Someone has some explaining to do – again.
The Commanders have been a disaster managing game situations in the last two weeks and during Monday night’s 23-17 road loss to the 49ers, Jayden Daniels made another head-scratching decision.
On a fourth-and-2 play from the 49ers’ 13-yard line early in the second quarter, Daniels bizarrely chose to throw the ball away rather than force it to a receiver since it would be a turnover either way.
After the play, ESPN showed Quinn appearing to say, “Oh, that was 4th down,” along with some profanity, according to some online lip readers.
Quinn denied not knowing what down it was postgame, despite what appeared to be him saying the contrary on the sidelines.
“I definitely knew it was fourth down,” Quinn told reporters.
That left Daniels with some explaining to do once again postgame.
“I just gotta execute better in that situation, regardless of a flag or not,” Daniels told reporters. “Fourth down … don’t die with the ball, so I have to be better in that spot.”
Daniels appeared to be referring to a flag that was thrown by officials that he potentially thought was for a defensive offside that would have given Washington a first down regardless of the play.
That was not the case, though, as running back Rachaad White was instead flagged for an illegal shift while trailing 13-3, a penalty that the 49ers declined.
Washington hasn’t been on the same page for a few weeks now, as last week it embarrassed itself with clock mismanagement during a tie against the Giants.
The Commanders had a first down in field goal range and over 50 seconds remaining in overtime when Quinn and Daniels befuddingly ran a quarterback run with no timeouts and less than 10 seconds left.
Time expired as the Commanders threw away a victory for a tie and everyone has been pointing fingers at the coach and quarterback to decide who deserves a bigger slice of blame pie.
Washington’s loss Monday puts it at 1-4-1 entering its bye week before it returns to face the Eagles in Week 8.
