The Commanders’ loss to the Cowboys was a dud for 45 minutes and a wild shootout for the final 15 or so – but was it better or worse when Jay Gruden went back and watched it a second time?
“The last few minutes was pretty chaotic on both sides of the ball, but the first three quarters, I think was just a matter of taking advantage of great opportunities, and Washington didn't do it,” Gruden told Grant & Danny. “They had great field position, opportunities to really jump out on them early and put your foot down and show who's a better team, and they didn’t do it. They just let Dallas hang around and hang around, and unfortunately, some big plays at the end, Dallas got the win.”
A lot of that was the offense just falling flat once again over the first 45 or even 50 minutes, something that has become a trend now more than an aberration.
“Third downs are bad, they’re 12-for-38 in their last three games, 10 sacks, and time of possession they’re averaging 24 minutes per game in the last three games,” Gruden said. “A lot of that has to do with the ability to keep the ball, and they're not staying on the field on third down. There’s a lot of reasons for it – sometimes it’s pressure related, sometimes Jayden misses a throw or there’s no throw to be had – so there’s a lot of things they can clean up, but the most important thing is they got to do a better job on third down.”
One thing Grant has noticed, too, is that Daniels seems to be locked in on certain reads at the expense of potentially making the play elsewhere, which has been costly.
“Sometimes it’s really his only option, but some of it is pressure-related. A lot of times it’s hard to get off your No. 1 target when feel pressure inside, and you gotta get rid of the ball,” Gruden said. “It’s just hard to point your finger at one thing. Sometimes it's pressure, sometimes he feels like the guy is open and the defensive back makes a good play, but it’s easy to hold the film on pause and then when the ball's gone, let it play again and see somebody come wide open, and say you should have held the ball and thrown it to this guy. That's not always the case when you have the ball in your hand and you're playing quarterback. There are times I agree he could have maybe held the ball a little bit longer, but that's easier said than done for a young quarterback.”
Perhaps a week of rest will help, which is why Gruden wants to see them come out strong, get a win against Tennessee to get to 8-5, and then refresh on the bye for the tough stretch run.
“The last three games they only average 100 yards rushing per game, and yesterday Jayden had like 60 of them, so I don't think they're getting as much push as they did earlier in the year,” Gruden said of the offensive line. “They’re not doing a lot of the same stuff they did early as well, and I think they're worn down a little bit. This has been a tough stretch for these guys, but they just got to buckle up one more week and get this big win against Tennessee, and then they can get a bye week, get their legs back, and then hopefully we'll see some more movement later in the year.”
Take a listen to Gruden’s entire visit above, as he also goes into why the Commanders couldn’t get the run going against Dallas, going for a PAT instead of going for two at the end, the idea of a Kliff Kingsbury regression, and more!