NFL Week 2 Recap: Commanders drop to Packers 18-27 on TNF | Booth Review Podcast | Washington Commanders | NFL

Logan Paulsen, and Bram Weinstein breakdown the Washington Commanders 18-27 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday Night Football. First, they look at the injuries from the game and what we can expect from Hayden Daniels. Then, they discuss the impact of Micah Parsons and how the Commanders can use this matchup to get prepared for the Las Vegas Raiders and Maxx Crosby coming into town this Sunday.   Get Your Commanders Tickets Here: https://bit.ly/3SpwKU3       Hosts: Bram Weinstein, Loga Paulsen    Producer: Jason Johnson     The views and opinions expressed by our analysts and/or hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Washington Commanders or any of their representatives.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming up on the Booth Review Logan too early to panic?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Maybe stay tuned to find out.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Oh way to stay nice and calm. How about both
sides of the ball here, Logan needing a little bit
of improvement? Will they find it?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I think some of them. We're going to talk about
it in the show today.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
All right, that's coming up next on the Booth Review.
Welcome into the post long Weekend Booth Review podcast. I'm
Brad Wifstein with Logan Paulson. Were brought to you by
Microsoft Surface Co Pilot plus PC and we are in
the Big Bear AI Command Center. Studio London is off
this week. He's got things to attend to. He'll be
back post the Raiders game. Logan, nice to see it.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Great to see you too, man.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
How'd your weekend go? Good?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I mean my weekend was great. Yeah, that was awesome.
Got to hang with the family. That's a nice thing
about Thursday night games. Man, you get a little bit
of wiggle room. You know, you had some you hung
out with the wife a little bit.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Right, Like, Yeah, I unplugged after Thursday. That was a
rough one.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I still relax. Yeah, yeah, I mean Thursday was a
rough game. But you know that's yeah, every once in
a while you have one of those.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, rough for everybody. I mean, I think I want
to start with injuries. You know, like it's early in
the season. We're going to go through the game obviously,
and there's a lot to talk about, you know, as
they're going to have to clean up to move forward here,
But injuries are really a predominant storyline to me, specifically
Austin Eckler. Like, we haven't seen anything official yet. I

(01:16):
think we all have read the reports and considering what
we saw and what we know so far, you know,
the idea of him returning anytime soon, let alone for
the rest of the season, feels pretty remote. So until
they say that officially, we don't know. But that said,
he's not playing this weekend and probably anytime soon, So
it's a big deal. I think losing Austin Eckler. We'll

(01:36):
go through some of this, but like I think it's
a big deal losing him.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
I mean, of the injuries, I think that's probably the
one that has the most ready made solution. And so
what I mean of that is, like you have Jerry McNichols,
and people forget that he's been a league for ten years,
and so one of the things that Austin you lose
with him is you lose his experience. Right, He's an
experienced football player, He's got an explosivelopment to his game,
and obviously you're going to miss that. And obviously we
feel terrible for Austin, like that's a tough apparently a

(01:59):
tough injury, and we'll get the confirmation later. But I
think you had a guy and Jeremy McNichols, who's a
excellent pass protector who can kind of fill that third
down back roll. I think Bill Crossky Merrit we saw
against the Giants and even against Green Bay, you saw
an explosive, elusive, dynamic runner who can create and elevate
the blocking surface, which is exactly what you want. And
you have a guy and Chris Rodriguez who's a physical
downhill runner. And I'm not saying they're not going to

(02:20):
bring a third party in, but of all of the people,
of all the positions on the team that could sustain
an injury, felt like this was one that had like
a really nice depth piece to it because of the
dynamism of Bill Krossky Merrit, because of the experience of
McNichols and because of the power running style of Rodriguez,
and again Rodriguez people sleep on him, but like he's
a very efficient yards above expected runner, kind of traditionally right.

(02:44):
So I think bringing all that together again, you're gonna
miss Austin, You're gonna miss the explosive element. You're going
to miss the strength, the experience, all those things. But
I think you have three guys that can help offset
that as much as possible.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
The reports are Adam Schefter is saying Chase Edmonds is
going to be signed to the prime. He's his fifteen
drafted twenty eighteen, a lot of experience and we'll see
what kind of role was supposive guy, Yeah, explosive guy.
We'll see how it goes. But I will say this
about Eckler, and I don't want to downplay it, like
I think he's a big deal for their offense, for
the yards after catch that he generates for them, the

(03:17):
experience level, the tough yardage. We saw that early when
they had the third and one that turned into a
fourth and one that turned into him getting tough yardage
for them. This was never going to be a bellcal
offense for any running back. This always was going to
be by committee, but his versatility and the experience, especially
in these tight situations, I do think we'll be missed.

(03:39):
So I don't want to downplay it.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I'm not saying it's going to be I'm not saying
it won't be missed. Yeah, but I'm saying if if
there was a group of people that I think could
offset it, it's the three guys we have in the
room plus this edition, right, Like, because again he Edmund's
nose cliff, He's part of the system, right, there's some experience,
some crossover there, so that's great. But again, like McNichols
is a third down pass protector is really good at that. Right,

(04:02):
We've seen Bill krossky Merritt, the exposed DEVELOPMENTI bings, and
so again, like does it hurt not having that in
one ready to go package in Austin Eckler One hundred percent.
But I do think when you say, hey, the aggregate
of these three people, yeah, maybe four now can offset
the loss of this. And then other people have to
step up obviously, But I think that's something that makes
me feel not terrible, like you know, initially like oh

(04:24):
my gosh, what are we gonna do. But I think
when you kind of step back and objectively look at
the room and kind of say, okay, we can survive
this in a way that most other position groups on
the team couldn't.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
So as it stands now, like Eckler gets five to
ten touches a game, whether it's carries, catches, whatever it
may be that has to be disseminated somewhere else, do
you picture Bill getting fifteen touches a game as opposed
to five to ten In whatever form that those come.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I definitely think his role expands, like there's no way
it doesn't. I think you look at again the dynamism
that he brings. We just talked about of the explosive
run against the Giants, and again even some of the
runs against the Green Bay Packers were really dynamic in
terms of kind of getting skinny fine and stuff. So
he'll definitely get more touches. It's just how do you
allocate those touches? Like do you feel comfortable with him
on third down? I would say probably not entirely yet,

(05:10):
but that's where McNichols can come in, right and so,
and then you have the death piece with c Rod.
So I do think you can offset this again, and
I think he'll get more touches. I think the aggregate
of this will go somewhere else. I think Deebo Samuels
will probably get some touches, you know, on third down
in certain pass catching situations. You mentioned the yards after
cass He's a nice, you know, kind of replacement for
some of those. So I do think you can offset it.

