January 13, 2025 • 57 mins
London Fletcher and Bram Weinstein take you into the radio booth down in Tampa Bay as they breakdown what they saw from the Washington Commanders in their exhilarating 23-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They talk what Dan Quinn, Kliff Kingsbury, and Joe Whitt Jr. have done that put the team in the position to win their first playoff game in 19 years. Plus, they discuss hearing Jayden Daniels MVP chants from fans in the stands and...why not him!? Finally, London stresses the importance of a leader on defense like future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner and how he is the emotional anchor for this playoff run.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming up on this edition of The Booth Review. Nineteen
years in the making. It's a playoff win in Washington, London.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh Man, the Cardiac Commanders kick in the door into
the Division A round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And number five is Superman incredible spectacular playoff debut.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
It's all coming up on the Booth Review.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to this playoff winning edition of the Booth Review podcast.
I Bram Witside with Big Fletch London Fletcher. We're brought
to you by Microsoft Surface Powering A Better Game nineteen
years in the making, London, The Commander's gonna win yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh man, what a beautiful game. That was, the game plan,
the execution, the game winning field goal. I just marvel
with this team and what they they're able to accomplish.
Going into that hostile environment. The way they attacked the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense, it made They attacked them so
(01:05):
so well that they had to change up things in
terms of they were blitz happy coming into the game,
and Tabow said, man, we have no answers for this office.
We got to stop blitzing and change up totally. And uh,
just a great thing. And to have him to have
us win on a on a game when it kick
that was doint. You know, we had we had to
(01:28):
make a dramatic in a game whin a field goal.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We wouldn't have it any other way.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Since the bye, every game has ended on the last
snap various different ways. Here's a field goal Saints game
ended on a failed two point conversion. A couple of
touchdowns late with Dallas Philadelphia, then touchdown late over time
for Atlanta. I mean, it's uncanny, and I don't think
it's an accident anymore. So I want to get into
(01:56):
the details of Tampa, but just in general, I've never
seen anything like this where all of the outcomes go
one team's way. But they handle themselves in these late
game situations with so much poise and so much calm,
that calmness that I just don't feel like this is
an accident that they win this way.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No, not when it keeps happening over and over and
over in our case, five times in a row, five
consecutive times in a row.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
The thing about it is.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
They talk, and they talk, they talk about how they
practice for these winning time moments, these situational games in
the ball game. The execution at a high level when
there's high pressure points, high pressure moments in a ballgame.
And is it credit to Dan Quinn. We've talked about
this multiple times. He has to this team prepared for
(02:46):
any scenario, especially the Lake game scenarios where I don't
know about you, but there was no question when we
got that ball at the end of the game with
four minutes and forty seconds left, then there was no
question in my mind that we were going to have
a drive. And when have a game, win a drive
and run out the clock, and that the Tapa Bay
Buccaneers weren't going to get another shot with the football.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I mean, I think I've talked about this with you before,
and you see it too. Quinn is very thorough like
you learn about them in the access that you get
with him. He's very transparent. His messaging is extremely consistent.
You know what he says in one place, you'll hear
in another place. They're very thorough. Obviously the players talk
(03:28):
over and over and over about all these winning time moments.
Did they talk about I remember, back at the end
of training camp, when we were still watching the majority
of practices he had won for I stood there for
forty five minutes watching them him with a microphone shouting
out things like forty five seconds left on the clock,
two timeouts, balls at the thirty yard line, go, And
they would go through a sequence and then he would
(03:50):
just grab the microphone again and go, twenty five seconds left,
balls on their forty five no timeouts go. And I
remember watching him do this and watching them do it,
and it just the fact that here we are at
the end of the season and this is how they're winning,
and they do it with so much poise, I think
is an attribution of what the coaching staff has instilled
(04:13):
in their readiness and preparation for these winning moments.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah, and then and.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You can tell that they do it at a at
a higher level than than any other team or definitely
the teams that I've seen. The Every team has what
you call situational football that you practice throughout the throughout
the week, whether it's third down situations, third and long,
third and short, your red zones, your four minute offense,
four minute defense, all those type of thing.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Goal line, but.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It seems like they take it to an even higher
level where there's situations within the situations to where okay,
we got the ball on this yard line, no timeouts.
You know, got two plays left in the ball game.
You know poss will be two plays here. This is
scenario how we're going to execute. And you're practicing that
(05:06):
from an officer standpoint. You also practicing that from a
defensive standpoint. So it seems like they take situational football
and even throw situations within those situations, which is that's
next level stuff. And in my sixteen years, I don't
recall teams doing it to that high level to where
(05:26):
they take it to and wrap it up, And it
seems like it's on a week to week basis and
probably a day to day basis, because you don't have
these type of performances over and over and over and
over and over again without being totally prepared for these scenarios.
And you're doing this with the from an office standpoint.
(05:46):
You're doing this with a rookie quarterback that's unheard of.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
He's not a rookie, or he's unlike any rookie I've
ever seen.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
He is.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I've said this to you earlier, and it feels like
hyperbolic when you say it early in a season. He
had the best rookie season any quarterbacks ever had, and
He's got some metrics to prove that, and now he's
winning in the playoffs, and very very few have double
digit wins, let alone twelve. And the circumstances by which
he came in year with a turnedover roster and a
(06:20):
turned over front office, turnedover coaching staff to get through
that and have this kind of success is remarkable, and
he's just some of the numbers from last night. Daniels
joins Peyton Manning, is the second quarterback in NFL history
to lead a team zero turnovers, zero punts in a
road playoff game. Daniel's sixty eight point six completion percentage
is the highest in franchise history in a playoff game
(06:41):
six Mark Rippin in the nineteen ninety one NFC Championship.
That's the best season that this team has ever had,
and this is the best one since that season. Daniels
is the fourth rookie in NFL history to start and
win thirteen games, including the postseason, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco,
Dak Prescott or the others. He has a qualified completion
that's higher than any rookie ever. The only one who
(07:03):
ever had one higher was a guy who played for
Cleveland in the nineteen thirties when they threw three passes
a game, right, I mean it's I don't even think
it's fine. You want to argue it's not the best
rookie quarterback season ever. It's in the top five, and
you're gonna show you have to show me another one
that's been better than the way that he's performed this year.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well you well, you mentioned Cleveland in the nineteen fifties
that immediately thought like they probably wasn't throw the football
had many.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Times five times a game.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, the forward pass I think had just kind of
got introduced to the to the professional game. I mean,
you you you're spot on with all the things you
just said and backing it up with the numbers and
the company that he's in. But the fact that it's
the game winning situation to I mean, six seconds left,
(08:00):
eight seconds left, three seconds left, whatever the case may be,
and he's he's throwing touchdowns and he's unflappable in the
poise in the in the pocket. The biggest play yesterday,
I mean, they were a lot of big plays, but
that third and sixth uh completion to Theami Brown where
he just stands in the pocket and delivers a strike
(08:21):
I mean on a against a.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Bucks defense that.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
They pretty much they're pretty good at getting at the quarterback.
But it's almost like he's out on the practice field.
He knows he felt like, Hey, nobody's gonna hit me.
I'm gonna trust my protection and I'm gonna deliver an
accurate ball to uh them Brown And and it's in
that moment, I mean, if he don't, if we don't
convert that that third down, we're punting with over three
(08:50):
minutes left in the ball game, Buck still have two
timeouts left, two timeouts, so maybe even three. I think
they may have all three timeouts left in that ball game.
So I mean that that right there, it's a outstanding
was outstanding.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
You know, we've had a crazy year obviously with all
the finishes. And here's another one. You know, in this
playoff game that occurred, and during the pregame show before
the game, they were playing you know what, CJ picked
his top five plays of the year, and obviously number
one is Hail Mary, and then there's all these other ones.
And I went on with Michael Jenkins who goes, you know,
our pregame show and he goes, what are your three favorite,
and I go, well, it's hard not to pick the
(09:25):
Hail Mary, and the Cincinnati game to me was the
one that really really stood out the throat to Terry
because that was like the first of, oh my god,
like this guy is doing things at a level that
we haven't seen around here. Terry of course made an
incredible catch. It was the first real big moment of
him for what was his best season here in Washington.
But the one I picked second was and I'm going
to get back to this because it's Tampa, and it's
(09:47):
what you're talking about, like all these highlights that are
getting around, which we appreciate all the all the attention
that everything's getting. It's always these game winning moments that
you're showing, but it's these other plays that he's making
is what really to me makes him stand out. And
the one that I brought up to Michael yesterday was
fourth and eleven Philadelphia, like that's the one that isn't
(10:08):
making the highlight reels, but was the game he jukes
out seven players on the Eagles defense to extend a
drive in a game they had no business being in
and they won anyway. And then yesterday there're two that
stand out to me, Diami Browns was a great one.
There's so many of them, they're hard to remember all
of them.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
He threw a play. This is in the fourth quarter.
He threw a.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Pass Yaya Diabi saw Austin Eckler flare out left his lane.
This is a Pro Bowl caliber rush end he's standing there.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
He puts this.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Perfect touch pass over his outstretched arm to Eckler to
get a first down. And then the other one, of course,
is at the end of the game, third and one
and a half. He shakes out of Elijah Kanzi's grasp
and gets a first down for four yards that salts
the game away and gives them a chance to not
(11:04):
give Tampa Bay the ball back. These are the spectacular moments.
These are the ones they don't show on the highlight
reels because they're not the game winning moments. But to me,
these are the ones that stand out and why he's different.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Now you're you're right, and it's uh. I mean, we
can I think in every game, even the ones where
where we've lost, you'll have maybe four or five plays
that you can say, man, this is a highlight play.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
This is a highlight play.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
This highlight play and it is not even necessarily a
touchdown run or touchdown passes converting on a third down
the New Orleans game on the fourth and one where
he keeps the ball and he has to dive over
beyond us in the Saints defender to convert that fourth
down play. You know that again, that play doesn't make
(11:55):
the highlights per se, but it was one of the
special plays of this season. And He's had a ton
of plays in this ball in this in this season. Man,
just this is He's special. He's been special to watch.
This team has been special to watch. A lot of
guys stepped up and made plays. And that ball game,
whether it was a Diami picking that moment to have, well,
(12:18):
we think probably maybe his best game as a as
a Washington commander. He reserved that moment till to the
playoffs and you know, so many guys just made a
make key contributions to that win.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We've done this all year.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
One of the big stories coming in Who's wide receiver
two and they consistently said they have a group of
players that will fill the role game to game. A
couple of weeks ago, it was alamide z A Kias
had a huge game, Uh Jamison crowder Off I R
had a huge game, game winning catch against Philadelphia, and
then last night was Diami's turn. And I remember back
(12:55):
in the summer, like I looked at him when they
were saying who's wide receiver too, and I'm like, they're
gonna like him. He's a willing participant, he's physical, like
he'll block on the edge, he'll play special teams, and
he does have speed in good hands, he can get
down the field. I think he's gonna find a role.
And it never really materialized that he was that clear
(13:17):
number two at any point in time. But as they've
asked people to step up in any given moment, be
ready for when their moment comes.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
There he was last night.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
This has happened over and over and over too, where
they've said we don't know who it's gonna be every week,
but we're gonna ask people to step up. And I
was really happy for him, someone who's been trying to
find a role here for a few years, to have
a real massive, shining moment last night.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
No.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
And it was when I saw him in the locker room.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
First thing I said to him, man, was man, wait
to ball, man, just just way to play because you
know he's had he's had an up and down career
here in Washington, but to have his number called in
that critical moment, critical junks in a game on the line,
so to speak, because he was the primary on that.
