The Takeaways, Week 2: Packers over Washington
September 15, 2025
by Steve Thomas
For those of you who are new here, The Takeaways are my weekly off-the-cuff, instant thoughts about Washington’s game that week, without my typical research or deep contemplation of the issues. I skipped week 1 game of the compressed schedule in week 2, so this is the first edition of the new season. So far, Washington hasn’t looked good in two straight games this season. Yes, granted, they beat the Giants in week one, but the offense didn’t look very good while doing it. This week, against a much better Green Bay Packers team, Washington was for the most part embarrassed in front of the entire NFL world last Thursday night, looking ever bit like a decidedly inferior team as compared to the Packers. It isn’t the end of the world, necessarily, and they have a very winnable game next week at home against the Raiders. That having been said, it’s time for this team to start looking like a reasonable image of the team that got to the NFC Championship game last season. This week two loss to the Packers was no doubt a decided step backwards from achieving that goal. All things considered, the words “nightmare game” come to mind. My Takeaways for this week are below.
Washington was outcoached in the trenches
I repeatedly saw creative blitz packages from Green Bay for which Washington had no answer. Granted, but Laremy Tunsil and Josh Conerly Jr., in particular, were beaten by Micah Parsons in one on one battles. The bigger problem, though, was that Washington allowed untouched rushers to be in the quarterback’s face time and time again. This appeared to me to be at last in part due to scheme problems. Washington failed to recognized which player was going to come from an edge or from an interior linebacker’s position, and split gaps to immediately threaten Jayden Daniels. Yes, Washington’s offensive linemen on the field were beaten, which is a player problem, but the coaches lost their battle in the trenches from a scheme perspective. Daniels has now been sacked 7 times in two games, which equates to about 60 sacks in the season. That can’t be allowed to continue. In contrast, Washington never really achieved that same level of pressure on Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who was sacked twice but went for long periods of time in this game with enough time in the pocket to produce.
Will the real Jayden Daniels please stand up
I fully recognize that I just spent most of the first Takeaway above complaining about the poor offensive line play and coaching in this game. That having been said, let’s be honest and admit that Daniels thusfar in 2025 hasn’t been anywhere close to what he produced for much of his rookie year. Daniels was an amazing playmaker and gamechanger as a rookie and, at least for two games so far this season, hasn’t been close to that. He’s looked fairly ordinary, and his stats reflect that reality. In this game against the Packers, he went 24 for 42, which is a 57% completion percentage, for 200 yards, two touchdowns, and a quarterback rating of 85.4. Daniels wasn’t what I’d call “bad” in this game, in that he didn’t make turnovers, but he missed on passes this week that he would have hit last year. It’s true that Daniels wasn’t quite a good in 2024 against better teams as he was against weaker teams, but regardless, right now he looks like a player who is still trying to find his footing this season. Perhaps Dan Quinn shouldn’t have sat his starters for nearly all of the preseason. Just sayin’.
Running game remains questionable
Austin Ekeler apparently has a torn achilles, which means that he’ll be out for the rest of the year. That puts Washington’s run game in a bit of a quandry. As a team, Washington had 19 carries for 51 yards, which is just 2.7 yards per carry. Jacory Croskey-Merritt had just 4 carries for 17 yards, which is 4.3 yards per carry, which is a far cry from what he did against the Giants. At no time in this game was Washington able to use the running game as either a weapon or as a way to open up the passing game. Presumably, Chris Rodriguez will be activated for the rest of the year, which will hopefully help going forward, but my guess is that the non-Jayden Daniels running game is going to be a problem all year.
Secondary problems
Remember when I said in the written game preview that I wanted to see how Washington’s secondary did against a quarterback and a group of receivers who were collectively better than what the Giants had? Yeah. I think Packers tight end Tucker Kraft is still open. Washington had no answers for Kraft, and once again, it appeared to me to be at least in part a scheme problem in addition to a player problem. The Packers’ creative play calling allowed him to roam free in the secondary on numerous occasions. In addition, Marshon Lattimore wasn’t “bad”, per se, but he also didn’t perform at the shut-down level in this game that we’d like to see from a guy brought to DC to do just that. My initial reaction from the secondary, in particular, was disappointment. Packers receivers – not just Kraft – were either open or made plays on a fairly regular basis in this game. We need to see improvements in this area if Washington’s defense is going to produce good results against the NFL’s better teams.
Injuries
Losing Austin Ekeler for the year was bad enough, but Washington has now apparently also lost starting defensive end Deatrich Wise for the season to a torn left quad. Noah Brown and my colleague Alex Zeese’s favorite player, John Bates, also both left the game due to injuries. Oh, and also, Jayden Daniels had an MRI on his right knee, which is bad. More to come on Daniels, presumably, but collectively, these injuries are going to have a pretty big impact on the season. Stay tuned,
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. The Las Vegas Raiders come to town next week for a 1:00 p.m. matchup at Northwest Field.