Last week, in his appearances on both Grant & Danny and The Chris Russell Show, one of the things Jay Gruden advocated for to help the Commanders’ struggling offense was moving Terry McLaurin around the formation, getting him involved on both sides as well as moving in motion.
That’s exactly what happened Sunday, and the Commanders got him the ball early and often in a rout of Tennessee, with Terry finishing with eight grabs for 73 yards and a pair of first-half touchdowns.
“Not too shabby; the way they started was pretty impressive, and I liked the fact that they came out throwing, and their first two passes got two easy completions for Jayden,” Jay told G&D Monday. “Obviously the big hit to Brian Robinson, which was huge, and the fast start got everybody just jumpstarted; the whole team was fired up to play and it's just great to get that momentum and keep it for a long period of time. I can't believe how little resistance there was by the Tennessee defense, and I think the offense had a lot to do with it; they just punished them and had their way with the defensive line, which was shocking. They looked disinterested, and part of the reason is because Washington punched them in the mouth early and just kept swinging. They took the wind out of their sails early, and Tennessee never could recover.”
Gruden called Jayden Daniels’ performance – 25 of 32 for 206 yards and three TD, with one INT, while also running for a touchdown – “awesome,” and it’s refreshing to see what we saw earlier in the season show back up when they needed it most.
“I think he's an incredible player, and some of the things that he does, people don't really realize how he avoids the negative plays effortlessly,” Gruden said. “He threw the one pick which was arguably a drop, a little bit high, but it was tipped up to intercept it, but he just makes everything look so easy and effortless. Just a hell of a player, and I think you got to feel pretty damn good to have this guy on your team for a long time. I know they said he wasn't hurt and all that stuff, but he just didn't seem like he had the same juice that he had early in the season, but he did against Tennessee. He makes subtle moves and guys can’t touch him – he’d be the most amazing flag football quarterback! He’s very comfortable in Kliff’s offense, and what he does, he just feels really good about playing and has a lot of fun playing, and he's a joy to watch.”
The other big thing that helped the offense? They were nine of 14 on third down with Daniels 8-of-8 for 66 yards passing on third and fourth downs with three TDs – and almost all of those were four yards or less.
“It makes a huge difference. When I was a play caller, if you look at my conversion rate, probably 3rd and 1 to 5, I was a hell of a lot better than 6 plus,” Gruden said. “It’s just a lot easier because you have a lot more plays at your disposal, and you can still run the ball. With all these third and shorts, Kliff knows that if we don't get it, we’re still probably going to go for it, so the playbook is wide open. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had plenty of times where I failed on third or fourth and one, but the way they're going with the zone reads, the RPOs and the play passes off of those, they're very hard to stop when you have a quarterback like Jayden. And, credit to those big guys up front, too, who get great movement.”
Take a listen to Jay’s entire segment above, as he also goes into his thoughts on Brian Robinson and how the running game is working, the Ron Rivers draft purge continuing, and more!