Journeymen don’t throw for 601
yards and five touchdowns to no
interceptions against the Dallas
Cowboys and Philadelphia
Eagles to keep their team
competitive with almost no help
from the running game and a
patently magnanimous defense.
They don’t sling the ball from
every arm position, in all kinds
of ducking, on-the-run
emergencies, and still connect
on 69 percent of their passes like
this cowboy does. The 1-1
Minnesota Vikings and 0-2
Denver Broncos may wish they
had such a journeyman, one who
SEE JENKINS ON D4Case Keenum
gives the
Washington
Redskins
something they
haven’t had in a
long time: trust.
The chronic
weirdness and
deformities in the organization
have kept them in such murky
mediocrity for so long that it’s
often hard to know what you’re
looking at and who’s responsible
for it. But Keenum’s play has
been so clean and sound that he
has answered at least one
question. There’s no blaming the
quarterback this time.
It’s probably time to stop
calling Keenum a “journeyman.”
KLMNO
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D
Redskins’ problems are many,
but their QB isn’t one of them
Sally
Jenkins
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Through two games with Washington this season, quarterback
Case Keenum has thrown for 601 yards and five touchdowns.BY ADAM KILGORE
baltimore — Wearing a navy
Polo sweatshirt in the Baltimore
Ravens’ emptying locker room,
Lamar Jackson sat down in the
stall next to running back Mark
Ingram. Equipment managers
packed up pads and slid name-
plates off the tops of lockers.
Reporters gathered around a few
straggling players. Jackson, min-
utes after his latest triumph,
asked Ingram questions and
listened to his answers.
Jackson had carried the
Ravens to a 23-17 victory over the
Arizona Cardinals and fellow
phenom quarterback Kyler Mur-
ray with a performance both
breathtaking and historic. Hepassed for 272 yards and ran for
120 on 16 carries, making him the
first player in NFL history to pass
for at least 270 yards and run for
at least 120 in the same game. He
had sealed victory with a 41-yard
heave to rookie speedster Mar-
quise Brown that doubled as a
work of art.
Two weeks into the NFL sea-
son, there is not a more valuable,
more fascinating, more exhilarat-
ing player than Jackson.
And there he was, sitting next
to a veteran teammate, wonder-
ing and synthesizing how he
could improve.
SEE RAVENS ON D4Breakout star Jackson will let
you choose how he beats you
PRO FOOTBALL
An 0-3 start to the season almost always spells doom.
Here’s how the Redskins can avoid that fate. D2
ON THE NFLThe Giants benching Eli Manning was inevitable,
but the timing was a surprise, Mark Maske writes. D5
COLLEGE FOOTBALLMaryland will honor former coach Ralph Fr iedgen
before next week’s Big Te n opener vs. Penn State. D12
BY JESSE DOUGHERTY
st. louis — The Washington
Nationals’ latest attempt at a
winning bullpen formula, at a
time when one will have to click,
proved simple and effective and,
for a night, able to hold off the
teams chasing them in the Na-
tional League wild-card race.
It started with Fernando Rod-
ney pitching a scoreless seventh
inning. It e nded with Daniel Hud-
son, making his third appearance
in September, picking through
the St. Louis Cardinals’ lineup for
the final six outs of a 6-2 win
Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.
That kept the Nationals 1^1 / 2 games
ahead of the Chicago Cubs and
the Milwaukee Brewers for the
top wild-card spot. It a lso showed
that, with the options at hand,
there is at least one way for this
bullpen to close games.
Patrick Corbin gave up just two
unearned runs in six innings. The
offense, revved by Howie Kend-
rick in the early innings and
boosted by two RBI singles from
Victor Robles, tacked on three
insurance runs in the last two
frames. That followed Rodney
retiring the heart of the Cardi-
nals’ order in the seventh, and
then Hudson recorded the team’s
first save since Aug. 16. The but-
tons were pressed by bench coach
Chip Hale, in his second game
filling in for Manager Dave Marti-
nez, who remains in Washington
after undergoing a cardiac pro-
cedure Monday. And, in a twist, a
good process met a good result.
“Try to ride the hot hands,”
Hudson said of what the bullpen
expects down the stretch. “A nd
get these W’s, because we really
need them right now with this
wild-card race getting so tight.”
The Nationals’ urgency has wa-
vered throughout the past 5^1 / 2
months. When they were 19-31 in
mid-May, and it looked like the
year might be a total wash, it felt
like they had to win every game.
In some ways, that was true. But
once they got healthy and re-
bounded, and they started play-
ing like one of baseball’s best
clubs, winning became the un-
likely expectation. The pressure
to do so was gone. It was replaced
by a lot of dancing in the dugout.
Ye t now the stakes are hiked
way back up. On Sept. 2, the
Nationals had a sturdy, seven-
game lead to play in the wild-card
game. Even after Tuesday’s victo-
ry, things remain tight. The Cubs
fell to the Cincinnati Reds to drop
SEE NATIONALS ON D7
Corbin,
bullpen
hold up
for Nats
Nationals at Cardinals
Today, 1:15 p.m., MASN
Inside: Manager Dave Martinez
won’t need further treatment. D7
NATIONALS 6,
CARDINALS 2Win adds breathing room
atop wild-card race
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POSTThe opening salvo
BY AVA WALLACE
The Washington Mystics have had a Billie
Jean King quote written on every scouting
report during their long lead-up to the WNBA
playoffs: “Pressure is a privilege.” It was
meant as a general reminder to the top-seed-
ed Mystics to embrace the extra scrutiny they
would receive in the media and in practice
from coaches, to welcome the fact they would
be on the receiving end of their opponents’
best efforts all postseason long.
Fortuitously for the Mystics, the lesson
that Coach-General Manager Mike Thibault
was t rying to impart also applied to Game 1 of
the semifinals Tuesday night.
The Mystics rebounded from a poor first
half at Entertainment and Sports Arena and
held on through a furious 1 6-5 run by
SEE MYSTICS ON D8Second-half rally gives
Mystics 1-0 series lead
A place to call home
delivers a true advantage
When the ball left Kelsey
Plum’s f ingers and t he final
buzzer went off — w ith the
outcome still i n the balance —
it was o fficial: These WNBA
playoffs would be unlike both
the Washington Mystics’
regular season and t heir r un to
last year’s Finals. There are
matters both practical a nd logistical that make
those t hings true, and they were central t o the
postseason o pener f or a team that considers a
championship as the o nly acceptable result.
The playoffs a re flat-out harder than what
was a cakewalk of a regular season for the
Mystics, and P lum’s last-second heave that
could have f orced overtime was just o ne heart-
stopping reminder.
“Stressful,” s aid Mystics s tar Elena Delle
SEE SVRLUGA ON D8Down to the wire
The final minutes didn’t go
Las Vegas’s way, but
pregame certainly did. D8MYSTICS 97, ACES 95:
Elena Delle Donne had a
pivotal basket in the final
minute of Tuesday night’s
victory in Game 1 of the
WNBA semifinals at
Entertainment and Sports
Arena. Despite a slow start,
she finished with
24 points for Washington
against Las Vegas.Game 2: Aces at Mystics
Tomorrow, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2Barry
Svrluga
Bears at Redskins
Monday, 8:15 p.m., ESPNRavens at Chiefs
Sunday, 1 p.m., CBS