NFL Week 6 Recap: Commanders fall to Bears 25-24 | Booth Review Podcast | Washington Commanders | NFL

Future Hall of Fame Linebacker London Fletcher is joined by Bram Weinstein and Logan Paulsen to breakdown the stunning loss on MNF to the Chicago Bears.    Hosts: London Fletcher, Bram Weinstein, Logan Paulsen     Producer: Jason Johnson     Get Your Commanders Tickets Here: https://bit.ly/3SpwKU3     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. Are you ready for
a real tell the truth Tuesday?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, it was a rough one against the Chicago Bears
on Monday night.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
We got tough Streuss coming up. How do we write
the ship fast?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's coming up on the Booth Review. Welcome into the Ladies'
edition of the Booth Review Podcast. Ibraham Winstein with Big
Fletch London Fletcher. We're brought to you by Microsoft Surface
Copilot plus PC and we are in the Big Bear
AI Command Center studio off of London. That might be
the biggest gut punch that they've had in a year

(00:33):
plus with Dan Quinn and the whole new era that's
going on here. That was a tough one last night.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Very tough. And I know how I felt after that
ball game, and I know how you felt because we
were together walking out to the stadium and extremely disappointed
and now coming a game. I couldn't even I can't
even imagine what the players have to feel like after
that ball game when it seemed like we had the
game and control and we're, you know, in this situation

(01:00):
where bleed to clock out, get enough to get it
first down and oh score some points and put the
Bears in a precarious position. But man, that one hurts.
That one hurt. I'm I'm still feeling that one. Yeah,
I have too.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
I think it's the closest thing that I can remember
in the year plus maybe that first Dallas game a
year ago, the way it kind of ended, where they
got back into it and Turpin had that kickoff for
a touchdown and it felt like a gut Then they
had the Terry play and it looked like they were
gonna go to overtime and they didn't. That felt like
a gut bunch. But we were in a very different
state of the season. This is now three and three.
This was a very hyped game, you know, because of

(01:35):
all the subtext of what happened from a year ago,
and it was home and I think that's the other
part of it that was tough fourth quarter lead disappears
for a variety of reasons that we're going to get into.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
So I just kind of want to start with this.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
If you were in that locker room, what would you
be saying to your teammates, Well, first I.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Get them to understand that we're only six games into
the season with three and three, and then you look
at it, We're only one game out of our division lead.
The he goes they got the one game division lead,
So let's understand that. Think big picture wise. But the
only thing we can control now is how we prepare
for our next ball game against the Dallas Cowboys. Let's

(02:14):
not make this bigger than what it is. And when
I say it's important, don't get me wrong. We have
to understand why we lost that football game. The things
that need to be corrected, especially things that are happening
over and over and over again, like you consistently see
these same things showing up weekend and week out. Those

(02:34):
things have to be corrected, like we cannot continue to
do certain things. The From that standpoint, it's like, okay,
the leaders, you got to you gotta make sure you're
first of all, showing how how you want guys to prepare,
showing how you want guys to practice, and then come
game day, making sure you're producing and doing all the

(02:56):
things you need to do, but also elevating and bringing
up to the younger guys and the other parts of
this team. So that's how you get over this. We've
been up and down. Man, win a game, lose a game,
win a game, lose a game, so we have to
start playing a more consistent brand of football.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
You know, a couple of weeks ago, after they lost
to Atlanta, you know, Joe whit admitted like they had
heard some of the noise and people were saying specifically
about the defense entirely and maybe some specific players. This
one felt a little different last night, and I would argue,
keep the noise out of here, because it's easy to
fingerpoint at a lot of different directions here, right, Like
because yeah, Jayden and Bill had a mishandled snap that

(03:35):
gave the Bears the ball at a very inopportune time.
The defense also didn't get a stop there. They also
gave up a long touchdown. There are three turnovers to
talk about, not just that one. There was a miss
field goal and they still lost by one. This is
a team loss, absolutely, This is the team here. I
think that needs to be like reiterated. This is a
team loss. Because I heard saw some finger pointing on

(03:57):
the outside going on, and you don't want anything that's.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
On the outside. I'll tell you this, Brown, every time
you lose a game, the very first thing that a
player does, regardless of how he played, that football game,
He's going to say, man, what could I have done differently?
What could I have done to help change the outcome

(04:23):
of this ball game? Whether you're a defensive player, if
I make this play, you know that changes this outcome.
We don't get to put us in this situation if
I do this. If your offen is a guy, if
I make this block, you know we get we get
a ten yard game, and now we don't. We're not
forced to punt if I catch this pass, if I

(04:45):
make this block and Jayden has a little bit longer
to hold them to the football and deliver to a
wide open guy. So that's the first That's the thing
that I've I've seen more guys do than anything. We
look internally and and say what can I do differently
to what could have done differently to help win that
ball game. That's what the good teams do. That's what

(05:07):
the pros do.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, and so let's get into some of the big
issues here. Minus three isn't going to cut it whoever, whoever,
whoever it.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Is, and that is not at all.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
They didn't get any takeaways, and they also turned the
ball over three times. Granted they did get a turnover
on downs, which in my book basically counts as a turnover.
They did block a field goal that also feels like
a turnover.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
But it doesn't count.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
It's a momentum shift.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
It's a momentum shift.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
But minus three, you know, in any game or over
the course of a season, is just frankly not going
to cut it.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
And they'll tell you that, Yeah, that's a Dick ver mill.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
When I played for him, he used to and maybe
even Mike, Mike Shanahan two used to have these statistics
of plus one in the turnover ratio, plus two plus
three the percentages or the likelihood of you winning. Now
minus one minus two minus three, these are the likelihoods

(05:57):
of you losing that ball game. So plus minus three.
I don't, I can't. I wish i'd have looked this up.
But your percentage is the odds of you winning that
ball game are slimming up. But for us to be
even in the game, like you said, well this was
after two turnovers. We didn't get that last turnament to
the end. Yeah, But to be minus two and got

(06:20):
the lead and you're driving, putting yourself in position to
put any more points on the game, that says a
lot about this football team, the resilient team. They're not
gonna they're not gonna quit. They're gonna continue to fight.
But there's a way like why why were we did
we have these turnovers? Why are we getting off to
such slow starts? Those are the things you gotta continue
to dig and kind of peel back the layers to

(06:42):
figure out.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Okay, so let's take on the three turnovers here, and
we'll take them each. I'm gonna do it backwards because
the last one, you know, clearly gave the Bears life.
This was had Washington converted on a third and one.
It's unlikely that the Bears would have left themselves enough
time if they had any at all, without letting Washington
score to get the ball back, and at that.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Point it could have been a nine point game. The
game was over.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
The rain I think plays an issue here a little bit.
It started to rain again. But what did you see
on the mystic exchange between Jayden and Bill Well.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
I saw that it looked like, I mean, Jaden, for
one reason or another never got control of the football,
whether it was a slick football rain, whatever, Jaden said,
he just he lost focus or he needed to make
sure he's staying focused. I loved that part of him saying,
I'm not going to regardless of the weather. I mean,
they were a shotgun in the whole game, so and

(07:37):
it was raining a good portion of the game, so
he had the wet balls all game long for some
reason at that particular time, it was an opportune time
that it happened. He never got control of the football,
but he still understanding, I maybe I'll be still able
to get this ball to beal and he just never

(07:58):
never had full control of it, and that led to
to the fumbling and thedn't we didn't recover. So that's
what I saw, wet ball, drove ball, rain, whatever. The
snow range leaders snow, we got to you got to
have those footballs.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
How about the Bill fumble the first go around the
first half?

