00:00The full commander schedule.
00:01And, dude, like, for me, this is a very, very exciting time.
00:07And when you look at the first month for the commanders,
00:13dude, they're going to be underdogs the first three weeks of the year.
00:16Yes, they are.
00:16Including their home opener against the defending Super Bowl champion.
00:20At Philly, at Dallas, and then against Seattle,
00:24I'm sure we let people call in and give their records and all that.
00:30And it's such a crazy, like, mental hurdle that you already know
00:34who they're playing and where.
00:35But once you see it lined up and how it's all going to shake out,
00:39it just feels very, very different.
00:42I mean, those first three games are brutal.
00:45But you're going to have to play good teams regardless.
00:48You know it's coming at some point.
00:49Just a really rough stretch.
00:52The hardest part to me, looking at that, at Philly, at Dallas,
00:56then Seattle at home.
00:56And then, hell, you have to travel to London to play a Colts team
01:00that started out like a rocket last year.
01:02Those games always get weird.
01:03The travel always makes it weird.
01:05Totally.
01:06I don't think there's any question about that.
01:07And the Colts, I believe, have been really good internationally.
01:12So I don't want to be discounting of that game at all.
01:15But that first month of the season, dude, the biggest thing,
01:20because I do think there are advantageous pockets of this schedule.
01:23You know, you get the Cardinals and the Titans back-to-back.
01:26Like, there's good pockets.
01:28Until Jeremiah Love goes off for 200 yards and then, you know.
01:31I think that Cardinals seem to be god-all.
01:32I think they're going to be bad, too.
01:33But the hardest part of this is I don't think we are properly recognizing
01:43what two new coordinators means.
01:45And I'm not at all doubting or, like, skeptical that either Jones or Blau can be the guy.
01:53I really like the hires.
01:56I really like the decision-making process that landed on those guys.
02:01And Jones has been in football long enough that I don't think there's going to be some moment
02:06where he's not ready to meet it, even though he hasn't been a D coordinator in the NFL.
02:11Like, I think he has, like, such a book to work off of that he's going to be ready to
02:19meet that moment.
02:20But David Blau has never had third and six, late third quarter, your team's down 10.
02:29Oh, and by the way, your right guard busted up his thumb.
02:33Like, he's never been in those scenarios.
02:35And to have to open with back-to-back NFC East games on the road where it's going to be
02:42madness.
02:44Like, Philly, 4.30.
02:45Those people are going to...
02:464.30 Sunday, September 13th.
02:49They're tailgating today for that game.
02:52Like, that place will be chaos.
02:55And I just...
02:56You would have liked it to be...
03:00Like, the Pacific Beach is a very long, pleasant walkout.
03:04Now, the water's cold, but it's a very long, easy slope.
03:06Or a stroll if you're going for a nice, you know, little frolic like you did.
03:08Not fall off a cliff.
03:10No, no, no.
03:11You were immediately in the deep end with those two games.
03:14And, again, I really like Blau.
03:16If you go back and check, a year ago, I was saying, I think Cliff will be gone.
03:21I think they'll promote Blau.
03:22And people thought I was crazy because of the other names on that staff that they wouldn't promote them.
03:27And I was like, I think it'll be Blau.
03:28Now, granted, I thought Cliff was going to get a head coaching job.
03:30Yeah.
03:30But here we are.
03:32Cliff's gone.
03:32Blau's got the job.
03:34That's, to me, what makes the first month so difficult.
03:40And then I said this to Brian last week.
03:44The matchup this year I was most excited to see was Seattle.
03:49Because you get an immediate opportunity.
03:52I actually really like that it's early in the season, too.
03:55You get an immediate opportunity to see.
03:59Now, they had that stretch last year where four straight games, lost by three touchdowns or more.
04:03It was god-awful, right?
04:05That forced Dan Quinn to do something with Joe Witt.
04:11But of that stretch, like, Kansas City, that game was tight at halftime.
04:16They just couldn't do anything offensively.
04:17Second half, the bottom fell out.
04:19Even the first game against Dallas, that did feel like a name-your-score kind of game.
04:25Dallas could have put 50 on them.
04:26But Washington, before Jaden went out, was able to move the ball pretty good.
04:31The Seahawks game, which was here, Sunday Night Football, I think it was then the first time we saw the
04:36Super Bowl-era uniforms, right?
04:38Which are now just the uniforms.
04:40Yeah.
04:41That Seattle game was so decidedly one-sided.
04:46It was such an abusive, beat-that-ass, you know what I mean?
04:52It was the first time that we saw Jaden Daniels actually get frustrated.
04:56He stopped smiling after mistakes, right?
04:58We saw him slam the football down, and it's before he even dislocated his elbow.
05:02It just felt like that was the first point where you're watching Jaden Daniels, and you're like, oh, he's pissed.
05:06Like, he does not want to be out here with what they're dealing with, right?
05:09He had nobody to throw the ball to.
05:1131-7 at halftime.
05:12Yeah.
05:13And Seattle took their foot off the gas in the second half, but their defense was so great that they
05:20couldn't, like, offensively.
05:22And then you get, why is Jaden still out there down 30?
05:25Then he gets injured.
05:26Then DQ says, I was going to take him out the next drive.
05:28Like, I'll never understand.
