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With five seconds left, the game was over. The Washington Commanders’ defense had finally worn down. After stopping the Chicago Bears offense all day (seven points through the first three quarters and 14 minutes), including a goal-line stop just minutes before, Benjamin St Juste was called for defensive pass interference on a 4th down pass into the end zone to Keenan Allen.
Two plays later, running back Roschon Johnson scored from the one-yard line to finally give the Bears a 15-12 lead that would drop Washington’s record to 5-3.
Then Jayden Daniels did something iconic.
With two seconds left in the game, Daniels took the snap and bought time for his receivers to run to the goal line.
Then he threw the ball as hard as he could.
Three Bears and two Commanders jumped for the pass, but what no one saw was Washington receiver Noah Brown slip behind the scrum. The ball was tipped and landed in his hands for the winning touchdown.
“That was wild,” head coach Dan Quinn said after the game. “That was so much fun. And what I love about the team is that we’re never out of the fight.”
“That happened to be my assignment for the Hail Mary,” Brown said. “One guy in front, two in the
back. Trying to throw it up into a jumper and [TE] Zach [Ertz] did a great job getting a
hand on the ball, allowing it to get back to me and we made the play.”
The miracle ended a game that Washington played well enough to win were it not for some missed opportunities, questionable officiating, and bad luck.
“Man, it wasn’t pretty, but at the end of the day, you gotta be able to grind out wins like
that.” said wide receiver Terry McLaurin.
McLaurin caught 5 passes for 125 yards, several of them in tight coverage when the offense needed a clutch play.
“We’ve been on the side of winning a few where we scored a lot of points and
things like that, but you need wins like this to learn from, but also get the momentum going forward,” he said.
The Commander’s offense amassed 408 total yards but managed only four Austin Seibert field goals until the final play. Seibert also missed a 51-yard try early in the fourth quarter that would have given Washington an 8-point lead with 14 minutes left in the game.
The defense turned in its best overall game of the season, limiting Chicago to 307 total yards and just 111 through the air.
“We knew to keep it a phone booth for him, make him scramble around,” linebacker Frankie Luvu said. “He likes to lose ground a lot, make him get out the pocket and throw it out. So we kind of got to our game plan and executed what we can. So, we did our thing, but they still scored at the end and that’s not acceptable for us on defense. So we just gotta keep stacking them up.”
Daniels completed 21 of 38 passes for 326 yards (and of course the one touchdown). It wasn’t determined he would even play until about two hours before kick-off.
“It’s tough obviously,” Daniels said. “Just the area and stuff. When you gotta throw the ball, gotta rotate,
stuff like that, you could still feel it, but at the end of the day, man, I started the game.
And I wanted to finish it so it was nothing else that was gonna take me out that game.”
Regardless of how the team got here, the Commanders are now 6-2 at the midway point of the season. They travel to the Meadowlands to play the New York Giants next week looking for their first sweep of the season series since 2021.
For the first time in more than a decade, it’s a possibility that doesn’t feel like a potential fluke.
Post-game notes:
Left tackle Cornelius Lucas left the game in the third quarter with an injury. Trent Scott replaced him and will start against New York if either Lucas or Brandon Coleman (concussion protocol) cannot play.
Defensive tackle Johnny Newton, starting in place of injured Jonathan Allen recorded 3 tackles and recovered a the fumble on the goal line that briefly preserved the 12-7 Washington lead in the fourth quarter.
The win keeps Washington first in the NFC East, one-half game ahead of Philadelphia.
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