The Commanders had the Giants on the ropes in overtime, then let the moment slip away in the worst possible way.
Washington recovered a Cam Skattebo fumble at the Giants’ 24-yard line after Giants head coach John Harbaugh chose to keep the ball moving instead of bleeding the clock and setting up a safer finish with the Commanders out of timeouts. That turnover should have handed the Commanders a clean path to victory.
Instead, they gave it right back. Jayden Daniels completed two passes for 29 yards and added 16 rushing yards to push the offense to the Giants’ 24 with under a minute left, but Washington never got the snap it needed to try a field goal.
Daniels took the ball, drifted around, and got stopped for no gain as the clock expired.
What should have been a win for Washington ended as a 27-27 tie, and it will sit like a loss on both sides because both coaches had a hand in the finish. Dan Quinn’s team not only wasted that late opening, it also coughed up a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter after holding the Giants in check for most of the day. Jameis Winston turned the game in the final 15:44 of regulation, throwing three touchdown passes while Washington punted on its last two possessions.
The overtime sequence was messy on both ends. Washington won the choice to kick off and forced Dominic Zvada into a 46-yard field goal attempt, but he missed for the third time in the game. The Commanders then went three-and-out on their first overtime possession, leaving the door open for the strange ending that followed.
Daniels finished with the lowlight at the end, but for roughly 50 minutes he looked sharp in his return from a dislocated left elbow. He scored on touchdown runs of 38 and 26 yards, piled up 103 rushing yards, and kept Washington moving for most of the afternoon before the offense stalled late.
Winston’s line told the story of a wild comeback. He lost a fumble early and had trouble getting going, then caught fire down the stretch.
He threw touchdowns to Isaiah Likely twice and connected with Malik Nabers to tie the game. Winston went 33-of-54 for 326 yards.
The Giants also mixed in J.J. McCarthy at spots early, with McCarthy running twice for two yards, handing off, and throwing a pop pass that went for a five-yard loss before a penalty erased it.
Washington drops to 1-3-1 and heads to San Francisco for Monday night’s Week 6 matchup against the 49ers. The tie snaps the Giants’ two-game winning streak and leaves them at 3-1-1 heading home to face the Saints next weekend.
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Terry McLaurin now looms as the bigger question, listed as a game-time decision while working through a hamstring issue of his own. If he cannot go, the burden shifts even more to the rest of the receiver room, with Antonio Williams, Dyami Brown and Treylon Burks expected to be more involved than usual. For Washington, the challenge is no longer just about replacing one playmaker but about finding enough reliable options to keep the passing game from stalling out. [Read more 🡒]