Loading ...Jayden Daniels is The Dude.
The Dude abides.
In its first playoff appearance in five years, the Washington Commanders beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 to advance to the NFC divisional round. It is the first time the Commanders have played this late into January since 2005.
That the Commander’s sudden reversal in fortunes coincides with Daniels’s arrival in the nation’s capital is no coincidence. Daniels, who will officially win Rookie of the Year honors in a few weeks, completed 24 of 35 passes for 268 yards with two touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 110.2.
“This is what we’ve been doing all season,” wide receiver Terry McLaurin said after the game. “It’s the preparation put in and I know that people may get tired of hearing it but it’s ‘winning time moments’ but that’s real and that shows up.”
Behind Daniels, the Commanders offense kept the ball for 35 out of 60 minutes. More importantly, it kept Tampa’s offense, specifically wide receiver Mike Williams off the field.
Williams finished the game with seven catches for 93 yards and one touchdown, but his effectiveness was limited as the Bucs only had the ball for a little over 23 minutes.
Tampa opened the game with an 8-play, 38-yard drive that ended with a Chase McLaughlin field goal, giving the Bucs an early 3-0 lead.
Daniels responded immediately. He took the offense to the Tampa 20-yard line and although the drive ended on a turnover on downs, the tone was set. Washington was going to possess the ball, and Tampa was going to be forced to stop them.
On its second possession, the offense produced a 17-play drive spanning 92 yards, 17 plays, and more than 9 minutes of game time. It ended when Daniels hit a wide-open Dyami Brown on a ten-yard touchdown pass to give Washington a 7-3 lead.
The defense then forced a three-and-out from Tampa and Daniels guided the offense on another long drive, this time 11 plays. The resulting field goal gave Washington a 10-3 lead.
Tampa would tie the score just before halftime, quarterback Baker Mayfield hit Williams on a one-yard throw to tie the game at 10-10.
After giving up a field goal to Washington, Tampa took a 17-13 lead when running back Bucky Irving scored on a four-yard throw from Mayfield in the third quarter.
The game turned on the next three series. The Commanders went on another long 12-play, 67-yard drive but on 4th down from the Tampa 3-yard line, Daniels’s pass to tight end Zach Ertz fell incomplete. Replay showed Ertz was held in the end zone but the officials missed the call.
Four plays later, Mayfield mishandled a snap, Washington linebacker Bobby Wagner pounced on the ball and suddenly, the Commanders offense had the ball back, this time on the Bucs 13.
Four plays later (on another 4th down call), Daniels found McLaurin in the endzone for a touchdown and a 20-17 lead.
“We just needed a play,” Wagner said of the fumble in an interview with the NFL Network. “They had a lot of momentum going their way and I saw the ball on the ground and just had to go get it.”
Tampa tied the score at 20 with another McLaughlin field goal with just over five minutes left in the 4th quarter.
That was more than enough time for Daniels.
He directed a 10-play, 51-yard drive to the Bucs 19 yard line. Running back Austin Eckler and Dyami Brown had big gains on pass completions.
With two seconds left, kicker Zane Gonzales lined up for a 37-yard field goal. The ball bounced off the right upright, but unlike in years past, the ball bounced the right way and the Commanders walked off the field with a 23-20 win.
The Commanders will travel to Detroit to face the NFC’s top seed, the Detroit Lions. At 15-1, the Lions are expected to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.
Washington will have something to say about that.
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