Former Washington head coach Jay Gruden tells Grant & Danny that he has the Commanders punching their ticket to the Super Bowl this weekend!
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00:00As
00:01Promised we got a pair of caps tickets to give away
00:05caller number ten
00:07eight hundred six three six one oh six seven
00:10You're going to a caps game Saturday
00:12February one against the Winnipeg for tickets and the complete cap schedule go to the fan
00:17DC comm last night the caps got another win. Oh, we got another goal. They're the best team in hockey
00:23It has been a lot of fun to watch the caps and you're gonna do it in person in the good seats
00:27Welcome back to Grant and Danny Toby is in for Danny. We are in Bethesda
00:32We are at caddies on Cordell downtown
00:35We are enjoying ourselves ahead of the NFC Championship game
00:39We go to the phones now to welcome on our buddy Jay Gruden former head coach here in DC
00:44Jay, it's just electric people are giddy
00:47I cannot believe this is happening this season and you're one of this operation
00:52The commanders are playing for a conference title, dude
00:56There are one game away from Super Bowl grant, I mean, it's unbelievable what they've done and what they've accomplished
01:02I mean nobody in their right mind would have made them before the season started
01:06But that's off the Peters for getting that team together can't dance when a Daniel all these guys
01:11And they've all produced high high level critical times. That's why they're here
01:15You know, you look at this team down the stretch. They struggled with penalties. They were making some errors
01:21They were still winning football games with some of the penalty numbers were bad
01:24They have fixed that largely in the playoffs
01:26How hard is it to get that to go from playing a little bit sloppy and making some of those mistakes to now?
01:31Going on the road in the playoffs and getting this team to play relatively mistake-free football
01:36It's difficult, but it's just the coaches preaching fundamentals and making sure they do the right thing on the field
01:42It's easier said than done, but they are
01:45Really doing the right things when it comes to the penalties and the turnovers
01:47That's what that's the main reason why they're still playing penalties and turnovers
01:51They don't have any negative plays on offense. Defensively. They're making the opposing offense turn every blade of grass
01:58Yet to this point in the playoffs
02:01Jaden Daniels has more wins if you want to count wins as a stat then he has negative place
02:07Anything in the backfield turnovers to your point. It's just
02:11Outrageous how he's performed. Let's talk Eagles for a second
02:14If you had to slow down Jalen Carter and you had to do it without Sam Cosby
02:20What would be your plan draw something up for us to try to keep him from wrecking the game
02:27You got to get Tyler to slide to him at all costs
02:30We get four hands on a pressure
02:32You want to change your protections up where there's a quick game or move in the pocket for the quarterback get them outside?
02:37They can Jalen Carter run sideline to sideline get a warm-up worn out
02:41I think cookies will do a great job using no huddle make these guys run and get them tired
02:46I think that's the most important thing and then some crunch time. Just make sure you double them and
02:51Take care. I'll be all right. That'll be fine
02:54And it's not a beat as we slide over to take care of in the fast game
02:57And then you clip will do a good job with a quick game and changing up the protection point
03:00You saw them kind of spread the receivers out some in that Detroit game. They were able to get some
03:05Effectiveness in the run game also worked for that Terry screen that he takes the house
03:09You think that's gonna be something that's a part of the game plan?
03:11And do you think adding that in is gonna help them maybe get the run game going against, Philadelphia as well?
