The Kevin Sheehan Show - Injury Info + Steve Suter "Film"

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Kevin opened with all of the Commanders' injury news from the first practice day in preparation for the Falcons on Sunday. Steve Suter is back with another "film breakdown". He graded out Marcus Mariota's first start and gave his top3/bottom3 grades for both the offense and defense from Sunday's win over the Raiders. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. One guest with me on the show today, Steve Souter is back for another film session. He will give us his overview of the wins Sunday over the Raiders. Great out Marcus Mariotta's game and then give us his top three and bottom three, offensive and defensive performers.

Steve was great last week in his film breakdown debut on this show. You're going to love this one today as well. The show's presenting sponsors always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com. If you need new windows, mention my name, and they'll come out and give you a free, no obligation in-home estimate. There's breaking news to open up this show. It's Nat's News.

And it comes from ESPN's Jeff Passon, who just tweeted out, The Washington Nationals are finalizing a deal to name Paul Toboni, their new head of baseball operations. Toboni 35 rose rapidly to become assistant GM for the Boston Red Sox and is widely regarded as one of the best young executives in Major League Baseball. That from Jeff Passon. The Nats have their Mike Rizzo replacement, 35-year-old Paul Toboni, the assistant GM in Boston. I will save this show's reaction for tomorrow when Tommy is on with me.

Tommy will know a lot more about Toboni than I do. So let's get to the injury situations. And yes, there are multiple. injury situations out in Ashburn. So today being Wednesday, the first day of a full practice and install for the game Sunday against Atlanta, Jaden Daniels practiced but was limited. Terry McLaren did not practice at all today. And that's pretty much all we got from Dan Quinn when he held his pre-practice press conference other than saying Jaden is going through their return to play process and that he's, quote, working really hard to get there

and to hit all the stuff that he needs to hit, closed quote. But for the most part, Quinn, you know, didn't reveal much at all. He pushed any real information about whether or not either of those two players, Jaden or Terry, will play Sunday in Atlanta. He pushed it back to Friday, which he did last week with Jaden, you recall. He also didn't provide any information on the other injured players, Noah Brown, John Bates, Trey Amos. But the injury report just came out for this first day of injury reports. And we have this. Noah Brown and John Bates did not practice today, along with Terry McLaurin.

Same for Percy Butler and Bill Kroski Merritt. Kroski Merritt, Bill. was held out today for a knee issue. Not sure that we knew that up until today. Anybody else that missed practice today did so for rest purposes. Trey Amos was limited, so he did practice some. So that's, you know, we got really not much at all from Quinn before practice. But then we did get from Jaden after practice, first of all, that Jaden was the quarterback. that addressed the media. Remember last week, Marcus Mariotta was the quarterback that took, you know,

the Wednesday press conference quarterback responsibilities. So maybe, you know, a slight indication that Jaden has a shot this week in Atlanta. But Jaden didn't give up much in terms of information either about his injury. He did say a few things, and I'll just mention them to you. He said he feels like himself. He said he feels like he can play. but that it's the doctor's decision, not his. He was asked specifically about how much running and cutting he's able to do, and he said, quote, enough to feel good if I play on Sunday, closed quote. He also said that he did not know that he got hurt during the Green Bay game.

He didn't play the rest of the game thinking that he had been hurt. He also said that he's never worn a brace. during a game. He's been reportedly wearing one around the facility since the Green Bay game. And he said that it would be something to get used to if he wears a brace in a game, but that's a conversation and a decision that would, you know, take place with the team doctors. Just not a lot from Quinn, which I like, and I didn't expect to get a lot today. I think the fact that he was limited is certainly a better sign than him not practicing at all. But really, the tell would have been had he been a full participant in practice.

Yeah, I don't think that I heard enough or learned enough today to feel strongly one way or the other about Jaden playing Sunday against the Falcons. With Terry, I think that's a different story. You know, first of all, Terry was held out of practice. Secondly, there's lots of reporting out there on Terry's injury. This morning, Ian Rappaport reported that Terry will receive another opinion on his quad today and that he's received several opinions, including from Dr. Williams-Myers, the nation's expert in core muscle injuries. Rapaport continued in his tweet.

As of now, they believe it's a quad injury, but more tests are coming, and his status is in doubt for Sunday. Now, this guy, Dr. William Myers, is a world-renowned sports hernia expert and surgeon. Our own Sabah, Dr. Sabah. Yes, if you didn't know that, Sabah is a doctor. she sent me a DM during the radio show. She did her residency under Myers and told me the following. Quote, William Myers, who trained me during my surgical residency, actually signed my degree as he was the program director.

He is the expert on sports hernias. I probably did about 20 of those surgeries with him. Usually on NHL and MLB players in Boston, at that time. Real easy and quick procedure, but likely will require at least six weeks before going back to playing football. Now, Sabah's sports hernia in six weeks is not an official diagnosis, but there have been others out there that have jumped on this sports hernia thing. One big sports injury guy on the internet, and I've had him on the show before, is Dr. Jesse Morse. He's got 144,000 followers on Twitter on X.

I had him on, I'm pretty sure, during the Chase Young injury days. This is what he tweeted, Dr. Jesse Morse. Quote, Terry McLorn reportedly is being evaluated by Dr. William Moll. who is the sports hernius specialist. If he indeed does end up having a sports hernia and he recommends having surgery, then he'll likely miss six weeks. That's the Sabah, I guess. It is unclear if this is the same injury as his quad or if this is a different injury. This is always my concern with players that hold out as they are at increased risk for soft. tissue injuries. So, you know, the safe guess, I think at this point, or the safe bet would be

that Terry's not going to play Sunday in Atlanta, which will be an issue. I mean, it would be an issue as a standalone, you know, loss, but then adding it to the Noah Brown, you know, injury, and he didn't practice at all today. Maybe he misses a second game. Man, they will be limited at wide receiver. Chris Moore, Jalen Lane, Luke McCaffrey, of course, Debo. It wouldn't surprise me if we see Jacori Brooks called up from the practice squad for this one. We haven't seen him since the preseason. But, you know, a lot of discussion about Terry's injury if he ends up missing games. And, you know, everybody wants to go back to the holdout, the hold in, the not participating in training camp. not, you know, I'm not capable and I'm certainly not expert enough to, you know, tie it to

no summer of work. I get it. I get why, you know, this is a concern. And we talked about this over the summer that it does seem that when players miss a lot of camp, they end up getting hurt with soft tissue injuries. So, yeah, there is that. And in terms of, going back and, you know, for those of you that would say, well, the team totally effed this up. They should have just signed him. They should have paid him what he wanted and got him in there. This is the Jaden Daniels rookie contract window. You need a healthy and happy Terry McLaren.

Okay. But the team was never going to do that. For those of you that would look at it the other way, you might say that, you know, first of all, the team shouldn't have paid Terry what he and his agent were looking for. They never were going to give him that. But that one of the reasons they weren't going to give him what he wanted was because post-30, this is a higher-risk player, diminishing returns historically for wide receivers once they get into their, you know, 30-plus seasons. So this might be one of those. things where they are sitting back saying, look, it was maybe a soft tissue issue. It might have

had something to do without, you know, with the missing of work, but this is also a risk for receivers when they get older, which is precisely why we were never going to pay him top-tier wide receiver money. By the way, Quinn also was asked about kicker Matt Gay, and he said that they're not considering a kicking change and that they have, quote, full belief in Matt, closed quote. By the way, Washington not the only team dealing with injuries. We've talked about some of the big ones from earlier in the week or from over the weekend. Nick Bosa being lost for the season again in San Francisco is a big one.

But this news broke this afternoon. The Eagles are going to be without Nolan Smith. Nolan Smith has been a hell of a player for them. Remember, he got hurt in the Super Bowl, but he strained his triceps in the wind Sunday over the Rams. He's on injured reserve, and the Eagles are saying maybe early to mid-November for his return. The Eagles so far through three games have been a good defensive team,

but not the dominant defensive team that they were last year. But I would also remind everybody that the Eagles early in the season last year were not the dominant defensive team that they turned out to be. Some of that was because of injuries, but they really kind of grew into a dominant, you know, defensive team as the season went along. I mean, you started to see it when they went to Cincinnati last year, remember, and completely shut Joe Burrow down. But that was like mid to late October. But then when we got into December, I mean, it was a lights out defensive team. You know, mid to late November, you started to see that team come together. You know, interestingly, the Eagles play at Tampa on Sunday.

