- 12 hours ago
Ben Standig from The Last Man Standig Podcast and Substack joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to recap the disastrous outcome of the Commanders vs Giants week 5 matchup and breaks down the final sequence from the overtime period, where Dan Quinn and the offense failed to manage the clock properly to potentially attempt a game winning field goal.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Ben Standings with us as he is every Monday and Friday. He was there yesterday. He was in the
00:05locker room afterwards. He was at the press conferences. He'll be on the Zoom call with
00:10Quinn today, later on this afternoon. So I'll just give you the floor and obviously let's start with
00:17the end of game sequence and you can tell us A, what you thought and B, if here we are
00:23coming up
00:24on, you know, what is it, 20 hours later, if we know anything specific as to what happened
00:32on that final play and sequence. Yeah, I'm sure you've had a fun conversation here for the last
00:38few hours, people calling in and weighing in. Boy, well, let me just say this. So like I'm
00:46typically at the end of a game, you know, I don't have to file, sorry, the buzzer since I'm my
00:51own,
00:51running my own show, but I try to put something up. And since they had the 14 point lead, I'd
00:55started writing a story about, well, hey, look, they won a game here. And then when the game gets
01:00tied, I'm revising it to, oh, they blew this game. It never crossed my mind of a tie. And so
01:06I say
01:07that because as the last seconds are sort of going down and you're watching what's going to unfold,
01:10you know, maybe Drew Stevens goes out there and misses a kick and that's a different story. But,
01:14you know, you're thinking, well, they're just going to at least get the playoff. And then all of a
01:17a sudden you're like, wait a minute, what is going on here? And I wasn't listening to the
01:23broadcast. I don't know what was exactly being said. I mean, I've subsequently seen the replay
01:28and you're just like, okay, at a bare minimum level, anybody who's watching that game or who's
01:33in that stadium, who is, you know, over eight years old or who's played football for 10 minutes
01:38knows you got to spike that ball. So the question is, what happened there? Did Jaden Daniels have a,
01:45you know, just complete mental breakdown? Did nobody, was nobody aware that they had timeouts?
01:50Like what, what's the, what's the deal? I don't know that we have definitive answers for any of
01:56that right now. If you listen to what everybody was saying in the post game, you know, Dan Quinn
02:00took a lot of the blame on himself. And look, frankly, a lot of it goes there because even though
02:05he has nothing to do with sort of the moment, right, he's not on the headset calling, talking to the
02:11quarterback about the play. This is the type of thing you work on months and months ago. When
02:17everybody talks about the values of OTAs and mini camps and all these things, this is what we're
02:23talking about. We're not talking about game planning against the Giants. We're talking about the basic
02:27fundamentals of football. What do you do in certain circumstances? What's the operation? So to that
02:32extent that there was this much of a miscalculation is squarely on the head coach. Now that said,
02:41in terms of the play itself, I mean, was it not communicated to Jaden Daniels? Well, you'd like
02:46to imagine that it was multiple times on that final drive or at some point, like, Hey, we don't have
02:51any timeouts left. And we had, we heard Chris Paul in the locker room say that, yeah, it was something
02:56that was discussed. Now, of course, what is, what's the context of that? Was it discussed when this
03:01draft started? Was it discussed before the last play? That we'll know. You watch the replay.
03:06It certainly doesn't look like anybody is aware that, that they didn't have any timeouts left,
03:12right? There's zero urgency. I mean, it feels like even if the exact play happens where he gets sacked,
03:16but they immediately get up and go to the line, I think there's at least a chance they get the
03:22ball
03:22spiked. It certainly looked like that was plausible, but maybe not, maybe they run out of time,
03:27but it was plausible. But there's zero urgency, which leads to believe that they didn't
03:30know. And therefore, what did Jaden, again, not, was he not told that he forget what happened?
03:36But then you go to the post game and James asked about this, of course. And he says, you know,
03:42look,
03:42we've got to do better from the relaying information from the top down. And ultimately, it's on me.