Speaker 2 (08:19):
The Bills fumble? First of all, I thought the Bears
in their defensive game plan was outstanding in terms of
how they wanted to stop us. They ran a lot
of pressure package and we just not gets the pass.
They had a lot of run blitzes too, So on
that play, you got defensive linemen slanning to where Bill
was trying to run the ball. They're right in his face,

(08:40):
so he spins, and when is he's spinning, he's also
trying to stiff arm a guy, So he's only having
the ball with one arm. And people will say, hey,
if you're spinning and you're in traffic, covered over two.
But in his mind, he's stiff arming a guy to
make that spin and guy punched the ball out.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
So lesson learn.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Understanding when and where there's a time and a place
to kind of make those type of plays. Good play
by them. Bill this second week in a row that
he's fumble, So it's an issue where teams will now
start to continue to punch at the football against him
until he shows that he can be He's not going
to be viewed as a guy who fumbles the football.

(09:22):
I don't think he is. But that's what I saw
on that fumble.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
And with Jaden, I mean, there were two gaffes really,
which is very unusual. I think that's why we're all
kind of like surprised today at some of them. The fumble,
the mishandled snap slap slash exchange at the end of
the game, and then a red zone interception, this first
interception of the year, and we're just it's unusual that
he puts the ball to harm's way almost ever, really,
and in this case as well.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
So what did you see on the Brisker interception?

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, so the first thing you have to know, or
you as the coaches, you have to ask and did
he go did he make the right decision with the football?
Was throwing that scene? All that passed to Debo the
right decision based on the Bear's cover structure. Now it

(10:08):
looked like it was cover three, and I don't know
if that safety just I mean that outside defender ended
up reading that as a kind of a second man
through the zone, and he carried Debo and maybe they
weren't anticipating him carrying Debo in practice or whatever. That
route was open against that cover three, which typically it

(10:31):
would be if they Now, if he read it differently,
and maybe Jayden didn't see it soon enough, then just hey,
they made a nice play. Guy, God did something we
weren't expected, made an interception. If he went to the
right place with football, maybe there was he supposed to
a little bit more air on it, but there was
a safety coming over, so I don't think he needed

(10:52):
to put more air on it, because if he does
now you give that safety a little bit more time
to get over and deliver or hit on debo, or
maybe he's even in position to make their interception. So
that's something that only they know as a coaching staff,
whether the decision was where he went, decided to go
with the football, whether that was correct, or maybe the
Bears defensive player just made an outstanding play.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
I mean, they have eleven takeaways in the last three games.
They they do better two they had three here. One
was clearly just a mishandled snap, but the other two
very nice defensive plays that were made on their part.
This is something that Washington's been trying to generate here,
So I'll go back to minus three.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Isn't going to win.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
This is four of six games that the team has
not created a takeaway. They had three combined in the
previous two games. What do you think is going on
there that they're having a hard time generating takeaways. Granted,
Sanders still easily could have had an interception, yes, and
on the fourth and one stop Louvue could have had
an interception, but either way it was a turnover on downs.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yea, they had two interception opportunities that I look at
the Mikey one riding end zone coach and end zone
where I mean he couldn't make that catch and he's
former receiver, he catches everything. And then there was another
one on a deep deep pass double move against Kwan Martin.
Kwan and Darnelle Savage were both in great position and

(12:14):
Caleb threw into double coverage and I think was quank.
Kwan wasn't able to come up with that interception, So
I thought that was another opportunity for us to uh
get a takeaway. So we had two opportunities from a
from a interception standpoint in that ball game. I think
there was a potential of where it was a fumble

(12:34):
on a kickoff return.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, they it looked like Hamilton recovered it. But when
we watched replay, even though for some reason they gave
the ball to the Bears anyway, I think it would
have been overturned because it looked like the returner's knee
was down.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
So think about this. We have the mishandled snap early
in that ball game, Caleb Williams, they have a mishandled
snap as well, yep, and the ball ends up but
it was on a was a fourth down play. No,
it was I don't know if it's fourth, third and
one maybe or something, but he ended up being able
to corral the football and we got we make the

(13:09):
tackle on him in the backfield or whatever. But that
was a difference the ball bounce the bear's way, he
recovered it.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Where this happened in the Atlanta game too.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Remember Bjon fumbled the ball and it happened to go
back to Michael Pennox who was seven yards behind the
line of scrimmage and they happened to get it back.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
So there was some luck.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
That's them now, when you're punching it out creating opportunities
for you to potentially recover, you're creating those plays for yourself.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
The snap issue, that was something that you know, we're
going to revisit the offensive logan in a little bit.
I want to switch to the defense with you. I mean,
we started with some of the takeaway stuff here. A
recurring theme for the six games, and it's happened really
on the road, but now it's happened at home. Is
the slow start where they've gotten behind by double digit
points in the first half. This one actually feels different

(13:59):
last night than the ones on the road where they
were getting dominated in time of possession, a couple three
and outs to start, couldn't get stops early. All of
a sudden, you look up. They're in a giant hole.
That actually wasn't the case last night. The Bears got
the ball, went down the field, kicked the field goal
right Washington turned it over twice. It wasn't that they
weren't moving the ball. They turned it over twice and

(14:20):
looked up and saw the scoreboard thirteen to nothing. So
did you feel that this slow start was different than
the other ones that had happened previously.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, absolutely, I would say this. Though there was the
opening drive. I felt like Ben Johnson he was calling
some really good players. I thought all night he had
some nice stuff dialed up. Could we have been better defensively,
especially in the open drive, to not allow them to
march down the field to get in the position to

(14:50):
get that to kick that field goal and take the
three to nothing lead. Yes, I think we could have
made a few more plays. We could have all night.
I didn't think we just finded to stop the run
well enough. DeAndre Swift Swift fourteen carries one hundred and
eight yards.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
One hundred and fifty plus from script.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, we didn't fit the run, didn't tackle well enough.
I thought from a pass cover standpoint, we were good enough.
But it was more disappointed about the stopping the run
being in the right gaps, fitting fitting it correctly, and
the tackling.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
It's been interesting. Like with Swift, he's had big games
against this team in various jerseys actually through the years.
He had another big one last night Bears. There's two
things that occurred less than I think we're going to
get into the offensive part of it with Washington for
a moment. Washington came in number one rush offense. Bears
came in with second to worst rush defense and in fact,
like historically bad yards per carry through the four games

(15:50):
they had played, and so we just assumed Washington would
gash them run the ball really well. That didn't really happen.
I'll revisit that Washington's rush defense has been a lot
better this year. Just in general, they have had problems
with tight ends. That team has two of them, a
first round pick and Cole Comet. They ended up with
nothing like two catches eleven yards. DJ Moore Roma Dunesa's
numbers seven catches sixty five seventy yards, like really no production.

