The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington-Detroit Film w/Cooley

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

Cooley and Kevin today with Cooley's thoughts on the Commanders' loss to the Lions along with film breakdowns of Wentz, the defense, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Show today, presented by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky. com or MyBooky.

Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. And MyBooky will match your first deposit, your initial deposit, dollar for dollar, all the way up to $1,000. By the way, Chris Cooley, who joins me on the show today. Philly opened is a four-point favorite. they're now up to six and a half against Washington on Sunday. So Philly's odds to win the division, they become a significant favorite to win the division. They are a big-time favorite on the road, now six and a half at Washington.

Just to give you guys an idea, I mean, even though Washington doesn't get three points for being a home team, they're one of the few teams in the league that doesn't get that credit from odds makers. still, if you say it's two points, Philly would be an eight and a half point favorite on a neutral field and an 11.5 point favorite if they were playing the game in Philadelphia this week. So a lot of people on Philadelphia right now

and a lot of belief in the Eagles after the performance they put on Monday night. But my bookie.com, mybooky.orgie.orgie.orgie. I use my promo code Kevin D.C. Cooley is with me on the show today. You're going to do some film. did last week. We're going to have some conversations about the team. What are you prepared to do? I don't want you to start yet because I actually have something for you before you start.

Are you going to do the list that I sent you or did you? And by the way, my list that you sent me and I know that after we talked last week and I said it had given me five things and next week you're going to give me six, that you really scaled it back and typed three things into the list. I did. Is that or you were lazy and you didn't want to continue to think about all the things you needed descend one or the other. I'm prepared to do Carson Wentz, D-line, run defense, all defense, and first half offense versus second half offense. I think what it was was you did say last week, you know, that I had sent you this list of five things to do film, you know, breakdown of, and that you said on the show that the list is going to keep growing. So that was in the back of my mind,

but what was also in the back of my mind was that you had told me earlier this week, that you didn't watch the Washington game. You were watching the Pittsburgh game. You were watching a lot of NFL on Sunday. But where you were, it was the Pittsburgh, New England game. And, you know, in a game in which Washington was down 22 to nothing at the half, I mean, I guess you could make the case that there's more that we should want to learn about this team after the game that it played on Sunday against Detroit.

But I knew that there was a lot of plays. There was a lot going on, and so I just wanted to keep it short and sweet for you so that you didn't say, oh. I just, you know, I've got to manage this thing properly. That's my goal here. I see that, and I like the decision. And I think really there are a lot of plays to talk about in this game. Yes. I think there's a lot of stuff to talk about.

Film as well on a lot of these plays. but there's a lot of nonsense that happened to this game. Okay, before we get to that, I want to catch you up to speed on a couple of things. Okay, you may be caught up on this, and I can't remember if I mentioned this to you the other day or not. So in the wake of these first two games, there's been a lot of questions about, you know, the defense and the poor defense. They're 28th right now in football outsider's DVOA metric in the league right now. And it's been kind of a disaster defensively through the first two games. And, you know, they lost their defensive tackle depth with Settle and Ionitis.

And then they drafted Phil Mathis and he gets hurt early in week one. And John Allen was not 100% on Sunday. And Cam Curl hasn't played, even though he's expected to play. But it's been a bad defense. So to net it out, Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio as well, but Rivera mostly has essentially been asked, what are the issues? Is it scheme or is it players? And he said, it's players.

Like Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio have yet to kind of say, hey, it's, you know, it's just as much on us as it is on players. They very much have kind of said, no, it's, you know, a player or two here or there that aren't doing what they're supposed to do. The scheme is fine. Specifically, and this is what I wanted to bring up to you. he talked about the giving up of all of the explosive plays that they gave up on Sunday against the Lions. In that game against Detroit, you know, the Lions had multiple plays of 49 yards or more. They ended up with, hold on, where is it? In total, they had three plays of at least 49 yards, and they had 11.

plays that went for 12 yards or more. And Rivera said, we've got to eliminate the big plays. We've got to eliminate the chunk plays. Now, you know, that's easier said than done. But I made this point yesterday on radio and on the podcast, and I want to make it again today with you. Before I make the point I'm going to make, what would you define an explosive play as from a yardage standpoint. Like, you know, X number of yards or more is considered an explosive play. I think a run play is 10 yards or more. Okay. And I think a past play is, I mean, it's defined as 20, and I think 20 fits the bill. If you're giving up 20-yard chunks, you're getting gashed. Okay. But a true explosive play would probably be a 20-yard run and a 25-year-old.

yard plus pass. A 10-yard run, you mean? Well, truly, well, the plays that kill you that you would count as explosive plays, in my opinion, are 10 and 20 run pass. Okay, yeah, you said 20 for run. I was just correcting that. You meant to say 10-thold. No, I mean, really explosive is a 52-yard. Well, of course. But here's what I'm getting at. Sam 40A, who does a really good job of covering the team for the post. I really like having Sam on the radio show and this show. He wrote a story about sort of chunk plays, and the commanders allowing in two games 16 explosive plays, which is fifth worst in the NFL.

And explosive plays, according to the NFL, some football analytics website, true media, is defined, all right, ready for this, is defined as a rush of 12 or more yards and a pass of 16 or more yards. So that kind of falls in line with you. Your pass is a little bit higher. But they've given up 16 of those plays in two games.

Rushes of 12 or more, passes of 16 or more. Okay, so we all understand you've got to stop the big explosive plays. But that doesn't explain everything. Because I went back and I said, all right, well, if 12 is sort of the low end on the rush end, and anything less than 16 on the pass end, well, how many, you know, healthy offensive plays have been, have resulted against this defense. And so for healthy for me, I essentially said, you know, any run or pass in the five to 12 yard range is a healthy play that if you're giving up those kinds of plays, you're going to get beat. You're

going to get, you know, those are healthy plays. They may not be defined as explosive, but they're healthy offensive plays. And my question to you, before I tell you how many of those plays they've given up in two weeks, do you think that's a fair kind of next level after explosive? Five to 12 yards, somewhere in that range? Yeah, I think it's fair. I think a four-yard run. It's situationally as well. Because is it? a eight-yard draw play on third and eleven, a healthy play? Understood, yeah. Survive play. Right. So I think that

I think that three to four on first down, runner pass is a healthy play. Well, you've got it less than five. I was going to ask you, because I thought about going to four, from four to 11. I said five to 12. I meant five to 11 because 12 or more as a rush and a pass is considered explosive. So I was really talking about from five yards to 11, but I was going to ask you, I actually think four is a healthy play. You know, a four-yard run three times is a first down. So anyway, netting it all out, okay, they've given up 16 explosive plays. They've also given up 27 plays of between 5 and 11 yards. And of course, there is some context there, like you said, you know, a third and 17 screen for 9 yards isn't very effective.

I didn't go back and parse those out. But 27 plays between 5 and 11 yards, and then if you count the 4-yard plays, it's 36 plays. Teams have only run, the teams have run in two games against them. I had this written down, 123 plays. So if 27 of them are 5 to 11 and 16 are explosive, that's 43 out of your 123 that are pretty healthy plays. So it's not, my point is, it's not just explosive plays.

Like, Ron can say we just need to cut the explosive plays out. By the way, that's a big deal. They count two. But it's more than that. They're getting, you know, they're getting pecked at a lot in the, in the five to 11 yard, you know, play range. They got a lot to correct, is my point. They have a ton to correct. A ton.

I'm looking through, because I remember on Friday, to you if you want to beat the lions offensively, you need to have them in second and 10 plus or second and 9 plus or even second and 8 situation. And Kev, through three quarters, there's

a second in 10, second 9, second 8, and a second of 15 after a false start. Four, four times. Of all the second downs. They're always in second and less than five or six in this game.

So they gave up healthy play after healthy play in first down situations, and it kills you. It kills you, especially when you're not a consistent solid past defense. You are there struggling in a secondary. So to give up big run plays early in the game kills you or healthy run plays. I mean, really, when you look at it, there was almost no times that they held Detroit for no game, or essentially made them take a loss on first down. Not once. Once, after a penalty on Sewell, is the only real second long I can find in this game.

