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

Washington Football Team Stud: The defensive line

The Washington defense held the Steelers to just 17 points on Monday. It was an excellent effort from the squad as a whole, but the defensive line deserves a lot of credit for what they were able to do.

Washington got relentless pressure on Ben Roethlisberger throughout the game. They didn’t ever sack the veteran quarterback, but they were able to get home on many occasions and disrupt him.

Daron Payne generated a lot of interior pressure and whenever he saw Roethlisberger throw, he would put his hands up and try to bat down passes. He knocked down one pass, but he was more impactful as a run stuffer.

Washington Commanders

Payne penetrated the line on numerous occasions and took away the Steelers’ run game. He had two tackles for a loss and by taking away the run game, he forced the Steelers to become one-dimensional. That put extra pressure on Roethlisberger, and not just the pass-rush type.

Montez Sweat had a similar impact to Payne. The only difference was that he played on the edge. Sweat collapsed the edge on running plays quite a bit, but he also made a lot of plays in pass defense.

Sweat used his freaky-long arms to knock down three quick passes from Roethlisberger that were designed to serve as de facto run plays. The last of those was deflected into the air and turned into a key interception that effectively sealed the game for Washington. Safe to sat that Sweat made a massive difference in this one and has panned out nicely for Washington.

Finally, Chase Young needs to be mentioned as well. He had a couple of key stops in this game where he chased players down the line and managed to stop players in their tracks. One of those came on a fourth-and-goal and he stopped Benny Snell in his tracks ahead of the goal-line. It was a huge play and showed off his top-tier athletic ability.

Washington’s defensive line will continue to be the best part of their defense henceforth. They have a lot of talent up there, as they should with five former first-round picks on the unit, and if their young stars continue to grow, they will be studs on a weekly basis.