Why Jack Del Rio’s Washington Commanders defense has been a disaster

In the first three weeks of the 2023 NFL season, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields completed 51 of 88 passes (58.0%) for 528 yards (6.0 YPA), three touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 67.8. Fields was throwing his coaches under the bus (somewhat justifiably), offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and head coach Matt Eberflus were on the chopping block, and Chicago’s season looked like a lost cause.

Then, in his next two games against the defenses of the Denver Broncos and Washington Commanders, Fields looked like a completely different guy. He completed 43 of 64 passes (67.2%) for 617 yards (9.7 YPA), eight touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 131.3. Was Fields playing at a new level with more expansive passing concepts from Getsy? Yes, but Fields was also going up against two bad, overwhelmed defenses, and that was especially true in Chicago’s 40-20 win over the Commanders on Thursday night.

Even when Fields was unable to connect with his receivers, it didn’t matter — he completed 15 of 29 passes against Jack Del Rio’s defense for 282 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 125.3. Most disconcerting for the Commanders was Fields’ ability to create explosive plays — both on long passes, and shorter passes in which Washington’s defense simply fell apart.

On Friday, per Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post, head coach Ron Rivera seemed bereft of answers.

Well, when you’re not put in positions to succeed, maybe it is time for a soft mutiny. Washington’s defensive players were loath to blame their coordinator, but when you watch the tape, it’s clear that the concepts Del Rio is giving his players aren’t working.

The solution for Del Rio would be to give his players better answers to the test. If not, the solution for the Commanders would be to find someone who can.

Don't play man if you can't play man.

The Commanders played a lot of man coverage against the Bears, and it really didn’t go well at all. Fields completed nine of 16 passes against Washington’s man coverage concepts for 221 yards, 205 intended air yards, three touchdowns, and a passer rating of 140.6. The Commanders allowed five passing plays of 20 or more yards, and four were man coverage.

Add to that the issue of Washington’s safety switches, and the fact that they don’t work out more often than not. On Fields’ 58-yard completion to Moore with 14:16 left in the first quarter, the Commanders showed a two-high look pre-snap, and then had safety Percy Butler drop down to be the robber defender. That left safety Darrick Forrest as the single-high guy, and because Forrest was betwixt and between in his coverage, and there was nobody for Butler to rob… well, this was just a disaster — compounded by cornerback Benjamin St-Juste biting on Moore’s route.

“I’m [mad] about that,” St-Juste said of the play. “That’s on me. … Should’ve just did my job instead of looking for a play when it wasn’t there.”

A common refrain.

After the game, Bears offensive guard Teven Jenkins was embarrassingly (for the Commanders) forthright about how that all went.

“Couple times, they were trying to give false looks, and it seemed like some of the guys [defensive backs] either weren’t aware or they were just being lazy about making the shift, and that led to some really open plays for us.”

The Commanders are too aggressive in coverage.

Two of Chicago’s explosive passes were high yards after catch plays in which Forbes was so interested in jumping the route, he kind of forgot to tackle his receiver. That first happened with 1:52 left in the first quarter, when Moore bumped Forbes off his route on a quick comeback. Forbes then whiffed the tackle as Moore turned to run, and a couple yards turned into 39.

Forbes got singed on a similar concept with 1:06 left in the third quarter.

With 4:18 left in the game, and Forbes having been benched, veteran cornerback Kendall Fuller tried to jump another Moore quick out… and with the same result. This time, the Commanders were in Cover-0 and full Engage Eight mode, so there was no contingency plan for that kind of aggressiveness.

“It could be,” Rivera said of the notion that his cornerbacks are too aggressive to the ball, as opposed to just stopping plays from becoming bigger plays. “I mean, that’s a guess right there… When you’re trying to jump routes, when you’re trying to make plays, you’re trying to do more than you need to, those unfortunate things are going to happen.”

But they can’t happen over and over like this. Obviously.

Play-action is a cheat code when your linebackers get sucked in.

It seemed that Del Rio was trying to defend an offense that would be run-first — specifically QB run-first — because his linebackers were rushing to the line on any kind of play fake. Fields completed five of eight play-action passes for 98 yards in this game, and that included this 23-yard pass to tight end Cole Kmet with 7:59 left in the first half. When Fields faked the ball to running back Khalil Herbert, linebackers Cole Holcomb and Jamin Davis, as well as safety Kamren Curl, all bit on it, and when Moore took the top off with his vertical route, Kmet had a cow pasture in the middle of the field, and Kmet had an easy explosive play.

How do the Commanders fix this?

Del Rio made it an offseason point to get more turnovers, but when you’re allowing explosive plays at this rate, maybe you’re just better off backing away from the gun. The Commanders have enough talent along their defensive line to have that in the bag, so it would behoove Del Rio and his staff to get his guys in assignment-correct situations just to calm things down. When you’re getting sucked in with play-action, you’re putting your cornerbacks on islands to the point where you need to bench them, and your safety rotations are a literal joke to your opponent, it’s time to either change the systems, or change the coordinator.

It’s as simple as that.

Story originally appeared on Touchdown Wire