If you feel like a sucker for thinking the Washington Commanders loss to the Chicago Bears in week five was the bottom, you can be forgiven. Sunday’s 14-7 loss to the New York Giants set a new low for futility.
There is blame on both sides of the ball, in the coach’s office and in the talent evaluation department. There are no bright spots. So be prepared.
The front office has failed.
Going into 2023, Ron Rivera decided to put his fate in the hands of a second-year quarterback with one start and a habit of holding the ball too long.
His plan to keep quarterback Sam Howell upright? Sign Nick Gates and Andrew Wylie to free-agent contracts and promote Sam Cosmi and Saahdiq Charles to starting guards.
It’s been a miserable failure.
Again, this week, the line (Charles Leno included) gave up four sacks. The Giants as a team had just five sacks in its first six weeks. On Sunday, they sacked Howell six times to go along with
12 hurries and 18 pressures.
Howell threw 42 passes, he had someone in his face 42% of the time.
The coaching staff failed.
It took an entire half for offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to abandon his pregame script and adjust to the fact that his offensive line couldn’t contain the all-out, obvious blitzes Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale dialed up. Granted, it took the better part of the first half for the offense to run enough plays to complete the opening script, but maybe, just maybe he should have made adjustments early.
Defensively, the Giants exploited one of the Commanders’ glaring weaknesses, short passes over the middle.
Tight end Darren Waller ran almost untouched over the middle, easily outrunning Cody Barton and David Mayo en route to seven receptions, 98 yards, and a touchdown.
Not only has defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio done nothing this season to mask or compensate for this, but Rivera and his front office staff need to be held accountable for the bad free agent signing (Barton) and the fact that no linebackers were picked in the draft.
The roster building has failed.
Almost 3 ½ years into his tenure, Rivera still stands at the podium after losses and talks about correcting mistakes. Mistakes should not happen after 3 ½ years. Period. Full stop.
The roster construction has not yielded any improvement and a look around the league demonstrates building a contender doesn’t take this long. Detroit coach Dan Campbell has taken the Lions to the top of the NFC North in his second year. Miami coach Mike McDaniel, one year, and Philadelphia’s Nick Siriani hit the ground running with a winning record in his
rookie season.
Sam Howell needs to improve immediately.
The narrative throughout the season has been that of a promising quarterback not given enough time to throw by his offensive line. It’s true, Howell has been averaging less than 2.5 seconds before getting pressured but he must learn to get the ball out quicker.
Against the Giants, he seemed lost in the first half. The Commanders said they spent the week blitzing Howell in practice to get used to how the Giants would play. He should have been ready on a day when 17 points would have given this team a much-needed win.