2024 REWIND: Week 3 – Washington Commanders Monday Night Football at the Cincinnati Bengals

Jayden Daniels’ coming out party!!

The Commanders traveled to Cincinnati to play the final game of Week 3. With a win, Washington could retain control of the NFC East.

Washington entered this Week 3 game with a 1-1 record and, with the only NFC East division win of the season, in first place ahead of the Eagles and Cowboys, who had both also started the season 1-1.

Despite being 0-2, the Bengals were favored at home against Washington. This was partly due to Washington’s unimpressive 3-point win at home against the Giants in Week 2, but also for several reasons that had nothing to do with Washington and everything to do with Cincinnati. First, the Bengals had entered the season as a popular pick to reach the AFC Championship game (and possibly the super bowl) at the end of the season. Secondly, the Bengals had lost to the Chiefs by just 1 point in Kansas City in Week 2. A third factor was Joe Burrow’s history in the NFL. He had the reputation of being a slow starter; Burrow was 1-9 in the first two weeks of his five seasons in the league, but 4-0-1 in Week 3 games. The general view was that the Bengals would get their season back on track at home on Monday night against a rookie QB and a Commanders offense that had mustered just over 20 points per game to open the ‘24 season.

This game probably ended up on MNF because of the Joe Burrow-Jayden Daniels storyline — both former LSU QBs and Heisman Trophy winners. But that ended up being mostly a non-factor in the game, as Washington’s offense simply kept scoring. Jayden Daniels would take a knee to end the first half and the 4th quarter, but, aside from that, Washington scored on every possession — 5 touchdowns and a field goal. The Commanders, for the second week in a row, did not punt the ball and did not turn the ball over.

Partly, the outstanding ball control in Weeks 1 & 2 had been a result of conservative play calling in the passing game by Kliff Kingsbury, and conservative decision-making by Jayden Daniels. Coming into the game, Bengals CB Cam Taylor-Britt commented that Jayden Daniels wasn’t asked to do much in Kliff Kingsbury’s “college offense”.

That all changed in this game against the Bengals, with Daniels completing 21-23 passes for 254 yards and a pair of passing TDs, with his longest completion of the day going for 55 yards, almost all of it in the air.

First Quarter

Bengals open the scoring
Cincinnati’s offense started hot, taking a 7-0 lead when Burrow went deep to Jamar Chase, who was wide open, for a touchdown that Chase caught in stride inside the 5-yard line, having run right past rookie CB Mike Sainristil. It was already looking as if it would be a long night for Washington’s defense.

Commanders
The Commanders relied heavily on Austin Ekeler on the opening drive, earning a couple of first downs and reaching the Bengals’ 40-yard line.

Two plays later, the Commanders faced 3rd & 2; unable to find a receiver, Daniels scrambled up the middle for no gain to bring up 4th & 2. Quinn decided to go for it. Daniels enjoyed good protection, and hit rookie receiver Luke McCaffrey for 30 yards to set up 1st & goal at the 2-yard line.

Luke ended up having the best game of his rookie season against Cincinnati, catching all 3 of his targets for 44 yards and this not-quite touchdown.

Soon after, Brian Robinson walked into the end zone between the center and left guard to tie the game 7-7 with 05:25 left in the first quarter. It was Jayden Daniels’ first-ever regular season opening-drive TD.

Bengals 2nd drive
The Bengals moved the ball deep into Washington territory to finish out the first quarter.

Second Quarter

On 3rd & 11 at the Washington 30-yard line, Joe Burrow was unable to complete a pass to his tight end Gesicki when Jeremy Chinn hit him as he tried to catch the ball on the left sideline.

The Cincinnati kicker, Evan McPherson, pulled the 48-yard attempt to the left, which left the score tied and gave Washington excellent field position at the 38-yard line with an opportunity to take the lead in the game.

Commanders have a chance to take the lead
Brian Robinson opened the drive with a 7-yard run off left tackle. Jayden Daniels rolled right, broke a tackle, and scampered 4 yards to get the Commanders’ 5th first-down of the game.

Daniels moved the drive into Cincinnati territory with a 16-yard pass to Noah Brown at the Bengals’ 35-yard line.

On the next play, Daniels was unable to find a wide-open Terry McLaurin when the DB fell down, costing the chance of a walk-in touchdown.

This was Daniels first incompletion of the game. He would only miss one more all night, and that would come on another shot to McLaurin (but on the other side of the field) in the 4th quarter. Daniels finished the game with a completion rate of 91.3%, which I believe contributed to one or more of the many rookie QB records Daniels set in the ‘24 season.

