Robert Griffin III took a brutal beating early in the Washington Redskins' 21-17 victory over the Detroit Lions.
With veteran left tackle Trent Williams sitting out with soreness in his right foot, the Redskins' offensive line was overwhelmed by the Detroit defensive front from the very first snap.
On the first pass, Lions defensive tackle Tyrunn Walker -- a man who has made one career regular-season start -- absolutely obliterated No. 5 overall pick Brandon Scherff.
The clown-suiting didn't end there as Walker, Ezekiel Ansah, linebacker DeAndre Levy and the rest of the Lions' starting front seven dominated the opening quarter-plus of the game, battering Griffin. (Imagine the damage if Ndamukong Suh were still with the Lions.)
Quotes from the Redskins' offensive line paint the picture:
"It's unacceptable," Scherff said, per the Washington Times.
"It didn't feel good," center Kory Lichtensteiger said. "Felt like we were picking Robert up after every pass play."
"It definitely makes you cringe," Williams said of watching from the sideline. "You don't want to see your quarterback get hit at all, in the preseason or regular season."
Griffin dropped back to pass eight times in four drives and was sacked thrice while fumbling twice. It wasn't all the offensive line's fault -- certainly on the final fumble which caused Griffin to exit the game with a concussion, the quarterback had fine protection. Far too often early in the game, however, there were huge breakdowns against Detroit's first-team unit.
"Moving forward," Williams said. "We have to do that, no matter what today looked like. No matter what the perception of today is, I think we still have to move forward. Even if he came out and the quarterback didn't hit the ground at all, I think we will still have things to improve on. We're going to have things to improve on every game."
That improving needs to happen in a hurry before more quarterbacks get hurt.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast continues the three-part Fantasy Extravaganza and takes you behind the scenes in Cleveland with Marc Sessler.
