Call it a doink-off win. Zane Gonzalez’s 37-yard field goal attempt bounced off the right upright and through the goalposts as time expired as his Washington Commanders beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their wild card matchup, 23-20.
The kick, which climaxed a four-minute-plus Commanders drive that featured several clutch plays from rookie/franchise quarterback/savior Jayden Daniels, gave the team its first playoff win since 2006 (also against Tampa). And so Washington’s feel-goodest season of this century continues.
After more than two decades of feeling like cursed losers during the reign of former owner Dan Snyder, who sold the team under duress from NFL colleagues in 2023, Commanders fans could now rightly infer that their team is touched by god. Blame Daniels and a recent spate of phenomenal wins.
With the doink, Washington has now had game-winning plays either with mere seconds left in regulation or in overtime for five games in a row: On Dec. 15, the defense stopped a two-point conversion with time expired in regulation to beat New Orleans by a single point. A week later, Daniels hit Jamison Crowder with a nine-yard TD pass with six seconds left in the game to beat the Eagles, 36-33. On Dec. 29, the Commanders defeated Atlanta in OT, 30-24, after the Falcons kicker missed a potential game-winning field goal at the end of regulation. And in the regular-season finale last week, backup quarterback Marcus Mariota hit Terry McLaurin with a five-yard touchdown pass with just three seconds left in a 23-19 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
And that’s not even counting the Daniels Hail Mary to Noah Brown in Week 8. Big as the regular-season wins surely were, the Tampa win was bigger. Daniels played most of his first-ever playoff game with a gash in his face that came during a first-half run. He never missed a play, and finished with 268 passing yards to go along with two touchdowns. If the miracles keep coming, bloody cheeks could be the new stigmata in the devout Commanders flock.
Gonzalez’s kick elicited strong emotions from a fan base still healing from wounds suffered under the Snyder regime.
“First time in my life I can remember a playoff win!” exalted Tobi Altizer during D.C. sportstalker WJFK-FM's postgame show. “First time in my life!” Altizer, who said he was six years old for the Washington Football Team’s last postseason victory, fielded similarly ecstasy-saturated calls well into Monday’s wee hours.
With Sunday’s wondrous win to celebrate and Daniels's absurdly bright future to look forward to, some might think that now is not the time to revisit the toxicity of the departed but hardly dear former owner.
Back to me: When it comes to all things Snyder, I’m not some! Sunday's proceedings triggered memories of the 1999 season, Snyder’s first as owner. That year also had a Washington–Tampa Bay playoff game that came down to a last-ditch field goal attempt. Washington kicker Brett Conway lined up with a minute left and his team down, 14-13, to the host Buccaneers. Alas, a botched snap doomed Conway’s game-winning try, and WFT lost by a point. The team quickly got rid of not only long snapper Dan Turk but also his brother, Matt Turk, a former All-Pro punter. Matt Turk would last another 12 years in the NFL; Snyder’s team wouldn’t have another first-team All Pro selection until 2021. Months after the game doctors discovered that Dan Turk had advanced testicular cancer, and determined he had played with tumors all over his body. He was dead by the end of the year. Dan Turk’s wife told the Washington Times that although the family home was “within walking distance” of the team’s training facility and offices, management and players ignored her ailing husband over the last few months of his life. “That organization has no class since Dan Snyder took over. There's a thing called human decency, and that organization showed none,” she said. “It’s sickening.”
Back to the future: The Commanders now go back on the road to play the NFC’s top-seeded Detroit Lions on Saturday at Ford Field, in primetime.
Disclosure: Dan Snyder once sued the author for writing mean things about him.
