The Kevin Sheehan Show - Brotherly Love Beatdown

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Kevin and Thom today with the recap of Washington's upset win over the Eagles last night in Philly. Kevin had his "Game Take" and Thom weighed in with some analysis as well. Where does this go from here at 5-5? The boys discussed that and Taylor Heinicke's immediate future 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. Their perfect season should be the last play. Hurts underneath and now the laterals. And instead, it's going to be picked up for a touchdown on that lateral by Casey Two Hill.

And the commanders have won this game. And Taylor Heinek. He can celebrate a big road win here in week 10. That was the final play of the game last night, a stunning upset, certainly to the country, a stunning upset last night. I think all of us talked as if Washington could be a competitive team in the game last night. I didn't pick them to win. Cooley bet them on the money line last night. Tommy's with me today.

Cooley during the game is texting me during the game. And I got to tell you, he's not the biggest fan of the team anymore. But he was last night because he placed a large money line wager on Washington last night. At MyBooky, by the way. Go to MyBooky.orgie.org. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. They'll match your first deposit, dollar for dollar, all the way up to $1,000. But Cooley had him at play.

I think he said it went off at plus $400. he got him on the money line. And he was into every call. He was a Washington fan last night. And he picked him on the show yesterday. He thought that they had a really good chance to win the game. I picked Philadelphia to win, but I said we're going to have a, you know, a 2117 kind of a game, 17, 13, kind of a game going into the fourth quarter.

And they pulled it off. MyBooky.ag, Kevin, D.C., the promo code, as we slug. the My Bookie read into the opener here. They're the best. Fairpoint spreads, fair totals, fair money lines, Tommy, and they're giving away free money. I mean, you should sign up at MyBooky and take the thousand bucks and use it to wager on some things here and there. How are you doing this morning? How are you? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I enjoyed myself last night watching the game at my local establishment here in town. and, you know, I picked the Eagles to win.

The score was 29 to 24. I thought they would, Washington would put up a competitive effort. I thought they would bounce back. And I thought they could run the ball, which it turns out they certainly did. They did. They really, really did. You know, it's funny because going into. to the Minnesota game. I said to you, you know, leading into that week, I said, this is actually

a winnable game. You and I got into the debate about winnable or getable or doable or getable. I think it was, yeah. I mean, just inane stuff. And I said, and if they do, and they're five and four, they're going to be in this hunt for a wild card spot, you know, heading into the latter portions of November into December, because the NFC is going to produce a wild card team at eight and nine or nine and eight. Now, I would guess it's going to take nine and eight now. I think San Francisco is really making a run. And Seattle, you know, lost, but they got a pretty good record. And the Giants, Cowboys, Washington now, you know, in the NFC East, it's probably going to take nine and eight. But I really thought the Minnesota game was key because I assumed a loss against Philadelphia.

Yes. And so without the win against Minnesota, I'm like, four and six, you know, two losses in a row. then they probably go back to Wentz. And I think they would have gone back to Wentz. And then, you know, it's an uphill battle from there. But I'll tell you what, last night, I'm going to get to my game take. Tommy's going to be on the show today throughout. So he's going to be able to, you know, kind of wedge in during my game take where I go through the things I liked and didn't like.

And it's a long list, both sides. There was a lot to that game last night. But they needed really, you know, in going into these next two, they needed one of the two. I thought it was going to be Minnesota that was the game they could get, and they got one of the two. And if you were going to pick one of the two, you would say, well, let's take Philadelphia on Monday night against an undefeated team who has proven to be the best team in the NFC, if not one of the best two teams or three teams in the NFL this year because of the confidence boost. you know, it'll give them. Remember, this was a Philadelphia team rested. They played 11 days ago. They didn't have the normal Thursday through Sunday. They had a Thursday through Monday night. It was almost like a full buy week they were coming off of.

It's Monday night. They're undefeated. They're about to show the country that they're going to make a run at the 72 dolphins. And Washington went in there last night. And for those of you that tweeted me to talk about this lucky night that they had, That's bullshit. They kicked this shit out of Philadelphia for the vast majority of the game. They dominated in almost every category. I mean, dominated. Yeah. Did they have a couple of things in breaks that went their way?

Absolutely. Like every team does every week. Did you see Buffalo fumble the snap in their own end zone on Sunday? When their win probability was like 99.6%. You know, so these things happen. but for the vast majority of this game, this was an ass kicking. I mean... Yes, it was.

So I... Time of possession, offense, number of plays. Number of plays is almost double. They ran 51 plays in the first half that's the most by any team in the NFL this season. 51! Offensive snaps. When you see a time of possession mismatch, it's usually they had the ball for 19, and the other team only had it for 11.

24 minutes. They had it. Philadelphia had it for six minutes. It really was, look, there's some things I'm going to get to that will sort of, from my standpoint, from my opinion, describe why the game still was potentially loseable, and they needed a break or two down the stretch, no doubt. But for the vast majority of that game, Washington was the superior team last night, the superior team.

And now, Tommy, as we do here on this podcast, we take it back 50 years, because why wouldn't we? We love going back 50 years. The 72 dolphins are popping the champagne cork last night and thanking the Washington commanders last night. Two years ago, the Washington football team, they thanked when Washington went to Pittsburgh in that weird situation during COVID and beat the Steelers when they were 11 and 0. Two out of the last three years, it's been Washington, by the way, the team, the Redskins, that the 72 perfect dolphins beat in Super Bowl 7 to finish off their 17 and 0 only perfect season post-merger.

But Greasy and Morris and Warfield, your favorite. I know you love yourself some Paul Warfield. Larry Zonka, Bob Coochenberg, Larry Little, Manny Fernandez. I mean, can you keep naming some of the dolphins? Jake Scott, who, by the way, was the MVP of Super Bowl 7 and would finish his career in Washington. Dick Anderson, Nick Bonacconi, Howard Twilly.

Howard Twilley, caught a touchdown pass in that game. Yes. Jim Kick? Do you remember that Kick, Warfield, and Zonka all went to that World Football League? Yeah. Do you know who else went to that World Football League from Washington? Mr. You know, Washington Historian? I'm trying to think. I should know. I should know.

Five, four, three, two, one. Charlie Harroway, who was the fullback, the fullback, who by the way, carried the ball a lot for Washington, but was really Larry Brown's lead fullback, went to the World Football League as well. There's a really good story written by somebody at the Athletic, and I'll have to find it. But for those of you like me who are subscribers to the Athletic, there's a really good story about the World Football League,

and what a complete shit show it was. And a lot of those NFL players that took that money and went thinking that it was going to be a big deal, you know, was going to be the new AFL and got, you know, some guarantees, not all of them got their money, and they ended up back in the NFL, like Larry Zonka, who went back to the Giants and played when he came back. So the Dolphins 72 team now safe, courtesy of Washington for the second time in three years.

So I'm going to get to my game take in the second segment, but I wanted to start with my big takeaway from the game last night, and then I want your big takeaway. My big takeaway from the game last night is that this was the best win of the Ron Rivera era here, two and a half years in Washington. I rank it ahead of that Pittsburgh win, ahead of the Tampa win last year. Pittsburgh win was weird. COVID year.

Pittsburgh was on a short week. The game got rescheduled. The whole thing was weird. Pittsburgh, by the way, was turning into a team that really wasn't, you know, worthy of the way they had started the season. The Tampa game last year off that by week, I mean, you know, it was just, it turned out it was the beginning of a four-game win streak, but nobody knew it in the moment. Last night was not only the best win for Ron Rivera since he came to Washington, but this was a coaching win last night. For me, that's my opinion. Last night was Washington was the more prepared team.

