Jay Gruden on Jayden Daniels' 4th quarter 'dart,' Commanders' defensive woes with Chris Russell
The Washington Commanders failed to score a touchdown and gave up three, but came away with an unlikely 21-18 win on Sunday. "They did just enough," former Redskins head coach Jay Gruden told Chris Russell. "They drove the ball great between the 20s, 400 yards of offense. Obviously the red zone issues will be talked about, but come away with a win against the Giants, a team that has really given them problems in the past, is big."
Starting with the offense, it is good to note that Washington had seven offensive drives and scored on all seven. But they went 0-for-6 in the red zone when it comes to scoring touchdowns. Even in a year when red zone efficiency is low – only nine teams are converting over 50 percent of drives in the red zone into TDs – that is pretty bad.
The reaason: negative plays - five sacks – and penalties from holdings to false starts.
"You can't have negative plays in the red zone," Gruden said. "Once the field shrinks like that it gets a little easier for defense's to play you and then if you don't have your go-to wide receiver, you know the fade, the jump, you know the great fade I like to throw. Then it's very difficult."
Russell interjects: "How many of those did you dial up to Josh Doctson, there, Jay?"
To which Gruden dryly responds: "I tried, I tried. He was a first-round draft pick I tried to get him a catch.... he had a 48-inch verticle you couldn't throw him a fade."
Overall, "You can't have sacks and negative plays once you get down there, you did such a good job to get down there in the first place, they kept them off balance, you ran the ball well, a lot of good bubble screens executions. Then you get down there and you have a false start, you have a sack then you can't get anybody open. I think the Giants did a pretty good job with their red zone defense, as well."
On the Commanders final drive, Gruden and Russell were both impressed with rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels finding Noah Brown for a 34-yard completion on the first play after the two-minute warning, aided by Austin Ekeler stepping into the hole and taking on a blitzer.
"[Ekeler's block] really gave Jayden a chance to really set his feet and get back to the backside dagger," Gruden said. "They had a front-side concept that I think he wanted to get to, but he saw 3 deep fire zone and his eyes went right to the backside dagger, which is impressive. And he found it and threw a dart.
"Great protection by the entire offensive line there picking up the five-man rush, Ekeler, of course. And Noah Brown did a nice job of getting separation and getting his depths and being at the right spot and Jayden trusted the throw and let it rip. And you love to see that."
Gruden added that sometimes you're like why did it take until the fourth quarter for a young QB to "make a throw like this," but sometimes "the game just has to play itself out and take advantage of that rep and he did."
Switching to the other side of the ball, Gruden said the issues with the Commanders defense were a "combination of things."
"Daniel [Jones] really never felt flustered in that game. They got pressure on him a few times, but for the most part, he was pretty confident to be able to set his feet and find the shallow cross and deliver accurately," he said. "And that's what's critical for quarterbacks. If you give an NFL quarterbacks time to set their feet and scan the field and find a guy like Malik Nabers streaking across the middle or on the sideline with a back-shoulder fade, whatever it might be, let him step into the throw, they're a helluva lot more accurate than when somebody's around them.
"Interior pass rush hasn't been there, and then [New York's] running game was there as well. I think [Devin] Singletary had over 90 yards rushing. The Giants had a little bit of both going for them. The runs, the play-action pass and obviously Daniel had some time to set his feet."
That's the diagnosis, the prescription: Washington has to stop the run and set up some 3rd-and-longs, known passing situations which will help out the defensive pass rush for sure.
