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KDawg

By KDawg
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Califan007 The Constipated

Califan007 The Constipated

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2023 NFL season, Week 1: What We Learned from Sunday's games

 

https://www.nfl.com/news/2023-nfl-season-week-1-what-we-learned-from-sunday-s-games

 

Washington's defensive front closes the show. Holding the Cardinals to three points and 93 yards in the second half, the Commanders' defense pinned its ears back and thwarted any idea of an upset. Montez Sweat (1.5), Jonathan Allen (1.0) and Abdullah Anderson (0.5) combined for three sacks, but Daron Payne's constant disruption of Arizona's backfield won't show up on the stat sheet. Sweat added two forced fumbles to his great day. Jack Del Rio's defense is off to a great start, and it figures to grow even stronger once star pass rusher Chase Young gets back on the field. 

 

 

2023 could be a rollercoaster ride in Washington. It wouldn't have been such a close game if the Commanders' offense hadn't given Arizona so many chances. Sam Howell made plenty of mistakes (interception, fumble lost) but he seemed to shake off the miscues, continuing to throw the ball downfield. Commanders OC Eric Bieniemy deserves credit for getting creative and dialing up different looks against a game Arizona defense. Howell's offensive line didn't make life easy, but the second-year quarterback pulled out a gutsy performance (sacked six times). Howell made a slick toss to Brian Robinson for the game's first score and gave Washington the lead with a six-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Coupled with a solid defense, Howell's gunslinger mentality figures to make for some exciting contests in 2023. 

 
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Renegade7

Renegade7

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4 hours ago, redskinss said:

Why is everybody acting like gibson had a fumbling problem last year.

In 15 games he didn't cough it up once.

 

I'm not sure I'm seeing that...

 

What I see, imo, and how I feel is his larger body of work is multiple seasons with fumbling problems and last year may have been an anomaly.

 

We won't really know if today was anomaly instead a couple more games into the season to earn that trust back.

 

It's seeing someone clean for a while then a year later you see contraband around them. Bro, what is this?

 

 

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Going Commando

Going Commando

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Zaven Collins lit us up.  That Cardinals defense was good and they dominated the LoS on us in the second half.  I think our longest run was like 9 yards and they got a ton of easy pressure.  The Gibson fumble was textbook linebacker play, more of a tough break for Gibson than a ball carrying mistake.  Their secondary played well too.  I thought they were going to be the weak link on their defense but they weren't.  They're better than expected, and our receivers are probably not quite as good as we expected.

 

On offense, their line is better than our OL.  Our DL is just that good.  Our secondary looked really good too, and pretty much contained the best part of Arizona's team which is their skill players.

 

All in all, the Cardinals are better than expected.  They aren't tanking, and Gannon had them playing hard and with excellent physicality.

 

I thought the Rams were tanking too, but clearly they aren't either.  They've apparently got some rookie named Puka who I should have drafted instead of Cooper Kupp.  Tanking isn't really a thing in the NFL.  The NFC West seemed like it was going to be a weak division, along with the South perhaps.  But the week one take away for me is that the NFC is much better than expected this year, and the AFC is much worse.  The AFC has all of the star QBs, but they are on big deals and playing for flawed teams.  The NFC will be broadly competitive and none of the divisions will be soft unfortunately.  We've got about 27 teams like the Buccaneers to compete with, who are almost the exact same team as us.  I used to think we were unique, maybe even a little problematic for spending so many resources on our defensive front.  But it feels like half the teams in our conference spent all of their first and second round picks on linemen and linebackers.

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Darrell Green Fan

Darrell Green Fan

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They knew the OL was weak, yet the moves they made were to sign other team's cast offs.  We all knew, even  casual fans, that this OL was not nearly good enough. Yet this is the route they chose to take.  

