NFL Week 9 Recap: Commanders defeated by Seahawks 38-14 | Booth Review Podcast | Washington Commanders | NFL

Future Hall of Fame Linebacker London Fletcher is joined by 10-Year NFL Tight End Logan Paulsen and Bram Weinstein to breakdown what Washington can take away from the loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

 

 Hosts: London Fletcher, Logan Paulsen, Bram Weinstein

 

Producer: Jason Johnson  

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming up on the Booth Review, We're looking for some
solutions after the loss of Seattle.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yeah, what can we do to fix this safe?

Speaker 3 (00:06):
And we're gonna look ahead to the Lions game. We
might even have to lest some dogs out. It's time
to go smash mouth.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Oh yeah, wait you hear house smash That gets with
London on the Booth Review.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Next.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome into the latest edition of the Booth Review podcast.
Were brought to you by a Microsoft Surface Copilot plus
PC and we are in the Big Bear AI Command
Center studio. I'm Brad Whitsteye with London Fletcher and Logan Paulson.
And that was ugly, really ugly last night.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
It was, Man, I I don't like horror movies, being scared.
That was a horror movie, man, last night. Just to
be honest with you, No, Halloween was on Friday night,
but man, it seemed like that last last night. It
was a horror movie, man, just anything that could go
wrong seemed to go wrong. And I was, man, I

(00:56):
was quite frankly, very surprised by performance.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah you think, Logan.

Speaker 5 (01:02):
Yeah, I mean, I think you know, like you said
this on the broadcast a ton and I think it's
really really spot on. It's when injuries pile up when
things aren't going well, like you really have to like
tighten the screws and the attention of detail has to
go through the roof. And like I've been on some
bad football teams and like the margin for her is tight.
So like you have to create turnovers, you have to
find ways to get explosive plays, you have to find

(01:25):
ways to stop explosive plays. And it really just was
Seattle did all that stuff, and so Washington wasn't able
to get that done.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
And so you know, when you turn the.

Speaker 5 (01:33):
Football over, when you give up explosives, I don't care
how talented you are, it's hard to win football games.
But you knew the Seattle team was good, you knew
their defense was good, you knew that the margin for
her was going to be so so small, and so
the fact that didn't they didn't excute the way they
need to, I think is again it's really frustrating, disappointing.
It's scary in a lot of ways because there's a
lot of like where do we go from here? Conversations?

(01:54):
But again, like that's kind of my my initial thoughts
after the game.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, I would go back to something you just said,
which is and I think this is where expectations come
in a little bit off of last year and what
this team is. And I agree the injuries are a
big part of the story. But you just said, I've
played on bad football teams before. I did not think
this was going to be one of them this year.
They played like one though last night for sure, and
there's probably a lot of reasons for it, and we're

(02:19):
going to go through a lot of it. But I
think that's maybe the hardest part of this whole thing.
If you expect, oh, this is a rebuilding year, is
this gonna be tough to get to a place that
you want to get to. I know that's not what
the goals of this team were. And I think that's
why I'm so surprised today, not that they lost to
a good team with all the injuries they have, but
how they lost and how thoroughly they were beaten last night.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I mean, fletch, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
It's interesting, Like I go back and I kind of
was reviewing some notes from shows, like previous shows who
were doing at the beginning of the year, and Vegas
had this team winning seven games you know, so, like
I think a lot of people that kind of understood
what happened last year, and like people talk about this
team being a lucky team last year, and like that
piece at the Wall Street journ I'll put out, I
know fans don't want to hear that there's all these
opportunities for regression in the in the roster, in just

(03:06):
statistical efficiency. And so you know, we're sitting here and
I think, did I think it.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Was going to be this bad? No?

Speaker 5 (03:12):
But was this in the cards in terms of possibility? Yeah,
And then you add the injuries into that, I think
it kind of leads you to say, well, maybe some
of those things that we're going to regress even further
because they're not as talented. And and again, like I'm
not making an excuse, but like this was something that
was that a lot of people thought, who do this
for a living, was a possibility.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, because they had they converted every fourth down, they
were the best at that, they won every game, converted
six straight games, winning at the buzzer that you know,
historically unusual, let alone for any team. Still that said,
the NFL maybe didn't agree with Vegas to the point
of that they put them in prime time and standalone

(03:52):
games a million times.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
And I don't agree with Vegas either, because you couldn't.
Vegas didn't know that we were going to have all
these injuries. You had three defensive ends injured, three of
your top receivers injured at some point in time, and
they didn't know that the everything was gonna play out
during the off season the way it played out. They
had no idea that those things were gonna take place.

(04:15):
If anything, you look at Jaden Das coming off the
fantastastic rookie season that he had, you think he's gonna
get better as a second year player. He's seen more
defenses he had, He's had another off season to go
through an NFL practices and just continue to work on
this craft. They went out, they traded for a Deebo Sama,

(04:37):
You trade for Alarry mctomsl, You draft Josh Coninley in
the first round. That from a talent standpoint, when you
looked at this roster on paper at the beginning of
the season, just everything, all things equal compared, this roster
was better than last year's roster from a talent standpoint,

(04:58):
I don't see how you can see Vegas canna say, hey,
this is a seven win team. That wasn't the expectation
from the front office, from the head coaches, from the players.
Things haven't gone our way. We've we've had some things
that from Andrew's standpoint to haven't gone our way. But
we also have not played good, good football. So let's
let's let's talk about that. We have not played good

(05:20):
enough consistently enough to win those ball games.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
But I also think too Fletch, like you know, Vegas
puts that line, and a lot of it has to
do with the commanders of the roster. Are the things
you just mentioned, but it's also strength of schedule, strength
of opponent, And we're playing different teams this year, like
no doubt about it, Like these are different caliber football teams.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
And again, like last year.

Speaker 5 (05:37):
We got a couple backup quarterbacks that kind of helped
us out in terms of winning. And I think this
is not to relitigate the offseason. This is not to
because I do agree with everything you said, like they
went out, they made moves, they made a push for it,
and I do think they need to play better football.
But I do think kind of putting some context on
this season and why it's looked so different than I
think a lot of people expected. I think is important

(05:59):
and again like ultimately, you got to play good ball, right,
And did they play good enough ball lest yesterday? Like no, right,
and I think we've like I think dan Quinn talked
about an espressor, but I just wanted to bring up
the Vegas point because there were a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
That thought this was a possibility.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, I kind of lean where ver London is. I
don't think you trade for Laramie Tunzel and Deebo Samuel
if you don't think you have an opportunity to win immediately, right.
I think this is how they were thinking about it,
and it didn't quite work out. To your point, there
were a lot of people that looked at this and said,
there's no way they replicate that again, not at least
like statistically, what they did was an aberration and they're

(06:35):
playing a harder schedule.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
It's going to there's going to be a reversion to
the mean.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
It's just that's math, Like, there's just no chance that
we're gonna do this again. However, losing three straight games
by twenty plus points, that that's I didn't think that
was this team and like, there are a lot of
reasons why this is happening, but this kind of goes
back to I think a beginning point, which is I
really didn't think this is a bad team coming into
the season, but they're playing one one right now.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
I saw this as, hey, I don't we can. We
weren't going to necessarily win twelve games this season, but
we would be a better football team, meaning like, maybe
we win ten games, but we're a better football team
because you mentioned, Hey, a lot of those games we
won last year, what six games you mentioned six straight

(07:23):
games where come down to final possession, last playing something
in hell Mary, all those types of things, say half
of those go our way, half don't go our way.
This season, ball hasn't bounced our way. So but all
that being said, I personally thought ten wins was our floor.
And you know, maybe they can go on to historic

(07:45):
run or a great run and get to ten, but
just the way, we're not gonna get to ten wins
playing the way we're playing now. I mean that we'd
be lucky to get to five wins playing the way
we're playing right now.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, I don't disagree.

