With the Washington Commanders down 13-3 early in the second quarter against the San Francisco 49ers, the Commanders went for it on fourth-and-two from the 13-yard line.
Quarterback Jayden Daniels ended up throwing the ball away on that play, resulting in a turnover on downs. More noteworthy, however, is that head coach Dan Quinn appeared not to realize it was fourth down.
Here is a look at Quinn’s reaction on the sideline, as he appeared to ask for the field goal team until he realized they'd failed to convert on fourth down.
“Field goal. Oh, that was 4th down?”
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 20, 2026
certainly looks like lip readers believe Dan Quinn was completely unaware that it was 4th down and wanted to kick a field goal
💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/yJYuAUmVZX
When asked about the moment after the game, Quinn said he realized it was fourth down and knew they would have to go for it and be aggressive in this game because San Francisco was going to put up a lot of points. According to Quinn, he was reacting to the illegal shift that was called on that play.
Dan Quinn explains what he was actually saying on that fourth down … pic.twitter.com/t3x5L9EKWG
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) October 20, 2026
Realistically, you do not have to be an expert lip reader to tell what Quinn was saying and his explanation does not fit with what he said in the moment. If Quinn really did want to kick the field goal instead of attempting the fourth down, that actually changes the game significantly.
If Washington had 20 points instead of 17 on their second-to-last drive of the game when they got down to the San Francisco 17-yard line, they could have kicked a game-tying field goal. With how the Commanders defense had played in the second half, Washington could have prevented the 49ers from scoring and potentially taken the game to overtime or won in regulation. But, because they went for the fourth down in that moment and Daniels threw it away, we will never know what could have happened.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Dan Quinn reacts to viral video: 'I definitely knew it was fourth down'