Commanders not missing a beat with Mariota replacing Daniels at QB validates Kingsbury's offense

LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Jayden Daniels exited the game with a rib injury, Marcus Mariota took his place in the huddle and the first few throws were rough. After Mariota shook off some rust, however, the Washington Commanders' offense was no less effective with the journeyman quarterback in charge than it was with the dazzling rookie.

“Kliff’s offense is Kliff’s offense,” starting right tackle Andrew Wylie said. “Whoever’s at the helm is doing the same thing as another guy who’s at the helm. We try to run his plays at the highest level.”

Kliff is Kliff Kingsbury, Washington's first-year offensive coordinator. And the Commanders not missing a beat when Daniels was sidelined and replaced by Mariota is the biggest endorsement yet of Kingsbury's system and general manager Adam Peters' entire offseason, from making that hire to signing the right veterans in free agency.

“When you don’t have your starting quarterback, but you still execute at a high level, I think that’s a standard that we’re setting for our offense,” top receiver Terry McLaurin said. “No matter who’s in there, the expectation and the production doesn’t drop.”

Daniels, the No. 2 draft pick and offensive rookie of the year favorite whose status for Sunday against No. 1 pick Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears is uncertain, was responsible for 56 yards before getting hurt on the 85-yard opening possession that ended with a field goal. The Commanders racked up 336 more yards, with Mariota engineering three touchdown drives, to improve to 5-2.

That is exactly the kind of capable fill-in play Peters and his staff hoped for when signing Mariota to a $6 million contract for this season that could be worth up to $10 million. Their eyes were already on Daniels, and Mariota was the perfect mentor and backup given his experience and playing style.

After starting 0 of 5, Mariota completed his next 18 passes for 205 yards and touchdown throws to tight ends Zach Ertz and Ben Sinnott. The performance came against the woeful Carolina Panthers, but it provided a blueprint for how the Commanders can move forward if Daniels misses any time.

“It's going to be different week to week," Mariota said. “Kliff and those guys do a great job of: ‘Hey, where can we attack these teams? Where can we create matchup problems?’ ... It’s just trying to execute what the game plan was, and nothing for us really changed.”

The new additions are not just paying off on offense. The revamped defense is doing its part, too.

Dante Fowler returned his first NFL interception 67 yards for a touchdown and had one of Washington's two sacks of Andy Dalton. Fellow linebacker Frankie Luvu had the other, while rookie second-round pick Mike Sainristil and veteran cornerback Noah Igbinoghene tied for the team lead with six tackles apiece.

“I love the way we’re going,” Fowler said. "Just being able to hold each other down and play for each other — it’s been a while since I’ve seen a team play like that. I love this team a lot. I love the way we play for each other.”

Daniels' ribs, mostly. Even given the confidence in Mariota, the Commanders will go as far as Daniels takes them.

Coach Dan Quinn said Monday that Daniels is being listed as “week to week" and the team is hopeful he plays Sunday against Chicago, adding, “This is not something that’s a long-term issue.”

Cornerback Emmanuel Forbes, a healthy scratch last week against Baltimore, picked off Dalton in his return. Getting the 2023 first-round pick on track for a useful professional career is one of the big-picture, long-term tasks for the coaching staff, and making a big play should help Forbes' confidence if nothing else.

Those in charge of flexing the Bears-Commanders game to the 4:25 p.m. national window were banking on it being Williams against Daniels. Williams against Mariota, the second pick in 2015, would not have the same appeal.

Rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman was concussed against the Panthers, which makes it likely that Cornelius Lucas gets the next start and play the vast majority of the snaps. Coleman is in concussion protocol, Quinn said.

19 — Years since Washington last started 3-0 at home. 2005 was also the last season this team won a playoff game.

Probably play it safe with Daniels, the face of the franchise whose value this season and beyond goes beyond one game. The coaching staff and front office sat out Brian Robinson Jr. recently to avoid further damage for a knee injury, and the approach may be similar this time around.

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Washington Commanders linebacker Dante Fowler Jr. (6) and linebacker Frankie Luvu (4) celebrate after stopping the Carolina Panthers on fourth down during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders fans celebrate after a touchdown run by Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. during the first half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota (18) runs from Carolina Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn (8) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Andy Dalton (14) talks Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota (18) after an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. The Commanders 40-7. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota throws a pass during the second half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota throws a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Washington Commanders tight end Zach Ertz (86) celebrates with teammates after catching a 12-yard touchdown pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. (8) celebrates with teammate quarterback Marcus Mariota (18) after an 8-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota throws a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) — Sitting in her wheelchair, Haneen al-Mabhouh dreams of rebuilding her family, of cradling a new baby. She dreams of walking again. But with her leg gone, her life in Gaza is on hold, she says, as she waits to go abroad for further treatment.

An Israeli airstrike in July 2024 smashed her home in central Gaza as she and her family slept. All four of her daughters were killed, including her 5-month-old baby. Her husband was severely burned. Al-Mabhouh’s legs were crushed under the rubble, and doctors had to amputate her right leg above the knee.

“For the past year and a half, I have been unable to move around, to live like others. For the past year and a half, I have been without children,” she said, speaking at her parents’ home.

The 2-month-old ceasefire in Gaza has been slow to bring help for thousands of Palestinians who suffered amputations from Israeli bombardment over the past two years. The World Health Organization estimates there are some 5,000 to 6,000 amputees from the war, 25% of them children.

Those who lost limbs are struggling to adapt, faced with a shortage of prosthetic limbs and long delays in medical evacuations out of Gaza.

