The first half of Monday night’s game included a failed fourth-and-two play by the Commanders from the San Francisco 13. After the pass to the end zone landed incomplete and the Commanders were called for an illegal shift, ESPN’s cameras caught Commanders coach Dan Quinn seemingly surprised to learn it was fourth down.
When he met with reporters nearly an hour after the game ended, Quinn was ready for the question regarding the viral lip-reading moment.
“I definitely knew it was fourth down,” Quinn said. “We were going for it, and I was — I think what you’re referring to, I was probably saying, like, with the illegal shift, there’s not a penalty to go for a field goal. Like, it doesn’t go, like, it’s the turn on downs. Like, I think somebody asked me, ‘Can we kick a field goal?’ So, now we were going for it. We knew we had to go for some fourth downs to be bold in the game. I didn’t think it was gonna be a 17-14 game. I probably thought it was gonna need 28, 30 to score, you know, to go win it. And so it was by design that we were gonna go, but I knew what happened. I think, I probably was just commenting that I remember, at least on the headset, somebody asked me, after an illegal shift, like it was turnover on downs, and [quarterback] Jayden [Daniels] saw the foul, too. He also came out and saw the penalty.”
You can watch the clip and come to your own conclusion. Again, he seemed to be surprised, not stating a fact. And he clearly had his story ready when he arrived for his press conference — along with plenty of time after the game to craft it.
Obviously, after what happened last week, Quinn couldn’t afford to admit he didn’t know it was fourth down. Even if he didn’t know it was fourth down.