LANDOVER — Put aside all the histrionics that made Sunday night harder than it had to be. The tidal wave of penalties. The fourth-down, game-tying touchdown allowed in the waning moments of regulation. The temptation to believe that, for as much fundamental change as the Washington Commanders have undergone in a year-and-a-half, maybe they were hardwired to disappoint, regardless of the owner or the general manager or the coach or the quarterback.

That’s all for film rooms and psychiatrists’ couches. The hours and days after the Commanders’ 30-24 overtime victory against the Atlanta Falcons are for listening to the purest sound in sports. There it was, ringing through the lower bowl at Northwest Stadium, then spilling into the parking lots and out into the night, amid the smiling and yelling and hugging.

That was joy. Joy over what just happened. Joy over what could happen still. Joy for this unexpected, playing-with-house-money season. Joy for the seasons to come.

“I think the coolest part — and I think the thing that the fans have really gotten behind — is that we just frickin’ win,” said punter Tress Way, whose tenure in Washington dates to 2014, the longest of any player. “I mean, we have 11 wins. Like … what?”

Eleven wins, for the first time since — if you don’t know it off the top of your head, you won’t believe it when you read it. But let’s save it for a moment.

More important: The Commanders are in the playoffs for the first time with their current name, and for just the second time in nine years. In two weeks — after they finish out the regular season against sorry Dallas, a game that could help catapult them into a more favorable matchup — they will have a chance to win their first playoff game since …

Wait. This can’t be right. Since … 2005?

This, in the first full offseason-into-regular season cycle of Josh Harris’s ownership. This, in the first season since Harris hired Adam Peters — a smart, experienced, career front-office assistant, but never before the head person — to oversee the football operation. This, in the first season since Harris and Peters hired Dan Quinn — a wounded coach who went back to being a coordinator but pledged to learn from it all for his next chance — to lead the locker room.

And this, in the 16th game of Jayden Daniels’s career as the player all those fans had waited for since … well, when? Since Robert Griffin III blazed through a rookie year and then fizzled — spectacularly. Or maybe since Mark Brunell started that last playoff victory nearly two decades ago. Since then, 20 quarterbacks had started at least one game for this franchise.

Then Daniels walked through the door.

“He is a dangerous player,” Quinn said.

That’s what was embedded in some of those joyful whoops that tumbled out of the stadium as midnight approached: We have our guy. We have our guy not only because he took the ball in overtime and never let the Falcons sniff it, gaining 42 of his career-best 127 rushing yards on that one drive before drilling a pass to tight end Zach Ertz on third-and-goal from the 2 to end the game.

No, this is about what he has shown over the course of the season. That’s in how he plays, which is electric. It’s also in how he carries himself, which is without a pulse.

“He’s the most mature rookie I’ve ever been around,” Ertz said. “He approaches the game, he loves to learn, and so he just exudes such a quiet confidence. He’s not out there as a rah-rah guy, but we all know how good he is and how much confidence we have in him, so he doesn’t need to say anything.”

The logistics of the Commanders’ first playoff appearance since 2020 — and does that one really count, given it came with a 7-9 record? — are this: Beat Dallas, and they are the sixth seed in the NFC, which means a road game in Los Angeles against the Rams or in Tampa Bay against the Buccaneers. Lose to the Cowboys, and a more difficult trip to Philadelphia could loom.

But put aside all those permutations. The overtime drive and the aftermath Sunday night not only erased the messiness that preceded it — 13 penalties for 108 yards, the 13-yard, fourth-and-goal scoring pass from Falcons rookie Michael Penix Jr. to tight end Kyle Pitts that tied the game with 1:19 remaining.

Those are the details that merely gave Daniels, as he said, “the opportunity to go out there and try to win a football game.” The macro view is greater than that, and it was reflected in how those 63,480 fans — precious few of whom left early — created an environment that was unfamiliar during the game, then skipped to their cars and the Metro afterward in an entirely new postscript.

“That environment out there with the fans tonight — that was so cool,” said Way, who knows the opposite. “Like, I’m getting chills thinking about it. It was loud. It was crazy.”

What this represented was that precious moment in the arc of sports fandom, when the present is unexpectedly good, when the future seems impossibly promising, all cast against a miserable 30-year past that makes you think hanging in there with this franchise, whatever the name — or abandoning it, then returning to the fold — was worth it. This team was 4-13 and worthy of the second pick in the draft a year ago. In the first year of a new regime, it’s 11-5 and in the playoffs.

There’s a reputational transformation here that is deeply meaningful. Listen to Ertz, who spent parts of nine seasons with rival Philadelphia, where he won a Super Bowl.

“Every day, since the moment I got here, this place has exceeded every expectation I had,” Ertz said. “Being in this division for a long time, you just kind of heard things, rumblings here and there. From the moment I got here, it just felt like all those stories were just not part of the experience that I’ve had. …

“This is honestly some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing football, and just being able to be a part of this team and be a part of this group of guys has been really, really enjoyable.”

This is Washington we’re talking about, right?

Washington, back in the playoffs and looking like a dangerous opponent. Washington, a desirable destination for veterans. Washington, with 11 wins and counting for the first time since …

Try 1991.

That would be the season that led to the last of Washington’s three Super Bowl titles. Since then, every other NFL franchise not only has at least one 11-win season. They have at least two.

So be joyful, Washington. You endured the unspeakable to get to this point. Remember the feeling walking out of that stadium. It doesn’t happen that often.