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An impressive and surprising victory in Philadelphia over the undefeated Eagles is reason to throw your left hand up, folks.
After undoubtedly their best and most complete game of the season, the Commanders now sit at 5-5 and have positioned themselves to be in the playoff mix as we head down the stretch here in the 2022 season. Let's get right to this week's studs, duds, and hat tips.
Studs:
1. Ron Rivera - it would have been easy for this team to roll over and not show up in Philly after the heartbreaker vs. Minnesota. However, in the midst of dealing with the loss of his dear mother, Coach Rivera found a way to have this team ready to play the undefeated Eagles. It says a lot about his character. It speaks volumes about the admiration and respect the young men in the Washington locker room have towards Ron. We might question his clock management sometimes. We might question his decisions on game day sometimes. We might question his roster decisions sometimes. There is no denying his resolve, fight, and leadership.
2. Scott Turner - yes, you are reading correctly and this is the studs list here. In my opinion, Turner called his best game of the season. He went back to, and showed a strong commitment towards what made us successful with Heinicke under center during a really strong four game stretch a year ago. That is, ball control offense with a heavy emphasis on the run game. On the night, we had 152 team rushing yards, dominated the time of possession (40:24 to 19:36), almost doubled the Eagles in total offensive plays (81 to 47), and went 12/21 on third down (57%). Not too shabby. He put us in a lot of situations where we faced 3rd and very short, and we pushed the pile time and time again, feeding into what our offensive linemen like doing best - firing off the line and dominating their man. With a limited player in Taylor Heinicke, this is what you have to do to be successful. I just don't understand why we don't embrace an identity as a running football team more consistently. Playing sound defense, creating turnovers, and running the football is still a recipe for success in the NFL.
3. Terry McLaurin - 8 catches for 128 yards on the night for Terry was an excellent stat line against a team he has traditionally feasted against. In situations where we knew we had to make plays through the air, Terry could be counted on all night it seemed like to come through in the clutch. He is now 8th in the NFL in receiving yards with 737. He is in the company of those such as Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, Travis Kelce, Cooper Kupp, Devante Adams, and Stefon Diggs. This is the type of player we finally have now at the receiver position - an elite one
4. Joey Slye - the old adage in the NFL is to score points consistently on drives and not go empty handed for long stretches in games. When you do that, you find yourself in a position to win more often than not. Slye was amazing on Monday night, and delivered some huge kicks. He went 4 for 4 on field goal attempts, hitting from 44, 32, 55, and 58 yards. Not many talk about this, but Slye is now 20 of 22 (going 6 for 8 in 40+ yard situations) on career field goal attempts while in a Washington uniform. That's solid.
Duds:
1. Referees - they stunk on Monday Night. A defensive pass interference call early in the game on Benjamin St. Juste helped to set up an Eagles TD. I am not sure Benjamin could have defended it any better. The offensive pass interference call on Jahan Dotson on a big 3rd down play later in the 4th quarter was also highly questionable. It wasn't all just bad calls on Washington either. Eagles fans are complaining this morning about a missed facemask penalty on one of the Commanders' fumble recoveries. All in all, the refs were talked about for all the wrong reasons on Monday in Philly. Thankfully, it didn't hurt us in the end and the team worked through it and found a way to win.
2. Dan Snyder - I long for the day when we don't have to talk about this guy anymore, but on a night where the team played solid football in all three phases of the game, I figured I would populate the dud list with his name. Seems fitting.
Hat Tips:
1. Brian Robinson Jr. - BRJ played that bell cow role on Monday night, carrying the ball 26 times for 86 yards. We saw splashes of physical running inside, and Robinson showed great determination continuing to drive his legs while stretching the ball over the goal line for his touchdown run. There is lots of room for improvement in his game, but he shows some great promise and could form a fun "thunder and lightning" duo with Gibson hopefully for years to come in Washington.
2. Defensive Secondary - Jalen Hurts threw for 340 yards and 3 TDs against Washington in Week 3. He picked us apart and it felt like we were watching a video game. Monday night was a completely different story, as the Eagles' signal-caller was held to only 175 yards through the air and intercepted once. Darrick Forrest made an outstanding play bailing on a deep ball and picking off Hurts. He got involved again on a defensive turnover very late in the game as the Eagles attempted to take the lead, recovering a fumble created by Benjamin St. Juste. For the second straight week, Kendall Fuller also appeared to put in a solid showing in pass coverage and appears to be rounding into form as the player we all know he is capable of being for us. Between Kam Curl, Darrick Forrest, and Benjamin St. Juste, the Rivera front office has done a nice job of stockpiling players in the defensive secondary that could potentially be solid fixtures for us on Sundays for years to come. Where is some wood I can knock on?
Can we keep the ball rolling against the Texans? Years of trauma as fans has us naturally thinking that next Sunday in Houston could easily be a game where we fall flat on our faces and quickly erase all the positive feelings from last night. That all said, if we stick to the plan we had going into the Philadelphia game, there is no reason to believe we can't get over .500.