They had Terry run the clear out, like Terry, you're
(14:08):
running the clear out and the omnies to the primary
on that. So to get that play call and know, like, man,
my team has trusting me in this moment.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
They're not.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
They're saying, hey, we feel like you are going to
be the guy that we can go to and make
a play.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
And he delivered, and they delivered several times in that
ball game.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I mean, it's happened all year. This happened in the
Philadelphia game. Crowder hadn't played in weeks. They were running
this play in practice. Remember they told everybody they were
running this play in practice that involved him. Game on
the line, blind throw before he makes a cut. They
trust him six seconds on the clock. You know the
I think it's a testament to they talk about this
(14:48):
so much. This team trusts each other in a way
that I haven't seen a team here trust each other
like this. What is happening is which is why I
don't put anything past them, like, yes, it's great they
got a playoff with Oh, this is amazing. They won
(15:08):
twelve games. You you underestimate them at your own risk
because I don't know who the hero is gonna be
in Detroit, but trust me, it's gonna be somebody.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, I'll say this. So we talk about You just
mentioned how they trust each other. Now let's dig into
why they trust each other. They trust each other because
these guys have great relationships off the field. They spend
time with each other, They've they've bonded, and that what
goes back into the off season and all the different
(15:44):
team building things and bonding moments they had to what
they built up to this situation where we have such
a great relationship. We hang off the field, I know you,
I we have an intimate now of one another, and
so when it comes to being on a football field,
(16:05):
I'm trusting you to do your job, You're trusted me
to do my job. I'm gonna have your back, You're
gonna have my back. And that's that's built off the field.
That where you get that type of chemistry, that type
of development, that type of in their words, brotherhood.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I want to give you another stat that I really
found amazing. So no touchdowns, no punts, that's I mean,
no punts, no turnovers, sorry, no turnovers, no punts. That's
amazing in a playoff game, especially with rookie quarterback. Some
of that was they were very bold as the word
they use. And I'll get into the fourth down that's right. Actually,
like in most of those cases they did it on
(16:42):
the end of the field where they wouldn't have punted anyway.
But like, but we'll get into that in a second,
but listen to this one time of possession they won
in which I think was enormous key. Tampa Bay's offense
has been outstanding this year. Keeping them off the field
is a big deal. The seventeen play ninety two yard
drive was a really big deal. They ended up time
possession winning thirty five plus minutes to twenty four plus minutes.
(17:04):
That's a big difference and a big key. But I
think the part that gets me about it, it's really
truly remarkable the run game. Thirty three carries eighty two yards.
That's like nothing, So they somehow controlled the clock without
dominating or even being adequate in the run game. It's
(17:26):
just a testament that they are capable of making plays
when they have to, no matter what, to whoever, under
any situation, like normally when you in time of possession,
you control the lone of scrimmage and you ran the ball.
That's period. That's not what happened yesterday.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
No, not at all, you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I didn't even realize they ran the ball thirty two
times until after, you know, after the gay because because
the run was ineffective as a as you mentioned, but
they had they went in there with the mindset where
you just couldn't say, we're gonna drop back all day long,
because you don't want to get into a pure drop
back game. You want to the Saints to have to
(18:10):
steal respect the fact that you will we will run
the football like you have to, you know, be cognizant
and respect the fact that we will try to run
the ball. Whether we're gaining you know, four yards or
five yards of clip or one or two yards of clip,
We're still going to run the football. And they had
they had a couple they had big runs when they
(18:32):
when they counted the Eckler eight yard run right before
Jade and Daniels had the had the the third down
conversion so to be able to get in the I
think they went from first and first and ten to
second and two and then obviously uh third, two and
thirty one whatever it was, and then he conversed but
(18:52):
and so those are two runs that happened later in
the game, but consistently. Now, the run game wasn't there,
but the volume of runs was there, and that makes
a big difference too.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, I thought Eckler was going to be a big
deal in this game. Obviously, Tampa is very hard to
run against, and the numbers show that from from last night,
but they're in general very hard against top five rush defense.
I don't think there was one hundred yard rusher against them.
But Eckler has that style that they had a little
bit of trouble with, this kind of one cut, quick
(19:22):
decision making off the guard, tackle middle of the line,
and you get some yardage. I'm not surprised that he
had an impact last night because he was the style
of runner that I thought could be effective if they
leaned on the run game last night.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, he was, and it was a couple of times
where it was just almost on a couple occasion where
he was just like I hear from breaking a couple
of ruhs where you know, it's like, oh man, I
thought he you knows missed a able to get out
of a shoe street tackle here just a little bit
better blocks have sustained a block a little bit longer
right here, and then they'll be able to crease a Another.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Thing they did was.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
The extension of the perimeter passes, whether it was a
couple of swing passes early in the ball game to
be Rob or Eckler or whatever, and you got a
block her out in front of him. That was another
way that they looked at as an extension of the
run game. There was some quick outs to Terry or
some of the receivers, whether it was just a five
yard out on first down and you go from you
(20:26):
go from first and ten to second and five. Now
you're operating the head of the chains and got you
got the whole playbook available to you.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
On the second and second and five. You stay ahead
in the chains.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
If you run the ball, you may only get two
or three yards, but now you're in a third and
four or thirty thirty three or even a third and
you know, two types of situations. So it was it
was a good combination.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I thought.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I thought Cliff Kingsbury caught an outstanding football game. I
mean outstanding. They dialed up shot plays, chunk plays. The
first to think it was the third and four, maybe
thirty six, I can't remember off Ham when they took
the deep shot to Terry and that also, Hey, that
less Tapa Bay. No, we're not just gonna try to convert,
(21:14):
get the change and move to change. We will take shots.
It took several shots in that ball game. They manufactured
shot plays down the field. I thought Cliff, he caught
an outstanding football game.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, I mean for you know, a change up. You know,
they showed Tampa Bay a lot of different looks last night.
We were surprised by some of the things they did.
They brought out Mariova Mariota on a switch up a
couple of times, once where they actually got a first
down on whatever their version of a touch push idea was,
or like a sneak was. They used him, used Jaden
his window dressing on that, running him around. Second time,
(21:47):
they tried to fool them, get him to jump that.
It didn't work, but they did that. They had a
really creative play with Zakias when he came in motion,
faked it to him, then went back to him, got
some yardage out of it.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I thought the offensive game plan really switched things up.
If there was a change from week one to week nineteen,
it was the Commanders who did the switch up last night,
I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I think Clif did a terrific job.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah, no, they definitely.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
They definitely adjusted more to week one than I would
say the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did in terms of just
and it's hard when you when you win the game
like the Bucks, like, hey we won thirty seven to twenty,
what what things should we change up? Yeah, you know,
you needed to definitely change up some things because of
just looking at what the adjustments that we made.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
The I thought they did a nice job of seeing using.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Plays that hurt the Buccaneers over the last several weeks.
There were a couple of plays against the Cowboys, in
particular when the Cowboys were the last team to beat
the Bucks out of the in their last seven game.
They end up winning six out of last seven, but
they had a loss to the Dallas Cowboys and they
manage factured some chunk plays and I saw us utilize
(23:03):
a couple of those plays against the against the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers, and but again, just an outstanding game plan.
We weren't going to try to continue to run the
ball all the time up through the middle. Hey, let's
swing the ball out, Let's have the wide receiver screen.
Let's fake a a toss play. There was the one
with the eye almost scoring on the on the wide
(23:23):
receiver screenway he fakes the toss, It throws the tunnel
screen out to him, and I mean he almost he
nearly scored. We end up I think, kicking the field
goal on that drive. But just uh, just great, great creativity,
great game planning.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
You know, I think this goes back to the idea
of like the trust and accountability. So I heard the
same thing if you talk to coaches or players about
the week one game. Bobby Wagner apparently spoke to the
team again said something about like to the effect of
what we heard secondhand. I wanted to throw up when
I watched that. I heard Dan Quinn say to me,
(23:58):
you know last week and to others where he said,
when we rewatched this, we looked at this and go,
that's not us. We heard that from Jade Daniels when
we talked to him last night after the game. That's
not us, that's accountability. That's everybody saying we need to
be better. The rookie quarterback from his debut to his
first playoff game. Obviously, I mean with experience is.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Going to be better.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Here's a defensive leader saying we need to be better
than this. We all need to be better than this.
And here's the coaching staff saying we need to be better.
And they were the ones that came up with a
different game plan and it worked to the tune of
holding the ball eleven plus minutes longer than their opponent,
keeping their offense, which is prolific, off the field, and
(24:44):
doing it even though they couldn't run the ball really effectively.
It's a team win, Like that's what that is. A
team win. They took accountability for what happened what feels
like eons ago and was only a few months ago,
and they looked, acted and performed like a different team.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I just remember vividly after that that Week one loss
where Quinn talked about Jayden because it was it was
it was a lot of talk about Jayden running running
too many times in the ball game, he had sixteen
carries for eighty eight yards, and a lot of those
a lot of those runs weren't called runs or even
(25:25):
zone reads. It was him scrambling after and making plays
with his legs. But there were times when he ended
up scrambling where if he just maybe felt more comfortable
and throwing a quick out or throw taking a shot
down to feel deep, or or getting the ball out
to a sight adjust off a hot route.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
And that's that's.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
To be expecting your rookie making your making your NFL
debut against a team that all you've heard is like, man,
they're gonna blister, they gonna bist, they gonna blist the
heck out of you. So you've heard that all all
week long leading up into that game. So you know
you can speed up your process a little bit and
just to go back and you look, you say, there
were so many throws. That's why Jaden said when he
(26:08):
looked at that field, he said he was disgusted with
it because he was like, man, I left so we
left so much out there, you know, just with us
being so so new in our offense and even defensively,
the miscommunications on Yeah, some big plays that the the
Buccaneers were able to get in the passing game, just
some courage kind of not playing it, not communicating the
(26:31):
right way.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
I thought.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Defensively, especially in the first half, they did an outstanding
job against the Bucks run game.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
And that was that was the man.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
That was the thing where they came in they say, hey,
we cannot allow the Bucks to run a rough shot
on us running the football. And I thought the defensive
front play extent our standing. I thought the linebackers laid
by Bobby Wagner, like the first run play of the game,
Bobby comes downhill and he hits he is Bucky Irvin,
either for maybe a one yard game or no yards.
(27:02):
I mean, it was just like and that that was
kind of like a tone set, like, Hey, this is
the type of day it's going to be when you
all try to run the ball against us.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Bobby Wagner came to play like he was Captain. Zach
Ertz down late in the season, really became a reliable target.
