Speaker 1: On today's edition of The Booth Review. That Jaydon Daniels, guy,
Speaker 1: he's okay, I.
Speaker 2: Forget about Jade Daniels. It's Austin Cyberman. That guy is
Speaker 2: the spark that started the flame.
Speaker 1: And well you are about to see the greatest podcast.
Speaker 1: It's World War Two The Booth Review coming up next.
Speaker 1: Welcome into the latest edition of The Booth Review podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Bram Weinstein with Logan Paulson. We're back from a
Speaker 1: long flight home from Arizona as we now covered the
Speaker 1: greatest team of all time. This is Listen. I want
Speaker 1: to get into the you know, like, I love doing
Speaker 1: this with you because we like, we talk so much
Speaker 1: about what we expect, what we're going to see. Everyone
Speaker 1: knows how much film you watch, and like, I love
Speaker 1: how analytical you are about it. But I think there's
Speaker 1: some big picture stuff that we kind of need to
Speaker 1: talk about that By the end of the broadcast, I
Speaker 1: think I turned to you and I go, is this real?
Speaker 1: And I think I don't. I can't believe that it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's so beyond expectation and it's so beyond logic. Yeah, really,
Speaker 1: be honest, Like, I've never seen anything like this I
Speaker 1: don't know whatever expectations you could have had for Jade
Speaker 1: and Daniels, but at this point it has to exceed
Speaker 1: it or you're lying to yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is. It is kind of unbelievable. Like I
Speaker 2: think back to when I played, and you know, all
Speaker 2: the football that I watched when I was playing and
Speaker 2: then obviously covering the team, and you know, I just
Speaker 2: don't remember an offense performing with this level of efficiency.
Speaker 2: I don't definitely don't remember a rookie performing with this
Speaker 2: level of efficiency. And I think it's it is tremendous.
Speaker 2: He's doing a tremendous job, like you said it on
Speaker 2: the broadcast, like he's historic in terms of his performance
Speaker 2: and his efficiency. And I think the thing for me,
Speaker 2: it's like you're trying I try to rationalize it immediately,
Speaker 2: like well, why is this? And I mean, obviously I
Speaker 2: know jayde and I watched him. He was I think
Speaker 2: he was one A one B quarterback, you know him.
Speaker 2: I was really high in JJ McCarthy at the time,
Speaker 2: and I knew we had the sent in, but I
Speaker 2: didn't think it was going to be this level this quickly.
Speaker 2: So you say, oh, well, you know, maybe Arizona's defense
Speaker 2: isn't that good. Maybe you know, Cincinnati's defense isn't that good,
Speaker 2: and that's allowing him to be more efficient, and so
Speaker 2: you're always kind of trying to guard against it. But
Speaker 2: irrespective of the level of defense that he's going against, like,
Speaker 2: the decisions that he's making and the consistency of the
Speaker 2: decisions is something that you don't see like you ever,
Speaker 2: and it's it's just incredible to watch.
Speaker 1: It's partially my job to try to contextualize and every
Speaker 1: week I laugh about this. Every week I'm writing down
Speaker 1: notes that say things like, not since World War Two
Speaker 1: has this happened, or now we're referencing the ninety one team,
Speaker 1: which might be the greatest NFL team ever, the last
Speaker 1: Super Bowl championship team from Washington, where they had one
Speaker 1: of the greatest offenses and defenses going at the same time.
Speaker 1: And then you see metrics like no quarterback through a
Speaker 1: four game span has a completion percentage as high as
Speaker 1: his ever, not the start of season, ever, at any
Speaker 1: point in any season ever, he has metrics of we're
Speaker 1: saying trestway and punted for two. That has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with him operation of the offense that hadn't
Speaker 1: happened in this organization in eighty plus years, since before
Speaker 1: they were doing stats about punts. You know, Like every
Speaker 1: week I'm reading these they're absurd statistics that are based
Speaker 1: around him. Yeah, you know, like I don't want to
Speaker 1: take anything away from Cliff Dan all the offensive players.
Speaker 1: We can get into all of them, but this is
Speaker 1: based around what I think is singularly, for a month,
Speaker 1: the greatest season any rookie quarterback has ever had, at
Speaker 1: least in a small sample size. There is nothing like
Speaker 1: this from what we see to how they're performing and
Speaker 1: what the statistics and metrics are, there's nothing like this
Speaker 1: that's ever happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think you brought up a really good
Speaker 2: point there. The sample size is something that I always
Speaker 2: keep coming back to, like everyone can play well for
Speaker 2: four or five games, you know, which he's done, But
Speaker 2: it's the consistency of this, and it's like, is this
Speaker 2: a sustainable approach? You know? I think that's the thing
Speaker 2: I keep it. It's incredible, Like you did such a
Speaker 2: great job of putting that in context, because the more
Speaker 2: you look at it, the more I think about it.
Speaker 2: It's just it's unbelievable that what he's been able to do.
Speaker 2: But can you sustain this level of play? And I
Speaker 2: know you said all it's him, it's center ound him,
Speaker 2: But like I think you got to give credit to
Speaker 2: the organization for how they handled it, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, you got credits. Got to give credit to
Speaker 2: Cliff too. I mean, Cliff has called a really effective
Speaker 2: football game the last two weeks, like more than effective,
Speaker 2: like brilliant in some cases. But I also think to
Speaker 2: support your point, like Cliff is insulated by Jayden and
Speaker 2: what he's able to do in terms of being efficient,
Speaker 2: knowing when to scramble, knowing how to pick up first downs,
Speaker 2: stealing yardage, and it just makes everything so much more
Speaker 2: efficient for the offense. And so it's it's really everything.
Speaker 2: It's the coordinator, it's the receivers, it's the detail with
Speaker 2: which they're approaching stuff. It's his communication style, Jayden's I'm
Speaker 2: talking about. So there's a lot of extremely extremely positive
Speaker 2: stuff here that it's hard to Maybe we did, but
Speaker 2: it's hard to overstate how impactful he's been.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, like it just I've never seen anything
Speaker 1: like this. It's so ahead, it's there are really great
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the NFL, Great great quarterbacks that spend years
Speaker 1: getting to the point to do what he's doing on
Speaker 1: a weekly basis, and he's doing it out of the gates.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what's so unusual and hard to believe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just hard to believe. And I think that's why
Speaker 1: I like a lot of people are going, is this real?
Speaker 1: Because it doesn't feel really.
Speaker 2: But I think that's the thing. Is it real? Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: obviously this is real in terms of the performance, But
Speaker 2: and we were talking about this before the show, like
Speaker 2: is it sustainable? It seems impossible to sustain this level
Speaker 2: of performance for any player.
Speaker 1: Like doing things Tom Brady didn't do it. He won
Speaker 1: seven Super.
Speaker 2: Bowl That's what I'm saying. So it seems impossible. But
Speaker 2: even if it normalizes by ten percent percentage points, he's
Speaker 2: still completing seventy five percent of his passes. He's still
Speaker 2: in the top ten, top you know, kind of ten
Speaker 2: percent of quarterbacks in terms of completion percentage. Like, he's
Speaker 2: still doing special things even if it regresses by ten
Speaker 2: or fifteen percent. So what I'm assuming is that at
Speaker 2: some point we'll run into a buzzsaw of a defense
Speaker 2: that will regress a little bit, but even that level
Speaker 2: of performance would still be pretty spectacular. So I don't know, Man,
Speaker 2: it's a lot of fun to call the games because
Speaker 2: everything it feels like I'm playing Madden, you know Madden
Speaker 2: when the difficulties turned down a little bit and you
Speaker 2: can just do whatever you want. Like, that's what this
Speaker 2: feels like. And it's got to come back there at
Speaker 2: some point. But man, it's a lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 1: Well, and there's so many like different moments where you go, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's great, he did this in the first half. But
Speaker 1: when it's third and seven at the twenty seven with
Speaker 1: the game on the line on Monday night football against
Speaker 1: the Bengals who have to win the game, what's he
Speaker 1: going to do? Then? Oh, I don't know, He's gonna
Speaker 1: throw maybe the best pass with this organization has seen
Speaker 1: in thirty years, right, and he's going to throw it
Speaker 1: to the guy who needed to make this catch to
Speaker 1: prove you know that he's able to do it. And
Speaker 1: then he does it again the drive where they sealed it,
Speaker 1: where he threw the touchdown past the terry. On this one.
Speaker 1: They had three penalties on that drive, including a fifteen
Speaker 1: yard taunting penalty, which might have been a little much,
Speaker 1: but whatever, they had to over come it. Early in
Speaker 1: the season. What was two weeks ago, we're saying, can
Speaker 1: they overcome their mistakes? They made all those mistakes in
Speaker 1: the Giants game, and they ended up kicking a bunch
Speaker 1: of field goals and they got away with a win.
Speaker 1: In this one. Two weeks later, they have a drive
Speaker 1: with three penalties on it, score anyway, have a third
Speaker 1: and goal to ten, score anyway. It's like nothing seems
Speaker 1: to get in his way. Yet it's almost it's too good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, too yeah, And again that's where you kind of say,
Speaker 2: and that's where I understand fans sentiment about oh is
Speaker 2: this real? Is this is this sustainable? I don't know,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to enjoy it while it's here. And
Speaker 2: I think the other thing is his poise that people
Speaker 2: throw that word around, his composure. It sticks out to you,
Speaker 2: and I think it's infecting the offense in a very
Speaker 2: positive way because there are these moments where third and ten,
Speaker 2: Like I've been with quarterbacks who are excellent, you know,
Speaker 2: some of the best you know of their generation, and
Speaker 2: the things Matt Ryan, who's gonna be a Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame quarterback and so like. But there were moments in
Speaker 2: third and ten where you could feel the stress of
Speaker 2: the offense, and when you're watching this offense, you don't
Speaker 2: feel the stress. Yeah, we'll figure it out, you know.
Speaker 2: And they believe in him. He believes in them, like
Speaker 2: everyone is kind of carrying the emotional weight of the
Speaker 2: moment appropriately and they execute it and to consistently as
Speaker 2: a group execute like that. And it's not just Terry,
Speaker 2: it's not just Zach. I mean, oh, z is eighty
Speaker 2: yards receiving in that game, right, Brian Robinson, you know, Jerryman,
Speaker 2: big Nichols. Like the fact that they're able to lose
Speaker 2: one of the most explosive pieces of their offense and
Speaker 2: not miss a beat offensively with your third string running
Speaker 2: back is incredible.
