September 10, 2025 • 40 mins
Logan Paulsen gives an in-depth look at the upcoming Washington Commanders matchup on Thursday Night Football against the Green Bay Packers!
Host: Jason Johnson
Guest: Logan Paulsen
Producer: Jason Johnson
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Game Day Live Preview podcast. It's prime time
when JD five likes to shine. We're going to talk
about how we stopped Micah Parsons, got some schemes, got
some ideas for you, and there's a lot of hot
takes out there. Are they hot or are they not?
Let's get into the weeds. It all starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to the Game Day Live Preview Podcast. I am
Jason Johnson aka just a Guy Jack Jason, and I
am here with one of my friends and one of
the smartest football people I know, Logan Pawson.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
What's up, Logan?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, definitely your friend. I don't know if I'm one
of the smartest football people you know. But it's good
to be doing this show with you. I love always
anytime we can do like content together is great.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I love doing Tick to the Draft with you.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
This will be awesome to kind of preview the Green
Bay game and I guess most of the road games
for the season.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Is that what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, that's what we're doing. And if people don't know
my voice, we've done Ticket to their Draft podcast together.
We really dive deep into the whole draft process. Once
a Combine, Roll Around, Senior Bowl and all that. I
love doing that podcast with you, but basically, I'm just
a producer. That's here. I produce Command Center Podcast a
couple of other things along the line with you, Logan,
and just for so maybe you heard my voice if
(01:12):
you're listening here or there, But I'm not going to
offer any analysis. I'm not a former football player. I'm
not as in depth as you are. I'm just here
to toss you some softballs so you can hit these
things out of the park. Really let our fans know
what's going on the night before the game. Logan, you're
out in Green Bay. You get to be on the
sidelines for these games, so to really just get that perspective.
(01:32):
And you are one of the smartest football people I know, or.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You know a lot of smart football people.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I think on the last show, I didn't you have
why You're like Gary Clark and be Mitch and you
know a bunch of kind of really smart dudes talking
about the Giants game, right right?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, absolutely, And that's another thing I want fans to know.
You may be hearing my voice. And last time you
listened to an episode come out on this channel, it
was Brian Colbert Junior with Gary Clark, be Mitch and
London Fletcher three Super Bowl winners right there. So it's like,
why is just a guy Jason on here? And it's like, well,
they're traveling, right, They're off and they're coming from all
(02:07):
different directions to get into Green Bay. So for away games,
it's going to be you and I logan and we're
going to be more nuts and bolts, really getting into
the weeds. I'm going to ask you a lot of
questions on like how to stop what's going on in
Green Bay? A really true preview show. But those guys
are live at DC Prime during home games the night
before and they're going to talk about their experiences as
(02:30):
football players with the team, super Bowl stuff in relation
to a game day preview. So it's two different styles,
but on one channel. So away games you'll get us,
Home games you'll get them, and they'll also be on YouTube.
We're not on YouTube. No one wants to see my
ugly mug, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I don't know about all that, man anyway.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, No, it's a great show and excited to preview
the Packers.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
All right, Well, that's way too much of me talking already.
Let's get you up and running. So I'm going to
pull the string here and see, let you just go.
Our first thing is called stop that, all right, And
really all I all I want as a fan is
I'm going to tell you something I'm worried about, and
then you tell me how this team is going to
stop that, or or the way you would anticipate Cliff
(03:14):
with DQ stopping that. Okay, So the first one is
the one on everybody's mind. It's Michael Parsons coming in Glad.
We're not getting to play him twice a year and
only once right now, but we get in on a
quick turnaround. I just want to tell you something real quick.
First four seasons for Michael Parsons, he has a twenty
one point three pass rush win rate, a nineteen point
(03:35):
seven percent pressure rate, and a ninety four point three
percent three grade in pass rush. That's first in that
four season span. And he's second only to Miles Garrett
in total pressures at two hundred and sixty three. So
he is a dominant player. That's the context. Logan, how
do we stop that?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, And just for some more context on that number,
I think the Ron pay the year he had like
eleven and a half sacks or whatever that was. He
broke the franchise record for interior pass rushers. He was
like a like a nine point seven pressure rate. So
just to give you like a comparison, Michael Parsons almost
double that, and it shows up on the film. He's
very explosive, he's got a great get off. He's I
(04:17):
think the thing people sleep on is he's very powerful,
you know, Like I think it's maybe the speed he
gets into.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
The block with very good player.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I think the one thing coming out of the Detroit
game obviously Green Bay played Detroit week one, is Micah
rushed almost exclusively on the offensive right side, and so
people say, well, that's maybe not a great matchup. Josh
Connolly's a rookie, like this is going to be a
tough draw. He gave up a sack again to Brian Burns,
and there were times in the game where Connorley didn't
look at his best. Again, I think Connolly played pretty good,
(04:44):
like again, like that's a matter of my opinion, But
what I will say is when you know an elite
pass rusher is going to line up on the right,
you know, I think he had I want to say
it was like twenty three snaps and all of them
except for one. Maybe we're on the right side if
I remember correctly. If you know where he's going to be,
you can of game.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
To protect that.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So as an example, if I know he's going to
be on the right, I can kind of work the
slide to him. So the slide would be when the center,
if it's a five man or six man pro works
to the works to the right side. So now I
can help on the shade with the guard, and the
guard can have eyes to conorly and so if there's
an inside move, Ali Grady will be able to help
him out. So that's one example. The other way would
(05:23):
be something I think we're all very familiar with here
in Washington.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's hip help.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And again I can now call as an offensive coordinator
from Cliff and say, hey, we know he's going to
be on the right side. We can have the chip
help kind of geared to this right side of the formation,
so we can work slides, we can work chips. The
other thing that I think people sleep on is the
importance of cadence when dealing with good pass rushers, and
you know, just varying the cadence. We're not always going
on one. Maybe we're going on the quick before they
(05:47):
can really get their cleat stug In, or maybe we
go on too and we kind of force them to
kind of think about something that they don't always have
to think about.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I'm talking about pass rushers and third down situations.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
So I think those are the things that I think
if they choose to keep him on the right side
Green Bay, then I think it's a relatively easy solution
in terms of things you can throw at it. Now,
he's one of the best players in the league for
a reason, and it's going to be a tough physical
matchup regardless, but there are things that are easily implemented
to kind of mitigate some of his dominance as a
(06:18):
pass rusher.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
What would you say is a win for Washington when
it comes to Micah Parsons. Are you saying, like, oh, well,
if we hold him without any sacks, if we have
him not disrupting our play as far as like staying
in front of the chains, Like what is success to you?
Because Michael Parsons is going to get his right so like,
how do you mitigate that and make sure that like
(06:42):
it doesn't come at the wrong time.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Well, I think back to last year's games against Dallas
and one of the things that really stood out to
me in the first matchup and then on the first
series of the second matchup is Michael Parsons has the
capability of winning quickly. Like they were using him kind
of over centers, over guards in those matchups and he
was able to win right away. And obviously pressure is
one thing, but quick pressure, to me is a completely
(07:04):
different thing. And so people side pressure rate quite a
bit and say, oh, like, look at this guy's pressure rate,
but when you go and watch the cutup, you're like,
is he really affecting the quarterback? And you know, I
think in the in the game against Detroit, for example,
he had a couple of pressures, but they didn't really
affect the quarterback, like, you know, the quarterback had to
shuffle and move, but the offensive lineman was in good
(07:25):
phase and really kind of like walled them off.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So what I would say, as long as you can
prevent him from consistently having quick pressures and quick wins,
I think you're going to be in a pretty good spot.
So that's kind of would be my focus is like,
how do we again, he's gonna, like you said, he's
going to create some pressure.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
He might even get a sack. Like that's totally fine.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
He's one of the he's to me, the second best
defensive player in the NFL, and that's one of the
reasons why him leaving Dallas and going to Green Bay
is so surprising to me. But if you can just
manage his ability to create quick pressures and just because
to me, that's more disruptive to the offense. And so
some of the things we just talked about are really
good ways to do that. Staying out of third long
(08:03):
situations is another way to do that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That means being more efficient on first, second down, And
everyone's going to say you got to run the ball.
I do think you have to run the ball a
little bit. But it's also like you know, Cliff does
a great job of here's a little play a sewn
first down, here's a keeper. We're going to move the pocket,
we're going to change the launch point. We're going to
make it hard for him to kind of just tee
off and attack that position. So I think if you
can do some of that stuff, you're going to have
(08:26):
a good, good day, and as long as he's not
in the backfield in like one point two seconds, which
happened a couple times against Dallas, I think we're going
to be okay.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So my question is is there anything Jadeen Daniel specifically
does or can do that can help mitigate that as well?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean we talked about cadence, and like most
offenses that I'm in the quarterback, that's up to the
quarterback's discretion about when you use that. And obviously as
an offensive lineman, you can go to him and be like,
hey man, it's getting off the ball pretty good. Can
we go on too, or can we go on the
quick or can we do whatever? So that's one example.
I think just Jayden Daniels, his ability to run just
(09:04):
innately is something that is helpful with that, especially when
you're an edge rusher, because you have to be mindful
of keeping contained. So you know, one of the things
that makes Mica Parsons so dangerous, and you saw it
when they rushed when you rushed against Detroit against Jared Golf,
is you can take these inside moves and because Jared
Golf's not super fast, Mica Parsons can run them down.
(09:25):
If you take that same inside move against Jane Daniels,
like we saw as an example versus Cleveland last year,
which was Week three or four, whatever it was, where
the defensive end took an inside move and Jayden steps
out of it and then runs for twenty five or
thirty yards.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
It's an explosive run. You got to be more mindful
than that.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And so like obviously the cadence quarterback discretion and obviously
his ability to move around is going to be really impactful.
