On today's edition of The Booth Review. That Jaydon Daniels, guy, he's okay, I.
Forget about Jade Daniels. It's Austin Cyberman. That guy is the spark that started the flame.
And well you are about to see the greatest podcast. It's World War Two The Booth Review coming up next. Welcome into the latest edition of The Booth Review podcast. I'm Bram Weinstein with Logan Paulson. We're back from a long flight home from Arizona as we now covered the greatest team of all time. This is Listen. I want to get into the you know, like, I love doing this with you because we like, we talk so much
about what we expect, what we're going to see. Everyone knows how much film you watch, and like, I love how analytical you are about it. But I think there's some big picture stuff that we kind of need to talk about that By the end of the broadcast, I think I turned to you and I go, is this real? And I think I don't. I can't believe that it is. Yeah,
because it's so beyond expectation and it's so beyond logic. Yeah, really, be honest, Like, I've never seen anything like this I don't know whatever expectations you could have had for Jade and Daniels, but at this point it has to exceed it or you're lying to yourself.
Yeah it is. It is kind of unbelievable. Like I think back to when I played, and you know, all the football that I watched when I was playing and then obviously covering the team, and you know, I just don't remember an offense performing with this level of efficiency. I don't definitely don't remember a rookie performing with this level of efficiency. And I think it's it is tremendous. He's doing a tremendous job, like you said it on the broadcast, like he's historic in terms of his performance
and his efficiency. And I think the thing for me, it's like you're trying I try to rationalize it immediately, like well, why is this? And I mean, obviously I know jayde and I watched him. He was I think he was one A one B quarterback, you know him. I was really high in JJ McCarthy at the time, and I knew we had the sent in, but I didn't think it was going to be this level this quickly. So you say, oh, well, you know, maybe Arizona's defense
isn't that good. Maybe you know, Cincinnati's defense isn't that good, and that's allowing him to be more efficient, and so you're always kind of trying to guard against it. But irrespective of the level of defense that he's going against, like, the decisions that he's making and the consistency of the decisions is something that you don't see like you ever, and it's it's just incredible to watch.
It's partially my job to try to contextualize and every week I laugh about this. Every week I'm writing down notes that say things like, not since World War Two has this happened, or now we're referencing the ninety one team, which might be the greatest NFL team ever, the last Super Bowl championship team from Washington, where they had one of the greatest offenses and defenses going at the same time.
And then you see metrics like no quarterback through a four game span has a completion percentage as high as his ever, not the start of season, ever, at any point in any season ever, he has metrics of we're saying trestway and punted for two. That has a lot to do with him operation of the offense that hadn't happened in this organization in eighty plus years, since before they were doing stats about punts. You know, Like every week I'm reading these they're absurd statistics that are based
around him. Yeah, you know, like I don't want to take anything away from Cliff Dan all the offensive players. We can get into all of them, but this is based around what I think is singularly, for a month, the greatest season any rookie quarterback has ever had, at least in a small sample size. There is nothing like this from what we see to how they're performing and what the statistics and metrics are, there's nothing like this that's ever happened.
Yeah, and I think you brought up a really good point there. The sample size is something that I always keep coming back to, like everyone can play well for four or five games, you know, which he's done, But it's the consistency of this, and it's like, is this a sustainable approach? You know? I think that's the thing I keep it. It's incredible, Like you did such a great job of putting that in context, because the more you look at it, the more I think about it.
It's just it's unbelievable that what he's been able to do. But can you sustain this level of play? And I know you said all it's him, it's center ound him, But like I think you got to give credit to the organization for how they handled it, you know what I mean, you got credits. Got to give credit to Cliff too. I mean, Cliff has called a really effective football game the last two weeks, like more than effective,
like brilliant in some cases. But I also think to support your point, like Cliff is insulated by Jayden and what he's able to do in terms of being efficient, knowing when to scramble, knowing how to pick up first downs, stealing yardage, and it just makes everything so much more efficient for the offense. And so it's it's really everything. It's the coordinator, it's the receivers, it's the detail with which they're approaching stuff. It's his communication style, Jayden's I'm
talking about. So there's a lot of extremely extremely positive stuff here that it's hard to Maybe we did, but it's hard to overstate how impactful he's been.
No, I mean, like it just I've never seen anything like this. It's so ahead, it's there are really great quarterbacks in the NFL, Great great quarterbacks that spend years getting to the point to do what he's doing on a weekly basis, and he's doing it out of the gates. And I think that's what's so unusual and hard to believe. Yeah, it's just hard to believe. And I think that's why I like a lot of people are going, is this real? Because it doesn't feel really.
But I think that's the thing. Is it real? Like, yeah, obviously this is real in terms of the performance, But and we were talking about this before the show, like is it sustainable? It seems impossible to sustain this level of performance for any player.
Like doing things Tom Brady didn't do it. He won seven Super.
Bowl That's what I'm saying. So it seems impossible. But even if it normalizes by ten percent percentage points, he's still completing seventy five percent of his passes. He's still in the top ten, top you know, kind of ten percent of quarterbacks in terms of completion percentage. Like, he's still doing special things even if it regresses by ten
or fifteen percent. So what I'm assuming is that at some point we'll run into a buzzsaw of a defense that will regress a little bit, but even that level of performance would still be pretty spectacular. So I don't know, Man, it's a lot of fun to call the games because everything it feels like I'm playing Madden, you know Madden when the difficulties turned down a little bit and you can just do whatever you want. Like, that's what this feels like. And it's got to come back there at
some point. But man, it's a lot of fun to watch.
Well, and there's so many like different moments where you go, Okay, it's great, he did this in the first half. But when it's third and seven at the twenty seven with the game on the line on Monday night football against the Bengals who have to win the game, what's he going to do? Then? Oh, I don't know, He's gonna throw maybe the best pass with this organization has seen in thirty years, right, and he's going to throw it to the guy who needed to make this catch to
prove you know that he's able to do it. And then he does it again the drive where they sealed it, where he threw the touchdown past the terry. On this one. They had three penalties on that drive, including a fifteen yard taunting penalty, which might have been a little much, but whatever, they had to over come it. Early in the season. What was two weeks ago, we're saying, can
they overcome their mistakes? They made all those mistakes in the Giants game, and they ended up kicking a bunch of field goals and they got away with a win. In this one. Two weeks later, they have a drive with three penalties on it, score anyway, have a third and goal to ten, score anyway. It's like nothing seems to get in his way. Yet it's almost it's too good.
Yeah, too yeah, And again that's where you kind of say, and that's where I understand fans sentiment about oh is this real? Is this is this sustainable? I don't know, but I'm going to enjoy it while it's here. And I think the other thing is his poise that people
throw that word around, his composure. It sticks out to you, and I think it's infecting the offense in a very positive way because there are these moments where third and ten, Like I've been with quarterbacks who are excellent, you know, some of the best you know of their generation, and the things Matt Ryan, who's gonna be a Hall of
Fame quarterback and so like. But there were moments in third and ten where you could feel the stress of the offense, and when you're watching this offense, you don't feel the stress. Yeah, we'll figure it out, you know. And they believe in him. He believes in them, like everyone is kind of carrying the emotional weight of the moment appropriately and they execute it and to consistently as a group execute like that. And it's not just Terry,
it's not just Zach. I mean, oh, z is eighty yards receiving in that game, right, Brian Robinson, you know, Jerryman, big Nichols. Like the fact that they're able to lose one of the most explosive pieces of their offense and not miss a beat offensively with your third string running back is incredible.
