Washington Football Team studs and duds from Week 5 loss to Rams

Washington Football Team Dud No. 1 – The offense with Alex Smith

Both of these things can be true: Alex Smith’s comeback was special, from a human perspective, but the Washington Football Team’s offense was not special under his watch.

After Smith came into the game for Kyle Allen, Washington managed to capitalize on a defensive turnover with a field goal at the end of the half. But when Smith returned to play quarterback in the second half, the offense actually generated negative yardage in the final two quarters.

Fair from all of that is Smith’s fault: The offensive line regressed on Sunday after playing with some degree of consistency the past couple weeks, and Wes Martin in particular was absolutely abused by Aaron Donald up the middle. Receivers had trouble separating all day, and the running game couldn’t provide any help without the gaps necessary to do so.

In his first action back from his injury, Smith was almost set up to fail. But Smith also had some kinks to work out. He didn’t look very comfortable facing pressure at first, which is understandable, and by consequence, he wasn’t very accurate. His attempts to get the offense going with short pass attempts failed, and when he tried to push the ball deep, the results were similarly nonexistent.

Smith, overall, was nine of 17 for 37 yards, averaging just over four yards per completion and 2.2 yards per attempt. If he’s going to see the field more this season and produce at a higher clip, he has more work to do.