The Kevin Sheehan Show - Bruce Out; Rivera Apparently In

Episode Date: December 30, 2019

Kevin spent a ton of time on all of the Redskins news of the day. He discussed briefly the loss to the Cowboys and then recapped the key NFL games from yesterday. He talked College Football playoffs and the Maryland Basketball departures as well. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. I'm here. Aaron's still off. Corbin's here producing. We've got a show today. I wasn't going to do a show tomorrow, but I am going to commit to doing one tomorrow as well. I think we'll have even more definitive news this time tomorrow. But we're pretty close to there. It started this morning at 7.0.2.7.7.7. 2 a.m. when the Redskins put out a statement from Dan Snyder that read as follows. As this season concludes, Bruce Allen has been relieved of his duties as president of the Washington Redskins and is no longer with the organization. Like our passionate fan base, I recognize we have not lived up to the high standards set by great Redskins, teams, coaches, and players who have come before us. As we reevaluate our team leadership, culture, and process for winning football games, I am excited for the opportunities that lie ahead to renew our singular focus and purpose of bringing championship

football back to Washington, D.C. That from the owner early this morning. Bruce Allen is gone, done. No staying on in a special consultant role, no staying on with a title just to handle. The stadium issue, he is out of the organization. It would have been in many ways a middle finger to the fan base had he stayed in any capacity whatsoever. It would have also been a reflection in many ways that Snyder still doesn't get it. Now, I said this late last night on Twitter, that if he had stayed as a consultant or with just stadium, just as the point person on the stadium, and they had brought someone in with clout, I think his presence, mere presence, and the threat of that may have been a bit overrated.

But the bottom line is, is the perception is he's been a horrible general manager. The record speaks for itself, all of the other stuff that's gone along with the record, keeping him in the building that he would have figured out a way to worm his way back in to decision-making power. And the fan base just wasn't going to put up with it. So the owner, I think, recognized that, and you saw perhaps, some of the shots last night of the two of them leaving the stadium in Dallas, crossing paths, not even looking at each other. That relationship appears professionally anyway to be over.

And you know, you never want to root for someone's loss of employment, somebody getting fired. I mean, we're all human beings. I would think most of us are empathetic people. But this is a business and this has been a poorly run business with Bruce Allen. in that position. The owner's still there. So I would certainly not wager on these changes, and I'm going to get to them here in a moment, resulting in the arrow pointing up to future sustained success in championship seasons. I would bet against that. Why wouldn't I? Look at the 20

years under Snyder so far. But the record of 62, 97, and 1, which is the team's record since Bruce Allen got here. It's one of the worst runs for any general manager in NFL history, a general manager that didn't also have ownership of the team. He was kept long after he should have been fired, and really the results were just part of it. You know, it started from the very beginning with the Mike Shanahan, Bruce Allen combo,

something that Shanahan signed off on, but the McNabb trade that sort of, sort of didn't go exactly the way the coach wanted. The proclamations that were winning off the field. The Scott McLuhan disaster and the public, you know, anonymous leaks about McLuhan being a drunk to the Washington Post. The Kurt Cousins contract. The Kurt Cousins contract fiasco. The Alex Smith trade and extension.

The Ruben Foster signing and the way to. handled it. The were close comments, the Trent Williams' utter petty low-rent handling of that situation. The recent proclamation that the culture is damn good.

Bruce Allen is a respected executive and administrator by a lot of people in the league. He's never been respected as a guy with a great talent evaluating acumen. What he has been here as the team president is,

a guy that's produced nothing results-wise and has been arrogant in the process, has been very condescending at times in the process to the fan base, to media people. And bottom line is he could sell, just like the owner can sell, and they sold each other on keeping Bruce Allen here for much longer than probably most would have lasted. But he's gone, and I know that this is a reason to... to rejoice for those that are left in the fan base and those that may dip their toes back into it here in the coming years. But what's next is also important because you still have an owner who was out conducting a search by himself or with no one in the building, which probably was the way

to do it. I believe that there were at least two people he consulted with. I think Joe Gibbs was probably a sounding board for Dan in this process. Joe lives in Charlotte. That's where Ron Rivera has coached. For the Panthers, we'll get to Rivera in a moment. A.J. Smith worked with Rivera in San Diego. Wouldn't surprise me if A.J. Smith has been a sounding board for Dan Snyder. But Snyder went out, and according to the latest reports, as we sit here and record this podcast, shortly before 11 a.m. on Monday morning. It looks like Ron Rivera is going to be the Redskins next head coach. I'm a fan of Rivera.

If you've listened to me over the years, you know I'm a fan of Ron Rivera. Every single time it came up that Ron Rivera could be in trouble, I would say about the Panthers in their front office and their fans, be careful what you wish for because he's a damn good coach. And when you have a quarterback that's a franchise quarterback that's hurt and isn't playing or is playing hurt and is compromised, you know, most teams can't overcome that. And his last two seasons, they were not able to overcome that. Ron Rivera took a team to the Super Bowl, was an excellent defensive mind as a coordinator

during the course of his career in San Diego and then as a head coach in the lead defensive guy as the coach in Carolina for the Panthers. Here's a guy that went to the playoffs four times in nine seasons as a head coach, and really it's eight and a half because he got fired midway through this one, actually later in the season after week 12, after their loss ironically to the Redskins. But took a team with Cam Newton to a 15-and-one record in 2015, and then they lost that Super Bowl to Denver and Peyton Manning that particular year. They won three straight NFC South titles from 2013 to 15 and won another and finished second and won a wild card birth in 2017 with an 11 and 5 record and lost to the Saints in the wild card game in that particular year, a game that they actually had a chance to win late in the Superdome. I've always liked Ron Rivera. I would explain it this way. First of all, he's always been respected by his players.

His players have loved him and respected him, not necessarily in the way of him being such a players coach that there hasn't been a disciplined and an accountability-based environment because there has been. You listen to guys like Luke Keekely talk about Ron Rivera. Listen to what Josh Norman said today. Now, Norman may be looking for another year of a payday, and maybe he's all of a sudden back in play to be a player here in the Ron Rivera defensive schemes. a scheme that will be far different than the scheme that's been employed here in Washington recently. But I do like Ron Rivera, always have liked Ron Rivera. I will mention this one thing. I've never thought of Ron Rivera is a great clock management coach.

That will bother me and drive me nuts at times. But I've always thought his teams were disciplined, tough, and typically more times than not, he got more out of what the talent said he should have gotten. won some big games along the way. They had a season, there was a difficult season in 2014, following their 12 and 4 season in 2013. Yet they were still in the playoff hunt late in the year, playing a game on the final weekend of the season in Atlanta for the NFC South title with a terrible record. They finished with a 7, 8, and 1 record that year, won the division that particular year. but it was a big game on the road that he won.

