Future Hall of Fame Linebacker London Fletcher is joined by 10-Year NFL Tight End Logan Paulsen and Bram Weinstein to give reactions to the Washington Commanders heartbreaking loss in OT to the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football! Hosts: London Fletcher, Logan Paulsen, Bram Weinstein Producer: Jason Johnson Get Your Commanders Tickets Here: https://bit.ly/4jfZA45 Location: BigBear.ai Command Center Studio 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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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming up on the Booth Review. We are going to
look back at the catch of the year in the
NFL and.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The offensive line is coming together. What does that mean
for the offense?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
And I saw the Mystery of six six No, he
does it, but we'll still have the Booth Review coming
up next.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome into the latest edition of the Booth Review podcast.
I'm Brahm Weinstein with London Fletcher and Logan Paulson. Were
brought to you by Microsoft Surface Copilot Plus PC and
we are in the Big Bear AI Command Center studio
after a close one against one of the hottest teams
in the NFL, a twenty seven to twenty six loss
to the Denver Broncos last night in overtime, second straight
(00:41):
game that Washington played in overtime. We're going to go
through the defense. We're going to go through the offense.
But I do want to start with one thought here
because we were in the locker room last night and
it's down because they lost, but it was up because
of the way they played and the way they fought.
So let me just ask you, as former players, are
there silver lightings in football?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I believe so I think obviously you want to win
games you want. The ultimate goal is to win, but
I think it matters how you play and losses too,
Like how do you look at a loss?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Because do you look terrible?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
There have been times this season where we've looked terrible
in some losses, and then you had the game like
we had last night against the Broncos where we did
a lot of really really good things and and ultimately
didn't get to win. But there's a lot that we
take from that game and build on. So I guess
quote unquote silver lining yes in this situation.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I mean it's funny to me like as a as
a player, I don't know if there was ever a
time where I was like, oh man, like we played
really well on a loss. But I think now that
I've kind of stepped back and I coach high school football,
like I can field a little bit more right, the
benefit of like how you playing a loss?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Is there something to that?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Right?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Like did you play physically? Did you play all four quarters?
In this case five quarters? And I think when you
look at that stuff, yes, there is value to it.
And I think as a player, I was too like
invested in it, like I was too granular. But now
stepping back. I think you can feel the benefit of it,
and I'm sure it's something you felt in the locker
room postgame.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, I like you felt the contributions across the board.
There were some amazing moments which we'll talk about. There
were returners that obviously had an impact on how the
totality of the team played, and there's been a change,
you know, on the defense just in the way that
they've played. So I did feel that. But you know,
(02:32):
when we talked to Dan Quinn after the game made
it very clear, very quickly. The result is meant to win, yes,
and we're not trying to like take the silver linings,
but I do think being one step removed from it
and watching it, I know this wasn't a win last night,
but it was an incredible performance against one of the
hottest teams in the NFL that might be the one
(02:53):
seed in the AFC this year.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, and there they'll get back. Like last night I
used to talked about silver line is and all that. Today,
they're going to watch the film and they'll be like, man,
they're just play here, one play there, we do this,
we win.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
That football game.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
So they'll be some disappointment today once they when they
look at that film and they review it and again,
at the end of the day, it is all about winning.
But man, those guys play their their tails off. A
lot of guys contributed going against that, especially that defense,
what the offense was able to do, And we'll get
into all that later, but there's a lot that you
(03:30):
can build on momentum. Now, let's not be satisfied with
that performance. Let's build on it and net's go to
Minnesota and come out of there with the victory. So
all right, Yeah, we played some good football. Ultimately we
didn't win, so there's still some more steps we need
to do in order to win this ball game.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, I think one of the one of the good
things about being in this seat and one of the
painful things about being a player or a coach is that,
like I think Fletch alluded to it really nicely, there
is like today's going to sting a lot because you
are so close, because there are so many opportunities. We're like, man,
if we don't do this, so we get this block here,
if we get this protection lined up, or if we
get this if we fit this run a little bit.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Better, if we have our eyes a little bit better in.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
This coverage principle, Like we win this football game, and
I think that's gonna hurt a lot, but I think
in some ways that hurt is good because it means
you're close. Oh yeah, and it's something that they haven't been.
They have been close. The last couple of weeks are
obviously Madrid, but prior to that, you know, Seattle Detroit,
Like those games were tough. Man, Like, I remember coming
to this show and just being like, what do we
talk about? And today there's a lot of positive things
(04:32):
to discuss because the efforts there, the physicality is there,
the attention to detail appears to be there on both
sides of the football, and I think that's something Bram
to your point, that is a major silver lining moving forward.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You know, I think like I've spent my career as
an observer of the team, and you know, this season
did not go in any way, shape or form the
way I would have anticipated. I think anybody would have anticipated,
and there's a ton of reasons why. But if they
show resolve, that is something that's important to me moving
forward everybody, but for everybody I think in the room,
(05:05):
I think it's important for them too. To get a
glimpse of the team we thought they were going to
be in the summer, even with all the injuries that
have occurred, And last night was a sign that the
darkest part of the season is truly behind them. And
I think that that is important moving forward here. I think,
you know, all this discussion about who should play, who
should not, what should they do here? How did they
(05:26):
handle the last six games of the season. I think
last night they showed you what they're about. And I
think that's what's really important here. I know they lost,
and that's why the silver lining to me is I
was hoping the dark part of the season was behind them.
It is. That's what I got at a last night. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Now, it's just an effort man, the ability to move
to football against that defense up and down the field.
I mean, you look at you, No, we stall, We
hurt our sales. Really, the Denver Broncos did defense as
didn't truly stop us for majoritiya of the game. Obviously
(06:03):
he had to tip at the two point convergent, but
how many times were we able to get on their
side of the fifty? Had to had to costly interception
in the red area. But I mean we were moving
the ball, Cliff thought, Yeah. I thought Cliff and the
offensive staff did a great job of the scheme they
(06:24):
put in both in the run game, but also passing
game and and scheming up some guys to be open,
scheming up some big plays.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I thought they did a great job.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But a lot of stuff to build on, and hopefully
we'll get more guys healthy. Still Jaden still hoping that
Noah Brown could come back, and defensively, I don't know
that we will get any any other guys back from
a defensive end standpoint, most of those guys are out
for the season unless baptists made. But you know, it's
it's good to have those guys coming back.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
But to your point, I think when you look at
some of these guys that did come back, or guys
that were big phrasing big quote unquote fras in additions
this offseason, like you could on the sideline, like when
you're got the headset on, you're watching, like you can
feel Will Harris and his communication and just that what
that does for the defense. And is he a perfect player?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
But does is there a role for him and that
type of player on this defense and on this team?
And is it helping the defense get better?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And so it's interesting, like thinking about all the offensive
injuries and where they're at, but also like defensively getting
some of these pieces back. Even guys like Noig Banaghany
playing the slot like he's doing a great job there,
or Goldman Man like playing the true nos like he
looks like he's found a role in a niche the
last couple of weeks, whatever the different utilization is there,
you know, maybe it's more true nos and kind of
(07:38):
this odd spacing, but I think you're just getting better
performances across the board. And I think that's something that
is is encouraging to see. It's maybe it's scheme, maybe
it's mentality, whatever it is, but that's been awesome too.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
The breakdown on the big plays was not occurring last night.
I think we've seen that adjustment. Hears is a couple
of weeks ago in Madrid. That's Jalen Waddle and Tua.
We didn't see the big plays down the field, so
their adjustments were starting to kind of take hold. Last
night against Denver, they controlled their run game. There were
very few big plays down the field. Now you look
(08:11):
at the yardage totals, and you're not going to be
overly pleased. You look at the point total though, and
I think you will be pretty satisfied. So where are
you just kind of overall with where the defense is
amid all the injuries and a couple of notable returneyes
right now.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, it's been a big difference what Deq calling the defenses,
just from a metric standpoint, playing a ton a lot
more zone coverage than we did when Joe will was
calling the defenses, keeping everything in front of them. I
think they're more connected with their zone distributions. There were
(08:45):
a couple of times where they they dropped a little
bit too deep and the checkdown when Bonix came to
the checkdown, guys were able to convert third downs because
just dropped a little bit too deep on some instances.
And then they did a bo Nicks and Champagne did
a nice job of scheming up a wheel route second
(09:06):
man through the zone. That was the one big pass
play they had. But that's just them scheming up a
good call. But I thought, I thought, Quinn, we just
see more. There's a greater attention to detail. I mean,
it just looked like you see more guys in the
frame around ball cares. The tackling has been better, and
(09:28):
whatever the reason is, I don't know what it is.
Maybe they're doing some different things, just maybe they pair
some things down. But the defense has played much better
in the last two weeks, especially for the most part
in the red zone where they where they definitely have
made some strides.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And that's the thing that's so interesting is because it's
the same people in large part. You know, there's some
guys in some different roles, different slightly different utilizations, but
it's the same people, but they're just playing so much better.
Like I was watching the first couple of drives before
the show started, and they were running like a little
boot to the right, you know, and in weeks past,
earlier in the season, you know, that kind of second
(10:02):
level cross or that ten yard crosser has been wide
open every time they run it, and they were in
kind of some type of either quarters or Tampa Tuo.
I couldn't really tell, but Kwan, it's so interesting. The
quarterback boots and his eyes don't go with the quarterback.
They snap immediately to the crosser right, and the guy
who's got the flat they snapped the tight end, it's
not like this kind of a MorphOS, where's my vision
(10:24):
and we're getting to the football, And I just think,
like that's the level of detail, Like even watching the
Madrid stuff, like the eye discipline in zones is tremendous, right,
and the eye discipline in man is tremendous. So that's
been really cool to see. And then the other thing
I want to ask you, Fletch, because like I remember
when Dan was coaching in Seattle, like when I was
playing against that defense, one of the things they always
(10:44):
talked about was like they want you to throw the
check down ten times in a game to see if
you can do it. Is there a little bit of
that going on, like where they're just saying, like, keep
everything in front of you, forced the ball down. It's
like even though they're not running cover three, they're running two,
they're running quarters, they're just saying like take these five
eight yards. See if you can do it ten times,
then you're gonna buy down red zone.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, that's exactly what you want to do against office.
I talked to some of the great play callers and
this was defens the offensive play callers and Mike Martz,
who greatest sean to talk check of that, and I
was talking to him about offices and we got on
the subject about quarterbacks doing a check down. He said, Now,
(11:25):
this is probably fifteen years ago or more. He said, London,
they don't play these pay these guys twenty million dollars
to throw check downs. They want to, they want to,
they want to rip it, they want to hit the
big shots. But when you force these offenses to check
the football down, he says, eventually the office is gonna
(11:46):
do something. They're gonna make a mistake to get themselves
behind and down behind the chain on the third down situation,
and you're gonna get off the football field. So I
think that's kind of his philosophy. Keep everything in front
of us, don't give a big exposure of plays, get
him in some third and longer situations and maybe would
dial up a pressure. We'll we'll rely on our format rush.