They were the more energetic team. They were the more physical team. They were the more enthusiastic team. They had a better game plan. They executed the game plan. All in the face, once again, of organizational, you know, distraction and chaos from last week. You know, so much so that we finally, for the first time, actually heard players discuss the distraction. Now, Ron did his thing when he came back from burying his mother at her funeral out in Northern California,

where he did that thing where he said, you know, we're focused on the things that are important, not interesting, which is kind of his go-to saying when he wants the players to try to focus just on the games and the other stuff isn't important. Really, I think many times it's just so that he doesn't have to answer a question that he doesn't want to answer, but whatever. Last week was, you know, however it happened, more likely than not, It was the owner and that stooge lawyer that he has that's been out and about, you know, getting each other fired up with some brilliant idea that they both thought would just, you know,

completely smack the AG upside his head publicly before the press conference the following day. Backfired, of course, in a major way. But Ron had that team and has had that team prepared and ready to play for several weeks in a row, The one in four going to Chicago looked like it was essentially season over. They could have easily lost the Chicago game, if not for a muffed punt return, probably saved the season in the moment that night. And I don't think he's an elite coach, never have, but I certainly don't think he's the bum that many of you think he is.

He's not an elite tactician. He's not an elite game manager or clock manager or any of that stuff. But Ron Rivera has proven throughout his career that for whatever the reasons are, and we're not young 25-year-old football playing men in a locker room in a team atmosphere, he has the ability to get their attention, to get a message across, to keep them in the fight no matter what it looks like, inside or out. He's never had a team go south on him, never had a team implode. those of you that would say, well, so what? I mean, he hasn't been to the playoffs since 2017. I understand that. I understand that.

But you know what? He has players that play for him, that hear his message. He finds players that sort of understand that. You know, a lot of these players that really understand it were not brought here by him, but were kept here by him. Really didn't have a choice with guys like John Allen and Terry McCorn. Last night's the first time I can really say, I think, you know, since he's been here, I really felt when they went up 17 to 14 in the first half,

and they were flying around and they were executing this game plan offensively to a T. I really felt like, you know, I don't know what he is and where he'll sort of end up here, but this is a guy that figures out a way to motivate, figures out a way to get it done when you least expect. it. And I thought last night, 100% more than anything else, number one reason for the win was Ron Rivera and his staff. Not to mention a beautifully crafted game plan by Scott Turner. Helps when you're making third downs to get more plays. But that last night was a coaching win for Ron Rivera and Washington. And I think that's the, you know, I don't know if it's the first time I've said that since he's been here. But it's the first time I felt it really, really strongly. I don't think that there are a lot of coaches that would have had that team off of what they've been going through. And I know people say, well, the players aren't going through it. Well, last week we did hear from players saying, you know, distraction that Brian Robinson was included in that statement. But anyway, that's my big takeaway.

What's yours? Well, let me talk a little bit about that. We heard a lot from the Carolina players how much they loved playing for Ron Rivera. And Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio both played in this league a long time. So I think they understand the player mentality, and I think that's their connection. I think they're very good at it. You're right. You've never seen a team turn out like the Jim Zorn, you know, 45-7 swinging gate games or anything like that with Ron Rivera.

you know, he keeps them competitive. And, you know, I don't want to take away from the win, and everything you said is right. But your premise is, you know, he's not an elite coach, but he's not the worst coach in the world. And basically what we're saying is it could be a lot worse. Yeah. But it's not going to be much better.

And that's the limbo. that's the limbo. You know, that's the limbo that this team finds itself in sometimes when they consider a good year. A good year is when you get to that limbo. So that's where we are again. Now, it was fun, and it's more fun than the alternative, but it's not as much fun as the other direction.

The limbo thing's so interesting because, and we're going to, we'll save this for the, most part until Thursday because this was, you know, this was a really unique win last night. And we're going to focus solely on the game last night. But for those of you that missed it, Alex Smith did an ESPN podcast and he had a lot of, a lot to say about Washington. And one of the things he said is it's a real dilemma. It's kind of like the fans are in, he didn't use the word, limbo.

Like they're not against the players, but they can't root, a lot of them can't root for the team because they despise the owner so much. And they essentially saying, if you root for the team, you're rooting for Dan to stay and you know what the result of that will be over time. It won't be good. Like you always say, the passage of time never really ends up being good for Dan Snyder. And there's a lot about this organization that's just in limbo. I mean, you know, I'm not nearly, I'm the perfect example.

of it. I really think I'm very, very much in the majority of long-time fans over the age of, call it 35 or 40, you know, up until the age of, you know, 85, whatever, that it's like it just, it got to the point where it was too much and the passion was just slowly sucked out, extracted from our bodies. And I will say there's something last night where I'm like, kicked the shit out of Philadelphia. You know, if it had been Dallas on Monday night, there's still part of me that loves to see that happen against, you know, an arch rival. But it's not the same.

And so the coaching situation that you just described is limbo too. But that's the best they can do, Tommy. Yes, I know it is. I know it is. You know, I'm just acknowledging that. That, you know, that is, sadly, the best they can do. It could be worse. Now, you talked about how the players mentioned, you know, how it started to come out that the players were, you know, sort of affected by the distractions.

They're upset. They're upset by it, yeah. Right. Okay. Well, I've been saying to you for a long time, but people don't just forget about this. You know, these players don't go home to an isolated room and spend their off time, you know, away from the world. They have family. They have friends who are much more involved in the stuff outside the building than they are. So I'm sure these guys hear it when they go home and have been hearing it when they go home or from family or friends. You know, so it's been, I'm sure it's been difficult for them to escape that. And the building, you know, has been their only solace, their only protection.

and now it's seeping into there as well, but it didn't affect them in this game. That's for sure, and you've got to give you're right. You've got to give the coaching staff credit for that to have them ready to play under those circumstances. Now, here's a quote, Rivera said after the game. I find it's interesting. He says, we can run the ball. We have to make certain we stay with it. The biggest thing we have to do is understand where we are, who we are,

and what we can be. Okay. Now, to me, now, you know, I don't think this is where they, I don't think this is who they wanted to be at the start of the year. No, agree. I don't think, yeah, I don't think this is who they wanted to be. I think circumstances have forced them into this, but they finally got there.

It took them a while to get there. You know, I like Scott Turner too, but it took them a while to realize that, you know, the pyrotechnics that he may have, all drawn up, you know, are not going to be as effective as handed a ball off to Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson. But now they're at that point. They're at that point where, you know, running the ball is their first mission.

And pretty much, I mean, they ran for, what, 150 yards or something like that, 152 yards. Yeah, but Tommy, that's been the mission here for several weeks. They just couldn't. They couldn't convert on third down. I mean, this mission started with the Green Bay game because of the quarterback. They knew they had to have a running game. And so they've been trying to do what they did last night, and they were effective against Green Bay and doing it.

They were kind of effective at times against Minnesota and doing it, and they blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. But in the passing game, in the passing game that they used, particularly last night, they didn't put Heineke back there for long periods of time. It's because it was third and one the whole night. That's why. It's just, and I'll get to this in my game take. There's a couple of numbers from last night that are just eye-popping.

I mean, I haven't seen people write about their third down distances last night, but it's amazing. But I think that's what they would have preferred to have done the last few. weeks had they not had, you know, had they had better third downs? And they did have some good third down situations in previous weeks and they just didn't connect. But back to the statement that started this part of the conversation because I do think you're right. And I got this tweet from Devin and I read it on radio this morning, so I'm going to read it to you. Kevin, you've got to go back to Wentz. By the way, I can't believe that this wasn't your number one takeaway. I was just

waiting for you to say, well, my number one takeaway is that Taylor Heineke, he's the quarterback the rest of the year. I figured I didn't have to say that. That's so obvious. It's not even spoken. So Devin doesn't think it's as obvious. And I had a caller or two that said it wasn't that obvious either. But anyway, Devin said, you've got to go back to Wentz if he's ready.

He's benefited from watching the O-line is slightly better. The defense is much better. You add a big play element to this offense. this team should win 10 and a playoff game. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, last year when Indianapolis made their run back into playoff contention and actually should have made the playoffs had they beaten Jacksonville, it was because they kind of dialed it back and went to a run-first offense with Jonathan Taylor. I mean, Carson Wentz ran that kind of an offense. ball control offense. There were games last year that they won during their run back into playoff contention where he didn't throw for 100 yards.