They admitted a couple of weeks ago when we signed him,
we thought he'd be a red zone threat, probably be
on third downs. They didn't expect to rely on him
to the degree that they did. But they did, and
(27:31):
he came through especially late in the season. You know, Wagner, really,
I mean I agree with you, like right from the
get go, came out there and really set the tone
defensively for the team last night.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Hey man, that's what happened when you have a seventeen
career playoff games. Like I was, as I was doing
by research and prepper for the game, I was like, man,
let me let me go and look and see how
many playoff games Bobby Bobby has played in. And you
know from in Seattle, seems like they were in the
playoffs and making you know, nice runs and obviously went
(28:04):
to two Super Bowls there. So I'm like, man, I
want to just see how many how many games he's
played he played in the playoffs, and he was it
was at like seventeen career playoff playoff starts, and it
was like, wow, this is this is crazy. So yesterday
was his eighteenth career playoffs start.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
He and he acted like it was his first. I mean,
he was really really brought it one more thing on
the offense before he getting to the defense. Little because I
do want to ask you about that, what did you
make of they warned us. They said we're gonna be
bold in third and fourth down. That was bold five
fourth downs that they went for. What did you think
of the aggressiveness there?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Well, well to third down I mentioned and maybe dam
was hitting that, Hey, on third downs, we're not just
gonna hey it's third and four, We're not just gonna
look to get five yards of convert and we're gonna
take shots down the field like like they did against
a with Terry on the on the first third down play.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
But the.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Hey, that's how they played all year long, and d
Q trust uh you know the first third, the first
fourth down, I was like, yeah, this is what they're
gonna do.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
It did surprise me at all.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I thought on the the second, fourth, fourth, and I
thinking it was maybe fourth and three that I was
thinking he might want to kick a field goal there,
just because it seems like Tampa was. I think we
can end up losing some yardage on the on the
third down player, it's like, okay, maybe let's uh, let's
kick a field field goal here, get get points, making
a one point game. At that point in time, when
(29:36):
he when he went for it, it's like all right,
I'm and I'm also I also put on my defensive
thinking where he's saying to myself, saying to himself, if
we don't get it. I mean, he's confident we're gonna
get it. But if we don't get it, we'll have
them backed out. Hopefully defense hold them, force them to
kick the punt the football on a three and out,
and we'll have great field position. And uh so I
(29:58):
didn't have a problem with the way he he went
about it. Again, they've done it all year long. They've
had great success doing it, and you know, it ended
up not working in a couple of those cases, but
then some of them they did.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
And then they got two acts of God, which listen,
if you're gonna win, you need them. The ball just
found Bobby Wagner right when they needed it to. No
one caused the turnover. It was just a mystic exchange.
Ball ends up in his hands. And of course the
game winning kick hits the goalpost goes in anyway. So
to the prepared, to the to the well intentioned, the
(30:35):
luck comes as well.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And it was a third whip.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Remember the the Saint, I mean, the Bucks were in
a third and one, and they tried to seem like
they were trying to draw us off sides, yes, and
and the center snapped the football when nobody moved and
it was almost a disaster. I can't remember who it
almost made the tackle in the backfield and they end
up getting a we'll go from third and one to
(31:01):
fourth and two or three, and they ended up having
to kick a field goal, which was that was another
gift right there, because instead of staff a football and
nobody was ready for it.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I agree on the defense. Speaking of changes, so
controlling the ball is a big deal. But early and
we noticed this post the first drive until they had
that late second quarter drive that ended up.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Tying the game.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
When they went in at half, Baker Mayfield was a
little bit indecisive. The coverage was clearly different. He didn't
like what he saw. They weren't running the ball nearly
as effectively as they did in the first game. What
did you see in the first half from the change
up from Joe Witt defensively yesterday?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, I thought they they played a little bit more
zone covers. They mix it up, mixed up looks well
against him, and it forced it forced Baker to hold
on to the football a lot longer, a little bit longer,
and I thought even with the rush, laying integrity by
the defensive defensive front was a lot better than the
first game. You saw guys not trying to get too
(32:04):
far past the quarterback, but they got on the same level,
maybe trying to holding tone it down or hunker down
a little bit. You saw a little bit more control
rushes on the inside, guys expecting Baker and ready for
Baker to kind of step up in the pocket.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
But I thought the coverage was really good, especially we.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Had the uh the Bucks had a their first third down,
remember it was the second third down play no their
first series. They had a third and six or seven,
whatever it was, and they had a bunch formation. We
had issues with the bunch formations the first time around.
We did a great job had a double We doubled
Mike Evans on that play, and then Samer still did
(32:44):
a nice job coming off of the double teament playing
over the top and almost made an interception. So I
thought they did a nice job of common mixing the
coverages up going from double from man's to zones, but
also match zones and and really forced Baker to hold
on to the football a little bit longer.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Not a lot of not a lot of blitz is
on all third down.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
It was like, Hey, we're gonna we're gonna play coverage,
We're gonna double some guys. We're gonna mix it up
and see if you can identify, you know, on the
fly and force them to hold on the football a
little bit longer.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
The other thing, I mean, it just it's worth crediting.
And I mean we've kind of gone through. They got
the ball, they scored again. They did it again, over
and over and over. They're coming through in these late
game situations, late half situations in general. I guess with
the exception of yesterday, really they gave up a touchdown
late in the first tilf it's actually been rare that
they've been giving up scores like that this year. But
I want to give credit. We talked about this, you know,
(33:36):
the last couple of weeks, because they keep winning late.
It's not just that they're executing and the players deserve
all the credit for executing this. And the coaches are
coming in with good play calling and time they play calling,
but the operations working, and it needs to be pointed out,
like people lose their jobs over time management. People lose,
you know, credibility over not handling high pressure, fast moving situations,
(33:59):
and week after week after week, this is a very
buttoned up operation with that. And yes, I trust Jayden
like they all seemingly trust Jayden. He stays cool, calm, collected.
I can't believe he's able to do this at this
stage of his career, but he can, and that helps
a lot. But I want to give credit to the
sideline too, because nothing seems to be happening too fast
(34:22):
to them. They're under control consistently and that's why this
is not an accident that they keep winning like this
all the time.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Not at all, not at all, And just to pose
that against well, I don't know if we talked, we
really talk about this at the end of our game,
Todd Bowles maybe a little question about time management clock
management on on his side when they were on the
defense side of the ball, He led, I think you
you mentioned this where we only ran two plays. We
(34:54):
got the ball well from Mike the three the three
men in Mark three eighteen or whatever it was, maybe
after the Diami Brown Yes, conversion to I think we
ran one one run play and then we were in
two plays in a matter of what a minute and
a half. It was something something you know, that they
allowed us to do. And so the the the I think,
(35:17):
what's his name, Dave Guardy is that is that the
guys gentleman who helps out with the situation of football
and clock manager and all that. And think I believe
it was Terry who mentioned Dave to us in the
postgame interview.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
How they do it.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
He does a great job of gets getting those guys
to understand the scenarios, situation and and again that's another
level where in my sixteen years, I don't recall a
coach having somebody come and explain to us, hey, late
game situation in the game, situation, time time and all
those types of things, timeouts and when you want to
(35:55):
call a time out, all these different scenarios. And that's
that's the that's the the next level stuff and the
other things that they're doing and making playing winning football.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Like even you know, sometimes it's not about just it
helps you win. It it prevents you from losing, like
it you just do the right things. And Tampa never
got the ball back, and it was it was interesting
when you bring up like late in the game, and
it was so obvious to me because we're so accustomed
to this team going up tempo. And we even heard
Jaden say in his press conference, he goes, I wanted
(36:27):
to score, but I had to listen to the coaches,
Like he wanted to go for the jugular score a touchdown,
you know, but like because that's in his nature to
do that, which I like, but the coaches.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
But then the coaches took control there, and we're so
accustomed to them going at pace, not huddling, going to
the line, getting going, and they didn't because they understood
time and place to do it. And the Buccaneers, like,
I don't know if it's a big deal down in Tampa,
but their time out should have been utilized differently than
(36:59):
they did. They might have had more time than they
may not have, but they definitively would have had a
better chance. A couple of weeks ago, Raheem Morris did
not use his timeouts very well against the Bears when
they actually came out and said it wasn't a big
deal that Terry made that catch to set up the
hail Mary.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Like these are the types of decisions that can lose
games and them slowing down. It just goes back to
these moments aren't moving too fast or not too big
for them, and everybody trusts one another to do their jobs.
And it's been working out in glorious fashion and amazing fashion.
(37:42):
And it's been a joy to do it with you
every week. Because it's one thing to call the games,
it's another thing to have a season like this, because
not only are all these games so exciting, this is
the most memorable season I've ever professionally been a part of.
And it just there's no luck involved, like they are
an incredible operation. We've learned this.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Week by week by week now it really is.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
And I had the fortunate to plan on two teams
that went to the Super Bowl, and and the ninety
nine team was sensational and we won games, but there
wasn't drama too, with the exception of we had two
dramatic games, the NFC Championship game you know, that came
down to the wire, and also the Super Bowl, wh
(38:28):
that came down to a tackle game saving tackle, but
a touchdown saving tackle, I should say. But beyond that,
besides that was those things. We were blowing teams out
forty to three and forty to ten. Like it wasn't
a whole lot of drama in those games. But to
be able to to be able to witness this type
of season, I mean, it's it's it's been a it's
(38:51):
been a three old definitely. Definitely, my blood pressure rises,
heart rate is probably up a lot during those games.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Yesterday, I was like, oh good, Yeah, I don't know
if I could take this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I mean, we just we just we got to get accustomed.
We brought accustomed to that. That's how our games are.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
I think it's wild too.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I mean, like you know, when you started winning with
the Rams and you guys won in the Super Bowl,
Like to your point about like the scoring, there ended
up being three Hall of Fame skill position players on
that offense. Four if you've cut Kurt Water. So there's
four Hall of Fame skill position players.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
That's not this team. That's it's not.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And I think that's what's kind of incredible about what
they're doing here, is that they're figuring out ways to
be effective. They're asking everybody to pull on the rope
at the same time. And I like it's the old
George Allen quote where fifty three men all you know
doing like, working towards the same goal, can't lose. And
that's what this feels like. A little bit will, determination, desire.
(39:56):
You're not gonna quit. If you give them a pulse,
they will, they will steal you. And this is why
I don't put anything past them, because I could. You
could just feel the determination and the trust, and that's
more powerful than talent could ever buy you.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
It really, it really is, it really is.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
And I was talking to somebody like, I'm sure you
get the same questions from family members, friends, different people
you may see out and about that. They're like, hey,
what do you think about this game? What's gonna happen with?
I say, man, we got a great chance of winning
this football joint. And then there were times where I
would say we're gonna win and I would tell the
(40:40):
reason I feel this way is they are playing with
such confidence.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
They believe they can be anybody.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
And confidence when you when you have that type of feeling,
that type of belief, that's where when when D says
anybody anywhere, anytime, that's where it comes from. And it's
the preparation that breeds breeze that confidence that they go
into each and every ballgame with and they'll go into
the same this ball game Saturday night against the Detroit
(41:08):
Lions feeling the same way, and it's gonna be tough.
It's gonna be a uh, it'll probably be the most
hostile environment that we've played in all season long. That
place will be buzzn't. But they will go in there
with great confidence and great belief that we can go
in here and we are going to get it done.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Obviously, our last call has been moving around. Thanks to
NBC for putting the camera at our booth and putting
it out there for us, and it's making the rounds.
It just happened a few times for all those out
there who are jealous of that. No one's having more
fun than us, So you know, give it the program.
But because of all of that, and because of what
their motto is here, I think we need devenue slogan
(41:47):
me you and logan any booth anywhere any time.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
I definitely will.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
I definitely feel cropping in our booth against anybody. I've
never lacked for confidence, nah, I mean, the energy is
not massed as I think it was. One of the
news outlets said unmatched energy, and that is that exactly it,
and it's it's organic.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
It's just how how we feel.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
We're having fun. You know, we're having fun. And you know,
again it goes back to also, it's been nineteen years,
and I think from the get go this team, we
saw it in the summer that like there's something different
about them, There's something different about this quarterback.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
This isn't just coach speak.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
What's going on here? You know, they do have a
lot of veterans who've been there, done that, and who
knows if this comes together, what it's going to be.
And then they just provided moment after moment after moment,
and when you win five in the regular season and
now six with the postseason fourth quarter comebacks, Underestimate this
(42:56):
team at your own risk because they do not die.
They have a will like I haven't seen before.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
And this is a.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Tough setup, like a short week, night game, fly home.
I'm on thirty minutes of sleep. So are they got
to turn around, have a short week and play a
night game on a home field of the best team
in the NFC who's coming off a bye. It's a
big ask, a really big ask. But I'm with you.
