The Kevin Sheehan Show - "Cooley and Kevin" for 40

Episode Date: December 7, 2018

Kevin starts the show talking about Alex Smith's condition, the Terps' loss at Purdue, and Derrick Henry's record run last night against the Jags. Cooley joins the show for 40 minutes of Skins and NFL talk. He talks about what he likes and doesn't like about Mark Sanchez, why the Skins' running game isn't working, and the player who has surprised him in recent weeks with impressive performances. Cooley & Kevin do "Friday Football Quick Picks" together which is followed by 11 "Smell Test" picks. The show finishes up with "Skins Score and More" predictions with Andy Pollin. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. I'm here. Aaron's still on vacation. He's back next week. Corbin's been doing a great job all week long. This show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.com and tell them we told you to call. Coolie coming up in a few minutes and then 11 smell test picks later on. I like a lot of games in the NFL. This could be really a step-back week, considering over the last three and a half weeks, I am 30 and 11 against the number. Redskins beat Giants coming up shortly as well. Look, today, the statement, the reports yesterday from Ian Rappaport and then eventually

Diana Rusini and others about Alex Smith and the infection. and the multiple surgeries following the broken leg. And then the team statement, it was shocking yesterday. I had no idea. And the only reason any of us would have any idea would be based on things that the team said or reporting on the injury. We did have that report, remember last week from Adam Schefter or shortly after the injury, that it was a more serious break and that it could have been a career-threatening break of his leg. but there hasn't been much since and I know there there were some blog activity on this

particular injury yesterday too and maybe that's where some of this started good for them on the reporting side but you know the the news that his legs infected and there have been complications from these surgeries since he got injured on November 18th and then reading the statement from the team yesterday that sounded so ominous I'll read it if you haven't heard it. The team put out a statement yesterday. Quote, on behalf of Alex Smith, we appreciate all of the concerns and prayers over the injury he incurred on November 18th against the Houston Texans. Although this is a serious injury, Alex and his family remain strong. We would ask that everyone please honor the Smith family's request for privacy at this time. Closed quote. Whoa.

I mean, when you read that statement, that sounds serious to grave. That is the kind of statement you read when someone is dying. I was blown away reading that statement when the team put it out yesterday. And it's clear that the team understands that this is a very, very serious matter. And, you know, the reaction to that statement on social media was exactly the way I reacted to it. It made it sound like this man's life or potentially his leg was in danger. ESPN's Diana Rusini did follow-ups with some reporting that the concern is definitely that it is a career-ending injury. He's still in the hospital.

Look, at this point, who cares about his career? You just pray for Alex Smith and you worry about the talk about future quarterbacking and, you know, salary cap ramifications and what the team's going to do at quarterback. You wait on that until he's okay health-wise. I know that that is part of the conversation among us, the fans, but the first and foremost thing is this guy is a good guy. I mean, I did not really have a chance to get to know Alex at all. The recent quarterbacks actually, I knew Kirk a little bit. I knew Rex a little bit. I knew Donovan a little bit because I did Donovan show.

But, you know, having left the radio station in the middle of the summer before the season started, I have not had a chance to talk to Alex or get to know him at all. And a lot of people, the people that I know that have, just say, He's a great dude. And you can see in the reaction from his teammates what they think of him. Man, that is, that is, that came out of nowhere yesterday, I thought. The reporting on this was clearly behind what had been happening here over the last week. And so now you just pray for him that he gets better and he gets healthy.

And we can worry, we'll have plenty of time to talk about, you know, what's ahead. Look, that conversation was going to take place anyway, right? I mean, it was going to take place anyway about the quarterbacking position because coming off that injury, he wasn't going to be ready until at the very earliest next summer. So you had to think about bringing somebody else in. I also still find it interesting that Colt McCoy's injury has not yet landed him on injured reserve.

They're still saying he is doubtful to return this season, but they haven't ruled it out. I guess the broken leg or the fractured fibula was more of a cracked fibula situation. Interestingly, both Colt McCoy and Alex Smith were in hospital rooms right next to each other when Colt came back and went into the hospital to repair his leg. Before we get to Redskins beat Giants, a couple of things from last night. First, I'll start with the Maryland loss at Purdue. Painful to watch. painful to watch. It's early in the season, and I read every single one of your social media

responses to me and to the situation last night about the game. Let's keep in mind, it's December. This team is young, and it's not going to be the same team when we get to January. You can clearly, without any question, see the talent that Maryland has. They are a talented team this year. They have no less than two NBA players, more likely three, on their team right now. In Fernando, Jalen Smith, and I think Aaron Wiggins is an eventual, he's not a one in dunner and hopefully not a two in dunner, but he's an NBA player as well down the road. And they didn't score what seemed like for an hour last night. Now, in reality, they made one bucket in the final seven and a half minutes of the game.

One, Jalen Smith knocked down a jump shot. Their other points were on free throws. They had 54 points with seven and a half minutes to go in the game. They ended on 60 in a 62 to 60 loss at Purdue. In a game where, to me, watching the game, I think Maryland is a more talented team than Purdue. Yes, I do. For those of you that said, this is a winnable game, they're better than Purdue.

They're more talented than Purdue. Yes, they are. Now, what happened down the stretch was really bad half-court offense by Maryland. Turnovers and shots that had no chance of going in. Too many of them. How much credit do you give Purdue's defense? You give Purdue some credit defensively. Matt Painter, for those of you that have listened to me over the years,

you know that he has always been one of my favorite coaches. I think he's one of the most underrated, under-talked-about head basketball coaches in college basketball. His teams are always tough, hard-nosed, defensively very good, and so well-coached from an offensive half-court standpoint. The Big Ten is a grind-it-out half-court league. It's always been that way for some reason, always. I don't know if it's the Midwest, you know, ethic and culture of tough, hard-nosed, grind it out. But that's what these games are. And Maryland is a team with this group that will thrive up-tempo and playing fast.

But it's hard to play fast in the Big Ten against some of these very well-coached teams who get back on defense, who, you know, work your games. defense for 15, 20, 25 seconds, 30 seconds of a shot clock where you're working hard and they've got you out of position and they're able to offensive rebound a little bit. It's hard. Now, Maryland rebounded very well last night. They had 16 offensive rebounds. The game really came down to Maryland's inability to protect the basketball. 17 turnovers in the game. Some of them really unforced. And those are the ones that are really frustrating. Um, Yeah, their half-court offense down the stretch was impacted by Purdue's defense, but really impacted more by their inability to figure out how to get somebody open and get a good shot.

I personally would have done the following. I would have had Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith, who Purdue decided they did not have to guard from mid-range or deeper. I would have continued to let them shoot. Bruno Fernando knocked down a three midway through the second half, and he didn't shoot again from behind the three point line, even though they would have given him another two or three attempts before they went out to guard him. He can shoot it, man. And if you haven't seen Bruno Fernando yet, this dude is making money already this year. He's going to be a first round pick in the 2019 June draft. He is, he's gotten so.

much better. You know, for all of those, for those of you that want to slam turgeon for a lot of different things, this Fernando, Bruno Fernando is getting better. He's getting coached up. He's getting better. He's improving. I just don't know why he's hesitant or the coaching staff is hesitant to let him shoot the mid-range jumper or even the three, which Jalen Smith can do also. And if you've got two bigs who can stretch the floor, do you. you know how much easier that makes it for Anthony Cowan, Daryl Morsell, Eric Ialla, Aaron Wiggins, and company to get into the paint and get to the rim. I thought that looked like the strategy half court wise to invert your offense, to bring your bigs out and make them, and let them

knock down some shots to force Purdue out. And for whatever reason, that's not what, that's not the direction they went in. Fernando had only seven attempts from the floor. It's not enough in a game like last night. He had nine points, 13 rebounds. This was a game where I thought he could have easily gone for 15 to 17 with at least another one to two three-pointers that would have been huge in a game like this, huge, because they had the ball with three seconds to go down two. And they couldn't even get a shot off. Well, the shot they got off was contested. Anthony Cowan had it blocked. I actually thought there was a little bit of contact on that last shot, but whatever.

You're not going to get that call on the road at the end of a game. It was not a good last set either because Cowan was really, really, he struggled with the defense, but I don't put it all on him. I think that there was not a lot of room to operate, and I think they could have created room with Jalen Smith and Bruno Fernando out on the parade. perimeter. They've got the ability how many teams can take their big guys out, pulling the big guys from the other team out and away from the rim. And everybody that knows basketball knows what that does to the paint and your ability for your other players to get to the rim when that paint is uncuttered. And last night,

for whatever reason, it didn't happen. It's not a bad loss losing to Purdue on the road. It just was a missed opportunity last night to snag one that would have really looked good, I think, when we got to March. Maryland's a good team. I mean, they are a good team, and they're going to win a lot of games this year. It's just that recently, and I know this, and I feel your frustration, recently some of these road games that have looked winnable in the last few years haven't been one. Other thing I wanted to mention real quickly was just the Derek Henry run last night in the

Jacksonville Tennessee game. First of all, I gave a lean out last night on the over, and it went over. Nobody had the over last night. The nine to six game they played initially, and then Jacksonville scores recently had the public, and this is a rare position where the public actually liked the under in the game last night, which went off at 37. May have been as high as 38, but the game went 39 points in total, so it went over the total, and I gave that out as a lien, not a smell test official release, but a strong lean. But Derek Henry's run on a 99-yard run. First of all, it changed the game because Jacksonville had a first and goal situation

and then a fourth and won, and they didn't score to take the lead because it was a 7-2 game at that moment. And then Derek Henry went 99 yards with multiple stiff arms, tossing defenders aside. How do some of those defenders not go low? How do they stand up? on Derek Henry and not go low for the legs. There were multiple opportunities to do it. But he tied the NFL record for the longest run in NFL history.

Tony Dorset did it against the Vikings in 1983. I think it was the last Monday night game of 1983. Henry 17 carries 238 yards. Let's keep in mind something about Derek Henry, who was the Heisman Trophy winner. He was picked in the second round. of the 2016 draft. I remember having conversation after conversation with Cooley, I believe,

about that particular draft. It may have been Tommy. This is the Josh Doxon draft where I was dead wrong. I wanted the Redskins to take Josh Doxon. I thought he would be a great pro, dead wrong. But I also said over and over again, how do you let Derek Henry get to the second round? This guy is going to be a beast.

and I believe that Tennessee is just one of those teams that if they are to get into the postseason, they still have a formula that you can win with. They play good defense and they can run the ball with the quarterback as a run threat. That's why they went to Arrowhead last year. They played Kansas City in the postseason last year, fell behind 21 to 3, and they got back into that game down 21 to 3, not by throwing the ball, but by running the football. And they won the game 2221, a game in which Derek Henry went for 156 yards, a lot of it in the second half. That's rare in football, where you're down 213 and can rally via the run.

And that's what they did. And Marriota was a major run threat in that game. too. There's something about Tennessee. There's something about Vrable as a coach that I like. They have a chance, certainly to get to the postseason. They play the Giants next. Then they have the Redskins at home, and they finish with the Colts at home. So Tennessee's got a chance to get to 10 and 6 and then be in the postseason as a wildcard team. They're not going to win that division with Houston at 9 and 3. They beat the Texans early in the season and lost. to him a few weeks ago. Keep in mind, too, this is a Tennessee team that blew out the Patriots

a few weeks ago and beat the Cowboys as the Cowboys were starting to get it together. It's an interesting team. I think they're well-coached. Marriota, to me, is inconsistent a lot, and there are days and nights when you watch him where you're like, God, does he care enough? But I don't know. I think they've got a chance to make the postseason in the eight. AFC. One last thing. I watched Mike Loxley's press conference yesterday introduced as the Maryland head coach. I've come to this conclusion on Mike Loxley. And a lot of it has to do with conversations with Scott on the podcast yesterday. And you can go listen to what Scott said, not only about Mike Loxley, but what he said about Jalen Hertz, the Alabama quarterback from yesterday's

podcast. But the conclusion I've come to is that people, can say what they want about his record and about his past. But locally, it would have been a disaster had Maryland not hired Mike Loxley. He's going to recruit. He can sell. If he hires the right coordinators and the right staff, I think he can win. I'm actually excited about Maryland football and this hire. All right, let's get to Redskins beat Giantsiff.

All right. The Redskins will beat the Giants if they hold the Giants to 17 or less. I don't see the Redskins offense scoring much with the group they have right now. They couldn't score when they were healthy. So I'm not expecting a team that can go out and win 3128 or 2824. They've got four opponents left. All four can be beaten, all right? The Redskins, you know, one games in the first half of the season, 20 to 17, 20 to 13,

20 to 13, 16 to 3. So to win on Sunday, the defense is going to have to play well. It hasn't in several games, pretty much since the moment the DJ Sweringer said, hey, put it on us. Put it on the defense. The defense has to carry this team. Well, it hasn't in recent weeks, not even close. Alan Payne, Settle, Smith, Kerrigan, et cetera.

They've got to be better on Sunday. They've got to figure out a way to stop the run against a job. giant team that averaged 4.9 yards per carry last week against the number two rush defense in the league, the Bears. Somehow they've got to stop the run, run blitzes, and if Eli checks to throws with the box loaded, send everybody after Eli, jam the receivers in man coverage, and give up the big play if you have to give up the big play, but try to get them off the field with big run stops and big sacks. The Redskins will beat the Giants if they realize that moving the ball through the air, listen carefully because this is going to sound

very much in conflict with what most people would think. They have to realize that the only way they can move the football right now is through the air. And this is why I think that. I just don't think the Redskins have a good run scheme right now. I don't think they know how to run the ball. I don't think Gruden and Callahan are good at scheming up a run game that fits their talent, you know, that fits Adrian Peterson very well. It's just not what they've been good at. I know Callahan was good at it in Dallas. The Redskins just don't run the ball consistently well with a scheme that looks right. And I know that a lot of this has to do with Brandon Sheriff, that they were running the football much better when Brandon Sheriff was healthy. And they've got

whoever they have, Bawanko playing guard this week. But at this point, What do they have to lose? I said this about last week's game. Jay is best at scheming people open. Let Sanchez throw it. I'm serious about this. Let him throw it. I think moving the football through the air is their only chance.

And I think if Sanchez can make three big plays in the passing game, you know, he doesn't have to go 20 for 26 for 275 and three touchdowns. In a game like Sunday, he needs 19 of 34 for 223 yards, but three or four completions of 25 plus yards that moves the ball into scoring position, even if it's just field goal position. Landing Collins is done for the year. They don't have to face him. Look, quarterbacks like Nick Mullins and Chase Daniel in recent weeks

had big days against the Giants. and that was with landing Collins on the field. Now they threw some picks too. So Sanchez, Sanchez, I think, can make a couple of plays through the air. I don't want to see the Redskins think they can line it up and run the football

and win. I don't think they can. The Redskins will beat the Giants if Mark Sanchez doesn't turn it over after I've asked that he throw the ball 34 times in the game plus. Mullins and Daniels, and their decent games against the Giants where they move the football through the air, but both of them threw two picks, and they were devastating, and their losses against the Giants. You know, both very close losses.

Sanchez has to know that walking off the field with Tressway walking onto it is a lot better than walking off the field watching his defense walk past him onto the field. he's been prone to interceptions his entire career. He's got to protect the ball, but at the same time, I think they have to move it with him throwing the football. Now, I don't mind if Chris Thompson hopefully is a little bit healthier this week. If they use Chris Thompson with screens and with swing passes

as an extension of the run game, I just don't see the Redskins lining it up and running the football. I think the thing that we have learned here over the years, Jay Gruden's not good at scheming up a run game. I don't think Bill Callahan's really good at scheming up a run game. Let me tell you about Window Nation. Harley, Aaron, Eric, they all listen all the time.

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All right, let's bring in Chris Cooley, who if you don't know, hopefully you do know he's got a podcast, which is available in all of the places you get a podcast and at Redskins.com. He's doing his film breakdown each week. Let's start with this. do you think this team has any chance over these final four games to win three and make the postseason?

I just think that chance is really low right now, Kevin. One, you're talking about a quarterback who got here 10 days ago or 11 days ago at that point in Mark Sanchez. And it's not to discredit him, but it's not like Mark Sanchez is stepping into an offense that was already dynamic or already had some explosion to it and some weapons. It's an offense that had a lot of its offensive line hurt throughout, has some issues at guard, has both tackles banged up, has no like sure speed downfield threats. I think it makes it really tough on Mark.

I think it makes it tough on a play caller. I think it makes it tough offensively to score more than 20 points in any given week. And, you know, had the defense been playing the way they played in the early part of the season, then maybe I would say this defense can carry you to three victories against the next three teams that really you should be able to beat. So all that said, I don't think so. I think it's frustrating. I'd love to see it happen. I think it would be a lot of fun.

I think it would be exciting. It'd be a cool run at the end of the year. But we'll see. If they beat the Giants, it would be a good start, man. I think this is a tough game for this Redskins team. are three and one in their last four. They're playing good ball right now. And frankly, they are a more talented football team right now, although they did lose Landon Collins or are not going to play with Landon Collins. Yeah, they lost him. What would you do

offensively to make it easy for Mark Sanchez and give him the best chance to have some success offensively? Well, I think the first thing you have to do is talk to Mark and understand the top 10 concepts that he likes to throw and the 10 concepts that are just drop back concepts that he's very comfortable with. And then you start to find and create ways to get to those concepts in different formations and different looks. Obviously the run, he's going to be very capable. It's going to be fine. You're going to implement a couple play action passes. You can talk to Mark about the reads he likes. Does he like to read deep to intermediate or does he like to read underneath the deep first? Where does he feel best? He's got to be a

very honest with you in that. And then ultimately, for me, I would put a heavy precedent on going on two, going on a double cadence, going on a long count with motion, shifting to show looks that look like motion, huddle up and sprint out of the hell. You know, the thing that I talk about all the time, the advantages that you have in that pre-snap situation, because when you disguise pre-snap, your intent, that's how you get to your easiest, in the most possible ways. That's what Joe Gibbs did with an offense that Mark Sanchez could have learned in two days. That's what a lot of coaches are excelling in right now in college football to not have to show what they're doing. And you look at how many times people hurry up to do slip screen in college football.

Like sprint to the ball, throw a screen, boom. Newsons play on the outside. You try to get four or five yards. You get the offense moving. Those are things that I would try to do with Sanchez right now. And I think that's where he would be most comfortable. I also look at Mark, and I say two-minute drill in his career has been where he's been best. Two-minute drill in the game against the Eagles was where he was best. And so I would emphasize a lot of tempo, and I would have a fallback to let's go ahead and not huddle if we don't have to huddle and get the easy play calls at the line of scrimmage. And in that case, sometimes you get them off their spot.

They don't always get the calls that they want in in two-minute. A lot of teams, especially the Giants, have some complex defenses, and it's harder to get into those calls when you, have potentially 10 seconds to make some kind of defensive call. They just have auto checks to two-minute drill. And so you're going to get some more base coverages. Not always, but it's a lot easier to get base coverages if you're on the ball quick. More on him for a moment. He's thrown a lot of picks.

He's not been very effective as a starting quarterback. He was fortunate to have been on a really good team defensively his first two years in the league. but when you watch him, do you see decent pocket presence, decent arm? Like, he doesn't look inept to me in terms of his physical abilities, feel those kinds of things. Am I right or wrong? In watching him in one game, I thought he had better footwork than either Cole or Alex. I thought he did a nice job climbing the pocket, and he looked comfortable in the pocket. And it's funny because you mentioned picks.

I do think he has a decent arm, but I think he trusts his arm more than that. then he should probably trust his arm. Like the pick he threw on the rollout to Mo Harris. It's not that Mo Harris is blanketed. He's coming across on a boot crosser. Ball's just thrown behind him. And it's not a good throw. It was going to be very tough to complete anyway

into a very tight window. But when I looked at the tape, I just said to myself, you're not Aaron Rogers. Like you don't make that throw. You just check it down to Jordan Reed. And so he's got to be cautious, knowing that his offense is not an explosive offense to not make those plays, to throw it underneath and get moving on.

Why can't they run the football? I did my Redskins beat Giants if right before calling you. And one of the things I just, I've come to the conclusion and I could be wrong and tell me if I'm wrong. I have no confidence in their ability to scheme up a decent run game. And so I said, you know what? At this point, what do you have to lose with letting Sanchez throw? the football to try to move it. I love letting Sanchez throw the football to try to move it. I'm going to try to walk you through conceptually why I think they can't run the football. And I'm going to use

one play in particular. We can go through actually too, but I'm going to start with a weak side zone run, everyone on zone blocking schemes on angles, to the open tackle. The play side is the side without the tight end. They like to run it to that side because our tight end struggle on the edge. In the last game, Bergstrom being the left guard when he's in, has a defensive tackle in between him and the center. So inside of him, the run's going to his left. He has a stacked linebacker on his left shoulder outside of him. In the zone run, it's about getting your helmet on the outside shoulder of that linebacker outside of you. So to do that with the run action that way, the backer's going to flow.

You almost have to go right now. And you have to say the center is going to have a tough block. You can bump. You can just give a little jab to the center on the D tackle and go. Berksdstrom spends two full seconds and a linebacker fills in the hole. Like, we don't know how to zone run on angles. That's also why we're getting so many holding penalties. Because we don't block on angles.

We square up way too early. The back's outside on his path in terms of Adrian Peterson had Bergstrom come off half a second earlier. AP's already there, and Bergstrom's trying to panic to save because he took a bad angle, and then he's grabbing Jersey. So I think the lack of blocking on angles, trying to square up too early, trying to turn in pin guys, and I think they're being coached to turn and pin in all these situations is creating, you know, bad hand placement, bad hat placement, which is getting your hands on the back of jerseys, trying to pull, and I think it's creating some holding penalties.

We on the other side struggle at tight end in terms of blocking the edge, and I'll run you, through a couple of the plays from the game, the duo play, right? They scored a 90-yard touchdown on duo, so that's going to skew my average a little bit. I know, but duo for that on that side. Well, just tell everybody what duo is for the people that don't know. It's just really tight inside zone, pound draw, really, where the tackle to the open side is going to essentially soft set or pass at the end and entice him to come up the field.

It's more, it's for, the guards and centers stand up, more vertical, almost to make it look like dry to let the linebacker set soft, and then the back is not necessarily reading a hole or a gap scheme. He's reading the linebacker that the front side linebacker or the play side linebacker. So if he steps right, he's reading the first linebacker on his right side. That backer goes one way, he goes the other. That's the ideal duo situation. What's been so hard for us in those plays is if the tight end gets collapsed down into the guard or sometimes even further, he isn't reading that Mike linebacker. He's jump cutting off of the tight end's block in the back.

And so last week, take the play where you were backed up, right? Not the 90-yard or at the 10, the play you were backed up at the three. The Eagles have two defensive ends that play in widened techniques. So the tight end on the left, the defensive end is outside of him by a step. He's going to line up outside of him by a step no matter what. Like if I was a tight end, I'd get about a four-yard split because that's going to take us even further, and he's going to line up outside of me. Vernon's over the center by the time AP takes two steps,

getting blown up by Brandon Graham. You just got to turn and pin him. I mean, that's not really zoned for the tight end. That's definitely hitting tight inside, or just stay square and tight and have strong inside presence. Like, we can't do that, so we can't run those plays. We can't capture the edge on the play side, and we struggled the weak side with angles.

So because of a lot of that, I think they've resorted to a lot of sweep and a lot of pole guard counter situations. And that worked well when you had healthy line and healthy Brandon Sheriff. And you could get some big pole kickouts. But now you've got two guards that haven't really done that and haven't been in our offense. And so they're not getting the good kickout or the good look on the edge. And so now we're forced back on the edge and we're doing silly things like cutting it back. And so you agree with me.

Let Sanchez throw it Sunday. Let them throw it. It's the only chance the Redskins have to move the. football. Yeah, I think that, you know, you say that, and then you get one blocked up right, and there are times, like on the 90-yarder, you get them in a stunt, you catch him in a stunt, and you catch a linebacker out of position, and all of a sudden AP's got some speed to hit one. So, I mean. Yeah, I'm not suggesting they throw 70 times, yeah. You don't have to be balanced for the sake of balance. Right. Right. That's a better way to put it.