(12:08):
That's how we're going to win those series.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The last couple of weeks to the red zone, defensive
stood up when they needed it to, got some stops
and there were two particular ones late in the game
that stood out to me that were different from earlier
in the season. He correct me if he's think I'm
wrong about this, but like there was some situational awareness
that I think was a little bit different from earlier
in the season. And the two plays that really stood
out Wagner's interception one where he's standing in a lane
(12:34):
where he's waiting for the ball to come right, he's
reading I don't know what Nix was looking at, but
like he knows where the ball is going, okay, And
the second one, and I think the one that really
stood out to me late was Courtland Sutton is by
far their most targeted third down receiver period, right, they
made a switch and when he did try to throw
to Sutton late on that third down, that got Washington
(12:55):
the ball back, the game, the opportunity to tie the game,
they converged on him and there was a lot of
white with traffic around him. There were some situational awareness
that I think was really promising about what's going on
here too.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I mean with so this is the thing that
I've heard with the Bobby Wagner interception, Like, to me,
that's that's like a bad that's a bad quarterback.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
But I'm not saying we should.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
But what I'm saying is that like I do think
when you're like, when you're playing this level of quarterback,
when you're playing the level of like A two a
tongue of b I low. And that's not a knock
on those guys. They're thirty two of the best guys
in the world. Like they're going to give you some
of these moments. And in weeks past, this team is
not capitalized on those vinments. And so to be again,
to be in the right position.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, Panis stands out in the discussion that you're having,
like we could have got a couple from him, but
it did not occur. Here we are weeks later and
it's changing.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And so again, like when you look at that play,
it's to me, it's just good defense. Right, there's a
little bit of pressure. He's a little bit stressed, like
in young quarterbacks when they're stressed, they do irrational things.
He knows where the dig is, he's trying to rip
the dig and Bobby says, I've seen this show.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
I'm gonna And again.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
This is going back to what we were just talking about.
Do your job, get to your depth, get to your spot.
And does Bobby do anything tremendous other than be in
the right position where he's supposed to be in the coverage. No,
but you got to catch football. And I think those
are the types of breaks when you can just stress
a quarterback a little inexperienced, they'll give you those opportunities
and you got to capitalize on And I think that's
(14:19):
one of the things that was so frustrating earlier in
the season is they didn't capitalize on those opportunites when
they did come.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So I was thinking about this before.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
The game.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Play calling is a it's a science and an art
to call plays.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
There is a for the game and there's an art
to it.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
For the scientific part of it is, hey, we're gonna
for your analytics guys, statistic guys, whatever tendency is. You're
going to look at, Hey, this is what they like
to do, just down and this is this personnel grouping.
So there's the scientific part of how we're going to
match this, the calls we're gonna make. But then the
art of it, the artist three where you let that
(14:59):
that part that play caller.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Use his creativity.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
If hey, when I want to dial up this pressure,
when I want to play coverage, what type of coverage
I want to play? What looks I want to give
him that that that call that you mentioned where there
was a bunch of guys around sudden. That was the
artistry part of d Q and making adjustments. Say it
was his own coverage. But what they did they only
(15:24):
rushed three and they dropped him to the three receiver side,
be knowing that, Hey, they've been hurting us with this checkdown.
Let's drop him to the three receiver side. What the
three receivers are? Bobby goes up to too with Jacob
Martin and tells him which side to drop. He'd say, hey,
drop right, drop right. He gives him a signal. Jacob
(15:47):
gives some signal, let him know, Hey, I acknowledge you.
He drops out, knocks something off his path in completion,
off the field.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So that's the artistry part of it.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
And that's that's that's the great thing about play calling,
the scientific and the artwork.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
And also even on that play, like Chris Jones is
one on one to the perimeter and I was like, man,
they're going to rip a slant here and some of
that too, right, and so I thought, oh man, And
then even just the subtle thing you know, revo is
he's diving in and out of the slant window right.
It just and it just gives a moment of pause
to the quarterback to be like, do I have this?
And then the brilliant thing about it that I thought
(16:25):
was like when he's diving in and out, they end
up getting the Cover two and Chris Jones, to his credit,
stems inside leverage right now and he's standing in the
slant window. So it's like everyone knew the situation, they
knew the type of play they.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Want to run.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
And it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, Fletch,
because everybody seemed like the communication with Jacob Martin and
Bobby Wagner, like all of that stuff, it just wasn't
there early in the season, and now all of a sudden,
everybody's doing it.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I'm smiling because when you think about Cover two as
a corner, Logan mentioned Jonathan Jones stemming inside. He's supposed
to be outside level, right, like his responsibility. He's outside
leverage at every receiver and forcing him inside. No, Hey,
they've hit me with a couple of slats in this
ball game. I'm gonna stem inside. They throw that slamp,
(17:15):
I'm gonna be there and he probably let us safety know, hey,
I'm gonna be jumping his slam, so just be ready
in cases a slug o slant, go be ready to
get over the top.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
But whether they.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Whether they made this a crect adjustment on the sideline
telling him they started to play inside, or it was
a veteran player understanding, Man, they've hit me a couple
times with this slamp. It's three by one. I'm away
from everything. I'm not giving up the slant. So stuff
like that is just those are the levels of playing
good football and I hope we continue to see more
(17:46):
of that moving forward.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
And FLTZ like I got a question I got for you,
is like, because Smoot always talks about how he Sewan
springs Taylor like they used to have these in game
communications amongst themselves, but it seems like someone else has
kind of sparked this communication because it wasn't something that
was happening before. Is that all coming from dan Quinn?
You think just like you got.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
You got different guys playing at the cornerback position now too,
like more experience, get more experience. Got Trey Amus's rookie,
so he probably probably gonna, you know, do stuff by
the book. And then you got. We had multiple guys
playing a safety position. So just those communication that comfort level.
You're not gonna take chances with all, You're gonna you're
(18:27):
gonna do it the way the coach wants you to
do it. You got to build up that trust to
where coach is like, all right, man, you can go
and do it, get it if you want to do
it your way, as long as you get the.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Job done right with it. Yeah, absolutely, yes.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
All right, so that was a good sign, right, Like,
I mean, I think the yardage shotals still are probably something.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, I think this is one thing that I think
you mentioned and I think it's one hundred percent right.
Like this is I think where the defense is at,
like they're gonna have to play really good ben, but
don't break complimentary football because they right now because of
the injuries, because of where the roster is at from
what this regime inherited, they don't have the horses up
front to like really rush the passer. They don't really
(19:09):
have the guys in the perimeter like really play man
to man like lockdown coverage. I think the way that
they envisioned at the be end of the year. So
they're kind of piecemealing this thing together. So I'm okay
with high yardish totals. Honestly, right now I'm not okay
with high point totals. And I think we're seeing the
staff understand that and what they need to do to
kind of Again, it's not just the defense, it's the offense.
The way Cliff is calling the game. The number of
(19:30):
third downs are able to convert, Like it's you can
tell they understand this is how we have to win
football games.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, I'd say this from a the yarns could have
been significantly less yesterday, and we play a couple of
those third downs a little bit better. I'm the one
the touchdown, I believe right before they have Yeah, they
converted three third downs yes on that play two minute
drive right if a memory started to me correctly, and
you know, we had opportunities good calls. Again, I talked
(19:58):
about maybe just dropping a hair tooo too deep on
his own coverage. One thing I noticed sometimes and and
this is just when when you're playing zone defense a
lot of times and maybe getting a little too technical
when the quarterback sets, you want to be set as
a defender, especially underneath the fender, because now you figure
(20:20):
he's about to throw that football, you want to be
at a plant drive, break on the ball, whatever if
he's if he's set and you're still kind of drifting
a little bit. Now when he throws, now you're gonna
have to gather, break down and go make a different
make a tackle. And that could be the difference between
stopping them a yard short or tackling them a yard
(20:41):
after they've already got the yard as they need to gain.
So there's still a couple of things that need to
be tuned up, and I'm sure they'll emphasize those things
in the met room and the practice fielding. We'll continue
to get better on defense.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So it was improving their offense is where this team
went all in the offseason. They acquired Laramie Tunsel, they
acquired Deebo Samuel for a bazillion different reasons, they have
not had this group on the field. They still didn't
even last night. They're waiting for their quarterback to come
back and play. But Terry mclaurin's return clearly makes a
(21:15):
massive difference in everybody's role on the team. And I
think you saw that in real time. This was the
first time he looked like himself the entire season.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Man, that that makes me think about that doctor Dre Song.
Y'all forgot about Drey. Y'all forgot about Terry Man. I
think the fan base and quite frankly a lot of
the media too, forgot how freaking good Terry McLaurin is
as a wide receiver. You realize he broke the franchise
(21:44):
at the franchise record and touchdown receptions last year.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
He's been the ultimate pro.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He's put up numbers with Trash at the quarterback position
a lot of times. Just to be totally honest, when
you see a healthy Terry McLaurin, you saw he was
able to do. They got the Patrick's Sam raigning he
wanted defensive back last year. Yeah, you show how much
(22:10):
respect the Denver Broncos had against Terry his first game back.
They said, no, we're not gonna just let anybody come.
Patricks Twn you have him, and it was an absolute battle.
Brian Balddinger he did a breakdown where he shows those
guys battling Terry. He looked fast, competitive, his energy, being
(22:31):
able to win routes, gotta have it plays. He made
multiple plays like that in the ball game, so For
all you people that don't think Terry mccoin is a
number one receiver, you gotta be freaking kidding me. Did
you not watch that man last season? In this season,
he's I mean, and yesterday he showed while he's the
(22:51):
number one receiver and he showed what type of difference
maker he is on that football field.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, And I think it's like to your point, Fletch,
it doesn't matter like where ranks and the pantheon of
current wide receivers, like is he a top ten, fifteenth, whatever,
doesn't matter, but what he is for this team is significant.
And when you watch again, the confidence that the quarterback
has in him as a player right to be able
to rip a slant, tight windows slant right that maybe
my favorite throw of the day was that kind of
(23:18):
It was like a ten yard dig in the low
red where there's like a you know, Deebo's pull on
the Tampa two player.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Out he throws right in there.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Like those are timing, chemistry type throws that it takes
time to build that rapport with the quarterback, but you
can tell like his experience allows him to make some
of those plays. And then the other thing I think
is really important is like we talked about, We're gonna
talk about zach er Ittz more here in a second,
but Terry being in draws the Pats or ten matchups.
