Daniel Jeremiah: #Seahawks Were “Clearly The Better Team” In Rams Matchup | Seattle Sports

Daniel Jeremiah: #Seahawks Were “Clearly The Better Team” In Rams Matchup | Seattle Sports

Call me a crazy optimist, but I thought they were clearly the better team in the game. All right. Well, let’s let’s get into this. Unfortunately, the good news about the Naylor uh signing is that it came like an hour or two after the Seahawks lost to the Rams. So, we were able to be like, well, we only have to talk about that for half the show because we also got Naylor to talk about. Um, what did you take away from that? How I don’t honestly I’m I’m sort of joking. I did not panic after that loss. I don’t think it was the end of the world. I still think there’s a lot of positive and it doesn’t really deter me on my thoughts about where the Seahawks could go this year. But what did you make of it? I mean, call me a crazy optimist, but I thought they were clearly the better team in the game. I mean, they they dominated the game in just about every way you can dominate, except they just they had turnovers and, you know, they they you know, had a chance to win the game at the end of the game. like all all that stuff happened. You get four. Usually you get four interceptions. You have no shot in a game. But yet there they were. Um you know, we can go into the we can do the Sam stuff. We can go a lot of different areas you want to go, but I mean I I left that game thinking two things. Number one, based off the end of the game, Sam Darnold, even after that performance, was not broken that he still had it in him to get him down the field. And number two was I mean look if that’s as bad as you you know turn the ball over and all those things and you still have a chance to win that football game like they’re they’re gonna be just fine. How you you don’t really get to watch TV copyright. I mean this is all based tape. Yeah. That’s the beauty of chatting with you each and every week. There’s not a any bias to the what you hear, what you see or what the optics of a TV camera can give you. You’re just straight looking at the at the all 22. Correct. Correct. So if and and obviously that still flashes the score, right? Because time score it gives you some of those things. But you’re saying if you just watch the 79 snaps offensively of the Seahawks and the 51 of the Rams, in your opinion, physically it was uh it was pretty clear who the better team was. I thought so. I mean, I thought they were able to to, you know, hold up the line of scrimmage on both sides. you know, for the negative Sam stuff and their big ones, you know, the interceptions. He made he made more big-time throws in that game than than Stafford did. I, you know, I was going through it and I was kind of thinking, Brock, like it was some of it almost you wonder if they could have protected him from himself a little bit with that game. In other words, like if you think about swimming in the ocean when you’re a kid and you know, they might have maybe there’s some a shark warning or something or maybe there’s like buoys where you say, “Hey, this is the tide’s too strong here. Let’s stay out of this area of the water. swim over here but not here. Like the Rams clearly they wanted to funnel things to the middle of the field and they had whole they had Robert player in there that was free and loose that could just read Sam and they got him a couple times. Everything they did at the perimeter whether it was underneath where you could watch JSN break tackles whether it was down the field you get the amazing one-handed catch as well as a bunch of other completions like big time drive throws but out of harm’s way on the perimeter. um that to me should have been a little bit more of the uh of the focus in that and kind of save him from himself and some of the the danger that lurked in the middle of the field. That being said, I mean, three of those four picks were what? Late back foot. I’ll give them to you. I’ll give them to you. I’ll give them to you. Back foot floater on the first one, which you know, that’s a mechanical thing. You can’t do that. The second one I didn’t put on him because you have three on two in pass. They run a game um 75 does not pick it up. So you’ve got the back and you’ve got the guard and the tackle for two rushers. They just run a simple twist. They get a a clean run through. Hit Sam in the chest as the ball comes out. He doesn’t get anything on the throw cuz he’s getting hit. And there’s no part of him that would have thought you’re going to get a clean run through when you’ve got three blockers for two rushers over there. So that one, that one’s the forgiving one. Uh then the next one, you get him just locking on. You know, he just doesn’t come off of it. He locks on and takes him right to the football. And then the final one, which was probably the most, you know, it’s a third and three, but the most egregious to me is he’s just, that’s why I just wrote it’s a hero interception. You know, he’s trying to dodge three guys and then trying to make some incredible jump throw. Um, you know, that was just him doing way too much. So, I I always say that all interceptions kind of have their own story. Um, but I think he definitely has to own three of those. You know what’s interesting in that uh DJ is the same hero complex there is the same hero