Every week, one decision can dramatically determine the outcome of a game. That’s true at every level of football, specifically the NFL. Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn faced two critical decisions in Sunday’s 34-26 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
We examine where Quinn went right — and wrong.
Before we discuss the game’s ending, let’s examine a decision we think Quinn may want back.
The Commanders led 3-0, Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey just missed his second field goal attempt, giving Washington excellent field position. The Commanders ran six plays, getting two first downs, before coming up short at the Dallas 32-yard line. Instead of going for it on fourth-and-2, Quinn chose to kick the field.
It was a 51-yard field goal for kicker Austin Seibert. It was his first game back after missing the previous two games with a hip injury. Seibert badly missed the kick, giving the Cowboys the ball back. At this point, the Commanders held a 3-0 lead.
Why wasn’t Quinn more aggressive here? He just needed two yards, and quarterback Jayden Daniels looked explosive again for the first time in weeks. Just weeks earlier, there was no way Quinn would have kicked, regardless of how much he believed in Seibert. Remember, Washington began the season going 11 for 11 on fourth-down conversions. Part of the success was due to Daniels’ dual-threat ability.
Quinn made a similar decision against the Eagles the week before, only that time, he passed up a 44-yard field goal, which would have given his team a 15-10 lead in the fourth quarter. It’s even more interesting that Quinn went for it against an excellent Philadelphia defense but chose to kick against a struggling Dallas unit.
“We just talked about our line to kick and Austin had a good week at it, went to go,” Quinn said after the game. “So, once it’s at the space, that’s the line to get to and we didn’t feel like we had to overtry or go further for it. It had nothing to do with anything other than, ‘Hey, we’re at the spot, let’s go get some points and move it from there.'”
Quinn’s other decision could have gone either way, but as the home team and the favorite, we side with the head coach.
The play in question was Daniels’ 86-yard touchdown to Terry McLaurin with 21 seconds remaining to make it a 27-26 team. It was an improbable play.
Quinn quickly signaled for his team to kick the extra point. As improbable as the touchdown was, Seibert missed the point after, essentially ending the game. Everyone was dejected.
Here’s some context: It was Seibert’s second missed PAT of the game, and he also missed the aforementioned field goal. Before missing both extra points, Seibert had been perfect all season.
You can’t blame Quinn here. The struggling Cowboys played a strong game defensively on Sunday, but after Washington just shocked them, Quinn had to like his chances heading into overtime. The Commanders’ offense had come alive, and Dallas was reeling.
The decision could have been different if Washington was on the road as an underdog.
You could make the point that it would have been the perfect time to go for the two-point conversion and win for the same reasons we mentioned above. That would have been an understandable decision, too.
However, we believe Quinn made the sensible call here, and most NFL coaches would have done the same thing if all the factors were considered.
“No. I thought if after we score, we’d go for one,” Quinn said. “And the reason behind that, I thought, ‘Let’s get back into it, but we don’t have to decide it on this play’. And so that was where I thought, ‘Let’s go’ and then, hey get one stop, we’ll get it, and then at the coin toss, let’s go through the whole process again and reset it.’ So, I thought in that way that was the right call on that as obviously, you’re not factoring in the other part of things. But that was my thought going into it.”
On Tuesday, Washington placed Seibert on injured reserve. Regardless of what he said, Seibert wasn’t completely healthy when he played Sunday.
You can’t fault Quinn for Seibert’s health. If the kicker said he was fine, and trainers cleared him, he is considered ready to go.
However, we believe Quinn may want that first call back if he had the chance.
The Commanders performed terribly. Not only did they allow two kickoff returns for touchdowns—one after the game was decided—but they also had a critical turnover that led to a touchdown, dropped passes, struggled in pass protection, and blew a coverage at the end of the first half that directly led to three points.
Washington and Quinn hope to put Week 12 behind them on Sunday when the Tennessee Titans come to town.
