Grant and Danny
Commanders-Cardinals Gut Feel For Week 4
I know there's a long ways to go here for JD 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 speed ready for that as well that was Dan Quinn on Jaden Daniels he's got to be feeling good about his kid quarterback gone 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 sixth against the run but they are 31st against the past they have given up huge chunks Danny 8.2 yards per completion against the Cardinals on past plays they are 31st of 32 teams they do get after the quarterback pretty well they're sixth in 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 gonna happen 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 hey 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 the other shoe drops 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 it just the pressures being dialed up Jonathan Ganon's 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 Jaden 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 -8 - 10 - 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 and create and then get sacked for now -12 because if you cannot kill yourself behind the chains then who cares if you're getting sacked for -2 or -4 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 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 over match decimated by injury but came off the mat by the way really impressively the following week against Hanford Sisko but that was utter domination they gave up a buck 87 to Detroit 1.30 on the ground to to the bills a lot of that's Josh Allen scrambling but a lot of it wasn't -I was gonna say they 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 probably just thunder because it's gonna 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 yeah 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 gonna ask him to go be Christian McCaffrey but look you're one Brian Robinson injury away from what exactly in 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 gonna start feeding him the football so those are things they've got to be considering and thinking about so you're gonna see some end around some jet stuff I think that will definitely be the case Kyler Murray and his 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 bangles 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 you know 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 in Washington may win this thing it's not crazy because I think I'm with you and we're we're both teams kind of line up right I mean again in Arizona they're doing the same thing that yeah Washington played great on on Monday night but missed 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 about Arizona against the Detroit team that's that we think is pretty good Washington's not in that tier 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 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 to Arizona and ask him to play on a short week after a concussion