December 8, 2025 • 44 mins
Future Hall of Fame Linebacker London Fletcher is joined by 10-Year NFL Tight End Logan Paulsen and Bram Weinstein to give reactions to the Washington Commanders shutout loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Hosts: London Fletcher, Logan Paulsen, Bram Weinstein
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming up on the Booth Review, we will discuss Jane
Daniels not returning in the Vikings game.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We talk about what this team has to do to
get back on track.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
And football players played football.
Speaker 4 (00:12):
And broadcasters broadcast games.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's all coming up next on the Booth Review. Welcome
into the latest edition of the Booth Review podcast. Ibram
Winstein with London Fletcher and Logan Paulson were brought to
you by Microsoft Surface Copilot Plus PC and we are,
or at least Logan and I are in the Big
Bear AI Command Center studio after a rough, rough loss
(00:35):
to Minnesota Teams eighth straight. They fall to three to
ten thirty one to nothering considering the gang was back
together on offense, I don't think any of us could
have seen this coming. So let's start at the end,
which is this was a surprise. What now, London man.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
What now?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
You gotta take a very hard look at everything that
led to you performing like that as a team offensively, defensively.
Special teams really wasn't much of a factor in the
ball game because it's not like we tried to kick
any field goals, and I mean they had one one
big return on the kickoff return for Minnesota. But other
(01:15):
than that, it was from offensive standpoint and defensive standpoint,
just all around poor performance. So you dig into that
find out what were the regions that you played like that,
especially considering how you had played in the previous two
ball games against the Dolphins in Madrid and also against
the Broncos at home, a lot more competitive games endued
(01:38):
losing both those games in overtime. So what's the reason
why all of a sudden we regress is, as dan
Quinn said, took three steps backwards.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
What was the reason for that?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (01:49):
I definitely felt that way, And this one feels kind
of overwhelming for me personally, because I think there was
a lot of things that offensively and defensively didn't go well,
and I think Fletch you alluded to some of those
things there, right, you know, something like you're like, oh,
you know, it was the offensive plan where it needed
to be for the pressure that Minnesota was going to bring. Defensively,
it seemed like Kevin O'Connell had a really good bead
on kind of how to get the defense into certain
(02:11):
looks in certain positions, which is tough, right because it
means you've kind of shown something and people have now
found a thread they can pull on.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So I think that's one thing.
Speaker 6 (02:19):
You know, like going back and watching the film, I
wasn't like the effort necessarily was terrible, which I think
is something that initially I was worried about. You know,
I thought the guys on defense were playing hard relatively speaking,
but it's just it's one of those games. It kind
of takes you back to the games earlier this season,
you know, with the twenty point losses to Seattle to
Detroit where it's like, man, where do you go from here?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
And like FLETCHHD, it's.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
Just like you got to be really, really, really critical
in the evaluation of what you've done offensively and defensively.
Everybody's got to kind of point to themselves and say,
what can I do better? Because you know, there's times
where you know, maybe the offensive line doesn't pick something up,
or the quarterback vacates a pocket too quickly, or is
not where it should be offensively, right, And it's the
same thing on defense. It's really everybody. Everybody's effort and
(03:06):
everybody's mistakes contribute to this result. So really just being
hypercritical of your own performance is the only way that
I know how to handle this moving forward.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I mean, for me, the game flipped early. They scored
on their opening drive, Washington goes down the field fifteen
play drive stalls inside the two yard line, three straight
pass plays. We can go through some of the choices
there in a little bit. And it wasn't just the
stop there, London. It was a ninety eight yard drive
(03:35):
that followed by an offense that hadn't scored a touchdown
in three weeks and had already put one on the
board and ran off nearly a quarter doing it. So
like to Logan's point, this is both sides here. Like
the defense needed to stop up, step up and make
a stop, get the ball back for the offense. The
offense obviously needed to execute at the end of a
drive because the margin for error for them has been
(03:56):
so thin. And that to me was I know what
the score looks like, but that to me was everything
you needed to know about where the ball game was.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It's a great momentum shift, you know, you get down there.
You mentioned getting inside the two yard line and not
coming away with points, but then from the to add
insult to injury, now you allowed them to go nineteen
plays and ninety eight yards and get a touchdown. So
not only are you kind of still relling about not
(04:26):
getting getting points in in that that red zone situation,
but then to allow them to drive down there, down
there like that, it was you know situation where it
boiled down the third downs from a defensive standpoint, not
being able to get stops on third down. And it
wasn't like these were third and you know two situations
(04:46):
thirty one, thirty threes they had I think like third
and six is third and thinks maybe a third and twelve.
There were some third and longer situations that they were
able to convert on. And this was a offense that
came into that ball game thirty first rank on third downs,
and you allowed them to convert. And a lot of
(05:08):
that was our inability to get pressure on the quarterback.
They wanted to play a lot of zone coverages. DQ
did just kind of keeping everything in front of me
and talked about not wanting to allow these receivers because
they have When you can look at Jordan Addison and
Justin Jefferson, those guys are two elite receivers and you
(05:30):
don't want to necessarily play a lot of man coverage
against these guys. So you want to say, hey, we'll
play a lot of zone coverage, but if you go
to play zone, you have to figure out ways.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
To get pressure on the quarterback. And we didn't do that.
We ended with.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Four sacks, but those weren't Those sacks weren't impactful sacks.
They were kind of just you know, a zero yard
sack here or minus three yard sacked. They weren't impactful
type of sacks, and our inability to get pressure on
the quarterback is what really led to all the issues
that we had defensively at that ball game.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, no, I think I totally agree with that.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
It's to me, it comes back down to the third
downs one hundred percent, because like when you're watching the tape,
I'm sure you watch it back, maybe this morning or
last night, Fletch, Like, there's moments you're like, oh, that's
a nice run fit. Oh there's a good win in
a one on one situation. That's a nice line stunt.
And we're in second and eight. Oh, here's third and ten,
and then all of a sudden, J. J. McCarthy scrambles
for a first down. Then he hits that big corner
for a first down. Then they hit that middle screen
for a first down, and those were not again like
(06:30):
you're saying, those were not like easy first downs to get.
It was third and ten, third and eleven, third and eight,
and those are opportunities for the defense to get off
the field, and I think, like, when you look at
the first and second down effort to get to those opportunities,
it's great. But again I forget what the conversion percentage was,
but at one point it was like they were seven
for eight on third down and they were long plus
down in distances, and so to me, like that's the narrative.
(06:52):
You don't go on a nineteen play drive without executing
great on third down, Like really you don't. And there
was enough good stuff on second down to be like, man,
they should be in a better position here, and they
just weren't able to capitalize. And so some of it is,
I think, to Fletcher's point, the lack of pressure with four. Also,
I felt like JJ McCarthy, the Minnesota coaching staff had
a really good feel for kind of the rhythms and
(07:14):
situations of the play call. So like, hey, on third
and ten, we're going to be in Tampa, Tuo or
we're going to be in quarters, and these are some
route concepts that we feel really good about.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
To beat those, to beat those looks right.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
And so even the screen I thought was really well
called in, really well timed, because again they're kind of
right around that twenty five twenty seven yard line, they're
bringing a little bit of pressure. They throw the screen
right into the pressure ends up being a big play.
So just in terms of feel, I thought Minnesota had
a really good, really good feel, and they put JJ
in a good spot to be successful. And again, so
it was kind of a combination of things. It wasn't
(07:46):
just say the or the foreman rush was a huge
variable obviously, Fletch, but I also felt like Minnesota had
a really had it really locked in in terms of
when and how they would be calling certain coverages specifically.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, I just looked at I'm looking at the the
play by play in Minnesota converted a third and six
on the on the nineteen play dry they converted a
third and six, They converted a third and nine for
twelve yards. They got twelve yards, and they converted a
third and eight a twenty one yard pass, and again
only they converted a third and twelve.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah, So it was the last one, right, the one
that JJ.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, Well, these are these are issues that you you
want to get in. If you can get a team
into i'd say third and seven pluses, that's when you
you really can rush the quarterback. Now the thirty and
five or less, it's kind of like, okay, we don't
probably play a man.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
And man you know, they're easier to convert.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
The first one where they said it was a four
man rush, they sent Kwand off the edge and their
full back just saw him at the last minute and
he's able to knock Quand off of probably would have
been a safety on McCarthy. And I was the one
that the one time where I felt like, okay, we
got a little bit of pressure, so to speak, on him,
(09:07):
but beyond that, and besides that, they McCarthy was very
comfortable in the pocket. He was able to when he
didn't get the sack by Kwand, he scrambled for the
first down on that one.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
But you know, it was just a situation where they were.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Able to make plays, especially in the past game not
enough pressure, and that's why you know, at some point
you're thinking r DQ, the four man rush is not working,
especially on third downs. Maybe we need to go to
a different type of plan to get pressure on his
quarterback to get him out of rhythm. Because you got
(09:43):
a quarterback who was struggling coming into the ball game.
He had thrown ten interceptions, he was completing like fifty
four percent of his passes. When you allow him to
get comfortable and get confidence, now he's like, oh this
is easy. He's throwing on time to go to his
first read. Maybe get in to his secondary here there,
But you never truly got him office office spot. Make
(10:05):
him feel uncomfortable, speed up his process like you saw
the Vikings did us. They sped up the quarterbacks process.
They also manipulated the pass protection of our offense to
where you would have free runners coming in at jay
Nor at markets and things like that. So you know,
it was a situation where maybe we needed to make
a little bit more adjustments in the pass rush because
(10:28):
the plan wasn't working just with the four man rush. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I also think another huge variable to consider here is
the game flow. Right.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
So one of the things about some of the things
you're describing with JJ McCarthy is when they get down
the Minnesota Vikings, he's got to throw more, they've got
to be more aggressive down the field. And here, because
the offense wasn't able to be effective versus the defense,
they're able to kind of sit in this perfect world
of like, hey, here's we're going to run the ball.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
We're going to run the ball.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
Here's a little play action boot, here's a really easy
kind of two man concept that I'm reading a high
low on. And I felt like he wasn't stressed, partially
because there was no reason to stress him. Kevin O'Connell,
I thought, called a great game from this standpoint where
it's like, hey, he can make plays when he has
to make plays, but we're going to limit those opportunities.
