Initial observations from Washington’s win over the Panthers
Some initial thoughts and observations from Washington’s 27-21 victory over Carolina.
The Washington Football Team managed to put together back to back wins for the first time this season after beating the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Washington backed up its impressive win over the Buccaneers last week with a win on the road that keeps its season alive. Here are some of my initial thoughts and observations.
Taylor Heinicke
Washington was always going to ride the wave of its quarterback play this year. Ryan Fitzpatrick is an up and down quarterback and when he got hurt, he was replaced by another in Taylor Heinicke. Heinicke’s performance can take some pretty big swings between good and bad throughout each game, but this week he did a much better job cutting down on the errors and making the big plays when he needed to.
One of his best throws of the game came on Washington’s opening touchdown.
On this play, Washington runs a play-action fake with Cam Sims running a glance route to the left and Terry McLaurin doing the same from the other side. Off the snap, Heinicke fakes the hand-off and gets his eyes on the safety. He looks to his right and spots the safety naturally looking to double McLaurin. That short look to that side got the safety to commit to that side of the field and left Sims one-on-one on the other side. Heinicke then came back to his left and threaded the needle on a tight window throw to Sims for the touchdown.
It was a good throw from Heinicke that he managed to manipulate open by keeping the safety out of the way. That’s very good quarterbacking, especially in the red zone. But his good play didn’t stop there. As per usual, we saw Heinicke’s toughness throughout the game, willing to stand in the pocket to take a hit when he needed to.
Here, Washington runs a post-wheel combination with McLaurin in the slot running a sail route behind it. Heinicke spots a blitz coming pre-snap and adjusts his protection to ensure it gets picked up. He stands in there under pressure after running back Jaret Patterson stepped up to block a linebacker and delivers a good throw to McLaurin under pressure for a nice gain.
In key situations, we also saw Heinicke’s ability to work off-script and extend plays with his legs.
With Washington trying to drive down the field in the fourth quarter, the Panthers got a stop on third down and Ron Rivera elected to go for it on fourth and three. The Panthers drop back into zone coverage and match both the quick out to the right and MacLaurin's shallow cross from the left. Heinicke then feels pressure from his left and steps up to avoid it before rolling out to his left. He looks to his back, but finds another zone defender in position to make a play so he continues to scramble. With another defender closing in on him, Heinicke attempts to work back inside and then spots tight end John Bates, delivering a side-arm throw while being tackled to find Bates for a conversion and keep the drive alive.
It was an incredible play that Heinicke has proven capable of time and again during his time in Washington. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite back it up later in the drive when Washington had the opportunity to go up by a touchdown late in the game.
On third and seven, Washington aligns McLaurin in the slot to the right and has him run a deep over route. Heinicke likes the match up and looks to find McLaurin. However, he feels some early pressure and starts to back away from it before the throw. He fails to properly set his feet and ends up falling away from the throw, which leads to him narrowly missing McLaurin in the end zone.
Washington ended up kicking a field goal and winning the game after the defense made another stop, but it would have been a much smoother ending had Heinicke been able to set his feet and deliver an accurate throw. That is kind of what Washington has to accept with Taylor Heinicke at quarterback though. He’ll have some very frustrating plays and some outstanding ones too. That final drive saw Heinicke sacked for holding onto the ball too long, pick up a few first downs with his legs while being smart in keeping the clock moving, an amazing off-script fourth down conversion and then a missed touchdown pass. It’s all part and parcel of the Heinicke experience. Today though, there was certainly far more good than bad.
Good red zone calls
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