Normally, we would be in full celebration mode on a Victory Monday with the Washington Commanders in first place. The team completed a blowout 40-7 victory against Carolina to improve to 5-2 on this season. However, there is some trepidation as QB1, Jayden Daniels, is nursing sore ribs and was pulled in the first quarter of the game on Sunday.
The team has ordered an MRI for Monday to get more information on Daniels’ ribs, and to check for any micro-fractures and/or cartilage damage. With Daniels returning to the sidelines in the second half in sweats, smiles, and thumbs up, the fans certainly seemed to feel better with hopes that the injury was nothing serious.
After the game, Commanders’ head coach Dan Quinn was not forthcoming with the specifics of the injury. Maybe he knew nothing at the time, or most likely, he decided to keep what he knew to himself. At this point, you keep your next opponent guessing as to the quarterback they might face on Sunday.
“I cannot give you an update on Jayden, but I will just as soon as we find out. I’ll give you some updates just as soon as I find out tomorrow, but I do not have any tonight.”
— Quinn said after the game
On the Commanders’ first offensive play, Daniels took off for a 46-yard run, and on replay, you could see he took a hit to his mid-section. When we noticed something was wrong, that occurred on his next running play when he slid and winced in pain. Daniels was seen going to the blue medical tent for evaluation, and then to the locker room reportedly for x-rays.
During the game, Daniels’ mother, Regina Jackson, posted on her social media a comforting message, “He’s fine.” Daniels was replaced in the game by the veteran quarterback, Marcus Mariota, a Heisman winner like Daniels — and the veteran got his Heisman trophy a decade before Daniels.
After a few snaps, Mariota got quickly acclimated and took over with his arm and legs, and led his offense to 30 additional points over the three points that Daniels orchestrated via an Austin Seibert field goal, and the seven on the Pick-6 from Dante Fowler Jr.
On the stat sheet, Mariota was an impressive 18-for-23 (78.3%) for 205 yards, two touchdown passes, no interceptions, and 34 rushing yards. Daniel and Mariota combined for 84 rushing yards which was 32 more yards than the entire Commanders rushing offense last week.
With the Commanders 40-points scored today, the team ranks first in the NFL for most points scored fractionally in front of the Detroit Lions. The Commanders defense also came up big again today by holding the Panthers to just 7-points scored.
“These guys are unbelievable. We have an awesome group of guys that believe in each other. They made play after play. I just did my best to give them a chance… It’s a brotherhood. When you have a brotherhood like this, you’ll find ways to win.”
— Mariota said after the game
While we won’t know for days as to who will be the starting quarterback on Sunday against the Bears at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, there is some comfort knowing that Mariota got over three quarters of work yesterday in case he is named the starter on Sunday.
Washington, and in particular Daniels, have become “must watch” TV, and next week’s game will also be flexed to the late afternoon game against the Bears that bumped the Eagles/Bengals game to the 1 pm start time. Sunday’s game was supposed to be the showdown between the Maryland native and first pick overall, Caleb Williams, of the Bears and the second overall pick with Daniels. We will see if Daniels is healthy enough to start, but if not, it will be Mariota who was also the 2nd overall pick in his 2015 draft class.
The similarities between Mariota and Daniels might start there — but they don’t end there. They had very similar scouting reports in college that led both to Heisman trophies.
“When I was a young player, I was just trying to be perfect, have the perfect feet, and you kind of lose that sense of playing the positions and just being instinctual. We’re just trying to help [Daniels].”
— Mariota said after the game
A lot of credit has to go to Mariota who accepted the role of a backup. And it shows his character as a leader that he has also been there to mentor Daniels in a way to learn from the mistakes that Mariota made as a young player. The team will move forward with some uncertainty, and the good teams figure it out in the “next man up” team structure.
Mariota, signed his one-year, $6 million dollar contract with Washington, just in case there was something unforeseen — and there you go — the unforeseen happened. The Mariota deal might prove to be one of the wisest free agent signings by general manager Adam Peters. As Ray Wyvil pointed out, “Last year 66 different QBs started games.” During training camp, Mariota said, “Whatever this staff, whatever this team needs of me, I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities.” You saw that on Sunday, and now we move forward.
The Commanders right now are 1.5 point favorites in the game against Chicago. That line could certainly change heading closer to kickoff.
