ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders hit the road this weekend to MetLife Stadium to take on the New York Giants. The Commanders lead the NFC East Standings at 6-2, the Giants are at the bottom at 2-6 and have lost three straight games.
In their first meeting, the Commanders beat the Giants by three points, 21-18 and didn’t score a touchdown.
Dan Quinn says the Giants have improved since mid-September, especially in their pass rush. They were pretty good that day, week two, as well ─ sacking Jayden Daniels five times.
“It’s going to be a tough battle. That’s what it was week two and that’s what we’re preparing for again," said Quinn. "That’s kind of part of the fun of what division games are. They’re tough, you have to have a five-quarter mindset to take it as far as you have to take it to go get the win.”
New York, as a team, leads the NFL with 35 sacks. Giants defensive tackle, Dexter Lawrence, leads the league with nine sacks.
The Washington offensive line says stopping the Giants pass rush will be key this weekend.
"You always want to keep Jayden clean. That’s obviously the goal every time you go into the week," said Commanders offensive lineman Nick Allegretti. "When you have a D-line like this with Dexter (Lawrence), (Brian) Burns, a couple of the guys they got, yeah you take that on yourself. It’s a challenge to protect the quarterback every week and when you have talented guys like that it’s even a bigger challenge. Definitely take pride in that."
This will also be the first time Jayden Daniels will play a defense twice in the same season as an NFL quarterback. It's something Quinn says he planned for.
"You always keep a few wrinkles that’s available for the next time you’re playing somebody. You have a gameplan and usually you haven’t used all that was there, and you had some of that on your call sheet for a reason," said Quinn. "The first thing you do is you pull that out and say why did I or why didn’t I use it? What was successful, what wasn’t? Both teams have, there will be some new wrinkles that will go with it."
“It’s going to be a different game," said Daniels. "It’s going to be different from week two to now. Obviously, they’ve grown as a defense and a team, we’ve grown as an offense and a team”