The Kevin Sheehan Show - Brissett Balls Off Bench

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

Kevin solo recaps the Commanders' 28-20 loss to the Rams yesterday. Lots of drama as Jacoby Brissett replaced a struggling Sam Howell and rallied the team to two touchdowns on two drives. Cam Cheesman is gone after another bad snapping day and Kevin had thoughts on Ron's day-after press conference from earlier today. A quick recap of the other NFL games as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Fourth and 18, low snap. He baffles. He's covered.

The Rams are going to take over at the 15-yard line. Way is injured. He's down, covered by Reader and others, on the punt return unit for the Rams. A loss of 18 on a week in which the Rams had to replace their long snapper. This one botched by the punt team for Washington. So that wasn't the final Cameron Cheesman snap in Washington. He had a few more to go yesterday in L.A.

But after another rough day for the team's long snapper, he's done. Waved a few hours ago, probably months too late. Just me on the show today, solo, a show, as always, presented by Window Nation. call them at 86690 Nation or go towindonation.com for their best deal of the year. So I'm sitting here recording this podcast. I waited for Ron Rivera's afternoon Monday Day After Presser just to see if the news about Sam Howell changed. It did not. He is still planning on starting Sam Hal this next week and probably for the rest of the year.

although he did have an interesting comment about if the situation standings-wise was different right now, what they would have done. I will share that with you coming up here in a moment. But yesterday's game, man. I mean, for 53 minutes, it was just your run-of-the-mill typical recent Washington blowout loss. Down 28 to 7? I mean, maybe headed to a 35-14 final, something like that. and then all of the sudden, Ron Rivera benches Sam Howell and puts in Jacoby Brissette.

I'd have a hard time believing anybody that actually says they weren't shocked in that moment. I think maybe the bigger surprise was that Brissette, when he got in there, crushed it. Two drives, two touchdowns, a near perfect passer rating. And let's be honest, it was some of the best quarterbacking of the season. for this team. Sam's had some really good moments. Don't get me wrong. We've been here to document all of them all season long. And perhaps he's had more than seven minutes of brilliant quarterbacking like Brissette did yesterday. But man, to see Berset come in and go up and down the field twice for touchdowns, it was kind of astounding, really. It certainly made the conversation about an

otherwise typical one-sided loss more interesting moving forward. this week. The Cam Cheesman thing, I'll get to that when I get to the game take, but the lead coming out of this game, the clear lead is the quarterback situation. Not really as it relates to you know, next week or the final three weeks of this season, but the future. Sam Hal didn't play well again and then was benched by the head coach giving way to Jacoby Brissette who came in and played very well. If the game had continued with Sam, in it the rest of the way and they had lost, you know, 35 to 14. I think there would have been more scrutiny as it's kind of been building over the last couple of weeks because he has not played a good game

in a few weeks. And that would have been a big part of the post game, certainly as it's been every week, Sam Howell's performance. But being able to put Brissette's two drives side by side with the first three and a half quarters of Sam's performance yesterday adds a lot to the conversation. because the conversation goes from, you know, Sam's not playing well, but the offensive line is terrible. And, you know, the offensive coordinator isn't calling the kind of game that suits Sam. And, you know, the rest of the rationalizing on Sam's performances recently. But the contrast of Hal and Berset yesterday really turns up the heat on the what to do next to quarterback conversation. You know, it was already there for many of us.

But for some of you out there, you howlers, the crowd that's been telling everybody to shut up and take a seat that, you know, if you don't think Sam Howells, the next big thing, yesterday was not a good day for that crowd. A few weeks back on the radio show, we put out a Twitter poll asking if the team should target a quarterback in the draft. This was about a month ago. 90% said no, Sam Hal is the QB1, 10% said yes. After the game yesterday, I put another poll out on X on Twitter. Simple question, should Washington draft a quarterback? I just wanted to gauge the emotion of the end of that game. 5,500 votes in counting, 74.5% at this point say yes.

draft a quarterback. A month ago, 90% said, no, don't draft a quarterback. And that's why you can't rush an opinion on a guy starting his first full season. A guy who's got talent for sure, but also has flaws, Sam does. Some of those flaws, very limiting to his upside. Ron said yesterday that you know, Sam was going to be a starter, and he reiterated that just moments ago during his press conference. But it was very interesting to hear him answer a question that Nikki Jabala had for him. Nikki Javala from the Washington Post asked Ron if they were competing for something like a playoff spot, would the decision to start Sam this week and for the rest of the season would it have been the same? And he said, quote, well, if this was about playoffs and we were

right in the middle of it and stuff like that. That's something you most certainly have to consider. Do we still have that opportunity to continue to win? That's one of those things you always consider because, again, you want to make sure everybody's getting the opportunity to be successful, closed quote. Yeah, I think that if they had, look, I mean, it was a long shot to come back and win the game. Wasn't a long shot to come back and cover in the game after they got it to 2814. I'll go through that final drive and that mess of three minutes, two and a half,

three minutes taken off the clock, you know, after the first and goal at the one yard line, after the bomb to Terry. And I'll go through the extra point that was missed and what the decision, excuse me, should have been prior to that. But, yeah, I think had they come back somehow miraculously and won that game, they'd actually be two games out and mathematically still alive. They're not right now. They've been eliminated again.

I think Jacoby Brousset would be starting Sunday against the Jets. I don't think there's any question about that. But that's not the case. And that would have been a long shot anyway, even with the way he was playing. And with the way the defense was playing, to get the ball back, whether there were four minutes left or a minute 50 left. I think it's the right decision by Ron. In fact, in some ways, I don't think he should have been pulled that Sam should have been pulled yesterday, really.

