10 quick thoughts from Week 14 as Washington’s win streak ends at four games

All good things gotta come to an end, right? The Washington Football Team learned this the hard way on Sunday, as their second half comeback effort against the complacent Dallas Cowboys came up just short.

Based on recent form, fans had EVERY reason to think Washington would knock off Dallas. Don’t blame yourselves. You were right to picture a world in which the Cowboys were sent back to Big D with their tails between their legs.

It just didn’t work out that way.

The good news is that Washington has plenty to play for this season. For now, though, let’s dive deep into Sunday’s gutting loss at FedEX Field.

Washington Football Team: 10 quick thoughts from Week 14

Washington still plagued by dropped interceptions: For reasons we’ll never understand, dropped interceptions and Washington have gone hand-in-hand this season, and they returned in a big way on Dallas’ first drive.

Luckily for Kendall Fuller, the culprit on this occasion, the Cowboys’ opening drive stalled out in the red zone, resulting in a field goal. The throw was a little behind Fuller, but even he would admit he should’ve reeled it in. That’s gotta be five or six dropped INTs for Washington this year.

Five too many.

Jamin Davis dropped one later in the half for good measure.

Rough start for Taylor Heinicke: Heinicke didn’t have the best start to this one. On top of missing Curtis Samuel for a would-be first down on Washington’s first drive, he made a lackadaisical throw on the team’s second drive that was batted and intercepted by Randy Gregory.

Right after Landon Collins picked off Dak Prescott, too.

https://twitter.com/FanSided/status/1470098353140682767

Jonathan Allen killer penalty: It looked like Washington’s defense was about to make a second courageous stand in the red zone. A completion to Amari Cooper fell short of the first down marker to set up 4th down … until Jonathan Allen was flagged for an offsides to gift Dallas a first down.

A few plays later, Prescott connected with Cooper in the end zone to give the Cowboys an 11-0 lead after they converted their two-point attempt.

We know Allen’s been a world-beater this season, but there’s no excuse for lining up offsides, especially on third down.

That’s not winning football.

Worst possible start for Washington: What’s worse than trailing 11-0 before the end of the first quarter? How about trailing 18-0? On 4th and 2 near midfield, Ron Rivera rolled the dice and left his offense on the field. We didn’t hate the call, but Micah Parsons had other ideas, as the rookie blew past Brandon Scherff to cause a sack-fumble on Heinicke that Dorance Armstrong returned for a touchdown.

Long third downs aren’t sustainable: Ron Rivera preached earlier in the week to fall in love with the three-yard run. His reasoning? If you pick up six yards on first and second down, you set yourself up with a manageable third down.

That’s been Washington’s identity during their win streak, and it appears Dallas discovered that in the film room this week, because they gave Antonio Gibson no room to operate. Before the midway point of the second quarter, Washington had 3rd and 8 (twice) 13, 10, 6 and 7, none of which were converted.

Can someone tackle CeeDee Lamb? 

Washington’s defense has vastly improved at all three levels over the last month. A constant theme over that stretch? Players flying to the football and making open field tackles. Even if a player was unable to wrap up, there was always second, third and fourth waves of defenders storming in to pick up the slack.

That disappeared for most of Sunday.

The worst display BY FAR was a 3rd and 10 completion to CeeDee Lamb early in the second quarter. The second-year WR made the catch well short of the sticks and danced around three (four?) would-be tacklers to pick up the first down.

Ref show in Landover: What better way to ruin a Week 14 game between two division rivals than for the referees to halt any and all momentum? There was yellow laundry all over the field on Sunday, and some of the calls were needless, to say the least.

William Jackson’s pass interference on Michael Gallup was ridiculous, as was the roughing the passer on Dak Prescott. In the first half alone, Washington was flagged five times for a total of 50 yards, a chunk of which helped Dallas tack on three points with a field goal in the second quarter.

No, the refs weren’t the reason Washington lost, but the zebras making their presence felt on tacky plays helped rub salt in the wound.

They even tried to take Cam Sims’ miraculous touchdown grab away (More on that in a minute) and the ruling on Kyle Allen’s game-ending fumble was questionable, at best. It looked like a forward pass to the naked eye.

Terry McLaurin’s usage is (still) criminal: Sorry, but Terry McLaurin should NEVER go an entire half without making a catch. Whether it’s a bubble screen, a quick slant or something as simple as an intermediate curl route, Washington needs to do a better job getting the star receiver the ball early in games.

Feels like we’ve said that a lot this season.

To add injury to insult, McLaurin left the game in the third quarter to undergo testing for a concussion after he took a hard fall after trying to bring down a reckless jump ball from Heinicke.

For the first time in his 42 career games as an NFL player, McLaurin finished a game with zero catches. Just despicable.

CAM freaking SIMS: There weren’t many highlights from a Washington perspective, but Cam Sims delivered maybe the highlight of the game from either side in the third quarter when he hauled in a deep TD along the sidelines.

We’re not sure how Sims made the catch. In position to make a play on the ball, Trevon Diggs somehow didn’t get a fingertip on the pass and unsuccessfully tried to wrestle it away from Sims on the way down.

Give all the credit to Sims. Despite not getting many opportunities, he seems to always come up with the occasional big play.

https://twitter.com/WashingtonNFL/status/1470127390693150725

Offense’s limitations come full-circle: Make no bones about it, folks, Washington’s offense has become far too reliant on dominating time of possession. Yes, it’s a smart approach, but not if you’re playing from behind.

Sunday’s beatdown was just a reminder, and an untimely one at that, that this offense can only be successful when it rides Antonio Gibson and short underneath routes to move the chains. Heinicke has proven capable of overcoming one-score deficits late in games, but he doesn’t have the intangibles to pull off big comebacks.

Ron Rivera and Scott Turner need to go back to the drawing board, because Washington’s offense is way too one-dimensional right now.

We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention Gibson’s third quarter fumble, his sixth on the year and fourth lost. Everyone recognizes his talent, but you can’t be a starting running back in the NFL if you can’t protect the football.

Cole Holcomb did his best to make things interesting with an improbable pick-six to bring Washington within a touchdown, but Kyle Allen and the offense went backwards on the final two drives to seal the defeat.

Luckily, there’s still plenty of football left in 2021. It just won’t end with a division title for Washington in all likelihood.