Speaker 1: Well, they named him a captain, you know, and I
Speaker 1: think some of it was he replaced Eckler through this
Speaker 1: crazy block that kind of went viral in the Cincinnati
Speaker 1: game that was part of the third and seven touchdown play.
Speaker 1: Jaden took a hit because they overloaded and it brought numbers.
Speaker 1: But McNichols had this great block, and then of course
Speaker 1: he had to play he comes in, he hadn't scored
Speaker 1: a touchdown in three years. He scores two in the game.
Speaker 1: He has one of the best runs we've had all
Speaker 1: year when they run on the edge. We saw this
Speaker 1: with Eckler a week ago, that we've seen it with
Speaker 1: b Rob. We saw it on the touchdown run with
Speaker 1: Jaden there executing at such an enormous high level. It is.
Speaker 1: That's the other part that I think is shocking because
Speaker 1: McNichols didn't play in this offense before. It's a new
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator, that's a rookie quarterback. The garden, the center
Speaker 1: weren't here last year. Luke McCaffrey is a rookie. Zach
Speaker 1: Ertz everyone said his career was basically over. His here
Speaker 1: hadn't played here before. There are a few carryovers playing
Speaker 1: on this and they're going together, and they're setting marks
Speaker 1: that some of the greatest teams in the history of
Speaker 1: the game have not met. They're scoring more points per
Speaker 1: drive than the twenty thirteen Broncos, who are the highest
Speaker 1: scoring team in NFL history. And again, I know it's
Speaker 1: only a month, but add that all up with what
Speaker 1: this mixture is, It's why I think I keep coming
Speaker 1: back to how can this possibly be real?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, and again like it's an the only time
Speaker 2: we'll tell, you know. I think when we did our
Speaker 2: interview with Dan afterwards and we were like trying to
Speaker 2: kind of be like, congratulations, this is incredible, this is historic,
Speaker 2: He's like, we're not riding that roller coaster and we're
Speaker 2: taking it one game at a time. And that's the
Speaker 2: only way you can have, I think a sustained level
Speaker 2: of success in the NFL is if you just approach
Speaker 2: it like this is like, you know, like there's no pass,
Speaker 2: there's no present, there's just this moment, there's just this game.
Speaker 2: And so I think if they can maintain that, and
Speaker 2: I think that's the hard thing with football and with
Speaker 2: any sport really is maintaining that consistency of mindset is
Speaker 2: almost impossible, you know. But if you've got the right people,
Speaker 2: You've got your Tom Brady's, your Peyton Mannings or Drew Brees.
Speaker 2: And through the first four weeks, Jaydan Daniels is kind
Speaker 2: of the mindset. He's never too high, he's never too low.
Speaker 2: He's kind of right in the middle. It's perfect. And
Speaker 2: I think the other thing you were talking about there,
Speaker 2: you know, with the offensive line and you know, the
Speaker 2: execution of the offense. One of the things that sticks
Speaker 2: out to me about this group that is so unusual
Speaker 2: is that they're not always perfect. It's not always perfect execution. Obviously,
Speaker 2: sometimes it's perfect, like you know, think about you know,
Speaker 2: watching the Baltimore Bill's game last night and there's that
Speaker 2: Derek Henry run where no one touches him and it's
Speaker 2: perfectly blocked. Haat on hat. There's been a ton of
Speaker 2: runs this year, explosive places where it's perfect. And then
Speaker 2: the game, you know, on Jeremy McNichols run, like their
Speaker 2: defensive end plays it really well. He kind of chins
Speaker 2: Allegraty's trying to pulling out the edge like you know
Speaker 2: that it should be a big pile there. But McNichols
Speaker 2: makes a play right. And then there's ones where Jaden
Speaker 2: Daniels vacates pockets and makes the offensive line elevates them
Speaker 2: and there's a receiver open down the field he completes
Speaker 2: the pass. And so the idea that like, even though
Speaker 2: the execution of the offense seems to be very high,
Speaker 2: there are times where people are just making plays and
Speaker 2: the plays are coming from everyone and I think that's
Speaker 2: what makes this especially unique is it's obviously Jade Daniels
Speaker 2: carrying a line share of that, but for the receivers,
Speaker 2: for the running backs, for all these different people to
Speaker 2: elevate in the right moments and score touchdowns is the
Speaker 2: thing that I think makes it special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to say one more thing just about
Speaker 1: Jayden and trying to try to contextualize what's going on here.
Speaker 1: So when the draft was coming around, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and I would defer to you a million times over,
Speaker 1: I actually didn't think it was a hard choice between
Speaker 1: him and Drake May assuming the Williams was going to
Speaker 1: go number one, which is what we all kind of assumed.
Speaker 1: I didn't think so for a couple of reasons, Like
Speaker 1: the experience that he had. He went from Arizona State
Speaker 1: to LSU. That's a jump. It's a big jump. No
Speaker 1: offense to Arizona State and the league that they play
Speaker 1: in or did play in, but like it is a
Speaker 1: massive jump. The SEC might as well be triple A NFL. Right,
Speaker 1: And he got better, and all you heard about him
Speaker 1: was the work ethic, all the stuff he's doing. He's
Speaker 1: getting better. Then he has a season for the ages
Speaker 1: right at LSU, and he throws six interceptions and the
Speaker 1: only thing you could nitpick about it was he took
Speaker 1: some cartoonish hits along the way, but everything else was
Speaker 1: And then you hear the stuff, and you hear the stuff,
Speaker 1: and you hear this stuff and it comes along and
Speaker 1: one flying home last night, what occurred to me was,
Speaker 1: this guy's been a professional for a while.
Speaker 2: Well he is now football now though too. They're all professionals.
Speaker 2: You're getting paid, their endorsements, whole.
Speaker 1: Thing, right, But I mean, I mean, he's a professional
Speaker 1: at his core. That it's not just that he's a
Speaker 1: superior athlete, which goes along with this, but that he
Speaker 1: takes this so seriously, that he's a professional. He's with
Speaker 1: his peers now like he's actually come into a place
Speaker 1: where everyone else takes it as seriously as he does.
Speaker 1: Not that the coach EXAPF at LSU as Arizona State didn't,
Speaker 1: but the players around him. If you're at this level
Speaker 1: and you're a Terry McLaurin, or you're a Sam Cosmy,
Speaker 1: or you're a Brian Robinson or Jeremy McNichols who's bouncing
Speaker 1: around the league and the only way he stays alive
Speaker 1: is by being extremely serious about what he does. Jamee
Speaker 1: Daniels walks in in his peer group, and I think
Speaker 1: I'm seeing this in real time. He's belonged here for
Speaker 1: a while, whether it's Washington or anywhere, I mean the NFL.
Speaker 1: He's belonged in this league differently than others. And I
Speaker 1: think it's showing because he clearly has the work ethic,
Speaker 1: the acumen and then the gift of the incredible athletic
Speaker 1: ability to do this at a high level immediately. And
Speaker 1: I think it's caught because even the coaches, Cliff said
Speaker 1: it before the Bengals, Gaby goes, he's executing beyond our expectation.
Speaker 1: And I think what we're seeing here is it wasn't
Speaker 1: just the work ethic and all this stuff. He's with
Speaker 1: his peer group. Now, that's what seems to be obvious
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely the professionalism, the preparation, all those types
Speaker 2: of things. And you mentioned the comparison between him and
Speaker 2: Drake May. And you know it's funny in quarterback evaluation,
Speaker 2: like when you're trying to project it, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Like, obviously this intangible stuff you just mentioned
Speaker 2: is huge, but also the stuff that the physical stuff
Speaker 2: that maybe at the time is undervalue, like the quick release.
Speaker 2: You see what that does. I mean there's probably I
Speaker 2: don't know, I think they had twenty They had thirty
Speaker 2: five throws in the game, thirty five passing opportunities in
Speaker 2: the game, and on ten of them it's the ball
Speaker 2: is completed because of his ability to release the football
Speaker 2: so quickly from his hand. You talk about his base
Speaker 2: and the ability to throw off platform and like kind
Speaker 2: of come to balance quickly with his feet. There's probably
Speaker 2: another five to ten throws there, you know, that that
Speaker 2: are off of that kind of ilk. And then there's
Speaker 2: the elite stuff where he's you know, reading through and
Speaker 2: making these excellent progressions which you didn't show a lot
Speaker 2: of in college. But the intellectual foundation with the physical
Speaker 2: skill set and then the kind of the blossoming of
Speaker 2: it as the offense has allowed him to blossom. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think is the thing that maybe you're alluding to
Speaker 2: there that I think is well extremely interesting.
Speaker 1: Ye know. The other thing too, and this is I
Speaker 1: want to get into a couple of plays with you
Speaker 1: in a minute, But the other thing too that stands
Speaker 1: out is through all of this like he's head down, humble.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't You wouldn't feel it, see it, you you
Speaker 1: it did not emanate from him. Yeah, Like last night
Speaker 1: we're talking to him. He's off of this Monday night game.
Speaker 1: They never come back. He goes as to practice where
Speaker 1: he played college football, so there's a storyline there. Shows up.
Speaker 1: We're all asking, how are they going to what's the
Speaker 1: encore of that one? He's twenty one to twenty three.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest singular performance by a rookie quarterback ever.
Speaker 1: It happens in front of the world. Joe Buck and
Speaker 1: Troy Aikman are calling it. Steven A's calling him greatest
Speaker 1: quarterback of all time. You know that's naturally going. Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers is talking about him. It's like naturally going to
Speaker 1: happen that everyone's going to explain how great he is.
Speaker 1: After three games, you don't feel it from him. And
Speaker 1: he walks out there and they now have more scoring
Speaker 1: drives than incompletions and you wouldn't know it. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: you talk to he's got this head down, like, man,
Speaker 1: I just played my game. We did what we did.
Speaker 1: We can get better and next week's important too, and
Speaker 1: you get that feeling from him. It wasn't just Quinn
Speaker 1: trying to go guys, don't tell anybody about this. It's
Speaker 1: him going no, no, no, I'm of the same mindset.