(43:24):
I've seen too much. I know too much. I know
what this team's about, and they ain't laying down for anybody. No.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
I like their chances. As a matter of fact, I
love their chances. This is this is the hand there, Dell.
Hey doesn't matter like they're not gonna make excuses that
are gonna be like, hey, you know, would have been
great if we played on Sunday. Whatever the case may be.
They're gonna prepare the ride way. I'm sure they'll be.
The practice approach will be key in terms of making
(43:55):
sure they're recovering. I don't expect to maybe probably one
fool speed practice this week just to allow those guys
to body to recover from a physical standpoint, be a
lot of mental mental preparation type work, and get those
guys ready to play a hell of a football game
come Saturday night. So this coaching staff their season, they've
(44:17):
been in all kinds of scenarios, short weeks, whether you're
playing a Sunday Thursday game, and all those types of things,
so they know how to get those guys prepared from
a physical standpoint, from mental standpoint, emotional standpoint, because hey,
yesterday's game was emotional. We've had as you mentioned, five
five emotional wins in a row, but they're battle tested
(44:37):
and their toughest nails.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
And I agree with you. I would not bet against
this football team.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
No, all right, time to give out the belt. It
is that time of the week. Yeah, Big Fletches Heavyweight
Championship Commanders Mouth Full Felt presented by Northwest Federal Credit
Union Where trust matters, all right. Last week was Terry
McLaurin huge second half with Marcus Mariota to get the
(45:05):
last second win over the Cowboys. Now you got the
contender after the playoff with the Buccaneers is who.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
Oh man.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
I don't even think there's any suspense to this. Normally
I try to, you know, drum up, you know it's
a little bit of suspense, but there's no sense suspensive.
The contender is Jaden Daniels. I think everybody who's watching
this new this that there will be no other contender.
So when I bring in the contender, I have to
(45:35):
kind of let you know what the what the reigning
champion has done. Jaden had an outstanding I mean, Terry
had an outstanding football game, seven receptions eighty nine yards,
had had a big touchdown catching that ball game, and.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
He's he did a lot to retain his belt.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
But then you gotta go to the challenger and you say, Okay,
what did the challenger do? Jaden three hundred and sixty
eight yards passing two tds, thirteen carries for thirty six yards,
and the critical conversion at the end of that ball
game to set up the game winning field goal.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
I think when you look.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
At that, you look at Jade in this his impact
goes beyond the numbers that I just mentioned to you.
He forced the Tama Bay Buccaneers to scrap their blitz
heavy scheme and totally go to a different type of
approach because I mean, he was shredding those guys.
Speaker 4 (46:36):
Brown.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I think you know where I'm going. Terry, you had
a great job. You did a great job, but you
were a great challenge. You put up a nice competition
to keep your belt.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
However, and now big Pletchers Heavyweight Championship Combat. This belt goes.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Two Jayden dan Yo.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
For his first playoff win, and it was a spectacular
performance and is for hopefully the first of many. I'm
hoping it's the first of many. Maybe many this year,
who knows, why not? I got one other contender for
the bell this might be telling stories. I don't tell
a lot of stories out of school. But this is funny,
and this is really not for us, but this is
(47:22):
for all the producers who are gonna have Logan on
Eddy Show later this week that you might want to
bring this up. He almost got into a fight with
the Buccaneers mascot.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
Pregod, I'm not kidding. He did.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
He almost got into a fight with the Buccaneers mascot
who started it. By the way, as far as I
could tell, Logan's not an instigator, but the Buccaneers mascot
apparently like bumped into him on purpose a couple of times.
He nearly had to throw down with him.
Speaker 4 (47:53):
Oh man, the mascot was ready to scrap.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
He did, he say? He told us he was.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
He was pretty close that he was got to get
into a fight with the Buccaneers mascot.
Speaker 4 (48:04):
Oh man, that would have been that would have went viral.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Man, I would have liked to have seen it. One
other thing too, before we move on. I do want
to talk about Detroit with you for a minute. But
the Commander's fan base in Tampa for this, and we've
seen this a lot, especially we saw it in New
Orleans destination place December. It's not hard to you know, hey,
do you want to go somewhere for the year, Let's
go check out a Saints game down there in New
(48:30):
Orleans and December.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Not a hard sell. That was full on.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I was walking around near our team hotel, which was
in downtown Tampa. Everywhere we got to the game, everywhere
it was. I mean our buses typically when we pull
up in the buses. You know, some fan bases are nice,
some are not so nice. The majority of them are
rooting for the other team. I am telling you, we
(48:56):
couldn't go a block without people jumping out of their cars,
waving watch, shouted flags, yelling at us.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
It was that was loud and strong last night.
Speaker 4 (49:07):
It was.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
It was impressive the support that the fans have brought
to this this team, especially in that situation where you
needed everybody who was wearing that burgundy and gold to
going to to that environment and win the football game. Man,
you couldn't go anywhere, like like you said, without seeing
our fans. It was a It was a Burgundy gold
(49:29):
takeover of Tapa Bay. Even even this morning when I
was when I was flying out, I went into one
of the lounges. I'm not gonna say that that lounge
name unless they want to sponsor us. And I'm sitting
in there and it's three gentlemen. They all still had
their commander's stuff on, commander's gear on.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
They didn't see me.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
I saw them, and and I'm sitting I sit behind
them and I'm just listening to it on their conversation,
and man, they were just talking about the game h going,
uh you know, player a player, Uh, situations that happened,
and they just talked about They talked about yesteryear stuff
and how how proud they feel about this team and
(50:09):
some of the things that that they've seen. I mean,
it was just it was just a treat to hear
hear those guys talking on the plane coming coming back
to Charlotte. It was like probably half the play was
commander fans deal still in their commander's gear.
Speaker 4 (50:24):
It was. It was awesome because you got the hubs.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Everyone was changing planes if they couldn't get the direct
they were changing planes in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
I wrote this list.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
I know I'm gonna forget people, but I just want
to say some of their names. Terry McLaurin got his
first playoff win as a player in the Washington uniform.
So did John Allen, So did Deron Payne? Uh treusway
did he win?
Speaker 3 (50:45):
He might have? Is he here for the last one?
Speaker 4 (50:47):
No? No?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Right?
Speaker 3 (50:48):
Last week?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Yeah, he was twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
Jeremy Reeves, who we got to talk to, spin around
the block a lot, Tanni, great game, Sam Cosme. I
know there's others that have been around, but the ones
that really stand out John Terry drawn been around a
long time. Tress been waiting for this. I'm really happy
for them. It was so it was so cool to
say to them, you know, live on the official broadcast
last night, congratulations on winning your first playoff game here.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
It was really cool.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah, it means a lot for those guys because they've
gone through They've.
Speaker 4 (51:19):
Had a lot of lean years here.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
You've had some pretty ugly, ugly seasons where you just like,
i mean even go back to last year, guys who
were some of the holdovers from from last year's team.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
You go through four and thirteen season, I mean, it's
that's rough on you and and.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
You mentioned some of those holdovers. So it means a
lot for those guys, and they they they're appreciative of everything.
They're appreciative of this season, and they they don't want
up to end. Man, it's just you definitely feel happy
and proud for what they are. Proud of those guys
and what they've been able to endure and still continue
to be a part of what this what this team
is has done and continues to do.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Do you remember your first playoff win?
Speaker 4 (52:01):
I do.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
What do you remember about it?
Speaker 2 (52:05):
Oh, we played in Minnesota Vikers, so we had the
number one seed that year. We had to buy we have, Yeah,
we had to buy first round by so it was
the divisional round that we hosted.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
What I remember is the Dome in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
It was as loud as I had ever witnessed, and
so that was my first like inkland of you know,
there's a different level between intensity between regular season playoffs.
They talked about him, Hey, there's the intensity ramps up
regular season to the playoffs, and so you hear it.
Speaker 4 (52:43):
But then when you.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Felt it, like when we came out on the field
and the dome, I could not hear myself talk like
and I'm the middle linebacker calling plays, I'm like, how
are how am I going? To communicate to my defensive guys.
I'm literally yelling at the top of my lungs to
communicate to and communicate the defensive plays into the huddle.
(53:05):
I mean, it was just as loud a game as
I can ever remember. So yeah, I definitely remember that one. Dan,
the second one, add the third one.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Hopefully we'll have a second one and a third one
here and maybe a fourth one, who knows. This weekend,
though it is a big ask, you kind of mentioned
it a little bit. One seed off a bye. They've
been outstanding all year. They do have a lot of
injuries on defense, so I know we're gonna spend a
lot of the week talking about that. Offensively, they've been
dynamic and the thing that really actually concerns me about them,
(53:38):
like how we credited earlier, Washington came in with some
looks that I think Tampa Bay had not seen. Surprised
us too, some of the things they did. These guys
are notorious for pulling off wacky plays, hooking ladders, throwing
to tackles, messing around. So I got a feeling we're
gonna be be ready for anything. As Dan Quinn said
(54:01):
last week, we like crazy. You're gonna get it with
this team this weekend.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
Now what you do you prepare for the unknowns?
Speaker 2 (54:10):
You and you also emphasize this, and I cannot reiterate
this enough, and I'm sure the coaching staff will do this,
especially on the defensive side.
Speaker 4 (54:20):
Read your keys.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
Whatever your key and your responsibility is, you stay true
to those things. Every game you go into a situation
where there's some house unscotted plays, whether there's a trick player,
just a wrinkle or two that's added. But if you
carry out your responsibility fully, nine times out of ten,
you were going to be in position to negate those
(54:45):
unscotted plays, trick plays and things that they may come
up and throw at you. So be on point, read
your keys, carry out your responsibility to the fullest.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
I mean these two teams, I think the core values
of them are really the same. If you listen to
Dan Campbell a few years ago when he was hired
by them, it wasn't exactly anybody anywhere any time, but
it was similar. Like his whole thing was like we'll
fight you in a dumpster, like we don't care, like
come at us, and you got to go through us.
And you'll hear the same messaging here. It's resonating and
(55:18):
it's working. I think these are two teams that might
as well be cousins in all of this, and it's
gonna be a fight. It really is. These two teams
bring it every single week. I can't wait for Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Oh man, you're talking about the thing about Dan Campbell.
He wanted to build that identity and kind of black Detroit,
blue collar gritty, almost like the bad boys of football
if you remember the Detroit pitt and runs. May kind
of make the Lions in that mode, make them the
(55:52):
bad boys version of a football team. It's gonna be
a physical, sixty minute plus battle, a hell of a battle,
I mean, and I can't wait to get there. That
environment is going to be electric. I'm talking about electric, man.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
But I know this.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
Dan Quinn is gonna have his team ready to play football,
ready to rumble, and I can't wait to get it
on with Yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:21):
I can't wait to get it on either.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Real quick.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
This happened like an hour ago before we start taping.
Dallas is going to have a new head coach.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
Did you see that?
Speaker 4 (56:29):
I did see that coming across the ticker. I was
surprised by that.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
So was I.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah, I thought when when I guess the Bears wanted
to interview McCarthy and they denied, yeah, the opportunity to
interview him. And then, uh so I was I was
assuming that, hey, they don't get a deal done. But
maybe Jerry overplayed his hand and assumed that Mike was
gonna accept anything.
Speaker 4 (56:53):
And you know, I'm sure he'll He'll be highly.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Shot out there. He's a he's a really good football coach.
So you know, it's all We'll see what happens. Who
they decide to make their next take coach.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
Yeah, that's their problem. We'll see you guys next summer,
next fall. We got a game to get ready for
Commanders and Lions. I can't wait for me and Big
Fletch any booths anywhere any time Saturday in Michigan's the
next one.