So then all of a sudden you get trailing Burke's
(23:46):
one one with Riley Moss for a goal line fade,
and then Deebo Samuel is on a safety and a
man and man situation running a speedout on first and
ten in a two minute drive, like because we've had
to allocate resources differently to cover people. And then all
of a sudden, Whu Funga is now in a man
and man situation versus one of the best tight ends
in the history of the NFL future Hall of Famer
in zach ert it'z like, that's what it gives you,
(24:07):
gives you this cascading effect. So instead of being able
to be like, oh, Patzertan, you cover Traylon Burks, and
then all of a sudden, Raley Mosch You're covering zach Ertz,
And then think about how much more difficult the offense
would be here. It's like his addition just it slotted
everyone into the matchup that they should have had. And
I think that's the thing that I felt most significantly
(24:27):
in addition to the confidence they had, but that was
the thing that made the offense feel so alive.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah, the versatility for Deebo Samuel is partially based on
Terry McLaurin being on the other side of the field.
It allows him the space to work. I think it's
hard for someone like Deebo Samuel to get the space
that they're looking for to make the plays with him
if the other side of the field is not accounted
for in the same way without McLaurin, Which is why again,
I think all of us want to see the glimpse
(24:53):
of the offense specifically that we thought we were going
to have in the summer down the stretch and you
started to see that Seventeen's a big, big, big part
of it.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, absolutely, man.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But to me, like the bigger thing here, honestly is
like the way the offensive line has come together, like
quite honestly, Like again, Terry did a great job, Trailer
did a great job, Debo, great job.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Zach obviously had a huge day.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
When you look at the offensive line, like everyone talks
about like what was promised to us right like you
were You're just making that reference like this is the
offensive was problem this offensive line, the way they've you know,
connected over the last three or four weeks since Cosme's
come in, Like, think about how effective they were run blocking.
Think about how effective they were in their nonverbal communication yesterday.
(25:36):
Think about how effective they were in pass protection. Right, Like,
this is supposed to be the best pass rushing defense
in the NFL, and I didn't really it is the best.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
I didn't really feel.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I didn't really feel that way though, I think, you know,
that's what I'm like, Like they had a couple of pressures,
but it wasn't like, oh my god, yeah, Like think
about some of these games earlier this year where it
just feels like it's a it's a deluge of pass rush.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Here.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It didn't didn't feel that way like that, So I
think like that it's the group that I say, like,
if if Daniels comes back and that group's playing like this,
the one thing Jayden has a hard time with is
navigating tight pockets and pressure, and all of a sudden,
this group is playing lights out. Think about the playmaking prowess, yes,
that he will now bring. You've unlocked with him. So
(26:17):
to me, this is really exciting because that group's playing
so well.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, when you look at the office of line, Cosby's
healthier now, he's got his sea legs. I guess you
could say he's got them back. Connerley, he's had twelve
games under his belt now, so he's seeing a lot
of different dynamic rushers and things like that.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Expressive his improvement, Ben really, I mean, he's.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Him the provement Chris Paul coming in there, solidifying things,
continue to do a really nice job and larm me.
Tussin Man, we don't hear from him. We don't say
his name much because he's just exing people out like
there's they don't He doesn't give up pressures and you
see why they gave up what they gave to get him.
But when offense line is gone, they were physical at
(27:03):
the point of attack. I talked about, Hey, you have
to be the most physical team in his ball game
being I had a rust for one hundred and forty
three yards against that.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Yeah, said Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
There's and press. There's a couple of things that won.
Washington held the Broncos to a seventeen point nine percent
pressure rate. That's not just their lowest of the season,
it's their lowest since twenty twenty three. This is the
team that led the league in sacks coming into the
game with forty nine. I think that had won last night,
so they got up to fifty last night. Nick Benito
was erased numerous times by tunsel Jonathan Cooper, who's as
(27:36):
fast off the edge as anybody. Twenty six matchups against
Josh Connery, zero pressures. When I talked to Dan Quinn
late last week, he had said, we're going to be
patient with the run game, and we're aware because they
had the lowest yards per carry in the NFL coming
into the game that we're going to have to settle
for a bunch of short runs, but stick with it,
and we want to make plays in the pass play game.
(27:57):
I think if you ask him today to be honest,
did you did you run the ball better than you
thought you would? If he's being honest, I think he
would say yes, that the run game actually performed probably
above and beyond what they thought it was going to
be last night.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And I think the thing that was surprising to me
was a lot of that was from the runner. Like
I think the offensive line and the blocking serface did
a great job but some of those early explosives, like
they're creating pressure and there's a free runner to the
ball carrier and it's c rod great contact balance fighting
through something, or hey, we're running duo and you know
duo supposed to kind of go to that three man
service where you get those double teams. He's got great
(28:29):
vision and is scorting that out to the front side
of the run, which you very rarely see on BIO.
So I think he deserves a ton of credit for
a kind of maximizing money runs, utilizing a superpower in
terms of vision to keep the offense on schedule. And
then I want to just call attention to this because
I'm like, this is the football nerdy part of me
is when you get first downs, you can run the
football more, right, So I think what they were they
(28:50):
were like fifty percent on third down or something like that. Crazy, yes,
and they can run a ton of plays, they get
guys a ton of touches, and so to me, the
story of the game and if this is what this
team wants to be going on long drive, you need
to execute on third down, and they found a way
to do that. I think zach Ertz was a huge
part of that, and the offensive line obviously holding up.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
But to me, that's the story.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, I'll give you another number. They ran eighty five
plays last night, which is an enormous number of plays,
and against a defense like that that's relentless and gets
to the quarterback as often as they do. That figured
to be a death sentence to run that many plays
against a team like that, and it was not.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
They threw the ball fifty times, that's right, well fifty times.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, they ended up with two sacks, but I mean,
I don't even remember the second sack.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I don't remember the second one either.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It was the one late right in the in the
fourth quarter. On that they made that third and twenty five.
Remember they had that weird.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Oh then they take yeah yeah tripping, Yeah, yeah, a tripping.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
But they didn't call it. I didn't call it a
tripping by no, No, they didn't.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Yeah it was a trip.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I'm not saying it wasn't. I'm just saying, like Fletch,
you know, had the head was locked in on that.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So, going back to.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
The run game, yards per carry obviously you want to
be and you would love to be at four yards
per carry, maybe a little bit more if possible. But
it's the volume of runs that I feel makes the
most difference, that makes the biggest difference, especially if you
want to run play action pass. If I'm a defensive
(30:19):
player and we don't feel like we respect your run,
we don't feel like you're gonna run the ball, we
don't think you're you don't give us a real play action.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
You know, hand movement and all that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I'm not gonna suck up on the run. You're not
gonna be able to get those those end breakers of
where linebackers avoid those areas. You're not gonna slow down
the pass rush because one thing when you play action pass,
it slows down the rushers as well, because you're not
you got to kind of hold down, kind of anchor
(30:56):
down a little bit to make sure you're not getting
too far off the field and you're opening a crease
for a run and line.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
So thirty three carries, thirty three attempts.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
That's what you need, especially for defense like the Broncos,
because eventually you want to be able to get play
action pass. You want to be able to get some
carries that are going to break and just a great
job Russian football.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I want to go back to the offensive line for
a minute. I feel like this team has had three
preseasons with three different lines, and it's finally starting to
take hold at what this line is going to be.
When they started in the summer, we knew Cosmey wasn't
going to play early in the season, and because of
a number of injuries during the summer, Andrew Wiley was
playing like literally every position. They never had a consistent
(31:41):
five out on the field. They started with one guard tandem,
they switched it in the middle of the year, then
cosme comes back. Now we're about four weeks into what
is the settled group of the offensive line, and I
think that's why we're starting to see this turn and
it is one of the big parts of what I'm
excited about out for the last five games of the season.
(32:02):
What was the last six last night, is that you're
going to see the manifestation of the line we thought
we had in the summer, which goes back to we
get to look at the offense that we thought we
were going to have in the spring and the summer.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
I mean one million percent.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I think like that's the thing is when we talked
about this offseason, what this offense could be like it
was that the offensive line was going to be significantly improved. Yes,
and we didn't get that version length and we didn't
get that version probably until two weeks ago.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
Yes, And so I think that's part of it, right.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
The lack of health on the perimeter has been a
big part of it, the lack of health of the
quarterback spot, so you know, going down the stretch. I
think the thing again that I'm most excited for is
that we are going to get a galvanized offensive line
with budding skill position players and returning skill position players
that allow you to slide in the right roles. And
then all of a sudden, Jaden is stepping into this
ecosystem where he can be because I think about the
(32:53):
Seattle game, right, and like that that Kurt Warner review
of his play, Yeah, and a lot of it was
just he was just accelerated because there was a ton
of pressure, the coverage was good. And now all of
a sudden, if the protection's better, the protections more sound,
we can he can do his stuff that makes.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Him special major on the outside.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Right, And I think, like that's the thing I'm like
this is this is a team that was supposed to
win ten games and be a playoff caliber team. And
I think we're going to see that version of this
team heading down the stretch because again, like you would
you say at the top of the show, this, this
Broncos team is like the best team in the AFC, right,
And like this is.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
This record of the AFC. Top three scoring defense, top
three total yards defense, super Bowl caliber defense, good at
every single level. All world player on the edge, all
world players rushing to quarterback. Name the weakness on them, Washington,
move the ball up and down the field on them.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Last night, I'll say this about the offensive line. Nobody
requires no position group requires more reps in practice, off season,
in season games in the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And it's not just individual reps, it's as a group. Yeah,
they just needs so much time together.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
You have to you have to have reps built up, stockpile,
hundreds of reps, thousands of reps over the years.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Look at this the current five starting off as a lineman,
how many reps have they really really taken together.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
At the unit?
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Yeah, that's it a month, right, So they're.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
They're continuing to learn each other.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Cosmey had never played with John Connerly like this is
first time playing with them first, and Chris Paul and
Laramie aren't.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
They hadn't played with each other, so they're learning on
the fly.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
They didn't have all these reps built up during the
off season during training camp, where you're going through padded
practices every single day, where you're working games, you're practicing
against the New England Patriots, and you know you were
supposed to practice get to the Baltimore Ravens. You don't
have those those those reps built up. They're learning on
(35:08):
the fly now. If we've worked multiple we've seen defenses
run a bunch of different games against us. We've worked
on our communications, We've gone through some adversity as offensive line.
Now we on know how the side of it. We're
better because of it, and we will continue to get
better because we'll have more experience as the season continues
to go.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
As for zach Ertz first ten plus catch games since
twenty nineteen, he also last night pass Shane and Sharp
for the fifth most receptions by any tight end ever
in NFL history. He had a huge game last night.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Why, I think a lot of it's because Terry's back
quite honestly, and I think like you get to see
him play against people he's supposed to be playing against.
