Commanders DT Jonathan Allen expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn pectoral muscle

Sport

Commanders DT Jonathan Allen expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn pectoral muscle

2024-10-15 05:26 Last Updated At：05:30

Washington Commanders defensive tackle Jonathan Allen is expected to miss the remainder of the NFL season with a torn pectoral muscle.

Coach Dan Quinn said Monday that Allen is likely to have season-ending surgery soon after being injured in the loss Baltimore, which ended the Commanders' winning streak at four.

“It’s a big blow for us; Jon Allen’s obviously been a staple player here,” Quinn said. “We’re really bummed for him as the man and the ballplayer, and we’ll certainly miss him this season.”

Defensive ends Dorance Armstrong (rib/oblique) and Javontae Jean-Baptiste (ankle) were also injured in the Ravens game. Clelin Ferrell just returned from a knee injury, and Washington is likely to count on Daron Payne, Phidarian Mathis and rookie Johnny Newton to fill the void left by Allen's absence.

"The good news is we have a big, deep crew," Quinn said. “It’ll be a multitude of people and roles and how we can feature guys to do that because Jon’s rare and he’s got unique skills and talent, so it’s not just plug and play.”

Allen, a first-round pick in 2017 and a Pro Bowl selection in 2021 and '22, is one of the organization’s longest-tenured players. He had two sacks and 15 tackles through six games as one of the constants on a totally revamped defense that includes six new starters.

The Alabama product is in the second-to-last season of the $72 million contract he signed three years ago but has no more guaranteed money owed to him.

Jayden Daniels is still good at the sport of football. The rookie quarterback nearly went throw for throw and run for run with Lamar Jackson, and he was not the reason Washington lost.

“For him to come into a hostile environment and perform the way he did, I’ve got much respect for him,” Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith said. “Much respect and love for that guy, and yes, Washington is in good hands.”

Daniels was 24 of 35 for 269 yards passing and ran six times for 22 yards.

“He played a tremendous game out there,” Jackson said. “They just came up short.”

The secondary is still a work in progress. Cornerback Benjamin St-Juste struggled in coverage and was flagged twice for pass interference Sunday.

Washington allowed 484 yards — including Jackson's 323 passing — and the pressure that existed against Cleveland in Week 5 needs to be a regular occurrence for this defense to have any success, especially with Allen out.

A week after a few drops, veteran tight end Zach Ertz was back to being his old, reliable self in the passing game. He had four receptions for a team-high 68 yards, including a gain of 24.

Cornerback Emmanuel Forbes, a first-round pick of the old regime led by Ron Rivera in 2023, was a healthy scratch, and his long-term future with the organization is a lingering question. Quinn said the decision was made to dress another defensive lineman instead and expects Forbes to be back in the mix this weekend against Carolina.

Beyond the decimated D-line, the big one is running back Brian Robinson Jr.'s knee injury that sidelined him and took the punch out of the ground game. Austin Ekeler averaged just 2.3 yards a carry in Robinson's absence, and 52 total was by far the Commanders' lowest total in a game this season.

1 — Interception for Washington through six games after rookie Mike Sainristil picked off Jackson when the ball bounced off tight end Mark Andrews' hands.

Don't get complacent with the 1-5 Panthers coming to town. The Commanders are 8-point home favorites on BetMGM Sportsbook, and this is a game they need to win if they want to make a legitimate run at a playoff spot.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Death toll in attack on Christmas market in Germany rises to 5 and more than 200 injured

2024-12-21 20:17 Last Updated At：20:21

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others.

Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. officials said.

The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God's mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.

There were still no answers Saturday as to what motivated the man to drive his black BMW into a crowd in the eastern German city.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.

He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Haseloff said Friday that authorities believed the man acted alone.

The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.

Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and thought at first they were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.

Shaking as she described the horror of what she witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.

The number of injured people was overwhelming.

“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold," she said.

The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red-and-white tape and police vans every 50 meters (yards). Police with machine pistols guarded every entry to the market. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.

Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.

Aboubakr reported from Cairo and Gera from Warsaw, Poland. Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.