NFL Week 7 Recap: Commanders defeated by Cowboys 44-22 | Booth Review Podcast | Washington Commanders | NFL

Future Hall of Fame Linebacker London Fletcher is joined by 10-Year NFL Tight End Logan Paulsen to breakdown what when wrong in Dallas and what are the solutions to right the ship before the Monday Night Football matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs.

 

Hosts: London Fletcher, Logan Paulsen  

 

Producer: Jason Johnson  

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode of Booth Review Podcast. It's Tell the
Truth Monday, Fletch. And there's a lot honesty out there.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah, we're problems album to get our ball right, man.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I can't wait to hear what you got to say.
That all starts right now. Welcome to the Booth Review Podcast.
I'm Logan Paulson here with future Hall of Famer London Fletcher.
And as always, we're brought to you by the Microsoft
Surface Copilot plus PC and we are in the Big
Bear or I am in the Big Bear AI Command
Center Studio, Fletch. That was a tough one, man, And

(00:33):
we're here for Tell the Truth Monday. And I know
you like to tell the truth. You want to just
start off with kind of your initial high level thoughts,
then we'll go from there, get us some detailed questions.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yes, yeah, So first of all, we're having too many
tail the truth mondays lately.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Doesn't feel that way.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
That's that's first thing. And I would say this, it
was it was a very rough game. I got an
opportunity to watch the game film on the way on
my flight back from Dallas this morning. I'll say this,
man just not consistently inconsistent. It is how I'll describe it.

(01:10):
I thought we we.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Didn't like that's such, that's such codes speak right, consistently
and consistent.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, but it's true and consistent.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
And I didn't think we played well enough to win
that ball game on any any side of the ball. Obviously,
defense is more glaring, and that's that was more glaring
to me. I thought we we lost in the trenches
on both sides of the ball first and foremost, and
then the exposive players continue as a defense. The penalties

(01:40):
were were costly against us, some some questionable with some
you know, just just too many penalties, especially on the
road game. And then the turnovers, having a two turnovers.
So it's a culmination of a lot of different things
when you really get down to it. And DQ touched
on it and his pressure, like we just didn't play

(02:01):
well enough to win that ball game.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know, I'm with you, Fletch, and I think, so
let's just start the conversation by like looking at it
in the lens of what Dallas did well and then
maybe how Washington can get that cleaned up moving forward.
So to me, I thought, they, like you said, they
hit the explosive opportunities, which is like tough for defenses, right,
you got to survive those explosive opportunities. And then I
thought they ran the football really well, so kind of
the double edged short they were explosive, They ran the

(02:25):
football well, they were good on third down. What did
you see in terms of those explosive opportunities that kind
of I don't know that from your defensive perspective made
them so successful.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, first and foremost, Like coming into the game Dallas,
that was what they did. They were second most team
in a national football in terms of taking deep shots, right,
that's what they do. They had I don't know the number.
I think it was like twenty nine deep shots coming
into that ball game, but they had the second most
deep shots in the ball game. So that from that standpoint,

(02:59):
there wasn't that was to it be expected. I'll say
this on some of those deep opportunities, like the one
that that Pickings caught against Trey Amoss. That's the trays there,
nice thro nice catch, the one right before the half, Hey,
could you do something differently from a technique standpoint, I
don't know. Those are things that the coaches will have

(03:21):
to talk about, but I'll say this the pass for
us wasn't consistent enough. A lot of those deep shots
he takes time. You know, they're the one to see
the lamb down the middle of the field. Was their
communication or bus From a coverage standpoint as I look
at it, I don't know that the coverage was played
exactly how it should have been played. But also Dak

(03:43):
had a long time to kind of hitch and throw
that football down the field. So when you when you're
taking those deep shots, it takes. It takes a lot
of different things. Protection being one of them. And did
we play with the proper leverage all the time down
the field on? From a defensive coverage standpoint too, those
are some of the things that I saw, like maybe
we should be outside leverage on this ball, you know,

(04:05):
instead of inside leverage. So it's a it's a it's
a several different things that happen.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, I'd like to double click on a couple of
those things. First off, I'm glad you run up those
three plays because those are the first.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Ones that came to mind.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
And so some of it is that Dallas is good
at that stuff, right, Like that's like they're what they
what they're good at.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Right.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
So, for example, in that first completion to Tremos, like
dron Payne has a quick win on the guard right,
he wins the outside shoulder. He actually gets a hit
on the quarterback. But as we did, as you know,
in prep, we saw that Deck did a good job
getting the football out of his hands, throws it before
Pickens is really out of his like out of out
of phase with the uh Tremos delivers a dot. That's
why he's one of the best quarterbacks in the league

(04:42):
at the moment. The one too, the one on You know,
you can talk about Latimore's game overall, but I thought
that the completion before halftime was one of the best
deep shots I've seen, best kind of late hands by
a receiver. And I think, you know, maybe Latimore could
look up and play that football if you're being hyper critical,
But he's in perfect phase. So of some of those
are them doing a good job, you know what I'm saying,

(05:04):
And I think you got to give them their flowers,
as painful as that is. But then I think the
thing that we can control, or the defense here for
Washington control is the technical stuff. And you mentioned the
exposive play to Ceedee Lamb, Like, how do you get
that kind of stuff corrected moving forward when you say, hey,
these are some and and to be fair, like, I
think I see it the same way you did, where
there's new people in new spots, kind of new roles

(05:27):
in that coverage structure.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
And they they quick snapped us on that play. And
it's also a situation, if I remember correctly, we didn't
necessarily have well, I'll say this, the pass for us
allowed them to get that shot down the field. And
I also I was because I was in Dallas, happened

(05:48):
to be. I heard some of the some of the
press conference from from Brian Schottenheimer. He said that actually
wasn't the rock that Ceedee Lamb was supposed to run,
but because he saw nobody running down the scene with him,
that's why he just threw it. Was a there was
a that was an ad lib route by him. He

(06:09):
had a different run. I think he was gonna run
a he was gonna run a deep deep dig. They're
gonna have a two digs on that play. And because
of what I think was a miscommunication or coverage bust,
he sees it throws his hands up. Now, I was
compounded by Marshan and Kwan running into each other. But

(06:31):
from in my mind, from my perspective, and I don't
notice to be certain, but it started with a coverage
bust on responsibility and that uh that inverted cover too,
that that that we played.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, I definitely see it the same way.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
But I think you bring up a good point there
too in terms of providing context, Like if the rush
is there, they're not gonna be able to see that
because Dak's expecting to be an You can tell Dak's
expecting him at a different part of the field. But
because the rush is, you know, not quite there, they've
got kind of some uh maybe not ideal person knowing
the game. It's patting the football a little bit. Ball
gets out probably on the third count, which is a

(07:05):
long time beholding the football, and it leads to that's
supposed to play.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Here's here's the thing that I that I like. I
like about I like about the the inverted cover tools,
and we have some some funky cover threes that we play.
Especially when you got a quarterback who's so accurate like
that and if he knows he can get it out quickly,
it forces him just to hold on the ball. A
little bit, just a little bit longer. Why he figures

(07:29):
out what the coverage is. So when you when you
have the hey you got Frankie Loelu, who's normally an
outside linebacker playing a kind of a hook curl area,
a hook drop. Now he becomes your flat corner and
you got you know, different guys playing different spots. It
just forces the quarterback maybe to hold it on, just
hold on to the ball just for a second longer.

