LANDOVER, Md. — You buy the premise, you buy the bit, my mother used to say.
Meaning, once you accept the general concept of a plan or an idea, you have to then accept everything that leads to that plan’s fruition.
So, if you believe in Jayden Daniels and all the potential he entails, the idea that he would complete a Hail Mary on the last play of what was about to be a brutally disappointing come-from-ahead loss to the Chicago Bears — a pass that would be tipped by Chicago cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and fall into the hands of Noah Brown for the game-winning touchdown — shouldn’t be a shock to the system, right? I mean, Daniels did win the Heisman last year, he did throw 40 touchdowns last season at LSU, he was the second pick in the NFL Draft for a reason. Right?
Oh, come on.
This. Is. Unbelievable!
HAIL NOAH!!!!!!!!!!
📺 #CHIvsWAS CBS pic.twitter.com/nRr3sIF17K
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) October 27, 2024
Cats and dogs, living together — mass hysteria!
“I was like Jim Valvano, just running around, not sure where to go or what to do,” Washington coach Dan Quinn said.
The Commanders are 6-2, having won their first four home games in a season, minority owner Mitchell Rales volunteered on the way out, for the first time in 20 years. Washington remains in first place in the NFC East. There are stirrings of an actual home-field advantage at Northwest Stadium. Daniels, playing with a bad rib after getting knocked out last week against the Carolina Panthers, was again magical when mortal behavior would not be enough.
“I did it once in high school, at the end of a half,” Daniels said of the Hail Mary. “But nothing of this magnitude.”
You might recall that Bob Myers, the Commanders’ new consigliere, helped put together the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty that won four NBA titles. Thus, he saw the “double-bang” shot Stephen Curry hit in Oklahoma City in 2016, from near midcourt, to beat the Thunder in a memorable regular-season game. So he’s seen some unbelievable stuff from some amazing players, Curry being at the top of the list.
“This is better!” Myers exclaimed Sunday. “This is worth, like, five (NBA) games.”
Indeed.
For 59 minutes and 58 seconds, Washington’s offense had been held out of the end zone. Despite being gifted incredible field position all afternoon, with drives starting at the Chicago 40 and the Chicago 41, and with three trips into the Bears’ red zone, all the Commanders could manage were four Austin Seibert field goals. The Commanders defense was outstanding all day but gave up two touchdown drives, the last capping a 62-yard drive in the final four-plus minutes of play, with Roschon Johnson’s 1-yard score and successful 2-point conversion putting the Bears up 15-12 with 25 seconds left.
But packed into the madness of the final two seconds was an awful lot of why this team is 6-2.
Consider, first, the time from the snap at Washington’s 48-yard line from center Tyler Biadasz to the time the ball left Daniels’ hands. From snap to throw was 13 seconds. That not only meant Daniels had to run around and buy time, but his offensive linemen, who are built for power and not for speed — and certainly not to hold blocks for 13 seconds — had to hit anything in a road uniform that moved without missing. (This celebrated scramble and completion from Donovan McNabb in 2004 against the Dallas Cowboys lasted 14 seconds, for reference.)
Chicago rushed three linemen, with linebacker T.J. Edwards acting as a spy on Daniels. At the snap, running back Austin Ekeler, who stayed in the backfield, helped backup tackle Trent Scott — who was in for the injured Cornelius Lucas, who was in for the injured Brandon Coleman — double-team defensive end DeMarcus Walker. Yes, that means the Commanders were down to their third-string left tackle on the last play of the game. Biadasz took Bears lineman Gervon Dexter Sr. on his own.
After a few seconds, Walker shed the blocks of Ekeler and Scott and forced Daniels to his right. The problem was, at the same time, Bears defensive lineman Jacob Moore was starting to shed the double-team blocks of guard Sam Cosmi and tackle Andrew Wylie and would have been in position to make a play on Daniels. Fortunately for Washington, Moore slipped. So Daniels could drift right. But there still wasn’t a clear passing lane.
