Hogs Haven
Commanders.com
As Marcus Mariota said after the game, it looked like Jeremy McNichols was tackled about four times on a second-down run in the second quarter.
But the 30-year-old veteran kept moving his feet, and after a moment where it looked like he would actually get taken to the ground, he was off. McNichols outran the rest of the Las Vegas Raiders defense for the 60-yard score — the longest run of his career — and put the Washington Commanders up 17-10, hyping up the crowd with his teammates around him.
In a way, McNichols’ run embodied the Commanders’ 41-24 win over the Raiders, which moved them to 2-1 for the third consecutive season. They faced adversity at several positions, from Jayden Daniels being ruled out on Friday to injuries piling up in the secondary and personnel changes on the offensive line. Even the head coach wasn’t immune, as Dan Quinn took a hit from Marcus Mariota as the quarterback scrambled out of bounds.
But like McNichols and their head coach, the Commanders took the hits in stride, delivering their best performance in all three phases so far this season.
“This is a resilient group, so I wasn’t surprised,” Quinn said. “But I was pleased to see us doing that, knowing that [there were] some new faces in different spots. But the attitude, the mindset of how we want to play ball, that would stay consistent.”
Washington Post (paywall)
With Marcus Mariota starting for the injured Jayden Daniels, Washington finishes with 201 rushing yards in an explosive 41-24 victory.
After a disappointing loss in Green Bay and lingering questions about the effectiveness of Washington’s ground game and line play, Sunday’s performance brought an emphatic answer. Behind a revamped offensive line, McNichols, rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt and the rest of Washington’s ballcarriers combined for 201 rushing yards and three scores in a dominant showing.
It was the sort of ground-and-pound performance that will help to soothe concerns over the season-ending injury suffered by starter Austin Ekeler against the Packers, when Washington mustered just 51 rushing yards. And it took at least some of the pressure off backup quarterback Marcus Mariota, who got his first NFL start in more than 2½ years with Jayden Daniels sidelined with a sprained left knee.
Facing one of his former teams, Mariota overcame a first-quarter fumble to complete 15 of 21 passes for 207 yards. He ran for a touchdown and threw for another to bookend the team’s scoring. The 31-year-old lunged for the Commanders’ opening score from two yards out, then hit a wide-open Luke McCaffrey for a 43-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter to seal a game that was never really tight despite the score at times.
The Athletic (paywall)
