Survey results!!!
The hero of Sunday’s victory over the Bears
We will end this article by looking forward to the upcoming game against the Giants and predictions about the team’s record for the month of November, but before we move forward, I thought it would be worthwhile to take one last moment to savor the victory over the Bears — Washington’s first victory over a team with a winning record this season, and one that featured a spectacular finish that NFL fans will talk about for decades.
In this week’s Reacts survey, we asked Hogs Haven readers to say which of seven players was the ‘hero’ of the Bears game.
In truth, I had no doubt that the majority of votes would go to either Jayden Daniels, who threw the Hail Mary pass, or Noah Brown, who was on the receiving end and caught the winning walk-off touchdown. I asked the question primarily as a vehicle for highlighting the team nature of the win, and to remember that, despite the exciting 19-second offensive scoring drive that culminated with a 52-yard touchdown pass, the outcome was decided by plays that were made in all four quarters of the game by many different players.
Washington, for example, had two fumble recoveries in the game, one that created a turnover (Johnny Newton) and one that prevented a turnover (Jeremy McNichols). Also, with all the focus on the team’s lone touchdown, scored with 00:00 showing on the game clock, it might be easy to forget about kicker Austin Seibert’s 4 field goals on the day to put Washington in position to control the low-scoring affair for the first 59 minutes and 35 seconds of play.
The two other players on the field that I highlighted with this question were Terry McLaurin, who led all receivers with 125 receiving yards, including the critical 13-yard gain on the play that preceded the Hail Mary, and Bears DB Tyrique Stevenson, who seemed to do everything he could to insure a Commanders victory, including giving up a 61-yard reception to Terry McLaurin earlier in the game, getting flagged for a 15-yard dead ball penalty for poking his fingers into the facemask of Sam Cosmi and giving a shove, and — most importantly — abrogating his responsibilities on the game’s final play and tipping the pass beautifully right into the waiting arms of Noah Brown.
Lest we forget:
Jayden Daniels’ Hail Mary touchdown was the biggest moment on @Commanders and @NFL social media last Sunday.
75 million total impressions
#1 team post across the league
#1 @NFL post for Week 8
23% of @NFL‘s Sunday engagementpic.twitter.com/8IVZ6WPJcd— Zoomph (@Zoomph) October 31, 2024
The most notable result of the poll question seems to me not to be that Jayden Daniels was the top vote-getter, but that the runner up was Bears defender Tyrique Stevenson, who garnered 14% of the votes.
Fan Confidence
Confidence is soaring in Washington as the Commanders have reached an overall record of 6-2 and remain in first place in the NFC East, where they’ve been since their victory over the Giants in Week 2.
Between 98% and 99% of Hogs Haven readers surveyed have expressed confidence in the direction of the team in every weekly poll since Week 4. No fan base in the Reacts surveys has had a higher level of confidence over that time period. This week, Commanders fan confidence holds steady at 99%, the highest in the league, 2 points ahead of fans of the undfeated Kansas City Chiefs, who polled at 97%.
The confidence levels of Washington’s division rivals tell various stories.
The confidence of Dallas fans, which had been at 3% and 4% in the last two surveys, fell to a league-low 2% (just below that of Jets fans at 3%…before their win on Thursday night) following the Cowboys’ prime time loss to the 49ers on Sunday night.
By comparison, the confidence level of Giants fans ( 36%), seems almost optimistic. Despite a 3-game skid and a loss to the Steelers in prime time last week, the level of Giants fan confidence rose from Week 8’s season low of 20%. That confidence may be about the longer-term future of the Giants, however, as there is some evidence to indicate that New York fans have already begun to turn the page on the 2024 season:
The confidence of Eagles fans has been rising steadily since bottoming out at 9% in Week 5. Last week, it stood at 45%, but with 3 consecutive wins — the latest against the Bengals — Philly fans are feeling like the early season struggles may be behind them. This week, there is no confidence number yet available for the Eagles, but in the wake of the beating their team put on the Bengals this past Sunday combined with a second relatively drama-free week with respect to the coaching staff, I anticipate that Philly fans’ confidence will continue to rise.
The NFC East
At the moment, the Commanders hold a half-game lead over the Eagles, a 2.5-game lead over the Cowboys, and a 4-game lead over the Giants, whom the Commanders will play this Sunday in New Jersey.
NFC East standings update! Any surprises here? pic.twitter.com/GIVE4eIYX3
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 30, 2024
The NFL is famously an “any given Sunday” league, so it is foolish to think it’s possible to predict wins and losses with any real certainty. How many people, for instance, anticipated that the Browns would beat the Ravens this past Sunday?
That doesn’t stop people from having opinions, though, and every week, SB Nation polls the opinions of thousands of NFL fans drawn from all 32 fan bases to find out which teams those fans expect to beat the spread.
This week, with the Giants and Commanders playing each other, there are three games involving NFC East teams. In each case, the surveyed fans ‘bet’ heavily on the favored teams.
If the results on Sunday follow these predictions, then the Commanders and Eagles would remain in their relative spots (#1 & #2) at the top of the division, while the Cowboys and Giants would each fall a game further back. It would also mean that Washington would remain undefeated in the division while the Giants would drop to 0-4, having already lost one game to each of their division rivals.
Looking ahead
Four weeks ago, we asked Hogs Haven readers to predict Washington’s record for the upcoming month of October. 66% of you predicted a 3-1 record for the month, and all 66% of you who made that prediction were right.
Washington’s win-loss record was 3-1 in September and 3-1 in October — 6-2 overall.
This time, we asked Hogs Haven readers to predict the number of wins the Commanders would achieve in November.
At 49%, it’s a less emphatic statement than the one readers made at the start of October, but once again, the most popular prediction is a 3-1 record, with only 2% of respondents predicting a losing record for the month. One in ten respondents actually predict an undefeated month ahead.
The comments section of the survey article painted a somewhat muddled picture of which games the commenters expected to win or lose in a 2-2 scenario, but I think it’s fair to say that the game commenters overall felt most confident about winning is this week’s road game against the Giants. There seemed to be varying degrees of confidence or nervousness about the three remaining opponents, the Steelers, Eagles and Cowboys, but broad recognition that (a) winning these games is important and (b) very achievable.
Without a doubt, there is general excitement about and confidence in what fans have seen so far from the 2024 Commanders, but after three decades of disappointment too often following on the heels of excitement, it may take a bit more time before fans of the team can simply trust that the success is real and immerse themselves in the joy of a seemingly magical season.
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