New Orleans can be a rough town. You can run into a wave of ugliness walking down Bourbon Street at night, but step into the right club and you’ll find a singer that will hit those special notes to save the evening.
That was Jayden Daniels on Sunday afternoon at Caesars Superdome, the biggest stage in the Big Easy, and the note he hit was a leap in the air that helped the Commanders preserve a 20-19 win over the Saints and keep his team’s playoff chances alive and well with a 9-5 record.
There was a lot of ugly on display on that field Sunday. New Orleans starting quarterback Jake Haener, starting in place of an injured Derek Carr, managed just 49 yards on four of 10 completions and one interception in the first half, as the Commanders took a 14-0 lead and seemingly control of the game.
But then Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi went to third-string rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler, who lived up to his name and rattled the shaky Washington defense, completing 10 of 21 passes for 135 yards and one touchdown, and the game came down to a missed two-point conversion by New Orleans at the end of the game after time had already expired seconds before,
Yes, the officials and the hometown clock operator stopping play with nine seconds and then four seconds remaining in the game, giving the Saints the opportunity to score to make in a 20-19 game and go for the win with the attempted two-point conversion was certainly ugly for the NFL, like a three-card monte scam on Canal Street.
Referee Shawn Hochuli told a pool reporter after the game acknowledged the clock should not have stopped, but said that the situation was “not reviewable.” I would beg to differ. I’d say the situation is definitely reviewable by President-elect Donald Trump’s new FBI, among others.
The Commanders’ offensive and defensive lines were both pretty ugly in the second half. New Orleans manhandled both, taking chunks of yards when they had the ball while scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and failing to keep the Saints defense out of the Washington backfield. There were a number of times when Saints defenders were in the backfield nearly at the same time Daniels handed the ball off to Brian Robinson, who averaged just 3.1 yards per carry, rushing for 53 yards on 21 carries. They sacked Daniels eight times.
“I need to be able to get the ball out of my hands and help the offensive line out,” Daniels said after the game, showing the poise and maturity we’ve come to expect from the rookie quarterback by taking the blame. “I put that on me. It is not all on the offensive line. I have to be able to be better back there in the pocket.
He has nothing to apologize for. Daniels carried his team to that ugly and important road win.
Daniels was missing two key offensive contributors due to injuries – receiver Noah Brown — Mr. Hail Mary himself, one of the quarterback’s favorite targets – and running back Austin Ekeler. Then he lost tight end Zach Ertz to a concussion in the second quarter. And he went into the game without one of his key protectors, center Tyler Biadasz, who was held out at game time due to an illness. Based on the way the Saints defensive line dominated play, Biadasz was clearly missed.
Yet Daniels completed 25 of 31 passes for 226 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also carried the ball 11 times for 66 yards.
Let me repeat that – zero interceptions. We have come to take the mistake-free football this rookie quarterback consistently plays for granted.
But the beautiful moment, that special note that he hit, happened with less than six minutes left in the game, on a fourth and 1 from Washington’s 45-yard line, when Daniels, knowing how tough yards – even one yard – were hard to come by behind his offensive line, went airborne to get the first down.
This wasn’t Saquan Barkley leaping over a defender with a backward highlight film leap. This was a down-and-dirty one-yard jump into the middle of defenders, putting himself in the most vulnerable position of all – when you are a target off your feet.
That’s when Daniels showed you he will do anything to help his team win.
Rizzi, the Saints coach, made note of it in his post-game praise of the Commanders’ young quarterback.
“(Daniels) made some plays,” Rizzi said. “That is what he does. That is why he won the Heisman Trophy. That is why he was drafted where he was drafted. That is why he’s having the season he’s having. He’s a phenomenal player. We knew we had to kind of contain him a little bit, but he made some huge plays. He had a couple of runs, two particular that were huge scrambles.
“He had the fourth down run for them where he jumped over the top,” Rizzi said. “Took a couple of minutes for them off the clock. He had some great throws. That’s what he’s doing.”
There was nothing ugly about the way Jayden Daniels played Sunday.
⦁ Catch Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.