(05:31):
It's gonna take an aggregate kind of thing. But I
think you've got some people that have played a lot
of football in McNichols, who've got some contact balance after
the catchability in Debo, and you've had an explosive young
player in Bill Crossky Merritt, and I think you've had
a really solid consistent runner in Chris Rodriguez. So I
think all those guys will kind of help offset what
he brought again, because he was a special football player to.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
The point of the yards after catch number one and
three since twenty twenty one yards after catch Eckler Debo. Yeah,
this team. So it is a loss here offensively to
John Bates. We don't know groin injury, that's all we know.
We don't know how long he's going to be out.
John Baits is a huge part of the protection, huge

(06:13):
part of the run blocking. You know, how do you
kind of foresee that, And again, we don't know if
he's going to miss time or how much time he
would miss.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, groins are always funny. They tend to be because
they you know, they extend your hip and they abduct
your hips, so they're kind of in part of they're
part of running and they're part of change direction, so
they can be a little bit finicky. To me, this
feels like a I know, Austin Eckler is a more dynamic,
explosive piece of the offense. This John Bates feels like
a bigger issue long term for the team because there's
nobody that has his direct skill set. So what kind

(06:43):
of creative solutions do you provide? Do you like, get
into these extra offensive lineman situations where you know, like
you have twelve personnel, But Trent Scott's the tight end.
I'm just using him as an example, Yeah, to kind
of offset the skill, the efficiency that John brates brought
in the run game, the physicality that he brought. And again,
the thing about John that was so unique is that
you could move him. He could do some stuff in space,

(07:03):
which a lot of offensive linemen can't do.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
So he can catch the ball. Yeah, it'll throw it to.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Him very right, but he can right, But I'm saying
his value Tret.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Scott out there.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
It's different. But again, like there are teams like I
think the Buffalo Bills are a great example. They run
the most extra offensive lineman in the NFL, and the
thing that they're able to do with some of that
stuff is bring this physical pass protection first nature, and
they're able to offset that with other pass catchers. So well,
like like with Austin right where you're kind of saying, oh,
like if we make a collage of these four players,

(07:34):
we can replace one this this John Bates. There's not
a one. There's not a collage of players that replace.
It's like there are some players that replace, but there's
also a schematic identity that I think needs to accommodate
him being out right because because of the unique process,
the unique skill set that he brought to the position,
especially in this building.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Okay, how about Noah Brown groin injury. Again, don't know,
we don't know how long will he be out. Will
he be out We'll find out later this week. The
downfield passing game is not clicking. Hasn't been happening really
here early in the season. He is their clear number
two three, however you want to label him. We went
through the summer where he missed a lot of time

(08:12):
with the knee injury, and they were experimenting with other
players like Jalen Lane and Luke McCaffrey, and they were
trying to find answers on the outside if people weren't
going to be available early in the season, and it
was questionable whether they found those answers there. Now they
may have to be without him for however, whatever period
of time it is. This is another one that Cliff's
going to have to figure out.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, this is very tenuous, and I think the receiver
depth has been tenuous since the beginning of the offseason
when he's kind of been in and out, you know.
I think it was like the last Ota Mini camp
practice where he kind of nicked himself up and he's
been negotiating the knee injury. So we've seen kind of
what the room, what the space looks like without him
around and can you feel his absence in a dramatic way,
And so I do think this is going to be significant.

(08:52):
I think again, this requires not just a personnel fix.
I think you know, Luke McCaffrey did some good stuff
in the last couple of minutes of the game, not
just in terms of the catch them, but he ran
a post late where he's wide open, did a great
job getting downfield if Jane's got a little more time
and get the ball down there. So maybe he's ready
for an expanded role. I know we've been talking about
that for a while, but he feels like a guy
that's going to take more touches Jalen Lane more touches.

(09:13):
But it does feel like there needs to be a
schematic shift to accommodate not having him if he's not
around so much like John Baits, it's just having a
big receiver that's a downfield threat, that has the experience
that he has. It's just harder to replace. And that's
one of the reasons why I said, of all the positions,
you kind of feel like Austin Eckler is the easiest
because there's three dudes that can kind of get over
his skill set. Like here, it's like who do you

(09:35):
go to and nobody's really especially during training camp, shown
an ability to kind of fill that role at a
high level. So to me, it says, Cliff puts your
thinking cap on. Can we get more touches for Terry
deebo zach Ertz in certain situations? Can one of the
young guys step up? Do you have to shift who
we are offensively a little bit? So I think that's
going to be an interesting piece him and John to
kind of see how they negotiate that.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
I don't want to bury the lead. We all know
that everyone's looking into what's going on with Jane Daniels
and we don't know like the reality is, we don't
know what that is. As we're taping this right now.
Dan Quinn hasn't spoken to the media today. He is
definitively gonna be asked about it, right and we'll see
what they say about it. Nothing really needs to be
revealed or said until Wednesday when an injury report comes out,

(10:14):
and then they'll make a determination of describing what the
injury is and whether he participated in practice or not.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Right.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
So that's that's where we are just from a news perspective,
and I don't know anything more than that. So I'm
waiting to hear like everybody else that said hearing Jayden
Daniels or seeing him limp around and wondering what his
you know what, it looks like this is the one
that's really hanging out there that like we can name
all these people. This one's important, This one's important, This
one's important, this one's it. Yeah, right, if there's an

(10:43):
issue going on here.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, and again, like, I'm probably more confident in this
one because he finished the game, and if he wasn't
limping around, I'd be concerned because of the amount of
just body contacts he took in the game. I mean
you obviously called the game, like how many times did
he get hit? Like running sad like? It just was
there was a copious amount of body contact with him.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
An unusual amount that I'm not accustomed to seeing with him.
Typically when he escapes, he gets out of harm's way.
He's very good at getting out of bounds or staying
out of the hits of it. Right, There's it's impossible
to avoid all of it, but he's very good at that.
That wasn't the case.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, I think we'll talk about Green Bay here in
a minute, but I think that's a testament to them.
But I do think like if he wasn't limping, I'd
be I'd be like, man, test that man's piss Like
what are we doing? You know what I'm saying, Like
he's a human being, Like we got to kind of
handle that, right. So the the thing is, I'm very
confident that he'll be some semblance of okay, maybe not
this week, but the following week. And he's shown an

(11:39):
ability to, based on you know, kind of his VR training,
his walk through production, to kind of play games like
remember last year, I think it was the Chicago game
where he he was hurt, he broke his rib against Carolina,
came back on like a shorter week, and then played
like he's a tough, smart dude who knows his process.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
So and we found out after the fact that that
injury was worse than he had let on at the time.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Correct, and so he admitted that in so again like
you know, you know what makes good trainers tough players,
and he's a tough player. He's a smart guy. I'm
not He finished the game. I think that's the other
thing that gives me a lot of confidence. And even
though he was banged up, I felt like he looked Okay,
Now we'll see what Dan has to say, but I
just feel like there's ways to accommodate him. And also

(12:25):
I trust Marcus Mariota. I think like when he came
in at a play last year, like he looked great.
So I think that's one of the reasons why you
prioritize a veteran backup like that, is so that if
for whatever reason Jayden can't go this week, then you
have a guy in the room who knows the offense,
who's been very productive in this offense, who can get
the job done. So is it concerning, yes, But my
level of concern for whatever reason, I can't give you

(12:47):
an exact reason why finish the game all those things.
I'm not that worried about it for that, Yeah, because
so usually I'm the guy that's worried. You're kinda I
feel like a lot of consternation for me over.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
That you and I want to get into the offense
with you in a bit, because there are there are
a lot of things here. One, it wasn't clicking in camp.
Two now we're starting to add injuries to the to
the equation here, in particular to primary position players who
are starters for them. I agree with you about baits Like,
I think that is that is an enormous change for

(13:20):
them out there.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
I think the thing is like you can, you can,
you can solve the problem. There are there are even
though it's not ideal, like you can solve the problem.
And I think that's the important thing.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
As the heck of a hand. The Cliff's being dealt
right now, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, but that's why you get paid the big bucks man,
you know what I mean, Like you got it, Like
this is what makes a good offensive coordinator. It's like, ideally, yes,
the the what is it the Jimmy's and Joe's, not
the x's and o's. That's one hundred percent true. But
a good offensive coordinator can mitigate some of that and
put this put this group whatever whatever whichever takes the
field in a good situation, which is what I'm hoping.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
And again we're talking about this in the dark. We
don't know who's available, who's like like at this point,
so it's hard for me to like project out Okay,
what are we going to do? But I do want
to revisit this with you. What do you think Cliff
does under these scenarios and how you think he tries
to move the offense forward in a little bit. There
are two other injuries that should be mentioned Treamos like
Jane Daniels finished the game shoulder injury, went out for

(14:14):
a period of time, came back in. The one that
obviously is very concerning is Dietrich Wise, who that was
an ugly injury and that had the look and feel
of this isn't good and I am awaiting some kind
of official word. He certainly is not playing anytime soon
and we are awaiting word to see what his season
looks like.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, he's another guy that again like his experience, his role,
his leadership on the team.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
I thought he was the most underrated signing this team
made in the off season because of his experience and
because of exactly what they needed him to do it
in Week one he did it.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, but I do think you have some interesting pieces
that could potentially replace and also different methodologies to replace.
And so when you look at Javonte Jean Baptiste, I
think he's been playing sneaky good sneaky well, I should say.
And then I think you have Jyalen Holmes on the
practice squad who will probably be elevated now. And I
do think the utilization of guys like Javon Kinlaw moving.

