Magic Johnson calls out Commanders for clock management debacle vs. Giants

The Washington Commanders had an inexcusable blunder in overtime against the New York Giants on Sunday in Week 5 and minority co-owner and NBA legend Magic Johnson made sure to let them know he wasn’t happy about it.

With just seconds left in overtime, the Commanders had a chance to win the game with a field goal but completely botched their clock management.

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With 13 seconds left, the Commanders snapped the ball and quarterback Jayden Daniels decided to run with it.

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The problem was the Commanders didn’t have any timeouts left, and Washintgon didn’t have enough time to line up and spike the ball, which led to the clock hitting zero and the game finishing in a tie.

Magic Johnson calls out Commanders

Magic Johnson on the red carpet before the 75th NBA All Star Game at Intuit Dome. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect (Reuters)

After the game was over, Johnson did not mince words about the debacle that was the end of the Week 5 game.

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“I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants,” Johnson said. “All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!”

Johnson even added the “face palm” emoji for good measure.

Jayden Daniels, Dan Quinn takes the blame

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels walks off the field after the Commanders’ game against the Indianapolis Colts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect (Reuters)

Either Jayden Daniels forgot he didn’t have any timeouts left, or he didn’t realize how much time was left on the clock.

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Either way, Daniels took responsibility for the late-game blunder.

“We all gotta be better situationally, football starts with me,” Daniels said. “We gotta stop the clock, we gotta know its o-zone situation, we gotta relay that as an offense, top down, ultimately it’s on me.”

Head coach Dan Quinn was not of the opinion that it was Daniels’ fault and instead put the blame on himself.

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“Yeah, just like the sequencing — that does not fall on (Jayden Daniels). It’s an outside throw or a clock. You know, those are the two (options),” Quinn said.

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Sorry to say, but Daniels has to understand the situation there and make the right decision, which, as Quinn said, was to throw the ball outside or out of bounds completely, or spike it.

Because of the disastrous finish, the Commanders walked out of MetLife Stadium with a 1-3-1 record instead of a 2-3 mark after entering the game in a must-win situation.

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