The Commanders want to run the ball more heading into the final nine games of the season. Statistically, it is what they are best at, and they believe leaning into it more will stabilize the rest of the offense.
First, however, they need to give themselves more opportunities to run the ball, and that means fixing their worst area: converting third downs.
"That's what I want us to do, man," head coach Dan Quinn said Monday. "Sustain some drives, convert some third downs, get into it again, and that'll be an important part of this week for us to do that."
The Commanders' offense does have some exciting intricacies orchestrated by first-time play caller David Blough, and there have been moments when they have flaunted that creativity. The problem is that the offense does not stay on the field long enough to flex those muscles. They rank last in third-down conversion rate at 31.13% and were 3-of-12 against the Los Angeles Rams.
Washington averages 62 plays per game, which is 16th in the NFL, but there is a wide discrepancy in how the offense performs on a drive-to-drive basis. Forty of their 90 drives for the season lasted five plays or fewer, while only 25 lasted for eight or more. Thirteen of those drives lasted at least 10 plays.
The entire offense has struggled because of the Commanders' inability to stay on the field, but the ground game has arguably suffered the most. Despite ranking 11th in rushing at just over 118 yards per game, the Commanders rank 25th in rushing attempts. A chunk of those carries come from Jayden Daniels, who has 31 carries and leads the team with 252 yards. But only four of those are designed runs, according to Pro Football Focus, which means that if you take away the 27 scrambles Daniels has had this year, it pushes Washington even closer to the bottom of the league in rushing attempts.
For Quinn, the struggles to convert third downs are directly related to the Commanders' rushing numbers.
"I think that leans into more cracks [at running the ball]," Quinn said. "More at bats, more shots at it. That's for sure one of the topics that we spent a lot of time on ... Doing that alone will add more volume to it."
The Commanders' game against the Rams highlighted Quinn's point. The offense had 46 rushing yards at halftime but finished with just 60 for the afternoon. They ran the ball just six times in the second half, including two scrambles from Daniels, but they also only ran 10 plays in the third quarter. They faced seven third downs, four of which were at least eight yards, and converted only three of them, the last being the 20-yard catch-and-run from Chig Okonkwo at the end of the game.
Quinn admitted that the run game was not up to the team's standard, but there weren't many chances for them to go back to it.
"We're not getting enough shots at it, and that's not due just to handing it off more, that's due to extending drives, and we've got to improve upon ourselves on third down," Quinn said. "We just have to."
So, what is the solution for improving on third down? Quinn said part of it is performing better on first and second down. Once again, the Rams game is a good sample of the team's issues. In the first half, the Commanders averaged just over seven yards per play, buoyed significantly by Rachaad White's 45-yard screen play. In the second half, they gained just 85 yards on first-down plays, and 42 of those came from Stefon Diggs' reception in the fourth quarter. Take that away, and the Commanders averaged 3.3 yards on 13 first-down plays in the third and fourth quarters.
That has to be better, and Quinn knows it.
"I'm very much looking forward to seeing us execute that at a level that is consistent," Quinn said.
Quinn added Monday that fixing their third-down issues to open up the run game will be an emphasis this week as they prepare for their rematch with the New York Giants. It will be no easy task for the Commanders, as the Giants rank 11th in allowed third-down conversion rate. However, if they can find ways to stay on the field, there will be more chances to exploit the Giants on the ground, where they rank in the bottom third of the league in yards allowed per game.
Regardless of how it's done, the Commanders know they must find ways to get more opportunities to maximize their ground game.
"Can we stick with it? Can we keep finding ways to keep attacking?" Quinn said. "And there's going to be some plays that are the ones and zeros, and that's part of going, but I also want us to make sure we stay with it and keep going."
