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The Commanders went down to the wire in week one against the Eagles, but they ultimately came up just short. Washington needs to have a huge bounce back week against the Dallas Cowboys at 4:25pm on Sunday. What are you hoping to see from the Commanders in their clash with Dallas?
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00:00former Washington coach Jay Gruden, who joined Grant and Danny yesterday,
00:05Grant and Danny asked him what he thought of the two-point conversion play
00:11that the Commanders ran that fell short against the Eagles at the link this past weekend.
00:15Here's what he had to say.
00:17You know, the call was, if you draw it up on the board,
00:20it's a great call for the defense that they got.
00:22I mean, they really had two players for one guy,
00:24and then the three-tech, they just spun off Al Gretti.
00:28You know, just my problem is you're having two really bad athletes be pivotal in the play.
00:36Your left guard has to chip the nose guard and go up and get the linebacker,
00:40and he whiffed anyway.
00:41I think number 11, whatever his name is, from Alabama, he would have made the tackle anyway
00:46because, you know, Paul whiffed on Jihad Campbell.
00:49And then your right guard's pulling in there.
00:52He's got no one to block.
00:54He doesn't know what he's looking for.
00:55His linebacker is out in coverage.
00:57So, if he just sticks his foot in the ground and helps backside,
01:00they might have had a chance.
01:01But schematically, it was a great play.
01:03I mean, it should have worked.
01:04The defensive end went up the field.
01:05Jaden flipped it.
01:07But you're having two bad athletes make the most important play of the game,
01:11and that's the only reason I don't like it.
01:13Man, he's really killing the athleticism of the guards.
01:17I mean, those guys, I mean, God bless them, but I would say typically,
01:22unless you're Trent Williams, most of them aren't your best athletes on the team.
01:26Right.
01:26True.
01:26But, I mean, he does make a point.
01:28Like, it's the most, as he called it, pivotable play of the game.
01:32And you're relying on two substandard athletes, at least NFL-wise, to try to pull it off.
01:39Yeah.
01:40And you're going against...
01:41He loved the scheme.
01:43He hated the personnel that it was being run with.
01:46Listen, 0% of Commanders fans like that play.
01:49Correct.
01:49Zero.
01:50Yeah, find one.
01:51I defy you to find one.
01:52Find all the live feeds where Skins fans are watching and reacting.
01:57Just check to...
01:58No one liked the call.
02:00For me, my...
02:00For NFL X's and O's guys, maybe it's a great call.
02:03My jaw dropped when I was watching it.
02:05It was a big letdown.
02:06At honor for a week.
02:07It was a big letdown.
02:07I mean, there was a lot of...
02:09I don't know if it was anger.
02:11It was just a lot of, like...
02:14Exasperation.
02:15Eyebrows being raised.
02:16People looking at each other like, what did we just see type of deal.
02:21I thought Brady had the best explanation or sort of...
02:25And his idea is just that in those moments, you got to go with your players, not the plays.
02:29And you have elite, elite, elite athletes there on that side of the ball.
02:34Let them make the play.
02:36I mean, trust me.
02:37I know nothing about calling an NFL game.
02:40I wouldn't know where to start.
02:41I wouldn't either.
02:42But if I'm on the two-yard line, I think one of the five plays I'm going to consider is...
02:48Hey, let's run a slant to Terry.
02:50And let Terry try to win one-on-one against somebody down here.
02:53And actually throw the ball in the end zone.
02:56Yeah.
02:56Like, I'm a...
02:57I don't love the fade very much.
02:59And I know Jay Gruden had, you know...
03:00He had an infatuation.
03:02Sort of history with the fade.
03:03Yeah.
03:04Unless you have, like...
03:05If you have Megatron or Randy Moss on your team, run the fade all day.
03:09If you have a bunch of six-foot-tall receivers like the commanders do, for the most part,
03:14probably not a great play.
03:16But I'd take my chances with either Diggs or McLaurin on a slant or just a quick route
03:22down near the goal line.
