Latest / BGO Blind Pig - A Washington Commanders Podcast / Commanders Fall Short vs. Rams - Face Giants on TNF

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Commanders Fall Short vs. Rams - Face Giants on TNF · BGO Blind Pig - A Washington Commanders Podcast

• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: What is up, fellas?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Back again for another episode of the Blind Pig Podcast, courtesy of bg of session.com.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Swing by the board, the mothership, totally free to sign up.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: We love all new members.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Hook us up with a like, share, and a follow, spread the word.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: We enjoy the appreciation.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: We enjoy the support.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, fellas, um, this one stunk a little bit.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm gonna do what I usually do and secede the floor and hear your guys' initial reaction before I respond.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, have any either of you ever seen the movie Highlander 3?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I watched all the Highlander movies and show.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, when I was in high school, all my friends were totally geeked up to see Highlander 3 because the the first two Highlanders were sort of cult hits.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I hadn't seen the first two movies, so I went with them excited to see something they were excited to see.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And within like the first two or three minutes of the movie, there was this really badly designed Muppet who cackles evilly.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as I heard that Muppet, my brain said, Oh, okay, bad movie.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was able to enjoy it.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's where I am with the commander season in 2026 because we're in this weird quasi zone where I could auction honestly make an argument that we could win each game, but it seems like every critical moment we're gonna have a slapstick failure.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna blow it.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just don't see them figuring out how not to be Keystone cops, how not to be that really awkward Muppet that signals this is a bad film.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, I don't even know how to follow that because it's correct.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Andrew's correct.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I it's rare.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's not rare, but that was a great that was a great analogy.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel the same way today that I felt after almost every single game this year.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: There is enough talent on the football field to win every single weekend.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: I am no longer convinced there's enough talent on the sideline to win every single weekend.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: It just feels like it feels like we are playing what's called as well as it can be played, but what's called isn't right in key moments.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And this, you know, some weeks I feel like it's the defense that doesn't seem to get it right, and some some weeks it's the offense that doesn't seem to get it right.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And this week it felt like the offense.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: This week it felt like David Blau wanted.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: I knew when they promoted David Blau that there was gonna be some of the Ben Johnson cutesy.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: The problem is Ben Johnson has a knack for calling the cutesy when you should call the cutesy, when it's gonna work, and Blau either doesn't have that knack yet or won't ever get it.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, but uh you know, some of the stuff that I saw, and and admittedly, I didn't get to see the whole game down here in Texas.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: They gave me the cowboy game, which I guess I understand, but the locals feel like that's cruel and unusual punishment now.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, their own Muppet.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: And some days I'm not sure that they aren't right.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: I I I really felt like the Colts were gonna snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and you know what?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: The entire city felt that way yesterday, too.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I felt Dallas inhale and hold its breath at the end of that football game, and they did all the way through that field goal that won it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and there was a collective sigh.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: The whole town, it was it was the strangest feeling because I never left my garage, but I could feel it.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, and so I I've watched I've watched the highlight, I've watched two different highlight packages twice now today in preparation for tonight, and it just it feels like the game was there to be had.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, I'm I I don't know, Derek, I'm sure you watched the whole thing.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: To me, it just felt like the game was there to be had, like LA didn't bring something with them, except for the fact that they brought two guys and and how you can ignore two guys for an hour, these two guys specifically and puk and the coup.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how you can not team Miles Garrett and Puka and the Kuah, but we apparently did not.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: By the way, did you guys catch the Puukan the Kuwa is going on IR as of today?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: So he had an all-world yesterday, he had a worldie against us, and now he's done.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that injury apparently happened on the last play of the game.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think he was in as part of the hands team, but I might be wrong, really, because I I because like he played all the way to the end of the game, so yeah, he had like he had like 15 catches, it was stupid.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm gonna push back a little bit um and say that there was enough talent there to win.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I also don't think the talent was there that was there executed well enough to win.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I think there was stuff left out there, and I'm gonna unpopular opinion.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Jaden didn't again did not have his premium stuff for four quarters.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um it might be because I don't know, because of injuries, it might be because a lot of things.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not pointing at Jaden saying he bears the the the whole responsibility.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: There were multiple factors yesterday about why we ended up failing and not winning that game.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um and before I go too deep into it, let me just say I don't feel any different today than I did yesterday before the game kicked off.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I I assumed that this was gonna be a tough one to win because I think the Rams are the better team.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're the better coached team, even though you could honestly start asking those questions about McVeigh this year.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: And but I still I mean, just you just Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett take that team and make it better than half the teams in the league, and that's if they're playing with you know the Marshall thundering herd of the other nine guys on the line of you know on defense with them.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's just that's how good those guys are.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sorry for the backhanded shot at Marshall, but I I don't I don't I don't feel any different.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was gonna be a tough game to win.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: I thought they were the superior team.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I will say I if we had played this game against Philly, then Dan Quinn should have been fired on the spot.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because this game, I mean, the guy guys were dropping passes, guys were uh just not making plays.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: I watched most of it via phone because I was at my daughter's tier competition, which is why I'm hoarse.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Not because I was at the game, I was screaming for you know cheerleaders, but um I I I don't feel any different today than I did yesterday before the game kicked off.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think ultimately Dan Quinn's time is up here, it'll happen in the offseason.