Changes are coming for the Washington Commanders' defense, and the hope is that they will help the team dig itself out of the rut it's been in to start the season.

"I think what you'll see is improved play," head coach Dan Quinn said before Thursday's practice.

Quinn was visibly displeased with the team's performance following the Commanders' 44-22 loss to the Dallas Cowboys last week. The defense, a sore spot for the team all season, had another poor outing against the Cowboys' No. 1-ranked offense, which put up 409 yards thanks in part to myriad of explosive plays allowed through the air and on the ground. Quinn said the team was "off course" and promised to take a long, hard look at the cause of the dysfunction.

Quinn didn't go into specifics, but it seems like the solution is to make smaller adjustments so the players can be faster, less hesitant and more physical.

"Everything this week that I hit with the team is focus on what we're doing and probably even more important is the 'how' we're doing it," Quinn said.

While Quinn said what the Commanders do and their process "cannot be fluid," it was clear that Washington was not getting the results it wanted from the defense. The performance against the run has been slightly better, as is the pass rush, but the Commanders are in the bottom half of several other categories. They rank 27th in yards allowed per game and only have three turnovers all season, which is tied for the second fewest in the NFL. Explosive plays were a problem once again in Dallas, which had six plays of at least 15 yards against Washington.

Quinn was blunt about his feelings when he addressed the team on Monday; everyone -- coaches and players -- needed to step up.

"Our focus needs to be sharper," Quinn said. "That's the bare minimum and we're going to dig in to find out how we improve upon that."

Quinn and his staff have spent the last few days going through the Commanders' last seven games to figure out a solution. What they found is that the defense needed "small calibrations and adjustments" to eliminate the hesitation that he saw from players on film. He didn't specify if that included personnel changes, saying instead that he was looking for "everything to level up."

That includes the plays that were called in certain situations. The coaches' jobs, Quinn said, are to put players in better spots, so they have examined whether "the juice is worth the squeeze" on certain calls and if they could look different going forward. The goal: make sure the defense is doing what it does best.

"This one, we thought it was going to be part of what we did, now we're not going to add that for a while," Quinn said. "So, some of that condensing has helped all of it geared for us to play faster and to play better."

Quinn has also made sure the players' opinions are included in the process. He asked the players if there were any calls they didn't like that cost them too much yardage. While some plays or parts of calls have to be made for the defense to function, Quinn was in favor of removing things that the players felt would help them improve their performance.

Quinn has made sure to get the players' insights on the team's identity, too. That's where their perspective carries more weight because of their unique perspective. He's "leaned in on them hard" to find out how the Commanders can make the adjustments needed to get back on course.

For Quinn, that starts with having a "hell of a practice."

"It still comes down to the practice, the work, the going for it," Quinn said. "And so that's what I know works and make sure we can all do that together. And so that's where they're at, I'm at and so, the frustration and anger and all those things can turn into the good once you allow all that to work for you in a good way."

And players could feel the difference in practice on Thursday. Mike Sainristil said in the locker room that they were moving at a faster tempo with more intensity. As for how much that will help them, Sainristil said that will depend on how consistent he and his teammates can be.

"It's easy to do it one day. It's about how consistent can we be. Can we do it tomorrow? Can we match that intensity day after day after day up to the game. As long as we stay consistent, I think we can be where we need to be Monday night."

And the way linebacker Bobby Wagner sees it, there's "a lot of football ahead of us" to fix their issues.

"We have the guys and the coaches to fix those mistakes," Wagner said. "We can't really do anything about what's happened this far. All we can do is make sure that it's better moving forward."

The Commanders want to get back to the identity they established last season. How they got off course is not as much of a concern to them; their priority is getting back to their style of football.

And they don't believe they're far off from doing that.

"It's not this major overhaul, but things that, even though it seems small, can have major dividends," Quinn said.