Commanders
The Commanders’ defense has given up several big plays through the first three weeks of the season, including a 61-yard touchdown to Raiders WR Tre Tucker in Week 3 and a 57-yard reception to Packers TE Tucker Kraft in Week 2. Washington’s DC Joe Whitt points out that they’ve had some lapses in coverage in both games.
“Okay, the ones in Green Bay, the guy was free, right? We didn’t play that one correctly,” Whitt said, via CommandersWire. “The very first play of the game this past week, the kid didn’t play it correctly, right? He should not be that open. The last play, played the coverage right, didn’t play it the way they should have been, shouldn’t have been open.”
Whitt is bothered by how they’ve allowed players to be “wide open” in both games.
“So, those three plays, they were just wide open. And that’s bothersome to me because if you’re fighting like hell and the guy catches the ball, like on the one that was on Shon [Lattimore] that I thought was OPI on the sideline in Green Bay, that’s football, okay? They’re going to catch some.”
Whitt understands they need to do a better job of defending vertical routes.
“But we can’t have free runners, and so the switch verticals, which this team ran again, they ran the switch verticals, and [CB] Noah [Igbinoghene] broke it up, and then we ran the switch verticals on them, and [WR Luke] McCaffrey scored the touchdown, same play. They ran the same play, we ran the same play. You’re going to get it every week at some point; you just have to defend it.”
Cowboys
Dallas fell to 1-2 in Week 3 after a rough overall outing against the Bears. Cowboys HC Brian Schottenheimer knows they need to clean up the turnovers on offense and the chunk plays allowed by the defense.
“We just didn’t play well, we really didn’t, and told the guys that,” Schottenheimer said, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. “This can be a humbling business. If you don’t take care of business, you don’t play well, then you’re not going to win. And what I pointed out to the guys very clearly was we got to stop giving up big plays on defense and we got to stop turning the ball over on offense. It’s a bad formula.”
Schottenheimer also put the blame on the coaches to make sure the communication gets cleaned up on defense after another weak performance with coverage busts.
“Yeah, it wasn’t and that’s coaching. That starts with us, and we got to do a better job, simplify some things maybe. And the one thing we knew going into this game is they would challenge us with some of their motions and shifts and they did that. I thought (Williams) played very, very well. Threw the ball really well, made some plays off point. But got to tighten the coverage down for sure. We’ll take a hard look at it and maybe to simplify things and we’re going to do what we do well. I can promise you that.”
Giants
The Giants moved Russell Wilson to the bench and started rookie QB Jaxson Dart in Week 4. One anonymous former teammate of Wilson said the quarterback has lost quality as the years have passed, and his primary duty was to limit turnovers.
“Our team was so good on defense and special teams, along with a run game to wear down the other team,” the former teammate said, via Eric Williams of Fox Sports. “All he had to do is just don’t turn the ball over. I do think he’s still phenomenal in the two-minute drill, though.”
However, an anonymous league source still thinks Wilson has enough quality to be a starter.
“He probably isn’t done as much as people are done giving him a chance to be their starter,” one league source told me.
One NFL scout thinks Wilson was “done years ago,” and can only operate in an offense that takes advantage of his “diminishing strengths.”
“Thought he was done years ago,” a national NFL scout told me. “He can only be in an offense that takes advantage of his diminishing strengths. Mobile, undersized quarterbacks do not age well in the NFL.”
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