What’s more fun than second-guessing NFL coaches? Nothing, that’s what. So let’s do it every week, right here. Today: What should the Commanders have done after scoring a miraculous late touchdown against Dallas?
The scenario
At the end of the third quarter, Dallas led Washington 10-9 on Sunday. With one minute left in the game, the score was Dallas 27, Washington 20 … so the scores were flying. And so was Washington’s Terry McLaurin, streaking downfield for an 86-yard touchdown to put the score at 27-26 with just 21 seconds remaining.
All that was left to force overtime — or a win — was the decision: kick or go for it?
The case for kicking
The conventional wisdom is that when down one late in the game, you kick for the tie and overtime at home, and you go for the win on the road. Washington was at home, and after three rocky quarters, it had appeared to find some weaknesses in the Dallas defense, scoring on three separate occasions. This year, two-point conversions have been successful at just a 32.4% rate through the first half of this season, well down from the 48.7% from 2010-23, according to an AP study.
Plus, coming into the day, Washington kicker Austin Seibert was a perfect 22-of-22 for extra points. Coming into the day.
The case for going for it
This is more of a gambler’s all-in mentality than an analytics-driven one, but Washington had Dallas on its heels with the touchdown, so why not go for it and try for the surprise win? Catching Dallas unprepared wouldn’t exactly be the most shocking outcome to this game, after all.
Plus, Seibert’s season-long perfect extra point streak ended earlier in the day, when he missed a third-quarter attempt wide left. So why not put the ball in the hands of playmaker extraordinaire Jayden Daniels and see what happens?
The decision
Washington head coach Dan Quinn opted to go for the extra point … and Seibert is now 22 of 24 on extra points. The kick again went wide left. And as if to add insult to injury, Dallas returned Seibert’s attempted onside kick for another touchdown. That made 41 total points scored in the fourth quarter … but it was the one that wasn’t that made all the difference.
The result
Washington has now lost three in a row and has dropped to the low side of the playoff bubble. This could be a crucial and costly loss, and one that very easily could have gone the other way.
So, would you have kicked the safe extra point or gone for the two-point conversion and the checkmate? What’s your call?