What is the story about?
Washington took on the San Francisco Dirty-Niners on Monday night football and looked like a Pop Warner team playing against local high schoolers during the first half. The Commanders did come out in the second half and make it somewhat of a game, but it felt as though Kyle Shanahan was simply toying with Dan Quinn all game.
Washington is now 1-4-1 heading into a bye week and will look to make some much needed adjustments on both sides of the ball (and maybe at head coach) when they return to action
Nov. 1 against a reeling Eagles team on Sunday Night Football.
Below are my Studs and Duds of the game, followed by some notes.
Studs:
- LB Sonny Styles: Styles had 13 total tackles (7 solo) and pass defended and a handful of nice third down stops on receivers short of the first down.
- TE Chig Okonkwo: Chig is starting to come into his own in this offense after missing some time with an injury. He led all Commanders receivers with seven receptions for 69 yards and ripped off some nice chunk plays. He also took some cheap-shots yet held into the football.
Duds:
- OTs Brandon Coleman/Josh Conerly: The bookend duo looked absolutely HORRIBLE against the 49ers front seven. committing multiple penalties, allowing pressures and sacks and not blocking well in the run game. Brandon Coleman flat out needs to be replaced — he’s THAT BAD!
- DC Daronte Jones: Jones looked to be in over his head against quarterback Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense. His defense allowed 303 total yards and 17 first down in the first half! The defense played a bit better in the second half with Purdy operating without Mike Evans, but it looked as though Kyle Shanahan was toying with Washington for most of the game. I know Jones doesn’t have the horses, but I have to call it like I see it here.
- HC Dan Quinn: Another game, another coaching gaffe by Dan Quinn. This time the buffoon thought Washington had an extra down after Jayden threw the ball away on a fourth-and-2 in the red zone, and he was seen on his headset calling for the field-goal team. It’s amazing how undisciplined this team is week after week!
- San Francisco Dirty-Niners: Fred Warner led the charge, but some of his buddies got in on the action too. Warner had two blatant helmet-to-helmet hits on Chig Okonkwo that weren’t called and Malik Mustapha, Osa Odighizuwa, Romello Height, Gracen Halton and Jalen Graham also got into the action. Shame on the refs for letting this go on!
Notes:
- I wanted to put QB Jayden Daniels on the Duds list – I really did, but I decided against it because some in this fan base are too fragile to handle the truth! He left SO many big plays on the field it wasn’t even funny. I get his offensive line is trash and he was playing scared, but he’s just not seeing the field right now. He checked the ball down all evening and missed wide open shots down the field. 110 of his passing yards came on great run-after-catch plays by his receivers. And then there was that bone-headed play on fourth down at the 13-yard line where he threw the ball out of bounds… He also had the intentional grounding in the fourth quarter which really hurt Washington. I get the concept called by Blough was poor, but take off running between Sam Cosmi and Josh Conerly. This was NOT a good game for Daniels despite the 300 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers.
- Antonio Williams wasn’t targeted until the second half, but when he was, he made things happen. I think this was on Jayden, as he just wasn’t seeing open receivers and going through his progressions. Williams finished with three receptions for 50 yards.
- It feels like every week I say to get Treylon Burks more touches. He makes the most of his opportunities. He did have a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter with his leaping attempt at the goal line that he couldn’t hang onto to the ground thanks to a nice effort from the 49ers defender, but overall, he played a good game with four catches for 66 yards.
- RG Sam Cosmi had what I believe was his worst game of the season. He did leave the game due to a cheap-shot by a 49ers defense lineman, so maybe that impacted his play later on.
- CB Amik Robertson struggled in the first half against Mike Evans, allowing some chunk plays. It wasn’t that he was in poor coverage, it was just Mike Evans being Mike Evans. He settled down to play a much better second half with Evans out of the game.
- As is usually the case, S Jeremy Reaves continued to be all over the place, coming up to make tackles and having a nice pass defended.
- EDGE K’Lavon Chaisson had a great effort play where he punched the ball out of Christian McCaffrey’s arm, a fumble that Frankie Luvu recovered.
- EDGE Odafe Oweh had a sack (on a play where he was unblocked) and two pressures during the game. He played the run pretty well, but his pass-rush is a bit lacking.
- It was nice to see Tyler Owens back on special teams. I don’t know why Daronte Jones won’t play him on defense!
- K Drew Stevens nailed his only attempt from 51 yards. He did, however, doink in one of his extra-points. But hey, at least he didn’t miss it.
- Prayers for WR Terry McLaurin – that didn’t look good.
- Washington CONTINUES to commit inexcusable pre-snap penalties at an alarming rate.
- TE John Bates’ play has REALLY dropped off!
- WR Dyami Brown continues to do NOTHING! Cut him and promote Jaden Bradley off the practice squad.
- It seems like once a game, LG Chris Paul does something to help the other team!
- DL Shy Tuttle outplayed Daron Payne!