(15:05):
You know, he's I think people envisioned him playing anywhere
from a three to a true shade, so kind of
in the garden Center area. But he's had a couple
reps where he's been playing a little bit wider, a
five technique, four eye that kind of thing. So can
you get into some of those big personnels, Frankie louver
to the edge? Are we playing a true odd front? Like?
Those are some ways I think to manage not having

(15:27):
a guy with his experience and his strength, you know,
like it was really you could feel him. And you
said like one of the kind of the sneaky underrated editions,
and I totally agree with you. But I do think,
much like the running back situation, there are pieces that
you say, I feel okay if they had to step
in a p Well.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
This is one of those where the depth, you know,
I think we kind of lotted that throughout the off season.
That is specifically on the offensive line, specifically on the
defensive mind they were a far deeper unit and so
let's get the test of it. Nobody goes a season
without suffering some injury somewhere this is where hopefully that
depth comes true. Agree with you that the answer with
him and I felt this way from the get go,

(16:03):
that we're not looking at here's the front four and
those are the guys that walk out there in every
single No, there's going to be a lot of creative
packages with all of these different groups. We've just unfortunately
had to remove what is a very very good, experienced
player from the equation of the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
I think that's the thing is the experience with both
with both Austin and him, right, It's like it's the
the intelligence, the reps you've banked, the you're not having
to And we're going to talk about this with Connor
Lely in a little bit, like you know, as a
young player, you have to earn the what is I'm
trying to think of the best way to explain it.
It's like you have to be burned to know that

(16:39):
fire's hot, right, you have to make mistakes in order
to get better, and they've already made their mistakes, you know,
and so like you can see that production it's like,
oh my gosh, look look what a smart player. Yeah,
they've played for ten years in the league, so Yeah,
that's the thing that you're going to have to negotiate
when you put those younger players. Let's experienced players up.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, all right, let's get into the game a little
bit here. That's that's all the injuries that we've been
dealing with. Well, obviously we'll know a lot more as
the week goes on. The offense taking on the green
Bay defense. You and I both agreed that coming in,
the performance that the Packers had against the Lions really
stood out. And I know it's Week one and people

(17:18):
will just automatically go, well, Ben Johnson isn't there anymore,
and it's just going to be a different year for them.
Go look at that roster that was the second highest
scoring team in NFL history that they completely shut down.
I can't remember a time where I saw a game
with them over the last few years where they didn't
have an explosive play, not one, right, and we saw

(17:39):
that again in real time. I say this all the time.
I don't know how you feel about it. It's not
who you play, it's when you play them. That team,
that front that green Bay has here early in the season,
and it's very early. They're playing as well as quick
to the ball as anybody in the NFL right now,
and we saw it on Thursday night and it was

(17:59):
a carry over from that. Gable City was one of
the biggest concerns I had, knowing that our offense isn't
quite where I think it's going to get to at
some point. And they're taken on a team that came
shot out of a cannon as the season began here.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, and I think, you know, it reminds me a
lot of like the Thursday Night game last year with
the Philadelphia Eagles, Like where the speed of the front,
the dexterity of the front is so much higher than
anybody else you're going to see probably for the year.
And again we'll see how healthy they stay. But you know,
they have a lot of we talked about this too,
like a lot of first round talent along the offensive line.

(18:31):
They've listened a lot of first round picks. I think
it's like six or seven something like that in the front,
and then if you're.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Your top three picks. I mean, they are traditionally a
team that doesn't do a lot in free agency. This
Parsons trade is very actually unusual for them to do
something like that. They are a draft team. This is
why they're the youngest team in the NFL. The majority
of their players are homegrown for them.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, and I think you feel that. And again, they
were a good front last year and they needed something
kind of the best way I heard to explain, like
they had a lot of redship players, like very good players,
but they needed someone like a true blue chip dominant player.
And they go out and get the second best player,
second or third best player in football on the defensive
side of the football and Michael Parsons and you can
just feel how that just tipped everything over the edge.

(19:15):
You felt him on every single play. And it frees
up you know Watts, it feels a Vans, it frees
up you know Rashan Gary. It frees up Cooper as
a blitzer and a rusher, and you can play. You
can rush for you can drop eight. You can hear
drop seven and play Tampa too and play. That's the
other thing is just the way they played their man
coverage is something that you I think will very rarely

(19:35):
see the rest of the season. Is you get guys
who are standing corners, who are standing at eight yards
feet in concrete. I'm not moving my eyes around the quarterback.
I'm seeing through the receiver of the quarterback and just
knowing that the ball will not get over my head
because the pass rush is so good. So we try
to throw a free access hitch. Those guys can break
on that thing because there's no risk of a double move.

(19:56):
There's no risk of anything, because they know that that
front can create pressure. And people say, oh, well, you know,
as our offensive line not playing well, right, And I say, well,
like Pine Sue, who's arguably the best right tackle in football,
gave up three pressures to Michael Parsons on less dropbacks, right,
So like, in terms of pressure percentage, almost the same
as what Josh Connelly did, which is crazy to think about,
but that's the context you're getting here. That's how good

(20:17):
that front is. And again, they might get nicked up,
someone might figure him out. But in terms of the
feel of it standing on the sideline and in terms
of the feel of watching tape, like that is a
special group that you're not going to see for the
rest of the year. I had a friend asked me, like, oh,
is this the formula if someone figured out the Commanders. Yeah,
if you can invest seven first round picks in your
front and have like a really dynamic Yeah, like maybe
you got the answer there, but look around the league.

(20:39):
What other front is going to be close to this?
Even Philadelphia when you watch them yesterday against Kansas City,
you don't feel the same way that you do about
this front.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, Like they traded Kenny Clark. Kenny Clarks provo caliber player. Yeah,
I haven't seen a drop off with Wyatt. Yeah, gross
two games.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
And again he might you know, he's a young player.
You never know how that goes. Like that's another one
where the experience of a season with Clark.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
People don't know who he is. But he also is
a high draft pick. I think it was a two
or three. He's a high draft pick.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Think he was a twenty ninth pick.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, yes, Cooper high draft pick. Rashan Gary paid because
he's turned out to be a very.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Very teenth overall pick. Like yes, like there's draft capital
invested there. Maness is a top fifteen pick. Like they're
like go across the board, man Like kway Walker is
a first round pick. Right, he's a top twenty pick
in the NFL. Like there's they look a certain way.
They're long, they're fast, they're all combined freaks, right, they
all you know, So he would say, why wasn't Jane

(21:33):
able to run? I'll tell you, I can't think of
a team that has two linebackers that run some four
five forties, that are big and long and can track
people down like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
This was honestly one of the first times, you know,
when Jayden does his escape acts that he actually took
body contact. Secondarily couldn't get away from them. I mean,
this was this was one of the he had what
one or two rushes or scrambles that ended up being
the what we've grown accustomed to with him, where he
gets away, beats somebody to the edge and he turns

