Connect with us

Washington

Behind defense and running game, Commanders’ win streak features familiar formula

Published

on

Behind defense and running game, Commanders’ win streak features familiar formula


LANDOVER, Md. — The Washington Commanders noticed what they wished to turn out to be on offense, particularly within the run sport. Brian Robinson powered the bottom sport between the tackles, whereas Antonio Gibson did so to the sides. They scored their most factors since Week 2.

The Commanders additionally noticed who they might be on protection — limiting huge performs, controlling the bottom sport and getting off the sphere on third downs. They allowed a season-low yardage whole.

That components — driving the run sport and protection — allowed Washington (3-4) to beat the Inexperienced Bay Packers, 23-21, on Sunday. But it surely’s additionally one they should use in the event that they’re going to construct on a two-game profitable streak, beginning Sunday in opposition to the Indianapolis Colts (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox)).

It additionally occurs to be the identical components Washington used throughout its finest stretch in 2021, a four-game profitable streak that helped it climb out of an enormous gap.

Advertisement

“I feel the signal of a staff that has an opportunity to show round, is a number of the components we put collectively [Sunday],” Washington receiver Terry McLaurin mentioned.

He was talking concerning the offense, however it applies to each side of the ball — to not point out particular groups, which has recovered two muffed punts that led to factors the previous two video games.

The Commanders held the Packers to 232 whole yards, limiting them to 38 dashing yards on 12 carries. Inexperienced Bay was 0-for-6 on third downs. In the meantime, Washington rushed for 166 yards and held the ball for over 37 minutes.

It’s not at all times the prettiest approach to win, besides when it’s a staff that hasn’t received loads recently. Outcomes, not magnificence, decide the postgame temper.

Advertisement

Throughout a four-game win streak final season, serving to Washington attain 6-6 earlier than COVID-19 points and accidents wrecked them, it was the run sport and protection that received video games.

“The most important factor, greater than anything, is simply you go win, you’ll be able to win fairly, you’ll be able to win ugly. I imply if you will win ugly, who cares?” Washington coach Ron Rivera mentioned.

Whereas backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke began for the injured Carson Wentz on Sunday, it was the run sport that paved the best way. And it labored the best way the Commanders hoped it will in coaching camp: Robinson (20 carries, 73 yards) was the muscle and Gibson (10 carries, 59 yards) was the burst.

In a Week 6 win over Chicago, these two mixed for 76 second-half dashing yards — Gibson averaged 7.0 yards per carry, Robinson 4.1.

“That’s type of what we envisioned,” Rivera mentioned. “You’ve gotten a man [Robinson] that’s just about a hammer that could be a very bodily runner inside. Then you definitely see Antonio use his athleticism, his imaginative and prescient, his velocity and quickness to take that ball and bounce it outdoors and switch the nook. He did {that a} couple instances and it was very spectacular.”

Advertisement

Rivera mentioned having two distinct backs helps each gamers. It begins with Robinson working the ball inside, softening the center. Then they flip to the faster Gibson, who weighs 220 kilos.

“He bounces it a pair instances, now it stretches the protection,” Rivera mentioned. “You come again, you hand the ball again off to Brian going inside and abruptly there is a crease or two that wasn’t there earlier.”

They want extra such success Sunday. The Colts’ protection ranks fourth in yards per carry, however twenty fourth in dashing yards allowed per sport.

In the meantime, Washington’s protection has performed effectively, too. For the season, they rank twelfth in yards and nineteenth in factors. However over the previous 5 video games, Washington ranks eleventh in factors and seventh in yards. In the course of the win streak, the Commanders have confronted two struggling offenses in Chicago (twenty ninth in factors, thirtieth in yards) and the Packers (twenty sixth in factors, twentieth in yards).

Nevertheless, in addition they like what they’ve seen on movie, too. Their defensive position has performed extra constant, working extra profitable stunts than final yr, and getting extra vertical. Washington ranks ninth with 19 sacks and certain will get defensive finish Chase Younger again from his ACL damage quickly, probably for Week 9 versus the Minnesota Vikings.

“The boys are consuming; all these boys are consuming,” security Bobby McCain mentioned of the road. “We inform them you retain dashing like that, you’re going to make it simple on us.”

The Commanders additionally carried out a brand new protection scheme this yr, utilizing extra of a zone match protection that applies man rules in zone protection.

Advertisement

“I do know it’s the identical workers working [the defense] however we’re working completely different stuff,” Washington linebacker Cole Holcomb mentioned. “We needed to undergo that course of over again.”

“We have been attempting to determine all of it out,” he mentioned. “I feel we’re beginning to determine it out.”

Sunday, Colts quarterback Sam Ehlinger will make his first NFL begin after Indy benched Matt Ryan for the season. The run sport, with Jonathan Taylor, has struggled this season — they’re twenty ninth in yards per carry and thirtieth in whole dashing yards.

