Coach Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders hit a new low with their latest dismal showing, an eighth consecutive loss that officially eliminated them from playoff contention a year after they came within a victory of reaching the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
The 31-0 rout at the hands of the previously struggling Minnesota Vikings on Sunday featured a mediocre performance \u2014 and, continuing a troubling trend, early exit \u2014 by star quarterback Jayden Daniels, plus a bad-looking injury to tight end Zach Ertz for Washington (3-10).<\/p>\n
\u201cBaffling, frustrating, enraged,\u201d Quinn said, summing up the day.<\/p>\n
A season ago, Daniels was superb, leading Washington to a 12-5 record and earning AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors by completing 69% of his passes for 3,568 yards with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions and running for 891 yards, at a clip of 6.0 per carry, with six TDs.<\/p>\n
This season, he\u2019s been just OK \u2014 nothing more.<\/p>\n
After going 9 for 20 for just 78 yards passing plus a pick on Sunday, Daniels owns a completion rate of 60.6 with 1,262 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions. His passer rating slid from 100.1 to 88.1. He\u2019s run for 278 yards, at 4.8 per carry, with two scores.<\/p>\n
And after appearing in all 20 of the Commanders\u2019 games last season, including the playoffs, he\u2019s been in the lineup for only seven of 13, leaving before the end the past three times he played.<\/p>\n
It was on the interception that Daniels got leveled by a Vikings defender and aggravated the dislocated left elbow that had sidelined him for more than a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of those fluke plays,\u201d Washington linebacker Bobby Wagner said.<\/p>\n
One game after seeming to play like a real NFL team in a tight overtime defeat to the Denver Broncos, prompting Quinn to say, \u201cWe lost, but we\u2019re not lost anymore,\u201d the Commanders were as inept as ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we took a step forward last week,\u201d Quinn said after the disaster against Minnesota, which came in a four-game losing streak, \u201cand tonight I thought we took three steps back.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
On Sunday? Absolutely nothing. \u201cThat\u2019s not even a tough day at the office,\u201d receiver Terry McLaurin said. \u201cThat\u2019s just bad.\u201d From giving up three turnovers (backup quarterback Marcus Mariota had one fumble and one interception) to forcing none, from not scoring to an inability to slow Minnesota, and so on. \u201cWhen you miss the mark like we did,\u201d Quinn observed, \u201cyou\u2019ve got to look at it all and question it.\u201d<\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
The defense. After looking better during the past two games with defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. stripped of play-calling duties, that unit was once again unable to do anything \u2014 even against a Vikings team that got shut out last week and had gone more than 20 consecutive possessions without a touchdown. And even against QB J.J. McCarthy, who came in with a 57.9 passer rating, a 54.1 completion percentage, six TD throws and 10 interceptions. All he did was go 16 for 23 for 163 yards and his first NFL game with three scoring passes and lead one ridiculous drive that lasted 19 plays, 98 yards and took 12:01 off the clock.<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
Any tight end that faces Washington. On Sunday, it was Josh Oliver, who went into the day with seven catches all season and produced the first two-TD game of his NFL career. He only once finished any of his previous five seasons with a total of three scores.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
Quinn. The number of games in which the Commanders have failed to be competitive keeps rising.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
Quinn said he feared Ertz tore the ACL in his right knee; the No. 5 tight end in career receptions was expected to have an MRI exam on Monday. … Quinn said Daniels could have gone back into the game Sunday but the coach decided to keep him out.<\/p>\n
Key number<\/p>\n
Zero \u2014 The number of points for Washington; the club hadn\u2019t been shut out since 2019.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
Four meaningless games against NFC East rivals remain, starting next Sunday at the just-as-terrible New York Giants (2-11). It\u2019ll be worth monitoring how much Quinn and GM Adam Peters give extra playing time to some younger players to see what the roster contains \u2014 and, of course, what happens with Daniels the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NFL<\/p>\n
Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders hit a new low with their latest dismal showing, an eighth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-332784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}