The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley and Kevin on Ha Ha, Maryland and More

Episode Date: October 31, 2018

Kevin opens the show by talking about the Redskins' trade for Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and then goes into Maryland's decision to retain DJ Durkin and Damon Evans. Chris Cooley comes on to talk about the trade, grade out Alex Smith and the rest of the offense, and a lot on the Redskins' defense. Scott Jackson calls in to talk about the Wizards' dreadful 1-6 start to the season. Kevin finishes up with Coaching Blunders, Kirk Cousins stats and the rest of the trades in the NFL. <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. Happy Halloween, everybody. You know, when I started this podcast, I really didn't know if I'd make it to Halloween. Seriously, I had no idea. Aaron's here. I'm here. And the show is presented by Window Nation. Can't begin to thank them enough for their support. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation. Tell them, we told us. you to call seriously i i when we when we put this thing together in two or three days right before the beginning of the football season i didn't know what to expect i had no idea if we'd be heard you know i always think about the the football season in terms of you know it starts on labor right around labor day and then before you know it it's hollewing thanksgiving we're eating and it's the playoffs and i'm like

will i be doing a podcast or will i be working in radio i had no idea but um i really really do appreciate, by the way, all of you who are listening. I can't begin to thank you enough. Chris Cooley is going to join me in a few minutes. We'll talk about his grades for the giant game, the trade for Ha Ha, ha, Clinton Dix, and we'll look ahead to the Falcons on Sunday. My friend Scott Jackson will join me during this show today to discuss the Wizards, one in six start.

They lost in Memphis last night by 12. I've got coaching blunders for the week, didn't get to those yesterday, But there were like two big stories yesterday in this market. The ha-ha Clinton Dix trade, you know, for the Redskins, the five and two Redskins. So people are really starting to pay attention here. And then, of course, Marilyn's decision to reinstate football coach DJ Durkin and athletic director Damon Evans, a decision not popular among most media types and more likely than not most reasonable people. And I'll get to that in a few minutes.

I do want to start, though, with the Redskins trading a fourth round pick for Green Bay Safety. Ha, ha, Clinton Dix. We'll start with that. Ha, ha, Clinton Dix has been a good player. Not everybody thinks a consistent player. But for this season, if you believe in this kind of stuff, Pro Football Focus's rating has him as the second best safety in the league behind DJ Sweringer. I don't personally rely on these ratings, these analytics ratings. ratings, pro football focus, some of the others, football outsiders. I've heard enough people

who really watch film and know what they're watching and know how to grade film. I've heard too many of those people, including Chris Cooley, often disagree completely with rankings of players in certain games. But I can tell you this, read some of what they're saying in Green Bay. They're not really sweating at this point, the loss of Clinton Dix. But then again, it's strange, the Packers have had a recent history of getting rid of safeties that have, by the way, gone on and performed well. Micah Hyde's playing well in Buffalo. I always liked Micah Hyde in Green Bay. Morgan Burnett is in Pittsburgh, starting and playing well. So there's been a recent willingness for some reason for the Packers to part with safeties who can

actually play. He's a free agent at the end of this year. So in essence, a rental for the skins unless they can re-sign them. They gave up a fourth. No problem at all with that. It's the going price for a player like him with an expiring contract. I'm interested, I'm always interested in the other side of Redskins trades. And you need to understand if you're just new to this situation, the Redskins situation, or this town. The Redskins have been the mark in the league. They have been the one on the wrong side of many deals. They've been taken to the cleaners so many times that when they make a trade, my first instinct is to say, well, why did the other team do what they did? And, you know, that's my default. It may be outdated. It's my default. Look, with the Packers,

you can say, hey, he's going to be a free agent. They want to get something for them. That's fine. But they're in a playoff race. They have, according to what I read out of Green Bay, no obvious replacement for Clinton Dix right now. If they had lost him in free agency, they would have ultimately gotten back a compensatory pick for him. But, you know, as I mentioned, the Packers have let some good young, productive safeties leave

in recent years, so maybe they just don't have a good feel for the position or don't put great value on it. I don't know. But again, I don't really have a problem with a fourth rounder for a player of his caliber. I view it to be low-risk, high reward. Translation, a good move by the Redskins. I would like to know what they think of Monta Nicholson right now.

I think Nicholson's speed, range, talent is obvious. I've been a big fan of Montaickelson since I saw him in his first few games last year before he got hurt. I thought, wow, that looks like a guy with some talent. Speed, range, sort of anticipation. Jay Gruden, remember in the offseason, said that Nicholson was the Jordan Reed of the defense. translation he's talented just needs to stay on the field and he has stayed on the field so far this year yet they felt they needed another safety when most thought the team would be thinking corner

if they were going to make a move at all now i'll ask coolly what he and the team think about the future of nicholson perhaps perhaps as much as the redskins have been in nickel this year and my estimation is about 75% of the time they've been in nickel a few games even more than that perhaps they're going to play three safeties in nickel instead of three corners. We've seen the Stroman and Moreau and Norman combination here in recent weeks. And there have been some, it's not been terrible. Stroman's been beaten a few times. Moro's been beaten a few times.

Maybe they think they can go three safeties. Maybe Dunbar's status is that he's going to be back. And he says he could be back this week. and maybe they felt like they were okay at Corner. I am interested, though, in what they think of Nicholson's future now. A talent, he hasn't played great this year. There have been some busted coverages at times, but not recently, though. A couple of additional thoughts.