So what I mean by that is like he should
draw that U Funga matchup, and if he's on Hufunga
and Manda Man situations, like he should eat that. And
like he did, right, Like he just did a great job.
Like you know, even on both those play action sale
routs that he ran just the nuance of him right, like, hey,
(36:02):
I'm gonna sell like I'm blocking the run. Who Funga
takes this crazy angle in a little jab step outside
release and I'm on the sale right or I'm on
the backside running at high cross. A lot of people
just run straight across the field. The corner just matches
that kills it. He does a great job of pushing up.
He sells an out actually on a high cross, which
is diabolical, and then runs across the field and catch
the football.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
So like you see all the skill set that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
He's cultivated in terms of running routes, and again he's
drawing the matchup that he should have been drawing since
week one. Theoretically, again, he had to do more because
again of the injuries on the perimeter.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
I think, yeah, now you when you look at this
Denver Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
He talked about the pass rushers.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Cooper, benitol Alan, those guys can get out of the quarterback.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Talk about the corners, certain and Moss.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Where do you feel like you can get an advantage
from a Hey, got to have a play critical situation.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
You know they gonna go man and man.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
And as I was looking at this, I felt like
it was their linebackers are safeties trying to cover Zach Hurt.
They were going to struggle with that, and our coaching
staff they knew it, and they scanned them up. They knew, hey,
it's the coverage we don't get Zach go win.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Also, I think they found some easy buttons to the
tight end. I think that's something else that we talked about.
The explosive plays. But like some of those what I
call like slam flats where you're blocking the end the
man coverage player's eyes getting the backfield or in the
flat for ten yard game. There's two catches like that,
the stick route that Zach runs versus zone twice in
this game. Those are easy completions for the quarterback. So
(37:45):
again the connection that Mariota has to Zach and those
moments is big. But also schematically, I think leaning into
some of that stuff was big.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, all right, last one on the offense, we have
to do the catch. Oh, that was simple, incredible. He
caught the ball with the hand he has a broken
finger on, so he caught it with four fingers. It
was extended. It was obj against the Cowboys. Whatever. However,
many years ago, a couple somebody texted me, A couple
(38:13):
of people texted me last night. They're like, that's the
best catch we've ever had in that stadium, and I
believe that. I remember a few years back when Terry
made a wild one handed catch in the opener against
the Chargers, falling backwards. It's a crazy catch, but not
a touchdown and in a needed moment that was simply unbelievable.
(38:34):
What he did last night making that catch.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
I won't have to see Terry's catching and Trey's catch
side by side, because that Terry catch.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
Was it was magnetic.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Said both on phenomenal catches.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
But he had won in Indianapolis a few years back
to at the one yard line on Stefan Gilmour. That
was absolutely undeable. But in this stadium. I can't think
of anything better than what Treylon Burke's did.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
The call budd right now, hold on, Jason Gott gave
me a call button. Yeah, drain is coming.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
So as I look at that catch, Firks of all
the trust to go to him, all the stuff he's
gone through, go up, make that cat. I mean, that
was ridiculous. That's that would be. That might get an aspy,
It might get an aspy.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
I think it's catch of the year in the NFL. Good.
I mean, I don't know if you saw the pooka
nakool one earlier in the day in the fourth quarter
where he made a one hand and catch. It set
up what should have been a game winning drive for
the Rams didn't end up being that he had an
unbelievable catch in their game. This was hold my beer.
That was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
With Berch, the cool one is crazy, like just like
they're like when you overhand, when you backhand those balls,
you know what I mean, Like that's a really tough.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
You got to have a massive hands.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, like that.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
But but I think the thing with Burkes that felt
so awesome is like we just haven't had a guy
here in a long time. To your point, that can
just go be like a physical freak, you know what
I'm saying, Just go win physically, because I think Riley
Moss is actually a pretty good coverage. Like it's not
like he's like really separated, he's in bad position. Just
that dude Trailing Burks is a significantly better athlete than
(40:12):
the dude that's covering him. And I can't remember the
last time that we've had a receiver like that. Obviously
Terry is a very good receiver, very unique, but that
just long armed, big vertical.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Yeah, this reminded me what few years back, remember Justin
Jefferson made that crazy fourth down catch in Buffalo. He's
a freak athlete who made a freak play. We saw
one last night.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Yeah, And again, like it was really funny watching the
All twenty two this morning because he probably should have
thrown the ball to Terry because that's why they got
like a double rub set up for Terry on the
slant underneath, and you're just like, you know, let me
rip this over here to Trailer Berks, which again I
think is one of those things that like is so
unique now about this team is that having a guy
like that, because you know, I think postgame you were
talking about or I was listening to your show, maybe
(40:54):
they were talking about how like he'd been making plays
like that all week in practice.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
He told us that, Marcus told us that too last.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Like they're building confidence and just say, hey, go be
a freak. And I think again, like having guys that
can win that way. It's like a basketball team. You
want guys that can be your spot up shooters, the
guys that can win near the basket. He's a guy
that can win near the basketball, like throw them anoop.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
You talking about just the confidence. That's a third down
play right there, third and goal, third and goal situation.
As you mentioned, Marcus ces him one on one backside,
and you mentioned, you know, Terry was probably the should
have threw it to him, but he probably had Marcus
had made his mind a pre snap, Hey got one
on one back here, it might get a little dicey
(41:32):
over here. Let me give him a fadeball and give
him opportunity a great ballplace with two and I mean
just a ridiculous catch.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Though on the field, I thought that thing was long gone.
I'm telling you, I was standing like you know, right
in the end zone. I'm looking over there, sitting right
next to the camera, I'm leaning on the box and
I'm like, no way that that thing's two yards out
of bounds. Then you just see his big old mint
just rip up there, come down with that thing and
there's no oscillation of the football. That was the other
thing that really got me is no, you stop that.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
You stopped that.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
I told you about using I've told you about using
the big words on the show.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
It just stuck to his hand right and that's the
one he broke the finger on or whatever, and like
it just was a tremendous play, like really really tremendous
and again like maybe best catch whatever, But in the moment,
uh it to me, it also signified something different about
the offense.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
We hadn't seen what you say, isolation on the on
the next game.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
During the broadcast, like I said, six seven, that was
pretty good. So everybody was very plean. All the young
people in my life were very pleased.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
So here's the deal.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
The other day, so my daughter was home from college
and they were about to take an uber to a party.
So I wasn't doing anything. I was like, well I
take you, I'll take her and it was two of
her college friends she went to high school with. So
I'm driving to the part, taking them to the party,
and somehow we get to talking about me doing a
broadcast in the games, and I don't know how six
(43:01):
seven came into play, and they're like, you should do
say six seven on the broadcast. I'm like, first of all,
I think it's so stupid. I don't even understand six seven.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Nobody does.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
So I was like, you know what, we got an
opportunity to do this. I did it, and CJ gave
me the clips, the audio clips. I'm gonna I'm gonna.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Send it to the girls. You did them well too.
You have the last thing about Burke's And again, this
is I think goes back to It's why I'm excited
about the second. You know, I know they're not going
to make the playoffs, Like obviously that's not going to happen,
but I do want to get a glimpse of what
the future looks like and what I thought this season
could have been. And I think we can have that here.
And if you are curious does this stuff still matter?
(43:45):
Go talk the way we had that conversation with Trailing
Burks last night Terry McLaurin last night. You know, like
after a loss, it's it's tough to talk to some
of the players, especially when it's that closed and there's
that much you know, I think like obviously Rue's you know,
sensitivities are very heightened at that point, especially in a
loss like that where they were this close. There were
a fingernail away from a win. That was a walk
(44:06):
in two point conversion, there were fingernail away from a
win when it ended along losing streak. But we got
to talk to Terry, who hadn't played in the month,
has had a very long ear. Listen to what he
had to say about why it mattered to him last
night to be out there due to the things he did.
And Burks, who was supposed to replace A. J. Brown
in Tennessee, has had a bazillion injuries, had one touchdown
(44:26):
before he made that catch last night. He got a
fresh start. And if you want to hear someone talk
about why football matters to him, listen to what he
had to say after that game on three in nineteen
oh so he was just talking about my mom in
on it now whatever.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yeah, No, it was just during that interview with him
the amount of respect perspective I had to him. That
was the first time we had an opportunity to interview him. Yeah,
but he I asked him about I say, hey, man,
you know you were drafted as a first route in Tennis.
He didn't kind of work out there. You get an
(45:02):
opportunity to be here in Washington. What does this mean
to you? And he said he was. He was very
thankful for his experience that he had in Tennessee. Like
great people there, you know, got nothing bad to say
about them. It's been a long journey, long long time.
I've relied on my faith. He talked about his faith.
(45:23):
He like tore my a c L clavical injury, now
torn finger, torn ligament, and he say, man, God doesn't
he puts the most on his Uh.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
I think he said best warriors or something something along
those lines.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
And so he's like, I'm just thankful for the opportunity
to be able to be in this situation and and
you know, just be here and relied on my faith
and and but he was just it's a great it's
a great interview, man.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah. He Terry as well. You could feel thetion of
the locker room, which is Mike goes back to there
were I know they don't want to hear it, but
there were some silver linings last night. As we kind
of move forward here, all right, before we go, first,
I want to congratulate your son, want to state championship, right,
state championship, and Logan's team is in the semi finals
of their state championship. So congratulations team, formal congratulations. Then
(46:15):
hopefully two more.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
For you, hopefully we get those done. Yeah, that's awesome. First,
they play like real football, and like he's showed me
some clips of his son, the teams are playing against
and that looks like a borderline college team.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
So there's a lot of tititle on we got the
NL nil worker.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
How'd y'all celebrate a state championship? What did you do? Man?
Speaker 3 (46:33):
He hung out with his teammates, so I, you know,
curfew From a curfew standpoint, the game is over it
like I don't know, nine thirty, ten o'clock or whatever.
He usually goes and gets something to net with his friends.
So I typically, hey, Man, be home by I might
say twelve, I might say twelve thirty, depending on what
it is. So this particular time, I like be home
(46:55):
by like, I think maybe I said one on one thirty.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
He's like, okay.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
About a couple of minutes later, he's like, well, actually,
can I spend a night over my buddy's house. It's like,
all right, man, I go go ahead. They had a
good time, they celebrated.
Speaker 5 (47:10):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
He psyched for this WEEKND I am psyched.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
I'm worried about travel, but my travel agent Fletch took
me up. So ho if we get out and you know,
call game and get a win and then get to Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, good luck to your crew, Thank you for sull right,
that'll do it for us. Talk to you next week.
