'No sense of panic': Wentz, Commanders working to get back on track

By Ralph Vacchiano
FOX Sports NFC East Writer

For two weeks, it looked like the Commanders' decision to trade for quarterback Carson Wentz was a good one. He led the NFL in passing yardage. The offense, while far from perfect, worked.

And then, suddenly, it didn't.

The turnaround from the first two weeks in Washington to the last two weeks has been stunning. Wentz averaged 325 passing yards and threw seven touchdown passes in the first two games, but has totaled 381 yards and one touchdown in the last two. He's been sacked 11 times in the last two games and a league-high 17 times this season. And the Commanders went from averaging 27.5 points the first two weeks to a ridiculous 9 in the last two.

Now they're already three games back in the division race. Their injuries are mounting. And so is their tension level as they try to dig out of an early, deep hole at 1-3.

"Honestly, I'm pissed off and a little frustrated," Commanders coach Ron Rivera told NBC Sports in Washington earlier this week. "Frustrated with the injuries, frustrated with doing stupid silly things that hurt us as a team. I'm angry because I think we're better than we played."

At least he hopes they are.

That's the real problem, as the Commanders head into what is now a critical game on Sunday at home against the Tennessee Titans (2-2). Maybe they should be better, especially on offense, but it's not at all clear that they actually are. Wentz suddenly looks like the jittery, indecisive quarterback his critics remember from Indianapolis and his later years in Philadelphia. And his banged-up offensive line is crumbling in front of him, making things exponentially worse.

The line, in fact, is where all their problems seem to start. Wentz has been sacked 11 times in the past two games, including a ridiculous nine times two weeks ago in a 24-8 loss to the Eagles. And in those losses to Philadelphia and Dallas, he was hit 28 times – nearly one third of the times he dropped back to pass.

That's stunning considering last year Washington had one of the best offensive lines in the league.

"After the second week of the season, (Wentz) was leading the league (in completion percentage) when he had a clean pocket," Rivera said. "Yeah, I'd love to be able to have somebody up out there protecting him because that'll help prop him up. That'll give him a chance to get the ball to the playmakers that we have. I mean, it kind of works hand-in-hand, that if you don't have the protection, his numbers have dropped."

A big reason Wentz hasn't had that protection the last two weeks is that the line has been overwhelmed by injuries. They are already on their third starting center—Nick Martin, a journeyman signed less than three weeks ago. Left tackle Charles Leno has been dealing with a shoulder injury. Right guard Trai Turner struggled in his return from a quad injury and was benched last week for Saahdiq Charles. Right tackle Sam Cosmi had surgery on his thumb on Tuesday.

And all that comes after the Commanders didn't re-sign all-pro guard Brandon Scherff, who went to Jacksonville on a three-year, $49.5 million deal.

"These guys haven't been working together that are not used to each other," Rivera said. "There's a lot of little nuances that get developed over time."

That's the easy excuse, but it's not nearly the whole story. Wentz deserves plenty of blame too. For one thing, the Washington offense lives off play-action passes that are supposed to keep opposing pass rushes off balance. But Wentz has been generally ineffective on play-action passes, completing only 52.8 percent of them so far. He also tends to hold the ball far too long as he searches for an open receiver and isn't good at stepping up in a collapsing pocket.

Those are all old tendencies for the 29-year-old Wentz, that are compounded by the fact he's now learning a completely new offense for the first time in his seven-year career.

"I think it's a little bit of both," Rivera said. "A couple times when you do see him go through his progressions, by the time he gets to that second or third, he's under duress. And a lot of times you'd love to be able to say, 'Hey, if you haven't thrown it by your first one, you get to your second one. You've got to be ready to deliver it.'"

In order to help him, offensive coordinator Scott Turner has revamped his game plan, including shorter drop backs, shorter passes and plays designed to get the ball out fast. But the last two weeks it hasn't worked as a battered Wentz threw for just 211 yards against the Eagles and 170 against the Cowboys—an average of less than 4.5 yards per attempt — while the Washington offense averaged only 268.5 total yards in those two games.

There are more problems, too. The running game, which was supposed to be the backbone of this offense, is only producing 100.5 yards per game. Some of that is because they've too often played from behind, but Rivera wants his team to be "a little bit more in tune with the run", especially early in games—if for no other reason than to help Wentz out.

"One of the ways to do it is to make sure we can establish the run early so that the play action sells it for him and helps him and helps our offensive line," Rivera said. "If you can get the pass rushers going sideways, it slows it down a little bit. We've got to get better at that."

And there's more. The Commanders self-destructed in Dallas, committing 11 penalties for 136 yards against the Cowboys—7 for 61 on the offensive side. Terry McLaurin, their supposed No. 1 receiver, has only 14 catches so far (for 250 yards and a touchdown). It also didn't help their offense that they were without rookie running back Brian Robinson for the first four games after he was shot in the leg during an attempted robbery, but at least he's back at practice now.

Of course, just as he returns, standout rookie receiver Jahan Dotson (12-152-4) is out for at least two games with a hamstring injury and their leading receiver, Curtis Samuel (26-219-2), has been battling an illness all week.

No wonder Rivera's blood pressure is on the rise and the frustrations in Washington continue to mount.

"Tremendous frustration," Rivera said. "When you start seeing some steps go forward and then all of a sudden you go backwards, that's a tough pill to swallow. It is because you feel good potentially about what could be headed in the right direction and then something comes up."

When that happens, it can be devastating for a team. A sense of doom can easily set into a locker room. So far, it doesn't appear that has happened in Washington. As Wentz said after the loss in Dallas, "You try not to think the sky is falling or the world is ending or anything crazy."

"Everything's fixable," Cosmi added. "The ship hasn't sunk."

Not yet, but on the increasingly depleted offensive side it's definitely taking on water. And even though it's only four games into the season, it sure feels like time is running out.

"There's no sense of panic," Wentz said on Wednesday. "There's no sense of chaos around here. We know how we've played. It wasn't up to our standards. But at the same time, I know everyone in that locker room has a ton of confidence. We've seen spurts of what we're capable of. We know the sense of urgency that there is but there's no panic by any means."

"The season is not over," McLaurin added. "If you want things to change, you have to change your behavior. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, it's kind of like insanity."

But can they change? Or is the Commanders offense too short-handed, too far down the spiral to pull back up?

Rivera didn't sound so sure this week as he talked about the state of the franchise in his third season at the helm. He can sense the frustration of everyone as they stand on the brink of what looks to be another lost season. He even reminded the world "It's not going to happen overnight."

"I've got to be realistic with what we have and what we're going to do," Rivera said. "Now, some of it we can improve on as coaches and get better at—and we have to. There is a sense of urgency that these things have to happen. But they're not going to happen until everything's in place and it's ready to happen."

For two weeks it looked like the Commanders might be ready, that everything was finally in place, especially with their offense.

Now those two weeks just seem like a very long time ago.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.