- The Washington Times - Sunday, September 24, 2023

LANDOVER — By Sam Howell’s fourth interception of the afternoon, a turnover that was returned for a 32-yard touchdown, fans of the Washington Commanders had officially seen enough. There were still 10 minutes left in Sunday’s 37-3 loss, but the majority of the Burgundy and Gold faithful — with their team trailing 30-0 — started to head for the exits. No one could blame them for wanting to beat the traffic. 

Plenty of others, though, remained: The tens of thousands of the Buffalo Bills’ diehards were there to celebrate the soon-to-be victory. 

Bills Mafia, which invaded another stadium, wasn’t going anywhere. Rain be damned. 

“To see them stick around the entire time, and obviously the game was already won, seeing them celebrate was amazing,” Bills safety Micah Hyde said. “For sure, over half the fans here was Bills Mafia.”

Over the last few months, there had largely been nothing but positive vibes for the Commanders after being sold to Josh Harris. The excitement stemming from a new era was only amplified by Washington’s 2-0 start to the season. But Sunday’s blowout loss proved to be a wake-up call, a reminder of how far the Commanders still have to go on and off the field before the franchise can claim they’re truly back in the way that people remember. 

Coach Ron Rivera said earlier in the week that this matchup served as a “measuring stick” given how the Bills were among the NFL’s elite teams. Beating a team like Buffalo, he said gets “folks” talking. And that measuring stick applied off the field: The Commanders knew they had a second-straight sellout on their hands, but players and coaches were eager to see if the crowd would be made up of mostly Washington’s fans like Week 1 or if a team with a travel-happy fanbase would dominate the stands like past years. 


PHOTOS: Commanders offense goes missing in blowout loss to Bills


The Commanders (2-1) got their answers, and the results weren’t pretty. They were a garbage time, 51-yard field goal away from suffering their worst shutout loss since 2001. And by an unofficial estimate, the stands looked to be split 70-30 in favor of Buffalo’s fans. 

“When you’re winning, it masks a lot of things,”  Rivera said. “The bare truth is out there right now. We know exactly, based on the tape, what happened and we’ll be able to sit down and talk and get it corrected. … We’re going to find out just how good we are, how tough we are.” 

High on the list of corrections for Rivera and Co. will be figuring out how to help Howell. The second-year quarterback had, by far, his worst game as a pro: He was sacked nine times, threw four interceptions and had a passer rating of just 41.5. Through three games, Howell has been sacked 19 times — tied for the second-most to start the season since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, according to Stathead. Only former Bills quarterback Rob Johnson was brought down more often (20 times in 1998). 

Those sacks aren’t just on Washington’s offensive line, either. Bills defensive lineman Jordan Phillips said that Buffalo’s defense could tell if Howell doesn’t “see something most of the time,” then the quarterback would hold the ball and try to run. And too often Sunday, Buffalo’s pressure would get to Howell before he had room to escape. Howell has said he needs to get rid of the ball faster. “I’ve just got to do a better job,” he said after the loss. 

Washington could look to get its rushing attack involved sooner to ease the burden on Howell. Running back Brian Robinson Jr. was again effective on the ground Sunday as he rushed for 70 yards on 10 carries. But the Commanders had just 13 rushing attempts total. It’s hard to call the run after falling behind as quickly as Washington did, too. 

Standing at the podium, Rivera expressed the most frustration at how Washington performed in the first half. The Commanders only trailed 16-0 at halftime — but that margin could have been much closer or worse, depending on your perspective. 

The Commanders had two drives into Buffalo’s territory early on — with both resulting in zero points. Howell took back-to-back sacks and then threw a pick after getting to Buffalo territory on Washington’s opening drive. Then, later, Howell led the Commanders just outside the end zone — but he threw an incompletion on fourth-and-goal at the 2-yard line, resulting in a turnover on downs. The only fortunate part of Washington’s miscues on offense was that Buffalo settled for field goals on back-to-back drives before halftime.  

Still, the Commanders’ defense wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be against a top-tier quarterback like Josh Allen. The Commanders occasionally generated pressure, but Allen wasn’t sacked all game. And he used his legs to consistently extend plays, all while relying on an arm that could sling it downfield.

Allen threw for only 218 yards, though he was good enough to help the Bills go 9-of-15 on third down. 

“We shot ourselves in the foot way too many times to see how we compared to them,” cornerback Benjamin St-Juste said. “It wasn’t indicative of who we are as a team.” 

St-Juste said because of how many mistakes the Commanders committed, he didn’t feel Washington could accurately measure how the team compares to a contender like the Bills. He added that he knew, for all the good vibes generated by the team’s strong start to the year and sale, there wasn’t going to be “no Cinderella story” that resulted in an undefeated season. Like Rivera, St-Juste said the loss was going to test how the Commanders would respond. 

Terry McLaurin agreed.

“It just forces everyone to look in the mirror and make sure this doesn’t happen again,” the wide receiver said. “They came in here and they whooped us.” 

It was supposed to be different. Though there were thousands of Bills fans on Sunday, the Commanders attempted to compete with that by having Sunday’s game served as its annual “Homecoming” for team alumni. This year, Washington touted that 175 former players were set to return to FedEx Field to watch the game. 

Before the game, former quarterback Mark Rypien said alumni events in recent years have drawn maybe 40 to 50 players. “It didn’t have the energy that this has,” Rypien said. Speaking from Legends Plaza, an area just outside the stadium, Rypien remembered how the team used to invite corporate sponsors to fill the space in a tent alongside the alumni. That wasn’t needed this year, he said, with former players and their families packing the place. 

But once the action started, the buzz died down. Early on, Commanders defensive end Chase Young motioned to the Burgundy and Gold to get loud on third down. A little later, when Buffalo was on defense, Phillips motioned to the visiting sideline and urged Bills Mafia to do the same.

The gesture was met with a more thunderous reception on Buffalo’s end. 

“That’s always Big Phil,” Hyde said. “He gives the fans the juice, man.” 

Even when the Bills are on the road.

• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.

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