- 25 minutes ago
Kevin Sheehan gives you his signature "Game Take" from the Commanders 24-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He breaks down positive takeaways, including an aggressive defense that logged 10 tackles for loss, standout play from Nick Cross and rookie Antonio Williams, and Daniels' dominant fourth quarter. Sheehan then analyzes the negatives, pointing to six explosive plays allowed by the defense, Stefon Diggs' unsportsmanlike penalty, and execution errors on critical plays.
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00:00all right uh the game take uh as it has been for many many years now following uh a skins
00:06game is
00:07a list of the things that i i liked from a washington perspective a list of the things
00:12that i didn't like and lots of other kind of observations about the game including sometimes
00:18observations about the other team uh number one on my list from yesterday's game was the defense
00:27you know i'll get to the big plays and there were six of them in total that were very very
00:34hurtful
00:34and i think in most situations like if the defense had been a really good defense last year and the
00:40year before and we lived in a world here in dc with our football team where they've had some really
00:46good defenses versus what they've had which is some of the worst defensive football teams we've seen
00:51in modern uh american football certainly last year's defense was that you know the comparison
00:58wouldn't be as influential you know in in the conversation in the post-game conversation
01:04but it was just nice to see a competent defensive football team on the field for yesterday for one
01:13game we'll see what happens next week and the week after but the defense legitimately lived
01:20in the philadelphia backfield all day long when was the last time we could say that about our defense
01:28it owned the line of scrimmage played on the other side of the line of scrimmage a lot of it
01:36was scheme
01:37in durante jones's first game calling a defense a lot of it was some of the new players that played
01:44very well but the bottom line is yes and i'll get to the bad from the defensive day but this
01:52was very
01:52close to being the first a day for a defense around here since 2022 it was a solid bb plus
02:02because you
02:03got to count the big plays that they gave up excellent pressure all day long excellent excellent
02:10tackling in short spaces there were a couple of misses i'm not going to say that they were perfect
02:15but for an opener the tackling was pretty good the run stopping which i had as my number one key
02:23to the game i thought for the most part and when i say for the most part one run saquon
02:29barkley's 42
02:30yard run in the first half and that does count it does and saquon has a lot of those games
02:36you know
02:37where he ends up at five yards plus per carry but it's all skewed by one run it counted and
02:44it was a
02:45big run but every other run was less than three yards per carry for saquon barkley i thought the run
02:54defense was solid i thought that the pressure was solid they had three sacks plenty of pressures but
03:0410 total tackles for loss that is an excellent day when you are on the other side of the line
03:12of
03:12scrimmage making a tackle for lost yardage and it isn't all sacks three sacks seven of those
03:19weren't sacks they were just flat out tfls tackles for loss philly's runners and philly's quarterback
03:29went down behind the line of scrimmage 10 times in the game that's impressive
03:37it was not an overall a day because of the big plays but man for this one game
03:45and we i couldn't wait to see it durante jones brian flores what would it look pre-snap
03:51there was some chaos being created there was we're going to err on the side of being aggressive
03:59i don't know what the blitz percentage was but it was higher than normal i saw a lot of first
04:06down
04:06what you would call in the old days run blitzes with sunny styles specifically moving to number two on
04:14my list the players that i really thought popped defensively like wow okay the guy looks like he
04:22can play a little bit this was not a surprise to me because it was one of my favorite free
04:27agent
04:27signings for the team in the offseason nick cross i thought was the best defensive player on the field
04:33yesterday the safety that they acquired from indianapolis the former turp who grew up in the area
04:38a washington fan he really is a good first of all i would say this he's an excellent tackler okay
04:49overall nick cross can really really tackle nick cross also is is a guy that uh has a real good
04:59anticipatory sort of uh understanding of the game and where things are going he was active in the box
05:06he was active all over the field uh in coverage i'd have to go back and look at it again
05:12to know
05:12what he was specifically in coverage but i thought in and around the line of scrimmage nick cross was
05:20excellent as sort of an in the box safety i thought javon kinlaw in particular really showed up and popped
05:30on occasion i thought kinlaw in particular as a pass rusher really was difficult to block i thought he got
05:38very good pressure i thought settle played well in his snaps uh up front um i thought that sunny styles
05:48certainly as a blitzer was effective the rest of it i'm not sure yet but obviously he really sort of
05:58popped because as an early down blitzer and the sack that he had where he ran over barkley before
06:04getting to hurts tells you physically and athletically what he's capable of um who else is on my list here
