Grant and Danny
Cowboys Take Down The Giants, Gut Feeling For Commanders-Cardinals
Yeah, Friday. What's up? Welcome in Gratton Danny on the fan September 27th, 2024. Tomorrow's an excellent day of college football. Sunday is probably the best slate of games that we've had through four weeks of the NFL season. It is a rainy Friday night lights evening around the DMV and a football Friday is ready to get underway. Ladies and gentlemen, Danny root yet by God, that's who has music. Dude, it does not run us at this before the show started. It does not feel like Friday because you and I had like a delayed start to our week because we were traveling through Tuesday evening. We get back and it's like, okay, now the start of the week is here. No, it's already Friday. We're talking about a football weekend and got underway last night with a pretty gross game. Ultimately, kind of chopping not a lot of flow, a lot of ref attention, including a couple botched calls that I thought were just egregious. And again, I was called into question. I know it's not the point, but if we have replay and we can't figure out something that's so obvious, why do we have replay? So this is no, you know, whatever, who cares? But Daniel Bellinger got called for a face mask when it was his face mask that got grabbed and he never touched anyone's face mask. Anyone's at any point in time 30 yard swing. I don't get that. So what happened? Did the ref tell the umpire a face mask on the correct defensive player who grabbed his face mask and then the umpire announced it wrong and nobody noticed or did the ref get confused or did he think he saw something and didn't see like what actually happened on that play? I don't know because what did happen was that on a third down, a giant had his face mask grabbed by a cowboy. They assessed a face mask against the giants to end a drive and cost them points in a game that ultimately was decided by one possession. But I'm wondering the actual like, where was the flaw in the system? Did they just make a bad call where they thought they saw something they didn't see? I get the sense that the referee that saw the penalty probably said the penalty was on the Cowboys and it got lost somewhere in telephone and nobody really noticed the next thing, you know, they kick a field goal and they're on to the next. I mean, you got moments where there was going to be a hold on the Dallas touchdown and the I think I think a reference, you know, the New York or whatever office buzzed down and said, Nope, no hold. And they picked the flag up. I don't know if that's exactly how the mechanics went, but that's the most easily correctable thing. And it's like, I don't know what to do. We're just befuddled. It's like when the play clocks at zero for one one thousand, almost two one thousand, and they snap it and they go, Oh, well, I can't believe it's no well. And with all of the billions and all the attention and all the millimeters upon millimeters that define this game on a weekly basis, how close all of these games are. We just sort of go, yeah, it's a 30 yard swing. Anyway, next play, like I can't believe it. So to your point, replay assistance is what you're looking for. The replay assistance, which is the somebody buzzing down and telling the refs they got it wrong thing that should be ubiquitous. We use it sometimes not all the time. How did they not correct the face mask issue? They did correct the hold that wasn't a hold and they picked up the flag. They later in the game, if you remember, there was a throw to Wondell Robinson where he dropped the pass was kind of on an island all by himself. Looked like he took a couple of steps and then fumbled. As it turned out, he didn't actually catch the pass. But when he dropped the ball and fumbled, the Cowboys had a clean recovery and were going the other way for what would have been a touchdown on a 12 point swing, essentially, with the Giants driving replay assistance buzzed down and said it wasn't a fumble. It was an incomplete pass. And oh, by the way, the Giants had an ineligible man downfield. But why are we using that some of the time and not all the time? There's that's got to be more uniform where a, they've got to do a better job communicating. Is this replay assistance? And what did they actually review? Why did they change the call? What did they see? And B, when are they able to use it? And when aren't they? And why can't they use it on every play then? Why are they only fixing some of the bad calls and not the others? But inevitably last night, the Cowboys get a win 20 to 15. They're two and two. The Giants fall to one and three. That Prescott and Dallas offensively could not run the ball. That's not new. That has been a problem all year long, but they did enough. They only needed 20 points. One of those scores came on a 55 yard touchdown catch by CD Lambo at seven for 98 in the game. And Prescott was pretty efficient, 220, two scores, no turnovers, five incompletions. But it was kind of a yawn fest. It was a little bit of a boring game. As you said, a lot of penalties and the energy on the Thursday night broadcast is terrible. I'm sorry. It just is. Al Michaels is one of the greatest broadcasters in the history of sports. He's one of the great