Week 1 Recap | Episode 40

Scott stuck to his game plan. He didn't he didn't back off as exhibited by him, you know, by us throwing the ball when we had we were in field goal range. Um, you know, and that's the gutsy call, but that's the call we had to make. UM. Real appreciate the way Jack handled the defense. A couple of things that you know we're gonna get corrected. Um, that's a big plus. And the special teams was solid. So there were some really good things in all three phases

for us. And started fast, rough stretch there in the middle, but to it to kind of rally together and get it done when it mattered at the end. That was cool, cool way to start. I mean, it is hard to win in this league, and so it doesn't matter how it looks, It doesn't matter any of those things in the last couple of minutes of the game. If you find a way to get it done, that's what good teams doing. I'm glad we did that today. Plus, Logan Paulson and Santana Moss joined me to share what they

saw out there. Of the Commanders in the season opener, what are we going to look like on offense and there's only one ball to spread around? Well, we got to see that. They spread that ball around pretty darn well. I think it was what seven different receivers had receptions and your playmakers set up Terry McLaurin, John Dots and Curtis Away, Antonio Gibson, and Logan Thomas getting out there as well. Santana, what did you make about just kind of what Scott Turner was able to do? That was key.

I think coming into this game, we knew the weapons that we had, but we was wondering what can Scott scheme up that let all these guys be effective? And I think that's what you saw. You saw every receiver you know, play a part and that win. And you also saw the other guys. You know, we didn't we didn't expect Logan to come out and be dominant as he was. He said, seven guys, seven different guys had had receptions, but they had twenty plus jars as well.

So that shows you the dynamics in this offense and what these guys can do skillfully. Yeah. I also think it just shows you how important it is to be efficient on third down, second and third down. Right. You don't get everyone those touches if you only run sixty plays eighty two plays in this ball game, right, So that's given you opportunities to distribute to football, get the deeper parts of your playbook, and find ways to get touches to your playmakers. And those guys executed at high

level when they got those touches. A great job by Scott and everybody executing when they needed to to get those drives going. What can we just say for the guys that are the playmakers that are going out there, because I feel like in the past we had Terry mcclaud and we're like, okay, and who Santana, how do you feel now that you've been able to kind of see what some of these guys are capable of doing.

The Curtis a healthy Curtis Sam. Oh my goodness, he was breaking ankles out there doing some of those moves, dancing and twisting all around a rookie coming in and stepping up and having two huge catches as well. Well. When you look at how this team has been developed for the past few years, you was one and how we are going to get to that level of offensive play. I think one of the things that's key about any offense you have to have that leader in that quarterback.

And I think now you know, I understand what people want to say or what they want to believe when it comes to Carson, but he does have tremendous m talent and he is a guy that can make it happen. So I'm glad we've got we got that area fixed first and now it's easy for all the other pieces. It did get a little dicey though not everything was perfect right, and that's one thing Carson Wentz said afterwards

is it's not going to be perfect. He did have back to back interceptions, but there's also times where they weren't able to complete. The balls were high, they couldn't run, and they got behind and gave the Jacksonville the opportunity

to kind of take an advantage. What happened there and what kind of shows the resiliency to come back from that too, Yeah, I think I love the resiliency that you mentioned there, but I think a little bit of it is like they were really effective and early downs, I'm making people miss you mentioned that, right, and all of a sudden, Jacksonville starts tacking a little bit better, don't make some plays you need to make, and then

that's how the momentum of the game shifts. And so I think it's totally understandable you're going to go through things like that. We played for a lot a lot of years. Those things happened in a football game, right, so how do you kind of weather those storms. I love the way that Carson came out and handled that adversity. The whole team handled adversity. It was really fantastic. And that's also too, what you get from the veteran quarterback.

To your point, that's one of the reasons that this coaching staff wanted that somebody who in these moments has been there done it, they've seen it in practice, and then they can say to the rookie, Okay, we're gonna call your number and you've got this. We have faith in you, especially on a third night, to get the victory. Defensively, what did you see from Derek forrest Man? He was all over the place, Santanna. You know, Derek showed us

a lot this preseason. You know, we saw him in practice, fly around, we saw him some of those preseason games, not to know what to expect from him in the regular season game. He did absolutely what we expected from what we saw in a preseason. So it's great to know that we have a guy now that we also can lean on. If you know, a guy like Cam

Curling is down. You know, I was kind of scratching my head about that because I just had found out recently that Cam wasn't gonna be, you know, playing, So just to see Derek go out there and solidify that position and show that he's worthy too, it was a great job, Buddy, y'all man. For all of your news and analysis, be sure to tune in two Command Center weeknights at five thirty and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also stream on YouTube and commanders dot com. Heild to the Commanders