Commanders are currently at the top of the NFC East and fans are excited about the team and their rookie QB Jayden Daniels

This week Reacts poll, we covered a lot. We asked readers to look into their crystal ball to predict how Washington's rookie QB would fare in his attempt to score his first professional passing touchdown, and also who would win the running battle between the Commanders' defense and this week's offensive opponent, the Cincinnati Bengals. We also asked the usual weekly question about confidence in the team's leadership.

Jayden Daniels

It's pretty amazing that the NFL's three rookie quarterbacks – Williams, Daniels and Nix – have thrown a combined 196 passes this season without scoring a single touchdown. According to Opta Stats, that's the highest number of consecutive pass attempts by rookies without a touchdown pass to start a season in NFL history.

It's not that the rookies haven't scored at all. Jayden Daniels, for example, scored two rushing touchdowns in his first regular season game in Tampa Bay to open the 2024 regular season, and Bo Nix also ran for one for the Broncos in his first regular season game. But the lack of passing scores has made headlines.

At least for Jayden Daniels, that pattern has held true for every NFL game he's played so far, including the preseason. He led three preseason offensive runs in two games in New Jersey and Miami Gardens. He scored a rushing touchdown against the Jets but failed to complete a touchdown pass to a receiver in either game.

That's not to say that Daniels hasn't done a good job on offense in his first two games.

After two weeks, Jayden Daniels ranks 10th among quarterbacks (minimum 20 passes) with 7.7 yards per attempt and completes 75% of his passes. Although his projected air yards are low (he leads the league in passes behind the line of scrimmage), the players catching his passes rank 4th in the NFL overall in yards after catch per reception and the Commanders rank 6th with 6 receptions of over 20 yards in two games.

It is significant that Jayden has not yet thrown a single interception pass, which distinguishes him from Caleb Williams (2) and Bo Nix (4).

Under all NFL quarterbacks (at least 20 passes), Jayden is seventh in passer rating (96) and the Commanders' offense is very successful. Washington is sixth in the NFL with 44 first downs and the Commanders are one of three teams to have punted just three times this season (tied for first place). In fact, the Commanders have played the ninth most offensive plays in the league so far.

Thanks in part to Jayden's scrambling, Washington has the second-most rushing first downs in the NFL, which has led to sustained offense. In fact, Washington has had 15 offenses and scored on 10 of them.

But to have a truly functioning offense that consistently helps the team win, the Commanders need to be able to score touchdowns when they reach the red zone, and sooner or later, Daniels has to start throwing passes that lead to touchdowns.

In this week's poll, we asked readers how many touchdown passes the rookie would throw in his first-ever prime-time appearance on Monday Night Football this week.

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Only 5% of respondents expect Daniels' shutout in terms of touchdown passes to continue. Confidence in Daniels appears to be high among Hogs Haven readers, as 91% of respondents to this question expect the rookie to throw 1 or 2 touchdown passes this week.

Commanders lead the defense

While Washington's offense was quite functional in both games, the same cannot be said for the defense, which struggled at times.

According to ESPN, the Commanders have the following defense ranks after two weeks:

• Total Yards – 21st (348 yards per game)
• Passing yards – 22nd (227.5 yards per game)
• Points per game – 29. (27.5 points per game)

The only traditional defensive stat that seems reasonable so far is run defense, where the Commanders rank middle of the pack — 16th with 120.5 yards per game.

Monday night's opponent, the Cincinnati Bengals, have allowed the third-lowest yardage of any NFL team (72 yards per game) over the past two weeks, putting them at 0-2. The two opposing defenses they've faced have been the NE Patriots (11th) and the KC Chiefs (29th), so it's not like they've faced strong defenses.

The Bengals’ best rusher is Zack Mosswho has only rushed for over 500 yards in a season once since being selected in the 3rd round of the 2020 draft – last season in Indianapolis he ran for 793 yards at 4.3 yards per carry. So far in 2024, he has averaged 3.7 yards per carry on 21 runs.

Moss is supported by a second-year player, Follow Braunwho ran for 179 yards as a rookie and added another 42 yards on 7 runs (the longest of which was 12 yards) in the first two weeks of this season.

The team’s other defender, Trayveon Williamsdid not touch the ball in the 2024 regular season and accumulated only 307 rushing yards in his five-year career.

This week Reacts In our survey, we asked respondents to indicate whether the Bengals offense can achieve more or less than 95 rushing yards.