complex that allows him to flush those and put together the final two drives, right? No, I mean you don’t average what he’s averaging per attempt. You don’t do that by being playing, you know, scared and in those things. I just think in that and there’s certain games against this team the way and feeling out the game kind of how your defense was playing. you’re you’re controlling Matthew Stafford, you’re controlling the clock, all those things. I just thought in this game, maybe it didn’t call for that same aggression and we could have just lived a little bit more outside the numbers. So, let me say this again with with without crushing Sam for the game, I agree with everything you just said and I I think the fact that they did come back at the end and the second to last drive was great and honestly, if it’s not for what might be the best punt I’ve ever seen in my life, credit to that guy was unbelievable. in the situation. That might be the most clutch great punt I’ve ever seen. Putting it at like the one foot line. Uh if they get if they get the ball at the 20, I think they win. I feel like they probably win that game at that point. So, I’m not killing Sam, but don’t think that it’s fair to kind of go back to saying there are still some butts, some question marks about whether or not Sam is truly one of the guys who can be among the elite quarterbacks in the game. I mean, I guess that’s fair. I mean, he’s got to do it in the the bigger stages. I I would, man, I’d much rather kind of learn this lesson for him in this game than to learn it in like he learned it last year, you know, at the very end of the season. So, um I Yeah, I mean, look, you can’t have games like that in big games, but I mean, I’m coming off It’s hard for me to say that when I’m coming off of a trip that I just took to Jacksonville and watch the Chargers lose 35 to6. like you just you’re not going to you’re not going to have it every single week as an individual or collectively as a team. So, I’m Yeah, I think the fear with Sam isn’t the consistency of it. It’s the question. It’s not even a fear. It’s just a question because it hasn’t been answered yet. Not can he do it consistently, but can he do it against the best in the biggest moments? I think that’s the one question. I think we Tampa’s pretty good, right? Yeah. They didn’t win. He played he played great through what do you have four touchdowns through for a zillion yards till the final drive until he got smacked at the end. I mean till the final drive he played winning he played winning I thought he played winning football in that Tampa game and that’s the that’s I’m just trying to think of off top of my head the good teams that they’ve played. Um well San Francisco has actually been pretty good. They lost that one and unfortunately in the first game of the season. Pittsburgh’s been pretty good and they beat them which was great. Sam played tremendously in that game. Washington was better when they played him, but still not very good. Arizona stinks. Um, New Orleans stinks. So, I mean, like, he’s played a mixture of teams. He’s I just, again, this isn’t a shot. It’s hard to ask this question without it sounding like I’m sitting here saying, I don’t think Sam Darnold is good. He’s been awesome and I’m really excited about him and I like what he’s done. I just don’t I’m not quite ready to crown here on on week 10 because I just want to see more and I’m more against the really good teams. I want to see what happens against Indie. I want to see what happens against the Rams in in game two on Thursday night football in front of the country. Like I I want to see those things before making like a final determination on what I think this guy is. Can we Can we find common ground though? Can we say he’s in the let’s say the he’s firmly in the in the top 8 to 12 quarterback range? Like can we agree that he’s he’s at least in that neighborhood? 100%. Like to me that’s not even up for debate right now based on how he’s played not just this year but the last two. That’s that’s so that’s where I’m kind of at. It’s like okay I I will my thing is people saying like he’s not you know it’s almost like he’s you know he’s not he’s not any good and is he a quality starter? We crossed that bridge a long time ago. That’s where that was when I was saying the no butts. Now, if you want to talk about getting into the you want to get into the Josh Allen, you know, Momes into that neighborhood like start with where those elite or even right behind those guys or even just behind those guys, right? Like, okay, I don’t need him to be Josh Allen. I don’t think he’s got the physical, you know, the the full skill set to be Josh Allen. Nobody does other than maybe Lamar, right? I mean, like those guys have freak show abilities. But to be right after that, to be a guy that is going to win playoff games, that that’s going to take this team to an NFC championship or a Super Bowl. I think the juryy’s still out on that. And I I think you’re right. He’s a good quarterback. I know he’s in the top third. I want to find out if he can be in the top five or six. And I think another good win, by the way. I think another good win was the win in Jacksonville. I mean, the Chargers went down there, a good team, and just got absolutely mollywobbed. And, you know, Sam and the crew went down there and and took that game