Daily Slop – 17 Oct 23: Way-too-early 2024 mock draft gives Commanders a valuable offensive player

A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East and the NFL in general

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Bullock’s Film Room (subscription)

Evaluating Sam Howell’s performance against the Falcons

Breaking down how well Sam Howell played against the Falcons

This clip contains the first three sacks Howell took and shows he had available throws to avoid all three of them. The first sack came on that opening drive that stalled and ended in a field goal largely because of this sack. The Commanders try an interesting concept with two running backs in the backfield and an attempt to overload the coverage with all five receivers working to the left side of the field. The Falcons do a solid job picking up most routes to their credit, but as Howell hits the top of his drop and begins to take his hitch steps up in the pocket, he does have the shallow cross to Terry McLaurin open. In fact, Curtis Samuel’s route from the backfield has Samuel collide with a zone defender to help open up space underneath for McLaurin.

Howell doesn’t take that McLaurin crosser, perhaps waiting for Samuel’s sail route further down the field. But by not taking the correct option at the right time, he ends up stepping up into pressure and getting himself sacked.

On the second sack, Howell had a number of options to throw to. Off the snap, he works to his right where he has an arrow concept, known as Tampa in the Andy Reid coaching tree, with a corner route, a flat route and a receiver spotting up in between them. In my opinion, that outside corner bites up to the flat early and Howell could layer the throw over him to the corner route. He obviously didn’t like the read, even though I think the throw was there, and comes back to his left. As he works back across the field, Samuel breaks inside and is open. Logan Thomas is also running into space on a corner route behind Samuel. If Howell was decisive, he probably could have hit either throw. But instead he hesitates and tries to scramble, running into another sack.

The third play was perhaps a little bit tougher because it required a little more anticipation from Howell, but it’s the type of play a top quarterback would make. Howell has three receivers to his right but the focus here is on the outside two. The slot receiver runs a quick hitch designed to hold any underneath zone defender while the outside receiver breaks inside around the back of that defender. As Howell hits the top of his drop, you can see pressure arriving off the edges, so it’s natural for him to want to step up to avoid that pressure. But he also has the outside receiver about to break open as he makes his cut.

Overall, I think there was once again plenty to like about Howell’s game and I think he does a lot well. He’s great with quick game concepts and getting the ball out quickly and accurately in those situations. He’s also generally good at processing the pre-snap information Eric Bieniemy is giving him and understanding where he needs to go with the ball. His main issue right now is the plays where he just hesitates slightly with a read and holds onto the ball too long, leading to unnecessary sacks being taken that kill drives.

Sports Illustrated

Kendall Fuller, Washington Commanders Defense Stepped Up in Win vs. Atlanta Falcons

After struggling for most of the season, the Washington Commanders defense finally lived up to their expectations.

“We took the football away,” Rivera said. “That gave us the opportunity more than anything else.”

Washington’s defense also forced a turnover on downs in the second quarter, which led to a seven-yard touchdown from Howell to Curtis Samuel to give them a 17-7 lead.

Safety Kamren Curl, Fuller and St-Juste each had multiple passes defended. Defensive end Casey Toohill had two sacks plus a tackle for loss, while Davis also had a sack along with a pass defended.

When the going got tough, it could have been easy for the defense to fold. Instead, they rose to the occasion and played like the unit that was expected to carry this team heading into the season. Now, they’re 3-3 with a chance to get over .500 this Sunday when they face the New York Giants (1-5) at MetLife Stadium at 1 p.m.

Wsshington Post (paywall)

Emmanuel Forbes Jr. played zero snaps in Atlanta. So what’s next?

Emmanuel Forbes Jr. watched every play of the Washington Commanders’ ugly 24-16 win from the sideline. The first-round draft pick stood there — helmet on, green mouth guard dangling from his face mask — as the Atlanta Falcons marched down the field for an opening-drive touchdown Sunday. The defense tightened up for two quarters, then faltered. Forbes was ready to help, but his uniform remained a pristine white.

In the fourth quarter, the cornerback who shifted outside in Forbes’s absence, Benjamin St-Juste, intercepted a pass in the end zone. On the next possession, the veteran who replaced him, Danny Johnson, had a pass breakup on fourth down. If being benched bothered Forbes, he didn’t show it; he ran onto the field to celebrate the interception with St-Juste, conducting an elaborate handshake that finished with a bow-and-arrow move.

