The Commanders trail the Ravens 17-3 at halftime of their Week 6 showdown from Baltimore. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has led Baltimore with a 208-yard passing performance. Commanders QB Jayden Daniels has completed 15/20 passing for 131 yards.
Here are three takeaways from the first half:
Commanders need to adjust to Flowers
The Ravens’ first scoring drive was 93 yards of soft coverage and woes from cornerback Benjamin St. Juste. Wide receiver Zay Flowers has posed mismatch problems with all the Commanders’ defensive backs, not just St. Juste, though, with a combined 132 yards. Any time Washington’s defense faces a quarterback as good as Lamar Jackson, it will have to cut some of their losses, but if they can find a way to limit Flowers, that should slow the Ravens down enough for the Commanders to get some stops.
Daniels adjusts later in half
After starting the game with just 34 yards of offense on the first three drives, Jayden Daniels delivered on the next drive to tie the game at 10. He completed 5/7 of his passes for 59 yards on that drive and placed a wonderfully executed lob pass for Terry McLaurin in the endzone. Daniels spread the ball to six different receivers in the first half, with five to Olamide Zaccheus. The missed field goal at halftime hurts, but Washington gets the ball back in the second half.
Armstrong out could pose concerns
After edge rusher Dorance Armstrong exited the game in the second quarter, Jackson had a lot of time to pick apart Washington’s secondary—a large part of Flowers’ and Rashod Bateman’s success. Outside of Derrick Henry’s last two carries, the Commanders limited him to just 2.9 yards on his first seven carries. They’ll need to continue to limit Henry and some pass rush from the interior to make up for the loss of Armstrong.