The Kevin Sheehan Show - Blocked!

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

Kevin with a state of the WFT including where this current approach to another rock bottom compares with past rock bottoms. He also recapped the 17-10 loss in Denver and then brought on Ben Standig/The Athletic to talk about the game, who gets benched, the trade deadline, the Wizards, and more. Kevin finished up with some other NFL and college football.  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. And the kick is blocked again. Second one today. Third in the last two weeks.

Ron Rivera can't believe it. I guess it's possible that Chris Blewitt wasn't in the NFL and it never kicked in the NFL because he wasn't good enough to kick in the NFL. NFL. Three blocked kicks in two games. I've never heard of anything like that. Not in, you know, modern football with indoor stadiums and field turf and turf that, in grass that's, you know, perfection. You know, you go back to the 70s with straight on kickers kicking off, you know, baseball diamonds that are muddied. Okay, maybe. I don't think I've ever heard of three blocked kicks in two games.

But clearly Chris Blewitt's, the Chris Blewitt experiment is over. That would be a lock in terms of what will happen during the by week. Ben Standing's going to be on the show today. He'll be calling in before he gets on a flight coming back from Denver. I'm probably not going to talk about anything else other than football today, even though I'd like to talk about the 5-1 Washington Wizards. Ben, of course, loves the Wizards, covered him for years. He'll probably bring it up. He'd probably rather talk about it, too. But more likely than not, I will save that for tomorrow with Tommy. I had Chris Miller on the show on Friday talking Wizards. I'm excited about that team. They play the Hawks tonight to try to get to six and one. Amazing start for them. But this show today will be 90% Washington football team and 10% what happened. around the league yesterday and, you know, on Saturday as well.

You know, I started, I think, to show two weeks ago on Monday after the loss of the Chiefs with more of a, okay, this isn't going anywhere this year. And it's more of an issue of what's important the rest of the way. they've lost four straight including yesterday 1710 loss to Denver they're heading into a buy week

who the hell knows what will happen with you know stories of organizational dysfunction I mean we've had that you know pretty much for the last year and a half and we've certainly had it over the last month with emails and DEA raids and congressional requests and

hush money offers and you know and then what they did to half-ass the Jersey retirement ceremony on Sean Taylor. I mean, it's been a disastrous year so far. But, you know, right now the bottom line is, even though I feel like we say this a lot, typically not, you know, on Halloween or the day after Halloween, but the competitive portion of the season is basically over. You know, this team, as we've been saying for a couple of weeks now, is a bad team. It has some good players, a few very good players. Terry McCle, Lauren's really good. John Allen's really good. But overall, it's a bad team. It's a two and six team.

And really fortunate that they're not 0 and 8 because they could very easily be 0 and 8. They didn't deserve or really come close to winning any of the six games they lost. Don't tell me about the Chargers game. I know that it could have been a flukeish stealing of a game and they had a fourth quarter lead. They got dominated in that game. That was one of the. the real aberration scores of the season. But the other five, including yesterday, you know, it's not like they deserved to win any of the games that they've lost. And they absolutely should have or could have and maybe even deserve, deserve to have lost the two that they won. But they didn't. So they're two and six. We'll go with that. You know, for those that sort of looked at the losses

coming into yesterday and said, well, you know, Kevin, the losses were to much better teams, the Packers and the Chiefs and the Saints and the Bills and the Chargers. Well, guess what? The Broncos are a better team too. So the real good teams are better and the not-so-good teams are better. And that makes them one of the worst teams in the league, which is exactly what they are.

I mean, many of you and many in, you know, that talk about this team, kept referring to yesterday's game as, all right, finally, this is a game they should win. You know, we talked about that last week, and I said over and over again, I'm not patting myself on the back. I have no reason to pat myself on the back after another poor smell test of NFL picks and college picks. But those that were saying, oh, finally, we got a game we should win. No, it wasn't. It was much more about a game that they could win, but no. nobody on their schedule the rest of the way will be a game that they should win.

They're the team that the other team's fan bases and media people are saying, Washington is a game we should win. And they would be right in most cases. My game take is coming up here shortly. I will get to what I liked, what I didn't like, and a couple of other observations. And not everybody sucked in this game. And I'm going to surprise you with one particular person that I actually thought had a decent day. We've got a trade deadline coming up tomorrow.

I'm going to talk to Ben about that later on in the show as well. So, look, let's put the disclaimer out there that, you know, Tommy and I have decided we're going to, you know, always understand the disclaimer is that the Snyder's own this team, so they'll never ever, be a professional organization, and they'll never, ever have a chance at sustained winning, as long as the Snyder's own the team. Understanding that, we push it aside because what are we going to do? Like I've said to Tommy in the past, Tommy's like, well, we have to have the Surgeon General's warning. Okay, we have the Surgeon General's Warning. Dan Snyder, and now we have to say both of them, Dan and Tanya own the team. There's your Surgeon General's warning. It's bad for your health

to be interested in a team that's so grotesquely run. But we can't stop having conversations. I mean, I'd be doing something else, and you guys would be doing something else. We're all in this together, all of us. You know, we wallow in the dysfunction and the losses, and we rejoice in the few moments we've had just a few over the last 22 years where there was hope.

But I talked about this on the radio show, morning and I thought I'd lay it out for you because I think I'm feeling like we are hitting up against a potential another rock bottom you know there have been many rock bottoms in the last 22 years and I kind of feel like we're into another one right now like the rock bottom feeling of there's no hope there's no hope and from a football standpoint people are bailing on Ron Rivera and the new staff. They're bailing on the defensive players that were drafted really high. Hopefully you're not bailing on John Allen. They're bailing because they're, they just completely mismanaged, you know, malpracticed the kicking situation. And they don't have a quarterback that's

going to be a savior. And the guy that some of you thought was really cute and was going to be the diamond and the rough and the next Tony Roma or Kurt Warner, turns out that what he really is is an NFL He should have been a backup for the last four or five years. And Washington identified and picked off the scrap heap a guy who's legitimately capable of being an NFL backup, but not a starter. But it just sort of feels like we are nearing another rock bottom. So for your benefit, I have identified that this rock bottom that we're approaching is rock bottom number five. Do you want to know what the first four are? Well, I'm going to tell you.

Rock bottom number one was the end of the spruier second season. He was bundled up in a parka sitting on the bench basically by himself as he was allowing, what's his face, who became the Browns coach to call plays. It was raining sideways in a home game against the Cowboys and they got shut out. I think it was 17 to nothing or 27 to nothing or something like that. And then, you know, at the end of that season, he said, five and 11, not too good. That was Rock Bottom number one.

Rock bottom number two came during and at the end of the Jim Zorn year two, when Vinny hired Sherm Lewis, who was calling bingo games in a Michigan senior home to come in and be a consultant and a play caller. And Zorn would sit with Tommy and I in our studio out at Redskin Park, telling us that he wasn't as busy as he used to be, and he was told to comply, meaning they wanted to run him. They wanted him to quit, but he wanted to get paid, so he stayed there. That was rock bottom number two.

Rock bottom number three was the end of 2013 when all the leaks were coming out, and the owner had picked an immature, self-involved quarterback over a locker room and a coaching staff that knew better, and it was just like, oh, my God, we'll this. ever, ever end. And, you know, leaving was, you know, a borderline Hall of Fame coach and three former, three future, excuse me, head coaches, but the owner sided with the quarterback. That was rock bottom number three. I know a lot of you were out there like, do you know what Mike Shanahan's record is? Yeah, I do. I know what it was. I know what Gruden's record was. I know what Rivera's record's been. I know what Gibbs's record was. I know what Marty. Marty's the only

guy that got out of here without a losing record. The only one. Well, Norve, technically. That was Rock Bottom number three. Rock Bottom four wasn't necessarily a moment. It was more like an era. It was like a brief mini era from the end of 2017 through the summer of 2020, where just everything went wrong. First of all, they had a three-year run of embarrassment. on the field and off it. The two-time franchised quarterback leaves. The team essentially gets nothing for him. But we're told that the team's winning off the field. Quarterbacks start breaking legs. The team is awful. Trent Williams and others won out. A coach gets fired. The franchise becomes a total embarrassment because of past transgressions and current ones.

And, oh, by the way, the team loses its name. Rock Bottom number four is more of a mini-era, end of 2017 through the summer of 2020. Then there was this bounce off that rock bottom last year. Ooh, all the shit that's going on. But we got a coach with a resume, you know, and now all of a sudden they're, you know, playing better. And that defense, God damn, they look good. This is going to be a hell of a defense.

Just got to find the quarterback. Fitzpatrick. I was excited about Fitzpatrick. I'm not sure about it Fitzpatrick, but I was excited about it. I was excited it was anybody but what they had last year. So there was a mini bounce off of rock bottom number four, but now we are nearing rock bottom number five.

There's no doubt about it. It's everything that's happening, non-football related, with everything that's happening football-related. The difference is this time, I think there's some good people, good football people, and just some good people in general. Pretty much everyone that has played and worked for Ron Rivera before he got here

they've liked him and respected him. I think he's a good man. I don't think he's an elite coach. I've mentioned that before, but I think he's a good man who is well respected in this league. And I'm sure, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, many of his friends around the league are saying, oh, God, I warned you. I warned you. How long can you endure being there? There's a shelf life for, you know, the few quality people that have been in this organization. And it's short. I have no idea what's next. I'll talk to Ben about like, is Rivera legitimately in trouble? I'll tell you right now, I don't think he is, and I don't think he should be.

I don't think that they can afford to move on from him. But I'll talk to Ben about that when we've been on the show. But I would imagine that if he was being truthful, and he kind of laughed when I suggested this to him on the radio show a couple of weeks ago, that he and his wife, Stephanie, look at each other and just say, what in God's name did we get ourselves into? because it's so much more, right, than even what Joe Gibbs could have told them. I mean, they didn't know about the post stories and the investigations and the emails and

the name. And nobody could have predicted that. Maybe he says, you know, maybe it's best if we work our way out of here. Or maybe he says, I'm going to stick this out and I'm going to try to make this work until, you know, the Snyders say that they're done with me and they don't want me anymore. Mr. Schneider and Mrs. Snyder. But if he stays, and I think he should, because bailing on him after year two is not my choice. But if Dan and Tanya decided, you know, this season goes completely south and it's three and 15 or three and 14 or, or, you know, four and 13 or something like that, I mean, could they even attract a sane person to come here? That's part of the problem.

It was part of the reason that I thought attracting a guy like Ron Rivera was a bit of an outkicking their coverage situation. If he stays, he needs a franchise quarterback. It's the only thing that'll give them a chance, and they don't have one. And as I mentioned two weeks ago, in the NFC, it's a bad time not to have one. There are eight to nine teams minimum that have much better quarterback situations, and there are at least two or three other situations that could be. you could argue are better than Washington situation. If you don't have the quarterback,

you're pretty much out of any real conversation about real winning. Some winning is possible occasionally, like last year, if you have a good defense and you get a break on the schedule and the teams you're playing or the division you're in. But this team doesn't even have a good defense, and it's now in a division with a team that's six and one and won a game last night with their backup quarterback. Yesterday was a day of backup quarterbacks.

