Washington Football Team: 6 takeaways from Week 8 loss to Denver
The Washington Football Team put together another poor performance against the lifeless Denver Broncos. Here are the positives, mostly the negatives, from another disappointing effort on Sunday.
Week 8 is complete, which means we have a new piece apart of the “Takeaways” series for the 2021 season.
In case you missed it, the Washington Football Team dropped yet another game, this time to a bad team in the Denver Broncos. Denver’s offense had been average at best throughout this season, and defensively they were missing several starters and rotational pieces.
It was an all-around disappointing outing, yet another game where you come away saying, “They really did that… didn’t they?”Disappointing performances are now stacking on top of one another, but you didn’t walk away from this one saying “they should’ve had that one.”
Instead, it wasn’t a bad defensive performance, littered in blown coverages and missed assignments, it wasn’t a dropped pass or several red-zone inefficiencies, it wasn’t even turnovers that killed them.
On Sunday, it was the culmination of this season, bundled up in one 60 minute performance. Let’s get into the positives and the negative takeaways from the Washington Football Team’s 17-10 defeat on Halloween night.
Positive Takeaways
1. Strong offensive line play
Washington’s offensive line, all things considered, played a fine game on Sunday. Specifically, center Tyler Larsen and left tackle Charles Leno Jr. had numerous solid pass-blocking reps that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
For Leno, he allowed just one pressure on 47 pass-blocking reps, which graded out 84.4 according to Pro Football Focus. Leno’s bounce-back performance in week eight, hopefully, is a sign of things to come for the veteran Left Tackle. For Larsen, he came in the game to take over the starting Center spot after Chase Roullier exited with a severe lower leg injury. In 33 pass-blocking reps, Larsen allowed zero pressures in his first appearance of 2021. Larsen’s impressive outing at Mile High, hopefully, is a momentum-building moment as the veteran will likely be the starter going forward at center.
2. JD McKissic stays winning
2. J.D. McKissic looked fantastic, yet again, on Halloween night. It was a “spooky” performance, but in a good way, like a spooky basket there against the Orange and Blue. He was Washington’s highest-graded receiver, according to PFF, grading out at 90.7 as a pass-catcher.
In addition, McKissic was excellent in pass-protection, picking up a few key blocks which were also noted on PFF’s website as in four pass-blocking reps he graded out at nearly an 80. McKissic’s value and performance on the field continue to exceed expectations, hopefully to the point where Washington can lock up the veteran scatback long-term this offseason.
3. Landon Collins has arrived
Landon Collins, for the second week in a row, was a big-time positive on Sunday afternoon. Hello, Landon Collins, can someone let the man know that they’re playing the Denver Broncos every week? He was excellent as an in-the-box “athlete”, we’ll call him since he doesn’t like being called a linebacker.
The former All-Pro was fantastic against the run. He came up and made a few big-time tackles, tallied a sack, and even forced a fumble late in the game. “Lando” shot the gaps well and navigated through offensive linemen like a game of Mario Kart. Even his work in coverage was splendid as he gave up just four receiving yards on three catches against the Broncos. Collins put together his best performance, honestly, of his Washington Football Team career on Sunday in Denver.