The Kevin Sheehan Show - Jayden TBD + Suter's Seattle Film

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Kevin opened with thoughts on Dan Quinn describing Jayden Daniels' possibility of playing on Sunday against the Colts in London. Kevin also reacted to Commanders' OC David Blough being discussed already as a potential 2027 head coaching candidate. Steve Suter jumped on with his "film breakdown" of the Seattle game. Like he did last year with Chris Paul, he made an early call on an offensive lineman he believes the team won't take out of the starting lineup. He detailed the two 3rd-down conversions on Washington's final drive and gave out grades for the top 3/bottom 3 on both offense and defense. Exclusive High Roller bonus designed for bettors who want more firepower for this season. Double your money all the way up to $5000. Minimum deposit $1500. Use my promo code “DCVIP” at https://www.mybookie.ag/signup/?affid=3910. Download the app today and use code SHEEHAN to get $150 instantly in Lineups if you win your first $5 Lineup! “PrizePicks. Run Your Game.” Join the millions who are already banking fee free with America’s #1 Choice forBanking. Head to Chime.com/sheehan. Get 20% off your first order at www.FastGrowingTrees.com with code [Sheehan]. Download Cash App today and make your money work for you. Click here to get started: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/z9p9ggd5 #CashAppPartner. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card (https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement), Sutton debit flex card (https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/debit-flex-card-agreement-sutton), and Bancorp debit flex card (https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/debit-flex-card-agreement-bancorp). Savings provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Parents and legal guardians can open a sponsored account for teens 13-17. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. For the best tacos in the DMV eat https://surfsidedc.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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. On the show today, Steve Souter's film breakdown of the Seattle game. The show's presenting sponsor is always Wind Donation. One more day for you to take advantage of Wind Donations' Buy 4 Get 4 free sale,

along with a financing opportunity that allows for no payments with no interest for two full. years. 86690 Nation or windonation.com to schedule a fast free in-home estimate. Please mention my name if you decide to reach out. So earlier today in London, here was the exchange between an Associated Press Reporter and Dan Quinn about who will start at quarterback Sunday against the Colts. Hi, Coach Ken McGuire from AP. Since Jaden is here, what do you? you would you foreseeable timeline for him to return to play? And just for total clarity, is Marcus definitely the starter on Sunday? Yeah, so as we're getting started for this week, today is it's a little bit limited,

so we're going to call it like a jog through for us, and so he would be limited in that spot. But as we're working through the week, he'll get more reps as we're going to go. So it's part of our return to play process where guys individual, that's kind of a limited portion, then some of the team reps, and then more. So as we get into Thursday and Friday, we'll see what that load looks like. And then by Friday, we'll have a definite determination of where we're at. But until then, we'll work and start the process, but it'd be too early to call it. He's not real without a shot to play on Sunday, Jaden.

Yep. So the follow-up there in case you missed it, because Quinn's voice, sort of trailed off. The reporter was looking for clarity saying, so he's not ruled out, he still has a shot to play, and Quinn said yes. But Quinn's overall message was too early to call it. We'll know more. We'll have a definitive answer on Friday.

So the status is officially TBD as of now. Now, Quinn's done this before, you know, with Jaden and others. you know, letting it play out all week and then letting everybody know on the status on Friday. There is some, you know, competitive advantage stuff at work here, making the Colts prepare for both quarterbacks. It's possible that they really are going to see how Jaden looks this week in practice before making a decision. But my guess is that they already know. And I think what they know is that Marcus Marietta is going to start against the Colts. It's just a hunch, nothing more, but I think it's going to be Marietta on Sunday, Jaden next week against the Giants.

That's what I think as of today. The one thing that makes me think that there's a chance, Jaden will start Sunday, and they really haven't made up their mind, is that they brought them over there. You know, long trip, long flight with, you know, the things that happen on long flights, some swelling can happen. So that part makes me hesitate a bit and think, well, maybe Jaden's got a shot. And maybe they are legitimately evaluating as he practices this week. But I am as of now leaning Mariota Sunday and Jaden back against the Giants the following week. As an aside, I'm totally fine with Quinn playing it out like this.

if it's just for competitive advantage purposes. I'm fine with that. I know it frustrates some, but most coaches do that. Quinn also, by the way, said as part of the presser today, quote, we're not going to put him out there until he's ready, closed. Quote, not that I needed to hear that, but I think some out there needed to hear that

because I do believe some are worried that the team's going to rush him back and that something's going to happen. Something might happen, but I don't think it's going to be because they rushed him back. It's real simple for me, and I've already said it this week. If the doctors say he can play and there's no real benefit for the elbow by waiting another week or two, then he should start and play Sunday. If the medical people say there is benefit to waiting another week or two,

then he doesn't play. He sits. He's inactive. He's not a backup. That to me is the most ridiculous conversation. If he is cleared enough to be a backup, then he's cleared enough to be the starter. You know, if the medical people say, hey, man, he's cleared and he ends up being a backup quarterback on Sunday, I would be stunned. For me, I'm not going to be, you know, unnecessarily cautious if I'm in their position.

if the doctors are confident that he's ready. What would you be waiting for? The game Sunday is a big game. And yeah, Marcus played really well against Seattle, and he might play well again on Sunday. But Jaden Daniels gives them the best chance to win on Sunday against the Colts. So I don't think the team needs to be unnecessarily cautious

or overly cautious if there's no benefit to waiting. In fact, you know, waiting and bringing him back now three weeks after the injury, you know, last week, this week, and then he comes back three weeks after the Dallas game. Then you're worried about the rust issue. Like he's got to work his way back into playing football again. If he plays on Sunday, if he's ready and there's no benefit to waiting another week, it's like, you know, he missed one week, a bye week. I hope he's out there. Yeah, there's video of Jaden, and I actually tweeted some of that video out or reposted. I think it was Nikki Javala's video of him wearing the brace during the practice or the walkthrough today.

It was bulkier than I thought it would be. I have no idea if it's going to be something that impacts his ability to do anything at the position. He looked fine in it, though. One other thing as it relates to or kind of relates to, Jaden's timeline to return. It's not specific to this moment, but I thought of something earlier today, and I actually went back and listened to a show from May to make sure that my memory was correct on this. But if you recall, I have either before the schedule comes out or after the schedule comes out for a few years running, I've had somebody from the NFL schedule-making team on the show to talk about how they put the schedule together, to talk about Washington's schedule specifically.

And in May, I had this guy, Max St. John. He's from the schedule-making team. I had him on the show. And there were some things about this year's schedule that I asked him about. One was, you know, international games with buy weeks following international games. Are they guaranteed if a team wants them? And he said, no, they're no longer guaranteed after an international game. They don't guarantee buy weeks.