Speaker 5 (07:59):
I think, you know, just watching the film and like
their stuff on offense, their stuff on defense, their stuff
on teams, and again, like good football teams, they play
a clean brand of football. You know, it's penalty free,
it's assignment sound. We had a bunch of all starts
yesterday offensively that were really frustrating. It came to pig moments,
big turnovers on teams, which has been a really solid
staple for Uce.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
You know.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
So there's a lot of things. I think that looking
at it, you're like, man like, well, like what you're
talking about. You can talk about statistical regressions, you can
talk about the state of the roster. Ultimately, I think
it's about looking at the man in the mirror.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Man I was. I was. Sometimes you go back and
I went and watching a horror movie again this morning.
So I'm looking at the the film and at one
point we're down seven nothing. Offense has some success moving
the ball a little bit, and then you get the
penalties things like that stemy a draft stall of drive.

(08:53):
And there was one point, I think it was early
in the second quarter. Last time in the offense they punted,
we were down seven nothing. Next time they took the field,
we were down twenty one nothing.

Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yeah, I mean, what was that eleven seconds between scores?
Seconds between.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
That's tough.

Speaker 5 (09:10):
But I think the other thing, though, is when teams
score quickly, it gives you more time to score, Like
there's still the game is still in Yes, it's just
at that moment.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
I remember like.

Speaker 5 (09:19):
Being on the broadcast with you guys thinking I had
this thought. I was like, I don't know if they've
got enough juice at this point to overcome this, you know,
Like and again last year you would kind of say, oh,
for sure, Jay days out there, they'll find a way
to get it done.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
But it feels different.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
You mentioned that the margin of error being extremely small.
I mean it's our margin ra right now is about
paper thin. Yeah, just because of the injuries. We have
to play. Not you're not gonna have to play a
perfect game, but we can't have turnovers. We can't give
up explosives, we can't miss the sign as we can't.

(09:55):
We have to make the team beat us. We got to.
They have to earn everything they do and then we
we also can't beat ourselves with a false star with
a drop pass or miss assignment on the block, something
like that, or whatever the case may be. We are
margin to era. We don't have the horses right now
to have those type of mistakes.

Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, and like just and again, I think the not
perfect thing is a good way to describe it, because
it's just like we need to block, tackle and catch football,
you know, and like when you don't do those things,
it becomes early hared to win football games, especially when
you're not as talented as other teams. And again, like
when that margin for ers paper thin. And I've been
on teams like this, Like every mistake, every issue is

(10:36):
something that you feel acutely, Like when you're on offense,
you're like, oh feel that pressure, Oh my god, you.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Give up a touchdown. As a defense, I'll give you
a great example and I've shared this. I feel like
before Rams ninety nine, Rams, we youngest team in football.
Defense plays great. The next season we came back and
we were like a top top ten defense and a
lot of categories on points, rushing, turnovers, I mean some categories.

(11:04):
We were number one, number two the next year same
basically the same players. We went to like thirtieth in
a lot of the categories, and we were giving up
a lot of big plays, couldn't get to the quarterback.
Same way wasn't getting the turnovers and you get four
or five games in the season and a testdown that
you give up in week six in the first quarter

(11:27):
just feels like, oh my goodness, like all this stuff,
just the previous five to six games, it just starts
to feel that snowball, Like, man, here we go again,
and it might just be at seven points in the
first quarter. He's just like, all right, we're not gonna
stop anybody today. So I'm sure there's a lot of pressure,
especially from a defense standpoint, like, man, if we give

(11:48):
up a.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Play, Yeah, let's talk about the defense a little bit.
I mean that went sideways last night early. I mean,
Sam Darnold had a perfect passer rating in the first half.
He did not throw an incompletion. The vast majority of
the throwers were too literally wide open people. It wasn't
as if they were making these crazy catches or these
contested catches. What did you make he was barely pressured

(12:09):
last night. What did you just make in general of
how the defense played against Seattle's offense.

Speaker 5 (12:15):
Yeah, I mean I think, like Fletcher was talking about,
I think when you are a little bit under manned,
and again, that's not an indictment of the guy's playing necessary.
But when you're banged up, you got guys filling into
new roles. You got to play really assignment sound football.
And I think the thing that jumps out when you're
watching the film is on first second down, there's some
issues with the run fits, so a three yard run

(12:35):
becomes a six yard run and that might not show
up in the stat sheet. But now you're in second
and four, right, so the play action pass is still
on the table. We're able to get a boot out
of the pocket, we lose contained on the quarterback, we're
able to hit a shot down the field. The guy
misses the tackle like the guy in coverages. It just
is a one of those mistakes is bad, but then

(12:56):
to make three of them on a play is like
just unacceptable, I think. And again I'm not saying anything
to be critical. I know what they're doing is really hard.
I know it's tough, but like to play winning football
on the defensive side, like you gotta execute and like,
to me, there's something to be said for Like this
is something I say with my high school kids. It's like,

(13:16):
if you just be where you're supposed to be, you
give us a shot, you know, and Fletcher's talking about alignment,
assignment execution. If you align and assign correctly, like you
give your Teeth team a shot, you're in position to
make the play. Sometimes they're not even in position to
make the play at this point, which is the thing
that is frustrating.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
And again you got to give credit to Seattle.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
I think and in some respects because that's a well coached,
well executed football team that's coming off of buy, that
does a lot of stuff with the motions in the
shifts that create kind of like one example comes to
mind there in a two by two, they motion the
tight end over, they switch aside of the back. The
switching the tight end. The switching the back that changes
coverage rules, that changes coverage responsibilities, That changes the check you're.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Going to make at in that moment. So like they
did some good stuff.

Speaker 5 (13:58):
But again I think the stuff that we can control
or we could control, we just didn't control at a
high level.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, no, absolutely, And you just I thought the run
game was the issue early in that ball game. Even
though Sam was you know, had a perfect perfect passer rating,
we didn't knock the run game out early. I think
at one point man. Their backs were averaging about six
point two six point seven.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
Yards ended up under four.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Right, they ran the ball a ton at the end
where they were really just running the colt exactly.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
But early maybe even in the first half, first quarter
first they were averaging about six point two or six
point seven yards per carry. It's it's hard to play
defense like that. You have to knock something out. So
you knocked the runout. Now we can figure out ways
to to take away the pass, but the inability to

(14:51):
get pressure on the quarterback because at times where the
coverage was good initially, but he had so much time
to go from one to two to three, he reads
and eventually, especially if you're playing zone coverage, those zones
get spreaded. These receivers going to find open spots, open
holes in the windows in the zones man the man coverage.