Last year, in week four, they went to Tampa as well, and they got blown out. And, you know, at that moment, there was a belief that the Eagles may not be a good team, that they may just be an average team. why early season NFL can be so incredibly misleading. But in that game at Tampa last year in week four, they were without A.J. Brown, Devante Smith, and I think a couple of key offensive linemen. And they got blown out. Well, this week, they'll go to Tampa healthier, although losing Nolan Smith is a big deal. But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have an injury that they're dealing with. Mike Evans has a hamstring.

injury and he might miss three to four weeks. That's a huge game Sunday. You know, already here, we're week four and we get the matchup of the Eagles and Bucks two undefeated teams. We get also the Colts undefeated at the Rams. And then we get the Ravens and Chiefs in the 425 window. The loser of that game is one and three. It would be actually, I think a bigger problem for Kansas City starting one and three because of the chargers, you know, currently at 3 and 0. The Ravens in that AFC North, you know, one and three because they haven't played anybody other than Cleveland, and they beat Cleveland, they would still, I think, be very much in the AFC North race. You know, the NFC right now holds a 9 to 3 advantage.

over the AFC in their 12 head-to-heads. If that continues, then the NFC once again is going to be a conference in which, if you don't win your division, you better have no less than 10 wins and probably need 11. Green Bay was the 7 seed last year at 11 and 6. And when the NFC dominates the AFC or vice versa, it typically raises the floor. of wildcard birth records. So Washington, you know, looking, you know, at the landscape of the NFC, it's tough, man. It's a loaded NFC and they're dominating the AFC right now.

It doesn't mean it'll continue that way. But if it does, you're going to need to win the division or get to, you know, 10 minimum, but probably 11. You know, all of the, I think, angst over the injuries is justifiable. But I do kind of sense from a lot of you that you feel like the seasons teetering here early. Remember this. They're two and one. You know, they got that win Sunday against the Raiders.

That was big. They're two and one and they are favored, very short favorite Sunday in Atlanta. I think the Falcons are going to be tough. When you lose 30 to nothing in this league, we know what it looks like. The next week, expect that team to play really well. You know, Green Bay played great and got beat at Cleveland after Cleveland got blown out. The Giants got, you know, crunched in the opener against us, and then put 37 and 500 yards up against the Cowboys in week two.

I mean, the Falcons seem like, you know, a super dangerous team. Sunday, although there's a lot of discussion down there just about the Pennix Jr. performance and how bad it was. But they also got away from some of their heavier personnel and an emphasis on running the football. Now, the score dictated some of that. But there's a lot going on down in Atlanta. But I don't know if you're catching the Falcons at the right time. You know, when a team loses 30 to nothing, expect their best in the next game. But my point being, You're two and one. You're not one and two. You're not O and three. You know, you've won two games. You lost. The only loss was to a true NFC championship, you know, and Super Bowl contender, most people think. And, you know, I look at these next two games with the injuries that they have. You've got to get one of the next two in Atlanta or against the Chargers, right? And B3 and two coming home to face the Bears. Bears might be better than we think. think. The Cowboys are horrible on defense, but the Bears played pretty well offensively

against Detroit, even though they got blown out in week two. It's a dynamic thing, the NFL. It really is evolving and changing in week to week, as we always talk about. But, you know, I'm hearing from a lot of you that I kind of get this sense that, this isn't going to be the year. It's three weeks in Washington is two and one. And they'll have a chance Sunday in Atlanta, even as an injured team, to get to three and one. I'm certainly not counting that as a win, not even close. But they're not on the road facing the lions or the Eagles at this point or the bills. All right, let's get to Steve Souter and his film breakdown of the Raiders game.

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Joining me right now, back by very popular demand. After one week of doing film breakdown last week of the game against Green Bay is one of the greatest punt returners in NCAA history, Steve Souter, who played for Ralph Regens' teams in the early 2000s, and he's been calling Maryland football games with Johnny Holiday on the Maryland Football Radio Network for several years. Now, real quickly, by the way, Terps 4-0, buy week this week. You know, typically when you've heard Steve on the show with me in the past,

we've been talking Terps. Now we're doing film breakdown, but let's just take a minute, minute to talk about the win over Wisconsin. I watch the game. I have a sense of what happened in the game, but for somebody that didn't watch it and they saw Maryland beat Wisconsin 27 to 10, describe it in like 30 seconds or less. Wow. Well, if you didn't watch a Terp game, it was kind of like watching the commanders game. Dominated in all three phases, defense, special teams, and offense. I think the Wisconsin teams just a little bit outmatched right now with O'Neill quarterback. They'd be much better off with Billy Edwards in there.

So he's not the most effective guy. Moves the ball more of his feet than he does with his arm. And Maryland defensively, we're just all over him. And offensively, league washes continuing to grow. Made some mistakes, but he's getting away with them right now early on this season. And they just look like a fun team to watch. So the Wisconsin quarterback that came in for Billy Edwards, he was pretty awful, wasn't he?

he didn't get much help I could say but he just he just struggled they didn't they couldn't move the ball running the ball which is wild to say that about it was constant their most effective run was a fake jet sweep a quarterback dive up the middle that was their most efficient run all day they were getting a little maybe like four or five yards when they did decide to run that but other than that they stayed behind the chain most of the day so then you played into what I think Maryland's strength is on defense is their linebackers and secondary and that pass right the young guys was I hear Mathis and Sidney Stewart. Those two look like some real dogs up front and young guys. So they just had it their way the whole time. The Terps did. Yeah, because you know this. There have been years in which the team has started off 3 and 0, 4 and O. And it's not been necessarily, you know, a, you know, a harbinger of things to come when they get into Big Ten play.

But the fact that they now have a road win, in Madison, even though this isn't a very good Wisconsin team. It's interesting for now. I think the strength of this team isn't necessarily the freshman quarterback. I think it's the defense. You mentioned Sidney Stewart number 29. They've got a lot of young players that are extremely talented on defense. And even in the first three games, they had six interceptions in the first game of the year

against Florida Atlantic. I mean, is this a defense? that can hold up against the better Big Ten teams, which they don't have all of them on the schedule this year, as you know. No Ohio State, no Penn State, but they're going to face Indiana. They're going to face Illinois. They got Nebraska. They got Washington. But do you think this is a defensive-led team?

I do. I think it's defensive-led. You bring up Sidney Stewart, and I could agree with you early on. He's having a big impact, maybe one of the most dynamic impacts that I could think of. as a true freshman from the defensive side of the ball, rushing the passer. I may be forgetting somebody if you go on the turf rolladex, but off the top of my head, his impact, I think, is the greatest so far in his young career. And you go into the fourth game Wisconsin.

So you mentioned the Wisconsin, yeah, sure, maybe they're a little down, but I think that's just at the quarterback position, but they still are Wisconsin tackles, and they're still Wisconsin guards, the typical guy that you would expect to see there. And he was having his way with them, too, on some critical down. So I think Sidney Stewart's legit, regardless to who the competition is in front of them. Zeyer Mathis is legit, another true freshman. They got Daniel Wingate, who's...

Yeah, number one. Hopefully he stays. Yeah, hopefully he stays. He's a third-round pick linebacker probably if he comes out next year, if not better. And so if you have that core, and then the Zion kid who I don't like talking about people that aren't at the school yet, you never know what a high school senior is going to turn into. But he's one of the number one D&Ns in the country, and if he's one of the number one, and if he's coming to Maryland too, then you're going to have a nice little four piece there.

If they can all stay together, that's what you've got to do. Just right across your fingers down in the state and age of college football that you can have them for multiple years. Well, we'll talk more about the Terps before their game a week from Saturday against Washington at home. Washington's undefeated, but they play Ohio State this week. Out in Seattle, they'll get the number one team in the country, and then they come to College Park on October 4th for a 3.30. start and Maryland will be a 4-0 football team.

