The Commanders, in key moments of games, continue to have a little too much Backward Hat Energy.

On Sunday, it wasn’t an issue of letting the clock expire or not knowing it was fourth down. Which made it less obvious on the surface.

Still, Commanders coach Dan Quinn made another questionable (to put it kindly) decision at the conclusion of the 20-13 loss to the Rams.

Fast forward through 59 minutes and 57 seconds. Three seconds remained. The Commanders had the ball on the L.A. 31.

One play. One shot. To the end zone.

Or not.

The Commanders dialed up a goofy, clunky, Stanford band play. It went more like Benny Hill.

Watch the play. Then ask, “Why?”

They were at the 31. Throw it to the end zone. Not a Hail Mary. A normal throw.

Remember the touchdown pass that Jayden Daniels threw to cap the Monday night game at Cincinnati in the third week of his rookie season? That was from 27 yards.

Sure, the Bengals weren’t guarding the end zone; the Rams would have been.

Regardless, let it fly. It gets caught or it doesn’t. And maybe, just maybe, there’s a pass interference call in the end zone. (Since it wasn’t a classic Hail Mary situation, the usual PI rules would have applied.)

Whatever the chances of scoring would have been, it seemingly would have made MUCH more sense to throw the ball toward the ultimate destination than to hope a short pass would be the first domino to fall in a convoluted pattern that had a minuscule chance to working out.

As Simms said on PFT Live, that’s the play you run from your own 30, not the opponent’s 30.

At the opponent’s 30, you throw it to the end zone.

Again, it wasn’t as egregious as other blunders the Commanders have made this season. And it basically got lost in an otherwise nutty day.

It shouldn’t be lost on Commanders fans. The teams had a chance to score a touchdown that would have set up a one-point try for overtime or an all-or-nothing two-point conversion. Instead, they opted to trade in six the hard way for six the impossible way.

We’ll never know what would have happened if they’d just fired the ball the end zone. We know what happened when they didn’t. And it didn’t look like it ever had a real chance to deliver the touchdown the Commanders needed.