Grant and Danny
Do You Have Any Nerves For The Commanders?
at the end of this segment, end of the show taking you up to 6.30 tonight on Grant and Danny. We've got tickets to Deftone's North American tour. Better be listening. We'll be giving those away at six o'clock all week long on GND. Speaking of tickets, we're giving away caps tickets at four each and every day this week. So the Beltway Blitz tomorrow right at four halfway into the show. Make sure you're listening. If you want those caps tickets. It's time for you to play in your future. The exclusive sponsor of our shows, the law firm, Kenorian Murad, they'll help you update your last will and testament. Set up a trust for you and your family. Schedule a free consultation with their estate planning attorneys today. Visit kmloyers.com. Tell them GND sent you that's kmloyers.com. Gaining before we get to, don't forget about couple of turning points I thought in the game yesterday. First and foremost has to be the Cardinals get the opening kickoff. They return it to the 40 yard line. Remember they fumbled. They recovered it and they were nearly at midfield after like a four or five yard advance starting their drive first and 10. They immediately go right down the field. Nine plays 55 yards, five minutes, six seconds time elapsed. Could not have been a more simple opening drive. They've scored a touchdown by the way on every first drive of their season. Yes, they have only team. They're really good there. Seven and nothing lead. Turning point would be when Washington came out on the first drive it had for the second time in as many weeks on the road. Now down as they huddle up, they get four yards on first and 10. Daniel scrambles for two. It's a third and four. So you haven't punted in a couple of weeks. Third and four is very manageable, very reasonable. But on third and four, great design by Kingsbury, they get a lamadeza kias who hadn't caught a ball in a few weeks wide open on a little out route out of a little stack look. He gets 16 yards on a catch and run gets pushed out of bounds. And right like that, Washington was a cross midfield, about 15 yards from field goal range on a run, a two yard scramble and a 16 yard completion on third down. And I thought just moving the chains on that play. Then they went two yard run Robinson, six yard run Daniels had another third and short and B Rob ripped off a 17 yard run and they were almost in the red zone. But being out, being able to come out and go two for two like that on third down, get, get their offense going. They were four for their first four. They ended up nine for 12 on third down. I thought that was a real nice moment for them to settle into the ball game. So for me, the most important sequence was the first time it seems in a long time, it's, it's a footnote now, but adversity struck for the offense. There hadn't been much and many problems self inflicted against the giants, but they moved the ball up and down the field and got points on every drive. So the same thing against Cincinnati. Well, for the first time in J. Daniels's professional career, he threw an interception. We can break down whose fault was what I don't really care about that. I'll take my chances trying to drive something down the field when Terry McCorran's one on one guy from the Cardinals made a great play. I thought that was an outstanding play through sale a little bit on Daniels interception, whatever, right? What do you do next? The defense, which has been got awful this year. Moving into this game, the defense had allowed opposing quarterbacks, a one 27 and change passer rating, which would be the greatest quarterback season in league history. That's what was going on coming into the football game. They force a three and out Washington's offense. Still not quite right. Goes three and out themselves, actually losing a couple yards in the process. So again, the defense holds forces a fourth down converts, they get the ball back, then they finally get back going to get an offense, go up and score. If this is the week's past, if this is Cincinnati, for example, who had a scoring opportunity on each drive, only missed a field goal and then fell short of you because they were trailing and had to go for two and missed it and whatever. You could be down 21, 14, 20 to 14, 17, 14. You could be losing at that point. The defense, which has been terrible all year long, was not what it really, really mattered. And that's kind of hidden. It's going to go. It's going to get lost because it was a 42 14 blowout. We don't think twice about it, but it was a one score game with Arizona having some momentum after a pick, after a three and out. The defense stood tall. That's why they won the game to me. It was only a matter of time before the offense got going and doing this offense thing again. And all it took was a couple of drives. They found their footing and started kicking ass again, but they don't get the chance to do that if the