- 8 minutes ago
The New York Giants love to blitz opposing quarterbacks. Can Washington and Jayden Daniels handle the pressure?
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00:00Wink Martindale is an accomplished NFL defensive coordinator.
00:07Why, Brian, I'll go to you as a Giants fan.
00:10One of the dumbest things that Brian Daybold did as head coach of the Giants
00:14was get into a pissing match with Wink, and Wink quit.
00:17And it kind of buried those Giants teams that were playing good defense.
00:21Is that a fair assessment?
00:22Yeah, they made the playoffs with Daniel Jones because of Wink Martindale.
00:25Yeah, that defense was damn good.
00:27Wink was in Baltimore for some really good seasons.
00:31Yeah.
00:32Those defenses.
00:33He's a coach.
00:34Yeah, he's a good coach.
00:35He knows ball.
00:36I know that's a big thing to say now.
00:38Ball knower.
00:40Wink Martindale knows ball.
00:41Our guy Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, has a podcast,
00:44and he gets Wink on there fairly regularly.
00:48And so certainly with the Giants-Commanders game coming up,
00:51I thought it was pertinent information to hear from Wink Martindale.
00:56Kind of his take on where Washington is and what the Giants will want to do
01:01against this Commander's team.
01:03I think the bottom line for this is, and I know people are going to say,
01:08oh, Wink always wants this, but I do.
01:11They're right.
01:12I think they need to set a record on max pressures this game.
01:18What's the record?
01:19You probably hold it.
01:20Probably.
01:21I don't know.
01:22But, you know, you know what I mean?
01:24I just think that it's going to be a fun game to watch.
01:27Right now they have, you know, really one receiver.
01:32You know, I think Stephon's, you know, I don't know if it's Cardi B
01:36that's took his legs or just years playing.
01:40But, you know, you know what I mean?
01:41I just, I think he's lost his legs a little bit.
01:44The quarterback struggles with pressure, which you saw against the Giants early,
01:48you know, when they had it.
01:50Because here's what happens is when you just rush four against this guy,
01:53there's six gaps, which I know you understand this as a, you know,
01:58the football guy yourself.
02:00And when he can find the lane, he's a problem.
02:04But when he has a hard time picking up pressures, I think.
02:07But you've got to have somebody, if you rush four, you've got to be accountable.
02:13It's got to be like a snow plow rush, almost a two-gap rush,
02:16to make him play quarterback, which he can.
02:20But I think when he faces pressure, he really struggles.
02:25Listen to this stat, Wink, to your point about Denard Wilson.
02:28So they lost Brian Burns in week three.
02:33So since week four, their first game without Burns,
02:37Denard Wilson's Giants defense has blitzed 47.3% of opponent dropbacks.
02:43That is the second highest rate in the NFL, according to NFL Next Gen stats.
02:48A, to your point about what they should do against the commanders, here it is.
02:54In week five, the Giants defense blitzed Jaden Daniels on 62.2% of his dropbacks,
03:00their highest rate in a game this season.
03:04Daniels handled himself well, as despite taking four sacks,
03:07he managed to complete 11 of 18 pass attempts for 131 yards
03:11and added a 38-yard scramble for a TD.
03:14So it's kind of one of those things, right?
03:16You're like, you're probably ending some drives that way,
03:19and then also he's a good enough player where occasionally he beats it, right?
03:23Oh, yeah.
03:24I mean, he's a good quarterback.
03:27I think you can't deny the rushing results from that game.
03:33Jaden ran nine times for 103 yards with two touchdowns,
03:35had a 38-yard touchdown run, and then I think another 30-yard touchdown run.
03:39And some of that's going to be a byproduct of them blitzing so heavy,
03:42they're playing man on the edges,
03:44and generally that means the corners are running with their back
03:48to the line of scrimmage.
03:49Yep.
03:51Let him blitz.
03:52Let Jaden run again.
03:53Let him blitz.
03:54But the thing about it,
03:55Wink was wrong on most of his stuff he put there
03:58because he said he can't handle the pressure when he was –
04:00he just told you what he did against the pressure.
04:02It was good against the pressure.
04:04Then he also found a lane and got a touchdown on him.
04:08Steph, I don't think Steph's legs are gone.
04:11You know, he was trying to throw a little joke in there,
04:12trying to be young.
04:13Yeah, I think he was joking.
04:14Wink was trying to be young, but, you know, he's off.
04:18But the whole thing about it is they blitz him 62% of the time.
04:24What – if they blitz this time, if they don't have a game plan for it,
04:30that don't all go to the quarterback.
04:32That has to be done throughout this week right now where –
04:35blitz me, and I'm waiting for it.
04:38I told you when I was in Philly,
04:40we blitz Peyton Manning like 75% of the time.