play-by-play guys that's ever lived. He has zero energy. Kirk Herb Street either matches his energy or also has no energy because he's got 15 jobs and he's busy like petting his dog. I'm not really sure. I love Kirk Herb Street. I do. He is awesome on college football. He is amazing on college game day. He's one of my favorite broadcasters. I'm not really sure what's happening. I have to imagine that he's just kind of meeting Al Michaels where Al Michaels is, but that broadcast is a snooze fest. And then you add the game to it. It was just brutal last night, I thought. At the end of the game, Danny, Al Michaels at one point, he kind of sits out for like several seconds of just watching. There's no real net sound though. So there's nothing really going on noticeable on the field. And then he goes, all right, our post game cruise ready. That was the sign off. Right. Cause it sounded like someone's talking in his ear telling him, okay, let everyone know the post game show is ready. He's just listening while it's happening. Then he receives word. He goes, all right, post game show. It's like, Oh my God, dude. Oh, hey, I know it sounds like we're just we're overly complaining about it. But man, oh man, it it's because you already said it. If there's a hall of fame, put on Michaels in right now, let him enjoy that. He was tremendous. Some of the most signature calls in the history of sports, period full stop. The way that it sounds now is Michaels is now a one out of 10 in terms of energy. So can you imagine what it would sound like? If Herb Street was like this, what an amazing play. Okay. Second and four, like the contrast would be terrible. You know, so Herb shoots now, just sunk down to that same level. And that was a good play. And you can see what they wanted to do there and try to get them on outside one on one. And all right, let's see second down. You know, it's it's this, I'm sorry to bother you guys, you know, like we're trying to get into this thing. It just doesn't match it. Here's the question I've got coming out of that game because the Giants, I thought, outplayed the Cowboys in a lot of ways. They had more yards than Dallas. They ran more plays than the Cowboys. They couldn't finish drives. They were the commanders of a couple of weeks ago when they played the Giants. It was all field goals. Five of them buy a backup kicker and Greg Joseph, who they just signed, the former Viking filling in because Graham Genose still hurt. They're on their third kicker, I think, in three weeks, actually, New York is, but Daniel Jones was pretty good. He was terrible when it came to throw in the ball downfield. And that was the difference. At one point last night, he was like 26 of 30. And his incompletions were all 20 plus yards downfield, where he's two for 14 this year. I thought Malik neighbors was incredible again. Malik neighbors is a superstar, 15 targets, 12 catches, 115 yards. He's off to a historic beginning to his career. This was his second time with 10 catches in 100 yards and four weeks as an NFL receiver. He lines up everywhere. All the time, like there is no consecutive play where it's okay, truts out to the left. And that's where he is. It just feels like everything is the design to get in the football. I love it. I love it. One in man coverage. He just, I mean, he's great. I had a concussion at the end of the game. But the Giants at one and three are very flawed, obviously. The Cowboys are two and two. You impressed by them at all? No, not a little. They played a terrible game against the Saints. They played a bad three quarters against the Ravens came storming backs to lost. And then last night, an unimpressive win against the Giants. They have one quality victory, I would say, in terms of performance. And that was against the not very good Browns team in week one, who the Giants have also beat their only win in four games. If the Eagles aren't good, Danny, then I'm willing to say right now, there's not a good team in the NFC East. So the question might be about Philly. But are we sure that there's a really good team in the NFC East right now that is standing in Washington's way from doing something no one thinks they can do? So I'm not sure. But I still believe that Philly's good. Remember, they have an ad J Brown. They lost a Monte Smith, no Ling Johnson. They've had a number of injuries up and down and maybe you hold that against them and say, well, yeah, right now, they're not that good. My point is they've kind of shredded water here. They should be three and oh, with some decent clock management. They would have beat Atlanta. I'll go the other way. They could very easily be 0 and three. Totally true. They should have probably lost the Packers game. If it was on any kind of site in the United States of America where the footing was better, and they had no business beating the Saints this past week other than two Saints players running into each other on a mesh concept to get Dallas Goddard free for 70 yards. So the margins are smaller, two and one. You're absolutely right. They could be three and oh, they could also be 0 and three for sure. I guess it just goes to show you. But my point is they're playing competitive football without a couple stars or even even a few stars and