Well, they named him a captain, you know, and I think some of it was he replaced Eckler through this crazy block that kind of went viral in the Cincinnati game that was part of the third and seven touchdown play. Jaden took a hit because they overloaded and it brought numbers. But McNichols had this great block, and then of course he had to play he comes in, he hadn't scored a touchdown in three years. He scores two in the game. He has one of the best runs we've had all
year when they run on the edge. We saw this with Eckler a week ago, that we've seen it with b Rob. We saw it on the touchdown run with Jaden there executing at such an enormous high level. It is. That's the other part that I think is shocking because McNichols didn't play in this offense before. It's a new offensive coordinator, that's a rookie quarterback. The garden, the center weren't here last year. Luke McCaffrey is a rookie. Zach Ertz everyone said his career was basically over. His here
hadn't played here before. There are a few carryovers playing on this and they're going together, and they're setting marks that some of the greatest teams in the history of the game have not met. They're scoring more points per drive than the twenty thirteen Broncos, who are the highest scoring team in NFL history. And again, I know it's only a month, but add that all up with what this mixture is, It's why I think I keep coming back to how can this possibly be real?
Yeah? Yeah, and again like it's an the only time we'll tell, you know. I think when we did our interview with Dan afterwards and we were like trying to kind of be like, congratulations, this is incredible, this is historic, He's like, we're not riding that roller coaster and we're
taking it one game at a time. And that's the only way you can have, I think a sustained level of success in the NFL is if you just approach it like this is like, you know, like there's no pass, there's no present, there's just this moment, there's just this game. And so I think if they can maintain that, and I think that's the hard thing with football and with any sport really is maintaining that consistency of mindset is
almost impossible, you know. But if you've got the right people, You've got your Tom Brady's, your Peyton Mannings or Drew Brees. And through the first four weeks, Jaydan Daniels is kind of the mindset. He's never too high, he's never too low. He's kind of right in the middle. It's perfect. And I think the other thing you were talking about there, you know, with the offensive line and you know, the
execution of the offense. One of the things that sticks out to me about this group that is so unusual is that they're not always perfect. It's not always perfect execution. Obviously, sometimes it's perfect, like you know, think about you know, watching the Baltimore Bill's game last night and there's that Derek Henry run where no one touches him and it's perfectly blocked. Haat on hat. There's been a ton of
runs this year, explosive places where it's perfect. And then the game, you know, on Jeremy McNichols run, like their defensive end plays it really well. He kind of chins Allegraty's trying to pulling out the edge like you know that it should be a big pile there. But McNichols makes a play right. And then there's ones where Jaden Daniels vacates pockets and makes the offensive line elevates them and there's a receiver open down the field he completes
the pass. And so the idea that like, even though the execution of the offense seems to be very high, there are times where people are just making plays and the plays are coming from everyone and I think that's what makes this especially unique is it's obviously Jade Daniels carrying a line share of that, but for the receivers, for the running backs, for all these different people to elevate in the right moments and score touchdowns is the thing that I think makes it special.
Yeah, I want to say one more thing just about Jayden and trying to try to contextualize what's going on here. So when the draft was coming around, in my opinion, and I would defer to you a million times over, I actually didn't think it was a hard choice between him and Drake May assuming the Williams was going to go number one, which is what we all kind of assumed. I didn't think so for a couple of reasons, Like the experience that he had. He went from Arizona State
to LSU. That's a jump. It's a big jump. No offense to Arizona State and the league that they play in or did play in, but like it is a massive jump. The SEC might as well be triple A NFL. Right, And he got better, and all you heard about him was the work ethic, all the stuff he's doing. He's
getting better. Then he has a season for the ages right at LSU, and he throws six interceptions and the only thing you could nitpick about it was he took some cartoonish hits along the way, but everything else was And then you hear the stuff, and you hear the stuff, and you hear this stuff and it comes along and one flying home last night, what occurred to me was, this guy's been a professional for a while.
Well he is now football now though too. They're all professionals. You're getting paid, their endorsements, whole.
Thing, right, But I mean, I mean, he's a professional at his core. That it's not just that he's a superior athlete, which goes along with this, but that he takes this so seriously, that he's a professional. He's with his peers now like he's actually come into a place where everyone else takes it as seriously as he does. Not that the coach EXAPF at LSU as Arizona State didn't,
but the players around him. If you're at this level and you're a Terry McLaurin, or you're a Sam Cosmy, or you're a Brian Robinson or Jeremy McNichols who's bouncing around the league and the only way he stays alive is by being extremely serious about what he does. Jamee Daniels walks in in his peer group, and I think I'm seeing this in real time. He's belonged here for a while, whether it's Washington or anywhere, I mean the NFL.
He's belonged in this league differently than others. And I think it's showing because he clearly has the work ethic, the acumen and then the gift of the incredible athletic ability to do this at a high level immediately. And I think it's caught because even the coaches, Cliff said it before the Bengals, Gaby goes, he's executing beyond our expectation. And I think what we're seeing here is it wasn't just the work ethic and all this stuff. He's with
his peer group. Now, that's what seems to be obvious to me.
Yeah, it's definitely the professionalism, the preparation, all those types of things. And you mentioned the comparison between him and Drake May. And you know it's funny in quarterback evaluation, like when you're trying to project it, you know what I'm saying, Like, obviously this intangible stuff you just mentioned is huge, but also the stuff that the physical stuff that maybe at the time is undervalue, like the quick release.
You see what that does. I mean there's probably I don't know, I think they had twenty They had thirty five throws in the game, thirty five passing opportunities in the game, and on ten of them it's the ball is completed because of his ability to release the football so quickly from his hand. You talk about his base and the ability to throw off platform and like kind of come to balance quickly with his feet. There's probably another five to ten throws there, you know, that that
are off of that kind of ilk. And then there's the elite stuff where he's you know, reading through and making these excellent progressions which you didn't show a lot of in college. But the intellectual foundation with the physical skill set and then the kind of the blossoming of it as the offense has allowed him to blossom. Yeah. I think is the thing that maybe you're alluding to there that I think is well extremely interesting.
Ye know. The other thing too, and this is I want to get into a couple of plays with you in a minute, But the other thing too that stands out is through all of this like he's head down, humble. You wouldn't You wouldn't feel it, see it, you you it did not emanate from him. Yeah, Like last night we're talking to him. He's off of this Monday night game. They never come back. He goes as to practice where he played college football, so there's a storyline there. Shows up.
We're all asking, how are they going to what's the encore of that one? He's twenty one to twenty three. It's the greatest singular performance by a rookie quarterback ever. It happens in front of the world. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are calling it. Steven A's calling him greatest quarterback of all time. You know that's naturally going. Aaron Rodgers is talking about him. It's like naturally going to happen that everyone's going to explain how great he is.
