The Kevin Sheehan Show - Another Defensive Dud

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Kevin solo today with a detailed recap of Washington's 33-22 loss to the Saints. What he liked, didn't like, and plenty on both the defense and Taylor Heinicke. He went "Around the NFL" and talked some College Football as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Winston faking. Camara, first down and more. He's in.

Touchdown. 19 yards on the catching run. And the Saints punch back. That was checkmate. The Camara touchdown pass, basically untouched into the end zone, capping off. an eight-place 75-yard drive that took four and a half minutes and extended New Orleans's lead from 27-22 to 33 to 22 game over. Submissive, spineless, gutless, cowardly, whatever you want to call it, it's not just the last drive.

It was pretty much the entire afternoon against a team that like Buffalo when they played them wasn't exactly coming in on fire offensively. Well, this defense was a get right against defense yesterday. Washington falls to two and three with a 33-22 loss to the Saints. I'll get to my game take here in a moment. What I liked, what I didn't like. We'll go around the league and we'll talk some college football at the end of the show today. It's going to be a solo Monday recap show. Tommy will be with me tomorrow.

I want to start with this. You know, when we talk in years, years to come about one of the worst judgment off seasons by media and fans alike about this team. We have so many conversations about the team. And from essentially February until the beginning of the season, we have thoughts, sometimes really strong thoughts about, you know, where the strength of the team lies, where the weakness of the team lies, what kind of team they're going to have. I'm not sure that when we look back on this past, offseason of conversation that we will have been more wrong about one specific part of a team

more than we were in evaluating this defense. Now, not everybody was all in. Some of you believed it was elite. Some of you believed that it was one of the best, if not the best in the NFL. some of us, and I would put myself into this category, thought that it certainly had the potential to be a good defense, not an elite defense. It was not an elite defense last year. And I was looking for improvement in the defense this year. Even if the results turned out to be less than what they were last year because of the quarterbacks they were facing. But none of us, regardless of what we thought, you know, is this defense going to be elite? is this defense just going to be good? We all agreed that it was the strength of the football team.

And nobody had it being a terrible defense. Nobody did. Nobody had it being a defense which required your offense to score 30 plus just to have a chance. Nobody had that. I don't think we will, in years to come, be more loud wrong than we were this past off season. about the defense. There are 12 games left. It could get a lot better, and these first five could just be a nightmarish memory. But with Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady coming up in three of the next four games, with Dak Prescott still to be faced twice, yeah, I don't think so.

I want to get to my game take, which I will hear momentarily, but I want to speak to something else. and it's sort of the state of the team. I think I did this last week at the quarter pole, but I think I feel more strongly about what I'm going to say this week. You know, Ron Rivera persevered through a lot last year personally and professionally, but the rest of this season or certainly the next few weeks are going to be super challenging for him. We're going to get a read on his ability to keep a team. together. You know, last year, obviously, there was a lot going on in his life personally with

cancer. We were in the midst of a pandemic. The organization was in total turmoil with name, with, you know, accusations, with investigations, et cetera, et cetera. And the football became very background. There wasn't a lot of pressure. There weren't any expectations. But this year was more about the football, even though we've got another now assistant trainer that's been excused from the football team as the investigation continues. We'll find out something, I'm sure, soon, but the reporting's been prescription drug selling or distribution from Ryan Vermillion at least. But, you know, the expectations and the discussion this year was much more about football.

And I think a lot of people thought that this defense was potentially elite and thought this team, was capable with that elite defense and, you know, better offensive quarterbacking with Ryan Fitzpatrick as an example. Many people thought this team was capable of winning 10 or 11 games, maybe more. Well, they're not going to win 10 or 11 games this year. You know, and the predictions about this defense being elite or one of the best in the NFL were way off. And it's not just that the defense is bad because it is. But as I've been saying on this, podcast for a few weeks now. Something beyond just the performance, which has been embarrassingly awful, something's not right. You know, something about these first five games

isn't, you know, doesn't smell right. The coach week in and week out has blamed maturity, discipline, guys not doing their job. Players are now starting to express some frustration. Duran Payne did yesterday. You know, I don't think it's, It's just one player. You know, I don't think, regardless of our conversations about Chase Young and the front four, not getting home and not getting sacks, I don't think this is about one player. It's more than just one. Although, you know, in mentioning Chase Young, let's not forget that he was a team captain.

He was a player with a lot expected. And he was so confident in his ability to be prepared and ready for the season that he saw fit to be the only player out of 90 not to show up for even one OTA day last spring. 89 players showed up. The team captain didn't. But hey, he is nowhere near the biggest problem on a defense that is among the worst, if not the worst, in the NFL. But back to Rivera for a second.

He's being presented right now with a huge challenge. This is going to be, and I don't want to be overly dramatic, but I think this is now looking for interesting things to keep an eye on and track here over the next several weeks. He's got a team who he's admitted is underachieving. He's got a defense that's not only underachieving. He's got a defense that really seems that it could start fraying from the inside out. He can't let that happen. You know, they played yesterday a team missing key pieces on offense along that offensive line and then lost a couple of key players, including Deontay Harrison, Taysam Hill, during the game. It wasn't an offense that was playing very well coming into the game. They managed to score 33 points on roughly 50 meaningful plays. Washington's given up more points than any team in the NFC, second most in the NFL. The Chiefs actually have given up the most points in the NFL.

next opponent. James Winston had his best passing yardage day of the year, and it wasn't a garbage yard situation at the end of a blowout loss. That wasn't what it was. He had his best passing yardage game of the year, and the Saints offense got right against a Washington defense with six plays of 19 yards or more. What do you think Pat Mahomes and Tareke Hill, if he's healthy, because he got banged up a little bit, and Travis Kelson. at all are going to do to this defense next week. Washington's defense, I said it, has become a get right against defense. A get right against defense. Let me repeat that because I started to lose my voice. Washington's defense has become the defense to get right on. The Giants got right on

Washington's defense. The Bills got right on Washington's defense. The Falcons got right against Washington's defense. And yesterday it was New Orleans's turn to get right against Washington's defense. I mentioned this morning the only good news about the awful defensive performance is that not many people saw it live. Did you catch the CBS studio at halftime? James Brown, Bill Cower, Boomer Assison, I forget who else is on that group. I don't watch the CBS show, but it was the CBS game, and the TV was on at halftime. And J.B. and the guys talked about how sad it is to watch games in Washington these days where their once passionate fan bases dwindled to a level where it now averages the smallest crowd in the NFL.

From the people that I know that were there working and otherwise, they said it was the smallest of the home games so far. And that's saying something because even though they've listed attendance at like $51,000 or something like that, paid attendance. The real attendance has been somewhere between 40 and 45 with plenty of opponents' fans in the park. Yesterday, the listed paid was less than the first two games. It was at 50, I think.

Probably roughly 40,000 at the game yesterday. But hey, at least we welcome the opposing teams fans with some of the cheapest aftermarket tickets you will ever find for an NFL game in October. who that nation was represented yesterday for sure. Chiefs fans will probably be represented this coming week. Anyway, I digress. I thought that was an interesting halftime observation by James Brown,

who of course is a native Washingtonian, and Boomer Assison, who really understands, and so does Bill Cower what this fan base used to be. And for them, it's sad to turn on the TV and see the stadium in the situation that it's in with so few people. And by the way, if you were at the game and you thought it was an enthusiastic crowd,

amen. That's great. Because it has been enthusiastic. But for people like me, longtime fans like me, who remember that literally you needed a mask and a gun to get a ticket to one of these games, it's so sad.

It's so sad. It's such a background, ancillary story to the way they've played this year. but it really is incredible to see. I don't care how enthusiastic 30,000 Washington fans are with 10 to 15,000 of the opponent's fans in the park. It's so sad to see what this owner has done to something that we loved so much.

