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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On this edition of The Booth Review seventy two.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
For the first time, Sin's ninety six, London, Big Win
and a big Apple, and Jeremy Chin and Dante Faller
really showed up on the defensive side of the ball.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Oh and we got a twelve round headway battup for
Big Fletcher's Commander's Heavyweight Championship belt. Maybe I'm the champion.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm gonna keep the belt on this edition of The
Booth Review.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Welcome to this week's edition of The Booth Review podcast,
brought to you by Microsoft Surface Powering a Better Game.
I'm Bram Weinstein with Big Fletch, one of the greatest
linebackers in NFL history, London Fletcher off of another win.
We're seven to two, London A first, it's nineteen ninety six.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Man, that's crazy. Nineteen ninety six. That's such a long time.
I was on a last team that got to six
and two and then we lost our game. We did
the next game, ironically to the Pittsburgh Steelers. I believe
you know, didn't get an opportun need to go Salven
and Tuo. But man, it feels great to be seven
and two, to be sitting where we are in the

(01:06):
NFC East, also in the NFC in general. Just a
great team win, especially after coming off that emotional victory
against the Chicago Bears on the Heyl Noah Play.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Nineteen ninety six.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
I was in my first broadcasting job in the state
of Nebraska, covering the Cornhuskers when they were a top
five national championship program under Tom Osborne. So it's been
a long time for me too to see seven and
two and the glory days of obviously the Redskins past brah.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Ninety six, I was still in college. Damn year old.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Oh man, I know, man, Like, it's so funny.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
I've been like professionally covering the team on and off,
but mainly on since two thousand.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's been a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
It's a quarter century, a quarter century since we've had
a season like this, and I'm not sure where it's
going from here. I think sky's the limit for them.
I think it's very telling when you people look at
the Giants record. They've had such a hard time with
this team over the years and sweeping anybody in the division.
It's very difficult to do. It's a great team win yesterday,

(02:12):
especially in light of what it happened a week ago,
where we're celebrating a once in a lifetime experience.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, absolutely, as they There's the old adage where records
don't matter when you're playing division the divisional games. Yes,
the Giants were two and six and they're having a
tough season this year, but when these two teams get together,
I don't care what the wrecords are. They're always tough,
they're always dog fights, they come down to the wire,

(02:37):
and you know, that game yesterday really was a nip
and tuck game for the most part. It was the
Giants that even when they got down fourteen points, they
stayed to their game plan, stuck to it was able
to get back to within eight points. I'll be at
them opted to go for the two point conversion as
opposed to kicking the extra point. And I don't know
if we'll talk about that, but that's the Giants and

(02:59):
a Brian Dable issue. But divisional games they're always going
to be tough, you know, tight back and forth type games,
and regardless of the record, I it's anytime you could
sweep to New York Giants, that's a good feeling, great feeling,
and I'm happy to be sitting where we are at
seven and two.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I mean, I'd rather would focus it on us, honestly,
but like this is two weeks in a row, we're
decision making by the coaches on the other side of
the field did contribute to the things that occurred here,
Like a week ago, when mattieberflus is talking about it's
not a big deal to Terry McLaurin made this catch
that's set up the hail Mary Well okay or Brian
Daball going for two at twenty four to sixteen, failing

(03:42):
to get it, and they had they kicked it extra
point there it scored the later touchdown of the Theo
Johnson could have kicked an extra point to make it
a three point game, but we're in the position to
do it. And then secondarily, and I want to get
to this one really later. But the choice not to
use a timeout before the two minute warning, which allowed
Washington to sit you wascally run the clock down and
call a pass play with really no penalty if it

(04:05):
weren't in completion because it was gonna hit the two
minute morning anyway, I mean, it is nice to be
on the side of sound coaching decisions are happening here
and it is contributing to a lot of these wins
this year.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, No, that was They're definitely button up when it
comes to situational football clock management, whether it's end of half,
there's been so many times where you've seen how aggressive
they've been in certain situations, or go back to the
think it was the was it the Bears game, or
maybe it's the Panthers game. Oh, it's a Pathers game
where we're backed up and kind of like, okay, well

(04:40):
we'll kind of try to run out the clock, but
Carolina didn't use any of their time as they had
three time iles. Next thing you know, we get a
first down and we end up going to our no
huddle offense and end up getting a score at the
end of that half. Just the clock management piece and
the way Dad Quinn and whoever helps him with the
clock management have been on top of that, it's definitely

(05:01):
helped us be where we are in terms of seven
and two at this point of the season.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
So I thought the biggest surprise of yesterday was after
the first quarter, Washington had one yard passing. They had
the ball for two minutes and thirty seconds of the
fifteen and we're leading seven to nothing.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
So I want to start on.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
The defense because it's a turnover that gave them the
opportunity to do this, And secondarily, it was also their
game plan. They wanted the Giants to run the ball
like that became very clear the Giants did and we're
doing so effectively early in the game.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
What did you make of what.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Structurally Washington was thinking about in trying to oppose the
Giants offense yesterday?

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, you know, after you look at the first game
and you see Neighbors have ten catches on eighteen targets
and over one hundred yards receiving, it was clear that
they went into the ball game saying, hey, we're not
going to ask Stark corners to do a lot of
man and man single coverage of him and even their
receivers like Daris Slayton. He had started to come on

(06:07):
as of late as well. So, hey, they wanted to
keep kind of a shell on top of the defense,
play a lot of cover two or even quarters for
quarters coverage where it's initially at the snap the safeties
are both in a two deep look, and then they'll
rotate one of the safeties of rotate town once they
ensure that there's a run play, so they're a little

(06:29):
bit later to the party when it comes to the
run game. It's a way to get an extra defender
to the run but also show a safe coverage pre snap.
So there was definitely the game plan where hey, we're
going to force them to be a little bit patient,
see if they'll make a mistake, whether it's a penalty
or turnover, which ended up being a turnover on that

(06:50):
force fumble sack fumbled by Dante follow But you know,
it takes an extreme amount of patients for you as
a as a defensive play caller like Joe Witt Junior
to say, Hey, I know they're getting some yards rushing
to football, but I'm a stay patient. I'm not going
to all of a sudden getting more aggressive. Maybe do
a rotation where I'm bringing that extra man in the box,

