DQ Orders Commanders To Climb Mountains

The Washington Commanders, in Dan Quinn's first season as head coach, have playoff football on a silver platter...if they can navigate around the pitfalls of the last month of the season.

Sitting at 8-5 and coming off the bye week refreshed and ready to roll, the Commanders control their playoff destiny, which is what any team wants, but as we have seen in the NFL over the years when teams get into this situation, they lose sight of what got them to this point.

Quinn's messaging has remained the same throughout the season. With his team coming off a bye, they aren't starting from scratch; they are simply moving on to the next phase of their season, which begins against the New Orleans Saints.

“I talked about with the team, was concept of base camp,” Quinn said in offering a mountain-climbing analogy as part of his order. “We're not at the bottom, but we're nowhere near the summit. You just try to get to the next camp and then to the next one, so if we continue to chase that, that's where it's at for us. So for us this week, we're going to constantly chase can we get better and get everything we need to do for New Orleans.

"The following week we'll do the same, but I just try to make it a discipline; 'Can we be disciplined enough to not look three and four weeks down the road?' And that's what we'll constantly go after.”