The Commanders expected to have a solid defense with a strong pass rush heading into the season, but on Sunday, the defensive line was clearly overmatched by the Eagles offensive line, while their first-round draft pick Emmanuel Forbes was in over his head against A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts.
Finlay asked the question to BMitch: is it time to be concerned about Washington’s defense?
“I’m not overly concerned by the overall defense,” BMitch said. “But I am concerned with decisions that are going to be made by a lot of the secondary guys.”
Finlay also has his concerns with the secondary, but overall, he isn’t hitting the panic button just yet.
“I think with Forbes, yesterday got oddly personal or heated,” Finlay said. “I get wanting to run your engine hot…I think A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts, they talked about it postgame, I think Jalen Hurts started to get pissed about it…it’s an interesting dichotomy. If you go back and watch the Bills tape, Emmanuel was on the field only about 40 percent of the snaps…yesterday, they played him the whole damn game. He lost some, but maybe that’s part of the growth process.
“Defensively overall, if you’re mad at Jack [Del Rio], I get it, if you’re mad at the defense, giving up at least 34 [points] back to back, I get it. They also played, I’d argue, two of the best - outside of the Niners and maybe the Dolphins - they played two of the best offenses in the NFL back to back.
“If you decide to be concerned with the defense because of the last two games, fair. I’m gonna take the big picture, 17 game view defensively. I feel comfortable with that group.”
