A magical run for Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders came to an end one step shy of the Super Bowl.
Three untimely fumbles and the explosiveness of Saquon Barkley proved too much for Daniels and Washington to overcome in Philadelphia. The Eagles advanced their third Super Bowl since 2018, winning 55-23.
The rookie quarterback did what he could, throwing for 255 yards and a score and running for 48 more and another touchdown. The Eagles turned the three Commander fumbles into touchdowns and then punched in two more after Daniels was sacked on a 4th and 11 at the Washington 40 and then intercepted on a desperation drive five minutes later.
The Commanders had played two clean playoff games without a turnover. The four on Sunday proved too much to overcome.
Barkley broke the all-time single season rushing total combining regular season and postseason yards, passing Terrell Davis’s 1998 season with Denver. He exploded for a 60-yard score on the Eagles’ first play from scrimmage and finished the game with 118 yards and three touchdowns.
Daniels was one win away from becoming the first rookie to start a Super Bowl and could have done it just 80 miles from the campus where he won his Heisman Trophy at LSU.
An important offseason now awaits the Commanders franchise with Daniels still on a rookie deal for the next four seasons. Washington is in the top five in the NFL in salary cap space for 2025 and is in position to be aggressive in acquiring talent with quarterback being solved for the first time in decades.
Daniels became the first rookie quarterback ever to win at least 10 games with 30 or more total touchdowns and at least 4,000 total yards in a single season. He set the rookie record for rushing yards by a quarterback and won a pair of playoff games on the road including on against the NFC’s No. 1 seed Detroit.
