The Takeaways, Week 6: Kansas City at Washington
October 18, 2021
by Steve Thomas
Welcome to The Takeaways, week 6 edition, which is The Hog Sty’s effort to provide you with the big picture, “around the watercooler” story lines from each’s week’s Washington football game. This week, the Redskins Washington suffered yet another bad-looking loss to Kansas City Chiefs, who’ve struggled so far this season by their lofty standards. There was a brief moment in this game in which Washington had a chance but was unable to take advantage of the situation. As usual, I’ll try to get out the fanbase’s collectively frustrations here, so read on for The Takeaways.
The Chiefs did their best to keep Washington in the game
Kansas City’s players and coaches probably aren’t patting themselves on the back for their performance in this game. They did everything they could allow Washington to stay in the game, committing three turnovers in the first half, two of which were totally unnecessary interceptions, and generally playing sloppy football until they were in control in the second half. The main point here is that Washington failed to capitalize on the Chiefs’ mistakes, only scoring 7 points on the turnovers. The Chiefs played sloppy football on both sides of the ball in the first two quarters, but Washington was no better. Had Washington been able to execute better on offense, they could have gone into half time with a fairly significant lead. Despite the big difference in the final score, Washington should look at this game as a lost opportunity, even though they still probably would’ve lost the game.
The Taylor Heinicke Experience is about to come to an end
We all love Taylor’s story, and there’s no doubt he’s had his impressive moments, both in the playoff game last season and early in this season. The fact of the matter, though, is that he hasn’t played well or gotten the job done for two weeks in a row. In this game, Heinicke was 24 for 39 (651.5% completion percentage, 182 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a 70.7 quarterback rating. He’s proving to be a below average NFL starting quarterback. Only the most optimistic of fans will think that Washington has much of a shot to do well up in Green Bay, so if Ryan Fitzpatrick can be ready to go in week 10 after the bye week, Heinicke’s only shot at keeping the starting job will come against the Broncos in Denver. With the understanding that Washington lacks ball-carrying talent not named Terry McLaurin that scares anyone, Heinicke still hasn’t consistently led this team. He certainly didn’t do it this week against the Chiefs.
Washington failed to take advantage of Kansas City’s terrible run defense
One key to this game that we identified was that Washington had to take advantage of Kansas City’s really, really unsuccessful run defense. They failed to do so, with the overall rushing stats looking better than what was reflected on the field. Washington averaged 4.9 yards per carry, but only posted 94 yards on just 19 carries, and very few impact plays. Subtracting out Antonio Gibson’s 15 yard run – which might have been the only significant carry – and that average drops to 4.4 yards per carry. That’s not terrible, but it isn’t near good enough against an opponent that was 30th in the league in rushing yards per attempt coming into this week. Washington needed more than 19 carries for less than 100 yards in they were going to have a shot at controlling the tempo of the game, but that didn’t happen.
The secondary had yet another disaster game
It’s not exactly a news flash to suggest that Washington’s secondary has been the weakest part of the defense this season, and they did nothing on Sunday to dissuade anyone of that notion. William Jackson III, who came into this season as Washington’s #1 corner and a reputation as a press-man specialist, got burnt yet again, giving up multiple key receptions. Beyond him, nobody else deserves applause either, as Patrick Mahomes passed for 397 yards, which was the fifth-most of his illustrious career, brought on in part by a combination of inexplicable coverage busts and questionable defensive calls that allowed things like Jamin Davis in coverage on Tyrek Hill. That should never happen, ever. Unless the team all of a sudden develops faith in Deshazor Everett, there’s basically no significant help on the horizon for either the corner or safety groups. We should all look forward to more days like today unless Washington’s overrated defensive front four starts living up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong: the defensive line remains the strength of the defense. Coming into this week they’ve posted some pretty good numbers in some advanced stats like pressure percentage, but overall, they haven’t come close to doing the sort of damage that many expected – in total sacks or otherwise – or that Chase Young predicted and was necessary to make up for Washington’s other deficiencies.
The Sean Taylor tribute was disappointing
I was embarrassed by how Washington’s leadership handled the Sean Taylor tribute situation this week. First of all, considering this team’s history over the past 25 years, the front office deserves no benefit of the doubt here – it was clearly a sad attempt to divert attention from the multiple PR-related disasters this week. Otherwise, this tribute would have been announced months ago, allowing fans to plan appropriately. Also, the ceremony itself was underwhelming to say the least, with Sean’s tribute being part of the larger alumni homecoming and lasting less than a minute. Considering Sean’s place in Redskins’ history and the enormous impact his murder had on both the fans and players, he deserved much better than what we saw on Sunday. Jason Wright’s belated attempt at a written apology on Friday was transparent and ineffective. Washington could’ve taken their time and planned a better tribute on a day dedicated just to him, with a more than a 1:20 minute video and a sad-looking framed jersey. The whole thing was awful. Sean’s tribute should’ve been much better than what he got. Shame on you, Washington.
Someone who was in attendance please let me know if the 1:20 minute highlight video the team posted on YouTube was shown in the stadium, because the team’s video of the event on the field, which was 5 and a half minutes and included the short tributes to the other alumni, did not include the highlight video. Either way, what Sean received was woefully inadequate in comparison to what he meant and still means to this franchise.
All of that having been said, the fans in the local area still had time to buy tickets to this game, which wasn’t a sellout, and attend, but chose not to do so.
Bonus Takeaway: Dustin Hopkins watch
Hopkins was 2 for 3 in field goals this week, making kicks of 43 and 50 yards, but missing a 42 yard attempt. He is now 12 for 14 on the year. He also converted his one extra point attempt and is now 10 for 12 this season.
That’s it for this week. I’ll back back with another edition of The Takeaways after Washington’s battle with the Packers up in Green Bay next week.