BALTIMORE — This is not a moral victories space.
Having said that …
Six games into Jayden Daniels’ pro career, his presence, and by extension, his team’s, forced a legit Super Bowl contender in the Baltimore Ravens to give the Washington Commanders their full attention and copious helpings of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. Baltimore played with an edge in its 30-23 win Sunday that we’ve seen the Ravens bring to tilts over the years with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs.
Washington’s produced nothing over the last few years that comes close to what those teams have achieved in the regular season — and, in Kansas City’s case, recent Super Bowls. Games like Sunday’s can bring clarity as to why and as to how far the Commanders still have to go.
So, maybe we can stop with all the rivalry talk between these franchises for a while. There is no rivalry. The Ravens have won two Super Bowls since 2000, have sent multiple guys to Canton during that stretch and have a two-time league MVP in Jackson. Washington is not a rival to them. It’s not quite Michael Corleone-Fredo level of condescension, but Baltimore’s not losing any sleep worrying about what Washington’s doing.
Because the Commanders, clearly, have more work to do.
THERE IT IS
📺 #WASvsBAL CBS pic.twitter.com/BuUz7h6zfY
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) October 13, 2024
The absence of Brian Robinson made running the ball against Baltimore’s stout front that much harder, and the Commanders had to ground and pound to have any shot at pulling the upset at M&T Bank Stadium. Not dominating the time of possession or moving the chains gave Jackson and Henry that many more chances with the football, and over 60 minutes, they tend to take the legs and spirit of opponents who often flail, in very different ways, at trying to stop either man.
Henry ran for 132 yards on 24 carries. Jackson was 20 of 26 for 323 yards and a touchdown. The Ravens held the ball for more than 36 minutes. And they ran out the clock after Austin Seibert’s field goal with 2:48 left brought Washington within a touchdown. Henry tore off 27 yards on a toss play for a first down, and Baltimore never gave the ball back. The Commanders knew exactly what Baltimore was going to do, but couldn’t stop it.
“A lot of respect for them, because they play to their identity, play tough,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. “I told John (Harbaugh) that after the game; I said that was the quintessential finish for you and the guys. Way to go and close it out. Both teams, I thought, have tough identities. And then, I did say to the team, these are really important games for us to be in, to know this is what it’s like to go and fight. We need these, I call them a test inside. We need these environments, this space, to feel really comfortable. That’s what I would want them to get across, to get real comfortable in these kinds of fights.”
Bobby Wagner won a Super Bowl with Seattle, and almost another, as the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom became a dominant defense. But it didn’t happen overnight or in one season.
“Honestly, it took games like this, where you hurt yourself a little bit, whether it’s penalties, whether it’s miscommunication, things of that nature,” Wagner said. “You go back, you hold yourself accountable. You’ve got the right men to hold yourself accountable, and everybody gets back to the drawing board. Don’t hold your head down and just grow. And if every player can grow, it’s going to make us that much better. And I think we’ve got those guys.”
All week, the Commanders were respectful of what the Ravens have accomplished during Harbaugh’s tenure, and as their front office transitioned, seemingly effortlessly, from former general manager Ozzie Newsome to Eric DeCosta. Baltimore’s identity, and how it informs the types of players the Ravens bring into their organization, never wavers. Washington’s new brain trust has similar ideas about how to stock its locker room. But it’s held one draft and opted not to dip deep into free agency, preferring to keep future salary books as clean as possible.
We all knew Washington GM Adam Peters and his group would need time to try and fix the talent gap between the Commanders and the best teams in the league. They’ve done well with targeted free-agent pickups like Wagner, Frankie Luvu and center Tyler Biadasz, but excelling in the draft is where teams can shorten the learning curve.
Consider: The Ravens’ most recent first-round pick at wide receiver, in 2023, is Zay Flowers. He ran free and easy in the first half against the Commanders, who played far less nickel than they normally do to try and slow down Baltimore’s league-leading ground attack. Flowers caught nine first-half balls, for 132 yards, as Jackson smoked Washington’s secondary with crossing patterns throughout the day and found the holes in the Commanders’ zone defenses.
By contrast, Washington’s last first-round pick at wide receiver, in 2022, Jahan Dotson … now plays in Philadelphia. (He caught one ball Sunday in the Eagles’ 20-16 win over the Cleveland Browns for 10 yards.)
Baltimore drafted a corner in the first round this year, Nate Wiggins. He started Sunday and held up most of the day, with multiple passes defensed, despite suffering a shoulder injury in the first half.
Washington drafted a corner in the first round last year, Emmanuel Forbes. He was a healthy scratch Sunday, as his up-and-down time in D.C. continues. Again, I’m not writing him off after barely a year’s worth of NFL games. But it’s hard not to see and compare how he’s doing with how Devon Witherspoon has impacted Seattle’s defense or how Christian Gonzalez has picked up things in New England.
Meanwhile, Peters’ first pick in D.C. continued to show rapid development in different environments, as Daniels held his own against Jackson.
The Ravens spied Daniels and kept him from getting outside the pocket much, but he still was very efficient — 24 of 35 for 269 yards with two touchdowns and a passer rating of 110.3. His two TD passes, both to Terry McLaurin, were terrific throws into extremely small windows in the end zone. He made one bad throw in the third quarter that should have been picked off by Baltimore safety Ar’Darius Washington, but Washington conveniently dropped it.
Daniels didn’t put together or finish enough drives that ended in touchdowns, but he kept Washington in the game, even when it was clear Robinson’s absence made the Commanders one-dimensional.
“When you have a guy who has that type of skill set and composure, it makes everything easier,” Commanders guard Nick Allegretti said. “Learning from this game is going to be easier. He’s an incredibly intelligent rookie. So he’s going to be able to watch this film and see what he could have done better. Offensive line, we’ll watch this film and see what we could have done better to help him. ‘Cause he’s not a statue back there. You want to give him all the time in the world, but you just have to give him either a firm pocket or a wide pocket. You want to give both, but if you’re able to give him rush lanes to get loose, he’s able to do stuff with it.”
So a third of the way through his first season, Daniels’ team is 4-2 and in first place in the NFC East. It’s been a wild and occasionally exhilarating ride. But, there will be more lessons and more losing to come, too. This season has always been about Washington’s future rather than its present. The Commanders can see exactly who they’d like to be, from ownership to the front office to coaching to the guy behind center, 45 minutes up the road.
(Photo of Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