And in terms of limiting the exposure of the quarterback,
(11:12):
I thought Kevin O'Connell did.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
A great job of that. Right.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
It is like, you know, they weren't afraid to punt
in the second half. They weren't afraid to do all
these things that kind of manage his risk. And I
think that was another reason why you see a much
more effective JJ McCarthy than we've seen. Like, I think
it's really telling that they came out took the ball
with the opening kickoff right they go down. They obviously
had a really good plan the way they used twelve,
the way they use thirteen personnel to get the Washington
commanders in a base defense, get them in a simple,
(11:37):
simple cover structures and let JJ kind of pick you apart.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
They go down and score.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
I think they had a ton of confidence that they
were going to have that the Minnesota defense was going
to have good success against the Washington offense, and they
ended up being true. And obviously we got to talk
about the goal, the fourth and goal that they didn't
get and all those kinds of things. But I think,
like to me, was it just showed a they got
in the game flow they wanted and then they never
got out of it, and it really helped JJ McCarthy
be super effective.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
I mean the whole week.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
You know, they were honest about what was going on.
McCarthy had only played in half of their games. His
completion percentage was amongst the lowest of starting quarterbacks. His
passer rating was literally the lowest. You cited the interception,
So he was struggling. The best way to put it
was he was struggling. They had talked openly about how
they had stripped down their offense. They were running the balls.
(12:22):
It must have been eighty percent of the time on
first down, trying to get positive yardists, trying to get
manageable down in distances for them, whoever their quarterback was,
they've had this issue this entire year.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
So I need you to help.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Me with some up to both of you, okay, because
it red like, I get that this team is missing
their defensive ends, and they're missing some corners now too,
so some of their best cover players aren't out there.
And I full respect to those outside weapons that they have.
Jefferson is as elite as elite gets in the NFL.
Addison's great too, But this red like, don't you have
(12:54):
to take a chance and bring more pressure to try
to get this guy out of rhythm and induce mistakes.
Can you help me understand the balance of the risk
of bringing pressure with weapons like that versus the idea
of we kind of just have to do it because
we have to disrupt this player.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Well, I think what the plan was just based on
how DQ and the defensive staff, how they called the game.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
They're saying, Hey, we know.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
When we're going to keep everything in front of us,
we're going to you know, just rush forward, play a
lot of his own coverage, whether it be Cover two,
Cover three, maybe a little bit of Cover six, which
is still a little bit of a man.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
And zone coverage.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Keep everything in front of us, and hopefully there are
times where will win the r one on ones or
we'll confusing with our disguises and force JJ to hold
onto the football a little bit longer. Maybe we can
force a little couple of incompletions, maybe force him to
throw an interception, or just get him off rhythm or
allow the pass for us to get there. The flip
(13:57):
side of it is they weren't getting there with the
four man Russo if you all of a sudden say
we're gonna bring an extra rush or a fifth guy,
now you open yourself up to are we gonna play
man and man on the back end? And if you
play man and man and you put your expose yourself
to explosive plays, where you got If they block it
(14:19):
up and you get one on ones against Addison noor A,
justin Jefferson, those guys can now all of a sudden
hit you for sixty seventy yard touchdown plays.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
That's the type of ability they have.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So it was Hey, let's make them dink and dunk
down the field and then we'll play great red zone defense,
which defensively, we have been playing great red zone defense
the prior to ballgames. I think we had held Miami
and Denver to four out of ten in the red zone.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
So that was the plan. Yesterday.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
We did play great red zone defense, so we allowed
them to get in the red zone, but then we
didn't stop them once they got into those situations. Nesota
was able to capitalize in the red zone and they
finished They finished four for four in the red zone.
So that's that's that. That was the other issue. Poor
poor third down defense at poor in the red zone.
(15:15):
Those were the that was the big issues with the defense.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Yeah, And going back to the pressure thing, I think
also like prior to this week, I would have thought
that you could get pressure with four, you know, even
even with r kind of depleted for when you look
at the different combinations that they've had in there, Minnesota
like you've seen teams kind of get after him a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
And as actually the healthiest their offensive line had been
basically all year.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Yeah, And I do think that is a something I
know I undervalued coming into this game. In terms of
like how important that would be for him, because again,
it allowed JJ, like you guys mentioned on the broadcast,
like to just sit in there confidently see throws in
a way that he hadn't really had the opportunity this
entire year. You look at old games of this offense,
and he is under siege all the time long, developing concepts,
(15:55):
play action passes, anything that's down the field past ten yards,
teams are pressure like the Bears, who have like kind
of this much maligned pass rush, were able to get
consistent pressure against him because, like Fletcher was saying, or
you were saying, he's able to he holds the football,
he's kind of waiting to see stuff, and they're able
to get the pressure there. Here again with that healthy
group back in there, Derre SAWA's back Jackson was back there,
(16:15):
two starting left side players were in there. Their right
guard I think was nicked up. He was back in
the lineup. Like it was a drastic difference in performance
for that group And so I do think that was
something that needs to be considered here. But I do
also agree with Fletch like that on the broadcast, he
said a bunch about like maybe it's time to throw
in a pressure, and there are ways to get pressure
(16:36):
without bringing extra people, like simulated pressures, like you can
kind of stack the front in a way where you
kind of force the force them to target their protection
in a specific way, and you can bring free runners.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
To the other side. So I think there's some of
that that maybe they could have done, because.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I would have did a lot, Like yeah, like Minnesota
hit a lot.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Of and that's what they major in Minnesota, that's what
they're really good at, and so I think maybe there
was opportunities for more of that, just to kind of
make it where it's less like these four guys are rushing,
these seven guys are in coverage and just provide a
little bit of consternation maybe to the quarterback. I could
see that being an argument, But in terms of playing
more man coverage, I'm not sure that I would feel
(17:16):
playing feel comfortable playing more man coverage with this secondary
group as it currently exists.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Fletch, maybe you disagree.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Also, you can have and I don't know what how
much in our menu we have what you would kind
of consider fire zones rushing five and still playing maybe
three underneath and three DP, so you still are playing
kind of a safer coverage, so to speak, and you
(17:41):
play the zones underneath.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
So I don't know how much we have that in our.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Menu now within the defensive play sheet, So you know,
maybe that's something they'll they'll look at moving forward, like, hey, okay,
we can if we're not going to get consistent pressure
with the format rush, we can bring five, but you'll
play what we call zoone three three underneath three D
type of coverages and things like that.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
So as I'm sure they're gonna.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Take a hard look at what can we do differently,
And then there's there's some they're gonna have to be
some times where you just have to say, hey, we're
gonna go out and you guys got to hold up
for maybe two seconds as a corner or three because
we're not gonna allow him to sit back here and
just hold on to this football. We're gonna bring all
(18:28):
our pressure and you may be exposed a little bit,
but just got it.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
You gotta hold.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
You gotta be able to cover for two seconds, two
and a half seconds and hopefully he'll that ball at
that quarterback and be getting hit or getting sacked.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
This reminded me a little bit of the game earlier
in the season against Atlanta where they had come off
a really rough performance against Carolina, and if you watched
Michael Pennix in that game, he was apt to make mistakes.
He was under pressure consistently. Washington didn't bring a lot
of pressure on him. Suddenly he got really comfortable and
everybody had a big game. In this particular case, if
(19:04):
you told me Sunday morning that Justin Jefferson's gonna have
two catches for eleven yards but the team would lose
thirty one or nothing, I wouldn't have believed you, because,
at least in this case, there were some of the
star players that were not taking advantage of them.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
But it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And this did feel like is there a balance here where, Okay,
we're going to put people at risk, every defense gonna
have a liability, but we're doing it because we think
we need to disrupt this player more than other quarterbacks
in general, because he has struggled in the past and
they just weren't able to get any kind of real
pressure on him. All of a sudden, here's a guy
(19:38):
who if you watched him, you go, where's his confidence level?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Well, he had it yesterday against them.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
And again like it's really easy to go back and like,
let's play Monday months quarterback against And so you know,
I was like, you know, I don't think I don't
think McCarthy's playing as bad as people think. He was
still playing bad football. So to me, playing a lot
of own versus him see like one hundred percent the
right thing to do because of his ability to just
kind of fall into mistakes, Like why would I stress
(20:07):
myself defensively by bringing pressure, putting our corners on islands
when he, like Fritz Shit, has thrown ten interceptions this year,
and he's made a bunch of Aaron throws. He has
one of the lowest pass ratings in the NFL. Like
there are reasons for that. Let's let him do his
thing and give us an opportunity. And that's where I
go back to the game flow thing, like he was
never at any point in a high stress environment because
(20:30):
he never had to throw. Right in the two minute situation,
they're taking a knee, you know what I mean, Like
because they understand that their defense is in a good
spot to contain Washington's offense. So I look at that
and I say again, like we could talk about pressure
or lack thereof. I don't know if I would have
done anything different going into the game Fletch, because of
how poorly he had been playing.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
No, not going into the game, because as I looked
at as I looked at McCarthy, the thing that I
saw at Dome coverage was do what I would have
played against?
