Washington Football Team: 4 takeaways from Week 3 against Buffalo
4. Offensive line improvement
Despite allowing five pressures on Sunday, the Washington front five offensively looked to improve from their lackluster performance in Week 1. Specifically, guys like rookie Samuel Cosmi and Charles Leno Jr. played their best game of the year in Week 3, posting exceptional advanced numbers that pop on the eye test.
For Cosmi, the second-round draft pick had a tough time against Joey Bosa in week one, but he’s looked to have turned over a new chapter after an 82.5 pass-blocking grade via PFF. In addition, he only allowed one pressure yesterday, while seeing AJ Epenesa and first-round pick Gregory Rousseau on the bulk of his snaps.
For Leno, facing the duo of Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison is no easy task. Leno allowed only one pressure, parlaying that into a pass-blocking grade of nearly 85.0 from Pro Football Focus. Guys like Ereck Flowers and Chase Roullier, meanwhile, also had solid games as pass blockers, allowing zero pressures on 54 snaps each. Both parlayed a strong performance in pass protection into grades from Pro Football Focus of 84 or higher. An encouraging sign for a group that has shown improvement week to week.
The AG monster screen started on the WFT 27-yard line. Ereck Flowers threw a key block at the 42. Nice work by the guard to get that far downfield. After that, it was allllllllll Gibby pic.twitter.com/bfI8FdGVp1
— Pete Hailey (@PeteHaileyNBCS) September 27, 2021
The man who had the worst game on Sunday, who battled from a freak injury mid-game, was star guard Brandon Scherff. Scherff allowed three pressures on 51 snaps, which graded him out just over 72 from PFF. While this is a below-average performance by his standards, considering your All-Pro member on your offensive line had the worst game yesterday, that says a lot. This group has performed significantly better as pass blockers from week to week. Whether you look at the eye test or you use advanced numbers from sites like Pro Football Focus, the evidence is there.
Facing one of the toughest defensive lines in all the football, Washington allowed only five pressures, which is an improvement from last week. In addition, their two “weakest” members along their OL in Cosmi and Leno have produced well since their Week 1 showings. An encouraging sign for an offense that needs consistency from the hogs upfront.