The Kevin Sheehan Show - Chase and the Chippers

Episode Date: November 9, 2021

Kevin and Thom today on Ron Rivera's presser yesterday that was dominated by Chase Young questions. Plenty on last night's wild Monday Night Football game in Pittsburgh along with a riveting conversation about the longest attempted NFL field goals in league history. Kevin's guest appearance last week in Thom's class at Georgetown was recapped as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenne Show. He is Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. And as often is the case, there is breaking news as we get ready to do this podcast.

Not a shocker, really. But Washington has released kicker Chris Blewett and have signed. The Washington football team has signed Joey. sly. Joey sly kicked for Ron Rivera in Carolina. In fact, when he got released last week, I suggested that this is a guy that they will bring in. Apparently they brought him in yesterday. According to Ben Standing, he was 12 for 12 in the workout yesterday per standing in the workout for Washington. He made kicks from 50 plus in each of his last two games for the 49ers in weeks seven and eight, and then was released when injured starter Robbie Gould came back.

So Chris Blewett is gone. Joey Slyze in. That was, to me, pretty much a lock, especially when he said when he was asked last week, Tommy. So do you have any, what are the plans for Chris Blewitt? Is he still on your roster? And he said, for now. Yeah. You couldn't roll out Chris Blewett again and see another kick. blocked against the Buccaneers. Yeah, I know. I mean, you know, Joey Sly sounds like a character in a gambling movie. Yeah, because his first name is Joey or because his last name is Sly, or is it the

combination of both? Yeah. The combination. It sounds like a character in, you know, some kind of Vegas movie. Right. You know? Joey Sly, he's got a game for it. Yeah.

Would it be better for Pauly Sly? Lots of Pauley's. Joey Sly's better? Joey Sly's much better. Okay. Paul, you think East Coast Sopranos. Yeah, well, yeah, or... Joey, you think Vegas.

Okay. Joey's West Coast, Pauli's East Coast. Yes. Okay. There you go. They've got a new kicker, Joey Sly. In this big game Sunday, big revenge game, Tommy. This is the game, man.

This is the game that started at all last year. This playoff game... Yeah, this is where Taylor Heineke made his bones last year. This is the game. the game that everybody has incredible revisionist history on. Oh, my God, nobody played the Buccaneers tougher than Washington did in the postseason. They were nearly on the verge of knocking out the team that would eventually win the Super Bowl. And, you know, we've heard this game referred to many times. I do think, I really do think, A, if they hadn't made the playoffs,

there wouldn't have been any sort of expectations on this year. But I'm glad they made the playoffs. Two, I think if they had been blown out, you know, 38 to 7 in the playoff game, there would have been some dialed back expectations as well. I do think the final score of that playoff game, even though it really, to me, never felt like a game watching it that they were going to win. But 31 to 23, with Taylor Heineke playing really well in that game, did give people, I think this false sense of, wow, Washington's much closer than we would think, and now they've added some really good players in the offseason, Curtis Samuel, William Jackson, they drafted their linebacker, they drafted their right tackle,

they're going to make a run, whereas no playoffs last year or a blowout loss would have, I think, changed the offseason discussion. I do think that that's true. Probably. I would think that's true, too. Is that all you got on that? That's all I got. Okay. That's all I got on that.

Are we done with the kicker conversation? Well, I'll let you know a whole lot about Joey Sly. I think I read somewhere on Twitter, he benched press 355 pounds at one point. Oh, really? So he must be pretty strong. Well, what I do know about Joey Sly is he's got a ridiculous leg. They tried, boy, I've got to go, I've got to go look this up. I'm going to guess on this.

when he was kicking for Carolina, I think they tried a kick at the end of a game that was like 70 yards with him. I think that's true. I got to go look this up because I know he was the kicker that the Panthers tried a ridiculously long field goal attempt that would have been the record.

I think Janikowski, by the way, has the record for the longest attempted missed field goal. I'm looking that up right now. Longest attempted field goal NFL history, 76 yards. Sebastian Janakowski tried a 76-yarder in 2008. The second longest attempted missed field goal was Mark Mosley, Tommy, on a free kick.

Most people don't know that rule. But if you call a fair catch on a punt, you actually can send your field goal team out and not face a rush. Most people don't know the free kick rule. But Mark Mosley in 1979, this would have been at the end of the first half, tried a 74-yarder and it fell short. Fred Steinford in Denver tried a 73-yarder. And then Joe Donello, Phil Dawson, Mosley tried a 70-yarder. And this was at the end of the 1979 opener against, by the way,

Earl Campbell in the Houston Oilers and missed that one. That was short. Where's Joey Sly? Here it is. Okay. I got it. He tried a 67-yarder last year against the Chiefs. And it was wide right.

He had the distance, but it was wide right. So you got your guy then. This is the guy. This is the beginning of the Ron Rivera second half march to success. This is what his teams do. And this is the first step, getting the right kicker. You know, he's got this right right into post, something we all know already. His teams do better in the second half.

It's not quite the exact half, but, you know, we'll take. as that. And this is the first step. You get the kicker you need to win these close games. I'm fascinated by this list of missed kicks, of missed long kicks. Just Steve Cox for Washington tried one from 67 and missed against the dolphins in 1987. Dustin Hopkins missed a kick from 63 the day that Alex Smith was injured against the Texans. He tried a 63-yarder and missed. Greg Zerline is all over this list. So is Sebastian Janikowski.

So is last night's kicker, Cairo Santos, who tried Tommy last night a 65-yarder on the final play of the game and was eight to nine yards short on the kick. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these happened in Denver. A lot of them are in Denver. It would certainly appear. A lot of them are Denver, but not all of them. Not all of them.

You want to hear, like, look, the field goals, the field goal percentage way back in the day wasn't very high. And I'm looking for like the longest ago, longest attempt. And here it is. You ready? Sam Baker. of the Washington Redskins tried a 65-yard field goal

on December 23rd, 1956, in a 19-17 loss to the cults, excuse me. And there's a description of it. It was 18-yard short. So it wouldn't have been good from 48 yards. It would have been barely good from 47 yards. They have the description. of these field goals. That is, by the way, by far and away, the shortest of any of them,

18 yards short. What were they trying to do in 1956? That game would have been at Griffith Stadium. Just so. I'm betting. Sorry, it was at Memorial Stadium. Memorial Stadium. The coach for Washington, I think, was Joe Kuher. You're right about that. Yeah. I think he was. Can I just tell you something else about that game? Because I just pulled up the box score and pro football reference from that game. Sam Baker, the guy that was 18-yard short on a 65-yard field goal, made the first field goal of the game to give Washington a 3-0 lead. If you didn't hear me say it, the game was actually at Memorial Stadium.

It was not at Griffith Stadium. Sam Baker gave Washington that 3-0 lead with an 8-yard field goal. That was more his range. That was definitely more his range, old Sam Baker. old Sammy was perfect from eight. You know, keep in mind, for those of you that are thinking, well, how is that possible? Well, the goalpost used to be on the goal line. They were on the goal line through, I believe it's the 1973 season.

I think the 1974 season was the first season in which they moved the goalposts back 10 yards, which was always where they were in college. And they did that for safety reasons. Tommy remembers, and I barely remember. member, you know, receivers and DBs slamming in to the goalpost at the goal line, you know, or a ball getting knocked down by an upright. You know, there's a famous play in Super Bowl 7 where Kilmer's got Jerry Smith wide open for a touchdown against the dolphins in the Coliseum, and the ball hits the upright.

Yes. But so with the goalposts at the goal line, if that ball was at the one-yard line and you went seven back, and now they go closer to eight back, but that would have been good for an eight-yard field goal. That was the shortest field goal that you could make eight yards. But if you go back and you look at some of those games from the 70s, there are eight-yard field goals, nine-yard field goals, 12-yard field goals. But anyway, we're getting sidetracked here, but it is an interesting list of kickers. And, you know, we remember way back in the day like Kevin Butler had a big leg, the Bears kicker.

