3 things Redskins offense must do to beat Bears on MNF

The Washington Redskins (0-2) are in a bit of a bind. With Dallas racing out to a 3-0 record, the club will need to earn their first victory of the season or risk falling three games out of first place before the calendar even turns to October. Fortunately, the rest of the division is still well within striking distance. With the Eagles and New York both sporting 1-2 records, a win means there isn't also going to be a mountain of teams to surpass in order to stay in the hunt. Still, there is plenty of work to do.

The Chicago Bears lost their defensive mastermind Vic Fangio, who is now the head coach of the Denver Broncos. Their best unit is still by far when the opposition has the ball, but through two weeks they aren't as dominant as they were throughout the 2018 season. It is that crack in the armor Washington needs to exploit.

Here's a few ways they will need to work that out.

Get Terry McLaurin the ball

This will be the dominant theme for this game, and for the rest of the season. The third-round rookie has been exceptional through the first two games, and this will be his toughest test yet. Remember Prince Amukamara, who flamed out with New York? Well, he's the starting RCB for Chicago and of course his game has elevated since joining the Bears. He's still the weaker of the two boundary corners though, as on the opposite side is Kyle Fuller.

The Bears do not have their corners track receivers, so this is an opportunity for Washington to dedicate McLaurin to the left side and see how much work they can give him. The former Ohio State product is averaging a mind-boggling 2.71 yards per route run, though with the stellar free safety Eddie Jackson patrolling the deep middle, the big bomb plays will certainly be difficult for Case Keenum to complete.

Give Keenum time to throw

Every quarterback in the NFL operates better when they have a clean pocket, and Washington has done a good job of keeping Keenum relatively clean on the season. When they do a great job and allow routes to develop down the field, that's when the magic happens.

Keenum has a very respectable 97.8 passer rating on the 43 dropbacks where he's gotten rid of the ball in under 2.5 seconds. However, when the OL gives a play a chance to develop, he's been remarkable.

With over 2.5 seconds to throw, Keenum's passer rating is an incredible 129.7. He has four touchdowns on those 39 dropbacks compared to just 1 in the other category.

Figure out some semblance of a running game

Washington hasn't been great at running the ball. Washington hasn't been good at running the ball. However, they do have two offensive linemen who have been good at run blocking, they just have to capitalize on it.

Despite the woeful rushing efforts of Derrius Guice in Week 1 and Adrian Peterson in Week 2, left tackle Donald Penn and right guard Brandon Scherff have done a splendid job in being road graders.

Pro Football Focus has both players ranked in the top 15 of run-block grades for all offensive linemen across the 32 teams in the league. There are definitely weak spots, and it would be great to have linemen who are working next to each other, especially in a zone-blocking scheme like Bill Callahan directs, but there are clearly ways to focus the run game