Three keys to Washington sweeping the Giants

The Washington Commanders are traveling to MetLife Stadium for their second division matchup against the New York Giants. Here are three keys to the Burgundy & Gold pulling out a win.

1. Score in the red zone.

In a similar fashion to last week’s game against the Chicago Bears, the Commanders hung on to pull out a last second-win over the Giants in Week 2. The two games have something else in common: it didn’t need to be that close.

Washington was 0-7 on red zone trips in Week 2, getting inside the Giants’ 5-yard line four times and settling for field goals. False starts were the biggest culprit in upsetting the Commanders’ momentum, as it turned situations like the second-and-goal at the Giants’ 4-yard line into a second-and-9.

“It definitely needs to be better,” offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said of the red zone issues. “I thought we moved the ball well at times against Chicago but had a chance to really put it away a couple times. I thought that could put a lot of pressure on them, make them more one dimensional and we just floundered around down there, whether it was bad play calls or not the type of execution that we expect.”

As impressive as Washington has been on offense, their red zone scoring hasn’t always been as efficient. The team is 24th in red zone touchdowns and 27th over the previous three weeks. Granted, Washington managed to win two of their last three games, one of which was a blowout win over the Carolina Panthers, but the players also know they can’t expect to win like that, Kingsbury said.

Washington flirted with disaster against the Giants and Bears — the only two games where they didn’t score on a single red zone trip — but as they enter the second half of the season and a playoff run becomes more of a reality, they must find a way to fix this rough patch. It won’t be easy against the Giants, who rank fifth in red zone touchdowns allowed.