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00:00J.P. Finley is on NBC4 in our nation's capital.
00:05He's also on 106.7, the fan in D.C.'s everywhere in our nation's capital.
00:11It's great to have you on, J.P.
00:13I got to ask you, what is the reaction been to how hot this football team is?
00:21Because they've been awful for a long time and now this kid shows up and they're winning
00:25every game they play.
00:26They've won four in a row.
00:28And I mean, they lit it up yesterday.
00:30What are the fans like and the reaction on the radio side, on the TV?
00:35It's got to be pretty exciting right about now in D.C.
00:38Both are thrilled.
00:40It is.
00:41It's really exciting.
00:42Jaden Daniels is arguably the most exciting player in the NFL.
00:46And it's been so long since there's been a quarterback here.
00:49Obviously, there was Robert's rookie year, but that didn't feel like this.
00:53This feels like a far more sustainable approach offensively.
00:57When Robert came in, they introduced the read option in the NFL and it was kind of took
01:00the lead by surprise.
01:02Jaden is certainly running, but he's getting it done with his arm.
01:06The accuracy he shows from the pocket is unparalleled, honestly.
01:11It is really exciting.
01:13One thing that's kind of interesting, though, is there's still like this Dan Snyder era
01:17PTSD that some fans are kind of nervous to believe that they're this good.
01:22And I think this weekend's matchup with the Ravens is a huge opportunity for Washington.
01:28Listen, you want to go win the game, obviously, but if you go and show you can go toe to toe
01:33with Baltimore, I think that changes the perspective of the commanders around the league and even
01:40here at home.
01:41Do you think they'll be able to stop Lamar and King Henry?
01:46They've been running all over people and stepping on their faces.
01:50I mean, they did it again yesterday.
01:52Those two are literally winning games almost by themselves.
01:56Frankly, I don't think they're going to be able to stop them, but the counter isn't so
02:03much.
02:04Can they stop them?
02:05It's can Baltimore stop Washington?
02:06Washington put up to 30 on the ground yesterday, and that's against a pretty good Browns defense.
02:12And if you look at their mutual opponent in the Bengals, Washington went to since he put
02:17up 38 in a Monday night win.
02:20Baltimore went to since he put up 41 in an overtime win.
02:24Those performances are pretty similar.
02:25Now, who knows if that will translate when they get to Baltimore, but do I think they
02:29can stop Lamar and Derrick Henry?
02:31Probably not.
02:32I'm not sure anybody can, but the Baltimore Ravens also have to slow down Washington because
02:37I think this might be more about throwing the counter punch than shutting them down
02:42defensively.
02:43Isn't it great though that, I mean, the football in the area on the beltway, both teams are
02:48kicking ass.
02:50It's great for fans.
02:51I mean, cause it's been a long time, like I said, and you talk about the Snyder years,
02:57what a disaster that guy was.
02:58I mean, honestly, fans just hated his guts and things are changing now and they're winning.
03:04And what a vibe to have both teams.
03:07You know, I think the Ravens ever since they started winning, they're going to keep winning.
03:11Everybody already knows how good they are.
03:13Now they're doing their thing.
03:14It's the commanders.
03:15No one saw this coming.
03:17I thought yesterday when I saw the kid throw that sling to McLaren, it was just crazy.
03:22That pass was just beautiful.
03:24It was 60.
03:26So he had to escape out of a sack.
03:28It was third and 13.
03:29He'd be able to get out of a sack that I don't know that there's five quarterbacks in the
03:34NFL that get out of the sack to begin with.
03:36He's rolling right, rolling right.
03:37And you really saw some growth in Jason Daniels just from week one in that he had plenty of
03:43open grass in front of him.
03:44If he chose to take off with his legs, try to pick up the first down, he didn't kept
03:48his eyes downfield.
03:49So I'm a chlorine deep.
03:51I mean, he didn't really get the play on his feet, set his shoulders.
03:54He just flung it.
03:55That ball had to go 60, 62 yards in the air.
03:58Terry brings it in.
03:59He's not able to keep his feet.
04:00He gets a little, he gets kind of tackled there, goes down at the two yard line or whatever.
04:04But the physical gifts, Daniels, the throws he used to make it, the touchdown throw he
04:09had to the brown.
04:10I mean that the accuracy on that ball in the corner of the end zone is just unbelievable.
04:15You match that with the accuracy on the touchdown throw to McLaurin on the Monday night or against
04:19Cincinnati, Jane Daniels looks like he could do it all.
04:23It's got to your point.
04:25The Ravens, unfortunately, whatever, fortunately, unfortunately, however you view it, they've
04:29been kicking ass for some time, you know, two super bowls in the last 25 years, whatever
04:33that is.
04:34And just a perennial playoff team, perennial contender under John Harbaugh, Washington
04:39hasn't been that.
