Hogs Haven
Washington took a trip south to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to take on the struggling Falcons, and in typical fashion, allowed a team to get right against them. Atlanta failed to score a single point the prior week against their division rival Carolina Panthers, but righted that ship in front of their home crowd putting up 34 points against Joe Whitt’s defense. That defense allowed Michael Penix to throw for 313 yards and two touchdowns while giving up 128 rushing yards – 75 of those to star Bijan Robinson.
The banged-up Commanders will need to figure out a lot of things this week before heading out west to take on the 3-1 Chargers who are also experiencing some injuries of their own.
Below are my Studs and Duds of the game, followed by some notes.
Deebo Samuel: Deebo continues his excellent start to the season, again leading the Commanders’ wide receiving corps with six receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown, while adding 9 more yards rushing.
Luke McCaffrey: Although the passing game was not very good against the Falcons, Luke had a solid game as a starting wide receiver, blocker and kick returner. He had two receptions for 21 yards and a touchdown while blocking his butt off for the ball-carriers and returned six kicks for 199 yards (including a 58 yarder). He even had two special teams tackles.
Mike Sainristil: Sainristil corralled the Commanders’ first turnover of the season when he picked off Penix in the third quarter. He also had seven tackles and a pass defended on the afternoon.
Matt Gay: Kicking inside for the first time this season, Gay connected on all four of his field goal attempts, including a 52 yarder.
Bobby Wagner: Despite leading the defense with 10 total tackles, Wagner also missed a few and was HORRIBLE in coverage allowing easy receptions to whoever he was ‘attempting” to cover. It’s VERY CLEAR that he needs to become a part-time player at this point of his career.
Marshon Lattimore: Lattimore was picked on all afternoon, and he allowed Michael Penix and the Falcons receivers, mainly Drake London, to go off. Not only is he allowing separation, but he continues to commit penalties – and STILL allow receptions. I have been a defender of the trade, but I’m quickly starting to doubt the move.
Quan Martin: Martin played his worst game since his rookie season, allowing easy completions and missing a bunch of tackles. He was late a few times getting over the top to help and he looked just as poor covering the middle in zone.
Defensive line’s missed tackles: The defensive linemen missed an absurd number of tackles on the afternoon – many of which would have been for a loss in the backfield or a short gain. I understand the entire defense was missing tackles, but I feel this group stood out more than others that I didn’t already call...
