“It doesn't matter how good you were yesterday, it's how good are you gonna be tomorrow.”
If you think the Commanders are in trouble next Saturday night against the Lions, or you’re perhaps overzealous about last night’s win (looking at you perhaps, Super Bowl-manifesting EB), remember the above words that came from Joe Theismann at the end of his call-in to the Junkies on Monday.
Yes, the “Cardiac Commanders” won 23-20 last night in Tampa on a “Divisional Doink” Zane Gonzalez field goal (as Mike Tirico called it on NBC), ending a 19-year playoff victory drought in the same city they won their last postseason game, and the good vibes are rolling.
But however you see it, one thing is clear for the lowest seed remaining and maybe only Wild Card team to advance pending Monday night’s result: it’s not just one, it’s all 53, and nothing is impossible.
“The quarterback position is the single most dependent position on the field, and this to me is just an incredible team victory,” Joe said. “Obviously the quarterback is a key cog in it, but this team is playing like a football team that has such a great belief, and when you have teams that believe, they're not easy outs. We saw it against Chicago that hey, maybe this team is magical, and a team of destiny. Why not? I feel as good as I could feel about our football team going anywhere to play anybody, irrespective of their records."
Of course, even Joe T was pumped up shortly after 11 p.m. last night in the moment.
“It was an incredible football game, and you'd almost think you get down to that stage of the game and you find yourself maybe relaxed a little bit, like, oh, they're gonna pull it out,” Joe said. “And then that kick hits the upright and the bounce went our way, and I literally jumped out of my chair and screamed. I’ve never done that! I get emotionally involved a little bit in our team, but I've never ever been that intense in watching this team play football. They have to get the most entertaining team of the year award, the most resilient team award.”
Bish joked how Alex Ovechkin has scored over 800 goals since the last playoff win, which Joe accentuated by noting it was a long time coming, but ‘I’ve never seen the upper deck so full as I did the last home game against the Cowboys,’ so clearly, everyone is feeling it.
And a lot of that comes from above, but a lot of it on the field happens to be the guy who plays the position Theismann played…and as much as you’d think he can’t anymore, Joe still comes away more and more impressed with Jayden Daniels every game.
“We’ve only seen him angry once, and that was when he got hurt, because he hates to come off the football field. His demeanor is incredible,” Theismann said. “I always felt more comfortable in the bigger games, and Jayden has such great command and control of this offense and of his emotions. Towards the end of the game, he was talking to Tampa Bay's defensive linemen – he’s so comfortable. And you can’t say enough about Kliff Kingsbury and the way he calls games, the shots he takes, and of course Dan Quinn going for it on fourth down, because he has such a belief in his players and trusts Jayden the way he does. I’ve never seen anybody with the calm demeanor that Jayden has. He is so poised.”
Joe pointed to how Daniels uses his running ability not as a crutch, but as an added dimension to his game, and how he has traits that are difficult to teach – that, perhaps, come with his college experience.
“It's an innate ability to be able to play the position as well as he does, and he played 55 college football games,” Joe said. “If that’s not an endorsement to stay in college and play as many games as you can if you think you're gonna come to this level, I don't know what is. If you wanted to write down all the things you look for in a quarterback: leadership, athleticism, decisions, understanding of the offense, understanding your players…he checks all of those boxes.”
Take a listen to Theismann’s entire visit, as he also talked about Kingsbury’s future, looks ahead to Detroit, and more!