(07:50):
Let me figure out what the coverage structure is and
that should allow the pass us to get there. Things
like that. So I like, I like when they mix
it up from a deferent standpoint where you got different
players playing a lot of different different responsibilities, but you
have to make sure everybody carries out their job responsibility
on every single play. And I would say this also

(08:13):
you actually big picture wise defensively, there's three things that
you talk about what I talked about from each each play, alignment, assignment,
and execution pre snap. So hey, pre snap, what's my alignment?
Am I in a proper alignment? Okay? Boom? What's my
assignment given the play that's run? What's my coverage responsibility?

(08:36):
What's my run gap? Response, responsibility, things like that, and
then from there, am I going out and executing my
job Responsibility to the way that it's supposed to be executed.
So those are the three things you have to check
on each play, play in and play out. We haven't
consistently done that enough. And it's not just one guy.

(08:58):
It's been a lot of guys on different plays not
carrying out all those things, you know, all three of
those things play in and play out. It might be
two out of the three, it might be one out
of three, but it's not consistent enough where it's three
out of the three play in and play out.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
I'm really glad you brought that up because I think
it relates to both the things we're talking about, Like
as you're talking about how like sometimes you can present
a different look to the quarterback with that inverted two
or some of those funny cover three covers like contours
and the way they get to it, because there's opportunities
in this game. Where are moments in this game where
I felt like Dak thought it was going to be
one thing and then it ends up being quarters coverage,

(09:33):
he holds the football down, ends being sacked. Oh he
thinks it's going to be man ends up being inverted too.
It's a sack. So there are opportunities where you see
the alignment, assignment, execution coming together in these moments. It's
just it seems like it's not happening with the regularity
needed to be successful defensively in this football game.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Absolutely, And when you do that, I've I've been on
a couple of defense like that where just like Man,
I'll tell you, I'll give you an very great example
of it in nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Taking the way back machine there, huh bud.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, taking the play back because I because I've way back.
We won, won the Super Bowl top five defense. I
think we may have finished third or fourth in points
a lot we had. We were top ten in a
lot of different areas, essentially brought back a lot of
the same guys pretty much, with the exception we may
have lost a guy to free agency wise, but for

(10:30):
some reason the next next year we went from top
five in a lot of categories to bottom bottom ten,
and even I think we might have been thirty, if
thirty first, maybe thirty second in points allowed, And a
lot of it was just us not carrying out our
assignments and executing to play in and play out. We

(10:50):
had the same defensive calls, but we just didn't do
didn't do our jobs, and then you would see guys
start depress and situations to try to make plays weren't
weren't our plays to be made, And that's how you
end up having this type of defense where you're giving
up a lot of plays, a lot of explosive plays,
can't get out the field, and you get the results
that you're getting.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
How did you get how'd you guys get out of that?
Or was that kind of something that carried out?

Speaker 2 (11:15):
We did it?

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Really, Well it's fun I'll say this. I'll say this, No,
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well it's funny because like I had a similar experience
here from going going from twelve to thirteen offensively with
Robert Griven the third. You know, we're doing all this
zone read stuff. No one could stop us in twelve thirteen.
It's the same offense, it's the same rules, it's but
defenses had changed a little bit. They'd had better rules,
they had better fits for our runs, and we weren't
as successful and we everyone started pressing and the offense

(11:43):
wasn't as good we weren't the top weren't the top
offense in the NFL anymore. And it was really interesting
to kind of say, like it's the same, but like
something has affected us psychologically or what the other team
is doing, and we can't be the best version of ourselves.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Now I will say this, we did. We did make
We did make improvements. Now we didn't get back to
top top ten level, top five levels, but we did
enough to where we were able to win ten ball games,
made the playoffs, and you know, we were uh an
opportunity away. We had a tough pun in the playoff game.

(12:18):
Otherwise we got an opportunity to win a role playoff
game in that season. So we did enough. Tweaking they made,
they made we kind of pair some things down, simplify
some things. There were a couple of personnel changes too,
you know, but the coaches like looked at everything. But
we also as individuals we had to play better as well.

(12:39):
And I found myself like I was a I was
a guy. I was trying to do too much interesting,
so you know, yeah, and the head coach at that
point in time, Mike Marx, he talked to me, brought
me in his office, like London, Man, you're good enough,
like with your speed to do your job and then

(12:59):
go ahead and and help and clean up some other areas.
But I need you to do your job first. And
that was a that that conversation resonated with me because
it was like, dang, I'm thinking, man, I need to
help these guys out. I need to do more. But
within that it was like, hey, I need to do
my job first. To coach emphasize late London, you need

(13:22):
to do your job first and then go out and
uh and help, you know, clean up things once you've
had your responsibility. And from there I played, I started
to play a lot better football. But everybody has to
understand that, like we got to we got to make
sure we're doing our job first as individuals.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
And it's interesting because, like I remember a couple weeks ago,
Joe Wood Junior was like, hey, man, we're not wearing capes.
You need to put a cape on. You need to
do your job. You need to kind of handle take
care of your house. And I know that probably sounds
super simplistic to people who've not played, but like it is,
that's what it comes down to. Like I remember, even
like with run blocking and stuff. If it's like, hey, man,
like sit on this combination. I don't need to like

(14:03):
help to tackle too much. He's getting paid too. I
got to get to the linebacker like, don't do more
than you have to. And it's and sometimes when you're
watching film, I see guys that are over trying. And
that is a thing, right, They're competitive dudes. They want
to get better, and I guess I'd rather guys be
overtrying than under trying.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
But it is a really hard It's I don't I
don't know what the right word is.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
It's hard to take a step back and say, just
do what I'm supposed to do at a really high level.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
It's going to make the defense better.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah. And man, here's another thing too, you find yourself.
We talk about pressing. Well, pressing also could lead to
it's another code word for guessing, Oh okay, I like
guessing what. Yeah, you're guessing what rod is about to
be run? You're guessing what what are running back is
going to cut? Go on? Is run? Play? Instead of

(14:52):
standing where you're supposed to be us making absolutely certain
that it's not coming through your gap, taking care of
your responsibility first, and then going out and making the play,
making sure you maintain a proper leverage on a coverage.
If you're supposed to have an outside leverage, play outside leverage.

