Jayden Daniels takes blame for Commanders OT meltdown, vows it will never happen again

It has been four days and the Washington Commanders overtime meltdown is still a big topic across the NFL. Especially in Washington where they had to watch would looked to be a huge NFC East win turn into a baffling 27-27 tie against the New York Giants. 

On Thursday, quarterback Jayden Daniels gave his most extensive comments yet on the matter and wanted everybody to know it was his fault, and that nobody should be blaming the coaching staff.

Commanders QB Jayden Daniels takes blame for OT meltdown

Along with vowing to never let something like that happen again, Daniels talked about using the experience as a lesson and a chance to grow.

He also wanted to make sure everybody knew where, in his mind, the blame should land.

Entirely on him.

From ESPN:

"Don't even put it on the coaches," Daniels said. "I've got to be aware, more aware, go out there and manage the game right. And I did not do that. So it doesn't matter what happens on the sideline between the coaches or anything like that. I've got to notice everything that's happening and make sure that we're in the right situation with the football game."

He also said it doesn't matter what play is called.

"I'm the person on the field supposed to calm everything, control everything," Daniels said. "I know I'm better than that."

It is admirable to see Daniels put the blame on himself and try to remove it from the coaching staff, and everybody else around him. He is the quarterback, and quarterbacks simply have more responsibility in everything that happens on the field in regards to the offense.

Having said that, this still isn't entirely on Daniels, and nobody should be putting it all on him.

This is still something that has to fall on the coaching staff first, not only in terms of communicating to Daniels what he can and cannot do, but also in the way the play calling was handled.

Washington knew it had a running clock. It knew it had no timeouts. It knew it was already in field goal range with a chance to win the game. Despite all of that knowledge, they still opted to make substitutions, and still made a play-call that was anything other than spiking the ball. All of that is a coaching issue. Daniels has to know the situation better when the ball is snapped. The coaching staff has to put him in a better position before the ball is snapped.

Credit to Daniels for trying to own it. But it still falls on way more people than just him. Everybody in Washington can learn something from this situation. Not just him.