The Kevin Sheehan Show - An Offensive Loss In Dallas

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

Kevin with his recap of Washington's dismal 25-10 loss to the Cowboys. Logan Paulsen jumped on with his thoughts on the loss before Kevin went "Around the NFL" and discussed Maryland's win over Michigan State on Saturday to finish up the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Third and two, Wins lofty corner of the end zone. Caught for the touchdown. Jahan Dotson.

Well, that was a good throw. That was a great route by Jahan Dotson. See, I started off with something positive today. The lone touchdown in the game yesterday. for the black-shirted Washington commanders. Good Monday afternoon. God, if you are one of the listeners, and about half of our listeners,

a little bit more than half, are from the DMV. Yeah, a significant percentage, like 45-ish percent of the people that listen to this podcast do not live in the DMV. But it just started raining on Friday. It hasn't stopped. I don't think it's going to stop until tomorrow,

and it is cold today. I think it was 48, 49 degrees. It is fall already here in the Mid-Atlantic slash Northeast. Yesterday sucked in so many ways. I really thought on Friday, as you know, on Saturday when I did the podcast with Cooley, I really thought that they would play better yesterday, and I thought they would have a chance to win. I predicted them to win, and I gave them out in the smell test yesterday.

but I was wrong on all fronts. Now, yesterday was better than last week. The final score, not that much different. You know, they lost by 16 last week, 15 yesterday. But, yeah, it was actually a better effort overall. They did not come out and lay a total effort egg yesterday. Last week, I thought, was pretty bad across the board. Although I thought the defense was, you know, improved.

last week and gave him a chance certainly early in the game. And I did think, actually, that they played hard. And there are going to be some things on the things that I liked list. And yesterday's game, unlike last week's game, you know, was 15 to 10 going into the fourth quarter. I mean, they had a 7 to 6 late second quarter lead. They weren't playing Philadelphia. They were playing a different team that had less capability on offense, maybe slightly more capability. maybe a lot more defensively. Dallas is extremely well-coached defensively, and they really do have some players, and they're deep defensively. But I did think overall it was better. But that's kind of getting lost in, you know, getting out of kind of the big picture on this. I mean, the big picture on this is the first four games of this 2022 season have been a disaster. You know, we're in aggregate, in totality, one and three in the context around the one of three.

I mean, we are nearing the point, which is so troubling for so many of us that do what we do, to have seasons essentially end so early. It's happened a lot, you know, clearly during the Snyder era. But you hate to see that. You know, you want a competitive football team. At least, we used to say, just get to Thanksgiving. where you're not mathematically eliminated or you're not practically eliminated, and then it's just better for you. Here we are on October 3rd. They're 1 in 3. And they're 1 in 3 after a third

straight loss to Dallas in a division right now that in aggregate win total is the best division in football. Philly's 4-0, Dallas and the Giants are both 3 and 1. The division has 11 total wins. That's two more than any other division in the league. It just goes to show you during the off season when we spend so much time talking NFL and predicting, you know, oh, the AFC is going to be so much better. The NFC East is going to suck again. Right now, and it's early, four games in,

the NFC has nine wins and five losses head-to-head against the AFC. And the NFC, East, in terms of overall record, best division in football. But anyway, this team is at the bottom of the division, three games behind the first place Eagles, two games behind the second-placed Cowboys and Giants. And, you know, it really doesn't feel like this particular start is any more encouraging than the two starts of the previous two years. In fact, it feels a little bit worse than the last two years. you know, this has been a bad start to the season,

a season that they put some expectations out there. And we are now nearing that point where everything in play as far as the conversation goes. Everything is in play. The quarterback, personnel changes. We're right around the corner from who's the next head coach. You know, who's the next guy who will come in here and start. calling Dan Mr. Snyder and lose a lot more than he wins. Washington is obviously a terrible organization, as we all know.

You know, but this team this year, despite, you know, an optimistic feeling in the offseason and in the preseason, this team right now is a bad football team. There's really no other way to say it. You know, I said on Friday, if they put out another stinker, they are truly one of the awful teams this year. I don't think they put out the stinker that I was necessarily referring to on Friday, but they're not a good football team. The game yesterday was, it was somewhat within reach. You know, 15 to 10 at the end of the third quarter, you know, I say somewhat they, it was within reach because they really played yesterday as a team with no room, no margin for error.

At all. It's something that's developed here in the first four games with this team. You know, to be close with a chance, they have little to no room for self-inflicted mistakes. It has become very clear in the first month of this season that they're deficient in a lot of areas. So a day like yesterday where it's 11 penalties for 136 yards is like stomping all over that margin of error. It's stomping it out of existence. You have erased all of the margin of error. You have none. The penalties were a problem all day long,

and they eliminated any real chance that they may have had yesterday, although the chances really weren't that great anyway when it kind of became clear for a second consecutive week that they were struggling to advance the ball, to matriculate the ball down the field with something called the forward path. You know, to complete passes, the quarterback has to be able to at least, you know, take a breath before he feels all of the breadth of the oncoming pass rushers. The offensive line in 10 of the last 12 quarters this team has played, okay? Going back to the first half of the Detroit game in the last eight quarters against Philly and Dallas has been horrible in past.

protection. I thought the run blocking was decent yesterday. The pass protection, especially in the interior, has been a disaster. And it makes it in some ways hard to evaluate the quarterback. But I'm going to do it anyway. He is struggling with everything. I mean, there aren't many good things you can say about Carson Wentz so far. I know that most of you know this, but for those that are just joining here at the beginning of the season, I was not a fan of the trade. I did not think that the chances were very good that they had found their long-term quarterback. But I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in kind of a wait-and-see mode.

I probably said it 100 times. On whence, for me, wait-and-see. You're going to have to show me. I don't believe that two teams erred in just getting rid of a quarterback if the quarterback really is good or potentially great. And the wait time on the wait and see thing is starting to run out. I talked about this on radio this morning and I'll say it here at the beginning of this podcast. If he plays poorly and they lose their next two games to Tennessee and Chicago, even if it's a lot, to do with the offensive line, which I think a lot of the past stuff has a lot to do with the

offensive line. But he's not able to mask it or overcome it. If they're one in five after games against Tennessee and Chicago, I personally would use that quasi-by week following the Thursday night against Chicago to see if Sam Howell has anything to him. Now, I'm going to give out the caveat on that. They know whether or not Sam Howell, if you can put him out there at this point. You know, a lot of coaches know, they know more than we do, if he's actually capable of running an NFL offense at this point in his career, or if it would be detrimental to put him out there. And if it would be detrimental to put him out there, he's a fifth round pick. He's not a first round pick. I understand that. I personally don't want to see Taylor Heineke. I know what Taylor Heineke is. He's a backup quarterback.

I would think about Hal at that point because now I'm in the mode of trying to determine a long-term planet quarterback, and he's the one on the roster at that point at one in five that I don't know enough about. I know enough about the other two. I think personally, we all intuitively know that Wentz isn't what Dan Snyder, what Mr. Snyder called him. when he said to the Maryland Gaming Commissioner, we have our, when we finally have our quarterback. You know,

I think we know four games into this that he's not the 20-23 quarterback. You know, he still may be their best opportunity, you know, this year in terms of upside, but he's not the next five-year answer. And this is why, by the way, they didn't restructure his contract. You know, they can tell you,

that they got their guy and they don't have any concerns and, you know, the things that came out of all of their mouths during the summer. But if that were true, they would have provided him with even more on this football team by restructuring his contract, getting his cap hit down in 2022 to go out and add more players to the roster. But they didn't do that because they're hoping. They're in hope mode. You know, they were in wait and see mode. too. Not that, by the way, they should have said that publicly. You know, you have to endorse him. You have to be all behind him. You got to act and play the part of, we got our guy. He's our guy. But, you know, if he was really their guy, they would have restructured the contract. They didn't because they knew that there was a chance that it wouldn't work out and that they would move on from him at the end of 2022. And they can do that at the end of 2022 with no dead cap hit. Now, to be clear, let me just make sure. I'm not calling for this right now today.

Philly and Dallas are very good defensively, Dallas in particular. But if they lose to fall to 1 in 5, 11 days from now, 11 days, right, Sunday and then Thursday night, you are really now at that point where the competitive portion of the season is nearing end-end. And because I think at that point, if you're not sure now, you will definitely be sure, and they'll definitely be sure then he's not 20-23 starting quarterback. Then let's see what the guy you drafted in the fifth round has. I would think seriously about that at one in five. Not to mention with how you would have a guy that with some of the dual threat ability

might keep the pass rush from vaporizing your offensive line week in and week out, which has happened the last two weeks in particular. particular, and then the first week against Detroit. But, you know, that's two weeks from now. And again, Philly and Dallas are good defensive teams. Dallas in particular, man, they are good. They are well-coached. You know, they've won three games in a row. I mean, they hit Daniel Jones, a mobile quarterback 24 times on Monday night football, sacked them five times. That's a good defensive a football team. I mean, Parsons and Lawrence and Gallimore. I mean, they just, it's one after another. You know, now, expecting that things are going to change, and this is why you can't play

the schedule game every year, people, you know, you can't play the schedule game. I think I told you last week that through three games, Washington scheduled DVOAW, a DVOA wise, was number one, toughest, you know, from a preseason where everybody was talking about the soft schedule. You know, last year they had a lot of great offensive teams they faced. And this year, they've got plenty of defensive teams that they're facing that are pretty good, including two of them in the division. You know, that's four games. And you got Jeffrey Simmons and company coming up Sunday in Tennessee, and then Roquan Smith and Company in Chicago on short rest of the following Thursday night. But anyway, two games under 500 and sinking quickly. Here we go again. A trash

organization, trash organization at the top. You know, the Snyders are just incompetent buffoons. Dan is. And, you know, their rain continues here. And, you know, we talk about it all the time. But, you know, this fan base that once numbered in the millions and was proud and loud, you know, has been reduced to, you know, thousands now, not millions anymore, thousands. And the thousands that are left are dummies that take pictures of themselves and tweet it out in their new alt-black jersey. Like, here we go. I mean, you know, I know I picked them yesterday. It's more of a gambling thing, you know, when I picked them.