then some really good players to boot. So either hold that against them saying, Hey, yeah, they're not that good. Like look at San Francisco. Are they good? I think so. But that's pending everybody that's awesome coming back at some point, right? So that's kind of my same philosophy on on on Philadelphia. I mean, I'll take a four to 60 yard offensive performance weekend and week out, which is what they did last week against the Saints only end up scoring 15 points. And it was only because two guys collided to your point that they finally got that late game touchdown to win it. So I still think Philly's good defensively. I've been pretty impressed with them. They shoved it on a New Orleans team averaging 2 million a game. I thought that was pretty impressive. This weekend, I'll tell a lot. They're going to Tampa, who's, you know, got knocked off their pedestal a little bit with it with a substandard performance in week three, but Tampa base pretty good and has had their number recently as well. So I still think they're good, but I'm not sure if that's if that's the question. I don't think there's a great team in the division. Is there a good team in the division? I'm willing to meet you on Philadelphia somewhere in the middle and say they're pretty good. They've been played like it. I've been utterly unimpressed, but I'm willing to say without AJ Brown, it's different. They didn't have Davante Smith this past weekend. Their top wide receiver was Johan Dotson and they won with Dallas Goddard, leading the way as a receiver in the Saquan Barkley show. And the reason I do like Philly a little bit is because Barkley's proven to be a tremendous addition. That might be the move of the off season through three games right now in the NFL. He's in the running for offensive player of the year. And he's been a godsend while they've got these receiver issues. But the Cowboys are not impressive. The Giants are going to be a sub 500 team. And I think the Eagles are closer to a if things go well, you win 10 or 11 games type team, then they are competing for the top spot in the conference at 12 or 13 wins. My point is look around the NFC East people. It's not that good a division. If you played Dallas this weekend, if you're washing it, you're not worried about that game. Now they might beat you. Sure, you're not that good either. But that's a bad matchup for the Cowboys. I think Dallas can't run the ball. You want to beat Washington? They're going to let you run the ball on them probably. Similarly, the Cowboys before last night couldn't stop the run. They did a really good job against Devin Singletary. I think stopping the commanders is a whole different ordeal, but they were the worst run stopping team in the league through a couple of weeks going into last night. So on paper, I would just say Washington is the type of team that might give the Cowboys fits two games coming. At this moment, you'd assume the commander is going to beat the Cowboys in one of those two games, right? You would say based on what you've seen. Based on the matchup, Philly is going to be more of a handful if AJ Brown and if Devontay Smith are healthy. But I'm just not worried about those teams. And maybe this is in some way an endorsement of Washington, less an indictment of the other teams, even though that's how I'm viewing it. In the past, the Cowboys were heading shoulders better. Eagles decidedly better. I don't think that's the case really. I don't look at a team in this division is saying they are well out in front of where Washington is right now. And I think that's fair. I mean, as you as you said, you kind of you kind of go through it. This is not 2020 where the division was historically bad. And Washington wanted a big fraudulent way and everyone patted round of air on the back. And we congratulated ourselves on a seven to nine season when the Eagles quite literally tried to lose, right? It's so funny, by the way. The Eagles could have won the division in week 17 in game 16 with the division on the line. And they actively bench their quarterback because he was playing too well. And they were about to win the division. And that's how Rivera won that division with the where they the Redskins are the football team. Must have been the football team. So yeah, to clean that up, they were there were a four and 11 team that year in 2020 coming off the their Super Bowl appearances. So they couldn't have. Okay, that's right. So the point was that they didn't want to do anything. But no, no, they could have won the game. That's what it was. They couldn't have won the division, but they were going to win the game and they didn't want to cost themselves draft position. And so they said, Jalen hurts. What are you doing, man? You're moving up and down the field and scoring touchdown. Stop. And so they banged him and put in Nate Sunfell. Sunfell. Yeah, that's right. Putting Russell's boy Nate Sunfell purposefully trying to make it harder to beat the bad Washington team that then beat the backup quarterback to get to seven wins. Otherwise, Washington would have finished with six and maybe the Giants or the Cowboys, whoever would have been someone else. Yeah, they would have gotten in at six wins. Yeah, six wins, by the way. Yeah, Washington