Don't blame it on the kicker
Austin Seibert’s wide left extra point was the devastating final blow to a Commanders team that did not deserve to win on Sunday. It capped off a horrendous day for Washington’s kicker, who missed two extra points and a field goal after entering the day 25-for-27 on field goals and a perfect 22-for-22 on PATs. The fact that Seibert had a shot to tie the game in its biggest moment and missed is what will be remembered, but the game was lost long before that fateful moment.
Sunday’s 34-26 loss should’ve been an easy win against a flailing team. The Cowboys were reeling after losing their last five games by a combined 102 points, quarterback Dak Prescott had been ruled out for the season and Mike McCarthy appeared to be a lame duck coach. The vibes coming out of Dallas were at the lowest they’d been in years.
And yet, Washington allowed them to hang around. The Cowboys were anemic on offense to open the game — their first five drives resulted in a blocked field goal, a missed field goal, a fumble, a punt and a blocked punt. After all that, the score was just 3-0 in favor of Washington. The Commanders failed to build on opportunities granted to them by an incompetent Dallas offense, and in return, they allowed the Cowboys to gain momentum and figure out how to best attack a weak Washington defense.
The playcalling was incredibly passive for much of the game. Over the first three quarters, Kliff Kingsbury’s offense had 19 sets of first downs, in which he called 12 run plays and seven pass plays. Two of those pass plays were in a two-minute drill in which Washington threw the ball only, meaning Kingsbury called just five first down passes in the first 43 minutes** of regular non-tempo game time. That’s inexcusable, especially when Washington’s running backs were being held to just 47 yards on 17 carries.
The Commanders called plays as if Jayden Daniels was still injured, which head coach Dan Quinn assured last Monday was not the case. The offense was at its best during the middle of the season when Daniels was letting it rip through the air. From Week 2 to Week 6 (Daniels’ rib injury occurred on the first drive of Week 7 against Carolina), the rookie QB averaged 244 yards per contest which completing an astonishing 76% of his passes. Since the injury, Daniels has actually thrown more passes — largely due to the fact that all five contests were one-score games — but he’s completed just 61% of his throws.
Daniels certainly struggled with accuracy due to his rib injury and was especially inaccurate in losses to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but the injury didn’t seem to be a factor on Sunday. On the third offensive snap, Daniels ran for 16 yards on a third down speed option between the tackle and guard, and Daniels totaled 74 rushing yards on seven carries throughout the day. If there was a sure sign that he was finally healthy, it was Kingsbury’s willingness to give Daniels designed run plays. Yet, it almost felt like Kingsbury and Quinn still didn’t trust Daniels to throw the ball, leading to a lack of aggressiveness that stunted any opportunity for offensive momentum.
When Daniels was finally given the chance to attempt downfield passing, he excelled. Trailing 20-9 after a John Bates fumble led to a blown-coverage touchdown from Cowboys tight end Luke Schoonmaker with five minutes to go, Daniels completed seven passes in nine plays (sacked once, one handoff to RB Jeremy McNichols) to lead Washington on a late 69-yard touchdown drive in just over two minutes. Then, after Cowboys return man KaVontae Turpin brought back the ensuing kickoff 99 yards to push the Dallas lead to 10, Daniels completed three consecutive passes and scrambled for 23 yards to set up a field goal and keep Washington within a score. Finally came the miraculous 86-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin in which Seibert missed the tying extra point, effectively sealing the loss.
It took a herculean effort by Daniels to even give Washington a chance at the game after the Commanders tripped over their own feet for the first 55 minutes of game time. After the 5:08 mark in the fourth quarter, Daniels was 12-of-14 passing for 181 yards and two touchdowns, with his lone incompletions coming on a spike to stop the clock and a Hail Mary attempt that resulted in an interception. That’s a far better stat line than the 13-for-24 for 94 yards clip with a pick and a rushing touchdown that he had prior.
The entirety of the blame cannot go to the coaching staff’s conservative playcalling, though, as the Commanders players failed to execute and made mistake after mistake. Bates’ fumble directly led to a Dallas touchdown, which was a major lapse by safety Jeremy Chinn. Benjamin St. Juste struggled in coverage once again and gave up a 41 yard completion at the end of the first half that enabled the Cowboys to tie the game at 3-3. Brian Robinson battled through injury, but allowed a screen pass to bounce right off of his hands and into the arms of a defender for an interception at the Dallas 28-yard-line. The entire kickoff team let Turpin run right past them on his score as the whole unit lost any sense of gap integrity. And last, but certainly not least, long snapper Tyler Ott hiked the ball directly into the dirt on Seibert’s extra point attempt. Even if Tress Way did his best to fix it before Seibert’s foot made contact, there’s no doubt that the poor snap affected the miss.
Everyone is to blame for the loss. It was an ugly, ugly game from Washington all-around and came amidst a string of ugly games, making the poor stretch a trend, rather than an anomaly. This team is currently the seventh seed in the NFC, just half a game in front of Arizona and the risk of missing the playoffs entirely. The Commanders need to look at their identity and figure out exactly how to turn this season around, and it starts with leadership before it manifests in playcalling and execution from the players on the field. Austin Seibert isn’t free of blame, but the issues that presented on Sunday existed far beyond just him.