The Kevin Sheehan Show - 7 Field Goals Beat Giants

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Kevin with his recap of the Commanders' 21-18 win over the Giants in Washington's home opener. Plenty on Austin Seibert's franchise-record day with seven field goals along with Jayden Daniels' first 4th quarter game-winning drive. He had his entire "Game Take" of the things he liked, didn't like, and more. The one and only Doc Walker jumped on with his thoughts on the first win of the year as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Each team with all three-timeouts. Daniels. And loose is Noah Brown. The former cowboy, inside the 45.

His first chance at a fourth-quarter game-winning drive, and he delivered big time. Second and ten with just under two minutes to go in a 10. tie game. The Blitz is coming. Perfect read, perfect throw. Jaden Daniels to Noah Brown for 34 yards. A few plays later. Austin Seibert, the new kicker, is booting his seventh field goal of the game. This one, a walkoff for the first win in 2024. The show's presenting sponsor as always is Wind Donation. Give them a call 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com for a free No obligation estimate. Doc Walker is going to join me on the show today.

Final segment, Doc will be with me. We'll get his thoughts on the first win for the team, not only this year, it's the first win for Washington since early November of last season when they went to New England and beat the Patriots 20 to 17. It was nine straight losses, eight straight to end last year. Most of them not very competitive. and then the opener last week. Doc in the final segment, my game take coming up next,

lots to like about the strange win over the Giants, but there was plenty to dislike as well. So I'll get to my list of things that I like, didn't like, and a few other observations in the next segment. It was a weird game yesterday. Seven field goals for the new guy, Cyber. a franchise record. When he kicked his sixth field goal, it was a franchise record. No touchdowns, but the 21 points on Cybert's kicks were good enough for a three-point win over the New York Giants.

The Giants became, by the way, the first team in NFL history to score three or more touchdowns in a game and not allow a touchdown to lose in regulation. Nobody's looking at Super Bowl ticket prices quite yet. Lots to clean up, and I'm sure, you know, Dan Quinn's, you know, tell the truth Monday will reveal a lot, a lot that they did wrong, a lot that they missed, and a lot really to thank the Giants for. But it will also reveal a victory, the first of the season, the first of their young quarterback's career,

and one that would have felt awful if they hadn't put it in the win column. I actually started wondering with the score tied at 12 and then again at 18. You had 12, 12, 12, you had 18 to 18. I was starting to wonder if this was going to be one of those Skins Giants games that ended in a tie. Since the NFL adopted overtime in 1974, right? So that's 49 years ago. Well, 50 years ago. It's the 50-year anniversary this season of the NFL adopting overtime.

time. But over the last 49 seasons, Washington has just three ties, two of them against the Giants. They tied, remember the Giants a few years ago in the Meadowlands, 20 to 20 in one of those games against the Giants that were, you know, I think they played the Giants twice in like a three-week period. They tied them at the Meadowlands 2020, came back and lost at home 20 to 12. They also tied the Giants back in 1997 when Gus for Rock knocked himself out by headbutting a wall after a touchdown in a game that ended 7 to 7. If you're wondering, the other tie during the last 49 seasons for Washington came in that London game in 2016 when Dustin Hopkins missed a 30-yard field goal at the end of overtime, and the Skins tied the Bengals

27-27. So I was thinking could this be another Skins-Giants tie? Fortunately, no. No overtime required either. No tie. Austin Seibert didn't miss his 30-yard field goal on the final play of regulation. He drilled it as he did six other kicks. And Washington is even up through two weeks at one and one. So my big takeaway, and there were a few pretty big takeaways from the game, but the one that I'm going to open up with here in the first segment, then I'll get to. some of the others as part of my game take. My big takeaway from this one is Jaden Daniels and the way he played yesterday, in particular down the stretch. Yesterday's win was over a team that probably isn't going anywhere, probably isn't going to win more than four or five games this year. That's less important the opponent than how Jaden Daniels played in the win. I've mentioned many times over the last several months. 2024 is about the rookie quarterback, more than anything else.

We all want to get to the end of the season this year and be able to look each other in the faces and say, they got this one right. The kid can play. He's the real deal. He's going to be the one out of this draft class that is the guy that signs the second contract with the team that picked him. Now, there were six quarterbacks, remember, picked in the first round. He's going to be one of the two that makes it because that's about the hit rate, you know, about 33% roughly.

And so far, while only two games, he looks the part, he looks like he's got a chance to be the one or one of the two. No final conclusions yet. Just two games. No referendums in after two games. Long way to go. But I'm a fan of what I've seen in his first two games. games. I hate even saying this for fear of jinxing it, but so far, so good. Actually, so far, damn good. You know, this is not, by the way, a numbers thing through two weeks, even though the

numbers are decent. He's third in the league in completion percentage through two weeks. He's 11th in yards per pass attempt. He's eighth in passer rating. He's fourth in combined passing and rushing yards. He's also one of just seven QBs through two weeks that have started both games in the first two weeks that is not yet thrown an interception, knock on wood. But it's more qualitative for me than quantitative. He's poised. He's calm. He's in control.

He appears to be totally comfortable being an NFL quarterback right now. There's nothing that appears to be too much for him right now. That could change, but I don't think his demeanor is going to change much, if at all. He totally believes he belongs, and through two games, he does. You know, he's faced two teams that have good defensive talent. And in the case of the Bucks, and maybe for the Giants, too, they are very well coached the Bucks were and are. And then there was the second half yesterday in particular. Four drives with the game hanging in the balance, down three, twice, and tied on two other occasions.

and he led the team to scores all four times to either tie the game or to take the lead. Yes, I realize all field goals, no touchdowns. But not one careless throw, not one costly mistake, not one negative play that you almost always see from a young quarterback. Unnerved the entire time. He threw a 20-yard strike to Ertz, which sparked the drive when they were down 12 to 9. When the score was tied at 12 apiece, he threw a perfect deep out to Terry McCorn on a second long. He toe-tapped, remember that play on the sidelines to stay in. It got him to a third and one.

Next play was when Brian Robinson, Jr. emerged from the scrum and took off for 40 yards. Down 18 to 15, two big throws, a 15-yarder to Brown, Noah Brown, and a beautifully designed throwback to Austin Echler, who went. 27 yards for a first and goal at the giant six-yard line. And then tied at 18, two minutes to go, second and 10, under pressure with a blitz, steps up and throws a dime to Noah Brown that puts them on the cusp of field goal range. And then a few plays later, his longest run of the day on a reed option keeper for 14 yards to set up what turned out to be a chip shot game-winning field goal for Cyber.

He never at any point in the game, but most importantly, with the game on the line in the second half, and especially on that final drive of a tied game, he never wavered like so many quarterbacks do. He was confident, he was having fun, he was never sweating it. It certainly didn't seem like it. You know, I get it. It's the Giants he beat, so I'm not throwing a parade today. The game itself was not pretty, but it's not really about the opponent. It's not really about how the game looked. It's how he looked and how the people around him, I think from afar, felt about being around him.

