To say Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn was under a microscope in Week 6 is an understatement. Washington was playing the best team in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers, on a national stage eight days after the team ran out the clock on themselves in embarrassing fashion, leading to a 27-27 tie with the New York Giants. How Quinn managed his timeouts and the clock was going to be something everyone was watching, and it almost looked like Quinn made another embarrassing gaffe early in the second quarter.
On a fourth-and-2 from the 49ers' 13-yard line, Washington elected to go for it. Quarterback Jayden Daniels threw the ball away — which is a conversation for another day — but there was a flag on the field. Officials called the Commanders for an illegal shift, and the 49ers declined the penalty, accepting the turnover on downs.
ESPN's cameras appeared to capture Quinn saying, "Oh! It was fourth down," as if he did not know the situation. Oh, that was 4th down?”certainly looks like lip readers believe Dan Quinn was completely unaware that it was 4th down and wanted to kick a field goal💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/yJYuAUmVZX After the game, Quinn was asked about the video that had since gone viral on social media.
"No, I definitely knew it was fourth down," Quinn said. "We were going for it, and I was — I think what you're referring to, I was probably saying like, with the illegal shift, there's not a penalty to go for a field goal. Like, it doesn't go, like — it's the turn on downs.
I think somebody had asked me, 'Can we kick a field goal?' So, no, we were going for it. We knew we had to go for some fourth downs to be bold in the game. "But no, I knew what happened.
I think I probably was just commenting that I remember, at least on the headset, somebody asked me, after an illegal shift, like it was a turnover on downs, and Jayden saw the foul, too. He also came out and saw the penalty." If you go back and watch the video, that does not look like what was happening. Quinn looked surprised that the play was fourth down, not that he was correcting someone else.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