You know, on one hand, obviously it gives us, you know, some good content, but, you know, that's not necessarily what I'm in it for. I want them to do the right things. But remember, you know, we said earlier, well, he said earlier that, you know, when Sam struggled in some of the games that he struggled in, he left him in there so that Sam would learn and go through those experiences, you know, that it was all part of the evaluation. And so I was thinking and talking to Ben standing today on radio, and Ben thought, you know, maybe it was the fear of him throwing another pick six. Ron said they pulled him to protect him. Well, yesterday was not a day that he was being battered around. He was only sacked once. I wonder if pulling him yesterday was a sign that the evaluation is nearing an end.

But what's done is done. He pulled him, and I think Sam should remain the starter the rest of the year. I do. It would be one thing if there was still something to play for, as he said, just a few minutes ago. but it would also be one thing if the locker room was overwhelmingly in favor of Berset starting. You know, you always hear coaches say the locker room knows. You know, I can't risk losing the locker room. I mean, Ron did that with Dwayne Haskins.

You know, Shanahan did that with RG3. But, you know, I don't think that that's the issue at all. In fact, I would guess that at this point, the locker room's not super passionate about anything regarding the rest of this season. But think about it. Like even if the locker room thought Berset was a much better option and gave them a better chance to win, that's a better reason not to start him. I mean, what's very important the rest of the way, and I hate when we get to this point. but what's important the rest of the way is that this team not win another game. And this coming Sunday against the Jets is a win possibility.

It's a win possibility with either quarterback, quite frankly. The Jets are the worst offensive team in the league by miles. And if Aaron Rogers comes back at this point, I'd be surprised because they were eliminated yesterday mathematically as well. But this is a game that they can actually win against the Jets. And what's best for the next regime coming in is that they lose the game and lose the final two after that. A win on Sunday against the Jets could be the difference in late April of picking fourth or better or higher or ninth or lower. You can't lose that kind of ground in a draft like this one.

This is a draft that could have three quarterbacks picked in the top five. Whether you desire one or not, the options and the leverage you have by picking in the top five is huge this year. I realize they're not going to try to lose games. That's a fan perspective. It's not a player thing. They're not going to go out there and say, hey, we really want the team to improve its draft position. They actually, I thought, played pretty hard yesterday. I thought they were flying around.

They're just not that good. But three more losses, four and 13, top four pick worst case, and a draft that will produce a big opportunity for teams picking super early, whether it's an opportunity to select one of the top three quarterbacks or leverage the position to trade back for a haul from someone who wants one of those top three quarterbacks, or whatever the quarterbacks look like by the time. we get there. And somebody called in today and said, you know, even that is just such a crap shoot. Like, you know, we can go through all the quarterbacks that are taken in the top three that

haven't worked out. I understand that. But it's better for this team with a totally new regime coming in and probably a massive overhaul of the roster. It's better if they have a much higher pick than a much lower pick. And they could win that game Sunday against the Jets with either quarterback. although I do think just, you know, two drives, but I do think those two drives kind of reflected the obviousness of Jacoby Berset right now being a more advanced quarterback than Sam Hal. Certainly more advanced in the pocket. He's a better quarterback than Sam Hal is right now. And again, relax to those of you who have been so adamant that Sam's the next Joe Monta. Santa. Brissette should be better. He's been in the league for eight years. Sam's got 14 games as a starter. Remember, and Ben Standing reminded me of this today on radio. It was a reasonable take before

this season, which many of us had, which was, this is a year to find out about Sam Hal. And it may mean that you don't contend for anything. If you want to win eight games and contend for something, then you play Jacoby Brissette because that's the guy that's been playing a lot of football, you know, and but we knew that Jacoby Brissette, and I still feel the same way,

as much as I like Jacoby Brissette, and have liked Jacoby Brisset, we know what he is. You know, he's a high-end backup and, you know, an occasional starter. But none of this, you know, whether Jacobi played yet, or didn't play. The bottom line is Sam's not been playing well. He hasn't played a good game in weeks.

The defenses have gotten better, much better, in fact, and he's regressed. He has. He still makes plays. You know, many of them off schedule in scrambling mode, made a few more yesterday, but he's just not seeing it from the pocket very well in particular. And I think really that's as much the issue as is anything else. Ron didn't answer the question today again, specifically why he pulled him. Ben asked him about, you know, they were trying to protect him, you know, they were trying to protect him from, you know, health-wise, you know, getting hit too much, essentially was the implication. But yesterday wasn't one of those games. You know, I think as much as anything else, issue is that Sam's not progressing in the areas that Ron's talked about recently. Last

week, he said, quote, it really is his decision-making. That's one of the things that's really important with the quarterback. Is he making the right decisions and then getting to him and asking why these decisions were made? Kime wrote the story John did last week that really, I think describes Howell's process as the key to his progress. And coaches understand much more than we do that the process for him is as important as the results themselves. He gets results a lot of the time because he's mobile. He's good on the move. He's good at creating and extending plays.

But was the result, if it was a good one, because of good processes? Did he, you know, did he actually execute the play the way the play was designed and with what was there in the design of the play? You know, this is what's really important to these coaches. Did he miss out on a result that would have been much better than the result he created with his legs or just off schedule? And I think that that's part of the reason they finally pulled him. You know, the interception, which was his final snap of the game, if you go back and you watch that play, there appears to have been a couple of quick options for Sam. Terry Early is wide open. There's a checkdown that looks like to Gibson wide open.

Now, I don't know what Sam's responsibilities, obviously, on that play were. You know, I was saying this morning on radio, I wonder if they've gotten to the point where it's like one to two reads Sam and then start to move and create rather than trying to get through all of your reads, all of your progressions. He started looking left on that particular play. Nothing was available, so he immediately got on the move and then threw the ball back across the field for Terry. Terry was open immediately, but maybe he wasn't supposed to get to that progression. But the bottom line is this was one of those bad decisions and perhaps bad processing that ended with a bad result. You know, throwing across the field to a player that was wide open moments before and was covered by the time Sam threw it to him. Terry got a hand on it, but the ball was put up for grabs and it got picked. There's another play that's circulating out there, and it's, I think, on the touchdown drive that made it 20 to 7, but they started that drive in Rams territory.

