Trailing the Chicago Bears 15-12 with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the ball on their own 48-yard line, Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders had one option: throw a Hail Mary.
And their prayer was answered, as Daniels’ pass was bounced backwards in the red zone and into the arms of wide receiver Noah Brown, who reeled in a walk-off, 52-yard touchdown.
Seconds later, Brown dropped the ball to celebrate the score with his teammates, and that’s where Commanders equipment intern Drew Sinclair joined the chat, swooping up the loose ball to store it away.
“I just had my hands on my head in awe, and I saw everyone running around. I saw Noah [Brown] drop the ball, and my instincts just kicked in,” Sinclair said about retrieving the ball, in a story that was published on the Commanders’ team website Wednesday.
“DQ [head coach Dan Quinn] always preaches, ‘The ball is life.’ We see it everywhere. I saw ball and I got ball … I was just thinking, ‘That’s a pretty meaningful football for this team and for this organization.’”
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Furthermore, Sinclair was praised in the team’s locker room by Quinn.
What did Jayden Daniels showcase in his thrilling Hail Mary victory?
“I wasn’t expecting it. I was in the back of the huddle listening to him talk. I heard my name, and I was still in awe from the play, and I was like, ‘Oh crap that’s me,’ and I ran into the center,” Sinclair said. “That was one of the best moments of my life, for sure.”
Daniels finished the game with 326 passing yards and 52 rushing yards, while Brown finished with three receptions for 73 yards and one score. The win moved the Commanders to 6-2, good for first place in the NFC East.
On the whole, Brown has logged 17 receptions for 258 yards and one touchdown this season. He spent the 2023 season with the Houston Texans, which followed a five-year stint with the Dallas Cowboys (he missed the 2019 season due to a knee injury).
As for the one who threw the miracle completion, Daniels, whom Washington selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, is among the favorites to win Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, highlighted by him boasting a 104.3 passer rating, a 71.8% completion percentage and rushing for 424 yards.
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Daniels, Brown and the first-place Commanders aim to keep the magic alive in Week 9 when they face the NFC East-rival New York Giants (2-6) on the road (1 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app); Washington beat New York on a walk-off field goal in Week 2.
Brian McClair “can’t fathom” why Manchester United chose to sell Scotland midfielder Scott McTominay to Napoli this summer.
The midfielder, 27, has already scored twice in eight appearances for the Italian club and has netted 11 times in 56 Scotland matches.
He left boyhood club United in August after 29 goals in 255 games.
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Earlier this week, United parted with manager Erik ten Hag and are looking for their fifth permanent boss in 10 years.
“For me, it’s a big disappointment that he’s not still at Manchester United,” said former Old Trafford favourite McClair on the BBC’s Sacked in the Morning podcast.
“I can’t fathom why on his performances when he played and when has played he’s been very good for Napoli. For Scotland he’s been a revelation.”
In the three weeks since the New York Jets fired Robert Saleh they’ve gone 0-3, and in many ways look even worse than they did before. That proves two very important things:
Saleh wasn’t the Jets’ problem.
And in-season coaching changes almost never work.
Of course, evidence isn’t necessarily something that will stop NFL owners looking for a quick fix. And to be fair, sometimes an in-season change is necessary to avert a complete and embarrassing disaster. Sometimes it’s even just a way for an embattled owner to throw fresh meat to his angry fans.
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That’s why the seats remain hot under several coaches all around the NFL. Some of them could be gone within weeks. Others will surely be gone after their miserable season is over.
Here is the FOX Sports’ bi-weekly ranking of the seven hottest coaching seats in the league, heading into Week 9:
It’s almost impossible to believe that the Saints were once 2-0 and being talked about as a surprise contender, because since then they’ve lost six straight games and Allen looks like a coach out of answers.
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It’s not all his fault. Losing quarterback Derek Carr was a huge blow, but backup Spencer Rattler wasn’t the answer and he was benched on Sunday for someone named Jake Haener. The Saints unsurprisingly have scored 18 points total in the last two games. They’ve lost their past three by a combined score of 110-45.
