Dan Quinn's gutsy fourth-down calls pay off in Washington Commanders' Wild Card win

During the 2024-25 NFL regular season, no team was more successful on fourth down than the Washington Commanders.

Head coach Dan Quinn let that be known on full display during Sunday night's Wild Card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and make no mistake: it worked.

Much like another coach named Dan (who the Commanders will be facing next week), Quinn's philosophy here is simple: seven is a bigger number than three. One successful fourth-down conversion which ultimately leads to a touchdown, will make up for more points than a team will lose from two unsuccessful ones.

The purists may not take kindly to these scary, new-fangled analytics that define today's game, but numbers don't lie. The Commanders, as a result of Quinn's aggressive strategy, scored 14 points from two touchdowns and two failed conversions as opposed to the 12 they'd have had otherwise -- and that's assuming Zane Gonzalez would have made all four field goals.

This discrepancy was extremely significant, given that the game came down to a matter of literal inches. Had the score been 20-18 in favor of Tampa Bay prior to Gonzalez's attempt at the end of regulation, and had that attempt been off by even the slightest of margins, the Commanders would have lost.

Instead, it was a tie game, and even had Gonzalez missed, Washington would have been in overtime with a chance to redeem itself. Plus, it's just more fun to watch a team go for it all -- what's the fun in kicking a field goal every time when you can keep the drive alive? You play to win the game. 

Score another one for the analytics nerds.