Again, the numbers, whatever. It's about the confidence he was playing with yesterday, the confidence he seems to have in playing the position, and the confidence he seems to inspire in his teammates. I was watching Chicago Houston last night, Caleb Williams and the Bears, at a good team. The Texans are good. Stroud, really good.

They've got really good players. Playoffs last year, 10 and 7. But Williams was struggling for the second straight week, and it doesn't mean anything in terms of what he's going to be. But you could see the frustration in his teammates' faces. DJ Moore, who played at Maryland, was with Carolina, was part of the trade to Chicago, that enabled them to get into position this year to take Caleb Williams. At one point late in the game, he just ripped off his helmet on a third down miss by Williams. You could see how frustrated

he was because he was wide open and the throw wasn't close. That's normal for a rookie quarterback in his second start. Bad throws, bad reads, interceptions, mistakes, teammates who need the ball getting frustrated. Look, Jaden's missed some things too. I think he probably missed more yesterday than it may have seemed, but it appears that his teammates really believe in him that he can get it done. Again, no sweeping conclusions, no big declarations, but it's a good start. Not great, not perfect, But, you know, we were told during the off-season and pre-season that he was checking all the boxes. And now two games into the regular season where the games count, he's checked two more. Anyway, that's it.

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Seven for seven. Hail to the kicker. Austin Seiberts' 30-yard field goal at the gun was as perfect as the day was. 21 to 18, Washington, and let's face it, despite all the good things I said and all of the good feelings I have about Jaden Daniels, the primary reasons Washington won the game yesterday was about two kickers, the one the commanders had, and more importantly, the one the Giants, did not have. The Giants losing Graham Ganoe on the opening kickoff was a game changer, and the number one reason the skins are 1 in 0. They had no ability to Giants to kick. They tried it

with their punter after the first touchdown, and then they gave up. No PATs, no field goals, three touchdowns for the Giants, and the minimum number of points when you score three touchdowns, 18. They were forced also to go for a fourth and four with just over two minutes to go at the Washington 22, rather than kicking a field goal to take the lead. It was a tie game at that point. And by the way, on that play, the fourth and four, I think maybe the best player on the field yesterday, Malik Neighbors, the rookie receiver from LSU, Jaden's teammate at LSU. Oh my God, how good was he? He dropped a fourth and four. from Daniel Jones. They would have had a chance to either walk off the game with a touchdown. I think maybe because it would have been so short they may have given the punter one more chance. But Brian Dable, the head coach of the New York Giants, has a lot to answer for because Ganoe was hurt heading into the game. And they could have done something about it, but they didn't. More on that coming up in my game take.

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after a win. Again, not a pretty win. In some ways, a strange win. I don't want to call it a fluky win, but I will start with number one on the list of things that I liked. Thank you, Brian Dable, Joe Shane, the Giant Special Teams coach, whomever made the decision to not have a contingency plan for Graham Ganoe getting hurt in the game when he was on the injury report the day before the game. See, this is the thing. When you go into a game with a healthy kicker and that kicker gets hurt in a game, that's just bad luck. When you go into a game with an unhealthy kicker and he gets hurt and he gets hurt and you don't have a contingency plan, that's incompetence. I mean, Washington benefited from New York's incompetence yesterday.

How can you possibly have a kicker go on the injury report the day before the game and not call up your kicker from the practice squad or have your punter ready to at least kick off? He gets hurt on the opening kickoff. By the way, that about 45 minutes after during his pregame routine, he had to stop going to the locker room because he was uncomfortable and he had to get his groin wrapped. At that point, to send him out to kick off was insane. You're going to tell me the punter couldn't have just kicked off?

And he got hurt when Austin Echler broke the big kickoff return for the score. Of course, got called back and they were without a kicker in an NFL game. Again, you don't carry two kickers on a game day roster, okay? You should have a contingency plan with your punter or maybe somebody else. In fact, you know what? I'm going to share a story with you guys right now. This is a story that I never shared. And so in 2021, I did the weekly radio hit with Ron Rivera.

He was on the station, the team 980. He came on with me once a week, and we recorded this segment, which aired on Friday mornings, but we recorded it on Thursday afternoons. I hated recording it. I like doing it live, especially when things can get dated, because we would do it Thursday. I mean, what if somebody got hurt on Thursday night, or he didn't disclose an injury that they weren't going to disclose until Friday? Or, you know, that never made sense to me. I mean, he was up early enough. I was up early enough.

It's back when I was hosting mornings. But for whatever reason, they wanted to record it the day before. So we did it that way. Do you remember when they played Seattle on Monday night football? They won the game 17 to 15. But towards the end of the game, Washington's kicker, you know, in that game, got hurt during the game. The kicker was Joey Sloss. And on a final drive late in the game, with Washington leading 17 to 9, they had a fourth and goal at the Seattle three-yard line with about two and a half minutes to go in the game.

And Washington went for it on fourth and goal at the three. Now again, they didn't have Joey Sly. He had gotten hurt. However, Tress Way had kicked a few field goals when he was at O'Reilly. Oklahoma in college. And they went for it and they didn't get it. And Seattle went down the field, 90-something yards, scored a touchdown, but missed the two-point conversion that would have tied it. But on fourth and goal at the three, when you're up eight, of course you kick the field goal. Like that's 100%. Now, they didn't have a field goal kicker, but it was a 20-yard field goal. It was a chip shot.

I mean, some of you out there just messing around in the backyard can kick 20-yard field goals. So I asked Ron why he went for it there rather than having Tress Way kick the field goal. And he said, I was told that he couldn't kick the field goal. And I said, well, is it typical? And it was a very respectful question. I said, is it typical that, you know, you go into a game with a contingency plan for a kicker being hurt? Which, by the way, I could understand if basically teams go into games with, you know, a flimsy contingency plan at best. Because what are the odds typically that a kicker gets hurt?

It doesn't happen that often. But I think most teams have, you know, some sort of contingency plan. It's usually the punter, all right? And he thought that the question was very disrespectful and told me that. And I don't know if I should say this. He hung up on me. He knew we were recording it, and he hung up on me. And I reached out to Washington's PR person at the time, and I told him what happened.

And he said, are you serious? And I go, I've got it recorded. I'll send it to you so you can listen to it. It wasn't disrespectful. It wasn't confrontational at all. So they listened to it, and they got right back to me, and they said, he's had a long day. It was not a good situation. You're 100% right.

