The Kevin Sheehan Show - Breathe Terps Fans and Cooley On Skins '18 Offense

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

Kevin opens up the show with a recap of Maryland's first round win over Belmont. Thom called in and so did Cooley. Cooley talked about reports of the Redskins trading up, Jay Gruden's off-season influence, and then he broke down why the Skins' offense struggled in 2018. Kevin closed with 7 more NCAA Tournament Smell Test picks. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I'm here. Aaron's here. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them we told you to call. Today could have gone differently, much differently in terms of tone, in terms of just me being in it or not in it. I am in it today. Cooley, Tom, and Van Pelt. That's the intended lineup today. We'll see if it comes to fruition. The smell test awful yesterday. My apologies, one and four. I've got another one today, and I'll get to that later on in the show. My prediction that the Big East would do well in this tournament, not correct. I did get the Big Ten right, however. Thought they would have a decent tournament. Five and O yesterday. One of the five winners, of course, was Maryland. Deep exhale, Terp, nation. They won a postseason game for the first time in three years. That's not an exaggeration,

the first time in three years. So when I hear, as I've been more constructively critical in recent weeks about Maryland, recent months, than I've ever been, and I hear back from various people saying, man, you're getting tough on them. I can answer with facts. And one of the facts is They won their first postseason game yesterday for the first time in three years. And let's be honest, no matter what your opinion is of Mark Turgeon, if you think he's doing a good job or not, yesterday there isn't one Maryland fan that I know of Aaron that didn't think he needed it. Needed it badly.

Needed it for what is a different conversation. His job, probably not, for a lot of reasons like money. Needed it to keep the wolves in the fan base, the crazies in the fan base that don't feel that his job should be secure? Absolutely. He had to have it for that. Does he care? I have no idea. It doesn't matter whether or not you think the criticism of him has been fair, or whether or not they in College Park think it's fair.

It is what it is. It's there. and the majority of Maryland basketball fans were tiring of big game losses, be it in the regular season or in the postseason where Maryland again had not won a game in the NCAA or the Big Ten tournament since 2016. It was a big win for Mark. I was so happy for him, relieved for him. It won't take him off any hook that he may be on right now,

but Aaron it gives him a chance with a good show. tomorrow against LSU to create some perceived forward momentum for the program that many perceive has stalled in recent years. I know it may be crazy to some of those in College Park in that basketball office, they've gone to four tournaments in five years, but this program's fan base thinks the tournament should be a given, and that winning in the tournament proves something, and they got to win yesterday. Let's go through. it like we would a skins post-game show here. And start with the things that I liked.

Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Day. All right. We're going to do this, and hopefully we're going to do it a few more times. Be great to do one on Monday, too. Well, we will do it on Monday, win or lose. All right. What I liked from the Maryland Belmont game,

they won the game, and I saw just a few. few moments ago, the headline in the post, exhale and advance. And that really does say it all. It wasn't a win in advance. It was, oh my God, I can breathe now. Belmont was good, very good offensively, a really good basketball team offensively. Maryland was just a three-point favorite going into that game. If you didn't know that, they were the higher-seated team, a six versus an 11, Just a three-point favorite. They got through it yesterday with players on the roster that had never won a postseason game. And I want to start with Darrell Morsell because those of you that have listened to me,

you Maryland basketball fans over the years, and some of you have pushed back on this, and I've said to you over and over again, Darryl Morsell, to me, is a player that we are going to love eventually. It's going to be pulling your hair out early on. at times, but by the time he is a junior, senior, because he's a four-year player, it's going to be a lot of fun watching his growth. The comparison, Maryland fans, for me, has been DJ Strawberry. DJ Strawberry came in as a great defender, but a very inconsistent and unpolished

offensive player, and that's really Darrell Morsell to a T. But DJ Strawberry was a badass competitor, and so is Morsell. And that's the thing that's been obvious from the get-go about him, is he competes his ass off. He is, in my view, the toughest kid on the team that they play. He is a very good defender. Now, the guy he was guarding yesterday for the significant majority of the game, Dylan Wendler, was unbelievable, unconscious. He had 35 points. He was 11 for 23 from the floor, 7 for 14.

and almost every shot he made was contested. Contested. You know, they were step back, you know, James Harden-style threes with Morsell draped all over him. That kid was outstanding. Morsell was great yesterday. I don't care how many points his man scored. He got enough stops when it mattered,

and at the end got the key turnover. Now, Iala got a deflection on the backdoor pack. That was huge. But Morsell had it covered anyway. Morsell also offensively is the most aggressive player they have. He never, ever backs down from shooting an open shot, even though he is an inconsistent and has been an inconsistent shooter. He knocked down a huge three late in the game.

He got to the rim consistently, ended up with 18 points, two assists, few rebounds, a couple of steals, I think, six for ten from the floor, and just an outstanding game from the sophomore, from Baltimore. I like Daryl Morsell. I've liked him since the jump, and I think he is one of those players.

By the time he is a senior, he is going to be a big-time leader and a really good college basketball player when his tenure is over. Again, he's unpolished offensively, and I know there are times it's like, oh, you just drove it into two guys and turned it over. He was great yesterday.

And because of his backcourt mate or one of the other two backcourt mates, Anthony Cowan's Day, Morsell's Day, was necessary. His high school teammate in Baltimore out of Mount St. Joe's, Jalen Sticks-Smith, was great yesterday. Incredible yesterday. This is the kind of game where Sticks was going, to succeed. Maryland recognized, coaching staff recognized what their advantages were in this game. They were playing a defensive team that was undersized, understrength, and for Maryland, and I mentioned

this during the Big Ten season, that I think early in the NCAA tournament, they're actually going to feel relieved offensively. It's going to be easier offensively, and it was. Maryland was able to get what they wanted throughout the game. Now they missed so many shots. Cowan in particular. In many ways, if Cowan has a poor shooting night, instead of the absolute dreadful shooting night that he had, Maryland would have won this game going away.

But they didn't. But they got what they wanted, and they sent their bigs to the rim knowing that Belmont could not keep Bruno and sticks off. the glass. I said yesterday, I think I said this, or maybe just repeated what Dustin Clark had said, that Bruno needed many offensive rebounds. He only got two. Sticks got eight. Eight offensive rebounds in the game and just a vicious dunk at the rim off a scramble play where Morsell picked up the loose ball, fed Smith for a big bucket, and a foul, which Smith converted

the free throw on. He led the way with 19. points, 12 rebounds. He was really, really good. Just something to keep in mind, I've mentioned this all week leading up to the tournament. Maryland's best games, and games that they have won are games in which Jalen Smith has played well. That's important. Stick Smith was outstanding yesterday for Maryland. The second half start, you know, you just give everybody credit for that, but you give the coaching staff some credit for that too. They were in a hole at halftime. They were down 12 in the first half. Much of it really not due to anything sinister, like bad coaching or horrible playing, but really what it came down to is Maryland couldn't make a shot. Anthony Cowan in the first half was one for nine,

oh for six from behind the arc, and of those nine shot attempts, seven or eight of them were wide open. Two of them were right at the rim. I think Marilyn missed four easy shots right at the rim in the first half. But they made a little bit of a run at the end of the first half, and then the second half, they opened up with a 14-0 run, taking it to Belmont. Something I've wanted Marilyn to do to come out, be the aggressor. They pressured a little bit. They were up in the grill defensively. No space. And when they... they had space, they rebounded. When Belmont had space and got a shot off, they rebounded. And then they took it right to the rim. And when they got doubled or there was a collapse on Bruno in the

rim, he kicked it out to Ayala for a three. It was a great start to the second half. Also on the things that I like the list. Man, did I like that Dylan Wendler? Dylan's his first name, right? Yeah. Wow. Is he a Scorer, shooter, crafty. By the way, you may not have noticed this about Wendler. He's 6-8. You know, this dude isn't, he wasn't 6-3-6-4. Those stepbacks, he's a 6-8 guy.

He's got very crafty ball handling movements. They are well-coached offensively, very well-coached offensively. They run stuff for him. they have other players too. You know, I kept saying during the game, you can't give him any air, no airspace, but you can't let the big dude off that pick and pop have a wide open look either, because his stroke was decent. Good offensive basketball team, Windler was sensational.

I have no idea how Temple held him to five points. Something else I loved about the game. I loved that Bruno shot an open three. in the first half. I have said this all year long. I don't know why he's so passive offensively. I just don't get it. I don't know why he has not taken more 15 to 18 foot jumpers

and more three-point attempts this year. Do you know how many three-point attempts he had the entire season going into the game yesterday? Do you know? Nine. Yeah. Nine total for a guy with a great stroke. I think I would have preferred him to have had 40 three-pointers this season.

