The Kevin Sheehan Show - A Super Bowl Bore?

Episode Date: February 4, 2019

Kevin opens the show with a detailed recap of Super Bowl 53, both on the field and what we saw on TV. Also on the show a Weekend DVR which included Caps, Wizards, Terps, and more. <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. Aaron is here. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them we told you to call. Well, Aaron, from an unforgettable championship Sunday two weeks ago with two incredible and memorable games to an utterly forgettable Super Bowl. game, at least for most of you last night. I think that's the feeling that most had. One that, you know, really Patriot fans, Ram fans, and a bunch of NFL historians who are documenting every game, every play of the Patriots dynasty, they'll remember this one. But Super Bowl 53 is going to be the forgotten Super Bowl during a stretch of very good Super Bowl games, which included last year's Eagles' 41 to 33 win over the Patriots.

Super Bowl 52. The Patriots come back two years ago against the Falcons to win in overtime. You know, we had the Patriots Seahawks, Malcolm Butler, Interception Super Bowl, you know, four years ago. We've had some great Super Bowls in recent years, not last night, not last night. But, but I didn't hate it. I didn't hate the game last night. First of all, I had the under. The smell test had the under. So we finished up a pretty productive season. with a winning Super Bowl wager. Now, I did lean Rams, but my official smell test play was the under. I did not expect it to go that far under.

Not even close. But I didn't consider last night to be a great defensive game. And I love great defensive games. I think somebody tweeted me or texted me. I think it was a tweet. Maybe it was from Andy Poland. Maybe Andy, because Andy knows how I love great defensive games. and said, somebody said,

Sheehan must be loving it. I think it was Andy. I forget. But I do love great defensive football. I love hard-hitting football. That was not last night's game. That was not a great, great defensive game in the sense of what a, like, the greatest defensive postseason game ever, to me,

and one of the great NFL games in the postseason of all time, was the 1990 Giants-49ers NFC championship game. won by New York 15 to 13. Go back, that game's on YouTube. If you want to see two great teams play about as physical a football game start to finish, that was it in 1990. Last night was not that. But it was a great mind battle. Won by Belichick and eventually Josh McDaniels and company on the game-winning drive or the go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter. The Patriots My God, I mean, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, six Super Bowl wins in 18 years. One out of every three years they're winning a Super Bowl.

Nine Super Bowl trips in 18 years. Every two years they're in the Super Bowl. And does anybody, seriously, does anybody think it's over? You know, even if Gronk retires, is it over? I don't think so. Brady says he's playing until he's 45. That would mean four more seasons. If Belichick stays for four more years, if both of them are there, does anyone think that

last night was the last one? I don't. They own better, coach better, draft better, acquire better, develop players better. And because of it, they win better than anybody else. Every game is a masterpiece of the mind. Every play is planned out. It's rehearsed to the last detail. And I read this over the weekend.

Somebody said, did you read Sally from the other day? And I had not read it, so I went back and read it on Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. And I'm going to read this paragraph from Sally's column about how detailed the Patriots are and have been during their run. She writes that the great Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne spent 11 days with the Patriots in 2015 as a free agent at the end of his career before deciding to retire. Fier. Reggie Wayne, of course, was a champion in his own right, part of a Super Bowl team under coach Tony Dungey in the 2006 season. But in his few days with the Patriots, he was struck by the absoluteness of their concentration and absorption with details that might become critical inflection points in big games. Reggie Wayne said in one 45-minute meeting, in 145 minute meeting on situational

football. They reviewed not only the two-minute offense, but exactly how players should give the ball to the referee between plays. Reggie Wayne said, quote, lot of guys you see them toss the ball to the ref, not the Patriots. You don't know if the ref can catch or not. So if they drop that ball and it's bouncing around, that's time running off the clock. The Patriots were drilled to sprint to the ref and hand it to him to get a quicker spot and save a second. They would go over and over and over it, Wayne said, and it didn't seem, and he didn't seem to resent the monotony. The Patriots of 2001 until 2020 something, they are the greatest team in pro football history, and it's not even close. not Hallis's Bears or Lombardy's Packers, the 70s Steelers or the 80s 49ers.

I don't even hear about the 90s Cowboys that no one's in their class. Nobody under the age of 20, maybe 25, they don't even know any better. They only know the Patriots. Imagine if you came to this country in 2001. And as part of trying to assimilate, you decided, hey, American football, they all love it here. I'm going to really get into American football. You only know the Patriots. It is an incredible run.

And all of the cheating claims, the gates over the years, none of them explain any of this. And it's not going to end. Would anybody be surprised if they're back next year or the year after? You know, I was thinking about this Aaron late last night. If their run had ended three years ago when they lost to the Broncos in the AFC championship game and Brady was 38 years old,

would anybody have thought even any differently? Because that would have been seven trips and four wins. Yeah, Brady was already in the greatest ever conversation at that point. It was already the greatest team of all time. It's, you know, it just goes on and on and on. It's incredible when you think about what the Patriots have done in a sport that is built, that is designed to stop this from happening. This is not supposed to happen in this sport.

It can happen in baseball. It can happen certainly in the NBA. The NHL has this random thing in its postseason in terms of teams that are eight seeds that can beat one seeds because of the bounce of a puck. But in the NFL, it's designed to stop dynasties. you're not supposed to be able to build dynasties. How important is coaching and front office in the NFL?

We talk about this when we talk about our team, the Redskins over and over again. How important is it? When someone says it's the players, slap them. Look, you can't have bad players, but if you have a front office and a coaching staff, then you're not going to have bad players. And those players that are just good are going to get coached up to be near great. What an organization. What an organization.

Yeah, the game was forgettable for 95% of you. But because it was the Patriots winning this particular game, you're just never, ever going to forget the fact that this was their sixth, you know, under the Brady Belichick era. Nine trips. You know, I've thought about other bad title games, and you know, Aaron, the one that comes to mind all the time when I think about just horribly, horribly played boring title games. It's my favorite, or certainly in the top three or four of my favorite championships, which was Maryland's championship in 2002. That title game against Indiana, utterly forgettable.

Yep. Nobody who's a college basketball fan remembers Maryland 64, Indiana 52. was not a great basketball game. And last night, most people will forget this one. This will be the one they forget, even though this is the one that the Patriots actually won by double digits, the only one. Well, that's part of the reason why it's forgettable. Yeah, it's forgettable. All right, let's get to the game and the recap. Pay attention is Kevin's Game Take. All right, I did have the unders I mentioned. Nobody guessed 13 to 3. That was the shocker of last night, the final score. Patriots Ram, Super Bowl 53,

following the biggest offensive season in NFL history, became the lowest scoring Super Bowl game in history. The Redskins Dolphins had been the lowest scoring Super Bowl game for a long time. January 14th, 1973, Dolphins 14, the Redskins 7, and the Redskins 7 came on a blocked field goal return. Garrow Yopremian, remember the pass, or the non-prican? pass that Mike Bass picked off and returned, I think, 49 yards for the Redskins' only score of the game.

21. 21 total points in that game was the lowest scoring game in Super Bowl history. There was a 16 to 6 game. The Steelers' first Super Bowl win over the Vikings 16 to 6. This one, 13 to 3, 16 points. I don't know that we'll ever see a lower scoring Super Bowl. it'd be hard for a game to be under 16 points in a Super Bowl game. It was the second lowest scoring first half in Super Bowl history, three to nothing. That 16 to six Steelers went over the Vikings in Super Bowl 9. I think it was Super Bowl 9 was 2 to nothing at halftime.

Just as an aside, I remembered it because somebody asked me when it was 3 to nothing as we were approaching halftime. Has there ever been a lower scoring game at halftime in the Super Bowl? I said, I think Viking Steelers was two to nothing. I think it was. And then my son went back and looked it up and he said, Dad, you were right. I remember minutiaa.

Nothing important usually. Just dumb stuff. Hey, Super Bowl stats are important. Three to three with no touchdowns through three quarters is the lowest scoring through three quarters in NFL history in Super Bowl history. And the fact that there was no touch. through three quarters was the first time that ever happened. We had one red zone snap in the entire game.

One red zone snap in the entire game. That's amazing. And it's not because they were scoring touchdowns from outside the red zone. That one snap was the Sony Michelle touchdown run in the fourth quarter after the Gronk hookup with Brady that got it down to the one yard line. It took until seven minutes and ten seconds for a red zone snap and then we didn't get another one. There was some excitement in the fourth quarter and it could have gotten really good had the Rams delivered on offense there at the end when they

got deep into Patriot territory for the first time in the game with about four and a half minutes left and it could have gotten good if the Rams just had gotten a stop after the interception with the Patriots backed up with four and a half to go in a 10-3 game. Let me get to the good from the game. Julian Edelman was your MVP. He said, set first half he set a first half Super Bowl record in a game that had no offense. He set a first half offensive

Super Bowl record with seven catches for 93 yards. He finished 10 for 141 and the MVP, which I thought he deservedly received. I thought Gilmore had a chance as a defensive MVP. He was outstanding for New England.