The question was not out of line. It was not disrespectfully presented or any of that. And so, to his credit, we reconnected, we finished the interview. he said he was sorry and I said, look, I'm sorry that you thought that it was disrespectful, but I think it was a legitimate question. However, and I'm going to admit this, I pulled the question from the interview because he really was incredibly sensitive to me asking why they didn't have, or again, I didn't say why didn't you have? I said, is it typical that teams have a contingency plan in the case of losing a kicker during the game? And by the way, I got to think, still to this day, the Tressway could

have kicked a 20-yard field goal to make the lead 11. Now, the ball was at the three-yard line. Seattle hadn't done anything all night offensively. And, you know, even if you miss it, They got to go 96 yards, 97 yards, and still make a two-point conversion. But still, I think most people understand, score, time, you kick the field goal, chip shot, 11-point lead game over. But yeah, it was interesting. And I have to say, and I should have said this and prefaced this, with all season long, he couldn't have been more pleasant.

We had nice conversations both during the recording of the interview, after the interview. You know, he was on the competition committee, and you know a lot of the competition committee rules and stuff. I get into that, and we had several conversations about different things. I remember we got into a long conversation, not a long conversation, but, you know, a 15, 20 minute conversation just about, I felt like, you know, defensive holding or a legal use of the hands shouldn't be an automatic. first down. Like if you wanted to make it a 10-yard penalty, that's fine, but there's nothing worse than 3rd and 17, and nobody's open, the quarterback throws it away, and you got an illegal use of hands on the other side of the field where the quarterback wasn't even looking, and he totally

agreed. I remember he said that there were conversations about that, but he got into, you know, the problem with that, of course, is now, you know, if it's not going to be an automatic first down, you'll get defenses that'll hold even more egregiously and try to get away with it. Anyway, my conversations with him that year were really pleasant all the time but i clearly caught him on a bad day and maybe it was one of those things and i when we got back i just said i'm going to ask you this again and he just said i'd rather us just steer clear of that and i said okay and i moved on and it was you know a relatively important question and i remember some of you reached out to me because I had questioned it on the show leading up to my interview with him,

and I had even said, I'm going to ask him about this because I'm just curious. Do teams typically have a contingency plan for losing a kicker or not? So three years later, almost three years later, if you were one of the three people that may have wondered why I didn't ask him about that on that particular day, I actually did. And that's what happened. And I was not thrilled with myself, honestly, after that, for him coming back and me not saying to him,

it's really important that I ask you this question and that you give me some sort of answer. But with the way it ended, I just figured we had another five or six weeks to go in the season. And if you recall at the time, They, that was, you know, it was 2021. They were about, they were in the midst of getting on a roll. You know, they got to six and six at that point.

And so, yeah, anyway. All right, back to the things that I liked list. I loved that the Giants basically gifted us three points, maybe six, because the three extra points, you know, and then the fourth and four field goal attempt that probably would have come with just over two minutes to go. You know, you do the math and, you know, sometimes it's, you know, it's one event, you know, leads to another and you can't go back and do it. But really, if you just say three extra points, you know, Washington wasn't going to go for fourth downs and touchdowns, and then a field goal at 205 or whatever left in the game, it would

have probably been 24 to 18 at that point. And Washington would have needed a touchdown at the end. Maybe things would have gone differently. But that's number one on the list. Number two on the list is Jaden Daniels. All right. He was better this week than he was last week. I gave him a B last week. I'm giving him an A this week. And let me preface what I'm going to say with, you know, he missed some place. He was not perfect. But I think the way he played in the second half and the way he played in particular on that final or the final two drives. That was progress. And he made enough plays during the course of the game.

I think he missed some things, and we'll get to some of the negatives, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. We'll start with this. You know, I mentioned this in the open. Poised, calm, in control, he appears to be made for this, you know, and some of these moments. 23 of 29 for 226 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, 7.8 yards per pass attempt, not bad, took five sacks. I think some of them were on him. I do.

But I'll have more on that tomorrow with Tommy after I get a chance to see the all-22. But here's the good news on those sacks. And this is something I talked about all off-season. His lost yardage on five sacks, 21 yards. See, what he did at LSU, which is one of the things I talked about, talked about a lot is that his average yards lost per sack was low, much lower than any of the other quarterbacks that were being talked about. You know, Caleb Williams, Drake May, etc. Bo Nix, you know, Pennix Jr., J.J. McCarthy, et cetera. And the reason was, I mean, it was multifold,

but he just didn't, he wasn't the quarterback that dropped back and just got smothered and didn't see it and lost nine yards. He was always under pressure trying to escape, trying to create. He'd work his way back towards the line of scrimmage, so the loss was like two yards. He did that yesterday. He actually did that and avoided what would have been a sack with a zero-yard gain after almost being sacked. And that's him. You know, look, he escaped one early on a Micah McFadden Blitz, where he was lucky to get out of that one, but it should have been about a nine or a ten-yard loss, and it was a three-yard. loss. But he is good at escaping sack opportunities, and even if the play ultimately results in a registered sack, it's not significant lost yardage. There will be times where it is, okay?

I mean, it's the NFL. The other guys get paid to, and there are some nasty pass rushes and some really smart coordinators, you know, scheming up pressure. But I do think that some of those Sacks were probably on him. But, you know, instead of ending up second and 20 or second and 17, they typically end up, you know, second and 11, second and 10. See, that's the difference. You know, sacks and penalties are the biggest derailers, the biggest drive killers. Penalties you can't control in terms of the yardage. Sacks, you can.

And there's a big difference between second and 19. and second and 11. All right, his best plays, in my opinion. First, the throws. I loved some of the RPO decisions he made. His release is so quick. There's a third and one on that long opening drive. What a drive, by the way.

The right decision he makes because the run's not there and they're playing off Diami Brown. And he gets it out quickly. It's a five-yard completion, first down, move the sticks. I thought he had some good decisions when he didn't throw the pass

on RPO plays and instead handed the ball off to the running back. I loved the first play after he got the wind knocked out of him, which I thought was a rib shot. I was worried about that. But he comes right back in after Driscoll plays one snap and he throws a perfect slant to Terry McClaren. I mean, fits it in perfectly. Between the corner and the dropping linebacker, big time throw. Love the throw to Noah Brown in the fourth quarter on a play action. slant for 15 yards. Super quick processing. He goes left to right and hits Brown, who goes to the

ground with the catch. I actually thought it was thrown well enough. I thought it was for him to catch it in stride, maybe score. The throw to Echler on that, you know, where they moved Daniels in part of the pocket to the right, and then he throws back to Echler. What a perfect throw. See, that throw can, the throw can be the difference between, say, a 10-yard gain and what Echler got, a 27-yard gain. It's thrown on a rope leading Echler, so he's not waiting for it. It's in stride. Echler never breaks stride, and boom, he's down to the six-yard line. And then that final throw to Noah Brown was perfect.

Second and 10, he looks left and comes back, hits him in stride for 34 yards. And for all the people that in the off-season who didn't watch, much of LSU. I don't think they did, but relied on, you know, I don't know, box scores or advanced, you know, numbers that said he doesn't throw over the middle. That's terrible. He can't. It wasn't that he couldn't. He did, but he didn't have to do it a lot, as I talked about during the offseason, because their first and second down offense was so good. They didn't have those third down and mediums. They didn't have, you know, those plays where it's like you're definitely looking towards the middle of the field.

