BREAKDOWN: Why the Commanders DEFENSE FAILED in Frustrating Loss to Falcons

BREAKDOWN: Why the Commanders DEFENSE FAILED in Frustrating Loss to Falcons

For the second straight road game, the Washington Commander showed a frustrating lack of discipline and defensive cohesion, wasting a valiant comeback effort in a 31-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. We break it all down now on Locked On Commanders. You are Locked On Commanders, your daily podcast on the Washington Commanders, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. This is Locked On Commanders. I’m David Harrison, your guy on the ground covering the Washington Commanders for W USA 9 right here with you five days a week. And you can also find me writing about the Washington Commanders for Sports Illustrated. It’s commandergameday.com. You can follow me on X at Dharrison82. And I do want to thank you for coming through for this therapy Monday episode of Locked on Commanders. To the everydayers out there or those of you who come through for every single episode, win lose or hopefully never again draw. Special thank you goes out to you. Of course, if it’s your first time here, thanks for coming through. Yes, we’re going to talk about some negatives, but we are also going to talk about some positives because there were some of those in this game, believe it or not. Coming up on today’s episode, we are going to talk about some players that did stand out in the Washington Commanders second loss of the season. We’re gonna talk about some repeat issues. Uh that certainly reared their ugly heads in this game. And we’re gonna kick it all off with the offense’s comeback falling short because the defense couldn’t get on the same page with the offense. Play that complimentary football. Of course, all that coming up on today’s episode of Lock on Commanders, a proud part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. So, the story of this loss, the second loss for the Washington Commanders this season, second loss on the road, uh really was written in the first half, even though it wasn’t solidified obviously until the second half. Uh the defense was just uh completely dece dismantled by the Atlanta Falcons offense from front to the to the second level uh to the secondary, all of it. Uh there was a there was a concerning amount of of slow start out of the offense. I don’t know if that’s really a good way to put it, but a sputtering start by the Washington Mayor’s offense certainly didn’t help things. Really got things kind of snowballing before very long in this game despite a frantic comeback in the second half. The Washington Mayers actually outscored the Falcons in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough because of the hole they were in. And that’s kind of where we’re going to start here because the defense really put this team in just a situation where they just couldn’t come back, right? And obviously as we talk about it in the second half, the Washington Commanders actually outscoring the Atlanta Falcons. Clearly didn’t come back out of it. And time after time, you know, we’re watching this Washington Commanders offense put up some points, do some good things. Certainly not perfect by any means. Certainly not off the hook uh for this loss by any means, but when we’re just getting to the main takeaway of this thing, first and foremost, three scores on three possessions to start this game. That’s what the Atlanta Falcons started with. That’s what the Washington Commanders started allowing 17 points in those first three drives. Uh there was a little bit of a period there with the Washmir’s defense able to stop the Atlanta Falcons offense from putting up some points, but the Washmir’s offense unable to put up points in those in those moments. And again, ultimately it boils down to playing complimentary football and winning football or lacking complimentary football when you lose, especially when you lose as ugly as the Washington Commanders did here in this week’s game. Uh the Falcons, they executed their game plan uh to perfection. I think they’re probably going to say, you know, uh again, wasn’t perfect from a standpoint of every pass was completed, every run was successful, but I think certainly they’re going to feel like they did enough. Clearly they did enough, and they’re going to feel pretty good about themselves coming out of this game. But the problem is, and if you’re an everyday here, you already know this, uh if you’re an insider, we were talking about it throughout the game, the Atlanta Falcons did exactly what we thought they were going to do. uh they tried to affect the run going on the perimeter left side, right side. They threw the ball to the left side, to the right side, and then they also had moments where they basically forced the ball into the middle of the field. The problem came that because they were so effective on their left and right side passes and run plays early in the game that when it came time for them to basically force the