Speaker 1: Welcome to the Command Center Podcast. I'm Julie Donald Simon.
Speaker 1: We're back at FedEx Field this Sunday for a matchup
Speaker 1: with the Philadelphia Eagles. Logan, Paulson, and Santana Moss stopped
Speaker 1: by Command Center to help me go inside the matchup.
Speaker 1: Eagles offense is running so well and that's because of
Speaker 1: quarterback Jalen Hurts. I mean, he is second in the
Speaker 1: league with the most passing and rushing yards total yards
Speaker 1: that there is. Meanwhile, Carson Wentz is third, but most
Speaker 1: of his coming through the air. What is it about
Speaker 1: Jalen Logan that says, okay, we got to be able
Speaker 1: to contain him and what he's able to do with
Speaker 1: the offense. I think everyone associates him as being this
Speaker 1: very dynamic runner, which he is very tremendous athlete. But
Speaker 1: I think the area that he's improved the most and
Speaker 1: is as a passer. He looks so much more dynamic,
Speaker 1: completing over eighty percent of his passes against Minnesota, and
Speaker 1: a little bit that's on Minnesota and the conservative defense
Speaker 1: that they played, But he has evolved tremendously as a
Speaker 1: passer and he's actually I think that's making him more dangerous,
Speaker 1: making that offense more dangerous. So to me, that's that's
Speaker 1: the evolution of Jalen Hurts. Yeah, I think hit it
Speaker 1: on the head. I think one of the things that
Speaker 1: stands out the most is that, you know, they told him, hey,
Speaker 1: do an off season, this is where your handicap at
Speaker 1: in the passing game. We know you can run with
Speaker 1: the football. He comes in this season, he's running well
Speaker 1: with the football again, and he's passing, you know, and
Speaker 1: making sure that he's there. He's in the top ranks
Speaker 1: when he comes to the quarterbacks in the league, he's Sunday.
Speaker 1: So we definitely have to, you know, try to find
Speaker 1: a way to hold him down in both categories. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and kudos to the staff are in Philadelphia too for
Speaker 1: finding receivers to support him. And they've done that and
Speaker 1: they find guys like AJ Brown who are dominant number
Speaker 1: one receivers, and I think that always helps you on
Speaker 1: quarterbacks like Jellen. You know, he's also holding the ball
Speaker 1: longer than any quarterback, but that's because he can scramble
Speaker 1: and extend the play. He's about just over three seconds.
Speaker 1: But when he does throw it, he is leading the
Speaker 1: league in passing yards per attempt at nine point one,
Speaker 1: so he's being able to get a lot of yards
Speaker 1: through the air as well. You just mentioned the receivers.
Speaker 1: Let me go ahead and go to that they did
Speaker 1: bring into a j Brown. They do have DeVante Smith
Speaker 1: as well, and of course they have tight end that's
Speaker 1: really able to do a lot of work as well.
Speaker 1: How do our dB stack up against them? Do you think?
Speaker 1: How do you limit that? Yeah, it's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: because you didn't even mention Quay Walker, who's like Quay
Speaker 1: Watkins excuse me, who's like the speed Shrew group. So
Speaker 1: they kind of have a much like our team, a
Speaker 1: three headed monster that's very dynamic or excellent tight end
Speaker 1: and excellent running back, all guys that can find Mitch
Speaker 1: Matches right. So I think it's about slowing them down.
Speaker 1: I think all of their production stems from Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 1: So can you confuse Jalen Hurts? Can you want to
Speaker 1: settle him? Can you make him question what he's looking at? Tanny,
Speaker 1: You've talked a lot about pressing the receivers up the
Speaker 1: line of scrim and just giving those guys different looks,
Speaker 1: And I think that's gonna be the genesis of slowing
Speaker 1: that group down. Yeah, that's key for me. You know,
Speaker 1: I played a long time in this league and one
Speaker 1: of the things I've always said, you can put anybody
Speaker 1: in front of me, and especially man and man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna beat him. You know. Nine time I attend any
Speaker 1: guy in this league that's on this self about him.
Speaker 1: You should be able to be a man and man covers.
Speaker 1: But when you have a guy press and being a
Speaker 1: net and being a pest that slows things down. It
Speaker 1: takes the quarterback too long to be, you know, looking
Speaker 1: at you primarily, so he comes off of you. Now
Speaker 1: he had to see it second and third reade. If
Speaker 1: we get those guys to slow those receivers down, send
Speaker 1: people at Carson, I mean, send people at Hurts. Then
Speaker 1: now you can take him out of that game plan
Speaker 1: or out of that progression. And he had to plan
Speaker 1: be a plan set. So that's how you stop those guys.
Speaker 1: You're also talking about not just playing you know, your
Speaker 1: man the receivers in DBS book goes in out of
Speaker 1: course it's the pass rush. Yeah, and if you have
Speaker 1: a good pass rush, then you're probably not going to
Speaker 1: be able to be open to begin with. Because they're
Speaker 1: getting to the quarterback. We saw them get to get
Speaker 1: to Kirk Cousins and very aggressive in that game Monday night.