All right. Had some runs, man. The third and ten scramble for about nine and a half yards that's set up a fourth and one. I mean, he's so decisive with pressure. You know, again, there's possibilities that there are things he could hit downfield, and I know he missed some last week, and I know he missed some yesterday, but this is the run where he escapes and cuts back and nearly gets the full 10 yards on that opening drive. this scramble where he took off on the shot that he got hit on and got knocked out of the game for one play,

third and 13. Look, you're not going to protect yourself as much as you think he should, or he's not going to protect himself as much as you think he should in those spots. It's football. He's got 13 yards on a third down. He went and got you 14 yards. I love the play. He took a shot. I get it, but it was a first down. There's a first and 15 late first half. He escapes a really good feel in the pocket. nine yards he gets out of it. He avoided a sack in the third quarter by escaping, getting back to the line of scrimmage. Great feel in the pocket. He's got terrific, you know, kind of feel and vision. There's nothing similar about his game and RG3's game. They have similar speed, but he's much more of a spatial vision feel athlete than RG3's. three was. The read option keeper on the final drive was his biggest run of the day. It was 14 yards.

He got out of bounds. I didn't have a problem with him getting out of bounds because it was a first down. Do you want the clock to continue to roll? Do you want the Giants to use that timeout? Yeah, of course, but it's a first down and you don't want him to take a big shot or have them potentially risk himself sliding in bounds. When you pick up a first down, that's fine. I think there was a play that I really, I wrote down that I really loved the check. Now this is part Kingsbury too. It's third and 14 at the line of scrimmage first half. And there's clearly a check to, if there's a light box, run it. If there's a loaded box, let's take the shot. It was a light box, and they handed it off to Echler, and he got 13 yards. And you can see, he checked a lot. You know, what's he doing there? I think for the

most part he's got two plays. He's got the play, and then he's got another play to check to. And will it become more advanced? It's pretty advanced already. You see him working that line of scrimmage a lot for a second game. I like that. A game. I got him as an A. I guarantee you there were things he missed. I think he missed the double move, the stop and go to Noah Brown on third and six. I think that's going to be the one that when, you know, the all-torn. You know, the 22 comes out and people start looking at it. You know, you'll probably have the, you know, the Dan Orlovskys and company out there, you know, talking about some of the things he missed. I think there were a couple of times where he drifted a little bit backwards in the pocket

rather than stepping up. That actually bothered me last week with the sack fumble. I noticed it a little bit yesterday a couple of times. I don't think necessarily those plays, there were a couple of them where he made throws. I think there's a pocket for him to step up into on a couple of the throws. He missed one. I thought that was late in the back of the end zone to, I think, Diami or Noah Brown. So there were things he missed. I'm still giving him an A, though. There were many more good plays than bad plays, especially in the second half, and especially with the game on the line. All right. Other things I liked. How about seven, for seven on drives. No punts. Okay, no touchdowns. The red zone failures. They're going to be a

part of the list of things that I did not like. But no punts in a game, seven of 14 on third down, one for one on fourth down. You'll take that kind of production between the 20s. Every game. The first drive in particular, I mean, nine minutes and 36 seconds, 16 plays, 64 yards. They ended up with a time of possession advantage, 3722 to 2238? I mean, and it started really with that first drive. I know you got to score touchdowns in the red zone, especially against better opponents that have kickers. But yesterday you didn't.

You just needed seven drives, seven scores, seven field goals, and it was enough. But still, seven for seven, no punts. impressive. 425 yards for the day, 6.2 yards per play. How about 215 yards rushing? You know, you give credit to Cliff Kingsbury. You give credit to the offensive line. I thought the offensive line, and I thought this way last week, especially maybe more so in the second half, physical up front in the run game in particular. But look, this is going to be fun. this year because when you have a quarterback that is dual threat and presents himself as a potential runner on any down, that is a game changer, especially when the quarterback is as much

of a threat as Jaden Daniels is. Everybody eats because of what gets opened up by the defense in conflict, wondering if he's going to keep the ball on his own read, if he's going to potentially take it on a QB draw or a QB counter or a QB, you know, naked boot. Who knows? I mean, they didn't run as many. They ran Reed Option yesterday, but there were more handoffs to the running backs in Zone Reed. I thought that going in to the game because 3-4 typically with the outside linebackers makes it a little bit harder to keep it off of those, although he did there at the end with blocking. And they have sometimes their tight end baits in particular will end up being a lead blocker, I think Ertz was as well, Senate maybe too. But running the football for 215 yards

in the game, they're going to be, I think, up there this year in terms of rush offenses. And you know, rush offenses over the last several years have ended up being playoff teams. I'm not saying that they're going to be that right now, even though I predicted it before the season started. I'm just saying that his involvement in the run game and Kingsbury leveraging that is huge. I thought Kingsbury had a good plan. Quick game early. I like quick game. I don't mind the line of scrimmage throws. They went down the field when it mattered at the end of the game. It gets Jaden into it. Shane Bowen's defense in Tennessee was Ben Don't Break, so there were more opportunities there to get some quick game going. Try to get the ball into your playmaker's hands, have them make plays. I get it. Terry's not right now lighten it up, but he's not targeted enough. He hasn't gotten the yards. that you think he should be getting. But 226 passing yards, 215 rushing yards. Okay, I'm sorry.

I'm a Terry McCorn fan too, but I'll take their production on offense other than the Red Zone production every single Sunday, whether Terry has 100 plus yards in receptions or 12. You know, I think you saw yesterday in Malik Neighbors a true superstar talent, true superstar talent. Terry's a really good,

receiver. All right, he's a number one receiver. There are so many elite, elite level talent receivers, talented receivers in the game. But look, the bottom line is he's using Jaden. He's making Jaden comfortable. I love some of the formations, especially with the two backs in the game. I love that they'll go under center. They'll go shotgun. They'll go pistol. I'd have to go back and look to see if there was more motion in this game, but loved the Robinson and Echler usages, both in the game at the same time or one of them in the game, because that's where I'm going next. Both of them were outstanding. Brian Robinson, Jr. was my footnote for the year that he was going to end up in the Pro Bowl. He was going to be in the top three in the league in rushing.

He had a career day yesterday, 133 yards on 17 carries. Did you see the shot he took it last year, saying it's nice to get the ball 17 times. 17 times isn't even that much, but 17 for 133. His best run was that, you know, power third and 140-yard run. Love it. Echler looks like Echler from a couple of years ago. He really does. This guy is shifty. He makes people miss. He never takes a direct shot, except for when he tried to leap into the end zone from the seven-yard line on that pass. But right now, Jaden, Robinson, Jr., and Echler. I mean, that's your three-headed offensive monster. I thought Noah Brown played really well.

