The Kevin Sheehan Show - Commanders Caught Napping Again

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

Kevin opened with his complete recap of Washington's 14-7 loss to the Giants in the Meadowlands. Doc Walker jumped on as well with his thoughts and then Kevin closed with a Monday Night Football "Smell Test" pick after going 9-1-1 ATS this weekend.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. So four down and four, Tressway is out. We've now said that eight times today. Shepard, the deep man, calls for a fair catch.

At the 21, locked it, and Washington is there. We told you that Sterling Shepard is not the Giants' normal pun returner. Eric Gray suffered a calf-in-year-old. injury in the first half, and falling on the football is Diami Brown. That was just one of ten punts from Tressway yesterday, totaling 513 yards. More than five football fields of punt yardage yesterday from Tressway. Not exactly the kind of yardage you would want if winning the game is the goal. Oh boy, and we thought mom had issues.

We got lots to talk about today. Doc Walker will be on with me later on in the show, a show that is presented by our good friends at Window Nation. If you've been thinking about new windows, call them at 86690 Nation or go to windownation.com. Mention my name, I promise you, they will take good care of you. Washington loses 14 to 7 against the Giants yesterday. They're three and four overall.

Two of the four losses were to now the Bears who came into the game against Washington a few weeks back, O and 4, and to the Giants yesterday who were 1 and 5. I think it's fair to say through seven weeks, we know that this is a week-to-week league and things change, but it's fair to say that this team's not going anywhere. important this year. That was a game yesterday between two subpar teams and the impact on the NFL season will be draft positioning in April of 2024. And look, you know, everybody wants a scalp again, just like after the Chicago game. And I'll say what I said after the Chicago game. Everything could be on the table this week. Everything should be on the table this week.

but this should be on the table needs obvious in-season solutions with 10 games left. I don't know that they have any, which is why my guess is that Ron Rivera is not going to get fired in season. It could happen very late in the season as they try to kind of clear the table for a whole restart that they want to start the day the regular season ends, but it's not going to happen with 10 games left. Jack Del Rio is likely not getting canned this week. First of all, his defense was far from the major problem yesterday. It still gave up way too many plays for sure against a giant team that hadn't produced any all season long. And overall this year, the defense hasn't gotten anywhere near the expectations that I had for it,

but I don't think he's getting canned this week. Eric Bienimi, I don't think he's going to have his play calling duties pulled from him, nor should he. But it is clear with Bienimi that he needs some help, or better put, he needs time to figure this thing out. You know, this isn't something that he's done before. He's had the offensive coordinator title, but he's never had the kind of responsibility that he has in Washington this year. And he's admitted as much that he's still learning, kind of learning on the job. And yesterday was a clear-cut example of he's got a lot of learning. and a lot of distance to go before he's got this thing figured out.

You know, he might have some crazy method to the madness that we saw yesterday, or he's just stubborn, or worse, he's just not seeing what, you know, is kind of obvious out there, which is he's got a young quarterback that doesn't exactly thrive in dropback situations and an offensive line that isn't good enough to protect in the dropback game. Sam Hal won't get benched, nor should he. But may I at least ask those of you who have tried to convince me that we don't need to have conversations about the quarterback, that it's already obvious to you guys, that he is the answer. He's the next big thing. Can we dial that back for a few weeks?

He's done some really good things at our NFL caliber. NFL starting caliber, but he is so far from being, you know, declared an NFL legitimate starting quarterback or even further than that, a good NFL starting quarterback, that those of you that think he is, you're just blind homers. I mean, come on, man, let's be realistic with one another. The offensive coordinator's got a long way to go, and the quarterback's got a lot. long way to go, and there's no guarantee that either one of them will get there. But I don't think that Sam should be benched. I don't think the play calling duties should be pulled from Eric B. Enemy, not even close to thinking that. Look, I wouldn't hold my breath on any major

changes, you know, this week. I mean, maybe by the time you listen to this podcast, there have been some. If you're Josh Harris, you're preparing for the major overhaul when this season ends, which is going to happen. I mean, that is, that's getting close to a near certainty with Ron for, for sure. You know, hopefully a general manager is hired. That general manager goes out and hires a good football coach and that football coach and the general manager hire the staff, et cetera. But, yeah, I mean, look, for those that want Ron fired today,

and look, you can make the case that you're trying to establish a culture of account in the franchise. A caller pointed that out to me today on radio. I kind of understand that, but part of the culture needs to be we don't go around just firing people without obvious solutions right now that are better. And that's the problem with the, you know, Ron Del Rio's situation. Del Rio is the only guy on the staff with head coaching experience. I mean, you obviously can't include Eric Bienemy as a potential interim coach. He's got so, so much on his plate already. He's got a long way to go with the job that he has.

So Del Rio would be the only guy that you could consider for that if you wanted to make that move with Ron. I don't see that happening, though. I don't. I think you've got a patient ownership group. We've heard how patient they are. We've heard about the sit back and wait. Yeah, there was that comment from Josh Harris.

I guess about, or the story that said that Josh Harris sources had told, I think it was, who had that story? Was it Diana Rossini? Sources had told somebody. It was Josina Anderson that the Chicago game was a concern because of ticket sales, et cetera. The giant game would probably fit into that category as well. I don't see it. I think that they'll sit, stand pat, and they will make these big overhauling decisions at the end of the year. And, you know, look, I've been one of those that have said, you know, all along, especially early in the season. I mean, it's too early.

It's week to week. Things change dramatically. We're now approaching the halfway mark of the season. And yes, yesterday the Giants were one of four one-and-five teams that won games. I mean, the NFL is insane. The Giants, the Bears, the Patriots and Broncos, all one in five teams, one games yesterday. None of them were super shocking, with the exception of the Patriots over the Bills. That was a smell test pick.

Smell test, pretty good weekend. 9-1-1. I was 4-0-1 on Saturday. 5-1 yesterday on the NFL. That was a really good bounceback week after a brutal week for me a week ago. By the way, stay tuned to end of the show. I mentioned that there might be another smell test pick for Monday night football. End of the show.

Listen for another potential smell test pick after an absolute killing this weekend, 9-1-1. The only loss, the chargers plus the points against the Chiefs, and the one push was Auburn. I actually got that game at plus seven. Some of you probably bought it to plus seven. But, you know, the NFL, and as it relates to Washington, things do change, you know, and one week, you know, declaring anything can really make you stupid look stupid six days, seven days later. We were talking last week about the Lions, and man, they have risen to maybe one of the two or three, four best teams in the league. And I've mentioned it's their defense that's really stepped up. They got beat by the Ravens 38 to 6 and gave up 500.

103 yards. So much for the defense being improved. It certainly wasn't yesterday. The Browns, how about the Browns? Okay, they had allowed the fewest yards through five games of any team since 1971. That's 52 years ago. They gave up 456 yards and 38 points to the Colts. The dolphins on pace for one of the biggest offensive years in NFL history averaging 500 yards a game had just 244 and 17 points and a 3117 loss to the Eagles. It just as ugly as yesterday was, as ugly as the Bears game was, I'm confident enough to say now, even though I am a big,

observer, especially as a sports better of the variability of the dynamic of the changing, ever-changing NFL from week to week and how injuries can totally change things. But I think we know that Washington isn't, you know, is not a threat to go to the playoffs and win a playoff game or two. That's just not what they are through seven games. And let's face it, it's not what Ron Rivera's been while he's been here. He's 2531 and one now. Three and a half years in Washington and he's six games below 500. You know, there haven't been many coaches here over the last 30 some years that have been very good. 2531 and one isn't the worst we've seen, but it is an indicator of what he has become since he got here. And I know many of you will point to the fact that.

that the record in Carolina over the last few years wasn't good either. I think he was a different coach in Carolina than he's been in D.C. First of all, he didn't have the responsibility in Carolina that he has here. I think a lot, there's a toll that's been taken on Ron. He's been much more of a CEO coach than he was in Carolina. He admitted that. But the bottom line is, who gives a shit at this point? The record is what the record is, and I don't see anything changing, and I know most of you don't either.

