Carson Wentz lived up to his billing in the Washington Commanders’ 28-22 victory before 58,192 fans at FedEx Field.
At times, Wentz was dazzling, leading Washington to touchdown drives on his first two possessions as the team’s new starting quarterback. He almost gave the game away with two fourth-quarter interceptions, however, before rallying with two scoring passes in the last five and a half minutes of the game to pull the Commanders out of a 22-14 hole.
“The guy played his butt off and did a lot of good things,” head coach Ron Rivera said in his post-game press conference. “ Really happy for him and really excited for him.”
The first quarter could not have gone better for the Commanders. After falling behind 3-0 on an early Jaguars field goal, Wentz directed an eight-play, 47-yard drive that ended with a three-yard touchdown pass to wideout Curtis Samuel.
The Commanders next possession was even more impressive with a 14-play, 71-yard drive that lasted more than seven minutes. Wentz punctuated that drive with a seven-yard touchdown throw to rookie receiver Jahan Dotson to give Washington a 14-3 lead. A lead they took into halftime.
Jacksonville cut the lead to 14-9 in the third quarter when QB Trevor Lawrence connected with WR Christian Kirk on a 49-yard pass to set up the Jaguars’ first touchdown; a three-yard Lawrence toss to James Robinson. Jacksonville failed on the two-point conversion attempt.
The fourth quarter saw the other side of Wentz make an appearance.
With the lead cut to 14-12, Wentz threw his first interception to Tyson Campbell.
The defense held but the Jaguars’ 5th field goal of the day gave them the lead for the first time at 15-14.
On Wentz’s very next offensive play, he threw into a crowd. The ball was intercepted by rookie (and the 2022 number one overall draft pick) Travon Walker.
Shortly after, Robinson’s second touchdown of the day gave Jacksonville a 22-14 lead.
“It was an ugly stretch obviously. Any time you get back-to-back, turnovers. That’s never fun,” Wentz said. “First one I threw the guy made a good play, but that was a bad decision. The second one made a play: came outta nowhere. Tough break, ideally just dirt that one, but yeah, it’s a tough stretch there to bounce back from but guys did a good job. Everybody was rallying around each other and obviously we got it done.”
Wentz flipped the script for a second time all on a positive.
With 9:36 left in the fourth quarter, the former North Dakota State 5x FCS National Champion, threw a perfect ball to Terry McLaurin streaking down the sideline for a 49-yard touchdown pass. It was the kind of play Commanders fans have rarely seen over the last decade.
“Carson [Wentz] is not afraid to throw the ball down the field and I actually got excited seeing him throw that same route in practice over and over again against that coverage,” McLaurin said. “I knew I was gonna be alive on that so they’ve kind of been playing that soft zone all game and I knew the next drive, we got that opportunity, he was going to throw it. It was just great to run through a ball that was right in stride like he did and it changed the flow of the game. It was great to get our first connection out there and I think it was the only one to throw for.”
The two-point conversion failed, making the score 22-20. After a defensive stand, Wentz came up big again, hitting Dotson for the rookie’s second touchdown of the game. The two-point conversion succeeded the second time giving Washington a lead they would not give up, 28-22.
“We trust in Carson one hundred percent,” Dotson said. “We know that he has to be able to make those plays for us, especially when it comes down to it. He has great arm talent, great quarterback, great decision maker so we were happy to get that touchdown back on the board.”
Wentz ended the day 27 of 41, for 317 yards to go along with four touchdown passes and two interceptions.
If it turns out that Sunday was a somewhat typical game for Wentz, the 2022 season could interesting quickly.