They had certainly a chance to win that wild card game in New Orleans in 2017, and they won two home games in 2015 before losing Super Bowl 50 to the Broncos. But I like him as a coach. He's a great defensive guy. Here's the one thing you would say about Ron Rivera if you're wondering about what you're going to get or skeptical about what you're going to get. you know this, you are going to get a much better defensive coached football team. Wouldn't surprise me if he brings in Steve Wilkes, who was his defensive coordinator in Carolina for multiple years.

Wilkes got that head job. Remember last year in Arizona, one year out, Redskins opened up with a win at Arizona and Steve Wilkes's first game as a head coach. He went to Cleveland this year where he was the defensive coordinator, and Steve Wilkes could end up being the defensive coordinator here. but Ron Rivera is the lead defensive voice. Make no mistake about that. I like Ron Rivera. He's respected by his players. His teams are disciplined. They play hard. They've always been tough. They've always been very good defensive teams. And hopefully he will bring in or potentially keep a guy like Kevin O'Connell to run his offense. I joked on Twitter last night. What if Ron Rivera walks into the meeting with Snyder and says, hey, I want Norrower. If Norve Turner to be my offensive coordinator, would that be a deal killer? I know that he and Norve have a very good relationship. Norv being his offensive coordinator and assistant head coach in Carolina the last few years. Of course, I can't imagine that Norv would ever come back to D.C. to work for Dan Snyder in any capacity. In fact, you would certainly think that one of the voices that Ron Rivera's relied on with respect to the Washington job is Norv Turner.

and Norville will share with him an experience that wasn't pleasant. But I think that Ron Rivera will come here with significant power. Why would he take this job without it? Just doesn't seem that this would be the job he would take if he's not getting everything he asked for. Mike Silver, who's a writer for NFL.com, wrote a profile on Ron Rivera over the weekend. It was a very interesting story, and I'm going to read a part of it that really speaks to what Rivera is looking for in his next job. This was a story that Mike Silver put out over, I think it was on Friday or Saturday. I could be wrong. But anyway, in-depth profile of a man who,

by the way, has got a military family background, has been terrific in the community. All of those things are great. I know what I want and what you want, and that is a good football coach. But anyway, he said that what he's looking for in his next gig is he said, I'm going to look at the whole picture. You know, I'm going to be really careful. Four criteria loom important to him, according to this story that Mike Silver wrote. Personnel, he said, am I going to be able to get the coaching staff I want? Am I going to be able to have a voice in personnel? Am I going to get the collaboration and cooperation I'm looking for from the general manager and ownership?

When I get a chance to talk to these people and go through all of this stuff, that's what I want to know. Location, division, those things don't matter to me. I don't want personnel control. I just want to be able to pick the 46 that are active on game day and have a collaborative relationship with a GM. And if there's a conflict, be able to at least go to the owner and state my company. case. On Ron Rivera, understand this. And I had indicated on Friday's show that Marvin Lewis was a candidate for this job, and he was. I believe he still is if for whatever reason the Rivera thing doesn't work out. I was very skeptical, as I have been, that the Redskins would be able to

attract a guy that would have better options. If Ron Ron Rivera becomes their next head coach, which all of the reporting indicates will happen as early as today. Then I was wrong about that. I was wrong because Ron Rivera, some of you aren't thrilled about. Some of you referred to him on my radio show this morning as a retread. It's not the way I would describe Ron Rivera. He's had one head coaching job. That's not what I would categorize or I wouldn't qualify him as a retread with one job.

He's had one job. He got fired from that job because the quarterback's been hurt. and they got a new owner there in 2018 who replaced the old owner. I do not consider Ron Rivera to be a retread, and I would consider Ron Rivera to have been a significantly sought, a significant sought-after candidate for any job opening in this offseason. The giant opening became a reality today with the firing of Pat Schumer. Dave Gettelman kept his job as the general manager.

Gettelman was the GM in Carolina with Rivera. The giant job with Gettelman and with the Maras, certainly from an ownership standpoint, would be a better environment. But I think Gibbs, I think A.J. Smith, I think people trusted in his life, indicated to him that if you get a certain level of power in Washington, which you have to have, that it can work, I think he saw a roster that was intriguing with a lot of youth. He sees a team that's got the number two pick in the drive. draft coming up. And we'll see if it happens. I'm expecting it to happen based on the reporting.

I would have guessed on Friday that it would have been Marvin Lewis. I knew that Rivera was a name that was being bandied about, but I would have just thought in the moment that Rivera would have had a better option. Rivera is a guy with options. I've been saying for a while that they would attract a guy, especially if Bruce were still here, a guy without any options. Now, without Bruce here, Maybe that opened up the door for Ron Rivera. I'm assuming, and Julie Donaldson did a great job reporting on this for NBC Sports, Washington. I am assuming that one of the preconditions to taking this gig was Bruce Allen being gone. So there you go.

So a lot of, I'll get to the front office stuff here in a moment. a lot of quotes coming out about Ron Rivera to the Redskins. You know, a lot of people and players weighing in. First of all, Gerald McCoy, who played for Ron Rivera in Carolina, said, quote, the greatest thing in their careers talking about Washington players is about to happen. Closed quote. If you go back and you find some of the quotes from some of his players, and when he got fired earlier in the month after they lost to the Redskins,

listen to how much his players revere him. This is promising stuff. This is stuff you always heard anyway about Ron Rivera. Josh Norman left at his locker a song by Khalid playing this morning called Better. And essentially, you know, indicating to everybody, it's about to get better with Ron Rivera. He suggested that he would love to continue to play for the Redskins with Rivera coming back. This is what you're going to get from players that know him.

It'd be very surprising if there's any negative response to Ron Rivera. You just typically have not heard that about him in the past from players. Anyway, so, yeah, Josh Norman's quotes were that he'd be excited to be a part of it, says, no guarantee because of a Rivera-Wilkes pairing, but he obviously had success with them, and he said, it's a night-and-day difference. I'm sorry, he said, quote, it will be a night-and-day difference in the culture in this building. Interesting comment from Case Keenum, by the way, on the culture. in the building. He was asked about it this morning, and he said that, quote, I think there are some

cultural things that need to be addressed, close quote, you think? So that was a guy who was new here for a year. If you're wondering if I'm going to do a game take today, I am. I'll get to that shortly. It's not going to be a very long game take, but it's a ritual, I guess. It's a habit. and there was one final game yesterday, a total blowout loss to the Cowboys. Real quickly, though, on the front office. So Bruce Allen's gone. Looks like Ron Rivera is going to be the head coach. How is the front office going to shake out?

