The Kevin Sheehan Show - Christmas Day Dallas Downer

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

Kevin recapped Washington's 30-23 loss to the Cowboys on Christmas Day before getting to Jay Gruden for his thoughts on the game along with his "NFL Lock of the Week" which has hit 11 of the last 12 weeks. Kevin gave out a few "Smell Test" picks as well. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match 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 Sheehan Show, here's Kevin. Here is Debo. Debo, Samuel, Samio, off to the races. Samio getting physical. Hold up, wait a minute. Major highlight for the commanders as Donovan Wilson didn't know what hit him. 41 yards of mostly run after catch for Debo.

early in the game. He had himself a day, and yes, that play ended with Debo doling out a pretty violent hit, as you heard Ian Eagle describe it on Netflix. It wasn't the only big offensive play of the day for Washington. There were more to come, but they didn't matter that much because the defense

couldn't get off the field, like at all. Window Nation is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, 86690 Nation, or go to Windonation.com. if you need new windows. Hope everybody had a great Christmas day in on this Friday, December 26th, with a full Football Friday show, which includes Jay Gruden. Jay will join me in the next segment.

Jay's lock of the week on this podcast has delivered 11 out of the last 12 weeks. He is on an absolute heater. Jay Gruden coming up. smell test to end this show, no picks today on this Friday, December 26th. So no bowl games today or tonight. Also, just in case you didn't know, I'm one and one on the week. I hope those of you who took the over in the UNLV Ohio bowl game on Tuesday night, which lost big. 65 was the total. The game at halftime was six to nothing. But I hope all of you have taken my suggestion and followed me on social media on Twitter at Kevin Sheen, D.C.

I tweeted out yesterday, Detroit, Minnesota, under the total, which was an easy winner. So one and one on the smell test, more picks coming up at the end of the show. This opening segment will include my game thoughts and my game take from yesterday's 30 to 23 loss to the Cowboys to fall to 4. 12 on this season that can't end soon enough. But my first game thought has nothing to do with the game. Bear with me on this. Most of you will. Some of you will roll your eyes a bit.

By the way, I did watch the game live. Tommy and I talked about the possibility of since it's such a meaningless game, do we really need to watch it live? I did. It worked perfectly with our family Christmas Day schedule. We were long done with the gift opening, and we were still several hours before guests arrived for Christmas dinner. So the 1 o'clock start time was perfect. And I will say this about the Netflix broadcast, and it may be the only nice thing I say about the Netflix broadcast.

And I've said this before about games for me when I stream them on Peacock, Amazon, Netflix, sporting events, The picture is perfect. I know it isn't for everybody. For me, it is. Streaming games, the picture, the clarity is just so much better than NBC, CBS, definitely better than Fox, which I think is the worst of the picture quality of the three over the air network, you know, NFL partners. but the Netflix picture phenomenal. Now, the broadcast itself,

they had a stinker of a game because both teams were eliminated from playoff contention and Washington was starting a third-string quarterback. It is the Cowboys, so you know, I haven't seen the ratings for it, but I'm sure the ratings will be fine. It's the NFL and the Cowboys were playing.

But what they tried to do, given that they had a game that was not a game of meaning, is they tried to prop up the rivalry thing. You know, hey, the game may not mean much in the standings, but hey, when these two teams meet, this is one of the great rivalries ever. It is meaningful because of that. Well, first of all, I would say this.

Those of us who know, know, that the rivalry that they were trying to prop up yesterday is just not the rivalry that we know it to be. It's been a long time, man. a long time. The juice to this one just isn't the same anymore. And especially, especially when it gets described the way that Netflix described it over and over again, pregame, in game, et cetera. And I will give some advice for whatever it's worth, and I doubt anybody of note is listening. But in case they are, here's some advice for, you know, these situations, you know,

with Washington in Dallas, or even Washington in Philly, or Washington and the Giants. If you're going to present, you know, the Dallas-Washington rivalry is a big part of the, you know, of the broadcast yesterday, don't describe the rivalry as Cowboys Commanders. They did that so many times yesterday. The rivalry has never been Cowboys Commanders. And once you describe it that way, for people like me, it's grating. It's a bit annoying. You know, it's okay.

It is. It's fine national media, national broadcasters, to say, cowboys, redskins. That's the rivalry you're referencing. But when you do it using commanders, you're doing it inaccurately. And again, annoyingly. Dallas and Washington yesterday, by the way, played for the 132nd time. 122 of the 132 Redskins versus Cowboys, four times Washington football team in Cowboys, and yesterday was number six Cowboys commanders.

But of the games played in their storied history that were truly rivalry games, those games were Cowboys versus Redskins, not Cowboys versus Commanders. There's not one Cowboys Commanders game that's been a big rivalry matchup. Stop rewriting history if you're in these big broadcasting seats. You know, they brought Clinton Portis onto the broadcast yesterday. I love CP, but they were bringing former players onto these broadcasts. as if the games themselves meant nothing, and I understand that Washington, Dallas didn't mean much.

Personally, the connection wasn't great with Portis towards the end of it. It just didn't work. And I love CP, and the timing of it synced up with Kroski Merritt breaking his 72-yard touchdown runs. So that part of it worked out well. But they introduced Clinton as an all-time Washington commander great. Clinton never played for the commander.

He only played for the Redskins, so therefore he isn't an all-time commander great. He's an all-time Redskinned grate, just like Daryl Green and John Riggins and Art Monk and Joe Jacoby and Russ Grimm, they are all-time Redskin Grates. We don't have to do this, people. We don't need to rewrite history. I would really suggest to the powers that be in the Washington organization, Josh Harris, Mitchell Rails, Mark Ine, you know, don't let them do this. That kind of stuff pushes your old fan base away.

It doesn't pull people in. I don't think it's pulling any new people in either. If that's your goal, like people like me don't matter. Okay, you know, the younger, you know, potential fan has greater lifetime revenue potential because they're going to live a lot longer. I understand that part. But, you know, if the league is. keeping guys from saying Redskins Cowboys.

That's fine if you're talking about today's game, but not when you're referring to a storied rivalry past. When discussing that storied history between Dallas and Washington, it should be totally fine to discuss it and describe it as Redskins Cowboys. Cowboys Redskins. in my view it's not being insensitive to do that i mean come on let's stop with the silliness it's okay to mention the old name when it's the only name that will make the conversation and or discussion makes sense so for me anyway the broadcast you know trying to conjure up

some sort of feeling for a game that meant nothing by saying hey it doesn't mean nothing. This is, you know, throw the standings, the records out. You know, this is a rivalry game. Cowboys commanders. Whoa. I mean, nails on a chalkboard. They just blow it completely once they do it that way, in my view. It lands like a lead weight, like a you know what in a punch bowl. All right, to the game yesterday. So it was a meaningless game. in the standings for both teams. But they still played the game, and they played it to win. You know, both teams played it with energy, with enthusiasm.

So there are some things that I can take out of the game when it comes to, you know, some individual performances, and I will when we get to the game take. My overall team takeaway is this, and it's, you know, a theme to the season after the top theme, which is, you know, the injury situation for this team all season long. But man, the big takeaway from yesterday for me is this. What a horrible defensive team this is. And I'm saying it, by the way, on a day in which there were some good defensive performances and good defensive plays here and there.

