Austin Ekeler details Commanders' built-in advantage that can easily help them beat Eagles in NFC Championship Game
The Washington Commanders pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year after beating the Detroit Lions in the Divisional Round and one of the most impressive aspects of the win was how Jayden Daniels and the offense did just about anything it wanted to. Not only is the Lions defense one of the league's […]
The Washington Commanders pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year after beating the Detroit Lions in the Divisional Round and one of the most impressive aspects of the win was how Jayden Daniels and the offense did just about anything it wanted to.
Not only is the Lions defense one of the league's tougher units, but Ford Field is one of the NFL's most hostile environments for opposing offenses. Especially in the playoffs as the NFC's No. 1 seed.
The crowd noise seemed to have zero effect on the Commanders, however, and if you ask Brian Robinson Jr. – that's completely tangible. The crowd noise didn't affect Jayden Daniels and Co., at all.
"The noise definitely wasn't a factor, today," he told reporters after the game. "We didn't let that affect us. At no point did we let their crowd affect us. So, that just goes to show how this team fights through adversity [and] fights through anything we're up against."
A big reason why the Commanders withstood the crowd is because they run a no-huddle offense nearly half the time. Per NFLsavant.com, about 43.7% of the Commanders' offensive plays were of the no-huddle variety in 2024, which led the NFL by a mile. The Chicago Bears finished second at 19.43% and the vast majority of teams utilized no-huddle less than 10% of the time.
"We enjoy it," Commanders running back Austin Ekeler said when asked about playing in tough environments on the most recent episode of God Bless Football. "We play well in it, because we run a no-huddle offense, so we don't even talk to each other anyway out there, for the most part. So it's just give some signals, get lined up, let's run and use it as energy for our advantage. . .
". . . And you know, us going no huddle, us using it as an energy, you know, is something that we've been using, and it's been working out for us."
There are plenty of advantages that come with deploying a no-huddle offense. For starters, the defense typically can't substitute players because usually a no-huddle means quick tempo and no substitutions on offense. That's not always guaranteed, but it's often the case.
It also easier for quarterbacks to get an accurate presnap read on the defense. They'll have more time to evaluate what's going on across the line of scrimmage and make adjustments, if needed. And then obviously, it forces defenses back on their heels and they have to diagnose and react to things even faster than they already are.
So, it's easy to see why this will come in handy when the Commanders take the field in front of a raucous Philly crowd on Sunday.
