Coming up on the game plan. Your commanders are out here in the desert being that Coach Dan point catch up for an interview.
Out in sunny Arizona, and at the.
End of the show our command center Coop talks about keys to a victory, how we can bring that, w come all day and more starts on the game plan.
Welcoming in Coach to the game plan. Coach.
First things first, congratulations on a huge prime time when.
Yeah, it was fun man, really fun.
The fans were there, they showed up, There was so much burgundy and gold up and it just looked like such an exciting time.
Just paint that atmosphere for us, and how much funny you had out there. Yeah, we had an absolute blast.
We knew going into it there were certain markers that we'd have to do to go win. And the best part about games like that where maybe outside voices would say, no, this isn't going to happen, but the people inside that building all week in the preparation to get ready for that go time, they had the belief and that's the most important thing. So it was really good Man to have some of our fans there on the road in that kind of environment. It was an absolute blast of
the locker room was lit up for sure. Is that outside know it is a little extra motivation for you that you mentioned. I think I wouldn't say it's motivation, but there is something when you get to go prove it, you know, when people think you can't do something and
you get to go do it. I don't know if it's showing them as much as like, okay, you know, like we're ready for that too, and so to Sanat's good team, you know, and we knew it was going to be a hard fought all the way through, but there is that chip on your shoulder just to show you can prove it. And that's what I do like about our guys, that we're not going to ride this roller coaster of up and down when people think we
can or we can't. The main thing is what inside those walls and what the locker room thinks.
That mentality is something. It seems like you and Jade and Daniel's share like he's out there to prove it, but he knows what he's there to do. Proke record highest completion percentage for a working quarterback in the NFL.
How great is it to be there?
And watch Jade and go through these milestones and just continues to succeed.
He's always down for anything, the bigger the challenge, usually a bigger to smile, you know, he absolutely wants to go do it, and so he's always down for it. And I love that about him. But he plays the position with smarts. He takes care of the ball, he knows where to put it, he can make plays with his leg and extend them. So it's just awesome to see like him play in this position. But like, if you want a big challenge, that you'll get a big smile as well, Like he is down for that.
And certain we're seeing this offense expand and open and see the different things you can do. But I don't think anybody would have expected Shade's first touchdown to go to an offensive alignment. What went into that decision making and seeing Trent Scott the big man yes.
In for a few weeks and so sometimes you get there but it may not show up in the game. And so when it comes, and we knew Trent would be ready to deliver on that one because he had talked about you, I got my celebration already said, and he said, what you know, so he was very confident at the moment came that he'd be able to deliver. I thought, yeah, it was really cool. Just you could feel the energy, uh, and the team erupted for Trent.
On that play.
And I mean you guys on the sideline as well, there's so much energy from you and the coaching staff. Where is all that excitement before just from implementing the game planning and working out or was it just seeing guys succeed?
I think probably a little bit of both.
I think like you probably saw the sideline and rup for Terry so and I think what I feel for Terry is like he's a pros pro and if you want to study somebody, don't study him when the times are going good. You want to study him during the times of adversity. Yes, And so for Terry, where a lot of different quarterbacks, things around him may have changed, but he never did. And he's got a standard about him that I really admire. And so I would say for him on that touchdown, the joy was also for him,
you know, for what he stands for. For the other guys make from those big plays, it's just you know, teams supporting one another, and so we do in this game, it would have to be all three phases looting one another up, and that's what a brotherhood does.
So that was really really cool to see.
And going back to Terry, that moment where you guys embraced another one sideline, everybody saw a huge smile on your face. That's the kind of guy you are, the let's kind of coach you are. Why is that important for you to give that emotion and that love to these guys where it's not just business, it's also a family.
Yeah, I think you know, we spend so much time together and the relationships run deep because we want it so badly for them as well, and we know what they put into it. And so sometimes our families may not know, our friends may not know, but the ones that we're in there with, like, we know, we know how much work he puts in. And so that was probably the expression that I was trying to get across to him, man, like the.
Work that you put in is worth it. And another guy that's putting in a ton of work and it's starting to show. Luke McCaffrey somewhat of a breakout game for him. What has it been like watching him grow into this role because there's a lot of pressure on him too, he has a big name. This has been like watching him kind of mature into this offense.
Yeah, I think for him, especially like we know the competitor he is, and so you're going to see guys continue to improve as they get more experience.
Like this is Luke's third game.
You know that he's been in on and so you make mistakes, you improve on him, and you have to be willing to go make some of those mistakes early because that's how you grow and you get better.
