- 27 minutes ago
Washington Commanders Reporter Ben Standig from The Last Man Standig Podcast and Substack joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to give his post game analysis on the Commanders’ 24-22 loss to the Eagles. Ben and Kevin discuss defensive blunders on key third-and-long situations, Stefon Diggs picking up an unsportsmanlike penalty, the bizarre shovel-pass attempt during the two-point try, and how Dan Quinn handled the inactive list for week 1.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Ben Standing is with us. Ben was there, the link in Philadelphia. Ben has written about
00:07on his sub stack. I would encourage everybody to subscribe to it. It's called Last Man Standing,
00:14and it's totally worth it. Ben joins us Mondays and Fridays and sometimes in between during
00:21football season as our commander's insider. And I think we start every Monday following a game
00:29and have for the last couple of years with, go ahead, give me your biggest takeaways from
00:34week one. Yeah. You know, if this game was a week six or week 10, I think we would probably
00:42be viewing it, at least I would probably be viewing it a little bit differently than I
00:45am here in week one in that, you know, there were a bunch of mistakes, coverage lapses, you
00:52know, pre-snap penalties, the Stephon Diggs, you know, obviously penalty on the two-point
00:56conversion to wipe that opportunity out when you're down two in the fourth. Like these
01:00are the types of things that would be, you know, at a minimum, you know, eye rolling at
01:06a maximum, you know, pulling out the hair when you lose a game, a division game like
01:10that, not to mention a block extra point and so on. On the other hand, because it's week
01:16one, because I don't think anybody's had a real great feel for what expectations would
01:21be, not, and it's kind of the same for almost every team these days because of the fact that
01:25there's just so little preseason action and, you know, these guys had a bunch of
01:29injuries late and so on, that I think there were a lot of things that were encouraging.
01:33The defense just was hitting all over the place. You know, I know you just mentioned
01:37a bit of an overaggressive call on that third and 17, and I'm with you, but like in general,
01:42I thought the defense, you know, looked at least somewhat like...
01:46They lived on the other side of the line of scrimmage all day. They had 10 TFLs,
01:49seven that weren't sacks.
01:51Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, and, you know, and it looked like what we were, you know,
01:55anticipating. I mean, and I was with, you know, guys like Owe and Chason just coming
02:00back from injuries. Sonny Stiles' first game, no Trey Amos still and so on. You know,
02:06offensively, obviously, it was a struggle much of the day, and, you know, he got an Eagles
02:10credit for that, but, you know, Jaden Daniels, you know, beyond all the other reasons as to
02:16why I just think he's, you know, a tremendous quarterback is he does not wilt down the stretch,
02:21and I know that, you know, it would have been cool if he'd been 9 of 11 for two touchdowns
02:26in earlier quarters as well, but, you know, when needed to, he stepped up, made the plays,
02:31you know, and, you know, the two-point conversion, you know, I'm sure you've talked about it a lot.
02:40Obviously, a two-point conversion shovel pass to John Bates would not have been on my bingo card,
02:45but when you look at the play, I mean, it's there to be had, but, you know, the defensive
02:49tackle spun off of Alec Reddy, it looked like, and got in the way, and if he had, if that's
02:54blocked a bit cleaner, I'm not going to say Bates walks into the end zone, but, like, he's got a
02:58much
02:58better chance of getting right to the goal line at a minimum, and then it's just a matter of his
03:02power, you know, pushing past the defenders or not. So, you know, in uneven performance in spots,
03:08too many big plays allowed, but at the same time, a lot of encouragement, and especially
03:13considering just how negative things got here down the last couple of weeks, even the offensive
03:18line, I'm not saying it was, you know, a sterling performance by any stretch, but, you know,
03:22you mentioned how many TFLs and sacks Washington's defense had. Philly had far less. Give Jaden
03:29credit for being able to scramble out, but at the same point, you know, I think the line
03:32was credible enough. It wasn't the basket case that people were making it out to be, so some
03:36good stuff, but obviously, like I said, if this is like a week seven game, I think we're focused
03:40a lot more on the mistakes that were being made. Yeah, I mean, week one typically comes
03:47with a lot of sloppiness, and there was some sloppiness, but there wasn't a turnover in
03:51the game, potentially a game-ender in the Krosky-Meritt fumble at the end, and correct
03:57me if I'm wrong, I don't think he came back into the game. I think Catron Allen came back
04:01in, and I think that was it for Krosky-Meritt after he put the ball on the ground and Connerly
04:06Jr. recovered it. Am I right about that? That sounds right. I mean, you're right.
04:11Obviously, Catron Allen was in there late, which was interesting, just because we just
04:15hadn't seen him a ton in the rookie and so on, but yeah, they wanted that power game,
04:19so they went with him. But yeah, I'm not 100% sure that he did, if Bill came in or
04:24out
04:24yet, but it was definitely Catron Allen down the stretch for sure. And obviously, Rashad White
04:27was in there on the two-pointer. Yeah. Yeah, and Jaden talked about it. I talked about
04:34it before, and then we played the Jaden bite. There was an option there for Jaden to not
04:40shovel it, and it's based on what Hunt was doing as the edge defender, and he played Jaden,
04:45and so Jaden made the read that I think he was supposed to make. And to your point, if
04:51Allegretti can seal Ojomo, and Ojomo makes a great play, a very athletic play for a defensive
04:57tackle. But yeah, Allegretti needs to seal that, and then maybe Bates scores. I do have,
05:04I am wondering whether or not, not that they play the exact same position, but I wonder
05:09because they practice these two-point plays in advance. You know, this is something that
05:14they work on leading into a game. I wonder if Akonquo would have been the guy in that spot,
05:21not Bates, had he been healthy and been in the game. Yeah, I mean, you know, I talked
05:27to Bates afterwards, and he said, of course, it's something that he's practiced and, you
05:31know, wasn't surprised when it was his call. But at the same point, you know, if you said
05:35to me, okay, without knowing, you know, it's a two-point conversion, you have these four
05:39tight ends, rank the tight ends in order you think you would go with. Now, obviously, Bates
05:44is the bigger surprise of the bunch, but, you know, Ben Sinnott is a, you know, a fullback-y,
05:50very athletic type of physical guy. And, obviously, Colson Yankoff is a former running
05:55back, quarterback, receiver, and all that. So, you would think on some level, those guys
05:58would make more sense, along with Akonquo. But, again, the play is there to be had. It's
06:04just, you know, they made a good play. And, you know, you've got to give them credit
06:08for that. And, obviously, it would have been better why if Al Gray was able to seal it
06:12off, but it didn't happen. But, yes, again, John Bates, the shuffle pass, you could have
06:16given me 100 guesses as to what I thought might go there. And I don't know if I'm
06:19getting that one.
06:21Yeah, for sure. All right, Ben Standing joining us at Ben Standing on X. So, I
06:26want to go back to the inactive list. You actually said on Friday that you thought
06:33there was a chance Burks could be inactive. But you did not think, nor did anybody
06:39think, both he and McCaffrey would be inactive. What do you think went into that?
06:47Yeah, so I wrote in a notebook for Sunday morning. I kind of played guessing game with
06:53the inactive. And I went with Kane Medrano sitting over McCaffrey. But it's the same
07:00special teams. It's just two different ways of going about it. McCaffrey is the return
07:04game. Medrano is the tackling and the coverage. And the other day, I asked Larry Izzo on Friday,
07:13like, you know, now that things have changed a little bit, no Nick Bloor, Jeremy Reeves,
07:17you know, starting safety. How do you view the core of your group? And he mentioned Medrano
07:22as one of the guys. So, that to me was like, well, maybe I should switch that. But in any
07:26event, I just think ultimately that was the deal, obviously, you know, between Jalen Lane
07:31and some other, Rashad White, De'Ami Brown, what have you. You know, they have other guys
07:35that can quote-unquote return kicks. So, yeah, I think that's what it was. They, you know,
07:39they leaned into the coverage aspect of it, which makes a lot of sense. I mean, no disrespect
07:44to like McCaffrey or other returners, but it was a little bit, you know, a lot of guys can
07:48do that. But there are, you know, a fewer amount of players who can make real impact in the
07:53coverage game. Obviously, that's what they went with. Yeah. I mean, look, I thought Jalen
07:57Lane was very good on returns, you know, across the board, punt returns, kick returns. I think
08:04he had, you know, averaged close to 14 yards on punt returns and kickoff returns, like over
08:0930, I think, for the game. You know, I think that that's fine if they don't want to activate
08:16McCaffrey. I had just a weird feeling that Van Jefferson being signed back to the practice
08:22squad, being a veteran player that they would have had to commit to for a year's worth of
08:26salary, had he been on the week one roster, that he may be a possibility for week two.
