Commanders WR Olamide Zaccheaus Has Stepped Up in the Past Two Weeks

With his crucial contributions in Week 17 Washington Commanders receiver Olamide Zaccheaus once again showed he can be a major part of this team's success moving forward.

Dec 29, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus (14) carries the ball as Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dee Alford (20) and Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss (55) defend during the first half at Northwest Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

The Washington Commanders knew other players had to step up when receiver Noah Brown went down for what might be the rest of the season - regular and post.

In Week 16, there was a group effort with Commanders' receivers Dyami Brown, Jamison Crowder, and Olamide Zaccheaus all stepping up to make big plays in a crucial win for the team.

On Sunday Night Football, needing a win over the Atlanta Falcons to punch their ticket to the postseason, Zaccheaus once again shined in the effort as he led the team in targets, receptions, and receiving yards. And he's where we start our Week 17 'Stash and Trash' from the latest Washington victory in what continues to be an all-around impressive campaign for the franchise.

Dec 29, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus (14) carries the ball as Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dee Alford (20) and Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss (55) defend during the first half at Northwest Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

3 THINGS TO STASH FROM WEEK 17

REVENGE TOUR FINALE

Receiver Olamide Zaccheaus was an undrafted free agent out of Virginia in 2019 when the Atlanta Falcons, led by head coach Dan Quinn, took a chance on him and brought him onto the team.

Eventually, Zaccheaus left, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles last year before rejoining Quinn with the Commanders. In Week 16, the veteran was instrumental in defeated those Eagles, and in Week 17 he was absolutely critical in beating the Falcons.

Call it a revenge tour if you want, but whatever it is, Zaccheaus has stepped up for his team in a big way catching 13 passes for 155 yards and three scores, and he was one less bad officiating call from making it four touchdowns in the past two games.

Whatever Zaccheaus has cooking we hope its not just about playing former teams, because his spark could be incredibly valuable in beating the Dallas Cowboys this weekend.

WEARING YOUR STRIPES

We know who coach Quinn is by now. He's aggressive on the field because he believes in his guys and wants to capitalize on their potential, among other things.

So when he went for it three times on fourth downs in the win over the Falcons it wasn't a surprise, because it is who he and this team have been since the start.

The first fourth-down try resulted in a seven-yard pass to Zaccheaus for the first score of the game. The next one came in teh third quarter with Quinn's team down 10 points. Three plays after that conversion Washington was only down three after Daniels found tight end Zach Ertz in the end zone for the team's second touchdown of the night.

Another third quarter conversion came on a 4th-and-5 from the Atlanta 39 where the options were a pretty long field goal try for kicker Zane Gonzalez, a punt by Tress Way that would likely net very few yards in field position shift, or go for it and trust Daniels and running back Jeremy McNichols to gain six yards or more. Which they did.

Seven plays and four Chris Rodriguez Jr. runs later the Commanders had their third touchdown of the night and their first lead since early in the first quarter.

Three of their four touchdowns in Week 17 came on or after a fourth-down conversion, showing just how important it is to know who you are as a team, and be that whenever the opportunity arises.

3 TIMES THE SCORING POWER

Speaking of fourth-down success, optionality is key in some of these situations. As much as general manager Adam Peters loves to have it, flexibility is never a bad thing. So when offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury needed a fourth down call that would ensure an early interception by safety Quan Martin didn't go to waste, he gave his rookie quarterback three choices and trusted him to make the right one.

Lined up in the shotgun, Daniels had the choice to hand the ball to running back Brian Robinson Jr., who was lined up to his left, run the ball into the left side of the offensive formation himself, or stay alive as a passer and find a receiver downfield.

He chose option No. 3 - Zaccheaus in the end zone. With the Atlanta edge defender crashing down on the run-action Daniels kept the ball and tucked it away, aiming to run around the left end, but the safety on that side of the field crashed down on the keeper, putting the cornerback facing a high-low conflict with tight end Ben Sinnott in the left flat and Zaccheaus running open in the end zone.