03:23It's not easy.
03:24Everybody knows once you get in that red zone, once you get in there, you know, five, four,
03:27three, two-yard line, whatever.
03:29Yeah, it's tough.
03:29It's tough.
03:29It's all condensed.
03:30They got all those guys.
03:31I mean, it's not easy.
03:33So, I'm not saying I would be better.
03:35But I would definitely prefer to have some of our elite athletes more involved in that play.
03:40Yeah, you're right.
03:41I mean, nobody liked the play.
03:43Especially since you're running one of your slowest guys on the field, besides the offensive
03:49lineman, he's probably the slowest guy on the field.
03:51Even if they flipped it to Bill.
03:52Right to their strength.
03:54Even if they flipped it to Bill, I don't love it.
03:58I actually don't literally like, and I heard Doc on with the guys, and Doc said he loves
04:03to run the football and everything.
04:04That's his background, right?
04:06I really don't even like running.
04:09We're going to have to throw it two yards.
04:11If there's one thing to like about the play, and trust me, it's hard to get here, but it's
04:16the unpredictability of the ball's going to Bates.
04:20Because there's nobody on the Eagles that thought the ball was going to John Bates here.
04:23Well, that's what David Blau probably thought.
04:25That's what he was probably banking on.
04:26You know what I mean?
04:28That's the one thing you can kind of hang your hat on with that play.
04:32My guess is...
04:33Is that nobody expected it.
04:34I don't know.
04:34I wonder, would Chig have been in there if he was healthy instead?
04:39Possibly.
04:40But Bates was there because he's a blocker.
04:42That's why he's a good decoy almost.
04:44Right.
04:45I don't know.
04:45Chig's in there.
04:46You think, okay, good chance the ball goes to him.
04:49Bates, you're just not thinking it at all.
04:51No, no.
04:51So that part, the subterfuge of it was great, but the execution was not.
04:58It's actually fine.
04:59It's actually fine.
04:59We didn't deserve to win that game.
05:01We could have stolen it.
05:02We didn't deserve to win it.
05:03We deserved a loss.
05:05You've got to wear the L.
05:06You've got to wear the L, and you're going to try to get a dub this week.
05:09It's going to be a challenge, but you've got to try to get a dub this week.
05:12Get on the right side of it.
05:14You know, I re-watched the first half, and it was disjointed,
05:19but especially when I was watching Jaden, you know,
05:22there was one or two throws in particular that I really wish you could have had back.
05:26Everything else, he was just throwing away.
05:28Our guys were dropping the balls.
05:29Maybe one was slightly low, and, you know, they're not perfect balls.
05:33I'm not saying they're all perfect, but there was one or two that I really,
05:36like, oh, really wish I could have had that one back.
05:38Yeah.
05:39But it just is what it is, and then it kind of heated up too late.
05:44So all in all, though, I do feel okay about it.
05:48It sucks we got the loss.
05:50But here's what it is.
05:52Rashad White is wide open on that play.
05:56Yeah, wide open out to the left flat.
05:58I mean, just wide open.
05:59Yeah.
06:00But you wasn't the read.
06:01I know.
06:02I know.
06:02Yeah.
06:03If they would have faked the pitch to Bates, and then he just hits White,
06:06I mean, it's easy to.
06:07Yeah.
06:08As long as it was good.
06:09He was wide open.
06:11I mean, if Jaden saw that, he's going to hit him there
06:13because it's, what, an eight-yard pass maybe?
06:17If that, yeah.
06:18I mean, straight down the line.
06:19Most of the people said what Jay said was when they got to the line of scrimmage,
06:22they got the exact look they were looking for for that play.
06:25Right.
06:26So, you know, whatever.
06:28Didn't execute.
06:29Nope.
06:30Couldn't quite pull it off.
06:32Nobody else was open.
06:35If, I mean, I can see why they called the play because if there's one more block made,
06:41he probably just walks into the end zone.
06:44He's got a real good chance.
06:45But, man, White was wide open.
06:47Yeah.
