Commanders links
A to Z Sports
The Washington Commanders had one bright spot in blowout loss to Lions that shouldn’t be ignored
One of the biggest matchups for the Commanders was making sure Lions’ star defender Aidan Hutchinson stayed out of the backfield, which nobody has been able to do this season. Veteran left tackle Laremy Tunsil has been dominant all season, while rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. has had a roller coaster season as expected. This was a matchup for both of them to show their ceiling, and that’s what they did.
Tunsil had a clean stat sheet, while Conerly Jr. only allowed one hit and one pressure all game. Hutchinson had his worst game of the season against the Commanders with only two pressures, one hit, and zero sacks.
Even after the Week 10 slate of games, Hutchinson still leads the league in pressures with 57, and it just shows how impressive Tunsil and Conerly Jr. were on Sunday. The Commanders need every draft pick to hit, so Conerly Jr. showing he can be a franchise piece is huge. The same can be said for Tunsil after general manager Adam Peters traded away multiple picks to the Houston Texans, and he’s been worth it every week.
A to Z Sports
Daron Payne posted proof that the NFL got it wrong when it comes to his incident with Amon-Ra St.Brown
Daron Payne wasn’t going to let his suspension slide without posting receipts.
Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne was thrown out of the game in the second quarter after tempers started to flare between teams, and he threw a right hook that hit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St.Brown square in the helmet. That incident had an even bigger impact once the NFL decided to suspend Payne for the next game against the Miami Dolphins.
Payne brought the receipts, though, and he showed that the NFL messed up and the full story was never shown, until now, that is.
Daron Payne posted a video showing Amon-Ra St.Brown throwing the first punch
We saw Payne get ejected from the game, but we never saw what happened on the field until the broadcast went back and showed what happened. St.Brown came over to Payne after a touchdown to go up 20-3, and started talking, which led to Payne throwing a right hook. That wasn’t the full story, though, as Payne was retaliating for a punch that St.Brown threw a few plays before. Payne took the play and posted it on his Instagram story.
Payne appealed the NFL’s decision to suspend him for one game, which he ended up losing, and he wasn’t allowed to travel with the team to Madrid, Spain. Nothing happened with St.Brown during and after the game, and that’s not right.
The Payne ejection was clearly a big topic in the locker room after the game, and Javon Kinlaw said that the refs got it all wrong and the ejection was one-sided.
Kinlaw is right, though; it is what it is, and it’s over now, but the NFL got it wrong. Payne for sure should’ve been ejected and suspended, but for nothing to happen to St.Brown is crazy, especially after they went through an appeal and very likely saw the replay of everything.
Mike Sainristil : Registers eight tackles in Week 10
Sainristil ended Sunday’s loss to the Lions with eight tackles (three solo). Sainristil finished third among Washington defenders in tackles. His eight stops were the second-most he’s totaled in a game this season. Sainristil has recorded 49 tackles and seven defensed passes (including three interceptions) through 10 contests on the campaign.
Commanders.com
Hail Mail | Young players, defensive schemes and Christmas wish lists
@skinsfan_1981: In a lost season, will the younger players that will be here next yr and beyond get more snaps to evaluate going forward?
[T]here aren’t many young players who aren’t already getting serious snaps. Let’s break this down:
Jayden Daniels: obviously the starter when healthy
Jer’Zhan Newton: the most likely candidate for at least this week since Daron Payne was suspended for one game
Mike Sainristil: already a starter
Ben Sinnott: another possible option, although I don’t foresee him getting the start over Zach Ertz, at least until they are officially eliminated from contention
Brandon Coleman: Again, I’m not sure when he could get more snaps. Maybe in the last few games if they’re officially eliminated
Luke McCaffrey: he showed impressive growth this season before breaking his collarbone. I’ll be interested to see what he does in Year 3
Jordan Magee: he’s already getting more snaps, although perhaps his role changes if they are officially eliminated in the final few games
Javontae Jean-Baptiste: he’s on IR
Josh Conerly: he’s a starter
Trey Amos: he broke his fibula and will be out for a while, perhaps even the rest of the season
Jaylin Lane: already getting more snaps thanks to the injuries at receiver and has shown flashes
Kain Medrano: another likely candidate, as he’s been a healthy scratch more often than not this year. We’ll see if that changes for the rest of the season
Jacory Croskey-Merritt: a key piece of the running back rotation
So, if my math is correct, Medrano, Sinnott and Newton are the only players who could have larger roles for the rest of the season.
Washington Post (paywall)
With defense dissolving, Dan Quinn takes over play-calling from Joe Whitt Jr.
During the team’s five-game losing streak, the defense has allowed 35.8 points per game. For the season, Washington is 29th in scoring defense and 31st in yards allowed per play.
Quinn and Whitt have worked together since 2020, when Whitt was the pass game coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons during Quinn’s final season there as coach. They worked together on the defensive staff in Dallas from 2021 to 2023, with Quinn as defensive coordinator and Whitt as pass game coordinator and secondary coach.
Quinn called defensive plays from the press box when he was with the Cowboys, but he will do so from the sideline with the Commanders, given his other responsibilities. Moving forward, Whitt will assist Quinn in game-planning throughout the week. On game days, he will sit in the press box and be the primary communicator with Quinn.
Quinn previously had been reluctant to strip Whitt of his play-calling responsibilities. The continuation of poor results changed his thinking.
