The Kevin Sheehan Show - Running Game Woes + Suter "Film"

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

Kevin opened with some interesting "Next Gen Stats" on Washington's offensive line. Steve Suter jumped on with his "film breakdown" of the Commanders game in London against the Colts. 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. Join the millions who are already banking fee free with America’s #1 Choice for Banking. Head to chime.com/sheehan. Download the app today and use code SHEEHAN to get $150 instantly in Lineups if you win your first $5 Lineup! 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. Film breakdown with Steve Souter on today's show. And a warning for those of you who thought that the offensive line was the major problem on Sunday, you're not going to agree with Steve's offensive grades. Stay tuned.

The show's presenting sponsor is Window Nation. If you need new windows, reach out to Windexamination. Donation and tell them that I told you to reach out. They'll take really good care of you. It all starts with a free in-home estimate. 86690 Nation is the phone number. You can also go to windonation.com. Tommy's back on the show tomorrow. Tommy's back from Germany and I think also somewhere on the West Coast. So if you missed them like I did, or if you were concerned and many of you expressed concern, nothing to be concerned. He was just traveling. He'll be back on the show tomorrow. Speaking of the offensive line, I've got two emails that I want to read and react to. The first one's from Gary.

Gary writes, Kevin, if you thought the offensive line was good against the Colts, I have to wonder if you were actually watching the game. Our O line is trash. And then this from Jackson B73, he writes, Do you really believe our offensive line played great? The rose-colored glasses blinded you, pal. Thank you for that, champ. I never said that the offensive line played great, Jackson B-73.

I said from Sunday night on that I thought the offensive line passed protected well. And I did think that, and I still do think that. And you'll hear Steve talk about it as well in his film breakdown. And I actually just found some stats that back it up to a certain degree. I've actually thought all season long through the first four games that the O-line and pass pro has been really good. Remember, pressure stats, sack stats are somewhat different. You know, sack stats are as much a quarterback stat as it is an offensive line stat.

Through four games, Washington's quarterbacks, and they've played three quarterbacks so far, they've been sacked five times, second fewest in the league. Brock Purdy has not been sacked once in San Francisco. Washington's five sacks allowed, second best in the league, tied for second best with two other teams. But pressure stats are also a reflection sometimes of offensive line play. it also can be quarterback driven or quarterback impacted. There's been some pressure. You know, Steve pointed out that the second half of last week's game against Seattle,

the O-line was kind of hanging on. That was a hell of a defense that they were going up against. But I have felt, you know, all season long through four games, not all season long, but through this first near quarter of the season, that the O line, even though it's been shuffled and reshuffled a few times with the injuries, I think it's done a pretty good job in pass pro. I have not been thrilled with the run blocking, but I also haven't believed that our backs are doing a good job.

Certainly not Bill Kroski-Mert talked a little bit about that on yesterday's show, but I think that it's been a good pass-blocking offensive line. And there was a major alarm coming out of training camp, and there was major alarm. Gary and Jackson B-73 are not alone in thinking that the offensive line was a sieve on Sunday. I didn't see it that way. Think about this. Third string rookie quarterback. He got sacked one time, and he wasn't pressured a lot. They sacked him on that slot corner blitz on the third and nine where it knocked him out of field goal range in the third quarter when it was 20 to 13, and they could have, you know, ended up kicking. a field goal to make it a four-point game. But that was it.

And then Marcus Marietta got sacked obviously early and got injured on that play. I think it was the impact of the Marioita injury on that one play that made everybody, you know, who already many people were alarmed about the offensive line. I'm not saying that the center position isn't a worthwhile conversation and that they probably messed up on the center decision. with Allegretti. They did. Clearly they did. I don't think they thought they were messing up, and I don't think he was plan A. But that's a worthwhile conversation. Tunsell obviously is missed, but Brandon Coleman's played pretty well. To not have Cosmey the last two weeks has been very,

very impactful, but they did a decent job without him on Sunday. Connerly's pretty good. Paul's okay. And Lucas Patrick, you'll hear Steve, rave about Lucas Patrick and his performance for a second straight week. But yeah, I don't think that the offensive line's been an issue in past protection, but I also don't think it's been a very good run blocking line. So I turn now to NFL's next gen stats. Their run block win rate rankings and their pass block win rate rankings. These are a reflection of how well your team pass blocks and how well your team run blocks.

I will tell you in advance of sharing these numbers with you, I am surprised. The pass block win rate ranking for Washington among 32 teams is third in the NFL. third best pass block win rate in the NFL behind only the 49ers and the Raiders. That is much higher than I would have thought, even though I have said, I think the pass blocking's been pretty good through four games. I didn't think it was third ranked good among 32 teams. The run block win rate is a different story. Out of 32 teams, Washington ranks 32nd.

in run block win rate. Now, I didn't think the run blocking looked that great through four games, but I didn't think it was dead last. So Gary and Frederick and Jackson B-73, you guys are at least partially right. Our O-line, when it comes to run-blocking, is trash, Gary.

And yes, I guess when it comes to the overall offensive line play, maybe the rose-colored glasses are blinding me, champ, Jackson B-73. But I think that the pass blocking was the biggest alarm that was being sounded coming out of training camp. And certainly was the big topic of conversation or one of the big topics of conversation coming out of the game on Sunday. They do have to improve from a run-blocking standpoint. There's no doubt. I think the backs have to improve as well. you'll hear what Steve thinks about Bill Kroski Merritt,

and you'll hear about what he thinks about the pass blocking Sunday against the Colts. But interesting numbers, for sure, I would not have guessed third. I would not have guessed 32nd. I know that a couple of weeks ago I saw that Washington was ranked in the top 10 for past block win rate, and I think they were like in the low 20s for run block win rate. Sunday was not a good day trying to run the football. And maybe without the illegal shift against Antonio Williams against Seattle and that 48-yarder stands, maybe they wouldn't be 32nd. Speaking of offensive line again, how about the trade that just went down in the NFL?

The Eagles are trading Cam Juergens, their center, although he has not played center recently because he moved to guard when Landon Dickerson went to IR. are, the Eagles traded Cam Juergens to the Ravens. Forget this, a 2027 fifth round pick and a 2028 second round pick. Now, they also gave up a seventh rounder, okay? So the Eagles basically, I'm sorry, a 2027 fifth round pick. Did I say fifth round pick or did I say seventh round pick? They gave up Jurgens and a seventh round pick for a fifth rounder in the upcoming draft and a 2028 second rounder.