Just to say, I want to be balanced for the, for the ideal or the sake of balance, doesn't mean anything. If you run it 20 times and throw it 20 times and your runs are one, two-yard carries, you're not balanced. They don't fear your run. In doing film breakdown the last couple of weeks, specifically on players, who has sort of consistently disappointed? And is there anybody that's played really well that most people wouldn't know has played really well? You know, offense and defense you're talking about? Yep. I think Doxon's played much better in the last couple weeks.

This last week was, in my opinion, his best week as a pro. He ran really good routes. He understood man's own concepts and coverages. He attacked some leverage. He used a double stick or a quick stick at the top of routes to cross-face and went on a deep out. He won on a bench route where the ball wasn't thrown, but a lot of times he was rolling into the middle of the field on the back side of

throws against man coverage and they were just undercutting him. He got his hands off of DBs. Now, granted, we were facing terrible DBs in Philly, like third stringers. Right. But technically, he looked much better. Doxon's been in the B range the last three weeks. I've been impressed with Josh Doxon. Preston Smith's been better.

Jonathan Allen's still very good. Until this last game, Payne had been outstanding, but Payne did not play well. Zach Brown and Mason Foster have both struggled, but Mason made some plays. Ryan Kerrigan hasn't had an impact on the game in a positive fashion. Now, I'm not saying that he's hurting his team every time, but there's more times that he's just out there doing something than he is doing something well. Yeah, it's funny. You look at the Philly game.

I did something different in the Philly game. Instead of actually putting number grades on players for plays, all I did was say, did the impact of play in a positive way, a negative play, or was it a nothing? You know, did your job? didn't really, your role didn't play a big role in the play. And other than Preston Smith, Pernell McPhee, and you could find Allen to some extent,

everybody had at least five plays where they negatively impacted the game. And Fabian Moreau played well in the last game. I want to read you this quote from Jay Gruden yesterday. I don't know if you've seen it or not, but he was asked about the post-practice huddle being longer than usual. And he said, yeah, he joked. He said, you guys were peeking out the window there. He said, I had a few things to say today.

It's week 13. We're six and six. I've got to make sure we're all on the right page here, on the same page, doing what we're supposed to do to get ready for a football game. I think our guys this time of year, you can imagine that when you have 63 guys out here practicing, there can be some griping and moaning going on here. We had pads on today for the first part of practice. We had to check out our new linemen, and people weren't happy about it.

that. Yesterday, practice, they weren't happy, and they just played on Monday night. There's a lot of things we've got to get done from an offensive standpoint. We have to look at some guys in different positions, and I don't know, we've got to win a game, but that's all, but that's what the huddle was about. It was normal, but essentially has cut back on practice time in pads because of the griping and moaning going on. He's the easiest coach to practice for that I've ever understood. Now, that might not be the case throughout the entire NFL. But my gosh, it's a Thursday, and you can't run the ball effectively because you can't block effectively. There's one way to get better, and that's to put pads on and hit.

I think, Kevin, I'm pretty sure because I was there yesterday, they still did practice inside. They practiced inside yesterday. I think so. Would you have been practicing outside? Well, I didn't have a bubble, so. Yeah. It wasn't that cold outside, and they're playing a cold outdoor game on Sunday. So they have the gripe, it's just crazy to me because I hear some players talking about how they need to have better focus and practice harder like DJ Swarendger and that it's about the players playing with more discipline and it's not just the players, it's the coaches.

And then all of a sudden they have to put pads on, which essentially means you should practice with more discipline and now we're going to gripe about it. My thought on this is ultimately you find the gripe and you talk to the gripe individually. that's what I find. I find the issue and I talk to the issue individually. You can dress it as a team afterwards. And you know, Kevin, maybe Jay's done that. Jay doesn't say I spoke to DJ personally, but he may have. He doesn't necessarily let out what's happened within his building like some of the players have.

Well, I just want to make sure that when you say, and you said, he's the easiest guy you've ever seen to practice for. That's not a compliment. it's not a compliment it's also not a criticism there's a way that he's doing it i just don't know what everybody else in the league's doing right now i haven't talked to players on other teams but i also know that if you're not getting better in december then you're you're not in good shape and you know you've lost three straight and you're into december and you've lost one in december and you can't afford to lose anymore if i'm jay i don't care how the players feel if we don't run the ball effectively We're putting pads on one day every week as long as I still have those practices, and we're practicing in pads.

And frankly, we're going to practice the entire practice in pads. It's not that much different. It's not that much harder. The only thing that's somewhat difficult is the run game period where you're going to bang for a little bit. And essentially, that's nine players on offense that actually have to hit somebody. The scout team, who cares? Defensively, they really have to bang. It's not that hard for them.

It's not a big deal to practice in pads. it makes your line better. It makes you block better. I liked something. I liked the way he handled something yesterday during his post-practice press conference. Somebody asked him about Ruben Foster's accuser speaking out on Good Morning America. And he just said, no, he's on the commissioner's exempt list. We're not even going to talk about Rubin right now. Done. Yeah, I think he did a really good job handling that. That's how you handle that. That's the method from now on is, you know, we're not, we're not, we're not, we're

We're not going to discuss it. We said, if something comes of this, we claimed his rights on waivers, he won't play for us, so something happens. Defensively, ha-ha Clinton Dicks, to me so far, has not shown me much. He seems to have a reluctance to a certain degree as a tackler, and I'm wondering why we aren't seeing more Monta Nicholson now. Yeah, so am I. He hasn't had, he hasn't been massively exposed.

ha-ha in coverage. And a lot of times it's not hard. You know, there's a single high-free safety. You just make sure that no one gets deep over the top. And, you know, you play deep and it's not a problem. Well, I say that, but two weeks ago in Dallas, it wasn't necessarily as bad coverage. It was as bad tackling, I guess.

And so maybe that's the issue. Maybe they don't feel comfortable with Monte back there. I do, personally, I think Monta's a better tackler. He struggled to some extent early in the air with a couple angles. But ha-ha, in multiple plays in this game, is not taking the angle he needs to take, is backing up, is not playing with physicality. And I don't think it's because of his lack of athletic ability.

I don't think he's seeing the field well. I don't think he's comfortable out there. And it's not a new scheme. You're a single high free safety, and you see run. How many times has he done that in his life? It's not different because we're in a different defense. The gap fits aren't dynamically different in our defense than in any other. We play two-gap defense.

So I just, I'm not sure. Now, you have to understand, does Jay play ha-ha because Bruce signed ha-ha? Maybe that's part of it. You know, you never know the dynamic that goes on in the scouting department, how they feel about certain players and what they want out of certain players and how that affects what coaches do with them. Well, they gave up a fourth rounder for him. I'm aware of that.

Yeah. One last Redskins thing, and then you're going to stick around. Well, they drafted Monta Nicholson in the fourth round. They did. And I, boy, I remember Jay Gruden's summer comments. He basically compared Monta Nicholson to Jordan Reed, meaning translation. He's got Jordan Reed kind of talent. We just have to keep him healthy and on the field. Well, there could be other things that go on.

I mean, you never know what they know about Montae-Nicholson for how they feel. What do you know about this Alex Smith injury? And this infection, this sounds awful. I don't know anything about it. I really don't. And I know that there's a concern for who the quarterback of the Washington Redskins is going to be next year and whether or not Alex is going to be healthy and how that's going to be handled. But I personally feel, and kind of like Jay handled this in the press conference as well yesterday,

when someone's wife, dad, mom say, hey, this is kind of a private person. matter for us at this moment, that it is that. And, you know, I just, I hope Alex is going to be okay, and he's going to fight as hard as he can fight to get back on the field and see what he can do. And if he can't, he can't. And I don't know any more than that. And because of how I feel about that as far as, like thinking if I were in the hospital with something like this, not wanting the nurses or anyone else to tell everyone what I was doing or how I was doing, I haven't even asked. I think that's totally fair. And I said earlier in the podcast, you know, there's going to be plenty of time to talk about the future of quarterback for the Redskins.

But with the statement that the team put out yesterday, which was very ominous sounding, right now you just want to pray for the guy that he gets better and gets healthy. All right, let's, you want to stick around for some Friday football quick picks? It's my favorite thing that you do. Well, I mean, coaching. Coaching blunders. Pretty good, too. It's not the smell test, but we haven't done this together in a while. All right, let's get to some Friday Football Quick Picks.

