- 12 minutes ago
The Washington Commanders committed one of the biggest clock management blunders in not only franchise history, but NFL history as well. Kevin Sheehan gives his reaction to the disastrous outcome between the Commanders and Giants week 5 matchup then blasts Dan Quinn and Jayden Daniels for being unprepared in the late game situation that resulted in a tie.
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00:00Good morning, everybody. Yeah, it's one of those kinds of mornings. You know, sports fans,
00:06we can get caught up in the moment and we can exaggerate things. You know, there's a recency
00:12bias with everything. There's no chance of exaggerating just how bad the end of game went
00:22for Washington yesterday. It was the worst end of game blunder in franchise history.
00:29And it's on the very, very short list of the worst in NFL history. That's not hyperbole.
00:38That's just true. Now, there is a list of major all-time NFL blunders. In terms of clock management
00:47at the end of a game, this is on the very short list of top two or three worst in
00:56league history.
00:57And it is the worst in franchise history. Yesterday is one of those, you know, sports moments,
01:06sports endings. It's hard to make up. You know, I've said for years and many of you have thought
01:12it was either obnoxious or it was tongue placed first firmly in cheek or playful. It never was
01:20when I've said before that literally there are 12-year-olds who play Madden that can handle
01:26clock management better than some NFL and college teams. And I've never suggested that that's
01:34playful, tongue in cheek. It's mostly true. Now, I don't know how they would do under the bright lights
01:39and the pressure that goes with that, but they would know what to do if you ask them outside of
01:45the environment of a game. The end of game yesterday was the worst you'll ever see for a
01:51number of reasons. But I think the number one reason is that it was so easy and so totally
02:02controllable. It was one of those that wasn't hard. You know, there isn't a lot of debate on how to
02:08handle that. I'll explain what they should have done from my point of view coming up in a few
02:16minutes. But let me jump to this. Yesterday's end of game fiasco on its own won't cost Dan Quinn
02:24his job, but it will be near the top of the list of reasons that Josh Harris will eventually have
02:31to
02:31let him go. He does a lot of things well, Dan Quinn does. He's been very important in changing
02:38the organization's culture to one that is functional most of the time versus one that was
02:46largely dysfunctional all of the time. But the margins in the NFL when it comes to winning and losing
02:53are so thin and things like understanding how to manage the clock, the score, the game is one of those
03:01on the margin areas. You have to win more often than you lose. And he's got too many marks against
03:09him when it comes to this very important part of football. Yes, he also has some moments that they've
03:16done it very well. You know, in 2024, they did it pretty well at times. But last week's fourth and
03:22one decision wasn't good. Okay, but yesterday's was likely fatal for him. It'll go down in franchise
03:29history as the game against the Giants in Landover in October of 2026, when the team let the clock run
03:39out without attempting to kick a borderline chip shot field goal to win the game. Instead, tying a game
03:48that felt much more like a loss. Non Washington fans, you know, NFL fans, NFL pundits, they're having a field
03:59day with this as they should as I would if it was another team. They'll have a very hard time
04:05ever
04:06forgetting what happened yesterday in Landover at 443 p.m. roughly. What an epic game. Three hours
04:14and 43 minutes, nearly a four hour game. But this is not hyperbole people. This is on the short list
04:22of
04:22the worst end of game blunders in NFL history. Dan Quinn, and maybe Jaden Daniels will be attached to
04:30this for their careers. It will be difficult, very difficult, barring a major turnaround this season,
04:39to overcome what happened yesterday if you are Dan Quinn. And I'm not accusing him of being the only
04:48culprit in yesterday's debacle. I'm not. Jaden Daniels has to be better and say, I don't care
04:56that these meatheads didn't tell me to clock the ball, to spike it. I know better and I'm going to
05:03save themselves by spiking it with 12, 13 seconds to go in the game. Jaden was brilliant yesterday.
05:11Brilliant. But the fact that he didn't have a clue is not a great sign when it comes to his
05:18overall
05:19clock management awareness. David Blau and maybe some other guy who tells Dan what to do,
05:27they're not immune from this either. But the head coach gets the bulk of the blame. Unless we find
05:35out, unless we find out, we don't know a lot right now. Unless we find out that he told Jaden
05:41to clock
05:42it with 12, 13 seconds left, which clearly he didn't, because they sent in a play to run that
05:51wasn't clocking the ball. But unless we find out that Quinn said clock it with 12, 13 seconds left
06:00and everybody ignored him, which I don't think happened, this one mostly falls on him. And if
06:09the season doesn't turn around in a major way, meaning I'll quantify it, meaning they don't win
06:17eight of their final 12 to finish at least nine, seven and one, I would imagine the chances of him
06:24being back next year are not very good at this point. Now, do I think Josh Harris will let him
06:30go
06:30during the season after next week heading into the bye week? I don't. And I personally don't know what
06:36kind of benefit you get from that. And I will tell you, from what I've heard, it's not like there's
06:42an
06:42obvious interim coach on the staff with two first-time coordinators.
