Washington Football Team studs and duds from Week 13 win over Steelers

Washington Football Team Dud: Alex Smith’s end-of-first-half mistakes

Alex Smith had a good day for Washington and in the second half, he did a ton to will the team back into contention. However, he nearly cost them a critical chance for points in the first half and that can’t fly under the radar.

With less than a minute to go in the first half, Washington was driving down the field and they worked their way into scoring range. They were definitely within field goal range and when the clock ticked under 30 seconds, Washington was still driving and had a chance at a touchdown.

However, the next two plays nearly cost Washington the chance to score. On the first play, Smith was sacked by T.J. Watt. That wasn’t a huge deal, as Washington had one timeout left, so they called it and on third and long, it was expected that Washington may look to take one more shot or pick up some yards, but wouldn’t do anything crazy.

Instead, Smith got sacked again an agonizing play that saw Smith try to scramble out of the pocket after it collapsed and he just went down. With no timeouts left and it being fourth down, Washington had to rush the field goal unit onto the field. They were lucky to even get the kick off, as the refs stopped the clock because they couldn’t get a kicking ball onto the field.

Simply put, taking back-to-back sacks in that circumstance isn’t something that any quarterback can do. And that is especially true of Smith, a veteran QB who absolutely knows that those types of negative plays that keep the clock running with no timeouts late in a quarter cannot be tolerated.

Washington certainly got lucky in this scenario that they came away with points, and it did have an impact on the end of the game. But Smith nearly cost them a big opportunity to get back in the game.