Everything you need to know for your football weekend. It's Friday Football Quick Picks. All right, I do have 11 smell test picks coming up, which is a hell of a lot, considering there's only one college football game this weekend. You think everything is in the NFL is a smell test? Oh, my God, a lot of it is this weekend. but let's pick our favorite games of the weekend. What are the best games of the weekend?

I mean, I've got three, actually I've got four written down if you consider Monday night, because Monday night's a good one too. What's the game you're looking forward to watching more than any other? More than any other? Well, I'm most interested in this point for the Redskins in the Eagles and the Cowboys game. I've actually, for me, I've watched both those teams, Cowboys on film a couple different times this year, the Eagles. I like the matchup. I think the Eagles are a much better football team than people

give them credit for. I think it's a good game. I actually think the Eagles win that game, which most people don't, but I'm excited about that game. And for me, the Rams Bears game, I think, is going to be awesome. So those are my two favorite games, but there's some more good games. On the Eagles Cowboys, was it that you saw something Monday night as it relates to Carson Wentz for the first time this year that makes you encouraged about a Philadelphia run here? No, watching film leading up to the

Eagles game is what I really, when I really felt, this is a pretty good football team. You know, they get Golden Tate. Zach Ertz is playing out of his mind right now. The other tight end Goddard is a really tough matchup when you put two tight ends on the field. Jeffrey can win. Wince has made plays all year. They haven't run it, but it

hasn't necessarily been their biggest problem. And ultimately, they've made silly mistakes and Wentz has had a bunch of fumbles and little turnovers that they can prevent. And I think they're a better offense than anybody gives them credit for. They're facing an awesome Dallas defense. But what they do offensively with all the movement, with all the screen, with all the mismatches based on formation, it makes it tough on Dallas. And all the RPO stuff and the ball comes out quick,

I think that makes it tough on the Dallas front to ever know when Carson Wentz is going to throw the ball where he's going to be where his spot's going to be. So to me, the Eagles win unless the Cowboys, you know, score 28 points like they did in the first game or whatever they scored. See, what you did there is you basically looked at the matchup, which you always do, and you assess the matchup, not based on analytics or numbers, but the Eagles and their dynamic RPO ability with the quarterback and the offense that they run, because I think a lot of people would say, hell, if the Cowboys completely shut down the Saints, which they did do,

well, they can shut down the Eagles. but like in almost every sport, it really comes down to matchups, and maybe the Eagles aren't the best matchup for the Cowboys, I think is what I hear you saying. Yeah, well, as far as the Saints go, as good as Breeze has been this year, they still need to run the ball to be effective, and Dallas is a very good run defense.

And Dallas, at times I think, can struggle to cover tight ends with some of their inside guys. You know, as good as Jaylen Smith and the kid out of Boise State have been, they're not going to cover her. Yeah, Banderesh. They're not going to cover Ertz. And I don't think either of them can really effectively cover Goddard. So we'll see what matchups do for them. But you never know. The Eagles are still banged up. I think they'll get Jalen Mills back. They'll play better on defense. But Dallas's offense has got a little bit of a spark to it. So I think that could be, what's the over in that game? The over under in that game, I think is 44, right around 44. I'd take the over in that game. I had the, I leaned the over in last night's game because that is one of the rare occurrences in betting Cooley where the public actually likes an under. And they loved the under last night.

You know, the score of the first Tennessee Jacksonville game was 9 to 6. Jacksonville played a 6-0 game last week and the number was 37. It went over 30 to 9. Let me mention, I will come back to the Rams Bears here in a moment. Unfortunately, it's a one o'clock game. I really would have loved to see this Ravens Chiefs game get moved, but where were you going to move it? I mean, you got Cowboys Eagles and you got Rams Bears in the Sunday night game,

and that's a better game. But I'm fascinated to watch what Harbaugh does at the quarterback spot. Look, their defense is really good, and they're going to get the toughest matchup they've had all year, although they face the Saints, and they really, for three quarters, basically completely, shut the Saints down in that game that ended up, you know, that they lost because Justin Tucker maybe the greatest kicker in the history of the game missed an extra point for the first time

in his career that would have forced overtime. But I want to, I really, it's one of those games I think I'm going to DVR and watch back because I want to see the Ravens defense against the Chiefs offense. But the bigger issue is this. Lamar Jackson has played in three consecutive games where he's had very good moments and some moments that have looked like he is just unfit as a pocket passer. But they've beaten the Bengals, the Raiders, and the Falcons. Now they get Kansas City at Arrowhead. And I know a lot of people don't feel this way, but I do.

I think John Harbaugh is much closer to going to Flacco. If Flacco's healthy, than most people think he is. He's going to give Jackson the start. You can't not give Jackson this start to see how he does. Oh, you sure can not give him the start. Well, I guess you can, but you're not going to after three straight wins. And by the way, a dynamic run game with 11-on-11 running game with him as a 17-30-carry-a-game guy. They're churning the clock.

They're running the football. But again, they've run it against the Bengals, Raiders, and Falcons. Now, interestingly, the Chiefs aren't very good defensively. So the Ravens may be able to run the football against Kansas City also. And then they get Tampa next week, and they can run the ball against Tampa. But I think when it comes to a playoff game or a game to get them into the playoffs, I know that Harbaugh is going to feel more comfortable with Flacco. And I thought there was an interesting comment from Terrell Suggs after the Atlanta game

when it came Cooley to the quarterback question. And I'm going to, I tried to find this the other day, and I couldn't find it. Oh, Sugg is an all flacco guy. Suggs basically paraphrasing, he said, when it comes to quarterbacks, I still have, I'm still sort of partial to Super Bowl MVP's. And that's a statement that says, I think they understand that eventually against somebody in a big game, they're going to have to be able to throw the football. But anyway, I'm looking forward to watching that game.

The Rams Bears game, which you mentioned, I was very surprised that, ultimately the Giants ran the ball against Chicago to win that football game. I mean, Eli had a big day. Don't get me wrong in terms of like completions, but they ran the football to move the football against Chicago, the number two rush defense in the league. And I don't know that the Rams are going to be able to do that at Soldier Field on Sunday night in 22-degree weather. They ran the football and they ran the football at Calil Mack a bunch of times as well.

well. And so I think that they were really effective with that. The Rams will be very interesting offensively in how they handled their business. I wouldn't be surprised to see them try to run the football a bunch, but they're capable of throwing the ball at any point in the game. And so if they don't, if they're not effective in running it, I think they're capable of throwing it. The bears are good offense, though, and the Rams have struggled some with offense this year. They have Talib back, which has been a huge help for them. So Talib will cover Al-Shaw. or Robinson, Alan Robinson, which will help them a bunch. But, you know, I don't, I think this is an upset alert pick for sure.

The Bears could be an upset. I do too, but they need Trubisky. I think they've got to have a healthy Trubisky playing in this game, not Chase Daniel. Yeah, I think Chibisky is a massive bump just because of what he does off schedule and the way he moves around in the pocket. And his evolution in this offense has been huge. Hey, can I go back to the Ravens game for one second? Yes.

You know what's not crazy? To play Joe Flacco on third down and four plus. Well, yeah, I mean... You know, the Chiefs don't stop the run. They give up over five yards to carry. Gus Edwards has been good for them this year in the last few games. Lamar Jackson's got a dynamic run game going. You want to run the ball against Kansas City.

They struggle to stop it. It's not like they can't run the ball under center with Flacco. But I love running the ball with Lamar Jackson. I mean, I told you what in the spring. He'd be the best running back in two years if he wanted to be a running back because that's his talent. And everyone sees that at this point. Now, he could slowly grow as a quarterback, but his running ability,

if you don't want to use that as a coach, you're insane. That's like saying Tark Cohen shouldn't do anything but play running back in the back field because he's a running back. But the Bears say, well, Tart Cohen can play a receiver. He can be our fly-sweep guy. He's a screen guy. He's everything. He's a slash player.