After three games, you don't feel it from him. And he walks out there and they now have more scoring drives than incompletions and you wouldn't know it. Yeah, when you talk to he's got this head down, like, man, I just played my game. We did what we did. We can get better and next week's important too, and you get that feeling from him. It wasn't just Quinn trying to go guys, don't tell anybody about this. It's him going no, no, no, I'm of the same mindset.
Let me get back in the film room with Cliff and Dan. You'll see we're gonna get better.
Yeah, there was. You know, like he doesn't he's a man of few words in our post game and he says the right things, but like his demeanor, it is inspiring, you know as a former player, Like you know, I think about all the guys that've been around good football players, and he's got something to him like this kind of this magnetism, and you know when the players talk about it like those like how he handles himself in the press, or how he's never too high, he's never too low.
He's competitive in the right moments, he's he's he's he's got the kind of that innate leadership quality you know that comes with how he plays the game. It's it's it's very cool, it's very special, and I just hope that he can continue to maintain that because I think the one thing I've seen with players that are really talented is that you know, Robert Griffin is a great example.
Like I love playing with Robert. I think he was a great teammate when things were going well, but there was a there was some issues there and and it came from the city, you know, it came from the expectations of him, and so you need to be a special person to handle that. Yeah, I think. I think that's something that I keep going back to, is like he is going to be tested emotionally in a way that is hard for anyone in this area to fathom.
I think as it worked out, it was better off they flew to Arizona after what happened at Cincinnati because everybody's so excited, and for good reason, everyone's really excited. They should be the other thing, Like, I want to go through a couple of plays with you that he had because we like every week we're seeing something different. They test him differently and coming into the aras a game, and I like Jonathan Gannon, like I think maybe they're
a touch short on some talent in certain spots. However, they play very fast and they use very interesting blitz schemes and Dennis Gardek is outstanding, like very wily, sneaky player, Buddha Baker's flashing again this year. Zaven Collins has really come around since they kind of moved his position. Mac Wilson's really fast and they do these kind of unique, very exotic blitz things. Middle of the game, I turned to you and I go, I don't know how many
times I've called that they're rushing three or four. They backed off. They backed off, and the only conclusion I could come to was they were scared he was going to run on them, and they were worried that they wouldn't be able to contain him. But maybe I don't know how Why do you think they did what they did because everything on film leading up to it they were not as passive in the previous games as they were in this one.
Yeah, and I definitely think they kind of went from you know, hey, we're going to bring this like simulated fourmat pressure from a five down look, we're going to drop the ends out and rush them in a linebacker, to bringing that same pattern, but instead of rushing them at a linebacker, he became a spy and they did that a bunch, and obviously they did bring pressure. I
think there was a play to Terry McLaurin. There was like an under route by he was number one to the left side under they were bringing six all out, and again talk about the poison, talk about the awareness of you know, getting the football, kind of throwing off your back foot, delivering a strike to Terry on the inside shoulder blade their shoulder pad there. That gets defenses out of it when it shows that, hey we have answers
versus pressure, we don't feel as comfortable doing it. But to your point, I do think that they definitely were not as aggressive. And I will say this too. I think credit goes to Cliff, credit goes to the offense. Credit goes to Jane and in that they were able to stay in third and manageable way more than I was expecting, Like third and four, third and three, third and two.
Why you thought what they were what sell out on the run.
No, So I just I just thought, like, it's it's tough. It's tough to because that's what they did against Cincinnati. It's tough to maintain those manageable third downs. It's like kind of like the thing we were talking about earlier. It's like is this real? Can you do this consistently? And Ayden's ability to scramble, not for twenty five yards but for four yards here, five yards here, get us in a third and one, get us in a third
and two is extremely valuable. And if I'm Jonathan Gann, and I can't bring any of my exotic stuff in those down in distances because it doesn't match up from a coverage standpoint with the run stuff that we can do from the short guarded situation. So I think that's one element. I think the run of Jane's ability to scramble was huge because there were some second long's third lungs where they didn't do it. They chose not to do it, But I think it was kind of a
combination of thing. And I think when you look at game flow and game efficiency in this game specifically and in Cincinnati, think about like, this team is very rarely over this two game one streak, and even against New York in a third and long situation because of Jade
and Daniels. Even on a bad play, there was a couple where there's pressure, he scrambles out, he gets up in the pocket, he pitches the ball to zach Ertz, and that seems like a nothing play, But if you take a sack there, that's third and twelve, and they are bringing something crazy the next down, you better right.
To force him to throw it under. They'll never get the first time you're punting.
Yeah, they're going to bring some crazy blitz like we talked about, like all those exotic pressures that they showed. But now no, now we're in a third and three and we can live here and you can't do what you want to do. And so I think in terms of one of the metrics that I kind of want to keep an eye on is how readily they can stay in those positive down and distance for the offense, because it's huge. It's huge in terms of down and
down efficiency. And again the credit goes to Jaden because there's times where Cliff calls to play and they cover it and he scrambles for five and all of a sudden, you're like, that should have been a sack, That should have been an incompletion. That' said at worst case second and ten and said we're at second and four and we can run, we can play action pass, we can run a keeper, we can run zone read, we can
run RPO. It's all on the table there, and that down in distance and you have to respect everything defensively, so you can't be in these unsound third down pressure looks like that. They showed on one.
Of the scoring drives touchdown drives, and you're gonna have to look up what one it is because I'm confused now I can't remember, but it was in the second half. You're going to remember this because it was one of the first times that we've seen him kind of get caught and have to throw off his back foot and he was sliding to his left, and it was one of the first times he wasn't totally set the way
we're typically seeing him set. It was like one of the first times I've seen him caught and somewhat surprised by something that a defense did. He's there a strike anyway, Yeah, I think it was McCaffrey who caught that one. Yeah, and that was had to have been what read three. No way, he's the primary receiver on that throw. There's no chance on it.
And so yeah, I went back and watched that today and it was in like the low red It was like, I think it was on like the twenty five yard line maybe, and he's looking to terry to the left. They match it really well. They've been They've had a lot of success running kind of like this little stick concept or a spot concept. Receiver runs a five yard stop, the back runs some type of flare, you know what
I mean. They set on the covered really well. He resets his feet and is able to deliver kind of like he's like a little open with his stance and usually when he's opening it with his stance like the ball's errant. But delivers an absolute dime to Luke. And again the ability to she showed a very good but mobility so far over the last three games to say no get my feet lined up. Yes, and he had some really fantastic throws in this game. That was one
of them. Obviously, the touchdown to Terry was incredible over the middle of the field. He had one to Noah Brown on a ten yard out where it's cover three. There's a hook player right under the out. He just kind of layers it right over. It's one that Terry kind of toe taps down there. We weren't sure if it was a catch in the booth. And so in addition to all of the game efficiency metrics that we've been talking about, I thought in this game too, there
was some really spectacular just talented throws. You know, there was one where it's third and thirteen, one of the rare third and thirteens. They bring a line stunt, he gets confused, he's kind of fallen away from it, and Noah Brown's kind of standing of the first down marker waving his hands and he kind of side arm three
quarter releases it. And that's something that if he has that in the bag too, it's just like, in addition with the efficiency, you're just like, man like this guy again, he doesn't have maybe the arm horsepower that like a Josh Allen does. The arm talent, the ability to layer throws, the quick release, the ability to intellectually probably yeah yeah.