I didn't think they'd make a move yesterday. I said that on the podcast. The fact that they did make a move yesterday says one thing definitively. It says they are going for it. They believe they have a chance to make something happen. this year. The division's other two contenders, if you will, had already made moves. Philly got Golden Tate and boy did Dallas overpay for Amari Cooper relative to the rest of the trade market, but the skins view themselves and rightly so as a team that can do something this year. They're in

first place in a division that right now will likely need no more than 10 and 6 to win it. So they're halfway there already. One thing the Redskins decided they didn't need yesterday, Aaron, interestingly enough, was a wide receiver. I thought, I didn't think they were going to make a move. I thought if they made a move, it would be corner. And then the secondary sort of guess would have been wide receiver. That's what a lot of you out there wanted them to do. Now, perhaps they tried, but if they were really going for it,

which I think yesterday's move sort of is an indication that they, you know, they're going for something this year. If they deemed wide receiver to be a shortcoming, they could have gotten one. and didn't. Brandon Marshall is out there. He got cut by Seattle. I don't think they want him. Des Bryant's still out there. Clearly nobody wants him. Boy, Des Bryant made a big mistake, not taking the Ravens deal last spring. But the skins didn't make a move for a wide receiver. Sort of tells me, and I think it should tell you, that if they are concerned about their inability to throw the football, and they may not be concerned about it. They have not needed to throw the football in three

consecutive wins. Right now they're in the bottom 15 to 20 percent of the league in almost every passing category. If they think it's an issue and they are concerned about it, but maybe they're not. But if they are concerned about it, not making a move at wide receiver probably tells you they don't think it's a wide receiver problem. They think it's another problem. Now, Jameson Crowder is coming back at some point. So that will be a big lift. I think they're fine at wide receiver. I really do. I don't think that that is, to me, number one on the list would have been another pass rusher. If a Chandler Jones, as an example, had been available for something in the neighborhood of, say, a second or a third, I would have thought about that. I don't know that we've seen enough from Fowler yet.

I loved him coming out. I don't know that we've seen enough of Fowler. Where did he end up again? Los Angeles, the Rams. Right, with the Rams. God, the Rams have really gone. for it, off season and now in season. We'll get to Cooley in a moment. Chris Cooley will be calling in a moment. We'll talk about the giant game, the Clinton Dix trade, and a lot of other things.

But let me get to the Maryland decision yesterday. And this is going to be brief, I guess, sort of brief. For me, it's brief. First, the tragedy in the Maryland football scandal, if you want to label it that way, is not that D.J. Durkin and Damon Evans are key. their jobs. The tragedy is still that Jordan McNair died and his death according to the investigation was so preventable. The doctors and trainers hired to make sure that things like this don't happen at big sports institutions, they cost Jordan McNair's life. They did. I personally don't believe that a culture, however you want to describe it, cost Jordan McNair's life. I don't. Even if the culture were toxic. That wasn't why this young man's temperature and vital signs weren't taken. I don't believe

that was about a culture. I don't. It was about acute negligence, gross negligence. And the university is going to have to pay a price for that, a price that will never be enough for the McNair family. The restitution they want can never, ever happen because they're not getting their son back. That's the tragedy of this whole thing. I'm not trying to be. sort of pious here and, you know, remind everybody of the real tragedy. I know that you know that, but you would think with the reaction yesterday that somehow Durkin and Damon Evans coming back was somehow more egregious than what happened on that field that day with their doctors and trainers. That was acute and gross negligence at the highest level. It cost the kid his life.

If I were that kid's parents, it would be just unbelievable to me. And you never get over it. I know parents who have lost kids. It'll never, ever be something that you get over. But when it was so preventable, the toxic culture, the many-paged investigation says that there wasn't a toxic culture. Yet many of the details indicate a culture that was at times demeaning, intimidating, and even for the old football salts out there, that, you know, say a football training room and a field isn't for the meek and there's a certain toughness that must be

built to succeed, even for those old football traditionalists, those old tough guys, some of what was in that report was over the top. So you don't have to call it toxic if you don't want, but the adjective most people would use to describe the culture after reading just some of the report wouldn't be wholesome because it clearly wasn't. Now, in the past, Maryland has fired without looking, reacted without enough information, not included enough input from those that really cared and knew the athletic department. See the move to the Big Ten as an example where anybody with a dissenting opinion got muzzled or weren't listened to.

They have buckled to public pressure over the years in these situations. Just go back to lefties ouster after the biased death. I'm not making any of these apples to apples. Don't get me wrong. What I'm saying is Maryland in the past has been very impulsive. So to a certain extent, I have not had a problem with them taking their time on this. Now, presumably, you take your time to get it right, to get all of the information, to make a decision based on just facts, not emotion, not a decision to please the masses or the mob.

because after you reach your decision, whatever it is, you're going to have to live with it. Maryland will. The masses, the mob, they'll be on to their next thing. And trust me, when it comes to Maryland football, the mob will be moving quickly onto the next thing. If you haven't noticed, there isn't much interest in Maryland football these days. The crowd for the Illinois game on Saturday was the size of a woman's soccer game.

So the process that they went through of getting all the information, the process of the investigation to gather all of the facts, to not buckle immediately and fire everybody, only to find out down the road that perhaps you had reacted to impulsively. I haven't had an issue with that. And actually, on some level, have admired the ability of this group out there to let the criticism of the length of time this was taking just sort of roll off their back.

Now, what they did with the information after being patient and gathering all of the facts. I'm surprised. I don't know all of the facts, and I will admit to you that I didn't read the entire report. I had the Cliffs Notes version. I thought Durkin and Evans were gone. I thought Wallace Lowe, the school president, would be done.

And he is. He's retiring in June. And despite the cost, I thought there would be a total reboot of the football program. I doubt very seriously that this decision was based on football above all else. I've heard that. That it's, oh, this is a typical football program decision. That narrative doesn't make any sense because DJ Durkin isn't Vince Lombardi, if you haven't noticed.

Maryland football hasn't been relevant in years. And even when it's had success, Ralph Riegin most recently, which is now really 15 years ago. Now, in 2010, he was the ACC coach of the year and they fired him. But the point being that at Maryland, football doesn't arrive. to the level it does at other schools, where football would be put first over doing the right thing. Basketball has always been more important and will always be more important at Maryland.

In this day and age of massive dollars for football, Maryland is one of those Power Five conference schools where basketball matters more. It is the minority now in college sports. In the Big Ten, it's really Maryland and Indiana. That's the list of the schools the Big Ten that care a lot more about basketball than football. The ACC has a lot of basketball first schools.