“It was a tough decision,” Quinn said. “I’m hopeful that we’ll see the execution and consistency that we’re searching for.”
Pro Football Talk
On Sunday, Commanders defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw apparently was saved from an ejection because of teammate Daron Payne’s ejection.
The George McFly-style roundhouse punch to Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown got Payne disqualified, and then suspended. After the very next play, a two-point conversion attempt after a Detroit touchdown, Kinlaw made contact with umpire Brandon Cruse. Kinlaw was flagged but not kicked out of the game.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the officials did not want to eject a player on consecutive plays.
Of course, that shouldn’t matter. If a player does something for which he should be ejected, he should be ejected. That fact that someone else was properly ejected one play earlier is irrelvant.
Podcasts & videos
Dan Quinn Takes Over Defense, Demotes Joe Whitt Jr.; Payne Suspension Upheld
NFC East links
Bleeding Green Nation
Winning ugly is winning. And last night, the Eagles won an important football game against one of the NFC’s best teams, on the road, in dramatic fashion.
Normally that sentence would be cause for the city of Philadelphia to rejoice. Their 10-7 victory over the Packers (5-3-1) in Green Bay was huge for their playoff positioning, further solidifying the Birds’ (7-2) place atop the NFC playoff seeding. Going into hostile territory in prime time and pulling out a victory, backed by a ridiculous effort from the defense, should result in celebration.
And while Eagles fans are happy to come away with a victory, everyone is frustrated.
Once again, one of the most expensive offenses in the NFL played like they were the Jacksonville Jaguars for all but two series last night. Yes, the Packers have a good defense, and if this were a one-week aberration, one could chalk it up to an old-fashioned defensive struggle between two stout units. But that’s not the reality.
There is literally no excuse for them to have just 13 first downs last night, or 111 rushing yards, or 183 net passing yards, or to go 7-for-16 on third down conversions. There’s no excuse for them to be 20th in success rate, 11th in EPA per play and 12th in total EPA through nine games.
There is no excuse for last year’s 2,000-yard runner, Barkley, to have just 60 yards on 22 carries, or for A.J. Brown to be targeted just THREE TIMES in the entire game. How does that happen?
Blogging the Boys
Cowboys activate DeMarvion Overshown from PUP, Shavon Revel from NFI
On Tuesday, DeMarvion Overshown was activated from the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. At the same time, rookie Shavon Revel was activated from the non football injury (NFI) list. While that doesn’t necessarily guarantee either will suit up in Las Vegas, it does represent both players clearing massive hurdles in their path to the field.
Overshown was having a breakout year last year for the Cowboys, rapidly rising to stardom. However, his season was cut short due to a gruesome knee injury that tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL. Initial timelines for Overshown were that he may not even play this year, but the athletic linebacker has progressed way ahead of schedule and could be making his season debut very soon.
Big Blue View
Should New York Giants GM Joe Schoen be fired, too?
As the New York Giants struggled through the past couple of years, fans wondered if GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll were a package deal. Could Giants’ ownership fire one and keep the other?
That question was clearly answered on Monday when the Giants fired Daboll and announced that Schoen, who hired Daboll in 2022, would lead the search for the next head coach.
But, wait. Ian O’Connor of The Athletic has now charged head-long into the discussion with a report that is sure to stoke the debate over whether or not the GM who hired the deposed coach and has overseen a 20-40-1 (.336 winning percentage) team over three-plus seasons actually deserves to stick around.
Schoen will not make the decision. He will not hire the coach. That will be John Mara and Steve Tisch.
I also absolutely believe that Mara’s battle with cancer is a big reason why the Giants announced quickly that Schoen would lead the search for a successor to Daboll. Mara may simply not be physically up to the task of doing all of the initial groundwork to find out who might, and might not, be interested in the job.
Do I also believe that the Giants could end up with their own version of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Trent Baalke situation? These are the Giants. After everything that has happened with this franchise since they silenced the New England Patriots for the second time in the 2011 Super Bowl, I will believe that just about anything is possible.
Upcoming opponent
The Phinsider
How should Dolphins fans view Tua?
I would like to make one thing clear. Along with the majority of the fans on this site I agree that the Tua experiment has failed. Fans might disagree on the reasons for the failure. It might have been the inability of the team to build an offensive line or it might have been that Tua simply does not have the body to play football at an NFL level. I suspect it was a combination of both, but whatever the reason it is time for both Tua and the team to move on.
NFL league links
Jaguars WR/CB Travis Hunter undergoes season-ending knee surgery
The No. 2 overall pick underwent season-ending knee surgery to repair his LCL, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported on Tuesday, per sources informed of the procedure.
There was no additional damage to the injured knee, and Hunter is expected to return to football activities within six months, Rapoport added.
The team later confirmed the news.
Hunter spent most of his time on offense, where he played 305 snaps, generating 28 catches on 45 targets for 298 yards with one touchdown. He played 156 defensive snaps, earning three pass breakups and 15 tackles.
Before the practice injury, Hunter was coming off the most prolific game of his rookie season, putting up 101 yards and a touchdown on eight catches in a Week 7 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
It’s a disaster scenario for the Jags, who initially hoped that the knee injury suffered in practice two weeks ago would be a short-term issue. Hunter was placed on injured reserve, ruling him out for at least four contests. Instead, his rookie campaign is over after just seven games.
aBit o’Twitter