 

I agree with the comments on the RBs. Gibson not only fumbles he clearly misses holes and just crashes into bodies.  It was foolish to draft him as a between the tackles RB.  Washington fans love Brian Robinson because he has the incredible ability to turn a 2 yard run into a 5 yarder. But guys that's it, look around the league and you will see most every team has a back (or 2) with much more explosiveness.  Our RBs are clearly below average.

 

Howell was OK for his first game as a full time starter. But he easily could have had 2 more picks. The OL will severely limit his ability to make plays.

 

Davis flashed and made a few plays but overall the LBs were not a factor, again this was entirely predictable.

 

I backed up the game sealing play by Forbes 3 times. This is why he was drafted in the first round, love that guy.

 

Also agree on the previous post that Sweat has been good, nothing more, but that game was the game of an elite DE.  

 

 

 

  

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markmills67

markmills67

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6 hours ago, MartinC said:

Here is a promising stat from the D. We had 11 tackles for a loss in the game.
 

Sweat had 2 (1.5 sacks), Allen 2 (1 sack) and Payne 2. The first round DL guys showed up.

I think we had 5 tackles for a loss on 5 consecutive plays , midway through the 2nd half as far as I can remember buddy. 

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KDawg

KDawg

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3 minutes ago, Rocky21 said:

Not calling anyone out but I wonder if the posters who said they need to see more of the O line before determining whether they are bad or not have seen enough yet.😄

They haven’t seen enough until the OL puts together one good game. Once that happens they will be posting that they were right and they just needed time to gel.

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Leonard Washington

Leonard Washington

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My thoughts are below. 
 

defense:  

  1. The cardinals have a big oline. It seemed like their size seemed to be a problem initially but our talent and conditioning won the day. 
  2. Fuller got a lot of work.  I wonder if teams consider him our weakest corner. 
  3. a better QB would have beaten us. 
     

offense:  

  1. What happened to our quick game?
  2.  It seemed after the fumble, RR sent the “go conservative” signal to EB. Boring offense and good defense has been a winning formula during RR’s tenure. 
  3. I like Gates. He raises the toughness of the group. He wasn’t backing down even when he was getting his ass kicked. 
     

bold take:

  1. I don’t think our beloved WR core are that good. I just don’t see them creating a lot of separation in key moments. QB and line play have something to do with it but the WR need to be open so Howell doesn’t need to hold the ball

 

 

 

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KDawg

KDawg

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12 minutes ago, Leonard Washington said:

 

My thoughts are below. 
 

defense:  

  1. The cardinals have a big oline. It seemed like their size seemed to be a problem initially but our talent and conditioning won the day. 
  2. Fuller got a lot of work.  I wonder if teams consider him our weakest corner. 
  3. a better QB would have beaten us. 
     

offense:  

  1. What happened to our quick game?
  2.  It seemed after the fumble, RR sent the “go conservative” signal to EB. Boring offense and good defense has been a winning formula during RR’s tenure. 
  3. I like Gates. He raises the toughness of the group. He wasn’t backing down even when he was getting his ass kicked. 
     

bold take:

  1. I don’t think our beloved WR core are that good. I just don’t see them creating a lot of separation in key moments. QB and line play have something to do with it but the WR need to be open so Howell doesn’t need to hold the ball

 

 

 


That is a pretty bold take. Our receivers were coming open but Howell didn’t really have time to throw to them. And when he did he missed Terry and Terry was interfered with. Dotson was open a few times as Howell was running for his life. 
 

Our offensive line is a very large concern.

 

I’m also a bit concerned with the lack of quick passes. The routes seemed to be heavy on intermediate concepts and light on quick game concepts. I’d like to see us use the run more so defenses can’t focus in on the pass and use more quick concepts to set up the deep stuff… largely because of the OL issues and a young QB.

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KDawg

KDawg

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1 minute ago, Simmsy said:

The ****ing losers at CBS sports gave the Cardinals a "B" grade and gave us...a "C" grade...how in the ****!? No other team that won got a lesser grade than their opponent in that article besides the Commanders. What bull****.

