When you were a kid, there were some days when you could not wait to get home to show off your report card full of A’s. Other times, you had a pit in your stomach as you slowly handed your report card to your parents. Well, the Washington Commanders report card from the game with Green Bay is definitely one of the latter kind.
Offense: D
Spread the blame pie around to everyone. There is no shortage of servings for all. Let’s start with the offensive line which turned in a pathetic performance.
The offensive line surrendered 4 sacks, 12 QB hits, and a pressure rate of 48.1%. Throw on top of that a false start penalty on Laremy Tunsil and a false start penalty on Nick Allegretti. Josh Conerly. Jr. was a human turnstile all night long as he let pass rushers come free and clean on Jayden Daniels. All in all, the Washington offensive line was a mess and got pushed around all night long.
The running backs were a non-factor. This is partially due to a terrible season-ending injury to Austin Eckeler and partially due to Kliff Kingsbury forgetting that running the ball was an option in the NFL. Only giving Jackory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt only four touches in this game was criminal.
The wide receivers could not get open at all. Zach Ertz had 6 catches for 64 yards on 8 targets. McLaurin had five catches on 9 targets for 48 yards. Deebo Samuel had 7 catches on 8 targets for 44 yards. McCaffrey had 1 catch on 1 target for 19 yards. Noah Brown had 2 catches on 4 targets for 9 yards. Jaylin Lane had 1 catch on 4 targets for 2 yards.
Jayden Daniels had about the worst game he has had as a pro. Daniels completed 24/42 passes for 200 yards and 2 TDs. Daniels had an unimpressive 57.1 completion percentage. Daniels had an embarrassing 26.9 QBR. This was Daniels’ second-lowest QBR score in his career. The only other complete game where Daniels had a lower QBR was the November 14, 2024, loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, where Daniels had an anemic 18.8 QBR.
Daniels also had an awful day rushing the ball. Daniels rushed seven times for just 17 yards. This was Daniels’ second-lowest number of rushing yards. The only other game with fewer rushing yards was Daniels’ 5 yards rushing versus Pittsburgh on November 10, 2025.
Defense Grade: F
The Washington defense that showed up at Lambeau Field looked just like last year’s Washington defense that we saw getting blasted game after game. The Washington defensive line got dominated by the Green Bay offensive line. The Washington secondary was helpless against the Green Bay passing attack.
Green Bay rolled up 135 yards rushing and 269 yards passing. Many times, the Green Bay offense stopped itself more than the Washington defense did, as the Green Bay offense had four penalties for 35 yards.
Jordan Love did whatever he wanted to do against the Washington defense as he completed 19 of 31 passes for 292 yards and 2 touchdowns. This was good enough for a 64.3 QBR.
Tucker Kraft went absolutely wild on the Washington defense, six catches for 124 yards and 1 touchdown.
Once again, the Washington defense failed to force any turnovers.
Special Teams: C
The sole bright spot for the Commies against the Packers was the punt coverage unit. Tress Way continues to be a weapon for the Commies. The coverage unit was phenomenal, nailing Packers returners before they had a chance to gain any yards. The Packers managed just 1 yard on 3 punt returns. That is amazing. Special Teams Coach Larry Izzo deserves a ton of praise for his hard work with the coverage unit.
Unfortunately, special teams also includes kicking, and Matt Gay was unimpressive. Gay went 1 for 3 field goals for the night. Gay booted a 51-yard field goal in the second quarter. Then Gay missed a 58-yard field goal in the 2nd quarter and then missed a 52-yard field goal in the 3rd quarter. That is not going to get it done in the NFL.
Coaching: F
Let’s start with the head coach himself. Dan Quinn did not have the Commies prepared at all for this big primetime heavyweight match. The Commies looked utterly overwhelmed in all phases of the game. On top of that, Quinn coached scared. I will openly admit that I am not the biggest believer in Dan Quinn as a head coach. But one thing I felt you could never say about Quinn is that he coached scared or that his teams ever played scared. But, against Green Bay, Quinn coached scared, and the Commies played scared.
The end of the first half was a prime example of Quinn coaching scared. Taking three timeouts with him into halftime was inexcusable. It was obvious that Quinn had no confidence in his offense’s ability to move the ball and score a touchdown. Quinn was clearly worried that if he used his time-outs, his offense would deliver a three-and-out and then Green Bay would get the ball back with time on the clock.
When a team is getting beat like a rented mule, I appreciate when a coach never loses his confidence and continues to try to coach to score with every possession. The Commies’ last drive at the end of the first half was disappointing.
But the head coach was not the only one who failed against Green Bay. The coordinators also failed to do their jobs, too.
Kliff Kingsbury had a soft and ineffective game plan right out of the gate. Kingsbury had no answer for dealing with just a four-man pass rush from Green Bay. This made Kingsbury’s decision to abandon the run even more bizarre. Also, when Kingsbury decided to run it, he eschewed using Bill to tote the ball despite his having more success than Ekeler.
Kingsbury seemed hopelessly outwitted and outcoached by Packers Defensive Coordinator Jeff Hafley. The Washington offense seemed to lack a cogent plan of attack right from the start. Whenever the offense struggles so mightily, the man calling the game deserves a huge slice of blame pie.
But don’t worry! Joe Witt, Jr didn’t want Kingsbury to get all the criticism. Whitt’s defense looked utterly bewildered for the entire game. The soft defense in the first half, which gave away huge chunks at a time, was less than impressive. The complete lack of a pass rush was complemented by terrible coverage that allowed receivers to get wide open multiple times. The cherry on top of this foul concoction was the embarrassing tackling. When players like Franki Luvu were not completely wiffing on tackles, other players like Trey Amos were getting trucked by Packers players.
Seeing a Joe Witt, Jr. defense completely unprepared and getting pushed all around the field and giving up big pass plays was an all too common sight last year. The game against Green Bay seemed like a rerun of last year.
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