It's just incredible. Yeah. Can't play defense that way. You can't play defense beyond the eight ball that way, where every single thing is available to the offensive play caller and to the quarterback. Especially that. They never got them out of rhythm. They never got them out of balance.

And they never put a quarterback who really, really struggles with some pressure, which she was actually okay in this game, but really normally struggles with some pressure in a situation where you could pressure him. Yeah. Yep. Here's the other thing I wanted to tell you before we got to what you've worked on. Somebody tweeted this out that Sunday, when they fell behind 22-0, marked the eighth time in the Ron Rivera era here in D.C.

There's only 35 games now that he's coached in, 14 and 20. It was the eighth time that the opponent has scored at least the first 20 points of the game. Eight times out of 35 games, they've been down by 20 or more. Now, let me be clear about this. I went back to make sure that this tweet that I got was accurate. I have only come up with six games in which they were down by 20 or more to start the game. It's still a hell of a lot out of 35 games to be down 20 or more. I can't find the 7th and 8th, but I did go through all of the other games.

It is astounding. 25 out of the 35 games of the Ron Rivera era so far. they have been down and usually by a healthy amount, not all of them by 20. But, you know, the first game he coached, they were down 17-0-0-5-5. They came back and won the game with Dwayne Haskins. Second game, he coached, down 20-0-0 in Arizona. Third game, he coached. They're down 17-7.

Fourth game, 14-0. Fifth game, down 20 to 7. Six game, down 10-0. And then they played Danucci and Dalton, and they were up on Dallas. Then they were down 20 to 3 against the Giants. 24 to 3 against Detroit, 14 to nothing against Pittsburgh. And then lots of 13 nothings and 7 nothings and 20 to nothings and 10 to nothings in 2020. Last year, Chargers opening game down 7-0, giant 7-0, Buffalo 21-0, Atlanta had a 10-0 lead.

The Saints had a 20 to 13 lead. Kansas City scored first. Carolina scored first. Dallas had a 24-0 lead and a 21-0 lead in their two games against them. And it's funny because I hadn't considered the start to games as much as I've considered the start to seasons. You know, we was one in five here in 2020. They were two and six last year. And we talked a lot over the summer about how important it would be to get off to a good start. Finally, let's get a good start.

I mean, especially with the new name and the new branding, you can't, you know, you've got to give people something to get excited about, which is why beating Jacksonville was really important, really important for them. But my God, the in-game comebacks that they've had to make to win the games that they've won, I mean, they're basically down every week. 25 of the 35 games, they've been down, you know, to start. And in most of those games, down double digits at some point in the first half. And Sunday was, you know, 22 to nothing. Crazy.

Anyway. It's crazy. That's hard to do in the NFL to be down that much in the first half. You know, when you get blown out, it's usually, you know, a fourth quarter kind of a blowout. You know, they just stretch it out from, you know, a 10-point lead to a 28-point lead or 27-point lead. I'll tell you what, Philadelphia had 350 yards and 24 points on the Vikings on Monday night in the first half. They better be ready when the game starts. they're going to get blown out in the first half on Sunday.

All right, what do you got? I'll let you take it over from here. I just wanted to share this two things. Before we get the film, here are my couple questions to you. I'm sitting and watching this game, and there's a third down in seven at the start of the second quarter. We're down 12-0. There's an illegal formation that's declined. So the ball's on the 32, right?

Okay. It's a third and seven. Is it Detroit ball? It's Detroit ball. Okay. And Siebert kicks a 48-yard field goal on fourth down. Right. Why are you declining a penalty that puts him into what is really a 52-yard kick

or potentially a sack or potentially, are you, that unsure that your defense on a third and 12, if you accept that penalty, can't step up and make a play? A 48-yard field goal is a makeable field goal right now in the NFL. Very. It's probably...

It's probably a 75-8 to 70-75% thing. Yeah, around the 80% 40% marks. So you're essentially down 12-0 at that point. 50's really high, too, just so you know, 50-2 is really high, too, in terms of the percentages. I understand that.

But are you that concerned that you're going to give up 12? Yeah. Now, maybe you are because there's a couple of plays later, or there's some other plays where we'll talk about that you give up garbage, like a third and 15, D'Andre's a touchdown. So maybe you are that concern. But it's 13 and 12. Yeah.

Or sorry, it would have been 3rd and 12. Would have been 3rd and 12 at the Washington 37-year-old life. A sack put Detroit out of field goal range. You're down with 12-0, and you're essentially going, here, half of the three points, good stop. If we hold them to three all game, we'll be fine. Right. I'm asking you, because sometimes we don't agree on some of these calls, but I take them back. You decline it if you think they're going to punt, but they're not going to punt.

They're just going to make a $1.48 year fiddle, which is not tough. So it's third and 12 at the 37. It would have been. It would have been third and 12 at the 37, or. It was third and seven at the 32. Swift had a two-yard run to the 30, which meant it was a 48-yard field goal, and it was fourth and five. You could have taken the illegal formation,

which would have pushed him back to the 37 and made it third and 12. Actually, Chris, I think they did the right thing. I would have taken the penalty, and here's why. Even if you get a stop and they get nothing on third down and incomplete pass, you know, the 50 to 55-yard field goal is still better than 50% in the NFL right now. It's really when you go beyond 55 that the percentages start to drop, especially indoors. Number two, the odds are better that they're going to... The odds are better they're going to get that five yards back.

The odds are better that they're going to get at least the five yards back, then you're going to get a sack and knock them out of field goal range. you're playing with fire because they can get the first down. Okay, you're playing with fire, and that's fine. But what are the odds of getting a third and 12 right now in the NFL? And even if they get eight out of it, it still makes it a fourth and four, which is now a 47-yard-cissouple.

Right. I'm fine being in a third-and-12 situation, if I have any trust in my defense. And essentially, I think it's saying I just don't trust the defense in the third-and-12 in the spot. I think that that's probably point. It might be the right decision, but I think you're saying you don't trust your defense. Put it this way. If my defense was dominant and I had a great defense and I knew I was getting, you know, really close and getting home.

And we had a quarterback that was rattled a little bit and there's no chance he's going to complete. Of course, I'm going to push him back. But in that situation, Sunday. Shagher God. Yeah. But he's also got Amman Ross St. Brown, who's really good. You know, Reynolds was good. Hawkinson had some drops, actually.

Swift is good out of the backfield. I'm kind of just saying they're going to get five or six anyway. They're going to get it back. I'm not going to give them a chance to get the first down. I don't have a problem with him declining that. Five makes it a 50-yard duggle. Yeah. Yeah, seven puts it right back to where it was.

And on third and 12, how many times do you see the check down for seven or eight? Yeah, you see it all the time. But how many times on third and seven do you see a quarterback mess up and take a sack? Well, third and 12, you mean? There's third and 12 or third in anywhere. Yeah. You could do that, but to your point, obviously he's not super confident. He's not super confident.

Here's one for you because I saw it in the Dallas game against Cincinnati Sunday. and it was on it was a fourth quarter drive for the Cowboys let's just say all things being equal your offense is okay the defense you're facing is okay do you prefer on an eight-yard first down run second and two or taking the defensive off sides penalty and making it first and five first of five me too they took the second and two

I'd much prefer the down and the loss of three yards there. I totally agree because to me a second and two is get the first down situation. I know a lot of people look at second and short like it's a three play or it's a man, we do it every one. The second two for me is quick pass, quick out, get the first down, move on, or run. running the ball, let's pound it up the middle. That's second and two to me. First and five is whatever you want to do.

Yeah. Yeah, here it was. It was actually first and ten, Dallas. They were second and two, and there was a penalty declined, and they took the second and two. See, what I hate is I second, an eight-yard play is a really good first down play. Don't get me wrong.

but you're still one bad play away from a pressure third down situation. Give me all three, give me all three downs that I have in only five yards to gain to move the sticks, and I'd feel much better. No doubt. The only time I don't like that call is if I'm on the receiving end of that eight yard and I get the stats or I'm the running back and I want that eight-yard carry. Stap book. Yeah, of course.

All right. Let's get to all of your film stuff. Oh, what? Do you have something else? The other thing that I wanted to talk to you about is, and you'd mention this to me the other day, is the analytics of going for two late in the game. Right.

