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Welcome back. This is the Big Blue Banter. New York Giants football podcast. I'm Dan Schneier.

Joined as always my host, Nick Bellato. Today we are joined by a special guest. It's Anthony Armstrong.

Former Commander's receiver. Well, back then they were called the Redskin. But now they're called the commanders.

He is the host of the Believe in Commanders podcast. You can also find him on Twitter on social media, Mr. Armstrong. Nick and I had the luxury of watching some of his tape. Now, let me say something. He had some really good routes against the Giants. And he scored three touchdowns against the Giants in his career. None that we're happy about. one on a post wheel concept that Nick brought up to me off the pot.

And I almost get like, you know, a little bit of like, I don't want to call it like, um, what's the word for it? I get like a little shell shock when I hear post wheel right now because the Giants call post wheel every single game. And to this point, Anthony, they haven't thrown one post or one wheel off of it. It's always the backside drag. And I'm looking for them to throw that route at some point. But we're happy to have you here. We're happy to talk football with you. How are you doing today? Man, I'm good. I can't complain. Whether it wet, it didn't turn cold down here. You all are up north so y'all know what cold is like. But it's got cold in Texas now, and people call that football weather. I don't, but I'm excited for the game on Sunday regardless. Yeah, we're excited, too, and I think a good place to start for the commanders, because you guys were looking like you were going to be horrendous in the beginning of the year. Taylor Heineke takes over, And I believe you guys are like five and one in your last six games. Can you speak to the differences between Taylor Heineke and Carson Wentz? And what does Taylor Heineke offer this team that Wentz was not? That's a great question, Nick. Actually, with this, went over Atlanta, is six and one in the last seven. So Taylor's been on a role with this team,

and I think it's a couple of different things. You've got to give Taylor some love. I think he gives

Scott Turner offensive coordinator the opportunity to actually expand that playbook and to go into

different concepts and different things that Taylor is well, you know, used to doing. He's been

with Scott Turner since his time in

Minnesota. So he's very familiar with what Scott Turner is trying to do. And that opens up

that playbook. The second thing is that you have people coming back from injury. Number one,

Brian Robinson, Jr. He's been able to make a huge impact and bring some identity and some

physicality to this running game. It allows Antonio Gibson to move in some different positions. You get some versatility and flexibility. And then you add on the fact that Taylor is throwing the ball to the best receiver on the field, Terry McLaren. Give him his opportunities. Give him eight, nine, ten targets a game. And that's happened over these past seven games. And I think all those things together, can't forget the defense.

The defense have been played out of their mind as well.

But I think the team that you see now is what the brass in Washington envisioned at the beginning.

I think they wanted something to have a physical running attack and be able to spread the ball to their athletes and their playmakers in space. Yeah, I have long thought watching the NFL and kind of breaking down film like we do on this podcast that Scott Turner's one of if not the most underrated offensive coordinators in the NFL. I think you're seeing that this year. I think you mentioned it. Look, sometimes it's just about rapport, right? Taylor Heineke knows the system a lot

better than Carson Wentz knew it. And that's not Carson Wentz's fault. He just joined the team. And more importantly, he's built the rapport with Terry McLaren. And so earlier in the season, I thought they did a poor job getting McLaren involved. Now they're doing a better job. But I do want to talk about the defense because to me, that's been the bigger story for the Washington turnaround. I was very harsh on Jack Del Rio earlier this year as far as what I've seen

from him. Can you, I haven't seen a lot of film yet on this turnaround. So I want to ask you, is it, you know, you talked about injuries for the offense side of the ball. What's been the biggest story on how they've been able to turn around this defense? Is it just players coming back? Because it's been like night and day from earlier in the season to now.

Yeah, that's another great question. And injuries is the first one. Number one, you had Cam Curl return to the field. And yeah, Cole Holcomb is out. But Colcombe was doing all the play calling. He had the green dot. Now Cam Curl's been doing this over the past seven weeks. I think you've gotten a lot more out of Jaman Davis.

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