Commanders-Giants tie: Washington delivers disastrous end-of-game sequence following Cam Skattebo fumble

A furious Dan Quinn watched the Commanders waste their chance to win after Jayden Daniels went down with eight seconds left in overtime

Oct 11, 2026 at 5:27 pm ET • 2 min read

The Washington Commanders and the New York Giants played to the NFL's first tie of the season, a 27-27 finish. The Commanders stunningly ran out of time in a complete meltdown at the end of the extra session. Here's the final play:

The Commanders -- who had no timeouts -- were extremely casual, letting the clock run after the previous play. They had absolutely no reason to run the clock down, considering it was a next-score-wins situation. The blunder created a surreal scene: Giants defenders jumping for joy as if they had won, Commanders players slouched over in disbelief and Dan Quinn absolutely furious.

He has no one to blame but himself. 

The play appeared to be a Jayden Daniels pass, but the quarterback never threw the ball and then went down. With eight seconds left when Daniels went down, Washington could not line up for a spike in time, a shocking failure for a team that was fortunate to be in the situation anyway. Again, Washington had no reason to even run any play other than a spike. In fact, they didn't even need that. They could have simply had Drew Stevens attempt the game-winning kick from roughly 41 yards

How the Commanders ended up in this position

The Giants trailed 27-13 with less than eight minutes left in regulation before two Jameis Winston touchdown passes forced overtime. New York got the ball to start overtime and drove into Washington territory before Dominic Zvada missed a 46-yard field goal.

The Giants forced a quick three-and-out, though, and went on another long drive, this time in a next-score-wins scenario. The Giants were at the Washington 24-yard line -- well inside Zvada's range -- but wanted to get closer, given that kicker Zvada had missed three field goals at that point. But Sonny Styles punched the ball out from Cam Skattebo, an inexcusable mistake from the Giants' running back.

Skattebo couldn't have known it then, but it only turned out to be the second-worst mistake of the afternoon. The Commanders not knowing the situation is truly atrocious on every level -- from Quinn to offensive coordinator David Blough to Daniels -- and an absolute gut punch for a team that had hoped Daniels' return from a dislocated elbow would provide a spark. Instead, it resulted in one of the most shocking errors anyone will see at the professional level and more scrutiny on Quinn and the entire organization.

The Giants (3-1-1) still lead the NFC East and, in fact, even gained a half-game on the field with the Cowboys and the Eagles both losing. The Commanders go to 1-3-1 in embarrassing fashion.