I think it would have helped them offensively. Not at the expense of keeping them off the post, but they don't put him on the post in every possession anyway. He knocked down that three. I'm like, he can hit that shot. Imagine a team with a 6-10 center and a 6-foot-11 power forward that can knock down threes. Both of them have decent strokes.

Love that he took that three. I'd like to see more of it. You know what? Saturday against LSU, and Maryland's the first game of the day, the 12-15 game, that guy Naz Reid, who is a beast physically. If you want to keep him away from the rim, you move Bruno out to the elbow and actually have him shoot a couple of those shots.

And by the way, if Reed comes out to guard him, I think Bruno can go around him. What I didn't like from the game. I didn't obviously like the start to the game. I thought it was a passive start to the game. We've seen that a lot this year. It's frustrating to watch. I thought Bruno was passive early in the game.

And clearly, Anthony Cowan's shooting performance was the worst of his career. Three for 18 from the field, one for 10 from behind the arc, and he missed three free throws on five attempts. Look, he played some decent defense, especially in the second half on that kid McLean. He had six assists and only one turnover. This was not a team defensively that was going to turn Maryland over a lot. Maryland got what they wanted. It was much easier.

Look, they had not scored more than 70 points. They had scored more than 70 one time in the last, since early January. They scored 79 yesterday, and the truth of the matter is they could have scored 90 in that game easy. if they had shot it a bit better. And Cowan struggled. He struggled on the wide open threes that he had. He struggled on some of the floaters. He missed some shots at the rim.

It was an horrific, horrific, horrific night for Cowan offensively. He never stopped shooting, though. And they're going to need him Saturday. He cannot go three for 18 Saturday, and Maryland come away with the win. He hit that one big three. I loved that after he hit that big three to tie the game at 71, that it was either the next possession or maybe two possessions later. Turgeon ran a play for a Cowan to get an open three, and it was in and out. He was just short.

But I love the confidence that the coach had in the player. I love that the player wasn't backing off shooting. He can't. It was a bad night for Anthony Cowen as a shooter, as a score. and it nearly did him in. Again, if he has a poor night shooting, Maryland wins this game by double digits. If he's got an average night shooting, Maryland wins the game by 15 to 18 points. He had a dreadful night shooting, which is why the Maryland and Belmont game came down to the wire.

And Wendler had something to do with that as well. I did not like the end of the first half. I really felt that watching this guy, Rick Bird coach, was a pleasure until the very end of the game, which I will get to in a moment. But, you know, when you scout a team and it's short notice, and Maryland only had two days, although they were scouting both Belmont and Temple. I have no idea what I'm about to say is true, but I bet you that multiple times during the course of the year at the end of a half

when a team was holding for the last shot, they ran defensively what they ran. against Maryland, which is that run and jump trap. Like they came out of nowhere and they trapped Sorrell Smith. He turned the ball over. No one was in the middle of the floor for a pass, which Maryland could have been attacked from. They were caught completely off guard and Belmont stole a possession at the end of the half. It was well done by them. Marilyn unprepared for it.

I didn't like that. I mentioned early Bruno. I thought he was too passive. I didn't like that. I really questioned in the moment, and it's hard for anybody to believe me because you didn't hear me. But at about the 1220 mark in the second half, Maryland holding a 5651 lead, Turgeon pulled Bruno from the game to give him what a lot of coaches do, which is a little break before the 12-minute mark so that he gets a little rest there

and then gets the rest of the timeout for the TV under 12 TV timeout. Pulled Bruno out, and it was the lineup that he left in the game that made them very vulnerable defensively, and it cost them dearly. He put Josh Tamayev in the game, there was no sticks in the game, no Bruno in the game, and no more sell in the game. So two of your best three defenders are on the bench, and the other big guy that you have that in a game against Belmont is an imposing figure. he may get pushed around against Michigan State. We saw that Stick Smith was not pushed around against Belmont. And three straight possessions of a layup and two dunks, and they had the lead 57-56 with Bruno out.

It was a costly few minutes because not only did he not get the rest that Mark was anticipating, which was a few seconds before the 12-minute mark, and then hopefully the clock stops at 1140. The clock didn't stop until 9.50. So it went for basically two and a half minutes of game clock. Now he had him at the scorers table. He could have used a time out to get back in the game. But it went from 5651 Maryland without Bruno in the game,

without more sell in the game, without sticks in the game, to a 57-56 Belmont league. which they then, with Bruno back in the game, took that momentum and built a seven-point lead with seven minutes to go in the game. It was an unfortunate, as I said on Twitter, an unfortunate substitution. And I know what he was trying to do, and he is one of, you know, 250 coaches that coach it the same way. I'm going to get my big guy some rest here, you know, save him, get him some seconds before the 12 minute, get him some time. Here's the problem with that.

You're not always sure that he's not going to miss two or three minutes of game time, which is what happened. You can't control when the clock's going to stop unless you're going to use a timeout. He knew he had made a mistake when they scored twice at the rim, and he got him up and put him at the scores table. It was too late then. It was unfortunate because I thought Maryland may have been on the verge of pulling away there. And then they go down seven.

They responded, though. They responded and they came back and they won the game. A couple of other observations about the game. I was shocked that Belmont held for the final shot. I liked the Maryland possession. I did not have a problem at all with the two possessions with them up 7877. The one where Darrell Morsell misses. Actually, I think they were an up three situation at that point,

where Morsell missed the layup, the driving layup. I had no problem with that at all. I wanted them to be aggressive against the pressure in particular. He just missed a layup. And then Cowan's, you know, that final possession I had a bit of an issue with, Cowan, you know, off the Bruno double, missed a little floater, came up short. And then Belmont's got the ball back, you know, with 30 seconds left, down 178-77.

They don't call a timeout. They've obviously, as a well-coached offensive team, have gone through this situation a million times, and they had a play. And the play was to set up a backdoor and isolated backdoor cut for Wendler against Morsell. I was surprised, though, that they were holding for the last shot, down one. It's one thing in a tie game, but down one, you know, they were a good offensive team. I would have thought they would have, you know, gone for something a little bit earlier. And if they miss, you know, you're still in it.

Because even if you foul, you're going to have a chance down three worst case scenario. Mario in that particular situation. Iala gets his hand on the ball. Morsell gets the steel, and Morsell goes to the free throw line, and that's the second sort of late game observation. This guy is a good coach, okay? He's a very good coach. He made a mistake, though, at the end.

It's not debatable. He made a mistake calling his final time out before Morsell's second free throw. I don't know how anyone would debate that. anybody that has been a lifelong basketball coach at a college or pro level. And here's why. Once you used your final time out with two and a half seconds to go before Morsell's second free throw at 79-77, you eliminated the chance off a missed free throw to inbound the ball

and throw a pass from out of bounds with the clock stopped down the court. It just made no sense. only that, you opened up the possibility that Morsell and Maryland might intentionally miss the free throw, which they didn't do, and I thought it was the right decision not to do it. I wanted him to make the free throw for a three-point lead. Now, if they had a three-point lead, then you want him to miss in that spot. But up to two, I wanted him to make the free throw. But that was a really bad mistake to call his final time out there. Morsell missed the second free throw. And what did they end up with? They ended up with Wendler shooting a shot beyond half

court, you know, a one in 100 shot. Instead of grabbing the rebound off of a miss, potentially, calling a quick time out, having 2.3 seconds left to throw an inbounds pass into the front court potentially, or to get somebody, you know, at half court, dribbling into the front court for a better opportunity at a game winning shot. That was a big mistake. strategic error. It's not a debatable thing. This is one of those things where you want to debate me on whether or not they were guarding the ball screen the right way or whether or not they ran the proper set in a key. No, that's fine. But Rick Bird calling that final time out before the second Morsell free throw was a massive strategic error. And it hurt him. He missed the free throw

and the only thing they could get was a shot from roughly 55 feet. I was holding my breath on that shot because it was Wendler who was shooting it. But if he had that time out left, he calls it, and he gets to inbound the ball, which means you can throw a pass with the clock stopped much further into the court and then you still have 2.3 seconds to perhaps make a second pass in a shot or multiple dribbles in a shot. they had a rebound, one pass, and a heave because he burned that final timeout. Massive mistake there.

Now, if Morsell makes the second free throw, they're going to get to inbound the ball, even though they don't have timeouts left. But because the potential existed for him to miss that free throw, that's why it was a major, major mistake on his part. And cost Belmont a chance to potentially get a much better game. game-winning opportunity. Maryland played it perfectly there. I think Mark wanted to call a timeout, had Morsell made the free throw. He said after the game that he would not have fouled down three with two point five seconds left. I actually agree with that strategy. I think it would have been risky.

