The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cards Crushed; Washington NFC East Leaders

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Kevin with his complete recap of the Commanders 42-14 rout of the Cardinals. His "Game Take" with a complete Jayden Daniels breakdown and grade along with some nice things to say about the defense for the first time this year.  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. Jayton Daniels. Scanning, throwing end zone. Touchdown!

Washington. McCorren calls it in. Another knockout punch by the commanders. So I'm going to do my best to dial it back a little bit here. No promises, though. I am in here an hour and a half after the game. out in Arizona just ended, that dismantling of the Cardinals, 42 to 14, and I am still just a tad emotionally connected to what I just saw.

Oh, my God, the offense again. Oh, my God, Jaden Daniels again. He is playing quarterback at an extremely high level right now, not for a rookie, for anybody. And don't be surprised if you start hearing as early as tonight or tomorrow. morning, his name mentioned in the conversation, at least on the periphery of the MVP conversation. Good evening, good morning, good afternoon, whenever you're listening to this. I will get back to the MVP thing here momentarily. On a short week after a stirring Monday night

win in Cincinnati, Washington just went on the road and beat the living hell out of the Arizona Cardinals, 42 to 14. It was an absolute clinic from the head coach, his coordinators, the quarterback, and many others who we will attempt to name on this show. A show presented, as always, by Windonation, 86690 Nation, windonation.com if you need new windows. Mention my name, and they'll come out and give you a free quote when it's convenient for you. What made this route so impressive, actually, was that you don't typically, see or expect NFL teams coming off short weeks to be as sharp as the skins were this evening. It's one of the reasons Arizona was favored by three and a half in this game.

NFL odds makers recognize that short rest teams don't perform as well when facing teams on normal rest. But they couldn't have looked any fresher. They couldn't have looked any sharper than they did against an Arizona team that quite honestly looked distraught by the time the second quarter rolled around. I mean, any idea they had that they would win the game, I thought looked pretty much squashed with the two long touchdown drives to take the lead 14 to 7. But even if their hopes of being in the game weren't shattered at that point, first drive, third quarter, three plays, touchdown, 24 to 7 lead, checkmate. The Cardinals, by the way, were reportedly bitching at each other on the sideline pretty early in the game. They

seemed to lose interest, I thought, as the game went on. The best player in the game played the most important position on the field, quarterback, and it wasn't Kyler Murray. It was Jaden Daniels. Daniels four games into his career is so much better than Kyler Murray. It's not even worth discussing. Murray can't see over the line of scrimmage. He's got a physical limitation, and when he's forced to throw from the pocket, it's trouble. Daniels, meantime, already appears to be at his best from the pocket. He sat back in it for much of the game and shredded Arizona's defense.

26 of 30 for 233 yards, a touchdown. And yes, his first interception of the year, his first interception of his career. He was six for nine on third down for 86 yards, which resulted in five first downs and a touchdown. He rushed for another 47 yards, and a score. But back to his completion percentage of 26 of 30. In his last two games, he's now 47 of 53. That's 88.7%. If you don't think you've ever seen anything like that, you're right.

He's the first quarterback in NFL history to go back-to-back games with a completion percentage of 85% or higher. Monday night, it was 21 of 23, 91%. and then just finished in Arizona, 26 of 30, 86.7%. And then there's this. Through four games, his completion percentage is now 82.1%. Leads the league. It's the highest completion percentage through four games in NFL history, not for a rookie, for any quarterback, in history. Okay. 82.1% as a completion percentage through the first four games of an NFL history, record-breaking. It's never been done. Now, there are better teams and better defenses to come, for sure.

I understand that Arizona is not the sternest test he or this offense will face, but make no mistake, his first four games are historic from the standpoint of throwing the football. You know, many were convinced perhaps by other shows or some NFL pundits that this guy was like a run first quarterback, great athlete, big time playmaker, but that he couldn't process. He couldn't throw the ball over the middle of the field. He had too high of a pressure to sack percentage, which of course meant he held it too long in college. No, there was a lot of context around all of that stuff. You guys have seen it now in just four games. Jaden Daniels in college proved, and certainly through four games, has proven he can process and throw the football at a high level.