(15:15):
Sometimes these guys make plays too, Jackson Smith and Jig.
But if you didn't know who he was beforehand, and
you probably don't know a lot about him on the
East Coast, that kick can play. But again, let's make
them earn everything they get. But I think up front
we didn't did stop the run. Run face with bad
at times and didn't get any pressure on Sam Darnold.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
And I think when you compare the Commander's offense to
the Seattle offense and you watch Jaydan Daniels with the
pressure and there's a crazy high pressure rate.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
All the good plays come when he's able to extend,
he's able.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
To get out of the pocket. They're able to kind
of break those zones. The pass protection for Seattle did
that for him, right, And they're able. And then again
they did a good job of kind of complection shots.
They moved the pocket a little bit. They had they
had a good feel for how we were going to play.
Those keepers in boots and Sam down did a great
job kind of hitting those easy buttons. And again, the
run game is what allowed them in large part to

(16:11):
do that because they're an advantageous down in distance. The
other thing is like coming to the game, I think
I was talking to you about it maybe, Bram, Like
one of the things is like they were not super
efficient running the football, so you kind of had this
thing in your back pocket where you're like, they're going
to do it.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
They're going to give you.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
Fifteen to twenty plays where it's just running to darkness
and then you're in second and ten, you're in second
and nine.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Can you capitalize?

Speaker 5 (16:30):
And unfortunately, like you were just talking about Fletch, like
you weren't able to capitalize on those moments, right, And
I think that was the thing that really jumped out.
It's like they're kind of are giving you that pitch,
you couldn't hit it, and then you compounded not hitting
it by missing some other stuff down the field, which
was really frustrating.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, it's interesting with the run game.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
They actually run the ball about fifty percent of the time,
which is one of the highest rates in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
It is the highest, right second, I think it was
two in Buffaloes one.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah too, but it's highest by percentage. Am I tripping
on that?

Speaker 1 (17:02):
No, Buffalo's like fifty. Yeah, So they run the ball up.
But to your point, like it wasn't overly effective. They
were just doing it consistently over and over. Walker's outstanding
when he gets to the edge, that seems to be
his best attribute. He can get to the outside, shows
a lot of speed. But in the middle of the line,
they just they stick with it. They stick with it,
and I think to your point, London, they were just

(17:25):
sticking with it. It was dominant early and it just
opened literally everything.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
It really did. And it was just looking at it,
looking at Seattle's office in the run game, and I'm
looking at Walker and he was he averages, he averages
about going to target. He was averaging almost four and
a half per carry, so he was really good. They
the other backs were bringing that down that where they

(17:49):
were avaging about.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
They share that road there, they don't profile it.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
They were averaging three point seven as a team. But
right out the gate attacked the edge with a little
flip pass. We lose a lose contained on on that edge.
Don't hold edge, you have to do that. This is
this is football one on one.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
It's crazy because like you were talking about, one of
the players losing an edge, and then the play before
is a pin pull and he's doing a good job
and then another player tries to undercut a block and
picks the yeah, and and it just it was funny
to watch this, not funny sad. Maybe that every play
there was kind of like, oh, you made a mistake.
I'm going to make a mistake. Now you're gonna make

(18:30):
a mistake. Then it's Fletcher's turned like and it's just
kind of going down the list like that was again,
like it just yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
There was another one walker Walker got it. Maybe about
a seven yard game, there's a grab a hold on
the defensive hand. They don't call it. I mean, that's
that's gonna happen. But you have to put yourself in
a position to where you show so much color that
he doesn't feel like he can get it.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Or and even the corner misfits that one, yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
He goes on for block. So the only way and
we'll get into solved these problems later, but the margin
of era, you have to be so exact if you're
gonna give yourself a chance to win that down and
win that series and win the game.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
Well, and it goes back to that first drive like
they were in I think it was third or second
and twenty five or first and towar and so as
a defense, you're like, we gotta, we gotta get this
one going. And kudos to Seattle, like great sequence of
play calls, like formationally they did some really good stuff.
Like you know, as a guy that likes watching offense,
they did some really good to.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Love that time.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
But you got to figure out a way in first
and twenty five to come out on top of that thing.
And then if you get them to pun that situation,
like the dynamic of the game switches entirely. He gets
it back to the offense, good field position, going to.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
The office real quick. And I know we didn't touch
there was a player. Think it was the second down,
second play of the game. We run a boot and
Senate is wide open on a on a sale route right,
but there's a Jaden gets pressure like the defensive Seattle
brought five and there's a little chip block on him

(20:12):
and then a release tight end release, but Jaden doesn't
have a chance to get out get sett in so
much find U said, I mean he was wide open
that he's only at worst, we're gonna have the ball
on the thirty yard line to Seattle. This is the
second player of the game, first player of the game.
I think de Bo's open on the sale as well,
but again they do a good job of containing, not

(20:35):
letting him get to that edge. So offensively, you're looking
at it like da we got we got explosives to
start the game, but they took They did a good
job of taking taking that away, getting pressure on him
and Jayden can't get it. He has to has to
run the football.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
And it was just a great plan I thought too
by them, Like instead of like having that backside end
pursue of the ball, you know, like he's pursuing to
the quarterback and the Washington Commanders are pursuing of the ball,
which is a normal way to handle it. Keep but
Sam Darnold gets to the perimeter and so then it's
like that three level throw.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
I have time, I can see it, I.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
Can hit the corner, I can hit the cross, I
can hit the flat, and he's just and that's the
beauty of those plays. It's like you're taking people out
of the thing. And so just the plan that they
had defensively, the athletes they had defensively, it was just
a different ball of wax. We'll talk about that more
in a minute, but again, like yeah, just the comparing
the two of them was so different.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
There were five different receivers that averaged at least twelve
yards of catch. Five one of them was Cody White
who had one catch. It was a sixty yard touchdown.
And on that particular play, Trey Amos had just gone
in the locker room, had just come back and if
you watch the replay, he's hobbling, right, So I think
he got caught in a very difficult situation back on

(21:43):
the field. Outside of that, the explosive plays thirteen point
eight yards per pass attempt, that's unacceptable. Good, that's yeah,
if you're Seattle, that's good. That's like all time offense
if you were to like come anywhere near sistently doing
something like that. Actually, this year, Darnold came in most

(22:03):
yards PERPASITYPT at nine point one. So they were hitting
all these big plays, mainly to Smith and Jigba, So
they had the capability of doing it, but they did
it with everybody this time. It wasn't just number eleven,
it was everybody.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
Well, part of that is quarterback having time enough to
to get those deep shots the sixth yard obviously, that's
gonna that's gonna jack up those yards will playing. Trey
had bad eyes on that play too. Yeah. I mean
he's coming in out of all injury, but he had

(22:35):
bad eyes. And you know, but it's hey, they go
play action. You think, okay, they've been running the ball,
we'll come up try to stop to run and it's
trade has been excellent this year, so I'm not being
critical of him, but I mean this, and he had
bad eyes, so he.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Observation. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. It's not talking
about like problems you're if you.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
You got to understand, am I run first defender or
am I a past first defender? So when you're a
run first defender, yeah, you can come up and try
to stop that that that run play. But if you're
a pass first defender, you got to stay deep until
you know that ball is being wrong. I played cover

(23:23):
too a lot of my career. I could know that
a run is about to happen, but I could not
just go up there because I had to make sure
I got deep responsibility down the middle. And they go
play action and I'm trying to run in there and
make a tackle with the line of scrimmage and We're
getting hit down the middle field. I didn't I didn't
do what I was supposed to do. So you just

(23:43):
it's just a matter of that's the whole part of
everybody doing their job playing and play out. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (23:49):
I mean, Tyler Owens on the touchdown has a similar,
very similar kind of thing. Like he's in man coverage
on the tight end. He gets a little bit nosy
in the backfield. He's able to recover because he's a
good athlete, he's long, but that's been a little bit
of a bugaboo this entire year. I look back to
the Green Bay games. The Green Bay did a great
job of this, right, Like, we're gonna sell run, Titan's
gonna block out that safety has to fit the sea gap.

