Commanders Week 2 survey results: Sometimes, timing is everything

Here at Hogs Haven and across the SB Nation NFL communities, we run a survey program called Reacts. Periodically through the offseason and preseason, and then every week during the season, we ask survey questions of Commanders fans here on the blog, and nationally with fans of all 32 teams via email with registered participants.

Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

Ahead of each week of the regular season (until about Christmas or so), we ask the identical question: Are you confident in the direction of your team?

Most weeks, I add one or two Commanders-specific questions to the survey to gauge fan feeling about some aspect of the team or the season. This week, with the short turnaround to Thursday Night Football, I decided not to include any supplemental questions, which was probably a good decision.

The responses to our sole question were collected and collated ahead of the Packers game. I suspect that if responses had been given on Friday & Saturday instead of Wednesday & Thursday, the results might’ve been very different.

Ahead of the Week 1 home and season opener against the Giants, 97% of respondents to our survey expressed confidence; that figure climbed to 98% this week despite the offense looking rusty in the team’s debut.

Following the most recent game, with the Washington offense getting mauled by the Packers defense, the Commanders defense unable to adequately deal with Green Bay’s offense, and two important field goal attempts missed by Matt Gay, all compounded by lackluster coaching and a second consecutive failure of the first half 2-minute offense, one has to imagine that fans of the burgundy & gold are feeling disillusioned at this point. Having spent some time on Twitter and in the Hogs Haven comments section following the loss on TNF, I can attest that at least some of them are expressing frustration and more.

Interestingly, depending on the outcome of one game on Sunday, the Commanders will either remain in first place in the NFC East heading into Week 3 or they will drop — to 2nd place.

Perhaps the prospect of still being in the top half (and possibly at the pinnacle) of the division with 15 games yet to play will offer a bit of perspective that can sooth some frayed nerves.

In the Reacts national email survey, fans picked the winners of all 16 Week 2 games. Obviously, they got the first one right.

Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

The Cowboys host the Giants at 1pm

Both teams lost the season opener against an NFC East opponent, so the outcome of this Week 2 game is kind of irrelevant to Commanders fans with respect to the division standings. The winner will be 1-1 overall (1-1 in division), while the loser will fall to 0-2 overall (0-2 in division), finishing Week 2 in 3rd and 4th place respectively.

The Eagles play in Kansas City at 4:25pm

If the Eagles win, they will be 2-0, and will be alone atop the NFC East after two weeks.

If the Eagles lose, however, then Philly’s record of 1-1 overall (1-0 in division) will be identical to Washington’s, and a tie-breaker (probably point differential) will determine which team is technically in first place for the balance of the week.

While things feel pretty grim in the wake of the Thursday night game, we all know that the NFL regular season is a marathon, not a sprint.

The Commanders have a bunch of injuries to deal with, all of them to key players. The offense has looked completely out of sorts in both of its games and the coaching has been surprisingly under-baked, especially in Week 2.

If the coaches and players can’t find answers to these and other issues, it’s going to be a long and unhappy season for fans.

If, however, the team has the ability to overcome the current challenges, Week 3 offers some advantages. The team returns home, where it should enjoy enthusiastic support from the fans. The Commanders, despite the spate of injuries, have a long week — 9 days — to rest, recover and strategize, while the Raiders will be on a short week following their game against a tough division rival, the Chargers, in the Monday Night Football late game and a long plane flight traveling west-to-east and then playing at 1pm on Sunday.

The Eagles will be hosting the Rams next week, so nothing will be getting easier for Nick Sirianni’s team.

Washington’s success in 2025 is likely to be measured, in large part, relative to how it compares to the Eagles, who face a similar gauntlet of tough opponents. Dan Quinn, Jayden Daniels and the rest of the team will either figure things out or they won’t, but right now, it’s a bit too early to begin the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Let’s at least wait for the results of the Raiders game to do that.

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