(15:13):
Don't try to think he's going to run instant end
breaking round and then you jump inside and then it
ends up not being that. Now you put yourself in
a position to where they didn't earn. They didn't earn
that completely. It was you guessing and now now you've
given up a player. Now, I've seen that happen too
many times throughout the course of this season, just just

(15:33):
being you know.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Honest, Yeah, and I totally agree with you, and I've
seen the same thing. And I will say it's important
to note that the other team is doing things to
make a challenging for you to do your job right.
They have players that are making it hard, but they
also have formations and motions that make it hard to
fit what you're doing. However, like doing your job is
also making sure you're prepped and ready for those unusual
looks in the week too, And I think that's something

(15:56):
that you know, maybe is important to look at. Like
when Dan Quinn talks about being accountable, right, he's not
talking about accountable on Sundays because it's easy to be
accountable on Sundays. It's accountable on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday when I got to get that work.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
And you know that better than anybody.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
No, No, absolutely, And that's again like the coaches, they'll
they'll look at themselves and like, man, what could I
have done differently? Did I've covered this during the during
the week leading up to the game. Was there a
call I could have made differently from an officer standpoint
defensive standpoint? Like we all like coaches, your your play

(16:34):
call on the high school level. So I'm sure you're like,
dang it if I call it play you.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Know, definitely feel that adult.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
So you you you go through those things as a
as a play call, as a as an individual as well.
Because there were some guys who played some outstanding football yesterday,
but it wasn't you know, a lot and then and
most of the guys who played outstanding football, they took
care of their job. They were just doing their job right,
Like I'm gonna highlight Darrow pain yeah, and then it

(17:07):
may plays yeah he jumped up, he jumps off.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
But that's a great point though, Like because you're doing
it in the context of the defense. Everybody else is
supporting you being in that moment. And again, like it's
like you're not going to make every single tackle, You're
not gonna make every single play, but.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
You got to do what you're supposed to do. Like
I make it.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
I make it to the comparison like on offense, right,
like when you're running the clear out, run the clear
out because you're creating space for someone else else to
catch that football. Like, if you don't run that route
one hundred percent, you're going to cloudy the window. You're
gonna make it hard for the offense to be successful.
And it's that's what defense is all the time. It's
a lot of selfless plays, waiting and kind of buying
your time for the one big moment where you can

(17:46):
kind of shine and make the tackle, make the sack,
make the interception.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, yeah, and again. And even like I look at
from the from the run game, from the Dallas being
able to run the football as effectively as they ran
the ball against us, and a lot of it was
they there were moments where they had some good schemes
and they got they got some good blocking, and there

(18:09):
there were times where we lost one on ones and
we could have been a little bit more physical, but
more often than not, more times than not, it was
us getting out of a block, getting reached and getting
out of a gap. I should say a mistackle here
there a wrong fit on a miss misfit like okay,
emotion might change me being uh, you know, going from

(18:32):
an edge player or a forced player to now I'm
a cutback player and I'm in the box. So all
those things have to be harked on and attention to detail,
knowing what your responsibility is. That's why I talked about alignment, assignment, execution,
and within that it can change as the formation changes,
and you know, just knowing, knowing what you what you

(18:54):
have to do. So did did Dallas earn those yards
they ran those rushing yards? I would say not, not not.
They didn't earn all the yards of they gap, but
it was more enough than them.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, I'm really glad you brought up the rushing game
because like obviously, the explosive players are the ones that
people are going to remember. The three you mentioned. There's
a couple other like minor explosives. But to me, the
thing that really stood out when I was watching the
film Fletch was the success rate of runs on second
and long where they're getting like an eight yard clip,
a seven yard clip. Here's a ten yard run on

(19:28):
second and ten and when one of the things that
I thought was important or imperative going into this game
was keeping Dallas off schedule. And so you did a
great job on first down, you got them a second
and ten. That's like half the battle, okay, and then
now all of a sudden they run the football on
second and ten and it's like a counter.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
It's a you know, like there's a pin pull.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
There's a simple inside zone in the two minute situation
which ends up being a big gash. And to your point,
it's not like they're doing anything crazy like sometimes when
you watch Miami, you know, like with Mike McDaniel, they
running all these crazy motions and shifts and you're like, man,
these are pretty straightforward runs, and guys are just not
fitting the runs the way they're supposed to fit them.
And I think that's another thing that jumped out to me,

(20:10):
and it goes back to your original point alignment, assignment, execution,
Like I got to know my those first two are
probably the most important and so just like ing coverage,
how we have to play the right leverage or play
the right technique or no, where my help is. I
felt like there was some of that lacking in the
run game too, a little bit.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, no, absolutely, man, it really was. And that's the
that's a disappointing part, and I would say even frustrating part.
And I know, as as coaches, you're like, man, okay,
I called this whether I got we got an eight
man front, and we got you know, we got enough
guys based to fit the run to stop the run.

(20:47):
And you've mentioned the second of ten, and then you're like,
dang it, how do they go from second to ten
to third and one or third two and defend the
third and one at third and two third three is
totally different than defending third and six, third and six
seven plus. So but it's all about, hey, if we

(21:08):
do our jobs, fit properly, don't mistackles, all those things,
stay in your gap, being maybe a little bit more
stotter at points of attack, whatever the case may be.
They don't get these yards that they're they're getting in
you're not allowing them to convert these these third downs,
and then you get the ball back to our offense
and don't you're now you're not giving up thirty seven points.

