Commanders near perfect in 42-14 win over Arizona

The Washington Commanders’ 42-14 win over the Arizona Cardinals Sunday night in the desert wasn’t just convincing, it was historic.

For the first time since 2017, the offense scored 30 or more points in two consecutive games.

For the first time since 2011, the team is 3-1 after the first month of the season.

“Big for us on a road trip to leave here with two wins,” head coach Dan Quinn said in his postgame press conference. “A lot of sacrifice, a lot of effort to go into it so let’s get home and reset and get back into it.”

Once again, rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels was masterful. Daniels completed 26 of 30 passes for 233 yards and one touchdown. His only blemish was an interception, the first of his young career. He also ran for 47 yards and a touchdown.

“I told him earlier I was really proud of him,” Quinn said. “I just thought he handled it like a real G. Just stayed steady all the way through in terms of the preparation.”

Arizona took an early 7-0 lead as Kyler Murray found Marvin Harrison Jr. for a short touchdown, after that, it was all Washington.

Daniels immediately directed a 9 play 70 yard drive puncutaed by a Brian Robinson Jr. 6 yard touchdown run to tie the score at 7. Robinson rushed for 101 yards on 21 carries.

After forcing the Cardinals to punt, Washington put togther another long drive, this time 13 plays. This time it was rookie runningback Jeremy McNichols, playing for the injured Austin Eckler who broke free for a 27 yard touchdown run to give the Commanders a 14-7 lead.

Tha afore mentioned interception came on Washington’s next poession.

With the ball near midfield, Daniels looked deep for Terry McLaurin on a seam route. McLaurin was open but Daniels throw sailed high and was picked off by Arizona’s Garrett Williams.

“I guess you could say I kind of got greedy,” Daniels said afterward. “In this league that’s going to happen. If you overthrow, they’re good players and they’re going to be able to pick the ball off.”

Washington was able to kick a field goal before haltime and put the game away in the third quarter. Daniels appeared to overthrow Noah Brown on the second play of the half but the Cardinals were called for defensive pass interfearance giving washington the ball on the Arizona 9 yard line.

Daniels would score ont eh next play on a quarterback sweep around right end to make the score 24-7.

Washington would add two more scores; a Daniels to McLaurin touchdown pass and McNichols second touchdown run of the game to make the final score 42-14.

The Commanders return home for a home game against the Cleveland Browns in week 5. Washington is likely to face a new challenge this week. The game is likely to draw a good amount of national pregame attention. The crowd at Northwest, many times split evenly or slightly in favor of the visiting is likely to be heavily pro-Commanders. A scene many longtime fans would remember from RFK Stadium, but seldom seen in the last quarter century.