05:31If you're going to take somebody out the next drive, just take him out now.
05:34Yeah.
05:34Like, if you already have the thought process of this game is gone, then it's gone.
05:38Like, the second that enters your brain, it's over.
05:42Yeah.
05:42But, so, whatever.
05:45That's why I'm really excited for them to get another crack at Seattle, and specifically defensively.
05:51Now, presumably, I know Kenneth Walker's gone.
05:53I don't know how much the rest of the Seahawks roster has changed.
05:57I mean, NFL rosters change every year.
05:59But Kenneth Walker in that game was hardly a big factor.
06:02I think he had about 50 total yards.
06:05They didn't really run the ball because they were able to just throw it whenever they wanted.
06:10I really want to see what the Washington defense can do to Seattle.
06:17I think it's a good opportunity for them to show, hey, we changed something.
06:23Maybe we fixed something.
06:24But it's also a different Seattle team because the defense is different.
06:29Clint Kubiak's not there anymore as the offensive coordinator.
06:32So, what does Sam Darnold look like?
06:34We know he needs a system that's going to work for him.
06:36We know it worked under Kubiak to a point.
06:38Kenneth Walker, like you said, gone.
06:40Like, I think Seattle's got six nationally televised games.
06:43The NFL is leaning hard into their title defense.
06:46And this could be a team where they, I don't know if I necessarily used the word regression,
06:51but it feels like a team that could absolutely take a step back when they were already a surprise
06:55to be in the Super Bowl last year anyway.
06:58I just, you know, because I'm with you.
07:01Like, I look at the beginning of the schedule and I see, oh my God, it's a gauntlet.
07:04But at the same time, after the initial reaction I have, I'm sitting there live on the air
07:09and it's popping out and I'm like, oh my God, this is horrible.
07:10And then I go, wait, wait, JP.
07:12We could also go the other way and say, here are reasons why these games might not be as
07:18much of a gauntlet as you think, right?
07:19And you look at the Eagles and it's like, well, what does Jalen Hurts look like in that
07:23offense?
07:23And is that going to continue to be a problem?
07:25I feel like week one could be a stealable game.
07:27Yes.
07:27They've got a new coordinator there.
07:29They're not going to have A.J. Brown, presumably.
07:31No, they're not.
07:32That's their first.
07:34Their offense sucked with A.J. Brown.
07:36Right.
07:37Now you have two smaller outside guys because they just added Lemon and Devontae Smith,
07:42obviously.
07:43And like, Hurts doesn't like throwing in the middle of the field.
07:45You still have Saquon.
07:47You still have a lot of players on defense.
07:48But what's Saquon look like?
07:49Saquon took a step back last year, too.
07:51I think they're lying.
07:51So, yeah.
07:52Well, yeah.
07:53So, last year I really liked Seattle going into the season.
07:56When we did our division picks, I had them winning the West and people thought I was
08:00crazy.
08:01To me, Mike McDonald is the kind of dude, that team's not going away.
08:06If you look at, if you try to think just very big picture, Washington plays the top
08:13two, the highest odds of winning the Super Bowl, the Rams and the Seahawks.
08:18But then they don't play many of the other teams here.
08:21So, the Rams are 8-1.
08:23The Seahawks are 10-1.
08:24Then it's the Bills who they don't play at 10-1.
08:26The Ravens at 10-1, they don't play.
08:28The Chiefs, 15-1.
08:30They don't play.
08:31Then they get the Eagles at 16-1.
08:33They don't play the Pats.
08:34They don't play the Chargers.
08:35They don't play the Packers.
08:37You know what I mean?
08:38It is kind of interesting once you get into the meat of it, you just wonder how long you
08:44can last.
08:46A ton of NFC East games early on here.
08:50I mean, half your NFC East season is over before Halloween.
08:54Which it used to be the opposite.
08:55They flipped it so we're playing.
08:57We're backloading all these games.
08:58And now I feel like they've completely flipped the entire schedule with this.
09:01I think, so the first four we talked about at length.
09:05The London game we discussed plenty because we all kind of understood it was going to be
09:09the Colts.
09:10Week 5 hosting the Giants.
09:12I have no idea what the Giants are going to be.
09:15I don't know if you do.
09:16I know there's going to be a higher floor.
09:18That's it.
09:19Like really, John Harbaugh is going to make them less of a dumb-dumb team.
09:22And we know that he's in charge.
09:23And we know that you have a general manager that's a figurehead that's not doing anything.
09:26But can he get Jackson Dart to actually learn how to slide?
09:29Can he get, you know, this defense to be, you know, get all of the talent that you have
09:34in terms of the edge rushers there?
09:36Is it going to be a lot of the, like, I'm showing up and showing that I'm in charge
09:39and he's got to be the hard-ass?
09:41Or are they going to buy into his system?
09:42I think the Giants are, there's a chance that the Giants' floor is certainly raised short-term.
09:47It's definitely going to be the case with him long-term.
09:49It's just, what is the culture and what does that team actually look like early on?
09:52Or is it just, is there a long adjustment period with John Harbaugh?
09:55I think that's going to be the real telling sign.
09:57We'll see.
09:57Sometimes when you're the new coach and you come in and you're the ball buster,
10:00it takes a year to get the team you want together.
10:03Yes, and that's the thing.
10:03It could be that way.
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