Can Jayden Daniels’ Return Fix Washington Commanders’ Road Woes vs. Chargers?

Can Jayden Daniels’ Return Fix Washington Commanders’ Road Woes vs. Chargers?

It is the locked on Chargers locked on Commanders crossover and Jaden Daniels is back this week. Will it be him getting the win in a homecoming or the Chargers proving they can win without their stars. [Music] You are locked on NFL Crossover, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up and welcome into the Locked On Chargers locked on Commanders crossover episode. I’m your host Daniel Wade from Locked on Chargers and we also have David Harrison the host of Locked on Commanders. As always, it’s your team every day and we have a big one on Sunday in Sofi. Very excited for this matchup. This is one that I had circled on the calendar even before the season is a good test for the Chargers to be able to show they could beat good teams this year. And now that they have Jaden Daniels back, it feels like it’s much more of a test for them. Even though, you know, Marcus Mario obviously held things down. But very excited for this matchup. Jaden Daniels versus Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert had a lot of hype after his rookie season. Jaden Daniels also did as well. And now they get to face off against each other. David, we don’t get to talk much, man. Super excited to have you on today for this big matchup. No, absolutely, man. I’m looking forward to it, too. Uh, it’ll be my second time in SoFi, but my first time in Chargers SoFi. I don’t know if that really matters, but you know, it’ll it’ll it’ll be I’m I’m going to check it off the block as a stadium, a new stadium anyway. Uh, since it’ll be the Chargers version of of SoFi. And then, yeah, man, Jaden Daniels homecoming. I mean, less than 100 miles away from where he played high school football and he’s got a stadium named after him and all that stuff. So, uh, it’s going to be a really exciting week for the Commanders. Very exciting and obviously very exciting for this Crossover episode and Crossover Thursdays presented by Price Picks. Download the Price Pix app today. Use the code lockdown NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. We talked a little bit before the show, David, that last week when Marcus when Marcus Mariota had to start for Jaden Daniels that I was like, “Yeah, but Jaden Daniels will definitely be back, of course, in time to play the Chargers next week.” And you told me he was not going to miss this one. This is obviously you said it, he has a stadium named after him in California. And I’m sure you are ready to have Jaden Daniels back for this big- time matchup, too. Yeah, look, man. Marcus Mariota does a lot of good things, right? And I think that if you look at the two games that he had to step in for Jaden while he was nursing that knee injury, you can see that this is a fully capable quarterback, NFL quarterback, veteran, sees the field really, really well. But Jaden Daniels just brings that little extra something, right? He’s just a little bit extra dynamic, a little bit extra explosive, uh has a little bit more juice to him, right? Just really has a lot of fun uh playing the game. He’s a guy that, you know, uh, as as recent as week one, Brian Burns of the New York Giants after the game basically said he talks too much on the field, like he just needs to play the game like, “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to meet you. I don’t want to be your friend. Just just just just do your job and we’ll talk after the game type of thing.” But that’s what Jaden does, man. He just plays with that kind of an energy and does those kinds of thing. Um, you know, from my understanding, the last game he played in the Los Angeles area was actually Arizona State against UCLA. They beat UCLA. He did suffer an injury in that game. I am a Sunundevil grad myself and I know Jaden’s, you know, his history at his departure from Arizona State wasn’t all that great, you know, but I support Jaden Daniels because we all love talking about winning football, right? So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a fan or not, you just want to talk winning football. So, I’m excited to see him back and excited to see him go home. I mean, he might have like a quarter of the stadium just just his people and people from San Bernardino uh coming out to come see him play. But the good news is medically cleared by the doctors to play this weekend. Full participant in practice on Wednesday. We expect him to be full Thursday and Friday as well on his way to being active on Sunday. However, that is not officially official yet. It’s just the expectation. Yeah, I would be I mean shocked at this point even if it’s not totally official if he’s not out there. I mean, that’d be pretty shocking. Like you said, I don’t think he thinks he’s going to miss this one. I don’t think he will. And the it wouldn’t be Chargers luck if he didn’t play, right? I mean, they have