November 3, 2025 • 36 mins
MMQB starts now with HUGH MILLEN as we talk about the performance of Sam Darnold. Did Kubiak dial up a perfect game plan and did the offense execute to perfection? It’s a deep dive! :30- We are back with more MMQB- and it’s time to focus on the Seahawks defense who showed out last night and are getting a bit overlooked. :45- We wrap up the first hour of MMQB with Hugh and focus on Jayden Daniels injury. It has sparked a debate on whether or not he should have been in the game and Hugh is here to settle it.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
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(00:46):
Now the Monday Morning Quarterback with Mike holm Grin and
Hugh Millin.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Here's Chuck and Buck. Hi. Yes it is Chuck Obuck
in the Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Good Monday morning
to you all. But in a good mood around here. Boy,
You get that way after your football team wins thirty
eight to fourteen on Sunday Night football. Oh yes, the flowers.
They smell better, the air feels cleaner. Yes, everything, The
coffee tasted a little coffeer. And so here we get
(01:15):
started here at eight o'clock with our QB one, Hugh
Millan is with us to break it all down.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You have used the po r N.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Word to discover Yeah, excellent quarterback play in the past.
While I would imagine you had quite the session last night.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Then in the case, yeah, I'm exhausted. I need a
late morning now. Oh man, Now what a curb stomp.
I mean, I think these things happen. I don't think
if they played ten times you're going to see that
type of an outcome. But you know what, they don't
play ten times. They played once. It was on national TV.
It was beautiful. Three hundred and thirty yards at halftime.
(01:55):
I don't need a calculator to double that stat I
mean it was just a remarkable, just avalanche. You know,
that's exactly coming off of a buy.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
How you want to approach things to have that type
of intensity and that type of the execution, the precision,
the precision and the execution, the complexity of the defense.
I mean, man, you gotta you gotta put your thinking
cap on when you study this defense, Uh, it's it's
a fun team to watch. I know that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know, uh, you don't obsess over it, but you
do hold a record for twenty consecutive completions. So where
you're thinking at all about Sam Darnold, you know kind
of uh, you know, get making uncomfortable there around twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I mean, he wasn't checking down every other play like
you did. Oh but well, the that was an AFC record. Uh,
and it was with the Broncos, and so the Broncos. Yeah, yeah,
I think I think I Bucky would know maybe, but
I think I still have it for the Broncos. But no,
(03:01):
it was Uh, I didn't know it at the time.
And uh and yeah, I ended up being twenty for
twenty and then the official play by play said a
drop on the twenty first, It literally says, the official
play by play drop ball. And then there was four
more completions, so I would have had twenty five, which
(03:21):
would still be the NFL record. That the NFL record
at the time was twenty two, so by held by
Joe Montana. Now, in what universe do I deserve to
take Joe Montana's every one of them? Precisely zero of them, obviously,
but that would be a cool record to have. But
(03:41):
but as it was, it was. But there was I
think two hundred ninety seven yards in those twenty completions.
So back up on that. Yeah, yeah, come on, So yeah,
we have about fifteen yards perfect per completion to make
Bucky smile.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
He was a bad Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love you
so much, breed love.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
But enough of that. How about Sam Donald? Yeah that's
his seventeen.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well, let's get into it, and we won't go through
them all, but let's get a little detailed. Obviously, he
came out humming right there. Very first possession, you get
the football after Jane Daniels look a little confused by
Mike McDonald's defense. Sam Donald didn't look confused at all,
and so second and four from the sixteen yard line,
(04:27):
he gets it started with a perfect strike to Tory
Horton for thirteen yards.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So Donald, and really the theme of this is the
is the the details. The precision is in the details.
So there's there's a bunch right out to Donald's right.
It's man and man covered. So he sees three over
three that takes his read to the double slant side.
Mike Homgood would call that lion and he's got Tory
(04:54):
Horton in the slot. Now, Tory, I know my kid
threw a bunch to him at Colorado st. Tory Horton
normally is an outside receiver on the right side. That's
but as a rookie now he's a slot receiver on
the left. On this play, he's he's got to win
against man coverage. And here's here's the part of the detail.
It's like goldilocks in the porridge. If you talk to
(05:15):
Tory Horton on that play man to man that you've
got a lurking defender in Bobby Wagner. If if he's
just trying to beat the corner over him, he wants
to take a flat angle away, but that's gonna get
him into the linebacker too fast. So if he just
wants to avoid the linebacker's gonna keep it skinny and
(05:36):
keep it high, so the angle can be neither not
too flat, not too high. For the reasons I described,
it's just right. It's perfect NFL execution and get thirteen yards.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Well, that was just kind of getting started on the thing. Obviously,
after a penalty for that one chop block by Oots.
Then he ends up getting his first completion to Jackson
Smith and Jigba. What do you see on that one?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, well it's a five out protection. You're sending Kenneth
Walker out to the left side, but there was an
overload to that side. So now he comes to the
backside and he's got he's got a hold. He's got
to look to his left to make Bobby Wagner. And
early on, I'll tell you what he was playing, Bobby
(06:20):
Wagner in like a marionette pubet with his eyes just
moving Wagner. Wagner is trying to play his eyes. He knew,
he knew he had to move him, so he moves
left and then who's number four for the commanders? Then
he had to he had to move that guy to
the right and then opens up this window. A beautiful
anticipation on an inbreaking route. But he goes with his
(06:41):
eyes Darnald left, Let me move Wagner, Let me look
to the flat. Let me move number four. That will
open a window between fifty four and four and I'll
hit Jackson Smith Smith Smith Smith and Jigba coming in
on that. So the eye manipulation and the anticipation on
a backside read after having read the front side to
his left. Beautiful quarterback for as Frankie Luvia. We got
(07:04):
to recognize a coop. Yeah that's a coop. Yeah yeah,
we can't just call it. You have to recognize a
coup guy, don't fine, I get it all right.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So and then and I love this because right after
that thirteenth, so it's first and twenty five, and there's
just no panic at all shown by Sam.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It's just like, let's just get half of it here.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
And then they get another penalty and that can tend
to disrupt an entire drive, and he's like, no panic.
Second and seventeen. I'm just gonna go right back to
the horse Jackson Smith and jigg. But for fourteen more
yards it was jo beautiful because Washington didn't handle their
fifteen yard penalty well on the previous drive, and Sam
just didn't panic at all when they got backed up twice.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Good point and beautiful play calling here. This is a
Clint Kubiak like, dude, were you tapping into their to
their their headsets? In fact, I had a text exchange
with Gary Kubiak, Clint's dad, who for whom I played.
He was my quarterback coach, and just kind of commenting
is like, dude, you Clint must have been in on
(08:05):
the commander's headset feed because here here they roll the
strong side just Darnold's left, okay, meaning the corner of
the corner's gonna stay the flat, the safety's gonna go
over the top. In this situation, you have Jackson Smith
and Jigba he motions he's in. He's the running back
in the flat and they're running a coverage or they're
(08:26):
trying to invert a cover to where the where you
have overhang defender. He's gonna scream out to the sideline
to try and play the wide flat area, and Bobby
Wagner is the next guy inside. He's the curral defender.
I wrote on my notes on this play, fifty four
looks like a slow rookie. So the rookie part was
(08:49):
a linebacker of his veteran status. And I love Bobby
Wagner like he. I described him last week the most
accomplished Seahawk in a Seahawk uniform in the history of
the franchise. So we all love Bobby Wagner. But let's
just talk about who fifty four is for the commanders.