That seems like a lot to me. These are always conversations that we get wrong. But a second rounder, even though it's in 2028, you discount it by a round. So let's just say it was a third rounder this year with a fifth rounder getting a seventh rounder back. Seems like a lot. I mean, Cam Juergens is a good player,

and they paid him. He's under contract. Seems like a lot. though. No, Philadelphia would not have traded Cam Juergens within the division. There's no way that would have happened unless they thought he was trash. All right, let's get to Steve Souter's film breakdown. We'll do it right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, I love the concept of Chime. It is something my younger self would have absolutely taken advantage of and benefited from. Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not

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All right, we'll get to Steve's film breakdown here in just a moment. But I wanted to read this from Chuckie. Chuckie sent me this on X on Twitter. He wrote, Kevin, where did this suitor guy come from? best part of the week, great find. Thank you for that, Chucky. I actually didn't find Steve for this role. Matt Swope, who is the baseball coach at Maryland and is a listener to the podcast, reached

out to me last year to say, I've got an idea for the Cooley film breakdown segment replacement. And the idea was Steve Suter. Steve is an excellent, excellent analyst on Maryland's football games with Johnny Holiday on radio. And I've had Steve on the show many times over the years talking Maryland football. And I knew he was a great guest talking Terps football. And I knew he was a great, you know, live game analyst. But we had him do the film breakdown of the Packers game after week two last year. And the rest is history. He's been doing it ever since. But Chuckie, you remind me that we do have new people that are joining us on Wednesday.

because they've heard Steve is really good at doing this. So let me properly introduce Steve, for those of you like Chuckie, who don't know who Steve is. Steve's one of the greatest punt returners in college football history. He still holds NCAA and ACC records from his time playing at Maryland in the early 2000s. And as mentioned, he's been doing Maryland football and radio with Johnny Holiday for several years and is really good at that. But Steve was really, really exceptional as a punt returner and was a good receiver, too, at Maryland during some very good seasons when Ralph Friedgen was the coach in the early 2000s.

All right. The way we do this with Steve is he kind of gives us an overview his thoughts on the game, then takes us to some of the key sequences that Heath wants to sort of discuss from the game. and then we get Steve to grade the top three and the bottom three performers offensively and defensively, and then we typically finish up with something maybe we haven't touched on. I do have an idea for that final segment, and it will likely be if he doesn't cover it in the first couple of segments, it'll be about the running game and the running backs. So we'll have him talk about that if he doesn't cover it here to start with.

But with that, yeah, Steve's really good at this. And Steve sometimes doesn't actually watch the games live. He just watches the All-22. So let me begin there. This was a Sunday morning game. I know you've got kids and there's lots of stuff that you're doing. But did you watch the game as it was broadcast live on Sunday morning? Or did you just watch the All-22?

too. I did catch some of it in the morning. Yes, then you mentioned the Maryland thing. I got back at like 2.30 a.m. from Nebraska. My wife, who was a cheerleading coach, she went out there. That was her travel game. She had to dig commercial the next morning. So I had to pick her up at 11.30. So long story short, I was in and out on the game as it was live. But I was watching enough to see Mario to go down and my heart sank. That was a bummer to start the game for sure. All right. So after watching the All-22, what are your big takeaways? Yeah, so going into the game, I mean, I really like their chances because I think, based off my film and watch them, I do believe they're a good run-stopping defense just early in the season, and I was standing on that,

and I thought they'd do a good job against Taylor and the Colts, which is their strong suit. They didn't make Daniels try to, excuse me, Jones, try to beat them in the air. And I still feel that way after watching the game. most of those yards in the ground game that the Colts end up getting showed up in the fourth quarter. One particular drive was the first one in the fourth quarter where they rallied off three straight, like 12-yard runs, and then a little bit at the end. So I still stand by. I think they're a pretty good run defense, and moving forward, that's going to be their strength on the defensive end.

And then it's going to come down to can you hold up in the secondary moving forward. I think they did adequate job of that as well against the Colts. I think it was their game to win. If Mario doesn't go down, I strongly believe that they win that ballgame. Offensively, kind of look to me towards, you know, once Mario goes down, you bring an AK and throughout the game started becoming apparent to me. And I think Blow, I don't want to call him unprepared, but because maybe, I don't know, I will say I'm prepared.

Just seem like you wasn't ready to call plays for AK. So when Mario goes down, you got to change it up a little bit. And I don't think he was prepared to do that because I don't think it took his strength in the play. They tried to rely on the run, but they couldn't get anything going. And that was kind of the theme offensively. Just nothing there, sputter, no rhythm, couldn't get it moving, couldn't get the ring and going, AKA struggled a little bit early. Made some good throws, but made some poor throws, too. So he couldn't stay in a rhythm or flow. Yeah, he threw a bunch of bombs, though. I mean, he let it fly down the field.

I mean, it was taking a shot for sure. I mean, he does have the best ball of the year by any commander. That rollout past the Army Brown was the ball the year. I watched that. I rewound that throw 10, 15 times because I was so impressed. So he holds that mark of best ball the year, but then you know, simple, like the simple screen to Antonio, you've got to hit that in the chest. You can't dirt that

to that guy. That's a simple pitch and catch. That cost to play. There's no yards to get after that. I think his first throw was inaccurate as well. And his first read, actually, and we'll probably go over that if we want to break down on his tape, but his first read was really disappointing on his first third down. If you want to jump into, yeah, let's go to 324 in the first quarter.

Yep. This is his first third down, and what's concerning is he's looking right at the route, and this is a good call. You're going to get Lane wide open on a corner route, and he's looking right at it, and the Lexa throw to digs who's covered. So that you don't get more open than this than Lane. Right. if you pause, you pause that ball seven seconds into that play.

Yeah. They're running a little smash concept. They thought they were going to get covered to. They got covered two. You reached off guard here, the flat defender. If he stays on digs, and you take lane. If he sinks on lane, you take digs. They both stay on digs.

I mean, Lane's butt-naked here. And this is your first third down. Right. This moves to change on third and seven, and you're a third-street quarterback. The sideline probably goes crazy, right? Because you're going to complete. I mean, who knows what Lane does with that football if he gets it.

He's a wide open. He's got the safety to beat, and maybe he houses it. Maybe he doesn't. But I think the sideline gets crazy. He'll probably get pumped up. This is his first completion, and it's going to be a big one. But he's looking right at it. This is the read.

You're looking at Lane and Diggs, and he's staring right at Lane and Diggs. And I don't see how you don't see that Lane's your play. I mean, I don't think Lane scores, but it's a chunk play. the sticks. Absolutely. Yeah. And did you see a guy in your first time watching him, first time for all of us watching him in a real game?

We saw him in the preseason. Did you see a guy that can throw it pretty well? Yeah, a strong arm. I've got a strong arm. If you get his holding the accuracy, I think he's a valid NFL quarterback to be on a roster. I mean, right now, first game, year and a headlights kind of thing.

I mean, he's definitely had made some mistakes. This is one of them in the first play or his first third down. But I think he'll stick on an NFL roster for the foreseeable future for sure. Maybe will you ever get to be a number two or maybe not a number one, but maybe he gets up to be a number two somewhere eventually. But it's just, I just kept feeling for you and your fan base here, the injuries that you're going through. It's rough to watch.

This is a perfect example of what you get with a third string quarter. quarterback. I mean, you know, it's third and seven. You're up six nothing, you know, and he's come into the game and the design is perfect. The protection's solid. And Jalen Lane's wide open for, and you think that's his first read. Yeah, you got to read, you read deep to short here. Yeah. And well, if you're reading sauce, I mean, technically you're reading South Garner. You're the, read the flat defender. So you hike this football. If you get the coverage, you want to, cover two, which they get 25 their state. Yeah. He breaks out. He's breaking the cover two. So you read the flat defender. That's since you were playing college football as a freshman.

You get covered two. You got a smash concept. You read the flat defender. He gets it. They dial it up. It's exactly what Blout wants. And you don't execute to that. I'm sure, you know, OCs are throwing her headset.

They're getting frustrated. They're like, come back and talk to, dude, you had Lane. What didn't you like about it? And I don't know. I don't know. You know, what do you say that? I don't know. I didn't see him.

