What's up with happening?
All?
This is the Beatdown Podcast, and guys, we're ready to get started into week two. And today we have two more guests. Last week we had Lake Lewis and David Harrison. This week we have Candy Waller, president of Booie TV Sports, and Alex Flohm from DC News. Now, guys, how we doing pretty good?
Zach? Ready for week two?
Yep? Same here? Ready to get rocking, as DQ would say, Yeah.
I think we're all ready to move on from whatever that was in week one for sure. You know, this week we have our home debut against the New York Giants, which I've been saying all week it seems to be more of a quote unquote in the Washington Commander's weight class as opposed to the perennial playoff contenditor that the Buccaneers were. But yeah, I think I think this is going to be a little bit more of a competitive matchup. And guys, let's go ahead and get jumping right into
it here. Starting with the first question that we will be debating over between you two is you know Washington's offense went up against the buzz Saw in Todd Bowles's defense and you know, they blitsed them about forty two percent of the time, which is gonna make it gonna speed up Danny Daniels process and led to him runs
in the ball sixteen times, which nobody wants. But Katy, we'll start with you here, and you know, the big question is what do you want to see from Washington's offense that Cindy struggle a little bit there going against the Todd Bowles. What do you want to see them do against the Giants defense that likely is not going to blitz as much as the Buccaneers.
I would really like to see from Washington's offense a bit more, just you know, creativity. How can they get the other players involved? If we saw the run game get going a bit, we saw you know, a big run by Austin Eckler, We saw you know, b Rob doing what he does, but perhaps getting Austin Eckler involved a little bit more kind of couldn't get the wide receiver group going, so, you know, would love to see a bit of that.
Can they connect?
Can can we see where Jaden will have a chemistry or connection with Terry or with Luke or.
With Diami o Z.
Let's see how that works out and then just the tight ends like.
All Duram Camp. We saw, you know, zach Ertz being kind.
Of like that security blanket but just couldn't get that going so where they can really be creative and utilizing the different position groups on offense.
Love to see that happening in week two.
Yeah, and you very have a good point about the wide receivers because in the first half the wide receiver group as a whole had one catch for no yards and that was for Luke McCaffrey, who who did have end up having a pretty solid game. But that you're right, that is nowhere close to what you'd want from from those receivers. And else we'll bring this to you here. And you know, she brings up the wide receivers now, like what do you think they can do to get
more get more action from their years? It doesn't matter just giving Jane more protection or is it just the receivers getting up it? Like what do you think about that?
Yeah, well, I think it seemed did seem like the receivers were struggling a bit to get opened last week. Obviously, you know, we barely heard Terry mcclaurin's name. We didn't see much, you know, from Dimmie Brown, from Luke from Alamide. So I think the receivers need to do a little bit of a better job this week getting separation. But one thing under the radar that I'm going to be keeping my eyes on this week is how much we see.
Brandon Coleman on the field.
They were about two drives where he had a lot of time on the field, and those two drives were the two drives that the Commanders scored a touchdown this past week. So I think seeing him on the field little more. And I know he dealt with some injuries in preseason, so I think if they can get Coleman in more, and you know, I think a lot of.
Factors play a role here.
I don't think anything was exactly jayde Daniel's fault last week. I thought he had a pretty nice and solid debut.
But I think a little more.
Protection and a little more separation from the receivers, which they hopefully should get against the Giants this week, I think we could see a much bigger day from the passing offense.
Yeah, I really think so too. And if you look in I mentioned at the top of the show that the Commanders were blitzed about forty two percent of the time, which was the second highest across the league in general. Now the Giants, their hand, they blitzed about half of that and that was about twenty six in the league.
So either way, no matter what we're gonna see from this Giants kind of defense with that new deeps of coordinator and Shane Bowen, you're you're gonna get a lot less pressure at least from you know, blitzing you know, five or six different guys. Now the defensive line is for the Giants a little bit a little bit different
question just because they're so dominant. But Candy, I'll ask you this is, you know, say, say Jayden does get less pressure, which we I think is gonna be expected compared to what we saw from from the Buccaneers, how do you think that that fewer amounts of pressure is really going to help him in his progressions, in his process and trying to you know, get some of these wide receivers up and get some of these some of these weapons more involved. As you said earlier, I.
