Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn has been taking a lot of heat following the atrocious clock management in Washington’s tie against the New York Giants. However, running back Austin Ekeler says he hasn't lost the locker room and has actually built a strong culture.

“Being straight, being real with us. Don’t sugarcoat it. Tell us what it is. Tell us, hey, who made the mistakes? Have accountability, right? It’s not about pointing, it’s about making sure that we understood what happened so we can prevent things from happening again that caused us to lose, whatever that cause may be,” Ekeler said. “We begin again each week and so, it’s been great to be a part of his culture and I say this all the time. If I were to be a head coach, I’d want to be like Dan Quinn because of the way he gets buy-in from the team. Regardless of what the result is, I know that Dan Quinn’s going to shoot us straight. He’s going to tell it like it is, win or lose, and he’s going to get us ready to go and get us mentally ready and prepared for next week.”

Going into the Commanders’ Week 6 game against the San Francisco 49ers, Washington will be without starting running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt. As a result, Ekeler will likely see more snaps in his third game since re-signing with the Commanders last month. San Francisco enters the game undefeated despite injuries on both sides of the ball.

If Washington is going to pull off the upset, they need Quinn to manage the game better, since they should have won last week but ran out of time and missed the chance to kick the game-winning field goal. Washington will also need its defense to step up, as it did in the Commanders’ lone win of the season so far against the Seattle Seahawks.