Jayden Daniels — Week 2: Sixty-Nine Rushing Yards, One Half

17 to 10, Cowboys, three seconds left in the second quarter, third and goal at the Dallas one. Jayden Daniels threw short right, incomplete, with no receiver credited, and the play-by-play adds that he was injured on the play. −3.7 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −12.6 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, matched only by a third-quarter fumble as the largest swing in either direction on any Washington pass or run in the game. The half ended there. Per Zachary Pereles at CBS Sports, Daniels was carted off with an air cast on his left arm and ruled out for the rest of the game, and it is the same elbow he dislocated last season. Marcus Mariota played quarterback after halftime.

The incompletion ended a 15-play drive that began at the Washington 35 with five oh one left and reached the one with 17 seconds to go. Daniels scrambled three times on it, for nine, 14 one; hit Stefon Diggs for 10 on third and six and for eight to the five; and then, after Rachaad White's four-yard run on third and one put the ball at the one, threw three incompletions — to Terry McLaurin, to Dyami Brown, and the last one. 64 yards, no points.

The line: 11 completions on 17 throws, 96 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, no sacks, +0.2 expected points on 17 pass plays. The touchdown was second and goal from the four with six 40 left in the second quarter, no huddle, short left to Diggs, down three to 17. Three of the throws are labeled deep and one was caught, the 24-yarder to McLaurin on third and 18 that was Washington's most valuable play of the game by expected points, +3.5; a 34-yard touchdown to McLaurin on another of them was reversed on review. On third down he threw five times, completed four, and two moved the chains. The running was the larger half: six scrambles for 69 yards and five first downs — seven, 18 on third and two on the last snap of the first quarter, 20, nine, 14 one — worth +5.5 expected points together. The seventh rushing attempt in his line is an aborted snap he fumbled on second and five at the Dallas nine, 14 25 left in the second quarter, recovered by Jacory Croskey-Merritt back at the 20; that one cost 2.2 expected points, and the drive ended in a field goal. 69 rushing yards in one half led Washington for the game; Croskey-Merritt and White had 43 each.

He threw four times to McLaurin, three each to Diggs and White, twice to Brown, and once each to four others, with the last throw credited to no one. 17 pass plays and 15 designed runs before halftime. Dallas scored on its first two possessions, and Washington trailed from the 10-minute mark of the first quarter on. Mariota finished 11 of 16 for a hundred 11 yards and a touchdown.

Back in June the preview called Daniels underpriced — a lean, the fifth quarterback off the board at pick 58, priced for last year's seven-game elbow season rather than the rookie year, and the whole case was the rushing floor. It also named the risk first: his health, the elbow. Week 1 was five carries for 31 yards and no injury note. Sunday was both halves of the preview inside 30 minutes: 69 yards on the ground, the floor argument at full volume, and then the arm. This episode will not guess at a diagnosis or a timetable; the reporting available Sunday night says left elbow, air cast, ruled out. Washington is home to the Seahawks on Sunday the 20-seventh, and who plays quarterback is the first thing to learn before then.

_Data via nflverse._