They try to accommodate if teams ask for their by week after an international game. But they're not guaranteed. And he said when they can't guarantee or they can't give a team a break. by week after an international game. What they try to do is make sure that the next game after they get back is a home game. And they also try to make sure that the game before they head to their international game, that that is a game in their own time zone. So Washington played Seattle at home in the eastern time zone, and they're going to return

with a home game against the Giants. but they didn't get a buy week after this international game. It would be a very early buy week, but actually next week is the first week in which teams have buys. There are two teams next week that have buys, Carolina and Kansas City. Last year, if you recall, after he got injured in the Seattle game, he was off four weeks and missed three games because Washington did have their buy week after the Missouri. Madrid game against the Dolphins. So they came back, they had their by week, then they played Denver, and then he came back the week after that against Minnesota.

So he was out four weeks, missed three games. I was wondering if Washington, I knew I had asked the guy that I had on this show, if Washington had any requests about, you know, the schedule. Because teams are allowed to give their input, ask for things. Of course, they share with the schedule. stadium availability, things like that. And he said the only thing that Washington requested this year is that they wanted their two West Coast trips to San Francisco and Arizona to be back to back so that they could go out

west and stay and play back to back West Coast games and then come back. And he said that they couldn't accommodate Washington. In fact, that's a typical request of teams. and they can't accommodate everybody on that. And so Washington is going to San Francisco on October 19th for Monday night football. They actually get their by week after that game, and they don't go out to Arizona until Sunday, November 29th. That's actually Thanksgiving weekend that weekend. But they did not request their by week after their international game, this Sunday's game in London against the Colts.

Not every team gets buy weeks, and again, not every team requests them either, but he did not tell me that Washington requested a buy week after the international game. So they don't have it. If they had had it, then I would have thought even more so Indianapolis, buy week, and then he comes back the week after that. I don't know what made me think of that, but I was just thinking if he doesn't play this week and he doesn't play against the Giants, which I think he will. play against the Giants. I think that's when he comes back. But the fact that they didn't request their by week after the international game, they may not have gotten it anyway, but it would have worked out in their favor if actually

he's not going to play Sunday. Anyway, that was a long rant about something that I thought about and went back and listened to that show to make sure I was correct about. Yeah, teams get to give. their input and they have to with respect to stadium availability. And I think he said that one of the most requested things is don't make us go to Florida in September and don't make us go to Buffalo in December or January. Weather is a factor in some of the schedule input, you know, from teams.

I wanted to play something that if you can believe it or not, that already people apparently are talking about. At least the guys at pro football talk, Mike Floreo and Phil Sims. This was Floreo primarily talking about Washington's win over Seattle being one of the most impressive wins of the weekend and what he thinks may come out of it as it relates to Washington's new offensive coordinator, David Blow.

You're taking on this incredible, incredible defense. Yeah. The Saddle Seahawks. And Marcus Marietta is stepping in as the backup quarterback. Nobody expected much of anything. And it was this epic back and forth. Like, I couldn't believe how exciting it was.

And David Blow, got a lot of love from Mike Tomlin on half time at the Sunday night game. David Blow, the offensive coordinator. You have a few more games like that. We're going to be talking about David Blow was the youngest head coach in the NFL. 31 years old, he would be. as a head coach. The youngest head coach in the history of the game was Sean McVeigh when he got hired at 30 years old by the Rams. So three games into the season, and we've already got our first David Blow is going to be a head coaching candidate proclamation. Look, I think that there are a

lot of people around the league that have had their eye on David Blow for a while. We've talked about this many times. Washington basically denied any interviews a year ago and then quickly decided to promote him so that they wouldn't lose him to multiple teams who were interested. Detroit probably would have been the decision for Blau. He's got a long way to go. You know, the first three games here have been okay. I was impressed with what he did against Seattle. I was. And I'm really interested. to see, you know, the rest of the season. Everybody told people like me in sports media that are close to the team and talk about the

team a lot, everybody said literally two months after they hired him, oh, this guy, David Blau is going to be a future head coach. It's not going to be long before he's an OC, and it won't be long until that OC job turns in to a head coaching opportunity. So far, so good. Long way to go, though. But, you know, getting that team Sunday against that defense with the backup quarterback and a makeshift, makeshift offensive line to perform the way it did, it was impressive.

By the way, I saw a stat that was interesting to me. I've talked a couple of times this year about starting field position for Washington, and it's been favorable in the three games for the most part. And it was, again, on Sunday, with the exception of the goal line stand, where they had to start from their own two-yard line. You take that every time if you can get the goal line stand. Washington, so far, through three weeks, has the second best starting field position in the league.

And then, you know, you look at the points. You know, the points have followed. They're averaging 25 points per game. And where does that rank right now? Let me just see where that ranks in points per game. Now, they do have a defensive touchdown. They're averaging exactly 25 points per game, and that is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, tied for 13th in the NFL in scoring. All right, Steve Souter, next after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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at Surfside Taco Stand I want to start off by reading a few emails I get a ton after you are on the show I got this from Tanner C in Kensington Steve Suter's film breakdown has become my favorite segment on your show it's so informative and I love his style.

This from Kevin. Kevin writes, Kevin, as in me, Smoot should start calling Steve Souter, Professor Souter, because we're going to school every week. Thank you for that, Kev. Yeah, Smoot comes on the show all the time, and he refers to me as Professor Sheehan. I don't know where he got it from,

but yes, we should, he would be calling Steve Professor Suter, doubt. And then this from Jason. Jason writes, Sheen Souter loves Marioota, but no way should he be the starting quarterback over Jaden Daniels. Jason, Steve is not suggested that Marcus Mariotta should be the starting quarterback over Jaden Daniels. But I do agree with you, Jason, in all of his film breakdowns of Marioada, other than some of the, you know, bad plays, you have pretty, much graded him consistently in his starts as a real solid starter in the NFL. You have, for the most part. I can't think of a really poorly graded game. The Miami game in Madrid last

year was a bit of a problem. I remember that. There were some real crazy turnovers in that game. But I would guess that you'd think Marcus Mario, Mario, might be a starter for some teams in the league. Absolutely. I do think that. I mean, can you blame me? Did you watch the game Sunday and tell me where he led the team wrong? And I don't even get the benefit here of watching the All-22 of actually increasing his points because of all the cancans and the kills when he's getting sent two plays into the huddle and he's responsible for putting in them in the right play or not putting in them in a wrong play. I mean, I could be given bonus points for all that. And that's for every court, even with Jane and 2, I don't always get to tell what he's doing that as well.

