November 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Future Hall of Fame Linebacker London Fletcher is joined by 10-Year NFL Tight End Logan Paulsen and Bram Weinstein to give instant reactions to the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions week 10 clash! Hosts: London Fletcher, Logan Paulsen, Bram Weinstein Producer: Jason Johnson Get Your Commanders Tickets Here: https://bit.ly/4jfZA45 The views and opinions expressed by our analysts and/or hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Washington Commanders or any of their representatives.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming up on the Booth Review from the stadium. That
was not pretty of what happened on that field behind us.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Not at all, man, But you gotta figure this thing out, man,
and figure it out before we go to Spain.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome into the latest edition of the Booth Review podcast
Ibram Weinstein with London Fletcher Logan Paulson. We are presented
by Microsoft co Pilot plus PC and we are not
in the Big Bear AI Command Center studio because we
are still at Northwest Stadium right after the Commander's lost
to the Lions. We can't do it in the studio
because we're flying to Spain this week. So this is
more of an instant reaction than it is really a review. Obviously,
(00:37):
we haven't reviewed the film yet.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's not gonna be pretty, though, Nah, it's not gonna
be pretty, especially when you look at the defensive side
of the ball.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Detroit.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
They were able to do whatever they wanted, whether it
was running a football, passing the passing the ball. I
got explosive plays in the past game and a run game,
and I thought we'd have a game plan device where
we'd be able to take away something we didn't stop
to run, and that opened up so many different things
in the past a game, whether his plays should pass
with just deep shots down the.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Field, Yeah, I mean I agree.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
I think that's the thing is, like, there are things
to be optimistic about. Offensively, I think one of the
things that I was concerned about is like, how do
you win versus man coverage? How do you run the football?
How do you maximize personnel versus man coverage? And I
thought it was cool to see Cliff kind of understand
the tests and then kind of put the guys in
the best position to be successful. And now was it
(01:27):
amazing the best offensive all time?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
No?
Speaker 5 (01:29):
But did it under did understand its restrictions and how
to insulate them? And I'd insulate a quarterback, I thought, yes.
I think defensively that's the area that yes, there's not
there's not a lot of room for anything optimistic. And again,
like I'm a very positive person. But the thing is
is like you came in and say, can we stop
the run? No, it leads to all of these kind
(01:50):
of explosive plays down the field. We're still misfitting runs.
Like those things that have kind of been lingering in
the last couple of weeks are still at the forefront
and it's just incredibly fresh. And to put another to
put a caveat on that, I think it's important to
acknowledge all the injuries that they suffered in this game.
People getting injected. You know, it's not easy. But like
I think you saw kind of a version of the
(02:11):
offense's ability to him right.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, the offense is I was pleased with what the
offense was able to do. One thing, the thing that
I really enjoyed was I talked about last week we
did booth few.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I talked about getting four tight ends satsin. Yeah, we
were running the football. We'll even get into four tight ends.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
We had three tight end three at the start of the.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Game, we had we had three tight ends and Deebo Savvy,
who's another physical guy we committed to the run, has
some tests running football, and then we were able to,
you know, do some things beating man and man coverage
and things like that. And guys made plays too. But defensively,
you know who Detroit is. You know what they want
to do. You got Jamior Gibbs, you got you got Montgomery.
(02:53):
Their offense starts with being able to stop those guys
at their run games. So how do you stop them?
You got to get in a tration and yes, we're
we're hamstrung from a personnel standpoint. So now you try
to try to figure out, do we do some lives stuffs,
do we do some run blistered? Do we do some
different things to try to get penetration and gets cause disruptions,
(03:13):
forced them to miss some blocks, things like that, And
although we haven't had opportunity to review the FAM, I
just didn't see a whole lot of that in this
ball game.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Yeah, And I think the other thing too, is like
part of me I want to be frustrated, but I'm
also like you know, Deron Pain's usually a big part
of those absolutely and movements, and when he's not in there,
like you know, the past couple weeks, like ken Law
has been playing end ors on Newton's playing end Now
all of a sudden, you take them out of those roles,
you move them back to the interior because Doron's not there,
And that might have had a ripple effect throughout not
just the defensive line, but the entire defensive game plan.
(03:43):
And that's all speculation, but I do think it's important
to acknowledge how we will.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Tell you it did happen on the third touchdown drive?
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So, but so like how many points they score, Bram
they scored forty points, right, So this is a long
football game. We're looking for things to be optimistic about, right,
And so what I would say here too is that
like maybe they're able to find something when there's a
the leader of your defense is still on the field.
Quite frankly, and I'm not saying he's the cog that
makes it deserves the drink.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Now he's been He's been the most consistent player from
a defense standpoint, and we can you know, I think
there was a frustration that voted that kind of bubbed
up with Dry whether it was a Amara Saint Brown
threw a punch of him before or not, but Durd,
he's been in the league long enough to know you
can't do that, And I think I think it's a
(04:28):
culmination just frustration getting getting the best of it. He's
he's a powerful guy. He's not happy with the way
the defense has played over the last five weeks. But still,
you got it. You gotta figure out ways to stop
stop the offense.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So I'm gonna read the numbers and really striking the
team gave up five hundred and forty six total yards.
That was a season worst. They've given up over four
hundred in each of the last four games, and frankly,
Detroit just was running out the clock for the last
seven eight minutes of the game. Jared Goff twenty five
to thirty three, three twenty three touchdowns, was not sacked.
Jamiir Gibbs fifteen for one, two touchdowns, nine point five
(05:03):
a carry. David Montgomery fifteen for seventy one, which sounds okay,
but that's almost five yards of carry. Javis and Williams
six for one, nineteen to touchdown, nineteen yards a catch.
I'm in Ross Saint Brown eleven yards to catch, five
forty eight a touchdown. Sam Laporta five for fifty three.
I think, to your point, who did they take away?
And this has been a recurring theme if you go
look at the Dallas game, or the Chiefs game, or
(05:25):
this game, or the Seattle game for that matter, who
did they actually take away during.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yet based on a number, since you just ran off
nobody again, I know I've been on some teams where
we've had personnel issues where you're kind of half strong,
you kind of handcuffed so to speak. It's like, Okay,
we don't like our corner situation, so we gotta protect
them a little bit with the calls, or we don't
(05:52):
necessarily like our defensive front or how our billy this
stopped a Russ, So we gotta, you know, maybe scheme
up some some negative yardish plays. And that's the challenge
that you're faced with as a defensive staff trying to
just you I mean, you turn over every storm to
figure out how can we get these fires put out?
We got to put out some type of fire because
(06:13):
if we don't, if you got all kind of fires
going on all over the place, I mean you plug
all here, you got two more holes over there. We
never plugged any holes, never put out any fire. So
you're just getting engulfed by flames and golf by water
or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The dam has broken and they're just doing whatever they
want to you.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Yeah, it felt overwhelming like watching it, you know, like
there was a kind of Dan Campbell I like watching offenses,
and he just was in a perfect rhythm, you know,
like we're gonna run. We're in fourth and six, We're
gonna run a boot or a play action. Here's a
first down off of seventeen yard chunk and you just
weren't able to upset. It wasn't even taking anything. Wait,
you weren't able to upset any kind of rhythm offensively.
(06:53):
And when you look at even defenses that have struggled
that we've covered here in the past, they're able to
get you to third and eight, and they're able to
at you into a pun right or able to hold
you to a field goal. And like you said, like
they scored three touchdowns, like right out of the gate,
you know, and there are some things again that the
offense can do to support them. But in this environment,
like we need to play complimentary football. You need to
be able to find a way.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
You're gonna have to match them score for scoring and.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
To get off the field at some point.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
And I look at you know, last year, what made
us so effective is that we were able to kind
of offensively possess the football, insulate the defense. But we're
the offense is banged up, right, we got a backup quarterback,
we got guys that were not with teams a couple
of weeks ago, and so you'd like to think that
the defense could bring more to the party and I
think that's the thing that's just so's it's just sad,
(07:38):
it's disappointing.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Again, you'll you'll continue to look and say, we still
got seven ball games left in the season, so.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We gotta figure out something. You got to figure out something.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We're getting ready to play a Dolphins team that beat
the Buffalo Bills, who many thought was, you know, one
of the teams is going to potentially represent the asca
and the Super Bowl. But as you look at our
team offensively, the one thing that they'll probably say they
wish they had done better, it's the third down offense.
