Official Game Thread - Week 14 - Commanders @ Vikings

I thought of it in a previous thread - is Dan Quinn a redux of Norv Turner?

True, he did take the Falcons to the Super Bowl once in 2016 but his fame is really based on his time as a defensive coordinator on a stacked defense in Seattle that had a group of pro bowlers on it.

Sounds a lot like Norv with the 1990's Cowboys.

Now that he's here in Washington, it appears Quinn is overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities of being the HC and events have seemingly gotten beyond him and his staff.

You never looked at an Andy Reid team or a Bill Parcells or Belichick team and wondered who was in charge and why no one is being held accountable other than Whitt, who was given every chance times 5 to show he could run a defense.

Looking at some of these players during the games, they look relaxed on the bench and don't seem very upset they are 3-10 and only one game out of finishing in last place.

There is no urgency because they know there is no accountability.
 
Riggo44 said:
I blame John Kent Cooke and Scot McLoughan
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Hard to blame John Kent Cooke for his father not leaving him the team, especially when you know he tried to outbid Snyder, but I suppose GMSM does get some of the blame for my cynicism, about as much as Shuler, RG3, Zorn, Spurrier, Norv, Bruce, and the rest of the long parade of losers I’ve witnessed since 1993 (6 years before Snyder by the way). What has made me so cynical is that despite all the changing names and faces the results remain the same.

I know you are not big on history and prefer to look to the future, and I do hope this new era is better than those that preceded it, but the early returns are not good. Even if we narrow our scope to focus in on only this season or the most recent game, there is still more than enough cause for pessimism. Really the only way to be optimistic is to look at last year in a vacuum and ignore everything that happened before or since.
 
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Boone said:
Between last night's UVa-Duke game and watching the good guys get trucked by a 4 win Vikings team today, I'm feeling a bit beat up fan-wise :)
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I was also cheering for Ohio State, UVA and us today. Maybe I am the curse. 😂
 
It's a lost season with a lot of bad luck.

Do I think this is the new norm. Not even a little.

As painful this is, the worst we lose the battle the better I like the odds to winning the war. I am feeling great about 2026 and I think the off season will be fun.

Higher draft pick. Easier schedule. More urgency in FA.

I don't think all the accolades for Quinn, Peters, Jayden were undeserved last season.

My criticism of this season was this organization seemed to get a bit arrogant and lose their edge and didn't have a sense of urgency with FA -- I expressed the point this summer. Add to that a zillion injuries. And we got this season.

Some will say hey today they were healthy. Not really. The defense isn't. Once Minny can build a lead they can tee off on the O line -- ala what GB did. But look I don't expect the same thing next season. I'd be shocked if Peters doubled down on making mostly cheap signings in FA and didn't draft an edge.

I don't think Peters and Quinn are stupid. They have a blueprint now of what they need to do.
 
Boone said:
In regards to Jayden, I wanted to mention one other thing I find concerning... I don't see coaches talking to Jayden much when he's not on the field. There has been a ton of discussion about how critical it is for Jayden to be out there getting reps and learning. But even after negative plays that appeared to be bad decisions, I don't see a lot of interaction with him. I don't see him looking at a tablet, or coaches in his ear... maybe it is happening more than I'm describing but mostly what I see is him sitting on the bench alone.

I mean, that strikes me as odd for a franchise QB in his 2nd season. To me, seems like the QBs coach and other assistants (if not Kingsbury himself) should be plastered all over the kid and trying to assist him in learning from his experiences (good and bad).
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Yes, so, a few things about this:

1) Tavita Pritchard has been the QB coach. I haven't heard who is replacing him. Today was his last day as he is going to Stanford. Did this have to do with.. uh.. anything?
2) I have seen Jayden *always* chill on his own. It seems to be "his thing" maybe, but I'm not sure. That said - if "his thing" isn't working... as usual, I think an intelligent guy will change things up if approached the right way. Is anyone approaching Jayden... about... anything?
2b) This, to me, is one of the biggest indictments of Kliff. I think Jayden has a lot of talent. I think Jayden is a hard worker. I think Jayden is smart. Those three characteristics should be a lot of what you need. He has an Achilles heel in his injury issues, but with those three characteristics? We should be OK if our OC is smart enough. So to me - I don't think our OC is. Point blank. I just don't think so. I have not seen in 2025, "good enough" even under the trying circumstances. This is not a one-game eval.
3) I think we have seen a variety of issues from Jayden this year, and we haven't seen market improvement. I also think we've been told that the high usage of shotgun is partly for Jayden - but conveniently Kliff has always favored shotgun in his offenses. As usual, is Kliff willing to adapt? To me, all signs point to "no" or at best "not really."
 
Boone said:
Geez Kel.... I didn't read into every facial expression, I read into one :) I just struck me because that's not his normal demeanor even during tough losses. He lost his composure several times today and I just didn't like the energy he was radiating. Probably nothing, like you said. But it WAS pretty un-Jayden-like.
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I just watched a video of when Jayden threw his helmet in anger. Ertz was visibly sobbing on the cart after his injury. The whole team seemed distraught.
 
