Breaking down the Commanders goal line series

Taking a closer look at the final three plays down on the goal line that ultimately resulted in Washington losing.

The Washington Commanders fell to their fourth straight defeat after losing a close game to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. Lots has been made of the final goal line stand, where the Commanders failed to score on three attempts from the two yard line, so I thought I’d take a closer look at each play. 

Before I get into each play though, I want to preface this with the game situation. Many people were critical of offensive coordinator Scott Turner for not running the ball on any of three plays the Commanders ran in that situation. There were two important factors in that decision. First, the Commanders hadn’t run the ball well all game, the running backs had totalled just 28 yards on 12 carries up until that point. But secondly and more importantly, the Commanders had no timeouts and just 19 seconds left to play with. If they had run the ball and got stuffed, they’d have had to quickly line up and spike the ball to stop the clock, wasting valuable time and a down. 

Simply put, passing the ball gave the Commanders up to four potential shots at the end zone, while running the ball likely gives them just two plays when factoring in the time and down lost to trying to stop the clock. Had Washington kept a time out, I suspect there would have been a run called at some point, but with no timeouts available, passing the ball and maximizing the number of plays to try and score was the right call. With that out the way, let’s get into the plays. 

First down

The Commanders start off with a bunch set tight to the right of the formation. The running back also aligns to the right of quarterback Carson Wentz, giving Washington four eligible receivers to that side. That leaves Terry McLaurin isolated to the left of the formation. Turner calls one of his go-to concepts in short yardage situations, mesh. McLaurin and tight end John Bates both run shallow crosses from opposite sides of the formation. Meanwhile, receiver Cam Sims runs a deeper crossing route behind them. On the outside, Curtis Samuel and J.D. McKissic run a zone-beating corner-flat combination. 

Off the snap, Wentz looks to that corner-flat combination, expecting a zone coverage. The Titans play that concept well, with the safety matching Samuel’s corner route and the outside corner playing in between both routes, enabling him to sink back to a throw to Samuel or drive down on a throw to McKissic in the flat. With both options taken away, Wentz moves on to the mesh concept. The Titans do a great job muddying the coverage, using the edge rusher to jam Bates at the line, disrupting his release while the defensive tackle to that side drops out into coverage to add another body in the middle of the field.

Wentz doesn’t help himself either, drifting backwards unnecessarily all the way to the 14 yard line before attempting his throw. On the TV angle, this looked like a really poor attempt to throw the ball away, but from this angle it appears that he is actually trying to find Sims on his crossing route in the back of the end zone. However, as Wentz releases the ball, Sims stops his route suddenly, making the throw look much worse than it was. Now, I’d still be a bit critical of Wentz for attempting the throw to Sims with the back side corner still in the area and able to sink back under the throw. I’d have preferred him to throw the ball away more intently and move on to the next play. He could maybe have thought about scrambling too, but I’m sure he was conscious of the clock and wanting to have enough time left to run more plays if unsuccessful. 

Second down