(16:16):
It was Swift and in the running game that was
a surprise to me.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
So what did you see from the Bears running game
that kind of got him going last night.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Well, it was a lot of the outside zones or
attacking the edges of our defense, either outside zone or
toss plays, pinning pools, things like that to get to
the perimeter, and we didn't. We didn't, especially with outside zone.
We got reached a couple times. Guys got out of
their blocks, i mean out of their gaps a couple

(16:44):
of times. And then there were other times where miss
tackles where hey, we got a guy who should be
making this tackle that missed the tackle. As far as
the toss plays or the outside plays, especially late, not
fitting up correctly, not having a hard enough edge, I'll
tell you this, right fifty eight he did a really

(17:06):
nice job on the last big run by Swift where
Precious Smith actually did a really good job of defeating
the down block on him and he got up to
the field, but Right got just enough of a hand
on Preston to slow him down to allow Swift to
get outside of him. And then Wright went up and

(17:28):
blocked the guy he was opposed to block, which maybe
a corner of safety I can't remember, so he did
a really nice job. But it's just something that we're
gonna have to get short up because these teams are
gonna do these same type of runs over and over
and over again. I don't think they will consistently have
success against us doing it. You're not gonna be able

(17:49):
to run in the middle of our defense consistently, not
with the way ken law and pain and you know
those guys play play the run inside, they're gonna be
tacking our heads and we got to make sure we're
doing what we need to.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
And the other thing in this listen the what was
I thought the big play that really turned the game
back in potentially the Bears favor was which should have
been a ten to fifteen yard catch on a third
down conversion to Swift turned into a fifty five yard touchdown.
And it's interesting when everyone keeps talking about they give
up the big plays, they give up the big plays.
There have been some to receivers, but largely this year

(18:24):
where either the matchup or issues have been have been
with really good receiving tight ends, which that didn't happen
last night and they have two of them, or it's
happened with a really good active receiving running back out
of the backfield where the matchup is troublesome for them,
and that bit them again last night with Swift.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
It did.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
I thought the Bears, we had we blistered several times
on third downs in that ballame we're able to get
to Taylor getting either get pressure on him, get sacks,
or for inaccurate throws. The Bears kind of anticipating us
being in a man of man defense. Based on that call,
I thought it was a really nice play call. But

(19:03):
then play design, getting Swift kind of motion himbout, putting
him in a bunch formation and letting him run an
option route. He was gonna catch it. He was gonna
catch the ball for a first down. Now the thing is, okay,
he caught the first down, let's get him out of
let's get him down, make the tackle. He put a little,
a little uh stutter step on Kwan like he was

(19:25):
about to go inside, and that made Kwan slow down
just for here. And then when Swift kept down on
the sideline, now Kwan's head is behind him. That's why
that was that played a part in him breaking that tackle.
Most of the majority of the tackles were the best
way to tackle somebody. You want to have your head

(19:48):
across their body so you can knock them back or
knock them out of bounds or whatever. But because Kwan
had to slow down for a second and then Swift,
Swift hit the acceleration again. Now he's trying to make
that tackle. His head is behind Swift, but his arms
are off top and I know, people, I'm thinking, I
just get him out of bonds, push him out of
push him out of bonds, whatever the case may be.

(20:09):
It ended up after looking at it, it wasn't as
easy as as it seemed.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
But you gotta whatever you gotta do, you gotta you
gotta make the people see him running down the sideline,
push him out of bounds, get him out of bunds,
whatever it may be.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
And it was it was man man across the board.
So it's not like you're going to have a bunch
of other guys that can rally to to uh make
that tackle.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
One of the things that you know, I think there
was concern about is everybody has respect for what Ben
Johnson's building and what he's done. From an offensive game plan,
they had two weeks again, they were off of a buy.
You know, they had actually scored a lot of points
in the first quarter. We figured they would switch some
things up. I think we were all fearing trick plays.
What were they going to draw up for a couple
of weeks. We actually didn't really see much of that

(20:49):
from them last night. But did they do anything offensively
that you think might have been a surprise and a
switch up for the Commander's defense last No, not at all,
Not at all.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
They were heavy player action team coming into the ball game.
They ran a lot of play action in that ball game.
They were a screen team. They run screens in the
ball game. I don't they ran the ball better than
they had been running, so that was probably the only surprise.
But in terms of Swift's hip.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Three point three of Kerry coming into the game, they
were not running the ball. Well, granted, you mentioned Darnell right,
he had missed the last game. They had some switching
around going on with their offensive line. They had started
an undrafted second year player for the first time. It
left tackles, so they were moving some parts around.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
So in terms of as far as our defense getting
some looks or some players that they weren't prepared for.
I didn't see that coming to the same type of
runs that they had always run. They just ran them better,
And some of that is credit to the Bears, but
a lot of that is also on us as well.
But ye heavy play action. There were times where what

(21:54):
Caleb had a long time, too much time, especially early
in the ball game, where he was able to to
allow his receivers to uncover, so to speak, or they're
running across the field against man and man coverage. I
remember Dj Moore passed the Dj Moore maybe another one
of Roman duneze off the play action when they're just
running these deep over routes, deep crossing ross. Because he

(22:18):
has so much time, he was able to complete those passes.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
I think CaAl was light years ahead of where he
was a year ago. Like he got sacked almost seventy
times last year. This year, I don't remember what the
number was for the Commanders, three or four something like that.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Last year.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
We got three last night three, So it's just ten
and so it's way different, Like it's half of what
he was giving up a year ago. He seems to
be playing more in the context of the system, he
and Ben Jonson seemed to be getting on the same page.
When he does improvise at times, that's where he gets
himself seemingly in trouble, Like he took a hit from
Louver last night that I could not believe he took.

