Five Questions With the Enemy: Packers vs. Commanders
First of all, I’d like to thank Andrew York of our sister site Hogs Haven, which covers the Washington Commanders, for sharing his time with us for this week’s edition of Five Questions With the Enemy. If you want to read the companion article where York asked me questions about the Green Bay Packers and this Thursday Night Football matchup, you can read it HERE.
1. Aside from quarterback Jayden Daniels, how many true “you have to account for this guy on every play” type of players do you think the
Washington Commanders have?
Jayden Daniels is certainly the biggest one. I don’t know if you have to account for a left tackle on every play given that you can just send pressure from the other direction, but if we’re talking about blue chip players, I think LT Laremy Tunsil is a borderline blue chip player. WR Terry McLaurin, LB Bobby Wagner, and LB Frankie Luvu were all named AP 2nd Team All Pro last year as well, so they deserve mentions in this conversation, though again I would probably classify them as borderline blues rather than true blues.
2. How would you describe this offense to someone who isn’t familiar with Kliff Kingsbury’s work in Washington? At the college level and with the Cardinals, he was more of a spread offense coach than what you generally see in the NFL. Has he changed that up or is he still spreading defenses out?
It’s a mistake to think he runs an Air Raid offense because that’s what he ran in college. With the Cardinals and now with the Commanders, he actually runs a more traditional play-action NFL offense that borrows Air Raid concepts. The biggest difference is that his Air Raid offense was very pass heavy, whereas his NFL offense has been very run heavy. The Commanders had the 5th highest run rate last season, which is remarkable considering how bad our defense was for most of the season and how much we needed to score. With the Cardinals, he used primarily gap scheme blocking, but with the Commanders he seems to have introduced some zone blocking as well, which may be a contribution from Run Game Coordinator Anthony Lynn (formerly of Shanahan’s 49ers). He also likes to use lots of misdirection in his run game, as showcased with his use of two RBs and motion out of pistol:
The @Commanders are able to create nightmares for defensive fronts with their use of Pony personnel out of Pistol in the run game. Even the camera people can't always keep up. pic.twitter.com/DWuuNPCS5b
The main ways in which his offense borrows from the Air Raid is by primarily running out of shotgun and pistol formation and going no huddle/up tempo much of the time in order to wear down defenses and prevent substitutions. He also maintains static sides of the field for his WRs most of the time (e.g. Terry McLaurin will usually line up on the left, though he could be playing X or Z receiver) to minimize how much they run and avoid exhausting them with all the up-tempo plays. He also features lots of RPOs and screen passes, which is a hallmark of the Air Raid.
3. What do you think the weakness of the Commanders’ roster is right now?
If you had asked me this in week 2 of last year, I’d have said “almost the whole roster.” However, GM Adam Peters has done a remarkable job of remaking the team in just 2 offseasons and I don’t think we have any position groups that are glaring holes, though some are better than others. Adam Peters has said he wanted to build the team through the middle, and I think you see that with the talent distribution. Our strongest positions are probably QB, OL, LB, and DT, whereas our weakest positions are probably WR and edge rusher (though I wouldn’t call those positions “weak”). One specific weakness that may show up on Thursday is rookie RT Josh Connerly Jr. He played well for the most part against the Giants and I think he will develop into a great player, but he occasionally looked like a rookie taking his lumps when matched up against Brian Burns and Abdul Carter and this week will only get harder with Micah Parsons and Rashan Gary.
Not really, since Dan Quinn was coaching for different teams in those games. I don’t think there’s some fundamental flaw in his defenses that Matt LaFleur is particularly good at exploiting and even if there were, DC Joe Whitt Jr is actually calling the defense for the Commanders, not Dan Quinn. That being said, I am worried about how well our defense will perform against a competent offense (unlike what the Giants put forth), because our defense was terrible for most of last season and it’s hard to believe it has truly been remade in one offseason. However, that worry is grounded in very recent Commanders history rather than Matt LaFleur being a boogeyman for Dan Quinn.
5. Tell me where you think this game will be won, either by Washington or Green Bay.
The biggest thing I am worried about for the Commanders is that they will still be shaking off rust and hurt themselves with penalties and sloppy play, which we saw last week against the Giants and saw in weeks 1 and 2 of last season. It seems Dan Quinn tends to run light practices during camp and the preseason in order to keep players healthy. Although it has succeeded in keeping the team mostly healthy, it results in some sloppy play to start the season. Terry McLaurin missing practice while he negotiated a new contract didn’t help either. Last year, it wasn’t until week 3 that the team really started coming together and I could see that happening again this season, especially with a short week. If we can play mistake-free football and the players are all on the same page, I think we’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Scoring more points always helps too.
On the Packers side, I think it will come down to how well they can protect Jordan Love and keep him playing mistake-free football. The Commanders don’t have a pass rusher as famous as Micah Parsons, but they seem to function as a whole better than the sum of their parts and featured the 5th-highest blitz rate in the NFL last year. As a result, they can get pressure and managed to pressure Russell Wilson on 22 of his 45 dropbacks (almost 50%) last week. Granted, the Giants offensive line is composed of tackling dummies tied together with twine, but I think it’s still true that this defense has the ability to get after the QB.