Speaker 1: Let me get back in the film room with Cliff
Speaker 1: and Dan. You'll see we're gonna get better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was. You know, like he doesn't he's a
Speaker 2: man of few words in our post game and he
Speaker 2: says the right things, but like his demeanor, it is inspiring,
Speaker 2: you know as a former player, Like you know, I
Speaker 2: think about all the guys that've been around good football players,
Speaker 2: and he's got something to him like this kind of
Speaker 2: this magnetism, and you know when the players talk about
Speaker 2: it like those like how he handles himself in the press,
Speaker 2: or how he's never too high, he's never too low.
Speaker 2: He's competitive in the right moments, he's he's he's he's
Speaker 2: got the kind of that innate leadership quality you know
Speaker 2: that comes with how he plays the game. It's it's
Speaker 2: it's very cool, it's very special, and I just hope
Speaker 2: that he can continue to maintain that because I think
Speaker 2: the one thing I've seen with players that are really
Speaker 2: talented is that you know, Robert Griffin is a great example.
Speaker 2: Like I love playing with Robert. I think he was
Speaker 2: a great teammate when things were going well, but there
Speaker 2: was a there was some issues there and and it
Speaker 2: came from the city, you know, it came from the
Speaker 2: expectations of him, and so you need to be a
Speaker 2: special person to handle that. Yeah, I think. I think
Speaker 2: that's something that I keep going back to, is like
Speaker 2: he is going to be tested emotionally in a way
Speaker 2: that is hard for anyone in this area to fathom.
Speaker 1: I think as it worked out, it was better off
Speaker 1: they flew to Arizona after what happened at Cincinnati because
Speaker 1: everybody's so excited, and for good reason, everyone's really excited.
Speaker 1: They should be the other thing, Like, I want to
Speaker 1: go through a couple of plays with you that he
Speaker 1: had because we like every week we're seeing something different.
Speaker 1: They test him differently and coming into the aras a game,
Speaker 1: and I like Jonathan Gannon, like I think maybe they're
Speaker 1: a touch short on some talent in certain spots. However,
Speaker 1: they play very fast and they use very interesting blitz
Speaker 1: schemes and Dennis Gardek is outstanding, like very wily, sneaky player,
Speaker 1: Buddha Baker's flashing again this year. Zaven Collins has really
Speaker 1: come around since they kind of moved his position. Mac
Speaker 1: Wilson's really fast and they do these kind of unique,
Speaker 1: very exotic blitz things. Middle of the game, I turned
Speaker 1: to you and I go, I don't know how many
Speaker 1: times I've called that they're rushing three or four. They
Speaker 1: backed off. They backed off, and the only conclusion I
Speaker 1: could come to was they were scared he was going
Speaker 1: to run on them, and they were worried that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to contain him. But maybe I don't
Speaker 1: know how Why do you think they did what they
Speaker 1: did because everything on film leading up to it they
Speaker 1: were not as passive in the previous games as they
Speaker 1: were in this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I definitely think they kind of went from
Speaker 2: you know, hey, we're going to bring this like simulated
Speaker 2: fourmat pressure from a five down look, we're going to
Speaker 2: drop the ends out and rush them in a linebacker,
Speaker 2: to bringing that same pattern, but instead of rushing them
Speaker 2: at a linebacker, he became a spy and they did
Speaker 2: that a bunch, and obviously they did bring pressure. I
Speaker 2: think there was a play to Terry McLaurin. There was
Speaker 2: like an under route by he was number one to the
Speaker 2: left side under they were bringing six all out, and
Speaker 2: again talk about the poison, talk about the awareness of
Speaker 2: you know, getting the football, kind of throwing off your
Speaker 2: back foot, delivering a strike to Terry on the inside
Speaker 2: shoulder blade their shoulder pad there. That gets defenses out
Speaker 2: of it when it shows that, hey we have answers
Speaker 2: versus pressure, we don't feel as comfortable doing it. But
Speaker 2: to your point, I do think that they definitely were
Speaker 2: not as aggressive. And I will say this too. I
Speaker 2: think credit goes to Cliff, credit goes to the offense.
Speaker 2: Credit goes to Jane and in that they were able
Speaker 2: to stay in third and manageable way more than I
Speaker 2: was expecting, Like third and four, third and three, third
Speaker 2: and two.
Speaker 1: Why you thought what they were what sell out on
Speaker 1: the run.
Speaker 2: No, So I just I just thought, like, it's it's tough.
Speaker 2: It's tough to because that's what they did against Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: It's tough to maintain those manageable third downs. It's like
Speaker 2: kind of like the thing we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 2: It's like is this real? Can you do this consistently?
Speaker 2: And Ayden's ability to scramble, not for twenty five yards
Speaker 2: but for four yards here, five yards here, get us
Speaker 2: in a third and one, get us in a third
Speaker 2: and two is extremely valuable. And if I'm Jonathan Gann,
Speaker 2: and I can't bring any of my exotic stuff in
Speaker 2: those down in distances because it doesn't match up from
Speaker 2: a coverage standpoint with the run stuff that we can
Speaker 2: do from the short guarded situation. So I think that's
Speaker 2: one element. I think the run of Jane's ability to
Speaker 2: scramble was huge because there were some second long's third
Speaker 2: lungs where they didn't do it. They chose not to
Speaker 2: do it, But I think it was kind of a
Speaker 2: combination of thing. And I think when you look at
Speaker 2: game flow and game efficiency in this game specifically and
Speaker 2: in Cincinnati, think about like, this team is very rarely
Speaker 2: over this two game one streak, and even against New
Speaker 2: York in a third and long situation because of Jade
Speaker 2: and Daniels. Even on a bad play, there was a
Speaker 2: couple where there's pressure, he scrambles out, he gets up
Speaker 2: in the pocket, he pitches the ball to zach Ertz,
Speaker 2: and that seems like a nothing play, But if you
Speaker 2: take a sack there, that's third and twelve, and they
Speaker 2: are bringing something crazy the next down, you better right.
Speaker 1: To force him to throw it under. They'll never get
Speaker 1: the first time you're punting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're going to bring some crazy blitz like we
Speaker 2: talked about, like all those exotic pressures that they showed.
Speaker 2: But now no, now we're in a third and three
Speaker 2: and we can live here and you can't do what
Speaker 2: you want to do. And so I think in terms
Speaker 2: of one of the metrics that I kind of want
Speaker 2: to keep an eye on is how readily they can
Speaker 2: stay in those positive down and distance for the offense,
Speaker 2: because it's huge. It's huge in terms of down and
Speaker 2: down efficiency. And again the credit goes to Jaden because
Speaker 2: there's times where Cliff calls to play and they cover
Speaker 2: it and he scrambles for five and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you're like, that should have been a sack, That should
Speaker 2: have been an incompletion. That' said at worst case second
Speaker 2: and ten and said we're at second and four and
Speaker 2: we can run, we can play action pass, we can
Speaker 2: run a keeper, we can run zone read, we can
Speaker 2: run RPO. It's all on the table there, and that
Speaker 2: down in distance and you have to respect everything defensively,
Speaker 2: so you can't be in these unsound third down pressure
Speaker 2: looks like that. They showed on one.
Speaker 1: Of the scoring drives touchdown drives, and you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to look up what one it is because I'm confused
Speaker 1: now I can't remember, but it was in the second half.
Speaker 1: You're going to remember this because it was one of
Speaker 1: the first times that we've seen him kind of get
Speaker 1: caught and have to throw off his back foot and
Speaker 1: he was sliding to his left, and it was one
Speaker 1: of the first times he wasn't totally set the way
Speaker 1: we're typically seeing him set. It was like one of
Speaker 1: the first times I've seen him caught and somewhat surprised
Speaker 1: by something that a defense did. He's there a strike anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it was McCaffrey who caught that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was had to have been what read three.
Speaker 1: No way, he's the primary receiver on that throw. There's
Speaker 1: no chance on it.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I went back and watched that today
Speaker 2: and it was in like the low red It was like,
Speaker 2: I think it was on like the twenty five yard
Speaker 2: line maybe, and he's looking to terry to the left.
Speaker 2: They match it really well. They've been They've had a
Speaker 2: lot of success running kind of like this little stick
Speaker 2: concept or a spot concept. Receiver runs a five yard stop,
Speaker 2: the back runs some type of flare, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. They set on the covered really well. He
Speaker 2: resets his feet and is able to deliver kind of
Speaker 2: like he's like a little open with his stance and
Speaker 2: usually when he's opening it with his stance like the
Speaker 2: ball's errant. But delivers an absolute dime to Luke. And
Speaker 2: again the ability to she showed a very good but
Speaker 2: mobility so far over the last three games to say
Speaker 2: no get my feet lined up. Yes, and he had
Speaker 2: some really fantastic throws in this game. That was one
Speaker 2: of them. Obviously, the touchdown to Terry was incredible over
Speaker 2: the middle of the field. He had one to Noah
Speaker 2: Brown on a ten yard out where it's cover three.
Speaker 2: There's a hook player right under the out. He just
Speaker 2: kind of layers it right over. It's one that Terry
Speaker 2: kind of toe taps down there. We weren't sure if
Speaker 2: it was a catch in the booth. And so in
Speaker 2: addition to all of the game efficiency metrics that we've
Speaker 2: been talking about, I thought in this game too, there
Speaker 2: was some really spectacular just talented throws. You know, there
Speaker 2: was one where it's third and thirteen, one of the
Speaker 2: rare third and thirteens. They bring a line stunt, he
Speaker 2: gets confused, he's kind of fallen away from it, and
Speaker 2: Noah Brown's kind of standing of the first down marker
Speaker 2: waving his hands and he kind of side arm three
Speaker 2: quarter releases it. And that's something that if he has
Speaker 2: that in the bag too, it's just like, in addition
Speaker 2: with the efficiency, you're just like, man like this guy again,
Speaker 2: he doesn't have maybe the arm horsepower that like a
Speaker 2: Josh Allen does. The arm talent, the ability to layer throws,
Speaker 2: the quick release, the ability to intellectually probably yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: No, no, we may not have Allen's arm, but.