ball over the middle of the field, especially in the past, uh the Washington Mayor’s defense was stretched boundary to boundary so much trying to uh overcompensate or trying to compensate for their deficiencies in defending those perimeter plays that the middle was then thinned out and the Falcons were able to find space to operate in the middle where normally they’re very weak, if not the weakest team in the NFL, certainly one of the weakest teams in the NFL. And that is essentially in a very boiled down, very simplistic way, that is essentially how you as a defense make an offense uh make their strength or allow them rather to make their their weakness look like a strength uh even if it is a oneweek uh you know occurrence. And that’s exactly what happened with the Washington Mayor’s defense here uh tonight or this afternoon in Atlanta. Uh again, uh sustained drives, 14 play, 73 yard touchdown drive uh for the Atlanta Falcons. Drained eight minutes off the clock. Uh that’s that’s absolutely a drive that no defense is ever going to hang their hat on or say that that’s the kind of defense that they want to play. Uh and meanwhile, while the defense was again the main culprit, the main subject or whatever you want to call it uh in in this thing, you have a three and out lost yardage. Uh you failed to capitalize on key opportunities. You did get a takeaway, first takeaway of the season for this Washington Mayers defense. The offense essentially uh I say does nothing with it, but they did nothing as far as adding value to it, right? You end up with a field goal, which is what you were in position to get when the defense got you the ball. So again, I’m just saying you’re not adding value in the sense of saying you did nothing with it. You you basically came away with what you had when you got the ball. um middle quarter of the of the game. Uh you know, halfway through the second quarter to halfway through the third quarter is what I call it. A lot of coaches have gone to talking about the middle eights. So the last four minutes of the first half, the first four minutes of the second half. Um either way, however you want to slice it, the Washington Commanders had the ball for the majority of that time, had valuable opportunities to score at the end of the first half. I actually had two opportunities to score at the end of the first half, get some points on the board, cut in that deficit potentially to even tie the game and then getting the ball coming out of the sec for the second half, have the opportunity to then either take the lead or again if you only cut into the lead, either cut into it even further or take a lead with a touchdown opening the second quarter or the third second half, third quarter. Now, the Paners did get points on that first possession of the third quarter, but it was a field goal for one, and two, there’s a massive play, massive uh completion to Jaylen Lane from Marcus Mariota that puts them inside the Atlanta Falcons 30, but a penalty, and it was a penalty. Ben Sinnet, tight end, wanted to argue the penalty till his face turned blue, but it was a very clear hold in real time. as the play was going on, I saw it and I literally said like to myself in the press box, that’s going to be a hold. And lo and behold, the flag comes out and Ben’s trying to argue it, but when you put your hand around my defensive player’s arm and you literally spin them around, that’s a hole. That’s it’s a hold every time. Uh, you know, I don’t play in the NFL, but I’ve been watching this game, studying this game, observing it closely long enough, and I think most of you out there watching the game at home have been watching football long enough to know that’s a hold. And that’s a hold that when you do it right in front of the ref, the official, they’re going to call it 90% of the time, if not 100% of the time. So, you know, then the reason I point out that play is because while the Washington players again did drive down eventually, get into field goal range. I think there’s like three penalties on that drive alone, um, they didn’t even get as close as that one play would have gotten them when it was all said and done. So that’s points off the board because you get that completion inside the 30 to Jaylen. You’ve got some momentum. You’re coming out of the half. Like you’re doing all this good stuff. Those are the kinds of things that can turn games, man. And those penalties absolutely kill that momentum. Uh but again, defense obviously I think is going to be the main culprit of this, which is a surprise. If you would have told me the Washington Paners come out and we’re going to have major beef with one side of the ball or the other, I would have thought it would been the offense and I thought I would have thought I’m going to sit there saying, “Hey, don’t forget all these guys were injured and not playing.” But instead, it’s the defensive side of the ball. Certainly they got some injuries as well, but some of the things that are happening here are not standalone