The late Washington sports radio personality Ken Beatrice was fond of saying, “More NFL games are lost than won.” This past Sunday only reiterated the point. Washington had every chance to win that game. But, they failed to do so. The drops were horrifying. Perhaps the biggest was when Jayden Daniels threw from the End Zone hitting normally reliable Zack Ertz in stride and in the hands out near the 20-yard line with room to run. This coming after the Defense manufactured a fumble from Pittsburgh on the way in for a score. That drop kept Washington backed up allowing the Steelers to continue applying pressure. There were others. And, there were other mistakes aplenty. Still, the game was there to take. Alas. Time to laser focus on Philadelphia on Thursday Night.
Parting Thoughts on the Steelers
Washington’s Defense played well. Jeremy Chinn had a tough time covering Pat Freiermuth. It looked in real time that the Tight End was catching a ball every minute. In reality he was only targeted three times for a total of seventeen yards. One of the three was a touchdown. Chinn had a pick, a fumble recovery, and 13 tackles with 6 of them being solo tackles. Lots of comments came out trashing Chinn. But, on balance it was not a horrible day.
This one stings.
Dan Quinn
Russell Wilson looked every bit the Russ of old. He was a winner for a long time under Pete Carroll. Somewhere along the way he wanted more freedom than the run-first, run-often Carroll system. That detour may have dimmed his Hall of Fame chances. But, it looks like he’s back on the rails. If you sat there in the fourth quarter and said, “I’ve seen this act before” you were not alone. What was on full display was Mike Tomlin getting Russ back to his true identity. Contrast that to supposed Super-Coach Sean Payton. He couldn’t get rid of Wilson fast enough because he was not a clone of Drew Brees. Tomlin gets the best out of what is on-hand. The contrast in approaches could not be more clear.
The most disappointing thing about the loss was allowing the smug Pittsburgh faithful to leave the stadium with their arrogance intact.
Short Weeks
In their quest to squeeze every dime out of a $21 Billion annual gold mine the NFL began broadcasting games on Thursday night in 2006. The NFL would put the games on Friday. But, the Congress’ Sports Broadcasting Act in 1966 withdrew antitrust immunity for any pro football telecast if a high school or college football game is played within 75 miles of the station airing the NFL game. It essentially eliminated Friday and Saturday games until after the college season is over.
The Thursday Night game isn’t normally a good product. Somewhere along the way the money men forgot that the game is staffed with people. Recovery from a physical game on a Sunday afternoon takes most players longer than three days and change. Add to it that the visiting team has to travel and it makes for poor quality football. Sometimes the second half of the game improves as the players get through the wall of being still physically down from the previous game.
There’s no real practice before the game. Technically they are called “Practice.” But, in reality they are simply walk-throughs. No pads. No wonder the teams look less than sharp at the start of games. As the season progresses the road teams take the brunt. In the history of Thursday night tilts there are 208 games. The home team has won 123 of them (59%) Only in three seasons have the road teams won more than the home squad.
It’s all so easily fixed. Teams playing on Thursday should get a Bye the week before. Then one of the teams plays the following Thursday. Set that up in a rotation. That gives more than normal rest before the game. Regular rest after the game before the next one. Then the “Mini Bye” before the following game. Few enterprises have less regard for their human assets than the NFL. This would be a nice step in the other direction. Don’t hold your breath for it to happen.
The Green Menace
The Super Bowl before last was there for the Eagles to win. The play in that game most discussed was a Defensive Holding call late in the 4th Quarter. But, the biggest play was Jalen Hurts fumbling the ball away to Kansas City’s Defense. After the game both Offensive and Defensive Coordinators left for new gigs as Head Coaches. Philadelphia started last year where they left off. Then the wheels came off. They lost 5 of their last 6 regular season games. Then they were unceremoniously deposited in the dumpster by Tampa Bay in their playoff appearance. All along pundits were saying the truth would come out about why the team apparently quit. It has yet to do so.
There’s nothing more I want to do than beat Philly. And, so you know, they’re going to have a pretty pissed team on their hands.
Guard Sam Cosmi
Coming into the early part of this year the Eagles’ team was enigmatic. The roster is loaded with excellent players. This is a team with real depth. The Offensive Line is terrific. But, the team struggled. That seemingly has changed. Last week they demolished reeling Dallas in the House that Jerry built. Washington now has to deal with a confident Jalen Hurts. He is a bit up and down. When he’s up he’s trouble. Right now he’s up.
The best move Philly made in the off-season was to hire Vic Fangio as Defensive Coordinator. Wherever he goes the Defense improves…although not at first. It takes a while for his system to settle in. When he was in Chicago the Defense went from near the bottom to top ten. In Miami the Defense improved. But, the players whined about Fangio’s approach. He left there more than he was fired. Now he has the Eagles’ Defense starting to hum.
Remember the trade Adam Peters made with Howie Roseman on Draft Day #2? That ended up yielding Mike Sainristil and Ben Sinnott for Washington. Philly on its end took Cooper DeJean, a Defensive Back. His grading while is Zone coverage is outstanding. The other rookie back there is Quinyon Mitchell. He is also really effective in Zone. Expect a lot of it this week.
Also expect a full dose of AJ Brown. He is Hurts’ favorite Receiver at nearly 7 targets per game. Then there’s Washington nemesis Saquon Barkley. He’s mostly thrilled to be out of New York. His AVERAGE yards per game rushing is 110. Saquon has 21 receptions for 9 first downs and 2 Touchdowns. This is an Offense that can really put up some points when Hurts is on his game.
Injuries
Washington could sure use new acquisition Marshon Lattimore. It doesn’t look like he’s going to play as of this writing. Find-of-the-Season Kicker Austin Siebert is looking to be out as well. Brian Robinson is possibly playing. The one name not on the injury list is Jayden Daniels. Look for the heat pack between series to continue, however.
Washington has three players listed as “Out” and three more as “Questionable.” Philly does not have one player listed in either category.
It’s a tough assignment to go into Philly on short rest. A loss would put Washington more into the “Wild Card” discussion than winning the Division. It would put Philly up 1 1/2 games. In hockey parlance they have “A game in hand.” A Washington win would make the two-team race for the Division a real fight. We will have to see how it plays out.
Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles:
Nov. 14, Amazon, 8:15 p.m. ET
Announcers: Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, Kaylee Hartung