He's not just a running back. That's ridiculous when you have a player with a player. the talent Lamar Jackson has in terms of running the ball, not to let him run the ball. So I don't know. I'd be interested to see what they do. I think there's probably a package for Lamar Jackson, especially early in the game. Now, if you were to get down two scores, then yeah, Flacco's going to come in and try to throw the ball. Yeah, this is the first, well, it's not the first defensive test for them, because the Chiefs are terrible defensively. I mean, the Raiders scored 33 points last week against the Chiefs. The Chiefs are a bad defensive

team. I've said Cooley all season long. I don't think they're going to be in the Super Bowl. I think Houston could beat them in the postseason. I think New England can beat them in the postseason. I think a team like Baltimore fully healthy could do it. And I know that I've been on the Ravens all year. I don't think they do. I don't, I'm Baltimore may cover, but I don't think they're not going to be chief. Houston can. Houston can. Because Houston can run the ball, truly run the ball downhill and effectively, and the Chiefs will really struggle to cover Houston in their play action game behind that. You know, there's another interesting game this weekend that we haven't mentioned. Seahawks Vikings?

That's Monday night, but on Sunday I meant. The Buccaneers opened the season with a 48 to 40 win in the Superdome over the Saints. And, you know, the one thing about the Buccaneers all season long, they've been able to throw the football, whether it's been Winston or Ryan Fitzpatrick. Now they've thrown a lot of interceptions, both of them have, but they've also thrown for a lot of yards, and they've scored a lot of points this year, except for the Redskins game, which really, well, I think they should have scored 30.

Well, I mean, they miss field goals and the whole thing. But I think Tampa is going to score Sunday against the Saints. Yeah, I think they're going to score enough to make the game like 48 to 20. Is that what you think? So you really like the Saints. I think the Saints run them. Tampa's defense is not competent,

and they're not a death to face this, New Orleans offense, especially coming off, you know, well, they're coming off a long rest, right? They play Thursday night. They got a long week.

They get a lot of time to rest. I think the Saints run the Bucks. The Bucks are happy about one win last week against Carolina. They're not, it's a different team. They played Carolina with a completely banged up Cam Newton. and clearly he couldn't throw the ball,

did not feel comfortable. I can't believe they played him the way he looked in that game. No. I don't buy it. I know. I mean, it's the NFL. I think 3831 is possible. I think 3831 is possible.

If it's 3831, it's 3821, and somehow they put 10 on at the end of the game in a comeback, which they do a lot. That would be fine with me, because I'm going to have them. I'm going to have the fucking ears. Better think about that one. All right, Monday night,

does Kirk, from the game at Chicago, a tough place to go and win on a Sunday night against that defense with a really good game against Green Bay. And then he did not have a good game last week at New England. Did you read anything about the Amoeba defense that the Patriots employed for that game to try to confuse Minnesota? Did you read about that or not? I didn't read about it. So apparently they came up, Belichick came up with a defense that was unique for them. He thought they needed to confuse Kirk and the Minnesota offense or they would be vulnerable to them throwing the football. And you could see that they were confused almost the entire game. I mean,

there's a whole story on it. I haven't. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's exactly how you'd play Kirk Cousins. He's not evolved enough in this league to see that and he hasn't seen it as much. You know, he will. As he continues to grow, they'll start to, they'll start to treat him like people were treating Eli or, excuse me, Peyton, or they were treating Tom Brady, where you have to confuse him. Because what Kirk does really well is cut the field in half and dictate a number one read and try to work that one read fast. It's a ball out of its hands. You confuse him and you cover Thielen and they're in trouble. You know, the other thing that people have finally done is, you know, pay heed to what Adam Thielen is as a receiver and say, this guy,

this guy's not going to beat us one-on-one anymore. We're not leaving him single-side one-on-one. What about the matchup at Seattle? If the Minnesota Vikings defense can't handle Seattle offensively, then they're going to be in huge trouble. I don't think Kirk put – Kirk – is it Kurt or Kirk? I'm not sure. I think it's Kirk.

I don't think he puts up massive numbers. The Seahawks have kind of found something on defense, and they're hot right now. Yeah. But I think Vikings' defense actually is pretty good. I know they haven't always been good this year. They got torched last week. I think they're good enough to stop Seattle. Okay.

So you like their chances to win that game? So I like Minnesota in this game. I do too. I think that this is a bounce back game for them all the way around, but Seattle's going to end up getting that last wild card, or the first wild card in the NFC. You already mentioned the team that you think is on upset alert, and it's the Rams.

And I would agree with you. I actually think that there are a couple of teams on upset alert. some of these games you wouldn't call a massive upset alert, but I think the Ravens can win at Arrowhead. And I think the Rams can definitely, the Bears, I'm sorry, can definitely win Sunday night at home. That's not a massive upset. They're only a three-point underdog in the game,

but I think that they've got a shot to win that game Sunday night. Yeah, other than that, I mean, I think the Panthers might be on upset alert as a one-point favorite to the Browns. Yeah, I like the Browns there. Well, look, you know, Miami is the only team with a winning record at home over New England. They're 9 and 7 against Brady in the Brady era. And all of the guys that ex-patriots and current Patriots all chalk it up to climate.

I don't know if you've read any of that stuff this week, but the humidity apparently has really done New England in over the years. They played a game earlier this year at Jacksonville, where it was 97 degrees in Jacksonville early in the season with super high humidity and they fell apart in that. game late in that game. Miami's, they've been able to beat New England at home. They have. They have. I mean, every year they end up playing them well at home. Yeah, so that line's seven and a half. I think New England wins, but I wouldn't be surprised if Miami gives them a run. All right, that's it. I'll let you run. I know you've got a podcast to do. Coolie's podcast is great. Redskins.com or any of the other places, iTunes, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, tune in, Google Play. Are you on Spotify now. You don't really have to be on Spotify.

Yeah, we're on Spotify, I think. We are too. I don't manipulate where it goes. All right. I'll talk to you later. Thanks for doing this. Love you, buddy. All right. Chris Cooley, everybody. Let me tell you about Ferrisch, Chrysler, Dodge Jeep in Fairfax. They should be on your list right now if you're considering something new. Go to Farishcars.com right now to see their live inventory and best deals. They make it easy for everybody. That's the great thing about Farish.

I've known Ralph Perkins and Kevin Farish for 10 plus years, and they're smart guys. They know what their customers want, and they just make it easy for you. You come in, it's not a hard sell, they're not all over you. If you tell Ralph that I sent you, he will put you in touch with one of their best salespeople. Their salespeople have been there for 20 years. They know how to fit vehicle to customer. They've got plenty of inventory on their lot right now. Whatever you're looking for, you'll likely find it, and the make-mobile.

model and color and be able to drive it off the lot that day. And one of the reasons they've got all that inventory in is one of the reasons they have offered now and are offering their highest rebates of the year. They want to move that inventory off the lot by the end of the year so that they can bring in new inventory for the first part of 2019. I talked to Ralph the other day. He said four vehicles right now, Kevin, you can get the deal of the year on. The Jeep Cherokee, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Rangler, and also all of their RAM pickups. Plenty of those on the lot, you'll get the best deal. You'll get anywhere at any time this year.

They're located right in the heart of Fairfax and Fairfax Circle. Again, ask for Ralph Perkins if you head in there. If you want to find out everything they've got on their lot right now, including live inventory and pricing, go to ferrish cars.com. Let's get to the smell test. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. All right, 7 and 4 last week, 30 and 11 over the last three and a half weeks.

86, 68 and 3 on the season, that's 56.5% on the year. Not bad. I love the card this week, and that's usually not a good sign for me. But there are several NFL games that look really good. Let's start, though, with the one college game tomorrow, Army Navy. Army's ranked 22nd in the AP. They're laying seven. Kevin tweeted me yesterday to say that the underdog has covered four straight in the Army Navy series,

six of the last seven in the Army Navy series. And he said, Kevin, you should know this, but this is an underdog series. You've got to go with the dog. Well, Kevin, you should know this about me. I couldn't care less about those things. You know, the Steelers is a favorite in December against the AFC South on warm days of temperatures higher than 65 degrees, are 12 and 8 against the spread. Nothing is more irrelevant to me based on the way I look at this stuff.

That stuff just never even enters my mind. What enters my mind is that there's a ton of public money on Army and there's sharp money on Navy. That's what the smell test is. Give me the midshipman plus the seven in the Army Navy game. Let's go to Sunday. Baltimore is six and a half at Kansas City, and the public loves the chiefs in this game. I'd prefer a seven number.

