Questionable coaching by Dan Quinn in the fourth quarter doomed the Commanders

Dan Quinn’s odds of winning the coach of the year award got a little longer tonight. Or a lot.

Two big coaching mistakes stand out from Thursday night. Both from the fourth quarter.

First, facing fourth-and-two from the Eagles’ 26 with 8:01 to play and down 12-10, Quinn opted to avoid a potential 44-yard field goal and went for it. It failed.

And then instead of potentially giving the Eagles the ball, down one point with less than eight minutes to play, the Commanders set the stage for a touchdown drive that, with the extra point, made it a two-score game.

“Great call,” Quinn told reporters after the game, unprompted by a question. “But I’d also say we were prepared for that moment. Don’t love the execution. But we’ve been an excellent fourth-place team. So going into it, we knew we had to take our shot against a tough division team away. We thought it was appropriate. Definitely don’t like the execution and the result.”

Still, the game changes if the Eagles are behind when they get the ball back. Maybe Quinn didn’t have faith that his defense would stop. He should have at least considered the fact that kicker Jake Elliott had missed two field goals and an extra point.

Despite that, it was still a two-score game, even after an interception followed by a 39-yard touchdown run from Saquon Barkley. At 26-10, the game was not over.

And yet there was no hurry from the Commanders. They started the next drive with 4:38 to play. Way too many seconds ticked away as they neared the end zone. The closer they got, the worse it looked.

Asked by reporters if the commanders hoped to save more time on that drive, Quinn said, “Yeah, we tried. . . . It wasn’t about going slow or that part. So yeah, we would have scored quickly. Try all sure to get it in before the two minutes (warning).

If it was an attempt, I’d hate to see what it would have looked like if they weren’t.

The commanders took it 2:38 to go from their own 30 to the Philly 24. At the two-minute mark, they converted a fourth-and-two, and 19 seconds evaporated before the next snap. Then, after a four-yard gain to the 16, another 23 seconds disappeared. Next, after a one-yard gain, the clock ran from 1:18 to 56 seconds. After a 10-yard gain from the 15 to the five, another 22 seconds passed between plays.

Finally, the Commanders scored with 31 seconds left.

If they had moved a little more, they would have had enough time (given the two timeouts still in hand) to get the ball back – even after a failed onside kick.

It was bizarre to watch. Everyone involved in the game acted like it was over when the lead swelled to 16 points. It wasn’t. (At one point I wondered if the commanders even realized it was the fourth quarter.)

Details matter. Especially when even the most casual fan knows that fundamentals like the importance of getting to the line and getting the play in and getting the snap and getting the ball downfield become critical to having any chance of forcing a two-score game for overtime. Whether it’s primarily on offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, it all boils down to Quinn.

It’s almost as if, after the interception that pushed the score to 26-10, the Commanders didn’t want to risk another turnover and another score, which would have made the 33-10 score seem embarrassing.

In the end it looks respectable at 26-18. It’s not that respectable that they failed to get their last eight points with more than 30 seconds on the clock.