Dan Quinn likes metaphors.
He pulled out another one Monday when speaking with the media when asked how he wants the Commanders to handle this success they are experiencing.
Quinn has made it clear previously that he has no desire to have his team go on a roller coaster ride. He wants the Commanders to enjoy this, but he wants them to think through it and avoid the sharp turns upward and downward that can occur.
“Well, I think one, you talk about it (success),” Quinn said Monday. “And you make sure, you want them to feel that emotion in the locker room after a win. They’ve worked really hard to put themself into that space to do that. So, seeing that and feeling that, that’s a good thing. What you don’t want to do is tickets to the rollercoaster, man.”
In attempting to avoid emotional swings and swings in performance, Quinn is a big believer in being process-oriented. “We have a real process that we go through every single week to get us ready to play. And so that begins today and all the way through tomorrow and into Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We have a theme for every day. So, by staying consistent in that approach, I think that helps avoid the highs and lows.”
The same holds true in other sports as well. You need to avoid the trap of becoming results-driven rather than process-driven. You want your team to think and thus work toward the process of getting better.
Quinn still believes that though his team is 3-1, they can still improve in many areas. Thus, he wants that to be the focus.
“That’s the challenge to do the things that are really hard to do and you got to do them a lot. And so that’s the practice, that’s the grind that goes into it. And so that’s what we’ll chase man, absolute obsession with us getting better.”
The Commanders host the Cleveland Browns in Week 5.
