My dad’s job took us out to the US (specifically, near DC) for 5 years when I was younger, so I grew up with a bit of the US culture but as a young child. We moved back home to the UK and when I got older, Sky TV (our big TV network here in the UK) started showing more NFL games. I started to get into it more and more as I’ve always liked to break down the why behind sports, and the NFL being a play-by-play kinda game made that much easier to break down. As I had spent 5 years near DC, I naturally supported Washington, so I watched their games and studied as much as I could about the game from there.
Fascinating story, thanks for sharing. I have a similar experience with how I got into hockey and living in Ukraine as a kid.
My subscription to The Athletic began after you left. I think I discovered you from a post you made on the Commanders subreddit, so before today, I had only ever read you articles. It's nice to see the man behind the work.
Indeed! Moving forward, in the rare and unlikely instance that I disagree with a take of yours, I may need to refer to you as Mark Bollocks. But given your measured track record, I doubt that one's ever coming out!
Imho, your path to becoming an acknowledged expert about a sport for which only a relatively few of your countrymen (but presumably getting to be more all the time) have much knowledge is a story always worth repeating, MB.
That’s probably a smart idea that I should have done sooner. I guess I kinda just assumed everyone that knows me knew that story by now. But I’ll maybe go and update that about page. Thanks for the suggestion.
Really good stuff, Mark. I agree completely. I've always thought that the "we've solved Kliff's offense" to be a lazy take by folks who parrot what others say. Nice to see some actual analysis here!
Yeah, it’s been annoying to see that narrative, especially after just 2 games. 1 of those games they even put up 27 points against a defense that was giving up an average of 16 per game at that point. We’ve just seen the Steelers hold the Ravens, who were the top scoring offense in the league, to under 20. But nobody is saying Todd Monken’s offense has been solved…
The most annoying aspect of hte NFL is that because the season is less than 20 games, every game is blown up to be a HUGE deal. In most other sports, one loss isn’t a disaster. In the NFL, it is made out to be.
Mark, what I have seen is an unusually timid Jayden Daniels. I see him throwing off his back foot, not putting much velocity on the ball when it needs to have velocity and him sitting on the bench with a pad around his ribs when the coach is saying he isn't hurt. I see him hesitate to make decisions and less willingness to extend plays with his legs. I've also seen receivers dropping balls left and right. It seems like a culmination of multiple things. I definitely agree with you. This isn't on Kliff. This isn't on any one person. Hopefully we a fresh (er) team on Sunday.
I think he has been missing some stuff the last few games that he was making more regularly before that. I do think the injury is playing a role, as much as they say he’s not injured. If that was the case, as you said, they wouldn’t still be putting the pad around him on the bench between each series. And it could be as simple as pain management, at times he looks fine. But he could just get a hit on one play that makes it hurt that bit more on the next and causes him to miss the throw.
But hopefully the extra rest this week will help him heal a little more. The Bye week in a few weeks time will be huge as well because they’ve got a number of guys banged up that could use a break. Coleman, Lucas, Wylie, Biadasz, Lattimore and Armstrong have all been regulars on the injury report of late. I’m sure I’m missing a few others too. The late bye is really hurting them now, but perhaps the flip side of that is they will be a bit fresher down the stretch
This speaks to what I think is just the dumbest thing about the NFL - the notion that if QB1 is capable of walking from the bench to the huddle, that he should be in the game.
Daniels is a rookie. Do you really think 90% of him is better than 100% of Marcus Mariota? If so, they might as well get Joe Flacco and save the cap space. Seriously, play Mariota this week (if he can't beat the Cowboys, I'm pretty sure RG3 is up to the job.) and give JD a solid rest.
90% of Jayden is comfortably better than 100% of Mariota, but we don’t truly know how Jayden is. He has been managing it ok when he’s had a full week rest. I think that Eagles game on a short week was perhaps a slightly too quick turnaround for him. But the extended break should help him. So I think he’ll be fine now and we’re only 2 very winnable games until the bye week.
Agreed. I think the hot start to the season had people forgetting this was a bad team last year with a roster that needed huge turnover. They’re way ahead of schedule right now. The Steelers and Eagles have stronger, deeper rosters, the other team is allowed to be good too. The fact Washington was in both games late on is a testament to this staff and the group of players for being greater than the sum of the parts
This, to me, is the key: "this was a bad team last year with a roster that needed huge turnover. They’re way ahead of schedule right now." Amazing how expectations change the analysis.
