Is it better to win ugly than lose pretty?
Outside of Wesley Snipes’ character in White Men Can’t Jump, the answer to that is yes – but as Jay Gruden told Chris Russell Monday in his weekly segment, doing so on the road against an opponent of similar stature within the NFC, was vital on Sunday for the Commanders.
“Especially on the road – I don’t think Sam has lost on the road – and Atlanta has a lot to play for in the NFC South, so to walk out of there with a win, is a great thing to happen,” Gruden said.
Of course, the first thing Gruden mentioned within that is cleaning up the sacks, of which Sam Howell took another five from one of the top defenses in generating pressure, so how do they do that?
“Obviously, if you could take off, take off; Sam's a good athlete and he can run and extend plays, and that’s what you ideally want: extend some plays and make some positive things happen,” Gruden said. “If you can't step up, you gotta try to find an outlet throw at his feet, especially on first down, where he had two or three more sacks. Throw it to your outlet, throw it over his head and get to second and 10. There are a lot of things you can do, including protect better obviously, but a quarterback has to know where his outlets are and throw it away or if he’s not able to move around and try to extend the play.”
Howell did throw a ball into the ground late in the game on a third down to avoid a third straight sack, and that’s the kind of thing Gruden needs to see more often, not just in those situations.
“They were trying to set up a screen, so that was his only option, and that’s what he has to try to do,” Gruden said. “Sometimes, you have to take a sack to protect the football when they crash the pocket and you can’t step up or get away, but the first down sacks, those are the ones you have to get rid of and just abort the mission.”
There is something to be said about not turning the ball over on those plays, though.
“Not turning the ball over is critical because when you punt, you let Tress Way bomb it out there, you make Desmond Ridder go the length of the field, and good things will happen,” Gruden said. “Defensively, I thought, Del Rio did a good job with the five bigs and stopping Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier and forcing Ridder to throw. So yeah, I think not turning the ball over has gotta be Sam’s No. 1 concern; that and sacks, and just continue to let it rip, because he did make some good throws and made plays when he had to.”
Take a listen to Gruden’s entire segment, which also saw him touch on Jamison Crowder’s big day, more overall thoughts on both sides of the ball, the Falcons’ decisions to go for two and more!
