The Kevin Sheehan Show - Back to .500...Now What?

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Kevin and Thom today with a menu of excellence. On the menu...1) how is Kirk Cousins remembered here in Washington? 2) Thom's take on Taylor's comeback in Indy 3) Kevin convinces himself during the podcast that the Commanders are good enough to win Sunday against the Vikings and ultimately be a 9-8 playoff team. 4) the boys also talked World Series, Steve Nash fired, the Wizards, and more.  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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here from the son of DC80 on Apple Podcast reviews. Kevin does a great job of breaking down all things.

Redskins slash commanders. Him and Tom are genuinely funny. And when Kevin gets Tom worked up, it's a blast. It's also a great place to hear from Cooley, who is beloved. loved by all Redskins fans that saw him play. If we all somehow get the blessing of the Snyders getting kicked out of the ownership, I'm scared to think of what they will talk about if the organization gets remotely functional. Keep up the great work.

Thank you, son of DC80. Gave us five stars for all of you that haven't done it. If you could rate us and review us, wherever you can do it, especially on Apple. Five stars, if you don't mind. And a quick one to two sentence review is super. helpful. Yeah, Kooley was definitely a little bit battered from the weekend when he joined me on the podcast yesterday right before we went out and played golf in the rain. And for those of you that tweeted how we did, Kooley played well. I did not play that well. And he did win yesterday

in the match. I think I won on Thursday, but we had a good time. Tommy is with me. He's written another column with Skipper Dan mentioned, Skipper Dan the Sailing Man. Everybody says to me, Tommy's nicknames are great. One person did say, though, he's got such good arguments, and sometimes Skipper Dan, as part of the story, takes away from Tommy's credibility. He's gone overboard. You seem to think that nicknames are very important when you're talking about people of very high standing.

that when you're going after them with the written word or otherwise? It's a device. One thing, it's a device that Jimmy Breslin used. So if it was good enough for Jimmy Breslin, it's good enough for me. And it is to stick a pin in certain people. Remember when I used to call Robert Griffin the Third Super Bob? Yeah, Super Bob. You know?

Yeah. And people got upset with that as well. but if anyone needed a pen stuck in him, it was that guy. Okay. That guy's pretty good on TV. I know, but he's still so impressed with himself. It's unbelievable. But, no, the nicknames are not going away.

It does serve two purposes. It tends to deflate the importance of the people I'm writing about, especially someone who has told people he wants to be called Mr. Snyder. You know, this guy, of all people, deserves a nickname. And the other part is, I'd like using them. And that's really the only important part. Now, the skipper Dan, the sailing man is a more recent one. I forget, did you have one for Snyder before?

No, I did not. Okay. You know, some people had, you called them the belt buckle boy. Right. You know, I stayed away from that because it wasn't mine. Yeah. And I never called him anything. Yeah, I never called him anything until the yacht thing.

And then, you know, him sailing around on his yacht avoiding the House subcommittee. Right. So I picked her head on his yacht with his little captain's hat, you know, directing all his crew. And I said, this guy is Skipper Dan. Yeah, he's down there. Giver Dan the sailing man. Yeah, the actual captain of the ship said, hey, you want to steer the ship? and he put him down there with the fake steering wheel

and said, you just look straight out, Dwight. Keep us on the straight and narrow. Well, we'll get to your column. I do want to get to your thoughts about the game on Sunday as well. I have additional thoughts on the game on Sunday. I know yesterday was a little bit, you know, all over the place as a show. My apologies for that.

Some of you seem to think it wasn't as organized as usual. No, it never is with, Chris. Wow. But, you know, we've got all week. We've got, we're here all week, kids. But I wanted to start off by asking you the following. Because in a conversation this morning with a friend of mine after the show, and we were talking about something totally, totally not sports related, he said, well, who does Washington play this weekend? And I said, they play Minnesota. And he goes, oh, ha, ha. Oh, oh, Kirk Cousins coming back. So what are you going to do? I said, what do you mean? What am I going to do? He said, well, legitimately, who are you going to root for in the game?

Because I know you don't get upset when Washington loses anymore like you used to. And I said, I root for cousins. I have rooted for cousins. He's not the first former player of this team that I've rooted for. I remember very, very vividly rooting for a couple of people in particular. One was Mark Rippin when he left Washington. Another one was Gary Clark and Art Monk, but Gary Clark still had some life left in his career. And I really rooted for Brian Mitchell.

Now, I didn't root for Brian Mitchell when he faced Washington. I don't think I've ever told B Mitch this before. You know, I really loved him as a player. I think Brian Mitchell, I know I've said this before, and I think I've probably talked to B Mitch before about it. I think Brian was one of the best clutch players in the history of the organization. He, in every game that mattered,

playoff games, big game at the end of the year, Brian made big play after big play, whether it was on special teams, sometimes it was out of the backfield. Hell, in Richie Pettibone's first game as a head coach after Joe retired, Brian opened up that season on Monday night football in a big spot. Okay, as Washington and Dallas, the previous two Super Bowl champions opened on Monday night football, and Washington rolled. The Redskins blew out the Cowboys.

I think it was 35 to 16. and B Mitch, I think, rushed for like 125 yards. And it was like, here we go. We're just picking up where we left off. And of course, that season did not go well. But I really rooted for him in Philadelphia. In those playoff games, in those championship games, I wanted him to break a big one.

Because I always remember saying to my buddies, man, that was a big whiff letting him go. He is big time. And you know what? In Philadelphia, he did the same thing in some of those playoff games. He had a massive kickoff return against Tampa. I think it was in the NFC championship game. So long story short, obviously I was a big Kirk Cousins fan.

I have followed his career very much so in Minnesota, and I've rooted for him. But like is the case with Art or with, you know, Gary Clark or with Ripon, those are different circumstances because they weren't significant players for the organizations that they joined. Rippin started some games, but in the AFC with Cleveland and Indianapolis, be Mitch when he played for the Eagles against the Redskins. I was rooting for him to do well, but I was rooting for Washington to win the game.

I will tell you this, if they were one in six or one in seven or two and six, yeah, I think I would have been rooting for Minnesota because I want Kirk to do really well in the postseason. So I would want them to continue the path towards, you know, a one or a two seed, you know, somewhere in that vein. But what's best for me, as Tommy always says, is to root for me. And for me, it's better if Washington can win a couple of these games coming up and we can get beyond Thanksgiving with a chance at the postseason. Now, that's not my question. That was more of a tangent to get to this question because my buddy asked me, what kind of Kirk segments will you do this week? And I said, I don't know.

To be honest with you, I haven't really thought of it. but then I thought of one a little while ago. How will Kirk Cousins be remembered by Washington fans for his days in Washington? I'll ask you that question first. How do you think, maybe it's not how will he be remembered? How should he be remembered? No, how will he be remembered? It's better.

