While the Commanders defense was sacking Texans quarterback Davis Mills five times, what did you notice regarding Taylor Heinicke being sacked?
Heinicke was not sacked the entire game, and what is significant about that is it was the first time this entire 2022 regular season that the Washington quarterback was not sacked.
In the 32-21 upset win in Philadelphia in Week 10, the Eagles got to Heinicke three times, as did the Vikings the previous week in the 20-17 loss at FedEx. In the 17-16 win in Indianapolis, the Colts sacked Heinicke twice, and in his first start this season he was sacked once by the Packers in the Commanders’ 23-21 victory.
Carson Wentz in his last start was injured against the Bears. Wentz managed to play the entire game but was sacked three times. In the 21-17 last-second loss to the Titans, Wentz was also sacked three times.
In the 25-10 loss at Dallas, Wentz went down twice. But of course, the absolute worst was the Week 3 blowout at FedEx by the Eagles, as they sacked Wentz nine times.
You may recall that Week 2 was pretty bad in a loss to the Lions in Detroit, where the silver and blue defense sacked Wentz five times. In the season-opening win over the Jaguars at FedEx, Wentz was only sacked once.
Thus far in 2022, Carson Wentz has made six starts, while Heinicke has started five contests. Wentz leads Heinicke in completion percentage (62.1 – 60.8), passing touchdowns (10-5), passing yards a game (248-206), and passer rating (84.1 – 81.8).
While Heinicke leads Wentz in yards per passing attempt (7.0 – 6.4), yards per completion (11.5 – 10.3), QBR (46.4 – 33), sack percentage (5.7 – 9.0), sacks (9 -23).
Coach Rivera would only offer that his decision to go with Heinicke over Wentz was strictly about winning. Washington is 2-4 in games started by Wentz while 4-1 with Heinicke.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbykgy681k112p8 player_id=none image=https://commanderswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]