Commanders QB Jayden Daniels was on his way to a poor fantasy outing through most of Sunday's loss to the Cowboys, but turned it around in the fourth quarter. He wound up with 275 yards and 2 TDs passing, plus 74 yards and another TD on the ground.
Daniels' ground score came less than halfway through the third quarter. But his first TD pass didn't come until just 3:02 remained in the game.
Daniels followed that by running for the 2-point conversion, and then adding his final TD on an 86-yard Terry McLaurin catch-and-run.
The game would have gone to OT if K Austin Seibert had hit the extra point after the McLaurin TD.
Daniels' play.
Washington's first TD drive not only found the QB running it into the end zone. Daniels rushed on four of the possession's final six plays.
And their other two scoring drives came in 2-minute-type situations. That scenario limits the playbook and tends to rely quick execution.
Kliff Kingsbury.
The Washington OC got asked in a press conference early this week about the history of his offenses falling off in the second half of seasons -- and it was clearly news to him.
"I would have to see what you're talking about historically, references," Kingsbury said. "But I don't have any plans to do anything to break that trend that I know of."
The fall-off has been real, though.
Kingsbury's Cardinals teams (2019-22) ranked sixth in the league in points per drive through Week 8. That fell to 20th from Week 9 on.
This year's Commanders averaged 392 total yards across the first nine games, with Week 1 the only time short of 300.
Washington then went for just 242 and 264 yards, respectively, against the Steelers and Eagles before Sunday's mostly poor showing against a bad Dallas defense.
Week 13 holds another favorable matchup against Tennessee. That plus Daniels' talent will keep him inside our top 12 at QB for the week.
But Washington's offensive performance there will inform our expectations for the other side of the team's Week 14 bye.
Make sure you have a replacement for that bye week at least. And try to roster an alternative for Week 16, when Daniels gets a rematch with the Eagles.
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