Or if he did, it was like 140 on very few completions. I actually, I don't, let me, hold on, let me answer the big picture question. Taylor Heineke is going to be the starting quarterback this week and should be the starting quarterback this week. Okay? That's number one. Number two is Devon's also right. If you added, a big play explosive stretch-the-offense capability to what you're running now, it would be even better. If Carson could do the third and three easy pitch and catches that were there last night. But that's not going to happen.

And it's not going to happen for one reason more than any other. Because the performances from Taylor over these four games, even though they're three-and-one, okay, it's been up and down. Last night I think it was more up than down. Last week was more down than up. Green Bay was really split. It was a horrible first half, good second half. Indy was nothing for three quarters and then brilliance over the final two drives.

That's who he's been. That's what he's going to continue to be. But here's the reason you can't do it. It's the same reason that Mike told us way back in the day, I had to go to Kirk. I would have lost the locker room. Jay had to go to Kirk. I would have lost the locker room.

Ron Rivera in his first year, I had to bench Dwayne. Not only bench him, demote him to third string. I had 52 other guys I had to answer to. That's the reason. They can't possibly say to the rest of the locker room after last night,

Carson's healthy. He is our starting quarterback. He's going to quarterback against Houston. Especially when your most important players and your best players, specifically Terry McLaren, have basically said all along, this is my guy, Taylor Heineke. Yeah.

So it ain't happening. If Ron Rivera today says Carson Wentz is the starter, it would be the biggest upset of the year in football. There's no chance that's going to happen, nor should it. I agree. I agree. I mean, they clearly, they don't hate Carson. when. He hasn't been here long enough

to do what he did in Philadelphia, okay? But they clearly love Taylor Heineke. And they just love the guy. And, you know, I mean, I don't, that would take the air out of the balloon

if you made that move now. Yeah, totally. And look, it sounds like, you know, I'm saying that the players believe or others believe, or, others believe, even I believe that he's the reason that they are five and five. I don't believe that to be the case. I think he's been a contributor and a positive contributor a little bit more than a negative contributor. And Tommy, I'm going to say this, and I know you're going to disagree with me. I'm not so sure that what they've done over Green Bay,

Indianapolis, Minnesota, and Philadelphia would have been that much different with Wentz. but I think it probably would have been slightly different. Enough different that maybe it's not three and one, it's two and two. And the reason really is they believe in Taylor, and you say it's not that they don't like Carson. I don't know what was going on there before he got hurt in Chicago, but I'm going to guess here that it's not like they were in love with him. It's not like they were big believers in him in that locker room.

So now, if, Last night hadn't gone the way it went, then I think we would have seen Wentz against Houston. But I mean, I said that last week. Yeah, we both did. We both did. You know, if he played good, he'll keep his job. Right. Even if they lost, if he played good, he'd keep his job.

And here they are. Five and five, they have a path with Houston on the road. Let me just give everybody a fair warning on this. Washington is a three-point favorite against the team with the worst record in the the league on Sunday coming off that upset win last night on Monday night football. This is the absolute NFL trap game defined. NFL trap game in the dictionary. Washington beats Philadelphia, the undefeated team on Monday night football. They've won four out of five and they lose at Houston the following week. Okay. This is the kind of game where coaching really matters again. They've got to

have them as energized, as desperate, as urgent on Sunday because Houston gave Washington for all intents and purposes in their game against Philadelphia, the blueprint. Houston's not terrible. They were 21 to 17 with Philadelphia going into the fourth quarter, running the football, possessing the football. So Sunday's huge. Then they get Atlanta, a team that is a run-first team. so is Houston. At home the following week, they have a path to 7 and 5 heading into December

with back-to-back games against the New York Giants with a by-week in between that set up for monster playoff ramification December games. The Atlanta game's going to be big in the head-to-head. But this Sunday, look out. This is the one where if they get through this one and they play well and they beat a team that they actually are better than, I think they are. Not a lot better than, but they're better than them. I'm going to give Ron Rivera even more credit a week from yesterday, a week from Monday, because this is the tough one. I've been an NFL fan and a better long enough.

These are the games where usually you get to the window on the other team. I probably will be on Houston Sunday plus the three. I will. All right. What else in terms of big takeaways from last night? Oh. You know, for one of the things that, for the way they dominated offensively, they still have a problem putting up points.

Well, they got 26 last night. I mean, the six points at the end of the game. Yeah, but they got 26. They got 26, including the end of the game, but they got the because of turnover. Okay. I mean, considering the domination does not equate to the production on the scoreboard. That's because the drives were so long and so clock churning.

26 points, they scored on five consecutive drives, the four that ended the first half. They don't win the game without Joey. They don't win the game without Joey Sly. He's on my list. Let me get to that list. My game take coming up next. Right after these words from a few of our. sponsors.

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This from Old Tiggie 40 via Apple Podcast. Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, Tom, for all the content from sports, politics, and entertainment. Can't get enough of you guys. I've been following Kevin and Tom since Gibbs 2.0. Well, thank you, old Tiggie 40. Yes. This from the Blue Sheep 2, where else are you going to hear a replay of Garrow Yopremian's Super Bowl Pass

or movie and TV show reviews with Doc and Tom and Cooley? and then he goes on to say very nice things about the pod. Appreciate that. Yeah, we just mentioned Super Bowl 7 in the open as Washington last night allowed the 72 dolphins to pop the champagne and be safe for one more season. All right, let me get to my game take, the list of things that I like, the things that I did not like from the game,

and several other observations. Tommy is going to sit here through this and feel free to interrupt whenever you would like. Let me start with the list of things that I like. First of all, as I mentioned, it's a coaching win. Talked about that in the first segment. This is, you know, a Ron Rivera able to, you know, batten down the hatches, keep his team focused with all of the chaos happening last week.

They've gotten used to it. I mean, you can say that. But last week was a little bit different. I mean, it was almost as if the owner and the lawyer, were drunk texting or drunk tweeting a press statement last week. I mean, it was so absurd. But, you know, another, you know, week of the shit hitting the fan. And Ron Rivera, you know, had a personal funeral for his mother to attend as well.

And yet this team was prepared. They were the energetic, more physical team against a well-rested team. Went through a lot of this in the open. But number one for me is this was a coaching win. credit goes to Ron Rivera, Jack Del Rio, Scott Turner, and that staff. Number two on the list of things that I like. The offense in the game last night, it's been a long time since I've had the offense, unless I've said like the second half or the first half or whatever.

I think against Green Bay, I said, well, the offense was great in the second half, and it was. But the key last night was down in distance all night long. Listen to this, Tommy. They had six third and ones. Six. I don't know what the record is for third down and ones. Keep in mind, the average number of third down attempts a typical team has in a game is right around 10 or 11, generally. You know, sometimes, you know, depending on your explosiveness as a first and second down offense, you don't have that many third downs.

Usually when you don't have a lot of third downs, it's reflective of a team that's really good offensively. And sometimes when you have a lot of third downs, it's an indication of a team that isn't very explosive on offense, but is efficient on third downs. To have six third and ones, I have no idea what the record is for a game, but I bet you it isn't a lot more than six third and ones. By the way, several of those third and ones were third and less than ones. They had five third and twos and thirons. They had four third and fours, third and fives. That's 15 third downs that you would call a winning down and distance number. Favorable distances for any team in the league, let alone a team like theirs.

This was really a major key coming in. It's why there's been so much criticism of Scott Turner recently, because when you go five for 22, like they did in their last two games against Indy and Minnesota on third down, you can't feed Terry the ball constantly. You can't keep running the ball 35 times, because you're not converting on third downs. And by the way, in some of these games recently,

they've had decent third down numbers as well. like last night. You rarely get 15 third down attempts in a game, and they had 15 last night that were third and five or shorter. The key to the game last night. Now, they had to convert those, but how did they get to those? Well, they ran the football. Forty-nine rushes versus 29 throws. They've been run heavy compared to pass since Taylor took over. It just, other than the Green Bay second half, they haven't really. been able to get enough possessions, enough plays. The 49 runs, interestingly, resulted in 152 yards. That's not great. They average 3.1 yards per carry. That's not excellent. But the two backs...