And Jonathan Williams on a wheel route out of the backfield is wide open for a touchdown. Sam never looks at him. I can't imagine he's running that route without it being part of the play. Now, Sam completed a ball on that play. But I guess what I'm getting to is that I think this is the issue, is that he's got the arm strength, he's got the mobility. He's got a lot of the intangibles that you want in a quarterback. But the processing isn't happening in the kind of forward progress movement that they want right now. And I think it's starting to frustrate them.

And I think it got to them yesterday because I think they felt like there was a lot out there. and they were sitting there with very little offense to speak of through 53 minutes of that game. And that interception at the end was probably the breaking point for Ron at least. By the way, Kime also mentioned in his story last week, making checks at the line of scrimmage, helping to set protections. These are things that coaches wanted to see progress with as well. He was only sacked once yesterday, but he ended up moving out of the pocket pretty quickly a number of times. I was surprised he got pulled in that game. I did not see that coming because he's been worse in games this year than he was yesterday, and they've left him in there.

Berset came into that one game, I think, at one point just to hand the ball off to Chris Rodriguez at the end to run the clock out. but Sam, you know, Sam wasn't good yesterday, but he wasn't good in the Buffalo game. He wasn't good in the Giants game. He was not good in the Miami game. He wasn't good in the opener. I know that they would have never pulled him from the opener. So I was surprised, especially, again,

that they kind of talked earlier in the year about letting him play through a lot of that. Ron said it was his call, and again, said they wanted to, you know, protect him. I mean, we've seen him take a much worse beating than the one he was taking yesterday. He was sacked once. He wasn't hit a ton.

I just think it was frustration over the plays that weren't being made or the process that wasn't taking place. And I think that's been part of the concern. Again, lots of positives with Sam this year. But a lot of concerns as well. You know, chief among them, seeing it, seeing it quickly, letting it go, something Jacoby Brissette did immediately after entering the game. But look, playing Berset, even if they think he's better and gives them a better chance to win, or even a better chance to evaluate other players, I just think would be the wrong decision. You know, I like Jacoby Bresset, always have. He's not the long-term answer.

And I'm not sure Sam is either, but there's no real upside in playing Jacoby Bresset in the final three games. Him playing well and winning a game that could impact their draft status would be a disaster. And what would you gain with Berset if he goes out and plays well and, wins a game or, God forbid, too. There's going to be a whole new regime in a month. They need options. They need leverage. And I think they need a few more games to evaluate how.

I'd like to see Sam in that persistent, resilient mode next week against the Jets after being yanked yesterday. I mean, he's been really good after bad plays, bad series, bad games. It's been one of the things we've liked about him. Let's see him against that New York Jet defense next week. That's a hell of a defense. You know, this season will end. Berset's going to get another backup deal somewhere,

probably a good one like he got from this team. Who knows? Maybe it'll be this team. But Berset is who he is. I mean, is it possible he could become Gino Smith? You know, I don't know. I mean, he's not super old. But I think, you know, we know what Jacoby is.

and that is a really, really good backup that can start games in this league in a pinch. And that may ultimately be what Sam Hal is too. You know, one thing's for sure. Sam's proven that he can play in the league. It's just at what level, you know? And the next GM's going to be the one to have to make that call. Like the guy that tweeted me last week, Yanni said, and I'm going to paraphrase because I don't have it in front of me. But he said, you know, if the new GM thinks one of the quarterbacks in the draft is better than Sam, take him.

If not, don't. And that's basically what the next GM is going to have to decide. I mean, it's not going to stop us from talking about it and coming up with our own, sometimes clueless take, because we don't have all the information, especially when it comes to the players in the draft. All right, my game recap next, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. He's Kevin's Game Take. My Game Take this week is sponsored by Window Nation.

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So the things I liked, the things that I didn't love, and a few other observations from the game. Jacoby Resett leads the list. How couldn't it? He was the best thing about yesterday's game from a Washington perspective. He came in. The team was down three touchdowns. He leads them on two drives, two scores, and it's 2820.

It should have been 2821 or 2822, more on that coming up. The Rams weren't playing soft. They weren't playing pre-vent. They rushed four. They weren't rushing three and dropping eight into soft coverage. They played it straight. And Brissette came in and went eight for two. 10 for 124 yards and two touchdowns.

A 157.9 passer rating, 158.3 is perfect. He had a stellar QBR at 94.1. It was all pure dropback. The Rams knew he was throwing the football. And he delivered. He didn't get sacked once. He resuscitated Terry McLaren's season on two drives, essentially. Jahan Dotson was cited and he caught a ball.

I don't know, he just, there's a difference between him and how, okay? The difference is physical, really, in appearance. Chocobie's big, he's tall, and then he's decisive, you know, and he's experienced. I mean, these aren't knocks against Sam. The height thing is, but there's nothing he can do about that. His first play was a step up, under pressure, some quick pressure, and he ran for nine yards. We've seen Sam do that before. That's fine.

there was a defensive holding on that play. Then he's got a 12-yard sideline come back throw to Dotson that was just, you know, perfect. Touchdown pass to Terry slightly underthrown some of you thought, really? There wasn't much, you know, end zone to work with behind him. I thought it was a really good throw. He threw it on time. Terry made a great catch. And then on the second drive, the 16-yarder to Terry on the far sideline,

perfect throw. The 49-yard bomb to Terry was even better. The fourth and goal touchdown pass to Samuel. He looks off the linebacker briefly to create a bigger window and just fires it in there. He did not score on that QB

sneak. Remember he was one of the best QB sneak quarterbacks in the league in Cleveland last year, but that was from like a yard and a half out. I don't know why they did that. More on the ending of that game or that last drive when we get to the things that I did not like. But he was really good.