But none of them when it mattered. None of them when it mattered. I will continue to say what I've said for six or seven weeks now. This is, I believe, the worst defense in my lifetime of watching this franchise, which goes back to the early 1970s. You're not going to hear me question the effort of the team. I thought it was outstanding once again. And I'm not ignoring the losses, the injured, you know, major contributors that aren't

playing. That's, of course, part of the story. But this defense needs a total overhaul, a total 100% makeover. Scheme, strategy, talent, the whole kit and caboodle, you cannot bring this thing back the way it is. Statistically right now, they're 31st in the traditional yards allowed category. They're 29th in DVOA, so they're not 32nd across the board and everything. but I'm just telling you with my own eyes watching this, it's been so obviously the worst I have ever seen

that I am willing to say that no matter how much health impacted the offense this year, there was never going to be a real-world situation where the offense could have overcome how bad the defense was. Dorrance Armstrong, Dietrich Wise, Trey Amos, all of them. You know, if they had all been healthy, this defense still would have been brutally gruesome. If you go back to just the Atlanta game in week four, all right, go back to that game because I did that early this morning before the radio show. Because they had everybody but wise in that game. So everybody was healthy except for Dietrich Wise.

They had already lost Wise. And that was a big loss. Don't get me wrong. You know, big, big loss in that game. But Atlanta torched this defense. It was the best game of the year for Michael Pennix Jr. They couldn't stop the run. Atlanta can run the football, no doubt.

And then I was like, I wonder what like the game before it looked like. And that was the Raiders win, 41 to 24. Do you know that Gino Smith basically had his best day of the season against Washington in week three? Remember during that game, the Raiders moved the football. So even if they didn't have this crippling number of losses on defense, I don't think the offense would have been able to overcome a healthy defense this year. It was that bad. And yesterday was another one of those days where it didn't matter, you know, about the energy level or the want to.

The defense just can't do it. It just can't do it. The game yesterday, statistically, is mind-numbing. I mean, it's not the Detroit game, which Souter called basically a scout team look that the defense was giving Detroit. But listen to these numbers. Dallas, if you include penalties, snap the ball 92 times on offense. 92. This was a four-quarter game.

It did not include overtime. 92 snaps. By the way, poor Bobby Wagner, he was out there for all 92 defensive snaps. By comparison, Washington offensively snapped the ball 44 times. Dallas snapped the ball offensively 48 more times than Washington.

48! It's amazing that they only won the game. game 30 to 23. Like, how was this a game that was decided by seven points when one team snapped the ball on offense 48 more times than the other team? Many of you won't like what I'm going to say here, but one of the reasons is Cliff Kingsbury did a really good job. Calling plays, having the quarterback third string prepared, they averaged eight yards

per play on offense. They scored on four of eight drives, real drives. in the game. Dallas in the game, 20 third down attempts, 20. They had six fourth down attempts. And guess what? They converted on all six of them, tying the NFL record for the most fourth down conversions in a game. Six for six on fourth down is the only time it's ever happened in an NFL game. The Chargers had six fourth down conversions against the Raiders back in in January of 2022, but they were six for seven in the game. Washington, six for six. First time it's ever happened. Dallas had nine offensive drives in the game, nine. They scored on

six of them, missed a field goal on another, dropped a third down pass on the one drive in which they punted, and then in the final drive for them, they ran the clock out. That's called execution, productivity, and a lot of it has to do with Washington's just grim defensive football team. There were some nice plays, there were some nice efforts, Johnny Newton, Preston Smith, Jeremy Reeves, Mikey Santer still, Bobby Wagner. But it just didn't happen when it mattered. I mean, in fact, I mean, Dak Prescott under threw C.D. Lamb on a great ball, on a wide open play, should have been a touchdown,

had Pickens drop a ball on one possession. They put pressure on DAC, but when it mattered on third and fourth down, they couldn't get off the field defensively. And that was the story of the game. Jordan McGee had an opportunity at 27 to 20 for a pick six, couldn't pull it in. Frankie Louvo got called for a 15-yard penalty.

To be honest with you, I didn't think it was a great call. I don't think he knew that Dak Prescott had been touched by Von Miller, which had him stumble and fall to the turf. I thought that was a bad call. But bottom line is third and fourth down, too easy, too much of the day. You know, easy throws, easy catches. How about the draw play for Dallas yesterday? I mean, I think it averaged 12 yards per play.

They had a third and 16 checkdown that got 14 yards, which set up a fourth and two go-for-it situation. Dallas rushed for over 200, DAC through for over 300. They played keepaway for 60 minutes. You know, by the way, it's something they need to do because their defense is pretty bad also. The time of possession, 38 minutes, 44 seconds to 21 minutes, 16 seconds. That was the final count. it was just a final reminder yesterday was that more than anything else this off-season has to be about a major defensive overhaul because if we're here a year from now

talking about how bad the defense is injuries aren't going to help Dan Quinn and Adam Peters out last year was bad this year worse next year needs to be better a lot better

all right let me get to my game take pay attention here's Kevin's game take the game take is always a list of the good

a list of the bad from the Washington perspective and then a few other observations overall and look this is

you know another late season meaningless game, but we're going to do this, you know, right through the Philadelphia season ender, in part because you get some individual performances that you can at least kind of evaluate from afar. Look, a game like yesterday, you end up, you know, doing what we've done all season long, which is who the hell's that guy? Number 66, Ricky Barber, hadn't heard of him, number 79, shy Tuttle. We've been doing this all season long, but I actually thought 66 had a couple of good plays, and so did number 79, shy Tuttle. I mean, they weren't in there

a ton, but they were in there enough. So yeah, we'll treat the game take, just like we do in a game in late September, late October, including, you know, some of the team aspects. But I'm going to start on the good list with an individual performance, and that is the performance by Jacori Kroski Merritt, aka Bill, 11 carries 105 yards, and he did what Steve Souter's been wanting to see him do, and that is break off a long one, a 72-yard house call, just as Clinton Portis was joining the broadcast. But all season long, you know, Kroski Merritt hasn't been able to take

that second level or third level opportunity and turn it into something big. His longest run of the season prior to yesterday's 72-yard touchdown run was a 42-yarder in week one. And then the third longest run of the season was a 27-yarder against the Chargers in week five. Do you know that other than those runs, 72, 42, and 27, he doesn't have one other run the entire season of 20 or more yards. But he did it yesterday. He did it with great vision, great balance, and then great acceleration. That was really nice to see Jacori Kroski Merritt on the list of good. Debo Samuels on this list, he looked healthy, he looked fresh, he looked hungry, and

there's a financial reason for his hunger. There were a few contract incentives reached yesterday. He made more money for a 70-plus catch season, which he got to with the two catches yesterday and for a 700 yard plus season, which he eclipsed yesterday with his 68 yards in receptions. Look, Debo Samuel's a good player. He's been a good player for us this year. He has been, like many others, not able to benefit from everybody around him being the best players and the healthiest players. You know, the revolving door at quarterback, the revolving door at the other receiver positions, he hasn't benefited from that. He's hurt from that. And his health

hasn't always been 100%, which was part of the risk in trading for him, but he's been a good player, man, and he is a good player. Debo at his best is one hell of a weapon, even now. He's just not a number one wide receiver. Two catches, 41 yards and 27 yards totaling 68, and then he He had the 29-yard run on the reverse. Debo Samuel on the good list. Terry McClorn, five catches, 63 yards. He had a really good catch on the near sideline in the second half. He was borderline double-teamed.

The throw is a bit late, even though it was accurate. He made an excellent catch, a crowded catch, a contested catch. Here's the thing about Terry, when you watch him on a run play and he's on the field. He blocks. He blocks. and he looks like he enjoys blocking, and he's good at it. I don't know why you'd play him against Philly in the finale. I wouldn't.

