Grant and Danny
Was The Commanders Win Just Fun Or For Real?
The question is, was Monday night fun or was it for real? How sustainable was that? The party is continuing and I fully get it. Our bit that we like to do on this show generally, our routine to lay out, you know, our weekday schedules is we normally chop up the game from all angles for a day. We give ourselves, if it's really bad, a day to beat up on the team or yesterday to just throw ourselves a party as fans of the team you guys have earned it. It's going to be fun, but at some point there are real conversations, larger conversations in wins or losses that are much beyond 60 minutes of football and four quarters in a tiny sample. And while we're going to continue the party to some extent today, I think there are some opportunities to figure out what was legit and what was just the stars aligning, you know, what was sustainable and authentic to what this team is going to be versus no penalties, no turnovers. Some good fortune with the bingles kicker that never misses missing a field goal, not passing interference in the end zone on a two-blank conversion that doesn't get called, you know, some things like that going your way, 800-636-1067. So how much would you say was for real versus fun? So obviously it was fun. It's the most fun you could have, but I'd say a lot of it's for real. Now, the things you mentioned specifically are not, right? But if you told me a big picture, an offense that can take advantage of a bad defense, a quarterback that's dynamic, a group that can move the football with a pretty good plan from the offensive coordinator, I do think that's for real. I also think it's for real. They're going to give up a million yards and points. I also think it's for real that that defense can't stop anybody. So they're going to have some games like that. Now, I don't think you're having that against Baltimore. You're probably not doing that against Pittsburgh or maybe some of the other teams, right? They'll have something to say about it on that side of the ball. So you might get stuff there, but if you play a team that's bad on defense, you're going to see some special stuff here and there with a quarterback that's dynamic. So to me, there's a lot of it, big picture that's for real. Again, the specifics you mentioned, you couldn't have been more fortunate on a million different fronts. And that's what that's football. That happens. I'm not taking anything away from that performance. It was amazing. But there'll be a fourth penalty, you know, in a couple of weeks that's going to happen. There will not be another game I don't think that they play where they are so constantly for almost three quarters ahead of the chains in really opportune situations for play calling and playmaking. I mean, it's just not going to happen. So it was the ultimate kind of 72 and sunny environment in that way shouldn't have been because it was so loud and the crowd was so into the game for probably two and a half quarters, I would say, and then things really dissipated in house where fans were leaving and getting disenfranchised and based on three games, not just one, we're starting to get angry and turn on the bangles and started building right around half time. But I think what was for real to me was I think that is as good as it gets for Cliff Kingsbury. But the offensive design and getting guys open and when he wasn't right, Jayden Daniels made him right. Occasionally he made life easy on Daniels, like I think that's the apex of what they can be. I don't think they'll have another game like that. Like to me, that's going to be Kingsbury's best game as a OC that will probably be Daniels's best game of the season as a quarterback. So just because it's the ceiling performance doesn't mean it's, it's not authentic. It's for real. It's just not going to be the norm, if that makes sense. It does. It's like a, you know, a sharpshooter and basketball who has that in his bag where, you know, he can go out and shoot the lights out and hang 40, but more often than not, he's going to miss some of those open looks and he's going to have 27 or 28, which is still really good too. And I think it was for real in that Terry McClellan didn't do anything he can't normally do. Daniels didn't necessarily do anything that was outside of his skill set, but I just think a lot of guys collectively, specifically offensively had the best version of their games at the same time. And you put all that together with the perfect situation of ahead of the chains, no penalties, no turnovers, and you get a pretty nasty outcome. And that's what we saw. Yeah, that's what happened. What is not for real, maybe, you know, what is more fun, I would say. It's just some of the really odd game sequence stuff like the penalties, they haven't turned the ball over all year. There's going to be a game where they turn it over twice in the first half. You know, if you're in Arizona, maybe this weekend or at some point, maybe it's home against the Browns in a couple of weeks, the first drive, you're going to have a second and 19 or a 10 yard hold that sets up, you know, after a run or something, like a second and 16 and then a third and 14 or whatever, that's coming. And those don't get converted, but at a 15 or 10% clip or whatever. We didn't really see any of that. So I think a lot of it was for real too, man. It was a good offense, a bad defense. That's probably what this is going to be moving forward for the most part. It's not going to be that good offensively. And hopefully it's not that bad defensively. And the truth somewhere in the middle is not that different from an outcome standpoint. Yeah. I think it's a good way to think about it, right? I mean, I mean, I'm looking at it more less specifics of what happened. That's when you start going, this has never happened since 1940, right? We're talking about, you know, all the, the no turnovers, no penalties for however long and this number of points, consecutive drives without punting. These are rarefied air moments. There's going to be a three and out. There's going to be like a muff snap, a just normal football adversity stuff happens. And you know, this ride has been amazing. These last couple of weeks have been, you know, just delightful, so much fun, offensive football and the growth of Daniels and everything that comes with that. But this, there's no higher league than this. There's going to be adversity, a team which you don't expect to jump up and punch in the mouth is going to do that. I mean, look at this past week, Carolina couldn't, they couldn't do anything offensively, defensive. They could barely get the teams to the game at this point. And then they went out and put up a million points on the Raiders, right? They looked incredible. Like one of the best teams in the league and Andy Dalton is having a renaissance moment. Unexpected stuff happens, dude. These are pros all around the league. So there's going to be some, some top moments kind of to your point. But big picture to me, what's sustainable is an offense that's hard to defend because anything that you shut off, there's a bit of a counter and there's kind of that wild card of having a quarterback that can be wrong and still get positive yards. This is why teams are in love with running quarterback, by the way, I was texting with Logan Paulson a little bit last night when I landed and was driving home. And he had watched the film and he said, you know, there's a few plays where basically the play's dead. There's just nothing there and Jaden scrambles for five or six or seven, which by all accounts is a great football play. A five plus yard play is really good. Now, not if it's 39, but it wasn't. It's first and 10, it's second and eight, you know, and you're just moving the chains closer and setting yourself up fortuitously. And that floor raising skill is why all the teams want the quarterback that can run. That's right. It's still like it's never been my proclivity because I have not to this point really found the guy that is super comfortable doing that and wants to do it all the time, who's also the excellent pocket passer. And hopefully Daniels can become that guy. I like the, you know, throwing quarterback, the guy that majors in passing who's an athlete, like an Allen or, you know, somebody more traditional, like what Deshawn Watson was, frankly, in Houston, what, you know, what you see sometimes with guys that are able to run when they have to, but don't prefer it, like early career Russell Wilson type athlete, slippery, that kind of guy, then just the guy that runs a lot. But what was so awesome about Daniels on Monday night was for the first time in three weeks, when he left the pocket, he kept his eyes downfield and he still was not thinking run, run, run. He was thinking, do I have anything to throw that was the first time I've seen him do that really in three weeks. And it's only taken three weeks. If that's the norm now, that's a huge development. We'll just have to see if it is in the fast paced world of attacking speed is everything. And that's where the fear on seven plus shines engineered for accuracy and precision at a rapid pace. 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