And Washington went for two where they didn't need to go for two. Well, I forget, I know we had this conversation. I know we've had this conversation before. I know that a lot of us have had this conversation before. The two-point analytics, you know, mafia essentially has decided that the math, if you assume that the two-point conversion is a 50-50 proposition, if you assume that overtime is essentially a 50-50 proposition, then when you're down 14 and you score a touchdown in the fourth quarter

with limited possessions left in the game, you should go for two on the first score because you should be thinking about winning the game and regulation. rather than letting it get to overtime where it's 50-50. And if you miss on that first one, well, you'll have a chance on the second one to force overtime anyway. But if you make it on the first one, now you're kicking to win the game in regulation. We've seen this now.

Not every team does it. We've seen this, you know, these two-point, you know, down 14 scored, down eight, two-point analytics in the fourth quarter play out many times. Atlanta did it the other day. They blocked a punt scored with like five minutes to. go in the game down 3117 and then it was 3123 they went for two they made it they were up 31 20 they were down 3125 they got the ball back had a chance to to pull off you know an amazing comeback um and then jalen ramsie got a pick in the end zone to me context is everything i personally don't believe

that the assumptions are correct most teams are not 50-50 on two-point conversions it's something less than that. And then to assume that overtime is a 50-50 proposition, it isn't necessarily. And so context matters, obviously, for me. Here's the one point I made on this particular two-point analytic coolly. If you just kick to extend the game and you play essentially for coming back and tying the game and forcing overtime, the definition of scoring 14 straight points to end regulation and force overtime is the other team is on the ropes a little bit. You have come back. You got, you know, people, I love the people that say, you know, there's no such thing you can't

define momentum, whatever. The bottom line is the emotional state of the game at that point was, oh my God, we gave up a 14 point lead if you gave it up. And oh, my God, we're going to win this game. We just scored 14 straight points. So I don't know that the odds in that situation are 50-50 heading in to overtime. So I would extend the game. The other thing, though, too, is obviously, do you have a really good feeling about your two-point plays?

They had already made one two-point conversion. Did they feel like they had another one that they were totally confident and would work? They had been moving the ball at will on Detroit in the second half. And so if they felt that way, and then, you know, they are also kind of beholden to the math, then I didn't necessarily have a major problem with it. The context of the game was they really weren't being stopped at that point. They just kept moving the football in the second half. They had 340 yards in the second half and 27 points.

So now what killed them clearly was when they got down 15, their kicker missed an extra point. to cut it to eight, which, by the way, was the right thing to do, kick it there. Anyway, that's, those are my thoughts. I mean, I just, they ran their best two-point playing, got it, and they didn't run a great two-point play, and it was actually not well-executed either. And it's not the worst two-point play, but it's determining that someone does win one-on-one in that situation,

and that your quarterback throws a very good ball into a tight window. I'm looking at the O.C. Saying, what's your play? What do you got? Do you have this? And I also think how many times do you practice some of these plays? And teams may do this. And Washington very well may do this.

Do you practice enough of these plays in any kind of live look on inside the five-yard line? Because they're not just two-point plays. They're Red Zone plays inside the five. Is how you would look at it? Is that how you practice? They had a great play? Yeah, you just practice your red zone. You don't say, you don't say, I've never said to a team, this is our two-point plays this week.

You just practice your red zone. Is that what Shanahan and is that what? Yeah. Everyone I've played with everyone that coached. So you didn't have a period of these are the two-point plays? No, never one. and the other thing is that normally every team's red zone

every team that I was on and I'm assuming every coach now in the league that coached with me which is a pretty vast number is going to run the red zone on Friday they're going to install their red zone on Friday and they're going to run through their red zone practice on Friday in what is a light day

right I don't I mean you get it if you have to get it if you have to get it. I don't, I just take a point right there. And it's back to my Philgoe conversation. I don't just concede three points. I just take a point if that's what I need in that situation to get us to another touchdown and Philgo, hopefully, our PAT, because I mess up all the time. Another PAT gets us to where we need to be. I don't give away points. well by the way it's you know part of that's a little old school

ways no i know i know it is but what i was going to say is you know when they move the extra point back whenever it was six seven years ago to a 30 you know seven yard extra point um obviously the percentage on on kicked pats has gone down it's still you know well north of 90 percent but the irony is that joey sly missed the extra point at 3621 which meant they had to kick this Belaan sidekick, because if he had made that, they're down eight and you, with three timeouts, can kick it deep. Here's one thing just putting the idea of, you know, did the analytics

make sense? I mean, the math makes sense if the assumptions are correct. Okay, I understand. Yeah. But here's the thing. If you are going for the win, if your idea down 14 is if you score when you're down seven, you're going to go for the win because you have a, you know, you've got a really several good of these good two-point plays are right inside the five plays and you want to run them all. And oh, by the way, you're on the road and you don't want to go to overtime and on the road. Well, then you should go for two the first time. Because then you know. I get it with the problem. I get it when you're, you're stringing two, two points together with the probability saying that anyone you make is 50 percent. So you know you're going to go for two. I understand the

probability, but also, I don't love, really, I don't, I think it changes the way you can play defense if you're up eight, saying even if they score, they still got to get a two-point at tie. Right, right. I think it changes the way another team's going to play defense. They can play softer. There's more risk that they can take if they want to take risks, and they can still say, And then still, that offense, you're counting on that offense to completely execute.

And it's hard to really execute well if you're two yards out. It's not easy. Condensed field, I know. But you understand the point that I just, the point that I just made to you, which is if you're, I know, I know, but I just want to make sure everybody, here's this. If you are playing, if you decide and you. You may decide this even before the game starts. We're going for the win if it comes down to the end and we score down seven.

We're going for the two and the win on the road. Well, if you're down 14 and that's your philosophy in the game and the philosophy continues to be, we're going for the win in regulation. Well, then you have to go for the two on the first touchdown. Because then you know, then you have time to recover from it. Because if you go forward on the second touchdown and you miss, it's over. If you go forward on the first one and you miss, you're still. alive down eight. And that is essentially the, you know, the analytics on this is that you then

have a chance to recover from a miss on what is a 50-50 proposition. Knowing what you need after, it's better to know what you need after the first score than the second score, obviously. Yeah. I also think this changes with close to 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, where there's still a lot that can happen as far as scoring. Fair point. I think it changes. If you're down to the seven-minute mark when you score your first, then you're essentially saying...

You got one more possession. They're likely only going to have one more possession in this game. That's true. Agreed. That is a... At the 10-minute mark, it's very likely that Detroit has at least two more possessions. And you do, too. And the way this game went... the way this game went, we're not really stopping them.

So in so much, we're also likely to have two more possessions. Right. If not three, the way a lot of fourth quarters go. And so maybe we tie it, get the ball back, and have a chance to kick a field goal to win a game in a tie situation versus we're down one, and our kicker has to now make a pressure kick late in the game, or we have to make a decision like the Broncos had to make. a week ago because I don't know what to do. I mean, there's a lot less pressure tied if you're going to get that extra possession

to just go down the field and try to get three from anywhere. I think the timing wasn't right for it. What was it? 10 and a half minutes when they scored that touchdown, right? Yeah, they scored at 1044. Yeah, because whatever that. So the point you make is really, to me, the overarching theme on 2.4. thoughts, not analytics, not statistics, not anything, just your approach. For me, I'm only thinking

about a less than 50-50 proposition play for an extra point. When I know and pretty much can define or project that there are only a couple of possessions and scoring types left in the game, when there are multiple possessions and multiple scoring types left in the game, I'm kicking. As long as I feel my kicker is a 95% you know, you know, uh, p.a. T kicker, you know, which they should be from even from 37 yards out, even though the numbers have gone down. We could have an injury or something. Yeah. But, yeah. Or whether it could be terrible or whatever. But in a normal circumstance, you know, here, here's the problem, like what you said. Now, there were 10 and a half minutes left. So you're right. I mean, you know, the 10 and a half mark, anything under 10, you start to get into

that, you know, possibility that you may only have one possession left and they only may have one possession left. But anything beyond that, it's like, look, you might score, and it's 29-22 if you kick, hell, you might in your next drive with four and a half to go face a fourth and 15 at their 22 and decide that field goal is still a possibility. Because, you know, I know we're down seven, but, you know, 29, 25, or in the case of the other team, maybe they came down and kicked a field goal to make it 31, to make it 32 to 22. Now field goal is an option on your next drive. You can't chase twos, you can't be aggressive on two-point plays for me when there are so many

possessions left in the game and so many different scoring types. You know, two-point, safeties and field goals and missed extra points by them and all of that stuff. That's why I would never really think about it legitimately until, you know, three, four, five minutes are gone in the fourth quarter. Well, I think more for me more like seven, eight, nine minutes gone in the fourth quarter. I got it. Okay. Because they did think about it with four minutes gone in the fourth quarter. Yeah, four and a half, yeah.

