“They’re putting it on teams; they’ve looked unstoppable and the defense is playing a hell of a lot better. They’re kicking peoples’ asses, which is fun to watch.”
Jay Gruden, in his weekly visit to Grant & Danny, offered the above as his opening thought on the now 4-1 Washington Commanders, who are, yes, blowing teams out offensively, but have also seen their maligned defense crush it two weeks in a row, the latest a seven-sack, 13-point, no third down conversions allowed performance against Cleveland.
“I think Coach Quinn’s done a good job of mixing up coverages and fronts; they’ve put some five man fronts out there and they’re moving people around, with Luvu bouncing around all over the place and rushing Wagner in the A-gaps,” Gruden said. “They're giving you different looks and they're playing the run a lot better; the interior guys are rotating in and out and I think they're staying a lot more fresh. They’re playing good team defense, hustling and tackling well.”
This week, it’s easy to argue that Deshaun Watson, who has had a terrible season, was an easy target for that performance, but Gruden notes that one bad player does not that performance always make.
“There’s a little bit of that, but you have to force them into those issues. Seven sacks is not a fluke,” Gruden said. “They got after his ass and kept the pressure on him, and they did a good job stopping the run for the most part; they got them in third and long a lot, and got off the field and stayed fresh the entire game and just stayed relentless, stayed after him.
It was a great performance; I know it was anemic by the Browns, but Washington had to make them look anemic, and they did.”
As for the offense, well, Danny went off on a rant that he can’t believe what he’s seeing, even against teams that had been playing well defensively, but again,
“A lot has to do with Washington's defense getting a lot of three and outs and getting the ball right back and giving the opportunity for the offense,” Gruden said. “When you give Jayden Daniels multiple opportunities in a quarter…he's unbelievable, so the key for beating Washington is keeping that guy on the sideline. You gotta get your running game going nd try to get these eight or nine-play drives going, keep the clock running and be physical with Washington's defense. But, they couldn’t do it, and just kept getting the ball back to Washington, and opportunities are golden for them right now on offense.”
And here’s the thing about Sunday: despite two three-and-outs and a pick at the goal line leaving money on the table, they STILL scored 24 points on seven total possessions in the first half, and then came right back from a first-play fumble in the second half to hold to a field goal, then score 10 points around a Browns turnover to salt the game away.
In short: mistakes happen, but the fire never stops.
“They missed a couple, but they scored on the third drive of the game and should’ve on the second; it wasn’t a terrible throw, he just didn’t see the player right there because he had corner out over the top of him,” Gruden said. “But that happens sometimes, and they bounced back and got a touchdown. Cleveland has a good defense, so they're not gonna be easy to get points on – but the more opportunities you give Jayden, the better opportunities you have and, and that's what they did. They stayed with the course and didn’t panic, did a good job with the protection plan, and as the game went on, they could see that Cleveland couldn’t move the ball at all, so they went after them later, and they’re getting the big plays from multiple people, which will be a necessity moving forward when they play better defenses and better offenses.”
So, then, how good could this team be?
“These guys are as good as anyone you see,” Gruden said. “Some of the elite teams are struggling and have issues, and I don’t know why you can’t see these guys aren’t as good as anybody right now except maybe Minnesota, who is playing the best football on both sides of the ball. With the play of Jayden Daniels, who is a Top 3 QB right now, the way they can run the football, and the defense that is starting to come together hustle and play hard, I don’t see why they can’t win 10, 11, 12, 13 games - “What these guys have put on tape for the first five weeks, it’s not like they played an easy schedule, and I’m not too sold on the NFC East right now. I don’t see why it’s a stretch to say they can’t go 8-4 the rest of the way and win the NFC East. Daniels will give them opportunity to compete with anybody on their schedule, and then defensively, if they continue to play hard and play good, they'll be in every game.”
That said, at what point do you then start to think that way, and maybe supplement what’s already here and maybe expedite the process, so to speak?
“I think if it's the right guy and the right type of player – you gotta make sure you get the right type of character guy in a position fit for you,” Gruden said. “Off the top of my head, if there’s a pass rusher there that could go alongside Armstrong, that would be very beneficial, and if there’s a receiver that they really like, I think one more bigger-type receiver would be beneficial, but I really like the way this team is built and the chemistry that they have; sometimes a guy could disrupt the chemistry and be more of a problem than good, so I don’t even know if it’s worth trying.”