Sounds like Dan Quinn had some mixed emotions in the locker room Sunday night.
The Washington Commanders head coach, in a Monday interview with local media, reflected on how he felt in the locker room Sunday night after the 27-10 win over the Philadelphia Eagles at Northwest Stadium.
"Being in the locker room post-win, yes, we needed to see it and feel it,” expressed Quinn. “There’s also a lot I recognized we needed to level up on. I certainly appreciated our resilience from the end of the first quarter onward; our team was playing complimentary (football), and we had missed that (in other games)."
Indeed, the Commanders’ offense started horribly against the Eagles. Their first three possessions were 13 yards, 7 yards, and one play with a lost
fumble. The result? The Commanders found themselves down 10-0 in the opening quarter.
But Quinn says he also thought about the good things that turned the game around in the Commanders’ favor.
“I thought the defensive takeaways and the offensive explosive plays, and the return game of Luke McCaffrey set up good field position.” Yes, McCaffrey produced a 44-yard kickoff return and a 27-yard punt return on the night.
But being a coach means you have to keep evaluating what needs improving. So Quinn says he was also thinking about what must improve.
“We need plenty of work on penalties, on false starts in particular. We need work on corrections that eliminate beating ourselves. That’s the thing that kept us from honestly playing what I would consider a complete game. Like the fouls and things to make sure we don’t do that.”
Quinn then conveyed he understands and anticipates there will be some wondering how often they are going to hear that talk this season. “You may ask, how many times am I going to keep saying that? And my response would be, ‘As many as it F-ing takes, until we deliver on that.’”
That’s the life of a coach. If you set a standard, you must enforce that standard repeatedly, never accepting mediocrity, never accepting anything less than the standard you have set. It means people inside and outside your organization may get tired of hearing you say the same things. Sounds like Quinn is resolved to go that route, regardless.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders' Dan Quinn full of mixed emotions after big win
