Dan Quinn sat down in front of the microphone with a cut on the bridge of his nose and dried blood in his mustache following the Washington Commanders' Week 3 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.

Quinn was looked at by trainers after taking a hit from quarterback Marcus Mariota, who was shoved out of bounds by Tristin McCollum, on the sideline in the closing seconds of the first half on Sunday. Quinn was battered and bloodied by the collision but remained on the sideline to see Matt Gay nail a 56-yard field goal to put the Commanders up 20-10. He assured his players and coaches that he was okay, and to his credit, he looked unbothered by the hit for the rest of the afternoon.

Quinn laughed off questions from reporters about the hit after the 41-24 win, but it wasn't an insignificant moment to the players. To them, it was another reminder that Quinn embodies the culture he often preaches to them, and it served as a rallying moment for them to finish the game.

"I think it just represents who he is, to be honest," Bobby Wagner said after the game. "He talks about it all the time. [It's] just his mentality, and it's literally like, 'If you get knocked down, get back up and keep going.' He literally did that."

Mariota could see that he was heading in Quinn's direction as he tried to outrun the Raiders' defense to the sideline and stop the clock. Once he felt McCollum shove him from behind, he tried to hold Quinn up as much as possible. Quinn, 55, braced for the hit, but there wasn't much he could do with Mariota moving at that speed.

Quinn joked that the hit felt "probably like you'd expect."

"Don't want [that] to happen, but it was all good," Quinn said.

Mariota said Quinn took the hit "like a champ," but it was still a serious matter. Players, coaches and even officials rushed to Quinn's side to check on him. He flashed a smile, patted an official on the shoulder and raised his fist to celebrate Gay's field goal as blood trickled down his face. Quinn insisted he was fine, but trainers still looked him over just to be sure.

At that point, the players weren't sure whether Quinn would be able to walk out with them for the third quarter. But as Wagner prepared to deliver his halftime speech, Quinn showed up and said, "I got it."

"He came back up, and it was kind of like a movie," Wagner said. "It was just a cool moment. I'll remember that forever, for sure."

When asked what Quinn said, Wagner smiled and said, "I don't know if I could repeat those words. Nice, very colorful."

No matter what Quinn said, his words and actions earned him a few points with his players. They already believed he led by example, but taking a hit with no pads on himself and then finishing the game was another reminder that he walks the walk.

"DQ, he's a bad man," said running back Jeremy McNichols. "That's how he lives, so that's how we live as well. We back him, so I'm glad he got up and that he's okay. That really propelled us after that, too."

McNicholss teammates shared that sentiment. Frankie Luvu and Dorance Armstrong called Quinn "a dog" for taking the hit, while Jeremy Reaves said the fact that Quinn "got right back to it" says a lot about who he is as a person.

Center Tyler Biadasz used more colorful language.

"He's a bad motherf-----," Biadasz said of Quinn. "He's a fighter. He's gritty as f---, and that's the mentality that we have, too."