Jayden Daniels and the Commanders have a lot to fix after Thursday night's loss.
The Washington Commanders are on a bit of a slide recently after a red-hot start to the season, losing two straight games in just five days to drop to 7-4 on the season.
Shockingly, the Commanders' offense struggled all night against a Philadelphia Eagles defense that has been playing like one of the best units in the NFL as of late. The Eagles held Jayden Daniels and company to just 264 yards of offense and 18 points. The Commanders finished just 3-for-12 on third down and were unable to extend drives for a majority of the evening.
With the Commanders trailing 19-10 late in the fourth quarter, Daniels had one more chance to make a last-ditch comeback. However, that hope was short lived, as Daniels was intercepted by Eagles safety Reed Blankenship on the first play of the drive.
After the game, Daniels revealed what he and tight end Zach Ertz, the intended receiver, spoke about after the play.
“We were just talking about what we need to improve on, what he sees and stuff like that,” Daniels said. “Obviously, Zach is somebody that’s been through this type of stuff in his career, so it’s, ‘How can we bounce back?' And he was kind of just uplifting me, as far as you know, ‘Hey, no other person I’d rather play with. No other person I’d rather catch the ball from.' It’s a long season, so keep your head up and keep moving forward.”
Commanders slumping after surprising start
Thursday night's 26-18 loss to the Eagles marked the Commanders' second straight loss, as they have now lost significant ground in the NFC East race. If you told Commanders fans before the season that they would be 7-4 through 11 games they surely would have taken it, but the way they've gotten there over the last few days has been frustrating.
Dan Quinn and company followed up a close loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers with a disheartening performance on offense against the Eagles. The Commanders struggled both on the ground and through the air on Thursday night, and things were especially concerning in crucial situations such as third down.
Many fans are drawing back to Kliff Kingsbury's time with the Arizona Cardinals, where they consistently got worse over the back half of the season. That is cause for concern for this Commanders offense with Kingsbury calling the plays. If they experience a similar decline, this Commanders team could slide down the standings very quickly.
There is good news for the Commanders. The schedule lightens up significantly for them down the stretch, as they play their next three games against the Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans and New Orleans Saints. All three of those teams have already lost control of their seasons, so it's very possible that they are sitting at 10-4 in a month and this all feels like a distant memory. However, if they drop one of those games, it could spell trouble for them moving forward.