I didn't think Brady had a chance, even though like he always does, he delivered with the game on the line in the fourth quarter. on that drive that gave him the 10 to 3 lead. You know, I had mentioned after the AFC championship games, some of you called me out for mentioning Julian Edelman as a potential Hall of Famer. I never said he was going to be in the Hall of Fame.

What I said is that his postseason, which has been incredible, his postseason career, potentially if he plays another two or three more years, is going to get him into consideration. and I believe that to be true. I still have a problem with that, though. I'm not saying he's in, but remember, he's got, what is he, 31, 32 years old? Right, he's got a couple years, but, like, his regular season is, it would be like putting Robert Ory in the Hall of Fame.

No, it wouldn't be like, it's so funny because that's the comp I thought about two weeks ago. It's not, Robert Rory was a specialist. Julian Edelman's not a specialist. No, but his regular season numbers are completely pedestrian. I know, but he's got two. Wayne Clubette has better regular season numbers than us. Does he? Yeah.

He's got two seasons left. Again, I didn't say he would be in the Hall of Fame. I just said his postseason numbers would potentially, with a couple more years of a career, get him into consideration. I actually agree with you. Shefter put it out on Twitter last night about him in the Hall of Fame. I just think it's insane. Also on my good list, the fourth quarter game winning or go-ahead drive, Brady and Grasn. on that drive. Brady was four for four for 67 yards. It was a five-place, 69-yard drive that took two

minutes and 49 seconds. And Granc had two catches for 47 yards, including the 29-yarder that got it to the one-yard line. It was really interesting to watch them work on that final drive with pretty much an empty set backfield. Brady, you know, recognizing for the first time in the game, I thought, because I'll get to the things on the list that I didn't think were very good. And Brady's, most of Brady's game and the offensive confusion, I thought, that Wade Phillips created was part of that. But on that final drive, just watch Brady. It's like the game's on the line. You know, there's nine minutes plus.

It's three to three. The Super Bowl is on the line. And all of the sudden, he recognizes zone and throws underneath. You know, they run a great play where they basically have gronk blocking like it's a run play. And then he's out, you know, one-on-one with a lineback. and Brady lays it right in his hands on the first play. Then he's throwing two zone throws. And then he recognizes man coverage and throws to Gronk on a 29-yarder.

It was like the entire game, Brady, Josh McDaniels and company, they're confused, they're off. And then with the game on the line, they have clarity. That's, I guess, what greatness is. That's what the great players. That's what the winners figure out. They figure it out. Because in that final drive, and then on the,

final drive where they ate the clock up running the football. That was more a physical, you know, mono-a-mono deal there at the end. But the drive that put them up in the fourth quarter 10 to 3 was the drive of clarity. Like there's confusion the whole game. Are they in zone? Man, Brady nearly threw a pick early in the game because he didn't know that they were in zone. Wade Phillips was brilliant in this game. I'll get to that in a moment. But on the drive that mattered, four for four, 67 yards. He recognized zone and threw underneath to Edelman. He recognized man.

I think for the first time on that drive, Dan Rolovsky does a great job on ESPN. He's really good at breaking these games down. And he said that that was the only play, the play to Gronk on the play down to the one, that they were in man coverage on that drive. And he said, Brady knew it, the line of scrimmage. Of course he knew it at the line of scrimmage. because the game was on the line. It didn't matter what it happened the first three and a half quarters. On my good list, that game clinching drive for the Patriots, it started from their own

four-yard line after the Gilmore interception with 4-14 left, and they ran it down the Rams throat. Michelle had 41 yards rushing on that drive. Burkhead had the one carry for 26 yards. It was what the Patriots did during most of this postseason. They ran the ball with great success, with multiple backs. Sony Michelle's the perfect fit for them. But Burkhead's a great guy. They have backs always that have great vision. You know, they're able to take what looks like not a lot there and get four to five.

And then on a quick cut back with great vision, it's a big big. burst for 15 to 20. These are the players they sign. They don't need Adrian Peterson in his prime. They don't need Zeke Elliott. They don't need Todd Gurley if Gurley's going to play. Get to that in a few moments. They need guys that are smart, that have some wiggle, that have great vision.

Wow, that last drive, they just took it right down the field, deep in their own territory. the Rams were still in it at 10 to 3 and they ran it down their throat, which is what they did against the Chargers and at times against the Chiefs. On the good list, both defenses, both defensive staffs. Again, I don't consider Super Bowl 53 to be the 13 to 3 lowest scoring game in NFL history to be a defensive masterpiece, like a great defensive game, but it was a great defensive game from a coaching standpoint. Wade Phillips versus Bill Belichick and Brian Flores, who's going to be the Dolphins head coach today.

The Patriots pressure was solid all night. They had the Rams totally confused. But Van Hoy and Hightower before he got hurt, they were unstoppable much of the night. They didn't know who was coming and from where. Gilmore in coverage was spectacular. He could have been the MVP. Both McCordy's were good. They lost Chung early in the second half, and he was really good in the first half.

Even when the Rams completed passes, they were tight coverage catches. Belichick said something after the game that I thought was really interesting. It was in one of those interviews that he did with either NFL network or ESPN. Someone asked him, was it the Bears game that he watched, where the Bears game completely shut down the Rams, if you recall in that Sunday night, 15 to 6 game. I think that was the final score. Belichick said, no, no.

It was the Lions. It was the way the Lions played the Rams. Not the Bears, who held him to 6. But the way the Lions played the Rams, the Lions gave up 30 in that game. And it was obviously his former defensive coordinator and Matt Patricia, who was the head coach of the Lions. And I went back and looked at that game.

And remember, I had the Lions in the smell test. And they were right the entire way. It was 16 to 13 at the end of the third quarter. And Goff had a terrible game. game. He was 17 to 33 for just 207 yards. And Belichick said it was the way that the Lions took away the Rams early play action, early down play action, which is exactly what Cooley talked about. He said, they're going to take away the play action. They're going to take away the boot. That's what you have to do when you play the Rams. And what Belichick said, he said, if they don't

have that early down play action, they don't get the explosive plays. had 120 explosive plays on the season, and if you can take that away, which is what Detroit did, what Matt Patricia did, that was going to be the key to the game, and you were going to force them to go to distance. You were going to force them to run the football. Wade Phillips, I thought, on the flip side, had Brady confused for three quarters. They got pressure. They hit Brady.

forced bad throws, made him unsure. Both defenses in the game were outstanding. Outstanding. It appeared as if scheme and play calling were really the keys to the low-scoring game. There were great performances by players on both sides. Don't get me wrong. But huge kudos to the defensive coaching staffs in this game. They were the stars of the night.

They really were. The defensive coordinators both sides. If there's one knit to pick, it would have been that Edelman wasn't doubled on all of those, on the third downs that they converted. But, you know, both teams were ineffective basically for the game on third down. The Patriots were three for 12, and the Rams were three for 13 on third down.

So on that good list, the defensive coaching staffs, Wade Phillips, you know, I heard people said, why would you have wanted Wade Phillips? He's not that good. In Washington, we're talking about. He was interviewed for the job. It was a weird interview. We read through it a few weeks ago.

Wade Phillips said the whole thing was a bit bizarre with Jay Gruden. Yeah, a guy like Wade Phillips is a difference maker. You know, you have great coaching, great scheming, great play calling, great understanding and adjustments, you know, on the sideline with somebody that really knows what they're doing. You know, it elevates, you know, it elevates good to great, you know, average to good. The Redskins have some talent on defense. I don't think it's been coached very well. Also on the good list, how about the Patriots running game, their offensive line in particular?

Even though the Rams had a good night defensively, they did. The Patriots big plays were often a result of great blocking, especially on that final drive. You know, I didn't realize this until the end. end of the game. Do you know the Patriots rushed for 154 yards in this game? Sounds right. Michelle was 18 for 94. Burkhead was 7 for 43. You know, for a game that was really a defensive, you know, low-scoring game. Again, not a great defensive game. I didn't think this was great defense. I thought it was great defensive, you know, tactics, coaching. But New England average 4.8 yards per carry.

