Washington's Hot Streak: Recapping the Commanders' 4-1 Start

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00:00J.P. Finley is on NBC4 in our nation's capital.

00:05He's also on 106.7, the fan in D.C.'s everywhere in our nation's capital.

00:11It's great to have you on, J.P.

00:13I got to ask you, what is the reaction been to how hot this football team is?

00:21Because they've been awful for a long time and now this kid shows up and they're winning

00:25every game they play.

00:26They've won four in a row.

00:28And I mean, they lit it up yesterday.

00:30What are the fans like and the reaction on the radio side, on the TV?

00:35It's got to be pretty exciting right about now in D.C.

00:38Both are thrilled.

00:40It is.

00:41It's really exciting.

00:42Jaden Daniels is arguably the most exciting player in the NFL.

00:46And it's been so long since there's been a quarterback here.

00:49Obviously, there was Robert's rookie year, but that didn't feel like this.

00:53This feels like a far more sustainable approach offensively.

00:57When Robert came in, they introduced the read option in the NFL and it was kind of took

01:00the lead by surprise.

01:02Jaden is certainly running, but he's getting it done with his arm.

01:06The accuracy he shows from the pocket is unparalleled, honestly.

01:11It is really exciting.

01:13One thing that's kind of interesting, though, is there's still like this Dan Snyder era

01:17PTSD that some fans are kind of nervous to believe that they're this good.

01:22And I think this weekend's matchup with the Ravens is a huge opportunity for Washington.

01:28Listen, you want to go win the game, obviously, but if you go and show you can go toe to toe

01:33with Baltimore, I think that changes the perspective of the commanders around the league and even

01:40here at home.

01:41Do you think they'll be able to stop Lamar and King Henry?

01:46They've been running all over people and stepping on their faces.

01:50I mean, they did it again yesterday.

01:52Those two are literally winning games almost by themselves.

01:56Frankly, I don't think they're going to be able to stop them, but the counter isn't so

02:03much.

02:04Can they stop them?

02:05It's can Baltimore stop Washington?

02:06Washington put up to 30 on the ground yesterday, and that's against a pretty good Browns defense.

02:12And if you look at their mutual opponent in the Bengals, Washington went to since he put

02:17up 38 in a Monday night win.

02:20Baltimore went to since he put up 41 in an overtime win.

02:24Those performances are pretty similar.

02:25Now, who knows if that will translate when they get to Baltimore, but do I think they

02:29can stop Lamar and Derrick Henry?

02:31Probably not.

02:32I'm not sure anybody can, but the Baltimore Ravens also have to slow down Washington because

02:37I think this might be more about throwing the counter punch than shutting them down

02:42defensively.

02:43Isn't it great though that, I mean, the football in the area on the beltway, both teams are

02:48kicking ass.

02:50It's great for fans.

02:51I mean, cause it's been a long time, like I said, and you talk about the Snyder years,

02:57what a disaster that guy was.

02:58I mean, honestly, fans just hated his guts and things are changing now and they're winning.

03:04And what a vibe to have both teams.

03:07You know, I think the Ravens ever since they started winning, they're going to keep winning.

03:11Everybody already knows how good they are.

03:13Now they're doing their thing.

03:14It's the commanders.

03:15No one saw this coming.

03:17I thought yesterday when I saw the kid throw that sling to McLaren, it was just crazy.

03:22That pass was just beautiful.

03:24It was 60.

03:26So he had to escape out of a sack.

03:28It was third and 13.

03:29He'd be able to get out of a sack that I don't know that there's five quarterbacks in the

03:34NFL that get out of the sack to begin with.

03:36He's rolling right, rolling right.

03:37And you really saw some growth in Jason Daniels just from week one in that he had plenty of

03:43open grass in front of him.

03:44If he chose to take off with his legs, try to pick up the first down, he didn't kept

03:48his eyes downfield.

03:49So I'm a chlorine deep.

03:51I mean, he didn't really get the play on his feet, set his shoulders.

03:54He just flung it.

03:55That ball had to go 60, 62 yards in the air.

03:58Terry brings it in.

03:59He's not able to keep his feet.

04:00He gets a little, he gets kind of tackled there, goes down at the two yard line or whatever.

04:04But the physical gifts, Daniels, the throws he used to make it, the touchdown throw he

04:09had to the brown.

04:10I mean that the accuracy on that ball in the corner of the end zone is just unbelievable.

04:15You match that with the accuracy on the touchdown throw to McLaurin on the Monday night or against

04:19Cincinnati, Jane Daniels looks like he could do it all.

04:23It's got to your point.

04:25The Ravens, unfortunately, whatever, fortunately, unfortunately, however you view it, they've

04:29been kicking ass for some time, you know, two super bowls in the last 25 years, whatever

04:33that is.

