The Daily Slop - 13 October 2026
Editor’s note: Each day, Hogs Haven compiles a collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East, the NFL and sports in general, with a sprinkling of other stuff. Enjoy!
Commanders links
Articles
Bullock’s Film Room (subscription)
Commanders offense struggles vs Giants Cover-0 blitzes
On that three-and-out, the Giants found something that worked. On third and eight with just under six minutes remaining in the game, the Giants called a Cover-0 blitz. For those that don’t know, Cover-0 is an all-out blitz where the defense assigns a single defender for each eligible receiver, and the rest of the defenders rush. It’s risky because it’s pure man coverage without any safety help, but it also guarantees the defense can rush one more defender than the offense can block.
Most teams that run Cover-0 in today’s NFL will line up almost every defender on the line of scrimmage and let the offense know it’s coming. Instead, the Giants try to show their normal base defense, but there are hints that a blitz is coming. The slot defender gives it away a bit, as do the safeties. The safeties are showing two-high, but also they’re shifted. One is in the middle of the field while the other is more over Dyami Brown in the slot. The Giants are a man coverage team, so it’s unusual to matchup a safety against a receiver in the slot.
The biggest hint comes just before the snap, as the linebackers and slot corner all step forward to join the rush. But at that point it’s too late in the playclock for Jayden Daniels to change anything, so he snaps the ball. He looks to his left off the snap and appears to see the slot corner blitzing. He knows he doesn’t have anyone available to pick up that blitz, so his instinct is to take off running. Unfortunately, there’s not really anywhere for him to go and he ends up sacked.
ESPN
Making sense of the Giants-Commanders tie
If you want to know how much of a disaster the end of this game was for the Commanders, ask the Giants. After coming back from 14 points down in the fourth quarter, the Giants were in position to win this game in overtime, only for running back Cam Skattebo to fumble in field goal range. A stunned Giants team then allowed 51 yards on the next four plays, pushing the Commanders into position for their own game-winning field goal with 55 seconds to go.
After those seconds came off the clock and the tie was confirmed, Giants defenders celebrated like they had just won the Super Bowl. John Harbaugh, who actually has won a Lombardi Trophy, might not have been any less ecstatic. “I wanted to get off the field before they could take it away from us,” said Harbaugh, describing the tie like it was free money he found on the ground. If the Giants could have fit the stadium’s goalposts on the plane back to New Jersey, you get the feeling that they might have torn them down before leaving.
With 55 seconds to go, the Commanders were facing a first-and-10 on the Giants’ 26-yard line. The Commanders were obviously already in field goal range for rookie Drew Stevens, but amid rainy conditions, this had been an adventurous game for kickers. Stevens missed the opening extra point of the game wide left, while Giants kicker Dominic Zvada had missed field goal attempts from 46, 50 and 57.
You would hope that Stevens would be able to make a 44-yard attempt if the Commanders didn’t get any additional yardage, and given that Skattebo had just fumbled while the Giants were in position to kick a 42-yard field goal, there had to be some trepidation on the part of coach Dan Quinn and first-year offensive coordinator David Blough. The Commanders could have essentially kneeled twice and brought Stevens on for a field goal here while draining the clock and preventing the Giants from getting the ball in case of a missed kick. Instead, they elected to try to pick up additional yardage.
Rachaad White runs for 2 yards
Nothing wild here, as the Commanders run a simple shotgun handoff to White for 2 yards. With 50 seconds on the clock as White’s tackled, the Commanders don’t need to be in any sort of rush. If they want to run the clock down as much as possible, they can line up, kneel inside of 40 seconds on second down on Stevens’ preferred hashmark, spike the ball again with several seconds left on third down and then kick on fourth down to win the game.
By the time Daniels gets back to the line of scrimmage, there are 17 seconds left on the game clock. Blough’s playcall includes motion from the tight end, which takes another four seconds. By the time the Commanders snap the ball, the game clock is down to 12 seconds. There’s no way they can run the ball with enough time to reliably spike it on the next snap.
The operation leading to this final play was a disaster. There’s no reason the Commanders even needed to run another offensive play, let alone a pass play. It’s absolutely the wrong time to be changing personnel and calling a play that requires pre-snap motion.
Passing the ball in this situation isn’t in itself a disaster, although it wouldn’t be my first choice. The Giants had been zero blitzing Daniels throughout the game to try to force sacks or quick throws. With the proper instruction, this play isn’t a disaster. Daniels takes the snap and looks toward tight end Ben Sinnott in the flat, but Kayvon Thibodeaux has dropped into coverage and takes away his throwing lane. That’s not the end of the world. Throw the ball away over Sinnott’s head, stop the clock and kick the field goal.
