Will Jayden Daniels run through the Chargers in Week 5?
Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice and Charles McDonald preview Commanders-Chargers and decide if the Washington quarterback will be able to take advantage of L.A.'s inconsistent run defense. Hear the full conversation on “Football 301” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Commanders, I haven't talked about them in a while, but it was kind of when I wanted to.
Jane Daniels gets hurt, so I was kind of keeping him on pause.
They're 2 and 2 going against the Chargers team, which we've talked about a decent amount.
Commanders have the ball; what are you focusing on this side of the ball?
Um, well, I think if you're the Chargers' defense, um, you gotta feel a little sick about how that quarterback run game went last weekend, right?
Like you, you gotta be throwing up just a little bit because Jackson Dart last week, uh, I think on designed runs, he had 7 carries for 31 yards, like almost a 60% success rate.
Man, they were pulling out, like I think I saw them pull out like Power read on one of the first rides.
I'm like, oh my God, it's like what, 3 designed runs, right?
I was just like this is, this is like straight out of Gus Malzon.
Gus Malzon's watching this like, see, look, I can be an NFL OC.
I was doing this 15 years ago with Cam Newton, and now they got Jackson Dark running the same stuff, uh, in this game against the Chargers.
But yeah, I'm not sure how willing the Commanders would be to risk Jay Daniel's health coming right off of an injury, but, uh, I think they, the Giants showed like that is one way to kind of get after the the Chargers defense, especially when you're banged up on the outside as the Giants were and as the Commanders are, uh, going into this weekend.
So I still do think this will be a tough matchup.
I feel like I'm kind of conflicted on where, uh, I stand on the Commanders' offense.
Um, I know they had like a decent game last week, but it still looked a little bit, uh, disjointed against Atlanta.
So, uh, I think this will be a tough matchup for them, and I think they kind of need to get Jay and Daniels going, uh, just to keep the, the heat off of their offense because where you don't want to be against the Chargers.
Uh, is on 3rd and long, and I know that they were playing against rookie quarterback who's coming from a Looney Tunes offense and has a lot of work to do as far as adjusting the game, to do as far as adjusting the game, [Next chunk needed] but, uh, they did just rack up 5 sacks on like 20 dropbacks last week, so it's probably something to keep an eye on, uh, if you're looking at keeping Jay Days upright, but also having to be a consistent force in this game.
Yeah, I know, I, I don't want to rehash the scrambling stat again for the Chargers defense, but it's real.
It's going to be real.
It's been 2 years now and they, they have, I've yet to be disproven that they're bad against scrambles, but it's also a compliment to what their defense does.
Uh, and but going against this team, I'm just curious what their game plan is going to be.
I, I like watching Minor and figure out what he gets to, like, what does he think with this study?