It's early, I get it. Super early, too early, in fact. But early or not doesn't change the fact. The fact that his four games start is historical, and because of it, people will begin, if they haven't already, to put his name, and league MVP in the same sentence. If you're wondering, Jim Brown in 1957, the only rookie to ever win the NFL League MVP. Look, I'm bringing this up because I think, you know,

there's a chance that this is going to be a conversation. That's the primary reason for bringing it up. Do I think he's going to win the MVP? No, not really, although another couple of games like this, and I'll get more serious about it. But there are maybe two or three guys right now at the position that typically generates the most MVP interest that may be playing at the same level or higher than Jaden.

We'll see what Josh Allen does tonight. He's been playing at a super high level. But look, that aside, the bottom line, he's been incredible, especially the last two weeks. And he just makes it look so easy. And he's just four games into his career. And like I said, when they beat the Bengals on Monday night, because of his play more than anything else, the conversation is changing on what the team can do this year at

three and one and in sole possession now of first place in the NFC East with the Eagles losing in Tampa. Can we shove aside and bury at least for a few weeks? Any talk about a rebuild or building blocks? No, we're nearly a quarter through the season, and Washington is in sole possession of first place in the NFC East. They have one of the top offenses in the league led by a quarterback who is playing as well as any quarterback is anywhere in the NFL right now.

Now, a lot more coming up in my game take in the next segment. But one thing that I want to get to before we get to that, and I think it's an important thing to recognize as it relates specifically to this win in Arizona. The owner, Josh Harris, deserves a game ball for this win. He said yes to the football people and allowed for and paid for the team to travel early to Arizona right after their win Monday night in Cincinnati. They didn't come back east and then go back west late in the week, which would have meant less time preparing for the Cardinals. It would have been more physically taxing. He said yes, and they absorbed a big expense to do it. In the final years of Dan's

ownership, there's not a chance something like this would have been paid for. Dan was counting nickels in recent years, and picking up the tab on a week in Arizona would have been highly unlikely. new ownership is serious about football and doing what it takes to win. The last group was serious about acting like they had already won and then trying their best to sell that delusion to anybody gullible enough to buy it. Good job Josh Harris and ownership. And guess what? Arizona, that's the longest trip of the year.

They don't have to pay for another one. Of the remaining 13 games, 10 are in the Eastern Time Zone, three in the central time zone. And also, by the way, if you didn't know this, Washington's total travel by miles this year based on everybody's schedule in the league, the lowest mileage count of all 32 teams. This was their longest trip by far.

The next longest will be Dallas, followed by New Orleans, Chicago. You know, probably takes longer to get to New Orleans, I think. Yeah, it does. than to get to Chicago. All right, my game take next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Out of all the things we do to maintain and protect our homes, getting up on a ladder to clean out the gutters is the last thing anybody wants to do.

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Tell them that I sent you. All right. Let's get to the Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. A third straight week of a long list of things that I liked and a very short list of things that I did not like. Let's get started with number one on the things that I liked list. Of course, it should be the quarterback, but I'm just going to go like I did Monday night with the offense.

They were six for six on drives last week, which followed, by the way, seven for seven against the Giants and against Arizona. a seven of nine scores on drives. That is now 20 scores on their last 22 drives. Not counting kneel downs, of course. 20 of 22. And they've only had one of those scoring drives, just one start in the other team's territory. It's not like they've got all this great field position. That was the one on Monday night that Austin Echler returned the kick to the Bengals 33 yard line. That's the only possession they have had in three games where they've gone 20 scores on 22 drives where they had unbelievable starting field position. That's crazy.

If you go back to the Tampa game, it's actually 21 of 23, but I don't like counting that, you know, last touchdown drive and a blowout loss. 20 of 22, 7 of 9 yesterday. They punted for the first time since the opener. There was that. Tressway got some work. but just once. And the first interception of Daniel's career

came in the second quarter with a 14 to 7 lead. But the offense generated 42 points, 449 yards, 9 for 12 on 3rd down, 1 for 1 on 4th down, 4 of 5 in the red zone. Remember after the giant game when they went 0 for 6 in the red zone, kick seven field goals, that was a problem. well, seven for their last eight in the opponent's red zone. The 9 of 12 on third down, as of the recording of this podcast, with still a game tonight

and two more tomorrow night, Washington is currently the number one team in the league on third down offensive conversions. 53.5% are converted. Unfortunately, they are still, as of this moment, dead last defensively. on third down. But more to like about the defense today. That's coming up. But my God, the offense, it started with a running game that produced 233 yards on the ground. 124 of those rushing yards came in the first half when the game was technically still competitive. 21 carries 124 yards in the first 30 minutes, 5.9 yards per carry. The O line is a good run blocking line right now, and they dominated the line of scrimmage. More on them coming up. Jaden threw for