Zerline, though, has a lot of them in recent years. The longest, it looks like Zerline tried one with 66 yards. How about Mosley, though? I did not know Mosley has the second longest attempt, and he's also got the sixth longest attempt. And neither one of those games was in Denver. They were both at home, both at home at RFK Stadium. Mosley had a big leg.

For a straight-ahead kicker. Well, they were all straight-ahead back then, yeah, or most of them were. Mosley has the most famous not-kicked or un-kicked field goal in Washington Redskins history. And that is a game I've referenced many times over the years. The season finale in 1979, to me, honestly for me, the most painful loss as a fan. of this team in my lifetime. Was the 1979 season ender at Texas Stadium, the game in which Washington led 34 to 21 with two minutes to go,

and Roger Stawback, with three minutes ago, Roger Stawback brought him back, two touchdown passes, including one to Tony Hill with 42 seconds left to give them a 35, 34 lead. The game was for the division title and the one seed. you know, home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. For Washington, a loss meant they were out of the playoffs altogether. A win meant they would have played at home throughout and been the favorite to go to the Super Bowl in 1979.

3534 was the lead. Washington got into range on a throw from Thaisman to Don Warren to the cowboy 42-yard line. The clock goes three to everybody's screen. screaming for a timeout and the final two seconds roll off the clock. There should have been a timeout afforded Washington, and Mosley would have come on for a 59-yard field goal attempt, and he had the leg. He had abs—I mean, I just told you the kick that he tried in the opener of that season, he had tried a 70-yarder. He had the leg, and he never got a chance to kick it. It's so interesting from back then, Tommy, how there was no point.

precision in things like timing. Now we have tens of seconds in basketball games, you know, and there was no precision. There was no replay to go back and put time back on the clock. There would have been two seconds put back on that clock and Moseley would have had a kick. But as you know, we've talked about this many times. If he comes onto the field and makes the kick, we probably never get the Joe Gibbs era because Jack Pardy. That's what I was just going to say. The pain and suffering that you felt, Being a good Catholic boy, you can understand this. The pain and suffering was rewarded.

Yeah, I guess. You got the joke because Jack Pardy is not getting fired a year after taking his team to the playoffs, especially if they go deep into the playoffs. That's right. That's right. And Riggins doesn't take the year off after what he has told me and many people over the years was the most devastating loss of his sports career. He was so good in that game.

He had a 66-yard touchdown run. run in the fourth quarter. They gave them the 13-point lead. You couldn't go for two. There was no two-point conversion back then. They would have to try to make it a 14-point lead, but they had to settle for the 13-point lead. And then again, Tommy, that was a good Washington football team. They were not better than Pittsburgh was. Pittsburgh won their fourth Super Bowl that year over the Vince Farragamo-led Rams. Right, the Rams. It was not a strong NFC representative. No. And the Rams beat the Cowboys the following week in the postseason. So Washington may have lost to the Rams, too. Who knows? But Washington was a pretty good team.

Pardy, Thysman had a great season. Rigo had a great season. They were really, they were well-coached. Partie was a good coach, Tom. He was a good head coach. He was not liked by his players. I know. Players didn't trust him and really didn't like him. You've told me that before, and no doubt that Rigo has told me before, that, you know, Jack was just okay. But they did like Joe Walton, the offensive coordinator. All of the offensive guys liked Joe Walton, the offensive coordinator.

Yes. I wonder what Warren Moon thinks of Jack Pardee in the years that he quarterbacked, you know, those Euler teams. Because Pardee, remember, then went, you know, he had a, career. He didn't get another head coaching job until the late 80s or early 90s. I'm pulling up his resume right now because he was obviously the head coach of the Oilers in those early 90s teams, and they were good teams. They lost that, you know, the Frank Wright game in Buffalo when they led 35 to 3 at halftime. Jack Pardee, Tommy, listen to this, okay? Before he came to Washington, and I do remember this, he was the head coach of the Chicago Bears. And they had,

actually beat out Washington for a wild card spot in his final season in 1977 and they lost to the Cowboys in the playoffs. He was 7 and 7 and 9 and 5 in his last two years in Chicago, 14 games schedule. He comes to Washington in 1978 as the head coach. They start off 1978, 6 and 0, but they finish 8 and 8. Then they went 10 and 6 in 79, which included that last game of the year where they were within a whisker of being the favorite to go to the Super Bowl. And then he was 6 and 10 in 1980.

Then he doesn't coach as a head coach again until 1990. He was during that whole time, USFL. With the USFL, that's right. He coached the Houston Gamblers, and successfully he coached them. And then he coached the Oilers as the head coached from 90, through 94, five seasons. He was fired in his fifth season when they fell to one and nine. They went to the postseason his first four years. He won two division titles, qualified for the playoffs twice as a wild card team, ended up in Houston, and then he was one and nine in his final year.

But going into his final year, he was 42 and 22 with four straight playoff seasons as Houston's head coach. He ends up going 87 and 77 overall as an NFL head coach, one in five in the postseason. He wasn't a terrible coach. No, no. You know, talking about getting back to the goalpost, something I wanted to bring up. Yeah. It was George Prest. The goalpost used to be where they are now when back in the early 30s.

Oh, really? And George Preston Marshall lobbied to get them moved up to the goal line to increase field goals. So it was the owner of the Washington football team who lobbied for the change to move the goalpost up where they were on the goal line. Well, what was the thinking? Push back. Well, what was the thinking of that? He wanted more field goals. He wanted more scoring.

Oh, got it, got it. More scoring. Yes. college always had him 10 yards back. Am I right about that? I'm asking you the question. I'm not sure with the answer is. I just don't remember in college the goalposts ever being at the goal line.

I don't know about college. Okay. Anyway, man, Sebastian Janikowski, he did have a leg too. He and Zerline dominate the list of the longest field goals missed. We know that the longest field goal, this, you know, ever was this year. It shouldn't have been kicked by Justin Tucker, 66 yards. And then last night Santos tried one from 65 at the end of the game. I do want to talk about the game last night. It was just a game that had so much to it. And my God, did Brian Greasy in the booth embarrass himself

multiple times? I know the one in particular was like just stunning. I mean, I looked up and I said it's 2626 isn't it yeah well let me let's get to it I want to get to that I want to get to some of the things that Rivera said I want to get to your column for the week because it's perfect with the Rivera press conference from yesterday um Ovechkin another goal last night to time for fourth on the list we get a lot of things to get to and we will start to get to it right after these words from a few of our sponsors Steelers have a timeout left if they want it they don't kick off away. The crossbar and comes short.

That was the Steve Levy call of a field goal that actually fell about eight yards to nine yards short, somewhere in that general area. It did not hit the crossbar from 65 yards out. By the way, real quickly, just because I know this because I've done play-by-play before, you know, several times, many football games, many basketball games. Play-by-play guys can either Tommy, especially if they've got a 50-yard line position, which of course Levy does as part of the Monday Night crew, you can watch the monitor on a field goal or you can watch it from the perspective of your 50-yard-line seat. The 50-yard line seat isn't going to give you any depth perception with respect to – I'm sorry, the 50-yard-line seat is going to give you, you know, less. accuracy, but more in terms of whether or not it has the distance or not, where behind the goal post, you're going to know whether or not it's going to make it through the two uprights. Well, he clearly was watching it on the monitor because the kick was headed right between the

uprights. It was going to split the uprights if it had the distance. But if he had been watching from his 50-yard-line seat, he would have seen the kick had no chance of getting there. I mean, it literally barely got into the end zone, let alone reached the goal point. post. You did not have that impression from listening to the broadcast. But that was a venial sin compared to some of the stuff that came out of that boost. Oh, Brian Greasy. It was full mortal sins last night.