Washington is 2 and 3. It's not a death sentence. It's never a death sentence 2 and 3, especially with the 17 games schedule. But this two and three is a troublesome two and three. And not just because they've got the Chiefs Necks and the Packers and the Buccaneers and the Broncos and all those teams coming up. You know, the next four games, we could and more likely than not will, be sitting at

two and seven or three and six roughly a month from now. And the contention part of the season will be over. personally, and you know me, I'm the one that loves to talk about playoff scenarios. I'm the one in early December in past years when they've been five and seven or four and eight that are telling you how they could actually make the playoffs. This is not a contending year. You know, She and they were two and seven last year. Yeah, I do remember that.

That was then, this is now. And what I'm getting to here in a moment is not even. really about whether or not they are going to be a contender, because they're not. This is not their year, sorry to break the news. Dallas is 4-1, and they are not only a legitimate division prohibitive favorite, but they are a legitimate NFC championship contender. They could go to the Super Bowl this year. They have to stay healthy and can't predict injuries, but the way they're playing right now, how about Trayvon Diggs? My God. I mean, seriously, six interceptions and five games? But again, I'm not talking about contention.

That's not what the rest of this year is really about. This isn't a contending team. This is a team that feels like it could be on the verge of falling apart in all of the ways that this franchise always falls apart when you get into ugly losing situations. This season right now is about seeing how the head coach. and his team deal with what feels like right now, even at two and three, a deteriorating situation. That's what the season's about right now. You know, remember, you know, this is a rebuilding year. This is part of a rebuild he's in the midst of, despite what people like Mike Greenberg and Lewis Riddick and whomever else predicted grand things for this team this year.

This is year two of a rebuild. Rebuilds aren't smooth, typically. They don't just glide right into a successful finish, especially by the way when you consider that the rebuild was a rebuild of a property that for all intents and purposes had been condemned. Rebuilds include lots of bumps along the way. You know, how those bumps in the rebuild road are navigated is what either keeps the rebuild alive until it gets actually built, or it's what derails the rebuild and leads to the next attempt at the next rebuild with a new group of people. I think, and I just have this sense right now,

that this is the first major bump in the road for Ron Rivera. Obviously, last year was a crazy year with cancer and a pandemic, but there was nothing expected last year. The organization had so much going on off the field that it pretty much masked what was happening on the field, and ultimately, you know, they sort of surprised and overachieved last year. year in his first year. This right now, a two and three team that could be 0 and 5 with a head scratching defense that was supposed to be the strength of the team. This right now is presenting the architect of the rebuild Ron Rivera with his first major challenge. He's a defensive head coach. He's picked many of the players and all of the coaches that are currently presiding

over not just the worst defense in the league, but one that is underperforming at an alarming level that right now I sense that the threat for backbiting and implosion is in play. And that's where we are right now. That's what I think will be interesting to watch, finding out if Ron Rivera, who persevered like few others could last year, both personally and professionally, whether or not he can do it again in a different way. This now is about football, the football team's culture.

the locker room, whether or not he can get over this big bump without crashing and burning. You know, remember this organization in the past, when this kind of thing happens, when losing starts and areas of the team are underachieving and coaching becomes part of the conversation and backbiting starts and eschow typically follows. Let's see if Ron can keep this thing from unraveling. in the ugly way it almost always unravels in this organization. Let's see if he can be the first one in this organization to be able to navigate this thing and keep it on the rebuild road and not let it derail.

You know, can he be the first of his kind in Washington? I mentioned earlier when I was saying the first of his kind in Washington. It immediately reminded me of can he be the first of his name, King of the Andal? Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. For those of you that get the reference, thank you. For those of you who didn't, that's a Game of Thrones reference. Anyway, a coach that loses some games,

but doesn't lose everything else, is what he has to be right now. Because in the past, the losing is one part of it, and then everything else gets lost simultaneously, the locker room, the trust. and then most notably the owner's confidence. I think he can get through this. This is the part of Ron Rivera.

I could be proven totally wrong about this, but I think he's been through this in his life. I think he's a quality person. I think he knows the difference between the kind of people you can get through this with versus those that you can't. I think those that you couldn't get through this with, He got rid of, you know, Haskins and Dunbar and Williams and other people that he just didn't feel would be able to tough this out.

Because, you know, he said in the offseason, he knew what last year was. He knew it was a flukish inside straight. And he was concerned that, you know, he wanted to see maturity. He wanted to see guys recognize that they hadn't come close to arriving anywhere yet with a seven and nine. record. But he's picked these players. He's picked these coaches. He's their leader. He's the organization's leader right now. We need to make sure, or we need to watch for, excuse me, how this gets handled and whether or not you end up with a lot of leaks, as we've seen in the past. You end up with a lot of public condemnation for various things that are going on.

I hope we don't get any blaming of coaches. I hope we don't get blaming of players. I think the talk of players being undisciplined needs to stop because I think the coaches right now, if they're still playing players that aren't being disciplined, well, that's on the coaches. I don't want to hear players talk about other players. I don't want to hear players talk about coaches.

I don't want to hear players talk about scheme. I don't want to hear players talking about the media. Mr. McCain. this is an interesting stretch. This is a very interesting stretch coming up. This is a team that's two and three, but it feels a lot worse. This is a team two and three that was supposed to not necessarily be a playoff team this year, but be a competitive team, especially on defense with a defensive head coach.

This is a team right now whose defensive coordinator and many of its defensive players are being questioned. And this is a head coach that's never worked for an owner or a shit show of an organization like this one, where everything, when it happens and goes badly, goes badly in a way that's almost indescribable. I think his leadership, his toughness, but also his empathy, I think there's a lot in play right now. His leadership is on display right now over the next several weeks. They're likely not going to win many of their upcoming games. It's the NFL. I get it.

Things happen. I understand that. They get a chief's team coming in here off of a blowout loss last night to the bills. You want to talk about a team that's in trouble a little bit right now at two and three. It would be the Kansas City Chiefs. They are desperate for a win. They're coming in banged up too. Kelsey was banged up.

Hill was banged up last night. Thune was banged up. I thought the Saints were an opportunity for the defense to get right. I don't think the Chiefs are an opportunity for the defense to get right, but it should be an opportunity for the offense to have a big game. I talked about before the Atlanta game, I thought that could be a good game offensively. I had concerns that yesterday could be a good day offensively,

but next week against the Chiefs, I think this offense could move the football. football and score some points. They're going to score a lot. And then it's the Packers at Lambo and the Broncos in Denver and then the Buccaneers, and then the Panthers who are very good defensively. And then the Seahawks with or without Russell Wilson. And then the Raiders and my God, the two games against the Cowboys, yeah, I guess they are still, you know, by definition rivalry games, but the Cowboys may be on their way to a big year. But you never know. They could also lose half their team to injury. I think this next couple of weeks is huge.

in the rebuild process. We'll see how Ron Rivera deals with it. We'll see if that team keeps its mouth shut and goes to work. We'll see if that team comes out with one of its best performances of the year Sunday against the Chiefs, especially on offense. We'll see if they're in games or they get blown out in games. We'll see whether or not the backbiting public and leaks start to happen or whether everything's buttoned up.

he's not been in an organization like this one when things go badly. This is a big challenge for him. Again, one of the reasons I liked the hire is I thought he was capable of handling some of this stuff. We'll see. My Game Take, when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, my game take is presented by MyBooky.

go to my bookie.ag use my promo code Kevin D.C. And they'll double your first deposit. I've mentioned this before because many of you have reached out and many of you are enjoying the benefits of my bookie. But you're not getting immediately that deposit that I have mentioned that you will get if you use my promo code. When you sign up, there's a promo code area. If something's already in that promo code, erase it and put Kevin D.C. Some people are just moving forward with that, thinking that the promo code comes a little bit later. No, the promo code, when it pops up on the screen, even if there's something already in that area, just erase it and write Kevin D.C.