We'll find out more about Washington this week. So we can talk about Malik Washington and the Terps before that game. All right. Steve, unbelievable in his debut breaking down film. For those that are hearing it for the first time, you know, I'll make a long story short. The baseball coach at Marilyn Matt Swope reached out to me. He's a listener and said,

Steve Suter is great as a guest on your show talking Terps football, but what he would really be good at is doing Cooley's film breakdown. So he did it last week. I'm just going to read a few of the emails. I mean, I got dozens and dozens of them. A longtime listener Tim, who's a huge skins fan from Indianapolis, he wrote to me, hearing Steve Suter would be doing film breakdown, kind of bummed me out because it was the reality that Cooley is drifting even further.

away. But my guy, Kevin Sheehan, was right. Steve was gold. Really enjoyed the insight. In my case, the reality. Highly recommend. Brandon wrote, Steve was awesome. Hopefully he continues. And then this from Walter. Walter wrote, Kevin, I'm a lifelong Redskins fan, and I've loved listening to you since the Wrigan's days. Anyway, he goes, you and Cooley were always great. And Cooley's film analysis was groundbreaking for the day. Nobody's come close to it since he stopped doing it on a regular basis. But listening to Steve Souter, I heard a Cooley disciple. Wow, was he good? And he delivered it in a similar way to Cooley, even though it's audio and not video, the way he described things made such a clear picture. Can't wait to hear the other part of his Packers

breakdown. That's when I played the offense first and I played the second part afterwards. Yeah, you were really good doing this. So you've got to tough act to follow. Your debut was outstanding. And you had a shitty game to, you know, to analyze because they got their ass kicked by the Packers. So let's do it. Let's do it the way we did it last week. Let's start with just kind of your overview of the game. And then we'll get to Marcus Mariotta. And then you'll give me your three highest performers on offense, three lowest performers on offense, three highest on defense, three lowest on defense. And I am sure I will ask you something about Jalen Lane's punt return ability, which you,

by the way, last week said, I really like this kid. He's got, you know, there's something coming from him. All right, so let's start with your overview of their 41 to 24 win over the Raiders on Sunday. Right. The score really dictates, right, obvious, dominant performance. I've watching the film and watching the game dominant. Total change from last week. I thought I was watching a different team.

From a preparation standpoint, I think both offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator for the commanders were much better prepared this week than they were last week for what the Ravens were going to, excuse me, what the Raiders were going to approach them with and what they were going to take advantage of. I thought Kingsbury's game plan was awesome coming in. Even having Marriota, maybe there's some dynamic differences there between what he's comfortable calling and what he's not, with Daniels versus Marriota, but that's something we can maybe get into later.

But from an offensive standpoint, coming out, it reminded me some old hogs-type football. They ran six linemen at 19 times during the game, and I would say only five of those wrong goal line, which we'd expect to see an extra lineman. But in between the 20s, they power football. It was an absolute peach tape of run blocking from the whole team, offensive line, to the running backs. if you want to learn how to call runs and how to block runs, watching Washington against the race was a perfect example.

And even when some of the runs from a schematic standpoint put some of the players in not opportunistic positions, for example, like a tight end needs to get to Devin White who's crashing down an A gap, and he can't quite get there because he really shouldn't be able to get there, the running backs were bailed them out, making better cuts off of those unblocked defenders. So it was a total team effort offensively from the game playing was different. The run game was different. And then Mariotta, I thought, was fantastic. He could get him specifically later by his decision making. And Kingsbury's calls when he thought he was going to get man coverage versus when he thought he was going to get zone. He was right for most of the game.

So Kingsbury was, he was on point. He called a great game and the offense helped him out and executed every play defensively. I thought I was watching the Packers from last week, honestly. There was not as much man coverage as there was against the Packers. There was a lot of zone that they ran. And when they blitzed, Washington, they did. They even zone blitzed. So usually when you get a blitz, you're going to have man coverage behind it. Not last week. When they blitzed, there was a zone behind it. They did a lot of match zone, which is tough to do. They messed it up a couple of times where you're in a zone, but then the guy's in your zone. So then you turn into man on that player. But defensively, Joe Wick called a good game because it was a lot different. I'm also not

naive to think you only watch the prior game film if you're a coach, right? They go back, they can go back years based on coordinators, but I know what one thing that the Raiders couldn't do, or if they did, it was not beneficial to them. If they tried to make any preparation based off the Packer film, they didn't see any of that. So that was a good switch up, in my opinion. So offensive defensively, players played well, coaches coached well, special teams also really dynamic in a return game. That's obvious. There may be a kicking issue that you probably probably no better than me watching him more, but he seems to be letting them down a little bit. Got bailed out on the ice, right, to get a re-kick.

I really missed the one on the timeout. But all in all, fantastic performance. I think, what else I pointed out last? I pointed out that Al Goretti was one of my lowest linemen, and they pulled him from the starting lineup this week, and while he played, he was an upgrade. Last week I mentioned Chris Paul specifically was one of my highest grade players, only, even though he only had 11 plays,

well, I saw Coleman was a coach's decision not to play. Chris Paul started. He was awesome. I don't see how he's not starting guard moving forward, and I don't see how Wiley's not the other starting guard moving forward. So this new lineup, to me, you'll see for the remainder of this season, and it worked out well. They were almost every lineman had a really good game.

Interesting. And when we talk about the lowest grades, we can get, we'll get, we'll get, why, almost. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, and maybe we're going to be talking about a player that we talked about last week. But, you know, one other quick thing, Sam Cosmi, who has been an excellent starting guard from them, for them, got injured in the playoff game last year against Detroit. He is eligible to come off the Pupilus next week. You know, there are people, other than Tonsal, there are people that believe that Cosme is their best offensive linemen. And he's played at that level. So there may be

an upgrade coming as well. But that's, you did. You said last week, Allegretti really struggled and you thought Chris Paul and his limited snaps played real well. And, you know, Allegretti was replaced by Wiley and Chris Paul was in there for Coleman

who wasn't even active for the game. Let me ask you a quick question before we get to Marriota. Like the Packers, you know, you talked about how good Jordan Love was. You talked about how great they were defensively, where they only had to rush four, they had seven in coverage, and what did you think of the Raiders as an opponent?

See, you know what? Man, there's a little bit of that, right? And I think I know what you're getting at. Just a different level of competition. Didn't have to worry about their four-man rush as much, but they also didn't give them a chance to utilize that aspect of their defense because of what I mentioned with the sixth offensive linemen. They start, right? So, Sebo has the big return, and they come out the first play, and they're going in heavy jumbo,

and they're bringing Trent Scott in the extra tackle, and they do that four plays in a row. And you think maybe that's a inside the 30 thing that Kingsbury wanted to take advantage, just because of the kickoff was so good that they're just going to go into that package. But that wasn't the case because they did it all throughout the game. But you go those first four plays are extra linemen. You're not calling a pass player. They're all working, too, right? You're getting chunks.

Each run was effective. And then the first time he dropped back to pass is the third and two, where Marioas scramble for the touchdown. And it's a really good play by Marioota. One I encourage you to watch there. It's just a decisive read. They think they're getting – so this is maybe one time Kingsbury. He calls a man coverage route. He's got Debo and Moore on the right side, and they want to run a fake rub, pivot to Debo coming back towards the center.

Devin White, the linebacker there, he's inzo coverage. and he just moves out and he gets in there and blocks that hole. What's Mariotta's first read, he thinks he's getting man coverage because it looks like man coverage. Then you could see him read as a white. He comes over into the throwing area. So instead of going around and trying to find another receiver, he says, that was my first read. It's third and two.