A whopping 71% of respondents chose “more,” even though the Bengals rushed for 70 and 74 yards in their first two games of the season.

These Washington fans are definitely not impressed with what they've seen from the Commanders' defense so far this season!

Monday Night Football

At Cincy Jungle, readers were asked to vote on the outcome of this week's Commanders-Bengals game.

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Overall, 91% of respondents answered Reacts A poll on the Bengals website predicted a victory for the Bengals (0-2) against the visiting team from Washington (1-1); only 8% predicted a victory for the Commanders.

At Hogs Haven, we did not ask readers to predict the outcome of the game this week. Reacts Poll; however, we do have an indirect poll of win-loss predictions in the form of the weekly Pick'em contest. The sample size is certainly smaller, but when it comes to picking game winners, the median was 11/16 in Week 1, while in Week 2 – a week full of surprises – it was 8/16. When picking against the spread, the medians were 6/15 in Week 1 and 7/15 in Week 2.

Here are the breakdowns of this week’s Monday Night Football game predictions from the contest submissions.

Select them

When asked directly about the winner, out of 50 contest entries, 74% of Hogs Haven readers predicted a Cincinnati win.

Point distribution

Surprisingly, even though the sample includes only 31 participants, the breakdown is nearly identical: 74% expect the Bengals to cover the spread, while 26% predict Cincy will not reach the 8-point spread.

The trust of the fans

In our standard weekly question, we asked Hogs Haven readers if they had confidence in the team's direction.

After falling to 74% last week from the benchmark of 96% in Week 1, trust among Hogs Haven readers rebounded to 92% this week.

Again, confidence in the direction of the team seems to be based more on recent changes in ownership, GM, coaching staff and strategic direction than on expectations of great success on the field in the near future. Still, a win boosts confidence while a loss dents it.

The NFC East

The confidence expressed by voters in the Hogs Haven poll stands in pretty stark contrast to the confidence levels of the other NFC East fan bases, all of whom watched their teams stumble in Week 2.

This Philadelphia fan base is something special — going from 92% to 13% in a single week on the back of a one-point loss to the Falcons on Monday Night Football. That's the lowest confidence level of any fan base in this week's poll. They're really putting the pressure on head coach Nick Sirianni.

Dallas fans are only one point more confident, but they spent the offseason trying to reconcile Jerry Jones' “all in” declaration with his relative inaction on free agents, not to mention getting blown out in their own stadium in a 44-19 loss to the Saints – a game in which the 'Boys were clearly favored. Jerry Jones is a safe bet, of course, but for head coach Mike McCarthy, this could be a win-or-bust season.

If there is a surprise here, it is the fact that 29% of Giants fans still believe in the direction of the team after months of watching their front office go through the offseason version of Hard blowsand then 0-2 to start the season. With GM Joe Shoen and head coach Brian Daboll both in year three of the recent rebuilding effort, expectations should be rising among Giants fans. If the team can't turn things around soon, things could get ugly there.

It's not just the faith of the fans that has the Commanders atop the NFC East. While three teams have the same 1-1 overall record, Washington is in first place in the division as it is the only team in the NFCE with a division win.

With a win over the Bengals on Monday Night Football, the Commanders can ensure they stay there for at least a week, as none of our NFC East rivals are playing each other this week.

Even a loss could not dislodge Washington from the top spot, as all teams in the division face tough matchups in Week 3:

• The Giants are the underdogs, trailing the 1-1 Browns by 6.5 points.
• Philadelphia is 3 points behind the 2-0 Saints away
• The Ravens (0-2) are one point ahead of the Cowboys.

We will know the outcome of all of these games by Sunday afternoon, so Washington fans are in for an exciting Monday Night Football game.

Of course, Washington is the biggest underdog in the division this week, as the Commanders travel to Cincinnati (0-2) for the final game of Week 3 trailing by 7.5 points.

For Adam Peters and Dan Quinn, the 2024 season is really about laying the foundation for the future, and few observers have great expectations for the burgundy and gold in 2024. However, a surprise road victory against the currently winless Bengals – a team led by Joe Burrow that spent the offseason dreaming of playing in the AFC championship game this postseason – could dramatically change the perception of the Commanders' season. That could be especially the case if the Buccaneers – who beat Washington to open the season – can beat the Broncos in Tampa Bay to move to 3-0, which would potentially change the perception of Washington's road loss in Week 1.

The game Commanders-Bengals is the last of two Monday Night Football games are taking place this week, kicking off at 8:15 p.m. EDT.

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