You could have gotten a foul in the midst of a shooting motion. He did mention that. But he had his defense set. He pulled those guys off the free throw line before the second free throw, which was the right thing to do. and he had him set so that they couldn't make a longer pass, and they had to heave one up from 55 feet. It was a big win, such an important win for them. And now they have an opportunity. They have an opportunity to play an LSU team that looked super impressive early against Yale,

then sort of hung on at the end. Yale missed just an unbelievable... At one point, they were four for 30, from behind the arc. And a lot of them were good looks. And it's a really good shooting team. Their best shooter was at one point, one for 13 from the floor.

They hit some late to make the three-point shooting percentage look less gross than it was. And LSU won the game by five. LSU looks the part, man. They've got athletes. Waters is a very good point guard. Naz Reid is a pro. He's a first-round pick.

and he is a load. They don't have their head coach. I like Maryland's chances tomorrow at 1215. They are a two and a half point dog, opened up at minus two, I think I saw. Went to two and a half. That is not a big number at all. I think Maryland's got a legitimate chance

to beat LSU and get to D.C. What an opportunity for Maryland. And as we talked about yesterday and talked about even before the Big Ten tournament, there was an opportunity over the next couple of weeks for Mark Turgeon and the program to get some incredible forward momentum, to get it, you know, to really have it instilled with some real energy for the first time in a while because the fan base was angry

and the next step would have been apathetic. And we know what that's like from the football team. If they can beat LSU, they're going to play in D.C. Thursday night against Michigan State or Minnesota in a Sweet 16 game. And then looming in the 11th. Elite 8 at Capital One Arena could be. Could be. Still not a likelihood. Still potentially, probably even better put a long shot, but the possibility of a Duke Maryland game in the Elite 8 in Chinatown. Just to get to DC and a Sweet 16 game in that building would be sick.

The prices after Maryland won yesterday on StubHub skyrocketed. You can't get into the building for less than 600 bucks. But that's, you know, that is a one-off upper level. Lower level is going to cost you $5,000. Now that's for the whole Thursday night, Friday night and Sunday. You know, maybe you can get in for one game for, you know, $1,500, something like that.

But the possibility of Duke, Maryland, and Virginia Tech, all being in that building, will make it the most difficult of regional tickets, unless of course Kansas is in Kansas City. Real quickly, some of the other things from, oh, one other thing I meant to mention, how about that misdunked by Bruno? The thing that was halfway down. People wondered, should that have been counted good?

No, it has to go through the net. I'm pretty sure that's the rule. Yeah, that is the rule. That's absolutely the rule. It's got to go through the net. It didn't. It went halfway down and came out. I would like to see him dunk that with two hands so we don't get that again.

Hell of a game. Really, when you think about the first day of the tournament, maybe the most exciting first round game of the day if the Auburn New Mexico State game wasn't. All of the night games, certainly the late games, although I want to talk about Wofford here for a second, were pretty much one-sided. No buzzer beaters.

An opportunity for a buzzer beater in the Belvoir. Vermont Maryland game and the New Mexico State Auburn game. Those were the only two really close games. Michigan State was in a tough battle with Bradley until late. You know, Vermont played Florida State pretty tough. You know, Nevada came back late with a chance. St. Mary's Villanova got tight at the end. The Wofford game was one of the oddest endings to a game I've seen. Now, I was vested in this one because I had Seton Hall plus three, not just in the smell test, but personally. And Seton Hall was dominating the second half, not dominating, but they were playing a very good second half. They had the lead multiple times in the second half after being down 10 at halftime.

It was 67 to 66 in this game last night. I'll get to Fletcher McGee in a moment. 6766 with four minutes to go, I think it was. Four minutes. to go. Great game. In fact, who was the crew? That was the Jacksonville crew. So that was, who did we have, Iron Eagle and Jim Spinarkel? Yeah. Yeah. Like, I do like that pairing too. I think they're very good. I like Iron Eagle a lot. And Spinarkel said, I just feel it. We're coming down. It's going to be overtime or it's going to be a last second shot here in this game. This is a terrific basketball game. And it was. It was back and forth, you know, pal for for C. Heaton Hall, Miles Powell was phenomenal in the second half.

But then what happened was a run like I have not seen in a long time. 6766 and Wofford went on a 17-0 run. They made in succession three-threes in less than a minute. This guy, Nathan Hoover, you've heard probably about Fletcher McGee, who became the all-time NCAA three-point shooter. All-time made three-pointers, Fletcher McGee for Wofford. I shouldn't say you've heard of him. Most of you have not heard of Fletcher McGee.

He has one of the best catch, square up, get out of your hands, quickly, shots you will see in this tournament. He was seven for 12 from behind the arc, and a bunch of them came in the second half. Finished with 24, Wofford ended up blowing out Seton Hall winning 8468, finishing the game on a 17-2 run. They were impressive offensively. Really impressive offensively.

They get Kentucky next. Do you know what the line in that game is? And I know P.J. Washington isn't going to play again. You know, Kentucky destroyed Abilene Christian. Is P.J. Washington definitely out? I saw someone tweeted that out. I think Seth Davis. Somebody tweeted it out. Oh, that's dangerous.

That PJ Washington is out. Do you know what the line is in that game? without PJ Washington, I'd say three. Oh, okay. You had a better handle on it. I figured Kentucky was going to be a seven point favorite minimum, seven or eight point favorite. Two versus a seven.

Kentucky's been, you know, they killed their first round opponent. They're really good. They are a four and a half point favorite in that game. Wofford's good. They are good. A couple of other things. Minnesota was impressive to me yesterday. Mentioned Amir Coffee and Jordan Murphy.

And Jordan Murphy's got a back problem. and he fought through that. But the Big Ten prepared its teams this year with the grind that we talked about all year long for this tournament. Iowa goes today, Wisconsin goes today, Ohio State goes today. I think Iowa's got a good chance against Cincinnati. Wisconsin, I think it's got a good chance against Oregon. I do not think that Ohio State has a chance against Iowa State. I think the Big Ten will go one and two or two and one today, so they're going to lose today, I think, more likely than not.

but already a 5-0 start to the tournament. And I think the possibility of multiple teams in the Sweet 16. The ACC is stronger at the top. I've never debated that. Virginia, North Carolina, Duke. They're all final four national champion, you know, possibilities. I don't know who, you know, out of the Big Ten, other than Michigan State, and I think Michigan are legitimate championship contenders.

What else out of that first day? Florida was impressive. Ja. John Morant was unbelievable. You know, so I said that, well, we both liked Marquette, and I gave it. No, I had Murray State. Yeah, but I thought you liked Marquette minus the points, no? Okay, my fault.

Yeah. John Morant's incredible, but I guess, you know, I'm watching them in that tournament, and I'm trying to project what it would be against somebody else. John Morant, 17.16 assists, 11 rebounds. He's ridiculous. You know, he's got eyes everywhere. He just sees the floor. great passer. Had seven

turnovers also in the game. Marquette never really had a chance from the beginning of the second half on. They were awful shooting the basketball yesterday. I think they were like 23 of 75 or something. I think I saw from the floor. It was ridiculous. But Morant's performance was great yesterday.

There wasn't really a memorable moment other than John Morant, you know, and the triple double. And I think Wofford's performance to a certain degree. But you didn't have the classic buzzer-beater, and really, you know, just the Maryland game and the Auburn game came down to the final possession. Jeff Jones and Old Dominions, we had Jeff Jones on the show the other day.

He said, my team is offensively challenged, and he's right. Purdue's a good team, too. But they did a good job on Purdue defensively. And there goes Carson Edwards again, man. I love Matt Painter, but, man, he is given the green light to Carson Edwards. He was 7 of 23, and their other good shooter, Ryan Klein, who is deadly and has been was one for 11 from behind the ark. I actually really do like Purdue's chances in the next round against Villanova.

But that should be a hell of a game. Okay, let's get to Window Nation. Window Nation is a fan of this podcast. I want you to give them a shot. I have twice over the last decade had Windows installed in my home by Window Nation. It worked out for me. and many people I know, I think it'll work out for you as well. But here's the real advantage.

And I'll give you the deal that they've got going in a second. But if you've been thinking about new windows and with the winds today, that you're going to, we've got windy conditions today and tomorrow, if you feel draftiness in your house and you know you need new windows and you've been thinking about it but you haven't gotten around to it, just call Window Nation at 86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.com and set up a free in-home estimate. They'll come out to your home. They'll go room by room.

They'll tell you what you need and what you don't need. They're not going to gouge you. This is a first-rate company, a 97% customer satisfaction rating, the fifth largest window retailer in the United States. You tell them that I mentioned that you should call. Harley and Aaron and Eric are going to set you up with one of their best. They'll come out. They'll give you a free in-home estimate,

and the price they quote you will be valid for 60. days. So you've got plenty of time to make up your mind. Right now, they've got a deal. Buy two windows, get two windows free and buy a house of windows for just $69 a month. The two windows get two free has no limit on it. So you can buy, you know, if you need 20 windows, you buy 10, you get 10 free. And you can pay just $69 a month if you buy a house full of windows. How about this little Wind Donation stat. 99.5% of all of their windows that were installed in the last year required no follow-up service. This is a no-brainer low-maintenance company.

