Washington’s star quarterback was born a week before Christmas on December 18, 2000. Jayden Daniels had celebrated his 5th birthday just 20 days before the Washington Redskins won their last playoff game on January 7, 2006 against these same Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That was 6,945 days between playoff wins. The Washington Nationals had just completed their inaugural season. George W. Bush was the President of the United States. And Mark Brunell was the aging 36 year old quarterback for Washington in that playoff game.
Washington won that playoff game in 2006 despite Brunell who was only 7-for-15 for just 41 yards and one interception. Daniels first pass to Terry McLaurin was for 35 yards last night. In all, Daniels finished with 268 yards in the air -and- 36 key yards on the ground with two touchdowns and no interceptions or turnovers. Truth be told, that game in 2006 was a defensive gem led by LaVar Arrington and Sean Taylor. First it was Arrington who intercepted Chris Simms and returned the ball to the six yard line, and that set-up Clinton Portis for a rushing touchdown. The winning points were scored when Taylor recovered a fumble and scampered 51 yards for the touchdown.
In the most crucial play with 55 seconds on the clock in a 3rd down and about 1.5 yards for the first down, Daniels dusted defensive tackle, #94 Calijah Kancey, and left the D-tackle just holding his towel as he stiff-armed the 280-pounder like he was a quarter-pounder with cheese. Maybe Daniels remembered Kancey celebrating on top of his head earlier in the game for that extra motivation.
“It means a lot, man. You could just see all the fans over here, man, they’re waiting for us. They’ve waited a long time for this moment and this feeling, so I’m just so happy for them.”
— Daniels said after the game
Roll back the tape to the final drive. Washington took over after a Tampa field goal tied the game at 20-20 with 4:41 left on the clock. At the time, a few of us pondered, “What if Daniels can run out the clock with another walk-off win?” That seemed far-fetched since Tampa had all three of their timeouts remaining. But with Daniels, we’ve learned anything is possible — and he did just that. He used up 4 minutes and 39 seconds to leave 00:02 on the clock to set-up kicker Zane Gonzalez at the 19-yard line and the left hash for a 37-yarder for the win.
What happened next was a déjà vu moment to the Washington Nationals and Howie Kendrick hitting the right-side yellow metal pole for a CLANG for the winning score. Kendrick did it off the foul pole for the World Series winner — and Gonzalez did it for the ricochet field goal for the walk-off winner. That was #RaiseHail meets #Natitude.
Every dual card-carrying Nats and Commanders fan had that same feeling of elation at that moment in a road game for the crucial winning play. You could not have drawn it up any better. All of the Commanders plays that did not work and the mistakes were all wiped clean after Gonzalez’s kick. Yes, wipe the slate clean as Washington (13-5) will face the No. 1 seeded Lions in Detroit in the divisional round in this upcoming weekend.
Everything is new and sparkly around the Commanders as if Mr. Clean sanitized the Daniel Snyder stain when the team was sold recently to the group led by Josh Harris. They hired GM Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn to run this team in his first season. Peters and his front office drafted Daniels with the No. 2 pick just 9-months ago.
For a week, Quinn has been going with Nats’ manager, Dave Martinez‘s 2019 postseason quote, “Stay in the fight” and also said, “Collectively, we learned that we’re never out of the fight.”
The Commanders team that lacks postseason experience has also learned that in the NFL playoffs, every game is an elimination game. Each game is a fight.
“We’re not going to give up until the clock hits zero. We’re going to keep fighting until the end.”
— Daniels said after the win
The Commanders opened their 2024 season with a 37-20 loss in Tampa in September in Daniels’ first game. Since then, Washington has gone 13-4 with losses of only one score in the difference.
In 2023, the Commanders finished 4-13 with the second worst record in football, and that poor record was the only reason that Peters was able to draft Daniels. One more win in 2023, and Washington might have drafted third of fourth. The divine line of destiny is reminiscent of how the Nationals drafted Stephen Strasburg in 2009. Losing actually has its benefits because Daniels is the franchise quarterback.
