To upset the No. 1 seeded Detroit Lions on the road, the Washington Commanders knew they’d probably have to be perfect. They knew they’d have to pull out every trick from their bag to steal points, possessions, and generally keep the Lions on their toes.
Uh, as evidenced by Washington’s opening possession, head coach Dan Quinn and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury probably overthought this mantra.
At the apex of a promising Commanders opening drive deep into Lions territory, Washington elected to keep the pressure on and try to convert a key fourth and short. This wasn’t a bad idea on its face. No one in the NFL had a higher fourth-down conversion percentage than the Commanders this season (82.14 percent). The problem is that Kingsbury took the ball out of Jayden Daniels’ hands, the likely Offensive Rookie of the Year.
And what was Washington’s plan instead? To motion backup quarterback Marcus Mariota under center before he took the snap, panicked, took a sack, and didn’t make any decision with the ball.
What an awful play call at that moment:
A note to the Commanders: they should try simply giving the ball to their best players in crunch situations. That usually works out for the better!
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Commanders ran a perplexing Marcus Mariota 4th down play instead of giving Jayden Daniels the ball
