The roar of the Landover, Maryland crowd instructed all of it. The second that Jayden Daniels’ Hail Mary go was tipped into the arms of a ready Noah Brown, 30 years of anguish was lifted from the collective soul of the Commanders franchise.
It might legitimately have been that lengthy since Washington soccer followers had final skilled a second fairly like this one. This is a corporation that hasn’t received a playoff recreation since January 2006, hasn’t received greater than 10 video games in a season since 1991 and that, all through all the tenure of Dan Snyder’s possession, appeared to solely deal with its followers to heartbreak and humiliation.
This was the kind of end that, for many years, would have been completely on-brand had it occurred in opposition to the Commanders. Simply envision the picture of the opposite crew euphorically celebrating such a play at (previously) FedEx Subject, in a stadium full of equally euphoric opposing followers, whereas the TV digital camera pans to a flabbergasted Snyder within the press field. The top coach would give a clueless postgame presser stuffed with excuses, and each native analyst would spend the subsequent week woe-is-me-ing about how Washington cannot ever have good issues.
It isn’t too arduous to think about as a result of it is a film Commanders followers needed to watch numerous occasions over the previous few many years. Normally, the heartbreaking moments have been extra of the death-by-a-thousand-knives selection, and earlier than the ultimate play, it appeared as if Sunday was going to be one other a kind of. Washington had dominated the sport but couldn’t discover the tip zone other than two would-be touchdowns that have been referred to as again by evaluation or penalty, and it was simply sufficient to maintain the Bears inside hanging vary.
A 12-0 Washington lead evaporated right into a 12-15 deficit after the Bears transformed a go-ahead rating with lower than 30 seconds on the clock, and it appeared the Commanders have been going to lose their first dwelling recreation all 12 months. Each remnant from the Snyder period is gone — the crew title is completely different, the quarterback is completely different, the coach is completely different and even the house stadium’s sponsor is completely different. But on the sector, it was nonetheless the identical previous story.
Till it wasn’t. For D.C. diehards, the last-second miracle heave needed to harken again recollections of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s series-winning additional time objective in Sport 6 the 2018 NHL Japanese Convention semifinals or Juan Soto’s go-ahead hit within the 2019 NL wild-card recreation. It was a kind of magical moments that is not purported to be potential for this cursed franchise, and now, a complete new world of potentialities has been unlocked.
Wherever the journey goes from right here, the day of October 27, 2024 might be referred to as the day that the Washington Commanders — now 6-2 on the season — have been reborn. For the primary time in a very long time, it actually feels as if satisfaction and keenness have been restored to a franchise that was as soon as among the many NFL’s powerhouses.
The brand new age of Washington soccer has formally begun.
