TAMPA — After six months of building a new roster and building excitement among the fan base, Sunday’s season-opening loss in Tampa came as a big dose of ugly reality for Washington Commanders fans.
Washington lost 37-20 in a contest that had far more lowlights than highlights. Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels looked great as a runner, gaining more than 80 yards on the ground and scoring twice, but could not get much going through the air.
On the first play of the second half, wide receiver Terry McLaurin streaked down the left sideline, two steps clear of his defender. A good throw likely results with a walk-in touchdown, however, Daniels sailed the ball just out of McLaurin’s reach.
Outside of Daniels' scrambling ability, the Washington offense struggled. The pass game seemed centered far too much on passes at or near the line of scrimmage. Midway through the third quarter Commanders receivers only had three catches total, and none of them were named McLaurin.
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Defensively, it was worse.
Second-year cornerback Emmanuel Forbes was repeatedly beaten in this game, and the secondary as a whole gave up consistent yardage. Basic tackling was a problem all afternoon. The pass rush wasn’t much better as Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield wasn’t sacked until the third quarter.
Mayfield finished the game with nearly 300 yards passing and an impressive four touchdowns while the Tampa offense piled up more than 100 rush yards.
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Perplexing coaching decisions and a bad outing from new kicker Cade York didn’t help either. York missed two field goal attempts and also put a kickoff out of bounds, resulting in a penalty. It’s safe to say York has serious job security questions.
Dan Quinn has zero job security questions, and this is just the first game of his Commanders tenure. Still, questions need to be asked about some of his decision-making.
After a Jayden Daniels rushing touchdown in the second half gave Washington a chance to cut the Bucs lead to a one-score game, Quinn inexplicably kicked an extra point instead of going for two.
The result? The Commanders trailed by nine, which means two scores to take the lead. If Washington failed on the two-point conversion attempt, then they’d be down 10, which would still mean two scores to take the lead.
Throughout the contest, Quinn seemed to err on the side of caution rather than aggression. Perhaps that was because his team was outmanned. Perhaps that’s his manner. Those questions will get answered over time.
What else will take time? Washington’s rebuild.
This was a bad team last year. They only won four games, had no Pro Bowlers and finished with the worst point differential in the NFL.
To expect immediate and overnight success from the new regime was optimistic at best and probably naive. The Commanders need players – good players – and new general manager Adam Peters made clear his intention is to build up the roster through the draft.
That will take years. Plural. But maybe things can look less ugly along the way.
