Daniels Was Injured Late, Seahawks Dominate The Commanders 38-14 (11-2-25)
By: Jaden Golding
Headline Photo Credit: NFL.com
LANDOVER, MD— Man, last night was rough for the Commanders and the Washington faithful. Washington (3-6) dropped its fourth-straight contest to the Seattle Seahawks (6-2) 38-14 at Northwest Stadium on Sunday Night Football. Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold had a near-perfect outing, completing 21-of-24 passes for 330 yards, four passing touchdowns, one interception, and a rating of 141.0.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba continues his dominant season, hauling in eight passes for 129 yards. Rookie Tory Horton caught two touchdown passes for 48 total receiving yards.
The Commanders had no answer for the Seattle offense, which scored on six of their nine drives.
Seattle had 20 first downs, converted 7-of-11 third down attempts, and had 418 total yards (88 rushing & 330 passing).
Chris Rodriguez led the Washington ground game with 12 carries for 65 yards and a score.
Zach Ertz ( four catches, 46 yards) and Deebo Samuel (five catches, 41 yards) led the receiving corps.
Washington’s offense continued to struggle, scoring only two touchdowns on the night. One was in garbage time, during which Seattle had its backups in the game.
The scheming to pass continues to struggle to create openings for the receivers. Seattle’s match coverage and man coverage proved to cause Jayden Daniels and the offense trouble to find space to make plays down the field. Daniels had to use his legs a lot more instead of being able to set back and hit receivers in stride.
John Keim reported that ESPN Research had Daniels pressured on a career-high 51% of his dropbacks, 61% in the second half.
There’s more to discuss, but let’s move on to the prominent headline of the game….
Daniels injured again
Unfortunately, to the dismay of Commanders fans, including myself, Daniels went down again in yesterday’s game. In the fourth quarter, on a second-and-goal from Seattle 2, on a designed RPO play, Daniels kept the ball on the exchange, dodging a blitzing Seattle defensive lineman and running to the right side, but he was brought down awkwardly on his left arm, causing it to bend out of place.
On Monday, it was announced that he had dislocated his left elbow. The extent of the damage has yet to be released, but he’s expected to miss a significant amount of time.
Tough blow for the Commanders and especially Daniels. Daniels had just returned from his hamstring injury, which he sustained against the Cowboys in their week seven matchup. He also missed two weeks earlier in the season due to a sprained left knee. It’s been rough for the second-year quarterback who’s been unable to stay on the field, and you feel for him because he’s too talented a player not to be on the field for his team that needs him—speedy recovery for No. 5.
More Injuries
Unfortunately, Daniels was not the only long-term injury sustained in the matchup. Wide receiver Luke McCaffery broke his collarbone on the first play of the game after being taken down on his shoulder on the kickoff return. Later in the contest, Marshon Lattimore left the game with a knee injury. Today, head coach Dan Quinn confirmed that Lattimore will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.
It’s not the news the team needed. The injury report continues to pile up for a team that is running out of depth to replace it. 17 Commanders players have missed time this season due to injuries, 13 of them were starters when sustaining the injuries. Unreal.
Changes on the way?
Sitting at 3-6, and the trade deadline is opening up tomorrow afternoon, should the Commanders be sellers? Most media outlets think so. Names such as Zach Ertz, Deebo Samuel, and Bobby Wagner have popped up as people to watch on potential playoff-needy teams. Quinn has to be feeling the pressure to find some way to fix the free-falling season the team has been under in recent weeks. Changes in personnel and coaching staff could be an option as well. However, nothing significant could be discussed until after the season. Quinn stated that defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. would move from the box to the sideline in this week’s matchup against Detroit.
Up Next:
Washington welcomes the Detroit Lions on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s NFC Divisional round matchup.
Seattle hosts Arizona on Sunday.
