The Washington Commanders tie the New York Giants for the first time since 1997
The Washington Commanders tied the New York Giants 20-20. In overtime it was a defensive struggle. The Commanders did get the ball over the 50, but didn’t capitalize on that drive. On 2nd and 7 of that drive Logan Thomas would miss a block on Kayvon Thibodeaux, which resulted in a three yard loss. The Commanders would then go conservative on third down and ended up punting. The Giants best chance was on the last drive of the game where they attempted a 58 yard field goal. Graham Gano would come up short with his kick and the game ended in a tie. The Giants got a lot of breaks today and in the next meeting in two weeks I feel like the Commanders should come away with the win.
Offense
The offense moved the ball a lot today. The Commanders had a total of 411 yards of offense today. The biggest problems the offense had today were penalties, sacks, and not finishing drives again. The offense had a couple of bad holding penalties that killed drives. They also had a terrible block in the back call by the refs that would also end a drive. Heinicke got sacked 5 times and one of the sacks made a field goal attempt six yards longer, which Joey Slye would miss. Finally for not finishing drives the Commanders had the ball second and goal on the four and ended up kicking a field goal.
For Heinicke he played alright. He took too many sacks today and needs to either find the check down or throw the ball away. His accuracy was off again today. It seemed like every miss he had today was high. He had Logan Thomas wide open on the first drive of the game for a touchdown, but overthrew him. If Heinicke can make these throws the Commanders offense would be so much better.
The receivers played their best game today. The top three receivers all had at least five catches today. They were led by Terry McLaurin who had eight catches for 105 yards and a touchdown. Right behind him was Curtis Samuel who had six catches for 63 yards. Samuel had a huge catch in the 4th quarter on 4th down and 4, which helped the Commanders score a touchdown on that drive. To wrap up the big three Jahan Dotson had five catches for 54 yards and a touchdown. Today seemed like the best game for this trio so far this season.
Finally the Commanders ran the ball well again today. They ran for a total of 165 yards and were led by Brian Robinson with 96 rushing yards. The Commanders went away from the run on a couple of 2nd and short situations during the game. I would like to see Scott Turner run the ball in these second and manageable situations especially with how well it has been working lately.
Defense
The defense didn’t play it’s best game today. They gave up 316 total yards to the Giants. Backup Corner Christian Holmes played terrible today and got benched because of it. Hopefully Benjamin St-Juste will be back after the bye because this defense needs him. The defense did finish the game strong by making the Giants punt five times and forcing the Giants to attempt a long field goal at the end of overtime.
The interior of the Defensive line had another good game. Jon Allen had a sack and a tackle for a loss today. Daron Payne had two sacks and two tackles for a loss. For the defensive ends today they needed to do a better job containing Jones. On one play Sweat went inside, which allowed Jones to escape outside and pick up a first down. In two weeks the ends need to stay at home and make Jones throw the ball instead of running it.
Finally the secondary struggled without Benjamin St-Juste. Christian Holmes played in his spot and gave up a touchdown. He also gave up a 55 yard catch to Darius Slayton in the 2nd quarter. The depth of this secondary isn’t great and if St-Juste is out any longer it will continue to struggle.
Look Ahead
The Commanders have a bye next week. Hopefully this will allow everyone to get healthy and be ready to go for this playoff stretch. After the bye the Commanders will play the Giants again at FedexField time TBD. If they can fix the mistakes they made today they should win in two weeks.