Mike White pulls off the upset for the Jets over the Bengals. Trevor Simeon comes in for the Saints to beat the Buccaneers, and Cooper Rush last night for the Cowboys beats the Vikings. Our backup quarterback couldn't pull it off against the Broncos. It's another season that's over way too early. The rest of the season is about what I talked about a couple of weeks ago. It's about how Ron Rivera handles this. A losing team with no chance of being in the mix, along with ongoing organizational

drama that he's got really no control over and wasn't responsible for, is quite the environment for him to keep the team invested, believing in him, and playing hard. And I know that sounds so cliche, and for some of you, you hate it. But if you've ever participated in athletics, if you've ever coached at any level, you know when you have a team that is tuned out because you're losing or a team that's still in there tuned in. Watching him try to get this team that is now starting to also feel the sting of the injury bug, they're ravaged on offense right now, injury-wise. Watching him try to navigate this is the most interesting part about the rest of this season. The games, probably not as much.

play them. They've got nine left. And, you know, they won't be favored in any of them, maybe one or two. But they got to play them anyway. And last year, you know, there was that sense that things were going really badly. And everything sort of broke right for them. And he kept in it. And he has proven over his career that he gets his teams to improve as the year goes on and to play their best football at the end of the year. So we'll see. He's got a big challenge, though, major challenge right now. I'm personally, personally, hope he's up for it because I'm not rooting against him. I don't think he's an elite coach. I don't think they have the best coaching staff in the NFL by a long shot. I think that their two and six record, which could be

0 and 8 is very much partly, or certainly an indictment on the coaching this year, as much as it is on the players not playing well, as much as it is on the schedule and the quarterbacks that they face so far. But I don't think he's going anywhere. All right. Up next, my game take, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention.

Here's Kevin's Game Take. My game take today presented by Window Nation. Go to WindowNation.com or call them at 86690 Nation and you can get the deal of the year. Buy two, get too free with no limit, no money down, no payments, and no interest until 20, 23. If you've been thinking about new windows, it's real easy. Give Windon Nation a shot. I promise you it will work out. It always has worked out for me, for friends, for family members, for listeners of this.

podcast and my radio show. It just always works out. If you've been thinking about new windows to save big on energy bills or to increase the value of your home, please give Windonation a shot. Tell them I told you to call. You don't have to act on anything. They'll give you a free estimate and then you can make up your mind. You can even shop it with another company to see if you can get a better deal, but you're not going to work with a better company. I promise you that. 86690 Nation or Window Nation.com. All right, let's start with the things that I liked from the game yesterday. The list is probably longer than you would anticipate.

But I really like John Allen again. He's one of the two best players on this team this year. That's not debatable. Terry McClorn is the offensive player of the year so far for this team, and John Allen is the defensive player of the year on this team. He was unblockable at times, another sack, multiple pressures. I think on that touchdown that gave Denver a 17 to 10 lead, the Melvin Gordon run, I think John was held on that play.

It was interesting, and I didn't know this when I went on the air this morning on the radio show, but my note said, you know, he seemed to be out of the game a bunch. I think he was winded a bunch. They did a lot of substituting, you know, early on and throughout the game because of the altitude, I'm sure. And as it turns out, you know, his snap cam. actually was, you know, from a percentage standpoint, he was at 66% of the snaps, below Duran Payne snaps, below Chase Young snaps. But the 66% of the snaps he was in there, he was a load to handle.

I love the season he's having. I love the player he is. I love the guy that he is. John Allen was their impactful, has been their most impactful defensive player all season long and was one of the two most impactful players in the game yesterday. That leads me to number two on the list of things that I liked. Landon Collins had a hell of a game. He really did. You know, Collins can play when he is in the box and is essentially playing a linebacker. Don't forget that. He's pretty good at doing that. He's aggressive. If he's not asked to cover any more than a back in the flat, he's actually okay. He had a sack that really was the definitive play on that drive that held Denver to a field goal on their second drive of the game. He had a third and one stop on Gordon on the swing pass and the

flat. You know, that was a play he read from the beginning, flew to it, didn't miss the tackle. Landon Collins had one of the best games he's had in a while. When they started losing players, he was forced to play more safety. You know, they lost St. Juice, so they had to move other guys around. But when he is in the box and he's playing really, whatever you want to call it, linebacker, Buffalo Nickel, whatever you want to call it. Landon Collins is pretty good. He definitely was pretty good yesterday. J.D. McKissick is on the list of things that I liked.

Much of the offense in this game actually went through the running backs, 193 total yards from the three backs that played McKissick. Gibson and Jared Patterson. I just love McKissick, and I know that Scott Turner does too, because you can see him calling a lot of plays from McKissick, getting the ball into McKissick's hands in space. He's really quick. He's also very fast. Eight catches, 83 yards on eight targets yesterday. He was a big part of why the offense once again moved the football. moving the football isn't scoring the football, but it's better than not moving the football. And J.D. McKissick was a big part of that. I've got Jared Patterson on the list of things that I liked from the game yesterday. You know, he got the most work he's gotten so far this year. 11 carries 46 yards, and he looked good.

Why did he get more carries in the game? Well, obviously Antonio Gibson's health was a big part of it. And maybe they were clearly trying to keep everybody fresh in the altitude. I like Jared Patterson. The first time, first preseason game, I said there's no way this guy isn't going to make the team. And I thought he would be even a bigger factor this year. Jared Patterson's on the list of things that I liked from the game. I liked that the opponent didn't score on their opening drive.

Just the second time this year in eight games that the opponent didn't score a touchdown or a field goal on their own. opening drive. The other one was the New Orleans game when James Winston threw the ball right to Cole Holcomb. Denver was moving, though, on that first drive. They converted their first two third downs on the drive, and they were at the Washington 30-yard line on the verge of scoring. So it was not that they got them in a three-and-out, or they gave up one first down and forced them to punt from the 37-yard line. No, they were at the Washington 30, first and 10, and then the Broncos self-destructed. A couple of penalties, then a sack by James Smith Williams, which by the way, when he had that sack,

the whole second unit defensive line-wise was in the game. It was him, Two-Hill, Ionitis, and Settle. And that was on the first drive of the game. So Jack Del Rio and Rivera had a plan to keep everybody fresh. But the reason that they were on the field was because Denver had a sustained drive going on the opening drive of the game. And then they had a couple of penalties. They had the sack. And then Rivera took the penalty on the ineligible man down field call on the Broncos when they had gained enough yardage for field goal range on, I think it was third and 24.

And Ron made the right call on that. He pushed Denver out of field goal range, even though they got another down. They got another third down opportunity. But they got nothing on that third down, and they were forced to punt. So for just the second time this year, in eight games, the defense got off the field on its opening opportunity without giving up points. That's on my list of things that I liked. Okay, this next one, I know some of you are going to have a big problem with, but I don't care. It's how I feel.

And this is subject to review after I watch the game again if I get to that today. I thought Scott Turner, for the most part, called a pretty good game. game. Again, I know this will go over like a lead balloon, but I thought considering the offensive line was in tatters before the game and then got even more injured during the game. And at the end of the game had only one starter left in the game, and that was Leno Jr. I thought he did a decent job with play calling. I didn't like the fourth and one call on their opening drive. I would have preferred, you know, a power run with Gibson or inside zone with Gibson, or I'd like to see some read option incorporated into this offense with Heineke.

But the truth is, on the fourth and one play, Heineke needed that ball to come out much quicker. I don't know if Seals Jones gets the first down, but that throw is earlier. He's got to make that throw immediately to Seals Jones. And he waited, Shloreth did a nice job of explaining this. But you see that play called a lot on fourth and one or third and one or third and two or fourth and two. You know, a little sprint out with whoever's lined up in the slot there, immediately coming off the line of scrimmage, getting sometimes a little bit of some pick action.

But he held the ball. He waited too long. And again, would Seals Jones have gotten it? I don't know, but he would have had a better chance. You know, I would have liked maybe more runs because I thought they were running the ball okay. But the bottom line is, you know, he got them into a situation with a banged-up offensive line, with missing receivers, with a banged-up starting running back,

and they moved the football again. You know, they had eight drives in this game, and they entered Denver territory on seven of the eight drives. You know, the last one that they had was their ninth drive. They started in Denver territory after the incompetence of the Denver coaching staff on their final drive. but, you know, how did they do it? Well, they did it with some runs. They did it with some quick game. They did it with some, you know, multiple verts and checkdowns. They did it with some bootleg. For those of you saying that they're just dropping them back, that's not true. They've run some bootleg with him. You know, he found Seals Jones on a bootleg. They've gotten him outside the pocket a little bit. I'd still like to see more designed runs for him or more option runs, read option runs with him. But, um, I thought Scott Turner, you know, with quick game and with screens and some boots and, you know, when they had to drop them back, it was a problem late in the game, especially when the offensive line was really injured and they had nothing but backups. Larson in at its center and whoever came in for flowers there at the end. I don't even know who it was.

But again, on eight of the drives, they drove into Denver territory on seven of them. And the only one that they didn't is when they were backed up on their own goal line on the first drive of the second half, I think it was. Unfortunately, they missed two field goals, dropped a snap that ended, you know, in a sack at the end of the first half, missed the fourth and one. And then, you know, when the offensive line fell apart and they had four backups in the game, they gave up some big sacks in the red zone at the end. it's the second straight week. You can look at 10 points and say the offense sucked. You can do that if you want, but I think you're not, you know, looking more at sort of the nuance. I don't think the offense sucked in this game.

I think it sucked at the end, and I'll get to that. And I think the quarterback really blew it on several situations. But I thought Turner called a game that if executed the entire way, was a game that they could move the ball with and score more points with. in a game that was going to be low scoring against a team that's pretty good defensively. Von Miller didn't play. That was big for Washington. But, you know, they pretty much, they punted one time.

You know, they now have one punt in the last two weeks, you know. And again, the 20 points you could look at and say, Jesus Christ, are you kidding me? No, I'm not kidding you. They missed, you know, in the last two weeks, they've missed three field goals. And they had a quarterback that didn't run it into the end. zone and they had a play on fourth and goal that got over, you know, that it was called no touchdown on the field that could have been overturned but wasn't. Yesterday, you had a bobbled snap when you should have scored. You had two miss field goals. You had, you know,

again, you know, opportunities, opportunities to score more, but they didn't. I'll get to that when we get to the bad list. The other thing on the things that I liked list was just the Denver finish. Oh my God. Are you serious? They have the ball with 37 seconds to go, seven-point lead after the fourth and 19 Hail Mary into the end zone gets picked off, and they fumble twice and throw an incomplete pass. There isn't really any way to describe how much they flubbed that situation.

They literally could have taken three knees, punted it, and Washington would have had 19 seconds and no timeouts from their own 30-yard line, own 35-yard line. and instead they fumbled, recovered it, threw an incomplete pass, and then had Chase Young make the best play he's made all year, stripping Gordon of the ball, giving Washington one last chance.

So I liked that Denver was so incompetent. I will tell you this, if they lost that game after giving up that final possession with a fumble, I think Vic Fangio could have been fired today. They were already frustrated with Fandt. He's a great defensive mind. Great defensive coordinator. Maybe not a great head coach.

But if they had blown that game based on mangling the clock the way they did on that final drive and the incomplete pass, I have no issue with them doing some sort of boots, taking something really easy if it's there. But if it's not easy, the quarterback's got to be instructed to go down in the field of play and make Washington burn a time out. I think Fangio could have been in big trouble today if they lost that game on that final drive because Washington would have gone for two. They were not going to put Blue it back out there

if they had scored at the end. Okay. What didn't I like from the game? Well, I'm going to start with the defense. And I know some of you are like, they only scored 10 points and they only gave up 17. Stop looking at that stuff. The picture is more nuanced than that. The defense sucked again.