So I want to go through some of the games. First of all, this was not like a highly anticipated game. Bears 3 and 5, Steelers, 4 and 3. The Steelers are clearly not, you know, a 5 and 3 kind of playoff football team. if you watch them. Look, I really like Nadja Harris. I don't know how many yards he gets after contact, Tommy, but it seems to me like he's hit in the backfield

or at the line of scrimmage on every run. He had 62 yards last night on 22 carries. That's 2.8 yards per carry. You'd think that that sucks if you were just reading the box score. If you watch this dude, you're like, how the hell did he even gain positive yardage on most of the plays? He's a special back saddled right now with a quarter. quarterback with really no arm strength anymore and, you know, an offensive line that's really

struggling. They still are without. On the other hand, it speaks to the Steelers organization and their culture that they can still compete with really not a very good team. They do not have a good team. They really do not have a good team. I was talking about this earlier this morning with Brendan, my producer in radio. They've had the benefit here. They've won four straight games. They face Denver. They face Gino Smith in Seattle.

They beat Cleveland last week in a weird game. And last night, they got a rookie quarterback. I'm going to mention here next. They played Detroit this week. I'm telling you, all of the big underdog upsets of the last couple of weeks, I've got my early Tuesday eye on this one. Detroit at Pittsburgh, the Lions are going to be, you know, a nine and a half, ten point favorite, somewhere in that general area. You mean Lions will be an underdog?

Did I say the Lions would be a favorite? Yeah, they're not going to be a favorite against anybody. Lions will be an underdog to the Steelers. The Steelers coming off a Monday night draining game. The Lions coming off, I think they're by week. I would not be surprised if the Lions are a really strong play for me on Friday. And one of those, look, I mean, the NFL's crazy. I mean, last, you know, Sunday was nuts.

You know, for all of the discussion of parity, and there really is, like, every week, no real way to predict these games. What's really odd about that, there are so many big favorites this week. Arizona's a double-digit favorite. Tampa Bay's nearly a double-digit favorite. Well, Arizona's a double-digit favorite because of Colt McCoy, obviously. Tommy, he was great Sunday. He, I've never seen, in the highlights, I've never seen Colt McCoy look more in control, more unfrazzled. You know, I think of Colt McCoy as just a little bit, you know, hyper, hyped up at times. He was so good against the Blitz in particular.

But anyway, Buffalo is a double-digit favorite. Indies a double-digit favorite. Dallas is near double-digit favorite. Pittsburgh is near a double-digit favorite. It's amazing. So much for the parody in the NFL with respect to points-sreds, but would you say that none of these double-digit underdogs have a chance? You couldn't say that after the last couple of weeks,

although I don't think Washington has much of a chance. No, but this past Sunday, my God, if that isn't a reminder of how anybody can be anyone on any given Sunday, I don't know what it is. So hard. I mean, the Denver, Dallas game, which is, I mean, it's just stunning. I think actually more than the Buffalo Jacksonville result, I think Denver having a 30 to nothing lead with five minutes to go in the game at Dallas was the biggest shocker of the day. Yes, absolutely. So back to last night.

By the way, underdogs with the bears last night, 10 and 4, the smell test had a winning weekend finally, 8 and 6 with the bears last night plus the 7. So I wanted to start with one thing from last night that I really, really enjoyed. And I'm happy about to a certain extent because I liked this player at the end of last year. And I thought he was definitely, you know, for me, I thought he was probably the second quarterback in the draft last year behind Trevor Lawrence. I thought that Justin Fields was outstanding last night. I really thought he was outstanding, and I haven't seen him play a full game. I talked about that there were people in the Washington organization that liked Fields. I had a solid source that there were at least one or two people.

I couldn't tell you who it was. And I think when Ron Rivera talked about considering moving up, I personally think it was for Fields. The Bears moved up. They took Fields. Fields last night was really good and really good with the game on the line. And if you're a Chicago fan, you've got to feel so much better after last night. Like that is, you know, a loss last night. And by the way, in many ways, because the officiating, they didn't deserve to lose the game last night.

But, man, Justin Fields, he is, he had some big-time throws on a touchdown drive that gave them the lead 27-26. that were incredible. So I'll start with that. I was just, you know, I talked about yesterday, Tommy, comparing Jacksonville and Washington. They're both two and six teams. The bears are a three and six team. Who would you rather be, Jacksonville, Chicago, or Washington? Well, I know who's at the bottom of that list. Yeah, it's Washington. Yes. They don't have any prospect right now as we speak at the most important position. And Chicago does and Jacksonville does. Yeah.

Even if their head coaches aren't going to be there next year, it's so much easier to find the head coach than it is the quarterback. Anyway, I liked Justin Fields in the game last night. I really did. So did I. I thought he was really. I thought there was going to be a lot of promise coming in. And I was kind of happy to see it because he's had a couple of games this year where people were already like, oh, my God. Now, they blamed a lot of it on Matt Nagy, but whatever.

So let's get to some of the other moments of the game. I want to start with this. The penalties in this game were unbelievable. Chicago had 12 penalties in the game for 115 yards. There were three neutral zone slash off sides penalties against Robert Quinn. Are you kidding me? At some point, as the head coach, you take him out of the game and you say, do you know what the line of scrimmage is?

You can't line up over the line. Like, check with the referee. They had so many dumb penalties Chicago did that just kept drives alive. Pittsburgh only had 280 yards of offense and then had another 115 of penalty yardage offense. Incredible. That was one observation. And Quinn, who knows? Number two is there were penalties that went against Chicago last night

that were just egregious, horrible calls or shouldn't have been called. I want to start with Fields. Fields got hit early in the game, helmet to helmet, no flag. Fields threw a touchdown pass, and they called a penalty against Chicago for an illegal low-block. where the tackle went low on, I think it was T.J. Watt, you can't go low outside of the tackle box. He wasn't outside of the tackle box. Furthermore, he wasn't, he never made contact. You know, you can't get called for a penalty for intending to commit a penalty. You can only get called for a penalty if you commit a penalty. He not only was inside the tackle box,

He whiffed completely. There was no contact. At 14 to 3, it overruled a touchdown and forced Chicago back. And on their next play, Justin Fields was hit so late that it was just remarkable, given what we see in football these days, with a push that comes right after they throw in or a hit to, you know, a swipe at the shoulder. pads, it might graze the helmet that gets called. He gets floored well after he throws the football incomplete, no call. It was a horrible miscall. Should have been first in goal Chicago in a 14-3 game. Then came really the penalty that a lot of people are talking about today. If you saw this game, first of all, Pittsburgh was up 20 to 6 entering the fourth quarter.

Chicago draws to within three at 2320 on a fumble return picked up and returned for a touchdown. Good call. It was a fumble. The ball was out. And it wasn't a muff. It was part of the return, which allowed them to return it. Now Pittsburgh up 2320 is on a big drive. Okay. They are third and eight at the Chicago 47 with three minutes and 40 seconds to go. And Rathesberger gets sacked by this kid Marsh, a player who was picked off of Pittsburgh's practice. squad making his first NFL appearance. He gets a big sack, knocks him out of any kind of range whatsoever, is going to force a punt and the bears are going to get the ball back down 2320. And Tony Carente calls a taunting penalty on this kid Marsh. Now, you've seen the play, right, Tom? Yes, I've seen the play. Okay. So, a couple of things. Number one, the emphasis on the

taunting by the NFL is the reason that this got called. And Tom Pellasaro tweeted out the report from the pool reporter that gets the, have you ever been a pool reporter assigned to ask the referees questions after a game? Because it's only one guy, right? Yeah, no, I have not. Do you have to volunteer for something like that? I'm just curious if you know how it works. I'm not sure.

