Washington Commanders fans forgot about the “Sell the team” chants they did Sunday at Ghost Town Field. They put up their “For Sale” signs that they waved at the start of the game, hoping that maybe a TV camera might see them and tell the world of their anger at franchise owner Skipper Dan Sailman and their joy at the news that he was putting the team on sale.
Those chants were replaced by “Heinicke, Heinicke,” the underdog quarterback who somehow put his team ahead 17-7 over the favored Minnesota Vikings early in the fourth quarter. The signs were down, and the half of the stadium that didn’t have Vikings fans was cheering as wildly as it had all year.
They saw the magic of Taylor Heinicke.
Early in the third quarter, the quarterback gave Washington a 10-7 lead with perhaps the worst pass anyone threw that day — a ball that went up in the end zone for Curtis Samuel and three (yes, three) Vikings defenders around him. The last thing anyone expected to see was Washington landing. But the official knocked down Minnesota quarterback Camryn Bynum, creating a chaotic scene that ended with Samuel catching the ball and rolling into the endzone.
Heinicke, a former XFL backup and last year’s starter for Washington who started this season as the backup to an injured Carson Wentz, added another score, a six-yard touchdown to Dax Milne early in the fourth quarter, and now the crowd was mesmerized by Heinicke’s magic.
Then Kirk Cousins showed the whole stadium what real magic is.
The former Redskins quarterback led the Vikings back from a 10-point deficit for a 20-17 win, giving Minnesota a 7-1 record and dropping Washington to 4-5.
As Commanders fans left Ghost Town Field, they returned to the reality of being a Washington football fan, chanting “sell the team” on their way out.
It was Cousins who was the wizard, taking hits behind the line from Washington’s tough pass rush but never wavering, standing in the pocket on third-and-seven and unleashing a perfect 47-yard pass to Justin Jefferson on the opening drive. fourth quarter all the way to the Washington 12-yard line. That led to a 17-10 field goal by Minnesota, followed by Heinicke’s interception that led to the tying 12-yard touchdown pass to Dalvin Cook. They would seal the victory with a 28-yard field goal with less than a minute left in the game.
When Cousins entered the locker room, he received the game ball and yelled at it with his legendary “You like it” shout that became famous in this stadium after his 31-30 comeback win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2015 – the famous Jay Gruden Game “Red code”.
“I can tell you that his teammates were very excited when he got the last ball of the game in the locker room. You could feel what this guy meant to his teammates, to this organization,” said Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, another brilliant young head coach who was in the Ashburn building during the Mike Shanahan regime.
Cousins is one piece of strong evidence of how crooked the football operation was under Skipper Dan. They managed to alienate and destroy Cousins at every opportunity when he was here from 2012 to 2017, turning the franchise’s best defender in decades into a villain to their poisoned fan base.
And yet, when Skipper Dan and his supposed friend, general manager Bruce Allen, had the opportunity to trade him for a price — the No. 1 pick from the San Francisco 49ers, where former Redskins offensive coordinator and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan wanted Cousins – they simply refused out of anger towards the devotees.
This is some kind of black magic.
Cousins started every game for Washington from 2015 to 2017, making 48 consecutive starts. Since then, the franchise has had more quarterbacks start games than Skipper Dan’s investigations. If 90% of life is just showing up, as Woody Allen once said, Cousins always showed up.
Where did the $28 million defenseman the Commanders — most likely Skipper Dan — trade this offseason go? Treat a broken finger.
You won’t hear Cousins say a bad word about his organization, at least not yesterday, when he certainly had the opportunity to take a shot at skipper Dan.
Cousins said he felt emotional coming back to Ghost Town Field — not emotional like Commanders fans get sick to their stomachs — but talked about the fond memories he has of his time in Washington.
“I had a lot of warm emotions and gratitude that I got to play here,” he said. I am very grateful that I got to play here and play for the coaches. It was happiness. They believed in me before I believed in myself.”
Evoking fond memories of this place may border on witchcraft.
Heinicke’s magic was like Sunday from a flash drive. He better have Houdini pitching next Monday night when they travel to Philadelphia to face the Eagles, or Rivera will have to pull Carson Wentz out of the hat again.
It won’t be magic.
You can hear Tom Loverro on the Kevin Sheehan Show