How he would not know that the Injigba lined up
in the backfield is going to run an option route,
(09:12):
you know, he just he just kind of spot and
he had no awareness. And in Jigba, for his part,
like this is where I stop and I go the
details his on this choice route, he would say he
would he could break out, he could break in zone.
He's gonna hook it up. And then later he ran
he had a vertical to he is a four way read,
which not all running backs again, but he's got a
(09:34):
four way read in out, stop or vertical. And as
he senses how the the they're playing this inverted coverage
as I describe, he's going up the numbers about two
yards inside the numbers. But as he stops, he kind
of backs up and he gets on the numbers. He
kind of did a backpedal to like it's this unbelievable
(09:56):
next level awareness of exactly where the coverage is getting
friendly for the quarterback in a position that's going to
maximize his run after the catch. He ends up getting
on that play fourteen yards. But it wasn't just that
he stopped, because I could show you nine hundred and
ninety nine players that I've ever either played with or
(10:17):
studied that would turn around and stop in his own
It's that he stopped and widened as he was doing
it in a way that was clear with the and
Darnald was throwing with anticipation. It's just like, Hey, if
I back up here, I'm gonna be a little bit
further from Bobby Wagner, and I can do that because
the overhang defender was screaming to the sideline so fast
(10:38):
that the windows a little wider. Let me just dissect
that window perfect again, precisions in the details. That's the
difference between a seven yard eight yard game and a
fourteen yard game. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Well, obviously their connection is kind of clicking right now,
Sam Darnold and Jackson Smith and Jig, but that one
basically still because of the penalty sets up a third
and three, and that's when Darnold basically finds aj Barnery
right there for eight yards over the middle. I mean,
even when it's okay, third and three, we got to
convert here, he finds somebody, even if it's not his
(11:11):
security blanket in Jackson.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, and this is where and Chris, I think Chris
collinsworths is Now, this is just one man's opinion, very subjective.
I think he has become the best analyst in football,
and I think it's in part because he bought Pro
Football Pro Football Focus, and he has a lot of information.
He studies it more than he used to. But he
was really calling out, Hey, this is Donald. Look at
(11:34):
his feet. He's coming back to his third receiver. Well,
I watched the tape. I could make an argument that
it's his third receiver because there's a concept I would
call black bugle, which is a go route and a
quick out route to the left and then you got
to dig and then you got the check down. You
could say in his playbook, I'll bet you it says
(11:56):
take a peek because injigba is the go route up
the sideline. So for Collinsworth to say that that Barner's
only number three, that is removing the idea that Donald
would what's the point of my conversation. I would argue
that it's more the fourth receiver. And so here Donald
goes left. He's got a two man concept the outgo
(12:18):
to his left. Nope, he's got a dig check down
Texas And by the way, the angle again, the precision,
the details barner. He checked over the middle, but before
he did that, he took an angle towards the sidelining
up the field as if he was going to go
to the flat, and then he crosses back in. I
(12:38):
call it a check Texas, and you could just check
him down with a defender to be closer. But if
you first fake to the outside like you're going to flat,
and then check down over the middle, you get a
little bit more separation. Again, precisions in the details. You
get eight yards on third and three probably would have
got four or five yards, but every yard counts, and
(12:59):
it's it's all in the details. But again Donald going
to his fourth receiver on time. Hel melanis with us
Monday morning Quarterback. If we are going into detail on
Sam Donald's basically historic night last night. He was sixteen
for sixteen in the first half, and we're going through
his first ten passes here and just how impressive he was,
because they were all just a little bit different in
(13:22):
how impressive that they were. At halftime, they were five
for five on third down, so it wasn't just completing
to complete Hugh, I mean third down and five from
their twenty seven. You hook up with the walker for
fourteen yards and a first down. I mean he was
also moving the chains in all of this as well. Yes,
this was a cover zero, all out blitz. It's gonna
(13:44):
be man to man, but the safety's coming from depth.
And really there was no other receiver open. I mean
we say Jackson Smith is always open. Well, you know
there's a few times when he lines up outside and
press coverage where he doesn't win. Yet here again, Clint Kubiak,
you've got a five out protection on him. Heavy blitz there,
(14:06):
you're blitzing six guys on an imp on a on
a five out protection. And and I looked at it
as an option, and it's possible that it was. It
was it was locked in as what's called a Texas route,
which is the inbreaking route. Either way, whether he had
the option or not, he broke to the inside, which
if he did have had the option, it was the
(14:28):
correct decision to go inside. And for for Donald's case,
here here it's a six man rush on a five
man protection. There is who's who's twenty four for uh
for the commander, Well, it's von Miller. Yeah, Uh so
von Miller is coming in on the a gap, unblocked,
(14:48):
total free runner. And so your credit Donald in this
case of just having the courage knowing that that there's
going to be a guy totally unblocked. It's a Hall
of Famer coming in on you, and he was able to,
you know, relatively easy completion other than you've got von
Miller bearing down on you totally unblocked. So hell of
a call. A covers zero beater and you get the
(15:11):
first down. By the way, you get fourteen yards on
third and five.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yeah, and then they basically try to run one before
he ends up connecting with Horton on that first touchdown.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
How nice was that? Yeah? Boot left with I don't
know Klint Kobiak like Boot Left. He has more nakeds
and boots to the left on a right handed quarterback
than he does to the right thus far in the season.
But I think the impressive part of that you got
the defensive end who didn't bite on the on the
play action. He's up the field, so Darnold would like
to stay on the move, but now he's got to
(15:40):
stop pull up with a defensive end ninety six in
his face. The flat is covered and if you look
at when he hands separate and he's going to throw this, you,
Tory Horton is not open. He's got he's contacted. I
mean the defender could have reached out, beer hugged him.
(16:01):
There was no separation, but he threw with anticipation through
it open. Unbelievable, probably in my mind, the most difficult
play that he had of the night. There was that
touchdown pass in terms of just degree of difficulty by
NFL quarterback standards, just how he backed up, the anticipation
he had, the spot that he put it in. I
(16:23):
mean that there's your porn right there. I mean that
things are really getting rev up. I know it when
I see it. The line, yeah yeah, yeah, that was
the Supreme Court justice in nineteen sixty three. Can't describe it,
but I know when I see it. Yeah yeah, Well
seven decency perpetrated in that end zone.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That was gorgeous. Seven to nothing at that point. Next possession,
let's go back to back here. I mean there were
three plays apart, but back to back throws to JSN
seventeen yards and then a seven yard hookup.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So let's squish those two. The seven yard cup was
just a hits free access hits nothing there the boot
left over route for seventeen yards. You would quarter you
would coach Darnold. Hey again, here he is on a
naked not to his right as the right handed quarterback,
but to his left. He had Robbie Oots out there
(17:17):
as a wing of a tight end as it were,
and he's just kind of blocking. So but that brings
extra defenders, so it's relatively congested. He's got the flat
that's covered, he's got Robbie Uts blocking for him, so
that there's just a lot of bodies. So he says, well,
let me find jaysn coming from the backside on an
(17:38):
intermediate crossing route. He hits him on the dead run
while he's on the left. He hits a jigb on
the dead run seventeen yards. Made it look like a
laying in basketball. Beautiful yep.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And then he basically ends up finishing that drive off
with another twenty five yard striker, not another one, but
a twenty five yard strikeer Tory Horton another great throw.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Okay, now I'm gonna use it. That is not ubiquitous.
If I say cover zero, every coach, nois what I'm
talking about. I say, that's blitz mana man, no free safety.
If I say cover one, everybody knows what I'm talking about.