How will Kirk Cousins in his days in Washington be remembered? Are you done? You got all that out of your system? I did. Okay. I tell you what, I think what, how he'll be remembered in Washington, I know this doesn't make sense. Depends on how successful he is in Minnesota. In other words, if he continues to have this reputation, whether you think it's real or not, you know, deserved or not, as a guy who comes up small and big moments, then that will be what's accentuated here in Washington,

is his statistical, you know, buildup without any... prowess, yeah, without, yeah. Yes, okay. If he is successful in Minnesota and maybe takes him to the Super Bowl, then I think his perspective changes, even for his time in Washington then. I think if he is more successful personally, the rest of his NFL career, I think then his legacy in Washington gets inflated or gets raised to the proper place it should be. And when people look at the record books after he's retired and say, wow, this guy was good. Look at all the records he has here.

you know i think a lot of it still has still it still can be written his legacy in washington even though he's gone um okay you know it's it's interesting because i looked at this uh a couple of weeks ago because there was like some sort of conversation about is is anybody does anybody actually think that kirk cousins is in the midst of a hall of fame career i do not okay i do not i think i could he end up, could he end up changing that feeling that I have, that answer? Sure, he's 33 or 34 years old. It's very possible he's got another five years as a starting quarterback in this league. And if he has the success in the postseason, and it doesn't require winning a Super Bowl, but it requires winning lots of playoff games, you know, over the next four to five years,

he is statistically more likely than not when he's done going to have 50,000 career passing yards. He'll have well over 300 touchdowns. I mean, the numbers will be eye-popping when his career is over. And they're not, you know, as I hate to use the word lazy, but there's always been this incredibly inaccurate narrative about garbage yards. Nobody throws for that many yards or that many touchdowns in garbage time. In fact, the truth is in many of his big seasons, it's been the opposite of that. They've been in very tight games.

Minnesota's played more one-score games over the last year and a half than any team in NFL history. But anyway, he's got to have the postseason success before that would ever be a part of his conversation. But I know what you're saying. I would say this. I just think it's going to be incredibly split, incredibly polarizing. I think that people that think that he was a stat stuffing garbage yard couldn't come through in the clutch quarterback who has six franchise records because of the era that he played in, they're never going to change that thought no matter what he does in Minnesota. And I think people like me who appreciated the fact that, you know, A, he is the ultimate pro.

every single teammate, every single coach has always said that. There's nobody that prepares more and that is ready more than he is, that I will actually look at his years here as what should have been the beginning of a really nice opportunity. And if they had, you know, certainly I think if Sean had stayed as the head coach or if the Shanahan's had stayed and Kyle had turned, been given the head coach after Mike retired, we'd be talking about a completely different story. I think if the Shanahan's had stayed on and it turned to Cousins as their starting quarterback, Washington would have been a winning franchise more likely than not over the last several years.

But Shan, you said they can't win because of the owner. Well, that's the point is he wasn't going to allow that to happen. But I think here he's clearly by far the best quarterback of the Snyder era, you know, he was incredibly productive. I think the one game that will haunt him more than any other was they had a chance to go to the postseason two years in a row, which, by the way, during the Snyder era would have been, you know, really the greatest accomplishment.

Jay Gruden would have gotten credit for that. Cousins would have gotten credit for that if they had gone to the playoffs in 2015 and 2016. and they were a good enough team to be a playoff team. They were certainly a good enough offense in 2016. And in that final game on January 1st, I'll never forget it, we were there. You know, he threw the pick to what's his face, the guy that ended up playing Washington briefly with hyphenated last name. DRC, Dominic Roderce Cromartie.

He threw that intercept. with the game on the line down 13 to 10 with a chance to go to the postseason. And even though in that game, the entire team played very poorly, you know, the bottom line was he couldn't elevate them against a team that was totally vanilla playing for nothing had already clinched a playoff berth. And that game really hurts, I think, his time here. I think if they had gone to the playoffs that year for a second straight year, It would have been interesting because in 2016, they were a dynamic offense.

And really, that game should have never been a game to get into the postseason. Hopkins missed multiple big kicks during the course of that season. And they had the worst defense, third down defense in the history of modern era football. But other than that, I think it'll just be polarized. I think people who liked him when he was here will always understand and have a feeling that what he did was of substance and people who thought the opposite will never change their mind. I do think this, though, one more thing. As I said about Marty Schottenheimer being the single biggest mistake in the Snyder era, in the top 10 of biggest mistakes was not trading Kirk Cousins to

the 49ers following the 2017 season when the 49ers were willing to give up at minimum, at minimum, as Mike has told us, number two overall. Gruden has suggested it was multiple picks, including that number two pick overall. And that, you know, they had to know, I'm sorry, going into the 2017 season. They had to know once Sean left. He wasn't staying. He didn't want to be a part of this group here. And they never made him an offer that was bona fide enough for him to say yes to.

But that's what I think. Anyway, anything else to add to that? Here's a cousin stat that should speak a lot to what kind of player he is. And I don't think people give him credit for this. In six of the last seven seasons, he started and played in every single game. In this era, where quarterbacks get pummeled and get broken and never finish the season. He's played in 16 games.

Six of the last, actually, 20, 21. Tommy, he's never, once he started, he's never missed a game except for, at the end, there was a game in which they had already clinched a playoff berth, and they didn't play their starters in Minnesota at the end of the year. 2019.

2019. That's the only game he's never started in Minnesota. I mean, that's a remarkable. It is. he's played in a 132 games, started 132 games. No, he's playing 132 games, started 127. That's a remarkable stat. And that speaks to his character.

That speaks. People may accuse Kirk of a lot of things, but he's not the kind of guy who dumps the ball quick if he's about to get hit. Oh, he's taken, he is, yeah. Yeah, he's taken massive hits. Okay, no one's ever questioned that about them. So, look, I agree with you. Although I think you could argue maybe not here overall,

but the best quarterback that they've had in the past 10 years was probably Alex Smith. Oh, no. I wouldn't argue that. Yeah. Are you being serious? Yeah, over the – if you were the rank quarterbacks over their careers, I think most NFL experts right now. Over their careers.

My fault. Okay. Yes. I don't know. I think that's really, I think that's really, really close. And obviously, you know, Kirk's career isn't over. I mean, you know, the irony of bringing up Alex Smith is that, you know, people who couldn't stand Kirk called him the checkdown QB, you know, Captain Checkdown, when in fact,

that really wasn't him, but that was Alex Smith. I mean, PFF named their checkdown stat, the Alex Smith, you know, number. But, you know, Alex Smith, there were years he was an excellent quarterback. There's no doubt. There were years where he was an excellent quarterback. I also think, by the way, some people might say, well, maybe over a period of time, yes, but the RG32012 is the best season. I would say it was the most exciting season, and it certainly was the most. optimistic as a fan base we had ever been, or we had been about the quarterback situation

in a long time. But Kirk's 2016, when he threw for nearly 5,000 yards, with, you know, whatever the completion percentage was, let me pull it up. Because I think was that the year that he threw 67%. 67%. So when did he throw 70% in Washington? Was it 2015? Yeah, right. He threw 70% for 4,200 yards. it's true for 29 touchdown. Yeah. So the yardage record, I think that year, the average yards per game. I think the passer rating number, one of those two years, he holds the franchise record.

Whatever. 2016's the best offensive football team Washington's had since... Brad Johnson? Yeah, oh, since Brad Johnson's year. That's it. That's it. Since 1999. That was the best offensive year.

