Danny highlights the Commanders struggles when they can't keep ahead of the chains on first down as an area of concern down the stretch.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00it sounds very dismissive. I don't mean it to be. They are a one-trick pony.
00:04What I mean is, if they're not awesome on first down, the offense isn't any good. And that's
00:09really about running the ball, right? This is who they are. When they are, you know, second and four,
00:13they're excellent. They're better than almost anybody. When that offense is right, see Tennessee,
00:18see Carolina, see, you know, when they beat up some of these bad teams and they're ahead of the
00:22chains at all times, defenses are on their heels. They can be really, really good.
00:27When that goes away, just for whatever reason, whether, again, look at the Dallas game,
00:31look this past weekend against New Orleans, Pittsburgh at times, Philadelphia certainly
00:35made it a struggle. They don't have weaponry. They don't have the answers. Now, especially
00:40without Austin Eckler for some time still, if he does come back. Without Zach Ertz, probably for
00:46a time. Without Noah Brown, who wasn't great to begin with. They don't have enough counters.
00:51Now, nobody's good on third and nine. That's the NFL, right? That's football.
00:55There are teams that are also though, even given that watered down a situation who are worse,
01:01even than that. And I think Washington is one of them. Just given the fact that if you stop them
01:04on first down, you stop them. Early downs success makes this offense good. The games where they've
01:10struggled. You've seen it. Teams that are really, really good, that are total prolific offenses
01:15can deal with a setback. Buffalo can deal with a first down stuff of a run. Baltimore can,
01:21you pick out some of the, some of the great offenses in this sport. Detroit certainly can,
01:24although maybe it's going to be harder for them as they continue to lose weaponry,
01:27but Washington is a good offense. Certainly when it's working, right? When it's not,
01:31you see the struggle and opponent has been irrelevant. When it comes to it, we thought,
01:36Hey, okay. They're playing Philadelphia. That's a great defense. They struggled against Philadelphia.
01:39A lot of teams are, well, explain Dallas to me, explain New Orleans to me, Atlanta's defense on
01:44paper stinks. It hadn't mattered because if you could stop Washington on first down, AKA
01:49you shove it on Brian Robinson and company, you all of a sudden can make Washington pretty
01:53pedestrian.