My guess is that someone will not be hired from the outside. That's my guess. I don't have information on this, just a hunch on how this process has come about. There have been reports of Lewis Riddick, of Urban Meyer, of Marvin Lewis even, as a potential front office person versus a coach. I think they are going to figure it out from within. My guess is that Kyle Smith gets elevated to GM to work closely with Ron Rivera, who will have, for all intents and purposes, sort of co-GM ability. They'll work very closely together with Smith. you know, leading the entire scouting staff for college and draft and for pro and free agency

as well. A lot of talk about Eric Schaefer. Eric Schaefer's been brilliant at what he's been doing for Dan Snyder for many years, and that is managing contracts and cap. I do not think that Eric Schaefer is going to get a football decision-making role in the organization. Could he get an elevated title? Possible. But perhaps it would be more in line of Bruce's title with him handling all of the contract stuff and all of the cap stuff. So it would be sort of on the football side, running the football operation and having football decision-making authority would be Ron Rivera with Kyle Smith as his GM and Eric Schaefer as his contract and cap management guy.

That's my guess. I don't know. They might bring in somebody else from the outside. is it asked backwards. A lot of you would say, why didn't they hire the GM first and let the GM pick the coach? I get it. I get all of that. But it's been done lots of different ways. Any way you get to someone other than Bruce Allen or Dan Snyder having their fingers and their prints all over the football decision-making process, the better. But I'm not guaranteeing that that's what it's going to be, even if you end up. with the perception that the new guy, Ron Rivera, has a lot of power. Remember, Mike Shanahan

thought he had a lot of power as well. Didn't have nearly as much as he thought. Be skeptical all you want, and I am too, you know, the realist part of me becomes pessimistic because ultimately it's been on rinse and repeat for 20 years, for 20 plus years. We've been through this before, the process of firing and getting rid of the old when we've hit rock bottom and bringing in new people and trying to summon up the energy and the excitement to say, hey, we're headed towards a better future. And it's never worked out. You know, there's no way that I would ever predict or bet on things getting a lot. better. I've learned my lesson over 20 plus years now. It is more likely than not that this nice man and good football coach Ron Rivera will be heading out of Redskins Park in three, four years

from now with a losing record. That's more likely than not based on history. With that said, in the moment, you know, understanding that this owner is never going to sell and deciding personally that I'm not going to completely quit on them and would rather they have one winning season out of two or three than zero. I like that Bruce is gone and I like Ron Rivera as a head coach. I'm not so sure about Ron Rivera as the lead personnel guy, but I'm glad it's somebody from outside the organization coming into it versus somebody that's here. Kyle Smith is a respected guy from people who I talk to in the organization who say, he knows how to pick players. He's good at what he does, and he's going to be a GM somewhere,

somewhere down the line. So why not it be here in sort of a collaborative effort with a guy like Ron Rivera? It gives us more hope than we had yesterday, but ultimately, yeah, I know some of you who would say, as long as Dan's here, more likely than not, it ain't going to work. I would tend to agree with that and I would wager on that. With that said, I'm going to live in the moment and say excited that Bruce has gone and they hired a guy that I've always liked. They could have made a hire that I didn't really have a strong feeling about or had a negative feeling about. I've always liked Ron Rivera. If you've listened to me on radio or on this podcast over the years, I've always defended him. I think he's a good football coach and a good football guy.

and we'll see. We'll see. So ultimately, Bruce is out. My guess is Kyle Smith becomes the GM. Eric Schaefer may get a new title, but he continues in his role with being more of the final say on contracts and cap management. And Ron Rivera ends up being the head coach with perhaps, you know, a VP of Football Operations title to go along with it. Something like that. If I'm Ron Rivera, and hopefully he's been advised on this, And I've talked about this for years. With Dan Snyder, you've got to get some sort of contractual promise that he's not going to interfere. Some contractual promise that you have final say over the football operation. Anyway, there we go.

It's going to be a new era. Hopefully this is official tomorrow. It may not be. The meeting apparently is taking place as we speak or it's about to take place shortly here on Monday morning, December 30th. barring the unforeseen according to the reports, he's going to become the new head coach. And again, I would guess some other co-title, you know, corresponding title of, you know, something like VP of Football Operations, you know, VP of, a director of football ops and head coach, something like that, where he has a significant personnel title as well as the head coach title,

and he's got some power in the organization. be really shocked if he didn't have much more power than anybody else that has come in here, with the exception of Marty who had everything. Marty was the one guy, out of all of them, that got everything he wanted. He got Vinnie Serrato out of the building, got to pick his own people, brought in John Schneider, among other people, his staff had total control over the roster, and things couldn't have gone better in that first year. It is still, in my view, the single biggest mistake, the single biggest mistake,

of the Dan Snyder era was firing Marty Schottenheimer after one season, a season that finished eight and three, eight and eight overall with Tony Banks and Kent Graham at quarterback. If you want to talk about the arrow pointing upwards, it's never pointed upwards more than it did at the end of 2001, and the owner wasn't happy being a bystander and being an outsider to the decision-making, and they got rid of Marty. Anyway, hopefully he's learned from that, and he ends up giving Ron Rivera that sort of power. If you don't think he deserves the power, I can't argue with it. He's never been a personnel lead before. But again, given the way this organization is operated over the years, I'll take this kind of change versus no change. All right, that's basically it on all of that.

I mean, it's what we know to date. It's the way I feel. So we'll be back tomorrow with perhaps more information. But Bruce is gone and Ron Rivera set to be named new head coach and I've been a Rivera fan for a long time. All right, let's do a quick game take because there were a couple of interesting things from the game yesterday. We'll do that and then we'll get to some of the other things that happened around the NFL yesterday. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's game take. All right, the game take today is brought to you by mybooky.orgie.org. Go to mybooky.org. They will match your deposit halfway if you use my promo code, Kevin DC, that's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. MyBooky.orgie.orgie.orgie is reliable. Plenty of places are not reliable. They've got quality lines,

many ways to bet. Again, they'll match your deposit halfway if you use my promo code, Kevin, DC at mybooky.orgie.orgie. All right, the game take, look, these games this year, I mean, thank God this season's finally over. One of the worst seasons, in recent Redskin memory. I mean, there have been a lot, a lot of them to choose from. This is right up there with 2013 and 2014 in terms of recent seasons, 2009, 2008. You know, a lot of them have been just dreadful during the Snyder era. This one thankfully comes to an end.

And the one thing we all learned, can we all admit this now? Some of you weren't sure back in August. You tried to debate me on this because you said you were. you're being negative, you're being a hater. This team's going to be a top five defense. This team's going to surprise you, go nine and seven, ten and six, have a chance. Okay. This team was not close.

We know that now. We've known that for three months. They weren't close to anything. Three and 13, the only three wins coming against other last place finishers. And that, of course, resulted in the necessary moves for Snyder. If Snyder hadn't made moves this offseason, my God, I would have thought that he was intentionally sabotaging the entire operation. But anybody with 2020 Vision last year could have seen that this year was not going to be a good season.