Michelle averaged 5.2 yards per carry. Burkhead average 6.1 yards per carry. And the offensive line, and it was pointed out multiple times by Romo on the broadcast, it was excellent. How about the punting in this game? Hecker punted it nine times. He got lucky on a couple of bounces and rolls, including a punt that ended up being the longest in Super Bowl history, 65 yards, which was, hold on,

I wrote this down. I think it was 27 yards of bounce. Nance pointed this out. It was 20-something, yeah. It was a bad punt. Yeah, 27 yards after the bounce. It was a bad punt. Great bounce and roll.

He punted it nine times, including the first eight drives of the game. He had punts. Then Ryan Allen punted it for them five times. 14 total punts in the game, eight inside the 20 and four inside the 10-yard line. So the punting in the game was good. Not something that we would have guessed going in. Let me get to the list of things that were bad in the game. I thought Brady's first half, you know, the stats said that he was okay, 15 of 25 at halftime for a buck 60.

He had the interception on the opening drive of the game. But he was definitely off. He was confused by Wade Phillips and what the Rams were doing defensively. He was, as I mentioned, he didn't know if it was man or zone. especially on that first half interception. You could see it. He missed throws, and some of them were easy throws. Like the screen to James White, that little underneath screen, let the pressure come in,

threw it down at his feet. He threw checkdowns on at least three-third-down plays. One to Gronk and maybe two of them to the running backs. It just looked like Brady was completely confused. And he said after the game, he said, man, the Rams defensively were really good. They really had us thinking. He had a fumble on a sack that fortunately for the Patriots they recovered because really it was one of those games Aaron where a defensive touchdown

or a big defensive turnover, force turnover and return was going to decide the game. On my list of things that I didn't like from the game, the opening drive, the second drive of the game, the Roby Coleman hit a penalty for a defenseless hit. was just the worst. I mean, it was a great play by him. That drove me crazy.

It was not helmet to helmet. Right. You know? When he came on and was like, oh, that was actually a good call because it didn't look like he was looking at the play. I just, the receiver was, I think the receiver was behind the line of scrimmage. There was nothing wrong with that play. Nothing.

This was not a receiver coming across the middle where there's a headshot, where he's truly defenseless. And they called it on Dante Fowler Jr. anyway, which was wrong. So they couldn't even take credit for a make-good from the NFC title game. I hated that call. This is, if you're going to make a short list of things that are wrong with the NFL right now, to me, that play is much more impactful to me as a football fan than the missed call,

the blown call, the poor officiating, the human error in officiating. I can't stand the attempt to legislate the physicality, the great football play out of the game. I didn't see what was wrong with that. And by the way, Nancy and Romo did a poor job. And Sterator, a poor job on describing and even talking about that play. It was almost like they were hesitant to be overly critical. on the list of things that weren't good from this game, Jared Gough. It's his first Super Bowl. He's a young player. He'll have potentially more chances.

But he just wasn't good enough in the game. And he was up against the greatest mind and minds in NFL history defensively. You know, he was under pressure definitely. But when he wasn't, he seemed rushed anyway. You know, he threw the back-breaking pick against the all-out blitz on the second and ten with four and a half to go. He could have easily been picked on his first throw of the second half. He just wasn't up to the Patriot scheme and playmaking ability, and he's throwing off his back foot.

He completed a few of those, and on others he wasn't even close. He had a penalty, a false start penalty when he didn't know the snap count. He could have been, I thought, more decisive at times with his legs on a few plays. You know, he was forced into this dropback game, because they took away the play action and the boot. You know, but he, a couple of plays in particular, you know, he was late to Cooks in the end zone on the drive that tied it at 3-3. That could have been a touchdown had he thrown it earlier.

He also took a sack, and I know it wasn't easy to avoid that sack right before the Zerline field goal that made it 3-3 to 3, but man, that went from a 42-yard field goal to a 53-yarder. Now, Zerline's got a massive level. leg, although he was hurt. You know, if you heard Jay Feely describe it during the game, and he made the kick, but that was a bad sack to take. You know, on the drive in the fourth quarter, right before the Patriots took the lead on the follow-up drive, he took a deep shot to Cooks when Reynolds was wide open on the deep

crosser. It was the play where Romo said, that's one of those were on Monday, you're looking at it, and you're like, oh, it probably cost us a really good chance. to get great field position and maybe even win the game. He took the deep shot and the deep crosser was wide open. The Patriots defense outsmarted the Rams all night. But Goff, who had made huge plays in New Orleans, just didn't make the plays in the Super Bowl. It was 19 to 38 for 229 yards with a pick and four sacks.

As an aside, I'm not sure any of those sacks were just on him. The Rams got beat up front all night and they didn't seem to really recognize where the pressure, where the extra pressure was coming from. But Goff had a bad night. You know, McVeigh had a bad night. He claimed afterwards he got out-coached. It's probably true.

You know, in terms of Belichick versus him, Patriots' defense versus the Rams' offense, he was forced into a drop-back game. The only thing that I thought they should have done was run the ball even more and maybe just stick with the run. like the Dallas game. And I would have done it with Gurley, especially knowing that Gurley apparently was not hurt.

I'll get to that in a moment, but that is the head scratcher of this postseason or certainly the last two games. On the list of things that weren't good, that just both third down offenses were dreadful. Rams 3 of 13, Patriots 3 of 12. And then, you know, Brandon Cooks had a chance to tie the game on a really good throw by Goff, one of Goff's best throws of the night. It's that play before the interception that basically, you know, well, they didn't doom them if they had gotten a defensive stop. But Brandon Cooks has to pull that one in.

That's a catchable pass. I know that there was coverage and there was a play made, but that ball was dropped right into his hands. It should have been 10-10 right there. All right. I got more here that I want to get through. We'll sort of try to go through this chronologically. The Rams won the toss and deferred. And then Caudill,

Patterson had a really good kickoff return to open the game. And the Rams were sort of bailed out by the Brady interception. Everybody keeps deferring, and it was apparently a Patriots crowd. So there was a huge crowd advantage, according to everybody that was there and a lot of the discussion during the game and after the game. So, you know, the Rams didn't want to start on offense and face the crowd who was fired up. But this wasn't a game where, the third quarter was going to have empty seats like most regular season games,

because half-time's much longer. They should have taken the ball. The Patriots in the first quarter took two timeouts. Two timeouts in the first quarter. The Patriots first quarter was a missed field goal, an interception, and two timeouts taken. Hardly a Patriot-like start to the game. There was a catch by Woods on the sideline. for 18 yards that wasn't challenged by the Patriots, but should have been.

He never got that second foot down after the catch. Patriots didn't challenge. It was at that point, I think, the biggest offensive play for the Rams in the first half. It was a strange first half in that, you know, the Patriots dominated the game statistically in the first half. They had 195 yards to 57 for the Rams. They had 12 first downs to two for the Rams. they had nearly 20 minutes of time of possession to 10 for the Rams.

But the Rams kept punting it. It seemed like from midfield. So it's like they were getting dominated, but Hecker kept kicking it deep into Patriots territory. It was a weird first half. You know, a 3-0 game where the Patriots had dominated statistically, but in watching that game, did you feel like they should have been dominant on the scoreboard? I didn't necessarily feel that way at halftime.

A couple of Romo moments in the first half because there was so much attention on Tony Romo coming into this game and how great he was all season long. I mean, there were numbers coming out. I guess he was 68% on his predictions for the season, pre-snap predictions, and he was phenomenal in that AFC championship game, Chiefs Patriots,

especially on that final drive for the fourth quarter. But he said to start, the game. He said, you know, the Patriots are the underdogs. They're hungry. It's like Brady and Belichick sucked Tony Romo into the were being overlooked thing. Just so everybody knows,

the Patriots were favorites in this game. They were the favorite. Favorites and all the money was on him. And a lot of the money was on him. It went off. I bought it to three, like I said, I would do on Saturday. But I went and checked pre-kickoff on all of my sites.

It was two. Went down to two in a lot of spots. Romo lost his mic there in the second quarter for a couple of plays. He and Nance were also really confused on the Rams punt in the second quarter where there was a clear delay of game penalty. The Rams looked like they were going to, they were up to something, you know, at midfield before that punt. They've been a fake punt, you know, team this year. And Nance and Romo just kept talking.

about whether or not it was going to be a false start call or a neutral zone infraction, and you're like, guys, it was clearly delay a game. End of the first half, a couple of things. I liked the Rams timeout with 117 left in the first half before the Patriots fourth and one. Now they got, you know, more likely than not, they're not going to get the stop there. I didn't know what the Patriots would do there, but you had to put yourself into a position where you had a chance to get the ball back. And with the Patriots with good football teams, don't think with anything more than a minute left, if they're in your territory, a touchdown's going to be possible whether they have timeouts or not. So I like the Rams timeout. Somebody tweeted me and said, you're going to hate that. Sheehan's going to hate that timeout.

