Breaking down Washington’s defensive issues against the Giants
Taking a closer look at what went wrong for Washington’s defense, particularly on third down and against the read-option.
Washington’s highly touted defense has so far been a big disappointment through the team’s first two games. Against the Chargers in Week One, Washington’s defense gave up 424 total yards and 20 points, while against the Giants they gave up 391 total yards and 29 points. That’s a bad start to the season for a defense that many anticipated to be one of the best in the league and certainly the strongest unit on this team.
One of the biggest issues has been on third downs, giving up too many conversions and failing to get off the field. Another issue that cropped up more in the Giants game was the ability to defend the read-option. Let’s break down both issues and see what happened.
Third downs
While watching the Giants game, it felt like the third down issues seemed to carry over from the Chargers game to the Giants game. Looking back at the actual numbers, the Giants only converted four of 12 attempts. Those numbers are a little misleading, but I’ll come back to that later. For now, let’s…
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