And that's what I'm in disagreement with. All right. Let's get to your film stuff. We'll do it right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right. Let's do a coolie film break. breakdown. And again, like last week, he's not going to do every player. We're doing, you know, certain players, certain, you know, situations, you know, the defense this week. Last week we did Wentz

and we did, I forget what we did last week, whatever. I gave you a couple of things to focus on. The first was, I wanted to know what you thought of Wentz's game. Why, you know, in the first half, he was getting bum rushed, looked like he didn't have much time to do anything, and in the second half, he ended up throwing for 278 yards and three touchdowns. So give me Wents' performance, and then we'll move on to some of the defensive stuff. Well, it's interesting when you talk about this, because I think in some ways you have to include first half offense with this, and any balance in first down situations and how they got Wence going,

because I wrote down and I might have missed one, but the first completion in a normal situation in timing is a spot route to Jahan Dotson with 5.51 left in the second quarter. Where your quarterback sets his feet and just throws one that he feels comfortable throwing. I did a lot of games with Sonny. I talked about this with Kirk Cousins, talked about this with young quarterbacks as they kept coming in, guys in new offenses.

Get him some easy throws. At least continue to work with some stuff that you know you can get completions on. And even if you don't get the first one or two, like get him some completion early. Get the ball out of his hands early so he can get going.

I just don't think they got him going early. Yeah. And they were behind the chains on the first four drives. I mean, you look at like, the first drive they have a run for four yards, and then he has a garbage incompletion to Logan Thomas with the high ball. And then it's a third and four situation where there's a little pressure. And I think he misses Samuel on a little inside slant.

They had a shallow cross and slant, and he just sits there and looks at it and looks at it, and then he doesn't step up, and he's kind of trying to run, and takes a sack for zero yards they punt. That's tough. I mean, start the second drive. And you have a three-man combination, max protection, play action from under center, and it's intentional grounding,

and I think it was intentional grounding. You're dropping him all the way back, and he hasn't completed a ball yet in the game. Right. The third drive, they're backed up a little bit. It's a gun run for two, and then that's the safety drive. Like, oh my gosh.

I mean, they never really got him going. Right. And that, to me, is somewhat of an, like the start of the fourth drive. It's a fake reverse, poor action, trying to do something, ends up being an incompletion. That slow developing thing that they did? That no one bought. Right.

I mean, finally, like the fifth drive, and I think this is actually when he ends up getting the spot route, the quick little throw to Dotson, is that they had that kind of fun little in and out, fake like you have Samuel coming in, and then he swings back out, and it's a little screen out there, almost even with the quarterback, and they get a couple yards. That was their first first down. That was their first first down. I would have started the game with that play. I would start the game with that play.

then I would come back and I would have that little easy spot route. Boom. Let's throw the ball. And then let's get Terry McLoren on a 10-yard hook route. You've got to get a quarterback rhythm. And I never felt like he got injured. So I think that was an issue early with Carson Went. But you look at some of this stuff early.

Like I said, the first third and four, he just misses. There's an open receiver. Right? It's a common combination. Ernie Zampizi. Everyone calls it Zampezee on defense. Zampi created it. You run across and now out.

And then behind it you run a little slant route. And you throw the little slant route. It's easy. It's open. You're reading the defenders. You've got the guy. Make the throw. The grounding is not good, but it's also, like, did they really look at this play?

Because you got your tight end to 87 who's sitting like he's a yard deep in the line of scrimmage, fully ready to pass for tech. And he can't pass for tech anyway. You get smoked by the D.N. Your left, or your right tackle has got his fingers, like, so lightly touching the ground that everyone on the defense is, like, that is a pass. Get ready for it.

I mean, you get backed up after grounded, the second and 22 to run the ball, and then you have a crap screen on third down, and now you're literally two possessions in, and your quarterback hasn't completed a ball. I mean, a screen. The safety's ridiculous. Like, it's obviously, it's not great protection,

but you've got to know where you are, bro. Step up. Also, it is not just players, it's a scheme. The safety on the third drive is, what, they're on the five-yard line, four-yard line. Yeah. And they're trying to run verse with comebacks on the outside. Like, that's a slow-developing route progression. I mean, it's not like you can just, you don't have something immediately in front of you.

Right. But even in saying that, he's in-gun and he takes what was really almost seven steps. It's like a five-step drop out of gun. He's 10-11-yard deep. And, yeah, they give up the sack, but the DN turning the corner. corner is shooting for that corner at 10 yards. He's got to be up to 8 yards. If he's going to take seven steps at a gun, he's got to then climb the pocket so

he can get back up in the pocket. Did he even have a chance, though, on that? I mean, Leno gets beat so quickly. He did have a chance. He did. Like, Johan Dotson's running a comeback on his right side. And here's what I would say is if you know you have comebacks on the outside and you are in the end zone, throw it so freaking far into the bench over the comeback's head that you can survive the play.

I mean, it's a safety, it very well could have been a fumble and six. Yeah, well, there's a fumble out of the end zone. He did fumble it. Wasn't a tackle. The ball's loose. He goes out of the end zone. Yeah, could have been six. I just, this is the one play I'm curious about because I see the comebacks.

I also see Gibson as a checkdown. But Leno gets beat, you know, you know this. It's a loud. He beat at 10 and a half yards. You've got to step up in front of that. But he's got to make the decision to step up so quickly. Does he really think Lano's going to get beat that badly against a foreman rush? It's not a decision to make.

When you take seven steps out of gun, it's not a decision. You have to climb. Right, you hit that back step and you climb. You hit the back step. But he really didn't get to the back step almost. Well, it's because he takes 50 steps. I mean, if you take three decent steps out of gun, you're sitting at five. If you take three decent steps, you're at nine or ten on three decent steps.

You don't need seven steps. And I think when I watch him over the first couple weeks, is like he is way excessive in his steps, in his extra pitches, and is moving in the pocket. It's excessive. He doesn't feel comfortable right now, especially in the first half. I mean, you go to the fourth drive, and he takes a second down and 10 sack. If you want to do this and I'll log out of your account so you can do this.

No, no, no, no, don't. You need it. But it's second quarter. Yeah. It's 1342 in the second quarter. It's a second 10th situation. He starts to step up into the pocket, and then he flies. left, and I think he's got an opportunity to throw the ball initially, but he doesn't,

but he slides left, and he slides right into Leto's guy. Look if he just runs. There is zero in the middle of the field. Zero people. If he climbs the A gap and just runs, he's running. This is the play after the slow developing screen thing that didn't work, which really, given the pass rush, I don't know what they were thinking about, But the play that you're talking about is when he climbs and then he moves backwards and gets hit by the rusher who had been taken out by Aiden Hutchinson.

What did you think of Hutchinson, by the way, number two pick in the draft? You know, maybe something you didn't pick up on watching the All-22. He had three sacks and was dominant in the first half, and then he was gimpy and wasn't healthy in the second half, which may have been part of the reason they were able to protect Wentz a little bit. it better. But the play you're talking about, I see what you're talking about, totally. Well, I mean, this is just an easy play. Yeah. You don't like it downfield. I'm fine with that, but you should understand that in the coverage they're in, which I guarantee he knows, just step up and run. Yeah. There's a huge lane. There is a huge lane.