I did watch more of the game on the broadcast, so I got to hear the audio of Mariotta doing that quite frequently. So I just think from a mental standpoint, he's a quarterback that you can clearly trust if you're an OC, and I think he obviously has the physical tools to be good as well. So if you Mario's those two together, and he has a good game where he doesn't have that mental blunder that he's always seemed to have a bad turnover, where he almost did it, against Seattle here. He's usually a reliable quarterback, so that

always grades out for me. Put the team in the right position, and I'm going to be favorable in your grading. Yeah, you know, it's funny because I was going to ask you when we get to the grading portion of it, and Steve's going to give you an overview of the game. He's going to focus on a couple of sequences

and plays in the game, and then he'll grade out top three, bottom three on offense and defense. But for me, in my recap of the game on Sunday night and even on Monday after kind of watching it again, I thought the biggest benefit of Marioada in the game was the veteran poise to can so many plays. I wrote down like five or six of them

that clearly he checked to a play and every single time he did it, the play was productive. You know, I don't know what the first call was. I don't know if he was going from good play to better player from bad play to good play, but it seemed like it worked every single time. Yeah, I would say usually it's probably run versus past. You're probably getting a run play and a pass play sent in. And based on defensive front and secondary, he's going to do the can or he's going to do

the kill and go to the second option. So if you see a run after a can, then maybe he killed a pass and vice versa. So those are things. But you're right. Am I watching the tape and into the second quarter from a physical standpoint? point, I thought he wasn't really that big of a factor. Now, don't make, don't let that sound like he wasn't an effective player because he was putting him in all the right positions, but it wasn't like he was throwing dots all across the field and he's throwing these bombs, he's making these

great reads and throwing in these tight windows, right? You didn't see that, but you saw him getting them into the right play and they were establishing the run game in that first half. And so he was just being a very good managing quarterback at that point. Now, he then not, he started to make plays in the second half when they needed them to do it in the air. But early on, you're right, it was, it was him managing the game from the line of scrimmage and being very effective. All right. Uh, give me your overview of the game. What were your thoughts about this stunning 33 to 31 upset went over the defending champs? Right. Awesome win. Take on the defending champ like that. The defense is very highly rated to the offense did a commendable job,

although I would say, I think the defense, well, I don't think the defense for Washington outperform the offense. in my opinion in this matchup, I compared the grades from offensive defense after I was done and the defense blew away the offense. I thought I'll start offensively, though. Offensively, I thought early on the offensive line in the first half did a really good job. I thought they were kind of starting to control the game in the first and second quarter

and establishing some running game and taking advantage of the turnover and punching in mostly on the ground. There's some things that I'm picking up on with David Blow that I will. like, he's got a split zone run scheme that I think is really beneficial and I prefer to see, and I'll show you a play over describe what it is. But essentially, a lot of the plays and a lot of zone scheme running plays are diagrammed to not block somebody. And usually it's that backside DN most of the time. I hate those style of runs because when you get to college, high level college and into the NFL, all those DNs are studs. So it's very easy for them to just

come down the line of scrimmage when you're not blocking them and make the play. I understand what you're trying to do when you want to occupy those defenders by a quarterback could run situation and you think you're going to occupy them in that route. But most of the time, those Deans don't care about that. There's not enough guys in the league, I think, that can kill you on that from a quarterback standpoint. So it's just not a high percentage. You crash down the run and you blow it up for one or no game.

David Bowles run this split zone scheme where you'll see the tight end it's either Bates or it's sin it or it's, I can't remember the other guy's thing, they'll come back side and they'll kick out that defensive end. So he's accounted for. Now, you don't get the overall matchups

on the front side of the run, but what you don't do is have a run that's going to get blown up in the backfield and go for no game. So I really like that aspect of being able to keep the running game and the offense on schedule, even if you're only getting two yards, it's just, I think, better, and I think you're getting more options of play action off of it with those tight ends,

because you can run right at the D-N, and then you can avoid them, and then you're already in the flats. Now, the funny part is I'm going to show you three plays of that, and all of them are negative plays. But you're going to get an example of what I'm talking about. So offensively did a really good job first half. I think they were really holding on in the second half, other than Marriota and Terry making some key plays. offensively up front, the offensive line, they were really just holding on. It was one of them was messing up or two of them were messing up almost every play in the run game and even in the passing game.

And they were lucky, in my opinion, to hold out and still score some more points and not blow that lead. So a good thing the defense was holding up because the offense was really struggling there in the second half, in my opinion. Defensively overall, really good game. I was really pleased with what I saw better, much better against play action than they were last week against the Cowboys from linebackers mostly. They were not biting on that run action as much, so they got to get back and take away some past plays from Donald and the bunch there in Seattle. So that was good to see. I thought the D-line played maybe the best game I watched from a collective standpoint.

It looked contagious. Everybody that they were cycling in wanted to make a play, were making plays, and I only had Joseph, excuse me, Joseph, if you want to include them in the front, which I would include them in the front, is my only negative grade up front. So a really good game from the front guys over the first two games I'm watching, and then I went back and checked the stats out. I mean, they're putting together what could be a really good run defense for a full season, which they're going to need, right, because everybody knows their deficiency is in the secondary.

but if you can take it, if you can make a team one-dimensional, you really up your chances of getting a win. And I would point to maybe the last four minutes of the first half where the defense really, you could say won the game. When they got that goal line stand, yeah, they get the goal line stand. The offense doesn't move the ball, and then they still hold them on the 41-yard line.

I think that got the ball going in, and they hold them to a field goal. So that four-minute stretch only giving them three points, I thought was real pivotal in the game. Huge. And yeah, that could have been the reason they won. Defensively, from a scheme standpoint, I can't really give you much that, you know, was really wowed me or I got carried away with.

I just thought they played really sound defense. They played man coverage and they played mostly zone, though I think because they were afraid of JSN, which, you know, everybody should be afraid of him. But they played well in the secondary for the most part. The linebackers, I thought, really stole the show for me. and Leo and Madrano. I'm pronounced sorry,

Madrano. Yeah, they were great. Madrano was great when he came in. Well, Cheneal, you know, fractured his neck. He's done for the season. Yeah, I hear that. So that's a shame. He was playing well before he went out.

But Madrano came back in, and there was no let up in that position. If you add Leo's score and Madrano's score together, they were the best player on the field on defense and offense for the game. So that was fun to watch. Even if you take away Madrano's pick for pick six, which I obviously give a lot of points for, still the highest position on the field. So they were really good as a combination team. Sonny was great again. In my opinion, he's got, man, he's going to be close. I think you're just watching a linebacker like come into his own. Let's just, let's, I want to

show you a play. Let's start first play the game. Let's go defensively first play the game. And just see if you see it how I see it. This is particularly on Sunny here. I got a refresh here. By the way, he was named NFC defensive player of the week. Sunny Stiles.

Was he? Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So I'm going to show you. The first play is an 11-yard run for Judarian Price. Yes. And so here's my point is it's coming playside to Sunny. So Sunny play side right now is isn't the best player

that he's learned how to take on these blocks stuff. But what I want you to think, he has the opportunity here, and I think if you pause it, maybe right before the handoff's given, he has a chance here to just knife this gap where his double team block is being occupied. He could just, if he commits to this,

he just flashes through this C gap, and he blows us up. And maybe it's a two-yard game. But he hesitates, he shuffles his feet, he waits to take on the guard. He sidesteps, he gets through the guard, right? But it's an 11-yard line. This is just, I just think you're on the verge here.

