The Washington Commanders crushed the Cleveland Browns to put Washington at 4-1 after Sunday’s win. The Commanders are still in sole possession of first place in the NFC East as the calendar has moved into October. Washington is 4-1 for the first time since 2008. The Commanders have already matched their entire 2023 season win total and have won consecutive games by a combined 49 points. The NFL season is now nearly 30 percent complete.
The Commanders also have the bragging rights as Jayden Daniels is the top rated rookie quarterback in the NFL with a 72.8 QBR. He is 4th overall for all quarterbacks with that QBR rating. Daniels leads all NFL quarterbacks in completion percentage at 77.1 percent and fourth overall of all NFL quarterbacks in passer rankings at 106.2. On the FOX game broadcast today, the TV booth was discussing Daniels as a legitimate MVP candidate.
While Daniels was not as accurate as he had been on his passing in his past four games, the rookie still completed 14 of 25 for 328 yards passing and a touchdown, and rushed for 82 yards en route to a runaway win at home at Northwest Stadium.
By the way, the stadium was near-capacity with 59,030 as the paid attendance. To put that in perspective. That would equal three sell-outs for the Capitals or Wizards in Capital One Arena, and would fill Nationals Park to capacity 1 1/2 times.
The excitement is back and Daniels has brought hope back to D.C. football. While Daniels is a huge part, a lot of credit to offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury for making some offensive adjustments after the Commanders first two possessions stalled on Sunday — and head coach Dan Quinn, who made some gutsy calls on 4th down possessions that his offense converted on. But it is more than that from ownership to the coaching staff to the players. They all believe from the bottom to the top.
“I hadn’t been a part of a quote, ‘good culture’ [before]. Slowly but surely I see it. It’s really cool to see, to be a part of talking and acting on it. I’m excited about that.”
— said Sam Cosmi, a veteran offensive lineman in his 4th season with the Commanders
With Austin Ekeler back from a concussion suffered two weeks ago on Monday night, he came up big again rushing for 67 yards including a 50 yard key play. On top of that, Ekeler had 15 receiving yards. Brian Robinson was questionable most of the week, and he ended up playing as the primary running back with Jeremy McNichols getting some offensive plays too.
Daniels threw his one touchdown pass to Dyami Brown, and put a potential TD pass on sure-handed wide receiver Terry McLaurin‘s hands — but the ball was dropped. That’s okay because McLaurin caught a 66 yard pass and 112 receiving yards on the day with his four receptions. In all, Daniels had completions with seven different players in this 34-13 thumping of the Browns.
“Stay the course. Don’t get too high, get too low. Everything’s going to work out.”
— quarterback Jayden Daniels said after the game
“I just missed some throws. That’s it. Some throws I wish I had back, but we were able to capitalize on some plays.”
Washington will be able to stay local for their next game on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. We will wait for the game time as the NBC wants to take the game from CBS to make it their Sunday Night Game. Right now the game is scheduled for 1 pm EDT. The early Vegas lines has Washington as a 6.5 point underdogs.
