Commanders Coach Ron Rivera, sitting in the audience, leaned across the table to New York Coach Brian Daboll and jokingly whispered, “No more of that.”

Daboll grinned and shrugged, “You know Wink.”

Eight months later, Martindale blitzed again and again until Washington wilted during Sunday’s 14-7 loss at MetLife Stadium. The Giants blitzed on 29 of 49 dropbacks (59.2 percent), the highest blitz rate a Washington quarterback has faced in a decade, according to the website TruMedia. But Martindale’s blitzes aren’t the story; they just produced acute symptoms of a broader illness that has plagued the Commanders all season.

Simply put, Washington is terrible at handling Pressure.

Okay, that might be too simple. Nearly every team’s offense is worse if its quarterback is under duress. But it’s important to distinguish between the rate at which quarterback Sam Howell faces pressure (roughly league-average, other than in that lopsided Week 3 loss to Buffalo) and the rate at which bad things happen when he is under pressure (extremely high).

One micro example: On the Commanders’ last offensive play against the Giants, pressure forced Howell to throw, on the run, an off-target (but catchable) ball that wide receiver Jahan Dotson couldn’t haul in.

One macro example: Howell has taken a sack on 34.8 percent of his pressures, which, if that holds up, would be the highest rate of any quarterback since at least 2011, according to TruMedia. That’s a massive problem capable of derailing drives.

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“Everyone has a hand in it,” Howell said of Washington’s struggles with pressure. “A lot of the sacks this year, I think I could’ve done a better job of getting rid of the ball. Then there [are] times that we get beat up front. We can all do a better job of just focusing on what our job is.”

For the first six weeks, opposing defensive coordinators were content to blitz Howell at an average or below-average amount. If they played good coverage, Howell would hold the ball, and when that led to pressure, he would make a mistake, such as the sack fumbles against Arizona and Denver or the end-zone interception against Buffalo. But Martindale unsurprisingly turned up the heat.

Washington players blamed a combination of things for falling apart. The line struggled to win one-on-one matchups, Howell held the ball too long, receivers occasionally struggled to get separation downfield against man-to-man coverage, and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy didn’t change the game plan until after halftime. Several times, Howell and his blockers struggled to communicate about protection at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s loud, and whenever you have to turn around to hear the call, you have to get your eyes right back on that ball because we’re on silent cadence,” right tackle Andrew Wylie said. “Sometimes they’re bringing four or five people to a side. We got to get the calls. We got to execute the calls.”

Center Nick Gates was blunter.

“I got my a– kicked today,” he said.

In the second half, Bieniemy called more plays with “max” protection, featuring seven blockers. He sometimes brought on Cornelius Lucas as a sixth offensive lineman. He moved the pocket with rollouts, which helped the quarterback and the line by dividing the field in half. He called more quick passes and downfield shots to counter blitzes, and wide receiver Terry McLaurin hauled in receptions of 15, 27 and 31 yards.

The drives improved. One became a short-field touchdown. Mistakes and penalties prevented points, but the offense moved the ball. Rivera said the game plan included the six-lineman package. So why didn’t Bieniemy shake it up sooner?

“You work all week long on a game plan,” Howell said. “… It’s kind of hard, after the first few drives, to just say: ‘Screw it; we’re throwing our whole game plan away. We’re going to do something else.’ I thought our plan was fine; we’ve just got to do a better job of executing.”

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In the locker room, the offense’s struggles with pressure seemed to get to McLaurin.

“I’m constantly trying to work with [Bieniemy and wide receivers coach Bobby Engram] and the offensive staff to just continue to give me those chances down the field because I think go routes and fades are extremely pivotal in an offense, especially when they’re blitzing like that,” he said. “I’d definitely like to see us continue to get those up early because I think it really forces defenses to play more honest. They can’t blitz and play the safeties at 10, 12 yards. They can’t do that if you’re beating them down the field. I think we saw that. That’s the reason, in the second half, they started softening up a little bit because we were getting behind them.”

Before this season, many players gushed about the talent and potential of the offense under Bieniemy. On Sunday, several said the growing pains haven’t shaken their faith.

“I’m still excited about what this offense brings,” tight end Logan Thomas said. “We got all the talent in the world. We just got to execute. Every week, we cut on the film, we see guys running open, and we have chances to make plays. But everybody’s got to do their collective part — myself included.”

It’s clear the Commanders struggle to handle pressure on the field. But as the weeks pass and the stakes get higher, how they will handle pressure off the field is an open question.