06:14i thought away showed some really good early pressure and some ability to set the edge you know i thought
06:24overall with the exception of the one run they did a good job against the run i thought 29 rasul
06:30douglas
06:31he got away with one um but i thought overall he was pretty decent in coverage who else is on
06:39my list
06:39here i thought lou vu looked good before he got hurt especially as a tackler frankie lou vu is an
06:47excellent tackler and an excellent pass rusher um oh many hugh had a deflected pass that uh was
06:57i thought a a decent play i did not necessarily i'm trying to look to see snap counts how many
07:05snap
07:05counts so many who was out there for 29 snaps so he was out there a good bit you know
07:11not as much as
07:12the safeties in the corners obviously um and then and then two uh jersey number two amik robertson i
07:20thought was excellent in coverage yesterday let me just go down my list of notes
07:29defensively i don't know how you watch that game and not just say
07:36okay it's going to be different this year now again one game but a more aggressive scheme
07:43um better players now playing against a team that had a new offensive coordinator and for jalen hurts
07:51a new system for what the ninth time in 10 years or eighth time in nine years whatever it is
07:57so they're a little bit behind the eight ball offensively as well you know the teams there was a
08:04lot of good offense yesterday chicago in particular how about ben johnson he may be right they may set
08:09the league uh mark for scoring 59 in the first game um yeah i i i just thought defensively it
08:19was so
08:20much easier to watch and it's encouraging some of the talent that they have out there i hope lou vu's
08:29okay um because i think lou vu is a player they're expecting really good things from and i'll get to
08:37durante jones and blau a little bit later on but yeah number one overall just was defensively there
08:45are big plays allowed i'll get to those but you know this was philadelphia had six first downs heading
08:53into the fourth quarter they ended up with 10 total 10 total first downs in the game now they the
09:01most
09:02of the first downs were on big chunk plays they overcame a third and 18 and a third and 17
09:10that's
09:10usually not going to be hey the defense was great today i thought the defense gave him a shot the
09:16entire
09:17day um number next on the list the rookie antonio williams i thought he was exceptional as a route
09:25runner his hands were great that touchdown catch was first rate man that is a ball you can complain
09:33about it jayden's pressured from the edge he's got a sidearm that thing out there uh and it got there
09:39just barely and antonio williams made that ball never moved when it hit the ground he had his
09:47mitts on it that was a legal catch it was a great catch um and of course he had the
09:52third and 14 33
09:53yarder uh as well uh you could tell and you know the all 22 is a better look at this
10:00but this guy can
10:02this he's a good route runner for sure that you know that he's got good hands for sure and along
10:08with digs maybe the two receivers really that have the ability to separate consistently you know
10:15that's never been terry's big thing terry's more of a contested catch guy the separation for digs and
10:21antonio williams especially when they got to the fourth quarter was really really big antonio williams
10:28on the list of things that i like uh liked from the game um jayden daniels in the fourth quarter
10:35uh
10:35this will lead to what i'm gonna you know overall say about jayden's game but certainly uh his fourth
10:42quarter was exceptional nine for eleven hundred yards two touchdowns uh two long drives when they
10:49absolutely had to have them overcoming third downs overcoming a fourth down um nine for eleven with
10:56two touchdowns and a 14 yard scramble at the very end of the third quarter i'll count that because
11:01that was really part of the two uh long uh touchdown drives um that made up uh their final two
11:09possessions
11:09the touchdown drive that they ended up scoring uh to make it 17 to 15 before they had to kick
11:16the point
11:16because of the digs penalty came with 10 minutes but that drive started late in the third quarter
11:20um he was just exceptionally uh decisive and accurate in that fourth quarter when he wasn't
11:29super sharp through the first three and we've kind of gotten used to this uh in his very short career
11:37is that he tends to not really feel any kind of pressure of you gotta score on this drive in
11:46fact
11:47he seems to play his best football uh when that happens um a couple of the throws the third and
11:53sixth touchdown pass to digs to me was the best throw of the day it's versus the blitz and the
12:00ball
12:00is out quickly it's a flick of the wrist it's accurate it's anticipatory it's an easy touchdown and
12:08what digs did afterwards we'll talk about um the fourth and two to terry he's just super calm in those
12:15situations uh got through the progressions um not his fault on the two-point conversion i think he did
12:22read it correctly i just didn't love uh the call um look the the fourth quarter is on the list
12:30of
12:30things that i liked because he was exceptional in the fourth quarter obviously anybody that doesn't
12:35think that i'm not sure what you were watching uh the first three quarters were were difficult um
12:42number one is he wasn't sharp with his accuracy that's all we heard all summer is just how
12:48pinpoint accurate he was all summer well yeah it's easy to be pinpoint accurate during the summer when