(22:03):
something out of nothing, and he goes out of bounds
and he stays out of harm's way. How many times
in this game were the packers standing there waiting for
him and he couldn't outrun them after the escape? I also,
this is a minor thing, but I think the field
played a little bit of a role. There was a
ton of people slipping, There was a lot it was
there was a lot of issues. There was clearly a
lot of issues with the field, and it obviously attributed

(22:23):
to Austin Eckler's situation as well, but like that's only
a small part of this. This was the real first
time that I saw a team that was ready for
this when he was escaping and he was incapable of
doing the things that we had grown accustomed to seeing
with him with his legs.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, I think the other thing too, like you know,
every quarterback Jaden though specifically you know, for the purposes
of this discussion last year, like quick pressures are fatal pressures,
and I felt like there was a lot of quick
quick pressures like White had a couple obviously, Parsons had
a couple, Cooper had a couple where it's happening so
quickly in the backfield. And the other thing too is
I thought they had a really good rush plan where

(23:01):
they're you know, they're kind of bulling on one edge,
they're coming high with Parsons, they're flushing them to his left.
It looks like there's grass, they're looping a three technique out.
They had a really good plan, yeah, to kind of
manage his pocket movements and keep him in the pocket.
And so I think, like that's another thing. You got
to give credit to Green Bay for the personnel, but
Also the scheme I thought was really good, and people say, oh, like,

(23:22):
is this going to be a problem moving forward? It's like, well,
you look back at last year and you say, well,
Pittsburgh gave a hard time. That's how they rush. They
have a very comprehensive brush brand because they see Lamar
Jackson all the time, right, And you say, oh, what
about and then Philadelphia too? Right? And think about the
quality and the speed of those fronts, specifically at the
linebacker level. It's like a different speed than most teams have. Yeah,
in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
I think people though, and I'll ask you this because
week one, Dexter laur It's Brian Burns Caveon tabadea different
Abdol Carter in a debut who wasn't actually on the
field defensively it probably as much as he's going to
be down the road. For sure made his impact on
special teams. But you look at that group and you go, Okay,
they rushed for two hundred and something yards. They had
four hundred something yards on them. That's a group that

(24:03):
I look at, at least personnel wise, and go, that's
as good on paper as you're going to get. And
then they go against a different team, and yeah, that's
a really, really, really good group that maybe doesn't have
the namesake outside of Parsons that some of these others do.
They couldn't move the ball in this tear.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
So I'll tell you this, Like one of the things
that stuck out to me when I was watching film
get Ready for Green Bay is they have a little
bit it's not an undersized front, but a little bit
smaller pieces on the interior. Right, They've got guys that
are like three h five three ten, not Dexter Lawrence
three seventy. And what it does is it allows them
to move laterally and penetrate so much more effectively. Right,
and then they have these kind of edge players and

(24:39):
Rashauan Gary and people sleep on Lucas Vans and his effectiveness.
They can set like violently hard edges and it just
kind of bottles and murks it all up in a
way that the Giants have never been able to do
in my estimation, right, they've never had that extra three
technique opposite Dexter Lawrence that really they have great edge play, right,
they have great guys that can rush the passer from

(24:59):
the perimeter, but they've not had that three technique opposite
where you.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Say they have a constant rotating group of people that
are standing next to Lawrence and none of them end
up standing out.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Correct and like, so we just talked about why, Like
he had a bunch of really nice quick wins, you know,
up the middle of the field, so you're getting this
edge pressure in so think about it. There's a couple
times where Connor Lee is doing a good job creating
with in the pocket and Jaden can step up, but
you're getting pressure on the interior, or you're getting a
bull rush from Shan Gary on the other side, and
it just condenses the pocket in a way. And you
talk about some of the things that Jane Daniels has

(25:29):
to work on, one of them is just small pocket movement,
and so there's several times where he's taking these big
movements to vacate the pocket and they're kind of green.
Bay's almost encouraging that response. And so as the season
goes on, I think he'll get more comfortable. The offensive
line won't get more comfortable, but that front, they had
a really good, a great personnel, b very good plan.

(25:50):
And I think the other thing people sleep on is
the second level speed of Cooper and Walker in that defense,
because you think about Zach Bond, Like the last time
I saw Jane Daniels struggle versus the team scrambling, it
was Philadelphia with Zach Bond and it was Pittsburgh with
Queen Right, Like, the guys that can really rip sideline
the sideline and match his athleticism. The Giants don't have
anybody at the second level of the defense they can

(26:12):
do that, and they don't have a three technique they
can russe the passer the way that Green Bay had
a couple guys that could do.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
All right, let me talk about the offensive line a
little bit. Obviously, people see the rush. A good portion
of it was four man rush, you know, a lot
of it. A lot of the pressure came from that.
And we're seeing the right side and Josh Connerlee is
getting trial by fire for sure. I mean, welcome to
the NFL. He got Brian Burns a week ago. He's
going to get Max Crosby this weekend. And he had
of what I've seen so far, and I haven't seen

(26:36):
the Raiders obviously play their second game yet, but like
because they're playing tonight, but that Green Bay group was
as good as I've seen coming out of the gate,
especially off of Detroit. Welcome to the NFL. So what
would you say to Josh Connerlee today is he's kind
of getting his feet wet in his career here.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
I'd say there are both tough outs, right, and the
thing So obviously there's some technical things that I think
could be improved upon for him, right, some you know,
hand positioning, some hip positioning, some understanding your pass protection line,
things that come with experience. Right. We just talked about
why it's important for why veterans are valuable is they've

(27:14):
they've been burned by fire a bunch of times, and
they know these things. He's learning those things now. I
think the one thing if you're a fan of the
Commanders of your fan of Josh Connery like I am,
is that dude competes his tailoff. Yeah, like I don't.
There's certain times like where you're watching a game, like
did you watch the Giants game yesterday? Like where the
tackle had like a total meltdown in the first quarter
and they had to bench him. Like every once in

(27:35):
a while you watch you watch film and you say
that guy does not belong in the NFL, Like he's
not wired mentally the right way. And when I watched
Josh Connolly, like he had a couple reps where he
stones Rashan Gary, where he stones Michael Parsons on fifty
six dropbacks like they're gonna get some, you know what
I'm saying. And so I think that's the thing that
really sticks out to me is the competitive nature of

(27:56):
the individual is something you can definitely build around, right,
you can build on moving forward. And so I think
he's going to be a very good player, but again
he's going to he's got to work on. Hey, this
this punch technique needs to be more locked in. My
elbows need to be tighter. I can't overset my line
versus good. That's the other thing is when you're playing
a what I would call like a top ten player
at the position. So Michael Parsons fits this mold is

(28:19):
they have a little bit of carte blanche to freelance
a little bit more so your traditional set, right, your
kind of normal kickset doesn't work as well because they
have a two way go and most guys don't have
that same luxury. So they're going to kind of be
really disciplined rush the outside shoulder and kind of play
by the rules in a way that Michael Parsons, T J.
Watt when I was playing, or Von Miller when I

(28:40):
was playing, didn't have to abide by in the same way.
And so you have to kind of change what you're doing.
And I think that's what he's getting to see here
is that learning process.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
I mean, you know, go through all these stats and
last week Brian Burns's stats were one of like three
players to have eight plus sacks in the first five
seasons of his career. The other players are Hall of famers.
Michael Parsons is tracking towards the most sacks in his
first you know, four or five seasons of his career.
The next closest, like the person who has more name

(29:08):
is Reggie White, maybe the greatest defensive player in the
history of again, right, he believes he's the greatest defensive
player in the history of the NFL. Max Crosby is
what I don't know it offhand, but it's top five
maybe the top three sacks, pressure rate, win rate, all
that stuff in the NFL over the last five years.

