Robert Griffin III says he ‘can’t take those amount of hits’
By Mike Dyce
The Washington Redskins lost to the Minnesota Vikings last week. In the game Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder suffered a dislocated shoulder while diving forward on a play. Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III was hit 18 times over the game as well, but fortunately wasn’t injured.
“Bottom line, I can’t take those amount of hits,” Griffin said, via John Keim of ESPN.com. “You don’t want to be hit that much. A lot of great quarterbacks don’t get hit that much. It’s not just me, it’s a lot of things that go into that. We just have to get better.”
There is room for everyone to get better. Griffin and his scrambling and running wasn’t the only reason he was taking hits. The offensive line did a less than stellar job blocking and could improve. Griffin still needs to learn how to slide or when to slide. If Griffin’s receivers won more battles against the secondary they could help Griffin get rid of the ball quicker this season.
Griffin took one hit while trying to score.
“If I’m put in that situation again, then yeah maybe I will slide,” Griffin said. “I think if I hadn’t slipped, I probably would have gotten in. Once I did slip it was probably best to get down and avoid that hit.”
“I have to do a better job of that, making sure it doesn’t happen and taking it upon myself to get down earlier,” he said. “I got two good shots in the game I could have avoided … The other hits I did avoid. I’m OK at doing that, getting down and getting out of the way. [But] I’ve got to do a better job of that. It will come. And then we just have to protect.”