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Yeah, because I feel like it's a pretty good versus man,
Like he can see man, he can make throws like the.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Young quarterbacks especially man and man you know where.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
You know, hey, I can I can go to this guy,
you know, one on one situation, like it's easy, especially
against pressure. All Right, they're blinking me, I'm gonna go
to Justin Jefferson, give him a chance.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
That he was a fifty to fifty ball.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So, okay, the zone concept plays one against him was
at the absolute right thing going into that game. However,
once you saw the game flow and you saw how
they were able to just pick us apart, especially in
the you know, first the first sequence, first defensive standpoint. Okay,
(21:44):
he made they score to start the game, but it
was that ninety eight yard drive where you're like, all right,
especially it's nineteen plays, so at some point do you say,
all right, man, let me let me just throwing a
heater right here.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
And he did dq dig dollop a couple pressure.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I don't know if it I can't remember if it
was it was later on after that that nineteen play
drive or doing it, but it just was by that
time he had already kind of started to get into
a flow. But another part, which we need to touch on,
complimentary football. We did not play complimentary football. The offense
(22:27):
didn't didn't.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Do their part.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
So maybe we get into a situation where it's a
kind of a mid twenties type game by both teams,
with offenses moving the ball getting points.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Defensively, hey, they're moving the ball.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Maybe we're holding to a field goal in a couple
of situations, so you keep the score down a little bit.
It's not and we're not here talking about a thirty
one and zero game.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
We're talking about our.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Close ball game like we had against the Broncos, maybe
with the scores in the mid twenties by both teams
and it comes down to a field goal here or
there and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Up this just wasn't complimenting football. And that's that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
That's probably most disappointing to the fact that you know,
we didn't play we didn't play our style of ball.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, and Fletcher, I had a quick question for you.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
So, like, I know, on offense, for example, like sometimes
like you get got because of game plan, Like you
can't just go on the sideline and just add a
bunch of formations or add a bunch of calls because
it's not on the call sheet. The communication hasn't been
established for the offense.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
How hard or how easy would it be.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Let's say you went to the game plan and being like, hey,
we're going to be predominantly zoned. We've got three or
four pressures that we like in key moments. How hard
would be to be like, hey, we're going to add
these pressures in for a defense. I know offensively, it
can be really challenging to add protections and rock concepts
in on the sideline or even a run scheme because
you haven't repted in the week. But how hard would
that be for them to be like, Hey, our game
plan is this sheet, but maybe we didn't anticipate X,
(23:52):
and so now we're going to add in pressures or
more coverages or whatever.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
You're going to go into a game with maybe four
or five pressures, regardless, even if you obviously in the
beginning of the season, they had a higher volume of
pressures that you're going to the game plan with. So
we got these different things we practiced throughout the course
of the week, and we'll get to to some of
our pressures. I can remember when I was with some
(24:18):
of the other guys, whether it was Greg Williams, Dick
Lebow who was with us in a Buffalo, or even
Jim Hasley, we would have a ton of pressure that
we wouldn't even get to in the ball game because
we got you know, we got so many of them
that we never even got to all the pressure down
the call sheet. But it would have been easy to
(24:39):
maybe it's a and it's not something unique. Maybe you
dial up that that Kwan Martin pressure a few more times.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
They sent Bobby.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Bobby almost had a sad So call those plays a
couple more times. Like if you look at Minnesota, that
cross pick stunt that they ran, I don't.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Know how many times they run in the game. It
felt like about.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Ten, but they kept running the same type of play
and they're playing cover two behind it and they're getting.
They're constantly getting pressure with that, and there's not something
exotic and things like that, So there was something you
just might have to keep calling the same type of pressures.
Maybe you got two or three that you and it
can even be a simulated pressure where you're just figuring
(25:22):
out ways you're creating a way to get a free
rusher to the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
All right, let's switch over to the offense and let's
focus on Jayden here. We're still we're taping this before
dan Quinn talks today. Last night, there was no information
that there was any re injury or different injury that
occurred last night. But let's wait and see what everyone
says today about it. They said last night he could
have gone back into the game. They chose not to.
(25:50):
At the point he would have come back in, it
would have been seventeen to nothing at that point, and
he had just come off what was the opening drive
of the second half that ended with a fourth down
intercept by Andrew Van Gigold that led to a field goal,
So he could have come back in in the third
quarter at seventeen to nothing, which just your general takeaway
here of the decision to not have him go back in.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
We were talking about this a little bit before the
show started, Flesh, before you got on, And one thing
that I forgot to mention is like, when I'm on
the sideline, I get a pretty intimate reaction to like
the injury because I'm like literally standing right behind the bench.
And so at the time, like I understand they said
he could have gone back in. Just from his body language,
the body language of the trainer, the way they handled
him going into the tent and coming out of the tent,
(26:33):
and the conversation around it, it definitely felt, you know,
like a like not an insignificant thing, and so maybe
he could have gone back in, like if it was
like gutting your head, go back in the game.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
But I also wonder, like the severity of the aggravation.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
I'm not saying even REI injured, you know what I'm saying,
So like on the sideline, it seemed much more emotional
than you know, we get to talk to Dan afterwards.
That seemed like a very controlled kind of setting. So
again that's something I just wanted to bring up. Being
on the sideline, you hear those interactions and you're like, man,
maybe this is a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I think it's important here because because all you're hearing
is what's messaged, and the messages in the third quarter
of a seventeen to nothing game, the starting quarterback is
not going back into the game. Now we know that
he's had, you know, a recent injury, and clearly it
was aggravated in some way, but there was no injury
designation that was given at that point. So I appreciate
the clarification of what you got to see now it
(27:24):
was because it's all we're hearing is what the message
is of what was happening, and it is a bit confusing, honestly.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, go ahead because you as I yeah, as I
said on the on the broadcast, where I thought it
might be a situation where potentially where DQ and medical
staff was saying, hey, he aggravated it. It's not worth
putting him back in this ball game. We can't protect
(27:53):
him in this office. From an office and standpoint, they've
had multiple times where they got free runners. Our defense
is not slowing down. Minnesota's just a situation where risk
reward maybe even thinking about the game against the Seahawks
where he got injured, and you're saying, you know what,
I'm not gonna expose him to a permanent injury to
(28:17):
where he's not able to play next week.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
Yeah, he could go back into this ball game. But
I think just when you look at the.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Florida game, Jayden at that point was nine for twenty
the offense, with the exception of the the opening drive,
it was kind of clunky, not really being able to
get a lot established in the passing game.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
How the run game was working.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yep, And we can touch on that, you know, but
just the way it was going, like, I'm not going
to put him out there, he gets injured, we can't
protect him against this blitz happy defense that that's what
they do. Well, we'll get we'll live to fight another
day and get him out of here and hopefully it's
(29:02):
just a little swallowing or a little irritation and he's
ready to go next week, I guess the New Goork Giants.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, And it kind of reminded me.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Reminded me of something when I was in Atlanta, Right,
I had a really bad MCL tear with some damage
in the ankle ligament. Also like someone had fallen on
me and I could go back in the game. And
I did go back in the game, but upon watching film,
I probably should not have gone back in the game.
Does that make sense, Like, so there are these moments
where you can, it doesn't mean you should. And I
(29:31):
think Fletch did a great job there of providing some context,
Like you know he was he was emotional on the sideline,
like his mom sits in the front row and she's
trying to talk to him and he's trying to talk
to her, and there was there was some like the
best way I can explain it is just consternation about
the moment right about about the level of the injury.
And I think to myself, like with the way Fletch
is describing how the offense was before me, I think
(29:52):
he's one hundred percent spot on. Like when you're having
hard time protecting a young player, he's a competitor, he's
trying to put everything on the line. Like I remember
there's a couple times where he's scrambling and he's taken
some shots where I was like, man, already we're doing that.
But that's what this Minnesota defense does. So I do
think that context is important and also.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Wasn't at a character for them though they do this
every game.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
And we're going to talk about maybe that more in
a second, but like I do think that I think
there was at the moment with the game flow being
at what it was and me seeing again the kind
of the tumble, like the energy on the sideline around
the injury, like it kind of made sense in a
moment to me. And again like there's Dani'll talk today,
(30:32):
we'll get more information, But.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I do want to just say one other thing about it,
and not to be contrarian about it, no, no, but
it's the score is only seventeen to nothing when he
could have gone back in. To me in the third quarter,
the game's not over now, like like you may want
to characterize it that way, and it wasn't going well
obviously for them, but like to me, that score is
(30:54):
not the Seattle game where they were down thirty with
eight minutes ago, and honestly, like that was a fluke
that injury that he got in at Seattle game, but
like that game was over against Seattle. This one, to me,
at seventeen to nothing isn't like it's so I just wanted.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
To say that, you know, it's important to say that.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
It's really good context, but also think Fletch brought up
a really good point because I think when Dan's calling
defensive plays, he is a very unique perspective on the defense.
And if you feel like you can't stop them for
whatever reason, and we've talked about why or not that is,
I think it gives you a different feel of the
pulse of the game. And so maybe he's feeling a
little bit of consternation, a little bit of anxiety and
(31:31):
kind of like we can't stop them, we can't protect
Why put him back into the fray here in this moment.
And I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth,
but it on the sideline, just watching, I don't know
how it felt from the booth, it kind of felt
that way to me, where it even though the game
was in hand, it felt like it was very close
to being out of hand.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yes, I guess I'm just you know, I'm like everybody,
I'm tunnel vision, like we can win, we can win,
we can win.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
You can always feel like you can win.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
But it reminds me of the Zach Ertz thing too,
like we can win, but like, you know, like you're exposed.
I feel so bad for Zach holy cow man like,
and I know the whole staff feels bad for him.
The locker room was crazy afterwards with Zach, like just
the support for him, but like, that's what that's the
risk that you're exposing him to in a game that
may or may not be in hand.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Yeah, no, Bram, that game was over.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I mean, it was just from a standpoint of the
way they were going to have to get back into it.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
It was going to have to be throwing the football.
You're down, they're down.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You say seventeen nothing, but it probably felt like thirty
five and nothing at that point in time because of
how you were going to have to just the game
flow of moving the football against this.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
Defense of the Vikings.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
They were constantly getting guys in the face of Jaden Daniels. Yes,
there was no reason to put him back in that
ball game because of the given the fact that this
is the guy who's been injured multiple times in the season,
He's missed multiple games, and we can't protect him against
(33:04):
this this blitz happy defense of the Minnesota Vikings. We're
not going to be able to get back in the
game with Jaden without exposing him to more risk of injuries.
