Washington’s Struggles Continue, Fall To Denver 17-10
Washington came into Denver with a must-win game. It was a matchup of struggling offenses that average around 19 points a game. We were bound to watch an ugly offensive showing on both sides and that is exactly what we saw.
Offensive Struggles
For the third straight week, WFT couldn’t score more than 13 points and turned the ball over two times. In that span, they went 0-6 in the red zone, 0-2 against Denver. Washington also failed to score a touchdown in the first half for only the second time all season.
Heinicke went 24-39 for 270 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. This was the third time all season where he threw two interceptions. The team went 0-3 in those games. While he is still struggling, it is good to see him gaining trust in guys like DeAndre Carter and Seals-Jones. Early on this season, it seemed like he only trusted McLaurin and Thomas. He still has too many balls fall short or go over the head of his intended receivers.
The running game was also lacking on Sunday. Gibson and McKissic had a total of 44 yards on the ground. Patterson was given more opportunities and rushed for 46 yards. It felt like the coaches wanted to evaluate the undrafted free agent.
Missing Cosmi, Scherff, and Schweitzer kept the team from doing what they wanted to do. But when they lost Roullier the OL fell apart. Heinicke was sacked a season-high five times, and that likely affected the run.
Blocked kicks
I don’t think I have ever seen back-to-back games having field goals blocked. Three of Blewitt’s five kicks were blocked and he has only kicked for us in two games. The kicker we run out of town was 12-14. Maybe the coaches need to not listen to the fans and keep a kicker that can elevate the ball above the line of scrimmage.
Defense played their best game
John Allen continues to earn his big payday from this offseason. He added another sack to his team-leading total of six. Not the guy we expected to see those numbers from but I’m happy someone we paid is living up to their contract.
Landon Collins continues to play well closer to the line of scrimmage. He recorded eight total tackled, two tackles for loss, and one quarterback hit.
The defense held Denver to 273 total yards. That is the lowest yardage Washington has held a team to all season.
A big forced fumble by Chase Young came with 27 seconds left. That set up the offense with a chance at tieing the game.
Takeaways
Offensively they are regressing but defensively they are getting better.
Teams have been able to put a scheme together to keep Heinicke in the pocked and away from running around and improvising. We are finally seeing the limitations the offense has with him running it.
This game would have been a different story if we had a kicker that could make kicks. Having three kicks blocked is inexcusable.
