Earlier this season, the Washington Commanders had one of the most improbable, lucky wins of the year. On Sunday, they may have had an even more unlucky loss, falling 34-26 to the Dallas Cowboys.
The game was filled with all kinds of hijinks, but the most mind-bending plays of the day were saved for the final minute.
First, trailing 27-20, the Commanders took possession of the ball on their own 14-yard line with 33 seconds to go and no timeouts. On the first play of the drive, Jayden Daniels found receiver Terry McLaurin for an 86-yard catch-and-run to make the score 27-26.
That somehow marked the second time this season Washington scored a shocking touchdown in the final minute of a close game — reminiscent of the Hail Mary prayer Daniels threw in a 18-15 win over the Chicago Bears in late October.
Except the Commanders still needed an extra point to tie the game Sunday. But after a mishandled snap by punter Tress Way, kicker Austin Seibert missed wide left — his second missed PAT of the day — meaning the Cowboys still led 27-26.
Then, on the ensuing onside kick, Dallas recovered. But instead of going down on the ball and ending the game, Juanyeh Thomas returned the kick for a touchdown.
That set up one final possession for Daniels and the Commanders, except this time his Hail Mary attempt was picked off short of the end zone.
The final minute was a microcosm of a topsy-turvy affair. The two teams combined for two missed extra points, two kick return touchdowns, a blocked field goal, a blocked punt and two other missed field goals — the first time in NFL history all of those things happened in one game.
The Cowboys’ first kick return touchdown alone was one of the more bizarre plays of the season, as KaVontae Turpin initially mishandled the kickoff inside his own five, before unleashing a spin move that set him free for a score.
Few expected the game to be close let alone this thrilling.
Dallas entered the matchup on a five-game losing streak, having scored only 16 points in their last two games combined. Quarterback Cooper Rush, however, had his best game of the season, completing 24 of 32 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns — his first two-touchdown game of the season.
The Cowboys improved to 4-7 with the win.
The Commanders, meanwhile, have lost three in a row after a 7-2 start to drop to 7-5.
“We didn’t play our best. We didn’t play complementary football,” McLaurin said postgame. “When you’re playing division games, it’s going to come down to four quarters. We knew that going into the game. We didn’t underestimate them at all. … We got to find a way to start faster and sustain drives. That’s everybody — the coaching staff and offensive players.”
