The Kevin Sheehan Show - A Cooley & Kevin Football Friday

Episode Date: October 11, 2019

Kevin opened with some Mystics and Pats-Giants. Chris Cooley joined Kevin to talk state of the Redskins and more. Kevin previewed Nats-Cardinals and had a pick. His "Smell Test" is 41-20-1 on the season. He had a very aggressive 17 picks for the weekend. He also made a Skins-Dolphins pick and discussed some of the bigger College and NFL games this weekend. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Claude is here for day two. Aaron will be back next week, but we are here on a Friday with a lot to talk about. Coolie's going to join us here shortly. We've got NLCS game one to preview tonight. Very excited to watch the Nats in a National League championship series. And congratulations are in order here at the top of the show for the Washington Mystics. The Mystics won the WNBA championship last night. Good for them. Christy Tolliver, Elena Deladon, all the team, players, coaches, all the owners. Congratulations. I mean, it's not often. We get to hear Washington in a sports context and champions in that same sentence, and we get to say that with the Mystics. Tonight's going to be awesome. It is, tonight it's michaelis for st louis it is annabel sanchise for washington game one in a true

baseball city st louis uh the st louis market loves the cardinals more than they love anything else these are this is a true number one baseball team town there aren't a lot of them i mean you could say that about new york and boston and chicago when their teams are really going well that they're great baseball towns. St. Louis is one of those cities, and there are only a few of them, where baseball is clearly number one. The Cardinals are the number one story in that town and that sports town, and it's an underrated sports town. They don't have a professional football team anymore. They haven't had a basketball team in a long, long time. They had an ABA team back in the 70s that Moses Malone played for, but the Cardinals and the Blues who just won the Stanley Cup. And it's

It's a good sports town. It's actually a very underrated city. I've always loved St. Louis when I've been there. But this is going to be another shot, really, for this franchise to exact some revenge. You know, 2012 was really the most painful of the meltdowns in the division series, the four that they lost before finally winning one against the Dodgers the other night. having a 6-0-0 lead in game 5 at Nats Park in 2012, and then having a two-run lead entering the ninth inning with poor Drew Storn on the mound. They've got a chance to get back.

Interestingly, the Nats are favored in this series. They're the wildcard team. St. Louis is the division champion. The Nats are minus 120 favorites. That's a slight favorite, not a big favorite, a very slight favorite, but the Nats are favored to win this series. I'll have a prediction later on in the show, but I'm really looking forward to watching tonight

and then tomorrow afternoon as well and then the series shifts back to Washington on Monday night. Sanchez is the starter. I'm expecting Scherzer tomorrow afternoon. Strasbourg Monday. And then Corbyn would probably pitch game four on Tuesday. And then depending on the series at that point, you would either get Sanchez again

or potentially Max Scherzer on short rest if he pitches tomorrow, which I think he's going to. going to do even though the Nats have not announced the series pitching rotation at this point. The NFL game last night, look, the Patriots won at 3514. I was appalled that the Giants would start Daniel Jones against the Patriots. 15 to 31 for 161 yards, three interceptions, the nerve, the gall, the audacity that the Giants would allow a rookie quarterback to face Bill Belmont. chick in his defense this early in his rookie year. I mean, he could be ruined for good. He may never get over

this. He may never get over this. His reputation is damaged forever. What kind of organization? Who would do this? Who would do this? I mean, imagine if the Giants like wanted to trade him tomorrow, nobody would want him after last night. Giant fans are already starting to turn on him. What an awful, terrible decision to play Daniel Jones against the Patriots. I don't think he'll recover, Claude. I don't think I'll ever recover from it. I really, seriously, of all the things that we've talked about here in recent weeks, the most ridiculous thing that got so much national attention was Dwayne Haskins coming in off the bench against the Giants.

Hello, he was the backup quarterback. And just, oh my God, you could never, ever start him against the Patriots. Can't do that. He'll be damaged for life. My God. Now, was that worse than sitting Peterson in week one? Yeah, it was because, you know, in week one, look, Jay didn't, Jay went into this season, I think we realized this now, Jay went into this season saying, F everybody, I'm going to do what I want to do,

and then they're going to fire me if it doesn't work out. And by the way, he's already playing golf in Florida. I mean, nobody's happier to be out of this mess right now than Jay Gruden. By the way, I'm segueing off that, you know, listening to Bill Callahan this week, and then Adrian Peterson yesterday saying, wow, I mean, things are really best practices he's seen. Of course, because he's going to get the ball on Sunday. If they don't beat the dolphins on Sunday, I wouldn't even know where to begin to describe this franchise at this point. I'm going to get into that in a little bit more detail with Cooley here shortly. But they are really confident that Jay Gruden being out of that building is going to turn this whole program around.

Who knows? Maybe they're right. We'll see. We will do sort of a Redskins beat Dolphin Zip with Coolly. I've got a smell test a little bit later on in the show. Too many picks probably this week, but whatever. They all sort of fit the criteria. Weird week, and I'll explain that later on. But let's get to Chris Cooney, who joins us now here on the podcast. So I wanted to start with this. I'm going to read a tweet that I got from Rob. Rob tweeted me coolly and said, Do you think Dan and Bruce waited to fire J so that the Dolphins would be the first game after he got fired, a game that they will probably win? No shit, Rob. Of course.

Of course they weren't going to fire him before the Patriots game and bring old Tom Callahan in to coach against the Patriots. By the way, I am interested in your thoughts since Jay got fired. In sort of the feeling out at the park that we've gotten from Bill, we got from Bruce on Monday, they're taking subtle jabs at Jay as if to say, look, you know, things are going to be okay now. We've got music out of the practices. We've got a better tempo. We're bringing referees in. We're going to focus on the run. Bill and Jay, obviously, we're not best pals here. But what do you sort of sense from all?

of the, you know, the implication that now that Jay is gone, all is well? Well, Kevin, you're 0 and 5 right now. And so all is not completely at this point. But you've got to start doing things the way you believe that they should be done if you're a head coach. And I don't think it's the easiest thing to do in the middle of the season. And Bill and Jay definitely have different philosophies on how you want to practice. And you can say some things are going to be better.

and you can say some things are going to be great. Like, I would have never had a problem having music and practices. I think something like music is good for a practice. But, I mean, obviously it depends on what you play. I mean, it's just all not better because you're only five. But there does have to be a foundation for how you work in an NFL practice. And I think that's what Bill wants to try to establish. Jay obviously had done it differently.

It was lighter. And when you're not winning, It's hard to go light. You can point in a lot of different things and say, did you emphasize those things? You know, the team didn't always wear pads in practice, and they didn't have referees in practice. And you get a ton of penalties, and you're saying, well, man, maybe if they got fits with pads and maybe if they had someone telling them more on a daily basis that that is a penalty, then they focused on it more.

Yeah, I get it. By the way, I was just thinking that some people are going to think that I got old Bill Callahan's name wrong when I said old Tom Callahan. But that's the way you used to refer to him. I don't know why we did that back in the old days. Well, I can tell you why we did it. Why did we do it? You had never seen this movie.

You never watched the movie Tommy Boy. Exactly. I've never seen Tommy Boy. And Tommy's dad is Tom Callahan. I got it. And it was Big Tom. Gotcha. That's what I always called him Big Tom Callahan.

It wasn't old Tom Callahan. It was Big Tom Callahan. Big Tom. Big Tom Callahan. And it wasn't a disrespect thing. It was just that it's Big Tom Callahan, man. Yeah. You know what's ironic about Big Tom Callahan?

is that, you know, he's bringing the referees in, and he's taking settled jabs at the coach and the lack of accountability and discipline and the whole thing, and it's been his offensive line more than any other portion of the team that's been penalized the most over the last two years. I understand the irony. I completely understand the irony of the entire situation. You could point and say, is he teaching them fundamentally the way you'd want to be taught in today's NFL? that are the techniques that they're using creating penalties. And on the flip side of it, you could say, well, there's a lot of stuff I'm trying to teach these guys, but when they're just wearing jerseys, they can't do it and practice the way I want to teach them to do it.

