Jones Engineers Winning Drive in OT
San Diego, February 7th, 2021: Josh Jacobs scored from six yards out on third and four to culminate the Chargers eight play, 59-yard scoring drive in overtime to give the Chargers the win, 27-21. The Chargers raised their record to 3-2 while the Washington team fell to 1-4 on the year.
The Chargers opened up a 21-7 halftime lead but could do little in the next two quarters, being shutout for the rest of regulation while Washington scored once in the third and once in the fourth to tie the game at 21-all. The fourth quarter tying touchdown came on a Gardner Minshew to Terry McLaurin 24-yard touchdown pass against a prevent defense with 19 seconds left in regulation.
Neither team was able to score on their first possession of overtime, with the Chargers going three-and-out to start the overtime, and the Washington Football Team being stopped on fourth and three at the Chargers 41 yard line when a hurried Gardner Minshew pass fell incomplete against a safety blitz.
The Chargers took over from there and drove 59 yards to the winning touchdown on Jacobs' six yard run to seal the win with 3:02 left in overtime.
The Chargers scored touchdowns on three of their first four possessions to take a 21-7 lead with 6:31 left in the first half. After that, they could do next to nothing with the ball (six of their next seven possessions were three and outs as Washington slowly inched back in the game).
The Chargers got the opening kickoff and drove 77 yards in nine plays to score on a Daniel Jones to Steven Sims touchdown pass from seven yards out. Jones was six of six for 68 yards on that opening salvo.
But Washington, behind new rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew - obtained in trade at the beginning of the week -answered back with a ten play, 75-yard touchdown drive of their own, with Minshew hitting rookie wideout Marquise Brown from 24 yards out for the tying touchdown. A Minshew to Marquise Brown long completion for 28 yards earlier in the possession moved the ball from the Washington 49 to the Chargers 23 to set up the tying score.
The Chargers bounced back with another touchdown scoring march, driving 75 yards in 13 plays to score on David Montgomery's one yard run. The Chargers overcame two sacks of Daniel Jones on the march, with one of them a strip-sack that Jones himself fortunately managed to recover.
After an exchange of punts, the Chargers took over at their own 28 and made short work of the needed 72 yards for their next score. On the first play of the possession, Jones hit John Ross for 46 on a bomb and then found tight end Ricky Seals-Jones across the middle on a slant and Seals-Jones took it the final 26 yards for the score to give the Chargers a 21-7 lead.
Washington had an opportunity to score before halftime following a fumble lost by recent Charger addition Devin Smith recovered by Sean Murphy-Bunting at the Charger 33. Washington got as close as the Charger 20, but a sack of Minshew pushed the Redskins back, and Washington was unable to put anything on the board. As it turned out, even just a field goal there could have given Washington the win in regulation.
Both teams started the second half with a punt, but then Washington strung together a nice ten play, 65-yard drive that ended in Minshew's six-inch quarterback sneak with 5:21 left in the third quarter to cut the Chargers lead to 21-14. The biggest plays of the march were consecutive completions to Marquise Brown for 20 yards in total, with the second reception by Brown drawing a 15-yard facemask penalty against safety Tracy Walker that moved the ball to the Charger 18. Facing a fourth and five at the 13, Washington's Andy Kirkwood threw caution to the wind and elected to go for it, and tight coverage by rookie Charger linebacker Bobby Okereke led to an incomplete but drew a pass interference call at the eight and gave Washington a first down. After that, the rest was easy, as tight end Seth DeValve caught a pass just short of the goal line, and Minshew scored on the next play.
The Redskins then drove to the Charger 11 on their next possession (following another Charger three-and-out) but Minshew's pass into the end zone intended for rookie wideout Kelvin Harmon was deflected by Tracy Walker and intercepted in the end zone by Marshon Lattimore to thwart the Washingtonians. On the play before the change of possession, Washington converted a fourth and one when Derrius Guice ran 16 yards to the San Diego 11, his longest run of the contest.
On the Washington Football Team's next possession, they drove to the Charger nine with big completions from Minshew to Terry McLaurin of 18 and 16 yards sparking the march, but Minshew's fourth and five check down to Frank Gore was incomplete and the Redskins failed again to put any points on the board. Two great opportunities and twice coming up empty would prove to cost Washington dearly.
Taking over with 5:12 left in the contest and a narrow 21-14 lead, the Chargers wanted to run out the clock and escape with a win in regulation. Two first downs helped run the clock down, but a ten yard penalty against Quenton Nelson for holding pushed the Chargers back, and even a 12-yard gain on a Jet sweep by Steven Sims wasn't enough to convert the third and 16, and the Chargers were forced to turn the ball back to Washington with 1:40 left. Having moved the ball to midfield, the Chargers reasonably concluded that Washington would get the ball back inside their own ten. However, long-snapper Tyler Ott took his position name a little too literally, snapping the ball over the head of punter Bradley Pinion. It was recovered by Charger tight end Foster Moreau at the Chargers 40, and the Redskins took over down by seven needing only 40 yards to tie it or take the lead with a two-point conversion.
