Game Day Tay™ - Week 2 Summary vs the Giants

Well, that was wild.

After the opening day loss vs. the Chargers, I had tweeted that, if nothing else, this Ron Rivera coached team demonstrated in 2020 a resilience and determination to bounce back from disappointment. And that trend continued into week two of 2021 with this most narrow and somewhat fortuitous, 30-29-win vs the New York Giants at FedEx Field.

For Dustin Hopkins, Thursday Night Football bestowed immediate redemption from disaster. The maligned kicker might well have been clearing out his locker after a 48-yard attempt at the death to seal victory sailed wide right of the post. Saviour, however, for Hopkins presented itself in the considerable form of NYG DE Dexter Lawrence who had jumped offside.

The extra five yards was all Hopkins needed when gifted a second opportunity, as he nailed the three points to take the WFT to 1-1 and leave their divisional rivals winless after two. Gee-Whizz for the Gi-Ants.

Leading up to this point, neither team had offered any evidence to point towards a potential post-season. The pre-season hype afforded the first-round talent upfront for the WFT is still to be justified. After two games, Chase Young (aged 22 we must remember) has yet to register a sack, and on the opposite side Montez Sweat recorded a single sack of Daniel Jones to take his season tally to two.

Might this be a sophomore slump for Young or can we refer to the oft-used phrase that form is temporary and class permanent. Fans of the burgundy & gold will be very much hoping for the latter.

It is Jon Allen who has been both the vocal and production leader along the DL, and Allen recorded two sacks on NYG QB Daniel Jones. This is the start of a four-year $72M deal for the DT and that money looks a solid deal to match the solid play from #93.

We have to remember that some of the struggles are understandable. Rookie CB Benjamin St-Juste looks every bit a first-year NFL player and RT Samuel Cosmi is also finding his feet along and unfortunately finding many a penalty flag. Still, learning when winning will always be preferable to learning when losing. Along with LB Jamin Davis, this trio of R1-3 picks in the 2021 NFL Draft might develop into stars or they might not. They’ll be bumps along the way that is for certain.

And with the DEF moderately serviceable and far from the sensational as predicted, it fell to back-up QB Taylor Heinicke to ball-out. And one major blip aside, #4 did exactly that.

Recording 336 yards, 2 TDs and one (near fatal) INT, Heinicke once again provided spark to the WFT offense and was ably backed up by RB Antonio Gibson and star WR Terry McLaurin. Cliches will never be too far away from Taylor; he is small for a modern day QB, does fly the football high on occasion and there is little game tape for opposing coaches to work him out.

The flip of that is that he worked all off-season on getting stronger, his team mates clearly rate him (and not just in a We All Love the Back-up QB way) and he has just gone into the NFL record books for the most amount of completed passes in a QB’s across three games. Here at UKHTTW we’ve dubbed Heinicke Game Day Tay™ and it’ll be t-shirts and posters to follow if the guy leads the WFT to the NFC East title.

The throw to Ricky Seals-Jones for a go-ahead 18-yard touchdown pass gave Washington a 27-26 lead with just over four minutes to play.

Perhaps just as impressively, after a nightmare INT deep in the WFT half was gobbled up by Giants CB James Bradbury, Heinicke took advantage of the subsequent impressive WFT DEF stop to show the moxie and skill to drive the burgundy & gold into game winning FG territory.

In Week 2, second chances were presented, and taken vs the Giants and next up it is Buffalo on the road and the sensational dual threat play of QB Josh Allen.

What’s to say that Taylor doesn’t outscore the Bills star and further enhance the burgeoning love-affair with the WFT fanbase? Stranger things have happened, but the WFT will have to nail plays at the first time of asking that’s for sure.