Inconsistency plagues Commanders defense in loss to Seahawks

Breaking down the inconsistency of the Commanders defense which led to the Seahawks biggest plays

The numbers on the Commanders defense in the loss to the Seahawks this week aren’t pretty. The Seahawks put up 489 yards of total offense and averaged 6.6 yards per play on their way to scoring 29 points. Their running game picked up 120 yards and the Seahawks had two receivers over 90 yards, with two more over 50. While the Commanders were able to restrict Seattle to converting just four of 14 third down attempts, the Seahawks were still able to pick up 27 first downs.

Seattle had 12 total drives, seven of which were scoring drives of 49 yards or more. While the Commanders did well to restrict the Seahawks to only three field goals in the first half, the floodgates opened in the second half and Seattle scored on four of their six second half drives. It was obviously another poor performance from a defense that has significantly underwhelmed in a season that they were meant to carry a young quarterback.

To cover everything that went wrong in this game would require far too many clips and words for a single post. Instead I thought I’d focus on one of the more frustrating aspects of the game, which is the inconsistencies of the young players on defense. The Commanders are playing a lot of young players on defense, either by design or necessity through injury and those players are showing signs of potential on one play and then a significant mistake on the next. Safety Percy Butler is the perfect example. Let’s look at his role in the Seahawks most explosive play of the game. 

On this play we see the Commanders dropping into a conservative Cover 2 shell with two safeties back defending the deep halves of the field while the other five defenders split the underneath part of the field into fifths. This defense is all about protecting against the deep shot and forcing the ball to be checked down underneath where the defense can rally to the ball and make the tackle. The scheme works perfectly, staying on top of the deeper routes and forcing the quarterback to eventually find the running back on a checkdown underneath. 

From this position, the play should be simple for the defense. As soon as the ball is thrown to the back, everyone should be driving down to assist in making the tackle and keeping the gain to a minimum. However, the first defender that should get there is cornerback Danny Johnson. The running back receives the pass while working towards Johnson’s zone, so Johnson should be the first one on the scene and make the tackle. Unfortunately, Johnson slips as he attempts to drive down towards the running back, which gives the running back just enough time to run by him and turn the corner. 

Now that’s obviously unfortunate and frustrating in its own right, but even with Johnson slipping and failing to make the play himself, the rest of the defense should be able to make up ground and get the running back down. As the deep safety, Percy Butler’s role here is to be able to stay on top of everything and then act as the last line of defense, making tackles when the underneath defenders fail to prevent a bad play from becoming a terrible one. Butler works his way down towards the running back but then pauses his feet as the back approaches. The back gives a small juke and that’s enough to help him break free of the tackle attempt from Butler. 

From there, it’s off to the races and the back takes it all the way down the sideline into the end zone for a 64-yard touchdown on what should have really been a four or five yard completion at most. For Butler, it bore a striking resemblance to the Patriots long touchdown last week, which just so happened to be another 64-yard touchdown in which Butler missed a tackle that enabled the running back to turn a big play into a huge one. 

This is obviously an issue for Butler that needs to be addressed going forward, but it’s not like he’s completely incapable of making that play. In fact, later in the game, Butler made a fantastic play on third and short that was much more difficult than the tackle he missed. 

This time, the Seahawks face third and three just on the edge of field goal range late in the game. They use a condensed formation to try and muddy the read as much as possible for the defense here. The slot receiver goes in motion on a jet sweep fake, followed quickly by the running back on a play-action fake. That’s all misdirection to hide the fact the tight end is leaking out to the flat. This play could easily work with the safeties distracted by so much misdirection, but Butler sees through all of it and keys the tight end sifting across the formation and out to the flat. 

Butler does a terrific job reading the play quickly and reacting instantly. He makes up a ton of ground to not only get across the field but then close on the tight end and arrive just after the ball does. He instantly makes a strong tackle and in fact brings the tight end down for a two yard loss on the play, setting up a fourth and five situation just outside of field goal range. 

It really was an exceptional play by Butler that shows just how talented he is, but the inconsistency is too hard for this current defense to overcome. Especially considering he’s far from the only one playing inconsistently. Cornerback Benjamin St-Juste has had a pretty solid season overall with some very good highs, but also with some mistakes mixed in there too. In this game, we saw plenty of inconsistency from him too, starting with the very next play after that positive from Butler.