Sorry, it did. There were a couple of good performances like, John Allen and Landon Collins. But Denver was a struggling offensive football team coming in. Teddy Bridgewater had thrown five picks and been sacked nine times in his last three games, and they couldn't move the football in four straight losses. In the first half, Washington's defense gave up points on two of three drives. See, Denver only took 51 real offensive snaps in the game. They only had seven possessions in the game. In the game, they drove into Washington territory on five of the seven.

In the first half, they scored on two of their three drives, and on the drive they didn't score, they were first and ten at the Washington 30 on their opening drive. I mean, don't tell me that the defense, because they held them to 10 points in the first half, was good. Denver had the ball three times. They scored on two of them. And on the third drive, the first drive of the game,

they ended up punning because there were two penalties, and, you know, they were in field, range and Rivera did the right thing to take the ineligible down field five-yard penalty gave another down. But Denver moved the football. They were converting on third down. Denver converted on seven of 13 third downs. Seven of 13, a bad struggling offensive team got right a little bit on Washington's defense. Teddy Bridgewater was so in rhythm on that seven-play 75-yard drive that seemingly took like a minute and a half. He was five-for-five. for 65 of the 75 yards.

People wide open, no pressure. He was flawless on that drive. I mean, again, you have to point to the team you're playing. If they had held Kansas City or Buffalo to 17, even though they gave up points on two of the three drives, that would have been fine. Denver was two of two in the red zone, two for two. Bobby McCain dropped an interception.

Jamon Davis committed a stupid penalty and Chase Young nearly committed a stupid penalty. He may have. I thought that they were going to flag him on that one play where he threw who was it, Javante Williams to the ground after the whistle blew and after progress was stopped. Denver drove into Washington territory

in five of seven drives and didn't score more points because of penalties, a missed field goal, and the quarterback tripped over his center. that's basically it. It was not a good day for the defense, especially when you consider who they were playing. It was a good day for John Allen. It was a good day for Landing Collins.

And I'm sure there's somebody else that may have had a good game. But it was not a good day for the defense. It was also not a good day for the offense in terms of being able to finish drives. This is a major problem. They were 0 for 2 in the red zone. They're now 0 for 6. the red zone in their last six trips, including 0 for four last week. Last week, no points.

This week, no points. And yet they were moving the football. I put that into the Scott Turner category. I thought he actually played called pretty well to allow them to move the football. Taylor Heineke made some good throws, you know, made some excellent throws. The touchdown throw to D'Andre Carter is a. beauty. The throw to McClorn for 17 yards in the first half over, you know, in front of the safeties and over the linebackers, it was a beautiful throw. He had some good plays in the game.

He really did. There was another play that I wrote down. The third and two in the third quarter where they actually dropped him back and he had to wait, wait, wait for Adam Humphreys to clear with the Ricky Seals Jones borderline pick on the shallow crosses, which they run very well, was a really good throw by him, under pressure too.

He had some good moments, but the offense didn't finish in part because of Taylor Heineke. Let's go through it. The fourth and one, ball's got to come out, quicker. End of the first half. They are right there. They're in field goal range. It is third down, and Washington has a chance to get better field goal range, but one of the things the quarterback can't do is take a sack. And what happens? He not only takes a sack, he fumbled the snap, which caused the sack. That was not a bad snap. That was not a bad snap at all. He fumbled the snap, and

gets dropped for a 10-yard loss in a sack by Weatherly, who they just acquired. And now they are out of field goal range. It's a bad play. It's a really bad play. There is a big play in the fourth quarter, a couple of plays. First of all, let me just mention. The missed bubble screen throw to Terry McClure is as bad as you'll ever see a bubble screen throw missed. I mean, wow. what was going on on that particular throw. But then the sack that he took on the drive that ultimately led to the fourth and 19 first Hail Mary that got intercepted, the sack that he took on 3rd and 5 at the Denver 7, 3rd and 6 at the Denver 7, was an example of a quarterback whose internal clock was not working.

he held on to that ball far too long Reed nailed them cause the fumble cause the big loss Leno fortunately got on it gave him a chance with a fourth and 19 at the Denver 20 and then he was intercepted by Simmons gave you know gave his receivers a chance Simmons intercepted it but that third and six

you cannot hold on to the ball for that long you got to have that internal clock have to And then on the final drive after the miraculous getting the ball back after Denver's incompetence, he's got a Hail Mary that he's going to throw into the end zone, and it never gets close to anybody because the ball sails five, six, seven yards out of the back of the end zone. You've got to give your guys a chance on that final throw. It was not a great day from Taylor Heineke, even though he made some great plays,

but his mistakes in crucial moments really cost them. Fourth and one didn't get it out quickly. Fumbled snap on a decent snap at the end of the first half. Cost some field goal range. You know, had a couple of bad throws, including that bubble that looked like it was set up perfectly and he missed by a mile, the holding the ball too long, taking a sack, and then not giving his team a chance on that final Hail Mary. Offensively, wasn't a good day because they couldn't finish anything

even though they moved the football. both things are true in my mind's eye. I thought Scott Turner called a game plan that allowed them to move the football. And there were performances from guys like McKissick and Patterson in particular. And even Heineke made some really good throws. Adam Humphreys and Milne and Terry had some good plays. But you got to finish when you get down there. And one of the reasons they didn't finish enough was the quarterback.

And then, of course, the next thing on my list of things that I didn't like would be the kicker. You know, I don't need, what do you say? Three blocked field goals in two weeks. The first one was going to miss badly, even if it hadn't gotten blocked. Did you see that thing coming out low and hard left, hooked left? By the way, on that first, fourth and one on their opening drive, I said on Friday, I actually think this is a game in which you don't need to be aggressive trying to score touchdown. Take three when you've got an opportunity to take three.

Now, that's a fourth and one. So I'm not going to fault him big time. I don't like the play call there. That's the one play call I really didn't like. Again, I would have preferred some power with Gibson or some side of inside zone with Gibson. Something that gets Gibson going downhill or maybe there's a read option there. I don't know. Maybe you could bring back Peyton Barber and have him run it.

But the bottom line is the field goal kicker. Just killed him yesterday. Absolutely killed him. And it's on the coaching staff that this guy's kicking. They picked him right after they cut him from the practice squad. The whole thing is a disaster. He will not be on the field against the Buccaneers. Bless his heart.

Also on the list of things that I didn't like. I thought that the end of the first half was handled poorly by Ron Rivera. Let me explain. So after the fumbled snap and the sack, which was a 10-yard loss, the clock is rolling, and Washington ends up calling a timeout with three seconds left to try a Hail Mary. So they were, you know, at the Denver 46-yard line, fourth and 13 after Heineke botched and fumbled the snap and then got sacked and lost 10 yards. And they retained possession of the ball. He had picked it up. So here's my clock management where I fancy myself to be able to do this as well as, if not better, than some NFL head coaches.

The way I personally would have handled it is I would have called a timeout with like eight or nine seconds left. Because it's fourth and 13 at the Denver 46, that gives you the option of throwing, and you had one timeout left. it gives you the option of taking a snap, throwing it over the middle of the field, and maybe Denver's playing for the Hail Mary, and getting down immediately and calling your final time out after a 14, 15-yard gain and sending out your field goal team to try a field goal. But you can't do that with three seconds. With three seconds, your only option is a Hail Mary.

Now, you might say, well, what if they don't throw a completion, or what if they're short? You're going to give Denver a play. Yeah, you're going to give Denver one play. because there's going to be like two seconds when the play's over, and it'll be change of possession, and best case is from their own 46, they're going to throw a Hail Mary into the end zone.

I'll take the chance that I can get a chunk play over the middle on fourth and 13 for field goal range versus the downside of giving them one snap from their own 46-yard line for a Hail Mary. And by the way, it might not be their own 46, because you might get a play on fourth down that gets seven or eight yards, but is short of the first down.

So from Washington's standpoint, in that situation, especially when I have two timeouts or more, I am going to definitely not call timeout right after the sack because then you are giving Denver too much time if you fail. You definitely, they have the right idea to walk that clock down to take a snap, offensive snap, rather than punting the ball. You don't ever want to punt it in that situation. So I like that. would have stopped the clock with about eight or nine seconds to go and fourth down with another

timeout remaining to try to get 13 yards and get another timeout and get a field goal attempt up. So I think they mismanaged that. By the way, I also think Denver mismanaged that. Because if I'm on defense in those situations, I'm going to call a time out with like 12 seconds to go, 13 seconds to go, 14 seconds, somewhere in there. I'm going to force the other team to punt. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to let them, you know, wind the clock down to three seconds and throw a Hail Mary or wind it down to, as I suggested, eight or nine seconds and take a shot, leaving us

with just one Hail Mary shot. If I call the time out with 15 seconds or so left, then they have to really consider the downside of trying a Hail Mary and failing or trying a fourth down play. and failing because now I might have two snaps from my own 46, one to throw it into field goal range and another to kick it. So that's going to force them to punt the ball. So defensively in that situation, the team in that situation should know that Washington is going to call a timeout and try a Hail Mary. To prevent the Hail Mary, you should call the time out with 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 seconds left, 17 seconds left when the other play ended.

That forces a punt. Washington's not going for fourth and 13 at the Denver 46. If there's the threat that they're going to miss it and Denver's going to have multiple offensive snaps taking it over from there. But the only way they would have multiple snaps and a chance to get in field goal range off of your team's miss is if there's enough time. So I think both teams mess that up.

I hope you understood that. One last observation. James Smith Williams to me is an interesting guy because they liked him last year. His snap count kept increasing last year, the seventh rounder, by the way, from NC State. He comes in typically when Chase Young comes out. And by the way, Chase Young didn't come out a lot yesterday.

But he came out on that opening drive and James Smith Williams had a sack. James Smith Williams, of their other, you know, second string linemen, well, I guess Ionitis had the most, but of their defensive ends and settle, he played on 36% of the snaps. Like, they like him. They really do like James Smith Williams.

And the more I watch him, he's got a couple of moves as a pass rusher. He also, I think, jumped off sides. recently and may have had another penalty in another situation. So I'm not suggesting like he's some great, you know, player. But I do think it's interesting that he and Two Hill and, you know, we know about Settle, seem to get snaps. Tony's in there now on defensive end snaps. They're playing a lot of defensive ends in the game.

A lot of defensive ends in the game. All right. That's it. That's the game take. When we come back, Ben Standing will be my guest. That's next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment's brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.orgie.

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prop bet available as well. MyBooky at mybooky.ag or mybooky.com. Use my promo code. Kevin D.C. They're going to give you free money to gamble with. They're going to double your first deposit. That's all money that you can use to wager with. All right, I've gone through my recap of the game. I'm bringing on now my friend Ben Standing from the athletic at Ben Standing on Twitter. Subscribe to the athletic. It's totally worthwhile to do so. I'm a customer. I've mentioned this many times in the past, especially during the seasons in which you care about. The local writers are great. But you also, you also, get a great flavor of the rest of the country as well. Ben is getting ready to head back to Denver, excuse me, to Washington, and he joins me now. So before we get to some of the big questions coming off of that game, if there are any more big questions related to this season, just give me, you know, your 60-second or right around there recap of what you saw yesterday. Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I think I saw a lot of the things we've seen over these first eight weeks. I mean, the defense actually played better, but they were also facing the most mediocre offense that they've faced collectively this season.