Very clearly, the information that needed to be conveyed to Daniels was not passed along before communication cut off with 15 seconds to go on the play clock. Daniels does not play out this sequence like someone who knows time is at all of the essence, likely because he believes the Commanders still have a timeout. After the throw to the flat is taken away, Daniels doesn’t throw the ball away or look toward any of his other receivers. He goes to tuck and run with the ball to pick up an extra yard or two, making it back to the line of scrimmage.
There’s a reason Daniels took responsibility after the game. He’s partially to blame.
Of course, there’s also a reason Quinn took responsibility after the game, too. It’s his job to make sure that the big-picture game management decisions are communicated appropriately
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Front Office Sports
Dan Quinn’s Job Security in Doubt After Commanders Clock Fiasco
It seemed unlikely as of Monday morning that the Commanders will fire Quinn this week. One source familiar with the team’s inner workings told Front Office Sports that was not the Commanders’ plan at this point.
Even so, Quinn’s exit also seemed increasingly inevitable, perhaps a matter of when more so than if. The Commanders are 1-3-1 and in last place in the NFC East in the third season of Quinn’s coaching tenure in D.C. And Sunday’s clock blunder was sufficiently egregious to prompt a social-media comment by Magic Johnson, the former NBA great who is a Commanders part-owner.
“I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants,” he wrote Sunday. “All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!”
The details of Quinn’s contract are not publicly known. He is believed to be around the middle of a pay scale for NFL head coaches that now tops out around $20 million per season.
The Commanders have a potential interim head coach on their staff in running backs coach Anthony Lynn, the former head coach of the Chargers.
Josh Harris is in his fourth season as the team’s principal owner after buying the franchise from Daniel Snyder in 2023 for $6.05 billion. Harris is an experienced sports owner who perhaps can resist the impulse to react emotionally and allow the season to play out. He waited until after the 2023 season to dismiss Rivera.
The Harris-owned Commanders have managed to separate themselves in many ways from the turmoil of the Snyder era while attempting to tap into the success of the pre-Snyder days. The tumult associated with Snyder included, among many other issues, a turnstile of coaching changes; Snyder cycled through 10 head coaches in 24 years. But now, Harris faces a near-revolt among the team’s fans after Sunday’s on-field fiasco.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
From ESPN:
Quinn said he isn’t worried about players losing faith in the coaching staff after Sunday. But he clearly was frustrated after the play, slamming his headset to the ground and then standing on the field at the 25-yard line and staring straight ahead for several minutes.
Many fans felt the same emotion. When asked about a loss in confidence in him, Quinn said, “I’m just as pissed. This is a really hard loss, man.”
There are no plans to make any coaching changes, a team source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN. But this start preceded by a 5-12 season has led to such questions only two years after Quinn guided the Commanders to the NFC Championship Game.
To read more of this ESPN article, CLICK HERE
Metro Sports Page
Commanders offer master class in the difference between “not winning” and “not losing”
No, I don’t think Dan Quinn should be fired. As good as it feels to scream that (apparently really good because it’s almost the only thing I’m hearing today), firing Dan Quinn is step one of a one-step plan that is missing…so many other steps. Regardless of our playoff chances at this point (irregardless, even), we still have two brand-spanking-new coordinators and a staff of coaches built very much for Dan Quinn. Running that white flag up the pole in week 6--which is what I think it would feel like--strikes me as no real plan at all. Who would you promote to head coach? How do you stabilize a locker room in the absence of the man who we have tasked with that specific job? Playing out the string for eleven weeks can be done, but that is a lot to ask some of our veteran players to do who likely aren’t ready to surrender. Also, and I don’t want to just blow smoke up your kilts, but the NFC East is STILL up for grabs. At this point of the season, there ain’t NOBODY in this freakin’ division playing well enough to claim dominance. I would argue we aren’t even at the line where it becomes “improbable” for us to make the playoffs. I think it is very probable that a mediocre team from our division will win it…and we are as mediocre as they come right now.
You know what sucks harder than watching a tie? Knowing that this tie is as much of a loss as it can be, and knowing that the absence of the win we were on the verge of securing was very likely going to change the whole trajectory of the season. We watched our banged up quarterback that everyone thinks is made of glass lead everyone on the field in rushing with over 100 yards on the ground and two long scoring runs. Except for one play on the day, Jayden Daniels was completely in control of the game and had put us in position to win. The Giants valiantly came from behind to make it a game at the end, but the scale was tilted our way throughout--including up until the last 20 seconds. John Harbaugh and the Giants celebrated like it was a playoff win--which I can’t really blame them for since “not losing” is a great result when there was a 99% chance they were gonna have an L hung on them. For us, we went with the feeling of “not winning,”
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
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Last Man Standig
Who knew what? Untangling the Commanders’ overtime blunder
Watch it again. There’s seemingly no sense of urgency from anybody. That would lead me to believe the players thought Washington still had a timeout.