It was effective. Yeah. And he stuck with it because he said, we can't drop this guy back on 3rd and 7 or 3rd and 8 or 3rd and 10 or 3rd and 12. We have some things that can work on third and three, third and two, third, and one, third, and four. And he was right. One of the reasons that the average was low is, to be honest with you, from my standpoint, watching last night, there wasn't a lot of room to run. There weren't gaping holes. This was Brian Robinson, Jr. And Antonio Gibson doing all the work.

Led by, by the way, at times multiple tight ends. They had swapping right tackles between Cosmy and Lucas. They basically each played half the game. It was the best showing by Brian Robinson, Jr. Bar none. Best game of the year. Best run was that 12-yarder, physical run that got him down to the goal-to-go situation,

and then he scored with a great run where he reached that ball out. They crossed the plane. He was 86 yards on 26 carries, not a great average, but tough yards. And they were contributing to getting into really good third down situations. How about this stat from the game last night? They ran the ball in first and second downs consecutively 12 times.

12 times they ran the ball in first down, gained an average of 3.1 yards. And Turner said, that's okay, let's get us to a third and three, and ran it another on second down. 12 times. They ran the ball in first down and second down, and it's not because they were getting. getting nine yards on first down. Antonio Gibson was really good last night, too. Both of them moved the pile. Both of them really created and got everything they got pretty much on their own last night.

Curtis Samuel was in the backfield. He carried it four times, including taking a direct snap. Taylor Heineke had a couple of reed option keepers, had a scramble or two. They had tremendous action in the backfield with their motion. They had a lot of reverse motion where they really had to make Philadelphia consider Curtis Samuel fly sweep. I thought Turner did a really good job. He's done a lot of that. I've given him some credit for being creative in the running game previously. But in the first half, they were 9 of 12 on 3rd down. They ran 51 plays in 19, 24 minutes to 6, 5 drives 4 scores. and then the other reason that they were good offensively

is when they got into these third downs, which they were 12 for their first 16, ended up 12 of 21. And we'll get to, when I get to my list of things I didn't like, they weren't very productive in the fourth quarter, which was a problem. But they converted the third downs. I mean, and they did so with wide open receivers.

I mean, Terry McLorn, they slanted him. there were four to five slants, either against soft coverage or him just pulling away. Other times on third down, they schemed up some beauties where it was literally pitch and catch. And I think Scott Turner, and I've said this before, and most of you have pushed back, I actually think Scott Turner knows what he's doing. He's had a rotating offensive line and not very good line and a lot of quarterbacks here in the first two and a half seasons. but he schemed some people open last night. They were wide open.

I'm not taking anything away from Taylor because he had to make those throws and sometimes under some pressure. And he made some really good throws, period. But there was pitching and catching last night on third down. On the list of things that I liked, Terry McClorn was the best player on the field last night. I thought John Allen was the best player on the field last week. And I think Terry McCorn was the best player. player on the field last night. He was open all night long again. I mean, there goes another slant pass to Terry. I mean, take that all day long. It is a good throw for Taylor because

it's a quick decision, quick throw. He's able to lead Terry who always gets separation. He had eight catches last night for 128 yards. There are a couple of shots for Terry that Taylor shouldn't have taken, but the 42-yarder was maybe the best throw Taylor's thrown ball, best ball Taylor's thrown all year. Terry McCorn, best player on the field. In addition to down and distance last night being so significant to the win,

turnovers. I said yesterday, you've got to be at plus two. If you're at plus two, you've got a chance to win the game. They ended up at plus two. Now, the final turnover on the final play of the game, the pitching around that led to the KC2 Hill touchdown and the final score difference of 32 to 21,

there were really three turnovers that were significant to the outcome. But two of them came in the fourth quarter. I mean, two of them came with Philadelphia having the ball down 23-21 the first time, 26-21 the second time. And I don't know about you, but I watched that game last night, and I thought, man, their best defense has been the offense staying on the field and keeping Jalen Hertz off of it because Jalen Hertz, is good. I thought he was outstanding last night, and they didn't have a lot of plays to prove it.

He's got, he is so much better. And I've been a fan, as most of you know. And I thought Philadelphia was going to be good last year, and I thought Philadelphia was going to be very good this year. And I thought Hertz would take a step forward. He is excellent now as a pocket passer. Excellent. He's so strong, too. But they got two turnovers. They got a turnover on an egregious miss of a face mask on Dallas Goddard. I mean, it is really hard in the open field like that. You sometimes miss face masks and runs in between the tackles with running backs where they just can't see it. That's a tight end screen to Goddard.

And Jamon Davis doesn't just, you know, grab it and let go. He grabs it and yanks it. And they miss the call. Completely missed it. These things happen in games. You know, sometimes you get the break. sometimes you don't. But that was one of the turnovers. And then the other one was on a play that hurts, throws an absolute dime to Quez Watkins, who got behind the secondary in a key portion

of the game. And he doesn't get touched and he gets up in St. Juice, he makes a really good play to tackle him, force the ball loose, and Forrest came up. Down in Washington, down in Washington Territory. That's a field goal right from right there. It's a field goal in the lead. Probably? Yeah. Probably a touchdown and the lead at that point in the game. That's a game-changing play. Yeah, they would have actually, they were down 26, 21 on that one.

Yeah. Right, so that's what I mean. At a minimum of field goal, but if they score a touchdown, that's the go-ahead score. That's right. Well, the Goddard missed, you know, face mask would have put them at the 50-yard line first and 10. You know, instead of a fumble recovered, you know, because he got hit at about the 34-yard line 15 yards. They're at midfield with 543 to go at that point down. Yeah, actually, wait a minute. Yeah, the fumble. They're both fumbles. I'm looking for

interception here, and it wasn't an interception on the long throw. The throw to Goddard is out to the 37-yard line. They're in Washington territory if they make the 15-yard penalty, and they're only down two at that point with, you know, about nine minutes to go. So, yeah, the Quez Watkins fumble after the St. Juice play in the recovery by Derek Forrest would have had them, you know, in the red zone, basically. And Philadelphia closes in the red zone this year. And there are absolute closers in the red zone. So yeah, I mean, the turnovers were massive in this game. Joey Sly, 58-yarder, 55-yarder. The 55-yarder barely cleared the crossbar. and came on a play in which Philadelphia declined an ineligible player downfield on Washington. It could have moved it back five yards. For those of you, and even on the broadcast, I know, those five yards make a difference. Well, Washington would have had another third down play, and they would have probably picked up five yards, seven yards, whatever.

They may have been in better field goal range. I actually did not have a problem if I'm a Philadelphia fan with declining that penalty. you know, 55-yarder, you know, not giving them another third down to convert potentially or to get better field goal range, I actually think was the right play by Philadelphia in that moment. Sly's first field goal, by the way, from 44 yards. The 55-yarder barely cleared the crossbar. The 44-yarder barely got inside the left-up right. But Sly was massive last night. Four-for-four and a 58 and a 55-yarder. You can't have more of an impact. as a kicker on a game unless, you know, you kick one at the end of regulation to force overtime

and then kick the game winner in overtime. He was great last night. Phenomenal night for Joey Sly. Also on the list of things that I liked. I'm going to play off of the Joey Sly thing because I think the end of the first half was into the second half was really a very key part of the game, you know, other than the turnovers in the fourth quarter. So Washington's taken a 17 to 14 lead, okay? Philadelphia is on the field, and on first and 10, Gainwell drops one over the middle.

It's seven or eight yards, and Philadelphia is off to the races. And then on third down, Hertz throws to A.J. Brown, who fell down coming out of the break. He had man coverage. If he doesn't fall down, it's a first down. But Gainwell or Watkins, I forget who it was, is wide open over the middle. And I think, you know, certainly Jalen Hertz would love to have that one back. But he's throwing to his number one receiver against man coverage to try to move the sticks. But he fell down. That was big because it gave Washington the ball again before the half instead of Philadelphia being able to score and then start the third quarter with the ball.