(21:32):
I look at this defensively, they gave up thirty seven.
You had to pick six. So you're not giving up
those those points, and you're probably and you're scoring probably
more than twenty two because you have more opportunities as
an offense.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, And I think that's so a couple of things
they said are great, Like I think a great example
of the you know what was it the second and
ten to the third and one type of environment like
they had that I think it was the play action
to pickings that got the first PI that led to
the touchdown the next player or whatever. Like they're able
to run a play action pass on third one, the
gets all sticky in the front, you get one on

(22:07):
one coverage on the perimeter. Like I want to say
those are I don't want to say those are easy throws,
but those are easier reads, easier looks for the quarterback,
easier looks for the offensive line because we didn't take
care of the down and distance we had when it
was second and ten right obviously, and then to piggyback
off of that, I think the other thing is just
the I don't know, like, yeah, that's I think that's

(22:28):
a really good example of what you're talking about. They're
just how like we might not show up in the
stat sheet, but those long down in distance runs we're
backbreaking at times because they kept everything on schedule for
the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, and even you know, we'll look at it. I
don't know if we want to get an offense yet,
but I just I looked at this and this was
my thoughts going into the ball game, knowing what we
were up against from a being challenged with with our
top three receivers out and I know Terry and and

(23:02):
Noah haven't played in quite a while, but losing debo
that changes that changes things. And from a defense standpoint,
you got to think, hey man, we can't allow this
to be a shootout. You know, let's let's we're gonna
have to figure out a way to minimize keep the
score down. You're not gonna hold You're not gonna shut

(23:24):
Dallas out. They were number two ranked scoring offensive lead.
You're not gonna totally shut them down, but we have
to when you get opportunities to get off the field
on the third down. We got it we had to
limit the explosive. They're gonna make some plays. We have
to limit the explosive explosive. We can't have all the
penalties that we had. A couple of them were very questionable,

(23:47):
but regardless, we put ourselves in a position that they
called them. It was a situation where from a defense standpoint,
you can probably try to have to hold them in
the twenties, you know, maybe twenty seven twenty four wins
that you know puts you in a situation where you
winning that ball game. But when you get into the
thirties now, it just puts a lot of pressure on

(24:09):
the offense. Day. You know, we were missing, we're missing
a lot of guys, and I know DQ said, hey,
the injuries didn't cost us, but this needed to be
a true offense, defense, special teams type of game where
that led to a win.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, And like, like Dak Prescott was twenty one for
thirty for two hundred and sixty four yards and three touchdowns,
Like he was playing well coming in, played well yesterday.
It's a tough to deal with a guy like that.
And like, when you're dealing with a guy that good,
who's playing that well on offense, it's been able to
find those explosive plays. Like you said, it does need
to be a good mixture of offense and defense supporting
each other, and so like, while you feel that the

(24:46):
defense let the offense down, there are times where I
look at the film on offense, I'm like, and we're
going we can talk about the offense now, where like,
despite the injuries, I thought Clifford called good plays. Guys
were open, there were opportunities for completions, and we weren't
able to get first downs, weren't able to possess the football.
And this is again my offensive bias. Anytime you punt,
you're putting your defense, you're exposing your defense. And ideally

(25:08):
you know they work hand in hand, right, Oh, the
offense and defense, they're going to support each other. But
also the offense can carry its way too and be like, hey,
we're gonna go on a nice eight play drive and
let the defense recover, let them get the corrections and
they need to, and then we've held up our end
of the bargain. That being said, like you already talked
about a little bit, like that's how I feel about
the offense. I feel like in some ways they didn't

(25:29):
hold up there into the bargain. But they have all
of this kind of built in adversity, right There's the
receivers are banged up Cosby's first game like it. Just
do they have enough offensive playmakers to live up to
that expectation, I think is the question.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
I'll say this the thing that surprised me the most
when I watched the offensive film. I didn't think the
offense line played well. I thought I thought they did.
They didn't play well, especially in past pro they there
were some missignments from a past protection standpoint. I thought.

(26:09):
I thought at times Dallas was more physical than us.
I thought we had trouble dealing with some of their
their movements and the uh that they ran, especially when
they were bringing a uh extra rusher like a fifth
man fifth rusher on the on the on the blitz
or run stuff. We had trouble dealing with that. And

(26:31):
there were times that I mean, quite frankly, they were
just more physical than us. And that that surprised me.
That how I said how poorly the offensive line played,
just just being honest with what what I saw, and
I think, uh, you know, they had to tell the
truth Monday when they look at that film and the
offensive players look at it as well. There were some

(26:54):
miscommunications on who we were supposed to block, miss blocks
on runs like okay, I'm supposed to block this guy,
not staying on a double team too long, that as
you mentioned, not working to the next level, some id
situations where hey are you ideaing the right guy? That
happened too many times, and that ball game penalties hurt us.

(27:18):
You know, we go from thirty one to a third
and six different that's the big difference between you know,
being able to convert and getting off the field. So
some drop passes and then there was also some inaccurate throws.
So it was a lot of different things that happened.
But I just think the offensive line disappointed. I was.
I was surprised that they didn't play you know, well.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, well you talked about a lot of stuff there, Fletch.
Let's just let's what we're going to attack each part
of that real quick. Let's start off with at the
highest level, what did the Dallas defense do that was
so effective? You alluded to a couple of things there
to me, like in rebuttal to what you're saying is, yeah,
I agree, the offensive line could have played better. But
when you're facing a lot of eight man boxes with
a lot of movement and a lot of pressure in

(28:02):
pass protection and rundown situations, it just enhances the level
of difficulty. Like I'm telling you, like having been part
of the blocking service for a long time, the second
you start stunting and moving guys, it demands quick and
immediate nonverbal communication with the people next to you. And
so I do think they're getting last week against the

(28:23):
Bears and this week they're getting more stressed because teams
are being way more aggressive than they'd shown on first
and second down. And I think you said that a
bunch of times on the broadcast.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, I anticipated that coming into the ball game.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
They're better man than me man because I was like,
you know, like Eberflus kind of does his thing, He's
going to stay with what he does. But he came
out and they brought they were just they brought the
machine gun out on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well when you as you know, copycat league, and they
saw the Bears game plan and saw how the Bears
were able to have success bringing pressure on us, blitzing more.
I thought they did a nice mix of pressure and
playing zone. So having fire zones playing zone coverage, it's.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Just what's a fire zone? Can you explain that to
people have been beat on?

Speaker 2 (29:11):
So fire zone, the fire part of it, let's call
it a blitz, a five man rush, so they bring
it five players, but instead of playing man and man coverage,
especially on the second level, they're playing kind of zone.
You have let's call it a seam defender, a middle
hook player, and then you have another scene player, so

(29:32):
you got you got pressure. But then you also have
eyes on the quarterback, vision on the quarterback. So there
were some times where Jaden might have beat the blitz,
so to speaking, and he was able to scramble and
then all of a sudden, he's like, where man, where
did this linebacker come from? Why was he able to

(29:53):
get the Jaden before he's able to turn up and
pick up a first down. Well, because they're playing zone,
you got guys sitting there ready to run. They also
did a nice job when they went to their cover
one whether it was four man rush or five man pressure,
playing five man blitzing and playing man or playing four
man man a man four man rust, playing man and man.

(30:16):
They had a spy guy for Jaden. He was assigned
to Jaden like if he tries to take off, you're
going to him. It wasn't a guy a low hol
player that's looking to help on some shallow crosses or
something like that. His responsibility was Jayden as a as
a as a runner. So that's what that's what Dallas did.

