Game Day Thread: 2021 Preseason - Washington Football Team vs Cincinnati Bengals

[88Comrade2000]

4 hours ago, Destino said:

Some people will never understand that preseason isn’t an indicator of anything.  You hope the starting offense moves the ball.  You hope the starting defense doesn’t let the other team match down the field.  You hope no one gets hurt.  Mostly though, you watch a bunch of guys try to hold their spots on the depth chart and remain employed.  

if your starters looked ok and no one got hurt, you go back to reading your book with a glad heart and a hopeful spirit.  The time of proving will arrive soon enough.  You can panic then.

Preseason is preseason but negative trends seen in preseason; have tended to spill over into the regular season.

[Cooleyfan1993]

24 minutes ago, Darrell Green Fan said:

It would be just so fitting that the team struggles at the position for years as Dwayne takes the Steelers to the playoffs.  

 

 

Did Ben get traded/cut/retired and i didnt hear about it yet? 
 

Being the backup is hardly viewed as “taking the Steelers to the playoffs”. 

[88Comrade2000]

1 minute ago, Cooleyfan1993 said:

Did Ben get traded/cut/retired and i didnt hear about it yet? 
 

Being the backup is hardly viewed as “taking the Steelers to the playoffs”. 

He is saying that Dwayne becomes the starter; once Ben is done and takes the Steelers to the playoffs regularly and we struggle to find a QB.

[Koolblue13]

34 minutes ago, Florgon79 said:

Ima call him Patty McScooterson. Love him. 

Patty Scoots gonna get ya.

[dyst]

6 minutes ago, Rdskns2000 said:

Preseason is preseason but negative trends seen in preseason; have tended to spill over into the regular season.

100% agree. I am baffled how a fanbase that has seen this year after year with this team is so unconcerned just because it is preseason.

[MariusVT]

5 hours ago, Destino said:

Some people will never understand that preseason isn’t an indicator of anything.  You hope the starting offense moves the ball.  You hope the starting defense doesn’t let the other team match down the field.  You hope no one gets hurt.  Mostly though, you watch a bunch of guys try to hold their spots on the depth chart and remain employed.  

if your starters looked ok and no one got hurt, you go back to reading your book with a glad heart and a hopeful spirit.  The time of proving will arrive soon enough.  You can panic then.

 

Case in point the I believe 2008 Detroit Lions that went 4-0 in the preseason then 0-16 for the year.

[evmiii]

You’d like to see a little more rhythm from the starting offense.  Fitz didn’t look super accurate, communication with the receivers seemed slightly off.  Still pretty vanilla stuff and it’s a work in process.  D looked pretty stout.

 

Like they say:  Preseason doesn’t count, but it does matter.

[HTTRDynasty]

 

[88Comrade2000]

15 minutes ago, dyst said:

100% agree. I am baffled how a fanbase that has seen this year after year with this team is so unconcerned just because it is preseason.

I don’t why it happens but over the years I have noticed that negative trends in the preseason have spilled over into the regular season. Especially, with this team.

[Jumbo]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/5-takeaways-washington-17-13-043335741.html

 

5 takeaways from Washington’s 17-13 win over the Cincinnati Bengals

 

 

Quote

 

Washington played its starters through the first quarter, with Taylor Heinicke replacing Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback at the beginning of the second quarter.

 

According to head coach Ron Rivera after the game, the coaching staff wanted to see a set number of plays from the first-team offense. Once they reached that number, Rivera brought in Heinicke and some of Washington’s other reserves.

 

Fiirst-team offense was shaky

 

It looked like Washington's first-team offense was going to march down the field on its first possession and score with ease. Fitzpatrick found Logan Thomas open down the field, and the tight end picked up first down into Cincinnati territory. Unfortunately, Washington's offense would stall and be forced to punt the ball away. Washington also had a pair of drops early, and Fitzpatrick missed a wide-open Adam Humphries in the end zone. 

 

Taylor Heinicke shined

 

Heinicke entered the game in the second quarter, and while he didn't push the ball deep down the field, he made all the right reads, moved the offense, and used his legs to create. Another positive for Heinicke was he avoided the big hit. Washington should have scored on one second-quarter possession, but Cam Sims fumbled the ball in Cincinnati territory. 

 

Jaret Patterson has another big night

 

Jaret Patterson was the talk of Washington's offense for the second week in a row. Washington loved Patterson before training camp, but it's clearer than ever that Patterson is making the 53-man roster. Rivera is using him in a variety of situations to see how he helps the team. Patterson rushed for 71 yards, had 25 receiving yards and returned one kick for 37 yards. Washington should just rest Patterson next week. He's on the team. 