He really was. Two drives. He had played the whole game. Maybe he would have thrown three picks. And, you know, not had a great day. But the two drives we saw an A-level two drives from Jacoby Brissette. Yeah. So Jacobi Brissette leads the list of things that I liked.

Next up on the list, Terry McLorn. Six catches 141 yards. The 141 yards was a. a career high. I can't believe that, actually, when I heard that. I would have thought that he would have had a 175 game or something approaching high 100s, close to 200. But no, 141, career best. The 23.5 yards per reception was the third best since his rookie year. 94 of the 141 thrown to him on two drives by Jacoby Brissette. Remember, too, he almost had that amazing. one-handed grab on a play that he was clearly interfered with on the drive when they were down 20 to 7 in the third quarter. That may have been Sam's best throw.

So Terry McClarns on the list of things that I liked. How about two takeaways in the first half? You know, really good plays. Benjamin St. Juice had one of the strips. Percy Butler had the first one on Kyron Williams. They recovered both of them. You know, they were plus two in the first half in the turnover margin and they were down 13. nothing. That means your offense didn't do much in the first half. The defense wasn't great, trust me. But two takeaways, to get the two takeaways were nice. This is a team that's really struggled to take the ball away. There are a few other things on the list of things that I liked, and I'm going to list some defensive players here, but I want to preface it by saying the defense was not good yesterday. It was terrible again. But there were a few performances that stood out to me, performances that I wanted to just mention.

I don't know how they'll get graded out, but I thought Kaleek Hudson made a bunch of good plays. I think, you know, as an undersized guy, I love the energy. I love the way he flies around, and I love the way he hits. You know, they've always liked him. And I don't know if he can be a full-time starter at his size at that position. But, man, does he like to hit and he seeks and destroys?

He's not great in coverage, but he's a good tackler. I thought Hudson had some plays that really stood out. I thought Duran Payne had a decent game. Two sacks in the game for Duran, three TFLs. I thought it was a good game for him. I like Juan Martin. He's grown on me this year. Remember, he wasn't playing much at all early in the year.

Well, he had the concussion and missed some games, but then he was playing on teams, and I thought he actually really stood out on special teams. Now he's playing on defense. I think he's around the ball a lot. I like Martin so far. I think there's some promise there, as there is with two other rookies from their draft class. I think K.J. Henry's got some talent.

I really do. I think Andre Jones Jr. has some ability as well. He nearly had a pick. Henry had another pressure in the game. He's been very good as a quick-twitch pass rusher. Two, there is definitely some quick twitch to KJ Henry. Yesterday, no sacks, but had a TFL in the game. So, you know, I'm not going to go crazy here.

Those would be the names that I wrote down and jotted down as making an impression, a positive impression, I guess more than a negative impression. All right, the list of things I didn't like. Start with the defense. Yeah, even more so than Sam Howl. I mean, the defense as a whole, once again, got shredded. You know, this is a good team they were playing offensively. My God, Matt Stafford, he's really playing well.

I thought he was so good yesterday. But it was against Washington's defense, and he's got some real weapons, and he has a running game. But I think Stafford looks great right now, and I think they could be a dangerous team in the postseason, given all of their experience. But Washington allowed 445 yards, 28 points, and the 28, let's face, it could have been a lot more. They missed a field goal, a shortish field goal.

They had fumbles in the first half. They had at least four drops by my count. One would have been a Puka Nukuwa touchdown before their missed field goal. Washington allowed another seven plays of 16 yards or more. My God. I mean, the 62-yard touchdown played a Cooper Cup. Have you seen anybody that wide open on what was not an extended play by the quarterback, but in timing? The coverage miscommunications all year long.

It's a good thing Ron got everything simplified after Jack was fired because it's really paid off. Sarcasm, clearly. The run defense in particular was brutal yesterday. They gave up 196 in total, but on Friday show, I told you, that my number one key was stopping the run. Sean likes to run the football always, but Kyron Williams is a really good back. 152 yards, 27 carries, excellent feet, vision,

five and a half yards, 5.6 yards actually per carry. They couldn't get anybody on the ground in the run game. The defense leads the list of things that I had a major problem with. The long snappers next. This is really a combination of a long snapper story and a Ron story here. Because this is football negligence keeping Cam Cheeseman on this roster all of these weeks. I mean, the decision to keep him because he was a drafted guy, which was a bad decision to begin with, to draft a long snapper, I think it was.

I mean, they traded up, remember, in the sixth round to take him. We want to take a long snapper in the seventh round, fine. You're going to trade up into the sixth round to take a long snapper? That guy better be your long snapper for the next 15 years. He better be that good and that reliable. And Cheesman's just had a miserable year. And, you know, the chances for Ron to do something about it earlier in the year, I mean, he remember early in the season brought in a bunch of long snappers for workouts.

I don't personally think he had any intention of signing him. It was almost like he was placating the complaints from media and fans alike. He was a drafted guy. They were going to stick with him until, as Ron put it, something costs, you know, something's costly, you know, like a game. This, you know, this is football negligence. He nearly got his punter killed with a snap that rolled back. I mean, it never left the ground.

And it rolled back, you know, bouncing different ways. Tress had no chance. And then he got annihilated on the ground. I actually thought it was an unnecessarily rough hit. That could have been a tap on the punter who had conceded the play. I thought you could have called a penalty there. But that rolling back of that snap put Trent in the tent. He came back.