However, opponent apart, the secondary has been extra communicative and the linebackers in current weeks have been extra constant. They’ve blended it up with their appears to be like, too, alternating between three safeties or three corners when utilizing a nickel package deal.

Advertisement

They’ve been fooled much less when movement has compelled last-second shifts or project modifications, as occurred to nook William Jackson III a number of instances earlier this season.

They allowed a mixed 17 performs of 20 yards or extra within the first three video games. They’ve allowed 13 up to now 4. These days huge performs have resulted much less from a confused defensive participant and extra from an excellent offensive play.

It helps, too, that they’re second in third-down protection after rating thirty first final season.

“At first of the season, we have been like ‘OK, how’s this scheme work? The place do I match within the scheme?” nook Benjamin St-Juste mentioned. “Now, we’re comfy; folks know one another, the way to play off one another. You may see it on the sphere how comfy and the way shut we’re.”

If the Commanders wish to make the following 10 video games attention-grabbing, they discovered the components. The query stays: How lengthy can they make it work?

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Washington

Washington Post Publisher Seeks to Crush Newsroom Dissent | Press Watch

Published

on

Washington Post Publisher Seeks to Crush Newsroom Dissent | Press Watch


Embattled Washington Post publisher Will Lewis’s my-way-or-the-highway memo to staff on Wednesday threatens to destroy what’s left of the newsroom’s talent pool – and reputation.

The memo urges “those who do not feel aligned with the company’s plan” to take an immediate buyout and leave. Those who remain, Lewis write, must “be united as a team with a strong belief and passion in where we are heading.”

It’s probably one of the worst memos every written by a publisher, for countless reasons – starting with the fact that Lewis notably does not have a plan and nobody knows where he’s heading.

The man has been a cipher, hiding from the newsroom, and the memo is characteristically full of buzzwords that signify nothing.

Advertisement

He writes of having made the Post “more appealing to, and trusted by, today’s audiences” – a ridiculous and unsubstantiated boast.

He writes of “launching new, engaging product improvements such as From the Source.” “From the Source” is a tiny pilot project that allows certain sources in news stories to add comments as annotations. It’s hardly a showpiece.

And he writes of “embracing AI rapidly across all of our workflows,” whatever the heck that means, and it can’t be good.

So in the absence of anything remotely like a recognizable journalistic strategy, what Lewis is basically asking for is a pledge of loyalty to him personally — a promise not to complain, no matter what he does next.

And that’s particularly inappropriate given the fact that he is, on a personal level, a morally bankrupt figure — having been hip-deep in the 2011 cover-up of Rupert Murdoch’s massive phone-hacking scandal. (Lewis, a Brit, cut his teeth working for the right-wing publishing magnate.)

Advertisement

After being hired as Post publisher in 2023 — to almost everyone’s astonishment – Lewis tried to cover up his role in the cover-up, pressuring former top editor Sally Buzbee not to run a story about his involvement then forcing her out after she defied him. Then he tried to bribe NPR reporter David Folkenflik into dropping his story about the allegation.

To say that Lewis has failed to win over the newsroom is an understatement. Back in March, two of the newspaper’s most respected alumni felt obliged to intervene on behalf of the staff, begging Post owner Jeff Bezos to fire Lewis. There was no response.

Another enormous problem with the memo is that trying to purge a newsroom of complainers is a great way to get rid of your best reporters and editors. Many – though not all – great journalists are notoriously cynical. They question everything. And they don’t check their brains at the door when it comes to their own institution.

Getting rid of people who question newsroom policy is a great way to both lose talented journalists and, in the absence of internal pushback, make really bad decisions.

And perhaps worst of all, those who stay will now be forever tarnished as enablers and sycophants.

Advertisement

Oh, wait, one more thing: The memo is smarmy as hell, full of insincerity like “If you choose to move away from The Post, thank you for all your contributions, and I truly wish you the best of luck.” It’s an insult to anyone receiving it.

All in all, it’s  a recipe for disaster. And it comes after several other disasters that have led to numerous resignations and mass subscriber loss.

In October, hundreds of thousands of readers canceled their subscriptions after news broke that Bezos had ordered the editorial board not to endorse Kamala Harris for president, as they intended to do.

Then in February, Bezos announced a directive that the Post’s editorial pages would henceforth promote “personal liberties and free markets” and would refuse to publish pieces opposing those principles. Several top editorial-page editors and columnists fled soon after.

And over the last year, other publications – notably including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN  – have picked off much of the newsroom’s marquee talent.

Advertisement

The New Yorker in May reasonably asked the question: “Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?”

What’s left in the Washington Post is not nothing. Some reporters continue to do excellent work, despite the circumstances.

But I fear this memo will drive even more of the best people away, while demoralizing those who remain even further.

