Commanders vs. Browns takeaways: Jayden Daniels’ deep passes, improved defense key Washington’s blowout

The Jayden Daniels hype train certainly isn’t slowing down, especially after this performance against one of the league’s best teams, and the Commanders’ hot start continues to prove more and more legitimate. Washington cruised past Cleveland 34-13 (box score), dominating the Browns on both sides of the ball.

Daniels’ statistical profile — 14-for-25 for 238 yards, a touchdown and an interception as well as 11 rushes for 82 yards — paints the picture of another strong performance, albeit one that looked different from previous games. More on that in a bit.

Perhaps what’s even more encouraging is that Washington didn’t need to lean on its rookie star. In fact, he sat out much of the fourth quarter. The running game (outside Daniels) kept its impressive pace, and the defense continued its upward trajectory.

The momentum is real. Washington is 4-1 for the first time since 2008. It has consecutive 20-point wins for the first time since 1997, more than three years before Daniels was born.

Here are three keys to how the Commanders got there:

1. Daniels delivers explosives through the air

All those numbers about Daniels’ historic completion percentage through four weeks went out the door early in Week 5, and they never really got back on track. His 56% completion rate was his worst as a pro; he hadn’t been below 70% in any of his first four games.

And that is perfectly OK, because Daniels more than made up for that with his big plays through the air, a 66-yarder to Terry McLaurin and a 41-yard touchdown to Dyami Brown chief among them.

Despite the low completion rate, Daniels’ 9.5 yards per attempt was the second-highest of his young career, in part because he went big-game hunting more, with a career-high 12 air yards per attempt.

Jayden Daniels This SeasonWeeks 1-4Week 5Yards per attempt8.59.5Air yards per attempt612Yards per completion10.317Completions of 40+ air yards12<<

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Author : Zachary Pereles

Publish date : 2024-10-07 02:58:42

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