Random Commanders Thoughts

I couldn't find anything to watch last night so I was noodling around on YouTube and stumbled on the Denver Super Bowl. I just had to watch the first half. I remember it was obvioiusly a bad start but 10-0 does not do it justice. Redskins offense was pathetic and Denver missed a makeable field goal and was in scoring position again before a big sack took them out of field goal range.

Dan Dierdorff was an asshole. I actually like announcers who are critical of players but this guy was just a dick. Early in the game when Denver had it going he was so anti-Redskins. When Gifford mentioned a feat a Redskins player accomplished in the regular season Denver/Washington game Dierdort had to chime in "but Denver won the game". Then when the game turned he was absolutely brutal on Tony Lilly and the entire Denver team.
 
I couldn't find anything to watch last night so I was noodling around on YouTube and stumbled on the Denver Super Bowl. I just had to watch the first half. I remember it was obvioiusly a bad start but 10-0 does not do it justice. Redskins offense was pathetic and Denver missed a makeable field goal and was in scoring position again before a big sack took them out of field goal range.

Dan Dierdorff was an asshole. I actually like announcers who are critical of players but this guy was just a dick. Early in the game when Denver had it going he was so anti-Redskins. When Gifford mentioned a feat a Redskins player accomplished in the regular season Denver/Washington game Dierdort had to chime in "but Denver won the game". Then when the game turned he was absolutely brutal on Tony Lilly and the entire Denver team.
Sometimes, Sour grapes are delcious.

This season, I stumbled on a video of a 49ers fan reviewing the Detroit Washington game. The evolution was great. It was so funny watching him fall apart.
 
I couldn't find anything to watch last night so I was noodling around on YouTube and stumbled on the Denver Super Bowl. I just had to watch the first half. I remember it was obvioiusly a bad start but 10-0 does not do it justice. Redskins offense was pathetic and Denver missed a makeable field goal and was in scoring position again before a big sack took them out of field goal range.

Dan Dierdorff was an asshole. I actually like announcers who are critical of players but this guy was just a dick. Early in the game when Denver had it going he was so anti-Redskins. When Gifford mentioned a feat a Redskins player accomplished in the regular season Denver/Washington game Dierdort had to chime in "but Denver won the game". Then when the game turned he was absolutely brutal on Tony Lilly and the entire Denver team.
I watch that SB with my son a few weeks ago. I noticed the same thing about Dierdorff. 13 year old me apparently didn't notice it. 50 year old me did.
 
Dan Quinn takes over the defensive playcalliing after the debacles (3 in a row) against Saquon Barkley. Joe Whitt Jr isn't cutting it for training and preparation of this defense.
 
I think one can make a legit case that Joe Whitt Jr. getting a defense nearly bereft of top tier talent to play well enough to get us to an NFC Championship game reflects pretty well on him. You want to take struggling to stop a RB who may well have just had one of the best seasons in NFL history and make that some kind of indictment, you do you. Every defensive coordinator on the Eagles schedule in 2024 had the same problem - and most couldn't come up with a gameplan to slow him down.

We are lucky to have Joe Whitt Jr. - and the guy who knows that the best is Dan Quinn.

Context, at least for most of us, matters. Want better defensive performances? Get more talented defenders. Coaches can only do so much.
 
I couldn't find anything to watch last night so I was noodling around on YouTube and stumbled on the Denver Super Bowl. I just had to watch the first half. I remember it was obvioiusly a bad start but 10-0 does not do it justice. Redskins offense was pathetic and Denver missed a makeable field goal and was in scoring position again before a big sack took them out of field goal range.

Dan Dierdorff was an asshole. I actually like announcers who are critical of players but this guy was just a dick. Early in the game when Denver had it going he was so anti-Redskins. When Gifford mentioned a feat a Redskins player accomplished in the regular season Denver/Washington game Dierdort had to chime in "but Denver won the game". Then when the game turned he was absolutely brutal on Tony Lilly and the entire Denver team.
I always hated Dierdorff. Maybe it was because of that game. I watched it probably 100 times when I was a kid. I wore out that VHS tape rewinding and fast forwarding to the beat parts of the game. For me thought, it wasn’t just that Super Bowl. He always came across as a blowhard. I was not sad when he stopped being the Monday Night Football analyst. And then I rarely heard him when he moved over to CBS.
 
Witt taking a 31st ranked Washington defense to average is actually really impressive. The fact that he kept retooling the roster and scheme all season long speaks well of him in my eyes. I don't know if you put the benching of the players on Witt or Quinn, but it's rare to see a team bench both its starting corners including a first rounder.

What Witt did would normally be the talk of the offseason and reason for hope except that while the defense made substantial improvement the O blew it up, shot past the atmosphere, and reached the Moon.
 
I think one can make a legit case that Joe Whitt Jr. getting a defense nearly bereft of top tier talent to play well enough to get us to an NFC Championship game reflects pretty well on him. You want to take struggling to stop a RB who may well have just had one of the best seasons in NFL history and make that some kind of indictment, you do you. Every defensive coordinator on the Eagles schedule in 2024 had the same problem - and most couldn't come up with a gameplan to slow him down.