And that's tough. I mean, he comes back in the second quarter, he just, he missed, He ends up missing Doxon down the middle of the field. This is five minutes and 12 seconds in the second quarter. Dotson splits cover two defense on a run-action pass. There is no way the action holds the backers. There is no way this isn't wide opening, swings it out. And then the last play of the half is a stupid little thing. But like the lines are incredibly soft.

Throw Curtis Samuel the ball right now and see what happens. Right. he ends up throwing it into the back of the line. Yeah. They're like, what are you, like, what on earth are you doing? So what are you saying about Carson Wentz in the first half? That a lot of the lack of production and getting sacked four times was as much on him or more on him than the line. Both?

Well, I think a lot of it's on the line, but I also think that there was never any rhythm throws. Right. So it's on Turner. And so it's on Turner. It's Turner. It's the quarterback, and it's the line, but it's a combination of all three of those. Because if you can get that defensive line off their spot and not understanding when the ball's coming out, then it changes the way they rush. Now you get those detackles thinking, okay, well, maybe I'm going to have to get my hands up at two yards.

You get the ball's out in two seconds. Yeah. I mean, it's just, I think it was a combination of all of them. it. And when your quarterback clearly isn't comfortable back there, you don't sit there and go, God, I just drew up the best place and they can't run them. You say, how do I get them into positions where they can feel comfortable to run the best place that we have? You know, I also made a note where, you know, when things are like that, it's like, okay, can we run the football? And they actually did attempt to run it until they were down 15 or 22,

nothing, whatever. And then it was just straight drop back. And, you know, Gibson had one or two decent runs, but not really. And he followed up a decent run with a minus yardage run, which put him in, you know, like the, I think it's the fourth drive of the game when they're down 12-0. I think Gibson rips off a six-year-run, and then he ends up, Logan Thomas blocks. No one. They try to run this little sweet play to the outside, and he goes for minus one. For minus one. And now it's third and six instead of, you know, third and two or maybe a second-down run. Yeah. Okay. Well, the second half was better. Yeah, the second half was a lot better.

And I actually noted this, too. Here's another thing, and this changed in the second half a little bit. The first half of this ballgame, they did kickoff returns to the 15 into the 16. Yeah, I know. Special teams were horrible. Horrible. They started out with a great kickoff return. They get them into great field position, and they take a big shot in a run action to Doughton. And then he ends up coming back and he makes a hell of a throw, a hell of a throw to Samuel coming out of the backfield.

And that's in an amazing catch. Yeah. They make a great throw to Terry McClorn on the next drive right before the interception. The interception kills you. Like it kills them in the situation where they're at. Yeah. Like they go with the interception. They go with a run-action path, right?

Boom. He's trying to throw the ball to local. Thomas in the middle of the field, but he's got to throw that ball over those linebackers. And when you throw that ball over the linebackers for the safety, you'd love to be able to flatten that ball. You don't want to have to airmail that ball high, and he had to throw a high because he had to throw it over the backers. Right.

All he's got to do is see those backers did not react at all to any of that run action and go, okay, here we go. Look at John Dotson on the little bubble as an outlet. Right. It's eight yards. It's six yards. It's four yards. Who cares? It's 20. I don't know what it is, but it's an easy completion.

And sometimes when you run all these run-action things, and your running game isn't very good, and they're dropping deep, take the underneath bubble throw, a good quick throw, and now even on the run action, they still have to respect anything underneath. You can't just take deep shot after deep shot, and he just hit three in a row. He's... Yeah, they're going to be soft. He really is, I think what we've seen in two games, games. He has a short

memory and he will try to make some big plays down the field including that one. By the way, have you noticed that his misses, we said this about Taylor Heineke last year too, but his misses are high and he's missed

that seam route going back to preseason. Logan didn't play in the preseason. Well, I mean, the ball of Logan Thomas isn't really a miss. If you want to throw that ball. That's where that ball had to be. The interception. Then Logan Thomas tips it up, and it's a hell of a tip drill by Detroit.

Well, the ball's high. The ball's high. Well, where else you want to throw it? You're going to throw it into the linebacker. So what you're saying is he should not have thrown that ball. You should have thrown at the dots. And you say as soon as those two backers in front of Logan drop to 12 yards, they didn't even step up at all, which is all you're looking at right there.

I mean, you see the coverage and you go, okay, I got to fit this ball. over the backers, which means I need to flatten it in front of safety. As soon as I can't flatten it in front of safety, I don't throw the ball. It's over. Yeah, I see exactly what you're talking about. The play action didn't move the backers towards the line of scrimmage at all. Not even a half a step. They didn't even hold them.

They just went straight drop. Yeah, he's got to throw that to Dotson, and Dotson gets, you know, eight yards and moves the sticks, minimum. Right. it's greedy. And there are times when I like gunflinging like that. But if you throw the little swing, then you can gunfling another play. Right, right. You know, I mean, that holds them.

That essentially works as a run off the run-action path. Yeah. He did bounce back. He had a big throw on a deep cross to Terry McLaurin. It's underthrown. It's a hell of a play by McClorn. Oh, great catch. I mean, it's not a good ball to Terry.

Right. But a hell of a catch. then they go with the McVeigh fake boot play and they leak Samuel out of the backfield across the line of scrimmage you run slow plays it, gets down the sideline that's big time and then

a really perfect timing to Logan Thomas on touchdown. It's that post and corner combination but it's a fun because I actually love this play they're about five yards apart the corner releases outside like he's going to go wide and go the post releases inside and then the inside

post holds the two safety. Let me get that play because I was looking at the play to... Sorry, the inside... Yeah, the touch-up pass... The inside is a corner. So I think it's Samuel. I can't remember who's outside. But he releases inside.

They cross-release this. And then Logan goes out, vertical, and then goes into the post, and it's a perfect timing throw. Yeah. Very well done. Very well. I wanted to ask you about the Samuel play before that or two-plice. before that because you glossed over pretty quickly. Well, I just loved the design of that play

because if you go back to that play, and I know you were just talking about the past to Logan Thomas, and I agree with that, obviously. But the McLauran play you talked about, which was not well-thrown. But the thing that I love about this play is that the defense sees McKissick after the play action and the offensive linemen moving out to the, you know, like it's going to be a screen and Samuel just sort of hangs around and then just leaks out and nobody pays attention to him. I don't know that I've seen a lot of this kind of design. I understand the boot rolling left and then throwing back across the field. You see that, but I thought the, you know, sort of look that it was a screen. It's a McVeigh play. It's a, it's a McVeigh play.

No, it's supposed to look like a boot. It's a boot. You know, it's called boot leak. Boot leak? He leaks. He leaks. That's for sure. Nobody notices it. No, it's like eight Cooper Cup touchdowns over the last four years have been on that play. Yeah. It's funny because Gruden hated it, and Sean and Gruden always fought, and Sean wanted it in, and Gruden didn't think it was a great play. It's a Shanahan play. Really, it's a Mike Shanahan play.

McVeigh's really run well. Kyle runs it a lot. It's a Mike Shanahan play. But I understand the bootleak part of it, but the idea is to make the defense think after the play action to McKissick that it's a screen to McKissick, right? No. No? No? Well, why are all the offensive linemen out there in front of McKissick?

That's what looked different to me. That's what made it look different. Because it's supposed to look like a bootleg rolling to his left. Yeah. And then you want them. So on a bootleg rolling to his left, what you're looking for right there is the corner or the safety to cut the crosser running across the middle of the field to the left. there's always a deep cross and usually a deep angle route to the middle of the field.

A lot of times you send two across, and then any boot you have a little down flat on the front side of it. So he fakes that run to the right and he rolls to his left, and normally you have two, three guys crossing the field for you. Okay. The regular boot, you're hoping when you run right, they step to that direction, and then you can throw behind them on the crossers. But now you're giving them a crap boot look. you're hoping that they overcommit to cut the crossing routes running across the field and then that last dude sneaks behind everybody runs all the way back to your right side what did you think of the two-point conversion play after the logan thomas touchdown i loved

this play i loved the two-point play i thought it was excellent why did you like it i liked it because it's well set up it's a fake it's a fake pick it's like in basketball and i i Explain this either to Tommy yesterday or the other day when I did my recap. You know, sometimes you slip a pick. Like you come to set a pick in basketball and then you immediately roll to the basket. And so, you know, they're watching and they're waiting for the pick to be set. And then the screener quickly slips it and goes to the bucket. And the defense is just standing still.