Terry McClorne's on the good list. Josh Johnson is on the list of good. Look, he had some plays that weren't great. He took a sack in the red zone, although there was nobody really open. He missed Terry on a second goal in the red zone in the second half. That was his biggest miss. of the day. That would have been a touchdown had he thrown it on time. But I'll tell you what, man,

as bad as he looked last week, you give a pro like Josh Johnson a week to prepare, and you give him a decent coordinator. Kingsbury made, I think, Josh Johnson look Marcus Mario-esque in this game, not as a runner, for sure. It's not what Josh Johnson does, but as the thrower, I thought he looked good. He was 15 of 23 for 198 yards, had a couple of really, really good throws, a couple of really easy throws, too, where Dallas's defense, not a very good defense, was giving a lot of cushion. But give Kingsbury credit, give Josh Johnson credit. He, in his first career start since 2021, I thought he played pretty well. Johnny Newton's on this list, three sacks. I guess that is the official final total. I know that there was discussion that

there was a half sack in there, but I think statistically he got credit for three sacks in the game. Look, we've been waiting to see Johnny Newton have a, you know, big explosive game. This was it. Now, I will say that I think two of the three sacks, there was excellent coverage. Dak had to hold on to it a little bit long, and I thought one of the sacks was probably more Preston Smith, I think. But, and maybe he should have had a half sack. Or maybe there were two half sacks that were counted. Whatever it was.

He was active. It was good to see. It just would have been better had his pressures, along with everybody else's pressures, happened on downs that mattered more. Bobby Wagner's on the list. Man, 92 snaps in the game. And he was really good, I thought, as a pass. rusher yesterday. I thought Preston Smith was excellent in the game as a pass rusher.

Look, I ripped the defense again because a lot of the big plays on defense, a lot of the pressure on defense didn't come on third and fourth downs. It didn't come to get the Cowboys off the field without points. They had nine drives. They scored on six of them. And then one of them they missed a field goal. Another one they ran out the clock at the end of the game. And the other one, Pickens was wide open and the ball went right through his hands on a third and 13. But I thought, you know, Wagner, Newton and Preston Smith in particular were excellent as pass rushers.

Preston Smith can't stop the run, but in recent weeks, he's been pretty decent, I think, as a pass rusher. What else is on my good list here? Number 66, I thought Ricky Barber had a player too. He had a TFL on a on a on a on a on a run stop. Yeah, I think that's it on the good list. Let's get to the bad. And I'll just start with what I kind of opened up with, you know.

Again, there's some irony in me saying that the defense was horrible when I just mentioned some good pass rush and a couple of good individual performances. I mean, they sack DACs six times in the game. I mean, that should probably carry a little bit more weight than it did, but it didn't because Dallas threw for 307, rushed for 211, snapped the ball 92 times, was 6 of 6 on 4th down, 8 of 20 on 3rd down, scored on 6 of 9 drives, and only punted once, and that's because George Pickens dropped a 3rd and 13 pass. That's it. Like, you just don't get credit for not getting your ass off the field. I mean, the six for six on fourth down. I mean, I wrote some of these down. I mean, Javante Williams, I mean, just bold his way on a fourth and one. Dack had a sneak.

There's a fourth and one throw to Pickens, who's just wide open. There's a fourth and two to Tolbert. A play after San Ristel actually made a decent play on a 50-50 ball. ball to Tolbert in the end zone, but he gives up too much room out of a bunch, and it's an easy pitch catch. There's a fourth and one where Williams is still in the game, and Louvre has a shot to nail him, Reeves has a shot to nail him, but he, you know, second efforts his way to a first down.

The fourth and two later in the game, you know, Noah I in coverage against Tolbert, and no pressure at all on that play. Like the big plays, there wasn't enough going. on. Look, part of the defensive performance, how do you let third and 11 go 86 yards for a touchdown? You know, I noticed this play, not in real time, but I think it was on the replay. Souter pointed out that since Quinn took over, they've been disguising their coverages a lot better. And that was what he would describe as cover three inverting to, I think, cover two. I think that's what it was.

But when they inverted cover two, Kwan Martin still stayed in the middle of the field, and he let Kavante Turpin run right by him. So not only did he run by the cover three deep safety, Kwan Martin, he ran by the other two safeties. So it's either miscommunication or just terrible, terrible coverage. But third and 11, it was not third and 13, third and 11, an 86-yard touchdown pass.

there was a third and 16 checkdown to the fullback who bowled his way for 14 yards and then they went for a fourth and two just some bad bad defensive football really bad defensive football Tyler Beattish getting hurt in this game I hope he's okay I hope it's not a bad injury I said this before the giant game

the last thing you want is to hold that press conference to say that one of your key cornerstone pieces for 2026 after you held your quarterback out, that they're out, like a Terry or a Tunsel or a Cosme or a Biotish. I know it's harder to sit your center. I do recognize that, but I hope he's okay. I'm also going to be a little bit critical of the way Dan Quinn handled the end of the game. He was getting a lot. lot of credit from the broadcast team. By the way, at one point, Matt Ryan, Matt Ryan, the Matt Ryan, said before Dallas kicked a field goal up 27 to 20 on a fourth and five or whatever, he said, a big decision, I wonder what shot he's going to do? I'm like, what do you mean? You wonder what he's going to do.

They're up seven. There are four minutes left in the game. He's going to kick the blanking field goal, don't you think? Try to go up 10 and end the game for all. intensive purposes. But anyway, when Quinn got the ball back, when the skins got the ball back down 30 to 20, there were four minutes left in the game, and they had all three timeouts. The ideal scenario would be to score a touchdown before the two-minute warning.

But if you're not going to score a touchdown to kick a field goal, not just right before the two-minute warning, but like with 209 or more left so that the ensuing kickoff can't run the clock below two minutes. And so what he did is they drove the ball into Dallas territory, and they had a first intent at the Dallas 32-yard line, and they threw a screen to McNichols, which lost a yard. And then they got up and clocked it with 214 left in the game. And then they sent Jake Moody out to kick a field goal. So here's the issue that I have with this. You had all three timeouts. It would be nice to get that fourth time out with the two-minute warning. I understand that.

But a 51-yard field goal for Jake Moody, who kicked a 23-yarder in the game that was shanked so badly, it almost missed. It barely got inside the left-up right. See, the thing you can't do here is try to save time at the expense of the best chance to score. Meaning, kick the field goal. I have no problem with kicking the field goal to get it to 30 to 23. But don't kick a 51-yard field goal where the chances of him missing it are much higher than missing a 41-yard field goal or a 45-yard field goal. Like, at that point, that fourth extra time for me, that fourth extra timeout, excuse me, for me, wasn't worth the risk of him missing the field goal in the game ending. Like I would have rather been and felt safer with a shorter field goal, even if it came with losing the two-minute warning timeout.

Because I had three. So I'm already planning on kicking deep. They could have considered an on-side kick. But I'm planning on kicking deep. By the way, they should have considered an on-side kick, considering that they couldn't stop Dallas at all. So an on-side kick would have been the best opportunity for them to win the game. but with three timeouts, most people are going to kick and try to play defense. And if he had missed the field goal, the game was over.