in incidents. They’re repeat things and they’re not allowing this team to correct their deficiencies. So, the frustrating performance absolutely tough to watch here in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon. Uh but to get back to winning football, the Washington managers are going to have to fix this stuff. And fortunately, as Frankie Lub pointed out in the locker room after the game, there’s still plenty of football left. So, we’re going to wait and see what happens with the Washington Mayers. We’re going to finish or we’re going to continue this episode talking more about what happened here in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon. What can we pull from it? The good, the bad, the ugly. Coming up next on today’s episode of Locks On Commanders, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. And this postgame episode of Locks on Commanders brought to you in part by Prize Picks. Every day we make decisions, but on prize picks, being right when you make that decision can actually get you paid. 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That’s rugg.com. Promo code is locked on NFL. All one word. L O C D O N. So this loss, the Washington manager second loss of the season feels a little bit painfully familiar. As brilliant as some of the individual plays and moments were uh for this team. If it feels eerily familiar, it’s because it is very familiar and you have to go no further back than two weeks ago. Washington Commanders Thursday Night Football in Green Bay, Wisconsin against the Green Bay Packers to uh to get a very similar performance to the one that we got here on Sunday afternoon in Atlanta. So, we’re going to do our good, the bad, and the ugly. We’re going to start with our good because I like throwing out good information, some good news out there. First, uh individual playmakers that showed up that did give the team an opportunity to have opportunities, I should say, to bounce back in this game. Chris Rodriguez Jr. Uh once again, starting running back. Second game in a row. He is the starting running back of the Washington Commanders. Uh had a very impressive run right off the bat. Uh nearly right off the bat, I should say. Really helped set the tone for the Washington Mayor’s offense to try to get things rolling after their initial three and out. Uh special teams provided some explosive returns as well. We just lost lights out here. That’s how things are going. Uh special teams also provided some explosive runs. Jeremy Reeds made a heroic touchdown saving tackle and uh Mikey Sanders still got the first defensive takeaway of the season getting an interception off of quarterback uh Drake quarterback Michael Penn Jr. uh there at one point when the game was still very much in question. I’m trying to move things around and get the lights turned back on here. I don’t think it’s going to happen, guys. Um but yeah, so there were some opportunities there. There were some really good plays from certain players. Again, we talked about this coming into the game that this was going to be a battle of two special teams units, two teams with very good special teams units. And I think that both of these teams are going to walk away wanting their coverage units to be better, right? But also, you kind of have to give credit to each other’s return units and the way that they set up blocks and set up lanes for their return specialists and all those things. I think those were really effective. Uh, ironically, each team had a muffed punt. Uh, the commanders had two muffed punts. Um, but each team came away with muff punts, so there’s going to be some, you know, concerns there. Chris Rodriguez Jr., uh, you know, he’s a guy, he’s got a very niche, uh, fan base. He’s got kind of a cult following within the Washmire’s fan base. A lot of you are fans of Chris Rodriguez Jr. And I think that he continues when he comes out to kind of prove every time he touches the ball, every time he gets in the mix, uh, usually good things happen. And I think that as he goes on and as this continues to happen, hopefully more and more, he’s also going to continue to get opportunities, uh, to contribute. Cory Cross and Merritt has some really good runs as well. Jeremy McNichols came in and did some good things, too. The Jeremy Reeves touchdown saving tackle, guys. I mean, I I think that was that’s just a really great illustration of who Jeremy Reeves is. No matter the situation, no matter what’s going on, never going to never going to see quitting that guy. You’re never going to see him give up on a play or a teammate or a situation. And I think it’s just a great illustration of who he is. I sent a text to the insiders as soon as the play happened and I said, “Now hopefully the rest of the defense uh can make it worthwhile.” And uh unfortunately very next play uh the the Atlanta Falcons scored a touchdown. Darnell Savage came in for a Rebo. So Jeremy Reese get some oxygen on the sideline. Kyle Pittz got a catch on that side. Was able to take it