The Washington Commanders suffered a tough loss to the Rams. And the boneheaded final play added to the pain. And here are the Commanders who are most to blame for the Week 9 loss.

The Commanders fell to 2-5-1 and stand in third place in the NFC East. They are three games behind the first-place Giants in a division where it’s likely the only playoff berth goes to the champion.

They were underdogs against the Rams, but put up a decent fight in the 20-13 decision. But who failed?

Head coach Dan Quinn — once again

Quinn can say what he wants about the final play. He can act like the Rams disguised a zero blitz and forced the hand of Jayden Daniels, according to a post on X by JP Finlay.

“Dan Quinn on the final play of the game says the check down was the option bc of the Rams blitz; said, ‘not happy with the execution of that play”

But it’s simply not true. It wasn’t even a “check down” as Finlay called it. It was a five-step drop and pass. No pass-rush pressure at all. Watch the final play on an X post by NFL.

The Rams rushed five players. Daniels was under zero duress when he threw the pass. Plus, only two receivers went deep. Chig Okonkwo hesitated and ran across the middle of the field. Antonio Williams ran a similar route a little deeper down the field. There appeared to be no plan to throw the ball into the end zone. Any claim otherwise is simply playing mind games and trying to deflect from a defeated decision by either offensive coordinator David Blough or Quinn.

So what Quinn says about the play, according to Sports Illustrated, really doesn’t make sense.

“So, there’s two plays that you come in,” Quinn said. “And so, on the first one, you’re taking a shot to the end zone, just like you described. And sometimes, to check for that against a team that does what we call a zero blitz or a max blitz, you want to, ‘OK, here’s the other play where you can’t block them all up.’

“So we got to the second play of what would have been, like, everybody blitzing, check it down and move forward from there. So with eight seconds left, you want two chances at something. And so to not have those, didn’t love our execution at our end.”

Permission granted to roll your eyes.

Here’s the thing: Quinn gets the blame no matter what. Everything Blough does is on Quinn’s plate because Quinn hired him. That’s life in the NFL as a head coach. And Quinn should not finish the season in that role. Furthermore, given the way his team has performed this season and last, combined with his Super Bowl debacle with the Falcons, Quinn is probably in his final days as an NFL head coach.

But it wasn’t only the final play that Quinn. He also failed to find a way to slow down Puka Nacua. OK, in fairness, many NFL teams struggled to contain Nacua. And the Commanders did get a key interception on a double team of Nacua. But it’s the job of a defensive-minded head coach to figure out a way to at least slow down the other team’s best weapon. Nacua finished with 14 catches for 150 yards and the game-winning touchdown.

All Quinn can do is try to look ahead with a short week in store against the Giants, according to ESPN.

“All that said, it's a short week,” Quinn said. “It's our division leader on the road. And we've got to go. We have to play all three phases together. Seen too much of it where it's part of it, not the whole thing. It has to get right — it has to. We're too far along to not have it all working together.”

QB Jayden Daniels

Sure, Daniels is doing good things. And yes, the Commanders have one of the worst receiving groups in the NFL. Look at this group: Stefon Diggs, Okonkwo, Van Jefferson, Antonio Williams, etc…

And yet, Daniels completed 24 of 35 passes for 274 yards and a touchdown. And no interceptions. Clearly, Daniels gave the Commanders a chance to win the game.

However, how you finish matters. And after his boneheaded play against the Giants that turned a potential win into a tie, Daniels will be scrutinized moving forward. That’s especially true this season.

So how did Daniels do when it counted most? Let’s look at it. The Commanders got the ball at their own 9-yard line. Daniels hit Diggs for a 42-yard gain. Then Daniels threw an incomplete pass and scrambled for a 1-yard gain.

On third down, he hit Jaden Bradley for a 12-yard gain and a first down. The ball was spiked with eight seconds left. That meant likely two plays available if the first one stopped the clock. But when the next play ended with an incomplete pass, the Commanders had one choice. Chuck it into the end zone for a reasonably short Hail Mary.

That’s the only decision Daniels can rightly make in that spot. Instead, he threw the ball five yards down the field. From the 32-yard line. Five yards. There’s no worse choice.

It doesn’t matter if that was the first read. Daniels had the ball in his hands and had a chance to override the stupidity. He did not. He joined right in line. And the Commanders had next to no chance to score on the final play.

What makes matters worse is that Daniels already has a Hail Mary victory on his resume. Perhaps he believes that is enough.