Snaps- The Washington Redskins’ defense was on the field for 74 plays and 78 snaps against the New England Patriots. That is tied for the most defensive plays and snaps by a Redskins team since Week 15 of the 2017 season (80 plays and 82 snaps at Arizona).

The Buccaneers, Panthers and Steelers are the only teams that have had the same or more plays and snaps run against their defense than the Redskins have so far this year (336 and 361).

Yards- Tom Brady and company put up 442 yards of offense against Greg Manusky’s much-maligned defensive unit. The Washington D has now allowed 400-plus total yards in eight of the team’s last 14 games (388.3 YPG in that span).

The Redskins rank only ahead of the Dolphins in yards allowed per drive (38.5 to 43.9) and have only given up 20 fewer yards than the Bengals have, who rank dead last in total yards allowed this season.

Points- The D gave up 33 points in Sunday’s game, which marks the fourth time they have given up 30-plus points in their contests in 2019. They join the Bucs and the Dolphins as the only teams that have allowed the opposition to score 30 or more points in more than two games this season (4 each). This is even more pathetic considering there are ten clubs that have yet to allow 30 points once all year.

Takeaways- The Redskins’ only takeaway of the day was an interception of Tom Brady. This was the team’s fourth straight game with an interception. Believe it or not, but Washington actually ranks 12th in drive-turnover percentage, 13th in total takeaways (7) and sixth in interceptions (5).

Red Zone- The aforementioned interception was made in the red zone. It gave the Skins their third red-zone takeaway of the year, which is tied for second most in the league. That was one of the three red-area possessions the Patriots were unable to reach the end zone on.

Unfortunately for the defense, New England did find the paint on their other three such drives (50%). The defense has now allowed the opposition to score touchdowns on at least half of their possessions inside the 20 in each of the last seven games.

3rd & 4th Down- In what was an amazing turn of events, the Redskins’ defense actually did not completely suck on third down against the Patriots. They only let New England convert on 5-of-15 third-down tries (33.3%). Three of those failed attempts came courtesy of a Washington sack or interception.

It certainly helped that the average yards to go on these plays was 7.53 and that New England needed to gain nine or more yards three times as often as they only needed fewer than four yards (6 to 2).

This performance made it so they are no longer on pace to set a record for third-down futility and moved the team all the way up to 30th in third-down conversion percentage allowed. Hooray!

James White took a direct snap on the Patriots’ lone fourth down and was tackled for a loss of 2 yards.

QB Pressure- Brady was pressured on 32.6% of his dropbacks, which is just about in line with the pressure rate forced by the Skins’ defense in their last two games (35.3% in both). What’s actually impressive here though is that the Washington pass rush racked up 4 sacks for 36 yards on Brady. That is the most sacks and sack yards allowed by the Patriots since Week 3 of the 2017 season (5 sacks and 41 yards vs. Houston).

Basically, half of the team’s sack production (4-of-9 sacks and 36-of-67 yards) came from this game alone.

Rushing Defense- Sony Michel, James White and Brandon Bolden combined to gain 130 yards, pick up 6 first downs and score a touchdown on 27 carries (4.81 YPC). The Skins did stuff them for a loss or no gain on five carries, but the Patriot trio also somewhat counteracted that by gaining 5-plus yards on 11 of their totes.

This was the fourth time in their five 2019 games that the rushing defense has allowed over 120 yards, 5 first downs and a touchdown. This has not been great from an individual player standpoint, either. Sony Michel, James White and Brandon Bolden became the ninth, tenth and eleventh players to have their season high in rushing yards come against the Redskins this season (minimum of 5 yards).

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DEFENSIVE LINEMEN

Jonathan Allen- Jonathan Allen looks to finally be rounding into form this season, as he had his second solid outing in as many weeks. He set new season highs in snaps (58), snap rate (74%), solo tackles (4), total tackles (5) and pressures (3). He also notched his first sack since Week 16 of last season (at Tennessee). It was the tenth sack in his 25-game career.

Four of his five takedowns were either made within three yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it. In all, the Patriots gained 0 yards on the plays Allen made tackles on (-10, 2, 0, 3 and 5 yards). He missed a tackle for the second time this season, as well.

