There was a break in the action as officials reviewed Antonio Williams’ touchdown catch, left the Commanders two points from tying the Eagles with roughly a minute left.
Offensive coordinator David Blough and head coach Dan Quinn discussed 2-point conversion options while the touchdown was being confirmed.
Blough suggested the play call that was eventually run. Quinn gave the green light.
The Commanders ran it well during the practice week. It was in the game plan. There was high confidence it would
work
“On that particular one, he said, ‘what do you think?’” Quinn said, “And I said, ‘let’s go for it.’”
The Commanders in fact went for it and came up short. A failed onside kick and a few kneel-downs later and the Eagles secured a 24-22 victory on Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field.
“I knew the play,” Quinn told reporters in a postgame press conference. “I thought it was a good one. When it doesn’t execute, it sucks.”
Commanders fans won’t like it. Not one bit.
The play was a shovel pass to tight end John Bates that got blown up by Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo, who spun around center Nick Allegretti and shut the play down. You’ve certainly since it before, either once or a thousand times, but here it is.
You can see running back Rachaad White open in the flat, but a widening defensive end lent itself to this inside play to Bates.
“It was an option, but I’ve got to do my job, too,” Daniel told reporters in his postgame presser. “The defensive end played up the field. We had the look that we wanted. We just didn’t execute.”
Daniels had to make a quick judgement call in the moment, and he followed his rules on that play by choosing to shovel the ball inside.
Quinn and Daniels stood by the call, which will be negatively viewed because of the result.
“The 2-point play, we just didn’t execute,” Daniels said. “It was the right call. Anything Blough calls, I’m with him. Regardless of who everyone else might view it, I’m with Blough 100%.”
This film will be broken down a ton in detail, including by our HH analysts.
Here’s a night-of takeaway from Mark Bullock:
