The Takeaways, week 7: Washington at New York Giants

October 23, 2023

by Steve Thomas

Washington obviously did not have a good day on Sunday, going down in mostly ignominious defeat to the previously 1 – 5 New York Giants.  Washington looked unmotivated and unprepared for most of the game, only getting their act together for part of the second half.  This is a common theme for the Redskins Washington Football Team the Commanders Washington this season, unfortunately, and the consistency of the inconsistency speaks to a larger issue than just players not doing their jobs.  At some point, Ron Rivera needs to be held accountable for the lack of progress this team has showed over the course of four years.  It’s possible that Washington can turns things around in the next few weeks, but at this point, that doesn’t seem to be a likely possibility.  Sorry for the negativity, folks, but I’m nothing if not totally honest here at The Hog Sty.  These are The Takeaways for week 7.

The offensive line sucks and is terrible

Going into this game, the Giants had a total of 5 sacks this season, with 4 coming courtesy of Kayvon Thibodeaux.  They more than doubled that total this week, when Washington’s offensive line surrendered 6 in this game.  However, whereas in prior weeks quarterback Sam Howell was partially at fault due to his habit of , this week, for the most part, these sacks seem to be caused by poor blocking.  It was also an equal dose of bad all across the line, with pressure coming at times both right up the middle and around the edges.  The Giants defensive game plan clearly was to blitz regularly throughout the game.  They did that because they saw on film that Washington’s offensive line was vulnerable.  Nothing’s going to change this year, so we’ll all need to get used to these sorts of results.  Hopefully Sam can stay tough.

Eric Bieniemy once again forgets that he coaches running backs

This week, Washington ran a total of 50 dropback pass plays, which includes 42 pass attempts, 6 sacks, and 2 quarterback scrambles.  In contrast, they called 17 rushing plays, including 8 carries by Brian Robinson Jr., 7 by Chris Rodriguez Jr., and 2 by Antonio Gibson.  In total, those three players gained 61 yards, which is an average of 3.6 yards per carry.  I realize that 3.6 yards per carry isn’t great, and certainly at times, the running game wasn’t working.  However, Washington would be better off by giving it an honest effort – running games tend to start paying off in the second half of games because defenses get worn down.  Washington was never down by so many points that they needed to transition to an all-passing offense, but aside from a carry every once in a while, that’s what they did.  Also, if you’re going to pass this much, Eric, then more slants and screens, please.  And as a final thought, let me leave you with this: should Chris Rodriguez get a shot to be the #1 running back?

Sam Howell comes back down to earth

Don’t get me wrong; Howell wasn’t terrible.  However, he wasn’t particularly good either, going 22 for 42 for 249 yards, a 52.4% completion percentage, 1 interception, and 0 touchdowns, for a rating of 60.5.  Not included in those stats was the one Howell got away with, which was a sure-thing pick 6 that Kayvon Thibodeaux dropped.  Howell looked rattled and off of his game most of the day.  That was partially caused by the pressure from the Giants’ front seven, but Howell was also just off in this game.  That in and of itself isn’t a cause for panic; everyone has a bad day.  Hopefully the coaches will continue to let him play and develop.

Chase Young’s big day, relatively speaking

To be honest, we haven’t seen Chase Young have a truly impactful game in a long time.  This game was the one we’ve been waiting for: 3 tackles, including 3 solo, and 2 sacks, plus a significant number of quarterback pressures.  He repeatedly took advantage of tackle Justin Pugh, who was not athletic enough to deal with Young’s lightning-quick release from the line of scrimmage.  If Young can continue to perform this way, it might still be possible for him to get a long-term deal from Washington.  Keep an eye out on him in the coming weeks.

. . . but Tress Way is awesome

Tress Way is the guy who never fails, always being a great punter regardless of the circumstances.  This week, he had 10 punts for 513 yards, which is the most in his career.  For the sake of context, before week 7, there have been 47 games in which the punter had more than 500 punting yards in one game.  Way had two of those, with 511 yards in week 5 of 2020 and 500 in week 5 of 2019.  His week 5 game in 2020 was the last time an NFL punter exceeded 2020 yards.  The last time a punter not named “Tress Way” exceeded 500 yards in a game was Britton Colquitt with the Cleveland Browns, who had 522 yards in week 1 of the 2018 season. The top punting performance in NFL history was, by a long shot, Leo Araguz with the Oakland Raiders, who punted for 709 yards in week 6 of the 1998 season.  The next biggest game was 565 yards by Bob Scarpitto from the Denver Broncos in week 2 of the 1967 season.  Never change, Tress.

That’s it for this week.  Next up for Washington are the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday in Raljon.