That's where Maryland came from. In most of these cases, well, let me back up. Why did they reach the decision they reached? A decision that is being annihilated by everyone asked to write about it and to talk about it. In most of these cases, by the way, where people are so definitive in their thoughts and opinions. Most don't have, really, most typically don't have enough information to be as definitive as they are. I put myself in that category. In my medium, whether it's radio or this podcast or those that write in print, you're sort of compensated based on bringing it strong. You know,

having an opinion and a conviction about something, even without all of the facts, even without all of the information. In most of these situations, you know, the truth is, you know, the truth is, we're usually guessing, many times an educated guess, but a guess nonetheless. But in this case, in this case, there are 200 pages of supposed investigative facts. Now, even with that, we don't know the current business environment. We don't know the number of people who could be impacted either way by this decision with respect to employment. You know, there are people out there who have done the math. And yes, the real world often dictates that decisions like these come down to money more than doing the right thing because doing the right thing may please

the columnists. The right thing may please sports radio host once they've, you know, once they've written on this. But once they've moved on to their next thing after you've pleased them by doing the right thing, you are stuck with the real world consequences. Donors bailing. Costs that exceed revenues, a budget shortfall, people losing their jobs because of that. That stuff comes into play in these decisions. Tom can write the killer column that destroys the decision today. But if they did what he wanted them to do only, they'd be the ones having to fire a lot more than a football coach and an AD to make up for the lost revenue as Tommy is writing his next column on the learners or Ernie Grunfeld. So the decision was probably more than anything else.

educated guests, based on the economics. It just was going to be really ugly to part ways with two meaningful salaries. There's also this possibility that this group of people making this decision really think that DJ Durkin and Damon Evans aren't to blame for not only Jordan McNair's death, but the reckless, if not inappropriate actions of a strength and conditioning coach. Now, I find it hard to believe that the CEO of football, DJ Durkan at Maryland, can't be held responsible for the actions of one of his employees, in this case, one of his coaches. I would guess that there was a process of pros and cons with this group as they looked at Durkan and looked at Evans.

And for some reason, and maybe it's inexplicable to all of us, the pros outweighed the cons. The decision's been universally shredded. The mob will leave and move on to the next thing. But still, the reputation of the university as a whole has taken a hit. But we've learned, haven't we, from recent, not apples to apples comparison, but comparisons, but recent situations that predictions of long-term doom at Penn State and Michigan State and North Carolina, that those things didn't really come to pass. And perhaps the school thinks that the current predictions of university doom and football program doom will too not bear out to be accurate.

I will say this in the short term, DJ Durkin's going to have to be one hell of a salesman. He's going to have to sell his team that the world just didn't end, as everybody's writing about. Three players walked out, three out of 100 plus. So I don't want to make a big deal out of that. This clearly didn't result in like a union strike walkout. Three players walked out. Durkin's going to have to sell recruits that Maryland isn't hell. And their parents.

And the parents of the recruits, that Maryland. that he isn't Satan and Maryland isn't hell. He's recruited well. This is something that many of you may not know. Better than any Maryland coach in recent memory. He put together the last two classes were top 25 recruiting classes. That's not done in football at Maryland very often. It's done a lot in basketball.

They've got a top 10 recruiting class coming in this year. Not in football. And you know what he's going to have to do? And this is brass tacks and perhaps harsh. He's going to have to win. He's going to have to win and he's going to have to win big and he's going to have to win soon. And he's going to have to do so with an understated public persona. This incident has put him in position to only do the right thing moving forward. Never talk about what the right thing is to do because no one's going to pay attention to him.

It's all about actions, not words with him. This is going to be very important. And if I were his advisor, I would say, you want to stay employed? And actually, you know what I thought about yesterday? I thought about maybe he didn't even want to come back at this point. You wonder with all that's going on if he actually even wanted to be reinstated. I think that if he wanted to go away and taken some sort of a buyout, they would have been more than happy to do that. I think he was fighting for it.

And I think that's why a big reason he got his job. I'm not saying that he didn't want to, that he would have preferred. to have not come back without money. I think he wanted to get paid to move on to the next thing, being an assistant somewhere in three or four years after this whole thing got flushed out publicly. I think they could have agreed on a buyout if that's what he wanted.

Well, look, the bottom line is he's got to be a hell of a salesman selling his own program, selling the recruits and the parents recruits. And I think that's one of those things that we could potentially be exaggerating in terms of the impact on his recruiting. Time will tell. But he's the one that will be inside those homes pitching.

If he gets that opportunity, maybe he won't get that opportunity with a lot of players. That would be a telltale sign that it's going to be impacted. But, you know, again, believe it or not, the only chance he has is to win and repair his image by winning with an understated public persona. don't talk about what happened or that you're doing the right thing. Nobody's going to believe you.

Win and let your actions speak over this next part of your professional career. Other than that, bottom line is, yeah, I'm really surprised. I mean, I said it was going to be brief and then I got rolling here and it wasn't very brief. But the bottom line, I wasn't totally surprised yesterday because you knew that I knew that I had some There were rumors out there. That this may be happening. But if you had told me this two or three days ago, I would have been floored. Floored. I didn't think there was any way it could happen. Here's the, I think the most frustrating thing is just, I thought that press conference was terrible yesterday. I thought the, I mean, the main reason they basically, if you want to bring him back, bring him back with conviction, what they said with, oh, he's a first time head coach. He didn't basically said he didn't know better. That's ridiculous. That's an absolutely ridiculous statement. Same with Damon Evans. Wow, they kind of brushed that aside.

Oh, he was interim, but he was given his job based on how, quote, unquote, how amazing he was at his interim job. That's why he got the job back in June. So there's something wrong there. Look, this is, we're both alums, we're both lifelong fans, even beyond that of Maryland sports, Maryland basketball in particular. And I will just say this, I think over the years, They have really struggled with public relations, sort of like the Redskins have.

And they had a really good PR guy in Zach Bolno for years who left to go to Mason. But they've had these issues before, and they always seem to botch them. I, again, I'll say this. I don't have a problem with the length of time this took. It's always been their past sort of to be impulsive and to fire without information. and to react impulsively and emotionally. And it's still shocking. The decision they reached is shocking.

And again, I will say this, they can write and they can say it wasn't a toxic culture. But if you read even the Cliff's Notes version, it was not, you know, it wasn't cozy and comfortable either. It wasn't wholesome. It wasn't benign. There was something, you know, that was over the top, Some of the actions were over the top.