Daron Payne- The former first-rounder out of Alabama had a fairly quiet game with one exception. The only traditional stat Payne registered all day was a 9-yard sack of Tom Brady on third down. It was the first sack since Week 14 of last season (vs. NYG) for the big nose tackle. Payne has now recorded twice as many sacks in the NFL as he did in college (6 to 3) in fewer than half the number of games (21 to 44).

He also registered a hurry in Sunday’s contest, which gave him his second multi-pressure game of the year.

Matt Ioannidis- Ioannidis led all Redskins D-linemen in snaps, with 59 of them.

The Ion Man was particularly effective as a pass rusher, as he split a third-down sack and scored a pair QB hits. This was the third week in a row Ioannidis has registered a hit and at least three pressures. He lead all Washington linemen in sacks (1.5), QB hits (5) and total pressures (17); in fact, he has recorded virtually the same number of hits and pressures that Allen, Payne and Settle have combined this season (3 hits and 18 pressures for the trio).

His 24 tackles also ranks first among all Skins’ linemen, five (3 solo) of which were recorded this past Sunday. Matty I, like Jon Allen, notched a season-high 3 defensive stops in the contest. He didn’t whiff on any takedown attempts for the first time in three weeks, either (5 missed tackles between Weeks 3 and 4).

Ioannidis graded out better (72.6) than all but one of his teammates in this game.

Tim Settle- Tim Settle only recorded one traditional stat in the entire game, but it was a big one. The Skins’ youngest player manhandled veteran right tackle Marcus Cannon and beat him for a sack on Tom Brady. It was the first sack of Settle’s career. The second-year D-lineman hurried Brady on another dropback, which gave him a career-high 2 pressures in the contest. He earned a 79.5 PFF grade for his efforts, which was the best mark on the whole team.

Treyvon Hester- Hester recorded an assisted tackle on one of his 6 snaps. He was tagged with a career-worst 36.2 PFF grade for his performance in the game.

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OUTSIDE LINEBACKERS

Ryan Kerrigan- Kerrigan’s 65 defensive snaps were his most in a regulation game since the start of the 2016 season.

He only made a single tackle on the day, but at least it was an impactful one. The Heartbreak Kid split a third-down sack of Tom Brady with Matt Ioannidis to finish off the Patriots’ opening drive.

That, however, was just one of Kerrigan’s game-high 6 pressures. RyKer notably hit Brady on the play he threw an interception on, which also happened to be on third down. The veteran pass rusher batted down a pass to boot; it was just the third PD he’s recorded in his last 41 games.

The only problem was that he gave up chain-moving receptions of 11 and 15 yards to Sony Michel. Kerrigan has only given up more receiving yards than he did against the Patriots (26) once in each of the last three seasons. This was also the third game he’s missed a tackle in over the course of the last four weeks.

Montez Sweat- Another game down and yet another mediocre effort from Montez Sweat. The rookie saw his lowest snap rate (59%) and second-lowest snap total (46) of the year and tied the season-low in tackles (2) that he set last week.

I do want to recognize him for making one of those takedowns a yard behind the line of scrimmage on a 2nd-and-3 play. On another, at least somewhat, positive note, Sweat registered 2 hurries on his 17 pass-rushing snaps. He has at least one pressure in all five games this year, but this was only his second multi-pressure showing of the season. It should also be noted that only one of his 7 pressures has gone for a sack or a hit.

Sweat doesn’t have much experience in coverage and it showed on Sunday. He was targeted twice and gave up receptions of 4 and 29-yards, with the 29-yarder representing the Pats’ second-longest play of the game and coming on their first scoring drive. The rookie out of Mississippi State had not been targeted in any of his four other appearances this season.

His 53.9 PFF grade for the game was a new career low for the first-year edge rusher.

Ryan Anderson- Anderson predictably regressed after a plus-showing last week.

He did at least record a tackle (solo) and hurry Brady into throwing a third-down incompletion from the Washington 5-yard line at the end of the first half. The pressure was scored as a hit by the NFL, but Anderson barely tapped the Hall of Fame signal caller after the pass was thrown.