But, you know, I'm watching the beginning of that game. I'm like, I'm not watching my football team. Actually, I didn't think the black jerseys looked that awful for an expansion team. But, I mean, there was nothing about that game that said Washington and Dallas. You know, you've got a head coach right now in a coach-centric system who's responsible for roster construction. And I think we can say at this point, Ron, the GM, or the final say on personnel in this coach-centric organization, has been a failure so far. I mean, that's full stop. Total failure through two plus years in roster construction.

And as a coach, he's 15 and 22 in the regular season, 15 and 23 overall. And as I said, in terms of the bad starts, this one actually feels like the worst. You know, they were 2 and 2 last year when they went to Atlanta and won. They did fall to 2 and 6, but even in some of those, you know, four losses in a row at that point, there were actually some competitive games, you know, they were right there. with Casey in the third quarter. They were right there with Green Bay. They were right there with Denver.

And then they got on the four-game win streak, and then, you know, everything got derailed. This is the worst. This year where they set some expectations and I think internally expected to be a much-improved football team, this really does feel to me like the worst of the starts. And again, I'll add that, You know, it's in a division right now that you can't be thinking all along.

Well, if we can just get to eight or nine wins, we probably have a chance to win the division. That's not going to happen this year. So where do you go from here? You know, the blame can obviously be spread around. I mean, this is a spread around blame, but Ron shouldn't spread it around. I said this last week. But, you know, this is not a let me divvy out slices of the. blame pie in his Monday presser. Even if he doesn't believe that, you know, it's a majority

coaching situation or a majority roster construction situation, you don't pass the buck at one and three with the way they've played the last two and a half games. But anyway, enough about, you know, blame. What are the solutions? There aren't many. I mean, obviously, the ultimate solution that would cause a citywide, you know, celebration and parade would be the Snyder is being forced out or, you know, choosing to sell the team. And I did see a lot of what you guys tweeted me. You can tweet me at Kevin She in D.C. with, there's some sort of front office sports report that predicts that Seattle and Washington are going to be up for sale. I'll believe all of that when I see it. I'm not believing it now. But, you know, putting that aside,

obviously, that's the ultimate, you know, solution is new ownership. And starting with something incompetent at the top, something good at the top. And, you know, it really would. It would be, it would be the most exciting news, and it would be, you know, a reason for a legitimate, a legitimate parade if it were to happen. But, you know, real solutions, I think it starts with, they've got to find some answers for the interior of their offensive line. I mean, they benched Trey Turner, who was a turnstile. Sadieh Charles came in, played hard, but I don't think he was very effective. Norwell, I know, you know, there are moments with Norwell, but for the most part, you know, they don't have Eric Flowers or Brandon Sheriff.

And by the way, I'm not advocating in hindsight that they should have paid Brandon Sheriff. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to move on. But what happened to Eric Flowers for crying out loud? He had a very good year, excellent year last year. Nobody's picked him up either. They could have figured out a way to keep Eric Flowers, but maybe there's something there we don't know.

But you've got to fix the offensive line. You've got to put your best players on defense in the spots where they can excel. William Jackson just isn't very good. You know, that's not breaking news at this point. But last week seeing St. Juice on the outside, that's their best outside corner. It's not Fuller. It's not Jackson. St. Juice. Now, they don't have much depth. It's not like there are a lot of options here,

so I understand that. But figuring out a way to play your best players on defense in particular in effective spots, that would help the quarterback. You've got to make it easier for him considering the issues they have up front. And they did try yesterday, and I'll get to that in my game take. But my God, you have got to calm him down. He is spoofing. He is spoofing. at the highest levels. He's lost confidence. And I think in some ways it's reflected more in his throwing than the sacks he's taking. You know, the sacks last week, you know, I had, I think, two and a half out of the eight were on him.

Cooley, I think, had three and a half out of the eight or four out of the eight were on him. But it's the, just the, I mean, he can't hit the ocean from a boat. and part of it is he's just feeling the pressure. And we know this. We knew coming in. I'm talking about those of us that watch the league and don't just watch this team on Sundays. We knew what the issues were.

Decision-making, accuracy. And the decision-making under duress. But my God, the accuracy, it's not inconsistent. It's just bad. It's off. and he's feeling the pressure and he's skittish and he doesn't know how much time he's going to have. And for whatever reason, they're not figuring out solutions around it, although they did a better job yesterday. And I'll get to that here in a moment.

The bottom line is the solutions aren't, you know, they're not easy. You know, you don't have like a lot of players in the building that you can just turn to. Fixing the offensive line at this point may be impossible. Making Carson Wentz less skittish and more accurate is probably not going to happen. Finding defensive players who can cover consistently without being penalized, I don't know. I mean, I would say this about the next two games. These are, you know, and I called them this morning, season on the brink games. You better win at least one of them, or this thing is Dunski in mid-October.

You know, it is. Unlike the last few years, recovering from another bad start isn't going to happen this year. The division's better. A one in five start is a burial. It kind of feels like you could bury them right now. But not just yet, because it is the NFL. And when you think you've got to figure it out, you don't. But we're going to see how they play the next two weeks.

They played harder yesterday. They had more of a chance yesterday. They weren't as bad or as clueless yesterday as they were last week, in my opinion. And that will lead me into my game take, which I will get to when we return after these messages. By the way, one guest on the show, Logan Paulson will jump on with me here in about 25 minutes. Looking forward to that. Pay attention. He is Kevin's Game Take.

My game recap today brought to you by MyBooky. Go to my bookie. Go to my bookie.orgie. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. And they will offer you a double deposit bonus. Whatever you initially deposit, they will double that all the way up to a thousand bucks. You've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. The Monday night game tonight at My Bookie, San Francisco is a one and a half point favorite over the Rams. The total is 42 and a half. Garoppolo, in his second start. They lost to Denver last week, 11 to 10 on Sunday night football. Their favorite against the defending champs who are 2-1, not an impressive 2-1 after getting blown out in the open

or remember against Buffalo in the first game of the year. They held on for Deer Life against Atlanta. They were able to beat the Cardinals 20 to 12 last week. They haven't looked like the Rams of last year, but they're 2-1. And a win tonight by San Francisco

would make every team in the NFC West 2 and 2, including Seattle, who scored the most points of any team this year in the NFL 48 yesterday in a 48-45 win over the Lions. More on the rest of the NFL Sunday coming up a little bit later on in the show. Right after, by the way, we talk with Logan Paulson, who will jump on with me here shortly after my game take. But my bookie.ag, for all of your sports betting needs,

Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Okay, let's get to the game take in which I tell you the things I liked from the game, and then I go through the list of things that I did not like. The things that I liked, there were actually some things in this game that I liked, one of which may piss some of you off. But I'm going to start with this. John Allen was exceptional in the game yesterday. And really, the defensive line as a whole was pretty decent.

But Allen and Payne in particular, Alan had, four, four tackles for loss in the game. He deflected a third down pass out of the end zone that if he had just gotten his head around in the right direction, could have been a pick six. I love John Allen as a player. I think he and Duran Payne together are just playing so well. By the way, you know, we talked about, you know, the lack of depth along the defensive front, you know, with some of the injuries to Daniel Wise, et cetera, where they are.

Payne yesterday played on 90% of the snaps. Alan played 80% of the snaps. Alan played 49 of the 61. Payne 55 of the 61. Pain was doubled a bunch. I think Payne's having a phenomenal season. I thought John Allen was their best player. I thought it was the best player on the team yesterday. John Allen on the list of things that I liked. Which leaves. me to number two on the list of things that I liked. Their run defense was outstanding yesterday. Really overall, I think it's the second straight game where you'd have to really go, you know, down the list a couple of spots before you listed defense as a reason they lost the game. I thought they were better than what most of you probably thought last week against Philadelphia,

and I thought yesterday, especially against the run, not as good against the pass, but against the run, they held Dallas to 2.1 yards per carry. Tony Pollard ran for 105 yards on Monday night at 8.1 yards per carry. Washington held Tony Pollard yesterday to six yards on eight carries. Less than a yard per carry. Washington had seven tackles for loss in the game. You know, they only had one sack in the game. That means six of those seven tackles for.

for losses were against runners behind the line of scrimmage. Dallas gained 62 yards on 29 carries. The defense did a great job. Doing what I said was a key to winning the game, which is making Dallas one-dimensional. And they did that. And unfortunately, the one-dimension worked enough, which was Cooper Rush in play action throwing the football.

but an outstanding job against the run. Thirdly on my list of things that I liked, I thought all three running backs were good. Part of the plan was to run the football, and all three backs did a very nice job running the football. Combined 26 carries for 137 yards, that's 5.3 yards per carry. I thought Gibson in particular,

because there wasn't always a lot there for him, but man, did he play hard yesterday? Sticking his nose into some of that traffic and moving the pile in a forward direction for the offensive football team. I thought Gibson was tough yesterday. And knock on wood, he is yet to fumble in the regular season. Jonathan Williams looked quick, looked fast, really liked him, loved that they used him yesterday. McKissick did a great job with the ball in his hands. As a pass catcher and as a runner, that 33-yard run in the 7th.

second quarter helped set up the one touchdown they had and a seven to six lead. They may get Robinson Jr. back this week, but Gibson, Williams, McKissick, very nice job yesterday. And some of it really was all them. You know, I think that they did some good, that the O line did a decent job run blocking. I'd have to go back and look at it. They certainly did an excellent job on some of those two tight end sets where they got the edge with the two tight ends. I loved those particular plays, but the three running backs on the list of things that I liked list. All right, the last one on the list of things that I liked from the game is probably going to make some of you think that I have been drinking prior to this podcast, but hear me out on this. On the list of things that I

I liked was the offensive game plan yesterday. See how my voice started to crack when I said it. I know they only scored 10 points. I know they didn't even gain 300 yards of total offense. But the game plan offensively was the only plan, in my opinion, that gave them a chance. And I talked about this on the pod Friday and even with Cooley on Saturday. They had to try their best with a plan to keep their quarterback upright and not repeat what happened last week. The nine quarterback sacks, the 17 quarterback pressures and hits.