(07:11):
show single hot coverage, and now they can go play
action pass or they know they got matchups on the
outside where they can try to take advantage. So I
thought it was a great, great strategy by them, and
it took great patience to you. For Joe Witt Jr.
I also say from the defensive standpoint. As a player,
it can be extremely frustrating fourteen to be gashing on

(07:34):
the rug game, and you just have to be like,
all right, man, just stay patient, Just stay patient, Just
stay patient with this, and eventually they'll make a mistake,
which they did.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
I mean it is another sign up because go look
up halftime they're up twenty one to seven. It is
another sign of stick with this, believe in what we're doing.
Because I'm watching this early too. Tyrone Tracy has become
a very good effective running back for them. He was
obviously in question to play because of the concussion he
had suffered the week before, but he was able to go.
He's been very effective for them. They were running the

(08:05):
ball well. They ran the ball well against them in
week two. And I know what a lot of people
are thinking, because I got a lot of this from
like fans who were contacting me during and even after
the game. Make Daniel Jones throw the ball. He makes mistakes,
we want him to throw the ball. But the first
game showcased a weakness specifically against neighbors, So I'm with

(08:27):
you here.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
In the end, they got this right.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
The point is to keep the scoreboard down even if
the stat sheet doesn't look great and it looks like
you're getting gashed on the run.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
They invited them to do it.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
The Giants did it because I guess they felt this
was their best path to victory.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, and probably the Giants also, they're probably looking at
it like, hey, we don't want to put the ball
to harms way because you know, Daniel Jones has a
tendency to turn the football over the more you ask
him to throw the ball, which is you know, he
didn't throw an interception in yesterday's game, but he did
have the turnover. So the Giants, they understand what they

(09:05):
are and who they are, and they feel like, hey,
their best path forward has been running the football with
with Tracy. I'll say this, man, it's it's complimentary football.
We talk about this, and we've talked about this a
lot lately. When you understand what you have on the
other side of the ball, we understand we have a

(09:25):
high powered offense. We're gonna score a lot of points.
If you can ben don't break, Hey, we'll get We'll
tighten down in the red zone. We'll as the windows
shrink and we'll force you to kick field goals. We'll
do those types of things. Eventually that team can't just
stay patient and continue to run the ball. They're gonna
have to loosen things up. They're gonna have to try
to air it out. Then you'll get your opportunities to

(09:48):
make plays on the football, in the in the passing game,
things like that. But that's that's when you know you
have a great coaching staff when when the head coach
relays that matches, Hey, offense, these are the things we
need to do to win the game. Defensively, these are
the things we need to do to win the game
as special teams wise, these are things that we knew
we need to do to win the game. And you

(10:09):
know that that's a credit to Dad Quinn and his
coaches for going out and executing that game plan.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
I pointed this out to Quinn when I spoke to
him on Friday, and I said to him, I don't
know how you feel about rankings, like if they matter
to you. But after Week three and included in that
was the winner of the Giants, but Neighbors went off
in that game. The Commanders had the thirty first ranked
pass defense in the league. Here we are in week

(10:35):
nine entering the game and they were ranked seventh. Like
the improvement was vast on that side of the ball,
which does lead me back to it's interesting that they
went with this particular game plan against this team, against
the quarterback who is apt to make mistakes. You would
almost feel like invite him to do so. But it's

(10:55):
not the way they went. But this is why they
get paid what they get paid, and I get paid
when I get paid.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
They were right.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
They had them in a position to do something that
maybe at least initially didn't look like it was favorable
to Washington because they were able to control the clock,
but in the end they couldn't score enough to catch
up with Washington put up on the scoreboard.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, and even I've had a chance to rewatch the
defense side of the ball, even even with them playing
that two shell, and we say invite them to run
the ball, and they were, they were having success. I
think they'll look at the film and say, we could
have we could have played to run even better, even
even playing a lot of the initial seven man front
type of looks, or even when they went to their
five down defensive front, they could have They could have

(11:36):
did a couple of things differently, maybe play play some
gaps a little bit better, things like that to limit them.
With the success that the Giants had rushing that football
early in that ball game, so they'll they'll look at
it and say, you know what, even with the game plan,
they shouldn't have had that amount of amount of type
of amount of yards rushing that they had in that
ball game. But you anytime you're game planning for a

(12:00):
particular opponent, whether it's game planning for defense or game
planning or for offense, you have to say, Okay, who
are their most explosive players, who can hurt us the most?
Who do we want to take away? And in that
ball game, first and foremost, you want to take take
away mylik neighbors. He showed what he's capable of doing
if you give him a lot of one on one

(12:21):
coverage and ask your corners to challenge him and tackle
and even tackle him after the catch. He's shown what
type of type of player he can be. You want
to limit the explosively the way you Part of the
ways that you will limited explosive is having a two
D type of look. Even when they did go single
hot coverage on some third down, the very first third down,

(12:43):
they had a double on Elak Neighbors and this was
when he hit the tight ending flat. I can't remember
their tight end's name, number eighty four. They hit him
in the in the flat on the play, but they
have Elite Neighbors double. They're like, hey, he's not going
to be the guy who beats us in these situations.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Listen.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
I mean, Jadon Daniels is clearly front runner to win
Offensive Rookie of the Year. Malik Neighbors is a clear
number two. I mean the season he's had, He's posted
some numbers, there's some metric numbers where he has more
catches than any rookie through his first six games than
like a handful of other rookies. He's had just an
outstanding year. We've gotten to see him up close and personal.
He's an outstanding player that we're gonna have to deal
with for years to come. He's an outstanding outstanding player.

(13:23):
Let me mention a couple of players on defense, just
get your thoughts on them. I thought it was really
interesting last week someone asked Joe Whitt about Jeremy Chin
and what came out of his mouth was, it's on
me to send him more. Is the words he used,
and to give him an opportunity to make more plays
because he's emerging. And then this has happened week after week.
Right on Q you'll hear them say something like this.

