Who Should Be Blamed For Commanders' OT Blunder? NFL Scouts, Execs Differ

The Washington Commanders had a blunder for the ages in their 27-27 tie against the New York Giants on Sunday.

Possessing the ball with a winding clock in the final minute of overtime, the Commanders opted to run another play from scrimmage instead of kicking a field goal from the Giants' 24-yard line with 12 seconds left.

The result was a disaster, with Jayden Daniels scrambling around before taking a sack at the line of scrimmage.

Washington wasn't able to get set on time to spike the ball before time ran out, causing the game to end in a tie.

The Commanders were instantly clowned for letting the game get away from them, falling to 1-3-1 on the year.

Daniels and head coach Dan Quinn were quick to accept responsibility for the miscue as well, with several analysts pointing the finger at each party for allowing the massive screw-up to happen.

But who really is to blame for what transpired in the final moments of Sunday's tie? We asked people around the league, and most of them believe that one of them is more to blame than the other.

Here's what we learned from our conversations.

Ralph Vacchiano: The reaction around the league to the brain freeze by Dan Quinn, Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders on Sunday was swift and seemingly universal.

I received several texts from sources with a variation of "Oh my God!" to "Holy s---" and just "Wow." But assigning who was to blame for the Commanders letting the clock run out in their 27-27 tie with the Giants when they were already within game-winning field goal range at the end of overtime wasn’t universal at all.

NFL executives I contacted were much quicker to blame the coach.

Coaches, though, were understandably a little more eager to let Quinn off the hook.

"I get why Dan gets all the heat," one assistant coach texted me.

"It’s ultimately his responsibility.