Yesterday for the Commanders vs the Giants there was a lot of good to see, some not so good, and some stuff that needs to be cleaned up right away.
And since it is a WIN, the good that I saw will come first.
The GOOD STUFF
- EVERYBODY.
No kidding. EVERYBODY. Sellout crowd, mostly in burgundy. Very loud, into the game, and in my opinion, influencing the game. VERY loud when the Giants had the ball, very smart when the Commanders had the ball. Chanting “TER-RY! TER-RY!” over and over during breaks, letting him know the fans had his back, and it pumped him up. He visibly reacted to it on the field, encouraged it, and fed off of it. - DEFENSIVE LINE
Dominated the Giants in every way imaginable. The Giants run went nowhere. Russel Wilson was throwing with his eyes closed and diving for the ground. The Commanders defensive line were violent, brutalizing the Giants OL. Wilson got hit so often that he has no more space on his skin left for bruises. Running backs were smothered, and taken down hard.
(Note.. Cam Skattebo.. he went nowhere, BUT it usually took 2 or 3 guys hitting him before he’d go down. Shrugged off Luvu. He is tough. He might be a problem in the future.)
Deitich Wise is a FORCE. Huge, controlled mayhem. Javon Kinlaw, holy smokes. Big, fast and VIOLENT hitter. PUNISHER. Dorance Armstrong was disruptive, and my goodness, Daron Payne had a DAY. Even in only recording one tackle, Von Miller was a handful, and damn near intercepted a swing pass early in the game. Missed it by a half inch.
They treated the Giants OL like they were a JV team playing in the pros for a day. - RUNNING GAME
Everyone is going ga-ga for Bill, and rightfully so. The entire running attack was effective Sunday with all three of our dressed backs providing excellent contributions.
*Stat I think I heard this morning… on Bill’s game sealing 42 yard run, he went 18 yards before contact. On his touchdown he went ten before contact. SO major prop to the offensive line’s blocking… when they weren’t getting flagged for holds.
Starting with our “starter”, Ekeler looked like the Ekeler you think of when you think of him at his best over the course of his career. He ran hard in the middle like a power back; he got loose and turned short passes into outstanding gains. His fighting, rolling, rumbling first down on a 3rd and long deep in the fourth quarter is all you could want. Early in the game we ran a sweep with Deebo, and the mix with Ekeler and Deebo at the mesh point is going to give defenses FITS. Kliff has some fun pieces to do different things.
Bill was outstanding. 100% He ran hard, ran quick, ran fast. His gear-shift step is very quick and he turns on the gas. His long run had a great hole opened by a STELLAR play by John Bates, and his quickness to burst through and into the next level is something we have not seen in this town in a LONG time.
But just as important, his pass protection and willingness to block downfield was excellent. Jayden had a scramble in the second half that ultimately was called back due to a holding offensive lineman, but in the play Bill makes a terrific chip block, and when Jayden breaks to run, gets out ahead and makes another good block. As we’ve heard before, but never quite saw materialize, Bill is a FOOTBALL PLAYER. We have a gem.
Late in the game, Jeremy McNichols came in and ran well with fresh legs, picking up a key first down by driving DB Paulsen Adebo about 7 yards backwards with stiff-arm before finally being tackled. Just manhandled him. - SPECIAL TEAMS
Good coverages, an excellent return by McCaffrey. Matt Gay made his kicks. OK, so he only had 3 extra points to make, but he made them. After his nerve-wracking preseason, it’s a good start.
Nick Bellore is a ballistic missile. Absolute STUD of a special teams tackler, flashes in at high velocity and destroys the ballcarrier. Apparently, the Special Teams are nicknamed “The Nut Squad”.
I like it, and Nick Bellore leads the lunacy. - JAYDEN DANIELS
He didn’t have his best day passing. Statistically it is a passable day against an opponent who never was in the game, even though for much of it they were within one score.
