Jayden Daniels, Josh Allen shine in Monday Night Football wins; Bengals, Jaguars remain winless

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🏈 Good morning to all, but especially to …

THE WASHINGTON COMMANDERS AND THE BUFFALO BILLS

Man, oh man, are Jayden Daniels and Josh Allen fun or what?! The Commanders outgunned the Bengals, 38-33, and the Bills demolished the Jaguars, 47-10, with both starting quarterbacks stealing the show on the national stage.

Let’s start with Daniels, whose stats were unprecedented:

• First player in NFL history with 250 yards passing, two touchdowns passing, one touchdown rushing and a 90% completion rate
• 21 of 23 passing (91%): NFL single-game rookie record and Commanders single-game record
• 80.3% completion rate: second-best through three weeks of a season in NFL history, trailing only Drew Brees’ 80.6% in 2018
• Only player in NFL history with 80% completion rate and 150 yards rushing in a three-game span
• Daniels & Co. have pulled off this one-in-1.7-million feat

Daniels’ best moment — the game-clincher — was an absurd 27-yard touchdown to Terry McLaurin on third and 7. Oh yeah, and he also threw his first NFL touchdown to an offensive lineman.

Daniels has truly rare accuracy to the point where labeling him a dual threat seems like a disservice to his passing. But he has also run for 15 first downs — the most by any quarterback this season, and one ahead of Lamar Jackson — and three touchdowns, so he’s elite in that aspect, too.

I have watched Washington cycle through quarterbacks my entire life. The defense is a mess, and Daniels will hit bumps, but the Heisman Trophy winner has delivered hope. Pure, unbridled hope. There’s been hope before. But this feels different. This one, in a game I watched alongside my dad, who passed down the fandom, felt special.

In a much less dramatic game, the Bills ran roughshod over a Jaguars team that feels like it’s getting close to coming completely apart. More on that in a bit. Buffalo looks marvelous.

• Allen threw for 263 yards and four touchdowns — one to Khalil Shakir, Dalton Kincaid, Ty Johnson and Keon Coleman — and looks every bit a top-tier MVP candidate. I love the new-look supporting cast, led by James Cook and Shakir, a supercharged, really fun slot guy.
• Buffalo scored a touchdown on each of its first five possessions.
• The Bills had five sacks and eight passes defensed, absolutely dominating Trevor Lawrence and Jacksonville.
• In a true feel-good moment, Damar Hamlin nabbed his first career interception.

Still, it comes back to Allen. The accuracy — long underrated — is up. The bad decisions are down. He’s yet to throw an interception this season. He’s throwing the ball shorter on average, but he’s still making things happen downfield.

Allen has 0.55 expected points added per dropback this season. The best single-season mark on record (since 2000) is 2004 Peyton Manning at 0.45. Yeah, Allen’s been that good.

👍 Honorable mentions

😬 And not such a good morning for …

THE CINCINNATI BENGALS AND THE JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

Where do we start?

OK, we’ll start with the Bengals, who didn’t punt nor turn the ball over and still lost. That doesn’t happen often: In the Super Bowl era (since 1966), there have been 34 instances where a team didn’t have a punt or turnover in a game. Only two of those teams lost.

The defense is a wreck. There’s no pass rush outside Trey Hendrickson. The second- and third-level defenders can’t hold up forever. When the defense is that bad, there’s no margin for error for the offense. That’s why a missed field goal, a couple of red-zone trips that ended in field goals and a failed two-point attempt loomed so large.

The Bengals are 0-3 with all three losses by six or fewer points. They blew multiple chances in Week 1 against the Patriots. They had the Chiefs backed up to fourth and 16 on the final drive before losing. And now Monday. They’re close. But close isn’t good enough.

The Jaguars, meanwhile, aren’t even close. And they’re certainly not good enough. We can discuss Lawrence’s struggles, sure. But it’s hard to see a team come out so flat and not see bigger issues. Nearly 12 minutes into the game, the Bills had two touchdowns, and the Jaguars had 1 yard. The defense got shredded. The offense looks lost. But the effort … The effort was unacceptable.

Just under 10 months ago, the Jaguars were 8-3 and looking like a contender. Lawrence hasn’t won a game since (eight straight losses). It’s a shocking collapse, and Doug Pederson‘s seat is scorching hot already.

👎 Not so honorable mentions

⚾ Phillies clinch NL East for first time since 2011

The Phillies have led the NL East since May 3. Monday, they made sure it would stay that way for good. Philadelphia clinched the division crown — its first since 2011 — with a 6-2 win over the Cubs.

• The Phillies secured a playoff bid Friday against the Mets but weren’t satisfied with that, and they won’t be satisfied with this. They’re half a game behind the Dodgers for the best record in MLB. They’re also 3.5 games up on the Brewers for the second-best record in the NL. The top two seeds in each league get a bye.
• This ends the Braves‘ run of NL East titles at six straight.
• Philadelphia has leaned on a plethora of offensive weapons and an excellent top four starting pitchers in Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez and Zack Wheeler.

Mike Axisa sums it up nicely: “The Phillies are very good and they’re also healthy. This might be the best chance for their current core to parade down Broad Street.”

😳 Conference realignment: Utah State heading to Pac-12, AAC standing strong

There hadn’t been conference realignment news in, oh, a few days, and apparently someone decided that was too long. We have another round of movement — and invites rebuffed — on our hands.

Remember, the Mountain West lost Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State and San Diego State to the Pac-12 earlier this month. So, for now, the Pac-12 and the Mountain West both have seven teams. Leagues must have at eight members to be recognized by the NCAA as an FBS conference.

Dennis Dodd and Shehan Jeyarajah sorted through the chaos, and there’s certainly more to come.

🏈 Injuries wreaking havoc across NFL; 49ers among most-impacted teams

After the brutality that is an NFL Sunday, Mondays are when we find out the scale of the carnage. And it’s really beginning to pile up.

There’s plenty of competition for “team most impacted by injuries,” and the 49ers are in the running. The news isn’t getting any better, either.

• Javon Hargrave (partially torn triceps) is done for the season.
• Christian McCaffrey, who hasn’t played this year and is on IR, is in Germany seeing a specialist for his Achilles tendonitis.
• Brock Purdy is day-to-day with back soreness, though his MRI was clean.
• San Francisco was without George Kittle (hamstring) and Deebo Samuel (calf) in its Week 3 collapse against the Rams, who were without Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua and several other players on both sides of the ball.

As for other NFC contenders …

In the AFC, Myles Garrett is experiencing pain in both feet and both legs, and the Chargers, potentially down Justin Herbert and both starting tackles, could be without Derwin James, who was suspended one game for repeated rule violations.

📺 What we’re watching Tuesday

⚾ Orioles at Yankees, 7:05 p.m. on TBS
🏀 Game 2: Dream at Liberty, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Game 2: Storm at Aces, 9:30 p.m. on ESPN
⚾ Padres at Dodgers, 10:10 p.m. on TBS