I didn't have a problem with that. And they got the stop on fourth and one, and they had great field position, but they couldn't do anything with it. I thought the play at the end of the first half, Rams with the ball, the third and two, first of all, I thought it was a bad spot on the second down throw. I thought it should have been third and one. I thought there were a couple of instances in this game where there's some bad spots. I'll get to the one late in the game here in a few minutes.

But I just thought there were about 40 seconds to go. The Rams were hurrying on that third and two, and I thought they could have used a time out there. And I think what McVeigh was thinking was, I don't want to use a timeout and then miss and give the Patriots more time. But even if they hadn't gotten it on third and two after a timeout, the Patriots were going to get the ball back after a punt deep in their own territory. You know, with only one time out. I thought that McVeigh could have called a time out there before the third two to get it right. You know, they missed on it. They were hurrying on that particular play.

They needed to convert that third. too with 40 seconds left in the first half. They had to get in field goal range and you didn't have that much further to travel because of Greg Zerline's leg. I also thought that McVeigh should have made Brady snap it three total times at the end of the half at the two-yard line. You know, when you've got Sue and you've got Donald, you know, you can try something there. You can have them try to time the snap count and disrupt something. Who cares if they get a penalty? McVeigh took his final two timeouts into the locker room. The Patriots and knelt it down on that first one from their own two yard line with Brady.

I would have made him snap it two more times. You've got nothing to lose. Nothing. The Patriots are not going to try to score from their own two yard line at the end of the half with 14 seconds left. I would have made him snap it two more times. You had a chance to make him snap it two more times. and I would have had Donald or sue or try to time the snap disrupt something

I mean if you get a bad snap or you get a loose ball you might get a safety you might get a touchdown you might get something I just don't I never understand in that situation when the other team when there is zero chance of them scoring before the half if you use your timeouts why you wouldn't have them snap it twice

a couple of things before we get to the end of the game Goff took that shot from Jones on the sideline. People wanted a flag there. I thought it was a legal hit. He was clearly in bounds. What was wrong with it? It wasn't a shot to the head. It wasn't, you know, a vicious tackle.

I mean, it was speed coming at Goff, but Goff was in bounds. If you can't hit somebody in bounds, what are we going to do? I mean, where's the game going? He's in bounds. He didn't go for his head. He didn't lead with his house. helmet. Yeah, golf went flying. He took a big shot there. It's football. How about Todd Gurley? What is, what, it's inexplicable. The whole thing of the last two games, if he was healthy and he said he was after the game.

I don't really understand what went on. On one level, you could see where there was some confidence in comfort with C.J. Anderson moving the chains and, you know, that bowling ball of a, you know, he's not going to get anything less than three or four, maybe not the home run hitter. But Gurley is arguably the best running back in the NFL. And he had five touches in the NFC championship game and 11 in the Super Bowl. I don't get it. You know, by the way, 11.30 to go fourth quarter. quarter three three game, Rams with the ball, and Gurley's in the game and he breaks off a 15-yard run into Patriots territory, but John Sullivan gets called for a hold. That was not a hold. That was a

terrible call. And that was a really impactful call when you think about it because Gurley had just had the biggest play of the night for him. I think it was a 15-16-yard run. They're into Patriots territory. It's 11.30 to go. Now the game's going to go under 11 in the fourth quarter in a tie game. And it was a hold and they had to punt it back. And that's what started the Patriots go ahead drive in the fourth quarter. That could have been the Rams headed for at least a field goal. That was a bad call, the holding on Sullivan. And I was looking for an explanation from more than just Romo. Romo didn't think it was a hold. And then multiple post-game people that had the play said,

that's not a hold. What fooled the referee is that the defender in that particular play fell down, but was tripped up really by one of his own teammates and went down. And it looked like maybe Sullivan was pushing him with a grab. There was no hold on that play. And that was a backbreaking, backbreaking penalty. Really, if you want to look at a play that could have been truly impactfully, to the final score or a call. That was it.

All right. I want to get to the very end of the game, and what I thought was a really, really tough call for Sean McVe. It was when the Patriots had the two penalties on the same play with 225 left, and it was a situation, and Romo was all over it yelling, decline the penalty, the clock's going to stop, we're under five minutes. You're essentially getting a free time out if you decline it. and a wasted down. So he wanted the Rams to decline the penalties.

Two penalties, one gets pushed to the side, and it was in the legal hands, I think, offensively, that gets called. And the situation is, if you take the penalty, it's first and 20, but you knock the Patriots out of field goal range, which was crucial. And what made this situation so difficult is that second and six at the 29, if you decline it with 225 left, or first in 20 at the 44-yard line with 225 left. Rams, no timeouts left at that point.

So to get a stop and a clock stop, and then after the second downplay, you're going to get a clock stop at the two-minute warning, it really created this very difficult game situation decision. My first reaction was you have to knock them out of field goal range. The field goal ends this game. A first down ends the game. And first and 20 basically means that you're taking field goal and first down pretty much out of the equation if the Patriots are just going to line it up and run it on three plays.

The problem with that, though, is that you're going to get the ball back deep in your own territory in a 10-3 game. but with roughly 25 to 30 seconds left in the game. So the decision is you're going to either decide to hopefully get a stop and then pray for a missed field goal, or you're going to be in a position where you're probably going to only have an opportunity at best to throw a Hail Mary from midfield into the end zone to tie the game. And I think if you look at those two potential results, again, let me repeat. If you take the penalty, your best case is that you're going to get the ball deep in your own territory, no timeouts, 25 to 30 seconds left in the game, and you're down 10-3.

So in that particular instance, really your best case is you get it to midfield and you take a shot at a Hail Mary. So if you take the penalty, you're basically saying, I'm going to have it to. chance at a Hail Mary to tie the game or to score at the end of the game. If you decline the penalty, your chance, your best case is stop, missed field goal, get the ball back in good field position at roughly the 31, 32 yard line with about a minute 10 left, somewhere around a minute 10 left. That really is probably the best way to go. You have to get a stop. which they did, you got to get Gostowski to miss a field goal, which he didn't. And it wasn't going to be a long field goal, but he had missed a field goal earlier in the game.

That is really one of those game situation decisions that is really, really difficult. I think McVeigh did the right thing. My initial reaction was you take the penalty because you got to knock him out of field goal range, and then at least it's a 10-3 game when you get the ball back. but really your best chance to legitimately tie the game was to get the ball back with a minute 10 left at the 31-yard line. That would have given you a chance to go down the field and score a touchdown without a Hail Mary,

but to get that, you needed a missed 41, 42-yard field goal, somewhere in the range of 41 to 46 yards. And again, Gostowski had missed a field goal earlier in the game from 46. So I think they probably did the right thing. Not every call is black and white, easy to make. But I think that really in terms of your win probability, which was very low, that you probably had a slightly higher chance to win the game

by declining the penalty, in essence getting that other time out, and just hoping that he misses the field goal, which he didn't. I thought Belichick did the right thing kicking the field goal instead of going for the fourth and inches. Now, a couple of things. Number one, terrible spot on that run. That was not an inch short of the first down. That was a solid two feet, certainly a foot or more. Bad spot should have been replayed by the booth. It was under two minutes to go.

And by the way, had it been a foot or two, it would have been a no-brainer to kick the field goal. the fact that it was maybe two or three inches short, not even two or three inches. In fact, the measurement was nearly enough with the nose of the ball touching the extended first down chain. I thought he was going to kick the field goal. And for those that say that's conservative, it's 41 yards. That's 95% to end the game. 90, whatever, 9 out of 10 to end the game, he had missed one earlier, as I mentioned before, but it's a chip shot indoors, and it clinches the game.

If you somehow miss on the quarterback sneak, which by the way was a low probability to, Brady getting an inch or so, McVeigh should have been screaming for a replay to review that spot. Because if they went for it there, a fourth and two feet different than fourth and an inch. But anyway, I actually. thought Belichick was going to kick the field goal there, and I thought it was the right thing to do if he had gone for it and gotten it, you know. Again, another tough call, not an easy call, but the field goal makes it 13 to 3 game over. And if Brady can sneak it for an inch, it's game over also. I get it. Um, lastly, the, I mentioned this earlier with Romo talking about the

underdog thing, you know, and the Patriots, you know, battle cry. of nobody's giving us a chance. People have counted us out. We're the underdogs. They played 19 games this year, 16 in the regular season, three in the postseason. They were favored in 18 of the 19 games.

