It almost seems like a bad dream now, all those years of suing fans, overpaying players, overcharging fans, changing coaches, tormenting fans and embarrassing literally everyone who wore burgundy and gold. The Washington football team has played so well this year, so deep into the season, that it’s tempting to simply forget that Daniel Snyder has reigned supreme for the entire quarter century.
So go ahead and do it. Draw a line from the Joe Gibbs-Mark Rypien-Art Monk Super Bowl era of the early 1990s to the Dan Quinn-Jayden Daniels-Terry McLaurin era of the mid-2020s, and stop talking about the Snyder era.
Washington will take on Philadelphia this weekend in a battle for what’s left of the NFC East crown. Granted, it’s anything but academic at this point: Washington (9-5) is three games behind Philadelphia (12-2) with three games remaining. But the Commanders are still playing for their positioning, holding off the Seahawks or Falcons and, if possible, avoiding the same Eagles or some NFC North best in the playoffs.
The Commanders beat New Orleans last week in a closer-than-it-should-have win, their second straight win after a three-game skid that could have derailed their season. Yes, the wins came over the Titans and Saints, not exactly the Lions and Vikings, but there are no style points in the NFL. And for a young team looking for both an identity and a playoff berth, you have to win the easy one.
Now on Washington’s path: the Eagles, who are doing everything they can to 1) erase the sting of last year’s skid and 2) any hint of discontent in the locker room. After some possibly media-amplified grumbling about the passing game a few weeks ago, Jalen Hurts threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns, and both AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith put up triple-digit receiving yardage totals. Combine that with Saquon Barkley’s MVP-level season on the floor, and you have a complete offense. Oh, and Philadelphia also happens to have the best defensive yards in the game, at just 275.6 per game.
Against Philadelphia, Washington was competitive; the last three games have been one-possession margins. But then Washington has lost all three of those games… and again, there are no second-place medals here.
“If you want to be seen as a heavy hitter, you have to beat them,” Quinn said earlier this week. “In the NFC East, Philadelphia has been the heavy hitter in the division so far this season.”
Philadelphia has a reliable recent record of postseason success. Washington, to put it politely, doesn’t. The franchise has reached the playoffs just five times this millennium and has won one (1) playoff game in that streak: a wild-card victory for the 2005 season over a Tampa Bay team quarterbacked by Chris Simms.
The energy that Daniels et. al. what we brought to Washington this season was remarkable and long overdue for Washington fans. Now fans of the 2020s no longer have to listen to old stories from their parents and grandparents; they can greet the commanders themselves without shame. Jayden Daniels’ jersey is among the best-selling in the NFL, and the league moved Washington’s Week 17 game against Atlanta to Sunday night so the entire country can see Daniels and his team in action. That’s respect.
If the Commanders win two of their final three games – ending in Philadelphia, at home against Atlanta and on the road against Dallas – they will finish with the most regular season wins since 1991. For those who can’t name all the games One of the Hogs The 1991 season was the last time Washington won the Super Bowl – and, not coincidentally, long before Snyder took over the team.
A Super Bowl, or even a berth to the NFC Championship, is a tall order for this still-developing Washington team. But the commanders are on an upward trajectory… and when was the last time you could say that about a Washington team?