For Terry McLaurin, this represented the first real ‘shot’ that JD5 had sent his way. McLaurin had managed just 17 yards and 22 yards in Weeks 1 & 2. While this was a bad miss by Daniels on this play, it signaled intent that would pay off later in the game and many times during the rest of the season.

After hitting McCaffrey again for 11 yards, on 1st & 10 from the 24-yard line, the OL changed to run blocking mode and gave Austin Ekeler a clear path on the left side for a 24-yard touchdown to put Washington into the lead 14-7.

Bengals
By the middle of the second half, Cincy had pushed the ball deep into the Commanders red zone. Tight end Gesicki caught a 17-yard pass to set up 1st & goal at the 8-yard line.

Washington’s defense stepped up with the first sack of the game, pushing the Bengals back to the 15 yard line.

Bengals right tackle, Trent Brown, was injured on the play and had to be carted from the field. Cincinnati was unable to punch the ball into the end zone; Washington forced another field goal attempt by McPherson, who hit the 28-yard attempt to make the score 14-10 with 05:25 left in the half.

Commanders
With the game moving quickly, the Commanders took the field for just their third possession of the game. Stretching back to the final drive of the Tampa Bay game, Jayden Daniels had led 10 consecutive scoring drives (but still hadn’t thrown for a passing touchdown), and Washington fans were hoping this would be scoring drive #11.

The big play of the drive — and also one of the top plays of the game and the season — was a huge pass completion to Terry McLaurin for 55 yards, setting up 1st & goal from the 4 yard line. This was the first real connection on a deep pass between No. 5 and No. 17, but there would be more to come. In fact, this wasn’t even McLaurin’s most spectacular play of the game, and it ended up being just one of a dozen or so highlight catches he made in 2024.

On what appeared to be a zone read, Daniels kept the ball and walked into the end zone for the team’s 3rd rushing touchdown of the game and the 11th consecutive scoring drive of the season.

Bengals
The Bengals ran one play prior to the two-minute warning. The home team needed to score again since Washington would be getting the ball to open the second half.

The Bengals earned 43 yards and a trio of first-downs with two plays, and set up with a fresh set of downs at Washington’s 17-yard line.

With 00:30 left in the half, the Bengals were at 3rd & 6 on the Washington 13 yard line. An incomplete pass brought up 4th down.

McPherson came on and kicked his second field goal of the game from 31-yards to make the score 21-13 with 00:22 on the clock.

End of the half
Unsurprisingly, Jayden Daniels took a knee to send his team to the locker room with an 8-point halftime lead. Tress Way has, at this point, gone 6 quarters without punting (since 4th quarter vs Tampa Bay).

Halftime Stats

Statistics via ESPN

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Third Quarter

Commanders get the ball to start the 2nd half
Austin Ekeler started the second half by returning the kickoff 62 yards to the Bengals’ 33-yard line (remember that he took the opening kickoff for a 98-yard TD vs the Giants last week — a play negated by a penalty).

Two plays into the drive, Washington faced 3rd & inches near the 23 yard line. Jayden Daniels kept the ball himself and got 3 yards around the right end to get the first down. After a defensive penalty, Washington had 1st & 10 at the 12-yard line; a quick first-down conversion set up 1st & goal inside the 1-yard line. Brian Robinson was unable to punch the ball in on 1st down, but on 2nd down, Jayden Daniels recorded the first passing touchdown of his career to offensive tackle Trent Scott, who had reported eligible. It was Scott’s first-ever NFL reception, and the score was 28-13 following an 8-play, 33-yard drive.

In years to come, those who remember the season but not the game are likely to guess that Jayden Daniels’ first-ever NFL touchdown pass would have been caught by McLaurin, or maybe Zach Ertz or Austin Ekeler. Those of us who saw the game are likely to always be able to answer the trivia question correctly by naming Trent Scott as the pass recipient.

Washington’s consecutive scoring-drive streak, by my count, has reached 12.

The Bengals will end up finishing the game with 3 touchdowns on 3 offensive possessions, but because the Cincy defense can’t stop the Commanders from scoring, it ultimately won’t be enough.

Bengals
On this drive, the Bengals penetrated to 1st & goal on Washington’s 8-yard line. After two running plays, the Bengals had 3rd & goal from the 2-yard line, trailing by 15 points. Dan Quinn called time out with 03:12 left in the 3rd quarter to make sure that his defense was ready for the key play. It worked; Joe Burrow was unable to complete a pass to Tee Higgins, who landed out of the back of the end zone.