Unfortunately, it was not a complimentary football team. They had poor special teams and very poor defense. Because, you know, and that's where you get into the record being a quarterback stat. I just, I've never bought that before because they were 8, 7, and 1 in 2016. And with a bad defense, instead of a horrific defense, it would have won 11 games that year. With a kicker, they would have won 11, or 10 games that year. So that's tough to look at.

But I do think that's one of the questions this week with him. I also think, you know, I wonder if people have, if some people on some level, I think the people that didn't like them, they are praying. What am I getting at? I'm getting at this. The polarizing feeling of fans in Washington about Kirk Cousin's time there, carried over into Minnesota. Minnesota fans feel the exact same way about him.

They either think he is an incredibly underrated quarterback or massively overrated. And I do think ultimately the reason he's become a polarizing player is the contract. Because one thing we can all agree on, he excelled on the negotiating of contract situations. because nobody, nobody created what Kirk did vis-a-vis the franchise tag in Washington, leveraging it into what turned out to be the first totally guaranteed contract in the history of the game. So he has done that very well. But I think that polarizing feeling, it's weird, but I think the people that don't like him are praying that he doesn't have postseason success. And those of us that have always liked them, really what's left is,

postseason success. He won a playoff game a couple of years ago in overtime, driving them in the Super Dome to beat the Saints. But they've got to win some playoff games, and he's got to be on the big stage, the big, January stage for people to really, even those of us that really like them, to really feel differently. Because I still don't consider Kirk to be an elite quarterback. I just think he's been a really good quarterback for, you know, for his

career so far, which, believe it or not, I mean, now, you know, I'm looking at his pro football reference page now. I mean, he's 34 years old. Jesus, do you remember the argument we got in when they drafted him after RG3? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I still think I was right in my premise, and my premise was at the time, was, I think RG3, your number one draft pick, saw drafting another quarterback in the same class who was, he probably saw as an equal, as a peer, as opposed to a fifth round pick from from bum screw state or something like that. You know, people knew who Kirk Cousins was. Okay.

It still was a fourth rounder. Yes. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't what Dallas did, you know, when they drafted Akeman and then drafted, you know, Steve Walsh. Yeah. Yeah. No, it wasn't. It wasn't that.

But, I mean, I think it held it. If you had a normal, even a normal quarterback, it would have under, I think it would have undermined the confidence in him. Now, RG3 turned out not to be a normal quarterback. So, and it ultimately, it turned out to be the right move. The results proved right. Yeah, I think my, my, my, my, my, general thought today is what it was in 2012 when we were on the air when it happened and it sparked

quite the debate between the two of us because you were outraged that they would do this. You thought it was stupid. And I said, look at this league. You have to have two. You have to have two. Also, if you recall, I had in one of our bold prediction, you heard it here first segments, a year earlier predicted that Kirk Cousins would get drafted by Washington. But anyway, yeah. Any more Kirk talk? I want to get to the game from Sunday, get your thoughts, and I had some additional thoughts on the game as well. No, go right ahead. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.com, mybooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they will match your deposit dollar for dollar all the way up to $1,000. Washington now a three and a half point dog Sunday, Minnesota. I do see that early on from some information I got last night, the public is playing and backing Minnesota in this game. They were doing that also last week against Arizona, but Washington, a three and a half point dog. The total on the game is 43 at my bookie. And,

you know, I think that's some respect, you know, a four and four team against a six and one team. Actually, you know, the more I think about it, I don't think the line's that far off. I saw the look-ahead line a week ago before they had even beaten Green Bay, and I think it was like going to be four or four-and-a-half. So it wasn't significantly different. Last night, Cleveland was a smell test pick for me, and man, did they run Cincinnati out of the building last night? Look at Cincinnati without Jamar Chase. I do think Jamar Chase is the best receiver in the NFL, and they missed him dearly last night. Smeltest Tommy, by the way, eight and four. over the weekend, including last night.

Eight and five, if you include the Thursday game, which you have to do. It's four winning weeks or push weeks out of the last five. The problem was the losing week was a big time losing week. Go to MyBooky, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Even if you have a place where you're betting, you should have a second place. You can comparison shop on point spreads, on pricing. My bookie's got everything figured out. Seriously, the lines are tight.

The pricing is great. you shouldn't be paying any more than minus 110 on a lost straight bet, whether it's a side or a total. These places that are charging you minus 125, minus 1.30, minus 135. Don't do that. You're way overpaying. Mybooky.com, mybooky.ag.ag. So today, by the way, is the trade deadline in the NFL. I saw Schefter tweet something out earlier.

The trade deadline in the NFL has really changed, you know, over the last decade. If you go back to 2012, in fact, Tommy, somebody like you, who, you know, has reported on and written about the baseball trade deadline so many times over the course of your career, that's always been an exciting time when it comes to a trade deadline. The NFL, nobody until a few years ago, even knew, even knew that there was an NFL. trade deadline. Shefter reported or tweeted out earlier. In 2012, there were two trades during deadline week. One in 2013, three in 2014, one in 2015. So literally in the, from 2012 to 2015, there were a total of seven NFL trades over four years. And then it started to change. In 2016, there were four. And then there were seven, seven, eight, nine in 2020, five. Five. in 2021 and five already here in 2022. So the NFL trade deadline has become a bigger deal.

I don't think Washington will trade anybody. I read the reports about teams being interested in Duran Payne. They're going to go for it right now. They're four and four. They're not trading Duran Payne, even though more likely than not, he'll probably walk at the end of the year and sign a big deal with somebody else. And there was a report on Friday about Gibson teams reaching out for Gibson. I love Gibson. More on him coming up in a second. There is a report from Jeremy Fowler that Washington is going to release William Jackson today if there's no trade partner for him. I can't imagine that there is going to be anybody interested in trading for a guy who hasn't played who's coming off a back injury and still has, you know, time left on a $40 million deal that he signed in 2021.

I think Washington's going to have to cut him today, and that'll be the end of the William Jackson experiment here in Washington. And there are teams out there. There are certainly some teams, some man teams that might be interested in him. But the trade deadline has become a bigger deal in football in recent years. Yes, it has. You had the big trade with the Ravens. Right. Yesterday, got Roquan Smith from the Bears.

That's a huge trade for them. Second and a fifth rounder. I mean, they're going to have to pay him. Understood. I don't know why Chicago wouldn't pay him. He's one of the best in the game. And all of the analytic stuff about the minimization of the linebacker position, just give me really, really good football players to put on any side of the ball.

Roquon Smith is one of those. So real quickly, before you get it, to, I want to hear what your reaction was to the game on Sunday. I want to just mention that, you know, I know we went through sort of the recap yesterday quickly. The one thing that I wanted to emphasize a little bit more after very early this morning watching, you know, some of the stuff from the game again, John Allen was dominant in the football game. He's having such a good season. This is his best season. He's turned into an absolute, dominant defensive tackle. And I'm so happy about that because he truly is one of the, knock on wood,

one of the normal guys, one of the mature guys, maybe as mature as anybody they've had in their locker room in a long time. And on the flip side, Terry McCorn is the same way. And then I also wanted to mention, and I know I did this yesterday, but I think Antonio Gibson is so, so important to whether or not they're going to be fighting, in week 16, 17, and 18 for the seven spot in the NFC playoffs. I love the fact that he got 22 snaps and Robinson Jr. got 15. By the way, McKissick got 22, that he got more touches this week. I know part of it, you know, I think Scott Turner will talk about on Thursday. They had a stout front.

