Washington Commanders 30-24 Atlanta Falcons: Jayden Daniels stars as Dan Quinn’s side secure playoff spot

Washington Commanders secured a place in the playoffs with a 30-24 overtime win over Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night.

Jayden Daniels’ third touchdown pass of the game made the difference as he connected with Zach Ertz with less than three minutes remaining.

The Commanders (11-5) have not been in the playoffs since 2020 and could finish as high as the sixth seed in the NFC to set up a wild-card round game at Tampa Bay or the Los Angeles Rams if they win their regular-season finale at Dallas this weekend.

A defeat would mean they are seventh and visit division-rival Philadelphia, unless Green Bay lose to Chicago.

“The fanbase waited a long time for this. I really can’t put into words how much it means to them and how much it means to me to be able to go out there and lead this franchise and this team to opportunities like that,” said Daniels.

Atlanta were in control for the first half of the game, gashing Washington’s defense with the running game until abandoning it. Bijan Robinson had 82 yards and two touchdown runs on 13 carries until a minute was left in the second quarter – but had just eight yards the rest of the way.

Penix did his best to try to carry the Falcons back after they fell behind 24-17 late. The eighth pick in the draft made his second professional start and finished a 12-play, 68-yard drive with a touchdown pass to Kyle Pitts to tie it with 1:19 left.

A throw from Penix to Drake London drew a pass interference penalty with two seconds left in regulation and gave Riley Patterson a chance at a go-ahead field goal. But Patterson’s 56-yard attempt fell short as time expired and Atlanta never got the ball back.

Daniels ran for a season-high 127 yards, including 42 in OT, and completed 24 of 36 passes for 227 yards and had two TD passes to Ertz and another to Olamide Zaccheaus to make the playoffs in his rookie year.

In his latest comeback performance the No 2 overall pick in the draft shook off an interception and a 10-point half-time deficit to lead the winning drive in overtime that was capped with the two-yard pass to Ertz.

The Falcons (8-8) lost control of their chances of winning the NFC South and ensuring a home playoff game. They now need to beat Carolina and for the Buccaneers to lose to New Orleans to qualify altogether.

“Control what your controllables are,” Atlanta coach Raheem Morris said.

“Go out there and win our football game. That’s all we can do. Everything else is out of our control. Those things don’t matter. Thing we got to do is prepare for this football game. Prepare for the Panthers.”

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