You know, three and a half years, six games under 500, that's basically what he is. So change at the end of the year is happening. It's basically, you know, a given. And I think that'll be it for Ron Rivera's career. And I know I've suggested this in the past, and I'm not, you know, I'm not diminishing him as a competitor. Because I know he's a competitor. He was a professional athlete, a professional head coach. He's a competitor.

But my hunch going back to the offseason is that there's been some resignation in Ron. I think we saw it at times during the game yesterday, saw it at times during the game against Chicago. I think he knows what's coming, and I think he may be okay with it. He went through a very, you know, significant personal health crisis a few years ago. He's been through hell since he's been here. This job was already going to be challenging when he took it, and it became challenging by, you you know, three X after he took it. But it's who he is.

He's an under 500 head coach in Washington, and that's what he is earned. And they are under 500 again. I had mentioned last week there was a chance for the first time since 2018 to be 500 or better going into the month of November if they could just beat the damn giants, but they didn't.

Anyway, all right, let me get to my game take. What I liked, what I didn't like, and several other observations. We'll get to that. Doc will follow right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Washington, two for two on four towns. Crowd is loud here at East Rutherford. Giants defense holds. Jahan Dotson's got to make that catch.

It wasn't a great throw. He's got to make that catch. It's a little bit behind him. He's got to make that catch. But that's not why Washington lost the game. They lost the game because of a first half that lacked any sort of enthusiasm, any sort of execution. And it was a first half plan that was just bad. All right.

Game take coming up. This segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. go to mybooky.ag, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And MyBooky will give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. You've got to use my promo code at mybooky.ag, Kevin, D.C. By the way, the Eagles are six and a half point favorites over Washington. The early line at MyBooky, the Jalen Hertz injury situation, is something to keep an eye on. I will probably have Washington in the smell test on Friday

because I would bet that less than seven, the public's going to be all over Philadelphia. You know, that was a rough game last night. Jalen Hertz's health is in question, who knows. And by the way, the Eagles, listen to this what they have coming up schedule-wise after Washington. Dallas, Kansas City, Buffalo, the 49ers, the Cowboys again, and the Seahawks.

How about that stretch for Philadelphia after they come to FedEx Field? Dallas, KC, Buffalo, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle. Who knows what it'll look like when they get to these games? Always have to say that. But if they want Jalen Hertz healthy for that stretch, I wonder if it's possible they think that they can beat Washington on Sunday with Marcus Marioita as the quarterback. That's the backup.

It's not Gardner Minshu anymore. Gardner Minshu is in Indianapolis. where he lit up the Cleveland Browns yesterday. Marcus Marriota is the backup quarterback in Philadelphia. MyBooky.ag, promo code Kevin, D.C. for a cash bonus deposit. Cash bonus, excuse me, on your initial deposit. All right, time to get to the Game Take.

Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, the things that I liked, the things I didn't like, and a few more observations from the 14 to 7 loss to the Giants. A game in which I did pick Washington to win 20 to 19, but I had the Giants in the smell test plus the three. That's where the line was, by the way, kickoff. It was plus two and a half, plus three on Friday, but it was pretty much plus three everywhere, especially when it became apparent that Daniel Jones was not going to play in the game. and that Tyrod Taylor would get his second straight start.

I'll tell you what, if you're a giant fan, Taylor's played pretty well in the two starts last Sunday night against Buffalo and then Washington yesterday. All right, let's get to the game take. Look, there are some things from the game, you know, that deserve some attention from a positive standpoint. I thought Chase Young played really well. You know, I think he was the one player other than Tressaway

that had two good halves of football. He's just played well this year. He really has. I don't want to get the PFF numbers with the pressure rates, etc. Those have been very favorable to him. I still want to see him get home more. I want to see him get more sacks. And he got two sacks yesterday.

Would have been three, maybe two and a half. He may have shared that sack on the play in which Jamon Davis got called for defensive holding in the fourth quarter. But he had multiple pressures. hurries. He drew a penalty or two. He was in the game for most of the game. I think it was 90% of the snaps or something like that. I had that up a second ago. Snap counts. Chase Young yesterday, 90% of the snaps, 61 of the 68 defensive snaps. The most defensive snaps for anybody on that D-line, it's very clear that there is an increasing level of confidence from Del Rio.

that Chase Young is their best playmaking defensive player over the last six games. You know, he missed the opener. Five sacks now in six games, but he's a presence on that defense for sure. Chase Young's on the list of things that I liked from yesterday. Terry McClorn, you know, six catches, 90 yards. He had a drop yesterday. I think it was a drop. It was a defended ball, but still catchable for him.

Those catches down the sideline, the one where he'd, took the big shot, just special. He's just good. He's always good. He's consistent. He's just really, really good. Would have been nice to see him involved earlier in the game. He had one target in the first half. I mean, are you kidding me? But Terry McLaren had a good game. The second half defense, this is an emphasis on the second half defense. It allowed just 100 yards to the Giants, shut out the Giants, had a forced fumble in the red zone to keep the game within reach in the fourth quarter by Duran Payne on Saquan Barkley. The coverage was better. I thought St. Juice kind of struggled in the first half and then

had a pretty good second half. I did. I thought Montez Sweat came up with some really good plays in the game. The second half defense, not the first half defense on the list of things that I liked, the second half defense was pretty good. It's actually a defense that if you just look at it historically doesn't start fast enough and ends up figuring it out and plays well. I mean, they were, remember, lights out in the second half, really the last two and a half quarters of the Denver game after giving up a lot. They were much better, you know, after the Atlanta, you know, much better sort of down the stretch in the Atlanta game. They bent a little bit but never broke and they had three turnovers in the second half of that game.

Second half defense on the list of things that I liked. The second half offense as it relates to the plan in the second half, I liked. Look, there's a little bit of eye rolling here and not necessarily sarcasm, but because the first half, and I'll get to it, was such a disaster. in terms of the plan. I mean, come on. I mean, Eric B. Enemies had some good moments. I've applauded him for some really good moments this year.

Yesterday was not his best moment. They had a terrible plan when you knew what their plan, the Giants plan, would be, which is Wink Martindale blitzes and blitzes a lot. and in the first half there were by my count 14 dropbacks called. This isn't a team that drops back well. It's not. What are you doing? Whether it's the quarterback's fault or the offensive lines fault,

and I'll get to that coming up. It just was a terrible plan. I'm going to get into that more on the list of things that I didn't like. But on the list of things that I liked is they changed the plan in the second half. You know, they did more of what. they've done in recent games, quick games, sprint outs, you know, the dashes, the moving the pocket, the, you know, it took Bianemi a while to get there, but he eventually got there in the second half. And after a first half where they had 46 yards on 26 plays, five sacks and interception

and seven punts, in the second half they had 227 yards on 41 plays. It wasn't great. They only scored seven points, and that was set up by a lot. a fumbled punt return, but at least they didn't embarrass themselves in the second half. So that makes it to the list of things that I liked. By the way, the final drive of the game was their best drive of the day, and it didn't end in points, but like there was no close second. 17 plays 85 yards, a mix of quick game, max protect, run it a little bit, including a zone read in there with the quarterback. And, you know, unfortunately, they couldn't finish the drive.

But that's kind of more what this offense should look like, you know, if you're going to get the most out of it. And by the way, it's not going to stop Sam Hal from developing. You just can't drop them back. Like, what were you looking at heading into this game? A blitz-happy giant defense against a team that has taken more sacks. and is on pace to annihilate the league record for it. So second half offensive plan was on my list of things that I liked. Tressway, you know, 10 punts, as I mentioned, 513 yards of punts.

He set a personal record for punts in yardage in the first half. He punted seven times for 354 yards in the first half. I thought punt coverage was pretty good. I thought Kwan Martin and Diami Brown in particular. Martin nailed gray, their first team punt returner, on the first of the 10 punts on the day, forced to fumble. The Giants recovered that one. Of course, their backup punt returner Sterling Shepard fumbled the other punt.

