Adventures on special teams made the Washington-Dallas showdown a clumsy affair, yet Joe Davis and Greg Olsen saw to it that the broadcast of the chaotic finish was pure gold.

After Terry McLaurin weaved his way past five defenders for an 86-yard touchdown catch from Jayden Daniels to cut the Cowboys lead to 27-26 with 21 seconds left, Fox’s No. 2 broadcast crew captured the chaos before admonishing the audience not to count on anything as a certainty on this helter-skelter afternoon.

“Lightning strikes twice in Washington!” McLaurin shouted in an homage to Daniels’ 52-yard Hail Mary to Noah Brown that stunned the Bears last month.

“They dropped 11 guys in coverage,” Olsen marveled. “If they just tackle him inbounds the game is over. I don’t even know what to say. I’m absolutely speechless.”

Not for long he wasn’t.

Olsen quickly cautioned the audience that “Automatic” Austin Siebert had already missed an extra point along with a field goal Sunday in his return from a right hip injury.

“Before anyone in Washington gets too fired up, remember, we’ve seen a missed PAT already,” Olsen said.

“Yeah, you hold your breath with anything special teams-related on this day,” Davis agreed.

In keeping with the not-so-special-teams theme, there were several foibles in the kicking game across the NFL in Week 12, where the Broncos gave up a 34-yard pass completion on a fake punt that Denver coach Sean Payton swore the team saw coming — and not as it was unfolding, either, but five days earlier.

“We met Tuesday as a staff. It wasn’t a matter of if, it was when they were going to run a fake punt,” Payton said. “You’re struggling as a team like this, we had it on the keys to victory, so credit them, they executed it.”

The Broncos (7-5), who blew a chance to beat the Chiefs in Week 10 when their 35-yard field goal try was blocked as time ran out, also allowed a 59-yard kickoff return that led to Las Vegas’ only touchdown Sunday.

The Texans (7-5) lost for the third time in four games after Ka’imi Fairbairn shanked a 28-yard field goal try that would have tied the Titans just after the two-minute warning.

Like the Broncos, the Vikings (9-2) overcame a special teams blunder and escaped Soldier Field with a 30-27 overtime win against the Bears after allowing Chicago (4-7) to recover an onside kick with 21 seconds left. Caleb Williams followed with a 27-yard pass to D.J. Moore to set up Cairo Santos’ tying 48-yard field goal as the fourth-quarter clock hit zeros.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl