Commanders vs Chargers Preview | Sports Junkies

Commanders vs Chargers Preview | Sports Junkies

Jaden Daniels is going to return. Sarah McLaren will not play. Neither will Noah Brown. So Jaden won’t have two of his top three receivers. Commanders, of course, been struggling defensively. And as an offense, they’re the number two rushing team in the NFL. We talked earlier this week about Dan Quinn emphasizing time of possession. And you would think they’re really going to lean into the running game in the two games which they’ve won. They’ve run for over 200 yards. Some of that has been the quarterback, whether it was Jaden Daniels or Marcus Mariota. The question is, are they going to be able to protect Jaden? And what kind of offense are they going to run with Jaden, who at least in practice is still wearing the brace? Yeah, Chargers are kind of middle of the road when it comes to giving up yardage on the ground. 111 yards per game. So, I mean, I’d be surprised if the Commanders are able to go in there and rack up 180 plus yards like they’ve done a couple times already. Just aim for 150. That’s your prediction. 150. That was my prediction. They they should be able to run for about 150 yards against control. Try to keep Justin Herbert, Amari Hampton, that trio of wide receivers off the field as much as possible. I like that part of the game plan. 1 8006361067 if you want to chime in as we talk commanders chargers. What do you want to see from this offense? Points. Do you protect Jaden and not have him run as much? I It’s not to say that I don’t want to protect Jaden, but I’m going to run the same offense. Like I I actually think on the first series I would run him just to to to strike a little fear into the defense’s heart. Make them worried about Jaden’s legs. And I don’t want him thinking about it. Just play your game. I don’t know if I’d start out of the game with a designed run, but he, you know, when the when the pressure, you know, breaks down, the pocket breaks down. He’s got to take off. Yeah. And that’s the whole point of waiting for Jaden to be Jaden. He’s got to be able to protect himself. He’s got to be able to take off. And look, he’s going to get nicked up at times. If he’s out there, I’m sorry. He’s getting the full workload on Dan Quinn and Kingsbury because let’s be honest, look at the ecosystem around him right now. No, Terry McLaren Debo’s banged up. You’ve got makeshift wide receivers. Let’s be honest, in McCaffrey and got and Jaylen Lane rounding out the the offense. You you got to lean on Jaden here to get the win. I think it’s a huge part of it. 1 8006361067. Can we play cut five, which is Cliff Kingsbury talking about Jaden’s ability to protect himself? I think Jaden by and large does a good job protecting himself. Yeah, it’s instinctive. I mean, guys like him and Kyler who’s an undersized player that I was with in Arizona, I mean, they play that way their entire life. They’ve always, in Jaden’s case, been a little slimmer than the other guys and Kyler a little smaller and um they know how to protect themselves and they know where to find the soft spot and they’ve played that way their entire lives and so it’s like 10,000 hours put into it, right? So, they’re not going to change. You know, Jaden’s not going to just all of a sudden just be a drop back passer stands there like Tom Brady all day. And I’m not saying that Jaden has to carry the bulk of the rushing load. He just has to be a a part of it because I think they’re still going to keep that committee approach going forward. They’re going to have Bill out there. They’ll have Rodriguez. McNichols, not so much. But it’s going to be a group effort, not just, hey Jaden, go get us 120 rushing yards and win the game for us. I don’t think that’s the game plan. If I did anything, I would, you know, maybe not have as many designed runs, right? Maybe a couple instead of four or five. I don’t know. But when the pocket breaks down, he’s got to take off. He’s got to take off or get rid of the football quicker. We just need more production. Again, this offense wasn’t hitting on all cylinders in the first two weeks yet. Um, we need that now. Marcus got it going a little bit. They started, you know, feeling themselves a little bit, but we need it with Jaden. He’s our guy. He’s our star for the next 10 years. So, if we gonna have any shot at winning this game, I think we’re gonna have to score a lot of points. 