“I loved the offense; I thought it was terrific.”
That’s how former Redskins tight end Chris Cooley opened his film review of the Commanders first-half performance against the Ravens. Cooley was a guest on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast on Wednesday.
Here are some selected comments by Cooley:
“Actually, Sam Howell was really good. He did put himself in some bad situations, like taking a sack early.”
“I thought throughout the first half he was really accurate, his release was quick, and when he was on the move he was actually really good.”
Every Sam Howell drop back against the Ravens. #Commanders pic.twitter.com/R1jTR9csQx
— ImBearingDown (@ImBearingDown) August 22, 2023
“In the second quarter, when he hit (Jahan) Dotson on the run, great vision down the field. Great ball to Dotson. Who, by the way, was tremendous in the game. He (Dotson) is going to be a stud.”
“When he was holding the ball too long on a sack, he had two dudes open…He had early pressure; he should have stepped up and let it go.”
Over the middle of the field, I thought he made some really good throws…I was really pretty impressed by him.”
A couple of negatives:
“He bounces so much; he is like a rabbit back there. He is always bouncing, bouncing. He has happy feet. He is always looking down the field way too long to throw the ball. It’s open, or it is not. But he will get there. It’s open or it’s not, and your check-down is open now. Your check-down is not usually open later…That’s a young player, and I am fine with that.”
“Dyami Brown also looked good in this game. All the receivers looked good in this game.”
“All in all, I was impressed with the offense. He (Howell) did a great job executing within the game plan. He made accurate throws, and he looked very confident in doing so.”
“Can he read 4-Verts? Kansas City lives off of 4 vertical routes. Can he really push the ball down the field? If he can’t, he is going to get tight man coverage, press. Guys are really going to disrupt things, and you are going to have problems. So he has to be able to throw the ball down the field.”
“Can he survive in the pocket? Can he understand when some people start bringing some zone pressures and different looks? Can he not take a bunch of sacks? That is going to be a problem for this year because he is going to do that. Because he is hopping around a lot. He looks a little anxious in the pocket. So, he is going to take some sacks this year, but that is a young player.”
“My favorite thing about this game was we have a really young quarterback who has not seen enough looks. What are we going to do in this game? Why don’t we throw the ball 30 times? Great idea. Is it that hard? The one guy we really need? Let’s get him going.”