defense doesn't stand tall in that two possession sequence. I'll give you one more turning point that I thought proved critical. I'm a huge believer in the last couple of minutes of the half and the first couple of minutes of the second first to last first for you. Yeah, like they depends on the coach and what they call it. But yeah, it's like that four minute sandwich, basically before and after halftime. And oftentimes the team that out executes the other and wins that little margin wins the football game. The Cardinals had the football moving right to left. They had a fourth in one at the commanders 35 yard line. I thought they should have kicked in what is today's NFL a pretty automatic field goal on their surface. The ball flying out west the way that it does decent kicker. They elected not to kick what would have been a 53 yard field goal. They went for fourth and one at the plus 35. Now I will never have an issue with that because honestly, Danny, the majority of the time I believe in going fourth and one. And in fact, that's the right play. I'm sure analytically. I would guarantee you that whatever metric you're looking at would say, you're playing against the team. You can't stop. You got to go here. But they went for it and didn't get it. It was a terrible Kyler Murray play. They called a pass out of shotgun, not a run, which didn't make sense. Murray frozen the pocket, saw ghosts. I have no idea still what he was looking at. In fact, go check out my Twitter and my Instagram. If you want at grandage Paulson, I posted a screen grab of this. He has two receivers that ran the little button hooks little curls wide open past the sticks. He turns both of them down. He's looking for something else. He's waiting for Marvin Harrison Jr. down the field to get uncovered. He gets crushed by Doran's Armstrong from a sack, which by the way, I thought Doran's Armstrong had his best game. You agree? Yes. 100% sack and a half. But he was just pressuring Murray all game long. That sack gave Washington the ball at the 42 yard line, almost at midfield with 30 seconds to go before the half. Now I know they had to have good execution and go down the field because we haven't seen cyber kick anything from deep. They did, by the way, Daniels threw a little check down the McNichols who had space got out of bounds for six. Then Daniels had a throw in the middle of the field, the Zach Earths for 13 yards. It was wide open. It was after that time out of first and 10 from the Arizona 39. You're about five yards from field goal range. Daniel scrambled for seven into field goal range. And then with their two type outs left because they hadn't burned them on like the last two weeks, better clock management this week. So they were able to do this. McNichols on a draw for five. They just got into really good field goal range for a 45 yarder for cybert to end the half. But that sequence, the sack stop into getting the ball back and then just knowing exactly what they're doing. We're trying to get to the 30 yard line. We got our time outs. Jaden scrambling when he needed to checking it down to make nichols a couple times. Like it was easy money. And like most of the day in the season so far offensively, they made it look so easy. For years, that's been an incompletion on first down, a drop on second down, a sack on third down and you let the clock run out and the other team's going, well, maybe we have some time. You know what I'm saying? Yes, of course. Never drop passes. They just haven't nobody's dropping passes. They, the quarterback is very rarely pressured. They don't turn the ball over. They don't commit penalties. The thing that they want to happen seems to always happen. And I'm trying to give them all the credit for that because you make your own breaks. Oprah Winfrey style. That's the quote my mom used to tell me that she said luck is being prepared. Okay, cool. But they're getting those breaks and they're taking advantage. And I thought that was just a perfect way to end the half. So instead of a seven point game with Arizona having to watch Washington get the ball first to start the second half. It's a 10 point game. And if you go score, it's 17 and it feels like a blowout, which is what it was. Yeah, 55 yard pass interference. Again, bang, bang could be called. I'm glad it was. I don't think it should have been called, but your boy is going to take it. And your first in goal from the 10 on a basically one play drive at that point. The game was over. Essentially Arizona is one dimensional. That's when the defense started playing really good ball all because of that sequence to start the second half and end the first half. Yeah, I think it's smart. I mean, it's a type of thing that I remember, Belichick and the Patriots used to turn me on to this in terms of what you should do and how you should manage the clock and how you should manage possessions. And they would always, it seems when that last two minute drill, four