Boone said:
In regards to Jayden, I wanted to mention one other thing I find concerning... I don't see coaches talking to Jayden much when he's not on the field. There has been a ton of discussion about how critical it is for Jayden to be out there getting reps and learning. But even after negative plays that appeared to be bad decisions, I don't see a lot of interaction with him. I don't see him looking at a tablet, or coaches in his ear... maybe it is happening more than I'm describing but mostly what I see is him sitting on the bench alone.

I mean, that strikes me as odd for a franchise QB in his 2nd season. To me, seems like the QBs coach and other assistants (if not Kingsbury himself) should be plastered all over the kid and trying to assist him in learning from his experiences (good and bad).
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Great point he does seem to be alone and not with his nose in a tablet or on headphones talking to coaches. Last year I recall him standing with Mariota and talking some of the time.

The team is often not able to make quick adjustments. The QB telling the staff what he is or isn't seeing or the coaches telling him what they are seeing should be a constant give and take convo.
 
We are horrible about adjustments this year, last year less so
 
Keim on his latest podcast from Minneapolis:

On the DQ quote about we lost, but we're not lost: "Well, today they're out in the wilderness again"

On 1st and goal from the 4 and Kliff inexplicably calling 3 straight passes: "Chris Rodriguez was running the ball well. Would've liked to see another chance for him to get the ball in that situation just to see what he could do to finish off that drive because he was really running well."

He also talked about the formula for throwing McCarthy off his game, and noted that it's known how to do it, yet we did none of that.
 
skinzplay said:
Keim on his latest podcast from Minneapolis:

On the DQ quote about we lost, but we're not lost: "Well, today they're out in the wilderness again"

On 1st and goal from the 4 and Kliff inexplicably calling 3 straight passes: "Chris Rodriguez was running the ball well. Would've liked to see another chance for him to get the ball in that situation just to see what he could do to finish off that drive because he was really running well."

He also talked about the formula for throwing McCarthy off his game, and noted that it's known how to do it, yet we did none of that.
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On the goal line plays, the only one I had a problem with was 3rd down. On 2nd down, you are running well, bring in the jumbo package and play action is a good call there, it just didn’t work. But then on 3rd down, especially if you are going to go for it on 4th, why not run. You can run from a spread formation if you prefer, but definitely run. But not running on 3rd, you almost certainly have to pass on 4th. And yes, the 4th down play was there and Daniels delivered a strike to Deebo who didn’t make the catch. But I still think the failure of play calling on that sequence was 3rd down.

As for the defense, they let Minnesota just do what they want. The running game was just taking it to the defense. And McCarthy wasn’t great, he just was able to make quick easy throws all day. He did exactly what Minnesota fans have wanted him to do and take the easy plays. The defensive philosophy of play back and don’t let big plays happen, just allowed McCarthy to just keep with the short and intermediate passes all day. Then because this defense can’t cover TEs, he was able to find TEs wide open in the endzone.
 
On the Oliver TE, Wagner did about as much as I did on that play. No idea why they keep running him out on obvious passing situations--unless Magee is worse in coverage...which is a frightening prospect.
 
Riggo44 said:
On the Oliver TE, Wagner did about as much as I did on that play. No idea why they keep running him out on obvious passing situations--unless Magee is worse in coverage...which is a frightening prospect.
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Agreed.

What I wonder? Where's the cut off with this staff when it comes to getting younger players on the field? This season has been lost for a couple of weeks now and they're still trotting out old vets.

Ertz shouldn't have even been out there given the score and time left. Same goes with Wagner,who was nursing a knee all week.
And it's not lost on me that Trey McBride didn't get on the field and break out until Kliff was gone in AZ either. It probably had to take a season ending injury to force Sinnot onto the field!
Guys like Kaho,Magee and Medrano should be getting serious run on defense as well as Sinnot,Lane and Burks on offense.

The time for sitting and learning is way past over.
 
skinzplay said:
Keim on his latest podcast from Minneapolis:

On the DQ quote about we lost, but we're not lost: "Well, today they're out in the wilderness again"

On 1st and goal from the 4 and Kliff inexplicably calling 3 straight passes: "Chris Rodriguez was running the ball well. Would've liked to see another chance for him to get the ball in that situation just to see what he could do to finish off that drive because he was really running well."

He also talked about the formula for throwing McCarthy off his game, and noted that it's known how to do it, yet we did none of that.
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we lost but we are not lost..... ehh... shit.. where did i leave my keys again?
 
Looking at our draft position, maybe we are losing on purpose for a high pick? I would rather believe that than think this ugly performance was the team trying its best.
 
I saw snap counts, looks like Yankoff and Sinnott had about equal number--which does not bode well for Benny Boy.
 
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