Teddy Bridgewater and Marcus Mariota duking it out in the NFC divisional round — who would’ve thought it?
The former, fresh off a state championship as the head coach of his high school alma mater in January, hadn’t thrown a pass in the National Football League in 748 days.
Bridgewater, though, doesn’t look to have lost a step.
The veteran signal-caller found himself in the thick of the action for a brief spell on Saturday night after Jared Goff took an ugly hit on the preceding drive in the second quarter of the Lions’ 45-31 upset loss to the Commanders.
Bridgewater’s spell was so brief, only because the Lions reached the end zone in just three plays.
Lining up under center at Washington’s 27-yard line with his team down 10 points, Bridgewater, on his first passing play, hit Jahmyr Gibbs on a quick-out route for three yards.
It seems the play inspired enough confidence in head coach Dan Campbell, who, with a fresh set of downs, drew up a play replete with distinctively Detroit trickery.
Bridgewater took the snap and handed the ball off to Gibbs, who charged just a foot or two toward the line of scrimmage before dishing the pigskin off to third-year receiver Jameson Williams, who was already running full speed behind him.
Williams turned the corner on his end-around and never looked back.
Never looked back, that is, until he was about 20 yards out from the end zone; Williams’ celebrations started plenty early.
Bridgewater joined in on that celebration in the end zone. Three plays, 73 yards, and all the sudden it was a three-point game.
Until it wasn’t.
Jayden Daniels and company came right back onto the field and stormed 70 yards in seven plays to push the lead back up to 10.
Goff was able to return to the game on the ensuing drive and, with the clock ticking down on the first half, led the Lions 40 yards downfield before throwing an interception while looking for Williams in the Commanders’ end zone.
Washington took a 10-point lead into the locker room at halftime, and didn’t look back.
