Washington Commanders offensive coordinator David Blough met with reporters this week to discuss the Week 1 loss, Jayden Daniels, Terry McLaurin, Antonio Williams, and what the offense needs to improve before facing Dallas.

The full video and transcript are below:

We'll start with the two-point play. Just a few days removed from it, what do you think of the call and the execution on that?

“Sure. You know, when I think about it, you sit there and you're like, man, what could you have called, all these different things. And at the end of the day, reflecting on it, we got to coach better. We got to execute better. You know, it's a play we've worked a lot in practice. So, at the end of the day, you got to tip your cap. They made a good play, and they kept us out.”

Just what did you think of Antonio Williams' first NFL action?

“Yeah, sure, man. We're really excited about Antonio. He's been very consistent since he's been here, right? We saw it on the tape. You see some of the ball skills that show up in the game. And so, you know, as we continue to grow here, we're excited about his progression as we go down the road here.”

When Jayden talked to us yesterday, he acknowledged that for probably the first three-and-a-half quarters, it felt like the passing offense was kind of out of rhythm. Now that you've had the chance to watch the tape, what did you notice as some of the reasons behind that?

“Yeah, sure. I think at the end of the day, and what we're preaching on this week, right, it's our detail. It's our fundamentals. So, it's hitting the right spots in the passing game because I agree with you, man. Truthfully, it wasn't good enough in the passing game. There were some good things in the run game, and it came to life late, but we got to detail it up, right? We got to coach better and we got to execute better when we get our opportunities.”

On those last couple touchdown drives in particular in the fourth quarter, what do you think started to click in the passing game, and what's the next step to replicate that over the entire four quarters?

“Yeah, you know, I think we settled in, right? Jayden made good decisions with the football. There's some really good things on the tape as we go back and watch it. And at the end of the day, man, there's things to build on, and there's a foundation that we've kind of built. We knew it wouldn't be perfect, but as we level up the details into our execution, we know with the guys, with the men in our room, with the coaches on this staff, we can get to where we want to be.”

What did you see from the Eagles defense that prevented you all from being able to get the ball to Terry McLaurin? And if the Cowboys did the same thing, do you force the issue or try to find other players?

“Yeah, sure. I think, you know, at the end of the day, it's kind of the flow of the game. And, right, we teach our quarterbacks if something takes somebody away, we just keep progressing, right? We go down to our next read. And so, like I said, man, you got to tip the hat. They played great. Some players on the defense played fantastic, took some things away that we were trying to attack, and they got us there at the end. So, yes, you try to have a counter adjustment ready as we go into this week, right? So, they have a — obviously there's carryover between Philadelphia with the defensive coordinator in Dallas that we have a lot of respect for. And we're excited about the opportunity to go down and just keep progressing on this process that we've started.”

With a guy like Antonio Williams going into the season, how do you tell him as a rookie that you're going to build him up to what he can be in Week 15 or Week 17? How do you approach his role in the offense from the start of the season to the end?

“Sure. I think as we have seen the things that he's done well, call it from rookie minicamp into OTAs into training camp, there's things that you try to implement into your plans. And then, right, that normally tends to grow as you make the most of your opportunities in the game. So, he's somebody we're really excited about working with as we go forward. And he really, you know, he's put a lot of work in to earn the trust of the offense and the room and the quarterback, and that's important at every position, right? Whether it's the offensive line or at receiver. He has certainly earned some of those opportunities that came his way.”

Your first experience as a play caller in the regular season, what did you learn that maybe you didn't expect in Week 1?

“Right. There's a ton of lessons, right? There's a ton of lessons, call it from contingency plans with injuries. There's lessons you learn as you make decisions in different scenarios. And so, as I look at it, you know, I get to reflect on it, and just like any player's critical of their performance, I'll go back and I'll evaluate exactly what I would have liked to call in a situation, give or take here or there.”

On the receivers specifically, how do you feel about the spacing? Was it where you wanted it?

“I think from a broad scope, no. And, right, so we go back and we correct it. We go back, we teach. It's what we do. We didn't coach it well enough. We didn't practice it hard enough. And now we get to go back and build on it. And, you know, we make those corrections, we teach, and just progress from there.”

With the protection up front, just with Nick Allegretti missing so much time in camp, how do you feel he's done stepping in over the last couple weeks and really getting reacclimated to everything?

“We are really happy with where Nick's at. We got the utmost confidence up front in the offensive line. And, right, there's a lot of good things in the run game. There's things that they would tell you they need to clean up in the pass game. So, there's an opportunity for our whole unit to grow and progress, from coaching it, starting with me, our coaches laying it out there and our players going to execute.”

You've talked a lot about bootlegs and play-action. There wasn't quite as much of that Sunday. How much of that was opponent, game situation, or looking back and wishing you had gotten to it more?

“Probably a little bit of both, right? Probably a little bit of both. Whether it's game state and you're behind the sticks and it makes it harder to call some of those, or very aware defensive ends from Philadelphia. You know, we evaluate all those things and how you navigate controlling the edges to help Jayden get outside. And so, it wasn't necessarily where the game went on Sunday, but it certainly will be part of what we do and who we are.”

Going back to the protection overall, not just center but the left side and everything else, how do you think they held up? Does it change how you have to call a game at all as they progress?

“That makes sense. I wouldn't say it has to change how you call a game. I think when we talk about protection, whether it's ball security as a unit, whether it's our offense protecting up front, right, protection is directly correlated to the receiver ripping off the football to beat the DB. Like, we teach our receivers, you're racing the defensive ends. You're not beating the corner, right? So, we have to approach it as a collective unit that we are all in the protection fight together. So, that is what this is built around, and we get the opportunity to go correct it and move forward.”

With Bill fumbling late in the game and going to Kaytron after that, was that a message sent? And where do you guys go from here with trust in Bill handling the ball in important situations?

“Sure. I wouldn't say it's a message sent, but we certainly value ball security at a premium. So, you know, Kaytron's got some of that in his game as the game wears on. Kaytron can wear people down as well. So, we have the utmost confidence in Bill. Like, there's nobody who's got more confidence in Bill than me and our coaching staff, but yes, we also completely understand that ball security is a premium.”

To follow up a little bit, obviously you guys go back and watch the tape and see how the game unfolded, but in terms of how often you ran 12 personnel or certain types of plays, how much is that part of your review? Is there anything from this game that you thought maybe got away from you or that you could have done more of?

“Sure. I think we go back and review everything. Right, so we get in and call it my first game calling it, our first game as an offense. We get all the self-scout reports on what personnel groupings meant what, and we have to evaluate that and do with it what we may. And at the end of the day, it is about putting our 11 in the best possible position to go have success on a given snap. And so, you know, we get the opportunity now as we move forward to Dallas to continue to do that and build on some good and correct and move forward on the things that need to get cleaned up.”

Jayden yesterday was asked about the whole under-center versus shotgun discussion, and he basically said maybe the outside world ran away with how much he was actually going to be under center. Did we buy into the idea too much that it was going to be radically different, or was this just how this particular game unfolded?

“I think we are very flexible. I think there's certainly narratives that get created, but we are certainly flexible in that regard, and the game dictates a lot of that. You know, if we're not playing as many third-and-longs as we played, if we're more efficient on first and second down, it might look different. But I don't necessarily have a number in mind. But yeah, I think the game certainly dictates that.”

After the game, Jayden shared with us that whatever you call, he's 100 percent behind you. But as the season goes on, will you be open to and welcome him changing something if the play starts to break down or if he sees something else?

“I think there are different ways to handle that, whether we build it into the plan for him to handle that, whether it's a kill or an audible built into the play. And then there's a lot of conversations that go in Monday through Saturday that we can get to a place that we're comfortable with. There's a lot of mechanics in this system that allow him to have a little bit of freedom, right? But we make those decisions together. So, at the end of the day, he's an extension of our organization, our staff on the field, and we — like he said, he's got my back. I got his back 100 percent.”

First week of the offense last week, how do you think players settled in overall in displaying it during game day?

“I think, to reiterate, our details and urgency wasn't up to the standard of excellence that we want to hold ourselves to. So, starting with me coaching it better, then us translating it to the practice field and us going out on Sunday to execute is kind of where we want to live there.”

As far as the pre-snap and post-snap penalties, false starts and delay penalties, how do you clean up that area as you move on to Dallas?

“Yeah, we press forward on the urgency piece of it. That's what I'm referring to when I talk about the urgency. It's myself starting the mechanic, getting the play into Jayden as fast as possible, us getting our subs on, right, breaking the huddle with urgency. The things that we harp on working all week in practice so that we don't put ourselves in a situation where we have the two delay games or have to burn a timeout. They're too costly. So, we will certainly learn from it and move forward and hope to see progress in that area.”

Jayden is obviously a special player who can run and pass, but last week it seemed like once he started running, it opened up his game a little more. Being here for a couple years with him, can you sense when he needs to make a play with his legs to get him going in the passing game?

“I think that's fair. Maybe it felt like that on Sunday, but not necessarily every game that we've been a part of with him pulling the trigger for us. So, there's sometimes where you feel that, and there's sometimes where he comes out, and he starts a game 18-for-18 or whatever it was a couple years ago in Cincinnati, something crazy like that. And so, each game has a different flow to it, and we'll do whatever we got to do to have success as a unit.”

The way he finished in the fourth quarter, I think he was nine-for-10 or something like that. Is there something where you feel like you can build off the fourth quarter more than anything else?

“I think that is, you know, where we have to continue to progress. You certainly look at those two drives in the end of the first half as, okay, where do we take from here? What do we take from here as we move forward? How do we eliminate some of the three-and-outs and things that cost us during the course of the game? And, you know, how do we move forward from there?”