What Gives Us Confidence That We Could Beat The Lions?

WJFK-FM / 106.7 The Fan

Grant & Danny look ahead to the divisional round matchup against the Lions, what gives us confidence in beating them?

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00:00watching. What gives you hope in a matchup where very few people outside of D.C. are

00:06going to give Washington much of a chance? That is the question at 800-636-1067.

00:11The easiest answer, I'll get out of the way first, I have two things. One is, we got Jaden

00:16Daniels. He plays here. Makes a lot of bad look fun. He's the, you know, the, the, the,

00:22the black clothing, the vertical stripes, the, the good mirror, the good lighting makes

00:26a lot of gross people, like, a lot of fives look like eights, thanks to Jaden Daniels.

00:30That's number one, and that's obvious. Number two, I'll throw a couple numbers at you. 559,

00:34382, 475. These are not signals. It's not a phone number. Yardage totals. Got some point

00:40totals to go with them against the Detroit Lions. That defense, despite our most recent

00:45sample where they shoved it on Minnesota, Aaron Glenn did a great job. That was awesome.

00:49Thirty-four points given up to the San Francisco 49ers. Chicago moved the ball at will and

00:54sabotaged themselves, but had a great chance to score probably 30 points. The bill scored

00:5848 against them. The Packers 31. You see the, the theme here, Detroit can score and they're

01:04on. It's the best offense in the sport. They're unbelievable. Washington can't stop them.

01:08I don't know that they can stop Jaden Daniels. And if you're in a firefight, if you're going

01:11back and forth and back and forth, then maybe whoever's got the ball last has a chance.

01:16Again, Detroit is favored. They should be favored. They're better. You played this game

01:2010 times, maybe Washington wins one and a half. That's not the point. The point is there's

01:25no sure thing when it comes to that defense. And I like Washington's chances to put up

01:29some points. And then who knows? It's not baseball, man. You don't need to win best

01:33of seven, four out of seven series. It's not how this is. You got to beat them once. You're

01:38right. The Lions defense is also where I'd like to isolate my hope in conversation here.

01:46They played an inspired, tremendous game against the Vikings. They were nearly perfect.

01:52It was awesome. It was a standalone primetime national TV game. Everybody watched it. The

01:59discussion and the discourse right now about Detroit is different. And I think flawed because

02:05of that one game defensively. This has been a bad defense for much of the year. Aaron

02:11Glenn's going to get a head coaching job primarily because he's an extension of Dan

02:16Campbell. And he's kind of the guy in that building viewed as along with Campbell, most

02:21responsible for setting that culture, former player, player, friendly, beloved. He's done

02:26a pretty good job at times with that defense statistically, not this year, though, but

02:30with all those injuries. Now he had a masterful performance against the Vikings. He was splendid.

02:36I think he was already getting a head coaching job. That was the nail in the coffin of any

02:40chance that he wouldn't. And understandably, it was as impressive an individual coaching

02:46day as I think I've seen in the league this year. It was that good. He's a good football

02:50coach, but that defense is not that good because of their injuries. They won't have Aiden

02:56Hutchinson back. They're not going to have the majority of the 15 plus guys that they've

03:02lost on that side of the ball this year, even with that masterpiece and that gem against

03:07the Vikings. This is the number 27 defense in the NFL in yards per play. This is the

03:13number 30 defense in the league in yards per game allowed, but they're 20 second per play

03:19against the run and against the pass. They are bottom four in the NFL at getting sacks.

03:26Pressure has not been something routinely that they generate and to generate it. They've

03:31got to send extra guys. That means Jaden Daniel sees where it's coming from and throws behind

03:36the blitz. I do believe this matchup for Washington is way better for their offense than going

03:44to Tampa was. I believe that indoors, you're not dealing with any kind of, you know, 50

03:49degrees outside Tampa, Florida. It's going to be a terrible place to play noisy, loud,

03:57getting off the ball and not having penalties and false starts.

04:00It'll get tougher, but otherwise just to match up offensively, this will be an easier

04:06game for the offense. It's the worst matchup overall. You're less likely to win it than

04:10you were because the lions are just a lot better than the bucks, but you got Jaden Daniels

04:16and that defense is susceptible to allowing you to move the football. You're going to

04:20score. So the plan for me would be to do what you did against Tampa turned up to 11, which

04:24is we're not going for the quick strike offense. We may run tempo, but we'll use the full play

04:29clock. The longer you've got the ball, the longer they don't have it. So I'd anticipate

04:33Washington trying to do more of the same. Now, again, easier said than done, because

04:36that implies you got, at some point get Detroit off the field. I don't know how they do as

04:40they've got Montgomery. They've got Gibbs. They've got St. Brown. They've got Williams

04:43over the top. They've got LaPorta. They got that excellent offensive line. You know, Jared

04:47golf's the maestro, a better defense could knock the string being around a couple of

04:51times and maybe get them off his mark.

