For the first time as the head coach of the Washington Commanders, Dan Quinn lost two games in a row when, on Thursday Night Football, his team couldn't overcome the Philadelphia Eagles four days after dropping their Week 10 game to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
What gives? Are the Commanders cooked? Have they been a mirage all along, a team that looks more like they are just a few months removed from picking second overall instead of the favorites to win the NFC East? Or was this just a bit of adversity in the middle of an otherwise impressive run?
Asked this very question after Thursday Night Football, Quinn noted that while there are no moral victories in the NFL, every team hits adversity at one point or another; it's how they deal with it that defines the ceiling of a team.
“We knew that adversity would come. It just does. That's our game. That's why we love it so much. There's hard parts, and tonight's hard. And in fact, I even said that. The last two games were tough. They test your resolve, and they build some of your resilience. It's a difficult four or five-game stretch, whatever it is,” Quinn told reporters.
“And it also emphasizes the ability to go close it, be there at the end, and go win it. Those are the lessons for us to say to be the team we can be. Those have to go down on our terms, and we've been pretty good in that spot. So over the last two weeks, not to finish – and that's not one side of the ball, that's collectively finding that blood in the water and saying, ‘We're going to go end this thing.' And we'll get there. But over the last two weeks, we weren't able to demonstrate that and express that to the fullest level.”
Interesting stuff, right? Well, wait, it gets even better, as Quinn had plenty more to say on the subject.
Dan Quinn vows to get the Commanders right in time for Week 12
Discussing the matter further with reporters after TNF, Quinn declared that, while it's never nice to lose, the Commanders will take some time to recoup and return to the field in Week 12 better than ever.
