The Denver Broncos beat the Washington Football Team 17-10 at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium on Sunday. Washington dropped it’s fourth consecutive game to fall to 2-6 heading into their bye week.
Washington’s mistakes and missed opportunities cost them.
Red Zone Ineptitude
Washington actually has the second worst red zone percentage in the entire NFL at 45.5%.
But what’s more telling, and more responsible for the team’s current slide, is the fact that the WFT have a Red Zone Scoring Percentage of ZERO in the last three games. They have not scored a SINGLE POINT in any trip to the Red Zone in the last three weeks.
Zero.
Stats courtesy of TeamRanking.
Add Kicker Woes
They replaced Dustin Hopkins with a guy who hasn’t kicked for five years.
It appears that Washington may have neglected to use blockers during Chris Blewitt’s tryouts. 🙂
The Football Team looked like they were going to open the scoring early in the second quarter after driving deep into Denver territory. The drive stalled, and Blewitt got to attempt his third NFL field goal. The 42-yard field goal was “blocked.” Only it wasn’t blocked. The kick was very low. Really low. Like, you-might-not-have-a-job-anymore, low. It hit the back of his own offensive lineman.
Blewitt kicked a 52-yarder to tie the game at 3-3. It looked like he may get to redeem himself after all.
Then in the fourth quarter, disaster struck again. Another good drive by Washington ends in yet another Chris Blewitt blocked field goal attempt. Three blocks in five field goal attempts. That’s bad, sad, awful and incredible all at the same time.
Heinicke
It’s impossible to not look directly at quarterback Taylor Heinicke when assessing the team’s Red Zone struggles. The 28-year old has thrown too many interceptions in the Red Zone not to.
Sometimes he looks great, like on the dime he threw to Deandre Carter to get the game to 10-10.
Other times, he just seems to forget that it’s an NFL football field. While keeping a play alive, or “throwing one up” can work sometimes, sometimes you just have to take what’s given to you. Or pull it down. He seems to be struggling when the field shrinks down to just the Red Zone.
He also now has nine interceptions and four fumbles.
Switch?
With Week 9 being the Football Team’s bye week, all eyes will be on the quarterback position. is Ryan Fitzpatrick any closer to coming back?
If not, is now the time to sit Heinicke down and give Kyle Allen a shot?
It’ll be Heinicke’s decision making that got him benched if that happens, not his arm.
It bears mentioning that Washington’s offensive line injury troubles are immense. With three starters out, any quarterback sitting in the pocket might not be sitting there for long.