We didn't think we could run the ball super successfully between the tackles, and we wanted to get Antonio out in space. Antonio out in space is awesome. He's great. Antonio in between the tackles is, pretty damn good too. And let's not forget that some of his biggest games as a Washington player in these first two and a half seasons have been games in which he wore people down by carry number 22 or 23 in the fourth quarter. Go back and look at the two Dallas games, his rookie year. Look at last year during the four-game win streak, how many touches he got in those games.

I think Antonio Gibson, you know, I suggested that if they don't really love them, they should trade him because he would bring back some value. But he's the guy that to me is a top five player on this team, if not a top three talent on this team. But to me, he stood out even more. He took a pass on that field goal drive when they were down 16 to 7. And the acceleration on the sideline, he stepped out of bounds, barely stepped out of bounds. for a guy that's 6-2 and 225. That's what people don't understand about Gibson. I think sometimes you don't think he's a big strong back.

He's 6-2-2-25. He may not be Derek Henry. Okay, I don't know that anybody is. But Gibson's a big dude that can really fly. I love Antonio Gibson right now. I hope he doesn't fumble three times in the game on Sunday or once, you know, like three times over the next five games. because, of course, that was, you know, a big problem. All right, what did you think of the game?

Well, again, you know, I thought that it was a game that they were on the way to losing until the quarterback decided to take it in his own hands and said, we're not losing this game. We're not losing this game. That's basically the way he played. We're not going to lose this game. I mean, he was 12 for 14 for 151 yards on the final quarter. 2 drives.

160. 160 yards. 120. Yeah. 160? Yeah. 100. Okay.

Uh, and that's, that was, that was, that was him. Okay. I mean, people say, like, even, even the, even the touchdown pass. You know, it's amazing now, you know, there are people who had, who had, you know, bought condos in the Carson Wentz development, who are now, who are seeing those values dropped dramatically. and they're so upset about it that they want to find anything they can wrong with the Taylor Hineke development and the condos that are being sold over there. So they basically, they rip the touchdown pass as saying he just threw it up there,

and he was lucky he didn't get hit. It wasn't a touchdown pass, the pass to McClorn, but I know it. We all know the play you're talking about, yeah. Right. And if you, if you're just looking at that, you're not looking at how he moved around on that play to get open to throw that ball in the first place. He was all over the place, avoiding the rush there, and with his eyes downfield, looking for a place to throw it. Okay, I mean, it was a Taylor Heineke win.

I mean, you know, Terry McClure had a lot to do with it, but Taylor Heineke gets Terry McClure in the ball. Anything else on the Taylor Hineke's condo complex? No, that's it? I don't disagree with you. I mean, I said as much yesterday. You know, you're going to have to bear with me on this because I know how much you hate golf. But Cooley had the perfect analogy for Taylor Hineke yesterday for people who play golf and who gamble when playing golf. And he said, he said, Taylor Hineke.

He's never going to shoot like a 72, like a legitimate, you know, unbelievable round of golf. But if you need a par net birdie on 17 and 18 with big money on the line, that's when he's going to have a great hole or two. And there's no doubt that that's who he is. Because the first three in a third quarters were again like last, not like last week's first half. Last week's first half was losing football, and they got lucky that they were somehow in the game after he threw the ball to the other team five times and coughed up a fumble with a tic-tac call, which, by the way, is being called this year, and had it returned for a touchdown. You know, those kinds of throws and those kinds of plays more often than not are going to lose you games. But he bounced right back off of it and had an incredible second half.

The first three in a third quarters on Sunday weren't very impressive. And when he threw that pick, just like last week at halftime, it was all about can we put Sam Howlin? And yet, the thing that I've loved about him from the beginning, I don't love him as the quarterback of the future, as a starting quarterback in the NFL, okay? My mind is not changed on that. Okay, people, all right, there's nuance to this. What I've said right from the jump is what I love about him is he is a guy that has a short memory. He's a badass, baller, competitor, gamer. As I said yesterday, using an old person's term, he's got moxie.

He's had that since the beginning. And it's almost as if when he makes a big error, it's like, yeah, really? You guys want Sam Hal? will wait until you see this. And he was incredible on those final two drives. In fact, I would say that those two drives down to scores were really for him probably his moment so far in Washington, the most impressive moment.

He's had a couple of them. People tried to act. But when I refer to him on Twitter on Sunday as creating magic over those final two drives, I mean, there were so many people that just, And they're the people. I don't think they're the get on board or get out Carson once people because, God, I got that all offseason. Really, Sheehan, you don't like the trade.

Get on board or get the fuck out. Move to Minnesota. I just think it's people who, you know, whether it was, whether they liked Carson once or not, don't believe in Heineke is the long-term answer. I don't either. But it doesn't mean that he didn't create magic on those final two drives. He did. And for a lot of the people that reached out and said, that's ridiculous. What are you talking about?

I mean, he threw the ball, like you said, he threw the ball straight up into the air and Terry McCormick. No, no, no, no, no. The fourth and one on the final drive is vintage Heinecke. Vintage He totally keeps the game alive on a play where Wentz and a lot of quarterbacks would have been sacked game over. And the way he escaped was brilliant with quick feet, with vision. and then doesn't panic and try to run for it,

and he throws to Curtis Samuel for the first down. That's the play of the game, Tommy. There's no other play. None of the other plays happen if he doesn't convert on that fourth down, just like on the previous drive on fourth and six. He may have made one of his best throws of the day to Curtis Samuel. But I think, you know, this isn't the first time he's done this. He did it last week on third and nine to ice the game against the Packers.

You know, he did it, you know, last. year in that final drive against the Bucks, they were up three, but he made some big plays. He did it against the Giants on Thursday night football. So there is an element of Taylor Heineke that you just have to acknowledge. You know, you can say whatever you want about what you think of him as an overall quarterback, but you have to acknowledge that he does not get rattled in the big spots. In fact, he seems to be at his best in the big spots and the important spots. And there's something incredibly endearing about that,

especially when you consider him to be a massively overachieving guy, like a massive underdog guy. It's not that he went out there and didn't shit himself for four quarters. And, oh, wow, you know, he's not very good. But look, he was 20 of 29 and had a touchdown. And, you know, they hung in there. No, no, no, no. With the game on the line in the fourth quarter down, two scores with no sign of life at any point during the football game, really.

Yeah. He strapped the team to his back and made play after play after play. Now, the throw to McLaren, it's probably not the best decision. But I didn't have a problem with it because I said yesterday to Cooley, look, they're at the 34-yard line. They need a touchdown, not a field goal. Yeah, there's more time in the game and they've got two timeouts and maybe you don't take that shot one-on-one coverage against a really good corner where it's probably 50-50. Cooley, you know, after watching the film said that's a 50% interception ball, 50% Terry comes down with it. I think there's some percentage in there for an incompletion because, you know, if they fight each other and it goes to the ground.

