The Takeaways, week 6: Washington at Atlanta Falcons

October 17, 2023

by Steve Thomas

Congrats to Washington for a solid, bounce-back win.  The fact that the team was able to come from last week’s drubbing with a 24 – 16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons at home says good things about the team’s overall character.  Now, with Washington at 3 – 3 for the year, they have a chance to head into next week’s battle with the division rival New York Giants with a shot to be in more decent overall shape in the NFC Wild Card battle.  The team is still remarkably inconsistent, but looked much better overall this week.  Can this keep up?  We’ll see, but for now, let’s all enjoy the Redskins’ Washington Football Team’s Commanders’ Washington’s in.  On with The Takeaways for week 6.

A rebound victory

In general terms, this was a quality win against a decent, albeit not great opponent.  In fact, this might have been Washington’s most solid game of the season – it was certainly the first time that they’ve played consistently decent football for four quarters.  After last week’s debacle, it would’ve been easy for them to roll over, but, to their credit, they manned-up and showed up well-prepared and motivated.  They also mostly avoided serious mistakes.  Granted, this wasn’t an opponent of the quality of the Eagles, Dallas, or Buffalo, but still: kudos for a job well done.

Terry McLaurin reminds us that he’s Terry McLaurin

With 6 receptions for 81 yards on 11 targets, his stats weren’t off-the-charts spectacular, but McLaurin really showed everyone why he’s a Pro Bowler, particularly early on.  He repeatedly beat the Falcons’ secondary coverage to get open and had several critical receptions in this game.  It was clear that Howell is developing a good relationship with McLaurin, and that’s only going to continue to get better.  McLaurin has been good, but not great, so far this year, and this game was hopefully the first step towards him getting back to the Terry McLaurin we all know and love.

Casey Toohill’s career game

Toohill was a seventh round pick by the Eagles in 2020, where he didn’t get much of a shot before being waived and signed by Washington shortly thereafter. Before today, Toohill had a total of 3 career sacks, including one in week 2 this year against Denver.  He drastically increased his career total this week against the Falcons, with 2 sacks, both of which came in important times.  Toohill is a classic tale of a player who came from meager NFL-beginnings to develop into what appears to be a quality backup defensive end.  Congrats to Toohill for a great game and perhaps a big step in his career.

Thanks for the poor performance, Atlanta

Let’s be honest: Atlanta aided in their own demise this week, courtesy of some poor decision making by the head coach and a few terrible passes by the quarterback.  Arthur Smith gambled on fourth down when he shouldn’t have done so; then, he inexplicably went for a two point conversion in a situation in which he obviously should have kicked an extra point.  The latter ended up not mattering to the Falcons, but that was because quarterback Desmond Ridder threw a stupid interception in the end zone in Atlanta’s most critical fourth quarter drive.  They also had two delay of game penalties and almost had several more.  Atlanta is a team with a not-insignificant amount of talent, but these fundamental issues are holding them back.  Smith and Ridder were critical factors in Washington’s win this week.

Offensive line pass blocking woes continue

The Falcons had a total of five sacks in weeks one through five of this season.  They doubled that output this week.  Yes, admittedly, at least one of the sacks this week was Howell’s fault, but still: I’m getting tired of having to preach this sermon week after week.  Just wait until Washington has to face a team that is a good pass rushing team.  On top of that, several of starting running back Brian Robinson Jr.’s carries this week were easily snuffed out at the line of scrimmage thanks to poor run blocking.  There’s nothing that can be done about this below-average offensive line this year, but the new coach and GM next year needs to make this position group a priority, which is something that Rivera simply hasn’t done.

Eric Bieniemy’s run – pass balance

Bieniemy called 28 dropback passes, as compared to 17 running plays to Washington running backs, with 10 to Robinson, 4 to Chris Rodriguez, and 3 to Antonio Gibson.  This ratio is perhaps a small improvement over weeks past, but at no time did Bieniemy make a serious effort this week to establish a rushing attack as a key part of the game plan against the Falcons.  He also called pass plays late in the game in situations that called for runs.  In my view, this is a flaw in Bieniemy’s coaching style, as he doesn’t seem to understand that Washington actually can run the ball fairly well when they get half a shot to do it.  He seems to be a no-nonsense coach who demands quality performance from his players, but I’m not enamored with his style, his stubbornness, or his seeming inability to properly use the talents of his players.  Once again: do better, Eric.

That’s it for this week.  Congrats to Washington for a fairly solid victory.  Next up are the New York Giants up at the Meadowlands.