The offense scuttled drives again in the red zone. There were just mistakes. And ultimately, I guess just I've reached a point where this was what I expected. I mean, obviously the team I cover is the Washington football team, and therefore you would hope I would have a good point. feel for what's happening. And I think this is like five or six weeks in a row. Ultimately, the results played out kind of the way I anticipated. Part of that means a lot, picking them to lose a lot.

But at the same point, you can lose and play well, you know. It doesn't feel like they've been doing that at all. And ultimately, for me, when you pile on everything else, you know, everything that's going on outside this place, the emails, the ownership talk, all that stuff. It's really just hard at this point to focus on the games. I wrote my column coming off the game was that the games are now a subplot, a secondary issue. This is all big picture now. There's no quarterback, the ownership thing, hangs a cloud over everything, which isn't new.

It's just we've been reminded of it in a big way. And therefore, it's hard to get overly excited one way or the other about whatever actually transpired on the field because it all feels so familiar and to some degree so irrelevant. That's so true. And it's kind of what I opened the show with, which is, and to be honest with you, it's a repeat for me. because I think I did the same thing after the Chiefs game. This really isn't about, you know, micro-analizing or discussing what's going on in the organization or, you know, with the football team right now.

This season is lost. They're not making any sort of miracle run to the postseason. They're a bad football team right now. So it's about, you know, putting the conversation about the grotesque ownership situation aside, because there's nothing you can do about that. they have to figure out how to find a quarterback, and that should be the number one priority on the football side. But before we get to that, I'm wondering, do you think Ron Rivera and the coaching staff through eight games has done a good enough job to keep the owner, both of them,

away from potential change when this season is over? Yeah, I mean, look, it's a great question. You know, you would think, you know, that Ron Rivera has a five-year contract were in year two. They've had, there's some things you can point to if you want to make some excuses. The injuries are ridiculous now for the offense. For sure, I don't know how you give a pass to the defense, considering the lack of injuries and the investments made on that side of the ball

and the talent. But, okay. So I would think no, if we're talking from a logical perspective. You know, again, they did have a strong finish last year, and they still haven't had a quarterback, which is in part on Rivera, but not completely. So I would think no, but again, this owner, who knows? And I do think one of the questions is, you know, whenever, however we want to phrase it, either when Roger Goodell says to Dan Snyder, you can come back, or Dan Snyder just says,

he runs him through the wall at the Kool-Aid man and says, I am back, whatever is going to happen here on that, what's his mood at that point? Because if we are talking about a law season, if they don't turn this around, at least at a minimum from a procession record-wise on the field. He made very well to say come back, hey, I've not been sort of stepped aside for the last two years. We haven't had a winning record yet. Here's where we're at. Here's what we're going to do.

Yeah, like he didn't pick Rivera. You know, he sat up there on Happy Thanksgiving Day and said, this is the direction I've decided to go in because everybody else screwed up the last 10 years. Right, right, right. I mean, obviously, so many things would be for possible. I mentioned that, you know, they don't have a quarterbacking that somewhat on Rivera. Rivera was saddled after with Wayne Haskin, who we all know how that came to be that the owner, the owner decided he wanted the quarterback to went to the same school as his kid, right,

or whatever, whatever we want to call there. So it would be preposterous, but, again, you know, it's hard to know exactly what's going on with this whole email scandal and this situation with the NFL, this suspension and not suspension, whatever the thing is going on. I mean, I have my own thoughts, but at the same point, I don't exactly know where Dan Snyder is without that, and if you're a person who believes that these emails or other factors here are being directed from his side of the world,

that he's his, he's a bathe's lashing out, I mean, or whatever. If you believe that, I'm not saying it's true. I don't know, but if you believe that, why wouldn't you therefore believe that that could then come back to the team itself in the name of, hey, we need to do something different. Maybe that doesn't mean changing the coach, who knows, right? I mean, that's the thing. I assume Ron Rivera, I've asked about this around the league and people assume that it's in his contract probably that he has final

sale over personnel. I don't know, again, if that's true. So I don't know what that means, but that doesn't change anybody from keeping his, from him from keeping his job. So who knows what's in Dan Snyder's head at this point? I would put, again, I would put the odds of no that that's not happening for a hundred reasons, but at the same point, with this situation, you know, who knows? Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because they've very well could be 0 and 8. They're not. They're 2 and 6, but if Dexter Lawrence doesn't jump off sides and Atlanta hangs on, they're much closer to 0 and 8 than they are anything else. Certainly 1 in 7, and I wonder if we'd be having a slightly different conversation if they were

0 and 8. But a couple of things. Number one, and I don't know that I have said this at all, I don't think they can afford to fire him at the end of this year. I don't think they can afford to pay out his three years. Now, can they afford it? Of course they can. But from a true P&L standpoint, you know, it wouldn't look pretty on their, on their balance sheet to have Ron Rivera as three years on the books. Number two is you reminded me of just the , Twain Haskins, you know, for all of the, you know, discussion from the Snyders about their lack of involvement. That one single decision drafting Dwayne Haskins in opposition to everybody else in the room at number 15 overall in the 2019 draft, you know, cost them an opportunity

to potentially be more aggressive in the 2020 draft as far as quarterbacks go. But it also cost them two first rounders because they went back up to get the guy that everybody wanted, which was Montez Sweat. So they had to trade two second rounders, their second rounder in 2019 and their second rounder in 2020, to move back into the first round to get Montez Sweat, which I think ultimately will pay off.

I think Sweat's already proven that he's got real talent and that he's got a chance to be a pretty good player. We'll see. But, you know, even during the time in which he claims he wasn't involved, he did enough damage in his minimal involvement. And I would also say during that time that his relationship with Robert Griffin

III and his preference of Robert over, you know, a staff that included Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, you know, LaFleur, McVeigh, etc., was also outrageously destructive to the long-term health of the organization. But that aside, I do not think, A, he even deserves to be fired at the end of of this year if say they go three and 15 or three and 14 or four and 13 or five and 12 and B, I don't think there's any chance it'll happen. That's what I would say to that. What about quarterback? Do you see Kyle Allen getting an opportunity after the buy week or not? Yeah, I don't know. This is, you know, look, I've established, I think you've established,

I think a lot of people who are paying attention of the establishment Taylor Heineke has been impressive based on perception, based on limitations, based on all kinds of factors. But ultimately, he has shown that he can be an interesting backup and spot starter, but not a guy you want to go

with for the whole season, right? Okay, that said, like he's been injuries are just off the charts on offense, right? I mean, it's not just who's missing, it's also who's left. You know what I mean? Obviously, when she's really,

goes down. What does that mean? I mean, I think five week one projected starters, I'm saying projected because Curtis Samuel wasn't out there. Projective starters are out. When Eric Flowers goes out, a little bit of the end there, we'll see what happens with him. That means four offensive line starters have

now been out. You know, Antonio Gibson is playing, but it's clearly limited. So my point is that Hineke is no longer dealing with anything close to a full back around him, and so you have to factor that end with all the evaluations. A part he wonders if that's where Ron Rivera

had that, that he likes the kids moxie. He thinks the kid's a playmaker. And Heineke can do some interesting things. We see that. That maybe he keeps giving him rope. My point has been and I asked this to Rivera recently, you said at the end of the last year that you could have won

as, you know, the same result, winning five or seven that you had with Alex Smith, you could have done the same thing with Kyle Allen. So if that's the case, how are you not considering putting him in? He is younger than Taylor Heineke. He's got the more prototypical size and armstrings. Yeah, I get it.

He's also not a guy. Anybody thinks he's a 16-game starter. Put him in. I mean, what's the harm at this point from giving it a look? Even if, by the way, just to, you know, take it to another bigger picture side, we can talk about who their quarterback, their starter next year will be, but they also need a backup. And Heineke is the one under contract, but Kyle Allen, you know, maybe it should be him. I don't know. Wouldn't you want to give that a further look as well?

So, I mean, I don't know the answer because it feels like Rivera has been more stubborn on this lately, which is weird to be considering the kind of on comment you made a year ago. So I would think logically at some point, Alan will play just to try, but I don't listen to her enough that it's going to be the Tampa game, even though Heineke, like I said, has shown where the limitations are. We need to make a decision on who our backup quarterback's going to be in 2022 and beyond. So we got to give Kyle his opportunity here.

That would be a great pitch. But honestly, to me, like, this is the thing. Like, I always complained more about this on the wizard side under Scott Brough. You've got to look at it, or not just under Scott Brooks for head, but just the management for years. You've got to look at everything. And it feels like, you know, like I get that, you know, kind of just, it's important.

Who is doing anything at any position? at all time. What's the determination that you do as an organization to make these things? It would be insane. Unless Taylor Henneke improved dramatically, it would be insane that Kyle Island didn't play at this year. I mean, think of it from those perspective. Why would you not try him?

I mean, he was a guy you threw into the starting lineup last year. When you were telling everybody, you thought the playoffs were still in reach, which they obviously were. Why would you not try him, right? I mean, that part to me, that would be more baffling than if he didn't play than if Hinekey sits at some point here.

Well, the reason is because last year he was on the verge of losing the locker room. And this year, the locker room loves Taylor Heineke. At least that's what he would lead you to believe, that he's got natural leadership ability, something that's been very important to him. He's talked about it a lot since he took the job. I remember, and I specifically pointed this out last week when he talked about Taylor's, you know, he's able to lead. You know, when talking about Dwayne, when he was doing his best to be positive,

he would say we just need to find out if he's got that ability to lead. Joe Gibbs came on with me. I remember shortly after Rivera was hired, and I asked him about Haskins, and he said, Ron is a guy that, like we did, needs his quarterback to be a leader, and that's what Dwayne hasn't proved, and he's going to have to prove.

And what was very interesting about that is, I got this sense from Gibbs that he wasn't going to be able to prove that, and that eventually Ron was going to have to, you know, move in another direction. That's the big difference is that Taylor is a guy that the rest of the locker room isn't screaming be benched, more likely than not. Yeah, no doubt. Like I said, her, Hannah even fine. You know, all things consider, I mean, yes, they're losing games. He's playing quarterback. I'm not ignoring that. But like, you know, I don't know what his expectations were for the guy who was on his sister's couch a year ago.

or less than a year ago, and now that thrust into the starting lineup, you know, because of the injuries around him. He's done fine. He's shown that he can be a guy that when you're in a pinch can come in and play. You know,

Cooper, Dallas won a game yesterday with Cooper Rush and other backups for doing their thing. If we view Taylor Heinekees sort of more in that vein, absolutely he can be the guy that comes in in that spot, starting gives you the win. I think we've seen that play out. I just,

you know, the idea that he's a little, the locker room leader, if he's not the starter, then what are we talking about? So I get the idea. I'm with you. Trust me. I agree with you. I'm just telling you what, you know, when you said, what are we talking about?

It's insane that you wouldn't try. I think that would be the reason is that for whatever reason he doesn't, he didn't feel like Kyle's going to give him that much more and that, you know, there is still belief in Heineke in that locker room. That would be the reason, I guess. Look, I don't care either way at this point, but I, you know, if he goes to Kyle Allen, I'm not going to mind it. I mean, I know what Taylor Heineke is. We all know that now.