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They're 1 and 6. Get to coaching blunders for the week as well. But Chris Cooley is here and he's going to spend some time with me, which I appreciate. And if you don't know this, Cooley's got a podcast up now to Redskins.com. And then any way you can get a podcast, you can get Cooley's podcast, which includes, on Tuesdays, his offensive film breakdown, and today you'll be doing your defensive film breakdown, right? That is correct, Kevin. All right.

I want to talk about the giant game, but I want to start with the news from yesterday. Your reaction to the trade for Haha Clinton Dix? I think initially I was surprised that they traded for safety. I'm pleased. My reaction is pleasant. I would have loved to see the grade for like the Marius Thomas. I thought I was big going into that. And I said that yesterday, without really saying, I know exactly what you're getting

at the Demarius Thomas at this point, but I'd just like to speed guy at receiver that could really stretch the field and really win one-on-one. And I think Demarius Thomas is that guy. I watched a bunch of Demarius Thomas. But that kind of person would be big. I know Golden Tate was available that the Eagles got as well. But, you know, Kevin, this defense is something that they're completely relying on. Ha, Ha, Ha, Clinton Dix is a very good safety.

and I'm not sure exactly what they do with him. You know, Haha Dick's, Clinton Dicks. What do you call him? Just ha-ha, right? Just ha-ha. A-ha's one of those guys that plays a lot of... Don't you think, like, have you noticed this that basically everybody in sports media has just referred now to the Alabama quarterback

as Tua? They just call him Tua. They don't try to pronounce his last name. So we'll just... Well, you still can't pronounce his last name. Tagliavova. and not even close you know what I have to look at it phonetically to say it correctly Tagaviolla

Tagavola right yeah tagaviola very good remember we did this last year for I don't know 30 minutes and you could still never get it I know you were really we would do it phonetically we would do it in every different way you couldn't say it well the problem with you is you do this this thing with your tease and it just was it was uncomfortable to listen to after a while but anyway back to Clinton Dix back to ha ha The one, like, you said that you would have preferred or you would have thought Demarius Thomas or a receiver. I want to come back to ha ha in a moment. But I also just want to say that I think the decision not to make a move on a receiver tells you what they think of their receivers.

Now, Crowder hasn't played recently, so he's going to come back. And so that's an addition. But I said in the open of this podcast today that the, that they're, um, that a move for a wide receiver, the fact that they didn't make a move for a wide receiver essentially tells you they don't think wide receiver is the problem with their pass offense. Well, that's fine. I said on my podcast yesterday, not making a move at a wide receiver position is also not having to pull that little card out of your back pocket that says we might not have got the exact guys we wanted

as we went into the season because we still have them all when James and Crowder gets back. Right. You know, the one nice thing about not taking any receiver at this point is you still, you put that card back and you go, yeah, you know, we believe in our guys. They're coming around. There's a part of the passing game that's a problem. That's Alex Smith, and there's a part of the passing game that's a problem. That's the wide receivers.

And, you know, obviously they feel content with where they're at. They don't want to go out and get anybody. You know, you look at the Marius Thomas next year. You're going to have to pay him like he's a $17 million cap hit next year. So it's a big-time number on the cap next year. And maybe you didn't want to try to negotiate any way. thing with Golden Tate. And so you didn't worry about it.

And you said, hey, look, we're going to work on defense, and we'll see what happens with Dix. And the other thing that I like is you still have 10 draft picks because they have all those comp picks from all the draft picks that went, what, from the 2014 draft to other teams this year. So you had a ton of picks. I have no problem giving up a fourth. You stack up on defense, I'll be interested in how they play him.

You know, he played a lot of free safety in Green Bay. He played a lot of too high safety. He didn't play as much in the box safety looks. for the Green Bay Packers. And so I'm wondering, is that now allowing DJ to be in the box safety more? And what does Monta do? Do you go with more three safety looks in your dime package and your nickel package? Does Josh Harvey Clemens come off the field now?

Because, you know, Josh Harvey Clemens really played instead of Zach Brown in passing situations. And so does that keep him on the field? Because personally, if they're in an empty set, I'd much rather have a guy like Ha Ha, ha, Clinton Dix. in the back and Monti and DJ covering the backs and tight ends, then in a linebacker. Not that Josh hasn't done a good job, but I'd rather have DB type of guys doing DB type of coverage things.

And so he gives you the opportunity to do that. And the other thing you can do when you decide, ha-ha, as you say, hey, look, Troy Apki got hurt. He's on the injured reserve. We had to get another guy at safety. We went out and got the best guy we could get at safety for another safety. It's also an indication this team making a training. deadline move, that they're going for it to a certain degree, don't you think?

Well, yeah, but you're sitting there at five and two. Of course, you're going for it. I think you have to go for it. I don't know. And here's the thing. It's a fourth-round pick, okay? And I get that the fourth-rounders have value, but the Redskins do have a bunch of picks. It loaded up into this next year's draft.

You're saying, do we sign a random free agent safety who's hanging out out there who hasn't been playing, or do we sign a guy that we love, that we had to game play? against that we saw this year that we think is going to be a big addition to our team. And I think they made the right move in doing that. I love when teams make trades to address their need in the middle of the season. I also think it's hysterical because you hear over and over and over again how important training camp is and these guys got to get the reps and we're working together and we're trying to get everyone on the same page and Haha Clinton Dix is going to play next week.

Yeah, these schemes are so complex and so tough that you need six, weeks of training camp and all the OTAs. And it's not like he hasn't been playing, and it's not like he doesn't understand football. But in one week, one guy will pick up the entire defense. He'll go out and play. Yeah, I think that's a good point, too. I mean, it's a fourth rounder that if you lose him, you'll eventually get that back. It is, they're five and two.

Of course, they're going for it. I think it just from their stand. I think that's a good point you made, and you may have made it earlier, that if you lose him, you get that comp pick back for the 2020 draft. Right. So you're essentially not losing anything if you don't resign in free agency. Which is also why I was a bit curious as to why Green Bay, who's also in a playoff race and also should be going for it. And apparently, according to what I've read out of Green Bay, don't have obvious replacement answers.