Once he gets comfortable, maybe eight games from now, maybe it's a year from now. But when he is confident, seeing what he sees, and he's fast enough to get through that gap, you're going to see him just come through and blow that up, and it's going to be fun to watch. Now, conversely, go to 11-06, and this is his fumble.

I'm sure they replayed this a lot, but this is running away from Sonny is a positive for Washington, right? Because when he sees it, identifies it, play away, and he's confident he, this is where it's almost last week, but we showed where

he was the fastest player on the field, right? He sees it, he comes back side, he goes underneath all the blockers, which you better be right. You better be fast enough to do this. Otherwise, you're going to give up a big play. But he knows he's fast enough to do it. He commits to

it. And I just like, you can just see where if he learned to commit, you're going to get a lot more plays like this. So really, I think you're going to, if you're having a player to watch, it's fun to watch a young guy. And I think he's going to turn out to be a great one. All right. So the overview of the game is the defense was better than the offense. The offense was hanging on for dear life at the end. You know, and you liked what the O line did in the first. first half, not so much in the second half. You know, the thing that you haven't mentioned about the football game, which I think was the single biggest determinant of the final score, was plus three in the turnover margin category. I mean, they needed all three of them because they won by two.

If they were plus two, they would have probably lost the game. Yeah, well, I thought that stuff was kind of obvious. No, no, it is, yes. Yeah, yeah. Turnovers usually determine the game, but credit the defense. I don't think they were turnovers. They weren't given these turnovers. They created them. Right. And I think that's the, that's of being a good defense and just being contagious, playing hard. I mean, it's probably the hardest I've seen them play. It just looked like a different defense, especially up front. Even my boy Payne, who I get on all the time about his hustle and effort, he had a positive grade. He had some good plays. I mean, he had a play I highlight specifically. I was like, look at this. He's the first one off the ball. He gets into the backbuilding, he gets a TFL, and you're just, in my head,

I'm wondering, where is that guy all the time? But up front, just they created the turnovers. They created the chaos. Seattle couldn't dictate what they wanted to do to them. It was more of Washington dictating on defense and not reacting. So something else that you said. First of all, just overall, for you to be as impressed as you were with the defense, when Seattle threw for 393 yards and four touchdowns in the games,

Darnold was 31 of 45 in the game. People were open. JSN's an impossible check, obviously. To be as positive as you were about a team that gave up 438 yards, 31 points. The drive that made it 33 to 31 was a five-place 68-yard drive that took a minute six. And, you know, they were on the verge, potentially. We'll talk about that last offensive drive, the third down conversions.

But it could have gone, it could have been a disaster had they punted the ball back. But I just think that's interesting because the turnovers were huge. And to what you said, I thought there were like moments. And they've been a very good run-stopping team. They are number one in the league per the DVOA metric in rush defense through three games. Third overall in yards allowed, but I would ask you this about the run defense the last two weeks. Dallas and Seattle haven't really tried to run it. They haven't stuck with it because it was so easy to throw the football.

Do you think that's true? I'm not taking away from the fact that the run defense looks good because it does, but they haven't had a team line it up and stick with it, which I think, by the way, Indianapolis with Jonathan Taylor, will on Sunday, which is why I've cautioned people to get too excited over the last two weeks over the run defense, even though it looks good. What do you say to that? I would say, I agree with the Cowboys game plan. They did not try to run the football. I would say that Seattle, I think, could they have established it, they would have stuck with

it. But early on, didn't work. It was shut down because just weather alone, wet ball kind of muggy, you're going to want to run the football if you can. and they lined up in 12 and 13 personnel plenty of times to try and get it started, but they couldn't get it started. So I think that's when you just say, hey, man, it's not going to work. We'll try to put one in every now and then and keep Washington honest, but it's not going to work. We're not going to be able to do it.

I think it's more Washington is capable of stopping the run right now than vice versa. Now, your point about Indianapolis is going to be pretty cool because that's awesome. I think that they're going to be a good run-stopping defense, and any doubt is going to either make me wrong or make me right, because that's going to be a heck of a challenge. So it'll be a cool matchup to see. I am disappointed in pass rush of the defense, if we're being critical. I thought, and I don't know away from anybody, I didn't pay attention to O.A. prior, but I thought I saw some stats of Washington and signed him that he was at least some type of pass-rushing thread. he's a better run stopper than he is a pass rush over the first two games that I've watched. He really hasn't threatened a quarterback with any pressure.

So that's just me being naive thinking he was a pass rushing D.N. Maybe he was, but he certainly isn't now. And you would need more from that. So the drive that you spoke about where they drove down the field in five-play 60 yards, they got conservative on the defensive calls. They never rushed more than four the entire drive, and the front four couldn't get any pressure. So it was really easy to Donald.

The only time they even brought a fifth player up on the line was Sonny, but he was acting like he was going to blitz, but he was really a manned coverage for the running back. So he wasn't coming either. They only bring four. So those four could get pressure. By the fourth player that drive, the D-line was gasped. You could tell. I'm surprised he didn't sell some people in because then the rush got even less of effective. But that would be the criticism I have right now.

If you want to be better in the secondary, be better in the past rush. and it looks like with the guys they signed, they think or they want to at least be that defense that can get pressure with a front forward because your secondary is so vulnerable. You want to have the most, you can have in coverage, but on that driver in particular, they couldn't get any pressure up for it.

Yeah, I felt the same way. I didn't think the pass rush was good. And so far, through three games, to me, always a really good edge-setting run stopper and has been average as a pass-rusher. And you're right, when they signed him, it was for him to be a pass rusher. Now, maybe they knew, too, that he could play the run.

And they had major issues last year, of course, stopping the run. But, yeah, it's got to be better for sure. And it hasn't been. All right. What about some sequences, some plays you want to point out before we get to the grades? Let's do the – I just want to show you the zone scheme that I was talking about. Let's go to, it's literally the first play in the game, or sorry, first play of Washington series at 1152, first quarter.

Now, this does go from minus yards, but I want you to see the action because I think you're going to see it throughout the season if David sticks to this type of run scheme. So you get the double tight ends and you're going to start a trip formation, but you're going to get, excuse me, Bates is going to come backside and cut off at the end. Right. Do you see that?

So I want to make sure that everybody understands what you were saying earlier because I can see it now in the play that you're giving me. When teams run inside zone, outside zone, they turn the opposite edge or defensive end a lot of times loose. And at the NFL level, as you said, those guys are so athletic, they can chase that down and turn it into a negative. And what you're describing here is

blouse taking care of the backside D-end or edge outside linebacker in their zone. run scheme. Correct. And he did it, he did it a couple times in the Cowboys game, and I noticed it, and I wrote it down. I said, oh, look at this guy coming back to backside, and I like this. And now I saw five or six, seven times in this Seattle game.

