- 13 hours ago
Dan Quinn revealed in his press conference what exactly happened at the end of the Commanders vs Giants game in overtime that led to a very disappointing tie result. Kevin Sheehan dissects the catastrophic overtime clock-management debacle from Washington's 27-27 tie with the New York Giants, clashing with Commanders fans and debating the exact distribution of the "Blame Pie" across head coach Dan Quinn, offensive coordinator David Blough, and quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Five weeks into the NFL season. A lot of storylines, for sure.
00:06Here, it's been quite the five weeks.
00:10An opener that was pretty exciting, that included a two-point conversion
00:16in which one of the options was a shovel pass to Bates.
00:22Week two, this stunning play before halftime,
00:27which some of you actually blamed on Dan Quinn.
00:30I don't blame that one on Dan Quinn,
00:31where Jaden was hurt with another dislocated elbow.
00:37The week three, shocker, beating Seattle 33-31.
00:43The week four game in Indy in which the backup quarterback gets hurt
00:49and the third stringer heads in.
00:52And then week five, an all-time, all-time unforgettable,
01:00clock management game-ending error by a football team that won't soon be forgotten.
01:08It won't ever be forgotten, unfortunately for those involved.
01:15Dan Quinn very likely won't be a head coach after this year.
01:21David Blau will continue to get opportunities.
01:24Jaden Daniels, of course, he's going to be around.
01:27Fingers crossed he stays healthy for many, many years.
01:32Pie chart.
01:33It's been an incredible five weeks.
01:34We have not had one game in which there wasn't major drama following the game.
01:42The opener and the two-point conversion call.
01:46The week two injury to Jaden.
01:48The week three stunner over Seattle.
01:50The week four game in Indy in which he had a third stringer on the field.
01:54And then, of course, this one.
01:57Very few NFL cities can claim five straight games of incredible intrigue
02:05and drama coming out of it.
02:10All right.
02:11Pie chart of blame for what happened at the end of the game.
02:13I think it's 75% on Quinn.
02:15In fact, I'm actually starting to think a little bit higher.
02:20And I just, every time I think about how, if you're the head coach
02:25and you're standing there and you have the opportunity to erase the mistake
02:32before the quarterback ever has a chance to erase the mistake,
02:36before the offensive coordinator has a chance, you're the head coach.
02:40This is your number one responsibility in the moment.
02:44Clock management.
02:48You're not a coordinator.
02:49You're not over meeting with your defense.
02:52You're not scheming up the next offensive set.
02:57This is your number one job.
02:59And once you made the mistake that you didn't think was a mistake,
03:03which was to call a regular play,
03:05once the play had no chance of being snapped with 25 seconds left,
03:12which was the intention, kill it.
03:16How did you not do that?
03:18How did you not, with 25 seconds left?
03:20And at that point, just so you know,
03:23that you're getting down to the last two seconds of communication
03:26with Jaden headset-wise, with Blau,
03:29just say, to hell with that, and get out on the field,
03:33get somebody's attention, and say, clock it with 12 seconds.
03:38That's the play.
03:39Get up and clock it.
03:42How do you not do that?
03:44How do you let them huddle, break the huddle,
03:47get up, and snap the ball in that situation?
03:50You had to know once that clock got below,
03:54like 16 or 17 seconds is usually the cutoff for,
03:59you can complete a ball inbounds,
04:01and still have time to get up to the line of scrimmage and clock it.
04:04But once you get below 16 seconds,
04:08you're in trouble of getting that done.
04:11And they snapped it with 14, 13.
04:14How did you not stop that?
04:16I don't know.
04:17Maybe there is video of him, you know,
04:21or maybe he did try to stop it.
04:23Maybe he did, and nobody heard him.
04:28Avin, Avin, go ahead.
04:32Hey, Kevin, I'm on the opposite of you on this one.
04:35I say 70% Jaden Daniels, 20% Dan Quinn, 10% David Plow.