Think it will help Jayden even probably.
Get a bit more comfortable to the pace of the game. It's almost like at times in Week one, you know, it was like, Okay, is Jayden panicking?
Is it?
Is it? Like, you know, did he did he? Did he run?
Because he just was a you know, we know that he's a competitor and he needs to go, but it also can resemble like panic mode as well, like oh my gosh. So it's almost like wanting to see that calm, collected poise that we've seen throughout camp.
Perhaps this is a week where he can really.
Get comfortable into the maybe passing first QB that we know dead Quinn and uh, you know all offensive coordinated.
Cliff Kingsbury has said they would like to see him do.
So I think it's more of a is this the week where we see him really get comfortable into his role?
Like y'all said, it was a solid.
Game, but at times it looked a little haywire, and so maybe it looks a bit more collected and confident even and the weapons that he currently has the round him.
Yeah, and you're right, I mean in training camp it seeing what we saw not so a completely different offense, but it did seem like it was a little bit more uh polished, a little bit more in synct than what you said, no, No, Granted, some of that is to be expected because they're doing more vanilla stuff. They're not doing these these complicated concepts. They're keeping things simple for the you know, the fact they want to bring
Jade and the rest of the offense along. But fum, I'll bring this to you, you know, before we move on to the next question, is you know she mentioned that the quote unquote the freak out stuff that would happen occasionally, and how Jade would sort of speed up his progressions. That Another thing we didn't really see that much in the game was the amount of exposive play that seemed to be starting to open up a little
bit more during training camp. And we do know that that Jayden has the ability to launch the ball down field. So say he does get more protection from from Brandon Coleman, like you said, assuming he plays or Cornelia suits whoever's out there, how do you expect that to to help him in terms of like stretching the offense down the field and getting some of these guys open, like Terry Luke and even Diami.
Well, we did see a couple of times they tried to launch it downfield and a couple of times. It did look closer, you know, close last week, and like the Candy said, we saw it in preseason. We know that, you know, he's capable of making.
These plays in practice.
It's just a matter of seeing that happen for the first time in a game, and you know it should happen this week against the Giants.
Like we said, the Bucks a little bit.
Stronger of a team, stronger of a defense, and I think, to me, I think they're gonna want to get one of those plays off early. And you know, it's week two, it's early in the season. I would have to imagine we're going to see dan Quinn with Kingsbury taking a couple maybe extra chances early, just so Jayden could get one of those big plays. Because you know, this is the start of his career. You know, we have to
remember that. You know, he's just getting rolling, and you know, I think once he hits one of those big plays, we're going to see that he's capable of doing that.
He's going to see that he's capable.
Of doing that in an NFL game, and I'm sure we're going to see it a lot more than once going forward to you.
Know, the Commanders were last in the league in quitted air yards last year with thirty or last week with thirty, So we we definitely do expect them to at least be better than that, especially with the you know, they don't have the best receiving corps out there, but they do have some explosive weapons that can definitely help them. So we're gonna move on to the next question, but right now we'll give you a little bit of a
score update. Alex. You were in the league four to three, so it's still pretty tightly contested battle here, but we do have a chance to to even the odds a little bit with a defensive question, and it's even more of a general one. You know, obviously the offense was had its up and down performances, but it was still largely and i'd say, closer to the mean in terms
of stats around the league. The defense, at the other hand, was definitely closer to what we saw last year, which is a little bit disappointing in terms of allowing explosive plays. Nine plays of at least fifteen yards or more and then third downs was the one of the biggest concerns that the Buccaneers hit about sixty nine percent of their third downs, which is just, you know, not acceptable in any any sense, not a winning formula at all. But
Alex will start with you first. There's a lot of things to improve upon for this Commander's defense, for sure, But what do you want to see the most in order to get a bounced back performance from this unit?
Yeah, well, I definitely want to see the secondary step up a bit. I know they had a tough time with the Bucks passing attack, but I do think it starts with the pass r us.
Just having a slightly better day.
