Is It Time Commanders RB Brian Robinson Jr. Got More Involved?

The Washington Commanders have put a lot on quarterback Sam Howell's shoulders, but perhaps it's time for offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to lean on running back Brian Robinson Jr. more.

The Washington Commanders fell 37-3 in an embarrassing loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 3.

It's not a game the Commanders will want to remember, especially as 175 franchise alumni were in attendance to watch the disaster unfold in real-time, but there are ways to turn the bad into good.

Failure is only lasting if organizations don't learn from what brought it on, and one thing Washington needs to take away from its first loss this season is the need to increase its use of running back Brian Robinson Jr.

Coming into the contest the Bills had the 30th ranked run defense in yards per carry allowing more than five in the first two weeks.

By the end of this contest, Robinson had an average of seven yards per carry, which is great, but he only had 10 carries, which is not so great.

The second-year back got his first carry on the very first offensive play of the game for the Commanders and turned it into seven yards immediately gaining 70 percent of the yards needed to move the chains. 

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Two plays later, on another first down, Robinson again got a carry and turned it into five yards. 

Washington assistant head coach / offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy then called five straight pass plays resulting in two sacks and an interception on 3rd-and-19.

Now, it's hard to really criticize Bieniemy in that first series because of those five straight passes the first two gained a total of 31 yards. 

After a first down sack Bieniemy ran a play-action pass that again resulted in a sack forcing the long third down call that is almost guaranteed to be a pass. 

At most, we could argue that on third and long but still in field goal range against a Super Bowl contender a run to get a shorter try would be wise. 

Where we really go astray from Bieniemy's play-calling approach in this game comes beyond the first drive. 

After getting two carries in the first drive, Robinson got just eight more the rest of the day. 

Robinson was given a carry just once in each of the next two drives, and just one more in the two following those before halftime. 

If you do the math, that means he only got carries five times in the second half despite the fact Washington was down just 16 with two full quarters remaining. 

The painful part is that three of those came on the first drive of the third quarter, a drive that again resulted in the team getting into scoring range before an interception ultimately derailed their efforts.

Robinson's final two carries came on the second drive of the third quarter and produced 19 yards before Howell was sacked twice and threw a pass to running back Antonio Gibson for a loss of one yard before the Commanders punted still trailing by 16.

After Robinson's final carry came with 5:49 left in the third quarter he was targeted once - for a gain of 15 yards on a play that was called back due to a penalty - and wasn't heard from again from 3:42 in the third quarter to the end of the contest.

Gibson was targeted once on a pass and catch he ultimately fumbled away, and then was targeted once more early in the fourth quarter. 

Outside of those, Washington's use of running backs all but evaporated while the game was still within two scores despite the fact Robinson's 11 touches had gained the team 85 yards if not for a penalty that erased 15 of them.

60 percent of Robinson's official touches gained five yards or more and only two gained fewer than four.

Why the Commanders opted to not help their young quarterback more by using a running game led by Robinson that was having very positive impacts on the game is not known.

What is known is the approach taken didn't work, and it resulted in the first four-interception performance by a Washington quarterback since Kirk Cousins did it in 2014 and came just one sack from tying the franchise's all-time record of 10.