Just two for ten and they had to end up
converting them two out of two and fourth downs. But
(08:12):
maybe if we're able to convert some of those third downs,
now you're able to possess the ball longer, you're able
to get more scores, and the marginal era is so small.
And again, I thought the offense did a really good job.
I thought maryo To played a really good ball game.
They got two sacks against them, and those were when
they brought pressure. But it still is a situation from
(08:36):
a defensive standpoint, you can't allow them to continue to
just march up and down the field against you without
ever getting out of rhythm, never getting them behind the sticks,
so to speak, putting them in some some third and
long situations, or or a fourth and you know five
where there maybe Dan Campbell's not opting to go for it.
If fourth and one, he's gonna go for it. But
(08:56):
Fourthune fourth Une five, He was like, man, but what's
set a full field goal here? Istead kicked goal for Yeah, Brann.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
When I think about the first offensive drive, the first
offensive possession and it's three and out and just how
I was like, oh, well, I have a thought that
the game's over, you know what I mean? Like that's
kind of where we're at in terms of what the
defense is capable of doing. And like Fletch, she said,
like these are professionals, these are good coaches or smart guys.
They just got to kind of keep turning over rocks
until something sticks and they find something that this defense
(09:24):
can do well. And you mentioned taking something away, right,
let's start with just sure we take the runaway, right.
We've talked about fitting runs and there were still some
issues there. So yeah, man, it's just when looking at
the defense, it feels like a like a mountain that
needs to be climbed, like there isn't like a simple
Oh if they do this and they switch this, and
they play this coverage or they bring this pressure, it's
(09:45):
like there doesn't seem to be a clear solution.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, and then you look at the fact we lost
aments in this ball game, lost Jonathan Jonesen's ball game.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah, already with Don Marsha and Lattimore.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
So it's it's so many days we continue to just
get ravaged by injuries and we already tested on dron
Payne being ejected from his ball game. So it puts
a lot of pressure on you from a defense standpoint
and as a play caller.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Like just looking forward, let me ask you this, because
they need some solutions to be better than it's been.
It doesn't have to be a top five defot it's
got to be it can't be this right, it can't
be this moving forward.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Yeah, you're trying to generate a pass rush.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Where do you look What would you look at and
say this is how we can potentially generate a pass rush.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
The first thing I would look at personally is down
in distance, like can you get into a third and
seven plus situation? Where I do think when you look
at times that this year when you go back and
just watch a cutup of third and seven plus Joe
Wood Junior has done a good job of creating pressure
in those situations because they're obvious passing situation rights, right,
we can blitz, we can do some things when you're
(10:48):
in a third and three or a third and two,
a third and one, all of that exotic pressure that
you've spent all off season developing, because that's where third
downs are one of those exotic pre pressure packages. You
can't utilize them, right. And so I just gonna go
back to the rhythm of the Detroit offense the other
night or tonight and say to myself, like, there is there.
I know they have clubs in the bag for those moments. Yeah,
(11:10):
I know they do have seen it. We just don't
get to see them. Because the game of the the
flow of the offense is so.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
The stars would being able to win first and second downs.
And if you're allowing the running back and get seven
yards on a first down carry, it's gonna be hard
you already even if you don't gain a yard on
second Now you're at third and three and it's hard
to rest the passer.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
You're like, what were the yards for the backs? I
mean like that you just run off like they were
very high.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
It was over two hundred yards rushing between Montgomery and Gibbs,
and one was almost five yards of carry and the
other was around nine.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
So mean so cut them in half and as seven
yards of carry, you're hit second and seven. But I
will say this, you have the ability to also bring
pressure on the other downs first and second down, which
they've done took to say can we be disruptive? You
look at some of the teams and there's teams that'll
(12:06):
blitch you first, second, third down just to kind of say, hey,
we're gonna we haven't shown this in the past, but
this is a change up. This is kind of a
curve ball, and we're gonna throw at you and see,
can we steal a down? Can we still a play?
Can we can't create a turnover? Can we cause a
little bit of indecisiveness? And it's not even necessarily We're
gonna bring the pressure with a show pressure. Yeah, And
(12:28):
can we get you to break down your protection, get
a free runner? Stuff like that, because right now we're
not having enough success just winning one on one matchups.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
In the pass rush.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah, and I think about like teams that have done
that to us, like the Dallas Cowboys. They did a
great job bringing a ton of first down pressure, and
we at times this year have done versions of that.
I think about again, I go back to that Chargers game.
Brought a ton of like dog pressures where we're stunt
in the line, and so obviously that's something that they
have in the bag and something they can do. And
I think for whatever reason, maybe it's the most weapons
(13:00):
of the Detroit offense they felt uncomfortable. Do you.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I would say this, maybe when you're running the offense
like Detroit where you got a lot of the outside
zone plays, and you can you can help me with
this because you've you're running that system so much. If
you have pressure and you're stunning, and say I was
supposed to go from the B gap to the A
gap and I'm running that stunt and I go from
the B gap and I end up in the.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Backside A gap.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Now you you're you're two gaps behind from a defensive
line standpoint, and you're you're almost blocking yourself, so to speak.
So maybe that was a situation where they don't they
didn't feel comfortable because they run so much zone type.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Of run schemes like to have those stunts.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So that's that's one of the things that you may
look at from a defensive standpoint because you're like, Okay,
if we run these these line stunts that we bring
a linebacker extra guy off the edge, we run the
risk of maybe getting reached two gaps instead of getting
gapped out.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
It's it's true because I guess like when you look
at the chargers, this is a point of comparison their
gaps to keep running right, so like it's much more
effective in those situations. And again when you're running these
stunts and outside zone, like I remember, you know Mike
and kyleiect we love it when they run stunts because
they'll reach themselves. And at points this year you've seen
you know, guys on the defensive interier get reached out
of gaps, like getting double gapped out, and so maybe
(14:20):
that is something that they're concerned about now. And again
it goes back to the original point brand that you
brought up, where it's like, what what is at their
disposal that they feel comfortable with, Because if we run
line suns for not in our right gaps. Right, if
we don't bring line suns, we don't create enough disruption
to get negative plays. If we can, we can't play
man covers this play zone, we can't get a pass rush.
So it just it just feels like they're gonna have
(14:43):
to keep looking. I think I have to.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Keep looking in and just continue to work. We got
another ball game, but Miamis, we haven't had a chance
to look at them yet. But just looking at the
score of what they were able to do against a
really good Buffalo Bill's team, and they got some weapons
on their football team, some guys that can make plays.
But you have to continue to search and I mean
(15:05):
you and Barton Midnight Oil trying to figure this thing out.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Well, I mean, look at don't look at their record.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Tua tungu vi Loo was among the leading passers for
the last couple of years. Jalen Waddle is a number
one wide receiver, David A. Chan is as fast as
anybody in the NFL. Like, it's not like they're gonna
walk into and just because this team has a bad
record that you're gonna walk into a week opponent, you're not.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
And it's also the NFL. You never walk into a
week opponent.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
And it's funny, like I had to do. We have
to do a film breakdown show, so I had to
get that ready because we're going to Spain.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I had to get that ready this week. So I
had to watch a little.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Bit of Miami Dolphins and talk about runs and blitzes
defensively that are going to challenge rules and challenge I discipline,
like their ability to get in weird backfield sets and
bring this guy here, motion, this guy here, the ball
handling of toua like it's going to challenge your eye discipline.
