Welcome to the Command Center Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. We are two days away from Washington's primetime matchup with the New York Giants. For our players, Santana Masson, Logan Poston shared their matchups they will be paying special attention to. So let's talk about some of what matchups are going to be playing out that will determine how much success Washington has here on Sunday Night Football. And I kind of want to start with the offensive line once again.
I feel like this is kind of like a broken record coaching the season, and it's one of the reasons they preach so much about flex positions. They have to make a change at center. Wes Schweitzer is coming in now. He has some experience there, He has some experience with Taylor being in that position. But look, it's not a change that you really want to make at this point
in the season. Logan, Yes, that ideal, and I think, you know, obviously West is it kind of making the best the best of a bad situation, right, Obviously, Tyl Larson g hurt is not what you want. That's we feel really bad for him, obviously, but you know, West played center this entire offseason, he worked with no he work with Trade Turner, so he does have a level of chemistry with them. Obviously he's more of a natural guard,
but he kind of fits this offensive philosophy. Big body, three to thirty five pounds, can move people off the spot, fits this downhill approach. Show not perfect, but again, this is a tough week to be coming in jury because he's playing against the best pier of nose guard in the NFL and dextra Lawrence, right, and he's the guy who's big, he's powerful, he's quick, he's athletic, and the last time West had to go against a true nose guard was Jordan Davis. He had a tough time of it.
So that's gonna be an interesting MATCHUPI keeping, Yeah, it's the wrong time to see us, you know, happen to you know, count on those guys that we have that we can call interchangeable pieces. But at the same time, that's why we play the game. And I think that having office a line coach that we have, having the office a line that we have, these guys are ready in their prime for this, these these moments, and West got to go out there and put us big, big
boy short then play the game. But at the same time, last out and against the Giants, they had five sex against us. Last week, these guys had four sex. They're coming into this week. They was embarrassed a little bit last week, so I know they're gonna be, you know, chopping at the bits a little bit. So we just have to go out there and play the kind of
game that we know we can play. And that's a great point to Santana because when you bring those new pieces in, especially against a team the blizzerest time, it's very very challenging, right because it's the communication between those guys. How does we see it? How does you guys do the front? So that's gonna be a huge element this week as well. And Dexter Lawrence leads to the Giants with six sacks, so you know they're going to be coming and of course, you know Wake Martindale, he brings
that pressure. Yeah, I mean the Giants are one of the top in the league at blitzing and getting after the quarterback, and we saw that that kind of caused some problems last time out Santana. So really it's going to be what does Scott Turner do to adjust and plan against that. And that's one of the things about seeing guys twice in the year, you know what I mean, You have a chance to adjust. So now we can't sit there and say, oh, we wasn't ready. You know,
I talk about so much of not being ready. One of my old high school coaches used to talk about it all the time, and you laughed about the last time. I said, But Coach, say, if someone had come up to you and ask you, hey, you want Hawaiian punch, you got suck a punt the first time, and you said yes the second time, then you deserve it. So this time, Manta, we can't get sucker punt. So I'm sure that Scott Turner will be ready for whatever these guys have have have brewing for us, and um, I
think it's our time. Plus London caught up with defensive tackle John Allen to recap how he's preparing for the commander's second meeting with the gymon. John, appreciate you joining me. How are you feeling out to the boy week. I'm feeling pretty good. I feel fresh mentally, I'll recover and I'm ready to get back to it. What'd you do? Uh? How you how'd you spend your time off. I did
absolutely nothing. I just been at the house, hanging out with the wife and dogs, just literally just relaxing, playing a lot of videos us of course, of course. Yeah. You know, as you look at this situation, you guys are playing the Giants for in consecutive games. Does it Does that make it any easier or different? You know, preparing for them, knowing that you just played them two weeks ago. I want to say it makes it easier
or harder? You know, every week is a beast within itself, and they've seen us two weeks ago, We've seen them two weeks go. We're coming off a boss, so we're a little bit more first than there. But at the end of the day, you still got to execute. Um. They're in the NFL too, so I'm sure they're gonna be right and be ready to go, and we have to go out there and meant more plays than they do. You guys have faced plenty of mobile quarterbacks this season.
Daniel Jones, one of the most mobile quarterbacks, was able to make some things happen with his legs in a bed last ball game. Kind of what makes it so difficult when dealing with Jones in his ability to run. When you got a guy like Jones, you know, we feel like a lot of quarterbacks in this league can run, but Jones is one of the guys who's more willing
to do it. You know what I mean. If his reads aren't there, he's taken off full speed and he runs like a four four or four five as opposed to most quarterbacks who can run but really want to look to throw the ball more. You know, I just like he's more willing to do it on a consecutive basis. So we got to do a better job of pazzlers lanes and when he runs, all eleven guys got to
be there. In the first meeting, that score obviously end in twenty twenty tie, But there were some positives that you, you know, I'm sure you take away from that game. What are some of the things that you look at as a defense saying, hey, these are things we can build on and continue to do better going into this next game. I would say, as a teller two halves, the first half we didn't play as well as we
wanted to when we let up thirteen points. The second half were really honed it on what we had to do and played three quarters and know only let up seven. So when we look at when we did the little things right, we have success, as opposed when we didn't do the little things right, we didn't have success. So there's a lot to build on, but there's a lot of things we have to correct as well. You got a battle for the team leader in sacks right now
between yourself, Matez and Dern. You know, first of all, who's going what's if the leader? Who what's the leader gonna get? Y'all y'all figured out that yet something more valuable money pride. To have someone's pride, that's that's the best thing you could take from somebody. But it's all love and you know, friendly competition from one another. And I can tell you one thing. They definitely made me a better player and a better person. I appreciate. I can't wait to see you guys get out to the
quarterback on Sunday Night football. Yes, I appreciate it. For all your news and analysis, be sure to tune into Command Center Wig nights at five and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also stream on YouTube and Commanders dot Com.