Commanders.com

Commanders-Falcons Stats & Snaps

Defense

• Cornerback Kendall Fuller had two passes defensed and recorded his 16th career interception and second of the season.
• Cornerback Benjamin St-Juste had two passes defensed and recorded his first career interception.
• Linebacker Jamin Davis recorded his first career interception and 1.0 sack, the sixth of his career.
• Defensive End Casey Toohill recorded a tackle for loss and a single-game career-high 2.0 sacks.
• Benjamin St-Juste picks off Desmond Ridder in end zone to halt Falcons’ scoring opportunity

Special Teams

• Punt Returner Jamison Crowder had a 61-yard punt return, the longest punt return for Washington since Oct. 9, 2016 against Baltimore and the second longest return of his career.
• Punter Tress Way punted six times for 260 yards (43.3 avg.). He surpassed 250 career punts inside the 20, and currently holds the franchise record for punts inside the 20.

Washington Post (paywall)

Hail or Fail: Great field position helped Commanders get back to .500

Field position

The Commanders had touchdown drives of 11, 27 and 52 yards against the Falcons, which rank as the first-, second- and fifth-shortest among the team’s 15 touchdown drives this season. Veteran return man Jamison Crowder had a 61-yard punt return in the second quarter to set up Washington’s shortest scoring march. It was the longest punt return by a Washington player since Crowder, during his first stint with the team, had an 89-yard return for a touchdown against the Ravens in 2016. According to Stathead, Sunday marked the first time Washington scored at least 24 points while gaining fewer than 200 yards since a 30-17 win over Atlanta in 1993.

Riggo’s Rag

5 disappointments from the Commanders triumph at Falcons in Week 6

It wasn’t all positive for the Commanders…

Commanders’ horrific series just before half-time

With 96 seconds left in the first half and Atlanta about to attempt a field goal. The Washington Commanders called their final time out in order to preserve the clock. Younghoe Koo converted his 47-yard attempt to make the score 17-13. But there was an opportunity ahead.

Washington then got the ball back on their own 25-yard line with 91 seconds to make something happen. What happened next was a mini-catastrophe.

What they made happen was two sacks and a throw-away. They had to punt the ball back to Atlanta without even making the Falcons spend all of their own timeouts.

When the dust settled, the Falcons had the ball inside Commanders territory with 48 seconds left in the half and a timeout. A good offense with a seasoned quarterback almost certainly would have come away with at least three points in that situation.

Fortunately for the Commanders, Atlanta has neither a good offense nor a seasoned quarterback. They went nowhere. The score remained 17-13 going into half-time. No harm, no foul.

But this highlights two things that have hurt the Commanders this season. Sam Howell needs to make quicker decisions about running or throwing the ball away. He was sacked five times by a defense that only had five during the previous five games.

On most of them, he had time, but he held the ball. A few times, he looked like he might run, but was not able to. Howell has done so many good things this season, but he has to improve his pocket awareness. Hopefully, this is something that new quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard is working on.

And the third down call was awful. It was a screen pass that had little chance of working – precisely because everyone who had been paying attention knew that would be the play call.

Howell saw that it wouldn’t work so quickly that he threw the ball away almost as soon as he fielded the snap.

Riggo’s Rag

Commanders strike it lucky with generational talent in 2024 mock draft

This would be sensational…

[I]f there was one thing to take from the Commanders’ season so far, it’s that Sam Howell has the tools needed to become the team’s long-term quarterback.

Again, a new head coach and general manager might have a different view. If they decide to go in a different direction, there are a few highly-touted prospects emerging from the college ranks next spring that are worthy of consideration.

Commanders draft Brock Bowers in PFN’s latest mock

This was not a sentiment echoed by Ian Valentino from Pro Football Network in his latest mock draft. Instead of going down the quarterback route, the writer gave Washington a generational tight-end prospect in the form of Brock Bowers at No. 12 overall.

“It’s not crazy to believe that the Washington Commanders could be under a new head coach next offseason (Belichick?). And instead of tearing down, they load up a roster with a solid foundation of talent on both sides of the ball. More playmakers are needed to push this group over the edge and get the most out of Sam Howell. As good as Harrison is, Brock Bowers is an even more unique pass catcher. He’s been dominating at Georgia since arriving on campus, offering elite speed, coordination, and versatility at 6’4″ and 240 pounds.”

– Ian Valentino, Pro Football Network

Although the Commanders are desperate for help on the offensive line, this would be hard to turn down if Bowers made it so far down the pecking order. There are few players in college football who boast the credentials of the Georgia product, who looks destined for NFL superstardom barring any injury issues.

