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

The Washington Football Team lost their fourth straight game on Sunday.

In other words, they’re one loss shy of matching last season’s high of five consecutive losses. With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are coming off a loss, on deck in Week 10 after the bye, there’s a good chance that happens.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, though. We still have plenty to talk about from Washington’s loss to the Denver Broncos, who did everything in their power down the stretch to lose the game.

Despite some head-scratching play-calling and Melvin Gordon’s lost fumble, the Broncos pulled out a season-altering W.

For Washington, it was just the latest season-defining loss, though it wasn’t all bad for Ron Rivera’s side. To bring some positivity to an otherwise hellacious Halloween, let’s highlight some studs (and duds) from Sunday.

Washington Football Team: Studs and duds from Week 8

Stud: Landon Collins

LANDON. COLLINS. Talk about a bright spot from the game. It’s not crazy to think the longtime safety has a future as a box linebacker in this defense, because he was flying all over the field against Denver.

What is crazy, though? That it took Rivera and Co. this long to realize Collins has no business being dropped into coverage.

For the game, Collins compiled eight LOUD tackles and had a big sack of Teddy Bridgewater in the second quarter to derail a promising Broncos drive. The former All-Pro was in on a number of other key plays as well.

Rivera was right saying Collins is at his best when he’s lined up close to the line of scrimmage, and Sunday was living proof of that.

Collins gets our (and hopefully everybody’s) game ball.

Dud: Chris Blewitt

Any time you release a stable veteran kicker in favor of somebody who’s never kicked in an NFL game in his life, the new guy isn’t going to get graded on a curve. He needs to be an instant upgrade. Period.

Unfortunately for Chris Blewitt, his start with Washington has been a disaster. The former Pitt standout has made just 2-of-5 field goals, but it’s worse than that. Three of them haven’t made it past the line of scrimmage. His first miss on Sunday was so low it hit a teammate. The second was low and blocked.

It’d be one thing if Blewitt was barely missing these kicks. The fact they aren’t even coming close makes this an awful look for Rivera. If you’re a fan who pushed to run Hopkins out of town, we hope you’re happy.

Stud: JD McKissic

Honest question: has JD McKissic produced one dud this season?

At this point, he’s Washington’s second-most important player on offense behind Terry McLaurin, and it’s not even close. On Sunday, McKissic led the way with eight catches for 83 yards, 32 yards more than the next-closest receiver. He now has 20 receptions over the last three games, good for the team lead.

McKissic has emerged as Taylor Heinicke’s security blanket, but he’s more than that. He’s one of the best third-down backs in the league and a candidate for Washington’s player of the season thus far.

Dud: Montez Sweat

The Football Team defense generated pretty consistent pressure against Bridgewater on Sunday, but it was no thanks to Montez Sweat.

For the record, Chase Young could be lumped into this group. The second-year pro was largely invisible as a pass-rusher, but he forced a fumble on Melvin Gordon on a perfectly-timed punch while Denver was trying to milk the clock. Those kind of impact plays get you a pass for a hushed performance.

Sweat, on the other hand, was quiet and made zero impact plays. The old double whammy. He also committed a penalty in the first half.

Stud: DeAndre Carter

On a night where McLaurin caught just three of seven targets for 27 yards, DeAndre Carter stepped up as Heinicke’s go-to receiver. Sure, Carter only finished with three receptions, but each of them came in big moments. He scored Washington’s lone touchdown on a beautiful pitch-and-catch fade from Heinicke.

We’d love to see Carter remain in the starting lineup as a WR4 when the receiving corps is back to full-strength.

Dud: Terry McLaurin

Before you jump us, we’re not saying that McLaurin played poorly. He just wasn’t heavily involved, for whatever reason. That’s on the coaching staff and their gameplan as much as it is on Heinicke. Simply put, a player of McLaurin’s caliber should never finish a game with just three catches for 23 yards on seven targets.

We know Heinicke isn’t the type of QB who can get the ball to his top playmaker on command, but he needs to do a better job of getting McLaurin the ball.

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.