to to get every team’s best shot, even if that best shot is Jackson Dart. But I think it is also kind of a lesson the Chargers can learn from the Jaden Daniels of it all, which is basically just that if you don’t protect your quarterback and you start letting him take a bunch of hits, even if he’s still out there going into week five, he won’t be out there very long, right? And that’s been like the hard thing the last couple of weeks. It’s like even in the Broncos game, like that was borderline godlike that Justin Herbert brought them back. the way that they were pressuring him. The amount of hits that he’s taken, I think it’s close to 40 hits he’s taken over the past three weeks. And I think the test for the Chargers this week is just can the Chargers beat a good team without their stars? Because technically speaking, Joall is doubtful this week already per head coach Jim Harbaugh. I’m going to tell you it’s 0.0000 something percent chance that he plays this week. There’s probably a higher chance that he ends up on injured reserve this week more than he actually plays this week. So, got to go into it assuming that. And I think for the Chargers going into the season, last year the Jim Harbaugh effect was kind of taking care of business against the bad teams, right? The only playoff team that they beat last year was the Broncos, who they beat twice, but they went two and five against every other team that made the playoffs last year. And they beat pretty much all the easy teams except for the Cardinals that were on their schedule. Now, they just lost one of those games last week, one of those take care of business games last week, and it’s because of all their guys they’re missing. I mean, you’re missing Rashan Slater and Khalil Mack and Joe Alt going into this one. And I think the biggest kind of lingering question is if Mai Beckton will play. So, he was back at practice on Wednesday, which is great news for the Chargers. The Chargers also had Jamari Sawer out practicing as their left tackle. Jamari Sawier was their starting right guard last week as the Chargers kind of shuffled things up. But I do think that with a potential Joe 2 IR situation brewing and with the Chargers playing the Commanders, the Dolphins, the Vikings and the Colts over the next four weeks and a potential, you know, Joall absence like they need to show something this week. Both teams need to bounce back. Both teams coming off of a loss. But the Chargers especially have to show, hey, we can rally with the guys that we have and even if it’s a good team, we can go beat them. Because I’ll tell you this, David, if they can’t beat good teams without the guys they’re missing and no one really having an impending return anytime soon, you’re going to go from 3 and 0 in the top of your division to kind of, you know, a way different situation pretty quick. Yeah. I mean, look, these are the types of games that, you know, when you look back on it, if you have a successful season, you look at back at some of these games is kind of the catalyst for that, right? Because the the silver lining to all these situations, you have the opportunities for guys that maybe don’t usually get this amount of of work uh to get out there and get this amount of work and maybe get some development and show some things that you otherwise, you know, wouldn’t have seen. For the commanders, it’s guys like Luke McAffrey who, you know, came into the off season really kind of hyped up. the coaches were really excited about his growth in year two uh coming into the season, but then we didn’t really see that flash as much in training camp or in the preseason and people got kind of down about him and you know he’s behind Terry McLaren, Noah Brown, Debo Samuel at a minimum and there were people wondering if Virginia Tech rookie receiver Jaylen Lane was going to jump over Luke McAffrey on the depth chart as well. But then Terry gets injured. Noah Brown gets injured. And obviously now you got Debo, Jaylen, and Luke all getting work uh and getting reps and Luke has been able to respond with two games in two touchdowns in the last two games, one in each of the last two games. Really been able to step up, really been able to flex his special teams ability as well. And so same same thing kind of goes for the Commanders. If the Commanders are going to be this competitive team, one, the Atlanta Falcons are a team that you kind of expect them to beat. Obviously, they dropped the ball on that one. And I’ve been hearing from a lot of Commanders fans, this is two weeks in a row now. Last week against the Atlanta Falcons after getting embarrassed by the Carolina Panthers. Now this week, the Los Angeles Chargers after getting embarrassed by the New York Giants in the sense that you shouldn’t lose to the New York Giants. And so it’s like, oh, like this is just our luck, quote unquote, to face these two teams. But I keep reminding people the Washington Mayers got embarrassed as well. And not