I mean, Coach Quinn talked about it yesterday at practice. There were a lot of points where they were getting back there and applying pressure, but there were many many points where they were not finishing and not picking up a sack in those instances. So I think the pass rush has to be better than it was last week. And like we said about the offense, I think the defense itself should be better. You know, this Giants team is a team that looked very, very bad in Week one.
You know, they're the only team that didn't win and also didn't score a touchdown in their first game. So the Commanders just have to make sure, you know that they don't play down to the Giants, and I think a lot of that.
Will start with the pass rush getting back there.
Cand It. We'll go over to you next, because you know, the inability to finish was so critical against Baker Mayfield and now they go up against Daniel Jones, who has round every other team in the league has not really performed up to his from caliber that he was that he was drafted in. When he goes against the Commanders, for whatever reason, he seems to play like he's one
of the top quarterbacks in the league. So in terms of getting to Daniel Jones, what do you want to see from them to get him on the ground and get him to get him you know, speed of the process, and get him under pressure, because for whatever reason, Daniel Jones seems to be a big problem for this unit.
Yeah, it is kind of exactly what Alex was saying.
You know, the defense is inability to finish last week was glaring.
So as you just mentioned, Zach, yes, Daniel Jones has like career games against.
The Commanders and I'm sure everyone is thinking, you know, the Commanders can't lose to the Giants. But guess what, I'm pretty sure the Giants are thinking the same thing. Oh, we cannot lose to the Commanders. So I think you'll probably see a different team on both for both teams.
But the ability to just finish. The defense missed so many tackles on Sunday and they need to they need to make Daniel throw, but don't even give him an opportunity to The more there could be a bit more grass or mud on his jersey, the better off for this defense. So this is the game where we don't want it to be another so many high houses for the defense, and here we go again with it being
down the tubes. This is an opportunity for the defense to say, hey, we had to get the kinks out, we had to knock the dust off a bit in week one, but we are legit and Daniel Jones will not be successful against us.
Yeah, you're exactly right, And you know this kind of goes into you know the other part of the question for as far as Daniel Jones' performance is his weapons, right, I mean, he's not gonna have Sagon Barkley or he's gone. He's playing for Philadelphia. Darius Slayton seems to be in the concussion protocol, so I don't know if he's going
to be playing or not. We'll see what monitor that to see how he how he does, but blite Neighbors is gonna be it would seem to be a big, big problem for this secondary which allowed only six incompletions for Baker Mayfield. He had two or eight nine yards four touchdowns. He was bawling out in a way that
we really haven't seen him in quite a while. So Alex will switch back over to you here in like how concerned are you about this secondary or about the secondary which allowed so many exposive plays as far as you know in communication probably had to play a role in that, But like, how concerned do you and what do you what do you expect them to do? Going against a different receiving court that is not as as talented and harold as the Buccaneers, but still pretty solid ish group.
I would say I'm pretty concerned about the secondary just because it resembled a lot of what we saw last year with their struggles. I think a lot of people were expecting to see a different look, a stronger play.
Emmanuel four.
Obviously, he had his struggles in his rookie year, and you know, didn't really show many signs of a step forward this past week, though I know he was dealing with a bit of an injury, but I know, I think.
The secondary definitely needs to step up.
It's a little bit of a concern, and Malik Naghbors does concern me a little bit from the Giant side because we talked about the fact that their game last week was a disaster.
He was one of the lone bright spots in that game for them.
He had five catches for sixty six yards, including a twenty five yard grab. So I think they're gonna, like, just like we talked about the Commanders needing to have big plays, they're gonna need to limit the Giants big plays because it's one thing when it's Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, that really tough passing attack led by Baker Mayfield. But this week he said, it's a different story. It's
not as strong of a group. And you know, I think for this secondary, this is a chance to prove themselves and a chance to show after last week that you know, this is a different group this year and they are ready to take that step forward.
Candy same qu Before we move on to the final question how big is the communication going to be, because I mean Bendamussain's you said after the game there was a big deal, and dan Quinn even said during Alla's money prescotens this was also a big deal they need to fix going forward.
Absolutely. I mean it was glaring right that you can see that they could.
