Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I thought from the beginning of the weekend that the Commanders–Bucs game would be the best of the bunch and I’m glad I was right.
In today’s SI:AM:
🐷 Daniels in total command
📖 A.J. Brown’s unorthodox in-game motivation
🏈 Pats back to their old ways
He’s the real deal
After two decades as the biggest laughingstock in the NFL, the Washington Commanders have finally won a playoff game.
Sunday night’s 23–20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the franchise’s first playoff win since January 2006 (following the ’05 regular season), way back when Joe Gibbs was the team’s coach. That was early on in the bumbling tenure of horrendous owner Dan Snyder, and the team would go on to have just four more winning seasons before Snyder sold the franchise in July 2023.
Ditching Snyder was the first step to bringing the Commanders out of the doldrums. The second was drafting Jayden Daniels.
Washington took Daniels with the second pick in the 2024 draft, and he immediately validated the team’s decision with a Rookie of the Year-caliber season. Winning in the regular season is one thing. Controlling a game on the road in the postseason is another.
Daniels was brilliant in the win over the Bucs on Sunday night, completing 24 of 35 pass attempts for 268 yards and two touchdowns. He did not throw an interception and he was sacked only once (for a loss of zero yards). He also ran 13 times for 36 yards. The stats aren’t outrageous, but Daniels was in complete control of the Commanders’ offense, making the right plays at the right times to keep the ball moving and keep Tampa Bay’s potent offense on the sidelines.
Washington’s five scoring drives looked like this:
• 17 plays, 92 yards, 9:08 (touchdown)
• 11 plays, 37 yards, 5:28 (field goal)
• 10 plays, 66 yards, 4:30 (field goal)
• Four plays, 13 yards, 2:10 (touchdown, following a Bucs fumble)
• 10 plays, 51 yards, 4:41 (game-winning field goal)
The Commanders had seven offensive series (excluding a kneel-down at the end of the first half) and ran 69 total plays. That’s nearly 10 plays per drive. The Bucs, meanwhile, ran just 44 plays on their seven series (6.3 plays per drive). Washington dominated the time of possession 35:26 to 25:34.
The best example of Washington’s ability to control possession came on that game-winning field goal drive, when the Commanders took over with 4:41 left to play and engineered a long, efficient drive that denied the Bucs the chance to possess the ball again. Daniels made the two biggest plays of the drive, first standing firm while the pocket collapsed around him to find Dyami Brown for a 21-yard gain on third-and-6, then taking it himself for a four-yard gain on third-and-1 that allowed the Commanders to drain the rest of the clock.
Give the Commanders’ defense credit for limiting a potent Tampa Bay offense, but Daniels was clearly the story of the game. The Bucs held Washington to just 82 rushing yards on 33 carries (2.5 yards per attempt), but Daniels kept the offense on the field with his efficient passing.
The Commanders’ reward for beating the Bucs is a trip to Detroit next week to face the NFC-best Lions. Detroit will be a heavy favorite and it’s highly likely that Daniels’s rookie season will come to an end in the divisional round. But this season has been a very pleasant surprise for Washington after going 4–13 last year. The team still clearly has holes to fill (especially in the defensive backfield) before it can be considered a real contender, but it’s a lot easier to address those needs now that Washington knows what it has in Daniels.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- By now you’ve surely seen the viral image of A.J. Brown reading a book on the sideline during the Eagles’ win over the Packers. Conor Orr leafed through the book to try to determine what lessons Brown might have learned from it and also spoke to the author about the unexpected attention his work is receiving.
- Orr also analyzed the Patriots’ hiring of Mike Vrabel and how it’s a step back toward the Bill Belichick era.
- Albert Breer is already looking forward to a Bills-Ravens game that is shaping up to be a dream matchup.
- Matt Verderame explains why the Steelers need to embark on a rebuild that could start with moving on from Mike Tomlin.
- Verderame also wrote about the Commanders-Bucs game and how Jayden Daniels rose to the occasion in his playoff debut.
- Pitt pulled off the biggest comeback in NCAA women’s basketball history in a win over SMU.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Jayden Daniels Played Beyond His Years in Commanders’ Win Over Bucs.