I'm on the goal line. I'm tucking in and running. And that's how he scramble for a touchdown. So it's a really good decisive read by Mariotta. I like the play call. Even though the coverage wasn't conducive for it, it's still a good play call. down there on the line of scrimmage and use Mario to speak, so they take advantage of that. What I was getting at, really, what I was getting at as far as the Raiders are concerned,

like I thought that especially going into the game, because I went back and watched the Raiders against the Chargers, they had major offensive line issues in particular. And I thought our defensive line could dominate it, whereas, you know, Green Bay was much more difficult. And then their defensive front wasn't terrible, but their back end wasn't great. And I thought it was a much better matchup. I was just trying to see if you thought what I thought, which was the Raiders aren't a very good football team. And then add to that, you know, they were coming east after a short week because they had played late on Monday night football in Washington. It had essentially a mini buy and was the fresher team. I didn't know if that was part of your

overall observation of the game. Yeah, so I'll say this. I couldn't even name you a player on the Raiders defense other than Max Crosby. He's the only one that jumped out on film. He's the only one that made any plays. And that's a very good compliment that I can compliment Washington's offense. Just handled the Raiders defensively

all, let's say, 10 of the 11 players. Again, Max is the only one that really made any sense of plays and won any one-on-one matchups. And then offensively, they've I agree. I watched them struggle on some blocking assignments in the run game and in pass protection. And when they messed those up, Washington took advantage of it. So it was much different from a mental standpoint between the Packers and the Raiders on offense. You didn't see the Packers breaking down protection.

You didn't see them have two linemen going left and one going right, messing that up. But the Raiders did. So there's a situation there where I agree the Raiders aren't the same competition of the Packers. All right. Let's get to Mario Odom. By the way, I just pulled up the touchdown. You know, there were a lot of people in the moment that thought it was a quarterback draw. I'm like, it's not a quarterback draw. They're pass blocking on that play.

So, yeah, I can see Devin White, you know, 45, who by the way was a phenomenal player in Tampa Bay, you know, as a young player. And then, you know, essentially became a much lesser player. He played in that Super Bowl win on the Brady team and played phenomenal. well during that postseason. And I always thought he was a talented player, but he's had some ups and downs to his career. But yeah, I see him. He thinks it's man coverage, and Devin White post-snap moves right into that zone. Yep.

And I just love it. Pull it and try to scramble score like he does. He's athletic. You do it. Marriota, if he doesn't fumble that football on the keep, on the read, on his 22-yard skipper, I mean, we're talking about a perfect game. He was awesome. He made every right read.

He was prepared in zone coverage when it was. He was prepared in man coverage when it was. He knew where he was going to the football in both instances. And I thought the zone reads made the right decision on all of them to pull. And he just doesn't fumble. There's one other play where I could be critical of them. And I am. It can be, let me see if I can find it for you.

It's towards the end of the game. he's got a mesh route with McCaffrey and he signals McCaffrey to come in motion and then he, Marriota, you're the quarterback, you control the timing of when McAfri is going to cross your face and so you want to do it when it is believable. He's a little late on the snap. So the mesh between him and McCaffrey isn't believable.

Max Crosby is who it is directed to try and influence. He doesn't care about it at all because it doesn't look real. And he comes downhill fast in Marjorie. It's the one where they're trying to throw the tight end screen to Zach Erch. And you remember he, Mario, like, backhand dirt's it right to... Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So really savvy for that move, it's right before the Miss Fugel, right? So Crosby is not influenced by the fake. So then B.D., sorry, give me the center name again? Biotish, yeah. Beaudish, right? He can't get out to Crosby because Cardsby's coming too fast, so he can't pick up that kickout block.

Mario Deut sees it, realizes the bus. to play and then really savvy dirts it to Zekker. So I, instead of downgrading him on the play because he messes up to Mesh McCaffrey, I kind of bounce it out because it's a real savvy play to just dirt it and move on to the next play. But those are the only two plays. I'm talking in the entire game that you could be critical of Mario, he was damn near perfect.

And it helps, obviously, that he had a really good run game with this heavy, unbalanced line that they did for the most of the time. Each running back had a really good game in my opinion. made good cuts when there was some free runners, broke tackles. They were a Simon sound and blitz pickup. But Marriota was almost perfect, man. It was, what a pleasure to have as a backup quarterback, in my opinion. Washington is very lucky to have him as a second string guy.

I said on Monday, Washington's got maybe the best backup quarterback situation in the league. And when I use the word situation, he may not be the best backup quarterback. quarterback, but the system is perfect for him. You know, he's had an up and down pro career since winning the Heisman in Oregon, and there have been a couple of decent fits and probably a couple of bad fits. This fit in the Kingsbury offense, it's perfect for him, right? I would agree other than I would say you didn't see that against the Raiders. You don't see Jaden Daniels and this, you know, multiple line and extra tackle, at least I don't think I've seen it since I've been watching.

So it could be a combination of, yes, he can do this on read. He's probably better at it than Daniels. He's not as athletic, but he's probably better making the read. You've got to, I think he's just probably just because he's a veteran, you trust him more in the past game. Not to say he was getting some really dynamic seven-step drops where he had to read three levels. that wasn't the case because Washington was keeping themselves on schedule all game. When they were in third, they were like third manageable, right? And it doesn't have to be a seven step.

Let's read and worry about pressure from the radar. So just a really good, I mean, if you've got to be a backup and come into a game, you can pick a game to come into where you're going to see a game plan like this executed, then this was perfect. I'm going to run the ball all the way to third down. Half the time I'm not going to be going to see third down because we're getting first downs on second down, running the football. And then when you need me on third and four, I'm making quick decisive reads and I'm moving to chains. And he just played perfect. It was just a really good,

really good effort by him. Check out this play. I want you to go to the first play of the second quarter, so 15 minutes. I mean, this is, you would put this on film for an entire offense, and this is crediting the entire offense. The Raiders are going to bring six. Washington identifies the blitz pick up, so is involved. Yep. Everybody's picked up from the Raiders, everybody, and they run a twist in the middle. So there's a late twist that happens that while he has to pick up and come off of his guy, and he saves Marriota from getting drilled.

So you keep Marriotti up. Marriota stands in the pocket, facing a blitz of sick, and he's kind of getting his own coverage in the back end. He throws this ball to Erch before he. Hertz breaks. This is the 19-yard catch to Zachar. Yep, I'm watching. Because he knows that flat defender, he still knows that flat defender

is going to move out to go get the tight end on the delayed release. And that is just, I mean, that's impressive. It's instinctual. It's anticipating what defenders are going to do before they do it. And the trust that his mind is seeing what he saw, and he just

floats this perfect little touch corner out to Zacherts or the middle of the field. but everybody on the field. This is 11 players in unison, doing everything right on one play, and you get a first down out of it. That is teach tape film right there. So fun to watch when you see an offense pick up a blitz

that's not just a cookie cutter, ordinary easy blitz pickup. Then you see Mary, you're using anticipation, and his mind is winning this route, right? Like his mind is how that they complete this ball, because most people, you're not going to throw that ball with that flat defender sitting right there. And he throws it just as he breaks out into the flat. It's just great anticipation. And probably my favorite play on offense from a passing game state of like for sure.

It was the one where the Rangers brought to most people, Washington picked it up and complete the first down. And that was the day. They picked up all the blitzes, no free runners. The only free runner they got all game was the last. touchdown to McCaffrey. Blitz off the edge. They don't have a guy to pick it up. Mario da Sits in the pocket, waits as long as you can and flicks it up to McCaffrey, who beats a busted coverage because their guy,

Chin, Jeremy Chin blows his man coverage of time on McCaffrey. Mariotta finds him, easy touchdown. But other than that, offensive line was fantastic, path protection. Game plan was good again. I know I'm reiterated myself. No, but you know a couple plays that were just awesome to watch. That play did.

you like run game. Yeah. The play though, the pro to Ertz, I think it's such, it's so interesting because when I hear you talking about I hear Cooley also in the same thing because that flat defender the study, the experience,

the anticipatory sort of talent, because basically when he lets it go to a normal person watching the tape, Ertz is covered. But he knows that he's got a flat route

and that this guy's going to go to the flat route. I think it's Senate who might be out there, the other tight end. I can't really see it. I think it's Senate. And that ball is out as Ertz hasn't even made the cut. Hasn't even made the cut to that clearing. And he turns

and the ball's already three quarters of the way there. It's just really, it's high level. High level. Yeah, very high level. Very high level. And then, I mean, watch watch the back view of this or sorry, watch the head-on view. Yeah.

