LANDOVER, Md. — Jayden Daniels had a couple of very simple thoughts going through his head with the Washington Commanders needing to make a long-distance throw to beat the Chicago Bears.
“Buy some time and don’t throw the ball out of bounds,” Daniels said.
Daniels scrambled around for nearly 13 seconds and heaved the ball from the Washington 35-yard line with no time on the clock. The pass tipped off the hands of Tyrique Stevenson short of the goal line and into the waiting arms of Noah Brown, who was standing alone in the end zone, for a 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown that gave the Commanders an improbable 18-15 victory Sunday and sent players, coaches and fans into a frenzy.
It was the fifth go-ahead Hail Mary TD in the final 10 seconds since ESPN began tracking them in 2006. At 52 yards, it was the second longest of the bunch, behind the Rodgers-to-Rodgers Miracle in Motown play against the Detroit Lions in 2015.
“That was wild,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said as part of his opening statement to reporters. “That was so much fun, and what I love about the team is that we’re never out of the fight.”
The rookie quarterback never even saw Brown make the catch.
“I just heard people screaming and our sideline rushing the field. That’s how I knew,” said Daniels, whose status was uncertain until hours before kickoff because of a rib injury. “That’s kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Not too many people get to experience stuff like that.”
Daniels’ heroics came after the Commanders (6-2) fell behind with 25 seconds left on a TD run by Roschon Johnson after a pass-interference penalty put the ball on the 1-yard line. There were just 19 seconds left after a kickoff return to the 24.
Three completions later, Daniels added his best highlight yet to a season that has made him one of the NFL’s most electric players and the favorite to be AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.
“We’re blessed to have ‘5’ leading this team: The things he can do is special,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t want to play with any other quarterback.”
Offensive lineman Sam Cosmi said it was “like a movie.”
“Front-row seats to something amazing,” Cosmi said. “That was just crazy. This will always stick in my head forever. What a moment.”
It was the first game since Nov. 13, 1977, where each team scored a go-ahead touchdown in the final 30 seconds.
In the NFL’s sixth matchup of rookie quarterbacks taken with the top two picks in the draft, Daniels threw for 326 yards and ran for 52. Caleb Williams, taken first by the Bears (4-3), completed four of his first 16 passes and finished 10-of-24 for 131 yards.
Chicago, which had its winning streak snapped at three, had just 172 yards of offense before the fourth quarter started and did not get on the board until D’Andre Swift’s 56-yard TD run late in the third.
“That’s just us shooting ourselves in the foot and that comes from details and focus in the game, throughout the week,” said Williams, a Washington-area native who was playing back home for the first time as a pro. “That comes from myself. I’m included in that for sure. Definitely missed a few passes that I don’t miss typically so, tough, but very encouraging because we stayed in it.”
Daniels was not himself at times and looked a bit off because of the rib injury, which knocked him out of last week’s win over Carolina and kept him from practicing Wednesday and Thursday. He took several hits after letting go of the ball but was at his best when it mattered.
“We knew he had it in him,” running back Brian Robinson Jr. said. “He just showed us today what he’s capable of and how tough he is.”
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
