WASHINGTON — The guys of the Locked On Washington Football Team Podcast look at takeaways from the Burgundy & Gold's Week 6 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Little things stacked up to kill the team's chances of winning, while a lack of holistic utilization of quarterback Taylor Heinicke's talents stood out to us.
Ron Rivera said Monday he is not considering replacing Heinicke with Kyle Allen as Washington’s starting quarterback.
“I’ve been very confident in what we’ve done with Taylor,” Rivera said. "Not every week’s going to be as productive as people want it to be, as we want it to be, so we’ll just have to see and we’ll see what happens going forward.”
Heinicke has completed 63.6% of his passes for 1,390 yards, nine TDs and six INTs since replacing injured No. 1 quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in the season opener.
Locked On WFT also saw some hidden opportunities for complementary football go by the wayside and a surprising start to the year from the Washington offensive line.
Also, we get set to look forward to the Green Bay Packers, in Week 7.
WHAT’S WORKING
Umm ... the punting?
Tress Way continues to be Washington's best player. He flipped the field a couple of times against the Chiefs by pinning them at the 5 and 4-yard lines, but Patrick Mahomes led a touchdown drive each time against a shoddy defense that continues to struggle.
WHAT NEEDS HELP
A little bit of everything, perhaps no more so than penalty trouble. Pass rusher Montez Sweat went offside to negate a third-down stop with KC in the red zone, linebacker Khaleke Hudson was flagged for holding in the end zone and those 14 points against were more than Washington put up after halftime.
“I think it’s a little bit of lack of discipline, which falls on me,” Rivera said.
STOCK UP
First-round pick Jamin Davis played a season-high 46 snaps at linebacker and continues to earn the trust of Rivera, defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio and the rest of the coaching staff.
“He was very productive,” Rivera said. “I think he is showing signs of what we believe he can be. And that’s a downhill guy that could run. There were a couple of plays that he really showed his ability to chase and get after players.”
STOCK DOWN
Kicker Dustin Hopkins' seat isn't hot yet, but it's warming up after missing a 42-yard field-goal attempt against the Chiefs. Washington is set to work out potential replacements this week, and while good help is hard to find at the position, Hopkins could be kicking for his job again at Lambeau Field.
INJURED
Running back Antonio Gibson has been playing through a shin injury that he recently revealed is a stress fracture. It's unclear if Gibson will try to gut it out again, or if J.D. McKissic and rookie Jaret Patterson will shoulder the load this weekend.
Washington could again be without WR Curtis Samuel (groin), RG Brandon Scherff (knee) and RT Sam Cosmi (ankle) at Green Bay.
KEY NUMBER
4 — First downs Washington had in the second half against Kansas City after 11 in the first.
NEXT STEPS
Hope for the best knowing that it'll take a Herculean effort to beat the Packers on the road with this many injuries and neither the offense nor defense showing it can take over a game.
Follow & Subscribe to the Locked On Washington Football Team Podcast on these platforms… Apple: https://apple.co/2YHegGc Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3mHG7ye Audacy: https://bit.ly/2YDl7jE Megaphone: https://bit.ly/3AIshkd
Follow Locked On Podcast Network on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LockedOnNetwork Check out all of our NFL Coverage: linktr.ee/lockedonnfl Follow David on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DHarrison82 Follow Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Russellmania621