And watch Chris Paul. Watch Chris Paul, the left guard, pick up Devin White and pancake him at the end of this. Yeah, I'm watching. Oh, yeah. It's just, yeah. It's like he was mauling people all-game Chris Paul. He's, I think he's Washington's best lineman based off the two games that I've broken down.

He's, he's awesome. Interesting. And if this other guard that you're mentioning is better, then you're going to probably put him. over in place a Wiley, and you've only just upgraded yourself even more. So I think that is, then he just got to figure out what you're going to do at right tackle. I get it. Connerly, he's young, right, rookie. But he's the only one really against the Raiders.

He's the only one that is really getting beat on any play, having missed assignments where he's not blocking him he's supposed to, or he's just getting ripped on the up and under with Crosby again. He struggled against that last week of the Packers. So I get the growing pain. You just have to go through with the young. high draft pick like that. But other than that, the offense, they play fantastic.

All right. So Mario De's grade is, he's a fumble away from an A-plus? Yeah, he's top. I mean, he's still in the A, for sure. He was the best guy on the field, just making all the right decisions. Next would be Jeremy McNichol to me, basically because of that, that run was crazy. He broke five, six tackles. So you got a big boost for me.

that was as a big run at that moment in juncture in the game where you haven't pulled away yet and you just dominate and that kind of took the raiders heart so he's he's up there and then I got a tie with bill because he played well good tough running Chris Paul those are my top three players okay so Marcus really good Marcus you know a McNichols in a level and then your third is a tie between Bill, Kroski, Merritt, and Chris Paul. Yeah, go to center in there, too. He played sound. Tyler Beaudish is in there, too.

All right, let's get to your three lowest-performing offensive players, which it sounds like they may be hard to find. And then we'll talk defense, and we'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Fall is planting season. Did you know that many plants and trees actually do better when planted this time of year? But you've got to know where to start, and that's why I love fastgrowing trees.com. Doesn't matter if you live in the sunny south or if the air is getting chilly where you live. Their plant experts can help you find the perfect fit for your space.

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Based on, you know, kind of your early indication here in the first segment with you, I'm assuming that among your three lowest rated offensive players, Josh Connerly, again is one of those players. Yeah, he's leading the way for my lowest grades on offense for sure. Now, granted, he had a lot of good plays, too, because they were on the ball so effective. But of the lineman, he's the one standing out, making the mistakes. He had a couple penalties, too, that's cost them. I'm going to ding you on those because you're costing your offense yards.

But he leaves away. I think he still struggles in the leaner, quicker defensive lineman that he has to try and block a lot of them. When he gets extended and he's one-on-one on the edge, not his strength right now, just getting beat with speed mostly. So he's going to have to continue to work on that. And then the all-season as well, just try to get quicker. He might even want to shed some pounds just to give himself some more agility.

He'll have to look into that. But he is on the bottom there. And then next, like you said, it was kind of hard to find some. But if I'm going off my grade, it's Zachert and Jaylon Lane. Zachert's really from, it's a blocking thing for me. He doesn't want anything really to do with blocking these guys anymore at this age. Out in space, he's not helpful and in the line of scrimmage is not helpful. So when I'm giving them negative points on each play, it's really into blocking.

And then Jaylon Lane offensively not providing much for you. He had, I gave him the penalty. The intentional grounding there that was late and Mario got charged for it. That's on lane. That's on lane. He's running to that deep pylon and Mario to season. He's like, I'm going to give him a shot. He just chucks it up to the pylon.

But Lane quits on the route, looks back because he thinks he's covered over that safety. So he kind of just gives up and he turns around. I don't know what he's thinking. You think it's just a scramble about to happen or what, but it isn't. So if he had just kept running his route, he would have been in the vicinity. There's no wrong. There's no intentional grounding. So that was a big penalty that took him down.

And then he should have made that play. I think he should have made that play when Mariotta thought he had the all. off sides and he just chucked it up for the free play for him. Right, right. That's, he has a bad release off the line. He's just going to horizontal. He's not threatening the corners upfield at all. He's making, he's putting himself in a position for the corner to just stay on top of

him the whole time, so he just never wins. And it's kind of a bummer because Terry's open on the other side. And Marriota would have looked over there had he not thought he had a free play because he got the man coverage look he wanted. He's got a bunch formation to the far side and Terry wins on the route. So it's a kind of a bummer. You get the offside what you think you do. You're just going to, not that Mary was giving up in a play, he's taking a free play.

He's like, I'm going to just give it to lane one-on-one, press coverage, but go win. And he doesn't, and you don't get the off-sides. And had you would have, you probably would have a touchdown on the other side to Terry. So those are the three lowest there. Well, he should have caught it. And, by the way, I don't know how they missed the off-sides. I mean, that was an obvious off-sides. It's interesting on the intentional grounding play.

I said in my post game, I'm like, I think he wasn't grounding it. I think he thought that he was throwing it to Lane and Lane didn't go in the right direction. And that's like one of those things where for a referee, he's not, look, he was under pressure if my recollection is right. but he's throwing a ball that he thinks has a chance probably to score. But whatever. It didn't really matter at that point. They were up by, you know, 100 and on their way to an easy win. All right.

So Connerly, Ertz, Jalen Lane, three lowest rated defensive players. All right, let's flip it to the defensive side of the ball. Highest rated, top three highest rated defensive players. defensively really good much improved in the secondary from last week that was their big issues top three guys again dora armstrong he's making plays he was my top guy last week and he's my top he's tied for my top guy this week I wouldn't take you guess who my second top guy is not even a starter well you liked well you liked Goldman last week I did but it's going to be in the secondary.

Jeremy Reeves. Yeah, well, he came in for Will Harris. You know, Will Harris is basically out on injured reserve, yeah. So you love the Reds. Yeah, Reeves was great. He was awesome. Big hitter, too. I think he was, yeah, I think he was my favorite player on the field throughout the entire game. Wow. Really, really good. I was impressed. He's poisoned coverage. Like you mentioned, he comes up and stick on that third and one. I gave him big points for

that. It's a third and one. the game. He comes up with the big hit, which gets it to fourth and one, and Washington gets the stop. So if not for him being so aggressive on third and one, making that big hit, you don't get a chance to turn him over on downs. Go to, go to... Huge hit on 23. I forget who that running back was, but it wasn't... Yeah, yeah. It wasn't... It was like Dylan or something. Yeah, it wasn't gentle. Yeah. Go to 15 minutes on the first, excuse me, in the fourth quarter. This is, this is my favorite play from Reeves. One of my favorite plays.

All right. And this is when Noah I had the pass breakup. Yeah. Do you remember this? I'm pulling it up right now. Hold on. Okay. Now the reason Noah gets the pass breakup is because of Reese.

They're, the Raiders are, there's a really crappy play. They bring the tight end in motion and they run. This is almost the same play that that craft caught the big theme ball on. Right. Last week. So the Raiders took this from the Packers.

because they, Washington showed they struggle with this coverage. And again, they put Bobby Wagner in a position where he doesn't know if he's supposed to run with that scene guy or not. Right. Well, Noah I, you see this cross route by Tucker? Yeah. Noah is covering him. Watch Reeves point and yell to Noah. I'm picking up Tucker.

You got a route coming behind you. And he communicates that on the fly. I see that. And Noah peels off of Tucker, does a nice little. speed turn and it gets a chance to make this PVU, but that is not happening. If Reeves doesn't see it and yell for it from the other hash mark,

this would be a touchdown on Washington if Reeves doesn't call this. You know, you know, this is an interesting thing too, and this is why I really love you already doing this. Because I think the normal like grading from whatever you know, advanced analytics

service, they're going to, they're not going to take into consideration this as a positive play. Like literally Jeremy Reeves says to Noah, I know you've got the guy coming behind you, turn and go. And without that communication from Reeves, it's a touchdown for the Raiders.