You're not sure. I'm not sure how they pick it. Corrente basically said and started his answer by saying, you know that the league has asked us to emphasize the taunting rule. Well, we know this. It's been in effect all year. It's ridiculous. We talked about it earlier in the year.

They're trying to fix a problem that never existed in the first place. Ron Rivera, who's on the competition committee, talked about... I would disagree with you, by the way. Okay. I'm a fan of the taunting rule. You would be. You would be. Ron Rivera talked about earlier in the year

the reason for this was to minimize and reduce the number of fights that were happening because of the taunting rule. There were no fights because of taunting. The last real ugly fight was that Miles Garrett-Mason Rudolph thing on a Thursday night where Garrett got suspended. The NFL did not have a taunting subsequent fight issue.

So if your answer was, we don't like it as sportsmanship. We want to set a better example. They answered it by saying we wanted to reduce the number of fights. Well, there were no fights. This was not a problem in the NFL taunting. By the way, I am not in favor of like major real taunting. I think we all know what that is, which is you break up a pass, the guy's on the ground, and you step over him and you stand over them and you're pointing at them, you know, or something where you get physical. You go up and you point at them and you scream at them and you headbut him or something like that. Real taunting. What happened last night shouldn't be emphasized. The kid made a break after the

sack for the Pittsburgh sideline, yelled something at the sideline, and then turned around and went back. There was no hand gesturing. We don't know what was said. There was no, there was it looked at initially like he may have been taunting the punter who was coming out under the field, but that wasn't the case. He went back and Tony Carenti, and he actually bumped into Crenti, and Crenti said that had nothing to do with the call because he was an accidental bump. And he flagged this kid Marsh 15 yards. Pittsburgh kicks a field goal at the end of that drive.

It's 2620 instead of being 2320 with Chicago having the ball. Did you think that that should have been flagged? Probably not, but what's he doing in the middle of the punt team after he gets the get the sack, you know? What's he doing in the middle of the Pittsburgh punt team at that point? He should be off the field. I agree with you that he made it possible for that to be called. And you've got to know now in the NFL this year.

You can't celebrate anything and certainly not celebrate at the expense of your opponent, even if it's not intended. And I think he did intend to go over and bark a little bit at the Pittsburgh sideline. Like, you know, I was on your, you know, I was on your team. They picked me up. But there was no hand gesturing. It was very quick and then he turned around and went back in the other way. Look, I have no issue with him taking part of the blame for this because he knows what the rules are. He should. His coaching staff should be telling him, you can't do that. We can't risk it. You make a good play. Get your ass back to the sideline.

There is no, you know, the emotion of a taunt, you know, and allowing some of the emotion of making a really good play, even if it's perceived to be a taunt. I'm against flagging, but they're emphasizing it this year. And so he should have known, but that should not be flagged in the NFL. I don't agree with the call. I agree with the practice. And if you go to an extreme to use the practice, then you're going to get attacked for it. You know, they need to be more judicious with it. They have done this in the past with rules who are early in the season.

They'll let everybody know, hey, we're going to call this shit, you know. And then they die down. Last night, we are in, you know, game number nine of the season, week number nine. And you had that nearly cost Chicago a chance to win the game. And maybe it did cost them the game because maybe they come down and score and have a 27 to 23 lead and then Pittsburgh can't kick a walk off field goal. Pittsburgh ends up getting a field goal on that drive. Let me walk through the rest of this game real quickly because this starts the fun stuff. So Chicago goes down trailing 2620 and they score a touchdown.

I mean, Fields was magnificent on this drive. Third and two, finding Robinson deep on a 40-yard connection. had him, you know, in the slot match, every with the right matchup, great throw. And then the next play, you know, off schedule. And man, he is tough. He is one of those guys that's going to be tough to bring down. He's got four-for speed.

He's got great vision and feel as a runner. And he gets outside the pocket and he throws a perfect ball, touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney. And it's 26-26. With that, Brian Greasy in the booth with Steve. Steve Levy and Lewis Riddick starts contemplating whether or not it makes sense for the bears to go for two. Go for two. I was watching the game.

I was obviously very interested in this game because I had the bears, and I actually took a little bit of a taste on them on the money line, too. So I wanted them to win the game also. I literally tweeted out when it happened, who in the booth just suggested they go for two? Because I wasn't sure who it was. I didn't know if it was Riddick, Levy, or Greasy. And everybody got back to me and said it was greasy.

Although some people said it was Riddick, but I think it was greasy. I think that's been established that it was Brian Greasy. Brian Greasy, you were a quarterback in the NFL. And by the way, part of the reason he said it is there was a penalty on the Pittsburgh special teams, which was going to move the ball halfway to the, the distance before the extra point. I don't care if they put half the ball in the end zone. You're not going to go for two.

Now when you're down. Well, you need a point to tie. You need the point to tie. No, no, no, you need the point for the lead. It's 26-26-26. For the lead. Yeah, and maybe he got confused like you just did. Maybe he thought they were down a point and they were going to go for the win.

26-26, just so everybody knows, there's no analytic, there's no book, there's no chart that tells you in a 26-26-26 game with a minute something left in a game that you should go for two. It gets actually a bit better, though. So now, fortunately, somebody tweeted out, thank God Matt Nagy didn't hear Brian Greasy's advice. He may have followed it. Pittsburgh responds, here comes the Steelers, all right, down 27, 26. And on a first in 15, play with about 55 seconds left. Rathlisberger throws to the Big Penn State tight end, Fryermuth, who really looks like a good player. And it sets up a second and two. Now, keep in mind, the Steelers are down one. They have a timeout left. The Bears have a time out left. What's

the goal here? The goal should be for the Steelers to put themselves into a position where they can kick a short game-winning walk-off field goal and win the game 29-27. Not leave any time on the clock. So for some reason, Ben rushes to the line of scrimmage on second and two and clocks it. Now, there was a player running off the field for Chicago that some people speculated Rathosberger was trying to get a 12 man on the field. No, I watched that over and over again. He didn't see the player running off the field until after he spiked it. The plan was to spike it. By the way, the player running off the field was the 11th player for Chicago, not the 12th.

So they only had 10 men on the field. And by the way, Matt Nagy, what the hell are you doing? You're in two-minute defense. They're in hurry up. Why are you subbing? Well, maybe they thought Pittsburgh would take their time, which is exactly what Pittsburgh should have done. They should have gotten a 13-yard gain at second and two, and the ball is sitting at the

Chicago 24-yard line, and they should have said, whoa, okay, slow down. Now we got a chance for a short walk-off field goal. Instead, they spike it to which Brian Greasy says. Wow, you know, there's the veteran, Ben Rothlessberger, nothing gets past him. Great move, smart move, get up their clock. It's save your last time out. No, it's the opposite of what they should have done. First of all, you don't want to waste a down on second and two and bring up a third and two.

Secondly, there are still 45 seconds left when he spiked it. There were 40 left. It's still 40 seconds left in the game. You're not going to run out a clock, and you have a timeout. You could have huddled up and run a play. And then that would have forced Chicago to call a timeout, which is what they would have done. I'll get to that in a moment.

Terrible, terrible clock management by Pittsburgh there. And Greasy's applauding it. I mean, he lost his mind in the boot. This is a former NFL quarterback. So when he spikes it. of a Hall of Fame quarterback. Hall of Fame. And by the way, you know, borderline Hall of Fame announcer too for forever.

Does his dad still do games? He might. I don't know. So then they face third and two. So now it's like, I mean, third and two, you know, we got to make this if we're going to run the clock down and kick a field goal. If not, we're giving them, well, yeah, now it occurs to them. They run Rathlisberger on a read option.