And what Washington did with it was Taylor Heineke did not throw a good ball to Diami Brown. But Diommy Brown went down and made an incredible. before that ball hit the ground at the 40-yard line that got them in field goal range. And they were up 20 to 14 instead of that being 17-17 at halftime. And then on Philadelphia's opening drive of the third quarter, they've got a third and three, and they throw to A.J. Brown, number one receiver, and Kendall Fuller makes a big play. And they have to punt. I think that sequence of going up 17, 14, and dominating the first half,

but potentially having Philadelphia score and then maybe score again to start the second half, it didn't happen that way. They got the gain well drop, the A.J. Brown falling down coming out of the break, and then the field goal drive, Diami Brown digging one out of the ground to get into field goal range, and then they kicked a 58-yarder. And then they got another field goal after Philadelphia got stopped when Fuller made a good play. And you had 23 to 14 during those couple of drives at the end of the first. half, start of the second half, instead of something a lot closer, you know, potentially

even being at a deficit despite the fact that you've really played better. On the list of things that I liked, you know, clearly the missed face mask was a big break. There was a terrible call on a late hit on Curtis Samuel. Those were the two, you know, the late hit against Samuel and then the late hit against Heineke at the end of the game were their best offensive plays of the fourth quarter. You know, they didn't do much in the fourth quarter, but those breaks that went their way, the misface mask, the bad late hit call against Samuel, and then the correct call against Taylor Heineke at the end of the game, it's a correct call by rule. Brandon Graham didn't, you know, tried to slow up, but he hit him, and he hit

him neck to head area, and whoever that referee is, I think it's Craig Perry on the on the ESPN Monday night, telecast said, by rule. That's the right call, and it ended the game. I'll tell you what, man, you got to give Taylor Heineke a lot of credit for that one, because what he did, you never see. You never see a kneel down after scrambling around on a pass play call, trying to avoid a pass rush. You never see that.

And so it was a very odd play, I'm sure, for the Philadelphia defense as well. And then you're not sure. You're not really sure what he's doing. Did he really take a knee? No, the play's not over with his knee down. He might get up again. You don't know. I mean, it was such an odd, awkward moment that I understand why Philadelphia was coming in to try

to tackle him. He's a runner. He's outside the pocket. But he conceded. And they hit him late after he conceded. It's a big break. Personally, as a football fan, I can't stand to see a game end like that on a call like that. But that's the rule.

and Brandon Graham knows it, but Taylor sold it well, Tommy. He sold it like, you know, Neil and Rockville said. He sold it like he was playing for Washington FC. Lastly, on the list of things that I liked. Defensively, they gave up some plays against a really good offensive team, okay? But one of the things that their rush defense did is they essentially created Philadelphia's game plan, which is we're not even going to try to run. They didn't even try to run in the first half when they had the ball.

They were like, we can't run against Allen and Payne. We can't do it. We're not going to do it. I think in the first half of their 21 plays or 19 plays, I think 16 were throws, three were runs. And I think they had two other plays that were called with penalties that were also past plays. Now, they did try to run and they ran effectively in the second half out of necessity, really. They just could not continue to let their defense go back out onto the field and sit out there for 30 minutes at a time.

So defensively, I think their reputation coming in as a run-stopping team impacted the game and the game plan for Philadelphia. And then I think their pass rush at times was outstanding. Allen had a big rush on second and eight late in the game. Payne had a couple of big rushes. He was unblockable on a few plays. And then you got the sack, the big sack on third and eighth. eight, you know, with two and a half or, you know, two 45 to go in the game. All right, the list of things that I didn't like. The turnover is you start with those. You know, you knew going into the

game that this team led the league in takeaways, led the league in turnover margin. You couldn't turn the ball over and they turned it over on the, you know, basically the first drive of the game. Yeah. After the roughing the punter call, which I'll get to here in a moment, you had a sack fumble and then three plays later it's seven to nothing bang bang. And then Taylor's interception in the fourth quarter. He threw an interception in the fourth quarter last week. He threw an interception in the fourth quarter against the Colts. You know, you've now got three straight games of real backbreaking interceptions in the fourth quarter. We can focus on the positive, and I'm going to here shortly with Taylor, but you can't ignore if you're trying to be objective about three

straight games of disastrous fourth quarter interceptions. One that cost them the game for all intents and purposes last week. One that nearly cost them the game and he bailed them out on those final two drives, but it put him down two scores in the

fourth quarter and last night you're up and you're playing well and it's a bad decision. He made a bad decision to throw into double coverage earlier too and didn't get picked. This one I'm going to go through Taylor here in a moment, but the bottom line is you've got to,

and Aitman talked about this, and you see it with all the really good quarterbacks. If you're going to throw against that coverage where you've got cover two and you've got a safety that's going to hedge over to your number one receiver, you have to look that safety off. He never did. And if you're not going to look the safety off,

you've got to have a gun to get the ball into that small opening that you have before the safety gets there, and he doesn't. So he's really... Yeah, go ahead. It was a bad play call in the first place. No, it wasn't. I think they were third. They were third and, like, four.

Third and three. Yeah, they had been throwing third and three a bunch. You've got two plays to get three yards there. The last thing you want to do is turn the ball over to the Eagles in that situation. That was a bad play call. Totally disagree with you. It was a bad decision. by the quarterback. They had been converting on third and threes all game long, all game long.

They're at the Philadelphia 43-yard line. I don't know if you're going to go for it in that particular spot up two on fourth and one. You might. If they had run the ball, wouldn't have minded that, but it was not an absolute run the football. They'd been so successful throwing the football. And if he had been patient, if he had looked off the safety, you could have taken the shot at Terry. But if he didn't, he could have come right back over to the middle to the crosser to, I it was Samuel. It was a bad decision by the quarterback, bad execution by the quarterback. One run, two runs, you get the first down, you control the ball, you don't give the ball back to Philadelphia. I just understand why they decided to throw the ball. Because they had done it all

night long on third and three and been successful. That's why. Because he had had, you know, already like eight third and five, third and four, third and three throws for first downs. So, you know, they had run the ball on some of those third and ones of the six third and ones. I think they ran it on a third and two and a fourth and one, too. Had absolutely no problem with the play call. The execution was terrible. The turnover's hurt. That's on the list of things I didn't like.

The fourth and one delay of game, I don't know why there was a delay of game. I don't know if it was personnel, if it was the play call getting in late, if it was Taylor's fault. But here's the one criticism last night I have of Ron Rivera. You're the head coach. you, it's the first half. You know, timeouts are sacred in the second half, not as sacred in the first half. You got a fourth and one.

You're trying to score a touchdown there. You're playing the Philadelphia Eagles. You can't allow your quarterback or your offensive coordinator who's ever fault it is or somebody on the sideline that put the wrong personnel group in. You cannot allow that clock to go to zeros. You've got to unfold your arms. You've got to sprint to the referee.

and you've got to save your OC and your quarterback from a fourth and one embarrassing delay of game, period. By the way, in the second half, if it's a big fourth and one, that's a spot where I'll use the time out there too. And then lastly, two more things in the list of things I didn't like, the fourth quarter offense produced nothing. There were two penalties that produced all of the yardage. The late hit, which was not a late hit on Curtis Samuel, and the high. Heineke late hit. That was all of the offense they had. As perfect as they were through, you know, after the opening drive and through the end of the third quarter, they really bogged down a little bit offensively. And it's too bad because I think on that third and three, they'll look at it today and say, Taylor, you got to go here. Don't take that shot in that spot. That wasn't necessarily the first read. We needed a first down and you had a play over the middle that was open. And if you're going to take that shot, fine, because he hit Terry on a 42-yard or big play. But you've got to look the safety off.