And so they're not really getting the right environment to do it. I don't know. There's a lot that I think it's interesting, you know, the abrupt change. And for the most part, the players seem excited about it. And that's the thing that I would care the most about is. they seem like they're excited about practice and they're excited to work. And to me, that's the thing that matters the most. Can you get your guys ready to play?

Do you think Jay is relieved? No, I wouldn't call it relief because it's failure. And he understands that it's a failure on his part. He had six years here and it didn't go the way he wanted to go. And I think everyone looks back on what they did and will always say when they failed, there were things that I could have done in different places and probably should have done in different areas. areas in different aspects of the game.

But relief, I don't think anyone wants to start 0-5 and fail. I think he probably, here's the point, though. I think he probably understood his fate, and especially at 0-2, 0-3 is a belt. When he lost to the Giants, he completely understood his fate, and so it just happened sooner. But I think he cared a lot about his players, and he cared a lot about his coaches,

and so he didn't want to leave it that way. I think that's a really obvious. Not obvious. I think that's an answer that makes a lot of sense to me. But it would lead to this that he knew his fate. He knew it was coming. He probably knew they weren't going to start old Tom Callahan's tenure, interim tenure, with Bill Belichick and the Patriots in a virtual road game at FedEx Field. But I'm just curious if you think Jay just said, you know, before the Patriot game, you know what, F it. I'm playing my guy, Colt McCoy. or maybe it was, I feel like I owe Colt one more start, and I'm in control for at least one more week. I want to go in that direction. It was in his mind, whether it be right or wrong,

and it obviously played out being wrong with the way Colt played, not having taken a lot of work in the preseason, that he wanted to try to give his team the best chance to win a ballgame in case him was hurt and he felt like it was cold. So in that respect, he's paying, some respect to his team and his players and trying to do what he believed was the best thing for a team to win. Back to Callahan for a moment, because the other sort of ironic thing, based on the information

that's coming out from him and his various press conferences this week, is that he wants to emphasize running the football, get back to being a run football team, and the run game, which he's been responsible for here for a few years, has stunk. what will change now that he's the head coach with the running game, do you think? Well, I think he's been largely responsible for creating the run game and the run schemes that have gone on through the better part of the last five and a half years. So in terms of the way you see the ball run, I don't think you're going to see a whole lot of change.

Maybe you could say they needed to run it more in his scheme to end up having success. You know, Mike believe that a lot. I know. That we're going to get some two- and three-yard carries in the first quarter. and through the first half we can't get frustrated with it because we're going to end up getting bigger carries in the second half. So obviously you're going to see some runs. I do think the other irony of some of these press conferences has been,

you know, the, well, I don't, I'm not going to talk about injuries. You can read on the report. I'm not going to tell you what's going on here. But we're going to run the ball 75 times. I didn't even think about it in that way. Good God, that is so true. Like, the injury thing is such another jab at Jay, who opened up every single press conference with, you know, the entire injury report.

And then, oh, by the way, I don't feel like you disclosing or I, it's not an information I want to tell you about. But, oh, by the way, we're going to run the ball on every play. It just did sort of help you prepare for us on Sunday. That's funny. And true. No, I mean, but if I'm Miami, I'm running. nine-man boss.

The first quarter of the game, like, come on, throw it. I dare you. I dare you to throw it. I didn't even think about that. I was, but it's so true. It's like, I mean, honestly, that is brilliant because, you know, I'm going to play it. Jay was an idiot for giving you all these injuries. I'm more like Belichick.

I'm not going to give you any injuries. By the way, we're going to run the ball all game long. You know what? Unless he comes out and throws it 50 times, you know, or throws it 25 times in the first staff, and it was a total head fake. I am writing that one down for Monday. That's really, really funny. You know, but in all effect to what he's going to try to do is he has just become the head coach,

and he is explaining to you his philosophy for winning football, and it's different because that would have been something I think a lot of people would have appreciated from a head coach in January, March, April, whatever, you're going through training camp, as we believe we're going to run the ball. And so I don't hate that he said it. I just think it's in the time you say it, you know, you are telling the dolphins you're going to run the ball. Yeah, exactly.

So, you know, I was thinking about Sunday, and I was thinking that this is really a fascinating game in many ways. Like, if they were playing somebody else this week, I probably wouldn't be as interested as maybe I am now, and I'll tell you why. The dolphins are the all-time NFL doormat. They are a team that is openly trying to lose. They're not trying to hide it.

They don't want to win games. You know, I think everybody out there listening understands that. They have been outscored on average in their first four games. 40 to 6. And they've had a buy week, by the way, to come up with more ways to get blown out here over the last two weeks. If the skins don't win on Sunday

against a team that is openly tanking like no other NFL team has in the league's 80-something year history, especially after the subtle jabs as to the way it's been, I mean, look, I'm not, I think, honestly, if that were to happen, Callahan should be fired on Monday. You know, because if you believe all of them, they're not going to lose on Sunday. Jay's gone all as well, beating Miami's a given, and it'll be the first of sort of a push

to be much more competitive over the final two and a half months of the season. And by the way, before you say what you're going to say, because I'm able to predict what you're going to say much of the time, I understand the players that are on the field for the dolphins are going to be trying their best. They have a personal interest to try their best. But the players that they're putting on the field, organizationally, are terrible. This is a team, coolly, not like Cleveland.

Cleveland was playing a lot of close games when they were tanking. The dolphins have been non-competitive. There's pressure on the Redskins to win this game. I'm just more interested in what you're predicting I'm going to say than anything that I am actually going to say. Well, we know each other fairly well. Okay, so here's what I'm going to say. First of all, Miami is taking organizationally

while instilling a belief system, air quotes, culture, because that's what everyone's doing in football. We're creating a culture. But they're creating a way they do things in Miami as a football team as an organization. And so they're not going to try to win the game. Don't get me wrong. They're not going to scheme to lose the game.

No coaches can do that. You owe it to your players whether or not they're good enough to at least try to find a way to win the ballgame. But we all understand because of the current players they have that they're not going to win very many ballgates. That's the obvious part of the game. Yeah, because organizationally they don't want to win. It's not Flores tanking. No, of course they don't. But Flores does owe it to the players.

And by the way, when you're trying to instill a new way of doing things, it's nice every once in a while to see that it works. Of course. It's nice every once in a while when you have a hard two-hour padded practice on Thursday to actually win a game. To say win the day every day, which is, I think, kind of the motto in Miami, it's every once in a while you need to win the day on Sunday. or it becomes harder and harder to win the day on Monday and, or excuse me, on Wednesday and Thursday,

and then players start going, man, medias, what we're doing isn't working. So they're not going to tank in terms of their effort or their coaches. But we get that. That said, they don't have any star players on that team at this point. Besides one cornerback, Xavier, what's his last name? You know his name? I can't think of his last name. They have one cornerback who's an elite cornerback.

they drafted Christian Wilkins who is going to be a very good player in this league and, you know, they have a couple receivers who are B receiver, but essentially you look at that roster and you say at best they have one A player and then they have five or six B players and then they're just mad. So yeah, they're going to lose a lot of games.