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think anything happened yesterday that would warrant changing that, and I don't think anything happened yesterday that would seemingly give him more job stability.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's still, I think he's still where he is.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: The team had every opportunity to win that game.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: LA you said you didn't watch the whole game, Bob.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: LA was they were out of it the first three quarters.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody was driving, including Puka Nakua, were dropping balls.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like they were uh Stafford was making errant throws, the defense was making some enough plays that we could have easily had a 10 or 14 point lead at different times in that game, and we weren't able to execute, whether it be allowing Puka Nakua to have 14 catches for a billion yards, or how how you let Miles Garrett have 25 snaps and have three sacks in a forced fumble is nuts.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: The play that Miles Garrett forced to fumble on Jaden Daniels, he was one-on-one with Ben Sinett.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like you that how the hell do you let that kind of thing happen?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, like, and I can't get mad at Ben Sinnet for that.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, that's the play call.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So it's there's there's a hundred different things that happened yesterday.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is the reason why we had an opportunity, a very winnable game, and we were unable to win it.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's I I'm seeing other a lot of people getting frustrated with Jaden Daniels.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he didn't have his best game, and people are being critical of that last play call, uh, with the the oop de oop instead of instead of trying to hail Mary.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's not forget, guys, two weeks ago people were astronomically critical of Blau with the offense because they sent three guys deep and Jaden got sacked.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like that place shouldn't have even been in the situation if it wasn't for the fact that Miles Garrett was one-on-one with our rookie center, and he like went through the guy like he was a a tackling dummy.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there was so much out there that you've got two people on that defense that you need to pay attention to.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: I would have ran six linemen the entire game and just said, Okay, let's see if your defensive backs can hold up.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like there needs to be a tight end and a running back chipping on every play, every play, either double teaming or chipping, every single freaking play.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I that's my criticism of the coaching staff there.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I uh I'm not depressed.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: I I it kind of happened the way I figured it would happen, and I hate to break it to you.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see anything happening over the next 10 weeks to give us some sort of crazy confidence that this team is gonna turn a corner.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is it possible?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're good enough to still win five more games, and that's with our current state.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: But let's be real about you know, I'm not gonna let myself get excited because nothing's different than what it was before we came into the game.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I don't think we're gonna turn a corner either.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I not to pile on, but you know, I just uh do we win more games?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, we'll win some more games.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I guarantee you we'll drop a couple of games between here and the end that we should have won.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's just the way this football team is playing at the moment.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you came to me before the game and you asked me how is the game gonna go, and I wasn't being my homer self because I'm never gonna root against the team or claim the team is gonna look.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I probably would have told you I think it's more likely that the team got trounced than won.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that we were in the game, as Derek said, through three quarters, could be a moral victory in a place where we no longer are allowing ourselves any moral victories.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think the stat that I heard, and I I hope I get this right, that kind of blew my mind a little bit with the 10-6 lead in the third quarter for the entire second half.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: We had 40.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I this has to be wrong.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: There were 41 passes and eight runs, or we only had eight runs in the second half, something like that.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we were actually running okay, and we had a lead.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: We had running backs attempt 15 carries total for 44 yards, like and we were never out of the game, right?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or even when we were leading the game, which was a fair amount of the game.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: They just I I feel the need to point out that if John were here, John would say we dropped Cliff Kingsbury so that we would run the ball more.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt, Andrew.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's okay.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I'll segue because I think play calling is a thing that this podcast is going to be about.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had three hopes for David Lau.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: The first hope was that the reason we supposedly hired Dan Quinn was because a gray beard like him could assemble a staff like no other.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he had the connections, and so I was hoping to be able to trust his eye in terms of coaching talent.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: The second was that David Blau was supposed to be a hot prospect, and Detroit wanted him.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the third was that they said, well, he may not have been in a coordinator, but he was an on-the-field general, he was a quarterback, and using hindsight, because I was on the record in the preseason pods and on the board being pro-David Lau, you know, I I've begun to think about this question: has Dan Quinn ever really been successful as a head coach without Kyle Shanahan?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure the answer is yes, with the exception of 24.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Then I thought, well, David Blau may have been a quarterback, but for most of his career, he was holding the clipboard.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he didn't have the on-the-field quarterbacking, sort of figuring out what defenses do and how to counteract the defense real-world experience.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So all the things that I sort of pinned it, and of course, you know, Dan Quinn has proven that he can't really assemble that great staff.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I I led myself down a road which meant that I was going to be really disappointed this year, and I am.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: I want, I always want our in-house guys to get promoted and and and want them to succeed.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a homer, yeah, right?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a homer.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: I want guys that have been here, I want guys that we drafted to succeed.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to keep it.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hold on, you're not a homer.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: You're I hate that.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: You're not a homer, you're a fan.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: You understand that the easiest path and the least, the path of least resistance to winning is with the current staff.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a dumb take, it's not a home or take.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: But it's home or take would be out here saying this team is actually the Super Bowl caliber team.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, no, it is not a home or take to say I want the current regime to be successful because I want them to win sooner rather than later.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I want them to win.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if it in the fastest way to win to being successful is with the current staff.