The Commanders have lost three in a row, two to the pair of Pennsylvania teams in a five-day span before a perhaps unforgivable loss Sunday to a down Dallas team coming off a 10-day rest.
One game left before the bye against three-win Tennessee, which will determine whether they go into their off week 8-5 or 7-6…and the question is, does it absolutely have to be the former?
“We should talk about the running game – it hasn’t been what it was earlier in the season, and it looks like they might not have Brian Robinson Jr.,” JP said, as the guys discussed the Chris Rodriguez/Jeremy McNichols dynamic we’re likely to see Sunday.
“I'm not an X’s and O’s guy, but I don't understand why things have come to a screeching halt. To me, it almost seems like a numbers game, like they're bringing more guys and we can’t account for them all,” EB said.
“I think this is a game also where the defense really needs to come to the front and help the offense,” Cakes replied. “You’re facing a guy in Will Levis who's been sacked 20 times in the last three games, including eight times by Green Bay. He’s very gettable; he’s gonna let you sack him and he's very prone to turning the ball over as well. This would be the perfect time for this defense to come up with three or four or maybe five sacks on Will Levis and force the ball loose – he has thrown several pick sixes already this season!”
Levis does have weapons if he’s not moved off his spot, but they still have to do that…
“They're gonna have to pressure him and last week they weren't able to pressure Cooper Rush,” JP noted.
“They’re gonna do it,” EB confidently replied.
The guys aren’t optimistic in Marshon Lattimore coming back, either, even as he did return to practice today, but as Valdez noted, ‘there’s no luxury for them to wait to bring him back after losing to Dallas.’
“If you drop this, mathematically, you could still pull things out, but you got to go on a big run,” EB said. “Otherwise, they are full-blown ‘same old ‘Skins’ fraud, and I'm actually gonna be angry.”
“I'm kind of thinking about this Tennessee Titans defense and the reputation and where they are ranked, and I'm starting to buy them being fraudulent,” JP shot back. “I'm looking deeper into it, they did a pretty good job against the Texans, and CJ Stroud was picked off twice and did an Orlovsky safety, but Darnold had a pretty good game against them, the Chargers ran all over them, the Lions put up 52 on them, and the Bills put up 30-plus. Josh Allen threw for 323 yards against them, and I think their No. 1 ranked pass defense has a lot of circumstance.”
What will happen? Take a listen to the entire discussion above!