Commanders News (Social Media)

[SkinsFTW]

Fuck the Tush Push.

In response I hope that some team finally responds by lining a 120 pound dude behind center with 5 dudes behind him who pick him up and catapult him across the end zone. Extra points if he goes through the cross bars.

 

[Anselmheifer]

Inside story about the Tush Push, Lurrie in this comes off really arrogant

Lurie and Philadelphia’s front-office personnel had been calling around the league in the days leading up to this week’s league meeting. It was an attempt to garner enough support to keep Green Bay’s proposal, which would effectively ban the Eagles’ version of the QB sneak, from getting the 24 votes it needed to pass. Wednesday morning’s “Competition and Health & Safety” session was Lurie’s chance to make a final impression — and he spent the better part of an hour making it.

...One high-ranking league source who was in the room said, “Lurie was like a guy trying to convince his girlfriend why she shouldn’t leave him.” Throughout his pitch, Lurie was emotional, passionate and — at one point — crude. He said the fact that his team came up with a play so unstoppable that the rest of the league had no other choice but to try to ban it was “like a wet dream for a teenage boy.” Toward the end of his address, he told the assembled owners that, regardless of the day’s result, he and his franchise would walk out winners, with Super Bowl rings to show for it.

...As for the rest of the NFL, the majority of the league remains unhappy with Wednesday’s result. One head coach, informed of the vote’s result as he left the practice field on Wednesday, summed it up this way: “Wow. This is a big loss … for the league.”

How Jeffrey Lurie, Jason Kelce and the Eagles saved the tush push

The inside story of how the Eagles successfully lobbied to win a narrow vote at the league meeting.

www.nytimes.com

I mean, there is no reasonable argument to keep it, IMHO. The defense is prohibited from being able to push other defenders during a play. How can you prohibit the defense from doing it, but allow the offense to do it, and then expect the defense to have a shot at stopping it? It’s inherently unfair

 

[HTTR]

There’s a reason pushing the ball carrier from behind was not allowed for so many years until recently. Can’t figure out why they started allowing it in these days of supposedly worrying about player safety, but oh well.

I know one way to put a stop to it, but it’s dirty. Just have five or six guys jump over the line and purposely land on hurts. First time he gets injured that’ll be that. You wanna play rugby? Fine, but keep in mind a lot of shit happens in those scrums.

That being said, since it’s not going away we need to come up with one of our own. And we sure as hell don’t want Jayden running it. So how about somebody expendable like say a back up linebacker, with two big elephant defensive tackles pushing from behind? With a little bit of practice I’m sure anybody can take a snap and just bull forward.

 

[Primus Porcus]

The problem is that they are arguing the removal based on player safety, and there really isn't a player safety issue that is apparent. The problem is that there's a distinct competitive advantage to the offense because, unlike a rugby scrum, they control the snap count. If I was the owners, instead of trying to get the Tush Push 'banned' i would be lookin to amend other rules to level the playing field. I would push to get the stupid "we can award a TD" rule removed. I would look to push to remove the 'leverage' rule where you're not allowed to 'jump' off the back of a defensive lineman. Then I would line up my biggest, ugliest guy over center with a LB in his ass pocket waiting for him to 'dive' toward the center, when the Center snaps the ball.

 

[Commander PK]

Fuck the Tush Push.

In response I hope that some team finally responds by lining a 120 pound dude behind center with 5 dudes behind him who pick him up and catapult him across the end zone. Extra points if he goes through the cross bars.

What I would like to see is that a team gets so far ahead of them that when they do finally get in scoring position and can attempt an ass smash the defense just gives it to them. Final score 55-7.

Good for you on your ass smash.

Wishful thinking I know. One can dream.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

The only way the tush push ends is for someone to get hurt. I’ve always believed that to stop teams from doing this, you make the QB pay. I know teams will use TEs and other players to take the punishment, but the QB has to feel it and then coaches will stop. Mahomes hasn’t run a QB sneak in a few years because he hurt his knee running one. Kelce runs them now. Teams will stop when either the play is stopped (unlikely) or someone gets hurt on the offensive side of the ball.

 

[burgold]

Do the Commanders really need the distraction of Hard Knocks, and going to Spain, and having half their season in prime time?Seems a bit overkill for a very young team trying to build something.

Not really a fan of all the cameras during practice. Team is going to have so much outside noise they are going to have to tune out.

 

[burgold]

If the offense is allowed to have players pushing one another than the defense should be given the same advantage. Not a fan of the tush push. The QB sneak has always been an almost impossible to stop play. Add a three hundred pound bulldozer to it and the offense using "Hard counts" and "snap fakes" that never get called and it's just unfair.

