The Takeaways, week 9: Washington at New England Patriots
November 7, 2023
by Steve Thomas
Washington came away from week 9 with a close, hard-fought victory, which, considering the team’s recent history, wasn’t really expected. Nevertheless, the New England Patriots aren’t a very good team, and this is a game Washington needed to win if they have any hope of turning the season around to make a postseason run. It was obviously a fairly controversial week, with the surprising trades of both starting defense ends, Montez Sweat and Chase Young, who obviously were both first round picks. Many observers wondered how the players would respond to the moves, considering the status of both players. The answer was that Washington looked pretty decent, perhaps not at their best, but also not like the pile of dreg that they produced against the Giants. So, the season is still alive thanks to a much-needed road victory over a team that’s now a shadow of its former Tom Brady-led glory. This week’s Takeaways are below.
Decent but not great play
In general terms, Washington had some ups and downs this week, but the Patriots aren’t a good enough team to take advantage of Washington’s mistakes. Statistically, this game was greatly skewed in Washington’s favor, with Washington gaining 432 net total yards as compared to 327 for the Patriots. However, some key mistakes by Washington caused this to be a much closer game than it probably should have. Washington never looked dominate, but they did enough to get by and squeak out a victory. For this reason, I’d probably give Washington a B- overall grade, because the truth is that better team than New England probably would’ve won this game. But a
Sam Howell: some good and some bad
Howell was 29 for 45 on the day, by 325 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception, for an 84.0 quarterback rating. He did make some big boy throws this week, fitting some rifle-shot balls into tight spaces, but also threw a ridiculous interception in the end zone on a pass that he never should have thrown, and nearly ruined the game late in the fourth quarter with a very poor read. Therefore, that part of his game was a bit of a mixed bag. Most importantly, though, for the most part, he continued to get rid of the ball in an efficient manner, which is major reason why the sacks have been down over the past two weeks – three sacks isn’t great, particularly against a weak pass rushing team like the Patriots, but considering the lack of talent on Washington’s offensive line, that’s not too bad. It’s in the realm of reasonable. As an added bonus, Howell also converted a critical third down thanks to a 24 yard scramble, which was the longest run of his short career. Howell has come a long way from where he started in week 1, which was fairly negative, to now. His next step is to do well against a top-tier team.
Byron Pringle’s big day
Nobody expected Pringle to come to Washington and transform into the next Art Monk, and he certainly didn’t go that this week. In the grand scheme of things, Pringle’s day, which consisted of 3 receptions in 4 targets for 55 yards, is fairly modest. However, it was his biggest game since the 2021 season, and he had some quality catches that game at some critical early junctures. Hopefully, this game is a new beginning for him that will allow him to become a regular contributor for the rest of the season. Congrats, Byron. Now let’s see if he can follow this game up with another quality performance in the future.
Play calling balance
Eric Bieniemy’s play calling this week was 53 called passes, which included for 45 pass attempts by Howell, 3 sacks, and 5 scrambles, and 24 runs. That’s still not balanced and still isn’t completely playing to Washington’s offensive strengths, which remains Bieniemy’s fault. That having been said, this was the most balanced offensive effort since week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals. So that’s progress. The ironic thing is that New England’s defense has been very successful against the run this year, so if any week would probably be the right one to feature a pass-heavy game plan, it would’ve been this week. Regardless, I’ll take it. Bieniemy is also getting better at calling more quick slants, dumpoffs, and screen plays, which is another reason why the sack totals have declined over the last two week. Overall, then, a decent day even if it wasn’t overly successful in terms of points scored.
Lack of pass rush
Now, for the elephant in the room: Washington traded away both of their first round pick defensive ends this week, neither at a full, first round pick, successful play value, and in the case of Chase Young, for a fairly minimal return, and the result this week way . . . no sacks and little pressure. I’ve been a fan of James Smith-Williams, in particular, so it was pretty disappointing to see that neither he nor Casey Toohill were able to replicate what Montez Sweat and Young had been bringing. I’m not saying that the team shouldn’t have made those trades, particularly Young, who I always thought had the wrong attitude and was overrated, but Washington needs to figure out a way to get more pressure going forward. In addition, New England isn’t even a very good team, and were in the middle of the pack heading into this game in terms of sacks surrendered, so I expect that things will be more difficult when the schedule ramps up in the next few weeks.
That’s it for The Takeaways for week 9. Next up is a road trip to face the Seattle Seahawks. See you next week.