Washington Football Team: Studs and duds from Week 11 win over Bengals

Washington Football Team Dud: First-half defense

Though Washington did well in the second half on defense, their defense in the first half left a lot to be desired.

On the scoreboard, Washington allowed only nine points in the first half. That’s true and that’s good, but the Bengals definitely cost themselves some points. Kicker Randy Bullock missed two field goals — an easy, short one that doinked off the right upright and a long one that did the same thing. The team also missed an extra point and turned the ball over on fourth down, so that cost the team another 4-7 points.

So, all told, Washington got a bit lucky. If the Bengals converted on every opportunity, they may have scored 10-14 more points than they did. But, they ultimately didn’t. Part of that was thanks to a timely play by the defense (more on that later) but the defense didn’t really show all that well before then.

The Bengals were able to march down the field seemingly every time they had the ball in the first half. On their first drive, they went 75 yards on 14 plays and missed a field goal. The drive took nearly seven minutes. Their second drive lasted 4:39 and went 74 yards. The Bengals didn’t score on either, but the fact that they were moving the ball at will was troublesome.

All told, Washington allowed three drives of 68-plus yards. All should’ve been scoring drives, but because of miscues by the Bengals, it didn’t look as bad as it was.

Moving forward, Washington needs to do better on the defensive side of the ball to start things off. They proved in the second half, and even late in the first, that they could slow the Bengals down, so they just need to start quicker. That’s been an issue for the team as a whole, so this will be an area to improve on over the last month of the season.