233 with mostly excellent protection, no sacks on the day. Receivers were open, and even if it was tight coverage, the ball seemed to be there most of the time, there were so many different throws on the day. I mean, screens, play action, short, medium, and long, drop back. Lots of boot yesterday under center, more of it than I've seen in any of the other three games. I thought that was very interesting and I think that is a real devastating look for Washington to have him under center with a good running game going and having him bootleg off of it because if nobody's open, I mean, it's like a guaranteed eight to 10 yards minimum with him on those bootlegs. You know, one of the deep shots they took drew a 47-yard pass interference penalty. That was on that

first drive of the third quarter. I actually thought the call was a bit questionable because I thought it looked uncatchable, but the contact was so egregious that the refs really couldn't tell if Noah Brown could have gotten to the ball or not. Sticking with kind of the offense, I mean, Cliff Kingsbury, he had Arizona guessing all night long. I mean, they thought run, he threw it. They thought pass, he ran it. He seems to have easy checks for Jaden, you know, out of a run to a throw, out of a one throw to something that's easier, that's quicker, shotgun snaps, pistol snaps, under center snaps. And here's something that was really important, especially in the first half or through maybe the early portion of the third quarter. They were just on schedule,

down distance-wise. In the first half alone, here were their third down. and distances. Third and four, third and two, third and four, third and two, third and one. That is staying on schedule, boys and girls. They did have a third and 15, and guess what happened? They punted for the first time since the season opener. He's got a quarterback that's almost always able to avoid the big negative plays that really get you into bad down-and-distance situations. But look, even with that, you've got to gain yards to get into the third down and shorts that I described. If you're a believer in a young quarterback needing a coordinator who is serious about running the football, you know, a young quarterback's best friend, how about this through four games?

Washington's got 134 rushing attempts, 106 passing attempts. Now, some of those pass attempts, I'm sorry, some of those rushes are scheduled throws where Jaden turns them into scrambles. But still, Washington has run the ball more than it has thrown it in four games. And as of the recording of this podcast here on Sunday night, September 29th, they are the number one rush offense in the league. number one rush offense in the NFL. Now, Baltimore may pass them tonight. Who knows, Detroit actually could pass them tomorrow night. But as of this moment, the number one rush offense in the NFL, probably no worse than second or third,

when all the week four games are completed. But this offense is humming. It has been unstoppable for three games now. the red zone issues of two games ago are now no longer issues. Now, each one of these games, they're their own entity, their standalone entities, but we're now four games into the season, and this team is a very dynamic offensive football team, and the irony of it is it's not like they're overflowing

with skill position talent or even offensive line talent. This is really about the coordinator and the quarterback as much as it is anything else. I'd give a lot of credit also to an offensive line that has performed well. All right, number two on the list of things that I liked. Of course, the quarterback. And what I'm going to do here is I'm just going to go through, you know, I marked down on my play-by-play note sheet. You know, the plays that I liked from him, there were just so many, right? There were so many in this game.

And we've already gone through the numbers. 26 of 30, 233, a touchdown, a pick, 47 rushing yards, and a touchdown there. So, let me go through some of the plays in this game that really stood out to me. I'm going to start with this. There was a third and two on their opening drive, and this is what we've talked about consistently going back to the opener. There is a calm and there is a poise about him that is unmistakable. If you go watch that third and two, they sub, and that means the defense has time to sub. And the defense is taking their time to sub.

And the referee is standing in front or behind the center so that they can't snap the ball. And Jaden's sitting there very calmly. And the play clock is rolling down. And I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, this is a big play. This is third and two. You can't take a delay a game here. And I'm wondering, are they going to end up calling a timeout? But no, Jaden knew when that referee would step away.

He stepped away. There were three, two, he's under center. He takes a snap. It's a quick pitch to Brian Robinson, Jr. And a big run for a first down. I just thought there was another time that that happened where they had to wait for the defense to sub and the referee was standing behind the center.

