If Case Keenum hangs onto the starting gig in Minnesota even with Teddy Bridgewater healthy, he can send a thank-you card to the Washington Redskins' defense.
Washington put next to no pressure on the quarterback (despite Minnesota missing starting right tackle Mike Remmers) and the backend got torched time after time by Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs as Keenum dive-bombed the Redskins with strike after strike.
"We played like trash in the secondary," Redskins corner Josh Norman said, via ESPN. "We really did."
"We just didn't have it today," Norman said. "We wasn't on. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was something going around I guess. We just wasn't on. That's what sucks the most."
The Redskins allowed Keenum a perfect first-half passer rating and the quarterback finished with four touchdown passes and 304 yards on 21-of-29 passing. Thielen was a big-play fiesta, gashing Washington for catches of 49, 38, 38 and 17 yards, finishing with 166 yards and a touchdown on eight catches.
"It was one of the worst defensive performances we've had since I've been here in the first half," coach Jay Gruden said.
With zero sacks, there wasn't one part of the Sunday's defensive effort Washington could hang its hat on. Kirk Cousins and the offense weren't perfect, but they did more than enough to get a win against a very good Vikings defense. It was the Redskins' D that let them down and put Washington behind a logjam of teams hoping for an NFC playoff bid.
"Can't really blame injuries this week," linebacker Ryan Kerrigan said. "That's not an excuse. We just got our butts kicked up and down the field defensively."