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that doesn't mean this current staff is gonna do it, but changing extends out the amount of time you can potentially be successful.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, but I don't think that's a home or take.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a you're you're absolutely right, and that's part of it, Derek.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: But part of it is I I I'm I'm for the guys that that are ours, yeah.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: I it's a family kind of a thing, and and and I've always felt this way, right?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: I you know, when when Gibbs left, I wanted it to be Pettibone, and I wanted Petty Bone to be successful, um, you know, absolutely positively.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: I just you know, and when and when our guys went somewhere else while Gibbs was still here, I rooted for Buges, right?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: When he went to Arizona, I rooted for Buges because he's one of ours, you know, and so I uh granted it's only been a couple of years, but we had great success in 2024, and I wanted Blau to be the guy.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm not sure he's the guy, he may be someday, but today is not that day.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um at this point, I and and it's taken me this this long into the season to get to where John is or got fairly quickly, in that Lau hasn't really done anything for us, so I don't really have any loyalty.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh at this point in time, I just I don't know.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: I I would like to see I would like to see Durante stick around for whatever reason.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like he's made a difference on defense, even though the numbers league wide don't actually indicate it.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: Just feels like this defense is stiffer in specific moments, it has bigger moments than any defense we've had in quite a while.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and maybe that's just individual things, but I don't know.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: It just I'm I'm kind of done with the Blau experiment, even though we have to watch another, I don't know what, eight games, nine games.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I haven't done the math on that yet.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know where we are in the that's dumb.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: I should know where we are in the season.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see, we're two, five, six.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're two, we're two two, five, and one.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we've got nine games left.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've got nine games left to watch the Blau experiment.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think the Blau experiment is going to round into form by the end of the season.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's not to say that five years down the road, David Blau may not be the toast of the NFL.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: He may be because he seems like a pretty sharp young guy, and he seems like he he learns fairly quickly, but for whatever reason, he's not getting this.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe we just asked too much too soon of the young fellow.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I'm convinced that the original plan was Tavika Pritchard, and he's now coaching at Stanford, right?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he got hired in the middle of the season before we could offer him an offensive coordinator job.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: And my guess is even if we could have offered him the offensive coordinator job, he still would have taken the head coaching position at Stanford.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let's face it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's you know, head coach Division I school greater than coordinator at the NFL level.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: I I think everybody would agree with that, right?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: So, um, but I don't know you.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: The the highlights were frustrating because I could see good things happen.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I gotta tell you, I was stunned watching the box score to look down and and find Van Jefferson, a guy that a week ago was on our practice squad leading the team in terms of both receptions and targets.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: That was a little mind-blowing when you've got a perfectly healthy Stefan Diggs, who is supposed to be your number two this season.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh honestly, I have not been staggeringly, I haven't been blown away by Diggs this year.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: I see flashes, but I see flashes in Traylon Burks, I see flashes in in Williams, I see I saw flashes yesterday in Jefferson in the highlights.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, come on, man.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, where are we?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: What are we doing?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think just to counter my own point, even though I said there were no moral victories, I sometimes ask myself, how much can you expect out of Blau when you have the O-line that we have that can't run block or pass block?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then when we're down Bill, then when we're down um Burks and Terry, then we're down all these things.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Blau and Quinn are not allowed mulligans.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: But again, you can make the you can make the argument close game, you can make the argument about injuries and talent, but you also can't because it's year three.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm perfectly willing to offer a guy a mulligan.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm perfectly willing to give a guy I'm I'm willing to give guys mulligans for a season, you know, to be honest with you.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm looking at I'm looking at things like the last play yesterday.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: Fair.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't understand the last play.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at things like the way the New York Giants game ended.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't understand how the New York Giants game ended that way.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now everybody stood up and said all the right things.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: But the point is, David Blau is the last guy in Jaden Daniels' ear before the intercom goes out.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And the last thing Jaden Daniels should have heard was if there's nothing there, this ball goes out of bounds.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: If there's nothing, spike this football.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if there's nothing there, get outside the tackle box and throw it away.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's and and and it's not what Jaden heard.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: And and I keep I understand I was not a Cliff Kingsbury fan.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't a fan when we hired him.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um everybody was really excited, and I wasn't.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then all Cliff did was come in and light the world up with a rookie quarterback is you know that first season.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: He did amazing things.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you could argue that he probably did some fairly amazing things last year, too.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: And and now looking back at it, I'm not completely certain why Dan Quinn let go of him because we haven't changed philosophy that radically.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're still working out of the shotgun or the pistol, whatever you want to call it, wherever JD lines up, he ain't lining up under center that much.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Now, maybe like K Dog, one of our great forum guys who's who's also a football coach says, it takes time to teach a guy to line up under center, and it's not all gonna happen overnight.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I would put a little bit of money on it that we're not seeing a much greater percentage of of Daniels under center right now than we saw last year.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: So why didn't we just keep Clink Kingsbury?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna we knew we were gonna make massive changes on defense.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let's keep the offense the same.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: So now I'm I guess I'm in John's camp, somewhere John's smiling.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um because I've been for those of you that have been have that that may be just tuning in, John is another founder off the board who for weeks has been saying, I don't understand why we fired both coordinators, and and I've been arguing with him, and now here I am defending his position.