No, no, we may not have Allen's arm, but.
And I make that comparison because he's got the best arm in the league, you know, you know, like and that's you don't need it and he's done. He's shown that the other arm talent stuff like the other the different release points, the quickness of the release, the quickness of the feet, the ability layer throws. That stuff is huge. And you think about like Tom Brady, for example, who made a career doing that stuff. Drew Brees all the all the kind of top guys of the last generation
or that last era of football. That's how they made a living. And so for him to start showing that stuff. And again, it's not every throw, it's not every down. And Cliff's done a good job of kind of saying, hey man, we're going to manage you. We run quick game, run keepers, we run playpass. Those are easier downs and distance for the court, those are easier downs for the
quarterback period. But then to see these exceptional moments when Cliff does ask him to do more is again it kind of gets me really excited for his potential.
I mean, there was a no, I can't remember what point in the game it was, but he just outlet it to a wide open John Bates because things had just broken down, and he throws over it. So he found, you know, outlet four on a play. And this is where again, these this is why these metrics, these numbers, they're not aberrational. And that's why it keeps coming back to how could this possibly be real? He's only played four games in the NFL. Each of these defenses have
brought something completely different to him. Each and every week. Right, So Tampa Bay comes in with the typical exotic blitzes. They said all week they were gonna do it, and they did it. Right, The Giants don't do that now that wing Martindale's gone. They brought what twenty percent whatever they did, he got to see something completely different. Cincinnati was a good mix, right, we thought, go did They're
not gonna let them run the ball that easily. They're gonna make him throw and prove that he could do it. He did. And then this one, if you had watched Arizona coming in, you would have thought that they would have brought more pressures than they did. They dropped out of them and he was a locksmith again. He's picked every safe. Yeah, you know, it's like it's right, that's
the most. That's the other part of this, like they're facing very different game plans against him, like they're trying to react to him and he's a step ahead.
Yeah. And I think again you got to give credit to Cliff there. And then this is where you know, for your football nerds out there listening to this podcast, the game flow here is so critical because I think we ran seventy one offensive plays. I think thirty five passes whatever it is, twenty nine runs whatever. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the ability to run the football is effectively they did again, that keeps you. I positive down in distance, That keeps you Those are de
leverage moments. So like again, I'm always making comparisons to last year. People always ask me, oh, is this is this just an indictment of sanhal Is this an indictment of the old line. No, it's just when you leverage a group and you leverage a position to say this is this is always hard for you. You're going to make mistakes. And so I look at again, Cliff's done
a great job. We stick with their on Those are easy downs for the quarterback, right, not a lot of decision making involved game, Not a lot of decision making involved. We got to be quick with our release. He's handled that really well. The keepers, the boots, the play action. There's another ten plays. He's only leveraged, only leverage in terms of high leverage decision moments in this Arizona game, maybe twelve times, which is how you want him to operate.
And then as he gets more comfortable, that number can jump to fifteen or twenty or whatever it is. But I think that's the thing that's that is I get so I think you just have to give Cliff and this offensive staff and the head coach credit because they understand, like look what they did with Caleb Williams in Chicago, like very leveraged all the time, and it's hard, it's hard to play football like that in the NFL in twenty twenty four. But they understand we got to keep
him in. And the other thing about this game that I think is incredibly important is the defense played well. Yes, they played really well, and it allows you to never depart from our goal as a team, which is to run the football, be conservative as a passer. And then when we got to have it on third and long, whatever we're in, we feel like we got to take a shot, that's when we put a little bit more pressure on him, and he's ruders into the occason every.
I mean honestly too, Like people laughed a him and I said during camp, I go, look, go look at the profile of this team and tell me this is not maybe close to a fifty to fifty run team if this is what they want to be, and people nobody does that in the NFL. Anymore. Well, I'm like, this team will go look at the players that they have.
You're setting does that now? Yeah? But coverage structures, like if you watch all twenty two film, coverage structures are absolutely insane now. And if you're not one of these great processors like Tom Brady and Tampa Bay right before I retired, or name your elite passer maybe even but even even when you watch like the Bills, for example, they're able to insulate him because he's such a good runner, right, and you just cannot do it anymore. That's why you're
seeing a huge uptick in EPA in rush efficiency. It's becoming a more valuable play because everyone's playing two shell. And it's not just straight two shell. It's not like Madden Cover two. It's like this Ameeba Cover four match where it's like it can play like two versus this looking and play like six versus this. It's hard to read for quarterbacks. So let's simplify it. Let's get you to simplify your fire cover structure by how we run
the football. And I have a having a quarterback who can elevate and run when he has to and extend the down. So I think that's what that's what's so important. It's like this there's a transition happening, I think in the NFL because quarterback experience is so low. You need to become more efficient at running the football. So to your point, it's like, it's not only what this team has to do, it's what the majority of teams in the NFL are going to be forced to do to be.
Successful, and quarterback experience is really low, with the exception of this particular quarterback who's coming in with a high level of experience. He's played a ton, he played for a professional coach at Arizona State and Herm Edwards. He's played for a guy who probably could be a professional coach and Brian Kelly if he wanted to be at LSU.
He walks in the door here with a work ethic that has shown its way through his improvement through his collegiate career, and it's lasted to this point, so no surprises ahead of the curve. Maybe part of this alteration has helped him jumps are his own career because they don't have to ask him to do maybe a million different things that maybe previous younger quarterbacks had to deal with.
Yeah, and I get, yeah, that's that's that's for sure true. And it's also true that like Cliff's done a great job of making it easy for him, like just and I look at it and I think to myself, like, you know, I'm a high school offensive coordinator, and Cliff has taken a principle of just making it easy and applied it to the highest level. And so in some ways it's like a masterclass of like saying this is the easiest we can make it for you. I'm not
going to leverage you. And again, I'm not saying Jayden can't do these things, because he's shown the ability to do those things. It's just when it's supposed to be easy, how easy can I make it? And one big criticism I was listening to something the Athletic Athletic put out about Saint Shane Waldron about how there is no easy in his offense. It's all kind of these high leverage, very challenging throws. It's like you need easy stuff for
the quarterback. And I think you got to give Cliff as much credit, not all the credit, but a lot of credit because the easies are easy and Jade's making them look easy and he's hitting on him, which is important, but he's the setup for those are just incredible and he deserves a ton of credit again just to de
leverage that position as much as he can. So when we got to have it, when you got to have these, these these masterful moments where he's got to draw on his experience and the coaching that he had at Arizona State and the experience he gained at LSU. He can, but he doesn't have to do it all the time.
