Emptying the notebook: Commanders defense

Breaking down a few different parts of the Commanders defensive performance against the Cowboys

Most of the focus after the Commanders disappointing loss to the Cowboys was on the failures on the offensive side of the ball, and rightly so. But quietly, the defense did some nice things early on to keep the Cowboys quiet, especially in the first half. However, there were also some issues that cropped up that enabled the Cowboys to do enough to win the game, with the help of some crazy special teams plays. So I thought for this week, I would empty a few items out of the notebook and touch on a few different players instead of doing a deep dive on just one.

In this post I’ll look at rookie cornerback Mike Sainristil’s continued improvement, Benjamin St-Juste’s continued struggles, why the Commanders need more out of Daron Payne and a nice play by safety Jeremy Chinn. Let;s start with the biggest positive, Mike Sainristil.

Mike Sainristil

I wrote about Sainristil’s progress just a few weeks ago after his impressive performance against the Eagles. While he still has improvements to make, he continues to make lots of good plays. I wanted to quickly highlight two that stood out against the Cowboys.

This play is a terrific demonstration of Sainristil’s football intelligence and instincts. The Commanders are running a disguised Tampa-2 simulated pressure here. They start with safety Quan Martin in the deep middle of the field, but he actually steps up into the hole. Meanwhile, both defenders in the slots drop back to play a deep half each. Bobby Wagner joins the rush up the middle while the two edge rushers sink back into coverage. It’s a good scheme that has worked well for Washington this season.

But we’re here to talk about Sainristil. He lines up to the right of the offensive formation, all the way outside the numbers. He’s responsible for the flat to his side of the field, but he’s also very aware of other factors around him. The first of those factors is Cowboys star receiver CeeDee Lamb, who is lined up in the slot to Sainristil’s side of the field. The second factor is that the defender meant to drop into zone coverage over the slot is defensive end Dorance Armstrong, which is obviously a bad matchup for the Commanders. Armed with that knowledge, Sainristil goes outside of his assignment to make a fantastic play here.

At the snap of the ball, Sainristil looks inside and spots Lamb breaking off on a quick hitch while also seeing the quarterback looking at Lamb. So while Sainristil is responsible for the flat outside, he can see where the ball is likely to be thrown. Instead of just leaving that to someone else and sticking to the flat that he is responsible for, Sainristil makes a quick decision. He begins to drive on Lamb’s route inside. You can see that he plants his foot and begins to drive inside before the quarterback has even begun his throwing motion. That’s how quickly Sainristil reads this play, identifies the issue and then works outside of his own responsibility to make a play. He arrives just a fraction after the ball does, landing a big hit to knock Lamb over immediately. Lamb does well to hold onto the catch, but Sainristil’s tackle means he gets a very small gain and the defense is set up with a third and nine situation.

Another play worth highlighting for Sainristil was his pass break up.

This time, the Cowboys have three receivers to their right with Sainristil responsible for the outside receiver. Before the snap, you can see Sainristil takes heavy inside leverage. This position puts Sainristil in a position to wall off any route that breaks inside while also having him prepared to turn and run with any vertical route or close quickly on any out-breaking route. The receiver runs a deep dig route and Sainristil does well initially to keep his cushion and stay on top of the route in case the receiver works vertical. Once the receiver breaks off his route and cuts inside, Sainristil shows quick hips to flip back inside and change direction.

Ideally, his inside leverage would have enabled him to cut off the receiver as he breaks inside, but the receiver is able to get inside. Many corners in this spot would have been beaten and unable to recover, but we see the competitive nature Sainristil has to not give up. He changes direction quickly and sticks with the receiver on his break across the middle of the field. Sainristil does benefit from a pass that is slightly behind the receiver, but he takes full advantage of that. He undercuts the route and swipes down with his hand at the catch point, knocking the ball out and breaking up the pass.

Sainristil wasn’t flawless in this game, but he continues to make a number of very impressive plays and I’m sure the Commanders coaching staff and front office feel great about drafting him.

St-Juste’s struggles continue

The difference between one starting cornerback and the other couldn’t be more drastic. Sainristil shows great promise on one side of the field and seemingly improves every week, while Benjamin St-Juste continues to struggle. The worrying part of St-Juste’s play is that he struggles with the same issues each week.