Nick Sirianni, Dan Quinn fail their teams in pivotal moments during dismal NFC East weekend

The Eagles and Commanders squandered chances to win Sunday, and both coaches are feeling the heat

Oct 12, 2026 at 9:18 am ET • 3 min read

Clock mismanagement and a pair of coaches overthinking late-game situations doomed the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders. Both teams are fighting for air in the NFC East after five weeks, and both coaches are feeling the heat.

The Eagles led the Jacksonville Jaguars with eight seconds left in London following Jake Elliott's 48-yard field goal before giving one of the NFL's most dangerous return threats, Ameer Abdullah, a shot at a big return. Abdullah answered with a 53-yard burst to set up Cam Little's game-winning 57-yard field goal as time expired, dropping the Eagles to 2-3 overall.

"I didn't make the right decision, and I lost us that game, and that's what I said to our guys," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. "What hurts there is the guys fought so hard, and then I don't make the decision that I should make at the end of the game and I cost us that game, and I put that one on me."

The Commanders were in game-winning field goal range against the New York Giants in overtime before the clock expired at the 25-yard line during a 27-all tie. Now 1-3-1, Washington would've moved one game back of the division leaders with a victory.

Dan Quinn said, "It falls on me," when asked about his team's failure to stop the clock and attempt the game-tying field goal without any timeouts.

Quarterback Jayden Daniels assumed responsibility after going down in the middle of the field with the final seconds ticking off the clock, but Quinn pointed fingers at himself.

"At the end, I can make life easy there," Quinn said. "We didn't need to gain more yards."

NFC East standings

	Win	Loss	Tie	Pct	PF	PA
Giants	3	1	1	.700	109	106
Eagles	2	3	0	.400	92	112
Cowboys	2	3	0	.400	138	136
Commanders	1	3	1	.300	115	149

These weren't two situations that required genius decisions on the headset. In fact, both were elementary-level calls that most of us could've made from the couch.

Both coaches failed their respective franchises in a big spot, including one in a divisional game. Ironically, Sirianni nixed the idea of having his quarterback run around and burn time off the clock before attempting the go-ahead field goal, the inverse of a decision that backfired on Quinn and the Commanders.

"It hurts in the sense of the guys fought their ass off and had a chance to win the game. And then for me to not make the right decision in that, you feel like you let everyone down," Sirianni said. "That will stick with me for a long time. All I know is I'll work my butt off to get better from it."

Quinn's error was the more notable blunder, ending with the coach slamming his headset to the ground after a game that ended in a tie felt more like a loss in Washington.

Cowboys kickstarted NFC East's winless weekend

Those coaching mistakes came a couple of days after Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said he was considering staff changes following his team's humiliating loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Is there any team interested in winning the division this season?

Tampa Bay's decisive 17-point third quarter behind undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels and Bucky Irving's first 100-yard outing on the ground in two years put the spotlight on the Cowboys' second-year coach and his 2-3 start this fall.

"I'm going to look at everything," Schottenheimer said. "I'll spend countless hours trying to figure it out and getting a chance to step back, look at these five games, and see what we need to improve. ... Yeah, I think we evaluate everything, but at the end of the day, we're five games in. I am disappointed in the way we performed this evening as a football team, and that's just going to be one part of the process."