Washington’s commanders wanting to get Terry McLaurin more involved in the fight against privateers

ASHBURN, Va. – In two regular-season games and one in the playoffs Washington’s commandersAll-star forward Terry McLaurin never caught a touchdown pass against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

However, this does not mean that he had no influence on it. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In two of those three matchups, the Commanders star had six receptions for 59 yards of offense.

The problem for this year’s Washington team is that the anomaly in McLaurin’s record against a weekend opponent occurred this season, when he had just two catches for 17 yards in a Week 1 loss in Tampa, where the two teams will face in the Wild Card. NFL playoffs next weekend.

“I think we definitely didn’t have a good enough plan to get him the ball. And also, (Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach) Todd Bowles is a good defensive coach, so – after watching the game – it’s hard to watch. It’s a completely different situation than it is now,” Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said when asked about the team’s inability to get McLaurin more involved in the loss in the first week. “(Bowles) realizes he’s one of the best players in the league. So he’ll do everything he can to take it with him, and then I (have to) do a better job calling for the play. And I think (quarterback) Jayden (Daniels) has developed to the point where when we have the opportunity to get the ball to Terry, he takes it.”

Looking back, Daniels had some chance of finding McLaurin for one reason or another quarterback conversion failed. Kingsbury described his quarterback’s emotional state as “fight or flight” in the days after the rookie’s debut. And when an athletic quarterback of Daniels’ pedigree goes into flight mode, it’s with his legs, not his arm.

“I think we all taught each other. We learned the system in a game-like way, figuring out what our identity was. In those first few games, like every team in the league, you were trying to figure out your identity. identity is what you do well and what you play at a high level. And of course, with the group’s first coordinator, a rookie quarterback and a new group of talented players, everything was new. ” says McLaurin, looking back on a slow start to the season for him and Daniels in tandem. “As you can see, during the season we started to find a rhythm. “I think what really stood out was our ability to constantly put pressure on the defense (and) stay on the field.”

The plan this time is for things to be different and for this weekend to bring a lot more of the pressure that we’ve seen since week one and that we’ll see in the game against the Buccaneers. Part of this plan, of course, is to involve McLaurin more, which turned out to be a very good idea.

When McLaurin has six or more catches in a game – which has happened seven times this year – the team has won all but one of those games, coming off a seven-point deficit to the Baltimore Ravens.

Both Daniels and Kingsbury said they understand how important McLaurin is to the offense’s ability to score points, further supported by his franchise single-season record of 13 touchdowns this year.

Now it’s time to figure out how to give McLaurin his first of many postseason touchdown catches and his first playoff victory.

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