He clearly got more separation than we've seen, I think, from almost any receiver in the first two games. I thought Ertz was outstanding. That first catch that he came down with that almost looked like it was an interception. And I thought Brian Daibel actually threw a flag in time, but you really couldn't tell. I don't think they would have won the challenge. I think that that would not have been overturned. By the way, that throw was not a beauty, but I think he got hit. I think Jaden got hit on that throw.

But Ertz providing that big target, the quarterback in the tight end, he knows that Ertz is reliable, knows where he's going to be, loved Ertz in the game, loved Brown in the game. Defensively, there's not a lot to love about this football game. I'll just say that I liked Benjamin St. Juice's punchout. I actually thought Benjamin St. Juice played well. I thought he played kind of pretty well last week. But that punchout, force fumble, the first of the year, was a huge play.

Third quarter, Giants on the move, nobody's stopping them, up 12 to 9. They could potentially make it a 19. Well, it wouldn't be 19. It would have either been 18 or 20 to 9. but that was a massive punchout of Singletary. Big play, massive play in the game. I thought Frankie Louvo was high energy flying around. That hit on neighbors early was interesting.

Yeah, and then of course the kicker, duh. Austin Cybert, I mean, what were the odds of seven field goals in a game? But then, beyond that, how about the odds of six of those field goals? essentially being chip shot range, 33 yards and in. You know, that is a red zone conversation that we're going to have here in a moment. None of the kicks were stressful. You know, they all split the uprights pretty much. Give credit to the special teams coach, Larry Izzo, the long snapper, Tyler Ott,

Tress Way. He had a 45-yarder, and then he had six of them from 33 and in. He had four of them in the 20s. I mean, they didn't really, you know, put, him, but look, some kickers miss, nobody misses those anymore. I mean, kickers are kicking 50-yarders like they used to kick 30-yarders. This guy, by the way, Austin Cyber, was 45 of 56 on field goals for his career when they signed him last week. That wasn't the problem. The problem were extra points. He had missed six of them in his first two seasons with the team that drafted

him, Cleveland. And that's what got him cut. So he was great on fuel. goals yesterday. He didn't have a chance to mess up a PAT. The PAT would have been the second longest field goal of the day for him. That's 37 yards. Everything, six of the kicks were inside, were 33 or closer. He was one kick away. If that game had gone to overtime, which it wasn't going to do at the end, but let's just say the Giants had a kick or kick to go up 2118 and Washington tied it at 2121. He could have tied the NFL record with an eighth field goal. That was set by Rob Barronis back in 2007. But Cybert joins nine other kickers who have had seven in a game. One other thing about his performance, seven kickoffs in the game, six of them were returned.

Interesting, right? Because last week, you know, the plan was pretty much to kick it out of the end zone. I'm not sure what the plan was. I hope he can kick it out of the end zone if he wants to. but six of the kickoffs were returned. One other thing, actually, with Austin Seibert. I read this in the athletic. David Aldridge wrote about it. Austin Seibert's agent, his representation, is Dave Butts Jr. Yeah, that Dave Butts.

Our Dave Butts' son, Dave Butts Jr., is Austin Seibert's agent. As it turns out, their grandfathers, so Dave Butts's father, they grew up together on the same street in Bellevue, Illinois, and the families are really close. Austin Seibert's agent is number 65 son. I thought that was interesting, especially considering that Dave Butts, as David Aldridge reminded those of us that read his story, Dave Butz used to ride to every game with Mark Mosley, number three.

the greatest kicker in the history of the franchise, the MVP in 1982. All right, the list of things that I did not like. We start with defense. Boy, this is, even though it's only two games, this is a concern right now. And what makes it a concern, even though it's only been two games, is that they played a team that came in teetering on the edge, Like the Giants were really bad offensively last year, and they were really bad in their opener, and the quarterback had been vilified all week, and the quarterback looked like he had no confidence.

I know he's had success against Washington in the past, and they came in, and they took it to us. They ran the football, which was number one yesterday. Last week, you know, there was some good first down defense against Tampa. but there was some good pressure defensively, even though they didn't get home enough. Yesterday, Devon Singletary essentially went for nearly six yards of carry, 5.9 yards per carry. They couldn't stop the run. That made it easier for Daniel Jones in play action, and then they had a receiver in Malik Neighbors who looks like the next big thing among the receivers.

Stopping the run, I thought, was number one yesterday, and they got shredded. I didn't think that it looked like last week in the second half, Tampa ran the ball pretty well. It looks like gap, you know, sound, gap integrity. I personally don't think that John Allen and especially Duran Payne played that poorly, especially Duran. I'd have to go back and look at it. I thought Duran was essentially dominating at the line of scrimmage on a couple of plays and in the backfield a bunch. I thought he made Daniel Jones run a couple times and get off his mark. But clearly there was something wrong against the run.

I mean, Devin Singletary is a good back. Don't get me wrong. This team, though, shouldn't have come in and run the ball down Washington's throat and then make it much easier for Daniel Jones to get his confidence back, both as a passer and a runner. It is really hard to fathom how bad the results have been defensive. you know, through the first two games of the season. I don't want to, you know, get bogged down this week. I promise I'll try not to in, you know, next-gen win rate numbers or PFF numbers because they, for the

first six quarters of this season, had given up nine scores on 11 drives. The Giants were two for their first three. Here's the worst part about it. Washington knew the Giants couldn't kick field goals. Now, on one hand, that works to the advantage of the offense because they know they've got four downs, right? When you know you've got four downs, there's an advantage to that. But Washington, at the end of the half, to allow that drive at the end of the half, when they had no kicker, it was terrible. Three for three in the red zone. The man coverage does not appear to be working. No Forbes yesterday. I thought Mike Davis looked slow. Whether it was him or Noah I on Malik Neighbors mismatch, I don't have as much of a problem with Mike Davis as a tackler on some of those hitches.