Speaker 2: And I make that comparison because he's got the best
Speaker 2: arm in the league, you know, you know, like and
Speaker 2: that's you don't need it and he's done. He's shown
Speaker 2: that the other arm talent stuff like the other the
Speaker 2: different release points, the quickness of the release, the quickness
Speaker 2: of the feet, the ability layer throws. That stuff is huge.
Speaker 2: And you think about like Tom Brady, for example, who
Speaker 2: made a career doing that stuff. Drew Brees all the
Speaker 2: all the kind of top guys of the last generation
Speaker 2: or that last era of football. That's how they made
Speaker 2: a living. And so for him to start showing that stuff.
Speaker 2: And again, it's not every throw, it's not every down.
Speaker 2: And Cliff's done a good job of kind of saying,
Speaker 2: hey man, we're going to manage you. We run quick game,
Speaker 2: run keepers, we run playpass. Those are easier downs and
Speaker 2: distance for the court, those are easier downs for the
Speaker 2: quarterback period. But then to see these exceptional moments when
Speaker 2: Cliff does ask him to do more is again it
Speaker 2: kind of gets me really excited for his potential.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a no, I can't remember what
Speaker 1: point in the game it was, but he just outlet
Speaker 1: it to a wide open John Bates because things had
Speaker 1: just broken down, and he throws over it. So he found,
Speaker 1: you know, outlet four on a play. And this is
Speaker 1: where again, these this is why these metrics, these numbers,
Speaker 1: they're not aberrational. And that's why it keeps coming back
Speaker 1: to how could this possibly be real? He's only played
Speaker 1: four games in the NFL. Each of these defenses have
Speaker 1: brought something completely different to him. Each and every week. Right,
Speaker 1: So Tampa Bay comes in with the typical exotic blitzes.
Speaker 1: They said all week they were gonna do it, and
Speaker 1: they did it. Right, The Giants don't do that now
Speaker 1: that wing Martindale's gone. They brought what twenty percent whatever
Speaker 1: they did, he got to see something completely different. Cincinnati
Speaker 1: was a good mix, right, we thought, go did They're
Speaker 1: not gonna let them run the ball that easily. They're
Speaker 1: gonna make him throw and prove that he could do it.
Speaker 1: He did. And then this one, if you had watched
Speaker 1: Arizona coming in, you would have thought that they would
Speaker 1: have brought more pressures than they did. They dropped out
Speaker 1: of them and he was a locksmith again. He's picked
Speaker 1: every safe. Yeah, you know, it's like it's right, that's
Speaker 1: the most. That's the other part of this, like they're
Speaker 1: facing very different game plans against him, like they're trying
Speaker 1: to react to him and he's a step ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think again you got to give credit
Speaker 2: to Cliff there. And then this is where you know,
Speaker 2: for your football nerds out there listening to this podcast,
Speaker 2: the game flow here is so critical because I think
Speaker 2: we ran seventy one offensive plays. I think thirty five
Speaker 2: passes whatever it is, twenty nine runs whatever. I don't
Speaker 2: remember the exact numbers, but the ability to run the
Speaker 2: football is effectively they did again, that keeps you. I
Speaker 2: positive down in distance, That keeps you Those are de
Speaker 2: leverage moments. So like again, I'm always making comparisons to
Speaker 2: last year. People always ask me, oh, is this is
Speaker 2: this just an indictment of sanhal Is this an indictment
Speaker 2: of the old line. No, it's just when you leverage
Speaker 2: a group and you leverage a position to say this
Speaker 2: is this is always hard for you. You're going to
Speaker 2: make mistakes. And so I look at again, Cliff's done
Speaker 2: a great job. We stick with their on Those are
Speaker 2: easy downs for the quarterback, right, not a lot of
Speaker 2: decision making involved game, Not a lot of decision making involved.
Speaker 2: We got to be quick with our release. He's handled
Speaker 2: that really well. The keepers, the boots, the play action.
Speaker 2: There's another ten plays. He's only leveraged, only leverage in
Speaker 2: terms of high leverage decision moments in this Arizona game,
Speaker 2: maybe twelve times, which is how you want him to operate.
Speaker 2: And then as he gets more comfortable, that number can
Speaker 2: jump to fifteen or twenty or whatever it is. But
Speaker 2: I think that's the thing that's that is I get
Speaker 2: so I think you just have to give Cliff and
Speaker 2: this offensive staff and the head coach credit because they understand,
Speaker 2: like look what they did with Caleb Williams in Chicago,
Speaker 2: like very leveraged all the time, and it's hard, it's
Speaker 2: hard to play football like that in the NFL in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. But they understand we got to keep
Speaker 2: him in. And the other thing about this game that
Speaker 2: I think is incredibly important is the defense played well. Yes,
Speaker 2: they played really well, and it allows you to never
Speaker 2: depart from our goal as a team, which is to
Speaker 2: run the football, be conservative as a passer. And then
Speaker 2: when we got to have it on third and long,
Speaker 2: whatever we're in, we feel like we got to take
Speaker 2: a shot, that's when we put a little bit more
Speaker 2: pressure on him, and he's ruders into the occason every.
Speaker 1: I mean honestly too, Like people laughed a him and
Speaker 1: I said during camp, I go, look, go look at
Speaker 1: the profile of this team and tell me this is
Speaker 1: not maybe close to a fifty to fifty run team
Speaker 1: if this is what they want to be, and people
Speaker 1: nobody does that in the NFL. Anymore. Well, I'm like,
Speaker 1: this team will go look at the players that they have.
Speaker 2: You're setting does that now? Yeah? But coverage structures, like
Speaker 2: if you watch all twenty two film, coverage structures are
Speaker 2: absolutely insane now. And if you're not one of these
Speaker 2: great processors like Tom Brady and Tampa Bay right before
Speaker 2: I retired, or name your elite passer maybe even but
Speaker 2: even even when you watch like the Bills, for example,
Speaker 2: they're able to insulate him because he's such a good runner, right,
Speaker 2: and you just cannot do it anymore. That's why you're
Speaker 2: seeing a huge uptick in EPA in rush efficiency. It's
Speaker 2: becoming a more valuable play because everyone's playing two shell.
Speaker 2: And it's not just straight two shell. It's not like
Speaker 2: Madden Cover two. It's like this Ameeba Cover four match
Speaker 2: where it's like it can play like two versus this
Speaker 2: looking and play like six versus this. It's hard to
Speaker 2: read for quarterbacks. So let's simplify it. Let's get you
Speaker 2: to simplify your fire cover structure by how we run
Speaker 2: the football. And I have a having a quarterback who
Speaker 2: can elevate and run when he has to and extend
Speaker 2: the down. So I think that's what that's what's so important.
Speaker 2: It's like this there's a transition happening, I think in
Speaker 2: the NFL because quarterback experience is so low. You need
Speaker 2: to become more efficient at running the football. So to
Speaker 2: your point, it's like, it's not only what this team
Speaker 2: has to do, it's what the majority of teams in
Speaker 2: the NFL are going to be forced to do to be.
Speaker 1: Successful, and quarterback experience is really low, with the exception
Speaker 1: of this particular quarterback who's coming in with a high
Speaker 1: level of experience. He's played a ton, he played for
Speaker 1: a professional coach at Arizona State and Herm Edwards. He's
Speaker 1: played for a guy who probably could be a professional
Speaker 1: coach and Brian Kelly if he wanted to be at LSU.
Speaker 1: He walks in the door here with a work ethic
Speaker 1: that has shown its way through his improvement through his
Speaker 1: collegiate career, and it's lasted to this point, so no
Speaker 1: surprises ahead of the curve. Maybe part of this alteration
Speaker 1: has helped him jumps are his own career because they
Speaker 1: don't have to ask him to do maybe a million
Speaker 1: different things that maybe previous younger quarterbacks had to deal with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I get, yeah, that's that's that's for sure true.
Speaker 2: And it's also true that like Cliff's done a great
Speaker 2: job of making it easy for him, like just and
Speaker 2: I look at it and I think to myself, like,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a high school offensive coordinator, and Cliff
Speaker 2: has taken a principle of just making it easy and
Speaker 2: applied it to the highest level. And so in some
Speaker 2: ways it's like a masterclass of like saying this is
Speaker 2: the easiest we can make it for you. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to leverage you. And again, I'm not saying Jayden
Speaker 2: can't do these things, because he's shown the ability to
Speaker 2: do those things. It's just when it's supposed to be easy,
Speaker 2: how easy can I make it? And one big criticism
Speaker 2: I was listening to something the Athletic Athletic put out
Speaker 2: about Saint Shane Waldron about how there is no easy
Speaker 2: in his offense. It's all kind of these high leverage,
Speaker 2: very challenging throws. It's like you need easy stuff for
Speaker 2: the quarterback. And I think you got to give Cliff
Speaker 2: as much credit, not all the credit, but a lot
Speaker 2: of credit because the easies are easy and Jade's making
Speaker 2: them look easy and he's hitting on him, which is important,
Speaker 2: but he's the setup for those are just incredible and
Speaker 2: he deserves a ton of credit again just to de
Speaker 2: leverage that position as much as he can. So when
Speaker 2: we got to have it, when you got to have these,
Speaker 2: these these masterful moments where he's got to draw on
Speaker 2: his experience and the coaching that he had at Arizona
Speaker 2: State and the experience he gained at LSU. He can,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't have to do it all the time.
Speaker 1: I want to transition to the defense at a second,
Speaker 1: but just one more thing on just the offense as
Speaker 1: a whole, which really was noticeable Monday night carried over again.
Speaker 1: They're winning at the line. Their offense is more physical
Speaker 1: than the defensive players they are facing. This is now
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks in a row, saw Andrew Wiley
Speaker 1: just saying how much he loves it. You can tell
Speaker 1: how re engaged he is in this offense as opposed
Speaker 1: to what they had. Cosmy continues to progress, has these
Speaker 1: laughable trucking moments where you could see the pro bowl
Speaker 1: level that's coming out of him. Baddish has been an upgrade.
Speaker 1: He's had tough tasks the first couple of weeks, Lawrence Vidavea.
Speaker 1: People like that. Alec Reddy's been good for them. They're
Speaker 1: sitting here with They're rotating tackles, no problem, Colevit's getting better.
