MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D7
NFL WEEK 1
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POSTWashington’s Daron Payne (94) and Chase Young put the squeeze on Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, who goes down in the fourth quarter. Washington compiled eight sacks for 62 yards in Sunday’s win.
c oaching debut.
Washington’s defensive line,
stacked with five first-round
draft picks, annihilated Philadel-
phia quarterback Carson Wentz
with eight sacks for a loss of
62 yards, while its secondary
came up with two game-changing
interceptions that sparked a turn-
around by the offense.
“One thing that I tried to focus
on is that we’ve gone through a
lot and things have been tough,
but they stuck together, they
didn’t point any fingers, they
didn’t blame anybody, they just
kept hammering away,” Rivera
said. “I’m not sure who played
that first quarter for us in bur-
gundy, but I like what they did in
the second, third and fourth
quarters. The guys responded
very well and stuck to the game
plan.”
The bruising by the defense
bought time for Washington’s
young offense. For much of the
first half, visions of years past
returned as the offense sputtered
WASHINGTON FROM D1 — a three-and-out to start, with as
many negative plays as complet-
ed passes in the first 28 minutes
of play. Second-year quarterback
Dwayne Haskins, in his first
Week 1 start, connected on only
three of his first 12 pass attempts,
and five of the team’s first six
drives resulted in punts. The
sixth? A hooked 48-yard field goal
attempt by Dustin Hopkins.
All the while, the Eagles, with a
tight end corps that ranked atop
the league last season in both
catches and receiving yards per
game, took advantage of mis-
matches in coverage. Wentz
quickly connected with Dallas
Goedert and Zach Ertz for a total
of 33 yards and a touchdown on
Philadelphia’s opening drive.
Washington’s defensive line
struggled to rein in its energy in
the early going. Rookie defensive
end Chase Young was flagged for
a critical neutral zone infraction,
giving the Eagles a free five yards
and a first down en route to the
end zone, and his new sidekick,
Montez Sweat, added one of his
own on Philadelphia’s subse-
quent drive.
To many, the Washington Foot-
ball Team showed the same colors
— the same mistakes, the same
knack for beating itself but with a
new name and new uniforms.
But it wasn’t long before Wash-
ington’s line wrecked the game —
and Wentz — and the team of old
gave way to something new.
In the span of six plays in the
first quarter, Wentz was sacked
three times, the first of which was
courtesy of veteran Ryan Kerri-
gan. Kerrigan, who was relegated
to a reserve role behind Young in
Jack Del Rio’s 4-3 defense, record-
ed two sacks to pass Dexter Man-
ley and become the franchise’s
all-time l eader with 92. He
capped his day with a fumble
recovery after a strip-sack by
Daron Payne and Young.
“Pretty crazy,” Kerrigan said
after. “I mean, this organization
has been around for a long time,
and a lot of really good players
have come through. To get to the
top, that was pretty special for
sure.”
Yet the turning point Sundaycame from a different source —
Fabian Moreau’s interception
with less than two minutes re-
maining in the first half. Moreau
stepped in front of rookie wide
receiver Jalen Reagor to grab the
ball at the Philadelphia 45-yard
line, giving Haskins and the of-
fense another try to put up points
before the break.
Haskins delivered, connecting
with Terry McLaurin and Don-
trelle Inman for 21- and 11-yard
completions, respectively, before
finding Logan Thomas —
Haskins’s favorite red-zone target
in training camp — in the middle
of the end zone.
“Everyone was amped up on
the sidelines,” Moreau said. “We
knew coming out of that this was
our game — our game to prove
ourselves.”
During the halftime break, Ri-
vera received an IV, as was
planned by him and the team’s
lead doctor and athletic trainer,
to ensure he stayed hydrated on
the sideline. He had begun cancer
treatment only five days earlier.
“I basically told one of ouroperations guys, ‘Hey, look, I’m
getting my IV, so I might not be
out in time, so somebody’s going
to have to make sure somebody
steps up to the podium,’ ” Rivera
said. “Apparently Dwayne
stepped up, and it was a pretty
raucous one from what I under-
stand.”
Haskins gave the halftime
speech, reminding his teammates
the Eagles were visitors.
“He got everyone riled up and
put it on his back,” Moreau said.
“Like a leader.”
Roughly three minutes into the
second half, cornerback Jimmy
Moreland picked off Wentz and
set up Haskins at the Philadel-
phia 20. Again, the offense took
advantage, with a one-yard
touchdown run by Peyton Barber
bringing the deficit to 17-14.
Washington tied the score at 17
on Hopkins’s 38-yard field goal
less than a minute into the fourth
quarter and took the lead on a
three-yard scoring run by Barber
that capped a 13-play, 48-yard
drive with a little more than six
minutes remaining. Hopkinsadded an insurance field goal
with 3:29 left.
In all, five of Washington’s final
eight drives led to scores for
27 unanswered points, and
Haskins, who mustered only
77 passing yards in the first half,
completed 10 of 15 passes in the
second half for 101 yards. Yet
those five scoring drives began in
Philadelphia territory, thanks to a
defense that served as a catalyst
and reason to believe maybe, just
maybe, Rivera is on to something.
Maybe Washington really is be-
ginning to change.
“This is a good group of guys,
and I kind of think when we
started scoring points and start-
ed stopping them on defense, all
of a sudden these guys realized
we can play with these guys,” said
Rivera, who was awarded the
game ball by his players. “It was
really kind of fun to see because
these guys are capable. There are
a lot of young guys on this team,
and if we do it right and grow it
right, who knows where we can
go?”
[email protected]Washington climbs out of a 17-point hole to win its opener
Rivera said.
