Daron Payne’s outstretched arm, deflected Marcus Mariota’s pass and Kendall Fuller intercepted it, rescuing the Commanders to a 19-13 win Sunday over the Atlanta Falcons at FedEx Field in Landover.
Buy Commanders TicketsJoey Slye had missed an extra point wide right, leaving the Commanders up only six points. We all were feeling sick as the Commanders could not stop the Falcons on their final drive. Atlanta had driven 80 yards in nine plays, in an agonizing four minute drive.
On 2nd & Goal from the Washington 4, Mariota looked to the right hash at the goal line, saw Cordarrelle Patterson and threw what he thought would be the winning touchdown pass. Suddenly Payne gave new meaning to “Left hand up”, deflecting Mariota’s pass and Fuller made the diving catch in the end zone, rescuing what looked surely to be an infuriating loss.
Another look at the Payne deflection and Fuller INT! pic.twitter.com/qgJXdSynIv
— Mark Tyler(Hogs Haven) (@Tiller56) November 27, 2022
On a day when the Commanders defense struggled to get the Falcons running game off of the field, and Taylor Heinicke made several bad decisions with the football, the Commanders won, defeating a Falcons team that was every bit as good as the Commanders.
The Commanders won ugly. But you know what? Since the Joe Gibbs 2.0 years, this team has not been able to win ugly. This team in the last 15 years seemed to always manage to lose games like this.
Today, Payne and Fuller rose to the occasion, made the huge play when the team was in desperate need for someone to rise up and rescue them. And that is just what Payne and Fuller did… they rescued the Commanders, making a great play!