04:42And to me, Kevin, you know, what the coaching staff did was dumb.
04:47It was risky.
04:48It was too cute.
04:49But the end result shouldn't have been catastrophic.
04:52If you present that situation to me before the game,
04:55I would have said there's a 99% chance Jaden Daniels
04:59just throws the ball away over Benson's head.
05:01It's so easy to do.
05:02It's right there.
05:03Or he spikes it.
05:04But, you know, the quarterback is conditioned to be always looking at the clock.
05:08He's always looking at the play clock.
05:11It just seems like a really easy thing to do.
05:13And he just short-circuited it once the ball is snapped.
05:18How do you explain the post-play reaction from him and everybody else on the field?
05:27I don't know.
05:28It's a weird thing to answer.
05:30I mean, you don't want to throw anybody under the bus.
05:32But they clearly weren't in let's clock it mode when the play ends, right?
05:38Is there anybody on the field that appears to you to have a clue that we have to clock it
05:46with a lot of urgency?
05:49No.
05:50I think it just falls on Jaden Daniels' demeanor.
05:53They're all looking at him and they're like, oh, okay, wait.
05:55Well, Trey Burks is down there jawing with the defender downfield.
05:59Yeah.
06:00He's...
06:00Yeah.
06:01I mean, yeah, it's a bad look.
06:03But still, Kevin, it's still, you know, I just am shocked that Jaden Daniels didn't
06:08just throw it over.
06:08I am too.
06:09I'm shocked.
06:10I'm disappointed.
06:11I'm actually concerned.
06:13But it should have never gotten to that point.
06:15Ever.
06:17But still, even him snapping the ball, there's enough time.
06:20There's, what, they snap it with 12 or 11 seconds left.
06:22Even if there's, like, a procedural penalty, you still have maybe some time to spike it.
06:26Like, there was enough time to just look at the clock and be like, whoa, this isn't enough
06:30time.
06:31Just throw it over, Benz in his head.
06:32Sure.
06:32Live for another down.
06:33Agreed.
06:34I totally agree with you.
06:36And I've seen Jaden Daniels, like, do this so many times, which is so shocking.
06:40Like, I just think about him.
06:41Maybe he did it with direction.
06:44But, no, I'm just thinking of the Eagles NFC Championship game, where he sees, he knows
06:48exactly how much time is on the clock because he scrambles, he tiptoes the sideline, and
06:53he cuts out with, like, three seconds left to kick a field goal before the half ends.
06:58He's done the same thing in the bus game.
07:00Okay, so how do you explain this, then?
07:02Then you're leading towards Avene.
07:05He didn't know that they didn't have a timeout left.
07:10No, I just, I think he had to.
07:12I don't, I think there's almost 0% chance somebody told him there was a timeout left because somebody,
07:17there's a ton of coaches with the headset on the sideline.
07:20Somebody would have said, hey, coach, what are you doing?
07:22We don't have any timeouts left.
07:24And they're reiterating that throughout the drive.
07:25Hold on, I want to make sure I'm clear on this.
07:28You're putting most of the blame on Jaden Daniels, and you're saying that you believe that he did
07:32have the awareness and he's got examples of it, and yet there was no awareness pre-snap
07:38or post-play.
07:40So how do you explain that?
07:43I think, I think there was awareness.
07:45I think he just, he just short-circuited once the ball was snapped.
07:48The bullet started flying.
07:50He used to remain.
07:50But you said he's handled it so well before.
07:53Yeah, but this one time he short-circuited.
07:56Okay.
07:57Once the ball was snapped.
07:58It's possible.
07:59It's totally possible.
08:00I don't discount that as a possibility.
08:02I just think it's, it's absolutely inexcusable that it ever got to that point.
08:10This was a totally controllable situation with no level of panic-inducing opportunity.
08:17If it had been managed by the head coach properly, there was no chance of any legitimate, oh my
08:26God, we're going to scramble.
