When it comes to contributions, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels did enough during the face-off against the New York Giants. But it still fell short, as Daniels had the power to push the Commanders to a lead in the game that ended in a tie.
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“Somewhere, CJ Bailey and NC State are a sigh of relief. This is all on the quarterback. This is Jayden Daniels. You’ve played too much quarterback,” said former QB Ben DiNucci on NFL on CBS. “You’ve played too much football to let this happen. David Blough, Dan Quinn, whoever is in the ear of the quarterback before the play needs to say, Jayden, we have no timeouts.
“There are eight seconds here. This ball needs to go 50 rows up into the sidelines. It looked like there was some type of miscommunication. If you go back and look at the film, they were running crossers. The linemen were blocking. The running back looked like it was a pass protection and looked just like a classic brain fart from Jayden Daniels. At that point in time, that is tough.”
The Commanders’ clock management during the overtime has come under plenty of fire. With just a little under a minute left, and the Commanders at the Giants’ 24-yard line, all they had to do was land a field goal and run the clock out. However, the Commanders planned differently.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell also suggested that Washington acted as if they thought they had time.
“Sure looked like a designed pass play on the final snap from the Commanders to get a few seconds off the clock before the kick,” he wrote on X, along with a graphic explaining the play. “(Commentators said take a knee, which is very clearly wrong.) Daniels doesn’t throw the ball, guessing he thought they had a TO.”
In that drive, Rachaad White rushed for two yards to the Giants’ 24. He was tackled with just under a minute left. The Commanders got into a huddle, took their sweet time, and returned to the line of scrimmage with only a little over 10 seconds left. Daniels dropped back as three tight ends, and receiver Trey Burks ran routes.
But instead of throwing the ball away to stop the clock, he tried to run with it, and was tackled. It was game over for Washington.
“We have to stop the clock. We have to know the situation,” Daniels took accountability for the play. “We have to relay that as an offense. It starts with everyone, top down. Ultimately, it’s on me.”
While the quarterback held himself accountable, head coach Dan Quinn took it on his shoulders.
“Leaving tonight with a tie feels like a loss,” he shared. “The last sequence — we throw it out of bounds, we clock it, you give yourself a chance to kick it. We pride ourselves on those moments at the end of the game. After the first-down run, still trying to gain more for the kick. Right call is obviously we can go clock it early. Don’t put ourselves in that spot, and that’s my responsibility, no one else’s.”
Had things gone in the Commanders’ favor, Daniels would have received a treatment as a hero of the evening. Returning to play after two missed games due to an injury, he bounced back with 17 of 25 passing for 199 yards, and he rushed for 103 yards and two TDs on nine carries. But a poor decision took away a much-needed win.
However, the blame cannot completely be on the QB. It is also a coach’s job to manage the clock, which Quinn clearly failed at.
“I’ve been watching football for 50 years. I’ve never seen an end-of-game failure like the one the Commanders committed,” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio wrote. “I thought the Fox bug was incorrect, and that Washington had a timeout. It’s an immediately fireable offense by Dan Quinn.”
Will this tie come to bite back at Washington? We will have to wait and watch.