October 28, 2025 • 33 mins
Future Hall of Fame Linebacker London Fletcher is joined by 10-Year NFL Tight End Logan Paulsen and Scott Jackson to breakdown what Washington can take away from the loss in Kansas City! Hosts: London Fletcher, Logan Paulsen, Scott Jackson Producer: Jason Johnson Get Your Commanders Tickets Here: https://bit.ly/4jfZA45 The views and opinions expressed by our analysts and/or hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Washington Commanders or any of their representatives.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's episode of The Booth Review Podcast. I'm Logan Paulson,
but that's not London Fletcher, it's Scott Jackson. What we
got today, Scott, we gotta tell the truth Tuesday, Logan,
And and it's tell the Truth Tuesday. Lots of stuff
to fix. We got problems, but we also got solutions.
And then we got London coming back in the house
to explain how to beat Seattle. It all starts right now.
(00:24):
Welcome to the Booth Review Podcast. I'm Logan Paulson here
with not London, Fretch Fletcher, not Bram Weinstein, but Scott Jackson,
who is our postgame analyst, postgame host with Fred Smoot
after the game great Insight does the halftime update as well. Scott,
how you doing very good? Logan?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, apparently the guys just couldn't couldn't bear to come
back from Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
That barbecue must be really good. Yeah, I mean, obviously
Fletcher's flight got delayed. Bram had a flight issue as well,
So thanks for stepping in. Really appreciated. As always, We're
brought to you by Microsoft by Microsoft Surface Copilot Plus
PC and we are in the Big Bear AI Command Center.
Stuart studio, or at least I am, because everybody else
is out and about on flights. You're down in Richmond
someplace doing your thing. I appreciate you filling in last minute,
(01:08):
So thanks man. Yeah, well actually Virginia Beach. But hey,
that's right. Sorry, that's my bad. Yeah, no, no worries,
No worries.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, look, it was a good start, right, really good
first half from the Commanders defensively especially, and just didn't
just weren't able to stay hot. I want to get
your thoughts on as you saw it from down there
on the sideline, like what was the difference and why
they couldn't kind of keep that momentum going.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, and that's a big part of our Tell the
Truth Tuesday segment, right, is like they were hot in
the beginning, they didn't stay hot. I think that's a
really good question, Scott, because, like I think they came
out with just great energy and they executed in a
way that is required to win football games. I think,
right like you see a defensively, a drive, a hustle
of physicality, a tackling that we haven't seen for a
(01:55):
couple of weeks. It was great to see that you
saw them turn the football over and versus a team
like Kansas City, you're going to need to find those
edges wherever you can. But I think the other thing
is offensively, you saw a really well called game plan
by Cliff. You saw some zone read, you saw some
different variations of zone read. You saw some gap scheme runs,
you saw some quick games, some screens, some things that
(02:16):
kept them off balance. And obviously they weren't able to
capitalize on the turnovers the same way. But I think
you just saw a very clean brand of football in
the first half. And again, like you look at the
penalties in the first half, very low number. Obviously that
increases in the second half. There's some mistakes. The muff
kickoff is one that comes to mind, right, the third
down or lack of third down conversions offensively in the
(02:38):
second half, and the ability to get off the field
on third den I know those things are like high
level metrics, but I do think they kind of show,
kind of they give a good diagnosis for the ailment
of hot to not in the second half of that
football game.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well is again, as we continue with it, tell the
truth Tuesday part of it. I mean again, you couldn't
have printed out a better start against Patrick Mahomes to
get in to turn it over twice. But then of
course you know comes the second half. You see it
a million times as you watch this guy. He is
the best backyard football player. I swear that we've ever seen.
What was kind of the key to getting off to
(03:12):
the fast start and why could they not maintain that
in terms of slowing down Mahomes?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, I mean I think, like you know, like you've
watched enough football, Sky like you kind of get it,
and like I've watched enough football and played enough football games.
Is like sometimes when you're playing, I think it's important
to knowledge that, like right now, the Chiefs are a
more complete football team than compared to the Washington Commanders.
They're a good football team. And so when you're playing
a team like that and you're kind of punching up
your punching above your weight class, like you have to
take advantage of those opportunities. So, like I heard you
(03:38):
on the post game with Fred Smoot talking about how
you know, like you get these two turnovers, but you
don't turn them into points, and think about like the
complexion of this game versus a better football team. If
it's fourteen to seven or twenty one to seven or
seventeen to seven. The pressure on the Chiefs is so different.
And I think like one of the things about the
(03:58):
Chiefs like that I think is underrated is they've been
good for so long that they can win any style
of football game. They're confident they can win any style
of football game. So it could be going poorly and
they figure out how to rally. They could be up,
they could be even, and they just are very confident
in them in themselves and the team and their abilities
to win the game. And so I think like with Mahomes,
(04:18):
you saw kind of again, he got hurt, right, They
the Commanders defense did a great job turning the football
over and and kind of rocked him a little bit.
But he's been there before, he's been rocked before. He
knows how to kind of get his feet get back
in the rhythm of the football game. He's confident, Andy Reid,
He's confident in his team. And that's the problem when
you play good quarterbacks, like I think back to when
(04:39):
like I would play, or my teams would play like
Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, like you could get them
right for a quarter for a half or three quarters,
but at some point you knew they were going to
figure it out and absolutely lay it on you. And
I think Patrick Mahomes brings a lot of that same
energy and it's one of the reasons why he's in
the conversation for one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Yeah,
(05:00):
I mean, he really was.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I was looking at these numbers from last night. So
he starts the game, you know, five to nine, thirty
seven yards of the two picks.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Then the rest of the.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Game he's twenty to twenty five, two sixty two, three
touchdowns and obviously no more interceptions. And then if you
go to the you know, Winny's in Commander's territory one
to five minus one yard the two picks to ten
for twelve one hundred and fifty to three TVs. I mean,
it's like he understands a moment, like you said, And
you know, one thing everybody's been talking about this year
with kan City, Okay, they can play more explosively now,
(05:29):
but you know, really last night it was it. They
were kind of more of the Chiefs we saw for
a few years ago. They'll take what the defense gave him, right,
and they got some chunk plays, but not like the big,
big plays that maybe you've seen some of them, you know,
hit earlier this year, as they've been kind of opening
their offense a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, it's funny, like when I was getting ready for
the game, like I remember watching film thinking like, they're
they have this reputation this year of being more explosive,
and they are more explosive. I'm not trying to take
that away from him, but they are very comfortable playing
kind of this horizontal brand of football with the RPO,
the quick game screens and kind of biding their time.
And one of the things when you look at the film,
or at least in the prep leading up, is like
(06:06):
when they find their explosive opportunities, it's Patrick Mahomes extending
the play. Right, He's getting out of the pocket, He's
making a subtle movement in the pocket. He's making an
off off angle of off platform throw to a guy
that's wide open in the middle of the field after
the defense has covered for three and a half or
four seconds, And I think, like, that's what this is, right,
It feels more explosive, but like it's because of his
(06:28):
ability to create in the back end and find guys
that are open after the coverage has been stretched, in
some cases been broken. And again, like you can talk about,
I think, you know, the defense is culpability in that
in terms of how consistent or not consistent they were
with their rush angles, their rush path, the continuity of
their rush. But again, you got to give him a
lot of credit because that is the thing that drives
(06:50):
the explosive element of their offense, at least this year. Right,
It's not like they have Tyreek Hill. It's like he's
the guy that says, I'm going to sit back here,
cook spin this thing up and make some play down
the football field. And in some cases it's not even
down the football field, it's just to wide open Travis
Kelcey in the flat on a play action pass where
in man coverage they've dropped him because the down has
just gone on for so long.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, you know, I don't think you would ever flip
on the tape you coach young kids. Would you ever
turn on the tape and say to your quarterback, hey,
just do what Patrick Mahomes is doing.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah? I probably would never say that to them. You know,
you want them to be creative and play the game
but right, right, he just does things that are so unique,
and I think you know, he's he's like the modern
He's like the archetype of the modern quarterback. Right. You
want a guy who can move around. You want a
guy who's got kind of flexible fundamentals when it comes
to throwing the football, because it gives you these kind
(07:41):
of awesome plays off schedule, and he just has that.
