Washington Football Team: 6 takeaways from Week 8 loss to Denver

Negative Takeaways

1. Taylor Heinicke’s struggles continue

Let’s get the quarterback out of the way now. Taylor Heinicke’s performances since his thrilling comeback victory against the Atlanta Falcons have been nothing better than replacement level.

Heinicke’s performance on Sunday was full of missed opportunities. Whether it was taking a tick too long to hit Ricky Seals-Jones on 4th down early in the game, or his poor throws down the stretch that ended in more red-zone failures, the Washington offense was bad on Sunday and in large part due to their ineffective QB play.

We know what Taylor Heinicke is and what he is not, but now we see why Ron Rivera wanted him to be more of a “game manager”. Reason being, he cannot consistently take care of the little things, which ultimately leads to the big picture issues that we have seen over the last month.

2. Where was Chase Young?

Chase Young, for the first time all season, is a negative. The win rates look good, the pressures before Sunday looked good, but Week 8 was probably the worst game of his young career.

The former No. 2 overall pick somehow graded out to be Washington’s second “best” defender on Sunday, and while PFF’s own understand that this was in large, very large, part due to his forced fumble late in the fourth quarter, his performance really couldn’t get much worse.

Young couldn’t take advantage of his one-v-one matchups against Denver. Though he played the run well, Washington looks to stop the run on their way to the QB and Young couldn’t capitalize on that motive. Through eight games, it looks like his pass-rushing move-set hasn’t shown steep improvements throughout this season and his game against the Broncos embodies what has been a down year, statistically, for the former Defensive Rookie of the Year.

3. This one’s on the coach

3. Blame Ron Rivera, criticize Ron Rivera, but not in the ways you think. Worthy criticism shouldn’t be about his inability to find a franchise quarterback after inheriting the worst franchise in all of pro-sports, but his poor decision to “stay home” when it comes to his linebacker personnel and his decision to sign Chris Blewitt.

I am a fan of Jamin Davis, loved the pick before the draft but in every podcast episode and every article I wrote on here, I talked about how he was a project that was much more of a traits and tools guy rather than a Day 1 contributor. His play against the run was the question, his stuff in coverage and as a pass-rusher, to this point, has been average. The tackling, the run defense, and overall learning of the position are coming slow, but that was expected.

What wasn’t expected, though, was Ron’s decision to stay home with Jon Bostic and Cole Holcomb to show for it in his LB room; a major, major mistake that you wouldn’t expect from a guy that loves versatility from his team, especially as a former linebacker! Knowing that you were drafting a project, why would you keep two mediocre Linebackers knowing the day-one guy you draft needs time to develop?

The other decision, cutting Dustin Hopkins was a good move. Signing Chris Blewitt, however, has been the worst outcome you could imagine. God bless Chris Blewitt, but his inability to kick a football higher than five feet off the ground has killed this football team. That isn’t an exaggeration by the way, as he’s had three kicks blocked through two games and one of which hit his own offensive lineman in the helmet, but he has been horrendous.

Ron Rivera’s decision to sign a guy that was mediocre in college and hasn’t kicked in the NFL, once in a real game, was mind-boggling then and it looks even worse now. Rivera, for the first time all season, appears on the “negative” takeaways list from Week 8. I’m sure he’s heartbroken. But seriously, Week 8 embodied what was two bad personnel decisions, hurting his team in a big way now eight games into a disappointing second season in the nation’s capital.