Kevin Sheehan: Commanders embrace struggle to build identity, but 'defense was an absolute trainwreck'

The hope for the Commanders in their first game of the Jayden Daniels era on offense and Dan Quinn era on defense was to see some good improvements from last year. That didn't happen in Washington's 37-20 loss at the hands of Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"Washington's opener in Tampa did not go well. That would be the understatement of the day," Kevin Sheehan said to begin Monday morning's look back at Week 1.

"That was one-sided across the board, but especially when it came to Tampa's offense vs. Washington's defense," Sheehan continued. "That part of the game can only be described as an all-encompassing beat down. It started early, it got worse in the middle and by the end it was almost unfair.

"Tampa's offense had much better players than Washington did on defense. And the Bucs' coaches seemed much more prepared than Dan Quinn and his staff were."

In the first half, the Bucs led 16-7, with nearly a 2:1 time of possession ratio behind 205 yards of total offense and converting 5 of 8 third down opportunities, holding them to three field goals, but Tampa scored on all four of their drives. In the second half, the Commanders forced one punt but allowed touchdowns on the other three drives of 54, 72 and 91 yards, the last score put Washington down 23 points with 3:29 to play in the fourth.

"More than anything other thing that happened," Sheehan continued, "Washington's defense was the most significant culprit in the game. The No. 1 reason they got dismantled the way they did in the season opener."

And the defense's struggles were Sheehan's top takeaway from the game: "The defense was an absolute trainwreck. I was shocked by how bad it was. It could have easily been a game from last year. The team overall was bad – they were outmanned, they were outplayed, they were outcoached – but I was really disappointed and very surprised honestly by how bad the defense was in that game."

He added that the personnel changes, scheme changes and staff changes, "would make a big difference right away. And right away might mean next week or the week after."

Bucs WRs Chris Godwin and Mike Evans were targeted 14 times and had 13 receptions for 144 yards and three touchdowns.

"Forget about the personnel matchups, then you throw on to it the confusion," Sheehan said about Washington's secondary's inability to check Tampa's receivers. "And perhaps even on the sideline and even up front. It was a mess."

Having said that, Week 1 in the NFL is "the biggest head fake" week of all. Sheehan said he won't be making any big conclusions about the team from this small sample size and from this week, which so often puts up confounding results when examined through the lens of hindsight.

Of course, Sheehan counters with this nugget: Ron Rivera went 3-1 in season openers during his time in Washington. "How did that work out for him?"

Sheehan pointed to something Quinn said after the game: "You need to struggle to see the identity develop. You don't want it, but you do need it. And that part is hard and that struggle happened tonight."

That is similar to what Quinn told Sheehan three weeks ago about how long it takes for a team to find an identity: "I'd say it's probably halfway through before you really have your team's identity for this season," the head coach said Aug 22. "You've been in some fights, you know who's gonna come through in these big moments. It takes more than a quarter of the season for your identity to take shape."

With his glass half full, Sheehan believes it "will all play out much better than the way it started yesterday."

Overall, Sheehan added, Quinn told Washington fans with his quote that, "It's gonna take some time."

"Yesterday wasn't necessarily a wake-up call for them," he said. "as much as it was a bit of a current reality check on their identity development."
And no, Sheehan said, "I'm not changing my 10-7 prediction after one game."