because the Falcons are just such a terrible team that you should never lose to them, especially on the road, but it’s the way that they lost. You know what I mean? Marcus Mariota and that banged up offense where your number two receiver is your number one and really your number four receiver is your number two. They still go out there and put 27 points up on the road. You put 27 points up on the road against anybody in the league and you should be competitive and they were. They only lost by one possession, but the side of the ball that is the healthiest, not that they’re completely healthy, but the healthiest is the one that faltered and that’s the frustrating part. That’s the embarrassing part. So going to the going to Los Angeles, Daniel, if if Chargers fans want to go back and watch these Commanders games, condensed version, whatever you want to do, you’re going to notice two things. Week one and week three at home, they look like a contending team, a team that’s going to do some real good damage against some teams that have vulnerabilities. Week two and week four on the road, they look like a completely different team. No energy, no juice, and just mistake after mistake after mistake. This is their third shot on the road to get it figured out why they can’t play well when they’re away from Northwest Stadium. And it’s a great opportunity. Again, Jaden Daniels homecoming, his return. So hopefully a little bit of that extra juice. I mean, Bobby Wagner’s, you know, he’s he’s played in SoCal, right? But Bobby Wagner’s from the area, etc., etc. This is an opportunity for them to kind of get that corrected and then come back home for a Monday night football game against Chicago Bears. We all know what happened last year against the Chicago Bears. So, there’s going to be plenty of juice in there that highlights me playing a million times over before week six Monday Night Football arrives. Uh, and and you know, of course, it’s Monday Night Football. And of course, the Commanders are wearing the same black uniforms they wore on that night last year because why not? So, this is a huge opportunity for them, man. And this is could be the difference between, you know, and I don’t want to go too deep into the rabbit hole here. This could be the difference between like a two and five start and a and a five and two start. Uh that’s how important getting off this road game snide is for the Commanders. Absolutely, man. And like the thing is is you don’t want to ever be the, you know, the get right team. The team that, you know, someone had a bad loss last week, but it’s like, okay, now you get the Commanders next week where you can get back on track. And I think it’s interesting because of how these teams match up against each other that I I do think it’ll be a really good game uh based on that, even with, you know, both teams having some key injuries. I mean, the Chargers want to feel better about their injury report. Check out the Washington Commanders injury report. And I think that’s just to say everybody’s dealing with it, right? And for the Chargers, it’s like no one’s going to feel bad for your offensive line. They’re going to attack you and try to feast on that. And for the Chargers, they have to take advantage of some of the Commanders injuries as well, which is why we have to get into the biggest matchups from this game, including my boy Lad Maki going up against one of my draft crushes, Mikey Samber still. And of course, David Harrison’s gonna talk about, you know, some of the things that the commanders have a really good opportunity against, which just scares me really half to death. So, we’re gonna get into all that and more on today’s locked crossover episode. First though, I need to tell you guys about my about FanDuel because FanDuel is the only place to place your bets. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer because new customers can bet just $5. 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From smooth handling to intuitive controls with all-wheel drive standard in every crossover SUV, you can drive with confidence through almost any season. Like our players, we sweat every detail because when you make every move count, impossible becomes irrelevant. Mazda, move and be moved. All right, David. Well, now it’s time to get into some of the biggest matchups here. I already talked about a couple of the ones that I plan on touching on, but I know that yours are really, really good because I’ve seen them already and I know what you’re going to bring up and it’s what scares me most covering the Chargers, but where do you want to start as far as the matchups you’re looking most closely at as we get into this one? Yeah, I want to start with the matchup that I’m not the most confident that Cliff Kingsbury is going to use enough, and that is the Washir’s run game. uh you know and then their two wins week one and week three against the New York Giants and against the Las Vegas Raiders uh the