Washington Football Team fumbles away opportunities vs Packers

It’s always interesting when you see two teams playing one another that are heading in completely different directions. That was the case in Week 7 when the Washington Football Team fumbled the game away with multiple mistakes against the Green Bay Packers.

Aaron Rodgers and the Packers had their own interesting offseason with a lot of chatter surrounding the team, and after a Week 1 loss, the team has railed off six straight wins. The Washington Football Team, on the other hand, seems to find itself broiled in a new controversy on a weekly basis, and continues to struggle in one facet or another every Sunday.

The last three weeks, the defense has shown some signs of improvement, forcing six turnovers in those three games, after having only two forced turnovers in the first four weeks of the season. I mean, holding Patrick Mahomes to 10 points in a half and Rodgers to 14 in a half deserves some…some credit.

But, the problem has been on the offensive side of the ball the last few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, the team definitely can move the ball down the field, as evidenced by the 430 yards of total offense against the Packers, but the inability to get the ball into the end zone has continued to plague this team.

The play on the field wasn’t bad for the Washington Football Team, but the losses continue to pile up.

Mental lapses. Missed opportunities. If there were two phrases that epitomized the team thus far this season, those would be it.

Jonathan Allen has his own ideas to describe Washington’s season so far, which he shared in his post-game comments.

“Losing teams find ways to lose games and winning teams find ways to win games, and right now, we’re finding ways to lose, so we just have to find ways to win and get better.”

If that isn’t the most Washington Football Team quote ever, I don’t know what is. The only thing that may top that from Week 7 was the “Lambeau Leap Touchdown That Wasn’t”.

https://twitter.com/darrenmhaynes/status/1452347419421814791?s=21

Let’s get into the Week 7 numbers.

Highs from Week 7’s loss to the Packers

95: After having zero rushes in last week’s game against the Chiefs, Taylor Heinicke once again played looser, used his feet to his advantage and finished with 10 rushes for 95 yards, including a 38-yarder through the middle of the defense. This was the second-most rushing yards ever in a game by a Washington quarterback.

122: After only having 8 catches for 74 yards over the last two games, Terry McLaurin once again showed why he is one of the top receivers in the NFL reeling in seven receptions for 122 yards and a TD. Heinicke slips and recovers and throws it up for McLaurin to make a play, but let’s not forget the nice blitz pick-up by Antonio Gibson. A couple more plays like this and the season might look completely different.

https://twitter.com/fansided/status/1452325358192189443?s=21

2: Jonathan Allen had himself a game, finishing with two of the team’s three sacks and two tackles for loss.

15, 150, 1: After being forced to start during Logan Thomas’ stint on IR, Ricky Seals-Jones has filled in admirably, finishing with 15 receptions for 150 yards and a touchdown over the previous three games. Although Washington’s high-priced free agent signings have struggled so far, they have once again found potential gems with the less-heralded signing of Seals-Jones as well as DeAndre Carter.

8, 83: For the first time this season, Washington scored a touchdown on its first drive of the game, capping off an eight-play 83 yard drive with a 40-yard touchdown reception by Terry McLaurin. Heinicke went 3-for-3 for 58 yards on the drive with all his passing yards directed to McLaurin.

Washington continues to show potential in spurts but needs to get better at putting it together throughout an entire game. In the previous six games, Washington only managed to gain 31 yards on the first drive of the game TOTAL!

+126, +5:48: Washington’s offense came to play, out-gaining the Packers by 126 yards and winning the time of possession battle by 5 minutes and 48 seconds.

0-4: The Packers came into the game allowing a 100% red zone TD percentage over its first six games. Opponents had gone 15-for-15 in the red zone against the Packers coming into this game, scoring 10 passing touchdowns and 5 rushing touchdowns. How did Washington fare? Well, the team went 0-for-4 in the red zone for a grand total of ZERO POINTS!

The first was the “Lambeau Leap that Wasn’t” where the refs said Heinicke had given himself up before getting into the end zone on third down. The fourth-down run saw Heinicke get stuffed, fumble, recover and try to push the ball in, but it was all for naught.

The second red zone drive saw McLaurin drop a catch he rarely misses on third down before an incompletion to Seals-Jones on fourth down, which led to another turnover on downs.

Another drive ended with an interception. Overall, the team left plenty of points on the field which is not something winning teams do.

7: Washington got past the opponent’s 30 seven times during the game, yet finished with a grand total of 10 points.

4: The outcome could have been worse though as Washington coughed up the ball four times, luckily recovering three of its fumbles. On one drive, the team fumbled on back-to-back plays, with DeAndre Carter fumbling after a nice 27-yard gain late in the third quarter, which was recovered by Heinicke who had been blocking for Carter.

The next play, Antonio Gibson coughed up the ball and it was recovered by Chase Roullier.

To make matters worse, that drive ended at the opponent’s three-yard line with zero points scored.

10/17/1983: The last time Washington has beaten Green Bay at Lambeau Field was more than 38 years ago on 10/17/1983. Washington has lost six straight road games to the Packers.

2-5: Although Washington has the same record of 2-5 as it did after Week 7 last season, the team is definitely faring worse this year.

• This year, the team has a -3 turnover differential compared to -1 at this point last season.
• This season’s defense has given up 678 additional yards in 7 games than it did last season.
• Although the offense is playing slightly better with 398 more yards after seven weeks when compared to last season, it has only averaged 1.85 more points per game over the first seven weeks.

With 10 games left in the season, we are seeing some growing pains with Washington. Yes, the defense has shown improvements, but it isn’t playing like the elite unit that was expected before the season. Yes, the Heinicke story has been incredible but at some point, the wins and losses matter more than any momentary excitement.

Coach Rivera is maintaining a positive attitude and seeing the team making some strides.

“I’m seeing the growth we’re looking for. I love the fight in these guys. There’s no quit in them.”

A win next week and some momentum heading into the bye week would go a long way towards not having the fan base quit on them too.