The Takeaways, Week 8: Washington at Denver
November 1, 2021
by Steve Thomas
Welcome to The Takeaways, week 8 edition, which is The Hog Sty’s effort to provide you with the big picture, “around the watercooler” story lines from each week’s Washington football game. This week, the Redskins Washington lost its sixth game of the season, this time to the something less than average Denver Broncos. It was a poor way to end the first half of the season, albeit not an unexpected result. As usual, I’ll cover my thoughts on this contest here, so keep reading.
J.D. McKissic was Washington’s only serious offensive weapon
Washington had only one offensive player who was able to put any sort of significant, consistent stress on the Broncos’ defense. McKissic’s receptions out in the flats seemed to be the only play through which Washington was able to gain regular yardage. He’s been a revelation during his two years in Washington, and is no doubt the most successful free agent acquisition of the Ron Rivera era. Against the Broncos, McKissic had a total of 11 touches for 93 yards, which was the most of all of Washington’s running backs and wide receivers. With McKissic, Washington’s offense would have been almost totally ineffective against Denver.
Jaret Patterson’s big day
This game was Patterson’s coming out party, of sorts. He didn’t put up massive numbers or have a huge impact on the game, but it was clear that he was a significant part of Washington’s game plan from the start. Whether this was because of Antonio Gibson’s shin injury or not, Patterson had 11 carries for 46 yards to Gibson’s 8 for 34 yards, and more importantly, seemed to take on the role of the primary inside gap runner. He averaged 4.2 yards per carry, which isn’t great but is also not a detriment. Patterson will continue to improve if given half a chance. Washington showed on Sunday that their best path to achieving a productive rushing attack is to involve Patterson at a roughly equal level as Gibson. Coming into week 8, Gibson was sixth in the NFL in carries, with 103, but his average of 4.0 yards per carry was ranked just 33rd. This isn’t a recipe for success. Patterson is a more traditional downhill runner and can operate out of the I formation, which is something that Gibson never did in his limited collegiate experience and isn’t asked to do much in Washington. Both backs have their skills, and I suspect the best thing for the team in the long run is to continue to mix things up.
Terry McLaurin was essentially a no-show
McLaurin had his least productive game of the season, with just 3 receptions in 7 targets for 23 yards and no touchdowns, plus one gadget play jet sweep carry that went for 10 yards. I haven’t watched the All-22 film on this game yet (side note: thanks, NFL for totally screwing up NFL Gamepass by making the All-22 film simultaneously much more difficult to use and less useful, but for the same cost), but I suspect that the Broncos secondary was able to focus primarily on shutting down McLaurin by shading coverages his way as a result of Washington’s lack of other receiving threats. Denver rookie corner Patrick Surtain II also appeared to do a good job in coverage. Even McLaurin, with all of his talent, can’t be the only receiver on the roster that scares opposing defenses. Washington needs McLaurin to do more, and that didn’t happen this Sunday. It was just one game, and certainly his talent hasn’t changed, but still: Washington’s coaches need to do a better job of scheming McLaurin open than they did against the Broncos.
The secondary continues to get better
I recognize that this week’s opponent was just the Broncos and not one of the NFL’s elite passing teams, but nevertheless, Washington’s secondary more or less held it together yesterday and didn’t make any big, noticeable, game-killing mistakes. Players were beaten (looking at you, linebacker Jamin Davis), but that’s football. The important point is that we didn’t see the terrible blown coverages resulting in easy touchdowns that plagued this unit in the early weeks of the season. That’s a low bar, granted, but it is progress. It’s not lost on me that this modest improvement has come in the two weeks that William Jackson III has been out due to injury. I’m not ready to place the blame on him, but it’s enough to make me wonder. Washington did a decent job of keeping Denver’s massive receiving corps mostly in check, so props to the secondary.
Where did 2020 Chase Young go?
Young has had his share of quarterback pressures this season, and his strip of Broncos running back Melvin Gordon late in the game to give Washington’s offense one final chance was perhaps his biggest impact play of the year. However, the bottom line is that he is here, and was drafted #2 overall, to get sacks, and that isn’t happening this season. In 2020, 3.5 of his 7.5 sacks came in the first 8 games of the season. In 2021, Young only has 1.5 sacks so far. This isn’t nearly good enough considering the price the team paid to get him and the expectations put on him by both the coaches and the fans. Young and Sweat were both supposed to make progress this year. Sweat at least has 4 sacs, which isn’t statistically great but is better than Young’s measly 1.5. Young needs to continue to develop his pass rushing moves, as the pure athleticism he’s likely relied upon for his whole life isn’t going to be enough in the NFL on a long-term basis. There’s plenty of time to go in 2021, but I’m disappointed that we haven’t seen Young continue to improve and produce sacks as compared to 2020.
Bonus Takeaway: Chris Blewitt watch
Blewitt went 1 for 3 on field goals this week, with kicks of 45 and 47 yards being blocked. Both kicks appeared to be very low. For the season, has gone 2 for 5 in field goals, with all three misses being blocked. He is 2 for 2 in extra points. Dustin Hopkins says hello.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back with another edition of The Takeaways when Washington gets annihilated by faces the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week 10 after the bye.