It's the same reason you can't rush Lamar in certain ways,
can't rush Josh Allen in certain ways. That's one of
the reasons the archetype of the position has changed show
dramatically over the last couple of years about quarterback now,
So I do think like him just being him and
having the play style that he has in the athleticism
(10:06):
that he has is something that's going to help manage
Micah parsons versatility as a rusher. Now, he's still a
great rusher off the as He's still a great power rusher.
So it's not going to be like a walk in
the park. But I do think there are some things
that make this matchup different than the one even we
saw last week against Detroit.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
All right, let's stay with the defense here. So we
addressed the Micah Parsons situation, but there's still some other
really good players on this defense. You can go through
them one by one if you want, or we can
talk about defense as a whole, because Logan, you do
a film breakdown show on the Commander's YouTube channel that's
already out. If you're listening to this podcast, you have
to go check that out. And one of the things
(10:46):
you talk about with Green Bay is that they do
a great job of disguising their defense. So not only
do you have to deal with Micah, you have to
deal with not knowing what they're bringing right away. You
have to be creative with figuring out what type of
defense they are in. Can you talk a little bit
through that. I know it's hard sometimes to talk about
how defenses are disguised in just a pair audio version.
(11:09):
That's why I'm encouraging people to go check out your
film breakdown on YouTube, But do your best to talk
through kind of like how they scheme things up to
make it confusing for the quarterback and the offensive line.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, so they kind of have these unique looks like
so in the film Breakdown, we talk about kind of
these simulated pressure looks where they've got all these people
up near the line of scrimmage. It looks like man coverage,
and then they drop out. And so people when they
drop out usually it's some type of cover two or
they drop to cover three or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It's more usually his own coverage.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
But you know, they the Green Bay Packers, and this example,
they'd show that like I think it was like the
first third down of the game, and then they drop
to like a true two, which is or two invert,
you know, where the corners are dropping and playing the
halfield safeties, and then the next time they run it,
they drop out and they're in man coverage. And you
can tell that it's very disruptive for golf. Right, There's
another one where they're in quarters. It looks exactly like quarters,
(12:01):
and they rotate to cover three and the guy makes
a pick in the reds on the safety. It was
really one of the best disguises I've seen a long time.
Got me super fired up. So that's an issue because
one of the things about quarterback play, and like when
you hear Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck
or you know Joe Burrow talk about playing quarterback. Is
that their ability to identify certain tells in the defense
(12:25):
lets some kind of play ahead of be ahead of
the defense because they know what's.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Going to be presented.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Right they say, oh, this is how they run their
cover three, this is how this corner plays and cover three,
this is his depth of cover three. I know it's
cover three regardless of the disguise, and I can throw
this ball where it needs to go. So the more
tools that Cliff can deploy to help Jaden dissect that
coverage is going to be kind of masterful. That's the
thing that to me, that's the big thing here is
(12:51):
what can Cliff do to put Jaden in a good
position to understand what Green Bay is trying to do?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So how do you do that? There's a couple of
different ways that I've.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Been exposed to, and sure there's there's more than this,
but one is formation, like getting into three by one
with wide splits. It forces for example, the La Rams
did this a couple of years ago when Matt Stafford
got there. It forces them to if they're disguising a
pressure and they want to they want to make it
look like, Man, I have to walk that nickel out
over number three, who's a little bit wider. So if
he's trying to get home on the pressure, he has
(13:20):
to leave a little bit early.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So that's one way to do it.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And also with those wide kind of three by one formations,
if I'm the backside safety and I have to relate
to number three on the far side, I have to
start my rotation a little bit earlier because there's more
ground to cover. Also, I think the other thing that
Cliff and this offense do a great job is they
use tempo at a early high level. And when you're
in tempo and the offense and the defense doesn't know
exactly when the ball is going to be snapped, you know,
(13:45):
I think about it. You know, with the usual offensive rhythm,
it's like we're in the huddle, we walk to line
of scrimmage, the quarterback stands back there, he tries to
identify the coverage. Now it's like we kind of muddle
huddle at the line of scrimmage. We get in our formation,
and how much time do we have before the place
getting off? So if we don't know, then I got
to get in my rotation really quickly. It's one of
the advantages of people going on the quick count for example.
(14:06):
Another thing that I hope they utilize quite a bit
is cadence. So if you go on too or you
go on the yellow as some people call it, or
the dummy cadence, you kind of go through your cadence.
Usually the defense will give you something. It's what Peidon
Manning needs to do all the time where he kind
of had I forget what his code word was. It
was like Papa John's or something like that, and you'd
be like, you know, Papa John's or delivery, and then
(14:27):
all of a sudden, the next cadence is live like that.
Those types of tools, so formation, the no huddle, and
also the cadence stuff is going to be really really
important to help Jayden Daniels kind of figure out what
they're going to be in because if you get a
little bit of tel like for examples, on that quarter interception,
if that safety just starts triggering a little bit early,
(14:47):
like Jayden's going to know that it's not true quarters,
it's probably cover three. And I think those little inches
are the things that are going to make a big
difference in helping him understand the coverage structure, the disguises,
and it's going to help, as you say, like stop
them being so effective with those disguises.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
All right, let's flip over to the offensive side of
the ball first. I want to start with Josh Jacobs.
A really good running back, a true bell cow. There's
not that many of them in the league anymore. Last
season he had over thirteen hundred rushing yards, fifteen touchdowns.
He averages averaged last year four point four yards per carry.
Now the Lion slowed him down a little bit, but
(15:26):
this is a guy to be keyed on on defense. Logan,
if you're Joe Witt junior, or you're looking at what
Josh Jacob does, how do you stop that?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, I think with Josh Jacobs, you know, you really
got to start with kind of the their offensive philosophy.
And he's the reason that you go out and you
pay him all that money. You bring him in and
kind of treat him like a bellcow back because they
want Green Bay. I think they get a lot of
Jordan Love gets a lot of publicity, but really the
driver of the offense is their ability to run the football.
It kind of reminds me a little bit of like
(15:59):
San Francisco Light in the sense that that offense is good,
but the and the quarterback is good Rock Purty, But
they really are driven through Christian McCaffrey. It's his ability
to catch the football, it's his ability to stay on schedule.
From a running standpoint, I think that's really who they
want to be. They want to mitigate the high leverage
throws for the quarterback and then so when he has
(16:20):
to on third down or in the red zone or
in two minute, the quarterback can really let it rip
and play fast. So with regards to Josh Shacobs, I
think the thing about him is he's a pretty downhill runner,
so and I think he's good at all runs. He's
good at gaps, he's good at He's okay at outside
zone if they say that's probably his weakest run.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
But he's good at tide zone. And I think he's
runs with great power.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So to me, there's no nuance to stopping a specific runner.
You're stopping the scheme most of the time, which is
maybe a hard thing to internalize or understand for a
lot of people, but really, like if I understand my
fits versus the runs they're presenting, or the motions and
the shifts, the shifts they're presenting then, and I don't
(17:00):
care how good the runner is, he can't just run
through everyone's face for a touchdown. That's just not feasible.
Maybe that happens in high school, but it definitely doesn't
happen in the NFL. So what I would say is
just like this is where the week, the short week
of prep becomes a little bit challenging, but it's also
beneficial because you know, you look at what they did
last week, you say, they're probably not going to change
too much because they can't change too much because it's
(17:22):
a short week. And how do we fit these runs
based on change of strength, motion, based on some type
of unusual backfield action. How do we maximize our run
fits here versus our different coverag structures. And if you
can and you can be sound with that like they
were against the Giants, I think you're going to be
able to mitigate what Josh Jacobs does.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Speaking about against the Giants. Are rush defense looked dramatically
improved from last season, And what you were talking about
is dealing with run schemes. Is there anything we can
take from what we saw from pain Kin law Newton
and then on the back end Bobby Wagner being able
to clean up the tack wants the D line establishes
(18:04):
has their lane discipline, right. So you've talked about this before. Basically,
I'm trying to lead you into what did they do
really well with the Giants that limited the Giants in
the rushing game that we can continue to build one,
especially against a guy like Josh Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, I think this offensive line for green Bay is
a little bit better, But I think the principles that
you're talking about with Green Bay are going to be good.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So for example, you know, when we're running a line
stunt like, can we stay square?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Can we be in the right gap?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Dietrich Wise, can we be disciplined when we get that
naked boot, We're not going to chase the running back down.
We're going to keep containing on the quarterback. You know,
Javon Kinlock. Can we win a one on one, which
you done in the first play of the game, Deron
Payn Can we win a one on one? But can
we do it in the context of the defense. And
I think when you see those guys do that last week,
that's something I think you definitely need to carry over.
(18:52):
So there's this saying, after everyone's familiar with it, you
know better than the sum of the parts. Defensive line
is like that, offensive line is like that. Those positions
are like that more than any of the position on
the football field. And when you get four dudes in
this case, we have eight dudes, which is kind of
cool that are playing the defense the way they're supposed
to play. At the ends are containing or the end
is stunting to the right gap based on the call.
(19:14):
It makes everything work behind it. And so one of
the things about the Giants that Giants game is compared
to other games that I've watched when covering the Commanders
is everyone's just incredibly consistent with the assignment and the technique.
And you can see that it helps Bobby Wagner be
in the right position. It helps, you know, Mike Sanders
still when he's kind of a fit because instead of
him having to, let's say, attack the B gap and
(19:36):
then the defensive lineman's in the B gap and now
he has to adjust and he's in a bad spot
to make the tackle, he can confidently go up and
do that. So I think just the consistency of the assignment,
sound nature of what of what they did against the Giants.
I hope hopefully that carries over because it really makes
the next everything in the defense function at a really
(19:58):
high level. And I think that's what I would to
see them do against Josh Jacobs. Now, green Bay is
going to make it challenging because they do some different stuff.
I mentioned the change of strength motion they on the
snap and with shifts. They also do some kind of
weird backfield stuff in terms of ball handling. Trust your eyes,
trust your fits. Look at the offensive line how they're
blocking it. I'd say to the second level players, linebackers, nicols, safeties.
