The Commanders were in deep trouble and needed to be rescued.
In their Week 17 home finale, the Commanders were down 17-7 at the half to the Falcons on Sunday night. The Falcons were the more intense team and had earned their ten-point lead.
The Falcons convincingly outplayed the Commanders in the first half. The Falcons led in first downs 16-8, rushing yards 101-47, passing yards 98-69, total yards 199-116, and penalty yards 10 to Washington’s 50.
Washington’s only points had come when Quan Martin’s interception and return left the Commanders a short field of only 38 yards.
Dan Quinn’s halftime speech must have been good. The Commanders emerged a completely different team. In the third quarter, Washington drove 69 yards for a touchdown and then 70 yards for a touchdown, while the Falcons’ offense did not produce a first down.
Leading 21-17, Washington drove another 52 yards, but the drive ended in Zane Gonzalez’s field goal when a holding call on G Sam Cosmi nullified a touchdown pass from Daniels to Olamide Zaccheaus. The game was most likely settled if the Commanders had gone up 28-17.
However, only trailing 24-17, the Falcons felt they had new life, and as a result, they drove 68 yards for a touchdown on the 12th play, tying the score at 24-24.
Zaccheaus had a first down in his hands from Daniels but unfortunately let the ball zip right through his hands, forcing a Tress Way punt.
What followed was a pure gift to Washington. Falcons head coach Raheem Morris inexplicably froze, permitting all sorts of time to melt away, robbing the Falcons of two to three passing attempts, which could have easily resulted in a much shorter field goal than the 56-yard attempt Riley Patterson missed.
Yes, NFL head coaches know much more than NFL fans can imagine. Nevertheless, even many fans know you don’t leave two timeouts on the scoreboard, robbing your team of an opportunity to run a few more plays to get into more effective field goal range.
The overtime was mostly Jayden Daniels. He reminded me of how Michael Jordan or Larry Bird used to take the crucial shots or how Kareem Abdul Jabbar, so many times, was unstoppable with basketball’s all-time most lethal weapon…his sky hook.
In the overtime’s only possession, Daniels ran the ball six times for 42 yards and completed all five passes for 32 yards with the game-winning touchdown pass to tight end Zach Ertz.
The Commanders were dead at the half, dominant and in control, but couldn’t put away the Falcons. Next, they were gifted with inexcusable time management, allowing Jayden Daniels to slam shut the door on Atlanta.
In the end, Jayden Daniels came to the rescue.