Logan Paulson this morning on radio said essentially the same thing. It was not a good decision at all. But if I'm going to take that risk, which he likes to do, you're not going to coach that risk-taking part out of him, then you do it with McLaren. You do it with Terry and off-sched-man-to-man. Now, his arms friend heard him on that one. Yeah. McClorin knows that.

Yeah. McClorn knows that. Right. Okay. Look, I think he's better that the guy we're going to talk about, even though the guy we're going to talk about took a team who was Super Bowl. And you could argue the same guy, but he's got a lot of Rex Grossman in him. You know?

He's got a lot of Rex in him. Yes. Receivers loved Rex. Oh, my God. They loved him. His teammates loved him. Yes. And everything you said about him in terms of what he does, this is what coaches, if you would let a coach

speak about the kind of football player they love. It's Taylor Heineke. I mean, this is the ideal player for a coach. This is why I wrote, it makes more sense than ever in my column, that Ron Rivera was not the guy who wanted Carson Went. He may went along with it. But, I mean, Carson Went, in a way, is the opposite of everything Taylor Heineke is,

except for including the big arm. He has one. Taylor He doesn't. I think the biggest thing in watching Carson once this year, just to be fair, I didn't like the trade. I didn't want necessarily that, but they had to make a move. I mean, remember, this was a strange offseason with the new branding and everything else. It wasn't a normal offseason, not that any of their off seasons are ever normal.

I think what was the biggest, the biggest. surprised to be me about Carson Wentz this year in watching him was his incredible diminished mobility. You know, the injuries over the years have essentially made him a much less mobile quarterback than he was when he played at a high level. That was a big part. A big part of his game was escapability and playing off schedule. Early in Philadelphia, he was unbelievable at it. And so that was so diminished. You know what, though? You know what, though, Tommy?

He was more of that guy last year in Indianapolis. He had some big plays off schedule, some big runs off schedule. I mean, I'm pulling up his numbers right now because I am interested to see what his rushing numbers were. I know I've looked these up before. But, you know, he played some... Hold on for a second. last year. So last year in Indy, you know, he had 215 rushing yards on the season.

Okay, just as a comparison, his 2017 season was shortened. His rookie year was 150 yards. The other years he played all 16 games, and there's only one other season other than his rookie season was 2019. He's 243 yards. He only had 79 yards rushing at this point through six games. So it was going to be less. But it wasn't even the rushing yards.

Rushing yards isn't the way to judge it. It is whether or not he's actually has the ability to escape and create. And he didn't. And then what made it worse is that he's a guy that feels the pressure. And you saw that. And they had a terrible offensive line in front of him. So does Taylor. He's got it too.

But he can make it, you know, less important because he's so good at escaping and Wentz wasn't. Bottom line is that fourth and one on the final drive? There's no chance that the game doesn't end right there. The game ends right there with Carson Wentz at quarterback and they lose 16 to 10, or 19 to 10. They would have kicked a field goal maybe. And the play that Taylor Heineke made was great. But I still do not think that they have their long-term quarterback. I don't think you're going to ever contend for anything big. And I do think, you know, he's started two games. We've got games coming in which the calls for Sam Hal are going to be during the game and after the game as well. We've had him during the game in his first two starts and then it's gotten really quiet at the end of the

game or late in the game. But I think some of those games are coming. But I'll tell you this, Tommy, I don't think it's this week. I've watched Minnesota a little bit this year. They're not very, they're not that good on defense. In fact, it'll be the easiest, defensive team he's faced. Green Bay's better defensively and Indies better defensively than Minnesota. So I think there's a chance he could have a decent game Sunday against the Vikings. I'm talking about a decent start to finish. What's a decent game? I mean, how many points can he put up? Well, hopefully more than, you're going to have to outscore. Hopefully more than more than seven in three and a third quarter. You know, because that was really, really, uh,

You know, Logan Paulson made the case this morning. You said, I thought it was a very conservative ball control game plan. I'd like to see them open it up a little bit more. And I said, I agree with you, but I'm not so sure that I want to see him open it up a lot more. And I understand that he really excelled when they got down two scores and they essentially went into their two-minute, you know, dropping him back. But he made a lot of plays off schedule. I don't know if he can do that a whole game without making enough mistakes to really cost you.

I think the formula for him at quarterback is the one they had during their four-game win streak last year, the one that they had against Green Bay last week. The one that they actually employed for three quarters, the problem was they didn't really get any results with it this week. But I liked some of the checkdown throws. I liked some of the run extension throws to Gibson. I liked some of the stuff that Turner dialed up for Curtis Samuel. I don't think that Scott Turner called a horrible game. He called a conservative game, yes.

And if you think that's bad, that's fine. You're entitled to your opinion. I think the ball control formula thing is the right thing for him. I don't think you can just let him play the way he did at the end of the game. I mean, he was awesome at the end of the game. They have the kind of offense that can control the ball. Yeah, they do. They do.

They should. They didn't Sunday. because they didn't make third downs. They were two for 12 on third down. Got to be a lot better on third down to control the ball. But they have enough offensive weapons, and they have enough good runners that they can run a ball control offense. Yes, and I think Turner, you know, the goal should be use the quarterback to get the ball

into the playmaker's hands. And then if you need the quarterback to make plays, then go to that. But understand that when you ask him to make plays, we've seen this, and we saw it the other day, too. You know, there was almost the interception at the end of the first half when they were in there. You know, I thought they were too conservative and not urgent enough, but there was almost a bad pick at the end of the first half. And then he had the pick to Leonard.

By the way, I want to just mention this. Quarterbacks throw interceptions, okay? They throw interceptions. It's not the end-all be-all. You know, sometimes quarterbacks that take a lot of risks that turn out to create a lot of reward, especially if they've got really nice condos with nice bathrooms and kitchens. You know, they get more reward than they do failure. But quarterbacks throw picks.

I think for whatever reason in the last few years, it's like, oh, I mean, you got through two picks today. Well, okay. Well, how many yards did you throw four? How many touchdowns did you throw for? Did he give his team a chance to win the game? There are plays, though, that, you know, you can't make. You can't make them over and over again, clearly. But no, right now, I thought that that was really, really a compelling watch over those final two drives.

I didn't think it was going to happen when they got into that fourth down and six on that first drive. I thought that he just had not looked comfortable from the pocket throwing the ball. I'm talking about the first one on the field goal when they were down 16-7. They had a fourth and six. And that turned out to be the biggest throw he made in the game. game till that point, because the game would have ended there for all intents and purposes if they didn't convert that, because Indy would have had the ball in Washington territory up 16 to seven. And then the fourth and one off schedule play that he made on the final drive was really good.

So anyway, so where do you think this four and four is headed? Oh, I think right where we thought it would be, eight wins maybe over the course of a season. Okay. I think they'll wind up being, you know, they've got enough talent to be that good, but not enough talent to break beyond that. So I just think, you know, they're going to wind up. They'll have some moments. There'll be some bad moments. There'll be some good moments.