Well, that's what you're supposed to be looking at. Right. Okay. That's a first thing to start. But what can you do? Right. So you're there. Offensively, then moving on.

I am, yeah, let's start this. I'm done with the whole Senate and Bates package. They're 12 personnel with those two in the game. I'm completely done with it. They do not provide the blocking aspect that you think they're giving you advantage when they're running that package, they absolutely provide nothing in the past game. So if they're not giving you that look and that dominant blocking in that personnel package,

why are they in the game? And I say that because I kept going, where is Chig? Where is Chig? And it was at 656. I marked it, 656 in the third quarter. And this isn't a big play or anything, but at 656 in the third quarter, Chig's in the game, and he's part of the 12 package. And I said right before the ball, he was even a snap, I said, this is a pass.

So to me, I'm not studying the opponent's film like that. Or excuse me, I'm not studying the commander's film like a defender would. But right off the bat, I said, this is a pass. It's becoming a tell when Chig is in the game that it's going to be a pass. And you can't have that be a tell. And I'm watching Chig in the plays that he's in when they're running the football and his blocking is just as good or just as absolutely. average as Bates and Cents. So I don't see any advantage, right?

Right. There's no advantage to not have him in the game in that 12 personnel package because now you're not tipping your hand. I think that it's a real problem. Who's worse, Senator Bates? Oh, man. Bates is probably worse. He gives you nothing in the past game. You're not really good blocking either. I don't know why he's on the field. Senate, I mean, I could argue both really. Neither one of them are doing you any favors on the field.

And Chig is going to do favors. He's not getting the receptions that you wanted early on, but he is taking tops off coverage stuff that you couldn't do last year with any of the tight ends that you had. Ertz couldn't do it, but he is doing it. So while he's not getting a lot of attention with receptions, he is providing more width and depth in your passing game because he has the ability to get downfield.

And they're going to start figuring out. There's a couple times you could have hit them for some checkdowns. they don't, and those are a type of five-yard catches that he could turn into 20. And I think it's going to happen. So I wouldn't get discouraged on the trick from what I'm watching on film. He's moving, he moves much better than both those tight ends. He moves much better than Earth did. And he's going to provide some offensive firepower for you moving forward.

We've just got to figure it out. But part of it is having him on the field. He's not on the field enough for me, and it goes back to the personnel package. I don't see what they see and what they think they're game. with those two on the field at the same time. It's just not working. So put you in. He's doing fine.

I've watched him on the split zone that we went over last week. You know, you have the tight end and come across formation. They blocked the end. He did that fine. So if he can handle that block and he can handle the head of reaches and things of that nature and helping the double teams when he's on the end of the line of scrimmage with the tackle, they keep him in the game. Unless this is like a load management thing, which maybe it is,

then that would be the only argument you could give me of why you don't have it all the time again. And it goes back to stop tipping your hand. It's, I've watched a couple play action. When Chigs in the game, nobody's reacting to the play action. I think they know. I think somebody's on the field like 85 alert, alert, right? Alert pass.

Alert paths are probably just saying that just based off personnel. So you've got to get rid of that. Now maybe, maybe this is an overreaction of me in one game watching it and maybe. Well, it's the only full game he's played. I mean, I had a caller on the radio show yesterday. I think it was yesterday, who was very disappointed with Chig's output so far in the season. And I just said to him, I said, well, he's only played a game and a half. He played half the game in Philadelphia before he got hurt.

He missed the Dallas and Seattle games with an injury. And then in his first full game start to finish, a third string quarterback was in the game. I don't know how anybody could actually bring up Chigga Conquo's productivity at this point, given that he's barely been on the field. But what you saw from him is that there is definitely benefit from having him on the field versus what they've had the last couple years. Absolutely. I think he's going to – that production is going to come eventually.

They're going to figure it out. And he's – I don't – you got a package of eligible. receivers will call it that are all kind of in the same category, same both talent-wise, in my opinion. You don't have Justin Jefferson that's head above everybody within this offense. So I don't see Blau cooking up plays for specific players all the time, maybe very, very rarely. He's going to call the play, and whoever's in, you're all kind of the same. So there's no need to single somebody out, essentially. Now, they do call the plays that you can tell Lurfer Diggs on purpose, on, like, short intermediate

routes when they need a third or five. You can see that they dialed up to have him be the number one read. But overall, you're not going to highlight Kigg, right? He's not that kind of tight end, but you're not going to hide him either. He's a valuable member of the passing game. It's going to come. They just got to keep him on the field. Now, I said, did he get hurt?

Because he wasn't in the fourth quarter, and I made a note, did he get hurt again? He was not listed as an injured player. He played 37 snaps in the game out of 64 offensive snaps. He actually... In the fourth quarter, they're down two scores, and they're basically in two minutes and Yank off sentence. And I was like, I'm wondering if she got banged up or something because that would make no sense.

Interesting. Yeah, I did not. I didn't get that. Did you think they missed Terry? So you and I are kind of the same boat on Terry. He's not a number one for me, but he does make an occasional player here and there. Did they miss Terry? I don't know.

I like Brown. Brown's growing on me. He's growing on me. Williams had a good game. Jigs is okay. I mean, sure. You could use Terry for sure. But that would be nice to me say they didn't miss him just from rotational standpoint.

Because I was in a text thread the other night, and I just posed it to the group, and I haven't done it on radio. Maybe I will. If you can only have one of the following two players back for Sunday's game against the Giants, Terry McClorn or Sam Cosmy, who would you choose? Yeah, I'm taking Cosmy. Yeah, that was my choice. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm taking Cosmy. And you know what? That's the same way you bring that up, because you're... Goldman had all rough first quarter and second quarter. I'm talking rough. I was almost wiseest guy on the field. He's not capable of playing in the NFL. Second half, I don't know what happened.

Totally different player. He didn't have one negative grade for me in the second half. Very impressed. I was almost rooting for him because I was ready to pack him and set him on the bus after the first second quarter. And then after halftime, he didn't have one. negative play the entire second half. So he really turned it around, figured out how to play football.

I'm sure there was a lot of shock and stuff involved early on. He's going up against some pretty good guys. Buckner was giving everybody a problem in the first second quarter at the tackle, and he really miraculously turned it around. So I was kind of impressed. He was not going to play. You know why he was in there. We've already, you know, exchanged texts.

This is, you know, another call from Souter going back to last year. they benched Allegretti. They went with Lucas Patrick at center, and because Cosmese out, they played Goldman, who they drafted to be a center. But I heard over the summer that they really liked him as a sixth round pick. And I ultimately came to the same conclusion after just watching the offense on the All-22. I didn't think it was overall a terrible day for the offensive line in pass pro, period. What did you think?

No, I would agree with that. They were not under the quarterbacks were not under the rest. Now, there was one drive in the third quarter. After Diwami Brown big play, after A.K. Through the ball a year. That was the play that you just pointed to with Chig in the game. That was a tell. That was the 48-yarder to Diami.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. See, such a good ball. I'm watching it again. That is a great ball. I mean, it's the ball of year for the commanders right now. That is on the run, one foot to a guy that's kind of,

it doubled on a sideline, drop it in his bucket. Yeah. Man, what a pass. So after this completion, then Nicole said, okay, hold on, let's give the young guy some pressure. So they dialed them up and pressure right after this pass for the next couple of plays. Now, actually, let's go to the, let's go to 535. 535, so it's three plays later.