I'll buy the half point if I have to when we get to Sunday. But we use the scores and odds app their Friday lines, and that line right now is six and a half. Baltimore is an anti-public play Sunday at Arrowhead. against the Chiefs. I think what it is is people are saying, yeah, Lamar Jackson beat the Raiders, the Bengals, and the Falcons. Now he's got to face the Chiefs. Give me Baltimore plus the six and a half. The Browns are plus two at home against Carolina, and it surprises me that the public is all over the Panthers in this game. They've lost four games in a row, so I don't know why. And actually,

I'm going to update this line. Not in my favor, but the Browns are now plus one. They're sharp money on Cleveland. I would have thought that this game would have been split, or maybe the public would have actually leaned Cleveland, but they're not. I'll take the Browns plus the one at home against the Panthers as their spiral continues. The Packers, after the coaching change, are laying five at home against Atlanta. I guess it's the coaching change or the fact that the Packers lost to the Cardinals last week, but the public really likes Atlanta in this game. There's some sharp money on the Packers. I'll take the Packers in this one and lay the five at Lambo. All right, the bucks right now

are plus nine and a half at home against New Orleans. God, I'd love a plus 10 in this game. I'm interested in this game. Weather's going to be an issue in this game. The line keeps moving up, which for most of you would say Kevin's going to back off that, because it's sharp money on New Orleans. I think there is sharp money on New Orleans. I also believe the following, because I've been through this a lot of times

and have had a lot of conversations with people on the other side of this equation that understand this. Sometimes you will see sharp money move a line up, early, mid, even late week, and then they'll come in at the real attractive number, say a plus nine and a half or plus ten,

in particular, and pound it the other way with a much larger wager. The public's convinced that the Saints are going to bounce back. I think Tampa will score enough to keep this close. Give me the Buccaneers plus the nine and a half right now. I prefer the 10. This may be my favorite play of the weekend, because the Jets have lost six in a row. One of those losses was a 41 to 10 loss just a few weeks ago

to Buffalo. They're playing Buffalo again. And you know what the number is with the game in Buffalo? It's three and a half. That makes no sense whatsoever. Buffalo's won two of three. Nobody anywhere is going to bet the Jets and it's going to be a big need for bookmakers everywhere. I'll take the Jets plus the three and a half. Miami plus seven and a half just on principle that the public is over New England. Same with the Bears on Sunday night. I like Chicago plus the three now. Very sharp money. I was told early this morning via text message on the Bears. I like the Bears plus the three. This is a tough one. I know because this is a bad, bad football team right now, but I'll take the Bengals plus the 14 against the Chargers. It's probably a letdown spot for the Chargers

after the Sunday night comeback win over the Steelers. I think they win the game, but I'll take the Bengals and the cover. And then one last Sunday game. The Redskins are a major anti-public play Sunday. The public loves the Giants laying three and a half. I'll take the Redskins plus the three and a half. I've mentioned this before, but my smell test record on the Redskins, whether it's a wager or a smell test pick for them or against them.

Over the years, 67%. One more game. The Vikings are the anti-public play Monday night, plus three and a half at Seattle. Give me them. All right. Recapping, I like Navy plus the seven in the Army Navy game. Baltimore plus six and a half on Sunday. Cleveland plus the one.

Packers laying five at home over Atlanta. The Buccaneers plus nine and a half. the Jets plus three and a half, Miami plus seven and a half, Chicago plus three, the Bengals plus 14, the Redskins plus three and a half, and on Monday night, the Vikings plus three and a half. Let me tell you real quickly about a perfect office situation. If you're working at home and you can't get any work done and the dogs are too noisy or the kids are at home and you want a quiet place to work, If you live in the Bethesda Chevy Chase, Upper Northwest D.C. area or just over the bridge, the American Legion Bridge in northern Virginia, you don't want a long commute.

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Tell them I told you to call 240-86714. That's 240-86714 or Launchworkplaces.com. All right, let's bring in Andy Poland for his weekly get-together with me. We go through some of the olden times, which we're really good at doing together, and then we make a pick. But before we get to that, this Alex Smith injury, we went from really not knowing much. There was the Adam Schaefter report shortly after the injury that it was this spiral fracture, which was going to put his career in jeopardy. but it's just been in the last 24 hours that we learned that this thing is very serious. Like, you know, he could be very ill right now with this infection.

And, you know, whether, you know, the leg is in jeopardy or not, the team's statement really made it sound like this is a very serious situation. I didn't, I had no idea that we were in this territory with this injury, with him. I had no idea either, and my interest was peaked last week when it had been a week and a half, two weeks hadn't heard a word from him. You remember when Joe Seisman broke his leg, they had a news conference, which was carried live by everybody like three days after it happened. And the doctor spoke. Yeah, and of course, Thysman spoke. Of course he did. Kathy Lee Crosby, who was his then wife or girlfriend, whatever she was. And, you know, and he

saying I'm going to get back on the field and all those type of things. And the fact that there's been nothing, I thought there'd be a news conference. I thought there'd be maybe a one-on-one interview. Maybe they'd sent Larry Michael over there to do it. Nothing. Hadn't heard a thing. So that was a little disturbing to me. And then finally, you know, we hear that Jay Gruden had visited him, the players had visited him,

but then the team puts out a statement says, leave this guy alone. That was odd. You know, just there's so many statements from various people. I mean, I read this earlier, but Josh Norman's statement that, you know, he basically said he's in good hands. We're praying for him. One of our fallen brothers, we're definitely praying for him. We're uplifting him every way we can, and that's all you can ask for. I mean, look, I mean, there will be time to look at the ramifications of the contract and the salary cap and all of that.

But, you know, for the time being, it's like, I just want this guy who seems to be a great guy. I don't know him at all. And have never, you know, had a chance because, you know, gone from the radio station, really, at that point, to spend any time with him. But, man, that thing was elevated pretty quickly. All right. They play the Giants. This could have been a more important game. Even at 6 and 6.

It could have felt like a more important game. it really does feel like we're into playing out the string of these final four, even though a win would potentially tie them for first place. It's crazy, but don't you feel the same way? Well, it's because of the quarterback situation, that if you had Colt McCoy starting this game, even if he had lost at Philadelphia, there'd be some hope. But it's Mark Sanchez, who, as Barry's Rulugas said, is a punchline at this point, although played okay. I mean, considering all the circumstances, right? It's okay in Philadelphia last Monday night. So, you know, I look at this and I made a comparison to Tim Hasselbeck, who came in to the Redskins in similar circumstances in 2003. Now, you remember

that in 2002, Steve Spurrier in his first year thought, you know, let's play his skaters, Danny Werfel and Shane Matthews, and he'd be good. And Dan Snyder, who was in control of the roster then, said, eh, we think we need a quarterback. So they drafted Patrick Graham. Demsie. Spirry didn't want to play him, but after playing his two gators for a while, he realized, yes, this guy actually has an NFL arm, so I'm going to have to play him. But at the end of the season, where they miraculously finished seven and nine in that first year, Dan Snyder said, look, we're getting out of the gator business.

Shane Matthews is gone. We're not going to re-sign him. And along with a bunch of jets, he signed Rob Johnson, who had lost his job in Buffalo to Doug Flutie. and Rob Johnson was going to be the backup. But Spurrier was still holding on to Danny Worfell in training camp in 2003, like his security blanket. But Snyder had control of the roster, and he cut Worfell right at the end of training camp. And there was a report that Spurrier was going to quit over that.

He said, no, that got overblown. I wasn't happy about it, but I'm not going to quit. So season begins. Patrick Ramsey is the quarterback, and he's getting. a crap beat out of him every week with the Spurrier four-wide, fun-and-done offense. And finally, in a game against Buffalo, ironically, he's forced to play Rob Johnson in a mop-up role. And Johnson doesn't win the game. Spurier can't stand him.