(24:10):
He's also in man coverage on the tight end, and
Title leaks out to the flat Like that's a play
I remember Kyle put that in here to beat that
coverage that they're running, you know.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
And so some of this is it's hard. Football is
a hard game.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
But I do think that, you know, kind of being
about your work, like you're talking about handling the main
thing first, like triaging the things that are important, like
what's my number, what's the like. So when I'm coaching
tight ends for the draft and stuff and they don't
really know a lot of run scheme, I'm like, what's
the worst thing that can happen on this play? What's
the absolute worst thing? And then they're like X, Y Z,
And I'm like, we'll take that away first, and then

(24:42):
we'll build our technique off the rest of it. And
I think sometimes, like when you're watching, you're like man like,
they're trying to take everything away as opposed to being
about that main thing first and foremost, which is again,
it's a tough sport. It's a tough thing to do
and I couldn't do it. But that's why they get
paid the big bucks.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Let's get into the offense a little bit here. First half,
Jane Daniels pressured career high fifty one of the dropbacks.
It's a very active front, very good front lender. Williams
had a terrific year. Byron Murphy terrific year. They're very
fast with the number of the edge rushers. Mafy doesn't
have a lot of sacks, but he seems to be
in the backfield consistently. Uh and Wusu is constantly. I

(25:21):
think he's got five sacks drop the name crushing it. Yeah,
five sacks over the last like five weeks.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Like fall too right, Derek haul Yep.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Even their backup Jaron Reid's had a very nice season
for them. They're very good up front. But this reminded
me Week one, Jade's first game Tampa, where he was
almost forced to vacate the pocket immediately constantly because of
the pressure packages, and they were getting there consistently last night.

Speaker 5 (25:46):
Yeah, but it was so I mean, I understand the comparison,
but it was so different because of their ability to
do it with four most of the time. And so
like versus Tampa Bay, he's able to scramble and he's
just in these incredible voids created by the manna man
bridge behind it, or the soft zone coverage you have
to play when you're blitzing five or six guys here,
it's like four guys are Russian and then there's a

(26:07):
spy and then there's a cook player and he's got
to navigate all these different people. And it just someone
to ask me, like why can't he scramble for fifteen
yards like he used to?

Speaker 2 (26:15):
And I'm like, there are people in the way, Like.

Speaker 5 (26:18):
There are people, right, and so I think, like, yeah,
the amount of pressure.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
But the pressure is one thing, Fletch.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
You do watch the film this morning, right, The coverage
contour in the back end of that thing was mind
blowing to me. Like there are times, more times than
I care to count where it's just there is nobody opened.
The concept is completely blanketed and it's like, what is
what's the quarterback supposed to do? And I think that
was the thing that was so incredibly amazing about the

(26:50):
Seattle defense. It's like you very rarely see people cover
that way in the back end.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Nah, you're spot on, I thought, thanks, Fletch, spot I'll
say this. I thought we we struggled to handle the
twist and the games at the front foor of the
Seattle Seahawks defensive line ran. So they did a They
did a great job of with movement and running whether

(27:15):
it was a T game et game and ended up
having a free runner to Jayden as where he has
the bell out of the pocket or try to scramble
make things happen. They also with their overload simulated pressures
or true overload blitzes are pretty sweet they had. They
did a great job of scheming up pressure as well

(27:38):
and beating the protection that we had. And you know
where it's a a guy running right for Scott free
of Jaden and out shooting. I got him waiting on
this receiver to come open, but I got this guy
in front of it. I just got to get it
out of there. On an interception, he threw they were
they sent a corner on the blitz and I don't

(27:58):
know about Logan, You had to tell me this. They
send the linebacker and the corner. So mc nichols takes
the linebacker. It is the corner in the count for anybody.

Speaker 5 (28:08):
So depending on depending on how they coach their six
man protections, Like with Kyle, you would always push through
to the whitest rusher in the back would take the
A gap, so technically he would be in the count,
but some people book the whitest rushing. It just depends
on what your flavor is, you know, in terms of
the rush pattern.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
So that one, Yeah, so they had they had a
nose tackle on the A gap and then you had
a linebacker blitz through through the B. So the center
cosmy and be honest, they took the A gap rusher.
I mean Nichols picked up the linebacker rushing through the B.
Defensive end is picked up by by Connerley on the house.
And then you got a corner who's Scott Free and

(28:45):
it was a I forgot the down and this is
on the play, but I mean Jay is like, yeah, yeah,
I'm holding, but there's no nobody. There's not a hot
ride I can throw to and the yard I think
may have been like thirty and thirteen.

Speaker 5 (28:56):
So there's and I think, like, like you said on
the sub, I feel like he's trying to throw that
away too.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah, he was trying to. He couldn't get enough on eventure.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
And one of the things like coming into the end
of the game, and one of the things we talked
about on the film Breakdown show Jason and I was
just like, they are really good, Like McDonald is really
good at finding ways to break your protection rules, right,
like to mess with your timings, Like if you're not
going to count this guy in, we'll hold him at
this depth and we'll run him down the a gap,
you know what I'm saying, because you're not going to
count them. And I think getting in the third down,

(29:27):
you could feel it. After the first drive, it was
like they were locked in. And again that's where the
bye week becomes so advantageous for them. A team that
schemes up concept the way that they do. You could
tell they understood from his own perspective how to match
certain concept from a man perspective what they need to
take away. And then on third down, like they had
a feel man for like where they needed to be
from a rush standpoint, and that's part of it. But

(29:48):
also like the foreman rush was really good too, So
that team was good, That front was really good. But
I was just kind of amazed with just how few
answers there were. Like there are times where you're kind
of play pausing the clip, there's a guy running down
the pipe and you're like, could Jaden just throw this
to Grass.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
And hope that he can get the ball there?

Speaker 5 (30:06):
And then I kind of had to pull myself back
and be like, that would be the craziest play of
all time? Is that a realistic expectation for him to do?
Down and down out? And he did some amazing stuff,
And again I think he made really good decisions, but
like just the level of detail that they force you
to play at offensively, I thought kudos to Seattle, but yeah,
it was very impressive.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
We again from an offensive line protection when they were
just rushing for we got to be at a heat
of that better, Yeah, we have to.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
And again some of that is just like you know,
like cause me and Connorley playing together for the first time,
you feel that a little bit sometimes when they're out
there sometimes you feel Chris Paul, who's had a great year,
getting a little aggressive on those sets. So they're on
different levels and that happens. That's like one of the
things that that's why games and twists are really hard
to block is because it requires two guys to see

(30:58):
it the same way. I remember talking to Morgan Moses
he was here with Brandon Sheriff. I said, like, how
important is it to have a guard that you can trust?
He's like, I can set a specific way because I
know where he's going to be, And so like when
you're still building that, I think it's important to remember
like tunsl and Chris Paul haven't played a lot together
and so they're still working through some of that stuff.
So people say, oh, this offensive line should be really

(31:18):
cohesive and established, but it takes a long time to
build those relationships and that familiarity where five dudes are
seen it the same way. So again, like again, kudos
kudos to Seattle. I think that's a great point, Fletch,
But I think that's just some good context there too,
just to I have to remind myself when I'm watching
the film, I'm like, why does it look like this
it's like, oh, these guys have had you know, maybe

(31:38):
one hundred reps together, two hundred reps together, not thousands, Yeah, right,
and thousands. Like think about Brandon Sheriff and Morgan Moses.
They played together for four years straight. You know, like
think about the amount of time and film and time
on task they spent to Gay It's unbelievable. So anyway, Yeah,
I just think it's kudos to Seattle for sure.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
All Right, let me ask you about the injuries. Terry
was out again.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
About did just not finding anybody down the field to
any kind of separation.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
Over the last few weeks. How much is all of.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
That kind of playing into what's going on with the
offense that the injuries have mounted on them and the
passing game is lacking explosive ability.