That's man man with a free safety. I'm gonna use
the term cover seven that I picked up somewhere along
the line of Coach called it. Not everybody uses that term,
but everybody will describe it however they describe it. Cover
(18:21):
seven is man to man, but with a bracket against
one guy. So okay, So instead of having a free
safety in the middle, you're gonna take that safety and
say we're gonna put two on one and then everybody
else is just man and man. And in this case
they're bracketing JSN and so Sandra still the corner on
man a man that you've got to point a bunch
(18:45):
formation to Darnold's right, and you've got Tory Horton as
the point. There's three guys and the middle guy is
on the line of scrimmage. The other two are backed up.
Why is that important? When you start talking about play construction,
you've got to be aware that defense is usually jam
the point the middle guy who's on the line of scrimmage,
(19:06):
and so Horton he's got to have because he's on
the line he's got to have a great release. He
takes an inside release against Sandrastill. Sandra's still Then when
you watch the end zone copy, he jumps to the
inside because once Horton goes on an inside release, Sandra's
still the defender and man to man, you're telling Sandra's still, Hey,
(19:27):
it's cover seven. You don't have any safety help. So
Sandristelle once he says, okay, Horton just went in an
inside release on me. He's got to guard the intermediate
crossing route because he's got no safety help because the
safety is over there helping on Jackson Smith and Jigba.
So Sandra's still he cheats. He gets to the inside,
but no, here's here's Clint Kubiak. I'm not running him
(19:49):
on a deep over route. I'm running him back to
the corner. So Sandra still had to guess because he
has no safety help. Because Jackson Smith and jig was
on the field. They want to play man to man,
but they got a double Jackson Smith and g we
take an inside release. Oh we think we're going an
inside breaking route. Nope, we're going an outside breaking route.
That's how you get that wide open app And there
was just a little bit of a nod to the inside. Beautiful,
(20:11):
not nothing to slow him down. But I would say
the route was absolutely a ten by the Rocky Horton.
But it's the construction. It's all the elements that I'm
talking about to create a wide open, easy.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Touchdown, all right, And then that's fourteen and nothing. Then
you have the fumbled kick return. And so within nine
seconds the Seahawks threw two touchdown passes and opened up
a twenty one nothing lead over the Commanders. And at
this point, Darnold's just cocky because he had JSN wide
open down the right sidelines, Like, no, I'm gonna throw
the more difficult throw just to show you how awesome
(20:44):
I am tonight.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, Well, Jason had a filthy, filthy and credit the broadcast.
They're really good. They showed it. It was literally open.
I watched the coaches tapement. I mean he's opened by
five yards. That's non exaggeration. I mean he'd put the
whooped to do, but the safety was cheating over to
his side. Now this is man to man. This is
not the cover seven, but it's this free safety with
(21:05):
a hard sheet. And and so because he sees the
hard sheet and he's got Arroyo on a seam route.
You're you want to get a single safety. That call,
that play is called to get a single safety. And
and and if you're you're Donald, you just say, hey,
if you're in the middle of the if I can
get you off the middle field, I've I've got one
on one to the outside, uh or up the seam
(21:28):
rather to uh Arroyo or number eighteen for uh Tyler Owens.
He he kind of he bites in a little too fast,
so he gets beat. Arroyo's speed beats him up the seam.
And then the corner Latimore, there's a Tory Horton was
trying to hold the outside corner uh uh from from
falling back into the play. This one, I don't think
(21:50):
this matters a lot, but this uh relevant. But the seam,
the seam route to the left, which is what Donald
had on that play, was my favorite play as a
quarterback in my career. And because as a right handed quarterback,
you go one, two, three, four, five, he hits. Your
weight is all set up as you're throwing to your left.
(22:13):
There's a certain rhythm to how you can throw it.
The way the receiver is running away from you in
your relative to your visions kind of left to right.
But it's going up the field, and so the angle
is easy to anticipate. It just fits, it fits my eye.
I'm not in Darnold's head. I haven't asked him, is
that your favorite route? But that steam route to the left.
(22:35):
He would even tell you that that wasn't a perfect throw.
He would have liked to have thrown that two feet farther.
But he won by anticipation. And what you're trying to
do is think of a triangle. I'm gonna get with
the point in front of you. You're trying to hit
between three guys. The guy who's running down the scene
with him, that's number eighteen. Then the free safety he
represents a second point of the triangle. But then the
(22:57):
backside corner can fall into the play. So you got
to you gotta be aware of three guys that can
make the play. You're gonna stick it in between that triangle.
And Laddimore, you discussed him. He makes a business decision.
If I'm coaching the Commanders on defense, I say, dude,
you got to accelerate through that tight end at the
half yard line and try and dislodge the football. Latimore
(23:19):
had a chance to do that he took. He made
a business decision, he said, for Ricky Waters, for what,
for whom? And just he just he tapped out of
the play and so so a slightly underthrown ball, but
you win by anticipation. Love that seam route to the left,
got the corner, the free safety going hard over to
(23:41):
JSN for obvious reasons. That opens a big window in
Sam Darnold's eyes and he was able to get the
touchdown out of it. And at that point he's ten
for ten and the Sea Oarks are had twenty one
to nothing and the game is over. It is an
exercise in getting the clock to double zero at that point.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Ye impressive display. Hugh Millan is with us Monday Morning Quarterback.
We'll continue on the other side, talk about the defense
a little on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
kJ R FM.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
We continue with Monday Morning Quarterback here on Chuck and Back,
of course, brought to you by Michael Shoote to Bingo
and Auburn your home for Machine Goo, also North Creek
Roofing and Core Contractors.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Hugh Millan.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
We talked about Sam Darnold's electrifying first half and the
first segment. So we now get to the defense a
little bit, and certainly a couple of things that stand
out on this side of the ball, including tyle Cotta's interception.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Hugh.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I mean, I realize that most safeties are safeties because
they didn't catch the ball well enough to play wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
But that was as good a catch as you're ever
going to see. Yeah, it had Larry Fitzgerald done that,
you'd have said, that's why he's the best right to tapper, right, Yeah, remarkable.
You know, for me, I'm I'm kind of more impressed. Look,
look the vertical he got on that that individual play
Biocoda was sensational. So everything you're gonna say about it,
(25:08):
I can't say as well as you can, like it
was spectacular, But I got to tell you that I'm
I'm more impressed by everything that was going on in
that play because because I realized how hard Mike McDonald
was making life on Jayden Daniels on that play. Let
(25:28):
me explain what I mean. The ball is on the right, Halse.
You got Ernest Jones in in the a gap to
the field side, which means that. Now you're gonna likely
ind and you've got you've got Drake Thomas up as
a potential blitzer, so you're probably gonna induce this the
offensive line to turn to the left side to make
(25:48):
sure they've got Ernest Jones. But Ernest Jones isn't gonna
He's gonna what the term is called mug He's mugging
up in that a gap. He's gonna back away. You're
gonna also have DeMarcus Lawrence. He's gonna start for a
couple steps, he's gonna back off. But on the on
the boundary side, the side towards the interception, as you said,
Drake Thomas is he's gonna eat up the block from
(26:10):
the running back. But because the wide receiver is in
what's called a cut split or a reduced split, he's
on the inside edge of the numbers, the balls on
the right half, so that that triggers a blitz by Witherspoon,
who's the corner. Now here's where things. So even if
I just said right there, that's a lot of stuff.
(26:31):
It's called what's called the cat blitz. And because the
running back is got to block Drake Thomas, now you've
got Witherspoon able to come right in that b gap
between the garden tact unblocked because of all the things
you've done to say to influence and and really to
dictate the protection. But every other team will when when
(26:52):
they run this cat blitz, they will have the safety
to that side. Okada he will come over and cover that,
and that's very common. But he will have deep responsibility
if the if the receiver runs a go route up
that sideline, o'cada replacing over the over the top. He's
got him on a go route. But what Mike McDonald
(27:13):
did is he said, no, I'm going to run a
cloud defense to the side of the cat, which means
Ocada is gonna come down. He doesn't have deep responsibility.