My book, he's got everything you need. They are updating their prop bets for the season as we speak. Kansas City, by the way, a six-point favorite at FedEx Field next Sunday at 1 o'clock. I think their health and their defense right now is the reason that it's not seven or more. I think that right now, Washington's defense is its problem, but its offense will be capable, I think, against a Kansas City defense that is as bad as Washington's. These are the two teams in the league that lead the league in points allowed. Amazingly, that's what you'll get Sunday.

You'll get Washington who's given up 155 points in five games and the Chiefs who have given up 163 points in five games. The two highest scoring defenses matching up. The total, by the way, at 54.5, 55, somewhere in that general area. I actually thought it might be higher. By the way, the smell test this weekend, four, four, and two, had a couple of tough breaks. had the Penn State quarterback go down.

They don't lose that game if Clifford doesn't get hurt. The Cleveland game yesterday against the Chargers, Austin Echler was trying to go down so that they could kick a walk-off game-winning field goal that would have given them the win by two. And Cleveland helped them into the end zone. Helped them into the end zone. And they ended up winning by five.

So a couple of rough breaks over the weekend. the Bengals certainly had a chance to win the game, not have end up in a push. Nebraska certainly had a chance to cover and not have that game end up in a push, but whatever. 4-4 and 2. And by the way, my prediction of the Washington game being an upset win, a 2119 win wouldn't have been that much of an upset. The line went off at 2.5. You could buy it the 3 was not exactly spot on. And I also leaned under in the game and that missed badly as well.

All right, let's get to the game take the game recap portion of the show today. Let me start with the things that I liked. Two takeaways. You know, they were next to the last, next to last in the league and takeaways coming in with two in their first four games. They doubled that yesterday. Cole Holcomb was handed a gift by James Winston, but he didn't drop it. He had a nice return. And Chase Young got some.

real pressure with power, finally made a big time play. Took him four and a half games, but he got to Winston, who held the ball too long, he knocked it out, Duran Payne picked it up, Chase Young with his first sack and his first force fumble of the season. Duran Payne, by the way, the move to pick up the football and try to run with it. I know a lot of you probably were like, no, just fall on it. Watch the play carefully. I think Payne, if he tries to fall on it, is going to botch it. He's kind of past the ball. It was easier for him to bend down, pick it up, and try to move with it. So I didn't really have a problem with it.

But it was good to see Chase Young make that play. He didn't have a lot of plays in the game yesterday that you could really be impressed with. But of course, that goes for the whole defense, much more on that coming up when we get to the list of things that I did not like. What they did with D'Andre Carter yesterday, I liked. I liked D'Andre Carter. I think they tried to use him the way they were going to use Curtis Samuel after Samuel was out. I think they viewed D'Andre Carter also in the same way that they viewed Stephen Sims Jr. Which is why they signed Samuel, but Samuel obviously hasn't been available much.

But I like D'Andre Carter. I think he's really good with the ball in his hands. He had five touches yesterday for 73 yards, one carry for 11 yards, four catches for 62 yards. That's pretty damn good. By the way, he was wide open on two other plays that Heineckee just missed him on. That would have been, you know, nice chunk plays. But when you, you know, when you generate 73 yards of production on just five touches, you've had a pretty good game.

You know, the punt returns that went out on the one, one, and two yard lines, I need to look at those a little bit more closely. A caller earlier on my radio show said he should have fielded those punts. I actually think when I go look back on them, that I'm going to see that they were probably kicks that normally would go into the end zone, but they took hard left turns and ended up, I mean, he got great bounces off those punts.

But D'Andre Carter is on the list of things that I liked from the game yesterday. Ricky Seals Jones is on the list of things that I liked from the game yesterday. Ron Rivera told me Friday on the radio show that he's the number one pleasant surprise of the season so far. And he was the number one tight end with Logan Thomas out yesterday. And he did a nice job.

He's a big target. He's got good hands. He's pretty good after the catch. He had a few catches for first downs, including the one that Sean Payton challenged. And I'll be honest with you, I thought it was going to be overturned. I didn't think he got both feet down. But that continues a trend in the league to basically stick with the call on the field if it's close and it was close.

The play out of the end zone that Heineke, the snap was bad, or Heineke didn't handle the snap, and he was in the end zone, and he was able to pick it up and find Ricky Seals Jones. That was a 37-yard play. Of course, West Schweitzer was downfield illegally, and it got called back. But I like Ricky Seals Jones, R.S.J. I like Adam Humphreys, too. He's on the list of things that I liked. You know, he's another threat for this team right now.

There were a lot of players out yesterday. Logan Thomas was on an injured reserve. Cam Sims and Diami Brown were inactive. Curtis Samuel got hurt and was out of the game. But the truth is, while this is not an elite group of receivers and playmakers on offense, it is actually one of the strengths of the team right now. The depth that they have. I didn't think they were missing a whole hell of a lot with so many of those players out yesterday. You still have Terry McLaren on the field. You've got Carter, who is really a pretty good playmaking threat. Seals Jones is a big old tight end that can make some big time catches. Gibson and McKissick, you know, in the backfield and Humphreys.

And by the way, Dax Milling yesterday drew a P.I. on a double move and had a nice toe-tapping catch on the sideline. But Humphreys had three catches for 73 yards in the game, 24.3 yards per reception. I actually think the amount of, you know, it's certainly not elite outside of McLaren, but they've got a lot of guys that can make plays. And I think Diami, Brown, Logan, Thomas, Cam, Sims,

Curtis Samuel can all do the same thing. It's far from the weakness that it once was recently on this team. They've got a lot of guys. And I will give Scott Turner, some credit for it too, but I'm going to hold off on doing that because I've got, you know, a three-minute, you know, rant, if you will, on Scott Turner. And I don't think it's going to be what you think it's going to be. Anyway, Dustin Hopkins is on my list of things that I liked. He didn't miss yesterday. Three for three on field goals,

one-for-one on PAT's. Lastly, on the list of things that I liked, I'm going to say a couple of nice things about defensive players in the game yesterday, you know, understanding that it's really hard to give anybody credit on defense when the overall aggregate was so poor. But four names I want to mention, three of whom I've mentioned a lot this year. Actually, I think all four I've mentioned. John Allen, Matt Ionitis, and Duran Payne are having good seasons. And I thought they had some good moments yesterday for a unit again that had such a horrible day, the defense. But I really think their interior defensive linemen are right now, as bad as the defense has been, their most productive players. I guess that's true, but maybe not. Maybe the offensive line's been the most

productive. Maybe some of the skill, Terry McCorn's been the most productive, obviously. I just Alan Ionitis and pain are having good seasons, which is in total conflict with how the defense has played through five games. I also made a note to myself, and he didn't have a lot of snaps yesterday. But Benjamin St. Juice, I think, is going to be a pretty good player. That's it on him. I just think there's something about his size, his length, his competitiveness. I think he's going to be a good corner in the league. All right, let's get to the list of things that I did not like.

This list is much longer, and I'll take more time on it. The defense is number one. They were the number one reason for the loss. Again, it was the number one reason for the loss against the Chargers, the Bills, and it was yesterday against the Saints. It would have been the number one reason for a loss against the Giants and the Falcons if they didn't eke out close wins in the United. those two games. The front four, let me just say this to start, it's not the worst in the league.