The Redskins should go down to Miami and should kick the shit out of them. That's what should happen. But that should have happened whether or not Bill was here or Jay was here. We should go to Miami and we should kick the shit out of the Dolphins. But do we care about that? Like this isn't telling game. The telling game will be Detroit or San Francisco the next week, and then it'll be

Detroit, and then it'll be the Dallas game, and then it'll be the Giants game. Those are going to be the telling games as to if you can change it that fast, which is going to be really, really hard to do. I do think this, though, I think any head coach has a responsibility to teach players what it's like to be in the NFL and how to work and how to practice. And whether or not you're going to be here this year or are you going to be here next year, why wouldn't you practice like the Patriots? Why wouldn't you practice like the Eagles? Why wouldn't you practice like the teams that win in this league? Especially when you're not winning, you should instill that in this group of players. So you have this ownership of this, at least the group of players to develop

them for somebody else. It's not a bad thing to say that. I'm sure everyone has hopes that Bill would stay here. This staff has hopes that they would stay here. But with an understanding that they may not, they still owe it to this group of guys to teach them how to do it the right way. And I'm not saying that Jay didn't, but I am saying that when you're O in 5, you change things, or when you're O in 2, or when you're O and 3. You do change what you're doing. You have to make adjustments and just don't know if enough adjustments were made. Yeah, of course.

Yeah, look, you sort of answered the Miami question in a way that I thought you would answer, which is the people that are on the front lines, players, coaches, they're not going in there saying, hey, by the way, we want you, if the guy, if Adrian Peterson breaks through the line of scrimmage, just let him go, don't tackle him. I'm not suggesting that. It's just organizationally, they are set up to go 1 in 15 or 0 in 16. This is... Here's a better question. They're down two points and they got a 30-yard field goal to win the game. Do they tell the snapper to just snap it over the dude's head? Or do they just line up and throw a Hail Mary to try to win it that way?

Yeah, well, we didn't want to win by one. We wanted to win by more. You know, it is a little bit scary that the Redskins are just three and a half point favorites against the dolphins. You know, they basically been... You don't know how you give them a bigger line than that. I don't either. I don't, you know, I mean, look, talent-wise, there is a difference between these two teams. You would agree with that, right?

The Redskins have, they don't have star players either, but they've got better players. Yeah, the Redskins are a much better roster right now than my end. Yeah. I mean, the Dolphins in their last three games have been 18, 22, and 15-point underdogs. And by the way, have it covered in any of those three games. And then this Sunday, they are a mere three-and-a-half-point underdog at home against the Redskins. I wanted to just go back to Monday because we haven't had a chance to talk about this on the podcast. your reaction to Bruce's press conference,

which obviously was pretty much universally panned by media and fans. Yeah, you know, I think that there's some things. First of all, let me start with this. I watched all of the reaction through the rest of the day, all the way through Van Peltz rant on SportsCenter that got a lot of run. And I just came up with this thought that it didn't matter what he would have said. He was going to get crucified. It was just that moment of waiting.

reading to do it. You know, he could have said, you know what, I'm going to step down, and I'm going to wish this team the best of luck, and I tried hard, and we're going to try to get it in the right hands, and everyone would have still cheered and said he wasn't good enough. They would have been happy, but they would have still killed him. I don't think there was anything the dude could do. So, you know, I think he had a lot of stress going on. I think he had a lot in his mind. The two things that really stood out to me that I think you maybe would look at and want an opportunity to stay differently is when you're asked about the culture, the culture is a weird thing when you define football, right?

You define the entire culture of the team. And you say the culture's damn good. He's saying that the locker room gets along really well, and the coaching staff and the players are all on the same page. But damn good culture is called the winning culture, and we haven't won here. So you haven't created a winning culture. I think it really said, you know, this is an opportunity for us to hit the reset button and start right now building a winning culture.

We have a great environment here in this locker room. We have guys that care about each other. We have guys that work. We've gotten it to that point. Coaches are going to work hard. We have to create a winning culture and teach these guys how to win football games. Because that's what you want. Like winning, right?

More than – no one really cares about the culture if you're winning. So you just want to win. It's a winning culture. culture. And then the other thing is, you know, I know that it's really hard for anybody here, not to say that we were six and three last year or that we were in first place at one point in the division. But saying you're close isn't always what people want to hear because if you're not close

to winning the Super Bowl, then no one really cares. Like, I think New Orleans could say we're close last year. And I think Minnesota the year before said we're close. I think Kansas City can say we're close. but I don't think we were close to winning in a Super Bowl and that's fair to say because I don't think I'm surprising anybody with that comment and so I think you just move on from that one those are the two things that I think you would have rethought a little bit

but other than that there's a lot of things that you what are you going to say you know why are you still here do you want to feel you know it's up to Dan to fire me because then you're putting your boss on the hot seat down you're putting him in a spot where you have to fire him what is why isn't Dan talking because I am obviously. What do you want to say there? Because he doesn't want to? I mean, I'm not look, I'm not going to say here and defend the whole thing. I think there are a couple of things have been differently. But I am going to say that there was no getting out of that being killed.

And he did. Yeah, I guess there are just degrees of criticism. And he took the route, which ensured the highest level of criticism. I mean, the only thing that he didn't do is basically give everybody the finger and say, I'm insulting your intelligence and I'm not going to try to fool you. that I'm insulting your intelligence. I think the problem ultimately, Chris, is that, and this is the part that Clinton and I were talking about it last night on the Channel 4 show that we recorded last night for Sunday, the Redskins Showtime show.

And I don't know that I know the answer to this. I don't know if their lack of self-awareness, their cluelessness with respect to where they are on the sports, your football landscape. I don't know if he really knows it. And by the way, I've been using your term all week, so much so that somebody said, can you stop using flim flam? And I'm like, it's actually a nod to Cooley because that's his favorite thing.

I've been using it too. Every time I talk to my daughter, I say, I'm telling her she's flim flim. So I said on the show earlier this week, I don't know if he's just flim flamming everybody and really understands how much of a bottom feeder the organization is or really how far away they are from being relevant. Or if he really doesn't know, and if he and Dan really don't recognize just why they are in the position they are in, and just how dangerous it is. I know that they're in the stadium and see mostly Patriot fans or mostly Eagle fans or whatever. I know they see that, but I think there's still a possibility that they chalk it up to

and this is the way I've described it in the past, people just being disappointed more than being disgusted. You know, they go on the road and you get these little parties on Saturday night, and they're fans there in other cities, you go to Harvest Fest, you go to the draft day party, and the same people keep showing up. I don't know if they're fooled by that, and they actually believe that there's still this, you know, thing ready, you know, on the verge to explode and that they are close, or whether or not Bruce is just flim-flamming everybody? So I think it's kind of two things that you said to me right there.

And the first one is whether or not you're close. I mean, you're close when you start winning some ball games. I think that, like I said earlier, there's a platform with a good environment to start building a winning culture with this group of guys. But you have to start moving in that direction. And having good players is incredibly important in the NFL. And they have a lot of good players.

they're close if they have a quarterback that can play. And I think we all know that they're close if Dwayne Haskin starts taking big-time strides forward in the future or you solidify that position. That's when you're close is when you really start to solidify that position. The flip side of what you said is, you know, you really got to understand why the fans feel the way they do and how they feel the way they do when it comes to explaining how you're close or why you think you're close.

Right. I think that's the moment of clarity is like, Why does our fan base feel the way they feel? Yeah, I mean, I get, yes, I don't know if they really truly recognize that the fan base doesn't really feel anything anymore, that that's the big problem, is that there's very little feeling anymore, or whether or not the fan base is just, oh, we're really disappointed about the injuries, and last year would have been a big run, and this year, you know, we've had some. No, you're absolutely right.

And so if you really can understand that a large part of the fan base doesn't necessarily feel anything. I mean, there's still interest, so it's not like they feel nothing, but they feel like you don't want to get caught up in something to not believe in it. Then you shouldn't tell that part of the fan base that we're close, which is a large part. You don't need to tell them that you're close. You need to tell them that you need to find the right way to do things and that you need to work harder. Yeah. Not close. I don't know.

