Washington Football Team fans shouldn’t hit the panic button yet

The Washington Football Team might not be off to a good start, but here’s why fans shouldn’t hit the panic button just yet.

The Washington Football Team is 1-2 through three weeks. And if we’re being honest, they should probably be 0-3. The New York Giants were generous enough to gift them a win in Week 2, though.

Ryan Fitzpatrick suffered an injury that will keep him out for a while in Week 1. That’s definitely a bad omen to start the year when the starting quarterback goes down. Luckily, Taylor Heinicke was the backup and a lot of fans have faith in him.

The offense hasn’t been great though. And the defense (which was supposed to be one of the best in all of football) has been awful. In fact, they’ve been easily one of the worst defensive units in the NFL. Chase Young has looked bad. The secondary has been dreadful. Linebacker play is not good. The defensive line isn’t getting to the quarterback — it’s all bad.

Even with all that, though, it’s not time to hit the panic button. There are quite a few positives. So let’s get positive and focus on those. There is enough time for doom-and-gloom and you’ve likely already seen 1,000 articles telling you the season is already lost. Let’s switch it up.

Why Washington Football Team fans should be optimistic after the 1-2 start

So, 1-2 isn’t good and the one win was a miserable and lucky dub. That being said, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Buffalo Bills gave Washington their two losses. Those two teams are both 2-1. The Bills have a +50 point differential, the highest in the NFL. Los Angeles just beat the Kansas City Chiefs and should’ve beaten the Dallas Cowboys. They could easily be 3-0.

Washington’s loss to Buffalo was pretty ugly (22-point loss) but they only lost by four to the Chargers. And yes, no matter what, a loss is a loss; but if we’re going to rag on the win for being ugly, we can point out that they kept it close against a good team.

There are positives on that poor defense too. Jamin Davis has looked really solid. The rookie linebacker has been strong in coverage and has made a handful of good plays. Speaking of rookies, Benjamin St-Juste has been phenomenal. It gets overshadowed because the secondary as a whole has looked bad, but St-Juste isn’t the problem.

Montez Sweat hasn’t been bad. Da’Ron Payne and Jonathan Allen have gotten through quite a few times too. Kamren Curl has been great too, and should probably (definitely) be getting more playing time.

Meanwhile, the offense has a number of positives. Rookie Sam Cosmi has been fantastic on the offensive line. He had a few struggles in Week 1 but has improved a lot in a short period of time. In fact, the entire offensive line has looked really solid.

Running back Antonio Gibson is proving to be a big playmaker. Wide receiver Terry McLaurin is a star. And tight end Logan Thomas is proving that his 2020 season wasn’t a fluke. In fact, he’s already had two phenomenal touchdown grabs and is showing off good hands and the ability to make plays after the catch.

Taylor Heinicke has had a few issues early on. But overall he’s looked good. The quarterback has completed 69.4 percent of his passes and has five touchdowns compared to two interceptions. He even ran one in with another one of his (becoming very popular) pylon dives.

Has Heinicke been perfect? Not at all. There were times in Week 3 where he looked pretty bad. But that’s expected. He has 162 career pass attempts. Of course he’s not looking elite at all times. The quarterback is showing that he’ll be able to keep the Washington Football Team offense competitive though. And he has potential to get better, which is fun.

The biggest positive. though, is the division. Let’s not pretend like the NFC East is good. The Dallas Cowboys have a chance to be very solid. But they also had a shaky win against the Chargers that saw a few questionable calls down the stretch. Their other win is against a bad Philadelphia Eagles team.

Dallas is 2-1, Philadelphia is 1-2 and New York is 0-3. There’s no one at the moment that is running away with anything. The Giants and the Eagles already look to be not much of a threat.

Washington’s next game is against a very bad Atlanta Falcons team whose only win is against the Giants. It’s a great chance to get a bounce-back victory that has the fans feeling at least decent again.

They just need to tread water. If they want to start cooking and win a lot, that would be phenomenal. But their season ends five straight divisional games. That’s where things will likely be decided. If the Washington Football Team can even have just 4-5 wins at that point, big things could happen.

They then have two games against an Eagles team that will likely be out of the running and a Giants team with the same fate. Two games against the Cowboys could be the big turning point.

Washington is a very flawed team. But they are in a flawed division. Are they off to a good start? No. There is absolutely no reason to hit the panic button just yet though. The defense is very talented, they just need to figure some things out. It’s hard to see them being this bad all year. Meanwhile, the offense has potential with quite a few weapons.

If Washington can even hover around .500 until they get to that final stretch, there’s no reason to believe they won’t be fighting for the division.

Over the next few days, you’re going to hear all the negatives. It’s the perfect time to jump on the “this team is bad and here’s why and I definitely always knew it” train. Things have not been good. But why do that, when you can look at the positives?

Let’s all take a collective deep breath and focus on Week 4. If Washington leaves with a 2-2 record and potentially be tied for the division lead, won’t most be forgiven? If the defense wakes up won’t everyone get excited again? The season is far from over, let’s not bury the Washington Football Team just yet.