Look, Washington 14 to 7 was so not reflective of how the game played out. against any team other than a team like the Giants or the Bears, they would have had no chance. That would have been a 35 to 7 blowout against a decent team. Not even a great team. A great team would have probably been up 38 to 10 and taking their foot off the pedal. An average team would have beaten them 31 to 10, you know, 35 to 14, something like that. 14 to 7 was not, they missed.

a field goal in the first half. Washington's only points came off of a botched punt return by Sterling Shepard, who was the backup punt returner. You know, they were in the red zone with Sequin Barclay. Now, Duran Payne made a great play on that, stripping him of the ball, gave him a chance. But the only reason they were in that game with a chance to steal it like they were with the Bears was because it was the Giants. It wasn't, you know. And yeah, they played a little bit better in the second half. All right. By the way, also on the list of things that I liked, Byron Pringle had a 38-yard kickoff return. By the way, I like James and Crowder and punt returns.

One of them got called back for an illegal hold or a block in the back or whatever it was. If they don't want to use Crowder at some point, I think they should. Maybe they can try Johan Dotson back there now because he's taken a big step back this year as a receiver. He was an excellent punt returner when he had opportunities to do that at Penn State. But I like Crowder so far. Pringles, 38-yard kickoff return was on the list of things that I liked.

All right, let's get to the list of things that I did not like from this game. We start with just the first half. Okay, number one on the list of things is the first half. And there are lots of, you know, things to get into. There were many culprits to why the first half. first half was so embarrassing, so disgraceful in terms of the way they played. It cost them the game more than anything else, the first half performance. As I mentioned, against many teams, they would have never, you know, against 20 to 23, 24 teams in this league, there's no chance

they've got the ball down 14 to 7 at the end of the game with a chance to tie or go for two and win it. I kind of felt like if they did score, he was going to go for two. But, there were a lot of culprits. First half is the number one thing on the list of things that I didn't like. It was a really, really poor 30 minutes. I'll start with this as it relates to the first half. Just the coaching staff overall was completely outwitted, completely outmatched in the first half. But I got to put this on Ron as much as anybody else. Like the Bears game, the team just didn't seem to understand. understand that the opponent was their equal. The record of 1 and 5 shouldn't have meant anything if they had been prepared for the game

appropriately. This was always going to be a competitive game. Like if you've been paying attention to this team and paying attention to the Giants, paying attention to NFC East games, I mean, this is Ron's fourth year in the NFC East. these games against familiar opponents in this division are almost always dog fights, regardless of the record. Ron should know that by now. He went into Philadelphia last year on a Monday night as a double-digit underdog against an undefeated team and won.

He's talked about the importance of division games since he's been here. He should know that the Giants 1 in 5, was not really indicative of what they were capable of doing against his team, which wasn't that good to begin with. The Giants looked at Washington like this is the most winnable game we've had on our schedule. We've played an unbelievable schedule so far. I talked about this on Friday, which is why I was concerned, you know, and put out the beware, not like I did with the Falcons or the Bears, but I said, look, they're a banged-up

team. This is a game that you would hope to be able to win, but it's going to be tough. The Giants had played the Cowboys, the Niners, the Seahawks, the Dolphins, and the Bills. And their best game of the year was their last game. Ron had plenty of ammo to make sure his team knew that this was going to be a war of a game despite the fact the Giants were one and five. his team should have been just frothing at the mouth when that game started. Instead, they looked unprepared, they looked sleepy. I would not compare it to as lifeless as they looked in the Chicago game. I think that was an all-time lethargic performance in the first half.

But it was a bad job by the coaching staff to have this team ready for a division opponent who had played their best game and probably was every bit as good as Washington heading in, despite the injuries. Sticking with the theme of the number one thing on my list of things that I didn't like was the first half, I mean, come on, man, what were they doing offensively in the first half? Are you actually serious with that game plan, Eric B. Enemy?

me. Now, I'll preface what I'm about to say with, maybe the game plan was different and they checked to all those dropbacks or the dropbacks were intended to lead to quick checkdowns or, or, you know, whatever. But look, they had a quarterback on a record setting pace for sacks in a season. There seemed to be some acknowledgement of that in recent weeks. I have applauded Eric Bianamy in recent weeks since the Buffalo game for calling a game that kept Sam from taking another nine-sac game. He's been sacked a lot, but there was more quick game, more moving in the pocket, more screens, more max protect, more medium protect when they had to go to drop back throws. But yesterday in the first half, I mean, come on. Did you not know that Wink Martindale was coming

after your quarterback? That's what he does. Eric B. Enemy, boys and girls, had a bad plan and didn't react quickly enough to that bad plan. Five sacks and a half. In a half. The Giants did with the Bears and the Falcons did the last two weeks. They doubled or more than doubled

their season sack total against Washington. The Giants did it yesterday in the first half. They had five sacks coming into the game for the entire season, and they had five in the first half. Again, on Eric, maybe he's got some crazy method to get where he wants to get to. But right now, if that method includes Sam Hal getting sacked 97 times in a season, that's the pace, the updated pace. Maybe he needs to explain the madness to his method. the method to his madness, better said. Because I said after the Buffalo game,

I said if we see something like that again, the constant dropback passes despite it not working, I said that Monday, you know, nine sacks in all those interceptions and all of those drop back calls in the first half and in that game, that was on Eric Bion to a certain degree.

And I said, if it happens again, it's definitely on him. You can't do that again. You can't. You had a first half yesterday where you dropped your quarterback back 14 times. You had a couple of quick game calls. You did. Okay, there was some quick game.

I charted the whole first half. There was some, there was one dash or sprint out, but there was too much drop back. Even though there was some extra man protection in the first half. Let me note that unlike the Buffalo game, unlike the Arizona first half, where they were going a lot of five-man protection, they had Gibson, or they had Robinson Jr., or they had a tight end. But it wasn't, it didn't matter. You don't have a drop-back quarterback. You don't have a drop-back offensive line. You just don't.

You can't do that on second and four. You can't do that unless you're really, unless you have to do it. And even with this team on third and long, I'd throw bubbles. I'd still roll them out. Or you've got to go heavy, heavy max protect. It's not what they did in the first half. They did more of that in the second half. They didn't, you know, leave five on six or five on seven consistently.

They didn't. But the bottom line is you called too many, drop-back passes. You're not a drop-back team. You don't have a drop-back quarterback. You don't have a drop-back offensive line. Five sacks, one interception, zero points, 46 total yards on 26 plays in the first half. Even Matt Ryan on the call for CBS at one point said in the first half, they just drop them back too much. No kidding. No kidding. I mean, you had eight first-half drives. I've never seen, I mean, it's hard to have eight first-half drives.

You usually get like 11 or 12 for the game. I think 11-and-a-half is the average for a game. They had eight first-half drives. And over those eight first-half opportunities, their bad plan, their bad idea coming in, they didn't move on from it. they did in the second half, and I gave him credit for that on the list of things that I liked. Eight first half drives, seven punts and one interception. That's got to be up there with one of the least productive offensive halves with that many possessions ever.

It's incredible. You had the ball eight times and you punted seven times and you had one interception. As I said earlier, like that's either some crazy method to his madness, or he's stubborn or, and I hope this isn't the case, but I think you have to consider it, he's just not seeing what we've seen for seven weeks, that he's got a young quarterback that doesn't thrive in the dropback game and an offensive line that isn't good enough to protect in the dropback game. Next up on the things that I didn't like list with the number one being the first half. Sam Hal was gruesomely awful in the first half, and I don't even put it all

on him. I mean, let me preface this with, I think it was number one on the offensive coordinator in the first half, then the players. And I'd actually put a lot of it on the offensive line. This was actually the first game with a lot of sacks that I didn't think Sam had much of a chance on a bunch of them. I'll go back and watch it, or we'll get coolly to do it hopefully this week. It actually seemed like the offensive line was having major problems. Now, we don't know that some of the protections weren't Sam responsibilities. But, you know, I can't put Sam's horrible performance in the first half solely on him because of sort of the amateur game plan going into it.

