Regardless of the circumstances, the grace period for Eric Bieniemy has come to an abrupt end

Regardless of the circumstances that Eric Bieniemy accepted when taking on the Commanders OC role, Washington’s offensive output is too bad to ignore their ineptitude.

Despite the New York Giants heading into the faceoff with the Washington Commanders with a depleted offensive unit, the Giants dominated the Commanders on the way to their first win in five weeks. For many, a loss was not beyond the realm of possibility, similar to the matchup against the Chicago Bears. However, to be dominated and lose in the fashion the Commanders did in both games brings out resentment and outrage in the aftermath of the losses.

Following the Commanders 2-0 start, they have lost four out of their last five games, erasing the fast start they got off to heading into their week three matchup against the Buffalo Bills.

Head coach Ron Rivera is correct, there are still ten games left to turn the fortune in their favor. However, their foundation is flawed and it was exposed as early as week one of the season. Focusing on the offense in particular, the Giants sacked quarterback Sam Howell six times, with five sacks occurring in the first half. Howell has been sacked 40 times this season, and at least four times a game. Even in Washington’s 2022 season finale, Howell was sacked three times against the Dallas Cowboys. Howell has clearly proven that he cannot protect himself, and unfortunately, his offensive line is not much better.

The grace period for offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has come to an abrupt end for several reasons. It’s not all on him, some of the circumstances that he is dealing with currently, had much to do with Rivera’s off-season decisions to not thoroughly evaluate the offensive line and quarterback position heading into a critical juncture with new ownership in place. Nevertheless, with the Commanders now having been shut out in the first half a second time this season, Washington is averaging just eight points in the first half of games this season. 21 of the Commanders 40 allowed sacks occurred in the first half of games, too. Washington has faced 85 third downs this year but has converted on just 29 percent of them, which ranks 31st in the NFL.

New York held Washington to 46 total net yards in the first half, completely shutting down whatever Washington’s game plan was to start the game. Unfortunately for Washington, the adjustments came in way too late in the game, and wide receiver Terry McLaurin shed light on how the offense could have adjusted earlier to help out the offensive line and Sam Howell.

In my previous article, I asked the readers if we would see a much more efficient offense against the New York Giants, and we got our unfortunate answer. Again, the Commanders have ten games left to salvage the season, but the leaks are in critical condition. If the offense cannot dramatically improve its game-planning and in-game adjustments earlier in games, we’ll be back next week discussing some of the same flaws.

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