Daniels doubled back to his left, which he could do only because Cosmi had shoved him out of the pursuit. Biadasz had held Dexter to a standstill for, like, eight seconds. But Dexter finally shed Biadasz and started chasing Daniels to the left, and he was drawing a bead on him. Except, Commanders guard Nick Allegretti, gutting through a bad ankle, doubled back and planted Dexter into the ground. All of those things had to happen for Daniels to have a chance to step up and put his full body weight into the throw.
“I think those are the guys that don’t show up on the stat sheet, but (you) know they’re in for the fight,” Quinn said. “And that’s part of why Allegretti was a captain tonight. Because he’s demonstrated that to the team, about his willingness to be a warrior, play through an ankle that was bad and was tough. For him, I think that just kind of demonstrates who he is. And that’s an identity you have to build, cause you show it over and over and over again.”
Daniels, now able to plant his feet, threw the ball from his own 35 yard-line. It landed at the Chicago 2, having traveled 63 yards in the air.
“I can’t hit a golf ball that far,” Allegretti said.
As ever, Daniels didn’t have a lot to say afterward.
“Just throw it as far as you can, and don’t throw it out of bounds,” he said.
MIRACLES HAPPEN BABY pic.twitter.com/lapiphNA38
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) October 28, 2024
But at the other end of Daniels’ parabola, there was … planning.
“I know this sounds crazy,” CBS’ Tony Romo said, “but there’s method to the madness here.”
True. Every football team — high school, college, pro — practices Hail Marys. And like most NFL teams, the Commanders drill it a lot. The formation is, roughly, a diamond: one receiver in front, two behind him on the wings, and a fourth receiver in the back behind them. Sunday, Terry McLaurin was in front. Tight end Zach Ertz and receiver Luke McCaffrey were the wings. And Brown was in the back. Depending on how deep the ball is thrown, any of the four Commanders players could conceivably be in a position to catch it.
Of course, practicing the drill doesn’t mean it’s going to work. It almost never works. There’s pushing and shoving and holding.
“It’s a free-for-all down there,” McLaurin said. “The refs aren’t going to call holding, boxing out. It’s physical.”
Two Bears defenders went to McLaurin. Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson knocked down McLaurin, so he was out of the play. At the 2-yard line, Ertz and McCaffrey jumped, Ertz getting higher. But higher than Ertz was Stevenson, who’d been jawing with McLaurin all afternoon, leading the normally cool McLaurin to mouth, quite clearly, “You ain’t (bleep)” at Stevenson in the second half. And Stevenson took, uh, a circuitous route to the pass, taunting Commanders fans as the ball was being snapped and with his back turned to the play. That will be an interesting film session at Halas Hall on Monday.
But Stevenson got his right hand on the ball. Bears safety Kevin Byard III jumped, too. But the ball caromed off Stevenson’s hand, over Byard and into the waiting arms of Brown, who wasn’t here at the start of training camp, a late add to the roster after being among the Houston Texans’ last cuts before the season. It was the easiest of Brown’s six catches on the day.
“That happened to be my assignment on the Hail Mary,” Brown said. “We got one guy in front and two in the back, try and throw it up to the jumper. … And we made the play.”
Well, luck was involved, too. But luck seems to follow certain teams in certain seasons. The harder they work, the luckier they get. Daniels outplayed Caleb Williams, taken by Chicago one pick ahead of him in the draft, most of the game. He completed 21 of 38 passes for 326 yards, and Washington again won time of possession because the Bears were a paltry 2-of-12 on third downs. But Williams drove his team down the field when it mattered most and left Daniels just 25 seconds to top it.
And Daniels did.
Nothing seems out of his reach and, by extension, his team’s anymore. Not now, not after the latest chapter in this unbelievable, franchise-altering start to the season. Nine regular-season games left, and then … who the hell knows?
(Photo: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
