00:00So today is coordinator day, David Blau and Durante Jones speaking.
00:05They actually did not put it on their YouTube channel for some reason,
00:09so I'm just going to read to you what David Blau said when Ben Standig asked him about, you know,
00:15Cliff Kingsbury, who will be in town with the Rams.
00:18Kingsbury's on Sean McVay's staff, if you didn't know that.
00:21I've already seen Kingsbury, similar to last year,
00:24I've already seen him mentioned multiple times as a potential head coach next year.
00:29Including in Philadelphia, of all places.
00:33But anyway, Ben asked David Blau about, you know, facing Cliff Kingsbury this week,
00:40and Blau said that they stay in contact with Cliff texting words of encouragement at times,
00:47and he called Cliff, quote, one of the most gracious people I've met.
00:52I really appreciate him, and I think he knows that.
00:56Closed quote.
00:57Man, the word from everybody that's covered Cliff throughout his career,
01:00and some of the guys that I know, like Scott and Stanford Steve, who know Cliff well,
01:07there just isn't a person in the sport that you can find that doesn't think that Cliff A is a
01:12great dude,
01:12B can really coach offense and quarterbacks in particular.
01:18I do find it interesting.
01:19I don't have the numbers in front of me.
01:21I meant to look at this.
01:23This is a gut feel.
01:26That all of the talk about under center, more, we're going to be more of a run team,
01:32we're going to be more of a zone run team,
01:36we're not going to be a team that, you know, tries to run a lot of plays, you know,
01:41no huddle, hurry up.
01:43But by the way, no huddle and hurry up are two different things.
01:45They can be the same thing.
01:47But just because you don't huddle doesn't mean that you are hurrying up.
01:51A lot of teams like to no huddle because it forces the defense to hesitate on any sort of new
02:00personnel package
02:01that they may have based on down and distance.
02:04Because you have the threat of going quickly if you are lining up no huddle.
02:10But it doesn't mean you're going to snap it quickly.
02:13It means that sometimes you will actually look and you will end up making a personnel change,
02:19which allows the defense then to match it.
02:21But a lot of times it's to keep that defensive package that you like for the down and distance on
02:27the field
02:27so that you can then run a play that you think has a better chance against that personnel package
02:33that was on the field on the previous play defensively.
02:36But, you know, so far this year, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I think the
02:42offense looks more like a Cliff Kingsbury offense
02:45than it does, you know, the offense we thought we were going to get.
02:50Because we have seen more under center.
02:52But there's no chance they're among the league leaders in under center snaps.
02:58Max, see if you can just Google under center snaps through seven weeks, through eight weeks in the NFL.
03:04Well, Washington's going to be higher up on the list than they've been the last two years,
03:08but they're not going to be way up on the list.
03:12It's nowhere near the amount of under center versus shotgun slash pistol that we thought we were going to get.
03:20I actually think, and I said that I would try to do this.
03:24I haven't done it yet.
03:25But, you know, the touchdown pass to Diggs on Sunday was in no huddle, more hurry up, but it was
03:34definitely no huddle.
03:35The touchdown pass in the opener, I think, to Diggs against Philadelphia was no huddle.
03:40I think the touchdown pass to Diggs against the 49ers was no huddle.
03:45I think that they have had success, a lot of success, on no huddle snaps.
03:53That's my gut.
03:55I don't have all the data.
03:56I just gave you three touchdowns, and I'm pretty sure, you know, in the red zone they went no huddle,
04:02and they threw touchdown passes, I think, all three times to Diggs, including on Sunday night against Philadelphia.
04:08So there are some elements of the Cliff offense still there, but we have seen Jaden under center more.
04:15We have seen more play-action pass attempts, not nearly the number that I thought we were going to get.
04:21Maybe that's coming.
04:24It's perhaps going to come.
04:26I think one of the things that's interesting, I think I mentioned this on yesterday's show,
04:32I would love to know from David Blau whether or not Jaden's doing a good job in their play-action
04:39game with the fakes.
04:42I see a lot of half fakes with Jaden, under center or in shotgun or pistol.
