The Takeaways, Week 4: Atlanta defeats Washington
September 30, 2025
by Steve Thomas
Well, that didn’t go well, did it? Welcome to week 4 of The Takeaways. I predicted a Washington win in this game (oops), but I was pretty uneasy about it even before the injury list was released. As it turned out, the Falcons came out of the gate motivated to succeed, and faced a Washington team not only burdened by a significant number of backups who were forced to start, but also who just didn’t play well. Almost nothing went right for Washington in this game, and we’ll spend plenty of time dissecting everything that went wrong. For today, though, right now, we’ll dive into my Takeaways, which is my weekly, off-the-cuff reaction to Washington’s game, without the benefit of time or film study. Let’s dive in.
Washington’s secondary stinks
Okay, so I might be a little fatalistic here, but Drake London, Dijan Robinson, and, to a lesser extent, Kyle Pitts, manhandled Washington’s secondary. I wrote in my game preview that how Washington’s secondary handled London and Pitts would be one of the keys to game, and that proved to be true. Time and time again, London was either wide open or able to take advantage or one or more corners or safeties to make big, important gains. I think it’s time to admit that the Marshon Lattimore experiment has been a failure. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen enough. He just isn’t going to be what Washington expected when they traded for him last season. I realize that all of these players, Trey Amos in particular, but as a whole, this group simply hasn’t lived up to expectations against better teams. Especially this week against the Falcons. Not everything can be blamed on the pass rush . . .
The defensive line failed to challenge Michael Penix
. . . but it sure didn’t help. Washington’s defensive front managed just 1 sacks and 2 quarterback hits, and generally allowed Penix to operate with impunity throughout the game That simply isn’t good enough. This group has at times played well so far this season, but I think it’s fair to say that this was their worst performance of the season so far. I recognize that Washington’s front office made a concerted effort to try to fix the run defense at the possible expense of pass rush, but they are going to have to figure out how to not make what happened in this Atlanta game the norm going forward. If this doesn’t change, it’s going to be a long season. They weren’t too terrible in the run game, with Bijan Robinson averaging 4.4 yards per carry in 17 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown. That isn’t great, lockdown coverage, but it also isn’t game-shattering. Pass rush, though: pretty darn awful.
Marcus Mariota’s bad day was compounded by pressure
Mariota went 16 for 27, which is a 59.2% completion percentage, for 156 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception, for a quarterback rating of 84.8. The quarterback rating isn’t a disaster, but in today’s NFL, 59% and 156 just isn’t going to cut it. I recognize that Mariota is the backup, but he should be better than that. Part of the problem was that Atlanta was able to put him under pressure on a fairly regular basis. They only sacked him twice, but many other plays were disrupted. To be honest, Jayden Daniels didn’t look great either before his injury, but I think it’s safe to say that all of Washington’s fans and coaches are looking forward to Daniels’ return after what we saw today. I still maintain that Mariota is the perfect backup for a Daniels-led Washington team, but this game certainly wasn’t his finest moment.
Continued running game problems
Don’t let the gaudy 6.7 team yards per carry average fool you. That number was boosted quite a bit by Chris Rodriguez’s 48 yard run and by Mariota’s 2 carries for 20 yards. If you take those three plays out of the equation, then the numbers drop down to 19 carries for 79 yards, for 4.2 yards per carry. Jacory Croskey-Merritt looked better than did Rodriguez in this game, for sure, but he only had 7 carries for 47 yards, including a long of 16 yards. That is good, but not game changing and not enough. None of Washington’s four games this season have featured a dominating, pounding run game – they’ve only survived and boosted their numbers as a result of a number of long runs. Those are great, but ultimately not sustainable, and that proved to be true in this game against Atlanta. It might not get better this year, folks, so get ready for more of the same: moments of excitement followed by many more of . . . blah.
Maybe Matt Gay isn’t terrible after all
Gay went 4 for 4 in field goal attempts in this game, and converted his one extra point. I realize that much of the Washington fanbase has already written him off and is begging for him to be cut, but at this point, he’s 7 for 10, with only one miss under 50 yards. Again, not great: he may not be Mark Moseley or Dustin Hopkins, but he might just be better than we initially gave him credit for, me included. Let’s delay the execution for another few weeks – Gay way far, far from the problem in this game against the Falcons.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back with another edition after Washington game against the Chargers next week in Los Angeles.