PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Stefon Diggs celebrated his first touchdown with Washington with a hug.
With a teammate? No, the Commanders would have loved that. Try a bear hug with the goalpost before he dropped flat on his back in the end zone.
Yeah, that’s a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, and the foolish play by the veteran receiver in the fourth quarter of a tight game cost the Commanders a shot at a tying 2-point conversion.
The Commanders would have gone for 2, but the 15-yard penalty on Diggs forced them to settle for the extra point that made it 17-16. On the road. Against the two-time defending NFC East champion Philadelphia Eagles.
The Commanders failed on another 2-point attempt with 1:01 left. Failures in play-calling and sportsmanship doomed Washington in the Eagles’ 24-22 win on Sunday.
“Of course,” Diggs said, “I take full accountability.”
The Commanders are the latest team to take a chance on the talented but troubled Diggs, who's already on his fifth team in 12 NFL seasons.
His off-field issues aren't a concern in Washington yet.
His touchdown celebration choice was met with dismay inside the locker room by a team trying to bounce back from a disastrous five-win season.
“Just got to be smarter,” Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels said. “We've got to know situational football. That's on me for not reiterating that in the huddle.”
Daniels went 18 of 34 for 164 yards and threw a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown passes. The big win for the third-year QB was ending the game healthy. He played in just seven games last season and dealt with injuries to his left knee, right hamstring and left elbow before being shut down in December.
The Commanders tumbled from the NFC title game in his rookie season — which they lost at Philadelphia — to last season's mess, which led to the hiring of a new offensive coordinator in David Blough.
Blough's first clutch call with the game on the line was a curious one.
Daniels threw a 1-yard TD pass to on third-and-goal to Antonio Williams with 1:01 left that made it 24-22. On the 2-point try, Blough called a shovel pass to tight end John Bates, who was wrapped up instantly by the Eagles’ Moro Ojomo.
“Two-point play, man, we just didn’t execute,” Daniels said. “It was the right call. Anything Blough calls, man, I’m with him. Regardless, however everybody else might want to view it, man, I’m with Blough 100 percent.”
Daniels seemingly offered more protection for the Commanders than the vaunted Hogs of the 1980s and ’90s. He not only defended Blough's 2-point call, but he also took the blame for Diggs' penalty. Daniels said it was job as leader to remind the team not to indulge in any dumb touchdown celebrations.
“I'm pretty sure at that point, we would have gone for 2,” Daniels said. “Knowing we had the potential to score on the play, just reiterating if we score, we go for 2.”
Diggs had four catches for 55 yards in his Washington debut.
A native of the Washington suburb of Gaithersburg, Maryland, Diggs signed with the Commanders in August after he spent last season with New England, finishing the season with 85 catches for 1,013 yards and helping the Patriots reach the Super Bowl.
New England released him in March, and the 32-year-old went unsigned in free agency while facing strangulation and other criminal charges in connection with a dispute with his former private chef. Diggs was found not guilty in May, and the NFL said in June that he wouldn’t face discipline after a review determined there was not enough evidence to punish him under its personal conduct policy.
There was nothing to review in Philadelphia. Everyone saw Diggs squeeze the goal post.
“I love his fight, I love what he stands for,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. “As the competitor he is, he knows better than that in that spot. He knew that.”
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