I feel, like, you know, watching him this year, he's
been a little bit more off schedule than normal, but
the team has needed that, and like you said, like
he does such a great job of finding or understanding
the moment and like what the team needs, Like does
he need to scramble, does he need to push the
football down the field? Does he need to extend and
find these opportunity And he just seems to consistently make
(08:02):
the right decision, which is incredibly frustrating to play a
guy like that who's not going to get himself out necessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It is the Booth View podcast. Everybody's out, So I'm
Scott Jackson in here with Logan Paulson. This week is
the guys make their way back from Kansas City. The
other thing that really hit you last night and I
know you saw this at the field level and you
gotta love this as a tight end. But you know,
Travis Kelcey, there was that one big play right the
thirty plus yard where he's not even in the route.
(08:30):
He's back there helping out with protection and then the
play extends and it extends and he'll this leak out
and be wide open and you know, run up field
for a big play. I mean, those two guys like
it's like they have telepathy with one another right now.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean, I think I just saw a statistic
or Jason got a statistic for us. It was like
eighty or seventy eight percent of his yards where aft
we're on off schedule plays and it just speaks to
like what they're good at. Even the touchdown is like
semi off schedule, like he's running a kind of a
kitch or like a comeback in the end zone. Play
gets dragged out a little bit, Patrick Mahome flushes out
to the right, he throws the ball back across his
(09:04):
body and Travis Kelcey's there magically with great leverage on
the DV for a completed ball. So I don't know, man,
they like watching the film leading up again, Like that
was one of the things that just jumped out at
you in terms of what made this offense dangerous. Is
like there was clips that we looked at in our
film review show where it's like there's free runners to
the quarterback and it doesn't really matter because he and
(09:25):
Travis are just on the same page. And so like
when you've played that much football together, when you have
that relationship with the quarterback, like that's the result is
it gets you out of stuff, right, Like that's what
the continuity of an offensive personnel gives you as you
get these relationships built. Like I think about Peyton Manning
is a great example when he was in Indianapolis with
those great receivers Marvin Harrison, Junior, Reggie Wade, Like he
(09:49):
could throw to those guys in the dark because of
the reps they'd bang together. And you see that here
with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey. So again, like I
know fans are probably freaking out today and they want
to be critical of the defense, but there is a
little bit of like man Kansas City is just a
very good football team, and these offensive relationships are so important.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It is part of tell the truth Tuesday, hear on
the Booth Review podcast. Injuries are part of the story
with this team, right Terry McLaurin is to leave the
game Javon Kenlaw, though he said he could have come
back and to leave the game. Lemy Tunsell left the
game last night. Of course you came in with the
various injuries obviously, No Jaden Daniels hearing a lot in football,
more so than other sports, people say, Look, injuries are
(10:30):
non excuse, next man up. But that's just not real.
I mean it's not real. Your ones are your ones
for a reason. At some point, you know, there is
this battle of attrition. I kind of feel like this
this team is like at that point where it's hard
to kind of find the solutions. How do you look
at it if there's a guy that watches all this film,
I mean, is there enough depth that they can be
(10:52):
competitive and win games moving forward? Even if this is
maybe going to be the reality where they're going to
be missing people, you know, out the different stretches of
this season.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I do think they can win football games. It's
just going to be hard, you know. And I made
this joke with B Mitch and JP last night in
this morning when I was doing their show, and it's like,
you know, there's a reason Jordan Reid was the starting
third down pass catching tight end when I was on
the team. It's because old Logan Paulson out there with
the neck role and the mouthguard and the big face
mask isn't catching the football the same way, and so
there was a distinct drop off between the two people.
(11:25):
And I think there's a reason that Terry and Deebo
are making all this money. It's because of their ability
to affect defenses right, their ability to win versus man
and man coverage, explosive, make explosive plays down the field,
make plays that are unusual, and that's what dictates them
getting that compensation from the team. And so when those
guys aren't playing, when Laramie Tunseel's not playing, who's a
top five player at his position, Like, you're going to
(11:45):
feel the drop off to the next player, Like Brandon
Coleman played great in this game when he was playing,
but it's a difference. It's a different caliber of player.
And I think that's not a knock on the guys
backing up. It's just that's that's what makes those other
guys special. That's what makes them the point oh one
percent of the NFL. And so yes, you can win
football games, but it does challenge you. And I think
we're going to talk about it more when we get
(12:06):
to the problems and solutions segments. But the level of
detail when you lose those explosive playmakers just has to
tick up a notch. And that's hard. That's coaching, that's players,
that's everybody walking and pulling in the same direction and
saying like we cannot have a penalty on you know,
like on a on an illegal contact down the field,
(12:27):
we cannot muff a kick with there's just the margin
for air for us. As we lose those playmakers just
gets smaller and smaller and smaller and more difficult to overcome.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, I mean I think about you know, sometimes, as
we've seen over this first year plus of Jada datals,
how many times he solves some situations right where it's
third and long and he somehow slips through the pocket
when the pressure's onto caving and finds a way to
make it to the yard marker. Like those kind of plays,
you don't look, you don't probably respect them as much
as you should until they're gone. And then you know
(12:59):
watching it without a year, like man, that's one of
those plays where you know Jaden is fined away. Sometimes
he's like you say, you just don't have that, and
there's a reason why. You know, he's he's a one
of one, you know, and you don't. It's tough, even
though Marcus does a great job, it's just you lose something.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And I think that's a great point, and that's one
of the reasons I am confident they can win games
because when he is at his best, he is a special, special,
uber talented football player. And I think back to the
fourth and fifteen last year that he's able to scramble
for and get a first down, the numerous fourth and
shorts that he was able to crew last year, stealing possessions,
Like it probably looks different in the last game on
(13:36):
some of those fourth and fourth down plays when he's
in there, some of those third long plays when he's
in there, because he does have a natural knack for
elevating not just players around him, but the offense. Like
I think back to the Bears game, which is the
last game that he played in, and the Bears are
playing all this man coverage. I know people want to
be very critical of that game because he drops the football,
he throws the interception of the red zone. But when
(13:57):
you watch the plays through and you're like, man, that's
a great decision to scramble there. That's a tight window throw,
and you feel him just pulling everybody along with him,
dragging the offense forward. And when you don't have that again,
like you said, I love that you said this. Marcus
is a good player, right, but he doesn't have that
special gear that some of these top flight guys do.
(14:17):
And so I do think that when Jaden gets healthy,
if there is some pieces around him to give him
confidence to play like this could be a different thing
moving forward. But again it goes back to the initial
point of the conversation, which is the injury bug is
rampant on this team. It's and it's so hard to
overcome that. But you need special performances from special players
(14:38):
when they do get healthy, and you need to be
incredibly consistent moving forward.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
It is the Booth Review Podcasts got Jackson Logan Paulson
in for the guys as they make their way back
from Kansas City. All right, let's get to the problems
plus solutions as we dissect the big moments from this
football game. Let's talk about the problem of the red zone.
This year a seventy seven point seventy eight TV success
rate entering Monday Night, which is second of the NFL,
(15:06):
but obviously didn't have as many opportunities or successes Monday Night.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, and so I think, like when I look at
and again like Joe Wood Junior and this defensive staff
are probably well aware of this. But when I look
at it, and I say, like, and I talked to
London Fletcher, talk to guys smooth, you know who you
know very well. Like, one of the things that comes
to the forefront for me is just like can we
get the rush to marry with the coverage? And specifically,
I think as a case study, when you look at
(15:30):
the Kansas City game, I think the coverage in the
back end in the red zone was actually pretty good.
But as the down gets longer, as you're pushed into
these longer counts for the quarterback holding the football man,
coverage gets stretched. Zone coverages get stretched. And so what
I would say is like, I know, we're really banged
up on the defensive line. You know, No, Dietrich Wise, no,
(15:51):
Doran's armstrong Frankieluvu's playing defensive end for us, which was
not in the car. We're not on my Bengo card
at the start of the year, right, But you know,
can we get a four to five man rush. Can
we bring some pressures to again allow to support the coverage, right,
because I look at it this last game and it's
like when the quarterback escapes the pocket, because our lack
(16:12):
of rush continuity like that just makes it really a
really hard down for the guys in the back end.