(30:36):
They mix it up. They were a high zone coverage
type team like Cover.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Three hi the NFL before this game.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'm absolutely yep. Going into that game, Cover two they
were the highest. Think of Cover three, they were one
of the highest, but just playing truth zone, Yeah, true zone.
When you add those two together, they definitely were the highest.
They brought a lot of pressure, a lot of them
run stunts or bringing safeties off the edge, ran a

(31:04):
couple of linebackers up the blitzing up the middle, confusion protections,
also making you work in combinations. But it's also a
situation where hey, can we win consistently in one on
one situations on a perimeter. They were banking on us
not being able to over the course of the game

(31:25):
win consistently one on one on a perimeter as well.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, let's double click on that for a second, because
I do think that's a big storyline coming out of
the game. It's just basically like you said, there's they
were way more aggressive, brought way more pressure, different types
of pressure, different types of line movement, and in the broadcast,
and it sounds like, right now, you think that's because
while I do think the guys who are playing in
the roles of the people that are injured are doing
a fine job. Chris Moore as an exposed to play,

(31:50):
Luke sets some exupposed to plays. Last couple of weeks,
Robbie Chosen I think made his presence felt in the game.
I think teams are feeling more comfortable playing man to
man coverage because they like those guys can't consistently win
those one on ones.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
That's and it's all. It's a percentage game, and you
you're an analytics guy.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
I guess so.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Again again, I heard a quote I told you I
stayed overnight in Dallas and they asked us Shottenheimer about
Brian schat Brian Schottenheimer, the head coach of the Cowboys.
He's like, Hey, the question was you guys seem to
be more aggressive, brought more pressure in this ball game.
And they were saying and played a lot more man

(32:33):
than man, and they were saying, Hey, the analytics told
us that was the way they attacked. Interesting to attack
this team, that's that's that's what the analytics said. I
just look at percentages. We've always had satitions from a
percentage standpoint, Can you consistently beat my guys one on one?
Or there were guys getting open, But what's Jayden gonna

(32:56):
have the time to find that guy open? Where they
going to be what we're going to be able to
manipulate the press, manipulate the pass, protect pass pro and
get pressure on him before he can get to the
open guys. So, don't get me wrong, there were there
were times guys one they won in one on one matchups,
but the pressure may have gotten to them. We might

(33:17):
have to lead a pocket or something like that. So
there was a there was a combination of different things
that happened in that ballgame. But to your point, the
last two weeks, teams have been far more aggressive attacking
us in the in these ball games.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, and I think honestly like this, well, that affects
the passing game, right because they're playing more man covers,
they're bringing more pressure, they're unsettling, Jaden, they're saying, we're
going to play the percentage. I also think that leads
really nicely to our next question question, which is why
we couldn't run the football, because on first and second down,
you're seeing a way more, way higher percentage of eight
man boxes, way more first down pressures, way more first

(33:54):
down line movement, and like you already said, like when
you're in that front and teams are just bringing absolute
fastballs down and down out, it makes it really hard
to execute on first down. And so I think that's
something else that I point to is a ripple effect
or a trickle down effect from the injuries on the perimeter.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, absolutely, and also dan injuries on the perimeter. The
parson Al groups have changed a lot too. Yeah, so
you're seeing more more three tiny hands Trey parson Al.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
I mean, they only had four receivers up right in
the game. I think that's what Brand was saying to broadcast, right,
so they've got coolson Yankov as your fourth ride receiver
in some looks because you don't have enough bodies just
to get out there and run routes. I mean, it's
it was a really interesting kind of dynamic and it
felt like early they got off their game script. It
felt like they want to run the football play action pass,
but they kind of couldn't do that as effectively as

(34:45):
they wanted. And then it really stresses the rest of
your game plan because all of a sudden, you're in
second and eight, you're in second and nine.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
We got to get more quick game.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
And then all of a sudden, the defensive coordinator has
a feel for that and we're going nuclear in terms
of our pressure package.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Literally and again with the and our our heavy looks,
heavy tight end looks. They've been good for us, but
in this ball game, because Dallas was doing a lot
of lion stunts, a lot of movement, bringing pressure from
guys because they were saying, hey, I mean just be honest,
you got you when you go some of those three
three tight end looks. You got Trent Scott. I mean, Trent, hey,

(35:25):
let's we go start dumbling some passes. So if you're
not looking at him as a pass receiver, you got baits.
He caught a ball yesterday, but he's more known as
a as a block and tight end. And it's not
I'm not knocking anybody, I'm just looking telling you how
to defense views it now and then uh, you may
have had I can't remember if jankof it was ERTs.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Well, they kind of like mixed that exactly.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Senate, Yeah, Senate. So these are guys in this and
know some of those formations. It was just like how
many times are you throwing the football? So from a
defense perspective, you get this person group and you know
who the guys are, Like, Hey, I'm dialing up a
run blitz and if they happen to pass the ball,

(36:08):
they beat us. But we're going to play the hots,
and as you mentioned, a lot of those looks are
just muddy and and just the byproduct of what we
have going on. From an injury standpoint, In my opinion.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
It reminds me a little bit of in twenty thirteen
when d Y Drell Young the fullback and I were
on the field. In twenty one, personnel teams would matching
goal line. We had such a high run percentage.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
I'm not kidding. They'd matching goal line exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
And they'd bring crazy run pressures and stuff. So eventually
got to the point where we had such a high
tell in those moments that we had to get out
of the personnel grouping because they were so keyed in
on us just getting on us run the plane. We
were really effective prior to that, but then teams are like, no,
we're just going to bring in the six defensive lineman.
We would try to play action pass, but it would
mess up our protection rules because we didn't you know,
it just it got really messy.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
So I was just about to say I was about
to say, Logan, you couldn't become a receiver.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
May we'd get Pierre to run a rout you know,
just Shaun Jackson running routes, but like we just couldn't
protect it because we weren't used to Our protection rules
in twenty one didn't translate to the goal line fronts
we were getting. So it just got a little bit messy.
And again we just stopped getting in twenty one and
we won games that way. But it gets to that

(37:20):
point where teams get so locked in on certain personnel
tells that you can't do what you gotta do and
you can't hurt them. I think that's the thing, is like,
that's great. If I'm an offensive carder, I'm like, that's awesome.
They're bringing run blitz is they're playing extra defensive linemen,
they've got linebackers on the field.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Let's throw passes.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
And they've tried to do that at points during the year,
with zach Ertz running deep digs and goes on the perimeter.
It's just sometimes you don't have enough vertical speed there
to match up with the coverage players they have on
the field, and you can't get the juice. Isn't worth
the squeeze anymore. So I do feel like that's something
that they're going to probably look at this week in
terms of how do we how do we get rid