So that's just, I think something you'll see more of, hopefully. And I actually wrote a note down here about Chig. I'm curious of how Chig fits in this. Because I didn't watch the Eagles game, and so I tried to rush and watch a couple of clips just to see how involved he was in the run game and to see if they ran out of these split zones. I only got into the second quarter. I'm not sure even when he got hurt, but they didn't do any of the split zone with him in. So I'm curious if he's going to be a guy that can come in here and bang his head

and be the guy that can knock out this DN or at least kick him out. This scheme is because then I think this scheme comes even better, because then to play action off of this, Shig is going to be a much more viable passing threat than any of your other tight-end bait or bait just in it. I'm not fans of them at all, really. But you want to put Chig in that position where you can act like you're going to come crack this guy or kick him out and you just run right by him. You've got an easy five-yard catching the flats and then Chig can take it for 20. So it's just something that cool as he.

So they'll go to 950. Yep. 950. This one, is this the reverse one? Yeah, this is the reverse. I like this one even more. See, because most people here for sure. would not block this D.N. number 58, who is Derek Hall.

Yep. Because you have a reverse fake coming his way, and you would 100% say, oh, the reverse fake is going to hold this guy. But he doesn't take that for granted that the reverse is going to hold this guy. He wants to make sure he gets somebody on haul. Blount is. He runs in our split zone. Yeah, Blow wants to make sure he gets them on all,

and he got Bates again on a split zone. Yeah. And he comes back and block them, and then you're going to get four yards. if you try to have this run play not a counter-hall and use lane on a fake reverse be a quote-unquote blocker you're getting one yard

if that. Right. So little things like that that I like that I'm a fan of that I think you might get more of. That's going to be pretty cool. I think 729 go to it again and this is, I want to say this is my play action one. Yep, this is the version of this

where you'll get to play action. so you go to 729. Now, this gets blown up by Riley Mills, who just blows up Aller Grady here. But watch the action. You're going to get Hank off. Yank off. He's going to come back, like,

Yank off, like he's in due split zone. And he slips out. And he's going to slip onto the flats. And you're getting another dynamic. That doesn't get a chance to move because, I'm sorry, with Connerley, he gets blown up by Riley Mills and runs into Yank off. He can't get out there.

But he would be wide open in the flats here. This would be an easy, easy ball to him, and he's got five, six, seven yards before he makes contact. And now you're second and four. Right. So I just like this little package of plays using this split zone action that he's utilized. Now, was it a one-game thing that he's only put in for Seattle? I don't think so because I saw it with the Cowboys too. So if I'm a foul out right now.

Was Yancoff supposed to get to Lawrence and chip him before releasing? I would say no. He's probably going to run flash right by him, but it's so hard to tell because Connolly's just all his... Connerly gets blown up, yeah, and it messes the whole play up. Yeah, I would imagine his coaching tip is to try to cross his face, cross Lawrence's face, so Lawrence thinks he's about to get blocked. Right.

And you just run, and you run right by him, and you'll probably slow him up a little bit. worst case, you're catching a ball a yard behind the line of scrimmage and you're still going to get five. That's a big play if Connerley doesn't get blown up. Big play. Yeah. You know, and that's play action and you know, that's what they're going to run

a lot more of this year. You know, under center play action off the zone run scheme, a lot more bootleg off of it. On the bootleg stuff, do you think they'll take care of the D-end as well on the bootleg stuff? Because you got to

On bootlegs in a zone run scheme, when that D-N's athletic and that quarterback isn't, sometimes that can be a real problem because you've turned your back, you know, to the D-end on a bootleg. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, that's why, I mean, Mario is a veteran here. That's why his turn is so fast because he knows if they don't bite that run fake, he's going to have somebody in his face. So he comes around ready to throw.

Yeah, he does. He just has nobody to throw to. Because Dan Cough couldn't get out of the flag because Conner got blown up. Man, Demarcus Lawrence is something else, too. All right, let's take a break. And when we come back, the play that got called back, the touchdown run to Rashad White, Steve wants to talk about that play.

And then the two third down conversions on the final drive of the game. We'll get to that and more after these words from a few of our sponsors. Isn't it nice that football's finally back and prize picks knows it? They've brought out their best offer yet. New users who sign up will get $150 in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. That's right. If you win your first $5 lineup, you'll get $150 in lineups. Prize picks has been and is my go-to daily fantasy sports app,

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Offers valid for limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. We continue with Steve's film breakdown. He's going to do it every Wednesday here on the show. Steve's film breakdown weekly is brought to you by our friends at Surfside Taco Stans. Surfside's one of my favorite spots in the entire DMV. Many of you know Surfside. It's an award-winning local spot with great tacos, cassidias, fajitas, phenomenal margaritas.

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Surfside taco stand, when you get there, tell them that Steve and I sent you. All right, let's get to, I know three key plays in the game that you wanted to talk about. The 48-yard touchdown that was brought back because of the Antonio Williams' illegal formation penalty. And then the two conversions on third down on the final drive. You think that, or you want to talk about the similarities between the 48-yard touchdown run that got called back, and the Rashad White run on third and long on the final drive, right? Yep. Now, I think Mario is reading this.

He thinks he's getting pressure. He called. So you got Bill outside, and you want to see if you're getting manned coverage or not. Then you wave him in after Mario is getting his read. He thinks he's getting pressure. He flips the formation. And I think he thinks this is his blitz-beater-scrower-zero-beater

is this run action here where you pull the front-side guard. So they're going to run the ball to the left. Chris Paul is going to pull, and he's going to pull in front to lead. This is, to me, what their weekly film study and playbook study said, hey, if we think we're getting a lot of pressure up front and we want to beat it with a run, this is our run check. Yeah. Now, it goes to the crib and it gets called back, but then if you want to fast forward to the third downplay,

when it mattered. Rashad Ward. That is 155. So go to 155 in the fourth quarter. It's the same thing. He sees pressure. He thinks he's getting cover zero here. And he checks to the same run

just to the different side. And Allegretti, and Allegrety pulls the lead. Yeah. I thought this was a good play by Allegretti. I watched this a few times. Yeah. So this is, again,

he goes up to the last number as he called a check. You're in essentially the same formation. You got three by one, different personnel, but it's three by one. Now he just switched it to the other side because he's getting the vast of the pressure on his left. So he wants to run this run without ready pool and play side to the blitz. So they run away from the blitz. They get the puller and you win the game with a night jump run. That's Mario.

Yeah. With their run blitz check in a critical situation. And both of them want to work, right? The first one would have went for a touchdown. this one seals the game or helps seals the game. So I actually talked about this and I said this is one I'm going to ask Steve about because I think there's as much of a chance he's flipping from a run to a run just different side rather than a pass to a run.

It was third and nine with a minute 55 to go. If you give the ball back to Seattle, you are probably going to lose the game. So third and nine, they're showing cover zero. and because I'm sure they're expecting something, you know, they got to think Washington's got to go get the first down here. And so you're saying that he flipped the run to the other side and away from the pressure to the side that essentially had four players that they could account for.