Lastly, I mentioned this last week after the Minnesota game, and I think I mentioned it after, I don't know, a game. Maybe it was Indy or Green Bay, I don't know. I said, they're going to get a punt blocked. Something's not right with the punt protection. Every single team is coming after Tressway. And Minnesota almost blocked two last week. and I think it was Indy nearly got one as well. And I said last week after the game, Katzer, the special teams coach,

I hope he's recognizing that they're coming after him. I'm sure he does. He is a special teams coach in the NFL. I'm just a fan on the couch. But they almost got that first one. Now they roughed him, but they came after him. And whatever teams are seeing against their punt protection unit, they got a fix.

It could be the same issues they have offensively with the interior portion of their offensive line, which is leaked like a sieve all year long. But they got to fix that because that actually should have been blocked. And they got the 15-yarder, which, by the way, it was a 15-yard penalty. That was not a 5-yarder. That was a 15-yard roughing the bunner. But I'm surprised they didn't get it.

So they got to fix that. All right. Let me go through what I have on Taylor Heineke here, okay? because everybody always wants the evaluation of the quarterback. So I'm going to give you the evaluation of the quarterback. So the good plays from Taylor Heineke, and there were a lot of them. Early in the game, there's a third and two. They play action, third and two, Tommy.

Play action, they throw to a wide open Terry McCorn for 20 yards. Really good play by Terry, too, to get open. I mean, that's it in the whole throw, a dime. He's wide open, but he goes to his number one receiver and a third and two hits him. there's a really good throw to Dotson for 14 yards down to the four yard line by Terry. There's a third and two throw to McClureen out of the empty set for a quick first down. There's another third and two completion for a first down. One of the slants, and there were just slants all night long to Terry.

Third and eight, one of the longest third downs they had all day, slant to Terry for 14 yards. Excellent throw. On third and five, they threw it to a wide open. I don't know how they were scheming Terry so wide open, especially with Darius Slay on the field, but he was wide open all night long, that went for 18 yards. There's a third and 10 slant to Terry that goes for nine that set up the fourth and one that they could then go for with Curtis Samuel when they ran the fly sweep where he cut it inside pretty early.

I was surprised, but he got the first down. There's a third and six where he throws wide open to Curtis Samuel against the zone, wide open. Terry made a 20-yard game-saving play in the first half on the snap that sailed over his head. He not only goes back and picks it up because he's an athlete. He then is able to get outside the pocket and throw the ball back 20 yards on the move to his opposite side to the line of scrimmage. Because if he didn't get that ball back to the line of scrimmage, it's intentional grounding. He had a couple of zone readkeepers last night. We've wanted to see this.

third and two, near the end of the first half, zone reed keeper for seven yards before he threw that ball to Diami Brown that wasn't a good throw that Diombe Brown came up with. Get to the second half. He hits Terry McClure on a second and 12 slant for 11 that gets him into a third and one, and he snuck it for the first down. The deep shot to Terry on first and 10, and they ran some play action with him under center this week, last week in the shotgun a lot. Deep shot, best throw of the year for McLorn, the 42-yarder. to his best receiver, put it on the money. I think he made a really good play.

On the field goal drive that made it 2314 on their first drive of the second half, they ran an RPO on second goal. I'm pretty sure it was an RPO because the line was not, the line did block downfield. They were blocking run. They could have been called for an ineligible man downfield. But he threw it away quickly to a Logan Paulson who, Logan Paulson. Logan Thomas, who wasn't open.

That's a play that we've seen him in previous years try to make something out of nothing and make a big mistake. I thought that was a good play by him. And then the last play where he suckers Brandon Graham into late hitting him to end the game. If not, you're kicking it back and you got Jalen Hertz, no timeouts, and they've got to go down and get a touchdown. But are you betting against them in that spot? That ended the game.

Here were some of Taylor's bad plays in the game, because there were some of those as well. He nearly got Logan Thomas decapitated in the first half on a bootleg, play action, bootleg first and ten under center. You can't float that ball. First of all, he threw it to the wrong guy, and his balls occasionally float in sale. And Thomas was lucky to get up after that one. He had a couple of those balls where he doesn't get his feet set and they sail on him. I mean, this is what we've seen with his inaccuracy is the balls are always fluttering and high. He took a shot in the first half into double coverage, similar play where he got picked.

Got to look that safety off, not the right throw, not the right decision. He had another floater to Cam Sims where the defender makes a really good play, but the ball's got to get there with a little bit of zip. You know, those are the plays where when you look at him, you're like, God, you know, you just have to throw that ball with a little bit more of zip. I don't think the third goal sack was his fault. Troy Aitman, you know, who by the way, I mean, I love Troy Aitman. And I do.

I actually think he's a hell of an analyst, and I've never felt over the years, as many of you know, I've never thought that he was biased towards the Cowboys or against the rest of the NFC East. I actually think he's pro-NFC East teams. I think he's always wanted them to do well. He, because Norv Turner basically was his best friend and considers Norv Turner to be a genius, and Norv Turner inducted Trey Aikpin into the Hall of Fame. So he's very close with Scott Turner as well,

and you could tell from the jump that Troy was rooting for Washington. And I thought it was interesting because you know Troy talks a lot to Scott and Norv. What he said before the game, he said, look, What you're going to get with Taylor Heineke is you're going to get some good plays and you're going to get some head scratchers. And those of you that have been watching know that. It's a bit of a wild ride, but the players do believe in him. You know, that's coming straight from Scott Turner, okay? Straight from Scott Turner.

But he tried to pin the third and goal sack a little bit too much on Heineke. I thought it was an immediate pass rush. I don't think he had a chance on that personally. I think some of the sacks that Wentz took early in the year were not really on him. I think some of these pressures this year have been immediate. The interception obviously is just a bad ball, no look off, just a bad decision all together. And then that's it. I mean, I think he was a solid B last night.

I mean, he executed that game plan. He converted those third down throws. he had third down zone read keepers. The decisions mostly were good ones. There were a lot of easy pitches and catches on third and twos, third and threes, third and fours, understood. But you still got to make those throws against an NFL pass rush. And, you know, the pass rush wasn't as relentless as it was. The O-line did a better job in pass pro.

There were still some moments where he was under duress. But I give him a solid B. I think actually probably, given the game plan and what they asked him to do, maybe the best start to finish performance. Now, the last two drives against Indy were spectacular, and he was really good in the second half against Green Bay. He had another fourth quarter interception that could have really hurt them,

and he's going to have another one, by the way, in the next couple of weeks. Okay, we know that. But if he can make and run this game plan, the way they want it run, good for him, and good for them. And they're going to have chances. with that good defense. Yeah. The interception that I had a problem with the play call on that,

that was a much farther pass than all the other third and short yardages they used. It was a farther path. It required more of him. He had to go back further on that. Yeah, but Tommy, you don't know what the reads were. I mean, that's the shot he took. You said that you had a problem with them throwing the ball on third and three. They threw it all day long on third and short.

But when they threw it, they threw it on, you know, like you said, maybe 10, 15, 20 yards. Yeah. Right. They were quick passes. That one wasn't. Okay. Well, you've moved the goalposts for yourself, which is fine. You've come off the run now and you're okay with the throw, which is what I was saying.

I was okay. No, I'm not okay with the throw. I'm just saying that you're saying that was a different play than your defense, that they were making it all night. They weren't making that play all night. Well, I don't know, and you don't know, whether or not that was the read he should have taken. There was a receiver wide open over the middle, short to medium length to move the sticks. He decided... Well, we don't know a lot of things.

Yeah, I know. What we do know is it was an interception, and they likely could have gotten this first down with two running plays. Look, you said initially, you got to run the football. I said, I disagree with you. They were throwing the ball and calling passes on third and short all day and converting. Now, if we're going to move the conversation to the decision that Taylor made to throw the deep ball, yes, that might be. How do you know that was his decision and wasn't to play? I don't know, but I'm telling you that I did not have a problem with the idea of throwing the football on third and three.