It never materialized the way they talked it up in August, not a surprise. I really wish they had rebooted this thing a year ago. I was on this podcast one year ago today, basically, or the week of after the season ended saying, reboot, reboot, reboot. Take the poison pill, the nuclear option with Alex Smith, fire everybody, start all over. Let's take the pain of the next year or two with the new staff and have them build it from scratch. They should have done that a year ago. then again they wouldn't have had a shot at Ron Rivera, who knows who they would have hired a year ago.

But anyway, they're getting to that right now a year too late, and we'll see how long it takes for them to turn it around. The one encouraging thing about this season is that the biggest area of weakness you thought going into the year at wide receiver really is promising with McClearn, Harmon, and Sims Jr. Three rookies, three guys who can play. You know, really, really play. That's encouraging. All right, on the game yesterday, the final score was 47 to 16. It's the most points the Cowboys have ever scored against the Redskins in the history of the rivalry. It certainly didn't feel like a rivalry game yesterday did it.

A lot of the Redskinned Cowboy games in recent years haven't. So the score would indicate a massive one-sided beat down. Watching that game early, I didn't feel that way at all. I thought the Redskins came out like they have in every single one of their games the exception of that jet game and played hard. They were physical defensively. They turned it over twice early. And real quickly, Case Keenham, I mean, I used to joke during the Kirk Cousins days that if you got rid of Kirk Cousins, you'd end up with somebody like Case Keenum. And I know he had a great year in Minnesota in 2017. And he'll always have that year. He's not that good. He's never been

that good. And you know what? Some of the things that rattle him didn't rattle Dwayne Haskins this year, you know, I actually think Dwayne Haskins looked more comfortable pre-snap at times than Case Keenham did yesterday and better under pressure than Case Keenham did. Keenham's a competitor. He's a playmaker. He's serviceable as a backup, or if you're a lower, you know, echelon, back, you know, third of the league type of team without a quarterback, you can start him, I guess, for a season and be halfway competitive. But he's not very good. I love the way they started the game.

They not offensively, they had the interception, they had the fumble, and they held Dallas immediately to two field goals. I mean, they were hitting the snot out of Zeke Elliott, out of Prescott, they were pressuring. that game was, you know, was competitive. You got into the second quarter at 6 to 3, and even when they made it 20 to 3, the skins came down, got a touchdown before the end of the half, and then opened up that third quarter with a long drive

to make it 20 to 13, thought they were going to have a chance maybe to get it to 20 to 17. Wasn't rooting for it. I was rooting for it to a certain degree, because I did play the Redskins yesterday plus 13. I liked him yesterday, loser. But they played hard. The final score was really not a reflection of their preparation or their effort in that game.

That would be my big sort of as coolly used to say overarching theme to the day. They ran out of gas clearly in the late third quarter and fourth quarter and ended up getting blown out, giving up essentially 27 unanswered after it got to 20 to 13 or 27 to 3 over the final stretch. the yardage and the points. It all looks completely out of whack. And the Redskins weren't a good enough team to win the game, just like they weren't a good enough team to win the game at Green Bay or a good enough team to win the game in Buffalo against good teams I'm talking about.

And I don't consider the Cowboys to be a good team. But I don't know. I just thought they played hard. Now, a couple of individual performances. Montes Sweat had a matchup that was somewhat advantageous because there was no Toron Smith yesterday. He was out, so we got the backup tackle, and he had the best game he's had.

There was a quote from Troy Aikman or Joe Buck. I forget who it was during the course of the game. I wrote it down because it was just hysterical, because we talked about this a couple weeks ago. I forget if it was Akeman or Buck. One of them said, we were talking to Bill Callahan, and he said, we dropped Montez Sweat into coverage too much. Yeah, no kidding.

No shit. We had this conversation a while back. Montev Sweat is not, like Ryan Carrigan, is not a cover linebacker. And they put his hand in the dirt, and they had him go get the quarterback. And he had two sacks. He had three tackles for losses. He broke up at least two screens, got in the middle of those. It was the player that I saw at Mississippi State yesterday.

You know, he ends up his rookie year with seven sacks, you know, which is not terrible for a rookie season. But there were moments this year where he looked overwhelmed, hesitant, thinking too much, out of position. Ron Rivera will figure out a way to get the best out of Montez sweat. That's a guarantee. The secondary banged up. I get it. It was going to be really difficult for them to compete.

Although I love the way Reeves competed. Colvin got matched up on Cooper a couple times. It was terrible. But there were some guys that actually, Sean Dionne Hamilton had one of his better games. He had a strip fumble that should have been a return touchdown. down from Ryan Anderson, who by the way, to me, was the most improved player from last year to this year defensively was Ryan Anderson. I'm sitting here talking up the defense and they gave up 47 points.

I understand that. I'm just saying that at moments they look good. Sims, Jr., wow. Man, is he a good route runner? I would have loved to have seen him take that 65-yard or to the house in Outrun, everybody. But he looks really good. Hale Hentius, the tight end from Alabama, who's gotten all this time. recently this year. I think he can play. Kelvin Harmon to me, you know, if you've been listening,

you know, I loved him out of the draft. So I think he's a good number two to go with McLaurin and then Sims in the slot. That's a promising part of the team. Adrian Peterson may have finished off his career in Washington. I don't know if that's true or not. You know, he's technically under contract, finishes the season with 898 yards, five touchdowns yesterday, average six yards. a carry on his 13 carries, the dude just still can flat out do it. I mean, it's hard to say that anything other than that. He did have a fumble yesterday after a catch on a strip, but, you know, he can still do it, which has really been impressive about Adrian Peterson this year. Lastly, it'll just be nice if Rivera is the higher because this defense has,

has been not just bad this year. It's been bad for so long. The Redskins finish this season as the worst third down defense in the NFL. The worst third down defense in the NFL in seven years, this year's 2019 version of the Washington Redskins. They gave up 48.9% on third down. That is atrocious. It's the second time in four years they were dead last in third down defense. In 2016, they wasted what I thought was a really good offensive football team with a terrible defensive team, last rated team on third down. And as I've mentioned many times in the past, the worst third and long defense in NFL history,

modern NFL history from the merger on. Just not good enough defensively. That'll change. They were poorly coached defensively. They tried to replace Minuscary. They tried their best. to replace Minowski. By the way, just as another quick statistic, the Redskins also finished dead last in third down offense. Okay, so one of the key statistics in football in the NFL,

turnover margins probably number one. After that, I would look at third down stops and third down makes. And the Redskins were dead last in offensive third down conversions at 29.1%. And they were dead last and third down stops on defense giving up 48.9%. That is a pathetic season on both sides of the ball. Just not good enough. And there's no doubt that if you gave those numbers to me in September, I would have said 2 and 14, 3 and 13, 4 and 12, something like that. Have no chance. They actually finished 3 and 13 with a positive turnover margin. They were plus 1 on the year this year. That's hard to do to go 3 and 13 with a positive turnover margin, but they actually did it this year, finishing plus one in the turnover margin category.

