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ESPN Staff Writer- Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @toddarcher.
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ESPN Staff Writer- John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He started covering the team in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored/co-authored four books. You can also listen to him on 'The John Keim Report', which airs on ESPN Richmond radio, and follow him on Twitter @john_keim
LANDOVER, Md., -- For 57 minutes, the Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys played a mundane game, with the Cowboys holding an 11-point lead and the teams combining for 29 points.
And then it got wild, leading to some of the wildest few minutes this season.
In the last 2 minutes, 49 seconds, there was a 99-yard kick return for a touchdown, an 86-yard touchdown pass, a missed extra-point attempt that would have tied the score, an onside kick returned for another score and a Hail Mary pass that was intercepted at the 5-yard line to clinch Dallas' 34-26 victory -- ending the Cowboys' five-game losing streak and extending Washington's to three.
"It's like Yahtzee," Dallas coach Mike McCarthy said. "I think everything was in there."
With the win, the Cowboys (4-7) prevented Washington (7-5) from regaining the momentum it had earlier this season.
"It was crazy," Washington linebacker Bobby Wagner said. "We saw him bust up that run and then we miss [an extra point]."
The swing of emotions included the teams combining to score 31 points in the final four minutes, the most in the final four minutes of an NFL game since Baltimore and Minnesota scored 36 in 2013.
It began after Washington cut the lead to 20-17 on a Jayden Daniels 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Zach Ertz, followed by a successful 2-point conversion.
From there: KaVontae Turpin scored on a kick return, Washington connected on a field goal, Terry McLaurin scored on an 86-yard touchdown reception, which was followed by a 43-yard onside kick return for a score by Juanyeh Thomas.
The result was some of the wildest few minutes in the Washington-Dallas rivalry.
Dallas' kickoff return TD
With 3:02 to play, the Cowboys lead was cut to 20-17 after Daniels' touchdown pass. Momentum was on the Commanders' side, and there was a sense of here-we-go-again dread among fans of the Cowboys.
But then Turpin changed everything. Austin Seibert hit a knuckling kickoff that went between Turpin's legs to the 1-yard line. From there, with the help of a video-game like spin move, he was touched only by the arm of linebacker Jordan Magee on his way to a 99-yard touchdown.
Dallas coach Mike McCarthy jokingly on the muffed kickoff: Well, he did that for timing. That was part of the plan.
Seibert on his strategy: Hit a dirty ball and make him field it.
Turpin: My first thought was to catch it on the run, but I couldn't, so I tried to catch it on the bounce and it went between my legs. Once I got the ball, I was thinking about going down and just letting our offense bleed the clock. But I'm like, 'Let me hit this spin move. Something nobody's ever seen before, and hopefully I can get through the chute.' Once I get through, nobody's touching me. I'll house call every time.
Jeremy Reaves was the first player downfield to cover the kick and was in position to make the tackle. Turpin spun away from him and Magee.
Reaves: I made that play a hundred times, and I didn't make it today. It cost us the game. It's unacceptable. It's solely on me. I didn't make the play when it was there, and as an older guy, a leader on this team, that's my play.
Cooper Rush: It was a tough kick. It was actually a really good job by him just to field the ball. Yeah, you're thinking all right, we're going to get ball on 30. All of a sudden there's this spin move and you're like, 'Oh, my god.' Everybody just ran by him. When he puts on the gas, I wonder what his GPS number was on that?
According to Next Gen Stats, Turpin hit 21.35 mph, six days after he hit 22.36 mph on a 64-yard touchdown catch against the Houston Texans.
Turpin: I don't think I ran faster than last week though.
Washington's McLaurin TD
COMMANDERS 86-YARD TOUCHDOWN WOW
— NFL (@NFL) November 24, 2024
📺: #DALvsWAS on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/apaNEKNCkh
With 1:40 to play, Seibert kicked a 51-yard field goal to cut Dallas' lead to 27-20. Washington's defense then forced a punt, giving the Commanders a first down at their 14-yard line with 33 seconds remaining. Earlier this season, Washington trailed Chicago 15-12 with 19 seconds left needing 76 yards. The Commanders won on a 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown on the final play.
This time, they needed one play to go 86 yards. Daniels connected with McLaurin at the Washington 41-yard line. McLaurin cut upfield between two defenders and cut outside after a block by receiver Noah Brown. McLaurin ran untouched into the end zone.
McLaurin: When I got the ball, I just tried to score. We practice those situations all the time. We don't like to be in those situations, to try to get it all at once. We have to have a better first quarter, second quarter or half. ... So, yeah, I thought when I scored, we would have a chance.
Daniels: Anything can happen, whenever.
