Speaker 1: Welcome to the Command Center Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. It
Speaker 1: is Victory Tuesday here in Washington. The Commanders served the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles their first loss of the season in primetime
Speaker 1: on Monday Night Football. Fred Smooth and Logan Paulson helped
Speaker 1: break down the Commander's big win time not for our
Speaker 1: mission debrief brought to you by the Washington Times. This
Speaker 1: one's going to be a bit fun to break down.
Speaker 1: Going into the game, not a single expert or analyst
Speaker 1: or anybody out there picked Washington. They actually how about Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we expected from us. They were.
Speaker 1: They were really big underdog, absolutely in this game. And
Speaker 1: you know, if I talk to anybody heading into the game,
Speaker 1: so where would they be vulnerable? They said, this is
Speaker 1: a team that you can run on. But we also knew,
Speaker 1: Logan that Washington would have to sustain drives and that
Speaker 1: has been something that's been an achilles hill for them
Speaker 1: for the past few weeks. Unable to convert on third down.
Speaker 1: And man, they started out being able to move the chains. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think everyone's been talking about how they
Speaker 1: ran the football and that they deserve a ton of
Speaker 1: credit for what they did. There. But in order for
Speaker 1: them to kind of get the total number of touches,
Speaker 1: they had eighty four plays fifty one on the first half.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows that statistic. You gotta be good on third down,
Speaker 1: and they were excellent on third down. They were nine
Speaker 1: of twelve in the first half. That's outstanding. They were
Speaker 1: twelve or twenty one in the whole game. That allows
Speaker 1: them to sustain drives, keep the offense on the field,
Speaker 1: keep Philly's offense off the field, give their defensive break,
Speaker 1: and you love that from them. In terms of making plays,
Speaker 1: guys making plays. Terry on third down was excellent until
Speaker 1: it deserves the credit as well. Yeah, well guess what
Speaker 1: four out of those you got five of those first
Speaker 1: downs is third and one you got another three of
Speaker 1: those is third in less than five, So that's telling
Speaker 1: you they put it in third and sustainable and they're
Speaker 1: going out there and they're making the play and tackle
Speaker 1: to things that connect the drive, Like can I make
Speaker 1: the play that need to be made. It don't have
Speaker 1: to be a bumb all the time. It don't have
Speaker 1: to be a big play. Just keep the defense out
Speaker 1: the field. And at the end of the day, Hurts
Speaker 1: watched as much of the game as I did this defense.
Speaker 1: The running game becomes defensive when you when you connect
Speaker 1: plays and connect drives. That was a key. If you
Speaker 1: want to be able to do that, you've got to
Speaker 1: keep Jalen Hurts on the sideline. But again, you knew
Speaker 1: that you had the opportunity to be able to run
Speaker 1: on them, but one hundred and fifty two yards forty
Speaker 1: nine attempts for that. Yeah, Hey, listen, when you go
Speaker 1: to a club, you need to make sure you keep
Speaker 1: bounces around you because if not, people get kicked at
Speaker 1: the club in the offensive line. Kick Philadelphia out the club.
Speaker 1: Yesterday they said, you know what, it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: mono emono you against me? And anything about the ten
Speaker 1: yard drives, a ten yard runs it's about three here,
Speaker 1: three here, four here. And I think that changed the game.
Speaker 1: That mentality changed again. And also I think the fact
Speaker 1: they were able to stay relatively clean with those with
Speaker 1: those players right, no penalties, no holding calls, no false starts.
Speaker 1: It allows you to stay on scheduling. You remember the
Speaker 1: Dallas game that was the Achilles heal Right, they couldn't
Speaker 1: they wanted the same game plan. They couldn't keep the
Speaker 1: schedule this week. They did it superbly. Yeah. Another thing
Speaker 1: we always talked about going into this is you've got
Speaker 1: to be able to have ball security and try to
Speaker 1: take it away. Yeah, because this was an Eagles team
Speaker 1: that only gave the ball away, turned it over three
Speaker 1: times going into the night, Washington managed to take away
Speaker 1: four times. What was it? What were they doing that
Speaker 1: was causing so much chaos there? Look, you know it's
Speaker 1: interesting when you watch the game, when you watch y'all
Speaker 1: twenty two Freds like you see a Philly offense. It's
Speaker 1: actually pretty efficient. It's got a really good job. And
Speaker 1: what Washington in terms of finding turbos, that's how they
Speaker 1: stopped him, wasn't on third down. It was finding turnovers
Speaker 1: right Forrest, an excellent job of the interception, just playing
Speaker 1: his assignment, doing your job. And the finishing of the football. Bridgeway,
Speaker 1: Finishing of the football, Benjamin say, juice, finishing with the football,
Speaker 1: and good things happens when you finished the football. They
Speaker 1: did an excellent job of that. Well, I know two things.
Speaker 1: Eagle can't cry and fly at the same time. And
Speaker 1: I watched the Eagle cry last night. Like the one
Speaker 1: thing you said before hurtsing his offense hasn't been turning
Speaker 1: the ball over. Now, the question is what happens when
Speaker 1: they do turn the ball over. They got behind the chain,
Speaker 1: like once, they could not connect the plays and make
Speaker 1: those drives. Confidence you seek, the confidence level start to
Speaker 1: drop and the defense who's been picking up, trying to year,
Speaker 1: trying to manufactor turnovers in today they came in here
Speaker 1: and manufact is turnover the one by Saint Jews. That's
Speaker 1: all want to You beat me on the forty yard
Speaker 1: play and then I come tack would get the ball back.
Speaker 1: This is what this team is about. This is that
Speaker 1: their identity right now. Running Back Brian Robinson Junior let
Speaker 1: all rushias with eighty six yards and a touchdown in
Speaker 1: the Commander's thirty two twenty one victory. Here's what b
Speaker 1: rob had to say post game. It's feel great, man,
Speaker 1: just coming off a tough loss last week, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, just trying to establish our identity, you know,
Speaker 1: in this environment and it's special. You know, it's my
Speaker 1: first time being able to be a part of something
Speaker 1: like this and just seeing how much this mean to
Speaker 1: you know, the guys in this locker room, the coaches
Speaker 1: and everything It's a special feeling and I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: just thankful to be out there, you know, just helping
Speaker 1: my team, you know, pull off a win like this.
Speaker 1: For all of your news and analysis, be sure to
Speaker 1: tune into Command Center weeknights if I have thirty and
Speaker 1: ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also stream
Speaker 1: on YouTube and commanders dot com.