Grant and Danny
The Commanders Will Win OR Lose If This Happens
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I think cash to tickets is the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it, and we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to cash the ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. The commanders beat the bucks if let's fill in that blank and then we'll talk about a loss and what would lead to that. But the commanders will beat Tampa Bay if you get some really big explosive plays on offense and you would think that comes through the passing game. I don't know how that's going to happen, but this again, this is a good secondary. Maybe the best, you know, free safety center field or internal wind field junior and football. But if you can hit a couple of home runs here, maybe one easy button, long touchdown catch and run or, you know, catch them on a wares or sucker the defense up with enough of the gut punch read option and downhill thumping to Brian Robinson blocks something up and play action and it gets something deep and hit a home run. I think if you get a couple of huge plays on offense, you got a legit chance to beat Tampa Bay. Jaden Daniels balls out. They beat Tampa Bay of Daniels has a day. I don't see Griffin against New Orleans and his debut in 2012 at the super dome in the cards when he threw for 300 and they went for 400 on offense and 40 points. But something where we leave the game going, we got him. You know, Daniels is just that dude where the headlines on the blogs are he's him and all that kind of stuff because he just ran for a hundred and threw for 225 and he just had a field day. If he comes out and lights it up, he makes good decisions. That means protecting the football, not turning it over. Jaden Daniels plays a great game. I think you win. Other side of the ball defensively, if I'm going to look for an answer there, I would say they generate a legit pass rush and they for a spaker mayfield in the bad decisions. They get takeaways. A couple of picks maybe. Who knows? A manual Forbes for goodness sake gets his hands on a football for the first time. That's crazy. In his career or maybe a linebacker, Lou Voo or Wagner jumps in a passing lane at some point because mayfield has to force something, but no valent or pain, push the pocket or maybe it's Fowler or Jamie Davis or somebody off the edge. If they're able to generate pass rush more than we're expecting in this first game to the point where they're hitting the quarterback, sack fumbles, interception, something like that happens a couple times. I think all of a sudden in a one possession type game, which is what most of us are expecting, that swings the pendulum. It's hard to properly quantify just how truly bad in all facets Washington was last year defensively against the pass. On an average pass play, if you receive the snap from your center, whether shotgun or under center and you drop back to pass, you gain seven yards. That's your average pass play. That's what happens. So if you check it down for five, you hurt your average. It's the, it was the most, it was the easiest thing to do in football last year was to pass against Washington. If you played Washington as a quarterback 17 times, you would have been the MVP. Full stop. That's got to change. That's got to get better. They win this game. Two things. One for me on offense is you get something explosive down the field against Tampa because I think if you line up and try to thump them and play them, they'll say, thank you very much and end up winning that game. If you get a couple home runs, that's great. To me, this is really boiled down to the area that needed to improve the most on defense, which was the secondary coverage, all things in between. It's not an enormous set of personnel upgrades, right? I mean, camcrows gone, Jeremy chins in. I think that's maybe a mild upgrade there. You need everybody covered. So everybody that's not rushing the passer, linebackers have to be better in that regard. Safety's have to be better. Corners have to be better. You've got as good a set of secondary coaches, trainers, guys to assist with development that you're going to have. So get tested the first week, man. Two different kinds of guys, shifty underneath in Chris Godwin, Richard White's really good out of the back field for the linebackers to do with. And you know about Mike Evans, it's it's boring and he doesn't run as fast as maybe used to, but he's gone for a thousand. He's gone for double digit touchdowns. And if you're Tampa Bay or a Tampa fan, you're probably licking your chops for the week one matchup. Commanders beat the box if lose to Tampa Bay. If filling those blanks for us, phone lines wide open 800 636 1067 is how you can join us on Grant and Danny here on the fan. Washington's defense last year finished 31st in yards per play 26th against the run and 31st passing wise in yards per play, 7.45 per pop to what you were referencing, Danny. They also gave up 262.2 yards per game, two quarterbacks on average, which was dead last in the NFL. How about Washington loses to Tampa Bay. If this to me is as simple as the outside corners are getting beat. They're getting man handled. Again, last year, just to quantify, Washington gave up 39 touchdowns through the air, only intercept that eight passes. Their opponent quarterback grading was 105.7. Again, that's the MVP of the league last year. If that's different, if that's better, if it's diff, look, honestly, Tampa's not great at running the football. They've struggled with that for a few years now. And it's not as if for shard whites are a great bell cow. He's more of a versatile, scat-back kind of a guy. If you, you know, sort of