We are lucky to have Joe Whitt Jr. - and the guy who knows that the best is Dan Quinn.

Context, at least for most of us, matters. Want better defensive performances? Get more talented defenders. Coaches can only do so much.
This always ends up being a philosophical debate for me.
How much is talent and how much is coaching?
Both are obviously critical but both can be somewhat overcome by being elite at the other.
On paper our defense is considerably more talented than our offense but it sure as hell didn't show up that way on film and kingsbury is getting a lot of the glory for it.

On defense we have some Very talented players, wagner, luvu, sainristil, Chinn, lattimore, payne, allen, etc, yes there are some that are past their primes and some pretty big holes elsewhere but the exact same thing could be said for our offense.

I am far from out on whitt jr and absolutely believe he deserves time and more talent in the areas we are severely lacking but I'd be lying if I said his schemes for stopping the run don't concern me long term.
This staff was not good at all against the run in Dallas and so far it has carried over to here.
 
I think Payne and Allen have been mostly a mirage for the past few years. Have we ever had a stout run defense with them? Have we ever really won the goal line or third and one battles?
 
I think Payne and Allen have been mostly a mirage for the past few years. Have we ever had a stout run defense with them? Have we ever really won the goal line or third and one battles?
I agree, both are considered pass rushing tackles and we have nothing at ends so whitt was definitely hamstrung by talent i just don't think that was the sole reason.

I could be wrong I've been wrong before but I'd be surprised if we ever have an elite run stopping defense with whitt or even quinn for that matter, his defenses in Atlanta sucked against the run.

I was burned by not believing the trends with rivera and del rio and Im not gonna believe before I see it with my own eyes again.

Until quinn and whitt show me they can consistently stop the run here I'm gonna believe that is one of their coaching weaknesses.
 
I suspect you're right and that it's partly by design. The league had moved so hard towards a pass-first league that I don't doubt schemes evolved to deal with that at the expense of the running game. Now, the question is whether they can adapt because of the emergence of teams like the Ravens, Detroit, and Philly all of which are run-centric.

I guess the other question is how much of Washington's run game weakness is schematic and how much is talent. As you said, Payne, Allen, Wagner, and Luvu ought to be pretty good against the run.
 
I didn’t include guys like Sainristil and Lattimore in my general characterization because expecting a rookie and a hurt vet who just arrived to be difference makers isn’t reasonable. Maybe a better way to say it (vs bereft of talent) would’ve been to say Whitt had a defense with many holes at key spots - most namely at DL, pass rusher, and CB. Tough to do much better than what we saw with such key needs. For the guy I directed my reply to, it’s not ‘Rocky II’ and Adrian saying ‘Win!’ doesn’t make it realistic or likely.
 
Dan Quinn takes over the defensive playcalliing after the debacles (3 in a row) against Saquon Barkley. Joe Whitt Jr isn't cutting it for training and preparation of this defense.
I disagree . . . Joe Whitt Jr did fine with the pieces he had to play with. Get the man some players and his D will shine!!
 
For the guy I directed my reply to, it’s not ‘Rocky II’ and Adrian saying ‘Win!’ doesn’t make it realistic or likely.
I almost didn't quote you because I didn't want it to look like I was defending that particular position.

Maybe a better way to say it (vs bereft of talent) would’ve been to say Whitt had a defense with many holes at key spots - most namely at DL, pass rusher, and CB. Tough to do much better than what we saw with such key needs
I think my biggest problem with the result wasn't that it was poor as expected it was that it was worse than should be expected with talent taken into account.
7 rushing touchdowns in a game isn't bad it's historically bad even against such a stacked rushing opponent it's only been done 3 other times in the history of the nfl and I believe this is the first time in the playoffs.
Everybody on the planet knew the eagles were gonna try to run the ball down our throat and despite such an obvious gameplan that was the best we could come up with.

Just frustrating but hopefully with more talent and fewer holes we can shore that up a bit.
 
We had one of our worst performances of the season in the finale. Can’t argue that.
 
The Eagles and Jalen Hurts okedoked us into believing that he was limited physically. The fact that they immediately gutted our run defense before we even knew we were hoodwinked is, well, very disappointing to say the least.
 
An undrafted Australian/New Zealander who had NEVER played American football in college was coached up to dominate our defense in run blocking. Coaching matters.
 
Apparently the Jets are taking Scott Turner as the passing game coordinator. Maybe that was what they wanted Blough for. Good ol' Scotty.
As long as he's not the play caller. He never developed a good feel for the game, and ran the same running play on first down for 4 years.

Granted, most of the games he called, he had a backup XFL QB with a pop warner arm attempting to play QB and generally failing miserably, so I acknowledge the tough position he was in. Which would lead me to think he would be creative, but led him to call 1 yard runs for 4 years. To each their own I guess.
 
The Eagles and Jalen Hurts okedoked us into believing that he was limited physically. The fact that they immediately gutted our run defense before we even knew we were hoodwinked is, well, very disappointing to say the least.
Having an Australian who never played college football beat our defense down was disappointing.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 2, Members: 0, Guests: 2)

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.

    You haven't joined any rooms.
    Top