Daniels chose the deeper route over the sure conversion, and seeing the cornerback starting to drift back, had to make a throw to counter his own momentum as he was running to the left, which made for an awkward, somewhat short, and very successful touchdown pass to open the scoring.

3 THINGS TO TRASH FROM WEEK 17

A SCARY HOME FINALE

With the Commanders currently in the sixth-seed in the NFC Playoffs picture there is a slim chance the team could host a playoff game if they and the Green Bay Packers make it to the NFC Championship Game.

That game would have all kinds of storylines, one of the biggest being how the Packers abused Quinn's defense with the Dallas Cowboys in the 2023 NFL Playoffs one year ago.

However, in order for Washington to even get to that spot it is going to need big games from guys like receiver Terry McLaurin who is pretty good at delivering them.

Unfortunately, he did not in Week 17, bringing in one catch for five yards on seven targets with at least one of those incompletions coming via drop.

While the team was able to come away with a win despite the absence of production from McLaurin, the postseason is going to be quite scary if the team can't find a way to get him back in the fold when the time comes.

FOOT MEET BULLET

Washington won a game last week with five turnovers. This week, it won a game with 12 penalties. Those two facts are both impressive for the amount of resiliency and determination shown by the team in each, and troubling because coach Quinn knows his team can't possibly sustain longterm winning by making these types of mistakes.

“No, you can’t. Not to be who you want to be,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said in his weekly interview with WUSA9's Chick Hernandez. “We talked to the team about, ‘tell the truth [Monday's], where are we going?’ We recognized we left a lot on the field and I thought it was a great demonstration of brotherhood, of guys finding ways to pick each other up to do things – guys stepping into spots due to injury – so that part I loved. But we also know to be the team we’ve been called to be, we've go t to make sure we don’t beat ourselves and we play like we're capable of playing.”

STRETCHING TOO FAR?

Early in the season, we asked defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. how he felt about his team's ability to defend C and D-Gap runs - runs that go outside of the tackles. He admitted it could be better and that they were determined to make it so.

Whitt delivered on his word, and the run defense in that arena has gotten better, overall.

On Sunday, however, two critical runs that went outside the tackles gained 10 or more yards for the Falcons and nearly derailed the Commanders' 11th win of the season.

The first came in the second quarter with less than two minutes left in the half and Atlanta with the ball at its own 37-yard line.

Falcons running back Bijan Robinson carried the ball for 10 yards before being tackled by safety Jeremy Chinn and was able to do so because – it would appear – left side edge Dante Fowler Jr. committed too far inside at the snap taking himself out of the play and leaving cornerback Michael Davis, who is not known for his tackling ability, alone on the outside needing to make the tackle. While Davis' efforts didn't stop Robinson, he was able to help trip him up and Chinn cleaned up the tackle to prevent it from being an even bigger gain.

The 10 yards gave the Falcons a new set of downs and the ball near midfield and eventually helped setup a 39-yard field goal by kicker Riley Patterson that put Washington in a 17-7 hole entering halftime.

Moving to the fourth-quarter, it was Atlanta receiver Ray-Ray McCloud ripping off an explosive run outside the tackles this time as he gained 14-yards down to the Commanders' five yard line in the final minutes of the contest.

The Falcons used at-snap motion to get the ball to McCloud who was coming accross the formation from left to right with a fake pitch to running back Tyler Allgeier thrown in to try and help steer the defense away from the actual run.

Whichever part of that play that worked isn't important, but what ultimately resulted was the left side edge, this time it was defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste, collapsing too far inside and giving up the outside angle to the ball-carrier.

That drive ended in a game-tying touchdown and while it was made much harder due to some errors on the Falcons' side of operations, when coach Whitt talks about playing solid for 60 minutes those two big runs to the edge that setup scoring opportunities and points are going to be prime examples why it is so important to do so.

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