Washington Bears ran for over 200 yards in both of those games. Against the Atlanta Falcons they still ran for a very good amount. I mean 147 yards uh against the Atlanta Falcons. That’s a pretty good rushing day, but they went away from it too much. They went away from it too often and they didn’t just they didn’t use it to kind of one give their defense some time on the sideline to kind of figure out what was going on on their side of things and they didn’t use it to impose a little bit of a dominance on the Atlanta Falcons and kind of take control of the tempo of the game which I think anytime you’re an away team that is exactly what you want to do as quickly as possible is take control of the game do everything you can to take the opposing or take the home crowd out of the game uh as much as you can and I know the Chargers aren’t known for having the greatest home crowd but regardless a home crowd is a home crowd, you want to take them out. Uh 5.9 yards per carry is what the Washington Commanders are averaging on the ground so far. That’s the second best yards per carry average as a team through the first quarter of the season. The problem is they’re like 17th in rush rushing attempts per game. Uh and and that to me that’s that’s to be quite frankly it’s ridiculous. Um and I think that what we need is for Cliff Kingsbury to kind of understand that this is what his team is right now at least in 2025. You know, I’ve always looked at the first quarter of the NFL season as a factf finding mission. Every team is out there trying to find out who they are, figure out who they are. They know who they want to be, but who are you actually in 2025? And I think the teams that figure out who they actually are and lean into that are going to be your more successful ones here in the second quarter, into the third quarter of the season. And those who deny who they are and try to force themselves to be something they’re not are going to be the ones that continue to struggle. for the Washington Commanders. Cliff Kingsbury, I understand he likes to throw the ball, air raid, all that stuff. But the reality of the air raid offense is actually it’s supposed to just use the entirety of the field. Well, the run game obviously is part of using the entirety of the field. And when the Washington Commanders uh do that, they have success in the Los the Las Vegas Chargers. The Los Angeles Chargers have shown, as you’re going to talk about, that they’re a little bit vulnerable to this, specifically on their left side of their defense where they’re ranked 31st in the NFL against the run going up against that side, allowing 13.33 yards per carry, which is incredible. I had to look at it like three times to make sure that I wasn’t getting a number wrong. Now, they’ve only faced six runs to that side through four games, right? So, teams aren’t necessarily running to that side on them all that much. So, you need a little bit more data. But if I’m Cliff Kingsbury, my team runs really well to the right side. The Chargers don’t defend the run very well to their left side. Those two things marry up. I’m I’m coming through specifically with Chris Rodriguez to start the game and I’m going to make the Chargers prove that they can sh up that leak before I go away for And I think the thing is, I mean, first of all, I don’t know what kind of offensive coordinator wouldn’t keep running the football when they’re averaging an insane yards per attempt like that. Oh, wait. I saw it exactly last week uh when Omaran Hampton averaged over 10 yards per carry last week and guess how many carries he had 12 which does not feel like nearly enough in Baltimore is another one I mean come on bro well and the thing also too for me is just like for the Chargers it went under the radar that they didn’t have the best run defense because they got up so quick on teams and teams weren’t really able to exploit it going into last week they were allowing five yards per carry which was one of the worst in the league but teams didn’t it was game flow right and some of have five yards per carry is because they’re up by 10 and allowing, you know, eight yard, you know, halfback draws and stuff like that because they’re not really worried about it. But definitely worried about the Chargers run defense, especially after last week. Don’t pay attention to Cam Scatoo averaging 3.2 yards per carry because a lot of that was goal line steps, you know, and short yardage situations that really skewed the numbers there. Pay attention to the 160 yards that the Chargers gave up on the ground last week. In addition to that, I’m a little worried about Debo Samuel versus the Chargers secondary. Obviously, you have Derwin James, and I think Derwin James is a great Debo Samuel matchup. Like a guy that, you know, has the athleticism, has the physicality to be able to bring him down, but he’s a guy so far this season, six plus catches in three of the four games, had seven catches in each of Jaden’s