After breakthrough in regular season, Redskins suffer playoff disappointment against Packers

They hung over railings, brandished hand-lettered signs, whipped white towels in the air and cheered ear-piercing cheers as the Washington Redskins ran onto FedEx Field on Sunday.

It had been three years since Washington’s National Football League team had reached the playoffs. And Redskins faithful turned out in force with the hope of witnessing the start of a victorious new era ushered in by second-year Coach Jay Gruden, first-year starting quarterback Kirk Cousins and a squad of veterans and rookies eager to play a role in the resurgence.

But after a promising start against the Green Bay Packers stalled and the Redskins fell further in arrears to former Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers, fans started streaming for the exits. Many had already reached their cars by the time the clock ticked down on the 35-18 loss that ended the Redskins’ season.

In many ways, the Redskins far exceeded expectations this season. After winning just seven games the last two seasons combined, they found their footing after a 2-4 start to finish 9-7, clinch the NFC East and earn Sunday’s first-round playoff date with Green Bay.
The Wrap: Packers eliminate Redskins from playoffs
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The Washington Post’s Gene Wang and Scott Allen discuss the Redskins’ playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

Although the injury-riddled Packers had lost their last two games, Rodgers spoke earlier in the week with a former Super Bowl champion’s confidence about the importance of experience in the postseason. “I think you have to learn how to win in the playoffs,” Rodgers said. “When the nerves hit, you’ve got to be able to push on through it. When you have experience with doing it before, it definitely helps when those come up.”

His words proved prophetic.

The Redskins didn’t lose Sunday because of calamitous errors; they simply left too many opportunities wanting.

They jumped out to an 11-0 lead, but it could just as easily have been 16-0 had they not missed an extra point and not had to settle for a field goal rather than a touchdown in the first quarter. After reclaiming the lead at 18-17 at the start of the third quarter, their offense fell silent and their defense wilted under the pounding of the Packers’ running game.

Rodgers steered the Packers expertly, throwing for 210 yards and two touchdowns.

Cousins acquitted himself reasonably well, throwing for 329 yards and one touchdown while rushing for another. But Washington’s defense couldn’t keep pace with the Packers’ hurry-up offense, and the Redskins’ young offensive line, which had done so well protecting Cousins all season, surrendered six sacks — nearly one-fourth the number (27) it allowed the previous 16 games.

But for a team that finished last in its division six of the last seven seasons, there was more good than bad in the Redskins’ 2015 campaign.

After churning through 16 starting quarterbacks in 16 years, the Redskins appear to have found one they intend to keep in Cousins, and they’re prepared to pay handsomely to extend his contract.

Several of the rookies chosen in the 2015 NFL draft show long-term promise. And Gruden has made strides, as well.

“This stings right now, but I think we’re building something big now,” Gruden said afterward. “We just have to keep our heads up.”

FedEx Field was the place to be Sunday afternoon for fans who had spent their childhood cheering the Redskins or had taught their children to do the same.

The sideline teemed with former Redskins players before kickoff, with Joe Theismann, Joe Jacoby, Ken Harvey, Clinton Portis and Santana Moss trading back slaps and embraces. Joe Gibbs, the Hall of Fame coach who led Washington to its three Super Bowl championships, arrived with a contingent of happy grandsons in tow.

Lining the tunnel that led onto the field were longtime season-ticket holders such as the Glover family of Woodbridge.

“For me, it’s a return — a return to the possibility of going back to the Super Bowl,” said Ray Glover, 53, who sported a No. 44 John Riggins jersey. “I went to two of the three.”

His son, R.J., 23, a recent Old Dominion graduate, carried a “You Like That?!” rally towel that had been autographed by rookie guard Brandon Scherff and linebacker Trent Murphy. Former Redskin Santana Moss had autographed his No. 21 Sean Taylor jersey before heading out to cheer on his one-time teammates.
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“I’ve only seen two playoff games and only been to one,” R.J. Glover said. “Just to be here . . . to see ’em in person! They’re huge!”

One man came dressed in an olive flight suit with gold helmet — a “Top Gun”-inspired tribute to “Captain Kirk,” as some teammates refer to their quarterback, with No. 8 on the back of his flight suit and “Cousins” on the breast pocket. Another man, his face caked in burgundy paint, brandished a full-length, shimmering gold cape.

Fans held signs that riffed on Cousins’s now famous slogan: “You Like That!” “I Like That!” and “We Like That!”

Another — “Let’s Party Like it’s 1999”— summed up the mood at kickoff.

Green Bay got the ball first, and the bellicose crowd helped Washington’s defense hold the Packers scoreless.

The first chants of “You like that?!” erupted less than five minutes into the game when Rodgers was sacked by rookie Preston Smith in the end zone, resulting in a safety to hand Washington a 2-0 lead.

What looked like a Redskins touchdown was overturned when replay showed wide receiver DeSean Jackson had failed to get the ball across the goal line after a catch near the end zone. The Redskins settled for a field goal.

The Redskins’ 6-foot-2, 237-pound tight end Jordan Reed made a terrific one-handed catch that thrilled the crowd, and then, a few plays later, caught Cousins’s only touchdown pass. But place kicker Dustin Hopkins clanged the extra-point attempt off the goal post, leaving the Redskins’ lead at 11-0 as the team’s fight song, “Hail to the Redskins,” rang out.

Rodgers had gotten off to a miserable start, completing just one of his first nine throws. But as the game ground on, he started connecting — firing touchdown passes of 12 and 10 yards to put Green Bay ahead 17-11 at halftime.

The Redskins came out strong to open the second half, with Cousins running three yards for a touchdown that reclaimed the lead at 18-17.

Green Bay countered with an 11-play drive that put the Packers up 24-18.

The Redskins didn’t score again, shut out in the fourth quarter, while the defense gave up a touchdown, a two-point conversion and a field goal in the final 13 minutes.