ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders are going to have more than 11 guys featured regularly in their defense according to coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. But each of them is going to have one goal in mind – to get the football.
We call the Commanders defense aggressive. They use words like hunt. No matter what adjectives or verbs you want to use for it, the objective is – on every play – to turn the offense over.
Forcing a punt in Washington is good, but not good enough. Neither is deflecting a pass, because, why bat the ball away when you can just claim if for yourself, right?
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“We haven’t touched the ball as a defense yet. That’s one thing that we’ve done every stop that I’ve made,” coach Whitt told us nearing the end of training camp. “And we haven’t done that yet. So, that’s one thing we have to do a better job of.”
From 2021 to 2023 Whitt served as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach under Commanders head coach Dan Quinn who was the defensive coordinator there during that stretch.
In their three years with the Cowboys their defenses never ranked lower than 12th in the NFL in takeaways and had 26 or more in each season.
Even in 2020, Quinn’s last season with the Atlanta Falcons and Whitt’s only, that defense was able to secure 21 takeaways.
Meanwhile, no Washington defense has eclipsed 21 takeaways even once during that same time period.
“I’m just not used to it,” Whitt later said when the topic of not getting many takeaways this preseason came up. “We’re not going to chase the ball. …When you chase, when you start to chase interceptions or fumbles or what have you, you’re going to miss tackles, you’re going to blow coverages. And that’s not what we’re going to do. …(Against the Miami Dolphins), we dropped two interceptions…if we get those two balls plus the fumble, we probably win that game. But we didn’t get them, so we lost. That’s the reality of this league. When you have the opportunity to make the play, make the play, there’s no excuse for not making the play and knocking the ball down is not good enough in my eyes.”
Like Whitt referred to, the Commanders defense did get their first preseason takeaway of the year on a strip-sack by outside linebacker Jamin Davis. The fumble was recovered by defensive end Andre Jones Jr.
That’s the only takeaway the Washington defense has this preseason through two games, with one more to go 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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