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The Washington Commanders were one of the best stories in the NFL on their incredible run to the NFC Championship Game last season, but the start to their 2025 campaign was far below a feel-good story.
The Commanders got their preseason slate underway on Friday night against the New England Patriots, and it was ugly. The Pats took advantage of a game where the Commanders didn't play a lot of their top players, running away with a dominant 48-18 win in Foxborough.
Expectations couldn't have been high among fans for this game without Jayden Daniels and the rest of the regulars from the nation's capital, but head coach Dan Quinn still was not happy at all with his team's performance, and he let them hear it in the press conference afterward via Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic.
“All three phases I thought it was sloppy tonight,” Quinn said. “We had [13] penalties. … They stacked and that showed sloppiness to me — and the practice was just the opposite. You know how I feel about penalties, so that did not make me happy.”
The Commanders were very sloppy overall, which is not too shocking considering that it is the first week of the preseason. However, these are things that Quinn will want his squad to get cleaned up over the next few weeks before the regular season gets underway.
While Washington's starters getting on the field will certainly help alleviate that problem, the availability of star wide receiver Terry McLaurin amid his current contract holdout and trade request is a big point of concern. The Commanders are pretty shallow at wide receiver and will be even more so if they cannot get McLaurin back on the field.
Still, Quinn is getting ahead of these little miscues right off the bat and making sure that they get cleaned up by the time the regular season starts. The Commanders have two more preseason games before they get the year underway on Sept. 7 against the New York Giants.