06:47Hmm.
06:48Yeah.
06:48Well, it is what it is.
06:50But you're right.
06:51I mean, you know, 100% of people hate that play.
06:53I mean, I didn't see one person that was, like, pumped about that.
06:57Not one.
06:59And, you know, I guess, you know, when they prioritize their play calls,
07:05that was, if not their favorite two-point call.
07:07It was right up there.
07:08I mean, it was definitely in the mix.
07:10Maybe we could drop that down on a few pegs.
07:13It made the short list.
07:14Yeah.
07:15That's a play that I'm guessing Blau is not going to run again anytime soon.
07:20The only thing I don't love about it, too, is that it highlights the Alegretti focus
07:25where, you know, people have their question marks about Alegretti.
07:28Yeah.
07:29He just got beat by a better athlete on that play.
07:30I thought on the whole, the offensive line, they were okay.
07:35They were definitely not great, but they weren't terrible either.
07:39Yeah, they weren't.
07:39They were okay.
07:41They weren't just like, they weren't a turnstile.
07:42A lot of people thought it would just be, like, a free-for-all.
07:45Jaden was going to get ragdolled throughout the game, and it was going to get out of hand.
07:49Well, I think that wasn't the case.
07:50Yeah, he was kind of running a lot outside the pocket.
07:53Oh, he was pressured.
07:54It wasn't like he got sacked five times.
07:56And his feet saved him.
07:57You know, his mobility clearly saved him in spots.
08:00He saved those sacks because he either ran away from the guys or he threw the ball away.
08:05By the way, yeah.
08:05He made it conservative after the throw away a few times.
08:07He got killed with a few drops.
08:10Yeah.
08:11Here's what gives me hope, at least for the short term, for week two.
08:14I see what Jackson Dart did to that Dallas Cowboys defense.
08:18And it just gives me hope that Jaden can do something along the same lines.
08:23Now, you would expect Dallas to play better defensively because they're obviously going
08:27to focus on that.
08:28They'll tighten up a little bit.
08:28They're going to focus on that.
08:29Sure.
08:30But, I mean, how much are you going to be able to correct in a week?
08:33Like, well, I don't know.
08:35It's not like every team plays the exact same way week in, week out.
08:38Did you guys see the montage of the Dallas defense basically giving up the same exact
08:45play like four straight times to the Giants in the opener?
08:49It was just like a little swing pass to Devin Singletary out to the left-hand side of the
08:54formation four straight times until he scored a touchdown.
08:58I think one of them was actually a handoff off to the left, three were passes, and Dallas
09:02just couldn't, they couldn't diagnose what was happening.
09:05They couldn't adjust to, like, that defense, I know they added some pieces and they have
09:10a new defensive coordinator there in Christian Parker.
09:12Right.
09:13Might be a work in progress.
09:14It might be.
09:15Hopefully the commanders can take advantage of that.
09:17Yep.
09:18Because the Giants put up 28 on them, and Dart only missed six passes.
09:22And he rushed for 54 yards.
09:24I think they had a couple injuries, too, on the defensive side.
09:27I know Malik Hooker got hurt.
09:29I'm not sure what his status is, but I don't know.
09:34It's going to be a tight game.
09:36I believe it'll be higher scoring.
09:39I mean, right?
09:40I think it'll be higher scoring.
09:41Yeah, I think it will be.
09:42But, you know, Washington obviously has to play a lot better offensively in the first half
09:46and not get down 14-3.
09:48I mean, that improved, and I put that in air quotes, Dallas defense allowed 29 first downs.
09:54Yeah.
09:54They allowed the Giants to go 9 for 11 on third downs.
09:58Yeah, they were bad.
09:59And they allowed 394 yards.
10:02They were bad.
10:03Please, commanders, take advantage of the bad defensive opponent in week two.
10:08Please, please, please.
10:09Well, that's this thing.
10:10Let's get back to one and one here.
10:11That's the thing that was so kind of frustrating, too, about it, is that Washington had double
10:17the first downs.
