Commanders’ playoff hopes are dashed in lifeless loss to Browns

With the game possibly in the balance on 4th and goal late in the first half, Washington Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz made a play worthy of a former first-round-franchise quarterback.

Trailing 3-0, Wentz was tackled on 3rd and goal on the one-yard line on a quarterback sneak. Wentz took the snap, jumped over center Wes Sweitzer and stuck the ball over the goal line to cap a 21-play, 96-yard drive and gave the Commanders a 7-3 halftime lead.

It was all a mirage.

The Commanders offense managed just nine offensive plays in the third quarter as the Browns scored 21 unanswered second-half points in route to a 24-10 win before a crowd of 50,827 at Fed Ex Field.

Deshaun Watson connected on three touchdown passes, two to Amari Cooper and one to Donovan Peoples-Jones to turn a 7-3 halftime deficit into a 24-10 lead that would never be challenged.

“We turned the ball over. We’ve got to protect the ball better. That’s one thing and then we gotta be more effective when we get the opportunities,” head coach Ron Rivera said after the game in a tense press conference.

“I’ve gotta give credit to Cleveland. They did some good things. They got a little pressure on him (Wentz) and we missed some opportunities.”

By all metrics, Wentz’s day was disappointing. He finished 16 of 28 for 143 yards and three interceptions, all on deep balls. On the final one in the end zone, the officials missed a defensive pass interference call on a Browns defensive back. Still, the bottom line is that Wentz was unable to move the offense for most of the day.

It needs to be said. The @Commanders looked underprepared and lifeless today for a game that has their playoff fate at hand. They have been outcoached and outplayed by a team that has nothing to play for. It's inexcusable. They have failed to win home games that were winnable.

— Lake Lewis Jr (@LakeLewisJr) January 1, 2023

“Not a good one. Not what I had in mind and what we had in mind as a team,” Wentz said after the game. Individually not the performance I envisioned. A lot of stuff I want back. Yeah, that was a tough one.”

The loss drops the Commanders record to 7-8-1. That, combined with wins by both Detroit and Green Bay means Washington will miss the playoffs for the second straight year.

“Not fun. You know, especially where we have been the last couple of weeks and then kind of the slump that we are in a little bit. To be in control of your own destiny and now not be, it’s never fun. Never a fun place to be this late in the season. That opportunity, I think I talked about it this week, It’s hard. It’s hard to get to that point in this league and I feel like we and I let this one get away from us,” Wentz said.

It’s been a heartbreaking fall for a team that dug out of a 1-4 start to the season. Washington had a chance to clinch a playoff spot (with help) or at the very least put themselves in a win-and-in scenario next week. It’s a position this franchise has been in so many times in the last two decades.

“It is what it is right now, defensive end Chase Young said before the team was officially eliminated from the postseason. “We’re in the present now, so we have to go back and look at the drawing board. We have to correct everything, hold each other accountable, come out next game, and keep holding hope.”

In an ordinary time, with an ordinary organization, the entire coaching staff and front office would probably be fired but with the impending sale of the franchise, co-owners Dan and Tanya Snyder seem to have checked out, waiting to finalize the transfer of a once proud team they have steered into the depths of mediocrity.

Since buying the team from the estate of the late Jack Kent Cooke, the Snyders have put together teams that have made the playoffs just six times in 22 years. The current stretch of futility is second only to a period between 1946 and 1970 when the team made zero postseason appearances. That of course, was an era when between just two and four teams would qualify for postseason play. The league only went to a wildcard format after the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.

Next Sunday’s regular-season finale will see a Dallas team that still has a chance to win the NFC East come to Fed Ex Field. After what was seen against the Browns, it’s unlikely the 2022 season will end with anything but more questions than answers going forward.