A tough Monday for Jonathan Allen who, when he joined the Junkies as he does every week presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office. – he was still "tired of this s&*t" but in a different manner than he was last week…and he took the blame on his unit.
"It's definitely frustrating when you lose two times to an opponent that we felt like we had them right where we wanted them," Allen said. "We had them in great positions, but that's the difference between good and bad teams right now; good teams find ways to win games and bad teams find ways to lose games. Right now, we're not a bad team, but we're not where we should be or need to be, and I'll take the blame. Start it off with the defense, we need to be better. Same thing every week."
With all the trade deadline rumors swirling – including the Bears having a deal for Chase Young? – Bish had to ask Allen about FOX's Jay Glazer reporting that Allen wants out, but he had to dispute that.
"This is my home and this is where I'm gonna stay at. Whenever things go bad, people are gonna find excuses or find stories and make whatever they can, but if I wanted a trade, I would have came out and said it publicly," Allen said. "I'll focus on what I can do to help this team win now, and about the future, we'll see what happens in the future, but as of right now and the rest of the season, my goal is to help this team win."
There's just too much noise to try to combat every single rumor, Allen said, and that's one of the hardest things about being an athlete, but it "comes with the territory to deal with false narratives."
What also comes with the territory is having to try to neutralize what Allen called "the best offensive line we've faced" in Philly and a tough quarterback to contain baseline in Jalen Hurts, but he thinks the Commanders' front four did a good job for at least part of the day.
"We know, and not just with Jalen but with any team, that if you can control the line of scrimmage and make the life of the quarterback hard, not allow him to run around and not allow the running game to get established, you can make any quarterback uncomfortable." Allen said. "I feel like as a D-line, we were able to have success early on, we just weren't able to continue that throughout the entirety of the game. He made great plays while under duress, you gotta give him credit."
That inconsistency, though, may be a big reason the Commanders' D, which was supposed to be the team's strength, is allowing 28.5 points per game – second worst in the NFL, and only barely ahead of Indianapolis' 28.6 – and has been torched for 33 or more five times in eight games.
"I've always come here and say we're close, we're you know, one play away, but this year we're just not a good defense," Allen said. "That's the only thing I can say right now until we prove it otherwise, and that starts with me. I have to be better moving forward and I'm gonna give this organization and this team everything I have in my tank, and we'll go from there. Just know we're going to continue to fight and grow, and know I'll always give you everything I've got."
EB asked if it had anything to do with coaching or scheme, but Allen reiterated that everyone is culpable from the top down – and playing up or down to the competition is that issue.
"As a team and as a defense, that's the big thing, is we gotta be consistent. And what's frustrating is when you play as a team how we did against the Eagles, and defensively how we did for the Giants for the most part and at times against the Falcons, we just have to find a way to be consistent and it's frustrating," Allen said. "Trust me, it, it really is, but there's no easy solution or quick fix, or we would have done it by now. People aren't gonna like that, but we just gotta keep working, man. That's all we can do – it's either that or quit and we're not gonna quit, so we just got to keep going back to it."
Allen still believes that the Commanders have a shot at a Wild Card in a crowded NFC, but again, if they can't learn to be consistent, they can't worry about the future too far down the road.
"You definitely look at it, but I know that until defensively, we play more consistently and play better, it doesn't really matter about the playoffs," Allen said. "The way we're playing, we're not gonna be able to get to where we want to get to and accomplish what we want to accomplish. So for me, I'm taking it game by game, focusing on what I can do to help this organization and team out and go from there, but right now there's just too many things that we have to fix as a team before we can legitimately focus on the playoffs."
Take a listen to Allen's entire weekly segment, which includes some thoughts on the Eagles' explosive plays and his own sub-standard moments, when a players' only meeting becomes appropriate, Taylor Heinicke possibly taking over in Atlanta, and more.