That rolled back punt snap was, we've seen some bad ones this year. That was the worst, I think. I mean, that was Pee-Wee football snapping. The snap on the PAT that got blocked at 2820 was bad. He had another snap on a punt that was bad. This just needed to be addressed much earlier in the season. You can't ride with somebody because you drafted them and you don't want to look bad for moving on. Everybody could see for a while now that he should have been released earlier.

I feel for him, apparently he is a great guy. but they should have put him out of his misery. Did you see the quote from him? It was actually pretty funny. He was quoted after the game, Cameron Cheesman, this is, saying, quote, I've been worried all year. He was asked about whether or not he was worried he'd get cut today, which he was. I've been worried all year. I haven't been performing the way I've been wanting to.

Most places I probably wouldn't still be around. Like he knows he should have been cut already. Clearly putting them out there, you know, one more game would have been unsafe. I mean, they would have literally been putting everybody on that kick unit at risk, certainly the holder and the punter trest way. All right. Also on the list of things that I didn't like from the game yesterday, I'm going to get to Sam at the end here.

The disaster at the end of that second. drive in terms of the time that they took. So here's here are the big mistakes. Okay, so they they throw the bomb to Terry and Terry makes that catch at the one yard line and it's first and gold the one with four minutes and 47 seconds left. They've got all three of their timeouts. It's 2814. You got a legitimate shot. You know, you punched that thing in. Terry was almost in. He wasn't though. I think the replay pretty much shows. that. You punched that thing in, you kick deep, you got three timeouts, you haven't stopped them all day, but you did stop them, I think, twice in the second half. I think it was twice in the second half.

It was, how many punts did they force or field goals did they force in the second half? The Rams went touchdown, three and out punt, seven and out punt, touchdown missed field goal, then another punt before. So Washington had gotten a little bit stouter defensively, which is, you know, they had early in the game when they opened up with that drive and got into the red zone and they forced a field goal on two different drives into the red zone. That should have been on my things that I liked list. But it was a disaster when they got first and goal at the one. So, you know, at that point, first and goal at the one, I don't really have a problem at that point, you know, not going super hurry up. It should be four minute offense mode, which is, you know, a moderate

you know, pace, but they were snapping the ball with one and two seconds left on the play clock. And the first play is Rodriguez no gain. The second goal is a bad attempt at a quarterback sneak, short. So now it's third and goal, and you started this with 447, and now there's three minutes and 18 seconds left. And once again, you snap it with one second left on the play clock. You throw the pass to Logan Thomas, but it's offensive pass interference. So now you move it back with 314 left of the 11-yard line third and goal. And then they throw to short to Samuel. And here they go again, huddling up.

And the next snap they take is with 231 left with three seconds left on the play clock. I mean, you had to go from four-minute mode to kind of a two-minute mode, even though it wasn't two minutes, when you were clearly, you had to have a sense that this is taking too long to get in. And then they got the DPI, which was a good call. I thought the offensive pass interference on Logan Thomas was a good call, and I thought the defensive pass interference against Terry McClurent was a good call as well. So now you're first in goal with 227 left, still three timeouts. And this is the biggest mistake I think they made.

I mean, I didn't like the time that they took. You know, they should have been in moderate four-minute offensive, you know, offense mode. but with 227 left in the clock stopped after the defensive pass interference call, you can't run the ball first and goal at the one there. You can't run it. If you miss, that thing is going down to the two-minute warning and your next snap is going to happen after the two-minute warning. You've got to throw the football.

You've got to throw the football until you score. I mean, if you get down to fourth and goal from the one, you know, maybe third and goal from the one right before the two-minute warning, and you're going to get to the two-minute warning anyway, maybe I don't know, bottom line is you run Rodriguez there, and he takes a two-yard loss, not to mention the fact that the clock's rolling. And so your next snap doesn't come until at the two-minute warning, and it's second and goal at the three. And now you're below the two-minute warning, so you don't have that as a defensive timeout. See, the bottom line is even at

227, if you score before the two-minute warning, you get a fourth time out there. And that means that you don't have to stop them on three straight plays. You know, they could get a first down on second down, and you could still potentially get the ball back with 50 seconds to go after using your final two timeouts if you've got the two-minute warning. And look, they weren't, you know, in great position to stop the Rams, even with some of the stops in the second half. It felt like if the Rams really wanted a first down, as they showed you after the onside kick,

they would be able to get it. But again, you know, if the intent was to win the game, it was for them. They took too long from 447 down to 227. They should have been in that four-minute mode, you know, at least 60 seconds more on the clock somewhere around there. But at 227, you can't throw the football there. You can't run the football, excuse me. You can't run Rodriguez into the middle of the line. Not to mention that, you know, they weren't running the ball very effectively at all yesterday. Ron made a comment at some point in the post-game yesterday. See what a running game will do, implying that they were good running the football yesterday? No, they weren't.

They weren't good at all. That's coming up in a moment. And then, you know, after the two-minute warning, look, now it's about getting it in. You know, I wanted to mention one other thing. On the fourth and goal, the first fourth and goal after they got down there, and they did huddle up and they let the clock go down after they had thrown that ball short to Samuel, I don't have as much of an issue there. It's like at this point, your fourth and goal from the seven, you better make sure you got the right personnel in there and you got the right play call. Now, do you want to take a time out with 307 left, 3.05 left, whatever it was, right there. You could have, you would have wasted one time out, but you would have also saved 40 seconds

because they didn't snap it until there were two or three seconds left on the play clock. Under the two-minute warning, you know, you got it in on fourth, and goal at the three with a minute 50 left. All right. So that was a really good throw, too, to Samuel. But yeah, disaster there and poorly handled as far as the clock goes in those final four minutes and 47 seconds. And again, I think probably the big mistake is first and goal with 227 left. It's the others, you know, being too slow on the others was hurtful, no doubt, but you can't run the football there. You just can't. because then you get one play before the two-minute warning more likely than not.

