Commanders look for ways out of three-game losing streak
It’s not a place they can afford to be this season. Not only do they have a tough second-half schedule, they have a new owner evaluating everyone in the organization — from front office on down to the players.
The Commanders (2-3) know what this year is about. They know what needs to happen moving forward.
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“You have got to win,” Washington coach Ron Rivera said. “This is production based. This is about winning games.”
The schedule suggests they need to turn it around sooner rather than later. They play at the Atlanta Falcons (3-2) Sunday followed by the New York Giants (1-4) and two weeks later at the New England Patriots (1-4). They also play the Philadelphia Eagles (5-0) at home, a team they lost to in overtime two weeks ago.
But that stretch is followed by a difficult one in the final eight weeks: at the Seattle Seahawks, two against the Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers. Those teams are a combined 18-6.
“We haven’t looked ahead,” said Rivera, in his fourth season.
Washington can’t afford to, considering how their last game went — a 40-20 loss at home to the Chicago Bears. But it does have to look back and learn lessons from the past three years. After all, the Commanders are following a familiar pattern:
2020: Washington was 2-7 before winning five of its last seven games to finish 7-9, but that was enough to win the NFC East.
2021: The Commanders stumbled early again. They lost six of their first eight games before recovering with a four-game win streak. Then, a mix of COVID and injuries combined to sabotage their finish and they went 1-4 down the stretch.
2022: They began 1-4 but won six of their next seven games. But, once again, they stumbled down the stretch and finished 8-8-1.
Their defense, each season, has improved in the second half of the year in points and yards allowed. The early lapses contribute to poor starts. In the first half of the past three seasons combined, the average ranking for Washington’s defense was 18th for scoring and 16th for yards. In the second half of those seasons, it was sixth for yards and ninth for points.
The Commanders are optimistic because of quarterback Sam Howell, who has shown flashes that he could be a longterm solution at the position. Howell, who has started just six career games in his two years, has thrown six touchdowns to six interceptions and has the sixth most passing yards (1,349) in the NFL this season. Rivera said they’re pleased with his growth.
“He’s a little bit ahead of where we anticipated,” Rivera said. “You do like what he’s done. You see who he is, you see his grit, you see his toughness, you see his decision making. Those are all good. Those are things that hopefully we get this thing going in the right direction, that’ll benefit us as we continue the season.”
Players believe it will, and that they still have a better chance for success than in the past.
“We’ve got an opportunity to be explosive on offense,” Washington tight end Logan Thomas said, “and the defense, the last three years they get going at the midpoint in the season and they’re tough to beat.”
The difference this time: More is at stake. With a new owner in Josh Harris, and with Rivera in year four of his regime, a good stretch in the middle followed by a rough ending could be difficult to overcome. Harris has said he wants to give the football operations a season to accurately assess them — and to know if he needs to make a move.
For the Commanders to emerge from this losing streak, they have to improve in several areas. They’ve allowed an NFL-high 18 plays of 25 yards or more, costing them in their losses to Philadelphia and Chicago in particular. In those games, they surrendered a combined nine such plays — eight of them passes.
The Bears had five such plays leading to 27 points; the Eagles had four that led to 20 points.
Also, Howell can’t continue to keep getting hit. He has been sacked an NFL-high 29 times and hit 64 times, fifth most in the league. He also has run the ball 15 times, getting hit — sometimes by two or three defenders — on eight of them.
If the Commanders want to turn it around and find out if Howell is indeed their starter beyond this season, he’ll need to stay healthy.
“I need to do a better job of just getting down and sliding and protecting myself,” Howell said. “I’ve taken a lot of unnecessary hits, and that’s something I’ve got to change in my mentality. I want to win, but at the same time I’ve got to take care of myself and make sure I can protect my body and make sure I can make it through the season.”
Washington was able to take the weekend off after its loss on Oct. 5 to Chicago, giving coaches time to reassess. When the players returned, there was one change on the entrance to the locker room: a sign that read, “Do Your Job.”
While coaches might tweak the lineup — rookie corner Emmanuel Forbes might not play as much after a tough start — the inference has been at times players trying to do too much. It has led to some of the big plays allowed.
“We have to have that urgency and keep that urgency,” cornerback Kendall Fuller said. “You don’t have to come out and be some superhero team where guys are being Superman. Everyone doing the little things right and that will show up on Sunday.”
Receiver Terry McLaurin said, for him, doing his job means running his routes at the proper pace — not trying to get there before he needs to, giving Howell a chance for success. That, in turn, will help any turnaround.
“Coach Rivera has always been somebody who tried to give buzzwords to kind of help you focus on the importance of what our next task is,” McLaurin said. “For myself, that’s always in my mind of how I can always do my job. But when you emphasize that a little bit more, I think it allows guys to take a step back and be like, OK, how do I execute my job? How do I not cause our offense to not be successful because I’m not doing my part?”
Rivera said their issues are fixable.
“We feel we’ve got some pretty good pieces to the puzzle,” he said. “But now you’ve got to put the puzzle together.”
They can’t afford to have it take much longer.