I want to transition to the defense at a second, but just one more thing on just the offense as a whole, which really was noticeable Monday night carried over again. They're winning at the line. Their offense is more physical than the defensive players they are facing. This is now a couple of weeks in a row, saw Andrew Wiley just saying how much he loves it. You can tell how re engaged he is in this offense as opposed
to what they had. Cosmy continues to progress, has these laughable trucking moments where you could see the pro bowl level that's coming out of him. Baddish has been an upgrade. He's had tough tasks the first couple of weeks, Lawrence Vidavea. People like that. Alec Reddy's been good for them. They're sitting here with They're rotating tackles, no problem, Colevit's getting better. They're both playing well. Physicality of senate physicality of Nick
Nichols physicality. Yes, like when Quinn talks about this physicality. We talked to him after the game. I said, you know, people, when you hear you say you're gonna like how we get down, everyone thinks of you as that defensive minded thing. What they saw in Dallas, what they saw in Seattle, what they saw in Atlanta. It's happened on the offense with the way the coverage units the offense where they
are extraordinarily physical and winning. And for all of the stuff that we talk about, this scheme, that scheme make it easy. This guy needs to do this, This guy needs to do that. Sometimes this game is about are you going to be stronger and more physical and more aggressive than the other team, because at its core, that's what this sport is, and this team on that side of the ball has definitively been that. So while Jaden's been outstanding and the schemes have been great, the timing
of the calls. Chef's kiss right, I've been really great. The physicality has stood out to me too. This looks like the old Washington teams with the Hogs running people over. You want nothing to do with their running backs late in the game because they're gonna bowl you over. They get positive yardage every single time. It's a physical unit up there right now.
Yeah, I think you know, you mentioned a lot of guys there, and b Rob deserves us on our credit too, because there's times where it's not always clean and he's just a big body getting downhill. And like there was I think it was the first or second run they had from scrimmage, and it was a little bit messy.
There's a guy at his feet and he and I'm like, oh, that's a you know, in my mind just watching the clip, I'm like, oh, that's a that's a that's a near zero game run, like there's no way, but ends up their fourth and they're second and six, you know what I mean. So he fought scratch and claude and that they pushed the pile and the offensive lines grinding for four yards and that might not seem like a lot, but again it just keeps you in a position where
you can be effective. So yeah, and again they made the decisions to bring those guys in and then to elevate guys that they you know, Aligrady his physical tough guy, beattish, physical tough guy, Benson at physical tough guy, and then we we promote Cosmy, we give him an extension. Right. We understand what Andrewan is and I think the last staff didn't really understand what they had here. But he is a guy that is incredibly bendy, incredibly flexible, can
get out in space. And that was the expectation when they signed him. I think we all thought that's what they were going to be. But they're like to see this staff now actualizing that ability, you know, is special, I think, and they're and it's the receivers too, like Noah Brown, like he's one of the most physical blockers I've seen in terms of free agency, and Luke Mcoffrey, same way, Tami. So like it's a mindset, but they've brought the right people in to engage in that mindset.
I think defensively, you're starting to see that also, like you said, with the special teams too, it's it's not talking about it, it's being about it and bringing the right people in to get that done.
And they said Quinn mentioned this, Joe Wittett said, he goes. We told them were closer after the first three games than maybe they thought or what you all think this was. It's not even close. That was their best collective defensive performance of the year by far. What do you think was different?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of stuff. I mean, I think they just seemed a little bit more well coached. There's that you know, you talked about this and you have such a succinct way of putting stuff like Kyler Murray's a slot machine, so like you know, there are times where it's great and there are times where it's bad, but you know, you pull that lever
a lot for the good stuff. And I think with Kyler Murray specifically, if you could get them I'm gonna say this again, in game flow that is conducive to what you want to do defensively, which is making him throw from the pocket, You're gonna win. Like you're gonna win that football game. You're gonna win that matchup because they they're built on running the football. That team like that.
It keeps them in, It keeps them in a very similar situation with the Commanders were positive down in distance fourth and six. We can run play action, we can run keepers, we can do stuff with Kyler. When you're in third and ten, he is not good enough to sit back and dissect you. And so I think they did a really good job on early downs of managing the first down runs. When they got them in a third long the pass rush came alive. I think Dorren's
armstrong deserves a tremendous shout out. I think game is a command I think you see Jeremy chin development, you know, like to the level you know, he was great in coverage or kicks. He's physical as a run player, like that mentality. The two linebackers inside, I thought made a ton of plays, you know, Wagner on the sack where he's supposed to match the running back and then just fall just making plays, and like we have not had
that level of production here. And then to be fair, like, you know, even though the secondary wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, seeing what a serviceable pass rush does for them, you're like that's a non issue, you know, what I mean in the back end if the rush is there, and so I think like that should give fans a lot of hope and a lot of optimism to say the roadmap is there and they seem to be.
And the other thing I have to give this a shout out to as I thought they communicated so much better, like just being aware of like, hey, this is a bunch, this is how we're playing this, We're in a stack, this is how we're playing this. This is the run.
I'm thinking, we got a motion. Who's going, I'm going, let's And that covers up a lot of the issues they were having versus a team like Tampa Bay where they're miss aligned, they're not in the right gap schemes and things like that, and I think they just it was good for them to get a little bit of confidence and they played so much harder. So kind of all those things encapsulated a very very solid defensive.
Yeahoughts, you know, to the point of like with Washington, Ekler was out, how are they going to replace them? Well they figured that out. McNichols was outstanding obviously for them, score two touchdown. He had another great blitz pickup block, not unlike he had in the Cincinnati he made another one you'll see on film if you go back and watch. But like with Arizona, Trey McBride was out. Okay, so he's their best tight end. You wouldn't think that that
would stifle them, but it did. And there was something really noticeable about just them collectively. If you watched them, they running the ball to Connor very well. Harrison's starting to emerge. He's stud, you know, like he's total stud.
He's emerging. But McBride was the go to player for Murray and kind of to your point of if you can kind of get him in a third and long situation, I think he's looking for one or two guys and one of them wasn't available, and all of the sudden, it was almost as if he didn't know where to go with the ball. So I didn't realize how big a deal that was going to be that he didn't plays.
We always talk about injuries and this is gonna be a big deal, and then most of the time the teams figure it out, next man up, whatever it is, you know, and you lose your quarterbacks a different story, but like you lose this player, you lose that player. We lost Eckler, We never a problem returning kicks this week, We never retire a problem with the second or whatever you want to call running back with b Robb. That
didn't happen for this team this week. But them without McBride turned out to be a humongous advantage, which I think is more of an indictment of Arizona and more an indictment of Murray than it is of anything else. But I thought it stood out by the end because if you went and looked at the targets for the other receivers, Zach Pascal has none this year, like things like that, So he's looking for one or two guys and one of them was standing on the sideline because he was hurt.
Yeah, and then you know, Trevicbride is kind of, I think, going to be the next big tight end, you know, presence in terms of his effectiveness. But yeah, it wasn't there.
I think you're right. I think Arizona, for all the explosive offenses that they showed versus you know, the La Rams and the Buffalo Bills, are an imperfect team because their quarterback is imperfect, and like his flaws are that Offensi's flaws, and I think again, like the defense, our defense was able to capitalize on that and kind of put them in a box a little bit and they
got a little lucky for sure. But I think the energy, the attitude, the attention to detail is improving, and it can always get better, absolutely, but I think it's trending in the right direction. And this is kind of a version of the team I was hoping for one versus Tampa Bay where where the rush is better. As a result, you don't notice the coverage as much or the deficiencies
in coverage. You're not leveraging them as much. And it's a more symbiotic relationship between those two groups and hopefully that continues.