And talk about a perimeter run team. I think there
may be second in terms of perimeter runs in the
(15:55):
NFL behind the Detroit Lions. So you're gonna see prim
runs with Devin ah Chan who's really fast the perimeter.
You got Wattle with speed up the seam, like they're
gonna hit that. You know that drift route that the
Detroit Lions ran, They're gonna run the absolute dog out
of that. And then defensively, I think they you can
move the ball on them, but it's can you get
any type of block from the defense that kind of
(16:16):
slow them down.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I just happen to take a look at what the
the Dolphins get against the Bills. They ran for one
hundred and ninety seven yards on thirty two carries, and
David Ah Devin h Cham twenty two carries one hundred
and seventy four yards yards like.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
He's blowsive fast.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
He's like the closest back to Gibbs you're gonna find
in the NFL.
Speaker 6 (16:37):
And so it's probably not as big.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
He's not as big. He's faster.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
He might be faster, might be faster, faster.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The underrated part of Gibbs is their strength that goes
along with the speed. You know, when he gets the outside.
You saw what happen tonight. When he gets the outside,
he's gone. But he could fight for the extra yardage too.
He's kind of a unique a unique player, you know,
with with Washington too.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
I mean, at this.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Points, so they've said we you know, tried to correct
communication issues across the group turned into extended walkthroughs to
Joe whitt leaves the box goes on the field to
try to help clear this up in your experience, what's
the next step because something has to come now because
it clearly did not help enough.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I mean Detroit, you've had to actually walk to You
just got to continue to grind at it. I think
you got to grind at at a full speed mat
matter too, and I'm sure they're going they they mentioned
have a more competitive prict, competitive segment and practice good
on good, but you just have to continue to work
at it.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mean, I liked I like to added walk throughs.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Players have to also do some things where they's watching film,
especially in the past game, just with the linebackers and
the secondary make sure we're on the same pace because
we work in tandem so much when it comes to
the coverage aspect, and then really take a deep dig
you might even want to do put it together. I
don't know, thirty clips of your plays. You're not even
(18:03):
just your explosive plays. You're giving up was a third
and five situation and you've given up those things just.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
To ridiator ray.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Is there a common theme that's happening and these uh,
these plays, is it, Hey, we can play this a
little bit tighter, we can play these things a little
bit better. So just really trying to figure those things
out because offenses are going to continue to do the
same things over and over and over again.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yeah, and I think that I would just piggyback off
of what Fletch is saying. Like, I know, as a
player personally, when I was struggling, the only thing that
I knew how to do was to put more time
into it, invests more focus on it. So like, and
I do think there is an element we want to
look to the schematic things that they did tonight, but
also like sometimes defensively and offensively, you just got to
(18:48):
go out and win a gap, you know what I'm saying,
Just win your gap, hold your gap. What's my leverage,
where's my where's my eyes being? I think there needs
to be and I think this team does have this,
you know, personal accountability as a player. And after a
performance like this, or after a couple of performances like this,
like I know, you know, like the scheme whatever, but
like as a player, you got to say, like me,
(19:09):
what can I do to improve this? Because again, like
if I'm studying extra film and I'm talking looks and
we're you know, I'm looking to my teammates and saying
trying to bring people along, like maybe we get out
of this just by outworking the problem. And I think
that's what Flutch's getting out. And again that's been my
experience as a player too, when it gets really dark,
like you just got to keep walking until it gets
(19:29):
sunny outside.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I look at it like this, Let's make teams earn
whatever they're getting against us.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
If they earn it and.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
They beat us, you tip your cap off to us.
Hey man, got just beat me on this play. They've
they won their one on one match up, but there's
too many times where we've given them things. We've allowed
them to have these explosives by not having a proper
levage or maybe misfitting the gap, things like that.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Let's not give them anything. Let's make them earn everything. Guinea.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, that side of the ball's been rough and it's
hard to come up with positives. Right the other side
of the ball, there is a lot that really stands
out that you know. I think they're at a rough
spot because the defense, especially the last couple of weeks,
literally can't get a stop and the scores are happening
fast but offensively. Marcus Mariota again, every time he starts
(20:23):
this offense works for him. He's extremely comfortable in it
and he operates really effectively in it.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think Marcus is like ven a
bright spot. But also I think if you're again, we're
gonna give the offense our flowers here in a second.
But I do think, like the offense, can we, like
you said, can we better be better on third down?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Can we possess the football?
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Can we try to alleviate some of this like avalanche
slide that we're feeling on the defense. But that being said,
I do think there's some things that Marcus did really well.
I like what Clift did, Schematically mentioned that. Also, I
like the emergence of trailing Burk's It was great to
see him in an offense where you're lacking kind of
this vertical horsepower to him to win some stuff down
the field, make them to contested catches, Debo with that
(21:02):
great one handed catch. Like people making plays in the offense,
and I just wish we could have seen more of it,
And I think I think I wish that it would
have been in a more relevant game, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
What I mean?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, absolutely, that's that's you mentioned guys making plays, and
there were some guys that went out and made plays
for Marcus Mariota. I thought the coming out with the
three tight ends worked. Really, Hey, really, we got to
be able to run the football.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Some different runs too, Like they didn't come out and
run kind of the same stuff. They they there was
a conscious effort to overhaul what we're doing, slow the
game down offensively, find these explosive like there was. The
thought process was clear and it was effective. It was
cool to see, and it's just unfortunate that they they're
a little short handed still.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
They still, yes, a little shorthanded. But but like you said, Brown,
every time Marcus has has been the starter.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yes, and he's had the yea.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
All the week, all the all the work during the
week with the wance he's gone on and he's playing
well enough.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
Yeah, they has.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
And two of the receivers to your point about where
they're finding these spots, they've been here three weeks. Robbie Chosen,
Trailer Burkes Burks I think was the leading receiver. If
I remember right, he had a like he's putting it
in the right place. Chosen could have had a touchdown
in that corner right down there if it wasn't for
(22:23):
a good maybe miss call.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
But good defensive play.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
But it was perfectly thrown ball right to a guy
who's probably practiced with three, four or five times. That's it,
you know, Like so it is like they've been dealt
a really odd hand from day one. They've never practiced together.
The quarterback's been hurt three times. Terry McLaurin and Noah
Brown have been limited to barely existent participants throughout the
(22:48):
entire course of the entire thing. And they're still finding
ways to put twenty plus points on the board and
have still going into this a top five rush offense
and found ways to make explosive plays with Jalen Lane,
Trailer Burke and could have had one with Chosen.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
They're figuring it out.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
They are figuring out, and again, like that's what you're
encouraged by, like all the things that I was concerned about.
It's like how you're gonna beat man coverage, We're gonna
get in contense formations, We're gonna have some play action shots.
Great job by Marcus on that quarters read where they're
running the dig he cuts it awesome to jail and
like really like like you're talking about just a guy
that can manage the offense. I think the only thing
that I would be even a little bit critical of
(23:26):
is just the third down efficiency. And the only reason
we're even talking about that is because the defense is
struggling stuff. Right, It's like, you know what I'm saying,
it's just can we can? You like, as an offensive player,
always like is there anything we can do to year?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It was like when we had the first field goal
that we had to settle for, we had a third
and ten. Yeah, moving to football, we get the false star.