And I'm sure the guys in the back end, the linebackers,
the corners, the safeties would say, oh, we can hold
up beach it all bit longer. But as someone who
coaches high school football, as someone who's played in the NFL,
like that's an unrealistic expectation, that's an inevitable breakdown. So
can we get that rush to really come to life
(16:32):
here with a little bit of pixie dust and duct
tape kind of stringing this thing altogether. I think that's
the thing I would look for moving forward, specifically in
those red zone moments, pass rush married with the rush,
married with the coverage to make sure that we can
kind of be more efficient in those situations.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
All right, another problem plus solutions. What about the big plays?
We talked about a few of them earlier, but kind
of is Patrick Mahomes big play moments and how to
slow those things now?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, And to me, if you look at again looking at
the Kansas City as a model, right, and you look
at the rest of the year and kind of some
of the issues that have plagued them, it's really and
I think Joe wid Junior identified this weeks ago to
his credit, right, he just said, we got to play
in the context of the defense, like we got to
fit runs the way we're supposed to fit them to
eliminate explosive run plays, and we got to play coverages
(17:21):
the way we're supposed to play them. And I think,
like when you look at last night, I tipped my
hat because I felt like in the first half they
came out they fit runs the way they were supposed
to fit them. I thought they've did a great job
in coverage. I thought they did a great job rallying
and tackling. I think that's the version of the defense
that Joe Whitt Junior Dan Quinn envision when they talk
about a run and hit as Simon sound team. But
as we move on into the second half, right, there's
(17:44):
a couple of big penalties. There's that illegal contact was
a personal foul, right or something like that. I don't
remember the exact call, but those things are again like
when we're not as talented, when our starting horses are
out because of injury, we got to tighten the hack,
which is there at the tighten the screws a little bit.
So I look at some of the explosive plays. They
(18:05):
come off schedule. We don't have eye discipline. We're in
the red zone. We're trying to make a play that's
really not our responsibility. And I know that's so challenging
with Patrick Mahomes back there making the plays that he's making.
But trust it, trust the process, trust your teammates, and
again I do, I do really believe this. I look
at some of those plays that he extended in the
red zone. We have to be more cognizant of our
(18:26):
rush lanes and our angles because then it puts those
guys in the back end in bad spots. So don't
put the cape on. Do your job. I know that's
so boring. I know fans probably want some crazy revelation.
But like everyone runs cover three, everyone runs man coverage,
everyone has a four man rush, everyone has five man pressures.
It comes down to how you execute them and how
(18:47):
the guys can own their assignment. I really, really genuine
believe that if they can get to that level of
execution that Dan Quinn and Joe Witt are aspiring to,
they're going to be okay. All right.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Mental error, you know, certainly popped up in this football game.
You know, throughout you know, the lack of what you
would call complimentary football, right like you offensive or defensive
make a play, you know, then the offense wouldn't come
through or special teams would have an issue. How do
you kind of look at those plays throughout this game?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, I mean I don't really have a great answer,
you know. I think about the sack that is given
up where like Cosme sliding down, Connorley sliding out, there's
the chip help. It looks like there's a miscommunication there
because to me, that's a four man rush. We got
the offensive slide going to the left. Cosby looks like
he should be pushing right with Connorley to block that
(19:38):
wide four I slash three technique there and you know,
it's we're in a six man pro backs in the backfield.
We don't need to be doing anything crazy there. But
for whatever reason, there's a miscommunication, there's a misidentification. And
the only way I know how to fix that as
a as a former player is to say, hey, how
can I be more accountable to those looks that are
going to be challenging, that are going to test our
(19:59):
rules in the protection? So as a player, how can
I study more film, ask more questions to make sure
that I'm ready to go for those moments. And as
a coach, I think it's the same thing, but in reverse,
it's like, how do I make sure that I get
all this information to the players so they can execute
at a high level. And I know we've got the
right people in the building to get that done, but
like it's going to take a lot of work and
(20:21):
a lot of critical self evaluation, which is sometimes uncomfortable
and sometimes not fun, But I think it's going to
be incredibly, incredibly important moving forward, because again, like that's
a small example. You know, there's the there's some I
discipline stuff in man coverage. There's some bunch looks which
I thought, which I thought on the whole, they handled well,
but there's a couple where they get a little bit loose,
you know. And for some of these young football players
(20:41):
on the defensive side of the ball, who like McGhee
and Tyler Owens, who I thought did some really good things,
like can we enhance our communication? Can we enhance how
we're seeing the entire picture as opposed to just our assignment. Again,
that all comes down to reps, study, walk through, deliberate
practice and that stuff. Dan's been preaching for the last
two three weeks, and I think you're seeing it improve.
(21:03):
It's just it looks like it's gonna take some time
because I think it's important to remember. Like the Cosmi one,
I think is a great example, Like Cosmi is a deliberate, smart,
tough football player, but he missed all of training camp
because of the injury. Right, so he's coming back and
now you have to kind of accelerate his learning process. Yeah,
do you think any any of that too?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I mean, obviously him and Connorly are new to one another, right,
I mean, because you know, Josh has been playing with
a different tackle or different guard excuse me, this whole time.
I mean, is there a little bit of like chemistry
that has to develop between these two players as they
are not heading will be game three with each other.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, I think that's a huge part. Like you know,
I always think about it as a tight end playing
with different tackles, right, because you get a relationship built
with that tackle and you have a communication style developed
with them, and you understand on this combination, he's going
to fit it like this as opposed to this guy,
And those bank reps are just extremely important to building
that chemistry and cohesion. And again, like I think you
(21:57):
bring up a great point, connor Ley is a young
player cos he's coming off of injury. This is his
this was his second game back, and again there is
going to be a little bit of a learning curve.
And again I think everyone always kind of pushes for
the physical learning to the forefront of those conversations, but
they forget about the mental element of football. That's what
it makes it such a beautiful game. Is it's this.
(22:19):
It's this rigorous physical demand, but also the mental demands,
especially of a position like offensive line. Yeah, and then
you mentioned some of the coverage things.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I mean, there's a lot of new personnel running out
there last night, right, there's more tyler Owans that we've
seen before. Obviously Savage is still relatively new. You saw
a lot of McGee last night. But are those the
kind of the things that they can fix and these
guys be part of the solutions as they move forward
the remainder of the year.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I think so. I mean I was really impressed
with how tyler Owans played man man coverage versus the
Hall of Fame tight end. You know, like he's a
relatively young player and I thought he did a good job.
I think you feel McGee in a way that is fun.
You know, like he's fast, he's physical, he's really unless
you can tell he gets a lot of joy from playing.
He's the type of player you enjoy watching. But again,
(23:04):
like sometimes you get a novel front spacing or a
novel run fit and it's like am I in the
right spot? Or is this the coverage I'm supposed to take?
And on the whole, I thought he did a decent job.
I know PFF kind of burned him a little bit
in terms of grade, but like when you go back
and watch, like overall, I think this is a very
positive performance for a guy who's got the most stap
snap since he's been here, and I think hats off
(23:25):
to Joe Wood Junior for pushing them into the lineup
and giving those guys those opportunities. And so I think
that was another fun thing that again I got to
give a tip of a hat to Joe Wood Junior,
especially in that first half, is let's make sure guys
are in roles that they're comfortable with and we could
maximize and I thought he did a great job of that.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I got a kind of off the board problems plus
solutions question for you. Getting the running backs going again.
It feels like lately that has been a bit of
a problem. Certainly again with Jayden's out there that dictates
a little bit more and those type of things. But
what can they do just to get the running backs
no matter who the quarterback is, to kind of get
more are, more production and more pop.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah, to me, it's about the blocking surface. And we
talked about it with pass pro, with Cosby and Connory
and some of these new pieces, But there is I
think a huge, a huge element like when I was
a part of the number one rushing offense in the NFL,
when Robert Griffin the third was here, in twenty twelve.