Yeah, if we had been told at the start of this year they’d be where they’re at now, I think most people would have laughed. But get a few wins going and suddenly expectations rise.
We all did fall prey to that ever present (and insidious!😅) “recency bias” when the Comms stated 7-2 & many of us were thinking that hadda make them the 2nd best team in the NFC, right?!
And now that same recency bias has the Comms sinking like a stone in many “power rankings”. So predictable, yeah?
Tell ya what, Ima just gonna let this season play out and let the chips fall where they may until it’s over! (Yeah … sure.🤨)
Year one of this regime is all about enjoying the wins, learning from the losses. Evaluate where you’re at after the season and continue to build. Year 2 you can start getting a little more serious about the results.
And it just occurred to me that a few here may not know about your regular spot on the Al Galdi Podcast either. That’s can’t miss stuff; by far the best thing on that pod.
(Yikes! I’m starting to sound like yer PR flack!😅)
Always live on twitter and YouTube at 4:30pm eastern on a Tuesday afternoon. Replay is always available on both afterwards. I usually tweet about it before we go live
Yeah, Bluesky still has a lot to improve on. They don’t quite have the infrastructure for too much video content, so I can’t post too many clips on there. I also hate the lack of notification settings, it’s either you get a notification for everything or nothing.
Hi Mark. I enjoyed the video. Your points on how Kliff's offensive packages have become more nuanced over time have been instructive. I was wondering if you also had any comments or observations on how well Kliff makes adjustments. This can be either from one half to the next in a game, or perhaps adjustments over the course of a season in response to possible trends with respect to the way defenses are executing against the Commanders' offense.
Great stuff, Mark. I was initially so taken aback to hear your accent!
Did you not know I'm British?
Haha I did not! Can I ask how you came to become a reporter/film expert for the Commanders?
My dad’s job took us out to the US (specifically, near DC) for 5 years when I was younger, so I grew up with a bit of the US culture but as a young child. We moved back home to the UK and when I got older, Sky TV (our big TV network here in the UK) started showing more NFL games. I started to get into it more and more as I’ve always liked to break down the why behind sports, and the NFL being a play-by-play kinda game made that much easier to break down. As I had spent 5 years near DC, I naturally supported Washington, so I watched their games and studied as much as I could about the game from there.
Fascinating story, thanks for sharing. I have a similar experience with how I got into hockey and living in Ukraine as a kid.
My subscription to The Athletic began after you left. I think I discovered you from a post you made on the Commanders subreddit, so before today, I had only ever read you articles. It's nice to see the man behind the work.
It’s crazy how wide sports can reach, huh?
Indeed! Moving forward, in the rare and unlikely instance that I disagree with a take of yours, I may need to refer to you as Mark Bollocks. But given your measured track record, I doubt that one's ever coming out!
Imho, your path to becoming an acknowledged expert about a sport for which only a relatively few of your countrymen (but presumably getting to be more all the time) have much knowledge is a story always worth repeating, MB.
Maybe add the story (which I've heard from your interviews over the years) to your about?
That’s probably a smart idea that I should have done sooner. I guess I kinda just assumed everyone that knows me knew that story by now. But I’ll maybe go and update that about page. Thanks for the suggestion.
Really good stuff, Mark. I agree completely. I've always thought that the "we've solved Kliff's offense" to be a lazy take by folks who parrot what others say. Nice to see some actual analysis here!
Yeah, it’s been annoying to see that narrative, especially after just 2 games. 1 of those games they even put up 27 points against a defense that was giving up an average of 16 per game at that point. We’ve just seen the Steelers hold the Ravens, who were the top scoring offense in the league, to under 20. But nobody is saying Todd Monken’s offense has been solved…
Sadly, people are always grasping at straws & looking for scapegoats the minute things go a tic sideways.
The most annoying aspect of hte NFL is that because the season is less than 20 games, every game is blown up to be a HUGE deal. In most other sports, one loss isn’t a disaster. In the NFL, it is made out to be.
Mark, what I have seen is an unusually timid Jayden Daniels. I see him throwing off his back foot, not putting much velocity on the ball when it needs to have velocity and him sitting on the bench with a pad around his ribs when the coach is saying he isn't hurt. I see him hesitate to make decisions and less willingness to extend plays with his legs. I've also seen receivers dropping balls left and right. It seems like a culmination of multiple things. I definitely agree with you. This isn't on Kliff. This isn't on any one person. Hopefully we a fresh (er) team on Sunday.
