The Takeaways, Week 11: Washington at Carolina
November 22, 2021
by Steve Thomas
Welcome to The Takeaways, week 11 edition, which is The Hog Sty’s effort to provide you with the big picture, “around the watercooler” story lines from each week’s Washington football game. This week, the Redskins Washington earned its fourth victory of the season over Ron Rivera’s former team, the Carolina Panthers. Taylor Heinicke had another strong performance in a game in which Washington was able to ruin Cam Newton’s Carolina homecoming. I’ll cover it all here in this week’s Takeaways.
Taylor Heinicke comes through for the second week in a row
Heinicke only passed for 206 yards, which at first glance doesn’t seem like a ton of yards, but if you watched this game, then you know what a key role he played in the victory. He looked every bit like a mortal version of a young Brett Favre on Sunday, making a series of off-balance, on the run throws, and three touchdowns, as well as adding 6 rushes for 29 yards. Nobody will ever mistake Heinicke for a real hall of famer, but all the same: is it possible than we originally thought that Heinicke long-term answer for Ron Rivera? Granted, the team looked bad in the first half of the season, but they also had an absolutely brutal schedule. Heinicke has now had two outstanding games in a row. What happens if Washington finishes in the lower middle of draft order and is unlikely to get a first round quarterback? Would Heinicke be a better option than Washington going out and signing some other veteran? This is a question for another day, but the point is that Heinicke really stepped up this week, again.
Antonio Gibson gets benched, then gets mad
At halftime of this game, Gibson had 5 carries for 19 yards and a key fumble in the red zone. At that point in the game, the thought going through my head as a topic for this column was whether he should be permanently benched in favor of Jaret Patterson, who played the second quarter in his place. Then, a funny thing happened: Gibson came out of the locker room after halftime with a whole new, aggressive attitude and had one the best quarters of his short career, with 9 carries for 66 yards, which equates to 7.3 yards per carry. Gibson had carries on 6 of the 10 plays of Washington’s touchdown drive on their first possession of the half. He quite literally may have saved his position on the depth chart in this quarter, as well as being the key to the scoring drive. Congrats to Gibson for turning his game around.
Terry McLaurin once against proves his talent and ability
There aren’t enough words to describe how good McLaurin is. All he needs to succeed is a semi-qualified quarterback and a play caller who is able to divert at least some defensive attention from him. In this game, McLaurin made yet another spectacular, highlight reel sideline catch, as well as a touchdown in traffic thanks to a brilliant throw by Taylor Heinicke. If McLaurin was on a high-quality team with a franchise quarterback and other weapons around him, he’d be an All Pro. Note to Washington’s front office: McLaurin will be eligible for a contract extension after this season. Don’t screw it up – just go ahead and sign him to a huge, top of the market contract extension as soon as the season is over. Don’t pull a Bruce Allen and start doing dumb things like waiting until after year four and franchise tagging him. We’re talking about the best receiver Washington has drafted since Gary Clark in 1984. Do the right thing, Washington.
William Jackson III had a quality game
Between his injury and a series of poor games earlier in the year, we haven’t had much opportunity to praise Jackson, until now. He made the key pass defense against Brandon Zylstra on third and 3 in Carolina’s final, unsuccessful drive late in the fourth quarterback. Jackson had a good game on Sunday and generally finally looked like the player Washington always expected him to be. The Panthers high-producing receiver, D.J. Moore, was held to just 50 yards in 5 receptions. Jackson wasn’t solely responsible for this of course – it was a team effort in every sense – but the point is, kudos to Jackson for a job well done today.
Washington’s defense had no answer for Christian McCaffrey
The one real negative for Washington’s defense in this game was Christian McCaffrey. Washington had no good answer for him on Sunday, with McCaffrey averaging 5.9 yards per rushing attempt. They are lucky he didn’t have more carries. It’s not shameful to not be able to hold him down, obviously, as he’s an All Pro, but it’s still a fact of the game that the defensive front seven didn’t do a good job in keeping his impact on the game down. At the end of the day, McCaffrey gained 119 yards on just 17 total touches, but the fact that he didn’t do was more situational than anything else. It was entirely possible that McCaffrey could have had a much bigger effect on the game, and Washington is fortunate that didn’t happen.
Bonus Takeaway: Dustin Hopkins Chris Blewitt Joey Slye watch
Washington’s third kicker of the season, Joey Slye, was perfect again this week, going 2 for 2 on field goals and three for three on extra points. He is now 5 for 5 in both field goals and extra points in two weeks with Washington.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back with another edition of The Takeaways after Washington’s Monday Night Football contest against the Seahawks next weeks.