00:00What were you most encouraged by last night?
00:03I had a defense.
00:05They were getting home, and they had several opportunities.
00:08I saw a couple more.
00:09They could have probably sacked him.
00:11You know, and the defensive, what I saw was rushing to the passer
00:17by stopping the run on the way there.
00:20You know, sometimes when they start going for the passer,
00:23they leave so much space, and they didn't do that.
00:27Last night I saw one time, but they closed the gap real quick.
00:30But I like the defense.
00:32I really like the defense, how they played.
00:33And then on offense, having multiple guys emerge
00:38as possibilities in the receiving core.
00:43Defensively, I think the one thing, honestly,
00:47the one thing they've done consistently for most of the season
00:50is play really good rush defense.
00:53Last night, 29 carries for the Eagles, 91 yards.
00:57About three yards per carry.
00:59Now, Saquon beat up, obviously, but he carried the ball 13 times
01:04for 30 yards, did have the touchdown run.
01:06Your boy, Elijah Mitchell, the Mitchell from Lafayette.
01:10You were in Lafayette, baby.
01:11Yeah, dude.
01:13Didn't show a lot.
01:14Showed a little, I thought, in the second half.
01:15But I give the commander's defense a lot of credit,
01:20especially how they shut that team down in the second half.
01:23Give up 10 early.
01:25One of them's on a short field.
01:26And then to basically shut them out after that,
01:29I thought was pretty impressive.
01:31Five sacks of Tanner McKee last night.
01:33Owe had one.
01:34Amenahu had one.
01:35Chason had one.
01:36Tuttle and Dorrance Armstrong.
01:39I want to make sure we don't lose this in the sauce.
01:42The play Dorrance Armstrong made to poke that ball out from Tanner McKee
01:47as he's going down to reach through and just see the ball and get the ball,
01:51that was a really impressive play.
01:53Dorrance last year was playing so well before the injury.
01:56Totally.
01:57Gets injured, working his way back, has to deal with the suspension in week one.
02:00It hasn't been the loudest start for Armstrong,
02:04but that was a hell of a play last night.
02:06Totally.
02:07I was quite impressed by that.
02:10Most encouraging, and perhaps this is an oversimplification,
02:13and I don't mean to sound like trite here,
02:15but just for them to get a win.
02:17Steph Diggs said this last week, and it kind of stuck with me.
02:21We just need to see the ball go through the hoop.
02:23And they had these close calls.
02:25They had some embarrassingly close calls,
02:27like the tie against the Giants,
02:29go back to week one against the Eagles when they were healthy,
02:32and it was Jalen Hurts on the field,
02:34and they had an opportunity late, couldn't convert.
02:37Even the Niners came.
02:38As good as the Niners have been,
02:40I mean, they had an opportunity late in that game.
02:42They had the ball last and couldn't get into the end zone.
02:45But I do think there is something to just getting a win,
02:50kind of stopping the noise surrounding everything for a week.
02:54I'm not saying the noise is over, but it's much quieter,
02:57because now it's like, all right, the Rams are coming to town.
03:00If we can beat them, then we've really righted the ship
03:04and can kind of move forward.
03:05You know what I'm saying?
03:06Totally.
03:07And that's what you're looking forward to.
03:09But I think, as Santana mentioned last night,
03:12it's not about any team we're playing against.
03:15It's what we need to do with ourselves.
03:17And if we can correct the things with the team,
03:20all of a sudden you'll see them getting more wins.
03:23I think so many times you get so caught up in what another team can do,
03:26and you don't correct the things that you need to do.
03:28If they correct the things they need to do,
03:30then they give themselves a much better chance.
03:32I agree with that.
03:33All right, let's hit these phones.
03:34What were you most encouraged by last night?
03:36Let's start with Jared in Rockville.
03:38Jared, what's up, dude?
03:40Hey, boys.
03:41I got three big takeaways.
03:43Number one, Sonny Stiles is smart and fast.
03:48And not that we didn't know that,
03:49but I feel like every week that goes on,
03:52I notice that number more and more.
03:55Number two, Tanner McKee is really bad.
03:58I think most other quarterbacks have a much,
04:03I don't want to say easier,
04:05but much more success against that defense.
04:07And number three, I'm seeing these next seven games,
04:12like maybe one or two point underdog or favorite.
04:16Like if we can win five of seven,
04:18we're right there with the final two games to be able to do something
04:21and maybe get into a postseason.
04:23All right, man.
04:23Yeah, dude.
04:24It's a good call.
04:25Appreciate you, Jared.
04:25I think Sonny is the real deal.
04:28I think you should be incredibly encouraged by Stiles.
04:31Hell yeah.
04:32Last night wasn't even like we did on the podcast
04:35trying to track Sonny Stiles kind of impact plays,
04:38like a big TFL, a pass defense, something like that.
04:41And I don't think, I'll have to pull it.
04:43I don't think he checked the box in any category last night
04:48outside of tackles,
04:50but he just makes an impact on the game.