That to me can create a better explanation of where you can create a better explanation of where you're not. your app. I mean, look, so much of this is how you say it. You know that. And who you're saying it, too. No one wants to hear him say anything anymore. I think that's what became very clear on Monday is the sight of him or the sound of his voice. For those that still care and might care more if things got turned around, they don't really,

they don't believe anything he says anymore. don't believe that there's a level of competence necessary to turn this thing around as long as he's there. You know, I just read something a little while ago when I was looking for it. I can't find it, but I'm going to paraphrase it. It was a Bleacher Report story that had an AFC assistant coach anonymously saying that the Redskins job is the worst job in the league. And the only way they'll fill it because people will be desperate to take it and have the opportunity, but there's no way that they'll be anywhere near, you know, any place but the bottom in terms of available openings when this season ends.

By the way, do you think there's any chance that Callahan has a chance to keep the job next year? Let's just say he takes this team and he wins seven games. What do you think the number would be? Seven? Seven out of the next seven? Okay, let's just say, for hypothetical purposes, that he goes seven and four, if he goes seven and four the rest of the way, I mean, it would be a miracle. And if that happens, I would definitely want to really look into potentially keeping him, because that would be an amazing feat. Yeah, and it's also, I think, when you start watching your team that you've watched for, you know, the last couple years, and obviously through the first five games and how they performed, how do they, they.

start to grow. Does your team really start to grow? And, you know, if you lose four games, are they a couple of those games that you've battled out tight to the end and they're against good teams and playoff teams? And there's a lot of context to it. So to answer that question, you know, I think that there's a lot to be seen from what happens for the rest of the way before we even make that consideration. And as far as, like, nobody's going to coach here, here's the crazy thing.

it's one of 32 of the most prestigious jobs in sports. Like somebody's going to want that job. There might be five other teams. And so four other five, five might be more interesting to other people. But they're going to want the job. Oh, yeah. I'm not suggesting that they wouldn't be able to fill it. Yeah.

I've had this conversation a year ago, two years ago. I keep hearing this conversation like nobody's going to want to come be a head coach of an NFL team. and it's like, yeah, that's just not the case, man. Like, being able to turn this around is one of the biggest accomplishments in sports right now. So if you look at it like a challenge like that and you believe in yourself, you're like, I can do this. I don't disagree with you. I'm not suggesting that the job would remain vacant because no one would take it.

I'm just saying, and look, this was sort of the case in 2014 as well, is that if there are, let's just say, six openings, it's going to be the sixth choice for those that are looking at the various openings. Of course you're going to fill it because somebody's going to want the pay upgrade and somebody's going to say what you just said. They're going to let me take a shot at turning this thing around because if I do, I'm going to be a hero.

Of course. I want to play something for you. Mike Lombardi was on, does a podcast with Adnan Verk. He used to be on ESPN. Is Adnan Verk still on ESPN? I don't know if he is or isn't. But anyway, it's called the GM shuffle. And he said the following yesterday, and I'm going to play it for you, but before I play it for you,

I do want to preface it for those that don't know this, that Mike Lombardi's had an anti-redskins bias for years. You know, Mike Lombardi has been, you know, a general manager in this league, a head of personnel, multiple teams over many years, hasn't had, by the way, a ton of success anywhere. Worked with Bruce in Oakland. doesn't like Bruce Allen and has always been super critical of the Redskins. But I want you to listen to what he said yesterday on his podcast

with Adnan Annenberg. I've talked to more people in that organization in the last three days, surprisingly, right? And they all tell me they've been to bad places, but this might be the worst they've ever been to. One coach on the staff said I've been to a lot of bad places, this is the worst I've ever been. And secondly, you know, this whole Haskins conversation and I know you're a Haskins fan and I think Haskins hasn't been handled correctly,

but what you hear on Haskins from the people in the building is really disturbing in the sense that he feels entitled. He doesn't work very hard. He doesn't listen to anybody. You know, he feels like he should just be given the job and he feels like he is endeared from the ownership down, which is really the biggest problem because he's like the three-car garage kid who's been spoiled his whole life. Like, I'm entitled to this, right?

So that was Michael Lombardi on that podcast. By the way, Burgundy Blog, who, you know, is a guy that really follows the Redskins, has a lot of good insight. He went and did the legwork to find out which coaches on the staff have ties to Lombardi. Rob Ryan coached with him with the Raiders. There's the Bruce contact. Obviously, you know, that's not coming from Bruce. Ray Horton, he worked with in Cleveland for a year. and he worked with Bill Callahan in Oakland as well.

There are two parts of that. One is what we've sort of already talked about. Just, you know, it's as bad as it's ever been. We don't need to talk about that right now. I'm more interested in what you make of what he said about Haskins. Well, I mean, he's not that entitled because I have a four-car garage, so my kids are definitely going to be more entitled than he is. So, I mean, let's get that out of the way here.

You say this all the time. I've said this all the time, and I truly believe it with a lot of young players, especially first round players, is because you got drafted, doesn't just mean that you arrived. A lot of these guys do have this entitlement thing, and I'm not saying Duane has it, but it's a different era for a lot of young players. And I think coaches are having a hard time understanding, you know, the guy's belief in themselves and their belief in their ability to play and why they're not playing. So you have to be really, really sure of yourself as a coach to say,

this is exactly where you stand. This is exactly where you sit. And maybe that's part of the problem is Duane hasn't been told exactly why and how. I always hated it when I didn't know exactly what he thought of me or exactly why I was doing the thing I was doing, because we are in a tell me why a era. And so I don't buy that entirely, you know. I think he should want to play.

I think he works hard. I think you have to teach rookies how to work hard in the right way. I mean, some people come in and just, Logan Polson's a good example for whatever, a very different player, obviously, different position. But some people just come in and have this innate sense of, like, I need to be in the building all the time, and I need to watch film all the time.

And college had the 20-hour rule, and they have everything that they have going on in college. And sometimes as a coach, you've got to take a guy and say, this is how you work now. This is what people do here. And, you know, maybe to some extent that just didn't happen over the first six weeks of the season. I guess we're like two months in, three months in from training camp. So I don't want to put it on Dwayne Haskins and I don't want to put it on anybody who is coaching here.

I think he's got a lot of talent. I think they're going to have to find out at some point in the season what they have in that talent and how he handles that adversity and how he works as a starting quarterback. But the rest of it's flim flam. I've shared with people on the radio show and on the podcast this week two things that you've said to me in the last, I don't know, three or four days. Number one that you, first of all, just to reset it, Cooley, before the Redskins ever had a chance to draft Dwayne Haskins,

Cooley did not think Dwayne Haskins should have had a first round grade. I wasn't a big fan of Haskins in terms of his pro potential. personally, I really like some of the things I saw when he was out there in the preseason. You are with him every once in a while, and I've shared this with people, that you think, you've said to me he's a really good kid. Like, this is a really solid young man. Yeah, well, the pre-draft stuff was me watching him on film in a one-year process in one offense, and it was a damn good offense completely around him.

And I just, it wasn't that I said I didn't love Dwayne Haskins. I just said I didn't love him in the first 15 picks of the draft or the first round. I think he was probably based on his experience in some of the things he'd done later in the first or second. But that's also me not being able to have a conversation with him like a lot of coaches would have at the combine or would have at his pro day or at the senior bowl or any of those things. I have gotten to know Dwayne and think he's awesome. I think he's humble. I think he's a great listener. I think he wants to understand how to be good in this league.

And I think the goal is to teach him those things as an organization as a coaching staff. But to me, he's not one of those guys that is a diva. He's not one of those guys that says, I'm better than you, don't tell me anything. Every time we talk, I enjoy the conversation. That's good information. Now, with respect to when it will be time for him to play, By the way, I started off the show with some sarcasm about Daniel Jones, and I just can't believe that the Giants would start Daniel Jones against the Patriots.