08:31What do you think?
08:34Um, I don't know. I mean, I think the fact that Antonio Williams showed the way that he
08:39did. And I think the thing with Van Jefferson was, so again, if you're not a top three or
08:45four rotation receiver, you pretty much have to play special teams. And that's just not
08:49really him. And not just that, but like Deami is very good on teams. Obviously, Jalen Lane
08:54is the returner. You know, McCaffrey would have been as well. I mean, that was the reason
08:57why I kind of didn't think Traylon Burks. I actually thought they were going to use more
09:0112 and 13 personnel than I think they ultimately did. Yeah. So that was one thought I had.
09:06But, you know, again, at the same point, just, you know, special teams, it's not something
09:09we all typically think about. But when you have this many receivers, you know, it just
09:15felt like that could be a way to differentiate other guys over him. So I don't know that I'm
09:20seeing Van Jefferson come up. I mean, you know, if Traylon Burks would be more like,
09:24hey, is he active than Van Jefferson coming up? I'd probably go Burks. But yeah, I mean,
09:29look, Jefferson's back. I mean, he, I talked to him the other day. He just said that, you
09:33know, he had some other options out there, but he just says, like, I don't say, just
09:36didn't, you know, want to have to go to a new place with a new complete system. Not any,
09:40I'm not automatically going to be, you know, starting per se. So he's comfortable here,
09:45stayed here. And, you know, as we know, things happen, but I don't know about if I see him
09:48for week two. Maybe, but I don't know. Update us on the four players that were injured and
09:54left the game. Chigakonkwo, Frankie Luvu, Tyler Owens, and Jordan McGee, I think were the
10:00four. Yeah. I mean, Dan Quinn made a point after the game to say he doesn't have any updates.
10:06I always think sometimes this is a, you know, to make a really old reference, you know,
10:11it's a Sergeant Schultz thing. Like, don't tell me. I don't see anything. Don't tell me.
10:15Then that way I can't deny it. So I think they keep some of that information away from him
10:20in those moments. That said, I did see Frankie Luvu and Chigakonkwo in the locker room. I mean,
10:24you know, you never can tell, but they didn't seem to be in any, you know, stress or anything like
10:28that. I didn't see the other two, which isn't to say that they are in a more dicier situation.
10:34It seems to say that I didn't see them. So, you know, Quinn talks today at about three
10:39o'clock. So we'll get, we'll get a feel for there. I mean, I don't know what the television
10:43said. I just was sort of catching up on the TV replay this morning about any of that,
10:48but I didn't get any sense of anything dire, but you know, we've, we've all been fooled
10:53before sometimes. Dean Blandino on the broadcast said that the touchdown pass to Goddard in the
11:00fourth quarter that gave Philadelphia a 24 to 16 lead was a legal play. Um, did you have any sense
11:08in the locker room that Washington didn't think it was a legal play because they kind of stopped
11:15or certainly slowed down on that play, which cost them dearly? Yeah. I mean, Dan Quinn said he didn't
11:21really get a good feel or get rid, get a really good answer as to what happened there. I, you
11:27know,
11:27I think that there was, that obviously was a huge play, but I don't, you know, there was a lot
11:30of
11:32just the broader defense and the broader conversation wasn't so much on that one
11:36play. But obviously when you look at the replay, boy, I mean, it just feels like we've seen that
11:39play a hundred, you know, if you see that play a hundred times, it's 99 times the guy gets called.
11:46Somebody gets called on offense for a false start or a legal motion or something. So it's odd. I'm not
11:51sure what his clarification was for saying that it was, it was legal, but at the same time, you know,
11:57this is how it goes. I, you know, this goes back to, you know, when you asked me, you know,
12:01what's my prediction for the season and, you know, I, you know, I'm always of like, look,
12:05because there are a lot of questions still, but there's also a lot of positives that they fall
12:10in the same category that half the league does, which is between somewhere between seven and 10 wins.