And he had some in the first couple of games.
But the sign of a true competitor that you don't make him again and you get another shot and you go dig again. And so seeing that with Luke come through like he is tough and he's always down for it. So he's another guy that's just like a true competitor. And use the word mistakes, so let's look forward.
So the Arizona Cardinals, because they can force some turnovers, they can cause offices to make mistakes and that so sharing young offense has not made many mistakes. How you've kept the guys locked in and fulcused like that I think It's really like our whole philosophy. You know that the ball will determine, you know, the game, and so can we knock a few out on defense?
Can we control it on offense?
Going against a good team like Arizona, you don't want to give them extra possessions. And that was the same thing with Cincinnati with their explosive offense, because you limit their number of possessions in the game. Making sure you take care of the ball and have the ability to make sure they have to do it a long way and on a long field, and so having the discipline to do that is something that we coach, you know, every day, every play, just how we get down.
And coach, you made a decision to have the surface Cincinnati come out here to Arizona. We'll be spending the week out here until the game. What goes into that is that a team bonding things, that a chemistry thing. What makes you say, you know what, let's spend the week out in Arizona. Well, I think, first thing, it's good just to stay in this pocket together. We had talked about, you know, Monday night game.
We've been back in Virginia early in the morning and then have to leave again on a Friday.
We're accustomed to having these trips together.
We did a few in training camp, but just here, just focus on our getting better. Is there the chemistry that takes place on that absolutely, but by design it's to get us ready for Sunday and that's the main thing, yes, sir.
And then you have guys that are ready, that are just waiting to get on on that field. And it shows last week you will missing some big guys claning for Emmanuel Forbes. How did the guys step up in their place for our defense? That's part of being on a good team.
And as you go through the season, whether it's practice, squad elevations or guys taking more reps, when it comes, they're ready for those moments and you don't want to miss them. And so that's why the practice is so important, the development is so important. So when your opportunity does get called, that you're ready to deliver for your teammates. And that's a really powerful feeling. And I gotta delivered Monday night. Johnny k Newman, he made his impact felt on the game.
What did you see from him in practice and leaning up that made you say, you know what you're going to play a big role for us tonight.
I felt in practice.
This week two young players stood out to me defensively, he and Baptiste to where their legs runnerneath them. I felt their speed, I felt their quickness, and so now they're ready to take off.
And so when you kind of get your legs underneath you, that.
Means you're a little more explosive, you're a little you're less thinking, and you're really ready to deliver.
And so for both of.
Them, I was really pumped to get you know, their play ramped up and make them have an impact in the game.
And you've been on standings and Baptist's work. Not many coaches put that kind of belief in a seventh round pick so early, but he came out and he had a second what about standing team deaptists? Have you seen that's rare from a seventh round guy that shows you that you know what this guy's ready to play now.
He has a great length and the ability to change direction for a taller guy. A lot of people don't have that. Oftentimes just the smaller, shorter guy that has good change direction, but he can bend. He's athletic, He's got similar traits to Dorance in some ways where he
can take it up and bend. He's got good football, you know, IQ, He's tough, and so I just will continue to see guys like him and McCaffrey and Johnny Newton and others just continue to make these strives as this season progresses along the game reps for them are really really valuable because that's where they grow. When you mentioned a guy like Dorrence Armstrong, him and Thala, you have a relationship with him.
These guys now they're here with a new look pass rush. How we feel they.
Fare so far in these defense first three weeks thought, it's one of the areas that you know, we're emphasizing hard to make sure that part can develop because as a defense, it's you know, balance of one another. It's the coverage, it's rush, it's rush, it's coverage. How do those mesh together? So making sure we're always on the same page. But Da and Dante both great experience, great you know, knowledge of how to do it, and so like everything, the more turns we get.
Together, you know, the better it'll be. And the Cardinals of.
Should the ability can put up a lot of points as how do you plans to contain this offense.
And a guy like calam Yeah, they've got real weapons, you know, from the running back spot and who's tough as hell, you know, wide receiver who they've added to. They got a fantastic tight end and then a quarterback that can extend plays. So they do have the ability to get big plays to get you know, get points.
And so that'll be the challenge for us to make sure that we limit those big plays and find ways for our offense, you know, get the ball again, get the ball again, and allow them to go do some work too.
You've got a level win, right, but there's always things you can learn from and grow from. What did you see from week three that you want to implement into week four but also grow from any.
Fourth Yeah, there's a lot.
And I would say what I liked is offensively, we really did a good job with the football, you know, in terms of taking care of it, to making sure we weren't going to give Cincinnati extra possessions on it.