Absolutely. That's why it's like, Reeves gets the highest score here, not Noah. Yeah. I give Noah a little boost on here because he at least receives the communication from Reeves, has the athletic ability to make that speed turn and make the preview. Good job, but you're not the reason to happen. Rees is. So Reeves gets my highest score on this play,

and this is my favorite play. That's just so savvy, his awareness is so good. And this is a guy, so this is like a guy who last week is a backup, not playing, he sees the Packers take advantage of this coverage. He probably pre-snap had the indication that this was going to happen. and so he's looking for it. And obviously I'm putting myself in his shoes. Maybe he's not. Maybe he is. But this is just awareness. And I love awareness.

And this is Reeves, put it all on display here. He was awesome. So if Will Harris is out for a considerable amount of time, you're in good hands of Reeves because I scored him higher than Will last game in. Right. Well, you know, Reeves has been an outstanding special teams player. He was a pro bowler special teams a few years ago. and you could tell during the off-season

that he was going to get a lot more run defensively. They liked him, and I think what you're suggesting is in addition to him being a super physical guy in the box as a run-stopper, he's really savvy on the back end. Yeah, I enjoyed watching him for sure. So Reeves is number two.

There weren't many big blemish. Yeah, Reeves is number two. And let's see here. pain pain was number three i thought when i'm watching the film and i was doing my grain i thought pain was going to be number one because i just kept noticing making plays and he was beating his guy and i thought his grades were going to equal number one but he's barely behind armstrong and reeves those three were my top guys they were it was a really sound job defensively what do you think about pain what do you think about pain because he's been one of my favorite players since he came

into the league because I think he's got freakish athletic talent. He has at times been great, but those times were primarily contract, the contract year that he had in 22, he was dominant. And his consistency has been an issue, but when you watch

him, what do you see? Do you see a potential star at that position or not? Well, man, after this game, sure. You could put him in that category. I think it's more just a stamina management issue. If he's fresh every time he's out there, he's a problem to block one-on-one, at least

the first two games I've broken down. He had a decent game against the Packers, too. I mean, it wasn't that impactful. We didn't make these huge plays you remember, but he wasn't also getting blown off the ball. So two games I've watched, he's been decent. This Raider game, he was much, he was better than decent. But, man, I tell what, you know what? The wise injury is going to hurt him, and it's just from a, from a, from a,

stand the standpoint of rotation. Because if you could keep Armstrong and why is healthy and energetic, man, they'd be a problem because they're already pretty good. Even though they lost last week, the D-Line was pretty good. So it looks to me that your strength on defense is Washington is the front. Yeah. And you haven't even mentioned Kinlaw, who you had as the number one guy last week. Yeah.

He wasn't number one this week. He had a good game, but he wasn't in the top three. What makes Armstrong so good because you loved him last week, you loved him, and you had him number one this week. We did a segment on radio yesterday, the top three performers from the first three games, and I had Armstrong as my number one. In your opinion, what makes him so effective? I think it's the willingness for he doesn't want to be blocked. And it's really weird to say that because you would think D.L.L. All of them don't want to be blocked.

blackwood. You could tell when he's on the field, he is not going to let one guy block him. His energy is a little higher, I think, than most on the front. And to top that off, he's long, lean, athletic, fast, he's got a really good wingspan. So he's got the athletic attributes, and then he just has the mentality of wanting to make a play. You could just see off the snap of the ball sometimes he's the one going harder than everyone else. And effort is a big key to success in any level of football. and if you're going to be the one with the output of energy, you're usually rewarded. And that's what has been for me. It's not like he's not doing any of these Michael Parsons' crazy spins and like the Dwight

Fring kind of stuff. He's not doing that. He's beating you with speed on one move or he's out leveraging you and he's just playing harder than you. And I'll take 10 of those guys. All right. So Armstrong Reeves Payne, top three. What about the bottom three on defense?

Bottom three, San Francisco leads that group. Juan Martin's second. And then I got a couple guys. No-I. And then I won't even bring up like Hamilton and Owens. They didn't play enough stats to be in the factor. And really, no, I'm not really that much factor either. So let's just keep it at two.

Sanders-Still and Martin. Martin's biggest blemish is the first play of the game. He's the backside safety. They do play action away from him. He runs all the way down to like four-year-olds off the line. his scrimmage and he's in coverage, he's just total bonehead play on the first snap. And that's how

they get that big 50-yard catch. Right. That's Kwan Martin. If he just slow plays his play action, and there's nobody's throws two in your second and ten. Instead, they give up three points and it's because of Kwan Martin, so I got a knock down that first play of the game. What's, Santer still was

You know what? You know what, sorry, let me not to cut you off, but from the secondary standpoint I mentioned, and I, I did earlier thinking that I was watching the Packers. I saw a couple of times they tried to run that inverted cover too that the Packers did against them. So it was funny to see how, you know, Copycat League, a coverage that was giving them trouble on offense, you know, Kingsbury might go across the hall and say, hey, you might want to put this in your arsenal. They weren't as effective as the Packers. They looked like a secondary trying to accomplish what the Packers doing, but they

haven't had the practice in it. So it was just fun to watch that. The first couple of times I thought, oh, look at that. Right. Look at that intricate disguise on the back end wherein you were stale last week in man coverage. The Raiders tried to move in motion a couple of times just to see if they're getting the same man coverage look that the Packers got,

but Washington was in zone. So then that kind of took that game playing out. And it was a well-played game from them defensively. So what's going on with San Restore? who had such a good rookie year. I read one of the stats early in the show that he's giving up a 123.9 passer rating this year against him. What's going on? Yeah, it makes sense.

I think he's probably lost his confidence, and his mental game isn't helping him to have an advantage on a play. So, like, pre-snap, if you can get a sense, what's going to happen, then you can cheat one way or another. If you trust in your film study and your trust in your reads, then you can be more and more confident, take more chances. I think it's probably, he's probably getting caught out on film. He's probably getting pointed out that he's making mistakes, play action, getting lost, and man coverage is not really winning.

I mean, go to 749 in the first quarter. Okay, 749 in the first quarter. this is going to be a play action pass, and they're trying to go to Sandrista guy, I believe it's Myers, right? Jacoby Myers. Yeah, they're going to Myers here. And, I mean, he's cooked. This is an 18-yard comeback off play action.

They're going max protection because they want to ensure they get this ball off. And if he gets the ball off, I mean, Myers might score here because Sanchez's still ball down. This is the sack by Armstrong? Yeah, this is a sack by Armstrong. That's why I gave Armstrong such a big score on this because he saved a touchdown with his pass rush here. In my opinion, Myers is going to catch his ball. Sanchez still is going to be on the ground,

and it's going to be one-on-one between Martin and Myers, and he's going to have the whole field to shake and bake. This is man coverage on this play, at least it looks like it. Yeah, man coverage. Watch, Sanchez still gets turned around. Yeah. He turns over his left shoulder, he turns over his right shoulder, and then he breaks and he's off the break. Myers is cooking him on his comeback.

This is an easy pitch and catch. And look at all that space. I mean, Myers might score off of this. And if Armstrong doesn't get home on his pass rush, you've got a problem. So Armstrong big points on this play. Last year's... It's a 20-yard game.

Yeah. No, I'm watching it. So when they drafted Sanry Still, you know, Sabin said about Santer Still, Nick Sabin did, that he was the best pound-for-pound player in the draft. He had that monster national championship game against Washington.

And as a rookie last year, they drafted him to play nickel corner to play slot receivers, but he had to get pushed outside last year and he played pretty well. Well, through three games, he's been mostly inside.

So do you think maybe he's better as an outside corner? I wouldn't, I wouldn't, not from what you got right now. I mean, most is playing better, and Latimore's playing better. I know he got picked on a little bit of man coverage last week of the Packers, but, like, Latimore was a non-factor for me, most of the game in a good way, right? He wasn't doing anything wrong.

