Washington Football Team: What we learned from final preseason game

Care to guess the last time a National Football League team lost its final preseason game by as wide a margin as the Washington Football Team did this past Saturday? 37-3. A 34-point margin. You have to go back eight years – August 29, 2013 – when the San Diego Chargers (that’s right, they used to play in San Diego) fell to the San Francisco 49ers, 41-6.

That game was similar to Washington’s recent debacle in that the Chargers rested their starters while the 49ers played their front-line players for a couple of series. But it was very difference in most other respects.

For one thing, on the stat sheet, the game was much closer than the score suggests. San Fran out gained San Diego by about 100 yards on the field. The Chargers actually won the time of possession battle and the Chargers defense forced the Niners to punt six times. The scoring discrepancy was in large part due to the fact that the Chargers threw three interceptions and had a punt blocked.

The Washington Football Team cannot blame the lopsided score on turnovers. They were simply manhandled. Baltimore had more than three times as many first downs and almost three times as many yards. They had the ball for over 40minutes. Washington had no answer for the Ravens first-team or second-team offense, nor could they movie the ball with any consistency.

It was a demolition.

Fortunately, demolitions in the preseason don’t necessarily matter. For instance, the San Diego Chargers went on to post a winning record in 2013, and won a playoff game before calling it a day. So the result, in and of itself, is not a problem.

However, there are several reasons for concern after Saturday night. Here are the good and bad things we learned from Washington’s forgettable game against Baltimore.

GOOD – Darryl Roberts

Darryl Roberts was signed this off-season to be a veteran presence in a defensive backfield that had lost a couple of key contributors from the 2020 squad. Though he was never projected to be a starter, he seemed to have a leg up on many of the others competing to provide depth at cornerback.

That changed during training camp when Torry McTyer began to separate from the other depth corners, and Troy Apke began taking snaps at corner as well. But Roberts acquitted himself quite well in the Baltimore game and, coupled with McTyer’s injury, he may have put himself back into the roster conversation.

BAD – David Mayo

The Washington Football Team linebacker situation is not good. Jamin Davis and Cole Holcomb should be reasonable starters and Jon Bostic is a decent veteran presence. But Bostic is also shifting to the outside and remains a bit of a question mark. Behind those three, there is nothing proven. I had initially though David Mayo could step in a provide a steady early down presence. He is a limited athlete, but for the Giants, when asked to stay in his lane, he could be effective. He has not looked particularly good this preseason, and I’m not sure he has much to offer at this point.