Studs and duds from Week 4 as Commanders lose third straight game

Dud: Kendall Fuller

In Fuller’s defense, he’s not a press-man corner. The veteran is clearly more comfortable playing off-coverage and with vision to see what’s happening in front of him. This was evident on Cooper Rush’s 45-yard to completion to Noah Brown in the third quarter. Brown isn’t a speedster by any means, but he looked like a track star against Fuller, beating the cornerback by a good five yards on a deep route.

Part of that is on the coaching staff, but you expect Fuller to put up a better fight than this. Unfortunately, this play encapsulated how Fuller has looked in coverage all season: not good enough and a step behind.

Stud: Daron Payne

Payne is having his best season to date. Convenient timing, as his rookie contract expires after the season, but who are we to hold that against him?

Payne wants his money and he’s playing like someone who deserves to become among the league’s highest paid interior defensive linemen. We’d be interested to know many fans would like to see the team extend Payne over Montez Sweat, who had another quiet game.

The way both players are performing, it shouldn’t matter that the Commanders have already locked up fellow DT Jonathan Allen.

Dud: Penalties

Say what you will about the refs favoring the home team, but the Commanders shot themselves in the foot repeatedly on Sunday. Between a handful of false starts, holdings and penalties in coverage that negated TWO Washington interceptions, the team’s brand of football simply wasn’t conducive to winning. Couple that with the woeful pass protection and it’s no surprise the Commanders came up short.

Dud: William Jackson III

What more can you say at this point? A couple more penalties from Jackson and he was in coverage on the CeeDee Lamb touchdown that put the Cowboys up 22-10 early in the fourth quarter. A regular feature on the duds side of this article, we can’t remember the last time Jackson deserved a stud mention.