Speaker 5 (32:15):
So I think it's I was thinking about this last
night and I just kind of like, try to take
a step back and look at it, Fletch and Bram,
And one of the things that jumped out to me
was like, you came into the season with a certain
view of what the offense and the defense quite frankly,
was going to be this year. Injuries have changed the
landscape of what that looks like and so now I
think it's really challenging because you've banked all these reps

(32:36):
with these concepts, with these runs, but do you currently
have the people in house that can do that anymore?

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Right?

Speaker 5 (32:43):
And that becomes like a huge issue because then are
you saying we need to do a schematic overhaul to
accommodate all the injuries, Like, this is what we've been
good at, this is what we've gotten reps at. And
I think that's something that it.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
Kind of did early.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
I mean, I didn't have on my Bengo card Trent
Scott being on the field a million times in a
jumbo pas but the season because of injuries and they
started doing that.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
But they did do a little bit of that last year,
so that wasn't totally outside the realm of possibility. They
did some stuff in terms of, you know, kind of
those gap scheme runs with him there, that's kind of
part of their fabric. But in terms of like this
is a spread them out, win one on one offense
where we're kind of playing isolation basketball, pick our best matchup,
and now we don't have people that can do that
at a high level. It's like, now, how do we

(33:24):
create separations, scheme open opportunities. It just it's shifted the
paradigm of the offense in a way that is really
hard schematically to negotiate.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
You're definitely gonna there's a lot more pressure on the
play caller and also the offensive coaches off when it
comes to the game plans. From a game plan standpoint,
defense is gonna play you different when you got Terry
McLain as opposed to whoever or Norah Brown or whatever.

(33:55):
And those guys also can make over the last what
ten to seven since he's been in the league, he
was first in contested catches in terms of making contested catches.
So you lose, you lose the element of a guy
who can go out and make a play one on
one for you. I know, oh Brown who can make
a play for you. You got Debo running a different

(34:16):
He's actually do different things now then if you got
Noah and and Terry on the field with him. Zach
Erst Now a lot of times he's the number one
target on some of these concepts, of some of these downs.
And this is because of Hey, he's the most reliable
one right now. So defenses understanding, hey, they're more than

(34:38):
likely gonna be going to Zach a lot in this situation.

Speaker 5 (34:41):
Zach's taking them a right because they're bracketing Zach in
certain situations. I mean, like he's getting a double team
on third down, Like that's wild. The other thing I
wanted to bring up we talked about statistical regression. They
were third last year in explosive plays over fifty yards
and you know, I went back and watch that cut up.
You know he's in a lot of those cutups, is
our guy Terry McLaury. And think about what that does
for your offense. That's that's a touchdown a week, probably

(35:04):
two touchdowns a week, just because of the explosiveness it
gives you. And again it's not I'm not saying they
were the most explosive offense, but they were the third most.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Think about this, how many times did you check it
down to Austin Eckler and he just broke and broke
tackles and all that. So there is there is a difference.
The injuries have impacted this team drastically, especially on the
offensive side of the ball. However, with that being said,

(35:33):
and we're not making excueses, we're telling you what the
reality is. But you have to figure out a way
with the pieces that we have to steal manufacturer yard ish,
manufacturer points. It's just going, like we talked, the marginay
is so much smare can't have self inflicted ones. You

(35:54):
can't have the penalties to put you behind the chains,
behind the sticks and the search that we have to
Maybe you have to lean a little bit more in
the power run game. Three yards in a cloud of
dust might be might be the way to go on
first to second down and get you the third and three.
You know, that may be a little bit more of
just a change in philosophy.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
And yeah, that's what I think. It's a great point, Fletch.

Speaker 5 (36:17):
It's like, does Cliff have to kind of go back
and say, like, let's kind of scrap all this. What
are we good at now? I look at like what
the forty nine ers did right or are doing. They're
really banged up on offense, really banged up on defense.
But what are they doing that's different than Washington. They're
playing really good, complimentary football. The defense is not playing great,
but they're not giving up big explosive plays and they're
keeping the offense in it. The offense is saying, what

(36:39):
are we good at Now we're going to get in
the ball to Christian McCaffrey as many times as we can.
That guy's getting like thirty touches a game pass. And
so they've found something that keeps them afloat until they
get healthy. And what is that thing here? And it's
and it's what is that with Christian McCaffrey. It's easy
because it's like, that's the best running back in football.
Let's get him as many touches as possible. Here, it's like,

(37:00):
we've got young We've got a bunch of young runners.
We've got a bunch of young, inexperienced playmakers on the outside.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
We've got a guy and.

Speaker 5 (37:05):
Zach Ertz who's a good player but definitely not in
the twilight of his career. And you kind of say,
like it's gonna have to be by committee. But how
do we maximize all these skill sets to offset Terry McLaurin.
I think that's where I go back to the what
what what Fletcher talking about? Does it need to be
a perspective shift to maximize these players? And as a.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
I think it does, but that's my opinion.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
But no, But but as you know, Fletch like that
is so hard to do.

Speaker 5 (37:33):
It's like when you get like, who's your who's your
favorite defensive coordinator? What was his name here?

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Blitz guy?

Speaker 5 (37:38):
Uh Greg Williams right, like he is a two man, blitzing,
get after butt type of defensive coordinator. All of a sudden,
it's like you can't do that anymore, even though that's
what you know.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
And yeah, well we did. So how it's funny that
you mentioned that. Well, not funny, I'm glad you mentioned that.
So we play the New England Patriots. I was thinking about, Man,
have I been in the game, like like last night
where the score is so out of whack and we
can't get anything going offensively, can't stop anybody definitisely? Yes,
I was in the game, uh two thousand and seven.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
Also in the Philly game too? Were you there for
that one? I don't remember that. Yeah, let me let
me finish my story. We go to New England. I
know you remember this, Bram. We lose fifty two to seven.
At one point we're I think we're down fifty two
to nothing.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Or this was the game where the media complained that
Bill Belichick was running up the score on joking.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Yes, and here's here's here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
That's rough.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
So we went into that game. We were down two
of our top four corners, and then Carlos Rogers got
injured in that game early in that game. So now
we're down three of our top corners and we're going
to get the old seven Patriots with I mean they
were they were putting up thirty five on everybody. So
we go, we have to. We went into the game,

(38:59):
We're gonna play a lot more man man because we
had some guys that can do what. We got Sean
Taylor back there free safety. Now we're down to a
bunch of backup corners. We played. We had to play
cover to the whole game.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
You're not good at it, but we were good at
We got that good though. You know what I'm saying,
It's like.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
We we we Tom Brady shredded us and cover too,
because he was he'd been going against against the coast
for so long. Most most quarterbacks are teams we could
have got away with. We could have survived. They wouldn't
have put up fifty two of them on us. Maybe
they put up thirty and we get some stuff from
the offense. But I mean, it was look here, get

(39:36):
you to move and just come to the check down
or element on this, and we weren't able to get
pressure on the quarterback. So I've been in the game
like that. But my point was it's hard to switch,
especially we had to do it in game switching philosophy.
But we we did switch, and they ended up making
the playoffs that season. We went on the four game

(39:58):
winn streak. We had this we had to tweak something
from a philosophical standpoint, officively and defensively.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
And I'm saying, like, it's it's hard, and it's it's
really hard, but you can do it. And I think that,
you know, that's the one thing like fans, oh, like,
are you so optimistic? Obviously my my, my expectations have changed.
But I look at the guys and that and that
side of the ball. There's some smart, innovative dudes over there,
and I think they can get it done.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
It's just it's going to take a lot from them.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
And I think that's where it's like, as the playmakers
start to dwindle, the difficulty for the coaches just ratchets up.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Everybody. Everybody's got to kind of pull their best out.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
It's time to go smash mouth?