in for a touchdown. You know, Darnell Savage is a safety. Kyle Pitts is a massive human being tight end. Uh it kind of is what it is. It’s one of those mismatch things that the Atlanta Falcons were able to do quite often on Sunday as you know as you watch the game. So that’s our good takeaway. There were some individual plays. again, Mikey Sanders. Still first takeaway of the year for the Washington Commanders defense, an interception. Uh, yes, I did predict it. No, I’m not going to pat myself on the back because uh it’s about the only good thing that happened on defense today. Uh, the bad takeaway, I’m going to isolate it to one. Uh, the defense had absolutely no answer to the Atlanta Falcons top weapons. Uh, young defenser defense in certain areas, mistaken prone, constantly beaten by Bejian Robinson, Drake London, Kyle Pitts. And look, I love Dejan Robinson, but this is also a back that, you know, people talk about, hey, look, you know, that Falcons team just doesn’t have the right system around him, whatever, to really make him a premier back in the NFL. Drake London is a guy that kind of depend on who you talk to. Yeah, he’s a good receiver or he’s kind of a bust as a first round pick. And then Kyle Pittz, there’s people who still wonder why he’s in the NFL. So, these are all guys that are now made to look better after playing the Washington Mayers defense. That’s not the kind of unit you want to be known as if you’re the Washington Commanders, right? Poor tackling. inability to get off the field on third down. This is one of the best third down defenses in Washington. Uh well, Washington was one of the best third down defenses in the NFL coming into this week. Uh not so much here in week four, just constantly uh giving up third down conversions. And then that’s not the ugly. The ugly takeaway is the lack of solutions, right? It’s it’s the it’s the just absolute lack of solutions. Uh fans are calling for players to get benched. Uh you know, we’re going to talk about that here just a little bit. Fans are wondering why the scheme isn’t getting better. Fans are wondering how much of this is scheme versus how much of this is execution. I will tell you that it’s a combination of both. A lot of it is execution, but at the same time like you have to ask yourself, is the scheme too complicated for the players you have to execute? Right? That’s what we get in conversations. You hear you hear the term players over plays. What that means is you as a coach may have your style, your scheme, right? quote unquote, but it’s more important for you to call things, design things that that accentuate what your players do well versus what your style is. That’s what players over plays means. However, at the same time, there is an element to growing things and young guys have to learn how to react to these things. Young guys have to learn how to adjust to motion. At snap motion is something that I think is killing this defense. Uh we saw the Green Bay Packers do it very successfully. We saw the Las Vegas Raiders do it successfully. We saw the Atlanta Falcons do it very successfully here in week four at snap motion. Players in motion when the ball is snapped while the ball is being snapped or even just pre- snap motion but right before the ball is snapped is really getting at this defense because what it’s doing is it’s causing communication to happen. The communication is happening but too often and usually a young guy there is somebody who is not receiving the message or not executing what that message is. If you go back to that first explosive pass of the game for the Atlanta Falcons, you see a safety. So, they have at that motion. They’re motioning a guy from from their left, the Falcons offensive left to the right side. You have the call, the check by a safety. The safety comes up because what the safety is checking into is I’m going to take the flat outside corner. You got to go deep. What happens when the ball gets snapped is the safety goes to the flat. The corner stays in the flat, which is what the corner’s original call was. the original call that corner should have been in the flat. However, the the motion changes the formation. It goes from 2 by two to 3×1. I don’t know exactly if that’s what it was, but just go with me here. Instead of a 2 by two formation where yes, 2x two cornerback, you’re in the flat. They motion in a 3x one. Hey, in a 3x one, I’m now checking into a change to where you’re going to go deep. I’m going to cover the flat. Again, safety covers the flat. the corner doesn’t get the message, hear it, execute it, whatever it is, doesn’t go deep, the receiver goes deep, wide open, big play. It’s ugly. And it’s happened multiple weeks now. It’s happening to different young players. I talked to several people in the locker room, several people in the organization after the game. Uh, and it is it’s it’s just kind of one of those things that you can rep it, you can teach it, you can practice it, but until you see it in real battle, until you experience