It'll probably take a long time for Jayden Daniels to live down his brutal, game-ending mistake
on Sunday. With the Washington Commanders staring at an easy field goal for the win in overtime against the New York Giants, Daniels inexplicably ate a sack on a pass play with a chance to throw it away. That decision, in turn, allowed the clock to run out and cemented a 27-27 tie between NFC East rivals because the Commanders did not have any timeouts.In the aftermath of making such a mistake, you would hope to hear Daniels taking full responsibility. No qualifiers. No questions asked. That is what a quarterback of the team is supposed to do in front of the microphone, especially when the ultimate outcome of the play was all up to him anyway.
That
is not what Daniels did.
When asked to explain why he didn't throw the ball away during his postgame press conference, Daniels first pointed fingers at the rest of the Washington offense for not relaying to him that they didn't have timeouts to stop the clock in that situation. Then and only then did he say that ultimately the buck stops with him. Hmm. I don't know about that one. That doesn't sound like a quarterback who thinks it was all on him in a sequence where he could've simply looked up at the scoreboard before snapping the ball.
It doesn't, in fact, start with everyone. It starts with Daniels.
That's the quickest finger-pointing sandwiched in between a claim of responsibility, and it's a brutal look for the Commanders quarterback.
Jayden Daniels asked why he didn’t throw the ball away in the final play (and took the sack/let the clock run): “We’ve gotta relay that as an offense. It starts with everyone — top down. Ultimately it’s on me.” pic.twitter.com/Bdr2mk8MkJ
— Henry McKenna (@henrycmckenna) October 11, 2026
The Commanders are now 1-3-1 on the season after Daniels gave away what looked like a surefire divisional victory. Their next game is a Monday night road matchup with the juggernaut San Francisco 49ers. We'll see how the aftermath of this fiasco affects Daniels and company in such a tough spot as they try to keep their season afloat. Right now, it doesn't look good.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jayden Daniels weakly deflected full blame for his unacceptable OT mistake