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Man, dude, you want to go smash mouth week one?

Speaker 3 (40:35):
Yeah, so hey, it's time to go smash mouth.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
How would your son say about that? He just you
would not say that.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
My son couldn't play for me if he smash out. No,
I'm serious. But again, I'm.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Just looking a receiver, by the way, just I'm.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
Just looking at it like this. How can you shorten
the game? How can you absolutely how can you minimize
hits on a quarterback? And not everybody wants to play
physical football? You got we got some dudes up front
that can run block. It might be a situation. Hey,
I know we went to a lot of three personnel,
three tight end personnel. Hey, we might have to go

(41:11):
four tight tight ends in the game and a running back.
This is what time it is. This is the time
of the We're about to beat you up. Well shorten
this game. We gonna see ken you handle this for
sixty minutes. We're gonna be in a bunch of third
and two's, third and ones, fourth and ones. That's what
it has to be. Defensively, we gonna go to some bend,

(41:34):
don't break, But you got to execute this type of
you gotta be exact and precise. We can't have bus
we can't have communication, uh breakdowns. We gotta tackle. Well,
everybody has. If it's an edge that needs to be set,
set the edge and set it hard. That's how we're
gonna win some football games. So it has to be
a philosophical shift, and then within that you will mix

(41:56):
in some some play actions how that you're gonna have
your third down pass. Don't have to We don't have
to scheme up some stuff. A little bit more. Scheme
up some guys open. It could be done. It can
be done.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
I don't know if I've ever been more fired up
on this show than when you said, set an edge
and set it hard.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
There's something about that.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
It's just just like juice, just like the physical violence
of what that looks like. I was supposed to stretch
the edge. So when someone wants to set it, did
something to.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
It fit tackle turnbacks, turns and get some turnovers.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
I mean, yeah, what you guy? Brain?

Speaker 1 (42:32):
So they did end up running for about one hundred
and fifty something yards last night, which is overshadowed by
what the score was and all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
And we were talking about pregame, how did they fix
the run.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Probably wrong team last night to probably try to do
it against number one rush defense. And when I talked
to dan Quinn last week and I talked to you
on the pregame show about this, where he had said
his biggest issue with the run game recently was the
targeting of the blockers. So if they're going to go
in this direction, and it seems like they almost have
to write Jadan Daniels, well, we'll get prognosis. I'll talk

(43:03):
about him in a moment, but like we'll get a
prognosis on him soon about how long he's going to
be missing time, but clearly he's not playing this week,
like that's not happening. So they are back to Mariota.
It does feel like they do need to run the ball.
So if they're gonna have really any shot, they got
to run the ball really well. So what have you
seen and what dan Quinn said about where the misfits

(43:25):
were on the run game and how can they can
get that going again?

Speaker 5 (43:28):
Yeah, So when I was here in Washington, like we
were a run first team Like that was kind of
like Mike got up in front of the thing and
said we are a run first team and the other
thing he said was like, when you are a run
first team, you don't just dabble in it.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
You don't just talk about it, You'll live it.

Speaker 5 (43:43):
And I think that's when you look at teams around
the league that are really good teams in college, teams
in high school that are really good at running the football.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
They understand I.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
Want to say everything that can happen, right, So like,
for example, we were an outside zone team when I
got here, so we would run outside zone versus every pressure,
every stunt, every fit, and we had calls for every
little Oh, he's here, we're going to make this call.
He's a little bit wider. We're going to make this call.
I'm going to take this by myself. You're going to
be here. And we had a call for that and
when this guy got here, and people like that seems crazy,

(44:14):
but good teams that run the football a lot. Like
when I was here with Bill Callahan, we ran duo
and everyone says, oh, duo is double teams. It's the
easiest playing its easiest run to teach in football. I'm
not kidding you. We had about twenty different calls just
based on who was going to get to a high leg,
who was going to overtake, who was going to push across?
And were we good at running duo? Hell yeah, we

(44:35):
were going to run a duo. And so like when
you look at this and what Dan's talking about is like,
can we have that level of detail like when we're
talking defenses and fit runs, can we have that level
of detail offensively? Like when like when you're in a
combination on a duo block, let's just talk about that
tight end and tackle and it's a five technique. As
a tight end, I got to know I got to
be a little bit urgent because the tackle is not

(44:56):
going to get a piece, especially when the linebackers plussed
over a little bit. So like understanding that spacing is important.
Also understanding who's in the run fit is important. So
when they say, like we got to get better at
running the football, it is a comprehensive, time intensive, technically
intensive thing. And I think that's why a lot of
teams in college, in high school and in the NFL

(45:16):
move away from it because it takes a lot of
time at practice to get good at it, and you've
lost some of that in the off season. So if
you want to get if you want to do it,
you say, hey, these are our four runs, these are
our ten formations you're running out of. Let's just rep
this till we can't make a mistake, and let's put
our neck rolls on get after it, and these are
our play action shots and go let a rip. But
it's it's it's hard in a lot of ways. It's

(45:39):
harder than the pass game, where it's like, hey, we're
gonna run this versus cover two, you're gonna break. It's
it's less technical, and so I think that's why people
lean into the pass game stuff. But if you want
to be good at it, you got to embrace it
with both arms and really really like own it. I'm
sure it's like fit and runs, I would imagine defensively,
like you really got to be locked in on it.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Yeah, you spend extra time on you you know you're
going to spend extra.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Had to have to add it, So I got juiced
up there.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
You might have to add might have to add an
extra walk through. It may have to be some player
led meetings to make sure in the film in terms
of hey, with his offensive line and tight ends, making
sure you're saying even the back, making sure they're all
seeing it, together. But you mentioned that I'm running FO
one hundred and fifty six yards. I thought Chris Rodriguez
came in there. He was physical, ran downhill. So it's

(46:25):
in us. It's in us to be able to run
the ball like that. But it has to be just say,
a commitment to we're going to run. It might be power,
it's gonna still hay, still be your counter, tray your counter,
all your power. All that's gonna have to That might
be some draw stuff like that. Well, this is gonna
be the world that we live in. And some duo

(46:46):
and all that type of stuff, but as you mentioned,
this has to be the world. You gotta truly embrace it.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
Because I do think like in terms of solutions that
Fred Fred Fletch was talking about, I'm so sorry, I'm
so sorry.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Yeah you look better.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Than Yes I do.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
I know we all know that.

