OPINION:
Well, this Washington Commanders season certainly isn’t as much fun as everyone thought it would be.
It’s a good thing they got the funding for the new District stadium before this season started. It hasn’t been a ringing endorsement.
The Commanders took a 44-22 beating Sunday at the hands of the most painful punisher of all, the Dallas Cowboys, giving them a 3-4 record and a game coming up Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs.
What happened to all those 1 p.m. games against the New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans?
It was reasonable to expect a more challenging season this year.
It was also reasonable to expect a Commanders team, coming off a 12-5 record and a trip to the NFC championship game, to be up to the challenge. Moves were made, knowledge was gathered and experience was gained by a team and its coaching staff that essentially met for the first time in 2024.
Washington coach Dan Quinn expected them to be up to the challenge. Asked if he was surprised by his team’s play, he answered, “Yes. Very.”
Quinn told reporters after the game, “I’m going to ask (the players) to look at themselves — where are we at and where do we need to get better?” Same thing with the coaches. It’s got to come from ourselves. In terms of execution and playing to the standard that we want, we’re far below those standards.”
The gap, though … the distance between a strong NFL roster and what Quinn and general manager Adam Peters inherited from Mr. “Send Me My Super Bowl Ring” Ron Rivera – has proved to be too far to close in just one year.
Last year’s rookie quarterback sensation Jayden Daniels created what may have been a bit of an illusion with his historic performance. He seemed to make all things possible. But it turns out he has limits. The sun at the center of the Commanders’ solar system has dimmed as his best planets wobble, break apart or disintegrate.
Receivers Terry McLaurin, Noah Brown and Deebo Samuel were all sidelined for Sunday’s game in Dallas, leaving Daniels with Luke McCaffrey, rookie Jaylin Lane and practice squad receivers.
With Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens on the other side, it was too much of a mismatch for even the likes of Daniels (completing 12 of 22 passes for 156 yards and one touchdown), who was crushed by the weight, leaving the game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury. He missed two games earlier this year after suffering a knee injury in the second week of the season against Green Bay.
The weapons available to Daniels to spread the field were about one step away from the replacement players Washington fielded in the famous 1987 scab game against the Cowboys during the players’ strike. Wait a minute — Washington won that game. Never mind.
The Commanders weren’t pulling players off the street. But Peters, because of the winning football produced by Daniels last season, shopped for help to close the talent gap — trading three draft picks last November for cornerback Marshon Lattimore and tackle Laremy Tunsil for four draft picks and Samuel for a fifth-round pick during the off season.
Tunsil has been what they hoped he would be — one of the league’s top tackles. Lattimore has been a disaster in the Commanders defensive backfield. Samuel has been a valuable offensive contributor, but one of the negatives about him in San Francisco was his inability to stay healthy. His absence with a heel injury hurt Washington’s offense Sunday.
“Injuries are not the reason that we lost,” Quinn said. “We’re the ones that got ourselves in a hole, we’re the same ones that have got to dig ourselves out. Make no mistake, we’re not playing to the standard we’ve set.”
The byproduct of injuries, though — Washington also lost their best pass rusher, Dorance Armstrong, with an injury early in the game and had already lost defensive end Deatrich Wise Jr. with a season-ending left quad injury in the game against the Packers — is exposure to a roster that under normal conditions, would take several seasons to strengthen.
Washington’s struggles also exposed the gap in its fan base and the rebuilding of a damaged group that needs more than one 12-win season to withstand the challenges.
Cries of same old losers peppered social media, along with calls for the head of defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., and even Quinn.
Nearly three decades of owner Dan Snyder’s toxic tenure has left an open sore that will take more success to heal. Failure resurrects fury.
• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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