(13:45):
He had seven tackles in the first half. He was
all over the place. He was extremely physical. He made
a great play in pursuit behind the line of scrimmage.
I believe it was on neighbors if I remember correctly
ended up with twelve combined tackles.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
It might have been his best game of the year.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
It was. And you when you got a player like
a cheery Jeremy Chen and what what what Joe? What Jr?
Is saying is I need to get him around the
ball more. I need to get him, you know, don't
have him played as much post safety. Let's get him
closer to the line of scrimmage. Let's blitch him. I
saw there were several times where they blitched him off
the edge, and a lot of those instances in the

(14:23):
past that would have been Frankie Louvo blitching off the edge.
They put Louvo back in coverage and had brought Chin
on some blitzeres off the edge. A nice little change up,
and I think from a just about engaging a guy
you look at let's look at the analogy, whether it's
a basketball scenario, even even football, when we talk about
getting Terry the ball early to get him engaged in

(14:45):
the in the game. So when you got to have
a guy like a Jeremy Champ, let's blitz him. Let's
get him a line, the line around the line of scrimmage.
Let's send him to get him engaged in the game early.
So now he feels a part of a major part
of the game playing. You were spot on by saying
that was his best game. He also did a lot
of nice things and coverage in that ball game as well.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, we were talking about this all last week, especially
off the hangover of the Bears game.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
You go watch the Giants.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
They're extremely competitive, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
which I'll get to in a minute. This was not
going to be a cakewalk. That record is not really
indicative of how close they are in just about every
game they've played. They were tied in Pittsburgh in the
second half till a punt return was returned for a
touchdown against them. They easily could have beat Dallas earlier.
This year like they are in all the games that

(15:32):
they've played. It's just their record is what their record is.
One other thing, one of the defensive player, Dante Fowler,
whose name is probably going to come up here later again,
two more sacks, disruptive play, gets a turnover on a
fumble that he causes. Six and a half now on
the season, so he's trending towards a double digit sack season.

(15:53):
This guy has really over the last month, has really
become an impact player for the team.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Has and he's he's playing outstanding football. And you know,
we've we talked to him, I don't know if his
last week or a couple of weeks ago when he
talked about how he got off to the slow start
of the season, you know, partly doing maybe a little
rust not playing in the preseason, but also I think
he said he was banged up a little bit to
start the season. And you mentioned the six and a
half sacks. Six of those sacks have come in the

(16:22):
last five games. And he's not just making sacks, the hurries,
the pressure, the ability to make the quarterback step up
and you let other guys get to get to the quarterback.
Part of you mentioned our past past defense, going from
thirty first at the week two to being seventh I
think you said this time of the year, at this point,

(16:43):
in this junction of the season. Part of that has
been the pass rush being able to get more pressure
on the quarterback. And you know a lot of that
coincides with the emergence of Dante following away. He's played,
he's playing out standing football. And you know, I don't
know when the Pro Bowl batting starts, ballot starts, voting starts,

(17:04):
but he definitely should be, you know, high on people's
lists as a Pro Bowler this year.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
You know what's so interesting about him is we got
to see him obviously in Dallas the last couple of
years playing in this defense, and largely he wasn't used
as much, you know, as he is here.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
He was more in a situational role.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
I don't have to go back and look at his snapcount,
but that might be a testament to the depth of
the positions that they had down there and the pass
rushers that they have with When Laurrance was down there,
DeMarcus Lawrence, Mike Parsons, maybe there just wasn't enough room
to get him on the field as much so when
they signed him in the off season, I knew what
he was and I knew what kind of impact he
could have, but I perceived him kind of more as

(17:47):
a situational player than one who's doing this consistently throughout games.
And I apparently underestimated him because look at what he's
doing consistently.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Now, Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
He's definitely playing a lot more snaps, and some of
that was a byproduct of injuries. You know, Cleveland Pharaoh
Pharaoh got injured, he missed a couple of games. Durris
Armstrong got injured, so that forced that forced Dante follow
into a more of a play more playing time. But
to his credit, he's performed with those added snaps. He

(18:21):
and just his aware wherewithal on the on the sack
force fumble, he talked about the quarterback being under center
and he knew that was going to be a pass
play play action, so he got off at the snap,
beat the beat the tackle, and as he was right on,
he was right on Daniel Jones and forced that fumble
before Jones could get the ball out of his hands.

(18:43):
So just understanding, like, hey, I know this personnel grouping
is quarterback under center. Yeah, you know, some people might
think it's a run playing. You know, you you don't
want to just get up the field and create a
rushing lane. No, he understood, this is this on this
down and distance, this quarterback under center, this is a play,

(19:03):
a past look, a pass formation, understanding his keys and
knowing what the game plan says. And he got off
and he got that. He created that play.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
So one more thing on the defense, it's we're taping
this on what they like to call around here tell
the truth.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Monday. I was a touch.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Surprise at how effective the Giants were late in the game,
scoring a couple of touchdowns to get it within reach.
It never felt like this was going to go the
wrong way, but it was a one score game on
two occasions in the fourth quarter after a couple of
long touchdown drives and one play down the seam to
THEO Johnson that I think that they want.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
To have back.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
There were a few plays the defense wants to have back.
So here's best case scenario for the coaches, Right, they
get to walk in there, talk about a win and
probably show a few plays that this team definitively wants back.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah, and I'm not I'm not concerned. I'm not overly
concerned about, you know, the mishaps that happened on in
the in the ball and again because I know this,
they have such really good coaches on that defensive defensive staff.
You know, I saw case in point prior to the game,
there was a they were working on the little hitch

(20:15):
route that neighbors hurt Us with where he would catch
the hitch and he would reverse pivot outside and make
the corner miss and was getting yards after the catch.
During pre game yesterday, I saw the corners working on hey,
coming up and tackling that hitch route. The defensive back
coach he had those guys working on them. So just

(20:36):
the attention to detail and making sure the guys are
correcting potential problem areas, they do a great job of that.
They'll do a great job of getting guys sued up
and saying, hey, even though we have a too high
shell coverage, we still need to fit we can yeah
and bite teams to run. Can't give up nine and

(20:58):
eight and ten yards on these run. Maybe we'll allow
them to get you four or five yards, but it
can be nine to ten yards. And part of that
was because maybe we just need to be a little
bit stouter in our gaps, maybe play a little bit downhill,
a little bit better, and things like that. So I'm
confident I know this coaching staff will We'll get those
things corrected. They'll get the things corrected that happened in

(21:19):
the passing game because this is an outstanding defensive coaching staff.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, there's gonna be an interesting test this week.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
We'll get into it later with the power run game
of Pittsburgh. Two headed monster running backs that they have,
and they've got a really good, wily receiver in George
Pickens as well. So it's gonna be an interesting matchup
this weekend with Pittsburgh. We're getting that in a little bit, right.
Let me focus in on the offense in a little
bit with you, and I wanted to read this one
to you because this was I think this is the
game honestly. On that side of the ball, Jaden made

(21:45):
a couple of great plays, a couple of great calls.
We had talked about time management and how the coaches
really came to the forefront here too. We'll talk about
all of it in a moment, but this is what
really stuck out to me because coming into the game
that trio up front was playing as good as any
trio in the NFL. Dexter Lawrence is having an All
Pro season and might be the defensive player of the year.

