PHILADELPHIA — It is fair to question whether the Washington Commanders called the right play on their failed 2-point conversion that effectively closed out their 24-22 season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday night. (A shovel pass? To a blocking tight end? Really?)It’s also fair to argue that the play was simply poorly executed by the interior of the offensive line, particularly center Nick Allegretti.“Right call,” quarterback Jayden Daniels said.“It’s a good play down in the red zone,” coach Dan Quinn said.Which brings us to a foundational element of Quinn’s operation, just getting going in a crucial third season: “winning-time moments.”“I think there’s definitely an element of, like, clutch performers, right?” Quinn said by video call Monday afternoon. “Like, who wants the ball in that space? Who wants to be the pass rusher to go finish the game?“So there’s definitely that trade that you were looking for from those guys. For me, from the coach, what I try to do is create as many of those as I can to put them into those spots, so when they feel like it would be a big moment, know: This is when we elevate. This is what we were practicing for. This is what we’ve been hitting on.”Top Plays from Commanders @ EaglesIf this is in fact a learned behavior, the Commanders need to learn it immediately. Next up is a trip to Dallas, where the Cowboys are 0-1 and, in an equally desperate way, need to figure out any sort of path to victory.“We’re (trying to) prove to the world and everyone else that we’re coming up,” said edge rusher Odafe Oweh, who had his first sack for Washington on Sunday. “We got a lot of promise, too. So it’s a lot about that heart, and understanding that we’re going to be the underdogs and everything. We didn’t get it this time, but I can just tell we’re on a good track.”Do we know that after one week? Maybe.What we absolutely know — from week to week and city to city — is that the margins in the NFL are thinner than deli meat. The Lions, for instance, are supposed to make the playoffs. The Saints are supposed to be rebuilding. What separated them Sunday: a back-foot heave from New Orleans quarterback Tyler Shough on an overtime, potential game-winning 2-point conversion attempt. It fell incomplete. Detroit 31, New Orleans 30. Flip a coin. Draw straws. Play rock, paper, scissors.Back to Washington. Remember the salad days of 2024? Back then, Daniels could do no wrong and Quinn convinced everyone from Ashburn to Anne Arundel County that he was building a new culture in Washington, one in which players were ingrained with an ability to come through at the most important times.Is there a world in which a 2024 version of Daniels’ shovel pass to John Bates would have worked? Did that team have some tangible edge at “winning time” that has since been lost, as the Commanders have dropped six of their last seven games that were decided by seven points or less?Look, we don’t need to relitigate every moment from a magical season that slips further into the past with every subsequent game. It’s instructive, though, to reflect and recall exactly how that played out, and how unlikely it all was.Because with a week to kill before we get another data point on who these Commanders are, it could help us determine whether we believe whether “winning-time moments” are coached into the fabric of a team — or if they just kinda happen. (Insert shoulder-shrug emoji here.) Put differently: Was the 2024 team a 12-5 team with a 12-5 foundation? Or did it just have a 12-5 record built at least partly on good fortune?To review, with an eye on what’s ahead: