Dan Quinn has the perfect response to questionable refereeing that played a role in Commanders' loss to Eagles
A lot of things went wrong in the Washington Commanders' 32-point loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, but there's one play in particular that stands out like a sore thumb for a lot of people that watched the game.Jayden Daniels and the Commanders offense had just scored their first touchdown of […]
A lot of things went wrong in the Washington Commanders' 32-point loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, but there's one play in particular that stands out like a sore thumb for a lot of people that watched the game.
Jayden Daniels and the Commanders offense had just scored their first touchdown of the game and closed the Eagles' lead to two points in the second quarter. The defense then forced Jalen Hurts and Co. into a 4th and 5 from Washington's 45-yard line. A stop there would've given Daniels the ball back with a chance to get more points before halftime.
That never happened, though, as Hurts hit an open A.J. Brown down the sideline for a 31-yard catch that placed the Eagles offense in the red zone.
Brown destroyed Commanders cornerback Marshon Lattimore off the line of scrimmage, but the play never should have stood, as Saquon Barkley clearly held a blitzing Frankie Luvu that was racing toward Hurts as he released the ball:
It was a bad no-call that allowed the Eagles to finish the drive with a touchdown. To make matters worse, the Commanders fumbled the ball on the ensuing kick return and the Eagles turned that into seven points to make it a 15-point game with less than a minute before halftime. The snowball effect from the no-call led to 14-points for the Eagles and that obviously swung momentum in their favor. Especially since they were getting the ball first after halftime.
But guess what? If Lattimore doesn't get bullied at the line and allow Brown to get open, the no-call doesn't matter because Brown doesn't make the catch. Playing good football is always the best solution to avoid penalty drama and the Commanders didn't do that.
While the no-call and its aftereffects are something to talk about, that's football. Bad calls happen all the time and bad things certainly stem from them. However, teams simply have to move on and find a way to overcome them. And that's exactly the kind of mindset Dan Quinn is instilling in his guys.
"If you felt like you've been wronged and a foul goes the other way that you think you should go yours. Like, there's no control over that," Quinn told reporters after the game. "You're not going to change the call with the referee being upset or pissed off about it into the next play. [It] isn't going to [be] like, 'Hey, you know what? They did make a mistake. Why don't we use your argument.'
"It sucks. Sometimes, you know, you end up on the wrong side of it and you fight your way back. And I do love that there's a lot of guys here, honestly, that are just down to get down when those happen and they really want to fight together."
And, as it just so happens, there was a very questionable call on Mike Sainristil during the aforementioned Eagles drive that came after the fumbled kick return. It appeared as if the Commanders defense was going to hold the Eagles offense to a field goal attempt after forcing a 4th and 6, but the rookie cornerback was hit with an unnecessary roughness penalty on a split-second late hit that ironically involved Barkley:
It's the right mindset from Quinn. Sure, bad refereeing is extremely frustrating and there is not a single person in this world that likes it when the refs pull stuff like the above. But as I mentioned, it's part of the game. The human element, like Quinn said, is completely out of everyone's control – so you just have to take the lumps and move on.
It's just another example of Quinn building the right culture and the more guys continue to buy in, the less these kind of instances will affect the final outcome of a game.
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