But, you know, he did his part two. You know, like there were a couple of times where he had checked down chances he didn't get to it. The interception was a bad read and a poor throw. You know, he was inaccurate more so yesterday than in a lot of games. I thought yesterday was one of the least accurate games he's had. He was five for 14 in the first half for 60 yards, one interception, five sacks. I mean, that's abysmal. Again, let's please move away from crowning him of anything at this point.

Those of you that continue to do it, just show me that you're actually watching the games and admit at the very least that you're not sure about him. That's fair. Not being sure about him is fair. Thinking he's the long-term answer after these seven games, you should be honestly embarrassed to have that take. If you think that he has done enough to prove to you that he's the long-term answer for this franchise,

you are doing what I do during the winter hoping for snow. You're wishcasting. I mean, the idea that people had, and I shot it down every time I heard it on radio anyway, the idea that Sam Hal in his first six games had one bad game, that just wasn't true. That just wasn't true. That's some real rationalizing. He had a rough outing against Arizona. He had an all-time bad game against Buffalo.

He had a bad half against the Bears, had a rough half against the Falcons. Look, he's been hit and missed through seven games. That's the truth. You know, the good's been really good at times. No doubt about it. I've enjoyed a lot of what I've seen from him. The bad's been pretty bad. The sacks, a fatal flaw.

I talked about this being a fatal flaw three weeks ago, two weeks ago, last week. Eric Eager on my radio show last week said he's just a good NFL back. up. We talked about that. This must improve. I'm not giving up. I'm not calling for Jacoby Berset. I love the way he competes. I love the way he competed in the second half. I do want to continue to see Sam Howe this year. I still like a lot of what I've seen from him. I do. I like a lot. I'm just not sure why there's such a rush week in and week out to declare him. They finally got it. They finally got it right. We've got our franchise guy.

No, you don't. Not yet. Long way to go. Long way to go for this kid. I'd like to see him protected more by his offensive coordinator for sure. I'd like a better offensive line for sure. I certainly want fewer dropback passes called unless they're absolutely necessary. And then we need max protection.

Also on the list of first half disaster elements. the offensive line. You know, even with, as I mentioned, some help with, you know, a back chipping or staying in, they couldn't block it up. Sam was under duress, you know, much more quickly than I think he has in the other games, where he was also sacked a lot. You know, maybe a sack or two of the five, you know, you could say he could have hit a checkdown, but I just didn't think, I thought it was probably the worst effort from the offensive line this year.

there seemed to be a lot of confusion. There were some absolute whiffs, Nick Gates in particular. I know that we've talked about the eighth ranked PFF win rate for pass blocking and 13th and next gen. And I've said, you know, those numbers just don't seem right, not based on what I'm watching. Now, I understand and I agree that of the 34 sacks coming in, the majority of them were Sam. Sam's got a problem taking sacks. It's just that in yesterday's game, I thought the offensive line was a problem.

I just think that for whatever reason, look, their front is decent. I mean, Dex, Lawrence is a hell of a player. I mean, let's be honest about Dexter Lawrence. This guy has been great for a while now. Leonard Williams is good. Kavon Thibbido loves playing us. I think O'Kareke, the linebacker and McFadden can both play.

I do. But, yeah, I didn't think the offensive line was very good. Also, it doesn't run block very well. It doesn't run block very well at all. First half disaster list continues. The defense gave up big play after big play. I mean, chunk plays, lots of them. The Giants hadn't scored a touchdown.

Since week three, they scored two in the first half. Six plays of 16 yards or longer. Six plays of 16 yards or longer. Four of 22 yards or longer. By the Giants. Why do they keep giving up these chunk plays? The touchdown pass after Ron took the penalty on third and goal from the 12, I'll get to that shortly in terms of the decision to take the penalty.

Didn't they know that Waller was their biggest dude? and that if the ball was going to the end zone, it was going to him, they just looked so late in reacting. That was a good throw by Ty Tyler Taylor. I thought he played great. I did. I mean, he took some sacks too, but he gets it out quickly. He's a veteran.

He's got something to him. He always has had something to him. But anyway, in Sequin Barkley, look, him being back last week and for this game, even though he got injured during that game, he's a difference maker for them for sure. But the defense, the defense in the first half, you know, not good. In the first half, some Ron decisions that I just vehemently, vehemently, two of them have a problem with. One of them, I think, is more debatable.

I'll start with that one. The penalty that we just talked about, where he could have allowed the Giants to have a fourth and goal from the two before their first touchdown. The touchdown passed to Waller. Instead, he took the holding penalty and gave him another shot at the end of the end of. own third and goal. Now, he obviously thought, well, they're going to go for fourth and goal from the two. I wouldn't have been concerned about that. I would have let him go for fourth and goal from the two. First of all, I'm not so sure that they would have gone for it. Secondly, these are the giants. They've been woeful offensively, and they had not proved much offensively to that point

in that game. Maybe he knew something different about their fourth and two defense that he didn't want to see the Giants run a play. I think that was debatable. I personally, would have declined it and said, go ahead, go for it. But here are the two things that just effing drove me nuts. Sixth offensive drive of the first half. They're down 14-0-0. You've got to do something now. I mean, you've got to do something.

And it's third down and five from the 30-ish yard line. And they took a delay a game penalty. I mean, it wasn't even close. Ron's over there, arms folded, clueless, it would have appeared. oblivious to the fact that they were going to get called for a delay a game penalty. Come on! You've got to be better than that. You've got to be alert. Wake up. Stop. I know at that point you're like, I can't believe we're losing 14 to nothing to the Giants. I can't believe how badly we're playing. I can't believe that my offensive

coordinator keeps dropping our quarterback back. I can't believe, whatever. He was shell-shocked, maybe, like he was at the end of the first half of the Bears game. But you've got to be in it, man. You've got to rush to the referee and call a timeout. Third and ten? Hadn't you seen enough to know that that was a no-chance? Third and five, you've got to convert. It's a first half-time-out.

It's not a second-half time-out. You've got to be the head coach that runs screaming time-out so that the referee, even if you didn't get a time-out, even if you didn't get it in time, they'll give it to you. No, no reaction. Yeah, walk it off. We'll take the delay a game penalty. Inexcusable.

Inexcusable that they allowed that. Really, really awful. And look, I have no idea what was truly going through his mind at that moment. I don't. But you can't allow a five-yard delay a game penalty for a third and ten that you know you're not going to be able to convert. You needed to go do something on that drive. Wake the F up.

Get in the game, coach. And then the end of the first half, the decision not to use timeouts, they had two of them after they stopped the Giants on third down at about the 30-ish yard line. I just find that completely inexcusable as well. Ron had an explanation that he just had seen enough. He wanted to get to the locker room and regroup.

Okay, that's fine, but make them punt the football. You had just almost blocked one. Kaleek Hudson almost blocked a punt. You call a time out with 23 seconds to go, punt block, let's see if we can block one. Maybe the puner will shank one. Maybe Jameson Crowder, if you decide on punt return, will have another one like he had just a week ago. Did you forget?

Crowder had a 61-yard punt return that was massive in the game. in Atlanta. You got to take the time out. If they punt and you don't block it, if they punt and you don't return it, and you want to take a knee from that point because you don't trust it, you know, deep in your own territory,

if it's a really good punt, and they're now 15 seconds to go, I get it after the punt. Make them punt the football. I just, I can't, that to me is tapping out and I don't like the look of it. I didn't like the look of it at the end of the bear's first half.