it in live battle, you’re not really going to have it down. And you’ve got to have those experiences. The hope is you have those experiences. You realize what’s going on. You’re saying, “Oh man, I’m kind of in a panic, but here’s what I got to do. I just got to run deep and cover my guy.” And boom, it worked out. Okay. Got away with it. Learned the lesson. But I learned it by succeeding. Unfortunately, right now, most of the time, these lessons are being learned through defeats, and that is what’s leading to a lot of this stuff. Some key plays here. Uh, two-play sequence that Jeremy Reeves, incredible cross field all the way down the field, touchdown, saving tackle on Bejon. Unfortunately, not held up by the rest of the defense. Kyle Pit scores very next play. Uh, we already talked about the 32- yard pass to Jaylen Lane. That was negated by a penalty. Would have put the Falcons would have put the Commanders at the Falcons 23. Instead, they get the ball all the way back to where they were. End up settling for a 52 yard touchdown or field goal. However, shout out Matt Gay making all your kicks, although we are indoors. So, like you said, still interception. Third key play of the game. Defense’s first of the year. Gave the commanders the ball at the Atlanta 25 yard line. Unfortunately, didn’t really do anything with it. Took a field goal. Uh the team desperately needs a boost. bottom line because this is two road games and twice in these road games they’ve looked absolutely flat in some ways in all three levels but especially on defense and they cannot cannot cannot cannot afford to keep coming out like this especially back-to-back road games we’re headed to Los Angeles next week they got to get this figured out there’s three or there’s one player that I think can help out with that and a couple of other players that we got to give uh some shout outs to in our three stars of the game segment coming up next on today’s episode of locked on commanders part of locked on podcast network your team every day. And today’s episode of Lock Dog Man is brought to you in part by 5Hour Energy. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. Five-hour energy shots taste or deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each 2 oz shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 ounce cup of coffee plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes. I love how fast it kicks in and the fact that it’s sugar-free. I don’t have to worry about the dreaded sugar crash uh later on. I actually have uh 5h hour energy with me. I was going to hold it up for those of you who can see me on camera. Uh but it’s still in my bag. I forgot to unpack it because again, it’s just one of those kinds of days where we’re just not going to execute as flawlessly as we wanted to. But I am uh one of those crazy people that drove to Atlanta from Virginia. So I’m driving back. I’m not driving all the way back, don’t worry. Uh but I will be uh enjoying our sponsor 5Hour Energy. Uh, so enough with the boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with five hour energy shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try some new in store and online at five hour energy.com or on Amazon today. Today’s episode of Lock May is also brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is in full swing and FanDuel has an offer that you are not going to want to miss. Right now, new customers, you can bet just $5 and you can get 300 in bonus bets if you win. So, if you signed up this week and you put $5 on Jackson Dart and the New York Giants to beat the Los Angeles Chargers, then you’ve won your first $5 bet and congratulations. You are going to be receiving $300 in bonus bets to put anywhere on FanDuel. Uh maybe you wanted to put it on the RDER Cup. I don’t really know much about golf. I know the game, but I don’t know like much about it. Um but a lot of people here in the press box were very very intrigued in what was going on at the Ryder Cup. If you like that kind of stuff, you can do that. They’ve got horse racing. They’ve got pretty much anything. So, even if it’s not NFL, uh, NBA is coming, baseball is still going, hockey is coming, whatever it is. I love FanDuel because it gives me so many ways to play. I’ve built my own sing game parlays. I love my own same game parlays, tried player props, uh, even doing live in-game things, not while I’m working, but in other things. Uh, it just makes watching sports a lot more fun. