Talk Commanders

Would you believe that the winner of this Thanksgiving Day game between the Washington Football Team and the Dallas Cowboys will be sitting on top of the NFC East with a 4-7 record? The last time these teams met at FedEx Field in October, it was Washington who crushed Dallas by a final score of 25-3. Of course the lead in the standings could all change if the Eagles can beat the Seahawks on Monday night. This seems like the NFC East could go back-n-forth until the final weekend on January 3rd of 2021 when those Eagles host Washington.

Both teams have started a few different quarterbacks this year due to injuries. Dallas has started four different QBs and Washington has had three. Washington started with Dwayne Haskins and then after Kyle Allen suffered an ankle injury three weeks ago, head coach Ron Rivera went with the veteran Alex Smith as his starting quarterback with Dwayne Haskins as his backup. The Cowboys lost their starter, Dak Prescott, to a serious ankle injury that required surgery. He was replaced by Andy Dalton who was knocked out of the game in the last meeting with Washington, and Dalton will start this game.

Backup quarterbacks will make this one interesting, and the Cowboys are hoping that Ezekiel Elliott can continue what he put together last week with his best game of the season with 103 rushing yards. Washington rookie runner, Antonio Gibson, was at 100 yards last week until he had negative yards on his final two carries at the end of the Washington win last Sunday.

We seem to be stuck in the movie Groundhog Day. That is the one where every day has the same ending when the main character falls asleep and wakes up to the same spot until he finally changes his fate with his love interest in the movie. The Washington Football Team has to find a direction and fall in love with winning. The last three losses were by 3 points or less and just seven points in total. Basically the difference of a missed Dustin Hopkins field goal or one fewer turnover seemed to be the difference. Maybe it was just one big play. One player needing to step up in one big point. This team is loaded with first round picks. Where are the playmakers?

After Kyle Allen suffered an ankle injury two weeks ago, head coach  Ron Rivera is sticking with Alex Smith as his starting quarterback again this week. He could have gone back to Dwayne Haskins as his starter, but chose not to after Smith’s big week last week in the loss to the Detroit Lions. Well, the Lions are not a good team or a good defense, so are we getting a false positive where the stats aren’t worth much — especially in a game that finished in another loss.

In a strange twist of fate that intertwines Chase Young of Washington who was the № 2 pick overall in the 2020 draft while the starting quarterback for the Bengals today, Joe Burrow, was the № 1, we learned on Friday that Washington would have picked Burrow if Cincinnati did not. Also in the intertwined parts at play here, Burrow transferred from Ohio State to LSU because Haskins was going to be Urban Meyer’s starter at Ohio State for the 2018 season.

It was a back to basics week for the Washington Football Team. They enter this game at 1-1 and a chance to show that week one was not a fluke. Head coach Ron Rivera must rebound after losing to the Arizona Cardinals on the road. It is clear that you cannot keep falling behind in first halves of games and expect to comeback from 17 point deficits. The offense has to get off to a fast start and 2019 first round pick, quarterback Dwayne Haskins, has to makes some big plays and keep his team moving down the field.

Last week Haskins was gifted great field position after a turnover and was in the red zone when he was hit and fumbled. The entire game momentum turned on that play. The WFT must control the turnover opportunities in their favor.

The Cleveland Browns are equally at 1-1 in the standings as they host this game at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. Shockingly to fans outside of the “Dawg Pound”, this week three game is Cleveland’s first chance to have a record above .500 since 2014. Their head coach Kevin Stefanski is looking to build upon their last Sunday as his quarterback, Baker Mayfield, has much to prove himself like Haskins.

The WFT defense must pressure Mayfield and not only sack him, but hurry him into some bad passes and get some interceptions. This game can certainly be won by a dominating defense, and the Washington Football Team has Chase Young who like Haskins played his college football in Ohio at Ohio State.