03:48Boy, based on his career here so far, he has fallen on the sword often. You know, there was that
03:55chunky soup commercial he had with Tyler Biotis last year, in which the gist is that they changed
04:01his room into like a chunky soup mausoleum or whatever. And his mom walks in and says,
04:07Jaden, what happened here? And he points to Tyler Biotis, like, kind of like, ask him to blame him.
04:11And then I jokingly last year asked Jaden at a press conference, but hey, you're normally the guy
04:15who takes the blame. Why are you throwing Jaden, why are you throwing Biotis under the bus to your
04:19mom? And he kind of laughs. And I say that because that's what Ben makes this also confusing. If he,
04:24if he really isn't to quote unquote blame, you get some, but I mean, if he, if it really wasn't,
04:29he wasn't, it wasn't being communicated to him and there's so much going on, he just, you know,
04:33didn't think of it on his own. Well, then what, then him saying, talking about we, is it that much?
04:39That is also confusing and potentially alarming. So I don't know that we have any definitive
04:46answers. Ultimately, as we know, it doesn't change too much, but the broader picture is between this,
04:53the constant penalties, just a lot of other things that keep happening here where just things just do
04:58not look crisp at all. I mean, it is hard to not look at the overall operation and think that
05:03whatever they were doing in training camp or, or mini camp or whatever, it just did not do enough.
05:09Yeah. Look, I have definitely assigned the bulk of the blame to Dan Quinn from this standpoint.
05:18They're, they call the play into the huddle, a play like not a, not a clock it. They called a
05:25play.
05:26They, they had two receivers going downfield. Traylon Burks and, and Chigakonquo are going
05:33downfield. They're running a play with a long count and motion, which increases your chance
05:39of a pre-snap penalty that would have resulted in a 10 second runoff. The, to your point at the
05:45end
05:45of the play, no one, uh, is, is moving quickly to get back up. So I, I do think, you
05:53know, cause you
05:53and I haven't talked about this. I do think that it is alarming that Jaden Daniels in his third year
05:58didn't know enough to tell the meatheaded call that came in, Hey, I got this. I'll save yourself
06:04from yourselves. This is a stupid idea to run some sort of play action, try to throw it out
06:10to Senate in the flat, who by the way, could have been tackled or forward progress stopped in bounds
06:15by banks. Um, but I'll take care of it. We're going to spike it with 12 seconds and we're going
06:20to kick
06:21a field goal and we're going to win the game. Um, but this is on Quinn headset or no headset,
06:26the preparation needed to be there. And then if it wasn't, he goes over to Blau and says,
06:33spike it with 12 seconds. That is the only instruction that matters here. We are going
06:38clock it with 12 seconds, period. We don't need any more yards. We're not going to take the risk
06:45of a pre-snap penalty, having a 10 second runoff that would end the game. We are spiking it.
06:51And that wasn't the instruction. Clearly that wasn't the instruction. So that's why for me,
06:57he gets the bulk of the blame, but it isn't comforting that Jaden didn't have the awareness
07:05of the situation either. That's not a comforting thought for a guy who's as insanely gifted and
07:11talented as he is, as we saw up until that last sequence all game long. You know, it's, it's,
07:19and again, this is hard to quantify, but like, there are always some plays in sports that stand
07:24out because it doesn't make sense. What is happening? For example, the famous Derek Jeter
07:29play where he's over, he somehow cuts off the relay near the first baseline when based on where
07:33he plays, he shouldn't possibly be there. Like, how did he think to do that? That's where you're
07:37like, wow, what, what instincts for him do you think to do that? Um, you know, this is the type
07:45of
07:45thing with what you're saying that it goes beyond the coaching, beyond what the play is. You just
07:50got to, if some guys just have that extra level of instinct. And I do wonder to a degree, you
07:55know,
07:57it's hard to know exactly what Jaden does or doesn't have in that regard, but it does feel like
08:00they have been trying to kick out or to take away a lot of the instincts out of him in
08:04terms of things
08:05like they, when it comes to running the ball, not going for the extra yard. Sometimes you've been
08:10knowing how to get down and does that, is that being, is the instincts being sort of taken out
08:16of him? Does that factor into this? I'm not making an excuse. I'm just wondering out loud
08:20because it feels like that's something that they have been, um, attempting to, to, to do. I mean,
08:26as far as like the play call itself, you're right. Obviously, if Dan Quinn said after the game,
08:29you know what, we didn't need any more yards, should have just kicked it completely reasonable.
