Joe Theismann's Analysis: Commanders vs. Giants - Key Takeaways

Joe, there's a lot of conversation in D.C. right now, especially at the end of that football game with Commanders and Giants, 27-27. I want to hear your take from a quarterback's view on what you're hearing. Obviously, it's a collective. There's a lot of blame that could go around there. That was Washington's game to win. I think the Giants have to feel pretty good getting out of there with the way that thing ended. But give me how you think and how you see how that game ended. I think, obviously, you don't know if the kick was going to be made, but there would have been an opportunity for the commanders to win it. I believe this, that if you're the quarterback and you're on the field, you're in charge. You're in charge. You're the one looking at the clock. You're the one that knows the down and distance. You're the one. I was the holder for Mark Mosley. I knew how close I had to get to be able to give him a chance to win. And so when you look at the last play, when Jayden goes down, uh i'm i'm it looked like he might have been lying on the ground for a second or two and i didn't understand that but you know as a quarterback you have to be aware of everything that's going on obviously the coach they they talk about the lack of communication or whatever it was that's certainly a part of it but i think at that stage of the game when you're on the field you're in charge that's you know that's just it's it's part of the job of being prepared for those moments being prepared for the the things that you need to do to give your team a chance to win what's the down at this can i ground it is it fourth down i can't ground is it third or second down do i have time to do something do i have time to get it out of my hands i mean there's lots of things that that you can do at that moment and none of them happen for uh for Jayden we had Mike Martz on yesterday and he said this he goes why even run another play just get the field goal team out there and give yourself a shot to go home he goes there's no sense of going out there and running another play get the field goal team you have 34 seconds kick the field goal and go home do you agree with that i don't know what they I don't know what they were doing at 12 seconds I mean you had 55 seconds you I believe it's 55 seconds right you ran a play so now now you know understand hey the Philadelphia Eagles taught us that there's plenty of time if there's seven seconds on the clock for something stupid to happen okay so lesson learned so you you run it down you you take the snap you ground it it was it was what second or third down I mean you had a down to play with you know you throw it out of bounds there's a receiver on the left you can see when Jayden starts to run just throw it away but you know I I sort of analogize it a little bit to golf um when you put the club in your hand and you step over the ball it's your ball to hit you have to make the decisions if you hit a bad shot don't turn around and yell at the caddy like I do to my son all the time don't do it it doesn't fly the balls the clubs in your hand you're the one that made the swing and I think in this case you're under center you you know you've got you've got to get the ball out of you you've got to stop the clock I mean the coach isn't on the field with you they and I don't know I like I said I have no idea what the communications were it's my understanding at 15 seconds coaches communications are shut off to the quarterbacks so in those 15 seconds the game belongs to you and and uh it just didn't work out you know you know like you say it was poorly handled that's what i can say but joe you know what like you said and what you you're trying to convey to everyone out there i believe you tell me if i'm wrong hey man it's player accountability first then you can go down the list of talking about the first year play caller and David Blau, if the coaches reminded him where he was in the game, the quarterback and all players have to know where you are situationally, where you are on the field, how much time's out there, especially, and Joe, this is why they pay you guys the big money, man. You guys have to know this, right? This is why you're the quarterback in a football money, right? Yeah, you really should. And like I said, with the headsets being shut off with 15 seconds to go those 15 seconds belong to you you get to you know during the course of a game you get to the line of scrimmage you look at the alignment you know you hear guys going kill kill kill kill kill go to another play that means that the game's in the quarterback's hands inside of 15 seconds coaches can't tell you anything they can't tell you anything now was was it communicated to Jaden to do something? I don't know. We have no idea. And certainly no one, whether it's David or Dan or Jaden, they're not going to say anything. And now all of a sudden you're walking into a buzzsaw. You had a game that you had a chance to... You had a chance to pick up a game on the entire division. You beat the Giants, the Eagles lost, the Cowboys lost. This was a critical game in standing regards. Now you have to travel to San Francisco on a Monday night and play a football team that, you know, we can always talk about the 49ers being beat up, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's on the field for them. Brock Purdy, to me, right now, certainly, I think, is an MVP candidate.