In hindsight, this was exactly the way this game was supposed to go. The Washington Football Team lost to the Baltimore Ravens 31-17. The game was not really that close.
That was the bad news. The good news was that Dwayne Haskins did enough to quell the outside noise for a little while. However, the doubters will not go away this week. Haskins finished 32 for 45 for 314 yards. He did not throw a touchdown but also did not throw an interception. When looked at in totality, Haskins showed he was not overmatched but he still has a long way to go in Ron Rivera’s system.
“He made some good throws and good decisions,” head coach Ron Rivera said in his post game press conference.
Haskins time as Washington’s starting quarterback was the subject of debate through the week. Rivera said he thought Haskins handled that part of his preparation well.
“I thought there were an awful lot of assumptions being made out there which is fine because that’s one of things he’s going to learn to do is focus on what’s important and not the noise.”
While Haskins did not throw an interception, after throwing three in Cleveland last week, he missed several easy throws that could have resulted in first downs. The second year pro from Ohio State said the goal this week was to have a short memory.
“This week I wanted to forget whatever happened previously.” Block out the noise and most importantly have fun and trust what we are doing schematically and trust my team mates,” Haskins said.
It was not all positive, however. With Baltimore leading 28-10 in the beginning of the 4th quarter, Washington faced a 4th and goal on the Ravens 13 yard line. Rather than kicking a field goal to make it a 15 point game, Rivera decided to go for it, essentially to see what Haskins would do in the situation. The right play would be for the quarterback to throw into the end zone and give a receiver at least a chance to make a play. Instead, Haskins threw it short to Isiah Wright who was stopped on the 9 yard line. Rivera said it was a test to see how Haskins would react.
“To be blunt about it, yes,” he said of the 4th down call. “The ball has to go into the end zone or put in a position where it can get into the end zone. It’s something has to learn if he’s going to be a starter in this league and contribute to winning football games he has to understand and develop.”
There were other positives as well. Haskins deep ball to Terry McLaurin put Washington in position to score its second touchdown of the game. Even though it came after the Ravens had certainly salted the game away, Rivera liked the play.
“There’s a lot of good tape to break down. He will learn from this tape.”