One other thing on the defense, so I thought Alan and Payne had their best game as well. Hard Man, yeah really hard Alan was around a number of plays this team for sex three forced fumbles, got one of them. Still waiting for that first interception. I found that one yet, but like but at least like what they're talking about, we're going to be after the ball, ball popped out, Like that's starting to happen. And with Alan and Payte,
it was interesting. I was talking to somebody this morning and he said to me, he goes, you know, Alan Payn had been around here a long time. He goes, maybe there was part of them there's just like us, like they need to believe it too, that they need to like see it to believe it. Like we're all all of us who love this team, been around it forever and have waited for something like this to kind of happen and feel it and go is this real? There might be a part of them that go is
this real? Like what's going on here in our own locker room? Is this reel?
Yeah? I mean, like I think with in the post game, when he came out for his interview, there was like an authenticity to him which I haven't seen him before, where he was like very self reflective and kind of giving, not giving like his normal like Alabama stock answers like he was like, yeah, man, like it's it's cool to see the offense do what they're doing, you know what
I mean? And I do think to your point, it's they they've got like beaten dog syndrome a little bit here, and so to see have hope and have some optimism. Definitely think they played a lot better and they played physically and they they played the way that commanders are supposed to play under under Dan Quinn. So hopefully it continues, and it's it's very exciting.
I mean the look Terry gives Jayden when you see these pictures of them, it's he's in love. And then Payne said, I saw a clip of him from the locker Roo where he's like, I'm on a good team again. It's been a while, like he realizes it. The momentum is real, it is real.
And just you know, can they maintain it? I think that that's the big what if is like can they maintain it? Because so much of it seems to be predicated on jayde Daniels and his efficiency. And again, like no one wants them to be more successful than us, right, we we want them to be, you know, the best team ever. But it's it's just it's just those numbers that he's putting up, they're not They're they're historic for a reason, and so it's right and.
So if this were to go throughout a season, he will be the m v P. Yeah, you know, as a rookie, he will be unquestioned and you know this is why we like but he will be you won't just be off it's work of the year. He'll be the MVP of the league. It will be like, for the first month, it's the best rookie season I've ever seen from a quarterback period, And the numbers and the eye test prove it. And if he were to do it for a full season, he will have altered how
anyone views a rookie quarterback from here forward. And if CJ. Stroud was amazing last year, it's not this.
Yeah, and just the evaluation, I mean, yeah, I can't put any better like it will be unprecedented, unprecedented if that were to happen. So again, but what you're hoping is that even if he has a little bit of a regression, the rest of the offense kind of steps up, the rest of the defense steps up, the special teams step up, and we are having similar results even though he's, you know, fifteen percent less efficient than he was at the start of the season.
Smooth told me last week, he goes, if this is ground zero, you know, I don't know what next is. Really I agree with him. We've invited Smoot onto the show. I don't know, no, no, but he's here now. I've been told he's here now, and he is going to give us his unique take on everything he's.
Doing, like a bit though, it's like an ESPN like kind of Okay, yeah right.
We're down for it.
Yeah, we're down.
I'm down for bits. We're calling this Surprising Hot Incredible Takes. You can check out the first letter of each one.
Of those h and then what's that last one?
There're right, So here's Fred's first of three surprising hot, Incredible takes.
Jaden Daniels is the Steph Curry of the NFL. Yes, I said it. He throws the ball at a high level. He rubs the ball at a high level. Everything is equal. I believe it, all right, he says. Jayden Dagels is the Steph Curry of the NFL. I mean, I don't like that comp I agree.
I hear he's saying, yeah, I got better basketball comps. Okay, So he's kind of got that cool, quiet, silent assassin demeanor to him. Yeah, that's Kevin Durant, super fan of the Commander, Kevin Durant, who showed up to practice last week out in Arizona. So I actually think it's a little slim reaper. I think it's a little more of that and less Curry. But I hear what he's saying
because he's like, Curry changed the game, showed up. You know, the expectations were high, but not that high, and all of a sudden, he's doing these things that kind of change your perception of what a shooting guard can be.
Yeah, I mean, I like to pour cold water and everything. Like I again, like I think Steph Curry is amazing. I think what Jayden's done through the first four weeks of the season is really incredible. It's just I always have a hard time when you compare someone who's done it for four games to someone who's, you know, maybe the best basketball player of all time.
And I know that's I just said he's the greatest Marine quarterback in the history of the NFL, because if.
He continues to play that way, yeah, I mean, it be undisputed. So again, I think he's done some really special things. I think that timetable is the thing that gets me a little bit concerned, and we talked about that at the top of the show. When we're reviewing the game. It's like, he's done amazing stuff, but it's like it and maybe I'm a hater. I don't know, Maybe I just got too much hate my heart. I've
been beating too many times with his team. It can't continue, like mathematically, it can't continue to see.
You're like us. Now, yeah, you're like us, But what is this? But it's not even like how could this be?
But I just looked at it. I look at historic precedent and like you you're talking about since World War Two all the time, and it's like, you know, I feel like we're doing a history documentary all the time when we're doing our broadcast. But like it's those numbers come up for reasons, right, you know. And so it's like.
Through almost thirty interceptions this rook year, he's really good.
So I have all the time, I have our time, like I have a time of time like rationalizing and explaining it. So like that's why that take gets me a little bit nervous. But yeah, what he's done for the for the through the first four games is very Steph Curry is.
You know, I think it's a pretty good cop. I like during yeah, yeah, like you kind of showed up. He's kind of got the size, the speed, the athleticism. You know, he's going to be good, right, you don't know how good right, and then it just kind of and he's so kind of quiet, head down. Hopefully Jayden doesn't have a burner phone like Katie the head you know, he just like lets everybody just talk about him, which seems to be what it is. Like there were two
others I thought about. I was like, is he Lebron? But I don't think he's a prodigy. I don't think it's like that.
You know, others worked for And I think maybe that's where this.
Is basically the one that people said is a prodigy.
Yeah, which is love Lebron, right, Yeah, Steph Curry, you know, got that tremendous work ethic, you know whatever, two hundred shots after every game and before every practice, whatever it is.
So I think there's an element of that to him too, which is really really cool and it gives you, It gets you excited because you're like, these other great athletes have done it this way with the work ethic and the efficiency and maybe not the most outlandish physical tools like we just talked about, like he doesn't have the strongest arm of all time, but he's cultivated a skill set around that ability. And I think maybe that's where
the Steph Curry thing comes in. And I see that, But again it's it's the it's the consistency for me, like can you is that sustainable? If it is like awesome, Like we're gonna be going yeah, well hey, like great, I got.
How much are we winning by this week?
Yeah? Right? So are we get yeah? So that's that's the thing that gets me. But he is he he has had a special, a very very special and we've said that already, very very special four weeks and again, like to compare him to Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, He's done it for free. He's done for four weeks. Let's see if you can do it a little bit more.
Last one I'll drop it.
Was are you are you? Is this your takes or this friend's stakes?
You know, I mean competition?
Was Fred?
I don't know. I'll never be as funny or yelly as him. The movie that I freak out, I become Fred so magic Johnson because there's some kind of cool, calm collected I know what I'm doing and watch out, I'm gonna get you one way or the other of his game. But then I like thought about it, I'm like that's Pat Mahomes.