And to be fair on the team's defensive pie chart of blame, it really doesn't deserve a big chunk of it. I don't know, 20% of it, the other 80% goes to the secondary, the linebackers, when there are linebackers on the field, the coaching. The defensive front four is probably the least responsible for the problems on defense. I'm not saying that they're playing great. I'm not saying it's a great defensive front right now compared to the real good defensive fronts in the league compared to what it was supposed to be. It's been really unimpressive outside of Payne Allen and Ionitis at times. But I just wanted to make sure that I'm clear that the front four isn't anywhere near as bad as the seven players that play behind it. You know, the bottom line with the

defensive front, it's not disruptive enough. It doesn't get enough pressure. I understand that. But the players that play behind the defensive front are really the major issue right now defensively. The back seven, the linebackers, and they don't play many of them right now. Cole Holcomb played every snap. Jamin Davis got just 12 snaps in the game yesterday. That is equal to 23% of the defensive snaps. I mean, they basically played a lot of 4-1-6, one linebacker in the game with 6 dbs. They played, you know, at times with two backers and 5 dBs. They have been in their sub-packages pretty much exclusively now. There is no belief in their linebacker. outside of Holcomb, there was belief in Bostic, even though you probably don't think there

should have been belief in Bostic. But right now, Jamin Davis's snap count of 13 out of 56 tells you a lot about where he is right now. David Mayo played some snaps. Callie Cudson, who we were told would get an opportunity, was only out there for three defensive snaps in the game. It's a talent issue, maybe. It's a coaching issue, perhaps. It might be a comprehension issue. I don't know specifically which of the three is most responsible. I do think right now the safeties are a major problem,

and that would be Landon Collins and Bobby McCain and Cameron Curl when he's back there, although I think Curl's played pretty well, and he's been in that Buffalo Nickel linebacker spot more often than not. how can you let a guy like Deontay Harris who's got lightning breakaway speed get even to the point where he's even with you? You know the old saying with a speed guy, if you're even, he's leaving. Landon Collins, what are you doing? He can't be the guy that is the last line of defense this coming Sunday against Kansas City. If he is for even one play, it is a major coaching malpractice situation.

He is really struggling. I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what the solution is. He ain't it. Put him in the box. Put him at linebacker at this point. He's having a bad season. He had a terrible day.

He also took a terrible angle on Camara's touchdown run. Listen to the difference yesterday between the two secondaries or the two past defenses, if you will, that played in the game. New Orleans yesterday had 12 passes defended in the game. That's a lot. By the way, Marshawn Lattimore, who was clearly the best player on the field yesterday, had six of them. He got the better of Terry McLaurin in the game yesterday. Two guys that are very familiar with one another, Ohio State guys. Latimore really got the best of Terry McLaren in that game yesterday. He had He was credited with six passes defended.

That is impressive in a game. Marshawn Lattimore is definitely, you know, on the short list of the best corners in the game. You know, they're banged up defensively right now. So, you know, they've been moved on here recently. Daniel Jones threw for 400 last week against this defense. my God was Latimore good. Twelve total passes defended by the New Orleans defense,

just four passes defended for Washington. Four. James Winston on 30 throws had four passes defended. The other incompletions were mostly on him. He wasn't very good in the game. You know, James Winston and the Saints pass offense was, as I talked about on Friday, really at a sync coming in. You know, Payton, Sean Payton, that is, didn't really show a belief in James Winston through the first four games.

Winston was barely even throwing the ball. They were running the ball much more than they were throwing it coming into the game. But for whatever reason and probably a very good reason, Sean Payton decided that Washington was the team to get right against. He turned Winston loose for the first time this year. The 30 attempts were seven more than the most he had in any game so far this year. 179 yards were his best. They weren't garbage end of the game trailing by three scores yards either. His 18.6 yards per actual completion, that's outrageous. The bomb to Lewis was a joke defensively, a perfect throw which Winston knew would be open when he saw Collins too far down

approaching the box area. He was like, that's it. This is going to be a touchdown. If I got the protection and he got the protection. The Hail Mary at the end of the first half was awful. Now let me just take a moment to talk about that play for a moment because landing Collins after the game made a comment that got blown up. He said, well, we were playing for the field goal. We were playing defense to stop the field goal attempt. Well, you know what? With eight seconds to go in the half and the ball at your 49 yard line, you know, defending the easy pitch and catch that get you into field goal range is fine by me. There's nothing more frustrating than at the end of the half when your defense with

enough time on the clock for two plays and eight seconds is plenty of time for two plays if you get the sideline to throw to, nothing's more frustrating than watching the easy pitch and catch 15-yarder and then the field goal kicker coming out. We would have been killing Del Rio for that strategy. I would have been. I think that, you know, thinking that New Orleans may in that situation try to throw a quick out to Marquez Callaway for 10 yards or 15 yards to send the kicker out there is not a crazy thought at the 49 yard line with eight seconds to go. So Del Rio did not want to, you know, go into their prevent, you know, their answer. anti-Hail-Merry defense and give up that easy pitch and catch.

Now, what happened on the play is they showed a bunch formation to the right side, which may have indicated to Washington, hey, you know what? They're going to try to throw a quick pitch and catch with maybe, you know, this slot guy here with the other two clearing out space. So we're going to defend that. But all of the receivers, including the loan receiver that was split out to the left, ran straight verts because it was a Hail Mary. call with eight seconds to go. And the defense didn't react well to it at all. And they chased and they

were behind. And then when the ball was thrown up into the end zone beautifully by James Winston after he created more time, nobody jumped. Nobody played the ball. Nobody even thought to play the ball. Calloway's down there posting up like a center on the block against a shorter guy. And it couldn't have been easier. I don't think I've ever seen a Hail Mary so easy. So I don't at I don't at I don't at all have a problem with them not in sort of Hail Mary prevent. You know, and for those that might say, well, She and, you know, give up the three, don't give up the seven. I don't want to give up anything. They're at the 49 yard line with eight seconds to go. You got a good chance to get out there with nothing. Force them to throw the ball over the middle of the field so you can tackle.

They've got no timeouts left. But it was clear that they did, you know, all the receivers were running for the end zone and Washington was in catch up. Now, some sort of, you know, deep cover two or cover three playing much deeper than normal with some outside, you know, coverage forcing a throw inside the field. I don't know. It may not have been the perfect way to play it, but the mindset of Del Rio not wanting to give up an easy 10 to 15 yard into field goal range, pitch and catch, because he's in anti-Hail Mary mode, is not, you know, it's not a terrible strategy. They just didn't execute the defense they were in once it became clear, oh, this is a Hail Mary play.

Anyway, I don't think, again, I don't think I've seen many Hail Marys that have ended so cleanly. Such a clean, easy catch, not contested, no defenders jumping, no defenders really competing for it. And it was a backbreaking end of half play. You know, you're 13, 13. You're more than in the game, even though your defense hasn't been great. Now all of a sudden it's 20 to 13. Here is Winston. Just going to take his shot, throwing towards the end zone. And it is cut. My goodness. touchdown. Winston's prayer is answered. It's Calloway.

Okay. The third down defense numerically improved, four for 11. They moved up from 32nd to 31st in the league on third down. But they got lucky. I mean, it should have been a 6th of 11 or maybe a 7 of 11 day. You know, the third and one sneak got stopped short. he may have had it actually and then you had

the James Miss wide open receivers on two other third downs it really didn't feel very good watching it that's one of those things where if you're a box score reader hey they weren't that bad on third down now watch the game they weren't very good on third down they got a little bit lucky on third down that number could have been a lot worse

it wasn't because they were getting off the field with great pressure and great pass defense. They were helped out. The touchdown passed to Calloway that made it 27 to 16 was a third and seven. And Calloway lines up in the slot and he just loses Jackson. I don't know if it's communication or it's incapable players, but you had a team that watched the film of this defense and said, this is the defense where we can get James and our receivers going a little

bit with the pass offense. And they did. Teams clearly are not afraid of throwing it against Washington. And by the way, I'll add this. New Orleans was averaging eight more runs than throws coming into the game. They threw it 30 times, ran it 23 times yesterday. So clearly they thought that was the way to do it. Secondly, this wasn't a quick game execution like Matt Ryan last week. There was lots of pure dropback. You know, the first five plays of the game were throws for New Orleans, a team that's been running it a lot more than they've been throwing it. But there wasn't a lot of quick game. There was no qualms Sean Payton had about dropping James back and letting him try to pick the Washington defense apart. And let's be truthful about James Winston's performance. It wasn't very good. You know, a really in-sync quarterback yesterday would have had a much bigger day.