Speaker 1: They're both playing well. Physicality of senate physicality of Nick
Speaker 1: Nichols physicality. Yes, like when Quinn talks about this physicality.
Speaker 1: We talked to him after the game. I said, you know, people,
Speaker 1: when you hear you say you're gonna like how we
Speaker 1: get down, everyone thinks of you as that defensive minded thing.
Speaker 1: What they saw in Dallas, what they saw in Seattle,
Speaker 1: what they saw in Atlanta. It's happened on the offense
Speaker 1: with the way the coverage units the offense where they
Speaker 1: are extraordinarily physical and winning. And for all of the
Speaker 1: stuff that we talk about, this scheme, that scheme make
Speaker 1: it easy. This guy needs to do this, This guy
Speaker 1: needs to do that. Sometimes this game is about are
Speaker 1: you going to be stronger and more physical and more
Speaker 1: aggressive than the other team, because at its core, that's
Speaker 1: what this sport is, and this team on that side
Speaker 1: of the ball has definitively been that. So while Jaden's
Speaker 1: been outstanding and the schemes have been great, the timing
Speaker 1: of the calls. Chef's kiss right, I've been really great.
Speaker 1: The physicality has stood out to me too. This looks
Speaker 1: like the old Washington teams with the Hogs running people over.
Speaker 1: You want nothing to do with their running backs late
Speaker 1: in the game because they're gonna bowl you over. They
Speaker 1: get positive yardage every single time. It's a physical unit
Speaker 1: up there right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, you mentioned a lot of
Speaker 2: guys there, and b Rob deserves us on our credit too,
Speaker 2: because there's times where it's not always clean and he's
Speaker 2: just a big body getting downhill. And like there was
Speaker 2: I think it was the first or second run they
Speaker 2: had from scrimmage, and it was a little bit messy.
Speaker 2: There's a guy at his feet and he and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's a you know, in my mind just watching the clip,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, that's a that's a that's a near
Speaker 2: zero game run, like there's no way, but ends up
Speaker 2: their fourth and they're second and six, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So he fought scratch and claude and that
Speaker 2: they pushed the pile and the offensive lines grinding for
Speaker 2: four yards and that might not seem like a lot,
Speaker 2: but again it just keeps you in a position where
Speaker 2: you can be effective. So yeah, and again they made
Speaker 2: the decisions to bring those guys in and then to
Speaker 2: elevate guys that they you know, Aligrady his physical tough guy, beattish,
Speaker 2: physical tough guy, Benson at physical tough guy, and then
Speaker 2: we we promote Cosmy, we give him an extension. Right.
Speaker 2: We understand what Andrewan is and I think the last
Speaker 2: staff didn't really understand what they had here. But he
Speaker 2: is a guy that is incredibly bendy, incredibly flexible, can
Speaker 2: get out in space. And that was the expectation when
Speaker 2: they signed him. I think we all thought that's what
Speaker 2: they were going to be. But they're like to see
Speaker 2: this staff now actualizing that ability, you know, is special,
Speaker 2: I think, and they're and it's the receivers too, like
Speaker 2: Noah Brown, like he's one of the most physical blockers
Speaker 2: I've seen in terms of free agency, and Luke Mcoffrey,
Speaker 2: same way, Tami. So like it's a mindset, but they've
Speaker 2: brought the right people in to engage in that mindset.
Speaker 2: I think defensively, you're starting to see that also, like
Speaker 2: you said, with the special teams too, it's it's not
Speaker 2: talking about it, it's being about it and bringing the
Speaker 2: right people in to get that done.
Speaker 1: And they said Quinn mentioned this, Joe Wittett said, he goes.
Speaker 1: We told them were closer after the first three games
Speaker 1: than maybe they thought or what you all think this was.
Speaker 1: It's not even close. That was their best collective defensive
Speaker 1: performance of the year by far. What do you think
Speaker 1: was different?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think they just seemed a little bit
Speaker 2: more well coached. There's that you know, you talked about
Speaker 2: this and you have such a succinct way of putting
Speaker 2: stuff like Kyler Murray's a slot machine, so like you know,
Speaker 2: there are times where it's great and there are times
Speaker 2: where it's bad, but you know, you pull that lever
Speaker 2: a lot for the good stuff. And I think with
Speaker 2: Kyler Murray specifically, if you could get them I'm gonna
Speaker 2: say this again, in game flow that is conducive to
Speaker 2: what you want to do defensively, which is making him
Speaker 2: throw from the pocket, You're gonna win. Like you're gonna
Speaker 2: win that football game. You're gonna win that matchup because
Speaker 2: they they're built on running the football. That team like that.
Speaker 2: It keeps them in, It keeps them in a very
Speaker 2: similar situation with the Commanders were positive down in distance
Speaker 2: fourth and six. We can run play action, we can
Speaker 2: run keepers, we can do stuff with Kyler. When you're
Speaker 2: in third and ten, he is not good enough to
Speaker 2: sit back and dissect you. And so I think they
Speaker 2: did a really good job on early downs of managing
Speaker 2: the first down runs. When they got them in a
Speaker 2: third long the pass rush came alive. I think Dorren's
Speaker 2: armstrong deserves a tremendous shout out. I think game is
Speaker 2: a command I think you see Jeremy chin development, you know,
Speaker 2: like to the level you know, he was great in
Speaker 2: coverage or kicks. He's physical as a run player, like
Speaker 2: that mentality. The two linebackers inside, I thought made a
Speaker 2: ton of plays, you know, Wagner on the sack where
Speaker 2: he's supposed to match the running back and then just
Speaker 2: fall just making plays, and like we have not had
Speaker 2: that level of production here. And then to be fair, like,
Speaker 2: you know, even though the secondary wasn't perfect by any
Speaker 2: stretch of the imagination, seeing what a serviceable pass rush
Speaker 2: does for them, you're like that's a non issue, you know,
Speaker 2: what I mean in the back end if the rush
Speaker 2: is there, and so I think like that should give
Speaker 2: fans a lot of hope and a lot of optimism
Speaker 2: to say the roadmap is there and they seem to be.
Speaker 2: And the other thing I have to give this a
Speaker 2: shout out to as I thought they communicated so much better,
Speaker 2: like just being aware of like, hey, this is a bunch,
Speaker 2: this is how we're playing this, We're in a stack,
Speaker 2: this is how we're playing this. This is the run.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, we got a motion. Who's going, I'm going,
Speaker 2: let's And that covers up a lot of the issues
Speaker 2: they were having versus a team like Tampa Bay where
Speaker 2: they're miss aligned, they're not in the right gap schemes
Speaker 2: and things like that, and I think they just it
Speaker 2: was good for them to get a little bit of
Speaker 2: confidence and they played so much harder. So kind of
Speaker 2: all those things encapsulated a very very solid defensive.
Speaker 1: Yeahoughts, you know, to the point of like with Washington,
Speaker 1: Ekler was out, how are they going to replace them?
Speaker 1: Well they figured that out. McNichols was outstanding obviously for them,
Speaker 1: score two touchdown. He had another great blitz pickup block,
Speaker 1: not unlike he had in the Cincinnati he made another
Speaker 1: one you'll see on film if you go back and watch.
Speaker 1: But like with Arizona, Trey McBride was out. Okay, so
Speaker 1: he's their best tight end. You wouldn't think that that
Speaker 1: would stifle them, but it did. And there was something
Speaker 1: really noticeable about just them collectively. If you watched them,
Speaker 1: they running the ball to Connor very well. Harrison's starting
Speaker 1: to emerge. He's stud, you know, like he's total stud.
Speaker 1: He's emerging. But McBride was the go to player for
Speaker 1: Murray and kind of to your point of if you
Speaker 1: can kind of get him in a third and long situation,
Speaker 1: I think he's looking for one or two guys and
Speaker 1: one of them wasn't available, and all of the sudden,
Speaker 1: it was almost as if he didn't know where to
Speaker 1: go with the ball. So I didn't realize how big
Speaker 1: a deal that was going to be that he didn't plays.
Speaker 1: We always talk about injuries and this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a big deal, and then most of the time the
Speaker 1: teams figure it out, next man up, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you know, and you lose your quarterbacks a different story,
Speaker 1: but like you lose this player, you lose that player.
Speaker 1: We lost Eckler, We never a problem returning kicks this week,
Speaker 1: We never retire a problem with the second or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call running back with b Robb. That
Speaker 1: didn't happen for this team this week. But them without
Speaker 1: McBride turned out to be a humongous advantage, which I
Speaker 1: think is more of an indictment of Arizona and more
Speaker 1: an indictment of Murray than it is of anything else.
Speaker 1: But I thought it stood out by the end because
Speaker 1: if you went and looked at the targets for the
Speaker 1: other receivers, Zach Pascal has none this year, like things
Speaker 1: like that, So he's looking for one or two guys
Speaker 1: and one of them was standing on the sideline because
Speaker 1: he was hurt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you know, Trevicbride is kind of, I think,
Speaker 2: going to be the next big tight end, you know,
Speaker 2: presence in terms of his effectiveness. But yeah, it wasn't there.
Speaker 2: I think you're right. I think Arizona, for all the
Speaker 2: explosive offenses that they showed versus you know, the La
Speaker 2: Rams and the Buffalo Bills, are an imperfect team because
Speaker 2: their quarterback is imperfect, and like his flaws are that
Speaker 2: Offensi's flaws, and I think again, like the defense, our
Speaker 2: defense was able to capitalize on that and kind of
Speaker 2: put them in a box a little bit and they
Speaker 2: got a little lucky for sure. But I think the energy,
Speaker 2: the attitude, the attention to detail is improving, and it
Speaker 2: can always get better, absolutely, but I think it's trending
Speaker 2: in the right direction. And this is kind of a
Speaker 2: version of the team I was hoping for one versus
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay where where the rush is better. As a result,
Speaker 2: you don't notice the coverage as much or the deficiencies
Speaker 2: in coverage. You're not leveraging them as much. And it's
Speaker 2: a more symbiotic relationship between those two groups and hopefully
Speaker 2: that continues.
Speaker 1: One other thing on the defense, so I thought Alan
Speaker 1: and Payne had their best game as well. Hard Man,
Speaker 1: yeah really hard Alan was around a number of plays
Speaker 1: this team for sex three forced fumbles, got one of them.
