Before Jayden Daniels was making big plays and giving hope to the Washington Commanders, and before coach Dan Quinn and general manager Adam Peters were making the right decisions, offensive lineman Sam Cosmi had already seen his fair share of losing and tough seasons.
So after Washington’s 28-27 loss to Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, which ended their perfect home record and kept them from reaching 8-2, Cosmi gave a speech in the locker room to his teammates.
The main point of his speech? He warned against letting what he called “the snowball effect” take over, especially with a quick turnaround for their game against NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night.
Cosmi had experienced a rough start to his career, with Washington finishing 19-31-1 during his first three NFL seasons under coach Ron Rivera. That included one third-place finish and two last-place finishes in the division.
But now, with the team sitting at 7-3 and in first place, Cosmi feels a different energy around the squad.
“What Dan Quinn has done, what Adam Peters has done, is change the culture,” Cosmi said. “We don’t have the most talented team, but we have a hard-working team.”
For rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, hearing his starting right guard address the team after the tough loss showed him something important about the players around him. “These guys care about winning,” Daniels said.
“Everybody’s mad. It matters to them,” Daniels added, who had a tough game, completing 17 of 34 passes for 202 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions, and just 5 rushing yards. “I don’t like losing. I don’t want to feel this feeling.”
This was a feeling Daniels hadn’t experienced much in his first NFL season. But the Commanders, who had been playing well up until this point, made more mistakes than they could recover from in this game.
“This one stings badly,” said Coach Dan Quinn. “The locker room was hurting.”
Washington entered the game with only three turnovers for the season, the fewest by any team through nine games since 1933 when turnovers started being officially tracked.
But things went wrong when punt returner Olamide Zaccheaus muffed a punt in the first half, which the Steelers turned into a touchdown. He also muffed a punt earlier, but a teammate recovered it.
The Commanders’ secondary also struggled to stop Wilson, especially on his jump-ball passes. Wilson connected with George Pickens on a 16-yard touchdown in the first half and Mike Williams on a 32-yard touchdown with just 1:30 left in the game, both deep passes that led to touchdowns.
The game was still up for grabs when Pittsburgh faced a fourth-and-1 near midfield with a little over a minute left. But rookie defensive lineman Johnny Newton jumped offside after being fooled by Wilson’s hard count. The penalty gave the Steelers a fresh set of downs, which effectively decided the game, although Daniels later said, “It’s not all on him.”
“Everybody came up to me, supported me, had my back,” Newton said. “Just told me don’t let that play get to me, put it behind me and get ready for Philly.”
