What huge disappointments emerged from another embarrassingly woeful defeat for the Washington Commanders in Week 7 at the New York Giants?
I’m a lucky guy. I get to write the weekly disappointments article for the Washington Commanders.
Now, if I were writing this for a team like the Philadelphia Eagles or the Kansas City Chiefs, I’d be scraping the bottom of the barrel, desperately looking for things to complain about. But the Commanders - they seem to offer a never-ending torrent of ways to disappoint.
Tress Way punted seven times for 350 yards – IN THE FIRST HALF. The Commanders allowed the New York Giants to equal their season sack total – IN THE FIRST HALF. Brian Daboll's offense scored their first touchdown in a month - and then scored their second - IN THE FIRST HALF.
A play happened right at the end of the first half that tells you all you need to know about how wretched this performance was.
The Giants came up short on a Tyrod Taylor scramble on third down with about 30 seconds left on the clock. Under normal circumstances, they would punt and Washington would get the ball back with one final try at getting some points before half-time. But there was a holding call on the home team.
Ron Rivera took the penalty. Now, there was no way the Giants would have gone for it on fourth down. And with only about 30 seconds left, a lot of the remaining time would be taken up by allowing New York to run another play.
But still, Rivera took the penalty. And I believe he did it because he thought - rightfully so - that the Commanders, at that point, had a better chance of scoring on defense than they did on offense.
And it does not get much more disappointing that that.
This was always going to be a tough game. Although the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles have been better than the Giants over the past five years, the G-Men have played the Commanders tougher.
Some of Washington’s most bitter recent defeats, like game two against New York in 2022, have come in this rivalry.
Still, seeing a mostly healthy Commanders team look utterly helpless against a 1-5 Giants squad - playing without their starting quarterback - playing without three-fifths of their starting offensive line - is about as demoralizing as it gets.
I’m not going to dwell on players today. Some of them played well. Most didn’t. But they all played hard.
You can blame them if you want, but I am looking at a coaching staff that seems to have little ability to put together a consistent game plan that can put their team in a position to win games.
Commanders coaching: Part No. 1
The Washington Commanders had two first downs in the first half. The New York Giants had 11.
Washington had 46 total yards in the first half. The Giants had 256.
The Commanders had a turnover and four penalties. The Giants had two penalties and did not turn the ball over.
My math tells me that the Giants - did I mention they were 1-5 and missing a slew of major starters for their Week 7 game at MetLife Stadium? - were five about five times better than the Commanders in the first half.
This continues the trend of Washington's misery at the beginning of games. I don’t know how you can absolve the entire coaching staff of blame here. This team often looks unmotivated and unprepared for battle almost every week, which is a damning indictment on Ron Rivera and his staff for whatever strategies they are implementing.
The Commanders just seem incapable of preparing properly for games this season. This is supposed to be the winnable part of their schedule before a late-season gauntlet, so lord only knows how things are going to go when Washington comes up against some genuine Super Bowl hopefuls down the stretch.
Commanders coaching: Part No. 2
Sam Howell might well break David Carr’s seemingly unbreakable sack record by mid-season. He has been sacked at least four times in every game this year.
For the second consecutive week, the Washington Commanders allowed their opponent to get healthy - equaling or surpassing their season sack total in one game. This is an absolute disgrace whichever way one looks at it.
There has been some debate as to whether this is the fault of the offensive line or the fault of Howell. To be sure, the quarterback needs better pocket awareness, and the Commanders do not have a very good offensive line. But today, let’s look at the coaching.
Travelle Wharton was elevated this off-season from assistant line coach after John Matsko was let go. We do not have much of a track record on which to judge yet. But Sunday was ugly.
The Giants blitzed relentlessly and Washington’s line was entirely overmatched. Dexter Lawrence ate center Nick Gates alive. Both tackles were cleanly beaten multiple times.
But more alarming was the number of blown assignments. Saahdiq Charles totally whiffed on a stunt pickup on one sack. On another, Andrew Wylie blocked inside leaving no one in the way of the edge rusher.
Washington’s linemen aren’t very good and they will get beaten. But it looked for much of the game that the Commanders had no idea that Wink Martindale was going to blitz them.
Commanders coaching: Part No. 3
The New York Giants came into this game with 14 plays of more than 20 yards during the entire season. Against the Washington Commanders, they had seven such plays.
The Giants came into the game averaging 4.1 yards-per-play on the season. Against the Commanders, they averaged 5.5.
Washington’s defense is the strength of the team, and they did keep this one close enough to give the offense a shot. But the Commanders made too many mistakes against a poor offense.
Jamin Davis’ holding penalty midway through the fourth quarter negated a momentum-altering sack that could have given the Commanders the ball in excellent field position with plenty of time left. It was the last of the many miscues from Jack Del Rio's unit.
Can we blame a penalty like that on coaching? No.
What we can say is that Washington’s linebackers are very poor in coverage. This has been a problem all season. It was a problem against the Giants. And it is something that has not been addressed or improved.
And that is on coaching.
Commanders coaching: Part No. 4
Tariq Castro-Fields is a young player. He has only been active a couple of weeks, and his primary duties have come as a gunner on special teams. It may not come as much of a surprise that he got flagged for a holding penalty on a Jamison Crowder punt return in the second half.
But in the first half, he was flagged for a different penalty. While covering a punt, Castro-Fields ran straight out of bounds without being blocked and stayed on the sideline for several strides before returning to the field of play.
This is an obvious penalty. Everyone knows this. I imagine Castro-Fields knows this too and simply lost his bearings for a moment. That can happen.
But it shouldn’t happen. On well-coached teams, it doesn’t happen.
This penalty barely matters, because there was an offsetting call on the New York Giants. But when you consider that the Washington Commanders only got back in the game due to a muffed punt in the second half, you realize how devastating small penalties like this can be if they wipe out a game-changing play.
Is that poor special teams coaching? Maybe not. I mean, it isn’t like the Commanders had a crucial field goal blocked with the game hanging in the balance. After the Giants came into this game having gone 99 games without a blocked field goal. Surely, Washington wouldn’t allow anything like that.
To be fair, Washington made some very astute coaching moves. Rolling out Sam Howell to avoid pressure, using Chris Rodriguez Jr. to give the running game a boost, and even putting Cornelius Lucas in as a sixth lineman to help with protection. These moves, along with a few gifts from the Giants, helped make the game competitive.
But the trend that has plagued Washington all season continued against New York. They didn’t show up ready to play. And a lot of that has to be blamed on the coaching staff.