Even if he doesn't get sacked he's going to have
to scrabble, he's going to take more hits. And it
wasn't It just wasn't going to happen. And you have
to have a feel for how what's going on in
(33:27):
that ball game and the feel of that game yesterday
at seventeen and nothing, like, you know what, this is
just not our day.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Let's get marry On in here. He's played some good
football for its.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
He may give us a spark and may get us
back in the game, but I can't risk putting Jayden
back in this game to get him injured.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
The No, it's not it's not worth it.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
But I think you do bring up a good point, Bram,
because when you said that to me earlier, I was like,
it wasn't seventeen to zero, but it was like it just.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
It was fourteen nothing when they had the interception, seventeen
to nothing when he would have gone back out on
the field and did not.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, and it felt different.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And it's the third coin.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, yeah, but like three, what happened the very next
series after it was seventeen now when Mariota came in again.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah interception, yeah, right, three interception.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Here's here's the other thing. Just to say this, you know,
because both of these.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Teams had extraordinarily long drives, Like they had a nineteen
play drive, they ran twelve minutes off the clock. You know,
Jade only had four series up to this point, and
two of them were double digit play drives and one
was aided by a couple of penalties that kept on going.
That fourth down interception that was thrown they were in
the red zone, so they twice two out of the
(34:39):
four drives, he had a fifteen play eighty three yard
drive that ended up with a turnover on downs and
a twelve play fifty eight yard drive with almost seven
minutes off the clock. Two out of four drives they
moved the ball. It might not have been easy, that's
for sure. Like I totally agree with that. It wasn't easy.
That's all I want to say about it. Like he
didn't have the ball a lot. They moved the ball
(35:00):
twice successfully in the four drives they had, and they
chose to go and listen, Like, I don't want to
get hurt either, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
He was nine for twenty with an interception. He was
nine for.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Twenty whenn't it was an interception overturned or fumble was
overturned earlier in that drive.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Yeah, they had twelve men on the field.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Yeah, I hit on that play and fumble.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
The teams that have success against the Vikings defense, all
of them through the year. You have to run the
ball successfully against them or you're sitting duck because they
come with blitzes more than anybody in the NFL. They're
extremely successful at it. That score against Seattle was very deceiving.
It was twenty six to nothing, but you know, Sam
Darnold threw for ninety yards in that game at Jackson
Smith and Jigba was a disappearing act because their pass
(35:44):
defense is that kind of level of elite.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
No, And I think it goes back to me like
the game flow thing, and then Fletch, I think you
hit something like that a lot of like hardcore, Like
you feel this like obviously my offensive quarter in the
high school level. You feel it in the high school
game so much more acutely because tams run the ball
more than games are a little bit shorter. Yeah, and
this kind of felt and played like a high school
game from a time standpoint because of how long these
drives were taking, and so the number of possessions required
(36:10):
to come back and win. This game was getting really
tight there late in the game. But I also think
it goes back to Minnesota taking the taking the ball
to start the game, because immediately you put the off
you put our offense. Cliff Kingsbury, the play caller, in
a situation where it's like, now I have to make
up a possession, which is not necessarily true, but you
feel that when you're calling plays.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
You feel that.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
I've been on offenses where really bright dudes, Sean McVay,
Kyle Shanahan, really awesome offensive coordinators like that, you can
feel the urgency in the play call come in and
you're like, oh okay.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
And again that's what that does.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
And again, when the defense is playing as well as
Minizota's defense was, which you can talk about more detail
in a second, like it, it kind of has this
overwhelming vibe and I think it leads to some of
these decisions when it comes to zowing the football.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah, yeah, I think Listen. I mean, you know he
got injured earlier. With that injury, it you know, perceptually
it looks awful. Did he walk off the field with it?
It's impossible not to have human nature to be thinking
about that like during the course of the game, and
you know, but that that leads to what I think
is the bigger question, which I think we all agree on.
Assuming he's healthy, as we again, we don't know if
(37:13):
it's just a reaggravation, if he's fine, if there's anything
new they have to talk about. You want him to
continue playing, right.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I do? One million percent? I know, like this, this
was good.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
This is gonna be a tough game for him to
come back anyway, because of all the things we talked
about Minnesota, Like if you look at games that he's
struggled against, struggled in historically, they've been teams like Minnesota
that pressure this way, right, So this is gonna be
a tough game for him regardless. So I wanted him
to play though. I want him to get these reps.
I want him to get these opportunities no matter who
the opponent is. So, like, I'm not as worried about reinjury.
I'm worried about developmental arc for him, which to me
(37:46):
is the is the main thing almost for this football
team in the last four weeks of the season, five
weeks of the season.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
Yeah, he needs reps.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
He just needs reps as from a from a developmental standpoint,
is a young quarterback se second season in NFL who
hadn't played a ton of games this year, and he
hasn't played a ton of games. This was what the
third game this season, he had what you would consider
his full compliment of offensive weapons.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
So he needs he needs more reps.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Okay, let me and where we started. Then take me
into the locker room. You know this is obviously listen,
this is a long losing streak. Season is not going
in any way, shape or form that I even could
have envisioned the way it would go. So how are
the players thinking about the last four games?
Speaker 4 (38:35):
All division games?
Speaker 6 (38:36):
I mean, obviously, when you're in a division game, I
think it kind of provides some level of motivation and
some level of passion. But to me, like I remember
being in twenty eleven, I think we were out of
it early. In twenty thirteen we were out of it
early when I was with the Bears, and sixteen we
were out of early when I was in San Francisco,
we were out of early. And really it becomes like
this is going to sound bad, but it becomes like
I need to take care of my film so that
(38:59):
I have a job next year, right, And like every
scout will tell you this, Every coach told me this
because I was an undrafted free agent like Fletch was.
But it was like, they don't care about the season.
They care about the last three games. They're going to
go watch the last three games of football that you played,
and they don't care about whether you're in the playoffs,
out of the playoffs division opponent. They want to see
a guy go out there and compete. And so that
(39:21):
was something that in those seasons that were really tumultuous
and bad and emotional for different reasons, it was like,
how do I handle my work the best I possibly can?
And people say this all the time, but it's a
professional sport for a reason. And these are the games.
These are the games you get paid for, right. Everyone
says you get paid for practice.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I bucked that.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
You can get paid for buck that too. It's when
nobody wants to play football. You have to go play.
That's why you're getting paid. And these are the games
where you have to go out and put literally your
best foot forward. No one's going to care like you
want to be an fl football player, these are the
games that create that, in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Fledg, Well, it also you find out who are the
guys that you want to have in a foxhole with
you when it's when you're going through adversity, everybody wants
to be with you, and when everything is going great
and you're ten and three at this point in the season,
and you know, man, we're going to the playoffs, we
(40:17):
maybe compete for the division championship, or win a division,
maybe a home first round, home field buy and all
those types of things.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
But it's when adversity sets in. You're three and ten, you're.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Coming off with thirty one to zero loss to the
Minnesota Vikings. Who are the guys that you can lean
on that's gonna be a leader during the week leaning
up to this ball game, because practice is important to
logan the meeting rooms, making sure you're not allowing conversations
to happen at our devices, because there are times where
(40:53):
you you're on the team and you're playing poorly and
you'll have these side conversations that continue that divides a team.
You gotta have some guys, Yeah, you got to have
some guys in that locker room that cut that out.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
They're like, hey, no, we're not doing that here, We're
going to turn this. They start a.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Negative content conversation, you swinging back to a positive conversation,
and like Logan said, everybody's I mean, at the end
of the day, you're also fight for your own jobs,
whether he be here or with another team. They're gonna
be guys who are free agents next year. I think
you know, probably half the team is or close to
(41:34):
half the team will be free agents next year. So
they're looking at the last three or four games of
a season, and you really want to look at what
a guy looks like where you're playing for nothing scores
out of hand? Is he continued to still play hard seasons,
out of the line seasons out of hand we're no
longer making the playoffs. Does he continue to show up
(41:55):
in these tough moments, because those are guys that eventually
when we get back, when he we get this shit
back righting, those are the ones I wanted my team.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, first match up against Jackson Dart two. We played
Russell Wilson in Week one with the Giants, so we'll
get a chance to look at him now. Future quarterbacking
for the New York Giants. So it'll be interesting this week.
And the division games are always interesting, no matter what
the records are.
Speaker 6 (42:15):
Yeah, they're always interesting. And again, like it's to me,
it's in some ways it's a blessing. This is going
to sound crazy. Maybe people don't play, but like it's
kind of a blessing to have another opportunity to say, like,
this isn't who we are, Like this Minnesota game is
not the is the exception rather than the rule, and
like we have more opportunities to fix it right, Like
could you imagine if that was the last game you
(42:35):
played of the season, it'd be so incredibly disheartening and frustrating. Like,
at least we've got an opportunity to get it right.
And I know it doesn't it's tough and it's not
right and all those things, but like, gosh, I would
hate to end it so agains. Going against a division
opponent we beat earlier this season. They aren't as diverse
or as complicated as we've seen from Minnesota for example,
(42:56):
seems like a good game to get.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
They're a good football team.
Speaker 6 (42:59):
I'm not going to say we're gonna outright win this game,
but it'll be a little bit easier and let everybody
kind of get the return, you know, the get the
band back together this week against New York Giants, I
think might be appropriate.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
Yep, all right, we'll see what happens this weekend.
Speaker 5 (43:15):
They've been playing competitive football on.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
The Giants, very competitive.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Yeah, right at the quarterback spot.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
So I'll say this, man, the coaches games like this
season like this, this way, you really have to figure
out ways to get your team ready to play against
the Giants and is what they hey, division opponent, but
it's gonna be you want to need more than that
to get these guys back ready to play, because I
mean there's a lot of guys who are who are
(43:41):
down after that performance yesterday against the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
It's a tough one, but they do get another opportunity
next week up in New Jersey. We'll be there and
we'll have the Booth Review for you next Monday after
the rematch with the New York Giants to see them.