He just never, ever seems to be rattled or stressed. second drive, there's a first and 10 deep out to Terry that's just, he's made a couple of those throws over the last few weeks. On time, the hitch, the ball's out, it's right there. Terry did a good job. There's another third and two versus the blitz that he hits Terry on in that drive. Kind of backfits it and flicks it. You'll see him. His arm is so good. And it sometimes is a flick, even moving backwards sometimes. They had an under-center bootleg throw to Zekees for a big play. That play is interesting. We saw more undercenter kind of bootlegs off of their run success. And I talked about during the offseason, I think he'd be

a perfect fit for like the Shanahan scheme. I mean, having him out on the edge, threatening a defense, and knowing that, you know, worst case, it's probably a seven, eight yard gain and out of bounce. Best case, he's thrown to a wide open, you know, full back or tight end in the first option close, but you read it deep to short. But that was one on the second drive. On first and 10 on that second drive, he avoided a sack and gained like five or six yards on a run. He's so good under pressure when it looks like a sack is a possibility. Like, the Sacks, and there have been not a lot of them, have been really when he's been trying to hang in there and the pockets really collapsed. Or he's moved outside of the pocket and he hasn't gotten back to the line of scrimmage.

But he has saved big lost yardage with very little lost yardage. He had a really good kind of flip as he moved up in the pocket to Ertz for eight or nine years. yards on their third drive, had a perfect outthrow to Noah Brown on that drive. Fourth drive, he took that deep shot to Terry on third and 15. I kind of like the fact that he took a deep shot to Terry rather than third and 15 checkdown punt. Like, I just thought that that was interesting. Like, they have no interest on third and 15 in throwing bubble or throwing checkdown

and just improving field position, unless I'm sure they're in field. range and they don't want to, and they want to get better field goal range, but they weren't there. But I just marked that down as an interesting sort of aggressiveness to Cliff and to Jaden. There was the pass on the fifth drive. We get to the towards the end of the first half. He's got to get him in good field goal range, and he steps back, and he's got great time, great pass pro, and he fires one to Ertz. Cybert kicks the field goal.

Second half, that first drive, by the way, that first drive before the pass interference, you know, he's like looking and surveying, he's got plenty of time, and at the last second, he just sort of flicks one to Bates for nine yards. I mean, the quick release and the ability with wrist to really get velocity on it and then to have the accuracy is really, I don't want to. to use Coach Quinn's secret sauce line, but there's some secret sauce in there. Obviously, the quarterback counter. I said after the opener, I really don't like quarterback power and quarterback counter,

but it looks like they're calling quarterback counter to the weak side of the defense, and man, did he have some blocking on that? Noah Brown, Wiley, Beaudish, Robinson, Jr. Noah Brown did a great job. just taking out the edge defender there. And it was a no sweat run into the end zone. And then let's go to the second drive of the second half for a series of plays that I think are my favorite from Jaden in this game. Third and 13 from their own 37.

They don't run a draw. They don't run a bubble screen. All right, that's not what they do around here. They drop them back, and he's got great protection. And he surveys the field once, and then he comes back to the far. side line, the right side line, and he flushes a little out of the pocket, and he throws a ball on a rope to Noah Brown. Quick release, flick of the wrist, it's there. He catches it at the 49-yard line, turns, lowers his shoulder, gets the first down. Loved that throw. Then we go to

the third drive of the third quarter. It's 2714 now. Maybe Arizona fans think it might be a game if they can get a stop. The problem is they can't get a stop. Second down in six. And here is Terry McClorn in a hole on a medium to deep dig. And Jaden has got defenders all around. Like there is a small opening for this football. It's got to be out on time. Then it's got to be low to stay out of harm's way. And it's the perfect throw. And Terry makes an incredible hands under the ball, very low catch, move the chains. This is where you see now he's like, tight windows, a little bit of traffic, I can still gun it in there because I can get it out on time with this quick release and excellent accuracy

and we can stay on the field. That was the second and six. I love the bootleg, which came, I think, on the next play. Stretch zone, fake handoff, Brian Robinson, Jr. he could have thrown at debates. He keeps it for an easy 10-yard run. Great slide. I don't know what Tommy was talking about last week.