I mean, was there less confidence by the average fan in the Patriots this year? Maybe. Probably. But nobody counted them out. Nobody ever said no chance. And the odds makers made them a favorite.

in every single regular season game this year, and two of the three postseason games in which they played, they were an underdog one time in 19 games, and that was at Kansas City in the AFC Championship game, where they were just a three-point underdog. I mean, I love that, you know, if it worked for them, good for them. But enough of it to be screaming it outwardly, you look foolish. Nobody gave us a chance.

People counted us out all year long. We were the underdogs. No, you were the underdog one time in 19 games. Nobody said you didn't have a chance. In fact, most people said once you got the two seed, when the Texans lost that game to the Eagles, a game that they had a chance to win, and there was a terrible roughing the passer penalty

on Jadavia and Clowny late in that game on Nick Foles that gave the Eagles a chance. That was the game the Eagles had to have. And it was also a game the Texans had to have, If the Texans had been the two-seed and the Patriots had to play that first weekend and they would have played who did the Texans? The Texans played the Colts, right? So the Patriots probably would have had the Colts in a 3-6 game.

It wouldn't have been easy, but it would have been in Foxborough. Right. And then they would have gone to, as the three-seed, they would have gone to they would have gone to Houston. They would have gone to Houston. Right, they would have played in Houston in the second round. I don't know if they would have gotten there that route, but they were the two-seed, and they had a home game after a bye week.

Next year's season opener, I was looking at this for the... Well, it's not going to be the season opener. Well, there was a story. You're talking about the story that was reported that the Super Bowl champion may not open the NFL season. It seems likely that they are. not. I didn't read it as it seemed likely. Why do you say it seemed likely? I've seen some tweets that it does seem like right now they are leaning towards having Packers and Bears open the season on that Thursday. I, okay, I want to find the story now because now you've got me interested in this. So

there was this story over the weekend that the NFL may, entering their 100th season, which is next year that they may not necessarily have the Super Bowl champion open up the season at home, which has happened every year, except for the year the Ravens won it over the 49ers because there was a Ravens Orioles thing and the Ravens ended up going to Denver, right, to open up that season. Correct. Yeah. So, and the talk was that the Packers and Bears is the two, are they the two oldest franchises? Is that why? Are the Giants? Not as old. I don't know who the oldest The Giants, Packers, Bears, Redskins.

I found the here, I've got this story right here, Karen, from over the weekend. The NFL reportedly considering a surprising season opening game for the 2019 regular season. Typically, the Super Bowl winning team hosts the opening game of the 2019 season on a Thursday night to kick off the year. However, it appears as if the league may be considering something different for its 100th anniversary. Packers at Bears could be the opening game of the season next year, two of the oldest franchises in the NFL. I got news for you. That ain't going to happen.

You're trying to create the best opening game to the NFL season, and the best NFL game of the season, if you look at the Patriots schedule next year, would be Patriots chiefs or Patriots Cowboys. They have the Cowboys in Foxborough next year. In fact, could you imagine a higher-rated opening game to the season on September, whatever that is, the first Thursday in September next year, then Patriots hosting Cowboys? Come on. I mean, Patriots hosting Chiefs would be great as a rematch of the AFC Championship game with Patrick Mahomes.

And by the way, the Chiefs, they are favored. Westgate had their opening, had their Super Bowl odds updated last night, and the Chiefs are the favorite to win the Super Bowl next year at 6 to 1. New England, the Rams, and the Saints are at 8 to 1, and then the Steelers, Chargers, Bears are at 14 to 1. Anyway, I didn't see where the Redskins were. I can look that up a little bit later, but I can't, the NFL to me is going to go with,

the biggest television show, and any opening NFL game is a big television show, I understand that. But you can tell me that they're going to pass on Patriots chiefs or Patriots Cowboys for Bears Packers? Come on. Patriots are opening up the season next year. And maybe they'll say, well, everybody's just sick of the Patriots, but they don't always have a great home schedule.

I think it's going to be Patriots, Cowboys. that just seems to me like it would be the one. Anyway, that wraps up the season, I guess. You know, I did, I'll get to a couple of things from over the weekend and weekend DVR. And I put a poll out yesterday before the Super Bowl that I want to review the results in. But real quickly on Window Nation, Windonation is a big fan of the podcast. Harley and Aaron are two of the best entrepreneurs. I know they've built an incredible.

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There is no limit. Zero percent financing for five full years. 86690 Nation or windownation.com and tell them that I sent you. What we haven't talked about as it relates to the Super Bowl were the commercials and the halftime show. I'm going to tell you right now, I didn't really watch any of the half time. I'm not a Maroon 5 guy. I didn't think it was going to be very good. Apparently it wasn't very good.

It was. The subjective thing, but I didn't think that I was going to enjoy it. So I actually did a couple things. First of all, I took a couple of quick notes for the podcast in the first half. And then I went out real quickly and took the dog for a quick walk because it was so nice yesterday. It was just great weather. And it's a longer halftime than it usually is. So I didn't see any of the halftime. Was it as bad as most people said it was? It wasn't bad. It was just much like the rest of the Super Bowl, it was boring. There was nothing special about it, nothing

memorable about it. You know, I thought the best part were the 45 seconds they allowed Big Boy to, you know, to do the way you move. Like, it wasn't a great performance, not great songs. Rune 5 is who they are. And for a city like Atlanta, it was the wrong half-time show for Atlanta. That's for sure. I didn't think I was going to like it, so I didn't see it. So I don't have much there. Aaron just gave you what he gave you. On the commercials, you know, it's been a couple of years running now where there hasn't been, I don't think, anything truly memorable. I thought the Bud Light commercials were pretty good. The corn syrup thing, actually, to me, I didn't even know that Coors Light and Miller Light had corn syrup in their ingredients. If you're drinking light

beer, I don't think you care about corn syrup. Probably not, but I thought it was funny how they focused on that. And, you know, they had the one where, you know, the Bud Light and Game of Thrones worlds collided. That was the best commercial of the night. And what started that commercial, there's a quick throwaway line there where he says, you know, things are nice. We're watching this thing. And it's before the mountain came in. and disrupted the show. But he said, I'm feeling good. You know, I don't have the plague.

It's just the plague to even think about the plague. But anyway. Supposedly that wasn't necessarily the first idea. Like Game of Thrones wanted to do a partnership. They actually reached out to Coca-Cola where they were going to turn one of the polar bears into a white walker. That might have been good, too. Yeah. Well, you know, the Serena Williams Bumble ad, you know, with promoting, you know, women and their strength and the whole thing.

I thought that was okay. It was weird just because there's no way Serena Williams is using Bumble. I know. Christina Applegate in the M&M's commercial. She's great. I like her. I've always liked her. I think she's an example of one of those people that's just gotten better at everything she does as she's gotten older over the years.

What do you think of the Stella Archwaal with the dude? Well, it was with what's her face first? Well, yes. Sarah Jessica Parker. I thought it was mediocre, but anything with the dude I'm going to like. Anything with Jeff Bridges to me is going to be good. It was fine. It was fine.

I just didn't think, I mean, overall, I was watching the commercials. The Doritos Backstreet Boys commercial, I didn't see that one. That was, I think that was the very first commercial breaker for second. That was pretty early. I think the team mobile, you know, texting commercials were actually sort of hard to follow at times. I can't even think of the other. The NFL one going into half. Did you see that?

Did you see that? I didn't see that and I didn't really see the open with John Malkovich. I heard it was in Peyton Manning. Okay. So there you go. We don't have much on this. Yeah. We don't have much on this.

It was, again, five years from now, I am not going to remember a single thing. Maybe, you know, maybe I'll remember the final score because it was so low. I will not remember a single thing about this Super Bowl. It will probably go down as the least memorable of the 2000s or in a long, long time. There are so many Super Bowls from when I first started watching the Super Bowl and many of you did that weren't very memorable. I mean, most of the games in the 70s and 80s seemingly were blowouts, but a lot of them featured great dominant performances, you know, by the Steelers or by the 49ers. But yeah, the game for most yesterday, utterly forgettable. really, when you think about it, it's unbelievable.

Like, what would you have gotten odds-wise for a 3-0-0-half-time or a 3-3 game going into the fourth quarter? I mean, 30-1, 40-1. I mean, whatever it would have been, it would have been unbelievable odds because no one could have expected that. If somebody said you're going to see a really good defensive game, you would have said, all right, get ready for, you know, in this day and age, a good defensive game would be 24-21. But let's just say it was going to be 20. 17-14, which was the Giants Patriots, one of the Giants Patriots games.

