OPINION:
In the classic film “Hoosiers,” with the score tied at 40-40 and seconds left on the clock, Hickory gets possession of the ball and calls a timeout. They huddle around their coach, Norman Dale, who gives them the play he believes will win the game:
“All right, listen up, listen up. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Jimmy, they’re going to be expecting you to take the last shot. We’re going to use you as a decoy. Buddy, you get the ball and get it to Merle on the picket fence. He’s gonna take the last shot. All right, let’s go.”
The players freeze. Jimmy Chitwood, the star who got them to the Indiana state championship game, looks at Dale and says, “I’ll make it.”
I’m guessing that new Washington Commanders offensive coordinator David Blough would have gone to Merle on the picket fence.
The Commanders’ star — quarterback Jayden Daniels, who led them to so many comeback wins two years ago — was in the process of leading another one Sunday in Philadelphia against the favored Eagles.
During Washington’s late rally, Daniels was 9 for 11 for 100 yards and two touchdowns, including a one-yard goal-line scoring pass to rookie receiver Antonio Williams with 1:01 left in the game.
Down 24-22, a two-point conversion would tie the game and likely send it into overtime. It was a Daniels moment, the ball in his hands, right out of central casting.
Instead, Blough put a shovel in those winning hands with a call that wound up throwing dirt on the Commanders’ grave for the day.
A shovel pass from Daniels as a play option to tight end John Bates was stopped immediately by Eagles’ tackle Moro Ojomo, who blew by lost center Nick Allegretti, sealing an Eagles victory.
It was a pass Commanders practice squad and perennial poster boy Sam Hartman could have made.
Fox analyst Tom Brady, who knows a little something about big moments, called it in his post-game comments when he said, “In big-time moments, you’ve got to think about players, not plays … I was thinking give Daniels a run-pass option. You’ve got Terry (McLaurin). You’ve got Stefon (Diggs). I’m not thinking Bates.”
It was a frustrating end to a frustrating game, one that, to the surprise of many, turned out to be winnable.
Washington general manager Adam Peters spent a lot of money on seven defensive free agents, and the money looked well spent.
The Commanders’ defense played Philadelphia tough the whole afternoon. They had three sacks and forced seven punts, repeatedly giving the ball back to the offense. It was a dramatic difference from the woeful defenses that took the field under previous defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. the last two years.
The new play caller on that side of the ball, Daronte Jones, may have finally found a home after 14 stops in his 25-year coaching career.
The offense, though, struggled for much of the game. Daniels was 9 for 23 for 64 yards through the first three quarters. It looked very much like a rusty quarterback who got nearly zero preseason game action snaps under the direction of a rookie play caller — Blough — who was on the Detroit Lions practice squad just three years ago.
The Commanders defense had just enough weak moments in coverage — cornerback Mike Sainristil, please pick up the white courtesy phone — to give up several damaging plays, including a 42-yard run by Saquon Barkley that set up a Philadelphia touchdown. But in between, yards were hard to come by for the Eagles offense.
This Commanders defense shows promise.
Silver linings, though, were tarnished by the two-point shovel pass play call. It was a Jim Zorn moment.
Of course, Washington rounded up the wagons after the game and stood by the call.
“Two-point play, man, we just didn’t execute,” Daniels told reporters after the game. “It was the right call. Anything Blough calls, man, I’m with him. Regardless, however everybody else might want to view it, man, I’m with Blough 100%.”
“I knew the play,” coach Dan Quinn said. “It was a good one. It just didn’t execute.”
Quinn may have known the play, but here he is, in year three, and he didn’t seem to know his players. The execution of this play relied on a shaky center — Allegretti, their Plan B or C — who missed chunks of training camp due to a calf injury.
Who it didn’t rely on was the quarterback Quinn raved about before the game.
“He’s a decisive thinker … There’s not a hesitation,” Quinn said. “He’s able to think quickly, process quickly. That’s why he’s able to get rid of the ball to the right location. To the right target of where it’s going to go.”
Like Brady said, think players, not plays — or else you might find yourself calling the picket fence when Jimmy Chitwood can take the shot.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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