Monday night football was basically just a LSU Football promo. The Washington Commanders, led by 2023 Heisman winner, Jayden Daniels, faced off against the Cincinnati Bengals, led by 2019 Heisman winner, Joe Burrow.
Both quarterbacks had massive nights statistically, but it was Jayden Daniels and the Commanders who came out with a narrow 36-33 victory under the lights.
Despite the valiant effort from Burrow and the Bengals, Jayden Daniels and the Commanders were just a little too much for them to handle. You could argue that Burrow had the better night statistically, but we're here to talk about Jayden Daniels, who is already setting records just three games into his NFL career.
Through two games, Daniels was playing pretty solid football. He combined to throw for 410 yards behind a 75.4% completion percentage, but he was yet to throw for a touchdown in either of his first two games.
Heading into their Monday night matchup, Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt said that the Commanders offense was "simple" and they didn't make Daniels do too much. He also said that Daniels only throws check downs and doesn't like the deep shot...Well, that didn't age well, because Taylor-Britt got completely burnt by a Jayden Daniels deep ball in the second quarter.
By the time the night way over, Taylor-Britt was eating his words. Jayden Daniels completed 21 of his 23 attempts for 254 yards and two touchdowns. His only two incompletions of the night came 25+ yards down the field, and he went 2-for-4 for 57 yards and one touchdown when throwing deep, which he supposedly doesn't like to do.
Daniels's 91.3% completion percentage is the best any rookie quarterback has ever had in a single game, breaking the record which was previously held by Dak Prescott, who completed 88.9% of his passes in 2016. He also broke the franchise record for the highest completion percentage in a single game.
On top of that, Daniels's 80.3% completion percentage through three games is the second best EVER to start a season. Only Drew Brees (80.6%) has posted a better completion percentage through the first three games of a season. Want to know who's in third? Tom Brady. Pretty elite company.
Since their touchdown drive on their final possession in week one, Jayden Daniels has now led the Commanders to 14 straight scoring drives. Last week, the Commanders kicked seven straight field goals to beat the Giants 21-18, and on Monday, Daniels led the Commanders on six scoring drives: five touchdowns and one field goal.
In three career games, Daniels has scored on every drive (excluding end of half/game kneel downs) twice. Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Payton Manning have combined to do that twice in their 1,094 total starts.
It's fun to look back during the pre-draft process and see everyone who was saying Jayden Daniels shouldn't have been the second pick. Heck, there were people saying he shouldn't have been drafted over Michael Penix and Bo Nix.
Daniels is already proving everybody wrong, and if he can stay healthy, he can be a special player in the NFL for a long time.
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