Washington Football Team: 10 quick thoughts from Week 6 loss

The Washington Football Team would’ve loved nothing more than to honor Sean Taylor on the afternoon of his jersey retirement ceremony by picking up a win over the Kansas City Chiefs in front of a buoyant FedEx Field crowd.

After a promising start, Washington fell on its face in the second half. The offense was lifeless, to say the least. The defense was ultimately undone by untimely penalties and being unable to get off the field on third down.

Sound familiar?

Since there were no scorching takes to deliver following the loss — it was largely an ordinary defeat — we thought we’d do something different than a postgame and offer 10 quick takeaways from the game. Let’s dive right in.

Washington Football Team: 10 quick thoughts from Week 6

Dustin Hopkins is regaining trust…sort of: Hopkins’ job looked to be in jeopardy after he missed two extra points in Week 4 against the Falcons, a game Washington almost lost by two points before Taylor Heinicke and JD McKissic connected for a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of regulation to bail him out.

On Sunday, Hopkins was 2-for-3, including makes from 50 and 43 yards in the first half to keep Washington within striking distance. He missed a 42-yarder in the second half, but we largely like what we’re seeing from the 31-year-old.

Taylor Heinicke hype is cooling: We hate coming down on Heinicke as much as the next fan, but man, he really hasn’t covered himself in glory the last two weeks.

We can point to a number of instances on Sunday in which he missed open receivers in the Chiefs secondary. The most glaring of these came in the second quarter when Heinicke led Terry McLaurin, who had a step on his defender, too far outside on what should’ve been a routine pitch and catch touchdown.

This looked more like an errant throw than a miscommunication on a potential back-shoulder play. That’s on Heinicke, who seems to be losing more and more of his mojo as the weeks go by, unfortunately.

Antonio Gibson ball security: Gibson has now committed two costly fumbles this season, the first of which came back in Week 1 vs the Chargers. A former wide receiver in college at Memphis, Gibson might still be learning the ins and outs of ball security, but fans expect better from the second-year running back.

Gibson’s lucky the Chiefs didn’t take advantage of his latest fumble, which came out way too easily for a player of his caliber.

Ricky Seals-Jones is really good: We were admittedly concerned about the tight end position when Logan Thomas was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. How could we not be?

Since then, Ricky-Seals Jones has dumped broken eggs all over our face, because he’s emerged as a bonafide security blanket for Heinicke. His second quarter touchdown was a thing of beauty and he finished the game with four catches for 58 yards on six targets.

It’s not a stretch to say that Seals-Jones is Washington’s second-best receiving threat behind McLaurin right now.

Why is Landon Collins still being played in coverage?: It’s been clear for a while that Collins can’t be trusted in coverage, and yet, Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio continue to deploy him in such situations.

On the opening drive of the game, Collins was tasked with covering Chiefs’ 6-foot-6 tight end Jody Fortson. The veteran safety did well to avoid the pick play and he held up even better in coverage on Fortson’s deep route.

However, Collins was unable to locate the ball — perhaps his most damning trait — and Fortson hauled in the pass, albeit in acrobataic fashion. A few plays later, Darrell Williams scored from two yards out to give KC an early lead.

If Collins turns around, that’s an easy interception.

Chase Young is officially back: Remember when folks were concerned that Chase Young hadn’t recorded a sack over the first four games? We were, too. However, it was only a matter of time until No. 99 started to find his groove.

After breaking out in Week 5, Young came up with a pair of big plays to open the second half and keep the wind in Washington’s sails. He recorded a shared sack before generating his own sack of Patrick Mahomes that forced a Chiefs punt.

Young is back, folks. The budding superstar also paid an awesome tribute to Sean Taylor on his jersey retirement day by taping his facemask just the way Taylor used to do during his playing days.

Washington’s DBs can’t tackle: Washington’s secondary has been getting shredded all season, and, despite not breaking in coverage against Patrick Mahomes (go figure, right?), its inability to tackle loomed large.

Landon Collins whiffed big time on a Travis Kelce catch in the first half. Kendall Fuller missed a key tackle on 3rd and 4 in the red zone in the first half. We have to go back and watch the film to pinpoint more misses, but Chiefs receivers routinely made the first man miss in space after catching the ball.

Back-to-back offsides in third quarter:  If there’s one thing you CAN’T do when Mahomes and the Chiefs are reeling, it’s give them life. That’s exactly what Montez Sweat did by lining up offsides on a key third down late in the third quarter. Though it was much less significant, Young lined up offsides just seconds later, too.

A couple of plays later, Kansas City reclaimed the lead 17-13 after Mahomes connected with Tyreek Hill for a short touchdown.

Sweat has to be better there. Plain and simple.

Sometimes you have to tip your cap: Let’s preface this by saying that Patrick Mahomes was nowhere near his best on Sunday. While one of his INTs tipped off Tyreek Hill’s hands, the other was something you wouldn’t expect from an undrafted rookie.

After that lowlight, however, Mahomes kicked things into high gear and took it to Washington’s defense, which ran out of steam in the second half. His touchdown to Hill late in the third quarter was as pretty as it gets.

On the play, Mahomes thread the thinnest of needles in between a handful of Washington defenders. Again, he might be the only QB in the league who could’ve completed that pass.

Just a few minutes later, Mahomes made another jaw-dropping highlight when he tossed a shuffle pass to Travis Kelce on a HUGE 3rd and 6 to start the fourth quarter. That drive was capped off by Williams’ second TD of the afternoon, which really put the nail in the coffin despite there being plenty of time remaining.

Consider our caps tipped.

“They are who we thought they were”: To quote the late Dennis Green, Washington is who we thought they were: a conservatively-coached team that lacks discipline and execution in high-leverage situations.

This game was there for the taking. Washington forced not one, not two, but THREE first half turnovers and ended the second quarter with a 13-10 lead. Kicking field goals was never going to be sustainable against Kansas City’s frenetic offense, which ultimately proved to be the difference in this one.

That’s all we have for today, folks. Washington is now 2-4 and will travel to Lambeau Field to face Aaron Rodgers and the 5-1 Packers in Week 7.

Wish we had better news.

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