And you won't be any closer to the goal of being long-term, consistent winner than you have been from the day that Ron Rivera got hired. I agree with that, but I think the big difference between last year and this year is defense. I think their defense, they've got some really good players on defense. And you're going to lose one of those key players this offseason. You are. It's like losing Brandon Sheriff has hurt them on the offensive line. Losing Duran Payne will hurt them on defense. It will, but that's why they drafted Phil Mast.

and they were pretty high on Phil before he got hurt in the opener. So we'll see. But I think that John Allen and Duran Payne and Montez Sweat and Chase Young is going to start practicing tomorrow. We haven't mentioned that today. That was revealed by the head coach yesterday. The two safeties, McCain, I mean, Forrest and Curl in particular, are playing really good football. I actually thought Bobby McCain had a decent game on Sunday as well. Sorry, Polly.

I think Jamon Davis has improved significantly. They need Cole Holcomb back, you know, but I think that defensively, they're not, last year was a disaster defensively. So, you know, even after that four-game win streak, you know, we sat here and we said, is, you know, good team or is they just playing well? My biggest concern was that the defense would let him down in a major way. I think Sundays are really interesting game for them because if they somehow are able to pull off a win over Minnesota, and I think it's doable, I really do think Sunday's doable. I think that, you know, the Minnesota defense isn't that great.

I think Minnesota's interior along their offensive line has been a problem. They have a smallish center in Garrett Bradbury. He's had some issues. He's playing better this year, but they've had issues with the interior of their offensive line going back a couple of years now, and Washington is wrecking some offensive lines here. You have a stationary quarterback, not a mobile quarterback. By the way, the other observation from Sunday and looking at the game,

I thought Sam Ealinger actually played really well. I thought he threw the ball very well. You've got a quarterback that's more stationary. You have an elite wide receiver, okay? Justin Jefferson's top three, top four in the league. but Adam Thielen is a little bit sort of past his prime. Washington's been really good at stopping the run. If they can stop the run on Sunday, if they can stop Dalvin Cook on Sunday,

I think they've got a really good chance to win. And if they do, Tommy, the eight-win thing that I agree with you on, I think we then bump that up a game and say now at five and four, I would actually be disappointed if they don't win nine because they have the Texans on the road. That should be a sixth win. They have the Giants twice. I think they can get one of those for a seventh win.

They have the Falcons at home. That would be a critical game at that point. They finish with the Browns and Cowboys at home. And the Cowboys, who knows, they might not even be playing for anything at that point. So I think then a nine-win season and the seven seed is more in play than I thought a year ago when they were on a four-game winning streak at 6-and-6, and it will be because of their defense, because they're a better, more well-rounded team.

But I think Sunday's the key, because if they don't beat Minnesota, they're probably going to lose at Philly, and then the momentum created by three wins over three very limited teams looks like it was kind of fake. You know, if you're four and six after losing two Minnesota. Let's say the scenario happens that you think is possible beating Minnesota? Yeah, I think it's possible. You said doable. I don't think this is a winnable game, though, is it? Yes, it is.

It's a winnable game. No, it's not a winnable game. It's a doable game. Winnable games are the ones they just played. It's a different. No. A winnable game is one where you expect them to win. A doable game is one where they could have a chance to win.

I don't see a difference between winnable and doable. I see a difference between winnable and should. Like, oh, this is a should win game? That, some people thought that the Colts game on Sunday was a should win game. I don't think they'll have one should win game on their schedule. Okay, they're not a should win team. But I think it's a doable game. I don't know if it's a winnable game.

Give me the distinction between doable and winnable in your mind again? A winnable game is the game you expect to win. A doable game is a game you have a chance to win. I disagree. That's the way I see it. Okay. Let's say your scenario unfolds. And they get to nine wins and a seventh seat.

Yeah. There's still no closer to where they want to be. Well, I don't know. You don't have a quarterback. That depends on where they want to be. They don't have a quarterback. That depends on where they want to be. For this franchise, what's a where they want to be?

What is that end game? Because it's not a sustained Super Bowl contender year and year out. That's not possible for this franchise. Okay. Well, I think you can't give them an asterisk. You can't grade them on a curve because they're idiots. Well, you can. It would be an over-achieving season.

I mean, where they need to be is multiple double-digit season wins. They're no closer to that, but they don't have a quarterback to get them there. No, they're not. If that's what you're – if that's what they're trying to achieve, no, they're not. They're no closer to that. And the coach going into his fourth year at that point. I'll tell you one thing. The coach won't be going anywhere.

No. mean, unless he wants to. But that's not the way you thought. You thought that they would negotiate a settlement for him to leave. I said if they lose two, Tennessee and Chicago, and they're one in five, then I think what we're looking at is we're looking at, you know, a disaster season and we're looking at a mutual, you know, sort of let's move on and move our separate ways. Well, that didn't happen.

You're right. That didn't happen. Yeah. I, you know, I mean, this is what we have to do, right? We have to suspend reality. Can we just do that for another minute or two? Because I think we've been doing a suspend reality segment here.

We like the suspending of reality description, but we don't use it a lot. But let's use it right now. Let's suspend reality. So this team, because of its head coach, more than anything else, has, a group of players in that locker room that are different from the players that they've had in previous years. That is Ron Rivera's contribution as much as anything else. I know some of you are rolling your eyes right now and saying, he's about to cut William Jackson today. They made a big mistake. It's not about that. It's about the Terry, by the way, it's about the Terry McCorns

and John Allen's two players he didn't acquire. But the point is, is that, players, the Derek Forrests, the Cameron Curls, there are players on this roster and this locker room is different than it used to be. There are higher quality people, they'll tell you throughout the organization, in the locker room than there used to be. I'm not saying that they're a good football team. I'm not. But the reason Ron Rivera over the course of his career has never, ever lost a team, has never in his, you know, going back to 2011, which was his first year of coaching, has never had a team totally implode and quit on him. And in fact, when his teams have started poorly, they've ended up playing their best football later in the year, is because I think he is

good at finding the kind of character in players that you have to have to overcome the real. really bad times. And I know not all those players were his and weren't acquired by him, but they are here. And I think that that is what he does well. I think he, his leadership is probably his greatest strength with that kind of audience, the young, you know, male football player. I'm not saying he couldn't do it for a women's sport. Whatever. I'm just saying I think this is his greatest strength. And there's a toughness to his teams. over the years that, you know, has been consistent. Do you have any thoughts to that comment or comments?

Well, you know, you kind of like take the legs out from under it. When the two biggest leaders in the room are not players that he picked. The best players on the team are players that he didn't pick. You know, no doubt about it. So that takes a little bit of legs out of your. I think it's possible. I think he may be right. How about Taylor Heineke?

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. How about a guy like Logan Thomas? How about a guy like Charles Leno? How about, you know, Curtis Sam – Like, there are – There were knuckleheads on this team for a long time. These are not foundation building blocks you're talking about here.