You could cover the guy he's supposed to cover. But you didn't see him on come up on film. They weren't throwing a ball at him because he was pretty much in phase as a corner. I don't know, man. I think, like if you go to the last touchdown, 345 to 345 in the fourth quarter, touchdown to Tucker, the 61-yarder. I mean, that's on Sandler still. He's in cover four here, and you've got to run with this guy, and he's just so flat-footed. And I think it's – I don't even know why, because right – you're 34 to 22.

See, this is a big mental blow for me. All right? You're at 345 in the fourth quarter, and you're up 12. what do you want to do here on defense as a secondary player? You got to keep the ball in front of you here. You can't give up a big score. This was the one that made it 34 to 22. Sorry.

Yeah, yeah, it was 3416. But same point, same point, yes. Same point, right. You've got to put the Raiders on a play drive here. You can't give up a six year one-yard touch up. Keep it in front of you. So mentally, you're already behind here. What are you doing flat-footed?

And you just let Tucker just blow by you. You should be given cushion here. This is a poor mental play and this is poor technique. He was lined up on the outside on that play. Yeah, he's the outside corner there. And that's just, you just can't have that. I mean, if I'm watching this on tape the next day, as the coach, I'm pointing at him to, like, what are you doing here? What are you thinking?

Now I would address that. Yeah. Like, their only chance to even get back into this is to hit a big one on one play. Get a big one. Yeah, let everything come. underneath. But then again, why aren't you playing it that way defensively? Why aren't you in more of a prevent? Well, so let's see, down a distance, second and six. I mean, you're not in a you're not, you're not in an aggressive. No, you're not. You're calling cover four and you've got

covered to a top. But you're not rushing three either. True. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't just sit back and let them dig and dunk me for six yards here. And they haven't shown me and they being the Raiders that they were that dynamic on the day. I'm going to keep my four-man rush. This is where I try to turn into the Packers. Let my four-man rush, did pressure, let me drop seven in coverage and hold my secondary

isn't having laps in judgment here on poor mental preparation. Right. And this is just, and you come off the sideline, and I'm sure that's exactly what he tells him. What are you doing here? You know we can't give up the big play. If

anything, you give up a 12 year comeback. You don't give up a 61-yard bomb here, standing flat-footed. Now, what I'm thinking he's thinking is he thinks that Reeves is going to help pick this up. But in cover four, in cover for the responsibility for that safety, if two, so if you number the receivers, the first guy is one that's close to the sideline, the slot guy you call two. So in cover four, their rules are if two goes flat, which Bowers kind of does here, he's going to the flat. Then their rule was to rob number one. So robbing number one is if number one is going to run a slant or a dig or a curl, then Reeves is jumping all of those. And fans are still

needs to know that rule and he has to cover deep. Two and flat. They should both see that two and flat. And he should know that Reed is going to jump number one on any in breaking route. And then he just covers over the top. And then essentially you're double covering Tucker. Right. So this should not be good. I mean, what should happen here is Sanchez still should be run. Stry for Stryver, Tucker.

Gio's probably still going to throw it, and then you just got to make a play on the ball. Yeah. All right. Defensively, the three highest Armstrong Reeves pain, the three lowest Sanristil, Kwan Martin,

and Noah I. All right. When we come back, I have a few questions for you. I also want you to talk about Jalen Lane's punt return and Debo's kickoff return, and then you can kind of empty your notes if you've got any that you haven't gotten to that you want to get to. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

All right, we continue with Steve. I do have a few questions for you, and maybe there's a bunch that you want to get to that you haven't mentioned. But the kickoff return last week by Debo was incredible against Green Bay, and then he had another one to open up the game. You pointed out last week, Jalen Lane, oppressive to you as a punt returner against Green Bay, and he broke a 90-yarder for a score against the Raiders. So give me your thoughts about Debo's kickoff returns and Jalen Lane's punt returns. So Devo's Debo, and we both talked about it last week, I agree he should be the kick returner. I love he's my typical football player. When I look at somebody, I mean, that's the guy. I like Brooklyn tackles.

I like the gritty yards. I like the ability that he can take a hand off, run a route, and do a return. He's awesome back there at kickoff term. No better way to start the game and be a dynamic kick return for 69 yards. You and I talked about what would be the impact if you were to get hurt on that play, right? And I just, that was just no devil's advocate to you. And because I think it hurts, he would be so lost on the offensive side of the ball. But nonetheless, if you're going to get away with it, get away with it,

he's fun to watch. I agree with it. It's awesome. He's an awesome player. I love him. Blaine, yeah, there was something about it last week. It was only the first game I watched him as a returner, and it's hard to describe what I saw, what I liked, honestly, to put it in words. He's not a guy that's breaking 10 guys' ankles on one play, like that kind of, like he's not a Dante Hall, right?

He's not doing that kind of thing. But he was more of Brian Mitchell. He just the knack of wanting to get north-south while he's trying to figure out where to go, and that's the lost art. So a lot of guys will catch that ball and freeze or want to go west or want to go east. And let's say, so for something,

and I hate to put it on, you know, something I used to do. But if we had a pump return that was scheduled to go to the right, let's just say right return. I mean, I caught the ball, and I wasn't always going right. It was where was I going to go that was going to help me in that split second? And it was just more about getting downhill. And if it ends up going right, great. If it doesn't, doesn't.

I just feel like that. That's what I saw on him, where his emphasis is to catch the ball, get north-south, and then if the big return is there, he's going to be able to go for it. He's got speed, and it's really exactly what happened last week. Get north-south as far as he can, and then see if the big returns there. Now, he did break somebody's ankle there in the middle of number 20. I forget. I remember seeing it.

But I think he's got a real good net. Offensively, he struggles. I don't want to do a negative right after I give a positive. but I think he just needs to focus on part of returning right now, be the best returner on the team for sure in that area and try to come along slowly as a receiver because there's some growth there mentally. You've got to be impactful on the return game.

But there's a two dynamic returners, I think. You're sitting pretty. Washington, it is from that standpoint. Yeah, I mean, I get, you know, Dante Hall, Devin Hester. I mean, there are very few that have ever been that. I guess I'm surprised at the B-Mitch comp. Yes, on the North-South. But B-Mitch did not...

It's like a mentality. Don't think of it athletically or what he looks like running. Got it. It's not that. Yeah, it's the mental prep. It's the mental... What is my mental outlook going out here? What am I trying to achieve?

How am I going to achieve it? He doesn't look like Brian Mitchell in any really sense, right? Right. It's the mentality that I... He's got true, legit 4344-4 speed. Yeah. Correct. Any other thing is, I can tell, and it's a little bit of, like, the young vibe I had when I wasn't getting on the field and offense,

this is my only chance to make a play, and I'm going to try to make it. So his emphasis on catching every football right now is evident to me that he knows he's going to be on the sideline for the next 20 plays. This is the first time he's going to touch the ball, maybe the whole quarter. And so that again goes into the mentality. Some guys go out there. with the mentality to fair catch it. Yeah. And that I don't see from him so that.

That wasn't you. That was not you. Right. When you see that, like, I mean, sometimes I wonder if it's just coach that way. It's like our offense is so good. Let's not turn it over. Let's not lose field position with a penalty. We don't feel confident.

There are guys back there that are literally back there because they're going to catch it. They're not going to turn it over. But they're also not going to give you a big play, so why not call a fair catch, right? 100%. That's a different coaching philosophy for sure, different team makeups for sure. I just hate that, right? My mental makeup just hates that aspect. But I get it.

If you're uncomfortable with whoever's back there catching it, the most important part is catching it. So if you're uncomfortable, then you, yes, go out there, hey, just fair catch it, and let's move on better business. All right, a couple of questions to finish up here. Do you think any of that running back situation, which was by committee, do you see Rodriguez or Bill or even Jeremy McNichols emerging at some point as the true lead back that ends up getting the bulk of the opportunities? So I'll answer that two ways. One, if you got three backs that are, let's call them relatively even right now, because I've only watched the two games exclusively, right, or intensely.

