Jayden Daniels finds new ways to win against Browns
Breaking down Daniels performance and how he adapted to the Browns game plan
The Washington Commanders cruised to another victory on Sunday, this time against the Cleveland Browns. The Commanders took such a lead that they were able to rest key starters like quarterback Jayden Daniels for the entire fourth quarter and still won 34-13. But while the team ended up winning convincingly, things weren’t as smooth for rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. He completed just 14 of his 25 passing attempts but did pick up 238 yards with one touchdown and one interception on those passes. He also ran for a further 82 yards on 11 rushes.
The Browns came out with a strong game plan against him and he took some time to adjust, struggling with some misses in the first half. But the rookie quarterback managed to create some explosive plays that helped offset the misses. Let’s take a closer look at how the Browns set up to try and stop him, and how he managed to adjust.
Cleveland set out to prevent the Commanders from dictating the game to them. The Commanders have had a ton of success on offense this year from using the run game, run-pass options (RPOs), screens, read-option plays and quick game passes to keep themselves ahead of the chains. That has limited the number of plays Daniels has had to really drop back and pass to the intermediate and deep sections of the field. So the Browns decided to try and play extra aggressively in order to stop that efficiency.
They packed the box with an extra safety to stop the run, determined to make Daniels beat them as a passer rather than having the run game to lean on. When the Commanders called a read-option play, they forced Daniels to keep the ball and always had multiple defenders aggressively scraping to the edge to stop him.
This was the Commanders’ second play of the game. Their opening run was blown up, so they went back to the ground but with a read-option play. The read-option has been a nice out for the Commanders this year when the run game has struggled, but here the Browns do a textbook job of stopping it. The Browns instruct their defense to execute what’s known as the scrape exchange. The unblocked defensive end is tasked with just focusing purely on the running back, crashing inside regardless of what Daniels does with the ball. That gives Daniels a clear keep read, so he pulls the ball and looks to keep it himself. The problem for Daniels is that the linebacker from the second level immediately scrapes to the edge to replace the defensive end that crashed inside and is in the perfect position to make the tackle on Daniels.
The Browns fully committed to this tactic throughout the game, they refused to let Daniels beat them with the read-option. They consistently forced him to pull the ball and had multiple defenders scraping to the edge to ensure he had nowhere to go when he did. Kingsbury tried to go back to read-option looks at various points throughout the game, even after explosive runs like Austin Ekeler’s 50-yard run, hoping the defense might focus more on the run inside than Daniels, but the Browns stayed very disciplined on this matter and the Commanders got very little production from the read-option game as a result.
Another thing the Browns did to try and disrupt Daniels and the Commanders was play aggressive press man coverage. We’ve seen all season that Daniels has been very good at getting the ball out quickly and finding completions underneath for short gains with potential for yards after the catch. So to counter that, the Browns looked to play man coverage across the board and play physical at the line of scrimmage to take those quick hitters away.
This play came on the Commanders’ second drive of the game. The Commanders work out of 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) and have an even two-by-two formation. To the right of the formation, the Commanders run a spot concept, with tight end Zach Ertz running a corner route, running back Brian Robinson working out to the flat and receiver Olamide Zaccheaus spotting up in between them. To the left, the Commanders have what’s often known as “Lion”, which is essentially a double slant concept. This type of concept allows the quarterback to pick a side depending on if he’s expecting man or zone. The spot concept is good against various zone concepts while the lion concept is best against man.
Daniels correctly figures out that the Browns are in man coverage, so he works to the lion concept. He attempts to fire the ball into McLaurin on the slant, but quickly finds out how sticky the Browns corners are and how quickly they flow to the ball. McLaurin has a corner tight to him as the ball arrives, while the plug defender in the middle of the field follows Daniels’ eyes to McLaurin and is in position to land a big hit shortly after the ball arrives. Understandably, McLaurin is unable to hold onto the pass and takes a significant hit in the process, one that the Browns would hope would discourage both McLaurin and Daniels from attempting that type of throw again.
So the first two parts of the Browns’ game plan worked well. They stopped the run and shut down the read-option, and they took away the easy quick game passes that Daniels had thrived on. This set them up to try and execute the third part of their game plan. Once the Commanders got into third and long situations, the Browns wanted to heat up Daniels by bringing lots of pressure and seeing if he could make throws down the field with pressure in his face. They managed to sack him on the opening drive, but on the second drive, he made them pay for blitzing him.
On third and 13 on the Commanders’ second drive, the Browns call an aggressive blitz. They send six rushers, the front four and two extra defenders. The Commanders have a dagger concept to their left with Ertz running a corner-stop, or swirl route to the right. As Daniels drops back to pass, he recognizes that the line is overloaded to the right side. Brian Robinson does a good job picking up the first blitzer, but they have nobody available to pick up the second blitzer. That makes Daniels accountable for him. So Daniels takes off running, rolling out to his right around Robinson’s block to get to the edge.
Unlike in the opening few weeks of the season, Daniels doesn’t just instantly tuck the ball and run at this point. As he rolls out, he keeps his eyes down the field and spots Terry McLaurin working across the middle of the field trying to give him an option on the scramble drill. Daniels pulls the trigger and makes an extremely difficult throw on the run look like an effortless flick of the wrist. He launches it down the field and completes the pass to McLaurin for a 66-yard gain, unlucky that McLaurin is tripped up just short of the touchdown that the play deserved.
Daniels ability to avoid that pressure and create explosive plays showed another side of Daniels’ skill set. He’s thrived on schedule so far this season, executing the offense incredibly efficiently. But when the Browns set out to take away that ability to be efficient, he showed he had other ways to be productive too. Now it wasn’t perfect from Daniels. He was clearly thrown off a bit from the Browns game plan and he went on to miss a number of throws after that big play.
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