minutes, whatever the first half, and then always end up having the ball at the start of the second half and they're going to score. Next thing you know, what was the tight game is now a 10 point game or a 14 point game or 20 point game or something. And that's how it went here. Cause again, as you said, it was 14 to seven with Arizona driving from the Washington 35, from the Washington 35. And it went from that to Washington's up 17. Pretty remarkable that the turn of events. And now we think of it as a Laffer and I'll take it. I love Laffer's. I have a great time with those when they're sideline humor and everyone's going, so I did this and he did that. Ha, ha, ha, isn't that so funny? We're up by so many points. Let's get to don't forget about. We try to end the show this way after all the commanders games and for three straight weeks. That means after commanders wins. Don't forget about Alamo days a key is catching 10 balls last year and being uninvolved throughout the season until grabbing six passes for 85 yards, including a pop pass that he took for a first down. And then that 27 yard swing throw out of the backfield where there was nobody around him. Some explosiveness at the receiver position from Zacchaeus who had been whisper quiet over the first three weeks. Don't forget about the blocking ability of John Bates, right? There's a couple of different moments where you can see some of the all 22 that people are now posted on the Twitter verse or or other moments where they're running no matter who's running the football beat Jeremy McNichols be it Brian Robinson, it's been Austin Echler whomever that Bates is suing the edge. He's coming on polls and different ways across the formation, smack and linebackers, defensive ends, etc. He has really held up and he's, you know, not catching a ton of passes cut one for nine this past week, but he's leading that tight end group as a sort of an extra extension of the offensive line. He's been great in that regard. Don't forget about the fact that Austin Echler was supposed to have been missed yesterday. He will be on the show by the way at five o'clock. He has arguably been Washington's best offensive player this year through three games and then he didn't play yesterday and they were going to miss him and the offense was not going to be the same. We thought now over time they would miss him. He's a great football player, but Jeremy McNichols stepped in and stepped up. Don't forget eight carries, 68 yards and two touchdowns. Anybody grab him on the waiver wire and fantasy this weekend. I'm going to run through Jeremy McNichols stops in the NFL, dating back to 2017. Here we go. Give me some time. Tampa Bay, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Denver, Tennessee, Chicago, Jacksonville, Tennessee again, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Washington, Canton, the Hall of Fame. Nobody has ever been better than Jeremy McNichols looked yesterday. It's like the Johnny Cash song. I've been everywhere to that tune and unbelievable. Don't forget about the fact that Marvin Harrison Jr. caught five for 45 a number one receiver who's good. I've seen production for Marvin Harrison only had 45 yards receiving against Washington. He's not Malik neighbors. Good by the way. Well, he's, he's very good. I'm not, I'm not trying to say he isn't, but doesn't look different. Don't you think Malik neighbors is better than him having seen both of them play right now this minute? I'm neighbors torch Washington. But I mean, we're, we're throwing the Jayden Daniels over Caleb's Williams party. I'm just talking about so far what we're seeing. Malik neighbors is better than Marvin Harris right now. I would say so. Yeah. Harrison's good. He's a number one receiver. So you could be a number five receiver and still have a bunch of yards. I will take five for 45 from another team's number one all day and twice on Sunday. So it ain't great yet in the secondary, not saying it is, I'm not saying anything's been solved. I will say this. That was a third, maybe a quarter of what I expected. I honestly thought we were going to get double digit catches, 180 yards, couple of touchdowns, a walk in the park and it wasn't that. Don't forget about the fact that Washington had its best day turned in by starting linebackers in several seasons, probably Bobby Wagner. I thought was tremendous yesterday. We talked about how he'd have a lot of tackles, but not a lot else had a half sack at a couple of TFLs lived in the backfield made the 11 stops to lead the team. Frankie Louvoo also contributed half of a sack also at seven tackles had the strip, the ripped fumble that he caused and then recovered as well late in the game. And I don't know how to qualify this or quantify it with numbers, but he led the team and maybe the league yesterday in awesome badass defensive moments just slicing in on my pitches in the backfield, just to grab a guy by the ankle and knock him down when it looked