He was 15 of 30. He missed a shitload out there yesterday. One other thing, actually a couple more things about the defense. I didn't think that their run defense was that great coming in, even though the numbers spoke to that. I didn't think the run defense was very good yesterday. I think the run defense numerically has been improved, but I'm not buying it just yet.

I just don't think teams have focused on running it because throwing it against them so easy. And then there was what I opened the show with, the disgusting final drive, 751 left in the game, 27 to 22, some momentum off that touchdown drive. They didn't make the two-point conversion. They're down five.

And now the defense has to get a stop and get the ball back with, you know, and give Heineke and that offensive chance to go win the game, you know. And it folded. It folded like a cheap suit. You know, they made a play last week on the screen to Mike Davis on that third down that gave him that last opportunity. In fact, ironically, landing Collins was a big part of that stop. But they couldn't get off the field. Again,

eight plays 75 yards, four minutes, 36 seconds, easy touchdown pass to Camara game over. You know, it was meek, it was soft, you know, it was all of those, you know, soft submissive terms that you use to describe a defense. that just didn't have any competitive fight, and certainly their execution was awful as well. That's the 2021 defense so far through five games. You know, it may not have felt like it in the moment at 27-22, and you may not have had any confidence that the defense could get off the field. I didn't.

But the offense had converted a fourth and 14 on the previous drive, and Heineke had made some big plays during the game, had made some bad plays, and maybe the game ends with, you know, another interception. but geez, give them a chance, defense. Give them a chance. By the way, the fourth and one decision by Sean Peyton to go for it from it from his own 34 was big balls. They make it and then it's a 32-yard pass to Troutman who had like two catches all year. Then Camaro rips off an 11-yard run and then Camerra's wide open for the 19-yard game-over checkmate touchdown pass. The defense leads my last.

list of things that I did not like from the game. It got an F for yesterday. Amazingly, one of the worst defenses in the league right now. You could easily make the case that it is the worst in the NFC. That is just an unbelievable development. Number two on the list of things that I did not like was the quarterback yesterday. Taylor Heineckee did not have a good game. But I'm going to preface what I'm going to say about his game with this. The things that I like about him, he did well again yesterday. These have been consistently on display each week. His mobility, his athleticism, his fearlessness, his ability really to extend plays in the pocket,

just outside the pocket, with his arm, with his legs. He's an athlete, man. He made five scrambles for 40 yards. Those are huge. He threatens a defense. I mean, we don't have to, again, come to the conclusion right now on what he is. I think he's probably a backup quarterback in this league, but no worse than that. I think there are 30, I think there are a lot of teams that we could do a lot worse than Taylor Heineke as a backup.

But what he does well, he does it a pretty high level well. And he's consistent on those things. With that said, his limitations are limitations that probably won't magically disappear with, like, more playing time. You know, he lacks NFL starter arm strength. That's been a given from the jump. His accuracy is inconsistent. I'm sorry for all of those of you who disagree, who tell me I'm insane about his accuracy and you quote his completion percentage as proof that he, He's very accurate. No, he's not accurate. Watch the games. You know, he's completing a high

percentage of passes. There are reasons he's completing a high percentage of passes. He's got really good playmakers. I think he's been scheme. I think they've schemed up a lot of play action where he's able to throw into big windows. But he was 20 and 41 yesterday. Don't cite his completion percentage as your primary argument against anybody that watches the games and says his accuracy is inconsistent. 20 and 41 yesterday, not all on him, bad field position from mid-second quarter on, you know, but mostly on him yesterday.

You know, he missed a lot of easy throws yesterday, a ton of easy throws. And his misses, like I've been saying, for months now, his misses tend to be high. Do you see the first third down throw of the game? He missed Carter by 10 feet above his head. Almost got intercepted. His misses are high.

Why? I think some of it is at least when he's in the pocket. He throws off his back foot. The ball sails on him. He doesn't have great arm strength. He doesn't finish the throw. I'm not going to sit here and try to be a quarterback guru. It's not what I am.

It's just fan observation, really. But his misses are high more often than not. and his accuracy is inconsistent. What's consistent is his mobility and his athleticism and his ability to escape in the pocket and his game in, game out, ability to make good plays. He hasn't gone one game without making a couple of really good plays. I mean, the Buffalo game, they were hard to find, but he made some good ones. You know, that third down throw to Logan Thomas, that Thomas fumbled on.

And then another third down throw to Thomas. He had plenty of good plays yesterday. But his limitations are reasonable, objective observations. He doesn't have NFL starter arm strength. Now, there have been guys that haven't had big arm strength that have been successful. His accuracy is inconsistent at best. He needs to see receivers open rather than more often than not throwing them open. I'm not saying that he doesn't throw with some anticipation, because I think he does on some plays, especially outside plays.

But he's laid on a lot, too. The plays in the game that, I mean, let's go through it real quickly. Okay, first drive, third and three, flushed right, overthrows a wide open, D'Andre Carter. Misses very high. Second drive of the game, second and goal, really nice job by him to extend the play, but he misses Daxie. Milne. You move to the third drive of the game. He throws a really good third and four completion to Seals Jones. That was a good play. By the way, that followed a great scramble on a second and 17 that set up the third and four. Good plays right there. Their fourth drive, you know, he makes that third and ten throw to Seals Jones, which got challenged, but it was upheld. The call on the field stood. That was a pretty good throw. I mean, Seals Jones either did make it, you know, both feet in or was just barely out, but it was a pretty good throw. Then came the second and seven interception to the DB

that was covering Samuel. That's a horrible decision. Just a terrible decision and a terrible underthrow. It's second and seven. This is where his fearlessness and his wanting to make a play on every play hurts him. It should have hurt him last week on first and 10 at the 17. I mean, maybe it doesn't end up being a disastrous play, but it was a miracle that it was a positive play. If you go to the second half, first drive of the second half, third and seven, there's a throw that sums up his limitations. He floats a ball to a McLorn, and it's late and it's behind him.

It's arm strength. It's inaccuracy. It's all those things wrapped up into one, and it falls incomplete. He had a throw to McKissick that was a major overthrow. The interception out of the end zone for Carter is a terrible, terrible throw. You had a really good throw to Humphreys on a first and ten. A missed to McKissick on a back foot throw on their fifth drive of the second half, where he threw off the back foot, but then, you know, he's able to, you know, find Carter on fourth and 14.

I mean, that's a big time throw. We'll talk about the fourth and 14 and the fourth and 10 when we get to the other things from the game. He had a great scramble for a 16-yard gain on the drive that, you know, got him to 27, 22. He makes plays. He also makes some bad plays. It's the same thing almost every week. In some games, the team pays for them, and in other games, the team doesn't because the opponent didn't make them pay.

I'm not going to bail on him right now. I think he might be the best that they have right now with the team that they have. But he's not capable with this defense right now of being asked to score 30 plus against every team they play. Not good defensive teams. He was a D-plus yesterday in the game.

