The Washington Commanders badly needed Jayden Daniels to bring magic to Northwest Stadium on Sunday night, which marked the quarterback's anticipated return from a hamstring injury. Instead, Washington got steamrolled by the visiting Seattle Seahawks out of the gate in prime time, surrendering four first-half touchdown passes to Sam Darnold. Then the real tragedy struck, with Daniels suffering a seemingly serious injury to his left elbow while battling back late in the 38-14 defeat.
Daniels was all but Washington's only hope for much of the contest, leading the Commanders in rushing for a stretch of the Week 9 contest. His last attempt to evade Seattle was the defining one, however, and not in the right way: Slung to the ground for a sack by Drake Thomas while trailing by 31 with fewer than eight minutes to play, Daniels' left arm and elbow bent awkwardly against the ground. Medical trainers soon immobilized the arm with a brace and escorted the second-year standout to the locker room.
Daniels' ugly exit was just the cherry on top of a nightmarish sundae for the Commanders, as Darnold shredded Dan Quinn's defense to start the matchup, tying a Seattle record with 17 straight completions, including four touchdowns. His top target, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, had another stellar day at the office on the receiving end, torching Washington's secondary for 129 yards on eight catches.
Here are some takeaways from Sunday night's big Seattle win, which dropped the Commanders to 3-6 at the bottom of the NFC East:
Sam Darnold's stellar showing will be overshadowed in the coming days by discussion of Daniels' injury, but the Seahawks quarterback was truly spectacular to start this game, which was effectively over by halftime. This was just one example of his elite composure and quick-reaction playmaking against Washington:
Washington was already in deep trouble coming into Sunday night's affair. The defense was already old, banged up and a total sieve, as evidenced by a blowout loss to the rival Dallas Cowboys in Week 7, plus a noncompetitive second half against the Kansas City Chiefs a week later. But this was another level of leaky, with Darnold driving the ball effortlessly to go up 31-7 by the break. And the Daniels injury? Just a fittingly sour way to punctuate the rapid descent from NFC title contender to battered underdog. Set aside the fact Quinn saw fit to expose his star signal-caller to injury in such a lopsided late-game situation; even if Daniels had stayed upright, he wasn't getting a ton of help from a receiving corps missing No. 1 pass catcher Terry McLaurin. At the end of the day, Washington is now 3-6, and the Detroit Lions are up next. Even a push back into wild card contention feels fanciful.
On the flip side of this matchup, the Seahawks just showed a national audience they are for real. Yes, Washington was a punching bag. But Seattle has now won three straight and six of its last seven, and its only two losses on the 2025 season were one-score decisions at the hands of fellow playoff contenders in the San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Is it fair to remain skeptical about Darnold's poise come, say, January, when he'll be tasked with erasing memories of his sudden deflation at the controls of the Minnesota Vikings one year ago? Sure. But the man is outright dealing as the Seahawks' quarterback right now, and "JSN" as his No. 1 target is as legit as they come. Throw in Mike Macdonald's hyper-physical defense, with both proven and overachieving starters at every level, and more folks should be discussing them as the real favorites out of the NFC West.
Washington will stay at home and likely turn back to veteran backup Marcus Mariota, who closed Sunday's loss under center, in an attempt to upset the Lions, who will be motivated to rebound from a tight loss to the Vikings. Seattle, meanwhile, will return to Lumen Field for a home date with the rival Arizona Cardinals, who will be on a short week after this Monday's battle with the Cowboys.
This game was already in the books before Chris Rodriguez Jr. carried it up the gut for a score, but not even a crazy comeback would revive this crowd, with Jayden Daniels now in the locker room with a seemingly serious arm injury. The Commanders quarterback, who'd just returned from a hamstring issue, required a large arm brace before exiting.
Oh man: Washington's star signal-caller was driving the Commanders into the red zone (albeit down 31 points with fewer than eight minutes to play) and had his left arm trapped as he went to the ground following a scramble. Replay wasn't pretty. Medical trainers escorted Daniels off the field with his elbow immobilized.
The Seahawks used their 6-foot-6 tight end to take the direct snap under center and plow in for six:
Who says the Seahawks' quarterback can't make acrobatic plays, too?