I think that that was very, very, I think that was irresponsible on their party. Through three interceptions, I don't know if he'll ever get over it, Cooley, last night with the way he played against the Patriots. Now, in all seriousness, there's something else. It was windy. I'm sorry? It was windy. It was windy.

Tom Brady had some men. Yeah. So the other thing you've said to me, not on the show over the last week, is, you know, it's at some point, at some point, if he's not out on the field and, you know, and able to function, that's not his fault. That's the coach's fault. Explain to everybody. You've been, like I've been, in favor of him being out there already at this point.

But if they can't get him out here in this. the next couple of weeks. This would be unprecedented. If he doesn't start a significant number of games this year on this terrible team as a top half of the league draft choice, first round draft choice, it would be a massive red flag to me and at the very least would mean he was, I mean, vastly over-drafted. So first of all, Duane's been told through the media that he's not ready to play. And now it's becoming a point of him being told consistently that he's not ready to play through the media. Or he's hearing. He's not ready to play.

And I don't know where it's coming from. I don't, they looked it up. They looked up who's related to Lombardi. Everyone's looking up everywhere, like what coach is saying this, who's saying this. But essentially, the fact of the matter is he's hearing over and over that he's not ready to play. And through the first five weeks of the season, hasn't been taking first team reps. And so to just throw him in there, you don't want him to be assured of the fact that he's not ready to play. And so I think that your job here over the next two, three weeks is to prove to him

that he is ready to play. I don't think playing him right now is the right move because I don't want him to go out there, have any lack of success and start believing what people are saying. I think he's got to start getting some reps day in and day out and you continue to build on how many reps he's getting in practice. And all the while, you're pulling him aside and saying, these are the things that you did damn well. This is what you can do. I believe in you in this aspect. You can be a great player.

And you start building up that inside, that feeling in his heart. Like, I know I can do this thing. And also, you got to start telling people that you believe in him. You know, Callahan, anyone on this staff, if they care about the future of the organization and the future of this kid in his development, you've got to start telling people the opposite.

You got to start saying, man, Duane had a great day today. Big day for Duane Haskins. had 12 reps, you know, made some big time throws. He's getting so close. He's getting closer and closer. And when you feel like he is there mentally, you play him. And I think you can do that with the kids who's come in with a ton of confidence

and maybe had a couple questions over the last month. I think you can do that in the span of three weeks. And then, Kevin, then you find out. But you don't find out right now because he's, you want him to believe in himself and believe in what he's doing. And by the way, everyone on this team is hearing those conversations of, yeah, I mean, Duane's not ready. And by the way, he's set up to fail as the practice squad quarterback

because that's what the practice squad is. It's like, could you please throw into coverage that we have designed and throw picks? And it's hard for players out there every day. They really watch and say, look, we believe him. I mean, even more, take it a step further. If I'm playing offense out there and the practice squad, offense is now in, I'm not really watching those reps, man. I'm getting some

routes. I'm getting some walk, look, I'm getting a drink, I'm talking to somebody. So I'm not watching him as, like, if I'm you know, Steven Sims Jr. or Sprinkle or that offensive line, I'm not sitting there intently watching throws that Duane Haskins is making

him. By the way, I'm not watching that practice squad film as an offensive player. So he's got to get reps with that first unit, so they believe in him as well. You want everyone to be on the same page. him, the offense, everyone to believe in him. And that will be, I think, the task for Callahan and everyone moving forward is, you know, how can we expedite this process mentally for Duane? So a couple things there. Number one, when you initially said he's hearing this through the media, I just want to clarify what Cooley's saying is via the leaks that are coming from the organization.

Now, there are a lot of media people. You know, we saw it with Lewis Riddick. We've seen it with others who have said, how dare you, you know, play him as a backup off the bench. New York. Also, just to be clear, to make sure I'm clear, right now you feel like he needs a couple of weeks, first team reps that they're starting to give him, some confidence built up, versus what you thought earlier in the season, which was they need to get him ready, and they need to focus on getting him ready and getting him out there sooner rather than later. You, right, am I describing your, you're, yeah, no, you're describing it absolutely right. And I do want to clear, look, this keeps coming up when he went into that game in New York.

Like, how dare you bring him off the bench without taking any reps? Like, I just, after that, after I hear that a bunch of times, I go back and I think to, you know, what practice is like when I'm playing and how things are handled when guys are hurt a little bit. And Colt McCoy hadn't been cleared to play that week. And Case Keenham had the foot injury that he missed the next game for. Do you think that Duane maybe didn't take some. reps that week? Of course it was reported that he took some reps that week. So you didn't just throw him off the bench without taking any reps. It wasn't like this completely unfair situation.

Now, he probably didn't take all the reps and he probably knew he wasn't going to start. So he is coming off the bench, but it's not like coming off a week of pure scouting. Exactly. Maybe it was. I don't know. I really don't know. But my assumption would be that he had reps. No, it was reported. Jay said that they gave, they gave Dwayne some first team reps during the walk-through. day and then even when Case came back that he got a couple. But even beside that, you just spelled it out. Colt couldn't play. Case was compromised going in and then had a really rough beginning. What if Jay said, you know what, to protect Wayne Haskins' future here and to avoid the possibility that he's damaged for life by putting him into this game, we're going to move Trey Quinn to

backup quarterback here. What would that have done to the kid's confidence? Yeah, no doubt. I mean, seriously. What are people talking about? And the other thing you want to find out with your guys, like you ruin Daniel Jones forever because you played him against a patriot? No, no, no, no. If he believes in who he is and he has confidence as a player, you made him better.

He just saw the best he's going to see. That's the thing you want to find out about these young guys is how do they overcome this? Right. Like how do they compartmentalize a loss or failure? And how do they move forward? Do they get better because of it? or do they let it eat them up? And if they don't have to eat them up, then you find out something about him.

Daniel Jones ain't going to let that eat him up. Of course not. I'll tell you right now. Of course not. And by the way, back to the thing that I, you know, giving you credit for telling me earlier this week, I get it that Dwayne Haskins with the J. Gruden system was potentially coming along slowly.

But that's really not the point. The point is if your quarterback of the future is on your role, and you drafted him number 15 overall, and the other quarterbacks on the roster are not going to be on the roster next year because they're not Hall of Famers, they're not really significant veterans, then you change your offense to fit this guy and to get him ready to play the game. That's what good coaching does. That's what organizational culture, like there's a link between coaching staff and front office, they're all on the same page, they drafted this guy 15, They were all in agreement.

And once the season went south, and Case Keenum wasn't going to be the quarterback of a 10-and-6 playoff team, then you shift what you're doing and you get this guy and his future going immediately ASAP. But that's not what this organization is. Well, I mean, that's what you do with any player at any position and any team at any position. I mean, you go back to Bill Washington, Cincinnati, and he had the quarterback. I can't remember the name that couldn't really throw the ball down field really well.

And so what are you going to do? You're going to try to throw the ball? downfield or are you going to throw short pass after short path you mean Joe montana in san francisco no it it wasn't it was it started in Cincinnati with walsh where he was the offensive coordinator right so so that's where bill walsh even went back and said i think in his book it shouldn't have been the west coast offense should have been the Cincinnati offense that's where i came up with it oh really i didn't know that yeah so there's a lot of good good history in that bill walsh book i should think of the guy's name i offhand you look it up but

that's where it started Cincinnati no I mean I know he was in Cincinnati but I had never heard the quote that it should have been called the Cincinnati offense instead of the West Coast offense yeah he wrote that in his book I know you've been reading a lot recently

from coaches all right I want to end on something positive here and that is who's playing well who looks good to you on this roster yeah so that gets completely overlooked. And, you know, it's been a collection of a lot of mistakes across the board. And you look at it and you're like, man, I think Matt Ionitis has played his guts out.