I had him in an age. minus last week, but I told you it was close to being a C plus C minus. He got a little bit fortunate last week, but he also made a shitload of plays. Also on the list of things that I did not like from the game, they were two for five in the red zone. That's never good enough. The field position that they started with wasn't good enough, and the punter on the other team had a lot to do with that Gilligan or Killigan or whatever his name was. You know, the late second quarter punt that went out on the one yard line ended up resulting in the punt that gave it back to them with eight seconds that allowed for a Hail Mary. And then the second drive in the third quarter, the ball

went out on the two-yard line. Then the fourth drive in the second half, the ball went out on the two, and that ended up being, you know, the third down interception out of his own end zone. The field position in this game was really significant in the second half, really mid-second quarter on. It really played a significant role in the outcome of the game. game. All right. Lastly, I wanted to make a couple of other observations about the game. Number one is this, Scott Turner. There are things I like about what Turner is doing. There are things I don't love, but there's more that I like than don't like. Overall, and I know most of you probably disagree, but I think Turner's done a pretty good job this year. I didn't love the game plan or the play

calling in Buffalo. I thought they could have done more to alleviate the pressure, more to get Heineke off, which I think they've done in the last two games. But I don't know if the Buffalo game, if a great scheme or play calling day from Scott Turner would have made much of a difference anyway. But I like what he's done with Heineke the last two weeks. Tons of play action, giving him a chance to throw into more uncontested bigger windows. That's better for him. I love how he attacks and has attacked these last two defenses, because he's got a quarterback that prefers to attack. You know, they're on the same page with, let's go after these defenses.

Let's see what we can do. Let's really push them. Let's really stretch them. You know, he gets the ball into playmaker's hands in space. He uses his playmakers on screens, on shovels, on end-arounds, on fly-s. sweeps, whatever he can do to stretch a defense and space it out. I like what he's doing. I think he's making the most with a quarterback who's aggressive and can make plays, but also probably has the limitations that we talked about that Scott Turner even realizes.

I think that's one of the reasons you're seeing so much play action is because play action, even when you're not running the ball well, works. And it creates bigger windows for uncontested throws, especially with the receivers they have. Now, some of you may complain that that long drive, that 13 play long drive, where they ran it nine times and threw it four times, why didn't he come back to that? Well, field position had something to do with it. They started their next drive at the one-yard line. And, well, and you might say, well, that's when you really have to ground and pound it. I don't know about that. I don't mind them taking shots. I didn't have an issue really with much of Scott Turner. yesterday or this year for that matter, except the Buffalo game.

I think going back to last year, you realize that this is a guy that looks at what he has, looks at the opponent, and plans accordingly. They're going to have a big opportunity Sunday against a defense that is reeling as badly as Washington's defenses. And I think they'll be on the attack Sunday. You know, if you want to say you want more balance, okay, they ran 74 plays. They dominated time of possession. it 33 times. Gibson got 20 carries, only had 60 yards rushing. Heineke was the biggest

producer, eight yards per scramble. You know, Curtis Samuel had a rush. DeAndre Carter had a rush. I just, again, I'm okay with the job Scott Turner's doing. And I'll take it a step further. At the very least, Scott Turner is going to be a long time OC in this league, if not more than that. Two situations that I wanted to comment on. The fourth and ten decision to go for it in the first half and the fourth and fourteen in the second half that they went for. I'll get to both of those and we'll go around the league a little bit and talk about the crazy college weekend as well, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Had no issue whatsoever with the fourth and 14 decision to go for.

You're down 11. You can't put your defense back out under the field down 11 with 10 minutes to go. The next time you see it, you're going to be down 18. So you have to go for that 4th and 14. The only chance you have is to convert their score and put some game pressure on New Orleans in either a 5-point game or a 3-point game.

They converted it. Good for them. The 4th and 10 decision in the first half was a little bit different. It's more debatable. It's a 13-13 game. There is roughly, there are four minutes and change left at the New Orleans 35-yard line.

I hate that area for a punt, clearly. Rivera talked about some crosswind being an issue for Hopkins from 52 or 53 yards out. He thought their best chance was to convert a fourth and 10. And they did, you know, complete a fourth and 10 to Terry McLorn. He just wasn't able to get both feet in bounds. I actually thought, and it was versus the blitz, that McClorn, went to the right guy and maybe with a little more pace and arm strength, the ball gets there quicker and McCorn gets both feet in. But, you know, it was a close play. It was an opportunity to

convert. It was an opportunity again to, you know, not put your defense back out under the field in either bad field position or after a field goal and only being up three. I didn't have any issue with them going for the fourth and ten there either. I would not have punted the ball. If anything, you put your offense out there, you try to draw on off sides and to create a fourth and five easier field goal or a fourth and five easier go-for it situation. But I didn't have a problem with either of the fourth downs. I thought by far in a way, the biggest risk fourth down

was the New Orleans fourth and won from their own 34-yard line. I mean, that's the biggest risk fourth-in-one. of the day. It speaks to a little bit, you know, that Sean Payton didn't want to give Washington's offense the ball back. And, you know, I'm sitting here in these fourth down conversations, essentially saying that I have some faith in the offense, well, relative to the defense, of course, but I also do think that they are a capable team with the players they have on the field of making some of these difficult fourth downs. They have the, they have the capability of driving the ball and scoring points in games. You know, that's what they've been doing for the

most part. So regardless of what you think of Taylor Heineke, and, you know, again, I would lean towards, he's a backup. I think definitely he's earned a backup role for a team or several teams over the next several years of his career. I would bet against him being a week-in, week-out, you know, starter that anybody invests significant money into, but he's capable of making plays. So I didn't have a problem with the fourth down decisions. And on some level, I understand Sean Payton's decision

from his own 34-yard line on a fourth and one. You know, the other part of it, too, is that, you know, he's operating against this defense that just hasn't really been consistent on getting anybody off the field. He also had a big-ass quarterback who bowled his way to a, you know, a yard, nearly two yards to pick up the first down. Anyway, both of those fourth downs didn't have an issue with the Sean Payton thing. If he doesn't get that, he's put his team into a position to actually lose the game or certainly give up the lead in the game. But that make was all part

of that eight-play 75-yard drive that ate up the clock and closed out the game on your Washington football team. I've got one more comment about Taylor Heineke, which I will make here momentarily. But first, I just want to remind everybody to subscribe. It doesn't cost you a thing. Also, rate us and review us on Apple, Spotify, and Google, if you haven't already. Rate us five stars. If you don't mind, give us a one to two sentence review. If you've got time, it really helps us out. Also, I want to mention that when donations got a really good sale going on right now, you can buy to, get too free. with no limit and pay no interest for 24 months.

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I've used them, friends and family members, lots of listeners. it always goes well. It just always does. There's no risk to pick up the phone and call them at 86690 Nation or go to window nation.com if you've been thinking about new windows, whether it's to save big on winter energy bills or to enhance the look of your home, to increase the look of your home from the curb. They'll take good care of you. You mentioned my name and those guys will take really good care of you. And you can get a free estimate and shop it if you want. But I don't think you'll get a better deal. 86690 Nation or windownation.com. So my last comment about Taylor Heineke, because I don't think I mentioned this, is that he had several balls knocked down at the line of scrimmage yesterday, or not necessarily just at the line of scrimmage.

A lot of balls got deflected at or around the line of scrimmage, let's call it. I think that one of the, I'm not going to sit here in quarterback guru this thing. I don't think it's size, although it could be. I think it's eyes. I think the next step in his development, especially given that he doesn't have significant arm strength where he can throw the ball with great velocity and great accuracy into tight windows. he's got to really manipulate the defense with his eyes. And I think right now he's a little bit too easy to read,

especially by these better defenses. He had that first pass of the game knocked down. There were two or three others knocked down during the course of the game, which also leads me to this. Defensively, last year, with sweat, with young, with pain, how many deflected balls at the line of scrimmage did the defense get last year? A lot. None it would seem like this year. It just doesn't seem like there are many at all. They're playing much better quarterbacks, of course. And in yesterday's case, they're playing a big old dude at quarterback.

But anyway, just a couple of other observations from the game. All right, let's go around the NFL. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. third and five and that is intercepted. Micah Hyde's going to take it to the end zone. Off the hands of Tyreek Hill and into the hands of Micah Hyde for a Buffalo touchdown. Are the bills the best team in the NFL? They would appear to be the best team in the AFC right now. They completely dismantled the Kansas City Chiefs last night at Arrowhead.

