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John Keim, ESPN Staff Writer
ASHBURN, Va. — A tight end and a play called Taylor Swift. It might sound like something out of the Kansas City Chiefs‘ playbook, but, instead, it was a play that led to a touchdown for the Washington Commanders in a 40-7 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said rookie tight end Ben Sinnott‘s first NFL touchdown catch came off a play dubbed “Taylor Swift.” While Swift is dating Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce, it turns out on this play Sinnott was the lucky one.
On the second-and-goal play from the Carolina 3-yard line, Sinnott aligned to the left next to fellow tight end Zach Ertz. The end game was simple: run a play-action pass for a touchdown.
Sinnott ran in motion left to right before the snap, faked a block on a defensive end and ran to the flat where he was wide open and caught a pass from quarterback Marcus Mariota, after Mariota had faked a handoff to running back Brian Robinson. Sinnott clearly felt an afterglow, slamming the ball to the ground after he scored.
“You can’t really beat that to start your NFL scoring career,” Kingsbury said. “He was stoked about it.”
Kingsbury said Washington has a “bunch of” plays named after pop stars.
“But that’s a good one, we’ll use that again,” he said. “This was new this year. We probably carried it three weeks and finally got to calling it.”
He also said he didn’t have anything to do with naming the play.
“The tight ends came up with the name, so you’d have to ask them,” he said. “But I think he must like Taylor Swift on, like, a deeper level.”
As Kingsbury left his news conference he also revealed they have a play named “Kelce.”
“It’s not Travis Kelce, just Kelce,” Kingsbury said. “And they’re not married together.”
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