Speaker 1: How do you see Washington and Scott Turner holding up
Speaker 1: against their defensive coordinator Jonathan Dannon. Yeah. I think Jonathan
Speaker 1: Gannon's a very young and up and coming guy. He's
Speaker 1: kind of changing what he does. Last year, they were
Speaker 1: one of the most conservative defenses in the NFL. A
Speaker 1: little bit more aggressive this year, but I think the
Speaker 1: matchup favorites Washington because of the space and the kind
Speaker 1: of the conservative approach that he has. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that stands out to me is just
Speaker 1: you know, me and Logan played a long time and
Speaker 1: it's something that else, you know, I spoke with London about.
Speaker 1: It's the copycat league. Teams are going to pick up
Speaker 1: what they see that you can't do or that you
Speaker 1: didn't you know, pan out well with. So they wash
Speaker 1: Detroit game and say this is we're gonna do. We're
Speaker 1: gonna bring fire, we're gonna brain bliss and see how
Speaker 1: these guys can take it. I talked about it last week.
Speaker 1: Being the dictator, you know, we have to dictate what
Speaker 1: we want to do so you make sure that if
Speaker 1: they're going to put those guys in the box and
Speaker 1: bring the bliss, you make sure you hit somebody every
Speaker 1: time and get them off or take a shot down
Speaker 1: field two. And then you know what that defense is
Speaker 1: gonna say, hold on, we can't bring these guys in
Speaker 1: the box. We can't set out here and be too aggressive.
Speaker 1: We have to make sure that we can contain these
Speaker 1: guys on the outside as well. That's how you change
Speaker 1: things up. Plus, we talked about some keys to the
Speaker 1: commanders securing a victory that coach Ron Rivera is looking
Speaker 1: to when the first game in the division against Philadelphis.
Speaker 1: Let's get our keys to winning Santana. We start with him.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Julie. Well, you know, my number one key
Speaker 1: to winning this game has to be I mean, stopping
Speaker 1: Jelly Hurts in the Philadelphia Eagles run game, but not
Speaker 1: just the run games, the offense. I think one of
Speaker 1: the things that we have to do contain these guys.
Speaker 1: I mean we saw it from week one week two. Defensively,
Speaker 1: might not go out there and stop anybody, but we
Speaker 1: must contain this guy. We know he can do an
Speaker 1: RPO game. And now the past, the game has been
Speaker 1: a threat. So that's my number one key to win.
Speaker 1: To agree, and this could really be the point for
Speaker 1: all five of these things. That's how important that is.
Speaker 1: That's what he means said offense, but kind of traversely
Speaker 1: or reversely is keeping Carson Wentz comfortable, right, because I
Speaker 1: think if the defense is gonna struggle doing this, Carson's
Speaker 1: gonna have to score a lot of points. This offense
Speaker 1: is gonna have to have to score a lot of points.
Speaker 1: I think that comes down to Scott Turner finding throws
Speaker 1: and reads and know we're going to run the football
Speaker 1: to make sure that he's in his comfort zone. Because
Speaker 1: when he's in his comfort zone, this offense really texts.
Speaker 1: And I must pick it back off of what you're
Speaker 1: talking about with Carson Wentz, and I'm gonna say my
Speaker 1: number two key to winning would be sustained long offensive drive.
Speaker 1: And that's dealing with Carson Scott turn On just offensively
Speaker 1: what we saw the first game. You know, we're back
Speaker 1: home now, we have the home field advantage, we have
Speaker 1: the crowd behind us. We're probably going to see a
Speaker 1: lot of that was green. Joursey under stands too. But
Speaker 1: we must sustain a long drives and keep our defense,
Speaker 1: you know, off the field at all times. I mean,
Speaker 1: we understand what our defense have right now. It might
Speaker 1: be some depth issues up front, but regardless of what
Speaker 1: it is, if we can go out there and performing
Speaker 1: the way we did Week one in the first half
Speaker 1: and sustain at the second half, we have a great
Speaker 1: chance of Man yea, I don't even know if they
Speaker 1: need to be long drives. So he could just see
Speaker 1: the score points too, right, because this you know, this
Speaker 1: offense has been driven by big plays. I think if
Speaker 1: they get that big play, get those points, they're gonna shootout.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be so much on the defense, I think.
Speaker 1: And then kind of pick your backing off you man,
Speaker 1: spread the well round on offense, and then kind of
Speaker 1: pairs with this one finding your mismatches, and I think
Speaker 1: all those things are so important, right because they have
Speaker 1: excellent defensive coverage players, right. They got Slay, they got Bradberry,
Speaker 1: they got Maddox in the slot, and those guys are
Speaker 1: gonna match up with our three headed monster really nicely.
Speaker 1: So can Gibson mkissic Logan Thomas, Can you find those
Speaker 1: opportunities against linebackers and lesser cover players to really put
Speaker 1: that off into a good situation. I think, yes, got
Speaker 1: Turner shown that he can do that. But that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a huge element of this game in terms of
Speaker 1: being successful on offense. And these are the games you
Speaker 1: get paid for. The man. You want to have a
Speaker 1: great divisional opponent that you can go out there and
Speaker 1: play your best against the best and soon comes out
Speaker 1: on tone. For all of your news and analysis, be
Speaker 1: sure to tune into Command Center weeknights at five thirty
Speaker 1: and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also
Speaker 1: stream on YouTube and commanders dot com.