Washington Football Team: Studs and duds from Week 8 as Landon Collins shines

Stud: Jaret Patterson

The training camp and preseason star finally made an appearance! With Antonio Gibson limited by his stress fracture, Patterson got some extended run at running back and he took full advantage of his opportunity, taking 11 carries for 46 yards, which led the team. That’s a solid stat line for the undrafted rookie, but the eye test really stood out. He was sharp between the tackles and showed incredible contact balance.

After this performance, it might not be crazy to shut Gibson down for a few weeks and give Patterson the starting job.

Dud: Saahdiq Charles

Like we said in our postgame, it would be draconian to eviscerate Charles for his performance. He’s a third-string tackle thrust into the starting role after Cornelius Lucas was a late scratch with an illness. It’s highly doubtful that Charles took any first-team reps in practice this week, so cut him some slack.

Having said that, Charles was a turnstile at right tackle. He held his own for most of the game, but was beaten badly on a couple of plays that resulted in sacks. Unfortunately, those are the plays fans will remember.

Dud: Taylor Heinicke

Sorry, but four straight losses calls for finishing with two duds in a row. While Heinicke wasn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination, we’re fully convinced that Washington wins this game with a better quarterback.

Heinicke’s stats weren’t bad. He finished 24-of-39 for 279 with one touchdown and two interceptions. His touchdown throw to Carter was picture-perfect and moved the ball well all game long.

When it mattered most, though, Heinicke came up short. He took a couple of back-breaking sacks in crunch time, was late getting through his progressions on some key third downs, and threw a duck on 4th and 19 that was intercepted.

After Washington got the ball back, his last pass went out the back of the end zone. The least a quarterback can do in that situation is give his receivers a chance to make a play, and Heinicke didn’t even come close.

That should wrap it up, folks. What else is there to say? Just be grateful you don’t have to watch this team play football for the next 13 days.