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The Washington Football Team and the New Orleans Saints appeared to be heading into halftime nodded at 13 with nine seconds remaining in the first half of Sunday’s Week 5 contest.
While heading into halftime tied was disappointing for Washington, which played reasonably well on defense in the first half but struggled on offense, it was still a close game. Washington would also begin the second half with the football, so there was reason for optimism.
All that stood between a halftime tie was New Orleans quarterback Jameis Winston heaving a Hail Mary attempt into the end zone to end the half. Surely, the ball would hit the ground, and Washington enters halftime feeling pretty good.
Next-Gen Stats tweeted the probability of Winston completing the Hail Mary was 9.9%, so, yes, the odds favored Washington.
Jameis Winston's Hail Mary 49-yard TD to Marquez Callaway at the end of the first half had a 9.9% completion probability, the most improbable completion in the NFL this season.
🔹 Winston under pressure
🔹 Air Distance: 57.2 yds
🔹 Target Separation: 0.5 yds#NOvsWAS | #Saints pic.twitter.com/zMqr6PCHZ7— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 10, 2021
Well, Washington’s defense proved anything was possible as Saints wide receiver Marquez Callaway went high for the football and came down with it to give the Saints an improbable lead at halftime. Washington’s secondary offered little resistance.
After the game, Washington safety Landon Collins offered the following explanation on why the Hail Mary was a success.
“We were thinking field goal, not Hail Mary,” safety Landon Collins said, per Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. “When the ball was in the air, we weren’t, um, we just weren’t prepared for that one. That wasn’t what we were expecting.”
Wow.
This explains Washington’s defensive struggles in a nutshell. Not one Washington defender even made a half-hearted attempt to knock the ball loose from Callaway. And that’s where the competitive portion of this game ended for Washington.
A struggling defense that had played a solid half by its recent standards couldn’t recover, and this time the offense couldn’t bail them out.