At least the question of whether Jayden Daniels will be back for Week 5 against the New York Giants has been answered.
The Washington Commanders dropped to 1-3 with a 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Backup quarterback Marcus Mariota injured his right knee in the first quarter, forcing the offense to turn to rookie third-string signal-caller Athan Kaliakmanis.
“Just gutted for him [Mariota],” head coach Dan Quinn said after the game. “I thought he was playing well, I thought he had an excellent week of practice leading up [to the game]. The team thinks it’s an MCL injury and when we get the scan tomorrow we’ll have further knowledge of what we’re dealing with and length and all that.”
The Commanders started shorthanded. Wide receiver Terry McLaurin missed the game after injuring his hamstring Friday in practice, and the injury bug continued to plague Washington as the game went on, with safety Jeremy Reeves and wide receiver Jaylen Lane leaving the game with injuries as well.
Had Mariota not been hurt, it’s not too hard to imagine this game could have turned out much differently.
The Commanders defense limited the Colts offense to just 122 total yards in the first half. It forced quarterback Daniel Jones into two turnovers: a fumble on the Colts’ first offensive play and an interception by cornerback Amik Robertson.
Unfortunately, Washington only managed six points off those turnovers in the form of two Drew Stephens field goals.
“I loved the way the defense started,” Quinn said. “But to only get field goals, those were the ones we needed to nail.”
Despite being limited to 54 yards of total offense through the first 27 minutes of the game, Indianapolis took the lead with 3:23 left before halftime. Jonathan Taylor scored on a 4-yard touchdown run. The drive was extended because of a personal foul call on Amik Robertson. A 48-yard field goal by Spenser Schrader gave the Colts a 10-6 lead at the break.
The third quarter didn’t start any better.
Washington got the second-half kickoff, but Kaliakmanis was intercepted by Jaylon Carlies. Taylor scored his second touchdown a few minutes later to make the score 17-6 Colts.
Kaliakmanis seemed to find his rhythm after that mistake, however. On the next series, he hit Treylon Burks on a deep strike for a 47-yard touchdown. It was his second straight week catching a touchdown pass as the former first-round draft pick continues his redemption arc after being cut by Tennessee and signed by the Commanders as a free agent last season. The score cut the lead to 17-13.
“I saw the safety cut the crosser, and I just threw it over the top there and went high,” he said. I was just picking on the safety. It was just a great play by Treylon. Just super proud of that group.
“I think he kept us within striking distance,” linebacker Sonny Styles said. “We got the first two stops and got off the field, but we didn’t get the stops we needed. Just got to keep fighting, just got to finish. It’s a four-quarter game.”
The game turned a few minutes later. Trailing 20-13 after a Colts field goal, Washington seemingly tied the game on an 80-yard catch-and-run touchdown from Kaliakmanis to Antonio Williams. The play was called back on a holding penalty, one of a number of questionable calls by officials.
Coaches and players are forbidden by league rules under threat of a fine, Quinn did not address the calls after the game. Washington was penalized eight times to Indianapolis’ one. In addition, a non-call on a deep throw to Dyami Brown in the fourth quarter was not called on what Washington considered an obvious pass interference penalty on Sauce Gardner.
Daniel Jones would score the Colts’ final touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 4-yard run to make the score 27-13. A 44-yard field goal made the final score 30-13.
Game Notes
Rookie lineman Matt Gulbin had a rough start at guard in place of Sam Cosmi. A mistake on the first series of the game led to a third-down sack. He was beaten on the second series on the play that resulted in Mariota’s injury.
Kaliakmanis finished the game 15 of 33 for 186 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked once.
The running game, specifically Bill Croskey-Merritt, continues to struggle. Croskey-Merritt had nine carries for 15 yards. He did catch a pass from Mariota that turned into a 35-yard gain.
As a unit, the defense had three sacks: one each from Odafe Oweh, Tim Settle and K’Lavon Chaisson.
Bob Matthews is a 33 year veteran broadcast journalist, spending the last 29 years of his career in Virginia. Bob has covered both news and sports stories and for the last three seasons, the Washington Commanders. He looks forward to continuing to provide coverage to Sportsjourney.com both on the website and through his podcast, The Bob Matthews Show.
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