00:00After falling behind 10-0 in what was an ugly, ugly first quarter,
00:06Washington scored 27 unanswered to win for the first time in over a month.
00:12A win for the moment that keeps the season in play.
00:17Good morning, everybody. That was interesting last night.
00:21A deep exhale is acceptable this morning
00:26because that one looked like it was going to lead to a lot of conversations today
00:32about being on watch, on Dan Quinn watch.
00:38I'm going to start with that because, look, there was some appreciation and some respect,
00:43I think, from my standpoint, due to the team for the way they kind of came off the mat
00:51against a bad football team right now, or a bad offensive team, I should say.
00:56The Eagles are right now a mess offensively, but I'm going to start with the bad
01:02and then we'll go to the good and then I'll get to my actual game take
01:06and give you guys a chance, of course, on this winning Monday
01:11to weigh in on Washington's 27-10 win.
01:15Their last win with Jaden starting a quarterback came last October against the Chargers.
01:21That game finished 27-10 after a 10-0 first quarter deficit as well.
01:28Let's hope that what happened after that win last year doesn't happen this year.
01:34But I'm going to start with the beginning of the game because there is a bit of, you know,
01:40a lingering bitter taste that's hard to shake despite how the game turned out.
01:47Again, I'll get to the good stuff because I do think that there are things to appreciate
01:52about the final three quarters of that game against a pretty shaky opponent.
01:59A game, let's just say, and I said this all last week and I hated saying it,
02:03but it was one of those circumstances in the NFL where Washington was in that rare spot
02:09of being a team that should win the game.
02:11Doesn't always work out that way.
02:13But that first quarter, I mean, ouch.
02:17You know, like the 49er game two weeks ago tonight,
02:20the beginning of last night's game was so hideous that, of course, I had thoughts.
02:28I'm sure many of you did as well that this is going to be it for Dan Quinn.
02:34You know, it wasn't just that they were down 10-0.
02:37It was that they looked so inept during the process of falling behind 10-0.
02:45You know, coming off a bye week with promises of making all of the messy stuff go away.
02:53Hey, we're going to clean up all the messy stuff, the penalties, the mistakes,
02:58the clock management stuff.
03:00We didn't have any of that last night, fortunately.
03:02Although we did have a curious decision to go for two.
03:06I'll get to that later in the recap.
03:10But it was carnage during that first quarter, the first four drives.
03:17In the first four drives, five penalties called against Washington.
03:22Four of them accepted.
03:24Three of them pre-snap penalties.
03:27There was the turnover deep in their own territory.
03:30There was a missed field goal.
03:32There was a missed throw or two by the quarterback.
03:36And a dropped pass on a third down that would have moved the sticks.
03:41I mean, it was an embarrassing start to a game against a team in Philadelphia
03:47that is a really bad team right now offensively.
03:51I mean, they're going through what our team went through last year.
03:54You know, injury depletion, backup quarterback.
03:57It's now six straight losses for them.
04:00The last two being two NFC East division opponents.
04:05Each of those losses by 17 points last night and last Monday night against Dallas.
04:11But I thought I was looking at dead man walking when the close-ups got tight on Dan Quinn
04:16during the early portion of the game.
04:18And I'm one that doesn't believe that ownership wants to let Dan Quinn, you know, go in season.
04:25I think he's in big trouble when the season ends, barring a major turnaround.
04:30But I don't think Josh Harris believes that it would make a lot of sense to fire a coach in
04:36season
04:36that is well-liked and well-respected as it appears Dan Quinn is, at least not during the season.
04:44It wouldn't make sense.
04:45But there's only so much that you can take.
04:48You know, at some point when the losses mount and the appearance of those losses makes the losses look even
04:55worse.
04:56Like it counts not one, but more than one in the loss column.
05:01And you know what I mean.
05:03I mean, the way they were losing seemed to fall back pretty easily on the coach.
05:09Josh, the in-game clock management blunders, the penalties especially, the pre-snap penalties that they can't get fixed.
05:17It's hard not to think that those in charge might have been thinking about doing something.
05:25Just like at halftime of the 49er game and then at the end of the first quarter last night.
05:31But they came out and they nearly pulled off a miracle win against the 49ers two weeks ago tonight.
05:38And last night, after early on, the rest of the way was pretty solid.
05:45Was a pretty good bounce back.
05:4827 unanswered.
05:50Now, the 27-10 final score wasn't necessarily reflective of the game.
05:56The game was closer than that.
05:57It was 13-10 in the fourth quarter with nine minutes to go.
06:02The Eagles had a self-inflicted penalty.
06:04It still shouldn't have resulted in a missed 41-yard field goal, but it did.
06:09That would have made it 16-13 with nine minutes to go.
06:13So, you got some help from the other team as well.
06:17But it was Quinn in trouble again early on.
06:24But they turned it around.
06:24And this time, instead of almost winning, they actually won the game.
06:29But, wow, man, is it going to be this way the rest of the way?
06:32Each week, wondering if a bout of embarrassing play on the field will lead to the coaching change that many
06:40of you I know want.
06:41I don't want it right now.
06:43I don't.
06:43I haven't seen any evidence at all that this team isn't playing hard, that it isn't still a believer in
06:52the coach, in the coaching staff, and in this season.
06:55Even though some of the play on the field might be mysterious in terms of a reflection of that desire
07:05because some of the mistakes are so silly.
07:08But, for now, the players have the biggest voice in what happens to their season and their head coach.
07:15And they don't look like they're ready to pack things up.
07:18And that's good.
07:19You know, the comeback against San Francisco.
07:21And last night, after bumbling and stumbling around against an inferior opponent, they got off the mat, played good enough
07:30to save their season for now.