Dallas had five sacks on Monday night against the Giants and 24 hits on Daniel Jones. And he's a mobile quarterback. Dallas led the league in sacks coming in. They led the league in sack percentage. Scott Turner, to me, who had a terrible week last week and did not feel the game, I think understood what had to happen yesterday. He could not allow the absolute bum rushing and the total, you know, disintegration of his quarterback and his pass offense by dropping the quarterback, you know, back consistently. You know, again, whether all of the pressures and all of the sacks last week

were on the offensive line or on Carson Wentz, it wasn't going to work against an even better, in my opinion, an even better defense. And I think Philadelphia is good. I think Dallas is really good on defense. The ball was out quickly on the bubbles and the screens, which we should have seen last week. They ran the ball in the first half. the tune of 101 yards on 14 carries. That's 7.2 yards per carry. They did try some play action and even some bootlegs off of running the ball effectively in the first half. Many of those got blown up very quickly, which is really frustrating because, you know,

like I look at what the Cowboys did with Cooper Rush on Monday night. And even yesterday, like on Monday night, they were running the football. and then play action was really working. Play action was working yesterday, even though they weren't running the football. But they did their best to not put it all on him. And by the way, I understand what I'm saying here, and I understood this on Friday and Saturday,

that I'm talking about a game plan that is limiting in terms of big plays, chunk plays, scoring lots of points. You know, it is more of a protective game plan against a very good defensive team to make sure that what happened last week, which was you played an offensive game that gave you no chance of your team winning the game and playing a game this week that would give you a chance with a game plan to be in the game and have a chance to win.

And I think they did that. You know, one of the things I thought Scott Turner did a good job of is he stayed patient running the football, even when first down runs against, in some cases, you know, some really, really good run-stopping, you know, plays on first down or, you know, a first down in completion. But on second and 10, second and nine, second and eight, he stuck with the run. And it was on those plays where they got, you know, out of their 21 personnel, their two tight end personnel, they got some edge blocking, and they got to the edges and they made some really good runs.

The penalties in the first half are really what derailed some of those early drives. And then in the second half, I think Dallas loaded the box more. I know they loaded it heavily on the first two drives with eight guys, which is an aggressive Dan Quinn thing understood. But man, I would have loved to have seen some, you know, check with me's. You know, I would have loved to have seen some can, can, can, can, getting out of those situations and maybe throwing a quick bubble because they were banging their head a little bit in those situations.

and I know in the first half, even on some second and tens, they made some good runs, and I'm not advocating that they stopped running, but they seem to be facing a Dallas defense to start the second half that knew that they needed to stop the run, and then it would be, you know, lights out. You know, Gibson in his first couple, you know, runs, you know, was basically running against a loaded box. And I made this note, I'm like, don't they have the ability for Carson Wentz to check out of that, you know, play and throw a quick hitch or throw a quick bubble. But, you know, Turner bad last week, better plan this week. It wasn't good enough. There were problems with

protection, which you do need at times. There were problems with the quarterback missing consistently and feeling very pressured all day long. I don't think that the plays in which they were trying to block Micah Parsons with a tight end were very smart. You know, I'm not saying that the whole game plan was perfect. I'm just saying the plan in general, I think, was the right plan to give them a chance. You know, it was a no room for error, no margin or very little margin for error plan. And they had too many negative plays. The penalties on the first three drives, more on that coming up.

But again, I thought the plan on offense was the country. kind of plan that gave them the best chance to win. And again, I know that that, you know, I'm kind of conceding here, big plays, big offensive, dynamic offense, you know, scoring lots of points. But after what we've seen the last, what we saw last week, what we saw in the first half against Detroit, they couldn't have that disaster again. All right, let me get to the list of things that I did not like. I'm going to start with pass protection. I think the lack of it across the board meant that they were very limited offensively, even with their limited game plan, and that their only possibility to advance the ball was to run it, as they did in the first

half, and use the quick, you know, smokes, tunnels, bubbles as their only means of moving the football. You would like to think that pass protection could hold up after you're running the football and you're going play action. Cooley will probably point this out. I don't think they do a great job on play action of selling play action. That's something he pointed out in his film breakdown, and I saw some of that as well. They've kind of coached that up better. You should be able to get some easy play action, you know, throws when you're averaging 7.2 yards per carry. But I don't know that they sell play action that well. These plays, and because of it, they're getting blown up, you know, pretty quickly.

But, you know, the offensive line was pretty decent against, you know, in their run blocking, didn't have a problem with that. I think the tight ends did a good job, and I think the backs did a good job. But in pass pro, my God, it was a disaster. Trey Turner was a turnstile, got benched early. You know, these weren't pure dropbacks yesterday that Wentz was being pressured on immediately. and some of them were like straight four-man rushes. There was even a three-man rush that they couldn't block up. And when they came with extra man pressure, which you know Dan Quinn wants to do,

it was problematic, although actually the touchdown pass to Dotson was against a six-man blitz, six-man pressure. That was actually probably the best single play of the day. Wentz made a couple of good plays. Like that touchdown pass was perfect against the blitz. good for him, incredible route by Dotson. And then there was the third and eight when they were down 15 to seven that they had to have and once actually extended time with some quick pressure and found Dotson down the field.

But too many times the pressure was too immediate when it shouldn't have been given their ability to run the ball. And let me also just make sure that everybody understands what I'm saying. I think the past protection by the offensive line is bad, you know, and has been bad. And even Cooley, who assigned the blame for, you know, maybe somewhere around half the sacks that Wentz took last week, said, you know, up front, he said, let me be clear on this. The offensive line did a bad job protecting the quarterback. It was a rough day for the offensive line. And I think you'll see the same thing yesterday, even though there weren't nearly as many dropbacks. But I don't know whether or not some of those protections could be fixed.

by the quarterback. Some of those protections could be fixed by the center. They were on their third center yesterday. I don't know. I mean, that's something that they know. It's very possible that Wence is identifying the wrong middle linebacker, which is causing the wrong, you know, moving of the offensive line. There were free rushers at times yesterday that didn't seem to be accounted for. That could be on Wence. It could be. I don't know the answer to that. I would not let the number of sacks two yesterday compared to last week, make you believe like the pass protection was improved. I don't think it was. I think maybe the run blocking was improved yesterday, but the sack number was down, in my opinion, because of the cautious, and yes, in my view,

smarter game plan and play calling. Next up on the list of things that I didn't like. 11 penalties, 136 yards. Kind of self-explanatory. The first three drives, three penalties, completely derailed them. They were running the football kind of well. They had a first down or two here and there. And then they had a false start on Turner before he got bench. They had a hold on Nick Martin on their second drive.

And then the third drive, you get Jonathan Williams to rip off an 18-yard run. And then you go play action, and Parsons completely blows it up. And then Carson Wentz has a chance. as he ducks the immediate pressure gets outside the pocket to throw it away. And I'm talking about throwing the ball away so that it's not intentional grounding, meaning the ball's got to get back to the line of scrimmage. He had a chance to do that, and he didn't. He kept trying to extend it, and this is part of the decision-making stuff,

and he took an intentional grounding because he got hit, and as he was falling to the ground, he couldn't get the ball back to the line of scrimmage. That's terrible. The penalties on defense, my God, they had two interceptions turned back because of penalties. I just, I didn't have a lot of complaints with the penalties that were called. I know they were complaining about some of the calls. I personally didn't think that any of the calls were egregious.

William Jackson clearly had just a wretched day. He's not a good player, okay? This has been kind of a bust of a free agent signing. he can't cover very well. And then when he does cover well, he makes up for it by grabbing the receiver unnecessarily. I do think Jackson tackles well. He had a really good play on Pollard in the backfield, but he's not a good corner. There's a reason there wasn't much competition for him when he became a free agent.

Past defense after the penalties on the list of things I didn't like. They stopped the run but still couldn't stop. Cooper Rush from making some big plays. He had 15 completions for 223 yards, 15 yards per completion. You know, they couldn't find or cover CD Lamb. And when they had decent coverage, they had penalties, as mentioned. They also gave up some rush lanes. You know, this was a problem last year. You know, the Buffalo game stands out where, you know, Chase Young was constantly getting pushed outside, allowing a lane for Josh Allen to step up and either run or make a throw. Well, Two Hill and James Smith Williams, those were the two that I noticed, gave up easy, flush, rush lanes for Cooper Rush to extend plays and make big plays, including the touchdown pass to Gallup.

I didn't think the past defense was anywhere near good enough, and it's a shame because they did a great job stopping the run. the blocked PAT by Obata is on the list of things that I didn't like because Obata didn't know the rule. He hesitated after he blocked the kick and then started running after it. You've got to know on your special teams unit, your two-point defense, and then your PAT kick unit, you've got to have been coached that if we get a block, That ball is live and we've got a chance to take it to the house for two points.

And the way that kick was blocked by Obata, if he continues on a straight line understanding that that ball's live and that he's got a chance to pick it up and score, he may do that. But he hesitated and then by the time he did pick up the ball, he was tackled, but he should have pitched it. There were like four black shirts standing around. There was a real chance there to get two points, but he didn't know the rule. That's on the coaching staff. Maybe it's on the player. I mean, maybe, you know, Nate Katzer would say,

you don't think we've told these guys this over and over again. F.A. just, you know, forgot in the moment. On the list of things that I did not like from the game, they have no return game right now, and they need a return game. They need big plays from somewhere, especially if you're going to be forced to limit your game plan offensively. You know, Milne, you know, I know that the two weeks ago against Detroit, it was like the 16-yard line, the 15-yard line, the 17-yard line.

He doesn't, he had one decent punt return, I guess. I don't know. They're getting nothing out of the return game. I would try Dotson back on punts. You need some big plays. I don't know that Milne looks like he's capable of making big plays. And I'd put Gibson back on kickoffs. What the hell? That leads me to this, and I'm going to spend more time on this. on the list of things that I didn't like. Through four games, I'm so disappointed in the offense. You know, week one, it was pretty good. Week two for a half, the second half was good. Now it's two straight games of stink.

And yeah, I think the game plan was better yesterday, but it wasn't enough. It was limited, and they didn't execute the game plan enough. And again, I don't know how much better it can get with that offensive line, but I would also say I don't know how much better it can get if the offensive line, you know, improves a little bit because they don't have a quarterback that can really mask the fact that they're struggling in the interior of their offensive line. And maybe Scott Turner's, you know, struggling with design and play calling, et cetera.