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: But there you go.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'll turn up so to come back to Burgold a little bit.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um Mulligan, no, but I also look at Blau, and I think we also need to remember that he is now called an offense in eight games in his entire career, and that's not just talking about in the NFL, that's talking about on any level of coaching.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: He is not so there are like am I am I saying that this is adequate?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not because the play card like there are things happening every week that we get confused about as far as the last play of the game this past week.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think that I kind of think that might have been by design, and maybe it was a dumb design, but I think that they looked at it and it was a situation where there were defenders deep, and they maybe it was come of that cutesy stuff that they said, well, let's send everybody deep, let's get chick the ball and see if we can't just make something happen.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and maybe that was the wrong decision, but I don't think that that was a lot of people are questioning Jaden's end-of-game, you know, decision making.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was actually more designed than it was Jaden failing to make the right decision.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't this wasn't a situation where Jaden just decided he wasn't gonna throw it to the end zone because he wasn't aware of how the get like what needed to happen on the field.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: I and I agree with that, Derek.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I absolutely agree with that.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: What I don't understand is why there if that was the play, why didn't we have somebody trailing?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: The closest trailer was Jaden Daniels, Jaden, right, when he ran through the line of scrimmage and ran back, right?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So so again, I uh and I'm not I'm not even justifying the play call.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying that I don't think that this was a situation like it was against the Giants, where there was an error in decision making, like that there was some sort of lack of understanding of how of the play like that wasn't this.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was a bad play call, but I think that that was how it was kind of supposed to how it was gonna work.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I agree.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think they executed the call, but you know, I do think that the rationale behind the call was that they didn't think they could block Garrett and uh Donald.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that's another part of it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted to get the ball out of his hands and behind the strength of that of that defense and try to let someone make a play, and whatever.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it it blew up in their faces, and how if it had worked, everybody would have been calling it brilliant, but you know what I mean?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's always dumb when it doesn't work, and it's always brilliant when it does.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's fair.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: But Blau Blau is younger than all three than the three of us are on this call, and I'm by far the youngest at 42, right?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm not mistaken.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: But my point is that this that at what where do we draw the line with him and a failed experiment, and where do we actually look at it?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not gonna sit here and say I've got some sort of emotional connection to David Blau.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: If they move, I'm not gonna say if at this point, when it's very likely that when they move on from him this offseason and they rebuild this entire thing, okay, Blau's gone.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna shed a tear, I'm not gonna stand on a mountain and say that was the worst decision ever made, but I'm also not gonna sit here and say that he's a failed at that he that he's never gonna be a good coordinator in this league, and that he's not gonna be, he's not that he's incapable of being of running an offense because I don't think that we have seen anywhere near enough data to justify that.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and I don't disagree with that either.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Guys making poor play calling decisions in their eighth game as a play caller is like to be expected.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody walks into the NFL and just figures it out.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like Brian Kelly did it, and that was because he was calling shit that had never been seen before.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: About 14 games in, they figured it out.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing happened with Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan here with Griffin.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Griffin was an all-pro quarterback until he wasn't because the NFL is better than him.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like it it's going the so to expect people to come in day one and be lights out and be effective against defenses that are the best to ever do it.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: I try not to, you know, play that kind of that that that musical note, if you know what I'm saying.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: I I leave that alone.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't I Blau, I think is gonna be okay.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: He might not be okay until he's 45, he might not be okay until he's right, and until he's been in the league, he's aged, he's been around, he's made mistakes, he's seen things, whatever you want to call it.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because he is a puppy right now.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you're talking about us in terms of coaching, he is even Sean McVeigh, who was the whiz kid, the guy who reset the standard of what you look for in a head coach, is having has has not been able to stand up to the success he had early in his coaching career, and he's doing it with more talent than most teams have.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, I actually was the one who cut you off earlier.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: The what I was thinking wasn't uh about him, I was thinking about Kevin O'Connell.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Connell.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: When he was here as an offensive coordinator, he was about as good as Blau.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then he turned into a pretty good head coach.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there is there is something to be say said about circumstance, there's something to be said about seasoning, there's something to be said about personnel, um all of the above.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, to go back to Bob's point, I mean, if we think about the talent that has walked through this door, that has reshaped or been really successful on the offensive side in the NFL and even on this team, you know, from the LaFleurs to the McVeigh's to the O'Connells to etc.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, we wanted Blau.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, if if this was year one of Quinn, I'd be like, damn it, keep him.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have him go through his growing pains and see if the guy has something.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think he's gonna get that shot because the new coach probably isn't gonna look and say, Well, you know, there were receivers open.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there were holes that the running's back running backs missed.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna see the fact that on all the crucial plays they had made weird choices and they failed to execute.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And more times I'm not, Blau wasn't up to the task.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's not wrong.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And beyond that, if he were if a new coach were to come in here, you're you're if new coach comes in here and he retains Blau, then it's more pressure on the new coach, right?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like, do you even want to carry that burden?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: And as unfair as that might be for Blau, but do you do you because if you retain Blau, you better be right, because if he doesn't, if he then the then it's either you suck at talent evaluation, or the owner told you to keep the guy, or Peters told you to keep the guy, or Jaden told you to keep the guy, or whatever.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like and then you're proof, right?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: I yes, would I love to see Blau here?
