‘You just want to be aggressive, want to be bold’ – Dan Quinn sent a strong message to the team about their identity
Dan Quinn compares the team’s performance to a boxing match.
The vibes are low after another disappointing road loss for the Washington Commanders, and something needed to be said after the Atlanta Falcons game.
A lot of people can agree that they didn’t play fast and aggressively throughout the game, and we saw another slow start. We know that head coach Dan Quinn is a players’ coach and leads by example, especially after taking a big hit on the sideline last week. He wanted the team to get back to their aggressive mindset.
The Commanders have a tough stretch coming up, including three road games in four weeks, and they need to start fast and throw a punch first.
Dan Quinn wants the team to fight like boxers
Slow starts are a killer for a team dealing with a lot of injuries, including its starting quarterback, Jayden Daniels, and star wide receiver Terry McLaurin, and it needs to throw a punch first instead of waiting to fight back. Quinn compared the games to a boxing fight and wants to see a shift.
“You’ve heard me use different boxing analogies, and I do that with the team,” Quinn said. “Not looking to feel it out through the first round to see where it goes. You just want to be aggressive, want to be bold, right from the beginning. What I do know is that this is a resilient team. We’ll grow from yesterday, and we have to, but lot for us to correct and get right before we take it out on the road to head out to L.A.”
In both road losses this season, the team started slow and looked unprepared, and had to dig itself out of a hole. The Green Bay Packers went up 14-0 to start the game because of several explosive plays, and the Falcons did the same thing by catching the defense on its heels and taking a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.
The Commanders don’t stop fighting
Even in both games where the Commanders went down quickly, they found a way to fight back and lose games that never felt close by only by single digits. Quinn appreciates their fight and knows this team can be good if they do that for all four quarters.
“I know that they’ll fight and finish,” Quinn added. “That’s who they are. I want to make sure the whole time through, that’s just how we play, and being bold and aggressive. When you miss your moments, it stings, it hurts, and you want to acknowledge them. So, we point them out and say, ‘Hey, this is how we’re going to get better.’ And it takes all of us to do that, so those were the two things for us, the energy, and let’s go get better.”
We will quickly see how the team reacts to the adversity following another road loss, with a tough matchup coming up on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.
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