Talk Commanders

There were a few miracles on display during Sunday’s game for the Washington Commanders. The first miracle began with Jayden Daniels starting and finishing the game that few expected him to play in after he injured his rib(s) the week before in the first quarter. The second miracle was the Hail Mary throw by Daniels with no time remaining in the game to give the Commanders the walk-off win by a final score of 18-15 over the Chicago Bears.

Normally a 40-7 drubbing of the opposition would be a cause for hearty celebration. Not this one last week against a dreadful Carolina team. The injury to Jayden Daniels on the game’s first play cast a pall over an otherwise stellar outing. Brandon Coleman also entered the League’s Concussion Protocol. Both are probably out this week and next. It’s a mistake to evaluate a team based solely on the Starting 22-players. Teams need to be evaluated by “Position Rooms.” Who is the backup? Who is the backup to the backup? In a sport where the injury rate is touted as being 100% it’s nearly a given that the depth of the position rooms is going to be tested. The biggest takeaway from last week’s game is that Marcus Mariota came into the game and excelled.

Normally, we would be in full celebration mode on a Victory Monday with the Washington Commanders in first place. The team completed a blowout 40-7 victory against Carolina to improve to 5-2 on this season. However, there is some trepidation as QB1, Jayden Daniels, is nursing sore ribs and was pulled in the first quarter of the game on Sunday.

The team has ordered an MRI for Monday to get more information on Daniels’ ribs, and to check for any micro-fractures and/or cartilage damage. With Daniels returning to the sidelines in the second half in sweats, smiles, and thumbs up, the fans certainly seemed to feel better with hopes that the injury was nothing serious.

Last week the Washington football hype train hit a speed bump when it encountered the Baltimore Ravens. Six weeks of increasing achievement hit against the reality of a real Super Bowl contender. For decades the Ravens were everything the WFT was not; A strong and efficient organization that consistently fielded competitive teams. Their Head Coach has been there for 17-years. Washington meanwhile was an Owner-driven hot mess. The franchise famously received new ownership, gutted the organization, and came as close to starting over as practical. Coming into the matchup Dan Quinn said frankly, “The Ravens are where we want to get to.” So, it should not have been a surprise that the nascent Burgundy and Gold squad left Baltimore with a loss, albeit a hard-fought one. They also left town with a season-ending injury to standout Defensive Tackle Jonathan Allen. When reality hits it usually punches hard.

Imagine, if you will, two networks fighting over rights to cover a WFT game (with apologies to Rod Serling.) It is not a fiction show although it was unthinkable a few weeks ago. CBS had the rights to the Washington vs. Baltimore game at 1 p.m. since before the season. The 1 p.m. slot is where the networks and League place the lower-rated games. At 4 pm the higher rated games are shown to larger audiences. Lo’ and behold the Burgundy and Gold upset the script by becoming something unimaginable; relevant. NBC runs the enormously successful Sunday Night Football franchise. It wanted to get this game from CBS and “flex” it into SNF. No dice. CBS will keep it, send it’s top crew of Jim Nance, Tony Romo, and Tracy Wolfson, and present it as the featured game of the week. Washington football has arrived nationally. If that feels disorienting, that’s ok. It’s enough of a sea state change to cause confusion.

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.