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Next Day Thread: The Jaguars vs. The Command


KDawg

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ASHBURN, Va. -- When the Washington Commanders needed a spark in the first quarter Sunday, they turned to receiver Curtis Samuel. He showed why Washington signed him two years ago, making defenders miss in key spots with a zig here and a zag there, capping the first drive with a touchdown.

Later, it was receiver Terry McLaurin. The Commanders had blown a lead to the Jacksonville Jaguars and needed a big play. McLaurin delivered with a 49-yard touchdown catch, only his second grab of the day.

 

 

And then it was rookie receiver Jahan Dotson's turn. Washington needed one more big play, trailing the Jaguars by two with less than two minutes remaining. Dotson ran an out-and-up, got the corner to bite and then adjusted to the pass in the end zone, making a lunging grab while being obstructed.

After only one game, Washington's offense showed what it could do and is why the Commanders are excited to see what it will produce for an encore at the Detroit Lions on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox).

In the Commanders' 28-22 victory over Jacksonville, they revealed why they could have a dangerous offense this season: Depth of playmakers.

"We can be a very dynamic group," McLaurin said.

It wasn’t just the three receivers, either. It was also running back Antonio Gibson being used in a more versatile role than in the past. He ran the ball 14 times for 58 yards but caught seven passes for 72 yards. It's also tight end Logan Thomas, who caught three passes for 45 yards in his first action since tearing his ACL in December.

 

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On Sunday, seven Commanders caught passes, three others received at least one target, and five ran the ball, including scrambles by quarterback Carson Wentz, who completed 27 of 41 passes for 313 yards with four touchdown passes and two interceptions.

Last week, offensive coordinator Scott Turner discussed offensive balance, saying it wasn't just about run-pass ratio but about spreading the ball out and attacking in multiple ways. That's what Washington did Sunday. The Commanders have a strong-armed quarterback who can hit passes all over the field and have a speedy receiver group that can win vertically and horizontally.

 

"That's when you can really be dangerous and effective on offense is when the ball's going to everybody and they can't just focus on one guy," Turner said. "We got some guys that can make some plays."

It's what Washington envisioned during training camp. It helps that Samuel, who played just five games last year while dealing with a groin and hamstring injury, is now healthy. He did not look explosive when he did play last year but certainly looked dynamic in camp and on Sunday. Of his 55 yards receiving, 48 came after the catch by juking defenders.

After he caught his touchdown pass on the first drive, Samuel shouted: "I'm back!" He even posted that on his Instagram account.

"It's been so long since I've been able to make dudes drop like that," Samuel said. "I did what I knew I could do."

Washington used its personnel in ways that created openings for others. On a third-and-8 pass to Thomas, three Jaguars defenders were worried about other players, which left Thomas wide open en route to a 27-yard gain. The next play, Wentz hit McLaurin for the touchdown. On that play, the safety was paying closer attention to Samuel, who lined up inside to McLaurin's left, and couldn't get to the outside in time to help the corner.

 

"I'll get single [covered] more often than them; you have to respect those three with their speed and athleticism," Thomas said.

The Commanders aligned Samuel in the backfield with J.D. McKissic. Another time, they used power back Jonathan Williams in the backfield with Gibson. Wentz faked a handoff to Williams, allowing Gibson to get downfield without a lot of eyes on him and catch a 26-yard deep corner route.

Another time, they sent Samuel in motion to the right, leaving the defense to wonder if it was a Jet sweep. Wentz faked to him, then faked a handoff to Gibson, also running to the right. Before the snap, there were eight defenders aligned to Washington's left side. After the fakes, there was one defender to that side of the field -- a corner 14 yards downfield. Wentz threw back to undrafted free agent tight end Armani Rogers, who ran for 23 yards.

The offensive creativity jumped out.

"That's what makes us so versatile," Wentz said of the diverse skill talent.

It also helped Washington's defense. The array of weapons on offense enabled the Commanders to hold the ball for 32 minutes, 57 seconds.

"They keep our big guys drinking Gatorade," Washington safety Bobby McCain said.

In the past, McLaurin often served as the runaway main option, but he was only targeted four times Sunday. In his first three seasons Washington was 1-5 when McLaurin was targeted four times or fewer. Washington coach Ron Rivera said it's removed the pressure from McLaurin -- but added there will be a game where they target him four times in the first quarter.