03:16Well, they always have the path option off a lot of their run
03:18So if there's an extra body in the box
03:20Jalen always has the ability to pull it and run it or dump it out there for the screen to Terry or
03:25Oz or whoever it might be crowd or whoever it might be
03:27So yeah, they always have an answer for the defense's if they load up the box
03:31They're gonna flip it out there and get the numbers back in their favor. They've done a really good job of that Jaden
03:36Decision-making has been outstanding all year whether to give it keep it or throw it. He's
03:42He just been damn near perfect at it
03:44How much credit do you think should go to
03:47the technology he's using
03:50Where he's on the VR headset and he kind of suggests that he plays the game out before it happens
03:56And he goes through all his reads. I like double speed and he says that's where his confidence and his knowledge comes from
04:03They're able to input everything all the way down to where the clocks are at in the stadium
04:08Cliff Kingsbury by Wednesday gets him the information he needs so that they
04:12Will allow the the coverages to match up with the plays that they want to quiz him on how he gets out of it like
04:19Hey, what do you make of that and be shouldn't every team be doing that with their quarterbacks at this point? I
04:25Think it's incredible
04:26Any rep is a good rep to me and and the more times you call the plate and huddle and rep the play whether it's in
04:31Your mind or out on the practice field you're gonna benefit from it
04:34And I wish I would have had that when I was coach
04:36We're too stupid to use technology like that would be advantageous
04:40Advantageous for us. But yeah, I think when you have a young quarterback the more reps you can give them the better
04:44I don't care if it's the technology or practice or walkthrough
04:48Those are huge reps and he's obviously taking care of it because when you watch it play
04:52They don't have any mistakes their ball handling has been precise their
04:56Protections have been fine
04:57They're never offside. They don't ever, you know jump off sides
05:00It's just been fun to watch these guys Jalen is playing like a 10-year Jaden
05:05I mean, it's playing like a 10-year veteran
05:06I mean, he just has total command of the offense. I think this is a big part of it
05:10Why didn't they use more tech was that to suggest it wasn't big?
05:14Organizationally, or you weren't a big fan of it or what was that? I mean, it's been a huge emphasis of this ownership group
05:20I will say that Mitch rails Josh Harris. These guys are all in on the data technology. Obviously, that wasn't always the case here
05:28Yeah, no, I don't know what was available back then
05:31I didn't do my
05:32Due diligence as far as that research and how productive that could be how much that could benefit our quarterbacks
05:37You know, we didn't have them a long time in the building. They'll come Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday
05:42It's not like they were
05:44Given the opportunity to get better with their mental approach
05:48So I just this is just another added weapon for the quarterbacks to use if they want to use it
05:53You look at Vic Fangio and his defense. He's one of the few we were talking about this a little bit earlier
05:58That's kind of confused Jade and been able to get the better of him a couple of times
06:02What makes it so difficult to go against a big Fangio defense?
06:05And then you look at the first matchup versus the second matchup
06:08Where I thought Jaden didn't look as comfortable in the first matchup some of that's the rib injury some of that's facing
06:12You know that Fangio defense for the first time and then the second time he was much better
06:16But their Brit blitz rate also went up three times as much
06:19How much do you expect them to be aggressive and try to force the issue and what makes facing that defense so difficult?
06:26Well, I think
06:28Big successes for man rush if you get home before they can mix in their coverages three by one two by two and all that
06:33Stuff that's where he excels and then he'll throw in a fire zone every now and then rush five
06:37Maybe six at all out every once in a while
06:39But I think that's where he needs the most he has
06:41Good two big guys up the middle getting to push up the middle then he has speed guys on the outside to try to
06:46Keep the quarterback in the pocket and they're able to rotate their safeties and play different coverages with eyeballs on the quarterback
06:52Which you know can make it hard
06:54You know if he doesn't feel like he's getting home with the four-man rush
06:56That's what he'll add five guys and try to get home with some pressure. But you know, I think
07:01The best way to attack him is just do what they've been doing
07:03You know, they have the RPOs going so if they want to blitz they can flip it out to the screen
07:07They got the zone reads going the quarterback design runs a quick game and then the play-action shot game
07:11Which they do a really good job of what they did last week
07:14I need to get the ball to D on me Brown or Terry McCormick down the field
07:16So, you know coach got it all going on right now. It's very hard to stop this offense because of the multiple city
07:22How do you say that multiplicity
07:25Multiplicity you got there. It's like a four syllable word. I know I'm not used to using those
07:31Multiplicity that's a five-syllable word
07:38Championship bringing out the best and yeah
07:40Step it up for the NFC title game fresh off the golf course Grant and Danny here from Danny's in Bethesda
07:46Toby's in for Danny today
07:49Jay how about on the other side of the ball trying to figure out Marshawn Lattimore covering AJ Brown?