Simply put, the Washington Post, as I’ve written before, has no future as an independent news organization as long as Jeff Bezos owns it – and as long as Lewis remains publisher.

This new memo suggests that Lewis is confident in his position, and that’s maybe the worst part of it all.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Washington

Possible sighting of Washington man wanted in the deaths of his 3 daughters prompts search in Idaho

Published

on

Possible sighting of Washington man wanted in the deaths of his 3 daughters prompts search in Idaho


BOISE — Federal authorities in Idaho are following up on a possible sighting over the weekend of a Washington state man wanted in connection with the deaths of his three daughters.

The U.S. Marshals Service Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force said it had received a tip Saturday from a family recreating near a camping area in Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest that they saw a man whose description was consistent with that of Travis Decker.

Decker has been wanted since June 2, when a sheriff’s deputy in Washington found his truck and the bodies of his three daughters – 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker – at a campground outside Leavenworth, Washington. The discovery came three days after he failed to return the girls to their mother’s home in Wenatchee, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Seattle, following a scheduled visit.

Authorities in Washington on June 10 said they believed they’d spotted Decker, a former soldier, near a remote alpine lake in a popular backpacking area in the Cascade Range. Tracking teams followed up on a tip from hikers who reported seeing a lone hiker who appeared to be ill-prepared for the conditions.

Advertisement

But he has not been found.

Eric Toms, supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal with the District of Boise, said the agency was receiving more tips from the public following the statement the task force released Sunday. Toms in an email said the agency was evaluating each tip and that a search team involving the marshals service, the U.S. Forest Service and the Camas County Sheriff’s Office set out Monday.

He said authorities planned to speak with local residents and people camping or recreating in the area. He said Decker has a history of hitchhiking and encouraged motorists to not pick up any hitchhikers.

Toms said search efforts Monday were being conducted by air and on the ground, including by dirt bike. He didn’t have any additional information to immediately release.

The forest area is nearly 600 miles (965 kilometers) from the lake where authorities were searching last month.

Advertisement

Jason Knight, who is the director, co-founder and an instructor at Alderleaf Wilderness College in Monroe, Washington, described the terrain in the region where authorities were searching as rugged and challenging, with often significant temperature variations between day and night.

In the summer months, it’s possible to forage and fish, and if someone is trying to avoid attention, they might raid campground sites or search trash cans outside of towns, he said.

The Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to Decker’s capture.

Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Washington

Fugitive dad, Travis Decker, accused of killing 3 daughters possibly spotted in Idaho forest

Published

on

Fugitive dad, Travis Decker, accused of killing 3 daughters possibly spotted in Idaho forest


Travis Decker, the Washington state man wanted in connection with the deaths of his three daughters, was possibly spotted in Idaho over the weekend, and federal authorities are following up on the new lead after the father has been missing for over a month.

The U.S. Marshals Service Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force said it had received a tip Saturday from a family recreating near a camping area in Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest that they saw a man whose description was consistent with that of Decker.

Authorities asked anyone who was in the area over the Fourth of July weekend, specifically in the Bear Creek area in Idaho, to come forward with any tips, CBS affiliate in Seattle KIRO-TV reported. 

The Bear Creek area is between Sawtooth National Forest and Boise National Forest, about 100 miles east of Boise, Idaho.

Advertisement

Decker has been wanted since June 2, when a sheriff’s deputy in Washington found his truck and the bodies of his three daughters — 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker — at a campground outside Leavenworth, Washington. 

Authorities found the girls’ bodies down an embankment at a campsite in the Cascade Mountains. A man’s blood discovered on the tailgate of Decker’s vehicle was confirmed to likely be his, with the DNA profile matching the one found on his belongings, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said last week.

The discovery came three days after he failed to return the girls to their mother’s home in Wenatchee, about 100 miles east of Seattle, following a scheduled visit.

Photos from the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office showing how Travis Decker may have changed his appearance. 

Advertisement

Chelan County Sheriff’s Office


Last month, investigators said there was no evidence that the father and ex-soldier remained in the area or that he is alive at all. They also released images of what Decker might look like after weeks on the run.

Authorities in Washington on June 10 said they believed they’d spotted Decker near a remote alpine lake in a popular backpacking area in the Cascade Range. Tracking teams followed up on a tip from hikers who reported seeing a lone hiker who appeared to be ill-prepared for the conditions.

But he has not been found.

Eric Toms, supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal with the District of Boise, said the agency was receiving more tips from the public following the statement the task force released Sunday. Toms, in an email, said the agency was evaluating each tip and that a search team involving the marshals service, the U.S. Forest Service and the Camas County Sheriff’s Office set out Monday.

Advertisement

He said authorities planned to speak with residents and people camping or recreating in the area. He said Decker has a history of hitchhiking and encouraged motorists not to pick up any hitchhikers.

The Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to Decker’s capture.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending