Fueled by defeat, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels was not shy about labeling his team’s next game.
“Must win,” Daniels told reporters after the Commanders’ 20-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
That date with destiny has arrived 96 hours later, with his team facing the New York Giants on “Thursday Night Football” Nov. 12 (8:15 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video). But head coach Dan Quinn, facing job-security questions with his team sitting at 2-5-1 and heading into a mini-bye, does not see the game in the same light.
“For me … I try to avoid the declarations of that. I've been around the league long enough to know that lots of season to play and lots of football to go,” Quinn said.
Not afraid to speak for everybody in the organization
in this instance, Quinn offered a different way to categorize it.
“We need this and we're battling for it,” Quinn said. “That's really where the focus is, but we don't get into the big declaration stuff.”
During the Week 5 meeting between the two teams, it was the lack of an outcome – the two teams played the lone tie in the NFL this season – that seemed to doom the Commanders’ season. Daniels and the offense mismanaged the clock with no timeouts remaining in the final minute of overtime, and the clock expired before the team could kick the game-winning field goal.
“We know that the Giants,” Daniels said this week. “They have a lot of good athletic players out there that they like to get into the mix and blitz, you know, try to create mismatch and matchups and stuff like that. So, we just gotta prepare for that and then really adjust from there on out.”
Now another prime-time matchup against a division rival presents an additional high-profile assignment in a season defined by bad optics. The following week, on “Monday Night Football” against the San Francisco 49ers, the Commanders once again appeared confused – this time about what down it was – when Daniels threw the ball away on fourth down. Quinn’s reaction did not assuage the critics of his game management. Neither did the call on the final play of the Rams' loss when the ball did not reach the end zone despite trailing by a touchdown.
A win against the Giants would move Washington two games back in the loss column and keep the Commanders alive in the NFC East race, with the Giants using backup quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who enters the matchup nursing a hip pointer that limited him last Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Part of the Commanders’ slow start is tied to Quinn’s two first-year coordinators, David Blough (offense) and Daronte Jones (defense). Quinn shot down speculation that he could make staff changes with another loss. Then there is the question of Quinn’s own job security, especially if the Commanders find themselves.
“I’d say we’re all frustrated,” Quinn said.
What encouraged Quinn during practice this week was the offense having zero incompletions prior to the game and executing during the situational periods – red zone and third down. Washington ranks 23rd in red-zone touchdown drives and last in third-down conversion rate. Luckily for the Commanders, the Giants are last in red-zone defense, allowing a touchdown on nearly four out of every five drives that reach their 20-yard line (78.95%).
“He's still growing as a coordinator, first-time coordinator, still going through his growing pains and stuff like that,” Daniels said of Blough. “So, I just try to do the best I can, just go out there, execute, doesn't matter what the play call is, it doesn't matter anything. If we got all 11 people going in the same direction, we have a chance.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Commanders look to stay alive against Giants in 'TNF' game Jayden Daniels called 'must win'