Again, I like the game plan yesterday compared to last week. I'm not a fan of whence. I was not a fan of the trade. I didn't think there was a chance, a good chance that he was the long-term answer. But I did think he was an upgrade over what they've had. And I still think he's probably an upgrade over what they have. But my opinion on that is starting to change. You know, he's got an offensive line in front of them right now that looks like it's going to be a season-long problem. No chase Rueh, two guards that aren't good enough. Certainly, you know, know the Trey Turner spot isn't good enough. And so your schedule is kind of loaded with some defensive fronts that are decent. You know, maybe there's some down the road that you're going to face that aren't that good. But I think when you face really good defensive teams, you're going to be limited. And you're going to have to have plans like yesterday. And you're going to have to basically not commit any self-inflicted errors to have a chance to win games.

I'm just so disappointed, so disappointed in the offense, because they are better at the skill positions. You know, they're better at wide receiver with Samuel back and with Dotson. They're better at running back with even Jonathan Williams and maybe with Robinson Jr. coming back. But the calculations offseason as it relates to the interior portion of their offensive line in particular, bad calculations, bad math. They had two really good guards last year, none this year. The center position is once again in major league peril because of injuries. And then there's the culpability of Wentz.

You know, let's start with the obvious, okay? He's not very good. You know, Indy knew it, Philly knew it, now we know it. He's not Carson Wentz of 2017. You know, through four games, he's not answering the prayers. that Washington would somehow get a flashback and see Carson Wentz of 2017. You know, he wasn't that great last year, even though the traditional numbers said it. They had a very good offensive line, and they had Jonathan Taylor in the backfield.

His mobility is a shell of what it once was. His accuracy issues, decision-making issues, which he has certainly had in his former places, is a problem here. You know, I know it's hard for him right now to get anything beyond the easy line of scrimmage throws because he doesn't have enough time. The throw against the Blitz was great to Dotson. The third nine to Dotson when he extended the play was great.

You know, he's making a couple of plays here and there that remind you he has some talent. But, you know, just the fact that he's big and he can throw deep. he's not nimble enough to extend plays and he's clearly feeling the pressure which is there it's not fake but he's not reacting to it very well at all

which you know makes it impossible to run kind of some of the dropback stuff that you want and his accuracy issues are even worse than any of the other issues I mean he has not been able to hit guys when he has had time which is, you know, few and far between. I think we're seeing pretty clearly and pretty early what, you know, many said about him,

and that is he's not your long-term answer. He's not. And let me repeat what I said, you know, a little while ago. If they lose the next two to fall to one and five, if Sam Hal, if they deem him to be even reasonably ready, I'd go to him at one and five. Let's see if he's the answer. And if not, then we can start really focusing in on C.J. Stroud and Young and Levis and some of these other guys. Because we're going to probably have a really high draft choice.

In a year with a lot of good quarterbacks. Last year, not a good quarterback draft year. This year, very good quarterback draft year. Again, I don't want to see Taylor Heineke unless, you know, they're really trying to win games and they think they can get back into it. and Carson Wentz is shot or hurt. Taylor Heineke is a backup. A good one, and I like him as a backup. And I know that he'd come in and be a gamer trying to make plays.

I think we're conveniently forgetting with the Wentz troubles. Taylor Heineke was awful. I mean, brutally terrible down the stretch last year. And I know, I know, COVID, offensive line injuries, Players out, Logan Thomas McKissick. All that's true. All that's true. Okay. But he's not able to elevate a bad team around him either. We've already seen that. You know, especially against good defensive teams. Do I need to remind you what is quarterback, you know, rating? I'm not talking about passer rating. I'm talking about QBR numbers were at the end of last year. He had in three of his last four games a 5.9 QB rating, against Dallas, by the way, in a game, which they had not yet been affected by COVID. Okay, very good defense Dallas last year.

11 of 25, 122 yards, 4 sacks, 5.9 QBR, 5.9 QBR. Then, you know, the other Dallas game, after he was out for COVID against Philly, a 4.3 QBR. That's kind of unfair. That whole team was a mess going into that one. he had a 41.2 QBR, which isn't good either, against Philadelphia in a game that they actually had a chance to win. And then he finished up the season with a 6.3 QBR against the Giants. You know, I mean, the Carolina game, the Atlanta game, the Giant game, the Tampa game, the Tampa game. Those were long, long in the rearview mirror at that point. He's a backup quarterback.

He is. A good one. I want him on my roster. I like him on my roster. If I get to the point in a few weeks where I am ready to start thinking about next year, then if Sam Hal is remotely ready, I'm going to play him. Again, let me repeat. I would understand if the team said, Kevin, he hidden anywhere near close.

And it would actually be detrimental to his career if we put him out there. Okay. He's not a first rounder. He's not a second rounder. He's a fifth rounder. They think they got a steal in the fifth round. And I thought we saw some interesting things from him in the preseason, but it's the preseason, of course. But, yeah, I don't see the need for Heineke. I don't see the need for Howl right now. I mean, I'd give it two weeks. I think if they go with Wentz for the duration, I think what you'll see is you'll see some good games from Wentz. you know, especially against maybe some of the lesser defensive teams. But for the most part, I'm pretty sure of what I said many times during the off season. I'm wait and see mode.

I don't think he's the long-term answer. And I'm more convinced of it now than ever. And not all of it's his fault. It isn't. That offensive line is bad. Turner called a horrible game last week. but he, I mean the accuracy, my God, he can't throw it to anybody accurately. All right, more observations.

A couple of things. Number one, a lot of you were tweeting me about the end of the first half clock management. I didn't have a problem with it at all. This was a limited game plan, a limited scope. of the kind of risks they were going to take. They were scheduled to get the ball to start the second half. The game was 12 to 7. Before they started that drive, I tweeted out,

don't be overly aggressive. You know, don't give Dallas a chance with three timeouts to add to their lead. Look, if you had a drop-back offense where you could get some chunk plays and you were one of those teams that is a good NFL offense, then you go for it.

But they were going to get the ball in the second half, and they needed to be a balanced team to have any sort of chance of moving the football and then not make mistakes. And I like the way they approached it. They approached it with a run on first down. They approached it with a short pass on second down. They got the first down on third down. And then they called a timeout and took a shot.

And that we got picked off, but why not? At that point, just take a shot. Ball's at the 38-yard line. And you take a deep shot, and who knows, with 17 seconds. but I think they actually played that well, did not have a problem with that at all. Another observation from the game. The game was, I know it didn't feel like it because of the offensive issues, but the game really was there in the third quarter.

It was 15 to 10 going into the fourth quarter, but I thought there was a very critical exchange of field position that really impacted the game in the moment, and maybe impacted the game as a whole. So it's 12 to 7 at halftime. Washington comes out, and they're facing a loaded box, a more aggressive box,

but they pick up a third and 12. And for that offense yesterday, to pick up a third and 12 on a throw from Wentz to Samuel was a big deal. And then, you know, they kind of go backwards. McKissick for a yard, MacKissick for minus two, third and 11. they go with the, you know, quick bubble and it's a two-yard gain and they punt it.

But I thought that, you know, they're playing field position. It's not like Dallas is super explosive either. You know, Dallas has scored 12 points. That's it. 13, it should have been if they make the extra point. But play field position, your defense has shown the ability to get off the field. You know, Dallas in the first half, you know, by the way, also it's shown the ability to be pretty strong in the red zone. So they punt it back to Dallas after the opening drive,

and they stone cold stopped Dallas and move them backwards, and they're at their 11-yard line with the punter out there. This is a crucial part of the game. You've got a chance to get good field position. It's 12 to 7. You're winning the field position battle here in the early portion of the second half. And their punter, Brett Anger, booms won 58 yards. Milne actually returns at eight yards, but it's a 50-yard net punt.

So Washington, instead of starting maybe somewhere near midfield, they're starting at their own 39. Still good field position. And that's when it all goes wrong. They go play action, short throw to Logan Thomas, nothing. Second and 11, they take a deep shot to McLorn. It's an offensive hold against Sateek-Charles. Second and 21 now, Cosmey false starts.

Second and 26, now they're in the mode of, okay, second and 26, for us today with this group, we can't overcome. Let's do it really conservatively. Try to get back to maybe the 30, 35 and punt them back deep in their own territory with our really good punter. But McKissick goes minus one, and then you're in the first of two third and 27s. They had two third and 27s in the game. And they try to get something back, but they throw incomplete. and now they're punting from their own 22-yard line on 4th and 27.

And then what happens next is the real killer. Tressway, who's so reliable and has been their best pound-for-pound player on the team for years, has one of his worst punts. It's a 40-yarder. And I did think that at least it was running into the punter on that. He got hit hard. Now, they didn't really show an angle, which would indicate whether or not it was running or roughing or ruffing

or someone was blocked, but they didn't flag it. And so Dallas went from their own 11 punning from their own end zone to Washington being first and 10 from their own 39 to now Dallas being first and 10 from their own 38-yard line. And that led to a field goal for them and a 15 to 7 lead. And even though Washington answered with a field goal of their own on the next drive and Wents made, you know, a good third and eight, you know, escape and throw to Dotson, even though it was underthrown a little bit. They had to settle for a field goal after they got

into another, you know, intentional grounding on Wence penalty and another third and 27. But I thought that exchange early in the third quarter was crucial. Washington got what they wanted. They got a stop. They got, you know, a three and out, and you did nothing. You went backwards. you went backwards 17 yards from first and 10 and then had a bad punt with no penalty flag those are a few of the observations the others I would just say Joey Sly made a field goal on his first attempt

I mean there was one last week but they picked they took the penalty Washington at this point has the worst point differential in the league like if you want you know the one and three is the worst record you know there are several other one and three teams nobody's winless. Actually, Houston's winless, right? But they have the tie? Yeah, Houston's winless. But Washington has the worst point differential in the league at minus 34. Next closest is minus 28 indie. You know, even Houston, who's winless, has a minus 20 point differential. A lot of things point to at this juncture. Washington being one of

of the four or five bad teams this year. Again, I think it's been better on defense the last two weeks, better on defense certainly against the run the last two weeks. They were tremendous against the run yesterday. I think the game plan overall, super limiting, but probably the smart way to go yesterday. But too many mistakes, too many, you know, negative plays on defense in coverage, with penalties as well on offense, with penalties, with, you know, avoidable intentional grounding in the case of Wentz, and just, you know, no ability really to drop the quarterback back, even in play action, and throw the football down the field.