won that game 20 to 14. Never forget. But yeah, you know, listen, we said it then it was empty calories and it certainly was those donuts went down nice and smooth. So it's not it's not that division at super high tasted good that morning. I had fun. It's not that year, right? And I think I don't think anybody's saying that, but it's also not a couple of years ago, either we're Phillies 13 and four or, you know, 12 and five or whatever. They might end up getting there, but they're not as good as they were the last couple of seasons. I'll even I'll stipulate that. I still think they're good to pretty good to good, which is maybe a higher tier because there's more deposits in the bank than than an upstart Washington team who's played well for a couple of weeks here. But the point is there's no juggernaut. There's no healthiest San Francisco. There's no, I don't know, you can pick the lions wagon from last year or Kansas City or somebody that's been really dominant. They don't have that right now. Jalen Hertz has more picks than touchdowns through three games. Yes, they could be three and oh, they could also be on three. I'm just telling you, this division is not running away from Washington anytime soon the way it looks. Philly is certainly the best team in it and they will be better when they get a J Brown back was one of the best receivers in football. Let's open up the MGM National Harbor listener lines to start the show on Washington and Arizona though. What's your gut tell you about commander's Cardinals on Sunday? 800-636-1067, 800-636-1067. Danny, how do you feel about the game? They're going to miss Austin Echler. And I don't think we're talking about it enough. That is the easy button on offense that takes two and turns it into 10 that the kick returns have been massive. Start at the second half just really cementing the momentum that made sure it wasn't a fluke put in Washington right in a scoring position without running a play. I think not having him is going to be a huge, huge, huge factor in this game. Arizona's defense is not particularly good. I mean, last week, everybody ran for 100 yards against them numbers approximate. Dave Montgomery included. So I think you're going to be able to thump. I think you'll be able to move the football. I just think there's going to be a punt. I know we haven't done that in a month or so, but I think you'll have to give up the ball a couple times. And I just don't think Washington can stop anybody. So I think they're going to lose the game by a score, but it's not going to be a rollover. The Cardinals defense only gave up 10 points to the Rams two weeks ago and only 20 points to the Lions last week. They picked off Jared Goff. You ran the ball well on them. Well, we could go though. If you were Dan Campbell in Detroit, David Montgomery went for over 100, four and a half pop. Jamir Gibbs, who's more of a twitchy explosive guy, five yards of carry 83 yards combined those two right around 190 rushing yards against the Cardinals last week. So that tells me there might be something there. It's going to be hard earned, but four or five at a time for Brian Robinson. I wonder if there's a trick up their sleeve in the backfield or something gadget wise that they're going to try to do to get the ball. I think it's going to be a lot of endarounds and receivers carrying the football type stuff and jet action because what the Cardinals have struggled with a little bit earlier this season is backs with speed and guys who have some of that burst getting outside, not necessarily the downhill stuff on the interior, which it just takes more of those battering ram carries to matriculate the ball anyway, but they've given up, you know, the 18 yard carry to Gibbs last week, some of that explosive stuff. I want to know how Kingsbury is going to do that without Austin Echler. But what's your feel on commander's Cardinals? That's the question. 800, 636, 1067 is the number. Grant and Danny on the fan. I know there's a long ways to go here for Jayden, but for rookie, is there any surprise to you at all what he's done, even just the first three days? You know, I don't try to, you know, put what he can and can't do on there. But what I have seen and what I expected to see was his improvement. I think you may have heard me say the bigger the challenge, like sometimes with him, the bigger the smile and that's on the field to go. So here it is, another challenge, you know, this week, different fronts, good blitz package, a lot of to be ready for that as well. That was Dan Quinn on Jayden Daniels. He's got to be feeling good about his kid quarterback going into a week for a game with the Arizona Cardinals. By the way, in case you're curious, the Cardinals defensively ranked 19th in the NFL and yards per play. They are 6th against the run, but they are 31st against the pass. They have given up huge chunks, Danny, 8.2 yards per completion against the Cardinals on pass plays. They are 31st of 32 teams. They do get after the quarterback pretty well. They're 6th and sacks per pass attempt. So that's an area of the game I'm concerned about. That's something I'm monitoring. The question for you guys is what is your gut feel on commander's Cardinals. So I worry about penalties. There