False star put is in third and fifteen, and we
got eight yards. But now you are looking at fourth
and seven as opposed to you get that same eight yards.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
How you have fourth and two.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You're not gonna go forward and fourth to seven and
you haven't scored it to any points yet, but fourth
and two, yeah, he probably don't go forward situation.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And I think you should.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
I think one of the things like that, you know,
was so helpful last year, and we talked about this
in the pregame show, was the ability to convert on
at a high fourth down per centage last year. So
can we get sixty percent of that? And I think
some of these offensive possessions will kind of flip in
our favor and we'll be in a good spot.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So on the run game, they did stick to it
despite what was going on today, twenty seven carries ninety
three yards. That's only three point four a carry, So
there's been a there's been a change with that, and
I attribute a lot of that to all the fluidity
on the outside that the personnel changes out there are
going to alter the way a defense is going to
(24:37):
look and be threatened by this offense. But the team
has talked about that they want to get better producing
in their run game, and I thought the run game
wasn't bad today, but it's not doing what they wanted
to do. So what do you say about there?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Yeah, I have to go back and watch the film
for the run game specifically, but I think you're seeing
today what I felt is you've I felt the run
name that did a good job, especially when Sea rods
in there, of just keeping you on schedule. We're not
taking negative runs or neutral runs. And people say I
was at a big deal. It's a huge deal because
third and seven is a or second and seven is
a functional down and distance for the offense. We still
(25:10):
got a quick game, we got keepers, we got everything's
on the table right And is that a great run?
Not necessarily, but I do think that efficiency you feel
that when he's in there, and so I think you
got nick today, right, is that?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
He end up, Yes he did. You know, they didn't
mention what it was, but I don't catch the interest.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
So that's something that is a little concerning to me
because I think Bill Crossey Merrit's done a really nice job,
but I think he's better in that supplemental role. So
like again getting Sea Rob, maybe McNichols gets some more touches.
I thought he ran the ball well tonight. It's just
that that efficiency I think is so so important.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Yeah, Bill has this explosive.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Shoulder, Jason saying it was a shoulder.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Bill has the explosive element to him. He's exciting to watch.
I think when they were talking last week about not
taking interesting give them a little bit, I think they
were kind of nodding to him a little bit times
where they.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
It was it was blocked.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, if he just follows his blockers, he'll probably get five, six,
even seven or eight yards with his But he has
such great vision. He may see a defensive tackle pop
a block and he's like, oh shoot, I can go
out the back door, not realizing he got a safety
rotating Now, so the minute he goes out the back door,
(26:21):
he's getting a two yard game. But if you would
have stayed front side, he probably would have got an
eight yard carrier.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
And he's a young back, and so I thought today
he stuck with it.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
The point about what I why it wasn't four or
five yards per carry. It was the volume of RUSS
that it keeps the defense having to respect you in
terms of, hey, they will run the football against us,
and now you're able to get a play action pass
for forty one yards to Jalen laying down the field.
So just the simple fact that you stuck with it
(26:54):
and we stuck with it, it makes a difference.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
And when you bring all those bodies in, people think, oh,
that's how you run the football. It does get because
there's just more run players there. The corners are closer,
the safeties are closer, and it helps with some of
the passing game. But I do think that's leading to
some of these rushing numbers that are a little bit
less efficient than we have.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, and on some of the bigger shots where the
ball is going where it looked like it should be,
some of them were being hit the Laane Catch was outstanding.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
A great job by him, right, Like, great to see
that from you.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
Great's him the Burks plays.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Cliff said something else earlier in the week that really
kind of stuck out to me heading into this game,
and kind of I saw it tonight where he said,
you know, all of these guys, they most of them
either weren't here or weren't in these roles, and we're
now three four weeks into them being in them.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, So suddenly like they had a preseason and now
they're being asked to fill these roles and there's just
a comfort level that feels different, and I think you
saw a little bit of that. It gets lost in
what the score is, in how you know the defense
was incapable of getting any kind of stop whatsoever, But
there was a lot of that feeling to me that
(27:57):
there was a control to this, even though you might
not have been accustomed to the people that were running
all these plays.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Do you think that that's something that the defense could
get like kind of three weeks of consistent personnel to
get them back on track, because like even tonight, like
the two starting corners are out, Marshaun's out here on
you know, what I mean is that maybe something we
could expect to see from them, like because again, like
you feel it with the offense, I as the guys
have been in their roles longer, the production has gotten better.
Even with the offensive line and cosmic getting in there,
(28:22):
you feel that continuity just a little bit better. I
don't know, is it something with the defense.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
It can't happen like that, but again you mentioned it,
like the guys have to play more than one week together,
you know, you got to.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Have the same safety.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
You got to have the same corners, same linebackers, especially
when you're talking about fitting up combination routes covering different things.
The communication, knowing how a guy like if I'm working
with Logan all the time against a certain stack formation
and him and I have done this a hundred times,
we know, without even saying anything to each other, how
(28:57):
we're gonna both play it. But if we got three
reps gets his play, we're not. We don't know what
each other is gonna do. And also from a run
fit standpoint, a lot of times those corners they're part
of the run fit and also the safety. So knowing
that hey, my safety, he may be lined up twelve
yards deep and I don't feel him, but I know
(29:19):
he's gonna be coming and I can trust him to
fit where he's supposed to fit when the ball is snap.
But if I don't, if I'm not sure, is he
gonna stay back or whatever. So now I'm trying to
do my job in do his job. Yeah, and that's
how you get to get big.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I mean, it feels like on offense they're figuring it
out and maybe it's taking some time because there's new
parts and they're asked to do different roles that it's
starting to come together to whatever degree it can. On
the other side of the ball, the larger question is
our guy's not making plays. Are they not put in
the position to make the plays that they need to make?
Is it a combination of both? And that's the what
(29:53):
we're talking about, like the dam opened up and everything
fell apart, Because it doesn't feel like that, like we're
on the same page.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
I think it's probably, you know, like all things, it's
probably a combination.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
Of everything, combination of everything.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Scheme again, and when it's as as difficult to watch
as it was the last couple of weeks, it's got
to be a version of that right. It's a little
bit of the players, a little bit of coaching, a
little bit, the scheme a little bit, the reps a
little bit, the injuries and when you put that all
on a big messy plot like you've.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, when you're on defensive end number four, there's like
a reasonable you know, I think there's a reasonable thing
to get to look at and go, well, that's going
to be a deficiency.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
However, one void in one spot should not mean four
hundred plus yards five hundred plus yards and team never punting,
never getting get turnover, never get to get sack like that.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
I just believe it starts with the inability to stop
to run. Yeah, and we just didn't have enough disruption
against this. Uh, I guess their run game, not enough
negative artist players, not enough penetration and losing pay, not
having defensive ads that you've brought in to stop the
(31:04):
raw set those hard edges. So you're running his outside
zone and you got to Dietrich wise out there setting
a hard edge. Now the run is no longer stretching you. Why,
so he's holding it, constricting everything and restricting everything. And
now you've got linebackers and everybody trying to getting down
heel and things like that.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
And that's such a good point.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
And I know we're getting ready to rap, but like
you know, you got kin Law and Gerson who are
more penetrating ends. And when you're penetrating in an outside
zone with a ton of stretch, it creates vertical creases, right,
And so imagine if if Dietrich was here, if Dorns
was here, if these guys that we're talking about are
here and they penetrate and now all of a sudden,
those are tackles for loss as opposed to it just
(31:44):
and and every team is negotiating injuries, so we're not
making excuses. But it is something that you I empathize
with Joe Witt because he's having to overcome a lot
and the players are having to overcome a lot right
now to get it right, and hopefully they get it
right all right.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Last thing, what are you looking forward to in Spain?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
The most I'm looking hang out with you? How are
we going to a museum or someone?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Do we definitely go to a museum. My wife is
brought well, you're not gonna like this part. My wife
has brought up flamenco dancing a.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Lot I think we're doing it. I think I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Are you talking to nine and a couple of guys.
We're gonna, uh, we're gonna do some flamenco dance.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
You are for the show? You want to come?
