National Football League

Turning The Corner

Updated Sep. 15, 2020 10:11 a.m. ET

The Washington Football team overcame a litany of obstacles during not only the offseason, but during their season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles to start out their season 1-0, as well.

After being known as the Redskins for the last 87 years, the franchise changed the name and look, with a switch to the "Washington Football Team" becoming official on July 23.

The new era for the franchise got off to a turbulent start with presumed starting running back Derrius Guice being released a month before the season opener due to domestic violence charges.

And it would only get more intense for the franchise, with head coach Ron Rivera revealing that he has been diagnosed with cancer on Aug. 21.

Come Sunday, it appeared as if the weight of all of these circumstances might have been sinking the Washington Football Team early against the Eagles, with the team falling behind 17-0 and Rivera needing an IV at halftime.

But the team would rally behind the play of their two young offensive and defensive cornerstones in 2019's No. 15 overall pick, quarterback Dwayne Haskins, and 2020's second overall pick, Chase Young.

Haskins would finish the game 17-for-31 for 178 yards and a touchdown, and while the numbers might not be eye-popping it was his leadership and poise at halftime that helped rally his team.

After the game, Haskins spoke on the reasoning behind giving the speech and what he hoped to accomplish with it.

"Pretty much the moral of the speech was, 'We're home. We're the home team,'" Haskins said." I was just trying to find a way to motivate the guys. They're the visitors. There's no reason why we should be little bro to them. There was nothing that they did that really stopped us."

On the defensive end, Young would record 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble in his NFL debut for a defense that sacked Carson Wentz eight times in the opener while forcing three turnovers.

It wasn't just a big opening season win for Washington, but a sign the franchise may be turning a corner from where it had been in recent years; the Football Team was 1-3 in its last four season openers.

This was also a larger comeback than any the team had in the 2019 season, surpassing their 11-point comeback against the Carolina Panthers in Week 13 to win the game 29-21.

They even garnered the attention of one of the biggest Washington Football Team fans in the country, Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant.

A season opening victory doesn't guarantee success in the future.

But for a young team looking to start a new era for one of the most storied NFL franchises, a win surely won't hurt.