So when he sent him out there to kick a 51-yarder from the 34-yard line, I'm like, really, you feel good enough? And he made the kick. He made it. And they kicked off and they had a chance with their three-timeouts to get a stop. But of course, they didn't get a stop. And Dallas ran the clock out and won the game 30 to 23. Yeah, I mean, the truth is,

in addition to taking some risk there with the field goal being so long, and I say so long for our kicker, you know, not distance-wise, but accuracy-wise, I would have felt a little bit like maybe we just forego the two-minute warning timeout. We've got all three of them. And actually, I think the right way to think would have been, we can't stop the other team no matter what we do. So we're going to kick an on sidekick. So it really doesn't even matter. with these timeouts. I mean, it matters. We'd like to have all three, but we're going to try to score a touchdown and maybe kicking on sidekick with a minute 20 to go, if that's when we score the touchdown. Yeah. Those would be the major criticisms. The other observations,

what do I have on that list? You know, Dak Prescott misses throws a man in games. He had CD Lamb for a touchdown on the play that Reeves broke up. He under threw him. That's a touchdown, or at least it's a completion. He had C.D. Lamb on a third down, wide open in the middle of the field, and basically one hopped it to him. And I think Dak, I've said this a million times, I think he's a really good quarterback. I just don't ever consider Dak Prescott to be, you know, elite, or even top six, seven. I think he misses too many plays, and he hasn't delivered enough when it's mattered the most

for them. He's a really good quarterback, though, really good. And by the way, he's continuing to play and says he wants to play in the season finale. Um, what else do I have here? Oh, Brandon Aubrey, kicker for the Cowboys. Missed a 58-yard field goal yesterday. Missed it badly, actually. How about this? Brandon Aubrey's first game ever in Landover at then FedEx Field, season finale of the 2023 regular season. He's 35 of 35 on field goals coming in. He misses twice on that field in Landover. Both of them inside 40. He ended up 36 of 38. He did make one kick that day. Two misses in 2023, both of them in Landover. Fast forward to last year. Remember that crazy game in Landover, the 34 to 26 Cavante Turpin kickoff.

turn game. In that game, he missed two of four field goals. The season was 40 for 47. Two of his seven misses were against Washington in Landover. And then this year, he's 35 of 40 on the season, one of those five misses coming yesterday. For his career, his brief three-year career, he's 111 for 125 on field goals and five of the 14 misses five of the 14 misses in Landover he must hate kicking on that field nobody loves it but for him it's not his favorite that's for sure lastly several of you sent me the tweet uh forget who's two tweeted this out I think it was ESPN, that Washington was 0 for 8 in their nationally televised stand-alone games this year. And several of you said, well, at least next year with a last place schedule or a third-place schedule, we'll end up getting, you know, a lot of 1 o'clock games.

First of all, 0-4-8 in the standalone games, right? Green Bay, Thursday night early, Chicago Monday night football, Kansas City Monday night football, Seattle Sunday night football, Miami and Madrid. Denver Sunday night football, Philly Saturday standalone football, and then yesterday on Christmas Day, 0 for 8 in those games. I doubt the Philadelphia game next weekend will be standalone, but you never know. There's like a throwaway Saturday game or two that they could be a part of. It certainly won't be this Sunday night finale, that's for sure. But I got news for you. They're not playing just 1 o'clock games next year. As long as Jaden Daniels is a part of this team,

they're going to have some high-profile stand-alone games. It won't be as many as this year. But I would bet they'll play five standalone games. You know, they'll play a Sunday nighter. They'll play a Thursday nighter. They'll play, you know, one or two Monday night games. And maybe they'll throw in a Saturday game or a Thanksgiving Day game. They're going to be, it's not going to be all, you know,

know, all stand-alone, non-stand-alone one o'clock games. Not with Jaden Daniels on this football team. Won't be what it was this year, that's for sure. And there will be more one o'clock games next year, I would imagine. All right, let's get to Jay Gruden. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, how many times do you get your credit card statement and you go through it and you see a monthly subscription fee for something you don't even use?

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They get it done. They get it done the right way, and they take care of my listeners. Right now, the deal hard to match as well. 50% off everything, all window styles. And if you choose to finance the purchase, you won't pay interest until the year 2030. 86690 Nation, windownation.com. It's Friday. Jay Gruden's with me every Friday during football season, the former head coach of the Washington Redskins, who was 11 of his last 12 on this podcast. And the last three haven't even been close. He had Cincinnati last week against the dolphins laying four. It was a complete one-sided beat down. Stay tuned. Jay will try to make it 12 out of 13 coming up. Real quickly, before we get to yesterday's games and look ahead to tomorrow,

because there is a doubleheader tomorrow and then Sunday's slate, you said something to me before we started to record. You're like, I can't believe it's week 17 already. And, you know, for fans, there's like this rhythm that we fall into of, you know, every weekend, a full slate of football. And when it ends, man, it's painful. It's painful. For you, do you feel that?

You know, at the end of the year? like, oh, my God, it flew by? Or, you know, does it have something to do with what kind of team, I guess you had during the course of the season? Yeah, that helps to have a good team. It goes a lot faster than when your team is struggling. You're out on the Wednesdays down. Okay, I've got 16 Wednesdays left.

Oh, my God. I've got to get through this. Yeah. Yeah, but it was fun, you know, working with the players and the coaches and all that stuff, despite your record sometimes you're still trying to develop players. You're still trying to come up with a game plan and trying to win games and beat the opposing coaching staff, and the competitive juices are still there. The winning is not, but still, it's still fun to get in there.

But the days can get longer, especially when it gets colder. It's dark when you go in, and it's dark when you leave the office. It's like, oh, my God, you feel like a vampire. But, yeah, some seasons are tougher than others, that's for sure. Yeah, it's easier for us, you know, on the field yesterday. There were just players and numbers. Now, it's been this way for Washington pretty much all season long, where you've needed, you know, a legitimate,

program each week to identify who's out there and who isn't. But do you remember a late-season, meaningless game where you discovered somebody, where you're like, oh, my God, I had no idea that he could play this well? I do not remember that. We had a couple of young guys that I thought would be a lot better than they were that played well late in the season, but nobody that really emerged as a star, you know, that's tough. you know, but we went through so many players my last couple of years. Yeah.

I was with my son last night. We were going over the roster. We played the Seahawks that game in Seattle. He goes, I'll bet you can't tell me who the left tackle was. I couldn't think of who it was. It was T.J. Cumming. Coming. T.J. Cumming. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't have got that a million years. Right. And my right guard was Tyler Catalina. Yep. Yeah, my left tackle is, yeah. The kid we picked up, he got hurt, too. I can't remember his name either.

Yeah, so, yeah, we went through so many players. But any young player that came up that really developed towards the end of the year, I really don't recall, we had guys like Rob Kelly that played well in training camp that we never would have thought a million years would have been a starter. He was like seventh guy on the depth chart. Depth chart, he ended up starting and having a hundred yards rushing in the first half against the Rams, for God's sake. So guys like that emerged from nowhere somehow, just the reps that they get in preseason

and then in the games. Sometimes guys just turn it on when the lights cut on. Some guys go the other way, and it's important for Washington to identify those players this late in the year because you do. You never really know what happens once they get on a field in a competitive situation. Did your son mention Ariquanjo? Because he started for you. Yeah, we got him from the Raven practice. Well, he was on our team. We let him go, but he was on the Raven practice spot, I believe, that week, and we picked them up, I think, on Wednesday, Thursday, and he started Sunday. Here was the starting offensive line.

T.J. Clemmings at left tackle, Ari Kwanjo at left guard, Chase Ruiate Center, Tyler Catalina at right guard, and Morgan Moses at right tackle. But do you remember who your starting wide receivers were? That was Brian Quick, Josh Doxon, and who's the other one? Your favorite? Ryan Grant. Ryan Grant.

Yeah. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. You had some beauties out there on defense, too. Vernon Davis. Straight corn Vernon Davis. Yeah, you had some beauties on defense, including Evander Hood, who played for you. I don't know. I mean, I'm looking. Oh, that's right. Ziggy, Ziggy, Hood. Okay. Yes, of course. Now I remember Ziggy. Yeah.

It's written down in pro football references Evanderhood. I forgot it was Ziggy Hood. Yeah, I mean, that still to me was one of the most improbable. wins of the last 20 years. That in the Dallas game on Monday night with Colt McCoy, but this one was so improbable because of the players that you trotted out under the field.

