Washington Football Team Vs. New York Giants (Game Two) - Studs and Duds

In what may have been the most boring first three quarters I have seen in quite some time, Washington, in fitting fashion, finished off the lowly Giants in what was their last game ever as The Football Team.

All I can say is thank goodness this two-year period is behind us, and we can at least look forward to the new name announcement - and hopefully a fresh start come February 2nd.

Below you will find my final 2021 regular season Studs and Duds followed by some notes.

Studs:

Antonio Gibson - Gibson was a workhorse, carrying 21 times for 141 yards and a touchdown. He also caught a pass for five yards. He rushed for 1037 yards and seven touchdowns and caught 42 passes for 294 yards and three scores on the season.

Terry McLaurin - Terry snagged a team high four catches for 93 yards, and made the second best defensive play of the game on a would-be interception thrown by Heinicke that he knocked loose from the defenders cradled arms. Today’s performance gave him 1053 receiving yards and five touchdowns on the season - his second consecutive 1000 yard season!

Jonathan Allen - The Pro Bowler and soon-to-be All-Pro, continued his dominance in the team’s season finale, collecting four total tackles and half a sack. Allen has been a rock all season!

Bobby McCain - McCain wasn’t credited with any tackles, but he had two interceptions, one of which he returned 39 yards for a touchdown.

Joey Slye - Slye nailed all three of his field goals with a long of 43. I think he’s a keeper!

Duds:

Taylor Heinicke - Heinicke played poorly on the afternoon, going 9/18 for 120 and no touchdowns. He was erratic yet again, missing a wide open Cam Sims in the back of the end zone early in the game. He fumbled a snap (which Washington was fortunate to recover), had an easy interception dropped on a poor throw, due to McLaurin’s great defensive play, and constantly took too long in the pocket to get rid of the football - once resulting in an unnecessary sack.

Jeremy Reaves - Reaves had a big miscue in the secondary (this was not his first of the season), in which he bit on an underneath route that was already covered by a teammate, leaving his deep zone wide open for Darius Slaton to score an easy touchdown.

Troy Apke - On a beautiful punt by Tress Way, Troy Apke had just one job to do - touch the ball dead inside the two yard line. Instead, he came barreling 90mph and slid into the football, knocking it into the end zone for a touchback. Nitpicky...sure, but the complete lack of awareness on the play was inexcusable.

- The due of William Bradley-King and James Smith-Williams played well on the afternoon. They combined for eight total tackles, one sack (each player had half a sack), a tackle for a loss, a stuff and two batted balls.

- Payne and Settle were active on the afternoon, both against the run, and showing disruptiveness in the passing game. Settle has a nice tackle for a loss on a screen he sniffed out, and Payne had five solo tackles (six total) and two pressures.

- Rookie Jamin Davis showed well against New York. He had a nice tackle for a loss on a big fourth down stop (he was unblocked though), and showed decent in coverage. He finished second on the team with eight combined tackles (three solo).

- Overall, the offensive line did a nice job opening up running lanes, but Flowers, Cosmi and Ismael struggled with pass protection - with Flowers giving up a sack on an interior rush and Cosmi letting his guy get pressure off the end to catch Heinicke behind the line of scrimmage.

- Despite being beaten later in the game by Golladay (on a ball he should have given better effort to catch), Darryl Roberts played pretty well on the outside opposite Kendall Fuller. He tackled well all afternoon, and showed overall solid coverage.

- Jonathan Williams had seven carries for 45 yards and ran hard every time he got the ball. He’s certainly made a case to hang around on this team. Dare I say he could be our new Peyton Barber?