Washington Football Team Gets Mule Kicked by Los Angeles Rams
We can all celebrate quarterback Alex Smith's return to action after 693 days and nearly losing his life to a broken leg he suffered against the Houston Texans in 2018. But, if we are being realistic, that's not the real story of this game.
Neither is the story that broke this morning that quarterback Dwayne Haskins could be traded as early as the next couple of weeks or as late as the offseason.
The story of this day is the defense under coordinator Jack del Rio has massively regressed since the teams Week 1 victory against the Philadelphia Eagles.
HOT READ: Washington Football Team was Running on Empty
The other story is the offensive slop that was touted as being in better position to win with Kyle Allen as the starting quarterback instead of Haskins who was unceremoniously dumped to third string, inactive duties this week.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay and offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell did everything in their power to absolutely embarrass an already humiliated Washington safety group.
The Rams were motioning players all over the field pre-snap. Whether it was Gerald Everett, Robert Woods, or Tyler Higbee, they made sure to find mismatches which were plentiful.
Woods exploited this the most. On a 56-yard touchdown pass Woods was motioned over to the left side where he was passed off by Fuller, with the defense looking to be in a Cover 2 scheme, with the expectation that Collins would pick him up. Instead, Collins had another blown coverage and touchdown in an inopportune time.
HOT READ: A Complete Debacle From Start to Finish for WFT
The linebackers continue to struggle in coverage as Jon Bostic was picked on with underneath routes and Kevin Pierre-Louis was roasted on a crossing route by running back Darrell Henderson, Jr. for his late receiving touchdown.
A couple of defensive highlights came from where they have been expected. Defensive end Montez Sweat chased down Darrell Henderson, Jr. after he broke out a big run with Washington down 20 points. Kendall Fuller had an interception late in the first half that led to a 48-yard Dustin Hopkins field goal. Also, cornerback Jimmy Moreland was able to sniff out a screen and applied a textbook tackle on Everett.
On offense, there were a lot of question marks about the play calling. Offensive coordinator Scott Turner had mentioned in his press conference this week that having Allen as the starter wouldn't open up the playbook more compared to having Haskins as the starter. And he was not kidding. We saw a lot of the same routes and concepts in the first four games. There were minimal shots down field until late in the game when Washington was down by 20 points.
The offensive line also regressed to an atrocious level giving up eight sacks. All-pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald recorded four while linebacker Troy Reeder tallied three of his own as a part of his game leading eleven tackles.
Additionally, there were minimal holes for running backs Antonio Gibson and J.D. McKissic to run through.
HOT READ: Don't Be Mad at Ron; Blame Dan
When it was all totaled up, Washington's offense put up the following stats: 10 first downs, 108 total yards (70 passing and 38 rushing), and went 2-for-13 on third down.
This was compounded by the fact that there was a target disparity in the passing game. Star wide receiver Terry McLaurin was targeted seven times trailing the team leader, McKissic, by one with Gibson seeing five targets. Rookie wide receiver Isaiah Wright only saw one target.
The offense was so bad that they finished with -6 total offensive yards in the second half.
Back-up quarterback Alex Smith looked good initially out of the gate. He took the hits we all needed to see him take to breath a little bit easier. Donald's first sack on Smith had him on Smith's back to bring him down showing, today, the amount of weight his leg can withstand. Smith's final line was 9-for-17, 37 yards passing, 1 yard rushing, and sacked 6 times for 31 yards lost.
Washington will need to regroup in a major way and figure out all of their woes. Otherwise, the final eleven games of the season will be a long trudge into top 5 pick territory for the second year in a row.
Injury Report: Starting quarterback Kyle Allen left the game late in the first half with a shoulder injury. He was cleared to return to action after halftime, but head coach Ron Rivera opted to hold him out due to an abundance of caution. Rivera has indicated that if Allen is healthy, he will start against the New York Giants next week.
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Alan Lepore joins "Washington Football" on SI.com, while still doing outstanding work as an editor/writer at FullPressCoverage.com or @FPC_Redskins. You can follow him on Twitter @AlanLepore or on instagram @leporealan. Alan is a Villanova University MPA Nonprofit Management candidate and is a fundraising/development professional.