Podcasts & videos

Jay Gruden tells Chris Russell Commanders winning ugly is fine – just ‘protect the ball and clean up those sacks’

NFC East links

Big Blue View

Justin Pugh’s unexpected effort has created tricky situation for the Giants

As an elevated practice squad player, Pugh could technically refuse to return to the practice squad and sign elsewhere

Justin Pugh’s surprising, inspiring play on Sunday night for the New York Giants — 77 snaps almost a year to the day after surgery for a torn ACL, most at a position where he had played five snaps since 2015 — is a great story. It has also put him and the Giants in an interesting position.

Pugh signed to the Giants’ practice squad less than two weeks ago. He was a standard elevation from that practice squad for Sunday’s game. The Giants now have to either sign him to the 53-man roster or return him to the practice squad — and Pugh has the right to refuse to return to the practice squad and sign with any team as a free agent.

Thus, the 33-year-old Pugh seemingly has the Giants over a barrel. In a league where the Giants are far from the only team seeking mid-season offensive line help, Pugh certainly showed on Sunday that as he gets healthier and stronger he can certainly still play at a quality level.

Pro Football Talk

Monday Night Football: Cowboys overcome penalties, blunders to defeat Chargers

The Cowboys and Chargers did not exactly put on an offensive exhibition on Monday night in Southern California.

But Dallas did enough to win, holding on for a 20-17 victory over Los Angeles to improve to 4-2 on the season.

Each team scored a touchdown in the first quarter. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert found Keenan Allen in the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead. In response, the Cowboys got to the paint with quarterback Dak Prescott taking a QB keeper 18 yards to the end zone on fourth-and-1 for a game-tying TD.

Both Dallas and L.A. were held scoreless until the end of the second quarter, when Brandon Aubrey hit a 32-yard field goal to give the Cowboys a 10-7 halftime lead. But Dallas had squandered an opportunity in the red zone when Prescott failed to convert fourth-and-1 with an Eagles-style “tush push” play.

In the third quarter, The Chargers missed one opportunity to score in the third quarter when a Herbert pass to Joshua Palmer on fourth-and-1 from the Dallas 7 fell incomplete in the end zone.

But after forcing a Dallas punt, the Chargers were able to tie the game at 10-10 with a 24-yard field goal from Cameron Dicker.

A 60-yard reception by Tony Pollard to start the fourth quarter put the Cowboys in scoring position, which the club finished off with a 2-yard TD pass from Prescott to Cooks.

But armed with a 17-10 lead, the Cowboys committed a poor special teams blunder that allowed L.A. to tie the game. It looked like Cowboys receiver Jalen Tolbert thought the ball had been touched first by one of his teammates and he attempted to recover it at the Dallas 20. But it, in fact, had not been touched yet. So when he tried and failed to recover the ball, it gave the Chargers an opportunity to recover the muffed punt, which they did.

On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Herbert connected with tight end Gerald Everett for the tight end’s first touchdown of the year.

Dallas kept its ensuing drive going with a big third-down catch by Cooks on third-and-9 for an 11-yard gain in L.A. territory. But on third-and-10 from the Chargers 21, Prescott’s pass to Pollard in the end zone was out of reach and fell incomplete. Dallas had to settle for a go-ahead, 39-yard field goal to make the score 20-17 with 2:19 left.

With no timeouts remaining after the two-minute warning, the Chargers got a first down but Micah Parsons blasted his way through the line to sack Herbert on second down. Then while under pressure, Herbert threw an interception to Stephon Gilmore on the right side to seal the Dallas victory.

Dallas finished the game with 11 accepted penalties for 85 yards while L.A. had nine penalties for 79 yards.

Sports Illustrated

Cowboys Get the Best of Kellen Moore, Chargers in Mistake-Filled ‘Revenge Game’

Mike McCarthy got a win over his former offensive coordinator in Los Angeles on Monday night, but Dallas’s offense continued to look worse without Moore calling plays.

McCarthy and Moore weren’t calling plays against each other at SoFi Stadium. The real battle was between McCarthy’s Cowboys offense and Brandon Staley’s Chargers defense.

I probably could have written this story beforehand because the Chargers often play in one-score games, including in every game this season. And when games are close, McCarthy tends to make questionable decisions. The same can be said about Staley’s fondness for going for it on fourth down.

Of course, this matchup went down to the wire. Of course, this matchup was filled with mistakes from both sides. But the Cowboys made fewer mistakes, defeating the Chargers, 20–17.

