Many Washington supporters anticipated that 2023 would be a difficult season with fewer victories than defeats, but none of them are claiming to have been right when they predicted this because none actually thought it would happen.
The overall expectation was that Washington would be led by its defense while young Sam Howell worked his way through the process of becoming an NFL quarterback under the tutelage of his creative new offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy. The team would, as it had in 2022, field a defensive squad that would make it tough for opposing offenses to regularly score over 20 points in a game, and that would allow EB and Sam Howell to take advantage of an easy early-season lineup of opponents. After all, the team had been .500 in 2022 with Carson Wentz, Taylor Heinicke and Scott Turner putting up 18.9 points per game. With a beefed up defense and the long-time Chiefs OC, the 2023 team would have to be competitive nearly every week, right?
It hasn’t worked out that way.
There’s been a slight uptick in the team’s offensive scoring, from 18.9 ppg to 20.1 ppg, but defensively, the Commanders are giving up a league-worst 30.4 points per game (last year it was 20.2). The next-worst defense in the NLF is currently giving up 26.1 ppg, so it’s really really bad.
And it’s getting worse. Over the final three games before this week’s merciful bye week, opposing offenses averaged 40.3 ppg, and last Sunday, the Dolphins put up 45 points as a team, even though they actually put their collective foot on the brake late in the 4th quarter, sitting starters and running the ball between the tackles in an effort to simply end the game and go home.
At this point, Commanders fans have seen enough — or too much.
There’s no question about the fate of Ron Rivera at this point. There are strong indications that many of the other people that comprise both the football side and the business side of the organization will join Ron Rivera as former-Washington employees early in 2024.
The disorganized mess we saw on the field week after week was easy to pin on the coaches, but as the losses, butt whippings, and blowouts have piled up, players have sounded increasingly frustrated with the situation, and fans have sounded increasingly frustrated with the players. Perhaps the fan base wants to see more ‘blood on the floor’ than just front office staff and coaches. Despite lots of talk prior to the season about a generally good roster with some obvious holes at OL and LB, many fans sppear now to have lost faith not only in the coaches and front office, but in the players themselves.
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