Big Blue View
How different might these two teams look?
The New York Giants face the Washington Commanders on Sunday for the second time this season. The teams have gone in opposite directions as the 6-2 Commanders lead the division with the 2-6 Giants at the bottom.
This week’s ‘5 questions’ segment with ‘Hogs Haven’ is answered ‘ Eboracum.’
Eboracum: Assuming good injury luck, the Giants are probably 6-2 or 5-3, having lost to the Vikings in week 1 and lost to one or two of the Bengals, Eagles, or Steelers. The Giants would be discussed as division contenders, though they probably wouldn’t be at a level to compete with the Lions for the NFC Championship this year. Even without Malik Nabers, Jayden would elevate the players around him on the Giants offense and the talent on the entire offense would look much better than it does now.
The Commanders would probably be 4-4 or so, having lost three straight to start the season, but turning things around against the Cardinals and continuing to beat out bad teams like the Browns and Panthers. This part of the answer has a bit more variability, because a lot would depend on our veteran QB, since I don’t think Maye would have started for us Week 1 and it’s fair to question when he would start, given that I don’t think the Patriots intended to start him by now and only did so out of desperation. Mariota looked really good in his play against the Panthers, but the Panthers are cooked and we don’t know how well he’d play against better defenses. However, I think this Washington team would continue to look very well coached and get better as the season wears on, with players on both sides of the ball playing above the level we expected based on talent. Overall, fans would still be relatively happy and looking forward to an even better team next year.
Eboracum: It was a magical moment and I think it’s not an exaggeration to say Commanders (and Bears) fans will remember it for the rest of our lives. In retrospect, one of the things I liked so much about it was how well it was executed. Not only did Jayden Daniels do his normal great job of buying loads of time (12.79 seconds!) in the pocket for his guys to get in place, but the pass catchers in the endzone were perfectly positioned and spaced out to get the ball. There was still chance involved, but the players did everything they could to make the most of that chance.