Embrace being the Tennessee Titans. There is nothing wrong with that.
After undoubtedly their best and most complete game of the season, the Commanders now sit at 5-5 and have positioned themselves to be in the playoff mix as we head down the stretch here in the 2022 season. Let's get right to this week's studs, duds, and hat tips.
Studs:
1. Ron Rivera - it would have been easy for this team to roll over and not show up in Philly after the heartbreaker vs. Minnesota. However, in the midst of dealing with the loss of his dear mother, Coach Rivera found a way to have this team ready to play the undefeated Eagles. It says a lot about his character. It speaks volumes about the admiration and respect the young men in the Washington locker room have towards Ron. We might question his clock management sometimes. We might question his decisions on game day sometimes. We might question his roster decisions sometimes. There is no denying his resolve, fight, and leadership.
2. Scott Turner - yes, you are reading correctly and this is the studs list here. In my opinion, Turner called his best game of the season. He went back to, and showed a strong commitment towards what made us successful with Heinicke under center during a really strong four game stretch a year ago. That is, ball control offense with a heavy emphasis on the run game. On the night, we had 152 team rushing yards, dominated the time of possession (40:24 to 19:36), almost doubled the Eagles in total offensive plays (81 to 47), and went 12/21 on third down (57%). Not too shabby. He put us in a lot of situations where we faced 3rd and very short, and we pushed the pile time and time again, feeding into what our offensive linemen like doing best - firing off the line and dominating their man. With a limited player in Taylor Heinicke, this is what you have to do to be successful. I just don't understand why we don't embrace an identity as a running football team more consistently. Playing sound defense, creating turnovers, and running the football is still a recipe for success in the NFL.
3. Terry McLaurin - 8 catches for 128 yards on the night for Terry was an excellent stat line against a team he has traditionally feasted against. In situations where we knew we had to make plays through the air, Terry could be counted on all night it seemed like to come through in the clutch. He is now 8th in the NFL in receiving yards with 737. He is in the company of those such as Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, Travis Kelce, Cooper Kupp, Devante Adams, and Stefon Diggs. This is the type of player we finally have now at the receiver position - an elite one
4. Joey Slye - the old adage in the NFL is to score points consistently on drives and not go empty handed for long stretches in games. When you do that, you find yourself in a position to win more often than not. Slye was amazing on Monday night, and delivered some huge kicks. He went 4 for 4 on field goal attempts, hitting from 44, 32, 55, and 58 yards. Not many talk about this, but Slye is now 20 of 22 (going 6 for 8 in 40+ yard situations) on career field goal attempts while in a Washington uniform. That's solid.
Duds:
1. Referees - they stunk on Monday Night. A defensive pass interference call early in the game on Benjamin St. Juste helped to set up an Eagles TD. I am not sure Benjamin could have defended it any better. The offensive pass interference call on Jahan Dotson on a big 3rd down play later in the 4th quarter was also highly questionable. It wasn't all just bad calls on Washington either. Eagles fans are complaining this morning about a missed facemask penalty on one of the Commanders' fumble recoveries. All in all, the refs were talked about for all the wrong reasons on Monday in Philly. Thankfully, it didn't hurt us in the end and the team worked through it and found a way to win.
2. Dan Snyder - I long for the day when we don't have to talk about this guy anymore, but on a night where the team played solid football in all three phases of the game, I figured I would populate the dud list with his name. Seems fitting.
Hat Tips:
1. Brian Robinson Jr. - BRJ played that bell cow role on Monday night, carrying the ball 26 times for 86 yards. We saw splashes of physical running inside, and Robinson showed great determination continuing to drive his legs while stretching the ball over the goal line for his touchdown run. There is lots of room for improvement in his game, but he shows some great promise and could form a fun "thunder and lightning" duo with Gibson hopefully for years to come in Washington.
2. Defensive Secondary - Jalen Hurts threw for 340 yards and 3 TDs against Washington in Week 3. He picked us apart and it felt like we were watching a video game. Monday night was a completely different story, as the Eagles' signal-caller was held to only 175 yards through the air and intercepted once. Darrick Forrest made an outstanding play bailing on a deep ball and picking off Hurts. He got involved again on a defensive turnover very late in the game as the Eagles attempted to take the lead, recovering a fumble created by Benjamin St. Juste. For the second straight week, Kendall Fuller also appeared to put in a solid showing in pass coverage and appears to be rounding into form as the player we all know he is capable of being for us. Between Kam Curl, Darrick Forrest, and Benjamin St. Juste, the Rivera front office has done a nice job of stockpiling players in the defensive secondary that could potentially be solid fixtures for us on Sundays for years to come. Where is some wood I can knock on?
Can we keep the ball rolling against the Texans? Years of trauma as fans has us naturally thinking that next Sunday in Houston could easily be a game where we fall flat on our faces and quickly erase all the positive feelings from last night. That all said, if we stick to the plan we had going into the Philadelphia game, there is no reason to believe we can't get over .500.
Embrace being the Tennessee Titans. There is nothing wrong with that.