Allen seems to have an ally in Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, but how long can that last? Allen is 18-24 as the Saints coach. Add in his miserable record with the Raiders and his head coaching record in the league is 26-52. It should be clear to everyone in New Orleans that it’s not going to get better under his leadership any time soon.
Dennis Allen and the Saints have lost six straight games heading into Week 9. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
His job was very likely saved with a 32-16 win over the awful New England Patriots in London two weeks ago. There were a lot of indications that a loss would’ve resulted in him being fired before the team plane landed back in Florida.
His cause was also helped on Sunday by a narrow loss to the Green Bay Packers, which only goes to show how low the standards have gotten in Jacksonville. But the numbers count. They are now 2-2 in their last four and franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence finally showed signs of life on Sunday. Positive vibes could keep the reactionary instincts of Jags owner Shahid Khan at bay.
But only for so long. The Jaguars remain one of the biggest underachievers in the NFL and they are 3-11 since they entered last December with an 8-3 record. Plus, the Jags play at Philadelphia (5-2), home against the Vikings (5-2) and at Detroit (6-2) over the next three weeks, which could set the stage for Pederson to be fired one week later, during their bye.
Doug Pederson and the Jaguars sit at 2-6 on the season (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
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3. Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys (Previous ranking: 3rd)
Yeah, Jerry Jones swears he’s not firing Mike McCarthy, and given his painful patience with previous coaches there’s no reason not to believe him.
But he’s got to have a breaking point, right?
The Cowboys lost again Sunday night in San Francisco in a game that wasn’t close until a garbage-time comeback. In fact, if you take away garbage time, they haven’t been competitive in any of their four losses. They’re also 0-3 at home, which has to sting, and they’re already 2.5 games back in the NFC East race. Oh, and their defense has given up 77 points in the last two games.
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That last part is really McCarthy’s in-season security blanket, since his most likely interim replacement would be defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, and right now even Jones couldn’t sell that to players or fans. Don’t forget, though, that McCarthy is only signed through the end of the season. Jones doesn’t like firing coaches, but if this season gets much worse even he’ll see he won’t have much of a choice.
Is Mike McCarthy’s seat getting warmer following a loss to the 49ers? (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
4. Matt Eberflus, Chicago Bears (Previous ranking: NR)
The decision not to give Eberflus a contract extension in the offseason spoke volumes about ownership’s uncertainty about him. It also says something about their lack of a plan. The smart move, as they were about to draft a new franchise quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick, would be to commit to a coach to help develop Caleb Williams for the first few years of his career.
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Eberflus is still signed through 2025, but he could be on shaky ground if Williams doesn’t have the kind of rookie season everyone is expecting. There have been a lot of positive signs, but he’s been very up and down. Two strong weeks collapsed in an awful effort by him against Washington on Sunday in a showdown against No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels.
Eberflus also didn’t help himself with some odd coaching decisions (A handoff to an offensive lineman on 4th-and-goal from the 1 while trailing in the fourth quarter?). And it was a real bad look that one of his players was too busy trash-talking fans to defend the Hail Mary play that lost them the game. Stuff like that is hard to forget.
Will being on the losing end of a Hail Mary lead to Matt Eberflus’ demise in Chicago? (Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)
The Raiders were right to take the interim tag off him after the Raiders’ strong 5-4 finish last year and the way all his players endorsed him. He seemed to have given the franchise a much-needed jolt of energy.
But good vibes don’t last forever, especially when you don’t have a franchise quarterback and your best receiver basically forced a trade. Right now, Pierce is struggling to hold things together with the Raiders riding a four-game losing streak. They’ve been competitive the last two weeks in close losses to the Rams and Chiefs, but how long will close be enough?
They’ve got a new minority owner in Tom Brady, who almost certainly will have some thoughts to share with majority owner Marc Davis. And they’re heading towards their fourth non-winning season in five years in Las Vegas, which isn’t good.
There’s a bye looming in two weeks, though Pierce likely will survive that. But if he can’t recapture the good vibes — and a few wins along the way — the Raiders may end up starting over in 2025 with a new quarterback and a new head coach.
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Antonio Pierce and the Raiders are 2-6 on the season. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
Their 37-17 loss at home to the Eagles on Sunday shows how far this team has fallen. They should be much closer to contender status with some of the talent they have. But they keep getting farther away.
