Washington’s matchup with the Giants came down to the final minutes, where every second counted. But with no timeouts left, the Commanders could not stop the clock, and the mismanagement cost them the game. Now, a Commanders star has confirmed that quarterback Jayden Daniels knew exactly how many timeouts they had left.
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“Commanders OL Chris Paul told reporters that having no timeouts WAS DISCUSSED in the huddle right before their overtime blunder,” JPA posted on X. “This would confirm that Jayden Daniels knew the situation yet still kept the ball and allowed the clock to continue running.”
The Giants only had to kneel a couple of times to run out the clock in overtime. Instead, they handed the ball to Cam Skattebo, and he got stopped behind the line. Daron Payne knocked the ball out, and Shy Tuttle jumped on it, recovering it for Washington.
That gave the Commanders a real shot. They could have spiked the ball to stop the clock and then tried a field goal. With 51 seconds remaining for what became the final play, Washington could have had this win. But the Commanders then went into a huddle with 35 seconds remaining. They only had a little over 10 seconds when Daniels took the snap.
He got sacked by Tremaine Edmunds at the Giants’ 24 for no gain, and time ran out before they could snap the ball again. His receivers were already too far out for them to get back to the line of scrimmage in time. It was doubted whether Daniels knew that they didn’t have any timeouts left.
Head coach Dan Quinn took the time-mismanagement blame right away.
“The sequence of that does not fall on him,” Quinn told reporters. “It’s an out-of-bounds throw or a ‘clock’. That has to come from me.”
The tie, or really the loss, leaves Washington at 1-3-1. Quinn said it feels like a loss to him. Reportedly, he also said a coach needs to “make life easier” for his quarterback.
Not everyone is going easy on Daniels, though. Emmanuel Acho pointed the finger at his quarterback play on X.
“Commanders offensive lineman (Chris Paul) said here they discussed having no timeouts in the huddle. I think Jayden Daniels just went rogue. His first read was covered, and he forgot to throw it away. Now he’s trying to deflect the blame,” he wrote.
Others were left puzzled by the whole sequence. Dan Orlovsky reacted by asking, “Not a single player on the field knew the situation?”
Daniels didn’t dodge it, either. He owned the mistake himself.
“We’ve just got to communicate that, that’s the whole thing,” he told reporters when asked if he knew the Commanders were out of timeouts. “It starts with me, communicating to the whole offense in the huddle. And I think everybody will say that from the top down.”
Washington has little time to dwell on it. They head out on the road to face the 49ers on Monday night in Week 6.