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Giants (0-1) Washington (0-1)
Washington lost its first game of the season
against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 37-20. Two missed field goals by the Commanders
were followed by the Bucs scoring touchdowns on the following drives.
The Giants
also lost their season opener to the Minnesota Vikings 28-6. They scored the first
points of the game with a field goal, but after that scored only once more with
another field goal. Washington
Commanders
Dan Snyder was the owner of the
Washington team for 24 years. In 1999, his first as owner, the team moved up from
4th place to 1st in the NFC East division. In 2023 Josh Harris, who was born in
Maryland, and is also a managing partner for the NHL's New Jersey Devils and NBA's
Philadelphia 76ers, took over the ownership role. Matters were settled too late
for him to make any changes in his first year, and the Commanders finished with
a 4-13 record.
Changes have now been made, and the Commanders started off this
year with a new General Manager, Adam Peters. Former Cowboys defensive coordinator
Dan Quinn replaced Ron Rivera as the head coach. Kliff Kingsbury, a former head
coach for Arizona, replaced offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. Joe Whitt Jr.
who has coached with the Packers, Falcons and Cowboys is now the defensive coordinator.
The Commanders also have a new starting quarterback. Their poor record allotted
them the second overall draft selection, and they selected Jayden Daniels.
Washington
Commanders Offense
Quarterback
Sam Howell was drafted by the Commanders in 2022. Last year he was the starter,
throwing for almost 4000 yards and 21 touchdowns. Howell also threw 21 interceptions
and took 65 sacks, both of which were the most for any quarterback in the NFL.
Howell was traded to the Seattle Seahawks, and Jayden Daniels was chosen by the
Commanders to work under the guidance of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury,
a former quarterback as well.
In his rookie start last week Daniels showed
his skills, completing 70.8 percent of his passes for 184 yards, and he ran for
88 yards and 2 touchdowns. He was a little sloppy with the ball, but all three
of his fumbles were recovered by his teammates. They would like to see Daniels
throw more than the 24 passes he did, and cut down on the running, but the 16
runs he had resulted in 8 first downs and 2 touchdowns.
Lead running back Brian
Robinson Jr. carried the ball 12 times for 40 yards and one touchdown, and Austin
Ekeler had only two opportunities to run the ball for 10 yards. With Daniels throwing
mostly short passes, those two running backs were the lead receivers, and tight
end Zach Ertz was next. Rookie Luke McCaffrey led the wide receiver group catching
all three passes, but his average of 6 yards a catch was less than the other three
we mentioned. Veteran Terry McLaurin has caught over 1000 yards in his last four
years with Washington, but the connection wasn't there with Daniels. McLaurin
caught only two of the four passes that came his way for 17 yards. Washington
Commanders Defense
They
had a lot to work on this offseason. Last year the Commanders had the worst defense
in the NFL. They were 32nd against the pass, and 27th against the run. The team
finished last in points allowed, giving up an average of 30.5 points a game. You
can't judge by one game, but they started off this year giving up 37 points, the
second most in the league last week. The defense didn't help their efforts to
move up from last year's near the bottom rankings in sacks or interceptions. There
were no interceptions against Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield, who threw
4 touchdowns averaging over 12 yards a completion, though they did sack him once.
Tampa Bay was a poor rushing team last year, even though Rachaad White ran
for a near 1000 yards. The Commanders focused on his running and did a nice job,
but White made up for that catching all 6 passes from Mayfield for 75 yards. Rookie
Bucky Irving, playing in his first game, is
the one who burned them, rushing for 62 yards on 9 carries. Jonathan Allen and
Daron Payne are the Commanders top pass rushing interior linemen.
They selected
Johnny Newton in the second round of the draft to assist them, but he is questionable
for this game. The Commanders also added Clelin Ferrell and Dorance Armstrong,
but neither were starters on their teams. Veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner from
Seattle, led the team in tackles last week, and his 12 years of experience should
help the team, as well as Frankie Luvu from Carolina. The Commanders secondary
is not strong and they picked up cornerback Mike Sainristil in the second round
of the draft, and added safety Jeremy Chinn from Carolina. Two good moves to help
their efforts. Giants Offense
Hopes
were high for the Giants offense heading into the season. Daniel Jones was back
healthy, and they added skilled players to the offensive line. The Giants also
selected wide receiver Malik Nabers with the sixth overall pick of the draft.
