Could not challenging a call come back to haunt Dan Quinn and the Commanders against the Eagles in the NFC Championship game?

Daniels wanted to see the defeat through, even if that only meant handing off the ball on the final meaningless drive. Coach Dan Quinn had seen enough and gave Daniels a breather. His bid to become the first rookie QB to reach a Super Bowl was officially over.

Quinn ignored 20-plus years of organizational dysfunction to lead Washington to the NFC title game in his first season as coach.

The margin between reaching the Super Bowl and not reaching the Super Bowl can be razor thin. On the NFC side of the postseason bracket, seven different teams have reached the big game in the last 10 years.

One Cowboys defender is watching Dan Quinn change the culture for the Commanders, much to his immediate surprise.

When he returned to the NFL after two years in Gainesville, Quinn gained notice by leading the Seahawks' defense in 2013, when they won the Super Bowl. After just two years as Seattle's defensive coordinator, Quinn got his first head coaching job with the Falcons.

The NFC championship game Sunday between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders is the third matchup of the season between the division rivals.

No one has given them a real chance at doing something special. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury credited Quinn's ability to galvanize the locker room with some players having a chip on their shoulder due to the narrative that they were sent to Washington "to die" in a football career sense.

Exactly three years ago — on Jan. 21, 2022 — Dan Quinn walked into the Giants ’ training facility in East Rutherford and interviewed for their head coaching vacancy. By this point, the Giants had already hired Joe Schoen as their new general manager. They were trying to find a head coach to pair with him, after fully cleaning house following 2021.

Eight years later, Quinn is back on the cusp of a Super Bowl berth, this time as the first-year head coach of the Commanders. With a new head coach in Quinn and a rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels, Washington has reached the NFC championship game for the first time since 1992.

Daniels has delivered Washington’s best season-to-season win improvement from 4-13 to 12-5, and he has been the centerpiece of an offense that has 10 games with zero turnovers — the most for the franchise since at least 1940, according to Sportradar.