stagnant philosophy, and yes, in a week-to-week league, his teams occasionally come out flat. In just two weeks, we’ve seen both extremes. Time is running short for Gruden, as it should after five years of cloudy results. But in this current season, there are still fourteen games left. Gruden’s “last chance” is far from over.

You think Gruden will be fired after this season? You could very well be right. You could also be wrong. Time is the one yielder of such information, and time moves at a slow and steady pace. Save the furor for February. Contrary to popular belief, the sky is not falling.