Amik Robertson was not in a good mood after the Commanders’ 27-27 tie with the Giants on Sunday.
The cornerback was penalized three times, including a ticky-tacky defensive pass interference call that wiped out an interception he got late in the third quarter. “Bullshit,” was how he described the call.
But days later, Robertson felt much better and had since moved on from the Meltdown in Maryland. And what helped the 28-year-old Lousisana native get past that game?
Rom-coms, of course.
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“I didn’t want to watch ‘The Notebook,’” Robertson said. “I watched ‘Anyone But You.’”
The Giants game was a major letdown for Washington. They led by 14 points with just over 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and after getting in field goal range late in overtime, the Commanders let time run out in the game before they could even attempt the game-winning kick.
Head coach Dan Quinn called the tie “gutting.” Pro Bowl receiver Terry McLaurin said it stung. And star quarterback Jayden Daniels, who laid on the ground for crucial seconds on the final play, said the result sucked.
The team gave themselves a day to sit with the result, and after two days off ahead of a Monday Night Football matchup with the undefeated 49ers, they were eager to put Sunday’s tie behind them and move on to Week 6.
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Each player had his own unique way of using the time off to help move on from one of the most disastrous endings in franchise history.
For some, their reprieve was television.
Robertson normally plays the Madden video game series in his free time, but it’s hard to not think about football when you’re playing a football game. So he opted for the Glen Powell- and Sydney Sweeney-led “Anyone But You” to relax his mind.
Defensive lineman Deatrich Wise also uses television to relax. But when you have a 3-year-old son, you tend to have little control over the remote.
“Paw Patrol, Sesame Street, stuff like that,” Wise said of his off-day viewing habits. “Monster Jams. It’s usually what it is.”
Linebacker Kain Medrano visited a pumpkin patch in Frederick County, Maryland, with his girlfriend, who he said “gets very festive” during this time of year. It was an opportunity to give attention to something other than his job for the first time in weeks.
“You give football a break for a quick second, just focus on family, on stuff that you don’t really get to focus on day in, day out,” said Medrano. “Just because you’re here in the facility all the time.”
Spending time with loved ones was a common thread for other players.
Linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson said his 3-year-old daughter provides both an escape from football and the perspective that you don’t have to linger on the negative results.
“Being with my daughter, she don’t really give me time to sit and sulk about the football games,” Chaisson said. “I’m coming home and trying to just break everything down and cleanse my mind of it, and she jumps right on my lap. She don’t care about the outcome of the game. She wants to go outside, draw chalk on the ground and play hopscotch, whatever it may be.”
Receiver Treylon Burks shares two daughters with his wife, Shelby. He used his time away from the facility to be with them. That said, the Arkansas native has other hobbies he would’ve liked to partake in, but the topography of the D.C. area makes it a bit difficult.
“It ain’t much hunting and fishing out here for me, so I’ll just wait till I can get back home to do that,” he said.
As reassuring and supportive as family can be, the pain of defeat (or a tie) can be an itch they can never scratch. Left tackle Brandon Coleman spent time with his girlfriend, family and friends, but he couldn’t stop replaying Sunday’s game in his head.
“They try to distract, but at the end of the day we’re all competitors,” Coleman said. “It’s tough — especially from something like that — to not think about it and have those thoughts after a game.”
Quinn implored the team to take those feelings and apply them to the final 12 games of the season. While a letdown like Sunday could tear a team apart, Quinn believes the adversity they’ve faced this season can help.
“We identified we only played 30% of the season,” Quinn said. “There’s so much that’s in front of us, and it’s going to be an absolute battle.”
For what felt like the first time in his three-year career, Daniels faced heavy criticism for his decision-making in the Giants game. No matter what happened leading up to the final play, it was Daniels who took the sack and laid on the ground with no urgency.
“Jayden Daniels probably cost my man Dan Quinn his job, to be honest with you,” Packers linebacker Micah Parsons said on his podcast this week.
Daniels said he leaned on his circle, including his parents, to move past the result. But more importantly, the 2024 Rookie of the Year award winner got back to work. He lifted weights, watched the Giants film and then got a jump start on studying the 49ers defense.
This may have been the lowest moment of his young career, but Daniels understands that dwelling on the tie or what he could have done differently won’t magically change the team’s 1-3-1 record.
“You still think about stuff like that, right?” he said. “But it can’t help me. It can help me moving forward … I can’t dwell on the past too much, because I got a game on Monday night to worry about.”
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