I've not seen Ben keep it on that point. play very often. And he gets hit. It looks like he may have had it, but he was definitely short. And what happens then is then Matt Nagy makes the big mistake with his final timeout of waiting six seconds after the play to call the timeout. Instead of calling it when the play ended at 36 seconds, he calls it at 30. Those six seconds could have been huge on the other end. So they call their last timeout. They kicked the field goal. Boswell makes it 2927. And then the bears get one last opportunity to which we get the Brian Greasy finale. They're at the Pittsburgh 47-yard line with five seconds to go and they're going to run one more play. And they're going to try a quick out,

see if they can get a quick out for another three, four, five, six yards, you know, a three, second play and then trot Santos on for a shorter field goal rather than the 65-yarder he would try. He had the ball knocked down at the line of scrimmage by T.J. Watt to which Brian Greasy said, oh, he got a break there because if he completes that pass, the clock runs out. No, dummy. He was throwing an out pattern to try to get five or six yards with the clock, you know, stopping on the out-of-bounds. And if T.J. Watt doesn't block the pass and deflect the pass, it might be completed. And they might have had a chance for instead of a 65-yarder, maybe a 60-yarder, which still would have come up short, more likely than not. And then Levy on the 65-yard field goal, as you heard coming into the segment, thought it hit the crossbar, which it did not.

Terrible night for the broadcasting crew. Brian Greasy really came off as a major league football, you know, score, clock, game management dummy. He may have just been off and had a rough night and gotten mixed up on score and clock and I'm sure it happens to the best of them. But he really, I mean, he was trending on Twitter. So was Steve Levy last night. And what shouldn't have been really a great game turned out to be a highly memorable game last night. There have been so many of them in prime time this year. And the Steelers are five and three.

And the Bears are three and six. And if I'm a Bears fan, man, God, I'm a Bears. Right now, if Justin Fields was our quarterback here, and he had just had a really good game, but they had lost to Tampa Bay to fall to two in seven or three and six, I'd be so much more optimistic about this situation. So much more. Absolutely. That was the Monday night game. So let's get to Ron Rivera. And I want you to hear some of what Ron Rivera talked about in his presser yesterday.

the backdrop for this or the context for this is what happened last week with Mike Silver writing the team website story where Ron Rivera for the first time called out, you know, called out as two young defense events, Chase Young and Montez Sweat. And we talked about this on the podcast last week. You know, it wasn't like what he did with Dwayne last year, you know, saying that I got 52 other guys that are looking at me like, you know, and it certainly wasn't what Jay Gruden did with R.J. Gruden did with R.J. It was criticism, it was criticism, but it was, you know, constructive criticism. And there were, you know, there were, there were, you know, words of encouragement simultaneously. Well, this set up

yesterday's Monday presser with the head coach. And I give the, I give the beat a lot of credit, man. They got after Rivera on the whole Chase Young stuff. But before we get to what he said, tell everybody what your column was about, because I thought it was a great column. You know, some tongue in cheek there trying to be funny, but it was about Rivera. Tell everybody what you wrote in the column that you had out yesterday. Well, it stunned me when I was reading through his press conference last Monday before they went on the bye week. How many questions his answers had? I mean, Ron Rivera asked himself 17 questions in that Monday press conference.

They only asked 23 in the whole press conference. So he almost asked just as many as the reporters asked. But this is his – I look – and I preface it by saying, I think Rivera is good in press conferences. I think he's trying to give reporters something they can use. But he has this device when somebody says, you know, what about the quarterback issue? He'll ask himself, do we have the starting quarterback on the roster?

You know, that's what we've got to find out. You know, and he just goes on and on like that. That's how he answers questions. But it's an inordinate amount of questions as a device to give an answer. You know, it's almost like he's stalling to really say nothing. Right. It's really what it's about. Right.

I mean, that's technically what he's trying to do. He's trying to, you know, not give a three-word answer, and he's trying to get in. I think give the writers and reporters something that they can use, even if he's not saying anything. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned this one part, and I'll read it from Tommy's column. Go read it. I'm going to retweet it today. Tommy's got it on his Twitter account as well. You write, someone asked Rivera how he can keep the defense.

fan base engaged? And I remember that question from last week. And Tommy writes, engaged. The fan base isn't even dating this team anymore. And Rivera says, it would have been great, you're right, it would have been great if Rivera had answered. How about if I deep pants Dan Snyder on the 50 yard line at halftime? But his questions following the question, four of them, you write, We're good ones. He says the one thing right now that really is probably the hardest thing for us to do to figure out is do we have a franchise quarterback right now. That's a good question, followed by is that guy on our roster?

Or is that guy going to be in free agency? Is that guy going to be in the draft next year? And yeah, this is the biggest question for all the teams. But yeah, I've noticed that. I've noticed two things. I've noticed what you wrote about him having lots of questions to answer questions. I've also noticed that when he gets perturbed, and it doesn't happen very often, I think you're right. I think Ron is really, he's being very respectful, he's being thoughtful, he's trying to make it, you know, he's trying to be a good, you know, a subject for, you know, reporters.

I think he is. I have a theory on that. I'll give it to you in a moment, but he, oh, shit, what was a. going to say now. I lost my train of thought. Well, the other thing he does besides the other thing he does. Yeah. The other thing he does is when he gets a little upset, he doesn't then call you by your name. He says, guys, guys, guys, guys. Like he is that the famous part from a couple of weeks ago. He goes, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys. When he gets a little upset, he doesn't say guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, he'll just say, hey, guys, he's done that.

In my interviews with him, multiple times, he'll say, Kevin, you know, thanks. It's a good questioner. Kevin, what we really are hoping to do? And then when I've asked him a couple of questions that I think he, you know, is a little bit perturbed at, guys, and he's just talking to me. There are no other guys, you know? And in the beat in the presser, he'll address, you know, he'll say Ben or he'll say Nikki. But if he's upset about it, he'll say, hey, guys, guys. So I've noticed that, too.

What I was going to say before we get to a couple of the things he said in the presser yesterday about Chase Young specifically, which dominated the presser, with, by the way, not many questions as answers from him, is that, you know, they are, it's something we've talked about a lot over the years. They are in unprecedented, uncharted territory as a franchise. They are a business that has to acquire customers. very few NFL businesses are this way. And this franchise, really for many, many decades after decade, never, they were never in the customer acquisition business. They were turning away customers because they had a real waiting list. You know, when you, it's almost, and I described it this morning, it's very much like a startup company, which I've been in five of over the course of my life, and a retail startup company, Tommy, where customer acquisition is always the biggest challenge. So you've got a product, you have to acquire customers.

And what you will always try to figure out is what's the best way to acquire customers. And by the way, what's the cost to acquire a customer? And then what's the value of a customer relationship? You know, so, you know, the lifetime value of a customer relationship means that if it's really high, means maybe you can spend a little bit more money to acquire a customer. Washington is in that business now. They're like a startup retail company. They don't have any customers or they have very few.

And so they have to, and we've talked about this as it relates to Jason Wright. You know, they've got to be super nice. They've got to be more accommodating. They can't be what they've been for years, which is totally self-consumed, arrogant, a-holes at every level of the organization, which is what they've been, especially on the business side. I mean, they've had salespeople that the. arrogance of some of these people with clients. The story so many of you have heard about clients being pitched by their sales and marketing team. I mean, it's unbelievable how delusional they were about

sort of their position or their deteriorating position in the marketplace. Well, now they're in position where Ron Rivera and Jason Wright as sort of the two voices and faces, Jason Wright, much less so. They've got to be a little bit accommodating. You know, Jack Del Rio as a position coach can get away with one-word answers or one-sentence answers and say, well, maybe the head coach, you know, will give you the answer on that. Ron's got to be a little bit more accommodating. He can't come off as a two-and-six football coach as an A-hole.