And as far as the expectations coming off his sister's couch, well, you and I both know, even though we didn't subscribe to this theory, we both know a lot of people that thought, you know, that he was a diamond in the rough, that they had found their guy, that he nearly beat Tom Brady in the playoffs last. year and that, you know, he should have been the starter, name starter anyway. I mean, people thinking that they didn't need Fitzpatrick. I mean, but now we know, now we know, no matter what limitations there have been here recently with injuries, et cetera, and he hasn't had a great cast around him recently. But he's a backup quarterback, period.

So now let's find out if Kyle Allen's a better backup for 2022. Maybe that's the goal here. Because it doesn't seem like Fitzpatrick's going to be ready, right? Yeah, I mean, it doesn't feel that way. Again, don't know it definitively, but yeah, it doesn't feel that way. So, you know, at some point, if you're Fitzpatrick, if you're only able to come back late in the season, I guess you'd have to even weigh it for yourself. Like, what's the risk?

And I guess I would just say, because I get this, if you're a person who is listening to two people talk about the Washington football team and spending several minutes on the backup quarterback for next year and thinking yourself, are you guys insane? What are you talking about? My point is these are the decisions that are important. Yes, everything is important, including the starters, but this is the NFL. You've got to have backup. You've got to maximize every circumstance possible.

And again, to go back to use my Wizards thing. Like, they constantly would, like, only use, like, one, two-way, the NBA teams can have, like, two-way contract players, sort of like your practice squad, and the Wizards at times will only use one of them. Or they would have a guy, a young guy, on their bench, only to not play him because they wanted to give a 10-day contract guy some run. Stuff like that drives me insane. You have to maximize all your opportunities,

season. They should be considering the second half of the year. Maybe not the Tampa game immediately. As we saw just a few minutes ago, the news with Derek Henry could be lost for the season. Injuries do happen, and you know, who to hell knows what's going to happen. None of us can predict. Definitely, you know, that this thing is 100% over just the way nobody would have predicted last year to run, but likely this thing is over for 2021, and they should be looking at other players. It shouldn't be locked in the starting line up other than a handful of people. They should be exploring all kinds of different people that includes the backup quarterback, which by the way, as we all know, is kind of important because quarterbacks get hurt

all the time. Well, I would add to that that there's not like this obvious answer to the starting quarterback for next year. I want him to try. I want him to swing big, but it doesn't mean that they're going to connect. It doesn't mean that they're going to love a quarterback at the spot that they're drafting in the upcoming draft. They may not like any of them. It doesn't mean that they're to definitely be able to pull off a trade for Russell Wilson, Aaron Rogers, or Deshawn Watson, if any one of the three are available and would even want to come here. It doesn't mean that they're going to be able to sign Matt Ryan, or trade for Matt Ryan. It's like I had this caller today that I get all the time, this guy Paul who calls me all the time, and he's a good

caller. And he just said, you know, they messed up. They messed up by not drafting Justin Fields or Mac Jones. Well, they didn't have a chance to draft Justin Fields or Mac Jones. They were picking 19th and those guys were gone. Now, if you're talking about they should have traded up and taken one of those two players and there may have been an opportunity to do that. Yeah, there may have been an opportunity to do that. But there's no guarantee that they would have been able to pull that deal off. They thought that they had offered the Detroit Lions a really solid offer for Matt Stafford. They trumped on the offer. I don't know personally if the giants were going to trade with a team in the division for a quarterback. They traded with Chicago. Chicago gave up, you know, their first,

a fourth and a fifth, I think, to move up or whatever it was. Yeah, it was swapping their first and getting future picks as well. Yeah, knows more. They also got a 2022 first as well. So I don't know that the Giants would have traded with Washington. We kept talking about, Ben, I think you and I had several of these conversations during, you know, the lead up to the draft, that if Washington really liked, you know, somebody like Trey Lance or Justin Fields or Mac Jones, they were probably going to have to trade with Detroit, Carolina, or Denver, 7, 8, or 9. But Ron Rivera said many times, he did not think that the price being asked was worth it for those guys. So that's the decision they made.

But could they have done it? Maybe. But it's not like they just passed on those guys to take Jamie Davis because it doesn't work that way. You have to have somebody in that spot that's willing to trade with you. Personally, I think they should have been more aggressive on Stafford. I don't know that that would have worked anyway because I think Detroit really was trying to help him out and send him to a place where he could, you know, where he wanted to go, which obviously was Los Angeles and it's working out well for him. him. I don't know. Where are we going with this? The point is, is that there's no, in playing Kyle Allen and Taylor Heinecke and Fitzpatrick, if they come back, who knows if they're

going to be able to find a starter before next year that isn't on their roster now? Yeah, yeah. No, it's a very good point. By the way, just to sort of, to your point of the lines trying to do, Matthew Stafford a solid. Like something I noted yesterday at this game, right? The The comparisons between Washington and Denver right now are very striking. Both have a quarterback conundrum that's gone on several years. They both have an underachieving defense, right? They both have losing streets going to the game. Denver's now is over.

And they both have confusing ownership situations. Now, Denver's is not as toxic as Washington's, but that's been a wild ride. Ever since Pat Bowlin died, he did leave a clean chain of line of succession to him. So they've had this big fight, and it looks like they're getting closer to the man, and they're probably going to sell it. But my point is this, that when we hear about, like, I don't, the perception of that team, though, is not viewed in the same toxic way that it feels like what the Washington

is. And the case in point would be this. When you ask, like, I don't know if Aaron Rogers is going to leave Green Bay, but if you tell people he is, where is he going, Denver is the place that seems to come up the most. Maybe that's circumstances. I don't know if that's a fact with Robert. Rogers, but it seems the one that people would actually point to and say, yeah, this makes some sense,

even though Denver is going through some struggles. You know what they chuckle at when you bring up? This place. Why? Because for all the obvious reasons, the ownership on down, why would somebody like Aaron Rogers even consider hitching his wagon here? Right. And I think that, to me, is like the bigger picture part of all this, is that it's not going to be easy

to find a quarterback. And if you want somebody like a Stafford, like a Rogers, you're going to need that person to sign off on it. And why would somebody, unless they have no other options or the money is just incredibly outrageous, why would somebody easily choose this place? By the way, that would have been a challenge even if the defense was in the top 10 form. But that was the hope that the defense plus a very, a rounder that people like. Yeah. Yeah, it would be more attractive.

Now, I mean, no. And that's why this whole thing, that's why I talk. the backup quarterback is important because as you point asked, that may be one of those guys might be the starter because it won't be that easy just to say we'll go find someone. Yeah, I mean, I said earlier in the show, I mean, if they were to move on from Ron Rivera, I mean, at this point, I know that there are a lot of young guys that'll take a job just to take a job, but you'd have to be a little bit off to take this job.

I mean, this is how absolutely toxic this place has become, and the reputation it has. So when you're talking about, you know, real good quarterbacks that are going to have choices and may be able to dictate where they go, they're not coming here. You know, we're talking about Mitch Trubisky and, you know, these kinds of guys that are really the possibilities in terms of guys out there that, you know, might do it because it gives them another chance to start in the NFL. We're not talking about Deshawn Watson.

He's got a no trade clause. He can actually dictate where he wants to go. There's no way Aaron Rogers ends up here or Russell Wilson ends up here. I would certainly imagine that Matt Ryan isn't going to hitch his wagon to this train wreck either. So these are, you know, it's the same kind of guys that probably they were sniffing around when the Stafford thing fell apart. You know, whether it was, you know, looking at a Darnold or a Bridgewater or, you know, I'm forgetting some of the people now that were actually available. But you're right. I mean, you're right.

I mean, there's no guarantee that the upcoming off season is going to produce the quarterback of the future, the starting quarterback of the future. There's no guarantee of that. Now, if they draft him, the player drafted has no choice. He has to come here no matter how much his parents and his handlers say, oh, my God, you got completely fucked by getting draft by this team. He's not going to have a choice. So that may be ultimately the only path for them to go

is to really get aggressive, get aggressive in tomorrow and acquire as many picks, not be worried about who you give up player-wise to get into the top two or three to take, you know, whether it's picket or any of these guys that, you know, or potential top five picks. Sure. And that's absolutely true.

If you look a lot of mothcraft now, which are absolutely irrelevant, what the world will look like in April, a lot of these drafts don't even have a quarterback going until Washington picks around eight or nine because nobody's being projected to be that kind of a guy, but eventually somebody always moves into the top three or four at least. But here's the other thing about this, right, Kevin. So let's just say you go that right. You draft this year's Max Jones or Justin Fields or whatever. The likelihood of a winning record with that rookie quarterback, if you go to that guy, is pretty small.

Even Justin Herbert last year, who had one of the best rookie seasons that anybody's ever had, had a losing record. Yeah. I mean, and most of these guys are going to be in the same boat as these other teams.

By the way, in Washington until proven otherwise, it's not a good team. So it's not like we can just say, well, you throw the rookie into a better situation and he could be okay. So if you have a third losing season

under Ron Rivera, now it's back to your point about where we at with the ownership, I mean, now it becomes a harder situation. Now you're more than halfway through the deal. And now, by the way, you're also not hoping that that working quarterback showed you enough to feel that, okay, they actually can be a viable starter, not just progressing, be viable in year four, because otherwise you're looking at, you know, another tough season. And I know that's getting way down the line, but all these things are getting factored into the equation when you're somebody like Ronald de Bear having to make this decision. You can't ignore it.

If you are, I mean, God bless you, I don't know how you can do that. You have to factor all these things in. And that's why I think he thought this year, and I don't think he was wrong, thought, okay, we're coming up a pretty good year. This defense should be a pretty good year being, you know, the way it's finished, make the playoff. You have what looks like a pretty good defense. You've got young talent all over the place.

We can sort of buy some time figuring that next year something else will come up. You never know what's going to happen and so on, except that. Obviously, things have gone backwards in a hundred ways, and now the clock may be viewed differently. and part of the factor as well. A working quarterback gives you hope and maybe gives you the answer. Doesn't automatically mean it's going to happen immediately

and how much time does anybody have to see that through. Yeah, it's just, I mean, you know, it's like pick your choice poison. You know, it's like, okay, I'm going to draft the quarterback that I'm not going to be around to coach by the time it starts to work out. Or I'm going to go with, you know, Kyle Allen or Fitz for a second year Mitch Trubisky and muddle my way to a 7 and 10 record and lose my job anyway without much of a future. It's depressing. You have to, you know, look, the Deshawn Watson thing is going to be an interesting thing. The problem is is that Watson has a no trade clause, but if no one else is

interested, you know, then who knows? But more likely than not, you're going to have to think in terms of Matt Corral or Kenny Pickett or Malik Willis and, you know, draft one of them in the top five. Get yourself into that position to draft one of them in the top five and hope you, you struck gold and hope that you struck gold with a guy that's going to show, you know, immediate promise and give you a chance to be around to coach that player. And then you have to hope also keeping in mind the grotesque ownership situation that the owner's situation that the owner doesn't, you know, jock sniff his way back into another 23-year-old quarterback relationship and ruin it for the coaching staff. You know, these are the things you have to consider

in all of the future conversations. But I do think that their best chance is to pick somebody because that person doesn't have a choice. They've got to come here and try to make it work if you end up picking that player. Anyway, what about the kicker? Who's going to be the new kicker before the Tampa game. I'm assuming you believe that there will be a new one, right? Let's hope whoever is the next kicker has kicked sometime before 2016, unlike this one. Like I said at the time that I think Rondaver is taking a bigger risk going from Dustin Hopkins to Chris Blewett, who, you know, saw any of us had a clue, but just based on the

resume, like I said, he hadn't kicked since 2016 and was not exactly killing it in college. to go from Hopkins to this was a bigger risk than benching Dwayne Haskins at a point that people still, you know, naively thought was a viable answer long term to go to anybody else because he knew what was going on. To me, it felt like the Hopkins move was some sort of a desperate message he was trying to send. I know people say, what message you're sending with the kicker? Or then you would explain it to me. What else is the possible justification? I know Dustin Hopkins was feeling pretty shaky on a lot of kicks. I'm not arguing getting rid of him for somebody else.

