Antonio Gibson blew potential long touchdown run with awful read vs Panthers

There were plenty of positives to take away from the Washington Commanders‘ preseason opener. While they lost to the Carolina Pathers, it was highly encouraging rookie Sam Howell helped the team overcome a 14-point deficit.

Unfortunately, there were some ugly storylines that took some shine away from Howell’s sensational preseason debut. The Commanders’ defensive struggles on third down reared their ugly head, the special teams unit didn’t come ready to play and the linebacker rotation was exploited in coverage.

While those are all legitimate causes for concern, no narrative was more alarming than Antonio Gibson’s first-quarter fumble. It was Gibson’s second carry of the game and he was immediately benched for rookie Brian Robinson.

While Robinson’s performance speaks for itself, it was equally damning for Gibson that he was demoted to the second-team offense. The former third-round pick back hard after the turnover, but this was a highly worrying sign after he fumbled six times (four lost), which led all running backs last season.

Not only that, but Gibson showed poor vision on a handoff that he bounced outside instead of cutting back into a GAPING hole his offensive line created. Had Gibson showed a little more patience, he might’ve taken it to the house.

The pressure is growing on Commanders running back Antonio Gibson to perform after his poor preseason game.

That was no doubt a designed outside run, but not every play has to be executed exactly as planned. Fans should expect more from a RB who’s approaching his third season. The Panthers read the run like a book. That should’ve prompted Gibson to improvise and the cutback was literally begging to be made.

As the tweet suggests, Commanders coaches were probably pulling their hair out reviewing this play in the film room. In Gibson’s defense, the cutback lane didn’t open up until the last second, but the NFL is a game of inches and fine margins and Gibson unfortunately failed to make the most of those here.

Is it crazy to think Gibson’s now fighting for his starting job? If you asked Gregg Rosenthal of Around the NFL, he’d tell you the 24-year-old is looking over his shoulder following Robison’s strong showing vs Carolina.

Here’s what Rosenthal said of Washington’s RB dilemma.

"Antonio Gibson is at some risk of losing snaps to rookie Brian Robinson. Gibson played with backups in the preseason opener and lost a fumble, a massive problem for him last season. Robinson is Ron Rivera’s kind of grinding back and ran hard against the Panthers. Rivera has been happy to split the workload before (SEE: Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams, one of my favorite tandems of all time). Third-down back J.D. McKissic will stay very much in the mix, too."

The Stewart-Williams committee is a great point by Rosenthal. While Gibson isn’t an outright burner in terms of speed, he profiles more like Williams, whereas Robinson’s bruising running style is more akin to the stockier Stewart.

It was already expected that Robinson would chip away at Gibson’s workload as he got more comfortable in the offense. Following the first preseason game, though, would anyone be surprised if they started the year on a timeshare?

Probably not, especially when you consider Gibson’s role at Tuesday’s practice. Per reports, Gibson ran with the third-team (!) offense and blocked for the punt team. Sure feels like Ron Rivera is sending (another) message to the RB.

That would obviously require Robinson to keep performing out of his skin and not committing any turnovers or back-breaking mistakes, but we’re talking about a guy who was groomed by Nick Saban for five (!) seasons at Alabama.

During that span (2017-21), Robinson had the luxury of studying behind Josh Jacobs, Damien Harris and Najee Harris. The school has also produced Derrick Henry, Mark Ingram and Kenyan Drake; three top talents at the position.

The pressure is on Gibson to perform and it’s not going away anytime soon.