The aftermath of Sunday’s overtime disaster from the Commanders will resonate for the remainder of the 2026 season, and perhaps beyond. Especially because it forced the players to answer for the malpractice of the coaches.
And it was malpractice. First and 10 from the Giants’ 26 with 55 seconds to play and no timeouts. A run, followed by a lackadaisical effort to start the next play, which began with 12 seconds left.
Then came another run, with no individual or collective awareness that the precious few remaining seconds of overtime were slipping away.
Coach Dan Quinn, who was ultimately responsible for the debacle, answered for it after the game. Quarterback Jayden Daniels, who could have recognized what was happening and thrown the ball into the dirt to kill the clock, answered for it, too.
Plenty of other players had to answer for something that wasn’t their fault.
Tight end Ben Sinnott, for example, was caught in an awkward spot when pressed for details in the locker room after the game.
“I run onto the field,” Sinnott said, via Scott Abraham of 7 News DC. “I get the play call and we execute the play.”
Did Sinnott know the Commanders were out of timeouts?
“Exactly how it went, right as I said,” Sinnott replied. “No comment.”
No comment is needed. It was objectively awful. This is the NFL, not Pop Warner. And it was a division game in the NFC East. The Commanders had a chance to kick a potential game-winning field goal, and they froze up. They glitched. They handled the situation as poorly as they could have handled it.
I know it sounds harsh, but Quinn should not be employed at this time tomorrow. Only clear and unequivocal accountability will wash the stench of what happened on Sunday away. Any other outcome will cause the confusion, the doubt, and the resentment to linger.
Former Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn is the running backs coach. Put him in charge and give him a chance to earn the job for 2027. Whether the players will admit it — to themselves or to anyone else — they’ll be checking out, consciously or not, when it comes to anything Quinn has to say moving forward.
And Daniels isn’t blameless, either. Yes, he’s a potential franchise quarterback. But true franchise quarterbacks overcome random acts of dysfunction. When the coaching staff fails, the franchise quarterback finds a way to protect the franchise.
Daniels’s failure to take charge of the situation potentially disqualifies him from holding the title of “franchise quarterback,” and it could make it even harder for him to ever earn it, in the eyes of his teammates.
Commanders Clips
The 5-0 49ers had to play without linebacker Dre Greenlaw for more than two quarters. Next Monday night against the Commanders, they could be missing him for all four quarters.
Greenlaw’s ejection for head-butting Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV (who wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time) could result in a suspension.
The NFL will review the situation on Monday for potential discipline. And that discipline could include preventing Greenlaw from playing in Week 6.
The play itself was inherently unsafe. While not the same as the time when then-Browns defensive end Myles Garrett struck still-Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his own helmet, striking someone who isn’t wearing a helmet in the head with a helmet should be a bright line, when it comes to discipline.
Then there’s Greenlaw’s history. He has now been ejected three times. In 2022, Greenlaw was sent to the showers prematurely for an illegal hit on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. In 2023, Greenlaw was tossed after a sideline incident that first introduced a national audience to the legend known widely as Big Dom.
Last year, Greenlaw was suspended for one game, as a result of his post-game interactions with referee Brad Allen following a game between the Giants and the Broncos, for whom Greenlaw played in 2025. And, just last week, Greenlaw had some harsh post-game words for Denver coach Sean Payton after a Broncos-49ers game. (Greenlaw was fined for taunting during the game.)
If a suspension will be imposed, it likely will happen on Monday. An expedited appeal would follow.
Commanders head coach Dan Quinn slammed his headset down on the sideline as the clock hit zero in overtime of Sunday’s 27-27 tie with the Giants and he got a chance to share what he was thinking as the Commanders blew their chance at a game-winning field goal try by letting time run out with the ball on the New York 24-yard-line.
Quinn said at his postgame press conference that he felt “gutted” for the players and that the tie “feels like a loss” because of how many opportunities the team failed to jump on over the afternoon. The biggest one came after Giants running back Cam Skattebo fumbled away his team’s own chance at a game-winning field goal on the first play after the two-minute warning and the Commanders drove downfield to poisition themselves for a field goal.
Instead of spiking the ball with around 12 seconds left, the Commanders ran a pay that saw quarterback Jayden Daniels kill a few seconds before going down for no gain. They didn’t immediately line back up to spike it and it’s unclear if they even would have gotten that snap off in time given how much time had already come off the clock.
