Washington Football Team fans know last second, horrible, impossible, inconceivable losses. The 1979 Dallas game comes to mind, but at the risk of succumbing to presentism, Sunday’s game in Detroit might have set a new standard.
Alex Smith was in the process of completing that Hollywood comeback that got short circuited last week. He rallied the team from a 24-3 third quarter deficit with 21 unanswered points. The defense, which couldn’t seem to stop a clock in the first half, went into lockdown the last 21 minutes and 45 seconds of the game, and Dustin Hopkins hit a game tying 41 yard field goal with 16 seconds left in the game. Overtime looming. A coin flip to decide who gets the ball first. And then it all went horribly wrong.
Matthew Stafford got Detroit 19 yards on three plays and Chase Young, the freakishly talented rookie defensive end who is supposed to terrorize opposing quarterbacks for the next 15 years was called for a roughing the passer penalty.
15 free yards. Three seconds left. Matt Prater with a 59 yard field goal attempt. Was there really any question it wouldn’t go through the goal posts?
Ron Rivera seemed dejected, and rightfully so in his post game press conference.
“Well, he hit him (Stafford) too hard, I guess. Knocked him to the ground,” Rivera said. “They hit our guy and knocked him to the ground and they didn’t get a penalty.”
The loss drops Washington’s record to 2-7 and in any normal year would put the team into future-mode. This of course is no normal year. The Eagles loss to the Giants means that Washington is still just a game and a half out of first place in the NFC East.
“We can all be a little bit better in a ton of areas and often times that’s what turns the tide,” Alex Smith said. “How many plays could have gone differently in the first half and the second half and it’s a different ball game.”
It also keeps the team in a sort of limbo. There are most certainly things the coaching staff would like to do to help the team in the long run but the reality is a division title and a trip to the play-offs is still more than theoretically possible. It lead to a frustrated Jonathan Allen saying everyone has to keep fighting.
“We’re not doing the little things right,” he said. “That’s me included. We just have to go back to the drawing board, we have to self-analyze and everyone has to take responsibility for what’s out there on that field.”
Chase Young was contrite when answering questions. He said the fatal penalty was a rookie mistake.
“I think it was a close call for real,” he said. “But I was going hard, rookie mistake.”
It left players and coaches to pick through bright spots in the midst of another loss. Smith threw for 390 yards, the second straight week he’s topped 300. His command of the offense has allowed the ball to be spread around and for young receivers to become involved. Cam Simms back up his 110 yard performance last week with four catches for 54 yards. Isaiah Wright caught six balls for 59 yards, Steven Simms added 5 catches for 46 yards and of course Terry McLaurin was his usual self; 7 catches for 95 yards (122 yards of total offense).
“He’s helped me tremendously,” Cam Sims said. “Alex is just a football guy. It may be one play, pointers suggestions as to how to get open or it may be something he sees that I don’t see or the other receivers aren’t seeing.”
Players and coaches will have to regroup. The Cincinnati Bengals come to Fed Ex Field this Sunday in what may or may not be the teams last chance to get back into a very strange NFC East race.