Washington Football Team: Where are all the blitzes?

Where are all the blitz packages for the Washington Football Team defense?

The Washington Football Team came into the 2021 season with what many people believed to be the best defense in football. Or, at the very least, one of the best defenses in all of football. However, through two weeks, they have looked far from it. We’ve seen the best of the defense when they are getting after the quarterback, throwing out blitzes. But we have rarely seen that, so where are all the blitz packages?

In Week 2, the Washington Football Team went up against the New York Giants. The Giants have a quarterback that is shaky at best, decent but not great weapons, and a bad offensive line. It was a recipe for a monster game from the defense.

Instead, Washington gave up 391 total yards of offense and 29 points. They didn’t even force a turnover. Daniel Jones ran all over them from the quarterback position (nine carries for 95 yards and a touchdown). He didn’t have much trouble throwing the ball either, going 22-for-32 for 249 yards and another touchdown.

It’s not like he was threading the needle either. There were some very good passes in their sure. For the most part, though, it felt like Jones was just throwing it eight yards to a wide-open receiver. Oh, and of course there was that blown coverage that saw Darius Slayton drop what would have been a long touchdown, and one of the easiest of his career. It could’ve been much worse.

Countless times it seemed like Washington would get New York into a second-and-long or third-and-long scenario. And they would be content giving back most of the yardage towards the first down marker. Oh, you need 15, here’s 12. Hopefully, you don’t make someone miss and pick up those last few yards. And even if you don’t get them, don’t worry — those 12 yards will get you back into field goal range.

It was infuriating. Every time the defense had New York on the ropes, they would play soft coverage. It led to a lot of drives being extended. Where were the blitzes?

Why isn’t the Washington Football Team blitzing more often?

Well the few times that Washington did blitz, they seemed to cause all types of issues for Daniel Jones. Kendall Fuller got to the quarterback and brought him down in what felt like a half-second after the ball was snapped. Meanwhile, every other time they forced a quick-and-or-bad throw from Jones.

Only four sacks against that New York Giants offensive line though? And one that suffered a scary injury to Nick Gates that weakened it even more? Hopefully, Gates makes a speedy and strong recovery. I think I can speak for all of the WFT community when we say we wish him the best and can’t wait to see him back on the field.

Washington has one of (if not the best) defensive lines in football. Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Jonathan Allen, Da’Ron Payne, Matthew Ioannidis, and Tim Settle. That’s just scary unfair. But the the rest of the defense isn’t as perfect. They’re very solid, don’t get me wrong. But you can poke holes in their linebackers and secondary. So they are going to need help sometimes. Throwing a little extra at the quarterback will do just that.

Linebackers Jon Bostic and Cole Holcomb have made some plays in the past. Go back and look at their 2020 seasons though. Most of their big plays came either against the run or when they were blitzing. This year, they are getting absolutely torched in coverage. And it doesn’t seem like they are running at the line of scrimmage as much.

Bring the heat. The Washington Football Team defense is much better than they’ve shown through two weeks. But if they aren’t attacking and they are getting complacent with giving up a few yards, it sort of defeats the purpose of having so many killers on your defense.

Jack Del Rio and company need to start getting aggressive, or fans could have more frustrating weeks of wondering why such a talent defense is constantly staying on the field.