(20:20):
But I think if they can, if the defensive line
can play the way they did against the Giants, they're going
to be a good spot.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
All right.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Our next look at the green Bay offense is Jordan Love,
obviously a talented quarterback. A little context and a stat
that I want to bring up that I found when
researching was in the first half versts allions, that's when
green Bay was really cooking. They were targeting past the sticks.
When Love targeted past the stick, so he threw the
(20:48):
ball pass the first down markers. In the first half,
he did out eleven times, had seven completions for one
hundred and fifty two yards two touchdowns in a one
forty six point eight rating. That is excellent throwing past
the first down marker, keeping your team on schedule, keeping
the drives alive. How do we stop that?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, that's going to be a little bit more challenging.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I think the thing about Jordan Love is he's very
confident throwing the football. I mentioned this on the Command
Center podcast, Like when you watch him, man, he can
spin it. He's a good athlete spin the football, has
multiple arm angles he can throw from. He's got this
really snappy release from the wrist which is great to watch,
and the ball takes really like flat trajectory, so it
gets there really really quick. In terms of stopping that,
(21:34):
to me, can we get some ball production?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So he's very confident. But if you watch that Detroit game,
Detroit drops two interceptions like two, like one in the chest.
One would have been tougher, but like one definitive interception,
And that's an easy way to kind of shift the
football math, to shift the analytical math right there. Right, Yes,
he's very good. He's going to get some throws, right,
(21:58):
He made some really tight window throws in the red zone,
made some tight window throws in the field, And really
his performance is the difference in the game, because actually,
I didn't feel like the Green Bay offense played all
that well, specifically in the first half. I think they
were carried by their defense and they were carried by
him finding these kind of shot plays down the field.
So first off, I'd say, he's going to get those.
(22:21):
Can you weather that adversity, and then can you button
down the hatches in the red zone like they did
versus the Giants. I think that's a totally reasonable thing.
And then when he throws you the football, you have
to catch it, which is also something I think is
very reasonable given the ball production we've seen from guys
like Mike Sanders, still, Trey Amos.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Juan Martin in camp.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So that's kind of what I'd say, is he's going
to get some whether that storm when we get in
the red zone, let's batten down the hatches, take care
of that stuff. And then when he does give you
the opportunity, we got to get the ball and give
it back to our offense.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
All right, Logan, time for our last segment that I'm
going to let you get out of here because I
know traveling is never all that fun and you're exhausted.
You're one of the heart as working men in football
right now. You do so many shows, Logan, how many
shows do you do a week?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
You think, I don't know, a lot of shows. It's
definitely getting more. Yeah, i'd say probably like six to
eight ish. Does that sound right. I mean you produce
all most of them, so you would know.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, it's a lot. I ask you to do a lot.
And uh man, you're just really good at this. I'm
learning so much and we've talked so much about the
week and I'm still learning something. But that's going to
lead me into the next segment here. It's our last segment.
We'll do this every time we're on. And the reason
I made this segment, Logan, it's called hot or Not,
and it's because I think what I've learned about you
(23:35):
is that you love a skits and bits. You do
enjoy skits and bits, but you also are very level
headed and you never really get caught up in a
hot take. You just don't and I love that about you.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to throw
out what are some hot takes that are floating around
out there? Just okay, none of these are mine, Logan,
(23:56):
Please don't get mad at me. I'm just repeating what's
going on. One in the ether, right, like I've heard
out there before. And the first one is the penalties, right.
There were twelve penalties for eighty nine yards in that
Giants game. I even saw a comment in one of
our shows saying if you do that, there's no way
we're winning Green Bay, which may be true, but then
(24:17):
the statement after was, or rather the statement was, we
were sloppy, therefore we'll losing Green Bay. I mean, is
that true? Like in the sense of, like, obviously penalties
that's gonna hurt. But what I mean is, are you
concerned that we're going to continually have penalties like this?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
No?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
And I think this is the classic like Week one
overreaction element, Right, this is the first time we've seen
the team in a long time, and this is the
first this is our first instinct, right, Oh, like, this
is who they are for the entire year and good, good,
well coached teams. Excuse me, which I think the commanders are.
I think Dan Quinn's a smart guy. I think Joeah
Junior is a smart guy. I think Cliff Kingsbury is
(24:58):
a smart guy. As they know intuitively the same way
fans know that they cannot continue to win football games
if they have twelve penalties in a game. So I'm
very confident that that's going to be a point of
emphasis this week. And some of those penalties that they
got in the game, I think it's important to make
this note, are effort based penalties, right, Like I'm just
trying too hard, or I'm targeting the quarterback in correctly
(25:20):
or whatever it is. Right, how do we clean that
stuff up. We go to the film room, we watch it,
we make the correction. We've got a smart, conscientious team.
They're going to figure it out now. With regards to
some of those other stuff like pre snap penalties, holding
things like that, those are things that again holding, I
think we can kind of.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Get that resolved in the film room.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
But the pre snap stuff and stuff we've got to
get cleared up, you know, the intentional grounding. It sounds
like there was a mental mistake or miscommunication between the
offensive line and the receivers and the quarterback. We're not
on the same page. That's getting more reps together, that's
getting more time on the grass. So I think it's
going to be a point of emphasis to get corrected.
And again, yes, the fans or the whoever's making that
common is correct. If you have a lot of penalties
(26:01):
versus good football teams, usually you don't win. I, however,
am fairly confident that dan Quinn, Cliff Kingsbury and Chilwood
Junior know that also and are going.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
To work to correct that. So that's kind of my
take on that.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And so am I concerned about it if they go
out and have twenty penalties against Green Bay? Yes, that's concerning.
But do I think that the staff knows it's concerning
and they're going to try and correct it. I think
that's also true.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Hey, Logan, last year in Week two, we had the
Commanders had ten penalties for sixty nine yards playing the Giants.
Now Washington won that game, but I remember that being
a talking point. That's a lot of penalties. Guess what happened.
We went out the Monday Night Football, another primetime game
against the Bengals, and we had three penalties for twenty
eight We tend to clean.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
That up well, I think the other thing I'd say too,
is like, that's the nature, having been on this side
of it now for a couple of years, is you
need talking points for the week, So that becomes the
talking point, it becomes the narrative, it becomes the story.
And again people forget. I think people are like people
forget how smart staffs are, how smart players are. Like
(27:06):
a right post game, like, what's the first thing all
the players are saying like, oh, yeah, we got to
get that cleaned up.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
The penalties, we can't handle that.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
So everyone's aware of it, and if people have an
awareness to it, they can get it corrected. And I
think that's what I'm banking on. Don't let the twenty
four don't let the twenty four hour, twenty four to
seven NFL news cycle get you cut up.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
This is going to be fine. I think they get
this fixed. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I think one of the things that happens with NFL
news cycles is that if a team wins, then the
immediate thought is, well, that's what this team is to win,
and if they lose, it's like, well that's what this
team is to lose. And what I mean by that
is whatever that most recent win is. It's like there's
no variation. It's like, oh, that's it. It's very absolute,
(27:48):
like that's how that team's going to be. But if
you listen to every press conference after that win, for
our players, with our coaches, none of them were happy
with the overall. None of them went, yep, that's our
best ball right there to win. But nobody's sitting out
there and going, yeah, this is us now. No, they
all talked about things that they needed to get better at.
(28:10):
Because it's week one, they're going to be better. Week two,
they want to be better Week three, and hopefully the
last game of the season in February is the best
version of the Commanders And they all think like.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
That, Yeah, I know, I think that's one hundred percent right.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And I think that's the other thing about you know,
like NFL football and it's week one too.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
It's like for you know, people who haven't done it,
it may be hard to understand, but you come in
and you're doing all this prep, you're getting ready to go,
and you think, oh, we did the preseason, Oh we're
in a good spot, we had a good training camp.
But there's something different about the live bullets and playing
a game for sixty minutes.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Like, I don't care how much preseason you do. It's
just different.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
The speed is different, the intensity is different, the complexity
is different, and so I assume that there's going to
be some issues. Right, There's going to be some mental mistakes,
there's going to be some technical mistakes. There's going to
be some procedural mistakes like we saw with the penalties,
Like that's kind of par for the course, and there
are teams that don't do it right, but at some
point you're going to have those opportunities right to kind
of make those mistakes as the season goes on. So
(29:06):
it's just to come out a Week one with a win,
not playing our best ball is really encouraging for me
to see what this team could be.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Obviously, Week two against the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Man, you're fired up. I can tell that this gets
you excited for whatever reason. That talking point. So that's
not hot for you. I mean it's got you hot,
but it's not a hot takes not hot, that's all right.
The next one is Terry McLaurin. He only had four
targets for two receptions twenty seven yards. It was great
to see him out there. Some people are freaking out
about this. What's your take?
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah, yeah, I'm not freaking out about it. I mean,
so if he catches one pass in that game, if
he catches that deep ball, him and Jade are on
the same page, Like it's he's got two catches for
seventy eight yards and maybe a touchdown. Like it's that's
the nature of playing receiver. Like aj Brown had one
catch the other day, but he only had one target.
That's more concerning to me. Obviously, Terry is like a
(29:56):
feature of the offense. He's going to be a feature
of the offense moving forward. He had a slow start
last year against Tampa Bay. I think he had one
catch in the first half or something like that, and
then he had that big kind of completion down the
sideline or what they missed. They missed on a deep
ball down the field in the first game last year
as well. So I'm not that concerned about it. This
is kind of what happens to receivers at times. Receivers
and quarterbacks in terms of relationship, you're just not quite
(30:20):
on the same page. Again, Like he didn't do a
lot of the offseason and they're kind of banking reps
at the moment. So I think that's understandable. So I
think it'll get better. I think he's going to be
a feature of the offense. And I don't think people
are talking about this. If he catches two more of
his targets and again one of those like the tackle
gets pushed into his lap, the ball's a little short,
they have to go to review to see whether it's
(30:40):
a catch or not.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Like, think about it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
If he catches just two or three more passes, like,
his stat line's completely different, and people totally forget about it.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
So all right, the next one hot or not? Take
Thursday Night football. It's a quick week. We're in a
tough spot. And the reason I'm saying we're in a
tough spot in not Green Bay is here's to talk point.
