Carson Wentz throws ugly red zone interception to seal victory for Titans

The Washington Commanders were so close to pulling off their second thrilling fourth-quarter comeback victory at home. Trailing 21-17 in the final two minutes, Carson Wentz executed a flawed, but effective two-minute drill to give the Commanders a chance to win in walk-off fashion against the Tennessee Titans.

Just when Washington was knocking on the door of stealing victory from the jaws of defeat, Wentz’s composure went missing and never returned. First, his throw-away barely made it out of the back of the end zone. Had a Titans defender been in the area and completed a simple to drag, he would’ve picked it off.

On the next play, Wentz tried to wedge a pass in traffic that somehow wasn’t intercepted and landed on the ground. And finally, on 3rd and goal, Wentz short-armed a pass into double coverage to JD McKissic. Not in the mood to give Wentz a fourth chance to play hero, Tennessee picked it off to ice the game.

Commanders’ Carson Wentz intercepted at the goal line to seal the victory for the Titans.

It doesn’t get much worse than that.

The Commanders had the Titans defense on the ropes. Just when they needed Wentz to keep a cool head, he loses it, which is maddening because he orchestrated an impressive drive up until that point. Heck, he had a pretty awesome game under center before the final three plays.

Any three of those final passes could’ve (should’ve) been intercepted. Could Scott Turner’s red zone play-calling have been more creative? Sure, but at the end of the day you need your quarterback to make better decisions.

Just look at how careless this throw away is!

Wentz kept backpedaling in a clean pocket instead of stepping up and trying to find an open receiver. Nothing wrong with punting on the play and living to fight another down. But step up and throw that ball through the end zone or put some extra juice on the floater and give a fan a souvenir.

It sucks Wentz is the main punching bag for this loss after he played a solid game, but that’s always going to happen when a quarterback throws a red zone (goal line) interception with a chance to win the game. It’s just a summation of his career thus far: a couple of awesome plays — the Dyami Brown touchdowns, shuffle pass to JD McKissic, etc — that are ultimately marred by poorly-timed mistakes.