I know this is going to sound like I’m a shameless homer, but now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I’m not nearly as bothered by the Washington Commanders losing their opener down in Tampa.
I know the guys who get paid for clicks and follows are all over X giving the coaching staff a big fat “F” for the effort yesterday, and there were some aspects of Sunday’s game deserving of such grading.
But if you think about it, this is pretty much an entirely new group playing under new coaches, and the people who played the most yesterday participated in maybe two drives a piece over three exhibition games. They barely played. And when adjusting to new systems and making split-second decisions, you can practice from now until Rick Snider does his 100th pizza video and it won’t matter.
There is no substitute for game experience. Particularly at the quarterback position.
So I’d be surprised if they didn’t have a number of mental errors in a season opener on the road. But with that said, there were some glaring issues they need to clean up very, very soon.
I didn’t like their lack of attention to getting all of the players involved in the offense. If you’re a star wide receiver like Terry McLaurin and you don’t throw to him, it’s going to affect him. Yesterday, Tampa got the ball to one of their key wide receivers (Chris Godwin) 8 times for 83 yards and a touchdown, and their other (Mike Evans) 5 times for 61 yards and two touchdowns. That’s 13 catches, 144 yards and 3 touchdowns to their two key receivers.
They undoubtedly felt a part of the offense.
Meanwhile Washington’s key receiver – McLaurin – at one point in the second half had only been thrown to twice and had zero catches. Even the announcers were noting it. He finally got thrown two short passes for 17 yards, but they were almost an afterthought. McLaurin got a good cardio workout, but not a lot more from the offensive game plan Sunday.
Then there is the matter of Jayden Daniels. I don’t mind him running when the defense is applying pressure, and he did it well in the first half, at times running right to the spot where the blitzing safety would have been for excellent yardage. But in the second half the Commanders called more and more designed runs for their rookie QB, which is a good way to get him killed before Thanksgiving.
I have two problems with that: (1) Didn’t we learn a lesson with Robert Griffin III only a decade ago with running a QB too much and (2) Jayden’s future in the league is as a passer. You don’t learn to throw against NFL defenses unless you throw against NFL defenses in actual games that count, and if mistakes are made, learn from them. Sonny Jurgensen used to say all the time that to learn to play the position, there is no substitute for being on the field in game conditions.
An offense that runs its QB a bunch and only gets the ball twice for 17 yards to its star receiver will accomplish two things – they’ll get the QB hurt and demoralize the star receiver – all while losing football games.
The defense once again could not stop an opponent when it needed to in the fourth quarter, but I kind of look at that as a long-standing problem that will take more than one offseason to fix by getting in a different mix of players. The kicking game can probably be fixed soon, as Cade York kicked as well as my dog Maggie sings, and there will undoubtedly be auditions at Commanders Park this week.
Some things you learn to live with, but you can’t go through a season in the NFL with little to no confidence in a kicker who missed several field goals and almost missed an extra point (UPDATE: Commanders released York right after lunchtime today).
The game in Tampa, given all the newness of the team and the brief playing time by starters in preseason, was a mulligan in my eyes. Destroy the film and move on to a 1 PM home game with the New York Giants, who had a pretty dreadful game against Minnesota Sunday.
But the honeymoon period is over. Use all your weapons on offense. Tighten up the defense. Find someone who can kick straight. Get your first win against the Giants.
Otherwise, all the good will they’ve gotten from Commanders fans may soon disappear.
