Will Jayden Daniels and the Commanders continue their fairytale playoff run?

Now that the Washington Commanders have achieved the highly unlikely by upsetting the NFC’s one-seed Detroit Lions with a decisive 45-31 win in the divisional round of the playoffs, it’s time to ask if the team, who haven’t been to a Super Bowl since the end of the 1991 season, can do so again.

If that’s to happen, the Commanders and their rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, will have to get past the Philadelphia Eagles, their NFC East neighbors and the conference’s two-seed.

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To set the stage more specifically, we can look to the two games the Commanders and Eagles played in the regular season – a 26-18 win for the Eagles in Week 11, and a 36-33 Washington win in Week 16. The Week 11 game was an oddity in that Daniels was recovering from rib injuries that affected his play, especially as a runner. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 191 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a passer rating of 81.6. He ran the ball seven times for just 18 yards.

But by the time of the Week 16 rematch, Daniels was all the way back, and punishing the rest of the league. This time, the Eagles had to deal with a quarterback who riddled one of the league’s best defense for 24 completions in 39 attempts for 258 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 99.1. Daniels also ran nine times for 81 yards, and this was the guy who has put up one of the most remarkable rookie quarterback seasons … well, ever.

The two interceptions were caused by pressure that had Daniels throwing off-platform to rookie receiver Luke “Brother of Christian” McCaffrey, but around that, the rookie caused all kinds of issues for Vic Fangio’s defense.

By the way, Daniels has thrown seven touchdowns and one interception since that game.

The Eagles had other issues in Week 16. Quarterback Jalen Hurts suffered a concussion on the second drive, and his backup, Kenny Pickett, was not up to a starting role. Saquon Barkley had his usual magnificent performance with 150 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries, but Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni said that his team played a “sloppy” game.

Hurts missed the rest of the regular season, and his two postseason games against the Green Bay Packers and the aforementioned Rams didn’t exactly set the world on fire. In the playoffs, Hurts has completed just 28 of 41 passes for 259 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 101.6. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has built his system around Barkley, with Hurts as a roleplayer in a relatively mistake-proof offense.

Hurts was sacked seven times by the Los Angeles Rams’ terrific defensive front on Sunday, but that was less an indictment of Philly’s equally stout offensive line, and more about an issue that has plagued Hurts all season – he is not a developed reader of route concepts, and things need to be designed open for him. Even when they are, Hurts doesn’t always respond in time within the structure of the play. So, it’s not as if the Eagles would have smoked the Commanders in Week 16 had Hurts been healthy for the whole game.

All this gives the Commanders the edge in the quarterback showdown. Hurts also suffered a leg injury in the Rams game on one of those sacks, but he should be good to go on Sunday.

On the other side of the ball, the Commanders really need to watch out for Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter, who looked like the second coming of Mean Joe Greene. Carter had two sacks and eight total pressures against the Rams, and he was particularly nasty to right guard Kevin Dotson, a very good player. This is an issue for Washington because Sam Cosmi, their starting right guard and the best player on their offensive line, suffered a torn ACL in the Lions game. Cosmi was replaced by Trent Scott, a seventh-year journeyman who has filled in at multiple positions for Washington this season, but did not play in either Eagles game. Daniels has been great against pressure for the most part this season, but Carter is applying pressure at a nuclear level these days.

The Commanders know that they will have to lead with Daniels once again if they want to advance to the Super Bowl. The good news is that in his rookie season, Daniels has given no indication that it’s too much for him. Quite the opposite. The Lions brought all kinds of nasty defensive stuff at him, and he didn’t blink. Beyond his physical and mental attributes, Daniels has a preternatural calm in the most pivotal moments of a drive, a game, and a season that makes you wonder if he’s somehow been in the NFL for 10 years.

The Commanders have been the NFL’s best team when converting third and fourth downs this season, and any coach will tell you that when your opponent is unruffled by the specter of the ending of a drive, it makes for an entirely different offense. All of a sudden, the plays that “normal” teams throw out on certain downs are still in play. And Daniels has been at the epicenter of that all along.

“I think going into the game, we knew we would have to be bold on some spots, whether that was third and fourth downs when he’d have to use his legs, when he’d be able to, whether it was hand it off, rip it, whatever that looked like,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said Monday of Daniels’ ability to handle all of those things. “And those are spots that are important on the fourth downs. But I thought as important in the second half, some long drives that used time to go down the field and using all the shot clock so we can just make sure [in] all of those moments that we go. Whether it’s huddling, whether it’s using all the shot clock, extending plays. Those were some of the things that jumped out to me.”

Those things will undoubtedly stand out to the Eagles, and they’re more than aware. Fangio may be the NFL’s best defensive coordinator, and Philadelphia have the players from front to back to deal with anything Daniels throws at them – literally and figuratively. But when it comes to Daniels, there is always that eerie calm that allows his coaches and teammates to be bold – it’s a word they’ve used all season long. And that combination of calm and boldness could make Daniels the first rookie quarterback to start for his team in a Super Bowl.