Grant Paulsen tweeted Monday night that of all the away games he’s ever been to, he’s never seen that many Commanders fans as he did in New Orleans this weekend – and thankfully, they saw the Commanders come away with a last-second win.
“It’s a great place to play – always entertaining to look up there in the stands, because you never know what you're gonna get up there,” Jay Gruden said in his weekly visit with G&D. “But it was an odd game. I never felt like Washington was threatened until the last second of the game; I just felt like the Commanders were in total control of the game and missed a couple of opportunities that would’ve sealed the deal. Next thing you know, you're holding on to your hat, trying to stop them on a two-point play. Just a weird game, and you have a lot of those of that building for some reason.”
Part of that showing that concerned Danny was the struggles of the running game, and that went for Gruden, too, who said the ‘lack of ability to find holes’ was the biggest surprise to him.
“Brian Robinson’s only 20-yard gain came on a backward screen pass; everything between the tackles was pretty much bottled up, and then they tried to bounce it outside and New Orleans set the edges well and there was nowhere to go,” Gruden said. “I know Tyler missed the game at center, that had a little bit to do with it, but I think Bates had probably his worst game blocking, and it’s just a combination of a lot of things in the running game.”
Is that, especially Biadasz’s absence, also part of why Jayden Daniels was sacked eight times, or is that also just the stingy New Orleans defense finally put it together?
“Two of them he was outside the pocket and ran out of bounds for a loss of one yard, and then maybe one was a loss of two, and one was a blown protection where I think the nickel came in untouched,” Gruden said. “Other than that, he did kind of hold on the ball a little bit too long from time to time, and New Orleans did a pretty good job with some TE stunts that they didn’t pick up very well. There’s a lot of reasons for it, and it wasn’t their sharpest game offensively.”
Still, that offense was enough to have them up 20-13 with just 10 seconds left…and then shenanigans, starting with the touchdown pass that probably shouldn’t have been after a clock stoppage, and then the two-point conversion attempt, a play Grant says he hates, but one Gruden says is both heavily successful overall, and should’ve been if New Orleans had a more experienced QB.
“I’m with you, last play of the game, gotta have it, it’s a little nerve-wracking, but it’s been a good play for a long time, called Q-Eight,” Gruden said. “You cut off the front side defensive end with either with your fullback or your tight end, and the quarterback rolls outside. Your No. 2 receiver pushes up, runs a little five-yard out to the front pylon, your outside guy runs to the back of the end zone and whips it back if he doesn't get it, and the guy on the front pylon pushes it back up the field and comes back to the front pylon – so you have really three or four different options on that play, It’s a two-man route, but both guys can do two different things, and if Rattler would’ve opened his damn eyes, the guy in the back of the end zone was wide open; they blew the coverage, the corner came off on the out route and left his receiver alone, so he had an open option.”
Take a listen to Gruden’s entire visit, as he discusses the secondary rotation in New Orleans, how the receivers fared without Noah Brown, the call to kick a long field goal late, and more!