Here's the hot take. We're the ones traveling. We lose
time for travel to game plan, to practice. We lose
the energy. Like you know this logan, Traveling is not fun.
(31:12):
It's not like waking up in your own bed, getting
in your own car to drive into work. Right, it's
just different. So like we're put in a tougher spot
than Green Bay does. Thursday Night games in your opinion,
being the traveling team for that, you've been in that
situation before, I'm sure is that a something we should
be concerned.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
About, something we should be concerned about.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I mean, I get concerned about things that I can control,
right and as a team, can you control this?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
You're the road team this week, so what they got
to figure it out? Right? So that's what I'd say too,
is like people get I've worked up.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
You know, people that I coach, people that I talk
with about things, they can't control I as much as
it makes it challenging to go on the road on
a short week to Green Bay, which is kind of
a tough travel because there's not a big airport. You
got to be in the bus for a long time,
all those types of things. But the game's going to happen.
So what are we going to do. We're not going
to show up, We're not going to play in the game.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
No, we got to go. We gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So like, as this is how the schedule works out
this week, I have no control over it. As a player,
the staff has no control over it. The best thing
is to kind of work to get as prepped as
you can. The first thing Dad said to us when
we were in the locker room. I was hanging out
with fletching Brand when they're getting ready to interview him,
and he goes like Wednesdays tomorrow, like it's happening, Like
we got to get ready, we got to kind of
get our mindset worked up. And this is the nature
(32:31):
of having a game on Thursday night. As a player,
it was incredibly stressful for me because I felt like
I was never prepared. But again, that's when the game is.
I have to figure out to make a way to
make it work. And I think this staff Dan specifically
because I've talked to him about it. I'm sure if
I talked to Cliff, you'd say the same thing, or Joe,
would you do the same thing. It's like, there's a
reason that this mantra for this team is anybody, anytime, anywhere,
(32:52):
It's because that's the mindset you have to have in
the league. It can't be like don't give yourself an out,
if that makes sense, don't be like, oh, we're on
the road, this is going to.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Be really hard. How are we going to do it?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Oh my gosh, No, It's like this is where this
is where this is where the game is, this is
where the this is where it's going down, and.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
We got to be ready to go regardless. So is
it a thing? Is it more challenging? Sure? But does
it matter? No? Can I control it? No?
Speaker 1 (33:17):
So ultimately, like, yes, there is some truth to that,
but as a player, you can't open that. You can't
even think about that, because that's just not if you
want to win the game, you got to keep it.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
You got to keep yourself competitively moving forward, all right.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
The other one, then that I already know what you're
going to say about, because it's outside your control. It's
the lambeau Field effect, right, the home field advantage. Lambeau Field,
especially being one of the iconic home field advantage stadiums
in the NFL. It's going to be fifty seven degrees
at game time, at least that's what my phone app says.
Do you think any of that matters at all or
(33:52):
will have an effect on the game or are you
happy it's like, great, let's do this in September not December.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, I mean I probably like playing in lambeau earlier
in the year because it's not like the frozen tundra,
like it gets cold up there man late in the year,
so yeah, I'd prefer to play them earlier. I've had
a preference just worked out that way. Playing in Lambo
is awesome. I really think it's a cool environment, like
there's kind of an historic element there. But there are
challenges to playing on the road, right, it's going to
be noisy. The fan base is really smart. They know
(34:21):
when to cheer when not to cheer, and it's going
to make communication difficult. But again, like this, that's what
you're doing, that's the game. We got to make that
thing go. So I think it's kind of cool. I
think it's cool, cool experience. For the guys who've never
been there, it's gonna be awesome Thursday night's primetime game.
There's lots of things to be used for Some guys
actually prefer playing on the road because the atmosphere provides
(34:43):
some energy to the process and maybe for a Thursday
night game on a short week, that's a little bit
of push that pushes you over the top.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
So does it matter that we're on the road.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I think it's kind of cool, and I think some
guys will actually play better being this the first road
game on Thursday Night. I think about Jaye Daniels playing
in Cincinnati last year, Like, that's a tough trip, that's
a tough, tough environment to play, and they think they're
going to be good. That was That was a bumping
environment there. But you get the best version of some
players in that situation. So, you know, six and one
half dozen in the other whatever you want to say,
(35:14):
there are good there are pros and cons to both,
and I just think you just got to go play
the game and put your best foot forward.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I was actually talking with Fred Smoot about this the
other day and he told me that he loved playing
in historic places like it actually juiced them up. So like, yeah,
the crowd's going to be loud, they're gonna boo. But
he would tell himself, they're just saying smooth. But he
was like, yeah, playing at Lambeau that gets you juiced up.
It's you don't even think about home field advantage at
(35:40):
that point, he said, I mean that's that was his mindset.
It's like to him, that's just that's getting them juiced
up to play some football. It helped them the play
at places like that, So yeah, home field advantage. I
think sometimes like we kind of get caught up in
I get caught up in it. I'm sitting there thinking like,
oh man, they're going to be so loud and all that.
But some players just live for that, like you were saying.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, and I think it's gonna be great, Like think
about this, like this is what you play for?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Are these moments.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It's a primetime game early in the season against the
playoff caliber team who looked really good against Detroit. Like
the defense looked great again, the offense looked okay, but
they have enough playmakers to be dangerous. And I think again,
that's a playoff quarterback. That's playoff defense. They have playmaker,
they have it's playoff skill position. Guys, we think of
ourselves as a playoff team. The nation's going to be
watching like this is a great opportunity. So yes, there
(36:27):
are some challenges to it, and it's not one hundred
percent fair all the time, but that's life. So let's
go play this thing and let's shock the world and
win a road game in Lambeau. That's gonna be great,
great way to start the season.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Yeah, So what logan the last question? Then what is
it good? Are we winning this game? And if we do,
what is it going to.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Take I like to think so.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
I again, like one of the things you talked about
is like with the Giants, like, did we play our
best ball?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And I don't think we did, right.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
I don't think we played our best ball against the Giants,
And so I think if we play a better version
of what we did week one, I think that's the
first thing, and that's an expectation that I have for
this team good. The other thing is we talked about
the disguises of the defense. We talked about their ability
to stop the run and what I would say, and
we're going to talk about handling the environment offensively one.
(37:14):
I think going on the quick is going to help
with all three of those things. And it's great that
our offense is built that way. We can have nonverbal communication,
we can get up on the ball quickly. Because I
mentioned how smart the fan base is, you lose some
of those indicators, like there's no huddle, So as a fan,
like when do I start cheering? Do I start cheering
when they're at the line of scrimmage and they're standing
around and kind of pointing at each other and they're
(37:35):
kind of doing their muddle huddle at the line of scrimmage. No,
I'm going to like burn myself out. So they do
all this stuff on this silent they're used to those
nonverbal elements. I think that's going to be a huge factor.
Finding creative ways formationally to make sure that they're not
letting those two middle linebackers Cooper and Walker just be
tremendous athletes and run right down down hill into your
running game, right, So finding ways to spread guys out,
(37:56):
Cliff does a great job of that. Find ways to
create handy in the backfield. Cliff did a great job
of that Week one, to run the football, and again,
can we find some more explosive opportunities down the field
With Jane Daniels being a little bit more consistent as
a passer, the relationship with Ari improving, and I think
that's one way to win the game. You flip side
to that, it's like, can the defensive line throw the
(38:17):
same pitch they through last week? It seems very reasonable
to me because if they play that way, they can
stop the run, force Jordan Love to beat you. And again,
I think Jordan Love's a good player. The one thing
I would say is he's not afraid to throw the
football in the tight windows, and we've got guys in
the back end with good ball skills. Can you give
us a couple if he can? Like the decks tipped
in our favor. So I think finding a way to
(38:38):
get some turnovers, which starts with stopping the run, I think,
and then offensively handling the environment and handling the athleticism
of the Green Bay defenses in the disguises. But we
just talked about. I think there's ways that Cliff is
aware of that the staff is aware of to manage
that stuff. So I think, yes, I think they can
win this game. I hope they win this game. If
they do that stuff, I think they will win the game.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Logan, thank you so much. You do so much for me.
I really appreciate it as far as like content. And
then you're just like I called you my friend earlier.
You once picked me up from the airport. That's a
true friend. Thank you so much. Because whenever anybody asks
for airport rides or what like moving furniture, those are
like two of the things.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
It's like a friend.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Nobody likes doing either of those things. But I ask
you for the airport because you live right down the
street from it, and everybody else I know lives far away,
but you did it. We're best friends.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
The next time anybody's gonna listen to Logan on this
will be the next away game we have, So that
will be I think three weeks from now. It's a
while away, but on this channel on Saturday the twentieth,
before the Las Vegas Raiders, that's when you will hear
Gary Clark, b Mitch Brian Colbelet Junior. They'll be live
from DC Prime. You can catch that on YouTube as well.
(39:54):
Catch Logan wherever he's at. Logan, you got a bunch
of podcasts. You're on I know, you're on Take Command.
You're also in the Commands podcast for us. You're on
the Film Breakdown, You're on Command Center, You're on this.
You get on Game Day Live every now and then.
So just subscribe to the Commander's YouTube channel or wherever
you get our podcast. You will hear an abundance of Logan.
(40:16):
And it's just gems every time, Man, every time I
talk to you, it's just little tiny gems. I love it.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Thanks Man, appreciate it. This is a lot of fun.