After the Vikings, game Booth review was filmed at the
Big Bear AI Command Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers
Mission ready AI for a rapidly evolving world, proudly protecting
the Washington Commanders and its fans.
Coming up on the Booth Review. We are going to
look back at the catch of the year in the
NFL and.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The offensive line is coming together. What does that mean
for the offense?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
And I saw the Mystery of six six No, he
does it, but we'll still have the Booth Review coming
up next.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome into the latest edition of the Booth Review podcast.
I'm Brahm Weinstein with London Fletcher and Logan Paulson. Were
brought to you by Microsoft Surface Copilot Plus PC and
we are in the Big Bear AI Command Center studio
after a close one against one of the hottest teams
in the NFL, a twenty seven to twenty six loss
to the Denver Broncos last night in overtime, second straight
(00:41):
game that Washington played in overtime. We're going to go
through the defense. We're going to go through the offense.
But I do want to start with one thought here
because we were in the locker room last night and
it's down because they lost, but it was up because
of the way they played and the way they fought.
So let me just ask you, as former players, are
there silver lightings in football?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I believe so I think obviously you want to win
games you want. The ultimate goal is to win, but
I think it matters how you play and losses too,
Like how do you look at a loss?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Because do you look terrible?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
There have been times this season where we've looked terrible
in some losses, and then you had the game like
we had last night against the Broncos where we did
a lot of really really good things and and ultimately
didn't get to win. But there's a lot that we
take from that game and build on. So I guess
quote unquote silver lining yes in this situation.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I mean it's funny to me like as a as
a player, I don't know if there was ever a
time where I was like, oh man, like we played
really well on a loss. But I think now that
I've kind of stepped back and I coach high school football,
like I can field a little bit more right, the
benefit of like how you playing a loss?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Is there something to that?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Right?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Like did you play physically? Did you play all four quarters?
In this case five quarters? And I think when you
look at that stuff, yes, there is value to it.
And I think as a player, I was too like
invested in it, like I was too granular. But now
stepping back. I think you can feel the benefit of it,
and I'm sure it's something you felt in the locker
room postgame.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, I like you felt the contributions across the board.
There were some amazing moments which we'll talk about. There
were returners that obviously had an impact on how the
totality of the team played, and there's been a change,
you know, on the defense just in the way that
they've played. So I did feel that. But you know,
(02:32):
when we talked to Dan Quinn after the game made
it very clear, very quickly. The result is meant to win, yes,
and we're not trying to like take the silver linings,
but I do think being one step removed from it
and watching it, I know this wasn't a win last night,
but it was an incredible performance against one of the
hottest teams in the NFL that might be the one
(02:53):
seed in the AFC this year.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, and there they'll get back. Like last night I
used to talked about silver line is and all that. Today,
they're going to watch the film and they'll be like, man,
they're just play here, one play there, we do this,
we win.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
That football game.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
So they'll be some disappointment today once they when they
look at that film and they review it and again,
at the end of the day, it is all about winning.
But man, those guys play their their tails off. A
lot of guys contributed going against that, especially that defense,
what the offense was able to do, And we'll get
into all that later, but there's a lot that you
(03:30):
can build on momentum. Now, let's not be satisfied with
that performance. Let's build on it and net's go to
Minnesota and come out of there with the victory. So
all right, Yeah, we played some good football. Ultimately we
didn't win, so there's still some more steps we need
to do in order to win this ball game.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, I think one of the one of the good
things about being in this seat and one of the
painful things about being a player or a coach is that,
like I think Fletch alluded to it really nicely, there
is like today's going to sting a lot because you
are so close, because there are so many opportunities. We're like, man,
if we don't do this, so we get this block here,
if we get this protection lined up, or if we
get this if we fit this run a little bit.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Better, if we have our eyes a little bit better in.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
This coverage principle, Like we win this football game, and
I think that's gonna hurt a lot, but I think
in some ways that hurt is good because it means
you're close. Oh yeah, and it's something that they haven't been.
They have been close. The last couple of weeks are
obviously Madrid, but prior to that, you know, Seattle Detroit,
Like those games were tough. Man, Like, I remember coming
to this show and just being like, what do we
talk about? And today there's a lot of positive things
(04:32):
to discuss because the efforts there, the physicality is there,
the attention to detail appears to be there on both
sides of the football, and I think that's something Bram
to your point, that is a major silver lining moving forward.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You know, I think like I've spent my career as
an observer of the team, and you know, this season
did not go in any way, shape or form the
way I would have anticipated. I think anybody would have anticipated,
and there's a ton of reasons why. But if they
show resolve, that is something that's important to me moving
forward everybody, but for everybody I think in the room,
(05:05):
I think it's important for them too. To get a
glimpse of the team we thought they were going to
be in the summer, even with all the injuries that
have occurred, And last night was a sign that the
darkest part of the season is truly behind them. And
I think that that is important moving forward here. I think,
you know, all this discussion about who should play, who
should not, what should they do here? How did they
(05:26):
handle the last six games of the season. I think
last night they showed you what they're about. And I
think that's what's really important here. I know they lost,
and that's why the silver lining to me is I
was hoping the dark part of the season was behind them.
It is. That's what I got at a last night. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Now, it's just an effort man, the ability to move
to football against that defense up and down the field.
I mean, you look at you, No, we stall, We
hurt our sales. Really, the Denver Broncos did defense as
didn't truly stop us for majoritiya of the game. Obviously
(06:03):
he had to tip at the two point convergent, but
how many times were we able to get on their
side of the fifty? Had to had to costly interception
in the red area. But I mean we were moving
the ball, Cliff thought, Yeah. I thought Cliff and the
offensive staff did a great job of the scheme they
(06:24):
put in both in the run game, but also passing
game and and scheming up some guys to be open,
scheming up some big plays.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I thought they did a great job.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But a lot of stuff to build on, and hopefully
we'll get more guys healthy. Still Jaden still hoping that
Noah Brown could come back, and defensively, I don't know
that we will get any any other guys back from
a defensive end standpoint, most of those guys are out
for the season unless baptists made. But you know, it's
it's good to have those guys coming back.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
But to your point, I think when you look at
some of these guys that did come back, or guys
that were big phrasing big quote unquote fras in additions
this offseason, like you could on the sideline, like when
you're got the headset on, you're watching, like you can
feel Will Harris and his communication and just that what
that does for the defense. And is he a perfect player?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
But does is there a role for him and that
type of player on this defense and on this team?
And is it helping the defense get better?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And so it's interesting, like thinking about all the offensive
injuries and where they're at, but also like defensively getting
some of these pieces back. Even guys like Noig Banaghany
playing the slot like he's doing a great job there,
or Goldman Man like playing the true nos like he
looks like he's found a role in a niche the
last couple of weeks, whatever the different utilization is there,
you know, maybe it's more true nos and kind of
(07:38):
this odd spacing, but I think you're just getting better
performances across the board. And I think that's something that
is is encouraging to see. It's maybe it's scheme, maybe
it's mentality, whatever it is, but that's been awesome too.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
The breakdown on the big plays was not occurring last night.
I think we've seen that adjustment. Hears is a couple
of weeks ago in Madrid. That's Jalen Waddle and Tua.
We didn't see the big plays down the field, so
their adjustments were starting to kind of take hold. Last
night against Denver, they controlled their run game. There were
very few big plays down the field. Now you look
(08:11):
at the yardage totals, and you're not going to be
overly pleased. You look at the point total though, and
I think you will be pretty satisfied. So where are
you just kind of overall with where the defense is
amid all the injuries and a couple of notable returneyes
right now.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, it's been a big difference what Deq calling the defenses,
just from a metric standpoint, playing a ton a lot
more zone coverage than we did when Joe will was
calling the defenses, keeping everything in front of them. I
think they're more connected with their zone distributions. There were
(08:45):
a couple of times where they they dropped a little
bit too deep and the checkdown when Bonix came to
the checkdown, guys were able to convert third downs because
just dropped a little bit too deep on some instances.
And then they did a bo Nicks and Champagne did
a nice job of scheming up a wheel route second
(09:06):
man through the zone. That was the one big pass
play they had. But that's just them scheming up a
good call. But I thought, I thought, Quinn, we just
see more. There's a greater attention to detail. I mean,
it just looked like you see more guys in the
frame around ball cares. The tackling has been better, and
(09:28):
whatever the reason is, I don't know what it is.
Maybe they're doing some different things, just maybe they pair
some things down. But the defense has played much better
in the last two weeks, especially for the most part
in the red zone where they where they definitely have
made some strides.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And that's the thing that's so interesting is because it's
the same people in large part. You know, there's some
guys in some different roles, different slightly different utilizations, but
it's the same people, but they're just playing so much better.
Like I was watching the first couple of drives before
the show started, and they were running like a little
boot to the right, you know, and in weeks past,
earlier in the season, you know, that kind of second
(10:02):
level cross or that ten yard crosser has been wide
open every time they run it, and they were in
kind of some type of either quarters or Tampa Tuo.
I couldn't really tell, but Kwan, it's so interesting. The
quarterback boots and his eyes don't go with the quarterback.
They snap immediately to the crosser right, and the guy
who's got the flat they snapped the tight end, it's
not like this kind of a MorphOS, where's my vision
(10:24):
and we're getting to the football, And I just think,
like that's the level of detail, Like even watching the
Madrid stuff, like the eye discipline in zones is tremendous, right,
and the eye discipline in man is tremendous. So that's
been really cool to see. And then the other thing
I want to ask you, Fletch, because like I remember
when Dan was coaching in Seattle, like when I was
playing against that defense, one of the things they always
(10:44):
talked about was like they want you to throw the
check down ten times in a game to see if
you can do it. Is there a little bit of
that going on, like where they're just saying, like, keep
everything in front of you, forced the ball down. It's
like even though they're not running cover three, they're running two,
they're running quarters, they're just saying like take these five
eight yards. See if you can do it ten times,
then you're gonna buy down red zone.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, that's exactly what you want to do against office.
I talked to some of the great play callers and
this was defens the offensive play callers and Mike Martz,
who greatest sean to talk check of that, and I
was talking to him about offices and we got on
the subject about quarterbacks doing a check down. He said, Now,
(11:25):
this is probably fifteen years ago or more. He said, London,
they don't play these pay these guys twenty million dollars
to throw check downs. They want to, they want to,
they want to rip it, they want to hit the
big shots. But when you force these offenses to check
the football down, he says, eventually the office is gonna
(11:46):
do something. They're gonna make a mistake to get themselves
behind and down behind the chain on the third down situation,
and you're gonna get off the football field. So I
think that's kind of his philosophy. Keep everything in front
of us, don't give a big exposure of plays, get
him in some third and longer situations and maybe would
dial up a pressure. We'll we'll rely on our format rush.
