MADRID — Dan Quinn opened the door, and it creaked. His forever backward ball cap had been removed, and the light gleaned off his 55-year-old dome. As he stepped into the workspace with the temporary sign hanging outside that said “Head Coach,” Adam Peters followed him. Peters had removed his tie, and his collar was open. Neither the Washington Commanders’ coach nor their general manager had played in the game, completed maybe 45 minutes earlier. They looked like they had dragged themselves through the trenches.
Quinn walked further into the room, and Peters patted him twice on the back. The consolation could go two ways. Times, they are tough, whether the Commanders are in Madrid or on Mars.
“Guys are definitely hurting,” Quinn said.
Makes sense. The bye week awaits. Then what?
Parts of the Commanders’ 16-13 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins in the first NFL game ever played in Spain felt as if the teams were trying to turn an entire country off of the sport in 60-something minutes of “action.” But the jokes, after a sixth straight loss that has a franchise that seemed ascendant absolutely reeling, are too cheap and too easy. The pain is real. The flight home could seem endless.
“It’s just a long way to travel,” veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner said, “to come up short.”
This trip was supposed to be a celebration, not just of spreading professional football to a new country, but for Commanders fans who had latched back on to a reborn franchise with a glittering star of a quarterback leading the way. Madrid delivered, and the environment at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium was electric. The 78,610 fans who filled the home of soccer juggernaut Real Madrid milled about in the hours before kickoff in jerseys not just of the Commanders and Dolphins, but of almost every franchise imaginable. (Confession: I couldn’t find someone wearing Houston Texans colors. Sorry if I missed you. Hat tip to the LSU and Michigan State jerseys.)
The mood was festive, and it should have been. Flamenco dancers. Traditional bands. Throw the Dolphins cheerleaders into the mix. The line for the makeshift NFL store installed at street level wrapped around one corner and then the next corner and took nearly four minutes to walk the entire length. This city is special. The NFL, in the run-up, pulled off what it wanted.
But the Commanders’ reality didn’t match their uplifting surroundings. Think about this: less than 10 months after a surprising and inspiring run to the NFC championship game, the Commanders are 3-8, haven’t won in more than a month, and face the brutal notion that their fans — with their eyes on the future — should root for more losses over the rest of the season than wins. You’re so much closer to the bottom of the league than the top. Forget playoff position. Think about draft position.
Yes, there were particulars Sunday to mull over. In a tie game with six minutes remaining and fourth and goal from the 1, should Quinn have taken the easy points instead of going for it? As it turned out, the pass from Marcus Mariota — the backup playing for injured starter and resident star Jayden Daniels, who didn’t even make the trip — couldn’t find tight end Zach Ertz, who slipped.
More than that: Kicker Matt Gay missed a 51-yarder in the second quarter, then a 56-yarder with 10 seconds left in regulation. Afterward, Gay’s eyes welled. His off week won’t be spent on a beach sipping a piña colada. It will be spent wondering if he still has a job.
“This is 100 percent on me,” Gay said. “We win that game if that kick goes in.”
Eh, well. Look around the locker room. Cornerback Mike Sainristil muffed a punt when the Commanders were going to get the ball back in a tie game with four minutes remaining. Mariota threw an egregious pick in overtime that allowed the Dolphins to kick the winning field goal. Gay’s not wrong. But spread the blame around.
Still, all of those are tiny blips. Add them to the little touchstones from weeks past, and it becomes a lost season. Quinn, clearly wounded, said his Commanders needed the bye week to “heal up.” That’s true physically, because top wideouts Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown weren’t available here, part of a M.A.S.H. unit of Commanders that leaves the team significantly depleted.
But isn’t the healing to come important mentally, too?
“I think that’s absolutely true,” Quinn said. “Give yourself a space to breathe, to come back. You also have to be thoughtful. Individually, all of us, [it’s a] challenge. Kind of: What can we do better? So it’s me, it’s coaches, it is players. All of us.”
This is such a weird spot for a franchise to find itself. Peters and Quinn are in their second season. They spent the first building an almost impenetrable belief that they would be franchise pillars for years to come. This kind of difference between what was expected and what’s playing out would normally bring out calls for heads to roll. But that can’t be true for Commanders owner Josh Harris now. Sure, this season is off the rails. That just can’t offset all the good work from a year ago.
What it does provide is more intense scrutiny — and, indeed, skepticism — about the upcoming offseason. Quinn took over defensive calls from embattled coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. this week. Does Whitt have a spot on next year’s staff? Peters’s free agent signings in his first year worked out all but perfectly. He now has a spotty draft record to defend, which puts further focus on the draft to come.
Crazy, huh? It’s not even Thanksgiving in 2025, and the eye is already drawn to the moves that will define 2026. That’s the feel of so many Washington seasons gone by. It wasn’t supposed to be the feel of this one.
Madrid was so, so fun. The Commanders’ season is so, so frustrating. For those of you who made the journey, hope it was worth it. Pack the questions about your team’s future in your luggage. Feels heavy, doesn’t it?…
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