LANDOVER, Md. — When Washington Commanders kicker Austin Seibert blasted the ball off the tee with just more than three minutes left in regulation against the Dallas Cowboys, things felt normal.
The Commanders had just scored a touchdown to trim their deficit to 3 points. It made the game more interesting, sure, but it’s not unusual for a team guarding a two-possession lead to give up a late touchdown. Washington’s offense was in two-minute mode while Dallas’ defense was trying to prevent a big play.
Leading 20-17 and getting the ball back, the Cowboys just needed to get a couple of first downs to ice the game.
Seibert didn’t boom his kickoff out of the end zone. Instead, the ball was in play — a rare occurrence when teams kick to the Cowboys. KaVontae Turpin returned 21 kicks his rookie season in 2022. Last season, he returned just 10. Aided by the new kickoff rules, Turpin’s had more opportunities this season. Before Sunday, he’d returned 17 kicks for an average of 34.3 yards per return — the highest of his career.
The Commanders were playing with fire. This late fourth-quarter kickoff was the fourth time they kicked to Turpin on Sunday and just the fourth time in his career he was getting this many chances in a game.
“Why would you kick to Turp?” Cowboys special teams ace CJ Goodwin said after the Cowboys held on for a 34-26 victory. “Quit trying him. Quit trying him. Please try him, actually. Please keep trying him so we can score. Please.”
This kick from Seibert was a good one. Turpin was inside the 5-yard line and unable to get under the kick and field it cleanly. He tried to field it on one hop, but the ball rolled through his legs.
“Honestly, I thought it’s going to be a good kick,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. “You got him pinned down. Any time you can get it to bounce, you think you’re in good shape.”
At that point, Turpin was trying to make sure it didn’t turn into a disaster.
“I was really thinking about going to get down,” Turpin said. “But when I (saw) all of them going to the left, I knew I could just — running spin move, something nobody’s ever seen before — hopefully I can get them from the back side. … I was thinking about going down, with the time and we were up.”
“Oh, he did that for timing,” Mike McCarthy jokingly said after the game.
On the sideline, CeeDee Lamb watched intently as Turpin tried to secure the ball.
“Obviously, my mentality kind of changed in the matter of two seconds,” Lamb said. “To begin, obviously, he had the fumble and I’m already planning to go out there and doing what I got to do for the offense to go put us in scoring position.”
As the Commanders’ kickoff cover unit raced down the field, Turpin had his back to them as he went to retrieve the bouncing ball. He picked it up at the 1-yard line with his left hand and immediately looked up. First, he saw Commanders safety Jeremy Reaves coming at him from the right. He took one quick glance to his left and spotted linebacker Jordan Magee.
“I really was just trying to see what angles they were taking on me,” Turpin said. “Every time I take my time on the kickoff return, I’m really just trying to see which way they’re going to go first. I try to make my choice at that, right there.”
There were no blockers between Turpin and the two Washington defenders, so, on the spot, he turned to Plan B. He took a hard right turn, knowing very well that he was going to come back to his left.
The way he did it, though, left jaws — and Commanders defenders — on the ground.
put him in a blender 🫨
📺: #DALvsWAS on FOX
📲: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/LvklCbYJ1e https://t.co/9LQVNrbA55 pic.twitter.com/JOSoWkUOSq— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) November 24, 2024
“I always do it when I ain’t got nowhere to go, when I’m in trouble,” Turpin said. “I know I can get them going one way, then just spin back the other way. It’s just one of my moves, when I’m in trouble and I ain’t got nowhere to go. Something nobody’s ever seen before.”
Well, nobody except for his teammates.
“He’s been hitting it in practice a couple of times,” Lamb said. “He’s got a lot of guys with it. That’s his escape move, if you will. When all else fails, be careful, because he will hit you with it.”
Once Turpin hit the spin move, the rest of the play was a formality. Last week, Turpin clocked 22.36 mph on a 64-yard touchdown reception off a quick slant, according to Next Gen Stats — the fastest by a ball carrier this season. After the spin created an open lane, Turpin tapped into his tank of gas and took off.
“Once I get through that chute, it’s a house call every time,” Turpin said. “I don’t think I was running faster than I was on the slant. I hope (I hit) 21.8 (miles per hour). I hope so. But I didn’t look at the film yet to see how I was moving but I don’t think I ran faster than I did last week, though.”
Regardless, it was fast enough, with room to spare. Coming from the wide left, cornerback Michael Davis was put out of place by Turpin’s speed. Once he turned on the jets, there was just one small order of business left: the kicker.
“I turned to the next level and I saw the kicker,” Juanyeh Thomas said. “I tried to block the kicker, and then No. 11, Jeremy Chinn, was running over. I didn’t want to get a stupid penalty.”
Seibert had no chance to keep up with Turpin but Thomas did a good job of simply crossing his face and cutting off his angle. From there, he ran stride-for-stride with Chinn for about 15 yards. By that point, Turpin had already slowed to a jog and started celebrating as he entered the end zone.
“I just brought something out of the bag, man,” Turpin said. “Houdini-style, and hoped that it worked.”
The Cowboys’ sideline erupted as the play unfolded, with one exception. Kicker Brandon Aubrey, though excited as anybody else on the team, had to find a way to contain himself. He had to lock in. He knew a touchdown meant that suddenly the spotlight was about to shift to him to convert the extra point.
“I can’t really get into it because I’ve got to go out there and kick an extra point,” Aubrey said. “As much as I want to celebrate, I got to pretend like it didn’t happen and just remind myself that I have a job to do. Go out there, get the job done, then possibly go to the sideline and celebrate. But at that point, the celebration is pretty much over and everyone else is on to the next one. I don’t get to do it until film room.”
Knowing who his return man is, Aubrey actually would hit kicks into the net on the sideline right before kickoffs for the first few games because “with Turp, anything can happen,” Aubrey said. He stopped doing that when teams mostly stopped kicking to Turpin. The sudden change extra point can have its own challenge — Aubrey knows this very well. His first kick in the NFL was a sudden-score extra point after the Cowboys returned a blocked field goal for a touchdown in last year’s season opener against the New York Giants. Aubrey missed the kick wide left.
Sunday, he calmly knocked through the extra point after Turpin’s touchdown to extend the lead to 27-17. That single point is what forced the Commanders to try a late onside kick after Seibert missed his late extra-point attempt.
In the moment, it seemed like Turpin’s touchdown was going to serve as the dagger in a Cowboys win. Of course, chaos ensued, but Turpin’s return was the play that began the wild trip to the finish line. With that on film for the rest of the league to see, Turpin knows his opportunities the rest of the season will be limited.
“I really think that’s my last one,” Turpin said. “That’s my last kickoff return. Hopefully, it’s not, but I think it is.”
(Top photo: Peter Casey / Imagn Images)