You're right. With no customers. Yeah. So anyway, let me get to. That's a good point. Yeah, let's get to the Chase Youngstuff. So this was the first question he was asked. He was just asked right off the back.

And this was all because of the Silver story last week. The beat did a really nice job. They got after him yesterday on Chase Young. This is what he started. This was his first answer to the first question about Chase Young. I'd like to see him pay a little bit more attention, you know, on the chipper. Just knowing that there's a guy there, hey, I'd love to see him run through that guy a few more times. Kind of set the tone and tempo instead of reacting to him a little too much.

And I think that's one thing that he'll get a little more comfortable with as he works on it. You know, and it's something that he really never had to face. Now it's something that's a little more prevalent that he and Montez are going to see a little bit more of. And, you know, and we've seen it. I mean, statistically it's been shown that, you know, these guys are seeing chips about 55, 56, 57% of the time on third down, third and seven to 10. I'd like to see him pay a little bit more attention on the chipper, just knowing that that guy's there. The old chipper, Tommy. I think the funniest thing about this answer is the last part of it.

It's funny and it's not so funny. When he says, I mean, statistically it's been shown that these guys talking about sweat and young are seeing chips about 55, 56, 57% of the time on 3rd and 7 to 10. So what? First of all, is it 55, 56, or 57? That does mean that they're not facing chips either 45, 44, or 43% of the time. Yes. But so what?

I don't give a shit about Chase Young being chipped. Blow up the chip. You think T.J. Watts struggling from getting chipped or doubled? This is what Del Rio said a couple weeks ago. He gave an answer like that. And he talked about the guys in a league like T.J. Watt and others. And he basically said, I'm sure they're getting it, too. And it's not stopping them. This is the NFL.

Del Rio pretty harshly answered that question when reporters brought up, you know, like trying to give Chase Young cover. And Del Rio dismissed it. He said, this is the NFL. If you're going to be great, you're going to face this. Chase Young right now is tied for 122nd in the league. in sacks with a sack and a half. I mean, that's pretty much, you could be at zero or you could be at one,

or you could be at a half a sack. He's tied for 120 second, and he's got four total quarterback hits on the year. Again, I'll say this and emphasize it for the 15th time. I don't want any of you. You're wasting your time sending me pro football focus grades on Chey Shung. I've got two eyes. I've got 20-20 vision most of the time, and I've watched this guy, he has not been good this year.

He has not been a good football player this year. Has he been the worst player on their defense? No, not even close. Has he been anywhere near the best player in defense? No, not even close. But given what the expectations were, he's had a horrendous year. Yeah. Given the expectations so far.

His own expectations that he and Montez Sweat trumpeted before the season started. Ron, chips. Seriously? Like a back chipping him? Enough of chips or doubles. I don't give a shit about that. Go get the goddamn quarterback on 3rd and 10. I mean, seriously, you're Chase Young. You are, he is, Tommy, I'm not off this.

He's got a lot of talent. He should be a great pass rusher in this league. I agree. I agree. He was, he was, he, look, If Washington didn't take him, in other words, he was highly coveted coming out of Ohio State. I mean, his position was game changer coming out of Ohio State. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, the semifinal game that Ohio State played Clemson in that year where he didn't have great results or numbers. And people said, you know, in the biggest game of the year, look what he did. well, if you watch that game closely, Clemson's whole offense was game planned around not letting Chase Young ruin the game. Well, I think what they did was they chipped him a little bit. They chipped him a lot. I think they chipped him. And they doubled him.

But they, yeah. Anyway, the point being, you know, if you are a great pass rusher in this league, you're going to get chipped, you're going to get doubled, you're going to sometimes get doubled and chipped. double chips Tommy I mean oh my gosh I love me some double chips I love me some double chips actually I just me givols some what some double chip givoles I actually don't like double chips I like the normal amount of chips actually I like a good chocolate chip cookie with less chips in it and more cookie in it I'm weird that way Miles garrett's got 12 sacks T.J. Watts got 11 and a half okay, Nick Bosa, Joey Bosa, Chandler Jones, Robert Quinn, still off sides, Aaron Donald, Khalil Mack, Jeffrey Simmons, you know, getting into some of the inside guys,

Josh Allen, these guys are getting it all. And by the way, I think they're getting it more than Chase in Montautez. Until the last three games, to be honest with you, I'd like to see the numbers on how often they were actually chipped before the last three weeks. Because I did notice more chips and more doubles of the two ends and Young in particular to the last three weeks in the Chiefs, Packers, and Broncos game. I saw John Allen getting doubled more than Chase Young in some of these games. Anyway. Well, you know the coach is using it in part as cover to protect them.

Okay. I mean, you've got to take a little bit of that into account. I agree. It's probably not getting chipped as much, but the coach is using it as a way that most people wouldn't understand it to think, well, something bad, they're picking on Chase. So it's a little bit of cover. Yeah.

I agree with you. Here's the next soundbite from Ron Rivera. This was just the beginning, too. And I'm not going to play them all because literally 75% of the questions asked are more than that were about Chase Young in this particular presser. This is what he said when he was asked on what he sees from Chase Young, you know, in terms of why he's not getting the results that, you know, people expected. Here's what he said. He dives inside a little too much. I mean, and there's been a couple instances where you've seen the quarterback work out and get outside of where he was.

And it's one of the things we talked, he and I talked about this today, and I said, look, you got to remember now. You know, I know you want to make plays. But the thing you've got to do is you got to be patient, be disciplined, and let the place come to you. You know, I went back and looked at all of his plays from last year. There's a whole bunch of them. And one thing that was really prevalent was you could see him sticking to the edge a little bit longer before he ducked inside. And that's one of things I'd love to see him get him. back to. So when I heard this one, Tommy, all I could think about was Jack Del Rio. Remember,

Jack Del Rio took, you know, he's taking a couple of jabs at Rivera. Like, I'm not going to tell you this, maybe the head coach will. Like Del Rio's pressers are like six minutes and they're one sentence answers and he's not giving anybody anything for the most part. And Rivera just gave you basically everything on Chase Young. Like, I think he's trying to, as well, we're going to, as well, as we just talked about, he's trying to accommodate. He's trying to be a good subject. He's trying to be helpful to everybody. But I think that's too much information.

I mean, he dives inside a little too much. I went back and looked at all of these plays from last year. One thing that was really prevalent was you could see him sticking to the edge a little bit longer before he ducked inside. That's one of the things I'd love to see him get back to. You know, I don't know. Whatever. Well, he used the word discipline, and he uses it a lot to describe Chase Young. Yes.

And this was an issue with another great quarterback coming out of college for this football team. Okay. At the turn of the century. Discipline. Another great quarterback at the turn of the century? I mean, another great linebacker. Oh, I was going to say, I thought you were going down the RG3 path, and I'm like, no, it's actually more analogous to Lava Rer. Lavares.

Yeah. Levar Arrington. Are you playing the sound bites of the next? I am. Next one or not? Yeah. So with Montez sweat out now with the fractured jaw, he was asked if there's more of a burden on Chase Young, this is what he said. Yes.

There is. And to me, you know, and again, he and I had a great conversation, is that now's when you really got to play your game. Now you really got to stick to being disciplined. Well, there it is, Tommy. Now you've really got to stick to being disciplined. Yeah. I mean, two things. First of all, if he's telling us this,

he's been telling this to Chase Young until he's blue in the face. Right. I mean, this ain't the first time that Chase Young is hearing it when the coach is talking about it in public. This has been what he's been preaching to Chase Young probably throughout much of the season. and this is now his way to deal with it, is to call him out.