He’s still very unlikely to be fired in-season for a bunch of reasons. One is that the Bengals are notably cheap and they don’t want to eat the $4.5 million per year he’s making through 2026. The other is that they are 3-2 over their last five and one of those losses was in overtime to the Baltimore Ravens.
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But — and this is a bad “but” — in their last three games, this offense has averaged 18.3 points and 269 yards. That’s inexcusable for a team with Joe Burrow at quarterback and a receiver like Ja’Marr Chase. At some point, the Bengals will have to realize they can’t waste the prime of those two players.
Will the Bengals need a late-season run to save Zac Taylor’s job? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Why is he still on this list after co-owner John Mara promised that he and general manager Joe Schoen would be back in 2025? Mostly because what Mara actually said was that he won’t make any in-season changes and “I do not anticipate making any changes in the offseason.”
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The phrasing of these votes of confidence is always key.
Mara’s not lying or playing games. But he also knows that things can fall apart late to an embarrassing degree (just ask Joe Judge), and sometimes things happen that he just can’t accept (ask Ben McAdoo). So yeah, there’s a little wiggle room in his promise.
But it really would take something drastic to change his mind, according to sources inside the organization. Maybe if they don’t win another game, or players start revolting, or Daboll’s press conferences just go off the rails — something like that. His team is feisty, though, so the odds are good he’s not going anywhere. But stranger things have happened to this organization in the last 13 years.
Is there enough time for Brian Daboll and the Giants to get on track in 2024? (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
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Dropped from the list:
Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns (Previous ranking: 7th) — A big win over the Baltimore Ravens showed he can still coach, especially when he has a quarterback. Deshaun Watson being out for the season will only help his cause.
Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles (Previous ranking: 6th) — The Eagles are 5-2 now after three straight wins and their offense is clicking for the first time, really, since the 2022 season. But a playoff run may still be needed to save him.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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League One side Wrexham say the investment, made through Red Dragon Ventures LLC, “will help fuel the club’s lofty ambitions, as well as those of the broader Wrexham community”.
Eric Allyn, manager and chief investment officer of the Allyn’s family office, said: “For more than a century, our family has focused on building great companies, while also uplifting wonderful communities.
“Our decades-long efforts in the Syracuse region are similar to what Rob and Ryan have started in Wrexham.
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“We view Red Dragon Ventures as a vehicle to invest in a world-class football club, and, importantly, in the welcoming community of Wrexham.”
Manager Phil Parkinson has guided the Red Dragons from the National League to League One under the ownership of Reynolds and McElhenney.
Wrexham currently sit third in League One having collected 25 points from their opening 13 matches of the campaign.
Anthony Volpe told Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz what was was like hit grand slam in the New York Yankees’ 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series.
NEW YORK — The Yankees finally broke through for their first win of the World Series in front of a rocking Bronx crowd and, in doing so, reminded everyone that they’re not going down without a fight. Whether it was the pressure of competing in an elimination game and playing with urgency, or seeing multiple relief arms and capitalizing on the Dodgers‘ bullpen game, the Yankees’ 11-4 win on Tuesday night was just what they needed to get their confidence back in the Fall Classic.
They are, after all, the best team in the American League for a reason.
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Here are our four biggest takeaways from Game 4 in the Bronx.
It was sweet, sweet redemption for Anthony Volpe. One inning after he didn’t score from second base on an Austin Wells double, the opportunity to atone for his mistake was his to take when the Yankees, trailing 2-1, loaded the bases for him in the third. The Yankees were finding ways to get on base, but they still needed that big hit, and it appeared unlikely that they would actually capitalize after Anthony Rizzo popped out with the bases juiced for the second out. But it was also pretty clear that Daniel Hudson, who was the second man out of the bullpen in the Dodgers’ bullpen game, didn’t have it.
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Volpe pounced on the first pitch Hudson offered him, an 89 mph slider that nicked the bottom of the zone before the Yankees shortstop barreled it to left field. Fans couldn’t believe it as the ball kept sailing over left fielder Teoscar Hernández’s head and into the seats. Only when it safely landed beyond the left-field wall did an anxious and restless home crowd of 49,354 finally erupt for the first time in this World Series.
