Eagles hold off Commanders with late stop, but don't blame Jayden Daniels

You can't blame Jayden Daniels for the Washington Commanders ' 24-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1.

Washington played good enough defense — at least for the first 52 minutes of the game — to win. That was the good news. Daniels also heated up late, hitting rookie Antonio Williams for a touchdown with 1:01 remaining to give the Commanders a chance to tie the game.

But the 2-point try — a shovel pass to backup tight end Jake Bates — was no good. The Eagles recovered the onsides kick and ran out the clock for an ugly, workmanlike victory.

The Commanders' offense struggled to find rhythm all game. In his first NFL game calling plays, Commanders offensive coordinator David Blough had the misfortune of going up against savvy Vic Fangio, one of the great defensive minds of his generation. The results mostly favored Fangio and the Eagles.

Washington also missed on an earlier chance to tie after Daniels' TD pass to Stefon Diggs cut Philly's lead to 17-15. After scoring, Diggs bear-hugged the goalpost, which earned his team a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty , which was enforced on the extra-point try.

That turned a potential game-tying 2-point try into a 48-yard extra-point try. The kick was good, but the Commanders never were able to level the score.

Blough's new offense didn't start looking right until the fourth quarter, when Daniels and the Commanders were forced to go tempo to try to fight back. They came up just a little short.

After opening the game with a field goal, the Commanders went into a rut offensively. On their next four series, they gained only one first down and 13 total yards.

Using a lot of heavy sets (two and three tight ends often) early, Washington didn't run the ball well enough for formations that should help the run game. On top of that, there were no real vertical threats.

The Eagles stuck with a lot of two-deep coverages, knowing their front could harass the Commanders' weakened offensive line and really stress Daniels when it came to making big pass plays or breaking off game-changing scrambles. The strategy worked for most of the game.

Blough spoke this preseason about wanting to limit the hits and sacks on Daniels this season. That element was nominally a success Sunday, as Washington allowed only two QB hits and one sack. Yet the passing game was out of sync and the entire process sped up because of the Eagles' pressure.

One of the biggest changes Blough has introduced was on display in the opener: the lack of zone reads that made Daniels so dangerous the past few seasons. Daniels tried to rally the Commanders as a scrambler, and he ripped off a 16-yard beauty in the fourth quarter. Those chances were too few and far between.

Daniels found Williams — who was active ahead of vets Luke McCaffrey and Treylon Burks — for a 33-yard catch on third-and-14 with the Commanders trailing, 17-9, early in the fourth quarter. Williams also had a 16-yard catch down to the Eagles' 1-yard line in the first half, setting up their touchdown before halftime, and he scored late to give the Commanders a chance. It would be a shock if he wasn't a consistent part of the offense after being their best weapon in Week 1.

Terry McLaurin didn't grab his first reception, one of two on the game, until the 4:30 mark of the fourth quarter. Diggs finished with four catches for 55 yards and the score, but they came on nine targets. Diggs' brain-fart penalty late didn't help matters, even if the TD throw and catch were clean.

The Commanders couldn't run the ball all that effectively. The offensive line was under fire most of the game. Daniels had few options to throw to beyond about 5 yards until midway through the fourth quarter. All six Washington penalties were on offense, often putting them in long-yardage situations.

Sure, you can point to the blocked extra-point try on the first touchdown and the late defensive breakdowns as reasons why the Commanders couldn't pull it out. The offense surely left plenty of plays on the field, too.

But blaming Daniels for this one isn't fair. He showed some real spark late after settling in and letting his instincts take over. At the end of the day, that's what Blough wants: his best player making plays with his gut.

Yet there also seemed to be some schematic and operational issues on offense that might need a hard look this week. Early in the game, the play-calling felt very safe — way too passive. Daniels appeared to be at his best in the shotgun running quick tempo late with a gotta-have-it mentality. Some of Blough's desired system changes run anathema to that.

It's Week 1, where fluky things happen. There's little bandwidth for season-long proclamations at this stage. The good news is that Daniels showed that when he gets a chance to create, he can still do it — and there was no clear evidence of the knee, elbow and hamstring injuries that plagued him a year ago.

The bad news is that the Commanders are still finding themselves as an offensive unit. That might take some time to iron out.