I'm looking forward to doing this throughout the year.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Have fun out in Green Bay. Let's go get that dope.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Let's go get that dope.
Welcome to Game Day Live Preview podcast. It's prime time
when JD five likes to shine. We're going to talk
about how we stopped Micah Parsons, got some schemes, got
some ideas for you, and there's a lot of hot
takes out there. Are they hot or are they not?
Let's get into the weeds. It all starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to the Game Day Live Preview Podcast. I am
Jason Johnson aka just a Guy Jack Jason, and I
am here with one of my friends and one of
the smartest football people I know, Logan Pawson.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
What's up, Logan?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, definitely your friend. I don't know if I'm one
of the smartest football people you know. But it's good
to be doing this show with you. I love always
anytime we can do like content together is great.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I love doing Tick to the Draft with you.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
This will be awesome to kind of preview the Green
Bay game and I guess most of the road games
for the season.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Is that what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, that's what we're doing. And if people don't know
my voice, we've done Ticket to their Draft podcast together.
We really dive deep into the whole draft process. Once
a Combine, Roll Around, Senior Bowl and all that. I
love doing that podcast with you, but basically, I'm just
a producer. That's here. I produce Command Center Podcast a
couple of other things along the line with you, Logan,
and just for so maybe you heard my voice if
(01:12):
you're listening here or there, But I'm not going to
offer any analysis. I'm not a former football player. I'm
not as in depth as you are. I'm just here
to toss you some softballs so you can hit these
things out of the park. Really let our fans know
what's going on the night before the game. Logan, you're
out in Green Bay. You get to be on the
sidelines for these games, so to really just get that perspective.
(01:32):
And you are one of the smartest football people I know, or.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You know a lot of smart football people.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I think on the last show, I didn't you have
why You're like Gary Clark and be Mitch and you
know a bunch of kind of really smart dudes talking
about the Giants game, right right?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, absolutely, And that's another thing I want fans to know.
You may be hearing my voice. And last time you
listened to an episode come out on this channel, it
was Brian Colbert Junior with Gary Clark, be Mitch and
London Fletcher three Super Bowl winners right there. So it's like,
why is just a guy Jason on here? And it's like, well,
they're traveling, right, They're off and they're coming from all
(02:07):
different directions to get into Green Bay. So for away games,
it's going to be you and I logan and we're
going to be more nuts and bolts, really getting into
the weeds. I'm going to ask you a lot of
questions on like how to stop what's going on in
Green Bay? A really true preview show. But those guys
are live at DC Prime during home games the night
before and they're going to talk about their experiences as
(02:30):
football players with the team, super Bowl stuff in relation
to a game day preview. So it's two different styles,
but on one channel. So away games you'll get us,
Home games you'll get them, and they'll also be on YouTube.
We're not on YouTube. No one wants to see my
ugly mug, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I don't know about all that, man anyway.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, No, it's a great show and excited to preview
the Packers.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
All right, Well, that's way too much of me talking already.
Let's get you up and running. So I'm going to
pull the string here and see, let you just go.
Our first thing is called stop that, all right, And
really all I all I want as a fan is
I'm going to tell you something I'm worried about, and
then you tell me how this team is going to
stop that, or or the way you would anticipate Cliff
(03:14):
with DQ stopping that. Okay, So the first one is
the one on everybody's mind. It's Michael Parsons coming in Glad.
We're not getting to play him twice a year and
only once right now, but we get in on a
quick turnaround. I just want to tell you something real quick.
First four seasons for Michael Parsons, he has a twenty
one point three pass rush win rate, a nineteen point
(03:35):
seven percent pressure rate, and a ninety four point three
percent three grade in pass rush. That's first in that
four season span. And he's second only to Miles Garrett
in total pressures at two hundred and sixty three. So
he is a dominant player. That's the context. Logan, how
do we stop that?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, And just for some more context on that number,
I think the Ron pay the year he had like
eleven and a half sacks or whatever that was. He
broke the franchise record for interior pass rushers. He was
like a like a nine point seven pressure rate. So
just to give you like a comparison, Michael Parsons almost
double that, and it shows up on the film. He's
very explosive, he's got a great get off. He's I
(04:17):
think the thing people sleep on is he's very powerful,
you know, Like I think it's maybe the speed he
gets into.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
The block with very good player.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I think the one thing coming out of the Detroit
game obviously Green Bay played Detroit week one, is Micah
rushed almost exclusively on the offensive right side, and so
people say, well, that's maybe not a great matchup. Josh
Connolly's a rookie, like this is going to be a
tough draw. He gave up a sack again to Brian Burns,
and there were times in the game where Connorley didn't
look at his best. Again, I think Connolly played pretty good,
(04:44):
like again, like that's a matter of my opinion, But
what I will say is when you know an elite
pass rusher is going to line up on the right,
you know, I think he had I want to say
it was like twenty three snaps and all of them
except for one. Maybe we're on the right side if
I remember correctly. If you know where he's going to be,
you can of game.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
To protect that.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So as an example, if I know he's going to
be on the right, I can kind of work the
slide to him. So the slide would be when the center,
if it's a five man or six man pro works
to the works to the right side. So now I
can help on the shade with the guard, and the
guard can have eyes to conorly and so if there's
an inside move, Ali Grady will be able to help
him out. So that's one example. The other way would
(05:23):
be something I think we're all very familiar with here
in Washington.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's hip help.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And again I can now call as an offensive coordinator
from Cliff and say, hey, we know he's going to
be on the right side. We can have the chip
help kind of geared to this right side of the formation,
so we can work slides, we can work chips. The
other thing that I think people sleep on is the
importance of cadence when dealing with good pass rushers, and
you know, just varying the cadence. We're not always going
on one. Maybe we're going on the quick before they
(05:47):
can really get their cleat stug In, or maybe we
go on too and we kind of force them to
kind of think about something that they don't always have
to think about.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I'm talking about pass rushers and third down situations.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
So I think those are the things that I think
if they choose to keep him on the right side
Green Bay, then I think it's a relatively easy solution
in terms of things you can throw at it. Now,
he's one of the best players in the league for
a reason, and it's going to be a tough physical
matchup regardless, but there are things that are easily implemented
to kind of mitigate some of his dominance as a
(06:18):
pass rusher.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
What would you say is a win for Washington when
it comes to Micah Parsons. Are you saying, like, oh, well,
if we hold him without any sacks, if we have
him not disrupting our play as far as like staying
in front of the chains, Like what is success to you?
Because Michael Parsons is going to get his right so like,
how do you mitigate that and make sure that like
(06:42):
it doesn't come at the wrong time.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Well, I think back to last year's games against Dallas
and one of the things that really stood out to
me in the first matchup and then on the first
series of the second matchup is Michael Parsons has the
capability of winning quickly. Like they were using him kind
of over centers, over guards in those matchups and he
was able to win right away. And obviously pressure is
one thing, but quick pressure, to me is a completely
(07:04):
different thing. And so people side pressure rate quite a
bit and say, oh, like, look at this guy's pressure rate,
but when you go and watch the cutup, you're like,
is he really affecting the quarterback? And you know, I
think in the in the game against Detroit, for example,
he had a couple of pressures, but they didn't really
affect the quarterback, like, you know, the quarterback had to
shuffle and move, but the offensive lineman was in good
(07:25):
phase and really kind of like walled them off.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So what I would say, as long as you can
prevent him from consistently having quick pressures and quick wins,
I think you're going to be in a pretty good spot.
So that's kind of would be my focus is like,
how do we again, he's gonna, like you said, he's
going to create some pressure.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
He might even get a sack. Like that's totally fine.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
He's one of the he's to me, the second best
defensive player in the NFL, and that's one of the
reasons why him leaving Dallas and going to Green Bay
is so surprising to me. But if you can just
manage his ability to create quick pressures and just because
to me, that's more disruptive to the offense. And so
some of the things we just talked about are really
good ways to do that. Staying out of third long
(08:03):
situations is another way to do that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That means being more efficient on first, second down, And
everyone's going to say you got to run the ball.
I do think you have to run the ball a
little bit. But it's also like you know, Cliff does
a great job of here's a little play a sewn
first down, here's a keeper. We're going to move the pocket,
we're going to change the launch point. We're going to
make it hard for him to kind of just tee
off and attack that position. So I think if you
can do some of that stuff, you're going to have
(08:26):
a good, good day, and as long as he's not
in the backfield in like one point two seconds, which
happened a couple times against Dallas, I think we're going
to be okay.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So my question is is there anything Jadeen Daniel specifically
does or can do that can help mitigate that as well?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean we talked about cadence, and like most
offenses that I'm in the quarterback, that's up to the
quarterback's discretion about when you use that. And obviously as
an offensive lineman, you can go to him and be like,
hey man, it's getting off the ball pretty good. Can
we go on too, or can we go on the
quick or can we do whatever? So that's one example.
I think just Jayden Daniels, his ability to run just
(09:04):
innately is something that is helpful with that, especially when
you're an edge rusher, because you have to be mindful
of keeping contained. So you know, one of the things
that makes Mica Parsons so dangerous, and you saw it
when they rushed when you rushed against Detroit against Jared Golf,
is you can take these inside moves and because Jared
Golf's not super fast, Mica Parsons can run them down.
(09:25):
If you take that same inside move against Jane Daniels,
like we saw as an example versus Cleveland last year,
which was Week three or four, whatever it was, where
the defensive end took an inside move and Jayden steps
out of it and then runs for twenty five or
thirty yards.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
It's an explosive run. You got to be more mindful
than that.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And so like obviously the cadence quarterback discretion and obviously
his ability to move around is going to be really impactful.
It's the same reason you can't rush Lamar in certain ways,
can't rush Josh Allen in certain ways. That's one of
the reasons the archetype of the position has changed show
dramatically over the last couple of years about quarterback now,
So I do think like him just being him and
having the play style that he has in the athleticism
(10:06):
that he has is something that's going to help manage
Micah parsons versatility as a rusher. Now, he's still a
great rusher off the as He's still a great power rusher.