I didn't like the look of it really over the final many minutes of the first half yesterday. I think the head coach looked out of it at the end of the first half. So on the list of things that I didn't like, the first half cost them any real chance. I know that they had a chance and a real chance. So it didn't cost them any real chance, but it should have cost them any real chance. They didn't deserve any real chance after. the first half they played. There's still more on my list, though. One for 15 on third down. One for 15. Ben pointed something out to me. Going back to the first quarter of the Atlanta game,

they had missed on 19 consecutive third downs. If you go back to their last converted first down until they finally had one in the second half of yesterday's game, they had 19 consecutive third downs without a conversion. They were one for 15 yesterday. They are 31st in the league on third down at 29.4% third down offense. Only the New York Jets are worse. Ten penalties yesterday for 75 yards on the list of things I didn't like. Several of them pre-snap penalties.

They just were unprepared. I don't know. Was it too noisy there in the Meadowlands for a 1-and-5 team? I know it got noisy at times, but they looked unprepared. And again, you know, the delay-a-game penalties, they should have saved with a timeout. The penalty on Wiley after the interception by Banks, you just got to hold that frustration in check

because the Giants added 15 yards to the bank's interception. They had the ball at midfield. Two plays later, you know, Barclay's in the end zone. You can't have that penalty after that interception. So, oh, lastly, Jehan Dodson's drop. Jehan Dodson's season so far. I'm so disappointed.

I'm a big Jehan Johnson. Don Dotson fan, starting to feel like the Josh Doxon era? It isn't. He had five catches for 43 a yard yesterday. Do you know that that was the most yardage? It was his best statistical day of the season. That's pretty pathetic through seven games. And the bottom line is he's got to make that catch at the end. I think it's a first down. I think it's definitely a first down if he makes the catch. Sam does an unbelievable job to avoid the sack. Isaiah Simmons kind of whiffed on it too, but he's got to catch that ball. It's not a great ball. It's not. It's behind him. He's still got to make that catch. You know, good receivers make that catch. Great receivers, it's a no-brainer. He dropped a ball last week in Atlanta. It's a rough first seven games to a season that had big time expectations for Johan Dotson. I know the talents there, and I think we'll see it at times, but that was a big spot there at the end. It was. All right, a few more observations, and then we'll get to Doc. Ron decided to kick that field goal in the fourth quarter, 13 plus minutes to go, fourth and three.

I didn't have an issue with it. I think watching that offense yesterday, the context to it was that the chances of them converting weren't very good. So I'll start with that. I didn't think that they would get the fourth and three. That's one of the reasons I didn't mind the field goal. Now, if it had been fourth and one or fourth and a half, or there had been just, three minutes left in the game or four minutes left in the game or six minutes, five minutes, that's a different story altogether.

Then even if I think it's a one and three chance, I'm going for it. But there were 13 plus minutes left in the game, and the defense had really stepped up. The last five giant drives had ended in a punt. So to me, 14 to 10 with 13 plus minutes left, I was okay with that. I didn't mind that decision. I mean, Leonard Williams blocking the field goal sucked, but I didn't. mind the decision in the moment. In fact, I was thinking with the way the Giants were at that point really struggling offensively and the defense had stepped up, 13 plus minutes, I thought you kick this

field goal, you kick it down, you get a three and out, you get field position, maybe you kick another field goal with six minutes to go, and it's 14 to 13, and then you get another stop and you kick a game winning field goal to win 16 to 14. Look, there were eight drives that they had in the first half, and they were stopping the Giants. at that point. Now, if you told me that Leonard Williams is probably going to block the kick, then I'd say go for it. The challenge on the Hyatt catch, the kid from Tennessee, the 42-yarder, I thought it was worth it in the moment. I mean, that was a field goal range catch. You're down seven. You got to hope that, you know, that foot that was clearly out didn't scrape the grass

before it lifted and then went out. I guess the call was the right call. But I didn't have a problem with that challenge. Duron Payne, the final play when he got injured, it's really important to understand that, you know, when you don't have timeouts left, you better be really, really injured or you better suck it up and get back to the line of scrimmage because there was a chance for Washington to see a snap to Tyrod Taylor or a punter and have that punter or Tyrod Taylor run around the end zone and out of the end zone for safety and maybe get a post safety kickoff or punt with like two seconds to go. There was still a chance for that,

but that chance was eliminated when Duran Payne's injury stopped the clock, and then they reset the game clock to 40. That's a coaching point, you know. You don't have any timeouts left. You need the ball back or you need the clock to run, whichever it is. If you're in offense and need the clock to run, you're in defense, you need the clock, you know, to you need more time. you've got to know that that better be like a broken limb

and you can't get off the field on your own and you're going to be lying there while the play is going on or you suck it up and get back to the line of scrimmage. I wonder if they ever practice that. Chris Rodriguez, I told you guys, last few weeks, they like him, he's going to get more opportunities. He might be the number two back right now. I mean, he had seven carries, Robinson Jr. had eight.

Gibson had two. Seven for 31. He's good. He's got good vision, good feet, really powerful. I think he is a guy that is just going to keep getting more and more carries for them. No, you got to actually call a running play to get him the ball. The other thing, too, nine total snaps was a snap count. Seven carries. I think I mentioned last week. There's a pretty good tell right now. If Chris Rodriguez number 23 comes into the game, they're running the football. seven, nine total snaps, seven carries yesterday. What else did I have? I wanted to see Cody Barton follow up yesterday's game, or last week's game against the Falcons with a good one yesterday, and he got hurt early. So we'll see what that injury is.

And then lastly, before we get to Doc, let me just give you an overall on Sam Hal's day, because I typically give you a grade on Sam Hal. the first half, as I mentioned before, was gruesome, but it wasn't all his fault. The second half was better. Again, the results yesterday for me were not all of his doing. A lot has been during the course of the year. Yesterday wasn't as much.

The first half, to me, was on Eric Bianami, number one, maybe offensive line two and then Sam. The second half plan was just much better for him. That's what we need to see. You know, he had a couple of good deep throws to Terry in particular, but off three-step drops, threw him really well with touch. We've seen that before. The fourth and one on the final drive to Terry, where he's backpedaling, and he gets the throw off.

We've seen him deliver on some of those fourth down throws. That was a big-time throw. The throw earlier in that drive, the final drive of the game from Washington, they had max protect and he threw on a second long to Pringle over the middle. That was a really good throw. But I really think more than the sacks yesterday, he just was off, you know, maybe a little bit rattled. At some point, you know, you'd think he would get rattled with as many hits as he's taking, but he really hasn't as of now. But he missed Terry High on the first play of the final drive.

There were other misses, too, including the ball on third down at the end. Before the Dotson drop on not a great throw, you've got to acknowledge the drop. You also have to acknowledge it wasn't a great throw. But on that third down play, Terry's got man coverage in the end zone. Your best player, man coverage. Give him a chance. He sailed it, sailed it over his head. It's amazing that Hal avoided the sack by Isaiah Simmons on that final play.

But, you know, I think one of the things we won't know necessarily is how much of this pre-snap, unblocked, rusher issue with the corner yesterday on a sack, with Simmons there on the final play. How much of that is on Sam? I don't know. He did not know that Isaiah Simmons was coming on that final play. And Simmons just completely whiffed. Sam did a good job of making him, you know, look bad on that whiff, but that should have been the seventh sack of the day. It was right there. Sam had no idea that he had an unblocked, blitzing linebacker. off that edge. I thought he did a good job a couple times avoiding sacks.

There could have been more. I thought he did a good job with some scrambles, especially the one up the A gap in the first half. The interception was completely on him. Two more balls that, certainly one ball that should have been intercepted, the dropped pick six by Thibodeau. That was a terrible throw by Sam.

