On Sunday Night Football we saw a clash between the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Commanders. What many thought would be a competitive game turned out to be a lopsided blowout for the Sam Darnold-led Seahawks who handled business on the road.
Quarterback Sam Darnold immediately made his presence known with a perfect 1st half where he would go 16 -for-16 with 282 yards and 4 passing touchdowns. The Commanders found themselves down 31-7 heading into halftime, leaving them with a near impossible task ahead. The Seahawks offense continued to put their foot on the gas and scored again in the 3rd quarter to put them up 38-7. With Seattle building up a 31 point lead going into the 4th quarter, it seemed like an inevitable loss for the Commanders, but this is where disaster struck that has many fans questioning Commanders Head Coach Dan Quinn’s decision making.
Coach Quinn decided to leave his star quarterback Jayden Daniels in the game who was just returning from a knee injury that forced him to miss 3 matchups this year. With 7 minutes remaining in the game, Washington marched down the field to get in the red zone seeking some late garbage time points.
On 2nd and Goal, Daniels ran a read option play and escaped pressure, he beat the first man and attempted to get past the second and couldn’t. On his way down to the ground Jayden Daniels stuck out his arm to brace his fall and suffered a gruesome dislocated elbow.
Luckily for Daniels the injury was on his non-throwing arm so his future remains safe, however, this injury is likely to sideline him for the remainder of the season which drastically impacts Washington’s playoff hopes. Ultimately injuries are unpredictable so it’s tough playing the blame game. The biggest priority now is diagnosing the severity and making sure we get the young star fully healthy before rushing him back out onto the field. Washington will now start veteran quarterback Marcus Mariota going forward.
The Commanders have now fallen to 3-6 on the season with a difficult matchup ahead next week against the 5-3 Detroit Lions who look to get a bounce back win after losing at home to the Minnesota Vikings.