What disappointments emerged from the Washington Commanders' grind-it-out victory at the Atlanta Falcons in Week 6?
The Washington Commanders went into Atlanta as a road underdog and put a stop to their three-game losing streak. Though they benefitted greatly from some of the most atrocious play-calling and game management you are likely to see this year, they did a lot of things right in getting back to .500 for the season.
But that’s not why I’m here. I do the disappointments story. And there were in fact, several things to be disappointed with, victory notwithstanding.
Here are the five things that disappointment me the most.
Commanders young WRs
Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel - both of whom would qualify as veterans by this point - had good games. The Washington Commanders' two young receivers - Jahan Dotson and Dyami Brown - did not.
The differences in age may seem small - McLaurin and Samuel are 28 and 27 respectively, while Dotson and Brown are both 23 years old - but that is an eternity in the life of an NFL receiver.
Simply put, the two youngsters have to step up their games.
McLaurin was targeted 11 times and caught six balls. Samuel caught all four of his targets including a second-quarter touchdown. Meanwhile, Dotson and Brown each dropped the only pass thrown their way.
Brown’s came on the first drive of the game and it was a difficult catch in part because one of his arms was being held. But this is the second straight week he has been unable to make a big play when it was there for him.
Dotson’s was more egregious. It was an outright drop on a play that may have resulted in a touchdown. Though he did draw a holding call later, Dotson was invisible for most of the game.
This appears to be causing Sam Howell to become overly reliant on McLaurin. He is the Commanders' best receiver, and he should always be involved. But he should not be getting more targets than every other receiver combined, as was the case against Atlanta.
Commanders interior running on offense
With a couple of exceptions, the Washington Commanders were stopped cold every time they tried to run between the tackles. Primary ball carrier Brian Robinson Jr. averaged just 3.1 yards per carry, and almost all of those yards came on plays where he had to bounce runs outside because the middle was stacked up.
Rookie Chris Rodriguez Jr. had better success inside on a couple of runs. Antonio Gibson managed one strong run where he appeared stoned at the line, but pushed forward for nine yards.
I have been worried about this since before the season began. The Commanders have Saahdiq Charles, Nick Gates, and Sam Cosmi playing the interior of the offensive line. It’s not as if they have been terrible. But power blocking simply is not their strength.
They are three men who all played tackle in college. Charles is the shortest at 6-foot-4. They are tall linemen who move well. None is a particularly good mauler in the trenches and that is showing up on running plays.
The trio gets virtually no push. They rarely get to the second level. The middle is generally closed to Commanders' ball carriers.
Conversely, we all saw what they could do in space on Robinson's screen pass touchdown. All three of them got out in front and made excellent blocks.
The Commanders have passed on several quality power blockers in recent drafts. That’s fine, provided their offense is designed to take advantage of what they linemen can in fact do.
That doesn’t always seem to be the case so far this year.
Commanders defensive middle
The Washington Commanders' defensive line played a marvelous game against some big, powerful runners on Sunday. Jonathan Allen was a beast. Cody Barton, who I have been ripping since preseason, was far more effective. He still ran himself out of plays - but this week he also ran himself into a couple big plays as well.
Atlanta is a good running team and Washington stonewalled them for most of the game. They held Bijan Robinson to half his season average yards-per-carry. This is no mean feat whatsoever.
Unfortunately, I can not say the same thing about the pass coverage in the middle of the field. Up until the final defensive play of the game, Washington looked mostly helpless in trying to cover quick slants and crosses.
Barton and fellow linebacker Jamin Davis rarely got into throwing lanes. The cornerbacks had a lot of trouble with huge receivers like Kyle Pitts and Drake London. Kamren Curl and Percy Butler couldn't close fast enough to interrupt the quick throws.
Indeed, for most of the game, Atlanta was able to convert third and mediums at will. Right up until Davis snuck inside on Robinson and made a game-saving interception at the end.
Going forward, the Commanders have to come up with ways to disrupt those rhythm throws across the middle of the defense. Neither linebacker looks good in coverage now - Davis’ sensational pick notwithstanding.
Commanders' horrific series just before half-time
With 96 seconds left in the first half and Atlanta about to attempt a field goal. The Washington Commanders called their final time out in order to preserve the clock. Younghoe Koo converted his 47-yard attempt to make the score 17-13. But there was an opportunity ahead.
Washington then got the ball back on their own 25-yard line with 91 seconds to make something happen. What happened next was a mini-catastrophe.
What they made happen was two sacks and a throw-away. They had to punt the ball back to Atlanta without even making the Falcons spend all of their own timeouts.
When the dust settled, the Falcons had the ball inside Commanders territory with 48 seconds left in the half and a timeout. A good offense with a seasoned quarterback almost certainly would have come away with at least three points in that situation.
Fortunately for the Commanders, Atlanta has neither a good offense nor a seasoned quarterback. They went nowhere. The score remained 17-13 going into half-time. No harm, no foul.
But this highlights two things that have hurt the Commanders this season. Sam Howell needs to make quicker decisions about running or throwing the ball away. He was sacked five times by a defense that only had five during the previous five games.
On most of them, he had time, but he held the ball. A few times, he looked like he might run, but was not able to. Howell has done so many good things this season, but he has to improve his pocket awareness. Hopefully, this is something that new quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard is working on.
And the third down call was awful. It was a screen pass that had little chance of working - precisely because everyone who had been paying attention knew that would be the play call.
Howell saw that it wouldn’t work so quickly that he threw the ball away almost as soon as he fielded the snap. Eric Bieniemy is a first-rate play-caller, and it would be silly to complain about play-calling in a game that saw Atlanta make some of the worst decisions you are likely to see at the NFL level. But the overall inability to run the ball consistently may be causing the coach to lean too heavily on the pass, even when it is totally inappropriate to do so.
The Justin Fields effect
Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields suffered a hand injury during their game against the Minnesota Vikings this week. I haven’t heard how serious is, but he could not finish this game.
However, before the injury, he had thrown zero touchdowns, one interception, and had a passer rating of 37. That’s horrible if you don’t follow such things.
Last week against the Washington Commanders, Fields threw four touchdowns, zero interceptions, and had a passer rating of 125 - that’s outstanding.
The Commanders keep making opponents look so much better than they actually are. I already mentioned that the offense allowed Atlanta’s defense to double the season sack total in one game. This is another example.
The defense also let the Falcons score their first touchdown on an opening drive all season. Coming into the game, Atlanta - in five games - had amassed 35 total yards on opening drives. They had managed a single first down and had scored zero points. And they had one turnover.
Against Washington, they went 75 yards, converted four first downs, and scored a go-ahead score. Oh, and they let Falcons tight end Jonnu Smith score his first touchdown in 41 games.
Now, of course, they also stuffed Bijan Robinson, picked off Desmond Ridder three times, and sacked him three times. They stopped a two-point conversion try and held Atlanta to 16 points, which was the Falcons' season average entering the game.
They also won.
But that’s for someone else to write about. As I said, I do disappointments. I really hope there is very little to write about after the New York Giants game next week.