Deshawn Jackson's not pulling down the pants of the head coach or whatever he did. What did he – what did he know? Pinching Jay Gruden's nipples. Yeah. Yeah, I could imagine anyone doing that to Ron Rivera. I can't imagine it either. Look at me. I am sitting here right now talking myself into a 9-and-8 season. Well, I think it's possible if they beat the Vikings. You can think you've got to look at this team differently as opposed to playing the Little Sisters of the Four for the last three weeks.

I'm talking myself into Ron Rivera's first winning season since 20. 2017. I'm talking myself into this team in the NFC this year could be the seven seed, playing by the way like the two seed, which might be somebody like the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the playoffs. Now that game would be in Minnesota. I don't think it'll happen, but I think it could happen. I think they've got... I mean, look, if you really didn't care and looked at this team objectively, you would operate under the premise that they will grew up. Yeah, they will. I mean, I mean, I don't even believe, I believe in the quarterback's moxie and all of that, but I don't believe that he can, you know, he can win. At four and four,

he's got to win five of the last, you know, nine games. He's got to go five and four the rest of the way to go nine and eight as a starter. And by the way, he ain't coming out. That's the one thing that I, he's going to have to really shit the bed, which is possible the next few weeks for Carson Wentz to come back into the lineup. Yes, exactly. But it could happen. You want to talk about a locker room that,

that, you want to talk about a locker room atmosphere? Try that. But let me just say. Try putting Carson Wentz back in there. If Taylor Heineke plays okay. It's okay. It is doable. But that's not a winnable.

situation. I don't know what I'm doing here. That's enough. Let's finish it up with whatever you want to talk about, including the World Series, which got postponed last night. We'll get to that more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Tommy, you're going to catch the World Series now. It would be game five Thursday night after your class at Shelly's. Probably. That's where I usually go. Big night. Shelly's back room right after teaching my class on 1331 F Street Northwest. Let me just say something right now today.

And I think tomorrow it's going to be the same way. This isn't, oh, my God, day outside. I mean, this is a glorious day outside right now. Yeah. And I think it's supposed to be the same way tomorrow. And on a day like this, where I'd want to be is sitting outside at the great outdoor seating area that they have at Shelly's. right there on F Street, smoking my Stoey, eating a great lunch from the great menu that they have there, and watching the world go by, and watching people walk by and say, boy, I wish I was that guy,

sitting outside, smoking a cigar, drinking a stella, you know, and eating a great burger. You know, that's where you want to be today. That's where you want to be tomorrow. God, isn't it, though? I want to be outside of Shelley. Oh, my God. a beautiful fall day, you know, a cold beer, a burger at a really good place. Honestly, why haven't we done that together recently? When are we going to do that?

We were going to get together. You Liz, Karen and I were going to get together. And you did say you did give me a heads up. It was like the night before that you were going to be in Bethesda for a weekend when we weren't around that weekend. So I do give you, you gave me short notice, but you did. You didn't forget, but when are we going to do that? Because today would be the perfect day sitting outside somewhere like Shelly's. Well, let me tell you what.

For the next five, six, the next seven days, they're all eight days. They're all going to be like that. I know. It's gorgeous full. It's really just amazing days. Trust me, one of these great days, you want to get down the Shelly's, sit outside, and let the world be jealous of you. these people walk by with their briefcases and going to their miserable jobs and their miserable existence. And you're sitting there like you've got the world by the, you know what, right there at Shelly's.

Shelly's backroom. It's where I be today right now. It's where I'm going to be tomorrow night watching the World Series. Is your favorite part of that watching the guys in their suits with briefcases walk by going to real jobs? I think it is. I think that the burger and the beer and the cigar, it's great. But as you're sitting there smoking on a cigar, you kick it back a little bit harder and more assertively when the bunch of guys are hurrying back to their offices. Well, you've got to admit, look, for what I do for a living, I've lived my life like that most of my life. Exactly.

You know? Yeah. And scoffed at those that haven't lived your life. Like you've been the lucky one. You have been lucky, and you're always lucky if you end up at Shelly's. Phenomenal spot in town, too. Go to 13th and F and go to Shelley's backroom. Okay.

College football playoff rankings come out tonight. Let me just mention this. I think there's like an outside chance that Maryland could eke in at number 25. Now, I've looked at a bunch of the projected top 25, you know, first college football playoff rankings. And I've only seen Maryland in like one of them. But there's like a chance. They're almost ranked right now. God, if they had beaten Purdue, they would have easily been ranked. You know, that's going to be the game that you look back on as the difference to what could have been a really magical season for them. If they'd be Purdue. And they got and they got kind of

hosed in that game. I'm not going to go on. I did that already. But if they were sitting there at seven and one right now with, you know, a game in Madison this weekend against Wisconsin, they'd be, you know, they'd be ranked right now. They'd probably be somewhere like 19th, you know, 18th, 19th, 20th in the country, and they'd be coming in somewhere in the rankings on that. But for you, Virginia people that like Liberty University, they might be in the top 25 tonight. They're in the top 25 in both polls right now. They're 8 and 1 or 7 or 1, whatever it is. But I do think real quickly, and Stanford Steve is going to be on the show tomorrow. Cooley will be on as well, but I think I'm going to have Stanford Steve on to talk about the results tonight.

I think Tennessee deserves to be the number one team tonight. It might be Georgia. Tommy, you're not, you know, you're not a massive college football fan. But this weekend, you've got a number one versus number two matchup. I don't know if you knew that. Georgia and Tennessee, you don't get that every year in college sports. but Georgia Tennessee's number one versus number two on Saturday in Athens. Georgia might be number one, but Tennessee's got by far in a way the most impressive resume

with wins over LSU, blowout wins over LSU in Kentucky, and the signature win of the season, their win over Alabama, 52 to 49 in Knoxville a few weeks ago. But after that, I don't know, Ohio State's probably three. I'd put Michigan four, I'd put TCU ahead of Clemson. Clemson, to me, doesn't pass the eye test. TCU does to a certain extent, but I think they've got so many tough games left. I don't think they'll end up going undefeated and they have to.

But a hell of a college football Saturday coming up. My God. Tennessee, well, Maryland and Wisconsin at 12 for Terp fans. And then Tennessee, Georgia, one versus two at 3.30. And then at night, Alabama and LSU. You know, the World Series, Tommy, because of the rain out last night. First of all, the first situation is on Thursday night, which will be game five in Philadelphia. At the same time that the Eagles are playing in Houston against the Texans on Thursday night football, trying to remain undefeated.

That's pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, in a way, it's cool. In a way, it's certainly not good for baseball to go head to head with the NFL. They're saving graces. The NFL Thursday night game is not on network. TV. It's on crime. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, that's a good point in terms of like who will watch more. I'm actually more interested like in the, in Philadelphia, you got a team that is undefeated, you know, probably, but they're going to watch the Phillies, right? It's the World Series.

Do you know that New York had this issue? I'm just reminded of it. The 86 series, the 86 series, the 86 series. series, the Bill Buckner series, between the Mets and the Red Sox. Game 7 got rained out on Sunday night, and they played it on Monday night in Queens, game seven, Mets, Red Sox, and the Giants and the Redskins were playing on Monday night football in a big game, a big Monday night game between the Giants and the Redskins. Those things were going on simultaneously for New Yorkers. Giants, Redskins, and Mets in Game 7. I think the Mets did better, television rating-wise.