And they certainly weren't in a hurry. They scored, and then that's next on my list. And that is the decision to not go for two down 28 to 20. Now, the analytics people, and you've seen it much more in recent years, down 14 scored touchdown, a lot of teams will go for two, down eight to try to cut it to six, knowing that if they miss it, their next touchdown, they'll still have a chance to go for two to tie it. The thought is trying to win the game in regulation.

Your odds are increased. I'm taking context out of the situation, and it's got to be placed into the situation. But the math essentially plays out that if you go for two and have an opportunity to go for two twice, that first opportunity to go for two, you are increasing your chances of winning the game in regulation rather than playing for overtime when you kick for the extra point on both times.

Or you also increase your chances of making a two-point conversion rather than having it come down to one and going for the win after the second touchdown. So I think they should have gone for two. Now, what I don't know is, did they like their two-point plays coming into this game? Did they feel good about them in context? had they used some of them up in other short yardage situations? Who knows where they were on two-point plays going in and in the moment? Because if you didn't like any of the two-point plays you had, then you got a kick.

But I think they should have gone for two for another reason. They had a snapping problem. I mean, they had a snapper who clearly was struggling and basically had the yips. and it was another bad snap, and the PAT got blocked, and Sheean didn't get the push. So didn't like that at all, too. And then, you know, the rush offense, you know, was, I just was surprised to hear anybody suggested, and it was Ron, who suggested that, you know, running the ball makes a difference with being able to throw the football.

Well, we all know that, but it's running the ball well that usually works best. They didn't run the ball well yesterday. Chris Rodriguez, who we knew we were going to see a lot of yesterday when Robinson Jr. was ruled out, 10 carries 35 yards. Antonio Gibson, four carries 15 yards. I mean, if not for Sam Howell's 22 yards of scramble, Washington would have averaged, and by the way, Berset's nine-yard scramble, you would have had a 3.3 yard average.

So they didn't do that well either. Sam Howls on the list of things that I didn't like. I thought Sam's overall performance was pretty poor. Now, there were some things that he did well, all right? Let me give them to you. Sam had a really good scramble on a third and five on the second drive for a first down. He had a really good scramble on third and 16 for 14 yards, which set up a fourth and two, and he made a great step up and extension of the play.

and found Terry off schedule for a first down. That was on the second drive of the game. That was before he got the fourth and one batted down. Second half, he had a fourth and three off-sched-strel play where he found Terry for a first-down throw. And then he had the touchdown pass to Curtis Samuel wide open, but, you know, stepped into it, threw it decisively. Good pass pro on that play. had a play where he escaped pressure right around the goal line. I don't know that it would have been his safety,

but he was able to escape that. And then I thought he made a really good throw to Terry on the play that he almost made a one-handed grab on, that Terry almost made a one-handed grab on. I thought that was a good throw. It was third and six, and it should have been called defensive pass interference. Terry's inside arm was being yanked in the process.

So it wasn't all bad from something. Sam yesterday. It wasn't, but it was not all good. First drive to the game, third and four, the first third down they failed on. He threw short to Samuel. I thought Terry was open. I think that was one of those they probably look at and say, well, you know, what was your process? Because it looked like the play that we had designed was open. He had a screen pass to Williams that was incomplete, missed badly on. I don't know that Williams picks it up. He had a first and 10 on their fourth drive of the first half that was nearly picked by Witherspoon, a pass intended for Bates. It was thrown late.

He had Gibson wide open versus the Blitz on a second and 10 on their fourth drive, and that was the play that Ron challenged. That should have been on the things that I liked list. He got a challenge, right? And he should have challenged that because Gibson did catch the ball. But the ball wasn't thrown well. in that particular case. He had a late throw to Terry on a third and four on that fourth drive of the first half. I thought Terry could have caught it, but it was thrown late.

It ended up in a big hit on Terry. The third and ten sack, I didn't see a lot of options for Sam. They kept Max protecting, seven protectors anyway. There were no checkdown opportunities there. Man, I thought we'd gotten through that. I thought we were definitely into more of checkdown. even on third and 10, and then try to pick it up after the checkdown, but it didn't look like he had a checkdown,

but it didn't look like anybody was open, but he did hold it and he got sacked. And then in the second half, there's a short throw to Terry. Terry kind of short-armed a little bit, but that throw was off. He had a dropped interception on a third and five on their first drive of the second half. I think he read the play wrong. it was when he was throwing, looking for Terry in that little, what coolly likes to call the honeyhole. But there wasn't really a hole because the safety was there and Sam didn't think he was going to be there, I don't think.

He had multiple balls batted in this game, the fourth and one in the first half, batted ball, a third and three on their second drive in the second half batted. Sam leads the league in batted balls as we've discussed. He took that shot to Diami Brown into double coverage. That was nearly picked off. And then the interception was a bad play, which was his last play. Overall, I think Sam's performance was like a D. You know, so that basically is a stretch of games where Sam's been, you know, in the C to C minus range to the D range.

for me, the D was yesterday. And again, it wasn't all bad. It wasn't his worst performance of the year. I didn't think it was his worst performance of the year. It wasn't, it was far from his best. Seems like we've been saying that a lot about Sam's performances recently. The QBR number yesterday against the Rams was 27.8. The lowest of the year for him is the Buffalo game.