Booth Review was filmed at the Big Bear AI Command
Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers mission ready AI for
a rapidly evolving world, proudly protecting the Washington Commanders and
(44:06):
its fans
Coming up on the Booth Review, we will discuss Jane
Daniels not returning in the Vikings game.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We talk about what this team has to do to
get back on track.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
And football players played football.
Speaker 4 (00:12):
And broadcasters broadcast games.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's all coming up next on the Booth Review. Welcome
into the latest edition of the Booth Review podcast. Ibram
Winstein with London Fletcher and Logan Paulson were brought to
you by Microsoft Surface Copilot Plus PC and we are,
or at least Logan and I are in the Big
Bear AI Command Center studio after a rough, rough loss
(00:35):
to Minnesota Teams eighth straight. They fall to three to
ten thirty one to nothering considering the gang was back
together on offense, I don't think any of us could
have seen this coming. So let's start at the end,
which is this was a surprise. What now, London man.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
What now?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
You gotta take a very hard look at everything that
led to you performing like that as a team offensively, defensively.
Special teams really wasn't much of a factor in the
ball game because it's not like we tried to kick
any field goals, and I mean they had one one
big return on the kickoff return for Minnesota. But other
(01:15):
than that, it was from offensive standpoint and defensive standpoint,
just all around poor performance. So you dig into that
find out what were the regions that you played like that,
especially considering how you had played in the previous two
ball games against the Dolphins in Madrid and also against
the Broncos at home, a lot more competitive games endued
(01:38):
losing both those games in overtime. So what's the reason
why all of a sudden we regress is, as dan
Quinn said, took three steps backwards.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
What was the reason for that?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (01:49):
I definitely felt that way, And this one feels kind
of overwhelming for me personally, because I think there was
a lot of things that offensively and defensively didn't go well,
and I think Fletch you alluded to some of those
things there, right, you know, something like you're like, oh,
you know, it was the offensive plan where it needed
to be for the pressure that Minnesota was going to bring. Defensively,
it seemed like Kevin O'Connell had a really good bead
on kind of how to get the defense into certain
(02:11):
looks in certain positions, which is tough, right because it
means you've kind of shown something and people have now
found a thread they can pull on.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So I think that's one thing.
Speaker 6 (02:19):
You know, like going back and watching the film, I
wasn't like the effort necessarily was terrible, which I think
is something that initially I was worried about. You know,
I thought the guys on defense were playing hard relatively speaking,
but it's just it's one of those games. It kind
of takes you back to the games earlier this season,
you know, with the twenty point losses to Seattle to
Detroit where it's like, man, where do you go from here?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
And like FLETCHHD, it's.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
Just like you got to be really, really, really critical
in the evaluation of what you've done offensively and defensively.
Everybody's got to kind of point to themselves and say,
what can I do better? Because you know, there's times
where you know, maybe the offensive line doesn't pick something up,
or the quarterback vacates a pocket too quickly, or is
not where it should be offensively, right, And it's the
same thing on defense. It's really everybody. Everybody's effort and
(03:06):
everybody's mistakes contribute to this result. So really just being
hypercritical of your own performance is the only way that
I know how to handle this moving forward.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I mean, for me, the game flipped early. They scored
on their opening drive, Washington goes down the field fifteen
play drive stalls inside the two yard line, three straight
pass plays. We can go through some of the choices
there in a little bit. And it wasn't just the
stop there, London. It was a ninety eight yard drive
(03:35):
that followed by an offense that hadn't scored a touchdown
in three weeks and had already put one on the
board and ran off nearly a quarter doing it. So
like to Logan's point, this is both sides here. Like
the defense needed to stop up, step up and make
a stop, get the ball back for the offense. The
offense obviously needed to execute at the end of a
drive because the margin for error for them has been
(03:56):
so thin. And that to me was I know what
the score looks like, but that to me was everything
you needed to know about where the ball game was.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It's a great momentum shift, you know, you get down there.
You mentioned getting inside the two yard line and not
coming away with points, but then from the to add
insult to injury, now you allowed them to go nineteen
plays and ninety eight yards and get a touchdown. So
not only are you kind of still relling about not
(04:26):
getting getting points in in that that red zone situation,
but then to allow them to drive down there, down
there like that, it was you know situation where it
boiled down the third downs from a defensive standpoint, not
being able to get stops on third down. And it
wasn't like these were third and you know two situations
(04:46):
thirty one, thirty threes they had I think like third
and six is third and thinks maybe a third and twelve.
There were some third and longer situations that they were
able to convert on. And this was a offense that
came into that ball game thirty first rank on third downs,
and you allowed them to convert. And a lot of
(05:08):
that was our inability to get pressure on the quarterback.
They wanted to play a lot of zone coverages. DQ
did just kind of keeping everything in front of me
and talked about not wanting to allow these receivers because
they have When you can look at Jordan Addison and
Justin Jefferson, those guys are two elite receivers and you
(05:30):
don't want to necessarily play a lot of man coverage
against these guys. So you want to say, hey, we'll
play a lot of zone coverage, but if you go
to play zone, you have to figure out ways.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
To get pressure on the quarterback. And we didn't do that.
We ended with.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Four sacks, but those weren't Those sacks weren't impactful sacks.
They were kind of just you know, a zero yard
sack here or minus three yard sacked. They weren't impactful
type of sacks, and our inability to get pressure on
the quarterback is what really led to all the issues
that we had defensively at that ball game.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, no, I think I totally agree with that.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
It's to me, it comes back down to the third
downs one hundred percent, because like when you're watching the tape,
I'm sure you watch it back, maybe this morning or
last night, Fletch, Like, there's moments you're like, oh, that's
a nice run fit. Oh there's a good win in
a one on one situation. That's a nice line stunt.
And we're in second and eight. Oh, here's third and ten,
and then all of a sudden, J. J. McCarthy scrambles
for a first down. Then he hits that big corner
for a first down. Then they hit that middle screen
for a first down, and those were not again like
(06:30):
you're saying, those were not like easy first downs to get.
It was third and ten, third and eleven, third and eight,
and those are opportunities for the defense to get off
the field, and I think, like, when you look at
the first and second down effort to get to those opportunities,
it's great. But again I forget what the conversion percentage was,
but at one point it was like they were seven
for eight on third down and they were long plus
down in distances, and so to me, like that's the narrative.
(06:52):
You don't go on a nineteen play drive without executing
great on third down, Like really you don't. And there
was enough good stuff on second down to be like, man,
they should be in a better position here, and they
just weren't able to capitalize. And so some of it is,
I think, to Fletcher's point, the lack of pressure with four. Also,
I felt like JJ McCarthy, the Minnesota coaching staff had
a really good feel for kind of the rhythms and
(07:14):
situations of the play call. So like, hey, on third
and ten, we're going to be in Tampa, Tuo or
we're going to be in quarters, and these are some
route concepts that we feel really good about.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
To beat those, to beat those looks right.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
And so even the screen I thought was really well
called in, really well timed, because again they're kind of
right around that twenty five twenty seven yard line, they're
bringing a little bit of pressure. They throw the screen
right into the pressure ends up being a big play.
So just in terms of feel, I thought Minnesota had
a really good, really good feel, and they put JJ
in a good spot to be successful. And again, so
it was kind of a combination of things. It wasn't
(07:46):
just say the or the foreman rush was a huge
variable obviously, Fletch, but I also felt like Minnesota had
a really had it really locked in in terms of
when and how they would be calling certain coverages specifically.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, I just looked at I'm looking at the the
play by play in Minnesota converted a third and six
on the on the nineteen play dry they converted a
third and six, They converted a third and nine for
twelve yards. They got twelve yards, and they converted a
third and eight a twenty one yard pass, and again
only they converted a third and twelve.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah, So it was the last one, right, the one
that JJ.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, Well, these are these are issues that you you
want to get in. If you can get a team
into i'd say third and seven pluses, that's when you
you really can rush the quarterback. Now the thirty and
five or less, it's kind of like, okay, we don't
probably play a man.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
And man you know, they're easier to convert.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
The first one where they said it was a four
man rush, they sent Kwand off the edge and their
full back just saw him at the last minute and
he's able to knock Quand off of probably would have
been a safety on McCarthy. And I was the one
that the one time where I felt like, okay, we
got a little bit of pressure, so to speak, on him,
(09:07):
but beyond that, and besides that, they McCarthy was very
comfortable in the pocket. He was able to when he
didn't get the sack by Kwand, he scrambled for the
first down on that one.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
But you know, it was just a situation where they were.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Able to make plays, especially in the past game not
enough pressure, and that's why you know, at some point
you're thinking r DQ, the four man rush is not working,
especially on third downs. Maybe we need to go to
a different type of plan to get pressure on his
quarterback to get him out of rhythm. Because you got
(09:43):
a quarterback who was struggling coming into the ball game.
He had thrown ten interceptions, he was completing like fifty
four percent of his passes. When you allow him to
get comfortable and get confidence, now he's like, oh this
is easy. He's throwing on time to go to his
first read. Maybe get in to his secondary here there,
But you never truly got him office office spot. Make
(10:05):
him feel uncomfortable, speed up his process like you saw
the Vikings did us. They sped up the quarterbacks process.
They also manipulated the pass protection of our offense to
where you would have free runners coming in at jay
Nor at markets and things like that. So you know,
it was a situation where maybe we needed to make
a little bit more adjustments in the pass rush because
(10:28):
the plan wasn't working just with the four man rush. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I also think another huge variable to consider here is
the game flow. Right.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
So one of the things about some of the things
you're describing with JJ McCarthy is when they get down
the Minnesota Vikings, he's got to throw more, they've got
to be more aggressive down the field. And here, because
the offense wasn't able to be effective versus the defense,
they're able to kind of sit in this perfect world
of like, hey, here's we're going to run the ball.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
We're going to run the ball.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
Here's a little play action boot, here's a really easy
kind of two man concept that I'm reading a high
low on. And I felt like he wasn't stressed, partially
because there was no reason to stress him. Kevin O'Connell,
I thought, called a great game from this standpoint where
it's like, hey, he can make plays when he has
to make plays, but we're going to limit those opportunities.