"Now they have to make an adjustment," Rivera said of the defense.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mrshadow008 said:

I agreed with you on this for a long time. I've recently rethought my opinion on this. They constantly say they are following the Buffalo model. Well lets look at Buffalo under current regime. Buffalo was considered to have decent young roster when they took over. Went 9-7 year 1 with a wild card berth. Year 2 took step back 6-10 missed playoffs. Year 3 couple of minor additions but mostly stayed the course. 10-6 playoff berth. Year 4 after taking a step forward with its young core went all in. Traded for Diggs and signed ej gaines, vernon butler, mario addison, aj klein, quinton jefferson, and josh norman. they proceeded to go 13-3 and theyve pushed their chips in ever since. My point is buffalo was patient letting its own roster and locker room grow before bringing in a bunch of outside free agents that could potentially upset that dynamic. once they knew they were ready to legitimately compete for a championship then they went all in. I think if we can make playoffs or come close to it this season next year youll see them go all in

 

lol, I sprained my shoulder severely, hurts to type, just came back from ER, so until that Cortizone shot kicks in, I'll be unusually succinct in my responses.:ols:

 

short version of it is I got no doubt they are planning to shoot for the moon next year, Keim talked about it in the off season and I repeated it different threads.  But I also heard that there are some players they wanted in FA but offered super cheap deals, wanted Collins back but only super cheap and they also understand this is a critical season for the franchise, year 3, new branding, etc.  Dan also has some history of being cheap.

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2 hours ago, mattsb84 said:

mmmm im going to disagree with saying he was fantastic..that INT he threw trying to setup a screen which then directly lead to a TD on the next play was abysmal. His accuracy was questionable on a few throws...2 ints for the day..he was OK..he was not fantastic. Lets not break out the anointing oil just yet. 

 

That said, its always promising to see the team fight back after a 10point swing in the matter of a few plays. 


Who anointed him as anything? The screen shouldn’t have been called. Or thrown. And then it was a ridiculous play for Walker to make.

 

The first INT was bad. He airmailed a few balls. But he threw for 313 and 4 TD. That’s a fantastic performance. He hit receivers in stride, didn’t attempt to send anyone to the hospital and let our guys make plays. 
 

By Washington standards it was damn near a hall of fame performance. 
 

It was fantastic.

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11 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

lol, I sprained my shoulder severely, hurts to type, just came back from ER, so until that Cortizone shot kicks in, I'll be unusually succinct in my responses.:ols:

 

short version of it is I got no doubt they are planning to shoot for the moon next year, Keim talked about it in the off season and I repeated it different threads.  But I also heard that there are some players they wanted in FA but offered super cheap deals, wanted Collins back but only super cheap and they also understand this is a critical season for the franchise, year 3, new branding, etc.  Dan also has some history of being cheap.

i dont disagree with you on the cheap part but its usually been more centered around the stadium etc not with players. Granted theyve put a bunch of money into the stadium and off field stuff the past couple years. so could be a little of both. but i could also see them wanting to save money for the big cap jump next season. could be a little of both

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30 minutes ago, No Nonsense said:


We did hit a lull during this game. After the hot start, the O got stagnant for awhile. I’m still not sold on Turner. We have no blaring weakness on offense. A better QB. Three very good receivers, good RB’s, a good TE and a good OL. There’s no excuses to not put up a lot of points this year. 

 

I would contend those "lulls" were during a period with bad defense and 2 turnovers, not Turner's doing.  There are multiple people discussing how good Turner's play designs and game plan besides Orlovsky's breakdown above.

 

https://www.hogshaven.com/2022/9/14/23352660/scott-turner-is-an-offensive-master-mind-its-just-been-the-lack-of-weapons-holding-him-back

 

Scott Turner is an Offensive Master-Mind...It’s Just Been the Lack of Weapons Holding Him Back

 

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12 minutes ago, HigSkin said:

 

I would contend those "lulls" were during a period with bad defense and 2 turnovers, not Turner's doing.  There are multiple people discussing how good Turner's play designs and game plan besides Orlovsky's breakdown above.

 

https://www.hogshaven.com/2022/9/14/23352660/scott-turner-is-an-offensive-master-mind-its-just-been-the-lack-of-weapons-holding-him-back

 

Scott Turner is an Offensive Master-Mind...It’s Just Been the Lack of Weapons Holding Him Back

 


It can be both.