That wasn't something that we just casually did. That was
who we were. That was like a diet in the
(24:24):
wool thing we focused on it. We used to do
our install for team run, not as like an offensive line,
tight end, running back. It was everybody on the offense
was in the practice squad. Guys, we're in the room
with us as we did our run installs. So everyone
knew exactly the look we were supposed to be getting
and knew exactly the expectation for everybody in the offense
when it came to running the football. And so I
(24:46):
think of like, when you want to get good at
running the football, you have to pour a ton of
time into it. And I do think that, like talk
about the injuries, like think about the direction that this
offense has had to shift. Like coming into the season,
I was like, we're going to run the FOOTBA, but
we're going to run it out of eleven, right, We're
gonna have Noah Brown, Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel and we'll
be able to run from light box structures and kind
(25:07):
of and all of a sudden, it's changed pretty dramatically.
Now we're going to be a twelve personnel running the
football team. Right. That changes box count numbers, that changes fronts,
that changes our trajectory on double teams. All those things
are affected because of the injuries to the secondary. So
to me in terms of getting it going again, this
is boring to fans, I know, but like it's time
(25:29):
on task. We have to spend more time on task.
And again, like I got to give credit to Kansas City,
Like leading up to the game, that was one of
the most well coached fronts that I'd seen in a
long time. Steve Smagnola had those guys locked in. Those
three linebackers are so fun to watch. Their safeties know
how to fit runs and there's not like talk about
(25:50):
not putting on capes. Those guys never put on a cape.
It's like we are in our gap at the right moment,
coming downhill. And so you got to give them a
lot of credit. But I do think that the more time,
the more equity they can put in the commanders to
the run stuff specifically, it's going to really benefit the
blong term.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
We're here at Logan Paulson Booth Review talking about problems
and solutions. One of the things that was interesting rakel
that we saw last night. Logan I want to ask
about was what did you think of seeing you know,
John Bates, Ben Sinnett getting into the passing game. We
see them block a lot has to do the blocking front,
but both last night, you know, we had some opportunities
and made some plays catching the football.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, I think it's great, man. I think I really
especially love the John Bates completion because I think that's
something that he brings that is so undervalued by the
league is that he's a big, long, strong, physical dude. Like,
for my money, I've said this multiple times, maybe the
best blocking tight end in the NFL. Like he does
an excellent job, but having a guy that can also
(26:50):
stress the seam, get down the field a little bit.
He's not going to run the route for zach ertzz,
but it makes that package so much more dynamic. Like
think about when you bring an extra offensive lineman, you
lose that eligible receiver in the past game, right, they
can green dog that player green dog meeting. If it's
man coverage, I can just blitz the second the extra
tackle blocks right and Baits prevents you from doing that.
(27:12):
So I love the little counterpass play action half role
move the pocket. It's just a great call, really well
designed play, and you've got a guy in Baits who
can execute it. And again, Sinnate is getting like a
little bit of a checkdown, kind of similar to like
Travis Kelce's long completion. But I think you see his
you see the athlete, and so are there ways we
can exploit and develop his athleticism more in this offense,
(27:35):
especially as the playmakers are a little bit banged up.
I hope so. And maybe it's not taking shots down
the field, but maybe here's a screen, here's a touch
from the backfield. I don't know, something like that. Where again,
he is an explosive athlete based on rascore out of
the combine, so let's find ways to maybe get him involved.
Doesn't need to be five ten targets a game, but
maybe it's two to four. And does that give you
(27:59):
enough offensive firepower that teams can't just kind of put
the cap on your ceiling offensively? Maybe? And so that's
something that I think is a nice wrinkle to see
against Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Well, obviously Seattle brings different challenges and the Chiefs do.
The good news is there's no more Patrick Mahomes on
the schedule the rest of the way.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Logan, Scott, that's exactly right, No more Patrick Mahomes and
onto Seattle. And I think no one better to talk
about that than London Fletcher, who he's got his flight,
he's in DC. He's going to come in and talk
to you, to us in the audience about how best
to get after the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night. So
there's nobody better to tell us how to do it
than the guy who's going to be in the Hall
of Fame, and that's London Fletcher.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
All right, thanks Scott for filling in as I was
navigating my travel situation back from Kansas City. Fellas just
my overall thoughts on the game. I thought, being on
the field, and I share this with you, Logan, just
I thought the team came out with great energy. Like
I'm on the sidelines just watching those guys coming out,
(29:00):
I'm like, Okay, these guys didn't come here to just
kind of be all with with Arrowhead Stadium and beat
all all in all of Patrick Mahomes and look at
their their Super Bowl banners and all that.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
These guys came to win the football game.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
And then the way the game started off man offense,
just rolling, moving the football down the field. Obviously you
got the unfortunate interception that bounced off the pads of
Deebo Samuel, and I felt like he was just trying
to make a play, you know, trying to trying to
turn turn his head and see what he can do
before before he really looked the football. In defense, they
(29:36):
came out. You can see the improvements of the defense.
You can see the difference in the in their play.
I thought, putting Jordan McGee on the field, he played,
he played down standing game. You felt his speed, Tyler Owins,
you felt his speed, his presidence on the game. It
wasn't perfect at all all the time, but I thought defensively,
the guys did enough, especially in that first half getting
(29:59):
to take a ways two interceptions off of Patrick Mahoons,
who came into the game with fourteen touchdowns and two
interceptions on this season, and so for us to get
too in the first two drives, I'm like, okay, man,
maybe the balls bouncing our way, but you got to
you gotta finish those drives off from an offense standpoint
with points, touchdowns, and especially going against the Chiefs in
(30:23):
Arrowhead thought we got a bad spot on that that
zach Ertz fourth down play. I understand the aggressiveness by
d Q and because you're not gonna beat the Chiefs
kick and field goal, but I thought, I thought that
was a bad spot. And you know, I had a
couple of couple more opportunities, especially early in that in
that first half, were we just didn't capitalize on the
field position, the turnovers, and you know, you end up
(30:45):
in a seven to seven game at halftime as opposed
to a you know lead, maybe maybe it's a ten
point lead, maybe it's a fourteen point lead, but second half,
you know, we we just couldn't get it done. Didn't
have the same type of success moving the football, and defensively,
Patrick Mahomes made some plays against us, extending the extending plays,
but also felt like we gave them a couple of
(31:07):
plays by just you know, maybe not staying with with
receivers like we should have as long as we we
should have, especially when he's out of the pocket. You're
a man and man coverage you have to make sure
you stay with your man until you're for certain that
he has crossed the line. In scrimmage and he's no
longer going to be a passer. So there was some
(31:28):
some situations and things that we can do better from
a defense standpoint. But all in all, man I was
I was encouraged by what I saw looking forward to
this game against the Seattle Seahawks on on Sunday Night football.
So you know they're they're retiring our art monkst Jersey
that night. We got the Super Bowl era of jerseys.
There will be a lot of energy and excitement at
(31:50):
our stadium on Sunday night. I feel like, man, this
is there's a lot to build upon from that game
against it against the Chiefs, but also there's some things
that we need to still clean up. And once we
do those things, regardless of the injury situation, moving forward,
we will be a better football team. And I feel
like we got to get this game against the against
(32:11):
the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night football, and then we'll
deal with the rest as the season may go. The
leaders on this football team have to continue to reiterate
that type of message that we got a lot of
football left. Our season not over. The NFC is still
NFC Easter still kind of wide open. It's we still
got two games against the Eagles, we got another game
(32:33):
against the Cowboys, another game against the Giants, So we
got a lot of football left in front of us.
We got we got it, but we have to get
this game at home against the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It's an NFC game.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
We got to start stacking some wins against NFC oponents
in case you're looking at some potential wildcards situations or scenarios.
But a lot of encouraging things that I saw from
that ball game. Disappointed we weren't able to play batter
in the second half of Again, a lot that we
can build on.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
And take take it to this game against the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
We're retiring a number of Art Monk, one of the
franchise's all time greats. We want to be able to
hear you all the way up up in the booth.
