The energy in the cramped Baltimore Ravens' visiting locker room was adequately down following the Washington Commanders' 30-23 loss. "Losing sucks" was a common phrase used by players as they spoke to the media, and the outcome was a tough reminder for a team which had so much success in the past month that there is still much to learn.

That knowledge was at the core of the Commanders' disappointment as they loaded the buses back to Virginia, but it didn't demoralize them. It was a sign that they needed to get back to work.

"There's going to be a lot to learn from this game," said coach Dan Quinn. "I told the team that you got to apply the lessons that will be given today."

While winning games is always the main goal, the first season of the Dan Quinn-Adam Peters era is also a chance for the young core they put together in the offseason to learn as many lessons as possible for the future. For Weeks 2-5, they had to figure out how to handle success -- a pleasant surprise for a team expected to be in rebuild mode. One of the biggest lessons against the Ravens: they must capitalize on every opportunity to beat teams of the Ravens' caliber.

For a team full of quick studies, it shouldn't take long for them to grasp that concept.

"We just didn't finish some opportunities," Daniels said. "Great defense that we were able to go up and have a challenge against and face today, but at the end of the day, man, we gotta focus on us. We gotta go out there, and we gotta execute."

As exciting as the Commanders' offense was in a month that saw Daniels and the unit break records and score points at a historic pace, it was expected that they would slow down against tougher defenses. That turned out to be true against the Cleveland Browns and Ravens, although Daniels and the team still operated well enough to at least give them a chance to win.

Daniels and the offense were not perfect but still good against the Ravens, as the rookie quarterback completed 24 of 35 passes for 269 yards and threw two touchdowns. The time of possession (23:52), rushing total (52 yards) and third-down conversions (4-of-12) were down from what the unit is used to, but plays like the 28-yard shot to Noah Brown and the fourth-down touchdown pass to McLaurin showed that they could compete with a team considered to be one of the league's best.

Still, Washington did make some mistakes, and unlike against the Browns, when those errors didn't prove costly enough to warrant a loss, the Ravens pounced on them. It started on the Commanders' opening drive after being gifted a short field because of Mike Sainristil's interception. Washington got as close as the Ravens' 13-yard line but had to settle for a field goal after Baltimore defensive end Travis Jones beat Nick Allegretti for an 11-yard sack.

"That's four points off the board," Allegretti said. "That's something I can't let happen. ... It's the first drive of the game, but it ended up being a crucial drive."

Adding to that frustration was the missed field goal at the end of the first half. With just 53 seconds left following a touchdown from the Ravens, the Commanders got down to the Ravens' 34-yard line in six plays. The field goal was blocked, leaving the score 17-10 at halftime. Simple math will tell you what the score could have been on what ended up being the Ravens' final drive had Washington scored a touchdown on their opening drive and Austin Seibert managed to hit that field goal.

"We don't have a group of guys that are gonna hang their head," McLaurin said. "We got a group of guys that are excited to get back to work. We're gonna look at the film tomorrow and see how we can be better going forward next week. I think just off the top of my head offensively, we just gotta be able to find ways to stay on the field."

The Commanders only punted three times, but the Ravens made them pay for those mistakes, too. Their defense stood firm on one drive and forced the Lamar Jackson-led unit back 10 yards, but Baltimore also put together its two longest touchdown drives -- 93 and 94 yards -- following Washington punts.

The Commanders readily admitted that the Ravens had a good offense, but failing to get the ball back to their offense with such advantageous field positions is an error that must be corrected going forward.

"When you play a good team like that, you can't hurt yourself," linebacker Bobby Wagner said in the locker room. "Whether it's penalties, whether it's miscommunication or things of that nature, so it's all thing that are fixable, which I think is really good."

Neither Quinn nor the players wanted to discuss Sunday's game being a moral victory; such things don't exist in the NFL. There was a path in which Washington could have won, though, even with the mistakes. Had the defense managed to get a stop on the Ravens' final drive, the offense would get the ball back with at least a chance to tie the score.

Where the Commanders go from here will depend on how the players take that information. They have back-to-back home games up next on the schedule, both of which are considered winnable if the Commanders look like they have for the past five weeks. If they were satisfied with almost beating the Ravens, perhaps that effort would still be enough to win one or both matchups.

It doesn't sound like that's the attitude the Commanders will be taking after their second loss. "Almost" is not good enough for them.

"We believe in the group that we have," McLaurin said. "We just gotta focus on the details going forward. Not that we haven't in the past, but when you get into a game like this where it's back-and-forth...every play matters."

And for a team with so much left in front of it, it shouldn't be viewed as good enough.

"It's very promising that we were able to be in this type of game, but moving forward, it's not going to get any easier," Daniels said. "Losing sucks, but you're moving on to the next."