(22:06):
And I didn't write this, The NFL wrote this. He
was the league leader in sacks. If that were to
happen at the end of the season, he would be
listed as the heaviest player ever to do that. It's
absurd when a defensive tackle leads the league in sacks,
but that's what he's doing. The guy on the outside
of him, Brian Burns, has been worth every penny over
the last month if you've watched how he's played, and
even without Cavon, Thibodeau, Azizo Jalai not unlike Dante Fowler

(22:29):
has had like five sacks over the last five games.
They have been extraordinary upfront, which I think was the
big concern for Washington this week with Cornelius Lucas unavailable,
banged up players on the inside, attrition in here. You
had to handle one of the best pass rush groups
in the NFL, and they can do it with those
three and not bring a lot of heat. And then

(22:50):
there's this off of the game because obviously the offensive
line in the running backs deserve a lot of credit
for what happened yesterday on offense.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Listen to this one.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
According to next Gen Stats, the Giant's defense generated only
five team pressures and zero sacks on twenty five dropbacks
twenty percent pressure rate, despite blitzing on sixty percent of
the dropbacks, the unit's highest blitz rate in a game
this season. So they didn't rely on that front. They
brought extra help and Washington's protection unit picked it up

(23:20):
over and over and over. No sacks against that group allowed.
That's the win of all wins. And that's the film
on Tell the Truth Monday that you celebrate today.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
No, no, absolutely, it's it's It was a phenomenal job.
First and foremost by I think you got a credit
the the offensive coaches, whether it's Bobby Johnson, the offensive
line coach, former New York Giants offensive line coach. I'm
sure he he, you know, felt pretty good about having
that type of performance in New York. And then you
look at the Giants in the first game, they got

(23:53):
five sacks off of our offense. So to be able
to hold them to a zero sacks and very little
pressure that you may to the backs and the and
the tight ends. They did a great job of stoning blitzers,
picking up a different line stuts and and you know,
just doing a great job all in all, even when
they had to, you know, just block one on one guys,

(24:14):
And it's a it's a credit also the Jaden identifying
and knowing where the pressure was coming from getting the
ball out to whether it was his hot read or knowing, hey,
I got protection here, I don't need to throw it hot.
I'm okay letting this play develop. And and you know,
there were some times where they went well we went
max protection, which on a deep, deep crossing route to

(24:36):
to Noah Brown late in the game, I mean, a
beautiful throw. Maybe it was enough. It might even have
been in the first half of the deep crossing route
to him going, uh going, you know, great protection. And
then in the Alaminade's the kids played lay in the
ball game, go max pro and play action and hit
him on that play. Just as all around outstanding job

(24:57):
in Pass Pro.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
I want to talk about the running for a moment,
so we pointed this out on the air a number
of times. Chris Rodriguez had a devastating blitz pickup on
Brian Burns, just an outstanding block late in the game,
Austin Eckler, over and over and over, picking up blitzers,
picking up the protection. To me, it was the story

(25:19):
because this was the spot. If there's one thing that
the Giants do really, really well, is they cause havoc
up front. They get sacks, they blow up drives, and
even though their offense is having a hard time scoring,
it's kept them in every game that they've played, and
they are a bounc or two away from different outcomes.
Washington's running backs and especially Rodriguez, who led the team

(25:42):
in rushing in yards and yards per carry and clearly
was on point with where his protection needed to be,
finding out ninety minutes before kickoff he was going to play,
because when we left to get on the bus in
the morning, I thought Robinson was playing yesterday, and then
when he wasn't, it was a surprise to me and
probably a little bit to Chris Rodriguez too. He deserves

(26:05):
a tremendous amount of credit for being prepared and having
playing a crucial role in the offense functioning the way
it did yesterday.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
No, absolutely, and I'm sure it's difficult to not know
if you're gonna play in a ball game, not know
if you're gonna be up or or inactive for a
ball game. So you don't really like how do you
mentally prepare for for that game? You know the night before, like, okay,
you have to prepare like you're playing. That's the only
way you rather be over prepared than underprepared. But still

(26:36):
is like, all right, you know, b Rob, he's probably
gonna play. And then once he got the got the
nod and saying hey you're up, it's an hour and
a half before the game, or two hours maybe maybe
it was he knew maybe two hours before. Now you
got to flip the switch and get it too that
mode and knowing hey I'm gonna be up, and not
only am I going to be up, I'm gonna play

(26:56):
a lot in this ball game. So being able to
be on point from a game play standpoint that that
that play where where he had to block Brian Burns,
that's a full slide protection. So the offensive line is
working away from him because you go on play action,
you slip slipping, being sent it out to the flat
as a fullback pass and you're leaving your running back

(27:20):
to block one of the best pass rushers International Football League.
You have to be a grown man. I've seen so
many running backs, Oh, lay that block, missed that block,
get the quarterback hit, get the quarterback sack, or allowed
pressure to where the quarterback can't get to that ball
to an open receiver. He ran up, cut out the
thigh pads of Brian Burns and allowed a window for

(27:44):
Jade Dais to be able to throw that throw that
pass to Ben send it on a critical third and
one I think think it was thirty one situation, maybe
fourth to one. Uh to to convert that that that
had that conversion, Kudos to him, man. And then when
he when he had to run the football, what is hey,
we got to grind his ball out, grind a clock
out move to football. He made some tough, hard physical runs.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
I thought it was interesting too.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
We got to interview him and Austin Eckler at the
same time.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
After the games.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
They walked out of the locker room together and I
asked Rodriguez about the block that he made on Burns
and he goes, you know, the guy next to me.
These are the cutups they show in our meetings. How
he picks up the blocks. Eckler was outstanding yesterday in protection.
He obviously scored a touchdown. They've asked a lot of him.