08:33Now, even if you wanted to say, Hey, it's, you know, the wet conditions, we've got the rookie
08:37kicker. He missed an extra point earlier. Now, Drew Stevens is seven for seven on kick 50 in. He
08:42did. He does have three missed extra points. Two of them are from long range, but it's slightly
08:46different than a field goal in terms of just the setup to it. But okay. If you wanted to do
08:51that,
08:52just the play itself just didn't look completely functional for that. I mean, Ben Sinner's running
08:56out to the flat. So there is that aspect, but just the way Jaden was moving, it just did not
09:02look
09:02like, I mean, that's gotta be hike, throw left or throw it out of bounds. And it's over. He's like
09:07looking around like it just, the whole operation of it just did not make sense. And again, is
09:12that the, you know, the quarterback having an issue and, or is that the, you know, the,
09:18the play call itself? So I think all these things are, are, are a huge factor. And here's
09:24another one I'll throw in there again, Dan Quinn. Yes. Buck stops with him. Go back to months
09:30ago when they hire Blau. I think one of the big questions was, okay, what veteran coach
09:34did they bring in to help him be, whether it's being the, the passing game coordinator
09:38or, or, or an assistance coach of some type? Like they do, you know, they brought in DJ
09:43Williams to be the QB coach, but he's also a young guy and his job is to help Jaden Daniels.
09:47His job is not really to help David Blau, right? And then what did they do? They never brought
09:50in anybody, right? They, they, they promote David Rye from the tight ends coach to the passing
09:54game coordinator. So now around David Blau, you have another guy who's, he's been a coach
10:00for a while, but you know, runoff will be inexperienced at that level. You have a head
10:03coach, he's a defensive guy, there is nobody for that. And it's not to say that in the
10:07short amount of time that they had to deal with this, that that person could have been
10:11in somebody's ear, but it is to say that person could have been somebody's ear for the last
10:15three months, six months. And that position never got filled with anybody of a veteran
10:19experience. Who was the guy that they hired from the league office before 24?
10:24Dave, Dave Gardy. Yeah. He's not with the organization. I mean, wasn't that part of his
10:30game day responsibilities? So that was, yeah. I mean, he, he wasn't necessarily sort of for
10:35Blab, but he was like, yes, for the, yeah, for, for game day management for, you know, yes,
10:40that, that was the role for him. Go, you know, fourth down, what do you do? Things along those
10:45lines. I don't know that Dave, I mean, clearly somebody has those responsibilities and I honestly
10:50wish I could give you the name of who that is exactly, but there's no, some, there's nobody
10:53with like that exact title. Yeah. They need to get somebody that handles that, whether
10:58they have the title or not. I mean, it could be, you know, a kid that's really good at
11:03it that is in Quinn's ear and has headset capability to tell everybody, no, you can't
11:08call a play here. Stop it. And again, like that, right. And again, like maybe I'm wrong,
11:14but like, again, in every, in almost every circumstance, at least on the offense, when
11:18they went to bring somebody in, it was somebody who was not experienced. Now that's not the,
11:22I mean, somebody has to start somewhere, right? I mean, Sean McVay one day got a job
11:26and then it became Sean McVay, right? So it starts somewhere, but at the same point,
11:30that's a lot of, you know, a lot of, a lot of inexperience on the side of a ball when
11:35the head, when the coordinator himself has no experience essentially in this role. And
11:39plus even the quarterback, it's not some grizzled vet Joe Flacco type who can kind of do it on
11:45his own. It's a kid who's still, you know, learning the, the, the league. So that to me was
11:51always a big question. You know, again, I can't qualify what any of this means to what
11:55happened yesterday or how it impacts the team, but it just is a reminder that they don't
12:00have nearly the experience on that side of the ball from the coaching staff as you would
12:04think they might want to have.
