The Commanders could start 6-1? The Commanders could start 6-1!

At the risk of getting completely, irresponsibly ahead of ourselves — which is never, ever wise when it comes to the denizens of Ashburn — let’s get completely, irresponsibly ahead of ourselves.

“I don’t want to get ahead of it …” Ron Rivera said.

But it’s hard not to, right? After what happened against Jacksonville?

“It puts us in a position, in the next game,” Rivera said, “we go into it with momentum.”

It’s amazing the difference between a razor’s edge, could’ve-been-a-loss Washington Commanders’ victory over the Jaguars — owners of the league’s worst record two years running — and the alternative. It shouldn’t color how you view the rest of the season. It kinda colors how you view the rest of the season.

Hop on this mental slide, and enjoy the ride. What’s possible for this rebranded team now? It’s foolish and dangerous to put too much weight and emotion behind one week’s result.

But come on. Look at the schedule!

“You cannot look ahead,” new quarterback Carson Wentz said, “and things happen so fast.”

Carson Wentz held up well against the blitz in Week 1 — but more are coming

But it’s a teensy-weensy bit tempting, right? Let’s do it.

Sunday’s game is at Detroit. Detroit! Washington has been a lousy franchise since the Clinton administration. The Lions? The Lions are worse! Since 2000, Washington has just one playoff victory. Detroit has zero! Since 2000, Washington has a regular season winning percentage of .417, 28th in a 32-team league. Dreadful. The Lions’ winning percentage is .347 — 31st!

It’s a winnable game? It’s a winnable game.

“We’re concerned about Detroit,” tight end Logan Thomas said.

Concerned? Please. The Lions are a living, breathing tomato can. On to Week 3!

Okay, well, Week 3 brings the Philadelphia Eagles to FedEx Field, and the Philadelphia Eagles just hung 38 points on the Lions in Detroit, where they ran for 216 yards. The Eagles made the playoffs last season. They’ll be favored in this game, rightfully so.

So … coin toss?

Week 4: At Dallas. The last time Washington visited Dallas, the Cowboys delivered an embarrassing 56-14 pasting and outgained Washington by 240 yards. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott completed whatever passes he liked, throwing for four touchdowns and no picks and …

Wait. Prescott’s not going to play in this game because of a thumb injury? The Commanders will draw … Cooper Rush?

So you’re saying there’s a chance?

“You think about it, of course,” defensive back Bobby McCain said. “I watch ESPN, and I watch ‘First Take’ and all those guys, and they always talk about what’s coming. ‘Oh he’s on IR, he’s not on IR.’ You hear all that. But in this league, man, you got to take it one week at a time. We have a big division game next week …”

Uh, Bobby. Detroit is this week. Philadelphia is next week.

“The only game that matters right now is Detroit,” McCain said.

Right, right. So it would be irresponsible to look at that Week 5 game at home against Tennessee, and think about how the Titans lost their opener at home to the New York Giants, and remember how Washington beat the Giants twice last season not with the strong-armed Wentz but with plucky Taylor Heinicke behind center. The Transitive Property of the NFL means beating the Titans is decidedly possible. If not probable.

Next! A Thursday night tilt at Chicago. Chicago? Yeah, the Bears opened with a come-from-behind victory over San Francisco. Things happen. It’s the NFL. But they did it by gaining all of 204 yards — the lowest Week 1 total in the league. Plus, before the season began, the Westgate SuperBook had the Commanders favored by 2½ in this game, and all the Vegas sites had Washington’s over-under win total higher than Chicago’s.

Sounds like that rare weekend off will be spent smoking a victory cigar.

Now we’re getting out there, deep into October. So much will happen between now and then — injuries, interceptions, touchdowns, turmoil. Who knows? It would be beyond irresponsible to get that far ahead of ourselves. So it’s not even worth pointing out that the Week 7 opponent, Green Bay, managed seven points in an opening loss to Minnesota in which Aaron Rodgers was sacked four times. Rodgers is 38 and has no reliable receivers.

Maybe he’s done?

That win against Jacksonville has opened up preposterous possibilities. Hasn’t it?

The Commanders had many firsts in Week 1. Darrick Forrest’s may have been best.

“You have no time to think about next week or the next week or the next week, you know?” Wentz said, taking the decidedly unfun track. “We take it one game at a time” — [insert eyeroll emoji here] — “and I think all that stuff is fun for everybody else.

“But we don’t have time, quite frankly, or the emotional energy to spend on those things because we’re trying to find a way to win right now.”

Fine. Welcome to town, Mr. Wet Towel. Sure, you’re not going to win them all. Seems like 6-1, right?

“I think it is good for us to see that we can have confidence,” Wentz said.

That’s more like it. I mean, it’s not like Washington has lost, say, its last four trips to Detroit, including two years ago in Rivera’s first season, including 2010 when Mike Shanahan benched Donovan McNabb for Rex Grossman for the failed final drive, including 2009 when the Lions broke a 19-game losing streak.

Hold on. I’m being told that … all of those things are true?

And, um, now I’m being told that the Lions are favored in this game, and that it’s the first time the Lions have been favored in a game since November 2020. Vegas has apparently not been notified that Washington is now a juggernaut.

“I didn’t really hear anything about that,” right tackle Sam Cosmi said. “I could honestly care less about that.”

Right answer, Sam. We’re picking and choosing what we care about around here. I mean, it’s not as if Washington hasn’t started 2-0 in more than a decade.

/Checks notes/

Oh, dear. Washington’s last 2-0 start came in 2011. What happened that year? It lost six in a row in midseason and finished 5-11, last in the NFC East.

Maybe this Week 1-win-colors-everything theory needs more investigating. Let’s see. Before this season, Washington won its first game 11 times this century. Only three times did that victory lead to a winning record. The last start of 5-1 or better: 1996.

It’s almost as if there’s a baked-in incompetence around here, like the franchise has been hot garbage for more than two decades. Come to think of it, every opponent on the Commanders’ schedule is looking at their game and saying, “We can win that one.”

Sigh. Why does it suddenly feel like the Commanders will lose at Detroit? And when they do, look at how hard the schedule seems. Where in the world will they find a win?

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Source: WP