 

[Chris 44]

The NFC East is always relevant. It's just that this will probably be the first time in over 30 years that Washington will be relevant 2 years in a row.

A single team per year may be relevant, but we havnt seen this much interest in the East as a whole in a very long time.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I think all of the national attention and visibility is great -- especially Hard Knocks. Lions were dead last in attendance the season before Hard Knocks for them. And some attributed especially their early season sales that year to the attention they got from that show.

The fact that every team from the NFC East is on Hard Knocks, spreads the attention around. And as much as this team seems to be on the rebound, the local TV ratings last year were actually bad from what I recall, and they didn't sell out the bulk of their games. As far as a fan base, we definitely aren't back to where we were in our heyday. Not even close.

Dan destroyed the brand and the spirit of so many fans, that Rome won't be able to be rebuilt overnight. Last year helped, but it didn't erase the problem, there is much more work to do.

National relevancy last season happened later in the season. I think we desperately still need an overdrive season with national exposure to regain fans for this team.

I know it comes off odd to say it here because yeah we are hardcore. To us, this team is 100% back. But we don't represent the casual fan that constitutes the average fan. We lost a lot of those people. I think optimistically it might take a few years of major positive exposure to bring back most of the casual fans.

Lions News: Detroit saw highest jump in attendance for 2022 NFL season

There was a huge increase in fans packing Ford Field to see the red-hot Lions in 2022.

www.prideofdetroit.com

Unsurprisingly, Detroit Lions games had the largest jump in attendance in the league for the 2022 season.

According to Sports Business Journal, attendance at Lions games was 23.1% higher than last year. In 2022, they sold an average of 63,400 tickets compared to an average of 51,500 tickets in 2021. Ford Field’s seating capacity is about 65,000.

Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars had the biggest attendance increases for the 2022 NFL season.

(Source: Sports Business Journal) pic.twitter.com/mtOodkYL5s
— Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) January 16, 2023

To state the obvious, the Detroit Lions were hot, hot, hot this season. Fans worldwide had no choice but to fall in love with passionate, charismatic Dan Campbell and the gritty squad. From their inspiring “Hard Knocks” scenes to their mid-season hot streak, there was a lot to enjoy about watching the Lions.

 

[SkinsFTW]

Yeah even I wanted the Lions to win, well that is until they found us on the schedule. Too bad they didn't get to play the eagles first.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Fuck the Tush Push.

In response I hope that some team finally responds by lining a 120 pound dude behind center with 5 dudes behind him who pick him up and catapult him across the end zone. Extra points if he goes through the cross bars.

Dude. You say this kid of in jest. But cheerleaders routinely throw each other SUPER high.

Let’s get a 90lb woman, and two guys can easily throw her over the line.

You might have to get a new one every week due to death and dismemberment. But eh. Those are the breaks.

Seriously though. Teams used to sign short yardage backs. Sign a short yardage guy, big, strong mfer, pull the QB, and run the same play. Every team should do it.

 

[HTTR]

A single team per year may be relevant, but we havnt seen this much interest in the East as a whole in a very long time.

That’s it, and you can’t blame the network for doing it. Every team in our division is very interesting right now in their own way. We get to see…

Dallas continued disfunction and misery as Jerrah decides to fire the OC mid season and start calling the plays himself

Giants still reeling from the Saquon disaster with a coaching staff desperately flailing to keep their job despite a crappy QB

Eagles falling from grace while their massively overconfident Fanbase has its usual tantrums the minute things start going wrong

DQ and staff leading the boys to even greater heights culminating in Jayden scooping up his first MVP!!

 

[HTTR]

Dude. You say this kid of in jest. But cheerleaders routinely throw each other SUPER high.

Let’s get a 90lb woman, and two guys can easily throw her over the line.

You might have to get a new one every week due to death and dismemberment. But eh. Those are the breaks.

Seriously though. Teams used to sign short yardage backs. Sign a short yardage guy, big, strong mfer, pull the QB, and run the same play. Every team should do it.

Let’s face it, the reason the tush push has worked so well for the Eagles is because of their great offensive line. Does anybody really think they wouldn’t be just as successful turning around and handing the ball to Saquon behind that line on third and one?

 

[Conn]

Do the Commanders really need the distraction of Hard Knocks, and going to Spain, and having half their season in prime time?Seems a bit overkill for a very young team trying to build something.

Not really a fan of all the cameras during practice. Team is going to have so much outside noise they are going to have to tune out.

