Commanders’ Dan Quinn on coaching through struggles

Quinn discusses coaching through the difficult moments.

Three weeks ago, the Commanders were 7-2.

Practice must have been more fun; watching the film and seeing the successful wins was more enjoyable.

That was then and now is now.

Three weeks later, the Commanders have lost three consecutive games, bringing their record to 7-5. The film must not be enjoyable to watch. Seeing the missed opportunities and practicing is about correcting what is now on your next opponent’s film.

Dan Quinn was asked Wednesday if his week-by-week plan changes based on the recent struggles.

“For myself there’s always a bigger picture of things, what’s a trend and where do you want to go,” said Quinn. “I’ll express that to the staff and to the team. But you do dig into the team, and then you emphasize the things that you want to work on this time right now.”

Having lost three consecutive games, there could be a multitude of things a coaching staff observes needing lots of work. Yet, you can’t address each one of those concepts within a practice.

“And so, you don’t pick 15 different things to work in one week of practice. ‘This is something you want to improve on, let’s put the work in to do that.’ So, after three losses, it’s challenging. It’s the most challenged we’ve been so far. It’s confusing, frustrating, all of those things. That’s also part of competing and knowing how to handle those emotions and dig in on the things that you need to dig in on and that’s what we intend to do.”