Commanders @ Dallas - Next Day Thread

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

He missed a wide open square in, maybe 15 yards, on an early drive. That lead to 3rd and long followed by a punt, that throw should have kept the drive alive. Look I'm not ready to bury the guy but I don't understand why posters can't acknowledge that his play has not been what we need or expected.

Jayden also missed throws last year, they were just easily forgotten because of all the other good plays.

Maybe you are just a tougher critic than me, but I don’t expect Jayden to be able to turn shit to ice cream. Even if he has shown the ability to do it from time to time. It’s not sustainable for anyone.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Part of who we has last season, was a sum of the parts. Same applies this season. Same applies for every QB, for every team, every season.


To each his own, but I have no doubts things would look different if we could keep defenses honest.

I totally agree. You can't get rid of the ball if you don't trust your WRs to be where they are supposed to be, and you can't build that trust if you don't have WRs who practice, or the QB is hurt and can't practice.

It's all a mess.

 

[burgold]

It's a bit of a Catch 22.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

This is on point

View attachment 13199

The only point I would make is clearly the Lattimore trade was a mistake in hindsight. I think at the time it was worth the gamble, because they had to do something. But it doesn't matter what they gave up to get him and what they are paying him, he can't play anymore at the level they expected him to be able to play at.

I'm really baffled about what's happening in the secondary. It's really weird. You'd think Sainristil got good coaching last year, and had a really good season. This season he looks lost. Same player, same coaches. Amos has looked good. Rookie, same coaches.

I do think there are 2 really quiet, sneaky injuries on defense which have a force multiplier of bad effect: Wise at DE, who was supposed to be the edge setting, run stopping DE, and Will Harris, who was essentially running the secondary form the safety spot. Harris is gone, and there is nobody really great behind him.

But to Paulesen's overall point, yeah, the defensive pieces aren't as bad as they have been playing as a group.

And when that happens, you have to look at coaching and scheme, from the coordinator down through the position coaches. Something isn't right in Denmark.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

It's a bit of a Catch 22.

We don't have anybody to catch a 22....

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

I totally agree. You can't get rid of the ball if you don't trust your WRs to be where they are supposed to be, and you can't build that trust if you don't have WRs who practice, or the QB is hurt and can't practice.

It's all a mess.

Right.

And he can’t just take off and run when the D can focus on stopping the run, as they have nothing to be concerned about on the back end.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

And that's what we spoke of here so Kliff should have been prepared for just that, but it didn't look like had

The simple retort to that question is, do what? I mean, knowing what they are going to do to you and having any ability to counter it with the players you have are two completely different things.

Also, with essentially 2 PS level receivers (again, I keep mentioning, Moore was released in the initial cutdown and re-signed because they needed warm bodies to play WR), a rookie and a second year guy, you can't do a lot of exotic stuff. They just can't do it. You have to keep it simple.

So as an OC, you're completely handcuffed: you know what you're up against, and you know that you have no real way of countering it. The one things I will say for Kliff, I do think he tries different things. I get the "be more varied in the run game" narrative, but the offense doesn't look like Scott Turner running the same 4 plays for 3 seasons. At least Kliff is trying something.

I personally would have liked to have seen a few trick plays yesterday early. Have McCaffery throw a pass, run an honest to god reverse (not an end-around, an actual reverse where you give it to a guy on an end-around and then give it to another guy going the other way, maybe a flea flicker, a few things which are just oddball stuff to screw with the Dallas defense's eyes a little bit.

But apart from that, I dunno what you can do with our personnel group.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Right.

And he can’t just take off and run when the D can focus on stopping the run, as they have nothing to be concerned about on the back end.

Daniels was most effective on scrambles when they played man and nothing was open and he could get outside of them. If you play man, the QB can get you. However, they probably would have conceded 50-70 yards to Daniels on the ground in scrambles because that can't beat you if there's no corresponding passing game.

 

[McD5]

Kansas City has opened as a 10 point favorite at home.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

Kansas City has opened as a 10 point favorite at home.

We’ve officially entered bottom of the barrel territory.

Phew.

 

[Dah-Dee]

Kansas City has opened as a 10 point favorite at home.

I wonder how many sharpsters are jumping on that before JD5 MRI results come back and maybe result in IR.

 

[Faithful Fan]

Jayden also missed throws last year, they were just easily forgotten because of all the other good plays.

Maybe you are just a tougher critic than me, but I don’t expect Jayden to be able to turn shit to ice cream. Even if he has shown the ability to do it from time to time. It’s not sustainable for anyone.

The idea that Jayden’s accuracy is worse than last year is not only plain to see but also supported by data. He is only completing 61% of his passes this year, last year he completed 69%. Maybe it’s just the injury, missing weapons, etc., or maybe the sophmore slump is real.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

The one thing I’ll say about the run game I didn’t like. When it was working early (first 3 drives specifically), they didn’t stick with it enough.