We need you rocking at Northwest Stadium. Can't wait to
see you with it there. Can't wait to hear you
more importantly, and thanks for watching for Booth Review.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Booth Review was filmed at the Big Bear AI Command
Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers Mission ready AI for
a rapidly evolving world.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Proudly protecting the Washington commanders and its fans,
Today's episode of The Booth Review Podcast. I'm Logan Paulson,
but that's not London Fletcher, it's Scott Jackson. What we
got today, Scott, we gotta tell the truth Tuesday, Logan,
And and it's tell the Truth Tuesday. Lots of stuff
to fix. We got problems, but we also got solutions.
And then we got London coming back in the house
to explain how to beat Seattle. It all starts right now.
(00:24):
Welcome to the Booth Review Podcast. I'm Logan Paulson here
with not London, Fretch Fletcher, not Bram Weinstein, but Scott Jackson,
who is our postgame analyst, postgame host with Fred Smoot
after the game great Insight does the halftime update as well. Scott,
how you doing very good? Logan?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, apparently the guys just couldn't couldn't bear to come
back from Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
That barbecue must be really good. Yeah, I mean, obviously
Fletcher's flight got delayed. Bram had a flight issue as well,
So thanks for stepping in. Really appreciated. As always, We're
brought to you by Microsoft by Microsoft Surface Copilot Plus
PC and we are in the Big Bear AI Command Center.
Stuart studio, or at least I am, because everybody else
is out and about on flights. You're down in Richmond
someplace doing your thing. I appreciate you filling in last minute,
(01:08):
So thanks man. Yeah, well actually Virginia Beach. But hey,
that's right. Sorry, that's my bad. Yeah, no, no worries,
No worries.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, look, it was a good start, right, really good
first half from the Commanders defensively especially, and just didn't
just weren't able to stay hot. I want to get
your thoughts on as you saw it from down there
on the sideline, like what was the difference and why
they couldn't kind of keep that momentum going.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, and that's a big part of our Tell the
Truth Tuesday segment, right, is like they were hot in
the beginning, they didn't stay hot. I think that's a
really good question, Scott, because, like I think they came
out with just great energy and they executed in a
way that is required to win football games. I think,
right like you see a defensively, a drive, a hustle
of physicality, a tackling that we haven't seen for a
(01:55):
couple of weeks. It was great to see that you
saw them turn the football over and versus a team
like Kansas City, you're going to need to find those
edges wherever you can. But I think the other thing
is offensively, you saw a really well called game plan
by Cliff. You saw some zone read, you saw some
different variations of zone read. You saw some gap scheme runs,
you saw some quick games, some screens, some things that
(02:16):
kept them off balance. And obviously they weren't able to
capitalize on the turnovers the same way. But I think
you just saw a very clean brand of football in
the first half. And again, like you look at the
penalties in the first half, very low number. Obviously that
increases in the second half. There's some mistakes. The muff
kickoff is one that comes to mind, right, the third
down or lack of third down conversions offensively in the
(02:38):
second half, and the ability to get off the field
on third den I know those things are like high
level metrics, but I do think they kind of show,
kind of they give a good diagnosis for the ailment
of hot to not in the second half of that
football game.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well is again, as we continue with it, tell the
truth Tuesday part of it. I mean again, you couldn't
have printed out a better start against Patrick Mahomes to
get in to turn it over twice. But then of
course you know comes the second half. You see it
a million times as you watch this guy. He is
the best backyard football player. I swear that we've ever seen.
What was kind of the key to getting off to
(03:12):
the fast start and why could they not maintain that
in terms of slowing down Mahomes?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, I mean I think, like you know, like you've
watched enough football, Sky like you kind of get it,
and like I've watched enough football and played enough football games.
Is like sometimes when you're playing, I think it's important
to knowledge that, like right now, the Chiefs are a
more complete football team than compared to the Washington Commanders.
They're a good football team. And so when you're playing
a team like that and you're kind of punching up
your punching above your weight class, like you have to
take advantage of those opportunities. So, like I heard you
(03:38):
on the post game with Fred Smoot talking about how
you know, like you get these two turnovers, but you
don't turn them into points, and think about like the
complexion of this game versus a better football team. If
it's fourteen to seven or twenty one to seven or
seventeen to seven. The pressure on the Chiefs is so different.
And I think like one of the things about the
(03:58):
Chiefs like that I think is underrated is they've been
good for so long that they can win any style
of football game. They're confident they can win any style
of football game. So it could be going poorly and
they figure out how to rally. They could be up,
they could be even, and they just are very confident
in them in themselves and the team and their abilities
to win the game. And so I think like with Mahomes,
(04:18):
you saw kind of again, he got hurt, right, They
the Commanders defense did a great job turning the football
over and and kind of rocked him a little bit.
But he's been there before, he's been rocked before. He
knows how to kind of get his feet get back
in the rhythm of the football game. He's confident, Andy Reid,
He's confident in his team. And that's the problem when
you play good quarterbacks, like I think back to when
(04:39):
like I would play, or my teams would play like
Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, like you could get them
right for a quarter for a half or three quarters,
but at some point you knew they were going to
figure it out and absolutely lay it on you. And
I think Patrick Mahomes brings a lot of that same
energy and it's one of the reasons why he's in
the conversation for one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Yeah,
(05:00):
I mean, he really was.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I was looking at these numbers from last night. So
he starts the game, you know, five to nine, thirty
seven yards of the two picks.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Then the rest of the.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Game he's twenty to twenty five, two sixty two, three
touchdowns and obviously no more interceptions. And then if you
go to the you know, Winny's in Commander's territory one
to five minus one yard the two picks to ten
for twelve one hundred and fifty to three TVs. I mean,
it's like he understands a moment, like you said, And
you know, one thing everybody's been talking about this year
with kan City, Okay, they can play more explosively now,
(05:29):
but you know, really last night it was it. They
were kind of more of the Chiefs we saw for
a few years ago. They'll take what the defense gave him, right,
and they got some chunk plays, but not like the big,
big plays that maybe you've seen some of them, you know,
hit earlier this year, as they've been kind of opening
their offense a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, it's funny, like when I was getting ready for
the game, like I remember watching film thinking like, they're
they have this reputation this year of being more explosive,
and they are more explosive. I'm not trying to take
that away from him, but they are very comfortable playing
kind of this horizontal brand of football with the RPO,
the quick game screens and kind of biding their time.
And one of the things when you look at the film,
or at least in the prep leading up, is like
(06:06):
when they find their explosive opportunities, it's Patrick Mahomes extending
the play. Right, He's getting out of the pocket, He's
making a subtle movement in the pocket. He's making an
off off angle of off platform throw to a guy
that's wide open in the middle of the field after
the defense has covered for three and a half or
four seconds, And I think, like, that's what this is, right,
It feels more explosive, but like it's because of his
(06:28):
ability to create in the back end and find guys
that are open after the coverage has been stretched, in
some cases been broken. And again, like you can talk about,
I think, you know, the defense is culpability in that
in terms of how consistent or not consistent they were
with their rush angles, their rush path, the continuity of
their rush. But again, you got to give him a
lot of credit because that is the thing that drives
(06:50):
the explosive element of their offense, at least this year. Right,
It's not like they have Tyreek Hill. It's like he's
the guy that says, I'm going to sit back here,
cook spin this thing up and make some play down
the football field. And in some cases it's not even
down the football field, it's just to wide open Travis
Kelcey in the flat on a play action pass where
in man coverage they've dropped him because the down has
just gone on for so long.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, you know, I don't think you would ever flip
on the tape you coach young kids. Would you ever
turn on the tape and say to your quarterback, hey,
just do what Patrick Mahomes is doing.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah? I probably would never say that to them. You know,
you want them to be creative and play the game
but right, right, he just does things that are so unique,
and I think you know, he's he's like the modern
He's like the archetype of the modern quarterback. Right. You
want a guy who can move around. You want a
guy who's got kind of flexible fundamentals when it comes
to throwing the football, because it gives you these kind
(07:41):
of awesome plays off schedule, and he just has that.