12:15The difference is ultimately things like, do you get an extra point block? Do they, do the referees
12:20call the false start or do they not call the false start? And think about that. And in this case,
12:25these worked against them. They didn't get the calls and, you know, I'm going to get,
12:28they had their own mistakes that they contributed to the loss, but these are the things that lead
12:32to that. And, you know, that's why this game is like, you know, so, you know, it just comes
12:40down to the little things. I mean, let's just say that Washington had won that game. I don't
12:43know that we're going, wow, that they looked amazing. We go cool. They got the win, but it didn't
12:49go that way. And, you know, that's one of those plays where you're just like, man, how many other
12:53scenarios would that have been called a false start?
12:57Yeah. Uh, uh, it was, you're a hundred percent right. That's why it makes the NFL insane, uh,
13:04to, to try to predict and, and bet, uh, even though the smell test went three and two yesterday,
13:09uh, we are talking to Ben standing. Um, but, uh, yeah, uh, I, I, in trying to sort of assess
13:17Jones and Blau in their first games as coordinators and play callers, well, I'll let you, I'll let
13:24you answer, but you, you sound like you're with me in that there were some real encouraging things
13:31defensively. It, it certainly was an easier watch than last year. That's for sure.
13:37Yeah. You know, look, I mean, we've obviously talked a lot about how's the Durante Jones system
13:42going to be and how is this guy going to fit at the end of the day, when you just
13:47simply have the
13:48faster athletes out there, it just means that even in the plays in which maybe the other team
13:54executes it a little bit better or somebody gets into the clear, you have guys that can, that can make
13:59the play and limit, you know, turn a potential 20 yard play into a four yard play. And then of
14:05course, beyond that, you see, you know, the very first play of the game, you know, it was a sort
14:09of like a nothing pass out in the flat to Saquon Barkley, but, but Sonny Stiles races out there
14:13to get it. He obviously Stiles, you know, trucks Barkley on another play at leading to a sack. He
14:19gets two tackles for a loss. Now he also had some plays where you're like, okay, you know, got caught
14:23up inside or, or, or what have you, but you know, it is, you know, it's the up and down
14:29of, of not just for a rookie, but for all these guys, that first game, that first game
14:35back. But, you know, again, then with Owe, who also had a sack and two TFL and chase on
14:41and, you know, Javon Kinlaw had a big play behind the line scrimmage. They're just so much
14:44more athletic than they were a year ago at, you know, in that front seven. Obviously the secondary
14:51is where, you know, there were a lot of questions coming into this. I mean, I said at some point
14:55during camp, uh, at least prior to sort of, um, some of the injuries on the offensive line
15:02that, you know, the cornerback's room was to me getting to become the more problematic
15:06or the more concerning. Uh, and, you know, I don't think anything yesterday changed my
15:11view on that. I mean, it's Mikey Sanders still obviously had a rough couple, couple plays
15:16in coverage, but you mentioned that, you know, the, the Dallas Goddard touchdown, how did that
15:20possibly happen? Uh, and then even the 43 yard or independent of whether or not it was a false
15:25start, you know, there was a, they had two or three guys around Goddard on the catch and looked
15:29like Nick Cross. I thought it had a really good game, just over, over pursued the play. And all
15:33of a sudden that created a lane. And, you know, again, these are the things you have to clean up,
15:37but for, for our first game, for what we were anticipating, um, I thought that was a pretty
15:42encouraging, also Owe played like a ton considering he'd only just gotten back this week. I was
15:49wondering, you know, could he be, have a bit of a pitch count? No, it was quite the opposite. He
15:52played a ton. So that was a good sign as well. Yeah. I'm just watching this third and six. I
15:57mean,
15:58they are definitely, um, slow to get into that play and they are pointing at the left tackle,
16:05uh, on that play. You got to play it. You can't rely that they're going to get the false start
16:10or,
16:11uh, and you can't be convinced that what you saw and I'm watching it over and over again. I think
16:15Blandino is probably right. It's probably technically a legal play, even though it looked,
16:20uh, crazy. Um, by the way, like to the point of just like, you never know how it's going to
16:25go,
16:25right? There's a play where Washington, where Philly clearly jumps off sides. And usually that's
16:30either the center snaps it when he sees that or other, the offensive lineman move to force the
16:36referees to make the play. And instead of this case, none of that happened and they get a delayed
16:40game. So, you know, it's, uh, you know, again, it's just, these are how these things go. We
16:46notice it when it doesn't work. We sort of dismiss it when it does go your way, because you're just
16:50like, Oh, well, it's just part of the game. But, you know, obviously in this case, again,
16:53there was just too many that went the other way. All right. What else you got? Anything?