were zero through three plus quarters. That just isn't going to happen. It doesn't happen. No team operates that cleanly. You know the Cardinals did what I would do, which was they put together a tape of 10 or 12 plays, I'm sure, where Washington could have been penalized like any other team. And they sent that into the league and said, hey, they didn't get called for this. I want you to watch this. And you go into the game as an official knowing they had a pretty good goal of it last week. It was pretty clean for these guys. Yeah. Now maybe they only have three penalties and we can all throw a party in high five after a win this week. But I just doubt it. I think there's a correction coming normally after a clean game or two, like they've been playing the other shoe drop. So that's the first thing I think they'll be behind the chains because that holding will get called that didn't or that ineligible man or whatever it is. Number one, number two, I do worry about the sacks in this game or just the pressures being dialed up. Jonathan Ganon is a good little coach and he does a nice job defensively with his staff on putting together a plan normally to get home as evidenced by them getting a sack on about 12% of plays or so, right? I mentioned there's only five teams that have done a better job. Jets, Texans, Broncos, Vikings, Giants who had five sacks against Jayden Daniels in one half and then the Cardinals. So I think there's going to be some hits on Daniels in the pocket, some sacks. I just hope it's not game changing minus eight minus 10 minus 12 type stuff. If you're Daniels and you're moving forward, if it's a five step drop, let's drop to five. That's not just do the backpedal for a while or try to run around and create and then get sacked for now minus 12 because if you cannot kill yourself behind the chains, then who cares if you're getting sacked for minus two or minus four? That's just like a run that didn't work at that point. It's not as big a deal. That's right. It's not the drive killer. Yeah. I mean, so the running thing I want to come back to, talking about their run defense, I think their numbers are really buoyed by what they did in week number two to an anemic Rams team that just was totally overwhelmed, overmatched, decimated by injury, who came off the mat, by the way, really impressively the following week against San Francisco. But that was utter domination. They gave up a buck 87 to Detroit, 130 on the ground to the bills. A lot of that's Josh Allen scrambling, but a lot of it wasn't to say they have not been as good at the scrambling quarterback, which I'm getting to. Yeah, we'll get there. So I do think Washington will be able to run the ball this week. I just, I just saw it now. Detroit's got their best offensive line in the sport, probably a little thunder and lightning type action. We got thunder and I'm not sure what else this week, but I do think Washington will be able to move it a little bit on the ground. Probably just thunder because it's going to be a lot of Brian Robinson. Yeah. What I hinted at though, at the end of the segment is I'll bet you you get three or more carries from wide receivers, a little McCaffrey lining up, a crowd running end around as a key a situation. Exactly. I would not be surprised. Something Cliff Kingsbury did occasionally in Arizona with Hopkins and others. If you even got wide receivers to line up in the backfield, occasionally, let's see the last night. Yeah, he got to carry off tackle too, but Luke McCaffrey in training camp, occasionally did line up at running back and, you know, not in actual 11 on 11s, but like at practice and work on getting carries and hitting holes and stuff. I don't think they're going to ask him to go be Christian McCaffrey. But look, you're one Brian Robinson injury away from what exactly? I mean, Jeremy McNichols and who? So if Robinson gets banged up or is in the blue 10 or the red hat come and grabs him at some point in the second quarter, who's your tail back with McNichols? It's not like you're just going to start feeding him the football. So those are things they've got to be considering and thinking about. So you're going to see some end around some jet stuff. I think that will definitely be the case. Kyler Murray and this Cardinals passing game have been pretty effective. They're 12th in yards per pass attempt. This is a top five rushing offense, though. And if I was the Cardinals, I'd come out and I would try to get the ground game going against Washington until they stopped it. Because I think teams that have committed to the run against Washington have actually had some success doing that. But my gut feel is actually that the commanders win a close game. I think it's going to be tight. I don't think it's going to be the style points victory of Monday night. It's not going to come as easily. I'm not sold on Arizona in the same way that I didn't think the Bengals were as good as kind of the market expected them to be. I think Arizona is still a very beatable average team. And while Washington is the exact same thing, they come in with all the momentum. They come in feeling really good about themselves. I think they're starting to flex a little bit in the mirror at the gym and like what they