“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 to face the Giants on Oct. 22.
Everyone supposedly 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. Virtually the entire NFL world believed the Commanders would beat New York, and thus they were made a three-point road favorite.
But when the game 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 resulted in 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 minus-52 yards. It was so frustrating to watch.
Adding to the six sacks, Washington also committed 10 penalties. That is 16 snaps resulting in minus yardage.
No wonder Jonathan Allen was so upset.
This time around, the Commanders must win. And they can’t get a backdoor win for 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 at 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.