12:06All right. Ben's joining us at Ben Standing. He covers the team with his own sub stack. I
12:11would urge everybody to definitely subscribe to it. So question about Quinn was yesterday
12:19fatal, whether it's in the short term or longterm.
12:25Well, I mean, I, I would be surprised if there, if there, if there was a change to be
12:29made, I would be surprised if it were to take place now or even after the bye week. I mean,
12:34even if they lose the San Fran, I mean, look, we can all sit here and debate whether they
12:39need to make a change. And I think obviously yesterday was some evidence of like point, you
12:44know, that helps the side that thinks they need to make a change. I totally get it. I just
12:48don't know what, I don't know how that matters here in week six or seven. Like I just don't,
12:54I think in the NFL, if you make that change in some of the other sports, it's a bit different,
12:59but these other sports are not nearly as has everything integrated the way the NFL does
13:04so many pieces, so many moving parts. So I don't know the point would be, but look, I mean,
13:08is it trending towards if things keep going this way that Dan Quinn's going to be in trouble
13:12at the end of the year? I mean, it's getting hard to ignore, to say otherwise at this stage,
13:17you know, it, cause again, it's one thing to lose, right? For whatever the reason,
13:22but it's another thing to sort of look dysfunctional. And at the end of the game,
13:26they looked dysfunctional and it's not been the only time that's happened. And also,
13:30you know, Dan Quinn, look, he is essentially the CEO head coach, right? He's not calling for,
13:37he's not calling plays on either side of the ball. So his basic responsibility is beyond like sort
13:42of, you know, keeping the players motivated and things like that is these game day moments,
13:48like we just discussed, but also finding that edge. What's the thing that you're going to help
13:53put you over the top or, or offset the fact that you're missing this player or you're weak in this
13:58spot. And I just don't feel like that was my, one of my bigger issues of last year. It's not
14:02that
14:02they went five and 12 blame the injuries or whatever. It's that they were just getting absolutely
14:06worked so many of these games. And it's like, where is the coaching staff to help from a tactical
14:11percent per situation to try to offset some of that? It just does not feel like that is,
14:17that is occurring. And, you know, again, this is a situation where this is the most fundamental,
14:22one of the most fundamental plays that you're going to have in sports that you have to believe
14:26that every coach has gone over a hundred times. And yet somehow here it didn't hit. And, and that is,
14:35that's tough. And, and I think, you know, again, I don't see the point of doing anything today or
14:40tomorrow other than for people to be happy, but I don't really know what that was, I mean,
14:43assuming you would be happy. I don't know what that's doing for the team. So I suspect
14:48we may look back on it and say, this was the line of where it ended for him, but I
14:53don't think
14:53we're there yet. I'd be surprised. Yeah. I tend to agree with you. All right. I got to run
14:59just real quickly. Not that anybody cares right now in the moment, but were there any injuries
15:05out of yesterday's game? Not, not that I know of. I mean, there wasn't anything announced during
15:10the game. And obviously afterwards that that was not a, nobody was asking about, but nothing that
15:14I noticed, obviously. I mean, you could always like look at the, some of the, like Jeremy Reed was
15:20clearly getting beat up, but he played almost the whole game. So we'll see what, what, what,
15:24what shakes out today, but nothing, nothing obvious. I hope today. And you know,
15:28you and I will end up talking after the show today, but I think, you know, pressing Dan on
15:34specifically, what was the play call and what was the instruction to the quarterback prior?
15:43Cause if any play other than a clocking, it was called, I think that's an egregious error.
15:49And you're putting your team into a position of just a pre-snap penalty or a penalty in general
15:54that could lead to a 10 second runoff in that spot when you were going to snap it.
16:00But I, they, he was too vague about all of that, you know, other than to say, obviously the, the,
16:07the play would have been to clock it, which tells me that that wasn't the instruction.
16:11And you can see that based on what happened after the snap with, you know, Senate in motion
16:17and then doubling back in motion insanity. Um, all right, well enjoy today. I'll be talking to you
16:24at some point and then we'll chat later on in the week. Appreciate it. Sounds good.
16:28That's it.