Commanders lose in heartbreaking fashion to the 7-2 Steelers.

Commanders who were desperately looking for their first ‘good’ win fell just short to the Steelers in an absolute slop-fest.

I think that you can say that the Commanders played one of their worst games of the year. Jayden Daniels, who has looked like Super-Man so far, finally had a slow game. Our wide receivers didn’t do much to help him, besides Terry McLaurin– who played a great game. Olamide Zaccheaus had a really rough game, dropped a couple of balls and had two muffed punts, one of which gave them the ball at the 15 yard line. Zach Ertz dropped a couple of balls and failed to fall forward on 4th down attempt with the game on the line. Noah Brown played a good game mostly but had a bad drop on a potentially big play. Dyami Brown had a gross drop in the endzone, though the possession lead to a touchdown nonetheless. Luke McCaffrey had a bad drop as well.

Our running game was missing Brian Robinson which showed. Though we churned out three rushing touchdowns we were only able to run for 2.7 YPC. Jayden Daniels couldn’t do anything on the ground, which took away a strong part of their offensive.

The defense was really what held us in the game for the most part. The defensive line, the linebacker core, and the safeties all played a competent game. This helped us win the field position battle through out most of the 2nd and 3rd quarter where we scored 20 of our 27 points.

Though our cornerback core played a horrible day. Benjamin St. Juste played his worst game in the NFL so far. When he wasn’t getting penalized he was getting burnt. His performance today had most Commanders fans begging for Marshon Lattimore to get in there. St. Juste got burnt in what was the game winning touchdown, where he was playing off coverage and still got beat deep– something you cannot allow, especially when it is 3rd and long.

At points in this game, however, it felt like it the Commanders absolutely had it. The Steelers made a questionable decision to fake a punt in their own redzone. The Commanders mounted a few really good possessions in the 2nd quarter, one led to a field goal, one led to a 94 yard touchdown drive. Then a 54 yard catch and run to Terry McLaurin in part led to a Commanders touchdown.

Commanders were up 10 after the first possession of the 2nd half but then the holes that the Commanders showed really widened. The Commanders only scored three more points the entire rest of the game, and it was on a 19 yard drive.

The Steelers defense was able to go after St. Juste and Noah Igbinoghene and get numerous big plays, which led to some really long drives, and two touchdowns.

The Steelers had a bye week before this weeks game, and it felt like during the 2nd half was when that extra rest and preparation really showed. The Commanders looked dead and beat up while Russel Wilson and the Steelers offense kept pushing.

It was an overall really frustrating game to watch, a game that the Commanders really had in the bag, even though it felt like a lot of things didn’t go the way of the Commanders. A couple of key players were out. With Andrew Wylie being out, we had Trent Scott on TJ Watt. With that unfavorable matchup we had to chip Watt on almost ever pass play, which strains the offensive play calling. With Marshon Lattimore out, we had to rely on our lackluster secondary.

And it’s not going to get any easier, as the Commanders now have a short week to rest and prepare for the Eagles on Thursday night. The late bye week have proven to be brutal, and all we can do is hope our boys get healthy and get ready for the Eagles.

Go Commanders.

(image via x/commanders)