When the snap that left the entire NFL in disbelief began Sunday, Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels was supposed to do one of two things, Commanders coach Dan Quinn said — throw the ball out of bounds or spike it into the turf.
Both would have stopped the clock and given Washington the chance to earn a season-reviving win in the final seconds of overtime over their division-leading rival, the New York Giants.
When Daniels did neither, however, and instead ran the ball, it set off a chain of events that produced a 27-27 tie that was the result of the most inexplicable ending of the young NFL season so far.
“Leaving tonight with a tie feels like a loss,” Quinn said.
It was a far cry from the optimism the day had started with for Washington.
Playing for the first time since he injured an elbow three weeks earlier, Daniels had at times resembled the player who took the NFL by storm as a rookie in 2024. His 38-yard touchdown run in the third quarter gave Washington a 19-6 lead. In the fourth quarter, another Daniels touchdown run of 26 yards kept his team in front, 27-13, with 11 minutes to play in regulation.
The Commanders had just seven more offensive plays the rest of the fourth quarter, while the Giants roared back for two touchdowns to force overtime, with the teams lodged in a 27-all tie.
And still, the Commanders had the opportunity to win.
With 13 seconds left in overtime, the Commanders were in range of a game-winning field goal, just 26 yards from the end zone. Daniels, feeling some defensive pressure, improvised a run and barely got back to the line of scrimmage with 8 seconds left on the clock. He lay on the turf nonchalantly for 2 more seconds, until the Commanders seemed to remember they did not have a timeout left and that the clock was running out on their opportunity to win the game.
“They don’t have a timeout,” Fox broadcaster Chris Myers said. “What are they doing?”
Players from both teams scrambled into position, blocking the official from spotting the ball until no time was left on the clock. Myers, on the Fox broadcast, recalled the chaotic final sequence as a “comedy of errors.” Quinn threw his headset to the ground in frustration.
“I was surprised,” Giants coach John Harbaugh said.
The 27-27 tie was officially over. But the explanations had just begun.
Daniels called out the need to play better “situational football” and blamed himself.
“We got to stop the clock,” Daniels said afterward. “It starts from everybody top down, but ultimately, you know, it’s on me.”
Quinn said to blame him, the coach.
“The sequencing of that does not fall on him,” Quinn said. “It’s an outside throw or a clock [spike],” Quinn said. “Those are the two: out-of-bounds throw or a clock, and it has to come from me. I don’t have to put him into that spot. I can do that earlier, and we can finish the kick earlier. We don’t need to gain more yards, so that’s on me.”
Why not just spike the ball with 13 seconds left instead of have Daniels drop back at all?
“I’m saying we don’t need to gain any more” yards to make the field goal shorter, Quinn said. “We’re just trying to gain more. We don’t need to.”
Commanders minority owner Magic Johnson posted on X that he was “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! 🤦🏾♂️”
Quinn’s desire to run a play and either gain a few more yards or drain a few more seconds of clock was perhaps rooted in what had taken place during a pair of wild finishes earlier this season that had shown the perils of leaving too much time on the clock.
Only hours earlier Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles kicked a go-ahead field goal to take the lead on Jacksonville with just 8 seconds left in regulation. But that was enough time for the Jaguars to run the ensuing kickoff back into range for what became a game-winning field goal to stun the Eagles. Two weeks ago, Baltimore trailed when it got the ball back with only 7 seconds left in regulation but was able to move into field-goal range for a game-winning kick to beat Dallas.
Both of the wild endings produced by the Jaguars and the Ravens required huge, yard-gaining plays. All the Commanders needed to secure their own win was a spike, one of the simplest plays in football.
“I’m gutted for our team,” Quinn said. “And that’s the hardest part.”