“He did a phenomenal job of keeping the game alive and delivering the best ball possible,” Brown said, “and we came up with a dub.”

The Commanders controlled most of the game on Sunday, but only held a 12-0 lead in the third quarter after being bogged down three times in the red zone. The Bears came within striking distance at 12-7 with a D’Andre Swift TD run late in the third quarter, and Williams came alive late to lead the Chicago to a brief lead.

Commandant head coach Dan Quinn told reporters he wasn’t sure his team would win, but he was pretty confident they were in good hands with Daniels, even if they played through pain. Seeing Daniels’ progress throughout the week gave Quinn confidence that he could even play at number one.

“There’s a lot of resilience in this guy that’s always been in it, and I always knew he was a true competitor at heart,” Quinn said. “I don’t know if it turned out differently. It was his first injury that we had to go through together this week to find out what was and wasn’t possible.”

Daniels said the injury was “tough” when he pitched, something he did 38 times on Sunday.

“But at the end of the day, I started the match and I wanted to finish it, so there was nothing else that was going to take me out of the match,” he said.

Daniels called his Hail Mary a “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” even as Commanders fans are starting to expect this level of greatness from the rookie.

“Not many people experience things like that,” he said. That was my first time, so I was obviously excited, the whole stadium, the team, the sidelines, everyone.”