Perhaps when the calendar turns to 2027, this week will be an irrelevant and distant memory. Perhaps this disastrous ending will wind up benefiting the Washington Commanders in some kind of bizarre tiebreaker scenario.
In the immediate aftermath of the Commanders’ 27-27 tie with the New York Giants, however, there is no such sentiment.
Coaches need to realize there is no on-the-job training in the NFL. Officials need to be held accountable for getting calls right. Offensive players need to be aware of the situation, and defensive players, despite making big plays in overtime, need to stop giving up two-score leads in the fourth quarter.
Neither quarterback Jayden Daniels nor head coach Dan Quinn offered an adequate explanation.
“We all got to be better. It starts with me, but we’ve just got to be better in situational football,” Daniels said after the game.
“I’m gutted for our team,” Quinn said. “And that’s the hardest part. Leaving tonight with a tie is like leaving with a loss.”
None of this should have been necessary. Washington took the lead on its first drive. Daniels began the game with two crisp throws to tight end Chig Okonkwo for seven and 20 yards. Bill Croskey-Merritt then broke loose for a 33-yard touchdown run to give the Commanders a 6-0 lead after kicker Drew Stephens missed the extra point.
The Commanders led 12-3 at halftime after dominating the first two quarters on both sides of the ball. Daniels extended the lead with a 38-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter, making it 19-6.
Giants quarterback Jameis Winston (33 of 54, 305 yards, three touchdowns) answered with a 13-play, 63-yard drive that culminated in a touchdown pass to tight end Isaiah Likely, cutting the lead to 19-13.
Daniels seemed to put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter when he raced 28 yards for his second rushing touchdown of the day, extending Washington’s lead to 27-13.
“Man coverage in those spots and try to make them (the Giants defense) pay for it,” Daniels said.
Sadly, Washington’s defense could not get a stop when it needed one.
Down 27-13 with 7:20 left in the game, Winston hit Likely on a fourth-down, 17-yard touchdown pass. Likely appeared to fumble the ball at the goal line, but officials overturned the original fumble ruling and awarded the Giants a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 27-20.
After forcing the Commanders to go three-and-out, Winston threw his third touchdown pass of the day, this time to Malik Nabers, tying the score at 27.
The Giants missed a 46-yard field goal that would have won the game in overtime. New York appeared to get another chance when Washington was forced to punt with less than four minutes remaining in the extra period.
The Giants drove to the Commanders’ 24-yard line, but running back Cam Skattebo fumbled, giving Washington the ball back.
Daniels drove to the New York 24-yard line, seemingly putting Stephens in position for an easy game-winning chip shot. Instead, last-second clock mismanagement left the game deadlocked after overtime.
“I’m not quite sure what the call was over the headset. I think in that situation we practice to try to maybe center the ball,” wide receiver Terry McLaurin said. “But, I mean, obviously we didn’t have it executed or communicated right, as an offense, because that’s what happened. That just can’t happen. So, we got to take that, and that’s a bad lesson to learn. You got to be better at the NFL level. But, we just gotta move on.”
“You know, it’s obvious it’s frustrating,” linebacker Frankie Luvu said. “But I feel like there’s learning moments in there too as well. Whatever the situation or component may be, we are going to look at the tape and make corrections.”
Why the clock management broke down remains a mystery.
Without a further explanation, it is reasonable to assume that no one—neither coaches nor players—fully understood the urgency of the situation. There was no reason to run the clock down to the final play unless the team was concerned that its kicker might miss a short field goal, giving New York an opportunity to drive more than 60 yards in less than a minute without any timeouts.
Two other possibilities remain: The coaching staff lost track of the clock, or it failed to communicate clearly enough with Daniels about what to do.
Regardless, it was an unacceptable performance by the coaching staff, and the responsibility starts with Dan Quinn.
Now 1-3-1, Washington finds itself in divisional limbo. Mathematically, the team did not lose ground to the division-leading Giants and even gained half a game on Dallas and Philadelphia.
In reality, the good feelings and momentum from the 2024 playoff run seem like a distant memory. The current coaching staff must find answers soon or risk seeing the season slip away.
Postgame Notes
For the second consecutive week, the Commanders were on the receiving end of questionable officiating. Defensive back Amik Robertson had an interception nullified during the Giants’ first touchdown drive when he was flagged for defensive pass interference.
After the game, Robertson didn’t mince words.
“Bullshit. But you know referees want a TV timeout. I get it, you know, bullshit,” he said.
One of Likely’s touchdown catches was initially ruled a fumble before the call was overturned.
Part-owner Magic Johnson was also unhappy after the game. The five-time NBA champion, who is part of the Harris ownership group, posted the following 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!”
Cornerback Rasul Douglas led the defense with 10 tackles, two for a loss, and one pass defensed.
Bob Matthews is a 33 year veteran broadcast journalist, spending the last 29 years of his career in Virginia. Bob has covered both news and sports stories and for the last three seasons, the Washington Commanders. He looks forward to continuing to provide coverage to Sportsjourney.com both on the website and through his podcast, The Bob Matthews Show.
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