The 24-22 Final Flatters Washington
The two-point margin is the least interesting thing about this game. Philadelphia beat Washington 24-22 in the Week 1 NFC East opener, and a one-score final will get filed as a thriller. The numbers say something else.
Jayden Daniels went 18-of-34 for 164 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. That works out to 4.8 yards per attempt. His 85.9 passer rating and 66.3 QBR read like a competent afternoon. The yards per attempt reads like a ceiling, and for an offense built around a quarterback who is supposed to punish people downfield, it is the number that decided this game.
Terry McLaurin caught 2 of 4 targets for 14 yards. Dyami Brown was targeted twice and caught nothing. Stefon Diggs needed nine targets to produce four catches for 55 yards and a score. Antonio Williams was the efficient one, 4 for 64 and a touchdown. Jacory Croskey-Merritt carried 16 times for 63 yards and a rushing touchdown, and fumbled once without losing it.
So how was this a two-point game? Jaylin Lane. Three kick returns for 95 yards, four punt returns for 53. Rachaad White added two more kick returns for 59 yards. Washington's return game kept handing the offense short fields. The offense kept handing them back.
The defense held up better than the score suggests. Nick Cross finished with 8 tackles and 2 tackles for loss. Sonny Styles had a sack and 2 tackles for loss among his 4 stops. That group did enough to win a division game on the road.
Here is the take, and I will own it. The consensus after this one will be that Washington hung with Philadelphia and can build on a near-miss in the division. Wrong read. The Commanders lost because their quarterback averaged 4.8 yards a throw and their No. 1 receiver was a nonfactor, and no amount of return-yardage camouflage fixes that. Philadelphia survived a Washington offense that could not stretch the field. That is a different sentence than "outlasted."
Watch McLaurin's target count in Week 2. Four targets again means the problem is structural, not circumstantial. A jump back into the eight-to-ten range means this was one bad Sunday against a secondary that knew exactly where the ball was going. Either way, 24-22 tells you less than 4.8 does.