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but I almost don't want that because what I what I want less of now is noise, right?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like I and I don't know that I'm as confident enough in Blau to believe that that that that's worth it.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I think he can still be good, I just think it's an incomplete grade.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: But that a new coach coming in here and retaining staff opens up a million other things that people are gonna point at and start to ask questions, and honestly, though, coach shouldn't give two shits what we're all talking about on a Monday night on a podcast.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: It right, like it shouldn't matter, and for that for that matter, I could see, and I've said this all along, I still believe that Quinn's done enough that he's gone, but I don't know that I'm just making that's my own kind of brain.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: I could see a situation where Peters and uh and and Harris and company don't get rid of Quinn as crazy as that sounds, because of we've talked about it on this podcast.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: You lose all of the injuries that we've had, you're going into year four with Jaden Daniels.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: If Jaden Daniels puts the if he rubber stamps Dan Quinn and David Blau, we don't know what their relationship is like.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's true.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, if he rubber stamps Dan Quinn and David Blau, I could very easily see a situation where Peters and company go to him and say, Okay, well, let's hold on.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna keep this now.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start talking about your contract negotiation, and we're gonna retain them for continuity purposes and see how things can go in year two and three under that offense with some of the guys back and another draft and another, you know.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't a lot of fans right now are looking at this like we're a sinking ship.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see it that way, I just think we're off course.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: You all right, you you you make some great points, Derek, but but I I gotta ask you, does this season not feel different from the last two?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Does it feel I I the defense has been epically bad the last two seasons, but I think we all recognize that between injuries and a focus on trying to protect a quarterback, we haven't put the resources into the defense that we did this year, right?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of look at the last two seasons and I go, ah, you know, they were doing the best they could do.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: And even then, they came up with some key stops and some key moments, and and and things were pretty good.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the other things they look fairly good.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now this year it this year it feels like this year it feels like there's more talent there, but now the communication's wrong.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: I it feels like there's something else wrong now.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and this is the argument we had this entire and this is an argument and a conversation that we had on this very podcast this offseason.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: John said that it was a failure getting two new coordinators, guys who had never made play, never called plays.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: And my argument back was okay, well, what is the leash they are going to have?
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because there are going to be fuck-ups, it's going to happen.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's going to be blown calls, there's going to be missed assignments, there's going to be things because two guys who have never done it before are going to be doing it, and they're going to be doing it against the best in the world at it.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I am not sitting here saying that it's a problem or that I'm against or I'm going to be heartbroken if they blow this coaching staff out.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I go back to those conversations that we've had and say, okay, well, at what point?
