How the Commanders surrendered 9 sacks against the Eagles
Breaking down what went wrong for the Commanders on all 9 sacks.
The Washington Commanders put up their second extremely disappointing performance of the season, this time against the Philadelphia Eagles. A week ago, the Lions put the Commanders’ defense to the sword but this week it was the turn of the Commanders’ offense to be put under the spotlight. Rather like the Lions game, the Commanders’ offense struggled to get going in the first half, with the protection struggling to handle the pass rush as Carson Wentz was consistently under pressure. Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t get things turned around in the second half and the Eagles held them to just a single touchdown late in garbage time.
The most immediate concern with the offensive performance was the nine sacks that the offense allowed to the Eagles. When a team gives up nine sacks, it’s very rarely just one person at fault. It’s generally a mix of protection issues, quarterback issues and play-calling issues. So let's take a closer look at each sack to break down exactly what went wrong and see if we can identify any common issues to clean up.
First sack
Situation: Third and five from Washington 45 yard line, opening drive, 13:57 remaining in first quarter.
Analysis: On the opening drive of the game, the Commanders get into a third and five situation. Scott Turner calls a variation of one of his favorite concepts in short-yardage situations, mesh. This concept consists of multiple shallow crossing routes working in opposite directions to try and create traffic for the defenders trailing in coverage. I’m not sure if someone runs the wrong route here, but typically the call has a built-in option against zone coverage with a receiver spotting up over the middle, but the Commanders lack that here. That means when the Eagles drop back into zone coverage, the shallow crossers are all ineffective and Wentz has nowhere to go with the football.
Up front, left tackle Charles Leno struggles to pick up a nice move from defensive end Josh Sweat, who manages to club Leno aside and burst around the edge. Leno does manage to recover and force Sweat by Wentz initially, but as Wentz attempts to step up to avoid the rush, he’s immediately faced with Fletcher Cox driving center Wes Schweitzer back towards him. Wentz can’t quite step up freely and Sweat manages to grab on before Cox finishes the job for the first sack.
It’s hard to blame Wentz on this one, the call left him with no option against zone coverage and he felt pressure both off the edge and from the interior, leaving him with little options to try and avoid it. The call didn’t help if the receivers all ran the correct routes and while each individual block by the offensive line wasn’t terrible, the collective pressure allowed on both the edge and interior was too much.
Second sack
Situation: First and 10 from Washington 20, second drive, 10:41 remaining in first quarter.
Analysis: After ending the first drive with a sack, the Commanders pick up where they left off entering their second drive. The call is a play-action concept with Terry McLaurin running an out route on the outside and Jahan Dotson running a hook from the slot. Running back Antonio Gibson is the checkdown option in the flat after the play fake.
Off the snap, right tackle Sam Cosmi falls into a bad habit that he was trying to correct last season. Edge rusher Hasson Reddick uses a stutter step move and fakes a jab inside. In response, Cosmi lunges just slightly at Reddick, who then follows up his jab inside with a double swipe as he bursts back outside, This allows Reddick to clear Cosmi’s hands and get back out to the edge. Cosmi can’t do anything to recover and Reddick is able to run the arc around him to pressure Wentz.
However, inside of Cosmi, right guard Trai Turner also struggles. Turner attempts to use a quick set on Fletcher Cox, but Cox is alert to it and manages to get his hands inside on Turner. With his hands inside, Cox can drive his feet and walk Turner back towards Wentz. At the top of his drop, Wentz has to immediately step up with Cosmi beat on the edge, but he fails to feel the pressure from Cox and slide slightly to his left to buy himself time to deliver the throw. Instead, he steps up and straight into the lane for Cox to land a big hit.
I would like to have seen better pocket awareness from Wentz to slide a little bit left and try to buy himself that extra second to find Gibson in the flat. However, it’d be harsh to blame him here when both his right tackle and guard got beat pretty significantly after a play-action fake. The offensive line has to do better here.
Third sack
Situation: Second and 16 from Washington 14, second drive, 9:59 remaining in first quarter.
Analysis: This play resulted in the third consecutive sack for the Eagles over the course of two drives. On second and long, Turner goes to another one of his favorite concepts, dagger. Before the snap, Gibson motions out of the backfield towards the trips side of the field as an option in the flat while the three receivers to that side execute a variation of dagger. On the back side, Terry McLaurin is isolated on a quick spot route.
The timing between McLaurin’s route and Wentz’s drop look off here. As McLaurin spots up and shows his hands to the quarterback, he has plenty of separation had Wentz been delivering the throw at the right time. However, Wentz looks to McLaurin and takes an extra step backwards in his drop before winding up to throw. By the time he does this and is ready to release the ball, he spots corner Darius Slay driving up and ready to contest the catch and potentially land a big hit on McLaurin. So instead of making the throw, Wentz pulls the ball back down and attempts to reset to throw elsewhere.
However, up front left guard Andrew Norwell has a poor rep against defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. Norwell came off the snap expecting Hargrave to rush outside, but Hargrave immediately works to Norwell’s inside shoulder. Norwell then reaches his hands out to try and cut off the inside rush, but Hargrave gets under the hands and gets right into Norwell’s chest. From there, he’s able to jolt Norwell upwards and work inside to get past him. Norwell does his best to hold on without getting called for holding, but eventually has to let him go and Hargrave gets the sack after Wentz pulls the ball back down.
It was a poor rep from Norwell, no question, and he certainly deserves a good share of the blame on this one. However, there was an opportunity for this ball to be thrown before Norwell got beat. Either Wentz used poor footwork or McLaurin broke off his route too quickly, but whatever the issue was that threw off the timing was just as big a factor in this play resulting in a sack as Norwell struggling against Hargrave.
Fourth sack
Situation: Third and five from Washington 47, third drive, 3:55 remaining in first quarter.
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