Perhaps these overseas trips aren’t the best idea for the Washington Commanders.
The Burgundy and Gold fly back from another empty intercontinental journey with more injuries and even more questions regarding the health and state of the team.
The 30-13 defeat to the Indianapolis Colts gives them their first 1-3 start since 2022, and their healthiest quarterback is a rookie who played at Rutgers last year. At least fans had the remainder of Sunday to either run errands … or watch quality football.
**First Down:** Where was this Daniel Jones when he played for the Giants against Washington? The Colts quarterback resembled the remainder of his NFL work early on, losing a fumble on the first possession and tossing an early interception. But instead of giving the Commanders a boost, the two takeaways generated only three points (a fourth-and-1 from the Colts 46-yard line saw Craig Reynolds get stuffed).
After dodging those bullets (plus a drive that included a pair of 35-yard gains) and trailing only 6-0 with nine minutes left in the first half, Indianapolis found its groove by scoring on its next four drives.
**Second Down:** The New York Giants will come to Landover, Maryland, for Week 5 somehow leading the NFC East, improving to 3-1 by beating Arizona behind three touchdown passes from Jameis Winston while sealing the deal with a pick-six late in regulation.
Dallas and Philadelphia both arrived at 2-2 Sunday thanks to completely different second halves, as the Cowboys reached the end zone on four of five drives after intermission to rally past Houston while the Eagles coughed up a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to fall at home to the Rams.
The craziest stretch occurred during the final minutes of the Kansas City-Las Vegas game, where the Chiefs went from trailing by two points to leading by four (failed two-point conversion) and then 11 before the Raiders moved within three thanks to a late touchdown and two-point conversion of their own.
**Third Down:** Washington moved the chains on 2-15 attempts, with Marcus Mariota completing 2-2 passes for one conversion while getting sacked (and injuring his knee) and Athan Kaliakmanis completing 4-9 throws for one conversion while getting sacked once and scrambling to no avail twice.
The top option? Stefon Diggs made four catches on six targets with one conversion while Antonio Williams had four passes thrown his way (one catch with zero conversions).
**Yardage breakdown:** 0-1 on short-yardage, 1-4 when needing four to six yards, 1-10 on long-yardage. Kaliakmanis faced 12 third-down situations and on five of those they needed 10+ yards. The Colts converted 5-16 third downs with Daniel Jones completing 8-9 passes for two conversions, running for two more on two tries (he also took a knee) while Jonathan Taylor moved the chains on 1 of 3 attempts.
**Flag on the Play:** Ten penalties for 84 yards (with one declined) while Indianapolis was whistled just once. Six were on offense while one was on defense and the remaining four were on special teams. And the most aggravating were the pre-snap infractions: the two false starts gave the a team-high six for the season while the delay of game was their third and an illegal shift was their second in five games.
Sunday’s most costly foul? Actually two of them on the same play: an illegal shift plus Dyami Brown’s hold wiped out an 87-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown by Antonio Williams that would have tied things up at 20-20 in the third quarter.
**Fourth Down:** The NFL Network crew of Dave Pasch, Kurt Warner and Jason Kelce were in the booth Sunday. Unlike Rich Eisen, who previously handled the calls for the network, Pasch regularly does play-by-play for ESPN’s college package (he previously was the voice of the Arizona Cardinals for over two decades — which is penance enough).
FOX will have Commanders this week in the 1 p.m. window while also having the doubleheader, and with Green Bay facing Chicago in the early window I’m guessing that Tim Brando (unless Adam Amin’s MLB playoff series assignment wraps up) and Drew Brees will be sent to Northwest Stadium.
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