They're going to come in, give you a free estimate if you move forward. They're going to come in without disruption. They're going to make the install, and you're not going to have any problems once they do it. Call 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com. That's 8669Nation or Windonation.com. and tell them I told you to call. All right, let's bring in Tommy for a quick conversation. And I appreciate, just so everybody knows,

Tommy was ready to come in yesterday, and I said, nope, it's raining, the traffic's bad, we're going early, and he was ready to call in yesterday, and we just never got to you. It was a crazy day yesterday in a long conversation with Dustin Clark, Mark Turgeon's former assistant, but I did want to make sure we caught up before the end of the week. Listen, don't apologize to me.

Apologize to all the listeners who were angry that I wasn't on the podcast. I think that's what I was sort of doing, and I was taking you off the hook for it because I had several people tweet me saying how weak it was that you didn't post. And I made it clear at the beginning of the podcast yesterday, and I wanted to emphasize that this was not your issue. It was my issue, and you were a willing participant yesterday. You know, you're always looking out for me. I'm always there when I'm always there when I need you. All right. What did you think of Maryland?

You know, look, I think Belmont is a good team. Very good offensive team. Very good. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I think they're a real good offensive team. I thought you saw in Spurs, particularly in the second half, tremendously, the way they opened up, that Maryland defense that, you know, we saw from time to time during the season that was so good.

You know, I thought that there were, you know what, it was nice. It was nice at the end of the game to have the deflected pass go to a Maryland player instead of the other way around like it has in the past. Right. I know it was, you know, the post, the headline in the sports section, exhale and advance, sums it up. For Maryland fans, I mean, we were on the edge of our seats, I think most expecting the worst. And when it was over, there was a real huge feeling of relief. And I bet there was on some level for Turgeon as well. And what an opportunity they have, he has, the staff, the program

has, if they can beat LSU tomorrow. That team should gain some momentum, emotionally from that win. I agree. I mean, it wasn't an 11, you know, testing a 6. Belmont is a better team than at an 11, and Maryland stood up for it. You know, one of the key moments, and you can correct me if I've got to play wrong, was I guess with about maybe less than two minutes left, when Bruno shot got blocked and knocked out of bounds, and he was like out of play.

and then everyone's scrambling for it and he dives in. He dove into that crowd and sort of knocked the ball out. Well, Morsel made a strong move to get it before their center got to it and then made the play to Stick Smith for the vicious dunk for the three-point play. That was a key moment. Oh, huge moment. A huge moment. Look, I think they played better and I thought they would.

I think if you're a Maryland fan, you do exhale, but, but feel good overall about what you saw. And I think they're capable of turning in a better game, though. I think they're capable of being better. You know, and I mentioned this in the open. You know, and for those of you that sort of read into the way I said it, you were probably reading into it accurately. Yeah, there are some people out there that feel some of the criticism,

constructive criticism, and I've been a supporter, much more than others, but that some of the constructive criticism from media and fans has been exaggerated and been unfair. They're in the tournament for the fourth time in five years, but look, there's no way to erase the following fact.

Yesterday was their first postseason win in three years. If you don't win postseason games for three years, there's going to be a feeling that the program is spinning its wheels. And yesterday was huge to give them the opportunity to create some true, not just perceived, but some true

forward momentum and really inject some juice back into it. Yeah, I agree. And you know, one thing, though, it seems to me Maryland is a very good team athletically. Yeah, they are. Really good athletically. They're not the smartest team on the court sometimes, and that comes through. Yeah, there were some frustrating moments there like there have been all year, but one of the things I've said to you all year is that this Big Ten is so, so good, top to bottom,

and that one of the feelings that I had, and it was maybe too much optimism, but I think we saw it play out yesterday in results and in production, but I thought when these teams got into the tournament, at least the early portion of the tournament, that in many ways it was going to be easier. And Maryland has not had an easier time offensively. Part of that is the opponent. Belmont's not physically capable of matching up with Maryland defensively. But Maryland hadn't scored,

they'd scored more than 70 points one time in the last two months. And yesterday they scored 79. And the truth is, if Cowan has just a poor shooting night instead of an absolute dreadful shooting night. They would have scored 90 in that game. Yeah, they imposed their will offensively, and the only thing that got in the way was themselves. Sometimes.

And a rough shooting night, in particular, from Cowan. All right, I wanted to save this for you, because I've had this for a couple of days, and I think you're going to find this very interesting. It's a Redskins-related story. It's a Bruce Allen-related story. So every year for St. Patrick's Day, there is this very big event. I don't know if you know of it.

You've probably heard of it. It's called the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick's dinner. It's a huge event in D.C. for St. Patrick's Day. Every Irish Catholic, you know, are a lot of Irish Catholics in town attend this thing. It is a big muckety-muck event, you know, big names, you know, political and otherwise attend this event. It's a huge dinner. I've been two or three times. It's a lot of fun, a lot of fun.

Sitting at the head table on Saturday night were, among others, Brett Kavanaugh, Wallace Lowe, Steny Hoyer, four-star General Jones, the Irish ambassador, and Bruce Allen. Chris Matthews was there, Brett Baer from Fox, Chris Matthews from MSNBC, and Bruce Allen. was at the head table in this particular event. Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland, was the keynote speaker. It's a big event. I mean, every year it is a huge turnout. Lots of fun, lots of great food, lots of booze, but a really good event. And a nice event, Tommy, and that everybody's usually in a really happy and good mood.

Well, the head table gets announced one by one. and I had multiple people tell me, and I've been saving this for you, because I didn't have it for you on Tuesday, because I didn't hear about it until Wednesday, but I've been saving this for you. When Bruce Allen got announced, he was booed, roundly, audible. Oh, my gosh.

This is at a, at a dinner. At a dinner where people are in a jolly good mood, but understand this is a lot of why. Washingtonians, too. Long-time Washingtonians, long-time old-school Redskin fans are at this dinner every year, along with, you know, again, a lot

of political guys, media guys, et cetera, he got booed. I wanted to make sure that I got it from more than one person and I got it from multiple people, that he was booed. There was no mistaking that he was booed. Not only that,

which by the way, his reaction, according to all three of the people that I talked to is that he laughed it off and it was clearly uncomfortable. Everybody said it was a very uncomfortable moment. Well, it depends on how uncomfortable it was on how many drinks he was into the night. True, but what I did hear is that he laughed it off in a way that he was able to sort of pull it off without looking totally embarrassed by the moment. But there was also in Larry Hogan's keynote speech, he was talking about.

the dysfunction of Washington these days. And at one point, he said, you don't have to look much further than the Washington Redskins in the keynote speech. So anyway. Oh, my gosh. So anyway, I just wanted, I thought that last part was really interesting as it relates to the stadium, too. Now, there are reports here in the last 24 hours that the city's looking to try to purchase

the RFK land back from the federal government. I don't know if you've seen some of those reports. Yeah, I've seen them. I thought you'd find that very interesting. Because you know how these dinners go. No one gets booed. No. You know, it's not a crowd.

These are fans. A lot of people in the crowd are longtime Redskinned fans, but, you know, they're not the guys that are showing up at the stadium anymore. No. No, they're not showing up at Harvest Fest, are they? They're not showing up at Harvard. This is the part of the fan base that is not showing up at Harvest Fest. Yeah.

But anyway. I think about this for a minute. Think about how Dan Snyder would have gotten booed if Bruce Allen got booed. Oh, I don't. I think, yeah. Does he even go to those? Does he even attend those? I don't know if he does, but I don't see how, unless it's a Redskins event,

I don't see how he can show his face in public right now. Yeah. And again, this is why I've come to the conclusion that things could change. that the Redskins Stadium is going to stay right where it is. I disagree. Somebody's going to end up, you know, figuring out a way economically and the Redskins will probably end up, you know, making more of an investment in this thing than they would like.

But there is no way that beyond 2027 the Redskins are in Landover. I just don't see it. I think they'll have no place to go. Okay. Well, the last big Redskins bet that you and I made was you predicted the name would be changed by 2016. I said it would not be. It was supposed to be a big dinner that is yet to be paid off. I'll just go double or nothing on this one.

Hopefully we're both around in 2027. But I'll just say that there is another stadium. Let me just say, we don't have to wait for 2027. There will be an announcement. You know, there's going to be some sort of an announcement in the next year or so, I think sooner than a year of a new stadium somewhere. But anyway, give me your thoughts on Eichero and the reaction that he got. For those that missed it, it was quite a remarkable moment yesterday

and what turned out to be his final game. You know, look, Eitro is great. He wound up with over 3,000 major league hits, and you add that to the 1,400 he had in Japan. I mean, you know, he's one of the greatest hitters of all time. But there's always a little bit of anger for me, not at Ituro, but that he played for the Seattle Mariners most of his career. You know, because we've never really got to see him that much.

