OPINION:
Last week, Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn gave his players personalized baseball bats to make the point that his team had become “heavy hitters” after upsetting the Philadelphia Eagles.
This week? How about boxing gloves, because his team got up off the canvas Sunday night and fought back, overcoming a 10-point deficit to win 30-24 in overtime against a determined Atlanta Falcons team also fighting for a playoff spot.
Have the gloves signed by former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes, who memorably got off the canvas to retain his heavyweight title after being nearly knocked out by perhaps the hardest puncher in ring history, Earnie Shavers (a reference for the benefit of Quinn, an avid boxing fan).
Quinn’s team has been defined by its toughness over the past several weeks, starting with chief toughness officer Jayden Daniels.
“The game’s not over. It’s never over until the clock hits zero,” Daniels said after the game. “Whether that’s in regulation or in overtime, the game is never over so keep fighting one play at a time and let the chips fall where they fall.”
The words may be simple and obvious, but in the NFL, the delivery often requires a championship level of patience and cool when it seems like things are about to come apart. And after incurring 13 penalties for 108 yards, Washington appeared to be determined to come apart.
Daniels was determined not to let them.
He finished with 24 completions on 36 attempts, three touchdown passes and 127 rushing yards on 16 carries, capped off by one gutsy run after another in the game-winning overtime drive.
He may be the coolest player in the league.
NBC television cameras showed Daniels several times sitting on the bench during the game. He looked like he was sitting in the Morgan Boulevard Station Metro stop waiting for the last train to arrive.
“You see him on the bench, whether it’s right before the two-minute drill and overtime, he is literally just the same person,” said tight end Zach Ertz, who caught the game-winning touchdown from Daniels. “Whether it was OTAs when we’re working two-minute drill against the defense or with the opportunity to go to the playoffs or solidify ourselves with an opportunity to go to the playoffs. He’s literally the same guy. He’s the most mature rookie I’ve ever been around. He approaches the game, he loves to learn. And so, he just, he exudes such a quiet confidence. He’s not out there, a rah-rah guy, but we all know how good he is and how much confidence we have in him. And so, he doesn’t need to say anything.”
Daniels said this after the game: “The fan base waited a long time for this. I really can’t put into words how much it means to them and how much it means to me to be able to go out there and lead this franchise and this team to opportunities like that.”
Talk about awareness. This was as important a game as the Commanders have played this season — clinching a playoff position with their 11th win of the season before a packed house of mostly Washington fans at Northwest Stadium, many of whom had likely never seen their team win 11 games in any season, since the last time it happened was the 1991 Super Bowl season.
To have lost Sunday would have been a missed opportunity to deliver a message to this damaged fan base — that this is no longer the franchise that often found a way to embarrass itself in prime time.
“I really thought this was a real demonstration of their connection,” Quinn told reporters after the game. “It got hard, it got behind. And over the last couple weeks there’s been some moments like that and they coined the term ’our time’, meaning that’s a lock back in, that’s a focus for that moment. And one of the things I admire so much about them is they’re never out of the fight.”
Not even when they are sprawled out on the canvas.
• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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