 

Turner can be both creative, interesting, and have called a great game and also have had a lull mid game.

 

The lull could also be on Rivera. Or it could be on Turner. Or it could be a circumstantial lull.

 

We know Turner calls the plays, though, so the lull will be put on him.

 

But the praise for what he did far outweighs the lull as well.

 

For my end: in the lull we saw a lot of underneath stuff that reminded me on Heinicke gameplans. Forced to throw short and underneath stuff. Boring. Lack of creativity.

 

Then he called the pass to McLaurin and everything snapped back. 
 

I still think Turner called a fantastic game with tremendous play design. A lull doesn’t change that.

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16 minutes ago, HigSkin said:

 

I would contend those "lulls" were during a period with bad defense and 2 turnovers, not Turner's doing.  There are multiple people discussing how good Turner's play designs and game plan besides Orlovsky's breakdown above.

 

https://www.hogshaven.com/2022/9/14/23352660/scott-turner-is-an-offensive-master-mind-its-just-been-the-lack-of-weapons-holding-him-back

 

Scott Turner is an Offensive Master-Mind...It’s Just Been the Lack of Weapons Holding Him Back

 

 

Dude, watching this gets me so pumped for this offensive potential and for this season quite frankly.   I haven't been this excited since DJAX and Garcon were on the team!

 

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I made a few posts in the gameday thread and several texts in my group chat about Turner’s creativity.  


We had some folks chiming in during the lull, with their same old same old posts about how Turner is an unimaginative terd that can barely tie his shoes.

 

My eyes rolled so far back in my head that I almost went blind.

 

The offense definitely stalled out there for a bit and like most OC’s with imagination, they tend to get cute once or twice a game.  But how anyone could watch this offense and call it vanilla, boring or suggest Turner sucks is beyond comprehension.  It’s almost like some of our fans cannot shed their biases under any circumstances.  They just rattle off the same old complaints week after week, no matter how nonsensical they seem.

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19 minutes ago, KDawg said:


It can be both.

 

Turner can be both creative, interesting, and have called a great game and also have had a lull mid game.

 

The lull could also be on Rivera. Or it could be on Turner. Or it could be a circumstantial lull.

 

We know Turner calls the plays, though, so the lull will be put on him.

 

But the praise for what he did far outweighs the lull as well.

 

For my end: in the lull we saw a lot of underneath stuff that reminded me on Heinicke gameplans. Forced to throw short and underneath stuff. Boring. Lack of creativity.

 

Then he called the pass to McLaurin and everything snapped back. 
 

I still think Turner called a fantastic game with tremendous play design. A lull doesn’t change that.

That lull started when Samuels fumbled. The play before or a few plays before, Wentz tagged Gibby full stride down the sideline and he got caught by the only man he had to beat.

 

We're having a different conversation if Gibby scores that drive. Then who knows.

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36 minutes ago, KDawg said:


Who anointed him as anything? The screen shouldn’t have been called. Or thrown. And then it was a ridiculous play for Walker to make.

 

The first INT was bad. He airmailed a few balls. But he threw for 313 and 4 TD. That’s a fantastic performance. He hit receivers in stride, didn’t attempt to send anyone to the hospital and let our guys make plays. 
 

By Washington standards it was damn near a hall of fame performance. 
 

It was fantastic.

It's the first time a QB has thrown for over 300 yards and 4 TD's in his debut with a new team....that says something in itself. Just imagine how good he can be if he eliminates the mistakes and gets a full grasp of the offense? We gotta stay healthy this year so this thing can continue to grow legs. Hail.

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38 minutes ago, HigSkin said:

 

 

 

 

I love that they schemed the pick play here in the Redzone. Every time I see the Chefs run some **** like this I think to myself why we don't. And here we are. 

 

I hope they keep the creativity up. 

8 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

 It’s almost like some of our fans cannot shed their biases under any circumstances.  They just rattle off the same old complaints week after week, no matter how nonsensical they seem.

 

Its a defense mechanism. I do it with politics lol 

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10 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

That lull started when Samuels fumbled. The play before or a few plays before, Wentz tagged Gibby full stride down the sideline and he got caught by the only man he had to beat.