You still think like the fan of a bad team. Elite franchises relish the spotlight and thrive in it. If we can’t do that, at least we’ll have an up close look at why we aren’t elite. This type of stuff comes with the territory and I really don’t think it’s much of a distraction anymore. These guys have behind the scenes cameras on them almost all the time now, team social media staff filming them all the time, etc. The exception being in meetings that involve sensitive gameplanning stuff…which will still be off limits. But almost every team has their own in-house production team doing content similar to Hard Knocks nowadays. The “Command Log” videos alone only exist because hundreds of hours of behind the scenes content was cut down to 30 minutes each episode of highlight worthy material. These guys are used to this stuff now and live their lives on camera more than ever before.

 

[skinsinparadise]

You still think like the fan of a bad team. Elite franchises relish the spotlight and thrive in it. If we can’t do that, at least we’ll have an up close look at why we aren’t elite. This type of stuff comes with the territory and I really don’t think it’s much of a distraction anymore. These guys have behind the scenes cameras on them almost all the time now, team social media staff filming them all the time, etc. The exception being in meetings that involve sensitive gameplanning stuff…which will still be off limits. But almost every team has their own in-house production team doing content similar to Hard Knocks nowadays. The “Command Log” videos alone only exist because hundreds of hours of behind the scenes content was cut down to 30 minutes each episode of highlight worthy material. These guys are used to this stuff now and live their lives on camera more than ever before.

Agree. I'd add recalling some of the ES posts against Hard Knocks -- i don't think the typical poster who opposed it watched the show because they seemed to think it was sort of a gotcha show. That is, cameras follow the team and they will capture everything and you'd get a mix of bad and good in the coverage of the team.

Instead, Hard Knocks, is basically a love letter to the respective teams. It's a fluff segment. Teams have editing control over everything that airs. It's free local and national PR.

I think the gotcha misperception is based on snippets that you can find on twitter of the over top personality types who showboat on the show -- so you are going to get Terrell Owens acting like Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson acting like Chad and have actual additional footage of him haming things up.

But back to this team. It's not out of the woods yet as for this team reigniting itself as a local-national draw. I was listening to a guy on Sheehan's show last year who covers TV ratings and the NFL and he was talking about the Commanders are not really a TV ratings magnet yet where surveys show national audiences crave to see them -- like the Chiefs are among other teams.

Don't get me wrong, we are on the right track and big time so. Clearly the NFL now thinks that we are a draw. But it does feel some like what the Lions went through as to a metaphorsis where it wasn't instant national relevance. Hard Knocks helped them a lot. National games and showing up in those games over multiple years drove their relevance even further.

This team arguably has further to bring back from the dead to the Lions with the casual fan type. I don't think we can afford to slow burn this teams revival or to ignore its a problem and to do so feels very Bruce Allen-Ron Rivera to me. I love this new staff-ownership pushing the gas in a big way. And I do think this staff will come off great on Hard Knocks -- its a very likeable crew. But heck even if I went with the idea that some fans have that its a distraction -- in this case every team in the division has the exact same distraction so why should it hurt us more? It's the softest version of Hard Knocks for those who are worried about it from that context albiet personally I don't think cameras in a fluff piece is a distraction these days. Per your point, teams do it on their own anyway.

Home Attendance and TV Ratings Highlight Challenges For Washington Commanders - Commies Football

Despite a magical 2024 season, the local TV ratings for the Washington Commanders were surprisingly poor. We look at what might be the cause.

commiesfootball.com

Home Attendance and TV Ratings Highlight Challenges For Washington Commanders​

ESPN has the 2024 season home attendance numbers for all the NFL franchises. The Commies came in an embarrassing 30th place out of 32 teams. The Commies averaged 63,428 people per game. Now, keep in mind that Northwest Field ranks 20th out of the 30 NFL stadiums in size with a capacity of 67,717. So, it is easier for The Commies to sell out games compared to the twenty-one franchises with larger stadiums.

Another factor to keep in mind was the number of times that Northwest Field got taken over by fans of the opposing team this year. This was seen in the home games against the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers. 2024 did show some improvement for the Commies in terms of selling tickets and having more fans at the games. But, ranking 20th out of 30 stadiums in average attendance is awful given the amazing season and the draw of a star rookie in Jayden Daniels. Also, the Commies still lack a consistent dominant home crowd that many other successful NFL franchises enjoy.

Then there are the important local TV ratings for the Commies’ games during the 2024 season. TV ratings are far more important in telling the health of a fanbase than attendance numbers for home games. On January 29, 2024, John Ourand from Puck News appeared on the Kevin Sheehan Podcast and reported that the local TV numbers for the Washington Commanders games in 2024 were surprisingly low. The Commies came in 21st place among the 32 NFL franchises in the local TV ratings. My jaw dropped open as I heard that. Keep in mind that the Washington, DC DMA is ranked 7th in the nation.