(12:08):
That's how we're going to win those series.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The last couple of weeks to the red zone, defensive
stood up when they needed it to, got some stops
and there were two particular ones late in the game
that stood out to me that were different from earlier
in the season. He correct me if he's think I'm
wrong about this, but like there was some situational awareness
that I think was a little bit different from earlier
in the season. And the two plays that really stood
out Wagner's interception one where he's standing in a lane
(12:34):
where he's waiting for the ball to come right, he's
reading I don't know what Nix was looking at, but
like he knows where the ball is going, okay, And
the second one, and I think the one that really
stood out to me late was Courtland Sutton is by
far their most targeted third down receiver period, right, they
made a switch and when he did try to throw
to Sutton late on that third down, that got Washington
(12:55):
the ball back, the game, the opportunity to tie the game,
they converged on him and there was a lot of
white with traffic around him. There were some situational awareness
that I think was really promising about what's going on
here too.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I mean with so this is the thing that
I've heard with the Bobby Wagner interception, Like, to me,
that's that's like a bad that's a bad quarterback.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
But I'm not saying we should.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
But what I'm saying is that like I do think
when you're like, when you're playing this level of quarterback,
when you're playing the level of like A two a
tongue of b I low. And that's not a knock
on those guys. They're thirty two of the best guys
in the world. Like they're going to give you some
of these moments. And in weeks past, this team is
not capitalized on those vinments. And so to be again,
to be in the right position.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, Panis stands out in the discussion that you're having,
like we could have got a couple from him, but
it did not occur. Here we are weeks later and
it's changing.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And so again, like when you look at that play,
it's to me, it's just good defense. Right, there's a
little bit of pressure. He's a little bit stressed, like
in young quarterbacks when they're stressed, they do irrational things.
He knows where the dig is, he's trying to rip
the dig and Bobby says, I've seen this show.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
I'm gonna And again.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
This is going back to what we were just talking about.
Do your job, get to your depth, get to your spot.
And does Bobby do anything tremendous other than be in
the right position where he's supposed to be in the coverage. No,
but you got to catch football. And I think those
are the types of breaks when you can just stress
a quarterback a little inexperienced, they'll give you those opportunities
and you got to capitalize on And I think that's
(14:19):
one of the things that was so frustrating earlier in
the season is they didn't capitalize on those opportunites when
they did come.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So I was thinking about this before.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
The game.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Play calling is a it's a science and an art
to call plays.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
There is a for the game and there's an art
to it.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
For the scientific part of it is, hey, we're gonna
for your analytics guys, statistic guys, whatever tendency is. You're
going to look at, Hey, this is what they like
to do, just down and this is this personnel grouping.
So there's the scientific part of how we're going to
match this, the calls we're gonna make. But then the
art of it, the artist three where you let that
(14:59):
that part that play caller.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Use his creativity.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
If hey, when I want to dial up this pressure,
when I want to play coverage, what type of coverage
I want to play? What looks I want to give
him that that that call that you mentioned where there
was a bunch of guys around sudden. That was the
artistry part of d Q and making adjustments. Say it
was his own coverage. But what they did they only
(15:24):
rushed three and they dropped him to the three receiver side,
be knowing that, Hey, they've been hurting us with this checkdown.
Let's drop him to the three receiver side. What the
three receivers are? Bobby goes up to too with Jacob
Martin and tells him which side to drop. He'd say, hey,
drop right, drop right. He gives him a signal. Jacob
(15:47):
gives some signal, let him know, Hey, I acknowledge you.
He drops out, knocks something off his path in completion,
off the field.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So that's the artistry part of it.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
And that's that's that's the great thing about play calling,
the scientific and the artwork.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
And also even on that play, like Chris Jones is
one on one to the perimeter and I was like, man,
they're going to rip a slant here and some of
that too, right, and so I thought, oh man, And
then even just the subtle thing you know, revo is
he's diving in and out of the slant window right.
It just and it just gives a moment of pause
to the quarterback to be like, do I have this?
And then the brilliant thing about it that I thought
(16:25):
was like when he's diving in and out, they end
up getting the Cover two and Chris Jones, to his credit,
stems inside leverage right now and he's standing in the
slant window. So it's like everyone knew the situation, they
knew the type of play they.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Want to run.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
And it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, Fletch,
because everybody seemed like the communication with Jacob Martin and
Bobby Wagner, like all of that stuff, it just wasn't
there early in the season, and now all of a sudden,
everybody's doing it.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I'm smiling because when you think about Cover two as
a corner, Logan mentioned Jonathan Jones stemming inside. He's supposed
to be outside level, right, like his responsibility. He's outside
leverage at every receiver and forcing him inside. No, Hey,
they've hit me with a couple of slats in this
ball game. I'm gonna stem inside. They throw that slamp,
(17:15):
I'm gonna be there and he probably let us safety know, hey,
I'm gonna be jumping his slam, so just be ready
in cases a slug o slant, go be ready to
get over the top.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
But whether they.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Whether they made this a crect adjustment on the sideline
telling him they started to play inside, or it was
a veteran player understanding, Man, they've hit me a couple
times with this slamp. It's three by one. I'm away
from everything. I'm not giving up the slant. So stuff
like that is just those are the levels of playing
good football and I hope we continue to see more
(17:46):
of that moving forward.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
And FLTZ like I got a question I got for you,
is like, because Smoot always talks about how he Sewan
springs Taylor like they used to have these in game
communications amongst themselves, but it seems like someone else has
kind of sparked this communication because it wasn't something that
was happening before. Is that all coming from dan Quinn?
You think just like you got.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
You got different guys playing at the cornerback position now too,
like more experience, get more experience. Got Trey Amus's rookie,
so he probably probably gonna, you know, do stuff by
the book. And then you got. We had multiple guys
playing a safety position. So just those communication that comfort level.
You're not gonna take chances with all, You're gonna you're
(18:27):
gonna do it the way the coach wants you to
do it. You got to build up that trust to
where coach is like, all right, man, you can go
and do it, get it if you want to do
it your way, as long as you get the.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Job done right with it. Yeah, absolutely, yes.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
All right, so that was a good sign, right, Like,
I mean, I think the yardage shotals still are probably something.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, I think this is one thing that I think
you mentioned and I think it's one hundred percent right.
Like this is I think where the defense is at,
like they're gonna have to play really good ben, but
don't break complimentary football because they right now because of
the injuries, because of where the roster is at from
what this regime inherited, they don't have the horses up
front to like really rush the passer. They don't really
(19:09):
have the guys in the perimeter like really play man
to man like lockdown coverage. I think the way that
they envisioned at the be end of the year. So
they're kind of piecemealing this thing together. So I'm okay
with high yardish totals. Honestly, right now I'm not okay
with high point totals. And I think we're seeing the
staff understand that and what they need to do to
kind of Again, it's not just the defense, it's the offense.
The way Cliff is calling the game. The number of
(19:30):
third downs are able to convert, Like it's you can
tell they understand this is how we have to win
football games.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, I'd say this from a the yarns could have
been significantly less yesterday, and we play a couple of
those third downs a little bit better. I'm the one
the touchdown, I believe right before they have Yeah, they
converted three third downs yes on that play two minute
drive right if a memory started to me correctly, and
you know, we had opportunities good calls. Again, I talked
(19:58):
about maybe just dropping a hair tooo too deep on
his own coverage. One thing I noticed sometimes and and
this is just when when you're playing zone defense a
lot of times and maybe getting a little too technical
when the quarterback sets, you want to be set as
a defender, especially underneath the fender, because now you figure
(20:20):
he's about to throw that football, you want to be
at a plant drive, break on the ball, whatever if
he's if he's set and you're still kind of drifting
a little bit. Now when he throws, now you're gonna
have to gather, break down and go make a different
make a tackle. And that could be the difference between
stopping them a yard short or tackling them a yard
(20:41):
after they've already got the yard as they need to gain.
So there's still a couple of things that need to
be tuned up, and I'm sure they'll emphasize those things
in the met room and the practice fielding. We'll continue
to get better on defense.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So it was improving their offense is where this team
went all in the offseason. They acquired Laramie Tunsel, they
acquired Deebo Samuel for a bazillion different reasons, they have
not had this group on the field. They still didn't
even last night. They're waiting for their quarterback to come
back and play. But Terry mclaurin's return clearly makes a
(21:15):
massive difference in everybody's role on the team. And I
think you saw that in real time. This was the
first time he looked like himself the entire season.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Man, that that makes me think about that doctor Dre Song.
Y'all forgot about Drey. Y'all forgot about Terry Man. I
think the fan base and quite frankly a lot of
the media too, forgot how freaking good Terry McLaurin is
as a wide receiver. You realize he broke the franchise
(21:44):
at the franchise record and touchdown receptions last year.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
He's been the ultimate pro.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He's put up numbers with Trash at the quarterback position
a lot of times. Just to be totally honest, when
you see a healthy Terry McLaurin, you saw he was
able to do. They got the Patrick's Sam raigning he
wanted defensive back last year. Yeah, you show how much
(22:10):
respect the Denver Broncos had against Terry his first game back.
They said, no, we're not gonna just let anybody come.
Patricks Twn you have him, and it was an absolute battle.
Brian Balddinger he did a breakdown where he shows those
guys battling Terry. He looked fast, competitive, his energy, being
(22:31):
able to win routes, gotta have it plays. He made
multiple plays like that in the ball game, so For
all you people that don't think Terry mccoin is a
number one receiver, you gotta be freaking kidding me. Did
you not watch that man last season? In this season,
he's I mean, and yesterday he showed while he's the
(22:51):
number one receiver and he showed what type of difference
maker he is on that football field.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, And I think it's like to your point, Fletch,
it doesn't matter like where ranks and the pantheon of
current wide receivers, like is he a top ten, fifteenth, whatever,
doesn't matter, but what he is for this team is significant.
And when you watch again, the confidence that the quarterback
has in him as a player right to be able
to rip a slant, tight windows slant right that maybe
my favorite throw of the day was that kind of
(23:18):
It was like a ten yard dig in the low
red where there's like a you know, Deebo's pull on
the Tampa two player.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Out he throws right in there.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Like those are timing, chemistry type throws that it takes
time to build that rapport with the quarterback, but you
can tell like his experience allows him to make some
of those plays. And then the other thing I think
is really important is like we talked about, We're gonna
talk about zach er Ittz more here in a second,
but Terry being in draws the Pats or ten matchups.
