Chris Cooley was a guest Friday on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast and pointed out that Washington is now fourth in total offensive plays run in the 2022 NFL season.
Cooley talked of how unbelievable it is that the Commanders are 21st in offensive yards yet 4th in offensive plays. “They have to wear New York down, and that is how Washington is going to win a lot of these games.”
“I don’t think it’s realistic that Washington is going to hit a lot of big plays down the field. But I do think they need to have 20 more plays than the Giants. Cooley elaborated how the quick short yardage plays of the Commanders are not wearing down the defensive secondaries. He also asserted he thinks they need to run some tempo in order to better wear down the Giants defense.”
I could be wrong but do Ron Rivera and Scott Turner want to run tempo unless it is absolutely necessary?
Sheehan pointed out how one of the Commanders’ second-half drives consisted of 11 plays while gaining only 38 yards, resulting in a Tress Way punt. The Commanders coaches want to shorten the game, lean on their defense and ask Heinicke to manage the rest.
Sure enough, the Commanders ran 82 offensive plays to only 65 for the Giants two weeks ago. The time of possession was Washington 41:11 to 28:49 for New York.
Sheehan was assertive that the Commanders only converting 3 of 14 third downs and winning the time of possession and number of plays as well is not going to happen often and was an aberration.
The two were in no way hating on the Commanders offense or Taylor Heinicke. They were simply pointing out they are going to have to generate more big plays if they are going to win against better defenses.
Here is the entire Kevin Sheehan podcast from Friday.