10:18Yeah.
10:18They won the time of possession.
10:22We had one more penalty.
10:24I think the penalties hurt.
10:25Well, that just shows you the explosives.
10:27Yeah.
10:28Neutralized all of that good that Washington did on offense.
10:32Yeah.
10:33It didn't matter.
10:34The four big plays.
10:35Yeah.
10:35Those huge plays, you know, swung the balance of the game.
10:38I mean, I don't think you're ever going to go, maybe you can, where you give up zero explosives,
10:42but they got to maybe cut it in half.
10:44Cut it in half.
10:45I'm well aware they're not going to give up zero explosives, but, yeah, cut it in half.
10:50I think you've got to give props to the Giants' defense, too, for holding Dallas to under
10:57300 total yards.
10:58Yeah.
10:58Hey, the Giants.
10:59Give them props.
11:00244 yards.
11:00Giants were a revelation.
11:01They're going to be a tough out.
11:03Yeah.
11:03They're going to be a tough out.
11:04It's always tough out when it's in your division, because, you know, it just is, but they're
11:09improved.
11:10A hundred percent.
11:11Yeah.
11:12And they went out and added to their defense, too.
11:14Which just.
11:15And they drafted Arvel Reese.
11:18They've certainly improved on that side of the ball.
11:19And Jackson Dart played well.
11:21He played great.
11:22He did.
11:22I have the commanders sweeping the Giants, by the way, on the season predictions.
11:27I don't know if my season predictions are going to go very well.
11:30Yeah.
11:31It could be tough.
11:32Let me see what my bold predictions were.
11:35Jameer Gibbs scores 30-plus rushing touchdowns.
11:37He's off to a good start.
11:39Sonny Stiles wins D-Roy in the NFC.
11:42He had a sack in his first NFL game.
11:45I mean, listen, there's two clips.
11:47I'm drawing live, baby.
11:49That went viral from that.
11:50The Tyler Owens special teams.
11:52What a play.
11:53I mean, just an absolute monster.
11:55But if you were watching him in the preseason, he was really fun.
11:57I mean, he might be their biggest hitter on the team.
12:00Yeah.
12:00He destroys people.
12:02I don't know where he is in terms of injury.
12:04Hopefully, they can tighten him up and find more ways to get him on the field.
12:07But the other was the Stiles hit, where he just completely trucked Barkley.
12:11And, you know, he has a size advantage.
12:12As he said, that's what he should do to running back, given his size advantage.
12:19But, man, that was an impressive play.
12:20Isn't Tyler Owens also going viral, clearly, for the hustle and the special teams play?
12:25Didn't he, like, in an interview say he doesn't believe in outer space?
12:29Oh, I don't know that.
12:30I think, Valdez, if you can find that, I'd like to hear that.
12:33What does he believe in?
12:35What does he believe is that he's out there?
12:37I don't know what his beliefs are.
12:40I'm going to look that up.
12:41I think Valdez is going to effort to find it here.
12:43Yeah.
12:44That Tyler Owens, Washington commander, does not believe in outer space.
12:49Yeah.
12:50Which I find kind of weird.
12:53Hey.
12:54We choose, though.
12:55You guys are discussing that you don't believe in.
12:58Nah, I don't believe in space.
12:59Like, he's talking, I'm in a religion, so I think, like, the story is going to bring
13:04me to, like, other planets and stuff like that.
13:08What led you to that point to believe that?
13:10Well, like, I really, I thought you should believe, like, he doesn't do something like
13:15bringing some problems and stuff, but then, like, yeah.
13:18Yeah, just because the other guys are talking about it.
13:20He says he doesn't believe in other planets.
13:22He believes we're alone, so he doesn't believe in other life out there.
13:26He doesn't believe in other planets.
13:28I don't know how he doesn't think that Saturn's out there.
13:31I believe in other planets.
13:33I'm not into Jason's.
13:35There's life everywhere.
13:37This is from Bleacher Report's Brent Sebleski.