starts to start this year. So, he’s a guy I’m a little bit worried about. Still a yards after catch monster. Still, you know, has forced the most missed tackles by any wide receiver on receptions so far this year. And, I mean, potential running game, too. not, you know, not a wide back like he was, but he still does get the ball every once in a while and that is threatening too. On the flip side of that for the Chargers, I’m looking at Lad McConi versus Mikey Sammerstell. Mikey Santo has not had a great season so far this year as allowed five plus catches in three straight games and 84% completion percentage over that span. On the flip side, Lad Maki is coming off of his worst game ever. one catch on six targets, an interception while targeting him, running into his own player, which was not his fault. But it’s just been a little off with Lad McConi all season. Like he was clear wide receiver one going in. He was clear wide receiver one last season and this week he gets a matchup. This feels like a get lad makoni right game. We’ll talk probably more about that tomorrow on my keys because it feels like they just have to get this duke going. And if the Chargers offense was just a juggernaut, right? And it’s just like, well, we don’t have to force feed lad the ball because we’re scoring 35 points a game. That’s one thing, but the Chargers have their issues. So for Lad Mcconi not to be more involved in the offense, especially in this match up with Mikey Sammer still would be concerning. I think they have to exploit it. Yeah, man. I mean, I think you hit the nail right on the head, right? Mikey has not had the greatest start to the season. And you know, a lot of people had really high hopes for him last year. He was one of the better rookies on the team. He established himself as a leader in the locker room and he had a fairly good like I think he was underrated uh defensive rookie. I think he should have been in the conversation as one of the candidates for defensive rookie of the year. Not necessarily winner, right? But should have got some votes though. Yeah. Yeah. And and that was all outside. And that was kind of the question we had on locked on commanders all off season long is we love what Mikey did in 2024, but he’s moving back inside to the slot in 2025. It’s a completely different position. I know they all say cornerback, but it’s a completely different position. And so now Mikey is essentially resetting, relearning his his NFL game and doing all those things. and it hasn’t gone, you know, incredibly smooth right here through the first quarter of the season. Now, there’s plenty of time for him to get that ship corrected in a match up against a guy like Lad McConi is a great one to go up against and give him an opportunity to prove himself. You know, last week, give the Atlanta Falcons credit, man. They they put Drake London on on Mikey Sanders and absolutely use that size disadvantage, uh, you know, for Mikey to their advantage. Lad Maki is a little bit more Mikey’s, you know, speed. Now look, Mikey’s 5’8, so pretty much everybody has a size advantage on Mikey Sanders, but the dude plays like he’s 6’2. Um I I was was fortunate enough to correctly predict that Mikey Sanders still would come up with the first Commander Takeaway of the season. He got an interception off of Michael Penn Jr. last last week. So that’s good. And I want to see if that’s going to snowball into more good play from Mikey Sanders. So, I’m 1,00% watching that matchup for as much as what has happened with Mikey so far at the beginning of the season, but also because I was a big Lad Maki fan when he came out of school. So, I’m I’m looking forward to my first opportunity to see him play in person. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Lad is the best. The Mikey I mean both guys play bigger than their size for sure. But it probably is one of the, you know, the only size advantages that Lad Mcconkey is going to have this season at least from a pure, you know, height perspective. But yeah, I mean I think for both those guys, you know, as much as each of these teams has to get right and bounce back, I think both these guys need to bounce back, too. And it could go either way. Mikey Samill can put him in a blender and Lonkeanki is still trying to get back on track or this could be a setback for Mikey Samrill as he’s adjusting to the slot. But I I think that’s a matchup that has to be exploited for the Chargers if they’re going to get this win because I think it’s a really tough game. But I’m going to tell you exactly why I you know what the Chargers need to do precisely to get this win. and so is David because I’m getting into three keys to victory, three things that each of these teams has to do to be able to pull off this big win. So, we’re talking about all that and more in today’s Locked Onover episode. First though, I need to tell you guys about game time because the NFL season is back and that means you guys could