The first quarter of the NFL season is almost in the books, and after Week 4, the Washington Football Team will be able to give themselves an honest assessment of where they are as a team. Play for the team over the first three weeks has been spotty. Nevertheless, the team has a chance to have a .500 record of 2-2 with a win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
The road game will be Washington’s second straight after a disastrous performance last week in a 43-21 defeat to the Buffalo Bills in New York.
Washington’s maligned defense will need to perform better to secure the team’s second win. A unit expected to be one of the NFL’s best has underperformed and needs to get on track against a Matt Ryan-led Falcons offense.
On offense, will quarterback Taylor Heinicke perform better than he did a week ago, with Atlanta being his second ever road start?
Heinicke did some things well by throwing for 212 yards and two touchdowns, but also turned the ball over twice, throwing two critical interceptions.
After last week’s “measuring stick” game, as Ron Rivera put it, the second-year coach in Washington discussed how the game against Atlanta would define his team.
“Win or loss, I think the thing is it’s about how we play now,” Rivera said. “And that’ll talk about whether or not we were resilient, whether or not we can put things behind us, we can learn from what happened in the past and use it going forward. That’s what I’m looking for as far as that’s concerned. I think it’s an opportunity for us to take a step. It’s going to be a very competitive game. Both teams are in the same situation. So I expect it to be a hard played game.”
What is wrong with the Washington Football Team defense?
Rivera understands the importance of his two young edge rushers in Chase Young and Montez Sweat. The tandem hasn’t gotten off to a fast start over the first three contests and needs to make plays for Washington to have a chance Sunday. Rivera discussed the duo’s confidence and motivation as the Sunday game approaches.
“I think the big thing is, they’ve got to stay the course, more so than anything else that they’ve got to fall back to what they do best, and that’s one of the things that we’ve talked about as a team is when things get tough, you got to go back to your base fundamentals,” Rivera expounded. “That’s the root of everything. Well, they’re base fundamental, the things that they do best it’s using their speed and strength and their quickness more so than it is to try and be cute or something like that. And I think that’s when you watch them, some of the times, they’re trying so hard at that they’re getting a little bit out of what their real element is, and that’s athleticism.”
The Falcons (1-2) are entering the contest having secured their first victory in a 17-14 win over the New York Giants last week at MetLife Stadium.
In the team’s last contest in Week 9 of the 2018 season, at FedEx Field, Washington was defeated by the Falcons 38-14.
Sunday’s game marks the 27th time in franchise history the two teams will play each other. Washington leads the all-time series 15-10-1 – including postseason play -dating back to 10/9/1966.
What would a win over the Falcons do for the Washington Football Team from a statistical and historical standpoint?
A win would snap Washington’s six-game losing streak to the Falcons that dates back to December 3, 2006.
A ‘W’ secures Washington’s 16th all-time win against the Falcons.
A victory would be Washington’s first-ever in their first regular-season appearance at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Georgia.
Finally, a victory gets Washington back to .500 to start the 2021 season and more importantly, gives the teams fanbase something to be positive about as the campaign progresses.