force them into running type moments, right? If you're taking away some things, maybe some late boxes, maybe your whole game plan is to not let them beat you through the air and everything about that turns into a let's have a slugfest. I'll take my chances in that regard with Washington versus Tampa in a mucky AFC North kind of a game. But if you let them sling it against you, it's over. I think we're seeing it similarly, by the way, I think both of us view the fear of the game the exact same way, which is to say, I look at their biggest problem, their issue being if Evans and God, when get going, if those guys are running free, getting open, making plays, that's curtains. It's over right then and there. And I'm starting with pass rush. That was why I said they got to do that to win. You're talking about more just being able to have some coverage that works out. But if Evans goes seven for a hundred, Godwin goes six for 90 or whatever, those guys are combining and both having big days and they're moving the chains, Tampa Bay sustaining drive, staying on the field. You know, Michael Phillips is an example, came under in the blitz and said he thinks it's a 31 24 Tampa Bay win, something like that. Well, that is a script where Tampa Bay through the football success. Yes. They were effective and efficient through the air. Evans and Godwin probably get their numbers. Maybe McMillan is a contributor as well. But to me, the path to a win is to your point, taking at least one of those guys out of the game and just making sure that Mayfield's not comfortable and not dropping back throwing for two 75 and three scores. That's the way you beat Tampa Bay. Make them one dimensional and let them pound the football because points aren't coming from the running game. Yeah, if you want to pound the rock, you're doing us a favor. And that's the way I do it. I mean, last year, that was the case. It's not as if they were good against the run for the most part. I think it was 4.5 a pop middle of the pack in the league. But you were doing Washington's defense a favor every time you didn't throw it. And that's not hyperbolic. That was what the stats said. So barring not, not just an improvement, because an improvement, you're still regular terrible. Boring a cat is not a catastrophic a profound turnaround. That's still the weakness of the or of the team, in my opinion. So I mean, that's the, at least on that side of the football. So that to me is where I'm most worried. And again, I don't think Baker Mayfield's going to have a great season. I think I'll have a great game though. Updated commander's injury report for the record. Marcus Marioda again today did not practice and was ruled out. So your backup quarterback. The big picture plan, the whole mariotas, the guy, if Jaden Daniels comes off the field, not in week one. That'll be Jeff Driscoll in the first game of the season for Washington. Johnny Newton did practice. He went from being unable to take the field on Thursday to limited, but he is doubtful for the game. So don't expect him to make his debut doubtful. Now also means essentially out. It's like a 25% chance it is going to go weird that they wouldn't just completely rule them out to be honest with you after a DNP and was limited today. But for whatever reason, they listed him as doubtful. And then the rest of the way everybody was full go and isn't even on the injury report in terms of game status. Brandon Coleman with a shoulder full practice. Cleveland Farrell with the knee full go. He was actually named the captain of the defense for this game. Dante Fowler Jr. dealing with the knee full practice all week. Doron Payne started the week limited with a back. He was full go and Trent Scott with a knee limited on the start of the week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday full go as a swing tackle. So they come into this game for what it's worth extremely healthy as good as you can hope for you. Only Newton, their third detackle, their second round pick, but a guy that didn't play all preseason anyway and was pretty sparsely involved in training camp. He's the only guy that's dealing with anything really going into the first game. The only guy you were counting on who's who's not going to be himself and I probably won't play, but that's sort of, that's not one of those. Well, it happened in preseason or it happened in training camp. This is like a lingering thing from the springtime or the late winter, you know, where it was like rehabbing and coming back from that. Just looking at the bucks injury report too, I hate to say it's good news, but Elijah Cansey, who's their detackle next to Vida Vaya, who's good. I mean, that guy went to pit because of that and also his quickness and size. He gets some like young Aaron Donald comps limited today after not being on the injury report with a calf problem and now listed questionable. Normally, if you go from full practice for a couple of days to limited on Friday, there's a good chance you don't play. That would be a godsend. If they didn't have to deal with him and Vida Vaya, they also ruled out their starting defensive and Logan whole, who didn't practice all week with the foot. So at least from an injury standpoint, Washington has the early better shape there. Yeah, going into the game. Hey, Mike Villeney here, host a cash to ticket alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcast claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcast that claim they hit 80% of the games? When really, they just lose like most of us. Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it. And we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash the Ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.