Dwayne Haskins played one of his better games of his career Sunday, but the change in performance didn’t lead to a change in result: Washington fell to the Baltimore Ravens, 31-17.
Before the game, Haskins was facing mounting pressure to play well or lose his starting job and while Washington was handed their third-straight defeat, a QB change seems unlikely in the coming days.
Against Baltimore, Haskins completed 32 of 45 passes (71.1 percent) for 314 yards, making it his first 300 yard game of his NFL career. Haskins added one touchdown rushing in the 4th quarter and did not turn the ball over. But the performance was far from solid.
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"Well, I thought Dwayne had his moments,” head coach Ron Rivera said after the game. "There are some things, obviously, I know he's gonna wish he had back once we really get a chance to really break the tape down and look at it.
“He made some plays, obviously. And he missed his plays."
A few of those missed plays came late in the game with Washington down 28-10. After a false start put the Washington offense at second-and-goal from the Baltimore 15, Haskins took a terrible sack that lost 18 yards. (It was one of three sacks of Haskins that lost a whopping 40 yards combined.)
"We'll talk about situational awareness, we'll talk about certain things that he's gotta continue to grow on and understand that he has to do. This is all a growing and learning process for him," Rivera said.
After a pair of completions, Rivera decided to keep the Washington offense on the field to go for it on 4th down at the 13. For some it was a curious decision: Why not kick a short field goal to make a two-score game?
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But Rivera had another thought: "I wanted to see what would happen," Rivera told the media. He wanted to challenge his young quarterback.
Haskins threw a pass only a few yards down the field and well short of the goal line resulting in a turnover on downs.
"That's a situational awareness that he'll have to undestand, that ... ball has to be put in a position where it can get into the end zone or you gotta put it in the end zone," Rivera said.
"There are some things, again, we're still working through. He's still developing, he's still learning,” Rivera said about Haskins.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad. Haskins found Terry McLaurin 10 times for 118 times and Antonio Gibson caught four passes for 82 yards, mostly on screens.
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The best throw of the game came after Haskins’ 4th down flub on a 39-yard completion to McLaurin after Baltimore’s Robert Griffin III was intercepted.
In the end, it was a so-so day for the young quarterback. It wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t the breakout performance so many Washington fans have been waiting for, either.
Instead, it was another Sunday that won’t settle the debate about Haskins.