I’m guessing because we were expected to be an average-ish team and they were expected to be the worst team in football.

 

We performed to our expectation, they played much better than theirs. 

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IrepDC

IrepDC

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The OL was bad- real bad. The DL was good- real good. The two units will be competing all year to see which extreme can decide our games.

 

Howell is going through those inevitable growing pains. My biggest concern with his development is him taking too many hits and starting to see ghosts in the pocket. I saw glimpses of happy feet in the second half. 

 

EB is getting more slack than he deserves. Our offense, with a second year second start QB and a bum OL, looked as crisp as I've seen in a while. We got our first 3 and out late in the game- and I saw fans in the GameDay thread complaining about so many 3 and outs. To me he did a good job of keeping Arizona guessing- not running into a stacked front for the sake of running the ball, trying to get the short pass game going, setting up deep shots, etc. The 2 minute drill with 40 seconds- where we got close enough for a shot into the end zone- was something we haven't had in a decade. He has a much better feel for the game than our previous OC.

 

The LBs didn't get picked on so that's progress. They weren't a strength but they also weren't a major weakness from my perspective.

 

The DBs looked solid, however we need them to get takeaways when they have the chance.

 

The TEs were mediocre. Thomas needs to be more consistent catching the ball. The OPI on Bates was ridiculous considering some of the pick plays I saw throughout the league yesterday. Cole Turner looks good.

 

The WRs were great in my opinion. The OL didn't allow us to capitalize on them as much as we could have, but Dotson was getting open consistently. McClaurin should've had a walk in TD on Howell's worst throw of the game. Samuel needs better blocking on the quick passes, and he'll make the most of it.

 

Our RBs were okay. I'm not seeing the huge holes that they're missing that many keep referencing. Our run blocking is not really good. Robinson typically gets every yard that's there +2 at the end of the run. Gibson didn't have a good game. Rodriguez is probably going to slide into our rb #2 role carries wise. 

 

Overall it was a weird week 1 league wide. There are always some unexpected outcomes and teams not quite clicking on all cylinders. We will have a rough ride simply because of the OL- but Howell and this defense will make it interesting.

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Skinsinparadise

Skinsinparadise

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6 minutes ago, KDawg said:


That is a pretty bold take. Our receivers were coming open but Howell didn’t really have time to throw to them. And when he did he missed Terry and Terry was interfered with. Dotson was open a few times as Howell was running for his life. 
 

Our offensive line is a very large concern.

 

I’m also a bit concerned with the lack of quick passes. The routes seemed to be heavy on intermediate concepts and light on quick game concepts. I’d like to see us use the run more so defenses can’t focus in on the pass and use more quick concepts to set up the deep stuff… largely because of the OL issues and a young QB.

 

Keim somewhat stressed that during the preseason the quick game-screens weren't effiicent and some of that was the blocking in space on the edges just wasn't there.  It felt the same yesterday but to know for sure I'd have to rewatch the game.

Edited by Skinsinparadise
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Skinsinparadise

Skinsinparadise

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11 minutes ago, Simmsy said:

The ****ing losers at CBS sports gave the Cardinals a "B" grade and gave us...a "C" grade...how in the ****!? No other team that won got a lesser grade than their opponent in that article besides the Commanders. What bull****.

 

The Cardinals were universally seen as the worst team in the NFL.    Just about every mock, I see them picking first.

 

We were the 2nd heaviest favorite in the NFL last Sunday and Vegas isn't even high on this team so that shows how little they think of the Cards.

 

They were playing in front of a charged up hostile crowd in a home coming type of atmoshpere.

 

Yet the Cards came off the more spunky team -- underdog spirit.  And the Commanders offense sort of looked flat for a chunk of that game. 

 

I watched some of the Denver game yesterday.  I'll be at the game next Sunday. Denver wasn't hot but they looked like more than what this team can handle if they play like yesterday. 

