The Takeaways, week 10: Washington at Detroit
November 17, 2020
by Steve Thomas
At least we were entertained this week, right? The second half of Washington’s game against the Detroit Lions was an exciting bit of football, for sure, even though it ended up in the usual loss. However, it started the critical third quarter of the season out on a sour note. This group of four contests will make or break Washington’s season, in that they will determine whether Washington is going to fall into the lowest category of NFL bottom feeders and join the race for Trevor Lawrence, or whether they can manage to claw high enough to be in the middle group of bad teams. Obviously, Sunday’s loss did not start Washington off on a positive note in that regard. Fortunately, though, it leaves quite a bit to discuss in this week’s edition of The Takeaways, which is our attempt to give you the “around the watercooler” talking points from Washington’s game. Let’s go ahead and jump right in.
Alex Smith is still the best quarterback on this team
It’s not an accident that Washington tied its week one effort against the Eagles for most points scored in a game. Smith inherited a bad offense with limited offensive weapons and a mediocre at best offensive line (and that’s being generous), and had a statistically good day, putting up career highs in attempts (55), completions (38), and yardage (390). More importantly, he was decisive and made good reads for most of the game. He did miss on a few passes, but that’s to be expected – no quarterback is perfect. What Smith did pretty well is move his offense up and down the field in the second half of the game despite the complete lack of a rushing attack. In the second half, Washington’s passing game legitimately looked like a quality NFL offense, albeit against a poor Lions defense. What was really great about Smith’s performance is that he involved nearly all of the receivers and running backs – in the past, particularly in Kansas City, he has almost ignored his receivers at times. Now, though, Smith took full advantage of his elite #1 target, Terry McLaurin, but also allowed Cam Sims to continue his breakout performance from last week. The third and fourth quarters of this game were as good as Washington’s offense has looked in a long time, probably even better than when he started in 2018. The first half only resulted in three points, but the team also had a missed field goal and had an important fumble that ended a drive, so they left points on the table. Dare I say it: Alex Smith might deserve to be the 2021 starter no matter who the team drafts next spring.
The secondary keeps up their old habits
Anyone who actually thought that this team had the best pass defense in the NFL just because they’d given up the least number of passing yards prior to week 9 needs to have their head examined. Seriously. That ranking was the result of the bye week and having played three horrible teams from the NFC East. I’m sick and tired of watching this group of players blow zone coverages and make mistakes that result in long touchdowns every single week. This game was more of the same. Marvin Jones’ 27 yard touchdown in the second quarter was the direct result of zone confusion between the corner and the safety. Also, Marvin Hall’s 55 yard touchdown catch came because corner Kendall Fuller bit on a pump fake by Matthew Stafford (as identified by the FOX color analyst, Aqib Talib; he was raw in his presentation, but was I the only one who appreciated the points he was trying to make?), then stumbled and couldn’t recover. Every week it’s something with this group, and unfortunately, Matthew Stafford is an outstanding NFL quarterback who was able to take advantage of these mistakes.
The defensive front proves its mediocrity
A recurring theme throughout almost all of my recent Takeaways column is the less-than-thrilling performance of the defensive front. Sunday’s game against the Lions was just another arrow in the quiver of mediocrity. The Team goodgodthat’sterrible Washington had all of one quarterback hit in the entire game, which was Kamren Curl’s sack in the first quarter on his safety blitz. Their highly drafted, highly touted defensive line and non-highly drafted, unheralded linebacker corps didn’t even make Matthew Stafford uncomfortable, much less hit or sack him. We told you in our game preview that since Stafford is an immobile pocket quarterback, Washington needed to pressure him. This defensive line underwhelms most weeks compared to the reasonable expectations for a group comprised of 5 first round draft picks. A part of me thinks that some of these players were drafted for the 3 – 4 and aren’t well suited to the 4 – 3, whereas the other half of me thinks that perhaps they just aren’t what we hoped. For his part, Mr. Generational Talent, Chase Young, had probably his worst game as a pro, providing little pressure and committing a key third down roughing penalty that kept the Lions’ game-winning drive alive. Young is a great talent and will be an outstanding player for Washington for a long time, but Sunday wasn’t his proudest moment.
Also, Washington let the Lions running backs run all over them – D’Andre Swift and former Redskin Adrian Peterson both averaged over 5 yards per carry. Swift in particular was unstoppable and also did damage as a receiver. Washington’s defense as a whole isn’t really much better than last year; they’ve just played bad teams.
Nothing can save Washington’s run game
Washington’s run game is an abomination and a crime against football. It’s just terrible. Taking Terry McLaurin’s 27 yard jet sweep out of the stats, the running back group, meaning Antonio Gibson, J.D. McKissic, and Peyton Barber, gained all of 58 yards in 23 carries for an average of 2.5 yards per carry, which is pretty much par for the course in 2020 when they aren’t facing the awful Dallas Cowboys defense. Even in a game in which Washington was playing from behind, that’s not close to an acceptable level of production. I love Antonio Gibson’s talent and potential, and I think he’ll be an offensive weapon in DC for years to come, but he’s not an every down franchise back, and I don’t think that’s his realistic future. Acquisition of a more traditional running back needs to be a priority for this team in the 2021 offseason.
Dustin Hopkins’ rope gets shorter
Look, I like Dustin Hopkins, and I wrote a detailed and statistics-heavy column a few weeks ago that showed why he’s been one of the few consistent kickers in the NFL over the course of his career (click here to read). Washington could do much worse, and I generally think the fans who’ve been bashing him don’t know and/or understand the numbers and are anonymously overreacting in lockstep on social media about his performance. That having been said, there’s no doubt that he’s having a poor season, and I did wonder on Sunday what would’ve happened to him if he’d missed the game-tying kick on Washington’s final drive this week. Hopkins still has time to turn his season around, but if things continue like this for him over the final 7 games, it wouldn’t surprise me to see head coach Ron Rivera either bring in some competition for him at some point or promote the kicker on the practice squad, Kaare Vedvik. Vedvik was both the punter and placekicker for Marshall in 2017, although Washington’s website has him listed as a kicker. He kicked one field goal and an extra point for the Jets last season in his only NFL appearance. We’ll see.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back for another edition after Washington’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium this coming Sunday.