You know, I was thinking about going off on Big V too, but actually it's not as clear cut as it seems. Wentz was sacked 5 times, right? The first sack was given up by Celek, not Vaitai. The second was all on Vaitai. The last two sacks? Those were on Wentz. He held on to the ball forever on both of those and protection broke down across the entire offensive line, not just on Vaitai's side. Wentz needed to throw the ball away or move out of the pocket on both of the final two sacks. So the sacks were Celek, Vaitai, ?, Wentz, Wentz in responsibility. The third one I don't remember clearly if it was Vaitai at fault or another offensive lineman.
What I will say is that Vaitai was much better in the second half than he was in the first half. I think the kid can learn and improve. Even if Vaitai was at fault for the third sack, Lane Johnson gave up two sacks to the Chiefs in his third game as a rookie. It's going to happen to rookie tackles.
Vaitai did give up a lot of pressures that didn't end with sacks though. It felt like there was constant pressure on Wentz from the right side for the entire first two or three drives. Vaitai was afraid of getting beat around the sides for those three drives and was voluntarily walking backwards giving up the pressure on almost every play. He cleaned that up a bit in the second half to my eyes, and stood his ground better. I think Vaitai will learn from the experience and look better in a few short games. The problem is the Vikings have a better pass rush than Washington, and if they intend to keep him at that position he's going to have it rough there. That said, I think they did a poor job of helping him with playcalling. Not many screens, not many short passes, no RB help, and not enough TE help on that side. The help they did give was essentially to run the ball to the LT side, but all that did is let the Washington D know where running plays were going to go so they could focus coverage on that side.
I can't blame it all on Doug's playcalling though. The offense wasn't even on the field long enough in the first half for them to even have seen enough to make second half adjustments. The defense just never got off the field. Wentz had a total of 22 attempts. If Wentz got anywhere near his normal time on the field it would have been a different story. It would have been another 250 yard game for him at the rate he was at, even if he was less accurate than usual. The defense let the team down hard.
If Billy Davis had two of these performances in a row we would rightly be calling for his head. Jim Schwartz needs to be held to the same level of accountability. This defense has been putrid since the bye.