from him. I’m curious, DJ, do you have a favorite axiom for for a quarterback? Was there something a coach through the years, a GM that said to you like in particular when it comes to walking that line of pulling the trigger of walking that line between being aggressive and checking it down? Just that that that line that you got to navigate that if you’re not Josh Allen or Lamar and you’re basically everybody else, you know, that decision-making process. Was there something that stuck with you through the years? Yeah, there’s two things. I mean, and they’re they’re ones you’ve heard a million times. I mean, obviously there’s they can’t go broke taking a profit. Like, you know, there’s always there’s nothing wrong with being a completion collector and just take take what’s there. And then the other one, which um I I I thought was very descriptive way of playing the quarterback position is the great quarterbacks are selectively aggressive. So, you know, you can’t live like that down in and down out, but you know, when you’ve got calls and coverages that marry up, like we’re going to selectively be aggressive and take our shots. And there’s a line there. And I thought in that game that we’ve been discussing, I thought that he went over that a little bit where it was just it’s too much. Trying to just do a little bit too much. When you get your shots, take them, but you can’t take those shots when they’re not there. That’s really good. And that totally pairs with what Coach McDonald talked about with us yesterday defensively in that line that he walks in the same vein of calling those defenses that sometimes I got to fold. Sometimes a game situation I want to be aggressive or I want to blitz or I want to do this but I’m going to fold until the cards are in my favor and I get a chance then to be aggressive. Tom Moore used to say to me, uh, and it’s all he’s probably tired of me saying this, DJ, but I thought it was so good. And for 20some years, it’s resonated in my broadcast. I’d say it all the time. Play smart, not scared. Play smart, not scared. And he would just, you know, yell that at you, even even to Payton, but in particular all of his backups through the years. Play smart, not scared, because you can’t play. And you know this from your days of playing DJ and the the voice is on one shoulder and the other, right? And you can’t ever play the position scared to not scared to make a mistake. Can’t do it. But then you got to play smart. And I thought that was where the line on Sunday for Sam got a little bit a little bit wonky. Yeah. See, that’s the difference between you and me. And my college coach was like, “Hey Jeremiah, you can always check it down to the back. Let’s not kid ourselves. You don’t have enough arm to get that thing out there. pretty good. Um, how many how many in your life experience, DJ, how many defensive centric head coaches, and I don’t know if that guy was a defensive centric head coach, how many of you defensive centric head coaches really understood the quarterback position? I never I never had one. So, I mean, going back from I went to two different colleges and in high school, I mean, that’s it. That’s three coaches and they were all offensive guys. So, okay, we were always, you know, different different offenses, but was still more of an attack and aggressive uh mindset, whereas, you know, I’ve just just, you know, I, you know, time in the NFL and been around different coaches that way. Um, and then like Romeo Krenell was a head coach when I was in Cleveland and working there and it was very much a um, hey, don’t don’t make a mistake, don’t turn it over. like it’s kind of just a little bit you get a little bit hamstrung, you know, playing the quarterback position that way because it’s just for whatever you do, don’t don’t lose us the game instead of hey, go win us the game. It’s hey, just don’t lose it. Don’t lose the game for us. There is an element of that with this team though right now just based on how good this defense is. How good is this defense? They played great, man. Um there was only there a couple things I would say that just it was the first kind of rookie game I thought for Eman Warry and that I thought they attacked his eyes a little bit um where they kind of he was a little bit late to trigger on some things just because they gave him some other things to look at in terms of you know some motions and and different things that way they kind of I thought that he was there’s a couple plays where he was a little bit lost. Um, do you think some of that could be because he played more? He played the third most snaps of anybody on the defense after Ernest Jones and Kobe Bryant. Do you think some of that is just maybe like an initial exposure to playing as much as he did? I I think it’s more so a compliment to McVey and how everything can look the same and you gave you a little bit of a guesswork there whether it’s run or pass. They’re just that he’s he’s really really good at designing all that stuff. And I I thought there were some times where he was just kind of a little bit guessing and and uh and not playing quite as sure. You know, he’s he’s been really good, you know, up until this point of just pulling the trigger, just trust it, go. And I thought he they created a little bit of hesitancy in in him in this game. How about the How about the How