It is unfathomable that local TV ratings for the Commies would be this low. Nobody would have ever imagined that a team that had its best season in over thirty years, went to the NFC Championship game, and possessed an enchanting Top 5 quarterback in just his rookie year would have been as low as 21st out of 32 teams. These local TV ratings have to be crushing for Josh Harris and Co. and far more alarming than the low average attendance ranking.

The Lions are America’s Team after the best ‘Hard Knocks’ season in years

Best season in a decade.

www.sbnation.com

The Lions are America’s Team after the best ‘Hard Knocks’ season in years​

The 2022 season of Hard Knocks ended on Wednesday night after we got to spend the last five weeks getting to know the Detroit Lions. It was unquestionably one of the best seasons in the show’s 21-year history, and even the most die-hard NFC North fan with a predisposition to hate all things Detroit has to admit this team is so likable it hurts.

This is a team who were sympathetic going into the year, and are now even more so. Part of that is simply being the Lions, one of the NFL’s perennial cellar-dwellers, woven into the national consciousness through Thanksgiving games. This season of Hard Knocks did so well at using the team as an allegory for the city itself — down, but not out. Eternally hopeful, and desperate to make a comeback. It’s to this end Dan Campbell is the ideal figure to lead this team back.

Campbell is the nexus of all things that fueled this season. The second-year, ex-player head coach is the paragon of what people imagine a stereotypical football coach is. From the opening moments of episode one, with “GRIT” written on the meeting room wall in giant block letters, to speaking in football platitudes that make absolutely zero sense.

...One of the things Hard Knocks showed so well is that for depth players it’s really not about the individual player, but how these players mesh with the starter and what they can bring as a compliment. Inside the sadness were a couple of bright spots, running back Craig Reynolds winning the final spot in a crowded room of rushers and fighting to represent his family. The other was Chase Lucas, 7th round pick in the draft, who soaked up every moment of his experience, half-expecting to be cut, before finally finding out he made the team.

This was a truly a remarkable season of the show, and worth binge-watching if you didn’t get a chance. I promise you that whoever saw the Lions on Hard Knocks this season will adopt Detroit as their second team.

 

[Xameil]

If they let the D actually push back the same way, then it wouldn't be a problem. The problem is all of the rules go against the D. I think it's very telling that it was mainly the AFC that voted to keep it in

 

[Anselmheifer]

I agree that Hard Knocks is a positive. I also think all of the primetime games we get this year will help. Especially if we show out.

Regarding the Tush Push, why hand the ball to a QB at all? I want Tre Johnson handing the ball to Lorenzo Alexander, with Albert Haynesworth and Sean Gilbert pushing him from behind. Not only does it not seem like a normal football play and give the offense leeway to push that the defense doesn't have, but it also kills 4th down suspense. Watching a 4th and 1 should be exciting. That's good for football. I expect the league to figure this out next offseason.

Also, this whole thing has made Lurie look like an absolute douche.

 

[NickyJ]

The only team I remember actively fumbling their Hard Knocks episodes were the Browns. Allowing the Hue Jackson-Todd Haley fight was embarrassing, especially with the hindsight of Jackson getting fired later in the season.

But a team even slightly competent with media production can handle it fine. Ron Rivera spurned it because it went against everything about his run here: Uninteresting, unwilling to appeal to fans, and a lack of any creativity. It might also have made it clearer sooner that Ron had delegated most of his coaching duties away to his coordinators.

Dan Quinn and this team are the opposite. They don't hide from the spotlight. Players like Jayden seem to relish it. I want them to be encouraged by the good press that a competent team can produce.

 

[skinsinparadise]

The only team I remember actively fumbling their Hard Knocks episodes were the Browns. Allowing the Hue Jackson-Todd Haley fight was embarrassing, especially with the hindsight of Jackson getting fired later in the season.

But a team even slightly competent with media production can handle it fine. Ron Rivera spurned it because it went against everything about his run here: Uninteresting, unwilling to appeal to fans, and a lack of any creativity. It might also have made it clearer sooner that Ron had delegated most of his coaching duties away to his coordinators.

Dan Quinn and this team are the opposite. They don't hide from the spotlight. Players like Jayden seem to relish it. I want them to be encouraged by the good press that a competent team can produce.

Yeah its a good point. If we are genuinely a good franchise again on the rise, you want the spotlight as much as possible. Avoiding or fearing the spotlight is hopefully what we are putting behind us.