So there you go. That's it. Coming up next, Logan Paulson will be my guest, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, let's welcome on to the podcast, Logan Paulson, who's doing so much good work for NBC Sports Washington. He's also a big part of the Sunday pregame shows on both 980 and 1067, the fan with Craig Hoffman. I'm on that pregame show every Sunday morning at 1030, but they're doing a great job of getting you ready for the games. Of course, you know, if the season keeps going the way it's going, I don't know how many people are going to be interested. but Logan does such a good job of breaking down the games.

And I guess I would just start with this. We're through four games. Before we get to the specifics of yesterday, why don't you just list to me in order your biggest concerns? The offense, and then it's all subsections of the offense, I think. You know, after the first two games, or these last two games, My concerns about the defense have wane slightly, I think. Obviously, is it a perfect group?

No, but they're playing hard. They're playing physical. They've kind of eliminated the mental mistake issue, which had kind of plagued them from last year. And now they're just kind of a solid NFL defense. So for me, offensively, I think my number one concern is Scott Turner. I think, you know, like where is he at in terms of calling plays? Like how innovative is he being? How kind of what is the formational diversity looking like?

putting the guys in the best position to be successful. And then Carson Wentz, you know, the big narrative, you know, throughout Scott's career was that he didn't have a quarterback. And the narrative this off season that the team was promoting was that now he does have a quarterback. And, you know, I do agree that Carson Wentz has some tremendous ability. I mean, every game, even when they're playing poorly, he makes a throw that only he can make, quite frankly.

And, you know, but I do think the lack of consistency from him, you know, some of his warrants have kind of come on full display in terms of how he is under pressure, you know, how he looks when his fundamentals are breaking down. And then I think the third element is the offensive line. But I think that's really closely tied to Carson. I think that group did a nice job yesterday in the run game. You know, they showed a good physicality. They showed a good want to.

But, you know, obviously this team wants to be a drop-back passing team. And I felt from very early on the process, they couldn't just be a straight drop-back passing team. they would need to kind of change that a little bit. They would need to do, kind of adopt a Kyle Shanahan approach. And what I mean by that is, you know, move the pocket, keepers, play action pass, all those types of things. People say, well, they're the highest rate of play action pass the NFL.

And I say, well, when you look at their play action passes, like how many of those are hard play action fake? How many of those where the linebackers are biting up on the run? How many of those look like Dallas's play actions from yesterday, right? We're getting jaymen up in the line of scrimmage. And to me, that's how they coach the double teams. that's how they coached the backfield action. And again, they just haven't adopted that.

They've kind of said, this is who we are. We're going to be an RPO kind of spread-em-out team. And I'm not sure that the personnel in the front is equipped to do that for 17 games. You know, and I think they can do it for a couple games really at a high level. But when I think of offensive linemen that look like that, they're big. They're huge, in fact. They're, you know, they're 6-6. They're 3 to 30 pounds.

They're guys who can pass-protect for days. And I'm just not sure they've got a guy. like that in this group. What are the biggest issues up front? It would appear to me that it's the interior portion of the line more than it is the exterior portion of the line. And we know they had two very good guards, you know, last year that played at a high level.

And Chase Roilliers is a player that, you know, they miss and they've had all the, you know, turnover at center. But what part of that offensive line concerns you the most and doesn't allow them to be what they want to be? Well, I think to me, it's not necessarily the personnel that doesn't allow them to be what they want to be. I think it's just a lack of understanding. A lack of – so I coach now a little bit.

And one of the things that I – that the head coach always says is put the guys in the best position to be successful. What are things we can do to put them in the best position to be successful? And so if you want to be a drop-back passing game, I'm with that. Let's do that. But how do we insulate you with other play calls to let you get to this drop-back passing? game. Like, we're not always taking a seven-step drop. How do we do that? You know, like, do we do quick games, screams? There was a little bit of that yesterday. The thing is that I'm, kind of, my new

hobby horse after watching yesterday is, like, how are we attacking the middle of the field versus linebackers versus safeties, like those historically or traditionally have been, like, the worst coverage players on the field, but we're not doing that. And so I think, I think that's part of it is just usage. But I also think that the interior, they're just struggling right now, you know, like when you're doing, I challenge anybody who's listening to this, challenge you, go find a group around the NFL that can withstand 40 or 50 straight club by passing attempts in a game, and I'll be very surprised. There's probably three groups that I can think of off the top of my head that can do that.

The other ones, you're kind of hidden this, right? They're insulated a little bit by a scheme. I think you have one of those, you know, 29 other groups here that need to be insulated by a scheme, and you need to figure out a way to kind of, change things up like I mentioned this on the podcast you today like let's get in some tighter formations because you want to run the football

out of tight formations it seems like Scott Turner does and then when we want to pass it while we swear it back out right I think you can run all your same concepts from those tight splits so giving the defense is that moment's positive like this is kind of what they normally do when they run the football and that helps the offensive lines because it makes the defensive

line think for you know even a tenth of a second man is this a run and I can't just get right into my pass rush, you know, and I think when I see how other teams call their games versus there's defensive line, they're always doing that. They're always trying to kind of keep that group unsettled and not give them clean reads. You know, it's this quick game. Is it a screen? Is it a dropback? Is it a three-step? And then on the three-step stuff, I think taking advantage of those opportunities and letting those guys cut a little bit, which they don't do that much here. So, again,

I think there's some personnel deficiencies, but I don't think there's some juices deficiencies. And if I were to kind of point to one group in particular, I think definitely over the course of the first four games, the interior struggled more than the exterior. But I do think I have a lot of potential, a lot of talent. You know, like Cosme, I think, could be something very good at tackle. And Leno's just been Mr. Consistent. And then I will say this, Norwell has done an excellent job. If you watched the game yesterday, they've done a fantastic job. Even the game against Philly where he gave up one or two pressures, like he is playing high-level guard right now.

so I don't want to like include him in that, but definitely center and right guard. I've been a little bit of an issue because of the injuries mostly and then obviously being consistent to play a Trey Turner, which makes sense if you look at his offseason. Let's just play devil's advocate here for a moment because I don't know that I disagree with anything you've said. I want to circle back to Scott Turner here and Carson Wentz in a moment. How much of the inability to, you know, be in rhythm, to be less limited offensively the last two weeks has to do with the two defensive teams they just faced. I mean, it's always a factor when you get guys, when you get teams like this.

I mean, I think when you look at Philly, for example, when there's all wow, nine sacks, we had 12 pressures, which is not a crazy high number. They just were able to actualize those pressures into sacks at a higher rate than most teams are, right? Usually your sacked of pressure rate is probably somewhere in that 40 to 30 percent range. but for whatever reason a lot of people around the league around the country point to the fact that Carson wants to like to hold the football he makes his offensive lines a little bit less effective in that category so I would say I don't disagree with that assessment either right and and also I think I think that that quality that that thing you just referenced

applies more to Dallas I think that defense is playing at a super high level Dan Quinn's got them playing super-inspired football, and they're going to be a wrecking crew for the rest of the year in Dan Quinn might coach himself into a head coaching job again. So I do think for Philly, it was a little bit more kind of circumstance, I think, that led to that,

but also I think, you know, Dallas is a really good group. You know, they're good pass rushers. They're groups them back in, and I think they're elevated, they're elevated by the scheme that they participate in. So I do think, yes, those are factors, and I think, you know,

that'll maybe normalize, you go, playing against worst defenses, but I want my offensive coordinator and the offensive line and the quarterback to bring their A game against the best defenses. And I know that might be a pipe dream and unrealistic expectation at times, but I would have liked to see the better performance in both of those games. I think it was 17 pressures last week, but, you know, we don't need to quibble nine-sex, seven, yeah, 17 pressures last week, which is a little bit more than 12 and kind of significant. and I agree with you. Dallas is playing lights out defense. And that's interesting. I think Dan Quinn does a great job and maybe he will get another opportunity. So let's go back to Scott

Turner for a moment. I personally thought last week was him not feeling it at all. The dropback stuff just wasn't going to work. You know, the O line, the quarterback that didn't matter. It wasn't going to work. He never really felt that. I actually applaud him. and said this in my open to the podcast, even though I understand the limitations of the game plan yesterday, and it's not a game plan for a team that has really high aspirations, I understand that too. Both of those things conceded.

But he changed the way they attacked Dallas, and it was much more protective of both the line, the quarterback, and they tried to run the football. The ball was out in a hurry. There were bubbles. There were screens. So let's talk about Scott Turner. He's been a disappointment.

He was number one on your list. Did you think yesterday's plan was better or not? I do think yesterday's plan was better. And I think you're right. I think that deserves some credit. I think, you know, the idea that this team was going to pressure them and, you know, dealing with those individual matchups, Lawrence and Parsons and the Blitz packages that they brought on third down.

Yes, I think that was a better scheme, right? I think, I think, but I could have made that game plan. You know, you could have made that game plan. You talked about that on the pregame show. That's kind of how you would approach this game. I think the thing is, is what are the next steps, right? Like, you know, obviously there's, you're calling a game to kind of weather the storm in the beginning, but there's got to be an opportunity for you to manufacture a big play.

Like, you've done a great, great job running that boss play, running what I call Zapp with two tight ends, your double team in the end. You did a great job. They ran that twice. Excellent. Three times excellent job. Then what is the next, what is the play pass off of that, right? Like that you've earned that.

You've made them buy in. You've made them commit to that look, right? Why not run a play pass off that? Do you not have that in the office? Do you not have a pass concept that marries to that? I know they have a play action pass off the duo look, right? Which is kind of double-teaming the other way. But I feel like you could also have a play pass off of that

or play pass off an outside zone. And I know that stresses guys in different points to the offensive line, but that, to me, you built equity with that play. Why not get back? And that might have been on its tall sheet. He just might not have been able to get to it. Because, like, as we kind of all saw yesterday,

the penalties in, like, critical spot yesterday. They were really tough, and it made it hard for the offense to execute and kind of finish drives. But I just, I'd like to see it kind of merry. Like, what's the next step? He ran 73 plays yesterday or whatever it was, 78 plays, I forget. But that's a lot of plays.

that should allow you to get to more of your offense. I understand the call sheet gets shorter and went tighter in second and ten, third and ten situations. But I felt like you said, you did a good job of kind of mitigating some of those opportunities. And then what was the next iteration of that? And I think that's the thing that I was kind of hungering for yesterday was, yeah, the game playing is good. Screens, love it, get in touches. I love – and I don't want to point out that the offense played hard, man.

