That felt like a season saving win for the commanders.
All right, welcome in the report for Friday, November 13th.
Hard to believe, but we are now in the back half of the 2026 regular season.
Week 10 has kicked off, and it kicked off with a sloppy and perfect, but entertaining Thursday night game between the New York Giants and the Washington Commanders.
The Commanders wind up coming out on top, 24 to 21, and that felt like a season saving win for the Commanders.
They are now 3-5 and 1.
If they had lost the 6th game this early, it probably would have been curtains for them.
That would have put them 4 games back in the NFC East as it stands now, they’re just 3 games back of the Giants, or 2 games back of the Giants, which gives them a fighting chance to win the division.
I don’t know if the NFC East is gonna have more than 1 playoff team, so.
Someone’s gonna have to win that division and the commanders are still in position to do it.
And it was a resourceful effort by the commanders, not their best, but a resourceful effort.
I think yeah, it has to start with Jaden Daniels leading a long touchdown drive after throwing consecutive interceptions in the, in the 4th quarter.
One of Of course was, was a throw down the, down the sideline, um, that was picked off and then the second one, I think you can kind of give him a pass on Drew Phillips picks that off.
That was a 4th down, so it’s not like that one made a huge difference, but it did create a situation where he did have to bounce back and you give him credit for that.
Um, and he’s able to make the throw with two guys in his face to Stefon Diggs over the middle of the field.
Um, to, to win it.
Diggs, of course, did the rest from there, was able to burst into the open field and easily, um, score.
I was gonna say walk into the end zone, but that’s not exactly what he did.
He sort of dove, he sort of fell back into the end zone.
Um, and I , I’d say there are, are some other guys that, that were really important to the effort here.
I mean, Jeremy, Jeremy Reeves is all over the field.
He had a fumble recovery.
Sonny Stiles, fantastic, fantastic finish to the game for Stiles.
Key stopped on the 3rd down there at the end, and then on the game clinching interception, which was registered by Rasul Douglas, it was Styles who His hand in JJ McCarthy’s face and forced that pick when it looked like the Giants, at the very least we’re gonna be able to kick a field goal to force overtime, if not score to win the game.
So again, a season-saving type of win for the Washington Commanders on Thursday night and week 10 is now underway.
And it’s a little bit of a light schedule coming up, but there are a couple of really compelling matchups that we want to hit.
Before we get out of here, and one of those most certainly is the Vikings and the Packers.
This is the return match at Lambeau Field between the two teams.
The NFC North race is tight.
Not only that, the margin for error for those NFC North teams is slim, and here’s why.
If you figure that the NFC South isn’t gonna get a playoff team, if you figure more than one playoff team, if you figure the NFC East isn’t gonna get more than one playoff team.
Then you’re talking about there being 5 playoff spots for the north and the west.
And as I see, you’ve got 7 very good teams in those two divisions, to be all 4 teams in the north, the Packers, the Bears.
And then 3 teams in the West, the Rams, the Seahawks, the Niners, all 7 of those teams, really good teams.
2 of those teams are not making the playoffs.
And so, the importance of each game from here on out for all of these teams is there, and that starts with the Packers and Vikings on Sunday, an important game, and for the Packers, a shot at redemption.
Um, you may remember in all the way back in September, all the way back in week one, and this is after Kyler Murray gets hurt, Carson Wentz comes in the game, um, the Vikings reel off 29 unanswered points to, to, to beat the Packers, 39-22.
It was sort of the coming out party in the second half of that game for Brian Flores’s defense, the defense that was about to go on a historic run.
And so now, the Packers have a shot.
To get the Vikings back, and they’re coming in hot.
They played great last weekend in New England.
We’ve seen the emergence of two top targets, and Christian Watson, who’s finally been able to stay healthy, and Matthew Golden, the team’s first-round pick from 2025.
Jordan Love’s playing at a very high level.
The run game isn’t the liability that it was, and the defense has started to play a lot better behind guys like Lucas Fantastic, Brandon CA and Evans.
Who’s been a huge breakout guy in the secondary, and Devonte Wyatt.
Um, it’s a more well-rounded team than the Vikings saw in September, and then here comes Minnesota with a brand new quarterback.
Again, that defense is playing very well.
We all saw what happened on Monday night.
It’s part of what pushed the Vikings to make the trade on Tuesday to go and get Kirk Cousins back to, to, to trade for him with Vegas.
And now you’re you’re you’re you’re injecting Kirk Cousins, who knows your offense, who knows your verbiage, who knows his teammates, his new teammates, teammates in Minnesota, and you would hope that he could hit the ground running.
So this is gonna be a fascinating, fascinating matchup.
Again, the Packers team that’s playing great, that has been fantastic.
On the offensive side of the ball, the last few weeks, and a defense that’s coming around, and then you’ve got the Vikings with this elite defense, a lot of talent on offense that hasn’t been leveraged yet, and maybe now the quarterback who can come in and leverage it for them.
Should be a fantastic game.
And then finally, the second game I want to hit, the Bengals.
And the Steelers on Sunday Night Football, 6-2 versus 6-2.
Both these teams come in riding 4-game winning streaks.
Both these teams are playing really high-level football.
I think you can make the argument that Joe Burrow is the MVP of the league.
At this point, he has played incredibly well over the course of the last month.
Uh, both his receivers, Ja’Marr Chase and T.
Higgins are operating at an incredibly high level, but for the Bengals, it’s been more than just that.
It’s been the way that the other elements of the team have come through.
The offensive lines playing better than it has probably since the, since Cincinnati’s Super Bowl year, and this may be the best offensive line that Joe Burrows ever played behind.
As a result, the run game has been productive when they needed it to be.
And the defense looked like it looks like they hit on a lot of the guys they brought in in the offseason, be it Dexter Lawrence or Boy Mafe or or or Brian Cook on the back end.
Um, it’s a much improved group, it’s not like a Minnesota.
There’s not a Seattle, but it’s, it’s a much improved group, and they don’t need to be great because the offense already is.
Then you have the Steelers, who, I think everybody who saw them in the summer, had an idea of what they could be, but with the age in the roster, the question was always gonna be, can they make it through?
Can they stay healthy?
It’s not like they’ve been unscathed, but they’ve got some good luck injury-wise, and you see now the vision, which is We have a lot of experienced guys on defense.
Guys like Jalen Ramsey and Jamel Dean, and Patrick Queen and TJ Watt, and Alex Highsmith and Cam Hayward, and on and on and on and on, ditto on offense, right?
So Pittman’s been hurt, but you got DK Metcalf, you’ve got Rico Dowdell coming in in his 7th year.
Aaron Rodgers, of course, being a huge part of that equation.
Pat Pryor move is an older player now.
So you’ve got all this experience, you’ve got these.
Flex schemes with Mike McCarthy and Brian Angelico running the offense and uh and and Patrick Graham running the defense, and you’re able to leverage all of that experience with how multiple you’re able to be on both sides of the ball.
And again, like it may be a narrow path that they’re walking, but for right now, that presents a very big challenge for the Bengals.
So this should be a fascinating matchup, a kind of Which one is for real type of matchup, maybe they’re both for real.
I tend to think they both are, but we’ll know a lot more when we get to midnight on on Sunday after those two are done.
Should be a really, really good game .
Appreciate you guys coming out as always, you can leave your comments.
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Appreciate you guys coming out.
We’ll see you early next week to wrap up week 10.
