The Commanders’ latest one-score loss left Jayden Daniels and Dan Quinn sounding like two people who’ve heard the same frustrating song too many times.
Daniels didn’t hide from the moment after another tight finish slipped away.
“I don’t know really what to say about that,” Daniels said, via ESPN. “We get in those moments and we have to finish.
We have to make plays. I think next week is a must-win.”
Quinn’s message was just as blunt, and he kept coming back to the same issue: the whole operation still isn’t syncing up.
“Frustrating game,” Quinn added. “Once again, we have not nailed our complementary football, and I’ll keep saying it until we do.
We’re halfway through the season, and that all has to click. After stops, I don’t think we capitalized.
We have to play all three phases together. Seen too much of it where it’s part of it, not the whole thing.
It has to get right - it has to. We’re too far along to not have it all working together.”
Elsewhere in the division, the Cowboys are dealing with a few injury concerns as they move into Week 10. Tight end Jake Ferguson and running back Tyler Goodson, both dealing with knee issues, are likely to miss a couple of weeks, according to Jon Machota.
Dallas also has several other situations to monitor. Cornerback PJ Locke won’t play in Week 10 because of a concussion, while wide receiver George Pickens and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. will go through the same process as last week to determine whether they can suit up, Machota reported.
Safety Malik Hooker was asked whether the Cowboys need to make a trade, and he didn’t sound eager to overstate it.
“I think if anything. Shit.
I mean, the guys that we got out there, I think we’re capable of winning with. So make a trade for something, a guy that’s going to come here, help us improve whatever we got going on now, cool.
If we don’t, we don’t,” Hooker said, via Calvin Watkins.
Wide receiver Ryan Flournoy also had a moment to remember in Week 9, and he described it as the kind of play he’d pictured long before it actually happened. After his big catch over Colts corner Sauce Gardner, Flournoy talked about what it meant to him.
“It’s a situation I dreamed of, just having a top quarterback in the league, really just me being the guy to go to in game crunch time situations. And I dreamed about this as a kid. And for me to make that play, I already knew I was capable of just showing everybody else that I’m capable of doing that,” Flournoy said, via Watkins.
In Philadelphia, Dallas Goedert addressed the trade chatter that followed him up to the deadline, even though he ultimately stayed put.
“Obviously, there’s always a chance in this league. Comes down to this trade deadline, but no.
I think I got about enough problems for today. Try not to worry about tomorrow,” Goedert said, via NBC Sports.
“I talked to Howie briefly a couple weeks ago and we had a good conversation. Obviously, anything can change.
For the right price, everybody’s available, so we’ll see what happens. But I’m not too worried about it.
I love this city. I always dreamt of retiring here.
So we’ll see what happens, but anything that’s out of my control, I try not to worry about.”
And in New York, John Harbaugh was asked about a possible trade for Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, a move that never materialized. Harbaugh said the door wasn’t shut on anything, but he also made clear that nothing felt close.
“I’d say we’re open for any kind of situation, but I will say this, things do change,” Harbaugh said, via NBC Sports. “Things change from day-to-day.
So it’s not like one day you may do something and the next day something happens and it changes your position. I’m not saying that report’s not true.
Those conversations are taking place and if something happens for any player, I can’t talk about any player because they’re with other teams right now, but we’re not ruling anything out, but I don’t see anything particularly imminent right now either. So we’ll see what happens.”
He added that any move would have to make sense in both the short and long term.
“Somebody’s got to come out that you really want to trade for that makes sense. So short term and long term, it’s got to make sense short term and long term.
We’re not just going to go for a short-term fix at an exorbitant cost. We’re not going to do that.
That’s not where we’re at.” Harbaugh added.
In Other News...
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The Commanders defense had a long week to sit with what went wrong in the 20-13 loss to the Rams, and KLavon Chaisson did not try to soften the edge of it. Los Angeles leaned heavily on Puka Nacua, who finished with 14 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown, and the repeated success of that approach became the central problem Washington could not solve.
Chaisson pointed to the lack of adjustment as the issue, underscoring how the defense let a predictable plan keep working anyway. For a unit that needed to be sharper in a tight game, the frustration was less about surprise and more about failing to respond once the pattern was obvious. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Face A Brutal Thursday Reality In NFC East Race
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The matchup has also taken on a different edge with the betting market moving toward the Giants, a sign of how much confidence there is in New York entering the prime-time spot. For Washington, the assignment is straightforward but unforgiving: handle a division rival on a short week, or watch the standings get a little harder to chase. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Defense Has A Chance To Prove This Progress Is Real
The Commanders defense has started to look more like the unit Dan Quinn envisioned, and the recent uptick has given the coaching staff reason to believe the turnaround is more than a short-lived spike. Quinn has pointed to defensive coordinator Daronte Jones as part of the improvement, with Washington cleaning up some of the issues that were costing it earlier in the season and giving up fewer points in the process.
Thursday night brings a familiar test, with the Giants back on the schedule and another chance for Washington to show the progress can hold up under pressure. For a defense that needed to steady itself, the challenge now is not just playing better for a week, but proving the gains can survive a quick turnaround and another divisional matchup. [Read more 🡒]