(22:52):
I stopped on the sideline and took this leveling shot
from Louvu last night.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
What the thing is, he has so much confidence and
ability to make plays outside of the pocket, and he's
in his mind he's a passer first. When he's out
of the pocket, he's not thinking about running, so he's
constantly looking keeping his eyes down the field, and I'm
looking like, man, this play is over. He's gonna just
throw it away, but he decided to keep trying to

(23:19):
go down Silide. Yeah, he got rocked by.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Louvu, but I will say, I mean, I think he's
getting better and I do wonder too. Just before we
get Logan in, I just want to I want you
to kind of take us through now that it's over.
This is a wildly hyped game. You know, the game
from a year ago speaks for itself at what happened.
They've had weird games with that team for the last
few years, like different staff. They had the weird ending
in the one on that Thursday night game in Chicago

(23:43):
where Edge would say Juice made a play on the
half yard line right that seal to win. Is there
something about when you know you're playing a team where
the outcomes typically are strange maybe to be the best
way to put it, that adds to kind of the
element when you're going out on the field and playing
a team like that.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Sure, sure there is. It's we're starting to develop a
little bit of a rivalry with the with the Chicago Bears,
although they're not in our division, because we played them
every year, I know, since I've been calling the games.
We played them every year. And then you add in
the the Caleb Jaden dynamic, the hell Mary dynamic. So

(24:20):
this UH then last night's game, this added to that
that trilogy or whatever you want to call it, the
UH I don't know, whatever you want to call our
our UH story or contest with those guys. It's going
to probably be close games every time we link up,
or the expectations are it's going to be a close game,
and it's something crazy is probably going to happen down

(24:42):
the stretch.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, when you were with the good Saint Louis teams,
did you was there an intersection with somebody that was
like became kind of a rival because I see this.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Chicago. It was one year with the Saints that that
became a rival. They got they got really good. In
two thousand, a year after we won the Super Bow,
we actually split during the regular season. They beat us
in our place, and then we beat them in their place,
and they'll played them again in the regular in the playoffs. Yeah,

(25:11):
that year and they actually host them. We lost them.
Force them to kick a field a punt at the
end of the game, the end of a possession. I
think we were down maybe three. They punted, muff punt,
They recover, get them over.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Don't you feel like, I mean this has everything. Kales
number one pick, Jamee's number two pick. They've played weird
games against one another. They both feel like they're kind
of rising at the same time. They're intersecting at the
same time. You know, Tom Brady would be Peyton Manning
would be greats on their own, rut them together, intersecting
through their careers.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
Mahomes has allan.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
This has the feeling of we just saw episode two
of Many as these two kinds of intersect over the
next I don't know, hopefully.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
You hope that we'll have some truly truly meaningful matchups
for with the between these two teams. I know the
networks will love it. Or you're playing we're playing each
other in the playoffs and.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
It might actually don't happen this year. Who knows, who
knows right, And people seem to have forgotten that part
a little bit. Today it's three and three, one game
back of the division lead. Nothing settled here, you set.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Up, but we'll say this. In order to get to
where we want to be and be the football team
that we want to be, we're going to have to
play better, yeah, and every facet and be do it
more consistently. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
All right, So we went through the defense. Let's bring
out logan Logan, Paulsen, we'll do Pulsen from the pines.
Were gettingto the offense, and we kind of went through
all of the turnovers. Maybe we'll get your thoughts a
little bit on that, but I just want to have
a general sense of where you are on the offense
last night, three turnovers, missed field goal, twenty four points,

(27:05):
I don't think in the end, if you really think
about it, that that was all that bad of a
performance on that side of the ball.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah, I mean obviously like did they play well enough
to win the game, Sure, But I think when you
kind of step back objectively, like would you like to
be more efficient running the football? Sure, you can't turn
the football over twice a couple penalties and critical situations.
And I'm not again, I'm not trying to say that
they did anything badly, right, I think you'd probably say
that's a solid C plus performance. But I think if

(27:34):
you're if if I'm Cliff Kingsbury coming today, I'm saying,
there are some things we could have done better, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Absolutely, And I.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Think that's the thing that I take away is I
thought you I heard you guys talking like talking about
the Bears and their plan how to stop the how
to stop the run with eight man boxes, line stunts,
first down pressures. That's going to become a formula, I think,
to stop what we're doing moving forward. So can you
learn from it? Can we find more ways on the
perimeter to get our guys to win and man a
man coverage?

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Yeah, here's what I wan say we all get that
same type of game plan and structure defensively, because that's
what teams do until we get healthier at the receiver position.
Are now, these are the guys that Chris Moore made plays,
Luke made plays for the plays for US, Jaylen made

(28:20):
plays for US, and during the absence of Terry and Noah.
But what defense is going to say is can these
guys consistently over sixty minutes make plays? So it's once
we get healthy, until we get healthy, we'll see that
same type of structure.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah, and I think you're just playing percentages on the defense.
Absolutely football, right, You're basically saying, if we flip a coin,
you know, like it's not fifty to fifty if Chris
Moore beats our starting corner because he's a while, he
had a good performance and made a great play and
is a contributing member to this team, Like he's not
gonna win that that statistical matchup the same way Terry
McLaurin is gonna win. And that's why Terry's making fifty
million dollars and Chris Moore is a practice squad guy, right,

(29:00):
Like it just it just tips the decks statistically in
your favor. So with regards to the offense, I think
Jayden had to do a lot of heavy lifting. I
think he played pretty well on the whole.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Debo wasn't healthy?

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah, I think that's another thing too, is and you
could just feel, like, you know, watching the All twenty two,
you could feel the lack of kind of speed and
vertical juice into the defense and how they could just
kind of sit over top. So did they play okay? Yeah,
I think so. But are there some things that I
think this game reveals that I think need to be
addressed moving forward. Yes, and I think that comes out

(29:31):
of every game. But I and the other thing to
your point, Bram, that I'm always trying to remind myself
is this is an offensive led football team in my mind, right,
even when they're not healthy, like, they need to score
a lot of points. Yeah, Like they need to offload
some of that from the defense. So when you say
it's a good performance, yes, but in order for this
team to consistently win football games, the way we've built

(29:52):
the roster, the way we've constructed the defense, they need
to score a lot of points. And that's maybe unfair. Well,
that's the way I look at.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
It, well, I mean, look what they did in the
offense season.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
They went and traded for Laramie Tunzell to bolster the line,
which has a trickle down effect to the rest of
the line that hopefully makes it better. They use their
first round pick on a right tackle. They trade to
get Deebo Samuel in here to get explosive playmakers. They
draft Bill, they draft Lane, They're looking for speed. I
think they've hit on Bill. I know the fumbles and
all that, but like I think they've hit on him
as much as you could ask of a seventh round pick.