I think he has been missing some stuff the last few games that he was making more regularly before that. I do think the injury is playing a role, as much as they say he’s not injured. If that was the case, as you said, they wouldn’t still be putting the pad around him on the bench between each series. And it could be as simple as pain management, at times he looks fine. But he could just get a hit on one play that makes it hurt that bit more on the next and causes him to miss the throw.
But hopefully the extra rest this week will help him heal a little more. The Bye week in a few weeks time will be huge as well because they’ve got a number of guys banged up that could use a break. Coleman, Lucas, Wylie, Biadasz, Lattimore and Armstrong have all been regulars on the injury report of late. I’m sure I’m missing a few others too. The late bye is really hurting them now, but perhaps the flip side of that is they will be a bit fresher down the stretch
This speaks to what I think is just the dumbest thing about the NFL - the notion that if QB1 is capable of walking from the bench to the huddle, that he should be in the game.
Daniels is a rookie. Do you really think 90% of him is better than 100% of Marcus Mariota? If so, they might as well get Joe Flacco and save the cap space. Seriously, play Mariota this week (if he can't beat the Cowboys, I'm pretty sure RG3 is up to the job.) and give JD a solid rest.
90% of Jayden is comfortably better than 100% of Mariota, but we don’t truly know how Jayden is. He has been managing it ok when he’s had a full week rest. I think that Eagles game on a short week was perhaps a slightly too quick turnaround for him. But the extended break should help him. So I think he’ll be fine now and we’re only 2 very winnable games until the bye week.
I personally attribute these 2 losses to:
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are good football teams,
Our QB is somewhat injured,
Our offense has not been able to control the ball lately like they did earlier in the season,
Our defense has not been able to get adequate rest and this shows up late in the games.
Pat Bell
Agreed. I think the hot start to the season had people forgetting this was a bad team last year with a roster that needed huge turnover. They’re way ahead of schedule right now. The Steelers and Eagles have stronger, deeper rosters, the other team is allowed to be good too. The fact Washington was in both games late on is a testament to this staff and the group of players for being greater than the sum of the parts
This, to me, is the key: "this was a bad team last year with a roster that needed huge turnover. They’re way ahead of schedule right now." Amazing how expectations change the analysis.
Yeah, if we had been told at the start of this year they’d be where they’re at now, I think most people would have laughed. But get a few wins going and suddenly expectations rise.
I agree with the both of you, fellas.
We all did fall prey to that ever present (and insidious!😅) “recency bias” when the Comms stated 7-2 & many of us were thinking that hadda make them the 2nd best team in the NFC, right?!
And now that same recency bias has the Comms sinking like a stone in many “power rankings”. So predictable, yeah?
Tell ya what, Ima just gonna let this season play out and let the chips fall where they may until it’s over! (Yeah … sure.🤨)
Year one of this regime is all about enjoying the wins, learning from the losses. Evaluate where you’re at after the season and continue to build. Year 2 you can start getting a little more serious about the results.
Thanks for again linking us to your weekly hit on the Commanders Film Room, MB.🙏
Not living on YouTube (like my younger son kinda does😜) I forget to check on it.
Always appreciate the reminder!
Cheers!
And it just occurred to me that a few here may not know about your regular spot on the Al Galdi Podcast either. That’s can’t miss stuff; by far the best thing on that pod.
(Yikes! I’m starting to sound like yer PR flack!😅)
I’m terrible at promoting myself, so I’m glad someone will do it for me!
Always live on twitter and YouTube at 4:30pm eastern on a Tuesday afternoon. Replay is always available on both afterwards. I usually tweet about it before we go live
I’m off whatever that was that Twitter had become and joined the exodus to Bluesky.
I’m very glad that we are able to look for you there!👍
Yeah, Bluesky still has a lot to improve on. They don’t quite have the infrastructure for too much video content, so I can’t post too many clips on there. I also hate the lack of notification settings, it’s either you get a notification for everything or nothing.
YouTube it is then! 👌
Hi Mark. I enjoyed the video. Your points on how Kliff's offensive packages have become more nuanced over time have been instructive. I was wondering if you also had any comments or observations on how well Kliff makes adjustments. This can be either from one half to the next in a game, or perhaps adjustments over the course of a season in response to possible trends with respect to the way defenses are executing against the Commanders' offense.