Jayden Daniels flourishes as Commanders beat Lions

Breaking down Jayden Daniels performance as he led the Commanders to an unlikely playoff victory over the Lions

Rookie sensation Jayden Daniels once again quarterbacked the Washington Commanders to an outstanding playoff victory, this time against the top seed in the NFC. The Commanders travelled to Detroit on Saturday to face off against the 15-2 Detroit Lions who boast one of the top offenses in the league. Daniels and the Commanders went punch for punch with the Lions and came out on top, winning 45-31 to send the Commanders to the NFC Championship game next weekend. There were a lot of big performances in the game, including five turnovers by the defense, but nothing quite stacked up to Jayden Daniels.

Daniels was simply sensational. He completed 22 of 31 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns. He added another 51 yards on the ground to take his total yards to 350. He continued to demonstrate that no moment is too big for him. He showed confidence and poise, converting several key third and fourth down plays and finding various ways to beat the blitzes the Lions threw at him throughout the game. The Lions made a choice to go early and often at Daniels with blitzes and Daniels quickly proved he was up to the task.

This is just the fourth play of the game for the Commanders. They work out of their 21 pony personnel, consisting of two running backs, one tight end and two wide receivers. The “pony” tag tells the offense that rather than having a running back and fullback on the field, both backs are traditional running backs, in this case Austin Ekeler and Jeremy McNichols. Ekeler aligns essentially as a tight end to the right of the formation, allowing tight end Zach Ertz to play more in the slot just outside of him. Meanwhile, McNichols takes up the more traditional running back role to the left of Daniels in the shotgun.

Before the snap, Daniels sees a potential blitz threat from the Lions. He points to linebacker Alex Anzalone (No.34), changing the protection to slide left towards him instead of accounting for the normal Mike (middle) linebacker Jack Campbell (No.46). Daniels was spot on with his protection change as just before he snaps the ball, Anzalone walks up to the line of scrimmage and joins the rush off the edge. The line slides to the left and that enables them to pick up the blitz from Anzalone as well as the other four defensive lineman. Anzalone isn’t the only blitzer though. Safety Brian Branch also joins the blitz off the slot from the other side. Austin Ekeler chips Branch before releasing to the flat while Jeremy McNichols slides across to pick up the block afterwards.

With the protection sorted, Daniels has time to drop back and evaluate the coverage. The Lions sink back into an odd zone coverage. It’s rare to see zone coverage behind a six-man blitz but the Lions play a sort of two-deep, three-under zone coverage that almost looks like Tampa-2 but without the hook defenders. The safeties stay over the top of the two outside receivers while the Mike linebacker sinks back to match Ertz in the middle of the field. This does leave a ton of space underneath for Ekeler as a checkdown option, so Daniels quickly dumps the ball off to Ekeler in the flat, who is then able to pick up 24 yards after the catch.

It wasn’t necessarily the most spectacular throw from Daniels, but it was a great mental process. He identified the blitz pre-snap, likely from film study during the week, and adjusted the protection to get it blocked up properly. That gave him the time to sit in the pocket and decipher the coverage before recognizing the checkdown to Ekeler in the flat was the best option, which while not a difficult throw, rewarded him with 24 yards on the play.

While the Lions looked to blitz Daniels a lot in this game, they did occasionally try a change up, especially in situations where the Commanders would have been expecting a blitz.

On third and 10, the Commanders opt to spread things out with an unconventional personnel group. They have no running back on the field here. Tight end Zach Ertz is in the slot to the left, but he’s joined by four wide receivers. Terry McLaurin lines up on the outside to the left while Jamison Crowder is in the slot next to him. Dyami Brown is on the outside to the right with Olamida Zaccheaus in the slot to that side. The Commanders call a chains concept, with all five receivers working to the first down marker and breaking off at slightly different depths, trying to find a hole in the defense for Daniels to throw to.

With the Commanders using an unusual personnel group and working out of an empty set on third and long, the Lions opt to drop back into coverage and not blitz. They do use a simulated pressure, with linebacker Jack Campbell joining the rush from the left side of the line while the defensive end on the right side drops out into coverage, but it’s still just a four man rush. The offensive line picks up the pressure well and Daniels has time to try and work through his options. Naturally he works to his left as both of his go-to targets, Ertz and McLaurin, are on that side of the field. He appears to look to Ertz first, but recognizes that safety Kerby Joseph is rotating down from deep to match that route. So he progresses outside and finds that safety Brian Branch has shuffled inside, leaving Crowder in space outside of him.

Branch isn’t that far away from Crowder, but Daniels reads the leverage. He can see that Branch has opened his hips inside towards Ertz, so it would take Branch an extra beat to flip his hips back outside before being able to close on Crowder. That’s all Daniels needs to make up his mind and he quickly pulls the trigger. His efficient, compact release enables him to get the ball out fast and hit Crowder before Branch is able to flip his hips back outside. Crowder secures the catch and picks up the first down to move the chains and keep the drive alive.

It’s another throw that speaks to a great mental process from Daniels. He’s done an outstanding job this season making throws based on leverage of defenders. He’s not just looking at a receiver and seeing if that receiver has space, he’s reading defenders and seeing what their leverage is. If they are facing away from a target, like Branch was here, Daniels has been excellent and understanding that despite being close to his intended target, the defender doesn’t have great leverage and can still be attacked. It’s not something you see all that often from young quarterbacks, especially not rookies in a road playoff game against the No.1 seed.

The Commanders knew if they were to beat the Lions, they would have to win a shootout and hit some explosive plays to keep up with Detroit's high-powered offense. Earlier in the season. Daniels missed quite a few opportunities to hit the explosive shots down the field. But that wasn’t the case in this game.