Jayden Daniels to get further tests Monday after leaving the Commanders' game with a rib injury

LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Jayden Daniels will undergo further tests Monday after leaving the Washington Commanders’ game against the Carolina Panthers with a rib injury, coach Dan Quinn said, repeatedly adding he had no further update on the rookie quarterback's status.

“I can not give you an update on Jayden, but I will just as soon as we find out,” Quinn said Sunday after Daniels was injured early in his team's 40-7 win. “I’ll give you some updates just as soon as I find out tomorrow, but I do not have any tonight.”

Daniels' mother, Regina Jackson, posted on social media the simple message, “He’s fine.” Part owner Magic Johnson posted he’s “praying that Jayden Daniels’ injury is not serious!”

Seven games into what is turning into a season with playoff aspirations, the Commanders are 5-2 but so far have no clarity about Daniels.

“Obviously, it’s going to take some time or whatever it is," said veteran Marcus Mariota, who replaced Daniels and threw for two touchdown passes and 205 yards. “We have no idea. But I think he was in good spirits, and for the most part you just check on him, how he’s doing and we’ll take it day to day.”

Daniels, who ran for 46 yards on the Commanders’ first offensive snap, took multiple hits on their opening drive — including a head-over-feet tumble on that play. It was not clear exactly when he was injured, with Quinn only sure it happened on that drive.

The No. 2 pick out of LSU and 2023 Heisman Trophy winner appeared to be in pain when leaving the field following a third-down completion before Austin Seibert’s field goal that gave Washington a 10-0 lead. He initially went to the bench but relocated to the blue medical tent for evaluation.

After Andy Dalton’s second interception of the first quarter, Daniels left the tent and went back onto the field to throw a few passes. He returned to the sideline and slammed his helmet to the turf before returning to the tent, and Mariota took control of the offense.

“When you see him go down, that’s tough for us,” top receiver Terry McLaurin said. “Marcus did a great job coming in.”

Towel in hand, Daniels then walked off the sideline and down the tunnel to the locker room.

“We warmed him up, he threw some, we took him to the tent and the next step was, ‘We’re going to take you inside and get images there,’” Quinn said. “And he’ll do some more images tomorrow.”

With Washington up 27-0 at halftime, Daniels returned to the sideline in the third quarter wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, and the team ruled him out soon after. He spent the remainder of the game chatting with teammates on the bench.

“We won’t put (Daniels) or any other guys into a space where they could jeopardize something,” Quinn said. “I don’t have any information medically, so please don’t speculate on that.”

Daniels came into the game as the favorite to win offensive rookie of the year honors. He threw for 1,404 yards, ran for 322 and was responsible for 10 TDs in his first six games.

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Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels stands on the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels stands on the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) runs from Carolina Panthers safety Nick Scott (21) and linebacker Marquis Haynes Sr. (45) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels 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 quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) is tackled by Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Incoom (48) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels 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 quarterback Jayden Daniels walks off the field after getting injured 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 Jayden Daniels warms up before an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels walks off the field after getting injured during the first half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

HAVANA (AP) — Many Cubans waited in anguish late Sunday as electricity on much of the island had yet to be restored days after an island-wide blackout. Their concerns were raised as Hurricane Oscar first made landfall in the southeastern Bahamas and then slammed into Cuba's coast.

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a press conference he hopes the country's electricity grid will be restored on Monday or Tuesday morning.

But he recognized that Oscar, which hit the island's eastern coast Sunday evening, will bring “an additional inconvenience” to Cuba's recovery since it will touch a “region of strong (electricity) generation.” Key Cuban power plants, such as Felton in the city of Holguín, and Renté in Santiago de Cuba, are located in the area.

Some neighborhoods had electricity restored in Cuba’s capital, where 2 million people live, but most of Havana remained dark. The impact of the blackout goes beyond lighting, as services like water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.

People resorted to cooking with improvised wood stoves on the streets before the food went bad in refrigerators.

In tears, Ylenis de la Caridad Napoles, mother of a 7-year-old girl, says she is reaching a point of “desperation.”

The failure of the Antonio Guiteras plant on Friday, which caused the collapse of the island's whole system, was just the latest in a series of problems with energy distribution in a country where electricity has been restricted and rotated to different regions at different times of the day.

People lined up for hours on Sunday morning to buy bread in the few bakeries that could reopen.

Some Cubans like Rosa Rodríguez have been without electricity for four days.

“We have millions of problems, and none of them are solved,” said Rodríguez. “We must come to get bread, because the local bakery is closed, and they bring it from somewhere else.”

About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after one of the plants failed.

Besides the Antonio Guiteras plant, whose failure on Friday affected the entire national system, Cuba has several others, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether they remained functional.

The blackout was considered to be Cuba’s worst in two years after Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 3 storm in 2022 and damaged power installations. It took days for the government to fix them. This year, some homes have spent up to eight hours a day without electricity.

Cuba’s government had said on Saturday that some electricity had been restored after one of the country’s major power plants failed. But the 500 megawatts of energy in the island’s electricity grid, far short of the usual 3 gigawatts it needs, had quickly decreased to 370 megawatts.

Even in a country that is used to outages as part of a deepening economic crisis, Friday’s collapse was massive.

The Cuban government has announced emergency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending school and university classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling nonessential services.

Local authorities said the outage stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners. Later, the blackout got worse because of breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven’t been properly maintained, and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.

Cuba's energy minister said the country's grid would be in better shape if there had not been two more partial blackouts as authorities tried to reconnect on Saturday. De la O Levy also said Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Russia, among other nations, had offered to help.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Oscar made landfall on Cuba's eastern coast after striking the southeastern Bahamas earlier in the day.

The hurricane center in Miami said the storm’s center arrived in the Cuban province of Guantanamo on Sunday evening with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 kph).

The system is expected to move across eastern Cuba Sunday night and Monday. Forecasters said 6 to 12 inches (15.2 to 30.5 centimeters) of rain are expected across eastern Cuba through early Wednesday, with some isolated locations getting up to 18 inches (45.72 centimeters). A storm surge of up to 3 feet (0.91 meters) in some areas of Cuba’s north shore in the area was possible, the center said.

Oscar was expected to weaken over eastern Cuba before making a turn to the northeast and approaching the central Bahamas on Tuesday, the center said.

The storm’s center was located about 5 miles (10 kilometers) east-southeast of Baracoa, or about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east-northeast of Guantanamo. It was heading west-southwest at 7 mph (11 kph).

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Residents pass the time during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents walk down a street using a phone flashlight during a power outage following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents prepare a soup over an open fire during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A resident sits while passing time during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)