The Washington Commanders blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead on Sunday against the New York Giants and capped it off by letting the overtime clock bleed out without kicking a game-winning field goal. This led to the exact game-management demons that hovered over Dan Quinn when he was first hired to rush right back.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The bizarre 27-all finish had everyone wondering if the front office would pull the trigger on a head coaching change before another week even got rolling. Well, now the team has reportedly made its stance clear pretty quickly.
“The Commanders were not inclined as of Monday morning to fire Dan Quinn immediately following Sunday’s clock management disaster against the Giants, a source told FOS,” Front Office Sports reported on X.
So, for now, Quinn is staying put. The wild ending went down after Giants running back Cam Skattebo coughed up a fumble in field goal range. Washington recovered and marched right down to the New York 24-yard line with a 2nd-and-8 with 15 seconds remaining. But with zero timeouts, Jayden Daniels took a run, and time expired without a kick.
Dan Quinn was furious on the sideline, violently ripping off his headset and spiking it right into the turf near the 25-yard line. Part-owner Magic Johnson didn’t hold back either, posting his frustration on X.
“I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants. All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!” Magic Johnson wrote.
Dan Quinn stepped up to the podium and owned the mess completely, telling reporters that it was his responsibility completely and nobody else’s.
Washington’s starting QB Jayden Daniels backed him up regarding the chaotic finish, expressing that they needed to do better in these situations.
“We all got to be better situationally. Football starts with me. Everybody will say the same thing, but we just got to be better in situational football,” Daniels said after the game.
When Washington first brought in Dan Quinn, the front office had to work overtime pushing back on talk that he was just a fallback choice after missing out on Ben Johnson and Mike Macdonald. Quinn had spent years rebuilding his head-coaching credibility in Dallas after Atlanta fired him following a 0-5 start in 2020, a run that was always shadowed by that infamous 28-3 Super Bowl collapse against the Patriots.
These demons from the past are back now as national analysts ripped the blunder on television. Hall of Famer Michael Irvin said on ESPN: “I would understand if a coach did not survive this.” Dan Orlovsky echoed that harsh assessment during First Take, stating: “It falls 100% on a coaching staff that it seems very clearly did not communicate.”
It remains to be seen whether Dan Quinn can deliver under so much pressure now that he is on the hot seat with his team having a 1-3-1 record in the 2026 season.