The Commanders have been haunted for four days.
The baffling gaffe in Sunday’s tie with the New York Giants — allowing the clock to expire with the score tied — lurks in the corner of every conversation around the team this week.
They’re trying to move past it. That’s easier said than done.
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The exorcism began Monday, as coach Dan Quinn addressed the team and took full responsibility for the mistake. It was his fault, the third-year coach said, that the Commanders failed to attempt a game-winning 41-yard field goal.
“I’ll continue to take responsibility, first off, for the situation,” Quinn noted on Thursday. “But I’m also saying it’s been dissected, discussed and corrected internally. That’s where it’ll stay.”
Quinn has tried to keep the scales balanced. His team needs to learn from their mistake. Every member of the offense was culpable; the players showed a complete lack of urgency as time ticked off the clock. But, on the other hand, they have to move forward.
“A lot of hard truths to go around,” Quinn said Thursday. “Trust me, we’ve learned those lessons.”
The Commanders can’t allow the disappointment to linger.
Luckily, they had an extra day off this week. Wednesday — typically the first day of full practice — was an off-day ahead of Monday night’s matchup in San Francisco against the 49ers.
“It was an ideal time for us to have one extra to go,” Quinn noted. “We needed it physically. It was much needed for us.”
Quarterback Jayden Daniels, second only to Quinn, has accepted the brunt of criticism. He was the one who took the game-ending sack. The third-year passer was the one who lay on the ground, refusing to hustle to the line of scrimmage for a game-saving spike. He failed to communicate the situation to his teammates.
He acknowledged as much during the post-game press conference and in conversations with his teammates.
“You’ve got to stand up there and be a man,” Daniels said. “Part of it is ultimately on me. So, I said my two cents and let the guys know it’s never going to happen again.”
The Commanders will say that that was the end of it.
“You’ve just got to get past it. Can’t live in the past,” said guard Sam Cosmi, who kicked a pylon in frustration after the tie. “Can’t let that snowball effect go down. It is what it is.”
NFL players often cite a 24-hour rule. The thrill of victory or agony of defeat can linger for a day.
A tie doesn’t fit into that rule as neatly.
Daniels and cornerback Amik Robertson said they needed 48 hours to put Sunday behind them.
They took time away from football. Several players noted that they relied on family members to distract them.
“I stayed at the house and I watched movies. I kind of get away from football and be tuned into those movies,” said Robertson, who noted that time with his fiancée was also essential. “I try to watch new movies or comedies — rom-coms.”
The distractions worked. Sunday evening’s post-game locker room felt like a classroom full of students who had just failed an exam. That disappointment slowly started to dissipate.
Wednesday’s practice had a lighter atmosphere. The post-practice ping pong games continued. The air was filled with cologne, and plenty of live reviews from teammates.
“We learned. That’s the only way you can get through it; you learn,” edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson said. “The only thing to do is go forward.”
Washington’s 1-3-1 record offered an inauspicious start.
“1-3-1 is a weird Super Bowl-winning record, but we’ll take it,” Chaisson said, alluding to a potential 10-game winning streak on the horizon. “Anything it takes to get there.”
An undefeated three-month stretch seems unlikely, but there’s an element of reality in Chaisson’s message. The first five games represent 29% of the NFL season. The Commanders hope to define their year based on the last 71%.
“There’s so much that’s in front of us,” Quinn said. “It’s going to be an absolute battle — they all are. Making sure we came back into today, with the start of the week, we wanted to get rolling with the guys.”
Washington won’t have much margin for error in Week 7. The Commanders face the undefeated 49ers in primetime on Monday.
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