- 7 minutes ago
ESPN Commanders insider John Keim joined The Sports Junkies to recap the Commanders win over the Eagles. Despite winning their second game of the season, the Commanders still have room for improvement, especially with penalties. Keim gives his insight into the penalty issues and what last night's win means for the Commanders moving forward.
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00:00that's part of the game and we can ask john about it now john's on the rude guest hotline
00:04rude's most reliable heating and airship products in the dmv and you wrote john quarterback jayden
00:10daniels wasn't that sharp but he made big plays an average 13 and a half yards per completion
00:14against a defense that was healthier than it has been what did you think of the offensive
00:19performance overall and jayden in particular yeah i mean well early on it was more the penalties
00:26and shooting themselves in the foot and there was some you know jayden was missing a little bit now
00:31some of that could be some timing issues at times i think there was one throw to antonio williams we
00:37kind of had to double clutch a little bit um so i don't know if like there was just a
00:41little bit
00:42off on whether the route or the drop whatever it was but the timing was a little bit off and
00:47then
00:47um you know you once you start eliminating the penalties kind of makes your life a little bit
00:53easier doesn't it and that's that's what happened two you have two drives were two penalties each
00:57right in the first quarter then you had the fumble and then it's 10 to nothing and after that point
01:02you know he i mean he was jayden right he had a couple a couple nice runs but some good
01:08deep balls
01:08um chig made an incredible catch one time and tony williams makes a really good catch so they were
01:14able to start getting chunk plays and to me that was a huge key because early on i think the
01:19longest
01:20play for a while was like 11 yards like you it's hard to survive in this league like that and
01:24then
01:24when they started getting the chunk plays that's when just things started they were these started
01:28to settle down a lot and they and they they didn't run the ball great but they ran the ball
01:32efficiently
01:33and that's what they had to be there they they were avoiding i mean i was joking with bearish
01:38lugo the in the press box last night at one point like it felt like there were a hundred third
01:41down in force for both teams combined but getting in those third and manageable was a massive key for
01:47them john is it a bad sign that at this point through five games jacori krosky merit still
01:53leads this team in rushing with 239 yards jayden is pretty close behind he's only three yards behind
01:58in the same amount of games but rashad white has one more game played 200 yards rushing like
02:04they're just having a hard time landing on one guy to do it and they're just trying to fit two
02:08or
02:09three different pieces back there behind jayden to get this running game untracked right and i think
02:14it's going to be like that because i don't see anybody really emerging from this group i think
02:18you have guys who can do some things and you take advantage of what they can do you do not
02:23have that
02:23one back right now that's just going to carry the load or be that guy so you kind of mix
02:28and match a
02:29little bit and i think when you know whenever you know krosky merit is dealing with the groin injury
02:33whenever he's able to come back uh then maybe you can get a guy who can do a little bit
02:38more for you
02:39add a little bit more juice back there um so then it comes down to a little bit of blocking
02:43i think
02:44they had some of that last night too there are a couple really nice run a couple nice runs that
02:48were you know they're in 50 yard runs but they're effective runs for them and that's what they need
02:54to be they can't they're not their dynamic play is not going to come from their run game but they
02:59have to be efficient with it and avoid the like for a while it felt like they're all your previous
03:05games
03:05always second and eight second nine or whatever and and then the second down would be bad right and
03:11so when you do that then you're behind the chains and when you do that you put more pressure on
03:15the
03:15quarterback to complete third and longs all the time tough place to live so if you can get to that
03:21four yards a pop consistently then then they can at least have a functional more functional offense
03:29i remember one i i don't know i felt like it was kind of a critical junction in the game
03:34it was like it was late so correct me if i'm wrong but we had that situation where we're deep
03:39in our
03:39own territory then we had to punt with like a minute and 40 left or something like that and then
03:45sort of inexplicably just philly just gave it right back to us and right and then we were able to
03:50go
03:50down there salvage something get a field goal or whatever i don't know it just seemed like i i was
03:55kind of stunned by that the philly wasn't able to kind of take advantage at least you know put any
04:00kind
04:01of drive together they do have their backup quarterback but i guess you got to give some
04:04credit to to washington's defense because they did make some plays well i think what you give them
04:10credit is they did what they should do right and that is a wounded offense listen i would say this
04:16nobody felt sorry for this team and these players would say the same thing yeah nobody felt sorry for
04:20them last year when they had a wounded offense and instead there were still expectations because this is
04:26what you had going into the year and and so um so you you kind of always know that like
04:31this is the
04:32way the league is so if you have that situation and they gave up a lot of points and yards
04:37you kind of
04:38feel bad so they did what they should do against that team and they controlled i think what was good
04:43for
04:44them to see is that you didn't have deron pain you didn't have javon kinlaw and they were doing a
04:48pretty
04:48good job up front and i like i'm i would i like the omena who's signing when they got him
04:54um i think
04:55he's been a very valuable addition and i think he had another good game i think wise has played done
05:00a nice job i think guys like tim settle right you know have done well so but so i think
05:05that's that
05:05to me is what the positive was it's not so much like hey their problem is solved we don't know
05:10that
05:11i think it takes more than one game to feel like that especially when you know they were missing a
05:16lot
05:16of parts but they they executed better i felt like you know the pass rush but even dan quince
05:22there was more coordinated but you didn't see the big gaps um in the rush that you've seen in other
05:27games where it was like okay this guy's up here this guy's over here and now there's a gap to
05:31run
05:31through so they were avoiding that good pressure on the quarterback so the the secondary better you