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Yeah, I'll say this.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, Winstein, here's something you guys didn't know about me.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
You're a good dancer.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
No, no, no, I love ur.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
And the mere fact that you two were talking about
going to look at art without me, I'm kind of
a Finch show.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
Let's go. When we were in l A, I went
to the broad that was Renaissance man.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's talk. Go to the museum. Yeah,
with the museum time overview.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
I'm not working when I'm at the art museum. I'm
doing it. I'm going to enjoy the art. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
I'm looking forward to Spain. We'll do this again, I
think in Madrid right after the game. I guess you
know we're doing Yeah, we will, So we'll do that,
all right, see it then,
Coming up on the Booth Review from the stadium. That
was not pretty of what happened on that field behind us.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Not at all, man, But you gotta figure this thing out, man,
and figure it out before we go to Spain.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome into the latest edition of the Booth Review podcast
Ibram Weinstein with London Fletcher Logan Paulson. We are presented
by Microsoft co Pilot plus PC and we are not
in the Big Bear AI Command Center studio because we
are still at Northwest Stadium right after the Commander's lost
to the Lions. We can't do it in the studio
because we're flying to Spain this week. So this is
more of an instant reaction than it is really a review. Obviously,
(00:37):
we haven't reviewed the film yet.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's not gonna be pretty, though, Nah, it's not gonna
be pretty, especially when you look at the defensive side
of the ball.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Detroit.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
They were able to do whatever they wanted, whether it
was running a football, passing the passing the ball. I
got explosive plays in the past game and a run game,
and I thought we'd have a game plan device where
we'd be able to take away something we didn't stop
to run, and that opened up so many different things
in the past a game, whether his plays should pass
with just deep shots down the.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Field, Yeah, I mean I agree.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
I think that's the thing is, like, there are things
to be optimistic about. Offensively, I think one of the
things that I was concerned about is like, how do
you win versus man coverage? How do you run the football?
How do you maximize personnel versus man coverage? And I
thought it was cool to see Cliff kind of understand
the tests and then kind of put the guys in
the best position to be successful. And now was it
(01:27):
amazing the best offensive all time?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
No?
Speaker 5 (01:29):
But did it under did understand its restrictions and how
to insulate them? And I'd insulate a quarterback, I thought, yes.
I think defensively that's the area that yes, there's not
there's not a lot of room for anything optimistic. And again,
like I'm a very positive person. But the thing is
is like you came in and say, can we stop
the run? No, it leads to all of these kind
(01:50):
of explosive plays down the field. We're still misfitting runs.
Like those things that have kind of been lingering in
the last couple of weeks are still at the forefront
and it's just incredibly fresh. And to put another to
put a caveat on that, I think it's important to
acknowledge all the injuries that they suffered in this game.
People getting injected. You know, it's not easy. But like
I think you saw kind of a version of the
(02:11):
offense's ability to him right.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, the offense is I was pleased with what the
offense was able to do. One thing, the thing that
I really enjoyed was I talked about last week we
did booth few.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I talked about getting four tight ends satsin. Yeah, we
were running the football. We'll even get into four tight ends.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
We had three tight end three at the start of the.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Game, we had we had three tight ends and Deebo Savvy,
who's another physical guy we committed to the run, has
some tests running football, and then we were able to,
you know, do some things beating man and man coverage
and things like that. And guys made plays too. But defensively,
you know who Detroit is. You know what they want
to do. You got Jamior Gibbs, you got you got Montgomery.
(02:53):
Their offense starts with being able to stop those guys
at their run games. So how do you stop them?
You got to get in a tration and yes, we're
we're hamstrung from a personnel standpoint. So now you try
to try to figure out, do we do some lives stuffs,
do we do some run blistered? Do we do some
different things to try to get penetration and gets cause disruptions,
(03:13):
forced them to miss some blocks, things like that, And
although we haven't had opportunity to review the FAM, I
just didn't see a whole lot of that in this
ball game.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Yeah, And I think the other thing too, is like
part of me I want to be frustrated, but I'm
also like you know, Deron Pain's usually a big part
of those absolutely and movements, and when he's not in there,
like you know, the past couple weeks, like ken Law
has been playing end ors on Newton's playing end Now
all of a sudden, you take them out of those roles,
you move them back to the interior because Doron's not there,
And that might have had a ripple effect throughout not
just the defensive line, but the entire defensive game plan.
(03:43):
And that's all speculation, but I do think it's important
to acknowledge how we will.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Tell you it did happen on the third touchdown drive?
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So, but so like how many points they score, Bram
they scored forty points, right, So this is a long
football game. We're looking for things to be optimistic about, right,
And so what I would say here too is that
like maybe they're able to find something when there's a
the leader of your defense is still on the field.
Quite frankly, and I'm not saying he's the cog that
makes it deserves the drink.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Now he's been He's been the most consistent player from
a defense standpoint, and we can you know, I think
there was a frustration that voted that kind of bubbed
up with Dry whether it was a Amara Saint Brown
threw a punch of him before or not, but Durd,
he's been in the league long enough to know you
can't do that, And I think I think it's a
(04:28):
culmination just frustration getting getting the best of it. He's
he's a powerful guy. He's not happy with the way
the defense has played over the last five weeks. But still,
you got it. You gotta figure out ways to stop
stop the offense.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So I'm gonna read the numbers and really striking the
team gave up five hundred and forty six total yards.
That was a season worst. They've given up over four
hundred in each of the last four games, and frankly,
Detroit just was running out the clock for the last
seven eight minutes of the game. Jared Goff twenty five
to thirty three, three twenty three touchdowns, was not sacked.
Jamiir Gibbs fifteen for one, two touchdowns, nine point five
(05:03):
a carry. David Montgomery fifteen for seventy one, which sounds okay,
but that's almost five yards of carry. Javis and Williams
six for one, nineteen to touchdown, nineteen yards a catch.
I'm in Ross Saint Brown eleven yards to catch, five
forty eight a touchdown. Sam Laporta five for fifty three.
I think, to your point, who did they take away?
And this has been a recurring theme if you go
look at the Dallas game, or the Chiefs game, or
(05:25):
this game, or the Seattle game for that matter, who
did they actually take away during.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yet based on a number, since you just ran off
nobody again, I know I've been on some teams where
we've had personnel issues where you're kind of half strong,
you kind of handcuffed so to speak. It's like, Okay,
we don't like our corner situation, so we gotta protect
them a little bit with the calls, or we don't
(05:52):
necessarily like our defensive front or how our billy this
stopped a Russ, So we gotta, you know, maybe scheme
up some some negative yardish plays. And that's the challenge
that you're faced with as a defensive staff trying to
just you I mean, you turn over every storm to
figure out how can we get these fires put out?
We got to put out some type of fire because
(06:13):
if we don't, if you got all kind of fires
going on all over the place, I mean you plug
all here, you got two more holes over there. We
never plugged any holes, never put out any fire. So
you're just getting engulfed by flames and golf by water
or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The dam has broken and they're just doing whatever they
want to you.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Yeah, it felt overwhelming like watching it, you know, like
there was a kind of Dan Campbell I like watching offenses,
and he just was in a perfect rhythm, you know,
like we're gonna run. We're in fourth and six, We're
gonna run a boot or a play action. Here's a
first down off of seventeen yard chunk and you just
weren't able to upset. It wasn't even taking anything. Wait,
you weren't able to upset any kind of rhythm offensively.
(06:53):
And when you look at even defenses that have struggled
that we've covered here in the past, they're able to
get you to third and eight, and they're able to
at you into a pun right or able to hold
you to a field goal. And like you said, like
they scored three touchdowns, like right out of the gate,
you know, and there are some things again that the
offense can do to support them. But in this environment,
like we need to play complimentary football. You need to
be able to find a way.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
You're gonna have to match them score for scoring and.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
To get off the field at some point.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
And I look at you know, last year, what made
us so effective is that we were able to kind
of offensively possess the football, insulate the defense. But we're
the offense is banged up, right, we got a backup quarterback,
we got guys that were not with teams a couple
of weeks ago, and so you'd like to think that
the defense could bring more to the party and I
think that's the thing that's just so's it's just sad,
(07:38):
it's disappointing.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Again, you'll you'll continue to look and say, we still
got seven ball games left in the season, so.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We gotta figure out something. You got to figure out something.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We're getting ready to play a Dolphins team that beat
the Buffalo Bills, who many thought was, you know, one
of the teams is going to potentially represent the asca
and the Super Bowl. But as you look at our
team offensively, the one thing that they'll probably say they
wish they had done better, it's the third down offense.
