Terry McLaurin called his shot on Jayden Daniels' second touchdown pass and it was the final dagger in the Bengals' coffin
Primetime games means primetime plays from premiere players.And that's exactly what we saw from Washington Commanders stars Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin against the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football.Both players pulled off their best games of the young season and for Daniels, it was a coming out party. Sure, the rookie QB had played […]
Primetime games means primetime plays from premiere players.
And that's exactly what we saw from Washington Commanders stars Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin against the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football.
Both players pulled off their best games of the young season and for Daniels, it was a coming out party. Sure, the rookie QB had played pretty well coming into Week 3, but he was on a different level against the Bengals.
Daniels completed 21-of-23 passes for a career-high 252-yards and two passing touchdowns against Lou Anarumo's defense, with four of those receptions going to McLaurin for 100-yards and a touchdown.
But it was Daniels' final completion of the night, a beautiful 27-yard bomb off his back foot, that put the icing on the cake and the final nail in the Bengals' coffin.
And apparently, it was McLaurin who lobbied for the Commanders offense to take its shot and put the Bengals away for good.
"Going into that that play, I went over to the sideline and told [Commanders offensive coordinator] Kliff [Kingsbury], 'Put me into the boundary and let me run a go route.'", McLaurin told ESPN's Scott Van Pelt after the game. "And Jayden was down with that call… Jay just stood in there like a grown man, and threw enough air under it for me to track it."
"He told me to trust him, so I trusted him," Daniels told reporters.
McLaurin also told that to the Washington Post's Nicki Jhabvala, as you saw above.
"They've put the time in and if they hadn't put the time in, you wouldn't have the confidence to go into that space," Commanders head coach Dan Quinn told reporters. "But of all the work they've done, you know, obviously we hadn't connected on some of the deep ones to Terry over the first two games, but we knew that wasn't going to be the case moving forward. When we had our chances… we took them up…
"… So that's where the decision came for, on that one at the end. Basically you're trying to go win the game right there."
It was a signature win for Quinn's Commanders and it's the kind of win that can set the tone for the rest of the season. Daniels and co. took control after Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase shredded the defense for a 41-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive of the game and never looked back. That resonates with teams.
"I think it's a momentum shift for us, honestly, to stack two wins in a row, like that division opponent last week, and to come on a roll against a playoff team who has playoff-caliber players," said McLaurin. "It was huge for us to come on the road and get this win, and I believe the guys in this locker room believe that we get this win, and I think it came from the energy that we had in practice. We had our best we could practice this week last week…
"And so we came out here and we really made plays when we had to make plays."
There's still a lot of season left and the Commanders still have plenty of work to do, but if the team can continue to build and improve like it has over the first few weeks, then Quinn and co. can certainly surprise some people down the road.