You know, the Mariners came to Camden Yards, You know, once a year. We saw him on TV, but, you know, I'm still an East Coast guy. And when you're on the West Coast sometimes, you're like invisible. So I don't think we really, here on the East, we really got to appreciate the full E-Tro. A lot of baseball writers did because baseball writers saw him on a regular basis, and they loved him. But if you were a fan, you had to love him. from afar, and I just wish he had played his career someplace that was a little bit more

high profile than Seattle. What's his legacy as a player? His legacy as a player is some people would argue the guy who brought the game together internationally between the United States and the Far East, more than any single other player because of his success. I mean, let's see, Hideki Matsui followed Ituro. I mean, Matsui had tremendous success with the Yankees as well. But, look, baseball is not in the same league when it comes to the NBA.

When it comes to growing the game internationally, I think Itro's legacy in part is he helped promote that baseball, bridge that gap between baseball, not just interpersonal. baseball's big in Korea too. It's becoming big in China and the United States. Specific, though, to just the baseball portion of his career. Is he a lock hall of famer? Oh, yeah. Again, it's one thing.

3,000 hits will generally get you in if you don't have any steroids on your record. So, yeah, I think he would have gotten in even if he didn't get the 3,000 hits. Well, I mean, he might be. I mean, how many, I mean, he was. an All-Star how many times? I mean, it was... Ten-time All-Star plus a ten-time Gold Glove Award. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. No, he's a lock for Hall of Fame. The only question is... The only question is, is he unanimous? He probably won't be, but

that doesn't mean he shouldn't be. He's first ballot lock. All right. What else you got for me? I got Cooley standing by. I got nothing else. All right. I'll talk to you on Tuesday. Thanks. Enjoy the weekend. Hey, you know what? I'm coming in there Tuesday. I know you are. It'll be great to see you. All right. Bye. Bye. Bye. I want to mention scentbird real quickly before we get to Cooley. Centbird is a luxury fragrance subscription service. It's a way to discover new colognes or perfumes without having to buy an entire bottle. It's important because if you don't know this, good colognes and perfumes, they're expensive.

and a lot of you aren't sure exactly what you want, or you've just been wearing something that somebody gave you as a gift a few years ago and you haven't been willing to change. Well, Sent Bird makes it easy. First of all, they have more than 450 designer brands for you to choose from each month, Gucci, Tom Ford, Kenneth Cole, Burberry, Prada, and a lot more. If that sounds daunting, don't worry about it. I tried it, my wife tried it, it was easy.

First of all, they've got tons of user ratings and reviews. Secondly, they've got a quiz. you can take that will discover for you a personalized recommendation when it comes to a perfume or fragrance. Here's the offer right now for my listeners only. You can get 50% off your first month today. That's only $7.50 for your first cologne or perfume. Go to scentbird.com slash KSDC. Use my code KSDC for 50% off your first month. Again, that's scentbird.com. S-C-E-N-T-Bird.com slash K-S-D-C for you to try your first cologne or perfume for just $7.50.

Sign on. Smell amazing. All right, let's bring in Cooley. And you can listen to Cooley's podcast, which is a great listen this week in particular because he's done a lot of things related to the Redskins offense last year, which we're going to talk about to a certain degree in Cliff's Notes version, hopefully. You can listen to Cooley's podcast any way you listen to a podcast and at Redskins.com. Let's start with, the last time we talked, we had talked about the Land and Collins deal.

It was shortly after the Land and Collins deal. So since then, just a couple of things just to rip through real quickly. The signing of Dominic Rogers Cromarty, which is a no-risk signing, there was no bonus money in the deal. If it doesn't work out, almost similar to Scandrick. Actually, I think it would be even less. Very different from Scandrick. Guaranteed Scandric like $2 million. I was going to say, they guaranteed

Scandric some money, so it's actually less expensive with DRC. But just the reaction to that, do you think there's a spot for him on this team? And if so, what is it? Look, my reaction is that it's a pretty nothing sign. And as I thought about it more and more, I kind of came to the conclusion

that Landon Collins probably wanted him. Said we worked really well together in New York for three years before Cromarty left to Los Angeles, or to Oakland, and I felt comfortable communicating with him, and it would be a good fit. Look, he played outside and rotated series last year at Oakland, and he looked slow, stiff, and it looked like he was saving. It looked like he was making business decisions out there when the ball was away from him. So I don't know what he's got left.

He says he's great, but everyone says they're great, and we'll see. But I'll bet it has something to do with Landy Collins. For those that have suggested that he could potentially be a safety, you say what? I don't think that he's a safety. No. I say how did any of our former DB turned safety workout over the last 10 years? DeAngelo Hall. Or any of the former corners, yeah.

All the angles change, everything. I mean, Will Blackman. how good was Will Blackman in the spot that one year, and then they wanted to move into safety. And that didn't work out. The story that came out from Lock and Four the other day, that the Redskins are one of a few teams anyway that are sniffing around at number three overall with the Jets for potentially Dwayne Haskins. Your reaction to that? Well, we talked about Dwayne Haskins, and so you know what my reaction would be to that.

I think it would be a mistake. Now, a lot of people like Duane Haskins if he were able to have a couple years to progress. There's no way that I see him being a legitimate starter and having any opportunity to have success in his first year. The Cliff Notes version, he ran so minimal concepts last year at Ohio State. And even in third downs in critical situations, he'd come off the field a lot of times. Granted, I know he can make big throws. And I know he can read out of play action, but in the NFL world where you haven't run any of these concepts, and you can't really move in the pocket, because he has heavy, heavy key, man, he can't move in the pocket.

He is not quick. He's not agile. He's not fast either. You're going to take a ton of hits, and I just don't, I see him even a problem early. So if that were the move, I think that would be, I think it would be a mistake. Is there any quarterback in this draft worth trading up from 15 to 3-4? 15 to 3? No, I don't think so.

I, you know, I love Locke, and I think that he'll go somewhere between 8 and 13, by all means, to Miami if there isn't movement. I think that's who in New York would probably end up drafting if they were to take a quarterback. I know there's a ton of stuff going on there. but um no i carler murray is is incredible but i'm not trading all the way up for somewhat of what is an unknown personal entity or character entity or whatever it is you know that's that that's that's not he didn't make that up like that's that's real stuff so i don't i don't want to trade up for that either so did you know the lock and hat a lock and murray would be the

only two that i would think about taking in the top 15 and so no i don't i don't I wouldn't trade up to three, four either. Did you go through the exercise of determining what it would take to go from 15 to three? Well, I understand the point value system of what it is. It's quite a bit, but it's not always just a given that that's what it is when people think you're trading up to take a quarterback. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a minimum of a first. You know, you swap spots and next year's first,

and then it may be a little bit more than that. Yeah, I think that I mean, that's realistic because anybody looking at the Redskins next year's first would probably say we're going to get a top 15 next year's first too. Right. Have you evaluated Will Greer yet?

Apparently he had a good day yesterday. No, Greer and the kids from Northwestern is kind of the project for today. Yeah, so I haven't gotten to Will Greer yet. I know he had a bad senior bull and that kind of took his status down. But look, I've watched Wheel Greer work out in Ashburn, Virginia. Right.

I remember you telling me. I remember you telling me that. What was the circumstance again around that? You know, my friend and a coach here named Paul Tross is a quarterback trainer for Elite 11, and he worked with McSorley out of all through high school, and he trains a lot of high school kids, but he trains college quarterbacks as well on NFL drops and NFL concepts. and so those guys were working on that last year.

The last year. I like career. I mean, I think I'm always surprised these young quarterbacks how little they know in terms of NFL concepts and what they run and the variety of often that may look like an NFL concept that's not read out that way. So I think at the point he was at a year ago, he had a lot to progress. But it reminds me like a little bit taller Grossman, man.

He's kind of, and I mean in a lot, just as a player. Because I haven't watched him enough as a player, but his kind of his attitude. Attitude. Yes. Yeah, he'll throw it. He's not afraid. And his attitude is a person.

Yeah. So I don't know yet. All right. Before I get to what you've talked about on the podcast this week or some of it on your podcast, which again, you can listen to at Redskins.com or any way you get a podcast. the report from the junkies, from E.B. on the junkies, that Jay Gruden found out about the landing Collins deal through the media and that he's frustrated because he's not involved in these off-season decisions. Your reaction to that is what? He may have found out about the actual goings-on of the signing, but I can tell you that Jay Gruden evaluated Landon Collins. I am 100% short of it. So, look, it's in that exact time frame of free agency when they would be evaluating these players.