I think Duran Payne is playing well. Alan was hurt a little bit, but he's coming back and he's playing pretty well. I like some of the stuff Montez Sweat doing defensively. You do? Cole Holcomb has, yeah, he's getting better day in and day out. He's just got to trust himself and get off the ball. Cole Holcomb's playing really, really well. You know, when Monta Nicholson is allowed to just range and roam the middle of the field, God, that guy's got dynamic speed in the middle of the field. Offensively, I think Sprinkles taking a huge step forward.

I love – we didn't play well on offense last week, but Jeremy Sprinkle sure played well on offense last week. How could you not be impressed with Terry McLaur? And Trey Quinn has been awesome for this team. You know, I think that there's been a lot of positive that gets overlooked. But, you know, that's what happens when you lose games and you lose them badly and you get kind of run in the second half of every game. It doesn't mean that they don't have guys that are playing well, and they don't have guys to build on.

What about Duran Payne? I think I said, Duran Payne has been really, really good. Okay. I've been impressed by Dron Paine. So have I been. How's Kelvin Harmon coming along? I loved him at NC State. I think it's just a slow process.

He hasn't played much so far this season. And so you're developing Calvin Harmon, but I've said this from pre-draft, and this stands true here. he's one of the best blocking receivers in the NFL, and that goes a long way, by the way. Really? In the NFL? Yeah, he's awesome. He's a really good blocker. I know that sounds crazy, but he's a really good blocking wide receiver. And so as he developed some of his route running and gets a little bit better, I think he's got a big-time role in this offense. I think he's got a starting role in this offense. It might not be today, but he's got a role he can build in this offense. All right, Calvin Harmon.

Three final questions. One, do you think they're going to trade Trent Williams? some point soon. It sure doesn't sound like it. Number two, what do you think happens Sunday? I think the Redskins went by 20. Really? All right. Yeah, I think they smoke Miami.

Thirdly, boy, now, is there any way you could let them know your friends out there, your close friends out there, that if they do smoke the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, not to do a victory lap, not to start making big, bold, predictions about the rest of the year and not to throw Jay under the bus as if Jay couldn't have beaten the Dolphins too? Can you just pass that? So I don't think that's Bill's, I don't think that's a Bill thing to do. I know that you're saying he's taking jab to Jane. Subtle jabs. Yeah, he is. And I don't even, I don't even think they're necessarily jabs at Jay. They're just, he didn't like the way things were done and he's doing him his way kind of deal. But that's

something that you should tell this locker room when you, When you lead that game, if you were to win by 20, is nobody say a word. We have done absolutely nothing. We are one in five right now, and we're going to try to work and learn how to play football the way we want to play football under Bill Callahan. We've got a huge game coming up against the team who's going to want to come in and beat us by 50, right? From your lips to God's ears, that's exactly what you should be said. You not mention how good we were this week.

We just played an 0.15 team who is trying to tank. Don't say it pregame, but after the game, you can say, we just beat an 0-and-5 team who is officially one of two teams ever in the NFL to try to taint, because I think Cleveland did as well. It would be very unlike them if they beat the dolphins and they keep their mouth shut, but that's exactly what they should do, and you should be giving all of your friends out there some advice on how we're one in five, we beat the dolphins, we haven't done anything yet, we've got a long way to go,

we have a great team coming in here. This is going to be a very difficult task. We have to just try to improve each day this week to get ready for the 49ers. Boom. No, you're absolutely right. Because if you have any of these players come out and say, man, we change everything. We learned how to work. We're working hard.

This is what we should have been doing. And this is who, this is top-type defense we said we were going to be, see, we are now. And it's like, that's just bad blood. It's bad business to do it that way. You know, there's nothing to be said about. The one in five. All right.

The last thing was, was Virgil Carter, the quarterback in Cincinnati? Yeah, Virgil. That's it. Virgil Carter. Yeah. Claude got it. All right. Thank you.

Well, I'll be listening on Sunday, and I will talk to you next week. By the way, Claude, look at Virgil Carter's completion percentage that year. It's unbelievable. What was his, what was Virgil Carter's completion? It's like 69% completion percentage in the garbage quarterback. Wow. Back then, that's unbelievable. That would have been, what, mid-70s somewhere around there?

It was really, really high. But, yeah, that's actually a really good book. Just as much as it is Bill Walsh explaining his standard of excellence, it's like there's so much good football history in some of those coaching books, the Allen books and stuff. There's so much good history about the game that those guys saw. Yeah, I haven't read the Walsh book. I've heard it's great.

It's absolutely awesome. The book that I have actually... You'll read that Walsh book and you'll be like, Why can't we do this? Right. The book that I really want to read is the book that, oh my God, Bob Glover wrote, I think, about the era of Walsh, Gibbs, and Parcells. That's the one that I really want to read.

Anyway, all right. When you find it, text it to me. Yeah, I will. See it. Chris Cooley, everybody. The Virgil Carter stuff here. I've got his thing up and running. The best completion percentage he ever had was 62.2%.

Claude. 1971 and Walsh was there in 1971 and by the way a 62.2% completion percentage in 1971's off the charts right right I think it was the third best that year yeah off the charts um and then in 70 and that also by the way he started that year 10 games for the bangles which was the second most he had ever started um for that team interesting uh anyway all right quick word about my bookie MyBooky.agy.agy, guys, is a place where you can feel comfortable playing if you don't have a place right now. It's just as important who you're playing with as who you're betting on in that particular world. Mybooky.orgy.orgie.ag is one of the best, best reputations. They give you

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smell test. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. All right, I'm going to rip through this fairly quickly this week because I got a lot of plays, a shitload of them actually. And it's a weird board this week. Real quickly, I was five and five last week. Five and five puts me at four. 41, 20, and 1 on the season. That's a pretty damn good clip. 4121. 412 in 1 is a 67.2% clip right now I'm hitting at.

Very few handicappers are going to give you through six weeks of the season, 67.2%. All right. So here's what's weird about this week. I got, there were a lot of games that I sort of liked instinctually that I thought would be obvious smell test picks, and they weren't this week. When I went and did the research on whether or not they were, you know, major anti-public plays and then sort of gathering some information from offshore as to where the sharp money was. You know, I'll give you the perfect example. When I saw Penn State was only a three-point favorite at Iowa, I was convinced that Iowa was going to be a smell test pick this weekend. and they're not. The public's actually split on this game. There's some sharp money on Penn State this weekend.

Penn State might be a lot better than we think they are, so Iowa's not a pick. I was convinced when I saw that line. I'm like, well, Iowa's going to be a pick this week. And there were a couple of other games that I felt the same way about when I, at first glance, and they're not on the smell test. And there's some plays this weekend that are unusual in that I've got a lot of favorites this week. The smell test, rarely produces majority favorites. Usually it produces majority underdogs. The type of play more often than not that the smell test has put out there over the years is a perceived bad team at home getting three or less against a perceived good team. You know, that's like a team that's two and four getting three against a team that's five and one, and that team that's getting three is at home, that's probably been the smell test prototype. The smell test, you know, typical play,

not even prototype, the typical play over the years has probably been that plus three underdog at home. This week, I've got a lot of favorites. So let's get to it. Tonight, three plays tonight for Friday night. So, you're your weekend could really start off poorly if these things don't go well. But Miami is laying two to Virginia. That makes no sense at all. Miami stinks. They're starting a new quarterback tonight too. And Virginia's four and one coming off there, one loss, which was to Notre Dame. They actually came, they had a buy week last week. Virginia should be favored in this game. They're two-point dog. The public's on Virginia. Shart money on Miami. Take the canes tonight.

and lay the two. Also tonight, Oregon's laying 21 at home against Colorado. Colorado's decent. They're the one team that's beat in Arizona State. Maybe Arizona State has another loss, I forget. But Colorado's not a bad team, and they're getting three touchdowns against Oregon. The public likes the buffaloes on the road tonight. I like the ducks, lay the 21. Also, I don't know how many times I've given New Mexico out this year, but I got them again tonight. plus the three and a half at home against Colorado State. I don't love that game as much, but got some information that there was some sharp money on New Mexico State. And the public's on Colorado State at least, you know, at a level that made it qualify for the smell test. Let's go to Saturday tomorrow, all right.