The WHO said a shipment of essential prosthetic supplies recently made it into Gaza. That appears to be the first significant shipment for the past two years.

Previously, Israel had let in almost no ready-made prosthetic limbs or material to manufacture limbs since the war began, according to Loay Abu Saif, the head of the disability program at Medical Aid for Palestinians, or MAP, and Nevin Al Ghussein, acting director of the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City.

The Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid, known as COGAT, did not respond when asked how many prosthetic supplies had entered during the war or about its policies on such supplies.

Al-Mabhouh was asleep with her baby girl in her arms when the strike hit their home in Nuseirat, she said. For several weeks while recovering in the hospital, al-Mabhouh had no idea her children had been killed.

She underwent multiple surgeries. Her hand still has difficulty moving. Her remaining leg remains shattered, held together with rods. She needs a bone graft and other treatments that are only available outside of Gaza.

She was put on the list for medical evacuation 10 months ago but still hasn’t gotten permission to leave Gaza.

Waiting for her chance to go, she lives at her parents’ house. She needs help changing clothes and can’t even hold a pen, and remains crushed by grief over her daughters. “I never got to hear her say ‘mama,’ see her first tooth or watch her take her first steps,” she said of her baby.

She dreams of having a new child but can’t until she gets treatment.

“It’s my right to live, to have another child, to regain what I lost, to walk, just to walk again,” she said. “Now my future is paralyzed. They destroyed my dreams.”

The ceasefire has hardly brought any increase in medical evacuations for the 16,500 Palestinians the U.N. says are waiting to get vital treatment abroad — not just amputees, but patients suffering many kinds of chronic conditions or wounds.

As of Dec. 1, 235 patients have been evacuated since the ceasefire began in October, just under five a day. In the months before that, the average was about three a day.

Israel last week said it was ready to allow patients and other Palestinians to leave Gaza via the Israeli-held Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. But it's unsure that will happen because Egypt, which controls the crossing’s other side, demands Rafah also be opened for Palestinians to enter Gaza as called for under the ceasefire deal.

Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told The Associated Press that the backlog is caused by the lack of countries to host the evacuated patients. He said new medevac routes need to be opened, especially to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, where hospitals are ready to receive patients.

Yassin Marouf lies in a tent in central Gaza, his left foot amputated, his right leg barely held together with rods.

The 23-year-old and his brother were hit by Israeli shelling in May as they returned from visiting their home in northern Gaza that their family had been forced to flee. His brother was killed. Marouf lay bleeding on the ground, as a stray dog attacked his mangled left leg.

Doctors say his right leg will also need to be amputated, unless he can travel abroad for operations that might save it. Marouf said he can’t afford painkillers and can’t go to the hospital regularly to have his bandages changed as they’re supposed to.

“If I want to go to the bathroom, I need two or three people to carry me,” he said.

Mohamed al-Naggar had been pursuing an IT degree at the University of Palestine before the war.

Seven months ago, shrapnel pierced his left leg during strikes on the house where his family was sheltering. Doctors amputated his leg above the knee. His right leg was also badly injured and shrapnel remains in parts of his body.

Despite four surgeries and physical therapy, the 21-year-old al-Naggar can’t move around.

“I’d like to travel abroad and put on a prosthetic and graduate from college and be normal like young people outside Gaza,” he said.

Some 42,000 Palestinians have suffered life-changing injuries in the war, including amputations, brain trauma, spinal cord injuries and major burns, the WHO said in an October report.

The situation has “improved slightly” for those with assistance needs but “there is still a huge overall shortage of assistive products,” such as wheelchairs, walkers and crutches. Gaza has only eight prosthetists able to manufacture and fit artificial limbs, the WHO said in a statement to the AP.

The Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, one of two prosthetics centers still operating in the territory, received a shipment of material to manufacture limbs just before the war began in 2023, said its director, Al Ghussein. Another small shipment entered in December 2024, but nothing since.

The center has been able to provide artificial limbs for 250 cases over the course of the war, but supplies are running out, Al Ghussein said.

No pre-made prosthetic legs or arms have entered, according to Abu Saif of MAP, who said Israel does not ban them, but its procedures cause delays and “in the end they ignore it.”

Ibrahim Khalif wants a prosthetic right leg so he can get a job doing manual labor or cleaning houses to support his pregnant wife and children.

In January, he lost his leg when an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza City while he was out getting food.

“I used to be the provider for my kids, but now I’m sitting here," Khalif said. "I think of how I was and what I’ve become.”

Prosthetic limb technician Ahmed Al-Ashqar, 34, prepares a leg amputation splint in the first stage of building an artificial leg at Hamad Hospital in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Yassin Marouf, 23, second from right, who lost his left foot and suffered a severe injury to his right leg after Israeli shelling in May, sits on a mattress in a tent surrounded by family and neighbors in Zawaida, central Gaza, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Haneen al-Mabhouh, 34, who lost her leg in an Israeli strike on her home that also killed all four of her daughters, including her 5-month-old baby, shows a photo of one of her daughters on a cellphone while sitting in a wheelchair in her family home in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Haneen al-Mabhouh, 34, who lost her leg in an Israeli strike on her home that also killed all four of her daughters, including her 5-month-old baby, sits in a wheelchair in her family home in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Yassin Marouf, 23, who lost his left foot and suffered a severe injury to his right leg after being hit by Israeli shelling in May, lies in a tent surrounded by his family in Zawaida, central Gaza, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)