I mean, you just you had no, that offensive line was decimated. Yeah, it was brutal. We're teaching the snap count on Friday. You know, it's two-minute drill. The mechanics of the silent count, you know, these guys have never done it together. Yeah. So yeah, it was a nightmare.

So what did you make of Washington's 30 to 23 lost to Dallas yesterday? You know, they played hard. You know, I think, you know, Josh played pretty well. Just the time of possession early in the game, you know, they took any rhythm out of Washington's offense. Dallas held the ball forever. I think, you know, Washington had one drive in the first quarter, and that was it. It was 21 to 7, so they were playing catch-up the whole way.

Yeah, 21-3. They played hard. You know, I was impressive way they played. I would like to see Coach Quinn, you know, do an outside quick kick there at the end instead of kicking off. The same situation was Chicago versus Green Bay when, you know, Ben Johnson kicked the field goal. Then they did the outside kick and got it and went down to scored and went to overtime. But because I figured they wouldn't get off the field.

But anyway, other than that, I was impressed the way they played hard. And, you know, Josh Johnson, I was impressed with Terry. He still played hard. Debo played hard. He ran hard. They played with a sense of purpose and competitive. missing in a competitive spirit. They just weren't quite good enough. Do you know how many snaps Dallas had in the game, even, you know, counting every snap, penalties, et cetera?

It felt like 90. 92. Godly. That's a lot. 92. Washington had 44. Dallas snapped the ball 45 more times on offense. It felt like that. It felt like Dallas won by 30, but they won by 7 or 10, whatever it was. It's amazing. I mean, when you have 45 fewer offensive snaps and lose by seven, that's really something else. Actually, it's almost miraculous. I started off the show by just saying, look, there were some defensive plays made in this game.

But the story of the season after injuries is just how God-awful this defense is. I mean, it's been terrible all year. It was terrible last year. You were a head coach here with some really good offensive teams, offensive talent, and could never get off the field when it mattered. This team, here's another one for you. Dallas was six for six for six on fourth downs and eight for 20, Jay. They had 23rd down attempts in the game.

20. Jesus, crabbing that way. That's insanity. That's the same. I mean, how do they fix this between now and week one next year? Well, we've got a lot of work to do, that's for sure. I don't know where to begin, really. I think secondary-wise, they need safety help.

They need another corner. They definitely need linebacker help. They've got to be able to run. And then we haven't even started on the defensive line, which is really lacking in a lot of areas as far as getting after the quarterback. You know, you've got to get to the quarterback somehow, some way, with a four-man rush right now.

They're way below average in doing that. They had some good rushes yesterday. You know, Newton had a couple sacks, which is good to see.

They've had some good efforts by some other guys, but for the most part, they need some game wreckers and they don't really have any. So I don't know where I'd begin. I'd probably begin with a pass rusher

if I could find one. Obviously, Von Miller won't be here next year, I wouldn't think. They need an edge player. And you've got to probably look at replacing Bobby at some point.

So you need a guy that can call the damn defenses on the show. You know, so I, they got a lot of work to do on defense. And the way I mean, started with a game, you know, a game changer on offense, too. There may be another back, although Merritt looked pretty good. Bill Merritt

looked pretty good yesterday. I don't know if he's in the answer full-time, but I would definitely start on the defensive side of the ball if I'm looking at the eighth picking the draft and move forward. I mean, you haven't even mentioned defensive coordinator because it's not going to be Joe Wid Jr. So, like, I mean,

you've gone through this, you know, you had, you you had Hazlitt, you had Joe Barry, you had Manuski, there was always cries for you to swap out defensive coordinators because the defense was so bad and you were an offensive head coach. What is, what do they have to do on that front? Does Quinn have to find somebody outside of his tree of guys, you know, not Rahim Morris, not, you know, Jeff Ulbrick, not Al Harris? Does he have to think about it, Jim Schwartz if he becomes available or go, you know, know, pay big for Brian Flores to leave Minnesota?

What do they have to do from a defensive coordinator's standpoint? I think this is what Dan Quinn has to decide. Do I want to really have, you know, put all my time into being a defensive coordinator and calling defenses coming up to the game plan again? Or do I want to pass it along to somebody else? If I pass along to somebody else, then I think I have to go outside the building. Obviously, I can't put Joe Witt back in there. So we've got to go outside the building.

Who is that? He's been around the NFL for a long time and called defense. for a long time, so I'm sure he has a great rolodex of names that could be very successful in calling defense here in Washington, so I think that's something he's going to have to decide who's available, who I can get, who would really

take this defense to where I want to go with the same type of idea, the same type of mentality that I have if I were calling him play. So I'm sure he's got some guys in mind. It's just a matter of, does he want to do it himself or does he want somebody else to do it? Who that might be is. I'm sure there'll be a lot

of good guys out there. Every year there's going to be seven or eight staffs that are get axed and there's going to be six or seven pretty good defensive coordinators out there available do you ever look back i'm sure we've talked about this before to that stretch here where you know you had bad defensive teams for the most part and there were always cries right for a change in defensive coordinator do you have any regrets about you know something you did do or something you didn't do yeah well i tried i interviewed some pretty good defensive coordinator. Todd Bulls.

Todd Bulls. I had Big Fangio. Big Fangio chose not to come. I had Mike Brable. They wouldn't let him out of the contract at Houston. You know, he wasn't a coordinator. He was like a senior assistant or something like that, so I thought I could think him out of New England

or Houston when he was in Houston. I tried some other guys. You know, I tried Gunther. They wouldn't let him out. I wanted his double A Zimmer type defense. When I was in Cincinnati, I liked what Zimmer did. So Gunther was the next one. he couldn't, Cincinnati would let him out.

So I try a lot of guys. You know, I settled, hadn't settled. But, you know, Joe Barry was a decent football coach, obviously, and Minnowski had the knowledge. He was a defense coordinator in Indianapolis. And with Minnowski, I got Jim Tom Sula to be the defensive line coach. I was a package deal. Tom Sulu would only come if Minnowski was defensive coordinator.

And, you know, these guys were all good coaches. We just didn't really have the firepower to really help them be successful in the schemes that they wanted to run. Tom Sulla was a good coach, wasn't he? He was a good football coach, for sure. The only thing is they come from the old school 3-4-2-gap system. I wanted to be more of a gap shooting under 3-4 defense.

You know, with Durant Payne and Jonathan Allen, I didn't want them sitting at the line of scrimmage, you know, holding up the defense of linemen and freeing up the linebacker. I wanted them to penetrate. It would be more gap guys and get up the field and create havoc with stumps and all that stuff. But we're more of the old-school two-gap.

hole in there and free up to linebackers, but you know, it's different strokes for different folks. I'm guessing you weren't surprised that Josh Johnson looked more than competent in the game. No, Josh is a pro. He's a true pro. He's a smart, smart human being. He can pick up systems in a minute. He's been everywhere. He's seen every type of concept versus every coverage. You know, he's been a backup. As a backup, he's very involved in games and studying the film and studying games.

And, you know, his accuracy is not what you want it to be, but he's very athletic and a great, great guy, and definitely functional with a backup still to this day. We would, you know, joke a little bit during the course of the season about the fan rush to crown Kroski Merritt or fit Kroski Merritt for a gold jacket, you know, three games into his career. But now that we've seen him, and Rodriguez was inactive yesterday, I guess he was sick, you know, he's had some games like, Like, you know, I went back like yesterday's game was, with the exception of the 72-yard touchdown run, which was the bulk of his yardage, still had some good runs. He had really not broken a long one all season long, but the game was comparable to the Charger game where he was 14 for 11, and this one 11 for 105. So what do you think they have in Kroski Merritt, Bill?

