5 huge disappointments from the Commanders loss at the NY Jets in Week 16

Commanders preparation

For Washington Commanders fans, the stats at halftime were abysmal. I won’t rehash them all. I’ll just give you these two:

The New York Jets outgained the Commanders 246-76 in the first half. And they scored 27 points. This is from a team that was shut out last week and entered the game averaging scarcely over 14 points per game on the season.

It’s hard to affix blame to certain failings in a complex team sport like football. But when a team is consistently unprepared to play at the beginning of games, I think the blame has to be spread all around.

The Commanders are being out-game-planned regularly. If the problem is not with the game plan, then the coaching staff simply is not preparing the team to execute once the game begins. Either there is a lack of motivation or there is a lack of quality practice.

Or maybe it’s simply the players.

This is a young team with a lot of new players. We have heard a lot about “culture” during the Rivera years, but that has not thus far extended to being prepared. Is that a lack of concentration? Is that a lack of accountability? Is that a sign of overly complex game plans? Is that the sign of a team that simply has come to accept failure?

At this point, it’s almost certainly all of the above.