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what did we really expect coming into this season, given what we are looking at and what we were looking at coming into this season?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do we not say, All right, well, yeah, this is kind of what should have been expected?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone that expects us to make another run at an NFC championship after what we've gone through is crazy.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that was before the injuries, before you lose the third best tackle in football, before you lose your starting quarter wide receiver, before you lose your starting quarterback for multiple weeks again, and you're trotting out a seventh round rookie for multiple games to play.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if somebody wrote this script and said before the season said, This is everything that's going to happen to you, but they take all the names and the the the names in the jersey call, like the colors and the logos off of it, that everybody to a person would look at that and say, Yeah, that team's gonna struggle, and they're probably not gonna fare very well.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, where do we actually look at it and say this is now something that we need to judge based on where we're gonna point our future because this is where we're at.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's real conversation now coming into this offseason about do we want to invest in Jaden Daniels, what it's gonna take to keep him here, and I don't mean that we shouldn't, I'm just saying that question has to be asked because we're talking about an amount of money and investment that is probably gonna set records in the NFL, and you better be damn sure that that's the way that you want to go when you make when you cut that check.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to do that with a new offense, with a new head coach, with all of these other things?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not arguing one side of it or the other, I'm just throwing it out there that these this is the reality of what we're looking at in this offseason, and this is the reality of what we're looking at in this season.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe people had their expectations way too high, but I know this much hire, fire, rinse, repeat don't work.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: We've been watching it for 30 years.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, where do we actually start to look at and say put something in place with a foundation and build it instead of trying to replace it for at all times, which is the problem of all the one-year contracts because we will be not consistent again next year.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of those players are going to be absolutely, and I see people.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: I guess I don't know if you guys have been following the trade news today, some massive trade.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: My phone's been blowing up about every 10 minutes.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan Davis, Philly.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: The the Eagles trade Jordan Davis for a one and a two to Jacksonville, and everybody's was it a one and a two?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was a one and something else.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, maybe it was a two-two.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Because because Jacksonville's made three trades today.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they've been going crazy.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: They just got they just got the uh the safety two.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, his name's escaping me.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: But people are like, This look at Howie Roseman.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is what a true GM does, blah blah blah.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, well, howly roseman, how he roseman's been the GM there for for 16 years, he has built that roster, and before he was the GM there, he entered that building as was a part of the the staff in 2000.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: He has been in that building for 26 years.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Adam Peters has been in our building for three.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like to expect Adam Peters to be able to have the resources, the flexibility, the roster, okay, and the foundation of the roster to be able to do some of those moves three years in and compare them to somebody who's been doing it for 10 times as long is just is just crazy to me.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where I come back to where do we draw the line?
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't have the answer, but where do we draw the line of this experiment has failed and we need to change direction, or what's our trajectory, and do we want to continue on that path?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if we want to continue on that path, opinions be damned, we're gonna continue to build in this direction, like what which ways the the ship steered, and it's not an easy answer.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's why the that's why we're not an NFL locker rooms and NFL, you know, team offices making these decisions.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's not as easy as a lot of people want to make it out to be.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're right, that's why we make the little bucks, right?
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I just I don't know.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: I but you know, we've spent we've spent 41 minutes on this podcast, and we haven't come to the really serious issue of the season, which is we've spent eight games, eight commanders games.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: When is Drew Stevens going to be allowed to do a kickoff without someone holding the ball for him?
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I actually heard about okay, so ironic, yes, so uh Tressway was on local radio because he goes on Grant and Danny like once a week or something.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I actually heard a clip that a couple it was earlier this year they were in practice and they were doing it, and what happened was Tressway is able to hold the ball at more of an angle because it won't sit on the T a certain right, so he can he can hold it at more of a like a like an angle so that when Stevens kicks it, it comes out sideways instead of straight up and down, and it makes the ball like knuckleball.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: So they do it on purpose.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually like by design now, so it's like that's why he's out there every single time holding it because it'll only stand on the T at a certain before it just falls, but he can actually hold it like further down so that when he kicks it, it comes out at a different wilder angle, so it has different movement as it's going through the air.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's a man.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: You're you're because you're giving up, you're giving up a legit defender.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're now you've got a kicker and a punter out there on your coverage team.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: So you really only have nine guys.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I haven't actually looked at that.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you stop and think about that for a minute.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: You are legit giving up that 10th defender that every other team in the league has, and you're potentially asking a Tressway or uh or a Stevens to make that play.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so is it worth the bang for the buck?
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I I will say, Derek, I'm really glad to know that there is a reason because it's it's been bothering me to be honest.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was joking bringing it up, but it's been driving me a little crazy.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: The adverse of that, did you see what the Jets did?
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, starting this week, they trained one of their linebackers to do kickoffs, so it adds an 11th defender.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: So they literally had one of their like linebackers or defensive backs learn how to do the kickoff and just get it into the landing zone.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: So now you have you don't have a you don't have an inferior defender, you have an 11th guy now that can make a tackle.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: Are are are are the jets suffering on kickoff?
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that I guess that would be my question.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: Are they giving up big runs?
