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Breaking down Jayden Daniels’ performance in the Commanders dramatic victory over the Bears.
Jayden Daniels...spent the week building up to the game dealing with a rib injury suffered on the opening play of the Panthers game a week ago. His game status was uncertain until pre-game warm ups, when he was confirmed as the starter. While the offense struggled to finish drives, Daniels was very productive. He completed 21 of 38 passes for 326 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for another 52 yards on eight carries. Given the circumstances of his injury and some issues the offense had around him, it was a strong performance from Daniels. He started the game off well too, looking to play from the pocket and work as a passer first and foremost.
On this play, the Commanders run a bow concept. Tight end Zach Ertz aligns to the left and runs a basic cross while running back Brian Robinson works out to the flat. Receiver Terry McLaurin motions across the formation before the snap and spots up in between the two other routes to that side of the field, creating the bow concept. The core of the concept is to create a high-low read on an underneath zone defender. If the defender sinks back under the basic cross, Daniels can take McLaurin on the spot route underneath, but if the defender attaches to McLaurin underneath, Daniels can find Ertz over the middle for a bigger gain.
Daniels does a really nice job here. As he drops back to pass, he aligns himself to deliver the throw to McLaurin on the spot route underneath. He goes as far as faking beginning his throwing motion to fully sell that he’s throwing to McLaurin. This is an effort to manipulate the coverage and open up the window to Ertz behind him. Now, the zone defender in coverage isn’t fooled by this because he never really looks at Daniels. He spots McLaurin’s route breaking off and immediately looks to attach to it, so never sees Daniels looking that way or faking a throw to him. So technically, the manipulation from Daniels doesn’t work, but I love that he was thinking about it and attempting it in order to open up a deeper throwing lane. With the defender attaching to McLaurin, Daniels is able to reset to the middle of the field and find Ertz on his basic cross for a nice gain and a first down.
Teammates didn’t sense Daniels was limited by the injury that knocked him out in the first quarter of last week’s home win over the Carolina Panthers. They admired the effort.
“That’s the dog...
