After a four-week winning streak, Washington suffers a loss against the Seattle Seahawks, 20-15. Washington was considered an underdog who was fully capable of causing another upset but fell short after a second-half comeback. Seahawks built a comfortable lead early and pulled out the late stops with two sacks for a loss of yards when it mattered most. Seattle clinches a playoff birth and thanks to losses on Sunday from other NFC East teams, Washington still holds the number one spot in the NFC East. 

Washington’s defense performed well but was just left on the field way too long. Consistent 3 and outs from the offense made the day for the defense a lot longer. Kamren Curl led the defense with 6 tackles on Sunday and marked his 20th tackle in just 3 games. This week Washington recorded no sacks which is very disappointing because Seattle’s offensive line has allowed Russell Wilson to be sacked 40 times in 2020. 

Russell Wilson is currently placed third on the sacked list with 40 total. Ahead of him are QB’s Deshaun Watson (44) and Carson Wentz (50). With totals like these and last week’s performance, it almost seemed inevitable for Washington to cause Seattle’s offensive line to collapse and get a few sacks. Washington did not have any sacked recorded but did have a takeaway from a batted ball from Montez Sweat that turned into an interception for Daron Payne. 

Washington’s defense struggles with QB’s who have the ability to create using their feet outside of the pocket. In Week 2, Kyler Murray rushed 8 times for 67 yards, broke for a 21-yard play, and recorded 2 rushing TD’s. In Week 4, Lamar Jackson burned Washington for 53 yards on 7 rushes, broke for a 50-yard play that resulted in a touchdown. On Sunday, Russell Wilson exposed Washington’s QB run defense some more with 52 yards rushing. 

This must tighten up if we are looking to make the playoffs. Expect this defense to be explosive next week against the Carolina Panthers. 

Offense

Seattle’s defense provided constant pressure in the first half to make Haskins uncomfortable. The first few drives from Washington’s offense did not make it past the 40-yard line. Haskins completed 5 of his first 8 passes but it was only for 8 yards. Seattle did a very impressive job of limiting Washington’s WR’s and refused to let up on yards for passes close to the line of scrimmage. 

Seattle’s defense sacked Haskins 4 times and was responsible for multiple tackles for losses. Jamal Adams’ sack in the first quarter put him at 9.5 for the season. He is setting a single-season record for defensive back sacks in the season and had two more games left in the season to unleash more pain. Adams is also the first defensive back to record a sack in 4 consecutive games. 

Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room by saying that the offensive presence in the first half was nonexistent and ghastly. Washington was only able to score 3 points and had no momentum whatsoever to get the ball moving down the field. Punt after punt. 

Haskins was the main focus of Sunday because this was a true test for the QB who lost his starting position to Alex Smith 1/3 into the season. To start things off, Washington fans were not impressed and started to turn on Haskins quickly. The Washington Football fanbase is very critical of Haskins’ performances and is not scared to voice opinions. With that said, his performance in the first three quarters showed no progress at all. 

On the first sack, it seemed as if Haskins was moving in slow motion when Adams was hawking him down for the sack. He lacked movement in the pocket and the completed passes were either for loss of yardage or a gain of no more than two yards. Seattle had some offensive drives and the defense could not get a rest due to consecutive 3 and outs. 

Seattle has one of the worst passing defenses in the league almost allowing 300 yards per game. Washington had two interceptions and 140 yards passing in 40 minutes. *Thanks, JP!

Be mad all you want but there have been some key dropped passes in the last two weeks that could have changed the momentum of the game. Hate to say it but some of these receivers have bricks for hands. Hard to blame Haskins for that. 

Haskins looked like a completely different QB later in the 3rd and almost rallied Washington back from a 20-3 deficit. Haskins displayed some impressive throws and scrambled for three second-half first downs late. 

Haskins was starting to look like the QB we had hoped to see at the beginning of the game. He led a 14 play 81-yard drive as well as an 11 play 64-yard drive. The effort was a little too late and any room for a comeback was depleted once Haskins was sacked twice back to back on the last drive of the game. In all fairness and outside of the poor decisions Haskins made, his performance late showed his improvement in creating outside of the pocket, 3rd down vision, and accuracy. 

Haskins completed 38 of 55 passes for 295 yards, 1 touchdown and two interceptions.

“There were some plays I’d want back, for sure,” Haskins said. “It was definitely a hard fought game.”

Overall, I am not disappointed with the Washington loss against the Seahawks. Washington still has solid chances of making the playoffs and these next two games will solidify their opportunity of doing so. This was the reality check Washington needed and with Ron Rivera’s hard nose personality, fans are in for a treat next week against Carolina.