Commanders cannot repeat this Week 9 mistake vs the Eagles

The Washington Commanders have closed the book on Week 9, but fans are still reckoning with the defeat, which dropped the team to 4-5. Now, the Commanders own the No. 9 seed in the jumbled NFC behind the 49ers and Falcons, who win the tiebreaker based on win percentage in conference games.

A win over the Vikings would’ve done wonders for Washington’s playoff odds. With multiple teams vying for one Wild Card spot with the Giants and Cowboys solidified as the top two Wild Card seeds, the Commanders have little margin for error.

Unfortunately, a cavalcade of errors cost them against Minnesota. Poor officiating didn’t help matters, as Benjamin St-Juste’s pick-six got overturned due to DPI, but Taylor Heinicke’s fourth-quarter interception and John Ridgeway’s boneheaded running into the center penalty just aren’t conducive to winning.

The Vikings are no juggernaut despite sitting at 7-1, but they did what really good football teams do: capitalize on an opponent’s mistakes.

There was another mistake that Minnesota couldn’t make hay on, but they are definitely grateful Taylor Heinicke and Scott Turner made it. If it’s replicated against the Eagles in Week 10, Washington could get its doors blown off.

The Commanders need to get Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel the football in the fourth quarter.

McLaurin’s been Heinicke’s go-to target in crunch time, but Sunday was a different story. In fact, Heincike’s top two receivers — McLaurin and Samuel — were nowhere to be found during the Commanders’ fourth-quarter collapse. Neither playmaker so much as manufactured a target in the final 15 minutes.

That’s an indictment on both Heinicke and Scott Turner, who drew the ire of fans for his questionable play-calling vs the Vikings. Getting shutout in the fourth quarter is embarrassing to begin with. Not even targeting your top two playmakers in the process makes the collapse look even worse.

Between this damning stat, Heinicke’s INT, Ridgeway’s third down unnecessary roughness penalty, and St-Juste’s pick-six getting overturned, the final 15 minutes was a perfect storm of misfortunes for the Commanders.

Samuel finished the game with three catches for 65 yards and a touchdown. Forty-nine of those yards came on his miracle touchdown in triple coverage where a Vikings safety who was camped under the ball waiting to pick it off fell down after barreling into a referee.

If you remove that play, Samuel had two catches for 16 yards. McLaurin wasn’t much better, tallying five catches for 56 yards. And speaking of the number 16, that’s how many yards the Commanders totaled in the fourth quarter. Kirk Cousins’ touchdown pass to Dalvin Cook went for 12 yards by itself.

It’s on both Heinicke and Turner to get McLaurin and Samuel more looks with games on the line. The Ohio State product’s combine for a $19.95 million cap hit in 2022 and signed for a combined $56.15 million in guaranteed money. To have them go the final quarter without a target is QB and coaching malpractice.

If they’re not heavily involved and post goose eggs in the fourth quarter in Philadelphia on Monday night, the game could get out of hand.