be going to this game with game time. I was shocked when I looked at this. Wait until I tell you how little you can get into this game for because NFL is back. There’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans. I’m sure Jane Daniel’s going to be loving being surrounded by his family with his homecoming. But let’s be honest, getting tickets can be a hassle. Between cues, login screens, and prices, jumping up at checkout. It’s super frustrating. That’s why I use Game Time, the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. It’s fast, easy, and backed by the game time guarantee. You’ll know that your tickets are always 100% authentic, delivered on time, and at the best price. And the closer it gets to game time, the lower the price on your tickets is going to be. And you know how I know that? You can get into SoFi Stadium this weekend as a fan for $31. $31 to watch Jaden Daniels take on Justin Herbert in Los Angeles. I had to do a double take on him. I mean, you can get field level tickets for this one for less than $200. And you know, the price you see is the price that you’re actually going to get, which is what makes it that much better. I wish I could go this weekend because I would absolutely pay much more than $31 to get into it. And there’s not a bad seat in that stadium. So, Game Time is the absolute best. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply, but again, create an account. Use the promo code Local for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go download the Game Time app today. All right, it is this locked on crossover episode. We have locked on Chargers with me, Daniel Wade, and Locked on Commanders with David Harrison. We don’t get to do this matchup very often and this is one that feels like it’s going to be a really good game. At least in my opinion. I mean, I think both of these teams have their advantages, but I think there are certain things that each of these teams is going to have to do to pull this win off and make sure they’re not going on a twoame skid because both of our teams are desperately trying to avoid that. But thank you guys as always for making us your first listen as all the everydayers do out there. If you need a second listen, make sure to check out Lockdown NFL because they have a double dose for you every day with Tyler the Madman rolling and also my guy Tony Wiggins in the barber shop giving you everything you need to know around the league on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast from. But we’re going to get into what each team needs to do. I want to go back and forth here, David. Let’s start with your first key to what you think the Commanders need to do to pull off this victory. Yeah, I mean I think the first thing they need to do, man, is is win on the early downs, right? Get get four yards or more on first down. get, you know, 60% of the remaining yards on second down, convert to third downs. Uh the third down offense has been terrible overall. They’ve had a good game. I think Las Vegas Raiders game, they converted 50% of their third downs, but overall 33%. Last week, the Atlanta Falcons 1 for8. Uh and I’ll add a little bit of of seasoning to that one for eight, that one conversion they had. Marcus Mariota ran the ball for 22 yards off script because the play they designed failed, right? So, if you want to be technical design plays, they were 0 for8 against the Atlanta Falcons. So, they got to get better there. Plus, move the chains, put the ball in the end zone, and it counteracts the Los Angeles Chargers. Uh, and something that I think they’re going to try to do, which is run halfback duo because the Washington Commanders are going to use a lot of fourman fronts. And what does halfback duo or what does the duo do? Pushes those defensive linemen out of the way. Gets the running back against the linebackers. This is the type of defense that that play runs really well against if you can be in that situation. But if the Charge is playing catch-up, you get him away from that ability. You get them you get him passing in or passing in obvious situations. And that’s where I don’t know, maybe Mikey Sanders still comes up with a second interception of the year. Oh, I I mean, hey, I think I think that absolutely works on both sides of the ball. I actually went the other direction. I said win the battle of fourth downs. And I’m interested to see what you kind of think about this because obviously the Commanders, one of the things they were known for was just being insane last year on fourth down. to be exact, 20 out of 23 is what they were on fourth down last year. Converted an 87% quip. They’ve slowed it down a lot more this year, David. Only five attempts this year per True Media. Three out of five so far. Is that a Jaden Daniels thing or is that, you know, because Dan Quinn had more faith in the defense? You know, what what do you think has led to them going for it much less? It’s a Matt Gay thing. Uh the