Speaker 1: Welcome to the command Center Podcast. I'm Brand Whitstein. With
Speaker 1: nine weeks in the books, we've reached the midway point
Speaker 1: of the season, and up next for the Commanders a
Speaker 1: Monday night matchup with the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles. London Fletcher
Speaker 1: and Logan Paul to join me to preview this primetime matchup.
Speaker 1: I think all of us kind of agreed in the
Speaker 1: summer that the Eagles are probably the team to beat
Speaker 1: in the NFC East eight. No, might be a little
Speaker 1: ahead of where anybody thought they would be. What's been
Speaker 1: the key to their success? I think the key has
Speaker 1: been really the play of Jalen Hurts. When you look
Speaker 1: at the Philadelphia Eagles coming to the season, Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: was still a question mark, but the way he's played,
Speaker 1: the way he's matured as if quarterback. You look at
Speaker 1: the completion percent, it's nearly seventy percent completions. But also
Speaker 1: his ability to make plays off schedules and the offense
Speaker 1: is Taylor made for his skill set. They really put
Speaker 1: you in a vibe defensively on what you're gonna do
Speaker 1: and how you're going to defend this offense. Logan, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I totally agree Jalen hurts it's been a
Speaker 1: huge factor for them. But I think of the thing
Speaker 1: that separates the team from eighty other team in the
Speaker 1: NFL and every other team in the division is their
Speaker 1: ability to beat you in multiple ways. When they have
Speaker 1: to run the football, they can run the football. They
Speaker 1: need to win with defense, they can win with defense.
Speaker 1: If they need a big play, they can throw the
Speaker 1: football downfield to a J. Brown and all their explosive playmakers.
Speaker 1: I think that multi factorial skill set makes them a
Speaker 1: super dangerous team and makes them the classes of the
Speaker 1: NFL at the moment. You think their offensive always changed
Speaker 1: since we saw them in Week three, right, I do.
Speaker 1: I think it's changed a little bit, kind of de
Speaker 1: fletch this one. I think they've found a way to
Speaker 1: really speak to what Jalen Hurst does well. They do
Speaker 1: the ton of RPO stuff. They find ways to get
Speaker 1: him touches that he can kind of maximize right, short
Speaker 1: intermediate passing game, using the run game, using his legs.
Speaker 1: All that stuff is excellent and well, what they do
Speaker 1: a great job is on first and second down. They
Speaker 1: get a lot of positive plays, yes, and they're in
Speaker 1: a lot of third and shorts third and three or less,
Speaker 1: and when they run at RPO there they have a
Speaker 1: situation where Jalen Hurst has three different opposers. He can
Speaker 1: head it off to the running back, he can throw
Speaker 1: it to the flat, or he can keep in and
Speaker 1: run it himself. And as a defense is hard for
Speaker 1: you to defend all three fats those play, especially when
Speaker 1: it's third and two, third three type situations. They get
Speaker 1: all of the publicity. Their defense has been very good.
Speaker 1: It's ranked in the top three, just as they've gotten
Speaker 1: a j Brown really right on the offensive end. The
Speaker 1: addition to James Bradberry's worked out, they just picked up
Speaker 1: Robert Quinn. Their defense is for real, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think really the thing that separates them from other
Speaker 1: defenses in the division of the NFL is they have
Speaker 1: two excellent cover corners and a passport so that can
Speaker 1: support them. They just seem to be very married at
Speaker 1: the moment in terms of Russian coverage, and that makes
Speaker 1: an excellent defense. And the thing that defense does is
Speaker 1: take the football away. They're number one in the National
Speaker 1: Football League. They're plus fifteen, and they take in a
Speaker 1: turnover margin, they take it away and they don't turn
Speaker 1: the football over. That's the reason also that they're ain't no.
Speaker 1: So what are we gonna do? How does Washington get
Speaker 1: scoring point? Well coming get a premium for this? To
Speaker 1: protect the football in some way, somehow, figure out a
Speaker 1: way for us to create some takeaways. Things like that.
Speaker 1: We've been able to create takeaways and during the three
Speaker 1: game win a streak, we were getting takeaways. We have
Speaker 1: to protect the football, protect the court of back. We
Speaker 1: can't allow Taylor Heinike to get sacked like Carson did
Speaker 1: the first time we played in Eagles. I think a
Speaker 1: huge variable is getting more efficient in the run game
Speaker 1: and Fletcher are going to talk about this later in
Speaker 1: the show. But tweaking some of that stuff to put
Speaker 1: you in a better position so Taylor doesn't have to
Speaker 1: carry the whole thing, get some plays from your defense,
Speaker 1: and you never know how that football falls. For all
Speaker 1: your news and analysis, be sure to tune into Command
Speaker 1: Center weeknights at five thirty and ten pm on NBC
Speaker 1: Sports Washington, and you could also stream on YouTube at
Speaker 1: Commanders dot com.