It was the third down offense and the third down defense that really ended up being a major problem with them. Anyway, the season's over, good riddance to it. It won't be remembered for much. I wanted to make one quick point. I think I said this to my youngest son, Ryan, who was home during the cowboy game, because Corvin, you weren't there during the game yesterday. See, my boys couldn't care less about the Redskins anymore. It's pretty much their generation.

They're watching other NFL more intrigued with players and Aaron Rogers and Drew Breeze and all, you know, real teams. But at the end of the first half, there were some major clock management gaffes in the NFL yesterday. Bill Belichick blew it. You know, can't criticize Bill Belichick, right? Can't criticize Belichick. Well, at the end of the game, the dolphins are driving for what could be the go-ahead touchdown with the Patriots up 24 to 20. Patriots have all their timeouts left. The Patriots did not get the ball back until there were 24 seconds left in the game. They had three timeouts left and 24 seconds down three. They should have had one.

timeout left and a minute 30 left if Belichick had done it right. It's crazy to me, Belichick. Look, I think he did it in the Super Bowl against Seattle. It paid off. He got the interception at the end when they didn't run Marshawn Lynch, but not calling a time out there at the end before that play was crazy in that Super Bowl. But anyway, Jason Garrett at the end of the first half yesterday, Cowboy fans have complained about this forever. It's just so incredible. It's just so incredible. simple, these guys. He ends up with three timeouts in 34 seconds when he got the ball back and intended to try to go score. And that's the thing that's mind-boggling. It's like they have their mindset. They're going to try to score on the final drive of the half. And yet they get the

ball back with 34 seconds in all three timeouts when they should have taken two of those three timeouts on defense and had another 70 seconds of time. You know, it's like Sesame. It's, Street. What's better if you want to score? More time or less time? These guys can't figure it out. It's un-effing believable. Incredible. That brings us to last night. Let's go around the NFL. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. Last night's game ended up being the final game of the season, ended up being the final game of the decade in the NFL, because the next four games will take place in 2020 this weekend in Wild Card weekend. What a football game, that 49er Seahawk game was. It was a great game from

the jump, and I want to take it through it chronologically in terms of a few thoughts on the game. First of all, in watching it early, I thought the 49ers were going to blow out the Seahawks. The Seahawks didn't have a running game. They'd lost all those running backs. They could not move the football in the first half at all. The 49ers defensively looked fast and healthy again, and they were 13-0. And it sort of felt like it could be more than that. It was an interesting first half. Each team only really had the ball three or four times. And San Francisco scored on all three of their possessions before the end of the half, which I think they basically took it into the locker room. I can't remember if they went to score at the end of the half or not.

Seattle couldn't move the football. Just couldn't get anything done. And it's 13-0-0-0-5, even though it felt worse. It felt like San Francisco was going to roll Seattle. And then Seattle came out. Their first three drives of the second half, 11 plays 62-yards touchdown, 14 plays 75 yards touchdown, 7 plays 60 yards touchdown. But guess what?

The 49ers are answering. Answering with perfection. Great play-calling. Great execution. They're running the football. They're throwing the football. Garoppolo was 18 and 22 last night for 285. Russell Wilson got into a groove and started making plays. This guy, Travis Homer, had never heard of him before last night.

He looked really good for Seattle last night. Marshawn Lynch was back, had a couple of good runs and got stopped a couple times, did have a touchdown at the goal line, but Seattle's back in this game. But you still thought up until the end, they can't get a stop. They can't stop the Niners. So they'd cut the lead to 26-21 with about, I think it was three something left in the game, maybe three and a half left. And the 49ers get the ball back. And there is a call that I thought was a terrible call.

An unnecessary roughness call on the center who was blocking downfield on a wide receiver screen that got blown up, but it was behind him. And they call them for unnecessary roughness. So instead of having a third and three, which San Francisco, would have absolutely picked up because they were picking up everything all night. Turned into a third and 17. It was a loss of down because it was a post-play foul. San Francisco nearly picks up the third and 17. If you recall last week, they picked up back-to-back third and 16s in their final game-winning drive against the Rams. The third and 17, if they had converted it, it would have been pretty much game over. It was a yard short. They punted it

back to Seattle. So now Seattle's got the ball. for the first time in the game with a chance to take the lead. Down 26-21. Russell Wilson completes a fourth in ten with 42 seconds left to some dude named Eurasia, or Eurasia or whatever. I'd never heard of him either. Seattle's been hurt, man, offensively. They got players playing in there that just haven't played much.

And he completes an 11-yard pass on 4th and 10 at the San Francisco 12. They've got no more timeouts left. So now they're getting up to the ball, clock 25, 24, 23, they spike it with 23 seconds to go. And here comes Marshawn Lynch into the game. You're thinking they're going to run Lynch. The ball's inside the one. They're going to win it on a lynch run. And it's second and goal from the one. And then all of a sudden, Seattle's still in the huddle. And you see the play clock. And they don't even know it's winding down. It was the worst delay of game penalty by a typical smart team I've ever seen.

It was total head scratcher. And it ended up killing. them five yards back to the six yard line on a delay of game where I think for whatever reason they got confused on the spike and they thought that it was a timeout. The way they were milling around in their huddle made it look like they thought they were in the midst of a timeout, but they weren't. Delay a game. Second and goal now from the six, Wilson incomplete. Third and goal from the six, a throw into the end zone to their tight end. and he is mauled on the play, no flag. Okay, this is where it gets crazy because there was so much tied into this play.

We know that this pass interference, replayability, reviewability has been a disaster all season long. The rule was created as a reaction to the New Orleans Cry Babies in the NFC Championship game last year. we got screwed on a call. You did. A lot of other teams have in NFL history, too, as well. Lawsuits coming from fans against the league. The league caves, completely caves to Sean Peyton and the Saints. And they put this rule together. The PI, the ability to challenge pass interference called or not called OPI or DPI. Doesn't matter. In the final two minutes, it goes to the booth. They put this rule in and it's been administered in. horrible way all year long. We've seen it all year long. They've butchered this thing all year long. And then last night, the main reason for the rule, the precise reason the rule was put into place, was to make sure that a team in a big spot late in a key game didn't get screwed by a non-call or a bad call. And Riveron,

you're waiting for it. When are they going to whistle down that this plays under review before the fourth down play? There's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, he doesn't, he doesn't indicate to anybody that this play is worth review. If they had reviewed it and come back and said there wasn't enough there, I think everybody would have felt better than what happened, which is they didn't review it. Are you kidding me? The reason this rule was put into play was for that play last night and he was interfered with. There's no doubt it's past interference. It should be first and goal at the one-yard line for Seattle. Okay, now they got four more shots at it.

