ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders appeared destined to drop their third game of the season Sunday night after the Chicago Bears scored a go-ahead touchdown with just 25 seconds left in the game.
With one timeout and less than half a minute to move the ball, the Commanders set upon a near-impossible task. To get into field goal range for a game-tying Austin Seibert kick, or win the game with the kind of play that lands on highlight reels for years to come.
After the game, Washington coach Dan Quinn admitted the intent was to set up the kick. But when the timeout was spent and the ball wasn’t in range the plan quickly changed, and the eventual outcome set in motion.
On Monday, Quinn sat down with WUSA9’s Chick Hernandez to share what the electric moment was like from ground level.
“It was awesome. The shot that goes up in the air and then I’d probably imagine it’s like seeing a home run, ‘Is it gonna go out? Is it not? Is it gonna make it?’, so the tip to catch then the first thing I do as the coach is, ‘Is there a flag?’" laughed Quinn.
“And then, absolute mayhem, and it was so much fun.”
The emotion of the game spilled onto the field after receiver Noah Brown brought in the Hail Mary from quarterback Jayden Daniels, and being in that moment followed by celebrating it with his men is something Quinn says he’ll never forget.
“(The) feeling of energy that goes with that. There’s a connectedness that takes place when you win a big game in that fashion,” Quinn says. “All these years I’ve been coaching not to ever have a walk-off Hail Mary you could tell how rare that is. So to be a part of that, man, there isn’t a group I would rather have done the first one with than those guys.”