Speaker 3 (57:20):
We're ready for you.
Speaker 1 (57:20):
We'll talk to you next week after the Lions and
Commander's Division A Round playoff game.
Coming up on this edition of The Booth Review. Nineteen
years in the making. It's a playoff win in Washington, London.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh Man, the Cardiac Commanders kick in the door into
the Division A round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And number five is Superman incredible spectacular playoff debut.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
It's all coming up on the Booth Review.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to this playoff winning edition of the Booth Review podcast.
I Bram Witside with Big Fletch London Fletcher. We're brought
to you by Microsoft Surface Powering A Better Game nineteen
years in the making, London, The Commander's gonna win yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh man, what a beautiful game. That was, the game plan,
the execution, the game winning field goal. I just marvel
with this team and what they they're able to accomplish.
Going into that hostile environment. The way they attacked the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense, it made They attacked them so
(01:05):
so well that they had to change up things in
terms of they were blitz happy coming into the game,
and Tabow said, man, we have no answers for this office.
We got to stop blitzing and change up totally. And uh,
just a great thing. And to have him to have
us win on a on a game when it kick
that was doint. You know, we had we had to
(01:28):
make a dramatic in a game whin a field goal.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We wouldn't have it any other way.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Since the bye, every game has ended on the last
snap various different ways. Here's a field goal Saints game
ended on a failed two point conversion. A couple of
touchdowns late with Dallas Philadelphia, then touchdown late over time
for Atlanta. I mean, it's uncanny, and I don't think
it's an accident anymore. So I want to get into
(01:56):
the details of Tampa, but just in general, I've never
seen anything like this where all of the outcomes go
one team's way. But they handle themselves in these late
game situations with so much poise and so much calm,
that calmness that I just don't feel like this is
an accident that they win this way.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No, not when it keeps happening over and over and
over in our case, five times in a row, five
consecutive times in a row.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
The thing about it is.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
They talk, and they talk, they talk about how they
practice for these winning time moments, these situational games in
the ball game. The execution at a high level when
there's high pressure points, high pressure moments in a ballgame.
And is it credit to Dan Quinn. We've talked about
this multiple times. He has to this team prepared for
(02:46):
any scenario, especially the Lake game scenarios where I don't
know about you, but there was no question when we
got that ball at the end of the game with
four minutes and forty seconds left, then there was no
question in my mind that we were going to have
a drive. And when have a game, win a drive
and run out the clock, and that the Tapa Bay
Buccaneers weren't going to get another shot with the football.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I mean, I think I've talked about this with you before,
and you see it too. Quinn is very thorough like
you learn about them in the access that you get
with him. He's very transparent. His messaging is extremely consistent.
You know what he says in one place, you'll hear
in another place. They're very thorough. Obviously the players talk
(03:28):
over and over and over about all these winning time moments.
Did they talk about I remember, back at the end
of training camp, when we were still watching the majority
of practices he had won for I stood there for
forty five minutes watching them him with a microphone shouting
out things like forty five seconds left on the clock,
two timeouts, balls at the thirty yard line, go, And
they would go through a sequence and then he would
(03:50):
just grab the microphone again and go, twenty five seconds left,
balls on their forty five no timeouts go. And I
remember watching him do this and watching them do it,
and it just the fact that here we are at
the end of the season and this is how they're winning,
and they do it with so much poise, I think
is an attribution of what the coaching staff has instilled
(04:13):
in their readiness and preparation for these winning moments.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah, and then and.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You can tell that they do it at a at
a higher level than than any other team or definitely
the teams that I've seen. The Every team has what
you call situational football that you practice throughout the throughout
the week, whether it's third down situations, third and long,
third and short, your red zones, your four minute offense,
four minute defense, all those type of thing.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Goal line, but.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It seems like they take it to an even higher
level where there's situations within the situations to where okay,
we got the ball on this yard line, no timeouts.
You know, got two plays left in the ball game.
You know poss will be two plays here. This is
scenario how we're going to execute. And you're practicing that
(05:06):
from an officer standpoint. You also practicing that from a
defensive standpoint. So it seems like they take situational football
and even throw situations within those situations, which is that's
next level stuff. And in my sixteen years, I don't
recall teams doing it to that high level to where
(05:26):
they take it to and wrap it up, And it
seems like it's on a week to week basis and
probably a day to day basis, because you don't have
these type of performances over and over and over and
over and over again without being totally prepared for these scenarios.
And you're doing this with the from an office standpoint.
(05:46):
You're doing this with a rookie quarterback that's unheard of.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
He's not a rookie, or he's unlike any rookie I've
ever seen.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
He is.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I've said this to you earlier, and it feels like
hyperbolic when you say it early in a season. He
had the best rookie season any quarterbacks ever had, and
He's got some metrics to prove that, and now he's
winning in the playoffs, and very very few have double
digit wins, let alone twelve. And the circumstances by which
he came in year with a turnedover roster and a
(06:20):
turned over front office, turnedover coaching staff to get through
that and have this kind of success is remarkable, and
he's just some of the numbers from last night. Daniels
joins Peyton Manning, is the second quarterback in NFL history
to lead a team zero turnovers, zero punts in a
road playoff game. Daniel's sixty eight point six completion percentage
is the highest in franchise history in a playoff game
(06:41):
six Mark Rippin in the nineteen ninety one NFC Championship.
That's the best season that this team has ever had,
and this is the best one since that season. Daniels
is the fourth rookie in NFL history to start and
win thirteen games, including the postseason, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco,
Dak Prescott or the others. He has a qualified completion
that's higher than any rookie ever. The only one who
(07:03):
ever had one higher was a guy who played for
Cleveland in the nineteen thirties when they threw three passes
a game, right, I mean it's I don't even think
it's fine. You want to argue it's not the best
rookie quarterback season ever. It's in the top five, and
you're gonna show you have to show me another one
that's been better than the way that he's performed this year.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well you well, you mentioned Cleveland in the nineteen fifties
that immediately thought like they probably wasn't throw the football
had many.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Times five times a game.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, the forward pass I think had just kind of
got introduced to the to the professional game. I mean,
you you you're spot on with all the things you
just said and backing it up with the numbers and
the company that he's in. But the fact that it's
the game winning situation to I mean, six seconds left,
(08:00):
eight seconds left, three seconds left, whatever the case may be,
and he's he's throwing touchdowns and he's unflappable in the
poise in the in the pocket. The biggest play yesterday,
I mean, they were a lot of big plays, but
that third and sixth uh completion to Theami Brown where
he just stands in the pocket and delivers a strike
(08:21):
I mean on a against a.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Bucks defense that.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
They pretty much they're pretty good at getting at the quarterback.
But it's almost like he's out on the practice field.
He knows he felt like, Hey, nobody's gonna hit me.
I'm gonna trust my protection and I'm gonna deliver an
accurate ball to uh them Brown And and it's in
that moment, I mean, if he don't, if we don't
convert that that third down, we're punting with over three
(08:50):
minutes left in the ball game, Buck still have two
timeouts left, two timeouts, so maybe even three. I think
they may have all three timeouts left in that ball game.
So I mean that that right there, it's a outstanding
was outstanding.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
You know, we've had a crazy year obviously with all
the finishes. And here's another one. You know, in this
playoff game that occurred, and during the pregame show before
the game, they were playing you know what, CJ picked
his top five plays of the year, and obviously number
one is Hail Mary, and then there's all these other ones.
And I went on with Michael Jenkins who goes, you know,
our pregame show and he goes, what are your three favorite,
and I go, well, it's hard not to pick the
(09:25):
Hail Mary, and the Cincinnati game to me was the
one that really really stood out the throat to Terry
because that was like the first of, oh my god,
like this guy is doing things at a level that
we haven't seen around here. Terry of course made an
incredible catch. It was the first real big moment of
him for what was his best season here in Washington.
But the one I picked second was and I'm going
to get back to this because it's Tampa, and it's
(09:47):
what you're talking about, like all these highlights that are
getting around, which we appreciate all the all the attention
that everything's getting. It's always these game winning moments that
you're showing, but it's these other plays that he's making
is what really to me makes him stand out. And
the one that I brought up to Michael yesterday was
fourth and eleven Philadelphia, like that's the one that isn't
(10:08):
making the highlight reels, but was the game he jukes
out seven players on the Eagles defense to extend a
drive in a game they had no business being in
and they won anyway. And then yesterday there're two that
stand out to me, Diami Browns was a great one.
There's so many of them, they're hard to remember all
of them.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
He threw a play. This is in the fourth quarter.
He threw a.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Pass Yaya Diabi saw Austin Eckler flare out left his lane.
This is a Pro Bowl caliber rush end he's standing there.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
He puts this.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Perfect touch pass over his outstretched arm to Eckler to
get a first down. And then the other one, of course,
is at the end of the game, third and one
and a half. He shakes out of Elijah Kanzi's grasp
and gets a first down for four yards that salts
the game away and gives them a chance to not
(11:04):
give Tampa Bay the ball back. These are the spectacular moments.
These are the ones they don't show on the highlight
reels because they're not the game winning moments. But to me,
these are the ones that stand out and why he's different.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Now you're you're right, and it's uh. I mean, we
can I think in every game, even the ones where
where we've lost, you'll have maybe four or five plays
that you can say, man, this is a highlight play.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
This is a highlight play.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
This highlight play and it is not even necessarily a
touchdown run or touchdown passes converting on a third down
the New Orleans game on the fourth and one where
he keeps the ball and he has to dive over
beyond us in the Saints defender to convert that fourth
down play. You know that again, that play doesn't make
(11:55):
the highlights per se, but it was one of the
special plays of this season. And He's had a ton
of plays in this ball in this in this season. Man,
just this is He's special. He's been special to watch.
This team has been special to watch. A lot of
guys stepped up and made plays. And that ball game,
whether it was a Diami picking that moment to have, well,
(12:18):
we think probably maybe his best game as a as
a Washington commander. He reserved that moment till to the
playoffs and you know, so many guys just made a
make key contributions to that win.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We've done this all year.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
One of the big stories coming in Who's wide receiver
two and they consistently said they have a group of
players that will fill the role game to game. A
couple of weeks ago, it was alamide z A Kias
had a huge game, Uh Jamison crowder Off I R
had a huge game, game winning catch against Philadelphia, and
then last night was Diami's turn. And I remember back
(12:55):
in the summer, like I looked at him when they
were saying who's wide receiver too, and I'm like, they're
gonna like him. He's a willing participant, he's physical, like
he'll block on the edge, he'll play special teams, and
he does have speed in good hands, he can get
down the field. I think he's gonna find a role.
And it never really materialized that he was that clear
(13:17):
number two at any point in time. But as they've
asked people to step up in any given moment, be
ready for when their moment comes.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
There he was last night.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
This has happened over and over and over too, where
they've said we don't know who it's gonna be every week,
but we're gonna ask people to step up. And I
was really happy for him, someone who's been trying to
find a role here for a few years, to have
a real massive, shining moment last night.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
No.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
And it was when I saw him in the locker room.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
First thing I said to him, man, was man, wait
to ball, man, just just way to play because you
know he's had he's had an up and down career
here in Washington, but to have his number called in
that critical moment, critical junks in a game on the line,
so to speak, because he was the primary on that.