And in terms of limiting the exposure of the quarterback,
(11:12):
I thought Kevin O'Connell did.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
A great job of that. Right.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
It is like, you know, they weren't afraid to punt
in the second half. They weren't afraid to do all
these things that kind of manage his risk. And I
think that was another reason why you see a much
more effective JJ McCarthy than we've seen. Like, I think
it's really telling that they came out took the ball
with the opening kickoff right they go down. They obviously
had a really good plan the way they used twelve,
the way they use thirteen personnel to get the Washington
commanders in a base defense, get them in a simple,
(11:37):
simple cover structures and let JJ kind of pick you apart.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
They go down and score.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
I think they had a ton of confidence that they
were going to have that the Minnesota defense was going
to have good success against the Washington offense, and they
ended up being true. And obviously we got to talk
about the goal, the fourth and goal that they didn't
get and all those kinds of things. But I think,
like to me, was it just showed a they got
in the game flow they wanted and then they never
got out of it, and it really helped JJ McCarthy
be super effective.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
I mean the whole week.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
You know, they were honest about what was going on.
McCarthy had only played in half of their games. His
completion percentage was amongst the lowest of starting quarterbacks. His
passer rating was literally the lowest. You cited the interception,
So he was struggling. The best way to put it
was he was struggling. They had talked openly about how
they had stripped down their offense. They were running the balls.
(12:22):
It must have been eighty percent of the time on
first down, trying to get positive yardists, trying to get
manageable down in distances for them, whoever their quarterback was,
they've had this issue this entire year.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
So I need you to help.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Me with some up to both of you, okay, because
it red like, I get that this team is missing
their defensive ends, and they're missing some corners now too,
so some of their best cover players aren't out there.
And I full respect to those outside weapons that they have.
Jefferson is as elite as elite gets in the NFL.
Addison's great too, But this red like, don't you have
(12:54):
to take a chance and bring more pressure to try
to get this guy out of rhythm and induce mistakes.
Can you help me understand the balance of the risk
of bringing pressure with weapons like that versus the idea
of we kind of just have to do it because
we have to disrupt this player.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Well, I think what the plan was just based on
how DQ and the defensive staff, how they called the game.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
They're saying, Hey, we know.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
When we're going to keep everything in front of us,
we're going to you know, just rush forward, play a
lot of his own coverage, whether it be Cover two,
Cover three, maybe a little bit of Cover six, which
is still a little bit of a man.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
And zone coverage.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Keep everything in front of us, and hopefully there are
times where will win the r one on ones or
we'll confusing with our disguises and force JJ to hold
onto the football a little bit longer. Maybe we can
force a little couple of incompletions, maybe force him to
throw an interception, or just get him off rhythm or
allow the pass for us to get there. The flip
(13:57):
side of it is they weren't getting there with the
four man Russo if you all of a sudden say
we're gonna bring an extra rush or a fifth guy,
now you open yourself up to are we gonna play
man and man on the back end? And if you
play man and man and you put your expose yourself
to explosive plays, where you got If they block it
(14:19):
up and you get one on ones against Addison noor A,
justin Jefferson, those guys can now all of a sudden
hit you for sixty seventy yard touchdown plays.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
That's the type of ability they have.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So it was Hey, let's make them dink and dunk
down the field and then we'll play great red zone defense,
which defensively, we have been playing great red zone defense
the prior to ballgames. I think we had held Miami
and Denver to four out of ten in the red zone.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
So that was the plan. Yesterday.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
We did play great red zone defense, so we allowed
them to get in the red zone, but then we
didn't stop them once they got into those situations. Nesota
was able to capitalize in the red zone and they
finished They finished four for four in the red zone.
So that's that's that. That was the other issue. Poor
poor third down defense at poor in the red zone.
(15:15):
Those were the that was the big issues with the defense.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Yeah, And going back to the pressure thing, I think
also like prior to this week, I would have thought
that you could get pressure with four, you know, even
even with r kind of depleted for when you look
at the different combinations that they've had in there, Minnesota
like you've seen teams kind of get after him a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
And as actually the healthiest their offensive line had been
basically all year.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Yeah, And I do think that is a something I
know I undervalued coming into this game. In terms of
like how important that would be for him, because again,
it allowed JJ, like you guys mentioned on the broadcast,
like to just sit in there confidently see throws in
a way that he hadn't really had the opportunity this
entire year. You look at old games of this offense,
and he is under siege all the time long, developing concepts,
(15:55):
play action passes, anything that's down the field past ten yards,
teams are pressure like the Bears, who have like kind
of this much maligned pass rush, were able to get
consistent pressure against him because, like Fletcher was saying, or
you were saying, he's able to he holds the football,
he's kind of waiting to see stuff, and they're able
to get the pressure there. Here again with that healthy
group back in there, Derre SAWA's back Jackson was back there,
(16:15):
two starting left side players were in there. Their right
guard I think was nicked up. He was back in
the lineup. Like it was a drastic difference in performance
for that group And so I do think that was
something that needs to be considered here. But I do
also agree with Fletch like that on the broadcast, he
said a bunch about like maybe it's time to throw
in a pressure, and there are ways to get pressure
(16:36):
without bringing extra people, like simulated pressures, like you can
kind of stack the front in a way where you
kind of force the force them to target their protection
in a specific way, and you can bring free runners.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
To the other side. So I think there's some of
that that maybe they could have done, because.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I would have did a lot, Like yeah, like Minnesota
hit a lot.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Of and that's what they major in Minnesota, that's what
they're really good at, and so I think maybe there
was opportunities for more of that, just to kind of
make it where it's less like these four guys are rushing,
these seven guys are in coverage and just provide a
little bit of consternation maybe to the quarterback. I could
see that being an argument, But in terms of playing
more man coverage, I'm not sure that I would feel
(17:16):
playing feel comfortable playing more man coverage with this secondary
group as it currently exists.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Fletch, maybe you disagree.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Also, you can have and I don't know what how
much in our menu we have what you would kind
of consider fire zones rushing five and still playing maybe
three underneath and three DP, so you still are playing
kind of a safer coverage, so to speak, and you
(17:41):
play the zones underneath.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
So I don't know how much we have that in our.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Menu now within the defensive play sheet, So you know,
maybe that's something they'll they'll look at moving forward, like, hey, okay,
we can if we're not going to get consistent pressure
with the format rush, we can bring five, but you'll
play what we call zoone three three underneath three D
type of coverages and things like that.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
So as I'm sure they're gonna.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Take a hard look at what can we do differently,
And then there's there's some they're gonna have to be
some times where you just have to say, hey, we're
gonna go out and you guys got to hold up
for maybe two seconds as a corner or three because
we're not gonna allow him to sit back here and
just hold on to this football. We're gonna bring all
(18:28):
our pressure and you may be exposed a little bit,
but just got it.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
You gotta hold.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
You gotta be able to cover for two seconds, two
and a half seconds and hopefully he'll that ball at
that quarterback and be getting hit or getting sacked.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
This reminded me a little bit of the game earlier
in the season against Atlanta where they had come off
a really rough performance against Carolina, and if you watched
Michael Pennix in that game, he was apt to make mistakes.
He was under pressure consistently. Washington didn't bring a lot
of pressure on him. Suddenly he got really comfortable and
everybody had a big game. In this particular case, if
(19:04):
you told me Sunday morning that Justin Jefferson's gonna have
two catches for eleven yards but the team would lose
thirty one or nothing, I wouldn't have believed you, because,
at least in this case, there were some of the
star players that were not taking advantage of them.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
But it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And this did feel like is there a balance here where, Okay,
we're going to put people at risk, every defense gonna
have a liability, but we're doing it because we think
we need to disrupt this player more than other quarterbacks
in general, because he has struggled in the past and
they just weren't able to get any kind of real
pressure on him. All of a sudden, here's a guy
(19:38):
who if you watched him, you go, where's his confidence level?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Well, he had it yesterday against them.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
And again like it's really easy to go back and like,
let's play Monday months quarterback against And so you know,
I was like, you know, I don't think I don't
think McCarthy's playing as bad as people think. He was
still playing bad football. So to me, playing a lot
of own versus him see like one hundred percent the
right thing to do because of his ability to just
kind of fall into mistakes, Like why would I stress
(20:07):
myself defensively by bringing pressure, putting our corners on islands
when he, like Fritz Shit, has thrown ten interceptions this year,
and he's made a bunch of Aaron throws. He has
one of the lowest pass ratings in the NFL. Like
there are reasons for that. Let's let him do his
thing and give us an opportunity. And that's where I
go back to the game flow thing, like he was
never at any point in a high stress environment because
(20:30):
he never had to throw. Right in the two minute situation,
they're taking a knee, you know what I mean, Like
because they understand that their defense is in a good
spot to contain Washington's offense. So I look at that
and I say again, like we could talk about pressure
or lack thereof. I don't know if I would have
done anything different going into the game Fletch, because of
how poorly he had been playing.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
No, not going into the game, because as I looked
at as I looked at McCarthy, the thing that I
saw at Dome coverage was do what I would have
played against?
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Yeah, because I feel like it's a pretty good versus man,
Like he can see man, he can make throws like the.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Young quarterbacks especially man and man you know where.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
You know, hey, I can I can go to this guy,
you know, one on one situation, like it's easy, especially
against pressure. All Right, they're blinking me, I'm gonna go
to Justin Jefferson, give him a chance.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
That he was a fifty to fifty ball.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So, okay, the zone concept plays one against him was
at the absolute right thing going into that game. However,
once you saw the game flow and you saw how
they were able to just pick us apart, especially in
the you know, first the first sequence, first defensive standpoint. Okay,
(21:44):
he made they score to start the game, but it
was that ninety eight yard drive where you're like, all right,
especially it's nineteen plays, so at some point do you say,
all right, man, let me let me just throwing a
heater right here.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
And he did dq dig dollop a couple pressure.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I don't know if it I can't remember if it
was it was later on after that that nineteen play
drive or doing it, but it just was by that
time he had already kind of started to get into
a flow. But another part, which we need to touch on,
complimentary football. We did not play complimentary football. The offense
(22:27):
didn't didn't.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Do their part.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
So maybe we get into a situation where it's a
kind of a mid twenties type game by both teams,
with offenses moving the ball getting points.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Defensively, hey, they're moving the ball.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Maybe we're holding to a field goal in a couple
of situations, so you keep the score down a little bit.