(30:20):
This team needs to be led by its offense. But
they haven't had this group healthy since day one a
training camp, not once. They haven't had this group healthy once,
and I'm hoping in the very near future you're going
to see that. But again, they're going to have to
incorporate people in. Terry hasn't played in a few weeks.
No Brown hasn't played in a month. Even if they
are healthy, it's still going to take time. But I

(30:41):
agree with you in the end for them to get
where they want to get to, the offense is going
to have to be the side of the ball.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I know you're going to dissect the game. You probably
watched it three times already offensively with the run game,
and we've been able to run the football against everybody
for the most part, this game against the Bears, who
we know they were thirty first ranked run defense in
the National Football League. He hated that narrative going in

(31:10):
all because it happens where teams have games, especially coming
out of the buy Yeah. Yeah, And then you could tell,
do you think even even without the healthy guys on
the perimeter with imagine we're going to Dallas, same guys,
do you feel like Dallas will be able to replicate

(31:31):
that same type of game plan? And us, are there
things if we correct on our end that we if
we do a couple of things differently, we'll be able
to run the ball.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
So this is just my opinion. I haven't talked to
anybody about this, just my observation. I do feel like
when if you want to be a died in the
wall running the football team like we are, this is
who we are, lived by the sword, died by the
sword team, like you need to have certain qualities to
the front, right, like you need to get in kind
of like tighter splits. You need to get receivers or

(32:03):
crack safeties, like think about what Detroit does. Right, It's
like all these content splits Kyle Shanahan when they're all healthy,
like they get in these like kind of boxy formations.
And so I kind of feel like right now Cliff
is of two worlds, which is really hard to do.
He's installed kind of this like jumbo heavy you know,
thirteen personnel look with a Trent's extra offensive lineman. And

(32:25):
they've got some diverse run looks there, but they don't
like they haven't like mastered those looks. Does that make sense?
And there they present enough novelty versus deems that are
going to play light boxes that they're able to hit
big runs right. But they also got the spread stuff right.
And so I think for him, for Cliff, it's like
which card do you put down to manipulate the defense?

(32:47):
So to me, I think they said we're gonna go big,
we're gonna go heavy, We're gonna try and push you
off the ball in retrospect, and it's so easy for
me to sit here on Tuesday and kind of have
this thought. I would have thought some of the runs
they ran versus the charge where they got in the
three by ones, they forced guys to displace from the box.
They force them to declare who the blitzers are. Like,
the problem with those condensed sets is like you can

(33:08):
blitz anybody right, everybody's right there. There's no indicator to
the pressure. So I feel like they're kind of operating
in two spaces and I feel like for the game plan,
sometimes Cliff says or the staff says, we're going to
go heavy, big, when in reality like for them to
be the best version of themselves running the football, because
they don't major in that all the time. We got
to go, hey, we're gonna go lights, spread them out,

(33:29):
find our number count advantages, and manipulate them that way.
So in regards to your question of like can they
replicate anybody can replicate this. That's the thing stopping the
run in the NFL, and Fletch can speak to this
better than anybody.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Is just math.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
If you have six blockers, we have eight defenders. And
that's all the Bears did. It wasn't like this crazy
complicated game plan. They played a lot of single high,
a lot of men on the perimeter, and they said
we dare you, and that's what they're gonna do, and
so can the Giants. Can the Cowboy? Sure? It's like,
do they trust their permater players to get it done?

Speaker 4 (34:03):
It is a little bit not to cut you off left, No, Like.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
I believe like a lot of this stuff is matchup
related and matchup dependent. Okay, so look at the Bears
coming into this. What's the strength of their defense coming in?
Their secondary had actually been playing really well, and they
got back Kyler Gordon who hadn't played the entire year.
Right Stevenson, who I know was a butt of a
joke because of everything that happened with the hail Mary
had been playing really really well. They were turning the
ball over typically on the back end, they've been very physical.

(34:28):
I think they looked at this and said, we favor
this matchup. We trust our guys on the outside because
we think that these guys can cover those guys and
take our chances up front. We're gonna stop from running
the ball. To your point, I dare you, I've been
waiting for a few weeks for a team to go.
I dare you. With Terry McLaurin not on the field
and Noah Brown out on the field. The other teams
hadn't really done that to them. I think the Bears

(34:49):
were confident in the people that they had to do it,
and it did for the most part, for the most
part work. They still gave up a long touchdown to
Luke MacCaffrey, They still gave up along past the Jayalen
lane and maybe the that's just some of the risk
reward you take for playing in the style like that.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, and I go back to like, also, both their
linebackers got healthy, and I thought both those guys, Edmunds
and Edwards played well. You know, you feel their impact.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Yeah, Edwards had not played in a few weeks.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Yeah, and so you feel their impact in terms of
what they bring from an athleticism, speed tackling perspective, and
going back to an initial point brand of like, did
they play well enough to win? I do think they
played well enough to win because they were able to
find some explosive shots. But I do think this game
shows kind of some areas that need to be worked on.

(35:34):
It need to be improved, and that's every game, right,
But I think that's where i'd kind of say, like
I get really reluctant to say, yes, they played well
enough to win when there's some other factors that need
to be addressed, especially when you're an offensive driven football team.
I think that's the thing I keep coming back to.
When you were offensive driven and you don't win, it
wasn't good enough to win the game, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
One of the things that I saw where that prevented
some rough really breaking. There were a couple of times
where because of the starting and stuff like that. You
always talk about targeting your right targeting guys on your runs,
there was some confusion free hitters on. It was a

(36:11):
couple of times where okay, this the linebacker was supposed
to block the wait, they changed the picture on me
and now I don't block the correct linebacker, or they're
doing the little stunts they're knocking, they're knocking me off
and I can't get to the second level. Stuff like that.
So there was some stuff like that that happened on
a couple of occasions. It was there was one play

(36:35):
where it was Bill was about the crease the man
and it was just that little split where he was
able to get off a block because because of the
blocking scheme. I don't know if it was a lineman
or tight end like, oh, shoot, he's blitzing. I gotta
block him instead of working to get this defensive end,
and he was the one who makes the tackle.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
I think there's that's a really good example of what
we're talking about. Is when you're living in heavy personnel
and you're going to see heavy box structures, it changes
the targets because there's another guy in there. Right, so
it's like, are we targeted to this guy or we
targeted one back. You mentioned the pressures, right, so you're
targeting a guy that's off the ball. We got to
push back. They're peeling double teams. Now the receivers in

(37:16):
the blocking surface. He's used to blocking this guy, but
he's actually got to block that guy. And i'd say,
of what they're on thirty runs, I'd say on ten
of them, there's moments where and it's not their fault
because it and having been in that situation. It happens
so quickly because you're like, oh, we're getting a line stunt, Okay,
I got this is where we're targeted. And then on
the move almost you got to think, now I'm the

