After suffering a brutal 37-3 defeat at the hands of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, the Washington Commanders are left with many questions about the teams’ direction.
Are the Commanders as bad as they looked for most of the Week 3 game against the Bills?
Or, are they the resilient team that overcame second-half deficits to win their first two games against the Arizona Cardinals and Denver Broncos?
Fortunately for the Commanders, they get the chance to answer those questions this Sunday. Unfortunately, those answers this weekend are against reigning NFC champion, Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles are off to an undefeated start to the 2023 campaign and look the part of another solid Super Bowl contender. The matchup in Philadelphia will be the second straight game for the Commanders against a team that expects to be playing in the final game of the NFL season.
Washington must shake off the loss to Buffalo and not dwell on a dreadful offensive performance that yielded four interceptions by quarterback Sam Howell and nine sacks given up by a poorly performing offensive line. Some of those sacks should be noted that Howell held on to the ball long.
Coach Ron Rivera while speaking to team media Monday discussed Howell having a set time to pass the ball.
“You’d like him to reach the ball before he gets hit,” Rivera said. “Sure. I’m being serious. Whether that’s in your mindset saying, okay, there is a two-and-a-half second clock, which we all know and understand and believe in, but at the same time because of his agility and abilities, sometimes he can extend the play and which we’ve seen and we’ve seen him do it successfully. But we’ve also seen it where there’s that little hesitation, it’s cost him a little bit. So again, we wanted to continue to go with the clock in his head, but at the same time, we don’t want him to miss opportunities if they’re there. Upfront we’d like to hold our blocks a little bit longer if we can.”
Howell and Washington’s offense will be facing an Eagles defense that has the same kind of firepower if not more than Buffalo’s.
On the season, however, Philadelphia’s defense as great as the talent is on that side of the ball has given up the second-highest amount of offensive passing touchdowns (8). The Eagles’ defense has also given up the 12th most offensive yards (930) on the season. Philadelphia’s strength on defense is their rock-solid run defense. The Eagles haven’t given up 50 yards rushing in any of their first three contest and on the season have given up a league-low 145 yards on the ground.
Now on the road, the Commanders are facing another tough task that will allow them to answer the questions about how good or bad they are.
Win in Philadelphia and those questions will all but die down. Lose in an ugly fashion and the questions become even louder.