He has the flat and you've got Kobe Bryant who
had been way over on the other hash. He's screaming
to get over the top of Okada. So Coada doesn't
have to take the deep guy. He can just he
(27:34):
can just kind of eyeball and play underneath, knowing that
he's got Kobe Bryant coming from the other side of
the field to get over the top of him. And
so that confusion. So what is Jaydon Daniels dealing with
He's dealing with an athlete to the level of Witherspoon
coming untouched in the B gap and he's got a
(27:55):
totally unconventional side adjustment where's receiver that they're totally of communication.
He throws it up there. Ocada is able to just
eyeball at the corner or excuse me, the quarterback because
he's got help behind him, and he just he just plays,
you know, sandlot ball, reaches up and and and says, okay,
you want to throw it over there. But there was
(28:15):
clear miscommunication on on where the receiver should be. Uh uh.
The receiver's going in uh. Jadon and Daniels thought he
was going out. But I guarantee you they you don't
see that type of a blitz. So yes, unbelievable to
play by Okada, but a very very detailed, complex blitz
(28:37):
that Jaden Daniels had to deal with. And that's how
you forced those kind of complete I mean the seaops
only they only rushed a DBS on five reps last night, five,
but that you had one out of four completions for
ten yards a sack uh and a pardon me, a
(28:59):
seven yard scram on fourth and fifteen that that was
an unsuccessful play obviously turnover on down, but one of
four for ten yards and one interception and that interception.
So it's like Mike McDonald, he doesn't love the blitz,
but when he does it, he really makes it hard
on you and it's going to be successful as defined
(29:21):
by successful plays. The Commanders were one out of five
offensively anytime they were blitzed, counting that interception.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
All right, coming up next, our QB one will discuss
whether dan Quinn should have taken out their QB one.
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Mike Homer and will.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Join us at nine o'clock this morning, as he always
does on a Monday morning session. Hugh and coach together.
It's like chocolate and peanut butter. Too great taste to
go great together.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I have had a lot of coaching, Hugh over the.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Coaching, Hugh cups, Yeah, a lot a lot. My kids
killed it and they know I love it. So like
every few minutes here, Dad have one of these. I'm like, okay,
give me some more, coach and Hugh, I'm just trying
to support my friends.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
All right, Well, one more segment here with just Hugh
and I got to get your take on what happened
at the end of the ball game. I was expecting
to wake up this morning to analysis all over the
country about how awesome Sam Darnold and the Seahawks looked
last night, and instead it was pretty much all about
whether or not Dan Quinn ruined the Commanders by letting
(30:39):
Jade and Daniels continue to play even though they were
getting blown out.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
What was your take on that, Well, I think it
was obviously unfortunate, but I am very I would be
very critical of critics in this in the following regard,
I would just hold you to a consistency and let
me dive into this. Since twenty and twenty, there have
(31:05):
been twenty let me go back to sorry, let me
go back to the situation. So the score was thirty
eight to seven and there were seven on that play
was snaped seven thirty nine to go. So what I
did is I filtered since twenty and twenty. I just
no reason I picked that. At just beginning of the decade,
the situations were that these factors, these filters starting quarterback
(31:33):
still in the game, under eight minutes down thirty one
points some more got me. Essentially, I'm trying to duplicate
what we had. Twenty nine starters have thrown at least
one pass in those situations. There have been constituting two
(31:53):
hundred and forty three dropbacks and two hundred and twenty
four pass attempts, fourteen sacks, and a few scrambles. Here's
a list of some of the quarterbacks. And you tell
me if these guys sound like maybe franchise and or
top draft pick, Pro Bowl level type guys. Okay, Jared
(32:14):
Goff has thirty pass attempts in those situations since twenty twenty.
Ben Roethlisberger twenty one. Tom Brady, he had a couple
against the Saints. I went back and watched the plays.
He got hit by two guys when the score was
forty one and nothing in an early November game against
the Saints, and that was twenty twenty. They won the
(32:37):
Super Bowl that year. When he got hit by two guys,
What if he would have separated his shoulder? About how
about Gino Smith as a Seattle Seahawks so you've seen
it as a Seahawk fan against the Ravens, Russell Wilson,
Trevor Lawrence, bo Nicks, Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert has twelve
pass attempts in that situation too, attack of Aloa, Bryce On,
(33:00):
cam Ward Kirk Cousins, and obviously many more. There's twenty
nine starters. So my challenge to ESPN or anybody else where,
were you when all of those dropbacks and those attempts
and those sacks were taking place, where you then saying
what the hell is he doing in there? Even though
he didn't get hurt? This is absurd. If if in
(33:22):
fact you were, then you were being consistent and and
and I'll retract my criticism. But other than that, look,
there's a reason why coaches do this. And and in
the case of of of Jaydon Daniels, he's already missed
time with a knee, he's missed time with a hamstring
two different times. They had to sit him down. They're
(33:44):
trying to get some continuity, get some confidence, like, hey,
let's score here late, we'll feel better about ourselves and
and and get a little momentum going into the next game.
That's that's generally why coaches want to do that. And
we've seen it a lot. I just gave you the
no and to just all of a sudden pick the
one time a guy gets hurt and then just say, oh,
(34:05):
this is a breach of any coaching common sense or
whatever else they're throwing at dan Quinn this morning. To me,
just just bite it because you don't realize how hypercritical
you're being, because I never heard you complaining about that
in the exact same situation when guys were throwing the
(34:26):
ball and they didn't get hurt.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, I mean, coming from a player's perspective, and especially
in the sport of football, I mean, I can't imagine
there's a huge difference between that and the sport that
I played obviously, So where is the line of what
the feel is? I mean, we know that like the
very next play they ran it right in there. It
does feel like there's the players while you got to
(34:48):
play without fear. When something like that happens, fear has
to creep into the minds of the guys a little bit,
the reality of injuries just right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you can call it fear. I think,
you know, maybe a cousin of fear. I think it's
a little apprehension. It's like whoa, it's you know, I
think it drives home. It's thirty eight to seven. This
game is is is already, it's in the it's in
the locker. Uh, let's let's just kind of ride this
thing out. And you know, credit dan Quinn, he saw
(35:18):
what he did. The rest of both coaches basically said,
let's let's just get this game over. We're just gonna
plunge the running back into the line of scrimmage. Nothing,
you know, about as basic as you can sort of
taking knees. We're gonna do everything we can to just
get this damn game over. And and so I do
think it is on the you know, it's a challenge
(35:39):
for players to just you know, get that out of
their head after they see something gruesome like that. For
the Commanders, it was you know, it wasn't just a
gruesome injury. It's it's your quarterback, it's your you know,
this guy's been a you know, a young but very
uh you know, I think dynamic leader in many respects.
So I think I think that there was a malaise
(35:59):
that that took over the game, and I think that
everybody sensed it. The coaches did the right thing at
the end. It just end it. And you know, but
that's that's ball. Everybody knows. Everybody knows when they walk
out that tunnel that that this could be the day
that they they they leave the tunnel strapped to a gurney.
