It’s Week 3 and the Washington Commanders are finally playing their first regular season game in front of their fans at Northwest Stadium. They are 0-2 losing back-to-back road division games to the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. The NFL schedules did the Commanders no favors this year with last season’s Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, coming to town for a critical Week 3 game. They opened up as big favorites, and that numbers has gone up since Monday.
The two teams are on opposite
ends of the QB injury spectrum. The Seahawks lost starter Sam Darnold in the first game with an injury that looked worse than it turned out to be. It originally looked like a bad hip injury that could require surgery, but Darnold has been practicing this week with a glute injury and is expected to start on Sunday. The Commanders also could be getting lucky with shorter than initially expected recovery time for Jayden Daniels’ dislocated elbow. He suffered the injury at the end of the half last week vs the Cowboys, and dealt with the same issue last season. General manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn said that surgery was not an option at this time, and he’s not going to injured reserve which means he could be back in a week or two.
It’s the Marcus Mariota show until Daniels returns, and that has affected a lot of the odds and prop bets for Sunday afternoon’s game. The Commanders are big underdogs (+7), but the over/under is low (40.5). This means oddmakers are expecting a low-scoring game with the Seahawks putting the majority of the points on the board. Washington’s offense under first-time offensive coordinator David Blough has been putting up big numbers, but will get a fresh arm and set of legs in Mariota.
Terry McLaurin has been catching more flak from fans than balls during games, and that trend needs to change quickly if Washington wants to keep their season alive while they wait for JD5 to return. McLaurin has 4 receptions for 64 yards and no touchdowns over the first two weeks which isn’t good enough production for a receiver that should be getting 10+ targets per game per his new OC. Will that change with Mariota under center, or will he turn to new targets like Stefon Diggs and Antonio Williams? I’m going with the rook.
Bill Croskey-Merritt is Washington’s RB1, but Rachaad White looked improved in his second game with the team. Bill has 28 rushes for 106 yards and 1 TD, while White has 14 carries for 64 yards. White adds value in the passing game with 8 receptions for 45 yards. The run game has been stronger than the pass game in the new offense, and will get a big test against the #8 run defense.
We’ve got some prop bets from FanDuel Sportsbook for Week 1’s game that will be fun to follow.
Commanders fans, take command of game day!
Follow the action and share every cheer, question and instant reaction with fellow fans on the SB Nation app.
- Enjoy faster commenting and posting
- Chat live during every game
- Browse with fewer ads
- Seamlessly move between communities
Download the SB Nation app on iOS or Android.
Any time TD scorer
Bill Croskey-Merritt +230
Terry McLaurin +320
Rachaad White +340
Stefon Diggs +360
Ben Sinnott +600
Antonio Williams +650
Marcus Mariota +750
Dyami Brown +800
Kaytron Allen +1000
John Bates +1200
Washington D/ST +1200
Jaylin Lane +1400
Treylon Burks +1400
Luke McCaffrey +1500
Colson Yankoff +1500
Prediction: Treylon Burks was close to breaking a big play last week, and he gets the Commanders only TD vs the Seahawks this week
Marcus Mariota TD passes thrown
Over 0.5 -210
Under 0.5 +154
Prediction: Mariota throws 1 TD vs Seattle
Marcus Mariota passing yards
Over 172.5 -114
Under 172.5 -114
Prediction: Mariota gets over 173 yards from scrimmage, but take the under here.
Receiving yards
Terry McLaurin
Over 42.5 -114
Under 42.5 -114
Stefon Diggs
Over 33.5 -114
Under 33.5 -114
Antonio Williams
Over 14.5 -114
Under 14.5 -114
Rachaad White
Over 16.5 -114
Under 16.5 -114
Prediction: Under. Under. Over. Under. Antonio Williams becomes Mariota’s go-to receiver in their first game together.
Rushing Yards
Bill Croskey-Merritt
Over 39.5 -114
Under 39.5 -114
Marcus Mariota
Over 21.5 -114
Under 21.5 -114
Rachaad White
Over 18.5 -114
Under 18.5 -114
Bet: Over. Over. Under. Mariota could be getting a lot of cardio on Sunday.
Game Prediction
FanDuel Odds: Washington +7.5 , 40.5 O/U
Seahawks -375
Commanders +300
Prediction: Seattle 23 – Washington 10
Join our partner FanDuel for all your betting needs