I think Neighbors is going to bust loose on a lot of those unless you're playing tighter coverage. I had an issue in general with the tackling, more communication issues it would appear, and no pass rush, none. No pass rush really to speak of. and this is, although it's just week two, and all of the players, not all of them, more than two-thirds of the players that are playing, are new. It's alarming. It looks like last year's defense. And if it doesn't get better, they can't really win enough games to have a competitive season. And it's not about, you know, the prediction I made, which will probably be way off. That's fine. I want them to be in a competitive situation for the quarterback. I want to see Dan Quinn as a

head coach in competitive situations. I want this quarterback to be in meaningful games, not out of meaningful games by the time we get to, say, early December, late November. And you can't in the NFL be a decent team, a competitive team when you are essentially being run over by the New York Giants. Red zone offense. Terrible. Oh, for six. I mean, that's hard to do. And the penalties were just the killer there, you know, first drive, fourth and one, false start, Ben Sennett, the rookie. Third drive, first and ten at the 14, Cosmi false start. Fifth drive, second and goal at the four, Allegretti false start. Sixth drive. First in goal at the six, Cosmea a false start. Then third and goal at the 10, Lucas, a false start. You can't, you know, when you are not quite there yet, you know,

as a team, you can't have 10 penalties in the game, five of them in the red zone, or four of them in the red zone, derailing four opportunities for touchdowns. You can't have it. They're just, We don't have at this point the kind of talent offensively. I mean, I think the quarterback can do some things. But red zone offense, 0 for six, penalties in the game. They now have 17 penalties for 120 yards in two games. That's not good. The penalties yesterday included Nick Ballore, the special teamer,

who got called for a takedown hold on the opening kickoff that Echler scored on. and then on the kickoff following Washington's long drive and field goal, he got called for unsportsman-like conduct that allowed the giants to start their first drive from the 47-yard line. Defense, red zone offense, penalties. You know, and the red zone offense really derailed by penalties. A few other quick observations. Jamon Davis inactive for the game, as was Jamison Crowder.

Zakias had a good punt return, but it was on, A super long punt, sort of an outkicking the coverage, kind of a punt. I don't know why Jamon Davis didn't play, but they didn't get any pass rush with anybody else. Cleland Farrell had the one sack, had a couple of other pressures. I think Duron had some pressures. I don't know what's going on with Jamie Davis. I can't answer the question. I thought in the 12 or 13 or 14 snaps he played in week one, I thought he played okay.

I thought they kind of liked the way it was coming along. I don't know why he was inactive. although Ben did have a theory today on radio. And I actually think, yeah, this is probably the reason. So it looked like on Saturday that Cleland Farrell might not be able to go. And so they called up Carlos Watkins from the practice squad. So instead of when Cleland Farrell was cleared to go, sending Carlos Watkins down and using up one of your practice squad moves, they just made Jamin. inactive. That may have been the reason. I don't know if you guys followed along with that.

Practice squad move up to the main roster on Saturday because they were concerned about Cleland Farrell, which meant I think Jamie Davis was scheduled to play. When Cleland Farrell was cleared and it's like, no, he can go yesterday morning during the initial warmups when they got to the stadium, they didn't want to put Watkins down because that makes it count, it counts as a practice squad move. He played three snaps, Watkins did, so they made Jamon inactive. Yeah Oh One other observation

I thought on the Giants Final two drives There were Let me just look through my notes here Hold on because I wrote it down I actually tweeted I thought there was a false start And a delay a game

That was not caught Down the stretch On their Yeah, it would have been the Giants drive that made it 18 to 15. That drive. It was fourth and three. It looked like a false start. And they completed a pass to neighbors for four yards in front of Noah I.

There was a third and 11 prior to that. It looked like delay of game. Although these delay of games, we see the clock get to the zeros all the time, right? and then I think they let it go another beat. I don't know. But I thought they missed, considering how many false starts were called on Washington, I thought they missed a couple there on the Giants next to last drive. So, Cincinnati's up next on the road.

The Bengals are 0 and 2. What a game that was, huh? That was a football game at Arrowhead yesterday. Such a great game for a week two. 11 games yesterday decided by a touchdown or less. I'm not going to do a lot of the other NFL today. We're going to get to Doc, and I'll save some of that tomorrow. But I did see just some breaking news that Andy Dalton is going to start for the Carolina Panthers.

They have benched Bryce Young. He has been dreadful. You know, Andy Dalton's the kind of veteran that Bryce Young should probably watch for a little while, you know. Bryce Young, I like Bryce Young coming out. I liked him more than Stroud. I'm not going back on that. But I said right from the jump, he's tiny, man. Stanford Steve was on the show. I remember he was on the field for a Bama, maybe he was BAM LSU a few years back. And he said, the guy's not even 5'10. He's like 5'8. And that's a problem in the NFL. I mean, he is listed at 510, 200. poor Bryce Young.

I mean, I thought he was a phenomenal college quarterback, and I thought his feel and his release and his process. I thought it would all work, but it may not. By the way, David Tepper, the worst owner in the NFL. I mean, that trade that got them Bryce Young, he's taken that Snyder mantle. Let me mention real quickly, no smell test pick tonight. With A.J. Brown out of the game,

I was going to give out Atlanta. The lines down to five now. I'm staying off of the game. Five one and one yesterday in the NFL. The only loser was New York. And 0 and 3 on Saturday in the NFL. So a 5-4 and 1, actually 5-5-1 when you factor in. I had a Thursday night game.

I was thrilled to get back to 500 for the weekend because Saturday wasn't even close. A good win for Maryland. I had Virginia really loved. loved the way the Terps came out in the second half. Played really well. Ty Felton, if you don't know this right now, I mean, I think he is emerging now as a guy that has a chance next April to be a first rounder as a receiver.

He is no worse than a night two pick. He leads the nation, I think, in receptions or reception yards. One of the two, I'm not sure. But good win for Maryland over Virginia 27 to 13. They were down in that game. again, a bunch of penalties in the first half, typical, but resilient came back, played some good football. They were the better team. They have more talent than UVA does. Real quickly, before we get to Doc, if you want a chance to win a $500 gift card, go to bluewirepods.com slash survey.

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look a gift horse win in the mouth you used to always tell me. So how did you feel after seven field goals, no touchdowns, but a win over the New York Giants? Cyber scene number three, I thought it was Mosley recarnated. I loved it. You know, getting the victory is hard. You know it. I know it. There's a lot of things I'll break down. We can, well, after you break it down, we'll redo it. But I'll take the win because it's hard to get one. Neighbors is the truth. If you ever want to know what in this number one receiver talk you keep hearing about, that's what it looks like.

That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like. Yeah, that's what it looks like. So get it in your mind so you can stop discussing it because a lot of times you don't know what you, people just repeat what they hear other people talk about. That's it. You don't have to wonder where they are. And they're hard to stop, especially running underneath.

It was really a nice play design. But, you know, losing Graham one guy. And it's amazing, a multimillion-dollar operation. And you don't have a guy that can kick a backup P-A-T. Sounds simple. But I guarantee you right now that the ownership for the Giants, they're screaming and they're breaking plates against a wall. to have that much invested.

And that's something somebody's got to be all accountable for. There's no doubt about that. I mean, look, these games come down to a lot of different things, but the bottom line is that guy was hurt going into the game, and they didn't have anybody to replace them, which was insane. And, you know, I'm glad you said that, because I said it in the open of the podcast. I think sometimes our fans, and I don't begrudging,

them for this. They are totally dedicated to watching our team and only our team. But there are so many elite wide receivers in the league and you saw the next one yesterday. And he dropped

the fourth and four, which could have been the game decider there too. Although, I don't know if they were going to kick a field goal. They were going to have to score a touchdown probably, but my God, Malik neighbors in his second game looked like the next coming of Justin Jefferson.

