The Washington Commanders never make it easy. Washington entered Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts winners of two in a row. Each of those wins came down to the final seconds, with the Commanders coming away victorious.
What would Washington do for an encore?
Quarterback Taylor Heinicke would lead back-to-back scoring drives in the fourth quarter to give Washington a 17-16 victory to move to 4-4 on the season.
Terry McLaurin’s 33-yard reception with 26 seconds remaining set the Commanders up with a first and goal from inside the one-yard line. On the next play, Heinicke sneaks in to give Washington what felt like an improbable win, considering how the team looked in the second half.
Here are five takeaways from the Commanders’ win over the Colts.
There's just something about Heinicke
We aren’t going to use this space to debate if Heinicke is Washington’s quarterback of the future. We’ve been down that road. Heinicke is who he is, limitations and all, but you can’t disagree that there is just something special about the Commanders quarterback. Heinicke looked good in the first half; outside of one pass, Washington’s offense couldn’t manage to score more than seven points. In the second half, he struggled at times. The pass protection wasn’t always good, and his interception was brutal.
Then, when it mattered the most, Heinicke came up big. He led drives of 82 and 89 yards in the fourth quarter before scoring the game-winning touchdown and giving the Commanders their third consecutive win.
As long as Heinicke is leading Washington to wins, Carson Wentz will remain on the bench. The Commanders have matchups against the NFC’s best two teams in the next two weeks in Minnesota and Philadelphia. If Washington can win one of those two games, it will be in good shape for the final seven games of the season.
Antonio Gibson is the top back
Washington began the game with Antonio Gibson in the backfield. He was catching passes, getting first downs, and then when Washington turned to Brian Robinson Jr. things slowed down for a bit. That’s not Robinson’s fault, but offensive coordinator Scott Turner needs to ride the hot hand. It took three years, but Washington is finally learning how to best utilize Gibson’s skill set. Gibson should be the lead back with J.D. McKissic handling his normal third-down duties with some Robinson sprinkled in. This offense works best with Gibson getting the football 15-20 times.
Terry McLaurin is one of the NFL's best
Much like how people debate Heinicke’s future, many will debate if Terry McLaurin is actually a top 10 NFL wide receiver. He is. End of story. When McLaurin has a quiet day, it’s not because he was locked down; it’s because Washington’s quarterbacks failed to prioritize getting him the ball. McLaurin was big in each of the last two weeks, and his fourth-quarter catch against Stephon Gilmore was an elite, winning play. Heinicke and McLaurin have a special connection. Heinicke trusts his top wideout to win every battle, and McLaurin rarely lets him down.
What happened at the end of the first half
Washington scored its first touchdown after a six-play, 75-yard drive in the second quarter. It was a masterful drive by Turner, mixing in runs with passes. Heinicke was accurate and Washington’s running backs were finding holes and picking up positive yardage. Yet, throughout the remainder of the half, the Commanders could get nothing going. At the end of the first half, Washington had the ball with less than two minutes and all of their timeouts. Instead of attempting to score, Turner called three runs and a short pass. On third down, Heinicke scrambles, coming up short on third down and Washington had to punt.
It was a disastrous sequence. The Commanders weren’t even trying to score. The running backs were open out of the backfield all day, yet Turner was content holding onto a four-point lead heading into halftime.
This one was on the coaches.
Not sure how sustainable this winning streak is
You can’t keep winning like this every week — or can you? Taylor Heinicke seemingly defies all logic. But eventually, a defensive is going to sit back there and make Heinicke win games by pushing the ball down the field. And when that happens how do the Commanders respond? This version of Washington works best when the running game is clicking, and the Commanders can use plenty of play-action. The defense has legitimately improved, but how will it perform against a legit offense? We are going to find out in the next two weeks with the Vikings and Eagles on the schedule.
