A win is a win.
The Washington Commanders should have walked away with an easy victory in New Orleans against a depleted Saints team that was missing most of its best offensive players. It didn't work out that way.
In some ways, the Commanders dominated. They had a two-to-one advantage in time of possession. They outgained New Orleans by almost 100 yards and won the turnover battle. That should have resulted in a veritable cakewalk.
The fact that it came down to a final, barely-missed two-point conversion is a testament to just how sloppy a game Washington played. It showed mostly in the penalties, the last of which — a holding called on guard Nick Allegretti — very nearly cost the Commanders another victory.
The defense committed multiple bad penalties. This allowed a Saints offense, playing with a third-string quarterback and without their best offensive weapon for much of the second half, to gain confidence and momentum.
Several of the calls seemed to go against the Commanders. Dante Fowler Jr’.s second roughing call seemed wrong. An underthrown deep shot to Terry McLaurin resulted in contact that is called defensive pass interference nine times out of ten, but there was no flag. Saints signal-caller Spencer Rattler, who got better as the game went on, heaved a ball under pressure that didn’t come within 20 yards of a receiver but was not flagged for intentional grounding.
Commanders must clean things up to make the postseason
The Commanders cannot blame the officials for how close this game was. Not when Fowler committed a legitimate roughing penalty that put New Orleans in field goal range a bit earlier. Not when Benjamin St-Juste got his weekly penalty on a failed third down that would have forced a punt. Not when Allegretti’s hold was plain as day.
Penalties weren’t the only things that plagued the Commanders. Jayden Daniels missed McLaurin on three different deep shots, all of which could have been touchdowns. New kicker Greg Joseph wasn’t even close on his 54-yard field goal attempt that could have sealed the game late. He was lucky to get a second chance on an earlier miss.
Washington’s offense, which began the game with a couple of touchdowns, stagnated in the second half.
New Orleans crowded the line of scrimmage and overwhelmed the Commanders' offensive linemen. Even Kliff Kingsbury’s magical run of play-calling seemed to vanish late in the game when he wasted both time and yards while Washington was trying to run the clock and kick a game-sealing field goal.
It wasn't all doom and gloom. There were positives as well.
Stud cornerback Marshon Lattimore was as advertised. He took away half the field. New Orleans didn’t even challenge their former star.
Washington’s first-half defense was sensational. They were going up against a green signal-caller without many weapons and they took advantage. When the Saints switched quarterbacks and their most dangerous receiver stopped dropping passes, Joe Whitt Jr.'s unit could not sustain its play.
McLaurin was sensational early and Daniels’ poise and skill overcame some shaky line play. But the offense could not sustain its play either.
Dan Quinn's squad is still far away from where they want to be. They are too sloppy at times. They simply are not good enough at other times. The offensive line needs steadier production and the defense needs to stop committing killer penalties.
Washington may have been rusty coming off their bye week. They may have underestimated the Saints team due to all the injuries. Or they may just not be good enough at certain positions.
Chances are, all three of those factors resulted in the shaky performance. It is Quinn's job to figure out what went wrong and make appropriate corrections.
They escaped in this one because New Orleans was playing a lot of backups. This type of effort will not stand up against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 16.
If they don’t clean up their play, the Commanders will have a hard time with both the Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys. These are games that they have to win if they want to make the postseason.
The good news is that they have the type of players and coaches who are fully capable of making improvements. This may well have been a wake-up call. After all, Washington is now 9-5 and secured its first winning season since 2016. They are capable of being much better.
A win is a win — and winning in the NFL should never be taken for granted.
Quinn has the Commanders in prime playoff contention. After this week, coaches and players all know where they need to improve.
Very soon, we will see if they can do it.