LANDOVER, Md. – The question clearly didn’t sit well with Kliff Kingsbury. During his weekly meeting with the media Thursday, the first question directed at the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator was simple enough.
What was preventing the offense from reaching the heights it had achieved to start the season?
“In what regard?” Kingsbury responded, brushing the proposition aside.
Many regards, apparently, as the 26 points the team scored in a 34-26 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday were more of a mirage than a harbinger.
Kingsbury’s star wide receiver Terry McLaurin and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels executed some late-game heroics that could have helped buff out the scratches of an inconsistent attack that stalled all afternoon, and suddenly the Commanders were an extra point away from tying the game at 27 with 12 seconds remaining.
Austin Seibert’s kick went wide left for his second missed extra-point attempt of the day. Dallas took Seibert’s ensuing onside kick attempt to the house, and there was no Hail Mary repeat.
“We didn’t play our best. We didn’t play complementary football,” said McLaurin, whose 86-yard catch-and-run in the game’s final minute appeared to send the game to overtime.
The Washington defense outside of a few big plays kept quarterback Cooper Rush – finishing out the season in place of starter Dak Prescott – in check for most of the game. At halftime, the score was 3-0, even though the offense was routinely given solid starting field position.
“We got to find a way to start faster and sustain drives,” McLaurin said. “That’s everybody. The whole coaching staff and offensive players just figuring out ways we can stay on the field and help the defense.”
The Commanders turned in their worst offensive performance since head coach Dan Quinn and Kingsbury arrived this offseason. Compounding the pain: The result came against a listless Cowboys squad missing key pieces on both sides of the ball Sunday – including right guard Zack Martin and cornerback Trevon Diggs – in what has become a lost campaign for the Commanders’ NFC East rival.
Without improvement, the Commanders could be headed for the same fate in 2024, even if the first year of the new regime has been a step in the right direction.
“When you make a mistake, is that one that’s technique or over-trying?” Quinn wondered after the game. ” … Any player or coach can (say), ‘I’m going to make the perfect call or the perfect run’ or the whatever that looks like. And more often, the best ones execute.”
Quinn said the team has self-scouted all year. But presented with the trend that his offenses have historically declined over the course of individual seasons – there are years of data demonstrating that – Kingsbury said he’d have to know specifics before commenting on it.
“So I was thinking about doing triple option, is that what you’re thinking?” Kingsbury said earlier in the week. “I don’t know, yeah, we’re gonna do what we do, so.”
The Commanders averaged 5.8 yards per carry against one of the NFL’s worst defenses, but Daniels and the receivers could not make anything happen through the air until it was too late. The 2023 Heisman Trophy winner went 25-for-38 for 275 yards with two interceptions, 74 yards on the ground (seven attempts) and a rushing and passing score apiece. It was the most comfortable he looked running the ball since he suffered a rib injury against the Carolina Panthers on Oct. 20.
The Commanders cut the Cowboys’ lead to three points following a Daniels touchdown pass to Zach Ertz and two-point conversion he ran in with 3:02 remaining. Kingsbury, Daniels and Co. cannot be blamed for KaVontae Turpin’s outrageous spin move on the ensuing kickoff that reverted the contest to a two-possession game.
Playing with tempo and staying on the field helps Kingsbury keep the whole playbook at his disposal, McLaurin said. The Commanders also need to put themselves in better third-down situations; Washington was 4-for-12 on third downs against the Cowboys (three of those conversions came in the third quarter). In the two games before Dallas, the Commanders averaged 253 yards of total offense. They had recorded at least 356 yards in seven of their eight previous games.
“I think teams or coordinators are going to see what other teams have success against us and try to figure out how they would incorporate that into their schemes,” Daniels said, noting that third-and-long opportunities allow defenses to dial up exotic pressures. “We’ve just gotta be better on first and second downs and stay ahead of the chains.”
Sustaining drives was a driving factor in the offense’s early-season success.
“It’s not right now,” McLaurin (five catches, 101 yards) said. “We got to figure out how to get that to being the strength of our offense.”
He added: “We got to fix some things in the film room.”
Seibert, playing in his first game since Nov. 3 and dealing with a right hip injury, missed a field goal in the first quarter in addition to both extra-point tries.
“Definitely don’t want to do that,” Seibert said. “Just wasn’t striking it well.”
After the game, Quinn said there was no hesitation in sending out the special-teams unit rather than keeping the offense on the field for a two-point conversion that would have given Washington the lead.
“That dude coaching us, whatever he rolls with, I am on board with him,” said punter Tress Way, who is also the holder and gave Seibert a clean look despite a poor snap from Tyler Ott on the game-tying extra-point attempt. “He is the bomb. So whatever he signs us up for, we got to go do it. I love how much trust he puts in us and gasses us up in that way.”
On the Turpin runback, Seibert said his goal was to hit a dirty ball. He did, and Turpin botched the ball initially. Seibert’s teammates didn’t make the play. The next Cowboys return for a score, which came on an attempted onside kick, was hit directly at safety Juanyeh Thomas, who had an open field and walk-in score ahead of him.
A full week of practice for Daniels, who had been nursing a rib injury for more than a month, would do the first-team offense well, Kingsbury said. The former Arizona Cardinals and Texas Tech head coach declined to elaborate on the changes – if any – were made to accommodate a “more banged up” Daniels.
“But hopefully we play better this week,” Kingsbury said. “I’ll just say that.
“Just nailing the details, calling better plays. I mean, overall, collectively as an offense we can be better.”
On Sunday, they weren’t.