on Monday, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Washington Commanders by a final score of 28-7 for their third straight victory and their fifth win in their last six games. Meanwhile, the Commanders now find themselves in the middle of a three-game losing streak. With the last matchup from Week Eight in the books, let's come up with one takeaway for each team that played in the Monday Night Football game.
WAS: The Commanders might need to give up on this season.
After a stellar 2024-25 campaign, the Washington Commanders have failed to live up to the expectations placed on them for this year. Before the season started, you would've looked at their schedule through the first eight weeks of the season and predicted they would be 5-3, or at least 4-4. Granted, Jayden Daniels has missed some time, but they still could've beaten the Chicago Bears or the Atlanta Falcons if they had done a better job taking care of the football and not making mental mistakes. Had they won either of those games, the feel of this season would be very different right now.
It's clear now that the success Jayden Daniels had as a rookie covered up a lot of this squad's deficiencies last year. Now, those problems are taking center stage since Jayden Daniels has only played four complete games this season. The defense is old, the secondary is bad at defending against the pass, and the rushing attack is nonexistent when Daniels isn't playing. We all forget that this was supposed to be a three-year rebuild in Washington because Jayden Daniels took the Commanders to the NFC Championship Game in his first season. Year two is much more indicative of where this team is currently than year one.
It feels like the Commanders should probably just give up on the 2025-26 season. They have the fourth-lowest winning percentage in the NFC, which means they're already a long shot to make the 2026 playoffs. Add on the fact that they'll probably be 3-7 because their next two games are against the Seattle Seahawks and the Detroit Lions, and the outlook for the remainder of the season starts to turn grim. They should take the time to allow Jayden Daniels to return to full health and try again with an improved roster next season. Unfortunately, this is the NFL, so there is a 0% chance that they end up following that plan, but it would be the smartest thing Washington could do this year. They don't want to risk Daniels coming back too soon and suffering a long-term injury that impacts his availability for next season. They only have three more years left before they have to sign Daniels to a contract extension, which will undoubtedly affect this team's financial flexibility for years to come. They need to make sure they strike while the iron is hot early in Daniels' career because those quarterback contracts can do a lot of damage to a team's salary cap.
KC: The Chiefs are fun to watch again!
Remember early on in the season, when it felt like the Chiefs were struggling to find their offensive identity? That actually ended up being true because they averaged just 20 points per game through the first three weeks of the campaign. However, things have taken a very interesting turn since Week Four. Not only is KC 4-1 during that stretch, but the offense is scoring 30.8 points per game! Over the course of the entire season, that would give the Chiefs the second-best offense in the league. They're obviously playing better as a whole, but the recent offensive explosion has a lot to do with KC bouncing back from that shaky start to the season.
It feels like the Kansas City Chiefs of old are back. When Patrick Mahomes first burst onto the scene, he was lighting up the scoreboard and stuffing the stat sheet. From 2018 to 2022, this team averaged almost 30.1 points per game during the regular season. Then, they kind of went into a shell. Though they were still winning games, they were relying more on defense, while offensive productivity took a nosedive. During the 2023 and 2024 regular seasons, KC averaged only 22.2 points per game, a noticeable drop-off from previous years. It looked like they were headed in that direction this season, but after they were backed into a corner, the Chiefs came alive, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Now, Patrick Mahomes looks like the MVP-caliber player we all saw in the early stages of his career.
We also have to discuss how important wide receiver Rashee Rice is to this offense. He almost had 1,000 receiving yards as a rookie and was likely going to play a huge role for Kansas City last year since he was averaging 96 receiving yards per game before suffering a season-ending leg injury. He has already been a huge difference-maker with three TDs in just two starts this season for the Chiefs. His absence last year truly hurt the offense's ability to put up points, but now that he's back, KC is humming and looks like a legitimate threat to once again win the Super Bowl.
