Commanders most to blame for Week 12 loss to Cowboys

In truth, it still comes down to Quinn, the Commanders head coach. He has to answer for everything. But in this case, one element turned so ugly it’s impossible not to consider the failings of Izzo.

The Commanders allowed two kick returns for touchdowns in the fourth quarter. However, a missed extra point played the biggest role. Imagine not being able to beat your biggest rival because your long snapper can’t do his job at the biggest moment, and your kicker can’t make a simple 33-yard attempt to tie the game.

Quinn explored the problems, according to star-telegram.com.

“I can hit you on all of them,” Quinn said. “And I want to look at them all to see, make sure, usually on a kick it’s usually the operation too. Everything to make sure, snap, hold, kick all of that to go. I know on one of the extra points, looked like it hit the ground. I didn’t have the same broadcast view that you guys did, but that’s what I saw. And so, he is working through that. We’ve had that come up before, so that’s the balance of getting underneath and going so you don’t have low kicks.”

Quinn said he thought late kickoff would end differently

“As far as the one at the end, honestly, I thought like it’s going to be a good kick,” Quinn said. “You got him pinned down. Any time you can get it to bounce you think you’re in good shape, but KaVontae (Turpin) made a couple good moves and got an explosive one to go. But I loved our attitude when we’d have to score what that would be to go get us into this fight, get a four-minute stop. I don’t know how long the last few minutes looked, but it seemed like there was a season of teachable moments that would go on. And so, I love what we stand for, for the finish and I’m wanting those lessons to be applied earlier in the ball game.”

And the special teams coordinator needs to teach his players how to deal with a simple spin move. Instead of freezing like zombies, why not break down, remember your kickoff technique, and make a tackle? Also, spend more time in practice with the long snapper. Maybe the Commanders could visit a local high school team and see how they practice extra points? Izzo could get a few Commanders players on a bus, and maybe the whole organization could learn? Just a thought.

Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury must unleash Daniels

It’s getting a little harder to think the Commanders can right the ship and make the playoffs, but for it to happen Kingsbury has to take the kid gloves off of Daniels. The Commanders spent too much of the game dinking and dunking, and it turned out to be too little and too late when they started to take chances.

Daniels said the Commanders need to find balance.

“Early in the game, they did a good job of turning back and running and try to take those (deep balls) away and minimize those explosive plays,” Daniels said. “So, it’s a fine balance, you know, that we’re figuring out.

“I think anytime you lose a game or lose a game in that type of facet, it’s very difficult,” Daniels said. “It never comes down to just one play. There are plays throughout the game where little things add up to big things. We just haven’t been executing how we did prior. Poor execution, you know, throughout this game, we had short fields and stuff like that. We just didn’t capitalize on those opportunities.”

Head coach Dan Quinn needs to patch holes in a leaky ship

One thing Quinn needs to do is shed conservative play. Most of the great NFL head coaches are willing to take a chance. Quinn failed in two key points against the Cowboys. He settled for a 51-yard field goal on fourth and 2 in the first half. Of course, the kick didn’t come close to being good.

And then, with a chance to win the game, Quinn opted for the supposed safe route of an extra point. Wrong call. In this situation, his team had climbed the mountain and had all of the momentum. Daniels is an amazing weapon for a 2-point conversion. But Quinn left his driver in the bag and tried to chip and putt for a victory.

“I thought if after we score, we’d go for one,” Quinn said. “And the reason behind that, I thought, ‘Let’s get back into it, but we don’t have to decide it on this play’. And so that was where I thought, ‘Let’s go’ and then, hey get one stop, we’ll get it, and then at the coin toss, let’s go through the whole process again and reset it.’

“So, I thought in that way that was the right call on that. As obviously, you’re not factoring in the other part of things. But that was my thought going into it.”