Tommy talked about the slide last week being awkward. That's actually embarrassing for somebody who is a baseball guy to say that that slide was embarrassing. It's a football slide, I get it. But another incredibly perfect smooth slide at the end of that. We don't have to worry about him protecting himself. I mean, there will be shots along the way, but this isn't a guy that's awkward.

in the open field. And then how about the throw to McCaffrey? All right, it's second down and 15. Shotgun, 27-yard line, 26-yard line. He's fading a little bit back in the pocket versus the blitz, five-man pressure, and the ball is just, it's such a quick release. This is the thing where there's no wind-up, there's no slow processing. That ball, it may have been a little bit high. McCaffrey he makes a good catch, move the chains, 17 yards. What a great throw. By the way, moving backwards, he's able to throw off that back foot going backwards because it's such a quick release with it. It's so risty sometimes. And then the touchdown throw to Terry McCorn, which actually, I will tell you, I may be wrong about this. I think he's late on the throw. It's just that Terry's so wide open,

it didn't matter. I thought it's third and goal at the 10. I think the ball should be out as Terry is about to go into his break. And the ball doesn't come out until he sees this one. And he throws a howitzer into the end zone. And there's no help. I don't know why Terry was singled on this. And it's a touch and it's a great play by Terry to snag it. But actually, I thought that throw was late. I could be wrong, but I think the ball's out when Terry goes into his break, and it's not. He waits to see this one, throws it, touchdown, and then you get the two-point conversion play to Ertz. By the way, that was the right thing to do. You'll hear that in my other observations, but I guess I just gave that to you now. But it is a two-point conversion to get the lead to 21, and he throws it to

Ertz, you know, in the back of the end zone, it's a really good throw. And remember, those throws don't have as much concern or high risk associated with them. But Ertz does a really good job of staying off that back line. And those were some of the really, really good plays. Love the throw to Noah Brown. Loved the throw to McLaurin in traffic. Love the throw to McCaffrey. Loved the bootleg stuff, man.

you start getting runs going and some of the zone runs going and you can bootleg from from under center off that. Oh my God. Teams are not going to be able to deal with that. All right. A couple of the negatives, and there aren't many. So there was, I mean, the interception is not a well-thrown ball, period. I think that was a little bit late too.

McIntyreys was wide open on the checkdown. he just wants to take the checkdown. But he looks deep, you know, and the ball was high and behind Terry. It's cover two. There's supposed to be that seam to hit that, but I think it's got to be out quicker, and it wasn't an accurately thrown ball, period. Where else do I have any sort?

I mean, there's just not that much negative here. Oh, in the second half, oh, on that last drive, which made the score 42 to 14, he actually missed badly Noah Brown on the second and nine. He threw it really hot and over his head. That'd be it. I mean, I don't know where we go from A++. Was it Monday night?

Not as memorable. Was it efficient? Was it methodical? Was it precise? Was it just incredibly productive? Yeah, it was A plus productive. I mean, how aren't you? How aren't you going to give a guy that goes 26 of 30 for 233 a touchdown?

And yes, one pick and then rushes for another 47 yards in a touchdown. How is that not an A performance just based on the stat line? Especially when you consider on third downs, he was six of nine for 86 yards, five of those for first downs, one of those for a touchdown. I mean, he delivers when it kind of matters, and then he delivers when it really matters. So far, anyway, through four games. That is a true statement.

I thought Brian Robinson, Jr. was outstanding in this game. I thought he had a chance to have a big game. 21 carries 101 yards. He's a load. So good, yards after contact, so good at moving the pile. Another three catches for 12 yards. I thought he'd be a little bit more active in the past game, but he was outstanding in this game.

a wildcat snap again for a run. I thought Jeremy McNichols was great. I didn't know what to expect. He's been a jag his whole career. This guy's got terrific vision. He's got a burst. I mean, eight carry 68 yards. That 27-yard touchdown run was basically kind of like the Echler run from 24 yards out that made it 14 to 7 on Monday night football. He was great. And the celebration call on him. Give me a break. He wasn't shooting guns. It was like a bow and arrow thing. So silly. Even the Zekees. The Zekees thing was deserved. The Zekees thing was deserved. And I'm surprised at that, and I bet they are too. But McNichols was really, really good in this game. I mean, we thought they were going to miss Echler. And Echler's so good. But McNichols generated 68 yards on

the ground, 8.5 yards per carry and two touchdowns. Had one catch for six yards. The O line, I just thought, was really solid. You know, it would take a lot more than just a viewing of the game, but I just think they're outstanding as a run-blocking unit. And the pass pro was perfect. I mean, he scrambled a few times, was pressured a few times, but overall, there were plays where he was just sitting back there, and he had all day.