 

Jack Del Rio sat Fuller and Jackson so he could see more of St-Juste and McTyer

 

It was a bit of a surprise when we learned that both William Jackson III and Kendall Fuller would sit before the game. Washington's top two corners were out, paving the way for rookie Benjamin St-Juste and Torry McTyer to start. By all accounts, the two held up fine. I love this move by Washington. See what you have in the young corners against the opposition's starting receivers.

 

Landon Collins looks ready

 

Landon Collins was still on the field for Washington in the second quarter and looks very much like the player owner Daniel Snyder thought he was getting before the 2019 season. Collins, who suffered an Achilles injury last season, has been a full participant all summer, looking faster and more explosive than in his first two seasons in Washington. Collins was flying around on Friday, making one big hit and causing rookie Ja'Marr Chase to think twice about catching one in front

 

 

 

 

more, inc. videos, at link

[Llevron]

20 minutes ago, dyst said:

100% agree. I am baffled how a fanbase that has seen this year after year with this team is so unconcerned just because it is preseason.

It’s because there are numerous examples of it meaning nothing every season. It happens to us as much as anyone else.

[mistertim]

1 hour ago, Florgon79 said:

The Cam Sims hate I don't get. Should AGG make it over him? Probably. But he dropped three balls in the regular season last year, that's not even close to a record or particularly bad considering players like Dionte Johnson, Tyreek Hill, Jerry Juedy, Evan Engram and Alvin Kamara all dropped double digit balls each. He also had over 100 yards in the Playoff game but let's harp on the dropped ball.  He was consistent in the pass game from week 8 through the playoff game with terrible QBS averaging over 14 yards per catch including in the playoff game. I'm all for next man up but damn. AGG didn't do anything last year. He catches one 2 point conversion against third string and now the job is his I guess. 

 

It's not "hate", it's just the realization that Cam Sims is a mediocre receiver and he probably is what he is at this point; I don't think there's much more "upside" to him. He isn't fast or very quick, he has very inconsistent hands...will make a highlight reel catch and then drop an important easy catch, and he doesn't run very good routes (hence why he's often in contested catch situations). The main thing he has going for him is size.

 

I'm not that high on AGG so for me it's not really a "AGG vs Cam Sims" thing, it's a "do we have a guy who can likely do what Cam Sims does, but has more upside?" thing. If yes, then I wouldn't blame them for giving whoever they think that is a spot over Sims.

Edited August 21, 2021 by mistertim

[86 Snyder]

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-preseason-week-2-game-recap-washington-football-17-cincinnati-bengals-13

[HTTRDynasty]

I’m confused… why don’t people realize Humphries is to blame for the missed connection in the red zone?  If you watch the play in slow motion, you can see that Fitz puts the ball where he expects Humphries to be, but the WR spent too long trying to force contact with the CB with the ball in the air by pushing off his back. If he had just kept running without trying to duck down and push off, it would have been a TD. 
 

There were a few other miscommunications as well. People are overreacting way too much and assigning too much blame to the QB. 

[Simmsy]

35 minutes ago, dyst said:

100% agree. I am baffled how a fanbase that has seen this year after year with this team is so unconcerned just because it is preseason.

I don't speak for everyone, but I think its less of everyone being concerned and more of the fact that it is preseason and you really can't judge a lot of things from it as a fan. Hell, we sat two vet CBs and put two rookies in the game. That would never happen on game day unless those vets were injured, I think people put too much stock into preseason and training camp.

 

Side note, does anyone else secretly judge people when they ask who won the preseason game instead of asking "how did they look?"?

[HTTRDynasty]

That Sam Cosmi vs Joey Bosa week 1 matchup has me nervous…

[SkinsGuy]

Just now, PartyPosse said:

We’re not opening up the playbook especially in the red zone in preseason. That would just be dumb. In case you haven’t noticed but virtually no teams have been all that good on offense. 

 

Well... OK. 👍

[Idaho fan]

1 hour ago, dyst said:

100% agree. I am baffled how a fanbase that has seen this year after year with this team is so unconcerned just because it is preseason.

Get your point and don't disagree but parts of the fan base is also losing their minds because we don't dominate a preseason game.  Look at the preseason records of playoff teams in years past.  Teams do not game plan.  Often they call plays based on something they want to see - not based on winning or scoring.  The fans up in arms about how terrible Fitz looked and how great TH looked is confusing to me (not saying you are saying that..). I think TH has potential and is exciting in games but to suggest he should be starting over Fitz based on very limited action in two preseason games doesn't make sense to me. Nearly all fans love and say they trust Ron yet and at the same time many infer he is an idiot by not starting TH at this point.  