(36:21):
Everybody knows that. And you know it's not it's not
fun to dwell on that, but everybody knows that's the reality.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yeah, well here here I said something similar earlier in
the show. I didn't have all the evidence to back
it up, but it felt to me like I've seen
plenty of quarterbacks you have still playing late and fourth
quarters of games. They were getting blown out by and
for all the reasons that you stated eloquently. So Hugh
mellan will stay with us, so we got a lot
(36:47):
more to analyze. Coach homern Will joined the conversation in
our nine o'clock hour, It's a Monday Morning Quarterback on
Chuck and Bucks Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
This is the Monday Morning Quarterback on your Home for
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(00:46):
Now the Monday Morning Quarterback with Mike holm Grin and
Hugh Millin.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Here's Chuck and Buck. Hi. Yes it is Chuck Obuck
in the Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Good Monday morning
to you all. But in a good mood around here. Boy,
You get that way after your football team wins thirty
eight to fourteen on Sunday Night football. Oh yes, the flowers.
They smell better, the air feels cleaner. Yes, everything, The
coffee tasted a little coffeer. And so here we get
(01:15):
started here at eight o'clock with our QB one, Hugh
Millan is with us to break it all down.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You have used the po r N.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Word to discover Yeah, excellent quarterback play in the past.
While I would imagine you had quite the session last night.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Then in the case, yeah, I'm exhausted. I need a
late morning now. Oh man, Now what a curb stomp.
I mean, I think these things happen. I don't think
if they played ten times you're going to see that
type of an outcome. But you know what, they don't
play ten times. They played once. It was on national TV.
It was beautiful. Three hundred and thirty yards at halftime.
(01:55):
I don't need a calculator to double that stat I
mean it was just a remarkable, just avalanche. You know,
that's exactly coming off of a buy.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
How you want to approach things to have that type
of intensity and that type of the execution, the precision,
the precision and the execution, the complexity of the defense.
I mean, man, you gotta you gotta put your thinking
cap on when you study this defense, Uh, it's it's
a fun team to watch. I know that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know, uh, you don't obsess over it, but you
do hold a record for twenty consecutive completions. So where
you're thinking at all about Sam Darnold, you know kind
of uh, you know, get making uncomfortable there around twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I mean, he wasn't checking down every other play like
you did. Oh but well, the that was an AFC record. Uh,
and it was with the Broncos, and so the Broncos. Yeah, yeah,
I think I think I Bucky would know maybe, but
I think I still have it for the Broncos. But no,
(03:01):
it was Uh, I didn't know it at the time.
And uh and yeah, I ended up being twenty for
twenty and then the official play by play said a
drop on the twenty first, It literally says, the official
play by play drop ball. And then there was four
more completions, so I would have had twenty five, which
(03:21):
would still be the NFL record. That the NFL record
at the time was twenty two, so by held by
Joe Montana. Now, in what universe do I deserve to
take Joe Montana's every one of them? Precisely zero of them, obviously,
but that would be a cool record to have. But
(03:41):
but as it was, it was. But there was I
think two hundred ninety seven yards in those twenty completions.
So back up on that. Yeah, yeah, come on, So yeah,
we have about fifteen yards perfect per completion to make
Bucky smile.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
He was a bad Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love you
so much, breed love.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
But enough of that. How about Sam Donald? Yeah that's
his seventeen.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well, let's get into it, and we won't go through
them all, but let's get a little detailed. Obviously, he
came out humming right there. Very first possession, you get
the football after Jane Daniels look a little confused by
Mike McDonald's defense. Sam Donald didn't look confused at all,
and so second and four from the sixteen yard line,
(04:27):
he gets it started with a perfect strike to Tory
Horton for thirteen yards.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So Donald, and really the theme of this is the
is the the details. The precision is in the details.
So there's there's a bunch right out to Donald's right.
It's man and man covered. So he sees three over
three that takes his read to the double slant side.
Mike Homgood would call that lion and he's got Tory
(04:54):
Horton in the slot. Now, Tory, I know my kid
threw a bunch to him at Colorado st. Tory Horton
normally is an outside receiver on the right side. That's
but as a rookie now he's a slot receiver on
the left. On this play, he's he's got to win
against man coverage. And here's here's the part of the detail.
It's like goldilocks in the porridge. If you talk to
(05:15):
Tory Horton on that play man to man that you've
got a lurking defender in Bobby Wagner. If if he's
just trying to beat the corner over him, he wants
to take a flat angle away, but that's gonna get
him into the linebacker too fast. So if he just
wants to avoid the linebacker's gonna keep it skinny and
(05:36):
keep it high, so the angle can be neither not
too flat, not too high. For the reasons I described,
it's just right. It's perfect NFL execution and get thirteen yards.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Well, that was just kind of getting started on the thing. Obviously,
after a penalty for that one chop block by Oots.
Then he ends up getting his first completion to Jackson
Smith and Jigba. What do you see on that one?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, well it's a five out protection. You're sending Kenneth
Walker out to the left side, but there was an
overload to that side. So now he comes to the
backside and he's got he's got a hold. He's got
to look to his left to make Bobby Wagner. And
early on, I'll tell you what he was playing, Bobby
(06:20):
Wagner in like a marionette pubet with his eyes just
moving Wagner. Wagner is trying to play his eyes. He knew,
he knew he had to move him, so he moves
left and then who's number four for the commanders? Then
he had to he had to move that guy to
the right and then opens up this window. A beautiful
anticipation on an inbreaking route. But he goes with his
(06:41):
eyes Darnald left, Let me move Wagner, Let me look
to the flat. Let me move number four. That will
open a window between fifty four and four and I'll
hit Jackson Smith Smith Smith Smith and Jigba coming in
on that. So the eye manipulation and the anticipation on
a backside read after having read the front side to
his left. Beautiful quarterback for as Frankie Luvia. We got
(07:04):
to recognize a coop. Yeah that's a coop. Yeah yeah,
we can't just call it. You have to recognize a
coup guy, don't fine, I get it all right.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So and then and I love this because right after
that thirteenth, so it's first and twenty five, and there's
just no panic at all shown by Sam.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It's just like, let's just get half of it here.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
And then they get another penalty and that can tend
to disrupt an entire drive, and he's like, no panic.
Second and seventeen. I'm just gonna go right back to
the horse Jackson Smith and jigg. But for fourteen more
yards it was jo beautiful because Washington didn't handle their
fifteen yard penalty well on the previous drive, and Sam
just didn't panic at all when they got backed up twice.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Good point and beautiful play calling here. This is a
Clint Kubiak like, dude, were you tapping into their to
their their headsets? In fact, I had a text exchange
with Gary Kubiak, Clint's dad, who for whom I played.
He was my quarterback coach, and just kind of commenting
is like, dude, you Clint must have been in on
(08:05):
the commander's headset feed because here here they roll the
strong side just Darnold's left, okay, meaning the corner of
the corner's gonna stay the flat, the safety's gonna go
over the top. In this situation, you have Jackson Smith
and Jigba he motions he's in. He's the running back
in the flat and they're running a coverage or they're
(08:26):
trying to invert a cover to where the where you
have overhang defender. He's gonna scream out to the sideline
to try and play the wide flat area, and Bobby
Wagner is the next guy inside. He's the curral defender.
I wrote on my notes on this play, fifty four
looks like a slow rookie. So the rookie part was
(08:49):
a linebacker of his veteran status. And I love Bobby
Wagner like he. I described him last week the most
accomplished Seahawk in a Seahawk uniform in the history of
the franchise. So we all love Bobby Wagner. But let's
just talk about who fifty four is for the commanders.
How he would not know that the Injigba lined up
in the backfield is going to run an option route,
(09:12):
you know, he just he just kind of spot and
he had no awareness. And in Jigba, for his part,
like this is where I stop and I go the
details his on this choice route, he would say he
would he could break out, he could break in zone.