They had Terry run the clear out, like Terry, you're
(14:08):
running the clear out and the omnies to the primary
on that. So to get that play call and know, like, man,
my team has trusting me in this moment.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
They're not.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
They're saying, hey, we feel like you are going to
be the guy that we can go to and make
a play.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
And he delivered, and they delivered several times in that
ball game.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I mean, it's happened all year. This happened in the
Philadelphia game. Crowder hadn't played in weeks. They were running
this play in practice. Remember they told everybody they were
running this play in practice that involved him. Game on
the line, blind throw before he makes a cut. They
trust him six seconds on the clock. You know the
I think it's a testament to they talk about this
(14:48):
so much. This team trusts each other in a way
that I haven't seen a team here trust each other
like this. What is happening is which is why I
don't put anything past them, like, yes, it's great they
got a playoff with Oh, this is amazing. They won
(15:08):
twelve games. You you underestimate them at your own risk
because I don't know who the hero is gonna be
in Detroit, but trust me, it's gonna be somebody.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, I'll say this. So we talk about You just
mentioned how they trust each other. Now let's dig into
why they trust each other. They trust each other because
these guys have great relationships off the field. They spend
time with each other, They've they've bonded, and that what
goes back into the off season and all the different
(15:44):
team building things and bonding moments they had to what
they built up to this situation where we have such
a great relationship. We hang off the field, I know you,
I we have an intimate now of one another, and
so when it comes to being on a football field,
(16:05):
I'm trusting you to do your job, You're trusted me
to do my job. I'm gonna have your back, You're
gonna have my back. And that's that's built off the field.
That where you get that type of chemistry, that type
of development, that type of in their words, brotherhood.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I want to give you another stat that I really
found amazing. So no touchdowns, no punts, that's I mean,
no punts, no turnovers, sorry, no turnovers, no punts. That's
amazing in a playoff game, especially with rookie quarterback. Some
of that was they were very bold as the word
they use. And I'll get into the fourth down that's right. Actually,
like in most of those cases they did it on
(16:42):
the end of the field where they wouldn't have punted anyway.
But like, but we'll get into that in a second,
but listen to this one time of possession they won
in which I think was enormous key. Tampa Bay's offense
has been outstanding this year. Keeping them off the field
is a big deal. The seventeen play ninety two yard
drive was a really big deal. They ended up time
possession winning thirty five plus minutes to twenty four plus minutes.
(17:04):
That's a big difference and a big key. But I
think the part that gets me about it, it's really
truly remarkable the run game. Thirty three carries eighty two yards.
That's like nothing, So they somehow controlled the clock without
dominating or even being adequate in the run game. It's
(17:26):
just a testament that they are capable of making plays
when they have to, no matter what, to whoever, under
any situation, like normally when you in time of possession,
you control the lone of scrimmage and you ran the ball.
That's period. That's not what happened yesterday.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
No, not at all, you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I didn't even realize they ran the ball thirty two
times until after, you know, after the gay because because
the run was ineffective as a as you mentioned, but
they had they went in there with the mindset where
you just couldn't say, we're gonna drop back all day long,
because you don't want to get into a pure drop
back game. You want to the Saints to have to
(18:10):
steal respect the fact that you will we will run
the football like you have to, you know, be cognizant
and respect the fact that we will try to run
the ball. Whether we're gaining you know, four yards or
five yards of clip or one or two yards of clip,
We're still going to run the football. And they had
they had a couple they had big runs when they
(18:32):
when they counted the Eckler eight yard run right before
Jade and Daniels had the had the the third down
conversion so to be able to get in the I
think they went from first and first and ten to
second and two and then obviously uh third, two and
thirty one whatever it was, and then he conversed but
(18:52):
and so those are two runs that happened later in
the game, but consistently. Now, the run game wasn't there,
but the volume of runs was there, and that makes
a big difference too.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, I thought Eckler was going to be a big
deal in this game. Obviously, Tampa is very hard to
run against, and the numbers show that from from last night,
but they're in general very hard against top five rush defense.
I don't think there was one hundred yard rusher against them.
But Eckler has that style that they had a little
bit of trouble with, this kind of one cut, quick
(19:22):
decision making off the guard, tackle middle of the line,
and you get some yardage. I'm not surprised that he
had an impact last night because he was the style
of runner that I thought could be effective if they
leaned on the run game last night.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, he was, and it was a couple of times
where it was just almost on a couple occasion where
he was just like I hear from breaking a couple
of ruhs where you know, it's like, oh man, I
thought he you knows missed a able to get out
of a shoe street tackle here just a little bit
better blocks have sustained a block a little bit longer
right here, and then they'll be able to crease a Another.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Thing they did was.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
The extension of the perimeter passes, whether it was a
couple of swing passes early in the ball game to
be Rob or Eckler or whatever, and you got a
block her out in front of him. That was another
way that they looked at as an extension of the
run game. There was some quick outs to Terry or
some of the receivers, whether it was just a five
yard out on first down and you go from you
(20:26):
go from first and ten to second and five. Now
you're operating the head of the chains and got you
got the whole playbook available to you.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
On the second and second and five. You stay ahead
in the chains.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
If you run the ball, you may only get two
or three yards, but now you're in a third and
four or thirty thirty three or even a third and
you know, two types of situations. So it was it
was a good combination.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I thought.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I thought Cliff Kingsbury caught an outstanding football game. I
mean outstanding. They dialed up shot plays, chunk plays. The
first to think it was the third and four, maybe
thirty six, I can't remember off Ham when they took
the deep shot to Terry and that also, Hey, that
less Tapa Bay. No, we're not just gonna try to convert,
(21:14):
get the change and move to change. We will take shots.
It took several shots in that ball game. They manufactured
shot plays down the field. I thought Cliff, he caught
an outstanding football game.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, I mean for you know, a change up. You know,
they showed Tampa Bay a lot of different looks last night.
We were surprised by some of the things they did.
They brought out Mariova Mariota on a switch up a
couple of times, once where they actually got a first
down on whatever their version of a touch push idea was,
or like a sneak was. They used him, used Jaden
his window dressing on that, running him around. Second time,
(21:47):
they tried to fool them, get him to jump that.
It didn't work, but they did that. They had a
really creative play with Zakias when he came in motion,
faked it to him, then went back to him, got
some yardage out of it.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I thought the offensive game plan really switched things up.
If there was a change from week one to week nineteen,
it was the Commanders who did the switch up last night,
I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I think Clif did a terrific job.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah, no, they definitely.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
They definitely adjusted more to week one than I would
say the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did in terms of just
and it's hard when you when you win the game
like the Bucks, like, hey we won thirty seven to twenty,
what what things should we change up? Yeah, you know,
you needed to definitely change up some things because of
just looking at what the adjustments that we made.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
The I thought they did a nice job of seeing using.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Plays that hurt the Buccaneers over the last several weeks.
There were a couple of plays against the Cowboys, in
particular when the Cowboys were the last team to beat
the Bucks out of the in their last seven game.
They end up winning six out of last seven, but
they had a loss to the Dallas Cowboys and they
manage factured some chunk plays and I saw us utilize
(23:03):
a couple of those plays against the against the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers, and but again, just an outstanding game plan.
We weren't going to try to continue to run the
ball all the time up through the middle. Hey, let's
swing the ball out, Let's have the wide receiver screen.
Let's fake a a toss play. There was the one
with the eye almost scoring on the on the wide
(23:23):
receiver screenway he fakes the toss, It throws the tunnel
screen out to him, and I mean he almost he
nearly scored. We end up I think, kicking the field
goal on that drive. But just uh, just great, great creativity,
great game planning.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
You know, I think this goes back to the idea
of like the trust and accountability. So I heard the
same thing if you talk to coaches or players about
the week one game. Bobby Wagner apparently spoke to the
team again said something about like to the effect of
what we heard secondhand. I wanted to throw up when
I watched that. I heard Dan Quinn say to me,
(23:58):
you know last week and to others where he said,
when we rewatched this, we looked at this and go,
that's not us. We heard that from Jade Daniels when
we talked to him last night after the game. That's
not us, that's accountability. That's everybody saying we need to
be better. The rookie quarterback from his debut to his
first playoff game. Obviously, I mean with experience is.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Going to be better.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Here's a defensive leader saying we need to be better
than this. We all need to be better than this.
And here's the coaching staff saying we need to be better.
And they were the ones that came up with a
different game plan and it worked to the tune of
holding the ball eleven plus minutes longer than their opponent,
keeping their offense, which is prolific, off the field, and
(24:44):
doing it even though they couldn't run the ball really effectively.
It's a team win, Like that's what that is. A
team win. They took accountability for what happened what feels
like eons ago and was only a few months ago,
and they looked, acted and performed like a different team.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I just remember vividly after that that Week one loss
where Quinn talked about Jayden because it was it was
it was a lot of talk about Jayden running running
too many times in the ball game, he had sixteen
carries for eighty eight yards, and a lot of those
a lot of those runs weren't called runs or even
(25:25):
zone reads. It was him scrambling after and making plays
with his legs. But there were times when he ended
up scrambling where if he just maybe felt more comfortable
and throwing a quick out or throw taking a shot
down to feel deep, or or getting the ball out
to a sight adjust off a hot route.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
And that's that's.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
To be expecting your rookie making your making your NFL
debut against a team that all you've heard is like, man,
they're gonna blister, they gonna bist, they gonna blist the
heck out of you. So you've heard that all all
week long leading up into that game. So you know
you can speed up your process a little bit and
just to go back and you look, you say, there
were so many throws. That's why Jaden said when he
(26:08):
looked at that field, he said he was disgusted with
it because he was like, man, I left so we
left so much out there, you know, just with us
being so so new in our offense and even defensively,
the miscommunications on Yeah, some big plays that the the
Buccaneers were able to get in the passing game, just
some courage kind of not playing it, not communicating the
(26:31):
right way.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
I thought.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Defensively, especially in the first half, they did an outstanding
job against the Bucks run game.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
And that was that was the man.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
That was the thing where they came in they say, hey,
we cannot allow the Bucks to run a rough shot
on us running the football. And I thought the defensive
front play extent our standing. I thought the linebackers laid
by Bobby Wagner, like the first run play of the game,
Bobby comes downhill and he hits he is Bucky Irvin,
either for maybe a one yard game or no yards.
(27:02):
I mean, it was just like and that that was
kind of like a tone set, like, Hey, this is
the type of day it's going to be when you
all try to run the ball against us.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Bobby Wagner came to play like he was Captain. Zach
Ertz down late in the season, really became a reliable target.
They admitted a couple of weeks ago when we signed him,
we thought he'd be a red zone threat, probably be
on third downs. They didn't expect to rely on him
to the degree that they did. But they did, and
(27:31):
he came through especially late in the season. You know, Wagner, really,
I mean I agree with you, like right from the
get go, came out there and really set the tone
defensively for the team last night.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Hey man, that's what happened when you have a seventeen
career playoff games. Like I was, as I was doing
by research and prepper for the game, I was like, man,
let me let me go and look and see how
many playoff games Bobby Bobby has played in. And you
know from in Seattle, seems like they were in the
playoffs and making you know, nice runs and obviously went
(28:04):
to two Super Bowls there. So I'm like, man, I
want to just see how many how many games he's
played he played in the playoffs, and he was it
was at like seventeen career playoff playoff starts, and it
was like, wow, this is this is crazy. So yesterday
was his eighteenth career playoffs start.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
He and he acted like it was his first. I mean,
he was really really brought it one more thing on
the offense before he getting to the defense. Little because I
do want to ask you about that, what did you
make of they warned us. They said we're gonna be
bold in third and fourth down. That was bold five
fourth downs that they went for. What did you think
of the aggressiveness there?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Well, well to third down I mentioned and maybe dam
was hitting that, Hey, on third downs, we're not just
gonna hey it's third and four, We're not just gonna
look to get five yards of convert and we're gonna
take shots down the field like like they did against
a with Terry on the on the first third down play.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
But the.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Hey, that's how they played all year long, and d
Q trust uh you know the first third, the first
fourth down, I was like, yeah, this is what they're
gonna do.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
It did surprise me at all.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I thought on the the second, fourth, fourth, and I
thinking it was maybe fourth and three that I was
thinking he might want to kick a field goal there,
just because it seems like Tampa was. I think we
can end up losing some yardage on the on the
third down player, it's like, okay, maybe let's uh, let's
kick a field field goal here, get get points, making
a one point game. At that point in time, when
(29:36):
he when he went for it, it's like all right,
I'm and I'm also I also put on my defensive
thinking where he's saying to myself, saying to himself, if
we don't get it. I mean, he's confident we're gonna
get it. But if we don't get it, we'll have
them backed out. Hopefully defense hold them, force them to
kick the punt the football on a three and out,
and we'll have great field position. And uh so I
(29:58):
didn't have a problem with the way he he went
about it. Again, they've done it all year long. They've
had great success doing it, and you know, it ended
up not working in a couple of those cases, but
then some of them they did.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
And then they got two acts of God, which listen,
if you're gonna win, you need them. The ball just
found Bobby Wagner right when they needed it to. No
one caused the turnover. It was just a mystic exchange.