So then all of a sudden you get trailing Burke's
(23:46):
one one with Riley Moss for a goal line fade,
and then Deebo Samuel is on a safety and a
man and man situation running a speedout on first and
ten in a two minute drive, like because we've had
to allocate resources differently to cover people. And then all
of a sudden, Whu Funga is now in a man
and man situation versus one of the best tight ends
in the history of the NFL future Hall of Famer
in zach ert it'z like, that's what it gives you,
(24:07):
gives you this cascading effect. So instead of being able
to be like, oh, Patzertan, you cover Traylon Burks, and
then all of a sudden, Raley Mosch You're covering zach Ertz,
And then think about how much more difficult the offense
would be here. It's like his addition just it slotted
everyone into the matchup that they should have had. And
I think that's the thing that I felt most significantly
(24:27):
in addition to the confidence they had, but that was
the thing that made the offense feel so alive.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah, the versatility for Deebo Samuel is partially based on
Terry McLaurin being on the other side of the field.
It allows him the space to work. I think it's
hard for someone like Deebo Samuel to get the space
that they're looking for to make the plays with him
if the other side of the field is not accounted
for in the same way without McLaurin, Which is why again,
I think all of us want to see the glimpse
(24:53):
of the offense specifically that we thought we were going
to have in the summer down the stretch and you
started to see that Seventeen's a big, big, big part
of it.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, absolutely, man.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But to me, like the bigger thing here, honestly is
like the way the offensive line has come together, like
quite honestly, Like again, Terry did a great job, Trailer
did a great job, Debo, great job.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Zach obviously had a huge day.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
When you look at the offensive line, like everyone talks
about like what was promised to us right like you
were You're just making that reference like this is the
offensive was problem this offensive line, the way they've you know,
connected over the last three or four weeks since Cosme's
come in, Like, think about how effective they were run blocking.
Think about how effective they were in their nonverbal communication yesterday.
(25:36):
Think about how effective they were in pass protection. Right, Like,
this is supposed to be the best pass rushing defense
in the NFL, and I didn't really it is the best.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
I didn't really feel.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I didn't really feel that way though, I think, you know,
that's what I'm like, Like they had a couple of pressures,
but it wasn't like, oh my god, yeah, Like think
about some of these games earlier this year where it
just feels like it's a it's a deluge of pass rush.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Here.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It didn't didn't feel that way like that, So I
think like that it's the group that I say, like,
if if Daniels comes back and that group's playing like this,
the one thing Jayden has a hard time with is
navigating tight pockets and pressure, and all of a sudden,
this group is playing lights out. Think about the playmaking prowess, yes,
that he will now bring. You've unlocked with him. So
(26:17):
to me, this is really exciting because that group's playing
so well.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, when you look at the office of line, Cosby's
healthier now, he's got his sea legs. I guess you
could say he's got them back. Connerley, he's had twelve
games under his belt now, so he's seeing a lot
of different dynamic rushers and things like that.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Expressive his improvement, Ben really, I mean, he's.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Him the provement Chris Paul coming in there, solidifying things,
continue to do a really nice job and larm me.
Tussin Man, we don't hear from him. We don't say
his name much because he's just exing people out like
there's they don't He doesn't give up pressures and you
see why they gave up what they gave to get him.
But when offense line is gone, they were physical at
(27:03):
the point of attack. I talked about, Hey, you have
to be the most physical team in his ball game
being I had a rust for one hundred and forty
three yards against that.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Yeah, said Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
There's and press. There's a couple of things that won.
Washington held the Broncos to a seventeen point nine percent
pressure rate. That's not just their lowest of the season,
it's their lowest since twenty twenty three. This is the
team that led the league in sacks coming into the
game with forty nine. I think that had won last night,
so they got up to fifty last night. Nick Benito
was erased numerous times by tunsel Jonathan Cooper, who's as
(27:36):
fast off the edge as anybody. Twenty six matchups against
Josh Connery, zero pressures. When I talked to Dan Quinn
late last week, he had said, we're going to be
patient with the run game, and we're aware because they
had the lowest yards per carry in the NFL coming
into the game that we're going to have to settle
for a bunch of short runs, but stick with it,
and we want to make plays in the pass play game.
(27:57):
I think if you ask him today to be honest,
did you did you run the ball better than you
thought you would? If he's being honest, I think he
would say yes, that the run game actually performed probably
above and beyond what they thought it was going to
be last night.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And I think the thing that was surprising to me
was a lot of that was from the runner. Like
I think the offensive line and the blocking serface did
a great job but some of those early explosives, like
they're creating pressure and there's a free runner to the
ball carrier and it's c rod great contact balance fighting
through something, or hey, we're running duo and you know
duo supposed to kind of go to that three man
service where you get those double teams. He's got great
(28:29):
vision and is scorting that out to the front side
of the run, which you very rarely see on BIO.
So I think he deserves a ton of credit for
a kind of maximizing money runs, utilizing a superpower in
terms of vision to keep the offense on schedule. And
then I want to just call attention to this because
I'm like, this is the football nerdy part of me
is when you get first downs, you can run the
football more, right, So I think what they were they
(28:50):
were like fifty percent on third down or something like that. Crazy, yes,
and they can run a ton of plays, they get
guys a ton of touches, and so to me, the
story of the game and if this is what this
team wants to be going on long drive, you need
to execute on third down, and they found a way
to do that. I think zach Ertz was a huge
part of that, and the offensive line obviously holding up.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
But to me, that's the story.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, I'll give you another number. They ran eighty five
plays last night, which is an enormous number of plays,
and against a defense like that that's relentless and gets
to the quarterback as often as they do. That figured
to be a death sentence to run that many plays
against a team like that, and it was not.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
They threw the ball fifty times, that's right, well fifty times.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, they ended up with two sacks, but I mean,
I don't even remember the second sack.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I don't remember the second one either.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It was the one late right in the in the
fourth quarter. On that they made that third and twenty five.
Remember they had that weird.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Oh then they take yeah yeah tripping, Yeah, yeah, a tripping.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
But they didn't call it. I didn't call it a
tripping by no, No, they didn't.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Yeah it was a trip.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I'm not saying it wasn't. I'm just saying, like Fletch,
you know, had the head was locked in on that.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So, going back to.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
The run game, yards per carry obviously you want to
be and you would love to be at four yards
per carry, maybe a little bit more if possible. But
it's the volume of runs that I feel makes the
most difference, that makes the biggest difference, especially if you
want to run play action pass. If I'm a defensive
(30:19):
player and we don't feel like we respect your run,
we don't feel like you're gonna run the ball, we
don't think you're you don't give us a real play action.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
You know, hand movement and all that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I'm not gonna suck up on the run. You're not
gonna be able to get those those end breakers of
where linebackers avoid those areas. You're not gonna slow down
the pass rush because one thing when you play action pass,
it slows down the rushers as well, because you're not
you got to kind of hold down, kind of anchor
(30:56):
down a little bit to make sure you're not getting
too far off the field and you're opening a crease
for a run and line.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
So thirty three carries, thirty three attempts.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
That's what you need, especially for defense like the Broncos,
because eventually you want to be able to get play
action pass. You want to be able to get some
carries that are going to break and just a great
job Russian football.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I want to go back to the offensive line for
a minute. I feel like this team has had three
preseasons with three different lines, and it's finally starting to
take hold at what this line is going to be.
When they started in the summer, we knew Cosmey wasn't
going to play early in the season, and because of
a number of injuries during the summer, Andrew Wiley was
playing like literally every position. They never had a consistent
(31:41):
five out on the field. They started with one guard tandem,
they switched it in the middle of the year, then
cosme comes back. Now we're about four weeks into what
is the settled group of the offensive line, and I
think that's why we're starting to see this turn and
it is one of the big parts of what I'm
excited about out for the last five games of the season.
(32:02):
What was the last six last night, is that you're
going to see the manifestation of the line we thought
we had in the summer, which goes back to we
get to look at the offense that we thought we
were going to have in the spring and the summer.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
I mean one million percent.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I think like that's the thing is when we talked
about this offseason, what this offense could be like it
was that the offensive line was going to be significantly improved. Yes,
and we didn't get that version length and we didn't
get that version probably until two weeks ago.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
Yes, And so I think that's part of it, right.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
The lack of health on the perimeter has been a
big part of it, the lack of health of the
quarterback spot, so you know, going down the stretch. I
think the thing again that I'm most excited for is
that we are going to get a galvanized offensive line
with budding skill position players and returning skill position players
that allow you to slide in the right roles. And
then all of a sudden, Jaden is stepping into this
ecosystem where he can be because I think about the
(32:53):
Seattle game, right, and like that that Kurt Warner review
of his play, Yeah, and a lot of it was
just he was just accelerated because there was a ton
of pressure, the coverage was good. And now all of
a sudden, if the protection's better, the protections more sound,
we can he can do his stuff that makes.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Him special major on the outside.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Right, And I think, like that's the thing I'm like
this is this is a team that was supposed to
win ten games and be a playoff caliber team. And
I think we're going to see that version of this
team heading down the stretch because again, like you would
you say at the top of the show, this, this
Broncos team is like the best team in the AFC, right,
And like this is.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
This record of the AFC. Top three scoring defense, top
three total yards defense, super Bowl caliber defense, good at
every single level. All world player on the edge, all
world players rushing to quarterback. Name the weakness on them, Washington,
move the ball up and down the field on them.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Last night, I'll say this about the offensive line. Nobody
requires no position group requires more reps in practice, off season,
in season games in the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And it's not just individual reps, it's as a group. Yeah,
they just needs so much time together.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
You have to you have to have reps built up, stockpile,
hundreds of reps, thousands of reps over the years.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Look at this the current five starting off as a lineman,
how many reps have they really really taken together.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
At the unit?
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Yeah, that's it a month, right, So they're.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
They're continuing to learn each other.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Cosmey had never played with John Connerly like this is
first time playing with them first, and Chris Paul and
Laramie aren't.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
They hadn't played with each other, so they're learning on
the fly.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
They didn't have all these reps built up during the
off season during training camp, where you're going through padded
practices every single day, where you're working games, you're practicing
against the New England Patriots, and you know you were
supposed to practice get to the Baltimore Ravens. You don't
have those those those reps built up. They're learning on
(35:08):
the fly now. If we've worked multiple we've seen defenses
run a bunch of different games against us. We've worked
on our communications, We've gone through some adversity as offensive line.
Now we on know how the side of it. We're
better because of it, and we will continue to get
better because we'll have more experience as the season continues
to go.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
As for zach Ertz first ten plus catch games since
twenty nineteen, he also last night pass Shane and Sharp
for the fifth most receptions by any tight end ever
in NFL history. He had a huge game last night.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Why, I think a lot of it's because Terry's back
quite honestly, and I think like you get to see
him play against people he's supposed to be playing against.
