Chase Young takes ownership of ‘rookie mistake’ that set up Detroit’s game-winner

Everything had unraveled fast. Moments earlier, the Washington Football Team was confident because, though the Lions were driving, trying to avoid another late-game collapse, the defense had delivered stops throughout a frenetic second half. The biggest threat — a deep ball from Matthew Stafford to the end zone — seemed to pass after a wide-open receiver missed it. Then a yellow flag landed in the backfield.

Two beats after Stafford released the ball, Young rushed in and shoved him to the ground. This was a painful, ironic twist for Young because, before the drive, the defensive linemen told each other to be aggressive. They knew the Lions, only needing to reach field goal range, would try to make the most of the clock with short, quick passes. Then the mind-set burned him, and Young could only watch from the sideline as Matt Prater kicked a 59-yard field goal to seal the loss.

“Hit him too hard, I guess,” Coach Ron Rivera said of Young’s penalty. “They hit our guy and knocked him to the ground. We didn’t get a penalty. So, you know, just a little inconsistent.”

When asked whether this was a teachable moment for Young, Rivera said: “It is. Because the quarterbacks are treated extra special, so we have to be aware of that.”

After the game, Young requested to speak to reporters to address his mistake, according to a team spokesman. He declined a chance to criticize the officials, saying: “I think it was a close call, for real. But I was going hard.”

“It hurt,” he added. “But, I mean, I can’t be too down on myself, because I was going hard. Sometimes it happens.”

Afterward, teammates defended Young. They said they hadn’t talked to him about the play but that he would improve from it. Defensive tackle Jonathan Allen was the most passionate, saying Young will be “a great player for . . . a long time to come” and that one play didn’t explain this frustrating, two-game slide against beatable teams.

“He didn’t lose us the game. I promise you that,” Allen said. “That’s what I want to tell him. He did not lose us the game. There were too many things that happened, [and] we shouldn’t have been in that situation. And I feel for him because I know people are going to try to put this game on him, and it’s not on him. He played a good game. He made a mistake; I made mistakes; we’ve all made mistakes in this game. … But not one person is to blame for this loss. At all. Not even close.”

Alex Smith understands these struggles well. He was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2005, and with the San Francisco 49ers, he had one of the all-time worst rookie quarterback seasons — finishing with one touchdown and 11 interceptions. The most important way to turn mistakes into growth, he said, was to receive “constructive” feedback.

“We are all professional,” he said. “We all know when we screw up. We know more than anybody and certainly, I think, as competitive as we are, it eats at us a lot. … [The criticism should be] a little more about why, [about] how can we do something different in the future.”

After the game, Young’s comments fit into the broader framework of his young career. On the field, his first eight games haven’t gone as well as he would like — he has 3.5 of the 13 sacks his father, Greg, predicted at the start of the year — but he has never appeared unnerved. When asked about the sack numbers two weeks ago, Young joked his mom, Carla, had given him a “C-minus” because he didn’t lead the league in sacks. Rivera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio have praised Young’s work ethic and accountability and have repeated the numbers will come.

But on Sunday, Young was as publicly frustrated as he has been with Washington. The penalty aggravated him. After he watched Prater’s field goal sail through the uprights, Young trudged off the field. He stopped to shake hands with two Lions, former Ohio State teammate Jeff Okudah and fellow rookie D’Andre Swift, and headed toward the tunnel. He said, in the moment, he was only thinking one thing.

“Rookie mistake,” Young said. “Got to go back to the drawing board and make the corrections. New week, new opportunity.”