Endgame Viable

A tie. It ended in a tie.

Somehow that’s worse than losing the game.

The stars were perfectly aligned going into the Washington Commanders week 5 game Sunday.

First, the Cowboys were destroyed last Thursday night to start the week. Delightful. I didn’t watch it live but I really enjoyed the recap.

Then, the Eagles lost in the final seconds on Sunday morning in London. It was an ugly game and both teams looked pretty bad. The only bright spot was the Jaguars kick holder single-handedly rescuing 3 field goals from bad snaps.

So the previous games could not have gone better. Then it was time for the New York Giants to play the Washington Commanders, a home division game. If Washington wins, the records between the four teams in the NFC East are all knotted up and everyone’s within a game of each other. It’s anybody’s division. Theoretically.

The Commanders led for almost the entire game. They were leading by two touchdowns at one point. Then they collapsed in the fourth quarter and the Giants tied the game to send it to overtime.

The Commanders continued to suck in overtime, but somehow they escaped the Giants first drive when they missed a field goal. They did nothing with their own overtime possession. On the Giants’ second overtime possession, the Giants were driving and in range to kick a field goal to win the game in overtime. After the first two possessions, the next score wins. Miraculously, the Giants fumbled. Washington recovered and drove down the field in four plays, making it into easy field goal range with the clock running out and no time outs left. They were going to squeak out a win after all.

They had first and ten at the Giants 26 with 55 seconds left. They called a run. They made a couple yards. They didn’t hurry. They stood around. They called a final play on second down with less than 15 seconds left. Jayden Daniels inexplicably tried to run up the middle. He got maybe a yard. With the clock ticking and no timeouts, the Commanders could not get back to the line to spike the ball. Time ran out with the Commanders well within easy field goal range, which would have won the game.

So the game ended in a tie. The most infuriating result possible. It felt worse than a loss. To be ready to win the game and then … not win the game. Mystifying. Stupefying. And pretty annoying.

The Commanders were in the perfect position to pick up a game on every single team in the NFC East, and were winning the game fairly handily through three quarters, and they blew it in spectacular meme-worthy fashion. Based on how they played at the end, they should have lost the game, but somehow were gifted a chance to win anyway. Now they’re the laughing stock of the football world, the subject of every YouTube and network commentary segment this week, the one and only talking point of the NFL world, and there’s no change in the NFC East standings. Sigh. Welcome to Washington football.

Fans are talking about firing Dan Quinn. Personally I think it’s 100% on Jayden Daniels for plainly forgetting they didn’t have a timeout. JD5 is a great quarterback but he still has a lot to prove to me. He looks like an undersized injury-prone stick figure compared to all the other football players on the field, for example. Every play you think he’s going to get a career-ending injury.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, next up, the Commanders travel to San Francisco for what is sure to be a shellacking by the 49ers in front of the world on Monday night. I don’t do predictions but I’d guess 35-9 49ers. The Commanders are no match for them. To win would be even more of an upset than the win against the Seahawks.

So to summarize, the Commanders lost the two winnable games going into next week’s unwinnable game, then they get a bye week. Their season is basically over. The only glimmer of hope is that everyone else in the division is playing terrible too.

This is why I stopped watching football for so many years. Seeing Washington make these kinds of mistakes over and over again is pretty soul crushing.