Of course, those players are getting their information from Daniels. They’re not on the headset with offensive coordinator David Blough, Quinn or anybody else. It’s conceivable they were simply operating as programmed: Get the play, hear the play, run the play.
If Daniels did simply lose track of the situation, there are still no excuses but stuff happens. There’s a myriad of considerations happening for the QB on any given play, and the final seconds drama adds to the mental gymnastics. This scenario also means the blunder is on Daniels, which wasn’t exactly what he articulated.
For more from Ben Standig, click here
The Athletic (paywall)
Before his crushing mistake, Jayden Daniels showed his electric best
Sunday also brought Daniels back into the lineup after a two-week absence with a dislocated left elbow. He wore a brace on that arm. It hindered him not at all. Over the course of the first 69 minutes and 45 seconds of football, he made it clear: If he’s healthy, he’ll win more games than he loses. (Or ties, I suppose.)
It’s not just that, in miserably wet conditions, he completed 17 of 25 passes for 199 yards without anything close to an interception. Or that the box score shows he ran nine times for 103 more yards, including two scores.
“For somebody that’s missed time,” Quinn said, “I thought he played sharp.”
For Daniels, sharp means being accurate with the football, which he was. The Commanders’ second possession of overtime — the possession that should have led to the game-winning kick — featured exactly-where-they-had-to-be throws to Terry McLaurin to start and Treylon Burks to put them in position to kick. Daniels looked comfortable in just his third start in the offense of new coordinator David Blough, notably pulling off an audible that set up a 22-yard run from back Jacory Croskey-Merritt.
Is there a heart-in-the-throat element every time Daniels tucks the football or is taken down? Sure. This season is about keeping him healthy. This franchise must keep him healthy. But he’s also most dangerous when he — judiciously — takes off.
And he can take off. According to NFL Media, Daniels reached a top speed of 20.5 mph — the fastest clocking of his entire career — on the way to a 38-yard scoring run. He sped past Giants defensive back Dru Phillips and away from cornerback Deonte Banks. There aren’t many quarterbacks who can outrun an entire secondary.
It happened again early in the fourth quarter. Daniels took a shotgun snap, saw no one open, took off from the Giants’ 26, juked Phillips at the 5 — and scored.
“Man coverage and no spy,” Daniels said. “So, try to make them pay for it.”
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Sports Illustrated
Commanders Got 7.5 Yards Per Carry From Jacory Croskey-Merritt. Then His Carries Stopped
Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt led all Commanders running backs with 82 yards on 11 carries in Washington’s 27-27 tie with the New York Giants on Sunday. That doesn’t sound odd, but the snap count makes it seem off. Despite the 7.5 yards per carry, Bill didn’t see the ball over the final 14:20 of regulation or during overtime.
The Commanders were driving late in the third quarter (:39) when Bill took off for a 22-yard run. The problem is, his next carry, a one-yard gain at the 14:20 mark in the fourth, would be his last. Washington would go up 27-13 with 11:05 remaining.
After Bill’s final carry, the running back usage shifted, and the process favored White. From that point on, White got all five remaining running back carries and finished with seven rushes for 18 yards, making the move a highly questionable head-scratcher.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Commanders Roundtable
Studs, duds from tie game vs Giants
Stud: TE Chig Okonkwo
Okonkwo was a welcomed presence coming back from injury, as the Commanders did not have a real tight end threat until Sunday when he and Daniels had a 23-yard pass on the first play from scrimmage, and then he made a 25-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter. However, he was quiet in the second half of the game as the Giants used their blitz packages to force him into pass protection for Daniels.
Stud: Defensive Line
The Commanders held the Giants to 3.7 yards per carry, forced two fumbles, and pressured Winston multiple times, with seven quarterback hits. Deatrich Wise returned from injured reserve and made plays; Daron Payne forced the fumble on Cam Skattabo’s run giving the team a chance to win in overtime. Shy Tuttle, who recovered the fumble in overtime, held its ground.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Commanders.com
5 takeaways from Commanders vs. Giants
More turnovers.
One of the positives from the Commanders’ defense is that the unit continues to produce takeaways. They now have seven for the year, tying them with the third-most in the league and giving them the second-best turnover margin (+5) in the NFL.
For all the good that Winston is capable of, it is well known that he can take risks with the ball and cough it up at critical moments. That’s exactly what happened in the second quarter, when K’Lavon Chaisson forced a sack-fumble that was recovered by Tim Settle. The Commanders got a field goal out of the takeaway, giving them a nine-point lead at halftime.
And while the defense played a role in allowing the Giants to force overtime, they also produced the play that gave the Commanders a chance to win the game. With the Giants well within field goal range, Daron Payne punched the ball out of Cam Skattebo’s grasp, which led to Shy Tuttle falling on it and giving the Commanders’ offense two minutes to move down the field.