They would have gotten a fourth rounder had they lost them in free agency as well, but they were willing to deal them now. I always think about it from the other team's view as well. I think that's interesting. But your point is a good one. They're five and two. Here's what it is. We haven't been in this position in so long for them to make a move to really go for it. So it seems unusual because it is.

You brought up DJ Swaranger. You actually brought up something that I brought up, which is as much nickel as they've played, maybe their nickel will consist of three safeties moving forward, not three corners. I don't know. But Swaranger, when he came out, we both loved him when they signed him out of Arizona. I, of course, saw him as an in-the-box safety, which is where he had some success. In Arizona, you saw, with your expert level, you saw his ability to do everything as a safety, and you loved that signing of DJ Swaranger.

How good is he right now? He's exceptional right now. And yeah, I think allowing him to do more, really let him grow into the position in the NFL, and that's what he did in Arizona. He played everywhere in Arizona in that betcher defense that we actually saw against the Giants last week. But he played everywhere in the safety world, everywhere in the, in the secondary in Arizona, and I think that helped him have a massive grasp. He didn't do very well in Houston as a down-on-the-box safety, just that guy.

And I think kind of broadening his reach there in terms of playing everywhere, has been great. And then in the second year of this defense, where it did take him a little bit of time to understand some things, in my opinion. He made some big plays last year, and you could see the football IQ. But he is awesome right now, Kevin. I mean, he is all over the field. He is disguising coverages at a very high level.

I mean, to talk about the first pick that he had in the game. Eli Manning thinks it's man-to-man coverage. And DJ does a great job showing what looks like man-a-man over the Tide-end, and then they drop to three-deep, four underneath. And he plays through a pick by the Tide-end to get a jump on the inside. The short-in route that I'm now describing as the shin route, short-in, shin. You get that? Yep.

You like that? That's okay. Short-in. But it's the one that Beckham was running. The one that Beckham was running. That was a big time play. Oh, it's a huge play. But it's not just that.

I mean, he's involved in the run game. He's making plays all over the field. He's turning teams over. Look, I know that Mason Foster's the defensive captain, but as far as the communication goes and everything, the secondary G.J. Sorringer's been elite. Okay, so let's go back to the giant game for a moment, and then I want to hear about some of the offensive grades

and just talk about the defense in general. The giant game was, I thought, I don't think you and I don't think you and I have actually talked since the game. I forget if we talked on Sunday night or not. I don't think we did actually. I thought it was a very impressive win from this standpoint, Chris. This is the kind of game, the kind of trap game coming off a big win over an arch rival, an emotionally draining win over the Cowboys the week before. This is the kind of game they would typically go and lose or play poorly. Not only did I not think that they played poorly, I thought they looked ready, I thought they were coached well in this particular game, and they got through it with a win,

which to me is significant. What did you think? I think you summed up almost everything about what I thought about the way they played in that game. They turned it up another level defensively. Our defensive front is exceptional right now. You know, you put those five guys in a three-four scheme, and they are all very good. Payne Allen, I and I just, Carrigan, Preston Smith on the edge. I don't mind either of Parnell McPhee or Ryan Anderson coming, and I think they're really,

drop off when those two guys come in outside on the edge. And you're creating real pressure in the run end in the past game. And so it's making it hard for anybody to get things started. It's also helping your coverage in the back end. And so you're seeing some interceptions and you're seeing some big-time plays. They can time things up and they can jump routes. I love that. But they're playing with the real enthusiasm on defense,

and I think that's been contagious. And once you see a couple guys start making plays, it's not just that game that it carries over. It's the next week. It's I want to be the guy that has two and a half sacks like Ionitis. I was this close to making this play. Man, I could get this pick. They're building on that.

It's huge. It's exciting. It's contagious and it's fun. And I think it's more than just getting a coach getting you ready at that point. We know we're actually good. And so let's go be very good. You know, offensively, they're still not turning the ball over, which I love. Alex Smith didn't get sacked in the game.

And he didn't throw a pick in the game. And I know that you had the one AP fumble that hurt you in that. moment. But ultimately, they're not turning the ball over. They're controlling time of possession. It's not pretty on offense. It really isn't. They missed a lot. There are some things out there that they could have. I think that there's some adjustments that they could make,

which honestly, I thought they did do a good job in the second half adjusting to running the ball with some zone run scheme stuff. But it's growing, to some extent, on offense. It's slow, man. It's a slow pace that they're growing at. But you build while you win, it's much better than building while you lose.

We talked about that last week. Yeah, no doubt. Who's the most impactful of the three defensive linemen? Payne, Allen, or ionitis? That's everyone's question. Oh, it is? Okay, because I think I've heard everybody asked that throughout the week. I've seen it everywhere on Twitter. I'm going to answer it in this way.

If I were to do a draft, a hypothetical draft, I'm going to take Jonathan Allen first because I think he's the best in terms of transitioning his rush to pass rush. I think he's the best in terms of his ability to win one-on-one. So he's going to dictate the most double teams, and he's going to dictate the most attention. But because of the other guys playing at a high level, it makes it really hard on everyone else. Duran Payne is very tough to block in the run game. He's a bowl, man. Have you seen him in person?

It looks like a bowling ball. Yeah, when they drafted him, we were out there, yes. And a muscular dude at that. It's not just a – him and Alan, they're not fat. Either's ionitis. sinusitis is ripped. Well, Alan, to me, isn't even necessarily built like an interior defensive lineman. He's just an athlete.

No, he's just a phenomenal athlete. Alan looks like Aaron Donald in person, as far as body type, which is funny because five years ago, you've looked at those guys and said, yeah, they can't hold themselves up against the run, but they are. I mean, they're doing a great job with it, and they're doing a great job playing gap control. I don't, I can't really say that you'd have to have. one or the other. I just think John Allen is the most naturally talented

three. But I think because of his play, the other two, being very good football players, who would you draft second? I think I draft Payne second. I think it's tough to take anything away from what Matt Ionitis has done. Yeah, you know, the sacks, to me watching Sunday, they had seven sacks and Ionitis had two and a half and Carrigan had one and a half, but there were so many other players that were basically all in on it. Like it could have been any of the other players because they were all there. There were seven sacks in the game. There were four of those sacks in which it could have been anyone else.