about up front, though? That was awesome. Uh you know, across the board, all those guys were making plays. Um I mean, everybody on the front when you go through it, it’s not just one guy. It’s zero. It’s seven. It’s 53. It’s 99’s getting doubled and they can’t move him. Um, you know, it’s it’s it’s a really really complete effort. They had a couple missed tackles. You get the missed tackle 39 out in space, you miss tackle, and they they score a touchdown. And I thought they the Rams actually did a pretty good job of getting up Ernest Jones. They they got clean up to him a couple times and they were able to get, you know, a few runs because of that. Um, but then I thought McDonald is such a good coach that they uh just a little subtle adjustment. I was curious about it because they had some angles to him. So then they just started lining him up near the line of scrimmage and then you okay you eliminate the angles and if they want to throw he could you know he was backing out at times but he kind of changed the the way they could attack him because they were able to get up to him a little bit. Felt like from a football intellectual horsepower this might have been as good a matchup as you’re going to see. McVey and McDonald. Oh yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah. It was it was great. And you know, they have some they have some, you know, big- time big time players over there. So, they’re going to make a couple plays, which they did. Uh, but I mean, you go down I I one of the first things I looked at before I went through the whole game, I was like, let me look at the box score and see what the story of the game is. So, the two stories of the game based off of the numbers would lead you to believe, okay, let’s let’s watch the first let’s watch the interceptions. Let’s go through that. And the next thing was the red zone efficiency for the Rams versus the struggles for the Seahawks. So, those are the first two things that I watched. And even though the Rams were successful in the red zone, I mean, they made them grind it out. I mean, they’re inside the five and just, you know, it was everything for them to get into the end zone three, four downs later. Um, so I thought the fight was tremendous from Seattle there. And then even on the Seattle offensive side of things, the red zone, okay, I’m like, okay, were the blunders? Well, well, on one of them, there’s nothing there. And Sam actually made a smart play, threw the ball away, save you some points. On another one, they have a penalty, so they’re off schedule and then not trying to do too much. Make sure you get points out of it. So, e that even the their red zone numbers, which didn’t look good on paper, weren’t it were wasn’t quite as bad when I watched the tape. We uh we interview Mike McDonald every Monday. Uh it is, you know, you were talking about interviewing Jim Harbaugh and what that’s like, and there’s an element like you got to really plan for it and how you’re going to ask every question, what direction you want to go with it. Brock asked one of the best questions of the year yesterday. Mike told him so and then I thought gave a fascinating answer uh regarding Brock I could probably just let you set it up regarding defensive philosophy and what you’re trying to accomplish on defense. Yeah, there’s some that just run their scheme and it can be successful. I mean, the Miami Dolphins in the heyday when we were with the Colts, they just lined up in, you know, four down and Zack Thomas was in the middle and they played trap and like they they just did what they did, right? Or Seahawks in their heyday, right? Post safety and played three and mixed and matched a little bit. But and then there’s other schemes like Gary Patterson that want to defeat every single play. his job while he was eating his pants and losing his voice and sweating like a a demon on the sidelines was I’m gonna defeat every play call you’ve got. So Brock asked Mike about it. This was the answer. That’s a great question. I think it’s a spectrum and I think you can be successful on wherever you fall on the spectrum. So I’ve worked for guys that that are fully on that side of it and we had every answer in the book and some games we the guy the offense didn’t move the ball. some games it was not it was not pretty you know and our execution I think was a little bit low lower than it should have been and played for some guys or work for some people that are probably on the other end that kind of we do what we do and we call it given the situation and let’s just go out play them you know we’re we’re here we’re definitely somewhere in the middle I think it’s just based on the situation and what they’re telling you and what you need it’s really interesting I I I would ask can you live in the middle but obviously you can because they’re having a lot of success doing that I think it I think that’s A great it is a great question. It’s a great conversation. I I remember having discussions like this when I was in Baltimore u amongst our personnel guys when we I thought there were times where we had gotten a little too cute like we were trying to do too much and it was like guys we’ve got not only you know good players starters pro we got Hall of Famers over here like we can just line up and play it. We don’t we don’t need to trick anybody and we just say like this