They played really hard on those run games, like they were being physical on the screen. they were getting out there knocking people. They did some really good stuff. But what's the next plan to put your receivers in a good position to take advantage of that physicality up front? And then to me the next step is, are these concepts that you're running? Are they designed to beat these coverages?

And I think when I look at it, I say not always, right? And you know what Dan wants to be. He was a cover three guy. That's the big part of what he does. More man now. And then more cover two. more Tampa 2 than he's ran before, right? But I'm calling plays that are designed to beat that.

I'm not having Terry run-a-go versus a cover 3-quarter. Like, that just doesn't make any sense to me. Or a cover 2 shell. Like, that's a high, it's a low percentage win. There's other concepts that I've been exposed to in my career that fit that a little bit better. And so, to me, like, it can't always be, hey, run a go, John. And let's see if you can run by Step on Biggs. You know what I mean?

Like, that, to me, is where that kind of falls down. I agree. The game plan is sound. It works. But then how do we get those big plays? Like one of my favorite statistics that we got from Warren Sharp was like 55% of drive to have a play of 15 plus yards, end up in a score. If they don't have that, it's 5%. So you've done a good job. You've mitigated risk. Now how do we find those big plays? And you can't just say, we're just going to run goes and teams. And you have to find concepts of defeat what the defense is trying to do to you. Yeah, I mean, it's so funny because, and I talked about this in the open, it's like they were averaging 7.2 yards per carry, 14 carries over 100 yards in the first half. And we've all watched enough football to know that at that point, then all the sudden, the quarter, any quarterback, I mean, Patrick Mahomes' best friend is play action, you know, where linebackers get sucked up and there's stuff behind it.

And I think it was the third drive of the game, and it was only 6-0, and they had had the penalties that had derailed the first two a little bit. And they're not a team. And a lot of teams can't overcome second-15, second 12, etc. And there's a very fine line and a very little room for error, you know, playing the way they did yesterday. And they made too many errors. But Jonathan Williams rips off an 18-yard run, and they come back immediately on first and 10, with something that approximated play action, and I mean, Parsons blew it up from the jump. And then that was the grounding where I think Wentz needs, you know, he escaped it,

and he needs to throw that thing, you know, 25 yards downfield and out of bounds. And he waited too long and it ended up being a grounding penalty. But you would have survived that play and got into second and 10 instead of second in 22 after the grounding. But it was amazing to me that even with a running game that should have sucked some guys up and had opportunities on play action and boot. By the way, a boot was blown up immediately too. They still couldn't keep anybody out of the backfield for the amount of time to try to get that chunk play. What you're talking about, the routes down field is something you really understand.

And maybe that is part of the problem. But God, man, when you run for seven and a half yards, per carry. You see it every Sunday. That means that next first and ten, that hard play action, there's going to be a chunk throw over the middle of the field somewhere, usually. Yeah, and I'll say this, though. When I watch them execute play pass, much like when they execute stuff in the run games, they don't live and die by playpass, right? And so, like, they don't have all of these kind of nuanced responses to play pass. They don't have, like, the run cell is not, like, a super acute, aggressive run cell.

And I think that that hurts them in certain situations, right? Obviously, Michael Parsons is a beast. Like, I remember the player you're talking about, but they ran, it was like too tight ends the right, kind of run action away. Carson does a half rollout. And the first time Logan Thomas gets beat on beating on inside moves because Bates is kind of getting ready to block the safety, which is by his rule, like, that's correct, right?

next time they come out, Bates and Logan Thomas double on Micah Parsons and the safety triggers, and that's where you get the intentional grounding, right? So, again, like, understanding the deficiencies of that protection, understanding why it's not good, understanding that you could run that same protection from across the field, right? So put the Titan on the other side, have him cross-sift and make the guy say, do I have to fit this run, do I have to cross-sift this? Do I have to hit this blocker? And again, those are the types of things, again, you don't know,

but I'm sure there's clips of other teams running those plays. We could say, what's the best opportunity for us to put these guys in good situations to be successful? Because if I bring that other tight end from across the formation, the safety, if he's going to add, has to run all the way across the formation, and then add in on the other side. So to me, again, that's where some of the limitations come in, right? Like, you understand what this defense wants to be. They're playing man on third down.

They're playing man on second and long. like what you have to account for that player who's going to trigger who's going to green dog in that situation. You say like, oh, there's nothing they could have done and kind of put your hands up. And I understand that. He's a football player. But I don't see a coach who's trying to make sure that his guys are in the best situation to be successful all the time. And I understand that's hard to do over the course of the game. And your guys got to win one-on-one matchups.

Like, I get that. But there are things that can be done to mitigate some of that. What's the most alarming part to you of Carson's? once is, you know, really the last two games because there was some exceptional play in the second half of the Detroit game. But what really, because I know that you had, you know, you had some optimism that this could work. So what's been most alarming to you?

I just think, you know, obviously like there's the athleticism is there, the physical ability is there. I think the thing that's most alarming. and their estimation is just the second there's pressure, like how his mechanics deteriorate, how his awareness kind of deteriorates. And that's something that you saw.

You could identify when he was in Indianapolis. You saw it when he was in Philly. You know, like there was a sack he took almost like yesterday where he backs up as opposed to stepping forward. Yeah. If he just steps up, the pocket's really clean and nice, and he probably completes the ball. And again, it's easy for me to nitpick.

so hard to play quarterback in the NFL, just like it's so hard to call plays the NFL. I need to say that too. Like, I'm here on Monday, you know, Mr. Critical and whatever, but like it's tough to do these things. But I do think that's something that's going to be very, very challenging to overcome because teams know that he struggles with that. So you're just going to see more of that. You're just going to see more and more and more of that until you figure out a way to

stop it or until you figure out a way to execute against it. And right now, I think that's a way to excuse against it. right now, I think that's the thing that's most alarming is there doesn't seem to be any way, any writing on the wall that says, oh, this is our plan for stopping this pressure, right? Because Carson is who he is. He's going to react this way to pressure. There's no plan that doesn't seem to be a solution kind of on deck, no one waiting in the wings, no philosophical change that's going to lead to the protection changes, right?

So I think this is an issue that's going to be here for a while. and even against teams that don't pressure a lot, I think if we're going to see a lot of pressure on third down, because I think it's fairly obvious to see that this is the reaction. This is what Carson is, this is what he's going to be. And I think the alarming thing is I just don't get away out of it. And as a coach, as a fan of football, that's a tough deal. Are there, you know, one of the things, like they started to load the box,

you know, especially at the beginning of the third quarter, they're right in the box to stop the run. I mean, you would think that there would be some sort of check with me, some sort of can, can, can, and get to the bubble screen. You know, and they just, he's got to have that as part of what they're running, right? Or not? I mean, so, I mean, that's another thing that's kind of frustrating to me. As you say, there's eight men in the box, but that's who Dan Quinn wants to be on first and second down. he wants to be plus one in the run game

and force you into passing looks and long down the distances where he can each you up with his blitz packages and his great pass rushers. I mean, they have damn near 14 on the defensive end position that can all rush the passenger at a high level, right? So to me, like, you knew that the plan coming in, right?

You know that safety is in the box there, number six, Wilson, you know, curse when he's healthy, he's got to fit the run. Like, take advantage of that. Put some action at him to make him step up, right? So again, like, I think a lot of people are like, oh, there's eight men in the box. You knew it. You knew there was going to be amen in the box. That's who Dan Quinn wants to be on first down. Like, I don't watch as much film as Scott, but over the course of my weekly

preparation, I was like, this is who they want to be on first and second down, and they're going to find a way to get to this plus one look at the run game. What is the solution here for, in terms of like, how do I handle this, right? So again, like, in terms of check with me in Cairn, they haven't shown that. This offense, even with Cam, didn't have a lot of that with the offense. You know, that's something Kyle, you know, Sean, before, McDaniels, they really embrace. They know, like, when they're playing a team that likes to do this, they can check the play action looks.

They can check to different things that kind of put you in a more advantageous situation. So you don't have to be in the perfect play every single time. And I'm not saying that's the solution here. If the coordinator doesn't feel comfortable with it, that's not great. If the quarterback doesn't feel comfortable with it, that's not great either. But I do think, you know, if you're not going to do that, then you need to make sure you have some sort of contingency or some sort of plan for when the team comes out and does something that you kind of expected them to do.

Like playing eight men in the box on first, second down, in run situations. Like if you have a seven-man blocking service, they're going to play eight. If you have a six-man blocking service, they're going to play seven. And even if that guy doesn't start out in the box, he's going to find his way down there and set that run. So I think that's, again, on Monday, you know, I still got to watch more film. I watched film last night. Got to watch some more today. But on Monday, that's one of my frustrations is why was there not a better, more comprehensive plan for that,

if that was something that was going to potentially cause you issues. Did they run the ball effectively in the first half? to consistent eight-man box or not? Yeah, I thought they did a really nice job with that. You know, I think a little bit of it. It wasn't always the cleanest looks, you know, like guys were running free or guys getting out of a gap or maybe the double team hung on too long. But I just thought, and this is where I have a lot of, this gives me faith and confidence

moving forward that they'll get it figured out, is guys were just grinding. You know, they were just grinding to kind of strain in for the blocks, straining on the runs. Like Gibson had some dirty runs early and just, just broke a tackle, fell forward, and gets four, so you're second and six, right? And, like, that stuff is awesome. You know, Sidney Charles on a screen.

