In this week’s Reacts survey, we focused on two topics: Commanders fan confidence and fixing the right side of the offensive line.
Washington fans enjoyed some of the highest levels of confidence in the NFL for the first two weeks of the season according to SB Nation’s Reacts surveys.
The ugly loss to the Packers on Thursday Night Football, with its attendant long list of injuries to key players, eroded that confidence quite significantly.
Prior to that game, confidence among those responding to the Hogs Haven survey stood at 98%. This week, it has fallen to 71%.
In answer to our other confidence-related question, only 3% of respondents this week said that they feel better about the team now than they did just before the season; 97% said they feel about the same or worse than they did before the season opening game against the Giants.
With a 1-1 record, comprising two games in which the offense has looked out-of-sorts, and with a gimpy quarterback, two starters out for the season, and several other key players questionable for the Week 3 game against the Raiders, this drop in confidence is no surprise.
More concerning might be the fact that the Commanders staff appeared to be badly out-coached by the Green Bay coaching staff. Washington looked un-prepared for the game and never seemed to make any effective adjustments to the game plan when things got off to a rocky start.
While it may feel as if the season is in danger of unraveling, thing could be worse. Take a look, for example, at the poll results from fans of the Cowboys and Giants.
While more than half of New York fans still express confidence in the direction of their team, as a group, they have a rather gloomy view of what awaits them in 2025, with 88% of them predicting that the team will win six or fewer games this season.
When it comes to Dallas, despite a record of 1-1 and a favorable Week 3 matchup against the Chicago Bears, only 38% of Cowboys fans expressed confidence in the direction of their favorite team. This isn’t really new; Dallas fans’ confidence was at just 35% ahead of the first game of the season, weighed down, no doubt, by the trade of Micah Parsons to Green Bay just days before the poll. Watching Parsons tear through the Commanders offensive line on Thursday night must’ve been almost as painful for Cowboys supporters as it was for Commanders fans.
Washington’s Offensive line
Speaking of that offensive line getting ripped up by the Packers, in our survey this week, we asked what the solution is to the issues that are currently plaguing the right side of the offensive line.
Consider what was written about Washington’s right guard and right tackle in this week’s Stats & Snaps article:
RG Nick Allegretti gave up 6 total pressures, including a sack and a QB hit (10.7% Pressure Rate). Even giving the hit back to Biadasz doesn’t make that look good. Starting guards should allow pressure on fewer than 3% of dropbacks. According to PFF, he was the second best run blocker on the OL (grade 68.0). Allegretti was penalized 10 yds for holding in the first quarter, and 5 yards for a false start near the end of the fourth quarter.
Rookie RT Josh Conerly took the brunt of the Packers’ pass rush, surrendering 5 hurries, 1 QB hit and 3 sacks, for an alarmingly high 16.1% Pressure Rate. He performed much better last week against a formidable Giants’ pass rush. Rookie OTs typically give up a lot of pressure, even those who go on to become quality starters. But his performance this week should raise warning flags, and it would not be surprising if adjustments are made. His run blocking graded better at 67.6. He was flagged for holding in the fourth quarter, but the penalty was declined.
If feels as if remedial action is needed.
Voters in our survey this week seem to think the answer is to turn to Andrew Wylie; 37% of respondents said that he should replace Nick Allegretti at right guard, while 22% think he should replace the rookie Conerly at right tackle.
It seems worth noting that, based on comments from the survey article, few if any fans want to give up on Conerly. Most who wanted to turn to Wylie at RT seemed to see it as a temporary move to give the rookie some breathing space and time to develop, while some others thought that Conerly should move inside to right guard for the moment. Nearly everyone seemed to believe that Conerly would be settle in as the starting right tackle in the medium- to long-term.
In the short term, a lot of people are concerned about the next challenge in Conerly’s early trial-by-fire. Having faced off against New York’s impressive array of defensive linemen in Week 1 and Micah Parsons in Week 2, Conerly is now set to face Maxx Crosby — one of the NFL’s most fearsome edge players — in Week 3
Despite whatever gloom Commanders fans may be feeling, the broader NFL fan base seems to still have confidence in the team. In this week’s Power Rankings, the Commanders averaged a #10 ranking (with no ranking lower than #13). Many observers clearly falt as if Washington ran into a buzz saw on a short week against a Packers team that may be the best in the NFL.
In addition to our site-specific poll, SB Nation conducts weekly email polls with registered participants from all 32 NFL fan bases; in this week’s survey, respondents were asked to pick winners for all of the Week 3 games.
You can see that the Commanders, who are currently favored at home by 3 points, were also picked to win at home against the Raiders by a majority of the SB Nation poll participants.
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Survey respondents also picked the Eagles to beat the visiting Rams in a clash of undefeated teams. While I, personally, have a lot of confidence in Sean McVay’s team to get the road win, they are 3.5-point underdogs according to current betting odds.
The Cowboys are also predicted winners in the SB Nation poll. They are on the road to Chicago, and are slight 1.5-point favorites. I think the Cowboys will dispatch the Bears pretty handily.
The only NFC East team that is projected to lose in our SB Nation national email survey is the NY Giants, who are 6.5-point underdogs at home to the 0-2 Kansas City team who will show up to Met Life Stadium hungry for a win.
It appears as if this Week 3 game against the Raiders is important for many reason. Obviously, Washington needs to keep pace with NFC rivals, but possibly more importantly, the team needs to restore the confidence of the fan base with a second home victory against a Las Vegas team that is playing on a short week and a QB in Geno Smith who looked really bad in the Monday night game against the Chargers.
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