Speaker 1: Still waiting for that first interception. I found that one yet,
Speaker 1: but like but at least like what they're talking about,
Speaker 1: we're going to be after the ball, ball popped out,
Speaker 1: Like that's starting to happen. And with Alan and Payte,
Speaker 1: it was interesting. I was talking to somebody this morning
Speaker 1: and he said to me, he goes, you know, Alan
Speaker 1: Payn had been around here a long time. He goes,
Speaker 1: maybe there was part of them there's just like us,
Speaker 1: like they need to believe it too, that they need
Speaker 1: to like see it to believe it. Like we're all
Speaker 1: all of us who love this team, been around it
Speaker 1: forever and have waited for something like this to kind
Speaker 1: of happen and feel it and go is this real?
Speaker 1: There might be a part of them that go is
Speaker 1: this real? Like what's going on here in our own
Speaker 1: locker room? Is this reel?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean, like I think with in the post game,
Speaker 2: when he came out for his interview, there was like
Speaker 2: an authenticity to him which I haven't seen him before,
Speaker 2: where he was like very self reflective and kind of giving,
Speaker 2: not giving like his normal like Alabama stock answers like
Speaker 2: he was like, yeah, man, like it's it's cool to
Speaker 2: see the offense do what they're doing, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean? And I do think to your point, it's
Speaker 2: they they've got like beaten dog syndrome a little bit here,
Speaker 2: and so to see have hope and have some optimism.
Speaker 2: Definitely think they played a lot better and they played
Speaker 2: physically and they they played the way that commanders are
Speaker 2: supposed to play under under Dan Quinn. So hopefully it continues,
Speaker 2: and it's it's very exciting.
Speaker 1: I mean the look Terry gives Jayden when you see
Speaker 1: these pictures of them, it's he's in love. And then
Speaker 1: Payne said, I saw a clip of him from the
Speaker 1: locker Roo where he's like, I'm on a good team again.
Speaker 1: It's been a while, like he realizes it. The momentum
Speaker 1: is real, it is real.
Speaker 2: And just you know, can they maintain it? I think
Speaker 2: that that's the big what if is like can they
Speaker 2: maintain it? Because so much of it seems to be
Speaker 2: predicated on jayde Daniels and his efficiency. And again, like
Speaker 2: no one wants them to be more successful than us, right,
Speaker 2: we we want them to be, you know, the best
Speaker 2: team ever. But it's it's just it's just those numbers
Speaker 2: that he's putting up, they're not They're they're historic for
Speaker 2: a reason, and so it's right and.
Speaker 1: So if this were to go throughout a season, he
Speaker 1: will be the m v P. Yeah, you know, as
Speaker 1: a rookie, he will be unquestioned and you know this
Speaker 1: is why we like but he will be you won't
Speaker 1: just be off it's work of the year. He'll be
Speaker 1: the MVP of the league. It will be like, for
Speaker 1: the first month, it's the best rookie season I've ever
Speaker 1: seen from a quarterback period, And the numbers and the
Speaker 1: eye test prove it. And if he were to do
Speaker 1: it for a full season, he will have altered how
Speaker 1: anyone views a rookie quarterback from here forward. And if CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud was amazing last year, it's not this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just the evaluation, I mean, yeah, I can't
Speaker 2: put any better like it will be unprecedented, unprecedented if
Speaker 2: that were to happen. So again, but what you're hoping
Speaker 2: is that even if he has a little bit of
Speaker 2: a regression, the rest of the offense kind of steps up,
Speaker 2: the rest of the defense steps up, the special teams
Speaker 2: step up, and we are having similar results even though he's,
Speaker 2: you know, fifteen percent less efficient than he was at
Speaker 2: the start of the season.
Speaker 1: Smooth told me last week, he goes, if this is
Speaker 1: ground zero, you know, I don't know what next is.
Speaker 1: Really I agree with him. We've invited Smoot onto the show.
Speaker 1: I don't know, no, no, but he's here now. I've
Speaker 1: been told he's here now, and he is going to
Speaker 1: give us his unique take on everything he's.
Speaker 2: Doing, like a bit though, it's like an ESPN like
Speaker 2: kind of Okay, yeah right.
Speaker 1: We're down for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're down.
Speaker 1: I'm down for bits. We're calling this Surprising Hot Incredible Takes.
Speaker 1: You can check out the first letter of each one.
Speaker 2: Of those h and then what's that last one?
Speaker 1: There're right, So here's Fred's first of three surprising hot,
Speaker 1: Incredible takes.
Speaker 3: Jaden Daniels is the Steph Curry of the NFL. Yes,
Speaker 3: I said it. He throws the ball at a high level.
Speaker 3: He rubs the ball at a high level. Everything is equal.
Speaker 3: I believe it, all right, he says. Jayden Dagels is
Speaker 3: the Steph Curry of the NFL. I mean, I don't
Speaker 3: like that comp I agree.
Speaker 1: I hear he's saying, yeah, I got better basketball comps. Okay,
Speaker 1: So he's kind of got that cool, quiet, silent assassin
Speaker 1: demeanor to him. Yeah, that's Kevin Durant, super fan of
Speaker 1: the Commander, Kevin Durant, who showed up to practice last
Speaker 1: week out in Arizona. So I actually think it's a
Speaker 1: little slim reaper. I think it's a little more of
Speaker 1: that and less Curry. But I hear what he's saying
Speaker 1: because he's like, Curry changed the game, showed up. You know,
Speaker 1: the expectations were high, but not that high, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he's doing these things that kind of
Speaker 1: change your perception of what a shooting guard can be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I like to pour cold water and everything.
Speaker 2: Like I again, like I think Steph Curry is amazing.
Speaker 2: I think what Jayden's done through the first four weeks
Speaker 2: of the season is really incredible. It's just I always
Speaker 2: have a hard time when you compare someone who's done
Speaker 2: it for four games to someone who's, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: the best basketball player of all time.
Speaker 1: And I know that's I just said he's the greatest
Speaker 1: Marine quarterback in the history of the NFL, because if.
Speaker 2: He continues to play that way, yeah, I mean, it
Speaker 2: be undisputed. So again, I think he's done some really
Speaker 2: special things. I think that timetable is the thing that
Speaker 2: gets me a little bit concerned, and we talked about
Speaker 2: that at the top of the show. When we're reviewing
Speaker 2: the game. It's like, he's done amazing stuff, but it's
Speaker 2: like it and maybe I'm a hater. I don't know,
Speaker 2: Maybe I just got too much hate my heart. I've
Speaker 2: been beating too many times with his team. It can't continue,
Speaker 2: like mathematically, it can't continue to see.
Speaker 1: You're like us. Now, yeah, you're like us, But what
Speaker 1: is this? But it's not even like how could this be?
Speaker 2: But I just looked at it. I look at historic
Speaker 2: precedent and like you you're talking about since World War
Speaker 2: Two all the time, and it's like, you know, I
Speaker 2: feel like we're doing a history documentary all the time
Speaker 2: when we're doing our broadcast. But like it's those numbers
Speaker 2: come up for reasons, right, you know. And so it's like.
Speaker 1: Through almost thirty interceptions this rook year, he's really good.
Speaker 2: So I have all the time, I have our time,
Speaker 2: like I have a time of time like rationalizing and
Speaker 2: explaining it. So like that's why that take gets me
Speaker 2: a little bit nervous. But yeah, what he's done for
Speaker 2: the for the through the first four games is very
Speaker 2: Steph Curry is.
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's a pretty good cop. I
Speaker 1: like during yeah, yeah, like you kind of showed up.
Speaker 1: He's kind of got the size, the speed, the athleticism.
Speaker 1: You know, he's going to be good, right, you don't
Speaker 1: know how good right, and then it just kind of
Speaker 1: and he's so kind of quiet, head down. Hopefully Jayden
Speaker 1: doesn't have a burner phone like Katie the head you know,
Speaker 1: he just like lets everybody just talk about him, which
Speaker 1: seems to be what it is. Like there were two
Speaker 1: others I thought about. I was like, is he Lebron?
Speaker 1: But I don't think he's a prodigy. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's like that.
Speaker 2: You know, others worked for And I think maybe that's
Speaker 2: where this.
Speaker 1: Is basically the one that people said is a prodigy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is love Lebron, right, Yeah, Steph Curry, you know,
Speaker 2: got that tremendous work ethic, you know whatever, two hundred
Speaker 2: shots after every game and before every practice, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: So I think there's an element of that to him too,
Speaker 2: which is really really cool and it gives you, It
Speaker 2: gets you excited because you're like, these other great athletes
Speaker 2: have done it this way with the work ethic and
Speaker 2: the efficiency and maybe not the most outlandish physical tools
Speaker 2: like we just talked about, like he doesn't have the
Speaker 2: strongest arm of all time, but he's cultivated a skill
Speaker 2: set around that ability. And I think maybe that's where
Speaker 2: the Steph Curry thing comes in. And I see that,
Speaker 2: But again it's it's the it's the consistency for me,
Speaker 2: like can you is that sustainable? If it is like awesome,
Speaker 2: Like we're gonna be going yeah, well hey, like great,
Speaker 2: I got.
Speaker 1: How much are we winning by this week?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right? So are we get yeah? So that's that's
Speaker 2: the thing that gets me. But he is he he
Speaker 2: has had a special, a very very special and we've
Speaker 2: said that already, very very special four weeks and again,
Speaker 2: like to compare him to Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, He's
Speaker 2: done it for free. He's done for four weeks. Let's
Speaker 2: see if you can do it a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Last one I'll drop it.
Speaker 2: Was are you are you? Is this your takes or
Speaker 2: this friend's stakes?
Speaker 1: You know, I mean competition?
Speaker 2: Was Fred?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'll never be as funny or yelly
Speaker 1: as him. The movie that I freak out, I become
Speaker 1: Fred so magic Johnson because there's some kind of cool,
Speaker 1: calm collected I know what I'm doing and watch out,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get you one way or the other of
Speaker 1: his game. But then I like thought about it, I'm
Speaker 1: like that's Pat Mahomes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's Pat Mahomes.
