The Commanders’ slide continues, and Sunday’s loss to the Titans might sting just a little bit extra.
Washington marched 87 yards down the field trailing the Titans by four points with time winding down, and had three chances from the 2-yard line. But Wentz threw two straight incompletions and capped it off with a game-sealing interception to David Long Jr. with seconds left to end the game. All of this was done with RB Brian Robinson on the field for Washington, who made his season debut for the Commanders after missing the first four games recovering from a gunshot injury.
The defeat marked the fourth straight loss for the Commanders as they fell to 1-4 this season.
David Long intercepts the pass to seal the win for the Titans! pic.twitter.com/bRznGTonou
— NFL (@NFL) October 9, 2022
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Coach Ron Rivera and Wentz both explained that the game-sealing interception was more a product of Long making a great play rather than a mistake by Wentz.
“Guy made a heck of a play,” Wentz said. “At least from my vantage point, it looked like he was kind of covering Terry [McLaurin] a little bit on the crossing route, I just tried to squeeze it in there to [J.D. McKissic], guy made a heck of a play.
That was an emotional roller-coaster because I thought we had six points when that left my hand and then the result, that was unfortunate.
Rivera explained that with time running out at the 2-yard line, the team did not have much time left to draw up different plays, and without any timeouts, they couldn’t run the ball. For that same reason, Wentz rolling out and looking for more players open was also not an option.
“The only problem with [rolling out] was again is the amount of time it takes,” Rivera said. “Your rollout’s going to take a little bit longer and eventually if you have to throw it away, you click a few more seconds off, you don’t give yourselves that opportunity.”
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The Commanders took over possession trailing by four points with 4:46 left in the game at their own 11. When Wentz and the offense reached the Titans’ 33-yard line, the Commanders used their second timeout of the half. After the next play, a gain of nine, the Commanders used their third and final timeout with 28 seconds remaining at the Titans’ 24.
Rivera had already lost one timeout earlier on the drive challenging an incomplete pass, and was asked after the game why he used timeouts on back-to-back plays.
“Part of it, coming out of it, just depends on the situation, circumstances with the ball. OK, I called back-to-back because again, when the referee went down to the ground, I was trying to yell timeout, but he was obviously down on the ground,” Rivera said. “If he doesn’t give me the signal, we don’t know whether the clock is dead or not, and then as soon as we knew the clock wasn’t dead, we had to call the timeout.”
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The Commanders could have called Brian Robinson’s number in the goal line situation. While the running back didn’t light the stat sheet on fire (9 carries, 22 yards), having their RB1 on the field is a wrinkle they haven’t previously had. And it would have given a chance for Robinson to be the hero of the game.
Without the timeout, though, the Commanders had little time left at the end of the drive to try for a run or go for plays that might require more time to come off the clock, leading to three quick passes from Wentz that ended with him trying to fit a ball to McKissic that was picked by Long.
It has not been an ideal start for Wentz in Washington. He now has just 1,390 passing yards with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions through his first five games.
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