07:32For now.
07:33Because had they lost that game, and certainly that was in play, down 10-0 with the start that they
07:39had, it was over from a practical standpoint.
07:45Last night was, in addition to Jaden's first win as a starter, look, that's a bit overdone, in my opinion,
07:52because he didn't play much football last year.
07:56Played in four games, start to finish.
07:59That was it.
08:00Only played in seven of the 17 in total.
08:03He's missed two and a half of the games this year.
08:06And let's face it, you know, when he was on the field last year, it's not like there was a
08:10lot out there with him.
08:11So I think that's a little bit overdone, because he has not been the reason that they've lost in his
08:17starts more times than not.
08:19It is the reason that they tied a game this year.
08:23He certainly could have erased that from happening.
08:27But last night was the first time, I pointed this out last week, last night was the first time that
08:32Jaden Daniels has played start to finish in three games consecutively.
08:38Just three since his rookie year.
08:41He took some big hits last night, including the one late in the first half.
08:45I mean, holding breath there, because it looked like on the replay that he came down on the elbow and
08:53the brace,
08:54but apparently it was nothing more than the wind getting knocked out of him.
08:59Thank goodness.
09:00He was not super sharp last night, but he still made big throws when they needed them on a night
09:06when the offense generated seven explosive plays offensively.
09:12And the defense, you know, I think was borderline dominant against a pretty bad offensive opponent.
09:19But here they are.
09:20They are 2-4-1.
09:22They are two games behind the first-place Giants, who had a bye week this weekend,
09:27and barely behind Dallas, who blew a two-touchdown fourth-quarter lead in an overtime loss to the Cardinals.
09:36God, that was fun to watch.
09:38That was great.
09:39They stink.
09:41They are so bad on defense.
09:45And I don't think they are particularly well-coached.
09:49Three and five, the Cowboys are.
09:51Look, there's a long way to go still.
09:53You know, we talked about this during the bye week.
09:55Nearly two-thirds of their season remained.
09:58Another ten games now after last night remain in Washington's season.
10:04So anything is possible, especially in a pretty bad division.
10:09It makes more sense now after a win to talk about the division.
10:12But the NFL changes.
10:14We know it.
10:15It's so dynamic.
10:16There's just every couple of weeks, it's like, oh, I thought that team was really good.
10:22Or I thought that team was really bad.
10:25There are several iterations of that during the course of the season.
10:29And so, you know, I say this every year that, and it's not just as it relates to our team,
10:38but you don't have to be a good team in the first, you know, third of the season
10:44or the first half of the season.
10:46You just have to win enough games so that if you get good, the games later on mean something.
10:54I don't think Washington right now is a good football team at all.
10:57Let me be clear about that.
10:59I don't think it's a very good football team at all.
11:02I think there are elements to the team that are encouraging.
11:06And, of course, the most important position, the quarterback position,
11:10they have a very dynamic player who is capable of great things.
11:16So there is that.
11:19But last night was one of those, you have to get that one so that if you become a good
11:25team
11:25and win a couple of more than the ones when you get to late November, December, and January,
11:30they can mean something.
11:31I'm not expecting that.
11:33I'm hoping that that happens.
11:35I really want that to happen.
11:39Last night was not pretty, but they won the game.
11:43Look, they've played much better football than they played last night and lost games.
11:49It's the way it goes sometimes in the NFL.
11:53But, man, they needed that.
11:55They needed that.
11:57And now they await the Los Angeles Rams, the preseason Super Bowl favorites.
12:04They've won two games in a row.
12:06They are back at .500.
12:07They'll come to Landover next Sunday at 1 o'clock as five-and-a-half-point favorites,
12:13as it stands now, to try to make it three wins in a row for them.
12:17The last time a West Coast team came east to face Washington for an early Sunday start,
12:23the Seattle Seahawks, they didn't play well.
12:25They lost that game.
12:27Seattle did.
12:27Washington won that game 33-31.
12:30I certainly don't think it's a no-chancer at all.
12:34The Rams have beaten in back-to-back weeks.
12:36The Raiders, who are legitimately the worst defensive team in the league,
12:40maybe the Cowboys are close.
12:43And then they beat the Chargers yesterday, who has a – that team's got a quarterback
12:48right now that has more than just a confidence problem.
12:52Justin Herbert is a bad quarterback right now in the NFL.
12:57I mean, just like certain quarterbacks you shouldn't give up on,
13:00there are certain quarterbacks you probably shouldn't be completely sold on
13:04until maybe a 10-year career, and then you can look at the whole thing in its entirety.
13:09But the Rams lost two weeks ago to the Cardinals at home,
13:15the Cardinals team that just beat the Cowboys with Gardner Minshew,
13:19not even Jacoby Brissett.
13:22But every game in this league is certainly winnable,
13:25and next week sets up for an interesting, you know, setup.
13:28West Coast, East Coast, early start.
13:31Rams probably feeling it a little bit again, having won two in a row.
13:35But they haven't been perfect.
13:37They've been far from it.
13:39And certainly last night, while it provided a bit of a reprieve for our team
13:44and for all of us, I'm pretty sure that last night didn't turn the masses
13:50into believers.
13:53To legitimately earn that, they're going to have to play better,
13:57they're going to have to play much cleaner,
14:00and they're going to have to win a game or two that they're not supposed to win.
14:03Now, they have won already in the win over Seattle.
14:06The Giants have won with the win over Houston.
14:10But another one would go a long way in at least starting the process
14:15of getting people to believe that they actually might have something to offer
14:20this 2026 season.
14:23I mean, last night's win deserved to be constructively criticized without question.
14:28But it also deserves some level of kudos, appreciation.