I feel, like, you know, watching him this year, he's
been a little bit more off schedule than normal, but
the team has needed that, and like you said, like
he does such a great job of finding or understanding
the moment and like what the team needs, Like does
he need to scramble, does he need to push the
football down the field? Does he need to extend and
find these opportunity And he just seems to consistently make
(08:02):
the right decision, which is incredibly frustrating to play a
guy like that who's not going to get himself out necessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It is the Booth View podcast. Everybody's out, So I'm
Scott Jackson in here with Logan Paulson. This week is
the guys make their way back from Kansas City. The
other thing that really hit you last night and I
know you saw this at the field level and you
gotta love this as a tight end. But you know,
Travis Kelcey, there was that one big play right the
thirty plus yard where he's not even in the route.
(08:30):
He's back there helping out with protection and then the
play extends and it extends and he'll this leak out
and be wide open and you know, run up field
for a big play. I mean, those two guys like
it's like they have telepathy with one another right now.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean, I think I just saw a statistic
or Jason got a statistic for us. It was like
eighty or seventy eight percent of his yards where aft
we're on off schedule plays and it just speaks to
like what they're good at. Even the touchdown is like
semi off schedule, like he's running a kind of a
kitch or like a comeback in the end zone. Play
gets dragged out a little bit, Patrick Mahome flushes out
to the right, he throws the ball back across his
(09:04):
body and Travis Kelcey's there magically with great leverage on
the DV for a completed ball. So I don't know, man,
they like watching the film leading up again, Like that
was one of the things that just jumped out at
you in terms of what made this offense dangerous. Is
like there was clips that we looked at in our
film review show where it's like there's free runners to
the quarterback and it doesn't really matter because he and
(09:25):
Travis are just on the same page. And so like
when you've played that much football together, when you have
that relationship with the quarterback, like that's the result is
it gets you out of stuff, right, Like that's what
the continuity of an offensive personnel gives you as you
get these relationships built. Like I think about Peyton Manning
is a great example when he was in Indianapolis with
those great receivers Marvin Harrison, Junior, Reggie Wade, Like he
(09:49):
could throw to those guys in the dark because of
the reps they'd bang together. And you see that here
with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey. So again, like I
know fans are probably freaking out today and they want
to be critical of the defense, but there is a
little bit of like man Kansas City is just a
very good football team, and these offensive relationships are so important.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It is part of tell the truth Tuesday, hear on
the Booth Review podcast. Injuries are part of the story
with this team, right Terry McLaurin is to leave the
game Javon Kenlaw, though he said he could have come
back and to leave the game. Lemy Tunsell left the
game last night. Of course you came in with the
various injuries obviously, No Jaden Daniels hearing a lot in football,
more so than other sports, people say, Look, injuries are
(10:30):
non excuse, next man up. But that's just not real.
I mean it's not real. Your ones are your ones
for a reason. At some point, you know, there is
this battle of attrition. I kind of feel like this
this team is like at that point where it's hard
to kind of find the solutions. How do you look
at it if there's a guy that watches all this film,
I mean, is there enough depth that they can be
(10:52):
competitive and win games moving forward? Even if this is
maybe going to be the reality where they're going to
be missing people, you know, out the different stretches of
this season.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I do think they can win football games. It's
just going to be hard, you know. And I made
this joke with B Mitch and JP last night in
this morning when I was doing their show, and it's like,
you know, there's a reason Jordan Reid was the starting
third down pass catching tight end when I was on
the team. It's because old Logan Paulson out there with
the neck role and the mouthguard and the big face
mask isn't catching the football the same way, and so
there was a distinct drop off between the two people.
(11:25):
And I think there's a reason that Terry and Deebo
are making all this money. It's because of their ability
to affect defenses right, their ability to win versus man
and man coverage, explosive, make explosive plays down the field,
make plays that are unusual, and that's what dictates them
getting that compensation from the team. And so when those
guys aren't playing, when Laramie Tunseel's not playing, who's a
top five player at his position, Like, you're going to
(11:45):
feel the drop off to the next player, Like Brandon
Coleman played great in this game when he was playing,
but it's a difference. It's a different caliber of player.
And I think that's not a knock on the guys
backing up. It's just that's that's what makes those other
guys special. That's what makes them the point oh one
percent of the NFL. And so yes, you can win
football games, but it does challenge you. And I think
we're going to talk about it more when we get
(12:06):
to the problems and solutions segments. But the level of
detail when you lose those explosive playmakers just has to
tick up a notch. And that's hard. That's coaching, that's players,
that's everybody walking and pulling in the same direction and
saying like we cannot have a penalty on you know,
like on a on an illegal contact down the field,
(12:27):
we cannot muff a kick with there's just the margin
for air for us. As we lose those playmakers just
gets smaller and smaller and smaller and more difficult to overcome.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, I mean I think about you know, sometimes, as
we've seen over this first year plus of Jada datals,
how many times he solves some situations right where it's
third and long and he somehow slips through the pocket
when the pressure's onto caving and finds a way to
make it to the yard marker. Like those kind of plays,
you don't look, you don't probably respect them as much
as you should until they're gone. And then you know
(12:59):
watching it without a year, like man, that's one of
those plays where you know Jaden is fined away. Sometimes
he's like you say, you just don't have that, and
there's a reason why. You know, he's he's a one
of one, you know, and you don't. It's tough, even
though Marcus does a great job, it's just you lose something.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And I think that's a great point, and that's one
of the reasons I am confident they can win games
because when he is at his best, he is a special, special,
uber talented football player. And I think back to the
fourth and fifteen last year that he's able to scramble
for and get a first down, the numerous fourth and
shorts that he was able to crew last year, stealing possessions,
Like it probably looks different in the last game on
(13:36):
some of those fourth and fourth down plays when he's
in there, some of those third long plays when he's
in there, because he does have a natural knack for
elevating not just players around him, but the offense. Like
I think back to the Bears game, which is the
last game that he played in, and the Bears are
playing all this man coverage. I know people want to
be very critical of that game because he drops the football,
he throws the interception of the red zone. But when
(13:57):
you watch the plays through and you're like, man, that's
a great decision to scramble there. That's a tight window throw,
and you feel him just pulling everybody along with him,
dragging the offense forward. And when you don't have that again,
like you said, I love that you said this. Marcus
is a good player, right, but he doesn't have that
special gear that some of these top flight guys do.
(14:17):
And so I do think that when Jaden gets healthy,
if there is some pieces around him to give him
confidence to play like this could be a different thing
moving forward. But again it goes back to the initial
point of the conversation, which is the injury bug is
rampant on this team. It's and it's so hard to
overcome that. But you need special performances from special players
(14:38):
when they do get healthy, and you need to be
incredibly consistent moving forward.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
It is the Booth Review Podcasts got Jackson Logan Paulson
in for the guys as they make their way back
from Kansas City. All right, let's get to the problems
plus solutions as we dissect the big moments from this
football game. Let's talk about the problem of the red zone.
This year a seventy seven point seventy eight TV success
rate entering Monday Night, which is second of the NFL,
(15:06):
but obviously didn't have as many opportunities or successes Monday Night.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, and so I think, like when I look at
and again like Joe Wood Junior and this defensive staff
are probably well aware of this. But when I look
at it, and I say, like, and I talked to
London Fletcher, talk to guys smooth, you know who you
know very well. Like, one of the things that comes
to the forefront for me is just like can we
get the rush to marry with the coverage? And specifically,
I think as a case study, when you look at
(15:30):
the Kansas City game, I think the coverage in the
back end in the red zone was actually pretty good.
But as the down gets longer, as you're pushed into
these longer counts for the quarterback holding the football man,
coverage gets stretched. Zone coverages get stretched. And so what
I would say is like, I know, we're really banged
up on the defensive line. You know, No, Dietrich Wise, no,
(15:51):
Doran's armstrong Frankieluvu's playing defensive end for us, which was
not in the car. We're not on my Bengo card
at the start of the year, right, But you know,
can we get a four to five man rush. Can
we bring some pressures to again allow to support the coverage, right,
because I look at it this last game and it's
like when the quarterback escapes the pocket, because our lack
(16:12):
of rush continuity like that just makes it really a
really hard down for the guys in the back end.