And by the way, the Giants won their game, too, against the Redskins that night. That was a Doug Williams, not a Doug Williams, a Jay Schrader quarterbacked team for Washington. Okay. What else you got today? Well, mention in the World Series, one thing that bothers me that a lot of fans have adopted. And media as the narrative is that the Phillies are some kind of underdog. You know, only in record are they an underdog. Well, in odds, they're an underdog.

Okay, but let me just point out. Philadelphia was the fourth highest payroll in baseball this year. 242 million. The Astros were eighth at 182 million. So the Phillies spent more than the Astros. And the Phillies are not a small market team. So they'll be is the fourth ranked market right now, television market in America, while Houston is ranked eighth. So in terms of actual size, power, and spending, the Astros are the underdog, not the Phillies.

Is this a column? No. Okay. No, it's not enough for a column there. It's a moment. You know? People should have to pay for the moments in addition to the columns, by the way. Yeah, I just, I mean, the odds makers don't care about payroll.

They don't care about television market size. I mean, even after splitting the first two, the astros are still minus 180 at my bookie. Like David versus Goliath kind of thing. No, this is not the Royals, okay? This is the Phillies. Right. Fourth highest payroll in baseball. I'm glad the game got rained out last night because I was going to be.

in between football and basketball the whole night because I did have Cleveland for some coin. But I'm rooting for the Phillies. I'm rooting for that big underdog tonight. Ruding for the underdog team, the Phillies. I'll tell you one thing. I'm glad I got rained out. I'm glad I got rained out too because I was not at the game. I wouldn't have watched.

I would have missed the beginning of the game because I went to see a silent movie last night at the Weinberg Center. on Halloween night. Okay, what's silent movie? The cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the 1920 German silent movie about an insane hypnotist who uses a sleepwalker to commit murders. Look at the attraction is

there's like this 100-year-old Warlitzer organ that comes up out of the stage. And a guy... Oh, you told me about this. Yes. Yes. I've been to other ones. For the entire movie, it's the whole, he plays the whole score.

And it's so old school and so cool. It's the organ that really makes the show. Okay. Now, it was an important silent movie at the time because of sets. And, I mean, they were barely making movies in 1920 for crying out loud. We were

seven years away from talking by then. But, so I'm glad that the game got canceled, so I get see the whole thing the night. Wow. That's... And by the way, I have something else, too. What?

How about those wizards, huh? I had them to mention them. I flipped it from the football game to the Wizards game when they were down one, and then I flipped it back two minutes later, and they were down 17. And I'm like, how did that happen? And Joel Embede wasn't playing. That's a game you got to win. No. It did. He didn't play.

But you know what? I noticed, and I didn't pay attention to the whole thing, just snippets that I caught on social media. I saw that the post-game analysis on NBC Sports Washington said there was a silver lining to last night's game. I don't particularly know what that was. And the game before that, I noticed that the post-game TV analysis on NBC Sports Washington

was that they lost, but they held their heads up high. By the way, there is some, well, that's interesting analysis. Good job. West Jr., keep their heads up. But there's some breaking news. I'm not done yet. Okay, go ahead.

Okay, go ahead. No, no, no, no, they'll have to wait for the breaking news. Finish. I was just going to point out that Transparence Ted's TV network takeover is in mid-season form. Yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't know anything about the, I don't know anything about the NBC sports, Washington, monumental sports, you know,

what they are told or not told with respect to their, you know, what they. I do. You do? Yeah. Are they a true, like, partner? No, no, no, you're a partner of ours. Let's make sure we're on the same page here. I know there's one thing that they cannot talk.

about. What? I can't say that. I'm sworn the secrecy. Wait, as a wizards, for the wizards or not? For anything. Will you, now you've got me very intrigued. I don't think I know that. What's the breaking news? The Nets fired Steve Nash. There's also a big... Did he post an anti-Semitic thing on Twitter, too? I don't think he did. I'll tell you what, man.

I want to hear the analysis on this from the people that really do cover the league like Wojo and Woznarowski and some others. But I think that this is one of the biggest disasters in sports, the Brooklyn Nets. And without even getting into the tweet, which by the way, he did take down. I mean, he's such a, he's the ultimate fake smart guy. You know, he actually thinks there's like an intellectual. bone in his body, and he loves to sort of tweet things and, you know, give headlines. But I saw that back and forth with the reporter the other day. People like him never, ever want to have an actual conversation because he doesn't have any information to back up what he thinks. He's a dope of the

highest order. And by the way, I'm not really speaking of innate or, you know, intelligence. I'm just talking about overall knowledge. I would cut Kyrie Irving so quickly. I would not want him anywhere near my building if I were running an NBA team. I do love Kevin Durant, and there's a badass nature to him. But what he did in the offseason was Bush League, too. But they're getting their way, it looks like. You know, Durant wanted the GM and Nash gone. And I don't know what the – I'm not following the day-to-day of Brooklyn right now,

so I'll admit that there could be reasons for this that I'm not considering. And I'm interested in the conversation about this. but Brooklyn is, you know, off to a two and five start. And Kyrie Irving is a loser, okay? He won the title with LeBron and has been a loser ever since. He is the biggest distraction wherever he goes, and he is brilliant as a basketball player. And it's so much fun to watch him,

but it's hard now for me to watch him because I understand that they will never, ever win because of this dude. He is selfish and so many other things. But anyway, the other news is we were talking about Washington's upcoming opponent, the Minnesota Vikings. We were talking about the trade deadline. I told you that, you know, they've got a diminished wide receiver in Adam Thielen, I think, even though Justin Jefferson's great.

And what I didn't say to you is, but I said it this morning with Denton, don't be surprised if Minnesota makes a big move at a wide receiver, like an OBJ or Elijah Moore or somebody like that, Claypool, etc. They didn't do that, but they did trade, I mean, a boatload. They traded a second rounder and a third rounder for Detroit tight end T.J. Hawkinson. Now, they've had Irv Smith on that team, but really, Irv Smith has dropped some big balls this year. Hawkinson in Detroit was the number seven overall pick, something like that. He was a top 10 pick a few years ago. They're getting Hawkinson and a fourth rounder back.

So I don't know if he'll be ready to play Sunday. I think he's a pretty good player, Hawkinson. But they have a great player. in Jefferson, but they weren't necessarily great, you know, across the board and their playmaking ability. I mean, Cook is really good. Cook's a really good back. But Thielen, I think, is diminished, and I think their tight ends were struggling this year. So Washington will face T.J. Hawkinson for the second time this year on Sunday. If you're wondering what he did the first time, he had three catches for 26 yards in that 36 to 27 win over Washington in week two. That's

Detroit's only win of the season over Washington and week two. Carson Wentz, though, was quarterbacking. If Taylor had quarterbacked that game, Washington would be five and three right now. What else you got? I got nothing else for you, boss. Me neither. Back tomorrow. Cooley should be on the show. He's flying back to Wyoming right now with some film breakdown, and Stanford, Steve will be on as well.