13:39The quote from Owens was, I'm real religious.
13:43I don't think there's other planets and other stuff like that.
13:47Right.
13:48Hey, he also feels flat Earth theories have some, quote, valid points.
13:54Yeah.
13:55It's just, those are just weird rabbit holes to go down.
13:57But, yeah, whatever, man.
13:58Okay.
13:59Hey, you know what?
14:00Just keep playing like you're playing.
14:01I don't care whether he believes in Venus or Mars.
14:04Just keep beating double teams and keep blowing up dudes on punt coverage.
14:08I mean, he's an absolute missile.
14:10I mean, when he hits guys.
14:11He's got speed.
14:12Yeah.
14:13Speed and power.
14:14He is fun to watch.
14:18So, yeah.
14:19I mean, you know.
14:19I guess we'll find out more today on the injuries.
14:21On the injuries.
14:22Yeah.
14:22Let's hope.
14:22Yeah.
14:23You know, we talk all along about how kind of difficult the schedule is.
14:28I hate to keep bringing it up.
14:29It is what it is.
14:29Difficult.
14:31That Giants game was one of the first five.
14:33That's actually where I thought we would have a reprieve.
14:35So, X that out.
14:37Yeah.
14:37Because of how good they looked, right?
14:38Maybe you can make the argument if Darnold is gone.
14:43You have a bit of a reprieve of the Seahawks, but they're still so complete that they could
14:47get away with it.
14:48I don't think it'll be a big drop off.
14:49I mean, I don't love Drew Loff, but I think he can step in for a game or two.
14:53I think it's such a complete team that they can manage with him.
14:58So, I don't know.
15:00Hopefully he is out.
15:01I'd rather play him with Locke.
15:04Yeah.
15:04You'd rather not face Sam Darnold.
15:05I'd rather play him with the backup.
15:06Yeah.
15:06So, you know, that could be somewhat hopeful.
15:08I think Dallas is going to play a lot better than they did in week one.
15:13I'm still picking Washington to win the game.
15:16I mean, it's kind of a must-have.
15:18It's a big one.
15:19Even if it's only week two.
15:21But I just think Dallas will play better.
15:23I'm going to pick him.
15:24But, again, it's going to be just based on hope.
15:25I have no sense.
15:27No idea.
15:28I'm surprised Jason's actually picking Washington.
15:30He's usually very anti-commanders when it comes to picks, it seems like.
15:35What up?
15:35I picked 10 wins.
15:39Got to get to 10 somehow, Cakes.
15:40Well, I have been getting to 11.
15:42I don't know how they're going to get to that number.
15:44That's going to take a freaking miracle.
15:46Now, if they lose on Sunday, then I'll probably be wrong.
15:51As far as getting to 10.
15:52If they go to start off 0-2, it's going to be tough to thread the needle to get to
15:5611 or 10 wins.
15:57Correct.
15:57Yeah.
15:58That's going to be a lot of wins you need to stack up later in the season.
16:01Although, people did point out that both Super Bowl teams last year started out 0-1.
16:05Sure.
16:06Patriots lost to the Raiders in week one last year.
16:09That's why you can't overestimate what happens in week one.
16:12I think the number is it drops down to like 15% or something to get to the playoffs if
16:17you start out 0-2.
16:18Not insurmountable.
16:19Teams have done it.
16:20Remember the Giants started out 0-2 back in the day?
16:23And they, you know, went on their run, won a Super Bowl.
16:28I mean, it could happen.
16:29Once in a great while, it happens.
16:31But I think it'll be very – if there were two AFC games, that's one thing.
16:35But two division games will be difficult to bounce back from.
16:38Yeah.
16:38Don't you think?
16:39Yeah.
16:40It just sucks that the Giants were, I was hoping, going to be one of the softer plays for us.
16:46You know, maybe a reprieve.
16:48And it's just not going to be.
16:49It's going to be a war.
16:50Yeah.
16:50It's going to be – even though it's at home.
16:52It's going to be a war.
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