Week 5 Outlook and Cardinals Recap: Kingsbury Gets Revenge

Sunday afternoon we were given the pleasure of watching this football team put together a 3rd straight win. I called it a trap game and couldn’t have been proven more wrong. If there are some things I love eating, it is steak, mashed potatoes, and my own words when I talk down on this football team. After this week in terms of expected points added, we bolster the best offense and the worst defense in the league. Polar opposites. The offense picked up right where they left off and the defense actually played some competent football. We witnessed our first glimpse of progress where they were able to produce stops and get off the field. It was an all around top to bottom complete football game putting us at the top of the NFC East through the first four games of the season. After last night, we currently sit at 2nd place in the entire NFC.

One of the biggest story lines going into the game was centered around Kliff Kingsbury. Our offensive coordinator had himself a revenge game. Kliff was given the opportunity to call plays against the team that canned him and did not take it for granted. He was the brains behind an offense scoring its most points since 2016. I imagine I know how he slept Sunday night. Revenge games just mean more. There aren’t many occupations that give people the ability to stick it to their old boss quite like the sports industry. It was great seeing the clip of DQ giving Kliff the game ball in the locker room. He knows exactly what this mean to his coordinator. He’ll have a chance of his own when the Falcons come to DC in Week 16.

It was our first time scoring 38 points in back to back weeks since 1991. Not to get ahead of myself, but I feel like it should be mentioned we won the Super Bowl that year. That is highly unlikely with our defense but it is food for thought. 16 straight scoring drives is the longest any team has gone in the past 30 years. We are the first team to score on 68% of drives in the first four games in 25 years. It seems like every week this team is producing stats that haven’t been seen in years. We have stumbled upon the pleasure of watching a generational offense through the first quarter of the season. A popular conversation in the sport’s world is if this level of production is sustainable for 17 games. Obviously, it has to come back down to Earth at some point. However, so far we have been given absolutely no reason to believe that will happen anytime soon. 

To get into the September NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month’s performance, he made some guy’s career over throwing one ball. He will definitely be telling his grandkids about the time he picked off Jayden Daniels. The first was bound to happen eventually. It was nice to watch him deal with a little adversity and see how it did not rattle him in the slightest. He even put Tress to work for the first time since Week 1. I have a theory Jayden did not convert that drive on purpose. Let me explain, people say it takes 3 weeks to develop a habit. This game would have made it 3 full weeks since Tress’ last punt. Jayden just wanted to make sure our punter wasn’t developing any bad habits. I think he was doing our team a favor letting Tress come out to boot one.

The interception and failed drive have made it really hard to sleep at night. You can see how much work I’ve put into reducing the dissonance. Another thing that has made going to sleep difficult is knowing Jayden has the highest regular season completion percentage through any four game stretch in NFL history. The second and third quarterbacks on that list are Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. It’s really not good. I open up my phone before falling asleep and my entire feed is just glazing our guy. My problem is that I will watch every video and read every tweet then next thing I know it is way past my bedtime. I am being serious. I am actually losing sleep because of how good our quarterback is. If you couldn’t tell, the first two things were jokes.

Another interesting stat I heard on the broadcast is this was the second game in a row opposing QBs threw their 100th career touchdowns against us. The announcers didn’t pick up on the back to back weeks but it was mentioned for Mr. Hollywood during the Bengals game as well. I’m still wondering if this ever happened before to the same team in back to back games? I did a little digging and came up with nothing. So for that reason, I am just going to assume it was the first time ever. Ignorance is bliss.

After running through last blog, I found a mistake which needs to be reconciled. I stated the Cardinals leading tackler was hurt and it was actually the Broncos. Left hand up. Regardless, our run game still looked incredible with 4 touchdowns for the group. Jeremy McNichols stepping up with Ekeler out proved we very well may have one of the deepest running back rooms in the league. The running backs and Jayden have been phenomenal so far this year. A lot of that credit goes to Adam Peters for bringing in 3 dudes through free agency and the draft to turn around what was one of the worst lines in the league last year. 