Speaker 1: Pat Mahomes has got all the tricks up his sleeve
Speaker 1: right now. Maybe Jaden will generate them. But there is
Speaker 1: this feel of I am in complete, under control, almost
Speaker 1: like the matrix. Yeah, there's like a matrix element to
Speaker 1: him sometimes, Like I said this to you yesterday in
Speaker 1: the booth, I'm like, he doesn't look like he's running
Speaker 1: that fast, but he is. It's some kind of effortless
Speaker 1: nature to it. It all feels really kind of collected,
Speaker 1: like he knows what he's doing. He's a step ahead.
Speaker 1: He's neo, like I don't know what he is. He's
Speaker 1: a step ahead, he's dodge bullet.
Speaker 2: Definitely the last two games it does feel that way.
Speaker 2: It feels very slow and measured out for him, and
Speaker 2: maybe that's his process, you know, like with the VR stuff.
Speaker 2: But man, it's it's been it's been special watch for sure.
Speaker 1: All right. Here is a smooth, surprising, hot, incredible take
Speaker 1: two of the week.
Speaker 3: Would you believe me if I said, Austin Cybert is
Speaker 3: the spark that lit the fuse that lit the flame.
Speaker 3: When you go seven for seven and you haven't missed
Speaker 3: the field.
Speaker 1: Go, oh, you got to hold DMV burning, all right,
Speaker 1: So our kicker is the spark that lit the fuse.
Speaker 1: And oh but fine, I think I think Fred's reaching
Speaker 1: on that one.
Speaker 2: Will you think so? I mean, I appreciate what.
Speaker 1: He did against the Giants, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2: But it's the thing. It's it's it's the ball. It
Speaker 2: got the ball rolling, you know, so they won. They
Speaker 2: could have been really productive offensively, right, they could have been, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: we're gonna score you know, we're gonna have all these yards,
Speaker 2: but not scorenty points and you know the Giants are
Speaker 2: going to win. But the fact he made those seven
Speaker 2: field goals kind of again kind of it gives you
Speaker 2: the It gives you, it opens the door, let's say,
Speaker 2: for the next week, the confidence you have going into Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: Cincinnati then begets what you saw in Arizona. So again,
Speaker 2: it's it's an oversimplification. It's derivative to say it's only him,
Speaker 2: it's only the kicker, because it's we've talked about the
Speaker 2: maturation of everybody, right of Jaden from the Giants week
Speaker 2: to now, the offensive line from then to now, Cliff,
Speaker 2: the defense from then to now, Like it's all mature.
Speaker 2: But I do think that environment cultivated in that wind
Speaker 2: sets a foundation that says, hey, maybe we can be
Speaker 2: better than we think. And then you get into Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: you have a big win, right and then it it
Speaker 2: it kind of supersedes itself.
Speaker 1: You know. I love the buy in from the fans.
Speaker 1: Everybody so pumped, and I'm excited to be part of
Speaker 1: it too. If you're going to buy into the whole
Speaker 1: story and you now know Austin Cyber has a magic
Speaker 1: pine tree that he aims all his field goals at,
Speaker 1: there is if there's nobody sitting behind the goalposts on
Speaker 1: both sides at Northwest Stadium this weekend dressed as a
Speaker 1: pine tree, we're doing it wrong. We're just we're doing
Speaker 1: it wrong. So that is my challenge, as tickets in
Speaker 1: those sections, please come a s pine tree.
Speaker 2: Or at least like a poster poster board of a pree.
Speaker 1: Aim for the pine tree.
Speaker 2: So what do you think? Do you think it's you know,
Speaker 2: you don't think it's the kicker, then you don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's the spark of it. I think
Speaker 1: number five is that's what I.
Speaker 2: Think the spark. But like I'm saying, if they don't
Speaker 2: get the win correct in the Giants game, and again
Speaker 2: it's maybe that's that's where Fred's so brilliant with his
Speaker 2: you know what is it surprisingly hot incredible takes? Is
Speaker 2: is this idea that you know, it's one element, but
Speaker 2: he I think maybe symbolizes or represents all the good
Speaker 2: stuff that they did in that game and they were
Speaker 2: rewarded for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One other thing on special teams, I think it's
Speaker 1: worth pointing out. Austin Eckler was just fantastic on the
Speaker 1: kick returns. He returned one for touch and I got
Speaker 1: called back in the sixty two yarder against Cincinnati, and
Speaker 1: then he wasn't able to play this past week, and
Speaker 1: they're still getting really good returns. Cover units have been there.
Speaker 1: I think some credit is due here that the third
Speaker 1: phase it gets overlooked a lot, and you know, Cyber
Speaker 1: obviously was part of that, making all the field goals.
Speaker 1: The return unit, they're ahead of the curve on this
Speaker 1: dynamic kickoff thing because they've had some big game changing
Speaker 1: plays already there and the coverage units. How many different
Speaker 1: names did we call on the kickoffs yesterday? It was
Speaker 1: different people streaking down the field making plays Yankoff had one,
Speaker 1: Owens had one, came there's somebody else I can't remember
Speaker 1: now they had one, like Jeremy Chinn. Jeremy Chin had one.
Speaker 1: So it's somebody different on these coverage units.
Speaker 2: And they made investment there, you know. And again it
Speaker 2: kind of speaks to the construction of the team with
Speaker 2: Yankoff making the team predominantly as a special teams player,
Speaker 2: right with oh gosh, Belore the guy they signed from
Speaker 2: Seattle or wherever he was part of this as being
Speaker 2: a and he's made I think against Cincinnati he was
Speaker 2: making He made like three or four tackles. Jeremy Reeves
Speaker 2: made three or four tackles. They have a core group
Speaker 2: of guys that are excellent at that, and then they
Speaker 2: also have a really good understanding of how to cover
Speaker 2: those kicks. Like when you watch them, they do a
Speaker 2: really good job presnap of communicating stunts. It's almost like
Speaker 2: they're a defensive line. They're going to pinch this guy
Speaker 2: and loop this guy around, and they're able to get
Speaker 2: free runners because they're picking that first line. And you know,
Speaker 2: Jamie Reeves against Cincinnati had a really nice hit on
Speaker 2: the returner because he's unblocked essentially, and credit Tozzo for
Speaker 2: kind of unpacking that and then in the return game
Speaker 2: and getting a guy back there who's fearless enough to
Speaker 2: run it. But also they understand the leverages, they understand
Speaker 2: the position because I remember watching them when they installed
Speaker 2: that in summer, and it looked tough, like they just
Speaker 2: couldn't get the spacing right, they couldn't get the positions right.
Speaker 2: And over the course of kind of constantly struggling through that,
Speaker 2: they seem to have gotten a group of eleven guys,
Speaker 2: including the returner, who have a good feel for it.
Speaker 2: And again, I think the rest of the leg legal
Speaker 2: catch up as we go, but right now, that's a
Speaker 2: big advantage for us.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to Fred's final surprising, hot, incredible
Speaker 1: take of the week.
Speaker 3: Washington might not lose again for a loan loan loan.
Speaker 1: All right, this one's too much like listen, I don't
Speaker 1: want this to stop either. I feel like I'm on
Speaker 1: some U for it. The take is we're not going
Speaker 1: to lose for He didn't say when, but he said
Speaker 1: for a long time, right, And I would just say
Speaker 1: this like one. Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago.
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't be overlooking anybody. Yeah, and then two
Speaker 1: weeks from now, and again I don't want to get
Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves. But I don't know if you saw
Speaker 1: Baltimore play in Dallas or a home against Buffalo, but
Speaker 1: they're pretty good and that's a road game. So I'd
Speaker 1: like to believe we're never ever losing again. That would
Speaker 1: be great. But Fred, I think Fred is even a
Speaker 1: little out of his skin with excitement of what's going
Speaker 1: on at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think again, like if you look at
Speaker 2: the season right, obviously Tampa Bay looks like they might
Speaker 2: be something from a team standpoint wise, construction wise, no doubt.
Speaker 2: The Giants I think are better than they showed. I
Speaker 2: think that that Thursday night game against the Giants or
Speaker 2: against the Cowboys show kind of what they can be potentially.
Speaker 2: But they're not a great defense by any starch.
Speaker 1: Of the MNA, and Jones has to execute a little
Speaker 1: better for them to win.
Speaker 2: And then you look at Cincinnati and obviously Joe Burrow's amazing.
Speaker 2: Their defense is is it doesn't have the teeth that
Speaker 2: it's had near his pass with kind of a consistent
Speaker 2: pass rush.
Speaker 1: And they don't have a run game, they can rely
Speaker 1: on to be extremely afferent.
Speaker 2: And obviously like Jesse Bates has gone from there, he
Speaker 2: was kind of their ballhockeying player in the back and
Speaker 2: so and then you look at Arizona very similar, like
Speaker 2: schematically very elevated, but not super dynamic. So I think
Speaker 2: going up against Cleveland will be a really interesting test
Speaker 2: because they have absolute maniacs on defense that play hard,
Speaker 2: to play physical, they're aggressive, They've got one of the
Speaker 2: best pass rushing defensive ends maybe in the history of
Speaker 2: the NFL and Miles Garrett. So I think as the
Speaker 2: defense difficulty increases from these opponents, I think we're going
Speaker 2: to get a better feel for some of these efficiency numbers,
Speaker 2: for some of the stuff that's working, some of the
Speaker 2: stuff that works against top flight defenses. You know, like
Speaker 2: one of the things they say about Baltimore last year
Speaker 2: when they were really rolling, is it felt like they
Speaker 2: had twelve men on the field. Yeah, Like does this
Speaker 2: work versus that kind of structure? Does it work when
Speaker 2: you've got guys you know, when you're trying to find
Speaker 2: that numbers matchup. You've got the three over three defensive
Speaker 2: backs and we can throw a screen because we trust
Speaker 2: our guys to win. But what happens when Kyle Hamilton's
Speaker 2: one of those guys and you can beat Luke McCaffrey
Speaker 2: on a block and we tackle that screen for a
Speaker 2: two yard loss, and now all of a sudden, we're
Speaker 2: in second and twelve, which is where we don't want
Speaker 2: to live versus a very good defense. So I think
Speaker 2: the as the defensive dial increases, it's going to be
Speaker 2: more challenging. I do think those potentially are winnable football games.