Almost look like they did not know what was going on, and so this is going to have to really look like these guys are much more sync and being able to read any verbal and nonverbal cues as well, because not sure what it you know, came off on the TV, but even watching it live it was like, oh my gosh, they don't know where to go and they have no idea where the football is.
So that is.
Definitely going to have to tighten up a great deal much of what we saw last week, and I know dan Quinn has been saying it that you know, we'll all see a much improved team, more aligned.
In the brand of football that they want to play. But if that's what, If that's.
True, this is to this is the week to prove that against a very much struggle Giants team.
Yes, completely right, And you know this kind of goes into the last question here, but before the quick scoretate again, Kenny, you are now ahead again with one point, so see if l Alex can get back in the lead here. But for this last question, Canny, we'll start with you here. Finish the sentence. Washington will win on Sunday if what happens.
Washington will win on Sunday. If the defense actually makes Daniel Jones look like.
The real quarterback that he is in real life and not Tom Brady.
Yeah, you know what, You're completely right on that, Alex, same question. Washington will win on Sunday if what.
Happens, Well, Kendy went with defense, I'm gonna go with the offense. Washington will win Sunday if the offense gives Jaden just a tiny bit more time and the receivers.
Get a little bit more open.
I think we saw what he can do with his feet last week. We've seen what he can do with his arm this entire preseason, and I think he's ready to unleash that and show it to the NFL. And I think even if Daniel Jones doesn't have an awful game, if the Commander's offense can counteract that and step up and make.
Some big plays like we talked about.
I think people are going to be talking about Jaydon Daniels's Rookie of the Year already, and the Commanders are going to be celebrating with a win at home to start the season.
You know that that is such a good point, because I really do think this this offense is much better than the twenty points that it put up, especially considering that they had a were in scoring opportunity twice and came away with two missfield goals. Now we hope that Sebert is going to be a little bit better than what k you're put together again last week against the Buccaneers.
But and you know, ultimately, though those six points may not have played too much of a role in the outcome, But you know, thirty seven to twenty six whole looks a whole lot better than thirty seven to twenty and I think it is a little bit more indicative of how the offense played. And especially I think going against the defense that is gonna play a little more straight up with him, I don't think they're gonna blitz him as much. I think they're gonna be able to protect
him a little bit better. Even with Dector Lawrence and Brian Burns and Kevon Thibodeau. I think I think this offensive line is going to play a little bit better than the I think it was two point three five seconds of time to throw that they gave Jayden Daniels in Week one. I think that's gonna be a little bit better. But as as valid as those points are, Alex, I have to give it to Candy here because I mean, Daniel Jones has been the bugaboo for this team for
the better part of three years now. They have not beaten him in a while. They have They had a chance to beat him twice in twenty twenty two, they came with a tie and the loss. Twenty twenty three, they you know, they underperformed in several aspects in twenty twenty three and ended up losing both of those games. So Candy, I have to give you the win here, because Daniel Jones it seems as weird as it sounds. He is the factory. So you're you're the victor. How do you have any parting words for us?
I mean, whoo really no, of course, it was great to do this with you all.
Algie brought up some fantastic points as well, So this this was great, but this is absolutely if I know it's just sweek two, and I know that folks continue to say it's just one game and this will just be Week two, but I do think that this is a must win this week for the Commanders.
I would agree. I would agree with that in some in some instances because I think, yeah, it's week two. If they go into it's not great, and it definitely the number of the probability of you making the playoffs
though and two definitely goes down. But at the same time, I think from just a larger perspective, just winning against the Giants does bring a little bit more of a morale boost to this to this team, especially for the players who have who or who are still here, the few that are still here from last year, the last couples, last couple of years. If they can be the Giants,
I think things are all the way back. They get a one to oh start in the division, and I think they get if they get back on track and get ready to face the Cincinna Bigel. So it's gonna be another tough test. But guys, I really appreciate you coming on. It's been fantastic having you guys, uh, and we will see you in the press box on Sunday.
Zach and congrats hard to go against the goat. Congrats on the room.
All right, guys, we shures a rate review. Subscribe to the DM podcast and we will see you next week.