Washington came off their bye week, rested looking forward to making a push to win the terrible NFC East. But instead, they had a very lackluster game versus the New York Giants, who they lost two just 3 weeks prior.
They started off with a 4th and 1 stop by Washington inside their own territory but were quickly negated by a fumble by rookie RB Antonio Gibson, which the Giants recovered and scored a field goal.
Then UDFA Isiah Wright muffed a punt inside their own 20, which the Giants quickly scored a TD.
Then to end the half, JD McKissic slipped while Alex Smith was throwing him the football in the red zone, which Blake Martinez picked off.
See the trend going on here? Washington is not a good enough team to have FIVE turnovers and still win football games. They’ve done it with the good teams like Cleveland, and one of the worst teams like the Giants. Not many teams can overcome a five turnover game, but certainly not this team with one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
They tried to make a comeback late in the fourth quarter, but two costly interceptions by Alex Smith essentially ended any comeback effort.
With Kyle Allen out for a good amount of time with a leg injury, Alex Smith has been named the starter for now, and Dwayne Haskins has been moved up to the backup role. Something to look forward to, Alex looked way better than he did in his first game back when they faced the LA Rams. Better weather, more experience, and he finally got over the initial nerve of finally getting back in the game, not worrying about taking a hit, completing a pass.
He threw his first touchdown in almost two years on Sunday, and the offense moved pretty well with him in the game. Yes, he is captain check down, but I think outside of the turnovers (which I think was an anomaly), as he’s never been a high turnover QB, so I expect the offense to get better, even better than what Kyle Allen was running. Don’t expect many big plays, but it will be more consistent, not too many turnovers.
The defense played as good as they could today. With the number of turnovers the offense committed, 23 points is the best they could have done. Allowing 240 yards is great, I give zero blame to the defense for the loss.
Yes, facing Daniel Jones and not forcing him into a single turnover is a problem, but I think you have to give credit to the Giants. They did not call many plays that have turnover potential, played very conservative, and walked out of FedEx Field with a win.