Ball ends up in his hands. And of course the
game winning kick hits the goalpost goes in anyway. So
to the prepared, to the to the well intentioned, the
(30:35):
luck comes as well.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And it was a third whip.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Remember the the Saint, I mean, the Bucks were in
a third and one, and they tried to seem like
they were trying to draw us off sides, yes, and
and the center snapped the football when nobody moved and
it was almost a disaster. I can't remember who it
almost made the tackle in the backfield and they end
up getting a we'll go from third and one to
(31:01):
fourth and two or three, and they ended up having
to kick a field goal, which was that was another
gift right there, because instead of staff a football and
nobody was ready for it.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I agree on the defense. Speaking of changes, so
controlling the ball is a big deal. But early and
we noticed this post the first drive until they had
that late second quarter drive that ended up.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Tying the game.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
When they went in at half, Baker Mayfield was a
little bit indecisive. The coverage was clearly different. He didn't
like what he saw. They weren't running the ball nearly
as effectively as they did in the first game. What
did you see in the first half from the change
up from Joe Witt defensively yesterday?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, I thought they they played a little bit more
zone covers. They mix it up, mixed up looks well
against him, and it forced it forced Baker to hold
on to the football a lot longer, a little bit longer,
and I thought even with the rush, laying integrity by
the defensive defensive front was a lot better than the
first game. You saw guys not trying to get too
(32:04):
far past the quarterback, but they got on the same level,
maybe trying to holding tone it down or hunker down
a little bit. You saw a little bit more control
rushes on the inside, guys expecting Baker and ready for
Baker to kind of step up in the pocket.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
But I thought the coverage was really good, especially we.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Had the uh the Bucks had a their first third down,
remember it was the second third down play no their
first series. They had a third and six or seven,
whatever it was, and they had a bunch formation. We
had issues with the bunch formations the first time around.
We did a great job had a double We doubled
Mike Evans on that play, and then Samer still did
(32:44):
a nice job coming off of the double teament playing
over the top and almost made an interception. So I
thought they did a nice job of common mixing the
coverages up going from double from man's to zones, but
also match zones and and really forced Baker to hold
on to the football a little bit longer.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Not a lot of not a lot of blitz is
on all third down.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
It was like, Hey, we're gonna we're gonna play coverage,
We're gonna double some guys. We're gonna mix it up
and see if you can identify, you know, on the
fly and force them to hold on the football a
little bit longer.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
The other thing, I mean, it just it's worth crediting.
And I mean we've kind of gone through. They got
the ball, they scored again. They did it again, over
and over and over. They're coming through in these late
game situations, late half situations in general. I guess with
the exception of yesterday, really they gave up a touchdown
late in the first tilf it's actually been rare that
they've been giving up scores like that this year. But
I want to give credit. We talked about this, you know,
(33:36):
the last couple of weeks, because they keep winning late.
It's not just that they're executing and the players deserve
all the credit for executing this. And the coaches are
coming in with good play calling and time they play calling,
but the operations working, and it needs to be pointed out,
like people lose their jobs over time management. People lose,
you know, credibility over not handling high pressure, fast moving situations,
(33:59):
and week after week after week, this is a very
buttoned up operation with that. And yes, I trust Jayden
like they all seemingly trust Jayden. He stays cool, calm, collected.
I can't believe he's able to do this at this
stage of his career, but he can, and that helps
a lot. But I want to give credit to the
sideline too, because nothing seems to be happening too fast
(34:22):
to them. They're under control consistently and that's why this
is not an accident that they keep winning like this
all the time.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Not at all, not at all, And just to pose
that against well, I don't know if we talked, we
really talk about this at the end of our game,
Todd Bowles maybe a little question about time management clock
management on on his side when they were on the
defense side of the ball, He led, I think you
you mentioned this where we only ran two plays. We
(34:54):
got the ball well from Mike the three the three
men in Mark three eighteen or whatever it was, maybe
after the Diami Brown Yes, conversion to I think we
ran one one run play and then we were in
two plays in a matter of what a minute and
a half. It was something something you know, that they
allowed us to do. And so the the the I think,
(35:17):
what's his name, Dave Guardy is that is that the
guys gentleman who helps out with the situation of football
and clock manager and all that. And think I believe
it was Terry who mentioned Dave to us in the
postgame interview.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
How they do it.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
He does a great job of gets getting those guys
to understand the scenarios, situation and and again that's another
level where in my sixteen years, I don't recall a
coach having somebody come and explain to us, hey, late
game situation in the game, situation, time time and all
those types of things, timeouts and when you want to
(35:55):
call a time out, all these different scenarios. And that's
that's the that's the the next level stuff and the
other things that they're doing and making playing winning football.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Like even you know, sometimes it's not about just it
helps you win. It it prevents you from losing, like
it you just do the right things. And Tampa never
got the ball back, and it was it was interesting
when you bring up like late in the game, and
it was so obvious to me because we're so accustomed
to this team going up tempo. And we even heard
Jaden say in his press conference, he goes, I wanted
(36:27):
to score, but I had to listen to the coaches,
Like he wanted to go for the jugular score a touchdown,
you know, but like because that's in his nature to
do that, which I like, but the coaches.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
But then the coaches took control there, and we're so
accustomed to them going at pace, not huddling, going to
the line, getting going, and they didn't because they understood
time and place to do it. And the Buccaneers, like,
I don't know if it's a big deal down in Tampa,
but their time out should have been utilized differently than
(36:59):
they did. They might have had more time than they
may not have, but they definitively would have had a
better chance. A couple of weeks ago, Raheem Morris did
not use his timeouts very well against the Bears when
they actually came out and said it wasn't a big
deal that Terry made that catch to set up the
hail Mary.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Like these are the types of decisions that can lose
games and them slowing down. It just goes back to
these moments aren't moving too fast or not too big
for them, and everybody trusts one another to do their jobs.
And it's been working out in glorious fashion and amazing fashion.
(37:42):
And it's been a joy to do it with you
every week. Because it's one thing to call the games,
it's another thing to have a season like this, because
not only are all these games so exciting, this is
the most memorable season I've ever professionally been a part of.
And it just there's no luck involved, like they are
an incredible operation. We've learned this.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Week by week by week now it really is.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
And I had the fortunate to plan on two teams
that went to the Super Bowl, and and the ninety
nine team was sensational and we won games, but there
wasn't drama too, with the exception of we had two
dramatic games, the NFC Championship game you know, that came
down to the wire, and also the Super Bowl, wh
(38:28):
that came down to a tackle game saving tackle, but
a touchdown saving tackle, I should say. But beyond that,
besides that was those things. We were blowing teams out
forty to three and forty to ten. Like it wasn't
a whole lot of drama in those games. But to
be able to to be able to witness this type
of season, I mean, it's it's it's been a it's
(38:51):
been a three old definitely. Definitely, my blood pressure rises,
heart rate is probably up a lot during those games.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Yesterday, I was like, oh good, Yeah, I don't know
if I could take this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I mean, we just we just we got to get accustomed.
We brought accustomed to that. That's how our games are.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
I think it's wild too.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I mean, like you know, when you started winning with
the Rams and you guys won in the Super Bowl,
Like to your point about like the scoring, there ended
up being three Hall of Fame skill position players on
that offense. Four if you've cut Kurt Water. So there's
four Hall of Fame skill position players.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
That's not this team. That's it's not.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And I think that's what's kind of incredible about what
they're doing here, is that they're figuring out ways to
be effective. They're asking everybody to pull on the rope
at the same time. And I like it's the old
George Allen quote where fifty three men all you know
doing like, working towards the same goal, can't lose. And
that's what this feels like. A little bit will, determination, desire.
(39:56):
You're not gonna quit. If you give them a pulse,
they will, they will steal you. And this is why
I don't put anything past them, because I could. You
could just feel the determination and the trust, and that's
more powerful than talent could ever buy you.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
It really, it really is, it really is.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
And I was talking to somebody like, I'm sure you
get the same questions from family members, friends, different people
you may see out and about that. They're like, hey,
what do you think about this game? What's gonna happen with?
I say, man, we got a great chance of winning
this football joint. And then there were times where I
would say we're gonna win and I would tell the
(40:40):
reason I feel this way is they are playing with
such confidence.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
They believe they can be anybody.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
And confidence when you when you have that type of feeling,
that type of belief, that's where when when D says
anybody anywhere, anytime, that's where it comes from. And it's
the preparation that breeds breeze that confidence that they go
into each and every ballgame with and they'll go into
the same this ball game Saturday night against the Detroit
(41:08):
Lions feeling the same way, and it's gonna be tough.
It's gonna be a uh, it'll probably be the most
hostile environment that we've played in all season long. That
place will be buzzn't. But they will go in there
with great confidence and great belief that we can go
in here and we are going to get it done.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Obviously, our last call has been moving around. Thanks to
NBC for putting the camera at our booth and putting
it out there for us, and it's making the rounds.
It just happened a few times for all those out
there who are jealous of that. No one's having more
fun than us, So you know, give it the program.
But because of all of that, and because of what
their motto is here, I think we need devenue slogan
(41:47):
me you and logan any booth anywhere any time.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
I definitely will.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
I definitely feel cropping in our booth against anybody. I've
never lacked for confidence, nah, I mean, the energy is
not massed as I think it was. One of the
news outlets said unmatched energy, and that is that exactly it,
and it's it's organic.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
It's just how how we feel.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
We're having fun. You know, we're having fun. And you know,
again it goes back to also, it's been nineteen years,
and I think from the get go this team, we
saw it in the summer that like there's something different
about them, There's something different about this quarterback.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
This isn't just coach speak.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
What's going on here? You know, they do have a
lot of veterans who've been there, done that, and who
knows if this comes together, what it's going to be.
And then they just provided moment after moment after moment,
and when you win five in the regular season and
now six with the postseason fourth quarter comebacks, Underestimate this
(42:56):
team at your own risk because they do not die.
They have a will like I haven't seen before.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
And this is a.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Tough setup, like a short week, night game, fly home.
I'm on thirty minutes of sleep. So are they got
to turn around, have a short week and play a
night game on a home field of the best team
in the NFC who's coming off a bye. It's a
big ask, a really big ask. But I'm with you.
(43:24):
I've seen too much. I know too much. I know
what this team's about, and they ain't laying down for anybody. No.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
I like their chances. As a matter of fact, I
love their chances. This is this is the hand there, Dell.