(37:38):
guy that's going to the second level. I got to
get to this opportunity so I think there's a little
bit of that, and so again just getting experience with
some of these heavier personnel runs, If this is going
to be the solution, I think it's something they got
to look at. And again, you know, it's so interesting
when you think when you think you have a solution
in a game like and I call games at the
high school level, So you think you've got a solution,

(37:58):
but all of a sudden, they've got a good response.
You need to find a way to adjust to that.
And whether that's play action pass, whether that's some of
these spread out formations to run the football, all of
those things become things you need to consider, and it
just it's hard in the moment. But again, I think
the Bears did a great job of and I don't
think the offensive line played badly. That's the other thing
that I'm not saying.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
It's not even just off everybody.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
Everybody just they just they just threw a hard pitch.
And again, like I remember being with Kyle here and
Mike and them talking about the Indianapolis Colts, how they
used to run that like line stunt with the scrape
over top of the linebackers, and we would just rep
that over and over and over and over, and so
on game day you could do it. But if you
had a different run up that you hadn't repped it for,

(38:45):
you'd be lost. So it's just it's it's when they
do stuff like that and you haven't prepped it, it
puts you in a tough spot.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
They also like to be fair to Cliff and what
they're trying to put together here. Like if you told
me at the beginning of the summer that this team
is going to be running Trent Scott as an extra
offensive lineman on the field all the time, yeah, I
would tell you you're crazy, because that's not going to be
what they are. But when you are missing some of
the people that you're missing on the outside, you have
to adjust. Here's a team that had two weeks to
prepare for this and had seen it for a couple

(39:11):
of weeks, and Terry McClory is still not playing, Noah
Brown is still not playing. So I think the Bears
got a couple of weeks of looks at this and
decided this is how we're going to attack it. And
I'll go back to the other point. I think they
liked their matchup on the outside with their corners and
their safeties. At the way they were playing against the
outside options that Washington had. It was a recipe here,

(39:33):
which is why I've landed on. In the end, they
scored twenty four points, could have had more than that.
It was their turnovers, a missed field goal, they would
have had thirty plus and that would have won the game.
Amid the fact that they never got a take away
in it, they lost by a point with all of
those mistakes that occurred.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
I do think the bye week is a big thing too,
because they couldn't have done all that stuff. Like I mean,
you watched the film before, Like the Giants defense was
the focus was completely different the Bears. I keep saying
the Giants the Bears. The Bears defense was completely different.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
They played with intensity that they hadn't played with either.
And I think part of that intensity because probably to
looking at their their film, especially the run deep, I'm like, man,
they just don't get much disruptive plays. They don't play
on the other side of the line of scrimmage well,
because they had such an aggressive defensive game plan to
where they're stunning and they're blitzing. That puts them in

(40:25):
the aggressive mindset and you just saw. I mean it
was the entire game they're playing on the other side
of the ball, they're running and making plays. I mean
there was some running and hidding happening out there that
I just hadn't quite quite frankly seen from them, especially
in the run game.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Yeah, I totally agree. And again I remember watching the
Dallas game versus the Bears, and they're running GT, they're
running counter, and they're blowing guys off the ball, they're
running pin pull, and I'm like, these are all runs
that the Commanders run. They should be good. But then
they come out in a completely different front, completely different mindset,
And I think the mindset is the thing.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
And another thing they did when then replay, Yeah, they
were just sending that defensive end or whoever it was.
Then in man online of scrimmage, they were sending him
at Jaden plan all the time. Now, it was a
couple of times we're like, Okay, maybe you should have
handled his ball off Jaye, just because of how they
were playing it. But they was like, we're not going
to allow him to get out the outside up against

(41:21):
our defense.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
We're accustom seeing Jaden scramble a lot because it is
one of his powers. But it was noticeable to me
and I think that all of us when we were
watching that there were numerous times that he was waiting
to throw. It wasn't like he was taking off very quickly.
So the Bears also with the aggressive front and how
they were kind of handling the Washington rush offense, they
got a pretty good plan on the back end too.
He was forced to run, and I will give him credit,

(41:44):
he looked more like himself than he really had since
the injury when he did take off and was seeming
labeled to make yards with his legs last night.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yeah, And I think it's a really important to call
this to attention. Is I think Jane Daniels did a
really good job. And that's going to sound crazy considering
the fumble and the interception, but like in terms of
his ability to elevate an offense, like it's apparent every
time he's making the decision back there for you really
Like there's times where it's like they're running a high
cross and the hook player falls right underneath it. There's

(42:12):
nowhere to go with the football, it's dead to rights,
the pockets closing around him. He's able to scramble for ten,
he's able to scramble for fifteen, the play with Montes
sweat at the end of the game where he's able
to shake him and scoot forward there to get to
the third and short like and again, like he's just
so smart when it comes to that stuff, and so
fastidious with the football, you know, and everyone just just fastidious, fastidious, deliberate, careful.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Okay, I've I love it.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
With the football that Like, I think we're surprised he
throws the interception, but there's probably ten other times in
the game, maybe seven, where you're like he could have
thrown a pick here, but he was being careful of
being smart, being deliberate, and still managing to keep the
offense on schedule. So really, you know, like I got
a question this morning about Kayleb Williams versus J Daniels.

(43:00):
I felt like Jayden was kind of carrying the offense,
you know, through his playmaking ability, Yes, And I felt
like Caleb was being elevated by the offense in a
way that.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
He operated their offense. Yeah, and he operated their offense. Well, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Think that's good for him. Actually, not that this is
a Caleb william show.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
But like good for Caleb.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Yes, that like the meeting of the minds between those
two is going to be ken Ben Johnson. Get him
to trust him in the offense and not go rogue
constantly where he gets sacked a million times or makes
these kind of crazy you know mahomesy in plays that
don't end up with the Mahomesy in highlight. And I
think we saw that last night with two weeks off.
I think we all were sitting there going, what are

(43:41):
they cooking up? What's it going to look like? You're
not gonna be Like Actually, I thought he just played
within the context of their offense. It didn't seem like
that much of a surprise, and he was executing within
the context of it, which I think is the maturation
for him.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Daniels came in as in a different spot.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
I don't even think they're the same player in a
different spot, Like he was operating the offense early. Like
Williams had to trust the offensive coordinator. Daniels and Clips
seemed to trust each other here and that started almost
from the get go.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, when it goes back to Dan and Adam and
their ability to create a positive ecosystem for the quarterback
and all those decisions, like with bringing all the offensive
linemen in, because even though they had a tough time
on first second down, I thought they passed protected for
the most part, really really well. McNichols did a great job,
and they gave him an opportunity to see the field.
It's it's really I mean it's I think you feel
some of the injuries and the on the perimeter. I'm