First drive Run 8 yds, pass, pass, punt
Second drive Run 9 yds, Run 0 yds, Run 3 yds, pass 44 yds, run 4 yds, pas, pass TD)
Third drive Run 4 yds, pass, pass, punt

The second drive had the big play to Moore and the TD. They ran early then passed, which is fine and it worked. But the first run of that drive was the last good run from a RB. Once Dallas figured out they could play man to man and the receivers weren’t a real threat, they focused on stopping the run and the run game was done. Maybe they had a shot on that first drive or even the third drive to run more. The formations were a tell on some plays, but I also think that was supposed to be a situation where Kliff said you can’t beat our blockers and can’t tackle our RB. Clearly they did.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

The idea that Jayden’s accuracy is worse than last year is not only plain to see but also supported by data. He is only completing 61% of his passes this year, last year he completed 69%. Maybe it’s just the injury, missing weapons, etc., or maybe the sophmore slump is real.

I’ve never said it wasn’t.

Only providing context for why that is, which is likely a combo of all three. I just think the sophomore slump piece is the least relevant. Teams are playing us differently because we are ultimately a different team.

 

[ExoDus84]

The idea that Jayden’s accuracy is worse than last year is not only plain to see but also supported by data. He is only completing 61% of his passes this year, last year he completed 69%. Maybe it’s just the injury, missing weapons, etc., or maybe the sophmore slump is real.

I wonder if having to throw to superstars like Chris Moore, bus driver version of Robbie Anderson, and Luke McCaffrey, guys who just can't get separation, has something to do with Daniels' decreased completion percentage.

There's a reason why Dallas and Chicago found winning formulas in loading the box and playing man-to-man across the board. It's because none of the WRs that are left can win very often.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I like Paulsen, but I don't always trust his analysis. He also might not be wrong, but also doesn't have a lot of better options.

I say this often with the analyst types, if they were really good at putting together game plans, then they would be doing that instead of commenting on what other people are doing.

I think, if memory serves ( skinsinparadise can correct me if I'm wrong), but Paulsen was also one of the guys really high on the Ron OL which completely fell apart.

I get what he's saying, and there might be tendencies. But at the same time, as I outlined above, I'm not sure what you do about those tendencies at the moment.

There are very specific things that need to be tried.
1) More formation variation may be something that needs to be opened up. I don't see Kliff doing it, but there it is.
2) Running very different plays out of specific formations. So, this is a place where even though Logan's overall point agreed with mine, I didn't really agree with his observation. He said they don't pass enough out of the heavy look - I actually think they HAVE. I have no interest in just saying stuff and trying to win an argument. It's unhelpful and I never have any interest. I may be wrong (and he would be right) but I think at least in previous weeks, the heavy look produced plenty of passes. In this game perhaps no, but I don't think that matters as much.
3) One thing that was a big tendency in-game that DID matter to me, was 1st down runs. Those were horrible at a stage in the game. There are times when run-run-run can make sense. There are times where pass-pass-pass can make sense. The best thing you can do with a lot of injuries though - VARY. Vary your situational football. If you don't do that, I cannot say that the OC put his players in the best position to succeed, especially when it's clear the D is keying off of some of those hints you give.

I am no one's zealot, but one or two bad calls does not make someone a bad analyst. If they give reasonable analysis and get one or two things wrong, that can happen. I don't know the take you are referring to, so I can't judge. He was very specific here, and it closely aligned with my observation. They weren't simply stacking the box at times. They knew exactly what was coming. There are definite tells that are not getting fixed in the game-to-game analysis that should be taking place, and I imagine that is because we have some basic schematic limitations combined with an OC who has specific tendencies in playcalling that haven't been highlighted.

That last part could be fixed with a very good self-scouting department, I would imagine.

 

[Chris 44]

Kansas City has opened as a 10 point favorite at home.

Is that just for the first half or the entire game?

 

[Faithful Fan]

I wonder if having to throw to superstars like Chris Moore, bus driver version of Robbie Anderson, and Luke McCaffrey, guys who just can't get separation, has something to do with Daniels' decreased completion percentage.

I acknowledged the missing weapons may be part of Jayden’s statistical regression, but let’s not overstate the case. On paper our receiving corps should be improved over last year with the addition of Deebo Samuel and Jaylin Lane. And while the injured wideouts were definitely a big factor yesterday, that doesn’t explain why he had 18 incompletions against Green Bay.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Jayden and have the highest hopes for him, but there is no denying he is playing worse this year.

 

[DieselPwr44]

Kansas City has opened as a 10 point favorite at home.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

I acknowledged the missing weapons may be part of Jayden’s statistical regression, but let’s not overstate the case. On paper our receiving corps should be improved over last year with the addition of Deebo Samuel and Jaylin Lane. And while the injured wideouts were definitely a big factor yesterday, that doesn’t explain why he had 18 incompletions against Green Bay.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Jayden and have the highest hopes for him, but there is no denying he is playing worse this year.

On paper, sure. But we’ve watched how it’s all played out. The Packers bludgeoned our OL and disrupted everything. How often did that happen last year? Not often.

If the argument is he’s not ascending through this, I agree. But I don’t thinks he’s regressed as a player. Just not as confident because there’s nothing consistent to get confident about.