Week 18 is finally here, and unfortunately for the Washington Commanders, it represents another meaningless season finale. Meanwhile, Washington’s opponent in Week 18, the Dallas Cowboys, are playing for a chance to win the NFC East and potentially come away with the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC playoffs.
Buy Commanders TicketsWashington coaches, players, and fans will look back on the 2022 season, wondering what could have been. On No. 27, after a win over the Atlanta Falcons, the Commanders were 7-5 and looked to be in a great position to lock down one of the NFC’s final two playoff spots.
The Commanders haven’t won a game since and, with a loss to the Cowboys Sunday, would finish head coach Ron Rivera’s third consecutive season with seven wins.
We offer our final predictions for Sunday’s game between the Cowboys and Commanders.
Bryan Manning
The Commanders are sitting a good portion of their starters for this game. It’s not as if head coach Ron Rivera is completely tanking but sees no point in playing players such as Jonathan Allen, Kam Curl, Benjamin St-Juste and others currently battling an injury.
He’s right. Why take a chance?
Even before we learned of the Commanders missing multiple starters, Dallas would’ve been my pick. The Cowboys are the better team and have something to play for. The one positive from this game for Washington is rookie quarterback Sam Howell. Howell will make his first career start, and fans are excited to see Howell play. Howell should be fun to watch, but he won’t have the help he needs to pull off the upset in Week 18.
Cowboys 34, Commanders 14
Ivan Lambert
Season finales are much more difficult to predict as some teams pack it in, some are tanking, some are playing hard for playoff position and some players just have a lot of pride and are going to play hard regardless of the circumstances
Dallas knows if the Eagles defeat the Giants, the Eagles are NFC East Champs. An Eagles win, and Dallas remains the 5th seed regardless of how well the Cowboys play against the Commanders. The Cowboys will need an Eagles loss and Cowboys win if they are to get the NFC East. Both of those games are 4:25 kickoffs.
Washington will not be playing so many people due to injuries, and Sam Howell gets his first NFL start. Hoping the O-Line can protect him enough because if they can’t, it will be literally a baptism by fire for Howell. Howell is going to need a good game from the O-Line and Jonathan Williams to have a chance.
Howell is not fearful. I look for him to run the ball several times as well.
Dallas 27, Washington 17