Dotson fakes like he's going to, you know, they're going to run a pick play. And then he just slips right into the end zone. and I just loved, by the way, he's so good, and he sold it so well. I just, I love the, I love the design of that play. It's a great two-point play, too. I like it a lot too. And the other part of the design of that play is, if you want to go back to what this play really, really looks like, sometimes without the run fake,

is Bill Walsh, and Bill Walsh called it Sprint, Run it, and that inside receiver goes up two yards and it's hard to the flat, and it's tough to cover, but everyone sees that so often, that they overcommit to covering Logan Thomas as he goes in the flat, so it's a takeoff of, you know, Walsh's essentially, as well. Yeah. And I liked it because you use that little run fake inside to hold the D-line so he can get out to the right.

Right. I mean, they're not blocking the defensive end. No. But it's the fly-sweep out. action and then the inside run that holds the end so the quarterback is free. But this is like, if I'm going to go for two with ten minutes left in the game, I want this play in my book. Well, no, I hear you.

But, you know, it would have been 2914 at that point if you had kicked. So you would have been more likely than that. No, I understand. But I, but my favorite part of the play is the selling by Dotson that he's essentially, going to pick, and he doesn't, and he never does. And it's like they're waiting. You know, the other part of this play is if somebody else goes with Dotson, and it's a different defense, the selling of the pick can actually be a pick. Exactly. So Logan Thomas isn't dead. Exactly. But it's designed for the defense to fall for the fake pick and Dotson to just

slip right into the middle and be wide open. Yeah. No doubt. But he still is going to read that mesh between the two. Yeah. All right. What's next? Yeah.

That is, no, it's very, very well done. I see, honestly, overall, I can't imagine grading wins in the entire game higher than any form of a C-minus. I didn't grade it. I would assume that's what it is. I didn't think it was an excellent performance.

They had yards late. Detroit was not in prevent. They played very soft after the next Washington touchdown. 3621, yeah. But that's the only time it got a little bit soft. They were aggressive as Washington made it, you know, in those first three scores. They didn't vary their game plan at all until that point. Right, exactly.

They played the same defense. They reversal in coverages. And when you say soft, too, like Detroit will play soft too, which I think they did the first play of the game. Yeah, but it's not pre-vent. They're not always going to be an attacking aggressive defense as far as blithing. They varied coverage throughout the game.

I mean, it was not a huge change in defense. So he goes 21 of 29 for 278 yards and three touchdowns in one pick in the second half. And the best you can give him is a C-minus for the game? I'll bet you. I didn't grade it. I mean, I'll bet you it's close to that. I don't think he made dynamic plays to change the game throughout a lot of it. Yeah, there were some good throws late in the game.

I will give him that. I think he missed a lot of opportunities or some. I think he missed them in the first half. I think he cost him a lot in the first half of that game. And I think the pick is critical. Yeah. But I also don't think they ever got him in rhythm, which isn't his fault. well well

see what pff grade him I'll bet they'll grade him like 74 I have no idea what they graded him I don't pay for that and don't look at it I don't know I wasn't blown away

by Wynce's performance it was it was good in the second ass I will say this what you have weapons you have to get the ball on the head you've got to get the ball in their hands. You've got to get Terry more involved early in these ball games.

It's two games in a row that McCorn is, what are his first half stats in the last couple games? I think last week he had one in the first half. This week he had zero. He had three targets, zero receptions in the first half. It's so funny. You build off Terry as solid, this guy, we're going to get to do the ball.

And just, Terry's got to get yards after the catch. When you have all these weapons, you don't overlook Terry McClure. The three highest graded commanders on PFF were Charles Leno, Jr., who got beat on the safety, 76.6. Benjamin St. Chuson, I said yesterday, I think I added him to, after watching it for a second time. I didn't think he played that poorly. 73.8, and Johan Dotson was a 69.3. So to answer your question, you guessed once would have been in the 70, low 70s.

He was less than 69.3. We know that. Well, they're in there, I've always thought like 60 was a C-minus if it's PFS. Okay. If it was close. Right. They're pretty rough on some of the things. So my B-minus was off, is what you're saying?

No, that's your grade. It is my grade. I don't think I'm going to change it. thing that you've changed my mind on a little bit is the first half because I just, when I went back and watched it, I saw too many quick pressures. The one thing I did say is that I think they should have, that Turner needed to figure out how to get stuff quickly. You know, to your point, find some I agree, but the quarterback also has to have an answer for quick pressure. You do. It's a safety. Yeah. You got to know that you got to get that ball out of your hands. And even if you

throw it into the bench over a comeback set. He knows he's got comebacks on the outside. So he knows that he can throw it eight yards into the ground over there. What you definitely need to know when you're five yards deep in the end zone, you can't let them bat the ball out of your hand. Like that's just not acceptable. You know what you see a lot of in road environments that are loud in Detroit apparently was pretty loud. on Sunday, and it's been really good there for the first two games of the year against the Eagles

in Washington. When you're backed up into your own end zone as the opposing team, man, how often do you see quarterbacks not feel it and get hit? Because it's like the lineman isn't getting, you know, the proper jump, sound wise, et cetera. You just see that so often in those situations when you're pinned against your own goal line because it just gets louder. You know, the of the down and distance, the, you know, the starting field position is louder. I understand. If you're telling me Detroit was that loud, then that's what you're telling me. Well, I heard it was very, very loud. Yeah. Okay. Okay. They believe in their lines. I've never been. I'll tell you more than that play.

The interception, when you watch this the way you described it, my God, just throw it to Dotson. Why are you trying to fit it when the backers didn't come up on your play action? Isn't that what a quarterback has to look at? Yes, because you just hit three balls vertical down the field, and now you're Rex Grossman. Now you're aggressive and you're feeling it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no doubt. All right.

That's exactly what it is. Defense, why was it so awful? Well, before defense, if you wanted off. offense and I had two things left. Okay, go ahead. Just a couple things. Please. I actually love when I do this stuff

and then I write things down and I laugh to myself. So the lions run this little sweep, throwback to the quarterback. And take a shot down the field. Right. In the second quarter.

Yeah. And I get to where Washington somehow, and you don't see that play very often, right? You know what's really weird? I've seen it like five times already in the first two weeks, it seems like. There have been so many

throwbacks, you know, laterals, lateral throwbacks to the quarterbacks so far this season. I've seen that play so many times, it seems like, but go ahead. Where did that play happen? So Scott Turner sitting there so pissed off that they stole his play.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Yes, yeah. So then on a second at 10, in the worst situation, he's like, I'm running mine. I'm running it. Screw it. Yeah, right. How did it work out?

He plays later, he pulls out the same play. Yeah. I'm surprised he didn't immediately go. I knew I was going to get that play called first. I can't believe they took it. Oh, it was bad. It was horrible. Oh, my God.

I mean, Cam Sims has no idea the ball. Why doesn't he even really look for it? Detroit's like, yeah, you're not getting there. This is not going to happen. Didn't you see we just... They had a couple other ones that I thought was interesting. It was interesting. I think this is a third and six after the minus run.

Right? Yeah. After you said they had a run for five. And then they had the minus run. And they go third and six. You know, Detroit's playing man coverage. They try to run like the stock screen. Like the two outside receiver.

pretend like they're going to block for a second and then go vertical on the widened screen. And this is where I say like Terry's not a double move guy and then I say get him going. The worst stock against man coverage, like actually go block him or something. Like you can't read a stock screen

in third and six. It's the third and 12th. You're talking about the one where he just totally overshoots Terry on the right sideway. The near sideway. Yeah. It was the left side by it. Yeah.

Hey, what are you calling? I didn't like the balance that they had, especially in first down play calls. I got none of the drive openers really tied. I think those are great opportunities to get plays. I don't think Turner got any of the first four drives going effectively. And when they got runs on the first play, like you got the first drive is a run for four yards. We got to get yards on the second down. get more yards in the second six situation.