I think the other one was 21-17, but not 13 to 3. I did like, apparently some of the people in Vegas were freaking out because they were massively exposed on the no-touchdown prop, which was like 500 to 1 or something like that. Was it really? 500 to 1 on the no-touchdown prop? I think it was something along those lines. I don't know if you could have actually played it at 500 to 1. They said that like there were talks with some people at sports in Vegas who said that they were in big trouble if that had happened. Wow. Well, I did have, and I told you what I was going to do, I was going to play the Rams plus 3, I was going to play the Rams on the money line.

I did both of those things. But my big wagers on the game were the under overall, which I did get at 56. Now the smell test was 56 and a half on Friday. It went off at 55, 55 and a half, you know, pretty much across the board. It came down a little bit, but I got it at 56. And I did play the first half under as well, and that was never in debt. Neither one of them was ever in debt. You know, the Kansas City, New England, AFC title game looked like it was a no doubt under throughout the game through three quarters.

and then they erupted for 38 points in the fourth quarter, and then you had another six in overtime, which put it over the total. But, yeah, that was an easy undergame. Let's do some weekend DVR. Did you have a busy weekend? Don't worry. We've got you covered. It's time for weekend DVR.

All right, there was a lot to the weekend. There really wasn't any Redskins news from over the weekend. None that I saw. A lot of conversation with many of you, including a couple of people that I ran into on Saturday. We had quite a heated conversation about whether or not Dan Snyder would sell the team. I don't think he's going to sell the team, people. Why would he?

Why would he sell the team? I mean, you know, the only hope you have, and Tommy said this in the middle of the season, is a Jerry Richardson situation. And nobody thinks that Dan has anything like that in his closet. Apparently with Dan, really, the people that know him best, there aren't a lot of skeletons there that people expect. So just, he's going to own the team.

I mean, unless the owners decide they don't want him, but even they couldn't, I don't think they could force him to get rid of it. I did this poll yesterday. I just wanted to see what the reactions would be. It was, I don't know, an hour before the Super Bowl. Bowl started. And the question was, it's been 27 years since the Redskins played in a Super Bowl, how long until they play in their next one? And the three options were within the next 10 years, between 11 and 20 years, or 20 plus years or probably never. That was the winner. 52% of

you said 20 plus years or probably never. 32% of you said sometime between 11 and 20 years, and only 16% of you said that they will be in a Super Bowl within the next 10 years. And the comments were really telling. I mean, I didn't expect anything different, but I was just curious to see what people would write. And basically, much of the comments were all about ownership, you know, and I almost put it into the question that you have to assume that Dan Snyder is going to own the team. He's in his early to mid-50s. He's going to own the team for another 30 years potentially. You know, and then it would probably get turned over to his son. So, and I, and I I have no idea whether or not the sun will be a good owner.

I will probably not be here when the sun takes over the team. I hope I am. But anyway, it's all about ownership. It's all about Bruce. It's all about all of that stuff. But here was my favorite response to the poll that I put out. Came from at Goeb Jets. I don't know what your name is.

replace the local media with all delusionally positive folks, and things will change. Super Bowl within three to five years, exclamation point, positivity matters. See Dallas's resurgence this year? Eggs last year. Pats now, eggs is an Eagles. Pats now, all counted out. The Pats counted out. Their fans never stopped believing, F all negativity.

We are fanatics and we hashtag hail. Did you listen or pay attention to Eagle fans? I was going to say there was some of the most. Patriots fans were non-existent before they started winning. Yeah, I mean, but the Eagle fans are the all-time, all-time negative fan base. I mean, if you go back to some of the years with Andy Reid when he's winning divisions, the negativity. It's Philly. It's Philly.

Dallas fans, I mean, Jesus, God. I mean, all they wanted was Jason Garrett fired. And that's been the, I mean, well, years, a few years back, Jerry sell the team. It was the same thing with Jerry sell the team. And Stephen get the hell out of personnel. And with Jason Garrett and Scott Lenehan, have you heard Cowboy fans over the last few years? They hate Jason Garrett and Scott Lennon. Hate them.

They were begging for Jason Garrett to. be fired. Positiveity? Did you hear the cowboy fans this year when they had lost to us? Oh my God, it was fire everybody. They were, you know, before that Sunday night game when they went to Philadelphia and won, they were, I think there were three and four. I think they were three and four at that point. Basically, it was, the season was over. I mean, all cowboy fans just figured the season was over, and they just wanted Jason Garrett fired immediately. They lost to the Redskins and then the Titans on a Monday night, a game in which Dack threw a couple of backbreaking interceptions,

and they just wanted everybody fired. There was no positivity among cowboy fans. None. Look, you can't... First of all, the local media thing, you're out of your mind. We've talked about so many times. This is the... Did you hear some of the Bruce Allen interviews last week on Radio Row? You think it's a tough local media? Oh my God.

I mean, look, one of them was done by my former station. I love all those guys. But clearly, there was some sort of governor put on that interview. I mean, Bruce Allen did two local sit-down interviews last week that I know of. He may have done more. you listen to those interviews and then you go listen to some of the interviews that Andy Reid had to face coming off of playoff seasons in Philadelphia. Anyway, I don't want to get carried away on that.

It's not always the easiest situation. There was far too much laughter and yucking it up with Bruce Allen last week on Radio Row for me. But again, you know, it's everybody's different and everybody handles every situation differently. But you cannot, if you listen to any of the interviews with Bruce Allen on Radio Row last week, you cannot talk about, you know, a local media that's hyper-negative. Okay? You can't. This fan base is no different than any other. The media market is no different than any other.

In fact, it's probably much less, much less harsh than at least a half-dozen sports media markets. And delusionally positive folks are not going to turn this thing around. All right. Firing Bruce Allen, firing the coaching staff, admitting fault, taking the blame, and finding somebody that can do it, and turning that organization over to competence, and allowing them to do their job with autonomy gives you a chance. Or you could just stumble into the greatest quarterback ever

by drafting Daniel Jones or Will Greer, who becomes the next Patrick Mahomes. And that could change it. But the media and the fan base isn't going to have anything to do with that. All right, other things from the weekend. The NFL Hall of Fame, I don't think the results of that really surprised anybody.

The three locks for the Hall of Fame all got in. Tony Gonzalez, Ed Reed, and Champ Bailey. They were as good, they were easy lock slam dunks, you know, going into this thing. They play, no football fan watched Champ Bailey, Tony Gonzalez, and Ed Reed and said, yeah, tough call. None of them were tough calls. Ed Reed in particular, to me, arguably the greatest safety we've ever watched. Ty Law got in. That was a little surprising to me.

Kevin Mawai got in. Whenever an offensive lineman like Mawai gets in, I just say, well, how did Jake not get in? You know, all Redskin fans, all of us are always going to say when an offensive lineman gets in, you know, that was debatable in terms of whether or not he had a Hall of Fame career. You're just going to say, how is Jake not in? Gil Brant was the contributor that got in. You know, Gil Brant really was the architect of those cowboys from the time they became a franchise in 1960, I think, 61, whenever it was, until, you know, Jerry Jones bought the team in 89

and reconfigured the whole front office. But, you know, the Gilbrant, Tom Landry, TechSram Cowboys really were ahead of the rest of the league, you know, with respect to how they evaluated players. You know, they were part of the first, you know, sports team that was in, I guess, for the lack of a better description, the computer age. You know, and I don't even know what that really meant in the 70s, but they had all of these computers that would spit out numbers.

But really what Gil Brant was great at was watching a player and evaluating a player. The Cowboys had quite a run. you know, with Brandt Landry and Schram during that era. It was the era that created America's team. You know, the Cowboys were shiny and they won and they seemed smarter than everybody else. And until Joe Gibbs got to Washington and Bobby Bethard.

Pat Bolan got in as well, the owner of the Broncos for so many years. Also from over the weekend, you had some of the NFL awards. Patrick Mahomes was the MVP. I don't think anybody was going to disagree with that. And Andrew Luck was the comeback player of the year. And Aaron Donald was the defensive MVP. There you go. I mean, those were the big ones. Rookie of the year was close on both offensive and defensive. Was it close with Barclay and Leonard?

Yeah, it was. Barkley was, I think the final voting was like 27 and a half. to 22 and a half. With Mayfield? Yeah, yeah. And then was the defense, because Darius Leonard, remember, we saw him in week two when he had like 20 tackles in that game. Right. He was the defensive rookie of the year, the Colts lineback.

