Per Nicki Jhabvala, coming into this week: "Washington has used 312 unique lineups on offense so far this season, by far the most of any team. Only three of those lineups have played together for 10 or more plays this season. By comparison, the Commanders had 19 offensive lineups that played at least 10 plays together last season." There is no continuity on offense. None. Putting this on Kliff because "he wants to win his way" is severely underselling the offensive injuries.
We ran the ball 33 times yesterday vs. 30 pass attempts. We ran the ball more than we passed. The Miami defense was literally saying all they had to do was stop the run.
The only running back to exceed 20 attempts this week was Saquon Barkley.
I was pretty specific.
This *year* did the Commanders have a RB who broke 20 rushing attempts?
How many teams in the NFL have had a single RB break 20 rushing attempts *this year*? Situational football. Coordinators who see a weakness and exploit it, regardless of their potential predilections. We are all human. It's fine to have some biases. The best Xs and Os guys know how to limit the influence of their biases.
Definitely not underselling the offensive injuries. However, there are very simple things happening right in front of our eyes that are hard to ignore, very simple personnel changes that should make you go "huh?" When CRod is the main back in a drive that results in a TD, and then he is pulled for the next drive? I think most analysts will go "huh?" to that (and some have, in our games, in subtle ways). The thing is, I get it if that is working for you. If it's not? I have a problem.
I think that's a pretty reasonable take. Just one example.
Isn't there a very simple explanation for why Kingsbury is not calling a lot of running plays? We have fallen behind, often by a lot, early in nearly every game this season. Fans will say 'you can't abandon the rushing attack' but the truth is, 99% of the time, OC's are going to go pass heavy when they fall significantly behind for every logical reason in the world. If you need 2, 3, or 4 scores just to catch up, you can't afford to have the clock continue to run.
I also think, to be fair, it's worth noting that Washington was tied for 5th for the most rushing attempts in 2024. That would be evidence that it's not that Kingsbury doesn't want to run more, or doesn't value the rushing attack, but that something has been different in 2025. That something, in my opinion, is that we have been playing from significantly behind nearly all season long. I am pretty sure Kingsbury has stated this directly several times as the primary factor.
Kliff himself said in 2024 he needs to be reminded by DQ to run, he literally said he forgets and needs to be reminded to run, and why we need to run. Wasn't joking. It's a direct quote. So, kind of strong evidence that yes, Kliff prefers to pass (and I think he especially was enjoying how it was working last year). It's not some big horrible thing to have a preference. Scott also preferred the pass. I am not some mindless acolyte to anything. I just listen and say, "OK, that's true" - and if the data points some way, I say "OK, that's true" - and later if the data points another way, I say "OK, I was wrong."
I'm definitely open to being wrong here too. Hope you believe me, because it absolutely IS true.
Your stat on 2024 rushing attempts, does it count QB runs as attempts? Does it count QB scrambles as attempts? Does it count option plays that ended as runs as rushing attempts?
I am talking specifically about plays where our OC said, "let's run the ball with a running back." That is the aspect of this scheme that I am calling out. We just don't do it, even situationally where it's called for - hot RB, give him the ball. Situationally struggling rush D, strong pass D, give the RBs the ball more.
We don't tend to do that, to our detriment.
As for the "falling behind" argument - I have looked at situational calls. While the end of the game stats show a 50/50 percentage, there are head-scratching situational calls. It may surprise you. In multiple games this year, Kliff has called running play heavy drives LATE in games when we are BEHIND. Strange, right? If you think so, I agree. We end with 50/50, and we passed MORE when the game was close or we were ahead, and we RAN more when we ended up BEHIND with that strategy. It's happened in multiple games. Also interesting: we seemed to score TDs more frequently on those late drives, most likely due to the break in tendency. So we end up with 20+ points, and everyone blames the bad Defense.
Unfortunately I don't have time to delve and find the two or three games (at least) it's happened in. I watched the games, and I watched for that tendency to break because I noticed it along with some friends.
I don't want to come off as "blaming Kliff." I am more just sharing the real data and what I would say are logical conclusions based on the data. In my opinion, this team has coaching problems though.
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