It was the Gibson screen, and I think it was the second quarter, and just smokes Anthony Barr. And, like, he's running in space and getting nasty and getting dirty on the edge. And, you know, Cosby fighting for his life against Parsons, but widen the hole. Those are the things that I came out of that game saying, wow, you know, these guys are strained. Like the receivers blocking on the perimeter,

or I think it was AG's first long run. You know, you get Terry, you get Jahan, like being physical with the DBs out there. So that stuff is good, man. And I think that's exciting. And I think that they're fighting and training for you like that. That's always fantastic. But I just want to see, you know, I just want to see this offense kind of turn the corner, you know, the way the defense has.

And to me, and again, maybe it's a change in my perspective, kind of going from a player to a coach, But I'm like, if I was coaching this team, if I was responsible for this, I would definitely be trying to find ways to speak to my personnel and find ways to put them in the best position to be successful. Down and down out. And I'm sure Scott's trying to do that. But I just want to see more of that. You know, you know what your players' deficiencies are, so let's get away from stuff

that speaks to those deficiencies and find other things to be successful at. Yeah, because the solutions really at this point really, aren't, it's not personnel. I mean, what can you do? I mean, you have what you have. There aren't significant changes you can make. Of course, everybody wants to, you know, consider that this is all Carson Wentz's fault and that Taylor Heineke would be much better. I mean, I did suggest that if we see, you know, losses to Tennessee and Chicago, at that point, given the, you know, the success so far of the division, the competitive portion of the season is nearly over. and they'd have kind of a quasi-by week to maybe try to get Sam Hal ready.

Personally, I think I know what Taylor Heineke is. I think he's a backup NFL quarterback, and you're going to have to start making plans to figure out who your quarterback of the future is. What kind of thoughts do you have about all of that? I mean, what would be your mindset if you were coaching this team? Yeah, obviously I'm not. I wouldn't want to burn the bridges just yet. I think there's time for improvement.

I think they're going to – I try. I don't trust has made the wrong work, but I understand how an NFL season works and you have bad games, you take your lumps, and hopefully you can come out of it on the other side looking a lot better. So hopefully that's what happens coming to this next week. In terms of, I think I've had this Sam Hall question a couple times, based on what I saw in the off season and based on what I saw in the preseason, like, he's not ready.

You know, he's not ready, and I'm not sure that he will be ready this year. And that's not an indictment of Sam. I think he's got some tremendous tools. He can run around. He's got a strong arm. I think he sees the field pretty well for a smaller guy. But he's not, he's like a freshman player that you'd be throwing it on varsity. Yeah, no, that's fair.

That's fair. Yeah. So what would you do? Would you play Heineke? So I think, I mean, it depends on how bad it gets. You know, I think a lot of fans think it's pretty bad right now, and I don't entirely disagree. But, I mean, you know what Heineke is. is you just said it yourself and you've just invested $28 billion in Carson when.

I want to give Carson maybe every opportunity to show some return on that investment. And at some point, if it gets really bad, then we'll see Heineke, I think. But I don't think we'll see Sam how this year. I don't think that's fair to Sam, quite honestly. And, you know, maybe he's growing up and maybe he's improving every day of practice. You know, we can't watch Congress before. But that's kind of my high-level thought on that. I'll ask you the same question I asked Cooley late last week before the Dallas game.

Do you think it would be a lot better with Heineke? I mean, you know, I don't know if it would be a lot better with Heineke. I have no idea. It's kind of an unknowable question. But I do think that the offense last year kind of surprisingly was doing more, you know, like this offense is very specific in terms of the concepts it wants to run. But I do feel like they were. able to execute them at a slightly more efficient rate, and they were able to get to more

diversity in the playbook, right? I understand Carson is excellent at the deep throws. He's excellent in certain paths for the game, but I feel like in some ways it's like, it's almost like, you know, a power hitter who's only swinging for the fences, right? Like you need other stuff besides those home run shots to make this offense go. And I think with Heineke, for whatever a reason it forced Scott into some of that other stuff more early and more frequently in games. And I think that's something that might be beneficial for the offense. It's much in the same way that Dallas has kind of gotten more concerned with their game plan since Cooper Rush has been involved.

I think it kind of putting handcuffs on the physical ability of the quarterback position, it forced the coordinator last year and Scott Turner to kind of change his approach. and it wasn't the most perfect offense, but it was a more diverse offense. And so I think it's interesting that when coordinators get hampered in certain situations, they don't always, what's the word I'm looking for? They kind of, they change their game plan, and then when they get their good player back, they kind of go back to what they were doing before, even though that first game plan is, first iteration of the game plan is extremely effective.

Yeah. Well, I mean, in many ways, even though they didn't get to some of the diverse stuff in the passing game, The whole idea yesterday was to make sure that the quarterback didn't go backwards and get knocked down behind the line of scrimmage nine times and hit 17 times, which is kind of during that four-game winning streak last year, what they really focused on was we can't put it on the quarterback to just drop back. We got to run the football. We got to move the chains. And without the penalties yesterday, the interesting thing is it was, it was. would have in the first half probably produced a little bit more, not a lot more, but a little bit more. Look, they won two games during that stretch last year, scoring 17 points.

That was it. They won two games 17 to 15. And so it may be what you have to do. I know it wasn't what they were thinking they would have with Carson Wentz, but there are other issues here. I mean, they're playing better defensive teams in some ways than they were playing last year. And they have an issue in the interior of their offensive line that they can't figure out right now. Maybe that's the quarterback. Maybe that's the line.

Maybe that's the coordinator. Who knows? You've given great reasons and great explanations on a lot of it. Last one, and I'll let you run. I know you've got to get to your normal day job. Let's face it. The two losses here, this feels different. to me in terms of the start than the last two years. You had the pandemic in year one.

You had a two and two start last year before it went to two and six, but, you know, they were more competitive. This is a bad football team right now. Yes or no? I'd never like to say bad football team because I know how hard it is to play in the NFL, but it's definitely a team that can be better, I think. And I think that's one of the things, like you alluded to, there's no excuses now for this. club, right? They've got their quarterback that they wanted. They drafted the receiver in the first round who's shown tremendous potential, right? This offense, Curtis Samuel's healthy, right? Logan Thomas is back. All these pieces that they were saying, oh, well, you know, we could be better

if we have these elements to our team are no longer available. But they are available now. And I think that's the thing that's kind of eye-opening about it is they're not playing, you know, Patrick Mahomes are not playing these elite offenses and the defense, at least to my eye over the last two weeks, has really come to play. Like, I have to pull clips for the television show that I do, and it was hard to pull clips

in the defense because there were so many good clips. Like, guys who were just playing incredibly hard all the time, and outside of a couple penalties, like, it's hard to find bad play in that game, you know, and I think from a defensive side, so you're getting good production from your defense, the special teams put you in good spots throughout.

And so again, like, yeah, it's just, to me, it is tough. It's a tough spot to be in for this team, and there needs to be some type of improvement because all these, all those excuses that were there last year are no longer here. And you're still kind of having the same result. And fans are frustrated. I get that. And, yeah, I think there does need to be some type of change in performance. And we'll see if that gets done this week.

All right, great job. good to catch up. What can I promote for you other than the things that I know you're on, which are NBC Sports Washington and the stuff that you do? By the way, he does a great segment. It's the Cooley segment with Jay Gruden on the film breakdown. He does it with Rivera on that NBC4 show on Saturday nights. Logan does it and does a great job with that.

By the way, real quickly, how is he to work with in those situations? Oh, he's fantastic, man. Like, he's so, he's so fun. Like, because, like, you know, when you get him in a one-on-one interview, I don't want to say it's a little bit labored, but, you know, he's guarded. In those situations, like, it's just been, like, really a blessing, quite frankly, because he wants to teach, you know, he wants to teach football. He wants to talk football.

And, you know, I get, I kind of myself very lucky to get to talk to a guy. He's been around it as long as he has, and he's willing to kind of engage with me in that way. That's been super cool. All right. Anything else to promote, Instagram, Twitter? You're not very active on Twitter. I'm Logan underscore Paulson 82. I got a podcast with Craig Hoffman.

That's right. A big of a podcast. Of course. And so I'm trying to think of there's anything else. Yeah, and then obviously the NBC sports stuff that you already talked about. All right. Good to catch up. I will talk to you on Sunday before the Tennessee game on radio.

Looking forward to it. Awesome. Yeah, sounds good, man. And appreciate it. Hopefully I wasn't too negative on that. No, no, no. It was great. It was awesome.

Thanks. Appreciate it. Logan Paulson, everybody. All right, let's go around the NFL. We'll also finish up with a little on Maryland, Michigan State. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. From 21 yards away, Tyler Bass.

The kick is good, and it's a game winner. The bills complete the comeback, and they knock off the Ravens. 23 to 20. That was Tyler Bass's 21-yard field goal at the gun as Buffalo rallied from a 20-to-3 deficit, 17-point deficit to beat Baltimore in the rain at M&T Bank Stadium, 23 to 20. I think we're going to see these two teams down the road when we get to January. And yesterday's game could be really important in the seating and home field, et cetera. interesting part of that game was a decision by John Harbaugh. Had a fourth and goal at Buffalo's two-yard line in a 20-to-20 game.

They went for it. And the worst part about it was rather than missing and having Buffalo start at their own two-yard line, Lamar Jackson threw an interception into the end zone, which gave Buffalo the ball at the 20-yard line. I'm sure analytically, the decision to go for a fourth and goal, rather than kick a field goal at that point. Probably made sense knowing Buffalo's explosiveness. Context is everything. The weather was bad.

Buffalo had gone on the three and out on their previous drive with Josh Allen getting sacked at midfield. And Baltimore's defense had done a decent job on Buffalo throughout the day. They held Buffalo to 326 total yards, and that was before the last 70 on the final drive. But they opted to go for it. And again, the worst part of that was Buffalo got it first and 10 at the 20 rather than first and 10 from their own two yard line after a fourth and two, say, in completion. Jackson threw his second interception in that spot. And that led, and by the way, that was on back-to-back drives. And that led to Buffalo starting a 12-place 77-yard drive that ended with a walk-off field goal from 21 yards out for a 20. 23-20 win. Buffalo went from playing in that extraordinary heat in South Florida last week in the 21 to 19

loss to Miami to playing in cool, you know, coldish, you know, fall, you know, rainy weather in Baltimore. It wasn't the prettiest of games by either team. Both of these teams have excellent defenses. There were four total turnovers in the game. Baltimore had an S load of penalties in this game. Ultimately, though, Buffalo prevails with a 23 to 20 win. Baltimore falls to two and two. Their two losses, 42 to 38 at home to Miami, 23 to 20 to Buffalo at home. Their two wins are road wins against the Jets and the Patriots. They get the Bengals at home Sunday night in Sunday night football. Speaking of Sunday night, this is what happened last night in Tampa. On the move, Mahomes stops, spins, flips it forward for the touchdown to Edward DeLair.