(28:34):
This is again, the run game even without b Rob
function really well. There is a difference. I want to
point this out, like, go look at yards per carry
in total yards on the rush, and the Giants aren't
the best rush defense in the NFL this year. You
see the difference when b Rob isn't out there, but
the fact that they can survive be effective turn to

(28:57):
numerous different players to continue to run the ball and
to me, the most impressive thing the protection aspect of
it without him out there. The testament again to the
coaching and the preparedness of the offense here.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Well, yeah, no, absolutely, And you just go back that
just to post that having be not having b robed
in the game against Baltimore and not having be robbing
the game Yester again against the Giants game against the
the Ravens, we only ran the ball eighteen times through
it I think thirty five times. So you know, that's
that's not the type of balance you want. That wasn't

(29:30):
the type of balance we had, you know, getting to
that point in the season where we had so much
success yesterday's ball game. Thirty eight carries, thirty eight rushing
attempts and only twenty two pass attempts. That's you know,
running the football being effective when you run the ball.
You mentioned Eckler, he had forty two yards rushing, Chrich

(29:51):
Rodriguez fifty two yards. You know, Jaden had, you know,
thirty five yards rushing, Jeremy mc mitchell, Nichols twenty yards.
So you know we had minus the Neil downs at
the end of the game, we rush for over one
hundred and fifty yards in that ball game. That's great
production out of your out of your running backs. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Last week they had three different players rush for over
fifty yards. It was the first team in the NFL
this year to have three different players to rush for
over fifty yards in the same game. They were darn
close to it again this week, without their best lead
running back. They almost did it again. It's really amazing.
All right, Let's get into the two moments that really
I think stand out that everybody's talking about today. End

(30:31):
of the first half, first third and eighteen one time
out left. Honestly, I don't even think they were trying
to get a first down they were just trying to
get into field goal range and Diami Brown makes an
unbelievable play to give them an opportunity. And I'm telling
you this quarterback, he snatches souls because given the opportunity,

(30:56):
which if the Giants tackle Brown he never would have got.
He gets one shot at this with no timeouts, and
it's a.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Dark, perfect throw.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
You can't ask for a better throw than that to
McLaurin for the touchdown.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Man, I'll standing playing. As you mentioned on the on
the third and eighteen play, it's just hey, uh, Diami.
He starts off in a in a chip situation where
he helped slow down the pass rusher, gives the right
tackle while a little bit of help. Then he goes
out and releases in the flat and you know, Jaden
gets gets the ball to him and you know he
got into us so him quickly he allowed He allowed

(31:33):
Diami the opportunity to run after the catch, and Diami
made made a guy missed. I would have loved for
Diam to get out of bows to say the time out,
but you know he stayed in bounds and he picked
up a few more yards and you know, fortunately we
had one more time out. And we use it. But
as you mentioned, a dark to Terry, it was kind
of a pseudo slug go and go slant go, but

(31:55):
the the back shoulder putting the ball where only Terry
can get it. And you know, Terry had to feel
great about getting those two touchdowns against the AA Banks
who who If you remember a year ago he made
the video talking about uh, talk about We're gonna have
to deal with him for a long time in the division.
And you know, he kind of disrespectful to Terry. I

(32:15):
know he's kind of hurt that we drafted a corner
over him. Yeah, and before him drafted forward. But you
gotta sometimes be be a little bit humble bee quiet.
And you know Terry got two touchdowns on him yesterday.
He did.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
I mean, I can't this is I can't believe this
is commonplace. But the fourth down throw against Baltimore to
Terry for a touchdown, Daniel's clutch moment.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Has to have it.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
The crazy pass he threw on Monday Night Football getting
hit when Terry's at the twenty that sealed that which
was the first huge win really of this season on
Monday Night Football. The Hail Mary notwithstanding, I mean, yeah,
there's some luck that goes into that, but he threw
it sixty five yards in the air and it landed

(33:02):
exactly where it needed to land to have the luck occur.
This throw, this throw cannot be underrated. You mentioned the
one to Noah Brown earlier where that was between defenders.
That was ridiculous, that throw. He did one in Cincinnati
to McCaffrey on a fourth down where McCaffrey wasn't even
supposed to be on that part of the field, but
he found him and did this. The special plays that

(33:25):
he is making over and over and over, and to
do it with the time on the clock when he's
doing it, you got one shot at that play to
McLaurin or you're kicking a field goal, and it's perfection.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
It truly, I don't.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Even have the words for it anymore. It's really really
incredible what we're witnessing from him as a rookie right now.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
No, it really is. And I've been around the game
just as a player. I mean, I played sixteen years
Brown and I've been I've had I don't know how
many quarterbacks have played with Hall of Fame quarterback Kurk Warren,
her play with with Drew Bledsoe, who was a you know,
perennial pro bowler. You know, r RG three had the
great rookie season. McNabb, who had been a perennial pro bowler,

(34:11):
had some rookies as quarterbacks. And when I say, man,
what I'm seeing and what we're witnessing, it's just so special.
And you know, Kurt had that special season back in
ninety nine. Kurt Warner had it in ninety nine with
the Greatest Show on Turf. But Kurt was a lot older.
He had been through some things. He had played in
the Arena League. He you know, had had his his

(34:33):
first year as that started with his second year in
the NFL, So he had a lot more you know,
stripes on his belt, so to speak, a lot more experiences.
But for Jade to be doing this just nine games
into his NFL career, I've never seen anything like it. Man.
It's this kid is special and and that's an understatement

(34:53):
to say how special he is. And this is what
I tell you, He's on going to get better. The
more experience that he gets, like the more opportunities that
he gets against seeing defenses, you know, seeing the dis
Giants defense for the second time seeing these. You know,
we'll play Philadelphia twice, We'll play Dallas twice. You'll see,

(35:16):
you know, all the different variations of defenses and just
understanding trusting certain things, being able to understand what's a
what's ope considered opening the NFL, and what's you know,
throwing the guy open. You look at how he was
in that first game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where
you know, there was some guys that he probably could
have pulled the trigger on and threw the football too
earlier in that game, but didn't throw it next week, Okay,

(35:39):
all right, I'm trusting, I'm gonna throw it. Then he
gave more confidence and he's just gonna get continued to
get better. Man, watch out as he continues to develop
in this league.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
I believe it. I really don't think it's an overstatement.
I think it's the best season any rookie quarterbacks ever
had to this point. And visually, what the record is,
how he he's playing, what role he's playing. He still
is an earshot of being the completion percentage leader in
the NFL. If he were to do that, he would
be the first rookie since the nineteen thirties to do that,

