Through three weeks, the Commanders are 2-1. In the team’s first two games — wins over the Cardinals and Broncos — the team’s offense performed admirably with young quarterback Sam Howell at the helm.
But Washington laid an egg last week against the Bills, scoring just three points and turning the ball over five times.
“My job is to make sure we’re doing everything to help us to drag our ass across the finish line,” offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said in his Thursday press conference. “Obviously, I ain’t do a great job — whether we threw the ball or whether we ran it. Obviously, we didn’t do enough.
“So, my job is to make sure that, you know what? That doesn’t happen again. My job is to clean up the shit and we continue moving forward.”
Howell has completed 66 percent of his passes for 671 yards with three touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s also taking sacks at a historic rate with 19 through the first three games — including nine in the loss to Buffalo.
“When it’s all said and done with, we’ve got a young quarterback. Still, our job is to make sure we’re continuing to grow,” Bieniemy said. “Now, there were some spurts, he did a hell of a job. Then there were some opportunities [where] we didn’t do such a great job.
“But that’s the thing, when you’re a team going through a season, you’re going to have your highs and you’re going to have your lows. This is when you find out who you are. This is when the resiliency has to pick up.”
Howell’s best game so far this season was against the Broncos, when he completed 27-of-39 passes for 299 yards with a pair of touchdowns and no picks. The Commanders play the Eagles this weekend, and Philadelphia’s defense is clearly significantly better than Denver’s unit. But Howell must play more like he did in Week 2 for the Commanders to have the best chance to win.