Second lowest was the first giant game in the Meadowlands. third lowest was the Miami game a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday was the fourth lowest QBR of this season. 11 to 26, 102 yards, 42.3% completion percentage. You know, the bottom line is, we've talked a lot about this. It was going to be a season that had a lot of ups and downs to it. Sam's season has had a lot of ups and downs. and it's quite remarkable that he's had the opportunity for all of those ups and downs

because he leads the league in interceptions, he leads the league in sacks allowed, he leads the league in batted passes, his QBR as of after yesterday is 22nd in the league, his passer rating is 24th in the league, you know, those that were really into the average passing yards per game, he's now seventh in the league in passing yards per game. but it's a testament to him that he continues to get opportunities, and it's because he's done a lot of good things too. What concerns me, I think, more than anything else, is that he's a really good off-schedule, quarterback, mobility,

creating running opportunities and throwing opportunities, and he's been incredibly inconsistent from the pocket. I think his height has something to do with it. I think there are short quarterbacks that find the lanes. There are short quarterbacks that process quicker and get it out quickly enough so that the pressure doesn't get to them where they can't see it. There were a couple of plays.

In fact, if you go back to the interception play, I don't think he can see Terry open or the checkdown. And that's what sends him in motion, gets him outside the pocket and moving. So there's some things with that part of his game that have been a problem. A few other observations. I already mentioned, God damn, Matt Stafford's good. The end of the game, 44 seconds left, Washington has no timeouts left.

They've called their last timeout. I can't believe Sean McVeigh, as smart as he is. I can't believe they ran a play. They ran Kiron Williams, who, already had a fumble on the day, on a play in which all you had to do was take Matt Stafford, have him take the snap, take a couple of steps back, kneel down, even if there's a one second difference, then you get up to the ball on fourth down and you have him take two more, two steps backwards and kneel down and it's game over. Or snap it to him in the shotgun,

have him roll out of the pocket and throw the ball deep down field out of bound. I mean, that was stupid. That's one of those things where what's he doing? Like, he actually didn't even really need to run it on the play before. He had an opportunity to kind of kneel it out by trying to, you know, buy a couple seconds on the kneel down, not the immediate kneel down, the one where the quarterback goes back, lets the clock run a second or two, and then kneels down.

And with 44 seconds left, they handed the ball off to Kyron Williams. What if he had fun of? humbled again. That was surprising to me. Something happened before a Rams punt in the second half. It was fourth and three, and they sent the punting unit out, and then they grabbed the punting unit back and brought it to the sideline, and they kept looking for the referee to reset the play clock to 25 because they wanted to put their offense back in there. How is that allowed? They made the mistake of putting the punting unit out and then pulling the punting unit. Why should they get the benefit of 25 new seconds to put the offense in there to try to draw Washington off sides? That doesn't seem right

to me. I can't imagine that that's a rule where they get a play clock reset when they're the, I mean, if you're going to do that, then, and you're, you've got the lead, you might as well do that a couple of times and have it reset to 25 seconds. I thought that that was bullshit. it. And then what else did I have? I think that's kind of it. I think that's kind of it. All right. When we come back a little bit on the rest of the league and more, we'll get to all of that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Eleven play of this drives. Alan, here comes Partons, runs away.

throws on the run, has a man. Caw, touchdown. It's Cook. What a day for Dalvin Cook's little brother James Cook. 25 carries 179 yards and a touchdown. Two catches, 42 yards, and a touchdown as well as Buffalo destroyed Dallas, 31 to 10. I didn't see any of this game. I really wanted to watch this game. I'm glad it wasn't one of those classics like the Buffalo Philadelphia game from the Sunday over Thanksgiving weekend. Dallas, I know they had some six.

players coming into the game like Philly does tonight in their game against Seattle. But Buffalo destroyed them. I mean, when you rush for 266 yards in an NFL game against anybody, that's a lot. Dallas, you know, that was supposedly their Achilles heel. You know, and then last week, Philly couldn't really run it against them in particular. They've been better at stopping the run in recent games. but Buffalo wins with 266 yards on the ground and with Josh Allen completing just seven passes,

15 attempts for 94 yards. The Cowboys lose to Buffalo 310. I really wanted to watch this game, and apparently many of you did. Listen to this. The Dallas Buffalo game in the D.C. market outrated the Washington Rams game on CBS. Now, I do know there's a direct TV issue with CBS.

We've seen this before, by the way, Dallas outrating Washington in the same time slot during the Snyder era. But there were 439,000 viewers of Dallas, Buffalo in the D.C. market, 349,000 viewers of the Washington Rams game. But again, I think the direct TV thing may have had something to do with it. I don't know. But, you know, it also just speaks to people have checked out on this season, and people still haven't checked back in completely. Anyway, still, though, like 350,000 viewers like dwarfs any other team in town by like, you know, 5 to 10x depending on the game.

Of course, the NFL dwarfs everything understood. elsewhere around the league. So Dallas Falls to 10 and 4, obviously huge game tonight for Philadelphia at Seattle. Jalen Hertz questionable. You probably know by now whether or not he's going to play. They're a four-point favorite. I had mentioned that I might include them in a smell test pick tonight. This segment, by the way, brought to you by MyBooky.

Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. for a cash bonus on your initial deposit. Philly right now, a four-point favorite over Seattle. No Gino Smith, it looks like. I'm just off this game. There's no pick on this game. It's a one, two, and two smell test this weekend.

I had Minnesota on Saturday. I have no idea how they lost that game to Cincinnati. They had a 17 to three lead in the fourth quarter. Mullins, who Kevin O'Connell named as the starter again for next week's game, he threw two interceptions. It could have been five easily, but they were still up 17 to 3. And Jake Browning, I mean, this guy's been freaking amazing. Brings him back. He throws for 324. He was 29 of 42, two touchdowns. And Cincinnati, with Jake Browning at the helm now, has won three in a row. They played as Steelers on Saturday. But I also on Saturday had late, I had the Steelers. They got

annihilated. And then yesterday I had the Panthers again, which I apologized in advance for giving out, but they won outright over the Falcons 9 to 7 in the rain in Charlotte. Apparently, Taylor Heineke could be in the mix for Atlanta. Desmond Ritter threw a terrible interception in that game. They were in field goal range up 7 to 6, and he threw a pick, and they never got the ball back. Carolina ended up with a drive. 17 plays 90 yards, 7 minutes and 35 seconds off the clock, and they kicked a walk-off field goal. Ritter was 12 of 20 for 152 yards, but that terrible interception in the rain. And Atlanta drops to 6 and 8, and Atlanta, has the Colts this weekend, and it could be Taylor Heineke at the helm in Atlanta.