The main concern for Anderson in the game was the 29-yard touchdown reception he gave up to Brandon Bolden on a wheel route, which was also tied for the Pats’ second-longest play of the game. Anderson, who had not allowed any touchdowns in his first 29 career games, has now given up a score in two of the last three weeks.

Rushing to Cover- What really puzzles me here is that Anderson, Sweat and Kerrigan combined to play on 24 coverage snaps in this game, which is nearly double the number of snaps they played in coverage in Weeks 1-4 combined (30). The results were expectedly poor, as roughly a quarter of Brady’s passing yardage was gained against this trio (88-of-348 yards). These guys need to be rushing the passer or setting the edge on almost every play and not dropping into coverage nearly as often as they did in this one.

Cassanova McKinzy- Cassanova McKinzy returned to the lineup after being sidelined the last two weeks with a hip injury. He was totally shutout on the stat sheet for his second game in a row, although it should be noted that he played just 11 defensive snaps in both instances. The only stat or pressure he’s notched all year was a 0-yard sack that came on a first-down play back in Week 1.

McKinzy was released on Monday and subsequently signed to the practice squad on Tuesday.

Noah Spence- Spence, like McKinzy, got limited playing time (4 snaps) and did not record a single stat or pressure. However, look for Spence’s snaps and stats to spike with McKinzy now on the practice squad.

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INSIDE LINEBACKERS

Jon Bostic- Bostic patrolled the middle of the Washington defense for all 78 of the snaps. The journeyman inside backer recorded 5 solo and 7 total tackles. Only one of them was made within five yards of the line of scrimmage; however, on the other hand, three of them were recorded before the line to gain on third down.

The most impressive thing Bostic did on Sunday was to register a pair of hurries, despite only rushing the passer six times in the game. This gave him his highest-pressure total since Week 9 of last season (Pittsburgh at Baltimore). This was just the seventh multi-pressure showing of his 75-game career.

Brady threw in his direction five times and completed three of those passes for 16 yards and one first down. Unfortunately for Bostic and the Redskins, the first down in question was a 6-yard touchdown to Julian Edelman.

Cole Holcomb- After dipping between Weeks 2 and 3, Cole Holcomb’s snap total and snap rate increased for the second consecutive game (30/48% > 42/55% > 61/78%). Holcomb rewarded the Redskins for the increased PT by putting up some plus-numbers this week.

He posted game and career highs in both solo (8) and total tackles (10). Holcomb led the Skins with 4 defensive stops, as well, with two of those takedowns stopping New England runs for no gain. He did, however, miss a tackle in the running game and has whiffed on at least one attempt in four of his five games this year. The rookie out of UNC leads all first-year players in defensive stops (17) and ranks second in tackles (37) behind only top ten pick Devin Bush (45).

He was thrown at twice in coverage and allowed a reception of 22 yards on one of those throws. The target, reception and yardage totals were his lowest since Week 1. Unfortunately, the catch in question came on the Patriots’ first scoring drive.

Holcomb also flashed some pass-rushing chops, by registering a hurry for the second week in a row and for the third time this season.

Shaun Dion Hamilton- SDH saw his snap total drop from 26 last week (34%) all the way down to 10 against New England (13%). It’s been quite difficult to get a good read on what’s been going on with his playing time all season, as he played at least 20-plus snaps in Weeks 1 and 2 and then only worked on special teams in Week 3.

Hamilton didn’t record any statistics on his 10 snaps this past Sunday. He was targeted once and gave up a 10-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Izzo on the play. To make matters worse, the reception came on third down. It was the first touchdown catch allowed by SDH in his two-year career.

His performance earned him a 27.1 game-low PFF grade, which was the second-worst mark of his career and the fourth-worst among all NFL defenders in Week 5.

Other Inside Linebackers- Josh Harvey-Clemons was held out with a hamstring injury. This was the first game JHC didn’t suit up for since Week 7 of the 2017 season. Tanner Vallejo once again played solely on special teams.

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CORNERBACKS

Josh Norman- This certainly wasn’t Josh Norman’s worst game of the year, but that’s not saying too much. Compare and contrast it to his other 2019 outings however you want, the point is that he didn’t play well once again.

