Special Edition Friday Post-Mortem: Washington Defeats Chicago as the Spotlight was on the Owner's Box

Al Pacino told us that football is a game of inches, and the famous speech from Any Given Sunday rang true last night as the Washington Commanders defeated the Chicago Bears 12-7. Darnell Mooney came up just short of the goal line in front of the home crowd at Soldier Field as he bobbled the pass from Justin Fields on fourth down. The final play was indicative of the Bears franchise these past few years, sloppy and short of success. Although, those same words can be applied to their opponent as the second win for Washington this year came in spite of their owner coming under fire, once again. 

Thursday started with a new report from ESPN detailing the extremely complicated situation that surrounds Dan Snyder owning the Commanders and everyone around the NFL wanting him gone. The in-depth piece sounded more like the script to a new mafia movie than it did the inner workings of an NFL front office. The biggest takeaway was that Dan Snyder thinks he is untouchable because of the amount of dirt he has on other NFL owners as well as league commissioner Roger Goodell. This has been something fans have hinted at for years now considering how many times Snyder has come under fire for sexual harassment, fostering a toxic workplace, and alleged financial improprieties. Whether you believe what the report says or not isn’t important, what is important is that it is clear if Snyder is ever forced to sell the team he will go down swinging. The NFL might be king when it comes to American sports but the league certainly would rather avoid the PR meltdown that would follow multiple owners, and possibly a league commissioner, being publicly outed. 

While the entire sports world will debate the merits of the sources and speculate as to what the dirt is, I have decided to look at what I find most alarming in the article, Snyder’s insistence on being involved in personnel decisions. The article says that Snyder feels his miseries will disappear if he can get a marquee quarterback. So apparently his solution was to trade for Carson Wentz this past offseason. This is something so ludicrous that even an anonymous owner laughed at that idea, much like us fans did when the news hit Twitter this summer. There is perhaps no better sign that Snyder is out of touch than him thinking Carson Wentz was a marquee quarterback that could be the solution to all his problems. It reminds me of the scene from Arrested Development when Lucille Bluth says “it's one banana, what can it cost, $10?” 

Wentz, meanwhile, is on his third team in three years. What about that says “marquee quarterback”? Following last night’s win, head coach Ron Rivera went off in the postgame press conference insisting that Wentz was his idea. However, Ron is a consummate professional and has fallen on his sword for others before so I take those words with a massive grain of salt. Wentz finished the night 12/22 for 99 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. The biggest highlight he had all game was throwing a pancake block on Bears linebacker Roquon Smith near the goaline. That is far from a marquee performance. 

The biggest highlight for the team meanwhile was the winning touchdown being scored by rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr who is just 46 days removed from being shot twice in an attempted carjacking. The primetime game was the first start of his career as he toted the rock 17 times for 60 yards. Despite the rookie's heartwarming performance, the best halfback on Washington last night was Antonio Gibson. He averaged 7 yards a carry but only touched the ball a total of 8 times. It became clear that Gibson was on the outskirts when the team began interviewing running backs in the pre-draft process, but the reason for this remains as elusive as the search for a franchise quarterback. Gibson had over 1,300 yards last year and over a 1,000 the year before when he was a rookie. The college wide receiver has worked hard to transition to an NFL running back yet the regime that drafted him has worked harder to phase him out. It is another puzzling personnel decision in a long line of them that I have since lost track of. 

Regardless of all the offield distraction that engulfs this franchise, the Commanders secured the win. They did this despite having fewer first downs, a worse third down efficiency, fewer total yards, less time of possession, and committing more penalties. It is one of those wins that took place in spite of the box score, and perhaps in spite of the team's better interests. The difference between 1-5 and 2-4 is massive when it comes to future draft capital. There are 2 projected elite quarterbacks in the 2023 draft so if you want to improve your signal caller you have to be elite at being bad. Make no mistake, Washington has that skill, but this win hurt the team's future rather than helping it. 

I said on Monday’s post-mortem following the Titans loss that I was hoping the Commanders would lose this game. Once again the team let me down. I should have seen it coming.

‍