Hogs Haven
A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders
Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels hasn’t looked like himself, and there are no easy answers.
He missed throws, struggled to escape when running and rarely pushed the ball down the field. He threw his third interception of the season. He got stopped on a fourth-down rollout, a play that had worked for him several times earlier this year, and once, when he took an early hit, he grimaced in pain.
Afterward, Daniels and Coach Dan Quinn said the rib injury he suffered Oct. 20 was no longer affecting him. They said he wasn’t limited by the cut between the pinkie and ring finger on his throwing hand, which the team closed with a medical adhesive. A reporter asked whether he was healthy enough to play his game.
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be on the field,” he said.
Okay, then what’s up? Daniels’s struggles in Washington’s 26-18 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles weren’t as simple as, “Oh, he’s facing better competition now,” or “Oh, defenses are catching up to him and/or to Kingsbury’s scheme,” though that could be part of it.
But by many traditional and advanced metrics, the Eagles’ loss was Daniels’s worst game as a pro. It wasn’t just that he didn’t shine in some areas in which he has excelled all year — against the blitz, while scrambling, under pressure and with the deep ball. It was that he sometimes struggled with the basics.
In the first 10 weeks, Daniels was off target on just 3.8 percent of his throws that traveled five air yards or fewer, according to Pro Football Focus. But in Week 11, he was off target on 16 percent of them — and that was a huge deal against the Eagles’ two-high safety heavy scheme, which often forces quarterbacks to throw short. (Twenty-five of Daniels’s 32 attempts Thursday night were short.)
Breaking down Jayden Daniels issues in the Commanders loss to the Eagles
Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels had one of the worst performances of his career to date as the Commanders fell to a 26-18 loss to the Eagles on Thursday Night Football. Daniels completed 22 of 32 passing attempts for 191 yards and a touchdown, along with one interception. He added seven rushes for just 18 yards on the ground. Daniels looked uncomfortable all night, struggling to get things going and being more impacted by the pressure up front than he typically has been this season.
What stood out most was his misses on third downs. Daniels has been missing a few opportunities each game this year, but on third down he’s typically been sharper and able to convert, keeping drives alive and giving himself more...
