Donovan McNabb Reacts to Jayden Daniels, Commanders' Tie After Famously Not Knowing NFL Rule

Philadelphia Eagles legend Donovan McNabb had sympathy for Jayden Daniels after the Washington Commanders' late-game blunder last week resulted in a 27-27 tie with the New York Giants.

Speaking to The Athletic's Rustin Dodd, McNabb described the "deflated" feeling that comes with the scrutiny of a high-profile mistake like what Daniels experienced:

"You feel deflated; you just feel deflated. But still, you know you've got a job to do, because no matter what people on the outside are saying or what's going on, it doesn't control the path you set for yourself.My safe haven was: We all go through adversity. But it's all on who's able to overcome that and be able to move forward positively.

"Being a quarterback and understanding the highs and lows of the position, I was able to refocus and move on. Now, obviously, being in Philadelphia, that conversation went on week after week — no matter if we were winning or not — because they would always go back to that game and wonder if that would haunt us going forward to whatever seed we were or home-field advantage. I also wasn't the only one who said that. But that's the thing: the quarterback is supposed to know the rules."

McNabb is familiar with the experience because he infamously said he "never even knew" ties were a thing in the NFL after a 2008 game between the Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals ended with a 13-13 score.

"I've never been a part of a tie. I never even knew that was in the rule book," McNabb said at the time. "It's part of the rules, and we have to go with it. I was looking forward to getting the opportunity to get out there and try to drive to win the game. But unfortunately, with the rules, we settled with a tie."

Daniels had the Commanders in field-goal range late in the overtime period against the Giants, but decided to snap the ball and run around to take a sack when they didn't have any timeouts remaining.

The explanation from Daniels after the game was everyone on the team has to be better at communicating.

"We've just got to communicate that, that's the whole thing," Daniels said. "It starts with me, communicating to the whole offense in the huddle. And I think everybody will say that from the top down."

McNabb told Dodd that from his perspective it "just seemed like they were out of whack" without knowing the situation and no one trying to communicate:

"No one knew what the situation was. Even if you look across the board, the offensive line didn't. Receivers were kind of jogging back. The timing of everything just looked bad. They were in the huddle with 50-something seconds left. Quarterbacks always get a lot of the criticism. And in that situation, it's shared between quarterback, head coach and (offensive) coordinator."

Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said the blunder falls on him because he needed to make sure Daniels knew to either spike the ball or throw it out of bounds.

Even though McNabb caught flack for not knowing ties were a thing, it did help that the Eagles never really came all that close to winning in overtime. They didn't run a play in Cincinnati territory during the extra period.

The Bengals missed a 47-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining. McNabb got one last pass attempt off from his own 37-yard line that landed incomplete as time expired.

Daniels had Washington in position to at least get a try for a game-winning field goal before taking the final snap.

"I mean, Michael Jordan missed however many shots that could have won games," McNabb told Dodd. "You think he harps on that? No, he takes the next shot when it comes about. We learn life lessons in sports about work ethic, passion, determination and if you're goal-oriented. How do you assert yourself each day? You have to do that if you're working a 9-to-5. These are lessons that I teach my kids."

Interestingly, two of the last three NFL games that ended in a tie were between the Commanders and Giants. They previously played to a 20-20 result in Week 13 of the 2022 season.