The NFC East’s Week 5 misery came with a strange twist: the Washington Commanders and Philadelphia Eagles reached nearly the same ending in completely different ways, and both of them botched it.
In Philadelphia’s case, head coach Nick Sirianni owned the mistake after his team’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in England. Hours later, Dan Quinn watched his Commanders stumble into a draw against the Giants in Washington, and the final sequence looked like a mirror image of what happened to the Eagles - just with a different kind of failure at the end.
The setups were similar enough to invite comparison. Both teams had a chance to try a field goal with only seconds left.
Both teams ended up paying for the way the clock was managed. But the details matter, and they made all the difference.
The Eagles were in regulation, trailing by two, and had a timeout left. The Commanders were in overtime, tied with the Giants, and had no timeout to work with.
That meant Sirianni’s job was to make sure there was no time left after the kick. If the field goal went through, the Eagles would still need time on the clock for the Jaguars to answer.
If it missed, the game would be over. As it turned out, leaving eight seconds gave Jacksonville the opening it needed, and Sirianni said after the game that he was to blame.
Washington’s situation was different, but the same principle applied. A successful kick would have ended the game on the spot. A miss, though, would have left room for the Giants to get the ball back and create the sort of mess Quinn wanted to avoid.
That made the Commanders’ final sequence more about execution than concept. The logic behind bleeding the clock was sound, especially with a wet field and rookie kicker Drew Stevens in the middle of it. But the way Washington handled the moment was a mess.
The offense never showed the urgency it needed. Instead of doing what the situation called for, the Commanders ran a real play, not a spike or a throwaway, and wasted precious seconds.
Jayden Daniels was part of that failure, but the bigger issue was collective awareness. The players on the field didn’t seem to understand the moment until it was too late.
That leaves Quinn holding the bag. The comparison to the Eagles game only sharpens the criticism.
The strategy was fine. The execution was not.
And in a spot where every second mattered, Washington somehow turned the final snap into a meaningless scramble that left them with a tie instead of a win.
It was not a fireable offense, but it was the kind of blunder that demands hard questions. Quinn, David Blough, Daniels, and the rest of the offense all have to answer for it, because the breakdown was obvious to anyone watching.
And if Quinn had Philadelphia’s botched finish in mind while managing his own game, then the Eagles may have played a role in Washington’s collapse too. Either way, the result was the same for the NFC East: no wins anywhere in Week 5, and a pair of late-game disasters that will stick around for a while.
In Other News...
Commanders Report Card Reveals What Really Cost Them A Win In New York
A detailed look at Washingtons Week 5 trip to New York makes one thing clear: this was not just a game that slipped away, it was a game the Commanders let get messy in the margins. The report card found bright spots in the rushing offense and along the defensive line, while also showing how the passing game and protection left too much work for the rest of the team to cover.
Special teams and coaching also came under the microscope, because the tie with the Giants felt less like a clean finish and more like a lesson in game management. Washington had built enough of a cushion to control the afternoon, but the final verdict from the breakdown is that the Commanders issues in pass protection, secondary play and late-game decision-making added up at exactly the wrong time. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Fans Are Still Questioning One Backfield Decision In The Tie
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So it caught the eye when the backfield usage shifted late, with the Commanders leaning away from the runner who had been most effective. Rachaad White handled the rest of the carries while Croskey-Merritt stayed on the sideline, and the decision only added to the questions surrounding a game that already felt strange in the way it unfolded. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Let A Winnable Game Slip Away With Brutal Late Mistake
For much of Sundays Week 5 meeting, Washington looked positioned to leave with a win after building a two-touchdown cushion in the fourth quarter. Instead, the Commanders wound up in a 27-27 tie with the Giants, a result that felt especially painful after New Yorks late surge and Jameis Winstons 326-yard, three-touchdown day kept the pressure on until the final whistle.
Washington still had a path to finish the job in the closing seconds, but a costly clock-management mistake erased the chance to line up a potential game-winning field goal. The Commanders will have to live with the missed opportunity after letting a winnable game slip away in a finish that left plenty of frustration on their sideline. [Read more 🡒]