Commanders Botch a Chip-Shot Overtime and Tie the Giants

Jayden Daniels went down for no gain at the New York Giants 24-yard line with 12 seconds left in overtime on Sunday, and Washington never spiked the football. The Washington Commanders and Giants walked out of Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., locked at 27-27, the first tie of the 2026 NFL season.

Commanders coach Dan Quinn wanted one more snap. He did not need the yards. A spike would have let Drew Stevens try a kick from a range Stevens had already made from, and that extra play is the one that burned the win.

The Extra Play Washington Did Not Need

Quinn said after the game that Daniels had two jobs on the snap: throw the ball out of bounds, or kill the clock with a spike. Either one stops the clock. Either one lets Stevens jog on. Daniels did neither. He felt pressure, held the ball, and ran into a no-gain tackle as the clock kept moving.

Washington had no timeouts. Players from both sides scrambled toward the ball, and the officials could not get it spotted. Fox broadcaster Chris Myers said the Commanders did not have a timeout and asked what they were doing. Quinn ripped his headset off and threw it.

The sequencing of that does not fall on him. It’s an outside throw or a clock, an out of bounds throw, or a clock. That has to come from me. I have to put him in that spot. I can do that earlier and we can finish the kick earlier. We don’t need to gain more yards.

Dan Quinn, Commanders coach, postgame

Daniels, back from a dislocated left elbow and wearing a brace, took the blame anyway. He said the offense had to stop the clock, that it starts from the top down, and that it was on him. On the team site he said the group had to get better at situational football, starting with him.

Quinn was blunt about the yards. Washington was already in range. The staff still asked him to create something. The value of a shorter kick never beat the risk of losing the attempt altogether, and they lost the attempt.

Both Sidelines Tried to Bleed the Clock

The Giants had already been in position to end it. New York drove to the Washington 24 in overtime, inside field-goal range, and John Harbaugh’s plan was not to leave time for a return score. He said the idea, set in training camp, was to run twice, protect the ball, get closer, then kick so that a miss would leave Washington with nothing.

Running back Cam Skattebo, who had 13 carries for 59 yards, did not keep the ball. Defensive tackle Daron Payne stripped him. Washington recovered at its 23 with 2 minutes left. Skattebo said he had to hold onto it. Harbaugh said the run in that spot is supposed to be straight downhill.

So the Commanders inherited the chance Harbaugh had tried to take off the board. Then they spent the last 12 seconds doing a version of the same thing: one more play, a few more yards, a little less time for the other sideline. They never got the kick either.

Was it a win? No. Was it a loss? No. It was a tie. How does that make you feel? I’m happy it wasn’t a loss and I’m sad it wasn’t a win. It’s a heck of a lot better than a loss, but it’s not as good as a win.

John Harbaugh, Giants coach, postgame

Harbaugh later called the result a tie in those same remarks and said he was surprised when the clock died. Quarterback Jameis Winston, who had never been in a tie, said he was grateful and then thanked the Lord. The Giants had been down 14 in the fourth quarter. A split felt like a steal from that hole, and like a giveaway from the 24.

What 12 Seconds at the Giants 24 Required

Regular-season overtime is a 10-minute period. After a short break, both teams a chance to possess the ball, then the next score wins. If the period ends even, the game ends even. Each staff gets two timeouts. Washington had already used its last one.

THE LAST TWO MINUTES IN LANDOVER

1. About 2:00 left, overtime: Payne strips Skattebo at the Washington 24. The Commanders recover at their 23.
2. The ensuing drive: Daniels hits Terry McLaurin and Treylon Burks and rips off a 16-yard run into field-goal range.
3. 12 seconds left, Giants 24, second down: Washington has no timeouts. The call is a pass. Daniels holds it, runs, and goes down for no gain.
4. 8 seconds left: He is on the turf. The clock is still running. Myers is already asking what they are doing.
5. 0:00: Washington lines up to spike and never gets the snap. Quinn’s headset hits the ground. The game is 27-27.

A spike from that spot was the whole job. Throw it away if the rush is in his face. Do not invent a run with no way to stop the clock. The dropback treated the simplest play in football as optional, and the 10-minute period ran out on a team that was already close enough to kick.

Winston, Nabers and a 14-Point Hole

The ending buried a return that had looked like the player Washington waited three weeks for. Daniels missed two games after he dislocated his left elbow, the non-throwing arm, for the second time, in a Week 2 loss to Dallas. He played nearly 70 minutes in the rain with the brace on, completed 68 percent of his passes, and stayed healthy.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt opened the scoring with a 33-yard run. Stevens missed the extra point. Daniels later scored on a 38-yard run in the third quarter and a 26-yard run that made it 27-13 with 11:05 left in the fourth, the two-point pass going to McLaurin. Washington then ran seven more offensive plays the rest of regulation.