They did lose Saquon Barkley, but felt comfortable picking up Devin Singletary
to be the lead running back, using a committee approach with newly drafted Tyrone
Tracy Jr. and Eric Gray. Well, Daniel Jones first pass of the season was to Singletary
for a 6 yard loss, and that was a prelude to how the rest of the day was set to
go. In the first half Jones ended up completing only 8 of his 16 passes for 55
yards, and he was sacked twice.
By the end of the half, Jones had run or scrambled
5 times for 14 yards, and the 'Singletary committee' came up with 22 yards on
7 carries. The offense scored only 3 points on a field goal, after the defense
provided them the ball at the Vikings 20 yard line on a turnover. Things didn't
improve much for the rest of the game and they scored just one more field goal.
Overall, the offense looked lost and lackluster
with some of their actions on the field. Jones was hesitant, walked into some
sacks, and had some poor throws. That was coupled with what looked to be five
drops by his receivers.
Jones finished up the day completing 22 of 42 passes
for 186 yards and had 2 interceptions. One of them was a pick-6, and the other
was intercepted in the end zone, which ruined a scoring opportunity. The Vikings
sacked Jones 5 times, and if you multiply that out by the remaining games, the
Giants are on track to once again take 85 sacks, which last year was 20 more than
the next worst team, and was the second most sacks allowed in NFL history.
The
Giants hope to have things straightened out this week, and they won't be up against
a Vikings defense run by defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who knows how to
confuse opposing offenses. Jones obviously has to play better in his role. The
offensive line gave Jones better pass protection than he had last year, though
they could provide some better run blocking. Washington had some poor coverage
on short passes, and the Giants should take advantage of that. That's good for
Singletary, and you'd like to see the ball thrown more than one time to tight
end Daniel Bellinger. Wan'Dale Robinson will benefit from that as well.
Off
to a good start, in his first game, Nabers caught 5 of 7 passes thrown his way
for 66 yards. He was on the injury report earlier this week, and is off that now.
Giants Defense
Last
week they couldn't get to quarterback Sam Darnold, who completed 13 of his 14
passes in the first half for 151 yards and 1 touchdown. The pass rush involving
Dexter Lawrence, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Brian Burns didn't materialize. Things
looked good when Lawrence sacked Darnold on his second play of the game, but there
were no more after that. The Giants knew that their secondary was a weak spot,
and without the expected pass rush, Darnold had his day. In the first half, running
back Aaron Jones had just 5 carries including a three yard touchdown run. He was
used more after that and finished up averaging 6.7 yards on his 14 carries.
Penalties
hurt and the Vikings scoring drive at the very start of the second half wouldn't
have happened, except for Thibodeaux's facemask penalty. To the credit of the
defense, Darnold's group scored no more points for the rest of the game. The Vikings
following drive was 3-and-out, and Darnold was intercepted on the third play of
the next one. The Vikings had 6 plays for 22 yards, and 7 plays for 31 yards after
that.
This week they face a much less experienced quarterback in rookie Jayden
Daniels. Like most quarterbacks starting out and getting used to the speed in
the NFL, he was quick to check down or take off running when in doubt. Only 7
passes were completed to his wide receivers, so the Giants secondary might have
an easier task this week. Up front though, they will have to adjust to Daniels
rushing skills. After seeing how things went last week, the Commanders game plan
might have running back Brian Robinson Jr. being more involved to take some pressure
off their rookie quarterback. Overall
Both these teams stepped onto the field last
week and played what every football fan would hope to be their worst games of
the season. Washington gave up the second most points in the NFL, and the Giants
scored the least. As we stated, the Giants defense got its act together in the
second half last week and things should be easier this time out. If the offensive
unit can get its footing together (mostly Daniel Jones), they should be able to
put points up on the board. The Giants could show they shouldn't have been the
underdogs for this game. NFC
East Games
Sunday at 1:00pm Giants (0-1)
at Commanders (0-1)
Sunday at 1:00pm Saints (1-0) at Cowboys (1-0)
Monday
at 8:15pm Falcons (0-1) at Eagles (1-0)
The Commanders, Cowboys and Eagles
are the NFC East teams favored to win in these games.
Check out.
Giants
On The Air. Listen to the Radio Broadcasts.
TeamGiants on Twitter.
Next Games
Sept
22 Giants at Cleveland
Sept 26 Cowboys at Giants
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