Commanders Look To End 8-game Losing Streak on Opening Weekend

September 6, 2024 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

The Washington Commanders watched their season go slowly down the toilet in 2023, reeling off 8 straight losses after starting 2-0 and being just one game under .500 after 8 weeks of the campaign. The 4-13 mark left them last in the NFC East as they went winless in the division and the season opener was the only home win.

Four of those losses were by a field goal in or less, but several were also non-competitive blowouts. Ron Rivera was fired on January 8 and it was more than three weeks later before Quinn was hired on February 1. He had been serving as the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator since 2021.

The over/under win total bet for Washington is 6.5, which beats 4 and means the losing streak will end in time to enjoy more than one victory. The odds also have them getting out of the NFC East basement by finishing 3rd, but the odds also have them as the 6th most likely team to miss the playoffs.

The new-look team for 2024 includes offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury who gets to break in the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, Jayden Daniels, at quarterback.  But Pro Football Focus says the receiving corps is only the NFL's 20th-best (Depth Chart).

The NFL Congrove Computer Rankings rate Washington as the second-worst team entering the season and saddles the Commanders with a projected record that's actually worse than a year ago at 3-14, along with another winless season in division contests.

The computer puts them at a 9.37-point disadvantage in the opener when Washington visits Tampa Bay (-3.5) on Sunday 4:25 p.m. ET on FOX.

The once-proud three-time Super Bowl Championship (5 appearances) haven't won a playoff game since 2005. Their history boasts such well-know and loved players as Joe Theismann, Sonny Jurgensen, John Riggins, Bruce Smith, Art Monk, Darrell Green and Gary Clark. Even kicker Mark Moseley was a star who still owns the franchise lead for points. And of course, the heyday of the team's success came under coach, turned NASCAR team owner, Joe Gibbs who was 154-94-0.

Prior to Gibbs' first stint as head coach of the Redskins, he created the offense that became known as Air Coryell, named for his boss at San Diego, head coach Don Coryell.

Three of those five Super Bowl trips, and all three victories, came under Gibbs with the first occurring in his second year at the helm which turned out to be the 1982 shortened strike season. The first Super Bowl appearance came under George Allen, also in his second season.

Now, Dan Quinn will try to put the Commanders on the path to a Super Bowl and, perhaps, create a new legacy of champion teams.

Quinn had some success in Atlanta, but it wasn't long-lived. He was 43-42 from 2015 to 2020 when he was fired after an 0-5 start. Only two of his teams had winning campaigns (2016 and 2017) and, of course, it was his team that famously blew a 28-3 lead in the 2016 season Super Bowl to the New England Patriots. The Falcons advanced to the NFC Championship game the very next season, hoping to get a shot at erasing that memory - or at least, dulling it - but they fell to the Eagles

2024 Washington Commanders Schedule