(36:12):
and those quarterbacks through the ball six times a game
and the leader had six hundred yards passing. I mean,
he's just a completely different game that they're playing now.
It's absurd, honestly, and it's unprecedented and it's historic. And
I think the thing that really gets me every time
about it is what would you bring these things up
to him or you point out these moments that we

(36:32):
all know, you played it, you were in it. You
know how special some of those things are that occurred,
how unusual it is for a quarterback to do some
of the things he's doing, and he's doing it in
his rookie season, and he shrugs. He's like, yeah, that
ball could He said in the press conference yesterday that
the ball he threw to Terry could have been better

(36:53):
that he was Actually it could have been a little
more towards a shoulder.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
That he wanted it to be.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
To hail Mary, he kind of he had to at
least admit that was unusual and special. But he he
shrugs at all these things. He is so medium in
his demeanor. It's unbelievable that he is not sitting here.
He has to know how good it is. But he
just won't outwardly show that it's affected him whatsoever.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
I think that's a credit to his parents. And I
actually mentioned this to his dad. I met his dad
a few weeks back, and I was like, man, you
all have done a great job raising him, because I
wanted him to know, like, yeah, you know what he's doing. Parents,
I mean, players and fans. We can see the stuff
you see on the field, the talent. It speaks for

(37:41):
himself of when you just look at the humility and
from the very firse time we ever interviewed him, which
was a day after he got drafted, just like man,
it was myself smooth, sad town, I believe, and Logan
we interviewed it. We're just like, man, this guy's just
he is just so humble. Like you you're thinking, okay's

(38:04):
he's a little different. But again this was our first
time meeting him. Is he gonna stay like this? And man,
he's done. They've done a great job raising him, and
he's you know, obviously not allowed the success he's had
prior to this season, winning the Heightsman Trophy and all
the other things he's accomplished to go to his head.
When you mentioned him talking about the the play being
a little bit could have been better that the football throw,

(38:26):
that touchdown throw, the tear. That reminded me of an
article that I read about Tom Brady years ago, and
Brady he had already been I think he had already
won maybe two MVPs, had already won three Super Bowls,
and Brady still worked with the quarterback coach in the
off season, and they asked him why is he why

(38:49):
does he still continue to work with the quarterback coach
even given all that he had accomplished, And Brady said,
I want my throws to be to go for being
six inches off target to six centimeters off target. And
when he said that, I'm like, that's why he's the
greatest of all time.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
I mean like it reads like, dude, you just hit
a bull's eye, like and he's going yeah, but not
in the center of the bull's eye.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
I had it over here.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
I wanted to be over there, and I'm like, boy,
we're like, okay, great, I hope you do next time
because that throw was unbelievable and just could say I
I'm serious when I say this, like the hail Mary
is it's incredible that it happened. Yeah, those two plays

(39:41):
at the end of the half were equally as unlikely
as happening as one chuck down the field that gets
tipped up in the air to go from third and
eighteen to scoring with one time out from the eighteen
yard line or wherever they were on the forty yard line.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
To even get in a position to do it.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
The odds of that happening or just about as low
as as some chucked up It is, like, it's amazing
what we're witnessing.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Here's here. I'll take you even something that that when
you look at it, I don't know if you've seen
it yet. Yesterday there was a play where they're bringing
artz on a on an over route and Jaden was
about to throw it. He's beating them, he's kind of
getting behind the linebacker, and I think the Giants were

(40:29):
playing cover three, So there was a safety that was
potentially that was coming down that if Jaden had thrown
that football, that safety would have intercepted. He goes and
throw it, pulls it back in, tucks it and runs
for a first down, like I don't know how many
times for him to be at a process that like
he was a bomb throwing like, oh no, I can't

(40:50):
throw it, tucks it back and runs for a first down.
Like for him to see that that safety rotation like yeah,
I'm reading this hook defender. Yeah, I can get it
over here him. But the curl flat defender end up
dropping it. He would have he would have intercepted that
pass if Jada Jada had threw that ball. Just the
decision to not throw that football, that's something that you know,

(41:13):
I know, I recognize, Like, man, that's that's a big
time play too.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Neo from the matrix. He's dodging bullets. It's wild. One
other one, yeah, one other play I gotta bring up
and then we'll move on. The winning play is the
throw to alamade z A Kias, which in real time,
even we were we were surprised at what the Giants

(41:38):
did here. Under three minutes to go. They have all
three of their timeouts, they're down five. They have to
get the ball back. Washington runs the ball for one yard.
They got a second and nine. The Giants don't use
a time out here and they let the clock start
to run. Washington has to run a play before the
two minute warning. But if they're smart, and they were,

(42:00):
they wait till it gets to whatever it was, two
of five, two four, And at this point they've opened
the door for them to do whatever they want here
because even in in completion, the Giants aren't gonna get
an extra stoppage of play. So that's a question for
them to have to answer to their media today. But
the awareness to know that they could do this and

(42:22):
then execute it and pull it off. Another play of
the game.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
Yeah, no, it was the second and nine. It was
the ball was on our like thirty one yard line,
and so I like, I first of all, love the call.
So you get information where you know James and a pistol,
you got, you got Chris Rodriguez line up directly behind him,
You've got your your your two blocking tight ends and

(42:47):
the ball and everything says run. They go play action
pass and the Giants they have to respect that pass play,
but they've runs the key is from a slot and
he runs a deep corner route. It was like a
twenty yard corner route. And even with the Giants trying
to play zone, it's just extremely difficult for a defender

(43:09):
to cover that much spake ground when it happens that
far down the field, where I think the kids. He
ended up catching the ball maybe twenty twenty five yards
down the field. That's a void area, especially against the
cover three defense that the that the Giants did, and
you had you had a guy in the flat, so
you hold up covered, you hold the flat defender, you
run a gold ball I think with Diami the clear coverage,

(43:31):
and then you hit you hit the kids on that
deep corner route. Our standing play, but also from a
clock management standpoint, it was a you know, not a
great moment for the Giants as well, especially when you
had when you had, you know, three timeouts.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
All right, time to give out the belt this week
championship belt was.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Last week's twitter was jayden Right Jane Daniels.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
I think he's put up a case to defend, honestly,
considering the way he played yesterday. He's up against who who.
You got Fouler for two sacks, Dote Fowler.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
Filed I got filled for two sacks. So you know,
so Jada's he's the current champion. You know, you have
to beat the champion in order to you know, take
away the bell. Jada's numbers fifteen for twenty two two
hund nine yards, had two touchdown passes you got also
throwing his rushing yards. Eight rushers for thirty five yards.

