Last week, Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said he made one of the worst play calls in his career. Today, he made three good ones on the final possession, leading to a 21-18 Commanders win.
The Commanders were extremely fortunate to even have the opportunity for Kingsbury to make the much better play calls.
You see, the Giants had the ball 4th & 4 at the Commanders 22-yard line, with the game tied 18-18. However, their kicker Graham Gano had injured a hamstring and was unable to come out and kick what for him would be an almost automatic 39-yard field goal.
So, the Giants were forced to go for the first down. Daniel Jones rolled right and found Malik Nabers along the sideline. Perhaps Nabors was worried about getting his feet down because he dropped what would have been a first down. The Giants were now unable to run down the clock. The Commanders would have an opportunity to score themselves.
First, Kingsbury had Noah Brown in the game. Brown has more experience than several Commanders receivers not named Terry McLaurin. Brown ran a great route, was wide open, and Jayden Daniels found him for a huge 34-yard gain to the Giants’ 43.
https://Twitter.com/Tiller56/status/1835408952085082341
Kingsbury called Brian Robinson’s number on 2nd & 2 at the Giants’ 35, resulting in an 11-yard gain and a first down at the Giants’ 24, forcing the Giants to call timeout with 57 seconds remaining.
https://Twitter.com/Tiller56/status/1835409551186968839
Surely, the call would be for another Robinson run. New York Giant defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux certainly thought so. As Daniels put the ball in Robinson’s belly, Thibodeaux came crashing down from his left defensive end position to hit Robinson for a tackle for a loss.
However, the call was for a zone-read option, and Daniels kept the ball and scooted outside through the area vacated by Thibodeaux, picked up a block from tight end Zach Ertz, gaining 14 yards to the Giants’ 10.
https://Twitter.com/Tiller56/status/1835409858180403295
The zone-read call enabled Austin Seibert to kick a 30-yard game-winner rather than attempt a more difficult kick over 40 yards. Seibert made the kick, Kingsbury made three good calls on the final possession, and the Commanders and Dan Quinn had their first win of 2024.
It was also the first time the Commanders had beaten the Giants in Landover since Kirk Cousins was the quarterback in 2017.