I think several of the receivers solid again. Terry, with a really good game. He did have one drop. But the catch on that low one was outstanding. The touchdown catch big time. Noah Brown really good again. Zakias had his best game. Six catches, 85 yards.

One of them, sort of a fly sweep touch. I think that was a pass. I don't think that was a run because it was a forward push of the ball. It's the play they tried to run against the Giants that Jaden kind of bobbled the snap on. I thought Ertz was solid again. McCaffrey with that one big. catch just one target for him. I don't know. Maybe he was open a lot as well, but the receivers were solid during the day. Defensively, first down defense after the opening drive of the game.

When the game was still a game in the first half, Washington did a nice job after getting shredded in that first drive, filleted in that first drive, down by seven. They forced punts on four of the next five Cardinal drives. And the other one was a fourth down stop. And the big reason was they did an excellent job on first down. After that opening drive, all right, the next five drives were stops. And here's what some of their second downs were during that stretch. They had four second and tens. They had one second in 26 after a sack and a couple of penalties. But the defense got the run figured out a little bit with Connor during that stretch. And second long where Kyler's got to throw from the pocket is just a problem for him.

So first down defense on the list of things that I liked after that opening drive. More on the defense. I thought the defense played with urgency again. They played fast. They played physically. I thought the pass rush was the best it's been since the opener. They also did a nice job of containing Murray in the pocket where he just can't see. Big reason for the four sacks was he can't see. He holds it too long. But they got good pass rush, too.

But they knew that if they contained him and they made him a pocket passer that he was not going to be effective. I liked Witt Jr.'s aggressiveness. When they got some of those first down stops, he came after Kyler on second longs. They did not mess around on that. They did not want him hanging back there and then getting outside the pocket and running around and making plays. he came after Murray and they got him. I thought there was a sequence that was somewhat important in the game, as important as it could be in a 42 to 14 outcome. Arizona's third drive, they have a second down in four, and Jeremy Chin makes a really good tackle off of a Higgins catch short of the sticks.

And then on third and one, they decided to throw, for what reason, I have no idea. And number one, Noah I, breaks up the pass with a really good play on a slant to a one. Wilson. Dorrance Armstrong stood out clearly with his pressure. It was a sack and a half, but plenty of other pressures. Louvo, Wagner, Chin all stood out. I'm not sure about the secondary yet, but I'm pretty sure Benjamin St. Juice stayed with Marvin Harrison Jr. much of the game. I can't wait to see Forbes on the All-22, because I actually thought that there were plays that he was very effective. Special teams are on the list of things that I liked. Cyberd hasn't missed. Tressway got a punt. Boom it 51 yards. Ben Sinit with a good tackle on that punt by Tressway. A couple of good hits

on coverage, including Colson Yankoff, number 41. He had a big hit. Good punt return by Zakiya, 16 yards. They did give up the big kickoff return to start the game and they couldn't come up with that fumble. But that was basically it. Everything else special teams-wise was really solid and Cybert's been a godsend. The other thing that I'm just going to throw out, on the list of things that I liked. Man, I just wouldn't, I've said this before about him, and I know that when he starts running around, that little guy can make some place.

He is a playmaker once he gets out of the pocket. But, man, Kyler Murray cannot do it from the pocket. He's just too short. He doesn't see it. The reason he gets off schedule so much is he can't see it, and I think it's the way he can make plays. It's not as bad. Russell Wilson had some of those issues.

This is worse. And then on top of it, I just think he's a bad body language guy. Is it me? Maybe it is. Look, as a, you know, off-schedule thrower, runner, I mean, he can kill you. Do you know how many rush he had in this game? One rush for three yards. One rush for three yards.

I mean, I don't know if he's ever had fewer. I wonder if there's a game where he's had zero. If he's not running to run or running to throw outside of the pocket, it is advantage opponent, advantage defense. So this last thing on the things that I like list is Kyler Murray just, to me, didn't do enough. Like, I don't know why he ever drops back. He should immediately start to scramble when he drops back.

sure, teams are going to do a good job with contained, but he's good at getting away even when contained. And he tried to hang in there and throw balls from the pocket. What are you doing? And what were they doing not running the ball more? All right, we'll finish up with the list of things that I didn't like. And you're going to hear the celebration in the locker room when Cliff Kingsbury got a game ball after he had beaten his former team.

