It was far from perfect for Carson Wentz in his Washington Commanders regular season debut. The mistake-prone Wentz threw two interceptions. Wide receiver Curtis Samuel lost a fumble.
Washington found itself trailing the Jacksonville Jaguars 14-3 at halftime. It then let Jacksonville score nine unanswered points in the third quarter to set the stage for the final stanza.
Down 22-14 after a James Robinson touchdown with just under 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Wentz and his Commanders worked their magic. That included Wentz leading Washington on two long scoring drives with scores of 78 yards and 90 yards, respectively. The guy was on absolute fire to close things out for Washington. That included Wentz hitting rookie wide receiver Jahan Dotson for the game-winning score in what ended up being a 28-22 victory.
All told, Wentz completed 8-of-12 passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns on those final two drives to end the game. Simply amazing.
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Carson Wentz wasn’t perfect, finds way to win Washington Commanders debut
As mentioned above, Wentz threw two interceptions in his Commanders debut. They came on back-to-back possessions in the second half and resulted in Jacksonville scoring 10 points to take control of the game.
Unlike what we saw over the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts, Wentz was able to overcome these mistakes instead of seeing it all go downhill.
After the win, Commanders head coach Ron Rivera indicated that the team has “moxie”. He also pointed out the three turnovers and noted that no forward movement can happen. Of course, part of that focus was on the two interceptions Wentz threw in the second half.
Outside of those two picks, Wentz found a way to get all of his players involved. Antonio Gibson was 7 of 8 for 72 yards. Terry McLaurin caught a 49-yard pass. As for Dotson, he had two touchdowns on three catches. In particular, Rivera talked about the first-round pick’s performance in his regular-season debut.
“That’s what we saw during the draft process. That’s why we did what we did. We are very fortunate to have that young man with his ability.”
Defensively, there were some issues that needed to be addressed moving forward. This is especially true when we are talking about the game in the background. Jaguars wide receivers Christian Kirk and Zay Jones caught 12 of 21 targets for 182 yards. Marvin Jones added four catches or 38 yards on six targets.
That should be rectified to some extent once star rusher Chase Young returns from injury. Being able to get consistent pressure on the quarterback will help Washington’s offense moving forward.
Despite all the good feelings in Washington right now, it should be noted that the team just played at home against a bad Jaguars team. It’s not necessarily a sign of things to come.
But with a game against the Detroit Lions looming next week, a 2-0 start to the campaign now looks likely. After the offseason of DC drama, this has to be seen as a good thing.