The next day, he does the Steve Spurrier show with Zabin and myself. And Zabin, looking at how bad Patrick Rams is getting beat up as sort of a throwaway question says to Spurier, how well does Rob Johnson know your offense? And Spurier goes, ha, Rob Johnson. I don't think he even knows which way to turn his head. And we looked at each other like, what? And sure enough, two days later, he's cut. So they bring in Kim Hassellback, who's the son of Don Hassellback,

who's a very good tight end with the Patriots and the Raiders. Of course, his older brother was at that time a very good quarterback with Seattle, and he's gone to Boston College, and he'd actually beaten out Kevin Kiley's son for the starting job. Oh, really? And played pretty well at quarterback, had a good career there. undrafted, was on a couple of practice squads, and he comes into the Redskins having never thrown a regular season pass. Well, sure enough, December 7th, Ramsey gets hurt,

Hasselback has to start a game. He goes against New Orleans, isn't very good, but does get a start against the New York Giants towards the end of the season. This is a collapsing giant theme with, ironically, a former gator at quarterback, Jesse Palmer. And Bruce Smith is going after the sack record at that point. And he gets it and parades around the locker room in a robe that says sack king and says, now that I've got my individual goals, we can pursue team goals. At that point. But Hasselback plays pretty well. Now, let me back up one second on Hasselback. The reason that they brought in Hasselback after they cut Rob Johnson was that Spurier called Worfell and said, could you come back?

And Worfell says, no, I'm not coming back to that circuit. I was treated badly enough, so you're going to have to move on. Okay, so anyway, Hasselback wins the game against the Giants. It turns out to be his last win. They close out the season against Philadelphia, lose that game badly, and 31 to 7, and that's followed by the famous Spurrier one-minute news conference, the final day. 5 and 11. Not too good.

And that was the end of Tim Hasselback. He did manage, though, to hang around the NFL until 2007, playing with Arizona and the Giants in a backup role. So, you know, he did win a game. I think the Redskins can win a game among these last four, kind of like Hasselback did. But I can't see much more than that, can you? No, I can't. I can see, you know, a win.

You know, it was funny because I mentioned this yesterday. I don't know if you saw any of Sanchez's press conference from Wednesday after practice, but man, he's a confident guy, and he is really good in front of a microphone, in front of cameras. He's excellent. And, you know, he inspired, if you didn't know anything about his career, you would have been sold. You'd have been like, let's go do this. We got ourselves a quarterback. Remember they were. They were in 2009. Dan Snyder took him to dinner and fell in love with him. Yeah, I told the story. And wanted to move up in the draft to take him. So, yeah, they've been smitten with him before.

I went through the whole thing from, you know, the attempted trade for Cutler, but Chicago had Orton. Denver wanted Orton, not Jason Campbell, and that's what made that deal fall apart. And remember, and I know you do, if they had been able after the 2008 season to pull off the trade for Cutler, Shanahan would have come out of retirement right then and there to coach the Redskins in 2009, and the Jim Zorn experiment would have lasted. just one year. But when the Cutler deal fell through, that's when they really went aggressively after Mark Sanchez and tried to trade up into the draft, into the top of the draft, which they were unable to do. What I don't know, and I've never asked Mike this, but I will the next time,

would he have come out of retirement to coach Mark Sanchez? I guess, I believe the answer would have been yes. I think he wanted a little bit of a break, and he wasn't going to come, you know, to coach Jason Campbell. That wasn't going to be what he wanted to do and come out of a brief retirement for that. All right, let's finish it up with Redskins score and more. Time to settle the score is score and more. All right. What kind of chance do you give them on Sunday? Not much. I mean, if it were another bad team besides the Giants, I might. But they just don't play well against the Giants. That's one thing. And the Giants look half decent against the Bears team that's probably going to be in the playoffs last week.

So I don't see them winning this game, and I see, you know, a couple more interceptions for Sanchez. Also, I'm a little disheartened by what I heard from Gruden this week that the players are grumbling about the length of practice. And now I'm beginning to believe what DJ Sweringer says is 100% true, that these guys are a bunch of tuckleheads who don't really take anything seriously. So I think the Giants win this game like 24 to 10. I don't even think it's going to be that close. Yeah, the Giants are playing well.

I mean, they could very easily be in the midst of a four-game win streak, which, you know, if they were in the midst of a four-game win streak and they were five and seven instead of four and eight, they would actually have a chance to make an incredible run to the postseason. That loss to Philadelphia was really the season-ender for them. But they played well last week. They've continued to play hard. They've got good players.

You know, there was a disconnect with the Giants, for me anyway, through that first part of the season. I know what it was. It was their offensive line more than anything else. But they were losing games. You know, all the losses were essentially, you know, within a touchdown, except for that Eagles game on a Thursday night. They were in every game. And they really weren't in that first Redskins game. The Redskins dominated the Giants in that first game. And in fact, you know, off of that game, that was the game where we really said as a collective fan base man, the defense is damn good. You know, remember they held Sequin Barclay to 38 yards on 13 carries. Well, yeah.

They don't do that anymore. They are a sieve on the running game. If Barclay doesn't get 100 yards, at least I'll be shocked this week. I have just a strange feeling. I don't think this team is making any sort of run. Trust me, I don't. This is one of those games where the Giants are flawed, even though they're playing well.

They lost one of their best defensive players for the rest of the year, landing Collins. I don't think that the Redskins are going to get blown out in this game. I think they're going to be in this game in front of what will likely be a sparse crowd. I think they have a chance to hang in there, and I think they lose a game 20 to 19.

I think they cover, but I think there's a walk-off field goal by this kicker for them. This guy, Rosas, is an incredible kicker so far for them. And I think they lose a very close game, which will, in effect, end their season mathematically as well. I mean, it may not because the Eagles may go to Dallas and win late that afternoon. But I think it's a close game. 20 to 19 Giants is my prediction.

Yeah. I mean, just because Mark Sanchez does a great press conference and has mastered the handoff to Adrian Peterson, doesn't to me make him an NFL quarterback. No, it doesn't. By the way, by the way, you've been following this league a long time. How about Adrian Peterson's 90-yard touchdown run, followed up last night by Derek Henry's 99-yard touchdown run, which to me was even more impressive than Tony Dorset,

who didn't have to break any tackles. He gave about three stiff arms along the way. What an incredible thing. And this is a league where you say, oh, nobody runs anymore. You just throw the ball. I mean, amazing, isn't it? Well, it's actually interesting to watch Tennessee, and I talked about this earlier in the podcast. You know, they went on the road last year at Arrowhead, and they were down 21 to 3 in that playoff game.

And typically in the NFL, when you're down 21 to 3, you can't get back into a football game running the ball, but they did in the second half. And Derek Henry went off in that playoff game in the second half, down 213. they ran the ball back for the win, 2221. And in Marriota, you know, being a run threat. You know, this goes back to 2012 when, you know, Mike Shanahan, essentially for all intents and purposes, introduced a significant, you know, quarterback zone read potential into the NFL. And once you put that quarterback into the run game,

it's 11 on 11, and it's different. I think there's still, Andy, even in this day, age of incredible passing yardage and points, there are still many ways to skin the NFL cat. You can win in a lot of different ways. Tennessee is one of those teams that, you know, has enough that if they get into a playoff game and all of a sudden they're running the ball and dominating time of possession like they did at Kansas City last year, look, they had a legitimate shot in the postseason game. If you recall last year in the postseason, the Titans after beating the Chiefs at Arrowhead, went on the road, and for a while, the game against New England was

pretty competitive in Foxborough. I like watching teams like them because I don't want to see an NFL where it's 45 pass attempts, 480 yards every game, and 4845 every game. I don't, I don't mind that every once in a while, but I get that on Saturdays a lot. Well, also, the way the Rams are winning this year, it's not totally a passing game either. And look, and the Saints have a good running game as well. Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do. If you have that to complement your passing, it's going to help you a lot.

All right. Thank you. I'll talk to you next week. All right. All right. Andy Poland, everybody. I want to thank Chris Cooley for coming on the show. Thank Andy Poland for coming on the show.

Thank Corbyn for producing the show. Back on Monday, early, with an early postgame of Giants Redskins. Good Football Sunday. You get some big games. And look, if they lose, it's in effect over. But what if they were to play well and win? I mean, would we be excited if they played well and beat the Giants on Sunday about something more? Jacksonville's horrible right now.

They have a great defense. Don't get me wrong. But Jacksonville looks like they have thrown in the towel on the season, and that's the next opponent. You somehow pull this off? You could get to eight and six. You could. Okay. Enough of that drink.

Have a great day, a great weekend back on Monday.