Washington must show improvement in this key area vs Eagles

The Washington Football Team has developed a knack for getting off to slow starts in games, and it came back to haunt them in a big way against the Dallas Cowboys, who opened up a 24-0 lead before halftime on Sunday.

In a vacuum, there’s no one thing you can attribute the loss to.

Taylor Heinicke made a myriad of awful decisions, and his already-suspect accuracy and arm strength loomed large, Antonio Gibson fumbled just as Washington garnered some momentum in the second half, and the offensive line surrendered three sacks and 14 total pressures.

We hate to pin all of the blame on the offense, but the defense allowed just 20 points and Dallas’ longest scoring drive went for 61 yards.

Bottom line is Washington will face another uphill climb against the Eagles if they struggle out of the gates. In order to avoid that, the team must show significant improvement on third down.

The Washington Football Team must improve on third down.

The formula for Washington during the four-game win streak was to get to third and short, then convert, typically on an inside handoff to Antonio Gibson or a simple underneath route completed by Heinicke.

On Sunday, Washington was 0-for-6 on third down in the first half, all of which were of the difficult variety.

• 3rd and 8
• 3rd and 10
• 3rd and 6 (negated due to a roughing the passer penalty)
• 3rd and 7
• 3rd and 8
• 3rd and 6
• 3rd and 15

For the game, Washington finished 3-of-14 (21.4%) on third down. During the win streak, they were unstoppable on the all-important down, and it all started with a phenomenal 11-of-19 (57.8%) effort against the Buccaneers. All in all, the squad finished 29-of-58 (50%) from Weeks 11-13.

The good news for Washington is that Philadelphia ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of opponent’s third down conversion rate (39.74%). However, that means nothing if the offense continues to dig itself holes on first and second down.

It’s become clear that Washington is going to ride Antonio Gibson early on to set up a third and manageable. However, the second-year RB was bottled up to the tune of 36 yards over 10 carries vs the Cowboys.

From Weeks 11-13, no team in the league created more 3rd and 4 or less situations than Washington. They did so 27 times during that stretch. Before the win streak, the team ranked 27th in that regard.

We know the WFT’s offensive identity starts and ends with pounding the rock, but maybe the coaching staff should get more creative instead of calling an inside handoff on first and second down, especially with the OL in shambles?

Assuming the Eagles have been busy watching film, they’d stack the box early with the hope of setting up Washington with a third and long. Should that happen, it’ll be up to Ron Rivera and Scott Turner to make the right adjustments, because a repeat of Sunday will put the team behind the eight ball.

Based on how reckless Heinicke gets playing from behind, that’ll be a recipe for disaster for Washington in a must-win game.