Washington Football Team studs and duds from Week 10 loss

Dud No. 2 – EDGE Chase Young

Remember what I said for Kendall Fuller? Ditto for Chase Young.

The Washington Football Team selected Young with the No. 2 overall pick, and by and large this year, he’s lived up to that draft billing with very solid rush defense and consistency as a pass rusher. Even against the Lions, Young was reasonably disruptive, but sometimes, in a neutral battle, one negative play at a crucial moment can cloud the entire outlook.

Such was the case on Sunday, as Chase Young made a fatal error in the final seconds of the Washington Football Team’s loss. The Lions were struggling to drive into field goal range with less than sixteen seconds left in the game, and for a moment, it looked like overtime was inevitable. But Young hit Matthew Stafford late on a pass-rushing rep, and was called for a roughing-the-passer penalty.

Young’s penalty gave the Lions fifteen yards, a fresh set of downs, and the life they needed to get into field goal range, where Matt Prater would drill a 59-yard field goal for the win. Washington could have avoided being in that situation entirely, but that doesn’t matter; they were in that situation, and Young didn’t have the situational awareness to pull back and play penalty-free football.

Young said as much in his post-game press conference, taking responsibility for the error, and with any luck, he’ll avoid repeating it next time.