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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Command Center Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. Washington

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Speaker 1: ended the season on a high note, defeating the Dallas

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Speaker 1: Cowboys twenty six to six. Special teams set the tone,

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Speaker 1: forcing a fumble on the opening drive at the game.

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Speaker 1: This set up a Sam hollow touchdown to wide receiver

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Speaker 1: Terry mclaure. The rookie qb through for over one hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixty yards and tacked on a rushing touchdown in

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Speaker 1: his NFL debut. Our analysts London Fletcher, Logan, Paulson, and

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Speaker 1: Santana Moss helps me recap the Commanders season finale, King

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Speaker 1: ten times in Santana. I want to start with you

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Speaker 1: for this one because you've played with umpteen million quarterbacks

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Speaker 1: over your career, and it's always a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a challenge for rookie to come out there, grasp this system,

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Speaker 1: get into chemistry and rhythm with their receivers. What did

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Speaker 1: you make of Sam Howe's performance, Well, you know, one

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Speaker 1: of the things that stood out, something that we talked

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Speaker 1: about throughout the week about how that ball jumps off

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Speaker 1: his fingers. Yeah, that stood out first, you know, from

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Speaker 1: the first pass. But more than that, you know, I

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Speaker 1: want to see how he reacted to some of the

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Speaker 1: things that didn't go as well, and he responded the

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Speaker 1: way most veteran quarterback should for him to be a

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Speaker 1: rookie being thrown in that moment, you know, for his

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Speaker 1: first game, the last game of the season playing is

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Speaker 1: one of the better defense in this league. And to

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Speaker 1: have a couple of hiccups here and there, throw interception

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Speaker 1: and did come back in and say, so what make

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Speaker 1: a play after that? That's what stood out to me

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Speaker 1: the most. Yeah, I mean, I think I thought it

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Speaker 1: was really dynamic from a passing standpoint. I think the

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Speaker 1: composure was outstanding. I think him as a runner was

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Speaker 1: something that I wasn't expecting kind of to add that

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Speaker 1: value that third down. Converting those third downs with his

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Speaker 1: feet was pretty fantastic. So great to see the young

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Speaker 1: guy come out there with that kind of composure to

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Speaker 1: make those plays. And you know, was it a perfect sheet, No,

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Speaker 1: but nice, nice first start. You know, this is the

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Speaker 1: staff that they want to be able to evaluate Sam

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Speaker 1: to kind of decide what they need to do in

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Speaker 1: the off season at the quarterback position. Did he do

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Speaker 1: enough to be that QB one. I think he did

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Speaker 1: enough to get in the conversation of being the QB one.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think they're gonna bring somebody in maybe

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Speaker 1: challenge Sam. But what I saw yesterday I saw a

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Speaker 1: guy who was decisive getting the ball out on time,

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Speaker 1: and then when there wasn't anything there. He used his

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Speaker 1: athleticism in his plays and you like the fact that

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Speaker 1: he knew where to go with the football. And this

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Speaker 1: is against the Dallas Cowboys defense that came in number

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Speaker 1: two in the NFL and Saxon that defense is dynamic,

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Speaker 1: but he was able to pick them apart and make

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Speaker 1: plays using his legs. Yeah, he was saying that that

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Speaker 1: is a strength of his. He wants to be able

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Speaker 1: to throw it. But of course if he gets that

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Speaker 1: situation where there's a hole, he has the ability to

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Speaker 1: go and it works to his advantage as we saw that.

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Speaker 1: So so a lot of question marks at the position

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Speaker 1: in the offseason, and we got to see Logan you

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Speaker 1: mentioned this on the top of the show, a lot

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Speaker 1: of younger guys also on defense really stepping up. Yeah. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: I mean I was super impressed. Like, you know, a

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Speaker 1: guy that I really wanted to see was Percy Butler

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Speaker 1: and friend would come out there and make the plays

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Speaker 1: that he did, be consistent and just playing with a

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Speaker 1: confidence getting up after tacking Ezekiel and let him know, Fletch,

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Speaker 1: let's say, man, I did that, I got you down

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Speaker 1: the ground and kind of standing over top of him.

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Speaker 1: I love to see that from the young guys. And

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Speaker 1: then John Ridgeway had five tackles in their first sixteen plays.

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Speaker 1: There are some pieces here to build around, you know,

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Speaker 1: And I think that gets me super fired up in

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Speaker 1: a game like this. Yeah, you saw guys like Butler,

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Speaker 1: you saw guys like Husting, you know. One of the

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Speaker 1: things we talked about, Husting a guy, you know, a

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Speaker 1: linebacker who's smaller than the average linebacker but flying around.

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Speaker 1: They can play some of the things you see in

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Speaker 1: this league today, playing a hybrid style, you know kind

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Speaker 1: of play. So it was great to see them young

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Speaker 1: guys go out there and be dominant, you know, more

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Speaker 1: than just going out here saying we're going to play

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Speaker 1: and see what these guys like. They was definitely dominant.

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Speaker 1: Played that viper position coming out of college, which was

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Speaker 1: kind of all over the place, but we haven't really

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Speaker 1: seen him being able to contribute on defense, and it

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Speaker 1: was good to know because this coaching staff really wants

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Speaker 1: to build around the youth of this team as well,

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Speaker 1: so that there's some great things coming in the offseason

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Speaker 1: to build a punt And it's not just offense, it's

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Speaker 1: not just defense. London special teams had their way. Special

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Speaker 1: teams they got it started. You know, you think about

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Speaker 1: me Loo Eifler making that tackle on the on the

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Speaker 1: Bible punt and then trust Way with the voodoo punt,

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Speaker 1: forcing the muff punt, and those are that right there

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Speaker 1: doesn't go down as a takeaway, but essentially less a takeaway.

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Speaker 1: So I look at the special teams just presenting or

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Speaker 1: contributing two takeaways in that ball game. Yeah, absolutely, I

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Speaker 1: think like that is a huge feature. You know, when

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Speaker 1: we're evaluating Sam Hell, that's that's the thing it has

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Speaker 1: to be considered, right, is this The game flow was

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Speaker 1: drastically different than anyone expected, and especial teams are a

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Speaker 1: big contributing factor to that. Yeah, that's one of the

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Speaker 1: things these guys out to do. You know, they had

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Speaker 1: their little game. You know, we all wish we was

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Speaker 1: a part of, but it's great to see those guys

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Speaker 1: in the season the same way that they talked about

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Speaker 1: starting the season this year, and again we said all

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Speaker 1: week long, like what do they have to play for?

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Speaker 1: That was the question these guys were being asked because

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Speaker 1: they were officially eliminated going into this game, and it

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Speaker 1: was Dallas that had a lot to play for, trying

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Speaker 1: to get that first seed and win the division. Of course,

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Speaker 1: it didn't go to their plans. They did not come

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Speaker 1: out ready Washington. For all your news and analysis, be

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Speaker 1: sure to tune into Commands under Wig nights at five

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Speaker 1: and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also

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Speaker 1: stream on YouTube and Commanders dot Com.