Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels delivered what felt like a miracle on Sunday, throwing a 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown as time expired to give his team an 18-15 win over the Chicago Bears at Northwest Stadium.
In a matchup of the top two picks from this year’s NFL draft, Daniels outplayed the quarterback drafted just ahead of him in April: Caleb Williams. While dealing with a rib injury that caused him to miss practice this week, Daniels recorded 326 passing yards and a touchdown in the victory.
Williams posted just 131 passing yards while completing 10 of his 24 attempts. The USC product stepped up in the second half, though, leading a scoring drive to give his team a 15-12 lead with 25 seconds remaining.
Daniels completed an 11-yard pass, followed by a 13-yard completion to start the game-winning final drive.
Then, the Commanders had a “church clock,” as receiver Terry McLaurin described it. It was time for a prayer on the last play of the game.
The design was simple, something fifth-graders around the country call up during recess. Receivers go deep. The quarterback gives them time to get downfield, then chucks it: the classic Hail Mary.
Daniels did his part.
For 12.97 seconds, the rookie dodged Chicago pass rushers to allow his receivers time to reach the goal line. He scrambled for more than 40 yards behind the line of scrimmage, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Guard Nick Allegretti provided a key block to allow Daniels to uncork a rainbow of a pass down the field.
The ball traveled 64 yards in the air, ricocheting off the fingertips of Bears defender Tyrique Stevenson and into the waiting arms of receiver Noah Brown. Prayer answered.
“We practice so we’re ready for that moment,” McLaurin said. “We made it happen.”
Cue the pandemonium. The 60,000 Commanders fans at Northwest Stadium erupted into a frenzy, jumping up and down, hugging strangers and yelling with glee. They couldn’t believe it.
That feeling extended to the players and coaches on the field. Daniels and the offensive linemen noted that they couldn’t see the play live — they knew the ball was caught when they heard the fans and saw the replay.
Many players, including defensive tackle Daron Payne, said he had never felt that kind of energy at Northwest Stadium. Payne said the last-second win felt even better than his national championship in college at Alabama.
Coach Dan Quinn ran around like a madman after the play — he’d won a Super Bowl, but never experienced anything like this.
“I felt like, rest in peace, Jim Valvano just running around, not sure what to do,” he said, comparing it to the legendary footage of the former North Carolina State basketball coach after the 1983 national championship. “A lot of the big guys beat the hell out of me, yelling and me and hugging and I felt like I was six inches off the ground. It was just a wild moment.”
The wild moment was the culmination of a long and hard-fought game for Quinn and the Commanders. Though Daniels routinely marched his offense down the field, Chicago’s defense toughened up in the red zone. Commanders kicker Austin Seibert converted his first four field goal attempts when Washington’s drives stalled.
The Commanders’ medical staff wrapped Daniels’ injured ribs between drives, but that didn’t slow him down on the field. The dual-threat quarterback often eluded pass rushers and zoomed past defenders in the open field.
“It’s tough, obviously, just the area and stuff when you’ve got to throw the ball, got to rotate,” Daniels said of his injury. “You can still feel it, but at the end of the day, I started the game. I wanted to finish it, so there was nothing else that was going to take me out of that game.”
He did take a handful of hard hits throughout the day, though. Each one took the air out of the stadium before he popped back up, ready to live another down.
“We’re blessed to have [No.] 5 leading this team. The things he can do is special,” Brown said of his quarterback after the game. “I wouldn’t want to play with any other quarterback. I’m glad to have him.”
Williams and the Bears were shut out until the end of the third quarter, when running back D’Andre Swift broke free for a 56-yard touchdown run to cut the Commanders’ 12-0 lead down to five points. Swift recorded 129 yards on 18 carries.
After a couple of failed drives from the Commanders, the Bears marched down the field again, thanks to a 22-yard run by Swift and a 27-yard catch by receiver D.J. Moore.
At Washington’s one-yard line, the Bears handed the ball to offensive lineman Doug Kramer Jr. But the 300-pounder doesn’t have the backfield experience of a running back. He bobbled the handoff and the ball ricocheted off of his rotund stomach. Commanders defensive lineman Jer’Zhan Newton scooped up the loose ball to bring his offense onto the field.
Daniels and the offense could only muster a three-and-out, though, punting the ball back to Williams and the Bears.
Chicago marched down the field again as seconds ticked off the clock. A defensive pass interference from cornerback Benjamin St-Juste gave the Bears four shots to score a touchdown from the one-yard line.
A one-yard run by backup halfback Roschon Johnson (and a two-point conversion by tight end Cole Kmet) gave the Bears a 15-12 lead with 25 seconds remaining.
It wasn’t enough.
“We are a team full of fighters,” Brown said. “I’m not surprised at all by this happening because I know we don’t give up to the final whistle. It’s just a phenomenal effort on all sides.”
Daniels’ end-of-game heroics gave Washington its sixth win of the season and their best eight-game start since 2008.
They hit the road to face the New York Giants next week.
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.
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