In other sports, it is often said that a eliminatory series does not really start until someone loses a home match.
It is then that you discover who you are: whether you are a team that prosperous on adversity or that collapses. You will discover if a team is designed to silence the skeptics or to justify them.
With the whole regular NFL season comprising only 17 games, you could say that a team’s season only begins after taking its first bad loss of all kinds.
For Washington commanders, the season is starting this weekend.
Commanders must display the right resolution to recover the campaign on the right track
Commanders enter their match against Las Vegas raiders in a far from ideal position. They were completely mistreated by the Green Bay packers on the road of week 2, despite the final margin ultimately in the end.
Worse still, the injuries have accumulated, leaving the ball carrier Austin Ekeler and the defensive Deatrich Wise Jr. for the season. The tight winger John Bates and the broader Noah Brown will not play in week 3. The most expensive of all, the quarter-Arrière Jayden Daniels will not be suitable due to a sprained knee.
Washington should always be the best team on paper. Raiders seemed nothing less than the last time the last time. They now play on the road, at short rest with the commanders having an entire and a half week to regroup. Even with Marcus Mariota at the center, this should be a comfortable victory.
Another setback here, or even an unconvincing victory, and the commanders’ campaign could quickly become uncontrollable.
There would still be a lot of time to straighten the ship, but you will never want to dig into a hole so early. Losses from teams you have no business that loses that you will always come back to hurt. Worse, the sound of the peanut gallery would be stronger than ever.
Large teams do not make life more difficult on themselves than it should be. Last season, the commanders did everything in this regard. They won the matches they should have won, and even steal some that they probably shouldn’t have. Whenever they encountered a reality verification, they answered exactly how they needed it.
Calonne this to the direction of the head coach Dan Quinn, as well as the transcendent balance of Daniels on the ground. But now Washington will be without its franchise signaleur for this crucial decisive test. For coach staff, it is much easier to have a team that plays motivated when expectations are low.
Expectations are no longer weak.
A defeat against a team like packers is considered a missed opportunity. Another at the raids would simply be brutal. This scenario must be avoided, but only if the appropriate adjustments have been made physically and mentally in the last 10 days.
It’s time to find out who the commanders are.
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