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slash Sheen. Coach, a lot of conversation this week about really starting to establish that defensive identity. How big of the stuff do you think you think you guys took today? It was an important one. I had told the defense here you're closer than you think. And it hadn't been the performances that we wanted going into today. But I didn't think we were as far off. And so I thought, you know, knock one out with those to get one, get the recovery.

I thought that was big. Felt their pass rush, you know, the guys, the energy. And so nice thing. as a coach on games like this, there's clearly things to improve upon. We had some penalties that we wouldn't have liked. But by and large, I thought, you know, seeing defensively, especially on that stop after the interception, I thought, what a great example of, you know, having, you know, one other's back,

you know, from the offense after the first score to go down and score, and then defensively after the interception to go do the same. So that was really cool for me to see. The head coach of the team that's in first place sole possession in the NFC East. three and one, Washington is. The Cowboys and Eagles are two and two after the Eagles lost to Tampa Bay, and the Giants are sitting there at one and three. Quinn said some nice things about his defense,

and I agree with some of the things that he said. But I did not think that the defense did enough to alleviate the concern I have or had going into today's game and will have going in to future games. I'll get to that in a moment when I get to the list of things that I did not like. This segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. My Booky will give you up to $1,000 in free money as a cash bonus on your initial deposit if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They've got everything you need for Monday night football.

Miami's minus two and a half, and the Lions are minus four tonight. The skins are three and a half-point favorites over Cleveland as the week five lines are already up at MyBooky, all the college lines, all the baseball will be up shortly as we get started with playoff baseball on Tuesday. If you're looking for a place to bet sports, my bookie has it all, and it's fair across the board numbers wise, and they're going to give you free money when you sign up for the first time. I don't care if you have another place. Use MyBooky for a comparison shopping spot and to take the free cash. MyBooky.ag, mybooky.com promo code Kevin D.C. The smell test, by the way, this weekend, 4 and 5, back to 500. And yes, I am quite aware that I did not do

well on college games. 2 and 0 on the NFL games today. Had the Bears, had the Colts. I'm 11, 4 and 1 on my NFL picks over the last three weeks. college not so much. And yes, I did not forget about the email that I read on Friday show about the gentleman who says I've bankrolled them for this year with my NFL picks, but I'm going to bankrupt him with my college picks if I keep giving out rice and UTSA. Well, I didn't give out rice and UTSA. I did give out some bad ones, though, some absolute no-chancers, as it turned out. I mean, I gave out Virginia Tech on Friday night winter. By the way, Virginia. Virginia Tech got robbed.

I don't care whether or not they got it right. It was inconclusive the video. I'm not even sure they got it right. I think he may have caught it, but when you spend 15 minutes looking at replay, by definition that means

it's not conclusive. They wanted Miami to remain undefeated. Tough loss for the Hokies. Tough loss for my Terps yesterday. They got beat in a game in which they were plus four in the turnover margin. Doesn't happen very often.

Indiana coached by that guy Signetti from James Madison's pretty damn good. He's really damn good. And they've got it's like 11, 12 players, I think, something like that that came from Madison. Yeah, UAB loser, Baylor loser, Auburn, that was a gut punch. I mean, that was an easy win until the guy, until Peyton Thorne threw a pick six late in the fourth quarter. UCF not even close. Penn State, not really close. I had Boise State. So I was 2 and 5 in college, 2 and 0 in the NFL, 4 and 5 overall. I'll continue to fire in on college games. Sorry. I know many of you have decided, look, you don't have to play the college games. I'm not forcing you to play any of these games. I'm just telling you that overall, in aggregate at the end of the year, you know, 14 times out of 18 years, 13 times out of 18 years, I've had more winners than losers. Anyway, enough on that. The list of things that I did not like from the game.

The list of things that I liked was very long. The list of things that I did not like starts with, they can't stop the run. This is a major problem in this season so far. And yeah, there were a couple of stops on early downs that led to second long. I honestly think Arizona had plenty of opportunities to stick with the run. I don't know why they didn't.