Yeah. And now this is a cover. Now, what I didn't like about this is the play call here. I get this, right? Cover zero, but they call the protection. protection wrong. Okay, that's fine. You get tricked here because you just count numbers. So they call the protection to the right, but the pressure's coming off the left. The guy that's over top of digs here in the slot is going to end up blitz and he's going to be the extra guy,

and they don't pick it up because they call it to the right, which I'm fine with because you're not going to get this right every time. You got everybody up on a line of scrimmage. Let me just let me point out to everybody. This is the third and nine in the third quarter where AK got blitzed off the, by the slot corner, untouched, and it was a loss that knocked them out of field goal range because they were in field goal range at third nine at the Indy 35 with a chance to make it 20 to 16 if they don't pick it up. That's the play. And you're saying that it was zero coverage.

I can see that right now. And go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt. I just wanted people to know where we were. Yeah. Yeah. So they bring pressure. They play before this.

and they bring pressure on this down. And again, you've got all these guys on a line of scrimmage. You got to make a call here, which way you're going to send people. And it's either going to be right or it's going to be wrong. But if everybody's on the same page, sometimes you can get away with being wrong. Now, the problem I have with this play is there's no route that if they're wrong, bails them out. There's no route.

Everybody's going deep. They're only sending three. They're trying to max protect here. and if you get it right on the protection, then this could work. But if you get it wrong, he has no outlet if this is wrong. There's no flat route. There's no quick drag. There's no pop pitch.

I mean, Williams is going 15 yards down the field. Diggs is going 15 yards down the field. And Berks is going all the way down the field. So he has no outlet if it's wrong. Now, does he even see the corner of blitz anyway? No, he doesn't see this. Right. So he might not go down to his checkdown anyway.

Who needed to see this? He needed to see this, right? Not that. I mean, I think this is something he'll learn from in film short. He's going to look at this and say, why is the guy standing over top of digs? If this is true zero, then who is, let's see, what's his safety, Bynum number zero? Yeah, Cam Bynum. If this is true, yeah, if this is true zero, who's Bynum guarding?

And the answer would be nobody, right? He's got to be guarding Diggs if this is true zero. So maybe that guy over top of Diggs is your pressure threat. Now, he could think that Bynum's responsible for Reynolds coming out of the backfield. But all in all, this is something he's probably going to see. You're going to practice this on tape. You're going to rewatch this on film and say, when I get this look that looks like zero and I got a guy standing over my fly with a safety over top,

then maybe he's the guy that's coming. Right. And then if you slide this pressure to the left, they pick it up. Right. And wouldn't you, as part of the check in terms of protection, wouldn't you also have a quick answer against, because you're outnumbered anyway? Yes. Well, if you're max protect, I mean, if they max protect, which they are doing. Yeah, with Reynolds.

Yeah, I think they're still down one. You might be right. Yeah, so maybe the pop out is Chig here, but he's going to, he tries the block first. This could be a chip by jig, and then maybe he jumps out to the flat somewhere, but it just doesn't develop. Right. But there is no – you see how – you see how Chig like it's this guy? Yep. And then it looks like he's trying to release.

Yes, I do. Yeah, so that might be it. But still, that's going to happen too slow. Yeah. There's – there – so what I said about this play was what I didn't like was there was no quick throw option. So they had to be right here by protection, and they weren't. And so this play has no chance to win. And all you're getting is AK getting drilled.

Yeah. All right. Yeah, that was a tough. Yeah, that was a tough play because ultimately, you know, the nine-yard loss knocks them out of field goal range. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Not many else, like, offensive plays to point out that are really coached tips. I mean, I know I've heard you and everybody are talking about fourth down. I agree. Terrible decision to go for that all fourth down in that position in the game. We always talk about read the room. Read the room, man.

You got your third stringer in, play some defense. Your defense is playing well. That, you know, you wouldn't be able to convince me that that was the right decision. Yeah, I have not gotten that upset with Quinn at any point

during his first two years and now four games when it comes to that stuff. He usually gets that stuff, right? He's been, he's had some things where you could, you know, you could pick at a little bit. But it's like, you've got to be kidding me. I mean, the benefit of that is first and 10 from your own 47, still with your third string quarterback in. They had, and I'm sure you notice this, the first five drives for the Giants offensively, three punts, two turnovers, 39 total yards.

Daniel Jones was completely shaky at that point. And they could have pinned him deep. and at 6-0 at that point with your third stringer in, you got to be thinking about how to win a 16 to 13 game. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm on the same page. Let me show you some good stuff on defense.

Okay. Defense play well. Go 1128, first quarter. 1128, first quarter, first third down. And it's a great tackle. It's a great tackle by Robertson, but the play is made by Reeves here. And this is why he's such a good player.

Watch Reeves here. When this motion and this formation is having to watch, when Dolan comes in tight, 16. Rees knows their man coverage. Yeah, when Dolan comes in tight motion, short side here, watch Reeves, yell at Douglas, you've got to get up impressed, you've got to get up impressed.

Because you can't be on the same level. The DBs don't want to be on the same level in man coverage. To get bumped off. So they don't get bumped off. So Douglas is late, but Reeves is yelling, you've got to get up, you got to get up. So he pushes him up, so he presses. Now watch, so he's going to press Dullen, and what they're trying to do is get a pick across the formation. Yep, yep, yep, yep.

Or the guy that Robertson is covering. And because Reeves tells Douglas to get up and press, then he gets a good, he gets a good jam, then there's no pick. Robbins gets around it, and this is how you get off the field and get off sticks. And it's all because of Reeves' intelligence right there to make sure. that that minor detail wasn't missed. Otherwise, Dullin's getting a free release off the line. He can find Robinson. He can go pick him and down.

It's probably going to be wide open and get the first down, but he's not. This is the stuff that I love because this isn't reflected. I'll do respect to those advanced stats places that grade players. None of those players are grading Reeves for what he just did to help them get off the field. on third and five. I know Suter is. And as Steve's explaining this, and I'm watching this, Reeves is so animated, so animated pre-snap.

He knows what's going on, and he sees Doolin 16, and he just gets Douglas up on the line of scrimmage so they don't get picked on the crossers and have something wide open for Jones to throw. We've all seen that. Third and five, there's a pick on two, crossing wide receivers. They picked the defenders off and somebody's wide open and you're like, how did

that guy get so wide open? It was a pick. Well, if you're not at the same level defensively, then you're not going to pick each other off. That is, and you love Reeves. You've loved Reeves since the beginning of last year, but that's the kind of thing that the coaches are like,

man, we need 39 on the field. You got to have one. He is the leader back there. Everybody, it's almost every play they're looking at him and asking him what to do or he's telling people what to do that's wild

Reeves you know he was the he was he made the Pro Bowl as a special teamer when Rivera was here and it was a very emotional thing because you know he was basically a guy that got called up and and you know he was a nobody

and now you you started to say at the beginning of last year I don't know how they keep Reeves off the field He should be on the field. He was the best player in the secondary last year, for sure. Yeah. Durante Jones recognized it. I mean, not to shoot my own or a but it's just another guy I've been right about.

Yes, you've been right about a lot of you guys. Yeah. I can't wait until you're wrong about somebody because I, seriously. All right, go ahead. What else? What else? I'm all, all right, go to 606. This is a look you've never seen.

