Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn is denying that he lost track of the down and distance during Monday night’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers, after television cameras appeared to catch him calling for a field goal on what he believed was fourth down — immediately after his offense had already failed to convert on fourth down and drawn a penalty.
ABC’s broadcast cameras picked up Quinn seemingly saying “Field goal,” then correcting himself with “Oh, that was fourth down.” The moment was replayed and dissected at halftime on both the main ESPN broadcast and the Pat McAfee alternate broadcast.
“We found out at halftime Dan Quinn didn’t know what down it was,” McAfee told his audience. “That’s a real problem.”
Former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky, part of the McAfee broadcast crew, had criticized Quinn’s decision to go for it on fourth down in real time, then weighed in further after the sequence drew scrutiny. “Dan Quinn did not know it’s fourth down coming off of last week, and then to go for it and get the penalty,” Orlovsky said. “I’m a Dan Quinn guy. But you gotta get the operation better.”
Quinn gave a different account of the sequence during his postgame press conference, which was not nationally televised. He said the confusion stemmed from an illegal shift penalty, not a misunderstanding of the down.
“No, I definitely knew it was fourth down,” Quinn told reporters. “We were going for it, and I was, I think with whatever you’re referring to, I think it was the illegal shift, there’s not a penalty to go for a field goal. Like, it’s the turnover on downs. Like, I think somebody asked me, ‘Can we kick a field goal?’ … I knew what happened. I think I was probably just commenting that I remember, at least on the headset, somebody asked me after an illegal shift, um, like, it was a turnover on downs.”
The incident comes one week after the Commanders mismanaged the clock in the closing minutes of a game against the New York Giants, wasting time and mishandling the down situation in a sequence that ended in a tie the team was positioned to win.
Because that explanation reached far fewer people than the television broadcast did, the on-camera moment is what most fans will remember. Quinn’s standing as a game-day manager has taken a hit two weeks running, and he may have to answer to Commanders owner Josh Harris about whether his version of events holds up against what millions watched live.