They did run the ball more than they threw it, but I would have never had Kyler Murray in dropback situations on second and long. Just keep running Connor. Connor was 18 for 104. Benson was nine carries 50 yards. Demarcato, four carries 24 yards. As a team, 32 carries 181 yards, 5.7 yards per carry. Washington is a poor run-stopping team, and that's a problem.

you're limited if you can't be better against the run. Maybe not against this team without its tight end. Trey McBride was a big loss for them. And with a quarterback that for whatever reason decided to hang in the pocket, I think the defense had something to do with it. Don't get me wrong. And I praised the defense on the list of things that I like for the things that they did well. They did not stop the run well at all.

You know, they had a couple of opportunities. I thought to run the football after a couple of runs and they dropped him back. And I think, you know, none of this was going to make a difference in the game today. But Washington right now is really a poor run-stopping team, and they've got to improve that. Number two on the list of things that I didn't like. They still need more takeaways, you know. They got that takeaway late, you know. I mean, the game was basically over.

It was over. I think it was 3514 at that point. It's a 22-yard completion. It's a good hit. I'm glad they recovered the fumble and they had an opportunity on the opening kickoff on DJ Dallas's fumble. But they've got two takeaways now in four games. That is next to last in the league. So they're going to need in some of the games that they'll play upcoming against much better opponents, they're going to need to take the ball away, especially if they can't stop teams. And I don't really consider. consider today's game to be a concern alleviator. I'm still super concerned about them defensively. I think they had a quarterback tonight that just wasn't that difficult. And they also had a coordinator on the other side that decided at times not to run the ball when I think they should have run the ball. So that's the list. Takeaways, you know, run stopping. That's the list of things. That's the list of things that I did not like. Everything else was really good. Two things on sort of the other

observations list. Number one, I mentioned at 3314. I was like sitting there going, please go for two so I don't have to come in here and say, I know it was a route. I know they won 41 to 14, but they should have gone for two at 33 to 14 because there are only a couple of possessions left in the game. and if Arizona has three possessions left, three touchdowns would beat them if you kick the extra point at 34-14. They knew what to do. Not every team does it. I'm always shocked at that. It's like, you know, one score and two-score games are easier. Three-score games, they sort of lose track of it because they think it's over, but it's never over until it's over. They went for two. They got it 35-214. That was a really good throw, too, to Earth. So I was pleased with that. And then I was going to mention just one other thing.

And I'll probably have more upon further review. But I really love him under center. He's comfortable in shotgun. He's comfortable in pistol. I think Jaden Daniels under center is very effective. I think they can really, you know, on bootleg stuff, when you turn your back to the defense and he's a good ball handler and you've got a run game going,

him in that QB keep, that bootleg game devastating, him with play action from under center, when he turns his back and they don't know if he's got the ball, they don't know what's going on with it, if he's already handed it off or what. I just think that it'll set up some of the big shots even better. I think he can do everything, but I thought, and I could be wrong,

I thought there was as much under center in this game as there's been. I could be wrong on that, but there was definitely more of the zone boot action than we've seen. And I've talked about this all offseason, but I think that is an offense that really would suit him well. A lot of the college stuff, a lot of the dual threat stuff, of course, and I don't want it to stop. I mean, even, you know, I even fell in love with the QB counter tonight

because he was untouched. Yeah, so that was it. All right, I'm not going to do other NFL, although that Philadelphia result was shocking. They were down 24-0-0 before it seemed like the game had even started. I'm going to leave you with some locker room, Dan Quinn, players, and Cliff Kingsbury. This was really cool. Now, there's a lot beeped out.

There's a lot of M-Fers. There's a lot of the F-word. But it's Quinn, who is not going to give out all the game balls after this one until they get back. but he's got one game ball to give out, and that is to Cliff Kingsbury, who went back to Arizona, where he was the head coach, got relieved of his duties, and put a whoopin on his former team. I will leave you with this. Listen to the reaction when Quinn says Cliff.

I'll be back. We'll do a lot of the other NFL on Tuesday with Tommy. See you. Thanks. What's up, Bills? A couple things we said last night, man. We said, it's great. when you count on others and they count on you.

That way, victory is produced by everybody, all right? And that's what tonight was, man. Fast physical. We said anybody, anywhere, any motherfuckin' time. So we did what we came to do. So there'll be a number of game balls that will be issued out, I'm sure, tomorrow. But there's one motherfucker that ain't leaving this city without one. Clemuff!