12:53you're not playing real football against guys that can tackle you um and can actually uh mangle you if
13:00they if they get to you because you're not wearing a yellow jersey uh in practice uh so um i
13:06thought
13:07that a lot of it had to do with look vic fangio has definitely in his you know four games
13:15uh three
13:15games against jayden because jayden didn't play in either one of the two philly games last year
13:19but in the three games going back to 24 the first game other than the opener against tampa where jayden
13:27really looked confused was that thursday night short turnaround game against vic fangio's philadelphia
13:33eagles defense which at that point remember was ascending to not only the best defense in football
13:39but one of the better defenses we had seen in a while at the end of the 24 season through
13:44the
13:44postseason um and then even in that incredible comeback where jayden threw five touchdowns he also
13:51threw two picks in that game and was a bit off early uh in that game and finally figured it
13:58out late
13:58uh against uh fangio and the defense and then in the championship game you know there were just too
14:06many mistakes offensively with the turnovers and the fumbles etc the special teams fumble uh the
14:12jeremy mcnichols uh return fumble um but he kind of had it figured out and they moved the football
14:17pretty easily this was an opener first time they played football i think the biggest issue for
14:23washington offensively through the first three quarters is they were trying to establish the run
14:29and there were moments where they ran the football okay with bill krosky merit in particular
14:35but brady said it over and over again and the all 22 will probably reveal it although we don't know
14:42for sure unless you've already watched the all 22 i have i have not um but if you're an actual
14:47film
14:47expert uh i think you're gonna find that it was really difficult to find anybody open
14:53against that outstanding defense um maybe they should have gone to more closer to the line of
15:01scrimmage throws to create some run extension kind of throws i thought that jayden when he did have
15:09people open still wasn't super accurate digs got uh i think dinged for two drops in the game
15:14one of them was an obvious drop the one over the middle the other one was a little bit behind
15:18him it was catchable certainly a little bit behind him i thought the biggest miss for jayden
15:22was when he extended off of pressure and he floated one down the field and digs was wide open and
15:30he just missed him um overall though i think there was a lot going on there and i thought that
15:38he
15:38handled it well meaning he was patient uh he had he was 18 to 34 16 incompletions i would bet
15:48that six or seven of them minimum were throwaways after he gave it time he was patient he didn't
15:56duck and run he didn't immediately take off he had time now the pressure numbers are going to be higher
16:02in part because nobody was open and the play lasted longer but jayden in those situations i thought
16:09managed the game well he didn't for he did not by my count he didn't have one throw in the
16:17game that
16:18was what pff used to call if pff even does this stuff anymore did they even do grades they got
16:24bought
16:24or whatever maybe they're not even around but um the turnover worthy throws not one he didn't he didn't
16:31put the ball in harm's way one time in that football game and that's what philly baits you into doing
16:38so i thought overall not sharp for three quarters throwing the football but many reasons for it
16:48and did a good job managing a game that was always within striking distance you know if he starts
16:56forcing some of that stuff the game gets away from them and they never have the opportunity
17:01that they have in the fourth quarter his fourth quarter was exceptional it was you know at best a
17:08performance before that i'll give him a b overall um because of the outstanding fourth quarter uh also
17:17on the things that i liked list i thought look considering the doom and gloom the dire warnings of
17:22of of of training camp and of two offensive snaps against detroit with two fifths of their starting
17:29offensive line out um one sack and it was barely a sack on jayden um he almost got the ball
17:35back to the
17:35line of scrimmage the pressure rate i think is going to be a little bit misleading because jayden
17:40definitely held on to it because nobody was open before throwing it away he did a nice job of giving
17:45some of those chances um i you know overall the offensive line was solid uh you know they're on this
17:53list in part because we were expecting an absolute jailbreak on every play and that the quarterback
17:59would have no opportunity that that obviously did not uh unfold uh in the opener maybe it'll happen
18:06next week um the uh allegretti uh miss on a jomo on the two-point play was equally bad on
18:15allegretti's
18:16part and brilliant on a jomo's part that's the way i would evaluate that play that's a great defensive
18:22tackle spin move right into where the play was going to avoid being sealed by the center um two
18:31for two on fourth down is on the list of things that i liked um i thought the uh the
18:36fourth and one
18:37uh in the first half by bill where he used his strength to get three yards uh and then the
18:42fourth
18:42and two to terry those were big i thought tress away in the punt coverage was outstanding in this
18:48football game um he averaged over 53 yards per kick he did have one get into the end zone i'm