Terry takes the corner as if it's going to be a pass play out of it. And so another example of Marioita getting them into an, a play that worked in a critical moment here. It's awesome. And like Connerley, like Connerley kills this, right? He blows Lawrence up. He's probably the most critical block. Connerly has to get Lawrence down.

He has to downblock him. A, he can't allow penetration because that'll knock Al Goretti off. He might not even get a chance to pull if he gets blown up. So he's got the most important block. And then you leave Al Goretti out there on Thomas, who's an undersized linebacker. and it's essentially 101. Those two are the most critical blocks.

Now, I don't know if he's checking off of a pass-door run, but he is definitely checking the run away from the blitz. Right. That's what I was wondering. Is he checking from a run to the left to a run to the right? Yeah, hard to determine if it was a run to the left originally, but he's definitely running away from the blitz on this check. There's one thing I noticed about Allegretti on this play. Do you see where he does reach out?

for Hall and he didn't grab them, thank God. But at the very end, he kind of reaches to kind of hold him up and didn't get any of his jersey because it could have easily been, you know, hold. But he was kind of reaching for it. Yeah, I mean, we can get into Allegretti, but. But that was a good block by him. Yeah, yeah, sure. And I gave him a good grade for it.

You just got plenty of other bag grade. Before we get to the third and seven zone read pool, which I see. Real quickly, back to the touchdown by Kroski Merritt. So you played wide receiver. Once they got out of empty and he pulled Kroski Merritt back into the backfield, as a receiver, does it automatically mean, hey, I've got to cover up this right tackle. I've got to step up to the line of scrimmage. How is that typically coached, you know, when you're checking out of something and now you've got to be the last player on the line of scrimmage?

scrimmage to cover up that right tackle. And I also thought, you know, Mario da is a veteran quarterback with a rookie receiver. And I went back and looked, there were only three seconds on the play clock. So he didn't, he didn't have time to sort of wave Antonio Williams up. But just give me the receiver perspective on that. It's all on Williams. 100%.

You have to know your formations. Now, it's not, the bill motion has nothing to do with Williams. It's Yankoff. Yankoff is on the line of scrimmage. So Williams knows he's off the line of scrimmage. He moves Yank off to the other side of the formation. That means Williams has to get on the ball, and he has to know that. You just have to know formations because Merritt was never on the ball on the sideline.

He was never on the ball. So he wasn't your on the ball player because if Bill was on the ball, that would make Yank off an ineligible receiver there on the hash mark. So that's not a case. Williams, you just have to know this. I mean, if you're any, if you're paying attention to the playbook at all and you know formations and you watch the guy inside of you that's on the ball leave, go to the other formation, you have to get on the ball.

When receivers turn to the side judge and they say, you know, they look at them, they're just getting confirmation if they're on, right? Correct, but they can also tell them that they're off, but they don't get, yeah, that's really leaning on if you get a cool side judge or not. Sometimes they don't tell you anything. They're nonverbal and they're just going to give you the hand signal that you need to know means your on or off. But if you get a goal, you're like, yo, I'm on, I'm on. He'll say, you're good, you're good.

Or I'm off, I'm off. You're like, you're good. I mean, that can happen. But Williams never looks. I mean, I'm watching the clip. He never looked at the sideline because he doesn't have to because he's off the ball. But then when they motion, bank off, you have to know that you need to get on the football. Now, could Mario Dota have seen that?

I mean, that would be a crazy attention. mention the detail in the moment of making a check. I would be the same as Marriota here, assuming, Williams needs to know when we check to this run, you're now the last receiver on the last trim is get your butt on the ball. Right. All right. Let's go to third and seven, a minute 36 left in the game.

Seattle's out of timeouts. So a run here is going to do me a favor. Yeah. Do me a favor. Go to 246 first. Okay. Go to 246 first. This is really.

the only zone read I saw the whole game. Maybe I missed one, but if I did, I missed one. So they set this up four minutes or two minutes and 46 seconds. Before they go to third down, this is the first time

they showed Lawrence, zone read here, and they still have split zone action. Bates is still coming across the block and, right? So they still are showing splits of action, but this is the only one where it looked like Mario had a choice to pull this. right so they

they like saved it in their pocket saved it in their pocket okay and watch large he slow plays it Lawrence slow plays this yeah he does crash right he does not crash this and they hand it off so come down third down

I think he's thinking hey they gave the last one and I showed that I slow played it I'm gonna I thought he was I think he's gambling he's gonna marry it makes it just a great read all right I'm at the I'm at the third and seven all right you know I I have a question about this play because I want the context of it to be considered here. Seattle, you know, has, if you give the ball back to him, even after a punt with, say, 55 seconds left,

they're going to get, and the guys already kicked 157 yarders. So you only have to get to about the 40 to have a chance at a walk-off field goal, which, by the way, don't get me started on what we, be talking about this week. We'd be talking about the undisciplined, unsportsman-like conduct penalty on Frankie Louvre running out under the field. But I'll let you describe it and then I'll ask my question because to me, this has to be a play in which you are trying to get a first down to end the game. That's the number one goal. You can make the case. Like if you pick up four or five yards, you could kick a field goal, but you're not going to do that in that spot and risk them taking

the field position. You could go for a fourth and two. You're probably not going to do it. You've got to get a first down here. So with that, go ahead. Well, you are throwing a lot at me there. And I think, based off the game, their only way to pull off one of these big runs,

other than the, right, we just whatever Bill, big run in a big, and gets called back. Mario's got the best chance here on a pool to get those seven yards. Now, you could argue that they were, four-down territory here based off what you're saying, and they would be confident that Seattle would be able to get in a field goal range easily. So they're going to call this run, because if you give it, if you give it here, I think he still gets three or four. But he doesn't get the first down if he gives it.

He does not get the first down. Probably not. No, he's probably not getting it. The guy's probably going to come off of Coleman, and he's probably going to drag him down for three or four. And now you're, you're, you're, might be going for a fourth down. I think they get the exact look they want. They get Lawrence to play it exactly how they want. Mario to makes a great re-pulled it, and they get the home run play. My question. It's definitely a call. Like, you know, it's the funny part about what's not funny, but he rides this handoff so good. I think it even has white nervous that there's a fumble. when he pulled this

White does not continue running I think he's he looked back I think he's afraid the balls on the ground somewhere that's how long Marriota rode this fake and you can see he aggressively has to pull it out of his belly. He's been so good as his own Reed quarterback going back

to Oregon. He's just so good. My question to you is that this is the play call but the only way you're getting the first down is to pull it and I'm wondering if Lawrence doesn't crash down and he plays Marioo, would he have pulled it anyway?

Yeah, based off of White's reaction, I'm saying no. Okay. Because I think he's thrown off. That ball is not in his hand. Why else would you not carry out this fake? Like, you should know this. You should, I mean, especially, it's so evident from the, like, White just kind of stops running and turns around.