Three quick incompletes followed by Minshew, but a fourth and ten was just barely converted by Marquise Brown to move the ball to the Charger 30. A 15-yard scramble by Minshew cut that distance in half, but a Matt Ioannidis sack pushed Washington back to the Redskins 24, and then on third and 19 Minshew found Terry McLaurin for the dramatic 24-yard touchdown strike against the prevent to tie it up with 19 seconds left, 21-21.
GAME NOTES: Daniel Jones was the MVP of the contest and this award was well-deserved. He finished with 19 of 28 for 241 yards and two touchdowns, with no interceptions. He took two sacks and wasn't intercepted, and ran four times for 26 yards. He fumbled once, but recovered his own fumble. His 118.3 passer rating was his best for a game in his young career, and for the first time in a game he did not have a turnover. It was his second consecutive game with a passer rating of 116.9 or higher.
His counterpart on the Washington Football Team, fellow rookie Gardner Minshew, was sacked five times and threw the ball 46 times because they fell behind 21-7 in the second quarter and could not mount much of a running game. Minshew completed only half his passes, threw two touchdown passes but was intercepted once, and picked up 321 yards through the air. His five sacks lost 43 yards.
The Redskins could only gain 89 yards on 27 rushes (3.3). Derrius Guice was the leading Washington running back with 47 yards on 11 carries (4.3). Guice added 27 yards on two receptions, including a big 24 yard gain on a screen pass in overtime that put the Washingtonians into Charger territory and looked like it would be the springboard to their overtime win. Instead, they never got into field goal range when their fourth and three failed and they never got the ball back as the Chargers drove for the winning touchdown.
The Chargers running attack came down to earth a bit after last week's 300 yard-plus game. They rushed 30 times for 140 yards (4.7) and scored twice. Josh Jacobs finished with 13 for 71 (5.5) and one score, and David Montgomery added 11 for 41 yards (3.7) and a touchdown. Jacobs also caught one pass for eight yards.
For the Chargers, Courtland Sutton caught six for 71 yards (11.8), while John Ross led the Chargers in receiving yards with four for 77. Steven Sims (three for 19, one touchdown) and Ricky Seals-Jones (two for 37, one score) caught Daniel Jones two touchdown passes.
Marquise Brown and Terry McLaurin were targeted constantly by Minshew. Brown caught eight of 16 for 117 yards (14.6) and one touchdown, while McLaurin caught seven of 14 for 117 yards (16.7) and one touchdown.
Defensively, Sean Murphy-Bunting led the Redskins in tackles with 13, and added a forced fumble and a pass defensed. Levi Wallace led the Chargers with nine tackles, while Matt Ioannidis had his best game this season, with eight tackles, two sacks, two hurries and one stuff.
The game stats were a bit lopsided in favor of the visitors, as they had a 36-minute to 31-minute time of possession advantage, and ran off 78 plays to the Chargers 60. The Washingtons converted nine of 21 third downs and two of five fourth downs, compared to four of 12 and one of two respectively for the Chargers. The Chargers were penalized eight times for 72 yards and Washington a whopping 15 times for 100 yards. But the Chargers gained more yards from scrimmage, 374 to 367. The Chargers averaged 6.2 per play from scrimmage to Washington's 4.7 per play.
YEAR TO DATE: Daniel Jones is now ranked 13th in passer rating with a very respectable 101.9 passer rating, and is third in touchdown pass percentage at 10%. He's thrown 12 touchdown passes in exactly 120 attempts. Rookie running back Josh Jacobs has rushed 65 times (13 per game) for 436 yards and a 6.7 average. Fellow rookie David Montgomery has 381 yards on 56 carries (11 per game) and is averaging 6.8 per rush. Jacobs and Montgomery are fourth and ninth respectively in rushing yardage, and the Chargers 195 yards per game on the ground is best in the league. The Chargers have a winning record after five games for the first time under Hank Sienzant. "It's taken what feels like forever to get this far," Sienzant said. We've come a long way", Sienzant added, waxing poetic and quoting Walt Whitman, "but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep".
NEXT MAN UP:The team formerly known as the Redskins lost cornerback Fabian Moreau early in the first quarter and he will miss at least the next two weeks. Already short safety Adrian Phillips, the Washington franchise can't afford too many more injuries to their defensive backfield. The Chargers lost linebacker Myles Jack to injury in the fourth quarter and he will miss at least the next month. He joins cornerback Jimmy Smith and tight end David Njoku on the sidelines for the Chargers. Smith is expected back sometime in the next few weeks but he will miss game six for certain.
A LOOK AHEAD: The 1-4 Washington team hosts 1-4 New Orleans and 1-4 Atlanta over the next two weeks, so with some solid home cooking they can perhaps propel themselves back into the playoff race. The 3-2 Chargers host the undefeated (5-0) Los Angeles Rams next week. If the Chargers are going to stay relevant in the playoff race this year, they need to show they can play at the level of the Rams when the game is on the line. Already two games behind with nearly a third of the season elapsed, the Chargers cannot afford to fall three games off the pace after six weeks. The Rams have scored 146 and allowed only 48 in five games, so the Chargers will really have their work cut out for them in week six.
Posted on 07 Feb 2021 by Hank-Chargers
|