04:43With Jim Johnson.
04:45You know what Peyton did?
04:46Wherever the guy came from, he threw the ball right where the guy came from,
04:49and the receiver came right behind him.
04:50They lit our ass up.
04:52Okay?
04:53They scored about damn near 40 points.
04:55We were in this third quarter.
04:57We were like, oh, don't blitz no more.
04:58Back off.
04:59You know what I mean?
04:59So you should be game planning for that.
05:02But Jaden handled himself against the Giants while they were blitzing that high.
05:08The game was interesting because the Giants really went to the zero late in that game
05:13as Washington's offense got more stagnant.
05:17The Commanders were up 19-13 late third quarter.
05:22Then Washington scores early in the fourth quarter.
05:2411 minutes is Jaden rushes off the left side for a 26-yard touchdown.
05:29Then they go for two.
05:31They get it, and it's 27-13.
05:33You're up 14 points with 11 minutes left.
05:36At that point, the Giants are desperate,
05:39and they start sending the zero blitz all the time.
05:44Washington's defense also collapsed.
05:46Nobody seems to care about that.
05:47But you're up 14 with 11 minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
05:52Washington has consecutive three and outs.
05:55I look at that.
05:57There's an inability to run the football when they need to be able to.
06:01Like, we can talk about Jaden and the blitz all we want.
06:05Washington had a 14-point lead.
06:07Then the Giants were able to score.
06:09They have a three and out for minus four yards.
06:12Remarkably, they didn't even have a penalty on that.
06:14Giants score again.
06:16They get the ball again, and that's where they ended up punting
06:21from their own 46.
06:25Like, inability to run the ball in those crucial late-game situations,
06:29that doesn't land on Jaden.
06:32No, it doesn't, but I'm just saying you need to have a game plan
06:35because, let's be real, you zero blitz and I get it,
06:38and I complete a pass, there's nothing back there.
06:41You get what I'm saying?
06:43There's nothing back there if I complete a pass.
06:45So, you have to game plan for them trying to blitz
06:51because they've felt down the stretch it might have worked for them.
06:55If they come out with it, you should have a break-off,
06:59a hot route, whatever,
07:01to where you make them think twice about doing it again.
07:06That, to me, is a real question, B.
07:09Jaden wasn't bad against the blitz.
07:11According to next-gen stats in that week five game against the Giants,
07:15Pat just said it, right?
07:16Jaden was blitzed 62% of his dropbacks.
07:19On those dropbacks against the blitz,
07:22he completed 11 of 18 for a buck 30,
07:25and he added the 40-yard touchdown run.
07:27So, it's not like their offense was rendered completely inept.
07:33But, in the fourth quarter, when they started the comeback,
07:37and then in overtime, the blitz rate got moved up that much more.
07:41They went cover zero on 10 of Daniel's dropbacks
07:45in the fourth quarter in overtime,
07:47including the final three plays of regulation where he was sacked.
07:51But, Dan Quinn, after that game,
07:55now, here's the thing with the Giants game.
07:57It's pretty hard to look back and see anything but the ending
08:02where they don't even get a freaking field goal attempted, right?
08:06Like, the way that game ended has burned our brains so badly.
08:12David Blau wasn't giving Jaden answers to the test there.
08:16Like, once the cover zero kept coming over and over and over again,
08:20here's what Dan Quinn said after that game.
08:22If you're bringing more, then you need to have answers
08:25that may not even be part of the play.
08:27Okay, now there's eight players up.
08:29This is where we can go.
08:30This is the next option, and that's always part of it.
08:33And I just, I don't know.
08:37Maybe it's just the line is not able to execute the protections.
08:42But what we saw last week, Brian,
08:44and I don't know where it starts.
08:47I don't know where it ends from a coaching, planning perspective.
08:52But the coaching and the planning for Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald,
08:56I recognize those.
08:57If you just get beat one-on-one, sometimes that's going to happen.
09:02Those guys are all world players.
09:04Maybe we don't set up to have all these one-on-one matchups.
09:07The coaching and the planning last week against the Rams defensive front,
09:13I think people are overly dismissive of this Giants team.
09:19Arvell Reese damn near killed Joe Milton last week.
09:22Abdul Carter's playing quite well.
09:24Kayvon Thibodeau's playing well.
09:26They are going to get after the passer here.
09:30And if they have the rushes on the tackles are getting that much success
09:36and they don't go to some way of helping those guys,
09:41that's a problem.
09:44Jaden said after that Giants game,
09:47you know, we sit down with Blau and offensively his staff, myself,
09:51and have some answers for it knowing that, you know,
09:53teams are going to try to get the ball out of my hand,
09:55heat us up, and everything like that.
09:57So just have an answer from him and prepare for it.
