LANDOVER, Md. -- Donna Summer's "Last Dance" was being played by a tailgater in the parking lot of Northwest Stadium when I pulled in Sunday afternoon. Not kidding.
Perhaps the DJ was prescient, knowing the stakes of what was otherwise a forgettable matchup between Washington and Philadelphia, the two worst teams in the NFC East, playing a game that was somehow not flexed into the sun by NBC. A Commanders loss to the JV Eagles Sunday, and the doomsday clock ticking louder and louder on Dan Quinn's future would have been clanging like Big Ben.
And for a quarter or so, Washington, coming off a bye, and playing against a Philly team that lined up without more than a dozen starters, including quarterback Jalen Hurts, were horrendous. Awful. The Eagles jumped out to a 10-0 lead, aided by multiple pre-snap penalties from Washington's beleaguered offensive line, and defensive penalties, and dropped passes, and passes from quarterback Jayden Daniels that were either off target or behind his (open) receivers, and mental errors that came by the carload.
"Honestly," Daniels said afterward, "it was just complete BS, the way we started."
It was so terrible that Daniels gathered his offensive unit together in the first half on the sidelines -- and read them the riot act.
"The coaches could beat a dead horse all they want," he said. "At the end of the day, you have to take accountability. You have to focus. You can't have mental lapses. Ultimately, it's on us."
Then, finally, the Commanders righted themselves. The penalties slowed, at least to the point where Washington put a few scoring drives together. Quinn got the complementary football he constantly talks about -- good plays by the defense feeding into scoring drives by the offense. Luke McCaffrey had his best night of the season returning kicks. Drew Stevens nailed a huge 56-yard field goal late in the first quarter to get the Commanders on the board. If he'd missed, the Eagles would have taken over near midfield, ready to add to their lead.
And Daniels came back from a big hit by Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith late in the first half that knocked the wind out of him. In the second half, he hit tight end Chig Okonkwo for 21 yards on a great catch by Okonkwo, found Treylon Burks on a double-move for a 53-yard strike that set up another Stevens field goal, and got Antonio Williams on a 30-yard vertical route in the fourth, leading to another Stevens 3-pointer. Rachaad White sealed the game on Washington's final drive, creasing a zone run for 33 yards to the Eagles' 4-yard-line, then closing the show with a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:52 left.
The 27-10 win was Daniels' first win since … this is crazy … October 5, 2025, against the L.A. Chargers. That was almost 13 months ago. Since then, Daniels had gone 0-7-1 as the starter.
What it did was buy the Commanders another week. There's still so much to clean up with the Rams coming to Northwest next Sunday.
If Washington wasn't in the wretched NFC East, it would be out of its misery already. And Quinn might be out of a job. But the Commanders are here, and thus, they're only a half-game out of second place, and only two games behind the first-place Giants, with 10 games left to play.
"The NFL, it's crazy," running back Austin Ekeler said. "You take it one week at a time, and control what you can control. I saw the Cowboys lost today -- that's good for the Commanders. And, we won today -- that's also good for the Commanders."
Washington had just one offensive penalty in the second half, and got some luck, too, when Eagles kicker Jake Elliott doinked a 41-yard field goal attempt off the left upright in the fourth. Philly was only down 16-10 at that point after taking more than seven minutes off the clock on a long drive. But the Commanders did what they had to do.
"You've heard me talk a lot about four quarters," Quinn said. "I thought tonight, we nailed three. We need all four. That's how it needs to go down."
Quinn said he spent the bye week digging deep into what was causing all the penalties, and really digging into finding out what worked on both sides of the ball versus and what didn't. He promised a streamlined system that would put Washington a step ahead of where it had previously been.
And then the Commanders spent much of the first half shooting themselves in the foot. "The same stuff that's been showing up all year," tackle Andrew Wylie said.
Defensive end K'Lavon Chaisson, one of Washington's big free agent pickups in the offseason, committed two roughing the passer penalties. One made no sense at all, as he ragdolled Eagles quarterback Tanner McKee to the ground well after McKee had let the ball go.
"That one, he might have gotten an earful," Quinn said.
The second was more dubious, as officials determined Chaisson's hand made contact with McKee's helmet after McKee had thrown a pass that bounced off the hands of a receiver into Washington cornerback Trey Amos' hands. The call was, at best, borderline.
But Chaisson didn't hang his head. Nor did the defense. Dorance Armstrong had a strip-sack of McKee early in the third quarter and defensive end Charles Omenihu recovered the fumble. After the second roughing call, Chaisson stuffed Saquon Barkley for no gain on a zone run. He came off the edge on the next possession, pressuring McKee into an incompletion. On the next play, he dropped McKee for an 11-yard sack.
"I tried to have that six-second mindset, and kind of flush it, and get on to the next (play), and not try to just get in turmoil and call my team any more, lack of effort, or playmaking in general," Chaisson said.
Six seconds. Daniels has mentioned that, too, in another context. An average play, he says, takes about that long to run. He has implored his offensive mates, just lock in for six seconds. If they do that, they won't keep having to play from behind the sticks. It took Smith about six seconds to get around the edge, and plant Daniels into the grass on the play that appeared to end in another injury. For a moment, Daniels sagged to the ground. Every Commanders player and fan had their heart in their throats, because they've been down that road too much during the 13 months between Daniels' last victory and his next one.
Everything can change in an instant.
Take the Ravens' Lamar Jackson. The two-time NFL Most Valuable Player was finally back on the field Sunday for Baltimore, in a big game against the Bills. Jackson stepped back to pass on his first play of the game. And then, his right thumb hit the hand of Bills' end Greg Rousseau. Now, Jackson's likely out for the season. And, it's at least possible that he's played his last game in Baltimore.
The Commanders are fortunate that their franchise QB rose up off the ground, this time, and lived to fight another half. They took advantage of it, six seconds at a time, and bought themselves seven more days to hope.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