But we don't have to talk about them. Let's talk about this team. I want your assessment of the quarterback. You know, what he is, he's so dynamic that he scares the heck out of the defense. He puts you on hold. And as he develops, he's hell on wheels because he does something to the only,

the young man in Baltimore is the only other person that strikes that fear in the defense. And as he develops and as players around him, like B. Rob and Ackler, they step up, they're going to be hard to deal with. Like, when you get Ertz who stepped up, if people just step up, you know, Terry flashed, is people play

and the people up front they blocked their butts off. They gave him a chance. He's not going to let you down. But he's got to grow into it. And that passing develops they're going to have a chance if they can get stops,

you know, and the whole thing comes around. But by all means, he's worth the weight and he's worth the investment if he can survive it. He's going to have to get down more comfortably. it just is a wreck that he can't slide.

That's the crazy thing I've ever seen in my life, but they've got to work around it. I mean, you recognize the Cali demeanor. What do you make of that? How kind of poised and calm and coolly is out there? Some guys, if that it factor, you know, Caleb has it. Arch Manning came in for Longhorns. He has it.

You can, not everybody does, and we've had a ton of them come through here. But when you get one, it's such a rare deal. You owe it to yourself now as an organization, not to F it up. Because you definitely have something. And I guess Kingsbury, it's a mesh. And they finally went to the run game more. I think the more you spread it out and take it off his shoulders,

as he grows, the better off the team will be. if everybody else just chips in and does their thing. And defensively, if we can get any contribution from our ends, we need somebody to be special. They may be doing the best they're capable of doing. That just may be it. You may just be tapped out of talent. But so far, I haven't seen anybody scare anybody off the edge.

And I thought we'd get more. And we may. It may be this is the week that it happened, but so far, it hasn't happened. All right. We'll come back to the defense. What is your level of concern with Jaden getting hit? Zero. He's been that side of his whole life.

It's like when people see people, their body type, look for real. They forgot he'd been in that his whole life. And how he worked out? Fine. He's going to get hit like anybody else. He got the wind knocked up and he bounced right back. I have no problems with that because I think he's good with it. But it does, it has to be monitored.

He can't be reckless. And he can't get the blindside hit. I call it a perfect no-hitter. As long as our people up front and they've done a good job so far, just engage your guy. Don't get a perfect no-hitter where you miss the guy clean and he gets a running start and hits him from the backside. That might kill him.

But if they don't do that, The rest of this he's good with. What did you think of the job Cliff Kingsbury did yesterday? I think the better the people, like I said, what Earths, that was a step-up move. That was like King Kong. Hey, look at me beating his chest. He's like, I got a lot more to take feed me. I saw that.

Terry got a little bit more involved. I just saw as more people perform in the line game a shot at that, I think was learning more by me fed the backs. He's got two outstanding running back. So, you know, keeping possessions. And what happens when you get field goals, you extend drives, momentum.

We missed the kicks in game one, and you go flat. You make these, it encourages everybody. It just builds. I mean, look, we at Mosley. I know what it's like. You get bailed out. And I said, it's to Mo. Mo, I said,

you know, every time you came in, it means we failed. You build us out. You build us out over and over and over, and that builds momentum. So having been through a similar workout, whether you're flipping your team and you're going from mediocre to building a championship base, this is what it looks like. And it depends on how many people individually mature at the right time and step up and give you these contributions. And you're starting to see it. It's flashing. We just need more people to step up.

It does look, though, right, Doc, through two games, and it's only two games, that Robinson, Jr. 8, and 30 Eckler are their two best go-to guys, whether it's handing the ball off or throwing it to them. Yeah, they're really good. They're worth the price of admission. You know, you don't always get what you pay for. That's obvious. We know that better than anybody.

But these two guys, right now they're underpaid. You know, we always know who's overpaid. Now you're getting an idea. We need more people that are underpaid. You can see it. Big contributors better than advertised, like neighbors, better than advertised. I mean, this dude, I was like, will he stop? I mean, he just couldn't.

I mean, the route running. I mean, I know that there wasn't much. out there covering them, but still. But he also got a scheme. Got to give their offense a lot of credit, because with that dude as talented as he is, him running underneath and running, it was a really well-dvised scheme, and you got to give Dimes credit, because he didn't

fall apart. Never does. And we don't put a lot of pressure on anybody, really. And that's got to change. So the question is, if we can't get there with four, five, what do we do? What's going to be our next layer of attack? Yeah, I'm going to get to the defense in more detail here in a moment, but what about 85? What'd you think of Noah Brown in his first game? Got to be impressed. He wasn't, no stage fright. I mean, he just stepped in. For some guys,

the game is easier than practice. It's easier than everything else. They're just at home. and other guys is like, you know, putting a square peg in a round hole. Just natural. I'd feed him. I mean, he's just, he's comfortable. Yeah. You know, comfortable.

All right, let's go to the defensive side of the ball. And can I just before you go, just shout out to the offensive line. Because we got some scrappers up front. If they failed, we'd be all over. True. and Cosmi's a scrapper, but the penalties were killers yesterday. Well, the whole team has got to play with a higher IQ. Yeah.

I mean, you've got to be smarter. I mean, that's ridiculous. I mean, they're not good enough to play like dumb, dumps. They've got to play smart football. But in terms of their physical, and that's the most important thing. They are a physical group. now they got to be a high IQ team

and they got to match that physicality with with brains and doing things the right way and at least we got a chance now because you know how we will how close we were to O and 2 if you go to O and 2 before

you know it you're O and 5 we've been there we've done it yeah because people look at you as roadkill and they come in and they feel like we can take them out easy, you guys lose. They start doubting the, is this right? Is DQ, all the slogans, all the side? Is that met? Now, they go to the park today. J.D. ain't going to be the only guy there early. Right. Winning, I mean, it's, it's amazing. Now, self-esteem, they're going to

pop into that building. Half the team is probably already there. Now it's fun. And now you know that you got them cats out of Cincinnati. And you're going there, and they lost. So they're angry as all get out. And if you think neighbors was an issue, what did you see this dude this week? Yeah, Chase. All right.

Yeah. Before we get to what the issues are defensively, was there anything defensively that you were encouraged by yesterday? Yeah, I'm encouraged when we know. don't give up the big, the score, big play over the top, that we get beat by mistake, the communication. We had a communication problem in Tampa. So are they communicating better?

They had a leverage issue. They had things. Did they close that gap? And I think, I think so. I'm about a week away from asking that our defensive coordinator come out of the booth get on the sidelines. Because if we're not getting, maybe they need his presence to get them juiced up on the sideline.

Maybe. I'm just saying to get pressure, to get more plays up front. We have to do something because we have guys that have been pro-bow talents, and we're not getting pro-bow results. so we've got to figure out why. They can't double everybody. Now, if you're getting a double, then that means somebody else's got one-on-one.

