Commanders and Giants Tie 27-27 After Failed Clock Stop

Jayden Daniels took the snap on second-and-8 at the New York Giants’ 24-yard line with twelve seconds left in overtime and no Washington timeouts remaining. He scrambled, found no one open, and went down near the line of scrimmage with about eight seconds still on the clock. Going down in bounds kept the seconds moving. In the NFL, a spike—snapping the ball and immediately throwing it into the ground—stops the clock so a team can reset for a kick. Throwing the ball out of bounds does the same. Neither happened.

Teammates rushed toward the line, trying to get set and spike the ball before the seconds ran out. They could not get the snap off in time. The clock hit zero. The game ended 27-27, the first NFL tie of the 2026 season. A game-winning field goal from roughly 42 yards, also cited as 41, had been available if the clock had stopped. The field-goal unit never reached the field.

That chance had arrived only after Cam Skattebo fumbled the ball away deep in Washington territory late in overtime, after the Giants had already driven into field-goal range. The turnover handed the Commanders an opening they had not forced on their own possession. New York had been closing on a kick that could have ended the game when the ball came free and possession flipped.

Washington had led 27-13 early in the fourth quarter. Jameis Winston then threw three touchdown passes for 326 yards, including a 17-yard score to Isaiah Likely and a 17-yard tying touchdown to Malik Nabers with 1:43 left in regulation. Those 14 unanswered points forced overtime. In the extra period the Giants reached range again and Dominic Zvada missed a 46-yard attempt—one of three misses on five field-goal tries that day. Further exchanges kept both sides alive until Skattebo’s fumble put Washington back on offense with time still on the clock.

Daniels moved them to the Giants’ 24. After a first-down run they still had a down and seconds left. The running play before the final snap had come with about 55 seconds still available. They did not put the ball in play again until twelve seconds remained, then kept the offense on the field with no timeouts when the surest path was already the kick. The right options at that point were only an out-of-bounds throw, a spike to stop the clock, or simply the kick itself. Rookie Drew Stevens was 2-for-2 on field goals that day. He had not missed any of seven career attempts from inside 50 yards, though he had missed an extra point earlier in the game. From the Giants’ 24 the attempt would have been roughly 41 or 42 yards. They never took it.

Dan Quinn tore off his headset and threw it to the ground in fury. Giants defenders jumped for joy as if they had won. Commanders players slumped in disbelief.

Quinn claimed the final sequence as his own when he spoke after the game. “Leaving tonight with a tie feels like a loss,” he said. “The last sequence — we throw it out of bounds, we clock it, you give yourself a chance to kick it. We pride ourselves on those moments at the end of the game. After the first-down run, still trying to gain more for the kick. Right call is obviously we can go clock it early. Don't put ourselves in that spot, and that's my responsibility, no one else's.”

He refused to place the sequencing on the quarterback. “The sequencing of that does not fall on him,” Quinn said. “It's an outside throw or a clock. Those are the two, an out-of-bounds throw or a clock. That has to come from me. I don't have to put him into that spot. I can do that earlier. We can finish the kick earlier, we don't need to gain more yards. So that's on me.”

“I'm gutted for our team,” he said. “We were given a lot of opportunities tonight.” The shorter line closed it: “It falls on me.”

The same night left the quarterback to answer for the scramble that never stopped the clock. Daniels had returned from a dislocated left elbow after missing two games. He finished with 199 yards passing and 103 rushing, scoring on runs of 38 and 26 yards while wearing a brace on the left elbow.

“We've got to stop the clock,” Daniels said. “We've got to know the situation. We've got to relay that as an offense. It starts with everybody, top down. Ultimately it's on me.” He kept the same ground without expanding it. “We've all got to be better situationally. We've just got to be better overall.” Then again: “We all gotta be better situationally. Starts with me. Everybody will say the same thing, but we just gotta be better at situational football.”

Asked what he had been trying to do, and whether the offense had relayed the absence of timeouts in the huddle, the answer shortened further. “Um, just got to be better, just got to be better.”

The Commanders fell to 1-3-1. The Giants improved to 3-1-1 and lead the NFC East. Dallas and Philadelphia both lost the same week, and the tie left New York a half-game ahead in the division. Washington’s next game is a Monday night road matchup at San Francisco on October 19. The Giants host New Orleans the Sunday before that, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.