Hogs Haven
Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury spoke to the media before today’s practice. Whitt was up first and he had a lot of positive takeaways from last week’s dominating win of the Las Vegas Raiders(except for the lack of actual takeaways this season). Daron Payne has been the team’s highest-graded player on defense, and he had another good game against the Raiders. Javon Kinlaw was a player Whitt wanted last year, and he called him a “penatrative disruptive man”.
The Commanders had a lot of injuries last week, and most of them were in the secondary with Trey Amos, Marshon Lattimore, and Percy Butler all leaving the game. Whitt had to simplify the defense to three calls to ease in the backups. The Raiders scored a touchdown late in the game, and he said that put a stank on the game and he would have felt better if that didn’t happen.
Kliff Kingsbury said the offense got back to basics against the Raiders, and the team responded to Dan Quinn’s call for them to get more physical. Chris Paul and Andrew Wylie got the starts last week over Brandon Coleman and Nick Allegretti. Kingsbury praised Paul for the improvements he’s made since last year. He said Coleman’s had some nagging injuries, missed time, and is new to the position.
Kingsbury liked the improvement from Week 2’s loss to the Packers to last week’s win over the Raiders. “We didn’t play on our heels like we did in Green Bay. That’s more indicative what we’d like to see week in, week out from our offense.” He was asked about possibly missing his top two receivers with Terry McLaurin(quad) and Noah Brown(groin) dealing with injuries. Kingsbury said anytime you lose two of your top guys if they’re not able to go, you gotta get creative. You gotta find other ways to get guys touches and move the football.
