Commanders Sweep the Giants with a 27-22 Victory (11-3-24)
By: Jaden Golding
Headline Photo Credit: NBC Washington
East Rutherford, NJ – The Washington Commanders defeated the New York Giants 27-22 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The Commanders have swept the season series against New York for the first time since the 2021-22 season and are off to their best start since 1996.
Washington (7-2) has now won the last three contests. Quarterback Jayden Daniels had a nice efficient performance today, going 15-of-22 in the passing department with two passing touchdowns and 35 yards on the ground. Both touchdown passes were to wide-receiver Terry McLaurin who has now caught six on the season. The second catch in the second quarter was on a beautiful stop-and-go route that saw Daniels drop a perfect dime to McLaurin’s arms in the left corner of the endzone.
New York (2-7) is now free-falling after their upset victory in week five against Seattle and has dropped four straight games. Daniel Jones continued his good play against Washington completing 20-of-26 passes, throwing two touchdowns, rushing for 54 yards, and a touchdown. Rookie running back Tyrone Tracy ran for 66 yards on 4.1 yards per carry.
Malik Nabers grabbed nine receptions for 59 yards and rookie tight-end Theo Johnson caught three balls for 51 yards and his first career touchdown grab.
With Brian Robinson Jr. missing today’s game with a hamstring injury, Head coach Dan Quinn turned to Austin Ekeler and Chris Rodriguez to carry the load. Ben Standig of “The Athletic” stated how Quinn started the postgame press conference praising Rodriguez for being ready to play, which he only learned about 90 minutes before kickoff. Rodriguez helped run out the clock. Rodriguez had 11 carries for 52 yards for 4.7 on average and helped out on the short-yardage runs. Ekeler was versatile, racking up 83 total yards (42 rushing and 41 receiving) and running in for a one-yard score.
Noah Brown had five grabs for 60 yards. Olamide Zaccheaus caught two balls for 48 yards. Kicker Austin Seibert connected with both of his field goal attempts from 31 and 20 yards out.
The Good and Bad of the Defense
Washington’s defense left a lot to be desired today. They weren’t all bad but the unit could’ve had a better performance than they displayed. In the first quarter alone, the Giants passed for -5 yards but hurt Washington on the ground for 115 yards. A mix of that was RPOs with Jones and Tracy, also Tracy did a good job of finding holes and bouncing to the outside. Jones used his legs in the right moments catching the defense off guard and causing them to overpursue at times. After the first quarter, Washington’s run defense made adjustments holding New York to 34 more yards on the ground.
In the second half, the secondary struggled which caused a 24-10 lead to be wiped away. There were too many instances of New York’s receivers having too much room to open up the field and allowing the Giants to move the ball up the field. Benjamin St.Juste struggled with giving up too much leverage to receivers which had him coming up seconds short of making plays on the ball. New York’s first offensive possession in the third quarter was the main drive that saw St.Juste struggle, he has a great length which can allow him to recover and make plays. He has to find a way to play consistently and not have good or bad performances.
New York converted 6-of-11 third downs and went 2-for-2 on fourth downs.
OLB Dante Fowler Jr. racked up two more sacks this week, increasing his season total to 6.5 on the year. Fowler Jr. also finished with six total tackles, three solo, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and two QB hits. Fowler Jr. has been a great pickup and has turned in some elite performances this past month of play.
Safety Jeremy Chinn was everywhere today, he led the team with 13 total tackles, seven solo tackles, two tackles for loss, and a pass breakup.
Washington Shoutout of the Day
The offense line was excellent today, Daniels was only pressured three times in total today and only hit twice. Brandon Coleman started at left tackle playing his first entire NFL game in place of the injured Cornelius Lucas. Coleman played all 62 snaps: allowing zero pressures and finishing with the top pass-blocking grade of 89.2 on the team.
Up Next
The Commanders return home to play the newly Russell Wilson-led (6-2) Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov.10 at Northwest Stadium.