He's gonna hook it up. And then later he ran
he had a vertical to he is a four way read,
which not all running backs again, but he's got a
(09:34):
four way read in out, stop or vertical. And as
he senses how the the they're playing this inverted coverage
as I describe, he's going up the numbers about two
yards inside the numbers. But as he stops, he kind
of backs up and he gets on the numbers. He
kind of did a backpedal to like it's this unbelievable
(09:56):
next level awareness of exactly where the coverage is getting
friendly for the quarterback in a position that's going to
maximize his run after the catch. He ends up getting
on that play fourteen yards. But it wasn't just that
he stopped, because I could show you nine hundred and
ninety nine players that I've ever either played with or
(10:17):
studied that would turn around and stop in his own
It's that he stopped and widened as he was doing
it in a way that was clear with the and
Darnald was throwing with anticipation. It's just like, Hey, if
I back up here, I'm gonna be a little bit
further from Bobby Wagner, and I can do that because
the overhang defender was screaming to the sideline so fast
(10:38):
that the windows a little wider. Let me just dissect
that window perfect again, precisions in the details. That's the
difference between a seven yard eight yard game and a
fourteen yard game. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Well, obviously their connection is kind of clicking right now,
Sam Darnold and Jackson Smith and Jig, but that one
basically still because of the penalty sets up a third
and three, and that's when Darnold basically finds aj Barnery
right there for eight yards over the middle. I mean,
even when it's okay, third and three, we got to
convert here, he finds somebody, even if it's not his
(11:11):
security blanket in Jackson.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, and this is where and Chris, I think Chris
collinsworths is Now, this is just one man's opinion, very subjective.
I think he has become the best analyst in football,
and I think it's in part because he bought Pro
Football Pro Football Focus, and he has a lot of information.
He studies it more than he used to. But he
was really calling out, Hey, this is Donald. Look at
(11:34):
his feet. He's coming back to his third receiver. Well,
I watched the tape. I could make an argument that
it's his third receiver because there's a concept I would
call black bugle, which is a go route and a
quick out route to the left and then you got
to dig and then you got the check down. You
could say in his playbook, I'll bet you it says
(11:56):
take a peek because injigba is the go route up
the sideline. So for Collinsworth to say that that Barner's
only number three, that is removing the idea that Donald
would what's the point of my conversation. I would argue
that it's more the fourth receiver. And so here Donald
goes left. He's got a two man concept the outgo
(12:18):
to his left. Nope, he's got a dig check down
Texas And by the way, the angle again, the precision,
the details barner. He checked over the middle, but before
he did that, he took an angle towards the sidelining
up the field as if he was going to go
to the flat, and then he crosses back in. I
(12:38):
call it a check Texas, and you could just check
him down with a defender to be closer. But if
you first fake to the outside like you're going to flat,
and then check down over the middle, you get a
little bit more separation. Again, precisions in the details. You
get eight yards on third and three probably would have
got four or five yards, but every yard counts, and
(12:59):
it's it's all in the details. But again Donald going
to his fourth receiver on time. Hel melanis with us
Monday morning Quarterback. If we are going into detail on
Sam Donald's basically historic night last night. He was sixteen
for sixteen in the first half, and we're going through
his first ten passes here and just how impressive he was,
because they were all just a little bit different in
(13:22):
how impressive that they were. At halftime, they were five
for five on third down, so it wasn't just completing
to complete Hugh, I mean third down and five from
their twenty seven. You hook up with the walker for
fourteen yards and a first down. I mean he was
also moving the chains in all of this as well. Yes,
this was a cover zero, all out blitz. It's gonna
(13:44):
be man to man, but the safety's coming from depth.
And really there was no other receiver open. I mean
we say Jackson Smith is always open. Well, you know
there's a few times when he lines up outside and
press coverage where he doesn't win. Yet here again, Clint Kubiak,
you've got a five out protection on him. Heavy blitz there,
(14:06):
you're blitzing six guys on an imp on a on
a five out protection. And and I looked at it
as an option, and it's possible that it was. It
was it was locked in as what's called a Texas route,
which is the inbreaking route. Either way, whether he had
the option or not, he broke to the inside, which
if he did have had the option, it was the
(14:28):
correct decision to go inside. And for for Donald's case,
here here it's a six man rush on a five
man protection. There is who's who's twenty four for uh
for the commander, Well, it's von Miller. Yeah, Uh so
von Miller is coming in on the a gap, unblocked,
(14:48):
total free runner. And so your credit Donald in this
case of just having the courage knowing that that there's
going to be a guy totally unblocked. It's a Hall
of Famer coming in on you, and he was able to,
you know, relatively easy completion other than you've got von
Miller bearing down on you totally unblocked. So hell of
a call. A covers zero beater and you get the
(15:11):
first down. By the way, you get fourteen yards on
third and five.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yeah, and then they basically try to run one before
he ends up connecting with Horton on that first touchdown.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
How nice was that? Yeah? Boot left with I don't
know Klint Kobiak like Boot Left. He has more nakeds
and boots to the left on a right handed quarterback
than he does to the right thus far in the season.
But I think the impressive part of that you got
the defensive end who didn't bite on the on the
play action. He's up the field, so Darnold would like
to stay on the move, but now he's got to
(15:40):
stop pull up with a defensive end ninety six in
his face. The flat is covered and if you look
at when he hands separate and he's going to throw this, you,
Tory Horton is not open. He's got he's contacted. I
mean the defender could have reached out, beer hugged him.
(16:01):
There was no separation, but he threw with anticipation through
it open. Unbelievable, probably in my mind, the most difficult
play that he had of the night. There was that
touchdown pass in terms of just degree of difficulty by
NFL quarterback standards, just how he backed up, the anticipation
he had, the spot that he put it in. I
(16:23):
mean that there's your porn right there. I mean that
things are really getting rev up. I know it when
I see it. The line, yeah yeah, yeah, that was
the Supreme Court justice in nineteen sixty three. Can't describe it,
but I know when I see it. Yeah yeah, Well
seven decency perpetrated in that end zone.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That was gorgeous. Seven to nothing at that point. Next possession,
let's go back to back here. I mean there were
three plays apart, but back to back throws to JSN
seventeen yards and then a seven yard hookup.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So let's squish those two. The seven yard cup was
just a hits free access hits nothing there the boot
left over route for seventeen yards. You would quarter you
would coach Darnold. Hey again, here he is on a
naked not to his right as the right handed quarterback,
but to his left. He had Robbie Oots out there
(17:17):
as a wing of a tight end as it were,
and he's just kind of blocking. So but that brings
extra defenders, so it's relatively congested. He's got the flat
that's covered, he's got Robbie Uts blocking for him, so
that there's just a lot of bodies. So he says, well,
let me find jaysn coming from the backside on an
(17:38):
intermediate crossing route. He hits him on the dead run
while he's on the left. He hits a jigb on
the dead run seventeen yards. Made it look like a
laying in basketball. Beautiful yep.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And then he basically ends up finishing that drive off
with another twenty five yard striker, not another one, but
a twenty five yard strikeer Tory Horton another great throw.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Okay, now I'm gonna use it. That is not ubiquitous.
If I say cover zero, every coach, nois what I'm
talking about. I say, that's blitz mana man, no free safety.
If I say cover one, everybody knows what I'm talking about.
That's man man with a free safety. I'm gonna use
the term cover seven that I picked up somewhere along
the line of Coach called it. Not everybody uses that term,
but everybody will describe it however they describe it. Cover
(18:21):
seven is man to man, but with a bracket against
one guy. So okay, So instead of having a free
safety in the middle, you're gonna take that safety and
say we're gonna put two on one and then everybody
else is just man and man. And in this case
they're bracketing JSN and so Sandra still the corner on
man a man that you've got to point a bunch
(18:45):
formation to Darnold's right, and you've got Tory Horton as
the point. There's three guys and the middle guy is
on the line of scrimmage. The other two are backed up.
