Another turmoil filled week in Ashburn the Washington Football Team played their worst game of the season in an ugly 30-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at a rainy FedEx Field. This team left this game with way more questions than answers and questions abound around the roster and coaching staff. The big highlight of the game was seeing Alex Smith in uniform playing for this first time in two years. Let’s look into what happened on Sunday.
The Good
Montez Sweat- In a dismal day in all phases of the game, Sweat continues to have a stellar sophomore season. On Sunday Sweat had 8 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and a sack. The best play of the day was his chase down of Rams running back 30 yards down the field. Sweat has been the best defender on this team and he continues to make an impact.
Chase Young- In his return from missing a game with a groin injury, Young looked explosive and quick. Young made plays against the run and down the field in coverage. His effort shows the value of his draft pick. The ends on this team are fine and the rest of the defense could find an example from the effort and hustle of the ends.
Alex Smith- Stats notwithstanding after everything Alex Smith has been through, to see him on the field playing NFL football is amazing. After flinching watching his first couple of snaps and sacks, seeing that Alex looked healthy physically and that is all you can ask for. His story will be told for years and that comeback player of the year is locked in.
The Bad
Scott Turner’s Offense- Outside of one Kyle Allen drive, the offense looked putrid. The offensive line was outclassed, receivers were locked down, and the team could not run the ball at all. Some of this is on the players and some of this was scheme and play design. Wes Martin was taken to school by Aaron Donald all day. Turner’s offense doesn’t seem to attack anything and his plays don’t set up future plays. On the opposing side Sean McVay and Kevin O’Connell called a wonderful game and had specific game plan. Turner is going to have to step it up calling plays. And we also learned that this issues are way bigger than the quarterback position.
Jack Del Rio’s Defense- Defense was supposed to be the strong suit of this team and yet this unit has not been good. For the first time since 1954 the Washington defense has given up 30 plus points in four straight games. That’s not good by any metric. In the first half the Rams had their way with the defense. Scheme’s are bad and put players in bad situations. Linebackers and safeties especially looked routinely out of place and the middle of the defense needs to be shored up.
Second Half Offense- Yes the rain was falling. Also you had a backup quarterback in the game. But negative six yards of offense is inexcusable at any level. That is beyond bad for an offense to be that poor. We were told that the offense wasn’t being run correctly by Dwayne Haskins, the offense looked worse yesterday than it has all season.
The Ugly
Safeties- Safety on this team have not been good and Sunday was another example. Landon Collins was beat deep on a play designed to put him in conflict. Troy Apke gave a up a big run by totally whiffing on a tackle in the hole. Deshazor Everett got called for pass interference on a third down the kept a drive going. Kamren Curl was beat several times one on one in coverage. Plain and simple this group has to play better for this team to be competitive.
Coaching Messaging- The benching of Dwayne Haskins was given the rationale that the team was able to compete right now for a division title. On Sunday the only race this team looks like it will competitive in is the race for the number one pick in next year’s draft. Then after the game Coach Rivera said that Allen could have returned but kept him out of an abundance of caution. So he kept Smith in the game to get hit numerous times while his offensive line played worse and worse. Then he said he is sticking with Allen next week. All this to say the fans have a right to be confused with all the contradictory messaging that is going on.
NFC East- Washington of course lost to drop to 1-4. The Eagles lost to their cross state rivals to fall to 1-3-1. And the Cowboys after losing Dak Prescott to a nasty leg injury, came from behind to defeat the New York Giants to stand at 2-3 while the Giants fall to 0-5. The division is still winnable for everybody which is not necessarily a good thing.
