Washington Football Team: Key numbers from loss to Seattle

Numbers that need work

3: Heading into today’s game, Washington was averaging just 8.6 points in the first half of games, which is third-worst in the NFL, ahead of only the Broncos and the Jets. Those are two teams you don’t want to be in the same boat as. Washington worsened that stat a bit today, as the team only scored three points in the first half on a 48-yarder by Dustin Hopkins.

64: In the first half, Logan Thomas had eight receptions for 64 yards, which is a great stat line. The problem, however, was the entire remainder of the Washington Football Team’s offense also managed only 64 yards the entire first half.

The Washington Football Team will need to improve on its first-half offense if it wants to have a chance at making any noise in the playoffs. If you give good teams too much of an advantage early, it provides too much pressure on your defense to keep the game manageable.

50: Earlier this season, Washington was plagued by giving up long plays on defense. That issue returned yesterday as Washington gave up the two longest-running plays for the Seahawks this season. The longest was on the Seahawks’ opening drive of the second half, where Seattle completed a four-play 75-yard drive, capped off by a 50-yard touchdown run by Carlos Hyde.

The second was on a 38-yard scramble by Russell Wilson, where he absolutely put Jimmy Moreland on skates.

Those two plays accounted for almost 30 percent of the Seahawks’ total offense for the entire game.

0: Washington’s defense came into the game fourth in the league in sacks per game but were held to zero sacks and only three QB hits all game.

What makes the zero sacks look even worse is the fact that Russell Wilson had been sacked 21 times over Seattle’s last six games, most in the NFL during that period.

73.3: Washington’s offense needs to be more balanced, as the team ran passing plays 73.3% of the time, compared to their season average of 60.29%.

Some of this has to do with falling behind 20-3, but Washington only had eight rushing attempts in the first half, out of which three went for first downs. Washington threw the ball 24 times in the first half with six first downs. Breaking that down, the team was more efficient getting first downs running than passing but stuck with the pass. You can’t have a young quarterback drop back to pass 55 times and expect him to play mistake-free football.

2: Dustin Hopkins has only missed two PATs all season, and has improved his field goal efficiency after struggles early in the season. However, his missed PAT was huge for the Washington Football Team and had real trickle-down impacts for the rest of the game.

The missed PAT kept the score at 20-9, which forced Washington to go for two the next time they scored a touchdown. The two-point conversion ultimately failed, leaving Washington’s deficit at five. Now, instead of being able to tie the game and force overtime on its last offensive drive, Washington was forced to try and score a touchdown.

4: Seattle came in with 27 sacks in its last seven games and continued its defensive dominance. The Seahawks sacked Haskins four times, including three times during Washington’s final offensive drive.

After Morgan Moses left with an injury for Washington, Alton Robinson was able to get past David Sharpe, Moses’ backup, to sack Haskins. Haskins fumbled on the play but ultimately recovered, and the play lost 11 yards.

Later on during the same drive, once Washington was in Seahawks territory, Moses returned, but Haskins was sacked on back-to-back plays, including once where Carlos Dunlap beat Moses to sack the quarterback. That led to a fourth-and-24, and essentially ended any chance of a Washington comeback.

https://twitter.com/thecheckdown/status/1340765232554110976?s=20

Washington may have lost yesterday’s game, but there were some positives seen, especially in terms of Haskins’ resiliency to bounce back after his two interceptions. He still has a ways to go, but deserves credit for helping Washington finally score a touchdown and making this a competitive game late.

There are no moral victories, but for Washington fans, it sure does feel good to have meaningful football left to play in December. On to Carolina for Ron Rivera’s revenge game against his former team!