6.06 first quarter? Yep. First quarter. Yep. I just want you to see this. Look. Look just. I don't want to put you on.

the spot here, but if anything stood out to you in this formation defensively, and I won't put you in a spot. Hold on, hold on. Sonny Stiles. Okay, sorry, I already gave it away. Sorry. Sunny Stiles is your middle

linebacker, and he is walked out. Press, man coverage, Tyler Warren in the slot. Like, press, man, this is Sunny Stiles, your middle linebacker, and they have the confidence to have him go against the first round

tight end in the slot. press man I mean you did not have that versatility last year at all you mean Bobby Wagner couldn't do that there's just the fact

that they are good with this is I mean yes and he does fine here I think Warren's trying to do a little pick again with the guy on the top of the formation but still

this is I mean son he's going to run with him you see how Warren he's not paying attention he's trying to go get Douglas yeah He's trying to go picked up. Didn't last year, didn't they drop pain back a couple of times in coverage on a tight end?

I mean, they did that last game. Remember, we pointed out, it was cover zero and they popped him out, and he's just trying to take away that quick pop pass. But that's just, and so if you're 606, right, so it's not the only time they did it. Do 750, 750 in the third quarter. So it only happened twice, but it's only because that happens when you call a man coverage play and they split the guy out wide. So you go to $7.50 in the third quarter. Yep.

And here it is against sunny press. Press man against Warren. I mean, that's cool stuff. You saw Warren, you know, in college at Penn State. I thought it was an absolute beast. But when I was watching Indy Houston from a week ago before the game, he's not a separator as a pass-vers. He's phenomenal after the catch and he's big and strong and it's hard to get him down.

But do you agree that he's not a separator as a tight end? Well, first game I've actually broken down his film and he didn't flash for me. Sure. So as of right now, I can agree with you. I mean, I can't even recall the games in college and I called with him. Well, Loveland, remember Loveland the tight end at Michigan. He got picked before Warren in that draft. And I was surprised by that because I thought Warren was an absolute monster in college.

Yeah, I can agree that I was surprised, too. But Lovelin. I mean, I don't know if Warren's more of a, I don't want to call him a gimmick guy, but it seems like they do a lot of trick. They did at Penn State. Remember he threw the ball a couple of times. Yeah, but then he's like a middle-stream guy, and then he's, they tried it, the coach tried to get him on one late in the game.

And they tried to, they did play action, and Jones rolled out to the right, and they tried to sneak Warren out of the backfield all by himself in kind of a throwback. But Jason saw it, and he ran with him, and then Jones had to just throw it away. But I think that's the kind of stuff that he must have got away with all the time. He's not cutting you up one-on-one. He's the product of a good play design. Right. Yeah, because Loveland's a better, I've recognized this watching Loveland in Chicago. he's a better overall kind of receiver as a tight end and route runner.

But anyway, just because you saw Warren and Loveland in college. And I thought that the Bears made a mistake. I was like, no, Warren's going to be dominant. I thought he had a chance to be Brock Bowers, but he's not even close. Not even close. Yeah. Yeah. Go to 11-11 second quarter.

Here's another great play recognition. 11-11 second quarter. This is the third and one where Douglas makes a great mental play here. You can sell Douglas knows what's coming. He knows his play. You can see him right at the start, the formation. Watch him gesture.

He's like, my guys are on the slant. He knows his guys run in the slant. Did you see that gesture that he says, plant-flant? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he knows the slant's coming, and he's seen this on tape because watch how quickly. He ignores the slant,

and he breaks on Dullin behind the line of scrimmage. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is play recognition before the play happened. What a great play. He's yelling at Sandra Still. But see, look, but see, here's another problem with Sanders still. He's not paying attention.

He doesn't, he doesn't get it that he's yelling at. It could be him that he wants to pass off the slant to. Because Sandra still doesn't check downs here. He's very fortunate. Yeah. Sandra still didn't know that he was supposed to go out and cover downs. Yeah, yeah. And now maybe he's right, and this is supposed to be lock coverage

and nobody's supposed to switch, and Douglas is just making a play here. But I don't think so. By the way, he's calling it out, and he's yelling alert, slam. I mean, he's saying, and he's pointing across the formation, hey, my guy's running a slant, my guys run in a slant, he knows somebody's come back his way. And that's just awesome heads up. They look better coached right now than they did maybe earlier in the season.

Now, to be fair, Indies not Seattle or Dallas on offense. There's no JSN, there's no CD-LAM because their speed was out. Alec Pierce, you know, has been out so far. So they didn't have any true vertical threats. Makes it easier. Yeah. Yeah. All right, I got another sequence where to go to third quarter.

450. Okay. And this is more player related. So I'm not a fan of Joseph's early on. I wasn't out of the draft. I think I told you that when we did our draft breakdown. I'm not, I wasn't hype about

to pick. I, and they're using him in past coverage, which we talked about last week. I don't know why you would do that. He does not show any type of versatility athleticism to handle that. Now, I think the

Colts think the same thing. and watched film and said when 48's in the game, let's make all our plays revolve around him, right? So just click this play. This is Jones. He sees 48 in. He sees and drops. Once I see 48 drop, I'm going to his side.

Okay? So he drops, goes down, hits the hitch, because Joseph ain't getting there to cut that off, which he's supposed to be the underneath guy. He was kind of close. Yeah, but the point is they see him, and they're going at him. Right.

Now go to the next play, 413. We're going to have another play. We're going to go at him three plays in a row, essentially, like, oh, to his side. So now we run play action on him, right to his side. We unblock him because we're going to him. Let's use him because he's not going to make the right decision, not in space anyway. So we get the little pass off. What I've noticed, what I've noticed is it's Oway and Chase on to start as the edges,

and then they bring in Armstrong and Josephs who usually play together as sort of that second group. I mean, Armstrong could certainly be good enough to play in the first group. But that would make no – I don't understand that because, like, Chason's the best one of those four that you mentioned in coverage. Okay. So you should have him in with one of these two because you're not dropping Armstrong,

and you shouldn't be dropping Joseph. So you should have Chasong. in with one of them to mix it up. O-A is, I haven't really seen him in the coverage that much, actually. So you could have a tell there, too, because the only one you should be dropping is Chase-on, which

if I'm a QB, then I'm going to account for that likely the pressure is coming from the other side. But Chase-Sunk and Rush to Patchett, too. I think they want Joseph to beat Chase-on, but he's just not. Not in space anyway. So this is, you know, second play in a row,

they're using Joseph and going to make him wrong. And then the very next play, and they do it again. They just go towards his side. Three plays in a row. They even flip the formation. They see Joseph flips and the plays designed

just to his side. I'm not saying it worked every time, but that's... No, but they were clearly targeting him. He's in the game, and now all three plays go to his direction. And they would have completed that last hitch there if Kinloh doesn't bat a pass down. Right. So you would... Because if he's in coverage, I'm

going to it. He's not going to be able to make a break on any these passes. Three straight plays. They essentially targeted Josephs in the game in coverage. It's just it seemed obvious when I was watching it. Right.

Okay. There you have it. What else in terms of portions of the game? Well, I'll say just from a player's standpoint, Kinlaw didn't look like himself. I don't know if that injury bugging in, but he did not look like his normal self.