16:59Uh, well, I, you know, I think in terms of, you know, the quarterback,
17:03look, obviously Jaden was under pressure a fair amount, but it never felt like the pressure was
17:07overwhelming by, by, by any stretch. He, when he needed to, he definitely, you know, bounced
17:13outside or away from the, um, the pursuers, you know, I'm not, I don't want to talk out of both
17:20sides of my mouth. Like on the one hand, good that he was able to avoid getting a lot of
17:24hit
17:24teams. He seemed to have a better feel for when to throw the ball away as opposed to maybe in
17:28the
17:28past. On the other hand, you know, just didn't really turn it up the field a ton. So, you know,
17:33again, it's hard to complain. It's hard to square both of those things. Obviously hit
17:38part of his appeal is the ability to scramble and make the plays down the field. We did see
17:42Jalen hurts, you know, especially late in that third and 18 scramble for 22 yards ahead of the
17:49Goddard touchdown. And then earlier in the game, he had a, like a nine or 10 yard run as well.
17:54So, you know, there are opportunities, but, you know, still looking maybe for that balance,
17:58but overall, you know, again, the, the, the ability late in the game to dial it up when
18:04you, when you need it the most, it was obviously a frustrating day, uh, for everybody involved
18:09beforehand, not getting the ball to McLaurin, you know, targeting digs, but not being overly
18:13efficient, uh, et cetera. But, you know, in the end, you know, I think Jaden Daniels once
18:18again showed why he's got, he's a guy that when he's in the game, you have a chance. I mean,
18:22the fact that they were even again, like they play pretty easily, but like, you know,
18:26that normally that game gets away from them, at least, you know, in the history of sort
18:31of Washington Philly and here they were had a chance to tie it with, you know, a minute
18:36to go. And, you know, I think that's, you gotta give credit to Jaden for sticking in
18:39there and, you know, for the offense as a whole wasn't going, not a lot wasn't going
18:43right, but they were able to, you know, wake up in the end and, you know, a little too
18:47late, unfortunately.
18:48Yeah. You know, um, something I haven't mentioned, you just reminded me on, I don't think I
18:53mentioned it. I may have, uh, I've talked a lot here for the last two hours, but on the
18:59scramble on that last play of the third quarter, I mean, there's nobody open and he does a really
19:05good job scrambling on that play, but maybe the most notable part of that play is at the
19:10very end, he gets down and doesn't take a hit unnecessarily. He goes to get the first
19:15down. Cause you need the first down you're down 17 to nine. I think at that point, and it's
19:20late in the game and you got to make a play and he makes a play, but he does not
19:26go for
19:27those extra three or four yards by taking on a tackler and he got down and avoided the
19:32hit. Um, I thought, I thought ultimately he was obviously, you know, incredible in the
19:38late third quarter, fourth quarter, as you said, I mean, he has delivered over and over
19:42again, uh, in clutch time for this team when he's played, obviously, um, he wasn't sharp
19:48for the first three quarters, but I thought he also did a really nice job of not forcing
19:53anything, you know, a couple of turnovers and they would have had no shot in this game.
19:59Uh, and I thought that he did a really good job when there wasn't a lot that was there,
20:04uh, overall. So yeah, overall, I, I kind of viewed him as a, as a, you know, a C level
20:10game
20:11heading into the fourth quarter, but the fourth quarter raises it to, you know, a solid B.