 

We're having a different conversation if Gibby scores that drive. Then who knows.

Yes it did start then. And yes, if he scores that lull may not happen. But we didn't, Samuels fumbled, and there was a lull. 

 

Like I said it may not even be entirely on Turner. 

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7 minutes ago, Llevron said:

I love that they schemed the pick play here in the Redzone. Every time I see the Chefs run some **** like this I think to myself why we don't. And here we are. 

 

It looked like we ran a lot of natural pics in that game.

 

The behind the line motion has always been a part of Scotts bag. I remember Steve Sims running wind sprints behind the line nearly every play. I don't remember seeing as many natural pics as I saw vs the Jags. We will probably be relying on that a lot more and its going to seriously hurt teams that don't communicate and pass off their coverage assignments. If you just try to chase a guy with  a free release while you have to wade thru traffic its probably not gonna end well.

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20 minutes ago, kingdaddy said:

It's the first time a QB has thrown for over 300 yards and 4 TD's in his debut with a new team....that says something in itself. Just imagine how good he can be if he eliminates the mistakes and gets a full grasp of the offense? We gotta stay healthy this year so this thing can continue to grow legs. Hail.

I'll also add that it was very impressive how CW rebounded after throwing the two interceptions, that is one of the biggest reasons we won the game. He kept his head up and stepped up big time. That showed me more than anything that he can get back to being a top QB in the league, especially given the weapons he has here and the support of the organization. 

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4 minutes ago, FootballZombie said:

 

It looked like we ran a lot of natural pics in that game.

 

The behind the line motion has always been a part of Scotts bag. I remember Steve Sims running wind sprints behind the line nearly every play. I don't remember seeing as many natural pics as I saw vs the Jags. We will probably be relying on that a lot more and its going to seriously hurt teams that don't communicate and pass off their coverage assignments. If you just try to chase a guy with  a free release while you have to wade thru traffic its probably not gonna end well.

 

I'm happy to hear that. I really suck at taking my eyes off the ball in real time so I always miss the little magic that makes the plays happen until they are posted here. I do remember him using pre-snap motion a lot more than most of the league a few years ago. He was at the front of that stat even when we were bad. Its fun to see it working so well now. 

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The lull was a combo of Samuel's fumble deflating our sails a bit and the injuries to Schweitzer and Norwell hurting our pass protection. I think the Jags also made some adjustments. Doug Pederson is a good coach. If Urban Meyer was still coaching the Jags we would have won by 30 and Heinicke would be getting 4th quarter snaps.

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1 hour ago, Mrshadow008 said:

i dont disagree with you on the cheap part but its usually been more centered around the stadium etc not with players. Granted theyve put a bunch of money into the stadium and off field stuff the past couple years. so could be a little of both. but i could also see them wanting to save money for the big cap jump next season. could be a little of both

 

They've often been cheap but not always granted post Cerrato years.  I used to think that was all Bruce but now not as sure as more stories circulate about how cheap Dan has been on so many fronts, assistant coaches, field turf, food, you name it until he gets pressed.  Heck you can argue the PR blows up he had is connnected to him being cheap -- trying to forgo paying the minority partners citing cash flow is reduced because of Covid.  Bruce had to sue to get paid, etc.

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8 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

The lull was a combo of Samuel's fumble deflating our sails a bit and the injuries to Schweitzer and Norwell hurting our pass protection. I think the Jags also made some adjustments. Doug Pederson is a good coach. If Urban Meyer was still coaching the Jags we would have won by 30 and Heinicke would be getting 4th quarter snaps.

I do think people here aren't giving the Jags enough credit. On my play by play breakdown, the primary cause of the 'lull' was the Jags were stopping plays that had worked for us though some in the first half worked because we did have a deep threat. On our final two TD drives, the only deep passes were the TDs.

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1 minute ago, Darth Tater said:

I do think people here aren't giving the Jags enough credit. On my play by play breakdown, the primary cause of the 'lull' was the Jags were stopping plays that had worked for us though some in the first half worked because we did have a deep threat. On our final two TD drives, the only deep passes were the TDs.


The Jags made adjustments and we didn’t for a long stretch. I’ll like to see quicker adjustments from our coaches. You can get away with prolonged lulls against mediocre teams. When they play the Eagles in a couple of weeks, they can’t afford to go to sleep for two quarters. 

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