 

I just don't think we can take much of what we see during the preseason and use that as evidence of what to expect when real football starts - especially team play.  History shows very little can be gleaned from watching preseason.  As much as anything I think preseason is used to evaluate positions/players.  

[LetMeSeeYourWarFace21]

 

[KillBill26]

4 hours ago, Rdskns2000 said:

I don’t why it happens but over the years I have noticed that negative trends in the preseason have spilled over into the regular season. Especially, with this team.

I hear ya. I think it depends on what you are talking about.  There are certain things to be concerned about - injuries obviously, penalties, team looking out of sync, missed assignments, lackluster effort, etc.

 

Other things definitely shouldn't be concerning - final score, and to a certain extent, execution on certain plays.  For instance if it's 3rd and 3, and you call a dive to Peyton barber bc you want to keep it vanilla, I'm not losing any sleep over that.  

 

The problem I have had with this team over the years, and it's not just preseason, but whenever I get excited for where we are at, I always talk myself into "well, if he just makes this simple play, and they don't call this bogus penalty, and so and so doesn't get hurt, we would win!".  And you always feel next time they will clean that up and have better luck, and it never happens.  As far as this preseason goes, after the first game, I thought we march down with the first team and score easily IF humphries doesn't fall down on 3rd down.  After the second game, our first team offense marches down and scores easily IF dyami brown catches that ball.  But they never seem to be able to iron out those kinks and continue to look mediocre at best.  

 

I know it's a new era, and I feel confident with this crop, but I'll feel better once the execution is there and I don't have to talk myself into next time will be different.

 

[my_friend_goo]

Final scorelines don't tell you much in the preseason, that much is for sure. I don't think anybody thinks the chiefs are going to score as few as 17 points in many games this season as a good example. It is, however, definitely concerning not to have the starting offense score a single touchdown in 6 or so series. 

 

I seem to remember in preseasons past that a lack of production from the starting offense in these games has been indicative of sub par offensive performance in-season. This is purely based on memory, so I could be wrong. I do seem to recall this being an issue in preseasons past and I don't think we've seen a half decent offense since 2015. I hope I'm wrong and one thing for sure is that I'm not pessimistic about the season because of this. Definitely think it's going to be a mixed bag type of year again though.

[tmandoug1]

5 hours ago, Koolblue13 said:

Patty Scoots gonna get ya.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

21 hours ago, Cooleyfan1993 said:

Did Ben get traded/cut/retired and i didnt hear about it yet? 
 

Being the backup is hardly viewed as “taking the Steelers to the playoffs”. 

 

I wasn't talking about this year.  

[Going Commando]

On 8/21/2021 at 3:16 PM, my_friend_goo said:

Final scorelines don't tell you much in the preseason, that much is for sure. I don't think anybody thinks the chiefs are going to score as few as 17 points in many games this season as a good example. It is, however, definitely concerning not to have the starting offense score a single touchdown in 6 or so series. 

 

I seem to remember in preseasons past that a lack of production from the starting offense in these games has been indicative of sub par offensive performance in-season. This is purely based on memory, so I could be wrong. I do seem to recall this being an issue in preseasons past and I don't think we've seen a half decent offense since 2015. I hope I'm wrong and one thing for sure is that I'm not pessimistic about the season because of this. Definitely think it's going to be a mixed bag type of year again though.

 

We don't really need poor preseason performance to predict that our offense will be bad this season.  It was arguably worst in the NFL last year and we only made marginal improvements to QB and WR and made replacements to the OL and TE groups that aren't likely to be significant upgrades this season.  Even if Fitzpatrick hits the most optimistic benchmarks (that still remain grounded in reality), it's going to take a while for him to click with his new teammates and system.  Probably at least half a season to really get comfortable, which means the offense will probably be pretty bad through the first half no matter what.

 

The best we can reasonably hope for this year is that the offense stays healthy and finds an identity by November and becomes functional and occasionally explosive heading into the home stretch, and that a dominant defense gets us enough wins to stay in the playoff race until that point.

[Commander Chaaarmnder]

On 8/21/2021 at 2:08 PM, LetMeSeeYourWarFace21 said:

 

I missed the game the other day, but damn do I like what I see from Patterson. Dude is gonna make the 53 and I bet will see a lot of snaps this season.