Sometimes, the best gold comes in the middle of a lot of dirt – in this case, in the middle of an hour where Lauren Boebert's theatre proclivities and the ranking of Bickel children by Mrs. EB started and ended the run, it was Eric who brought up Sam Howell's arm talent in the midst of discussing Charles Leno's quote to Nicki Jhabvala about the Commanders' resiliency.
The guys were discussing the slow starts, and why both sides of the ball are struggling in the first half – or, as EB put it, 'why are we not firing on all cylinders right out of the gate?' And that's when the others backed up EB's assertion that it's all about the in-game adjustments on offense…but they shouldn't be needed by now?
"It looks like both Bieniemy and Howell are learning; you see Howell getting rid of the ball a little quicker and throwing it away sooner in the second half versus the first half," JP said.
"I try to be as objective as I can, and I love the arm talent, but the thing with holding onto the ball too long is a valid criticism," EB replied. "The diehards come back at me and say it's an overblown critique because the best quarterbacks take a lot of sacks trying to make big plays. So, is it kind of like leading the league in turnovers but leading the league in scoring, too?"
JP invoked Jameis Winston, who once led the NFL with 30 interceptions but also threw 33 touchdown passes (a career high), and EB mentioned how Joe Burrow gets sacked a ton as well, which Bish noted may also be an offensive line problem.
"The worry is the turnovers – if you're getting sacked and not turning it over, that's not so bad, but if you're getting sacked and stripped all the time, that's an issue," JP said. "Taking sacks and holding onto the ball is not a great thing, but you'll take that over a bunch of picks."
All that led EB to ask the guys for backup on another thing:
"I was cautiously optimistic about Sam this year because I was high on him coming out of college, but his arm talent alone is better than I thought," EB said. "I liked his athleticism and thought he had a strong arm, but I didn't know he was as accurate and courageous in the pocket – he makes big-time NFL throws. Does that mean he won't throw interceptions? No, but his arm talent is better than I thought."
"He could be getting better at that, because one of the knocks on him in college was that he wasn't accurate," Bish replied.
Take a listen to the whole conversation, starting about 19 minutes into the clip above!