He gave up a reception on all five of the targets thrown in his direction and allowed the Patriots to gain 52 yards and pick up 3 first downs on those plays. The first downs came on Julian Edelman grabs that went for 12, 12 and 15 yards. He was flagged for holding Edelman on the 15-yarder, but the penalty was obviously declined. Norman is allowing a career-worst 58.6 receiving yards per game so far this season, roughly 17 yards higher than his next worst mark in this regard (41.9 yards in 2012).

Half of Norman’s 6 solo tackles on Sunday were made directly after receptions he had given up. Perhaps his biggest issue was with missed tackles. J-No tied the career high he set way back in Week 15 of the 2015 season by whiffing on 3 tackles in this contest.

Quinton Dunbar- How do you go from having what was not just perhaps the best game of your career, but also possibly the best game by any cornerback this season (highest PFF grade) to having one of your worst performances in coverage as a pro? I don’t know, but that is basically what Quinton Dunbar did this past week.

Dunny was thrown at eight times and gave up 6 receptions for a career-high 90 yards and 3 first downs. The target and reception totals were tied for the third and second-highest such figures he’s allowed in his career.

All but one of those targets and catches went to Josh Gordon; Julian Edelman caught the other pass and gained 31 yards on the reception, 27 of which came after the catch because Dunbar was unable to tackle him. It was the longest play of the game for Patriots. Dunbar also surrendered New England’s fifth-longest gain of the day, when he let Gordon haul in a pass for 24 yards against him.

Three of Dunbar’s 4 tackles (3 solo) were made after receptions he had given up, with the lone exception being his takedown on a 3rd-and-4 play after a Sony Michel run of 12 yards.

Fabian Moreau- Moreau bounced back from one of the worst performances of his career last week and actually put forth a fairly decent showing against the Patriots.

He was targeted three times on his 23 coverage snaps and allowed a pair of catches for a total of 22 yards and no first downs. Most of that yardage was gained on a 16-yard reception by Julian Edelman on a 3rd-and-17 play. Moreau made one of his 3 solo tackles after allowing Jakobi Meyers to catch a 6-yarder on 1st-and-10.

Jimmy Moreland- The rookie seventh-round pick did not record a single stat and was not targeted on any of his 8 snaps, all of which came in coverage. This was the second straight game The People’s Corner was not thrown at, and it marked the first that he failed to crack the box score.

Other Cornerbacks- For the second consecutive week, Simeon Thomas played exclusively on special teams and Aaron Colvin was inactive.

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SAFETIES

Landon Collins- Collins both played on 100% of the snaps and failed to truly impress for the fifth straight game.

He made 7 solo and total tackles on the day, which brought his team-leading marks on the year up to 29 and 43, respectively. One of his tackles was a 2-yard TFL off a direct snap to James White on a 4th-and-1 play deep in Washington territory. Three of Collins’ takedowns, including the TFL, were recorded on the same New England drive.

His other two tackles on the possession were made immediately after he allowed receptions of 5 and 11 yards (16 total), neither of which of were close to picking up first downs. He also forced tight end Ryan Izzo to commit an OPI in the end zone on the series. It would be fair to say that Collins essentially dominated that drive. In all, he played 46 coverage snaps and was targeted four times, but only surrendered the two aforementioned grabs.

Here’s the problem, he just isn’t producing in any substantive way besides making tackles. I’m sorry if this is getting repetitive, but I think I need to keep touching on this until it gets rectified.

We are now five weeks through the season and Collins has yet to record a pass defense, interception, sack, hit, forced fumble or fumble recovery. There are a whopping 69 safeties that have recorded at least one of those statistics and Landon Collins, the safety with the biggest contract, is not one of them. That is a problem. It’s not for our next player, though.

Montae Nicholson- Nicholson made yet another big play, but it wasn’t quite enough to completely overshadow the mistakes he made in this one.

Generally speaking, he played well in coverage. The third-year free safety was thrown at three times, but only gave up a 4-yard reception to James White on 3rd-and-3 before making the tackle on the play. However, later on the same drive, he committed a 40-yard pass interference penalty against Julian Edelman that set the Pats up at the Washington 27-yard line and essentially gave them a field goal.

