Commanders key numbers, Wild Card round: Washington doinks its way to Detroit

It was a full-circle moment for the Washington Commanders. After losing their first game of the season at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they avenged this loss for their first playoff triumph in 19 years.

As has become the team's calling card all season, the Commanders put out the bat signal to Jayden Daniels. And like Batman, he delivered in the clutch, experiencing some nicks and cuts along the way.

Last week, Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said, "One of the things I love is the sh** gets crazy in the postseason and our team...we like crazy."

It did get crazy on Sunday Night Football, and the Commanders were ready for it. After failing to convert on four tries from inside the five-year line late in the fourth quarter, Washington watched momentum start to fade, turning it over on downs.

Four plays later, quarterback Baker Mayfield fumbled the ball on a botched handoff, and Bobby Wagner recovered for Washington.

Once again, Washington was in the red zone with a chance to capitalize. This time on fourth down, Daniels found Terry McLaurin for a touchdown grab to put the Commanders ahead.

On Tampa Bay's next drive, the offense was easily moving down the field and it looked as if the defense would need a miracle to stop a touchdown. On 3rd-and-inches from the Washington 12-yard line, Buccaneers' rookie center Graham Barton snapped the ball early before the team was ready, and the Commanders tackled Bucky Irving for a two-yard loss.

They settled for a field goal. Crisis averted, and Daniels got the ball back with 4:41 left to do what he does best, lead a game-winning drive.

The madness continued late in the game with Daniels escaping Calijah Kancey, who nearly tackled the signal-caller seven yards behind the line of scrimmage, to get a crucial first down on 3rd-and-2. This forced Tampa Bay to burn its final timeout, and the Commanders milked to clock down for a game-winning field goal.

But wait, there's more. Zane Gonzalez's kick, better known as the 'doink to Detroit', hit the uprights before bouncing in, securing a division-round meeting with the Lions next week.

Let's get into the key numbers from a wild win in Tampa.

Commanders key numbers from Wild Card triumph at the Buccaneers

6945: A playoff win for the Commanders has been a long time coming. It has been 6,945 days since Washington last won a playoff game, ironically enough, also against the Buccaneers.

To put into perspective how long ago that was, let's take a look back at history. That season, Dan Quinn was the defensive line coach with the Miami Dolphins and 10 years away from getting his first head coaching gig. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was a backup quarterback for the New York Jets. Daniels was in elementary school. It's been a minute.

60: How many different ways are there to show how good Daniels is in the clutch? On the game-winning drive, he was a perfect 3-for-3 for 44 passing yards, while adding a crucial first down on 3rd-and-2 in Tampa Bay territory. On third and fourth-down dropbacks in the game, he was 9-for-15 (60%) for 108 yards and two touchdowns, with eight of those nine completions resulting in first downs.

This was a 17%+ improvement from the regular season on similar dropbacks. He is just the fourth rookie quarterback to win a playoff game on the road in NFL history. Insane.

2.3: Austin Ekeler had some big runs on the final drive of the game, but overall the running game has looked uneven over the last quarter of the season. Outside of Daniels, all other runners only combined for 46 rushing yards on 20 carries, for a weak 2.3 yards per carry.

Brian Robinson Jr. continues to struggle and only had 16 rushing yards on 10 carries. The team might need to turn more to Chris Rodriguez Jr. and Jeremy McNichols in tandem with Ekeler against Detroit.

60: The Commanders came into the game with a historic 86.96% conversion rate on fourth downs, so it was no surprise that they went for it, often and early. Out of their seven fourth downs, the team decided to go for it on five of them, converting three times for a 60% success rate, with two of those drives ending in touchdowns.

55: Much was made of the matchup between Mike Evans and Marshon Lattimore, who were meeting head-to-head for an NFL-leading 14th time. Evans averaged only 2.6 catches for 43.6 receiving yards in the previous 13 meetings. He had a field day in this one.

In the first half alone versus Lattimore, Evans had four catches for 55 receiving yards, one touchdown, and a pass interference call for 11 yards that set up the score. The wideout did have a quiet second half with two receptions for 26 yards through the air.

89: Dyami Brown had himself a game. His 89 receiving yards were the second-most in his career and equaled almost 30% of his season yardage total. The wide receiver picked it up at the tail end of the season, filling in the gap after Noah Brown was injured.

Brown had 14 of his 30 receptions in his last four games of the regular season and 137 of his 308 receiving yards came during this span. He was clutch multiple times, with Daniels finding him for a touchdown on 3rd-and-goal early in the game, and for a pivotal 20-yard completion on 3rd-and-6 on the game-winning drive. 

Next week, the Commanders get to face off against a team whose fanbase has suffered just as much as Washington's. Since 2000, both the Commanders and Lions have finished last or second to last in their division 18 times.

Detroit has seen its fortunes turnaround with Dan Campbell at the helm. Regardless of the outcome next week, the Commanders seem to be on a similar trajectory under Dan Quinn. 

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