Sunday was a day to forget for the Washington Commanders, a 37-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills at home. The Commanders' defense had zero sacks, and just one QB hit of Josh Allen, who threw for 218 yards and rushed for 46 more, and took advantage of some short fields to lead an offense that went 9-for-15 on third down.
"I put it on the D-line, for sure," Jonathan Allen said of what allowed the Bills offense to be so successful during his weekly appearance on Monday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
"We didn't do a good job of keeping him in the pocket, and when you let a quarterback like Josh Allen get out of the pocket and you're expecting our DBs to cover these receivers for three plus seconds that's a tall order," Allen told The Junkies. "Obviously as a defensive line, we gotta be better. And I gotta be better myself make some I'm doing what I can with my rush lanes and making sure he doesn't have a place to run."
Allen said with four first-round picks on the Washington defensive front, "we need to get the job done... D-line we have to play better, we're gonna get better."
Sam Howell had four interceptions and Buffalo got some short fields, but the defensive lineman isn't placing blame on the offense.
"We lost 37-3, so I think you can say that everybody on the team failed that game," he said on 106.7 The Fan. "It would be easy to blame the offense, but at the end of the day, the defense didn't give our offense any short fields and didn't do a lot of things to help them, also. So we're gonna do better."
While the Bills fans appeared to travel well, Allen said the support from the home fans was great and he has "no complaints about our stadium" through two games, "just gotta put a better product out there" for them.
How does Allen recover from a game? Well, his Sunday after a game is a lot like the fans: watch a little football – he did see a bit of Dallas' loss at Arizona – and then sleep.
On Monday, Allen told the Junkies he "squats heavy" then gets a message and goes into his hyperbaric chamber. On Tuesday, lift upper-body heavy, back in the hyperbaric chamber and then stretch and roll out. Why lift heavy? That's because, in his first few years, Allen said he would feel terrible on Wednesdays until defensive line coach Jim Tomsula told him he has to squat, not maxing out, but go pretty heavy.
"You gotta hit 545 on chain squat, you need to go really heavy to, I don't know, get the soreness out of your legs, I can't explain it," he told the Junkies.