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they gave I think they've given up at least one or two touchdowns this year.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh well.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, because obviously we're not.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, our our kickoff unit seems to have really solid coverage.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_02: And and so I can't complain.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_02: I just find it interesting that we're doing that with basically nine defenders.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so here's your 11 defenders on the field.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: The defense is giving up big.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here's here's your here's your your response, Bob.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: According to AI, the rule: the 12th player must be a uniformed member of the kicking team and can only hold the ball.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: They are not allowed to participate in the coverage or interference of the play and must exit the field immediately after the kick.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: So Trust is holding the ball and then running off the field.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: So we're not giving up a guy.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: Got it.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually got a nickname now.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: Intent versus loophole.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: While the rule was originally designed to help steady the ball in windy or inclement weather, teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons utilized a 12th player holder without a T to angle the ball directly on the ground, producing unpredictable knuckleball or quote unquote dirty kicks.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I thought about it.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna change this year.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Watch that.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, hey, I didn't like thinking outside the box, though.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I like thinking outside the box.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the other thing Tress said is that he's with Stevens and his age, it Stevens like that's kind of like his center.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's kind of his consistency, like his routine and having way there, and it just kind of brings him back.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's consistent because now he's holding for kickoffs, he's holding for for field goals and extra points and and all of the things.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe Stevens talks Tress into coming back for another season.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that'd be nice, wouldn't it?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was worried, I was getting worried about Tress, but he had a couple, he's had a couple decent games now.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: He had one, he he almost dropped one at about the inch yard line inch line this this past game, and then it just kind of as it was bouncing down the line, it hit the it hit the end zone.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: That was really close.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, boys, as crazy as it sounds, and you can see by my caption, it's literally it's not over yet.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Question mark.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: We still are not totally out of this thing.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: I know the Giants just beat the Eagles in Philly for the first time in like six seasons or something stupid.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I will say this though, I think if we don't win this game this weekend, you can you can officially put a fork in us if we go down a game and a half to the Giants and we're giving them four.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like we if we beat them and we go to three, five, and one and they fall to five, three, and one, you could kind of look at the schedule and say, okay, well, there's still a chance, but if we lose to them, I think it's it's pretty it's pretty much done.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not confident that we're gonna catch them anyway, but it's what kind of fan would we be if we didn't look at every possible scenario.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: I you know, I I I felt like we had a string of winnable games here.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I feel like that and I and I feel like the Giants are a winnerable are a winnable game.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um even in New York.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: But I won't be surprised if we don't win it.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: By Sunday, I will believe we can well, I'm sorry, by Thursday I'm gonna believe we can win.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: But uh right now my trust is at low ebb.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I I need a shifting of the moon to sort of well see.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think we can win because they're gonna be trying now Jameis Winston again.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: Did you guys see what happened to JJ McCarthy?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: I yeah, because I was watching part of that game, but he came back and played, did he not?
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, he threw a ball on the sideline and it looked like he got shot by a sniper.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like he like grabbed his side and went.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: Did he come back in after that?
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: I thought he was out.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, Winston was playing at one point in time, but I thought McCarthy came back in, but I could be wrong.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're saying he is expected to play, but he's playing with a hit pointer, so he's not leaving the pocket.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but even then, I mean what I I would I'm sorry, I don't look at JJ McCarthy or Jameis Winston and look at a guy like we can't beat him.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: Could they beat us?
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, they can beat us.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: Any NFL quarterback can beat us.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: We've proven that.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I've also seen both of those guys beat themselves.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: And JJ Jaden or um uh Jameis Winston almost handed us the game last week, last time, and we fumbled it back.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I I am not convinced that they are uh some superior level ahead of us, even if they beat us.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it would take a monumental beatdown for me to look at it and say, okay, well, they're clearly the a better on a different level than we are.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't see it right now.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think talent-wise, they've got some talent, but I don't I I don't look at them as even on the same level as the Rams, and we were in that game.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't look at them as being, I mean, they they barely beat the Eagles this past weekend.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an interesting litmus test for the coordinators, you know.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about them a lot, but this is gonna be the second time that each of them has got to play a team for the second time, and so will Durante Jones figure out what he didn't know and do better on defense?
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: Will David Blau show that he can adjust to what the Giants defense did well against us the first time?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and just in terms of their growth curves, it's an interesting test for both of them.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I think you can argue that both of them called a better game against the Eagles the second time than than the first time.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, now granted, the Eagles, the Eagles had some some serious injury issues, obviously, uh specifically a quarterback and wide receiver on offense.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and also running back.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that offense was really hand pardon the pun hamstrung by by injuries uh when we played them the second time around, not the same football team at all, but the defense wasn't, and David Blau had a significantly better game against that against Vic Fangio and the and the Philly defense.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and they got Barkley back, and they held Barkley to outside of a wildcat run to the left for a touchdown.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: He did nothing.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: They got Barkley back for us, yes.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: He had, I want to say he had eight or nine carries, less than 40 yards, and a touchdown.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think that feels right, and and it was his only touchdown was a wildcat direct snap that he ran to the left side for what it was like a four-yard touchdown run.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: 13 carries, 30 yards, one touchdown.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, 13 for 30.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_01: So even more carries than I thought.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_02: One reception for 24 yards on one target.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the run defense has been mostly good.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're 12th right now, by the way.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, warned down in the second half yesterday.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: I looked it up.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're 12th currently in average.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: One oh, we're we're giving them 102 yards, basically 102 yards per game.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, boys, I'm I'm over the prediction stuff.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think we hang with them though.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: I do think we've got the ability to win.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's gonna come down to another opportunity that that Quinn and Company and Blau and they're gonna have to fix fix the fuck-ups.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know a better way to put it, but if they call a good game and the guys come out there and play discipline, and the guys don't create mental mistakes and do dumb stuff like get a false start or a down a player downfield or a holding penalty that negates a big play.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_01: God, it seems like every week, and I don't think it oh, and by the way, let me just say again the rest still suck because uh Aaron Donald punched Jaden Daniels in the face mask, and it was not a hard punch, but he hit him in the face mask, and uh Adafay got called for that same penalty last weekend.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just yeah, and it uh of course there the intent wasn't there, and I'm not asking, I shouldn't, I don't think it should be a penalty, but once again, we say maybe it shouldn't be a penalty, but if you're gonna call it against us, call it against everybody.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I you know, and I get I get burned, I get really pissed off about that whole concept of intent.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, it's my soccer team was fans of my soccer team were raging about that back and forth this weekend, too.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_02: There was a bad call, and I thought it should have been a red card.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Well, there was no intent.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, intent is not written into the rule, guys.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the rule in the NFL either.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: It says if you hit a quarterback in the head, it doesn't say trying to injure him.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_02: There is no there is no determination of motive or intent, or it's just the physical act.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_02: So it either happened or it didn't happen.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_01: And in this case, do you guys watch much hockey?
