Dan Quinn, underdog Commanders taking the anti-Texans approach to NFC title game

America roots for the underdog. But don’t tell Dan Quinn he’ll have about 300 million additional fans on Sunday when his Commanders visit the Eagles.

“I don’t look at it as we’ve got to prove it to everybody else, or underdog stories, because this is not a seven-game series,” said Quinn, four days before Washington (14-5) meets Philadelphia (16-3) in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX). “And so, we got to play our best on Sunday at 3 o’clock and that, to me, is the biggest factor.”

Compare that approach to what DeMeco Ryans told his team before and after the underdog Texans lost in the divisional round at Kansas City. In stark contrast, Quinn is telling the world that his team – a six-point underdog — has earned the right to play for a Super Bowl berth. And should they lose, don’t expect the Commanders to blame the officials.

“I love Dan Quinn from the standpoint of, he will talk to his team about non-negotiables,” said former NFL player Mark Schlereth, who won a Super Bowl ring the last time Washington played in the game, in 1991. “These are things that are non-negotiables with me. We’re going to play hard, we’re going to play tough, we’re not going to make excuses, we’re going to go out there and play our asses off.

“One of the reasons you could do that is because you have a first-year quarterback in Jayden Daniels who is playing as though he was a 10-year veteran. The guy is unbelievable.”

Schlereth, who also won consecutive Super Bowls with the Broncos in 1997-98, added on Thursday’s Breakfast Ball that Daniels has been mischaracterized as an exciting player who goes off schedule, extends plays and scrambles for big yardage. The numbers tell a much different story.

In last week’s impressive, 45-31 win at Detroit, Daniels completed 21 of 29 attempts for 286 of his 299 yards and two touchdowns as a drop-back pocket passer. He connected with Dyami Brown on two deep balls that stunned the Lions, a 42-yard strike to begin the second quarter and set up a go-ahead touchdown, and a gorgeous, perfectly placed shot for 38 yards that pierced the Lions’ 10-yard line and allowed Washington to take a 10-point lead into halftime. Meanwhile, when forced out of the pocket last week, Daniels was only 1 of 2 for 13 yards.

“Last week, he was absolutely unreal in the drop-back game,” Schlereth said. “He eviscerated the Detroit Lions. He went through progressions, he found the open guy, he made the open throw. The dude was unreal. Made a couple of deep throws. You know, we think about that quick one to Scary Terry, the little bubble screen, but he made a couple to Dyami Brown over the top that it was like, you can’t throw it any better than that. You can’t read it out any better than that. This kid, he’s playing like a 10-year veteran. He is no longer a rookie. The kid’s amazing.”

Another amazing note on Daniels and his performance last week, courtesy of FS1, was Washington’s rookie compared to his predecessors. Daniels in the win at Detroit registered a 70.9 completion percentage, 299 passing yards, two touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 122.9 passer rating – leading the Commanders to 45 points.

The previous five rookie starting quarterbacks to reach their conference championships — Shaun King, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez and Brock Purdy — averaged in their divisional playoff wins a 50.6 completion percentage and 143.8 yards per game, throwing four touchdowns with five interceptions, compiled a 62.3 average passer rating and scored just 17.2 points per game.

For more information on the Commanders and Eagles, visit Washington and Philadelphia team pages at ProFootballPost.com.