Optimism reigns after Commanders’ promising season opener

The first Monday of the NFL season is tailor-built for overreactions — a specialty of the league’s year-round media circus. Pundits and fans rushed to the airwaves and keyboards on Monday morning to issue bold proclamations based on a one-game sample.

For the Washington Commanders, those declarations were overwhelmingly positive after Sunday’s 21-6 win over the New York Giants. Through all but one Week 1 game, the Commanders led the NFL in scoring defense.

The team ranked 18th in points allowed per game last year, ranking firmly in the middle of the pack as a high-powered offense carried the franchise to its first postseason victories in nearly 20 years.

But the Commanders invested in the defense after allowing 55 points in the NFC championship game loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

It paid immediate dividends.

Washington allowed just 231 total yards, including 74 yards rushing. Defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw, the Commanders’ biggest free-agent signing of the offseason, was relentlessly disruptive on Sunday.

There are still 16 regular-season games remaining, but that didn’t stop optimistic onlookers from proclaiming that Washington had solved its Achilles’ heel.

“The Washington Commanders have a run defense this year. Daron Payne & Javon Kinlaw who’s f——— 6’5” 320 are a problem,” Will Compton, a former NFL linebacker who now hosts the “Bussin with the Boys” podcast, wrote on X. “Wagner & Luvu look good. Safeties showing up in the run game. It’s beautiful.”

“I’m not saying we’re favorites, I’m just saying we’re good enough … ” longtime radio host Eric Bickel of “The Sports Junkies” said on Monday morning of the Commanders’ championship prospects. “I always thought we were good enough offensively, but I seriously questioned whether that defense could beat good teams. Now, I think they can.”

Commanders coach Dan Quinn was encouraged by the performance, even if he saw areas for improvement.

“A lot to clean up. Coming off of last season, there were some things we really wanted to improve on and I trust and believe that every coach and player was trying to elevate that part of it,” he told reporters on Monday. “I know it’s just the first glimpse. I’m excited to see them grow as a defense and where we can take it.”

The penalties are still an issue. Washington’s aggressive, game-wrecking defensive front kept New York out of the end zone on Sunday. But during Monday’s film sessions, Quinn cringed at some of the penalties they committed. A third-down stop that was called back after edge rushers Von Miller and Dorance Armstrong were both lined up offside was particularly irksome.

“You want to show them all,” Quinn said of the penalties. “I don’t like them. I show them; I try to coach it out of them, especially the pre-snap ones. But I do like seeing resilience from people.”

Armstrong, for example, finished the game with nine pressures.

The sportsbooks weren’t swayed either. The Commanders are 3.5-point underdogs for Thursday’s game against the Packers in Green Bay.

The Packers had their own strong start to the season on Sunday with a dominant 27-13 victory over the Detroit Lions, last year’s top seed in the NFC. Adding Micah Parsons through a last-minute trade with the Dallas Cowboys helped.

Parsons hounded Lions quarterback Jared Goff, racking up a sack, a tackle for loss and three pressures.

“He brings out the mad scientist in you,” said Quinn, who worked with Parsons as Dallas’ defensive coordinator from 2021 through 2023. “It’s not at a speed that you can simulate in a practice rep.”

The Packers saw their Super Bowl odds surge after trading for Parsons. They bumped up again on Sunday after dismantling one of the NFC’s elite squads. FanDuel gave them the fourth-best odds to lift the Lombardi Trophy as of Monday morning.

No team helped public perception more than the Buffalo Bills during the NFL’s opening weekend. After trailing by 15 points late in the fourth quarter, reigning MVP Josh Allen stormed back to upset the visiting Baltimore Ravens 41-40 thanks to a last-second field goal.

The result of the back-and-forth affair, which saw Allen throw for more than 250 yards in the fourth quarter? The Bills are now the Super Bowl favorites at most sportsbooks.

“The only thing that’s going to matter this year for Buffalo is what happens in January,” former NFL Network host Kay Adams said on the “Up & Adams” show on Monday. “This was a hell of a way to set the tone for what’s about to come and for what actually matters.”