Yeah, that's Pat Mahomes.
Pat Mahomes has got all the tricks up his sleeve right now. Maybe Jaden will generate them. But there is this feel of I am in complete, under control, almost like the matrix. Yeah, there's like a matrix element to him sometimes, Like I said this to you yesterday in the booth, I'm like, he doesn't look like he's running that fast, but he is. It's some kind of effortless nature to it. It all feels really kind of collected, like he knows what he's doing. He's a step ahead.
He's neo, like I don't know what he is. He's a step ahead, he's dodge bullet.
Definitely the last two games it does feel that way. It feels very slow and measured out for him, and maybe that's his process, you know, like with the VR stuff. But man, it's it's been it's been special watch for sure.
All right. Here is a smooth, surprising, hot, incredible take two of the week.
Would you believe me if I said, Austin Cybert is the spark that lit the fuse that lit the flame. When you go seven for seven and you haven't missed the field.
Go, oh, you got to hold DMV burning, all right, So our kicker is the spark that lit the fuse. And oh but fine, I think I think Fred's reaching on that one.
Will you think so? I mean, I appreciate what.
He did against the Giants, don't get me wrong.
But it's the thing. It's it's it's the ball. It got the ball rolling, you know, so they won. They could have been really productive offensively, right, they could have been, oh, hey, we're gonna score you know, we're gonna have all these yards, but not scorenty points and you know the Giants are
going to win. But the fact he made those seven field goals kind of again kind of it gives you the It gives you, it opens the door, let's say, for the next week, the confidence you have going into Cincinnati. Cincinnati then begets what you saw in Arizona. So again,
it's it's an oversimplification. It's derivative to say it's only him, it's only the kicker, because it's we've talked about the maturation of everybody, right of Jaden from the Giants week to now, the offensive line from then to now, Cliff, the defense from then to now, Like it's all mature. But I do think that environment cultivated in that wind sets a foundation that says, hey, maybe we can be
better than we think. And then you get into Cincinnati, you have a big win, right and then it it it kind of supersedes itself.
You know. I love the buy in from the fans. Everybody so pumped, and I'm excited to be part of it too. If you're going to buy into the whole story and you now know Austin Cyber has a magic pine tree that he aims all his field goals at, there is if there's nobody sitting behind the goalposts on both sides at Northwest Stadium this weekend dressed as a pine tree, we're doing it wrong. We're just we're doing it wrong. So that is my challenge, as tickets in those sections, please come a s pine tree.
Or at least like a poster poster board of a pree.
Aim for the pine tree.
So what do you think? Do you think it's you know, you don't think it's the kicker, then you don't.
I don't think he's the spark of it. I think number five is that's what I.
Think the spark. But like I'm saying, if they don't get the win correct in the Giants game, and again it's maybe that's that's where Fred's so brilliant with his you know what is it surprisingly hot incredible takes? Is is this idea that you know, it's one element, but he I think maybe symbolizes or represents all the good stuff that they did in that game and they were rewarded for it.
Yeah. One other thing on special teams, I think it's worth pointing out. Austin Eckler was just fantastic on the kick returns. He returned one for touch and I got called back in the sixty two yarder against Cincinnati, and then he wasn't able to play this past week, and they're still getting really good returns. Cover units have been there. I think some credit is due here that the third phase it gets overlooked a lot, and you know, Cyber obviously was part of that, making all the field goals.
The return unit, they're ahead of the curve on this dynamic kickoff thing because they've had some big game changing plays already there and the coverage units. How many different names did we call on the kickoffs yesterday? It was different people streaking down the field making plays Yankoff had one, Owens had one, came there's somebody else I can't remember now they had one, like Jeremy Chinn. Jeremy Chin had one. So it's somebody different on these coverage units.
And they made investment there, you know. And again it kind of speaks to the construction of the team with Yankoff making the team predominantly as a special teams player, right with oh gosh, Belore the guy they signed from Seattle or wherever he was part of this as being a and he's made I think against Cincinnati he was making He made like three or four tackles. Jeremy Reeves
made three or four tackles. They have a core group of guys that are excellent at that, and then they also have a really good understanding of how to cover those kicks. Like when you watch them, they do a really good job presnap of communicating stunts. It's almost like they're a defensive line. They're going to pinch this guy and loop this guy around, and they're able to get
free runners because they're picking that first line. And you know, Jamie Reeves against Cincinnati had a really nice hit on the returner because he's unblocked essentially, and credit Tozzo for kind of unpacking that and then in the return game and getting a guy back there who's fearless enough to
run it. But also they understand the leverages, they understand the position because I remember watching them when they installed that in summer, and it looked tough, like they just couldn't get the spacing right, they couldn't get the positions right. And over the course of kind of constantly struggling through that, they seem to have gotten a group of eleven guys, including the returner, who have a good feel for it.
And again, I think the rest of the leg legal catch up as we go, but right now, that's a big advantage for us.
All right, let's get to Fred's final surprising, hot, incredible take of the week.
Washington might not lose again for a loan loan loan.
All right, this one's too much like listen, I don't want this to stop either. I feel like I'm on some U for it. The take is we're not going to lose for He didn't say when, but he said for a long time, right, And I would just say this like one. Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago. So I wouldn't be overlooking anybody. Yeah, and then two weeks from now, and again I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. But I don't know if you saw Baltimore play in Dallas or a home against Buffalo, but
they're pretty good and that's a road game. So I'd like to believe we're never ever losing again. That would be great. But Fred, I think Fred is even a little out of his skin with excitement of what's going on at this point.
Yeah, And I think again, like if you look at the season right, obviously Tampa Bay looks like they might be something from a team standpoint wise, construction wise, no doubt. The Giants I think are better than they showed. I think that that Thursday night game against the Giants or against the Cowboys show kind of what they can be potentially. But they're not a great defense by any starch.
Of the MNA, and Jones has to execute a little better for them to win.
And then you look at Cincinnati and obviously Joe Burrow's amazing. Their defense is is it doesn't have the teeth that it's had near his pass with kind of a consistent pass rush.
And they don't have a run game, they can rely on to be extremely afferent.
And obviously like Jesse Bates has gone from there, he was kind of their ballhockeying player in the back and so and then you look at Arizona very similar, like schematically very elevated, but not super dynamic. So I think going up against Cleveland will be a really interesting test because they have absolute maniacs on defense that play hard, to play physical, they're aggressive, They've got one of the best pass rushing defensive ends maybe in the history of
the NFL and Miles Garrett. So I think as the defense difficulty increases from these opponents, I think we're going to get a better feel for some of these efficiency numbers, for some of the stuff that's working, some of the stuff that works against top flight defenses. You know, like one of the things they say about Baltimore last year when they were really rolling, is it felt like they had twelve men on the field. Yeah, Like does this
work versus that kind of structure? Does it work when you've got guys you know, when you're trying to find that numbers matchup. You've got the three over three defensive backs and we can throw a screen because we trust our guys to win. But what happens when Kyle Hamilton's one of those guys and you can beat Luke McCaffrey on a block and we tackle that screen for a two yard loss, and now all of a sudden, we're in second and twelve, which is where we don't want
to live versus a very good defense. So I think the as the defensive dial increases, it's going to be more challenging. I do think those potentially are winnable football games. But I think Baltimore specifically is like a Super Bowl caliber team. And I know they don't have a winning record right now, but it looks to me like they've kind of figured something out. They're kind of getting better each and every time.