There was another one in the first half that went right through the hands of the DB. I forget who it was. It was incomplete. I mean, the Thibodeo play should have been, game over. I don't know what he's thinking. That was a bad play by him. Overall, for Sam, you know, it was a D performance. Again, with an emphasis on he shouldn't have been put into the position he was put into in the first half. You know, whether, you know, combination of play calling for sure, the bad plan going in, and an offensive line that, you know, just can't do the dropback thing

consistently. He had more balls deflected at the line of scrimmage yesterday. I don't know how many that is on the year, but it's a lot. That's a problem. His size is a problem. You're in Dreamland, if you don't think that that is part of the issue right now. May have been part of the issue at Carolina, too. Maybe he just doesn't see it, you know, but the deflections, you know, you've got to find a really good offensive scheme and system where the lanes that Sean Peyton opened up for Drew Brees are there. The grounding penalty. I wanted to mention that. I thought Robinson Jr. was in the vicinity of the throw. I don't think Sam knew he was. I think Sam was trying to, as he said last week, find an incompletion versus taking another sack,

which he did. He found the incompletion. It was called grounding. I didn't love the call. Usually they'll give the quarterback the benefit of the doubt if the receiver is anywhere near it. And I thought the receiver was close enough. He wasn't super close to it, but close enough. But I think that they called it because they knew Sam had no idea. that Robinson Jr. was anywhere near where he was throwing the ball. He was grounding the ball. That's what he did. He was throwing it away and he was still in the pocket to avoid the sack. It just happened that Robinson Jr. was close enough to where the ball was going that they could have let him off the hook on that one, but they didn't. Anyway, that's my game take. Doc Walker coming up.

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All right. Jumping on with me right now after I just spent a lot of time talking about his team yesterday and the game that it played is my very good friend, Richard Doc Walker, where it's time for X's and O's. Burundie and gold. All right. Let me hear. your thoughts on the 14 to 7 loss to the Giants? I was highly disappointed. I think I got suckered in again. I purposely don't listen to you on Friday, so I don't let you influence me

because you're usually right in terms of where to put your money at, but it doesn't mean that my team will win. I thought, well, wink, Martindale, I love him because he tells you what he's going to do. They're coming. You know it. So I go, we'll have a counter for that wrong.

We would sleepwalking once again in the first half. I don't know what happened. Who got in St. Juice's body and took his skill set. Tell the bears one. And I just, at this point was a little bit, and I know, called me a fool. I got caught off guard again. I thought we'd go in there and train wrecked the jets, giants, or whomever the hell they were. They had people they got from used cars, parking lots,

and they rented some people to come on the offensive line, and they still got away with murder. And I don't know what more I need to see. I don't know why I keep getting suckered in to this. Nothing's going to change because they're not responsive to any lessons that are being taught throughout the week. I'm not going to say to be motivated. Why do I have to motivate grown-ass men to get a check?

but clearly you do. It's just not happening. So I want to start with the first thing that you talked about. Everybody knows that Wink Martindale likes to Blitz, right? Yep. Everybody who's watched our team this year knows that we've got an issue with sacks, right? Especially in dropback. So why wasn't there a better plan on offense in the first half?

Well, I'm sure you get that Thursday. when the chords talk or when you and Ron talk, maybe they'll be playing to you. When Ron and I talk later today, yeah, right, okay. Yeah, well, come on, you're an insider. You're privileged. And look, that's why we listen. So we know you'll get to the bottom of us. Just tell me why the offensive coordinator didn't recognize that dropping his

quarterback back consistently, as Dexter would say, was a bad. bad idea going into this game. I wish I could answer that. I really do. Larson was my MVP of their team last year, and he's yet to be on the field

that I can recall. The guys that were going up against Gates, they were whipping his behind in practice. They already knew that was going to be a problem for them. I'm just at a loss that the Giants didn't try to trick you. I love that.

And we didn't seem to have the right plan for that. And once again, what we were thinking, and you had the guy on last week, and I'm sorry, I didn't credit you. I must say, I don't know what happened. But I heard him with Grant Danny, same guy you had on. And when he said, it's not, you can't fix what he has. It's not going to be fixed. And at that time, I thought, boy, that's really, really strong.

then I'm looking at this, I'm going, well, suppose he's right. That would explain why people didn't take a chance on it. And for the first time, now I thought he should have been replaced when he was getting his brains beat out earlier just to save him. Now I'm going, no, I'm still trying to win a game. We lose a game? 14 points? And I didn't think at that point, I'm not trying to nurse, mentor,

I'm trying to win the game. and it just becomes clear to me it did yesterday that he was not the guy at the point that was going to help you do that. And so if you don't go to your bench and you're paying a guy a lot of money to be there, now I'm starting to question

what the hell is going on over there. So you would have gone to Brissette yesterday. Again, I would, of course. You've got to make a determination. That's why you're the coach and not a fan. You've got to make a decision. It might not be a pot. one, it's got to be a hard one.

How do I win the game? The guy I've got in now is missing people. Then we get a pick. He doesn't have it. You've got to determine does he have it or not have it. How can I win the game? And once again, we don't pull the court. You know, you just

made a really good point. I think, not that you don't usually. You always make good points. Hallelujah. You finally caught on. Maybe I get my Friday. Yesterday was a day in which It wasn't just the plan. It wasn't just the execution. It wasn't just he was sitting there, whatever.

He was also missing throws. You said, you know, he missed throws yesterday. I don't know. Maybe the wind had something to do with it, but he missed some throws. Like on the play before the Dotson final play of the game, Terry's in man coverage. You've got to give Terry a shot there.

He doesn't even give a chance. And he's doing a great job at it. And he's been doing a great job. Terry, he's, he's, worth all that. When you want to start measuring a guy, that's your measuring stick. No excuses. He's doubled. Whatever. It don't matter. Throw him the damn ball and let him come up and make a play. That's a playmaker. Like Wilder, the guy they have who had busted a grape all year. Everybody gets fat on us. Guys haven't done anything. And all of a sudden, you knew it was

up with St. Juice. With Cameron Curl, I thought we were equipped. for this. And now to their point, they're probably saying, hey, big mouth, we give a 14 points. And I got to say, yep, you're right. You probably did enough for us to win if we had a way to score points. And we don't. And when our special teams fail us, stick a fork of us. That's our secret weapon. We cannot lose anything on teams. The margins are so close, but yet we were still in the game. You had a chance to win the game. And I would would have rather been critical today after a tight win. That's what we should be talking about.

We stole one. We got away with murder again, but we didn't. And we hardly ever do. And we're saying the same old crap every week now. This is obvious. Dead man walking. Yeah, I mean, they had a chance to steal one. Like at the end of the Bears game, when Joey Sly missed that field,

they actually had a chance to steal one, but we're talking about against the Bears and the Giants. I want to go back to Sam's Sack flaw that you heard somebody say on the Grant and Danny show last week, not my show. No, I know. You, but it was on you first again, but I had a zoo. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I know you. No, no, no.

You deserve credit to that. No, no, no, no. I don't even care. I'm just giving you a hard time. We're all one team. Well, kind of. Good move on your porch. Yeah.

Well, yeah, I understand. So, I ask Jay Gruden this on Friday. And I'm going to ask you this question. You are a long time not only observer of the NFL, you played and you're a championship NFL player. So the data actually says that once you have this problem of taking a lot of sacks, more times than not, like a lot more times than not, it just doesn't improve.

Like it just ends up being a stable number. Now this number that he's got going this year, This can't be normal, obviously. But for whatever reason, if you're a quarterback that takes sacks in college, takes sacks early in his NFL career, you end up typically more times than not being a quarterback that takes a lot of sacks throughout your career. If you end up having a career. Why do you think that is?

Jay Gruden didn't have an answer. Why do you think that that is something that typically doesn't improve with time? And if Jay doesn't, and Jay knows a hell of a lot more about offensive football than I do, as an observer, I choose to think, I put everything on whoever is in charge of the operation. It's not my job to help anybody get through anything. My job is to replace them until they get it right. I'm not your parent. This is not a daycare.

You play, and if you can't overcome something, I get the other guy, another guy in. And if he can't replace, I get another guy in. And if I don't do that rapidly, they're going to replace me. That's what should be the order. We portraying this like a soap opera because we're soft as jello. We have forgotten the principles that were established here back in the day. It's about next man up, best man plays, only to strong survive.

