Grant and Danny
Could The Commanders Offense Struggle Against The Browns Defense?
keep improving finding little ways to keep growing I wouldn't say it's a finished product but you know it's just a start in I mean I don't really look at everything that people talk about I mean I see it but other than that man none of that matters that was last week stuff you know he as good as the last game you play and everybody gonna look at what can you do the week week the prior the week prior and the weeks after that that's jayden Daniels commanders getting ready to try to get to four and one over at Northwest Stadium welcome back chance to hang out with us tomorrow shows on the road we are going to be out and about we're broadcasting left from Atlas brew works in Alexandra 24 29 Mandeville lane stop by and check out atlas is 15 taps dozens of TVs plus delicious pizza and wings 2 p.m. to 630 that's when the show is the new Atlas brew works in Alexandra for more info the fan DC calm there's this idea that the Browns are good defensively there's this idea that this is the best defense Washington has played and statistically that's certainly the case and maybe this will be the first true test for this offense before we get into though what are you expecting from the offense against the Browns actually don't have the conversation how good is Cleveland's defense because in week one Danny they played the Cowboys and Dak Prescott and they did not play well but week one is sorting some things out I think you can kind of dismiss results largely all over the league since then though over three weeks they've actually been statistically sufficient and outstanding the problem is they played really really bad quarterbacks they have played recently this past week Gardner menshew who went 14 of 24 for 130 yards they held him to a rating of 73 did a really really good job as good a game as that is though Danny I'm not overly impressed by that which I get I mean the context always matters so this is based on a couple things to me no no let me go through the open play the Giants 21 to 15 a final where they lost to Daniel Jones in New York Jones was good to touchdowns no picks through for 235 and then the other quarterback in the three game stretch was Trevor Lawrence which sounds like it's a challenge except that Lawrence has actually been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league this year and in that game he fed more in completion 16 than completions 14 so I say all that to say they've played three bad quarterbacks in four weeks yes they're ranked ninth defensively yes they're ranked eight against the pass but I am not convinced that the Browns defense is who we all kind of thought it was gonna be right so the thought it was gonna be is the key that's where I was going I mean to cut you off earlier last year led the league in yards per play last year were second best to a historically great Ravens defense in terms of a net yards attempt pro net yards per pass attempts right they were excellent against the pass excellent in yards per play ended up being pretty good scoring defense because they've had some short fields against them because they're offense was pretty terrible they're quarterback stunk but that defense hunted they're really really good on that side of the ball and when good results happen when you got expectations you go okay that fits the narrative right I know and your point is dead right each year so different we always kind of it seems stunned and surprised that year over year with all the turnover and all the different changes that happened in the league that results may vary but on paper we think of it this is one of the great defensive groups in the league because last year they were and now you've got three out of four weeks with the first week probably the sample size you throw out like the Russian judge where you'd go yeah this is a really good defense the argument against is what you just said they haven't played anybody whose offense is clicking or worth a damn they finished tied for number one in yards per play last year with the Jets at 4.57 they were number two defensively in yards per play in the passing game they were really good they were also top three last year these are last year's numbers again and picking off passes about three and a half percent of the time and they were sixth in sacks per pass attempt they're always gonna be okay in that stat because of Miles Garrett yeah he's pretty good they got a DPOI candidate there were the number one defense in the league it not allowing you to stay on the field and basically move the chains they were the lowest first down team allowed in the league 14.9 again now this is all last year it's been very different but they were the number one third down defense in the NFL right now Washington's the number one third down offense in the NFL over 50% so if you look at the more relevant 2024 stats albeit in a smaller sample for Cleveland what you see for them defensively is number eight overall number eight against the pass they are not picking off any passes they don't have one interception through four games that's kind of weird well weird considering the quarterbacks they played extremely for a team that pick passes off every team you know is gonna pressure I mean that that hurry to throw that high throw because someone's about to hit you that hasn't happened they haven't been that good at pressuring yeah Miles Garrett has four sacks they don't have much else to speak of outside of that they're outside of the top 10 tied for 11th and sacks per pass attempt on third down where as I said last year they were you know right up at the top of the NFL number one this year the Cleveland Browns on third down seventh doing a pretty good job so I think it is a better test for sure mm-hmm this is going to be more revealing than playing the Bengals who had been struggling the Giants who haven't been very good but I'm not willing to say yet that this is the end all be all like the example I give you is if Washington this week was playing against the Broncos defense which has been phenomenal or even the Jets or maybe the Steelers mm-hmm like those defenses I know are really really good I'm not sure yet if the Browns have just benefited from schedule so I think the Browns defense is good but I don't know is that is that a good way to put it like yeah that's my hypothesis now if we go if the let's say Washington does whatever the hell they want this weekend just like they did Arizona and frankly like they did a Cincinnati and Cleveland goes on to have a good defensive season after that I'll go mad how validating is that like if we look back a month from now at what Cleveland does post Washington or if they go on and you know play well against Washington defensively and then kind of continue on this track I'll go okay yeah this defense is frail just like they were last year with a lot of the same personnel a lot of the same schemes designs etc now they're hitting the ground running so my hypothesis is that this is still a really good defensive group that hasn't put it all together just yet in terms of the sacks and the pressures and the turnovers but those things are coming because that's like waves crashing on a shore you know it's a little bit hard for me to unsee to from just a couple weekends ago Malik neighbors destroyed them towards them he only you know the catches and yards weren't that great but he had two amazing touchdown catches and again Daniel Jones was just super effective I'll tell you where they've been really good though is the running game they have basically taken your best running back out of the game whoever that is for a given team Travis ETN had right around 50 yards on just under 15 carries for the Jaguars Devin single Terry had a 16 carry 65 yard game I'm not telling you it's nothing but you don't rip off the 30 yard this past week against the Raiders Alex Madison who's the second back and this has been a theme actually had a big home run and they've given some things up to like secondary change of pace backs but if you actually look at the Raiders thumpers a mere white you average 2.9 a pop 17 for 50 so it's almost like they key in on Brian Robinson who by the way isn't practicing again today and is very much in question I would say right now and then maybe it's it's where Echler can hit him on a third and passing or you might get if Echler is the starting running back in this game and him it McNichol split time maybe they really focus it on Echler and McNichols is the guy but it's been down the depth chart backs that have actually made some of the bigger plays against them and they've done a really good job keying in on starting running yeah so they're down in down out yards per attempt allowed isn't particularly impressive but I think you've hit it really well it's diving into those numbers and how we got there there've been some runs ripped off against them but it's usually I don't know if it's like the third and give up like that old Chris Thompson draw play where they go we're not getting this let's let's give this guy you know eight nine yards and then give Tresway some room to punt they've given up some yards but down in down out on the We think you're running, you want to run, let's have at it, they've been excellent in that regard.