Defense and coaching letdowns cost the Washington Commanders dearly in the 29-26 loss in Seattle in Week 10, Michael Phillips writes. And here is something Kevin Sheehan thinks isn't getting enough attention when it comes to Jack Del Rio's Washington defense: "We understand big plays, explosive plays have been the Achilles heel defensively more than anything else, but why specifically have they given them up this year when they didn't necessarily give them up en masse last year?"
Phillips points to the easier schedule the Commanders faced last year compared with the better teams at the front-end of the schedule in 2023.
One aspect that changed a bit against the Seahawks was the increased amount of blitzing from Del Rio that had not been the case in the last several weeks.
"I think a lot of it when you look at it goes to really a collective thing and more than anything else, it's guys doing the things that they need to do, us putting them in the position to have success," head coach Ron Rivera said about the explosive plays allowed. "And it's unfortunate that we as a whole haven't done the things that we needed to do at the right time.
"It's difficult because we've had opportunities to win football games and part of it too, is taking advantage of the takeaway battle. We've had balls that have been out there that we didn't finish up. We missed a couple of opportunities to have a couple of interceptions yesterday and that was disappointing and so we've got to continue to battle and get better at it."
The conversation switches to the backend of the defense before getting into all of the other issues facing the Washington football team (including the "bad franchise tax") before switching to the other side of the ball and talking about if Sam Howell is the team's QB1 for Week 1 of the 2024 season and talking about the bigger picture facing the coaching staff and the franchise.
Listen to the full conversation on the audio player above!