04:40Washington's largely been a rollercoaster disaster and it feels so different now because
04:47you've got new ownership.
04:49I think of all the candidates to take over a front office last year, they got the best
04:52one in Adam Peters who had success with the Niners, success with the Broncos, success
04:57with the Patriots, Dan Quinn, you know, there was some consternation about the hire.
05:02He's been really good since he got here.
05:03He's certainly that leader of men on a roster that's half young, half old, and they're trying
05:08to rebuild on the fly.
05:10And when, for Washington specifically, there is more reason for optimism than there's probably
05:17been in 25 years.
05:19I mean, the thing I saw about him was like in the, in the clubhouse when Kingsbury, they
05:26gave him the game ball, this is a couple of weeks ago and they all went crazy.
05:31And just the, I saw like a connection with Quinn and his coaches and players that I haven't
05:36seen there in a long time.
05:38I never thought Kingsbury, he got all this juice out in Arizona because women loved him
05:44and he had a bad-ass house and all that nonsense.
05:47Now he's actually coaching because he never did that in the desert, but he's actually
05:52coaching with this team.
05:53I like what I'm seeing from guys that are like coaching and doing their jobs and not
05:58being celebrity coaches.
06:01Celebrity coaches, nonsense.
06:02I need guys to coach, guys to win, win games.
06:06And then you got these two rockstar quarterbacks, your guy, the Heisman winner, and this guy
06:10Lamar, they're both so, you know, you gravitate toward them.
06:15Like there's something about Lamar, like I'm a Steeler fan.
06:18I would try, I'd literally try to trade my entire team for him.
06:21I would trade the owner, the players, the ball boy, to get my hands on a guy that talented.
06:27I think I know how cool he is.
06:29But I think this kid you've got now in DC, he's the same thing.
06:35I mean, you got rockstars everywhere, coaching players.
06:37It's crazy.
06:38Yeah, it's been interesting, specifically with the coaching staff in Kingsbury.
06:43If you look back to Arizona, I mean, Cliff kind of got the job because of his track record
06:47with quarterbacks, working with Baker Mayfield, working with Patrick Mahomes.
06:51He gets to Arizona, they draft Kyler Murray, Kyler Murray's rookie of the year.
06:55You know, they had, they built in Arizona under Cliff and they had a really good season
06:59in 21.
07:00I think they went 11-5, lost in the playoffs.
07:04But the following year, Kyler gets hurt, that thing just falls apart.
07:07And you're definitely right, there was some celebrity status.
07:09There was the viral photo of Cliff during COVID with that sick house and everything.
07:14Since he's been here, he's been very low-key.
07:16He doesn't do a lot of interviews.
07:18He does kind of the media that all offensive coordinators are mandated by the lead to do.
07:24And other than that, just kind of keeps it very low-key.
07:27I think that's on purpose.
07:29He and Jaden have a really good relationship.
07:31The deep shot to De'Ami Brown yesterday, the touchdown throw, was actually Jaden asked
07:37Cliff if he could check to it.
07:38And Cliff's like, hell yeah, man, go for it.
07:41And I think those two going forward will be really well-served and maybe Cliff's able
07:46to parlay that into another head coaching job down the road.
07:49But he doesn't seem interested or focused on that.
07:53Some of that is probably Arizona still paying him a whole lot of money because he got the
07:57contract extension.
07:59So he's able to just really enjoy working with his rookie quarterback and seeing his
08:04name and profile bolt back up.
08:07I got a minute left, respectfully.
08:09I got to ask you, when you were watching Deshaun Watson yesterday, how bad did you think he
08:15sucked?
08:16And did you ever think, man, this guy, he just doesn't matter anymore.
08:20He's like finished.
08:21He seemed disinterested, frankly.
08:25After he took a couple of big hits on a scramble, Mikey Sammer still is a rookie out of Michigan
08:29game with good pop.
08:31I don't know if you've seen it.
08:32Go find this fourth down play where the play comes in from the sideline and Watson just
08:38kind of jogs off.
08:39Now maybe they had 12 on the field or something, but I don't know what happened there.
08:43Yeah, I saw it.
08:45He's that often completely broken.
08:48I think you saw Washington be pretty aggressive on fourth downs offensively because they had
08:52zero concern of giving the ball back to Cleveland.
08:55And to me, if you're actually trying to win games, you got to go to Jameis.
08:59But that Brown situation with bad ownership and toxicity, I'm glad I'm out of that world
09:05in DC.
09:07What a shame.
09:08I'll never, the Bengals and Browns stink.
09:10What a shame.
09:11All I got to worry about is the Ravens.
09:12I'm going to the Steelers-Ravens game, November 21st.
09:13JP, great stuff, man.
09:14I appreciate you so much.