Sam’s Film Room: Washington Commanders’ defense is still bad on third down

Last year I created a video explaining what went wrong with the Washington Commanders’ defense in 2021 and why they were performing so much worse than the previous year.

Unfortunately, not a lot has changed. I still see the same individual player mistakes; I see a lot of basic coverage busts; and I also see a lack of finishing from the defensive line. These issues are extremely apparent on third downs. These mistakes allowed Patrick Mahomes to drive down the field on two consecutive drives and score touchdowns in the Washington Commanders latest preseason game.

In this video breakdown, I wanted to look at the Chiefs’ five third down conversions on their first two drives and talk generally about what I saw while reviewing the film.