But to do it for a guy who you had just cut the way before, who was on your practice squad, you clearly didn't think he was everything. Otherwise, you would have kept him around on a 16-man practice squad. And to not do it for a guy who at least had had some recent experience was crazy. So I imagine it was just because you were trying to send some kind of a message. And obviously, it's now three-block kicks in two weeks. Like, I mean, and it's not like the defenders, I don't think any defender had a jump. in order to block one of the kicks, they were super low.

We were all joking or wondering in the press box yesterday. Did the one kick hit West Schweitzer in the helmet? It was so low. So, yeah, I don't know what they're going to do. At a minimum, there will be umptian kickers showing up in Aspern this week to get a look and it would be surprising me at this point if somebody else is not the kicker. The 42-yarder that he missed against Kansas City broke any remaining trust or eliminated any remaining trust that they had.

So I don't think anybody that's followed this situation was super upset in the moment that they decided to move on from Hopkins. That's not really the issue. What's at issue is the selection they made. And going with a guy who had, as you mentioned, cut from the practice squad a few weeks earlier. and they decided to sign to their real team here. They made a bad decision in the kicker that they selected, and that's on them. I mean, that is, you know, if you're going to make that decision, which I don't think many people really argued with, you know, Hopkins had been an inconsistent

kicker, and by the way, had missed too many big kicks, including some that didn't count that were missed, like the giant game, where, you know, they should have lost that game. It's the selection you made, and they made, you know, a horrible selection. And as you pointed out, they selected a guy that had not kicked ever in the NFL and hadn't kicked in a competitive environment since 2016. So that's on them, for sure. There will be a new kicker, though. You do agree right before the Tampa game. There's no way they can put this kid back out there.

Yeah, you wouldn't think so. I mean, Rivera said that the second kick, I think he said the second kick he thought it was more of an operation thing that it did look like, was like a low snap. I remember thinking in the moment. But yeah, I mean, I don't understand why you wouldn't. There's no commitment here. You mentioned trust earlier with Periheineke. What trust could anybody have with this kid, whether it's his fault or not,

this is what's happened. I mean, it's something is clearly wrong. I think the stat, my editor at the athletic gave me during the game was that Dustin Hopkins' career here, over the 93 games had two kicks blocked, right? blew it head three in two games. So it doesn't make much sense to keep him around. There's no investment. Nobody will care.

There's other kickers out there. You might as well go try somebody else. And like I said, I'm not crying that they cut Dustin Hopkins. Like you said, there's some trust loss. I get it. But to go this way, wow, that really is crazy. And by the way, two kicks blocks, they lose the game by seven points, right? I mean, it's not like, I mean, the, you know, last week, I don't know how consequential it was.

This week, it's kind of big. Oh, yeah. And they lost the corner. I don't, I don't even remember Hopkins kicks any of the two that were blocked. If you would ask me that question, I would have said he didn't have any blocked. Do you remember any of them? Like, was there a big one that was blocked? I don't know.

I don't remember, but my memory goes back to about 10, 10 hours ago. Hopkins yesterday was three of three on PATs and one of one on field goals for the Chargers. And their 27, 24 loss. I tweeted out that his first kick was a made PAT and somebody just said, we're not going to do this, are we? And I said, well, I was curious as to how he would do in a beautiful stadium, you know, in Los Angeles in a pretty big game against the Patriots that they ended up losing. All right.

The trade deadlines tomorrow. Do you think they'll be an active seller? And if so, who goes? Yeah, I mean, I had to do an exercise the other day for the athletic having to pick somebody who is a potential target or somebody that could move. And I don't think there's anybody. I mean, like the NFL is weird, right, in the sense of there might be a player, there are some players that other teams could use,

but are they really going to give you even a seventh round pick for eight games of, you know, Adam Humphreys or, I don't know, somebody on that level, I don't think so. Nobody's taking on Landon-in-Colns contract. The teams that could even afford Brandon Shurf, even if you wanted to go there, there's only a handful who even have the cap space, I think, and almost none of them are contender.

So I don't really see what the moves would be for them. Again, I guess if there's a team that's in such desperation for a specific position that maybe you say, hey, what would you do? But, you know, Washington is also beat up after. have some kind of product here. So I don't really see it. I'd like to see it.

It would be fun. But I just don't, I just don't see who they would have that another team is willing to give. I mean, look, if somebody says, we'll give you a six for Tim Settle, sure. You know what I mean? Like, I could see that. But, like, I don't still know what, you know, I don't know if I see any of those kind of obvious moves that happened. Yeah, it's, you know, we've seen more active NFL trade deadlines in recent.

years. And as you were talking, I was reminded that, you know, remember, they traded a fourth rounder for Ha Ha, Clinton Dix in 2018 at the trade deadline. We've seen some, you know, deals here at the trade deadline in the NFL, not that it's become, you know, baseball trade deadline. But I think it's always one of those conversations that we really tend to be in the dark on, you know, a player in their secondary that might fit a certain scheme. where a team's had injuries and now all of a sudden Bobby McCain's of interest to somebody and they'll give up a fifth rounder for him. The obvious players are the players that more likely than not are not going to be on your roster next year or could leave your roster and may have value.

I don't know how much value Brandon Sheriff has. And if he's healthy enough and somebody might be interested, but there are injuries along many offensive lines in the league right now. and could you get a fourth rounder back for sheriff? I mean, is that going to be better than the compensatory pick that you get for sheriff if you lose them in free agency? J.D. McKissick's not under contract next year. He's an unrestricted free agent. I think it's one of those things we never really know, A, the value these players are worth, and B, who might be interesting to somebody.

But I would say this. If they can accumulate some picks for players that aren't a part of their future that might help them in moving up into the first round to draft a quarterback. They should be thinking about doing that. Sure. I'm the guy who last year said correctly, they should be looking to trade Ryan Anderson for anything because he has no role on the team. He's not going to play.

They will lose him for nothing. What's the point? Forget the fact that whether other teams were available, interested in or not. I was immediately told by Twitter people, by colleagues, that I'm an idiot, that this is so stupid. Are you serious? Ryan Anderson, the good,

you don't give them a seventh round pick. That's because people don't understand value. They don't understand most players on a roster would even get you

a seventh round pick in trades because that's how the NFL works. They want the picks because they're cheap contracts under control and veterans cost more money

and have more tread on the tires and whatever. And I'm just saying, like, sure, anything is possible, I just don't see what that offer it. You still have to put out

a reasonable roster for this year. If a team's going to keep you a fit for for J.B. McKissick, sure, I'd consider it, but, like, you also have to play your team, and I don't know if I see a team out there doing that. So that's the thing. And, you know, Brandon Shurf, I mean, unless the compend, unless, like, this injury goes so haywire he would not play the rest of the way, I think there should be getting a third-round

pick for him from the compensatory perspective. So obviously, you don't want to trade for anything less than that. And, you know, they just don't know there's any teams out there, like I said, who are contenders to be willing. And, you know, again, with all the injuries, This is part of the problem. You know, you do have to put forward a reasonable lineup for yourself because you got to, you know, you need to see what you have and, you know, and all that. We see what happens when you start putting in third stringers in different spots.

So, yeah, I don't know. Like I said, somebody right Tim Settle would be the one, like kind of a guy that I could imagine, potentially somebody saying, hey, could we do something? But, you know, it's on that type of a level. I just don't see them having a ton of guys if you were makes much sense for any All right. Last one before I let you go. Two and six at the buy week. All right, pretty much the halfway mark. Not exactly, but close enough. How many wins? That's what makes yesterday so disappointing, right? Because, you know, you look at where the schedule is all of a sudden, right? If you win yesterday, I'm going to answer your question, I promise.

You win yesterday, you get you to three and five, which isn't great. But like, you know, it's in the mix for the seventh wildcard spot. You get past Tampa Bay, probably a loss. Carolina, I know they won yesterday, but they're definitely taking a step back from what they were looking like. We don't know if Seattle will have Russell Wilson back by the time these teams play. The Giants and Eagles are not very good. You've got three more games there. Obviously, I have no idea what's going to happen with Dak Prescott, and I know they won yesterday with Cooper Rush. But, you know, who knows what opened there. Like, they could have at least been, we could at least be talking about them in the mix.

So my point is, yeah, you could win another four games, I would say. I mean, but it's hard to like, you know, the other team booking at Washington is a team to get right with also. I think Denver did yesterday. Of course. And that's why, and I know that like Chase Young was asked if this two and six stars feels different than last year. I can't speak to what he thinks. He said, no, it doesn't feel different. It feels very different to me.

Because last year, even when they were struggling, what I noticed was these guys were still playing. They were listening to Ron Rivera. And I'm not saying they're not listening to him now. but from that listening seemed to be some sense of positive momentum, and we saw how the season played out. I just don't feel like there's any positive momentum at this point, and therefore, you know, even saying four wins seems like, four more wins, seems like a lot, but I think they can get to six,

so that would be four and five the rest of the way, which actually is, you know, considering where they're at isn't bad, but, you know, at the same point, there's no momentum right now. At least the schedule doesn't theory get easier, but it also means the other teams are looking at Washington like, hey, we got a chance today also. Yeah, I don't, that's interesting. I didn't hear that Chey Chung answer to that question. I agree with you. I think it feels totally different. But I also don't think, and I don't even think we saw a sign of it yesterday, and I don't think we've seen a sign of it in the last few weeks. I don't think that, you know, we have games like we had,

you know, Jay Gruden before he got fired, you know, against the Patriots or the Giants or in 2018. when they were getting blown out and, you know, they appeared to have, you know, lost interest and lost belief in anybody that was there. I don't think we've seen that yet. And I think that's one of the real interesting storylines the rest of the year. And I've talked about it already on the show today. And I've talked about it in the past is, you know, let's see if Ron's able to, you know, generate and manage competitive efforts. Yesterday was a competitive effort. They didn't, they didn't get blown out. They didn't lie down. The truth is is, we both said it. You and I both talk. about this last week. Yesterday was a toss-up game. They're not better than Denver, and Denver's not that much better than Washington. And as you look through the rest of the schedule, to be perfectly honest with you, I don't think there's one team on their schedule that they're better than. They might be as good and there could win games against Carolina and maybe one. I think the Eagles are a better team personally, and I think the Giants are too. But, you know,

you don't know what they're going to be like when they get there. But this just isn't a good football team. I think the biggest disappointment football-wise about this team this year is just, no one saw a bad football team, and they are a bad football team. And this is before they started to get ravaged by injuries. They're just really, you know, a bottom five team in the league right now in every phase, in every phase. defense offense and kicking

I mean they're just a bad team nobody saw this coming and so eventually you know if you're the owner you say well why are we bad I know I know the schedule was tough and I wasn't necessarily thinking 11 and 6 but I was thinking 8 and 9 or 7 and 10 and you know the arrow pointed

upward and the arrows pointed downward the defense has regressed significantly and it wasn't very good yesterday against a bad offensive team and a struggling offensive team yesterday. That's the surprise this year. That's why it feels different. They're just a bad team. And the expectation, I think, from people like you and I,

is that it was going to be a competitive team, just a difficult year more likely than not to be a real contender, but, you know, not a bad team, something north of being a bad team. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And one thing just to sort of add on, I mentioned the Chase Young comment. And the one thing, you know, we talk about, like, no media in the locker room and, you know, I don't know what fans think of that.