Why is that important? When you start talking about play construction,
you've got to be aware that defense is usually jam
the point the middle guy who's on the line of scrimmage,
(19:06):
and so Horton he's got to have because he's on
the line he's got to have a great release. He
takes an inside release against Sandrastill. Sandra's still Then when
you watch the end zone copy, he jumps to the
inside because once Horton goes on an inside release, Sandra's
still the defender and man to man, you're telling Sandra's still, Hey,
(19:27):
it's cover seven. You don't have any safety help. So
Sandristelle once he says, okay, Horton just went in an
inside release on me. He's got to guard the intermediate
crossing route because he's got no safety help because the
safety is over there helping on Jackson Smith and Jigba.
So Sandra's still he cheats. He gets to the inside,
but no, here's here's Clint Kubiak. I'm not running him
(19:49):
on a deep over route. I'm running him back to
the corner. So Sandra still had to guess because he
has no safety help. Because Jackson Smith and jig was
on the field. They want to play man to man,
but they got a double Jackson Smith and g we
take an inside release. Oh we think we're going an
inside breaking route. Nope, we're going an outside breaking route.
That's how you get that wide open app And there
was just a little bit of a nod to the inside. Beautiful,
(20:11):
not nothing to slow him down. But I would say
the route was absolutely a ten by the Rocky Horton.
But it's the construction. It's all the elements that I'm
talking about to create a wide open, easy.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Touchdown, all right, And then that's fourteen and nothing. Then
you have the fumbled kick return. And so within nine
seconds the Seahawks threw two touchdown passes and opened up
a twenty one nothing lead over the Commanders. And at
this point, Darnold's just cocky because he had JSN wide
open down the right sidelines, Like, no, I'm gonna throw
the more difficult throw just to show you how awesome
(20:44):
I am tonight.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, Well, Jason had a filthy, filthy and credit the broadcast.
They're really good. They showed it. It was literally open.
I watched the coaches tapement. I mean he's opened by
five yards. That's non exaggeration. I mean he'd put the
whooped to do, but the safety was cheating over to
his side. Now this is man to man. This is
not the cover seven, but it's this free safety with
(21:05):
a hard sheet. And and so because he sees the
hard sheet and he's got Arroyo on a seam route.
You're you want to get a single safety. That call,
that play is called to get a single safety. And
and and if you're you're Donald, you just say, hey,
if you're in the middle of the if I can
get you off the middle field, I've I've got one
on one to the outside, uh or up the seam
(21:28):
rather to uh Arroyo or number eighteen for uh Tyler Owens.
He he kind of he bites in a little too fast,
so he gets beat. Arroyo's speed beats him up the seam.
And then the corner Latimore, there's a Tory Horton was
trying to hold the outside corner uh uh from from
falling back into the play. This one, I don't think
(21:50):
this matters a lot, but this uh relevant. But the seam,
the seam route to the left, which is what Donald
had on that play, was my favorite play as a
quarterback in my career. And because as a right handed quarterback,
you go one, two, three, four, five, he hits. Your
weight is all set up as you're throwing to your left.
(22:13):
There's a certain rhythm to how you can throw it.
The way the receiver is running away from you in
your relative to your visions kind of left to right.
But it's going up the field, and so the angle
is easy to anticipate. It just fits, it fits my eye.
I'm not in Darnold's head. I haven't asked him, is
that your favorite route? But that steam route to the left.
(22:35):
He would even tell you that that wasn't a perfect throw.
He would have liked to have thrown that two feet farther.
But he won by anticipation. And what you're trying to
do is think of a triangle. I'm gonna get with
the point in front of you. You're trying to hit
between three guys. The guy who's running down the scene
with him, that's number eighteen. Then the free safety he
represents a second point of the triangle. But then the
(22:57):
backside corner can fall into the play. So you got
to you gotta be aware of three guys that can
make the play. You're gonna stick it in between that triangle.
And Laddimore, you discussed him. He makes a business decision.
If I'm coaching the Commanders on defense, I say, dude,
you got to accelerate through that tight end at the
half yard line and try and dislodge the football. Latimore
(23:19):
had a chance to do that he took. He made
a business decision, he said, for Ricky Waters, for what,
for whom? And just he just he tapped out of
the play and so so a slightly underthrown ball, but
you win by anticipation. Love that seam route to the left,
got the corner, the free safety going hard over to
(23:41):
JSN for obvious reasons. That opens a big window in
Sam Darnold's eyes and he was able to get the
touchdown out of it. And at that point he's ten
for ten and the Sea Oarks are had twenty one
to nothing and the game is over. It is an
exercise in getting the clock to double zero at that point.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Ye impressive display. Hugh Millan is with us Monday Morning Quarterback.
We'll continue on the other side, talk about the defense
a little on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
kJ R FM.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
We continue with Monday Morning Quarterback here on Chuck and Back,
of course, brought to you by Michael Shoote to Bingo
and Auburn your home for Machine Goo, also North Creek
Roofing and Core Contractors.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Hugh Millan.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
We talked about Sam Darnold's electrifying first half and the
first segment. So we now get to the defense a
little bit, and certainly a couple of things that stand
out on this side of the ball, including tyle Cotta's interception.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Hugh.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I mean, I realize that most safeties are safeties because
they didn't catch the ball well enough to play wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
But that was as good a catch as you're ever
going to see. Yeah, it had Larry Fitzgerald done that,
you'd have said, that's why he's the best right to tapper, right, Yeah, remarkable.
You know, for me, I'm I'm kind of more impressed. Look,
look the vertical he got on that that individual play
Biocoda was sensational. So everything you're gonna say about it,
(25:08):
I can't say as well as you can, like it
was spectacular, But I got to tell you that I'm
I'm more impressed by everything that was going on in
that play because because I realized how hard Mike McDonald
was making life on Jayden Daniels on that play. Let
(25:28):
me explain what I mean. The ball is on the right, Halse.
You got Ernest Jones in in the a gap to
the field side, which means that. Now you're gonna likely
ind and you've got you've got Drake Thomas up as
a potential blitzer, so you're probably gonna induce this the
offensive line to turn to the left side to make
(25:48):
sure they've got Ernest Jones. But Ernest Jones isn't gonna
He's gonna what the term is called mug He's mugging
up in that a gap. He's gonna back away. You're
gonna also have DeMarcus Lawrence. He's gonna start for a
couple steps, he's gonna back off. But on the on
the boundary side, the side towards the interception, as you said,
Drake Thomas is he's gonna eat up the block from
(26:10):
the running back. But because the wide receiver is in
what's called a cut split or a reduced split, he's
on the inside edge of the numbers, the balls on
the right half, so that that triggers a blitz by Witherspoon,
who's the corner. Now here's where things. So even if
I just said right there, that's a lot of stuff.
(26:31):
It's called what's called the cat blitz. And because the
running back is got to block Drake Thomas, now you've
got Witherspoon able to come right in that b gap
between the garden tact unblocked because of all the things
you've done to say to influence and and really to
dictate the protection. But every other team will when when
(26:52):
they run this cat blitz, they will have the safety
to that side. Okada he will come over and cover that,
and that's very common. But he will have deep responsibility
if the if the receiver runs a go route up
that sideline, o'cada replacing over the over the top. He's
got him on a go route. But what Mike McDonald
(27:13):
did is he said, no, I'm going to run a
cloud defense to the side of the cat, which means
Ocada is gonna come down. He doesn't have deep responsibility.
