Washington Football Team Vs. Denver Broncos - Studs and Duds

Sunday afternoon’s game against Denver was hard to watch if you are a fan of offense. Washington, yet again, laid an egg in the Red Zone, as too many missed opportunities plagued the team, and The Football Team stumbled to a 2-6 record heading into a much needed bye week.

The second half of the schedule does not get any easier with five division games and contests against the Bucs, Seahawks and Raiders.

The season may be one to throw away at this point, especially considering Dallas is in firm control of the division, and it looks like no wild cards will come out of the east.

Anyways, on to the Studs and Duds - followed by some notes.

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Studs:

DeAndre Carter - Carter scored his first NFL receiving touchdown, Washington’s only one on the afternoon, on a fade to the right corner of the endzone on a nicely thrown ball by Taylor Heinicke. His stat line included three catches for 51 yards and the touchdown, and one punt return for 12 yards. Not mind-blowing, but I’m reaching a bit trying to find some bright spots on offense.

J.D. McKissic - Taylor Heinicke checks it down a lot, and McKissic has been the primary beneficiary. He led the team with eight catches (on eight targets), for 83 yards, and had one carry for 10 yards. What I like is that he makes the most of these opportunities, often making the first guy miss, and gaining valuable yards after the catch.

Landon Collins - In just his second game after being moved to linebacker, Collins was a monster. He had eight tackles, two for a loss, a sack, forced a fumble and got another quarterback pressure on a blitz. He just may have found a home as a WILL linebacker.

Jonathan Allen/Daron Payne - The duo combined for seven tackles, two sacks and multiple pressures on the afternoon. Allen is having an All-Pro type season on the interior.

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Duds:

Saahdiq Charles - Filling in for the injured Cornelius Lucas, who was filling in for the injured Sam Cosmi as right tackle, Charles was a turnstile, giving up multiple pressures, two sacks, and a false start penalty. Not a good afternoon for the youngster.

Wes Schweitzer - Schweitzer, who had a good few games filling in for Brandon Scherff at right guard, took a major step back yesterday against Denver. Maybe it was because he lost both his right tackles previously, and his center in yesterday’s game, but whatever the reason, the veteran was abused by Denver’s front.

Jamin Davis - If last week was a big step forward for the rookie linebacker, yesterday’s game was two steps backwards. Missed tackles, dumb penalties and simply being out of place are not going to cut it. Chalk it up to rookie mistakes if you will (although Micha Parsons is not having these same issues), but this was not a good showing at all.

Bobby McCain - In a game where we needed some momentum shifts, McCain dropped one of the easiest interceptions you’ll ever see. He also had some key missed tackles; something that’s plagued him throughout the season.

Chris Blewitt - Blewitt now has more blocked field goals (3), than he’s made. He won’t be a member of the football team much longer - especially with a bye week coming.

Washington’s Red Zone Offense - This is getting quite embarrassing! We ranked 28th in the league in Red Zone efficiency coming into the game. I imagine we will be at least 30th after tonight’s game.

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Notes:

- I was very impressed with Jaret Patterson on the afternoon. He ran hard, fought for extra yards, and even blocked well. I hope we see more of him after the bye week.

- Taylor Heinicke wasn’t a dud this game, but besides a handful of nice throws, it was more of the same from the diminutive “gunslinger”. He overshot some open receivers, and went to the checkdown a bit too often. He was credited with two interceptions (although I do not hold those against him), and two fumbles (both of which we recovered). The issue is, we are STILL not able to score in the Red Zone - which is not all on the play calling.

- Benjamin St-Juste showed moments of good play, including a few nice open-field tackles (one for a loss), but he was beaten badly on multiple occasions by both Sutton and Patrick.

- Montez Sweat was out of position on more than a few plays this game. The one that hurt the most was when he came too far up-field on the Melvin Gordon touchdown. He was also called for ANOTHER offsides.

- Chase Young was relatively quite on the afternoon, but came up big late in the game with his forced fumble on Melvin Gordon. Too bad our offense wasn’t able to tie the game up.