Daniels escaped a slew of Seahawks defenders on his way to an improbable would-be first-down scramble, but then Williams' last-second dive tripped up the Commanders' slippery quarterback, preventing Washington from adding points after Sam Darnold's only blatant misfire of the night:
Perfect for the first half, Darnold has quieted down to start the second, first throwing just short of Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a well-covered floater to end Seattle's first series of the third quarter, then forcing one across his body while maneuvering around the pocket ... right into the hands of the Commanders' diving Sainristil.
Seattle's rangy linebacker will miss the rest of the matchup with a knee injury. Meanwhile, Commanders cornerback Marshon Lattimore got up slow after forcing Sam Darnold's first incompletion of the night.
Welp, it sure seems like Dan Quinn's aging defense is still a problem: Seattle is already up to 330 total yards after two quarters, with Sam Darnold enjoying a perfect 16 of 16 passing performance to go with those four scores. The Seahawks are also enjoying a 100% conversion rate on third downs (5 for 5). The Commanders, meanwhile, are leaning almost exclusively upon Jayden Daniels, who's freshly back from a hamstring injury, to do dual-threat magic. Not even the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year can save Washington if the "D" is this porous, though.
The Commanders are on the board courtesy of a 1-yard run by Jayden Daniels. The Seahawks still have 53 seconds, though, so for Washington to carry any momentum into the half, it needs a defensive stop. Cornerback Trey Amos is being evaluated for a hip injury, so that doesn't help.
Not a whole lot of analysis needed here. Darnold is 13 for 13 for 229 yards and FOUR touchdowns.
Washington's defense is completely lost.
It's gone from bad to worse -- and one would have thought it couldn't get much worse -- for Washington. Already down 14-0, Jaylin Lane just fumbled the kick return, with Brandon Pili forcing it out and Connor O'Toole recovering. One play later, Darnold found Elijah Arroyo up the seam.
The Seahawks' offense is absolutely cooking right now. Tory Horton beat Mike Sainristil off the line of scrimmage, and Sam Darnold made no mistake for the duo's second touchdown of the night.
Darnold is 9 for 9 for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Pretty good!
The Commanders appeared to have a good drive going, but then Chris Paul committed a facemask penalty on Ernest Jones IV, and on the resulting third-and-17, Jayden Daniels' attempt to throw the ball away got picked off by Ty Okada. What a play!
Josh Jobe has played some outstanding football for Seattle, but he just exited the game after taking some friendly fire. He's headed into the medical tent.
When they weren't getting in their own way, the Seahawks found little resistance on a 12-play, 90-yard touchdown drive. Sam Darnold found Tory Horton for the touchdown to cap it.
Seattle averaged 8.7 yards per play on that drive and overcame three penalties for 34 yards. Bad start for a Washington defense that has really struggled recently.
Washington wide receiver Luke McCaffrey is headed back to the locker room after the kickoff return. The Commanders are already without Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown, so McCaffrey's absence hurts.
UPDATE: McCaffrey is out with a shoulder injury. He was initially questionable to return.
The Seahawks are without Cooper Kupp, who suffered a hamstring injury in Thursday's practice, but the only other player listed as questionable, DT Jarran Reed, is active.
For Washington, all three questionable players (OT Laremy Tunsil, DT Johnny Newton and TE John Bates) are active.
Washington's top pass catcher, Terry McLaurin, will be sidelined due to an aggravated quad injury. So how, exactly, can the Commanders find a way to upset the Seahawks? From our CBS Sports betting preview:
The Commanders are 2-1-0 ATS and straight up at home this season, which can take away some of the sting of playing on a short week. Having Jayden Daniels back in the mix can help since the Seahawks passing defense is allowing 230.1 yards per game despite holding five opponents this season to under 20 points. [And] Deebo Samuel will face a familiar foe in Seattle from his days playing for the San Francisco 49ers; he has 47 catches for 766 yards and seven touchdowns in eight career games against them.
From our expert betting preview at CBS Sports, featuring top simulation data from SportsLine:
Traveling to the East Coast should be no problem for the Seahawks since they will be fresh off of their bye week. Sam Darnold is averaging an impressive 9.4 yards per pass with a 75.2 completion percentage and 7-1 TD-INT ratio against NFC teams this season. Kenneth Walker III and Jaxon Smith-Njigba shouldn't have much trouble marching the ball downfield against a Commanders defense that is allowing 372.8 total yards per game. Seattle's own defense is only allowing 75.7 rushing yards per game, which will make for an intriguing matchup against Jacory Croskey-Merritt.