Hey doesn't matter like they're not gonna make excuses that
are gonna be like, hey, you know, would have been
great if we played on Sunday. Whatever the case may be.
They're gonna prepare the ride way. I'm sure they'll be.
The practice approach will be key in terms of making
(43:55):
sure they're recovering. I don't expect to maybe probably one
fool speed practice this week just to allow those guys
to body to recover from a physical standpoint, be a
lot of mental mental preparation type work, and get those
guys ready to play a hell of a football game
come Saturday night. So this coaching staff their season, they've
(44:17):
been in all kinds of scenarios, short weeks, whether you're
playing a Sunday Thursday game, and all those types of things,
so they know how to get those guys prepared from
a physical standpoint, from mental standpoint, emotional standpoint, because hey,
yesterday's game was emotional. We've had as you mentioned, five
five emotional wins in a row, but they're battle tested
(44:37):
and their toughest nails.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
And I agree with you. I would not bet against
this football team.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
No, all right, time to give out the belt. It
is that time of the week. Yeah, Big Fletches Heavyweight
Championship Commanders Mouth Full Felt presented by Northwest Federal Credit
Union Where trust matters, all right. Last week was Terry
McLaurin huge second half with Marcus Mariota to get the
(45:05):
last second win over the Cowboys. Now you got the
contender after the playoff with the Buccaneers is who.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
Oh man.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
I don't even think there's any suspense to this. Normally
I try to, you know, drum up, you know it's
a little bit of suspense, but there's no sense suspensive.
The contender is Jaden Daniels. I think everybody who's watching
this new this that there will be no other contender.
So when I bring in the contender, I have to
(45:35):
kind of let you know what the what the reigning
champion has done. Jaden had an outstanding I mean, Terry
had an outstanding football game, seven receptions eighty nine yards,
had had a big touchdown catching that ball game, and.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
He's he did a lot to retain his belt.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
But then you gotta go to the challenger and you say, Okay,
what did the challenger do? Jaden three hundred and sixty
eight yards passing two tds, thirteen carries for thirty six yards,
and the critical conversion at the end of that ball
game to set up the game winning field goal.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
I think when you look.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
At that, you look at Jade in this his impact
goes beyond the numbers that I just mentioned to you.
He forced the Tama Bay Buccaneers to scrap their blitz
heavy scheme and totally go to a different type of
approach because I mean, he was shredding those guys.
Speaker 4 (46:36):
Brown.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I think you know where I'm going. Terry, you had
a great job. You did a great job, but you
were a great challenge. You put up a nice competition
to keep your belt.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
However, and now big Pletchers Heavyweight Championship Combat. This belt goes.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Two Jayden dan Yo.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
For his first playoff win, and it was a spectacular
performance and is for hopefully the first of many. I'm
hoping it's the first of many. Maybe many this year,
who knows, why not? I got one other contender for
the bell this might be telling stories. I don't tell
a lot of stories out of school. But this is funny,
and this is really not for us, but this is
(47:22):
for all the producers who are gonna have Logan on
Eddy Show later this week that you might want to
bring this up. He almost got into a fight with
the Buccaneers mascot.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
Pregod, I'm not kidding. He did.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
He almost got into a fight with the Buccaneers mascot
who started it. By the way, as far as I
could tell, Logan's not an instigator, but the Buccaneers mascot
apparently like bumped into him on purpose a couple of times.
He nearly had to throw down with him.
Speaker 4 (47:53):
Oh man, the mascot was ready to scrap.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
He did, he say? He told us he was.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
He was pretty close that he was got to get
into a fight with the Buccaneers mascot.
Speaker 4 (48:04):
Oh man, that would have been that would have went viral.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Man, I would have liked to have seen it. One
other thing too, before we move on. I do want
to talk about Detroit with you for a minute. But
the Commander's fan base in Tampa for this, and we've
seen this a lot, especially we saw it in New
Orleans destination place December. It's not hard to you know, hey,
do you want to go somewhere for the year, Let's
go check out a Saints game down there in New
(48:30):
Orleans and December.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Not a hard sell. That was full on.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I was walking around near our team hotel, which was
in downtown Tampa. Everywhere we got to the game, everywhere
it was. I mean our buses typically when we pull
up in the buses. You know, some fan bases are nice,
some are not so nice. The majority of them are
rooting for the other team. I am telling you, we
(48:56):
couldn't go a block without people jumping out of their cars,
waving watch, shouted flags, yelling at us.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
It was that was loud and strong last night.
Speaker 4 (49:07):
It was.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
It was impressive the support that the fans have brought
to this this team, especially in that situation where you
needed everybody who was wearing that burgundy and gold to
going to to that environment and win the football game. Man,
you couldn't go anywhere, like like you said, without seeing
our fans. It was a It was a Burgundy gold
(49:29):
takeover of Tapa Bay. Even even this morning when I
was when I was flying out, I went into one
of the lounges. I'm not gonna say that that lounge
name unless they want to sponsor us. And I'm sitting
in there and it's three gentlemen. They all still had
their commander's stuff on, commander's gear on.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
They didn't see me.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
I saw them, and and I'm sitting I sit behind
them and I'm just listening to it on their conversation,
and man, they were just talking about the game h going,
uh you know, player a player, Uh, situations that happened,
and they just talked about They talked about yesteryear stuff
and how how proud they feel about this team and
(50:09):
some of the things that that they've seen. I mean,
it was just it was just a treat to hear
hear those guys talking on the plane coming coming back
to Charlotte. It was like probably half the play was
commander fans deal still in their commander's gear.
Speaker 4 (50:24):
It was. It was awesome because you got the hubs.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Everyone was changing planes if they couldn't get the direct
they were changing planes in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
I wrote this list.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
I know I'm gonna forget people, but I just want
to say some of their names. Terry McLaurin got his
first playoff win as a player in the Washington uniform.
So did John Allen, So did Deron Payne? Uh treusway
did he win?
Speaker 3 (50:45):
He might have? Is he here for the last one?
Speaker 4 (50:47):
No? No?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Right?
Speaker 3 (50:48):
Last week?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Yeah, he was twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
Jeremy Reeves, who we got to talk to, spin around
the block a lot, Tanni, great game, Sam Cosme. I
know there's others that have been around, but the ones
that really stand out John Terry drawn been around a
long time. Tress been waiting for this. I'm really happy
for them. It was so it was so cool to
say to them, you know, live on the official broadcast
last night, congratulations on winning your first playoff game here.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
It was really cool.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah, it means a lot for those guys because they've
gone through They've.
Speaker 4 (51:19):
Had a lot of lean years here.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
You've had some pretty ugly, ugly seasons where you just like,
i mean even go back to last year, guys who
were some of the holdovers from from last year's team.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
You go through four and thirteen season, I mean, it's
that's rough on you and and.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
You mentioned some of those holdovers. So it means a
lot for those guys, and they they they're appreciative of everything.
They're appreciative of this season, and they they don't want
up to end. Man, it's just you definitely feel happy
and proud for what they are. Proud of those guys
and what they've been able to endure and still continue
to be a part of what this what this team
is has done and continues to do.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Do you remember your first playoff win?
Speaker 4 (52:01):
I do.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
What do you remember about it?
Speaker 2 (52:05):
Oh, we played in Minnesota Vikers, so we had the
number one seed that year. We had to buy we have, Yeah,
we had to buy first round by so it was
the divisional round that we hosted.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
What I remember is the Dome in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
It was as loud as I had ever witnessed, and
so that was my first like inkland of you know,
there's a different level between intensity between regular season playoffs.
They talked about him, Hey, there's the intensity ramps up
regular season to the playoffs, and so you hear it.
Speaker 4 (52:43):
But then when you.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Felt it, like when we came out on the field
and the dome, I could not hear myself talk like
and I'm the middle linebacker calling plays, I'm like, how
are how am I going? To communicate to my defensive guys.
I'm literally yelling at the top of my lungs to
communicate to and communicate the defensive plays into the huddle.
(53:05):
I mean, it was just as loud a game as
I can ever remember. So yeah, I definitely remember that one. Dan,
the second one, add the third one.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Hopefully we'll have a second one and a third one
here and maybe a fourth one, who knows. This weekend,
though it is a big ask, you kind of mentioned
it a little bit. One seed off a bye. They've
been outstanding all year. They do have a lot of
injuries on defense, so I know we're gonna spend a
lot of the week talking about that. Offensively, they've been
dynamic and the thing that really actually concerns me about them,
(53:38):
like how we credited earlier, Washington came in with some
looks that I think Tampa Bay had not seen. Surprised
us too, some of the things they did. These guys
are notorious for pulling off wacky plays, hooking ladders, throwing
to tackles, messing around. So I got a feeling we're
gonna be be ready for anything. As Dan Quinn said
(54:01):
last week, we like crazy. You're gonna get it with
this team this weekend.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
Now what you do you prepare for the unknowns?
Speaker 2 (54:10):
You and you also emphasize this, and I cannot reiterate
this enough, and I'm sure the coaching staff will do this,
especially on the defensive side.
Speaker 4 (54:20):
Read your keys.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
Whatever your key and your responsibility is, you stay true
to those things. Every game you go into a situation
where there's some house unscotted plays, whether there's a trick player,
just a wrinkle or two that's added. But if you
carry out your responsibility fully, nine times out of ten,
you were going to be in position to negate those
(54:45):
unscotted plays, trick plays and things that they may come
up and throw at you. So be on point, read
your keys, carry out your responsibility to the fullest.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
I mean these two teams, I think the core values
of them are really the same. If you listen to
Dan Campbell a few years ago when he was hired
by them, it wasn't exactly anybody anywhere any time, but
it was similar. Like his whole thing was like we'll
fight you in a dumpster, like we don't care, like
come at us, and you got to go through us.
And you'll hear the same messaging here. It's resonating and
(55:18):
it's working. I think these are two teams that might
as well be cousins in all of this, and it's
gonna be a fight. It really is. These two teams
bring it every single week. I can't wait for Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Oh man, you're talking about the thing about Dan Campbell.
He wanted to build that identity and kind of black Detroit,
blue collar gritty, almost like the bad boys of football
if you remember the Detroit pitt and runs. May kind
of make the Lions in that mode, make them the
(55:52):
bad boys version of a football team. It's gonna be
a physical, sixty minute plus battle, a hell of a battle,
I mean, and I can't wait to get there. That
environment is going to be electric. I'm talking about electric, man.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
But I know this.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
Dan Quinn is gonna have his team ready to play football,
ready to rumble, and I can't wait to get it
on with Yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:21):
I can't wait to get it on either.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Real quick.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
This happened like an hour ago before we start taping.
Dallas is going to have a new head coach.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
Did you see that?
Speaker 4 (56:29):
I did see that coming across the ticker. I was
surprised by that.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
So was I.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah, I thought when when I guess the Bears wanted
to interview McCarthy and they denied, yeah, the opportunity to
interview him. And then, uh so I was I was
assuming that, hey, they don't get a deal done. But
maybe Jerry overplayed his hand and assumed that Mike was
gonna accept anything.
Speaker 4 (56:53):
And you know, I'm sure he'll He'll be highly.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Shot out there. He's a he's a really good football coach.
So you know, it's all We'll see what happens. Who
they decide to make their next take coach.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
Yeah, that's their problem. We'll see you guys next summer,
next fall. We got a game to get ready for
Commanders and Lions. I can't wait for me and Big
Fletch any booths anywhere any time Saturday in Michigan's the
next one.
Speaker 3 (57:20):
We're ready for you.
Speaker 1 (57:20):
We'll talk to you next week after the Lions and
Commander's Division A Round playoff game.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.