Eagles film: How can the Birds slow down Jayden Daniels and the surging Commanders offense?

A late-season hiccup from the Eagles defense one month ago may have served as a springboard for the Washington Commanders, but Sunday’s NFC championship game will present a chance to ground their division rival.

The group had an uncharacteristic performance in the second meeting between the two teams in Week 16, allowing three scoring drives in the fourth quarter en route to a 36-33 loss.

While the game seemed somewhat like an aberration from the Eagles’ side, the Commanders haven’t looked back. Led by surging rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, the Commanders will enter Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday winners of seven straight and the party-crashing No. 6 seed fresh off two upsets.

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What are the Eagles in store for in the grudge match against Daniels? Let’s look at the film:

After seemingly improving each week during the regular season, Daniels has reached a new level in the playoffs. He completed 22 of 31 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns in Washington’s 45-31 road win over the No. 1-seeded Lions on Saturday. He made several big-time throws against Detroit’s man-coverage-heavy defense.

The man-coverage snaps aren’t overly applicable to the Eagles’ zone-heavy approach, but Washington did show some zone-beating route combinations the Eagles have either seen before or will need to prepare for.

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While Daniels is the star of the show for good reason, Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury also mixes in some layups to keep the first-round pick in rhythm. The Commanders leaned heavily into the run-pass option game to get the ball out of Daniels’ hands quickly on early downs against Detroit with success.

On first-and-10 midway through the second quarter, Washington wideout Terry McLaurin broke off a 58-yard touchdown catch and run on a simple quick screen pass. Daniels identified the numbers advantage Washington had on the perimeter with just two Detroit defensive backs to the Commanders’ three-receiver bunch and didn’t even bother to sell the run fake in order to get the ball into McLaurin’s hands more quickly.

With the way Daniels is playing and Kingsbury is calling games in the postseason, it’s not a stretch to say the offense has been coverage-agnostic to a certain degree. On the Commanders’ second third-down attempt of the game, Detroit came out with two deep safeties, but sent one into the intermediate middle of the field post-snap with the other playing center field in a three-deep zone.

Identifying the coverage and needing 10 yards to convert, Daniels hit receiver Jamison Crowder on a deep curl route outside the numbers to sustain a drive that ended in a field goal.

Considering the Eagles’ tendency to use Cover 3 this season, Daniels’ 42-yard completion to receiver Dyami Brown will be of interest as well. Facing second-and-5 at the start of the second quarter, Kingsbury sent Brown and McLaurin on intersecting deep post routes against a single-high look from Detroit. The middle-field traffic resulted in a coverage bust and sprung Brown open downfield for the completion.

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio acknowledged that he started sending more five-man rushes at Daniels in the teams’ previous meeting, but the rookie gashed Detroit when facing extra rushers enough to wonder if that will be prohibitive in Sunday’s rubber match.

One of Daniels’ best throws of Saturday came against a six-man rush, when he found Brown for a 38-yard completion on a deep-crossing route that helped illustrate just how accurate and fearless he’s been during this postseason run.

Watching Daniels carve up Detroit’s three-deep zone helps illustrate the disparity between the Lions’ banged-up secondary and the Eagles’ defensive backfield under Fangio. In fact, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay’s early plan involved identifying when the Eagles were in Cover 3 in an attempt to find openings in the seams.

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, and Kellen Moore need to be better if the Eagles are to beat the Commanders

On the Rams’ opening play of the game, the Eagles dropped into what looked like a match zone coverage with Reed Blankenship operating as the lone deep safety in the middle third of the field. After executing a play-action fake, quarterback Matthew Stafford looked for Cooper Kupp on a deep dig route that would typically beat a traditional Cover 3 look, but veteran cornerback Darius Slay stuck with the route and nearly came away with the interception after undercutting Kupp.

A few plays later, Stafford got the better of a similar look from the Eagles defense as receiver Puka Nacua ran an in-breaking route against Cooper DeJean out of the slot. The Rams lined up with tight end Tyler Higbee on the outside of a trips formation, which tipped off that the Eagles were in zone coverage with Slay lined up across from him. They also motioned Kupp across the formation just before the snap, leading to another zone indicator with nobody following Kupp across the formation.

Expecting zone, Stafford found the space between DeJean and edge rusher Nolan Smith for a 16-yard gain.

Aside from the Cover 3 snaps, the Commanders likely will watch the explosive passes the Eagles conceded to the Rams rather closely. Two came against cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, who replaced an injured Quinyon Mitchell in the first quarter. Rodgers may be called into action against Washington depending on whether Mitchell is able to recover from the shoulder injury that knocked him out of Sunday’s game.

To Rodgers’ credit, he was in decent position on the 48-yard completion to Demarcus Robinson and the 30-yarder to Kupp two quarters later as snowfall descended onto Lincoln Financial Field.

As important as the film from last weekend will be for each team, their last meeting will also be worth revisiting during the week of preparation.

I detailed the Eagles’ fourth-quarter collapse a few days after the 36-33 loss with the conclusion that it was an uncharacteristic performance rather than a worrying trend.

For what it’s worth, Fangio said he wouldn’t view it as just a blip.

“You’ve got to learn from all your experiences, both good and bad, and improve,” Fangio said. “... We’ve got to get back to playing better football.”

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What does that entail? The Commanders’ red-zone snaps along with the explosive completions they managed are worth revisiting the most.

On the explosives, Washington successfully caught Slay and Mitchell being late to react to vertical routes when operating out of zone coverage. Slay got beaten by Brown on the first one, whereas Mitchell got caught trying to wall off the inside by McLaurin a few minutes later.

On the red-zone snaps, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson getting ejected after drawing two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for taunting left the secondary with Tristin McCollum in his place.

McCollum had a coverage bust for one of the Commanders’ three touchdowns in the final 15 minutes of the game, as Washington created confusion with intersecting routes out of a trips formation.

The game-winning score doesn’t have the same personnel excuse. Kingsbury called a route concept specifically designed to challenge the Eagles’ match coverage rules and successfully put linebacker Zack Baun in conflict with in-breaking routes developing both in front and behind him.

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Fangio said after the game that Baun could have stuck with Crowder on the deeper of the two in-breakers “a little longer” to dissuade Daniels from targeting him. It’s also fair to note neither of the Eagles safeties picked up on the pattern quickly enough to offer Baun help over the top.

The Eagles regained their stride after Daniels’ walk-off win rather quickly, but the Commanders haven’t looked back. The chess match will continue Sunday, but the Commanders' passing game has only gotten better since their last meeting.