04:52And honestly, last night was one of the first times
04:54we saw Sonny get a little lost on that wheel route to Saquon
04:58that Douglas got called on the interference.
05:00But like, it's week eight,
05:03and we're talking about a rookie linebacker
05:05that maybe had his first play where he got a little lost
05:07against an all-world player in Saquon.
05:10That, to me, is a testament to how good he's been.
05:13Yeah, totally, totally.
05:14Yeah, Sonny finished with eight tackles.
05:16Nick Cross was really good last night.
05:18Lou Vu was really good last night.
05:19That little blitzed boy, Nick, on down the street.
05:22Early.
05:23Nick gets involved, bro.
05:24Yeah, he's a thumper.
05:25Nick is the kind of guy when he touches you going down.
05:27You know who really stabilizes that back end is Trey Amos.
05:31Yeah.
05:32Having him out there with his length.
05:33I was mad that took his interception.
05:35Yeah.
05:36I'm on the chase on roughing.
05:38Yeah.
05:38Yeah.
05:40Now, listen.
05:41Next week, that challenge is going to be a lot different.
05:43Yeah.
05:43Because it's Puka Nakua.
05:44It's not Makai Lemon.
05:46It's going to be very, very different.
05:48Yeah.
05:48But defensively, if they can play like that for four quarters,
05:53you wonder what you got.
05:54Yeah.
05:55Yeah.
05:55Keep the phone lines going.
05:57Chris is in Richmond.
05:58What's up, Chris?
06:00Hey, man.
06:01How you guys doing?
06:01Good, dude.
06:02How are you?
06:03Good, good, good.
06:04Hey, I've got a couple of comments.
06:06Number one, how in the world do you get a false start on an extra point?
06:13That contributes to the penalties that we're getting all the time,
06:18and it's just frustrating.
06:19I mean, you know, I knew exactly when we got the penalty there.
06:24I was like, okay, now we're going to miss the extra point.
06:27And he didn't, thank goodness.
06:29The other thing that I wanted to kind of comment is more or less for Adam Peters.
06:36If Adam Peters was wearing a jersey, he'd be number 85 because he gets us about 85% of the
06:42way there.
06:45He's known that we've had a deficiency at center since he tried to go after the guy for the Raiders
06:50back in March.
06:53And he's known that we've had a deficiency at cornerback, and we've got $43 million in cap space.
06:58I don't understand why.
06:59I mean, we can't do anything about it now, but I don't understand why he didn't see those holes
07:04and try to plug him through free agency to stop this madness.
07:11I think last night you saw Amos, Amik, Rasul.
07:16I don't have snap counts yet.
07:17Maybe Stallion has them for me in the notes.
07:19We'll track snap counts down.
07:21But I think last night with Amos back on the field, Amik and Rasul Douglas,
07:26I think that's what, when they signed Rasul, whatever that was, mid-July.
07:30My guess is in early July, they still thought Mikey could be an important part of this defense.
07:36Yeah.
07:37I think now by early November, we know that's not the case.
07:39But I think Amos being on the field makes a massive difference.
07:44Listen, you're not wrong.
07:46And he's longer.
07:47What's that?
07:47He's like a little taller than most of the corners.
07:506'1".
07:51I wonder what his wingspan is because I bet it's longer than whatever 6'1 is.
07:55Like, he's just a long player.
07:58Peters is not infallible in this roster construction, period.
08:04Like, there's stuff when you look at the trades, the free agents, the draft picks.
08:09There's a giant chicken-and-egg discourse that will have to happen at some point.
08:14And I'm not sure a victory Monday is the day for it.
08:16But when you start to look at these drafts, you've got a couple of bona fide hits, I would say,
08:22in Sonny and Jaden, right?
08:23Those are also top 10 picks.
08:26Those are supposed to be hits.
08:27I don't know what player you point to and say they definitively delivered on their draft position,
08:34which is on AP.
08:37I don't know what player you point to that you can definitively say has improved over his time in Washington.
08:43And does that go to coaching staff?
08:45Does that go to development?
08:46Is that on the player, which means you missed?
08:48Like, there's a real conversation to be had there.
08:51And I don't know.
08:52That might be a January conversation.
08:54But, like, is it the chicken?
08:55Is it the egg?
08:56I don't know.
08:57But there is a – there's something that is not adding up in the player development,
09:03player acquisition part of town.
09:05That doesn't matter with the Rams coming to town.
09:07What matters right now with the Rams coming to town is to figure out how to win.
09:12Figure out –
09:13Hey, you got one, you feel good about it last night.
09:17Today, you're thinking about the Rams.
09:19You win another one, keep moving.
09:21You know what Matt Stafford can't do?
09:24Move very much.
09:25Yeah.
09:25And if you have the pressure like you did last night –
09:27You win another one, keep moving.
09:27You win another one, keep moving.
09:27You win another one, keep moving.
09:27You win another one, keep moving.
