The Takeaways, Week 15: Washington over New Orleans
December 17, 2024
by Steve Thomas
Well, Washington won the game, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters, and it is all most people will remember. That having been said, this was not an effort that needs to go on Washington’s highlight reel. In many respects, Washington played down to the level of an inferior opponent which featured a both a second string and a third string quarterback. They could’ve easily lost. This was an important game in terms of playoff seeding and standing, so in that respect, mission accomplished. However, I’d postulate that if Washington plays like this against any of the better teams coming up to finish the season, meaning the Eagles, Falcons, and Cowboys, the playoffs might not actually happen. At a minimum, it would be tough to predict a win in a Wild Card battle if the problems that showed up in this game continue. I apologize for being this negative, because as I said, this still counts as “W” in the standings, but this game should never have come down to mere inches on the final play of the game. The Takeaways for this week are below.
Offensive line domination
Washington’s offensive line was dominated in this game, in both pass protection and in the run game. Yes, Tyler Biadasz was unexpectedly out, but that’s no excuse for this level of “bad”. The Saints’ creative blitz schemes allowed them to get 8 – count ‘em, 8 – sacks, including two from Captain Generational Talent himself, Chase Young. Those 8 sacks substantially effected the game and the way Jayden Daniels performed. There’s no excuse for allowing New Orleans, which prior to this game had been fairly average in sack stats, to have this kind of a day, especially if Washington thinks of itself as a playoff team. In my view, it wasn’t just this scheme, either: all of Washington’s linemen missed blocks or performed poorly at times. You’ll need to do better, Washington, particularly next week when the Eagles come to town.
Jayden Daniels’ stats don’t tell the whole story
In this game, Daniels went 25 for 31 for 226 yards, and 2 touchdowns, for a quarterback rating of 118.5. He also had 11 carries for 65 yards, which is 6.0 yards per carry. If a person didn’t watch this game and just looked at the numbers, that would sound pretty good, wouldn’t it? Certainly, if there’s any one thing regular readers and listeners at The Hog Sty should know about me, it’s that I’m a big stats person. I think the right stats can say quite a bit about an NFL football team. However, in this instance, the stats don’t do justice to Jayden Daniels’ performance, which wasn’t as good as the numbers indicate. First of all, he missed two sure-fire touchdowns to a wide-open Terry McLaurin that could have sealed the game and not allowed it to down to the final play. Those were both on Daniels, not McLaurin. Second, I don’t think he was quite as good at reading the field in a timely manner in this contest as he’s been in the past. Admittedly, getting continually pounded into the ground by the Saints’ defensive line, thanks to Washington poor line, play didn’t help, but guess what? That’s the NFL and he needs to learn to adapt. This was one of the few games this season in which Daniels was part of the problem, not the solution.
The run game was embarrassing
I wrote in the game preview and said on The Hog Sty Podcast that the Saints had one of the worst run defenses in the NFL, giving up an average of 4.8 yards per carry, which was ranked 29th in the NFL. Simultaneously, their pass defense was much better, not at the top but certainly a top 10 unit from a statistical perspective. That should have told Washington’s game planners to focus on the run game, because that aspect of Washington’s offense should have worked. What we ended up getting was a total of 24 called run plays to the running backs, who gained a total 71 yards. That’s an average of 3.0 yards per carry, rounded up, for those paying attention. The starter, Brian Robinson Jr., had 21 carries for 65 yards, 3.1 yards per carry. Certainly, Daniels aided the process, and was the leading rusher. Most of those carries were due to the stress created by the Saints’ pass rush. The point is, though, that the way to beat the Saints was to lead with the ground game. Washington failed to do that, and when they did try to establish a power run game, it didn’t work.
The defense didn’t come through when it counted
Jake Haener stunk, for the most part. He played the first half and went just 4 for 10 for 49 yards, which is . . . terrible. Spencer Rattler entered the game in the third quarter and ended up going 10 for 21 for 135 yards and one touchdown. He’s another case of the stats not telling the whole story, though, because Rattler energized New Orleans offense in a way that didn’t happen in the first half. Washington’s defense let them march down the field 4 times under Rattler’s stewardship, including in the final drive that nearly cost Washington the game. Washington’s defense was supposed to be far better than that, especially with Marshon Lattimore playing his first game for his new team. I didn’t see Lattimore himself make any critical errors, but the defense as a whole allowed a substandard offense led by a third string quarterback to run wild. If the Saints had been smart enough to start Rattler from the beginning, it seems likely that New Orleans would’ve won. We’ll need to see the game film again to see what specifically happened in the second half, but just generally, this was an extremely poor effort all around by the defense in the third and fourth quarters.
Questionable officiating
I’m not typically one to whine about officiating, and I’m not going to do so here. However, as I’ve said many times, the purpose of The Takeaways is for me to get out my instantaneous, off-the-cuff reactions to the game, and this week, one thought that is going through my head is the poor day by the referees. Exactly how does the clock stop for period of time at the nine second mark, at the end of the third to last play, when there was no justifiable reason? Now, the Saints appeared to still have had time to get lined up and spike the ball anyway – they did so with 3 seconds left in the game. We’ll never know, though, because the refs blew it. I also saw what seemed to be inconsistent calls in the secondary and what appeared even to my unexpert eyes to be missed holding calls. I realize that officiating is a tough job, but it sure did seem like a bad performance in this contest.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back next for Washington’s battle against the first place Philadelphia Eagles at Northwest Stadium in Raljon.