What a turnaround.
Seven days after a crushing loss to Dallas and the injury to Jayden Daniels, the Commanders walked into Sunday and took down the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks 33-31. That kind of flip doesn’t happen by accident. It takes toughness, execution and, yes, coaching.
Washington is still sitting at 1-2, but that record looks a whole lot different than 0-3. As Dan Quinn put it after the game, “I knew coming into this that we were going to be tested,” Quinn told on-site reporters during his postgame press conference.
“The 0-3 test and the 1-2 test - both don’t sound great on paper but they feel a lot different. We didn’t need belief but we needed to execute it and give ourselves a real good shot at it.
“For the guys who are stepping in a being able to deliver, that’s a really big deal.”
And deliver they did, even if the Commanders were far from clean across the board.
The ground game was a grind from start to finish. Seattle came in allowing 3.7 yards per carry, and Washington still only managed 2.6 a pop.
But the Commanders stuck with it anyway, piling up 32 rushing attempts. That persistence paid off when it mattered most on the final drive.
Rachaad ripped off 19 yards on third-and-9, forcing Seattle to burn all three of its timeouts. Then Marcus Mariota kept the ball on a read option on the next third down and picked up the first down that sent Washington into victory formation.
That kind of sequence doesn’t show up as flashy, but it won the game.
The passing game, meanwhile, was Mariota doing what he does. He finished 19 of 31 for 183 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions, which is exactly the kind of steady, controlled performance the Commanders needed.
He wasn’t lighting up the box score for style points, but he kept the offense on schedule, pushed the ball downfield and avoided the back-breaking mistake. Terry McLaurin was the big weapon, catching six passes for 77 yards and a touchdown on nine targets.
Rookie Antonio Williams had a couple of rough moments, including a dropped touchdown and a penalty that wiped out a score, but Mariota spread the ball around to nine different receivers. Washington gave up three sacks, though the protection held up reasonably well despite the injuries to Sam Cosmi and a new center in Lucas Patrick, with Nick Allegretti moving to guard.
On the other side of the ball, the run defense looked like the kind of unit Washington can lean on. The Seahawks managed only 2.4 yards per carry, and the Commanders made every rushing attempt feel like a fight.
The front created push, the linebackers closed fast and the secondary joined in to help shut down the ground game. That’s a real positive for Washington moving forward.
The passing defense had a much rougher time. Jaxon Smith-Njigba lived up to his reputation and then some, and the Seahawks kept finding ways to move the ball through the air.
Washington did get five quarterback hits on Sam Darnold, but never got him on the ground. The secondary allowed 379 yards and four passing touchdowns, and the late Seattle scoring drive kept the game tight.
The penalty on K’Lavon Chaisson was, as the report card put it, “an absolute farce.” Cornerback Amik Robertson made plays, but the overall unit was still vulnerable.
Mike Sainristil barely played and still made a costly mistake, and there have been too many explosive plays, too many completions to tight ends and too few plays on the ball through three games. The turnovers saved this grade from getting uglier, with interceptions by Sonny Styles and Kain Medrano’s pick six providing the biggest swing moments.
Special teams did its part. Drew Stevens drilled a 57-yard field goal to close the first half and added another from 36 yards, even if he did miss an extra-long extra point.
Tress Way nearly pinned one inside the 5-yard line before Tyler Owens slid over the goal line, but Way still dropped three punts inside the 20. The return game didn’t get enough chances to make much noise.
On the coaching side, David Blough looked sharp calling the offense. The run calls on those crucial third downs were especially strong, and he kept finding ways to get different players involved alongside Mariota.
Daronte Jones put an emphasis on turnovers and found ways to create them while still getting solid run defense out of a secondary that isn’t exactly loaded. And Dan Quinn, after a week that could have spiraled, kept his team together and got them over the finish line against the champs.
That’s culture.
In Other News...
Commanders First Win Already Comes With Two Major Roster Questions
The Commanders got the kind of early-season result that can steady a locker room, knocking off the Seahawks and ending Seattles 12-game winning streak. It was also the first chance to see how this roster might hold together after the opener, and Washington wasted no time making a move by signing running back Austin Ekeler to the 53-man roster.
Leo Chenals situation adds a much heavier layer to the celebration. The linebacker suffered a neck injury during the game, had successful surgery and is expected to miss the rest of the season, leaving Washington with an immediate hole to address on defense even as it tries to build on a win that should have felt like a clean starting point. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Taking A Real Risk With Jayden Daniels Now
Washington is choosing the short-term path with Jayden Daniels, and that alone tells you how much the Commanders still believe this season is alive. General manager Adam Peters said Daniels will not be placed on injured reserve after dislocating his left elbow again, with the team expecting him back in about three weeks. It is a notable call for a club that has already leaned on its rookie quarterback heavily, and it comes after Washington consulted multiple doctors before settling on a plan that keeps the door open for a quick return.
The decision also underscores just how much risk the Commanders are willing to absorb for the chance to keep Daniels on the field. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that surgery is likely after the season, but Daniels is putting that off so he can continue playing, a choice that has drawn some concern from NFL executives around the league. For Washington, the calculation is obvious: preserve the present, even if the future carries a heavier cost. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Suddenly Have A Mike Sainristil Problem In The Secondary
Mike Sainristils role in the Commanders secondary took an unusual hit in Week 3, when he was on the field for just 38.8 percent of Washingtons defensive snaps, the lowest workload of his pro career. The staff leaned more heavily on other corners, including Amik Robertson, Rasul Douglas and Fabian Moreau, which was a notable shift for a defender who has been part of the conversation in the back end since arriving in Washington.
The timing makes the situation more complicated, because Trey Amos is expected to come back from injured reserve and could add another body to an already crowded cornerback picture. Washingtons coaches have also been open about their concerns with Sainristils performance and consistency, so his place in the rotation now feels far less secure than it did earlier in the season. [Read more 🡒]