Just two for ten and they had to end up
converting them two out of two and fourth downs. But
(08:12):
maybe if we're able to convert some of those third downs,
now you're able to possess the ball longer, you're able
to get more scores, and the marginal era is so small.
And again, I thought the offense did a really good job.
I thought maryo To played a really good ball game.
They got two sacks against them, and those were when
they brought pressure. But it still is a situation from
(08:36):
a defensive standpoint, you can't allow them to continue to
just march up and down the field against you without
ever getting out of rhythm, never getting them behind the sticks,
so to speak, putting them in some some third and
long situations, or or a fourth and you know five
where there maybe Dan Campbell's not opting to go for it.
If fourth and one, he's gonna go for it. But
(08:56):
Fourthune fourth Une five, He was like, man, but what's
set a full field goal here? Istead kicked goal for Yeah, Brann.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
When I think about the first offensive drive, the first
offensive possession and it's three and out and just how
I was like, oh, well, I have a thought that
the game's over, you know what I mean? Like that's
kind of where we're at in terms of what the
defense is capable of doing. And like Fletch, she said,
like these are professionals, these are good coaches or smart guys.
They just got to kind of keep turning over rocks
until something sticks and they find something that this defense
(09:24):
can do well. And you mentioned taking something away, right,
let's start with just sure we take the runaway, right.
We've talked about fitting runs and there were still some
issues there. So yeah, man, it's just when looking at
the defense, it feels like a like a mountain that
needs to be climbed, like there isn't like a simple
Oh if they do this and they switch this, and
they play this coverage or they bring this pressure, it's
(09:45):
like there doesn't seem to be a clear solution.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, and then you look at the fact we lost
aments in this ball game, lost Jonathan Jonesen's ball game.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah, already with Don Marsha and Lattimore.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
So it's it's so many days we continue to just
get ravaged by injuries and we already tested on dron
Payne being ejected from his ball game. So it puts
a lot of pressure on you from a defense standpoint
and as a play caller.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Like just looking forward, let me ask you this, because
they need some solutions to be better than it's been.
It doesn't have to be a top five defot it's
got to be it can't be this right, it can't
be this moving forward.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Yeah, you're trying to generate a pass rush.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Where do you look What would you look at and
say this is how we can potentially generate a pass rush.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
The first thing I would look at personally is down
in distance, like can you get into a third and
seven plus situation? Where I do think when you look
at times that this year when you go back and
just watch a cutup of third and seven plus Joe
Wood Junior has done a good job of creating pressure
in those situations because they're obvious passing situation rights, right,
we can blitz, we can do some things when you're
(10:48):
in a third and three or a third and two,
a third and one, all of that exotic pressure that
you've spent all off season developing, because that's where third
downs are one of those exotic pre pressure packages. You
can't utilize them, right. And so I just gonna go
back to the rhythm of the Detroit offense the other
night or tonight and say to myself, like, there is there.
I know they have clubs in the bag for those moments. Yeah,
(11:10):
I know they do have seen it. We just don't
get to see them. Because the game of the the
flow of the offense is so.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
The stars would being able to win first and second downs.
And if you're allowing the running back and get seven
yards on a first down carry, it's gonna be hard
you already even if you don't gain a yard on
second Now you're at third and three and it's hard
to rest the passer.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
You're like, what were the yards for the backs? I
mean like that you just run off like they were
very high.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
It was over two hundred yards rushing between Montgomery and Gibbs,
and one was almost five yards of carry and the
other was around nine.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
So mean so cut them in half and as seven
yards of carry, you're hit second and seven. But I
will say this, you have the ability to also bring
pressure on the other downs first and second down, which
they've done took to say can we be disruptive? You
look at some of the teams and there's teams that'll
(12:06):
blitch you first, second, third down just to kind of say, hey,
we're gonna we haven't shown this in the past, but
this is a change up. This is kind of a
curve ball, and we're gonna throw at you and see,
can we steal a down? Can we still a play?
Can we can't create a turnover? Can we cause a
little bit of indecisiveness? And it's not even necessarily We're
gonna bring the pressure with a show pressure. Yeah, And
(12:28):
can we get you to break down your protection, get
a free runner? Stuff like that, because right now we're
not having enough success just winning one on one matchups.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
In the pass rush.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah, and I think about like teams that have done
that to us, like the Dallas Cowboys. They did a
great job bringing a ton of first down pressure, and
we at times this year have done versions of that.
I think about again, I go back to that Chargers game.
Brought a ton of like dog pressures where we're stunt
in the line, and so obviously that's something that they
have in the bag and something they can do. And
I think for whatever reason, maybe it's the most weapons
(13:00):
of the Detroit offense they felt uncomfortable. Do you.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I would say this, maybe when you're running the offense
like Detroit where you got a lot of the outside
zone plays, and you can you can help me with
this because you've you're running that system so much. If
you have pressure and you're stunning, and say I was
supposed to go from the B gap to the A
gap and I'm running that stunt and I go from
the B gap and I end up in the.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Backside A gap.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Now you you're you're two gaps behind from a defensive
line standpoint, and you're you're almost blocking yourself, so to speak.
So maybe that was a situation where they don't they
didn't feel comfortable because they run so much zone type.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Of run schemes like to have those stunts.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So that's that's one of the things that you may
look at from a defensive standpoint because you're like, Okay,
if we run these these line stunts that we bring
a linebacker extra guy off the edge, we run the
risk of maybe getting reached two gaps instead of getting
gapped out.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
It's it's true because I guess like when you look
at the chargers, this is a point of comparison their
gaps to keep running right, so like it's much more
effective in those situations. And again when you're running these
stunts and outside zone, like I remember, you know Mike
and kyleiect we love it when they run stunts because
they'll reach themselves. And at points this year you've seen
you know, guys on the defensive interier get reached out
of gaps, like getting double gapped out, and so maybe
(14:20):
that is something that they're concerned about now. And again
it goes back to the original point brand that you
brought up, where it's like, what what is at their
disposal that they feel comfortable with, Because if we run
line suns for not in our right gaps. Right, if
we don't bring line suns, we don't create enough disruption
to get negative plays. If we can, we can't play
man covers this play zone, we can't get a pass rush.
So it just it just feels like they're gonna have
(14:43):
to keep looking. I think I have to.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Keep looking in and just continue to work. We got
another ball game, but Miamis, we haven't had a chance
to look at them yet. But just looking at the
score of what they were able to do against a
really good Buffalo Bill's team, and they got some weapons
on their football team, some guys that can make plays.
But you have to continue to search and I mean
(15:05):
you and Barton Midnight Oil trying to figure this thing out.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Well, I mean, look at don't look at their record.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Tua tungu vi Loo was among the leading passers for
the last couple of years. Jalen Waddle is a number
one wide receiver, David A. Chan is as fast as
anybody in the NFL. Like, it's not like they're gonna
walk into and just because this team has a bad
record that you're gonna walk into a week opponent, you're not.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
And it's also the NFL. You never walk into a
week opponent.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
And it's funny, like I had to do. We have
to do a film breakdown show, so I had to
get that ready because we're going to Spain.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I had to get that ready this week. So I
had to watch a little.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Bit of Miami Dolphins and talk about runs and blitzes
defensively that are going to challenge rules and challenge I discipline,
like their ability to get in weird backfield sets and
bring this guy here, motion, this guy here, the ball
handling of toua like it's going to challenge your eye discipline.
And talk about a perimeter run team. I think there
may be second in terms of perimeter runs in the
(15:55):
NFL behind the Detroit Lions. So you're gonna see prim
runs with Devin ah Chan who's really fast the perimeter.