1 8006361067. What do you expect from Jaden? Jason, it’s You know what? It’s a It’s a mystery. Vald, you brought up this yesterday. It’s kind of a mystery because in my opinion, they’ve only really shown something productive um with Jaden just for like a half and that was in week one. You really haven’t seen anything from Jaden and he was off in that game because he was throwing behind guys. He overthrew Terry. We’ve talked about a billion times. I don’t know. I don’t know what to expect. I would think that he would look perfect because he’s missed a couple weeks. He’s a full go. Um he’s going to have the brace, but I don’t think that’s going to slow him down. I I just man, don’t you guys feel like if they lose this game, it’s it’s critical critical to beat the Bears next Monday because two and four because you’ll be two and four and you got the Cowboys on the road, you got the Chiefs on the road, you got the Seahawks, the Lions, you got some tough outs. I think you’re getting ahead of ourselves though cuz I I I think they’re going to win on Sunday. I think the Chargers, they feel a little bit like the Rams do. Look, I was buying into the Rams and then the Rams lose to the Niners, which they shouldn’t have lost that game just on paper with all the injuries that the 49ers have and the 49ers have a backup quarterback. The Rams had all their key players. The 49ers didn’t have their key players and they lost. I feel like everybody was buying into the Chargers and I was one of those guys. They’re three and 0. Jim Harbaugh. I’m a Harbaugh guy. And then and then they have a dud and I I think that we were overrating the Chargers. It’s going to be tough, but I think we were overrating the Chargers. They’re banged up. They just lost to the Giants. The Giants stink. Jackson Dart, you mentioned this a bunch of times. He threw for a 100red yards. Yeah, 100 yards. I beat them. I feel like what they did at Metife last weekend, that’s their wakeup call. Okay, but why wouldn’t Washington have a wakeup call? Well, you’re killing the Chargers for being banged up. Washington’s banged up. I know Washington’s probably more banged up than the Chargers are. Certainly on the defensive side. I’m just not going to elevate the Chargers into this juggernaut. I’m not saying they’re elite. I’m not saying they’re elite by any stretch, but I think they’re better and they’re at home and they have they have the same scenario unfolding as the Falcons did. Everybody counted out the Falcons after losing to the Panthers. Said you they’re terrible. They’re bums. Couldn’t score a point against the Panthers. They come home, they have a great performance. Two of three of Drake London, Bejon, and Penn had career performances against this defense that’s now traveling cross country. I think it’s just like you say, it’s a big unknown like what Vald was saying apparently. Are you going to get Jaden and the offense of 2024? Are you going to get Jaden and the offense that we’ve seen so far in 2025? Well, you’d also if they’re committed to running the ball, Jaden’s performance isn’t going to be that spectacular, right? Like if he’s only if he only throwing it. Yeah. But even if he only throws 20 times, he’s gota he’s got to be more accurate though. He’s got to take advantage of even if it’s just limited opportunity, right? An X factor potentially could be Zack Z because he loves throwing the ball to Zack. And this Chargers team in four games has given up 15 catches, 136 yards, and two touchdowns to tight ends. So you can attack them at the tight end spot. Maybe Zack Z elevates his game a little bit here. You see more out of him. All right, let’s ask some of these calls. 8006361067. A couple questions. First of all, what do you expect from Jaden? Do you hope that they change the game plan at all to protect them? He is going to be It looks like he is going to be playing with a brace. Yeah, I think he’ll be fine. I don’t think it should affect them particularly. Uh, but do you do you want them to change the game plan or it sound I think they’re just going to play Jaden and you’re just going to say go out there and be Jaden. That’s why we didn’t play it for a couple weeks, right? I agree with that. Yeah. All right. I can’t I don’t know how to pronounce his name. Is it Bargo? I I I I just don’t know. Bargo. Is that Yeah, it’s Yeah, it’s bar like bar gov like Govern. What what is the like the background on that name? Uh ethnically Indian. Indian. Okay. Gotcha. All right. What’s up, man? Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, so I think Jaden’s going to do his thing, play normal. Uh game planwise. Uh just maybe cut back a little bit on some design runs. I don’t think we run tons of design runs with him. Mostly just improv taking off when things break down. So, uh you know, maybe just do your thing. perhaps be like 15% more careful. I don’t know if that’s even possible to do. Yeah. But game plan wise, I’d like to see Cliff early on. I know we don’t have any weapons. I really have Lane and McCaffrey, but maybe be a little aggressive, try to take some shots downfield, get Lane behind some safeties. Uh they’re going to perhaps think we’re going to run more and, you know, we’re going to run, set up the play action. Uh just take some take some deep shots. You know, maybe put some points up early. uh put some pressure on their offense and hopefully help our defense tee off in advantageous situations. So, do you feel do you Bargo do you feel good about the game? Do you feel like they’re going to win? Uh I don’t honestly not. Honestly not, man. Just cuz our defense it’s so cheese. Like I I’m thinking what can we do? It’s like just pray like Latimore. I don’t know what happened to Mikey. Mikey was a dog last year. I don’t know if it’s just natural up and down secondyear slump, but I just feel like our defense is Swiss cheese. They can do whatever they want. Um, so I don’t know, just a defense really worries me and and um I just don’t have enough faith, but you know, it’s definitely with JD, you never know. The guy can bring magic and right uh he definitely factor talked a lot about like communication and miscommunication or lack thereof, right? in some of the maybe early on in the Giants game, a lot of good like pre- snap uh communication. Uh you know, right in the as they were doing the late movement that John Kim was talking about. Uh they were still communicating very well and and and and sticking with their assignments. Maybe some guys maybe trying to do a little too much communication not as as good uh in the last game and you know they’re giving up explosive plays. I am interested to see one of the things we talked about while you were out the last couple days was that the linebackers are playing 100% of the snaps and obviously Bobby Wagner was exposed on that pass to Bean Robinson. I am interested to see if they change that a little bit. Like there are a lot of fans look fans don’t know anything, right? We we’re not in the meeting rooms every but there are a lot of fans who believe and I I remember cakes early in the week I was like you got to let some of these you know like the linebacker they drafted Madrono put him on the field every once say I’m interested to see what happens in in definite passing situations like Bobby Wagner’s going to lead them in tackles he’s one of the leading tackling guys in the NFL that’s why he’s there right so first and second down but let’s say it’s third and 10 maybe you take him off the field on third and 10 like maybe you’re doing yourself a disservice nervous having Bobby Wagner on the field on obvious passing situations. So, I’m curious to see if they change strategically. I don’t think they’re going to change anything with Latimore. You know, there there are a lot of people, again, if you want to chime in, 1800 6361067. What should they do defensively differently? Um, there are a lot of people that that are like, it’s easy to say this, armchair QBs, but they’re like, Latimore’s slow, move him to safety, move Mikey back from the slot, move him back to the outside, which is what happened last year. Move Sandra still to the outside. I’m curious to see how that develops next couple of weeks. Um, Latimore is going to have to step up. We talked about this. His PFF grade right now is a 44.4. It is 98th out of 104 graded something like that. But the problem is it’s Emanuel Forbes is rated higher EB. It’s easy. It’s easy to say he needs to step up or he has to do that. Uhhuh. He might just not be able to. You’re correct. This might be peak Marshon Latimore that we’re seeing and it’s not very good. And if that’s the case, they’re going to have to do something. Well, I mean, Jason keeps saying somebody Jason keeps saying the problem is that the the guys he’s better than the guys behind him. Well, he clearly is. We got dueling HTTC. No, no, no. We don’t play that anymore. Back and forth. Here we go. Everyone’s so down. Come on. Listen, I might pick the Chargers, too, but we got to get fired up here. I’m just