Evaluating all 8 Saints sacks on Jayden Daniels

Breaking down each sack the Saints got on Daniels

One of the eye-catching stats from the Commanders narrow win over the Saints on Sunday was the number of sacks quarterback Jayden Daniels took. Daniels was sacked eight times for 37 yards, by far the highest number of sacks he’s taken this season. His previous high in a single game was five sacks and that was back in Week 2 against the Giants. It certainly felt like the pass protection wasn’t great in this game, with starting center Tyler Biadasz a big miss up front, but as we learned last year with Sam Howell at quarterback, sacks aren’t always on the offensive line. So I figured I’d go through each sack and figure out what happened.

Sack 1

Situation: Second quarter, 14:36 remaining, 1st & 10 on Washington 37.

Analysis: The Commanders attempt to get to a play-action shot with a lot of misdirection in the backfield. Tight end John Bates sifts back across the line at the snap while receiver Jamison Crowder uses his tight alignment to loop around the back of Jayden Daniels in what's often known as a ghost or orbit motion. This is all misdirection to grab the attention of the defense while Terry McLaurin runs a deep corner-post route and Dyami Brown runs a high cross underneath it.

Off the snap, the Saints drop to a peculiar coverage with both deep safeties working towards the middle of the field. I think this surprised Daniels and made him believe he might be able to trigger the deep shot to McLaurin. However, one of the safeties was able to get back on top of him before it was too late. Meanwhile, the other safety read the high cross from Brown and cut it off well, taking away both of the deeper threats on this play. At this point, Daniels should just work to his checkdown in the flat. He does do that, but he works to the wrong side. He goes to his right, where running back Brian Robinson drifted too after the run fake. He starts his throwing motion to Robinson but spots a defender triggering quickly and opts against it. However, had Daniels looked to his left instead of right, he would have found Crowder in acres of space with no defender within 20 yards of him.

Daniels never spots Crowder and after passing up on Robinson, he attempts to scramble. He steps up in the pocket to try and avoid two rushers nearby, but ends up running into the arms of Chase Young, who brings him down for a four-yard loss.

Conclusion: This one is on Daniels. He had plenty of time to sit in the pocket and find a throw. Crowder was wide open in the flat the entire time but Daniels never once looked at him. It should have been a pretty big gain with Crowder having so much room to run after the catch, but Daniels never saw him and ended up taking a completely unnecessary sack.

Sack 2

Situation: Second quarter, 12:59 remaining, 3rd & 16 on Washington 31.

Analysis: A few plays after the first sack, the Commanders found themselves backed up in third and 16, which is a situation no offense wants to be in. The Commanders spread things out, working out of an empty backfield with Zach Ertz and Terry McLaurin to the right, Dyami Brown and Jamison Crowder to the left and Brian Robinson acting almost as a tight end on the right side of the line as a chipper. The Commanders have typically kept two players in to chip on these types of situations this season to provide help to both tackles, but here they only chip the right side.

That immediately comes back to bite them as Brandon Coleman loses quickly on the left side against Chase Young. Coleman attempts to use his favorite hand flash technique, but Young has done his homework and knows it’s coming. He waits for the hand flash and then as Coleman attempts to raise his hand back up, Young chops it down to give him a path to the edge. As Daniels hits his fifth step, he’s immediately having to try and climb the pocket as Young is closing in on him quickly.

Now, you could make an argument here that If Daniels just takes one quick hitch step to avoid Young and then throws his checkdown underneath to Robinson, he would avoid the sack. That is true, but it’s also third and 16 and Daniels knows a checkdown underneath isn’t likely to pick up a first down. So instead of just checking it down, he attempts to go off-script and scramble. Unfortunately, after stepping up in the pocket, center Michael Deiter and left guard Nick Allegretti lose control of their blocks and Daniels is brought down before he can fully escape the pocket.

Conclusion: While technically, Daniels could have made a pass to avoid this sack, he knew it was highly unlikely to lead to a first down and they would have had to have punted anyway. So I don’t blame Daniels for trying to scramble here. This one is on the offensive line for me. Coleman lost too quickly to Chase Young. I’ve spoken a lot this season about Coleman still needing that chip help on the edge and when he doesn’t get it, he doesn’t yet have enough variety with his hand fighting to sustain blocks consistently. I’ve written a few posts on Coleman’s hand flash technique being a good one, but him being overly reliant on it. Young clearly anticipated it and beat it as a result.

Deiter didn’t cover himself in glory at center either. He never recognized the stunt despite defensive tackle Cam Jordan stunting towards him and then pausing as he waited for the other defensive tackle to impact first. Deiter was caught completely by surprise, which meant the defensive tackle stunting into him ended up bursting past him into the backfield and Cam Jordan got a good jump on Allegretti too. So for me, this one is on the offensive line.

Sack 3