Washingtons’ defense continues to give up big plays
Breaking down what went wrong for Washingtons’ defense on some of the Saints’ big plays
Washington’s defense was again the center of attention for the wrong reasons this week. The team continues to have coverage busts in the secondary, leading to big explosive plays. Head Coach Ron Rivera tried to ease concerns by suggesting it was only a handful of bad plays that were really costing the team, but we’re now five weeks into the season and Washington has given up multiple big plays each game. They can’t continue to give up explosive plays or there’s no way the offense can keep up.
So what happened on the four or five big plays that cost Washington this week? Let’s take a closer look.
After the game, safety Landon Collins explained that the Saint surprised them with a quick snap on this play. The Saints broke the huddle with about 17 seconds left on the play clock and snapped it about four seconds later, which is much quicker than normal. As you can see at the start of the clip, Collins and fellow safety Bobby McCain are still looking and talking to each other rather than focusing on the snap of the ball.
Washington attempts to disguise its coverage on this play. McCain starts in the deep middle of the field, but he rotates up after the snap while Collins drops back to replace him deep. With the combination of the quick snap and Washington attempting to disguise coverage, Collins is late to get back to the deep middle of the field, and as he does so, he never thinks to check the routes behind him. Deonte Harris runs a deep post behind him and is wide open for the 72-yard touchdown.
That was the first big play of the game, but Washington managed to recover and looked like going in at half time with the scores level. However, on the last play before the half, the Saints had another huge play.
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