Official Game Thread - Playoffs Week 2 - Commanders @ Lions

I predict a Washington win. 74-68. No defense shall be played and no punts shall be made.
 
Spearfeather said:
I'd like to think we'd have a better showing than 1%, but no doubt it will be overwhelmingly Lions fans.

I was looking at our schedule and trying to think of where our most hostile territory has been.

New Orleans maybe ?

Cincinnati on Monday night ?

Granted, the Saints and Bengals are not the Lions.
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Not NOLA. I was there, lower level behind Saints bench, and lower level behind our bench was easily 75% Commies fans. Was similar Sunday night. Could hear them singing “HTTR”, chanting “Defense, Defense”, and “MVP, MVP” after Jayden made the first down late.

I’ve been to many away games, and one thing I can assure you is that Redskins/Commies fans travel well!
 
NoCalSkins said:
I think the trend I am noticing with our defense is that they don't have the personnel to get stops on most drives so Whitt is choosing the bend but don't get broken over the top style of coverage. I think we see a lot of guys get open with YAC opportunities underneath for two main reasons:

1 - The pass rush doesn't get home enough to disrupt timing plays. QB's far too often just have too much time to get comfortable in the pocket against us.

2 - We don't have the kind of secondary that can cover the entire field so Whitt is choosing to play off coverage, conceding the underneath passes, allowing teams to drive the ball and get yards, but seems to get more aggressive when they get on the other side of the 50 with less room to work.

To me, it is a personnel issue right now and not a lot the coaches can do to magically turn some of these players into the caliber needed to improve the necessaey amount.

All in all, I think they (the coaches) are putting the players in the best position possible to make plays but too much of the roster (on both sides of the ball really) are just not NFL starting caliber and would likely be rotation players on most of the other playoff teams. This still got the team to 12 wins, so I am content with the results until we see how the upgrading goes in the offseason.
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Good stuff. Thanks for sharing what you have seen on D as I think that was quietly the story of the game. JD5 and his late game heroics are no longer a surprise to us. To anyone paying attention. The league is on notice.

I think seeing how far Lattimore playing off of Evans was a tell. It was Whitt showing his bend hand and containing a potential wildfire. Baker saw his guy wide open underneath and he took it. All the while milking the clock and help making sure its a one possession game.

I do think Whitt adjusted more in the 2nd half and its more than "they doubled evans". When McMillian went deep he was doubled by 2 corners. While what happened is tough to document heck I am even curious for time in simple man / zone %, or % of time we ran cover 2 cover 3, rush 5 rate, rush 6 rate etc. It's a bit mind boggling how we never hear discussion on overall tendencies with a week to do nothing other than analyze - we're lucky to get 3 plays on the back end diagnosed conclusively.

If we can get a few turnovers on Golff without the L - that will bode well for our mission. Which almost seems like density destiny at this point for the Dan Quinn Express to keep rolling. Cinderella story, out of nowhere, former heismann winner, now about to .... beat Detroit
 
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Chris said:
Philly, Cincinnati, or Bmore. Take your pick cause I don’t know.
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Yeah, I was thinking even though we had a good showing with our fans in NO, with it being a dome, it still might have been one of the loudest, but I’m not sure. Thought, like you say, maybe Baltimore. They're pretty rabid in Philly, but that stadium just never seemed like the loudest just from watching on TV. Pretty loud, but not the loudest.
 
Domes certainly up the ante. New Orleans fans were not all that passionate from my observation being there and there was a considerable Washington contingent. So, not really a factor.

Now, Detroit? Totally different animal.
 
Chris 44 said:
I think the run game has a much better chance of showing up this week. On offense what worries me are pre snap penalties. Gotta make a living picking up positive yards on first and not get behind the sticks due to penalties.
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I do not have much faith in the run game at this point, I see no reason after this many weeks of subpar running to think they will suddenly solve it against the Lions.
However, you're dead-on with the "and long" situations. They actually did a good job of staying mostly out of those in the Bucs game and when they did get into it, they managed to generally avoid letting it hurt them too badly. That was one of many impressive things in that game.
 
I don't think it's about "solving" the running game against the Lions so much that the Lions are an easier team to run against.

At least for QBs.

I'm struck by how often this year, the opposition QB has been the leading rusher against the Lions.

Look at their game against Buffalo 5 weeks ago. While it is an outlier, it is the Lions' last loss. This Washington team resembles Buffalo in a number of ways - strong offense w/ a weaker defensive unit, mobile QB willing to run the ball, weaker receiver corps, and a spotty rushing attack.

Josh Allen threw for 362 and his leading receiver on the day was 5th-year veteran named Ty Johnson, a 6th-round pick out of Maryland. I mean...I'd never heard of the guy. Allen also rushed for 68 and accounted for a combined 4 TDs.

Buffalo also won the TOP and Turnover battle.

I think the coaches will model our game plan after what Buffalo did.
 