Washington Commanders brought in kicker Matt Gay and uh the only reason I really knew this like I kind of surprised everybody on the Commanders beat because here they signed this kicker and I’m just spitting all these Matt Gay facts and they’re like you just just know this random kicker that the team just signed. Well, Matt Gay was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and I covered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when Matt Gay was there. This dude has a cannon for a leg. Now truthfully with all the legs that are going out there today, he really doesn’t. He kind of has an average leg today. But last year’s kickers, Austin Cybert, Zayn Gonzalez, and then the numerous others. They had like half a dozen kickers. What they were all what they were all lacking was that distance. They didn’t really have the ability to kick a 52 yard, 55 yard with consistency in the distance. Matt Gay can do that. Now, he’s had some issues with accuracy, but as soon as they signed Matt Gay and then they released Zane Gonzalez, so no competition at the kicker position, it was immediately clear to me they don’t want to go for it on fourth down as much as they did last year. They went for it as much as they did last year because they also don’t want to punt from him close. So, your only options are go for it or punt in close. Dan Quinn’s not going to do that. But this year, that’s why because they have faith in M’s leg to kick it in from those distances and they’re going to allow him the opportunity to do that. That’s No, I really wanted that insight. I’m glad you said that. But it also feels like a game that could come down to a couple fourth downs. Chargers have had some bad moments on fourth down so far this year, but also had a moment last game that kept them in the game by getting a stop on fourth and goal and being able to give the Chargers offense one more chance to tie the game. But it does feel like a game that could absolutely be decided by that. Chargers have only gone for it three times on four down this year, which is a Jim Harbaugh thing more than anything because obviously, you know, probably a Cameron nicker thing too because they have the most accurate kicker in NFL history. Definitely plays a part of that. Where would you go for your second key to victory for the Commanders this week? Yeah, I think they got to generate pressure with with a fourman rush. You know, Joe Wit, Joe Wit Jr., Dan Quinn, they’re known as aggressive defensive play callers and all this stuff. They certainly are. They’ve only been blitzing about 27% of the time, which is about middle of the pack in the NFL when it comes to blitzing. I think the reason they’re doing it is because if you watch the Packers game, if you watch the Falcons game, honestly, even if you watch the Raiders game, Trey Tucker went off against the Washington Commanders. Now, granted, they lost, so it kind of got lost in the in the mix a little bit, but uh the the coverage has not been great, and there’s been blown assignments uh week in week out, opportunities. The the question or the problem comes in when you’ve got pressure on your quarterback, right? Russell Wilson was running for his life in week one. Gino Smith was running for his life in week three outside of a few big plays. So, they weren’t able to take advantage of it. Jordan Love and Michael Penn Jr. were standing in clean pockets. So, they spot the blown coverage. They hit the blown coverage. Bean Robinson 59 yards later is getting tackled right at the goal line. Uh things like that. So that’s really the big thing is the more you have to blitz to get pressure on the quarterback, the less you have in coverage obviously. So you need to given the weaknesses they’ve already had in the secondary, you need to be able to get home with four rushers or else you’re going have to start bringing five or six guys and that’s only going to weaken your secondary even more. Yeah. And Justin Herbert can play against the Blitz, right? And the thing is you probably don’t need to bring more than four. I mean, Bernade Ty 50 pressures on 95 dropbacks the last two weeks for Justin Herbert. My key is keep Justin Herbert healthy because you know the easiest way to lose this game is not having Justin Herbert out on the field. And Herbert has been hit close to 40 times over the past three weeks. It’s just unsustainable. Look at Jaden Daniels, right? Like you can’t let these guys get hit that much and he’s getting hit at almost an unprecedented rate. The Chargers have issues on their offensive line. They have to keep Herbert at least give him a chance, keep him healthy, get him through the game if they want to have a chance at all. And I think the last thing for me, get off the field in the red zone. That’s another one on both sides of things. I mean, the one thing the Commanders have done consistently since the beginning of last year is score touchdowns in the red zone. If you can keep them out of the end end