FanPost

The Good, the Bad, and the Rush for Week 4 vs. Washington Commanders

As with the Cincinati game, I wasn't in a spot where the Dallas game was televised and had to follow the game here: NFL Gameday - Washington at Dallas, 10-2-22. Basic stats will come from there, as well as from Washington/Dallas comparison - Yahoo Sports, as just as with what happened with the Cincinnati game, the NFL's official channel is weird with its updates in that they'll miss plays, miss-show how things go on the field in their graphics, and seemed slow to update things. I'd include that in "the bad" again... but since I'm putting that here, I won't be complaining about it twice.

The Good:

1. Field Goals: A blocked extra point aside, Maher had a great day, with 4 field goals and 12 points. In this, he kicked enough for us to win the game on his FGs alone.

2. Defending When Knowing What is Coming: The team struggled a bit when Washington had its whole playbook to work with, but between penalties and the growing Cowboys lead by the second half, that made a lot of what Washington wanted to do become predictable and helped the defense escape some dangerous drives. It helped set up one interception before the first half ended and the long fourth down attempt later in the game. And in these situations, the defense did very well.

3. Turnovers... or Trying For them: Two INTs were good for the defense, with one setting up a second half score, even if it was only a field goal. And the defense came close to getting a third turnover with a forced fumble.

4. CD Lamb: 6 catches for 97 yards and a TD were a relatively good day in the passing game... and as Gallup gets better into the swing of the offense, I'd imagine these numbers should improve for Lamb... AND for Gallup who didn't have a terrible day for his first day back.

5. Trying to Run the Ball: They may not have succeeded at it... but with the team getting nearly 30 carries on the day, that's at least an attempt to try and run the ball.

The Bad:

1. Being Lucky on Defense: This may seem like an odd thing to have in "the bad" category, but it's something that relates to number two in "the good." When the Commanders could use their full playbook, and could run or pass, particularly in the first 3 quarters, they actually moved the ball quite well. They had lots of long drives that had the threat of scoring points, and ultimately did lead to a TD in the second quarter. It's only when the Commanders committed costly penalties, and particularly the intentional grounding penalties that put them well behind the chains and got them out of what had been working on those individual drives. They essentially saved a defense that was largely struggling in the game.

2. Rush Defense: This was bad all game long. No individual Commander ran for over 100 yards, but three of them ran for 40 yards or more, with Williams averaging nearly 10 yards a carry. And that is where a lot of Washington's penalties came into play, as they'd run for six to seven yards, and then have a holding, an intentional grounding, or a false start penalty that took them out of rhythm.

3. Actually Running the Ball Well: They did try to run... but the execution here was lacking. Zeke only averaged about 2.6 yards per carry, Pollard very nearly averaged a negative yards per carry average. The best rusher on the day was ultimately Rush, and in terms of yards per play, even he was only marginally better than Zeke.

4. Hit and Miss in the WR/TE Corps: Lamb had a good day, and Gallup wasn't bad for his first day back, but the rest of this unit struggled. Noah Brown had decent yardage, but he only caught half the balls that were thrown his way, which gives the impression that those three catches that were made produced the big yardage numbers. Schultz's day was even worse, being targeted 3 times with no catches.

5. Injuries: These seem to strike again this week... The NFL's gameday featured that Lewis and Bohanna were injured in the game and were "questionable" to return... that hurts. There may have been others hurt, but the gameday feature didn't list them.

The Rush: His stat line isn't horrible, particularly given that he is a backup QB... but neither was it great. Yes, he had two TDs, and that is good, but at times he also only just got over 55% of his passes completed, and at times those incompletions became costly, particularly at the end of drives that forced field goals rather than touchdowns.

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