The Commanders didn’t have Jayden Daniels for most of Sunday’s home game against the Panthers, but they didn’t really need him.
Daniels left with injured ribs with the team up 10-0 in the first quarter and the lead only grew from there. Marcus Mariota threw for two touchdowns, Brian Robinson ran for another score and the Commanders cruised to a 40-7 win over Carolina.
Daniels was initially called questionable to return and he was ruled out at halftime. The Commanders were up 27-0 at that point, so it’s hard to read much into what that meant about Daniels’s condition. It seemed to be a good sign that he returned to the sideline in street clothes and the fact that he spent the second half smiling and laughing with teammates would fall into the same category.
Mariota was 18-of-23 for 205 yards and hit tight ends Zach Ertz and Ben Sinnott for his two touchdowns. Robinson ran 12 times for 71 yards and Daniels had 50 rushing yards before he exited the game.
The Panthers put together a nice drive to open the game, but Andy Dalton was picked off on a third down screen pass and Dante Fowler returned the ball 67 yards for the first points of the game. Dalton threw another interception and was 11-of-16 for 93 yards before the Panthers gave Bryce Young a few snaps late in the fourth quarter.
The poor outing may lead to questions about going back to Young, but Panthers head coach Dave Canales said at halftime that he wasn’t considering a change so the Panthers may not be thinking about getting the first overall pick of the 2023 draft back into any meaningful action at this point.
The 1-6 Panthers will be in Denver next Sunday and the 5-2 Commanders will remain at home to face the Bears. They’ll be hoping that’s a matchup of Daniels and the 2024 first overall pick Caleb Williams, but we’ll have to wait to find out the details of Daniels’s injury.
