Tag: Dreaming

The Washington Commanders are 60 minutes away from a first appearance in the NFC Championship game for 33 years, the same 1991 season in which the franchise secured their third Super Bowl.

There have been some fallow years since, with only seven playoff appearances – containing only three victories – stretched over the three decades since.

Last season, the team finished with a 4-13 record, securing them the No 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and oh how grateful they were.

Live NFL

Sunday 19th January 1:00am

Selecting quarterback Jayden Daniels out of LSU, the rookie sensation has completely changed the fortunes of this fading NFL force and made them relevant, made them contenders again.

Daniels is practically seen as a shoo-in for Offensive Rookie of the Year honours at the NFL’s end-of-season awards, finishing the regular season with 3,568 passing yards, 25 touchdowns and only nine interceptions to his name, as well as a massive 891 yards and six further scores rushing.

Along the way there have been some huge highs, none more so than when the 24-year-old sent the league into a frenzy with a miracle Hail Mary touchdown to see the Commanders beat the Chicago Bears as time expired in Week Eight.

With zeros on the clock and the Commanders trailing 15-12, Daniels scurried back and forth from inside his own half before finally launching a desperate heave towards the end zone, where the ball bobbled off a crowd of players and into the grateful waiting hands of a wide-open Noah Brown for a 52-yard walk-off touchdown.

Daniels held the ball for 12.79 seconds during the play leading to the touchdown, marking the first touchdown pass with a time to throw upwards of 10 seconds since Next Gen Stats began in 2016.

“That’s kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Daniels said at the time, while the incredible finish elicited quite the response in the Sky Sports studio.

“If J-Bell [Jason Bell] is out of words, that’s a problem!” laughed Super Bowl-winning defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. “They can build as a team off of this.

“You think back to Odell Beckham Jr’s big catch in New York like J-Bell mentioned, this could be huge and monumental for this organisation if they continue to ride this wave.”

And ride that wave the Commanders did. After a three-game skid mid-season that briefly threatened their playoff hopes, Daniels led the team on a five-game win streak to book their place in the postseason… which he just extended to six with another hugely impressive showing on his playoff debut.

Daniels threw for 268 yards and two scores in 23-20 road win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Wild Card Weekend but what was most impressive was the fact that the team was trailing entering the fourth quarter, while he helped orchestrate the game-winning drive in the final four-and-a-half minutes with the two teams all tied up. Unflustered and unfazed.

“Sure, it’s not a one-man game, but Jayden Daniels is a huge reason for the turnaround in Washington,” Sky Sports’ Neil Reynolds said on the latest episode of the Inside The Huddle podcast.

“The kid’s heart rate hardly went up or down through three hours of a playoff game. That’s why Washington have won six in a row, and the last five of those have been decided in the final minute.

“You don’t want to live that way all the time, but when you’ve got a kid that’s not afraid to be in that environment, that’s something – especially as you now go to a really tricky place, to Detroit, in the playoffs.”

A former coach with the Buffalo Bills, Phoebe Schecter added: “This young man, he plays like a veteran, like a pro.

“We have very rarely seen a rookie come in and be able to do something like this – even you look at how CJ Stroud played [for Houston Texans] last year. There are levels to how he was and how Jayden Daniels is.

“His ability to extend the play, and the moment is never too big for him.

“You watch the game last week against the Bucs, he is just cool as a cucumber.

“The game against the Lions, the stage isn’t going to be too big for him. I think it’s going to be challenging… but he is just loving what he’s doing.”

That is indeed the next challenge that faces Daniels and this team, with the sixth-seeded Commanders now heading to Detroit to face the NFC’s No 1-ranked Lions, who are eyeing two-straight NFC Championship appearances.

The Lions have lost only two games all season and are heavy favourites for Saturday’s clash – live on Sky Sports NFL from 1.15am in the early hours of Sunday morning – but they’re taking the Commanders, and specifically Daniels, very seriously.

“He’s dangerous; he poses a major threat,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Daniels. “He does not play the position like a rookie quarterback. He’s a difference-maker.

“You can tell he understands how to run that offense and what they’re asking him to do. And he’s got weapons. I mean, boy, they’ve got weapons.”

Detroit have plenty of weapons too, mind you. This is the NFL’s top-ranked team in scoring offense, putting up a massive 33.2 points per game, while their 409.5 yards per game is second only to the Baltimore Ravens’ staggering average of 424.9.

The Lions are many people’s Super Bowl favourites and the general consensus is that this is where Daniels’ nice little rookie run comes to an end. Not that he is listening to any of that noise.

“I kind of stay in my own bubble right now, focus on what’s next,” Daniels said ahead of the Divisional Round matchup with the Lions.

“We’re not going to give up until the clock hits zero. We’re going to keep fighting until the end.”

Watch the Washington Commanders at the Detroit Lions in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, live on Sky Sports NFL in the early hours of Sunday morning, with kick-off at 1.15am.