Commander Carson
Greetings from The Booth!
As I start the new week, I’m a little burned out on football after a weekend full of it, but that will change as the week wears on. After calling the Strasburg-Warren County game on Friday night, I spent most of Saturday morning trying to figure out how to watch the WVU-Kansas game that night (I finally figured it out and had to spend $9.99 to get ESPN+ on my Fire Stick). I shouldn’t have bothered, as my Mounties were shocked by the Jayhawks in OT, 55-42. The last Kansas team to score that many points was probably their basketball team, so the seat is now pretty warm for Neal Brown, whose team is now 0-2 for the first time since 1979. He’s gotta go, but the buyout is $20 million, so don’t hold your breath if you’re a WVU fan.
That loss ruined an otherwise good weekend of football, as the Marshall Thundering Herd took down number-8 Notre Dame (whose own Head Coach is the first in Irish history to start 0-3 in his first 3 games. I’m no big Marshall fan, but they may be the best team in West Virginia right now.
On Sunday, the Carson Wentz era began in Washington as the NFL took center stage. I was a day of roller-coaster emotions, as the franchise quarterback de jour started fast, leading the Commanders to a 14-3 lead. Then, the offense bogged down as Wentz threw 2 really bad interceptions and the Jaguars took a 22-14 lead. “Commander Carson” then turned things around and threw 2 TD passes, including the game-winner to rookie Jahan Dotson with under two minutes to go in the 28-22 victory.
I think the game was a microcosm of what we’re going to get from Wentz–the highest of highs, like his 49-yard strike to Terry McLaurin in the fourth quarter, and mind-boggling lows, like the interception of a screen pass that almost cost Washington the game.
All that being said, I like the weapons that Wentz has at his disposal, and this could be a fun offense to watch as the season goes on. One game does not a season make, but Dotson looks like the real deal. His game-winning catch in the corner of the end zone was breathtaking. Commanders’ Offensive Coordinator Scott Turner found creative ways to get playmaker Curtis Samuel the ball on Sunday, and it was great seeing TE Logan Thomas in the lineup. RB Antonio Gibson had a solid day, and when the game mattered, McLaurin made the big play.
As a footnote, in what has become typical of this bumbling, stumbling embarrassment of an organization under Dan Snyder, an official Commanders truck outside Fed-Ex Field on Sunday was selling mugs with the team “W” over top of an outline of Washington state. The mugs quickly became unavailable, but it’s not clear whether they sold out or were pulled.
Good thing the Commanders were better at football than geography on Sunday.
Until the next visit from The Booth…HTTC!
RW