Yeah, Derwin James also got a decent amount of votes, yeah. Yeah, you know what? That makes sense. Matt Nagy was your coach of the year. Adrian Peterson got a couple of votes, right, for comeback player of the year. Back to that for a moment. I didn't see that. I think he got a couple of votes, but it was luck overwhelmingly as the comeback player of the game.

You know, if you missed this from over the weekend, did you see where the Eagles are planning on franchising Foles and trying to trade them? I saw conflicting reports about that, but yeah, they were at least considering that. Yeah. They, Adam Schaefter had it on Saturday. The Eagles expected to use their franchise tag on Foles in an effort to trade him. You can rescind that tag, right, at some point? Yeah, but if he signs it immediately. Right. That would be the risk there.

And I'm pretty sure he would sign it immediately. There was also a report in a positive report that the NFL and the NFL PA are going to open up labor talks, you know, over the next six months or at some point during the next six months, which would be pretty early. But a good sign if you're an NFL fan and you don't want a lockout in 2021. one. Elsewhere in sports over the weekend, the Caps lost to the Bruins. We were wrong about the Caps Bruins. The Caps had this long running streak over the Bruins. And the Bruins shut them out yesterday, won nothing. I am interested, though. Like, you know, we had Greg Wysinski on recently, and he said, no reason to fret. The Caps are fine. But, you know, they have now lost eight of nine, I believe it is, eight of nine games. And, you know, the Calgary games,

that they won coming off a long break, four to three, was, you know, right there as a three-three game late. And I think Kuznetsov scored with, you know, a minute or a minute and a half to go somewhere around there. And, you know, this is what I do well. I look at the standings to try to evaluate what's going on when I'm not really, really into the minutia of a particular sport. And the caps are four points behind the islanders tied with the penguins and only three points ahead of Columbus for fourth in the division. you know, you get 52 games too. I mean, you've got 30 games left. We are two months away.

Are we not? Two months away? It would be, you know, April 4th from the start of the postseason. Yeah, I mean, Kuznetsov got benched at one point yesterday. I know. Yeah. One-nothing, they lost that game. The Wizards got absolutely blown out by the Bucks on Saturday night after. I had mentioned the Pacers game on Thursday night, I thought was one of their most complete games

and one of the most impressive wins that they had all year long. Against the Bucks, no chance. I mean, they were down 23 at halftime, 30 at one point in the first half, and they lost 131 to 115. What's funny about that 131-1-15 is it seems like there's a lot of those scores, you know, where the Wizards are giving up 125 plus and losses. They lost to the Spurs 132 to 119. They lost to the Warriors, 126-118. They lost to the Raptors. Now, that was a double overtime game.

The 76ers lost was 132 to 115. It's like when I saw the final score, I'm like, that's pretty much the final score of the games that they lose. 131-1-15. And I went back and here it is. They lost to the Spurs, 132-119. The Sixers, 132 to 115. They give up a lot of points in some of these losses, man. They really do.

There was a game earlier to the Rockets, 136 to 118. They are not what you would call a great defensive team. Bobby Marks, who I really respect from ESPN, he's really good at trades and cap and contracts in the NBA, was a longtime NBA executive. And he put something out earlier this morning about just what to look for this week. in the NBA, team by team.

And when it came to the Wizards, he said, you know, there's what to watch. And he said the entire roster, you know, he's like, you know, could they, they've got a few options. He said they could create a bidding war for Bradley Beale and look to cash in on their most valuable trade piece. But I don't think they're going to trade Bradley Beale. I mean, we heard Ted say that last week. He said they can take back expiring. contracts in exchange for Otto Porter Jr.

With Porter playing well, now might be the ideal time to trade him. I don't know that he's playing well, but I would, and this is the one move I would make if I were the Wizards. I try to unload that contract with a player that I just don't think you're ever going to get the kind of development and the kind of production for the money. Otto Porter is not a killer. you know, he's not a third, you know, a third, a wheel, a spoke in a wheel. He's just, he's just, he's versatile.

He does a lot of things that help you, but not for that money. Bobby Marks writes, you can identify the trade markets for the eight expiring contracts that they have. They're projected right now to be over the salary cap next year and we'll face decisions on impending free agents before the deadline. You know, he said, keep in a lot of. eye on Areza, although his salary cannot be aggregated, Washington can trade him for an expiring contract and possible draft picks before the deadline. But he writes, and I think, you know, this is the thing you have to consider with Areza is that the Wizards could still sign him in the offseason and keep him. And he also makes note of the fact that, you know, if you keep this

thing together, they still have a chance to make the playoffs, which they do in the the east. They could be the eight or the seven seed. Anyway, that's basically it. There's a lot of detail that Marx goes through in terms of the wizard's roster. Anyway, that's it on them. I did want to mention some college basketball because when we left here on Friday, Maryland had a huge game in Madison against Wisconsin Friday night. A game in which it was winnable. It was a winnable game. They had, you know, they had leads. This is going to be every single time they lose, especially to a ranked team on the road, Turgeon's 0 and 18 at Maryland against ranked opponents on the road. That's really amazing. I don't know what it speaks to, and some of you say

you like Mark too much, you're not critical of Mark enough. I'm just, I'll say what I've always said. I think Mark's a good coach. You don't win as many games as you, as he's won during the course of of his career and be a bad coach. Could they have a better coach? Yeah, there are things that frustrate me about Turgeon, and I mention them all the time. I'll tell you what frustrated me the other night. What frustrated me the other night was, in general, what has frustrated me all year, which is they don't run enough. You know, they still play too slow for my liking. I think they're a team that has enough talent, and they dominate the glass in a lot of these games. They should have more fast break opportunities, but they don't really look for them. But really what,

frustrated me specifically on Friday night is that he felt like Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith, when they got their third fouls, were in what he called, quote, severe foul trouble, close quote. I don't consider three fouls in the second half to be severe foul trouble. And he kept Bruno off the floor for seven key minutes in the second half, you know, with three fouls. And now he got the second and third back to back. And the second foul was a terrible call. Terrible call. You had a clean block. Marilyn's up seven early in the second half. It is a clean block on an Ethan Hap shot. And they called him for a second foul. And then he got the third on an offensive foul on either the next possession or two possessions later. And it really was a

huge moment in the game. Maryland's up seven, potentially with Bruno on the floor after that lock shot. Maybe they push that lead to double digits. That's a possibility. But instead, he goes to the bench and Wisconsin comes back, ties the game. But Maryland took the lead again without Bruno on the floor. They were up 52-48. There were a couple of things from this game. They had a terrible ending to the first half. They could have been up 10 at the eight worst case. And they turned it over and ended up being up five at the break. I think they stayed in the zone too long. If you watch this game, if you didn't, just bear with me.

There was a huge possession with under five seconds left on the shot clock, up 52-48, and they didn't defend it well, and they gave up an open three. People that want to say they got a bad whistle, you're going to get a bad whistle on the road in these big leagues, all right? You know, it's no different than the ACC. Maryland would get a terrible whistle at Duke. they'd get a terrible whistle of Carolina. They'd get a terrible whistle at Virginia.

You get favorable whistles when you're at home in these big league games, and if you're a road team, you're going to have to overcome it. Ethan Haft was exceptional in this game. That was probably more the reason than anything else that Marilyn lost the game on Friday night, is that Ethan Haap is an All-American, and he played like it. 18 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, two steals, two block shots in 37 minutes of play.

The only thing he didn't do is he didn't shoot free throws well, which is why I think I would have stayed man, not gone to as much zone, and let half beat you with twos or with free throws, which he wouldn't have done. And instead, in the zone, he passed it so well from the middle portion of the zone to open shooters. and Davison knocked down four or six, and Ford came off the bench and knocked down two.

And that was the difference. They were nine for 18 from behind the arc, and they won 69, 61. Again, I think sometimes he coaches way too conservatively with the fouls. I would have brought back at least Smith earlier than he did. Three fouls in the second half is not severe foul trouble.

And you can't treat it that way, in my view, on the road in a game that you got a chance to win. You know what? Bruno didn't foul out of the game. You know what? Jalen Smith ended up with three fouls in the game. And you know what? Bruno Fernando is 25 minutes, not enough.

His nine field goal attempts, not enough. He should have played 32 minutes in the game and had 15 attempts from the floor. They play at Nebraska Wednesday night. Man, the Big Ten is something else. how about Indiana going to Michigan State and winning? How about yesterday? Minnesota's got a 13-point lead with 10 minutes to go, and they lose by 10 at Purdue.

