Washington Football Team: The good, the bad, and the ugly of Week 2

The Ugly

S Troy Apke 

It is year three of Apke’s career and he continually takes poor angles. Whether it was on the deep ball he got beat on by Andy Isabella, or Kyler Murray making him look silly in the open field, Apke did not have a good game. Apke has elite speed, and that may be his downfall. It seems that on the field, he relies on it far too often. He is always out of position and he thinks his speed can make up for it. Through two weeks, the Apke experiment isn’t going well. Troy Apke wishes it was still August.

The offensive line 

The offensive line was putrid all game long. Haskins had essentially no time to go through his progressions and the running backs seemingly had to create yards themselves on the run plays. On a crucial drive after a Landon Collins interception, the pocket collapsed around Haskins and as he brought his arm back to pass, it was knocked out and Arizona recovered. Another backbreaking turnover.

Like I said previously, Haskins could do a better job of avoiding pressure, however, the offensive line has to be much better. To make matters worse, Pro Bowl guard Brandon Scherff suffered a knee injury, and he’ll likely be out for a few weeks. Washington has to protect the quarterback.

Kicking the field goal down 20-0

Nothing better than kicking a field goal that takes the game from a three-score deficit to a… three-score deficit. It seemed like the coaching staff was desperate to avoid the shutout. However, that was a “playing not to lose” play. It was very uncharacteristic of Ron Rivera. His name is Riverboat Ron after all. Attack success.

With that said, the coaching staff called a good game. A lack of execution was why this team lost the game, not coaching.