Speaker 2: But I think Baltimore specifically is like a Super Bowl
Speaker 2: caliber team. And I know they don't have a winning
Speaker 2: record right now, but it looks to me like they've
Speaker 2: kind of figured something out. They're kind of getting better
Speaker 2: each and every time.
Speaker 1: Well, I think if you've watched them the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks and you didn't come to the conclusion that
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done, that that's probably they're
Speaker 1: either going to be right on the cuspoer in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. I don't think you're watching it right now,
Speaker 1: especially with Kansas City struggling a little bit and then
Speaker 1: lost for she Rice. It's a bad loss. It's a
Speaker 1: bad loss for them, Not that I don't put anything
Speaker 1: pass them the way. You know, they performed one other
Speaker 1: quick thing about Cleveland, just real quickly, and again I
Speaker 1: haven't really paid a tremendous amount of attention. However, to
Speaker 1: your point about Miles Garrett et cetera, of the defenses
Speaker 1: they've played, they've played some really high level safeties, Buddha
Speaker 1: Baker one of them, mantroin Winfield Week one. I don't
Speaker 1: think they've seen a set of corners like this yet.
Speaker 1: Cleveland brings in a set of very high level corners,
Speaker 1: no offense to the teams that they faced. But that's
Speaker 1: not really Cincinnati's strength. It's definitively not Arizona strength. I
Speaker 1: think the Giants are, you know, interestingly trying to build
Speaker 1: that back up right. And even Tampa, who's got very
Speaker 1: good I think defensive fronts.
Speaker 2: They got hurt though both their starting corners got in
Speaker 2: that game. So again to your point.
Speaker 1: It's this is this is an interesting challenge from that perspective.
Speaker 2: It's a different level corner, different animal, different animal defensively,
Speaker 2: and and you know in the who they played this weekend, gosh,
Speaker 2: I can't even remember now, Yes, yeah, they played Vegas
Speaker 2: and they had two defensive touchdowns. Like it's a different
Speaker 2: caliber of group that they're going to be facing. And
Speaker 2: so you know, you can win that game nine to
Speaker 2: ten or whatever, but like it's going to be different
Speaker 2: and more challenging for the offense to be as effective
Speaker 2: and the defense is really going to need to it's
Speaker 2: going to need These games are going to need to
Speaker 2: be more complimentary. So again, like I think it's a
Speaker 2: winnable game, no doubt, more winnable than it was when
Speaker 2: the season started. But it's a good football team and uh,
Speaker 2: and it's it's going to present some very unique challenges
Speaker 2: stuff they haven't seen this year so far.
Speaker 1: All right, less thing, let's talk about us for just
Speaker 1: a moment.
Speaker 2: Us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because oh you.
Speaker 2: And me, the commanders, for let's talk about us.
Speaker 1: For a moment. I only would make this a moment
Speaker 1: because it sounds ver. The reason why, the reason why
Speaker 1: the clip of the call from the Terry touchdown on
Speaker 1: Mondayay football went viral was because of what the commanders did,
Speaker 1: not because what we did. However, our behavior definitely got noticed.
Speaker 1: And I will I just want to just say this quickly.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all the attention that we've gotten for it,
Speaker 1: And I'd love to tell a quick backstory about what
Speaker 1: was going on, Why I stuck my tongue out at somebody,
Speaker 1: why you were maniacally last? Right, But like that was
Speaker 1: a it was a great moment, maybe the best pass
Speaker 1: we've had here in a very long time.
Speaker 2: I think the it wasn't even that, man, it was
Speaker 2: like everything about that play was insane. Situation of the
Speaker 2: game insane, right, Yeah, they need to get a first
Speaker 2: down in that moment to steal the dealer or Joe
Speaker 2: Burrows go walk down the field and score a touchdown. Right,
Speaker 2: it's third and seven, They're coming out of a timeout.
Speaker 2: They're not lined up correctly. They don't seem like they're
Speaker 2: gonna get lined up correctly. The clock is ticking down.
Speaker 2: All of a sudden, you look down on the field
Speaker 2: and Cincinnati's in zero pressure. Like they're lined up across
Speaker 2: the board. They have one back in the backfield. They're
Speaker 2: going to be short, right, and it's like, can they
Speaker 2: get the throw off? Can they get the playoff? Then
Speaker 2: can they get the throw off? And then when he
Speaker 2: gets the throw off, he threw that ball so early
Speaker 2: in the down, it was like Terry had run five yards.
Speaker 2: The corner was still three yards away from him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Terry was at the twenty when the ball was launched,
Speaker 2: and he put that ball so high in the air
Speaker 2: in such a perfect spot, and like, just going back
Speaker 2: and reviewing it, I was like, I've been a part
Speaker 2: of offenses. I've coached offenses. I've studied offenses where you
Speaker 2: see that happening. Guy's not getting lined up as the
Speaker 2: shot clock ticking down and the quarterback sends that to
Speaker 2: that ball to the first row of the stands, or
Speaker 2: they get sacked because they're not sure how to pick
Speaker 2: up the pressure, and he just set and it was
Speaker 2: like it was almost unbelieve. It was almost unbelievable to
Speaker 2: see that executed with that level of pressure, under those
Speaker 2: defensive circumstances, with that level of precision, with that kind
Speaker 2: of time restriction too, in that moment of the game,
Speaker 2: it was un believable.
Speaker 1: And now we know when that happens, all you could
Speaker 1: do is laugh.
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't have anything to say, first off,
Speaker 2: great call by you, like, but I didn't because out
Speaker 2: on the video, like I put the mic up because
Speaker 2: I don't want to get caught cursing on national television.
Speaker 2: Right or national rates.
Speaker 1: Both of us were ready to go. What everyone tweeted
Speaker 1: at the same time.
Speaker 2: Holy yeah, you don't want right, And like, so I
Speaker 2: put the mic up and then the kit Tierry catches it,
Speaker 2: and You're like, there's this great moment. You can't write
Speaker 2: this stuff any better, this great moment of suspense and
Speaker 2: tension of like did he catch it?
Speaker 1: Well, it was because he was right on the sideline
Speaker 1: and I wasn't sure he got his knee down, his
Speaker 1: feet down. Yeah, he clearly caught it, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure they were going to call it a touchdown.
Speaker 2: And then when they go touchdown and you go absolutely
Speaker 2: crazy and you're screaming, and I.
Speaker 1: Just was like, that was thirty years coming out, buddy,
Speaker 1: That's what that was. And the fans know exactly what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, which is why everybody reacted that way
Speaker 1: to it. Locally, I'm you, you know, like all of
Speaker 1: your tension and disdain for what's happened for thirty years
Speaker 1: came out in this moment that we hadn't seen in
Speaker 1: such a long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so that was beautiful love that And then
Speaker 2: I just couldn't I just couldn't help but laugh. Like
Speaker 2: it was. It was just seems so improbable, so unlikely,
Speaker 2: such a beautiful moment for the team. I didn't have
Speaker 2: any words, so laughing seemed appropriate. It just came out
Speaker 2: very scary and dark.
Speaker 1: Very quickly. The guy stuck my tongue out at.
Speaker 2: Okay, dude, so, which was awesome.
Speaker 1: He was awesome. So like, like it depends where we are.
Speaker 1: In Arizona, there were no fans near us. We were
Speaker 1: situated on the mood. Miami were situated on the move.
Speaker 1: But sometimes our booth is right in like at a
Speaker 1: level where there's fans right in front of us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they can reach in correct touch, and we never know
Speaker 1: what we're going to get, Like if we're in Philly,
Speaker 1: I don't even bother being playful with them because one
Speaker 1: of them may share me, you know, like I don't
Speaker 1: know what's going to happen, or half the time, like
Speaker 1: they're flipping me off, you know all that thing, which
Speaker 1: is fine. I don't care. But these guys actually were cool,
Speaker 1: Like this group of name so this guy, one guy,
Speaker 1: shirtless guy wearing a faux Bengals fur coat, Okay, screaming
Speaker 1: my name at me the whole time, giving me the
Speaker 1: thumbs up. As it turns out, just likes play by
Speaker 1: play guys. Okay, that's it, just likes play byke So
Speaker 1: he learns whoever the play bike because he has tickets there.
Speaker 1: Whoever the play by plays, he learns their name, and
Speaker 1: he like yells at them. But it was playful the
Speaker 1: whole time. And the best part was like the night
Speaker 1: before we went to dinner, okay, and there's all the
Speaker 1: commanders fades all over the place, all want to take
Speaker 1: pictures with you. None of them know who I am.
Speaker 1: Now what single commander fiter is there? The guy in
Speaker 1: the Bengals faux fur coat knows who I am, yelling
Speaker 1: my name, thumbs up the whole thing. I stuck my
Speaker 1: tongue out at him and he was laughing right. And
Speaker 1: then I blew a kiss at this woman at her boyfriend.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming boyfriend who when the comeback was happening, had
Speaker 1: turned around. It was giving me the business about you
Speaker 1: guys aren't going to score enough to win. He thought
Speaker 1: we were going to collapse and lose. So I blew
Speaker 1: a kiss at them. That's who they were. We never
Speaker 1: do it if the people weren't playful, because if they
Speaker 1: are the people who want to flip me off or
Speaker 1: call me names or whatever. I ignore those people. That's
Speaker 1: where the professionalism comes in.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize we were talking so much, so much
Speaker 2: smack during the call there at the end of the
Speaker 2: Yeah a lot. That's information. That's good enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right. So but that was thank you all
Speaker 1: for all the nice kind words for both of us.
Speaker 2: I'll speak for you for that, because.
Speaker 1: It went everywhere and we were really I was tickled
Speaker 1: by the flattered too, very flattered. It was very cool,
Speaker 1: it was awesome. We'll just get back to you. They
Speaker 1: keep winning, we'll yeah, we'll do that all the time,
Speaker 1: all right. I think that's going to do it for
Speaker 1: us today. You say, yeah, good talk. All right, we'll
Speaker 1: do it again after who we played Cleveland. We'll do
Speaker 1: it after Cleveland, all right. That'll do it for the
Speaker 1: Booths review.
Speaker 2: You see you