Well, I think if you've watched them the last couple of weeks and you didn't come to the conclusion that when it's all said and done, that that's probably they're either going to be right on the cuspoer in the Super Bowl. I don't think you're watching it right now, especially with Kansas City struggling a little bit and then lost for she Rice. It's a bad loss. It's a bad loss for them, Not that I don't put anything
pass them the way. You know, they performed one other quick thing about Cleveland, just real quickly, and again I haven't really paid a tremendous amount of attention. However, to your point about Miles Garrett et cetera, of the defenses they've played, they've played some really high level safeties, Buddha Baker one of them, mantroin Winfield Week one. I don't think they've seen a set of corners like this yet. Cleveland brings in a set of very high level corners,
no offense to the teams that they faced. But that's not really Cincinnati's strength. It's definitively not Arizona strength. I think the Giants are, you know, interestingly trying to build that back up right. And even Tampa, who's got very good I think defensive fronts.
They got hurt though both their starting corners got in that game. So again to your point.
It's this is this is an interesting challenge from that perspective.
It's a different level corner, different animal, different animal defensively, and and you know in the who they played this weekend, gosh, I can't even remember now, Yes, yeah, they played Vegas and they had two defensive touchdowns. Like it's a different
caliber of group that they're going to be facing. And so you know, you can win that game nine to ten or whatever, but like it's going to be different and more challenging for the offense to be as effective and the defense is really going to need to it's going to need These games are going to need to be more complimentary. So again, like I think it's a winnable game, no doubt, more winnable than it was when
the season started. But it's a good football team and uh, and it's it's going to present some very unique challenges stuff they haven't seen this year so far.
All right, less thing, let's talk about us for just a moment.
Us.
Yeah, because oh you.
And me, the commanders, for let's talk about us.
For a moment. I only would make this a moment because it sounds ver. The reason why, the reason why the clip of the call from the Terry touchdown on Mondayay football went viral was because of what the commanders did, not because what we did. However, our behavior definitely got noticed. And I will I just want to just say this quickly. I appreciate all the attention that we've gotten for it, And I'd love to tell a quick backstory about what was going on, Why I stuck my tongue out at somebody,
why you were maniacally last? Right, But like that was a it was a great moment, maybe the best pass we've had here in a very long time.
I think the it wasn't even that, man, it was like everything about that play was insane. Situation of the game insane, right, Yeah, they need to get a first down in that moment to steal the dealer or Joe Burrows go walk down the field and score a touchdown. Right, it's third and seven, They're coming out of a timeout. They're not lined up correctly. They don't seem like they're gonna get lined up correctly. The clock is ticking down. All of a sudden, you look down on the field
and Cincinnati's in zero pressure. Like they're lined up across the board. They have one back in the backfield. They're going to be short, right, and it's like, can they get the throw off? Can they get the playoff? Then can they get the throw off? And then when he gets the throw off, he threw that ball so early in the down, it was like Terry had run five yards.
The corner was still three yards away from him. Yeah, Terry was at the twenty when the ball was launched, and he put that ball so high in the air in such a perfect spot, and like, just going back and reviewing it, I was like, I've been a part of offenses. I've coached offenses. I've studied offenses where you
see that happening. Guy's not getting lined up as the shot clock ticking down and the quarterback sends that to that ball to the first row of the stands, or they get sacked because they're not sure how to pick up the pressure, and he just set and it was
like it was almost unbelieve. It was almost unbelievable to see that executed with that level of pressure, under those defensive circumstances, with that level of precision, with that kind of time restriction too, in that moment of the game, it was un believable.
And now we know when that happens, all you could do is laugh.
I mean, I didn't have anything to say, first off, great call by you, like, but I didn't because out on the video, like I put the mic up because I don't want to get caught cursing on national television. Right or national rates.
Both of us were ready to go. What everyone tweeted at the same time.
Holy yeah, you don't want right, And like, so I put the mic up and then the kit Tierry catches it, and You're like, there's this great moment. You can't write this stuff any better, this great moment of suspense and tension of like did he catch it?
Well, it was because he was right on the sideline and I wasn't sure he got his knee down, his feet down. Yeah, he clearly caught it, but I wasn't sure they were going to call it a touchdown.
And then when they go touchdown and you go absolutely crazy and you're screaming, and I.
Just was like, that was thirty years coming out, buddy, That's what that was. And the fans know exactly what I'm talking about, which is why everybody reacted that way to it. Locally, I'm you, you know, like all of your tension and disdain for what's happened for thirty years came out in this moment that we hadn't seen in such a long time.
Yeah, And so that was beautiful love that And then I just couldn't I just couldn't help but laugh. Like it was. It was just seems so improbable, so unlikely, such a beautiful moment for the team. I didn't have any words, so laughing seemed appropriate. It just came out very scary and dark.
Very quickly. The guy stuck my tongue out at.
Okay, dude, so, which was awesome.
He was awesome. So like, like it depends where we are. In Arizona, there were no fans near us. We were situated on the mood. Miami were situated on the move. But sometimes our booth is right in like at a
level where there's fans right in front of us. Yeah, they can reach in correct touch, and we never know what we're going to get, Like if we're in Philly, I don't even bother being playful with them because one of them may share me, you know, like I don't know what's going to happen, or half the time, like they're flipping me off, you know all that thing, which
is fine. I don't care. But these guys actually were cool, Like this group of name so this guy, one guy, shirtless guy wearing a faux Bengals fur coat, Okay, screaming my name at me the whole time, giving me the thumbs up. As it turns out, just likes play by play guys. Okay, that's it, just likes play byke So he learns whoever the play bike because he has tickets there. Whoever the play by plays, he learns their name, and he like yells at them. But it was playful the
whole time. And the best part was like the night before we went to dinner, okay, and there's all the commanders fades all over the place, all want to take pictures with you. None of them know who I am. Now what single commander fiter is there? The guy in the Bengals faux fur coat knows who I am, yelling my name, thumbs up the whole thing. I stuck my tongue out at him and he was laughing right. And then I blew a kiss at this woman at her boyfriend.
I'm assuming boyfriend who when the comeback was happening, had turned around. It was giving me the business about you guys aren't going to score enough to win. He thought we were going to collapse and lose. So I blew a kiss at them. That's who they were. We never do it if the people weren't playful, because if they are the people who want to flip me off or call me names or whatever. I ignore those people. That's where the professionalism comes in.
I didn't realize we were talking so much, so much smack during the call there at the end of the Yeah a lot. That's information. That's good enough.
Yeah all right. So but that was thank you all for all the nice kind words for both of us.
I'll speak for you for that, because.
It went everywhere and we were really I was tickled by the flattered too, very flattered. It was very cool, it was awesome. We'll just get back to you. They keep winning, we'll yeah, we'll do that all the time, all right. I think that's going to do it for us today. You say, yeah, good talk. All right, we'll do it again after who we played Cleveland. We'll do it after Cleveland, all right. That'll do it for the Booths review.
You see you