ASHBURN, Va. -- They wanted to surprise Minnesota. Instead, it surprised the Washington Redskins. And Reed Doughty blamed himself for the confusion.
In the third quarter of Washington’s 34-27 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Doughty, the up-back in punt formation, signaled for a fake punt. But Niles Paul, split to the right and uncovered did not see the call. That led to an errant pass by punter Sav Rocca. The only positive for Washington is that a false start negated the play.
“Miscommunication, I’ll leave it at that,” Doughty said. “I didn’t get that call the way I wanted to to everybody, and I thought we had that [play] available. I shouldn’t have called that. It’s my responsibility and I take ownership of that.”
Doughty did say he thought the special teams had improved since the beginning of the season.
“I feel like we’re playing faster, feel like more guys are making plays,” Doughty said, “and I feel more guys are getting off blocks and guys are making good plays. We made strides in the return game last week. But when you have a miscue every game, it doesn’t shed good light on us as special teams players.”
But Doughty said the mistakes each game aren’t making him pull is hair out.
“Not everything is going to go your way, but as long as you’re focusing on details and paying attention to everything you can do, hopefully those results will come,” he said. “They just haven’t went our way.”
