Washington Football Team: Week 14 reality checks vs. 49ers

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PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA – DECEMBER 07: Chase Young #99 of the Washington Football Team celebrates following their 23-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field on December 07, 2020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

Reality checks for the Washington Football Team’s clash with the 49ers.

The Washington Football team is coming off the most impressive two-game winning streak since at least 2012, and maybe since their last Superbowl win.

To annihilate the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, and then follow that up with a road win against the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers is a feat that many Washington fans have not witnessed in their lifetimes. Pittsburgh’s home record in games where they led by 14+ at Heinz Field was 78-8-1 prior to their Monday Matinee loss to the Washington Football Team.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the win was that this wasn’t a game where everything went right for Washington. The replay process failed Washington on a clear first-down catch and run by Logan Thomas. They had multiple uncharacteristic penalties. Antonio Gibson got hurt after two touches.

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Terry McLaurin had his least productive game as a pro. Morgan Moses had his worst game of the season. Dontrelle Inman forgot his job was to block on a critical fourth-and-one. Kendall Fuller forgot how to tackle. And let’s not forget the most mind-boggling mistake of the night: Jeremy Sprinkle failing to recover a fumble that he should’ve easily had a chance to pounce on.

Recent Washington Football Teams would have folded given that much going wrong while facing a team as high quality as Pittsburgh. But not this team. They came together and overcame all of that adversity to hand Pittsburgh their first loss of the season.

The defense’s string of stellar second-half performances continued, the offense managed to get into a second-half rhythm, and the Washington Football Team announced to the entire NFL that they are playing much better than most realized.

With the Giants’ impressive win over Seattle on Sunday, though, Washington can’t afford to become complacent if they want to make a run for the division title. Their next two games are against Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers and Russell Wilson’s Seahawks. Washington will not be favored in either, and likely needs to find a way to win at least one.

So with that dose of reality in place, let’s take a look at some specific Reality Checks for Washington’s game in Arizona against San Fransisco.

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