They would have a sense that he was not going to be signed by the Giants. I know he evaluated Keenham. I'm sure he evaluated Collins. And when they do that in the time frame of free agency, I'll let a coach run a clicker on landing Collins in the scouting room. So I would bet you that Jay sat with a clicker in his hand and walked through multiple games of Landon Collins with everybody. involved. I also would bet you that, and I watch Landon as well, look, I don't think he's

John Taylor, I know you've talked about it. He's very good, but I don't think he's a playmaker, but when you watch Landon Collins for five or six games, you go, this guy, this guy is very, very solid. So there's no way that Jay had any doubts about what he would be as a player if he were to have watched a watch a film. So essentially, the way I saw this happening was Jay Gruden, we probably probably got a text and said, oh, cool.

We got him. I don't think that there was frustration on that front, on that player. Is there frustration about anything? I don't know. I don't know if there's frustration about anything, Kev. Look, he's alluded to the fact that there is some disconnect between the coaching staff and the front office. If there was, that would be it.

But that's from him in his post-season press conference, having that conversation. that's Doug being asked about whether or not to care about scheme, which is fascinating that he would say they don't, because they do. I mean, anybody scouting has got to have some semblance of what our scheme is, or, hey, by the way, what schemes they're currently playing in because that makes a big difference as well.

What scheme am I watching here? Am I watching an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme? Am I watching a 2-gap-B-tackle or a 1-gap-D-tackle? And you don't know that? I don't know what to tell you. I know what you're saying. I think what Doug probably meant was I don't really care about the terminology of our scheme or the way they're calling it, but I got to understand.

He gets an idea of what we are. Okay. Yeah. Oh, well, that's before you get to first downs. I don't even know what we are scheme-wise after watching all the first downs and second. All right. I think we're a Gapski team. I think, look, I mean, there's a lot, too.

what we actually. Let's get to that. Cooley did a breakdown of all of the first down plays that the Redskins ran in 2018, and he had some conclusions, you know, factual conclusions, and then some ideas on the factual conclusions that the data revealed. And I'll just let you explain it, but the net of it is, is that they were not a very good first down team. And the things that they ran on first down, down you are curious about over the course of 16 games. Go ahead. Well, if you're not a very good first down team, you should be curious about what you're doing. And I also went through a lot of second down stuff to see what they were doing. And ultimately, the way I look at the league and why I was doing this is because right now,

the best way to get big yards is first and second down and medium, or second down and medium or less. And that's where you get a lot of the chunk plays. The Russians had very few chunk plays. I mean, like 30th in the league and plays over 20 yards on first down, and I'll bet it's worse on second down. I didn't look up the actual numbers on second down. So here's first down cliff notes. They ran not counting two-minute drill and four-minute drill.

They ran 310 first-in-10 days. I took out first in 15 as well. I didn't think that was relevant. They ran the ball 64% of the time, which I think is actually. actually high. You can do the math on how much they threw the ball. They were also gun 46% of the time, which I think is high. I do.

I know that RPO looks like play action, but I feel like you can dictate whether or not it is. And regular gun play action just doesn't get the bite that you want. As far as the pass game, they went play action 7% of the time. That's 22 play action passes. And I'm talking about like regular, not RPO, not boot. Right. 22 play action. Fake handoff, early first down, you know.

10. Yeah. First and 10. 22. They were efficient throwing the ball down the field on seven of those 22. Wow. So on a 310 plays, seven play action shots they got down the field. They had seven total boot plays.

That's 2% of your first down offense. Seven. They completed like two of them. They had 10 screens. they only went in an empty set three times, it's 44 dropback passes, and they only had 14 quick game plays, like 1, 2, 3 throw 14, 4%.

You said it all year, I said it all year, but get a guy in a rhythm. I feel like quick games are the easiest ways to either a new quarterback or a young quarterback going in your offense. So the past game was really interesting. The run game, they ran that duo play,

which Mike Shanahan described, is pound draw, 53 times out of 310. Yeah, that's, that's, yeah, go ahead. It was 25% of your run game plan, 17% of your total. They ran weak side zone to the open tackle, like zone, 83 plays. Some of those were some zone reads and some RPO's. Essentially, they ran 50 of those, like just plain runs. So between duo and weak side zone, they ran over 100 out of 310 plays.

Now, what I put weakside zone in is because the way I see them block that, it's more of a gap play, not a zone play, because essentially they take their guard and try to torque the tackle out a lot of the time. So to me, it's almost a weak side duo play. They're both dives, one strong side. Were they successful on those plays? Some particular, duo. So what I did here, so I watched every one of these plays. and what I did was essentially take what the real gain was or what the real loss was. So if there's a 90-yard gain on Duo, which there was against the Eagles,

I took into account there was a stunt up front that fit the play perfectly. Now, obviously, you can check into plays, but they did not check into that play. There was a perfect play call. A backer has a bad read and a safety misses a tackle. I still gave it a 20-yard average. But in fairness, to averages, any time there was a hold, I took out a minus 10, and I just said zero yard gain, or if the hold was phantom, I gave the regular gain. The average 2.7 per play on that play.

And just so. Weekside zone, the average just about 2.5 on some of the weak side zones the way I looked at it. So between these plays, they were in second and seven plus most of the time. Yeah. First down was not a successful play as the net takeaway on what Cooley's describing. And for those of you that haven't heard Cooley talk about pound draw or duo over the years, basically in its simplest form. It's a handoff right up the middle.

So I'll describe it, and here's why I feel fine, saying Duo. It's on Madden. If you're playing Madden, you can call Duo. But here, so, I mean, the Rainback reads the backer to his side, and that's the only read. It's not a gap across, like, zone where you're reading every hole. It's, does the backer on your side go out? Then you tie the back.

Does it go in, then you bounce it outside. It's a one backer read, and the double team is up to that back. So that's that's dual. All right. I want to go back to the pass results and ask you the question I asked you the other day off off the air or off the podcast. Why when their best success in recent years throwing the football were play action, bootleg, quick game, quick game in particular. And I made this reference after the Indianapolis game and then had you on, I think was the first time after the Indianapolis game. Indianapolis game and asked you, why against all that soft coverage?

Didn't they have Alex Smith into that quick game stuff that he used to run with Kirk all the time that would pick up, you know, eight, ten yards, move the ball, you know, from the 15 down to their 15 easily. Now, the red zone sometimes became problematic, but they didn't do that at all against the Colts and therefore they were punting the entire day and scored nine total points. And when you gave me these results the other day, it's almost as if they called an offense to not succeed, to not take advantage of what Alex Smith, I thought, does best anyway. Why? I don't have an answer for why they didn't have more quick game and more even five-step drop where you're high-loing,

what is a lot of cover-to-coverage. Instead of further drop-back. Which is what Indianapolis ran. instead of more runs on first and ten essentially, which results for a lot of no gains or minus yardage against the colds. They struggled to run the ball against the ball. Yeah, they did. So here's the end sum up.

Here's the way I really looked at it. They had second and seven or more. Second and seven or more. A hundred and, oh, actually, excuse me, 101 times. Out of again? No, excuse me. They had second in seven to ten, one hundred and one times.

They had second and 11 plus 59 times. They had 160 out of 310 second and seven or longer. That's not good. That's 52% somewhere around there, I would guess. That's putting yourself into a position to punt more times than not, unless you can really throw the football downfield in long-distance situations, which they couldn't do. Right.

Why? So they had a ton of second. in lungs. And why, in my opinion? Because they're calling run plays that progressively through the game don't stretch or threaten defenses. And so ultimately, I think that you're calling run plays that you're hoping to achieve a four-yard game to get into a second and six.

A lot of these dive type of plays, they're not big hit plays in the NFL. They're just, they're not. So now you can. But it wasn't, there was a lot of problems to it individually, technique-wise. Some of it happened to be injury, but it was just as bad when they weren't injuries. It wasn't like they were getting a ton of second and fours in the first five weeks of the season because they weren't. So that's essentially, you know, the deal there. The thing that I think is interesting is right now where you're getting big plays is in the middle of the,

in between the numbers and the hash between 12 and 20 yards. Now, like, Jay could sit here and tell me all day, look, I want to go play action and throw the ball down the field as much as you do, but I don't have threats to get the ball down the field. And so I would understand that. But he didn't play action. He didn't the year before either, and they had some massive output days throwing the football.

Well, there are some answers there, and that's that intermediate play. action game between 12 and 20. The problem with the intermediate play action game between 12 and 20 is if you don't make the linebackers run when it looks like run, i.e. if they're stepping up to fill holes, they have easy drops directly back into passing lanes in between the hash and the numbers. So a lot of times those intermediate passes were turned down because backers, although they stepped up a step or two, were in those passing lanes in that window. And so the quarterback didn't have those intermediate throws. Ultimately, the way I look at this is that real balance isn't run-pass

balance. I think that is a sham. The real balance is what is making everything look the same, and it just didn't. You can't boot when you don't have outside zone. You can't really stretch and go play action when you don't run the ball and get the ball to the edge at times. But you can. You've said that before. Their play action in years past, without the threat of a legitimate running game has still worked. Early down play action has still worked on days in which they didn't run the football. Yeah, sure. I'm fine with telling you that.