(29:28):
He's gotten a tough draw, you know, to start he
has and like there's a reason why these guys have
these numbers. They beat everybody, right, they beat everybody. But
he's a rookie. And this is what it is.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Say the thing about Oakland, Oakland, Las Vegas. See him
got an old man, can't remember where they play anymore.
But is there is just it's just Max Crosby. It's
not like there's a guy in the other end that
you need to really be thinking about, right in the
same way they've they've invested draft capital, but none of
those guys have really.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Yeah, they have top ten pick on the other side,
Wilson name.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, but he hasn't really figured it out right, So
like you can this week we kind of had to orioh.
We got Wyatt on the interior, we got Vans on
the interior, we got you know, Gary on the other side.
We got Cooper Blitz in the A gap. But so
even our slide rules were a little bit funny because
I can't really give full commitment because this guy can
rush the passer here. It's like we can. This is
the thing, This is the crown jewel in the front,

(30:21):
and I think we can dedicate way more attention to
him specifically as opposed to this front where it's like,
hey man, we got four dudes, you can win one
on ones plus two linebackers, you can beat the back
So that becomes a little bit more complicated then what
what Las Vegas should be presenting.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
I don't want to stay on Connorley here too. I
mean again, the Packers rushed for often, they faux pressured
like they were going to bring more, but they often
thought four this is a collective thing. It wasn't all once,
no doubt it was a collective thing. So just overall,
just your thoughts through two weeks and specifically last Thursday
night on where the offensive line can.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
I think it's an important reminder that, you know, I
think Cliff Kingsbury wants to be a run first off
wants us to be a run first offense, and I think,
as we talked about on the broadcast, like it felt
like he kind of got away, honestly from that core tenant.
I think he could feel like and I haven't talked
to him about it, but I've just been watching it
felt like he kind of got away from that because

(31:15):
he felt like the game was getting out of hand
even though it was a one score game. Late late
in the game, if I remember correctly. So what I
would say is like a one way to insulate the
offensive line is to run the football a little bit more,
be a little bit more definitive with the screen game,
be a little more definitive with the quick game early on,
and be more patient offensively as opposed to getting into
these heavy dropback situations early. And I felt like when

(31:38):
you go back and watch the tape, it's like it's
a lot of very hard downs for everyone in the
offensive front, you know, Like for the backs, it's hard
because it's obvious passing situations. We're in the gun, we're
in empty, we're in five man pros. Like that's a lot,
that's a lot of stress on that group. And so
I think just getting back into a more normal game
flow will help the coordinator. It's always like like one

(32:01):
of the things Kyle Shanahan used to say all the
time is like like this offense is built for a
second and eight. We're not built for second and ten,
Like we can't do what we want to do. And
I think we saw the efficiency this group had last
week when they're able to overcome you know, when they're
on schedule, like they're devastating their impossible to stop. So
I think that's something to keep in mind when reviewing

(32:21):
this last game. Is like, the game flow was not
great and they put that group in a really high
stress situation. Yea, and I think you saw the result.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
I'll focus on on Jaden in a moment. I want
to talk about the offense overall, just in general really
through two weeks and specifically again, I think they caught
a team who just is red hot, you know, especially
with that front, and you just have to watch that
game against the Lions to go, this was gonna be tough,
like this felt like this could be a low scoring
game that was gonna be hard to move the ball.
But part of that also, you know, I think to

(32:50):
be fair here is throughout the summer, the offense, you know,
didn't practice a lot together, right, you know, there was
a lot a lot of reasons for that injury. These
people going in and out, they didn't play much in
the preseason and here early in the season, I would
describe it as that, I would say the timing has
been off, especially in the passing game. It feels like
the timing is off here, and I, for what am

(33:13):
not overly surprised by that. Especially if you have a
group that's able to get to the passer as quickly
as this one did on Thursday night, that there's kind
of no time to breathe and the timing's been a
little bit off. Do you think I'm onto something here?

Speaker 2 (33:27):
You're crazy? No, I think you're pretty spot on. Actually,
I think that's really good analysis. Like it's like, especially
in the pass game, it's all timing based, like offensive line.
In the run game, it's all run like. It's it's
relationship based. It's how you're gonna fit this combination. And
so the fact that it feels a little weird or
like what's the timing on this comeback or what's the crossing?

Speaker 1 (33:48):
The misses on the screen game. I know how accurate
this quarterback is. Yeah, the misses on the screen game,
the lack of like almost pinpoint accuracy, which I've grown
accustomed to him on a lot of these three, Like,
it's just kind of not there. The connection with Terry
isn't quite there yet, yeah, which is not overly surprised
considering they didn't practice together a lot throughout the course

(34:09):
of the spring and the summer. So there's a lot
of this that I just kind of attribute to I
think it's going to get better, Like I think it's
going to take time, But I'm not surprised that we're
having what I would call a slow start to the
season in the passing game for a variety of reasons.
Some of it is the opponents that they drew and
the ability that they have up front, and some of

(34:32):
it is it just feels like the timing is just
across the board is a little bit off for all
these variety of things that are going on right now.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
No, I'm with you, and I think you know, it's
not a coincidence that the guys that with the most
targets over the first couple weeks of the season are
Zach Ertz and Deebo Samuel.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
The players who were here throughout the summer practicing every single.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Time, right And because again, like you got to you
gotta trust their spot, You got to trust the way
they're seeing it that it's the same way you're seeing it.
And so I think, yes, it makes a lot of
sense that there's going to be a little bit of
a feeling out pere, a little bit of trial by fire,
right in terms of on the job reps, which doesn't
isn't ideal, but that's how it's going. And I do
think it'll get better and I trust that they'll find

(35:11):
a way to I said this to somebody recently. Like
one of the things about the NFL as everyone thinks, oh,
you're ready, you're ready for everything week one, right, like
that's when everything starts. But really you don't know the
team and know like what you're good at until probably
week four five maybe in terms of what our true identity.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Is, I think that's the whole league.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
No, No, And I'm not saying here, yeah, I'm saying that.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Like when I played, it was like, trust me, they're
up in Minnesota after what happened the last first couple
of weeks where their offense had one strong quarter of
eight Yeah, and probably going what's going on here right now?

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Right?

Speaker 1 (35:44):
This is everywhere?

Speaker 2 (35:45):
No, it's true, and I think, yeah, no, I think
that's exactly right. So I don't I don't think this
is like unique. I think it makes sense to your point,
like all the things you just said. So yeah, I
think it's just going to take time, which I know
a lot of people don't want to hear, but I
think IT'SNNA takes time to kind of feel everything out,
make sure everyone's on the same page. But it'll click.
I'm very confident it will because the coaches here are

(36:07):
very smart. Cliff's very smart, Jaden's a competitive dude, Terry's
a true pro, and they're going to figure out this
relationship and yeah, this chemistry, it'll get on track here,
I think sooner rather than yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
I'm like, I'm not surprised that the explosive plays they've
had Deebo, Samuel and Zach Ertz. Maybe less surprised by Ertz.
Like the one really good thing that touchdown he scored
was a run after catch scene a lot out of him.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Old Zach olds.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
This was old Zach. This was old Zach Like, this
was one of the first times I've seen him make
that kind of play from that far out, you know,
on a yards after catch moment. He's been noticeable. There
is positives that came out of this. He has been
noticeable that it looks like he is quicker and faster

