The Washington Commanders ended their season on a high with a last-second 23-19 win over the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
With playoffs secured, the only small matter was finding out where the Commanders would land in the NFC seeding, sixth or seventh. Washington will now be the sixth seed after the win, and it was one that Jayden Daniels didn't play much of.
After a tough first half, Daniels emerged on the sidelines after halftime and didn't enter the game. To most, it was a "wrapping him in cotton wool" deal with the playoffs just around the corner.
But according to head coach Dan Quinn, it wasn't the plan to have Daniels sit.
“It wasn’t a plan going in, and we thought we were going all the way,” Quinn said. “But he had some mild soreness in his leg, I just made the decision honestly to say lets go with Marcus [Mariota]. It felt like it was going to be a game they were really playing upfield, we were going to have to use the quarterback’s legs more. So it was my decision. But it wasn’t a predetermined one."
Keeping Daniels out of harm's way is a logical decision, considering the Dallas defense sacked him four times in the first half. Any extra punishment wouldn't be good moving forward.
So Daniels sat and watched Marcus Mariota help the offense score 20 second-half points, which included a 14-play, 81-yard drive that ended with a Terry McLaurin touchdown as he broke the franchise record for most receiving touchdowns (13) to secure the last-second win.
It was a good day for Washington as it ended the year on a high, and it seems that Quinn was playing the cautious game with his franchise quarterback because, of course, right?
