The Washington Commanders are close, but are they able to close the gap in coming weeks?
The Pittsburgh Steelers edged Washington 28-27 Sunday, as the latter finished one offensive yard and a defensive mistake short. The Commanders should have won, but winning takes time for an organization to truly grasp. Pittsburgh knows that. So did Baltimore last month when defeating Washington.
If you want to join the elite, you gotta bridge those tiny gaps.
“I’d hope the missed opportunities would be the lesson to apply,” Washington coach Dan Quinn said. “I love we were in this kind of fight. These are the ones you need to build resilience and resolves. . . . Measurement? I knew this would be a tough game. . . . The missed opportunities sting the most.”
Now Washington (7-3) visits Philadelphia on Thursday, and while it’s not a must-win, the reality is if the Commanders lose, they’re likely a wild-card team instead of the NFC East champion. Washington is definitely good enough and has enough of a soft schedule to win at least 10 games, but the difference between that and Super Bowl contender are apparent.
Washington missing injured running back Brian Robinson and newly-acquired cornerback Marshon Lattimore showed deeply. The Commanders barely moved the ball on the ground with 60 yards despite three short touchdowns. Maybe Robinson could have carried the load better.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh’s winning touchdown came over beleaguered cornerback Benjamin St-Juste, whose role covering the opponent’s top receiver will be changed once Lattimore is ready. Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson threw a beautiful 32 yarder to Mike Williams over St-Juste with 2:22 remaining for the lead. Maybe Lattimore wouldn’t have stopped it, but that’s what he’s being paid to do. St-Juste is really a cog in the secondary, not its stopper.
Overall, Washington gave one of its better efforts of the season, despite losing for the first time at home before a partisan Steelers crowd. In past years, it was 90 percent visiting fans. This time, the Steelers brought 60 percent of the crowd waving the yellow Terrible Towels, so the Commanders are making inroads. Either way, it was a raucous atmosphere with no one leaving until the Commanders blew a fourth-down defensive stop in the final moments.
This is how winning is made. One step, not one leap forward in all aspects.
Quarterback Jayden Daniels was denied one more theatrical late win when defensive tackle Johnny Newton jumped offside on the Steelers’ fourth-and-one. Maybe Hail Mary would have been still full of grace. We’ll never know.
But once again Daniels displayed confidence despite receivers dropping too many big plays, including a touchdown by Dyami Brown. Noah Brown mixed big plays and costly drops, and tight end Zach Ertz was one yard short on the final route of a potential game-winning drive.
Little things add up to costly lessons. Washington is a very good team. The Commanders just need to cross over to great. And, that takes time.