Washington Football Team: Studs and duds from Week 15 loss vs. Seahawks

Washington Football Team Dud: Dwayne Haskins the first 2.5 quarters

As mentioned, Haskins was far from perfect in this game. One of the reasons that he showed so much improvement was that he struggled so much early on.

Early in the game, the Washington offense couldn’t do anything against the Seahawks defense. Haskins was settling for a lot of short passes but once the game plan opened up a bit, he wasn’t hitting enough downfield chances. More importantly, he turned the ball over a couple of times, and that really hurt Washington’s defense.

As I outlined in a recap of the game, Haskins’ picks both illustrated major problems. One was an ill-advised throw and the other was a problem will him staring down a receiver.

"Haskins’ first interception came with Washington still down just one score. Haskins rolled out of the pocket and had green grass in front of him. Instead of scrambling for a few yards or throwing the ball away, he launched the ball into coverage and the Seahawks deflected and intercepted it. Though Haskins’ first pick showcased bad judgment, his second pick was worse. Washington was trailing by 17 early in the second half when Haskins stared down his receiver and threw the ball to him. In double coverage. The Seahawks broke on the ball, having followed Haskins’ eyes and managed to grab the pick."

Haskins definitely improved after these problems, but the issue is that they derailed the team early. The defense was keeping Washington within one possession, but Haskins’ inability to lead a scoring drive until the final drive of the half greatly hurt Washington’s chances of winning.

And the turnovers were an even bigger issue. Washington simply isn’t a team that is built to compete while dealing with multiple turnovers. Haskins will have to clean those up moving forward and play more like he did in the final quarter and a half of the game if Washington wants to win with him in the game as a starter.