Missed opportunites haunt Jayden Daniels as Commanders fall to Steelers

Breaking down Daniels performance against the Steelers

The Washington Commanders suffered their third defeat of the season in a stinging 28-27 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. The offense never really got going and left a lot of opportunities on the field, which will only make the loss feel worse. Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels had some struggles, especially early on. He completed just 17 of his 34 passing attempts for 202 yards and no touchdowns. He was only able to add five rushing yards on three attempts, both season lows for him as a runner. So what went wrong? Let’s take a closer look.

Early on, the Steelers did a good job of upsetting Daniels' rhythm. The Commanders have been extremely efficient all season and have done a good job getting Daniels into rhythm and leaning on the run game to help take pressure off him early in the game. The Steelers shut down the run game early, leading to multiple quick third down situations where the Steelers could let their pass rushers go hunt. They’re known for bringing plenty of pressure on third down and Daniels struggled to cope with that early on. 

This is the opening third down of the game for the Commanders. It’s third and two, so a run is open to them, but the Steelers are playing it like it’s a pass. Both linebackers line up in the A gaps either side of the center, threatening to blitz. In these situations, the Commanders have prioritized protection over everything else. They’ve done a great job all season using extra blockers to chip on the edge and help the offensive line up front keep Daniels up right, even if it limits the number of receivers out running routes. But on this occasion, they opt to have all five eligible receivers run routes, including the running back. 

As a result of that protection plan, the offensive line has to be ready to handle the threat of the double A gap look from the defense. You can see at the snap, both left guard Nick Allegretti and left tackle Brandon Coleman step inside. They’re anticipating a linebacker to blitz in the A gap, meaning the line has to slide inside to pick it up and leave the edge rusher with the most distance to travel free for Daniels to account for. However, that linebacker doesn’t rush, so Allegretti and Coleman attempt to get back outside to their respective blocks. Coleman struggles to catch up to edge rusher Alex Highsmith, who quickly bursts by him on the way to Daniels. 

Feeling that pressure off the edge, Daniels speeds up his process. He attempts to get himself set and deliver a throw to Olamide Zaccheaus on a pivot route. It’s the correct throw, but due to the pressure, Daniels is unable to properly set himself and ends up pulling the throw just slightly out of the reach of Zaccheaus, leading to a punt. 

On the next drive, the Commanders went three-and-out again, with Daniels sacked on third down. 

On this third down, the Steelers do dial up a blitz, sending a linebacker as part of a five-man rush while playing man coverage behind it. While it is a five-man blitz, it almost looks like a six-man rush because the other linebacker plays man coverage on the running back and steps towards the line of scrimmage at the snap as the back looks to pass protect. As Daniels drops back to pass, he likely can see that it’s man coverage and sees the single deep safety in the middle of the field. He then looks to his right and checks tight end Zach Ertz, but decides that the throw isn’t open. Instead of working down to Luke McCaffrey underneath, who is running open on his shallow crosser, Daniels instead looks to his left to try and find a deep shot to Terry McLaurin. 

This mindset is likely due to two factors. The first is that when it’s man coverage, Daniels trusts McLaurin to win more often than not. The second is that McLaurin actually won a similar match up on the opening third down but Daniels had no time to look his way. Unfortunately on this occasion, McLaurin gets jammed at the line and taken out of the play.

This all happens in a split second, as when Daniels hits the top of his drop, he quickly feels the pressure off the edge. Coleman loses his block on the edge and Allegretti gets driven backwards too. Daniels attempts to step up to avoid the rush off the edge, but ends up stepping up into the pressure inside from Allegretti and is brought down for a sack. While the protection wasn’t great, I still feel as though Daniels should have been able to recognize it was man coverage against a blitz and that the shallow cross McCaffrey would likely be open over the middle. 

Daniels remained quite panicky under pressure for a few drives.