I'm just saying the way in which you orchestrate that play action and orchestrate that run game is what will dictate the success. If you can't get linebackers to actually have to run to vacate zones or holes, then it's hard to have that success. The success wasn't predicated on the success of the run game or not. It was, in my opinion, predicated on the style of run matching the style of the play action that you would want to get to get those intermediate shots. Now, all over that said, they didn't call a lot of those intermediate shots, Kevin, 22 plays. Don't know what.

And 7 boots. So 29 play action plays, really, if you count a boot. And then RPO was mixed in there as well. Again, you can count that as play action if you really want to count it as play action. I just don't. I don't. So when we looked at, you know, the start with Alex Smith, you know, as the quarterback before he got hurt in the Houston game, and they were six and three, and they were clearly not an impressive offensive team on the way to six and three. And the default answer was, hey, he's not turning the ball over, but they're not very dynamic as an offense than throwing the football either. And a lot of the blame was laid at the feet of Alex Smith. for the people that were reasonable and understood that, yes, the record was good and he wasn't

turning the ball over, but they really were a poor offensive football team in throwing the football. How much of it was on Alex Smith versus the play calling and the design? I can find flaws in all of it. I can find plays that Alex Smith had open receivers down the field and didn't take shots that would have potentially been available. I can find stuff to where I don't like the way they're checking some of the run to whatever side they're checking it to. I mean, it's everyone, but this is why you do exactly what I just did. Right. You scout your own team. You scout your own tendencies. You got to understand what you're doing. Here's a good, for example for you.

Jeremy Sprinkle was in the game as the only tied in 28 total times on first and 10. Did they run? One time. How many times do they run it? He went out down the field. He protected four, and they ran it 23 times. Yeah. So.

That's a bit of a tell when he's in the game. He was in as the other tight end, another 46 times, and only 15 of those were passes. And I didn't chart the number that he went out down the field, but I would say less than five. So honestly, out of 70 plays, 70 plus plays, Jeremy Sprinkle is going down in the field as a receiving threat less than 10 times. That's a big tendency. Yeah, it is. Have you shared your results?

I don't think he's that bad. Have you shared your results with the staff? You ask me this every single time. Every year. And what do you think the answer is? The answer is no, but you did, the year that they played the Cowboys, and you picked up on every Dak Prescott, you know, check at the line of scrimmage.

I think you did share that, those findings, and they just ignored you. Well, and so there's your answer. I'm done sharing with the staff. I did second down as well. Here, I'll just give you this one thing. Second six or less to me is first and ten in terms of your open playbook. I have a couple of philosophies. Like a second and two, even second and three, I'm fine not taking shots.

I'm fine going ahead and running and getting the first down. My goal is to get a first down in two downs. So second two, second three, I'm fine with the dive play. That's where duo is perfect. Second two, let's go duo and let's try to get a first down right here. We'll get back to first and ten, and we stay balanced. I am cool with that because I don't like taking a loss on second and two or having a hold or having something happened to put me back to a third.

I'll just get the first round. I like staying aggressive because that duo play on second and three sometimes gains nothing. And then you're stuck on third and three. actually it gained an average of 3.7 yards per carry in second and six or less. Okay. So it was enough, a lot of the time to get you first downs. But second six or less, 50 passes to 38 runs, still only 10 play action shots, and only three of them were completed down the field.

And four total boots out of 88 plays, they were over for four. And by the way, in second and six or less, Alex Smith only ran one. of them. One boot in second six or less. Food is ideal in second six or less. Right. You get some yards on first down. You get four or five yards on first down. You're coming back with boot. You've got them off balance. I mean, any NFL fan can picture and visualize. You get a nice chunk run on first down. Here it is. Second and four. And you come back with boot. And here's your tight end wide open for a 16, 18 yard, you know, catch and run. Boom. We're moving. And they weren't.

successful doing that. They didn't even try very much. Here's the last interesting stat on second downs. Second seven plus, I said they had 160 plays at 11 screens total. A 160. When you take, when you got second and long, well, you know what, I bet most... Second long, you know, like second seven, you can go run, play action will work in that area. Second nine plus play action is not incredibly relevant. So that's where your screen draw game comes into play as you're all to play.

It seems like any second and 12 play from any NFL team or most NFL teams is a screen or a draw. Now, I would imagine that a lot of their screens they ran this year were third and 18 screens. To get into better position for Truss Way. They didn't screen a lot in this last season. And so I think play action in first and ten would help you a bunch. some more screens, draws, and kind of easy little gimmick plays, and second and long would help you a lot. I mean, the other thing with all of, like, what I'm saying, do you know, like a boot, how easy

that is for your offensive line? Like, that's an alt protection for your line. You're really not that concerned. The quarterback can potentially have one guy off the edge that he's got to worry about, and if that guy's in his face, then he's just got to throw a ground ball at the back. Right. The play action game, it changes the spot of the quarterback. It changes the rush.

They got to recalculate their rush. They've got to go from run to pass. It helps everything. Play action helps your run game. Run game helps your play action game. Screenings help. It's all going to tie better. And I just don't think there was enough to tie it.

Not to mention your quarterback, Alex Smith, you know, in second and six or less situations, just was ideal for boot. Because even if they read it and they had the tight end, you know, he would run it for 10 and get out of bounds very easily with his mobility. Like, I don't. He could. He just didn't. Yeah.

No, ultimately, like, it reminds me of, like, somebody that's got a big house and in their living room, they have four couches and two chairs and a couple different coffee tables. And they have, like, three weird paintings on the wall and one really nice piece of pottery. And you're like, there's a lot of stuff in here. And nothing fits. I have zero clue what the style of your house actually is. There's nothing that ties this together to tell me, like, this room is its own entity. or this is what you have going, this is the direction you're attempting to do. What it really looks like, other than they run a ton of duo,

is that they were probably looking at plays that had success against teams in the previous weeks more than they maybe should have instead of implementing what is really what they want is their style. This is not just Jay, just so you understand. This is everybody involved in creating a gameplay. Tallahan. And everybody. This is O'Connell. This was Kavanaugh.

this was West Phillips. I mean, I look at the run game, and the biggest problem was the tight ends. It's through the entire year when they went in, like, a wing set. The winged tight end, his inside foot was behind the outside foot of the tight end on the ball. They had no split through the entire year. They never adjusted splits in those instances. That's a problem. So it was on every single person involved.

It wasn't just. It all falls back to, you know, the last. leader has got to take you in the direction that you want to go, and I think that's something that Jay has got to understand and will. But it isn't just him. I got a lot of tweets when I did this, and everyone's like, play calling. It's not just that.

There's so much that goes into building what your offense actually is in the style of your offense. So, I mean, it's Jay's house, but he's got, he had Kavanaugh's his interior decorator, and he had Callahan and his contractor, and he had, you know, McConnell is his architect, and they just, they got to get things going to where it's all the same house. Look, you know, not to harp on the past,

but one of the strengths of this team under Jay Gruden, at least in 2015, 16, and 17, even without Garsohn and Jackson and Reed healthy, was he was able to design up a way to move the football through the air. Now, they made, you know, had some bad plays by the quarterback. They had some breakdowns in the red zone in, in 2016 in particular, but they were able to move the ball more often than not through the air. We never saw that last year, really, didn't see it at all.

And I remember that, and I should almost go through, it wouldn't take me very long to go through, I think me through four hours to go through first downs that year. But I know I said to you as we did our radio show, there's no way that another team has converted more second and seven pluses into first down on that down. Oh, yeah. Like, how many times did Kurt Cousins throw choice around to Jordan Reed or have big completions down the field in second and long? We converted, or the Redskins converted more second longs that year than I've ever remember.

It was almost unprecedented. You'd get second and eight. It was like, no problem. I know. We get the ball down the field. And that's where they struggled last year was they didn't make those plays to make up for the short. Cummings on first down. All right. Great work. Thanks for sharing that with us. You can listen to Cooley, do the whole second down thing, right? Is that available now or is it going to be available?

Yeah, that's all available. Okay, so that's available on his podcast. You can get the podcast anywhere, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all the places you can get a podcast. You can also just go to Redskins.com, and his podcast is up there. And I think Rigo does one, too. I don't know if he's doing it during the end season. Yep, he is. C.P. does one as well. All right. So go find those as well.

All right. Good luck to your Utah State team tonight, and I'll talk to you over the weekend. Utah State got shafted, by the way. I guess they're an eight seed, but they got to play Washington, and then you all of a sudden I'm playing North Carolina. Come on. Washington of the teams in the field, and I said this on Monday, they are the worst team that I watched this year that is in the field.