like he was going to gain yards, blowing up lead blockers, taking on fullbacks and tight ends in the whole Frankie Louvoo yesterday. That was the guy we were talking about. Remember how big of a story all off season he was like, Louvoo is going to be awesome. And for a week or two people like, where's Frankie Louvoo? Where's Frankie Louvoo? That's Frankie Louvoo. He arrives violently. Don't forget about the two point conversion that Washington had. This throw is not getting enough credit in all the let's give credit to people making throws. This play is not getting near enough attention that it should. Zach Hertz is not open when the ball is thrown. Zach Hertz is on the wrong side of the defender from where he's going to end up when the ball is thrown. Jaden Daniels throws an absolute aspirin tablet right to one spot where his guy is going to eventually win and catch it sliding for a two point conversion, which I wouldn't go for by the way, I would have just taken the wand and gone and chicken hands on the sideline, but they've got the analytics of football that are under Vera left his copy of kindly for his successor. And they went for two right there. That throw and that catch was awesome. Don't forget that Jaden Daniels slid like he was Jacob Young going into second base. Mm hmm. He's working on it. He's got it in the back pocket. It would appear that hilarious stat on Monday night football against the Bengals when it said, I think it was like Jaden Daniels. 34 runs, one slide, whatever the number of runs was. They got to update that stat. Now it's like 43 runs, two slides, funniest stat I've ever seen. How many slides that your kids favorite playground to that so many slides we got from Jaden Daniels. But the fact that it looks good. Yeah, it looked natural. It looks like he can do it. He's not doing the thing where he gets his clique caught in the grass. He's not tumbling over awkwardly. Just baseball players sliding into second base. Love it. Don't forget about the fact that George Armstrong, a guy that, you know, if you applied his sack rate on a per play basis as a part time pass rusher the last couple years in Dallas should be someone that can get over 10 sacks this year. I mean, you, that's what you do. You find somebody that had a lesser role somewhere else that thrived. You give them a larger role and you pay them for what they might do. Had looked that way. It looked like a guy that had to come off the field a bunch, always hands on his hips, always tired, never really seemed to be having much of an impact. Had his best game is a Washington local 53 guy whose team name I hate saying three quarterback hits one and a half sacks a tackle for a loss. He was everywhere in this game. More of that. The Browns are in town to take on the commanders on Sunday over at Northwest Stadium. Kick off one o'clock. If my social media conversations with people or any indication, there's going to be a lot of commanders fans coming out for the first time this season. Atmosphere should be good. Please don't be a let down spot. Well, I've all week to break the game down, but how many times has that happened over the last few years with him playing better ball? They're getting some wins. Everyone gets excited comes out to the home stadium and then you get let down. This feels different though. You know, this feels like this team against a Cleveland team, frankly, that just not that good is going to be well prepared and have a really good chance to come out and get to four and one territory. We're not familiar with one's Austin. They were foreign round these parts. I mean, they weren't in that in 2011, they were three and one. It was fraudulent. They were seven and one with with a normal Eugene in ninety six and they caved. That was the Michael Westbrook Ripper helmet off face penalty to miss the playoffs. If I had to guess, I would say that's the last time because they lost their opener to Dallas that year. Yeah, they weren't even seven. They weren't even. Yeah, they were four and one. They'd be Arizona to go four and one that year. You're right. That's the last time I would have not this millennium. They haven't been four and one. This millennium. I don't think, you know, the millennium. That's just 28 years ago. That's all that. That's not that long. I guess 96. Yeah, it'd be 28 years ago. Caller number 10 at eight hundred six three six one oh six seven. Congrats. You're winning two tickets to Deafton's North America's tour. April six that capital one arena tickets are on sale. Now for tickets and more event information, go to the Fandy C dot com slash events tomorrow. We got a great show plan for you already. Including commander survivor. Yes, putting somebody off the island could be tough immunity will be a little easier. I think we've also got Austin Echler on the program at five o'clock and we will go around the NFL to Monday night games for you to enjoy tonight. We will talk at two o'clock. Thank you for coming.