The Washington Commanders got a new coach in Dan Quinn and a new quarterback in rookie Jayden Daniels during the offseason and went from four wins in 2023 to 12 wins in 2024.
The team-record turnaround landed Washington in the NFC playoffs for the first time since the 2020 campaign. The Commanders play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 7 p.m. CST Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. NBC will televise the game.
“We have to maximize our opportunities, and, right now, we have an opportunity to have a postseason run,” Washington running back Brian Robinson Jr. said during an appearance on WJFK-FM in Washington, D.C. “Unfamiliar as that is around this building, guys are pumped up and excited for the opportunity.”
A postseason run would be a continuation of a regular-season run for the Commanders, who have won their past five games – the past four by the skin of their teeth:
- In a 20-19 victory over New Orleans on Dec. 15, Washington stopped a 2-point conversion pass after the Saints scored a touchdown on the final snap of the game.
- In a 36-33 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Dec. 22, the Commanders scored a touchdown with six seconds to play.
- In a 30-24 victory over Atlanta on Dec. 29, Washington marched for a touchdown in overtime after the Falcons missed a 56-yard field-goal attempt on the final snap of the fourth quarter.
- In a 23-19 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 5, the Commanders scored a touchdown with three seconds to play.
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“Man, it’s been crazy,” Robinson said. “It’s been exciting, but it just showed us multiple ways to just win games in clutch- and winning-time moments in the game. And it just showed us what type of team we have to just overcome any type of adversity we up, like, during the whole game. Like we can play bad the whole game, but we know exactly when it’s time to win, and we do all the things necessary to just put ourselves in the position to just go and win in those clutch moments.
“And it just goes to show what type of team we have. We have a team full of fighters that never give up, fight till the end, and I just feel like that’s the perfect thing to see from our team going into the playoffs.”
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Twelve of Washington’s games had a final margin of eight or fewer points, and the Commanders won nine of them. The season-opening game wasn’t one of those nail-biters. The Buccaneers beat Washington 37-20 on Sept. 8.
The Commanders’ most recent postseason victory came against Tampa Bay – a 17-10 win on Jan. 7, 2006. Since then, Washington has lost four playoff games.
Robinson wasn’t around for any of those playoff games. A former Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa star, Robinson joined the Commanders from Alabama in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He’s been Washington’s top running back in all three of his seasons.
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Robinson reached career highs with 799 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns in 2024, when he had 187 carries. But after his third 100-yard game of the season – 103 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries in a 42-19 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Dec. 1 – Robinson had 159 yards and no touchdowns on 49 carries in Washington’s past four games.
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“Teams and defenses, they’ve kind of studied us enough to know our plan as far as the run game,” Robinson said, “so it’s not as simple as one, two, three anymore, so we just got to find a way to continue to stick with it and make it grow, especially at this time. …
“And me personally, I can play better, no doubt. I’m definitely going to play better and get more involved.”
