It almost seems like a bad dream now, all those years of suing fans, overpaying players, overcharging fans, swapping out coaches, tormenting fans and embarrassing literally everyone who sported burgundy and gold. This year’s Washington football team has played so well, for so deep into the season, that it’s tempting to just forget the entire quarter-century reign of Daniel Snyder ever happened.
So, go ahead and do it. Draw a line from the Joe Gibbs-Mark Rypien-Art Monk Super Bowl era of the early ‘90s right to the Dan Quinn-Jayden Daniels-Terry McLaurin era of the mid-2020s, and speak of the Snyder Era no more.
Washington takes on Philadelphia this weekend in a battle for what’s left of the NFC East crown. Granted, it’s all but academic at this point — Washington (9-5) is three games behind Philadelphia (12-2) with three games left to play. But the Commanders are still playing for positioning, holding off the Seahawks or Falcons and avoiding these same Eagles or some NFC North best in the playoffs if at all possible.
The Commanders held on to beat New Orleans in a closer-than-it-should-have-been victory last week, 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 seeking both an identity and a playoff berth, you’ve got to win the easy ones.
Now in Washington’s path: the Eagles, who are doing everything they can to erase 1) the sting of last year’s skid and 2) any hint of locker room discontent. After some possibly-media-enhanced grousing about the passing game a couple weeks back, Jalen Hurts threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns, and both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith reeled in triple-digit receiving yardage totals. Combine that with Saquon Barkley’s MVP-level season on the ground, and you have yourself a complete offense. Oh, and Philadelphia just happens to have the game’s best defense yardage-wise, too, allowing just 275.6 per game.
Against Philadelphia, Washington has been 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 medals for second place here.
“If you want to be seen as a heavy hitter, you got to beat them,” Quinn said earlier this week. “In the NFC East, Philadelphia has been the heavy hitters so far this season in the division.”
Philadelphia has a reliable recent record of postseason success. Washington, to put it politely, does not. The franchise has reached the playoffs just five times in this millennium, and has won all of one (1) playoff game in that run — a 2005-season wild-card victory over a Tampa Bay team quarterbacked by Chris Simms.
The energy that Daniels et. al. have brought to Washington this season has been remarkable and, for Washington fans, long overdue. Now, 2020s fans don’t have to listen to tales of old from their parents and grandparents; they can Hail the Commanders themselves without embarrassment. Jayden Daniels’ jersey is among the best-selling in the NFL, and the league flexed Washington’s Week 17 game against Atlanta to Sunday evening, so the entire country can see Daniels and crew in action. That’s respect.
If the Commanders win two of their final three games — they finish with Philadelphia, at home against Atlanta and on the road against Dallas — they’ll finish with their highest regular-season win total since 1991. For those who can’t name every single one of the Hogs, the 1991 season was the last time Washington won the Super Bowl — and, not coincidentally, was long before Snyder took over the team.
A Super Bowl, or even an NFC championship berth, is a tall order for this still-developing Washington team. But the Commanders are on an upward trajectory … and when’s the last time you could say that about a Washington team?