(36:54):
and was noticeable throughout the summer then he was even
a year ago, and I think it was really on
display on that particular touchdown he caught the ball the
eighteen yard line, juped a guy and got to the
corner of the end zone and beat what we've described
as one of the fastest fronts we've seen. That was
really that was a takeaway for me from him that

(37:15):
he's capable of that now. That looked like the guy
we faced in Philadelphia five six years ago.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, you know, And I think it's great play design,
great execution, and so obviously they're capable of it. And
it's great to see Zach making those plays. It's great
to see Zach be uncoverable. He's running that corner, gets
a holding call, you know, running the choice route, wins
on the route like he's got the ability to do it.
Like you said, he looks in great shape, and Jade
and him have this great chemistry and I think that's
something that's going to continue to develop and is it
going to give be a continued bright spot for this team.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
All right downfield passing game, it's been practically non existent
really through the first couple of weeks. I think that
has a lot to do with timing. The few shots
that they've taken to Terry mccluurin just haven't connected yet.
He seems to be their best downfield threat.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Currently, I think they have a couple of players that
could develop into that, but he's the one currently that's
not happening. And in this particular game, did they take
a shot down the field? I don't even remember that.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
They had a box fade to Terry. You know, they're
in that three by one and they're running the dou
two outs and he runs the box fade and the
guy's kind of in his hip and you know, I
don't know if the ball gets completed, but like kind
of to your point, like that ball's almost out of
bounds or right on the white, which is kind of
uncharacteristic for Jade, And you mentioned the one he missed
week won, and I just think it's I think the
other thing too that we haven't talked about. You mentioned

(38:31):
the accuracy in the Green Bay game, Like there was
a couple times on screens where there's a free runner
and he's got a kind of shuffler's feet in a
weird way get the ball out, Like on this play,
like it's there's pressure in his lap and the ball's
got to get out a little quicker than he wants.
And so I do think it's hard to I'm sure
Jane would tell you could he can and should and
needs to be better. But I also think it's important

(38:51):
to remember how affected he was. I think it was
on fifty percent of his dropbacks there was some type
of pressure, and so like, that's just so un settling
for a quarterback in terms of accuracy, in terms of footwork,
in terms of mechanics that and I'm not making an
excuse for him, but it's important to acknowledge the environment
in which he's trying to do some of this stuff,
especially in this game against Green Bay. So if you

(39:13):
remove some of that stress from him from the offense,
and let's say the pressure rate goes from fifty to
a more normal twenty five or thirty percent, Yeah, I
do think the offensive efficiency will just naturally go up, right,
I mean that's kind of my thought in terms of
the way he's going to se stuff, in the way
he's going to make some of these throws.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Do you think that this goes back to they've got
to figure out something to help protect and give him
a little bit more time in general?

Speaker 2 (39:38):
I think I think to me, the simplest thing, the
simplest thing is that if you look at the game
flow from the Giants game is just stay relatively on schedule.
Like look at the Bill krossky Merrit's numbers, look at
Austin Ecklers numbers. Like the rushing efficiency was there, right,
We were able to kind of stay in these more
manageable down in distances. And we talked about on the
last Booth review how they were in all these because
of penalties. They were in longer down in distance and

(40:00):
they had to like work magically to overcome them. But
I think when you look at last year and look
at when they were at their best, it's like, hey,
third and five is a winnable down in distance for us, right,
And when you look at the call sheet or like
the down in distance numbers, there wasn't a lot of
third and fives in the game the other day, right,
There weren't a lot of them. And so that's where
to me, Cliff, that's where most offensive coordinators are at
their best. So can we find again more efficiency on

(40:22):
first and second down. Be patient with the run game,
be patient with the quick game, be patient with the screens.
Those high percentage throws, easy completions for the quarterback, and
I think you're going to see an offensive efficiency that
we're more accustomed to. But again, like this defense, credit
to them, they made it very challenging to do that.
And I also think the game flow, which people forget about,
makes it very challenging to do that sometimes.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
For a coordinator.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
So I think all of those things, if they normalize
a little bit and they're not revved up to eleven
all the time, I think the offensive efficiency will get better. Yes.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
I mean, like, in all likelihood, if I went back
and watched some of the games from a year ago,
you'll see some of the same mistakes, drops, misses, all
this stuff, But they were hitting so many chunk plays
in so many different ways you kind of they went
in the wash and you just kind of forgot about
all this stuff. So like when I'm rewatching the Green
Bay game the other night, the drop slash punch out

(41:13):
on the Noah Brown, you know, it was a big
deal because it felt like one of the few times
that we were having these moments. And that's the biggest
difference to me early in the season as opposed to
last year where that ended up. Of course, it's a
big deal when that doesn't happen, but it didn't feel
like it was game changing. And I go back to
this moment and I go, man, if that completetion occurred,

(41:34):
it might be a completely different ball. Give they're gonna
probably get points on the board one way or the other,
and the whole game flow changes entirely. But it's that
one moment and if you're hinging on one moment to
kind of salvage it, as opposed to all of the
different times where they're like they just wipe it off
their shoulders and go, well, we're gonna hit you again
with this, this, this, and this, it feels completely different,

(41:56):
and so like I rewatch it, and that play really
stood out to me because I went the game's different,
get that catches completed.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
But also even even go back to the first the
first drive of the game, they get to a third,
it's a fourth and one, but it's a holding call
and it backs up and ends up Bena, I forget
it was like a third ten or third to let
whatever it was. But like they were in a position
where they could go for it realistically, go for it, realistically,
extend the drive. Penalty pushes him back right. Even in

(42:21):
the two minute drive before half, they got a holding
call or a false start, pushes him back right, and
then all of a sudden after a run, you're now
from second and ten to second and twenty or whatever.
It was like, it's those moments. We talked about it
after the Giants game. Those penalties, those kind of misfires
against better teams are going to be more impactful, and
they were. And I think when you look at again,

(42:43):
when you go back and watch the Philadelphia game.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Because nobody's perfect, you're gonna make a mistakes to be drops.
There's gonna be wha makes a nice play, That's what's
gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
But when you go back to the Philly game, like
the margin farrer is tighter, right, and so this felt
to me like a Philly game. That's what it felt
like for both the games. Lactually the playoff game and
the first time played on Thursday night, Like just the
margin farrer are so small, The completion percentage was a
little bit off, the timing was a little bit and
like because it's a grind when you play good teams,
it is an absolute grind because everything is more difficult.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
All right, let's talk about the defense. Yeah, a little
bit here. Green Bay was not scared to take shots
down the field early, and often they didn't complete many
of them. They did hit that one big one to
the tight end Tucker Craft, but they tried one to
Matthew Golden that didn't hit. They had a penalty that
took points off the board on the injury play to
Jane Reid. There was a ball that was a little

(43:34):
late to Golden that might have been a Touchdow that
Amos made a great recovery knocked away. They took a
lot of shots. Were you surprised that they elected to
go for this? I expected them to be a little
more conservative early in the game because they were a
little more conservative against the Lions, but that's not the
way that they attacked this early in the game against Well.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
I mean, they're smart. They probably did a little self
scout and said we can be more aggressive, and I
think they or more aggressive, and you know, I think
the thing is like talk about just a nice point
of junctaposition between you know, the Commander's offense and the
Green Bay offense. Like they did a great job of
staying on schedule. Very little actual straight drop back stuff,
a lot of play action, a lot of misdirection from

(44:17):
the backfield, a lot of motions to kind of set
up and create different rush angles for the for the
defensive line, it was very and because they're on schedule
the whole time. And obviously there's a couple of situations
where they're able to overcome, you know, like it was
in the third quarter where where there was a big penalty,
then they're able to overcome it on a big chunk
play whatever. But I'd say on the whole they did
a good job of staying on schedule and staying in

