Dan Quinn had a fourth quarter to overlook on Thursday night time within the Commanders’ 26-18 loss to the Eagles.
In a vital division sport, the Washington coach determined to not kick a subject aim whereas going through fourth-and-2 on the Eagles’ 26 and trailing, 12-10.
Star rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels bobbled the fourth down snap earlier than rolling proper and being introduced down effectively wanting the road to achieve and turning it over on downs.
The Eagles scored a landing on the following possession on a 23-yard Saquon Barkley run.
After the sport, the first-year head coach in Washington defined the choice that spoiled his crew’s possibilities of taking again momentum after Philadelphia had taken the lead for the primary time.
“Bold call, but I would also say we were prepared for that moment,” Quinn stated. “Don’t love the execution, however we’ve been a superb fourth-down crew, so going into it, we knew we’d need to take our pictures towards a troublesome division crew on the street.
“We thought that was an appropriate one. Certainly don’t like the execution and the result, but we were prepared for that and being bold in those moments, knowing that we’d have some fourth downs. That’s one we can fix.”
Quinn is appropriate in his evaluation on the crew’s spectacular fourth down conversion fee.
Washington has the third-best first down proportion on fourth down within the NFL (85.71 p.c), behind solely the Payments 91.67 p.c) and Chiefs (88.89 p.c).
Star receiver Terry McLaurin backed his coach’s aggressive perspective after the sport.
“We’ve been doing it all season,” McLaurin instructed reporters. “We’re aggressive.”
Nonetheless, the analytics didn’t favor Quinn’s decision-making.
Ben Baldwin, who is essentially thought of the gold normal when discussing NFL analytical selections, broke down how shut the choice was on X.
His statistical mannequin projected that the Commanders had a 44 p.c probability of profitable that sport had they determined to kick the sector aim, in comparison with a 42 p.c probability of profitable when going for it.
Quinn’s go-big or go-home technique instantly backfired and followers additionally questioned his late-game clock administration with the crew ultimately trailing by 16 factors.
Whereas driving in Eagles territory, the Commanders’ coach determined to run the ball 3 times in 4 performs from the 30-yard line with 3:20 left on the clock.
The Commanders went into the two-minute warning, having netted simply 15 yards on these performs.
Washington was pressured to strive an onside kick after scoring a landing on the drive, regardless of having time outs to burn previous to the two-minute warning.
Quinn and the Commanders subsequent face the beat up Cowboys in Week 11. They’re now sitting at 7-4 and 1 1 1/2 video games behind the 8-2 Eagles for first place within the NFC East.
