The Takeaways, Week 16: Carolina at Washington

December 29, 2020

by Steve Thomas

Washington blew its big chance to win the NFC East and in the process secured yet another losing season, mostly in putrid fashion, in a loss to the Carolina Panthers.  This game stung on a number of levels and also marked the end of Dwayne Haskins’ Washington career.  There’s no way to sugarcoat the impact of this loss – this one was tough and a major blow to Washington’s season.  It wasn’t a great day on either side of the ball, although certainly the wheels really fell off the bus on offense.  Even the officiating crew did their best to make life difficult for the home team, although blaming them for the loss is certainly unwarranted.  I’ll get into all of it in this week’s edition of The Takeaways, which is my regular attempt to provide you with the “around the watercooler” talking points and headlines from the latest Redskins WFT Washington game.  So, for the fifteenth time this season, here we go:

The Dwayne Haskins era comes to a close

After Haskins’ performance against the Panthers, it was hard to imagine Ron Rivera giving Haskins another chance in Washington absent a roster emergency.  As it turned out, Rivera didn’t hesitate at all and sent Haskins packing on Monday morning.  Haskins played a miserable game – at halftime he was just 6 for 15 for 36 yards with 2 interceptions, and also initially skipped his media session before making up for it later from home.  I don’t really blame him for the referee’s blown call on his fumble: it was obviously a forward pass, not a fumble, but it doesn’t matter.  Haskins had a perfect opportunity in this game to be the savior and demonstrate that he had learned something during his time on the bench.  That didn’t happen.  He provided close to zero added value even ignoring his turnovers.  It’s possible that Haskins may eventually be able to prove himself as a worthy NFL starter, but it isn’t going to be in Washington.  Yesterday, I went over the salary cap ramifications for the team caused by his waiver (click here to read).  Strictly from a financial perspective, the wiser course of action for Washington was to deactivate him this week and then try to trade him in the offseason for whatever team would’ve been willing to offer Washington a bag of Doritos, but I’ll say this for Ron Rivera: he isn’t afraid to make a decision and then take action.  I respect that about him.  Plus, trading him even for minimal value wouldn’t have been a sure thing.  Now, the situation is behind the team and there will be no coach, media, or fan hand-wringing about Haskins’ future.  The team did take a bigger overall salary cap hit by waiving him before the end of the league year; however, in a way it was a smarter play if the team didn’t want to try to trade him because the large cap hit this year is mostly irrelevant, and the 2021 dead money hit is much smaller than this year’s hit.  If they had waited until the offseason to cut him, the 2021 cap hit would have been bigger than it will be now.  They have a truckload of essentially unusable cap space this season and spent some of it to make a problem go away.  Thumbs up.

Taylor Heinicke made the most of his opportunity

Heinicke replaced Haskins with about 9 minutes left in the game, and Washington’s offense immediately looked like an entirely different unit.  Heinicke was able to drive the team down the field on two different occasions and missed out on touchdown number two because of Cam Sims’ drop and a ticky-tacky holding call made by an absolutely atrocious referee crew.  Heinicke was unflappable despite being thrown into an extremely stressful situation.  He looked like he had a firm grasp on the offense, made mostly good reads, and was more or less accurate with his passes.  His down side appears to be that his arm strength is less than average, but considering the alternative on Sunday, he was the best choice.  Rivera should have brought Heinicke in after halftime – waiting until the fourth quarter was a mistake that had a direct impact on Washington’s chances to win the game.  He wasn’t perfect and I’m under no illusion that he will necessarily be able to duplicate that performance against a team that’s had a week to gameplan for him, but against the Panthers, at least, he was the right choice even if he was put in too late.

Antonio Gibson looks great in his return to action

Gibson provided a welcome spark to the offense in his return for his turf toe injury, gaining 61 yards on 10 carries.  He continues to improve as a running back every week, and Washington’s ground attack looks like an entirely different animal with him in the game.  Gibson proves with every game he plays that he is is becoming the future of the running back group.  Washington still does need a more productive hard-hitting, inside runner than Peyton Barber, but Gibson is going to be a centerpiece of Washington’s offense for years to come.  We learned over the past two weeks that J.D. McKissic – Barber combo isn’t nearly as productive without Gibson being healthy.  Gibson is becoming an Alvin Kamara-esque back, and that should excite us all.

Cam Sims did not take advantage of his opportunity

With Terry McLaurin out, Washington needed another receiver to rise to the occasion and make the big, important catches.  Both Haskins and Heinicke tried to give Sims that opportunity, but he did not come through.  Sims had a bad game, dropping multiple passes that he should’ve been able to come with, including one that would’ve put Washington inside the 5 yard line late in the game.  I like Sims and think he has a big future with the Redskins Washington, but his hands have been a problem at times, and today was the worst example of this tendency.  The team is going to need Sims to do better if he’s going to prove that he is entitled to a long-term starting role.

Washington blows its shot at a playoff spot

The impact of Washington’s loss against the Panthers is that they did not lock up the division title.  The team still has its fate in its own hands, though, because a win over the Eagles next week means that they will still win the division with a 7 – 9 record no matter the result of the Dallas – Giants game because Washington holds the tiebreaker over Dallas.  However, if they lose and the Giants beat Dallas, then New York will win the NFC East by virtue of their two victories over Washington.  If Washington loses and Dallas beats the Giants, then Dallas will win the division by virtue of a 7 – 9 record.  In other words, for Washington, it’s win and they’re in and lose and they are out.  There’s now no way for Washington to back in, and frankly, at 6 – 10, they wouldn’t deserve it anyway.

Bonus Takeaway: Duston Hopkins tracker

Dustin Hopkins went 2 for 2 in field goal attempts this week making kicks of 26 and 48 yards, plus one extra point.  He is now 25 for 32 in field goals, which is a 78.1% make rate.  He is now 28 for 30 in extra points this season.

That’s it for The Takeaways this week.  I’ll be back after Washington’s bid for the NFC East crown up in Philadelphia next Sunday.