10:01Here's my question.
10:02And this isn't about the trade deadline.
10:03This isn't about an NFC East title game.
10:05This isn't about any of that.
10:08How confident are you that they're going to plan for it?
10:12How confident are you that the plan this week will be to mitigate the Giants
10:16blitz and the Giants pressure?
10:18I would have to give you high confidence right now because it was,
10:21it was out there.
10:23It's being discussed.
10:24If there's no plan for it now,
10:26in this game,
10:27it's never going to be won.
10:32I agree with you.
10:33Short week.
10:38To the best quarterbacks,
10:40don't mind getting blitzed because somebody's open.
10:43Yeah.
10:43Because they know exactly how they,
10:46the best quarterbacks and the best game planners,
10:50they know we got this thing set up to where ball ain't going to be in my hand
10:54long enough for nobody to come hit me.
10:56See what I'm saying?
10:57I'm letting it go quick.
10:59And whether you're under center or in a shotgun,
11:03that ball is out like that.
11:05So you don't have to worry about the pressure coming.
11:07And all of a sudden you notice that pressure stops coming.
11:13I,
11:14it's,
11:15it'd be hard to think the Giants won't kind of run back.
11:19What worked against.
11:21They're going to do it until Washington stops it.
11:24Until Washington can do something to hurt them,
11:27break their back while they do it.
11:28They're going to try it because I've said this for years.
11:33If you speed up the process of a quarterback or make them hesitate on a
11:39decision,
11:39they're going to make,
11:40you can have success against them.
11:43And I believe that is why Flores defense works so much.
11:49Quarterback get confused.
11:50Offensive line get confused.
11:51And there's time where the quarterback feel like I got to let this ball go.
11:54And they,
11:55they show seven and they've only rushed for,
11:58they drop out.
11:59You're throwing the ball to somebody.
12:00You got to speed up the process and make it happen.
12:04Now you find a way to have some success against them.
12:07They will slow down the process.
12:10They have got to have options to get the ball out fast.
12:16Yeah.
12:16I like that.
12:17They are,
12:18I believe calling the second fewest screens in the NFL.
12:22Now the screen really hasn't been part of their game.
12:26They called one last week against the Rams and it worked.
12:28It worked probably because LA wasn't expecting perfection.
12:31Right.
12:31Like it was a 40 yard game.
12:33There was a,
12:34uh,
12:34I go back to college where we had this play.
12:37It was called like right X Willie,
12:39uh,
12:40two Oh one.
12:40I'll just roll out past or was one Oh one,
12:44whatever.
12:44Well,
12:44I'm rolling to the right or the left.
12:46And every time we ran it and we noticed a blitz was coming,
12:50the backside receiver was always one-on-one.
12:54And all I would do is get the ball,
12:56come up and fire a slant.
12:59And they always work against their blitz.
13:01Whether I'm going left or right.
13:04And I guarantee you,
13:05it was games where people come in and I throw five times on that same play.
13:10And it worked every time to all of a sudden they stopped trying to blitz.
13:14And then now when I roll out,
13:16guess what?
13:17I throw it.
13:18I run it,
13:19but you got to have something that works,
13:21you know,
13:22because the back,
13:23the backside got ahead.
13:24It wasn't going to be checked one-on-one,
13:26but it,
13:27we knew it worked and they got to have something that they go to.
13:31What is the fix?
13:33And that is not something that you come with on that day.
13:36And then you say,
13:36Oh,
13:37figure it out quarterback.
13:38No,
13:38no,
13:38no.
13:38That is embedded all damn week.
13:42Let's let a couple of people weigh in.
13:43Our guy Shane is in Fairfax.
13:45Shane,
13:45what's up,
13:46dude?
13:47What's up all ears?
13:48B Mitch.
13:49How y'all doing this morning?
13:50Talk of the morning to you.
13:51We're good,
13:51man.
13:51What's happening?
13:52I look,
13:53I have no confidence.
13:55And we've not seen this whole movie this whole year.
13:59It's no confidence.
14:00We can't even get a playoff in the fourth quarter.
14:02You think they're going to plan for a blitz?
14:04I just feel sorry for JD getting lower to protect this man.
14:08Lorda and,
14:09and,
14:09and G town.
14:10But let me say one thing.
14:13I'm going to do an early bleep.
14:14You,
14:14if you don't mind,
14:15I'm going to,
14:15if you don't mind there,
14:16JP,
14:17B Mitch fire away,
14:18you know,
14:18it's ridiculous that the NFL bleep,
14:21the NFL for keeping our B Mitch out of the hall of fame.
14:25This is a joke.
14:26Now he is the first real all purpose back.
14:29Look at his stats.
14:31Look at his,
14:32everything he's done.