So the other game I had yesterday was I had the Bears plus three. I had the Bears plus three in Minnesota plus three. Both teams had double-digit leads in the fourth quarter. But how about Joe fricking Flacco? I just love him. I've always loved him. There's just something about how he never, ever seems to, feel any pressure. He threw three picks in the first three quarters of that game to put him into

that hole. Now, one of the picks wasn't his fault, but it doesn't matter. He's got three picks, and then he throws in the fourth quarter, he throws for 230 yards of his 374, leads them on three scoring drives, throws an unbelievable touchdown pass to Amari Cooper, and then on a third and 14 from midfield at the end of regulation against zero coverage, all-out blitz, throws an incredible ball to David Najuko, their tight end. He's developed a quick bond with him. He's a good talented tight end. And Cleveland comes back and wins that game.

By the way, the Hail Mary at the end of the game thrown by Justin Fields was in the hands of Mooney on the ground, and somehow he couldn't pull it in. Cleveland's 9 and 5. They're 2-1 with Flacco. They are completely believing in him. You should see some of the stuff that's coming out of Cleveland from the players. They play Houston this week. The Baltimore win last night in Jacksonville. By the way, we found out that Trevor Lawrence had a concussion in that game. He could be in jeopardy of missing their next game. Lamar Jackson was phenomenal in that game.

Just some of the plays he made against what I thought was. some pretty good defense and he was able to extricate himself from sacks and TFLs and make plays. Amazing. They also lost that running back, Keaton Mitchell, who really looked good. I don't know how serious that injury is. But, you know, the NFL day yesterday, really the best game of the day was that Cleveland Chicago game.

Tampa Bay has won three in a row. Baker Mayfield had a perfect passer rating yesterday. Mayfield in the game was 22 of 28 for 381 and four touchdowns, no picks against that Green Bay defense, which had slowed down the likes of Patrick Mahomes and even Jared Gough. And Baker Mayfield and the Bucks have won three in a row. They're tied now with New Orleans atop the NFC South. But Tampa's schedule is Jacksonville and New Orleans at home and the Panthers on the road. They've already beaten New Orleans once.

meantime the Saints at 7 and 7 at Rams at Bucks finish with the Falcons. So the NFC South, wild race coming down the stretch for sure. The Houston win without Stroud with Case Keenham starting was pretty impressive. Do you know that the kicker for the Titans this year? It's Nick Folk, who is the kicker. He's been around forever this year. So so far for the Titans this year, he has missed two extra points and a field goal this year. I think it is. I think it's two extra points and two field goals or two extra points in a field goal.

And basically all three of the misses cost them games. He missed a PAT yesterday. And instead of being five and nine, they could be like seven and seven or eight and six. The Titans have been very competitive. Case Keenham was not great. I think they'll get Stroud back, but that was a big win for them. And now that AFC South, 8 and 6 Jacksonville, 8 and 6 Houston, 8 and 6 Indy, and Jacksonville may have an injured Trevor Lawrence a quarterback and may miss the next game. So imagine Houston going from a projected two worst teams in the league to a division title. The 49ers were awesome yesterday.

Chiefs bounced back. The DeVito Magic sort of wore off for the Giants. Although that was a competitive game. I think it was basically seven to six, you know, until midway through the third quarter. He took seven sacks. I mean, the dude just cannot get rid of the ball. And tonight we've got Philly in Seattle. No smell test pick on that.

All right. A couple of quick things, and then we'll finish up. And I'll be back tomorrow with Tommy. First of all, did you see the news about Eric Montross, the former North Carolina Center? He was a broadcaster for their radio network for many years. Passed away today or yesterday at the age of 52 years old. Those stories get to me, especially with guys that you just, you remember watching so much of his college career in particular. He was in the NBA for a long period of time, too.

Big seven-foot center for Dean Smith's teams in the early 90s. He was such a good player. first round pick of the Celtics in 94. You know, that 94 year was Gary's first real good Maryland team coming off probation. They had some really good games with Carolina. That's too bad. Really, really sad. I wanted to actually congratulate Shepard College coach Montecatur,

who went into the College Football Hall of Fame last week. Congrats to him. Remember, Shepard College had that quarterback that was playing with the Bears this year when Justin Fields was out. Shepard's not in the DMV necessarily. It's in West Virginia, but a lot of people up there commute to D.C. I'm very familiar with the area. I know that we have a lot of listeners from up there. So, congrats to Coach for making the college football hall.

of Fame. They've been a division to power for a long period of time. Lastly, how about Steph Curry? For the first time since 2018, 268 games, he did not make a three-pointer in a game last night. Well, it was bound to come to an end. He was 0 for eight from behind the arc last night in a game that the Warriors actually won. The Wizards won over the weekend on Friday night, they beat the Pacers 137, 123, and then they took the Sons to the brink last night, losing 112.108. What are they doing? They were up, I think they were up eight going into the fourth quarter last night. All right, that's it. Back tomorrow with Tom. Fourth and 18, low snap. He bibles. He's covered. The Rams are going to take over at the 15-yard line. Way is injured. He's down. Covered

reader and others on the punt return unit for the Rams. A loss of 18 on a week in which the Rams had to replace their long snapper. This one botched by the punt team for Washington.