ASHBURN, Va. — (AP) — One of the Washington Commanders' touchdowns in their big win last week came on a play called "Taylor Swift."
Carolina's defense clearly wasn't ready for it.
Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury revealed Thursday that Marcus Mariota's first completion to tight end Ben Sinnott was named after the pop star who has become one of the faces of NFL coverage over the past year or so.
“His first catch was a touchdown, and the play was called ‘Taylor Swift,’ so you can’t really beat that to start your NFL scoring career," Kingsbury said. “He was stoked about it.”
Swift is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and has become a prominent fan at many of his games. Kingsbury said the play was named by the tight ends and that he thinks Sinnott, a second-round draft pick, "must like Taylor Swift on a deeper level."
On the play run from the Carolina 3-yard line, Sinnott goes in motion, runs to the outside, finds a blank space in coverage and catches the pass from Mariota like it was on an invisible string for an easy touchdown.
“This was new this year,” Kingsbury said. “We probably carried it three weeks and just finally got to calling it.”
It was the very first time Sinnott had a touchdown in the NFL, and the last time he did it in a meaningful game was Nov. 25, 2023, when his Kansas State team was playing against Iowa State.
“He’s been getting better and better,” Kingsbury said. "I think the game’s slowing down for him. He’s a tremendous talent.”
Naming plays after pop stars is nothing new for Kingsbury, considered an offensive mastermind from his time at Southern California and Texas Tech, who acknowledged there's “a bunch of them” in the playbook.
“But that’s a good one,” he said. "We’ll use that again.”
There's also a play called "Kelce," although it's not clear if that's named for Travis or his brother, retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.
“It’s just Kelce,” Kingsbury said. “They’re not, like, married together.”
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