see. I think this feels like a 20 to 17, maybe a 23 20 game. But my gut tells me it's tight until the final wire and Washington may win this thing. It's not crazy because I think I'm with you and we're both teams kind of lined up, right? I mean, again, in Arizona, they're doing the same thing. But yeah, Washington played great on on Monday night, but missed that, you know, not getting extra points in terms of two two point conversions, a field goal that's easily made. They just gave up 38 points. We just struggle, talk them in Arizona against the Detroit team that's that we think is pretty good. Washington's not in that tear. This is a very winnable game for us and we're favored accordingly. So yeah, this is closer to a toss up. But the Echler absence is massive. That's that's the thing that I'm circling. And by the way, he'll be on the show at five. We'll get to check in with him. Ideally, he's feeling better as he hops out of the concussion protocol and gets ready for football. Moving forward, they ruled him out very quickly this week with the big travel out west. Didn't want to have to get him out there, Arizona, and ask him to play on a short week after a concussion. Let's go to Sean and false church on Grant and Danny. What's up, Sean? I would do it, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Everybody. Yeah. So I think you're spot on in terms of trying to get some design runs from other people other than Robinson. I mean, maybe even Jaden there, I think it what's going to be kind of integral is how he moves in the pocket in terms of the passing defense in and out of the pocket. And then just on both sides, you've got Echler out, you know, pass protection. He's big there. And then on the other side, McBride out for the Cardinals. I think that's a big, big thing. I think both teams are able to pass it pretty well. It's going to be in the 30s kind of like with Cincinnati. But yeah, oh, they're in the 30s again. Now we're talking and offensively you start to really feel good about this group. He mentioned Trey McBride. We have not mentioned this, but he is out. He was a 90 catch, 80 catch last year, I should say the projection this year for him via the analytics sites was he was going to be a 90 catch guy and he was on his pace, you know, to have another monster season. But last year, 80 catches for 825 yards as a sophomore. He's a third year tight end. He went six for 67 two weeks ago, then he got hurt against the lions at three for 25 on six targets before he got hurt in that game, not having him huge because he is a more athletic version of Zach Earth's basically like a lot of their passing game goes through him. Marvin Harrison Jr. on the outside is their explosive playmaker. But Trey McBride would have been their most targeted guy more weeks than not leading the team and catches, right? You sort of work inside out if those body blows, then you kind of get the more explosive stuff there on the outside. Harrison's going 10 for a buck 98 through three games McBride through two and a half for the, because you mentioned he got hurt 14 for 122 kind of working underneath this Marvin Harrison only have 198 yards. Yeah, because remember week one, he didn't do much. I remember, but he had 130 of those in the first quarter of week two. So he has 68 yards in what is 11 other quarters of football. That's fascinating. Let's go to Patrick in Fredericksburg on Grant and Danny. What's up, Patrick? Hey, guys, the big thing for me, I think, I just want to see how Jayden Daniels responds to throwing an interception or doing a turnover here. I mean, I know it's kind of weird to say, but no, no, I just want to see him response. And then the other part to that is, you know, I just am worried about Kyler Murray. I think he always plays well against us. And I don't know what his record is against us. I think he's two and no, but I always feel like he just has a great game against us and he's got solid weapons. And then last thing, I think our field goal holder, you know, trust way, I think he's going to show up a little bit more. I don't know if we're going to be able to move the ball consistently, but I just don't know if I have a good game about this game. I think we lose a close one, but, you know, I just hope the coaching staff, no matter what, when we lose, we keep responding and we keep getting better every week so far. We've gotten better. I like that about being winning this offense and the defense. I know the defense has some spots still, but I just hope the coaching staff still, you know, coaches up and doesn't do a Ron Rivera where it's just kind of like, Oh, well, we'll get him next time. And, you know, it doesn't feel like we're evolving. It's like we're on this treadmill type of thing. So I think we lose a close one, but either way, I'm hopeful for the rest of the season. Thanks guys, Patrick. Kyler Murray's only played one game against the commanders. It was the football team back in 2020. It was in the first month of that season. In fact, it was, you know, the four games before they had benched Wayne Haskins, like right in that first month, he went 26 of 38 for 286 had a touchdown and a pick and also was sacked three times in that game. They held him in check. Okay. But the Cardinals