04:53This isn't the better defense. This is not a good one, quite frankly. So at some point

04:56you got to get a stop. I don't know when that's going to happen, but to me, the hope

04:59is that you can make them go. For example, I'm just making this up 45 minutes of real

05:03time without having the football and the first half with a long drive. Halftime happens.

05:08You start the second half with a long drive. Maybe you get them off the rhythm a little

05:11bit, but the longer Washington's got the ball kind of again, doing what they did against

05:14Tampa where they possess the ball for 35, 36 minutes.

05:17That's the design to me. That's the hope golf in structure is, is great elite. Yeah. Right.

05:24In terms of being able to, if the play that is called is executed and the receiver gets

05:30free and comes out of his break and he gets to the back of the drop and he's not pressured,

05:35he doesn't have to move and he can deliver the football as a pure thrower. It's been

05:39it it's top 10, it's top five, right? And we've seen this like cousins ask in that way,

05:43when you got to start moving around and creating and expending, extending with Jared golf,

05:48that's where it becomes a problem.

05:51Chad just sent me a couple of updates here. So we know David Montgomery is going to be

05:54back at running back. That's huge. They're also probably going to get their guard Kevin

05:57Zeitler back that those are offensive though. They're already a juggernaut. You only get

06:02better there, whatever. That's going to be a tall order. That's why probably Detroit

06:05wins the game because Washington's going to have a hard time defensively, but on the other

06:10side of the ball where you need them to stay banged up, Terry and Arnold got hurt in that

06:15Vikings game. Who's their corner. He'll probably play. He is saying that he's going to, and

06:21then Ennis rake straw is another one of their corners. Who's been hurt for a while has been

06:25at least trending up. They have opened the practice window for him to come back from

06:30injured reserve and we'll get more updates. Obviously as we get closer to the weekend,

06:34let's go to Tony in long Island. Good to hear from you, buddy. What gives you hope that

06:37Washington can knock off the heavily favored lions?

06:40Oh man, how are we doing? Um, before I get started, I just want to say congratulations

06:46on 11 years. You know, I started listening to you guys in like 2016 I was just dying.

06:53You guys were really therapy for really dark times and it's just amazing that it's all

06:58in the rear view mirror now and clear skies ahead. So yeah, it's, it's, it's actually

07:05surreal that we're all going through this. Seriously. Um, I'm going to, I'm going to

07:10go with this one. You know, Dan Campbell was an impressive coach and he's done all the

07:14right things and he's turned the culture around. He's done all that. That's great.

07:19But now he's going to have to take the next step as an NFL head coach and that's what

07:23makes great coaches. He's going to have to steer a juggernaut to a championship and that's

07:29not easy. So I think he's done a great job. He's a very, very aggressive coach, but I

07:35think if we get in that dome and we just put a little pressure on him and we put a little

07:41pressure on that team, his aggressiveness may come back to bite him. He may do something

07:47that really flips that game on its head. He may go for it from his own 28th, you know,

07:54really brief. I'll give you something that, you know, bill Belichick said himself to one

07:57of the worst calls he's ever made as a NFL head coach in the Superbowl versus the giants

08:03in 2007, he went for it on 1413 from his own 30 yard line and that turned the game

08:11on its head.

08:12And what was that? I don't even remember that. Was it early? It had to be late, right? Well,

08:16it was, I think mid to late third quarter and they didn't get it. And I wrote and that

08:21game now they joined, didn't score, but what they had to do was their defense had to expend

08:27so much energy just to gain field position back for the rest of the remainder of that

08:32game. They were in the hole. Well, I can't wait for the fourth down decisions in this

08:36game because Dan Quinn is slowly morphing into Dan Campbell a little bit here. He's

08:41riverboat Dan five fourth down attempts all in plus territory. I don't think he's ever

08:46going to be the guy that goes in minus territory. Although I think that's the next frontier

08:51and makes a lot of sense if it's short yardage, but the lions will. And if it backfires, it

08:56is a massive benefit to watch.

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