LOVERRO: Commanders can’t keep asking Daniels to win games by himself

OPINION:

In the news business, obituaries are often written decades before a person of prominence passes on. It’s a morbid but necessary practice.

Several writers who composed obituaries for former President Jimmy Carter had died before Carter did last week.

There won’t be decades to write the obituary of the 2024 Washington Commanders season. But it might be a good idea to have something ready before Sunday night’s wild-card game in Tampa against the Buccaneers.

Because the Commanders squad that has fought back to win its last four games with seconds left on the clock won’t likely be able to pull off yet another hard-fought victory against Tampa Bay. 

Not the team that has taken the field for Washington in the final stretch of the season. Not against a Todd Bowles-coached unit with a legitimate starting quarterback who threw 41 touchdown passes this season.

It’s unlikely that either rookie sensation Jayden Daniels or veteran backup Marcus Mariota, who saved the day Sunday in Washington’s 23-19 last-second win over the Dallas Cowboys, will be able to take this team on their backs one more time, not in playoff football against a tough opponent, on the road.

If they have a chance on Sunday, they are going to need some help from their teammates this time.

The Cowboys, like much of the opposition the Commanders faced in these final games, manhandled the Washington lines on both sides of the ball.

Dallas was inept enough, though, to keep the game close so when Mariota took off for a 33-yard run as the clock was running down, he was able to pull the victory out with a five-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin with three seconds left.

Mariota was in the game because Daniels, after struggling in his worst performance of the season, was under attack by the Dallas defense (sacked four times and under duress much of the rest of the time) and completing just 6 of 12 passes for 38 yards, rushing for 27 yards on four carries, was benched for the second half.

At first, the team reported it was a “coach’s decision,” but after the game, they said Daniels was sat down because of a sore leg.

It could have been sore from the weight of carrying the team in the last four games.

Washington’s running backs rushed 30 yards Sunday, with Brian Robinson, who has struggled since he declared several weeks ago that the Commanders were a better team than the Eagles, carried the ball just five times for 10 yards. Austin Ekeler, in his first game back after missing several weeks from a concussion, carried the ball three times for 12 yards. Chris Rodriguez never took the field.

They are going to need much more from their running game to take the pressure off Daniels to have success against Tampa with his own running game.

They are going to need much more from their offensive line — diminished by the absence of injured center Tyler Biadasz — to give Daniels enough time to connect accurately with his receivers. 

In addition to the four sacks Sunday of Daniels, Mariota was sacked twice. The week before against Atlanta, Daniels was sacked five times. Two weeks earlier, the Saints sacked Daniels seven times.

On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys’ third-string quarterback, Trey Lance, completed 20 of 34 passes for 244 yards, much of the time without pressure from the Washington pass rush. Lance was sacked just twice.

They need defensive tackle Daron Payne to play as if it was a contract year, like he did in 2022, when he was trying to get paid, with 11 1/2 sacks. He got a four-year, $90 million contract, second only to Aaron Donald at the time. I suspect that Donald, who retired after the 2023 season, could do better coming off the couch than Payne, with four sacks, and 22 solo tackles this season.

They need hamstring-challenged cornerback Marshon Lattimore, or else just have Benjamin St. Juste keep his hands in his pockets.

Given all this, Washington still found ways to win these games — still found a way to win 12 games under new coach Dan Quinn after going just 4-13 last year, the first time a Washington team has won 12 games since the 14-win 1991 Super Bowl season.

They have shown fight at every step, including Sunday against a Dallas team that had little to fight for. They have created an admirable identity.

“I love that we’re in these close fights,” Quinn told reporters after the game. “We have trained for it a lot. I told them just because we can does not mean we need to. But I’ll take the fight and what it stands for.

Quinn is a huge fight fan. As I’ve written before, he does weekly boxing workouts. If he knows boxing history, then he knows about former light heavyweight champion Matthew Saad Muhammad from the late 1970s and 1980s who was known for his brutal battles in the ring when he would come back to win.

He was heralded for his toughness, but he finally came up short against an opponent — Dwight Muhammad Qawi — who was just as tough and more talented.

Each fight takes its toll.

Daniels got them this far, almost on his own near the end of the regular season. 

But these are the championship rounds. He’s going to need help, or else you can start writing the obituary now. Granted, it would be an obituary of accomplishments. But there is an opportunity to make it unforgettable.

• Catch Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.