did win. So his only start against Washington came in a victory. That having been said, generally speaking over the years, maybe what he was thinking about is this team, this organization, has not done a great job against running quarterbacks. They now have one of their own in Jaden Daniels, who gives team fits and petrifies you with the back breaking scramble, always on the table on a third down. And you always know Kyler Murray's got one or two of those in the second half on a big drive available to him up his sleeve, so to speak, my guess is both quarterbacks make a player two with their feet. That's going to prove pretty costly for the defense across from them in the second half of the game. But without Austin Echler, maybe that is the answer from a running standpoint is more design stuff for Daniels. Doesn't mean you have to do the power carries between the tackles. I still say they shouldn't. But they had a couple of plays that on TV, I bet looked like passes where he would bootleg and then keep the football and keep running. And when we're in the stadium, you can actually see it's a designed run because the receivers that are quote unquote running routes are just blocking immediately downfield. I think they should run a few of those where it's like the play action boot look, but it's almost like a naked keeper, so to speak. Yes. I was your friend there. Exactly. And they get some over to the short side of the field toward the sideline. And it's just a way to steal four or five six yards here and there without Echler. I would plan on running that a bunch. I think this is a 10 carry game or more again for Jaden Daniels, probably to help take some of the heavy lifting off Robinson. Unless he's chewing them up. I just don't see that. I think that's the one thing the Cardinals can probably plan for is, Hey, this same thing the Bengals did. The Bengals are terrible at stopping the run. Brian Robinson had nowhere to go. They just beefed everyone up in the middle. They dare Jaden Daniels to beat him outside the numbers. He did, by the way, but that was their plan. Yes, it was. I think the Cardinals should have a similar plan and go. You made a ridiculous throw. 55 yards downfield to Terry and another really good one to call game. Let's see if you could do it again. So I think there'll be some of that. I still think it'll be a lot of. Let's look at the Tampa tape to watch that. Now, I know the offense is evolving and there's more on Daniels's plate by design, but let's see how we respond to all these weird exotic looks and blitzes and things like that. Let's challenge the rookie that way, right? Through this past week. You know, when they brought the house, Jeremy Nichols pick up picks up one guy, Daniels can't even follow through and through one of the great balls in, you know, team history to tear up a corn for a tuddy. So, but that's what I would be doing if I'm Arizona because I'm going, we could take our chances a couple of times. Let's force a turnover. We don't think they can stop us. Let's go. We'll go. We'll get the shooting match with them in 20 minutes. Dave Burns with us radio in Arizona helps us preview the game scout the Cardinals a little more detail on what they like to do, what they're good at. We do have Austin Echler, as we mentioned on the show today at five o'clock live. So make sure you're listening at that time. We're getting your gut feel on commanders Cardinals right now at 800 6361067 on Grant and Danny. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO] 10 guys on the field, third down and seven. This one is launched from a corn. He's got it. Touchdown Terry McClellan. Can Terry McClellan stay hot against the Cardinals coming off of his first 100 yard game of the season four catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. Monday night against the Bengals. Welcome back. Grant and Danny on the fan. We are getting your thoughts on this weekend's match up with the Arizona Cardinals. Give you our top five games of the week in the NFL coming up in just a moment as well. Let's hit the phones 800 6361067. What's up, Kevin? Hey, fellas. Happy Friday. So I think we're in for another nail buyer. If you look at our record, we're two and one. We could easily be 0 and 3 and we get better every week. No hope I can say that about the defense, but I can certainly say that about the offense. Here's the thing. I went to the Cardinals game a year ago. They have a very good defensive team. Murray is the kind of quarterback that he give us fits. He's going to want to show up and and out to Clippy. But I also think having Clippy helps our defense prepare for Murray. So when I did get concerned as to why we won't win potentially, it's because that awesome equity loss is huge. And then the other aspect of it is I've got to see this one defense stop someone like James Carter. I haven't seen it. And you know, we until we do a world like you were saying earlier about the NFC is too wide open, but until we have some defensive dirtiness, we can't be the playoff team we want to be. Appreciate you, dude. For some reason, the Cardinals were awful at running the ball last week against the Lions. Connor went nine for 17 nine for 17. Now one week before that, he was 21 for a buck 20 in a touchdown. And the week before that he was 16 for 50 in a touchdown. So he's had a game where he could do nothing. 