Game Management Errors KILL the Commanders & Eagles

The day two on this, as we record this at nine o'clock on Monday morning and after we spent all night writing about it. And my God, I've watched the end of this game like the Zapruder film. I've watched it 300 times and I've listened to all the interviews. And I think what's unsatisfying is like almost like the Kennedy assassination. There's no like definitive answer. Like who made the mistake? Because Dan Quinn saying it's my fault. I should have clocked it earlier, which is true they shouldn't have even been in that position they shouldn't have even ran that play Jayden Daniels is saying oh it's a you know i gotta bring that up in the huddle the players are saying that someone in the huddle said they had no timeouts so what the hell happened and if you missed it giants 27 commanders 27 clock management issues are how we're going to start the show and then we're going to get into the review of the weekend but this game literally the commanders just kept running plays and didn't stop the clock the clock ran out in overtime and it was a tie game yeah i mean the problem is that like this is something that it shouldn't catch anybody by surprise when something like this happens you know and you should be drilling this in practice over and over again and i can tell you for a fact like the commanders like their focus this is what's crazy about is their focus during training camp was on generating game-like situations like they were constantly in game like situations to try to get Deronte Jones and David Blau up to speed and ready to call it you know for the first time as NFL coordinators so um there's really no great excuse and if you ask me who it's on it's on everybody it's on everybody I mean listen like I think anybody who there's the complicated stuff in football and there's a simplest simple stuff in football and i think a part of like have having poise and being trained is mastering the simple stuff so you can tackle the complicated stuff right right and this is the simple stuff that anybody i mean you don't have to have ever played the snap of the game to understand okay like there's x amount of time left and i can't put myself in a situation where if like the the clock is running i've got to hit the deck and unfortunately it it felt like there was a lot of panic in general there you know at the very end which that falls on Dan Quinn um there's no question about it and i think DQ would take the blame for it and he did and he did it falls on Jayden Daniels you are the the battleship commander you know and someone said it in the huddle who said it in the huddle right who said it in the huddle was it you because if it was you i like i think this is less likely to happen and also you're less likely to make the mistake yourself you know so it's just like the overall command of the situation i like it's got to be better and to me it's it's it's hard to excuse this one away and now you know the Giants win up escaping coming back from a two touchdown deficit in horrible conditions and i think they're a game and a half up in the field in that division now right isn't that insane yeah i think that so and the Commanders could have pulled into a tie with uh the Cowboys and Eagles but they're in in last place and um is that the worst division in the league um i think the NFC South would have something to say about it right but the Panthers have come around the Falcons look better Falcons look better um that is and we'll get to that um because we're going to talk about the Falcons I feel like they deserve a little bit of a broader conversation we're going to hit that at the back end of the show but I'll ask you this and the reason that I think this is so important is because the the anger and the vitriol behind this was so real and you know you had Magic Johnson tweeting about it I know and Magic Johnson is in like in like classic Magic Johnson terms too right yes he's a part owner of the of the Commanders and if you guys twitter page he just said something like oh man we should have just kicked the field goal why did we do this and uh at the same time I think we could all fairly say and there's a difference between us stating a fact and what we would do with Dan Quinn personally knowing the job that he did with the Falcons knowing the relationships he has with the players I'm not the owner of the Commanders but I think it was fair to say that he was on thin ice going into this one um and I wonder if a very very embarrassing high profile loss like that does anything to change how we're looking at this thing long term I think the only thing probably saving him there is there's no obvious interim candidate on that right I think it's I think it's like obviously like there's a lot of pressure on a lot of people in that building this year um you know even the players like I said Jayden Jayden's playing to have his option picked up to be extended after this year to get life-changing money um you know and and and the questions that exist now on Jayden Daniels did not exist two years ago you know and like i think you are starting to ask that big picture question of what you do after this year and whether or not you extend him in a way i think it sort of mirrors where the seat where the the texans were with cj stroud last year at this point you know like where it's you've seen like the the ceiling but you've also seen the floor and now you have to kind of figure out how much you trust where you're going with them and moments like this can wind up being flash points for for teams for coaches for players um they just don't have your crap together and i think look here's the thing right i remember having this conversation with chip kelly and this is like the second straight week i'm bringing up chip so please i love chip you can bring up chip whenever you want on this show um but like i remember having this conversation with him about like lessons he learned from his time in the nfl and like i believe like this was after you know he was fired by the eagles and he went to the niners and one thing he said about his time with the eagles is we did not spend enough time on situational football he was like i was in college and he was like and you knew in college like you were going to win eight of your games by 30 you know and so it gave you time to like kind of work on all this big picture stuff and you didn't have to worry about the situational stuff quite as much he's like when i got to the nfl i realized that those five six seven plays are everything those five six seven plays are the difference between winning and losing and in a lot of cases those five or six or seven plays determine whether or not you're seen as a good coach or not, crazy as that sounds, and your handling of those situations because the talent disparity in the NFL is closer than people think from team to team there isn't a lot