Instead, it's fourth down. They throw it back to Hollister, just short of the goal line, and he doesn't get the ball in. He's an inch away from getting it in, and San Francisco wins the game 26-21. And the whole irony of everything is that New Orleans, who root cause of all of this was the play in the NFC championship game last year that cost New Orleans and their fans a trip to the Super Bowl. And New Orleans, with Al Riveron deciding not to review that missed pass interference call on a crucial third and goal from the six at the end of that game, New Orleans doesn't get a first round by.

If Seattle scores, New Orleans gets a first round by and a home game in round two. And because Seattle didn't win the game, New Orleans opens up wild card weekend. And if they beat Minnesota, we'll likely have to go and play at Green Bay in week two, at Lambo on the frozen tundra of Green Bay. The league deserves this. Hopefully they will do away with this PI call. I'm hopeful that they will. of a football game last night. Just a great football game in Seattle to end the season. And the 49ers, what a season they've had. And how about the games that they finished up with? Think about

their last five football games. They go to Baltimore in the rain and they lose a classic to the Ravens 20 to 17. They go to New Orleans in the Superdome the week after in what turned out to be perhaps the game of the year, 48 to 46, the Niners beat the Saints. Then the next, week. They lose that game on that final touchdown pass to Julio Jones, which is called no touchdown and then reviewed and called a touchdown, and they lose that game at home. Then last Saturday night, in a classic against the Rams, a walk-off field goal to beat the Rams, and then last night on the final play of the game, they get a stop to beat the Seahawks. I mean, the 49ers final five games of the year were unbelievable. They had some great games early in the year, too. Remember the Sunday

nighter that they lost to the Seahawks in overtime was a great football game as well. But the 49ers go into the playoffs as the number one seed in the NFC playoffs, and they deserve it. I personally think the Saints and the 49ers are the two best teams, and they're going to meet in Santa Clara in the NFC championship game. A lot of football between now and then, but those are the two teams that have played the best. I don't see Green Bay as a team that can beat either the Saints or the 49ers. You know, they would have this same game at Lambo. They would have to play at San Francisco in an NFC title game. I think both of those teams are superior to Green Bay, who barely beat, barely beat the Lions yesterday. Had to come from 17-3 down to beat the Lions yesterday to clinch

the two-seed in the NFC postseason. Obviously, the biggest shocker of the day, I've already mentioned it, was the Dolphins beating the Patriots 27 to 24. That knock the Patriots out of a first round by and the two seed and means that they have to not only play this weekend against a red hot Tennessee team in Foxborough, but then they would have to go to Arrowhead the following week to face the Chiefs in round two. So you would have that as your round two game. That would be a rematch of the AFC title game, which the Patriots won last year. It's not the same Patriot team. I'm not going to bet against them.

Their defense is still very good. It is interesting about the dolphins this year. Do you remember the dolphins early in the season doing everything they could to lose every possible game, including sort of a tanky kind of a move on the two-point conversion against the Redskins with a player who hadn't practiced the play all week? Well, you know who's played just incredible football is Ryan Fitzpatrick. You know, Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins ended up winning five games this year. They beat the Patriots yesterday as a 17-point underdog on the road in a game the Patriots had to have. They won three of their final five games, and one of their losses was a one-point walk-off field goal loss to the Jets,

who I don't know if you followed the Jets' final stretch of the season. The Jets ended up winning six of their final eight games. When Sam Darnold got healthy again, came back. If you recall, they beat the Giants and the Redskins and the Raiders. and it's like they had won three in a row. And, you know, they didn't beat a lot of great teams. The dolphins, the Steelers, you know, but they beat the bills yesterday, but the bills were resting everybody.

But the Jets and the Dolphins at one point looked like they were in contention for that bottom, that top draft choice, excuse me. And it turns out the Jets win seven games and the Dolphins win five games. The other game yesterday of note Tennessee beating Houston to clinch that final spot. The Titans are rolling, man. They are 35 to 14. They lost that game to the Texans two weeks ago. They lost to the Saints. A team they were up to scores on last week. I think that actually says a lot about Tennessee's chances this weekend. They go into Foxborough. They are a four and a half five-point underdog. I give them a fighting chance, man, definitely with the way they are playing

and with the way the Patriots are playing, really. You've got to give the Titans a chance in that one. Philip Rivers, very emotional after what could have been his final game as a charger. If I'm a team needing a veteran quarterback to start next year, I'm signing Philip Rivers. I think he lost some arm strength this year, but I even watched some of that game. He can still make plays. And then how about James Winston? A pick six in overtime by Winston.

How absolutely apropos was that? because he had another James Winston game yesterday. Two touchdown passes, two interceptions. James Winston becomes a quarterback that on the season through 33 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. Bruce Ariens was asked after the game. Did that pick six in overtime? Have any sort of influence on your decision on bringing Winston back?

And he just said, didn't help. Didn't help. man, Winston is an interesting player in the NFL, I think. A lot of talent, a lot of talent. So that was essentially it. My Broncos season total bet of seven, I got back to a push with them beating the Raiders. The Raiders went for two at the end. So the Broncos end up seven and nine.

That was my big preseason futures bet, betting the over seven on Denver. look dead in the water for much of the year. But they end up seven and nine, and I get a push out of it. One other quick note, Gardner Minshue is going to start next year in Jacksonville. I think that dude really proved that he can play. And I think Kyler Murray really proved something this year in his rookie year. He ended up having a pretty damn good rookie season through for 3,700-plus yards, 20 touchdowns, 12 interceptions on the year. his games later in the year, guys he got more comfortable were really, really good. Obviously, a lethal run threat as a dual threat guy.

But I think that year one of Kyler Murray, remember so much of the conversation going back to draft. And in August was what kind of season is Kyler Murray going to have? I think he proved that he can do something in this league. They lost to the Rams in their season finale, but they were a competitive team for much of the year. the Cardinals were, had a chance, by the way, late in that game to tie it up. All right, so your playoffs are set. Wildcard weekend is set. The two buys in the NFC are San Francisco is the one, Green Bay is the two. In the AFC, it's Baltimore is the one, and Kansas City is the two.

Oh, as an aside, so RG3 got the start in Baltimore yesterday. Got a game ball after the game. I was watching some of it. He was 11 of 21 for 96 yards, throwing it, had an interception, got sacked three times, did have 50 yards rushing. This was Griffin as a dual-threat quarterback man. He can still keep it on that read option and run the football. And it opens it up for Gus Edwards, who had a buck 30 and some of their other backs. I did see enough of that game to see that he is still uncomfortable.

in the pocket. He should have had two pick sixes against him in that game in the first half. But he's been a trooper as a teammate, been a well-liked teammate in Baltimore, and who knows? You know, how about, you know, I'm rooting for Lamar Jackson. I am. I love watching him play. But what if Jackson got hurt, and it was Griffin against Kyle in the Super Bowl, Baltimore against San Francisco. Anyway, so wild card weekend is set. 435 Saturday opens it up. Houston's a three-point favorite over Buffalo.