(37:56):
of some of these personnel tendencies and move out of
some of these looks where defenses can tee off anyway.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
Go Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yeah, absolutely have to. Otherwise it's just gonna continue to
be the same thing over and over again.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
And the other thing that came up was so all
of this stuff on first down makes it way more
complicated for the offensive line. And I've been a big
proponent of saying like, outside of playing quarterback, the offensive
line is the toughest thing to do on the offensive
side of the football from a pass protection, run blocking standpoint,
getting things targeted. But I felt like you felt some
of that stress on the offensive line affect the quarterback

(38:31):
a little bit. And Jayden Daniels, you know we talked
about on the broadcast, wasn't quite as sharp as he
normally was, because, like we talked about how Cliff did
a great job, Scheven zach ertz open or there's a
dig route that gets dropped or whatever it is, and
we just couldn't get a consistent offensive rhythm. And again,
this is where I go back to saying this had
to be a complimentary football game, and it wasn't because

(38:51):
the offense just couldn't.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
We were able to score points.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
They were able to score points, but we weren't able
to sustain drives and limit the stress on the defense.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Now, you and it probably some of the inaccurate throws
that you got guys open. I know it was comes
to mind. I think a couple comebacks yep, that were
open but just off target. Was his process sped up
in his mind thinking hey, it might not we might
not protect this, or I've been hit or something like that.

(39:20):
So just there was a couple of times, and I
don't know, like was the depth of the routes properly
that I don't know those things. Was a receiver supposed
to do something a little different? I don't know those things.
But I just know whether they were just on the
same page, that the routes were open, but was there
some details missing within that, or whether it was on

(39:42):
the quarterback or was on the receiver.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
Well, it was funny, like going on, not funny.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
It was just interesting when you're walking the sideline and
you see the receiver come up, Coach come up to
Jade and be like, hey, we got to be we
gotta be in a better spot for you. And I
don't know what he's referring to, but he's saying like,
we can be better here for you, you know. And
there's a couple of times where you're watching film and
you're like, oh man, these two guys probably shouldn't be
this close to each other. This spacing is weird, or
this guy shouldn't be runn to go when this guy's
running a corner or whatever that looks like. And I

(40:07):
do think that relates to having a lot of young
new pieces on the field at the same time, quite frankly,
like really like people. And again, those guys have been
very productive, but when you get people who haven't got
a ton of reps in the offseason. In these roles,
it shows up in terms of production. And I think
you're feeling that from the passer in Jade Daniels, and

(40:28):
I think you're feeling it from some of the pass
catchers in terms of like, for example, there was a
little hitch that Jalen Lane ran, for example, and they
just weren't on the right page, like he was too
deep or jayde thought he was gonna come out of
it differently. And I feel like that just shows up
in a way that doesn't show up when the starters
are in there necessarily.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Yeah, absolutely, and or you know, more veteran guy, more
seasoned gush, sure, yeah, with the reps and understanding all
those different things. And it's the details, man, in detail,
this game is a game of details of just carrying out. Again,
I don't know what you guys calling on offense. I

(41:05):
don't know if it's aligning, assignment, execution, what you're what
you guys think about as you break the huddle. But
making sure I get my proper debt, making sure versus
press what I'm supposed to do, versus cover three, cover two,
fires on blitz is what I'm supposed to do or
the adjustment. So it's a lot of a lot of
things that you got to think about and everybody has

(41:26):
to be on the same page.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
I think that's one hundred percent right.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
And and again like I think that leads really nicely
into our next segment, which is, Okay, what now now
that we've talked about all of the issues, all the
things that Dallas did well, all the areas that we
can improve, Like, how does this team get better? They
got kind of a touch stretch of road game, our
games coming up here, get some really good opponents, Like
how do they take this and say we learned from it?

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Like?

Speaker 1 (41:51):
What do we learn from it? And how do we
get better moving forward? So let's I guess let's start
with like scheme, Like is there a scheme issue or
does it go back to all the stuff you're talking
about with the alignment, assignment technique and execution, because that's
what I feel when I watched the film.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah, yeah, let's let's solve problems. I like this part
solve problem we got we live in a world where
everybody's telling you what's wrong. Let's get to Okay, how
do we think we gotta know I'm serious. I was like,
all right, let's get out of the what went wrong? Okay,
how do we fix this? I like this. I don't

(42:28):
think schematically, I don't think it's scheme wise. I don't
think it's a situation where.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
And let me just can I just pigback on that
real quick?

Speaker 1 (42:35):
But like everyone runs cover two, everyone's covers three, everyone's
man covered. Like these are very common things. And now
it's just about to not to cut you off. It's
we can't go find a new magic coverage or a
new magic run fit or a new magic run structure.
It's like, we just got to be better at the
stuff we got.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Now, I'll say this, So when you look at our
right the call for a particular situation, every every call
has a weakness. Every defense has a weakness. Now it's
a matter of if they find that weakness and they
make a play. All right, they got us? Did we
first of all? And this is where you have to
really dig deep into did everybody execute their job on

(43:17):
that given play? And as I mentioned earlier, we have
not done that consistently enough, playing and play out through
the course of seven games. The Cowboys game was just
the last one. But if you really look at it,
even the games we've won, have we done that consistently enough?
Play in and play out? In my opinion, the aswer

(43:39):
is no, and it's if you look at the film
you will see we have not done our jobs each
individual players consistently enough. Did we from an alignment standpoint
assimnment standpoint execution? I see times where hey, why is
this guy open? Who's supposed to.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
Be covering him?

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Communication breakdowns, pre snap communication, post staff communication, non verbal communications.
So we have to if it involves more time on
the on the on the practice field, working this stuff together,
more time in the meeting rooms, getting together as a
secondary to getting together as a secondary and linebackers included,

(44:23):
to really work on this stuff, making sure are we
on on top of this. It's going to be done
by us all buying in and understanding. These are the
details of it. This is this rop talking talking out rap,
combinations or formations. You have to just put in more work.
You gotta put in more work, fine tune in the details,

(44:43):
fine tune in the discipline. If it's not happening the
way it needs to be in practice, don't gloss over
it and I'm not saying that I know they're doing
this and they may hey, correcting the details and then yeah,
they might not have thrown to this receiver or this
running back. But you need to be where you're supposed
to be. Your depth is not right, your zone drop

(45:06):
is not right, all those things. You just have to
really fine tune the details. And then from a defense
line standpoint, making sure a run gap standpoint, making sure
everybody's where they're supposed to be and if they make
a play against you, so being hey, but that's how
we get it correct. We got to put more time
in and fixing the details, fine tuning the details, and