So what I mean by that is like he should
draw that U Funga matchup, and if he's on Hufunga
and Manda Man situations, like he should eat that. And
like he did, right, Like he just did a great job.
Like you know, even on both those play action sale
routs that he ran just the nuance of him right, like, hey,
(36:02):
I'm gonna sell like I'm blocking the run. Who Funga
takes this crazy angle in a little jab step outside
release and I'm on the sale right or I'm on
the backside running at high cross. A lot of people
just run straight across the field. The corner just matches
that kills it. He does a great job of pushing up.
He sells an out actually on a high cross, which
is diabolical, and then runs across the field and catch
the football.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
So like you see all the skill set that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
He's cultivated in terms of running routes, and again he's
drawing the matchup that he should have been drawing since
week one. Theoretically, again, he had to do more because
again of the injuries on the perimeter.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
I think, yeah, now you when you look at this
Denver Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
He talked about the pass rushers.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Cooper, benitol Alan, those guys can get out of the quarterback.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Talk about the corners, certain and Moss.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Where do you feel like you can get an advantage
from a Hey, got to have a play critical situation.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
You know they gonna go man and man.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
And as I was looking at this, I felt like
it was their linebackers are safeties trying to cover Zach Hurt.
They were going to struggle with that, and our coaching
staff they knew it, and they scanned them up. They knew, hey,
it's the coverage we don't get Zach go win.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Also, I think they found some easy buttons to the
tight end. I think that's something else that we talked about.
The explosive plays. But like some of those what I
call like slam flats where you're blocking the end the
man coverage player's eyes getting the backfield or in the
flat for ten yard game. There's two catches like that,
the stick route that Zach runs versus zone twice in
this game. Those are easy completions for the quarterback. So
(37:45):
again the connection that Mariota has to Zach and those
moments is big. But also schematically, I think leaning into
some of that stuff was big.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, all right, last one on the offense, we have
to do the catch. Oh, that was simple, incredible. He
caught the ball with the hand he has a broken
finger on, so he caught it with four fingers. It
was extended. It was obj against the Cowboys. Whatever. However,
many years ago, a couple somebody texted me, A couple
(38:13):
of people texted me last night. They're like, that's the
best catch we've ever had in that stadium, and I
believe that. I remember a few years back when Terry
made a wild one handed catch in the opener against
the Chargers, falling backwards. It's a crazy catch, but not
a touchdown and in a needed moment that was simply unbelievable.
(38:34):
What he did last night making that catch.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
I won't have to see Terry's catching and Trey's catch
side by side, because that Terry catch.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
Was it was magnetic.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Said both on phenomenal catches.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
But he had won in Indianapolis a few years back
to at the one yard line on Stefan Gilmour. That
was absolutely undeable. But in this stadium. I can't think
of anything better than what Treylon Burke's did.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
The call budd right now, hold on, Jason Gott gave
me a call button. Yeah, drain is coming.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
So as I look at that catch, Firks of all
the trust to go to him, all the stuff he's
gone through, go up, make that cat. I mean, that
was ridiculous. That's that would be. That might get an aspy,
It might get an aspy.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
I think it's catch of the year in the NFL. Good.
I mean, I don't know if you saw the pooka
nakool one earlier in the day in the fourth quarter
where he made a one hand and catch. It set
up what should have been a game winning drive for
the Rams didn't end up being that he had an
unbelievable catch in their game. This was hold my beer.
That was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
With Berch, the cool one is crazy, like just like
they're like when you overhand, when you backhand those balls,
you know what I mean, Like that's a really tough.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
You got to have a massive hands.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, like that.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
But but I think the thing with Burkes that felt
so awesome is like we just haven't had a guy
here in a long time. To your point, that can
just go be like a physical freak, you know what
I'm saying, Just go win physically, because I think Riley
Moss is actually a pretty good coverage. Like it's not
like he's like really separated, he's in bad position. Just
that dude Trailing Burks is a significantly better athlete than
(40:12):
the dude that's covering him. And I can't remember the
last time that we've had a receiver like that. Obviously
Terry is a very good receiver, very unique, but that
just long armed, big vertical.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Yeah, this reminded me what few years back, remember Justin
Jefferson made that crazy fourth down catch in Buffalo. He's
a freak athlete who made a freak play. We saw
one last night.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Yeah, And again, like it was really funny watching the
All twenty two this morning because he probably should have
thrown the ball to Terry because that's why they got
like a double rub set up for Terry on the
slant underneath, and you're just like, you know, let me
rip this over here to Trailer Berks, which again I
think is one of those things that like is so
unique now about this team is that having a guy
like that, because you know, I think postgame you were
talking about or I was listening to your show, maybe
(40:54):
they were talking about how like he'd been making plays
like that all week in practice.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
He told us that, Marcus told us that too last.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Like they're building confidence and just say, hey, go be
a freak. And I think again, like having guys that
can win that way. It's like a basketball team. You
want guys that can be your spot up shooters, the
guys that can win near the basket. He's a guy
that can win near the basketball, like throw them anoop.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
You talking about just the confidence. That's a third down
play right there, third and goal, third and goal situation.
As you mentioned, Marcus ces him one on one backside,
and you mentioned, you know, Terry was probably the should
have threw it to him, but he probably had Marcus
had made his mind a pre snap, Hey got one
on one back here, it might get a little dicey
(41:32):
over here. Let me give him a fadeball and give
him opportunity a great ballplace with two and I mean
just a ridiculous catch.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Though on the field, I thought that thing was long gone.
I'm telling you, I was standing like you know, right
in the end zone. I'm looking over there, sitting right
next to the camera, I'm leaning on the box and
I'm like, no way that that thing's two yards out
of bounds. Then you just see his big old mint
just rip up there, come down with that thing and
there's no oscillation of the football. That was the other
thing that really got me is no, you stop that.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
You stopped that.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
I told you about using I've told you about using
the big words on the show.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
It just stuck to his hand right and that's the
one he broke the finger on or whatever, and like
it just was a tremendous play, like really really tremendous
and again like maybe best catch whatever, But in the moment,
uh it to me, it also signified something different about
the offense.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
We hadn't seen what you say, isolation on the on
the next game.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
During the broadcast, like I said, six seven, that was
pretty good. So everybody was very plean. All the young
people in my life were very pleased.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
So here's the deal.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
The other day, so my daughter was home from college
and they were about to take an uber to a party.
So I wasn't doing anything. I was like, well I
take you, I'll take her and it was two of
her college friends she went to high school with. So
I'm driving to the part, taking them to the party,
and somehow we get to talking about me doing a
broadcast in the games, and I don't know how six
(43:01):
seven came into play, and they're like, you should do
say six seven on the broadcast. I'm like, first of all,
I think it's so stupid. I don't even understand six seven.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Nobody does.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
So I was like, you know what, we got an
opportunity to do this. I did it, and CJ gave
me the clips, the audio clips. I'm gonna I'm gonna.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Send it to the girls. You did them well too.
You have the last thing about Burke's And again, this
is I think goes back to It's why I'm excited
about the second. You know, I know they're not going
to make the playoffs, Like obviously that's not going to happen,
but I do want to get a glimpse of what
the future looks like and what I thought this season
could have been. And I think we can have that here.
And if you are curious does this stuff still matter?
(43:45):
Go talk the way we had that conversation with Trailing
Burks last night Terry McLaurin last night. You know, like
after a loss, it's it's tough to talk to some
of the players, especially when it's that closed and there's
that much you know, I think like obviously Rue's you know,
sensitivities are very heightened at that point, especially in a
loss like that where they were this close. There were
a fingernail away from a win. That was a walk
(44:06):
in two point conversion, there were fingernail away from a
win when it ended along losing streak. But we got
to talk to Terry, who hadn't played in the month,
has had a very long ear. Listen to what he
had to say about why it mattered to him last
night to be out there due to the things he did.
And Burks, who was supposed to replace A. J. Brown
in Tennessee, has had a bazillion injuries, had one touchdown
(44:26):
before he made that catch last night. He got a
fresh start. And if you want to hear someone talk
about why football matters to him, listen to what he
had to say after that game on three in nineteen
oh so he was just talking about my mom in
on it now whatever.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yeah, No, it was just during that interview with him
the amount of respect perspective I had to him. That
was the first time we had an opportunity to interview him. Yeah,
but he I asked him about I say, hey, man,
you know you were drafted as a first route in Tennis.
He didn't kind of work out there. You get an
(45:02):
opportunity to be here in Washington. What does this mean
to you? And he said he was. He was very
thankful for his experience that he had in Tennessee. Like
great people there, you know, got nothing bad to say
about them. It's been a long journey, long long time.
I've relied on my faith. He talked about his faith.
(45:23):
He like tore my a c L clavical injury, now
torn finger, torn ligament, and he say, man, God doesn't
he puts the most on his Uh.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
I think he said best warriors or something something along
those lines.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
And so he's like, I'm just thankful for the opportunity
to be able to be in this situation and and
you know, just be here and relied on my faith
and and but he was just it's a great it's
a great interview, man.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah. He Terry as well. You could feel thetion of
the locker room, which is Mike goes back to there
were I know they don't want to hear it, but
there were some silver linings last night. As we kind
of move forward here, all right, before we go, first,
I want to congratulate your son, want to state championship, right,
state championship, and Logan's team is in the semi finals
of their state championship. So congratulations team, formal congratulations. Then
(46:15):
hopefully two more.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
For you, hopefully we get those done. Yeah, that's awesome. First,
they play like real football, and like he's showed me
some clips of his son, the teams are playing against
and that looks like a borderline college team.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
So there's a lot of tititle on we got the
NL nil worker.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
How'd y'all celebrate a state championship? What did you do? Man?
Speaker 3 (46:33):
He hung out with his teammates, so I, you know,
curfew From a curfew standpoint, the game is over it
like I don't know, nine thirty, ten o'clock or whatever.
He usually goes and gets something to net with his friends.
So I typically, hey, Man, be home by I might
say twelve, I might say twelve thirty, depending on what
it is. So this particular time, I like be home
(46:55):
by like, I think maybe I said one on one thirty.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
He's like, okay.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
About a couple of minutes later, he's like, well, actually,
can I spend a night over my buddy's house. It's like,
all right, man, I go go ahead. They had a
good time, they celebrated.
Speaker 5 (47:10):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
He psyched for this WEEKND I am psyched.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
I'm worried about travel, but my travel agent Fletch took
me up. So ho if we get out and you know,
call game and get a win and then get to Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, good luck to your crew, Thank you for sull right,
that'll do it for us. Talk to you next week.
After the Vikings, game Booth review was filmed at the
Big Bear AI Command Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers
Mission ready AI for a rapidly evolving world, proudly protecting
the Washington Commanders and its fans.
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