ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Jayden Daniels sees no point in reliving the “Hail Maryland,” as some Commanders fans called it, owing to the game’s location, or the “Fail Mary,” as some Bears fans called it, owing to their defense’s flub — the to Noah Brown a year ago that lifted Washington past Chicago.
So what if , is headed to national television on Monday night? And who cares if that particular bit of magic was part of en route to claiming AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors and leading Washington to the NFC title game?
“I mean, that Hail Mary isn’t going to help us win a game on Monday,” Daniels responded when asked why he didn’t want to examine the past. “So what’s the point?”
Hard to argue with that.
The guy who was all alone when he grabbed the ball in the end zone, Brown, wasn’t interested in chatting, either: Through a Commanders team spokesman, he declined a reporter’s request to discuss the play. He has been dealing with groin and knee injuries and will miss his fourth consecutive game Monday.
Washington coach Dan Quinn said during the week he had no plans to dissect that moment with his players.
“That’s last year’s story. It was awesome — we loved it — but it doesn’t apply to this week’s game at all, unless we get into that exact scenario and that exact situation. So then we can talk about it,” said Quinn, whose team can pull even with the Philadelphia Eagles atop the NFC East by beating Chicago. “But until then, we’ve got a lot of stuff to get better at and work on to get ready.”
He did acknowledge it “was one of the most fun chapters of last year.”
The after alternating wins and losses all season, including a 27-10 victory at the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 5. Daniels was returning after sitting out two games — the first he’s missed in the NFL — with an injured left knee, and he looked just fine.
The and come in after their bye week, which followed a two-game winning streak. Because he wasn’t with Chicago in 2024, Johnson had a built-in excuse to avoid the topic and used it, saying: “We’re a new team and we’re just focused on winning this game this week.”
That disastrous conclusion on Oct. 27, 2024, was the start of Chicago’s 10-game losing streak and the beginning of the end of Matt Eberflus’ tenure as coach.
A refresher: Chicago led 15-12 after a TD run with 25 seconds remaining. That was down to 19 seconds after the ensuing kickoff return put Washington at its own 24-yard line with zero timeouts left. Completions by Daniels, playing with a rib injury, to Zach Ertz and Terry McLaurin moved the ball to Washington’s 48 with just two seconds to go.
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The QB scrambled around for about 12 seconds, eventually heaving the ball from his 35.
“I’ve coached that up the same way every time. … It’s important that everybody’s on the same page there,” Eberflus, now the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, said this week.
One glaring issue for the Bears: Instead of paying attention at the start of the play, had turned his back to the line of scrimmage and when the ball was snapped.
By the time he got involved, at the front of the end zone, he got a hand on the football, only for it to he was supposed to be covering: Brown.
Stevenson said he “got a couple side-eyes” from teammates over that gaffe.
“It was harsh. It hurt my feelings. That’s the best way I can explain it — it just hurt my feelings, being a football player and having one of those mistakes that’s going to linger around,” Stevenson said this week. “Even when my son grows up, I’ve got to explain that to him. It definitely hurt.”
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AP Sports Writers Schuyler Dixon in Dallas and Andrew Seligman in Chicago contributed to this report.
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