08:28They were never in scramble mode at, from 55 seconds until the ball was snapped with 14.
08:36Yeah, but because there's, there's a hot route right in front of him just to throw over his
08:40head.
08:40They set the play up where there's a guy you can just throw it over your head if nothing's
08:44there.
08:45We've seen you do this a ton of times.
08:46You just look at the field, oh, he's covered, throw it over his head.
08:49I mean, well, well, well, I don't, I don't, I don't know if that's a hot route.
08:52That's, that's an out route.
08:54All right.
08:55With play action involved in the play.
08:57Okay.
08:58He turned to play action.
09:00This wasn't a, they were trying to gain yards on this play.
09:04He's already said that, Avin, the coach has.
09:07Right, right, right.
09:08But they're also, they're also moving the pocket, you know, to, I agree.
09:12Play action wasn't smart.
09:13Well, they didn't move the pocket.
09:15There was immediate pressure that moved him out of the pocket.
09:18Yeah.
09:19Right.
09:20But I think the play action, the play design, it was like that spider wide tube banana type
09:24of play where you do play action, you roll out and then you throw it towards the sideline
09:27or you throw it over there.
09:28What a dumb call.
09:30What an absolutely stupid call.
09:34I agree.
09:35But it was still right there for him to just throw.
09:37It was.
09:38I totally agree with you.
09:39I'm disappointed with it.
09:41I'm, I'm, I'm concerned about the fact that once the ball was snapped and he realized, oh
09:47my God, he didn't throw it away.
09:50A hundred percent.
09:51I'm with you.
09:52I don't know.
09:53It's, I'm not saying you're wrong.
09:55It's very possible.
09:56You're right that they told them, here's what we're doing.
10:00We're going to snap it.
10:01We're going to try to get some yards and then we're going to get up and spike it.
10:04If we get the yards.
10:05And then once the clock got down and he realized you can't complete a pass in play, he should
10:11have thrown it over Sinnet's head.
10:12I'm completely with you on that.
10:15Why he didn't.
10:16It could be that he completely panicked.
10:18Maybe, you know, the foot got stepped on a little bit by Paul coming out.
10:22The play action didn't work.
10:23The pressure was immediate and maybe he completely panicked, but here's the problem with completely
10:30panicking.
10:31Why didn't he get up immediately and try to get everybody back to clock the ball?
10:40Cause he was still panicking.
10:43I just think he, I just think he short-circuited.
10:45He blacked out.
10:46It's hard to explain.
10:47Well, it's, that's, that's very concerning, obviously, right?
10:51To have your quarterback, your field general, your, the guy you want to be the alpha on
10:57the field in charge of these situations.
10:59If he short-circuited in a situation that was not really a situation that created an opportunity
11:09for most people to panic, maybe it was the post snap that made him panic.
11:14Maybe it was the foot that, you know, brushed over him.
11:17Chris Paul's foot again, you know, maybe the fact that the play action wasn't there.
11:20Maybe the fact that the pressure was immediate, but if he knew anything, he knew that he, he
11:28asked to get up quickly.
11:31I, again, I don't have a problem with you guys putting the majority of blame for those
11:37of you that want to do it on Jaden Daniels, but there is a chronology of stupidity here.
11:42And it starts with the head coach saying, let's run a play to get more yards.
11:49That was unnecessary and now presented some bad options, more risk than reward.
11:57Number two is you've got an offensive coordinator that calls a play that is not a play you're
12:03going to be able to get off by 25 seconds.
12:06And number three is both of those gentlemen realized when they're still in the huddle at
12:1326 seconds, we're in trouble.
12:15This needs to be scratched.
12:17Let's say, let's make sure Jaden knows that.
12:20And now we're screaming at him to get up to the line of scrimmage and spike it with 12 to
12:2613 seconds before the ball was ever snapped.
12:29There is a comedy of bad decisions and bad reactions to the decisions that they made.