McCarthy: They hit it, so we've just got to tackle him there. Once again, that's situational football, and obviously we get him down there, the call may change. ...They hit the three-level play on us for the big play to get it back.
Washington coach Dan Quinn: I love that we're never out of the fight, but I want to make sure it doesn't go to that space. That part is the one we're going to work hard on to get right.
Quinn said he did not consider going for two after the touchdown.
Quinn: I thought, 'Let's get back into it, but we don't have to decide it on this play.' Then, 'Hey get one stop, we'll get it and then at the coin toss, let's go through the whole process again and reset it.' In that way, that was the right call, as you're not factoring in the other part of things.
Washington's missed extra point attempt
NO GOOD.
— NFL (@NFL) November 24, 2024
📺: #DALvsWAS on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/FDg7wGy8KF
In his first nine games, Seibert had made 25 of 28 field goal attempts and all 22 PATs. But he sat out two games because of a hip injury. He was not sharp in his return. Seibert made two of three field goal attempts, badly missing from 51 yards in the first quarter. He also missed his first extra point attempt wide to the left. It was a harbinger of things to come. Needing a successful PAT to tie Sunday's game, Seibert once again pushed it wide left.
Seibert: I just wasn't striking it well. [The snap] didn't make a difference at all. It was on me.
Commanders punter Tress Way: This dude is just making freaking kicks all year long, so we still have a lot of ball left and making a little playoff run.
McLaurin: It doesn't come down to one kick.
Quinn: It's never about one play.
Tyler Ott's snap was low, but Way fielded it off the ground and the ball was in place in time for Seibert's kick.
Way: Tyler and I talked after, and our job is to make it as seamless as possible for Austin, and we just didn't feel like we quite had it there.
Seibert: It didn't make a difference at all. It was on me.
Dallas' onside kick TD
With Seibert missing the PAT, the Cowboys knew they needed to successfully field another onside kick attempt with 21 seconds left to play to salt away a game they thought they had won twice already.
Seibert tried to pop his kick just far enough to go 10 yards. Unfortunately for him, it popped right into the arms of Thomas, who ran 43 yards for a touchdown and a 34-26 lead with 14 seconds left.
Seibert: I should have hit it a little bit more left. I hit it right to the guy. That's what you get when that happens. That falls on me, too.
Thomas, however, never should have tried to score. He is coached to go down immediately.
Thomas: Man, all I seen was end zone. I ain't going to lie. 'Man, I'm going to score.' ... Listen, it's so funny. I would've [gone down] if they crowded a little bit more. But I just got it and said, 'Six points.'
McCarthy: That's a 'no mas,' situation, so I think those types of things we just got to learn from.
Rush: Pretty exciting. Happy for Juanyeh scoring a touchdown, but at the same time, I'm like, 'Get down.' Good job recovering it, I guess.
Thomas: Next time I'm going to go down.
Wagner said until that moment, he thought they could still win. Now, he said, it's about moving forward -- and having veteran leaders like himself and Ertz, take control and rescue the season from spiraling even more.
Wagner: Guys like myself, Zach, have been in crazier situations than this one, so sharing those gives you the belief that, 'Why not be another group that turns everything around?'
Ertz: I don't think we're far off. ... I have a lot of belief in the guys. I have a lot of belief in the quarterback.
Not another Hail Mary!
The final play of Cowboys vs. Commanders 🎬 pic.twitter.com/RIN0bj1dbi
— NFL (@NFL) November 24, 2024
With Thomas not going down, Washington still had a chance to tie the score, even with 14 seconds left.
On Oct. 27, Daniels stunned the Chicago Bears with a Hail Mary after he scrambled around for nearly 13 seconds. The pass was deflected into the arms of Brown, a former Cowboy who was behind the Chicago defenders, for an 18-15 win.
It was Daniels' signature moment. Would he have another one?
With nine seconds left at the Washington 36, Daniels hit Ertz for six yards, eating up five seconds and giving him a better chance for a desperation heave.
The Cowboys initially rushed two before rookie linebacker Marist Liufau took off after Daniels. Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons served as a spy on the play and then forced Daniels to scramble. His desperation pass tipped off Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and Washington receiver Luke McCaffrey into the arms of Israel Mukuamu to end the game.
McCarthy: They did nice job for 9 seconds, took the completion, then got into range to throw the Hail Mary. Yeah, just really focused into the game because it's the National Football League. We show the cut-ups every week. Ryan Feder is our game management director. He does a phenomenal job. Last night. I think he had eight, nine, 10 games that it came down to the last play or the last series last week. That's why we do it. That's why we spend the time on it. Definitely prepared for it, these situations.
Parsons: I've never been a part of something like that.