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Dan Quinn and Adam Peters initially went to the league office in the spring asking for their games in Dallas and Arizona to be clustered together, so they could turn the two into one long trip—like a lot of teams do—and minimize the travel toll on their players. The NFL responded by giving the Washington Commanders back-to-back trips to Cincinnati (Monday night) and Arizona (Sunday) in September when Metro Phoenix feels like the inside of an oven.
The plan wasn’t really the way they drew it up.
Little did they know, it would wind up being about perfect.
The team’s new coach and GM took their crew to Ohio eight days ago at 1–1, a group with some promise, coming off a tough, grinding, NFC East win over the New York Giants, and a lot to prove. The Commanders are returning to D.C. this Monday morning looking like a football rocket ship after outgunning the Cincinnati Bengals, 38–33, and blowing out the much-improved Arizona Cardinals, 42–13.
They also come back a little tighter, a little tougher, a little more connected, bringing the group a little closer to the vision they had not just for the trip, or for the season, but for the program that Quinn and Peters are trying to build.
“We were like f— it, man, let’s find a space,” says Quinn, recalling the spring. “We thought flying back would be tough and then turning around and flying on a Friday right back to Arizona. We were fortunate—ASU [Arizona State], they took care of us. They had a bye this week. We were able to use their indoor facility. And when I say it was hot out here this week, like . Out of hand.
“A lot of sacrifice for the guys. I told them, . It’ll hurt a little bit early in the week when we got there, because we arrived Tuesday at like 3 a.m., and then you got into Wednesday and Thursday. We said that by the time today hit [Sunday], you’ll be flying. That’s what we knew we were going to have to be able to do.”
They flew, all right. Rookie phenom Jayden Daniels was outrageously efficient, again, completing 26-of-30 throws for 233 yards and a touchdown. The run game churned out 216 yards. The defense sacked Kyler Murray four times. Washington scored 27 consecutive points after yielding a touchdown on the opening possession.
And you got to see a lot of those moments play out on your flat-screen TV Sunday. But there were so many more over the past few days you couldn’t see that paint a pretty vivid picture on where the 3–1 Commanders, now alone in first in the division, plan to go from here.