06:49Now, he's a competitor. They're all competitors. They're in the arena, so to speak. So, you know,
06:58we're just dopes from the couch with an opinion. They can't dwell on it. You know, they have to compete.
07:07They have to put it behind them. They've got to get to the 49ers.
07:10But I will say this about yesterday. If I'm the owner, if I'm Josh Harris, whether it was last night
07:17or early this morning, I have to have a sit-down with my head coach. And I have to ask
07:22him,
07:23first of all, please explain to me in detail what happened. And then explain to me how it will never
07:31happen again. And if the answer doesn't include that I'm going to have this specific person who
07:39is so good at this standing next to me start to finish or in my ear start to finish so
07:46that I can't
07:47do this again, it's going to be him screaming in my ear, tell him to clock it. Tell him to
07:54clock it
07:54with 12 seconds. That's the only thing to do. If that's not the answer, I don't know what Josh
08:01Harris would do. But this is one of those times where, as an owner, you need an explanation and
08:08you need to know what the solution is. You know, blame, you know, talking about what happened is part
08:15of it, but solution is the most important, important part of it. The reason this is going
08:23to be so hard to top in the annals of meatheaded blunders by a team in a situation like that
08:31is what I said, um, two minutes ago, three minutes ago, it was very controllable, very controllable.
08:40Let me walk you through essentially, I think the way it needed to happen. First of all,
08:49when Jaden throws to J to Traylon Burks and he makes a nice catch, nice run to the giant 26
08:56yard
08:56line with 55 seconds left at that moment, they were in easy field goal range. Okay. Borderline chip
09:06shot field goal range. A 43 yarder has become that in today's NFL. And yes, I know that Drew
09:12Stevens missed an extra point on a wet field from 32 yards out, you know, in the first quarter after
09:19their first touchdown, but a 43 yard field goal is nothing in this league. You know, they had no timeouts,
09:25but they had 55 seconds and a first down at the giant 26 yard line. At that point, there's only
09:35one goal. And that is to have your field goal team out there on the field, attempting a field goal
09:44from
09:44no worse than 43, 44 yards. Okay. With just as little time as possible. Let me just real quickly
09:54interject this because some of you were just, and I look, the emotion of yesterday is really the shock
10:03first of all, and then just the anger and the emotion of it as fans. I understand, you know,
10:09a lot of you that said, what are they doing? Just kick it with 50 seconds. Just kick it with
10:1440
10:14seconds. Just kick it with 30 seconds. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is terrible strategy.
10:20Terrible. Okay. The goal is to kick the field goal, to attempt the field goal with as little time
10:29possible left on the clock. Why? It's really simple. If the kick is missed, the game is not over.
10:37The Giants then take over on the 26 yard line with a chance, especially with the way
10:44Jameis was carving them up for one big completion and out of bounds at the 48 yard line to try
10:52a 65
10:53yarder. By the way, that kid's got that kind of a leg. I know he missed three field goals yesterday.
10:58Trust me. I'm aware of all of that, but you do not want to kick that field goal with 50
11:05seconds,
11:06with 40 seconds, with 30 seconds. No, that's terrible clock management. You've got to wind that clock
11:12down to his little time. And I'll explain specifically what I think they should have
11:18done. And then, you know, yeah, there's a really good chance he's going to make it and the game's
11:25going to end, but you have to prepare also for the worst that he misses it. Cause he's already
11:30missed an extra point. He's missed three PATs this year. One of them was from 48 yards out against
11:35Seattle. So when Rashad white ran for two yards with the clock starting on the play at 55 seconds
11:44and ending at 49, there was a nine second clock play clock and game clock differential. So this
11:52is what should have happened. This is what a 12 year old who plays Madden a lot understands. And there
12:00are some, you know, real fine line details here, but for the most part, the idea is you want to
12:07run
12:08most of that play clock and you want to spike the football on your second down and eight play at
12:16their
12:1624 yard line. Cause Rashad white gained two yards and you should spike it by the way, with about 12
12:24to
12:2413 seconds, which would still be about four seconds left on the play clock. And the reason that you
12:29do that is that in the event, there's some sort of pre-snap penalty on the spike on the clocking
12:37it
12:38and you're at 10 seconds or less than there's a 10 second runoff because there's a running clock.
