Ugly wins are still wins, and they may not get much uglier than the Commanders’ 20-19 victory in New Orleans Sunday thanks to a last-second stop – but, as Jay Gruden reminded Chris Russell on Monday, ugly wins aren’t just wins, they’re great wins, especially this one for this Commanders team.
“Winning ugly, but winning on the road, too. I know New Orleans had their backup and third-string quarterbacks playing, but winning on the road is never easy. and New Orleans is a tough place to play,” Gruden said.
“I don't care who's playing, racking wins up at the end of the year and then trying to see where you fit in the playoff race is important. Look at Kansas City – how many pretty wins have they had? Washington was in total command of the game, the entire game, until the last play.”
Chris and Jay went through some of the struggles in the game after the Commanders got out to a 14-0 lead, and how they were a couple misses away from a much ‘easier’ win, but it did indeed come down to the end…and the officials, who had a dicey game as it was, allowed the clock to stop to give New Orleans the chance to score the final touchdown.
“The guy stops the clock and it freezes for four seconds, five seconds…these guys have been doing this for a long time. I used to coach and play in the arena league and some of those hometown clock operators were bad,” Jay said, and after Chris reminded him that the side judge was to blame for the final play, added this: “Maybe he thought he was in college until the first down and the clock stops after a first down, I don’t know, but my blood pressure would have been through the roof, and I might have had a heart attack right there on the sideline. It’s very frustrating that there’s thins you can’t control, that should be controlled from an officiating point of view, and there’s nothing you did wrong as a coach, you just got screwed over. You have to live and die with the human element of the officiating.”
And what about Shawn Hochuli’s blow-off answer to the pool reporter that that error was not eligible for a review and just a moot point.
“I don't understand it, because I've seen officials say, ‘hey, clock operator put eight more seconds on the clock.’ Why can’t they say take four seconds off, game’s over, sorry?” Gruden said. “I don’t understand why they can’t go the other way, and the same thing with these face mask calls – I think they’re gonna add five or six calls next year that can be called from upstairs for Replay Assist. They gotta dd those, and then take plays off that aren’t horse collars or roughing the passer.”
Take a listen to Gruden’s entire visit above!