1.9 a pop. He said a game that was 3.1 a pop, but he got 16 carries. They stayed ahead of the chains. And then he said a game where he went here. I don't think the Cardinals are a really good running team. But I think Connor is just a downhill, not messing around north and south. You're typical kind of 29 year old thumping type running back that has given Washington some problems this season. If you just want to go right at them in the interior, go get your four and five yards. And if you do that and you're in second and manageable and third and short, all of a sudden Tyler Murray might be able to make some noise. I do worry about this defense. They've been bad. Yeah. And not only have they been bad, but as Kevin just said, they really haven't improved week one to week two to week three. It's been kind of the same story. This is the eighth worst defense via DVOA in the history of the stat. So there's really not a whole lot they can hang their hat on. Ideally against the two time pro bowler and Connor this week, they slow him down. And then it's up to Kyler Murray trying to make plays happen without turning the ball over through the air vans in PG County on Grant and Danny. What's up, Van? Hi. Yes. Good afternoon. How are you today? Good for you. Bless. Thank you. Yes. The best I can do is I can I can say 50 50. And I say that because I mean, if I want to be hopeful and for entertainment purposes, I will say, yeah, they're going to win. But if I'm a realist, I'm going to say I'm going to look at commander history and look at, you know, their DNA teams that they should blow out, you know, they they find a way to lose teams that, you know, they should be they find a way to win. So, you know, instead of looking at it from a week to week perspective, you know, if they're going to win this week that way, I'm looking more, you know, in its entirety. My, my, my thing is I want them to improve as an organization and get better over time. Jake Daniels, I have to admit he scares me because I'm having RG three flashbacks. He likes to scramble. I'm more of a quarterback run a little bit type of person. You know what I'm saying? So he does hear me in that aspect. Yeah, we got that. Appreciate you. Yeah. I like my quarterbacks in the pocket throw in the football, but his superpower is pretty obvious, right? He makes his coordinator right. He steals yards, he keeps you ahead of the sticks. It is something that teams, it's not even like they like it or they admire it or they want it. They need now. He makes you right to get your bad looks and it's just it's a cheat code. He steals yards from defenses with his feet. So a couple of things. The earlier point of the call though, it's the same until it's different and a week a month and a football was awesome. That's what that is though so far. What do you do with prosperity? This is the ultimate hallmark of the Snyder and other kind of teams in addition to investigations and alleged illegal activity and impropriety and all sorts of crap. But the other part was every time there was a big win, a step forward, something awesome, there would always be two, three, a thousand steps backward, the rug pull, et cetera, right? We're riding high from Monday. That was an awesome win because it was because it was great. It was great theater. What would be more Washington than the letdown? And we're trying to change all this stuff, right? New ownership, a general manager that's like an actual general manager. But it takes time to put in enough deposits where people start to believe that this is actually a real thing. I also think and we'll talk more about this later in the show. Cliff Kingsbury coming from Arizona and having some intrinsic knowledge of their inner workings, whether it's Kyler Murray or members that offensive line, there are still plenty of players there. They didn't got the thing like this group did when they took over for Rivera. Over a couple of years, it's a different roster, obviously, with the draft and free agency. But he's got knowledge on a lot of the guys that are there that he can try to exploit defensively, that he can obviously give some intel to as far as his defensive coordinator in his own building, Joe Whit, about Arizona's offense and things that Kyler Murray can do and handle and doesn't handle as well and isn't as good at overcoming. And so I think that that should be a bit of a built-in advantage. More so say than Arizona's knowledge of Kingsbury, where you've got new players and you've made changes to your scheme and you're at USC last year. And I would think philosophically, from the standpoint of some of your principles being the same, sure. But a lot of your tendencies may have changed since then. We'll get the latest on the Cardinals. We'll scout the opponent with Dave Burns coming up at the top of the hour. Then I actually want to look at the best games of the weekend in the NFL at 325 because it is my opinion. When you dive into this slate on Sunday, this is the best Sunday of matchups that we have had in four weekends now of football. It is an incredible lineup of games. We'll do that next hour. Grant and Danny on the fan.