3 causes for concern from Commanders first preseason game

1. Third Down Defense

Hello darkness my old friend.

The Commanders finished 31st in opponent conversion rate on third down last season and they didn’t do much to quell those concerns Saturday.

For the game, Carolina finished 11-of-18 on third down, good for a 61% conversion rate. Not awful, but it was alarming the Panthers went 3-of-3 on third down on the first drive when Washington’s first-team defense was out there. Not to mention it came against Baker Mayfield, who was getting his first live action with Carolina after he was acquired from Cleveland just a few weeks ago.

Here’s another interesting (or concerning) nugget from Zach Selby of the Commanders team website. “Of the 25 seconds downs Washington’s defense faced, 18 were with a distance of at least seven yards. Seven of those plays were followed by either a first down or manageable third down situations.”

That’s definitely not great!