ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders will have more than 11 players who play defense regularly, according to coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., but each of them has one goal in mind: getting to the football.
We call the Commanders’ defense aggressive. They use words like “hunt.” Whatever adjectives or verbs you want to use, the goal – every game – is to beat the offense.
Forcing a punt in Washington is good, but not good enough. Deflecting a pass isn’t good enough either, because why bat the ball away when you can just claim it, right?
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“We haven’t touched the ball on defense yet. That’s one thing we’ve done on every stop I’ve made,” Coach Whitt told us toward the end of training camp. “And we haven’t done that yet. So that’s one thing we need to do better.”
From 2021 to 2023, Whitt served as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach under Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, who served as defensive coordinator during that time.
In his three years with the Cowboys, their defense never ranked lower than 12th in the NFL in turnovers, scoring 26 or more in each season.
Even in 2020, Quinn’s final season with the Atlanta Falcons and Whitt’s only one, this defense secured 21 takeaways.
Meanwhile, no Washington defense has ever had more than 21 turnovers during the same period.
“I’m just not used to it,” Whitt said later when the topic of not being able to get many turnovers this preseason came up. “We’re not going to chase the ball. … When you chase, when you start chasing interceptions or fumbles or whatever, you miss tackles, you mess up coverage. And we’re not going to do that. … (Against the Miami Dolphins) we dropped two interceptions … if we would have gotten those two balls plus the fumble, we probably would have won the game. But we didn’t get them, so we lost. That’s the reality of this league. If you have the opportunity to make the play, you make the play, there’s no excuse not to make the play, and knocking the ball down is not good enough in my eyes.”
As Whitt mentioned, the Commanders’ defense made its first possession of the season on a strip sack of outside linebacker Jamin Davis. The fumble was recovered by defensive end Andre Jones Jr.
That’s the only performance Washington’s defense can show this preseason after two games, and there’s still one more game left against the New England Patriots on Sunday night.
Technically, the team has two takeaways after receiver Martavis Bryant was able to force a fumble during an interception return that was recovered by Commanders receiver/running back Kazmeir Allen.
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Stay with CommanderGameday and the Commanders in the crosshairs Podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders during the 2024 season.
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