of bad players in the NFL, there aren't a lot of people who are overmatched in the NFL, and so you know, where's the difference? The difference is on third down, the difference is in the red zone, and the difference is at the end of games and so that's why these things become bigger picture questions, you know, is how, how you're, you're, you're viewing this from an ownership perspective and you're looking at it from an ownership perspective. And the way you're looking at it is, is this guy's job to help me win on the margins. And like, this is an example of, of, of, of there being loose ends when it comes to that. Here's why it sucks because I've arrived at the conclusion and you know, I, I'm not sure what your ultimate take on this is. I mean, I know we said like yes it's it's a little bit it's everybody's fault, it's a lot of bit Jayden Daniels's fault, yeah, right, like and and and every time I go through all the checklist, uh, you know the play call in the huddle is: take the snap if you don't have what you like, throw the ball away like that's the call, that that's exactly what it is, that's how they block it. If you look at how they're blocking it like they're blocking it so that if it's not there, if it's not one step out it's not there, fire it out of bounds, right? Yeah, throw it in the third row. And so, to me, and I think what's disappointing about it, the more that I think about it, is the fact that after the game. There's only one thing you can't do, and he did that. And after the game. You know what I mean? There's only one thing you really can't do. The word salad coming from Jaden was so weird because he says it's from the top down. And then, and you can maybe say in that moment he's just still rattled, right? and he's not going to be a great orator but like the initial the thing is like he didn't really he wasn't convincing enough to me to be like no no to that i messed that up that's totally on me like to leave it in a gray area where it's like where you even kind of put it onto Dan Quinn's plate it seems off that's tough that's a tough one too that's a really like so two things on Jay Daniel is a positive and a negative right i think we saw something similar to this in the first game of the season right from Drake May where the decision he made at the end of that Seattle game was so horrific that it like left a mark for a couple weeks right where he threw like the one like they they had a chance all they all they had to do all they had to do was force overtime right in that situation and if they score a touchdown that's a bonus and he threw it into a team meeting and do a Seattle team meeting you know what i mean like and so like the positive is like yeah that left a little bit of a mark with Drake May but he's come out of it like good so you can come out of this and you can learn from it the flip side is what you just said which is i i always i always think with the quarterback right and i think this is like part of the part of the price of being the highest paid the highest profile you that the access that you get playing that position the benefits you get put all that stuff that comes along with playing that position is that it's on you right so i remember the old Tom Brady saying which was when we lose it's me when we win it's we and i know that sounds corny and everything but there's a reality to it that's how you win your locker room that's how you have your coaches fighting for you that ultimately i think is such a big part of playing the position right like can you imagine patrick mahomes saying that i can't even envision him saying it you know what i mean like i can't even i can't even envision patrick mahomes saying something that leaves something vague like that right did we ever hear josh allen blame sean mcdermott right you know or even or even or even put it in a position where where you could interpret it that way right and that's the thing that bugs me a little bit like about this is like was that a mistake or were you trying to be slick you know what i mean right like and that that bothers me a little bit too and just you know you start to put some of the pieces together here and it's easy it's getting easier to get yourself to a place where you see okay like there's a little bit of growing up that needs to happen here right alright let's pivot on to we're each going to take two games but I'm going to start with the Eagles and Jaguars because well that's another one in the same category right obviously ended in the same category and so this game was wild to me because so if you were like me and you're kind of watching nfl sunday from start to finish uh the jaguars win 17 to 19 the eagles get into field goal position and they kick a effectively a game winning field goal it's 17 16 and i'm sitting there and i'm like okay cool let me get my tv set up you know i'm looking around and i'm getting the giants over here and then i'm getting the laptop set up so that i know you know all my games that i want to watch and then i turn around and i just pull up espn and i was like wait the jaguars how the hell did the jaguars win the game like i thought it was over and so i'll put these into two different buckets though because nick sirianni's getting absolutely waxed for this today um and he kicked to the jaguars um and then the jaguars returned the ball to a spot where cam little could hit the kick in overtime or hit the kick and and and right as the buzzer goes off and the jaguars win talk about the rest of the game in a second but i think that sirianni's being lumped in with the commanders and i don't think that's fair no because didn't we just get didn't we just get killed didn't we just kill brian schottenheimer yes we're not doing exactly what nick sirianni did exactly like which is it you know what i mean like like that's actually a kind of a tough decision you know what i mean but i think we just got done freaking smoking brian schottenheimer for not doing what nick sirianni did in london right and force them to return it no no no don't i mean it's just and I would love to see if we maybe somebody can put together some compilation video of people killing Schottenheimer would be a week ago or two weeks ago for this and then killing Sirianni today yeah and Zach Berman who I love covers the Eagles um very good friend of mine he brought up a great point that a couple weeks ago the Eagles were in a tight situation against the Titans and Sirianni did the opposite he kicked the ball out of bounds because he wanted to specifically avoid the returner uh for Tennessee because they were having a hard time with them or whatever and you can say yes I mean the Eagles did give up a return score in this game so shouldn't they be in the same frame of mind but here's what Sirianni's thinking in this and I'm not necessarily a Sirianni defender I I think Nick is a fine coach but like in the back of Nick's mind