So it's not going to be like a walk in
the park. But I do think there are some things
that make this matchup different than the one even we
saw last week against Detroit.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
All right, let's stay with the defense here. So we
addressed the Micah Parsons situation, but there's still some other
really good players on this defense. You can go through
them one by one if you want, or we can
talk about defense as a whole, because Logan, you do
a film breakdown show on the Commander's YouTube channel that's
already out. If you're listening to this podcast, you have
to go check that out. And one of the things
(10:46):
you talk about with Green Bay is that they do
a great job of disguising their defense. So not only
do you have to deal with Micah, you have to
deal with not knowing what they're bringing right away. You
have to be creative with figuring out what type of
defense they are in. Can you talk a little bit
through that. I know it's hard sometimes to talk about
how defenses are disguised in just a pair audio version.
(11:09):
That's why I'm encouraging people to go check out your
film breakdown on YouTube, But do your best to talk
through kind of like how they scheme things up to
make it confusing for the quarterback and the offensive line.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, so they kind of have these unique looks like
so in the film Breakdown, we talk about kind of
these simulated pressure looks where they've got all these people
up near the line of scrimmage. It looks like man coverage,
and then they drop out. And so people when they
drop out usually it's some type of cover two or
they drop to cover three or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It's more usually his own coverage.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
But you know, they the Green Bay Packers, and this example,
they'd show that like I think it was like the
first third down of the game, and then they drop
to like a true two, which is or two invert,
you know, where the corners are dropping and playing the
halfield safeties, and then the next time they run it,
they drop out and they're in man coverage. And you
can tell that it's very disruptive for golf. Right, There's
another one where they're in quarters. It looks exactly like quarters,
(12:01):
and they rotate to cover three and the guy makes
a pick in the reds on the safety. It was
really one of the best disguises I've seen a long time.
Got me super fired up. So that's an issue because
one of the things about quarterback play, and like when
you hear Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck
or you know Joe Burrow talk about playing quarterback. Is
that their ability to identify certain tells in the defense
(12:25):
lets some kind of play ahead of be ahead of
the defense because they know what's.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Going to be presented.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Right they say, oh, this is how they run their
cover three, this is how this corner plays and cover three,
this is his depth of cover three. I know it's
cover three regardless of the disguise, and I can throw
this ball where it needs to go. So the more
tools that Cliff can deploy to help Jaden dissect that
coverage is going to be kind of masterful. That's the
thing that to me, that's the big thing here is
(12:51):
what can Cliff do to put Jaden in a good
position to understand what Green Bay is trying to do?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So how do you do that? There's a couple of
different ways that I've.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Been exposed to, and sure there's there's more than this,
but one is formation, like getting into three by one
with wide splits. It forces for example, the La Rams
did this a couple of years ago when Matt Stafford
got there. It forces them to if they're disguising a
pressure and they want to they want to make it
look like, Man, I have to walk that nickel out
over number three, who's a little bit wider. So if
he's trying to get home on the pressure, he has
(13:20):
to leave a little bit early.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So that's one way to do it.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And also with those wide kind of three by one formations,
if I'm the backside safety and I have to relate
to number three on the far side, I have to
start my rotation a little bit earlier because there's more
ground to cover. Also, I think the other thing that
Cliff and this offense do a great job is they
use tempo at a early high level. And when you're
in tempo and the offense and the defense doesn't know
exactly when the ball is going to be snapped, you know,
(13:45):
I think about it. You know, with the usual offensive rhythm,
it's like we're in the huddle, we walk to line
of scrimmage, the quarterback stands back there, he tries to
identify the coverage. Now it's like we kind of muddle
huddle at the line of scrimmage. We get in our formation,
and how much time do we have before the place
getting off? So if we don't know, then I got
to get in my rotation really quickly. It's one of
the advantages of people going on the quick count for example.
(14:06):
Another thing that I hope they utilize quite a bit
is cadence. So if you go on too or you
go on the yellow as some people call it, or
the dummy cadence, you kind of go through your cadence.
Usually the defense will give you something. It's what Peidon
Manning needs to do all the time where he kind
of had I forget what his code word was. It
was like Papa John's or something like that, and you'd
be like, you know, Papa John's or delivery, and then
(14:27):
all of a sudden, the next cadence is live like that.
Those types of tools, so formation, the no huddle, and
also the cadence stuff is going to be really really
important to help Jayden Daniels kind of figure out what
they're going to be in because if you get a
little bit of tel like for examples, on that quarter interception,
if that safety just starts triggering a little bit early,
(14:47):
like Jayden's going to know that it's not true quarters,
it's probably cover three. And I think those little inches
are the things that are going to make a big
difference in helping him understand the coverage structure, the disguises,
and it's going to help, as you say, like stop
them being so effective with those disguises.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
All right, let's flip over to the offensive side of
the ball first. I want to start with Josh Jacobs.
A really good running back, a true bell cow. There's
not that many of them in the league anymore. Last
season he had over thirteen hundred rushing yards, fifteen touchdowns.
He averages averaged last year four point four yards per carry.
Now the Lion slowed him down a little bit, but
(15:26):
this is a guy to be keyed on on defense. Logan,
if you're Joe Witt junior, or you're looking at what
Josh Jacob does, how do you stop that?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, I think with Josh Jacobs, you know, you really
got to start with kind of the their offensive philosophy.
And he's the reason that you go out and you
pay him all that money. You bring him in and
kind of treat him like a bellcow back because they
want Green Bay. I think they get a lot of
Jordan Love gets a lot of publicity, but really the
driver of the offense is their ability to run the football.
It kind of reminds me a little bit of like
(15:59):
San Francisco Light in the sense that that offense is good,
but the and the quarterback is good Rock Purty, But
they really are driven through Christian McCaffrey. It's his ability
to catch the football, it's his ability to stay on schedule.
From a running standpoint, I think that's really who they
want to be. They want to mitigate the high leverage
throws for the quarterback and then so when he has
(16:20):
to on third down or in the red zone or
in two minute, the quarterback can really let it rip
and play fast. So with regards to Josh Shacobs, I
think the thing about him is he's a pretty downhill runner,
so and I think he's good at all runs. He's
good at gaps, he's good at He's okay at outside
zone if they say that's probably his weakest run.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
But he's good at tide zone. And I think he's
runs with great power.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So to me, there's no nuance to stopping a specific runner.
You're stopping the scheme most of the time, which is
maybe a hard thing to internalize or understand for a
lot of people, but really, like if I understand my
fits versus the runs they're presenting, or the motions and
the shifts, the shifts they're presenting then, and I don't
(17:00):
care how good the runner is, he can't just run
through everyone's face for a touchdown. That's just not feasible.
Maybe that happens in high school, but it definitely doesn't
happen in the NFL. So what I would say is
just like this is where the week, the short week
of prep becomes a little bit challenging, but it's also
beneficial because you know, you look at what they did
last week, you say, they're probably not going to change
too much because they can't change too much because it's
(17:22):
a short week. And how do we fit these runs
based on change of strength, motion, based on some type
of unusual backfield action. How do we maximize our run
fits here versus our different coverag structures. And if you
can and you can be sound with that like they
were against the Giants, I think you're going to be
able to mitigate what Josh Jacobs does.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Speaking about against the Giants. Are rush defense looked dramatically
improved from last season, And what you were talking about
is dealing with run schemes. Is there anything we can
take from what we saw from pain Kin law Newton
and then on the back end Bobby Wagner being able
to clean up the tack wants the D line establishes
(18:04):
has their lane discipline, right. So you've talked about this before. Basically,
I'm trying to lead you into what did they do
really well with the Giants that limited the Giants in
the rushing game that we can continue to build one,
especially against a guy like Josh Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, I think this offensive line for green Bay is
a little bit better, But I think the principles that
you're talking about with Green Bay are going to be good.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So for example, you know, when we're running a line
stunt like, can we stay square?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Can we be in the right gap?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Dietrich Wise, can we be disciplined when we get that
naked boot, We're not going to chase the running back down.
We're going to keep containing on the quarterback. You know,
Javon Kinlock. Can we win a one on one, which
you done in the first play of the game, Deron
Payn Can we win a one on one? But can
we do it in the context of the defense. And
I think when you see those guys do that last week,
that's something I think you definitely need to carry over.
(18:52):
So there's this saying, after everyone's familiar with it, you
know better than the sum of the parts. Defensive line
is like that, offensive line is like that. Those positions
are like that more than any of the position on
the football field. And when you get four dudes in
this case, we have eight dudes, which is kind of
cool that are playing the defense the way they're supposed
to play. At the ends are containing or the end
is stunting to the right gap based on the call.
(19:14):
It makes everything work behind it. And so one of
the things about the Giants that Giants game is compared
to other games that I've watched when covering the Commanders
is everyone's just incredibly consistent with the assignment and the technique.
And you can see that it helps Bobby Wagner be
in the right position. It helps, you know, Mike Sanders
still when he's kind of a fit because instead of
him having to, let's say, attack the B gap and
(19:36):
then the defensive lineman's in the B gap and now
he has to adjust and he's in a bad spot
to make the tackle, he can confidently go up and
do that. So I think just the consistency of the assignment,
sound nature of what of what they did against the Giants.
I hope hopefully that carries over because it really makes
the next everything in the defense function at a really
(19:58):
high level. And I think that's what I would to
see them do against Josh Jacobs. Now, green Bay is
going to make it challenging because they do some different stuff.
I mentioned the change of strength motion they on the
snap and with shifts. They also do some kind of
weird backfield stuff in terms of ball handling. Trust your eyes,
trust your fits. Look at the offensive line how they're
blocking it. I'd say to the second level players, linebackers, nicols, safeties.
