The Washington Commanders dropped to 4-7 on the season after Sunday’s 31-19 loss to the New York Giants. In his two seasons as Giants head coach, Brian Daboll improved to 3-0-1 vs. Washington.
The story of the game was turnovers. The Commanders turned the ball over six times, and the game, fittingly, ended on quarterback Sam Howell’s third interception of the day.
Washington scored to cut New York’s lead to 24-19. With three timeouts remaining, the defense forced a three-and-out. The Commanders would get the ball back with just under two minutes remaining and one timeout. However, the offense showed a lack of urgency. When they got into Giants’ territory, Howell, trying to throw the ball away under heavy pressure, was intercepted by New York linebacker Isaiah Simmons, who returned it for a touchdown.
Here are the studs and duds from another ugly loss. It’s important to note there weren’t a lot of studs.
Stud: RB Brian Robinson Jr.
Don’t blame Brian Robinson Jr. for this loss. The second-year back continued his quietly excellent season with another performance against the Giants. Robinson rushed for 73 yards on 17 carries and caught seven passes for 58 yards.
Robinson has through defenders and around defenders in his attempt to will Washington to a victory. Unfortunately, the turnovers proved too much, which overshadows another good game from Robinson.
Dud: QB Sam Howell
Sam Howell has made the studs list on more than one occasion, but he was bad against the Giants. The most troubling aspect of his performance was that it meant he was bad against the Giants twice in five weeks. For a young quarterback, you expect ups and downs, and Howell has shown an impressive ability to bounce back. But his lack of success against one of the worst NFL teams will lead to more questions about his ability to avoid turnovers.
Stud: LB David Mayo
Yes, David Mayo made the good list this week. Mayo had two sacks, three tackles for loss, and finished with six tackles. He just missed a third sack. Mayo gets picked on a lot but he has good against the Giants on this day.
Dud: LT Charles Leno Jr.
We defend Leno a lot. We think he sometimes gets too much blame for some of Washington’s issues. Let’s be clear: Leno was terrible against the Giants. New York edge Kayvon Thibodeaux owns Leno. Thibodeaux had two sacks on Sunday and now has 5.5 of his career 14.5 sacks against Washington. Leno was also called for a false start with 29 seconds remaining, which forced the Commanders to call their final timeout.
Stud: DE K.J. Henry
If there was one young player to be encouraged about defensively, it was rookie defensive end K.J. Henry. Henry finished with four tackles, including one for loss, 1.5 sacks, two QB hits and broke up two passes. That’s a good day for the rookie pass rusher.
Dud: LS Camaron Cheeseman
Cheeseman seems like a nice young man. But he has one job and is not very good at it. Ron Rivera often defends him because he was a draft pick, a draft pick he traded up for to select. But how many times has punter Tress Way saved terrible Cheeseman snaps? Everyone is tired of discussing the long snapper. It’s time to find a new one. It shouldn’t be on Way to play hero every time. And you wonder how many of Joey Slye’s issues can sometimes be attributed to the snapping problems.
Dud: Head coach Ron Rivera
It’s not Ron Rivera’s fault the team turned the ball over six times. But this is his team; he’s responsible for every player on the roster. It’s not a good roster. He is overmatched, and his press conferences are a tough watch at this point. Fans are beyond tired of hearing Rivera turn every conversation into, “But guys, check out our QB I found and developed.”
Every game, there seems to be a mistake related to coaching, and while we can’t point out one this time, it was another ugly day and all but confirmed Rivera will not have one winning season in four as head coach. Yes, technically, the Commanders could win out, but let’s be serious.
