What did we learn about the Washington Commanders' new-look offense – with Sam Howell under center and Eric Bieniemy calling plays – in the Week 1 win over the Arizona Cardinals? The Washington Post's Sam Fortier joined Kevin Sheehan on Tuesday to discuss the two ways to look at the offense after Sunday's game.
"Basically the charitable way is to say, 'Hey, all the mistakes that we saw on Sunday - the sacks, some of the decision-making of Sam Howell – those are all fixable and Eric Bieniemy going to the run in the last four drives – in 17 plays he called 14 runs, including with about 4.5 minutes left going down to score a touchdown to pull away, but ultimately running three times and kicking the field goal – that was a byproduct of Eric Bieniemy adapting to the game flow, the [Washington] defense dominating to say, 'hey we just need three points here we don't need to throw it and risk turning the ball over again," Fortier told Sheehan.
"The uncharitable way," he continued, "is basically to say Ron Rivera has made huge bets on unknown quantities in Sam Howell and Eric Bieniemy and the offensive line and [Sunday] was a crack in the foundation and it's not going to work and Eric Bieniemy when he went run-heavy it wasn't game flow he doesn't trust the passing offense because the line and Sam Howell and the bad alchamey of not great blocking and Sam Howell holding onto the ball, those things are not going to work.
"So those are, really, quick summation of how you can look at the game from the offensive perspective."
When asked which way he is leaning, Fortier told Sheehan you have to lean toward the charitable view point and he has his reasons for that. To hear those reasons and the entire conversation which went much depper on the Commanders offense, listen on the audio player above.