Winston took over from there. Harbaugh went no-huddle after a flat first half, and Winston threw for 326 yards and three scores on 33 of 54 passing. Tight end Isaiah Likely caught 11 balls for 94 yards and two touchdowns, including a 17-yarder in the fourth. Malik Nabers, targeted 20 times, caught 11 for 121 yards and the tying 17-yard score with 1:43 left.

HOW THE BALL MOVED

New York outgained Washington 408 yards to 378 and held the ball 39:25 to 30:35, running 84 plays to 60. The Giants lost both of their fumbles. Washington lost none. The Commanders still left with the same number of points, because the fourth quarter belonged to Winston and the last snap belonged to nobody.

A Kicker’s Three Misses Forced New York to Keep Driving

Harbaugh did not trust a kick from the Washington 24, and the box score explains why. Dominic Zvada went 2 of 5 field-goal tries, making from 51 and 56 and missing from 50, 57, and 46. The 46-yard miss came on New York’s first overtime possession. Harbaugh said his confidence in Zvada was still high and that the kicker was going to miss at some point. He then corrected himself: Zvada now had his first three misses.

That is why the Giants kept the offense on the field instead of sending Zvada out to win it. The 24 was makeable, Harbaugh said, but not a gimme, and he wanted more yards and a dead clock behind the kick. The extra runs produced a fumble instead. Washington’s Stevens, by contrast, was 2 for 2 on the day from 28 and 40. The overtime look from the Giants 24 sat in the same neighborhood as the 40-yarder he had already drilled.

Attendance was 64,195 on a wet afternoon. The Giants punted twice. Washington punted six times. New York converted both of its fourth downs. None of that reached the scoreboard in overtime. Two kickers, five New York field-goal tries, two Washington makes, and zero points after regulation.

First Place Still Belongs to New York

A tie is a half-win and a half-loss. It left the Giants at 3-1-1 (.700) and Washington at 1-3-1 (.300). Philadelphia and Dallas both sit at 2-3 after the Eagles lost earlier Sunday in London and the Cowboys lost on Thursday. New York’s lead in the NFC East is 1.5 games.

NFC EAST AFTER WEEK 5

Quinn said leaving with a tie felt like a loss, and he said he was gutted for his team. That is the honest read in Washington, which is 0-2-1 in the division. For Harbaugh, in his first season after 18 years in Baltimore, the math is kinder. The Giants did not get to 4-1, and they still sit alone in first. They host New Orleans on Oct. 18. Washington visits San Francisco on Oct. 19.

This was also the second Commanders-Giants tie in four seasons. They finished 20-20 on Dec. 4, 2022. Last season’s only tie was Green Bay at Dallas, 40-40, on Sept. 28, 2025. The 10-minute clock, plus a rule that lets both teams have the ball, is built to cut down on cheap sudden-death wins. It still leaves room for a game to die in range of a kick.

London and Rio Made a Spike Feel Costly

Quinn’s extra snap did not come from nowhere. Hours earlier in London, the Philadelphia Eagles took a 17-16 lead on Jake Elliott’s 48-yard field goal with 8 seconds left, then kicked off. Ameer Abdullah returned it 53 yards. Cam Little made a 57-yard kick as time expired, and Jacksonville won 19-17. The Jaguars moved to 4-1. The Eagles fell to 2-3.

Two weeks before that, on Sept. 27 in Rio de Janeiro, Dallas tied Baltimore at 31 on Brandon Aubrey’s 23-yard kick with 7 seconds left and sent the kickoff through the end zone. Lamar Jackson hit Zay Flowers for 27 yards, called timeout with 1 second left, and Tyler Loop made a 56-yarder. The Ravens won 34-31. That drive is the latest-starting game-winning series off a kickoff since 1978.

THREE GAMES, LEFTOVER SECONDS

• Rio, Sept. 27: Dallas leaves 7 seconds after a tying kick. Jackson moves the ball 27 yards. Loop wins it from 56.
• London, Oct. 11: Philadelphia leaves 8 seconds after a go-ahead kick. Abdullah returns the kickoff 53 yards. Little wins it from 57.
• Landover, Oct. 11: Washington, already at the Giants 24, runs one more play with 12 seconds and no timeouts. The clock hits zero. Nobody kicks.

The first two games punished a team for leaving time on the board. The third punished a team for refusing to take the points it already had. Minority owner Magic Johnson put that in public language before the coaches had finished talking.

I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants. All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!🤦🏾‍♂️

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) October 11, 2026

Stevens never lined up. The overtime clock hit zero at 27-27, and the first tie of the season went in the books with the ball on the 24-yard line.