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.
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.