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanduel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. In a game that can be best defined by the word frustration, we do have to acknowledge that there were players who were simply better than their opponents today. Uh starting with one commander who helped provide a spark. We already talked about him just a little bit. Uh we’re going to talk about running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. Again, I know that there’s a good amount of locked on commanders. Listeners, viewers who are fans of Chris Rodriguez, even more who are not necessarily listeners or viewers of locked on commanders. If you know any, you should make them listeners and viewers of lockdown on commanders. uh a 48- yard run in the first quarter by Chris Rodriguez was the single most important play for the offense early in this game. Set up their only touchdown uh proving that he can be a legitimate gameb breakaker similar to what we saw in the preseason, but that’s preseason. Similar to what we’ve seen in some other games in his career, but usually those were kind of like garbage time moments, things like that. These are not garbage time moments these last two weeks. These are game establishing moments, tempo establishing moments. And actually they went back to Chris Rodriguez at some point in this game in the third quarter I believe earlier than I expected them to to be quite honest with you. And I think again that’s just a kind of a sign of you’re doing good things. We’re going to continue to give you the ball. So shout out to Chris Rodriguez Jr. He just had his birthday this last week as well on the 26th I believe it was. Uh don’t quote me. So uh individually good week for him although he’s going to tell you it doesn’t matter. Team lost. Uh so it’s not a good week. Second star of the game is running back John Robinson. Constantly threatening the Wash Commander’s defense, running and receiving, broke tackles, created big plays, uh touchdown run, had a 69 yard catch and run. Uh just backbreaking plays for this commander defense. And we talked about in our game plan episode, talked about it in all throughout the week, stopping Bejian Robinson, priority number one. The Washington Commanders never did it. Drake London is going to be our number one star. uh easily the most dominant player on the field. 100 yard receiving day, consistently winning one-on-one matchups in the commander secondary against Marshon Latimore against pretty much anybody. Mike Sanders still. Uh it’s actually not a funny haha, but just kind of funny interesting. Uh I’ve been hearing that Falcons fans have been very frustrated with the Atlanta Falcons offense for not putting Drake London in the slot. And I kind of said uh I didn’t say it on the show because I didn’t think about it till this weekend, but I was kind of talking to other people about, you know, if the Falcons were ever going to put Drake London in slot, this is the weekend to do it because you got Mike Sanders still over there. And I like Mikey a lot, but he’s 5’8. Drake London’s like 12 foot seven. I don’t know. He’s huge. Uh just the size differential alone is just immense. And sure enough, the Atlanta Falcons put Drake London in the slot. It was very effective. He was our player of the game. Uh Michael Penn Jr. has an honorable mention here. You know, uh 300 yard passing game for only the second time in his entire career. Uh so that is how we’re going to go out. These three stars again. Chris Rodriguez Jr. for the Commanders and then two Falcons because I mean the Falcons win. So the winner go the spoilers spoils BJ Robinson and Drake won. And that’s going to do it for this postgame episode. Next time on Lock on Commanders. We will dive a little bit deeper. We’ll do our A. What was supposed to happen? What did happen? What can we take away from this game moving forward to Los Angeles? what needs to be left behind specifically here in Atlanta. In the meantime, if you’ve got questions or comments, you can text them to me directly by becoming a lockdown commanders insider. Go to joinsubtex.comlockon commanders. You can talk to me. I’m going to talk to you and we’ll have a lot of fun even when the team loses. For your next listen, check out the lockdown NFL podcast. In the morning, it’s Tyler Roland. In the afternoon, it’s Tony Wiggins. And you can find it on YouTube or wherever you’re listening to this podcast to the Everydayers. I see you. I appreciate you and I thank you specifically for coming through today. Until next time, stay safe, be kind to one another. We’ll talk again real soon right here on Locked On Commanders, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. [Music]

Locked On Commanders breaks down what went wrong in Atlanta. We dive into the defensive breakdowns that allowed big days for Drake London and Bijan Robinson, the costly penalties that wiped out big plays, and the critical turnovers that sealed the team’s fate. Plus, a look at the few bright spots, including a historic performance by the special teams and a valiant effort from the running game.

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David Harrison covers the Washington Commanders for Sports Illustrated’s CommanderGameday.com and contributes to WUSA9. On Locked On Commanders, David delivers in-depth insight, context, and analysis five days a week, all year long.

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FanDuel
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FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)