Jayden Daniels Reflects on Losing Commanders: “How Can We Fight Against Adversity? » | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats and Rumors

Washington Commanders star Jayden Daniels uses the team’s recent adversity to talk about how they can better move forward in their quest to make the playoffs.

Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s 26-18 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Daniels rhetorically asked “how do we fight adversity?” when talking about what went wrong for the offense over the last two games:

“For us? Man, we have to execute. We didn’t execute like we were before at the beginning of the season. So, we have to go back and, like I said, look at ourselves in “The Mirror . How can we improve? How can we continue to improve? It’s a long season, so there are going to be ups and downs, but how can we combat adversity? »

The No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft has taken the NFL by storm and quickly established himself as the favorite for Offensive Rookie of the Year. In 11 games, Daniels has 2,338 passing yards, 482 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns.

Just four days ago, Washington was well-positioned in the NFC playoff race. He was 7-2 and was alongside the Detroit Lions for home field advantage.

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Commanders 28-27 on Sunday thanks to a 32-yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Mike Williams late in the fourth quarter. The commanders experienced a quick turnaround Thursday night when they traveled to Philadelphia.

Now, the Commanders have fallen to the final wild card spot in the NFC after back-to-back losses. Their offense was held to fewer than 300 yards in both games after averaging 403.6 yards in eight games from Weeks 2-9.

Daniels had one touchdown in the last two games, a five-yard pass to Zach Ertz with 31 seconds remaining against the Eagles. He suffered a rib injury in Week 7 that clearly impacted his performance.

Daniels set an NFL rookie record and Commanders franchise record for completion percentage in a single game in Week 3 when he completed 91.3 percent (21 of 23) of his passes in a victory against the Cincinnati Bengals. income NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. He also made one of the most memorable plays of the year with his game-winning Hail Mary touchdown pass in a win over the Chicago Bears and 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.

Even though Kliff Kingsbury is only the offensive coordinator and not the head coach at Washington, his teams have a history of falling off in the second half of the season, dating back to his time at Texas Tech.

It is probably too strong to assume that Kingsbury’s past misfortunes are what currently afflicts the commanders. These last two games were against defenses ranked second (Steelers) and sixth (Eagles) in points allowed per game.

Things should get easier next week for the Commanders when they host the Dallas Cowboys on November 24. If their offense struggles against the second-worst defense in the NFL, then it will be time to raise panic in Washington.