While the Washington Football Team beat the Atlanta Falcons in an ugly 34-30 win, they were coming off a game they would like to forget against the Bills. With Logan Thomas losing a fumble in the middle of the field during the 1st quarter of their Week 3 game, and with Taylor Heinicke making two ill-advised decisions resulting in interceptions, this put more pressure on their defense.
While Washington’s defense was expected to be one of the best in the league, they are disappointing people so far.
Against the Bills, Washington had zero sacks and zero takeaways, and gave up 43 points, which could have easily been 50 if they stepped up in the final drive of the game. The Bills ran 77 plays, racking up 481 yards at a pace of 6.2 yards per play. While they didn’t rush effectively, they didn’t need to, as Josh Allen completed over 74% of his passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns. The secondary could not stop the Bills’ passing game. Cole Beasley torched Washington’s secondary for 11 catches for 98 yards. Washington also allowed 122 yards on the ground, including 60 yards on 13 carries from Zack Moss.
After Week 3, Washington’s defense has allowed 73 plays per game on possession time of over 34.5 minutes per game, running an average of 432 yards and almost 31 points. Opposing offenses are getting 5.9 yards per play and Washington’s turnover differential is -3 in three games. They have given up 30.5 points per game through four games, and opponents are 27 of 46 on 3rd down for a percentage of 58.7 through three games.
That’s not all: Justin Herbert threw for 337 yards and a touchdown in Week 1, and Daniel Jones had 249 yards and a touchdown through the air, with 95 yards and another touchdown on the ground in Week 2.
This is bad defense. And when you factor that the Giants are 1-3, losing to the Falcons in Week 3, who held the Giants’ offense to just 14 points, this is a really, really bad look for Washington’s defense. Even though Washington beat the Falcons in Week 4, the Falcons still put up 30 points on that defense. The defensive side of the ball is where Washington was supposed to dominate, and it’s perplexing on why they are struggling on that aspect.
Of course, the Bills are one of the favorites to win the AFC this season, and the Chargers upset the Chiefs in Week 3, but getting beat convincingly by good teams is not a moral victory. If Washington is to experience success, they need to start winning games.
From Week 4 to Week 12, Washington has 5 games against NFC teams, and they have the Chiefs in the middle of all that. As it stands, it seems as if the Falcons game is the only winnable game on their schedule in that span. They need to seriously turn it around over the next 8 games if they have to play a solid 2021 season. If they can’t beat good teams, it’s going to be a long season for them.
The Bills scored on 5 possessions in the 1st half, and then three more in the 2nd half, only punting twice in the entire game, although the defense did make a stop on 4th & 2 at the Washington 36 with 3 minutes left in the 1st quarter.
But overall, there is a lesson to be learned: You can’t automatically assume a flashy player or unit will be a dominant one in the blink of an eye. It’s a hard game, and adversity runs rampant for a massive step to be a given from one season to the next.
I’ll admit, I bought into the hype surrounding Washington’s defense last season, which boasts four former first round picks on their defensive line in Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Jonathan Allen and Da’Ron Payne, who helped spark the turnaround in mid-November, from 2-7 to 7-9 by season’s end.
But by the end of Week 3 this season, Washington ranked 29th in scoring defense and 31st in total defense. The unit is tied for 16th in sacks and 22nd in takeaways. Young did not have a sack in the first three games of the season. The defense is inconsistent, which led to subpar results.
Moreover, the lack of discipline is also preventing the unit from playing the defense that everyone expected. Most of the Football Team’s defenders are playing “hero ball” instead of thriving as a group committed to playing winning football.
Another reason is that Washington added multiple new pieces to the secondary, most notably William Jackson III. There is a lack of chemistry with the unit. In the first two games, they could not get on track. For as long as the D-line is dominant, that won’t matter if the secondary falters. That was evident on Darius Slayton’s dropped touchdown catch.
So far, the players with the most snaps on the secondary are Jackson, Kendall Fuller, Benjamin St-Juste, Landon Collins, Kamren Curl, and Bobby McCain. Only three are carryovers from the 2020 defense.
Fuller was moved back to the nickel after having one of the best seasons of his career on the outside. While he is experienced at the nickel, there seems as if there is an adjustment phase for him.
St-Juste is a rookie corner that Washington is relying heavily on. He played over 66% of his defensive snaps, and while he showed flashes in Week 2, there are going to be growing pains for him.
While Washington is talented in the secondary, the lack of chemistry is evident. In a league where many good receivers are in the league, bad results tend to happen.
Going back to Washington’s Week 2 match, in the play where Slayton dropped the touchdown pass, the Giants lined up in a four-wide set. Washington is playing Cover 6, where one half of the field is where they are playing Cover 4 and the other half they are playing Cover 2. The Giants called a play that beats Cover 6, making the deep safety on the QB’s side pick either the post route or the deep cross. The one that he doesn’t pick will be left in one-on-one coverage. Collins chooses the deep cross, crashing down to take away the receiver. Jackson expected over-the-top safety help. But because of poor communication, he does not realize he is not getting help.
On that play, Jackson should have ran with the deep post. There are no additional routes coming on his side. However, he expected Collins to stay on the top instead of crashing down. The fault here rests partly on Collins and partly with Jackson.
And when you look at the 2020 defense, there was a cause for concern. While Washington led the league last season in major defensive categories, they were 13th in rushing yards allowed. They also faced teams down to backup quarterbacks and played only five games against teams with a winning record. The weakness was clearly still there for Washington, but they refused to address it.
When Washington lost to the Bills, head coach Ron Rivera emphasized on the importance of learning from mistakes
It’s going to be about what we learned from what happened today and whether or not we get up. That’s what they’re going to be judged on. … You play long enough, you’re going to get beat this way. It just happens. What you do the next week, that’s really the indicator of what your character is and the true test of who you’re going to be. So, we’ll find out.
An elite defense plays with precision, smarter, harder, and faster than how their opponents play. Washington’s defense has to tone down a lot on the blown assignments leading to the explosive plays and/or easy scores. The D-line has to get on the same page with gap fits and pass rush lanes. Each D-lineman sticks to their assigned gap, as opposed to freelancing in an attempt to make more plays.
How do Rivera and Jack Del Rio correct this? First, they need to get full buy-in from the players. Such efforts from the defense like what we saw so far is not ideal from what you want from defenses that are branded as elite. The coaches might want to streamline the call sheet to remove mental clutter that could slow down the players. This is a common tactic used when a defense is struggling to improve on the fundamentals, inherently solving larger problems.
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