“Of course, the Commanders will beat the Giants.”
Does that sound familiar?
It should, because less than a month ago, that is what nearly every Commanders fan and writer was thinking when Washington traveled to MetLife Stadium (Oct. 22) to face the Giants.
Everyone “knew” the Commanders had turned around their season the previous week with a 24-16 road win in Atlanta. They had been awakened two weeks prior when they fell behind 27-3 to the Bears in the first half before losing 40-20. Now, virtually the NFL world believed the Commanders would win, thus, they were made a 3-point road favorite to beat the Giants.
But when the game actually began, it was the Giants who were a step quicker and more intense. The Commanders were so bad they trailed 14-0 at the half.
It was actually embarrassing.
How excruciatingly bad was the Commanders offense?
Well, their first nine drives were four punts, a Sam Howell interception (resulting in a Giants touchdown), and then four more punts.
Finally, Dyami Brown recovered a muffed punt at the Giants’ 21, leading to the Commanders narrowing their deficit to 14-7.
But they never scored again. The Giants sacked Howell six times in the game for a -52 yards. It was so frustrating to watch.
Add to the six sacks, Washington also committed ten penalties. That is 16 snaps resulting in minus yardage, every one of them.
No wonder Jonathan Allen was so upset.
The Commanders MUST win this game! And they can’t get a back-door win, and it be considered a success, either. The Giants stink, and the Commanders have not been good enough that they can look ahead to their short-week Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas on national TV.
We’ve all seen those silly pregame speeches by the players, yelling and screaming at their teammates.
Wasn’t the time to have gotten serious and prepare thoroughly for this game this week at the Ashburn facility?
This team needs to start taking care of business.