Oklahoma's laying 10.5 against Texas. Texas has been a covering machine against Oklahoma in recent years. I think they've covered like six or seven out of the last. last eight games against Oklahoma. The public loves Texas tomorrow as a four-and-one team against Oklahoma in the Red River rivalry game. I like Oklahoma laying a pretty big number. Texas, by the way, has covered six of the last seven against Oklahoma. I like Oklahoma laying the big number tomorrow against Texas. Purdue's getting three and a half at home against Maryland. I'm going to be rooting for Maryland, but I'm going to be rooting for Maryland to win by three or less.

Because Purdue's the right side in this game. The public's all over Maryland. There's sharp money on Purdue. Maryland's starting Terrell Pigram tomorrow for Josh Jackson, who's got a high ankle sprain. Purdue can move the football. Their best player, Ron Del Moore, though, is hurt with a hamstring. He's actually an NFL receiver, maybe a first round pick type of guy. Purdue's at home tomorrow. It's homecoming for them. I like Purdue plus the three and a half. Iowa State's laying a pretty big number at West Virginia. Public is on West Virginia. Give me Iowa State minus the 10. Tennessee's at home getting seven against Mississippi State. Tennessee actually played Georgia much better than you would think based on the final score of 43 to 14.

I think Tennessee's getting better here. I give them a fighting chance to hang in there and even win the game tomorrow. take Tennessee plus the seven tomorrow at home against Mississippi State. Baylor's laying 11. Baylor's undefeated if you didn't know this. They're playing Texas Tech who upset Oklahoma State last week. Baylor's laying a big number. Public likes Texas Tech. I like Baylor laying the 11.

You know, you got the sense here. I've got too many favorites, which is unusual for me. Here's another one. Clemson's laying 27 to Florida State. The public actually likes Florida State, and Florida State's played better here. recent weeks. They haven't been this big of an underdog since 2009. A 27-point underdog Florida State is to Clemson lay the 27. Clemson's going to destroy Florida State. And again, you know, after that

terrible start by Florida State where they lost to, you know, they gave it the lead and lost to Boise, they barely beat U.L. Monroe and then they got beat by Virginia. In the last couple of weeks, and they had a chance to beat Virginia. They've beaten Louisville, they've beaten NC State. They're not as terrible as most people think. That's a big number. They're begging you to bet Florida State. Take Clemson and lay the points in that one.

Michigan State has, to me, one of the best coaches in college football. I love Mark D'Antonio. I love the Michigan State toughness over the years. And Michigan State in recent years off of a loss is very dangerous. The truth of the matter is they lost at Ohio State last week, 34 to 10. That game early on, you could tell Michigan State defensively was very good, and then they started to turn the ball over offensively.

And the game didn't get so out of hand. Ohio State won the game. Michigan State's not as good as Ohio State. Now they're at Wisconsin. How about that, back-to-back games, at Ohio State and at Clemson in back-to-back weeks. That's a tough schedule to deal with in college football. I think Wisconsin's really good, but I think Michigan State's good enough to cover this number. The public loves Wisconsin this week.

I like Michigan State plus the 10 in Madison in the second of two brutal games in a row. North Texas plus three, Charlotte plus five, Hawaii plus 13 and a half. Don't ask any questions, just play them. That finishes up my college slate. All right, let's go to Sunday. Not a lot on the NFL board that really looks enticing. Here are three games that sort of fit the smell test criteria. Again, the smell test criteria for those of you that don't know,

anti-public plays with some information on where some sharp money is. Jacksonville's laying a point at home against New Orleans, who is 3-0 with Teddy Bridgewater as a starter since losing Drew Breeze. Now, last week was his first true really good game. Bridgewater was outstanding last week through four touchdown passes in the win over Tampa. Jacksonville's favored at home. The public loves the Saints. Man, this is a big game for New Orleans. You know, the job that Bridgewater and the team's done in the absence of Drew Breeze,

winning three games in a row at Seattle, you know, the Cowboys at home on a Sunday night, and then last week in the Superdome against Tampa, you know, they are positioning themselves for quite the run when Breeze comes back. At this point, no damage done, really. In fact, much better than I think most people thought the Saints would do without Breeze. Jacksonville, you know, this is a team that's, you know, they're playing well with Gardner Minshu. They lost a tough game last week at Carolina. Carolina was one of the smell test picks last week.

I loved them. They had a chance, you know, in that game late, down seven, had a chance late when they were driving to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Jacksonville at home on Sunday laying a point is the anti-public side. Give me Jacksonville in that one. The Browns looked horrible on Monday night. Baker Mayfield's being crucified publicly for running his mouth and playing so poorly. By the way, I agree with that. But they're the right side Sunday, plus one and a half at home against the Seahawks.

The Seahawks have had all this time. Public really likes Seattle. I like Seattle as a team, too. I like Cleveland Sunday plus the point in a half to either lose by a point or win the game. More likely than not win the game. The Texans are getting a short number at KC Sunday. The Chiefs off that first loss of the year, Sunday night to the Colts at home. Could they lose two in a row at Arrowhead?

I think Houston's awesome. I think Deshawn Watson is a star. He threw five touchdown passes. I think Houston's going to win that division. I think they're going to win the AFC South. I think they're going to be a team that's going to be a difficult out when we get to the postseason. I think I said that about him last year and they lost the wild card game at home to Andrew Luck in Indianapolis. I think Houston plus four is the play. The public loves Kansas City to bounce back and they're seeing, wow, I get Kansas City at home.

I know Mahomes is injured a little bit. He's going to play Sunday. But I think the public is all over Kansas City and I think Houston's legit good. Take the Texans plus the four. And then the final game of the weekend is Monday night when all else fails, right? You got Monday night football. I like the Lions plus four. Public loves the Packers in this game on Monday night, laying four at home to a team that I think is underrated in the Lions. So there you go.

Recapping the smell test this week. Tonight, three college games, Miami, Oregon, and New Mexico. Saturday, Oklahoma, Purdue, Iowa State, Tennessee, Bay, Clemson, Michigan State, North Texas, Charlotte, and Hawaii, and then on Sunday, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Houston, and then Monday night, Detroit. All right, I wanted to finish up with this, just a little bit of Nats Cardinals, and then a prediction on the Redskins game Sunday. I'll start with the prediction on the Redskins game Sunday. I think this would be a horrible loss for this team, and I think they may lose this game. I think they've got a legit shot to go in there and lay another egg.

They've been sort of telling you how the culture is so damn good. And then this week you're hearing all this stuff about, you know, Jay's gone and we've got a different work ethic. We've got a different, you know, accountability and responsibility structure. We're going to run the football. We're going to practice differently than we've been practicing. And I just don't see a very good football team at all. And Miami stinks to high heaven, too. I like the dolphins 13 to 10 in overtime.

And then we'd have quite the conversation on Monday. Now, the Nationals. This is going to be a very interesting series. A couple of things about the Cardinals. First of all, they don't have the starting rotation that the Nats have. Although this Jack Flaherty is really good. He's not going to start until game 3 in D.C. Flaherty started the fifth in deciding game over the Braves.

