Previewing Tennessee | Episode 46

of like their leader on offense. He finally got over one hundred yards for this season, and as defensive coordinator jackter Riss says, he's a big, strong, hard guy to have to stop. So, Santana, how do you see him matching up against Washington's front seven? Well, it's no secret I think it's gonna be a tall task. And it's no secret also that this offen goes as far as the king goes. He's King Henry for a reason. This guy has been doing a year out the year out

the year. Oh, I think our defense has written to the challenge the last few weeks when he came to the run game. So I see these guys when I've been doing just that rising to the challenge. I feel that in order for us to go out there and do what we want to do collectively on both fans, our defense has to sload this guy now. If not, then we're not going to get a chance to do someone on the offensive side that we desperately and and darn need to do. And it's something a little bit

different than they've seen the last couple of weeks. A lot of outside zone, a little bit different philosophy from Tennessee. Here They've got they've kind of built that offensive line to get that done. So can the defense handle that? Can they all play their gap responsibilities and be really fun matchup to watch this Yes, so far Washington's run defense has been pretty well, but it is going to be a different kind of defending the run in this

game than we have in the past few games. Logan offensive coordinator Scott Turner, A lot of attention has been on him this week and kind of how he can call a game to help out the offensive line that's struggling, the quarterback that has, you know, trying to get to his rhythm still, how do you see him going up against their defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. Yeah, so I think this is a really good matchup for Scott, not because of you know, Bowen's got a bad defense or they're

not doing things as well in Tennessee. It's just a familiarity there. It's very, very very similar to what Jack does on to cover three. A lot of but don't break philosophy, a little cover too, spripled in and they're easy to identify coverages. The safeties kind of tip those off. So if Scott has a plan and can get Carson on the same page, I think they've seen how their concepts work against these coverages. So it should be a really really nice matchup for this group because of the

familiarity and getting guys comfortable Santana. If we go like a level below that part of the way that this team can have success and Scott Turner can as well as the play of the offensive line. And here we go into a game again with the offensive line shuffling and dealing with injuries once again, I kind of feel like this is, you know, a broken record unfortunately, but it is what it is. You play with who you have, Yeah, and their defensive front. They've got some guys, especially on

the interior that can get out at Santana. How do you see those lines matching up. It's another in the story when it comes to off as a line and who we're going to be facing. I'm not sure that we got to even worry about the individual names we're doing into the game. Last week talking about you know, Parson, it's talking about the guys who can go out there

and be different to mak Us. But I think if we can't protect these guys without the teams forcing us or bringing more than four people, and that's the problem. So we have to be creative, I think offensively for us to make sure that we're putting the right line ones out there that we can make sure that Carston couldn't excel with and we can be productive as an offense regardless of what we do and what we're trying to do, Let's make sure we protect him first and foremost. Yeah,

And I think great point, Tanna. I think one of the things about this group is that they're kind of a whole bunch of note names outside of Jeffrey Simmons, who might be the best interior player in the NFL. At the moment, he's greating better than Aaron Donald by PFF metrics. He is a very productive player. Interesting to see how a young player like CD's gonna match up with him. He's been drawing a lot of double teams as well because of that, that's what happens. But he

still wins despite that. And it says because he gets the double team, that means it frees up somebody else to be free. And when you get it, you just got to go beat your man. He's definitely an a tough one to go up against, but look, you play the guys that are out there, you make no excuses. And we'll see how this team comes together, and hopefully it's in favor for Washington. Linebacker Jayman Davis has shined in a sophomore season, leading the team with three stacks.

London Fletcher caught up with Jayman to discuss the season so far. Jamie, appreciate you joining me. You're off to a strong start in your second season, three sacks and four games already. How comfortable are you feeling right now this season? I mean, completely different outcome from how it started out for me last year. It's just more so like I said before, it's just going out there and trying to play a lot faster and just really beat myself.

I mean, this offseason one of the biggest things for me was just trying to eliminate a lot of the extra thinking. So I mean, now, like I said, just going out there and trying to beat myself. When you say eliminate the extra thinking, what what do you feel has been your biggest improvement on the field this season.

I mean one of them things where it's like you've seen this play before, so you can kind of anticipate it a lot more, and just trying to go out there and play faster to it than you did before last year. It's great that you mentioned seeing this play before. One thing I noticed in the ballgame against Dallas the other day, they got you in a situation where they had a stack release with CD Lamb and you had him in coverage and he, you know, beat you across

your face. They tried that same play later on in the game and it was you made a great adjustment, knew it was coming, and you recovered that the roan knocked the ball down when you were going to knock the play down the pass down also, it's that part of just that growth and right, and I understand you see a play that's basically the same exact thing is like knowing plays that you've seen before and knowing how you exactly how you're supposed to play it, and just

trying to be better the next time, going around and going forward. That's the same thing the rest of the year, just trying to play fast and make a lot more plays like that so I can just do what I can to be a playmaker. You got a lot of former linebackers that you deal with in your room. You got you know, obviously Steve Russian linebacker coach, he played, Jack Dale, real play, Robert vera play, get a lot of information. What has been the biggest massage or the

message that they mainly have given you this season. Play fast. I mean, that's that's all It really boils down to. Don't don't do all the extra thinking, like I said before, because all that's gonna do is have you like just ten stuff and out there thinking a little too much. So that's one of the biggest things that they harp on constantly, is just going out there and really being yourself. That's what I was trying to focus on this offseason, like I said, so, I mean going forward, I just

want to continue to do. What I'm doing is just trying to be myself. I'm not worried about what anybody trying to say about me because they don't know me. So right at the end of the day, I'm just gonna go out there and try to continue to be a playmaker so we can turn this thing around. Yeah,

you you made a ton of plays. And you know, I look back and think about the game against the Philadelphia Eagles, and you know, it wasn't the type of result we wanted, but just the flash plays where there was times with Jalen Hurtson's you know, running out of pocket thing, He's gonna get it first down and you just come out of nowhere like a blur. That's just part of not thinking it, just playing fast. That's exactly

what it is. It's more so of like, Okay, you know you're supposed to be so don't think about it, just do it. Just gonna make the play so ain't nobody else is gonna do it? So hell, I mean, I let him to the ball. That's always a goal. But at the same time, if you got an opportunity to make a play, you might as well take it. Got a big challenge this weekend going against Derreck Henry

and a tice rushing attack. What type of challenges do they pretend, especially going against a big back like Derrick Henry. I mean, first and foremost, your main focus is to stop the run because you know they're a big running team.

So coming into this you want to be able to read your keys, do as much you can to get a jump on them with film and whatnot, making sure that you know exactly what they're running where they run the ball and stop that first and foremost, like I said, and then first and second down, getting all the way off the field on third down as well. So, like I said, just run game. That's that's really the biggest

thing to harp on first and foremost. The last two ball games, you guys have been outstandings playing against the run against two of the better running teams in the International Football League. What has been the biggest difference between you know, early in the season and now have you played the run against Philadelphi in the Dallas Cowboys. I mean, it's yeah, we've been trying to do what we need

to do. But at the same time, we know we still not where we want to be as a team defensively, and we just want to live up to our standards play fast as a defense. So I mean, it's really just trying to play fast. Like I said before, it get all eleven halts to the ball. No, we just want to get off the field on third down. And how you do that, it's stopping them on first and second down. So that's really the main focus and we're just going to continue to do that throughout the season.

All right, man, appreciate you join an thank you for all your news and analysis. Be sure to tune into Command Center weeknights at five thirty and ten pm on the NBC Sports Washington. You can also stream on YouTube and commanders dot Com. He does the command