Washington spent a decade cycling through quarterbacks before Jayden Daniels put a stop to it. He started every game as a rookie and took the franchise to the NFC championship game. One afternoon in London, and the carousel is spinning again.
Dan Quinn said Monday that Marcus Mariota sprained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee in the loss to Indianapolis, and that there's no timetable for his return. The same press conference brought the better news: Daniels is set to practice this week. That's the sentence that matters. Mariota's two drives against the Colts ended with him leading Washington in rushing, which tells you exactly how this offense is built and why a pocket-bound backup can't run it. Daniels practicing means Quinn can spend the week installing a real plan instead of triaging one. My read: Daniels starts, and the Commanders treat this as a one-week scare rather than a second lost season.
The game itself was a mess, and not a fun one. The Colts won 30-13 in London, Washington committed 10 penalties, and the Commanders finished with rookie third-stringer Athan Kaliakmanis at quarterback. He threw for 186 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Dave Portnoy and plenty of neutral viewers ripped the quality of the product, which is fair, because 10 flags and a third-string rookie is not what the International Series is selling. Here's the funniest true thing from the weekend: by winning at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Colts now have more wins there this season than Tottenham do.
Buried under the score is the number that should worry Indianapolis. Daniel Jones threw for 143 yards and turned the ball over twice. He ran for a touchdown, and Jonathan Taylor and the ground game did the heavy lifting, per the way the game was framed afterwards. A 17-point win in which your quarterback barely clears 140 and gives it away twice is not a win you can repeat against a real opponent. The Colts are 1-0 in games where the opposing starting quarterback doesn't finish. They'll need more from Jones the moment somebody blocks Jonathan Taylor.
Dallas has a smaller but real problem. Tyler Smith is hoping to be ready to face the Bucs, which sounds like routine injury-report housekeeping and isn't. Smith is the hinge of that offensive line, and when he's out, the Cowboys' run game narrows to whatever their backs can manufacture on their own. Tampa's front is not a group you block with replacement-level guard play. I'll take the optimistic read: Smith plays, and Dallas controls the line of scrimmage enough to keep Dak Prescott out of third-and-long all afternoon.
Washington is the story of the day either way. If Daniels practices and starts Sunday, this was a scare. If the knee doesn't cooperate, the team that finally solved quarterback is right back where it spent ten years, and last place in the NFC East is a live possibility. I'm betting on Daniels. I'm not betting on the Commanders' discipline until Quinn proves the 10 penalties were a London hangover and not a habit.