It's hard, you know, I don't know, because after that Charger game, I thought he was going to emerge as a true number one guy there, he's going to, like, just get 15, 20, 25 carries a game. And that did happen. He kind of like went the other way. He was kind of weird. So, yeah, I don't know. He looked good yesterday. He's had some moments of looking like he's got a really good burst and can run through tackles. But there's something there that I just feel like he's missing. I don't know if it's past protection, catching the ball out of the backfield, consistency in reading holes. And I don't know. The jury's still out for me on him. I don't know if he's a true number one back for next year,

but he has shown flashes of being that. I think hopefully for Washington's sake, they do feel like him and Rodriguez and Jerry the Lowe. They don't have to worry about a draft pick early in the rounds or sign a big-time free agent running back so they can use that for other positions that they desperately need. That's what they have to decide. Are we good enough of back with the guys we have?

Or do we have to, if the Notre Dame back is eight or seven, do we take the Notre Dame back? I mean, hell, you know what I mean? So those are decisions they have to make as well. are they good enough where we can use those picks in that capital for other positions which we desperately need, or do we need to get game changing back for help Jayden out? So those are

tough decisions. I would, if there's a superstar available in the draft, I would have to seriously think about it because that is a very important spot as well. All right. Let's move on to the rest of the league and then we'll finish up with your lock of the week.

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After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support this show and tell them that I sent you. Quick favor to ask if you don't mind doing it. It's a huge deal for us if you rate and review this podcast. If you haven't done it already, especially on Apple and Spotify, you can rate us up to five stars. That's best, obviously. And you can write a quick one to two sentence review on Apple,

and it can be as simple as saying, I love when Jay Gruden's on the show with you. especially when he's hitting his lock of the week, which he's hit on 11 of his last 12. Follow the podcast, too. Hit the plus button and the follow button. That helps us out a lot. We'll get to some of the big games on Saturday and Sunday and Jay's lock of the week to finish up here. But real quickly, on the Minnesota Detroit game yesterday, have you ever seen a game in which a team had net three,

passing yards. That's what Minnesota had yesterday. If you count up the lost yardage on Sacks to Brasmer and then his overall, I think 51 passing yards, 48 lost yards on Sacks. Have you ever heard of a team having net three passing yards and winning? I don't think I have. Maybe in 1965. Maybe somebody like, you know, somebody probably did that back then. Yeah, no, that was a hard watch. I made a little fun little tweet and said, I did think Detroit changed play callers. Otherwise, it really beat out of hand. You know, it was brutal.

Yeah. To watch. I mean, brutal. So the Detroit Lions just absolutely decimated on the offensive line, obviously. It kind of showed. I was just surprised that they kept trying these seven-step drops, trying to throw these deep daggers down the middle of the field and seam balls when they knew they couldn't protect.

And Brian Fours was dialing up blitz. Brian Flores is like, you guys are really going to drop back again? Oh, here comes Harrison, slip off the edge, bang, bumble. I mean, you've got to be kidding me. He was probably one of the worst play-calling performances I've ever seen by the Lions as far as not having any clue that your tackles can't block and you can't pick up a blitz, but we're going to continue to try to rip the ball down a field. So that was very surprising, so I think that's why Minnesota won with three passing yards

because offensively the Detroit Lions just kept giving the ball to them. they're eliminated from the postseason now and the expectations for the lions here over the last couple of years i mean they went from nfc championship loss to one seed and a divisional round loss to washington last year to eight and eight and out of the playoffs yes they've had a lot of injuries to their offensive line in particular but what do you think this means there i mean there's no way campbell's in trouble do you think no i don't think campbell's in trouble i think they have to understand that, you know, they lost some key pieces to their offensive line in the offseason, you know, Ragnow retired, and they have to move their

right guard of center, the last out of center, and they had the injuries. Of course, the other guys, the Porta got hurt. So they have some issues, obviously, which a lot of teams do, but, you know, they just have to figure out the offensive line situation for next year again, and they got they got to make sure they get the defensive guys who helped to. Everybody's in a similar type boat, Washington is a similar type boat, but at least they have some superstar players like a Monro, James Williams, and Jared Golf is still winging around. La Porto will be fine, I think, next year.

They've got the tackles, Penny Sue, all these, he's an excellent player. So they have star players on their team that I think can overcome some lacking areas of their offensive line or defensive line. So I think they'll still be competitive next year. You talk about the wrong tell, and that is Campbell taking over play calling against Washington

and having essentially a seven-on-seven-day and thinking, yeah, that was the move. we needed to make. Apparently it wasn't. That'll be an interesting thing to watch what they do from a coordinator and play caller standpoint in the offseason as well. All right, let's get to the rest of the weekend. And some of these games, we don't know what the meaning will be until others are finished like on Saturday. But I do want to start with Texans Chargers. I mean, both teams playing at a high level. The Chargers have won seven of their last eight four in a row. The Texans even though they struggled with the Raiders last week.

They've won seven in a row. I still think if they get in, they may be the team to beat. How do you kind of size up Texans at Chargers tomorrow afternoon? I think the AFC is wide, wide open. I think whoever gets in there has a legitimate chance to go to Super Bowl, whether it's a Chargers or Texans. I was very unimpressed heaters, quite frank. I think the Chargers and the Texans.

I think both of them are leaking oil on the offensive line. I don't know how they're going to protect Justin Herbert Sunday against the Texas defense. And the same thing goes for how the Texas are going to protect or run the ball against a charger defense. I think it's going to be a low-scoring game and it's going to come down to a field goal at the buzzer. But I think both teams still, they play good enough defense and they have a good enough quarterback where they can make some noise in the playoffs once they get in. So I agree with you that Texas are hot, but they really looked uninspired last week against the Raiders. I was very disappointed in their effort on both sides of the ball against the Raiders.

It just depends, you know, on a week-to-week basis, you never know what team's going to show up. They have the talent to do it, but the Chargers off at the line without the two tackles are not very good. And they don't run the ball very effectively. Justin Herbert's really a one-man show back there. So I like the Texas in that game a little bit, but it wouldn't surprise it either way. Ravens of Packers, probably know Lamar. They have to win to stay alive. So the Packers still have a shot to win the division.

by winning out and the bears losing out and the bears have the 49ers and then close with the lions. So we'll see what happens there. But I mean, the Ravens, let's just talk big pictures as it relates to Baltimore. There was a story in the Baltimore Sun that said that there's been some growing frustration with Lamar, that, you know, something that John Harbaugh completely denied in terms of the relationship between he and Lamar Jackson saying it's an A-plus relationship. But, you know, Lamar apparently, you know, falls asleep during meetings, at least according to this story. There's been some growing frustration there. He's obviously been hurt and not himself. What do you think happens in Baltimore, assuming they don't make the postseason?

Well, I think Lamar's got to be their long-term future plan still because the alternative is really fair. The cupboard is bare if you're looking for a franchise quarterback of the National Football League right now. So I think they have. have to figure out a way to get Lamar happy and make them comfortable. And there are certain guys that just don't like meetings. I mean, they don't, you know, there's ADD, whatever it might be. They have trouble concentrating in those type of sessions. So you have to figure out ways to adapt to that player.

And maybe it's individual meetings instead of team group install meetings. Group of stalls can be very brutal for some players. It's hard for them to follow along. And it's just like going to class. You know, I had a really hard time sit in history class, paying attention to this teacher, Talk about 1922. Shit, I didn't give a damn. And also, it's very hard.