(44:32):
trying to say that as nicely as possible because I
have a lot of that's fair. I have a lot
of respect for Luke and a lot of respect for Chris.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Morre, and I appreciate that because as people are watching this,
those guys have done an Outdad.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
They've done a great So I'm not trying to take
away they.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Have done a great job. But I think what you
you hit the nail on the head when you said defensively,
we're just going to play the percentages and we won't say, Hey,
if these guys can consistently beat us, what are you saying, Hey,
what's our best way to win this game? We don't
we don't go all out on stopping the run. And

(45:05):
we do that, somebody's gonna had a short end of
the stick. It's gonna be the corners. Y'all gonna have
to hand up, hold up in man and man coverage.
And if they consistently beat us man and man, you
tip your hat off, to tip your cap and say,
all right, they did it. So you just said, hey,
this is this is the process that we're going to take.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
There's nothing wrong with saying that the players that they
just gave a very nice, lucrative, long term extension to
is missed when he's not on the field.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
Take me to the other player, because I was a
role player too.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
So I don't want people to say, yeah, Colin Kettle here,
but this is.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
A different team when Jerry McLaury is healthy and standing
out there as opposed to not being out there.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
We're going to We're gonna even even if we say
hey we're gonna stop the run, we're going to be
forced to play you totally different. We got a healthy debo, salam,
you got healthy other proven playmakers that have done it
a course over the career. I'm gonna have to maybe
there'll have to be some change. We can't we know

(46:06):
we can't cover this gal man and man in critical situations.
We'll have to change our defense. We might have to
play a little bit more zone in certain situations, we
don't have to do a little thing. We might have
to spy Jana because we want to play man, but
we also need to need to provide a little bit
more safety of so it's just a different structure.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
I think it just goes back to like if you
said at the beginning of summer that we're going to
be in these jumbo packages all the time. It's happening
because they're trying to adjust to what they have and
the best way they think they can win, and then
when they start to get some of these other players
back for them, they may adjust back in a different way.
What is that adjustment period look like, I don't know,
And that's why I would just kind of say I

(46:46):
think the offense has performed very well, with the exception
of the turnovers. That's the part that's unacceptable, But like,
I think it's performed very well considering the circumstances that
all of the changing things and night they hit a
team that had a couple weeks to prepare for it,
and it'd seen them do this for a couple of weeks,
and unfortunately guys like Terry and Noah weren't ready to return,

(47:09):
and frankly, you know, like Deebo's not one hundred percent
running out there. So I think they've done a really
nice time, which goes back to I think they did
enough to win. I don't think the offense played all
that poorly. The turnovers are the rough thing that just
kind of can't happen, especially one at the end of
a game when you're trying to win. But overall, like

(47:29):
I'd ask it again, twenty four points, never got a
short field, never got to take away in their favor,
like missed a field goal, like they very well. To me,
I don't think they played poorly last night. I think
they did the best that they could. Even as we're
talking about that the matchup wasn't great for them, and
the Bears adjusted and said, you're not going to run

(47:50):
the ball on us the way that you've run the
ball on other teams.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
This is one of those things like I usually go
through in grade every play and give it like agreed,
if it's good yellow, if it's neutral, red, it's positive. Right,
So in a game like this at enough time because
we got back at three am or whatever, but this
would be a game where it's like there's a lot
of green in the ledger, but the red plays are
very red, you know what I'm saying. And I think, like,
not all plays, not like play one through six, You're

(48:14):
not the same, you know, And so like understanding that
as a fan of this team, like you say, oh,
they played really well except for the turnovers or except
like those are the things that characterize this game. It's
like Kwan Martin had a really good game outside of
one play, and that play was a big play. And
so to me, that is kind of the narrative of

(48:35):
this game. It's like, god, man, great job on Roma
dunesday covering that wheel route. You're one on one with
their number one receiver. Great job fitting this run stiffing
out there like great, great, great, But the play that
you missed counts for a little bit more because of
how it happened. And I've had plays like that, like
I've had fumbles, I've had sacks given up that have
changed the complexion of the game. And like I tell
this story all the time, I had a game versus

(48:56):
the Giants in thirteen where it was the highest graded
game in my career. Bumble in two minutes and they
picked it up and went back and scored. And so
the coach came up to me after and was like,
not all players are created equal, and he just left
it at that, and I was like, shit, you know
what I'm saying, like, yeah, and that's that. That to
me is this game in a nutshell.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
So let me get your reaction to what London and
I were talking about at the beginning, which was clearly
it was they beat themselves in some ways by the
mistakes that occurred, you know, the fumble at the end
of the game, the you know, the touchdown that was
given up to Swift, a missed field goal, to other turnovers,
one in the red zone, not getting a takeaway once again,

(49:35):
four and six, fourth, fourth time and six games as
it happened for them. Otherwise, this maybe isn't a one
point loss. Maybe it's one of those where they won,
but you go, hey, if they'd cleaned it up, they
would have won. Buy more like one of those type
of things. It's a tough gut it's a gut punch,
like a total gut punch. So what are you thinking
about in the locker room after something like that?

Speaker 3 (49:55):
I mean, exactly that man, It's like it's I've we've
fledged an. I have been on teams that have played
games like this where you've just given it to them,
and it's so frustrating because you want to blame somebody else,
You're looking for some reason, but it's it's right here.
And I think that as a player, that's how I
felt in these moments. It was just like, man, we
just did that all to ourselves, right, And I think

(50:18):
that makes it worse because sometimes you can you're in
a game and you're like, man, you know that DeMarcus
Ware over there, that TJ WHT, Like he's way better
than me. Like I'm gonna tip my hat. Good game.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
Yeah, a couple of weeks ago to coach.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
I'm was supposed to be the help, but I need some.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
Help, yeah right right.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
A couple of weeks ago, Bajan had this big game.
People were calling people out. They go, that guy's the
best player in the NFL. Watch what happened last.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Night with what he did, and so that's I think
that that's that's why this and I today it hurts
so much more because it's like there's nobody to blame
but the people in the locker room and that's that's hard.
And I've been there, and Fletch's been there, and you
just got to sit that, you know, eat that each each,
your each, your medicine, and say how do we learn

(50:59):
from these moments? And I think the cool thing, quite honestly,
is that Jane Daniel gets the podium last night and
says like I just have to be more aware and
like to take that ownership immediately after is shows a
lot of maturity on his part.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
I think it's a short week a good thing or
a bad thing for them this week.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Well, it's good from the standpoint you get an opportunity
to play a football game quickly hopefully get this hour
taste out of your mouth. But the preparation, obviously Monday
night football and you're about to get on a road,
it condesces things. It's it's a little bit added another
element to the preparation. But Dick had the guys ready

(51:38):
to play. That's that's the great thing about it. They
will have it. They will have the guys ready to
play football.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Yeah, I mean I think it's I think it's good.
Like I said, if I'm if I'm them, and I'm
just speaking from my own experience, like I want to
play as soon as possible to get to actualize all
the corrections that we're going to make from this game,
all the learning that's happened, and go show that that
isn't us necessarily right.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
How about it being a rivalry game? Does that matter
here too, Dallas?