I think he's nervous as heck, making sure that Mario still has the football. ball. Yeah. Because otherwise, you play the fake out and you run up in there and you... But you understand that even when sometimes the edge or the D.N. plays quarterback. The quarterback can still pull it and make a play. You know, it's not the correct read. Okay.

If he's playing quarterback, you're supposed to give. But in that case, they were planning on Lawrence crashing. But if he hadn't, I... The only way you're getting the first down is with Marioad on the edge somehow. even if he's got to beat the D-end who's playing him. Right. So I think in their mind, they're going for a fourth down. They're going to get what they want here and get the first down now,

or they're going to have to say, say, Lawrence plays the right, and he gives it the way. They're planning on going for it on fourth down. They're not going to go for a fourth and five on fourth down. Hey, whoa. Are you just volunteering, give them the ball back and losing the game based off of their last two possessions? I understand that. I just, I can't imagine if it's not fourth and two or three or shorter, you're going to risk giving.

I think what you would do is you would line up and at least try to draw them off sides as the clock's rolling at the very least. But you've got one of the best punters in the league. And I think at that point, you know, the win probability at that point is probably equal. Like your chances of getting a fourth and four or fourth and five aren't great. right, but your chances of punting it back to him, and Seattle had none left. Oh, yeah, then, yeah, then you point. Sorry.

No, no, I, you were going to, you were going to punt if you didn't get the first down unless it was fourth and two or fourth and one. But my point is, still punt with no time out. Okay, but still Seattle's going to have 50-some-odd seconds, either at the 20 or somewhere inside the 20, and I think Tressaway would have done a good job with the pun, hopefully.

Yeah. As long as Tyler Owens didn't carry it into the end zone. And Seattle would have had, you know, an opportunity to go, let's just say he gets it down to the 10-yard line. They got to go 45 to 50 yards to have a kick with no timeouts. They could have done it, certainly. I love that. It's a being if you're the coach, right? Yeah.

I love that call, but in thinking about it, I'm like, there's no way they're getting the first down without the pull. No way. It's a great call because you didn't call it once the entire game. And if you did, it was that two minutes or 46 seconds where I showed you, where they teased it. And they probably got a good look at say, hey, we might have action here. If we pull what we show it, I mean, they ran a different look because they didn't run that split zone at Lawrence. So maybe it threw them off. But it was still the only time.

They had a chance to pull it. And I'm glad he didn't because then I think it set him up to pull it there at that last play. DeMarcus Lawrence said at the end of the game, he said, we were expecting a lot more of it with Mariotta. and we didn't get it until then. Yeah, I like it. Keep it in the bag until you need it. I'm a blow guy early on over last year. His name's escaping.

Kingsbury. Kingsbury, yeah. Two games in. I'm liking what I see. All right, let's get to your grades. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. My Booky's Lock of the Sea.

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It's a guaranteed winner unless DAC gets hurt on the first play and it's not a pass attempt that's completed. When you bet on football this weekend, do it at my bookie where you can bet on anything, anytime, anywhere. All right, we continue with Steve, and now we get to the grades for both the offense and defense. Top three, bottom three. Let's start with your top three offensive grades. Give it to me from three down to one. Number three, Lucas Patrick, the newly signed center, right? That's a newly signed guy, right?

Yep. Played a really good game off of, what was it, 11 days? Really good. I liked him at center. If he plays well next week, because is Cosmi still out? Yeah, Cosmi's not playing again. Okay, so if he plays well next week at center,

and Cosby comes back, and Patrick is starting at center and Cosm is a guard, and Alligretti is on the bench, I'd have a real problem with what's going on over there. second place. Let me just make sure you think that when Cosmi comes back,

Allegretti's got to go to the bench and if he doesn't, you'd have an issue with what the decision making is. It reminds me very much last year of when Chris Paul came in and you said, when Brandon Coleman comes back,

if he's not the guard, Chris Paul, he goes, then I'm not doing any more film breakdown for you. And sure enough. When Coleman came back, they kept Paul in the starting lineup. Okay. So let's see what happens next week.

But right now, he played better than Aligretti played against the Cowboys. So go with that. Second place goes to Terry. May plays just a really good game out wide. I didn't give him a drop. I'm very critical on drops as a receiver, former C-Roy. I did not give him a drop on that one on the sideline because it was a crazy catch. And then he double-carcourt.

But he made plays when he had to big fourth down. Keeps change moving. and they just needed to play mayor outside and he was that guy. He comes in in number two. And then Marriota leads the pack, quarterback GM, running the show, put them in good positions,

making throws when he had to. Some of those sideline balls are really good. And then the big play at the end of the game, making the right read on the pool. Just, I'm not calling it a flawless game. Third down, the first third down I put on him. Oh, yeah, the digs. Yeah, I don't think he,

A, he's got birth on his left slot for maybe, maybe a 40-yarder. But I get going to digs because the Blitz Reed is taking him to his high route, but if you're going to go there, you got to make the throw. So, you know, I didn't give him credit for that. I think, and then he got away with throwing a pick to one of the linebackers there

on a little... Nose out. Yeah. Yeah, they dropped it, so he got away with that. So, I mean, not a perfect game, but a really good game. And he leads the pack offensively. You know, he had

a lot of yards that he could have had. I mean, the two deep shots to Diami who didn't get two feet down. Did you think Diami should have gotten that second foot down? No, that would be, I think I'd be real harsh. I didn't give him, I didn't give him a negative grade, and I didn't give him a positive grade on that player. That was just a bang, bang play.

If he makes it, then I think it's a bonus. The two that didn't get completed to Terry and Diami would have added another, you know, 50 yards of pass. And then the deep one to Antonio Williams, that is a beautiful throw. It did get barely touched by a defensive fingertip, but it still landed in Williams' arms. I mean, Marcus could have easily, he was 19 of 31 for a buck 83. He could have easily been 22 of 31 for about 240, you know, or 235, something like that. Yeah.

But, all right, Mario to number one. I wanted to ask you about Terry real quickly. I think one of the things that, you know, Terry's been a bit of a polarizing conversation among fans, or at least in my world of discussing Terry. Because I think Terry's a really good receiver. I don't think he's an elite receiver. I know what an elite receiver in this league looks like, and I don't think he's that. But what I've always felt about him, and I thought it was on display Sunday,

he is an elite level contested catch guy. Like he wins those contested catches so much more than he doesn't. Now, one of the reasons is he doesn't get great separation. So every throw is contested. But I wanted you just to talk about why you had him second because he's not a guy that presents himself as wide open a lot to quarterbacks. Correct. And it is, if you're not going to do that, then you've got to make the play.

And he made the play, for the most part, when it came to him, a good example of that, that's the fourth and one. I mean, there's the angle and the window to throw that ball to Terry to get the first down. A, so Mario had a great ball, right? B, your contested catching thing, I get it. And I know there's stats out there to say he's one of the best all-time contesting catches, but your other thoughts of he's never really that wide open goes into that. the thing that shocks, because I don't want to say impress me, because I'm not a big body

body catch guy. So it shocks me that he could be so good at contested catches and still body catchers. I know. It's amazing. It's a great point. I mean, I always notice the body catchers versus the catchers versus the hands catchers, and the hands catchers usually are much better than the body catchers, and he is a body catcher. And he doesn't drop him. I have fourth down and one even gets to his body. Like the DBs on top of it, you would think he's swatting. If he uses his hand, it's probably safer.