(45:28):
we might have to tweak something here there. Maybe you
have a couple of combination calls. We got this defense
in three by one, we're gonna play this two by two,
so you know, do you look at doing some of
those things so you know it's a couple of different
options out there.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Yeah, and it's something that I mean from the you
said this earlier, and I think it was a great point.
Becau Kyle used to do this all the time, Like
we go into a game with a ton of calls,
a ton of check with me is like you know,
three plays called the line of scrimmage, and we just
couldn't play fast or execute to the level that we
needed to. And Kyle would come back on money Day
and you know, tell the truth Monday and be like, hey,
there was too much in that's on me. Like I

(46:06):
can streamline this for you guys and put you in
a better spot where you can own this game plan.
And it's funny like people think, oh, running the football
is simple, right, but I have different calls versus different
front spacings, and a team might run four different fronts
in a course of a game. You got your subfront,
you got your three or four base fronts, and then
you got to know how the adjustment for each run

(46:26):
versus each front. And I think that that's something that
people forget about, like you know who just watch the
game casually. It is like there takes a lot of
time to own something. Hey, Like you said this on routes,
like hey, I got to run this route. Hey, versus press,
it turns into a go versus cover two, it turns
into an eight yard stop or whatever it looks like, right,
whatever the correction is, and that level of detail and

(46:47):
understanding and getting on the same page takes time, and
let's talk about all the pressures the old line of
seeing those take thousands of hours of reps to get
really good at right, And so can we truncate, make
it simple, find ways to again find personal accountability from
the coaches to the players.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
I think that's really important.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
That's something that dan Quinn talked about in this presser,
and I think it's again just saying like, can we
own this as much as possible as like know every
every little thing in this in about this and like
I was never a great football player for Fletch, but
every Monday or every Wednesday, coming after we get the
run list and go through a first down, first second

(47:24):
down cut up of all the fronts and all the calls.
I would make for every single run just so I
had it. You know, they might not run that front
for three years, but I would make sure that I
had it just in case they threw it out there.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
And guess what I did the same thing from a
defensive step. Yeah, well, so listen, I would We would
we get our game plan, I know what, I know
what the calls, our first second down calls that we're
going to lead with, and then I would literally call
like this defense against this rum. Where's my safety at?

(47:57):
Is there a check? I need to make all those
different things, and so just get those reps and then
we get into the ball, we get into the practice field,
I know where my fits are. We get into the game. Hey,
they might like, like you said, they may not have
run this in the last four game breakdown, but I can.
I know what my rules are, and hopefully the other

(48:19):
guys know what our rules are. And I would also
I would bring my my linebackers, some of my especially
the younger linebackers. I would bring them in there and
we would go through, Hey, this is our call. I'm
just putting us in different calls versus this run, especially
if it's it's like a hairy type of run where okay,
there might be a gray area. We don't want to
have gray areas in a game plan, but whether it's

(48:42):
offensive defensively, like all right, we really need to heart
because some of the times it might be a gray
area and coverage based on h I got this running
back but he's close to a tight end. Do we combination,
do we we call it banjo is or do I
get my linebacker a lock signal? Or the nick or

(49:04):
a lock, just depending like, Okay, these are the problems
and we get into practice. We just got to work
this to where Okay, we get in the game, this
formation shows up, boom, make my call right away, Lock, Banjo,
let's go out and play. So it's just it's just
you just gotta rep it, man, You gotta rep it
over and over again in the meeting rooms or the practice.

(49:25):
We can get this right. Yeah, right, I think we
have the personnel to be a not I think I
know we have the personnel to be a lot better
defensively than where we are.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah, and I and I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
I look at it and also like I think it's
it goes back to understanding the limitations you know, of
what of what the coaches see too. Right, It's like, hey,
we were a little bit banged up on the defensive
line of defensive end. Maybe we can't run some of
these pressure packages as we ran early in the season.
What can we But what can these guys do? How
do we maximize these guys? I think that's something else.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
Cliff.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
Also, you know, he's in his bag every week trying
to maximize guys. And I appreciate that, but maybe we
find that, you know, more seems to be really good
at these like deep high crossers and getting to open
across the field, Like.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Let's let's get him doing more of that.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
So I think that's another thing too, is like personal
accountability from the players. Can we things have changed because
of injuries? Like can we as a staff trying to
figure out what these guys do well? And then we
I think this goes back to where maybe the first
thing you said is we have to play complimentary football.
We can't be an offensive driven team or a defensive
driven team or especially we got to be all phases

(50:33):
have to be playing together in order for us to
win football games.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah, and that's how it has to be. Especially I
thought we I thought we were on the verge that
when Trust had that great.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Pump, Oh my gosh, Yeah, how great was that?

Speaker 2 (50:47):
It ends up, you know, down on the one yard
line and then we get the safety d Uran gets
the safety played great when and it's not just the
ron I thought the defensive front defense in general, everybody
was what they're supposed to be. Get the safety, get
the pun and we actually end up taking the lead of.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
That ball gain.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
So they have to Yeah, So just I'm like, Okay,
this is complimentary football. This is what we have to
do to win this game. And he's kind of got
out of whack a little bit. But there's a there's
so much, so many things that we can do better,
and I know as they looked at the film, they'll
really have to dig into that. And I feel like

(51:26):
we got the coaches to do that, we got the
right players to do that, we got the right right
character to get it done. And I have full confidence
that we would get better.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Yeah, so do I And I'm really excited.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
And again they're going to have to get a lot
better because there's some really tough football games coming up.
And I don't believe it must win games early in
the season, not a big believer in that, but these
are some pretty important games and it's we got at
Kansas City Chiefs Monday night football, we got verse the
Seattle Seahawks, and we got verse the Detroit Lions. I'd
say probably, I don't.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
Know, fletch.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Three of the top five teams, top of the top
eight teams in the NFL, so obviously they got to
get right versus those teams. Do you feel like these games,
I know they're important. A lot of people ask me,
are they must wins?

Speaker 3 (52:11):
Again? Not a must win kind of guy, But where
do you follow on that?

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Well? I don't. I'll say this, we can't go on three.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
So that's your own three.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
That's we're three and seven, so we can't. We cannot
go three and seven winn two out of three? I
think I think two out of three.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
Yeah, they got to do something right.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah, So whether it's must win or not. And again,
I want us to win every every game. So but
I'm just saying, like, these are all gonna be tough games.
I like like the fact that we got two of
them at our home yep. And you know, so that
that that great Cass City Monday night football, that would
be the toughest environment probably man, maybe with the exception

(52:57):
probably going into Detroit last year for the NFC chapter.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Yeah. Have you you played there?

