Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow was considered the established star among LSU’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks who faced off Monday night. Jayden Daniels was the Washington Commanders rookie who had an exciting future, but he wasn’t Burrow yet.
It appears there are now two star LSU quarterbacks in the NFL. On Monday night, Daniels was better. We’ll be talking about him all week. A new NFL phenom may have made it to national television.
Daniels, the second overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, put on a show in Washington’s 38-33 win over the Bengals. Daniels was simply spectacular in his third NFL game. He was incredibly accurate as a thrower and hard to track as a running back. And when the Commanders faced a huge third down with just over two minutes left, Daniels threw a beautiful 27-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin to put the Bengals away. Daniels finished 21-of-23 passing for 254 yards and two touchdowns, with 39 yards and a touchdown on the ground. That’s the Highest completion percentage for a rookie quarterback in NFL history. Not bad for his third career game.
The Bengals were supposed to be the team that would get fans excited this season. They’ve started slow before, but never like this. After a second surprising home loss to start the season, Cincinnati is in serious trouble with an 0-3 record.
Washington is 2-1 and must be incredibly excited about its future with Daniels. We might look back at Monday’s coming-out party as an announcement that Daniels had arrived, much sooner than expected.
Commanders’ offense moves forward in first half
Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt has been a machine for enthusiastic quotes this season. Last week, he said the Washington Commanders had given their rookie quarterback an easy time and that they had a “good college offense.”
Midweek entertainment is great, but that’s what’s wrong with the Bengals. They think they’re Super Bowl contenders. They behave that way. There’s not much substance to back it up yet.
You can have Taylor-Britt’s bravado when you’re good, but the Bengals are 0-3. Taylor-Britt may think Washington has a college offense, but the Bengals couldn’t stop it all night.
The Bengals got off to a fast start. Burrow connected with Ja’Marr Chase on a deep pass that looked great and led to a 41-yard touchdown. The Commanders’ secondary hasn’t been great this season and it looked like Burrow might have a big night in a much-needed win.
But the Commanders had the offense that lit up the scoreboard in the first half.
Washington had touchdown drives on each of the first three times it touched the ball. The drives covered 69, 62 and 75 yards. On the third, Daniels threw a 55-yard deep pass to McLaurin, who burned Taylor-Britt on the play. Good, pro-style offense. That set the stage for a Daniels touchdown run. Washington held a surprising 21-10 lead at the time. Daniels completed 7 of 8 passes for 139 yards in the first half. The Commanders were averaging 8.5 yards per play before halftime.
The Bengals were supposed to be the more desperate team and the heavy favorites, but it didn’t look that way for most of Monday night.
The Bengals have problems on defense
The Bengals had already suffered a shocking loss to the Patriots at home in Week 1. A loss to the Commanders at home in Week 3 seemed unlikely heading into the game. But the second half began with a 62-yard kickoff return by Washington’s Austin Ekeler.
That set up a touchdown pass from Daniels to 320-pound offensive lineman Trent Scott. It was the first touchdown pass of Daniels’ NFL career, and it might be a popular trivia answer someday. The Bengals were down 28-13, and an offensive tackle was dancing in their end zone.
The Bengals weren’t going to give up. Andrei Iosivas and Chase scored in the second half, but the Commanders still led 31-26 with less than 10 minutes to play.
Daniels led a game-clinching drive after that. On fourth-and-4, Zach Ertz caught a first-down pass. The Bengals were unable to stop a rookie quarterback in his first start Monday night and his second start on the road. Then, when the Bengals had one more chance to stop Burrow and give him the ball back, Daniels had a sublime touchdown pass to McLaurin.
“I don’t have coverage. I knew I was going to get hit, but I trust my players,” Daniels told ESPN’s Lisa Salters after the game. “I trust my guy to go out there and make a play.”
Cincinnati scored a touchdown with 40 seconds remaining, but Washington recovered the onside kick and Daniels got the fitting end to his dream night.
The Bengals have a lot to fix, and at 0-3, they better do it now. It’s a tough situation, especially with losses to two teams that were considered among the worst in the NFL before the season. But we now know that while the Commanders’ problems aren’t all fixed, it won’t be an easy win for opponents. Daniels is already too good to take a win over Washington for granted.