It's not and we're not here talking about a thirty
one and zero game.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
We're talking about our.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Close ball game like we had against the Broncos, maybe
with the scores in the mid twenties by both teams
and it comes down to a field goal here or
there and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Up this just wasn't complimenting football. And that's that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
That's probably most disappointing to the fact that you know,
we didn't play we didn't play our style of ball.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, and Fletcher, I had a quick question for you.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
So, like, I know, on offense, for example, like sometimes
like you get got because of game plan, Like you
can't just go on the sideline and just add a
bunch of formations or add a bunch of calls because
it's not on the call sheet. The communication hasn't been
established for the offense.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
How hard or how easy would it be.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Let's say you went to the game plan and being like, hey,
we're going to be predominantly zoned. We've got three or
four pressures that we like in key moments. How hard
would be to be like, hey, we're going to add
these pressures in for a defense. I know offensively, it
can be really challenging to add protections and rock concepts
in on the sideline or even a run scheme because
you haven't repted in the week. But how hard would
that be for them to be like, Hey, our game
plan is this sheet, but maybe we didn't anticipate X,
(23:52):
and so now we're going to add in pressures or
more coverages or whatever.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
You're going to go into a game with maybe four
or five pressures, regardless, even if you obviously in the
beginning of the season, they had a higher volume of
pressures that you're going to the game plan with. So
we got these different things we practiced throughout the course
of the week, and we'll get to to some of
our pressures. I can remember when I was with some
(24:18):
of the other guys, whether it was Greg Williams, Dick
Lebow who was with us in a Buffalo, or even
Jim Hasley, we would have a ton of pressure that
we wouldn't even get to in the ball game because
we got you know, we got so many of them
that we never even got to all the pressure down
the call sheet. But it would have been easy to
(24:39):
maybe it's a and it's not something unique. Maybe you
dial up that that Kwan Martin pressure a few more times.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
They sent Bobby.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Bobby almost had a sad So call those plays a
couple more times. Like if you look at Minnesota, that
cross pick stunt that they ran, I don't.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Know how many times they run in the game. It
felt like about.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Ten, but they kept running the same type of play
and they're playing cover two behind it and they're getting.
They're constantly getting pressure with that, and there's not something
exotic and things like that, So there was something you
just might have to keep calling the same type of pressures.
Maybe you got two or three that you and it
can even be a simulated pressure where you're just figuring
(25:22):
out ways you're creating a way to get a free
rusher to the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
All right, let's switch over to the offense and let's
focus on Jayden here. We're still we're taping this before
dan Quinn talks today. Last night, there was no information
that there was any re injury or different injury that
occurred last night. But let's wait and see what everyone
says today about it. They said last night he could
have gone back into the game. They chose not to.
(25:50):
At the point he would have come back in, it
would have been seventeen to nothing at that point, and
he had just come off what was the opening drive
of the second half that ended with a fourth down
intercept by Andrew Van Gigold that led to a field goal,
So he could have come back in in the third
quarter at seventeen to nothing, which just your general takeaway
here of the decision to not have him go back in.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
We were talking about this a little bit before the
show started, Flesh, before you got on, And one thing
that I forgot to mention is like, when I'm on
the sideline, I get a pretty intimate reaction to like
the injury because I'm like literally standing right behind the bench.
And so at the time, like I understand they said
he could have gone back in. Just from his body language,
the body language of the trainer, the way they handled
him going into the tent and coming out of the tent,
(26:33):
and the conversation around it, it definitely felt, you know,
like a like not an insignificant thing, and so maybe
he could have gone back in, like if it was
like gutting your head, go back in the game.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
But I also wonder, like the severity of the aggravation.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
I'm not saying even REI injured, you know what I'm saying,
So like on the sideline, it seemed much more emotional
than you know, we get to talk to Dan afterwards.
That seemed like a very controlled kind of setting. So
again that's something I just wanted to bring up. Being
on the sideline, you hear those interactions and you're like, man,
maybe this is a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I think it's important here because because all you're hearing
is what's messaged, and the messages in the third quarter
of a seventeen to nothing game, the starting quarterback is
not going back into the game. Now we know that
he's had, you know, a recent injury, and clearly it
was aggravated in some way, but there was no injury
designation that was given at that point. So I appreciate
the clarification of what you got to see now it
(27:24):
was because it's all we're hearing is what the message
is of what was happening, and it is a bit confusing, honestly.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, go ahead because you as I yeah, as I
said on the on the broadcast, where I thought it
might be a situation where potentially where DQ and medical
staff was saying, hey, he aggravated it. It's not worth
putting him back in this ball game. We can't protect
(27:53):
him in this office. From an office and standpoint, they've
had multiple times where they got free runners. Our defense
is not slowing down. Minnesota's just a situation where risk
reward maybe even thinking about the game against the Seahawks
where he got injured, and you're saying, you know what,
I'm not gonna expose him to a permanent injury to
(28:17):
where he's not able to play next week.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
Yeah, he could go back into this ball game. But
I think just when you look at the.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Florida game, Jayden at that point was nine for twenty
the offense, with the exception of the the opening drive,
it was kind of clunky, not really being able to
get a lot established in the passing game.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
How the run game was working.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yep, And we can touch on that, you know, but
just the way it was going, like, I'm not going
to put him out there, he gets injured, we can't
protect him against this blitz happy defense that that's what
they do. Well, we'll get we'll live to fight another
day and get him out of here and hopefully it's
(29:02):
just a little swallowing or a little irritation and he's
ready to go next week, I guess the New Goork Giants.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, And it kind of reminded me.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Reminded me of something when I was in Atlanta, Right,
I had a really bad MCL tear with some damage
in the ankle ligament. Also like someone had fallen on
me and I could go back in the game. And
I did go back in the game, but upon watching film,
I probably should not have gone back in the game.
Does that make sense, Like, so there are these moments
where you can, it doesn't mean you should. And I
(29:31):
think Fletch did a great job there of providing some context,
Like you know he was he was emotional on the sideline,
like his mom sits in the front row and she's
trying to talk to him and he's trying to talk
to her, and there was there was some like the
best way I can explain it is just consternation about
the moment right about about the level of the injury.
And I think to myself, like with the way Fletch
is describing how the offense was before me, I think
(29:52):
he's one hundred percent spot on. Like when you're having
hard time protecting a young player, he's a competitor, he's
trying to put everything on the line. Like I remember
there's a couple times where he's scrambling and he's taken
some shots where I was like, man, already we're doing that.
But that's what this Minnesota defense does. So I do
think that context is important and also.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Wasn't at a character for them though they do this
every game.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
And we're going to talk about maybe that more in
a second, but like I do think that I think
there was at the moment with the game flow being
at what it was and me seeing again the kind
of the tumble, like the energy on the sideline around
the injury, like it kind of made sense in a
moment to me. And again like there's Dani'll talk today,
(30:32):
we'll get more information, But.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I do want to just say one other thing about it,
and not to be contrarian about it, no, no, but
it's the score is only seventeen to nothing when he
could have gone back in. To me in the third quarter,
the game's not over now, like like you may want
to characterize it that way, and it wasn't going well
obviously for them, but like to me, that score is
(30:54):
not the Seattle game where they were down thirty with
eight minutes ago, and honestly, like that was a fluke
that injury that he got in at Seattle game, but
like that game was over against Seattle. This one, to me,
at seventeen to nothing isn't like it's so I just wanted.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
To say that, you know, it's important to say that.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
It's really good context, but also think Fletch brought up
a really good point because I think when Dan's calling
defensive plays, he is a very unique perspective on the defense.
And if you feel like you can't stop them for
whatever reason, and we've talked about why or not that is,
I think it gives you a different feel of the
pulse of the game. And so maybe he's feeling a
little bit of consternation, a little bit of anxiety and
(31:31):
kind of like we can't stop them, we can't protect
Why put him back into the fray here in this moment.
And I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth,
but it on the sideline, just watching, I don't know
how it felt from the booth, it kind of felt
that way to me, where it even though the game
was in hand, it felt like it was very close
to being out of hand.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yes, I guess I'm just you know, I'm like everybody,
I'm tunnel vision, like we can win, we can win,
we can win.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
You can always feel like you can win.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
But it reminds me of the Zach Ertz thing too,
like we can win, but like, you know, like you're exposed.
I feel so bad for Zach holy cow man like,
and I know the whole staff feels bad for him.
The locker room was crazy afterwards with Zach, like just
the support for him, but like, that's what that's the
risk that you're exposing him to in a game that
may or may not be in hand.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Yeah, no, Bram, that game was over.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I mean, it was just from a standpoint of the
way they were going to have to get back into it.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
It was going to have to be throwing the football.
You're down, they're down.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You say seventeen nothing, but it probably felt like thirty
five and nothing at that point in time because of
how you were going to have to just the game
flow of moving the football against this.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
Defense of the Vikings.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
They were constantly getting guys in the face of Jaden Daniels. Yes,
there was no reason to put him back in that
ball game because of the given the fact that this
is the guy who's been injured multiple times in the season,
He's missed multiple games, and we can't protect him against
(33:04):
this this blitz happy defense of the Minnesota Vikings. We're
not going to be able to get back in the
game with Jaden without exposing him to more risk of injuries.
