The most consequential play in recent Commanders history looked like an interpretation of football; a bunch of improv kids at Second City lining up to pratfall their way through a physical comedic exercise. Jayden Daniels lines up under center with three seconds to go in the half (we’ll come back to that later), with the Commanders trailing by a touchdown. As he takes the snap, he trips over the foot of his right guard, plants his nonthrowing hand into the ground, and then tries to hurl a one-armed pass to the running back as time expires.
Tom Brady, whose internal programming was momentarily operating in sentient human mode, said what we were all thinking the moment the slow-motion replays began to show Daniels’s elbow looking like a Tyeb Mehta painting: “Ah, shit.” I’m certain that Commanders head coach Dan Quinn was thinking the same for two reasons.
