Late Sunday, the story was far from better after a 40-7 loss to the Washington Commanders, a game in which their starting quarterback Jayden Daniels played just one drive. He exited early with a non-contact rib injury, giving way to backup Marcus Mariota. The latter finished with 205 yards and two touchdowns on 18-23 passes, as well as 11 carries for 34 yards. Washington also rushed for 214 yards against a shuffled and shuffled front seven (only one starter from the projected starting group, nose tackle Shy Tuttle, played Sunday).
As the age-old question of Jimmys and Joes versus Xs and Os looms over the group, Dave Canales insisted the scheme wasn’t the problem.
“Honestly, I love our project,” he said. “I’ve seen him, I’ve played against him. I’ve seen him in person for quite a while and I love our project. And the challenge for us is to put a new group together. We’re kind of starting over at the fundamentals adding these pieces, you know, and we have to play good team football.
Let football be there during the week, Canales and the players promised. But there is a gap between the last day of training and the day of the match.
“Oh, it’s extremely frustrating,” Horn said of the lack of translation.
Added linebacker Trevin Wallace: “I really don’t know because I feel the energy when we come in and I keep going, but I really can’t tell you.”
A revolving door at so many crucial places can’t help but be taken into account, however. As Horn said, with the only constant on defense being change, that naturally impacts chemistry. So what is the antidote?
“Execute,” Horn responded quickly. “Everyone does their job.”