It really could have been anyone else. And there's an impact of all of them being that close to getting those sacks because they're collapsing the pocket. And Eli Manning had nowhere to go with the football. Same as against DAC to some extent with some of their sacks. He's just got nowhere to get out of the pocket. There's nothing to escape to. And so it's someone that's going to get a sack.

I mean, Preston Smith very well could have three sacks in that game. Yeah, I thought he played really well too. I thought he played exceptional. All right. So we knew that they would be improved defensively if they were healthy. We felt the same way about them last year. And if they had stayed healthy, we're now seeing what last year could have been, had Allen and Ionitis and Foster, you know, been on the field.

for much of the year. They still had all of the injuries on the offensive line, and that would have impacted them offensively. But, you know, we remember at the end of the season, we, you know, did the, what if they had stayed healthy this year? What would it, what would the difference have been? I think now we're seeing that defensively, the difference would have been a minimum of two games. You know, they would have been nine and seven. Now, last year, that wouldn't have been playoff worthy in the NFC, but they would have been a far different football team. They've gone from dead last in rush defense to second in the league right now. And it's hard to just quantify it as two games.

You also add Dron Payne into the mix, another first-round pick who wasn't here last year. Right, that's true. So maybe it's not two games. Maybe it's four games with the way they're playing on defense right now, the way they scored on offense. No, I'm just, I'm saying without pain last year, if Ionitis, if Allen, if Foster, if they hadn't been hurt. We saw it in the first four games when they were healthy.

They were a different football team defensively last year, but they just lost the key players that would have allowed them to be a much better run-stopping team. Remember, in the first few weeks, they were an excellent rush defense, and they finished 32nd in the league because they lost those players. Yeah, and even when Matt I and I just came back for a month, he had that big cast on a fan, so it's hard for him to play in that situation as well, and it just wasn't the same. It's not the same when you lose more than a couple of key players. They also lost throughout the year almost every single offensive lineman at one point. All right. So, Sunday they play Atlanta and New Orleans was the first real test in terms of facing an

offensive team. The Packers were a test, but Aaron Rogers was banged up that day and he wasn't 100 percent and they failed the test in New Orleans and they get to take this test again against an Atlanta team that can really score and can really throw the football. Is this much more of a reality test for this team, which it is, how do you think they'll do against Atlanta versus what they did against New Orleans a month ago? So I think one of the biggest differences for Atlanta right now versus New Orleans is Atlanta does have a couple of their offensive linemen out. So you're going to have a couple backups playing for the Atlanta Falcons, and that's tough

for them. Adam Lovitri's out and shoot, I forget the other name of the other guy that's out, but they have two starting offensive linemen out. It's not Tom Compton anymore. Tom Compton is in Minnesota with Kirk Cousins. Buddies back together and reunited there. They also have Devante Freeman out, so you have some injuries. I'll be excited to see how they play,

because I think that Atlanta still does a very good job of moving Matt Ryan. They have a great boot game, and they get them outside of the pocket, and so you'll have some challenges there where he'll be able to buy some time. Julio Jones is exceptional. Calvin Ridley's playing great. Mohamed's the news doing a heck of a job, and so they have some very good receivers in Atlanta. also Austin Hooper, the tight ends, having a heck of year.

So I'm not going to struggle covering Logan Paulson, our guy, Logan Paulson, but they have some players there. And so you're going to have a challenge. I think they're going to be much better against Atlanta. I think Atlanta will struggle to run the ball because everyone seems to struggle to run the ball. I think they're going to hold Kevin Coleman the way they've held every other back. And so at that point, it's, you know, how do you manage Julio Jones? Can you keep him from having any bigger game than, I don't know, 120 yards,

130 yards like O'Dell had? How do you manage Calvin, Calvin, Ridley, can you keep him from getting big plays down the field? If you can just manage those big plays, you should be fine against Atlanta, who's right now terrible on defense. And it's crazy that I say that because I don't think they're going to be, but they've just had so many injuries on defense as well. I think it's going to be a battle.

I do because we just, we don't score enough points right now. But I think that I'm really excited to see us against this offense. And Matt Ryan is not Drew Brees. He's just not. but if we blow coverage is the way we did against Drew Breeze, Matt Ryan is good enough that he'll take advantage of that, and I don't think that's going to happen. Matt Ryan isn't Dak Crescott or Eli Manning either.

No, he's... And that giant offensive line is the worst I've seen personally in years in the NFL. I don't know why people put it solely on Eli. It's not solely Eli's fault. Now, back to Atlanta's defense for a moment. They've been banged up, but they do it. I agree with you. They've got playmakers.

I mean, I like Vic Beasley. I like the guy from UCLA McKinley as a pass rusher. They've got some players, and that sort of leads to offensively. You said slow improvement, maybe too slow improvement week to week. Was Alex Smith better against the Giants than he was against the Cowboys? Yeah, I think he was a little bit better against the Giants than he was against the Cowboys. I wouldn't say much, much better, but I think he's a little bit better. against the Giants, then he is against the Cowboys.

And I would really look at it, and I would say, you know, if he could, let's just say, collectively, there are 12 plays that he'd like to have back. If we could take that number from 12 to make it eight, which ultimately would be a realization of maybe one more scoring drive, you're fine. You're absolutely fine in that situation. He's just got to manage his misses just a little bit better. and to me, just some of the inaccuracy from Alex are the things that I'm surprised with. I'm fine with him not making a right read or working something or scrambling a couple times

when maybe he doesn't have to scramble if he just makes the throws that I know he's capable of making. Like the Jordan Reed fade throw on third down where he threw it way over his head. Before the 53-yard field goal, yeah. Yeah, those are tough. The Jordan Reed where he threw it over his head on a third and one. I actually think Jordan fooled him on that a little bit. It's no excuse. Jordan couldn't go in or out.

I thought Jordan should have went in. He went out. I think Alex thought he was going to go in. They'd run that route three times in the game. Jordan had that route three times in the game. He catches on all three of them. He had the inside. He usually takes the inside.

