In the Washington Commanders’ Week 5 game against the New York Giants, the team’s end-of-game gaffe cost them a win. Instead of picking up their second win of the season, Washington finished tied 27-27 with the Giants. All anyone could talk about was quarterback Jayden Daniels’ lack of awareness in letting himself get tackled in the field of play, and head coach Dan Quinn even letting it happen.
Quinn took full accountability for the error. So did Daniels and offensive coordinator David Blough. Daniels said he held himself to a higher standard and that it wouldn’t happen again.
In Monday night’s 23-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Daniels and Quinn’s situational awareness came into question again in a first-half moment. Down 13-3 in the second quarter, Washington went for it on fourth-and-2. That was the right call, since kicking field goals probably wouldn’t beat the undefeated 49ers.
But as the play unfolded, Daniels rolled right, saw nothing open, and threw the ball out of bounds. The play was flagged, but it was against the Commanders, so San Francisco declined and took over after the turnover on downs. Immediately after the play, cameras caught Quinn looking unsure whether it was fourth down. It was another embarrassing moment for Daniels and Quinn. After the game, Quinn said he knew it was fourth down.
Still, it brought Daniels’ situational awareness back to the forefront, despite playing a strong game against the Niners.
The day after the game, Quinn met with the media and said he addressed the toss out of bounds with Daniels.
“Yeah, I talked to him,” Quinn said. “I’ll go work backwards. On the penalty, even when you know there’s a penalty, you still take your shot, man, to go throw it, complete it. You don’t know if it’s gonna get picked up. So that was what I expressed to him, and as he’s going through seasons and learning, these are all the ones that I don’t wanna wait till the next day to talk to him about, like, you hit right into the moment where we’re gonna hit. I thought, like most things with him, there’s some plays that you said, that's an incredible throw. And there’s other ones I’d love him to stay through the look to go. I knew in this game that with the team speed, this was gonna be a more scramble-to-throw game against San Francisco. They played more zone; they’d be back deeper to go. So I was hoping to see more of that, but as he’s growing into it, more reps with [OC] David [Blough], more into the system. I’m expecting, you know, his out-of-pocket plays to continue. For him to run keepers off our play-action game, that's a big part of things for us, and I'm looking forward to seeing him continue to develop with that. He always can make some throws that just kinda leaves you thinking, ‘Man, there it is. There’s only a few guys that can make that throw or that play,’ and he can do that. But I’m looking forward to working with him as we’re gonna grow through it. And part of this self-scout is looking to see the things and communicate with him too, to say, ‘All right, these are things that we wanna do more of, and these are things potentially to do less of.’”
That’s a pretty thorough answer from Quinn. Some will shake their heads, considering his own recent gaffes. Still, it’s an important lesson for Daniels to learn. Daniels has the harder things down. He’s accurate, can run, and can make any throw. However, he needs to get the little things down. Regardless of where you stand with Quinn right now, this is a vital teaching moment for Daniels after a rough couple of weeks with his decision-making.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Dan Quinn shares message for Jayden Daniels over controversial 4th-down play