Most important thing when running BRob up the gut for 2 yards. No fucking holding penalty. But also its helping free JD5 to run it later. Making them stop BRob sets other stuff up. Now, it would be interesting af to see Detroit basically never play BRob to get the ball on read options. Heck Tampa last week had 2 guys shadowing JD5 - I have never seen that before but what we are doing in the run game is making defenses go to extreme measures to stop our run game... which likely helps them stifle Robinson. Who may well simply be trying not to fumble vs reading the hole etc. He likely lost confidence - he has missed his scheduled call in's to 106.7 3 times of late.

I do expect Robinson used more in the passing game... like last week - it was telegraph run with him in there FAR too much of late. 20 recs all year and then 4 last week. I like it. I thought he proved himself all down back worthy last year...

That all said I do hope they find a way to get CRod active and in the game as a change up. I want to save Ekeler for the passing game, and to be honest McNichols hasnt dont much of note... other than be our hands backup/running on teams. I do think CRod has decent enough hands to emergency pitch hit. Find a way to have 4 active.

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I think we have one top tier RB on this roster and his name is Austin Ekeler. Yes - he's a great pass catching back. But he's also a beast in the rushing attack. We've just hesitated to use him a ton in the rushing attack because of his age and health. But when we do rush him, he looks powerful and clearly is the best rushing threat on this roster.

I have to wonder if they take him out of the bubble wrap this Saturday and get back to making him a primary offensive weapon like he was earlier in the season, both on the ground and in the passing game. I think it could be a difference-making change if they do boost his role.
 
Boone said:
I think we have one top tier RB on this roster and his name is Austin Ekeler. Yes - he's a great pass catching back. But he's also a beast in the rushing attack. We've just hesitated to use him a ton in the rushing attack because of his age and health. But when we do rush him, he looks powerful and clearly is the best rushing threat on this roster.

I have to wonder if they take him out of the bubble wrap this Saturday and get back to making him a primary offensive weapon like he was earlier in the season, both on the ground and in the passing game. I think it could be a difference-making change if they do boost his role.
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Ekeler had a couple years that were over 900 yards in 21 and 22. I had him on my fantasy league, but overall he was used much more as a pass catching back and that is his strength. He isn't the best running back on the roster, imo. When he is on the field, he definitely opens up Kliff's offense and he definitely helps JD5 a lot. I like B-Rob a lot, I just feel the way he is used isn't to his strength or the OL blocking schemes isn't benefiting him enough. I'm not saying you can't improve on B-Rob, because the Skins can and this is a great draft to do that in.
 
RavensMania said:
Ekeler had a couple years that were over 900 yards in 21 and 22. I had him on my fantasy league, but overall he was used much more as a pass catching back and that is his strength. He isn't the best running back on the roster, imo. When he is on the field, he definitely opens up Kliff's offense and he definitely helps JD5 a lot. I like B-Rob a lot, I just feel the way he is used isn't to his strength or the OL blocking schemes isn't benefiting him enough. I'm not saying you can't improve on B-Rob, because the Skins can and this is a great draft to do that in.
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If you look at individual games - even the Wildcard game - you'll see that Ekeler has by far the best average rushing yds per carry. In the Bucs game, they only gave it to him 8 times on rushing plays and his yds/carry was twice what BRob's was. On the season, as a pass catching back, when they've called on him to carry the rock, he leads all RBs with 4.8 yds/carry.

There is no question he is the most talented RB on this roster - and he's the best at both running the ball and catching the pass. They have just limited his carries because they want him available and are afraid of putting too much of the ground game on his shoulders.

Now that it's 'win or you are done' time, they need to make him the primary weapon. If he gets, hurt, he gets hurt.
 
RavensMania said:
I'm a little biased, but I'd say Baltimore. Seattle is an extremely loud stadium as well due to that overhang.
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No doubt. I experienced that live at the 2005 playoff game. I thought the question was about this season so I didn’t include Seattle.
 
Boone said:
If you look at individual games - even the Wildcard game - you'll see that Ekeler has by far the best average rushing yds per carry. In the Bucs game, they only gave it to him 8 times on rushing plays and his yds/carry was twice what BRob's was. On the season, as a pass catching back, when they've called on him to carry the rock, he leads all RBs with 4.8 yds/carry.

There is no question he is the most talented RB on this roster - and he's the best at both running the ball and catching the pass. They have just limited his carries because they want him available and are afraid of putting too much of the ground game on his shoulders.

Now that it's 'win or you are done' time, they need to make him the primary weapon. If he gets, hurt, he gets hurt.
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that's true, but it's on limited carries and when he's in the game many defenses are more prepared for the pass than the run. Give him a full load and his average goes down. He has tremendous value in the passing game but that comes down if you are giving him a full load or 15 carries a game.
 
Chris said:
No doubt. I experienced that live at the 2005 playoff game. I thought the question was about this season so I didn’t include Seattle.
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nice -- damn Carlos Rodgers for dropping a sure pick 6 that would put them up 10-0 in that game.
 
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