12:45So then the game expires on a 10 second, you know, runoff. So what you want to do is clock
12:51it with
12:52about 12 to 13 seconds. That way, if God forbid somebody jumped on the clocking it, they run the 10
12:59seconds off, you're over the ball, you spike it. And then you kick it with one seconds to go five
13:03yards back. That's how it should have been handled. Now, after the clock, it was third down. Let's just
13:11say with 12 or 13 seconds left, there are many teams that would have left an experienced quarterback
13:17on the field and an experienced team on the field to run one more play to burn another four or
13:24five
13:24seconds so that the kick legitimately comes really at the end of the game. But kicking it with 12 to
13:3013 seconds on third down would have been important. Keep in mind for those of you who reached out and
13:35said they should have been kicking it on third down anyway, in case the snap is bad. If the snap
13:39is bad,
13:40the clock's going to run out anyway, because they don't have timeouts. Of course, they didn't do it that
13:49way. And I think, you know, while we can sit here and we can talk about what was said after
13:56the game
13:56by Dan Quinn and by Jaden Daniels and by Chris Paul in the locker room who said in the huddle,
14:02it was
14:03communicated that we didn't have timeouts left. I think that the biggest tell on how bungled this was
14:13and how badly this was managed, I could be wrong, but I don't think I'm wrong, is as Rashad White
14:26got up
14:27and they went back to the huddle and the clock started to roll from 50 seconds on down, they called
14:33a play that wasn't spiking it or just a sprint out and chuck it out of bounds. They called what
14:43looked
14:43like a play action play with, by the way, a longer count and motion. So now you've put pre-snap
14:52penalty
14:53into the equation with a longer count and with motion. What are you doing? That's the biggest tell
15:02that they didn't know. I think there are three theories. I'll get to them on what they knew and
15:08what actually happened. But the biggest tell that everybody got bamboozled by this is that they
15:15called an actual play when, and Quinn admitted afterwards that we want, you know, maybe a few
15:23more yards would have been nice. No, you didn't need any more yards. You're not going to take a risk
15:28of getting more yardage and having, even if it's an out route to Senate, what if his progress gets
15:35stopped in bounds and they roll the clock? The only play that should have been called into that huddle
15:44was a clock it, spike it with 12 to 13 seconds left on the game clock, which would have been
15:50about
15:50three to four seconds left on the play clock. That's the play. That's the answer, period. There's
15:57no other answer if you're going to do this right, unless you think your kicker can't kick a 41-yard
16:03field goal. Unless you really think he needs more yards. And of course we know that's not true.
16:09Drew Stevens has a big, big leg. I don't know if he would have made the kick. Maybe he would
16:13have
16:14missed the kick. He missed an extra point. Field wasn't great. Weather wasn't great. But you have
16:19to be able to attempt a 41-yard field goal. Chip shot in 2026 in the NFL. That's a 90
16:26% plus make
16:27in 2026 NFL. The fact that they called a play, a regular play, it looked like play action. It looked
16:37like Jaden turned and didn't have the play action right with Rashad White in the backfield. But that
16:44is right there, the most egregious mistake. And a big tell that they didn't know what they were doing.
16:55You know, you can't run a regular play and have the clock go down as close as it did because
17:01of the
17:0110-second runoff possibility with a pre-snap penalty. They didn't do it that way. The game that
17:13immediately came to mind for me yesterday was Thanksgiving 2024. Caleb Williams was a rookie
17:21for the Bears. They were playing the Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Matt Eberflus was the coach.
17:26And look, he was on a warm seat, to say the least, at that point in the season. Remember,
17:33that season included the Hail Mary that went against them. The game in which Washington managed
17:40the final two plays pretty well. The Bears gave Terry McLaurin all of that room,
17:47and they threw a 13-yard out route to McLaurin to get Jaden into position so he could throw the
17:53Hail
17:53Mary. There are examples of Quinn and staff handling this in a responsible way.
18:03But later on that year on Thanksgiving, down three in field goal range. He called a play.
18:10They called a play. And Caleb Williams took the snap with under 10 seconds to go. He gets pressured.
18:16He's running around. And now he realizes, oh my God, the clock's going to run out. And he heaves one
18:21into the end zone. They lose the game on a Hail Mary incompletion. And Eberflus got fired the next
18:28day. Fired. That was it for the Ford family. They had seen enough. I don't think that that is the
18:35Quinn position. Okay. Eberflus had no success in Detroit. Dan Quinn took this team and led this team
18:45as the head coach to an NFC championship game in his first year. So Eberflus' seat was warm to hot.
