Jayden Daniels accomplishes a feat last done by Slinging Sammy Baugh in 1937
Jayden Daniels meet Slinging Sammy Baugh.
The Commanders’ dynamic rookie quarterback accomplished a feat in his playoff debut that no quarterback in the NFL had done since Baugh in the franchise’s first season in Washington back in 1937.
Daniels threw two touchdown passes to lead the Commanders to a 23-20 win at Tampa Bay on Sunday night, joining Russell Wilson (2012), Mark Sanchez (2009) and Joe Flacco (2008) as the only rookie quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era to win a road playoff start.
But Daniels did more than just win. He threw for 268 yards and led the team with 38 yards rushing, becoming the first rookie in NFL history to lead his team in yards rushing and passing in a playoff win. He also joined Baugh as the only rookie quarterbacks to throw at least two TD passes in a road playoff win, with Baugh throwing three in the 1937 NFL title game win against the Chicago Bears.
Daniels’ 13 wins in the regular season and playoffs are one shy of Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie record set in 2004 for Pittsburgh and he has engineered five fourth-quarter comebacks.
Daniels has been at his best in the clutch with his 117.3 passer rating when tied or down by eight points or fewer in the fourth quarter or overtime ranking No. 1 among 233 quarterbacks with at least 50 attempts in that situation since 1991.
The Commanders also had their third game this season with Daniels at quarterback when they didn’t punt the ball or commit a turnover. That had been done just twice before in the playoffs with Josh Allen doing it for Buffalo against New England in the 2021 season and Hall of Famer Peyton Manning for Indianapolis against Kansas City in the 2003 season.
Dazzling debut
The success coach Dan Quinn has had in his first year as Washington’s coach should provide some optimism to the seven teams that are changing coaches this offseason.
Quinn took over a four-win team and guided the Commanders into the divisional round. Instant success like that is not unusual in the NFL where high draft picks, easier schedules and typical regression to the mean makes turnarounds very possible.
Quinn is the ninth coach in the last 10 seasons to reach the divisional round in his first full season with a team with the 2016 and 2021 seasons the only ones in that span that didn’t feature at least one. In 2022, both the New York Giants with Brian Daboll and Jacksonville with Doug Pederson made it to the divisional round with first-year coaches.
Three of those previous eight coaches made it to the conference title game with Matt LaFleur losing his trip with Green Bay in 2019 and Doug Marrone losing for Jacksonville in 2017.
Gary Kubiak won the Super Bowl in his first season in Denver in 2015, becoming the fourth coach to do that, following Tampa Bay’s Jon Gruden (2002), San Francisco’s George Seifert (1989) and Baltimore’s Don McCafferty (1970).
Familiar faces
The AFC divisional round will have an oddly familiar look this season.
For the second time, the four teams in the divisional round in a conference will be making repeat appearances with Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore and Houston all returning.
The only difference will be the matchups with the Chiefs hosting the Texans and Bills hosting the Ravens this year. Baltimore beat Houston in this round last year and Kansas City beat Buffalo.
The only time this happened was in the AFC in 2011-12 when New England, Denver, Baltimore and Houston all made it in back-to-back years with the Patriots and Ravens advancing both times.
The NFC has only one repeat team in the divisional round with Detroit back for a second straight season after not making it that far since 1991.
Tomlin’s tumbles
Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers had another disappointing playoff appearance go one and done.
The Steelers lost 28-14 to the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night for their sixth straight playoff loss, putting Tomlin in some rare coaching company.
Tomlin is tied with Marty Schottenheimer, Jim Mora and Steve Owen for the second longest postseason losing streak in NFL history, one loss shy of the seven-game skid Marvin Lewis had as Cincinnati’s coach.
The games haven’t even been competitive most of the way since the streak started with a 36-17 loss to New England in the 2016 AFC title game.
The Steelers have been outscored 73-0 in the first quarter of those losses and haven’t had the ball with a lead once in any of those games. The only time they had a lead came in the 2021 wild-card game against Kansas City when T.J. Watt returned a fumble for a TD to open the scoring.
The Chiefs scored a touchdown on the next drive and never trailed again on the way to a 42-21 win.
The skid also includes a wild-card loss at Buffalo last season, a 48-37 loss at home in the 2020 wild-card round to Cleveland and a 45-42 loss at home to Jacksonville in the 2017 divisional round.
Tomlin is the fourth coach since the merger to go at least eight straight seasons with one team without winning a playoff game. Lewis never won a playoff game in 16 seasons with the Bengals, Mora had no playoff wins in 11 seasons with New Orleans and Don Shula went eight straight seasons without a playoff win between Super Bowl appearances in the 1973 and 1982 seasons.
Houston causes problems
The Houston defense has been causing quarterbacks problems all season.
The Texans held Josh Allen to a 9-for-30 performance in Week 5, intercepted Jared Goff five times in Week 10 and then forced Justin Herbert into one of the worst games he has played.
Herbert threw four interceptions in Saturday’s loss to Houston — surpassing his 17-game regular season total by one — for his most in any game in the NFL or college.
The Texans got nine interceptions on 62 passes (14.5%) in the two games against Goff and Herbert while those two QBs threw just 10 on the other 1,013 passes (0.99%) they have thrown this season.
The strong defensive effort sent the Texans to the divisional round for the second straight season with C.J. Stroud at quarterback. Stroud is the sixth QB ever to win playoff starts in each of his first two seasons, joining Brock Purdy, Russell Wilson, Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco and Ben Roethlisberger.
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