I love the energy on special teams.
I thought our guys really ran and hit and created a decided field position edge. Austin Eckler had a long return to start the second half, so those set it off moments on special teams can be the difference and be the key that lights the whole thing off to make sure like.
You can go make big plays.
Arizona's got a good special teams group too, good return as well, so like that could be one of the battles the game within the game things we'd like to see us improve on, quite honestly, is us the offensively finding some ways to knock the ball out to create a few takeaways, and then offensively, you know, we're happy down the red zone, but let's make sure every time man, we're finishing in the end zone and.
Sure and coach going on win streak right now?
Is that true that there's momentum that comes with being on one street being talking the NFC East? Is there momentum coming into this game?
Was just busines as usual?
I think there's lessons to learn. The thing that we're not going to do is ride the roller coaster. You know, we're not going to go up, we're not going to go down. The highs and lows they can both be equally dangerous, and so we just want to make sure nobody here is by the ticket to the roller coaster. You know they're fun to beyond when it's high, but like you don't need the lows either. So stay consistent, do what we do and go find this just this
week and just this game. Stay consistent coaching, you're as consistent.
We appreciate you. Thanks for your time coaching. Good luck this weekend. All right, thanks.
Command this family.
We know you are enjoying the game plan.
However, if you want to see coach and logan pol said break down plays in the film room, you can check that out on the Commander's YouTube page.
All right, this is take it to winn and these are your must want match up. Let's start with the first one, guys, and it is Joe Wood Junior versus Marvin Harrison and really the entire Cardell's offense, right, because they present a whole bunch of different challenges. What do we think?
I think at the end of the day, you have to keep Kyler bottled up, You have to keep him in the pocket. And if you're gonna beat us Kyler Murray, you're gonna do it from inside of the pocket.
And that's where the defensive line come up. Get your hands in there.
You're not very tall, right, He's not very tall. Just want to see us.
Finally play coverage over somebody who I feel like can beat us, you know what I mean.
One of the things about you you can't be scared of no one.
You know what I mean.
And this was a young guy.
He has to you know, earn his key. But I feel like he's.
The guy that's capable of, you know, the game.
If he gets man the man, they're gonna go at them. So I want to see I want to see us play coverage more towards him and then make those other guys beat us, because I feel like every week when we get a guy like that with this potential, we seem to let him go out there and do his thing.
Yeah, I definitely think, you know, he's a good football player, but a young player. I think we can definitely be a little bit more aggressive with him. All Right, So we got our linebackers versus James Connor, who's actually a very effective running How do we slow him down?
Well, first of all, when he runs, they win, like so at the end of the day, you have to stop that ground game for it's Kyler Murray to be their ground game on erradic plays. But I me myself if I'm coach with I want to introduce Frankie Louvu like time after time after time and not no pass blitzing, run blitzing. I think if you run blisch early, they have to throw late.
I think you got a battle of these guys up.
I think these dogs here, these two dogs gotta got they gotta go eat, they gotta go go out to this guy. I think one of the things that they do special is running the ball. Well, we've seen that, we won. We've seen that we too, We've seen this week three, So that week four, they're gonna take the same resct of me, try to do the same thing. They got to go out there and and not only you know, set the tone, but they have to be be active all day because they're going to try to.
Run the ball, yeah, one hundred percent. And then that offense goes as he goes, So thinking saw them down, that's gonna really help us out. And then this is maybe the most important one. It's the quarterback versus Jonathan Ganning. This guy is throwing everything with the kitchen sat and how does this guy handle that? To be a huge matchup.
Don't let them play the mind games. The mind is gonna come.
They're gonna show different curves, they're gonna show different looks and try to.
Try to mess him up.
Because he's a young guy, you know.
Play the game that he knows best.
I think one of the things that he can do is allow Cliff to go out there and do all that against him. Cliff is gonna put him in situations where you don't have to worry about nothing. Just do as I say, and when you see the guy open, take advantage of it. So that's all I say. Don't let him get into your head. Let me clip well to think about it. This guy is a mester Jedi. He's gonna play Jedi mind tricks with a yochster right there.
He's gonna try to show him everything but the kitchen sink. Jaded, come down, process things and follow through.
Guys, Thanks for hanging out. That does it for the game plan.
Enjoy the game Commander family.
You could catch us every Sunday on WSA nine Sunday mornings before your games. This is his game plan with Brian Corvill, Junior Logan Paulson at coach Dang Quinn until next Sunday.
Compense family.
Yeah,