Quinn said it is “my responsibility and no one else’s” to make sure that the Commanders don’t find themselves in that situation.
“The sequencing of that does not fall on him,” Quinn said. “It’s an outside throw or a clock, out of bounds throw or a clock. That has to come from me. . . . We can finish the kick earlier, we don’t need to gain more yards. That’s on me.”
One of the Commanders’ owners has already weighed in on the inexcusable errors at the end of the tie. If others share Magic Johnson’s view of the magnitude of the blunders, Quinn’s future in Washington may be limited.
As George Carlin once said, somewhere there’s a doctor who is the worst doctor in the world. And he’s seeing patients tomorrow.
We’ve now seen the worst example of clock mismanagement by an NFL coach in years, if not ever. And Dan Quinn may not be working tomorrow.
The inexplicable failure to attempt what would have been a game-winning field goal because the clock ran out becomes the most baffling, inexcusable failure to turn a potential win into not a win.
The Commanders had the ball at the Giants’ 26 with 55 seconds left in overtime, on a stopped clock. The Commanders ran the ball, gaining two yards.
And the clock ticked. And ticked. And ticked.
They huddled.
And the clock ticked. And ticked. And ticked.
The Commanders eventually snapped the ball with three seconds on the play clock, and 12 on the game clock. Quarterback Jayden Daniels began to drop back for a throw before running the ball, losing a yard.
When the play ended, eight seconds remained. Then seven. Then six. They eventually realized what was happening. Then five. Then four. By the time they lined up to try to spike the ball and kill the clock, the clock had killed them.
There’s no explanation for it. And it ultimately lands on the man in charge of the team on game day.
The question now becomes what the people in charge of the organization will do. One of the owners has already chimed in.
“I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants,” limited partner Magic Johnson said on Twitter. “All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!”
He added a facepalm emoji. Perhaps only because there’s no pink-slip emoji.
It’s ultimately the prerogative of majority owner Josh Harris as to whether Quinn will survive this come Monday. Even if he does, it now becomes much harder for him to survive come Black Monday.
The Commanders blew a chance to try for a win at the end of overtime on Sunday when they let the clock run out before trying a field goal inside the Giants’ 25-yard-line.
Quarterback Jayden Daniels took a snap and shuffled around a bit before going down for no gain. The Commanders had no timeouts, but did not move immediately to spike the ball and the clock ran out as they scrambled to get set. The result became a 27-27 tie with the Giants rather than a chance at their second win of the season as time expired.
After the game, Daniels was asked at his press conference about what went on in the final seconds. Daniels didn’t delve into details of the play call or any advice about how to manage the clock, but kept saying that the Commanders just have to “be better.”
“We all gotta be better situationally,” Daniels said. “Starts with me. Everybody will say the same thing, but we just gotta be better at situational football. . . . We gotta stop the clock, we gotta know the situation. We gotta relay that as an offense. It starts from everybody, top down. Ultimately, it’s on me”
Daniels is the field general and bears a lot of responsibility for making sure things like that don’t happen, but it’s ultimately on head coach Dan Quinn to manage the clock in a way that maximizes his team’s chances to win. Quinn failed at that and his own comments on the situation will be coming at some point on Sunday.
The Commanders were handed a gift by the Giants in overtime of Sunday’s game in Washington and they handed it right back.
Rather than take a knee and work the clock to take a game-winning field goal try with the Commanders out of timeouts after the overtime two-minute warning, Giants head coach John Harbaugh opted to hand the ball to Cam Skattebo on a first down from the Washington 24-yard-line. Skattebo fumbled the ball and the Commanders recovered to give themselves a chance to win the game.
They took advantage of it with Jayden Daniels completing two passes for 29 yards and running for 16 yards on a drive that moved to the Giants’ 24-yard line in the final minute. The Commanders only needed to spike the ball to stop the clock and try a field goal, but Daniels instead took a snap and danced around before being stopped for no gain and the clock ran out before the Commanders could take another snap.
The result was a 27-27 tie that should feel like a loss for both teams and both head coaches given how their decisions shaped the ending. Not only did Commanders head coach Dan Quinn bungle the final play, he also saw his team blow a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter after stifling the Giants offense for the entire afternoon. Jameis Winston threw three touchdown passes in the final 15:44 of regulation and the Commanders punted on their final two possessions.
