Daniels leads Commanders to record performance

Jayden Daniels did far more than just deliver the first breakthrough performance from this year’s heralded class of rookie quarterbacks.

He put up the type of performance that few quarterbacks of any age have delivered in recent memory in Washington’s 38-33 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night.

Daniels went 21 of 23 — setting a rookie record by completing 91.3% of his passes — for 254 yards with two touchdown passes and a TD run.

As impressive as those numbers are for any quarterback, it’s the efficiency with which Daniels has been executing the offense that really stands out. Washington has scored on every drive the past two weeks, excluding three kneeldowns at the end of a half or game, becoming the first team in the Super Bowl era to have no punts or turnovers in consecutive games.

Before the Commanders took the field for their Week 2 game against the New York Giants, there had been 6,192 regular-season games played in the NFL since the start of the 2000 season. In only seven of those games (0.11%) had a team scored a touchdown or field goal on every drive of the game, excluding kneeldowns.

The Commanders then pulled it off in back-to-back weeks, with Daniels becoming the only QB to start in two of those games. The others to do it were Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Kurt Warner, Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield and Josh McCown.

Starting with a touchdown drive at the end of a Week 1 loss for Washington at Tampa Bay, Daniels has led 14 straight scoring drives with the Commanders getting field goals on all seven drives in Week 2 against the Giants and then scoring five touchdowns and one field goal against Cincinnati.

The only quarterback as far as records go back to 2006 to lead more consecutive scoring drives, according to Sportradar, is New Orleans’ Derek Carr, who opened this season by doing it in 15 straight.

The Bengals were nearly as efficient on Monday night with four touchdowns, two field goals and one missed field goal on their seven possessions. That made the game the only one as far as records go back to 1940 that featured no punts and no turnovers.

Chiefs’ close calls

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs have mastered the art of the close win.

Dating to the final three games of the 2023 postseason, the Chiefs have won six straight games by seven points or fewer. They are the fifth team ever to do that and can match a record they already share by doing it again Sunday against the Chargers. Kansas City had seven straight wins in 2020 by seven points or fewer and Jacksonville did it in the 1996 season.

In all, Kansas City has won nine straight games with only a 26-7 wild-card win over Miami decided by more than seven points. They have outscored the opposition by 54 points during the streak — the lowest point differential ever among the 119 teams in NFL history to win at least nine games in a row in the regular season or playoffs.

The previous low was 58 points by the 1932-33 Chicago Bears in a very different era of football. In modern times, the low had been 60 points for the 2006 Colts, who went on to win the Super Bowl that season.

The narrow wins have helped Kansas City become the second team to start a season 3-0 after winning back-to-back Super Bowls. San Francisco did it in 1990, beginning the year 10-0 before eventually losing in the NFC title game. No team has ever won three straight Super Bowls.

Statistical quirk

Jahmyr Gibbs’ receiving stat line from Sunday’s 20-13 win for Detroit over Arizona could cause someone to look twice: 0 catches for 20 yards and one touchdown.

How does a player record a receiving touchdown without catching a pass?

Like this. Late in the first half Jared Goff threw a short pass Amon-Ra St. Brown, who immediately lateraled to Gibbs, who dashed 20 yards for the touchdown on the perfectly executed hook-and-ladder play.

That helped Gibbs become the second player in the Super Bowl era to record a receiving touchdown in a game without catching a pass. Allen Rice did it on a similar play for Minnesota late in a blowout loss against Denver on Nov. 18, 1984.

Dazzling Dalton

The Carolina Panthers got off to a horrific start to the season, becoming the 10th team in the Super Bowl era to get outscored by at least 60 points in their first two games.

A switch at quarterback from failed No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young to journeyman Andy Dalton proved to be the fix. Carolina rebounded to beat the Las Vegas Raiders 36-22 on Sunday in the second most lopsided win by a team that lost its first its first two games by at least 23 points.

Dalton led Carolina to more points on the opening three drives of the game (14) than the Panthers had scored in their final four games with Young at QB (13).

Maybe it should have been expected considering Dalton now has 10 TD passes and no interceptions in his career against the Raiders. Only Tom Brady (12 TDs against the Raiders) and Drew Bledsoe (11 against the Cardinals) have more touchdown passes without an interception in the regular season against one opponent.

Dalton’s performance helped end an odd 20-game streak. The Panthers had not held a lead while any play was run in the fourth quarter since a Week 17 loss in the 2022 season against Tampa Bay. They had won three times since then with all of those wins coming on final-play field goals that gave Carolina its only lead following the end of the third quarter.

Losing Lawrence

Trevor Lawrence came into the NFL with plenty of fanfare in 2021 as a national championship winning quarterback and No. 1 overall pick. It hasn’t led to much success on the field for the Jacksonville Jaguars outside of a playoff berth in 2022.

Lawrence joined some rare company on Monday night that he would rather avoid. He lost his eighth straight start dating to last season after also losing eight in a row as a rookie in the 2021 season.

The only other QB picked first in the common draft era staring in 1967 to have multiple distinct losing streaks of at least eight straight starts was Jim Plunkett. He lost eight in a row for New England in 1972 and 10 straight for San Francisco in 1976-77. Plunkett found success late in his career, leading the Raiders to a pair of Super Bowl titles.

Lawrence is three losses shy of tying the longest losing streak for a quarterback picked first in the draft. Troy Aikman lost his first 11 starts in the NFL for Dallas before going on to win three Super Bowls in a Hall of Fame career.