And by the way, a really interesting situation. So Flaherty, if I didn't mention this earlier in the show, he's 23 years old, he's a right-hander. He has an ERA in the second half of this season of 0.91, 15 starts since the All-Star break, a 0.91 ERA and a 7-2 overall record. That's the third best ERA in the second half of the season ever. Greg Maddox had a 0.87 ERA in 1994, and Jake Arieta, just four years ago. go for the Cubs had a 0.75 ERA post all-star break. Flaherty is really, really good. You won't get them until game three. But the interesting thing was this. So he started the fifth and deciding game

in Atlanta the other day. And I think most of you know this for those of you that don't. The Braves, the Cardinals scored 10 runs in the first inning in game five in Atlanta. Scored a run in the second inning and two more in the third. After the third inning, they led 13. to nothing. Flaherty's been their shutdown guy. There was an opportunity if they wanted to, up 13 nothing, to take him out of the game and potentially start him tonight or tomorrow. Worst case. But he went six innings. And I understand it's a fifth in deciding game. You know, God forbid you pull him as if the game's already over and Atlanta now makes a big run back. And even if they don't win the game, they score eight, nine runs off your bullpen.

they spend your bullpen. You know, there's a lot to consider there. Jinksing it also is probably part of the consideration. It's like, are we going to really pull our ace after three innings because we have a 13-0-0 lead? Well, you know what? The answer to that is probably yes, because what are the chances that the Braves were going to come back

against anybody in that bullpen? Pretty much 0%, you know, less than 1%. And you could have saved this guy. Instead, he went six innings, pitched, you know, had 104 pitch count in that game, you know, gave up one earned run, four hits, eight strikeouts. Anyway, just saying it was probably an interesting dilemma for the Cardinals in that fifth and deciding game. You won't see Flaherty, though, until game three in D.C. The Cardinals' bullpen is better than the Nats bullpen. The Cardinals lineup, Goldschmidt and Ozuna, their third and

fourth hiters, both hit 429 against the Braves. All right, they both went nine for 21. in that series. They have an outstanding defensive infield. Wong's one of the better second baseman in the league. De Jong is a really good shortstop. The Nats advantage, obviously, is their starting rotation. However, unlike the short series against the Dodgers and the wildcard game against the Brewers, the way Dave Martinez managed that series, you can't manage the series the way he did or manage the bullpen, excuse me, the way you did in a seven-game series like you did in the five-game series or the wild card game. You're not going to see starters used out of the bullpen in the first four or five, six games of this series, certainly not the

first five. You're going to get tonight, Annabelle Sanchez, you're more likely than not going to get Max tomorrow, more likely than not Strasbourg in the first game in game three back in D.C. on Monday night. And then you'll get Patrick Corbyn in game four. That's probably the way it'll go. They haven't announced the rotation that would seem logical for it to go that way. And then depending on the series, you might get Annabelle Sanchez for a second time in game five, depending on what happens and where they are in the series at that point. You could, you know, theoretically bring Max back on short rest for game five and then go to Scherzer and six and Corbyn and seven. You know, if things break right. And, you know, there's always the possibility. You get a rain delay or you get a rain out and, you know,

along the way in this series, both of these stadiums or outdoor stadiums. So you're not, you know, that's always in play in a series like that. I like the Nats in five games. I think that they have something going here. Stay in the fight, all of that stuff. There is a resilience and there is a,

you know, a role that this team has and a momentum that this team has. And by the way, they're probably better than St. Louis. They just, they are. You know, they, 73 and 48 since that 19 and 31 start. Actually, if you add up the playoff games, it's 77 and 51, right? It's 77 and 50 at this point. Since that 19 and 31, this is a hell of a baseball team right now.

They are as good as anybody else. And Rendon and Soto, does anybody see Rendon and Soto cooling off? Now, the Nats have gone into some offensive funks before, and it would be a bad time for it to happen now. And they're also playing on house money a little bit, playing with house money a little bit, right? They finally got through the division series. There probably wasn't much pressure on them in that series to begin with after winning the wild card game and getting there.

All the pressure was on the Dodgers. I don't think the Cardinals are going to feel the pressure that the Dodgers felt. The Cardinals weren't supposed to be here either. They got a win over Atlanta. The regular season series, St. Louis won five of seven. I don't know what that really means. St. Louis, like the Nats, had to play down the stretch just to get into the postseason. They had that very important series at Wrigley two or three weeks ago now,

when they went into Wrigley and swept the Cubs, you know, in a series to completely bury the Cubs and pull a little bit further ahead of Milwaukee. And then by the time they got to the final week and weekend, they lost a couple of games coming in, but they had had, they wrapped up the division, and Milwaukee was already. there in their series ending regular season series closer against Colorado. They lost a couple of those games in St. Louis had it wrapped up. Interesting series, revenge series for the Nats for 2012. I like the Nats in five.

I think Annabelle Sanchez will end up pitching two games in the series. I think he will pitch game one in game five because if they are up three games to one, you're probably not in game five going to bring Max back on short rest, more likely than not. I can't wait to watch that starting tonight and tomorrow. Real quickly on the college football weekend, cannot wait to watch LSU Florida Saturday night. I'm very happy, by the way, Nat's Cardinals is the afternoon game tomorrow on Saturday

because Florida LSU is one of the games of the year in college football. And two, you saw two of the best defensive teams in college football last week with Auburn and Florida, but you get two more with Florida and LSU this week. I like LSU a little bit. sort of rooting for Florida. But man, that's a tough schedule. When you've got to go Auburn and what they played in last week in the swamp, that place was lit, it was fired up, it was an emotional game, it was a physical game,

and then next week, one week later, you've got to go to Death Valley for a Saturday night game. It is brutal in the SEC. I mean, these schedules that some of these teams in the SEC are playing. The toughest schedule in the SEC, by the way, the toughest schedule in the country is Texas A&M's over schedule because they had that game at Clemson in week two, but they've already played Auburn. They're playing Alabama this week. They still have games against Georgia and LSU. I mean, brutal. How about Auburn's schedule, Claude? So they played A&M on the road a few weeks ago, opened with Oregon, right? They played A&M on the road a couple of weeks ago. They had Mississippi

State. Then they played Florida on the road in the swamp last week. In two weeks, excuse me, they go to LSU. Then they have a game at home against Georgia and a game at home against Bama and the Iron Bowl. These SEC schedules and these SEC teams, and this year in particular because the SEC East has Florida and Georgia, not just Georgia, but Florida too. And then in the West you've got Bama, LSU, and Auburn. And a lot of people still think A&M's good. I can't stand their quarterback, Kelly Mond. I think he's terrible. I'm not sure what Jimbo Fisher sees in him.

He's just not good enough, and they've got some talent on that team. Anyway, good college football Saturday with some interesting games on Saturday that Penn State, Iowa games really interesting. If Penn State goes into Iowa City and wins big, you're going to have to start thinking about Penn State as maybe a team that's much better than people think. I do think this Michigan State Wisconsin game that Michigan State's got a chance to derail Wisconsin season before Wisconsin has the game in November against Ohio State. I think it would be really interesting if Houston went into Arrowhead this weekend and beat the

Chiefs, all of a sudden, the feeling about the Chiefs would be different, and the feeling about the Texans would be different. And that Oklahoma Texas game is a big game for Texas, man. Texas already lost that opportunity against LSU at home. Now they would love to get a Red River rivalry win. over Oklahoma. Anyway, Nats this weekend, Terps tomorrow, good college football, and then the Redskins and the Dolphins on Sunday, which really is in so many ways, Claude, it's an interesting matchup, but not for the rest of the league. And by the way, there's some good NFL games Sunday.

You know, the 1 o'clock window has Houston KC, and then the 4 o'clock window has 49ers at Rams. Right. Yep. You know, so some interesting games. All right. If you're listening to us on iTunes or Apple Podcasts, rate us and review us. It really helps. Subscribe also doesn't cost you a thing that helps us as well. Thanks to Claude. Thanks to Cooley. Enjoy the weekend, everybody. And it should be a great hometown sports weekend with the Nats and the National League Championship Series starting tonight. Back on Monday to review all of it. Have a great weekend.