14:33Not only for that,
14:34the community too.
14:35It's a joke that we have B Mitch,
14:38not in the yellow jacket now.
14:40And we,
14:41at this time,
14:42we should be doing something in the city for you B Mitch.
14:45A lot of stuff.
14:47I,
14:48I circling back to his point with Jaden,
14:50there are times I,
14:51I do feel bad.
14:54It's the wrong word.
14:55It's a team.
14:56It's team effort.
14:56Obviously all those things,
14:58but like,
14:59I do think this year,
15:01at least the receiver position,
15:02they really tried to improve their depth.
15:04And I think they did in a lot of capacities.
15:06Now you're dealing with these injuries,
15:07right?
15:08I don't know if Trey Burks is going to be playing tomorrow.
15:11And I know that the problem for Trey Burks throughout his career has been the ability to stay healthy.
15:18He's a big,
15:19strong kid.
15:20Like he,
15:21he,
15:21there's no physical,
15:23there's no physical thing he can't do.
15:26In the NFL.
15:28If he was playing last week,
15:29I imagine Jaden is looking for him at the,
15:34at the goal line.
15:36Yes.
15:37Yes.
15:37They didn't have.
15:40Terry McLaurin is the best contested catch guy.
15:43Washington has had in some time.
15:45He's among the best in the NFL contested catch rates.
15:49Losing Jaden hurts his offense a ton.
15:52Yeah.
15:52Trey Burks could help.
15:54He did not.
15:54So these injury reports on a short week are really hard to glean a lot of information from.
16:02Monday's was a straight up estimation.
16:04And so Monday Burks was a DMP with a foot foot.
16:08It's what kept him out last week.
16:09Yesterday.
16:10He was limited with a foot in what amounted to a kind of a,
16:13just a walkthrough for them.
16:16It would really help if they get Burks back.
16:19I think he could do some of those slants and stuff.
16:22I think I don't.
16:23What was that play Jefferson scored on?
16:25A little skinny post slant,
16:26whatever you want to call that.
16:27Just like a quick inside step release.
16:32Like get Van more involved because it's got to come out faster.
16:35Yeah.
16:37You will find out if,
16:39if,
16:40if they're Allegretti can get it done,
16:41I guess,
16:42but they've had offensive line concerns throughout the year.
16:47The pre-snap stuff has been problematic,
16:49but we're starting to see more and more inaction penalties on the offensive line.
16:54Holds downfields.
16:55Yeah.
16:56Like you're not going against Garrett and Donald,
17:00which is a,
17:00which is a bonus,
17:02but this giant's defense.
17:03You're still going against some,
17:04some,
17:04some capable guys.
17:06You got a guy in Denard Wilson who maybe wants a Maryland head coaching job.
17:10He will be paying attention tomorrow night.
17:13I'm going to sneak a call in here.
17:14My guy Jonesy's in DC.
17:16Jonesy,
17:16what's up,
17:17dude?
17:18What's going on?
17:19All is.
17:20What's happening?
17:21We're good,
17:21man.
17:22Hey,
17:22too much.
17:23Listen up,
17:23man.
17:24Um,
17:24I'm at pretty much a six as far as if it can be in the best,
17:30as far as me having confidence is them having,
17:32you know,
17:33being able to do what they need to do as far,
17:35you know,
17:36winning this game.
17:37Um,
17:39I just think that.
17:41They just need to pretty much just,
17:44and Van who's out there because he,
17:47Jefferson is good.
17:48He was really,
17:49he was working on your boy Forbes last week.
17:52Just didn't go to him enough.
17:53Um,
17:54I think it's what is the blitz beaters that you need.
17:58And like,
17:59to be mentioned saying them slants,
18:01they need to be there.
18:02You need to have a decent blitz beater here and there to make the job.
18:06Not do what they did the last time.
18:09Cause you can get them.
18:10I believe we can get them,
18:11but,
18:12and we're going to have to have our defense step up.
18:14Cause I still don't believe in that quarterback.
18:16They got over there.
18:16All right,
18:17fellas.
18:18All right,
18:19You should be in the beach hall of fame.
18:21Let's go.
18:22I am,
18:24I am significantly more confident in Washington's defense going to New York.
18:29The way they have played of late,
18:31defense,
18:31very great.
18:32Significantly better.
18:33Yeah.
18:34I think in hindsight,
18:36the injuries to Louvoo and cross were really significant.
18:40And once you guys,
18:40once you had those guys back on the field with their speed on the,
18:44on the second level and on the top level and their tackling ability,
18:49the defense has looked night and day different.
18:51So I'm confident in the defense going up here.
18:54I just don't know if I am in the offense.
18:56It's be Mitch and Finley.
18:56Nobody go anywhere.