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Probably helpful?

Speaker 2 (52:09):
I would think absolutely. Oh yeah, as you know them
really well? Yeah, you hell you know them. And this
game is gonna be hyped up for a twenty five game.
Majority of the country's going to see it because this
has always been historically one of the best rivalries in sport,
not just football.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
And listen, their record's worse than Washington's. They just lost
to Carolina. They've given up a ton of points. They're
hearing it down there too.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
They've been scoring a ton of points. They've been scored
a ton of points.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
I mean, this is this is a big week for
both of these teams to prove something, which is, you know, honestly,
the only way I'd want to see it anyway, in
Washington Dallas game where both teams have a lot on
the line.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Yeah, I mean, but it's at that point of the
year where everybody's got a lot online. It's like kind
of you get to that point where you, like I
heard Flett say this, it's like you got to start
stringing some games together, and everybody's feeling that. Everybody's goal
is to go to the dance, get to the show,
and now's the time you got to start winning some games,
stacking them up. And again they're feeling that same thing.
And when that's happening, like that leads to some good football.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
One of the things that was happening on the road
hopefully won't happen this weekend. Slow starts. They've been out
scored twenty seven to nothing in the first quarters of
the previous road games. Last night thirteen nothing bears. I
think it was London and I were talking about I
think it's a little different this time. I was going
to say the offense was slow starting, slow starting, slow starting.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
On that made a good point, was that he's like,
it wasn't really a slow start because they you know, they.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Drove the foot all time.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah, earlier it was it.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
Was herned it over.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Yeah, let's just talk about energy then and a better start.
Which what do you think is attributing to this repeating
over and over?

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Because if you get you get points off that first drive. Yeah,
you're at a Bears. They got three points and we
get sad when we get three points and you're not
looking at it. A slow start, finish, go ahead? What
do you think?

Speaker 1 (53:57):
How do they How do you go about trying to
start fast? Because the score was what the score was
again last night?

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Make plays?

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (54:05):
Is that okay to say?

Speaker 2 (54:08):
It's also a situation where you can't press. You can't
start pressing because if you try to press and create
a turnover, I'm going to force a turnover. That's when
you give up big plays. That's when you have blown assignments,
when you try to do more than what you're supposed
to do. The plays will come. Do your job and

(54:29):
do your job well.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
Yeah, trust it man. I think that's a great point
because I think about what Joe Junior said about not
wearing capes, and I think that is It sounds so silly,
but it's like the most perfect analogy for football. Like
you're not one person trying to make yourself look good.
You're one of eleven playing together. So like the offensive lineman,
don't overreach. If you got a chiphelt, make sure you're
chipping defensively, right, I don't need to press for this pick.

(54:54):
If I just make the tackle, we live to play
another down. We got a lot of reps in the game.
I'm a part of a bigger ecosystem, and I think
like that. If they can do that, I think they're
gonna be okay. They're going to be a tough out
every single week. It just can everybody commit to that
and own that, I think would be the thing I
would point to.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
I don't know that Dallas's record will allow to have
Dak in this conversation yet, but he's playing like a
potential MVP to this point. He's really he's lightening it up.
I think Baker Mayfield probably that conversation. Bijond, especially with
the numbers he's posting, is probably in that conversation now.
But I don't know how much you've seen a Dak
so far, but he's had an incredible start to his season.
So what are you thinking about defensively as you try

(55:34):
to handle the Cowboys this week?

Speaker 2 (55:36):
As I'm looking at the Cowboys. First of all, you
mentioned Dak, and he is just making all kind of plays.
He has so much confidence and his ability not just
in structure, like getting the ball out when they're supposed
to be but even out of the pocket, some of
the throws that he's made down the field. Man, he's

(55:58):
trusting his guys. And it's not just Ceedee, Lamb and Piggys.
They've been some other like.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
Secondary Larry Many, Larry, I love it.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Yeah, I got that word from you, and I got
the new word. I'm about to go back and get
that research it. But he's playing with so much confidence
and he realizes they realize this too. We're probably in
order to win football games, were don't have to score
thirty to thirty five points per game, So they going
to the each game with that mindset. So they're going

(56:31):
to be aggressive.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Yeah, and I love the way their offense is designed.
There's a lot of really quarterback friendly concepts. And Doak
is feeling himself like ripping seams, deep digs fifty to fifties,
like he's playing really good like and you mentioned like MVP.
It definitely feels like he's playing at that level at
the moment. And so when you're playing a quarterback who's
feeling themselves like that, it's really to me about surviving

(56:53):
the big plays. Mike defending every blade of grass. So
hopefully the defense can kind of get that together.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
And you saw what the Bears did last night, you
talked about potentially replicating it defensively.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
Do you think Dallas can? Can they do that to
Washington's offense?

Speaker 3 (57:09):
Yeah, I mean I think anybody can as long as
you feel comfortable with your man guys on the perimeter,
like then you can do it. And and Digs.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
So we're gonna find out that they trust Bland and
Digs the way DQ Joe Whitt used to trust them down.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
But it's planning Diggs. But it's also like who's going
to match up with zach Ertz? Who's going to match
up you know what I'm saying, Like it all maths
up there, because like you can find a matchup in
man and man covered.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
If I if I recall correctly. So Matt Eberfus is
their defensive and I believe he's not really a high blitz.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
He is a big cover three guy, like old school
cover three soft zone ben but don't break. So he
hasn't really done a lot of that, but you know,
the formula has been laid out.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
So and then they don't have the benefit of a
bye week.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
That's true. That's a good point. That's a great point.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
They just watched our game Monday night, and they've already
probably they already put some of their game plan in
prior to even seeing our game Monday night. So al
dn't go on all of a sudden say, hey, deezer,
these are the things we wanted.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
To special If you know major in them, it's going.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
To right exactly, Ken, Do we have a guys that
can get this done?

Speaker 3 (58:12):
And he's notorious for kind of sticking to his thing,
which is like these softer zone coverages. Yeah, I think
they could physically do it if they wanted to. I
just I don't know if he is a guy that's
gonna make that transition.

Speaker 4 (58:22):
All right, we'll get over it fast.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Take a flight down to Dallas, get ready for an
annual visit to the Big d take on the Cowboys,
and that will do it for the Booth Review.

Speaker 4 (58:31):
We'll talk to you next Monday.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
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

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Protecting the Washington Commanders and its fans.