And all of a sudden, he hooks it up outside. I think he tricked him a little bit. No excuse for Alex. He's still going to make that throw. And Jordan's allowed to go wherever he wants to go. But, you know, you get a couple of those throws back. And I think Alex is going to be fine. Well, yeah, the deep shot.

to Richardson? Was that winning? So the deep shot to Richardson is, is not good on multiple levels. And here, here, I'll go to the first, the second play of the game, which is a play action pass where we went over the middle of the Richmond. That nearly got picked. That nearly got picked. Okay. So they're basically the exact same concept, the two plays, off of play action. And these are the plays that I think we really, if we want to be great, we have to start hitting. The first time they're playing in a three-deep coverage, he's looking to Josh Doxon, who's running an in, out, and in deep. It's like an angle route, 10 yards in, 8 yards back out to the angle, and then post.

They call it a rage route. That's rage, man. He gets deed up. As he's getting deed up, the safety's cutting the crossing route from the other side. That's Richardson. If you want to throw that crossing route, you've got to go right now. But because the safety's cutting it, man, it's hard to not take that deep shot to Doxon. he's late to the crosser.

If you're late to the crosser, you just throw the checkdown in that situation. Just get out of it, survive it, throw the checkdown. The next play, the play you've initially started talking about, where he takes the deep shot to Richardson. The safety, the same type of look, the safety bails, and he's deep to the corner post, which is Richardson on the corner post. As the safety bails, he's never in a position where Richardson can get over the top. You've heard me say over and over with the safety.

If he's even with the safety, he can be leaving. He's even. He's leaving. there's no chance. And so Mo Harris is wide open on the crossing route in that situation. So that's one where he would like to hit the crosser. So, I mean, and the throw is way off. The throw is actually so far off that he should have been picked. The safety can't even get into because it's so far off.

I also don't think it was a very good route by Richardson on the outside. Didn't really push hard enough to the corner to get that separation. But that said, you know, I didn't like to throw in any way, shape, or form. And I think the crosser would have been the answer right there. And so, you know, those are looks that that's J's, offense. I don't know if that was any what of Andy Reid had done. I know that Alex's had high to low

reads like that with safeties before, but it's a new offense. It's new receivers that he hasn't seen run these routes. And so he's just feeling his way through it. I thought that he was improved for this reason more than any other compared to the Dallas game. I thought he was more

patient and didn't bail on plays quickly like he had been doing. I thought he tried to make more plays by being more patient in the pocket? Yeah, I think in the Dallas game, he had five or six scrambles that there was no way he needed to scramble. And I think in this game, the few scrambles that he had, I thought were relevant scrambles.

So, you know, moving up in the pocket, like, these are little things, but a couple of scrambles I'll describe to you. One, moving up in the pocket to Josh Doxon on a shallow cross where Josh Doxon ends up getting the first down around the edge on a little crossing around. That's a big time play by Alex. That's an off-script play where he's got to move up. up, he gets it to Doxon. I love that. Two, this is even smaller, but it's, it's, I like it. He had an awkward little flip to Jordan Reed on a third down and long, right? If you can remember that

scrambling around like crazy, Chris Thompson missed the protection. He flips it to Jordan Reed. Jordan gets about five yards, something like that on a third and 16, third and long. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was short. Still, if you take a sack, it's minus seven. So you're talking about 12 yards, you're talking about 12 yards difference in field position. He didn't have anywhere down the field. he had a protection issue, which was a missed protection. So he has to scramble, and he's doing a great job back there, just surviving a bad play and getting the team, essentially, an extra 12 yards in that situation. And that's why they're flipping the field more times than not.

Not taking sacks sometimes can be big. I agree. He never fumbles back there, and so he's good with the ball. He's good of protecting it. And so those are some of the good plays that he made in that game. And so I think the more opportunities he gets, the more things he sees with his guys, the better he's going to be. You know, part of my, we used to do this together on the show, Redskins beat, you know, the opponent if the last two weeks it's been check it down and punt it with better, you know, without the lost yardage that you would take in a sack.

And that's been huge for them. The field position thing, they actually didn't win the field position battle technically on Sunday, but in. Because the Elevee-Vernan Fumble Recovery that took them all the way down to the other. That started them in that field position, you know, in Redskins territory, really. skewed it. But they in big spots Tress Way was able to flip the field sort of

in conjunction with a play that Alex Smith made that was a good play, positive play rather than a big loss play. The one thing I would say with Alex Smith before we move on, it's just I would like to see a step up in anticipation and I think that comes from his

understanding of exactly what his receivers are doing. I'll give you a couple plays, and then I'll end it on Alex, since I'm running this now. Yeah, go ahead. The two-minute drill right at the end of the half, where you go three and out and punt, give him the ball back. The first play, Chris Thompson's running.

Didn't you love the way Jay used his timeouts on defense? Finally? He knew what to do. He knew what to do. Yeah, he knew exactly what to do. So Chris Thompson's running a choice route on first and ten. He's going to come wide open in the middle of the field. Alex needs to know that he can let it go,

but he's just not worked with Chris Thompson enough on these choices to know that for sure he's going to break in on the choice route. And so he starts to get pressure from LaValle in the pocket, and he slides, and then he dumps one in the dirt, five feet in front of Chris Thompson in short. There should have been a completion. Chris Thompson was going to be open.

He was open. I could see, because I've watched Chris do this a million times in his body language where he was going. Alex felt a little pressure and was late to it. then on third down on that same drive have the same route by Chris Thompson with the same looking coverage that you'd like you'd add a quarter's coverage where the middle's going to be opening breaks in but he doesn't work that side he works the other side and he works Paul Richardson on what you call an arrow route and so it's three guys Richardson's the underneath he's running

about six yards at a little bit of an angle in with the ability to break back out to the flat alex ends up throwing it back out it looks like it's a high wild ball outside to Richardson but it's not Richardson had inside coverage or inside leverage, he should have come back out of that thing. And so just that timing, that anticipation of exactly what his receivers are doing, those are two things where he's not making the wrong read. He's not making the wrong throw. It's just a little bit off with his guys.

