BGO Blind Pig: Washington Commanders Season Opener at Tampa Bay

[Bulldog]

It's not necessarily that we lost, it was how we lost.

Kingsbury left Daniels with a sandlot gameplan where he was expected to carry the ball into the end zone on successive plays and had his helmet pulled off.

16 carries? This guy is going to be upright for 3 or 4 games and then we will really see what Driskel and Hartman have in the tank after that.

Down at the goal line, how about pitching the ball wide to Ekeler and let him race the defense to the corner pylon?

Meanwhile Terry McLaurin is only targeted a couple of times, in rough symmetry with what we saw under Rivera and the genius in his own mind Bieniemy.

We don't see Ben Sinnott at all, instead they have Bates trying to get 10-15 yards down the field as a receiver. Not surprisingly, he wasn't open that much given his lack of footspeed.

It's really rare for a rebuilding team to practice all offseason and go into the opener with a skills player taken in Round 2 and not see that player figure into the gameplan at all.

By definition this was a team after 2023 that was challenged to do anything productive on offense.

Of the other receivers, Zacchaeus and Brown didn't do anything which isn't that surprising given their past productivity during the NFL regular season.

Hopefully they can get Noah Brown on the field shortly. He was set to be Houston's #3 or #4 when they gave him a $3 million plus contract after 2023 before releasing him due to consecutive injuries over the summer, but his highlights and stats from 2023 make him look like Jerry Rice compared to these other guys.

 

[tomwvr]

Here is my take
1) there seemed to be zero offensive game plan. It was like they told Daniels go out and run around
2) the defense CB play was awful and I don't see it getting any better - the outside corner forbes is not an nfl back up caliber , St-Juste was okay but still got beat often
3) the DL did okay early and then fell apart but even when OKAY could never finish a play
4) the OLine was not good, short yard plays they were dominated and Daniels quick reaction and running hid much of the issues
5) the coaching was not as good as I expected almost had a Ron feel to the game

 

[Boone]

I must be in the minority because I was *mostly* pleasantly surprised by the OL play. Daniels generally had time in pass pro. The rush blocking early on wasn't good though, BRob couldn't do a thing, but that improved as the game went on as well, probably helped greatly by JD's mobility drawing attention and focus away. I didn't think the OL was a top 3 concern last night personally.

 

[DixieFlatline]

I must be in the minority because I was *mostly* pleasantly surprised by the OL play. Daniels generally had time in pass pro. The rush blocking early on wasn't good though, BRob couldn't do a thing, but that improved as the game went on as well, probably helped greatly by JD's mobility drawing attention and focus away. I didn't think the OL was a top 3 concern last night personally.

I was definitely pleased by it on passing plays. Especially since they were sending at least 5 quite a bitt. Some stats y'all may have seen. I interpret this as 2.35 seconds to release, but I could be wrong.

 

[tomwvr]

I must be in the minority because I was *mostly* pleasantly surprised by the OL play. Daniels generally had time in pass pro. The rush blocking early on wasn't good though, BRob couldn't do a thing, but that improved as the game went on as well, probably helped greatly by JD's mobility drawing attention and focus away. I didn't think the OL was a top 3 concern last night personally.

I believe Daniels hid a lot of the issues with the line. The run blocking was the strength last year and this game it was weak for much of the game and the pass blocking from what I saw was sub par . Lets see how they grade out this week

 

[Bulldog]

the Washington interior OL at center and left guard is a bit undersized and they were eaten alive by the Bucs DL.

Ekeler prevented a sack or two in protection but he was also acting as Daniels only really effective receiver all day.

When he wasn't in the game Daniels didn't spend much time in the pocket.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Yep. This likely is also what you see when you have a completely new regime with an almost completely new roster that hardly played any snaps together in preseason. I'll admit that I hoped for better especially on defense but while it fair to critique the group harshly for yesterday it's not yet time to cast judgement... except maybe on the kicker.

If the plan is to tank, riding York all season is the non-move to make. Give him a chance so he can't whine to the labor union, and if he shows a consistent pattern of flubbing, there is no disputing hard data that he sucks.

Tampa made the playoffs last year, albeit squeaked in, we had the second pick of the draft, as others have stated we turned over 60% of the roster, this is a full rebuild. Again I have stated I don't expect this team to win more than 6 games this year, I'm ok with that as we need to build for consistency and not a playoff spot every ten years. For those discounting the heat, I live here, I wasn't running around and it was a miserable experience. Tampa plays here and practices in the heat and oh yeah had a playoff team last year. Hell I'm a bit negative sometimes but ffs all of sudden people expected the second coming of the 91 team?? Relax, have a beer.

I do think the heat messed with Buffalo last season against Miami.

 

[Primus Porcus]

Brandon Coleman

 

[Primus Porcus]

This is a great example of learning. When he watches film, he's going to see that Terry absolutely got let go on a free run after a minor rub. Experience turns this into a big gain.