Rich Still Can’t Believe the Commanders Let the Clock Run Out in Their OT Tie vs the Giants

The Eagles gave away a game in London with one special teams decision. Later that day, the Washington Commanders stepped up and said, as Rich put it, hold my pint.

"I am 57 years of age," Rich said on the show. "I've never seen anything like that. And I do not know how in the world the Washington Commanders let that game and game-winning field goal opportunity in overtime slip away."

The Giants had already done Washington a favor. New York came back from 14 points down to tie the game and force overtime, then marched down the field with a chance to win it. Trying to get closer for a kicker who had been very reliable but had missed two from 50-plus in the rain, Cam Skattebo put the ball on the ground. The Commanders averted disaster.

Rich understands that part. He's seen teams get greedy for extra yards and fumble when they could have just kicked. He's seen teams take that gift and march down to win in overtime. "I have never seen a team do what the Washington Commanders did at the end of this game," he said.

Washington knew the stakes. The Eagles had just lost. Dallas had lost at home on Thursday night to an 0-4 team starting an undrafted rookie quarterback in his first career road start. A win would have put the Commanders at the same record as the two division rivals they almost beat on the road to open the season. Jayden Daniels was back healthy and had run in two touchdowns himself. And they still, in Rich's words, "for some reason just brain farted."

He described rewatching it once, and how it took him all day to work up to it. Daniels put his hands over his helmet's ear holes, presumably as someone told him there were no timeouts left, so the next play had to be a throw out of bounds or a spike. Instead, Daniels took the snap, raised his hand like he was going to spike it, looked left, pulled it down and ran. Then players lollygagged back to the line.

"It's like knowing the result of a movie scene," Rich said. "The guy in the hockey mask is behind you. Why are you not going faster?"

The clock hit zero. Tie. And the Giants ran off the field like they had won Super Bowl LXI.

Daniels took responsibility. "We got to stop the clock. We got to know the situation," he said. "We got to relay that as an offense. It starts from everybody top down. But ultimately, it's on me."

Rich agreed that the quarterback is the one with the keys to the car. But Dan Quinn, who looked like he had seen a ghost on the sideline, pinned it on himself. "The sequencing of that does not fall on him," Quinn said. "It's an outside throw or a clock. And that has to come from me. I can do that earlier, and we can finish the kick early. We don't need to gain more yards. So, that's on me."

Everybody is saying it's on them. Meanwhile, Commanders fans who sat in the rain all day watched their team go to 1-3-1 when it could have been 2-3, sitting a half game back instead. Even Magic Johnson, a part owner of the team, tweeted about it.

Some fans are calling for Quinn's job. Rich isn't buying it. "That's not going to happen," he said. "It's game five of a season." Quinn is two years removed from damn near making the Super Bowl. But if this season goes badly for a second straight year and management starts making lists of reasons to keep him and reasons not to, Rich said, this one will be "in bright neon lights."

"Either they told Jayden Daniels what the scoop was and he just brain farted, or they brain farted on the sideline," Rich said. "It's just basic clock management that you learn in Pop Warner."

On the other sideline, John Harbaugh produced what Rich called a candidate for sound bite of the year. Asked what he tells a team after a tie, the Giants coach broke it down. "Was it a win? No. Was it a loss? No. It was a tie," Harbaugh said. "I'm happy it wasn't a loss, and I'm sad it wasn't a win. It's a heck of a lot better than a loss, but it's not as good as a win."

Rich heard Dr. Seuss. "I will tie in a box. I will tie on Fox."

The stakes for New York were historic, too. Had the Giants kicked the game-winner instead of fumbling, it would have been their first win in the Super Bowl era when trailing by 14 or more in the last eight minutes of regulation, and everyone would be talking about the Jameis Winston experience at 4-1. Instead, the Giants are now 0-230-1 in those situations since 1970.

"Holy crap," Rich said, "is the headline of NFC East football alone this week."