Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow was seen as the established star among the LSU Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks who squared off Monday night. Jayden Daniels was the Washington Commanders’ rookie with an exciting future, but he wasn’t Burrow yet.

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

Daniels, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, put on a show in Washington’s 38-33 win over the Bengals. Daniels was simply spectacular in just his third NFL game. He was incredibly accurate as a thrower and difficult to track 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 put the Bengals away. Daniels completed 21 of 23 for 254 yards and two touchdowns, with 39 yards and a touchdown rushing. That’s the highest pass completion percentage by a rookie quarterback in NFL history. Not bad for the third game of his career.

The Bengals should be the team they’re excited about this season. They’ve had a slow start before, but not this extreme. After a second shocking home loss to start the season, Cincinnati is in big trouble at 0-3.

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

Commanders attack rolls in the first half

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

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

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

The Bengals started fast. Burrow hit Ja’Marr Chase on a pretty deep pass for a 41-yard touchdown. The Commanders’ secondary hasn’t been good this season and it looked like Burrow would have a big night in a much-needed win.

But the Commanders had an attacking game that lit up the scoreboard in the first half.

Washington had touchdown drives each of its first three touches. The drives were 69, 62 and 75 yards. On the third, Daniels threw a 55-yard deep pass to Terry McLaurin, who burned Taylor-Britt on the play. Nice pro offense. That led to a touchdown run by Daniels. Washington had a surprising 21-10 lead at the time. Daniels was 7 of 8 for 139 yards in the first half. The Commanders averaged 8.5 yards per play before halftime.

The Bengals were reportedly the most desperate team and the heavy favorite, but that largely didn’t appear to be the case Monday night.

Bengals struggle with defense

The Bengals had already suffered a stunning loss at home to the Patriots, which came back in Week 1. It looked like a loss to the Commanders at home in Week 3 was possible. Then the second half started with a 62-yard kickoff return by Washington’s Austin Ekeler.

That led to Daniels throwing a touchdown pass to 320-pound offensive lineman Trent Scott. It was Daniels’ first NFL touchdown pass, and it might 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 go away. Andrei Iosivas and Chase scored in the second half, but the Commanders still led 31-26 with less than 10 minutes to play.

Daniels then led a game-clinching drive. On a fourth-and-4, Zach Ertz caught a first down pass. The Bengals were unable to stop a rookie quarterback in his first start Monday night and his second road start. When the Bengals had one more chance to get the ball back for Burrow, Daniels had a sublime touchdown pass to McLaurin.

Cincinnati scored a touchdown with 40 seconds left, but Washington recovered the onside kick and Daniels provided a fitting end to his fairytale evening.

The Bengals have a lot to fix, and at 0-3, they need to do it right away. It’s a tough position to be in, especially with losses to two teams that were considered among the worst in the NFL to begin the season. But we now know that while the Commanders’ problems aren’t all fixed, it won’t be an easy win for opponents. Daniels is already too good to take a win over Washington for granted.