is not like we’re one of the servicemies you know playing against the you know the top five team in the country and we’ve got to kind of you know trick them here with what we’re doing. We can line up and play it. And I uh and then I also think that hey sometimes where your roster on the low end yeah you’ve got to be a little bit more uh creative and and changing things up and trying to have the perfect coverage for every single play because you’re not going to have the guys to to lock it down. But I I tend to lean a little bit more towards the, you know, you know what you’re going to get, maybe a little more simple. Um I I had a coach that told me once upon a time, you tell me a team with no tendencies and I’ll tell you a team that stinks. Like you better be able to do things and do things well. Um even if we know you’re doing it and you can execute it. So it’s a it’s a great conversation. Yeah, it was fun. Uh how did the middle of the offensive line look? That was one of the areas that you were concerned going into the matchup with all of their movement and Fisk and they’re athletic and their front’s really good too in LA. How did Bradford and Olu and then ultimately Haynes comes in for Zable? How did you feel like that middle of the offensive line handled the Rams? I just think they’re, you know, to me it’s the two guys. It’s 75 and 55. like if you can keep them on one track, if they’re moving forward, um you know, down blocks, you know, keep them on a string, they’re they’re okay. The problem is when you ask those guys to cut off, when they’ve got to try and be a little more athletic and reach and cut off guys on the backside, that’s not going to be something that that they’re going to be able to do. And that showed up. And then when you when you’re getting up to the second level, if you’ve got to adjust in space, that’s not something that they’re going to be very comfortable with. So, um you know, I thought uh I thought 67 played really well. Um 72 was on the ground a little bit. I didn’t think it was his best game. Um but you know I it wasn’t it wasn’t like this is just you know egregious. I know uh Brock you text me about oots. I went through and watched him specifically. He only played 19 snaps in that game and he got he just got ragdollled at the point on one that was really bad. And I think that’s um you know that’s one of those that’s one of those things where that that can kind of stick out in your head and I thought okay maybe there’s maybe two or three plays he’d like to have back out of 19. But I didn’t think he was I didn’t think he was a major issue there. Okay. Good. Good. I love the numbers. Don’t you, S? I do. Yeah. Because then you have to kind of think through who DJ’s talking about because I know any of the names. It’s just kind of how I go through. Football guys don’t know. Expecting you to know every No, you’re a real football guy. Football guys are like, “Oh, yeah. No, you look at 55, they do this. 87 does that. You’re going to come here. You look at the three tech. Go over here to the 7 Tech. I know. I know Timmy. I know Bradford, but it’s just when I’m reading off my notes, I just That’s fine. Yeah. You just talk. Did you say five tech? It’s fine. Like we embrace all that uh fancy schmancy talk around here. All right, DJ. Thank you. Uh a great talk as always. I’ll miss you next week. I’m sorry. But uh I’m not going to ask him about trading for Tatis. Oh, is he available? Can we trade for Tatis? Almost the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. There’s no chance. Sure. They sell out every game. They’re about to sell the team. So why would you sell your most valuable asset? He’s expensive. Because they can’t afford 24 million a year. They can’t afford it. That guy’s one of the five to six best players in baseball. He’s making as much money as your 300lb first baseman you just signed. Come on. Well, hey, that’s a 300lb first baseman, I think, stole more bags than uh than Mr. Tatis did this year. How many? He stole He stole over 30. He stole 30. This guy stole stole 30. Congrats. 19 in the last two months. Bye, DJ. You next week go. All right. Daniel, Jeremiah.

NFL Network Analyst and former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah joins Brock & Salk for his weekly appearance to discuss why the Seahawks looked good despite the loss to the Rams and what to make of Sam Darnold’s turnover-filled performance.

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0:00 – Seahawks Defense Dominates Arizona
2:57 – Demarcus Lawrence’s impact
4:00 – The Seahawks Physicality & Depth
7:34 – Nick Emmanwori’s versatility and potential
10:45 – How To Stop the Rams offense
13:45 – What are the Rams weaknesses?
16:00 – Rashid Shaheed’s impact
17:00 – Anthony Bradford’s improvment
18:30 – Sam Darnold’s Opportunity vs the Rams

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Listen to The Brock & Salk Show weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Seattle Sports 710 AM or on-demand wherever you listen to podcasts.
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📰: For more Seahawks coverage from SeattleSports.com, visit:
https://sports.mynorthwest.com/category/seahawks/

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https://sports.mynorthwest.com/category/brock-and-salk/

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