18:55sure
18:55he'd love to have that back or the punt coverage team would love to have that back tyler owens that
18:59video obviously has gone viral uh his his special team's prowess is we we knew about it before um but
19:07he is just one sick athletic high energy high motor football player um love it uh to watch him i
19:16hope
19:16he's healthy obviously he got hurt the three injuries i believe were louvu uh a con quo and owens i
19:23think
19:23those are the three um from the game um jordan mcgee too and jordan mcgee as well okay uh krosky
19:30merit
19:31i considered because i thought that was just an outstanding touchdown run i mean he is stronger
19:37as a runner that those were some of the training camp reports right that he looked bigger and stronger
19:42you saw that yesterday um i also like his vision but my god you cannot put the ball on the
19:49ground
19:49like he does that was game over if josh connerly doesn't make a great recovery that was the final
19:55drive that is see you later 24 16 final maybe the defense gets a stop and you get one more
20:01opportunity
20:02um but heating i don't think he came back into the game after that they put katron allen
20:07into the game um after krosky merit put it on the ground can't do that if you're going to be
20:13a lead back all right what i didn't like next all right uh the list of things that i didn't
20:19like from
20:19the game as pleasant as it was to watch the defense play yesterday comparatively uh to the last few
20:28years the bottom line is you can't give up the big plays that they gave up the explosive plays
20:35um and typically be in a position to win um unless your offense is lighting it up on the other
20:43side
20:43and the offense was not uh doing that um i thought ultimately if you were to you know list the
20:51reasons
20:51they lost the game even though i think the defense kept them in the game i think the big explosives
20:59and
20:59there were six of them really were ultimately the reason they lost the game more than any other
21:06reason uh that's what i would say um that was the difference in the game the six plays were the
21:1264
21:13yarder uh to wicks on philly's third drive uh that was you know a mikey sandra still special i'm gonna
21:21look totally idiotic for my bold prediction number one sandra still leads the nfl with interceptions
21:28by the way you can you can have a lot of picks and be a bad corner uh sometimes it's
21:32just because
21:33they're throwing in your direction so much um that i don't know what what he was doing there and why
21:38he
21:39was stopping um but that 64 yard play was the first of six big plays i think the um the
21:46play on third and
21:47goal from the 17 i think you have to put some of it maybe on what they were doing defensively
21:54when it's third and goal on the 17 you should not be able to as an offense go to your
22:02first read
22:03and convert it for a touchdown dallas goddard down the seam getting behind the underneath linebacker
22:12frankie louvu and in between a safe two safeties in that particular instance martin and reeves just
22:21should not happen if you're gonna score on a third and goal from the 17 it should be because a
22:27quarterback extends and extends and extends and you just can't cover for that long and somebody shakes
22:34free i don't know what they should have done but i know what is done a lot and it's not
22:43what they did
22:44they rushed four dropped seven and they dropped seven in in the case of louvu from the line of
22:52scrimmage nearly so he's backpedaling quickly i don't know whose fault it was on that play if louvu
22:57was supposed to drop to greater depth to take that away or if it was martin or if it was
23:03reeves
23:03but you know rushing three and dropping eight and basically protecting the goal line and anything
23:09behind it keeping everything in front of you is typically on third and forever the way a lot of
23:16nfl teams play it especially in the red zone on a condensed field like you're not going to get a
23:23sack to knock them out of field goal range when they're at the 17 you know even if you get
23:28sacked
23:28at the 25 yard line it's 42 yard field goal you just can't give up a touchdown and you also
23:36don't want
23:36to give up something that allows them to tush push on a fourth down you know you don't want to
23:40give it
23:41up to the two or inside the two or at the one yard line but you should never be able
23:46to score on your
23:46first progression read on third and goal from the 17. barclay's 42 yard run on a third and two on
23:55philly's fifth drive was the third big play again he was less than three yards on everything else but the
24:0142
24:01does count chanel had a chance in the hole but barkley made a miss he's going to do that to
24:07virtually everybody the third and five 31 yard completion what a throw by hertz hertz was i thought
24:14excellent yesterday um to davante smith against rasul douglas um the third of the the fourth of the six
24:23big plays big explosives certainly the most hurtful in the game given the timing of it
24:29was the third and 18 scramble by hertz for 22 yards with the eagles clinging to a 17 to 16
24:37lead
24:37that was an absolute backbreaker for sure uh and then of course the third and six touchdown to goddard
24:44where it did appear as if you know something was going on there and that a flag or should have
24:50been
24:51thrown but again according to dean blandino he said the play was legal and you gotta play it man
24:58you can't just sit there and point you know like expecting the play to be stopped you got to play