This is the calling out. I mean, you know, that you got to have a conversation on game nine where you really got to play your game is not a conversation you want to be having as a coach. There is no doubt that what you just said is true. This is, you know, I've said going back to early in the season, I said something's not right here. And, you know, there were a couple of conversations I had had, with various people that indicated that that all was not well behind the scenes without a lot

of specificity to it. But when we've heard Ron Rivera now going back to, I don't know, week two or week three, talk about maturity, talk about lack of discipline, talking about doing your job, adhering to the scheme, you know, if there was any question in any of your minds as to who he was talking about or at least one of the players he was talking about? Well, the last week has cleared that up. Chase Young is, you know, number one on that list. And I'm not telling you that there isn't another player or two. Certainly you'd think there's probably a player or two in the secondary

and maybe a linebacker, a young linebacker that hasn't, you know, adhered to it. But he's really been referring to young. I mean, at least young. and he has certainly confirmed that in the silver story and then in these sound bites. He was asked about what we just talked about, about going public with some of these comments about Chase Young. Here's what he said. Last thing on Chase,

how do you decide when to maybe take those comments public instead of, there are times where you really back your guys and then going on the website there? I still back him. I know, but how do you decide to just make those comments? those comments public as opposed to keeping them just between you and him. What made you want to tell Mike Silver that and put it out there at that point? Because he asked me the questions. They were very direct questions and I was just being honest about it, you know, and again, but he knows, you know, what I've said and it's pretty much, I think, what I've told you guys.

I just amplified it a little bit more because, you know, Mike put it out there. But it's nothing different. I mean, if it was something that was, you know, way out there, I'd be concerned, but I wouldn't do that to him. This is just something I think that everybody sees and everybody understands. He's been tremendous about it. You know, he works at it. That's the thing. I hope everybody understands that this young man is trying to play the best of his ability. You know, he's seeing some things that are a little different for him, a little new for him,

and we're trying to help him through those, learn and understand how to win in those situations. but it's not for lack of try. This kid's busting a gut every day. He comes out and he comes to practice with the right attitude. You know, he's come in and he's sat down and watch film with me. We've talked about things. You know, he's seen extra film with his position coaches. He and Montez worked together on a lot of things.

Now he with Montez being sidelines for a little bit. He's going to have to work with some other folks. But this young man is trying to do everything the right way. And it's just been hard. I mean, he's, you know, he's become a focus of a lot of. of the offenses we've played. So he tells you that, you know, Mike Silver asked the questions, and he answered the questions. You know, I mean, his two most revealing interviews actually of the year in terms of getting

a lot of information were, was the Silver story in September about the quarterback pursuits in the offseason, and then the one last week where he, you know, singled out Chase Young and Montez-Sweb for the first time. Go ahead, what? Well, listen, Silver, who I think is really good, okay, is he. because of Ron Rivera. Yes. Right?

Yeah. Okay. Cal. So, yeah, they have a relationship. So he's going to open up more to him. That's a natural thing. Yeah. So, you know, Ron there is, you know, like you said, like he is being constructively critical

publicly now of Chase Young while while simultaneously having his back and encouraging him too. Like somebody tweeted me this morning and said, this isn't like a major public bashing of young. I agree. No one's suggesting that it is. I think I said earlier, this is not Jay Gruden and what he did to RG3 at the end of the 2014 season.

I don't think we'll ever see something like that again. This is not, you know, this isn't what Ron did last year to Dwayne Haskins when he said, I got 52 other guys I got to worry about. I got 52 other guys that are looking at me going, coach. Like, you know, it's time to put in somebody else. It's time to, you know, it's time to live up to the culture of responsibility that you've been preaching. You know, he hasn't done that at all. You know, I think he recognizes Young is struggling. I think he also recognizes that part of why

Young is struggling is he's not allowing himself to be coached in the way that they're coaching him. And this is where I would say, Tommy, I don't, I said this to you. I said this to you, a few weeks ago when he was really adamant about, you know, the defense not doing their job and adhering to the scheme and without, you know, non-identifying information that particular week. At some point, this is back on the coaching staff. This is, they've got a talent, you know, they've got to figure out what works for him. You can't coach everybody the same. Great coaches don't coach everybody the same. They're consistent in their messaging, but, you know, everybody learns differently. Everybody has a different personality. And I said to you a few weeks ago,

it's very possible Chase Young is just not a do-your-job guy. He's just a third and ten. How about just go get the quarterback? And don't worry about if they screen in your direction or don't worry about if they, you know, pitch out wide of you. Go get the goddamn quarterback, please. And how about let's use you in different ways. And they've tried some of this stuff. How about lining him inside on a guard that isn't very good and letting him get immediate pressure? That happened in the game against Atlanta. They had him inside and they stunted him. This is going to fall back at some point on the coaching staff. If we're at the end of the year and he's got three sacks. Yeah. Yeah, it has to. It doesn't sound like you agree with me. Well, no, I agree with you. I mean, it has to. It

has to at some point if you believe that he's being mishandled as a talent. Well, I don't know enough to know that because I don't know exactly what's going on. I mean, it could be, I don't either. It could be really, you know, like you always say, you know, if it looks bad, it's probably much worse. It's not that it looks bad, but it looks problematic maybe is a better way to describe it. So maybe using your theory, maybe it's really bad. Maybe they're really struggling to get through to him.

Maybe he's really so far out of the scheme that he is a big reason why defensively things aren't working. Now, that's not what Ron Rivera has said. But I know. I know. But I think it's very possible to be this open about the play. Look, this is kind of, if you're Chase Young, you should be a little bit embarrassed. by this. I'll tell you one thing.

He better show up at OTAs next year. Because one of Doc's best lines to me during that OTA thing, he said, if you're an actual leader, you never, ever give them an easy way to criticize you. And he left open the opportunity by being the only one out of 90 players, a team captain, and the only one out of 90 not to attend even one. one of the six OTA sessions. Well, just not to rehash it again, but that was the point I brought up when he went out of

his way to compliment Brandon Sheriff about being at OTA. You were right. And used words like leadership and things like that. He was talking to Chase Young. He wasn't talking about Brandon Sheriff. I told all of you guys that, that you, you. You can think whatever you want about OTAs, and I'm not going to argue with you that there's some sort of, you know, major thing with respect to performance in the upcoming season. But I can tell you this, 100% sure.

They were not pleased that he didn't post. They were not happy at all. You got 90 players. You're trying to rebuild a culture. And the guy that got elected team captain didn't post, find it important enough to post for, even one of them. They were not happy about that. And to your point, the Brandon Sheriff compliments were really a way for people to see how, you know, reading between the lines as you did, how another team captain was not living up to that responsibility. Right. All right. Well,

you know what? Is this Sunday Chase Young's, you like me game? You like that game? Could be. Is there something at stake for Chase Young on Sunday? Well, the first, you know, you like that game was the Tampa Bay comeback, the Code Red game. They got the Buccaneers in town. Of course you can never make this Tampa Bay team a Code Red game. No. By the way, the only other thing he said, and you don't have to hear it, is he was asked if he's had a separate conversation, a personal one-on-one conversation with Chase about all of this.

And he said yes. He said he has. And, you know, and he said, and he reiterated, Chase has got to go out and play the way, you know, essentially we're asking him to play. And he's got the skill set and the ability to do it. So, look, he's got nine games left. The season's not even half over. The only reason we are in mid-season obsession about somebody other than a quarterback

was the expectations of this said player, the performance of something. said player, but really more than anything else, it's because they're two and six. Like, if they were four and four and in the midst of a playoff, legitimate playoff hunt, and he was still having the year, we'd talk about it, but it wouldn't be the main focus. He's got a chance. He's got a chance. But I don't want to hear that he's being stopped by chippers. I don't want to hear that.

I'd rather hear that he basically ran right through the chipper. You know, not Fargo style. We don't want to get chipped up like that. All right. We got a few more things to finish up the show with when we come back. Right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right. This segment of the show is presented by MyBooky.