McCarthy won, but that doesn’t mean he made the right decision to let go of Moore. The Cowboys’ offense has regressed and they didn’t display much improvement Monday night.

The Cowboys’ offensive numbers are down across the board, and Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Tony Pollard are still employed in Dallas.

McCarthy pulled the “my words were taken out of context” card, but the Cowboys are running the ball more and throwing less this season. The strategy was meant to aid his defense….

The Cowboys are going to have to “light up the scoreboard” against the best teams in the NFL.

With a clunky offense, the Cowboys might be headed for another brief postseason appearance if they don’t show improvement in the coming weeks. The Cowboys (4–2) head into the bye week before facing the Rams and Eagles.

Barstool Sports

PREGAME FIGHT! We Got Dante Fowler Slapping The Shit Out Of Austin Ekeler And Sending His Helmet Flying To Get Us Ready For MNF

Welcome back from injury Austin Ekeler! Nothing like coming in trying to play peacemaker only to catch a hook to the dome that sends your helmet flying. I mean how does that happen? Remind me to never try to fight Dante Fowler because if he’s throwing slaps like that I don’t want to catch a slap without a helmet on. You gotta feel protected in a scrap with the helmet on, it’s why I never understood why football players throw punches, but if you can slap the helmet off you’re ahead of the game. It’s like ripping the sweater off in hockey, something I learned from D2.

I don’t know what’s going on this week but this is our second pregame scuffle

Typical Cowboys, gotta say that. I mean I guess if I was embarrassed by the 49ers a week ago I’d want to hit someone too. They know they aren’t going to win shit, so might as well win the fight.

NFL.com

2023 NFL season, Week 6: What We Learned from Cowboys’ win over Chargers on Monday night

Cowboys need to clean it up. The Chargers made a lot of mental errors in this game, the type that typically come from a poorly coached team, but when the clock hit triple-zeroes, the Cowboys were the ones who ended up with more penalties accepted against them (11 for 85 yards). They also botched a punt return that gave the Chargers a massive gift, resulting in a game-tying touchdown. It hasn’t been a clean operation for the Cowboys in the last two weeks, not by any stretch of the imagination, and they paid the price a week ago. This time, they survived, but they’ll need to be better, because stiffer competition will await them soon enough.

NFL Research: Dak Prescott scored his first rushing touchdown since Week 8 of 2022 on Monday night, improving the Cowboys’ record to 21-4 when he scores a rushing touchdown.

Blogging the Boys

Cowboys at Chargers Stock Report: Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb up, Mike McCarthy down

Our stock report following Monday night’s win features kudos for Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, but questions about Mike McCarthy.

Stock Down: Mike McCarthy

I’ve been more patient with Mike McCarthy than a lot of people, but I have no words for what he did at the end of the first half.

In case you missed it, the Cowboys arrived at the Chargers 14-yard line with eight seconds left before intermission. They had two timeouts to work with and McCarthy seemed to not care about any of that.

How is this bravery in any sort of way? It is the exact opposite.

And before you offer redzone woes as an excuse for this, consider that the Cowboys faced a similar-ish plight earlier in the game and chose to go for it (unsuccessfully) as opposed to kicking the field goal.

Believe in your offense.

NFL.com has concerns about the Eagles ability to sustain success this season

This has been a sore spot for Philadelphia for a few weeks, and it’s not getting any better. The Eagles, simply put, have one of the worst pass defenses in the league. They miss the presence of cornerback Avonte Maddox (who suffered a season-ending pectoral injury in Week 2) and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson (who left in free agency). The secondary also took more hits in Sunday’s loss to the Jets, as safety Reed Blankenship and cornerback Bradley Roby didn’t finish the game. Roby just joined the team two weeks ago. That tells you how many concerns the Eagles have on the back end these days.

ESPN: Stephen A. outlines his worries for the Eagles after loss to Jets

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ESPN

Colts’ Anthony Richardson ‘probably’ done for season, Irsay says

Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is “probably” going to miss the rest of the regular season and could undergo shoulder surgery in the next week or so, team owner Jim Irsay told ESPN on Monday.

Richardson, this year’s fourth overall pick in the draft, sustained an AC joint sprain in his right (throwing) shoulder during the second quarter of Indianapolis’ Week 5 win over the Tennessee Titans.

The Colts have spent the week-plus since the injury obtaining numerous medical opinions on how to proceed. Irsay said evaluations are pointing in one particular direction.

“The most likelihood is he’s probably going to be gone for the year,” Irsay said. “I mean, it’s not definite but [he] probably misses this year and we’re going to have to contend with that factor.”