(20:20):
But I think if they can, if the defensive line
can play the way they did against the Giants, they're going
to be a good spot.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
All right.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Our next look at the green Bay offense is Jordan Love,
obviously a talented quarterback. A little context and a stat
that I want to bring up that I found when
researching was in the first half versts allions, that's when
green Bay was really cooking. They were targeting past the sticks.
When Love targeted past the stick, so he threw the
(20:48):
ball pass the first down markers. In the first half,
he did out eleven times, had seven completions for one
hundred and fifty two yards two touchdowns in a one
forty six point eight rating. That is excellent throwing past
the first down marker, keeping your team on schedule, keeping
the drives alive. How do we stop that?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, that's going to be a little bit more challenging.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I think the thing about Jordan Love is he's very
confident throwing the football. I mentioned this on the Command
Center podcast, Like when you watch him, man, he can
spin it. He's a good athlete spin the football, has
multiple arm angles he can throw from. He's got this
really snappy release from the wrist which is great to watch,
and the ball takes really like flat trajectory, so it
gets there really really quick. In terms of stopping that,
(21:34):
to me, can we get some ball production?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So he's very confident. But if you watch that Detroit game,
Detroit drops two interceptions like two, like one in the chest.
One would have been tougher, but like one definitive interception,
And that's an easy way to kind of shift the
football math, to shift the analytical math right there. Right, Yes,
he's very good. He's going to get some throws, right,
(21:58):
He made some really tight window throws in the red zone,
made some tight window throws in the field, And really
his performance is the difference in the game, because actually,
I didn't feel like the Green Bay offense played all
that well, specifically in the first half. I think they
were carried by their defense and they were carried by
him finding these kind of shot plays down the field.
So first off, I'd say, he's going to get those.
(22:21):
Can you weather that adversity, and then can you button
down the hatches in the red zone like they did
versus the Giants. I think that's a totally reasonable thing.
And then when he throws you the football, you have
to catch it, which is also something I think is
very reasonable given the ball production we've seen from guys
like Mike Sanders, still, Trey Amos.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Juan Martin in camp.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So that's kind of what I'd say, is he's going
to get some whether that storm when we get in
the red zone, let's batten down the hatches, take care
of that stuff. And then when he does give you
the opportunity, we got to get the ball and give
it back to our offense.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
All right, Logan, time for our last segment that I'm
going to let you get out of here because I
know traveling is never all that fun and you're exhausted.
You're one of the heart as working men in football
right now. You do so many shows, Logan, how many
shows do you do a week?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
You think, I don't know, a lot of shows. It's
definitely getting more. Yeah, i'd say probably like six to
eight ish. Does that sound right. I mean you produce
all most of them, so you would know.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, it's a lot. I ask you to do a lot.
And uh man, you're just really good at this. I'm
learning so much and we've talked so much about the
week and I'm still learning something. But that's going to
lead me into the next segment here. It's our last segment.
We'll do this every time we're on. And the reason
I made this segment, Logan, it's called hot or Not,
and it's because I think what I've learned about you
(23:35):
is that you love a skits and bits. You do
enjoy skits and bits, but you also are very level
headed and you never really get caught up in a
hot take. You just don't and I love that about you.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to throw
out what are some hot takes that are floating around
out there? Just okay, none of these are mine, Logan,
(23:56):
Please don't get mad at me. I'm just repeating what's
going on. One in the ether, right, like I've heard
out there before. And the first one is the penalties, right.
There were twelve penalties for eighty nine yards in that
Giants game. I even saw a comment in one of
our shows saying if you do that, there's no way
we're winning Green Bay, which may be true, but then
(24:17):
the statement after was, or rather the statement was, we
were sloppy, therefore we'll losing Green Bay. I mean, is
that true? Like in the sense of, like, obviously penalties
that's gonna hurt. But what I mean is, are you
concerned that we're going to continually have penalties like this?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
No?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
And I think this is the classic like Week one
overreaction element, Right, this is the first time we've seen
the team in a long time, and this is the
first this is our first instinct, right, Oh, like, this
is who they are for the entire year and good, good,
well coached teams. Excuse me, which I think the commanders are.
I think Dan Quinn's a smart guy. I think Joeah
Junior is a smart guy. I think Cliff Kingsbury is
(24:58):
a smart guy. As they know intuitively the same way
fans know that they cannot continue to win football games
if they have twelve penalties in a game. So I'm
very confident that that's going to be a point of
emphasis this week. And some of those penalties that they
got in the game, I think it's important to make
this note, are effort based penalties, right, Like I'm just
trying too hard, or I'm targeting the quarterback in correctly
(25:20):
or whatever it is. Right, how do we clean that
stuff up. We go to the film room, we watch it,
we make the correction. We've got a smart, conscientious team.
They're going to figure it out now. With regards to
some of those other stuff like pre snap penalties, holding
things like that, those are things that again holding, I
think we can kind of.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Get that resolved in the film room.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
But the pre snap stuff and stuff we've got to
get cleared up, you know, the intentional grounding. It sounds
like there was a mental mistake or miscommunication between the
offensive line and the receivers and the quarterback. We're not
on the same page. That's getting more reps together, that's
getting more time on the grass. So I think it's
going to be a point of emphasis to get corrected.
And again, yes, the fans or the whoever's making that
common is correct. If you have a lot of penalties
(26:01):
versus good football teams, usually you don't win. I, however,
am fairly confident that dan Quinn, Cliff Kingsbury and Chilwood
Junior know that also and are going.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
To work to correct that. So that's kind of my
take on that.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And so am I concerned about it if they go
out and have twenty penalties against Green Bay? Yes, that's concerning.
But do I think that the staff knows it's concerning
and they're going to try and correct it. I think
that's also true.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Hey, Logan, last year in Week two, we had the
Commanders had ten penalties for sixty nine yards playing the Giants.
Now Washington won that game, but I remember that being
a talking point. That's a lot of penalties. Guess what happened.
We went out the Monday Night Football, another primetime game
against the Bengals, and we had three penalties for twenty
eight We tend to clean.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
That up well, I think the other thing I'd say too,
is like, that's the nature, having been on this side
of it now for a couple of years, is you
need talking points for the week, So that becomes the
talking point, it becomes the narrative, it becomes the story.
And again people forget. I think people are like people
forget how smart staffs are, how smart players are. Like
(27:06):
a right post game, like, what's the first thing all
the players are saying like, oh, yeah, we got to
get that cleaned up.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
The penalties, we can't handle that.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
So everyone's aware of it, and if people have an
awareness to it, they can get it corrected. And I
think that's what I'm banking on. Don't let the twenty
four don't let the twenty four hour, twenty four to
seven NFL news cycle get you cut up.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
This is going to be fine. I think they get
this fixed. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I think one of the things that happens with NFL
news cycles is that if a team wins, then the
immediate thought is, well, that's what this team is to win,
and if they lose, it's like, well that's what this
team is to lose. And what I mean by that
is whatever that most recent win is. It's like there's
no variation. It's like, oh, that's it. It's very absolute,
(27:48):
like that's how that team's going to be. But if
you listen to every press conference after that win, for
our players, with our coaches, none of them were happy
with the overall. None of them went, yep, that's our
best ball right there to win. But nobody's sitting out
there and going, yeah, this is us now. No, they
all talked about things that they needed to get better at.
(28:10):
Because it's week one, they're going to be better. Week two,
they want to be better Week three, and hopefully the
last game of the season in February is the best
version of the Commanders And they all think like.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
That, Yeah, I know, I think that's one hundred percent right.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And I think that's the other thing about you know,
like NFL football and it's week one too.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
It's like for you know, people who haven't done it,
it may be hard to understand, but you come in
and you're doing all this prep, you're getting ready to go,
and you think, oh, we did the preseason, Oh we're
in a good spot, we had a good training camp.
But there's something different about the live bullets and playing
a game for sixty minutes.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Like, I don't care how much preseason you do. It's
just different.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
The speed is different, the intensity is different, the complexity
is different, and so I assume that there's going to
be some issues. Right, There's going to be some mental mistakes,
there's going to be some technical mistakes. There's going to
be some procedural mistakes like we saw with the penalties,
Like that's kind of par for the course, and there
are teams that don't do it right, but at some
point you're going to have those opportunities right to kind
of make those mistakes as the season goes on. So
(29:06):
it's just to come out a Week one with a win,
not playing our best ball is really encouraging for me
to see what this team could be.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Obviously, Week two against the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Man, you're fired up. I can tell that this gets
you excited for whatever reason. That talking point. So that's
not hot for you. I mean it's got you hot,
but it's not a hot takes not hot, that's all right.
The next one is Terry McLaurin. He only had four
targets for two receptions twenty seven yards. It was great
to see him out there. Some people are freaking out
about this. What's your take?
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah, yeah, I'm not freaking out about it. I mean,
so if he catches one pass in that game, if
he catches that deep ball, him and Jade are on
the same page, Like it's he's got two catches for
seventy eight yards and maybe a touchdown. Like it's that's
the nature of playing receiver. Like aj Brown had one
catch the other day, but he only had one target.
That's more concerning to me. Obviously, Terry is like a
(29:56):
feature of the offense. He's going to be a feature
of the offense moving forward. He had a slow start
last year against Tampa Bay. I think he had one
catch in the first half or something like that, and
then he had that big kind of completion down the
sideline or what they missed. They missed on a deep
ball down the field in the first game last year
as well. So I'm not that concerned about it. This
is kind of what happens to receivers at times. Receivers
and quarterbacks in terms of relationship, you're just not quite
(30:20):
on the same page. Again, Like he didn't do a
lot of the offseason and they're kind of banking reps
at the moment. So I think that's understandable. So I
think it'll get better. I think he's going to be
a feature of the offense. And I don't think people
are talking about this. If he catches two more of
his targets and again one of those like the tackle
gets pushed into his lap, the ball's a little short,
they have to go to review to see whether it's
(30:40):
a catch or not.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Like, think about it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
If he catches just two or three more passes, like,
his stat line's completely different, and people totally forget about it.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
So all right, the next one hot or not? Take
Thursday Night football. It's a quick week. We're in a
tough spot. And the reason I'm saying we're in a
tough spot in not Green Bay is here's to talk point.