04:34And just a perennial playoff team, perennial contender under John Harbaugh, Washington

04:39hasn't been that.

04:40Washington's largely been a rollercoaster disaster and it feels so different now because

04:47you've got new ownership.

04:49I think of all the candidates to take over a front office last year, they got the best

04:52one in Adam Peters who had success with the Niners, success with the Broncos, success

04:57with the Patriots, Dan Quinn, you know, there was some consternation about the hire.

05:02He's been really good since he got here.

05:03He's certainly that leader of men on a roster that's half young, half old, and they're trying

05:08to rebuild on the fly.

05:10And when, for Washington specifically, there is more reason for optimism than there's probably

05:17been in 25 years.

05:19I mean, the thing I saw about him was like in the, in the clubhouse when Kingsbury, they

05:26gave him the game ball, this is a couple of weeks ago and they all went crazy.

05:31And just the, I saw like a connection with Quinn and his coaches and players that I haven't

05:36seen there in a long time.

05:38I never thought Kingsbury, he got all this juice out in Arizona because women loved him

05:44and he had a bad-ass house and all that nonsense.

05:47Now he's actually coaching because he never did that in the desert, but he's actually

05:52coaching with this team.

05:53I like what I'm seeing from guys that are like coaching and doing their jobs and not

05:58being celebrity coaches.

06:01Celebrity coaches, nonsense.

06:02I need guys to coach, guys to win, win games.

06:06And then you got these two rockstar quarterbacks, your guy, the Heisman winner, and this guy

06:10Lamar, they're both so, you know, you gravitate toward them.

06:15Like there's something about Lamar, like I'm a Steeler fan.

06:18I would try, I'd literally try to trade my entire team for him.

06:21I would trade the owner, the players, the ball boy, to get my hands on a guy that talented.

06:27I think I know how cool he is.

06:29But I think this kid you've got now in DC, he's the same thing.

06:35I mean, you got rockstars everywhere, coaching players.

06:37It's crazy.

06:38Yeah, it's been interesting, specifically with the coaching staff in Kingsbury.

06:43If you look back to Arizona, I mean, Cliff kind of got the job because of his track record

06:47with quarterbacks, working with Baker Mayfield, working with Patrick Mahomes.

06:51He gets to Arizona, they draft Kyler Murray, Kyler Murray's rookie of the year.

06:55You know, they had, they built in Arizona under Cliff and they had a really good season

06:59in 21.

07:00I think they went 11-5, lost in the playoffs.

07:04But the following year, Kyler gets hurt, that thing just falls apart.

07:07And you're definitely right, there was some celebrity status.

07:09There was the viral photo of Cliff during COVID with that sick house and everything.

07:14Since he's been here, he's been very low-key.

07:16He doesn't do a lot of interviews.

07:18He does kind of the media that all offensive coordinators are mandated by the lead to do.

07:24And other than that, just kind of keeps it very low-key.

07:27I think that's on purpose.

07:29He and Jaden have a really good relationship.

07:31The deep shot to De'Ami Brown yesterday, the touchdown throw, was actually Jaden asked

07:37Cliff if he could check to it.

07:38And Cliff's like, hell yeah, man, go for it.

07:41And I think those two going forward will be really well-served and maybe Cliff's able

07:46to parlay that into another head coaching job down the road.

07:49But he doesn't seem interested or focused on that.

07:53Some of that is probably Arizona still paying him a whole lot of money because he got the

07:57contract extension.

07:59So he's able to just really enjoy working with his rookie quarterback and seeing his

08:04name and profile bolt back up.

08:07I got a minute left, respectfully.

08:09I got to ask you, when you were watching Deshaun Watson yesterday, how bad did you think he

08:15sucked?

08:16And did you ever think, man, this guy, he just doesn't matter anymore.

08:20He's like finished.

08:21He seemed disinterested, frankly.

08:25After he took a couple of big hits on a scramble, Mikey Sammer still is a rookie out of Michigan

08:29game with good pop.

08:31I don't know if you've seen it.

08:32Go find this fourth down play where the play comes in from the sideline and Watson just

08:38kind of jogs off.

08:39Now maybe they had 12 on the field or something, but I don't know what happened there.

08:43Yeah, I saw it.

08:45He's that often completely broken.

08:48I think you saw Washington be pretty aggressive on fourth downs offensively because they had

08:52zero concern of giving the ball back to Cleveland.

08:55And to me, if you're actually trying to win games, you got to go to Jameis.

08:59But that Brown situation with bad ownership and toxicity, I'm glad I'm out of that world

09:05in DC.

09:07What a shame.

09:08I'll never, the Bengals and Browns stink.

09:10What a shame.

09:11All I got to worry about is the Ravens.

09:12I'm going to the Steelers-Ravens game, November 21st.

09:13JP, great stuff, man.

09:14I appreciate you so much.

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