LANDOVER, Md. — For about 30 seconds, we were all wondering who would sing “The Ballad of Jayden Daniels,” weren’t we? Jay-Z, who was at Northwest Stadium on Sunday to watch in person? Teddy Swims? Probably not Kendrick Lamar, right? He’s hella busy this weekend.
And then … karma, who isn’t held off idly or easily, put sand in long snapper Tyler Ott’s arms and threw off the timing of what most of us think is the easiest thing to do on a football field: kick an extra point. So Austin Seibert’s kick that would have forced an improbable tie with the Dallas Cowboys — after Daniels somehow sent Terry McLaurin on his way for a ridiculous 86-yard touchdown pass with 21 seconds remaining — flew wide left.
If we’re being honest, the Commanders deserved it.
Dallas played better Sunday than Washington, and as the Cowboys came to town off of 34-6 and 34-10 losses in JerryWorld and were a 3-7 team going nowhere without its injured franchise quarterback, that’s an indictment of the home squad.
“I don’t think we hit the ground running. We started slow,” Commanders safety Jeremy Chinn said, a day before Tell the Truth Monday, and that’s a good sign at least of the honesty with which Washington has to face what is now a three-game losing streak after Sunday’s 34-26 loss. You can write off losses to NFL Pennsylvania, with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles holding it down as ever. But Dallas is a dumpster fire.
💔@NWFCU | #DALvsWAS pic.twitter.com/svMIlE7Vle
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) November 24, 2024
This was the first time this season that it felt like Dan Quinn’s team wasn’t ready to play, despite the week-plus off after the loss in Philly. It was the first time offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury looked a step behind his team’s opponents on the defensive side of the ball most of the day. In the opener at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Daniels held the ball a little too long; against the Eagles, Saquon Barkley wore down the Commanders’ D. But Dallas stuffed Washington’s ground game all day — especially after Brian Robinson Jr. sprained his ankle in the first quarter — took away McLaurin until the very end and put consistent pressure on Daniels.
Washington’s two touchdown drives in the last three minutes of play came against soft Dallas coverages — well, actually, the second one came against no coverage at all. If you know what the Cowboys were trying to “prevent” when they let McLaurin scamper unimpeded down the sideline, let me know.
The Commanders offense somehow scored just 9 points through three quarters despite starting eight of their first nine drives of the games at …
- the Cowboys’ 40-yard line,
- their own 32-yard line,
- the Cowboys’ 47,
- their own 42,
- the Cowboys’ 39,
- their own 40,
- their own 30,
- their own 45.
“It’s very frustrating to play 3 1/2 quarters the way we did,” tight end Zach Ertz said. “It’s not like we weren’t trying different stuff. We did try new things. And we just couldn’t execute any of them.”
It was the first time in a while that the Commanders generated next to no pass rush, which gave Dak Prescott’s replacement, Cooper Rush, all kinds of time to enjoy a merry old time in the pocket (24-of-32, 247 yards and two touchdowns).
And it was definitely the first time this season that Washington’s special teams, despite blocking a field goal attempt and a punt in the first half, completely came unglued.
GETTIN’ STARTED EARLY
📺 #DALvsWAS FOX pic.twitter.com/R9aDfTt8iF
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) November 24, 2024
In the final 2:49, the Commanders gave up a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to Dallas’ KaVontae Turpin — after Turpin let the kickoff bounce back to the Dallas 1 — and a 43-yard touchdown to safety Juanyeh Thomas on an onside kick after Seibert’s missed extra point. Washington needed to go onside rather than kick the ball deep because on the extra-point attempt after McLaurin’s score, Ott delivered a low snap to punter Tress Way, Washington’s holder.
Way somehow got the ball kinda-sorta down for Seibert to kick, but the setup wasn’t seamless, and Seibert, who’d also missed a 51-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter and an extra point early in the third, pulled the ball wide left.
That’s a system-wide failure, and that’s on the head coach.
No one doubts the quality work Quinn and Adam Peters have done in building a franchise culture in their first season in Washington. The Commanders are a unified group in the locker room and on the field, and accountability is real. But it’s getting late in the season, and Washington’s postseason hopes, so robust at the start of the month, are taking on real water now.
It would be easy to hide behind it being the first year of what Quinn called a “recalibrate” (rather than a “rebuild”). But Washington had a mini-bye after the Eagles loss. The talk this past week was that being able to practice on a normal schedule would get Daniels and company back on schedule offensively. And that didn’t happen.
“Sometimes I feel there’s, when you make a mistake, ‘Is that one that’s technique or over-trying?’” Quinn said afterward. “And sometimes that can be a thing, to make sure, ‘Just make the plays that come to you.’ And that’s part of execution, too. I want to make sure we just stay into that pocket of doing that. Any player or coach can (say), ‘I’m going to make the perfect call or the perfect run or the — whatever that looks like.’ And more often, the best ones executed, and we’ll continue to work hard at that. But as we’re going through, that’s something we’re going to dig into.”
We all have seen what Daniels is capable of this season and how limitless his potential seems. But he hasn’t hit the marks he reached in the first 10 weeks. The team insists the franchise QB is healthy. But Washington’s offensive line is beaten all to hell, and Robinson seems dinged up weekly (he played only 12 snaps Sunday after suffering a sprained ankle in the first quarter). And it’s hard to see how the Commanders can put Austin Ekeler back on the field this season after he suffered yet another concussion, this time on a frightening hit on his kickoff return in the last minute.
“Nobody’s hanging their heads, but at the same time, this one definitely sucks,” McLaurin said.
The Commanders are still in control of their potential postseason destiny, but the road ahead, which seemed so clear at 7-2, has gotten cloudy and cold and bleak all of a sudden. Their commitment to one another and their truth-telling during the week have to start showing up again on Sundays for this season to keep from spiraling into a lost opportunity for an organization that had made making the right moves look so easy. It’s never easy in pro sports, and in the NFL in particular. You always have to re-prove yourself, week after week after week.
(Photo of Terry McLaurin: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