His passes were slightly behind in a lot of throws. The old adage for a receiver is if it hits the hands, you should catch it, and yes, he had several drops from typically reliable targets (ie: Zach Ertz.) But where he usually lays it out in front, Sunday they were just a touch behind.
The missed bomb to Terry in the first half was unfortunate. He was WIDE open. He had left the DB at the hash and had the whole left side of the field to himself. Just a little overthrown. Who knows why. A pass to Deebo up the seam in the second half was also overthrown. He had one sideline throw in the first half (I think to Terry) that a DB got his hands on, but other than that, he didn’t throw any balls that were in danger of being intercepted, he didn’t throw any hospital balls, and he didn’t make any killing mental errors. To paraphrase the wise words of legendary Washington sports radio pioneer Ken Beatrice, “that is what you want in your young quarterback, he did not make the killing mental error.” (Or as Ken said in his Boston accent “..in yaw young kawtaback, he will nawt make the mental erra.”)
Even on a play that was eventually a sack by Brian Burns, he clearly saw the Giants had read the screen to the right and pulled it down and tried to escape to the left. Just so happened Burns was waiting there to give him a hug.
The Not-So Good Stuff
- PENALTIES
Come on, this is ridiculous. Penalized 12 times for 89 yards.
This is 100% unacceptable, and coaches should be chewing ASSES in the film room as a result of it. This was a bad Giants team, we could overcome the penalties. But holy smokes, 89 yards in penalties is almost like erasing another score off the board. “Hidden yards” matter, and we got KILLED in that department.
Mostly on the offense. Sloppy OL play. Holds. False starts. Illegal formations. Unacceptable. After a preseason FULL of penalties, it is a VERY BAD SIGN to start the season this way. This needs to be cleaned up immediately. It is a discipline issue when there is this many, and that is on coaches. Clean it up. - OFFENSIVE LINE
Kind of a mixed bag here. They did well run blocking, but pass blocking, not so much. Jayden got sacked 3 times (although like I said above, one of them was a broken play) Numerous penalties. Nothing more to be said about them that wasn’t said in the “Penalties” section above.
Welcome to the NFL, Josh Conerly. Hell of a baptism, there. The good thing is I have faith the young man will learn from it and work hard to be better. It’s what he’s done since he got here. He has the skill and the talent, and it will shine with tempering. I don’t think it’s going to be the last game he will have problems, but there won’t be too many. - SPECIAL TEAMS
Yes, I know I gave them all pats on the butt up above, BUT they did allow a punt to be blocked. That can’t happen again. Blocked punts are game turning plays, demoralizers. - CLOCK MANAGEMENT
Over-used timeouts. Not sure why. Took them all too early and it ended up costing us a scoring chance at the end of the first half. As noted above; bad Giants team. Can’t let things like that happen against better teams. Points are at a premium. - NOISE
Look, I know it’s a football game and we’re all supposed to be excited, but there really is no reason to fill up every second of non-football action in the stadium with ear-bleeding decibels of half-songs, screeching people on a microphone turned up SO loud that the reverb makes it impossible to understand them (Yesterday I applauded some Marines, one was Captain SHKAKKASSSHHAZAKKAKKA, I think..) Any of the other insanely loud crap they feel they must do to keep us excited, just over the top.
In between a play or during a timeout I like to talk to my friends about what is happening in the game. But to do that, I have to yell into their ears and I can’t even hear myself, for fuck’s sake. Having SOME hype-up is good, exhorting everyone on third down, but give some of it a rest, too. We’re excited. Trust me. It’s opening day, we all bought tickets.
Thank you and kindly get off my damn lawn.
Overall a convincing win. The defense especially. The offense did just what it had to do to win, and nothing more. Jayden polishes up just a teeny bit, and the Commanders are back to the scoring machine we saw a year ago.
Penalties HAVE to be cleaned up, or all of what I just said is in jeopardy. Good teams will make you pay for 12 penalties and 89 lost yards.
Very excited for our running back committee and what it can do.
On to Green Bay for a real test.
