The Takeaways, Week 5: Rams at Washington
October 13, 2020
by Steve Thomas
Washington obviously got shellacked on Sunday by the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 30 – 10 in a game that seemed to be essentially over in the second quarter. Did anyone seriously think that WFT I despise that acronym Redskins I’m not supposed to use that anymore Washington was capable of mounting a comeback against a good team like the Rams? I certainly didn’t. The really ironic thing about this game is that all of the quarterback drama from last week produced similarly ineffective results. Once again, Washington played a game in which the opposing team was mostly in cruise control and was never seriously threatened after the first few possessions. This team has proved that despite the organizational change, the vortex of bad vibes that continually hovers over this franchise and effects everyone in its wake now includes Ron Rivera. But that’s a topic for another day. The purpose of this column is to discuss the “around the watercooler” talking points from each week’s game, and we certainly have them in abundance this week. Without further ado, here are this week’s Takeaways:
Alex Smith returns
The fact that Smith was able to come back from his career, leg, and life-threatening injury in week 11 of the 2018 season is one of the most amazing stories to come out of the NFL in recent memory. I don’t care how well he did or didn’t do; the fact that Smith displayed the courage to rehab himself back into playing shape is a testament to the strength of his resolve and character. He didn’t play particularly well, looked rusty, and was subject to outright assault by the Rams’ defensive front seven, but that’s not really the point. The television broadcast cut to Smith’s wife Elizabeth and their three children in the stands multiple times while he was on the field, and she looked to be very nervous. Honestly, who can blame her? Smith’s performance was going to be a challenge even in the best of circumstances given the length of his time off, and the extremely poor showing by the offensive line and running backs made it impossible. However, at least he got out there, took a few hits, and completed a few passes. Meet your 2020 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, ladies and gentlemen.
The offensive line sucked and was terrible
To say the offensive line had a terrible game is an understatement. They were totally outclassed in every way and put the health of their two quarterbacks in danger for basically the entire game. The running game was almost non-existent and Washington’s 2 quarterbacks were harassed and hit all day, with 8 total sacks and more pressures. Washington has a rookie starting running back who only had 33 total carries in college – Antonio Gibson needs a quality offensive line that has the ability to open clear running lanes, but that mostly hasn’t happened all year, and it certainly wasn’t the case against the Rams. Aaron Donald is probably the best defensive player in the game, and he proved it on Sunday. For reasons that nobody understands, Washington mostly left guard Wes Martin on an island against Donald, with predictable results. In some ways, I don’t blame Martin too much, because he was never going to win that matchup, and the coaching staff did him no favors. In fact, the protection scheme has been bad all season, with multiple rushers getting free lanes directly to the quarterback on many occasions, and Sunday was no exception. This group is going to need a major overhaul this offseason in order to rise up to the level of a league average unit that can contribute to team success. To add insult to injury, their best lineman, Chase Roullier, is set to become a free agent after the season, so there’s no telling what we’ll see next year.
The secondary sucked and was terrible
Washington just flat-out can’t play zone coverage very well. We’ve seen multiple examples of confusion and mixed up coverage this year, and that trend continued on Sunday against the Rams. Washington gave up multiple long completions to the Rams due to busts that seemed to stem primarily from confusion and players not understanding their assignments. Even Kendall Fuller, who has been mostly good this season after missing the first two games of the season, was involved in some of this confusion, although the play in question, the deep touchdown to Robert Woods, was cover 2 and therefore seemed to be more of a safety problem. Troy Apke was benched for a short period of time in this game, but the fact that his replacement, Deshazor Everett, briefly played didn’t make the secondary any better. On than his one massive bust, Landon Collins seemed to have a slightly better day than in he has in the previous couple weeks, but that’s a low bar. As I said on the show on Monday, I think he’d be better as a linebacker. The secondary is yet another unit that is going to need major help this offseason.
Scott Turner did not have a good day
I realize that I just spent 250 words talking about how bad Washington’s offensive line did on Sunday, and I further understand that the weather went downhill quickly. The fact of the matter, though, is that the offensive gameplan somehow looked exactly the same as it did last week, despite the implication that because the new quarterback understood the offense better he would give the team a better chance at winning now. Washington did not even attempt a pass downfield until Alex Smith tried a couple of attempts late in the game. Yes, this team has a pretty severe lack of talent amongst the ball-handling players, but all the same, Washington just isn’t going to be successful against anyone if they (1) don’t have even a marginally effective running game, and (2) have no passing game whatsoever except for a never-ending series of flat passes, screens, and quick dump offs. The fact of the matter is that Washington has an elite, top 10-caliber receiver on their hands and are doing very little to use him to exploit opposing defenses. I’m not impressed with Turner.
The Rams could have been beaten
This is sad to say, but the Rams are a good but not great team and could have been beaten, or at least in a competitive game, if Washington were decent, which they aren’t. The Rams are a running team that aren’t outstanding at running, and for all of Jared Goff’s strengths, he can be thrown off of his game and needs this particular offense to succeed. What they mostly are is well-coached and disciplined. Goff was almost never under pressure on Sunday despite Washington’s vaunted and highly drafted defensive line – not one of those four had more than one or two impact plays. As I’ve been saying for the past 18 months, this group isn’t living up to its collective draft status. Washington could have had a chance in this game if they had been able to limit Los Angeles’ run game, which would have forced Goff to carry the team, and then pressured Goff. Unfortunately, none of that happened. As far as their defense goes, the Rams haven’t been very successful in stopping the run before this game, giving up 5.0 yards per carry before this game, but Washington was utterly incapable of taking advantage of that weakness.
Bonus Takeaway: Tress Way remains the team’s best player
I couldn’t let this edition of The Takeaways end without pointing out that Washington’s best player, Tress Way, punted for 511 yards on Sunday, which is exactly 403 yards more than the total net offense produced by Washington’s offense. In fact, if you add in the 429 net yards produced by the Rams, that equals 537 yards of combined offense for both teams, which is just 26 yards more than Way punted. Thank God for Tress Way.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. Washington’s next faces their division rival New York Giants, who produced 34 points against the Cowboys this week, so I’ll be back for another edition after that loss.