12:38That's why I would put it mostly on Quinn.
12:41I agree with all of that.
12:43I still think it shouldn't have been catastrophic, though, at the end.
12:47I'll just say, you know, ultimately, I still think this is probably the worst blunder Daniels
12:52is going to make of his career.
12:52I just highly doubt a situation.
12:54Well, it'd be hard to match that one.
12:55It'd be hard to match it as a team, as a coach, as an OC, or a quarterback.
13:00It'd be hard to be involved in being in chip shot field goal range with 55 seconds to go
13:05and not ever getting off the kick.
13:08They're going to have to live with that as players and coaches, and it'll be attached
13:12to Quinn more than it will be Jaden or Blau, in my opinion.
13:18Thanks, Avin, as always.
13:20Let's go to Greg in Gaithersburg.
13:22Greg, go ahead.
13:22Thanks for holding.
13:24Hey, Kevin.
13:25Good morning.
13:25What's up?
13:26I think it should be equal blame all the way around, and here's the reason why.
13:3133 and a third times three.
13:33Yeah.
13:34Yeah.
13:34I don't think we'll ever know exactly what was said, you know, in the helmet system,
13:42but if you notice on the play after Jaden went down, I didn't see anybody calling for
13:50a timeout.
13:51So I don't think anybody even, I don't think anybody thought there was a timeout.
13:54Well, players don't call the timeouts.
13:56The coaches will call the timeouts.
13:57All right.
13:57Well, Jaden didn't.
13:58The coaches didn't.
13:59Nobody did.
14:00If you look at the film.
14:01Well, the coaches knew they didn't have a timeout.
14:04The coaches, well, the head coach is the one that calls the timeouts.
14:07Okay.
14:07So he knew, he's already said he knew that they didn't have timeouts.
14:12All right.
14:13And then the other thing is that, you know, let's just say hypothetically that they told
14:18him to run a play.
14:19I mean, why can't, why couldn't he call an audible?
14:21Why couldn't see the clock was running and he wouldn't have time?
14:24Yeah.
14:24I agree.
14:25Quarterbacks call audibles all the time.
14:27I agree.
14:27So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm very, I'm disappointed and concerned that he didn't have any awareness
14:35of the situation because once he took that snap and tried at 14 seconds to run a play
14:43to gain yardage, that had to be for a quarterback with awareness and with a quarterback that
14:51understood they didn't have timeouts left, which I'm assuming he knew they didn't have
14:55timeouts left.
14:56Although there is a possibility in the reaction tells you that he probably didn't know that
15:02they didn't have a timeout left.
15:04That'll get debated until somebody actually fesses up at some point down the road.
15:08But yeah, of course.
15:11I mean, forget even taking the snap.
15:14Like I would have, he should have known when he broke the huddle, this is not going to
15:18work.
15:19I'm waving you guys off.
15:21We're going to spike it on the next snap and we're going to do it with about 13 seconds
15:26left in the game.
15:27Get the field goal kicker, get Drew ready.
15:29He's coming in.
15:30Yeah.
15:31Yeah.
15:31I don't disagree with that.
15:33I just don't put the lion's share of the blame on that.
15:37He could have been the eraser, but there shouldn't have been anything.
15:41Nothing to erase.
15:44Agreed.
15:45But well, you know what?
15:46I don't think we'll ever know.
15:47And I don't think anybody will fess up to it.
15:49So maybe in 20 years.
15:50I think we'll, I think we'll know.
15:52I think, I think we're going to find out at some point.
15:55Thank you for that.
15:56Stay on hold.
15:57Everybody will continue to do this pie chart of blame for what happened at the end of
16:02the game Sunday.
16:03I've got Quinn at 75%.
16:05Blau and Jaden sharing 12 and a half percent of the blame chart.
16:11And Max has 50% on Jaden, 25 each for the head coach and the offensive coordinator.
16:18How would you slice it up?