Leave it in the Oven a Little Longer

In 1999, the Skins went to New York taking heat about not scoring enough. 

I remember Michael Westbrook saying after the game: "How about 50 points?"

That team had a new QB, a good one, in Brad Johnson. But for the meddling of the Boy Then Owner, Brad Johnson would have loved working with Marty and Joe Gibbs. What a career he might have had here. He soon took a team to the Super Bowl but sadly not our team.

Brad Johnson won a playoff game and lost to a team he would win a Championship with, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The '99 Game was a memorable one as we didn't beat the Giants all that often period and least of all in New York where we lost the '86 NFC Championship Game. 

About the only similarity between '99 and '24 is both teams lost their first games. 

This is a raw Washington team that will take time to gel. The '99 team had a new QB but a lot of the roster were familiar with each other. It was smart of AP to use free agency to collect savvy vets. But even said vets need time under tension to get bigger, stronger, faster, i.e., better than they were before.

I guess one key to this year's opening match-up with the G-Men will be Jayden Daniels' ability to complete passes in the scramble drill. He missed some open receivers in the scramble game. Some critics have noticed in JD5 a penchant for choosing himself over his receivers in the scramble game.

Daniel Jones is said by the cognoscenti to have lost his confidence. He has no reason as of yet to lack confidence in games against Washington. New York fans are out for his head. That usually means a player plays good football. Put more stock in his career performance against Washington. Some of the players he has beaten like a drum still start on defense for the Commanders.

Positives for Washington are Jayden's ability to learn his lessons, Dan Quinn's record defending Daniel Jones, and finally possession of live game tape to better themselves with.

There is a rumor up-tempo is scheduled for Washington. That could leave the shiny new Commander defense on the field too long, exacerbating a familiarity problem by multi-tasking while exhausted. Everybody on defense will have to play. Well-crafted platooning is a must.

Maybe they pull it off. But it doesn't matter.

We're likelier to see this team's best play mid-to-late season. We should hope for a few thefts before that era arrives.