(44:29):
That's those are Jada's number in that ball game. As
far as Dante Fowler see what he did, had six
to six total tackles, three solos, two sacks, two tackles
for loss. Obviously the huge force fumble sack force fumble
that we recovered and ended up allowing us to get

(44:49):
our first seven points on the board. Now, Brown, this
is this is a tough decision, man, especially when you
consider how the Giants have been moving to football off
to start that game, to start a game off and
follow recognizing formation, recognizing that play, making that play, forcing

(45:10):
that fullboard an us being able to recover and get
get that seven point lead. The game could would have
been a little bit different if they Giant score that
and that on that possession. With that being said, the
Week nine Commanders Heavyweight champion is and still champion. Jada Dallias,

(45:39):
I knew you, bet, I knew you had to go
this way because once we set up all the magic
things that he did, you can't take the belt away.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
It might be a split decision, It's possibility it's a
split decision between the judges.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
But I'm with you, but two to one, he keeps
the belt.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Or even split decision or draw, he keeps the belt.
He keeps the belt. He keeps the belt. Regardless. To
take the belt from the champion, you have to beat him.
And Dante did some bright things. He it was, it was,
it went, It went to full twelve rounds. But at
the end of the day, Jada keeps his belt. All right.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
One other topic before we get to the Steelers, because
I haven't you know, I saw them on Monday night
and obviously against the Giants to get ready. So but
we're you know, we'll prepare for the Steelers in a moment.
I want you to hear one thing. I want to
play a bite for you from Dan Quinn's press conference
after the game last night on Terry McLaurin, who had
two catches, two touchdowns, the one yard touchdown pass and
then of course the one we talked about a lot
at the end of the half with that throw from

(46:37):
Daniel's catch he made on that side of the end zone,
and Quinn was asked specifically just about McLaurin and his
role on this team as one of the prominent carryovers
from last year is not a lot of them. They
have one of the prominent carryovers. And what he's meant
to the team, and this is what Dan Quinn said
about it.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
He's a real pros pro. And we had somebody talk
to the team yesterday, Bob Myers, and he talked about
some people about their role in winning, and he told
a story about andre Iguodala coming off the bench to
go and whatever was best for the team, and then
in that same season he ended up being a Finals MVP.

(47:20):
But the message I thought that was so strong was
would he say the same things publicly that he would
privately that was best for the team. And when it's
really about winning, that's a really big deal. And that's
what Terry McLaurin is about winning, and he absolutely delivers.
He strains to fight for I love the connection with Jayden,

(47:41):
but I feel his energy, I feel his presence in
the game. Whatever it takes to go. But a number
of different people stepped up today, but Terry's a pros
pro and man are we fortunate we got him. He's
been so much fun to coach.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
So we talked about Bob Myers, architect of the Dynasty,
and Golden State, and he brought up andre Egadala there,
andre Igadala's starr in his own right for years Philadelphia
seventy six ers, became a sixth man for those Warriors
championship teams, and he just described how, you know what,
this guy probably could have played a lot more than

(48:17):
he did, but just did what was best for the team.
Ultimately ended up being an MVP as a sixth man
for the Warriors in one of those championship years. And
I wouldn't describe Terry obviously, he's a six man. He's
a prominent player here as a number one receiver. But
I get what he's talking about where Terry is willing
to put aside, I'll have ten catches a game, fifteen

(48:41):
hundred yard seasons, all for the sake of winning, and
I agree with that. I thought that was a really
well put way to put this and what he means
for this team, because it is what he's about, and
I think it's what Quinn is trying to preach, and
it's why even though he's part of the past, he
is definitively part of what this team's future looks like.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
No, you're absolutely right, and when you have a guy
like Terry who just regardless of the situation, regardless of winning, losing,
losing season, winning season, whatever the case may be, catching
ten passes or is in the case of yesterday, catching
two passes on only three targets. Now he did catching
two touchdowns, but two touchdowns for nineteen two catching for

(49:26):
nineteen yards. I've had, I've been around receivers, especially number
one receivers. They're so selfish, like they only care about
their numbers. They're not about winning. They as long as
they get their numbers. And if we lost, they didn't
they were happy. But if they didn't catch you know,
eight balls or ten balls and we won the game,

(49:49):
they're not happy. They're dissatisfied, they're grumpy, they're you know,
just all their mild content. But when you have a
guy like that, and when Bob Myers talks about what
a guy like Igwadalla meant to the championship runs of
the of the Golden State Warriors, and what he what
all he accompassed, and the winning you know pedigree that

(50:12):
he that even before they became winners, what he brought
and meant to that team, that goes a long way.
And you know, I don't think anybody who's watched Terry
Place since he's been in Washington will say he's not
a winner, regardless of what has happened with the team.
So I'm happy to see him have the type of
success that he's having, you.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Know, I think too.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
You know, it's interesting, like so many people have talked
about they wanted Adam Peters to do this, So they
want Adam Peters to do that, and they just want
them to bring people in. And Dan Quit has talked
about like, we're not here just to acquire talent, and.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Peters has said this too.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
We're here to acquire players that are gonna, you know,
be in our program, be selfless in a lot of ways,
and want to be part of the team to win.
And you're just seeing this over and over, which is
why I think they've maintained this discipline and they've been
reward for it. Like they have a lot of veterans
on this team that kind of came in here. But

(51:04):
Bobby Wagner isn't telling you how great he is. Franky
Luvu isn't telling you how great he is. Dante Fowler's
having this incredible kind of tenth year breakout type of
moment for him, but he's not sitting here crowing about
how grad he is. And we talked about Jayden, who's
sitting there shrugging through the whole thing. And Terry, who
I think has just been waiting for this, waiting for
so long. He wants to win, he wants to win

(51:25):
in this uniform, and he's been waiting for so long
to have the opportunity to do it. And he doesn't
need you to tell him how Grady is along the way.
It's it's really it's magic what's going on here right now?