Even if he doesn't get sacked he's going to have
to scrabble, he's going to take more hits. And it
wasn't It just wasn't going to happen. And you have
to have a feel for how what's going on in
(33:27):
that ball game and the feel of that game yesterday
at seventeen and nothing, like, you know what, this is
just not our day.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Let's get marry On in here. He's played some good
football for its.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
He may give us a spark and may get us
back in the game, but I can't risk putting Jayden
back in this game to get him injured.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
The No, it's not it's not worth it.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
But I think you do bring up a good point, Bram,
because when you said that to me earlier, I was like,
it wasn't seventeen to zero, but it was like it just.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
It was fourteen nothing when they had the interception, seventeen
to nothing when he would have gone back out on
the field and did not.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, and it felt different.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And it's the third coin.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, yeah, but like three, what happened the very next
series after it was seventeen now when Mariota came in again.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah interception, yeah, right, three interception.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Here's here's the other thing. Just to say this, you know,
because both of these.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Teams had extraordinarily long drives, Like they had a nineteen
play drive, they ran twelve minutes off the clock. You know,
Jade only had four series up to this point, and
two of them were double digit play drives and one
was aided by a couple of penalties that kept on going.
That fourth down interception that was thrown they were in
the red zone, so they twice two out of the
(34:39):
four drives, he had a fifteen play eighty three yard
drive that ended up with a turnover on downs and
a twelve play fifty eight yard drive with almost seven
minutes off the clock. Two out of four drives they
moved the ball. It might not have been easy, that's
for sure. Like I totally agree with that. It wasn't easy.
That's all I want to say about it. Like he
didn't have the ball a lot. They moved the ball
(35:00):
twice successfully in the four drives they had, and they
chose to go and listen, Like, I don't want to
get hurt either, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
He was nine for twenty with an interception. He was
nine for.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Twenty whenn't it was an interception overturned or fumble was
overturned earlier in that drive.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Yeah, they had twelve men on the field.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Yeah, I hit on that play and fumble.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
The teams that have success against the Vikings defense, all
of them through the year. You have to run the
ball successfully against them or you're sitting duck because they
come with blitzes more than anybody in the NFL. They're
extremely successful at it. That score against Seattle was very deceiving.
It was twenty six to nothing, but you know, Sam
Darnold threw for ninety yards in that game at Jackson
Smith and Jigba was a disappearing act because their pass
(35:44):
defense is that kind of level of elite.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
No, And I think it goes back to me like
the game flow thing, and then Fletch, I think you
hit something like that a lot of like hardcore, Like
you feel this like obviously my offensive quarter in the
high school level. You feel it in the high school
game so much more acutely because tams run the ball
more than games are a little bit shorter. Yeah, and
this kind of felt and played like a high school
game from a time standpoint because of how long these
drives were taking, and so the number of possessions required
(36:10):
to come back and win. This game was getting really
tight there late in the game. But I also think
it goes back to Minnesota taking the taking the ball
to start the game, because immediately you put the off
you put our offense. Cliff Kingsbury, the play caller, in
a situation where it's like, now I have to make
up a possession, which is not necessarily true, but you
feel that when you're calling plays.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
You feel that.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
I've been on offenses where really bright dudes, Sean McVay,
Kyle Shanahan, really awesome offensive coordinators like that, you can
feel the urgency in the play call come in and
you're like, oh okay.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
And again that's what that does.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
And again, when the defense is playing as well as
Minizota's defense was, which you can talk about more detail
in a second, like it, it kind of has this
overwhelming vibe and I think it leads to some of
these decisions when it comes to zowing the football.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah, yeah, I think Listen. I mean, you know he
got injured earlier. With that injury, it you know, perceptually
it looks awful. Did he walk off the field with it?
It's impossible not to have human nature to be thinking
about that like during the course of the game, and
you know, but that that leads to what I think
is the bigger question, which I think we all agree on.
Assuming he's healthy, as we again, we don't know if
(37:13):
it's just a reaggravation, if he's fine, if there's anything
new they have to talk about. You want him to
continue playing, right.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I do? One million percent? I know, like this, this
was good.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
This is gonna be a tough game for him to
come back anyway, because of all the things we talked
about Minnesota, Like if you look at games that he's
struggled against, struggled in historically, they've been teams like Minnesota
that pressure this way, right, So this is gonna be
a tough game for him regardless. So I wanted him
to play though. I want him to get these reps.
I want him to get these opportunities no matter who
the opponent is. So, like, I'm not as worried about reinjury.
I'm worried about developmental arc for him, which to me
(37:46):
is the is the main thing almost for this football
team in the last four weeks of the season, five
weeks of the season.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
Yeah, he needs reps.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
He just needs reps as from a from a developmental standpoint,
is a young quarterback se second season in NFL who
hadn't played a ton of games this year, and he
hasn't played a ton of games. This was what the
third game this season, he had what you would consider
his full compliment of offensive weapons.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
So he needs he needs more reps.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Okay, let me and where we started. Then take me
into the locker room. You know this is obviously listen,
this is a long losing streak. Season is not going
in any way, shape or form that I even could
have envisioned the way it would go. So how are
the players thinking about the last four games?
Speaker 4 (38:35):
All division games?
Speaker 6 (38:36):
I mean, obviously, when you're in a division game, I
think it kind of provides some level of motivation and
some level of passion. But to me, like I remember
being in twenty eleven, I think we were out of
it early. In twenty thirteen we were out of it
early when I was with the Bears, and sixteen we
were out of early when I was in San Francisco,
we were out of early. And really it becomes like
this is going to sound bad, but it becomes like
I need to take care of my film so that
(38:59):
I have a job next year, right, And like every
scout will tell you this, Every coach told me this
because I was an undrafted free agent like Fletch was.
But it was like, they don't care about the season.
They care about the last three games. They're going to
go watch the last three games of football that you played,
and they don't care about whether you're in the playoffs,
out of the playoffs division opponent. They want to see
a guy go out there and compete. And so that
(39:21):
was something that in those seasons that were really tumultuous
and bad and emotional for different reasons, it was like,
how do I handle my work the best I possibly can?
And people say this all the time, but it's a
professional sport for a reason. And these are the games.
These are the games you get paid for, right. Everyone
says you get paid for practice.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I bucked that.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
You can get paid for buck that too. It's when
nobody wants to play football. You have to go play.
That's why you're getting paid. And these are the games
where you have to go out and put literally your
best foot forward. No one's going to care like you
want to be an fl football player, these are the
games that create that, in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Fledg, Well, it also you find out who are the
guys that you want to have in a foxhole with
you when it's when you're going through adversity, everybody wants
to be with you, and when everything is going great
and you're ten and three at this point in the season,
and you know, man, we're going to the playoffs, we
(40:17):
maybe compete for the division championship, or win a division,
maybe a home first round, home field buy and all
those types of things.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
But it's when adversity sets in. You're three and ten, you're.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Coming off with thirty one to zero loss to the
Minnesota Vikings. Who are the guys that you can lean
on that's gonna be a leader during the week leaning
up to this ball game, because practice is important to
logan the meeting rooms, making sure you're not allowing conversations
to happen at our devices, because there are times where
(40:53):
you you're on the team and you're playing poorly and
you'll have these side conversations that continue that divides a team.
You gotta have some guys, Yeah, you got to have
some guys in that locker room that cut that out.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
They're like, hey, no, we're not doing that here, We're
going to turn this. They start a.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Negative content conversation, you swinging back to a positive conversation,
and like Logan said, everybody's I mean, at the end
of the day, you're also fight for your own jobs,
whether he be here or with another team. They're gonna
be guys who are free agents next year. I think
you know, probably half the team is or close to
(41:34):
half the team will be free agents next year. So
they're looking at the last three or four games of
a season, and you really want to look at what
a guy looks like where you're playing for nothing scores
out of hand? Is he continued to still play hard seasons,
out of the line seasons out of hand we're no
longer making the playoffs. Does he continue to show up
(41:55):
in these tough moments, because those are guys that eventually
when we get back, when he we get this shit
back righting, those are the ones I wanted my team.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, first match up against Jackson Dart two. We played
Russell Wilson in Week one with the Giants, so we'll
get a chance to look at him now. Future quarterbacking
for the New York Giants. So it'll be interesting this week.
And the division games are always interesting, no matter what
the records are.
Speaker 6 (42:15):
Yeah, they're always interesting. And again, like it's to me,
it's in some ways it's a blessing. This is going
to sound crazy. Maybe people don't play, but like it's
kind of a blessing to have another opportunity to say, like,
this isn't who we are, Like this Minnesota game is
not the is the exception rather than the rule, and
like we have more opportunities to fix it right, Like
could you imagine if that was the last game you
(42:35):
played of the season, it'd be so incredibly disheartening and frustrating. Like,
at least we've got an opportunity to get it right.
And I know it doesn't it's tough and it's not
right and all those things, but like, gosh, I would
hate to end it so agains. Going against a division
opponent we beat earlier this season. They aren't as diverse
or as complicated as we've seen from Minnesota for example,
(42:56):
seems like a good game to get.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
They're a good football team.
Speaker 6 (42:59):
I'm not going to say we're gonna outright win this game,
but it'll be a little bit easier and let everybody
kind of get the return, you know, the get the
band back together this week against New York Giants, I
think might be appropriate.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
Yep, all right, we'll see what happens this weekend.
Speaker 5 (43:15):
They've been playing competitive football on.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
The Giants, very competitive.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Yeah, right at the quarterback spot.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
So I'll say this, man, the coaches games like this
season like this, this way, you really have to figure
out ways to get your team ready to play against
the Giants and is what they hey, division opponent, but
it's gonna be you want to need more than that
to get these guys back ready to play, because I
mean there's a lot of guys who are who are
(43:41):
down after that performance yesterday against the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
It's a tough one, but they do get another opportunity
next week up in New Jersey. We'll be there and
we'll have the Booth Review for you next Monday after
the rematch with the New York Giants to see them.
Booth Review was filmed at the Big Bear AI Command
Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers mission ready AI for
a rapidly evolving world, proudly protecting the Washington Commanders and
(44:06):
its fans
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