10 fast thoughts on the Washington Football Team’s final game of 2020 season

Fast thoughts on the Washington Football Team’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

OK. I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as a good loss. But this is about as close as you can come.

The Washington Football Team lost their playoff game against the heavily favored Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23, bringing an end to a difficult, remarkable season. We will all have end-of-season thoughts this week, and then we will begin looking forward.

For now, here are 10 quick reactions to final game of the 2020 season (and 2021 playoffs).

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1. If Washington was going to win, they needed the defensive front four to dominate the line of scrimmage. They did not. They played pretty well, sacking Tom Brady three times and harassing him a number of other times. But they did not generate the kind of intense pressure that would cause Brady any real problems.

2. Brady had more problems coming from his own receiver, Chris Godwin. Despite scoring a touchdown and making a few big catches, he had multiple key drops that allowed Washington to stay in the game.

3. The run offense and run defense needed to be better. Antonio Gibson ran hard but he was bottled up all night, and he probably was several notches below 100 percent. The run defense, though not as bad as it was in that bad stretch after the bye week, was fairly average.

4. Daron Payne obviously played a whale of a game. He had two of the three sacks and caused a crucial fumble. One of the most exciting things about this front four is that it seems that on any given day, any one of them can carry the team.

5. This may have been the game where WFT’s need for a coverage linebacker outside of Kevin Pierre-Louis, who wasn’t at 100 percent, was most glaring. Cameron Brate mostly had his way with the linebackers and safeties who tried to cover him.

6. Speaking of Brate – you know, I don’t really like to pick on the referees. I figure calls usually even out. WFT got a nice phantom horse collar call that helped set up a touchdown. But there were a couple of key misses.

The overrule of what appeared to be a legitimate catch by JD McKissic on what could have been a drive to tie the game, was very iffy. But the most egregious call was the miss on Brate’s two-extended-arms knockdown of Kam Curl in the first half. One of the most obvious OPIs you will ever see. They were looking right at it and let it go.

7. The first half of the third quarter reminded me so much of the opening day game against Philly. Philly was running all over WFT in the first half, but Washington came roaring out of the halftime tunnel and took over.

The defense was dominant. The offense was good enough. That set the tone for what this team would be in 2020, and for a few minutes, I thought maybe it was happening again. But this was Tom Brady, and not Carson Wentz playing behind a shaky line.

8. Tampa has a great deal of offensive talent, and Washington had trouble stopping them. But Washington wins this game if Mike Evans can’t play. Last Monday, I didn’t think he would. He was clearly in some pain. But he’s a baller and he was eventually the difference.

9. Again, I don’t like picking on the refs. I’m sure they are all fine gentlemen. But they are afraid to blow their whistles on anything that even has a whiff of turnover attached to it. It happened in both early games on Sunday, and then, Sunday night, when Taylor Heinicke had a pass deflected back at him, and he made the very smart play to simply knock the ball down, referee Scott Novak refused to blow his whistle and signal the play was over.

This led to the odd image of Heinicke, who understands the rules, asking Novak why the play was still going on before the referee finally blew the whistle. But I don’t want to pick on the referees.

10.  Taylor Heinicke. What can I say? Tony Dungy said it best as he watched Heinicke’s miraculous dive for the pylon in the third quarter: “Are you kidding me?” This was a great performance, which would have been legendary had WFT managed to win.

Bonus.  Oh, and thanks to Riggo’s Rag writer Jacob Troutman, who just pointed this out, that was probably Ryan Kerrigan’s last game for Washington. If you have to lose your final game, that one wasn’t so bad to go out with.

That polishes off the season for Washington, but we already can’t wait for September 2021.