What a game from Taylor Heinicke and the Commanders. The Washington Commanders have pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year as they have beaten the Green Bay Packers 23-21.
The Commanders are such a strange team.
Only a week ago, they were struggling to get the ball past the 50-yard line against the Chicago Bears. This week, however, they put up 23 points on the reigning NFC North champions and kept the 2X reigning NFL MVP to only 194 passing yards. Can a team’s fortune get any more polarizing in the span of two weeks than that?
I’ve had a few doubts about the Washington defense in the past few weeks, and especially about their pass defense, but today they blew me away. They were outstanding as they managed to keep Aaron Rodgers to only throw 25/35, 194 yards, and 2 TDs. It’s tough to keep Rodgers from 350+ passing yards and a pair of 2 TDs, let alone keeping him to under 200 total yards of offense.
But that’s what they did.
Though, what was even more impressive was how domaining the Washington defensive front was against the Packers rushing game. Despite a key injury to franchise superstar Chase Young, the Washington defensive front line of Jonathan Allen, Montez Sweat, and Daeron Payne took up the responsibilities of Young and smothered the Packers running backs as they had 3 TFL, 1 QB Hit, and kept the Packers to a meager 38 rushing yards.
Not even Aaron Jones could get going against Washington as he finished the game 23 rushing yards.
As for the Washington offense, they were surprisingly competent.
Replacing an injured Carson Wentz, Taylor Heinicke was calm and composed under pressure (for the most part) as he consistently made the ‘right’ throw on crucial 3rd downs to keep Washington’s drives alive.
And, when the Commanders were in the redzone, he found his stars, Terry McLaurin (5 REC, 73 yards, 1 TD), Brian Robison Jr. (20 CAR, 73 rushing yards) and Antonio Gibson (10 CAR, 59 rushing yards; 3 REC, 18 receiving yards, 1 TD), to lead the Commanders back from being down 14-3 early on in the first half to win the game 23-21.
To be honest, I think the Commanders should just stick with Heinicke for the rest of the season. Even though Wentz is being paid a fortune and has been a warrior under center, the Commanders just seem to tick better with Heinicke as their leader. But, without getting into the weeds of a huge QB controversy, the Commanders fans should enjoy this victory. It’s not like they have many of those with Dan Synder as the head of this franchise.
As for the Packers, it’s time to ring the alarm bells.
The only thing exciting about the Packers was their ‘backyard football’, desperation laterals that hilariously ended with one of the Packers O-Linemen having the ball rifle though his legs to go out of bounds just before the endzone.
This team is dead on offense as Aaron Rodgers and his running back’s stats showed, while their defense was unable to keep the Commanders below 20 points. Sure, it’s a lot to ask for a defense every week to keep the opposing team to under 20 points, but that’s what they have to do to win when the Green Bay offense can’t even score more than two touchdowns against the Commanders.
The Packers need Odell Beckham Jr. FAST, or else they’ll struggle to get the 7th Wild Card spot as they are now 3-4.
Yeah, I said the 7th Wild Card spot. The Giants (6-1), the Cowboys (5-2), the LA Rams (3-3), the Seahawks (3-3), the Cardinals (3-4), the Falcons (3-4), and even the Commanders themselves (3-4) are in better or equal positions to the Packers.
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