Okay, that's my point. I'm just saying that that was different from the other third and shorts that they threw on. Yeah, it was. I mean, there were some deeper, there were some deep shots into holes. There were, there was 17 and 18 yard passes. Now, Taylor, I think, look, Tommy, when you come to the line of scrimmage on a pass play, okay, there are, you know, there is a number one. There's a number two. There's a three, four. Okay, whatever it is. Okay. And it's based on what Taylor sees defensively. So I, my guess is, considering what they had run all night long on third and three, that the defense, something with him pre-snap that said, I got a chance to go for the jugular here. I'm going to take it. The problem was he did not execute the play well. As Aitman pointed out,

and most football fans know, when you're throwing into that safety help, you've got to manipulate the safety with your eyes. You've got to move them over to the hole where I think it was Samuel coming underneath. I don't have the play up in front of me right now. And he did not do that. And so the execution was bad. I think his decision more likely than not was not the right decision. I don't think the play was

we're going to take a shot here on third and three. But by the way, if it was and you can manipulate that safety, McClorn's got a step on the defender. But the argument started, not the argument, the discussion started with you saying you didn't want him to throw the football on third

and three. And I said, I had no problem with them throwing the football in third and three. They had done it all night. Okay. I didn't want them to throw that play on 30. Well, just make sure that you make that point before you go back and watch the play. If you're going to participate in the game take and the Kevin's game take on the days after games on the podcast, you've got to be prepared. I wanted to mention a couple of other things real quickly.

I love Antonio Gibson as a kickoff for Turner. Love him as a kickoff for Turner. And I don't think that was a hold on Armani Rogers on the opening kickoff of the game. He had a 41-yard return. He's had a couple of big ones. I don't like when he lets the ball land in the end zone a yard or too deep. Take them out. Until last night, they had a real problem scoring points.

Gibson's going to break one one of these days. I think the penalty on St. Juice versus Devante Smith on the defensive pass interference on Philly's second drive, which they scored on. I thought that was a good call. Personally, I thought that was a call that was right. I think that was definitely defensive pass interference. What else did I have here? Oh, end of the first half. I thought Logan Thomas got out of bounds.

I said last week that NFL games in length are the fastest they've been, Tommy. I forget if I did this with you or not. They're averaging three hours and two minutes. The fastest NFL game average since 1993. and there is this obsession from the NFL to shorten the games. I don't know why that is. I don't think anybody has an issue if the games are three hours and six minutes in length. I really don't.

College football, different discussion. But there was another example. Logan Thomas's forward progress, I don't think was stopped. And he got out of bounds and the referee's winding the clock. And Gibson, by the way, on the play before that, that injury cost them their last time out. Jeremy Reeves had a massive hit on kickoff return. He's a good special teams player, and their kick coverage has been really, really good this year. What else did I have here?

I mentioned the ineligible decline. I didn't have a problem with that from Philly standpoint. Oh, the Dotson offensive pass interference call. I didn't like that call. I think that was a bad call. I do. It probably was. I thought it was a bad call, too.

I think that, you know. It came after the face mask call, didn't it? Yes. It came after they missed the face mask. It did. It did. You know, so there is that, you know, makeup call mentality. But I do think, though, that, like, they would tell you it, he didn't make contact.

He was running his route. The problem is, is that once you create any kind of. of contact, even if you're running the route and you're not in search of a pick, contact is going to basically bring a 50-50 chance into a call like that. You've got to avoid the contact. You've got to run your route. That's fine. But you've got to avoid the contact. You don't have to avoid the contact on a non-pick play, but that's a pick play. And whether you're running the route naturally and they get in the way or not, you've got to avoid the contact. And so we see that all the time where there's this, you know, the, it's a, it's a, they schemed it up perfectly, you know,

it is a pick play. I mean, let's not make any, you know, don't describe it any differently. That's the, that's the intent of the play is for Dotson to get in the way somehow to free up Samuel. But you've got to get in the way and then get out of the way, you know? And, and if you make contact, even if you're not searching it out and you're running your route, it does give referees a chance to make that call. But I didn't think that there was enough contact, and I thought there was enough of a natural route run from Dotson, where they, you know, in a normal circumstance, maybe after the miss face mask, they were looking for a makeup call. Well, they got it there. And that was a big play. That was a really big play in the game because, you know, then Philadelphia got the ball back with another

chance after stopping them there. But hell of a game. Really good game. What, what it, What are your, I mean, you were going to kind of jump in every once in a while, and you did, but what were your observations that I didn't touch on? Well, I mean, you know, it was funny because, you know, when they would show, nothing to do with the game, but they would show Washington fans in the stands occasionally, you know? Yeah. And we've all heard the stories, and some of us have seen the position a Washington fan puts themselves in. in a football game in Philadelphia,

especially when they're wearing their team's gear like that. And I'm wondering if that softened a little bit. I didn't see any police reports about dead bodies in the parking lot. Well, the rival, it's not as intense as it once was. I don't know. That's my immediate reaction. I mean, Philly and Washington used to have, you know, big games that mattered. And it was the Redskins. And, you know, I've said this before about the change in the name.

There's a bit of a jolt to the other NFC East fan bases, too. Think about it. If the, you know, think about if the Eagles were forced to change their name to the commanders. It'd be, it's weird. You know, it's not the, you know, we're all kind of of this NFC East family, this NFC East longtime, you know, DNA. And there's a lot of history. There's a lot of history. There's a lot of tradition. There's a lot of dislike. And, you know, there's also a brotherhood of sorts. You know, the NFC East, Tommy, is probably the marquee division slash conference. It was anyway. Maybe it isn't anymore, although this year it's making quite the comeback. But, you know, people, sports fans, NFL fans, you know who the four NFC East teams are. You know, just like you know who the

SEC West teams are. You used to know who the ACC basketball and the Big East basketball teams. You probably know pretty much the makeup of the AL East in Major League Baseball. But the NFC East has been the brand, if there is one, for divisions in the NFL over the last 50 years. I think you're probably right. I think Eagle fans may have been more pissed off at their team instead of than anybody. Right. But I wonder if they viewed it like they used to. Or if they viewed it like, you know, the Saints were in town or the Chargers were in town. Yeah. Maybe. Versus the Cowboys, Giants, or Redskins. All right, I know you've got something you want to

finish up with a few more thoughts when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Well, we have a new sponsor, you know, not as new as it was a few weeks ago, but our good friends at Shelley's back room, Tommy's favorite place to go down, hang out, smoke cigars and have great conversation. You know, last Thursday night, I was there at Shelly's after the class I teach at Georgetown like I usually am on Thursday nights. And it was a beautiful night. You remember that last week with the temperatures in the 60s, you know, at 10 o'clock

at night. And there were people outside, you know, like 10, 11 o'clock at night, eating, drinking, having a good time smoking their cigars. And that's changed now this week. you know, it's a little bit colder out there. I don't think you're going to be sitting outside at Shelly's at 10 o'clock at night when it's about 35 degrees out. But that's okay too, because there is nothing that is better than coming in from the cold

and walking into Shelly's back room at 1331 F Street. You know, they have this soft lighting, they've got these cozy couches and overstuffed chairs. It is so inviting. You know, when your face is cold, you're coming in off the street, you know, and you walk into this place, and it's warm. It's like a scene out of a ski-launch movie or something like that. It's that kind of inviting. And then when you get a nice whiskey, and they have some of the best whiskeys that you can find a great selection of whiskeys to warm you up, and then you light up from one of their great selections of cigars that they'll help you select.

There's no better place to be on a winter day than inside Shelley's relaxing with good conversation. So please try it once for yourself. I guarantee you'll like it. Shelly's back room at 1331 F Street. What is it about, you know, a really good neighborhood-ish kind of place, which Shelley's backroom really is. Cigar bar for sure, but it's not, you know, it's not your granddad's cigar bar,

and there's great sports on TV and a bar and a menu and people having conversation, but there's something, and by the way, I think especially holiday time, you know, November and December, where you're all bundled up, it's cold, and then you come into that place. Like, it just, it reminds me of all of those great cheers episodes,

especially holiday time. You know, they came in the door and the snow, was falling and they brushed the snow off their coats, took their coats off, saddled up and said, Sam, pour me one. Wouldn't it be? I mean, what do you think about neighbor? Like, there have been some decent Bethesda, which has been pretty much my hometown, you know, or home area.