But one reason why that's a problem is you get less of a pulse of what's happening. I have, you know, it's really hard to have individual one-on-one off-the-record conversations with people that you're not around or just to be able to see who's behaving in different ways. Watching the interactions with other players and Dwayne Haskins was one early sign to me that there was a problem with that, that circumstance. And my point is that, like, last year, it made a lot of sense for people to talk about saying not being frustrated, to be, to being positive. But of course, the players don't want to lose.

I mean, that's all that's the case for everybody. But to the degree of the frustration, look, words are just words sometimes, but I didn't hear anybody let it go into this game say what Von Miller said. It's time to sound the alarm. I did hear, as I mentioned a minute ago, Chase Young say he didn't think it felt much different between this year and last year. that's up to him to determine how he feels. I can't do that.

But part of the reason why I think it is different is last year, staying positive was the only option because it was a team that we had no expectations on. It was a new coach. It was a young roster. There were issues at quarterback and elsewhere. Staying positive was the entire point. If they had finished last year, 3 and 13, but the thing was like, you know, you saw the same progression in some of the players,

I think people would have still been positive going on this year, maybe not saying contender, still been positive. in this case, just staying positive, not enough, right? You should be sounding the alarm. If you, you know, some of these guys, Landon and Connb also talked yesterday about, you know, not letting the frustration kick in. And again, you know, far be it for me to tell the human beings had a view,

and of their job, their life, their positive, their view of the world. But, boy, I don't know. I feel like the sounding of the alarms is the kind of something we should be hearing from this team and didn't yesterday. So it doesn't mean that's not the case. Maybe they are all saying that behind the scenes, but for what we see, not hearing much of that at all. And that to me is notable because, yeah, this is very different from last year, at least the way it feels to me, and I suspect others as well. Well said.

There is absolutely a reason for people, especially on that defense, to feel a massive sense of urgency that they may not have felt last year. You know, this was, you know, we can talk about there are some good players on this defense, but they're not performing well with the exception of maybe one or two players. John Allen's performing well this year. He's having a really good season. But some of your other star players aren't performing well. And beyond that, you know, at some point you look at it and you say, well, if the players are better than the results, then whose fault is that?

Well, you look at the coaching staff. But maybe we're just overrating the players. You know, it's funny, I think we underrated John Allen. Some people didn't want him signed to a long-term deal. He's clearly their best defensive player. Like, it's not even debatable in terms of who their best defensive player has been this year. He is far and away their best defensive lineman and their best defensive player. He's the second best or maybe the best player on the team.

He and Terry McLaren are the two best. He's going to be the defensive player on the team, and McClorn's going to be the offensive player of the year. But no one else has stepped up and had a good season. I mean, unless you want to say that pain's been pretty good, and Ionitis have been pretty good at times. No one else has. So for those other players, there should be an alarm bell.

You have to play much better. Or the coaches have to scheme it much better. They've made some changes. And Landon Collins being changed to essentially a linebacker, you know, he had his best game, you know, maybe as a Washington football team player yesterday. I mean, you could argue that that was the best game he's had. since they signed him, and he said he was going to destroy the Giants eight times over his, you know,

four-year deal or whatever it was, you know, six-year deal, 12 times. Yeah, interestingly, he played 89 percent of the snaps yesterday, which is normal for what he's on most of the year, but double what he did the week before. He was essentially the fifth defensive back. I guess Denver didn't look to, maybe I'd have to go back and watch the game, but Denver didn't apparently see, oh, we have a guy here. We should try to get in, uh, you know, take him deep on coverage. I didn't notice that happening. I can't believe Washington could just scheme their way out of it.

You only had four other defensive backs on the field. I think Denver was just playing a lot of underneath ball wars like Rogers and Mahomes. The last couple of weeks obviously have the threat to go, you know, the wear with all the arm strength, threat, whatever, to go deeper. Denver, I guess, didn't look at it to do that in Washington, I guess, recognized that they thought that would be the case and it worked out. Yeah, I'd like to go back, especially when they lost St. Juice.

I'd like to go back and see how many games Collins really was lined up, you know, in a true safety position versus in the box. They certainly used him in the flat, you know, covering backs as a backer or as, you know, a Buffalo nickel or whatever you want to call it. And they obviously used him in a couple of blitz packages. But anyway, all right. Thank you for doing this. Have a good flight back. I will talk to you. Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow on the radio.

video. By the way, I'm going to look forward to, I don't know when it's going to be, but the pivot when you start having me on to saying, hey, we'll get to the football team to a sec, but how about the wizard? Dot, dot, dot, dot. Well, I mean, I contemplated making them a bigger part of today's show, but the bottom line is, you know, on November 1st after a loss like that. Yeah, yeah. But, but I, you know what, I did something I rarely do during football season. On a college football Saturday with a bunch of games going on. And by the way, having a personal interest, you know, monetary interest in many of those games, I sat there and watched the Wizards

games start to finish through those double overtimes. It was great. It was great. And I'm, excited about tonight to watch them against the Hawks. You know, I think, you know, when they made that trade, I loved Harrell. I wasn't sure about Coosem or KCP. And I like Dinwiddie. I really like Dinwiddie and the acquisition of Dinwiddie, but I love Terrell. I just think the pieces fit better. Like, Wilbon actually called me. I'm not name dropping here, but Wilbon actually called me yesterday, and he's going to be on the radio show Thursday. And he just, he said, so is anybody talking about the Wizards? And I'm like, you know what this town's like. I mean, it's football season. He goes, well, that's crazy. He goes, I called Tommy

Shepard before the season started. I called you, and he did. He called me before the season started. and he said, they're going to be good. They're going to be a playoff team. This is the right mix of players. And he's so excited about him. And I said, so how many wins? He goes, this is a 46 win team. He said, and I said, really?

I said, so that's fifth, right? Fourth or fifth maybe? He's like, yeah, it's probably something like that. And last week after a couple of games, I said, it's a 500 team that's going to finish, you know, seven or eight somewhere in that neighborhood. it's it now there there's a lot of games left you want to talk about this so go ahead real quickly through six games including two wins over Boston

what do you think well the funny is I actually haven't watched nearly as much as I would have liked I caught the double overtime the literal two the end of the fourth quarter of two overtimes from my hotel in Denver didn't see the rest of it and unfortunately just you know my as my day job has kept me away from watching them and more as much as I would like, but I've seen, obviously, enough and all that. Yeah, it's amazing fit, how important fit can be.

It was so frustrating in the last several years, hearing people just constantly talk about John Wall this and how exciting Russell Westbrook is and having no idea that those guys out on the basketball quarter are just so frustrating to play with. I mean, John Wall, not as much as Westbrook, but, you know, the injuries have limited to him. And, frankly, you know, one reason I kept saying they can't, trade Bradley Beale was because you didn't want to leave John Wall alone in the locker room as the adult in the room with all these kids. You saw what happened last year in Houston.

Now the Rockets are telling him basically, you're good. You know, we don't need you to do anything. Just go hang out. Hang out. We'll pay you and move on. I'm not saying Bradley Beale is, you know, Bradley Beal still needs to dial back some of the hero ball stuff and recognize that he now does have better teammates.

But that is the point. The depth on this team now, there are actual adult basketball players in the room besides Bradley Beal and whatever rookie draft picks they have. They have real players. Montrez-Harrel. I've loved him since high school. Spencer Dinwiddie is an absolute guy who is not going to

mentally count to Beal. These guys are playing well. There is a good depth. I mean, the fact that they won the other day, no Gaffert who's hurt. Still no Ruey. Sorry, still no Rui. Those are your projected starting power forward and center. And to have the depth,

I mean, last year, they had, they had, like, one injury, and all of a sudden things were chaotic. Also, you know, Scott Brooks to me was ridiculous for the last several years of his deal. I started falling out of interest in him somewhere during the first year and certainly into the second. And, look, it's not all on him. Obviously, he didn't have this depth and maybe things would have been different under that. But, you know, the choices he would make over and over again, I always said that this team was better from a record perspective and it showed the last few years. And I think, while you can't,

it's an apple's orangeist situation because of the major roster turnover, I think you're sort of seeing that. I'm not saying West Endeltsfeld's Brett Arbor back, but he does seem like he's got a good grasp on this thing so far. He's making reasonable choices in numerous ways, rotation, and otherwise, and I think it's an interesting team.

Now, again, I don't know about there being a four or five seed. We'll see how things play out there on a good run, and that's great. But ultimately, you know, we'll see where this goes, and if the goal is to win a title, I don't know where we're getting here. But the larger point would be the Wizards are interesting. They have depth.

They have pieces they can trade if another team has their star player who wants that. I don't mean Ben Simmons, but, you know, somebody like that. I think the Wizards are fun. They're interesting. Big kudos to Tommy Shepherd that trade in totality from having John Wall to what they ended up with was fantastic and should be recognized accordingly. Yeah. He's done a phenomenal job. I was a big Russ fan forever, but I was so frustrated and knew it would not work last year.

And it was obvious when they played their playoff games. It was never going to work. And it's not going to work with him in L.A. either. But besides that, I did think there was a moment when they had some veteran presence, whether it was Areza or Ney-N-N-A or Pierce eventually or, you know, a guy like Gooden and, you know, God, who else were on those teams. I mean, I'm forgetting names. But I did think that there was a moment there

where it wasn't going to be championship contention, but it was going to be playoffs every year with a chance to win a series or two. And bottom line is if John Wall doesn't get hurt in that postseason series when they were up to one against the Hawks, they probably would have been in the Eastern Conference finals that year. But whatever. Or Scott Brooks, I just used his bench.

In Game 7 against the Celtics. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, they also couldn't, for whatever reason, guard Kelly Olinick. But anyway, yeah, they were, you know, look, the bottom line is that's as close as they've gotten to anything meaningful, like in terms of a big stage since the late 70s. You know, they weren't, you know, even in the 80s teams that were going to the playoffs all the time with Rulin and Mahorn, etc. And even the Gil, you know, Antoine, Koran teams, they really weren't close like they were with Wall, Beal, and a couple. And by the way, I think personally, Randy just, you know, was a much better basketball coach than Scott Brooks. Maybe not the same kind of communicator or relationship guy, but he was just a better basketball coach.

And I like the way it was going. But Tommy Shepard's been brilliant to figure out a way to get rid of Wall. then Westbrook and to end up with this hall. And yeah, the flexibility that they have as well is exciting. It's exciting. Now, I still think the bottom line is, God, I open the show today by saying I'm probably not going to talk about the Wizards today, maybe tomorrow with Tommy. But I should have anticipated that having you on, we would have gotten this.