And Louvo, I don't know, not much of an impact from a player standpoint on his first game back. I used to seeing those guys make more plays. So interesting, I was going to ask you about Louvo, because Louvo in his first game back played on all but two snaps in the game, which tells me what I had heard over the summer, which was the defensive staff thinks that Frankie Louvo is. going to fit perfectly in this defense and he's going to be back to what he was in 2024. He was a second team

all pro player in 2020. And he was good in the opener as well. But you're saying that the 63, out of the 65 defensive snaps, because he's out there, let me look this up, he's out there a lot more than

Stiles was. Yeah, I mean, he played, you know, in terms of those inside lineback, He played 14 more snaps in the game than Stiles did. Okay. Yeah. I saw him on the field for sure. Just, and the majority of those plays, he's doing his job, quote, unquote.

Yep. Just didn't make an impact. I'm used to seeing him make impactful plays, and he didn't put any of those really up on the film. Got it. And now I get the reason of him and the coaches being so high on this year, and it's because of Sonny. when you had Bobby

you couldn't do anything with them other than hope he stopped the run and then hold your breath and path coverage you don't have to do that with Sunny so Louvue gets freed up a little more Louvoo was restricted last year because they would have to make him do all the things that were required

of a versatile linebacker now you can have Sonny do those and then Louvoo can do something else so he's not pigeonholed into this one style plate because he is he's way more alike well, I could say that since Vulu's been in the league. More sunny is way more like Luzu than

Wagner was like Luzum. So you got two of the same linebackers, and you can alternate who's doing what. Sure. Okay. Are you through a lot of the plays yet? Because I actually have a couple that I want to ask you about before we get to the grades. Let's go to yours.

Okay. I asked you about this. I texted you about this the other day, but I want you to tell everybody what you saw on the play at 225 in the third quarter. They're down 20 to 13. It's third and 11 from their own 13-yard line. This is the touchdown pass to Antonio Williams, where there's an illegal formation called

and then also a hold on Diami Brown. So walk us through what you see on this play. Okay, so let's just do the hold first because the hold's easy. The hold is, that's a trash call. That's not holding. Garbage penalty, move on. that's that's b. The illegal shift, though, by the letter of the law, is correct.

They're going on first sound. Everybody has to be. First sound, everybody. First sound, it's a quick snap. They're going quick snap here. So it's the first sound, which means what is the responsibility for the receivers and the quarterback before the quarterback goes, you know, hut and the ball gets snapped? Yes.

So everybody should know if you're going on sound, right, they'd be in the huddle thing. and whatever this is, bunch right tight, blah, blah, blah, on sound, you should run out of the huddle with a little bit more pace and eagerness to get set because it's on first sound and you need to be set before the ball is snapped. So the line of the responsibility ends up on AK, you're the QB, you need to make sure everybody set before you snap the football. Now, can the receivers take some blame here too? Yes, they should.

They should run out and get set knowing that it's on first down, and they're taking too long to get set. They're both like Brown and Burks are kind of still tip doing the rock back and forth, toe heel, toe heel, I'm getting set. And they're not, you need to be set. Everybody needs to be set for a count. For a count. Like a, yeah, like a, it's not even like a one second, but you've got to be set.

It's a beat. Not moving before you snap the ball. Yeah, beats a better way to say it. And they're not set. They are still moving when that ball. set or they didn't have that beat. So I get it. It's ticky-tacky. It's a

tickey-tack call, but letter of the law, it is a penalty. And then it takes away a really cool play by William Sue. I told you, come to draft, he was the best yak runner on the team as a rookie

before he even took a snap. There's an example of that. Breaking that tackle. Now, I don't know if you've seen this yet. Have you seen the detackle? from the Colts on this play? No. Tell me what to look for. This is amazing.

This is amazing. Look at 95. He's the right. Yeah. Five techniques. He's over. He's over Coleman. Oh, look at him run.

Watch this. Watch this. He's four, he's three yards away from him at the end zone. Oh, my God. That's amazing. Adabaware is his name. I mean,

I mean, just so everybody understands, 95's the defensive tackle. for the Colts. On this play, he's pressuring the quarterback, okay? And he gets to within, he, he's four yards, he's four yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Now, he gets blocked, but then when the ball goes out, he turns and starts to sprint. He starts 20 yards behind Antonio Williams and almost catches him. Amazing hustle. Like crazy. Yeah, you love that. Every coach does.

Every good of those. Yeah. Put that up on film. Right. And watch you guys. Meanwhile, you got Soth Gardner behind him jogging, and this D-Tag was blowing by him. Like, that's embarrassing.

Yeah. I mean, look at Soss Garner. Yeah, I'm watching it. Yeah, that's horrible. What about the OPI on Diggs? Yeah, I hate that one, too, man. That's a bad call, too. You think that was a bad call?

That's almost it. I mean, did he push him? Yeah, he pushed him. Right. The receivers push a lot. I get it. That's technically, I mean, that is, that is just bad luck on Diggs' part where that back judge was staring. He must have been staring him down that entire route.

And he saw that, and he saw that stiff arm. I mean, he pushed him. He did push him. Yeah. But, man, that's kind of tiki-taggy too. What about- call that then any time of DB, you know, grabs an arm or something, you better call it. What about the interception on third and 17? It's a rookie, you know, third round, you know, quarterback

play. But I thought that there was something open underneath on the checkdown. And on third and 17, aren't you pretty much looking for the checkdown pretty quickly? It might have been Chig who was open. Hold on. I got to go back and look at it. Tell me where to go. 14-17 third quarter third and 17 this is the first you know the third play of the second half they're down 10-6 they got the ball to start the second half

and you know they went backwards and then it's third and 17 and this is the picky through I mean aren't you looking almost immediately for the checkdown here and chig is wide open on the checkdown I mean he's not going to get the first down but with pressure

yeah what do you see there I know but gosh man it's not that much pressure. This is, this is, step up in the pocket and throw the ball to Chig. Yeah. It's, he panicked a little bit.

Yeah, you panicked. He panicked in there. But he's not, he's not looking at Chig. See, this is, this is another issue. I don't, like this play, like you're saying,

I agree, Chig is probably the primary option, but he's looking at Williams. Like the one receiver running into three, guys. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing about this kid. He had big

stones, was totally unafraid. Like, you could just tell, by the way, he was walking into the huddle and coming out of it, that he actually believed he belonged on the field as a seventh round rookie third stringer. And that's why he just let the ball

fly all day long. He's probably looking to make a first down here. For sure. Yes. Some refreshing. Right? Sometimes it's nice to watch a guy cut it loose and not be conservative. Yeah. He had nothing to lose.

Yeah, it's a fine line you play there. I mean, he did admirable, but he missed plenty of opportunities. All right. Then lastly, I want to go to the fourth and one, which is 834 second quarter. And I don't know if you, you don't see this on the All-22,

and I don't know if you saw this watching it live. But they, actually tried to, you know, do something tricky where they, you know, they were in the huddle and then all of the sudden a new sub package sprinted onto the field. The, then several offensive players went off the field. Now, you still have to wait because the referee is going to hold up the snap because the defense has the right to match the substitution. And part of the sub package here on their fourth. and one is to bring in Craig Reynolds at running back, who they had called up from the practice squad.

You know, not, we'll get to Echler here because I've got that on my list too. And then forget the decision's horrible, in my opinion. And, you know, but did you see what they did pre-snap? No. Yeah, because it's not on the all-22. Yeah, I did not see that. Am I assuming it was receivers, and then they ran three tight ends back? Yeah, and the different running back.