So I didn't love the balance in some of the stuff like I thought he had last week in the first half of the ball game. I thought he got to some shots that he wanted and had some opportunities to get into a rhythm as a play caller in the second half. But I mentioned it a bunch of times now. You've got to get your offense going. You've got to find a way to get your offense going. You've got to find a way to get them into plays where you can get into third and twos at

least, or you have some balance. I don't think they have balance. I still think they're going to struggle to run the football. I don't think they're good enough up front, which is crazy right now. But I also don't think that they're committed enough to running the football. You're inside guns and guard pull force plays. I don't think it's committed enough, and I don't think it's balanced enough. So I didn't love Turner throughout, especially the first half of this game.

I think he did get in rhythm a little bit later in the game. So that's your... I think Brian Robinson, Jr. was... There's so many weapons, and it's like... The fake reverse screen. Right. I know you ran a reverse last week, and I know you're trying to build off that,

but they end up having a decent reverse later in the game. Right. They're showing them looks that they haven't seen to run plays that... I don't know. You know, something that you said, I know we've probably talked about this, but like when you watch any NFL game with a, with an offense that isn't, you know, managed by Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rogers,

etc. It's like what's so crucial for those teams with those, you know, middle of the pack quarterbacks or the lower end quarterbacks is when you start a drive, get a fucking first down. You've just got to somehow get one first down. And then it's like this deep breath. And by the way, now they're just. defense has been on the field for a little bit. And it just seems like if you can get that first, first down, drives usually, you know, you've got a much, obviously you need first downs. I'm saying that,

but that first, first down is such a relief to everybody involved. And it's almost like, okay, now we can start to run stuff. So like every drive should start with how do we get this first, first down? You know, we're going to go, we're going to run a boot on first down. and we're going to get, you know, seven, you know, to our fullback or to our tight end, and then we're going to come back with a gun run and move the sticks. I mean, but when you don't, when you don't get a first down like they didn't on their first five drives, man, the pressure just builds and builds and builds. I mean, they did not get a first down until that throw to Dotson with like five minutes to go in the second quarter.

It was their sixth drive of the game. Anyway. It's insane. Anyway. And then all the screen, like, the gimmick stuff for the easy, like, swing screen stuff, the outside stuff, get the ball. And I like that stuff early. I hate some of the, like, inside set up screen stuff. I love it after you go the first drive of the second half and you go, big shot to Dotson, another ball on a touchdown to Samuel.

Then you come back and you hit Terry McClure on a deeper cross. And now all of a sudden, instead of throwing that interception where the backers are incredibly soft because they're like, okay, you just beat us on three deep balls down the field, so we're not going to step up and play it. Then you throw the screen. Last week he had all of those plays. Remember that first third down the bunch? And you're like, oh, my God, he couldn't wait to run it. He knew it would work. But I would have been excited to run that as well.

All right. Let's get to the defense next. Let's do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Okay, you covered the offense. What the hell happened to the defense? All right. So I want to start with just a couple plays that kill you. They just scored, I think, to make it 22, 15. And then St. Brown gets the fly sweep for 52 yards. Yeah. You had momentum. And now you lost it. And if you pull that play up, you

up and watch it again. They use a lot of fly sweep action. They obviously run fly sweep. Right now, Jamon Davis and Forrest are still chasing run.

Yeah. Like today, you're safety in the middle of the field. Davis, maybe you want him to bounce earlier. He never sees. He is over the center by the time the ball is outside the numbers.

But so is Forrest, and he's the safety in the middle of the field. what are you looking at? The receiver obviously had the ball. Yeah. Please stop running into the middle of the field. My God. Then watch the play.

Like, what the fuck is Jackson doing? Oh, it totally turned around. He has no idea. What the corner is doing out there? Nothing. He's doing absolutely nothing. Yeah. Juice runs into his offensive lineman. And this is not even a contest.

This is a freebie. this is uncontested for 50. He's not even, he doesn't have to make a move. And if Juice doesn't run him down, then it's over. That's the first time he's touched or even makes it, like you never even make the cut. He just, whoop, right around the edge, and there he goes.

Like, this isn't a new play in the NFL. No, it's not. Lots of teams run this way. So what, what, what happened? I mean, first of all, contain, contain, contain, right? Nine guys out of 11 are chasing the boo. I don't know if it was swift in. or whoever it is, but nine out of 11 are still trying to tackle the running back.

But why isn't the corner Jackson under, first of all, is he in-man coverage? He's in man coverage, isn't he? And Derek Forst has, St. Juice has St. Brown as a responsibility as a cover, because he's got the motion guy. He's got the fly sweep guy in this case. Yeah, he's got the fly sweep guy, but St. Juice ends up getting blocked. by the receiver. I know. But when the receiver goes, like you see Fly Sweet action and the receiver goes into crack, the DB

coming over. So do you just switch? Could you maybe replace the corner? Like, yeah, right. Instead, Jackson also tries to block St. Juice running into the... Like, maybe he's still chasing 46, the running out. I know. I know. Like, he is literally not, he never sees it until

St. Juice runs into him and turns him around. He's all the way on the edge. Let me ask you a question about this play. He's literally outside the numbers. Does sweat have any responsibility on this play or not for some contain. Yeah, sweat would have outside contain responsibility, but that's why you run this play because he's also got that down gap, it's not, he's had sweat. He's also got that gap, that backside cutoff gap for the run.

So this play is, you essentially run this play counting on the fact that a the end is not going to make this tackle. They don't. You leave the D end unblocked on a fly sweep. But I mean, you want to turn the defense. James Davis is still over the center. The ball carrier is 20 yards downfield. Forest is.

He is. Davis says. Barely makes it into the screen as the free safety on the end of the play. Yeah, and it's not that great of a fake by golf either. Well, it's not a fake. You don't even have to fake. You give it to him, and you're hoping to get seven or eight because you want to continue to use that motion for your run action.

It's a token play. It's a gimmick play to be able to use that to set other things up. So the bottom line is Jackson and St. Juice have to, like, switch. I mean, immediately Jackson's got to pick up St. Juice's guy, which is the motion guy, St. Brown, and he doesn't do it, and he never sees it to begin with. Well, you'd like him just to step up and make a tackle on the open field. Like, he's unblocked, he's untouched, he's on the edge, he's free. Like, just go up and make a tackle it's a six-yard game.

You got caught in a defense you didn't want to be caught in. It was a good call against that defense. Come on. Even more, you'd like the safety to be able to make that play at, like, 16 yards. Right. So then they come back with one of the, what, two plays later, it's third down. Yeah. And this one's baffling to me.

Right? It's third down in, what, 22? Is that what it is? Yeah. No, it's third down and 15. They are on the 23-yard line going in, third and 15. Right? So you're in Philgo range, even if you stack them, let's say you take an eight-yard loss.

Yeah. Yeah, this is the 30s, the 40s, this is the swift play. The DeAndre Swift play. Yeah. So they are sitting on the 22-ish yard line. Right. Even if you take a big sack here and you knock him back to the 32, it's a 50s, they're playing five over the top on the markers at 15. like four flat with one safety deeper, and they're rushing six.

They're essentially all-outing them. It was a great thing. Didn't you think golf did a great job here? Yeah, he does do a great job. But why are we all-outing them at the 23? At 3rd and 15. I know. Well, maybe to get that sack, maybe to get the sack to knock them out of field goal range

because of the penalty you declined. I'm kidding. No, it's a good point. I mean, maybe to get that sack, but I mean, when you... No, you're right. Third and 15, I mean, field position. Like, even if you get a sack, they're still in field goal range. Yeah.

So, what's not all out then? But then, I don't, I think this is like the first time I've seen this, and it's been a long time. The running back catches the ball at the 18-yard line. He then falls down. Yeah. He has to pick him. up on the ground, and

McCain misses the worst tackle ever. New Ryan Carrigan runs right by him. We're number 91. St. Juice misses. New Ryan Carole. Kendall Fuller misses badly. William Jackson's loafing. You're like, there's no way.

There is literally no way. You've got to be kidding me. But they weren't. You had all the momentum, and then you gave up the two dumbest plays. of all time. So, one, how much credit do you give Swift? How much credit do you give Swift before you do your one and two?

