Another beat down took place in Landover last Sunday. The team remains undefeated with a points differential of 57 at home. We lost Jayden for the game and potentially for the next few coming up. Mariota stepped in and despite a shaky start went on to run the offense to our second 40 point game of the season. He took it back to 2014 and helped bully the Panthers en route to a 5-2 start while staying atop of the NFC East for another week.
The first thing to mention was the retiring of Darrell Green’s jersey at halftime. Darrell started balling his eyes out during his speech showing just how much this team means to him. It made it easy for someone like myself who wasn’t alive for the peak of his career to understand the gravity of the situation. Looking up at those flags, there are now only five numbers to ever be retired in the franchise’s history. It helps put it into perspective how rare and impressive it is for one’s number to fly at the top of the stadium. This was a longtime coming. Even Josh said it was something that should’ve happened a while ago. Just something giving us another reason to be thankful Snyder is gone.
New ownership understands the value of history and what it means to the present day state of the franchise. It has been great to see their emphasis on getting the players I watched growing up back into the building and more involved with the team. Alfred Morris and Chris Thompson made an appearance. I think it is abundantly clear these players would not be coming back if Snyder was the one still calling the shots. Every week, we are being given more and more reasons to believe we have truly entered a new era of football in DC. Sure, the name still sucks. But, it’s something I will be able to live with as I am able to watch our franchise turn it around after nearly two decades of bad football and bullshit.
One more thing to touch on from earlier this week is the release Jamin Davis. We are now down to a single first round pick still on the roster from the Ron era. Emmanuel Forbes is the last man standing. I believe it quite obvious his time with the team and likely in the league is very limited. He did grab his second career interception last Sunday. I would like to think that play bought him more time on the roster. Everyone in the building knew it was a true ass kicking when even Emmanuel Forbes was making plays. I’d imagine everyone in building also knows he will be lucky to make it to the end of the season on the roster.
It wasn’t the most exciting game. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun watching us run it up. But the game was out of hand before the end of the first quarter. There aren’t many games at FedEx I have left early because we were winning by so much. To be honest, I don’t think it has ever happened before. Regardless, it doesn’t matter who we played. Every win matters in this league. But, it must be mentioned that Panthers team is an absolute joke. I knew their defense was bad, but I did not expect their offense to be that bad as well. I am still living off the fact that Andy Dalton looked competent when they played the Raiders. I kept expecting to see Bryce Young enter the game. I don’t understand their coaching staff’s logic to not put him out there and see what happens when losing by 27 points at halftime. The Panthers have announced Bryce will be starting this weekend. Farewell to Diontae Johnson’s fantasy value.
To note some performances, Dante Fowler Jr. had his first career pick 6. I honestly don’t believe he’s never taken one to the house at any level of football before Sunday. But, I’ll take his word for it. Mariota stepped in and played quality football. He showed that he can competently run the offense when the team needs him too. Yes, it was against the Panthers, but honestly that may have been the perfect team for him step in against to give himself some confidence. He delivered Ben Sinnott’s first career catch for a touchdown. Bens made plays all year that haven’t shown on the stat sheet. I was happy to see the young guy finally get in the endzone. Frankie Luvu and Jeremy Chinn put together solid performances against their former team. Austin Seibert tied Mark Mosley’s record for most kicking points through 7 games and he wasn’t even here for week 1. Safe to say it would’ve been broken if he was on the roster for the Bucs game. BRob didn’t miss a beat in a game everyone thought he was going to miss. I could continue on. When you win a game like that, it’s because the whole team played well.
The Panthers didn’t even take the biggest loss of the game. We lost the most important player on our team. If there is even the slightest question for this upcoming Sunday, Jayden should sit out. I don’t see any reasons to rush him back. I have absolutely no problems taking a loss this upcoming Sunday if it means getting Jayden to full health so he can play the rest of the season. Bear’s fans are acting like this is the Super Bowl. They need every little bit of reason to reduce the dissonance and be able to say Caleb was the right pick at #1. I do think they’re franchise would be in absolute shambles if Mariota starts and we still win the football game. I think it’d be a lot of fun to watch their fans crumble on social media. We will have to see what happens with Jayden. All I ask is that if he steps on the field Sunday he is at full health. Seeing the week to week diagnosis, I don’t expect him to play. If he does, the anxiety I will have while watching will be very high. I honestly hope Mariota plays because I don’t see any reason to risk our season and this team’s future over one regular season game.
The Bears are a team with lots of similarities to us. We are both playoff teams led by rookie quarterbacks who we hope to change the trajectory of our franchise. Through the first 7 weeks, it seems like both teams hit on their picks and are trending in the right direction. They have one of the best defenses in the league led by our previous defensive end and a shut down cornerback. Their offense has weapons all over the place which shouldn’t bode well for our secondary. When we played the Bears last year, this was the game we had finally started to believe just a little bit then Justin Fields ran it up on us at home on a Thursday night. It would be a shame for the door to be slammed in our face by the same team two years in a row. Without Jayden, I don’t believe we have the best chances in this one. It will be interested to see Mariota operate against one of the best defenses the NFL has to offer.
Despite the Jayden injury, the locker room vibes have seemed high throughout this week. I’ve been seeing posts of players talking in good spirits. It seems like the team is excited for the challenge and ready to roll. It felt really good seeing the quotes from our two ex Cowboys mentioning their satisfaction in DC compared to Dallas. I imagine DQ is thinking the same, but I can see why he doesn’t want to go and bad mouth his old boss. It is comical knowing Jerry is now regarded as one of the worst owners in the league. It’s nice not having that burden weighing down our franchise anymore.
I will be honest with the bets this week and say there isn’t much on the board that I love. With Mariota out there, it makes me a lot more hesistant. The one pick I will be providing is BRob to score a touchdown. With Terry shadowed by Johnson, I don’t have a ton of confidence in him to have one of his better games. He will obviously be involved; however, to what extent is something I am unsure of. I don’t have confidence in the over. If you can’t tell by my tone, I am quite worried. Unfortunately, no matter how this one is spun, I will have something to worry about. Whether it’s JD’s health or what the offense looks like without him. But with all that being said, it doesn’t mean I think our moneyline is a bad pick. 3 point underdogs at home? Every fan of the burgundy and gold has to take that.
We asked for the Ravens game to get flexed and instead they went ahead and moved the Bears to 4pm. I expect the NFL was hoping it’d be the two rookies going at it. However, they can still hammer the two Heisman winners storyline as a backup plan. I’m a believer in the fact that if Jayden plays, we will win. If he doesn’t play, I am a lot less confident. Without Jayden, we will learn a lot about the rest of the roster. Maybe, it will be a good thing for the rest of the year. I’m excited to make my way down to Landover to see what’s in store. A lot of uncertainty and opportunity. It wouldn’t be a Skins game with out some of both. Wishing everyone a great weekend. Good luck in life and gambling. Looking forward to writing back next week after the win.
Mandatory Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images