Dan Quinn’s optimism keeps colliding with Commanders’ costly mistakes

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Dan Quinn is a catchphrase guy.

He wears them on hats and stitches them on shirts. He furnishes the televisions at the Commanders’ practice facility with his go-to sayings.

Built for tough moments.

Competition Wednesdays.

Doing hard s--- with good people.

Individually, they mean nothing. Just cliches on cloth. But collectively, they offer a peek into Quinn’s approach to this job.

Washington’s head coach chooses to look into the abyss that is an NFL season, where every week is a referendum on his job security, and perpetually chooses optimism. 12-5, 5-12, 1-4-1 — his record doesn’t matter. After his 15th loss in 19 tries Monday night — this one by the score of 23-17 in San Francisco against the 49ers — he repeated, “We’re built for tough spots and tough moments.”

“He’s been the same guy. Extreme optimism for our group and belief in our team,” offensive coordinator David Blough said a few weeks ago. “That’s what this entire place is built on. We truly believe, right?”

But eventually the question will need to be answered: Is there a breaking point?

The Commanders already seem to be at a crossroads. They have one win in six weeks. The narrative of this season sways distinctly one way: They spent the offseason trying to devise ways to keep quarterback Jayden Daniels healthy only to see him get hurt right away; they emphasized rising to big moments only to flub overtime against the Giants; they tried to build an offense that would support star receiver Terry McLaurin and got only part of the way there before McLaurin was carted off, his leg in an air cast, Monday night.

But at 1-4-1, Washington is still just two games behind in the NFC East. A one-win team has a path to the playoffs.

Can Quinn keep this team together long enough to chase it?

“We’ve shown glimpses, shown flashes of what we could be,” Daniels said. “But we are shooting ourselves in the foot.”

That feels like a coaching problem.

If there has been one through line to the Commanders’ woes over the first two months of the season, it’s been baffling decisions and untimely penalties.

The headliner was against New York last week in overtime, when the Commanders let time expire instead of attempting a game-winning field goal. Quinn called that a “scar that has to be permanent.”

But it goes beyond that. There was the failed 2-point conversion against the Eagles that wiped away a potential win. And there was a curious fourth-down decision against the 49ers on Monday that could have changed the game.

Quinn elected to go for it from the 49ers’ 13-yard line early in the first half instead of kicking a field goal. The Commanders were stopped. Those 3 points could’ve been useful later as Washington was driving to win the game down 6. Instead of needing a touchdown, they could have kicked a field goal to force overtime.

“We had to be bold in the game,” Quinn said.

And if it hasn’t been the coaching decisions, it’s been the penalties. Washington had 10 penalties against the Colts and 10 against the Giants.

On Monday, they had a fourth-quarter touchdown called off because of an presnap miscue. Later on, Washington’s potential game-winning drive stalled because of an intentional grounding.

As Daniels said, you can live with a holding call or a pass interference. But a presnap penalty or mental error, those are all on Washington. And those reflect on the coaching staff.

“We gotta play smarter. We gotta play more disciplined,” running back Austin Ekeler said. “That’s stuff we can control, thankfully. But unfortunately, it’s popping up way too often.”

Offensive lineman Sam Cosmi added: “We [have to] stop putting ourselves in a crappy position.”

As Washington heads into the bye week, Quinn remains optimistic that his team can change. He thinks the penalties can be coached out of them and the play-calling can be refined.

And his locker room, for now, still believes that the answer is around the corner.

“We got everything we need in this locker room to compete with anybody in the NFL,” defensive lineman Tim Settle Jr. said. “It’s the execution, or lack thereof.”

But Quinn is not new here. This is his third season leading the Commanders. He was head coach of the Atlanta Falcons for five full seasons and part of a sixth. A former Salisbury University football player, he broke into the NFL 25 years ago as a low-level coach with the 49ers.

He believes he and his team can keep growing. But there’s also evidence to suggest this is just who he is.

And in that scenario, it doesn’t matter that the NFC East is filled with teams that don’t seem to want to win. The Giants are 3-2-1. The Cowboys are 2-4. The Eagles just lost their quarterback for the season.

“It’s a weird spot. Obviously with our division, everything is still wide open,” Daniels said.

But the Commanders’ issues aren’t about their division. They are internal.

Only they can determine, as they head off for a brief reprieve from work, which direction this season will go.

“We’ll look and see where we’re at,” Ekeler said. “But for us, we have to get our stuff right before we even look at what the heck is going on in our division.”