20:16Yeah. He, he, I asked him after the game, I was like, look, I understand that pretty
20:19much all the teams in the league these days don't play their starters much in the preseason,
20:23but for you, the only three plays he then brought up, Hey, I didn't even play since
20:27December or any game, you know, what did it take a minute to kind of get going because
20:32of the lack of the preseason? And you could tell he didn't want to make any kind of excuse,
20:36but yeah, basically it was kind of like, yeah, I mean, you know, first time I've been out
20:39there for a while. And obviously that's the case for the whole team as a whole. So, you
20:42know, I think it's not like Philly was like terribly effective in general. They just were
20:48able to take advantage of some of the opportunities that made those bigger plays than, then, you
20:53know, that they have a better defense, right? I mean, especially in the back, in the back
20:57end of it and their guy stepped up and, uh, you know, Washington's, uh, you know, unfortunately
21:01they've got enough gas. So, um, yeah, I mean, and again, you know, a lot, lot, lot. I will
21:06say this one thing and I, and I don't want to, you know, I've not watched the all 22 yet,
21:10so I don't want to say too much about what the play callers did or didn't do. You know,
21:15we saw a lot in training camp of Blau dialing up some sort of these trickery kind of plays
21:19and I don't mean trick like it's like, as if it's just like a, a, a prayer. I just mean,
21:24you know, it's something outside of the norm, right? I don't mind the play call, the attempted
21:29flea flicker one, but my only issue is the reason a play like that works is that there's some
21:35established sense of what you're going to do. And they, they had not only is it the first
21:39game, it was like the first drive. They hadn't tried with anything. So, you know, maybe that's
21:44the thing you do in the fourth quarter after you've gotten some bills, some stretch runs
21:47or, or James able to do a few more things. I just thought that was a bit too early when
21:51why is Philly jumping for that when they have no feel that you're going to do anything in
21:55particular at this point. Yeah. I thought there was a lot offensively. It's one of those things
22:00you really want to go back and look at, you know, um, because I don't think I'll trust Brady
22:05that there wasn't a lot there for Jaden, but I, I, you know, they, they ran a play like
22:10it was, I think it was the first play of the fourth quarter. It was just a quick out to
22:15Bates for like six or seven yards. And I would have preferred given that they were having a
22:22difficult time getting the ball downfield, maybe a little bit more quick game. They stuck
22:27with the run. I give them credit. They stuck with the run. They, they hung in there and
22:31they didn't run it poorly. They didn't run it great, but they didn't run it poorly.
22:35But I thought maybe, you know, a little bit more quick game. Terry could have gotten a quick
22:40early touch, you know, in the game. Um, and that Bates place sticks out to me because I
22:47think it was, you know, in that drive where they made it 17 to 16 ultimately after the digs
22:52penalty and they couldn't go for two. Um, and I, I would have loved to have seen maybe a
22:57little bit more of that, but look, it's his first game coordinating game planning, calling
23:03plays. Um, and when you have two new coordinators, you got to give them some time, I guess, because
23:09I think Durante Jones on the third and goal from the 17 that, that, that Goddard touchdown
23:13pass. I, you don't see many teams get overly aggressive in that spot and they ultimately
23:19didn't blitz, but they had seven people at the line of scrimmage pre-snap and they got back
23:25late and Goddard beat them. And it was that you, that that's one of those, that's got to
23:29hurt a little bit for the defensive coordinator who overall, I thought really showed what he
23:36wants to be defensively. And it'll be more fun to watch that way. We'll see if the results
23:42are different, but it'll at least be less painful to watch.
23:46Yeah. Well, let's not forget Doran Armstrong didn't play, obviously their best defensive
23:50player. It's not the defensive lineman last year at a minimum.
23:55Yeah. No, no, no, we'll see when he's back. I mean, he's generous. He's been in good mood
24:00when I've seen him in the locker room, but you know, we'll see. Um, so yeah, I mean, the
24:05defense was more, much more encouraging and for the offense, like I said, it's just, you
24:09know, hopefully the timing comes up a little bit better when once they, you know, are out
24:13there together, you know, again, the quarters, the quarterback and center hadn't been out
24:17there a lot, didn't only shut up halfway through camp, et cetera. So, um, yeah, I mean, encouraging
24:22signs, but you know, like I said, at the top, if this is week seven, we're not talking about
24:26encouraging signs. Hopefully they can clean up these mistakes. Talk to you later. Thanks.
24:31Yeah, man. Ben standing, everybody.
Comments