Mahomes straddled the line of scrimmage, flipped it to Edwards-Illair for the score. Patrick Mahomes, unbelievable, alasinate. Their running game, incredible. How about that Isaiah Pacheco, their rookie running back from Rutgers? He has looked great. He was a seventh round selection. Edwards Alair looked good. They can run the football.

Last week they lose to the Colts and it's like, see, they really do miss Terry kill. And then they hang 41 on one of the best defenses in the NFL. And it's like, yeah, they don't really need them. It's a week-to-week league. It's a week-to-week. Changing of the narrative on all of these teams, even the really good teams. Kansas City was awesome. They just were dominant throughout.

I don't think they had a punt in the game last night. I'm pretty sure they did not punt at all. They started touchdown after a fumbled kickoff return. Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, got stopped on a fourth down, scored a touchdown, then took a knee. Then they went field goal, touchdown, field goal interception. Oh, they did punt. They punted at the very end of the game up 41 to 31 when they were trying to run out the

clock. That really doesn't count. Brady, by the way, had his receiving quarterback, Evans, Godwin, etc. and he threw for 3185 yards, three touchdowns. How about this with the Buccaneers? They threw it 52 times in the game. They ran it six times in the game. I know they got behind.

They were done 21-3. Brady, at 45 years old, threw it 52 times, and they ran the ball six times for three yards. Leonard Fournett was three carries for minus three yards. and the other back white was three carries for six yards. I don't know if I've ever seen a pass-to-run ratio like that. 52 to 6. That's incredible.

Kansas City wins the game 41 to 31 to 3-1. Meantime, the Buccaneers, after winning their first two games, they put up points for the first time this year, but lost. But they've lost two in a row. They get the Falcons this week, a very improved Atlanta Falcons team. Let's talk about Brady's former team. How about the Packers and the Patriots at Lambo yesterday? For the win from 31, Crosby, right down the middle.

And 100,000 people in Green Bay breathe with a sigh of relief. That field goal on the final play of these 10-minute overtimes. I mean, they were close to tying in that game as well. Green Bay survives. They're 3-1. They didn't do much offensively in the first half against a very good New England defense. New England ran the ball and they had to play Bailey Zappy in for Brian Hoyer who was in for Mack Jones. Zappy, the rookie out of Western Kentucky, made some plays.

You know, New England had the ball after a three and out stop to start overtime at midfield. One first down, basically, their in-field goal range, maybe eight or nine yards and they would have tried it. They could only gain five yards. They had to punt it back and Aaron Rogers took him down the field. and the Packers survive. After that season opening lost in Minnesota, they've won three in a row. They get the Giants in London on Sunday. Meantime, the Patriots, they've been really close, man. Their losses to the Dolphins, Ravens, and Packers. And they had a win against the Steelers in week two. And the Ravens game, they had a legit shot. They had a legit shot yesterday.

I think they're an interesting team to keep an eye on. They're very good defensively. How about the first game of the day yesterday? The first game. international game, also in London at Tottenham Spur Stadium, whatever they call that. The ending of this one was amazing. This is Will Lutz on a 61-yard field goal attempt to force overtime at the end. Good snap, good hold. Lutz's kick on the way. And it is bright. Double-doin. And it is over in Lutz pinballed it around. And it fell out. 28 20 Vikings hang on of the crossbar. When that kick left his foot, I thought it was good.

He had already made a 60-yarder on the previous possession. This one from 61, left-up right crossbar falls out, an amazing ending to a game. I think the Brits were watching that game, not really figuring out what it happened to the kick and what it meant. What it meant was Minnesota won the game 2825, courtesy of a couple of, you know, you know, typical fourth quarter clutch drives by Kirk Cousins. They were down three. He led him to a game tying field goal. And then with the game tied, he hit Justin Jefferson on a huge 39-yard hookup to get in field goal range to give them a go-ahead field goal.

Just another fourth quarter game-winning drive from Cousins, the 22nd of his career. He'd have a lot more if his kickers over the years could have made some kicks. But Minnesota gets to three-and-one. It was not a smooth game for the Vikings. By the way, Andy Dalton was really good yesterday for the Saints, and the Saints have an excellent defense. One other quick observation from that game. I have loved Latavius Murray throughout his career.

Why has he bounced around so many teams? This is like the fourth or fifth team he's been on. He's a good back. He's good everywhere. I know he's taller and he runs upright. He's really good, though. Chris Oliva is good, too. Dalton, in for an injured James Winston, was 20 of 28,

for 236, but I think at one point, you know, before a couple of incompletions to stop the clock at the end, I think it was like 20 of 25. Dulton, solid. Minnesota's offense right now is just not a polished product yet. It really isn't, but they figured out a way to win three games, and they really fed Justin Jefferson yesterday, one of the best receivers in the game. Ten catches, 147 yards, including the dime that Kirk dropped in his hands at the end of regulation to set up the game-winning field goal. That division, you know, right now, Green Bay, Minnesota, both at 3-1, Chicago, a feisty at this point, very feisty two-and-two, and Detroit the same at 1-3.

I mean, Detroit, I mean, every single game that they've lost to the Eagles, the Vikings, and the Seahawks, they could have won all three of those games. They lost to the Seahawks yesterday, 48 to 45 in a game in which Seattle put up 555 yards of offense. And Detroit had 520 yards of offense. There are two teams that are really fascinating so far this year. Seattle and Atlanta, both teams were expected to stink. Seattle with the new quarterback and Gino Smith.

I mean, Gino Smith yesterday was 23 of 30 for 320 yards and two touchdowns. Rashad Penny ran for a buck 51. He's really good when healthy. Atlanta's the other team. The Falcons went into, they didn't go into. At home, they beat Cleveland yesterday, 23 to 20 on a field goal by Koo with just over two minutes to go. Atlanta's moving the football on everybody. I mean, they were not as lethal yesterday on offense, but, you know, Tyler Algier,

the running back from BYU that I loved coming out of the draft, 10 carries 84 yards. They had 202 yards on the ground yesterday, taking all of the pressure off Marriota. You know, London only had two catches, pits only had one catch. But the Falcons are two and two, and their two losses were winnable games against the Saints and the Rams. Interesting teams in Atlanta and Seattle, especially with how good they've been offensively, which is surprising so far. But you never know with the NFL. a couple of the other games, the Giants won, the Eagles won, the Eagles overcame, a 14-0 deficit. The Giants beat the Bears 20 to 12 in a game in which Daniel Jones got injured,

and then Tyrod Taylor came in, but Sequin Barclay here early on making a run at comeback player of the year. He's got, he rushed for 146 yesterday. He's got 463 rushing yards in four games. So, you know, he's on that 1,700, 18-100 pace. If he can, he can, can stay healthy. The Giants are three and one. I mean, say whatever you want about their team. They're three and one. They've beaten the Titans, the Panthers, and the Bears. They lost to the Cowboys. They play the Packers Sunday in London. Then they have the Ravens after that. So we're going to learn a lot more about the G-Men over the next two weeks. But they're sitting there, you know, in a pretty good spot through four games. And the other games of note yesterday,

man, Denver, you know, I had them. The smell test was five and four this weekend, four and one college, one and three on the NFL, including Washington. I really liked Denver yesterday. It may have been the game. I like Denver and Seattle a lot. I liked Washington a lot. Had Carolina, too. But Denver came down the field and made it 25, 23. Looked like they were at least going to get the cover, and the Raiders went right down the field in 10 plays. And 8 o'clock. up basically and scored a touchdown. And they won 3223 for Josh McDaniel's first win of the year. The Raiders are 1 and 3. I did want to just finish up with Maryland beating Michigan State on Saturday. They are 4-1. The Terps are off to a great start.

They're now getting closer to being ranked. They got a lot of votes in both the AP and the coaches poll. They could have scored more on Saturday in the rain against Michigan State, although the weather wasn't nearly as bad. Leah Tunga Viloa to his brother, 32 of 41, 314 yards a touchdown. He set the all-time Maryland passing yardage mark, passing the great boomer Asiason. I love their running backs. I love Littleton.

19 carries 120 yards, had a big 68-yard run. Then they tried them four straight carries from the one and he couldn't get it in. He was exhausted, though. I've been telling you about Maryland since the summer. They're very, very skill position loaded. NFL players across the board. They played a good defensive game. Their O-line does a good job.

They're favored by four Saturday against a Purdue team coming off an outright win over Minnesota. They've got Indiana Northwestern after that. Then Wisconsin, that's their next four games. Wisconsin fired Paul Christ yesterday after they lost to their former coach, Brett Bielma on Saturday. He coaches Illinois. Maryland's going to be favored in their next three

for sure. And who knows by the time you get to Wisconsin and Madison, they're not very good this year. The Terps are really, this Saturday's huge, Purdue, because Purdue's good, and Aiden O'Connell is a very good quarterback. If they can win that game, they're going to be staring definitely seven and one headed to Wisconsin, and who knows. And then they've got Penn State after that. Penn State's good. You know, they're ranked 10th in the country. Ohio State's the one that isn't a class above all. else in the Big Ten. Maryland already played Michigan really tough. This is really going to be, you know, knock on what everybody stays healthy, they got a chance

to have one hell of a season here. And it would be big for the program. Good win over Michigan State. There were some moments there that were, you know, a little bit frustrating. But I thought overall, they did an excellent job. More penalties again after being, you know, nearly penalty-free against Michigan. But they're really good offensively. another near 500-yard day.

And it should have been more points, but it's a win, and you get to produce Saturday in College Park. Hopefully, 12-noon start would be nice to see a real good crowd for that one, because it might be, I know it's supposed to be chilly this weekend, but it's going to be a beautiful fall day, hopefully on Saturday, and they deserve with the way they have played a really decent crowd. Anyway, that's it for the show today.

I will be back tomorrow with. Tommy.