Burgundy & Gold Reaction: Jayden Daniels Shines on Prime Time

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September 27, 2024

by David Earl

Defensive Disaster Again

Before discussing the obvious here on offense, this defense was non-existent Monday night versus the Cincinnati Bengals, and the tone was set during the Bengals’ first offensive possession. A six-play, 70 yard drive culminating in a 41 yard touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase gave Washington fans an idea of how long the night ahead was going to be  defensively. Even considering that Chase is one of the top wide receivers in the game and Washington does not have a corner to contest him, the ease of this drive was infuriating. In the first half, Washington’s defense allowed the Bengals running game 6.1 yards per carry average, and Joe Burrow finished with a 115.5 quarterback rating.

The most problematic aspect of this defense has been the defensive tackles through these first 3 games. Entering this matchup, the Washington defense ranked 18th in the league, having previously allowed 4.6 yards per carry.  That number has now eclipsed 5 yards per carry average, which is ranked 29th in the league. The combination of Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen have combined a total of 6 tackles (combo and solo together) which does not even total that of the Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle group. Raiders defensive tackles Christian Wilkins and Luke Masterson both have 11 total  have been far more impactful all the while Materson accounts for only $988K against the cap this season compared to the $21M plus that Allen and Payne each cost Washington. While neither team has been very good against the run, this picture shows the poor return on investment Washington has received thus far in the 2024 season.  Washington’s  defensive concerns extend well past Allen and Payne; regardless, these two are being relied upon to impact games but they are not to this point.

Sticking to the defensive side of the ball, Washington’s secondary continues to allow chunk plays in the passing game. Granted, they faced two great wide receivers in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, but allowing 11 yards per reception to the Bengals’ top 3 wide receivers plus 11.8 yards per reception to the tight end is an indefensible outcome. After week 3 of the season, Washington’s secondary is ranked 29th in yards per pass reception, at 8.0. They are also last in passer rating allowed at 127.6, and ranked 31st in allowing completions for first downs at 14.7 per game. There was a solid bright spot of a play in which defensive back Mike Sainristill made a great read on a wide receiver screen which he nearly picked it off. Unfortunately, the positive plays were few and far between.

 

Jayden Daniels Coming Out Party

I will not even entertain the idea the Bengals’ defense is bad and that’s why Jayden Daniels completed a historic night for a rookie quarterback. This Bengals defense was a week removed from holding arguably the NFL’s best quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, to a final quarterback rating of 80.6 while intercepting 2 of his passes. As it may be true they could have played up for the game against Kansas City but rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels led his 8.5 point underdog team to a very sound victory offensively. Daniels was not just successful against their defense; he dominated this group in every facet of the game and against one of the game’s top defensive coordinators, Lou Anarumo.

Daniels set the rookie record for completion percentage in a single game, 91.3%, on his way to 254 yards passing, 3 total touchdowns, including 1 rushing, and a quarterback rating of 141.7. Two instances may have been more impressive than the totality of his numbers. Washington’s opening drive after the Bengals 6 play drive, which was just over 3 minutes and culminated in a touchdown, was nearly flawless. Daniels engineered a 10 play, 70 yard drive to tie the game at 7 – 7. What stood out here was not only Daniels’ play but how he managed the offense downfield. Under the prime time lights, we can sometimes see nerves early on, especially mental errors, but that was not an issue here the entire night.

Washington’s young quarterback showed two things in particular on what ended up being the game-winning drive. In one instance, Daniels showed a sense of urgency, without getting rattled, in getting the play from the sidelined when Kliff Kingsbury seemed to be a bit delayed. Even with the delayed calls the execution throughout that drive was very impressive. Closing out this final drive, against a zero blitz and recognizing the 1-on-1 matchup on Terry McLaurin, Daniels was not deterred by the rush in his face while delivering a perfect 27 yard touchdown pass to McLaurin. During that final play, Daniels had to assist Luke McCaffery to get into the right position while Washington only had 10 men on the field. There were far more moments but this one drive in particular stood out the most for me in this game.

Speaking of Kingsbury, in my opinion, he might have coached the best game of his NFL career. Kingsbury utilized motion and misdirection plays throughout this game that kept the Bengals’ defense guessing all night. The opening play had Austin Ekeler and Brian Robinson Jr. in the backfield. Kingsbury had the right guard and tackle pulling across the line as if to run a counter-run play. This froze the linebackers just enough to allow Ekeler to run for 8 yards away from the pulling linemen. During the 4th play call of Washington’s second possession , Ekeler and Robinson were in an offset I-Formation to the right of Daniels. After the snap, Robinson came across Daniels to help set protection off the edge while Ekeler took a route out wide to the sideline. This was enough to freeze the linebacker and pull the safety over enough to allow a 16 yard completion to Noah Brown. Kingsbury set this tone early in the game and left the defense guessing on nearly every snap. This was not indicative of Kingsbury’s offense consistently in Arizona, as I spoke about earlier this offseason. If this remains a consistent part of the offense this season it will not only help protect Daniels against some of the league’s top pass rush defenses, but will allow for his growth as a quarterback to grow exponentially as well. I liked what I saw in Kingsbury up to the last drive, during which his plays seemed to come in late or delayed to Daniels who was visibly showing urgency towards the sidelines. We cannot expect a perfect game, so I consider that sequence to be an aberration when looking at the game as a whole.

Beyond the Team Observation: Justing Fields Flourishing

From Chicago Bears fans chanting “We Want Fields” back in December of the 2023 season to them campaigning a month later to keep Justin Fields, his early start with the Pittsburg Steelers is proving their desires warranted thus far. The Steelers’ 3-0 start has plenty to do with their defensive ranking in the league. They are currently ranked 7th in completion percentage against (61.73%) and sack percentage (10%) while also being the second-best run defense allowing 3.5 yards per carry. Justin Fields’ play within their scheme has made great contributions to their undefeated start. Thus far Fields has a 73.3% competition percentage, with 75 pass attempts.  His previous best was 61.5% last season. Although his 9.4 yards per completion this year are under his 11.4 career average, as well as his 11.3 last year with the Bears, Fields has the best passer rating of his career thus far at 95.3.

Yes, it is early in Fields’ tenure for the Steelers, and the early struggles of Caleb Williams so far by no means indicate that he is a bust, but both performances will make the remainder of this season interesting to watch. Maybe Fields is a scheme-dependent quarterback, but that is more of a condemnation of the Bears’ handling of him than it is a negative reflection of Fields. Mike Tomlin is a great head coach who knows how to get the best from his players, which is why he has never had a losing season for the Steelers. Thus far we are seeing him doing a great job again. Fields is truly benefitting from Tomlin’s coaching staff. This will be a fun story to watch, especially if Fields wins the division with half the offensive talent the Bears currently have in place and they were to miss the playoffs altogether. What are your thoughts on this whole situation?