There’s plenty for the defense to work on, but their newfound ability to force turnovers provides a foundation to build upon moving forward.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Commanders.com
Commanders-Giants Stats & Snaps
Daniels ran for over 100-plus yards in a game for the second time in his career.
RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt rushed for 82 yards and one touchdown.
Croskey-Merritt rushed for his second touchdown of the season and 10th of his career on Washington’s opening drive. He became the fourth running back in franchise history to have at least 10 rushing touchdowns within his first 25 career games.
Croskey-Merritt surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards. He became the ninth running back in Washington history to surpass 1,000 rushing yards in 22 games or less.
WR Terry McLaurin caught four passes for 62 yards.
McLaurin (982) passed Ricky Sanders (942) for No. 6 all-time in franchise history in receiving yards against the New York Giants and Santana Moss (973) for No. 5 all-time in franchise history in receiving yards against the New York Giants.
TE Chig Okonkwo recorded four passes for 60 yards.
Okonkwo recorded his 200th career reception in the first quarter. He became the 32nd tight end in the league to reach at least 200 receptions in their first five years in the league.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Photos
Commanders.com
PHOTOS | Commanders vs. Giants, Week 5
Check out the top photos of the Washington Commanders against the New York Giants
Podcasts & videos
The District Film Room - Week 5 offensive blunders
NFC East links
Blogging the Boys
History says this Cowboys team is doomed
With five weeks now in the books we can search certain things at Stathead and Pro Football Reference that weren’t as easily accessible before. Their system doesn’t allow for searches that include spans to start a season short of five games.
Here is a list of every team in franchise history that has started their season with a 2-3 (or worse) record. This year’s team is number 24 in that capacity.
Of the previous instances where a Cowboys team was 2-3 or worse through the first five games, they have only made the playoffs twice. If we round up that is 9%.
You’ll note that each of those two teams (1996 and 2018) saw the Cowboys reach the postseason as the NFC East winner. Some years it pays to be in a crummy division, and that certainly seems to be the case this year for Dallas. On the heels of what we saw in Week 5, 10 wins probably earns some hats and t-shirts for whoever gets there.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Upcoming opponent - 49ers
Commanders next game is on the road on Monday Night Football vs the San Francisco 49ers
Niners Nation
Deebo Samuel is expected to miss a ‘couple of weeks’ with a hamstring injury
The 49ers’ depth at wide receiver takes another hit
The 49ers face the Commanders and Falcons before their bye week. It’s reasonable to assume we won’t see Deebo until after the Niners’ bye.
Ian Rapoport said Deebo pulled his hamstring and is expected to miss “several weeks.”
Christian Kirk has yet to return from a preseason injury that happened on the first day. Demarcus Robinson is on the injured reserve with a high-ankle sprain. The Niners will have to get to the bye week with what’s on the roster in-house.
On Sunday, Mike Evans led the way with 36 snaps. Deebo and Jacob Cowing played 25 snaps. Brandin Cooks was next at 21, while Jordan Watkins played 20, but ran a team-low nine routes.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
NFL league links
Articles
ESPN
Bills QB Josh Allen earns first overtime win of career vs. Rams on MNF
Allen led the Buffalo Bills to a 37-34 overtime win against the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football,” breaking his careerlong winless streak in OT. Before Monday’s game, Allen was 0-7 in overtime, including three season-ending playoff losses despite him averaging 292 passing yards, 75 rushing yards and a couple of touchdowns per game.
Against the Rams, Allen came through with his usual late-game theatrics. Across the fourth quarter and overtime, Allen was 5-for-5 passing with 121 yards and ran six times for 91 yards and a touchdown. He also completed a 2-point conversion attempt.
But none of that would’ve mattered if not for edge defender Greg Rousseau blocking the Rams’ would-be winning field goal attempt and affording the Bills their chance to end Allen’s overtime streak.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
ESPN
Jim Harbaugh says he, Chargers ownership ‘in this fight together’ amid 0-5 start
Amid the franchise’s first 0-5 start since 2003, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said Monday that he and the team’s ownership group are “in this fight together” to turn the season around.
The Chargers have faltered after coming into the season off back-to-back 11-6 seasons.
Being a former 14-year NFL pro could offer Harbaugh the experience of knowing what it’s like to be in the locker room during a poor stretch. During his final season as a player, he played for the then-San Diego Chargers, who went 1-15 after an 0-5 start.
How he handles a locker room under similar circumstances prompted a simple message.
When asked if he feels any pressure from ownership, Harbaugh said: “John Spanos, Dean Spanos, Susie Spanos, the whole Spanos family. It’s shoulder to shoulder where we’re in this fight together.”
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
aBit o’Twitter