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instantly. That's promo code Kevin D.C. so you can double your funds to potentially. To potential double your fun and your winnings. You just reminded me during our little break what you wanted to finish up the show with. So go ahead. Go ahead and ridicule my guest appearance in your sports journalism class. Listen, it's appropriate that you had a My Bookie read there because the Einstein of Sports Betting came to talk to my class last Thursday night. the business of sports media that I teach along with Marty Conway at Georgetown University.

And now I'm going to be honest now. I'm not going to make fun of you. I'm going to tell the truth. You were great, and you were a big hit. I mean, I think the students really got an education, and we're talking like some of them are real neophytes when it comes to sports gambling about the business of sports betting. And I think you did a great job. favorite, my favorite, can I just tell you my favorite part? Thank you for the compliments. I don't need any more compliments from you. The, first of all, you had an impressive young group of people in there. They obviously respect the hell out of you and Marty. And I'm sure they're enjoying themselves. So as part of the class, they're talking about sports gambling right now. And they've got an in-class sports football betting contest going on. How did you do on your picks last weekend? I'm just curious. week the first week I went one for three. No, one for four. I won one and lost four.

This week I won all five. You won all five this week? Yes, I did. So you probably vaulted to the near top. I probably did. What was funny, so the one part for me was towards the end, there were a couple of guys, by the way, Jalen, who works for the athletic and helps out with this podcast is part of your class as well. And it was really nice to see and put a face on a voice and someone who

helps out big time on this podcast as it relates to the ads specifically. Anyway, there were a couple of dudes, as you guys were talking about this contest, that were knee-deep in their laptops. And I was looking at the clock. I'm like, yeah, they're getting ready to fire in on a couple of NB. This is exactly what I saw myself in these two young guys. without the technology, you know, in the 1980s, being in a class trying to figure out, I got to get to a phone real quickly because some NBA games are about to tip. And we've got the Thursday night football game that's about to go. And I called out one of the guys, and I think he did sort of laugh and smile and say,

yeah, you busted me. But there were two games. I'm proud of one game in particular from last week because on this podcast, I said the same thing that I said to Tom's class. the Purdue Michigan State game last week. That game. You hit that. That game, to me, illustrates what the smell test is about more than any other game.

And there are usually several during the course of the year. Don't get me wrong. But that one stood out from the moment the lines came out a week earlier. Michigan State, the number three team in the country. They had just beaten Michigan. By the way, Jim Harbaugh, just parenthetically real quick, said the Big Ten admitted the errors in officiating in that game. And they were terrible errors.

I mean, Michigan got hosed in the Michigan State game. But anyway, Michigan State number three, undefeated. You know, right now in the college football playoff, they're going to Purdue an unranked team, and they're only laying three. And that is the essence of a smell test pick. The point spread stinks. It's like, what?

They're three? And the whole world was, of course, on Michigan State. state laying the three, and I had Purdue. Now, it doesn't always work out, as you all very well know. The Smell Test has a losing record this year, winning a record this weekend, a losing record. But that Purdue game, I was on them straight up, money line. It was on them plus the three. And so I was glad that that game hit at the time that I was asked to give my favorite game of the weekend, which I think I did say over and over again was Purdue. Well, Thursday night, that'll be one of the things we talk about is how you hit on that game. That was very impressive.

I didn't hit on the pro game, though. I liked the 49ers. Now, that game got out of whack. It went off at minus five when Kyler Murray was ruled out and Hopkins was ruled out. And then Chase Edmonds, you know, gets hurt. By the way, just back to that real quickly. God, Colt McCoy played so well. He played so well in that game.

Yeah. Well, that's what happens when you go to a good organization. Yeah. You know, you get treated right. You don't have a training staff that keeps breaking your bones when they're supposed to be healing them. Right. This is what happens, you know? I'm excited.

I want to point out, I hit that game. I had the Cardinal. You hit them all. So what were your five winners? You were five in O last week? What were your five? Are you going to remember them? I think I had to flyers over to California.

capitals in the money line. A trailblazers over the Lakers in the money line. I had LSU with 28.5 points versus Alabama. I had LSU. I had the Vikings who were plus six against the Raven. Yeah, I had them. And they only lost by three, so I covered that. And I had the Cardinals, who I think were a two-point favorite. Yeah, I can tell you, that's incredible. So I'm assuming that you vault towards, especially with all of the underdogs winning last week, I would imagine a lot of your students like betting favorites in the NFL. But then again, it wasn't just NFL or college football being played. In looking early at the games this weekend, there are going to be some interesting games again this weekend. You just mentioned the Vikings.

They, you know, they've lost five games by less than a touchdown. two in overtime. They're only catching two at L.A. against the Chargers, which basically means on a neutral field they'd be favored. So that line reeks. Washington, I think I guessed this line that it was going to be nine, nine, and a half, ten somewhere in that neighborhood. I wouldn't touch that game. Well, we've got plenty of time to get to this. I did want to just mention real quickly that that Juan Soto was one of the three finalists for the National League MVP, along with Bryce Harper and to Tice Jr. Who do you think is going to win the MVP? I would think it would be anyone but wants Soto, either or the other two guys.

I think they have more notoriety. I think their teams had better seasons, and I think that impacts enough voters. I think Soto should win it. I think he's certainly an MVP candidate, well deserving of winning the award, but I think it's going to be either Tateith or Harper. Yeah, Harper just didn't have a great end to the season. And their most important games over the final week and a half, he actually went cold after being lights out hot, you know, in August and most of September.

And Tatis Jr. had so many missed games this year. I would bet that you're right that it's not going to be, that it's not going to be Soto. But it's a weird year like with everybody else. I'm guessing it's going to be Harper just by default. You know, this wasn't Harper's best year. It wasn't, I don't think it was as good as his other MVP year. But, you know, for, for. Bryce Harper is going to, you know, might be on the verge of winning his second MVP, you know, for, by the way, a guy since he's been in Philadelphia that I think the returns in terms of the response to his performances have been, his couple of years there have been pretty much lukewarm, don't you think?

Well, I think at the box office it probably paid off right away. But in terms of results on the field, yeah, I'd say absolutely lukewarm. Yeah, I'm looking to see if I was right. His OPS was much higher in 2015. His war was much higher in 2015. 42 homers than 35 this year. More RBIs, better batting average, better on base percentage. Got at one point this year, though, until that final week, his on base percentage was, I think, on pace for a career high. But, yeah, I guess. I guess I would bet Harper, but it's a weird year as far as that's concerned. I would imagine, right, that Otani's an absolute lock for the American League MVP.

Like, that's not even close. It would be for me. Yeah. I don't even think that's close. He did something that we've never seen before. Right. Okay. I'll be watching Maryland basketball tonight, excited about the college basketball season.

If you missed Mark Turgeon on my radio show yesterday, you can find that at the Team 9-8. dot com. Jeff Irman was on the show yesterday with me if you're interested in Terps talk and we did a lot of discussion about Maryland season. I think this is, I mean, Jeff Irman said yesterday on the show he thinks this is Turgeon's best team. I don't think that I can agree with him at this point because I haven't seen this team. There are too many new players. So we got to see, we got to see games before we can make that, you know, assertion. But if the transfers are what we we've been told they will be. This should definitely be a year in which Maryland ends up at the very least in the top three or four in the Big Ten with a top three or four seed, you know, in a region when the NCAA tournament starts in March, you know.

And then it's about March, I guess. With Turgeon, it's always going to be about March because he hasn't gotten it done in March, even though regular season-wise he's had some really good seasons with this program. All right. You got anything else? I got nothing else, boss. I got nothing else back tomorrow. Then Tom, you'll be with me on Thursday.