18:53Quinn's may have been warm heading into this game. It's now hot. It's now officially hot.
19:00Again, this is on its own, not a fireable offense, but for a coach who's on a warm seat,
19:07it becomes a very hot seat quickly. I don't think Josh Harris will fire Dan Quinn during the season.
19:14I don't think he should fire Dan Quinn during the season. Let me be clear. I am sick to my
19:22stomach
19:22because of how bad that was yesterday. I'm also sick to my stomach because I feel for Quinn and
19:32everybody else out there because you don't, you can't wish that kind of an ending on your worst
19:39of enemies, let alone somebody that is very likable and has done a lot of good things since
19:46coming here. So I want to be clear that it's not wrong to talk about how hot the seat is
19:54now.
19:55It's not, it's totally justifiable to talk about right now, that, that ending yesterday,
20:02if they don't go on to have a nine, if they don't win eight of their next 12 to finish
20:08nine,
20:08seven and one and be in playoff contention, it's probably, you know, it's in the employee file.
20:14Nice guy. Change culture. October 11th, 2026. Worst end of game blunder in NFL history. Can't get
20:26past that one. Can't get past it. It's obviously a much larger picture when you're evaluating the
20:34employment or future employment of a head coach. And I've said this many times. I don't know how
20:41anybody could evaluate Quinn from last year. They had nobody available to play for them.
20:48Whenever you lose your starting quarterback and your starting quarterback is your best player,
20:54you're doomed nine and a half times out of 10. I don't hold 2025. I don't hold Quinn responsible for
21:032025. I absolutely wrote it off. As many of you who listened to me all off season. No, I just
21:09don't
21:09think it's fair to evaluate when you lost more frontline starters led by your starting quarterback,
21:17your best player. It's just not a fair evaluation. And look, one in three to start this season
21:25isn't good. But again, the starting quarterback had played a game and a half and other key players
21:31have been out for multiple games. I need to see what it looks like with everybody there. Now,
21:36if they've got some sort of systemic issue with training and medical and, you know, whatever's
21:41going on there that's leading to them, having, you know, league lead in frontline starters lost,
21:48man games lost, that's something I can't speak to. And maybe that is the issue. Who knows?
21:56I am not advocating. I want to be clear. I am not advocating for Dan Quinn to get fired right
22:01now.
22:02I'm not. But what happened yesterday is, well, if Dan Snyder were the owner, I don't think he would
22:09have made it out of the locker room. But then again, I'm not sure Dan would have understood what
22:13actually happened at the end of the game. He would have needed his son to explain it to him.
22:18But he would have been incensed because somebody would have told him how bad it was. And Quinn
22:23wouldn't have made it out of the locker room. I'm okay with Quinn getting the rest of the year
22:31to turn this around. You know, what's wild about yesterday? It was egregious. It was inexcusable
22:39on every level. You know, there's no way to describe it. You can have empathy. You can say,
22:49oh, I wish that hadn't happened to him. His players really like him. He kept that team together
22:55somehow last year. That team is totally behind him. He is really good for a locker room culture
23:01as a leader. You can have all those feelings, but you can simultaneously do more than one thing and
23:07think more than one thing. Yesterday was an egregious, inexcusable handling of a game that should have
23:15been a win, not a tie that felt like a loss. And a significant win early in the season.
23:25There was a lot before the end that was encouraging. There was a lot also that wasn't so encouraging.
23:33Um, but none of it really matters in the wake of what happened at the end. It'll be forgotten.
23:39Now I'm not going to forget it. I'm going to talk about it. Um, I'm going to do my game
23:44take coming
23:44up, tell you what I liked, what I didn't like several other observations. Um, but yeah, that,
23:53that was a disaster and all time disaster to end what turned out to be an epic football game after
24:03halftime. And my God, how good is Jaden Daniels? I am not really that happy that he didn't know what
24:14to do at the end. That is alarming for sure, but Lord, keep this man healthy. Let he, him play
24:23the
24:24rest of this season, his talent, his gifts, special elite, otherworldly. All right. I've got a little
24:35bit more on the final play. You'll hear some of what Quinn said, which was not specific. You'll hear
24:42what Jaden said, not specific. Um, and I'll share with you guys what I think may have happened. Like,
24:50I think there are kind of three things that may have happened in that situation that caused
24:57the absolute, you know, fiasco at the end.