But you have to change your teaching style to each individual player sometimes. And I think that's what Baltimore has to do with Lamar, moving forward. He's a smart kid if he can handle a lot of offenses. It's a way of making sure that he feels comfortable and getting the plays in there that he's good at. That is, you know, it's something so interesting about what you have. I mean, your coach, but you're a teacher. and you can't teach the same way to every, you know, to every player because everybody learns differently, everybody digests differently.

You just mentioned, I mean, I'm sure that there are players that have, you know, ADHD and different things like that that don't allow for long levels of concentration or whatever it is. You know, how do you identify that and then how do you go about teaching differently? Do you ever have to have class after class, like tutoring sessions? Yeah, I think there's a lot of merit in that. I think I try to break it up a lot sooner than most coaches probably did as far as getting into individual meeting room, like the receivers will go to receiver coaching, and I would rely on the individual coaches to install a lot of the plays.

You know, instead of sitting in front of an offensive group for two hours and installing the game plan, you know, guys are like, oh, the hell, you know, it's week 13 or the normal with the same plays. And then you also, you cut it down in the throughs where they're out there actually participating in the walk-throughs. I think those help out a lot. Walters can be kind of a grind as well, boring, but they're a little bit better because you're actively going through it and you're talking to each individual person that way. So there's different ways around it.

Individual meeting time, team meeting time, and walkthroughs. You just have to have a good balance of all three of those. All right. Let's look at some of these games, and we'll get to your lock of the week. So I think really the last two games of the day, the four o'clock window game between the Eagles and the Bills and then the Bears and the Niners on Sunday night are the two best games of the day.

Are either one of those games your lock of the week? No. Okay. So let's talk about Eagles, bills. The Eagles have won, you know, a couple in a row, but the wins were over the Raiders and Washington. And Buffalo last week, you know, a week after beating the Patriots, you know, after they were down 21,

and nothing barely survived Cleveland on the road. So how do you see Eagles and Bills up in Buffalo? Well, I think Buffalo is going to watch the Chicago Bear game very closely. I think the Bears rush for like 250 against the Eagle defense, right? And that's what the 80, yeah. So I think that's what the Bills were going to try to do, obviously. That's what the Bill's strength is, is a Russian attack with James Cook and the duo and the power running game, which the Bears really did against the Eagles.

I don't know if Jalen Carter played that game or not. I don't think he did, but still, I think that'll be the Bill's game plan, ball control, James Cook, and then obviously Josh Allen using his legs and his mobility. And the Eagles, on the other hand, they've got to try to attack the bills in the same way because the Bill's weakness is the run defense. Their strength is a past defense. The Eagles' weaknesses are pass offense. So it's going to be both teams who can establish the run better will win that game, I think, easily,

can make the other team throw the ball 30 to 40 times a game, which either team is really good at doing that. Obviously, Buffalo is a little bit better with Josh Allen. I still think Buffalo's strength is the running attack, same with the Eagles, and whoever can establish a run will win that game. So who will do it? I think Buffalo will do it, really. I think the Eagles have started to play a little bit better as of late,

but I still think there's some chinks in their armor, and I think Buffalo is going to come out and really establish James Cook and get them going. And then Josh Allen is just too good improvising with his legs. So I think the bills will get it done. 49ers Bears, Sunday Night Football, and Santa Clara. The 49ers have a chance to never leave home with two more wins. They're the one seed, and that's where the Super Bowl's played real quickly before we get to that.

I was blown away impressed with them on Monday night against the Colts the way they looked offensively. Because, you know, they've had a weak schedule, and I wasn't really sure about the Niners. I don't know about you, but my God, I mean, unstoppable during that game, you know, rolling up 48 points. and I know there was a fumble on a kickoff return, but they were just unstoppable offensively. What do you make of the Niners? And then give me your, you know, Niners, Bears sort of sized up, match up, and pick. Yeah, for a team is competing for the number one C.

They've really been sneaking under the radar. Nobody's really been talking about it because of the injury to Fred Warner and obviously both of the high-yuk not showing up or whatever his injury situation is and Purdy's injuries throughout the year. All of a sudden, here they are. They went out and they get the number one seat. So very impressive, Kyle's on obviously a great job and having purdy back his comfort level. Kittle is a big-time player, and obviously Trenton McCaffrey,

so they still have some weapons off. So we don't feel sorry for Kyle Shanan's injuries that he's had because he still has some A-plus-type players on his roster. They're very, very good, but the Bears are showing that they can travel their game anywhere and play against anybody. Caleb's playing with a lot of confidence. The running games is very good. Their defense is very opportunistic, so that'll be a hell of a football game.

one in which I still think the 49ers probably have the edge. I probably would take the 49ers if I had a gun to my head. What did you think of Rivers on Monday night against the Niners? Well, Philip is showing everybody how to play quarterback. You know, the art of playing quarterback is really going down the tubes right now. He's at the line of scrimmage making adjustments and protections and routes, concepts, getting them the right runs and putting them in a situation to be successful. Not a lot of quarterbacks.

Most quarterbacks are calling one playing hoping to God that they don't bring the free safety off the weak side, I guess on the weekside run. Nobody can audible anymore. So, Philip has total command of the offense, and I think he's been awesome to watch. I think a lot of young quarterback should really take into account what he's doing at the line of scrimmage. It should really, really say, hey, I want to be like that guy. You know what I mean?

I want to have total control over the system at the line of scrimmage pre-snap and make adjustments that may be. He's been fun to watch. What does it say, though, this year that guys like Flacco and Rivers and Kirk also after Pennix went down in Atlanta, that they're having success where young quarterbacks tend to struggle. Are young quarterbacks just not equipped at a younger age versus maybe years ago, or what? Well, I think a lot of the offense is now we're trying to dumb it down a little bit too

much. It's RPO. It's a runner-a-bubble screen. It's this. It's, you know, it's just not, it's a quick game. You know, it's we're just going to call it and run it, as opposed to quarterbacks like Flacko and these guys who can adjust protections and do different things at the line of scrimmage and utilize, hey, this is a formation. We get a man's own tip. We're going to get to our man-beater. We're going to get to our zone-beater.

We're going to get, you know, there's a free safety. We're going to run away from the free safety. They're trying to get the best play possible against the defense they're going against instead of just dialing up and off the play and hoping to God it works. So, yeah, the veteran quarterbacks

really have an edge in this game. It's a very tough game to play. It's a lot of knowledge you have to have pre-snap and then execution-wise is a whole different story. Just not seeing a very good quarterback play this year at all. All right. Time for the lock of the week.

11 of the last 12. The last three have been blowouts. I mean, they've been over basically at halftime or early third quarter. Who do you got? This is a tough one. It's a tough one this week. A lot of good games already went by. I'm going to take a home team.

I'm taking Phillip Rivers plus a six and a half against a jack. This will not be a blowout. All right? I'm taking the Indianapolis Colts have like a 2% chance to get in. I still think that with Jonathan Taylor, the Jags have the number one defense against the rush, but I think Jonathan Taylor will still have some good yardage. I love Alec Pierce. I think the commander, somebody should really take a long look at this whiteout, Alex Pierce.

He's going to be a free agent. He's a hell of a player, Pittman. I think Phillip Rivers keeps us close. I don't know if they win the game or not, but I'll take the points at home. You saw these home dogs last night, the Vikings, and they come out and play with a lot of pride. You know, the Chiefs battled their ass off. So I think Indianapolis will find a way to keep it close. Yeah, all three dogs yesterday with an outright winner in Minnesota.