I like the Bill's team. I'm actually surprised Houston's a three-point favorite. I actually thought that line might be closer to pick them. I think Buffalo's the better team, which leads me to think that maybe Houston is the play. The Saturday night games, the other AFC game, New England's a four and a half point favorite over Tennessee. Wouldn't be surprised if by the time we get to Friday,

the public actions on Tennessee, the underdog. Then Sunday, Minnesota, the team I'm rooting for at New Orleans, worst possible matchup for them. I think the Saints are red-hot right now. The only way you beat the Saints is to keep pace with them, and they're going to have to run the football. I mean, hopefully Dalvin Cook's back for them and healthy, and if they can run the football against the Saints,

that's been the key, obviously, keeping Drew Brees off the field and scoring and keeping pace with the Saints. I mean, the 49ers did it. You know, when a 48-46 win, I mean, that's a good defense the 49ers have. And the Saints had scored 46 points and had like 500 yards against the 49ers. The Saints are on a major role right now. They're an eight-point favorite in the Sunday 1 o'clock game. And then the final wild card game of the weekend is Seattle at Philadelphia. The Eagles finish 9 and 7, so all of the angst over 6 and 10 or 7 and 9, you know, NFC East winner. The NFC East has never had an 8-and-8 or less winner since the merger or since the division was formed in 1970.

And the Eagles keep that streak alive with a 9-and-7 four-game win streak to end the season. Daniel Jones, too many key mistakes in that. one. He had a bunch of them through his rookie season. Philadelphia is right now as I look at it. Actually, they are now up to a one and a half. Seattle is up to a one and a half point favorite. The game opened Philadelphia minus one. Seattle's now a one and a half point favorite. I can tell you right now, Corbyn, right now, that Philadelphia will be a smell test. But of course, you probably don't care because my smell test was horrible this weekend. I now have a losing record for the year. But we've got lots of playoff games and lots of bowl games. Quick word, because I want to

finish up with some college football talk, quick word about our app. It's available in the app store. If you've got an iPhone in the Google store, if you've got an Android, it's another way to listen to us. Also, if you're a small business, consider stamps.com for all of your post office needs. it makes a lot of sense. And if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C., significant savings there. Let's finish up with some talk about the games from Saturday. First of all, LSU is a juggernaut. What a performance from Joe Burrow.

I mean, are you kidding me? Seven touchdown passes in the first half for Joe Burrow. 403 yards and seven touchdowns in a half. all sorts of records set by Burrow, who really, to me, looks and has looked like the real deal. You know, he's an off-schedule machine. He's so good off-schedule, so good at creating more time, and he's tough, and he's competitive. I think he's going to be the number one pick in the draft. I think he'll get picked by Cincinnati. I think they'd be insane not to pick him. It was a blowout win with one, one controversial moment. It's hard to see.

say that there's controversy in a game that ended 63 to 28. But there was a play with LSU up 21 to 7, and Oklahoma's on the move. And Oklahoma's got a chance now to sort of keep pace. You know, you got to hang in there. And if you had Oklahoma plus the 14 or whatever you ended up playing it at, I didn't. I didn't play that. I played some in-game action on Oklahoma and lost that. But if you thought that Oklahoma could get moving and have a chance, there was a missed pass interference call on a third down in that game where the receiver was literally tackled by the defender and it wasn't called. It would have been a first down. Oklahoma would have been on the move, continued to be on the move. And who knows? You know, 2114 there, maybe it's a different game.

Ultimately, it was 49 to 14 at halftime, 63 to 28. So it certainly wasn't going to to make a difference in the actual outcome of the game. It may have made a difference in the score. Man, Oklahoma and the Big 12. I mean, it's just, it's like college football is the SEC, Clemson, and Ohio State. You know, I still think teams like Florida State and Southern Cal and other SEC teams that haven't really been in the playoff, like, you know, you could see resurgence there. I don't know about the Big 12, man. Just for whatever reason, you know, you know, You got the best you're going to get from Oklahoma, and it's not even close. And you know what? Ohio State would have done the same thing to them.

Clemson would have done the same thing to them. We didn't matter about the matchup. Then we get to the night cap on Saturday night. Clemson and Ohio State and the Fiesta Bowl and the other semifinal. What a great football game. It's a game that had it all. It had great plays. It had great players.

It had a legendary drive at the end led by Trevor Lawrence. It had bad calls. It had questionable calls. It had head scratching replay reviews, all of which ended up being game impacting, game influencing. The difference, though, in the game from my mind's eye, from the jump. And if you were on Ohio State and I gave them out as a smell test pick and you were rooting for Ohio State to win that game, you knew early on that they were not taking advantage

of the dominance that they had in the first quarter and a half of that game. dominated Clemson. I think ultimately they just appeared to be the better team for much of the night. But the opportunity to bury Clemson early was there. It was absolutely there. They had five trips inside the red zone in the first half against Clemson and kicked three field goals. J.K. Dobbins, their running back, dropped two touchdown passes. All right? So you had five trips into the red zone, 16 points. Not good enough. Not good enough. They blew an opportunity to be up no less than 24 to nothing somewhere around there. And at 24 to nothing had they converted, had Dobbins not dropped the touchdown passes, that's pretty hard for Clemson to overcome. And Clemson's championship grit

was on display all night long, especially towards the end of the first half, where, you know, they got a huge, huge break. Down 16-0-0. On a third-down miss, there was a targeting call on Wade, Sean Wade, their DB who hit Trevor Lawrence, helmet to helmet. They called targeting after the incompletion,

walked off 15 yards, and with that, Wade was out of the game, and Clemson was on their way to a touchdown that made the game 16 to 7. If you're watching that game in context, you know how big of a call that is, because if they're off the field there again, then Clemson with about four minutes, three minutes to go in the first half, likely not going to score before the end of the half.

Certainly not going to score twice, which is what ended up happening and going to the break 16, 14 in a game that they were dominated in. Look, the targeting rule in college football, I think it needs work. Sean Wade, was it technically a targeting foul? because it was helmet to helmet. Yes, but Trevor Lawrence is a 6-5-inch quarterback is ducking his helmet simultaneously. Should this dude have been tossed for that?