Speaker 5 (47:02):
Yes, but the uh but in order to win these
types of games with this type of depleted group in
the back, in the perimeter, like, you got to find
ways to possess the ball and so away is it
running the football? How do what are our great third
down plays? Can we maximize or feature someone in that
we stay at a third long and that's where again
like this run first approach is good because it does

(47:24):
shorten the game, but it's also relying on the defense
holding up there on the bargain too. So yeah, it
really becomes like this this total team compliment and special
teams coming.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, making in that part it's a true it has
to be complimentary football at its highest level. All right.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Then on defense, then your solution is what if you're
saying the offense turns into kind of a power run
offers or a run first offense and whatever, and I
wouldn't remove anything that zone read with a Mariot, he's
amazing at it. So there's there's a lot of different
ways that thinkund probably run the ball here moving forward.
But defensively, what are you looking at? Because that was really.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Yeah, it's gonna have to be a kind of a
Bendo break type of deal where you're.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Gonna what do you mean flat?

Speaker 3 (48:06):
So between that, we don't have to between the twenties
and twenties like they're gonna move the ball against the
certain But when we get in that red zone area,
we don't have to tighten it down. We don't have
to force them to kick field goals things like that.
So we don't have to be greater red zone red
zone defense, but we can't. We might have to go
to a lot more to shale, like true to shale.

(48:28):
It's gonna be a hairywey the they're gonna convert a
lot of you know, third downs they're gonna get they
might get five yards on a run on the second
on the first down player or seven on the first
down run. So there will be in a lot of
second and five, second and three things like that. But
we just we don't have to force them to make
a mistake. We're gonna have to figure out a way

(48:49):
from a schematic standpoints when we when we pressure, how
can we figure our ways to manipulate other teams pass protection?
Do we are doing a little bit more creative stuff
from a pass rush standpoint or blitz standpoint, Maybe we
start blitching the corner, Maybe we start bringing four week
things like that. So it's say, and when you're bringing

(49:12):
that playing zone behind the still so you got eyes
on the quarterback, you have eyes. You're now relying on
one on one tackles. You got more guys being able
to rally to the football. Uh tips throws tips and overthrows.
Maybe you got more of a guys ready to react
to that as supposed to bringing pressure, blitzing and playing
man and man coverage. You know, we can still play
some soft zones behind it, and we can. We're gonna

(49:34):
scheme up these types of deals. We're gonna do a
little bit more simulated pressure, and we were great at it, uh, Bobby.
When Bobby had the sacks, remember of the team, those
are simulated pressures. It was just a four man rush
where people thought it was a blitz. We're bringing him
and we're dropping back playing playing coverage. So we gotta
have to get back to doing that, but we got

(49:54):
to do it at a high, high level. We gotta
within that. It still has to be fine tuning the details,
like you can't have these huge voids, uh, between the
corner and the and the hook player. If we're playing
cover two to where yeah, we're in the cover too
is a safe defense, but also there's a little bit deeper.

(50:17):
You might have to get a little bit wider the
cover too, so force that quarterback to have to squeeze
that ball into a tighter window. Being exact on your
on your drops and your landmarks and safeties and making
sure you're sinking sinking on the on the on a
corner route, forcing them to throw that shallow that that
short route and we'll rally up and making tackle, don't

(50:38):
give up. That's how you keep the explosives down.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
Yeah, And I think the a good example of that
would be like this in Sandebagos game last year. You
know when they Joe Burrow is dealing and they drive
length of the field and kick a field goal and
you just stay a couple points ahead of them because
you're you're making touchdowns, you're possessing the football.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
But even when you get a couple of turnovers, yeah,
figure out away.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
And even when you're talking through that though, Fletch, Like
I think about the level of detail required for some
of these zone coverages, you know, in terms of who
we're reading, like we're our eyes if this guy pushes vertical,
what are we doing? And like it takes time, and I.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Think we got to spend the time.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
What I'm saying, Like you.

Speaker 5 (51:13):
Talk about like the run game stuff, it's very similar,
like all of these changes in transitions. It doesn't just
like I think, like people that I've talked about, like
why don't they just do this. It's like if you
haven't put the equity in it, it takes a couple
of weeks sometimes to get that worked out. And so like,
I think that's where I'd say, like this is these
are all good in theory. It's and we can talk
about it and you can put on the whiteboard as ideas,

(51:35):
but the execution of it is where it becomes challenging.
I always find and that's why you know, these guys
get paid lots of money to figure it out.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
So yeah, all right, let's talk about Jayden Daniels. So
he gets injured, suffers an elbow injury.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
We're waiting.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
We haven't heard from dan Quinn yet and so we
don't know the prognosis for him yet.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
But he did.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
It is believed he dislocated his elbow and hopefully the
prognosis will be pretty good. So we'll see what ends
up happening with that. The score was thirty eight to
seven and he was out on the field. So let
me just get just your your thoughts just initially of
him being out there. I think I'll just say this upfront,
as a flukey injury that occurred last night, it is

(52:14):
not as hamstring. It is not his knee, so that
is a rare occurrence that something like that happens, and
it's an unfortunate thing obviously for him and for the team.
But I just want to get because obviously everybody's talking
about it that he was out there in a game
that was over. So so what are you just your
general thoughts on the unfortunate injury that he took last night.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
I mean, obviously it's unfortunate, you know, want to get hurt.
But like my thing is, again I guess is probably
old heart of football on me a little bit. But
like people were talking about him not playing in preseason,
he's missed three games this year. I think you just
sometimes need to get a guy reps. And he's competitive
and he wants to be in there, and so like
I know, there's everyone wants to play, Like Monday morning

(52:54):
quarterback should have been in But I think in those moments,
like you can learn a lot about a kid. He
can get a lot better. He can see a defense better.
They had their backup defensive lineing at that moment, so
like he could he was kind of getting a feel
for the coverages and where the ball should go. And
I just think for a season that's been limited in
terms of repetitions because of injuries, I thought this is

(53:16):
a good opportunity for him to get some practice quote
unquote in this game. But again, like there's no right solution,
there's no counterfactual to say, like if he comes out
here whatever, But it's a violent sport. People get hurt
and it's unfortunate, no doubt, And I feel terrible for him,
But like, I don't really have a terrible issue.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
There's hindsight is twenty twenty, he dq. I don't think
anybody who's listening to dan Quinn or met dan Quinn
would think that he does not care deeply about his players.
He's going to do everything to ensure his players are

(53:54):
and he cares so much about their well being. How
many times have he kept guys out of games, or hey,
I don't think it's right, we want to hold him
another week, kept him out of practice, things like that.
So he's doing what he did, what he felt like
was the right thing to do. For a guy who's
missed three football games, for a guy who is extremely competitive,

(54:15):
he wants to be out there playing football. I mean,
when you're a football player, you want to play football,
regardless of the score. You want to play. That's just
how it is now. You say, hey, this's a franchise quarterback.
The games out of whack, we're not gonna win it again.
You want to be out there fighting to the end.
And high sight twenty twenty sure DQ would have pulled

(54:37):
him out of the game, or he would have Jaydon
had that football off. Just this, you're no longer running.
You hand this ball off. So that's just what it
is that you don't get better playing football on the sideline.
Glad it's not as right right elbow. I don't know
what's the prognosis how long these things take, but it's

