“Defensively I want to see us perform better on our third downs and make it as hard as you could possibly imagine for opposing quarterbacks,” Quinn said Monday.
Whether it comes to blitzing, bringing four-man rushes, and the disguising that goes into all of it, Quinn said he wants to see his team get better attacking opponents and dictating the terms of how they operate on offense, not the other way around.
And there’s reason to believe it can happen.
For starters, those aspects of the defense have seemingly gotten better as the season has progressed. Because of it we’ve seen the Commanders’ defense turn from a less-than-impressive unit to one that has kept the team in several games, even as the offense struggled to find its footing at times.
The spirit of the team, Quinn said, is what gives him confidence they’ll be able to take the necessary steps to become the best they can be in Week 15.
“I love the fact that our team is tough and we are never out of the fight,” Quinn said. “Having that type of resiliency to go battle for it, that’s not something that happens in one week, it has to happen over a number of weeks.”
Like other weeks, this one presents Washington with an opportunity to fight together again and to rise up to the challenge ahead of them now, not later. This week, that challenge is the New Orleans Saints, a team whose playoff chances are dwindling, but still has plenty to play for in the last month of the season.
And while the vast majority of the football-watching world hones in on playoff probabilities and scenarios, Quinn’s focus remains on that singular opponent, and making sure his team gets better this week than it did in the last.