Oh, and the different running back. Who was it, Echler or Bill? Good question. I got to go back and look at that. I'm not entirely sure. I can find it here quickly. Not that it matters. No.

It really doesn't matter. But the play... It's just a bad call all around now. Unfortunately, here, Coleman. Coleman blows this. I don't want to say you're going to get it because there's not a whole lot of push up front. But a Coleman whiffs. He whiffs on his guy, so it has no chance of work.

I actually like Brandon Coleman. I didn't do. I told you last year. I wanted you to put, I wanted him in for Connerly because Connerley was playing so bad, and I thought Coleman was good, and I wanted Tunsel and Coleman, because Connerley was showing up last on my scorecard every week. Coleman's definitely a tackle more than he's a guard, don't you think? Agreed.

He's playing well in tons of passes now. This play notwithstanding. He is doing Aremble, and I think we talked about last week, you don't notice him that much on the field, and that's a good thing. You're the left tackle. You don't want to be on the replays. That means your guys, you know, sacking the QB. He's, he is, you, next week, next week, next week. week, your line will better be Coleman, Paul, Patrick, Cosme, Connerley.

Right. That's the only option. Right. Even though you liked Goldman in the second half. I did like Goldman's second. He can stay on the roster, but he's not starting over Cosmy right now. Of course not. Yeah.

Yeah. So he can stay on the roster. All right. Let's get to your grades. And, you know, if your grades don't include any of the running backs, I do want to ask you about the running back question, which is, I think, an interesting one right now. We'll get to the grades. Yes, they do not.

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86690 Nation, windownation.com. All right, we continue with Steve, and it's grades time. Let's see what the report card looks like for the indie game. Let's start on offense. Your top three performers. Offense, top three performers are all coming from the line, actually. Lucas Patrick comes in at three. Then Brandon Coleman at two.

Chris Paul rounds out the highest grade on offense at number one. Wow. The Colts. Wow. Even with Coleman's misblocking fourth down, which I docked before big time because it's a turnover, or he still had a really good game. And pass blocking and run blocking.

Same with Paul. Those two look like a really good do, as did Paul with Ponsol last year. It looked like a really good team so far. And Patrick, steady. This is a second good game from him. He's a shoe win to start the rest of the way at center, in my opinion. Yeah.

Yeah. It certainly would seem like that. You know, what's so interesting. And I said on Monday, and I said yesterday, I actually thought the O-line did a good. job in pass pro because there was a lot of criticism of the offensive line after the game from fans and social media saying, oh my God, our offensive line got Marcus Mario to hurt. Let's fire Adam Peters. Let's fire. Everybody's got to get fired because the offensive line. And I'm like,

I thought the offensive line did a pretty decent job in pass protection. Run, run wide, run blocking So you think they did a good job in past pro too. Sure. Yeah, I think they only got tricked maybe once or twice on a blitz. I wouldn't even call it. I wouldn't even call it tricked. They just got outmaned. They did their assignment.

They called the pick up to the right. They picked up everybody they were supposed to. They just had extra guys coming. So the only time somebody came free, really, was on a 101, and Golden was a culprit of that early on in the game, as I talked about, he had a rough first and second quarter. but they didn't get really outskinned and they really didn't get beat one-on-one. So I thought they did good

in past protection for sure. Top three grades go to third best Lucas Patrick, second best Brandon Coleman, and Chris Paul was your highest rated offensive player. All right, what about the bottom three on offense? Bottom three, yeah, bottom three go to

Senate, then Calliac, Maness and Golden rounded out the bottom score. Even though he had a great second half, the damage was already done there in the first half. His score was so low. He couldn't dig out of the hole, so he round out the worst grade, but promising second half.

So even with the promising second half, you've got him as the lowest graded offensive player. Yeah. The first half was just too rough. First quarter of particular, I see I got one, two, three, four, five, six plays where I

docked him on negative scores, and that was just too much for him to climb out of. No docks on the second half. Do you think ultimately what you saw that it makes sense to you that they gave Gulbin the start over Allegretti? I can. Sure. They must have saw some good things of practice. Tricky, I don't know what he was practicing in practice. Was he at center or was he at He's been at both since going back to the summer? Yeah, so it's tricky to see where he got the most reps in in practice, but probably got to the point of we've seen enough with Allegretti. Let's see what Patrick's been doing in practice he can do in the field.

And I think he was just shell-shocked the first half. It's a different story out there, you know, live under fire. Most of it was getting beat physically, not mentally. That makes sense, he's going the right direction, going the right person, but he was just getting gobbled up or missing a block or getting manhandle. and for whatever reason he just hunker down the second half, and you didn't see that Buckner. You didn't really shine after the first and second quarter for me.

So everybody in the interior really toughened up there. Was Diami Brown close to your top three? Yeah. Yeah, he was number four, actually. He was. Okay. What about did you grade Marcus on the first two drives? I did.

He had a positive grade, but very short. a spell of plays there, yeah. And then what about Echlor? Echler just had a standard rate. No positive impacting plays and no negative plays. So you just straight line. Okay. Let's go to defense.

Your top three performers on defense. Top three performers on defense go to Chaseon, then Payne. Chesa. How about that? Pain number two. First time you've had Duran in there. Yeah, I told you he can play a little bit. Hey, he played good.

Very limited plays from an effort standpoint that he was taken off, and he made some impactful plays. So he rounds out number two, and then top performer goes to Razzul Douglas, his best game of the season by far. Wow. Douglas, I mean, what did you think of the amique 15-yard penalty, which was a killer after the fourth and one, and they were about to get off the field?

I know. I didn't do. I didn't dock him for because I don't know how I want to handle those penalties sometimes when I'm grading. It certainly was huge. And regardless, it was a penalty or not, I don't know, man. You see shoveling like that all the time. You just have to have that restraint and not be the last one to push. I can obviously see why they threw the penalty.

And I could also see why a referee would just run up there and say, hey, guys, cut it out. So it's just what's that referee feeling at that moment? Did you feel like it was an ex-exam? Did you feel like it was an excellent tackling game? I don't think I've asked you that defensively. Good question. I don't recall. Yeah, so I'll doc you if there's mistackles out there.

And honestly, off the top of my head, the only mistackle that I think I saw was Sonny Stiles one time. So, yeah, it was a good tackling game by everybody. Yeah, I mean, I thought Kwan had a good tackling game, a Meek Robertson, Reeves. I think the DBs, what they lack in. covering ability, they are willing to come up and tackle. I don't, I mean, we can leave Sanders. Yeah.

Yeah, they're being beat most in zone coverage right now, though. So I'm not, nobody's really popping out of me and just getting just scorched in man-to-man coverage anymore, other than Sanders still early on, like it was last year with Latimore and those guys, they couldn't cover anybody in man coverage. They're doing a better job than that when, I think they're just getting exposed in zone coverage when the front four don't get any pressure. If you, I don't, I mean, Amos was a for me last year. If he's, if he's more improved when he comes back, I mean, it's not, it's not as dire

as it was last year. That's for the short. It's a better group of guys in the secondary. Was O way close to your top three? He was, he was close. Yeah, let's see, he might even be four. He was tied for fourth with Armstrong, but I actually make this note. He was non-existent.

and after that first play where he got the fumble. Really didn't flash for me on the film, doing anything bad or good. He was just out there. Just, you know, doing his job. All right, bottom three defensively. The defensive grades are really good. Yeah, the defensive grades overall were all really good.