04:49Selling that fake.
04:51Pistol's different than shotgun, by the way, with play fakes, because pistol, you do turn your back to the defense
04:57because the running back is directly behind you on a play fake.
05:01Shotgun, when the back is to your side, you don't turn your back to the defense.
05:07Under center, you turn your back to the defense on a play fake, on play action.
05:11And what does that do?
05:13Well, that hides the football.
05:14But it only hides the football if the play fake is an effective one.
05:19I actually would be constructively critical of Jaden's play fakes this year in a lot of the play-action stuff,
05:29and they've increased that number not to the number that I thought they would.
05:32And just think about some of the really good play fake quarterbacks.
05:38I mean, Peyton Manning.
05:39Remember the sell, the hard sell on a play fake?
05:44He's one of the best ever.
05:45Brady, one of the best ever.
05:47In today's game, Jared Goff is very good at it.
05:51Very good.
05:52Kirk Cousins is excellent at play fakes, you know, especially in that run game, you know, that zone run,
05:59that stretch handoff or that stretch ball fake.
06:04Got to be better at that than Jaden's been.
06:07I'd be interested to see if that's an area where they think he needs to improve.
06:12You know, early on, I thought it was maybe he just doesn't want to take his eyes off the defense,
06:18or he wants to immediately get his head around as quickly as possible because he's not comfortable playing that way.
06:25But that play fake on play-action is critical, and sometimes it doesn't even require effective run game
06:32to bring that linebacker group, to bring that second level of the defense up.
06:38I don't think he's very good at it right now, or he's not consistent enough doing that.
06:44That will create bigger opportunities in the pass game.
06:48On play-action, the idea is to put the defense in conflict, especially those, you know, players at that second
06:58level
06:58who are playing run first and then playing pass.
07:02If you get them to commit, taking a step or more towards the line of scrimmage because they think it's
07:09run,
07:09now you can throw over that second level to receivers.
07:14So I think that's an area that Jaden's been just okay, if not subpar.
07:20Watch that Sunday night or Sunday afternoon against the Rams when they throw a lot of play-action
07:27or when they go to play-action, if you think the ball fakes, the play fakes are good enough.
07:33Do you have any of those numbers?
07:34Did you find them anywhere?
07:37No, they're not really any.
07:38Under center and snap numbers aren't really anywhere right now.
07:41What about the play-action numbers?
07:42I think those are on Pro Football Reference.
07:47I'm curious as to what percentage of their passes have been play-action passes.
07:54I think I can find that.
07:55I found a vibe-coded site that would appear to scrape all the data.
08:00The advanced passing numbers at Pro Football Reference usually break it down by play type.
08:04So I'll find that.
08:06I'm seeing 22.1%.
08:08Of what?
08:09That's play-action?
08:10Yeah, play-action percentage.
08:11Yeah, that's not anywhere near what I thought it would be this year.
08:15So what are the other percentages?
08:18RPO, etc.
08:21It's pulling up right up.
08:24No huddle rate, number 9, 7.8%.
08:26RPO rate, 4.5%.
08:28Team air yards and passing volume, 2,115.
08:32Play-action rate, 22.1%.
08:34That's 17th in the league.
08:36Team expected points added, minus .01, which is 18th.
08:40Yeah, that's the middle of the pack.
08:41Yeah.
08:42Okay.
08:45Yeah, we'll see.
08:46I mean, look, it's still early.
08:48They have 10 games of their 17 left, and he didn't play in two and a half games.
08:55So, you know, in two games he didn't start.
08:58So this was always going to be a process to get acclimated to what they wanted to do and what
09:05they wanted to be.
09:05What I would be interested in knowing is whether or not they haven't gotten to more of what they planned
09:14on getting to because it's not coming as quickly and naturally to Jaden.
09:23Because, to me, he still looks more comfortable in shotgun.
09:26He still looks more comfortable when they go no huddle.
09:30He looks like he feels like he's at an advantage in no huddle.
09:35It's the way he's played football for a long period of time.
09:39So there is that.
09:40So there is that.