It's probably he gets the ball in hand, but he uses his body, and it still works. You cut down on the distance as a hands catcher because you're reaching out. Yeah, it's wild. I thought, by the way, those back-to-back plays, the third down and the fourth down to Terry in that spot. First of all, I actually thought they got the first down on third down and should have challenged it. I don't know if you noticed that. I thought that was a third and eight, I think, third and seven, and it was a six or seven-yard throw. And I thought they actually, I thought they got a bad spot and could have challenged it. But that was another super tight window throw that he caught.

Yeah, just making plays right there. You need them to make them. He made them. Yeah. Okay. Bottom three on offense. Yeah. Bottom three go. Bates, Allegretti, and then Williams. Bates? I might be done with Bates. I've seen enough film on him over the last, what we call it, 17, 18 games. I don't see the dynamic blocker that they count him as

or think he could be in there, and he's nothing in the past of game. So I think my leash with him is done. Allegretti, just not getting it done. He's just not getting it done. I don't think he was starting offensive linemen in the league. and he shouldn't be starting at center and he shouldn't be starting at guard

when they brought him in at center before the half because something happened to Patrick he messed up three of the four plays at center he did he got he got beat then there was a no play then he false started he snapped it too early that's when mariotta wasn't ready for the snap the poor guard on the right

the rookie he wasn't ready to go so he snapped it too early and then on the third down his guy made the tackle So, I mean, just, I'm never been an Allegheny guy, so he's number two. And then William's just the costly drop on third down, you know how I feel about third down drops. He had a third down drop or a big play. And then he had the penalty to call back the touchdown and had no impact in the game other than that. So your only impact on the game is negative, then that puts you in the bottom.

I wish that at some point maybe we'll do it as like a holiday special. Steve Souter goes back and does the film breakdown of the opener, the game that he missed, because Antonio Williams was outstanding in that game. Oh, I'm a Williams guy, basically. Yeah, I know. Look, I like him. I think he's going to be a good receiver, but hey, you had a bad one. All right, let's go to defense.

Third best to the best in the game. Third best defensive player in the game was who? Third best goes to Sunny. Another solid game. you mentioned that he was player the week. Just not making mistakes and making impactful plays now. And I think it's only going to get better. So that's back to back for him being the top for me.

Then it goes the madrano. Awesome. I mean, awesome game. He came in and was awesome. And that's, again, without the pick in the house call, he was really good. But with the pick and the house call, he goes up now. If I take the pick and the house call out, he goes, Kinlaw would edge him out into the top three.

He doesn't because I got to get it. It's a great play. He bites the play action a little bit and comes across. He refines where he should go. He's like, oh, I bet the play action. He turns his head. And what most linebergers don't do that I see a lot in the film, I'm watching. They don't look behind them and say, okay, now where should I go to help?

And that's what he did. He kind of bit to play action. He turns his head. He says, oh, let me cut off this little dump tight end right here and see if that works. And the ball comes right to him. So really heads up play. And then Robertson, me, he was awesome. I was going to ask him about him.

I was hoping you were going to have him number one, because if you didn't have him in the top three, I was going to ask why, because I thought he was outstanding. Yeah, he's number one. This has got to be the highest grade I've ever given a corner for the commanders as we were watching. He was outstanding. In man coverage, in zone coverage, making plays, PVUs,

came up and tackled. He had a really good game. And when he got beat, he was still on. on JSN. It's not like he's getting yak after the catch. Just a really good game. He was by far the best in the secondary.

He's a big hitter, too. He's tough. You can tell competitive. I think he and Reeves are sort of cut from... You know I love Reeves. Yeah, I know. Yeah. And they didn't have Nick Cross in the game. You know, they started

Kwan Martin at the other safety spot. I was going to ask you specifically about him with no cross crosses out again this week. How did you think Kwan played? Well, he's in my bottom three. So he's tied for number two in the bottom. Yeah, no, that's fine. So it goes, Martin and Sandor still are in the bottom. And then Joseph is the lowest grade other day. He is lost in space. I don't know why they would ever call the play to put him in space. He should not be in past coverage. I'm not a big fan.

of him early on, and I wasn't out of the draft anyway, but he's not somebody that I think is versatile enough to be in past coverage. And I think he found himself in past coverage three or four times, not effective. So they need to figure out something with him moving forward. But it goes, Quarman, St. Stansfield, just, you know, more of the same from Sandersville, more the same from Mark. You know, his snap count was basically half. He didn't start, and that's going to continue. Oh, yeah, I could tell. Oh, I noticed it. And he also played, didn't he play in the slot mostly? Nickel?

Yeah, he was not outside. Yeah, no. They're not going to put him outside anymore, I don't think. Yeah, that ship has finally sailed up. They should have been listening to me 16 games ago. But, and I'll say this, look, we went over the, they are the only three negative grades. If you let you want to count, I don't even know this guy, Ali Cahoe, what is the same?

Kehoe, yeah. Kehoe, yeah. He was in for two plays. One of them was bad, so he had kids. it's negative grade. But other than that, everybody else on the defense had a positive grade. That's how well I thought they played giving up 31 points in 400 yards. Tell me real quickly about another free agent signing whose name has not come up in either one of the two conversations we've had here on Wednesday's Steve Suter film breakdown day.

What do you think in 90, Charles Amenahue? He's okay so far. He has a deep. recent grade. Let me hold on. So he got a positive grade for me week against Seattle. Let me see what his grade was. Okay, so he was just below positive from Cowboys. So he's,

through average through two games, he's just above par. Okay. So the jury's still out. I don't say he's impactful, but he's not a liability right now. I think who you're playing right now is better than what I saw last year.

So like that takes into Newton. and I can't remember the other big guys, but so far, I like the rotation of Kinlau, pain, settle, Tuttle, chas-on, OA, Armstrong.

I mean, that's working. Okay. Through two anyway. All right. Do you have anything else in your notes that you haven't mentioned, that you want to mention?

Let's see. I think I'm good, man. I think we... Other than Reeves, I got notes on Reeves. people need to appreciate what he's doing out there. So many times I see him pointing to corners and other safeties and getting them in the right position.

You can tell they're disjointed it sometimes and he's the one correcting it on the back end. So you just got to pay attention to that too, if you want to pay attention to it. Yeah, I think it makes sense to pay attention to Jeremy Reeves. You've been asking us to pay attention to him since early last season. The team paid attention to it. They turned him into a starter.

All right. Great job. Really appreciate it. We'll do it again next week. All right, man. You bet. Steve Suter, everybody. That'll do it for today, back tomorrow.