Speaker 3 (51:36):
No, it is. You know, we didn't we didn't get
a chance to really talk about Bobby Wagner and I
was just you know, just watching him and there was
some plays, some tackles he made. I'm like, man, how
did this guy like you know, avoid this block or
change direction and make this sure tackle. He's he's having
another phenomenal season. We knew he was, you know, going
to be bringing great leadership, but the playmaking ability to

(52:00):
the being that coach on the field and doing all
the different things, but then also going out and having
an impact on the games with his play and his performance.
I think just the culture you talk about Hey, we're
not just acquiring talent. It's about building the team and
building the right team right, building the team with the
right people, you know, whether it's from the from the

(52:20):
front office guys in scouting, to the coaching staff, to
the players, to the support staff, all those things matter
when you're trying to build a win an organization.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, as you kind of look around the NFC, I mean,
Detroit's done this. Detroit is front running in the NFC
for good reason. They have a culture, like they have
the people that they want there that they feel like
they can win with. You can feel that energy from
them that it's really internal and not external. And I
think Washington's at the cutting edge of this for this
franchise because similarly, it's been a while since they've been

(52:54):
a consistent winner. You know, Fortunately they have the history
of having won in the past and having periods time,
which Detroit doesn't have. But there's a similar kind of
thing that's going on here where you saw Detroit do this.
They've now turned into a team that's consistently very good, formidable,
and Washington seems to be maybe a little ahead of
that curve or a little ahead of schedule. But they're

(53:15):
right there in building what they want in this building
to compete hopefully, I mean, let's see where this one goes,
but hopefully annually.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
Now I think you're absolutely right. This is whether it's
ahead of schedule A all schedule depends on you know,
who you ask as far as what the Adam Peters
and Dan Quinn they'll you know, they'll even the player.
They might say, this is where we expected to be.
We knew we were putting together a great team and
and I'm I'm interested to see, you know, are they

(53:45):
gonna is a team gonna do something doing a trade
down line? When you look at, hey, where we are
seven or two, and look at the NFC as a
whole and say, okay, it's hard not to say we're
not one of the top teams in the NFC, top
top two to three teams in the NFC, and say,
all right, who are the potential teams we can face

(54:06):
in the playoff game or in an NFC championship, Well,
how do we stack up against them? And I'm sure
they are and said, okay, what would we need to
add to these pieces to our current situation in order
to ensure or give ourselves the best chance to beat
this team. Whoever these teams might be in the playoffs,
so I'm sure they're I want to see if we

(54:27):
decide to do something. If they don't, I trust them
because hell, based on what they've shown and what they've
done again, they're only going to acquire the right people. Yeah. Yeah,
it's a lot of talented players out there, but if
it's not the right player and the right one for
that team, that locker room, that culture, then they're not
gonna bring them in. And I'm fine with that.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Interesting as we end today, we're taking on a team
that's had a really good culture for a long time.
Mike Tomlin, very stable organization. Mike Tomlin has never had
an under five hundred record. They're trending that way again.
Heck of a test this week Pittsburgh coming off a bye.
I don't know how much you've seen to the Steelers
so far, but what are your expectations. I mean, it's

(55:09):
early in the week, but what are your expectations facing
Pittsburgh this weekend.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
It's been tough, it'll be a tough matchup, but I
think it'll be a great game. And you know, the
way we're playing, We're playing with great confidence. I think
buys can be a little bit overrated, you know, in
terms of teams having a little bit more rest. Yeah,
it'll if they had some guys who were banged up
and potentially would have been iffy for the ball game
if they had to play us, you know, coming off

(55:34):
a game, but having that extra kind of a few
days of rest. I don't even know what buys now,
you know, it's kind of midway through the season. Not
sure what what Mike Thomlin opted to do. Did they
practice two days last week and then gave the guys
extra a couple of days off, or did they come
in early. Maybe they'll have one more extra day of

(55:55):
practice for us in preparation for Monday's game. But sometimes
you can also overthink and overdo things doing the buy
because you have so much time coaches, coaches can end
up watching a lot more of them than they normally would,
you know, during the during the week the Bears, I think.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
The Bears did. I think the Bears did when they
came into whatever they were running on offensive, The first
f kept backfiring over and over, and it felt like
some kind of wrinkle that they weren't prepared to actually
put on the field, and it was to the commander's benefit, honestly.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
Yeah, And one thing about the Pittsburgh Steelers, they're extremely
well coached. That defense is gonna be They got a
couple of problem guys on that defense with with obviously T. J. Watt,
and they got another edge rusher, I Smith. He really
gets out of quarterback. And you know they got they
got really good linebackers. They got a good corner Jordy Port,

(56:47):
Joey Porter Junior. So it'll be a challenge. It'll be
a good thing, good challenge. But I know what thing,
We're gonna be ready to play and they better they
they've be ready to play too, So it'll be a
hell of a football game.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Yeah, it's actually I think Pittsburgh secondary is probably better
than New York's. But there's a lot of similarities actually
between these teams. Really good pass rushing front, very disruptive
front that they're gonna have to deal with, very good
running backs, good two headed monster run game, and a
quarterback who at times might give the ball away. And
they're not scoring a lot of points. There are some

(57:20):
similarities to the type of opponent that they're facing. Albeit
I think Pittsburgh's back end of their defense is better
on the whole, has a better defense, but I think
offensively similar similar thought process probably for dan Quinn Joe
Witt with how do we handle explosive receivers knowing that
this is a tough run game that they're going to

(57:42):
have to deal with this weekend.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Yeah, no, it's all It'll be a great kind of
week of preparation. That's the beauty of this game.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
Man.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
You know, every week presents as new, it's all new challenges.
That's the thing I like, guys, I'm off to ask
what do I miss most about the game of football?
And quite brown, I missed the the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
you know Saturday leading up the game, where I'm sitting
there and there, you know, watching film, grinding the film
out and trying to okay, develop, seeing how this team

(58:13):
is going to attack us, how we're gonna attack them,
you know, putting yourself in a different play calls, and
each week, okay, this week we might have this challenge.
We're about to stop this type of offense. This maybe
it's a receiver that we got to deal with a
tight end. And then this next week, okay, they got
a Derek Henry we gotta deal with. They got it,
you know whoever the case may be, you name it,

(58:33):
and it's the running game or it's a running quarterback.
So it's that's the beauty of this game. Each week,
each game presents it all different challenges and situations. And
I know they're looking forward to this, this this type
of game, and I'm looking forward to callings that with you.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Yeah four knowing home.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
You can't wait to ste when we get the Sunday
against the Steelers. All Right, that'll do it for this
edition of The Booth Review.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
We'll see it next week.