38 to 20. The bills are on a roll. Remember just two weeks ago before the Washington game, they were out of sync offensively. Well, they got it together. They got right against the Washington defense and they haven't looked back. 43, 40, and 38 are their point totals from the last three games. They did have a pick six in the game last night. Josh Allen's spectacular. Last night in the game, Josh Allen completed 15 passes for 315 yards in the game and three touchdowns. You're talking about a guy that completed 15 balls for 315 yards. That's 21 yards per completion. That's unbelievable. He also rushed for 59. He's playing at a ridiculous level right now. And Kansas City's got some issues. They've got, you know, if not the worst defense

football the second worst to Washington. They keep giving up big point totals. I mean, the Chiefs right now have given up 30 or more in four straight games. And the game against Cleveland to open up the year, they really were, you know, dead to write in week one. They gave up 29. Then they gave up 36 to the Ravens, 30 to the Chargers, 30 to the Eagles in a win, and 38 yesterday.

It may be the reason they are only a six-point favorite at Washington, because I think the books expect Washington to score. Buffalo with a big win to get to four and one. If you're wondering about the updated odds, Buffalo and Casey pretty much the same right now. Casey's two and three, but they still have really good odds to win the AFC championship. Buffalo is right around plus 250.

The chiefs are right around plus 240, depending on where you look. I'm looking at my bookie right now. So they're co-favorites in the AFC. The Super Bowl odds have Buffalo right now as the third pick behind Kansas City and Tampa. Those are updated. So the books still believe that Kansas City is a Super Bowl contender, but the bills are inching up. Just remember, if the bills end up with the best record in the AFC and you've got to go through Buffalo in January to get to the Super Bowl, that could be a problem with that defense.

I think they are very well-coached. I was also looking at this last night. They play at Tennessee this coming weekend. Then they have games against the Dolphins, Jacksonville, the Jets, and the Colts. They've got a chance to really run this record up. They've got a couple of late-season games that are really interesting. When I say late at December 6th game, I'm sorry, a November 25th game against the Saints, which I think is a Thanksgiving night game.

I think the Thanksgiving night game is Buffalo Saints. They have a game against the Bucks on December 12th. And they play the Panthers, who I think are pretty good defensively in December as well. Buffalo might be the best team in the NFL. I think right now they're the best team in the AFC. What about the best team in the NFC? Extra men on the rush. Thiscount airs it out.

Land, got it. Touchdown, Calvarez. Yesterday the Giants lost in order. Saquan Barkley to an ankle injury, Daniel Jones to a concussion, and Kenny Ghaladay. They're not going to win any games with their three best offensive players being out. It was a 10-10 game at one point late into the second quarter. Dallas is really explosive right now.

You know, this is not one of those years where I think we can really be skeptical about, you know, the cowboy fans thinking their team is capable of really doing some damage this year, because I kind of agree with them. They've got the quarterback. They've got the balance with great receivers and a great running back situation with Elliott and Pollard. Elliot went over 100 yards again. They're the second leading rush offense in the league. That comes after not even trying in week one against Tampa. Right now, Zeke Elliott's averaging 5.3 yards per carry in that offense. He got hit a little bit yesterday, too. Tony Pollard meantime, give him another 75 yards on 14 carries. He's averaging 6.4 yards per carry. They've got the receivers that are

just absolutely uncheckable. Offensively, I don't know if there's anybody in the NFC as good as Dallas right now. Obviously, you would look at Tampa as a possibility. You'd look at the Rams, I guess. I don't know about Arizona. The Cowboys, though, defensively are a completely different team with Dan Quinn, and Trayvon Diggs has six interceptions, six in five games. Stefan's little brother. The Cowboys are four and one. They get the Patriots this weekend in the big CBS double header game in Foxborough, and then they go to Minnesota. So they've had this stretch of three home games in a row where they've scored 41, 36, and 44. Now they get two rows. games against the Pats, which will have a hard time, I think, matching them offensively,

and then they get the Vikings on Halloween night. So you're going to get a big dose of the Cowboys coming up in their next two games on national TV. They are four and one, and really off to the races. I mean, right now, and I'll pull up the odds for the NFC East, they've got to be just, as of this morning, a massive favorite to win the division. They're minus 400 on my bookie. Washington and Philadelphia both tied at plus 700 to finish second. So, yeah, they are prohibited favorites now to win the NFC East, as they should be.

As they should be. And as far as the NFC championship odds, let's see where the Cowboys are on the NFC championship odds. Right now, Tampa, the Rams, and the Packers. are all ahead of the Cowboys with the Cardinals and Cowboys pretty much sitting there with this same plus 650 plus 650 odds. But Tampa is still the favorite, the Rams, the second favorite, the Packers, the third favorite. That leads me to a couple more games, including the Packers, who survived Cincinnati yesterday. Cincinnati was a smell test pick plus the three, so we pushed on that one. They certainly

had a chance to win the game. But how about this? In the last two minutes and 15 seconds of regulation into overtime. Five field goals were missed. Three by Mason Crosby, two by Cincinnati's kicker McPherson, before Crosby drilled a 49-yarder with 155 left in overtime to win it for Green Bay. 25 to 22. One of the wildest games, some of those field goals were short ones too. Crosby missed, I think, a 36-yarder and a 40-yarder. He missed a field goal at the beginning of overtime that was 40 yards. I mean, this is a guy. And then they sent them back out there for a 49 yard or on fourth and inches. I thought they were going to go for it in that spot and try to score a touchdown instead of settling for a field goal.

An incredible ending to that game. The Packers survive. I think the Bengals are pretty good right now. You know, Joe Burrow had a throat contusion injury. You know who's played well for them yesterday and has had some good moments since leaving Washington for them? It's Samajai Pyrine. Yesterday, 59 yards rushing 24, catching it with a touchdown. The Bengals fall to 3 and 2 on the year,

and the Packers improved a 4-1 in a game that they could have easily lost. And right now, they actually play the Bears this Sunday in Chicago for first place because the Bears went out to Vegas and beat the Raiders in the whole aftermath of the John Gruden to Bruce Allen email scan, where Gruden said some highly offensive, made some highly offensive remarks in an email, talking about the commissioner and the lockout back in 2011 when he was a Monday night football broadcaster. And the Raiders laid an egg.

The Bears were a smell test pick in the game yesterday. And I talked about the bears from the beginning. Now, this was a game that was quarterbacked by primarily Justin Fields. He went 12 of 20 for 11 yards. but I talked about that opener against the Rams, and I said, I don't think that they are going to suck. Now, that was with Andy Dalton, and things got, you know, kind of sideways there

against the Browns a couple of weeks ago, but the rounds are really good. They're two losses, the Bears, two losses, are to the Rams and the Browns. They've got wins over the Bengals, lions, and now the Raiders on the road. And they are, after, you know, Matt Nagy was the odds-on-favor to be the first coach fired,

they have now won two. Two in a row. They're three and two, and they've got a game for first place in the NFC North Sunday at home against the Packers. The game of the day was probably, not probably, it was, the Cleveland Chargers game. This was a crazy game that went back and forth. And I, you know, this is the NFL week to week. I thought the Cleveland defense was just dominant. In their previous games, they basically had completely shut down the Bears and the Vikings. and the Texans, okay, not, you know, juggernaut teams.

The Vikings, though, super capable offensively. And the Chargers and Justin Herbert scored 47 points against them. 47. And by the way, that wasn't with like turnovers setting up a short field. Cleveland didn't have one turnover in the game. The Chargers rolled up 493 yards of offense and 47 points. the Browns rolled up 531 yards of offense and 42 points. The play of the game came late.

I know there was an interference that kept Justin Herbert on the field on a drive when they were down, I think 42 to 35. There was a very controversial pass interference penalty against Cleveland that people said was bad. There was also an unsportsman-like conduct issue as well against Cleveland. and the officiating apparently not, you know, favorable to Cleveland in this game, by the way, it's Smeltespec. But the play of the game came late. The Chargers who had a kicker missed two PATs in the game.