And I'm sure the guys in the back end, the linebackers,
the corners, the safeties would say, oh, we can hold
up beach it all bit longer. But as someone who
coaches high school football, as someone who's played in the NFL,
like that's an unrealistic expectation, that's an inevitable breakdown. So
can we get that rush to really come to life
(16:32):
here with a little bit of pixie dust and duct
tape kind of stringing this thing altogether. I think that's
the thing I would look for moving forward, specifically in
those red zone moments, pass rush married with the rush,
married with the coverage to make sure that we can
kind of be more efficient in those situations.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
All right, another problem plus solutions. What about the big plays?
We talked about a few of them earlier, but kind
of is Patrick Mahomes big play moments and how to
slow those things now?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, And to me, if you look at again looking at
the Kansas City as a model, right, and you look
at the rest of the year and kind of some
of the issues that have plagued them, it's really and
I think Joe wid Junior identified this weeks ago to
his credit, right, he just said, we got to play
in the context of the defense, like we got to
fit runs the way we're supposed to fit them to
eliminate explosive run plays, and we got to play coverages
(17:21):
the way we're supposed to play them. And I think,
like when you look at last night, I tipped my
hat because I felt like in the first half they
came out they fit runs the way they were supposed
to fit them. I thought they've did a great job
in coverage. I thought they did a great job rallying
and tackling. I think that's the version of the defense
that Joe Whitt Junior Dan Quinn envision when they talk
about a run and hit as Simon sound team. But
as we move on into the second half, right, there's
(17:44):
a couple of big penalties. There's that illegal contact was
a personal foul, right or something like that. I don't
remember the exact call, but those things are again like
when we're not as talented, when our starting horses are
out because of injury, we got to tighten the hack,
which is there at the tighten the screws a little bit.
So I look at some of the explosive plays. They
(18:05):
come off schedule. We don't have eye discipline. We're in
the red zone. We're trying to make a play that's
really not our responsibility. And I know that's so challenging
with Patrick Mahomes back there making the plays that he's making.
But trust it, trust the process, trust your teammates, and
again I do, I do really believe this. I look
at some of those plays that he extended in the
red zone. We have to be more cognizant of our
(18:26):
rush lanes and our angles because then it puts those
guys in the back end in bad spots. So don't
put the cape on. Do your job. I know that's
so boring. I know fans probably want some crazy revelation.
But like everyone runs cover three, everyone runs man coverage,
everyone has a four man rush, everyone has five man pressures.
It comes down to how you execute them and how
(18:47):
the guys can own their assignment. I really, really genuine
believe that if they can get to that level of
execution that Dan Quinn and Joe Witt are aspiring to,
they're going to be okay. All right.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Mental error, you know, certainly popped up in this football game.
You know, throughout you know, the lack of what you
would call complimentary football, right like you offensive or defensive
make a play, you know, then the offense wouldn't come
through or special teams would have an issue. How do
you kind of look at those plays throughout this game?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, I mean I don't really have a great answer,
you know. I think about the sack that is given
up where like Cosme sliding down, Connorley sliding out, there's
the chip help. It looks like there's a miscommunication there
because to me, that's a four man rush. We got
the offensive slide going to the left. Cosby looks like
he should be pushing right with Connorley to block that
(19:38):
wide four I slash three technique there and you know,
it's we're in a six man pro backs in the backfield.
We don't need to be doing anything crazy there. But
for whatever reason, there's a miscommunication, there's a misidentification. And
the only way I know how to fix that as
a as a former player is to say, hey, how
can I be more accountable to those looks that are
going to be challenging, that are going to test our
(19:59):
rules in the protection? So as a player, how can
I study more film, ask more questions to make sure
that I'm ready to go for those moments. And as
a coach, I think it's the same thing, but in reverse,
it's like, how do I make sure that I get
all this information to the players so they can execute
at a high level. And I know we've got the
right people in the building to get that done, but
like it's going to take a lot of work and
(20:21):
a lot of critical self evaluation, which is sometimes uncomfortable
and sometimes not fun, But I think it's going to
be incredibly, incredibly important moving forward, because again, like that's
a small example. You know, there's the there's some I
discipline stuff in man coverage. There's some bunch looks which
I thought, which I thought on the whole, they handled well,
but there's a couple where they get a little bit loose,
you know. And for some of these young football players
(20:41):
on the defensive side of the ball, who like McGhee
and Tyler Owens, who I thought did some really good things,
like can we enhance our communication? Can we enhance how
we're seeing the entire picture as opposed to just our assignment. Again,
that all comes down to reps, study, walk through, deliberate
practice and that stuff. Dan's been preaching for the last
two three weeks, and I think you're seeing it improve.
(21:03):
It's just it looks like it's gonna take some time
because I think it's important to remember. Like the Cosmi one,
I think is a great example, Like Cosmi is a deliberate, smart,
tough football player, but he missed all of training camp
because of the injury. Right, so he's coming back and
now you have to kind of accelerate his learning process. Yeah,
do you think any any of that too?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I mean, obviously him and Connorly are new to one another, right,
I mean, because you know, Josh has been playing with
a different tackle or different guard excuse me, this whole time.
I mean, is there a little bit of like chemistry
that has to develop between these two players as they
are not heading will be game three with each other.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, I think that's a huge part. Like you know,
I always think about it as a tight end playing
with different tackles, right, because you get a relationship built
with that tackle and you have a communication style developed
with them, and you understand on this combination, he's going
to fit it like this as opposed to this guy,
And those bank reps are just extremely important to building
that chemistry and cohesion. And again, like I think you
(21:57):
bring up a great point, connor Ley is a young
player cos he's coming off of injury. This is his
this was his second game back, and again there is
going to be a little bit of a learning curve.
And again I think everyone always kind of pushes for
the physical learning to the forefront of those conversations, but
they forget about the mental element of football. That's what
it makes it such a beautiful game. Is it's this.
(22:19):
It's this rigorous physical demand, but also the mental demands,
especially of a position like offensive line. Yeah, and then
you mentioned some of the coverage things.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I mean, there's a lot of new personnel running out
there last night, right, there's more tyler Owans that we've
seen before. Obviously Savage is still relatively new. You saw
a lot of McGee last night. But are those the
kind of the things that they can fix and these
guys be part of the solutions as they move forward
the remainder of the year.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I think so. I mean I was really impressed
with how tyler Owans played man man coverage versus the
Hall of Fame tight end. You know, like he's a
relatively young player and I thought he did a good job.
I think you feel McGee in a way that is fun.
You know, like he's fast, he's physical, he's really unless
you can tell he gets a lot of joy from playing.
He's the type of player you enjoy watching. But again,
(23:04):
like sometimes you get a novel front spacing or a
novel run fit and it's like am I in the
right spot? Or is this the coverage I'm supposed to take?
And on the whole, I thought he did a decent job.
I know PFF kind of burned him a little bit
in terms of grade, but like when you go back
and watch, like overall, I think this is a very
positive performance for a guy who's got the most stap
snap since he's been here, and I think hats off
(23:25):
to Joe Wood Junior for pushing them into the lineup
and giving those guys those opportunities. And so I think
that was another fun thing that again I got to
give a tip of a hat to Joe Wood Junior,
especially in that first half, is let's make sure guys
are in roles that they're comfortable with and we could
maximize and I thought he did a great job of that.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I got a kind of off the board problems plus
solutions question for you. Getting the running backs going again.
It feels like lately that has been a bit of
a problem. Certainly again with Jayden's out there that dictates
a little bit more and those type of things. But
what can they do just to get the running backs
no matter who the quarterback is, to kind of get
more are, more production and more pop.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah, to me, it's about the blocking surface. And we
talked about it with pass pro, with Cosby and Connory
and some of these new pieces, But there is I
think a huge, a huge element like when I was
a part of the number one rushing offense in the NFL,
when Robert Griffin the third was here, in twenty twelve.