Imagine that. For once, it
would have been nice to hear a
FedEx Field crowd’s reaction to a
quality that has been scarce here
for decades. Resilience? From the
Redsk... er, the Washington
Football Team? Pick a more
unexpected Washington football
result from the past two decades.
Maybe that Monday night
15 years ago in Dallas, when Mark
Brunell overcame a 13-0 deficit by
hitting Santana Moss for two
scores in the last four minutes?
Maybe.
With this football in a
pandemic, there’s all sorts of stuff
to get used to. With one weekend
down, there’s no way to yet
determine whether it will be a
success come January.
That’s also true for
Washington. Change was afoot
here all offseason. The burst of
success it brought in the opener
has not yet been sustained. But
on one sunny Sunday afternoon
when fans could watch only from
afar, you could allow yourself to
think that this time, finally, the
change might matter.
[email protected]For more by Barry Svrluga, visit
washingtonpost.com/svrluga.he listens to them. He cares how
they feel. The franchise he is
employed by is unusually familiar
with tumult and turbulence. This
offseason — with the name
change followed by two damning
stories in The Washington Post
that outlined an environment of
rampant sexism under owner
Daniel Snyder — set a new
standard. Throw in Rivera’s
cancer diagnosis, and there’s just
a chronic feeling around this
franchise: What next?
“It’s been a tough offseason,”
Rivera said. “It really has.”
And then, just over 23 minutes
into the season, his team trailed
17-0.
“I’m not sure who played that
first quarter for us in burgundy,”
Rivera said.
Uh, again, folks. He’s new here.
Jay Gruden could tell him. Mike
Shanahan could tell him. Jim
Zorn could tell him. Shoot, a
penny for the thoughts from the
owner’s box at that point.
There was no crowd to boo,
which may have been a relief. But
there was nowhere to turn for
support, either. This had to come
from Rivera and his staff. It had
to come from the players
themselves.
“I just love the resilience,”staff stood — together. A few
players raised their fists.
These moments, they can be
moving. But for the team, there
were no surprises. Over the
course of the week, the players
had met to discuss the best
approach — together.
“I wanted to find a way for us
as a team to be unified — not one
person kneeling, one person
sitting down, one person
standing up,” quarterback
Dwayne Haskins said. “We’re a
team. I know everyone has their
own opinions and everything, but
that’s what life is about. It’s
figuring out how people feel.”
There’s something to members
of a team listening to one
another, even if it’s not on
matters of playing the correct
coverage or running the right
routes. There’s got to be a link
between that unity Washington’s
players showed before the game
and the way Washington came
back during it.
“I thought that was one of the
reasons we were able to come
back and win,” Haskins said.
“We’re a family.”
At the center of that is Rivera.
Not because he pushed his
players to do one thing or
another. Rather, simply becauseradio crew. What has now
changed, even for a single day:
the result.
“It bodes well for who we can
become as a football team,”
Rivera said.
Forgive him, Washington fans.
He’s new here.
Still, what a thing to allow
yourself to think. And to get the
players to think. And to get the
fan base to think.
Even before the game started,
there were subtle indications that
Washington might be a different
football team. More important
than a win or loss — for any team
in any city during this opening
weekend — was the idea that NFL
players are now encouraged to
present their views on racial and
societal injustices to the public,
to use their platforms. So about a
half-hour before kickoff, the
Philadelphia and Washington
players lined up on opposite hash
marks, faced each other and
locked arms — a show of unity.
The Eagles then left the field.
Washington remained. When the
names of Black Americans who
have been killed at the hands of
police showed on a video board,
the players and staff knelt —
together. When the national
anthem began, the players andrecord, a pertinent question
arose during a dizzying Sunday at
FedEx Field: If the Washington
Football Team is, indeed,
overhauled in both style and
substance and no one is around
to see it, can it really be
happening?
Blink your eyes clear because
what transpired Sunday — a
1 7-0 Washington deficit that
somehow turned into a
Washington win — was real, very
real.
“We didn’t have a lot to gauge
on who we are and who we’re
going to become,” first-year head
coach Ron Rivera said. “But we
had an opportunity to show, and
the guys did.”
Which qualifies as a stunner
because so often in such
moments in years past,
Washington would be given the
opportunity to show and would
sniff at it, decidedly disinterested.
Shoot, a year ago in the season
opener — this one at P hiladelphia
— Washington shot out to a
1 7-0 lead — and lost. Given the
franchise’s DNA, that came to the
surprise of precisely no one.
Yet here are the things that
have changed since this team last
won a football game: the name,
the team president, the coach, theline of scrimmage and into the
end zone for what would be the
game-winning score. The public
address announcer blared,
“Touch-doooooooown,
Washington!” Whom those words
were intended for remains
unclear. The response in a
building that holds
82,000 people: a burst of
enthusiasm from the Washington
bench and an empty echo that
rattled around the seats. In the
NFL of 2020, energy and
momentum can come only from
within.
By this point in the novel
coronavirus pandemic, the idea
of playing sports in vacant
stadiums almost can seem rote.
Know this: In person, it’s
decidedly odd, even eerie. Only
Kansas City and Jacksonville
welcomed mask-wearing fans in
Week 1. Until further notice,
that’s how this NFL season will be
conducted. Nearly 6.5 million
cases of a virus that has killed
more than 190,000 Americans
will cause teams and authorities
to make such decisions out of
both caution and common sense.
But even as we settle into the
most unusual NFL season on
SVRLUGA FROM D1
BARRY SVRLUGA
Following a summer o f change, team starts out w ith some surprising resilience