I mean, this guy is a really good back. And, you know, he was, he didn't practice all week with a gimpy, with a gimpy ankle. He's a, he's a star. That's a hell of a play, too. But I understand. Go ahead. What was your one and two? You had three guys, four guys converging on him in the 18.

One cut, two cuts. He made two cuts. Two cuts. This isn't Barry Sanders on this play. It's a very good run. It's very good. It's like they made him look like he was where number 20. They killed them.

They're back in the ball game. Yeah. What else? So, well, we'll just hear the defense here. The other big play, Swift for 50, early in the game. You're on the road. D-line should not be laid off the ball.

They're laid off the ball. And you said that Alan wasn't full speed or Allen was banged up a little bit. I mean, he ends up getting played behind the ball. Juice takes on a block with the lineman. Fuller's got a horse crap fill. I don't even know if it's touch football if Fuller unblocked is a corner filling

if he even touches him. Forrest has a bad angle. This is an embarrassing play. on a zone run. It's just bad defense. They couldn't stop counter throughout the day. You know, some stunts, but you're playing behind blocks. You've got to play through blocks when they're a power run team.

You've got to really stone guys. You've got to hold them up at least at the line of scrimmage. They're getting moved too much on double team. Their linebackers are terrible in terms of react and instinct. They gave up as much through the air, which killed them in the run. but there's more big plays that were out there. How about the, right at the end of the half with 22 seconds left, shark runs down the middle of the field.

I know. Wide open. And McCain doesn't, isn't able to run with him. And I, like, to me that looks like they're playing, McCain is a half safety. So on the defensive right, McCain's a deep half safety. And the other two Jackson and Force look like they're playing a quarter's coverage. So it's quarter, quarter, half.

Yeah. So you've got to have your backside corner. That chart ends up being in that deep zone on the defensive left. Your backside corner's got to back up to that. Yeah. They don't talk well. They don't communicate well. I mean, there's like, shoot, the first of the game, man.

They're in a bunch situation. There's a miscommunication on a switch release. Yeah. It's like no talking, no, like talking is not good enough. Communication is not good enough. They're not good enough at the line of scrimmage. They're not playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage. And they're not covering very well, especially, oh, really on both levels.

I mean, you can't put, like, Holt, I said, by the way, I said put Holcomb instead of Davis on some of these receivers. He got beat a bunch of this game. He didn't play well. Just, I don't know. You know, the. And I think that the other thing early in this game, I think that they, and I don't know exactly how I feel about. this because I don't think that they're as good up front as they have been in the past. They're trying to play like a five-down look to everything early in this game.

They switched in the second half to a four-down. You're trying to play five-down with one backer and then a nickel coming into the box. When you're getting pinned and moved to the line of scrimmage and you don't have any backers fill a gap, you're getting gassed. Right. Yes. Because you've already passed five guys. Right.

Hey, on the first third down that you mentioned, and you just quickly went through that they blew a coverage, but this got a lot of attention because Amon Rae St. Brown said afterwards, we knew that that bunch look would confuse them. And Derek Forrest basically, you know, admitted that he said it was more scheme. I mean, he basically called out the coaches for the scheme. But that first play was much talked about this week afterwards that they just, they saw. saw it with Jacksonville that they were going to be confused by that bunch look. And they clearly were.

That's the first one where, you know, to Amon Rost St. Brown for 49 yards. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these are not that complex defensively. And the way I always looked at it and the way we always talk about is when you get in those bunches, stack sets. If the corner in the safety or the corner in the nickel BB look at each other and they talk to each other, then they're trying to play in and out on that coverage, which means

somebody's going to, whoever releases inside, they're going to lock the inside. Whoever releases to the outside, the other dude's going to lock the outside. And pre-snap, they clearly communicate with each other. It's McCain and Jackson. Right. But McCain ends up taking Hawkinson, who goes inside first. He's the same. the inside of most of the bunch and nobody comes over the top to take Brown. He's got a pass Hawkinson off. That's not the guy he's in and outing.

I mean, or he's locked, you know, actually, sorry, let me stop myself right there. It's St. Juist and Jackson. McCain is locked on Hawkins. He's fine. So St. Juiced at the point. And so essentially what I think is happening is St. is supposed to just take the inside receiver. I'll bet it's they choose.

Who knows? Who knows? They communicate and they miss it up. One of them's got to take the inside release. One of them's got to take the outside. You know if they don't look at each other, if they do not look at each other and communicate, they are locked on.

Right. They're locking it. If they do communicate, they're in and out of it. And you love when guys communicate. And the quarterback's looking at that. He's watching to see if those two talk to each other and he knows there's a man-covered situation. Isn't there a way to signal without talking to each other?

Because it's a tell. It's a tell. Yeah. Can you just say something? Well, I mean, you always, I mean... I always thought, you know what I always thought you should do? What? Is communicate when you are locking.

You just switch it up. Yeah, if you are going to lock, look at each other five times. You go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, helmet, turn, helmet, turn, I mean, but you know, it's, it's amazing. Like I'll never forget before that Dallas game when you had exactly all of the checks that Dak Prescott had and you went to tell them and they wouldn't listen to you. But it was like so hard to, it was so easy to figure out and you were right about all of them. You were sitting there calling the game.

You're like, Dak just checked to this. Watch what happens. And so, I mean, the fact that you can, you know, these tendencies and even, these signals, you can study and catch on to them. I don't know why anybody would keep the same signals two weeks in a row. Well, most teams communicate in and out this way, but I hear you. Because people don't, because people don't catch on. I don't know.

I just, I think the defense is struggling in similar players. Here's one thing I would say, though, that I think is interesting watching this defense. I think Matt I and Edison, Tim Settle, were good players. and they were consistent run-stop players. Why don't you keep those guys? They were both fifth-round picks or fifth-and-six-round picks, but when you get fifth and six-round picks that develop,

just keep them. Well, Ionitis didn't want to be here. He didn't like Mills. They fired Mills before the season started. I don't even know if we talked about that. No, I understand. I understand that, and I know where I get where he's coming from, but try to keep him,

so he wants to be here. Yeah. I know. They're not, I mean, from what was an unbelievably built D-line, they're not that. Did you, you know. In three years. We both noticed how dominant Duran Payne was in the opener. I actually, he had some, he's had some incredible plays, but it's hard to grade anybody that well on defense, right?

I thought St. Juice was okay. except for when they didn't replace each other there. But that was more on Jackson. Seeing juice is okay. I mean, I wrote positives defensively, and here are my list of positives. Jamon Davis, really good coverage on the running back on the rail shot in the end zone on the second drive. Right, yeah.

Swift. Before Washington did this, I love the double-pass trick play, which was not of Washington. positive. And positive number three. Thank God pain had a pressure in a quarterback hit with 816 and a third, or there's a huge play down the middle. Two,

is Charc where number four? Yeah, Chark is four. I think he was, yeah. There's no way that Jackson gets back into that pitcher and it's six. And I think Payne had some decent plays. But seriously, you look at this game, you knew Detroit was going to run the ball, you

thought you had a plan with a five-man front. You know how many tackles for loss they had run game? Zero. Zero tackles for loss. Yeah. Zero. They gave up the couple 50-yard plays, but even at that you take out like two of the goff move around plays where you... They averaged over

4.5 yard to play without those two plays. Right. And they did whatever they wanted, throwing the ball down the field, essentially. It was not good defense. Not good. Nope, and Philadelphia's coming to town. Will you tell us about that on Friday? I would love to.

Okay. Good job. job today. I appreciate it. That was not fun to watch. I actually enjoyed last week. I thought there was a lot of fun stuff to come out of last week. I thought there's a lot of smart stuff. I don't, and I think I told you, you know when I'm drawing stuff up and drawn plays from the game that I like. I don't think I drew anything. Detroit wasn't great. It was just they out-executed.

Well, I think that two-point play was a play you can draw up. I like the two-point play to Dotson. I have that two-point play is drawn up, buddy. I have that one in the book. All right. We will do this again on Friday. I appreciate it. I'll see you, Kev.

All right, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.