Sunday night’s game at FedEx Field against the Giants is huge for both teams’ playoff hopes.
You may recall the Giants really got after Taylor Heinicke. The Commanders experienced difficulty in protecting Heinicke against the Giants. Chris Cooley addressed this and here are a few excerpts of Cooley describing what he observed to Kevin Sheehan on Sheehan’s podcast.
“They have glaring protection issues. And they know they have glaring protection issues because they are max-protecting 70% of the time.”
Cooley was alluding to how the Commanders are keeping tight ends in and running backs as well to block, trying to protect Taylor Heinicke, but that means they are also on these instances running only three-man routes combinations.
“Dude, that is 1977 Don Coryell. That is really hard to execute in the NFL right now, and you are really putting a lot on your quarterback to make big-time throws down the field. It is a hard deal to get done in three-man route combinations.”
“You cannot turn guys loose off of the edge… The Giants were getting free hitters on five-man rushes. I get it when you stink at protecting, but this is a consistent problem for Washington.”
“You cannot score points in the NFL this way. You can score 20 points. You can find a way to execute and make a couple of throws on a couple of drives, But you cannot consistently drive the ball down the field and score when you are max-protecting 70% of the time.”
“The first sack-fumble was a max-protect. But when one, two or three is not open, where are we going with the ball? If you are max-protecting and you look to the right and then back to the center and if both are not open, you are gone! Go (run) or get out of the pocket, one or the other. Make something happen or run.”
