Recapping the key plays in Washington Football Team’s 30-15 loss vs. Cardinals

Hope, and then turnovers

After a first down on WFT’s ensuing drive, Haskins is sacked by Corey Peters, the first of four Cardinal sacks on the day. This was a combination of poor pocket awareness by Haskins, who essentially stepped into the sack, and left tackle Geron Christian’s inability to handle Peters’ power rush, an ongoing problem for Christian.

A few plays later, on third-and-10, an ugly play has both Terry McLaurin and Steven Sims, Jr. converging in the middle of the field, allowing an easy pass defense. WFT has to punt again.

The Cardinals begin inside their own 10, and on their first play, linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis makes a great tackle on a quick shovel pass to Hopkins. Pierre-Louis would be WFT’s best defender by a wide margin.

Two plays later, on third-and-10, we get the good Landon Collins as he picks off Murray’s off-target throw over the middle (via the WFT Twitter account).

https://twitter.com/WashingtonNFL/status/1307779845313753090

WFT’s ball inside the 20. The game is on.

Then, the game is off. After moving inside the 10, Chandler Jones and Co. converge on Haskins. The right side of the line – supposedly the strong side – collapses and Haskins has the ball knocked out of his hands. The drive ends with a fumble.

A sack by Jon Bostic and solid coverage force a three-and-out. Then, Steven Sims fumbles the punt. Last week, it was a muff, which he recovered. This week, it was a fumble that Washington lost.

In hindsight, the game may have ended right there. I said it last week, and I will keep saying it. Sims is the second-best receiver Washington has, but he is a liability on kick returns. They have to put someone else back on both kicks and punts.

With a short field, Arizona moves briskly inside the 20. Then Murray scores on a run again, this time making Troy Apke look like a statue. And this time, there is no penalty to bail out WFT.