(44:38):
this game flow that we're describing, like with an efficient
run game, there's some trickeration in there, some misdirection stuff,
and then they're able to get some chunks and really,
if you look at it, that's the difference in the game.
Like Down to down, I thought the defense actually played okay,
but then you get to.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
Agree there's actually if you rewatch correct, you're gonna see
a different story than probably on that side of the ball.
But what you probably remember from Thursday night, right.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
But like you said, like the chunk plays that the
commander's offense weren't able to find, green bayed offense is
able to find.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
That's right. Some of it's from and they had some
serious near misses on players that were open.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Correct. Yeah, absolutely, so I think that to me, that's
the story. I think you felt like a good, competitive,
tough commander's style energy from the defense, especially on the rewatch.
But I thought there was some things technically that Green
Bay did that put put our guys in binds. And
that's what you're supposed to do. It is a good offense,
right is put them in conflict for in terms of vision,
in terms of how we're fitting this run, in terms

(45:30):
of my man and man responsibilities, and I think you
see that edge created some explosive opportunities down the field.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Yeah. The other thing, I'm sure and the coaches are
going to preach this because this is what they talk about,
at least with us all the time. This team has
not generated a turnover yet two weeks yep. And in
this particular game, I don't remember a play where it
looked like a turnover was about to happen. So there
wasn't like a dropped interception or tip balls at the
line of scrimmage, or a near fumble or anything like that.

(45:59):
So what do you to make of ball is life?
But it's just not happening right now.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
I mean, it's one of those statistics that has a
lot of variance to it, you know, traditionally. And I
think I think the other thing too that is important
to remember is like on a short week, like, it's tough,
it's tough to know exactly who Green Bay is at
this point of the season because, like you said, in
the Detroit game, they're pretty conservative offense.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
They were very conservative offensively, built a lead and then
all of a sudden and let their defense. Boy were
they confident their defense? Boy were they right about for
the first two games to take on these two offenses
off of what happened a year ago and to have
the performances that they.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Had, Yeah, yeah, And so I think that's that's something
that sticks out to me is just like the like
when you watch that Detroit game, it's like, well, none
of the stuff that they did against uh against the Commanders,
they did against against Detroit. Right it was a much
different game plan, much different approach. And you could tell
they had to say, oh, well, we had we struggled
versus these coverages versus Detroit. Let's put these plays in

(46:54):
because again, Detroit plays a lot of man the Commanders
play a lot of man, so in some ways it
was almost like a perfect short week game for them
because they said, this is a team that plays a
lot of man in Detroit, this is what we had
our time with, how can we exploit more man and
man coverage looks? And then they just bumped right into
a team that plays a very similar defensive philosophy on
a short week, so it was like it was almost
like just a power up boost for this game, and

(47:15):
so they could prep a little bit more. And for
the Commanders, when you look at what they did against Detroit,
you're kind of like, I don't see anything that's going
to really make me nervous or make me, you know,
like anything that's going to challenge us in a way
that we were challenged on Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Yeah, it was the second week in a row. Like again,
it wasn't all bad, and I agree with you and
rewatching it. The defense felt different to me than what
I felt Thursday. It just felt like because there's two
long drives and they scored on those, and there were
these near misses where you go, this game could have
gotten out of hand had he hit one of those
bombs to Golden Either one of them, like either one

(47:48):
of them or if that play to recounts as a touchdown,
This is a very It tuels like it would have
been a very different game. I will say this second
week in a row, they really stood up in the
red zone again, did it against the Giants, and they
had one against the Packers as well. So that's a
good sign for the defense. And what I think is
a more maybe not after what happened in Dallas yesterday,
but feels like a more eclectic offense at Green Bay

(48:12):
than the one that the Giants are bringing. They were
able to slow that down.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
To Yeah, I mean they're able to slow down, no doubt,
but yes they were. And I think the fact that
they have some kind of stick touitiveness, some grit, especially
in the red zone, like that's a that's a winning situation.
You know. You always hear Fletch on the broadcast talking about, hey,
in the red zone, if we can hold in the three,
if in the red zone, if we can hold in
the three, if we can. But I think the one
thing that sticks out to me it really is like

(48:36):
just the explosive plays down the field and how like
those to me, those are the difference in the game, right,
So one of them's on a mental mistake apparently, and
then some of it is the craft. Yeah, one on
a mental mistake, and then one you know, there's an
offensive PI that doesn't get called. And again Latimore is
being really handsy with them too, so maybe they're just
letting them play ball there. But those like if you
just kind of step back and say, what's the difference

(48:56):
between like why they scored backed up, it's that play.
It's like it's a fifty six yard bought like big
completion to a tight end. And so I think that's
something to kind of maybe keep an eye on moving forward,
is how do you manage some of those missed opportunities
from a mental standpoint. And again, I feel very confident
that this team will handle it because you know, when
you talk to Dan Quinn, that's something that like drives

(49:17):
him is improving. And this is something else I just
want to point out is sometimes these types of games,
these types of mistakes, are good that they happen in
week two because now we can say, hey, maybe we're
not maybe we're not super maybe this communication and our
man coverage is too difficult versus a bunch we can
get this cleaned up a little bit, and so kind
of seeing those pressure points now is better because it

(49:38):
helps you build and grow and develop a defense that's
more comprehensive down the road when the games, I want
to say, quote unquote matter more you play off caliber.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Yeah, I feel like this is the second time this happened.
The first preseason game was day Quit said it like
that this was a moment that he wanted to talk.
I mean, I know it was all the backups. You know,
they didn't play the starters really, but he was not
happy with the on the turnovers, the special teams. I'm
not turnovers, penalties, special teams mistakes. And they talked about it.

(50:07):
The first Patriots came, he was open about it Patriots game.
Now we've got Week two here, and I am trying to, like,
after the long weekend, remind myself, they played a really
good team on the road in a night game on
a short week and lost. That will happen. I could

(50:28):
promise you, as good as Green May looked, that they
will lose this year. Nobody's gonna go undefeated. You will lose.
And I'm trying to remind myself of that, you know,
and I think that that it's very early, like it's
very early. Like last year in Week one, Washington played Tampa.
That game was not particularly close. There were a ton
of deep play touchdowns, big chunk plays that really made

(50:48):
the difference of the game. Jayden was running for his life,
just like in this one, running for his life, and
guess what happened a few months later when they played
them again. So it is very very very here, but
this one felt more closer to me like the Baltimore
game a year ago, where I'm not sure that the
scoreboard is as indicative of how lopsided at times that

(51:13):
this thing actually felt on Thursday night. But it doesn't
mean that there isn't going to be a rebound from it,
because I saw it from this team a year ago.
It goes back to what we talked to in the beginning.
I'm a little concerned about the amount of injuries that
came out of this, especially early in the season, and
a couple of them are season ending or likely season
ending injuries, So that worries me a little bit here too.

(51:33):
But it is very early, and I do think that
team that they played is very very good.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
I agree with that what you said, it it's early.
Team's good. And again, like you want to win every game,
but you're not going to And so I think the
only reason, the only thing that would make this bad
is if you didn't learn from the mistakes you made
in this game. Like if we didn't learn from you know,
some of the things we had from a coverage standpoint,
we didn't learn kind of managing game flow as a

(51:58):
play caller to make sure that we can be patient
in certain situations. And I'm not saying that Cliff or
you know, Joe called a bad game, but these are
all learning opportunities for everybody, for the players, for the coaches.
And again, if you can take this game of a
good team and say, Okay, this is the standard of
play that we need to get to to get to
where we want to go, which is ultimately the super Bowl,
then it's not a loss. It's going to make you

(52:19):
better down the road, which is ultimately the goal every
time you step on the field in between the lines.
And I think kind of that's what you're speaking to,
is like, you want to win every game, but if
you are going to lose a game, I feel like
that sometimes is the best way to learn and improve
yourself moving forward.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
I mean that Tampa game happened in week one, that
Cincinnati game happened in week three. Things can change very
very very quickly. And I think you've just saw this
with the Lions who played the Packers in Week one,
didn't have an explosive play and just put up fifty
plus on a team a week later, So things can change.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
During the score that Detroit game, what was the score?