Let's say you've got three guys are somewhat even, and let's call that based off the snaps. They have 15 snaps to 22 to 23. If you're even, you're going to lean to the guy who mentally is more prepared for picking up the blitz on third down. Who do you trust in there? Because then you don't want to have that tell that I got Bill in on first and second down and then I bring him McNichols. You wouldn't consider him like a traditional

third down back for those reasons. You would be putting them in because you don't trust Bill to pick up any blitz. So if everything's even from a running standpoint, that's where you're going to lean. Off of the game this week against the Raiders, both had all three, I think, had their

highlights and made the case that it should still be three-man job. Right. I don't think anybody pulled away right now. And based off running style, I mean, if you, if you force me to pick one, I would say maybe Bill's the better runner of the three, but it's close right now. You got to, he did a little bit more in the tackles and yards after contact.

So I'd give them the, well, I shouldn't say that. McNichols is yard after contact. It was crazy after that run. Yeah, of course. But all three look good. I think, I mean, I want to call them. an improvement over Eckler, but Eckler wasn't going to run the ball like they did with that game plan of going heavy with Trent Scott in and playing that power football.

I don't think that would be very conducive for Eckler at all. So maybe this is an opportunity to, they wanted to try this package out in between the 20s and not inside the 10. And they're like, let's check this out. Let's see if the Raiders are as lightning ass as we think and we can put an extra tackle out here and are they going to adjust to this? and they didn't. The front five mauled him for most of the game.

No reason to switch up. And then he got the benefit of play action. The touchdown to Terry, the long bomb, that was a play action pass off of the extra lineman. Right. So we've been showing you extra linemen. We've been showing you extra linemen. We're pounding you down your throat.

And now we're going to let Terry hit this guy on that out and up. Terry's route was great. I'll say this. I mean, I was very critical of the last week. Terry looked like a different receiver to me on film. This week playing with speed much more than he was against the Packers. just looked like he was running well. They out and up for the touchdown.

I like that he didn't chop the out. He kept his momentum. He just kind of leaned it and gave him a jab step. And he bit. Perfect ball by Marriota. So he looked, if he didn't have the drop pass, which led to a punt.

Yeah. And the penalty, then he's up there in the score. But I got a, I got to knock you for that. Debo, too. I loved through that first quarter into the second quarter, you just got to see the Swiss Army night of Debo, right?

You got to see him at every turn. Right. You got to see him use them on the receiver. You got to see him in the baseball. backfield, you saw him come in motion, take a hand off. Like, that's just fun plays to draw up as an offensive coordinator. So you got to see his arsenal. If you didn't drop that first third and 18, he would have had a higher score,

but out that was a first down ball that he dropped. And then after the Zacherts, the Marriota, when he dumped it to Zackerts to avoid the sack from Max Crosby, the next play was a screen to Bill. Yeah. And Debo whiff on his block out there in the flack. it would have been a first down if you didn't, and they end up missing the field goal of that drive, so that goes into your grade for me as well.

Yeah. But other than that, they played really well. Yeah. The next question I had is, this diamond formation, like literally you got three backs with the quarterback in the middle. It's,

tell me about just what you see with, they've run it. They ran it last year a bunch, and they've run it this year. I mean, I made a note that at one point, basically it was three backs, if you counted Debo as a back, because I've really never heard of a 30 formation, you know, three backs, no tight ends. You know, it's not like teams go full house backfield anymore.

But what do you make of that formation and what they're able to do out of it? Well, I would say defensively, when I see that formation, and I'll approach it as a defender, if I'm either end, I almost know I'm getting zone read. Somebody's not going to block me. I don't know who it's going to be because they keep that formation neutral so you don't have the strength of the formation. But somebody is going to be getting zone read here, unblocked on the end of the line of scrimmage. Now, look, you know, you should go to it.

Go to 802. It's the Mario, excuse me, Mario to Fumble, first quarter, 802. Yeah. I made a note that this play is so well. blocked on both sides of the ball, I think if he gives it, you could make a case. So they leave Crosby on block here, and there's a arena off him, and Mario to pull it off Crosby. But you can make a case here that he's not going to even going to be able to tackle the running back if he gives it. And if he gives it, it might be a touchdown.

Either way, this play is so well blocked. If he gives it, it's a big play. And when you pulled it, it was a big play. every lineman does exactly what they're supposed to do. It's just, it's teat-tape. What else do you have and what you've jotted down that you want to get out that we haven't talked about? Good question, man.

I think we cover most on offense. If you have access to all 22 and you love run game and you want to see six linemen going to work for most of the game, it's a really good film to watch. They were awesome. I think it was night and day. from what I watched offensively. Mario had a lot to do with that,

maybe just a little, you know, veteran presence in there. He really impressed me. Kevin, like, sitting on the pine for a while and then come out and just performing. It wasn't just handing the football off. He made all the right decisions down the field. So he was awesome. I think you're in good hands if you need to run them another week or two

and let Jane get really healthy. So overall, really fun watch offensively, defensively, too. Big improvement. I just like the game playing difference. I'm being honest. you got your ass whooped against the Packers, and defensively you just were so vanilla, man coverage, easy to decipher, door and love, picking you apart.

And so you made an adjustment. You come back the next game, and you're not man coverage for most of the time. You're running some different zones. You tried to disguise and cover shells. It didn't always work, but the one touchdown they gave up in the back corner of the end zone might have been Kraft.

Again, everybody on the secondary looked like they messed up. So there's practice, obviously. if you're going to start running stuff that's not your normal. Right. So I think if you add that in your arsenal defensively throughout the week, continue practice, then you can become a multi-tier defense. You're not one-dimensional. Very few defense can get away with being one-dimensional because the NFL,

the guys on the other side of the field are really good, too. They're going to pick you apart at some point. You need to be able to play man coverage. You need to be able to blit with zone coverage behind. You need to be able to roll to three, roll to two, mix up, play six, and be able to keep defense's guessing. They had Gino on his heels, and that's a great game plan. As much as it has easy as it was for the Packers to call the game against Washington last week,

I think Washington had the same luxury this week against the Raiders. All right. Well, they are more injuries. Will Harris is uninjured reserve, so they'll get Reeves. They signed Darnell Savage, by the way, this week. Yeah, all that. So he's going to be on the roster. and then Terry's injury appears to be serious.

On that big play, he injured his quad. Some people think it might be a hernia. He's not practicing today, so as the week goes on, we'll find out more about that, but there's this belief that he's probably going to miss at least a game. And then they don't have a lot of wide receiver depth, so we'll see what happens there for the next one. I like Chris Moore.

For what he was in this week, he didn't have any really bad plays for me so I'm not saying he's a dynamic playmaker but he had 33 snaps and graded higher or just as high as Debo and Terry for me to be in the right place at the right time, don't make mistakes mentally

and you can be a good football player and that one RPO that Mariotta read to him it's a tight window There's confusion and there's clutter. He had to eat his hands. He's got to make a strong catch, and he made it. Real quickly, what do you think of McCaffrey so far?

I'm going, I'm going to... I hate talking to me. I'm just uninspired by him. He doesn't, I guess, make the mental mistakes. I just complimented Chris Moran. If you're going to do what you're supposed to do each play, then you're in the driver's seat, right? Then be athletic on top of it.

So he's probably reliable from an offensive standpoint as he's going to do what he's supposed to do. And that can be good enough. And he got, I mean, his touchdown, he gets lucky. He's just running a lazy. I'm sorry, not lazy. He just running a deep cross. Nothing fancy about it.

And chin's supposed to be covering a man coverage, and chin doesn't cover anybody. So he's running free. It isn't like he made chin fall down because he cut him up on his router, did anything special. He just ran a deep, Deep Crosser,

Mario Fountain, so it's an easy TV. But it is what it is there. I just dynamically, athletically, I don't see you, I don't see him cut to the ball and breaking five tackles

and going 70 or cutting somebody up on a post corner on a 13 and making a big play, that kind of thing. It would be nice to see it. I don't see it. They've got the Falcons on Sunday. Great job.

We will talk about whether that Steve's going to keep doing this because it is a ton of work, and it's much appreciated. I think everybody got a lot out of it once again. Thanks. Thanks, got it, man. Enjoyed it. Steve Souter, everybody, really good at this,

and it's much appreciated. We'll try to get him back next week following the Atlanta game. All right, done for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.