No. You got to at least fix it in college football whereby when we don't see something truly egregious and almost accidental, which that was, you don't toss the player. It was a big loss. They attacked his replacement on the next play, got a big PI call deep into a,

Ohio State territory, and from there got on the board, and it was 16 to 14. It was a hell of a game. There was a lot to it. You know, that Ohio State, Justin Fields had two interceptions in the game, a couple of bad ones. They had a roughing the punter penalty that extended a Clemson drive in that second half. And it was interesting about that roughing the punter. It was a terrible, terrible mistake by Ohio State. But the truth is, the guy just didn't lay out for the punt.

if he had reached his arms out and really leapt and went after it, I think he would have blocked it. It was very close to being a blocked punt in that spot. And then, you know, you had the Jeff Okuda play on Justin Ross. You know, he hits Ross. Ross has the balls, taking multiple steps. Okuda strips him, ball gets picked up, returned for a touchdown, and they overturned the call and say that it was an incomplete pass. I don't know what completing the process of the catch is anymore after that one.

It appeared to me that the guy took three steps. It certainly appeared to me that it was very debatable on the call. You know, it was a debatable call. The call in the field was touchdown, fumble, touchdown. The fact that they overturned it, I really thought was bad. The explanation by the referee, the booth was essentially that they only look at those plays in real-time replay speed, and it's for feet being in bounds or balls hitting the ground that they slow it down on replay.

And everybody, you know, on Twitter got a reaction out of that one. It's like, wait a minute. So you're going to replay, but you're not going to use the slow-mo replay. You're just going to show it in fast motion? Like, well, the call on the field was seen in fast motion. If you're not going to use replay to slow it down to see, what's the point of it? It was an utter crazy explanation. But he ended up getting it right because they overturned it, or the referee in the booth got it right,

on the broadcast got it right, while both Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreet were insisting that they thought there wasn't enough there to overturn it, and they thought they had seen football moves, multiple steps with the ball in possession before it was stripped and returned for a score. That was a rather big play in the football game. Ultimately, though, Ohio State really has nobody to blame but themselves. They had a chance early to blow out Clemson to blow them out of the building. And they didn't take advantage of it.

And Clemson, that final drive down 23 to 21. in Ohio State, my personal belief with 11 minutes to go when they scored to go up 22, 21, I think they should have gone for two there. They didn't. And many of you, some of you pointed out, well, you know, they were going for a touchdown there to win the game at the end. It could have been to tie it, you know, well, yeah, but more importantly, Clemson could have been in position to potentially kick a walk-off field goal, you know, at the end of a game. You know, you got to think in terms of how many possessions are there really left in the game? And after Ohio State decided not to go for two,

they only had two possessions left in the game. Had a chance on a fourth and four at the Clemson 39 with three minutes to go to go for it. And win the game right there, they punted it back. And then Trevor Lawrence, man, what a drive. Four plays, 94 yards. That dude is the number one pick in the 2021 draft. He really showed the kind of champion he is.

I love Travis A-T-N also. I think he's a hell of a back. And it was a great game with great players on the field, but a classic with Clemson holding on 2923, Justin Fields throwing that interception on that final drive into the end zone on the miscommunication with Chris Alave. So now you get Clemson, LSU. LSU now up to a six-point favorite in the national championship game.

Opened. I saw it three and a half four. Some tell me a couple of people. told me that they did not see three and a half four, that they saw an open at four and a half five. I thought I saw an open at three and a half four. It's up to five and a half six now, LSU favored by. And Clemson, you know, old Davo Sweeney, man, little old Clemson, as he likes to make him out to be, is in the national championship game again. And he can play the no respect, you know, card because they're an underdog again to LSU. And they're a good team.

Man, LSU, Clemson, and Ohio State, all three exceptional football teams this year. Looking forward to that national championship game. Lastly, before I go, the Maryland basketball won yesterday. They beat Bryant. For you Terp fans out there, the two twins, Mackay and McKell Mitchell, are transferring. They put their names into the transfer portal. A lot of controversy around this. mothers tweeted out stuff that's anti-mark Turgent.

I can only tell you this, that I had been hearing for a while, that there was some disruptive issues going on with the team, that there was, you know, some chemistry issues with the team. I think both of them are talented. I certainly think the higher rated of the two, number 21, good feet, good hands, good talent, looks to me like he's going to be a good player. they went to four high schools in four years, something like that. Sometimes, you know, you've got to make a tough call. And, you know, as a Maryland fan, I'm not questioning the coaching staff on this one at all.

At all. I don't know the details. I've heard the details from one side. Okay? So to me there's always, you know, his side, his side, and then the truth somewhere in between. But my sense of it was that there was definitely some issues among on that team and that they feel like they may have gotten a better chemistry situation now that the twins are gone. Wish him the best of luck. I think they're talented, and I hope they figured out elsewhere.

Maryland meantime debuted Chol Mariel, the 7-2 guy, who was out with, you know, knee issues and leg issues. And I'll tell you what, it's 7-2 yesterday and his first action. To me, he played confidently. Ended up playing in the game 14 minutes, had 6.5 rebounds, a block shot. He's definitely an impact player as a rimper. protector with his length and size. The thing that I liked about him is I didn't know much about him.

I heard that it was going to be more likely than not the guy wouldn't be a significant contributor this year because of the injuries and getting to it much later than everybody else. But what I saw out there was a guy that looked healthy and looked confident and looks like he could be an impact player for them the rest of the year. The schedule now turns to the Big Ten. They get Indiana who lost to Arkansas yesterday. They get Indiana at home on Saturday, and then they play Ohio State, who lost their second game of the year yesterday to West Virginia.

Okay, that's it. As I'm sitting here finishing up the podcast for the day, there is no other updated Redskins news that I'm seeing. It looks like it's going to be Ron Rivera. And again, I'm not unhappy about that at all. I've always liked him as a head coach. I'm sure there will be plenty of time, game inning, game out to criticize and nitpick here and there. But I think he's a quality head NFL coach,

something that I don't know that they've had here in quite some time over the last six, seven years. So they have that. Let's hope he gets the power, the contractual power and the authority for all Redskinned fans. It's a good day that Bruce Allen is gone, but we all understand the ownership situation hasn't changed and it won't change and that that's always been the root cause of the problem. Everything else has been a symptom. Have a great day. Everybody back tomorrow wasn't going to do a podcast on New Year's Eve, but I'm going to be back to do one tomorrow. I'm doing radio tomorrow as well with all of the breaking Redskins news. Pat Schumer fired, if I didn't mention that already in New York. Gettleman stays. Dan's got to wrap up this

Rivera thing. If Rivera, for whatever reason, if that thing didn't get wrapped up, I would expect that Marvin Lewis would end up being the head coach here. But I think the Rivera deal will ultimately get wrapped up. All right. Happy New Year to those of you that I don't catch up with between now and New Year's Day, but I will be back tomorrow to do at least a short podcast based on updating various Redskins-related news. Also, no smell test today with the bowl games. I would lean Cal a little bit in the Red Box Bowl against Illinois. They're laying seven against Illinois. I sort of like Cal. I like Florida a little bit too. I just love that team defensively, but no official picks. You should be happy about that. I had a terrible, terrible weekend.

Have a great day.