Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals was considered the established star among the quarterbacks who competed on Monday night and was awarded the LSU Heisman Trophy. Jayden Daniels was the Washington Commanders’ rookie with an exciting future ahead of him, but he wasn’t Burrow yet.

It seems there are now two star quarterbacks from LSU in the NFL. On Monday night, Daniels was better. He’s the one we’ll be talking about all week. A new NFL phenomenon may have appeared before a national television audience.

Daniels, the second overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, performed brilliantly in Washington’s 38-33 victory over the Bengals. Daniels was spectacular in his third NFL game. He was an incredibly accurate thrower and difficult to catch as a runner. And when the Commanders faced a huge third down with just over two minutes left, Daniels threw a beautiful 27-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin to beat the Bengals. Daniels completed 21 of 23 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns, including 39 yards and a rushing touchdown. That’s the highest completion percentage by a rookie quarterback in NFL history. Not bad for a third game of his career.

The Bengals should be the team to look forward to this season. They’ve gotten off to a slow start before, but not this extreme. After a second shocking home loss to start the season, Cincinnati is in deep trouble at 0-3.

Washington is 2-1 and must be incredibly excited about its future with Daniels. We could look back on Monday’s coming out party as an announcement that Daniels had arrived much sooner than expected.

Commanders Offense rolls in the 1st half

Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt has been a whirlwind quote machine this season. Last week, he said the Washington Commanders kept it simple for their rookie quarterback and that they have a “nice college offense.”

The midweek entertainment is great, but that’s the problem with the Bengals. They think they’re Super Bowl contenders, and they’re acting like they are. There’s not much substance to back it up yet.

If you’re good, you can have Taylor-Britt’s bravado, but the Bengals are 0-3. Maybe Taylor-Britt thinks Washington has a college offense, but the Bengals couldn’t stop her all night.

The Bengals started fast. Burrow hit Ja’Marr Chase with a fairly long pass for a 41-yard touchdown. The Commanders’ secondary has not been good this season and it seemed like Burrow could have a big night in a much-needed win.

But the Commanders had the offense needed to score big points in the first half.

Washington had a touchdown run on each of its first three touches. The runs were 69, 62 and 75 yards. On the third, Daniels threw a 55-yard pass to Terry McLaurin, who ran over Taylor-Britt on the play. Good professional offense. That allowed for a touchdown run by Daniels. Washington had a surprising 21-10 lead at that point. Daniels completed 7 of 8 passes for 139 yards in the first half. The Commanders averaged 8.5 yards per play before halftime.

The Bengals were supposedly considered the more desperate team and the clear favorite, but that wasn’t what it looked like for the most part on Monday night.

Bengals have problems in defense

The Bengals had already suffered a surprise home loss to the Patriots in Week 1. It looked like a home loss to the Commanders in Week 3 was possible. Then the second half began with a 55-yard kickoff return by Washington’s Austin Ekeler.

That set up Daniels’ touchdown pass to 325-pound offensive lineman Trent Scott. It was Daniels’ first NFL touchdown pass and could one day be a popular trivia answer. The Bengals were trailing 28-13 and an offensive tackle was dancing in their end zone.

The Bengals didn’t let that get them down. Andrei Iosivas and Chase scored in the second half, but the Commanders still led 31-26 with less than 10 minutes left.

Daniels then led a game-winning drive. On a fourth-and-4 attempt, Zach Ertz caught a first-down pass. The Bengals were unable to stop a rookie quarterback in his first Monday night start and second away start. Then, when the Bengals had one more chance to get the ball back from Burrow, Daniels threw a great touchdown pass to McLaurin.

Cincinnati scored a touchdown with 40 seconds left, but Washington recovered the onside kick and Daniels’ storybook evening ended fittingly.

The Bengals have a lot to fix, and at 0-3, they better do it now. It’s a tough situation, especially after losses to two teams that were considered the worst in the NFL earlier in the season. But we now know that while the Commanders’ problems aren’t all solved, it won’t be an easy win for their opponents. Daniels is already too good to take a win against Washington for granted.