The guy Viscayano or whatever his name was, the guy that kicked here in week one for the first time, he missed two PATs yesterday. And they're down 42-41 late. And Austin Echler on a long run for a first down, slide. down instead of scoring at the Cleveland three yard line. So they are going to run this clock down to nothing and kick a 20-yard field goal and walk it off 44-42. But on the first down run at the Cleveland three-yard line, Austin Echler tries to burn some clock and go down, and the Cleveland defensive players pushed him, aided him, assisted him, forced him into the end zone. for the touchdown because they knew it was their only chance.

Crazy. Although that kicker having missed two PATs, I don't know, maybe take your shot with the kicker at that point. 47-42 chargers. Backbreaking Cleveland plus three loss in that game. The Cardinals remained undefeated, beating the 49ers 17 to 10. Not overly impressive.

Trey Lance gets his first start. Not a great game from Lance, although he really ran the hell out of the ball. 16 carries 89 yards. Kyler Murray, another touchdown, no picks in the game. But they couldn't really run it against San Francisco. This was super low scoring. It was 10-0.

It was 10-7 going into the fourth quarter. By the way, there's a player, Hopkins was great. But I really love Rondell Moore, and I really love Debo Samuel for San Francisco. A couple of players in that game that I really, really like. elsewhere. The Eagles got a win over the Panthers. I had them in the smell test. That was a fortunate winner. You know, the Eagles healthy are pretty good on defense. They're still missing some pieces. So is Carolina. They're really good in defense. Philadelphia rallied late, got, you know, a couple of turnovers from Carolina in the game. Sam Darnold threw three picks in the game.

And they win 21 to 18 to get to two and three. I thought, you know, the Eagles were going to be a decent team this year. I think when they are healthy, they're decent. They get that win 2118. How about the Buccaneers exploding in the fourth quarter again? They've done that a couple of times this year with lots of points in the fourth quarter. They blew out the dolphins, 45 to 17 in a game that was, you know, at one point, like 2417, I think, going into the fourth quarter, similar to like the Atlanta game when Atlanta was down three going into the fourth quarter. And then the Buccaneers just opened it up. Brady, five touchdown passes, 30 of 41 for 411 yards in the game.

The Vikings avoided disaster. You know, I think I've told you what a hard luck team they've been. They had a chance to win the opener at Cincinnati in overtime in field goal range. Dalvin Cook fumbled. They ended up losing in overtime. Week two against Arizona, their kicker missed a chance. ship shot 37-yarder at the gun. They lost by a point. And then yesterday, they got very conservative against the Lions, who, by the way, have shown some fight in these five losses. They had the

devastating loss to the Ravens on the 66-yard field goal that should have never happened. They led the Packers at Lambo at halftime. They rallied from 16-6 down. They scored a touchdown when the Vikings were just trying to run clock, and Alexander Madison fumbled, and Detroit recovered at the Minnesota 20-yard line. They scored a touchdown. They went for two. They got it. And then Minnesota with 37 seconds left, like they did against Arizona. Kirk hit a couple of big passes.

They got in field goal range, and this time their kicker drilled it. They beat the Lions 1917, and that avoids for the time being a disaster with a team that is better than their record. one other game that I wanted to mention. And I was kicking myself really for not giving this out as a smell test pick. But I really thought the Steelers shouldn't be favored by a point over Denver with as poorly as they've been playing. And Najee Harris against a really good defense had his breakout game, the rookie from Alabama, 23 carries, 122 yards, and a touchdown as the Steelers really controlled very. much the ball in this game, the clock in this game. They were excellent on third down, and Denver

after starting the season 3-0 is now dropped two in a row, including a game yesterday, quite honestly, where I would have thought they would have been the better team. The early game in London goes to Atlanta. I told you this before the game last week. They're capable in offense. Don't believe their numbers. Watch them play. And, you And yesterday, you finally got Kyle Pitts off. Nine catches, 119 yards, one touchdown for the fourth overall picking. Cordarell Patterson, amazing again. Seven catches for 60 yards, 14 carries for 54 yards in the game,

and also had a 30-yard kickoff return in the game. So the Falcons get to 2 and 3 with a win. They very easily could be 3 and 2, if not 4. last week's Washington comeback in that game. Tonight we get Indy and the Ravens. Baltimore is a seven-point favorite. Indies 1 and 3. I kind of like the Colts a little bit,

plus the number, but I'm not going to give it out. We will save the smell test picks for right now. We've got plenty of time to turn this year around. It really should have been a better weekend at 4-4-2 than it was. Cleveland certainly had a chance to cover. Penn State, you know, real quickly on Saturday. How about the A&M upset of Alabama?

Man, there was some clock management in that game with Nick Sabin that deserves massive criticism. We will get to that tomorrow, but A&M pulls off the stunner of the year, beating Alabama as an 18-point underdog, 41 to 38. Georgia becomes the new number one team. Iowa, the new number two team. They got a break, you know, they got a huge break in the game. Sean Clifford, the Penn State quarterback, got knocked out in the first half with a 17-3 lead.

There's no way Penn State loses that game if Clifford doesn't get hurt. But they got the win. 2320, Penn State's backup quarterback was terrible. The game of the day was the Red River, whatever they call it now. Red River shootout. Oklahoma rallies from 287 down with Gonzales. bag is Caleb Williams at quarterback. He came in through for 212, two touchdowns, had a huge 66-yard touchdown run, and it looks like Caleb Williams has overtaken the preseason or one of the

preseason Heisman trophy candidates, Spencer Rattler, as the quarterback for Oklahoma. They remain undefeated. What a football game that was. I mean, the whole Saturday was just crazy. The games that were going on. Michigan, Nebraska. That night was great. You had the Ole Miss Arkansas game, which was phenomenal. Arkansas went for the two, ended up losing 52 to 21. Keep an eye on Kentucky and Mark Stoops' team. They blew out LSU. Boy, he's had some good defenses, and now they are clicking offensively. They go to Georgia this week. Georgia's defense is ridiculous. It's just so good. 10 to 12 NFL players on that defense.

By the way, at some point this year, I think it was two weeks ago. Pro Football Focus didn't even have Georgia as a top 10 college defense. I don't know that for sure. Somebody told me that. Somebody reputable told me that. But a phenomenal college Saturday, of course, locally rough on the Terps.

They just, 66-17 to Ohio State. The bottom line is, really, they're just not at that level. They're nowhere near that level. You know, the best you can hope for right now is six to seven win seasons and some bowl games competing in the Big Ten East. They just are, you know, multiple notches below Ohio State and Penn State and Michigan and probably even Michigan State, even though they've beaten Michigan State and they've beaten some of those teams, but they're way behind Ohio State. Man, that was that was just impossible to get off the field. I don't. I don't. Did Ohio State punt in the game? They may have punted in the game, and if they did punt, it was probably more in the second half when they took their foot off the accelerator. 66-17, Maryland's now gotten beaten.

They've now been beaten, excuse me. 51-14 and 66-17, they get a much-needed buy week before they go to Minnesota. The next two games for the Terps are games they really have to win, at Minnesota and then at home against Indiana. These are the games that would get them to bowl eligibility. They do have Rutgers at the end of the year, but they've got a stretch of Penn State, Michigan State, and Michigan.

Number 7, number 10, and number 8 in order in November. By the way, Virginia Tech blew a lead, lost to Notre Dame, 32 to 29, in a wild game there. I told you Navy, I liked them plus the 13 and a half. they covered losing 3124 to SMU. Virginia had a late touchdown pass to beat Louisville with Brendan Armstrong, Armstrong throwing for like 487 yards in the game. But there you go.

I'm done for the day. Let me get this podcast out to all of you, and then Tommy will be with me tomorrow.