We have become a joke. We're pandering to people. But that ain't the way this go. It's pro-frikin football. You're paying a fortune for a guy to back up that doesn't never get to play. And the guy's about to set a record I thought would never be broken by car and with the Texans. And yet our guy's going to beat this in Warp Drive, which will me end up. If you like him, and I do, do you want to have him permanently damage, leave him in.

leave him in. When you took Forbes and put him out, let him take a look at it. What's the difference? What's the difference? How much better do you think it would have been with Berset then? It sounds like you don't really, and I understand what you're saying. And you know what? I don't know that anybody has an answer.

To me, it would make sense, by the way, on my question to you, obviously I don't have the answer. If Jay Gruden doesn't have the answer and you don't have the answer, I don't have the answer. I don't have the answer. To me. I do know this. What? What you do is not working.

I actually think yesterday was, you know, a lot of these sacks have been on him all year, and I haven't broken down the tape like you've probably broken down the film already. No, no, I was waiting on you. Why would I do it? You're going to do it. But there wasn't a lot of time, it didn't seem, yesterday. But still, he had time on occasion to probably get it out or get it to a checkdown. It looked like they had some built-in checkdowns more so than they had recently.

But anyway, to me, what I was going to say to you was that it's, you have to see it as an NFL quarterback. And if you don't have that natural ability to kind of see it and feel it, and I'm talking about see it pre-snap, see it post-snap, the processing that all the quarterback gurus talk about, that can improve, but it doesn't improve significantly. It's something that you have to have almost naturally. The ability to go, one, two, check down, boom, like really, really quickly. Maybe, I don't know. What Kirk has. Kirk has. Yeah, of course.

What Bobby didn't have. Bobby didn't have. As much as we love Bobby. He didn't have it. He'll never have it. But see, this is where you can't be have friendships. You can't be, get emotionally tied into it. It's strictly business.

And you've got to think about the team more than a position or a side of the ball. I don't have a preference. I just simply want to win the game. and I'm going to exhaust myself. If I had an owner, if I had a boss that I had to answer to, he has a new one, but they don't seem to be having any dialogue. But I would want to go, tell me, Ron, what were you thinking? And why didn't you give the other guy a shot?

We're paying the guy an enormous amount of money. If not, I could be putting that money into trying to attract a free agent to block for the quarterback. You've got to do one or the other. you either protection first still but do one of the other to doing nothing this didn't sneak up on you

wing martindale's like my kind of guy he gives you the finger and tells you I'm coming right it's like we're going to do about it yeah and I thought our guy the enemy would counter that

by going I got one for you he didn't he didn't we didn't cut the pocket half he didn't move as much as I thought we should move the pocket why are we so obsessed with a pocket that's hardly ever there. So get creative and move it.

I was disappointed. First time this year I've been disappointed in our plan. Because it comes down to a plan and then it comes down to execution of the plan. Right. Not that complicated. Yeah, the plan was not a good plan in the first half. No, I didn't think it was a good plan. I didn't like it.

All right. They played hard. They played hard. You know, and our vaulted defense, they just, guys that got at Home Depot and they came out and plugged a gap. We didn't dominate it. We don't know what domination looks like. You don't pay enough attention.

Watch Cleveland. Watch Miles Garrett. Let me give you guys a break. I'll give you a tip. You need to cut up a highlight film of some real predators that are in the league right now today and show it to our team. Clearly they don't get it.

Y'all have applauded them so much and patted them on the back over and over and over. They lost focus in the terms of what the objective really is. They should have wrecked New York. They didn't wreck New York. That's fair. If that's

your version of wrecking somebody, then say hello to last place. Right. Holding them to 14 points, that's more about maybe the Giants than Washington wrecking them. Look, they stopped them in the second half, but they gave up more chunk plays in the first half. Although I did think

Well, let me just hear what your answer is How do you think Chase Young played? Okay. Did he wreck the game? Did they have to stop the game? No, not at all. Tell, I was blocking him. He did what he should have done.

But I needed more. See, that's where we go again. We think that was something great. I go, they were average, above average, the best. They didn't wreck the game. They brought in stand-up extras. of the stand and got away with a game and won. How do you win against our guys and win the game?

That was it? That was it. Okay, well, they're good because y'all are stats fanatics. So if you get pressures and whatever new stat comes out, he did have two sacks and he had a third that was wiped out by a Jamie Davis. He needed to get five. He needed to wreck the game. they should have canceled the game and said, look, we cannot allow this guy to do what he's doing.

They should have threw him out of the game for abuse because he was unstoppable. That's what I was looking for. But y'all take that. Y'all gets so excited because now PFF, he's going to hit all these variables. He's going to be in the top ten and press. He's going to do all these things on paper, but it doesn't result in Ws whatsoever. And y'all love that. So it's great. It'll get new commercial.

Go on and film some new stuff. But you will be in last place again. What is going on with Johan Dotson? You thought he was going to be a real, you thought he was the real deal too. I know. I really did. You were one of the people that said during that first summer, oh, they got it right with this one. He can play.

What's going on? Yep, exactly. again, this is while it's like parenting. Everybody has their own version of it. All that matters is the results. Frangle, we got all these guys over there, but we got too many up. I'll tell you, the kid from the Buckeye right now seems to hungry.

The two Buckeyes right now seem to be scalling hot, hungry. I'll try to make plays. Terry and Chittarry? Terry McClure? My God, yes. Terry and four. And four. But I do. Let me tell you what.

Tell you what. Plan. That's not my job. That's not what they pay me to do. They pay people over there to evaluate who's hot, who needs the ball, feed him. Terry, he is everything and plus more.

See, I keep saying this. I know you never listen, but I go, when do we get our money's worth? I like that we pay people. But are we getting our money's worth? that's my point I think we get ripped off I think we're horrible

in terms of making judgment I got a pot of goal I'm willing to give it to whoever wants but you got to earn it we get so excited over the wrong things I need to win first I pay you to win

and we seem to be into y'all into all the numbers the variables all the programs don't talk to me about that you can talk to other people no no no no you love that No, I don't.

You love it. You like to say that I love it, but I don't love it. No, no, no. But you do know how it works to make money. You've been killing it. What, it would just stick to the subject, okay? Okay, all right. All right.

What else? What else about yes? Was there anything good from the game? Yeah, the plane did crash. Oh, my God. Would you It's a crampill, man What do you want me to say?

Okay, if you... You break me on As if you don't think I'm going to tell you the truth. Well, no, I'm prepared. I'm prepared for Wainterndale. I know you're coming with heat. I'm prepared for it.

Yeah. I'm prepared for it. And we got our ass. Do you think, if you were the owner, I'm not going to ask you to project because you don't like to do hypotheticals, you don't like to predict, see how prepared I am? Why would I?

I can't. You're the king of that. So if you were the owner, other than demanding a reason why they didn't play Brissette yesterday, and would you be looking to make a change in season at head coach? No, see, that's not my style. My style is what I've asked for the last three weeks if you were a listener. Somebody needs to be boots on the ground at the park. I realize you've got the devils and the six.

I don't give a damn about that. I need somebody assigned to the Washington commanders that's at the park 24-7 that is there to help them. They need help. And I'm not talking about 2029. I'm talking about now. How do I get a chance? I got 10 weeks to go. I need to be able to beat the Eagles.

How does the group help this team beat the Eagles? So I need somebody boots on the ground at the park 24-7 that's there to help and assist them in any means. possible. That's what I'm looking for. Not 20, 24, 5, and 6. I'll give a damn about a new stadium. I care about how can we beat the Eagles upcoming, and what are you doing to help me do that? Is that so far hard to understand? No, it's not. And I know how you hate division losses. It was almost like they didn't know they were playing a division opponent yesterday that might be up for the game. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Total switching of subjects. Did you watch some of the baseball this weekend? Oh, my God. Two-pick? I don't miss Dusty. Let me tell you what. It's some of the best, most competitive thing. Phillies, which I call them the Curly Ws down the street.

Up the street. And I'm watching, and I'm not mad because we got a chip. Had we not won at all, I'd be furious. But we did, won at all. And now our team is everywhere else still playing. You know what knows when you're bad? it's when guys you don't retain keep playing. He's like the Trent Williams of the world,

and people that are still in the league actively participating, and they're not with you. You know a kid in Minnesota who people like to mock, yet you've never replaced him. You've never done better than him. That's a perfect example of rotten management. It's when the decisions you make fail over and over and over, and you don't accept it.

