The Washington Commanders and New York Giants tied 27-27, but that’s not the biggest story of the game.
Quarterback Jayden Daniels led the Commanders into field goal range, seconds away from securing a victory. But instead of hitting the ball to stop the clock, he snapped it, crashed into the side and went down.
This allowed the final seconds of overtime to tick by.
Players, coaches and fans watching at home were left bewildered by the decision. Even Commanders co-owner Magic Johnson expressed his frustration on social media, posting that he was in “total disbelief” over the team’s handling of the final hour of the game.
“I am in complete disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants,” Johnson wrote. All we had to do was hit the field goal and we would have won the game.”
When asked about the game after the game, Daniels kept it short and sweet with reporters.
“We have to pass this on as an offense,” Daniels said. “It starts with everyone – top to bottom. In the end it’s up to me.”
Similar to Daniels, Chiefs coach Dan Quinn took full responsibility. In fact, Quinn absolved Daniels of any blame for the endgame.
“The sequence of this doesn’t fall on him,” Quinn said. “It’s a shot out of bounds or a ‘clock.’ That has to come from me.”
Quinn also second-guessed his decision not to take the field earlier.
“We can finish the punt earlier, we don’t need to gain more yards,” Quinn said. “This is for me.”
With the tie, the Commanders moved to 1-3-1 on the season. Of course, they didn’t lose any distance to the 3-1-1 Giants in the NFC East race. However, this did not change the sentiment among those in Washington.
“It feels like a loss,” Quinn said.