Here's the problem with this pick, and I want to give you a heads up on it in case you want to back off it. If Houston wins tomorrow, Indies eliminated, and if Indies eliminated, I bet you Rivers doesn't play. Oh, that's a tough one. I didn't realize that. Yeah, the Colts need two Houston losses and two wins to make it. and Houston plays on Saturday. I'm sorry? Oh, Houston plays on Saturday. Yeah, they play on Saturday.

So we could get to Sunday and the Colts could be eliminated. I'll change the pick. Well, how about we can do an either or? It's either that one if they're still alive. All right, so it'll be the Colts plus the six and a half if they're still alive. And if they're not, give me one that will, especially if Rivers doesn't play. Because I can't imagine Shane Steichen's going to put them out there if they've been eliminated, right?

Who are they going to put out there? Riley Leonard, the kid from Notre Dame. It's still, maybe his knee still banged up. Yeah, well, let me go with Pittsburgh, I'll take Pittsburgh minus three against Cleveland. All right, but let me just mention this. If the Ravens lose on Saturday night to Green Bay, Pittsburgh is in, they clinch the division.

Good Lord. I know. Yeah, that's right. That's right. A lot of ifs on this block of the week. Yeah, a lot of ifs. Pittsburgh's your second if minus the three over Cleveland? Yep.

All right? I could just change it all the way around. Now you've got me all screwed up. Well, I mean, I'm not going to give out your pick without people understanding. You know what? Let's just scratch it all. Let me just take the bills. You're going to take the bills?

Let me just take the bills. Yeah. I think the bills will run the ball right down, Philadelphia's throw, force Philadelphia's throw, right into Buffalo's hands which they love it when teams have to throw the ball because they have a very good past defense. I'm taking Josh Allen and a bill. Are you?

Why don't you just take Minnesota plus the seven and a half yesterday? Yeah, I actually did. Did you like Minnesota yesterday? Yeah. Yeah, I had the under in that one. I'll take the bills. I'll take the bills because I both have. Do you want me to do the, do you want me to do the,

Do you want me to do the Colts first, and if Houston eliminates Indy, then we go to the Bills minus one and a half? It can be – Yeah, let's do that. Okay, let's do that. All right. We'll scratch Pittsburgh from it, and here it is, simply put, people. The pick is the Colts plus six and a half, and I'm looking for some sevens out there, and there aren't any. There are actually more sixes than six and a half. So that's why I'm going to give you the six and a half and not kind of give you the half point there,

although I should give you the half point because people, you should buy that half point to get it to seven. So the pick is the Colts plus the seven, all right? We're going Colts plus seven, but if they are eliminated because Houston wins on Saturday,

the pick is the bills minus one and a half. All right, so we've got to... Yeah, we figured it out. All right, enjoy it. I'll talk to you next week. You got it. Thanks, Kevin. Jay Gruden, everybody. buddy. I'll finish up the show with my picks, my smell test after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. The smell test, as always, presented by MyBooky. If you want to bet on sports, my recommendation is to do it at MyBooky where right now my listeners and my listeners only have access to a 50 percent cash bonus when you either sign up for the first time or you go back to my bookie to make a new deposit you just have to use my promo code dc reload dc r e l oad to get access to that 50 percent cash bonus it's unusual for existing customers this time of year to be offered an incentive to reload or to redeposit but my

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And My Bookie's one of the best sports books out there. Everything is fair across the board, numbers, pricing, et cetera. You can't go wrong with a shop like My Bookie. you may have another place where you're betting currently, I would take the free money and have MyBooky as a second place where you can compare on point spreads and totals and money lines and prop bet pricing and numbers, et cetera. But again, 50% cash bonus, you have to use my promo code, DC Reload.

So MyBooky.com or MyBooky.ag, when you're signing up for the first time, you'll be asked for a promo code, type in DC Reload. If you're an existing customer and you log on and you make a new deposit, you'll be asked for a promo code, type in DC Reload. If there's something for whatever reason already in the promo code section, erase it and type in DC Reload. They've got all of the odds for the NCAA tournament. I'm talking about the football tournament right now. Ohio State right now, the favorite at plus 195 to win it all with the eight quarter final games coming up December 31st and January 1st, followed by Indiana at plus 310, then it's Georgia at plus 490, Oregon at plus 750, Texas Tech at plus 800, and then the three long shots, Alabama at plus 1,800, or the true big time long shots, Miami at plus 20.

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going to swing wildly based on the Saturday results. So I am going to hold off on my Sunday selections. I will put them out on Twitter at Kevin Sheehan, D.C., at Kevin Sheen, DC on Twitter. follow me and I will tweet out Sunday picks and by the way I've been tweeting out picks the last few days I tweeted out yesterday before the NFL schedule started yesterday that Detroit and Minnesota under was a play two days before that even though I did mention it on the show with Tommy I also gave out a loser in the over UNLV Ohio bowl game but Sunday's picks will be tweeted out, all right, at Kevin Sheen, D.C. I'll have them out by no later than 12.30 p.m.

But I'm going to give you Saturday's picks, which includes two college bowl games in addition to an NFL pick right now. On the season, 106, 62, and 12, I was 6'4 and 1 last week. So another winning week is 60% week. last week, 106, 62, and 12 overall on the season. All right, in the NFL game tomorrow, under in the Houston Chargers game, 39 and a half is the number right now, so that's the number that we will play it at. Houston Chargers under 39 and a half, there's a lot of overaction in that game. You know, it's one of those games, it's odd that I'm giving out the under here, because I think most people kind of perceive the game to be kind of an under, you know, a 16, 13, 17, 14 kind of game.

But against the Raiders last week, the Texans, it was 23, 21 the week before that, they put up 60 total points in their win over the Cardinals. Meantime, you know, the Chargers last weekend were involved in a 34 to 17 game 51 total points. So, and I've said this before about standalone games, the public typically likes to bet overs in stand-alone games. It's just easier to root for. It's easier to root for scores than for stops and the clock to run under 39 and a half in the Houston Chargers game. The two bowl games for tomorrow, none for today, but for tomorrow, the first one is, is the BYU, Georgia Tech Pop-Tart Bowl game. The Pop-Tart Bowl game tomorrow in Orlando features BYU coming off.

Their disappointment of not making the playoff. They got run in that Texas Tech, by Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game. Give me Georgia Tech plus the four. There's a lot of public action on BYU. There's been sharp action on Georgia Tech. I'll take Georgia Tech plus the four in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. That is a 3.30 kick tomorrow, and then tomorrow night, Virginia plus the four in the Gator Bowl against Missouri. Virginia, with the disappointing ACC championship loss to Duke in their last outing, but I like Virginia plus the four in the Gator Bowl.

So the three selections tomorrow, under Houston Chargers, 39 and a half, Georgia Tech plus four, and Virginia plus four. And again, Sunday, I will have picks. And there are a couple of games, like right now I kind of like Miami plus the points against Tampa. And really nothing on Saturday is going to impact that game. But I'm just going to hold off on that one for now. See, you know, if there's any changes in who plays and who doesn't. because in some of these games, especially with the team that has nothing to play for, you get changes, you know, late Sunday morning before the 1 o'clock games and late, you know, in the afternoon before the 4 o'clock. So I'll save the Sundays for Sunday, but you've got three for tomorrow. Houston Chargers under Georgia Tech plus 4, Virginia, plus 4. All right.

At Kevin Sheen, DC on X on Twitter, and I'll have them out Sunday by no later. I promise than 1230 because all of the inactive lists will be out by then and we'll know certainly based on what happened on Saturday where the numbers are going to truly land because there's no doubt like a game like Jacksonville Indy, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, you know, even Chicago, San Francisco, you know, if Green Bay loses Chicago clenches the division. enjoy the weekend, enjoy the football back on Monday.