Speaker 1 (53:01):
I'm sure, right, So I remember going there for a
preseason game in two thousand. It's preseason, right, it's the
first Priests game of the year. It's twenty seventeen, so
they're pretty good, and we had to go on the
silent count in a preseason game because it was.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
So loud at Arrowhead. It gets rocking in that spot, man.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
And I played there in speaking of preseason, last preseason game,
my rookie year, last preseason game of the year, and
it's they used to call it the Battle of I
seventy Saint Louis versus Kansas City. I seventy is the
highway and we're playing. Place is sold out. I'm like, man,
what the heck? This is a preseason game. I know

(53:39):
you remember this now, and at this point, you know,
you hit the national anthem and the Home of the Brave,
and then when it comes to the home, you know,
they get to the Home of the Chiefs. I'm like,
oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Like people will jump, people jump on the sideline if
they're not ready for it, right.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
I'm like, man, what in the that's how That's how
intense it will. And this is a preseason game, so
you can only imagine, Yeah, what it's going to be
like Monday night. That place is going to be rocking.
Be a great environment, tough environment, but again it's a
tough environment. Hey, everybody has tough games. We need to

(54:19):
get our ball right first and foremost, get our ball
right to give ourselves the best opportunity to win a
football game, and we don't get our ball right, it'll
be to continue to be the same thing over and
over again.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
And this is something I wanted to ask you because
you I always look to you as like a leader
on the team. I always like looked at you as
the north star, like if you were talking to a
bunch of guys, like back in twenty twelve, that was
that was actually kind of a rough year. We were
three and six. Things weren't looking too good. Right, we
got it right, Like, what is yours as a leader?
As a leader, what's your mindset kind of getting guys

(54:53):
ready for these big moments kind of these not must
win but these important games coming up.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
The thing that I I just I look back to
that season and I remember there was a greater sense
of urgency that happened. I don't know if you remember
when coach Shanahan had his press conference and he talked
about the evaluation process. We're gonna evaluate some guys. We'll see,

(55:20):
you know, who's gonna be here, who's not gonna be here.
Jobs are on the line. So d you kind of
touched on that a little bit. We say, hey, we're
gonna there will gonna be some changes, and we'll look
at everything, whether it's changing the personnel, changes how we
do things, whatever those changes are, We're gonna look at everything.
So I anticipate a greater sense of urgency. Not saying

(55:43):
that guys and have urgency. I'll say a heightened sense
of accountability from an ownership standpoint, and making sure you're
on top of your details, Studying more, Hey, guys, be
studying more, meeting more as individual group, individual units, collectively,

(56:04):
as a teammates, whatever the case may be. I anticipate
us being more locked more locked in because of we
understand what we're up against.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
What would you what would you say? I mean, I
don't even remember.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
I remember you talked to the team multiple times in twelve,
but like, what's your like, what's to go to? Is
it just like kind of what you just said right there, Hey,
we need to be more locked in or is it? Uh?

Speaker 2 (56:27):
It depends man. You trying to put me in that
that big truckle.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
I'll get you back out there a little bit like
strap those pads up, get that right now, ready to go.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Yeah, I've had I've had I've had a couple of
nice speeches. Where we woned. I had a couple my
best speeches and we go out and lose. I'm like, man,
what the heck you were the speech I gave? You
start to laugh? Here we go ohing to to start thirteen. Yeah,
and I can't team me know. Before we getting ready
to play the Lives, and I cussed everybody out, coaches

(56:59):
include included.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
I remember I was like, oh damn all right.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
I even cussed myself.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
I remember you were cussing out Mike because You're like, man,
we were too soft during trading camp and I was like, whoa,
what's going on here?

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Like, what's happening?

Speaker 2 (57:14):
It was very iussed everybody. I was I had slept
probably two days up. Gronky. I'm grouchy, gruffy. We had
got outscoring like fifty to seven, and the first has
the ball game. It was like, man, we were terrible,
We're playing terrible, and it was it was us. So
I get. I get what I thought. It was a

(57:35):
phenomenal speech. There's no way we're gonna lose this football
game and get the Lions at home and we go
out and lose. I'm like, man, I don't know what
else to do. Coach but I'll say this, you have
to understand, like I don't know how how the dynamics

(57:56):
are in the meeting rooms. I'll say this consistently, your
best players have to play their best They they have
always had to be on top of their game. Your guys,
your best player, they always have to be on top
of your game. And then to be able to lead
first and foremost, you got to be playing well. Getting
to understand how you how you communicate to different guys.

(58:19):
What do I need to talk? How do I talk
to this guy to get the best out of him?
Do I Is it yelling or is it encouraging? Is
it continue to build him up? So you have to
understand your individual players. You got to have relationships with them.
But it's if you see a period not going the
way it should go in practice.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Hey, this period, I remember I almost cried twelve. You
were like, we got to start this over and I
was like, man, we're almost done with practice. Like what
are we doing?

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Because the guys who when you've seen it done at
a high level. I'll use Bobby Wagon for a since
he's seen it done at a high level. Vionn Miller
is seeing it done at the high level, so you
know what it looks like. I mean, guys that were
on the team last year, they know what it looks
like at a high level. So when it's not quite there,
whether it's the energy, the attention to details, the body laguage, whatever,

(59:07):
this is not right. So let's start this over. It
might be a play that happens, and I don't know
that they repeat a play, especially like Okay, this is
a little bit funky. We didn't get it right. Let's
get it right. Let's correct this right now, especially at
full speed. We don't correct it in the meeting room
as well, but here's an opportunity to correct it on
the grass. So just a lot of that needs to
take place. I don't know, it may already be taking place,

(59:30):
but to continue to do those things.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
Yeah, and I think ultimately, like all of that stuff
that you just said was great, but it's about being
personally accountable, being accountable as a unit, being accountable to
the team. And I think we got a lot of
guys who are wired that way and ready to be accountable.
Because it's going to take a lot of that moving forward,
a lot of improvement over the next couple of weeks.
But Fletch really enjoyed talking man, and I think that's
going to do it for today's show.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
You got anything else you want to say before we
get out of here or what?

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Hey? Man, Let's we're problem solved. Man. Let's get back right.
Let's play our scholar ball man. We've got to get
our ball right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Dude.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
I love that and I can't say anything better than that,
but appreciate you, Fletch. Let's get our ball right. Heading
into this week against the Kansas City Chiefs. Booth Review
was filmed at the Big Bear AI Command Center Studio.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Big Bear AI offers mission ready AI for a rapidly
evolving world, proudly

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
Protecting the Washington Commanders and its fans.