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do you watch much hockey?
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: I do not a little bit, a little bit.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so this is back to your point, and this will explain it perfectly.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_01: A high stick in hockey.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: If you hit a guy in the face with your fucking stick, it's a penalty, even if it's that guy's even if someone else walks up, takes their stick, slaps your stick, and it smacks that guy in the face.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's a high stick because you need to control your stick.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's the point in the rule.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: And for better measure, if it draws blood, it's a double miner.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, how about that for being literally in the rule book?
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: If blood is drawn, it's a double miner.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, control the stick.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_01: You're in charge of your stick, control to maintain the stick.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you hit a guy in the if your stick makes contact with that guy's face, regardless of the intent or regardless of the circumstances, you're gonna get penalized for it.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: If it's the rule, it's the rule.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_00: I will say that I've grown to detest the phrase, oh, that's called every time, because it ain't no, no, it's not, especially if you're wearing Burgundy and gold, yeah, and it sounds paranoid, but sometimes it's paranoid because they're after us, right?
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_01: See all cliche, and again, I don't want to believe that that's the case because if it ever gets to the point where I like truly believe that we have no chance because they're always gonna, there's some sort of written understanding that Washington is gonna be penalized for X, but other teams aren't.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna stop watching the NFL, it's not fun at that point anymore, right?
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in fairness, I I thought that was a horrible call, and there were a couple others.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a game like we had against the Colts where I felt like we were outright or the Niners, where I felt like we were being outright screwed by the refs, and there wasn't let's go back to the word of the day.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: The word of the day is intentionality, you know, it it it did, it didn't feel like that yesterday.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: In a couple games this season, it has felt like the hit was on us, someone had written a check, or maybe the reps had decided to place a bet on the game before the game.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're not wrong, but I also have seen a lot of inconsistencies across the entire league.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen you know what I mean.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen a lot of other teams fall victim to the same failure as we have.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean some professional refs, right?
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_01: And pay them up.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well boys.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: We are running Thursday night this week.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, gotta win this one.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is the first time I can truly say this is a like it is must win.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_01: You lose this game, it's you the hope is lost.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, real quick coming out of the after that, we have a little mini buy.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: We go 11 days with another before another game because we don't play again till Monday night against the Bengals, where we will be rolling out, I believe the Hellraiser uniforms are gonna be showing up that game, um, which will be cool.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_01: Then we got Cardinals, Titans, Texans, Falcons.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that could be string if we know what we're doing, right?
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's if the opportunity is there, uh, but it's good.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_01: If if we keep playing games like we've played the last two weeks, and we talked about it on here.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think but uh last week it was myself and shit.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_01: Who's on with me last week?
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_02: No, um was Tony here last week, Tony.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we were even talking about the game against the Eagles was was still far less than perfect.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: We won by 17, but that was not a perfect game.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, that game was was ugly too.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_01: There were still procedure penalties, the Eagles were just that bad that we we were able to capitalize enough, and I do like that we're we are forcing turnovers um pretty consistently, actually, a lot more consistently than we've seen the last couple tenures.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, need to keep that up and need to come with the thunder on Thursday night.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, the quick turnaround is actually a good thing, and they're just right back to the business mode.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully they're not paying attention to a bunch of the bullshit.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, with fellas, it's always fun getting together.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be back hopefully next week.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as we head into the second half of this season, it's time to put up or shut up because time is now.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's a monster under your bed, Bob.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, there was a there was a miniature Aussie.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_02: She has the thing about about crawling under the bed.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_00: Never trusts Australians.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know different Aussie, I assume.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_01: If you made it this far, we appreciate you.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_01: Cheers.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hook us up with a like, a share, and a follow.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_01: Come catch us at the mothership at bgeobsession.com, and the pigs are out.