Down in DC

Disappointing. That’s the first word to come to my head. I don’t remember being this confused so early in season. What kinda team do we have? Are we as good as that 3-0 start that we got off too? Are we just an average team who got lucky early in a season when some teams are still in preseason mode? After 5 games we have way more questions than answers.

I’m trying to take some positives away from the game yesterday but it’s kind of tough to do. We gave the opposition over a full football field in penalties for the second week in a row. It’s such a change from what we saw the first 3 weeks of the season when we were praising this team for how disciplined they looked. It just feels like we can’t have a big play happen anymore without there being a penalty on us. This team is getting increasingly hard to watch. Our O-line who looked formidable the first 3 games went back to looking like the line of last year for the second week in a row. We had more penalty yards than offensive yards in the first half! You just cannot win a football game that way. I know, losing Lane Johnson hurts but there’s no reason for everyone to get worse after his suspension. Our defense who for 3 weeks looked like the Seahawks now looks like the defense of last year, letting up 24 plus points back to back weeks after allowing 9.0 points per game the first 3 weeks. I wrote about this last week and my worries came to fruition because I believe the Lions gave the rest of the NFL the blueprint on how to beat our defense, that’s spreading us out and exposing our corner backs and making our linebackers make tackles in space. After having so much faith the first three weeks I now have doubts every time they are on the field.

Carson Wentz just had no time at all Sunday. 27 dropbacks, 6 knockdowns, 5 sacks, and 11 hurries. He had only 5 chances to throw the ball with no one in his face. Imagine that, FIVE. When he did have time to throw either no one got open, he was indecisive, or we got a penalty. For a rookie quarterback he did the best he could given the circumstances he was dealt. He wasn’t perfect, over throwing receivers sometimes but he made some plays when it looked like nothing was there. He still continues to impress me even with his worst game as a pro. The rookie O lineman Big V got exposed early and often. It was disappointing but to be expected from a 5th round rookie going against a pro bowl lineman in Ryan Kerrigan. He welcomed him to the NFL on the first play of the game with a sack of Carson Wentz. Doug Pederson announced he will stay with Big V so hopefully that gives him confidence and he learns from his first start.

I’m trying to find a silver lining here in this game for the second week in a row and it is definitely tougher this time around. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is that as bad as we played, we were still only a possession away from tying that game up. I believe that we gave the Redskins that game more so than they won it. I just can’t get over the fact that we look like a totally different football team than we did the first three weeks. I personally believe that this team has a problem playing when they have expectations. The seem to crumble when the pressure is on. Last year, they couldn’t take the pressure of being preseason Superbowl picks and now they start of 3-0 everyone starts hyping them up and all of a sudden they lose 2 games in a row.

I still believe that there is more than enough time to fix the mistakes that have cost us so far. The good thing is that were 3-2 and it’s still very early in the season. I still have trust in Coach Pederson, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and our quarterback Carson Wentz. These mistakes are correctable. Penalties can be minimized and adjustments can be made on defense. There is too much talent on defense for that side of the ball to continue to struggle. We can take these negatives and turn them into positives in time to get this season back on track. It doesn’t get any easier with the Vikings and Dallas up next but every game in the NFL is a battle so let’s see what this team is made of.