not I’m not feeling picking a commander win. I’m pretty sure I’m like 98% sure I’ll be picking the I’ll tell you what, if we have another dud like offensive week, I’m going to be down down. Yeah. Even though we don’t have Terry and we have all these injuries and everything, Jaden’s our superstar. He’s got to be a superstar. He’s got to have superstar production. This is the Giants beat him. I know, but that’s the Giants. It’s a weird game. Oneoff game. You’re falling into the trap. You’re falling into the trap. You’re expecting the Chargers to look exactly the same this weekend as they looked this past weekend. You’re expecting the Commander defense to look exactly the same. I have more faith in the Chargers improving than I do the Commander defense improving in in a week span. I It’s amazing to me a week ago, yeah, we were talking about how the Commander defense was much improved after the Raiders game. That was the discussion point all week. The defense is a lot better. No, here’s where it’s improved. It’s improved against garbage teams like the Giants and the Raiders. It’s not improved when they play the Packers and I guess the Falcons and to be determined the Chargers this weekend. Let me ask you this. On paper, this is on paper. I understand that. Entering the season, y personnel, the 11 guys on the field, wasn’t the defense an improved unit versus last season? Well, especially the secondary. And now they’re saying that’s going to be the weak spot. Okay. I think um Kin Law, we didn’t know, but Kinlaw was supposed to be a better run stopper. Yeah. And he’s proven to to be that. Now they lost Dietri Weise and not sure. Batista, I think, is going to be out this week, right? Yeah. Yeah. He’s going to be out for a while. Um but on paper, they were supposed to be better. And then definitely in on in the secondary secondary arguably maybe healthy Latimore draft what what if they’re due he’s had injury issues. Okay. Uh Latimore has I think he’s regressed. I think he’s getting worse than he was last year and Sanders still has taken a step back and he’s injured. So all these things on paper, they look great on paper but four weeks in they’re taking on water in the second half. Maybe it was just a bad game plan. I think it’s going to get worse when they face Justin. I don’t think there’s any red flags that Dan Clinton was kind of saying publicly. I was expecting to see more stunts, that kind of thing. Like, how often do you hear your head coach say? So, he’s taking a shot at his coordinator in a way. I think so. Totally is. I think so. May not have meant it, but he’s pretty calculated in what he said. For him to say that publicly, I was a little surprised. Even though I don’t necessarily disagree with it, I was a little surprised. All right, 8006361067. Let’s go to Dave real quick. Dave, you’re over with the Junks. Hey Dave. Yeah. How you doing, buddy? Hey, Dave. Hey, listen. Check this out. I I think honestly it’s obvious what needs to happen. I mean, Whit needs to stop relying on a 35year-old middle linebacker that runs a 7240 to cover running backs coming out of the back field. I mean, and stop going in zone 15 yards off the ball. Obviously, we can’t get any pressure. the I mean the Chargers are be without both book in tackles. We have to blitz and absolutely 100% D is is crawling out as coordinator. I think Dan has this cool vi brotherhood vibe but I think he’s kind of like man I might have messed up because his boy Wit is not going with maybe he needs to come out of the booth come down on the field cuz every time the camera gets on him it looks like he can’t see. He needs binoculars up there. come out of the booth, get the feel of the game, and maybe that’ll change up something. All right, for the Falcons, right, buddy. Thank you. Thanks, man. It work for the Falcons. We goofed on the Falcons. We got to fire our Yeah, like our DB’s coach, the Falcons moved Zack Robinson down on the field. They got a dub. Well, their their offense looked pretty good, but pretty damn good. We got to we got to fire some guys and get some get some guys out of the booth. Feel that reeks desperation again. Just a week ago, we were talking about an improved defense. Now everybody’s off the defense. We’ll see how they perform 1800 league 6361067 football Friday. We’re talking Commanders Chargers week five. We’re the Junkies. Tom right back.

The Sports Junkies preview Commanders vs Chargers.

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