zone, if they get that far, which I think they’re going to be able to move the ball, that is a great thing for you. And you have kind of two juggernauts on each side. I mean, the Chargers one of the best red zone defenses versus one of the best red zone offenses. Comey’s 77.8% touchdown rate per true media. Chargers only allowing 30% of opponents who get into the red zone to score a touchdown. Last week held the Giants to two of five and got a huge fourth down stop, especially since the offense for the Chargers put themselves or put their defense in a terrible situation, giving it to the Giants twice inside the five yd line. So, feels another game, you know, fourth down in the red zone. the team that has to, you know, kick field goals might be the team that ends up losing this game. David, where do you want to go for your last key to victory here? Yeah, I mean, the last one is, we’ve already kind of talked about it, uh, you know, pretty extensively, which is why I left it for the last one. It’s establish the run game. You know, again, it’s the one that I think is the most obvious path to the Washington Commanders trying to set the tone in Los Angeles, but it’s also the one that I’m not 100% confident Cliff Kingsbury is going to lead into. Absolutely. And I think the thing is, too, is like Jaden Daniels running the football. absolutely terrifies me. Jackson Dart, Patrick Mahomes, every Bo Knicks, everybody who’s run against the Chargers, the big rushing numbers they’ve given up, a lot of those yards have come from opposing quarterbacks. The Chargers have to reign that in. They have to be able to contain Jaden Daniels in this one, plus be able to do enough against those running backs in the scheme that they’re going up against. And I think for them, the biggest thing is going to be you’re not going to win every battle. You’re not going to get to, you know, you’re not going to stop their run all day. What you can do though, David, make a couple of those plays. Get a tackle for loss for three. Get them behind the sticks, right? And that’s what it has to be, especially if you can’t just hope for massive improvements for your run defense, is you got to make enough plays to get them off schedule and not use it to just bash your brains in. I think that’s really what it’s going to come down to is just the Chargers have to also be able to establish the run. Amaran Hampton was awesome. Kind of a coming out party for him last week. And just like the Mikey Sammer still interception, nobody cares because you lost the game. And that’s what this one could end up coming down to. But that is going to wrap things up for us today. Locked on Chargers, locked on commanders. Daniel Wade here from locked on Chargers and David Harrison every single day with the locked on commanders because it is your team every day and we appreciate all the everydayers out there. David is going to be at this game. David Drogmire is also going to be at this game. So if you see either one of them, make sure you guys say what’s up. It’s so great to have those interactions with fans. David Drogamire going this week for his birthday. I’m hoping for a connection between the two Davids as well. But man, we’re not doing predictions today. I think it’s going to be a hell of a game. I I really do think it’s going to be a great game. I’m super excited to see what ends up happening and I think each of these teams can make a statement on Sunday when these two teams match up. But make sure you’re back here for the Friday episodes of Locked On Chargers and Locked On Commanders. But thank you for checking out this episode of Locked on Crossover cuz it is your team every day.

Jayden Daniels is expected to make his return for a homecoming game in Los Angeles as the Washington Commanders look to solve their struggles on the road.

The Commanders have looked like a true contender at home but a completely different team in their away games. The host of Locked On Chargers joins to break down how Washington’s dominant run game (averaging 5.9 yards per carry) matches up against a Chargers defense that is vulnerable on the ground. The episode also dives into the intriguing battle between slot corner Mikey Sainristil and Chargers receiver Ladd McConkey, with both players looking for a bounce-back performance. Finally, get the keys to victory for the Commanders as they face an injured but dangerous Chargers squad.

#Commanders #HTTC #NFL #Chargers

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Images courtesy of USA Today, Bowie TV (YouTube.com/@Bowie_TV), and Abdullah Konte of the Washington Informer (Instagram: @dullahvision)

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David Harrison covers the Washington Commanders for Sports Illustrated’s CommanderGameday.com and contributes to WUSA9. On Locked On Commanders, David delivers in-depth insight, context, and analysis five days a week, all year long.

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