Nicholson’s big play came a couple of drives later, when he picked Tom Brady off at the Redskins’ 1-yard line on third down. It was Brady’s second interception of the season and it gave Nicholson a career-high two interceptions on the year. The 23-year-old has now forced a turnover in three of the past four games and is responsible for a third of the team’s takeaways.

He finished the game with 5 solo and 7 total tackles, which are tied for the second and third-highest such totals in his career. Those takedowns included a 1-yard stop in the backfield on a Sony Michel red-zone run and a first-down saving tackle after a gain of 16 on a 3rd-and-17 pass. However, Nicholson also missed a season-high 3 tackles, with one of those whiffs coming on Michel’s 14-yard touchdown run.

Montae earned a 2019-worst 42.3 PFF grade for his showing this past Sunday.

Deshazor Everett- Deshazor Everett was only in on 8 defensive snaps, but he still allowed 2 receptions for a total of 28 yards and 2 first downs, both of which came on third down. Everett recorded his lone tackle after giving up the first of those catches. He posted the third-worst PFF grade (28.9) among all defensive backs in Week 5.

Troy Apke- Apke is now up to 133 career special teams snaps without a single snap played on defense.

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ALL DEFENSIVE PLAYERS

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SPECIAL TEAMS

Snaps- Washington’s special teamers were on the field for a season-high total of 33 snaps. Deshazor Everett and Shaun Dion Hamilton tied for the most specials snaps on the team with 32 of them. The 32 snaps were a career high for Everett.

This was also the first time that SDH had ever led the Redskins in teams snaps; he had never been in for more than 22 specials plays prior to Sunday.

Dustin Hopkins- Dustin Hopkins was only in for 3 snaps for the second consecutive week. His 11 snaps over the course of the last three weeks represents his lowest total ever in a three-game span (when active).

Hop nailed his lone extra point and kicked touchbacks on both of his kickoffs. So far this season, he’s connected on all seven of his extra-point tries and has posted a 75% touchback rate.

Tress Way- Tress Way punted the ball a whopping 10 times for 500 yards. New England return man Gunner Olszewski returned three of those kicks for a total of 49 yards, which gave Way 451 net yards.

Way’s number of punts, punting yards and net yards were all personal records for the seventh-year pro. He bested his previous career marks in punt yards and net yards by 74 and 56 yards, respectively. That’s not all, though. The 500 punt yards are the most by any player since Week 1 of the 2018 season (522 yards by Britton Colquitt on 12 punts). It’s also the highest yardage total by a Redskins’ punter since at least 1950.

He pinned the New England offense inside their own 20 four times (16, 12, 17 and 6-yard lines), but punted for a touchback for the first time in his last 23 games.

These are all pretty incredible numbers for Way, but I think, more than anything, they tell you a lot about how horrendous the Redskins’ offense was in this game.

Kick Coverage- Way’s first two punts were fair caught at the 16 and 43-yard lines. The third one went for a touchback.

Tanner Vallejo and Nick Sundberg teamed up to take down Olszewski at the 31 after a 12-yard gain on the next punt. Way got in on the action himself by shutting down a 19-yarder at the 38. Three of the next four punts were fair caught at the 12, 17 and 26-yard lines. Shaun Dion Hamilton scored a takedown at the 42 after a gain of 18. Cole Holcomb downed the final Redskins’ punt of the day at the New England 6.

The special teams tackles by Vallejo, Way and SDH were their first of the year.

Punt Returns- It might not have felt like it, but the Patriots did actually punt the ball away six times. New England punter Justin Bailey kicked three balls out of bounds; those boots set the Redskins’ offense up at the Washington 33, 35 and 40-yard lines. Trey Quinn fair caught a pair of punts at the 12 and gained 9 yards on his lone return before being tackled at the 25-yard line.

Kickoff Returns- All seven of the Pats’ kickoffs were booted into the end zone and went for touchbacks. It might’ve made sense for Steven Sims to return the two of them that only landed about a yard deep in the end zone, but generally speaking, taking the free 25 yards is the best practice.

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*All statistics are courtesy of ESPN, Football Outsiders, NBC Sports, NFL.com, NFL Gamebooks, Pro Football Focus, Pro Football Reference, Redskins.com, Sharp Football Stats and The Washington Post*