Volpe’s grand slam gave the Yankees a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. The first home run of his postseason career was just his second overall since Aug. 4. — Deesha Thosar
No, that wasn’t a replay. Freddie Freeman had no extra-base hits, just one run scored and one RBI in the first two rounds of the postseason. He was too hobbled from his ankle sprain to play in the Dodgers’ deciding Game 6 of the NLCS, and there were questions whether his valiant effort to be in the lineup — despite his obvious pain, and despite how much it seemed to be a galvanizing force for his teammates, who admired the daily efforts it took for him to get on the field — was doing more harm than good.
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The Yankees haven’t seen that version of the All-Star first baseman. A week off transformed Freeman from a singles hitter into a slugging juggernaut. His teammates thought he had started to find his stroke again watching him take batting practice a couple of days before the start of the World Series, watching him line baseballs over shortstop the way he typically does when he’s swinging right.
The Yankees didn’t get that version of Freeman, either. Instead, they’ve seen the one who’s on a historic postseason home run pace. Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history in Game 1, added a solo shot in Game 2, quieted the opposing crowd at Yankee Stadium in the first inning of Game 3 with a two-run shot, then did so again in Game 4. In the process, Freeman — who also homered in the final two games of the Braves‘ 2021 title run — has set a major-league record by hitting a home run in six straight World Series games.
He has now homered in four straight games to start this World Series. At the time of his Game 4 blast, Freeman had knocked in more runs this series than the entire Yankees team. His 10 RBIs are the most by a Dodgers player in a World Series. This time, though, it wasn’t the dagger that it was in Game 3, as the Yankees’ lineup battled back. — Rowan Kavner
3. With a little help from Judge’s friends
It was hard to imagine the Yankees getting a single win in this World Series without one of two things happening: Either Aaron Judge wakes up, or the guys that he’s carried all year finally give him some of that support back. It was mostly the latter Tuesday, as the bottom of the Yankees order finally put together quality at-bats for the first time in this Series. Austin Wells, one of the Yankees’ best hitters in July and August and who played his way into the American League Rookie of the Year conversation, cranked a solo shot to right field in the sixth inning for a much-needed insurance run after the Dodgers had cut their deficit to one. For the rookie catcher, the homer followed an excellent at-bat in the second inning, when he skied a double off the padding in center field that led to New York’s first run.
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No lead is safe with the Dodgers in the other dugout, as the Yankees learned the hard way in Game 1. That might explain New York’s five-run outburst in the eighth inning, with Volpe and Wells reaching safely again to set the table for a Gleyber Torres three-run home run. Amazingly, the Yankees scored their first 10 runs of this game without Juan Soto or Judge being prominently involved. — Thosar
4. Dodgers’ bullpen game goes south quickly
Tuesday was the fourth bullpen game of the postseason for the Dodgers. The first, in an elimination Game 4 in the NLDS, was a clinic, with eight different pitchers combining to hold the Padres scoreless in an 8-0 shutout that came in the midst of a record-tying 33 consecutive scoreless innings for the Dodgers’ pitching staff.
The last three haven’t gone so smoothly, including the first of the World Series on Tuesday in the Bronx. With four chances to win one game, manager Dave Roberts decided against deploying all of his best high-leverage pieces the way he needed to in that first do-or-die matchup in San Diego. It looked a little more like Game 2 of the NLCS, when, after the Mets tagged Landon Knack for five runs, the Dodgers essentially punted. Roberts didn’t want to tire his best arms out in a long series, and he didn’t want the Mets to get another look at those arms in a minus situation. The move ultimately paid off.
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It was a similar situation Tuesday against the Yankees. While Roberts said everyone was available, it was clear he would need some length from rookies Ben Casparius and Knack and would decide who to use based on the game situation from there. “Every guy will be with a cost going forward,” Roberts said. Michael Kopech had pitched in each of the first three games. Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda, Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol had pitched in two apiece. None of them saw the field after Volpe’s grand slam off Daniel Hudson put the Yankees in the driver’s seat.
Roberts has pushed a lot of the right buttons so far this October, so we’ll see if saving his best guys for Game 5 and beyond was the right call again. — Rowan Kavner
Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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