He has the flat and you've got Kobe Bryant who
had been way over on the other hash. He's screaming
to get over the top of Okada. So Coada doesn't
have to take the deep guy. He can just he
(27:34):
can just kind of eyeball and play underneath, knowing that
he's got Kobe Bryant coming from the other side of
the field to get over the top of him. And
so that confusion. So what is Jaydon Daniels dealing with
He's dealing with an athlete to the level of Witherspoon
coming untouched in the B gap and he's got a
(27:55):
totally unconventional side adjustment where's receiver that they're totally of communication.
He throws it up there. Ocada is able to just
eyeball at the corner or excuse me, the quarterback because
he's got help behind him, and he just he just plays,
you know, sandlot ball, reaches up and and and says, okay,
you want to throw it over there. But there was
(28:15):
clear miscommunication on on where the receiver should be. Uh uh.
The receiver's going in uh. Jadon and Daniels thought he
was going out. But I guarantee you they you don't
see that type of a blitz. So yes, unbelievable to
play by Okada, but a very very detailed, complex blitz
(28:37):
that Jaden Daniels had to deal with. And that's how
you forced those kind of complete I mean the seaops
only they only rushed a DBS on five reps last night, five,
but that you had one out of four completions for
ten yards a sack uh and a pardon me, a
(28:59):
seven yard scram on fourth and fifteen that that was
an unsuccessful play obviously turnover on down, but one of
four for ten yards and one interception and that interception.
So it's like Mike McDonald, he doesn't love the blitz,
but when he does it, he really makes it hard
on you and it's going to be successful as defined
(29:21):
by successful plays. The Commanders were one out of five
offensively anytime they were blitzed, counting that interception.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
All right, coming up next, our QB one will discuss
whether dan Quinn should have taken out their QB one.
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Mike Homer and will.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Join us at nine o'clock this morning, as he always
does on a Monday morning session. Hugh and coach together.
It's like chocolate and peanut butter. Too great taste to
go great together.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I have had a lot of coaching, Hugh over the.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Coaching, Hugh cups, Yeah, a lot a lot. My kids
killed it and they know I love it. So like
every few minutes here, Dad have one of these. I'm like, okay,
give me some more, coach and Hugh, I'm just trying
to support my friends.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
All right, Well, one more segment here with just Hugh
and I got to get your take on what happened
at the end of the ball game. I was expecting
to wake up this morning to analysis all over the
country about how awesome Sam Darnold and the Seahawks looked
last night, and instead it was pretty much all about
whether or not Dan Quinn ruined the Commanders by letting
(30:39):
Jade and Daniels continue to play even though they were
getting blown out.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
What was your take on that, Well, I think it
was obviously unfortunate, but I am very I would be
very critical of critics in this in the following regard,
I would just hold you to a consistency and let
me dive into this. Since twenty and twenty, there have
(31:05):
been twenty let me go back to sorry, let me
go back to the situation. So the score was thirty
eight to seven and there were seven on that play
was snaped seven thirty nine to go. So what I
did is I filtered since twenty and twenty. I just
no reason I picked that. At just beginning of the decade,
the situations were that these factors, these filters starting quarterback
(31:33):
still in the game, under eight minutes down thirty one
points some more got me. Essentially, I'm trying to duplicate
what we had. Twenty nine starters have thrown at least
one pass in those situations. There have been constituting two
(31:53):
hundred and forty three dropbacks and two hundred and twenty
four pass attempts, fourteen sacks, and a few scrambles. Here's
a list of some of the quarterbacks. And you tell
me if these guys sound like maybe franchise and or
top draft pick, Pro Bowl level type guys. Okay, Jared
(32:14):
Goff has thirty pass attempts in those situations since twenty twenty.
Ben Roethlisberger twenty one. Tom Brady, he had a couple
against the Saints. I went back and watched the plays.
He got hit by two guys when the score was
forty one and nothing in an early November game against
the Saints, and that was twenty twenty. They won the
(32:37):
Super Bowl that year. When he got hit by two guys,
What if he would have separated his shoulder? About how
about Gino Smith as a Seattle Seahawks so you've seen
it as a Seahawk fan against the Ravens, Russell Wilson,
Trevor Lawrence, bo Nicks, Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert has twelve
pass attempts in that situation too, attack of Aloa, Bryce On,
(33:00):
cam Ward Kirk Cousins, and obviously many more. There's twenty
nine starters. So my challenge to ESPN or anybody else where,
were you when all of those dropbacks and those attempts
and those sacks were taking place, where you then saying
what the hell is he doing in there? Even though
he didn't get hurt? This is absurd. If if in
(33:22):
fact you were, then you were being consistent and and
and I'll retract my criticism. But other than that, look,
there's a reason why coaches do this. And and in
the case of of of Jaydon Daniels, he's already missed
time with a knee, he's missed time with a hamstring
two different times. They had to sit him down. They're
(33:44):
trying to get some continuity, get some confidence, like, hey,
let's score here late, we'll feel better about ourselves and
and and get a little momentum going into the next game.
That's that's generally why coaches want to do that. And
we've seen it a lot. I just gave you the
no and to just all of a sudden pick the
one time a guy gets hurt and then just say, oh,
(34:05):
this is a breach of any coaching common sense or
whatever else they're throwing at dan Quinn this morning. To me,
just just bite it because you don't realize how hypercritical
you're being, because I never heard you complaining about that
in the exact same situation when guys were throwing the
(34:26):
ball and they didn't get hurt.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, I mean, coming from a player's perspective, and especially
in the sport of football, I mean, I can't imagine
there's a huge difference between that and the sport that
I played obviously, So where is the line of what
the feel is? I mean, we know that like the
very next play they ran it right in there. It
does feel like there's the players while you got to
(34:48):
play without fear. When something like that happens, fear has
to creep into the minds of the guys a little bit,
the reality of injuries just right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you can call it fear. I think,
you know, maybe a cousin of fear. I think it's
a little apprehension. It's like whoa, it's you know, I
think it drives home. It's thirty eight to seven. This
game is is is already, it's in the it's in
the locker. Uh, let's let's just kind of ride this
thing out. And you know, credit dan Quinn, he saw
(35:18):
what he did. The rest of both coaches basically said,
let's let's just get this game over. We're just gonna
plunge the running back into the line of scrimmage. Nothing,
you know, about as basic as you can sort of
taking knees. We're gonna do everything we can to just
get this damn game over. And and so I do
think it is on the you know, it's a challenge
(35:39):
for players to just you know, get that out of
their head after they see something gruesome like that. For
the Commanders, it was you know, it wasn't just a
gruesome injury. It's it's your quarterback, it's your you know,
this guy's been a you know, a young but very
uh you know, I think dynamic leader in many respects.
So I think I think that there was a malaise
(35:59):
that that took over the game, and I think that
everybody sensed it. The coaches did the right thing at
the end. It just end it. And you know, but
that's that's ball. Everybody knows. Everybody knows when they walk
out that tunnel that that this could be the day
that they they they leave the tunnel strapped to a gurney.
(36:21):
Everybody knows that. And you know it's not it's not
fun to dwell on that, but everybody knows that's the reality.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yeah, well here here I said something similar earlier in
the show. I didn't have all the evidence to back
it up, but it felt to me like I've seen
plenty of quarterbacks you have still playing late and fourth
quarters of games. They were getting blown out by and
for all the reasons that you stated eloquently. So Hugh
mellan will stay with us, so we got a lot
(36:47):
more to analyze. Coach homern Will joined the conversation in
our nine o'clock hour, It's a Monday Morning Quarterback on
Chuck and Bucks Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
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