Commanders Suffer a Predictable Loss to the Lowly Giants
Just when you think things have hit rock bottom, the Washington Commanders Suffer a predictable loss to the lowly Giants. Despite sacking the Giants third-string undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito NINE times, the Commanders found themselves in a familiar place yesterday, down double digits to an inferior opponent. Washington couldn’t help but give New York every break they could think of, whether it was the defense allowing 5+ plays of 20 yards or more, or the offense turning the ball over six times. The Commanders were chasing the Giants all day long and proved once again that this coaching staff has zero attention to detail or schematic advantage over any other team they play.
Everyone and their mother has been calling for Josh Harris to fire Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio since the week 5 humiliating loss to the Bears on Thursday Night Football and yet here we are 6 weeks later and both coaches are still employed. All I can think is that Harris doesn’t want to put too much on Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy and wants him to focus on developing Sam Howell. After this loss to the Giants, the only explanation is that Harris doesn’t want to put the team at any additional disadvantage against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. My expectation is that if they loss in Dallas, Rivera will be fired before the end of the weekend and Bieniemy will get his chance to prove he is worthy of being the Head Coach next season.
As for the game, there isn’t much to say other than the Commanders suffer a predictable loss. New York had receivers wide open all day and DeVito carved up the Commanders time and time again. Howell did everything he could to keep them in the game, but tried too hard on multiple occasions, the worst of which was a last minute pick-six to Isaiah Simmons to seal the victory for the Giants. The poor performance by Howell did nothing to sway my confidence in him going into next season, but instead showed me that he still has a ways to go in development, and needs plenty of reps and adjustments to be the starting Pro Bowl caliber QB I know he can be.
The rest of the team is on watch as far as I’m concerned. Terry McLaurin is the only player not named Sam Howell that I would deem off-limits in trade conversations going into next season. Allen and Payne haven’t shown up in multiple games this year. Kam Curl and Kendall Fuller have shown flashes, but I don’t know if the leagues worst secondary needs to be handing out millions of dollars to keep those same players around. Maybe it’s scheme and a new defensive coordinator can get the high priced veterans and young high draft picks to play up to expectations, but I also think that a purging of the old guard includes some of these players that have been around too long to not be apart of the problem.