There have been some good neighborhood bars, but not a lot of them. You know, one that a lot of people will remember if you lived in, if you were in Bethesda in the 90s, T-Bones, which was on Wisconsin Avenue, Wisconsin and Leland Streets. It was owned by my friend Carl McCarty, Gary Williams, and Jimmy Patsos, and all those guys were involved as investors and owners. And it was a great neighborhood bar, great neighborhood bar. Tommy Joe's has a lot of that, you know, in Bethesda. You know, caddies, I know, for, you know, maybe a younger crowd, although I've gone in there a few

times as well. But I love those neighborhood bars, and there's something about those neighborhood bars holiday time or when it's cold out. Yeah. And here's the thing, they're hard to find in a city like Washington because Washington is, as we've said numerous times, a transient city, a city of visitors, a tourist. I mean, you're likely to sit down next to a guy from Michigan at Shelly's, as you are from a guy who maybe grew up in D.C., you know. But that's what makes it such a great place, is that you have people that are willing to embrace other people. I mean, cigar smokers are generally secure people, okay? And I think that helps when you're having conversations with strangers,

and you're going to find a place, something like that. At Shell, you're going to find a room full of secure people who welcome the change. to be able to talk to people that they've never met before. Not everybody likes to do that. And if you don't like to do that, people will leave you alone too. You know, there's no doubt that Washington's different for the reasons you said, but there's another reason, too.

You know, there's not a lot of blue collar in Washington. You know, there isn't any, really. So when you go to what is your place called Rudy's in East Strauss, Isn't that it? Yes. I mean, that is a, that's, I'm assuming, that's a real neighborhood kind of place, you know. Oh, yeah. It's college, too, because it's a small college.

Yeah. I like those places, you know, and I love, by the way, sometimes just being in a bar, having conversations with people that you just meet. You know, and sometimes, by the way, it's the bartender, you know, if they, you know, if they're interesting to talk to. But I wish we had, you know, if I, I'm assuming you've got a place in Frederick that you go to, right? Well, it's not a bar. It's a cigar lounge. A place where I go to smoke cigars. You can bring your own stuff. You know, quartermaster's is a great place in Frederick. And that would be my place. All right. I guess enough about. That's why I watched the game last right.

At quartermaster. There you go. Enough about neighborhood bars. Good topic, though. If you want to tweet, Tommy at Tom Leverro or me at Kevin Shee in D.C. I want area bars that you consider to be really good neighborhood bars around town. I don't care about, you know, someplace in Ohio that you grew up in. I do care. It's not that I don't care. But I mean, I think that we don't have enough of these around, or at least in the areas in which I grew up and have lived primarily.

We should open up a bar, Kevin, you and me. I'm not going to ever be in the bar or restaurant business. I know too much about it. Tommy, I've told you this before. I mean, I waited tables, bartended all through college, and even briefly after college. And when Tony and Alan and Gary and Mori Povich, when they bought Chadwick's, I remember Tony calling me and saying, hey, we're going to buy Chadwicks. And I said, why are you going to do that? Well, I'm going to turn it into my podcast studio and restaurant business.

I said, you're, don't do that. Don't get into the restaurant business unless you're planning on working the business, which of course, Tony wouldn't. And I'd be in there every day. I'd be, where's Tommy? Tommy's not here. You'd be coming in, you'd saddle up at the bar and say, pour me one, and she ends in the back trying to figure out why we lost so much money last month.

There you go, baby. No, I'm not going to be in the restaurant. You know what it's like having me for a partner. Okay. All right. I did want to mention that... One last thing. Yeah, let me just...

Okay, go ahead. I was just going to say, Schefter's reporting that Chase Young is going to play Sunday and be activated and play for the first time this week against Houston. I mean, I'm going to be interested to see what he looks like. I'm going to say something, and I don't want to say it because I'm rooting for the opposite because I want to be right about Chase Young. I want to be right that he is going to turn into this dominant player.

but, you know, there's some mojo going on defensively. And I'll tell you what, James Smith Williams has played really good football. Two Hills played some good football, sweats playing some good football. So don't, you know. They got something good going. I mean, I don't think, look, use them situationally. Use them as a straight pass rusher, you know, and let's see you if the explosiveness is still there. It'll be interesting to see what they do with him.

Anyway, go ahead. What did you have to finish up the show with? Well, one last thing. This is a story from Election Day involving my son, who lives in Baltimore. You know, I vote through the mail. I do a mail ballot now, happy with the way it works out. But my son, even though he's young, he went the old school way. He showed up at a voting station and voted.

And he sent me this text. The guy who scanned my ballot just asked me, is your dad Tom Lavera? Of course this is right. I'd listen to him a lot. Tell him I'm a big fan. And Rocco, he didn't even saying any words to the guy. He saw his name down there and he just volunteered that question. So I thought that was pretty cool. Of course you did. I mean, you're acting like it's unusual.

People all the time ask. I know that, but this is a voting. I mean, I get more questions about you than I do anything else. I'm not talking about the cops. I'm talking about fans. All right. What else? That's it. That's it, boss. You didn't weigh in on what was an incredible NFL Sunday with really, I think, one of the greatest and most exciting regular season games in a long, long time in Buffalo Sunday. Oh, I'll give you something to talk about since we were talking about, you know, coming in from the cold into bars.

Buffalo plays Sunday at home against Cleveland, and they are warning the buffalo and the, you know, the western portions of New York state, weather-wise, that they could have an epic and epic snow event this coming weekend, late in the week and through this weekend. You know, some of the biggest snow totals from any storm ever have fallen with lake effect snow, off of Lake Erie in those western areas that are typically south and east of Lake Erie.

Well, it can't be really, well, it can be. It's slightly west, but it's got to be south of Lake Erie. And they're warning of, you know, they've had Tommy, you know, 90 inches, you know, over a weekend of that lake effect. For those of you that don't know what Lake Effect snow is, I'm going to explain it because I enjoy weather conversations. When it gets really cold, but it's early in the year and the lakes, the Great Lakes, aren't frozen over, when you get a cold front that passes over those lakes, it lifts up the moisture, forms clouds, and rolls onshore into the areas near the lakes and dumps snow. Dumps. And the biggest snow events we've ever seen in our country are either the, you know, the really high elevations of the Rockies or the sea. Sierra Nevada's out west or the lake effects snow, especially in western areas of upstate New York, or, you know, the western part of the state. And they're saying and they're calling for

a potential epic snow event in Buffalo all weekend long. And, you know, Buffalo fans will show up in anything. I mean, they'll end up there. But keep an eye on Cleveland at Buffalo this Sunday at one, if it ends up being what they think it's going to be, that's one of those games you could see potentially, you know, moving to Monday or Tuesday. Because unlike the old days when they would play through anything, we've seen in recent years when there's a massive snow event or ice event or hurricane-ish kind of event, they'll postpone it. It used to be, you know, the mail carrier motto with the NFL. I mean, rain sleet or snow didn't matter. But, um, You're going to have some weather all week long and into the weekend,

probably right into Thanksgiving week especially. I mean, it's going to be really cold here right through the early part of next week. Unusually cold for this time here. But heads up, if you're betting the Buffalo Cleveland game, you might want to look at the under right now. Although what's funny about snow games, a lot of them in recent years have sailed over the total. Because teams haven't gotten conservative,

they've just thrown the ball because it's harder to play defense in snow than it is offense. because the offense knows where they're going. Anything else? Were you interested in that? Probably not. Probably not. All right. Thank you for joining me on this very, very exciting day after a big win.

I'll be back tomorrow with Cooley. 58-yard try would be a career long. High snap. Kick is good. And what a first half by the Washington commanders.