I commandeered yourself. Yeah, you did, which is fine, because this is not a championship contending outfit. it. Beal is not a top 10 player and you need a top five player pretty much to win it all. I mean, that's been proven over the years. So I don't have, you know, these grand illusions that they're going to make a championship run. But, you know, just having a good team that's competitive, that's going to be in the postseason that can win a series or two, I just, the NBA is different than any other league. You know, you've got to have a top five guy to win a title. And they don't have a top five guy on their roster. They don't have a top 10 guy. I love Brad. I love the elite

score he's become. They're 12 players minimum right now I would trade Beale straight up for. But he's really good and he's an elite scorer, even though he is shooting so poorly so far this year. But I think he's going to fit much better with these pieces around him. I really do. And I'm excited about that. All right, that's it. I got to wrap this thing up because I went very long in the first segment, but you're the best for calling in and doing this before you get onto a flight. I will talk to you tomorrow. Yeah, man. Thanks. Thanks to Ben. As always, always enjoyed that and enjoyed the Wizards conversation there at the end. I think I predicted at the beginning of the show today that there might be some Wizards conversation with Ben. He'd rather have that conversation.

So the only other things that I wanted to get to, first of all, on Saturday, Maryland gets a big win over Indiana, 3835. That puts the Terps within one win of bowl eligibility. They do finish the season against Rutgers on the road. But they've got a tough schedule coming up right now with games against Penn State this coming Saturday, then Michigan State and then Michigan. And, you know, Navy got a win. The smell test, not good again this weekend. Hang in there with me, I promise. Really sucks because there were other games that I played yesterday that would have worked out well.

And then one that didn't. So there you go. But the backdoor cover by the Houston Texans yesterday was an all-timer. Down 38-0, getting 17, basically, if you bought it from 16 and a half to 17, like I did. They scored 22 points in the last eight minutes of the game. to lose by 16. Anyway, a good win by Maryland. It was a good bounce back game for Tua. I'm sorry, for Leah Tunga Vailoa, 26 of 40, 419 yards, two touchdowns. The Terps really rolled it up offensively, won the game 3835. Could not get many stops defensively in the game. The two teams

combined for nearly a thousand yards in the game. But the Terps have a chance here. They've got a chance. over the final four to get one more and to be in a bowl game. In fact, I've already seen a bunch of bowl projections having them play West Virginia in a rematch out in Arizona and the Chase.com Bowl, I think it is, whatever. As I mentioned, Navy won outright, even though I gave out Tulsa on Friday night.

Virginia got a win. What a shootout they had with BYU. They were done 21-0. Gameback led 49-45. Ended up losing 66 to 49 in a game at BYU. And Virginia Tech for you, Hokie fans. held on against Georgia Tech. I actually liked Georgia Tech in that game, so that's a good win for them.

The college football on Saturday was the Michigan game, Michigan-Mishigan State game, was one of the best games in a while. It really was. In a season that's had a lot of memorable moments, this was certainly up there. With that said, Michigan got completely hosed in the game. There were multiple calls that went Michigan State's way that had no business going, Michigan State's way that really impacted the game. They had a fumble recovery for a touchdown in the first half that was called a touchdown on the field. There was no conclusive video that showed that

it wasn't a touchdown. In fact, the video may have confirmed the call, and yet they overturned it. There was a fourth down play for Michigan in their next to last drive where there was a blatant miss on a defensive pass interference penalty. There were others throughout the game. I really felt like Michigan was the better team. They were up 30 to 14 and blew it. But I thought that that was some very suspicious, borderline sketchy officiating in that game. And if you watch that game and you're a Michigan fan, you know it. If you're a Michigan state fan, you know it. Also out of that game was one of the best performances of the year by Kenneth Walker the third. They're running back to transfer from Wake Forest. Believe it or not, Wake Forest is under

They've got a chance to go undefeated, and they don't have the best back in the country on their team anymore. He transferred from Wake to Michigan State, and Kenneth Walker, the third, is putting together an unbelievable season with an unbelievable game against Michigan. Five touchdowns rushing 197 yards. He's got 1194 yards on the season. That's eight games in averaging nearly seven yards to carry, and he's got 14 touchdowns. rushing one receiving touchdown. He was like fourth or fifth in the odds before this weekend. I have a feeling he'll be way up there today. The first playoff rankings come out tomorrow night. Ohio State was not impressive in their win over Penn State. I thought Penn State really put up a fight. They lost by nine in that game. Cincinnati, another unimpressive win. It was 14 to 12 at Tulane at halftime. They ended up winning 31 to 12. Georgia's defense is sick. What were the other games?

I think Auburn all of a sudden looks formidable. You know, they've got a game with Bama at the end of the year. They also, I think, play A&M this week. I don't know that they're good enough to beat Bama, but Bo Nix is playing better and defensively they're pretty good. Wake Forest, 8 and 0, Wake Forest ranked in the top 10 for the first time in school history. They are really good offensively. Their quarterback, Sam Hartman, is excellent. Wake Forest will be an underdog, I think, this week at North Carolina, but I think they can win that game.

And then they've got NC State, Clemson, and BC. What happens if Wake Forest goes undefeated in the ACC, wins the ACC title game? What happens? They have a better resume. I talked to Stanford, Steve, about this on radio on Friday. Scott's, you know, co-host on Scott Sports Center. And he thinks Wake would have the better resume than Cincinnati. Now, they're not going to have a better resume more likely than not than, say, a one-loss,

you know, Alabama team. But, wow, Wake Forest, they can really score. And this guy, Sam Hartman, is putting together an unbelievable season. Right now, Hartman, 22 touchdown passes, three picks. He's thrown for 2,500 yards in eight games, really having a phenomenal season. Their best win is probably, I guess, a three-point win over Louisville? I don't know. Their best win if they get it, I guess would be over Clemson.

Clemson beat Florida State got the weirdest one of those pitch-it-around plays on the final play of the game that fumbles and Clemson runs it in for the cover. And by the way, knocked the game over the total on both of those. Another story from college football, Gary Patterson resigned. Really, really surprised that Patterson is out. What a coach he was at TCU.

He, there was a lot of discussion, I guess, that this was going to be his final year. They lost the K-State. But he took TCU into national prominence over a 20-year head coach, one of the best defensive minds in college football. I'm very surprised that he would bolt in the middle of a season where they're struggling.

I hope it's not health-related. My son went and graduated from TCU, so I was down there in Fort Worth for several games over a few-year period, and it was quite the atmosphere and quite the program there for a while, and they've had a couple of tough years, that's for sure. Anyway, what else did I have?

That's basically it. Oh, the other NFL yesterday, obviously the day of the backup quarterback, you know, Mike White for the Jets pulling off a stunner. I mean, how about the Jets? The Jets have two wins over on the season, and they're against Tennessee and Cincinnati. That's pretty interesting. I'm so sick to my stomach that I didn't give the Jets out.

And I talked about them being one of the biggest anti-public plays on the board, but there was a shitload of sharp money on Cincinnati as well. I did play the Jets personally plus the 12. So you get this performance by Mike White. By the way, Josh Johnson, who played for Washington, had to come into that game at one point. But Mike White, okay, if you're wondering who the hell Mike White is, he was a fifth round pick in 2018 at a Western Kentucky. With their number one draft choice hurt, Mike White in his first NFL start, 37 to 45, 405 yards, three touchdowns. two interceptions. There is a play in this game, though, on the Jets' final drive of the game, where they

ran the clock out, where there was a penalty on Cincinnati on a third down stop just under two minutes to go, which meant Cincinnati was going to get the ball back. There is a penalty called, an unnecessary roughness penalty on a run that is one of the worst calls of the year. The NFL better fix this, because this is the kind of thing that people walk away, saying football just didn't the same. You cannot call 15-yard penalties when a team gets a clean stop and they're about to get the ball back down three when it's not egregious. That is a terrible call and the referee that made it should be fined and or suspended for making that call. That was repulsive. And I had the jets. I wasn't going to lose that bed anyway, even if Cincinnati got the ball back.

but that was really a terrible, terrible call. Last night, I mean, look, I've been on the Vikings as saying that they are underrated. That was a poor performance. It was a poor performance by my guy, Cousins. I thought it was by far and away his worst game of the year. Dallas owned the line of scrimmage defensively, wreaked havoc on the Vikings with, you know, constant pressure that forced him to check down and unload quickly. and then Cooper Rush threw for 325 yards

and his start as a backup quarterback, beating the Vikings, and it's a devastating loss for Minnesota. Big win for the Cowboys who are proving, you know, even without Dak Prescott, what a supporting cast. And we talked all year, like, well, I guess Dallas could fall if Dak Prescott doesn't play. Well, Cooper Rush came in and threw for 325 last night. Cooper, I mean, the catch.

Cooper made on their game-winning drive on a second and ten that was nearly intercepted and then Bobbled and Cooper pulled in a little bit of a lucky play also a great play and that essentially was the key play on the game-winning drive. That and an unbelievable play on a third down and long where Elliott caught a ball and literally ran through two tacklers for the first down and if not they would have been kicking to tie there at the end to force overtime. But But Dallas, wow, you know, first of all, Dac apparently healthy enough to go, it was more cautionary. They play Denver this week. They play Atlanta the week after.

Could he sit another game? I don't know. Dallas in pretty good shape right now, obviously, in the division. And I would also just say, and I've liked the, I've said to you all year long, no finish in the division would surprise me. Well, now, obviously, if Dallas doesn't win it, it would surprise me. The Eagles destroyed a bad Lions team, but the Eagles have been rumored to perhaps be sellers here at the trade deadline tomorrow. The Eagles are three and five on the season. They still have games like with the Broncos, the Giants, the Giants twice, Washington twice.

Philly's one of those teams. They're good enough defensively. Look, they rolled up a lot of points yesterday against a Detroit team. that had major issues. But Jalen Hertz ran for like 80 yards. Didn't throw for a lot, but they ran for a bunch. You know, without, you know, Miles Sanders is out for the year. Boston Scott had a big game. They added Jordan Howard to that roster.

He had a big game. If I were an Eagles fan, I would not want them to be sellers before the trade deadline. I think Philadelphia is capable of winning another four or five games to get to like eight, which could be enough for like a seven spot, an eight and nine record, nine and eight record. Again, they've got the Giants twice and Washington twice. So those are four potential wins right there. Although I think the Giants are, you know, as I've talked about before, a bit of a live dog as well.

They have the Broncos. They have the Jets. You know, they have six games left on their schedule that are winnable. You know, and then they've got the Cowboys. in the final game of the year, the Cowboys may have everything wrapped up at that point. At that point, they also have the Saints coming up and the Broncos coming up. If I were a Philly fan, I would not want them bailing on this season quite yet. I think that they are still a possibility.

I like the Giants a little bit, not smell test purposes, but I like the Giants tonight plus the 10 or whatever it is. the smell test two and three on Saturday. And then yesterday I had the dolphins plus 14. And that, you know, was backdoor covered late. I had the Panthers, which they won outright. I had the Colts slaying three. They had a 14-0 lead. They lose an overtime.

And Derek Henry is done for the year, apparently, with a foot injury, according to Schefter. And then the one game that wasn't even close. In fact, it was the one game that wasn't close all weekend was Jacksonville. they appear to have bailed on the season. All right, that's a football Monday show. Back tomorrow with Tommy.