Here's the hot take. We're the ones traveling. We lose
time for travel to game plan, to practice. We lose
the energy. Like you know this logan, Traveling is not fun.
(31:12):
It's not like waking up in your own bed, getting
in your own car to drive into work. Right, it's
just different. So like we're put in a tougher spot
than Green Bay does. Thursday Night games in your opinion,
being the traveling team for that, you've been in that
situation before, I'm sure is that a something we should
be concerned.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
About, something we should be concerned about.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I mean, I get concerned about things that I can control,
right and as a team, can you control this?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
You're the road team this week, so what they got
to figure it out? Right? So that's what I'd say too,
is like people get I've worked up.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
You know, people that I coach, people that I talk
with about things, they can't control I as much as
it makes it challenging to go on the road on
a short week to Green Bay, which is kind of
a tough travel because there's not a big airport. You
got to be in the bus for a long time,
all those types of things. But the game's going to happen.
So what are we going to do. We're not going
to show up, We're not going to play in the game.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
No, we got to go. We gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So like, as this is how the schedule works out
this week, I have no control over it. As a player,
the staff has no control over it. The best thing
is to kind of work to get as prepped as
you can. The first thing Dad said to us when
we were in the locker room. I was hanging out
with fletching Brand when they're getting ready to interview him,
and he goes like Wednesdays tomorrow, like it's happening, Like
we got to get ready, we got to kind of
get our mindset worked up. And this is the nature
(32:31):
of having a game on Thursday night. As a player,
it was incredibly stressful for me because I felt like
I was never prepared. But again, that's when the game is.
I have to figure out to make a way to
make it work. And I think this staff Dan specifically
because I've talked to him about it. I'm sure if
I talked to Cliff, you'd say the same thing, or Joe,
would you do the same thing. It's like, there's a
reason that this mantra for this team is anybody, anytime, anywhere,
(32:52):
It's because that's the mindset you have to have in
the league. It can't be like don't give yourself an out,
if that makes sense, don't be like, oh, we're on
the road, this is going to.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Be really hard. How are we going to do it?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Oh my gosh, No, It's like this is where this
is where this is where the game is, this is
where the this is where it's going down, and.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
We got to be ready to go regardless. So is
it a thing? Is it more challenging? Sure? But does
it matter? No? Can I control it? No?
Speaker 1 (33:17):
So ultimately, like, yes, there is some truth to that,
but as a player, you can't open that. You can't
even think about that, because that's just not if you
want to win the game, you got to keep it.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
You got to keep yourself competitively moving forward, all right.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
The other one, then that I already know what you're
going to say about, because it's outside your control. It's
the lambeau Field effect, right, the home field advantage. Lambeau Field,
especially being one of the iconic home field advantage stadiums
in the NFL. It's going to be fifty seven degrees
at game time, at least that's what my phone app says.
Do you think any of that matters at all or
(33:52):
will have an effect on the game or are you
happy it's like, great, let's do this in September not December.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, I mean I probably like playing in lambeau earlier
in the year because it's not like the frozen tundra,
like it gets cold up there man late in the year,
so yeah, I'd prefer to play them earlier. I've had
a preference just worked out that way. Playing in Lambo
is awesome. I really think it's a cool environment, like
there's kind of an historic element there. But there are
challenges to playing on the road, right, it's going to
be noisy. The fan base is really smart. They know
(34:21):
when to cheer when not to cheer, and it's going
to make communication difficult. But again, like this, that's what
you're doing, that's the game. We got to make that
thing go. So I think it's kind of cool. I
think it's cool, cool experience. For the guys who've never
been there, it's gonna be awesome Thursday night's primetime game.
There's lots of things to be used for Some guys
actually prefer playing on the road because the atmosphere provides
(34:43):
some energy to the process and maybe for a Thursday
night game on a short week, that's a little bit
of push that pushes you over the top.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
So does it matter that we're on the road.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I think it's kind of cool, and I think some
guys will actually play better being this the first road
game on Thursday Night. I think about Jaye Daniels playing
in Cincinnati last year, Like, that's a tough trip, that's
a tough, tough environment to play, and they think they're
going to be good. That was That was a bumping
environment there. But you get the best version of some
players in that situation. So, you know, six and one
half dozen in the other whatever you want to say,
(35:14):
there are good there are pros and cons to both,
and I just think you just got to go play
the game and put your best foot forward.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I was actually talking with Fred Smoot about this the
other day and he told me that he loved playing
in historic places like it actually juiced them up. So like, yeah,
the crowd's going to be loud, they're gonna boo. But
he would tell himself, they're just saying smooth. But he
was like, yeah, playing at Lambeau that gets you juiced up.
It's you don't even think about home field advantage at
(35:40):
that point, he said, I mean that's that was his mindset.
It's like to him, that's just that's getting them juiced
up to play some football. It helped them the play
at places like that, So yeah, home field advantage. I
think sometimes like we kind of get caught up in
I get caught up in it. I'm sitting there thinking like,
oh man, they're going to be so loud and all that.
But some players just live for that, like you were saying.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, and I think it's gonna be great, Like think
about this, like this is what you play for?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Are these moments.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It's a primetime game early in the season against the
playoff caliber team who looked really good against Detroit. Like
the defense looked great again, the offense looked okay, but
they have enough playmakers to be dangerous. And I think again,
that's a playoff quarterback. That's playoff defense. They have playmaker,
they have it's playoff skill position. Guys, we think of
ourselves as a playoff team. The nation's going to be
watching like this is a great opportunity. So yes, there
(36:27):
are some challenges to it, and it's not one hundred
percent fair all the time, but that's life. So let's
go play this thing and let's shock the world and
win a road game in Lambeau. That's gonna be great,
great way to start the season.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Yeah, So what logan the last question? Then what is
it good? Are we winning this game? And if we do,
what is it going to.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Take I like to think so.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
I again, like one of the things you talked about
is like with the Giants, like, did we play our
best ball?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And I don't think we did, right.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
I don't think we played our best ball against the Giants,
And so I think if we play a better version
of what we did week one, I think that's the
first thing, and that's an expectation that I have for
this team good. The other thing is we talked about
the disguises of the defense. We talked about their ability
to stop the run and what I would say, and
we're going to talk about handling the environment offensively one.
(37:14):
I think going on the quick is going to help
with all three of those things. And it's great that
our offense is built that way. We can have nonverbal communication,
we can get up on the ball quickly. Because I
mentioned how smart the fan base is, you lose some
of those indicators, like there's no huddle, So as a fan,
like when do I start cheering? Do I start cheering
when they're at the line of scrimmage and they're standing
around and kind of pointing at each other and they're
(37:35):
kind of doing their muddle huddle at the line of scrimmage. No,
I'm going to like burn myself out. So they do
all this stuff on this silent they're used to those
nonverbal elements. I think that's going to be a huge factor.
Finding creative ways formationally to make sure that they're not
letting those two middle linebackers Cooper and Walker just be
tremendous athletes and run right down down hill into your
running game, right, So finding ways to spread guys out,
(37:56):
Cliff does a great job of that. Find ways to
create handy in the backfield. Cliff did a great job
of that Week one, to run the football, and again,
can we find some more explosive opportunities down the field
With Jane Daniels being a little bit more consistent as
a passer, the relationship with Ari improving, and I think
that's one way to win the game. You flip side
to that, it's like, can the defensive line throw the
(38:17):
same pitch they through last week? It seems very reasonable
to me because if they play that way, they can
stop the run, force Jordan Love to beat you. And again,
I think Jordan Love's a good player. The one thing
I would say is he's not afraid to throw the
football in the tight windows, and we've got guys in
the back end with good ball skills. Can you give
us a couple if he can? Like the decks tipped
in our favor. So I think finding a way to
(38:38):
get some turnovers, which starts with stopping the run, I think,
and then offensively handling the environment and handling the athleticism
of the Green Bay defenses in the disguises. But we
just talked about. I think there's ways that Cliff is
aware of that the staff is aware of to manage
that stuff. So I think, yes, I think they can
win this game. I hope they win this game. If
they do that stuff, I think they will win the game.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Logan, thank you so much. You do so much for me.
I really appreciate it as far as like content. And
then you're just like I called you my friend earlier.
You once picked me up from the airport. That's a
true friend. Thank you so much. Because whenever anybody asks
for airport rides or what like moving furniture, those are
like two of the things.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
It's like a friend.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Nobody likes doing either of those things. But I ask
you for the airport because you live right down the
street from it, and everybody else I know lives far away,
but you did it. We're best friends.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
The next time anybody's gonna listen to Logan on this
will be the next away game we have, So that
will be I think three weeks from now. It's a
while away, but on this channel on Saturday the twentieth,
before the Las Vegas Raiders, that's when you will hear
Gary Clark, b Mitch Brian Colbelet Junior. They'll be live
from DC Prime. You can catch that on YouTube as well.
(39:54):
Catch Logan wherever he's at. Logan, you got a bunch
of podcasts. You're on I know, you're on Take Command.
You're also in the Commands podcast for us. You're on
the Film Breakdown, You're on Command Center, You're on this.
You get on Game Day Live every now and then.
So just subscribe to the Commander's YouTube channel or wherever
you get our podcast. You will hear an abundance of Logan.
(40:16):
And it's just gems every time, Man, every time I
talk to you, it's just little tiny gems. I love it.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Thanks Man, appreciate it. This is a lot of fun.
I'm looking forward to doing this throughout the year.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Have fun out in Green Bay. Let's go get that dope.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Let's go get that dope.
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