Sunday’s game was pretty much obsolete the minute the final whistle blew, but during his visit with Chris Russell on Monday, Jay Gruden did have to weigh in on the fact that it wasn’t pretty, and wasn’t terribly meaningful in the standings once Green Bay lost, but to the Commanders, that was the kind of gritty win they needed to test themselves heading into the postseason.
“Sometimes you get away with winning ugly, and that's something that good teams do; they don’t always play their best football and still win games, and that’s a sign of a good football team,” Jay said. “You’re not gonna hit on all cylinders every week; your running game is not gonna be popping big holes, your passing game is not gonna be always precise, your defense is gonna give up some big hits. But, at the end of the day, you play four quarters of football and try to figure out a way to win at the end, and that's what Washington did. They’ve won 12 games, some ugly and some pretty, but the fact of the matter is 12-5 is a hell of a record, and with a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback, it's a hell of a feat.”
You can listen to Jay’s thoughts on the game at large above, and read about his preparation for Tampa and Jayden Daniels’ exit in his visit to Grant & Danny later Monday, but for Rooster, it was all about how Marcus Mariota was the one to bring the Commanders back.
And like winning ugly, good teams also have a capable backup QB who fits the main offense, so not much misses a beat if and when the starter goes down.
“He’s a perfect backup for Jayden because of that similar skill set. He’s been a good quarterback for a number of years, he’s just had a lot of injuries that have derailed his career as far as being consistent at the position, so he’s had to be basically relegated to a backup now,” Gruden said. “But he's a very good backup because he's very smart, he’s a good team player, and he has an athletic skill set that matches; not quite as athletic as Jayden, but similar, so they don't have to change their system at all when he comes in the game They can run the same offense and not have to vary off what Kliff knows and what Kliff likes and what Jayden likes, so they're running the same offense, which is good.”
And what Mariota did was get Terry McLaurin more involved in addition to getting the ball out quickly.
“That helps, and getting Terry going again for the playoff run is very important. And the touchdown throw, was that a fade? That’s unbelievable, who would have thought of that?” Gruden joked. “But I love the fact that Terry got more involved, and I know he's not going to waiver at all, he’s going to go into the playoffs in Tampa with a lot of confidence. And I think that passing game will have some confidence going into Tampa because Tampa’s pass defense isn't very good right now, they have to rely on blitzing but it leaves their secondary vulnerable, and I think they can take some big chunks out of Tampa's defense through the air, and I'm excited to watch it.”
And, he’s excited to see how McLaurin, one of his 2019 picks, has gone from maybe a special teams contributor and down-roster receiver to the franchise’s single-season receiving TD record holder.
“When we got him into rookie mini-camp and training camp, we knew he’d be good; we sat him out in preseason and we knew what we had, the explosion and the power that he had,” Gruden said. “The one thing that didn't really show up was his red zone ability – the big body fades like he caught against Dallas, we didn't really envision that being a big part of his package, but you throw that in there now to go along with the speed and his ability to run in breaking cuts and across the field and all that stuff, he’s a well-rounded receiver. There are some limitations that he might have, but he's a true No. 1 receiver. Happy as hell that we drafted him and happy as hell he's doing a good job now.”
Take a listen to Gruden’s entire visit above!