Dan Quinn absorbed a brutal hit from Marcus Mariota during Washington Commanders’ 41-24 Week 3 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, throwing himself in to keep his scrambling quarterback upright.

Quinn absorbed the full impact, crashed to the ground, and came up bloodied — head snapping back, nose streaming red. The 55-year-old’s willingness to sacrifice his body for a backup QB sent a huge message across the league. Even his kicker, and his family, chimed in about their coach’s warrior mentality.

Quinn’s collision became an instant viral moment. Matt Gay’s wife Millie Munday Gay captured it on Instagram story, sharing a clip of the bloodied coach still cheering his kicker. “Cheering for his kicker with blood coming down his face!!! WHAT A COACH,” she posted, perfectly summing up the surreal scene.

Across the NFL, reactions mixed concern for his safety with awe at the leadership it revealed — coaches aren’t supposed to absorb hits, yet Quinn instinctively did it anyway.

The cut came when Quinn’s nose slammed into Mariota’s shoulder, splitting the bridge wide open. Staff rushed to help, but he waved them off, eyes glued to the game. He stayed put as Matt Gay drilled a 56-yarder to close the half, blood dripping down his face.

Postgame, Quinn brushed it off with a grin: “Well, we made the kick and came in, and then we went out and started it again. But we all had a good laugh about it for sure.” He even refused stitches, treating it like just another day at the office.

Bobby Wagner put the moment into perspective for Washington’s locker room. “Man, I think it just represents who he is, to be honest. He talks about it all the time, just his mentality, and it’s literally like a ‘If you get knocked down, get back up and keep going.’ He literally did that. His nose was bleeding, everything’s bleeding and the cut, and he stayed there, locked in and got some treatment. At halftime, he came back out, so it was cool to see,” Wagner said. His words captured how Quinn’s actions embodied the resilience and toughness he preaches daily.

Defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw offered the raw version: “He’s a real gangster.” That blunt respect reflected what Quinn earned in one accidental but defining moment. The collision galvanized the Commanders, who came out in the second half with renewed energy and pulled away from the Raiders for their second straight win.

Dan Quinn is the man of the moment

Marcus Mariota felt terrible about accidentally bulldozing his coach during his first NFL start since 2022.

“I felt so bad. I was trying to hold him up as much as I could. But he bounced up like a champ,” Mariota said, dusting Quinn off with a towel afterward.

The quarterback watched Quinn as he walked to the locker room wiping blood from his face. “He went into the training room at halftime and got bandaged up, and was like, ‘All right. Let’s keep going.’ I think that’s what really kind of got the guys going,” Mariota explained.

Dan Quinn summed up Washington’s 41-24 win over the Raiders as a bounce-back powered by resilience and energy across the board. “I think more than anything, when you have a loss that you don’t like, you gotta sit in it, and man, this game could not come here quick enough,” he said, adding, “But I wasn’t surprised by their resilience either. We weren’t happy, but we’re going to make the adjustments, what do we gotta do to change it? And that’s how we did it.”

The energy was clear from the jump, with Quinn noting, “It was awesome to see that kind of energy take place right into the opening play into the offense to go.”

But Quinn also knows one thing that his warrior mentality reflected in his team’s efforts to fight through whatever the opposition threw at them.