You don't accept it. And people let you get away with it. I've got the worst gig in America, post-game show for this game. All right? No, you laugh. You laugh. You used to be in the business. I know.

I did it. I did it. I know. I know you got out of it. You were smart. Well, I did the pregame much longer, which was the post game. A piece of cake. Anybody can do the pregame.

100%. The post game, worst job in America. Post game is the worst job. in America. You know right now that you're really really need help. For this team, it's been the worst gig ever. It's the worst gig in America. Okay? And I look at it and I love it because I get to hear people that plane trips, train trips, passionate, flew all over the country. And they get booed and mocked and laughed at

wearing these colors and they still do it. I love them. I'll never quit on them. Never, never, because I know what they put into this thing. I feel so bad for, again, because same old crap show. Same old crap show. And I'm saying, we got 10 weeks. Are y'all going just quit? Or we're going to keep fighting? You realize it's 10 weeks. We're still in this. I know I know. I know you're going to laugh. I know. I know. I know. I know. Look, I mean, this is the crazy thing about this league that we all love. It just yesterday, four teams that were one in five, one, four of them. And next week, you'll probably have a couple of teams that are one in six or oh and six

or oh and seven. They'll win at some point. This league is so unpredictable and as bad as the losses to the Bears and the Giants are. They're three and four. and if somehow they put a couple of games together, they'd be right back in this thing. And you're right. But they're not a good team.

But they're not a good team. No, they're not. No, they're not. But you know what? Very few teams are very any good. Mm-hmm. Any good. Seriously.

No, you're right. The league is beautifully set up for the disadvantaged. Because you've got a chance. Even with this group, you've got a chance. And I just say, as long as we have a chance, let's just keep going for it because it could happen. Crazier things that happened.

The Atlanta Falcons went down to beat Tampa. This is a disadvantaged franchise, but even the disadvantaged, they give them a shot. This league gives them a shot. You got a shot. The best league, sports league, on the planet.

So good. Because it does keep you hope. It teases you. But, and it's really, you can get in this thing and hide and make a fortune. All right. Because it is so many incompetent people that have positions of influence. I've never seen anything like this in my life.

Last question. Would you, since you're pretty adamant that they should have put Jacoby Broussett in the game yesterday, would you start him Sunday against the Eagles? No. No. No, no. I'm not down on San. Sam's young.

Sam's doing everything that you thought possibly could happen. he's still a really good investment, but I'm not willing to lose games as a result of his growth. I don't think I should have to be penalized if I've got a veteran. Why else do you have a veteran? Why are you overpaying to have a competent backup if you're not going to use it at all? You could have put that money in the office alignment. We already know the plan was disastrous, okay?

We can talk about that in the off season. We already know where they failed. They took a shot and they got blown up in their face. O line, O line, O line. Okay, we all know that. Too late for that. Now, how do you salvage it? My MVP still ain't played yet.

Can help you in the offensive line. You're trying to do something. It's not working. Larson. Damn right. My MVP. You got to stop the bleat, man. You've got to stop inside penetration.

And the guys you got in there, he's giving you the best. He's got it's not good enough. That's why you have it. That's why you have it. Quit following it. love what you did. That's why we have him. We have him because he's not good enough. That's why he's here. But see, Doc, that's, to me, I agree they failed in the off season, but the issue has been and will be for a little while longer.

And now that Dan's gone, we hope it'll change. But it's not like you can go out and choose the best players. They have to want to come here. The only thing you can do to guarantee they're on your roster is, to draft them. And I do actually think they wanted to draft an offensive line. And a kid from Tennessee that ended up going toward them. No, no, no, no, no.

The, where did he go? No, I guarantee you it's a choice. I loved him. He was the angriest person in the draft. I mean, I know it's your thing. No, no, no. It was, he went to, the kid, I'm looking it up right now. I'm just blanking. Darnel

Wright went to He went to Chicago. He went to Chicago. Oh, she's right. You're right. You're right. North. Chicago.

Yeah. Detroit. Yeah. Yeah. He went to Chicago. But there's the guy that we laughed at. Not so funny. Now, even though they lost, whatever.

But look with Dan. See, the things we mock and we do it for fun and we're in the entertainment business as well. But you knew you were right. Your gut was on. You were right. And you knew it. But unfortunately, you don't have a position of influence of power with that organ, with

disordinated thing. I thought you always said I had some influence. I don't have any. I don't have any. Do you have none now. Doc's been on the boat. Doc gets invited and has been invited to all the big functions over the years. He had the ear. He had the ear of everybody.

Always had the ear of everybody. That no longer is the case. Max Scherzer tonight. Game 7 in Houston. I'm salivated. He pitched World Series Game 7 for us when five innings, gave up two runs, but gutted it out. Yeah.

I don't know, man. I think they're in trouble with him. This is what sports is all about, man. I don't want to know where you're laying in your money. This is what people, this is why you're the guy. You people are waiting. Stop, stop, stop doing that to me. I, I'm looking at the numbers right now.

Wow. Houston's just minus 1.30 tonight with Javier against Max. I don't know. Maybe I like Texas. bet against Max in his first start in this series. Yeah, yeah. And he got shelled. Maybe he'll pitch better tonight. It was good, but his location was a little bit. Yeah, who would you expect? Yeah. Stand on him now. You got two pick at home, okay? I'm telling you, man, this is, this is what we live for to me.

I know Wizards, NBA, you're about to lose your mind. No, not in the regular season. Not in the regular season. No, it's about to start, though, Tuesday. You're on. They start Wednesday. Well, I thought we start, too. Okay, Wednesday. You start Tuesday. You was in the Lakers.

Doc's, you know, a Lakers fan. They open up with the world champions. They open up with the world champions tomorrow night. The Nuggets. Yeah, well, it's the ratings. Lakers like the Cowboys. Good, better, and different. Yeah, I understand.

They bring eyes. Right. So they get tempted a lot because people are going to watch like the Cowboys. Have they not been on national TV yet? When is the Cowboys' first one o'clock start? Is it going to be one? They haven't played a one o'clock game yet. They're probably right.

They're in prime time every week. Every week. No matter what. This Sunday against the Rams, one o'clock. This is their first one. It's the first time. Yeah. First time against the lambs.

Yeah. All right. That's good marketing, man. I appreciate this. We don't have any must-watch teams in town right now, unfortunately. But. And that's so bad. I mean, Obey, poor guy, he's given his gut.

He's given us so much. but eventually it's going to be noticeable and that's going to be painful when he's not throwing the biggest hits that shot from his spot when those things kind of kind of go away we're going to do hockey here it's going to be hard man

you want to do some hockey tomorrow on the show I'd love to anytime fuck are you kidding me I'll talk to you and when you do it I'll talk to you later didn't man but you please

you know what that's I love them you're so lucky he's the best They have that day in your life. And please, please, just every once in a while. Give him a pat on the back. I do all the time. You know that. All right, good.

All right. I appreciate you. Thank you. Doc Walker, everybody. At Doc Walker, everybody on Twitter. You can listen to his podcast at patreon.com slash Doc Walker. One quick thing before we leave. I mentioned on Friday, I might have a Monday night smell test selection.

I do. Minnesota plus the seven tonight. against San Francisco. 9-1-1 over the weekend, 5-1 yesterday on the NFL. One more selection, the Vikings plus the seven. There are six and a halves out there.

There are sevens out there. Try to find a seven. This is why you should have more than one spot, which is why I recommend mybooky.orgie.ag promo code Kevin D.C. But the Vikings is the final smell test pick of the weekend plus the seven tonight against the 49ers. All right. Back tomorrow.

with Tommy. I just think they drop him back too often. You know, it's one thing to have past attempts, but movement in the pocket, moving him outside the pocket, excuse me, play action pass limits the opportunities for hits.