The additions have looked great protecting Jayden. We already knew Sam Cosmi was one of the best guards in the league. But even Andrew Wylie has started playing some great football. I was worried he would be a massive liability this year, but through four games, he has proved me wrong. He stated in an interview he’s having a lot of fun this year. I guess a little fun is all he needed to stop being a revolving door at right tackle. Another worry was a rookie starting at left tackle. So far, Brandon Coleman has settled all concerns and given us reason to believe he will be playing in that spot for a long time. In the last blog, I forgot to mention him throwing Hendrickson to the ground on the play Noah Brown caught the ball at the one yard line. For those who missed it, I highly recommend going back to those highlights to see what I am referring to. I haven’t mentioned Algretti or Biadasz yet this year. As offensive linemen, typically if you’re not getting mentioned then it means you have been doing a good job. This group has got it done in the pass and run game. They were ranked #1 in pass protection this past Sunday being one of four teams to not give up a sack. I must reiterate that Jayden being faster than everyone trying to tackle him definitely helps with that stat. Unfortunately, a player capable of exposing this entire line is coming to town this week. It will be a interesting to see how the group deals with one of the league’s best. 

So far throughout this season, the defense has been a big let down. It’s tough to expect a lot when 34 year old Bobby Wagner is leading the team in tackles. So far, Luvu and Chinn have been the two names to stick out. This game did give me some hope. I even counted 4 stops in a row at one point. That tends to happen when the defensive line shows up. We doubled our season sack total getting to Kyler four times. The corners didn’t play terrible either. We held Marvin Harrison Jr. to his receiving yards under. The take will not be 17-0. After the first drive, it looked like his over was a lock. Then for whatever reason, the Cardinals decided it wasn’t in their best interest to throw him the ball anymore. So weird when that happens right? I remember when I used to write about our coaching staff neglecting our best receiver. Couldn’t be me anymore. The new guys realized good things happen when the ball is thrown to Terry. Touchdowns in back to back games? Not bad for a guy who people on X (formerly known as Twitter) called washed and said to trade after Week 2. Any person who posted something related to trading Terry should be exiled from this fanbase.

To talk about the bets, last week the picks went 4/5. The brain and heart bets we were winners. The “He’s due” bet was the sole loser. The obvious brain bets for this week are Terry’s receptions, BRob anytime, and JD anytime. I am unsure of the over because of the matchup. However, I am not going to tell anyone to take an under. After last game, a new player is due to find pay dirt. Olamide Zaccheus put together a great game against Arizona and has earned this week’s honor of being the DC Sports Digest’s “He’s due” player of the week. Lastly, the heart bet; we will cover. Any good team can win. But to be great, you have to cover. I don’t love how heavy the public is on us at the moment. Can’t the people just let us have our moment and not ruin this for us. It did worry me, but then I remembered we have a quarterback and they have a guy who spends more time at the local massage parlor than on the football field. It wouldn’t be a Browns’ outlook post if that jab didn’t make it in here somewhere.

For one more bet, I believe there is a particular future worth placing for every fan in DC at the moment. Jayden has legitimately played himself into the MVP conversation and has shown no signs of slowing down. A week ago, his odds were +10000. After the game when I placed the bet, he was +6000. Now during the time of this writing, he has made it down to +2500 to be named the Most Valuable Player. He is tied for the 9th best odds to win the award. Personally, I believe some of the names above him have no business having shorter odds than our guy. The only player who I believe deserves to be in the conversation is Josh Allen. Patrick Mahomes being favored makes zero sense. Seems like corporate propaganda. You’re telling me if the season ended today, Vegas thinks he would win MVP? I genuinely believe Jayden would win if it did. He is worth throwing a couple dollars on because if this productivity doesn’t stop, he could very well be the second rookie since Jim Brown in 1957 to win the award. 

To get into the game this weekend, we are playing a mirror image of ourselves. If our defense can build on last week’s performance, then I hesitantly say their offense shouldn’t produce much of an issue. Through four weeks, that is a big if which is why I say hesitantly. It will be the best defense JD has faced yet this year. Any game plan centered around impairing the influence of Myles Garrett is good with me. Seeing how Gardner Minshrew with no Davante Adams was able to put up 20 points definitely gives me some confidence. It would be the first time this team has started 4-1 since 2008. We did miss the playoffs that year, but don’t forget the theme of this year’s team. It’s a new era stuff like that doesn’t happen around here anymore. I already have more confidence in Week 5 Jayden than I ever did in Jason Campbell. I think every fan in DC will agree with me on that one. Regardless, it’s always fun to have the opportunity to do something that hasn’t been accomplished in 16 years. I’m excited to travel down to Landover on Sunday. The weather is projecting sunny and mid 70s. Couldn’t ask for a better day to get a win and watch some football. Wishing everyone a great weekend. Good luck out there. Excited to write home about another win next week. 

Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

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