You got Wattle with speed up the seam, like they're
gonna hit that. You know that drift route that the
Detroit Lions ran, They're gonna run the absolute dog out
of that. And then defensively, I think they you can
move the ball on them, but it's can you get
any type of block from the defense that kind of
(16:16):
slow them down.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I just happen to take a look at what the
the Dolphins get against the Bills. They ran for one
hundred and ninety seven yards on thirty two carries, and
David Ah Devin h Cham twenty two carries one hundred
and seventy four yards yards like.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
He's blowsive fast.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
He's like the closest back to Gibbs you're gonna find
in the NFL.
Speaker 6 (16:37):
And so it's probably not as big.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
He's not as big. He's faster.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
He might be faster, might be faster, faster.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The underrated part of Gibbs is their strength that goes
along with the speed. You know, when he gets the outside.
You saw what happen tonight. When he gets the outside,
he's gone. But he could fight for the extra yardage too.
He's kind of a unique a unique player, you know,
with with Washington too.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
I mean, at this.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Points, so they've said we you know, tried to correct
communication issues across the group turned into extended walkthroughs to
Joe whitt leaves the box goes on the field to
try to help clear this up in your experience, what's
the next step because something has to come now because
it clearly did not help enough.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I mean Detroit, you've had to actually walk to You
just got to continue to grind at it. I think
you got to grind at at a full speed mat
matter too, and I'm sure they're going they they mentioned
have a more competitive prict, competitive segment and practice good
on good, but you just have to continue to work
at it.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mean, I liked I like to added walk throughs.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Players have to also do some things where they's watching film,
especially in the past game, just with the linebackers and
the secondary make sure we're on the same pace because
we work in tandem so much when it comes to
the coverage aspect, and then really take a deep dig
you might even want to do put it together. I
don't know, thirty clips of your plays. You're not even
(18:03):
just your explosive plays. You're giving up was a third
and five situation and you've given up those things just.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
To ridiator ray.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Is there a common theme that's happening and these uh,
these plays, is it, Hey, we can play this a
little bit tighter, we can play these things a little
bit better. So just really trying to figure those things
out because offenses are going to continue to do the
same things over and over and over again.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yeah, and I think that I would just piggyback off
of what Fletch is saying. Like, I know, as a
player personally, when I was struggling, the only thing that
I knew how to do was to put more time
into it, invests more focus on it. So like, and
I do think there is an element we want to
look to the schematic things that they did tonight, but
also like sometimes defensively and offensively, you just got to
(18:48):
go out and win a gap, you know what I'm saying,
Just win your gap, hold your gap. What's my leverage,
where's my where's my eyes being? I think there needs
to be and I think this team does have this,
you know, personal accountability as a player. And after a
performance like this, or after a couple of performances like this,
like I know, you know, like the scheme whatever, but
like as a player, you got to say, like me,
(19:09):
what can I do to improve this? Because again, like
if I'm studying extra film and I'm talking looks and
we're you know, I'm looking to my teammates and saying
trying to bring people along, like maybe we get out
of this just by outworking the problem. And I think
that's what Flutch's getting out. And again that's been my
experience as a player too, when it gets really dark,
like you just got to keep walking until it gets
(19:29):
sunny outside.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I look at it like this, Let's make teams earn
whatever they're getting against us.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
If they earn it and.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
They beat us, you tip your cap off to us.
Hey man, got just beat me on this play. They've
they won their one on one match up, but there's
too many times where we've given them things. We've allowed
them to have these explosives by not having a proper
levage or maybe misfitting the gap, things like that.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Let's not give them anything. Let's make them earn everything. Guinea.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, that side of the ball's been rough and it's
hard to come up with positives. Right the other side
of the ball, there is a lot that really stands
out that you know. I think they're at a rough
spot because the defense, especially the last couple of weeks,
literally can't get a stop and the scores are happening
fast but offensively. Marcus Mariota again, every time he starts
(20:23):
this offense works for him. He's extremely comfortable in it
and he operates really effectively in it.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think Marcus is like ven a
bright spot. But also I think if you're again, we're
gonna give the offense our flowers here in a second.
But I do think, like the offense, can we, like
you said, can we better be better on third down?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Can we possess the football?
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Can we try to alleviate some of this like avalanche
slide that we're feeling on the defense. But that being said,
I do think there's some things that Marcus did really well.
I like what Clift did, Schematically mentioned that. Also, I
like the emergence of trailing Burk's It was great to
see him in an offense where you're lacking kind of
this vertical horsepower to him to win some stuff down
the field, make them to contested catches, Debo with that
(21:02):
great one handed catch. Like people making plays in the offense,
and I just wish we could have seen more of it,
And I think I think I wish that it would
have been in a more relevant game, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
What I mean?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, absolutely, that's that's you mentioned guys making plays, and
there were some guys that went out and made plays
for Marcus Mariota. I thought the coming out with the
three tight ends worked. Really, Hey, really, we got to
be able to run the football.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Some different runs too, Like they didn't come out and
run kind of the same stuff. They they there was
a conscious effort to overhaul what we're doing, slow the
game down offensively, find these explosive like there was. The
thought process was clear and it was effective. It was
cool to see, and it's just unfortunate that they they're
a little short handed still.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
They still, yes, a little shorthanded. But but like you said, Brown,
every time Marcus has has been the starter.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yes, and he's had the yea.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
All the week, all the all the work during the
week with the wance he's gone on and he's playing
well enough.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
Yeah, they has.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
And two of the receivers to your point about where
they're finding these spots, they've been here three weeks. Robbie Chosen,
Trailer Burkes Burks I think was the leading receiver. If
I remember right, he had a like he's putting it
in the right place. Chosen could have had a touchdown
in that corner right down there if it wasn't for
(22:23):
a good maybe miss call.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
But good defensive play.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
But it was perfectly thrown ball right to a guy
who's probably practiced with three, four or five times. That's it,
you know, Like so it is like they've been dealt
a really odd hand from day one. They've never practiced together.
The quarterback's been hurt three times. Terry McLaurin and Noah
Brown have been limited to barely existent participants throughout the
(22:48):
entire course of the entire thing. And they're still finding
ways to put twenty plus points on the board and
have still going into this a top five rush offense
and found ways to make explosive plays with Jalen Lane,
Trailer Burke and could have had one with Chosen.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
They're figuring it out.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
They are figuring out, and again, like that's what you're
encouraged by, like all the things that I was concerned about.
It's like how you're gonna beat man coverage, We're gonna
get in contense formations, We're gonna have some play action shots.
Great job by Marcus on that quarters read where they're
running the dig he cuts it awesome to jail and
like really like like you're talking about just a guy
that can manage the offense. I think the only thing
that I would be even a little bit critical of
(23:26):
is just the third down efficiency. And the only reason
we're even talking about that is because the defense is
struggling stuff. Right, It's like, you know what I'm saying,
it's just can we can? You like, as an offensive player,
always like is there anything we can do to year?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It was like when we had the first field goal
that we had to settle for, we had a third
and ten. Yeah, moving to football, we get the false star.
False star put is in third and fifteen, and we
got eight yards. But now you are looking at fourth
and seven as opposed to you get that same eight yards.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
How you have fourth and two.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You're not gonna go forward and fourth to seven and
you haven't scored it to any points yet, but fourth
and two, yeah, he probably don't go forward situation.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And I think you should.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
I think one of the things like that, you know,
was so helpful last year, and we talked about this
in the pregame show, was the ability to convert on
at a high fourth down per centage last year. So
can we get sixty percent of that? And I think
some of these offensive possessions will kind of flip in
our favor and we'll be in a good spot.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So on the run game, they did stick to it
despite what was going on today, twenty seven carries ninety
three yards. That's only three point four a carry, So
there's been a there's been a change with that, and
I attribute a lot of that to all the fluidity
on the outside that the personnel changes out there are
going to alter the way a defense is going to
(24:37):
look and be threatened by this offense. But the team
has talked about that they want to get better producing
in their run game, and I thought the run game
wasn't bad today, but it's not doing what they wanted
to do. So what do you say about there?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Yeah, I have to go back and watch the film
for the run game specifically, but I think you're seeing
today what I felt is you've I felt the run
name that did a good job, especially when Sea rods
in there, of just keeping you on schedule. We're not
taking negative runs or neutral runs. And people say I
was at a big deal. It's a huge deal because
third and seven is a or second and seven is
a functional down and distance for the offense. We still
(25:10):
got a quick game, we got keepers, we got everything's
on the table right And is that a great run?