05:37know i don't it's always communication but i think more in sync with what they want to give us his
05:41help too right clearly no big time yeah he's a good he's anytime you any time you put a good
05:47cornerback there yeah he's going to help and he made some plays so yeah and i also i wouldn't
05:52underestimate like nick cross nick cross big in his play too like in the because they can use him as
05:57a
05:57linebacker um in some sets and they can use he can play you know he does different you know multiple
06:03safety positions so that i think his his his return and train versus um uh playing is a big deal
06:10yeah
06:11how do you how do you explain this the slow starts in the first quarter i don't especially with the
06:17penalties especially with the penalties it's it's shocking because it's been a point of emphasis
06:22um for a long time like even in training camp um there were a lot of days where like false
06:29start
06:29false start now sometimes in those situations some of that can be i don't know about understandable
06:35but when you have a new offense you have a quarterback in a new role essentially within
06:40that offense and so it can lead to some jumps in this and that right but it's been a point
06:45of
06:45emphasis for them for a long time and it remains an issue and you know sometimes with the tackles they
06:52might try to time the the snap or whatever we've seen that a lot over the league and sometimes they
06:57get
06:57to get away with it um but as dan quinn said when it's your interior guys jumping like are doing
07:02something that's an issue and um like that's but they it i i don't have an answer for it um
07:09it could
07:09be a variety of things sometimes it's you know again when you're getting used to a cadence um
07:15that could be an issue it could just be focus you know and it and it could be you know
07:21a lot of
07:21things and and unfortunately it keeps happening that's what i say like they had a good drive going and
07:26they had multiple you know a penalty penalty and now you're kicking a 55 yard field goal
07:31how much of it is you know i know that certainly in training camp you guys are there able to
07:37see
07:37more but you know it's not like these guys are like working on things for hours at a time when
07:43they say they're putting extra emphasis on it i mean correct me if i'm wrong it might be a five
07:47extra minutes they're going through so many things well i don't i think it's as much like
07:52you know maybe accountability issue things like that right like yeah you know or trying to clean
07:57some things up like it doesn't have to be that we're going to spend five more minutes working
08:01on the huddle it could be you know you've got to do this better you know what i mean it's
08:05just
08:05it doesn't you know you're not i don't think you're not going to have them run laps for this
08:09no but but maybe but maybe john maybe they just need more time with the cadence will but you know
08:16the way a professional practice is run everything is so quick they do three or four reps of this
08:20three or four reps of this three but they're on the next on the next whistle blows on the next
08:24on
08:24the next right so it you know maybe there's just not enough time sometimes they've been practicing
08:30since august i know i'm not good like i know there's been there's been a lot of years where
08:34there hasn't been enough time and they're not doing this so yeah it's the worst ever right it's great
08:38it's terrible i think the players are dumb so they need more time i don't think it's that but i
08:45don't
08:46you know i don't know if it's i listen i don't think it's the time factor right there's again there's
08:50like you know again it could be and i don't i don't know all the reasons why um i i
08:57know that
08:57cadence is a big issue deal for for any team right and i don't know that that's the reason but
09:03i think
09:04like when you're in a new situation for jayden doing it that could be one of the issues so they
09:10gotta rep that out though john that's a time thing i know but i don't but i don't know that
09:13it's i don't
09:14i think if it were just that then that would be easy to fix do you know what i'm saying
09:18so i don't
09:18know that it's i don't know um that that is the issue i just think that when you see a
09:24lot of them
09:24you look at everything and but again like if it's you know it could just be again a focus it
09:29could be
09:30trying to time a jump and you're you know you're facing a good pass rusher and you just you you
09:36leave
09:36early so the thing is like again when they say if it's if it's your guards doing it like that's
09:42a
09:42problem and then some of the times sometimes it's an illegal shift that would you know that could be
09:47um it's typically gonna be like you do you've got to be a little bit more patient before you snap
09:53the
09:53ball right um so you know it could be like i said it could be a lot of things i
09:57don't i think if it
09:57were one as they would always say if it were one thing it'd be easier to fix i don't think
10:02that
10:02that's the case well i also think that you know is it keeps happening well i also think that like
10:07you could think what you want about dan but dan's been around professional football for what 30 years so
10:11like i'm sure he's doing all the things that all the guys do when this happens correct correct
10:16yeah correct like for sure and it's not this is an this has been unusual unusually bad for them i
10:24think like i think i had i think they've already had more illegal shifts this year than they had the
10:29last two years combined and that was that was as of a couple games ago so they've got 22
10:35they've got 22 pre-snap penalties which ranks 29th in the league yeah so yeah yeah not where you
10:43want to be that's you know some teams can over like there are other teams that have a lot of
10:47penalties that are pretty good right they're not one of them and so like you have to be a lot
10:51better
10:51in that area because like what if if you were playing a a team that wasn't wounded on offense
10:57last night what happens if you don't score on you know you don't uh have the ability to come back
11:02right and you know or because you blew some of those drives because of the penalties like that's
11:07that's where like they can you know when from last night it's they had to get that win that was
11:13an
11:13absolute win you have to get it was necessary it i think if they had played a cleaner game with
11:19that
11:19you could feel like okay you know and after the first quarter they did they played it they did a
11:23nice job after the first quarter but i think those penalties are why it's like this is what we keep
11:28seeing and so until you get that taken care of when you play better teams how much is that going
11:34to hurt you all right john we can at least bask in a victory monday for a few days and
11:40then we'll look
11:40ahead at the rams next and hopefully they keep it going thanks john there you go thanks guys all right
11:45buddy