Cincy went for it on 4th down, and earned the touchdown with a pass to Andre Iosivas about 6 inches inside the goal line. Following the extra point, the score stood at 28-20 with just over 3 minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Sometime during the 3rd quarter, Austin Ekeler suffered a concussion that knocked him out of the game (he also missed the Cardinals game six days later). We all know that he suffered another in the Week 12 game against the Cowboys that caused him to miss 4 more games and may yet motivate him to reconsider whether or not to continue playing football.

Commanders
With Ekeler in the locker room and unable to return the kickoff, Washington’s fifth offensive possession of the game started at the 30-yard-line.

The drive started with Terry McLaurin’s second reception of the game — this one for 14 yards.

On the next play, Brian Robinson continued a night of frustration with his 12th carry — this one for no gain keeping his total to 23 yards. Following a completion to Zach Ertz, Jayden Daniels eluded the rush and slid for a 5-yard gain and a first down.

The third quarter ended with the score 28-20, and the ball on the Bengals’ 41-yard line.

Fourth Quarter

After two plays, Washington faced 4th & 1 at the Bengals 33-yard line. Dan Qunn decided to go for it, and the decision worked out for him; Jayden Daniels kept the ball on a zone read for 4 yards.

The Commanders were unable to earn another first down, leading to a field goal attempt by Washington’s Austin Seibert, who was 7-7 last week against the Giants. He drilled the 42-yarder to keep his perfect streak alive and stretch the lead to 11 points at 31-20. The team had completed its 5th consecutive scoring drive to bring the overall streak to 13 dating back to Week 1 (excluding a pair of end-of-half kneeldowns).

Bengals
Again, just a reminder that the Bengals scored a TD on every possession of the second half.

Joe Burrow threw a strike to Jamar Chase for a 31-yard touchdown against one-on-one coverage from Ben St-Juste. An attempted 2-point conversion was broken up by Jeremy Chinn, with Bengals fans screaming for a defensive pass interference call, to keep the score 31-26.

Commanders
Washington began offensive drive #6 with Zach Ertz catching a pass for 4 yards, but then fumbling the ball. Nick Allegretti made the Studs list by recovering the fumble. This was one of a series of favorable bounces for Washington early in the season. The box scores show 4 fumbles in the first three weeks with none of them lost. In fact, they wouldn’t end up losing a fumble until the Week 5 game against the Browns.

On the drive, Daniels suffered his 2nd sack of the game leading to a 2nd & 21 play. A completion to Dyami Brown brought up 3rd & 13. After an 8-yard gain, Tress Way stayed on the bench as Dan Quinn decided to go for it.

Jayden Daniels hit Zach Ertz in the middle of the field for 9 yards to quiet the Bengals home crowd.

Now at the Bengals 30-yard line with a 5-point lead, Washington had just 3 minutes remaining to achieve a significant prime time victory. On the crucial 3rd down play, Daniels launched a ball to the end zone that landed in Terry McLaurin’s hands for a huge touchdown.

In my opinion, this was the play of the game, and many people later pointed to this as the moment when they realized that Jayden Daniels was who we had all been hoping for. In a season filled with highlight plays and last-second victories, this Daniels-to-McLaurin touchdown shines — even brighter than the 55-yard catch in the first half — as the catch that defined the Daniels/McLaurin connection.

After the extra point, the Commanders enjoyed a 38-26 lead with 02:10 left in the game. The latest scoring drive (Washington’s 5th TD of the game) lasted 12 plays and covered 72 yards, with the offense overcoming two false start penalties and a sack.

Bengals
Down by 12 points, Cincinnati took the field, and I’ve already told you that they scored another touchdown, but didn’t win the game. With Washington’s defense playing a 2-deep ‘prevent’ defense, the Bengals moved the ball methodically downfield.

Noah Igbinoghene was flagged for pass interference in the end zone, giving Cincy 1st & goal at the 1-yard line with 46 ticks on the clock. Two plays later, Zach Moss walked in for a Bengals touchdown. Following the extra point, the score was 38-33.

To win, Cincinnati would need to recover an onside kick and score a touchdown in the 40 seconds remaining.

Bengals kicker McPherson did his best, but the ball was fielded by Washington’s Olamide Zaccheaus at the Cincinnati 42-yard line.

End of the game
The Commanders lined up in ‘victory formation’ and took a knee to complete the first NFL game since 1940 to have neither a punt nor a turnover.

The Bengals fell to 0-3 while the Commanders retained the poll position in the NFC East.

Full Game Stats

Statistics via ESPN

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