MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D9
NFL WEEK 11JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POSTDaron Payne and James Smith-Williams team up to bring down Cam Newton on the final drive. “We’re just making the plays that we were missing at the beginning of the season,” Jonathan Allen said.
with its second straight win.
Carolina fell to 5-6.
“I think the biggest thing he’s
doing is he’s starting to see
things,” Rivera said of Heinicke.
“He’s starting to see what he
needs to see, he’s throwing in the
windows that he needs to throw,
and we’re getting healthy up
front.”
And with Heinicke spurring an
offensive turnaround, Washing-
ton’s defense, which is missing
star edge rushers Chase Young
and Montez Sweat, has morphed
into a formidable group in recent
weeks. Rivera credited the team’s
recent resurgence, in part, to its
play in the trenches, which has
sparked the running game and
stabilized the defense. But Wash-
ington typically has been a sec-
ond-half team, winning late and
turning dismal beginnings into
thrilling roller-coaster rides.
So far, it has yet to veer off
track.
“They’ve become resilient, and
they do the things that they need
to,” Rivera said. “They rely on
each other.”
But thrills aren’t always pretty,
and Sunday’s first few series were
nothing short of disastrous for
Washington. Thanks to a penalty
and a busted coverage, Carolina
jumped to an early lead on New-
ton’s 10-yard touchdown pass to
wide receiver DJ Moore, and
Washington’s offense failed to re-
spond.
Its opening drives have been
persistent nuisances, and Sun-
day’s first series was squandered
when the offense appeared con-
fused as to whether a running or
passing play had been called on
third down. Nine players were
run-blocking, and two others
were in pass mode before Hein-
icke threw the ball away — and
then threw his arms up in bewil-
derment.
There was a spark on Washing-
ton’s second possession thanks to
Heinicke’s 30-yard completion to
Terry McLaurin, but running
back Antonio Gibson diffused any
momentum with a fumble in the
red zone. Gibson has fumbled five
times this season, and Washing-
ton has lost three of them.
Gibson was benched for the
rest of the half as Heinicke went
to work with McLaurin and run-
ning back J.D. McKissic. After
finding McLaurin for a 39-yard
WASHINGTON FROM D1
contested catch along the side-
line, McKissic had a 15-yard run
that set up a needle-threading,
six-yard touchdown pass from
Heinicke to Cam Sims that tied
the score at 7 early in the second
quarter.
But Newton, making his first
start since he rejoined the Pan-
thers, ensured the spotlight never
strayed too far. Late in the quar-
ter, he rushed 24 yards for a
go-ahead touchdown — and then
kept running to midfield, set the
ball on the Panthers’ logo and
puffed his chest like Superman as
the Bank of America Stadium
crowd roared.
Heinicke, once a jobless quar-
terback sleeping on his sister’s
couch and hoping for another
NFL job following a stint under
Rivera with Carolina, showed no
signs of slowing Sunday.
Just before the end of the half,Heinicke led Washington on a
12-play drive to even the score at
14, overcoming the loss of another
center, Tyler Larsen, to an injury
and a brutal penalty by his re-
placement. Wes Schweitzer, Hein-
icke’s second of three centers he
took a snap from Sunday, was
flagged for a false start on fourth
and one, but with time ticking
away, Rivera lived up to his “Riv-
erboat Ron” nickname and went
for it from the Carolina 43-yard
line anyway.
Heinicke threw a dart to a
wide-open DeAndre Carter for 18
yards. After a 12-yard completion
to Adam Humphries on third and
nine, Heinicke found McLaurin
for another 12-yard grab — as
Panthers safety Jeremy Chinn
held him — in the end zone.
“It’s a culmination of a lot of
things, but I feel like I’ve played
better just by going out there andhaving fun, being myself and let
the personality come out,” Hein-
icke said. “I think that kind of
rubs off on some other guys. But
there’s guys out there fighting,
man. They’re really fighting — all
11 of those guys on every play
doing the right thing.”
Washington has been without
tight end Logan Thomas since
Week 5 because of a hamstring
injury and lost his backup, Ricky
Seals-Jones, to a hip injury in
Week 10. But with the emergence
of Carter and the reliability of
McLaurin, who finished with five
catches for 103 yards in his fourth
100-yard receiving game of the
season, Washington appears well
equipped.
“He’s a killer,” Carter said of
McLaurin. “... He takes big hits
and still makes plays. He embod-
ies who we are as a football team.”
After halftime, Washington re-gained another key piece of its
offense. Gibson, free from his
stint in timeout, bounced back to
run for 42 yards on a drive that
Heinicke capped with a four-yard
pass to Carter. That gave Wash-
ington its first lead at 21-14 and
propelled Gibson to a season-
high 95 yards.
“You want that resilience, and
he’s a young man that’s just going
to get better and better the more
he develops and grows,” Rivera
said. “I wish he hadn’t fumbled,
because it would have been a very
good day for him.”
Washington’s lead was short-
lived: Three possessions later,
Newton threw a 27-yard dart to
Christian McCaffrey to tie the
score at 21. But Washington’s de-
fensive line, which could have
been a glaring weakness without
Young and Sweat on the edge,
proved to be a force, giving uponly 59 yards to McCaffrey on the
ground.
The final minutes typically
have been Heinicke’s finest, with
risky passes and the occasional
pylon dive turning him into a
fourth-quarter star. The final
stretch of Sunday’s win was a
shared effort with a rookie tight
end and that depleted defensive
line.
On fourth and three near mid-
field, Heinicke scrambled left and
nearly took a sack before unload-
ing a short pass to John Bates,
who moved up for the six-yard
grab.
“That scared the hell out of
me,” Rivera said. “But that’s him.
He’s got the ability. He sees things,
and he’s got a very innate sense to
him about certain plays like that.”
That drive sputtered, and
Washington settled for a 36-yard
field goal by Joey Slye, another
former Panther. Its defense
stopped McCaffrey short on a
fourth-down catch at the Caro-
lina 34, giving the offense another
shot to expand its lead. Washing-
ton wisely turned to its ground
game to burn the clock and inch
its way upfield. But on third and
10 at the Carolina 18, Gibson ran
for seven yards before unwisely
going out of bounds, stopping the
clock.
Slye knocked in a 29-yarder to
give Washington a six-point edge,
but 1:50 remained, leaving New-
ton with one final shot against his
former coach in a stadium he
again calls home. But his day
ended with a thud when Daron
Payne and James Smith-Williams
pulled him down for a win-seal-
ing sack near midfield — the same
spot where Newton earlier cel-
ebrated Superman’s return.
“We’re just making the plays
that we were missing at the begin-
ning of the season,” defensive
tackle Jonathan Allen said. “...
I’m not a big fan of comparing
seasons, because so much can
change between them, but two
wins in a row is huge. I think you
can go as far as to say it saved our
season.”
Newton finished 21 for 27 for
189 yards, two touchdowns and a
120.5 rating, plus 46 rushing
yards, including that long touch-
down run. Heinicke again played
spoiler and star, going 16 for 22
for 206 yards, three touchdowns
and a 141.3 rating to secure an-
other “Victory Monday.”
[email protected]Rivera’s return to Carolina ends with second straight win
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST
Antonio Gibson carried 19 times for a season-high 95 yards for Washington. In the first half, he was benched after a red-zone fumble.