Not necessarily, but I do think that efficiency you feel
that when he's in there, and so I think you
got nick today, right, is that?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
He end up, Yes he did. You know, they didn't
mention what it was, but I don't catch the interest.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
So that's something that is a little concerning to me
because I think Bill Crossey Merrit's done a really nice job,
but I think he's better in that supplemental role. So
like again getting Sea Rob, maybe McNichols gets some more touches.
I thought he ran the ball well tonight. It's just
that that efficiency I think is so so important.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Yeah, Bill has this explosive.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Shoulder, Jason saying it was a shoulder.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Bill has the explosive element to him. He's exciting to watch.
I think when they were talking last week about not
taking interesting give them a little bit, I think they
were kind of nodding to him a little bit times
where they.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
It was it was blocked.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, if he just follows his blockers, he'll probably get five, six,
even seven or eight yards with his But he has
such great vision. He may see a defensive tackle pop
a block and he's like, oh shoot, I can go
out the back door, not realizing he got a safety
rotating Now, so the minute he goes out the back door,
(26:21):
he's getting a two yard game. But if you would
have stayed front side, he probably would have got an
eight yard carrier.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
And he's a young back, and so I thought today
he stuck with it.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
The point about what I why it wasn't four or
five yards per carry. It was the volume of RUSS
that it keeps the defense having to respect you in
terms of, hey, they will run the football against us,
and now you're able to get a play action pass
for forty one yards to Jalen laying down the field.
So just the simple fact that you stuck with it
(26:54):
and we stuck with it, it makes a difference.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
And when you bring all those bodies in, people think, oh,
that's how you run the football. It does get because
there's just more run players there. The corners are closer,
the safeties are closer, and it helps with some of
the passing game. But I do think that's leading to
some of these rushing numbers that are a little bit
less efficient than we have.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, and on some of the bigger shots where the
ball is going where it looked like it should be,
some of them were being hit the Laane Catch was outstanding.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
A great job by him, right, Like, great to see
that from you.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
Great's him the Burks plays.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Cliff said something else earlier in the week that really
kind of stuck out to me heading into this game,
and kind of I saw it tonight where he said,
you know, all of these guys, they most of them
either weren't here or weren't in these roles, and we're
now three four weeks into them being in them.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, So suddenly like they had a preseason and now
they're being asked to fill these roles and there's just
a comfort level that feels different, and I think you
saw a little bit of that. It gets lost in
what the score is, in how you know the defense
was incapable of getting any kind of stop whatsoever, But
there was a lot of that feeling to me that
(27:57):
there was a control to this, even though you might
not have been accustomed to the people that were running
all these plays.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Do you think that that's something that the defense could
get like kind of three weeks of consistent personnel to
get them back on track, because like even tonight, like
the two starting corners are out, Marshaun's out here on
you know, what I mean is that maybe something we
could expect to see from them, like because again, like
you feel it with the offense, I as the guys
have been in their roles longer, the production has gotten better.
Even with the offensive line and cosmic getting in there,
(28:22):
you feel that continuity just a little bit better. I
don't know, is it something with the defense.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
It can't happen like that, but again you mentioned it,
like the guys have to play more than one week together,
you know, you got to.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Have the same safety.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
You got to have the same corners, same linebackers, especially
when you're talking about fitting up combination routes covering different things.
The communication, knowing how a guy like if I'm working
with Logan all the time against a certain stack formation
and him and I have done this a hundred times,
we know, without even saying anything to each other, how
(28:57):
we're gonna both play it. But if we got three
reps gets his play, we're not. We don't know what
each other is gonna do. And also from a run
fit standpoint, a lot of times those corners they're part
of the run fit and also the safety. So knowing
that hey, my safety, he may be lined up twelve
yards deep and I don't feel him, but I know
(29:19):
he's gonna be coming and I can trust him to
fit where he's supposed to fit when the ball is snap.
But if I don't, if I'm not sure, is he
gonna stay back or whatever. So now I'm trying to
do my job in do his job. Yeah, and that's
how you get to get big.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I mean, it feels like on offense they're figuring it
out and maybe it's taking some time because there's new
parts and they're asked to do different roles that it's
starting to come together to whatever degree it can. On
the other side of the ball, the larger question is
our guy's not making plays. Are they not put in
the position to make the plays that they need to make?
Is it a combination of both? And that's the what
(29:53):
we're talking about, like the dam opened up and everything
fell apart, Because it doesn't feel like that, like we're
on the same page.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
I think it's probably, you know, like all things, it's
probably a combination.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
Of everything, combination of everything.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Scheme again, and when it's as as difficult to watch
as it was the last couple of weeks, it's got
to be a version of that right. It's a little
bit of the players, a little bit of coaching, a
little bit, the scheme a little bit, the reps a
little bit, the injuries and when you put that all
on a big messy plot like you've.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, when you're on defensive end number four, there's like
a reasonable you know, I think there's a reasonable thing
to get to look at and go, well, that's going
to be a deficiency.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
However, one void in one spot should not mean four
hundred plus yards five hundred plus yards and team never punting,
never getting get turnover, never get to get sack like that.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
I just believe it starts with the inability to stop
to run. Yeah, and we just didn't have enough disruption
against this. Uh, I guess their run game, not enough
negative artist players, not enough penetration and losing pay, not
having defensive ads that you've brought in to stop the
(31:04):
raw set those hard edges. So you're running his outside
zone and you got to Dietrich wise out there setting
a hard edge. Now the run is no longer stretching you. Why,
so he's holding it, constricting everything and restricting everything. And
now you've got linebackers and everybody trying to getting down
heel and things like that.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
And that's such a good point.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
And I know we're getting ready to rap, but like
you know, you got kin Law and Gerson who are
more penetrating ends. And when you're penetrating in an outside
zone with a ton of stretch, it creates vertical creases, right,
And so imagine if if Dietrich was here, if Dorns
was here, if these guys that we're talking about are
here and they penetrate and now all of a sudden,
those are tackles for loss as opposed to it just
(31:44):
and and every team is negotiating injuries, so we're not
making excuses. But it is something that you I empathize
with Joe Witt because he's having to overcome a lot
and the players are having to overcome a lot right
now to get it right, and hopefully they get it
right all right.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Last thing, what are you looking forward to in Spain?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
The most I'm looking hang out with you? How are
we going to a museum or someone?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Do we definitely go to a museum. My wife is
brought well, you're not gonna like this part. My wife
has brought up flamenco dancing a.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Lot I think we're doing it. I think I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Are you talking to nine and a couple of guys.
We're gonna, uh, we're gonna do some flamenco dance.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
You are for the show? You want to come?
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Yeah, I'll say this.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, Winstein, here's something you guys didn't know about me.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
You're a good dancer.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
No, no, no, I love ur.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
And the mere fact that you two were talking about
going to look at art without me, I'm kind of
a Finch show.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
Let's go. When we were in l A, I went
to the broad that was Renaissance man.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's talk. Go to the museum. Yeah,
with the museum time overview.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
I'm not working when I'm at the art museum. I'm
doing it. I'm going to enjoy the art. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
I'm looking forward to Spain. We'll do this again, I
think in Madrid right after the game. I guess you
know we're doing Yeah, we will, So we'll do that,
all right, see it then,
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Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.