The Washington Commanders entered Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles as big underdogs. So, on the first play of the game, when cornerback Mike Sainristil forced a fumble on the opening kickoff, Washington was in business.

The Commanders‘ running game pushed inside the 5-yard line. Facing a third-and-goal, quarterback Marcus Mariota’s pass to Treylon Burks fell incomplete. While Burks was clearly held on the play, the officials did not call it, making it fourth down. Surely, head coach Dan Quinn would go for it. Right?

Wrong. Quinn sent out the field goal unit, choosing to come away with points from Washington’s first possession, even though the Commanders were 4-10 and had nothing to lose. While there was no right or wrong answer, it’s vastly different from how Quinn handled these situations just one year ago.

In this game, the early points proved valuable, as Washington went into halftime with a 10-7 lead. Unfortunately, Mariota went down with an injury on the first series of the second half, replaced by Josh Johnson. On Johnson’s fourth attempt, he was intercepted, setting the Eagles up in excellent position. Seven plays later, the Eagles scored their second touchdown of the second half, taking a 21-10 lead.

Ballgame, right? Well, judging by Quinn’s actions, it appeared as if he thought so.

With 9:17 remaining, Washington, at its own 40-yard line, faced a fourth-and-4. Quinn punted.

The Eagles punted on their next possession, and the Commanders had the ball at their 44-yard line with 6:44 remaining in the game. Facing a fourth-and-6, Quinn chose to punt again. This time, the Eagles responded with their final touchdown, followed by the two-point conversion that angered Quinn after the game.

The decisions to punt drew plenty of criticism online. Rightfully so. Making matters worse, down 29-18 with around one minute remaining, Quinn called back-to-back timeouts. The Eagles then kneeled on the ball to end the game.

Quinn explained his decision to punt twice in the fourth quarter.

“On the first one, I think I was just referring to that earlier, at that point we still had three timeouts, there was over nine minutes,” Quinn said “I thought that was good result. What you want is go get a three-and-out, get a stop. We did that, and so I thought, going into it again, could you do that again? And when you don’t, and we let the long run, obviously, strategy-wise, it’s not ideal. Obviously, that quarterback change, all those things factor in. It’s not just as easy as why not go here, why not? In hindsight, 20-20. On the early one, I felt there’s still plenty of time with all timeouts, could we go get a stop? I like the way we’ve been playing, and so yeah, you think you can go replicate that, and we didn’t with the long run. So, I’d say on the first one I thought it was probably the right call and the second one, you probably roll the dice and see where you can go. Looking back on it now, at the time I thought get another punt, get another stop, get back into the game. I just didn’t feel like we had to decide it then at fourth-and-five, was not easy against this crew, especially with a new QB in the game. But yeah, that’s fair criticism by you.”

It’s not surprising that Quinn would use the excuse that Johnson was in at quarterback. He’s the third quarterback, and the offense clearly struggled once Mariota departed. However, Johnson is an 18-year veteran. And, we stress, Washington had nothing to lose. So you go for it and fail to convert on one or both series, what’s the worst that could happen? They score again?

Why has Quinn gone conservative so often recently? This team is bad. It has nothing to lose. The Commanders should throw everything at every opponent. The playoff dream has been over for a long time. Players love Dan Quinn because he always has their backs. On Saturday, it looked as if he had given up on them before the final whistle.