Speaker 1 (52:56):
It was like twenty seven to thirteen and the touchdown
was garbage time and that guy who made a crazy catch,
it was twenty seven to six.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
For a long time right to the whole game.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
They couldn't get in They couldn't get an explosive play.
I don't want to go back to the offense just
for a moment. Okay, if you agree that timing is,
you know, something that they need to work on. And
there are now a number of injuries that may or
may not affect what they're looking at, you know, coming
up this weekend. We don't know. With Noah Brown, we
don't know what John Bates. I think we do know.
With Eckler, we don't know what Jayden honestly, like, what
do you think Cliff Kingsbury's thinking about this week as

(53:25):
he tries to, you know, take what is now a
very different hand than he was dealt a week ago
and moving forward and trying to find some chunk plays,
explosive plays and points with this team.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
I think that's the one thing about Cliff and this
offensive staff. There are a bunch of smart dudes, and
so I think you just kind of go to the
first principle of like offensive play calling in my opinion,
which is like how do we put the guys in
the best position to be successful? And then how do
we put the team in the best position to win
the game. And so maybe I want to shift kind
of my focus. Maybe it's more conservative, maybe it's more aggressive.

(53:56):
But I'm going to talk with Dan, I'm going to
talk with Joe about how they feel defense, you know,
like we can handle against the Las Vegas Raiders and
kind of go from there. And like that I think
is going to inform the direction. If I was the
offensive corner of the direction, I would go with some
of my decision making, right, So, like maybe we can't
be in as much twelve personnel as I wanted, or

(54:16):
maybe we do have to go big. What does that
do to the defense. What's the response going to be?
All those questions are going to be answered, but it's
really how do we put the guys in the best
position to be successful, and then how do we make
sure the team's win in this football game? Because shoot,
if we score seven points and they score six, we
still win. Like that doesn't feel very good offensively, but
we won the game, and then we can work and
build and continue to grow and teach in an environment

(54:38):
that is a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
The Rams beat the Texans two weeks ago, fourteen to nine.
No one's complaining about it.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
It's a win, man. Whin's a win.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Whin's a win? All right? Let me talk about the
Raiders with you for a moment. I haven't I saw
a little bit of the Patriots game. Obviously, you guys
were taping the same plate their second game. Because they're
playing tonight, Washington is catching a break here. In the past,
this has always been the opposite where the short week
stuff has always gone seemingly against them, watching to play Thursday.
They're playing Monday night. Yeah, they're playing Monday night and
taking their second East coast trip in three weeks. So

(55:05):
the schedule's not friendly to the Raiders here for this
game this weekend, assuming you haven't seen a lot of them,
I do want to ask you about two of their
prominent players. I'm sure you scouted the you know, one
out of them, Ashton Genty, Like, what did you think, Like,
what's the high end ceiling for him coming out coming
in here?

Speaker 2 (55:23):
High end ceiling. He's a baller, man, He's an absolute baller.
He's fast, he's explosively break tackles, he maximizes dirty runs.
He has not done that so far through one week
the one game I've seen, because they're often to me
like this is a classic like offensive liner running back
situation in terms of improving the run game, they're a
little bit kind of land of misfit toys along the
offensive line. I think you feel that with Ashton Genty,

(55:46):
and I really like the number one driver of there,
and I think in a perfect world, Petek Carol would
have him be the number one driver, kind of like
your beast mode Marshall Lynch type player. But I do
think that right now, Gino Smith is playing really good football,
at least from the game that I've seen this year.
And why when he was in Seattle So I think
that's something that is going to be really interesting to
watch because they do have a guy who's willing to

(56:06):
push the football down the field and can find explosive
plays pretty consistently. So how do you manage that aggressive
nature of Gino Smith? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (56:13):
So did you do eight thousand interviews a week? And
we'll have to deal with me on the pregame show
this weekend. And off of what Tucker Craft did, I
think you are going to get asked a million times
about brock Bauers, who had if it was up to
me Jade Dagels' Rookie of the Year, he would have
been the second choice for a lot of people. Yeah,
after he broke a record last year like tight ends

(56:33):
as a rookie. Ever, he is a dominant past receiving
tight end. So what did you kind of see out
of him and what.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
He I mean, we'll see tweaked his knee week one
and so he didn't practice this week. He's been a
knee brace. So I'm really kind of waiting to the
night to see like where he's at because you know,
sometimes people play that game where it's like, oh, I'm
gonna play, but I don't actually play, like, how are
they going to save him? Is he going to be
ready for this week? And because he's such a movement
piece in the offense and his ability to win one

(57:00):
on one is kind of in the same way zach
Ertz has that ability, it'll be interesting to see, like
hit where his health is at, because he is a
big feature of the offense. Again, talk about just a
weapon for Gino Smith but Myers Mayors, I don't know
how to say his name. The guy from Notre Dame
from a couple of years ago got a little bit
more target share like when he was out. So they
do have very good depth at the tight end position

(57:20):
there and I think that'll be a factor obviously in
the game.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
All right, last thing, like you played for a long time.
This was a rough game, Like what's important in the
locker room? What are guys talking about? Is that because
it's it's early, so what are people talking about?

Speaker 2 (57:32):
I mean, that would have been my first thing to say,
is that it's early. It's like, there's so much time
to make this correct, to make this correction off this game, right,
So I was thinking back in twenty twelve, we made
the playoffs, like we were what were we three and six, right,
so we were definitely staring down the barrel of a
you know, everyone getting fired and me having to find
a new job and going to back to school and

(57:53):
all that kind of thing. But you figure out your
rhythm late in the year. We talked about knowing who
you are and knowing what you're good at, and we
in that season just kind of clicked at the right moment.
After that bye week, came back, felt really good and
this is a mini buy time for self scout, self evaluation.
And I think again, like, if this is later in
the year, it's harder having a loss like this because

(58:13):
you're like, man, we're so established, We're so deep in it, Like,
how do we make any type of correction? How do
we get better here? It's like, man, it's the season
is still in its infancy. We can make any type
of change we want. We can change our offensive identity
at the drop of a hat if need be, as
long as as long as it's in the context of
the insul We can change defensively what we want to prioritize.
This is nothing. This is happening at the best time.

(58:35):
And if this locker room is wired the way I
think it's wired. They're going to come together, they're going
to galvanize. Leadership is going to take over, and they're
going to improve. And I think about Dan Quinn, think
about Joeah Junior, I think about Cliff Like that's what
they're good at, is motivating and inspiring in a locker room.
And I'm just grateful that it's happening now. I'm grateful
that we played a good team now so we know
where the bar is and we know how to get

(58:56):
there when we have to get there.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Yeah, I mean early in the season. Last year, they
played a few good teams early A couple of the
results were really good. A couple of them went the
wrong way. Look where they were at the.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
End of the year.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
So let's see if they can get a bounce back
when they are taking on the Raiders this weekend. That'll
do it for the Booth Review. We'll have a review
of that next Monday, after the Raiders game. See then.
Booth Review was filmed at the Big Bear AI Command
Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers Mission ready AI for
a rapidly evolving world, proudly protecting the Washington Commanders and

(59:27):
its fans