Despite concerns about the Washington Commanders’ offensive line going into this season, they held up well against the Philadelphia Eagles in the season opener. Quarterback Jayden Daniels was only sacked once, and the Commanders put up 132 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
“I thought we had a lot of good combination blocks that we’re really happy with,” center Nick Allegretti said. “I think [we] got to do a better job sticking on at the second level … So, sticking on the second level I think is really important for us. I think we had some really good communication and then a couple of examples of just communication that we may have missed, but easy fixes. So, there was definitely, you know, a lot of good. A good chunk of bad from last week,
but I think a lot of the bad things are things that we can take care of this week and improve for next week.”
There were a lot of injury concerns about Allegretti specifically going into this season after having an injury-riddled training camp. As long as Allegretti and the rest of the Commanders offensive line stay healthy, they have a chance to surprise this season without Laremy Tunsil.
That should help them in their Week 2 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas also lost their opener after surrendering 165 yards on the ground to the New York Giants and only sacking quarterback Jaxson Dart twice for a loss of one yard. While the Cowboys have a good offense that will test Washington’s defense, Dallas still has a defense opponents have had a lot of success against.
Going into the Commanders’ game, Allegretti said the plan is to establish the run game in order to open up the pass-action and dropback passing game. That plan certainly worked for New York against Dallas, so Washington should find success using this strategy.
“I think there was a good chunk of runs in there which I think every offensive lineman’s gonna like,” Allegretti said. “Definitely opens up a lot of options for us in the play-action game and then, you know, hopefully opens up some options, you know, when we drop back, you know, they have to respect the run. So, I think that’s the goal: you know, make them respect the run and, you know, have some stuff open up.”
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders C Nick Allegretti reflects on offensive line's Week 1 performance
