Washington’s Alex Smith out, 3rd-choice QB Dwayne Haskins to start vs. Seahawks. ‘Snacks’?
Alex Smith is out.
Damon “Snacks” Harrison maybe way in.
No, “Snacks” isn’t playing quarterback Sunday for Washington against the Seahawks. Previously benched Dwayne Haskins is starting.
Washington made that clear Friday. It announced Smith was out for Sunday’s game with the calf injury he got last weekend during his fourth straight victory for the Football Team, on the road over San Francisco. That pauses one of the more remarkable comeback stories in the NFL in many years.
Haskins is 3-8 in his career as a starter. He has 11 touchdown passes and 14 turnovers (10 interceptions and four fumbles) since Washington drafted him 15th overall out of Ohio State last year. He is 1-3 starting this season.
His last start was Oct. 4 in a 31-17 loss to Baltimore. It was the best game of his short career: 32 for 45 passing for 314 yards.
Yet Washington coach Ron Rivera benched Haskins after that game. Kyle Allen was the new starter. Then he got hurt. Allen went on injured reserve last month. Washington turned not back to Haskins but to Alex Smith, for his inspirational return from 17 leg surgeries.
That worked. Washington (6-7) enters Sunday on a four-game winning streak with Smith starting, vaulting the team into first place in the NFC East.
But now Smith is sidelined with the strained calf. He left in the second quarter of last week’s win over the 49ers, in which none of Washington’s 23 points came from its 30th-ranked offense.
The Seahawks listed top pass-rushing defensive lineman Carlos Dunlap and right tackle Brandon Shell as questionable to play Sunday. Neither starter practiced Wednesday or Thursday. Shell in particular looked far from playing when he went inside for more treatment on his sprained ankle at the start of practice Thursday.
Shell has missed two of the last three games. He left after 29 of Seattle’s 73 plays on offense last week in its win over the New York Jets.
Cedric Ogbuehi is likely to start at right tackle against Chase Young, Montez Sweat and a Washington defense that has the third-most sacks in the NFL (40).
The Seahawks are 6-2 against Rivera as a head coach. They were already expecting Rivera to lead his usually rugged, run-heavy game plan Sunday. His teams typically use a lot of pre-snap motion. They pull linemen into rushing lanes and employ diverse rushing schemes. That’s what Rivera has done the last eight times he’s faced Seattle, leading Carolina through last season.
“Our games are always very gritty,” Seahawks All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner said of Rivera’s teams.
Now with Haskins starting in place of Smith, Washington may run some more. That’s even if lead back Antonio Gibson doesn’t play and former Seahawk J.D. McKissic has a leading role. Washington listed Gibson as doubtful. He has 659 yards rushing and 11 rushing touchdowns, second-most in the NFL. He hasn’t practiced or played since a toe injury two games ago, in Washington’s upset of the previously undefeated Steelers in Pittsburgh.
If Washington runs with Haskins at quarterback, that’s where Harrison comes in.
Likely often.
The former All-Pro is a run stuffer extraordinaire. That’s why Seattle signed him in October. It took a month for the 350-plus-pound defensive tackle to get in shape after not playing for nine months, since his final game for the Detroit Lions.
He is coming off his best game for the Seahawks: six tackles in 23 defensive snaps in Seattle’s 40-3 blowout of the New York Jets.
“It’s been fun watching him improve. It’s been fun watching him get his weight down, from when he first got here,” defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said.
The coach laughed.
“He won one of our defensive game balls last week with his activity, around,” Norton said. “His big presence in the middle allows our middle linebacker (Wagner) to run, and run freely to make tackles.”
Harrison has also made fellow tackle Poona Ford better.
Before Harrison began playing last month, Ford was often a nose tackle, over the center. Now when Harrison is in games Ford goes to a gap, “three-technique” tackle, more toward the guard. That is a better spot for Ford to utilize his speed and sideline-to-sideline hustle that are unique for a 300-pound tackle.
“It allows Poona to free up and play some three techniques,” Norton said of Harrison emerging on a Seattle defense ranked fourth in the league, allowing 95.5 yards rushing per game.
Harrison is averaging 22 plays per game in his five games for the Seahawks. His most were the 26 snaps he got on the night of the previously ransacked defense’s uprising, Seattle’s home win over Arizona last month.
Harrison could set his new Seahawks high in playing time Sunday at Washington and its third-choice quarterback.
“His presence, it allows people to free up and do a lot of things,” Norton said.
“We are very happy to have him here, and what he’s been able to do for us.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 11:50 AM.
