'We were sloppy' – One obvious problem peeked its head during Commanders win, but Jayden Daniels did his best to hide it

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Josh Taylor | Last updated Sep 8, 2025 2:59 PM ET

You always want to leave a game with a win, and that's exactly what the Washington Commanders did on Sunday, but we also saw one major concern come to fruition.

The New York Giants weren't an easy opponent to start the season against, especially with their defense, and we saw that the offense may have been a little rusty in areas we expected. Jayden Daniels saw the problem as well, and this has to somehow be fixed on a short week with the Commanders traveling to the Green Bay Packers for a Thursday night game.

The connection that wasn't there

We all know that Terry McLaurin missed all of training camp and just recently started practicing with the team again recently before the season, but we expected his connection with Daniels to be as strong as ever. That wasn't the case, however, and the offense struggled at times, and even Daniels pointed it out after the game.

"We were sloppy, but it’s always better to come out with a win than a loss, so we’ll learn from that," Daniels said. "There’s always first game jitters or whatever. You know you’re not gonna be at your peak form in Week 1, and you don’t want to, but there’s little stuff that we gotta clean up and be more attentive on. We’ll hit that in film and get ready for the game in a short week.”

Daniels only targeted McLaurin four times on Sunday, and they were so close to connecting on that deep shot we are so used to seeing, but the ball sailed over McLaurin's head instead.

Terry McLaurin & Jayden Daniels fantasy owners look away
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— Kalshi Football (@KalshiFB) September 7, 2025

Offensive efficiency

The Daniels and McLaurin connection wasn't the only thing that stalled the offense at times. They ended the half with zero points on a final drive that ended at the Giants' four-yard line, and came out after halftime with three straight drives that ended in punts. The Commanders were stuck at 14 points for way too long until Deebo Samuel ended the drought with an end-around for a touchdown.

We're used to Daniels being an elite quarterback when it comes to EPA, but the run game actually ended up being the more efficient part of the offense on Sunday.

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— William Herman (@_williamherman) September 8, 2025

When all else failed in the passing game, Daniels looked to Samuel, who led the team with seven catches for 77 yards, and also had a team-high 10 targets, which was double what Zach Ertz had, who was second on the team. Daniels still completed a pass to seven different targets on Sunday and took care of the ball. He finished with 301 total yards and one touchdown, which felt like an average day for him, and that's still better than most quarterbacks on their good day.

It was clear the offense wasn't clicking on the level we are used to, especially with McLaurin, but newcomers in Samuel and Croskey-Merritt picked up the extra slack with all the time they put in this offseason. The offense will eventually get going, but the time missed by McLaurin showed in Week 1, and it needs to come back on a short week as the team travels to Green Bay for Thursday Night Football.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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