How bad was the Commanders’ 37-3 loss to the Bills Sunday? On one hand, JP Finlay compared it to a meme you’ve surely seen, even if Dunder Mifflin isn’t something you know well…
You went into a game where you had to play it damn near perfect and you did the opposite,” JP said. “It was Kevin carrying the chili from The Office. The highlights, or rather lowlights, were five turnovers, nine sacks, and a complete inability to score from inside the red zone at various points.”
And on the other hand, Brian Mitchell saw some positives, but a lot of wrong place at the wrong time led to the wrong end of a beatdown.
“They just made every damn mistake you could make at the most inopportune time,” BMitch said. “They went down the field and got within scoring distance several times and then they made dumb mistakes. We went to a game and we had a team that was better suited than we were and we made too many mistakes…we helped them beat our ass.”
BMitch went off a little on the offensive play-calling, and how the best part of the game was Dallas losing later…and that’s when, in making a point about Arizona beating Dallas, Brian gave his take on how to play offensive line in the NFL:
“Ultimately, what Arizona did yesterday is what you have to do to these pass rushers. This league has turned into a pass rush league, and as long as you have those big old offensive linemen back pedaling, playing passive, those pass rushers will always be better athletes and beat them like a drum. But let's see if I flip the script, and see if they want to take 320 or 330 in their chest all damn day. They were nullified because now, you can't just fly by a big dude; you gotta take him on and wrestle with him all day, and if you grab somebody 40 or 50 pounds more than you and you wrestle with them, you're gonna get tired as hell.”
Several teams that shouldn’t have lost yesterday did, BMitch said, and Washington didn’t deserve to win either, but Brian doesn’t give a damn about stats – he cares about bringing your best, or else ‘you get your ass kicked.’
“I think if you’re caught up in getting your ass kicked by the Bills, you're missing the story,” JP replied. “I think there's a bigger picture at play here that we got to try to figure out what the answer is. I don't think they're as bad as the score from yesterday, but I think they have some fundamental problems offensively.”
And that’s when Brian UNLOADED on the Commanders’ O-line, already known as a weak spot, and Sam Howell:
“The fundamental problem offensively is the five people in the front that start off your offense, and then we can try to cut this how we want,” Brian said. “The nine sacks are not the line’s fault – Sam Howell has to stop holding the damn football so long. Someone told me in 1990 that after Week 3, you’re not a rookie anymore, so Sam has to start growing. We can’t keep using this excuse he’s young. He has to start damn balls out, and that reverse out is going to get him killed.”
“There are times where he has no options – when the pressure comes off the edge and Wylie or Leno get beat, he’s dead,” JP replied. “Some of those are immediate, but I asked a bunch of guys last night, and Buffalo had some delayed blitzes where Washington's backs, tight ends are just releasing because they don't see anything. Then, the delayed blitz comes and it just ate him up, because he's not getting rid of it fast enough.”
That, BMitch says, is on Eric Bieniemy and Ron Rivera.
“They need to watch more film. It’s film study,” Brian said. “One thing about a delayed blitz is it comes from a guy who does one quick check and go. The ultimate thing is they are getting beat at the point of attack. Eventually, you have to come to the point where if you’re trying to win games, we have to go balls to the wall, do things a little different because we’re less talented in some situations.”
And then, the coup de grace, after JP reminded B that Howell has been sacked 19 times in three games:
“What do you do? Eliminate everything you work on and have eight people in?” Brian asked. “Either block better, or get somebody else in there.”
You just have to take a listen to the whole segment above!