Cam Little can hit a 70 yard field goal right and he has repeatedly and so do you want to spot him at the 35 with a chance for the Jags to get one quick playoff and go down. So then you would need like 15 yards or so? You needed immediate 15 yards and a spike. Which you could get in five or six seconds. Probably. It'd be tight, but you could maybe get that in five. Did they have a timeout? Now I'm not remembering. I don't believe so. But that's what you're trying to avoid. And I get it. I think if I was sitting in that situation I would have probably been thinking the same thing where I'm more worried about Cam Little and, and knowing that he can hit that long of a field goal. Cause that to me just seems like the more obvious threat. Now, again, you can argue that Sirianni's coverage team wasn't good all day. And, and so he should have had his eyes out for that. However, you know, it's a tough situation, right? And it's not like this is what he always does. I mean, it's opponent specific. So, but either way, I was out of time. I was, by the way, I just looked it up. They were out of timeouts. Okay. So, you know, this drops the Eagles to two and three. The Jaguars are up to four and one. This, I want to ask you this, okay? And I know where I stand on this. And I know that there's, this is like the Tua thing, where there's two camps and it's like Democrat and Republican. You're not allowed to cross sides here. But at what point are we going to stop saying, wow Sean Mannion is a lot like Kevin Patullo and start saying well Jalen Hurts has been here for both of these guys you know what i mean and right like and and and at what point is it a Jalen issue and at what point is it a run game offensive line talent issue uh this is the one of the worst second half offenses ever um and it's been every single week this team just runs out of gas runs out of ideas runs out of efficacy on offense i don't know what to say about it here's the thing like i i just there's part of me that looks at this and says when you hire Sean Mannion who had coached for two years to be your coordinator you have to build in the fact that it's going to take some time right and on top of that like Sean Manion's coming from a system that demands a lot of detail right and it demands the quarterback play a certain way and i think it's fair to question the fit now i think the Eagles blew through those stop signs because they wanted that run game right like they wanted they wanted to fix their run game and they felt like going to that family of coaches to get the run game made sense but what good does it do to hire somebody like that if five games in it's like let's fire him you know what i mean like you never gave him a chance to grow into the role so what were you doing hiring somebody like that in the first place that's the question was he a fit for your quarterback like all of it right and so i i don't know man like i thought the Eagles were gonna level off before the year and now i look at their and i thought they actually battled yesterday like i give them credit like that was a wild offensive line situation you lose Drew Kendall right like so he's not out there right i I mean, you've got two guys in your offensive line that are making their first start. You've got a rookie in another one of those spots. You don't have your all-pro running back. There are, I mean, I actually think, on balance, the coaching staff did a really good job of managing that game and being in a position to beat a really good Jaguars team. I don't know how this sustains, though. like i just you know their dead cap situation right like i i'm gonna have a story on this you know they have almost 300 million dollars in dead cap just sitting out there right now i mean i just like like it's you know and i know they're fighting back against the idea of like we don't need to we don't need to tear it down to the studs um and i think a lot of people deserve a lot of credit the money's been well spent the last decade they and you won a super bowl it's all that matters they won two super bowls over the last decade they went to three they were a constant contender all of it was worth it all of it you you've spent the money generally in the right places your owner has opened his wallet and has been willing to spend cash over cap year after year after year i just don't know what the vision is for this year's team where it's like yes we're we're gonna be in at the end i i don't know where i don't know where you're looking at this and saying this isn't the time to start looking three years down the road because i mean the the cap's the cap you know and again i don't criticize them for the approach in doing it but there's going to come a time when you're gonna have to deal with it and especially if the owners got their way in the cba negotiations so it's going to be interesting to see what happens because there's a lot of money tied up in players who are not on the team anymore and there's a lot of damage coming over the next couple of years that they can keep kicking that can down the road but eventually eventually it's going to catch up yeah yeah i mean that's for now i will say this or that's for later but for now i still think dallas is the best team in that division but i like maybe i'm crazy maybe i'm nuts like the ball doesn't go through Jake Ferguson's hands on Thursday night you know maybe we're talking about the Cowboys being three and two and now they're only a half game back and i mean i'm not wild about where Christian Parker and that defense are but no one in that division is running away with it you know here's what's weird the Giants are interesting because the Giants are just tough as hell and reflect Harbaugh right now but like we'll see how long they can make it last with the quarterback situation but here's what's weird about the Eagles against the Rams and against the Jaguars they had a 97 percent win probability in both of those games very late in the game yeah Eagles could be four and one and like you know like how like four or five plays right happened differently and we're talking about how Nick Sirianni's a miracle worker with this offensive line situation in this injury situation and you know they averaged 1.2 yards per carry they can't get to the pass they they they can't rush the passer their running back is hurt they like i again i i think they deserve a lot of credit for for yesterday for hanging in there i just i i don't know where the path out is for this year's team and i don't think that's necessarily even anybody's fault you know like sometimes but the Mannion thought that the Mannion hire to me only makes sense if it's for two years from now like that's where it makes sense right like uh i mean yeah if you're like hoping for maybe not a coach in waiting situation or like uh yeah i don't know i mean but whatever it is i i think they gotta um they gotta figure it out