Halftime Takeaways: Washington Football Team hasn’t showed up for big game
The Washington Football Team has yet to show up against the Panthers.
With a chance to clinch the NFC East, you would’ve thought that Washington would’ve played better out of the gate. Or, at least, you would hope that they would be playing hard.
However, neither of those things have been the case for Washington through half of this game. They are trailing the Panthers 20-3 and have a lot of work to do if they want to wrap up the golden opportunity that has been handed to them.
Washington has had chances to move the ball and make stops, but poor performances and critical errors have wasted those chances.
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Per usual, the bigger issues are on the offensive side of the ball. Dwayne Haskins has been, predictably, terrible in his start. He hasn’t been able to move the ball at all and completed just one pass in the first quarter. Right now, he’s sitting at 6-of-14 passing for 37 yards with two picks and a fumble.
Haskins has had many overthrows, mistakes, and missed a wide-open Cam Sims late in the second quarter. His performance is making many Washington fans wonder whether or not the team would be better with Taylor Heinicke in the lineup.
Beyond Haskins’ poor play, Steven Sims had one of the worst plays of the year for Washington. Sims muffed a punt return as he was trying to run and make a big play before he secured the ball. If that wasn’t bad enough, the ball ricocheted back into the end-zone where and Panther pounced on it. That put Washington down six on a play that should’ve been fair caught.
That play represents the rapid decline of Sims over the course of the season. His role on offense has decreased and if he continues to make negative plays like that, it’s fair to wonder if he’ll continue to handle punt returns moving forward or if another WFTer will get a chance to handle it.
On the defensive side of the ball, Washington isn’t playing great. Daron Payne had a nice fourth-down pressure and sack, but aside from that, the team has given up a lot of rushing yards and hasn’t been able to slow down the Panthers enough. In particular, safety Jeremy Reaves has had a tough day, missing a couple of tackles and allowing a deep-ball completion to Curtis Samuel.
If Washington wants to win, the defense will need to generate a lot more heat and put the offense in better position to make plays during the second half. They did score a field goal on their last possession of the half, but they’re going to need more than that to knock off the Panthers today.
Next. Upgrades that should be on WFT's Christmas list. dark
This is not what any Washington fan wanted to see in Week 16. Unless Ron Rivera and Co. can turn things around quickly, this will mark the worst loss of the brief Rivera era.