The Commanders came out of the bye week and got November started off on the right foot, beating the Eagles, 27-10, at Northwest Stadium. Quarterback **Jayden Daniels,** the defensive line, wide receiver Treylon Burks and running back **Rachaad White** had game ball-worthy outings in the critical division win against Philadelphia on Sunday Night Football.
Jayden Daniels
Like the Commanders in general on Sunday night, Daniels didn't have the cleanest first quarter or so. He had a few errant passes and looked a little hesitant in his decision-making in the early minutes of the game. He knew it wasn't good enough and could be seen gathering teammates on the sideline to reset. Not long after, Washington's offense began to hum.
Daniels adjusted to not having **Terry McLaurin** as a top option in the air and consistently moved Washington down the field by picking out passes to other targets. He let it fly to Burks and **Antonio Williams** for big gains, including 53- and 30-yard bombs, respectively. He continued to build connections with Diggs, who recorded his fifth touchdown reception of the season in the second quarter, and **Chig Okonkwo,** who had an eye-popping one-handed catch.
After the game, head coach **Dan Quinn** lauded the quarterback for his poise and ability to take care of the ball in the contest. Daniels was content to throw the ball away rather than force things at certain times and identified the right opportunities to use his legs. He didn't throw an interception during the game, making him the only quarterback with 100-plus attempts who can say that this season,
In a must-win game, the Commanders' most important leader, having navigated plenty of uncertainties in these first two months of the season, stepped up and performed. He completed 16-of-29 passes for 217 yards and one touchdown to go with 23 rushing yards.
Defensive line
After falling into a 10-0 hole in the first quarter, the Commanders' defense stymied the Eagles offense, keeping them scoreless for three quarters. Much of the frustration Philadelphia faced was caused by the relentless pressure of Washington's defensive line. Eagles quarterback Tanner McKee was given little time to work with as the Burgundy & Gold generated pressure on 46.5% of dropbacks. Ten pressures and a sack came on 12 blitzes (83.3%) -- the second-highest pressure rate by any defense in a game this season (minimum five blitzes).
In the third quarter, with the Eagles looking to respond after the Commanders took the lead, pressure from **Dorance Armstrong** led McKee to fumble, and **Charles Omenihu** recovered. In addition to the fumble, Armstrong ended the night with seven tackles and one tackle for loss.
He wasn't alone in his havoc-wreaking. Omenihu had three quarterback hits and got in on the sack fun. **Odafe Oweh** totaled two tackles, one sack, one quarterback hit and one tackle for loss. Shy Tuttle also recorded a sack, a quarterback hit and a pair of tackles for loss. **K’Lavon Chaisson** was a menace, hitting McKee three times and sacking him once.
Quinn, who admitted he was "not pleased" with the pass rush through the first six games of the season, called out the big improvements after last night's game, particularly against "the biggest tackles [the Commanders are] gonna face maybe all season."
"I did like seeing the group in connection together," Quinn said. "I felt they did a nice job of staying into that. That's something that we've been harping on and so it was good to see that come to life."
Treylon Burks
Burks' shook off his first error on Sunday night -- a dropped pass on third-and-3 -- and went on to have one of his best games to date in burgundy and gold. The wide receiver led the team in receiving yards in the win and torched Philadelphia's secondary as a deep threat for Daniels.
In the first quarter, he showed length to stretch out for a seven-yard pass that resulted in an important first-down conversion with Washington down 10. In the second quarter, he ran a comeback route out to the right and brought in the ball for a 21-yard gain before being pushed out of bounds.
His biggest catch of the night came in the third quarter. Burks got the better of Quinyon Mitchell downfield and hauled in a 53-yard pass from Daniels. The catch was the longest reception by a Washington player this season. There's no replacing McLaurin, but Burks filled in a gap left by the number one wide receiver's absence and proved he can influence the game in big ways when called upon.
"He's always been an excellent competitor," Quinn said. "That's part of his DNA of who he is. So, being able to get on top, that's one of the things that Terry's so unique at. To have that ability for him, you feel his catch radius too. Like this is a guy that's long, and he's got size, and so the contested catches are big for us too. I like that he's coming into his own. His role continues to emerge and certainly more now with Terry, that's part of the facts."
Rachaad White
White saw the ball with a good amount of frequency throughout the night against the Eagles, carrying the ball 11 times for an average of five yards per carry Daniels also looked to White in the passing game with two receptions on three targets.
After being quietly effective for about 57 minutes, White made his move into the game ball discussion. Washington was up by nine with just over two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The win seemed likely, but certainly not a guarantee. Then, White got three important touches.
On first down at Philadelphia's 37-yard line, White picked up the ball from Daniels in the backfield and sliced through the Eagles defense for 33 yards. He went down at the 4-yard line but finished his run to the end zone on the next two plays. With White's one-yard touchdown (followed by an Austin Ekeler two-point conversion), the Commanders effectively put the game out of reach.
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