The Washington Commanders have largely benefitted from open running lanes over the past 28 games since Kliff Kingsbury was named their offensive coordinator, but things have been much muddier for the team's staple of running backs in the last three weeks.
The Commanders know that must change to keep their playoff hopes alive.
"We certainly need to get on track in the best of ways, and I wish I had a better sense to say which ones," head coach Dan Quinn said Tuesday.
Regardless of whether it's a mixture of injuries, scheme, opposing defenses or a mixture of all three, the results from the Commanders' last three losses show that the offense's ground attack, which at one point this season was the best in the league, has struggled to find success. Although the Commanders are third in yards per game for the season, they ranked 20th in their last three games.
Although Monday's results can be partially credited to the score getting away from the Commanders, their 28-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was the most concerning performance to date. They put up a season-low 60 rushing yards, including just 18 in the second half, on 20 carries with an eight-yard run by Marcus Mariota being the longest of the night.
The work has already begun to find a solution, according to Quinn.
"We didn't love the targeting in the game for us," Quinn said of the Chiefs game. "That's a fancy term for who has who, and that's a common thing. Defense that's got multiple fronts and different looks, but we've got to be able to nail those down and make it really clean and really fast for us to go hit those targets."