Commanders defense fails to finish plays

Breaking down the multiple missed opportunities the defense failed to make the most of

The Washington Commanders defense was very disappointing in their opening game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this past Sunday. There were communication problems leading to coverage busts, issues defending the screen game and the Bucs hit on some nice run schemes that negated the Commanders aggressive defensive line at times. But perhaps the most frustrating thing was the inability for the Commanders defenders to finish plays. We saw a number of missed tackles, particularly by defensive lineman when pursuing quarterback Baker Mayfield. 

The Commanders actually did a good job throughout most of the game in generating pressure up front and on another day, they would have had multiple sacks. Unfortunately though, on this occasion just about every pass rusher had a missed opportunity to bring down Mayfield, allowing him to extend plays and find a pass. 

This was one of the first missed opportunities for the Commanders. Daron Payne aligns on the inside shoulder of the right guard and gets a nice one-on-one matchup as the center slides away from him. Off the snap, Payne works outside initially, creating a bigger gap in the middle to eventually work into. The right guard gets a bit high out of his stance and tries to cut off the potential rush outside, overcommitting to that side. Payne lands both hands on the chest of the guard and then quickly adjusts his path to rush to the inside. He then drops his hands and rips through, bursting through the middle of the offensive line with a clear path to the quarterback. Unfortunately, Payne gets thrown off slightly by a juke from Mayfield, who then manages to sneak away from him and turn what should have been a sack into a positive scramble. 

On the very next play, Payne’s linemate Jonathan Allen failed to finish after a good rush. 

On third down, the Commanders use wide alignments for all their defensive lineman, with the ends lined up way outside and the two tackles lined up head up on the offensive tackles. This is an aggressive rush alignment that gives each rusher the best angle to the quarterback. Dorance Armstrong has a nice rush off the edge, turning the corner and pressuring Mayfield into stepping up in the pocket. As he steps up, Jonathan Allen works inside and skips past the center sliding his way. With Mayfield being forced to step up towards him, Allen should have a sack here, but like Payne on the previous play, he fails to bring him down despite getting hands on him and Mayfield escapes. 

Now the Commanders did manage to rally and tackle Mayfield short of the first down marker here, but Mayfield picked up eight yards on the play, when Allen could have had him sacked for a loss of about seven or eight. That swing meant the Bucs were able to attempt a 34-yard chip shot field goal instead of a much tougher 50-yard field goal. That’s also not factoring in how much they could have lost on the previous play if Payne had made the sack, which could have taken the Bucs out of field goal range entirely. 

The issues with finishing sacks continued on the next drive.