Pride of Detroit
After a sobering defeat at the hands of a division rival, “5 Questions” is back with an opportunity for revenge. This week, we had the pleasure of connecting with Andrew York of Hogs Haven to give us some insight into the team responsible for ending the Lions season last year: the Washington Commanders. We talked about how Marcus Mariota takes charge of this offense, the Commanders pass-rush plan after dealing with season-ending injuries, and much more in the lead up to this rematch of the NFL Divisional round.
1. The injury suffered by Jayden Daniels is nothing short of devastating for the Washington Commanders, and it sounds like no one is being harder on themselves about it than head coach Dan Quinn.
With three starts under Marcus Mariota’s belt this year, how confident do you feel about the Commanders offense with him at the helm, and how different do things look from Kliff Kingsbury when Mariota’s quarterbacking the offense?
“I think Commanders fans are reasonably confident in Mariota as a backup and the offense won’t need to adjust at all. The Commanders have made Mariota one of the highest-paid backup QBs at $8M/year because they consider him to be one of the best backups available, and so far he has looked competent whenever coming in to replace Jayden Daniels. He also has a very similar playstyle as Jayden Daniels, with good ability to progress through reads, good accuracy at various levels of the field, and athleticism to threaten as a runner, all of which makes him an excellent fit for Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. In his two starts earlier this season, he led the Commanders to a 41-24 win over the Raiders and managed to score 27 points on a stingy Falcons defense (the second-most scored by an opposing offense on the Falcons this season). He did not look nearly as good in his start against the Chiefs a couple of weeks ago, but the entire team looked overmatched in that game and none of his receivers were getting open.
The main difference between Mariota and Jayden Daniels is that Mariota can execute the full offense and get whatever plays are created by the offensive scheme and his receivers, whereas Jayden Daniels has the additional ability to extend plays and operate outside of structure to get first downs even when the scheme/players didn’t get open. However, that has been an issue recently as receivers aren’t getting open and the offensive scheme doesn’t seem to be creating opportunities, so it’s getting stuck in the mud without Jayden’s ability to make something out of nothing. I don’t blame Mariota for this though, so much as his supporting cast for not getting open.”
2. Reports seem to indicate that Terry McLaurin isn’t expected to be on the field for this week’s matchup with Detroit. How much has his intermittent availability this year impacted the Commanders passing game, who–if anyone–has stepped up in his role, and how has Deebo Samuel been integrated into this offense?...
