By Ben Sullivan
It’s only the second exo, but the Redskins are developing a pattern.
Dwayne Haskins threw a touchdown pass and lost a fumble in the Redskins’ 23-13 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at FedEx Field last night.
The first-round pick made strong throws and his share of mistakes, while fellow rookie Ryan Finley continued to make his case to be Cincinnati’s backup quarterback with yet another impressive outing.
“It’s just fun to get out there,” Finley said. “I feel like it’s been so long. Just to get out there and play in a game is fun. You try to make practices as game-like as possible, but just getting out there for me, it’s just refreshing.”
Haskins threw a 55-yard TD pass to camp standout Robert Davis and was 7 of 14 for 114 yards with a sack fumble. The 15th overall pick showed poise under pressure and made progress from his Redskins debut.
“I was just trying to move the ball down the field, make some decisions, don’t put the ball in harm’s way,” Haskins said. “When I play, I just play. I don’t really want to think about making the same mistake twice or missing a throw. Just let it go and move on to the next one.”
Haskins was far from perfect but looked more effective than veteran Case Keenum, who played the first three drives and was 3 of 7 for 52 yards. Keenum, who Washington acquired from Denver, said he was left wanting more, but feels the first-team offense is improving with an eye on Week 1 at Philadelphia.
“I thought we did some good things,” Keenum said. “There’s always going to be some plays I want back, and there’s a few plays that I definitely want back. But I thought we did well.”
Keenum, Haskins and longtime backup Colt McCoy are competing to be the Redskins’ Week 1 starter. McCoy has yet to play in the preseason while he deals with lingering pain from a broken leg last year.
After already passing Jeff Driskell on Cincinnati’s depth chart, Finley again showed why he’s now the favorite to back up Andy Dalton. The fourth-round pick out of N.C. State completed his first nine passes and was 20 of 26 for 150 yards with two TD passes.
“He was very cool and calm, and we’ve got a lot of confidence with him in there,” first-year Bengals coach Zac Taylor said.
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