The worst. Oh, Utah State's going to run Washington. I think they are. They're going to beat Washington. I'm not... Yeah. You know, a lot of people, a lot of people that watched a lot of Utah State, and I did not, think that Utah State's going to give Carolina a tough game if they get there.

So we'll see. Well, we'll see. I mean, North Carolina has got crazy athletes. Utah State plays very good defense, and they find ways to make shots. They're a good team. And they can score, but they play really good defenses. well. All right. I'll call you over the weekend. We'll find out. All right, thanks. Bye. That was really interesting stuff and I know as always when he gets into all of the

detail, the granular detail of, you know, some of these things that he gets involved in and I've seen it happen where he decides he's going to take on a project and then eight hours later he comes up with, you know, for air and he's got, you know, every first down play call and how, you know, and the results of each during the course of an entire season. But what he said, you know, isn't, I'm sure, that far away from what we all thought the results would have been. It was an offense that struggled at times. The reasons why, you know, he just told you. There wasn't, you know, a cohesive, you know, in-sync plan,

and the play calling didn't necessarily fit the talent. and they got themselves into big binds on first down and second down last year. And that is why more than anything else, really, even though they were at six and three, and I was happy with the way they were playing and they weren't turning it over and they weren't making penalties and they were stopping the run there for the first part of the season and they were running the football at times effectively. And they were winning these games in which, you know, they weren't beating themselves. And they were surviving in many of those games. but the offense especially, and we didn't see the defensive collapse coming,

but you could see offensively that they were never in sync at any point during the good portion of the season, during the six and three start to the season. Teams that had run up big yardage and big point totals against teams like Tampa and even Atlanta that teams were scoring against pretty easily, the Redskins could barely even move the football. And they won one of those games. But it was not a good offensive year, and I'm glad he came on to explain why. Quick word about launch workplaces in Bethesda. If you live in the Bethesda Chevy Chase Upper Northwest D.C. area, and you don't want a long commute, and it's too hard to get work done from home, check out new launch workplaces in Bethesda. They are affordable private office

solutions so you can get work done from outside your home. This beautiful new space provides fully furnished offices, conference rooms, co-working desks, high-speed internet, complimentary drinks, a cafe, free parking, and 24-7 access. You can get more work done today by moving your office to launch workplaces in Bethesda. That's launch workplaces in Bethesda. You can call today for an exclusive free two-day trial, 240, 800-6714, 240-8-67-14, or go to

launchworkplaces.com today. Mention that I told you to call. They have locations throughout the area, and you can find out where all of those are at launchworkplaces.com. All right, I got a smell test coming up here in a moment. You may not want to hear it after yesterday, but I've got 3, 6, 7 games today.

I'm going to hold off on the games tomorrow because the lines are still coming out on all the games, and I just don't have enough information here on Friday morning. So what I will do is I will tweet them out, and then Aaron can retweet them on at Sheehan Podcasts. But I will tweet them out at Kevin Shee in D.C. Tomorrow morning, the smell test picks for Saturday, and then I'll do the same thing for Sunday. Scott was not available. Something came up for him. so we will get to him next week.

I did want to mention real quickly that the Caps didn't play last night, but it was a good night for them. The Islanders lost. The Hurricanes lost, and the Penguins did win in a shootout, but they play the Wild tonight, and their lead in the Metropolitan is still solid at three points over the Islanders who have now lost two games in a row. The Penguins are three points back as well. but an exciting finish to the season in the Eastern Conference in general, but certainly in that division where there's just a little separation among the top three teams in the division.

Thank God the Wizards lost last night. That's all I'll say, because they actually had a chance to win the game. All right, let's get to the smell test to finish up the show. Kevin looks where the John Q Public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. A bad day yesterday in my first attempt post football season to give you some winners, which we had done all football season long. And yesterday started off nicely with Minnesota, but then went south.

If Darrell Morsell had made that free throw, then as long as Belmont missed a game-tying three and Maryland didn't foul, I would have pushed that game. The others really weren't close. Marquette wasn't close. Seton Hall turned out to be not very close, and Abilene Christian wasn't very close at all. Now, if you want to give me a break on Abilene Christian, Aaron, I'm going to let you be the judge on this. I did say on the podcast yesterday that if the line changed significantly, and I said, as long as it's somewhere in the plus 21 to plus 22 range, then play it.

If it falls, don't play it, or if it goes up, don't play it. And it fell to 19.5.20. So if you want to take me off the hook for that and call it a one-and-three day, you can. If you want to stick me with it because it really wasn't close at all, that's fine too. You know what? I'm making the decision. I'm going to take it as a loss. One and four. Hopefully you listen to me and didn't play it because the line moved. All right, let's go to today.

I'm just going to give you the biggest anti-public plays on the board, some of which I like. one of which I hate, but I'm going to give it to you anyway because it fits the smell test criteria for those of you that don't know it. Basically, it's just a contrarian handicapping philosophy. I line up on the side that the house needs and the side that all my friends against the side that usually most of my friends are playing. The first game of the day today is Cincinnati, laying four and a half against Iowa. Iowa is a spot where very few in the public seem to give the Hawkeyes a shot. I'm surprised at that after the day that the Big Ten had yesterday, five and oh, give me Iowa plus the four and a half in the first game of the day against Cincinnati.

In the second game of the day, Oklahoma is a one-point underdog against Ole Miss in an eight-nine game. For whatever reason, people aren't giving Oklahoma much of a shot in that game. Most of that, more likely than not, is that Oklahoma finished up the season losing two games in a row. Ole Miss didn't play well coming down the stretch either, but for whatever reason, people like the SEC over the Big 12 in this spot, I'll take Oklahoma plus the one. Kansas State has injuries, all right? They're laying four against a UC Irvine team that everybody seems to like. Now, yesterday and I pointed this out that a lot of the mid-majors that people liked, I went against because the public was betting the mid-majors. They bet Belmont and covered. They bet Murray State and covered.

They bet Wofford and covered. Today they are betting UC Irvine against a banged-up Kansas State team. The line is four, as banged up as K-State is, I'm actually surprised that they're a solid four-point favorite in this game. I know it's a 4-13 game. Kansas State is well-coached, and they're a good defensive team. I like them today laying the four. K-state laying four. Next up is Wisconsin. They're laying two against a team that it seems like, Aaron,

everybody's picking Oregon to upset Wisconsin, right? I have the other side of that. You do, you've got Oregon. Give me Wisconsin laying the two. Another team that I said to you didn't have a chance of winning a game is the biggest, the biggest anti-public play of the day. The biggest public play of the day is Iowa state laying five against Ohio State. So give me the buck guys plus the five. Personally, this is the one that I feel not comfortable about at all because I've watched Ohio State in recent weeks. They were missing a key player in Caleb Wesson. They have them back. I just don't think it's a very good team with him on the floor. I thought this was the weakest of the Big Ten teams to get in. Honestly, even though they didn't have the resume for it, Nebraska, Penn State, Indiana, all would have had a better shot

my view of winning a game in this tournament than Ohio State does, but it fits my smell test formula. They are a massive, massive against the grain, against the public play. Take Ohio State plus the five. Mississippi State is laying six and a half against Liberty. For some reason, the public likes liberty. I'll take Mississippi State, lay the six and a half, and I will take Iona against North Carolina plus the 22 and a half. Seven plays. Iowa plus four and a half. Oklahoma plus one. K-State minus four, Wisconsin minus two, Ohio State plus five, Iona plus 22-half, and Mississippi State minus six and a half. All right. Catch you tomorrow on Twitter.

Follow me at Kevin Sheehan, D.C. And I will have to have. have my Saturday smell test picks. And I can tell you this, I feel good about Maryland being on there again, but then again, I lost with Maryland yesterday, but tomorrow they're an underdog. I think they're going to be the play tomorrow, Aaron. I really do. I think they're going to be a play against LSU, and they've just got a huge, huge opportunity tomorrow against LSU to get to the Sweet 16, which would be quite the story next week, to have them home for a Sweet 16 game. They have not played in D.C. in the NCAA tournament since their national championship season. They played at the then MCI Center in the first two rounds, beating Sienna and then crushing Wisconsin in the second

round before they moved on to the regionals that year, which were in Syracuse, where they beat Kentucky, and then Yukon to go to the final four, where they beat Kansas and then won the national championship against Indiana. It would be nice to see them win one more game and have to a shot next week at home in what would be certainly a home court advantage situation. You know, that first night, the Sweet 16 night, because they divvy up a lot of the tickets between the four schools that are there, may not be the one-sided home court advantage that you would expect if they advanced to Sunday. But still, it would be a lot of Maryland people in that crowd on Friday night. All right. We'll catch Scott Monday. Have a great weekend. Go Terps.