07:55Would you have him travel didn't go very well the first time or would you tap into Mikey Sandler still coming off two picks?
08:01feeling good about himself, I
08:04Yeah, I'd let him I think it depends on the comfort level both those guys whether they can flip sides or not
08:08A lot of guys don't like to do it
08:10Then you know if it's man-to-man or not, it's hard to disguise your intent. Sometimes I don't there's some negatives to it
08:15Positive because what Lattimore has played him many a times in his career. I think it's just a comfort level
08:20We got asked Marshawn if that's what he wants to do and ask past real feel like, you know
08:24Going back and forth as well. So I think Santa's was doing just fine on anybody
08:28I wouldn't mind a phone AJ and I get that he's played his ass off
08:31You know, everybody thought he was just a nickel, but he's turned into one of the better corners in the league
08:35How do they slow down say Quan?
08:37I mean, obviously we talked about the normal stuff of loading the box and some of that stuff
08:40Is it as simple as that or is it ways that you're bringing run blitzes?
08:44Or how are you trying to slow him down?
08:46Also with maybe the idea that Jalen is a little bit banged up and not going to run the football as much as well
08:51Yeah, I'm sure that they're gonna challenge. I sure coach Quintal challenging with some loaded boxes
08:56You got to move your front a little bit to and the big thing is you got to get off the blocks
09:00You know, that's the Eagles are here because of their physicality on both sides of the ball
09:03They own the line of scrimmage on offense and defense and when you can do that
09:07You are going to be playing for NFC Championships
09:09Now you just got to play as physical as I'm paying and now I'm got to get off block
09:13It's not the defensive ends bring the linebackers over the top whatever it might be
09:16They give them different looks every once in a while fires or maybe rush five or six try to
09:21Force Jaden or Jalen kind of get these guys Jalen to make some throws down the field
09:26Which he has not really performed very well at as of late
09:28So if you can force these guys to be wanted to mention, it'll be a very good day for the commanders
09:36Alright before we let you go
09:38What do you expect do you think the commanders as underdogs will go to Philly and come away a winner I
09:45Just like the way the commanders are playing as far as your unity
09:48Concerned and they play together as a team and they never blink even if the Eagles get up on them early
09:53I think they'll have the feeling they can always come back and that's a big plus for young football team
09:57It's always had that belief you can win and the Eagles on the other hand
10:00I just feel like if something goes bad doesn't go their way, you know, AJ Brown be read a book
10:04They'll be starting to point finger so I like the unity best on the commander
10:08So I'm thinking of commanders is a very close one. I should like the commander
10:14Well, so comes out I kick the game hopefully they can knock it through and get the victory
10:20Jay getting another about it in-house here
10:23But that's the only ovation I've ever gotten since I've been there
10:27That's true. They've gone from booing you to cheering you Jay. Look at this
10:32About it, let's hear it for Jay Gruden one final time
10:42All you had to do was, you know not coach for a handful of years and come on the radio now you get ovations
10:49easy
10:50Thanks, Jay. We appreciate you buddy. Thanks, Jay. You got any time? Thanks. Oh, I'd be good brother
10:55There's Jay Gruden with us on Grant and Danny helping us break down the game plan to beat the Eagles
11:01I want to look at some of the fando props individual player props. We'll play a little over under with Daris back in studio
11:07Next we're live in Bethesda before we get out of here
11:11We will break the mic back out for our listeners that are at caddies
11:16We're gonna let them address the team they get the final say what would they tell the team before they run out of the tunnel?
11:23You're listening to the fan