The league's really, really good. Maryland plays Nebraska, maybe at the worst possible time, they've lost five games in a row, five in a row, including to Illinois. And I told you, Aaron, last week, Illinois's capable. It was a bad loss for Maryland, but Illinois's got some players. They're capable, and they beat Nebraska the other day. Georgetown lost to Villanova. Man, it was a tight game yesterday, too.

It was tight, and then they ended up losing. Did Villanova cover it? Yes, they did, because Georgetown failed with 10 seconds left. What was the number 11? The number was 11. They won by 12. Yeah, I looked at that early, and I thought it was a lot of points. I think, I'm going to keep saying this.

I think Georgetown's decent. I think they're a decent team. They were right there with, you know, six, seven minutes to go. tie game at Villanova, a Villanova team who's been rolling. They're 9 and 0 in the Big East now. They've won 10 games in a row. What else did I have on my list? That's basically it. I was going to mention the golf, but I'm sure none of you were watching it. But man, I was happy for Ricky Fowler. There was a change yesterday that you rarely see in golf. Ricky Fowler had a five-shot lead when he went to 11 on the back nine, number 11 on the back nine.

And his five-shot lead became a one-shot deficit within about 10 minutes. He triple-bogied 11, bogey 12, and Brandon Grace got on a roll, and all of a sudden he's down a shot. But he came back with huge shots on 16, 17, and 18. Good for him. It was, he's one of those players that's likable. he had not won in a while, and he won at the place in which Steve Sands told us is the favorite tour stop for many of the players and many in the golf media, which is TPC Scottsdale. And the scene that they have on the 16th and 17th holes in particular, 18, is unlike any other in golf.

Yeah, I'm not a golf guy, but there are two places I want to go before, you know, I die or whatever, Augusta and there. Well, I've been there. I think I've told this story before. You can turn down the music, no. Some of you don't like the music that we play underneath on some of these, you know, segments. I do. It's pace, I think, is good.

Anyway, so the Super Bowl in Arizona, God, I don't even remember who played in the Super Bowl. I think it was a Giants Patriots Super Bowl. Right. One of those Giants Patriots Super Bowls was in Scottsdale. And I was with Riggins. co-hosting with John on the John Riggins show. Gary Braun was a part of that show too.

We were out in Scottsdale all week long, and Rigo had to make an appearance at TPC Scottsdale during the week. It was, I don't know, it was like a Wednesday night before the tournament started on Thursday, and it was some celebrity thing where Rigo had to play number 16, had to hit a T shot from number 16, the famous par three, where I think that, I think they have 16,000, 17,000 in seating on that hole, something like that. Rigo is not a golfer, but he is an athlete. He is an athlete.

And so Joe Buck is participating in this thing. I think Ron Jaworski was participating in this thing where there's some sort of charity thing and they're going to hit their tee shot on 16 on the par three. And Joe Buck, you know, drives by. he's headed to the driving range to warm up and Jorski's doing the same thing. I'm like Rigo, do you want to go hit some balls? He's like, nah.

I'm like, you don't want to warm up at all? Nah. I think Rigo was in a suit and a tie. May not have had a tie on. He steps up, Joe Buck hits it into the trap and Jorski, you know, shanks it right or something, and Rigo gets up.

And somebody says, he goes, what club do I use? And I think it was playing at 150 yards or something. they had it, they tees up a little bit for 150-yard part of three shot. And I think somebody yelled to him here, well, give you a seven iron. He said, all right, that sounds good to me. And he takes one practice swing with the seven iron and then steps up and knocks it to within six feet.

Swear to God. Perfect, perfect shot. I mean, was it a great-looking swing? It wasn't perfect, but it was an athlete under pressure with probably, I don't know, 500 people watching, and he knocked it to within six feet of the stick. I've never been to that tournament. That was my only time to be there. And I've never played the course. I've been in Scottsdale a number of times to play golf. And they all, everybody out there says that Scots, the TPC Scottsdale's okay to play, but it's just a totally different scene when the fans aren't there. It's just a great

event to attend. Oh, Aaron, one more thing, actually. You texted me about this, but I was already aware of what was going on. College basketball on Saturday. First of all weekend, there were a couple of these instances, but NC State against Virginia Tech in Raleigh scored 24 points in a college basketball game. 24 points. It is the lowest point total by a ranked team. NC State was ranked in more than three decades of the shot clock era, according to ESPN stats and info. It flirted with the all-time low total, which was 20 points by St. Louis against GW in 2008. I do not remember that game. I thought I would, I mean, a game that involved GW and St. Louis only scored 20 points. But,

Here was even more astounding was the score of the game with eight minutes to go in the first half. With eight minutes to go in the first half of this basketball game, the score was five to two. Five to two in the first, it was actually like the first, it was right around the nine minutes. I think it had just gone under nine minutes. It was eight and change, all right, eight and a lot of change probably. It was five to two. I think when I finally tweeted something out on Saturday, there was $6.50 to go in the game, and it was 13 to 6. And a half.

It was like you were at a Saturday morning CYO game, fifth grade game. Unbelievable. I thought that Georgetown, Tennessee game a few years back was... Oh, 39, 36 or something like that? 37, 36. Was it? Yeah, I was at that game. Yeah, I remember that one.

So the final score, Virginia Tech scored 47. They won by 23 points, 47 to 24. In a college basketball game between two teams who were ranked, at the same time that was going on, Memphis was scoring 13.5 at South Florida. They were down 38, 13 at halftime. Memphis was. And that was another game. It was like, don't ask me why I was paying attention to this. It wasn't because I had a bet on the game.

But South Florida opened up this basketball game with a 19-0-0 run. It was 19-0-0 with 13-5 to go in the game. Memphis didn't score their first point until a free throw with 13-21 in the game. And the lead went from 19-0 to 27-1. With 10 minutes to go in the first half, South Florida led Memphis. Memphis, 27 to 1. But here's the best part of that game. So Memphis scored 13 in the first half,

and then they scored 65 in the second half, and lost the game 84 to 78 in that particular game. And then there was a game yesterday in college basketball, another ACC game that where Clemson beat Wake Forest, 64 to 37. I mean, you're not going to change. By the way, those that think,

oh, lower the shot clock, make it a 24 second, NBA shot clock. Actually, that will make it worse. Teams will just be throwing up random shots. And here's the big, when they went from 35 to 30, which is where it is now, I thought that they needed to eliminate, or they needed to add a defensive three-second rule.

so you couldn't pack in a zone, which in the NBA you're allowed to play zone, but you can't just sit in the lane defensively because there is a defensive three-second rule. In college basketball, you don't have a defensive three-second rule, so you can pack in a two-three zone or a three-two zone and just pack it in and just force a team to really throw up bombs if they're not a good shooting team. And that can be really effective. The other thing about a zone in basketball, is it typically takes a little bit longer to generate a good shot attempt against zone than it does

against man. And so I still think college basketball needs a defensive three-second rule. I've felt that way for years now. And if they ever went to 24 seconds on a shot clock, they'd have to put that rule in because it just would not allow against a true zone defense enough time to get a good shot attempt. But anyway, the NC State thing, 4724, and it was a 5 to 2 game with 840 something left in the first half. Unbelievable. Memphis being down 27 to 1 in that game is nearly just as incredible. All right, let me tell you about launch workplaces.

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That's 240-86714 or visit launchworkplaces.com today. They have places throughout the city as well. So if you go to launchworkplaces.com, you'll see where there are other locations are as well. But 240-86714 or launchworkplaces.com. I have mentioned this many times. If you listen to the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast and you're listening on iTunes or Apple podcasts or places where you can subscribe

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And I said, just forget the phone. Just go to Kevin Sheehan Show.com, the Kevin Sheeonshow.com, and you can listen right there. And he's like, can I do that on my phone? I'm like, yeah, you can do that on your phone too. It's not that hard. Anyway, Tommy will be in tomorrow. We'll do more NFL season follow-up. Tommy wrote an interesting column on something we had talked about last week,

which was Doug Williams and his availability and participant. in the Maryland DJ Durkin investigation during the fall. So we'll talk about some of that as well. Thanks to Aaron, thanks to all of you.

The football season's over. It's over officially. It's okay. The AAF starts soon. I don't know about that, but we do have Indy Combine coming up soon. We do have free agency starting soon and we will have certainly a draft to prepare for

And I think one of the things we're going to do with the podcast, even more so than we did on the radio show, is do a lot of draft stuff, especially with the Redskins holding number 15, and quarterback being a possibility. I think we'll be doing a ton of draft stuff to get you ready for that. Have a great day, everybody.