And if you're getting one-on-one, you're one-on-one. There's a percentage that you're expected to win. And that's how I would look at it. If John gets doubled or, you know, John gets double, then that means somebody's got one-on-one. Are you telling me we're getting nowhere

wins. So I would look at the percentage of why aren't we getting wins. And then 52's inactive, who's got burst. You don't have a lot of quick-twitch guys on your defense. You focused in on the ends in particular. Do you think John and Duran are playing well or not? They're playing well, but there's pro-bo guys. Yeah. What is well? I mean, I'm looking, if you're doubled, then you did your job. Any man this good enough to take two men up, job done. That's why we're paying you the bag. Now I focus to, wait a miss Slim, you're one-on-one, you get no wins?

Yeah. Then that's me. That's telling me where I got a draft or trade. It's telling me where I've got a shortage yet. You didn't imagine if the people that we've had here in the past, Dexter Charles, Tony. One-on-one. yeah Harvey what

Marcus I mean I'm not saying I'm saying the whole game yeah I'm not saying a series yeah I got you don't get zeros the whole game

I thought when I asked you if there was anything encouraging I thought you'd mention Frankie Louvo no I no he's a dog he's a dog but I'm just saying, does he have to,

what's the stat? You're the stats got. I don't know what the stats are. I would imagine he led the team in tackles yesterday. I just love, he's the one that, to me, stands out from speed, energy, motor. He's a dog. No, he's a dog. He's as advertised.

But nothing really worked defensively again yesterday. Keep in mind, yes, number one was probably, the best player on the field yesterday. You could certainly make that case. But that team came in with no confidence and teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown at quarterback. And they got right. They just didn't have a kicker. Yeah, you know, the thing about play, and everybody, you know, they can pick their players and guys that they want to, see, I think St. Juice is playing his butt off. I do too. I do too. Yeah, I mean, I love the dude. I think he is active. You're going to get beat. But the question is, who beat you? Hall of Famer. Two guys teamed last week, yeah.

Edd. Yeah, last week. I go, and he was there and he said he had turned the wrong way. No problem, dude. He's taking the challenge on. You mentioned, you know, Chin, and I'm going, Stanmer still is learning it. Now, he's going through that process. I still think he's a dog. He's he's going to be there. But he's going through that process that you go through. He's figuring it out and having to learn it. But I think, you know, Armstrong and Farrell are good players. But I don't think I'm pressing them to ask for more because I think they have it in them.

They've shown that they have it in them. If they don't, we're in a world trouble. If this is the best we'll get out of them, then you're not going to be very good. Because coverage isn't good enough on the back end. You got, right? It's not going to, no, it's not going to be with them putting goose eggs up. How are they going to be there? Or either John and then Payne and Allen.

Now, we know, see, certain guys like our opponent that the Giants have, they have these road grades guys that just swallow people. But like Lawrence, it's the biggest human being I've seen. Yeah, me, he's like, but it's September. he needed oxygen. You could just tell it's September. He didn't play a lot.

So they got lucky. He'll be better as they get cold. He's unblockable. But I just think that this team, they were so fortunate to have gotten a win. Because you know when you win, the momentum of everything becomes easier. But you got a shot.

And also Newton. See, Newton's that guy. He got in, and to my knowledge, he didn't have a setback. But we need a guy. that's going to make plays. It's going to separate,

disengage, and make plays. And right now, you just don't have enough playmakers on defense. All right, I'm going to ask you a coach question because you have been a coach. Well, not a coach. How much easier is it for a coach to get the attention of the players about the mistakes they made after a win?

It is easier. it's easier because they feel better about themselves that pressures off from you having to hide. You can go out. Remember when malls were popular? We would never even go if you lose. You don't even want to be seen at the mall. You just, the thing is you hibernate and you don't, you just don't,

but now you do. Will Quinn be able to get his messages through about what they need to work on? because it was far from a clean game. Well, you know, when people say message, I think they got the message out. Here's what I need to determine. It is too soon. Maybe the message is there,

but they're not good enough to execute it. Right. I mean, you had a rotten roster. This team was run, you know, was run like a worse, a thrift lot, run by them jackasses that were here. So they don't,

they didn't realize how bad it was, clearly. they're not going to ever say it. But when you get here, you're the proof and the pudding. And so now they've got to figure out how do you survive the first part of the season. Stay in the race and then find out who's hot. Like nobody knew how good five was going to be. You hoped.

You didn't know. But this dude has a gear. He separates from people. like only one other person I've seen in the game. And I'm like, wow. The guy in Baltimore. The guy in Baltimore, nobody else. Who else does he remind you of?

Yeah, I mean, you know, there's some Vic to him. There's just, you can't get him if he's, if there's any kind of daylight. Forget about it. Yeah, you can't. But you got, this guy that we mentioned, not complete. Remember the guy. I go back to Richie's plan against Randall. It wasn't to sack him.

It was to keep him in the pocket. And I think that's what you're going to start seeing with Jaden. And by the way, I think he's fine in the pocket. But once you let him out, then it's a problem. So you might see the contain rush from teams rather than really coming after him, although they blitzed him and blitzed him effectively at times yesterday. so we'll see, I don't know. Yeah, it's going to be a mixed bag.

He proves what he can do and what he can't do. That's why he doesn't help. You know, in him and Terry, they tried, at least they tried to get him more involved. But we've got to get that going. You know, Erch, like I said, I keep saying, it Erch. Because the guys that are hot, you can see it. One more. We need one more guy because now it's just harder to defend them.

But, man, out of all of this, the highlight for me was the O-line. I mean, it was not a lot of clean runners or unblocked people. Well, not to mention when you rush for 215 yards and over six yards of carry, the O-line has something to do with it. Yeah. No deal. Yeah, but let's give them their roses. I know.

Could we be killing them if it wasn't? Right. Yeah, so I said, job well done. You know how it is, man. a win? I mean, the Giants are kicking themselves in the rear end because you know they felt like this is a gimmie

and then they lose their kicker. And then you know, now it's not so easy. And you just can't predict it, man. It's like the Bears in Houston every week's its own entity because of these powder puff preseason

so nobody's in football shape. And so you can steal September. September's so pivotal now because the lower bottom teams can gain, they can steal one or two. You can gain an advantage because once these people get in shape, they have better talent, you're not going to have a shot. Great job. Thank you for being available to me on a Monday after the game. I know how busy you are. Thanks for how you don't get the call on Monday. I knew how you're busy, and the fact that you would do this for me is, it means a lot.

I'm not busy. I'm on. Means a lot. Anytime you call, we're in, man. We're honored and tell your audience, give your audience my best. They love you. I'll call you later this week. Thank you.

Thanks, brother. Appreciate you. Bye-bye. Doc Walker, everybody. All right, that is it for the day back tomorrow with Tommy.