25:04the play and they stopped and philly didn't and it was 24 to 16 six seven seconds later so number
25:12one
25:13on the list of things that i didn't like were just the back-breaking big explosives that were given up
25:18by a defense that for the most part had a really really good day specifically on defense sandra still
25:26was terrible in the game in coverage now i think i don't have any of the numbers i thought they
25:32they were in zone most of the day there was some man coverage don't get me wrong but i thought
25:37they
25:37were in a lot of zone um during the game and maybe that is best for this particular defense because
25:43sandra still got beat by wicks on the deep one then by wicks on the touchdown where he really looked
25:48ill-prepared for the play look it's very possible that mikey sandra still just can't cover you know
25:55um and that he is a ball hawk to a certain degree uh and he's got that mindset but that
26:02straight up
26:03trying to cover somebody isn't his thing um also on the list of things that i didn't like uh there
26:11just
26:11wasn't a lot available in the past game uh for three quarters philly's really good more likely
26:18than not again on defense and very well coached again defensively but brady was saying it the entire
26:25game nobody's open terry didn't have his first catch until a quick line of scrimmage uh throw in
26:31the fourth quarter look i i don't want to make this about terry at all he's not a force feed
26:38wide
26:38receiver i've been telling you guys that for several years he's not a guy that you go into a
26:45game like you do with jamar chase or justin jefferson or amanra or any of the truly elite
26:51level receivers and say we're gonna get him 15 targets that's not what you do with him he's not
26:57that kind of a receiver now should he not touch the ball until the fourth quarter no i would have
27:03loved to have seen him touch the ball on a quick bubble a quick hitch something just an
27:08easy pitch and catch even if it's a three four yard completion to get him into the game the good
27:14thing about him is he never never sulks he's always out there running what he's supposed to be running
27:21blocking like he's supposed to block he's a pro's pro but don't tell me please that we gotta give him
27:3015 targets a game it's not the kind of receiver he is he's a really good receiver who's very good
27:38as a
27:38contested catch guy or has been he's not a big separator never has been which is one of the
27:44reasons you can't force it you know you need easy throws the greats in the game the truly elites
27:51are wide open a lot it's not terry it's never been terry um there wasn't a lot open period now
28:01diggs
28:01eventually started to cook de jean and and antonio williams the two of them can get separation that's
28:08obvious on the list of things i didn't like the diggs penalty um it's just stupid uh you know
28:16this is stefan diggs you're gonna get a lot of good and you're gonna occasionally get that because
28:21i'll tell you what he was along with antonio williams a big part of those two final drives i
28:28mean the separation he got on that uh big uh chunk play on the last drive uh he had a
28:34couple drops too
28:35in the game i mean one that was definitely a drop one was not the greatest throw um but certainly
28:41catchable but what's he thinking i mean it you're down eight you gotta know what the score is and how
28:48much time's left in the game you shouldn't do that at any point but when you do it when you're
28:54down
28:54eight it is just a complete lack of recognition of the actual game itself that you're playing in
29:01and and the score and the time you got to be thinking yeah i just scored let's get back to
29:08the
29:08huddle we're going for two to tie this thing no he jumps into the arms of the goal post flag
29:17uh on the list of things that i didn't like look i one of my keys on friday was you
29:22got to be less
29:23sloppy than the opponent because week one typically there's a lot of slop and they had drop passes they
29:29had a blocked extra point jalen carter but you got to account for that uh there's a missed 54 yard
29:35field goal that was big uh there were two i think two delay of game penalties there were wasted timeouts
29:42on both sides of the ball one on offense in the first half one on defense in the second half
29:46and
29:46then the one they used before the fourth and two to terry i understand it's a big play it's a
29:51massive
29:51play but it meant in calling that second time out and being left with one time out that you were
29:59then
29:59in position where you were going to have to kick in on sidekick where there was a chance if you've
30:05got two timeouts left that if you score and miss the two-point conversion you could kick deep um
30:13yeah uh the two-point play call uh we've already gone through that didn't love it um just i'm sorry
30:19but i like baits love him as a blocker i like him as a football player but he shouldn't be
30:24one of the
30:24options i don't think on a play where you're you're essentially trying to keep your chances of winning
30:30the game alive oh one other thing real quickly i i didn't see as much play action as i thought
30:37i would
30:38see offensively lots of under center um and there was some play action and more than the kingsbury
30:45offense but i thought there would have been more i thought there would have been more boots i have a
30:50feeling it was the opponent as much as anything else they had a very very tough talented well
30:58coached defensive opponent in the opener
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