(54:59):
just been we've been we've been snake bit man. I mean,
from an injuries book standpoint, we've just had Buzzer's luck.
Sometimes it just happens like that sometimes.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Yeah, that's another part of the story from last year
where you were talking about earlier. John Allen did miss
the majority of the year when he suffered his injury.
That was about it of like major injuries that occurred
to the team. So they were winning a lot, they
were converting at an almost historic pace on fourth downs.
They were as clutch as you could come. And they
also didn't have a lot of injuries. And this has
turned this year. And it started early where their offense

(55:33):
never practiced together once since the day one of camp,
and here we are heading into week ten and it
looks like it never will the whole time, for the
whole season.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
I was two weeks ago, We're going We're getting ready
to play Dallas or Kansas City or whatever, and I'm
prepping for the game, and on my notes, I wrote,
go through it and grow through it, and this was
just we were going through a tough stretch, and we

(56:00):
continue to go through that tough stretch, but we also
have to grow through this, grow through this as a team,
as a player, as individuals, as coaches. So when we
come out on the other side of this, we're building
up some different type of callasis as a football team,
as a as a as a coaching staff, as players.
Last year it was all man beales and listens and

(56:22):
rainbows and lollypops and all that. As good as it
was a year ago, it's as bad as it is
right now. But we have to grow, go through this,
and grow through this. The experience is that a Jaalen
Lane is getting right now, Uh that Luke was getting
Uh Luke McCaffrey before he got injured. Josh Connelly and
all the different different you know, he's growing baptism by

(56:46):
fire with all the pass rushes that he We're growing, growing,
We're going through some some some tough moments, but we're
going to grow through this stuff. Adversity's here, but weren't.
We don't come out on the other side of this.
We just have to continue to work each every day
and to this thing to flips.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
You know.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
What's funny is like for all you guys at home watching,
like that's something that he would have said when we
were playing, like when he's in front of the team,
something very similar to that, Like it's not And I
took me back to like, you know, twenty ten, eleven,
twelve thirteen, when I was like, you're having bad things happen,
and like good leadership will step up in those moments
and say like, hey, like we have to this is

(57:24):
we have to keep going. We have to keep working.
There's no like so fancy, like what's the solution? What
I peak up? Like, what are we going to do?

Speaker 2 (57:30):
It's like I don't know what we're going to do.
But what they're gonna do is put one foot.

Speaker 5 (57:33):
In front of the other and approach each day and
try to get better and try to keep growing, because
that's the only thing when you're in those seats over
there that you can do. And so like when you
were talking like that, it just from it. It took
me back to like playing a little bit and just
kind of that that mindset is so important.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
I mean, I hate the previews the next game because
it's Detroit and that was the last magic moment of
twenty twenty four was going up there and knocking off
a one seed in a playoff game and heading to
the NFC Championship. I'm sure their players will be hearing
about it. They're coming off a loss, man they they have,
and they also they're gonna be hearing about it from

(58:14):
what happened a year ago for sure. So this is
another tough one. And let's see, Seattle was the fourth
top seven offense we have faced this year. This will
be the fifth coming up here. So the defense, whatever
your solutions are, they got six days to figure it
out because this is a tough task again this weekend,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Everybody has players and playmakers, and every every game there's
some type of challenge. It's just that that's the nature
of this business. That's that's the sport we play. On
every given play, somebody's going to draw a short stick.
It might be, Hey, you got it, you got coverage
against this dude one on one, and we can't help

(58:54):
you because we got to go help over here. You
got to hold up your end of your bar of
that bargain, or you got to elite pass rusher, and
we can't help you on this particular play because we
got to get five out because of the concept that
we're trying to run. I just need you to hold
get your job done. And that's that's that's football, that's
life in this sport. But you have to put in

(59:17):
the work. And another thing you have to do. You
have to ignore the noise. If they're not in that
those meeting rooms with you in that building and putting
into work and with you, ignore it because everybody will
tell you how terrible you are and they'll tell you
how great you are. You gotta ignore it both both.

(59:40):
That's how it is.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
Preach man. Yeah, Detroit good football team. They all got playmakers.
That's one of the more playmaker dense rosters in football.
You know, but they've lost games they should have won.
You know, they're kind of dealing with some brain drain
at the moment. They haven't looked as efficient at points
this year, so maybe there's a crack in the armory
you feel good about. But like Fletch said, man like,
no one's gonna feel sorry for you. No one's gonna

(01:00:03):
feel bad for you. You got to put the boxing
gloves on, put the helmet on, and go get that
they're not castling in that game.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Yeah, yeah, you gotta go figure.

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
I said today acred I asked them about the injuries
a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
He goes, nobody cares, Nobody cares, nobody cares, cares, nobody cares.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
I remember when I was mentoring young players in Atlanta
and they were like, oh, you know, I got this
this like my hamsheings a little bit tighter. I didn't
study the film or I got the playbook yesterday, And
I was like, you want to know something crazy, nobody cares,
nobody like. You got to get ready. You got to
find a way despite all the audiversity, to spind on
the nonsense, to get there and uh and I I
know those people in that room feel that Dan said

(01:00:39):
it to you obviously, and.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
When you because when you stepped between those white lines,
the expectations are the same, whether you're banged up or
you got problems going on at home, your your dog
ran away, whatever, since.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
You know it's that bad the dog ran away.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
But it's true, I.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Would be distraught of my dogs right away. I'm not
gonna lie.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
I probably don't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
That probably would have been in my first Mexic game.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
I love my dogs, really love the pod your dogs
just yet.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
But again, but my point is when you step between
those white lines and you played with me, and there's
there's plenty of time you see me throughout the week,
apparely like, there's no way, how did you guys go play?

Speaker 5 (01:01:27):
Remember Fletcher being in a walking boat, watching walking watching.
You couldn't even do the who the cooler.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Watching walk through? And I was like, how the hell
is he gonna be ready to go?

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
But when I stepped on that football field, I knew
the expectations that the fans had, my teammates had, So
nobody wants to hear, Hey, London, you got a spray
and ankle back. Nobody can. If you step between these
white lines, you better be ready to perform.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Yeah, Detroit is about to have a rugby match with us,
according to you, because that's gonna be our offense.

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
And you get them for you logan, have you ever
have you ever gone with four tight ends in the
game and a runner?

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Oh yeah, it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Oh that would be beautiful football.

Speaker 5 (01:02:11):
And the great thing I've always had this fantasy of doing.
It's hard to find four guys that can do that,
like play ball like that. But you can get into
empty you can get in the site, you can do
all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
So I'm saying, so let's imagine this.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
This is your fantasy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
I think about this all time.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Let's look at this, and you've got we got we
got bakes in the game. Yah, we got sent it.
We got earth guys. Yank Off is injured, Trescott or
or Brandon.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Could be why you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
Then we can move and then we also so now
they don't have to mess personnelity.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
Let's go so it's almost like the goal line. Yeah,
and then we explode. Now we got a match up.

Speaker 5 (01:02:45):
We don't get we won't get a line back on yeah,
which is like, that's that's why it's a fantasy of mine.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
We we're gonna get a line back on you, sho.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
I got it drawn out. I've been talking it for
years about this.

Speaker 4 (01:02:57):
I didn't think we did the show sharing fantasies, but
here we are.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
All right, keep behind the curtain.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
That's all right. That'll do it for this edition of
the Booth Review. We'll see you next week.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
Booth Review was filmed at the Big Bear AI Command
Center Studio. Big Bear AI offers mission ready AI for
a rapidly evolving world, proudly protecting the Washington Commanders and
its fans.