That wasn't something that we just casually did. That was
who we were. That was like a diet in the
(24:24):
wool thing we focused on it. We used to do
our install for team run, not as like an offensive line,
tight end, running back. It was everybody on the offense
was in the practice squad. Guys, we're in the room
with us as we did our run installs. So everyone
knew exactly the look we were supposed to be getting
and knew exactly the expectation for everybody in the offense
when it came to running the football. And so I
(24:46):
think of like, when you want to get good at
running the football, you have to pour a ton of
time into it. And I do think that, like talk
about the injuries, like think about the direction that this
offense has had to shift. Like coming into the season,
I was like, we're going to run the FOOTBA, but
we're going to run it out of eleven, right, We're
gonna have Noah Brown, Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel and we'll
be able to run from light box structures and kind
(25:07):
of and all of a sudden, it's changed pretty dramatically.
Now we're going to be a twelve personnel running the
football team. Right. That changes box count numbers, that changes fronts,
that changes our trajectory on double teams. All those things
are affected because of the injuries to the secondary. So
to me in terms of getting it going again, this
is boring to fans, I know, but like it's time
(25:29):
on task. We have to spend more time on task.
And again, like I got to give credit to Kansas City,
Like leading up to the game, that was one of
the most well coached fronts that I'd seen in a
long time. Steve Smagnola had those guys locked in. Those
three linebackers are so fun to watch. Their safeties know
how to fit runs and there's not like talk about
(25:50):
not putting on capes. Those guys never put on a cape.
It's like we are in our gap at the right moment,
coming downhill. And so you got to give them a
lot of credit. But I do think that the more time,
the more equity they can put in the commanders to
the run stuff specifically, it's going to really benefit the
blong term.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
We're here at Logan Paulson Booth Review talking about problems
and solutions. One of the things that was interesting rakel
that we saw last night. Logan I want to ask
about was what did you think of seeing you know,
John Bates, Ben Sinnett getting into the passing game. We
see them block a lot has to do the blocking front,
but both last night, you know, we had some opportunities
and made some plays catching the football.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, I think it's great, man. I think I really
especially love the John Bates completion because I think that's
something that he brings that is so undervalued by the
league is that he's a big, long, strong, physical dude. Like,
for my money, I've said this multiple times, maybe the
best blocking tight end in the NFL. Like he does
an excellent job, but having a guy that can also
(26:50):
stress the seam, get down the field a little bit.
He's not going to run the route for zach ertzz,
but it makes that package so much more dynamic. Like
think about when you bring an extra offensive lineman, you
lose that eligible receiver in the past game, right, they
can green dog that player green dog meeting. If it's
man coverage, I can just blitz the second the extra
tackle blocks right and Baits prevents you from doing that.
(27:12):
So I love the little counterpass play action half role
move the pocket. It's just a great call, really well
designed play, and you've got a guy in Baits who
can execute it. And again, Sinnate is getting like a
little bit of a checkdown, kind of similar to like
Travis Kelce's long completion. But I think you see his
you see the athlete, and so are there ways we
can exploit and develop his athleticism more in this offense,
(27:35):
especially as the playmakers are a little bit banged up.
I hope so. And maybe it's not taking shots down
the field, but maybe here's a screen, here's a touch
from the backfield. I don't know, something like that. Where again,
he is an explosive athlete based on rascore out of
the combine, so let's find ways to maybe get him involved.
Doesn't need to be five ten targets a game, but
maybe it's two to four. And does that give you
(27:59):
enough offensive firepower that teams can't just kind of put
the cap on your ceiling offensively? Maybe? And so that's
something that I think is a nice wrinkle to see
against Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Well, obviously Seattle brings different challenges and the Chiefs do.
The good news is there's no more Patrick Mahomes on
the schedule the rest of the way.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Logan, Scott, that's exactly right, No more Patrick Mahomes and
onto Seattle. And I think no one better to talk
about that than London Fletcher, who he's got his flight,
he's in DC. He's going to come in and talk
to you, to us in the audience about how best
to get after the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night. So
there's nobody better to tell us how to do it
than the guy who's going to be in the Hall
of Fame, and that's London Fletcher.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
All right, thanks Scott for filling in as I was
navigating my travel situation back from Kansas City. Fellas just
my overall thoughts on the game. I thought, being on
the field, and I share this with you, Logan, just
I thought the team came out with great energy. Like
I'm on the sidelines just watching those guys coming out,
(29:00):
I'm like, Okay, these guys didn't come here to just
kind of be all with with Arrowhead Stadium and beat
all all in all of Patrick Mahomes and look at
their their Super Bowl banners and all that.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
These guys came to win the football game.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
And then the way the game started off man offense,
just rolling, moving the football down the field. Obviously you
got the unfortunate interception that bounced off the pads of
Deebo Samuel, and I felt like he was just trying
to make a play, you know, trying to trying to
turn turn his head and see what he can do
before before he really looked the football. In defense, they
(29:36):
came out. You can see the improvements of the defense.
You can see the difference in the in their play.
I thought, putting Jordan McGee on the field, he played,
he played down standing game. You felt his speed, Tyler Owins,
you felt his speed, his presidence on the game. It
wasn't perfect at all all the time, but I thought defensively,
the guys did enough, especially in that first half getting
(29:59):
to take a ways two interceptions off of Patrick Mahoons,
who came into the game with fourteen touchdowns and two
interceptions on this season, and so for us to get
too in the first two drives, I'm like, okay, man,
maybe the balls bouncing our way, but you got to
you gotta finish those drives off from an offense standpoint
with points, touchdowns, and especially going against the Chiefs in
(30:23):
Arrowhead thought we got a bad spot on that that
zach Ertz fourth down play. I understand the aggressiveness by
d Q and because you're not gonna beat the Chiefs
kick and field goal, but I thought, I thought that
was a bad spot. And you know, I had a
couple of couple more opportunities, especially early in that in
that first half, were we just didn't capitalize on the
field position, the turnovers, and you know, you end up
(30:45):
in a seven to seven game at halftime as opposed
to a you know lead, maybe maybe it's a ten
point lead, maybe it's a fourteen point lead, but second half,
you know, we we just couldn't get it done. Didn't
have the same type of success moving the football, and defensively,
Patrick Mahomes made some plays against us, extending the extending plays,
but also felt like we gave them a couple of
(31:07):
plays by just you know, maybe not staying with with
receivers like we should have as long as we we
should have, especially when he's out of the pocket. You're
a man and man coverage you have to make sure
you stay with your man until you're for certain that
he has crossed the line. In scrimmage and he's no
longer going to be a passer. So there was some
(31:28):
some situations and things that we can do better from
a defense standpoint. But all in all, man I was
I was encouraged by what I saw looking forward to
this game against the Seattle Seahawks on on Sunday Night football.
So you know they're they're retiring our art monkst Jersey
that night. We got the Super Bowl era of jerseys.
There will be a lot of energy and excitement at
(31:50):
our stadium on Sunday night. I feel like, man, this
is there's a lot to build upon from that game
against it against the Chiefs, but also there's some things
that we need to still clean up. And once we
do those things, regardless of the injury situation, moving forward,
we will be a better football team. And I feel
like we got to get this game against the against
(32:11):
the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night football, and then we'll
deal with the rest as the season may go. The
leaders on this football team have to continue to reiterate
that type of message that we got a lot of
football left. Our season not over. The NFC is still
NFC Easter still kind of wide open. It's we still
got two games against the Eagles, we got another game
(32:33):
against the Cowboys, another game against the Giants, So we
got a lot of football left in front of us.
We got we got it, but we have to get
this game at home against the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It's an NFC game.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
We got to start stacking some wins against NFC oponents
in case you're looking at some potential wildcards situations or scenarios.
But a lot of encouraging things that I saw from
that ball game. Disappointed we weren't able to play batter
in the second half of Again, a lot that we
can build on.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
And take take it to this game against the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
We're retiring a number of Art Monk, one of the
franchise's all time greats. We want to be able to
hear you all the way up up in the booth.
We need you rocking at Northwest Stadium. Can't wait to
see you with it there. Can't wait to hear you
more importantly, and thanks for watching for Booth Review.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Booth Review was filmed at the Big Bear AI Command
Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers Mission ready AI for
a rapidly evolving world.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Proudly protecting the Washington commanders and its fans,
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