The NFC East's Coaching Mess Is Making John Harbaugh Look Even Better

The plume of smoke coming from the NFC East has nothing to do with papal selection, but a few head coaches not named Harbaugh might be turning to prayers after abysmal showings earned them a spot on everyone's hot seat list.

We won't revisit the blow-by-blow of Dan Quinn's egregious mismanagement of the tie with John Harbaugh's Giants, a kiss-your-sister result if ever there was one.

The Cliff's Notes version with 12 seconds left and after Cam Skattebo gifted Washington another chance, the Commanders were within field goal range but ran another play despite being out of timeouts. Jayden Daniels couldn't get up and over the ball with his other 10 teammates set and ready to spike the ball and stop the clock. The game ended tied and Quinn's exasperated response — hands folded on the back of his head glaring in disbelief, disdain and demoralization all in one — was shared by virtually all who saw the disaster unfold.

That includes minority owner Magic Johnson, who went to social media to let the world know he saw it, and couldn't believe his own eyes. These are not the words you want to read from a member of team ownership.

But who says Magic is wrong?

"I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants. All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!"

Quinn is in trouble.

The Commanders are in primetime next Monday against a 49ers outfit standing atop the NFC at 5-0. Another bad loss might be all she wrote for Quinn with a bye week, ideal timing for a natural transition of power in-season, to follow.

And he's very likely to be in good company if things don't change quickly in Philadelphia and Dallas.

Jerry Jones' on-camera gotdammit whilst undrafted rookie free agent quarterback Jalon Daniels fricasseed the Charmin-soft Cowboys' defense last Thursday was a trumpet tuneup for the Brian Schottenheimer march of shame. If Dallas gets deep friend at Lambeau by the Packers this Sunday night, the visions of ticker tape parades for the Cowboys are trending more toward pink slip parties for the Cowboys' coaching staff.

Don't chuckle, Philly fans.

Another ending almost impossible to fathom brought the Eagles home with an improbable loss because of a special teams breakdown and game-winning field goal by Cam Little of the Jaguars. Philadelphia led most of the game and finally scored its first points of the second half since Week 2, but the apparent game-winning field goal by Jake Elliott was only a setup for the Jacksonville rug pull.

This jump scare ending gives Nick Sirianni the rare feat of losing back-to-back games when the Eagles had a win probability over 97 percent in the fourth quarter. The Rams hit a few jabs and then a knockout blow with two touchdowns in the final four minutes to beat the Eagles in Week 4.

Now Harbaugh hasn't been perfect. But at 3-1-1 he has the Giants in the lead of a division where every other coach is hoping the graded curve keeps them above a D-minus.

With the Saints (1-4) and Texans (1-4) up next for New York, it's plausible the Giants can increase their division lead and possible another fortunate bounce or two within a division in which the competition has doubled down on doubt.