The Commanders elected to kick off in overtime and forced a Dominic Zvada field goal try from 46 yards. Zvada missed for the third time on the afternoon, but the Commanders punted on their first possession of the extra session.
Daniels ended the game with a boneheaded play, but he looked good in his return from a dislocated left elbow for about 50 minutes of play. He had touchdown runs of 38 and 26 yards while picking up 103 yards on the ground for the day and he moved the Commanders pretty consistently until the wind came out of their sails in the final stretch.
Winston lost a fumble and struggled until catching fire late. He had two touchdowns to tight end Isaiah Likely and tied the game with a strike to Malik Nabers. He was 33-of-54 for 326 yards, but the Giants did experiment with using J.J. McCarthy at points in the early stages of the game. McCarthy ran twice for two yards, handed the ball off and threw a pop pass for a five-yard loss that was wiped out by a penalty.
The result leaves Washington with a 1-3-1 record and they’ll be on the road against the 49ers on Monday night in Week 6. The tie ends a two-game Giants winning streak and the 3-1-1 team will host the Saints next weekend.
The Giants trailed by 14 points in the fourth quarter, but the Commanders could not put them away.
Jameis Winston threw a pair of touchdown passes, including a game-tying score to Malik Nabers with 1:43 to play and the Commanders’ ensuing drive died near midfield, so the two teams are going to overtime with the score tied at 27.
Jayden Daniels ran for two scores in the second half to stretch the Commanders’ lead to 14 points, but Winston finally found his form after struggling in the rain for much of the day. He has thrown two scores to tight end Isaiah Likely in addition to the one to Nabers and is 28-of-44 for 283 yards overall.
The Giants have all the momentum, but they’ll need to do what the Commanders couldn’t by finishing the job in the extra period.
Jayden Daniels ran the ball several times in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Giants and any remaining fears that he’d be hesitant to make plays on his own after dislocating his left elbow disappeared in the third quarter.
Daniels couldn’t find anyone to throw to on a second down and took off through the Giants defense for a 38-yard touchdown. It’s the longest scoring run of Daniels’s NFL career and the Commanders now lead 19-6 with 7:47 left to play in the third quarter.
The touchdown came at the end of a 77-yard drive that saw Daniels pick up 17 yards on a throw to wide receiver Antonio Williams and nine yards on another run. Daniels is now 7-of-12 for 102 yards through the air and he’s run seven times for 61 yards.
The Giants picked up their second field goal of the game after taking the opening kickoff of the second half, but they’ll need to find another gear if they’re going to mount any comeback in this one.
The Giants used J.J. McCarthy on one play during the first quarter of Sunday’s game in Washington and the rest of their offensive performance over the first 30 minutes of play will have some wondering if he should get a longer look.
That performance saw the Giants pick up 70 total yards of offense and it saw starting quarterback Jameis Winston lose a fumble on a sack by linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson late in the second quarter. Tim Settle recovered the ball and Drew Stevens’s second field goal of the half made it a 12-3 Washington lead at the break.
Winston is 7-of-16 for 72 yards and he was sacked twice in wet conditions in the first half. McCarthy’s one play was a pop pass that resulted in a five-yard loss, but it was wiped out by a Commanders facemask penalty.
The Giants haven’t found any more success on the ground while Commanders running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt has seven carries for 50 yards. One of those was a 33-yard touchdown to cap the first possession of the game, but Stevens missed the extra point.
Jayden Daniels had two completions for 34 yards on the scoring drive and he’s 6-of-11 for 85 yards in his first action since dislocating his left elbow in Week 2. He’s also run five times and been sacked twice without showing any sign of issues with the elbow.
J.J. McCarthy made his Giants debut on the team’s first offensive possession in Washington.
McCarthy came off the bench one play after Jameis Winston converted a third-and-13 with a 15-yard pass to tight end Isaiah Likely. He threw a quick pass to wide receiver Darnell Mooney that went for a five-yard loss, although the Giants wound up moving forward thanks to a facemask penalty.
Winston returned to the game on the next play and the Giants wound up trying a 50-yard field goal a few snaps later.
Dominic Zvada missed the kick and the Commanders are still up 6-0 with 7:11 to play in the first quarter.