 

While I am not high on Rivera at the moment, I'll give him credit that even he said they played poorly at times and they need to play better going forward.

 

If this is how the team plays, this team will likely have a year as bad as some of the national pundits predict, like a 6-11 type of season.    I expect them to play better.  I am sticking to my 8-9 prediction.

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Simmsy

Simmsy

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5 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

The Cardinals were universally seen as the worst team in the NFL.    Just about every mock, I see them picking first.

 

We were the 2nd heaviest favorite in the NFL last Sunday and Vegas isn't even high on this team so that shows how little they think of the Cards.

 

They were playing in front of a charged up hostile crowd in a home coming type of atmoshpere.

 

Yet the Cards came off the more spunky team -- underdog spirit.  And the Commanders offense sort of looked flat for a chunk of that game. 

 

I watched some of the Denver game yesterday.  I'll be at the game next Sunday. Denver wasn't hot but they looked like more than what this team can handle if they play like yesterday. 

 

While I am not high on Rivera at the moment, I'll give him credit that even he said they played poorly at times and they need to play better going forward.

 

If this is how the team plays, this team will likely have a year as bad as some of the national pundits predict, like a 6-11 type of season.    I expect them to play better.  I am sticking to my 8-9 prediction.

 

So, everyone thought the Giants were going to the SB this year, they came out and couldn't tie their own shoes. Shouldn't that mean that since the Giants were so inept, the Cowboys should get a lower grade because it was so easy? I mean, its the media's expectations that were wrong, you can't grade someone on arbitrary expectations based on preseason? Training camp? Still, if you beat the other team, your grade should be higher or atleast close. These feels gave the Cardinals a full grade higher than us, bull****.

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Hdf561

Hdf561

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This is a bad football team we barely and I mean barely beat a slightly worse football team. 
 

Our defense almost lost to Josh Dobbs! If Kyler Murray is in this game we lose I absolutely believe that. 
 

The fan base is energized again but how long will they be when it’s week 10 and we have only 2 wins? 
 

Glad we got the win, but I’ve seen zero to make me think that the mistakes will be corrected especially before we play Denver. 
 

The New Year’s Eve game against San Fran that I have tickets for is gonna be a loooooooonnnnnnggggggg day. 

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mhd24

mhd24

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Just now, Hdf561 said:

This is a bad football team we barely and I mean barely beat a slightly worse football team. 
 

Our defense almost lost to Josh Dobbs! If Kyler Murray is in this game we lose I absolutely believe that. 
 

The fan base is energized again but how long will they be when it’s week 10 and we have only 2 wins? 
 

Glad we got the win, but I’ve seen zero to make me think that the mistakes will be corrected especially before we play Denver. 
 

The New Year’s Eve game against San Fran that I have tickets for is gonna be a loooooooonnnnnnggggggg day. 

 

The defense played pretty well tbh.  They didn't give up a TD and one FG (the 55 yarder) was directly caused by the INT from Sam.  They got tricked one drive by the gadget plays Zona was running, but held down in the Red Zone.  I'm not sure what else you can want from the defense.

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Warhead36

Warhead36

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Just now, Hdf561 said:

This is a bad football team we barely and I mean barely beat a slightly worse football team. 
 

Our defense almost lost to Josh Dobbs! If Kyler Murray is in this game we lose I absolutely believe that. 
 

The fan base is energized again but how long will they be when it’s week 10 and we have only 2 wins? 
 

Glad we got the win, but I’ve seen zero to make me think that the mistakes will be corrected especially before we play Denver. 
 

The New Year’s Eve game against San Fran that I have tickets for is gonna be a loooooooonnnnnnggggggg day. 

Again, how did the defense almost lose to Josh Dobbs? They gave up essentially six points and generated two takeaways leading to ten points. The defense played an A+ game. 

 

I see bits and pieces of criticism towards the Defense and don't get it at all, except for Curl and Butler dropping picks. 

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