So bottom three defensively go to Louvo, Martin, and then Tim Settle. Settle was the worst defensive grade. Yeah, he had my lowest grade. Yeah, Settle had my lowest grade. It doesn't have all the reps that everybody else has, but a lot of those 12-yard runs there in that second half. Yeah, he was not applying any pressure in his gap.

And the double team was too easy on them moving themselves out of the play. So those affect his grave. Now, Louvo, now, with outstanding, Louvo and Qua Martin, while they're in my bottom three, both had positive grades. So that tells you how good I thought the defense played. Everybody had positive grades for the most part. only Sanjistil and Settle have negative grades for me. I didn't mention Santerstil because he's only in five plays, so it really doesn't count

and put him in the bottom three. So those that had impactful play counts in the game, it's those three. I thought we were going to end up hearing you say Joshua Joseph's was in the bottom three. Yeah, you would think that, yeah. But, I mean, we watch those plays. I don't knock them for those. But, I mean, because, I mean, you didn't do anything wrong there. He just isn't capable of doing anything.

good there. Right. How did Kane Madrano play after playing so well against Seattle? He was very limited. I mean, he didn't play that much. He doesn't have any negative grades for me, but only one, let's see. He only has one play where I gave him an above average grade on. Okay.

All right. Let's take a break when we come back. I do want to get your thoughts on the run game and why it is sputtering right now. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by My Bookie. If you're betting on football and you're not doing it at My Booky, you're missing out on a couple of tremendous promotional offers. These are for my listeners of this podcast. So those of you who are betting football and don't have an account at My Bookie,

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Even if you're betting somewhere else, take advantage of what my bookie has to offer in the way of promotional offer. go to mybooky.ag or mybooky.com. All right, we continue with Steve, and I want to finish up with just asking you about the running game as it relates to the running backs. Their best rushes this season have been by their quarterbacks, whether it was Jaden Daniels in Dallas or Marcus Mariotta,

even with the pool on the read option Sunday for 35 yards. He was their leading rusher with 35 yards on one. carry. Meantime, Kroski Merritt, 9 for 15, 1.7 yards per carry. That follows a game against Seattle in which he was at 1.9 yards per carry. Of course, he had a 48-yard touchdown called back. That certainly would have helped the average. Echler, in the meantime, got four carries, went for 29 yards at 7.3 per carry, and we saw Rashad White play well in the two previous games. So give me your overall take on is it a running game problem or is it a running back problem? I don't think it's a running game problem. We'll start there. I think the scheme and specifically some of

those split zones we're pointing out, I like that as part of the package. And I think the scheme is going to work. I think it's a combination of two things. I think every play, it seems like one, offensive linemen doesn't get their job done. And that is usually the side of where the football is going or a critical block that needs be made. And that is helping to break down the run. And then I think it's the other part of that is the running back issue of you don't really have a guy that I would consider a really good running back there.

That would be the two misses in the offseason for me for the team are letting Beiotich go and not having a situation that center that was going to be good. and then the running back situation, not improving that. The bill hype last year. I mean, if you can remember, I was never a bill guy. No, you were. I told you over and over again. I don't think this is the guy.

I don't think it's the fit. And it's hard to really pinpoint exactly why I don't really love him as a running back. I've talked about it's just too hard and too fast and too strong. There's no different version of it when he's running and you need different versions to be just a full, good running back with vision and things of that nature. I think he's his own

worst enemy by trying to go fast and trying to go hard that he then doesn't be able to see things and take some time to let stuff develop. I'm just not a fan, so I would like to see more of Echler. Now, I'm assuming

Eckler didn't get a bunch of reps because he just signed a practice. It's a new offensive coordinator, assuming it's a new offense and new terminology, you've got to teach it to them, don't want to put him out there on third down quite yet because he might not be dialed in on the protection and all those things. So hopefully another week of practice, he can get more acclimated with the terminology and maybe you can have him in more. I didn't get to see much of him last year when we did it, obviously, because he got hurt, so I don't have a lot of film to go off on whether

or not I'm an Echler believer either. And then Rashad White, I only have a small sample size as well, But, I mean, of those three, I'm putting Bill at third string. I would just, I just would. And he can be a guy that you can try to bring in as a change up, but then I think you're going to telegraph your hand. If you bring him in, you're probably going to run the ball. And so that always hurts, too, if the defense is already trying to come downhill because they think you're going to get a handoff, then that impacts the run game there.

I mean, his biggest play was a catch-and-run for 30-odd yards on Sunday. Yeah, so if you can keep being an option there, that's great. Now, he frustrates me a lot in the past the game when a play breaks down. If you just runs a swing, fine, and it works cool. But any time there's a scramble, he just doesn't seem to have awareness of where he should go to help out in scramble drill. Even on the fourth down, not enough awareness when Calliack Maness rolled to him, he turned around and started running to help block. And he didn't see the pressure coming from Calaisman.

where I think he should have because he was looking inside. So I even wrote a note there. Like, where's your awareness, man? It's fourth and one. I know he's trying to help because he thinks Cali Man has taken off, but it just doesn't look like a play where that would happen. You've got to start scrambling to try to get open for him. So I don't think he helps you add living in the past game.

So he's only going to be good to me running swing passes. That's it. So not a lot of versatility there in the past game. There's a stat that somebody sent me, some dude named Craig, sent me like pages in an email of running back stats and bill stats, advanced stats. But here was the one that stuck out to me. There's a stat called rushing yards over expected. And essentially what it is, it's rushing yards, you know, given the blocking, the number in

the box, where the defenders are actually at the handoff, how the play gets blocked, what is the number of yards the running back should get, and how. How many did he get? All right. It's one of those, you know, truly out there advanced numbers. Yeah, that's the way I do. Out of 53 backs this year, Bill ranks 49th out of 53. And that's what I've seen more than anything else.

Like there are opportunities that I thought Echler took advantage of, whites taken advantage of. Some of that can be down in distance and you're facing nickel instead of, you know, base or whatever. But he's in a hurry. He's not patient, and he doesn't see it enough. Yeah, correct. So all as I could say is of the games this year, right,

we're small sample size here, but I have not wrote a note after a play where White missed the hole or Eckler missed the hole, but I do write them for Bill. So I agree with you. I've been on that bandwagon while I want to be. I've just been on that page last year. I'm just not a fan. I mean, I'm not saying the kid can't play.

Right. He shouldn't be your starting running back. That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you watch Bejohn on Monday night. Oh, my God. He's top tier at number one. I think he's the – I've said this for a couple of weeks now.

I think he's actually the best player in the NFL that's not a quarterback. I wouldn't – you could convince me that easily. But they need that position next off season. They have to go find a dynamic running back. And Echler – Echler, you know, I don't know how much you know about Echler. He's been in the league for a while now. I mean, he's been in the league for nine, ten years.

He was with the Chargers forever. And he's just a... Yeah, he's just a really good all-around back, super high IQ. Here, he was so good in 2024, but he had multiple concussions. But they were a much more dynamic offense with him in the offense than they were without him. So hopefully he stays healthy and he can be more of a factor. All right, great job. Appreciate it.

We'll talk next week after the Giant Game. All right, you bet, man. Steve Suter, everybody with his film breakdown. We do it here every Wednesday. All right, that'll do it. Tommy's back with me tomorrow.