Diagnosing what’s wrong with the Washington Football Team’s run defense

The secondary

The other problem that stood out against the Lions was the inability of both cornerback/safety Kendall Fuller and safety Kam Curl to step up and make plays against the run.

Fuller was unable to secure the edge on two Swift sweeps. In fairness, he was left on an island when primary edge defenders Sweat and Holcomb were trapped inside.

Curl’s deficiencies are more of a problem right now. He remains a pleasant surprise and is someone on whom the defense should be able to build. But he is clearly going through some growing pains right now. For every flashy tackle he makes, there are two plays in which he seems to get swallowed up. The second of Swift’s two big sweeps left had Curl essentially lined up as a linebacker and he was very slow to diagnose and react to Swift’s move.

Washington’s backslide in run defense coincides with the loss of strong safety Landon Collins in the Dallas game. This is something of a “be careful what you wish for” situation.

Fans were all over Collins for repeated missed tackles, and I do not mean to suggest that Collins was playing well before his injury. He was not. But in order to miss a tackle, you have to be in the right spot to miss. The problem with Curl – and the entire linebacking crew – is that they often appear to take themselves out of a play by being in the wrong gap.

On many of the big Swift runs, Bostic, Holcomb, and Curl simply get caught up in traffic and can’t reach the runner.

It is possible that Collins’ poor play was in part attributable to the play of free safety Troy Apke, who proved to be a disaster and was eventually replaced by Deshazor Everett. Safeties, like the entire secondary, function as a unit. It would have been interesting to see if Collins would have improved playing alongside the unremarkable-but-steady Everett.