What did you grade, Alex Smith? C plus. What did you grade Alex Smith? A C up from a C minus the week before. was your highest graded player, Adrian Peterson or Brandon Sheriff? Both of those guys were in my highest graded player range. I thought AP was tremendous throughout the game. Obviously, the fumble would be one of the one negatives that he had.

I think one thing with AP is he could have a little bit more patience on some of his cuts where he's bouncing to the outside very quick, but still he's got enough speed to get outside, which I've been very impressed with. Sheriff was tremendous. I mean, the one holding penalty that I think downgraded him a little bit, or he would have been an A across the board. And to me, ultimately, the offensive line was all very good as exceptional in the past game. I mean, there really wasn't a lot of pressures. And so I thought they did a great job. A couple times with Vernon got beat inside, but that's after he hurt his thumb. And then he ended up having to come out of the game. And you know he's heard a little bit

if he's got to come out of a game. So I thought the line did a pretty good job. Was Vernon Davis your lowest-graded player in offense? I'm just guessing I haven't listened to it yet. The receivers were all pretty average. The receivers were all in the C-range. Doxon was just a little bit above the C-range. Vernon was in the C-range. I didn't think Sprinkle played his best game,

but he doesn't play a whole heck of a lot. No one was below a C in this game. Last thing, the Monta-Nickleson thing, back to Haha. I loved Monta Nicholson. You know that that I thought. And I think you saw this clearly you saw the speed, the range, the whole thing. And, you know, Jordan, remember this summer said Monta Nicholson's my Jordan Reed on the defense. You know, sort of implying an incredible talent, he's just got to stay healthy.

Well, he's been healthy. So I'm assuming that this move was made in part because Montaigne-Nichelson wasn't playing well. Is that a fair assumption? I don't think Monta Nicholson's playing quite at the level that they would have hoped that he would have played at this point. And I think a big part of that is just a couple plays that you'd say, what do we do in here, Monta? You go back to the Saints game where he gets a little bit, I don't know, a little bit overexcited and pushes Camaro over the pile on a carrigan sack where that drive moves on. Go to the last game, the one deep shot where he just doesn't look at the ball at all and just completely chaos the receiver and gets a passenger. Just look at the ball, man.

but I don't think Monta Nicholson's playing at a bad level. I wouldn't say he's playing below a C-plus level in any way, shape, or form. I just think it's depth, the trade for ha-ha. I think it's wanting to have another guy on the field. It might also be that Quentin Dunbar maybe isn't healthy. You know, you've got to consider if Fabian was your slot guy, for sure. If Dunny's not healthy outside on the edge right now, and Fabian's outside, who do you want to have inside?

and Ha Ha ha is one of those guys that can play in there, or Monte is one of those guys that can play in there. I think it's just a depth thing in adding another good player, and I don't think it matters if he's a safety. You know, you're going to play them inside. You're going to play DJ inside. It allows you to do some more things. It also, I think, allows you to blitz DJ some more

and have some more looks where you trust man coverage on the outside. All right. You have any thoughts about the Maryland situation? DJ Durkin and Damon Evans, the athletic director, being retained after all of this? I know you were a little bit at the beginning of this sort of pro. Well, go ahead. Do you have a thought on that?

If you don't, just, I don't, you know, don't worry about it. Well, here, look, from working in a college level and working in an NFL level and understanding the conditioning program, I don't think I ever once saw the head coach on the field where we were conditioning. I don't really think I saw the head coach involved with the conditioning program in any way. I heard a lot of the negative culture attention. Young players have a hard time being criticized, and I have no problem.

DJ Durkin is critical of his players. If he drops F-bomb after F-bomb, that's college football. That's high-level football. Coaches can do that. They do do that. That does not bother me. You know, have a little bit of self-awareness as a player. Be coachable.

Be able to understand some of those things. Look, you and I have talked about this. the situation could have been handled differently at Maryland as it happened in the moments and it was incredibly unfortunate the way that turned out. But I don't think DJ Durkan's at fault. I really don't think that either of those two are at fault in any way or shape or form in that instance. So, you know, go from there. Utah State is 7 and 1.

We have not been able to enjoy this together, but they are really, really good out in the Mountain West. I know they should be. They should have been Michigan State. I know. They should be eight. No. I know they had a very close game in the opener against Michigan State and lost, I think, by seven on the road.

All right. Thanks for doing this. Coolie's podcast. Anywhere you can get a podcast. You're on iTunes now. You're on Google Play. All of the ways that you can listen to a podcast, but also you can just go to Redskins.com and find his podcast there.

Clinton's got a podcast. Rigo's got a podcast. You can listen to all of those right there. I will talk to you later. Thanks for doing this. See you, Kevin. All right. Chris Cooley, everybody.

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you know he was he was basically held up at gunpoint on all six of them because he complained so loudly that he had been fouled on all of them but whatever they're one and six and this season's turning into a disaster very quickly remember they started two and eight a few years ago and rebounded but I think that was while John was still sort of recovering from knee issues I'm going to bring in a good friend of mine, and that is Scott Jackson, who knows everything about the Wizards, loves the NBA, loves the Wizards like I do. First of all, how you doing? Pretty good, man. How you been?

I've been all right. I'm doing this podcast. It's going well. Listening to you when you're on 980, you're on again today, one to four, and the rest of the week, as Brian takes one of those golf trips that he gets the privilege of taking during seasons. and you'll be on 980 all week, right? Yeah, yep. I'll be doing a few days of Smoot and one with Lynn. But yeah, it's going to be a lot of redskins.

And yeah, we'll squeeze in some wizards. I guess we have to. But it's been an ugly start. And you're right. I mean, this is different. And I've heard a lot of people say, well, they were 2 and 8 under Brooks's first year. But, again, that was Brooks's first year. They've been with this coach for three years.

John Wall's not on a minute's limit. He's allowed to play him back-to-backs. Bradley Beal hasn't missed three games. like he did a stretch that season due to injury. So this is a whole different scenario. And, you know, they just don't even look interested, Kevin. They don't even look like they know each other out there, especially when they're trying to play defense if you want to call it that.

This problem, in my view, is not going to get fixed by Dwight Howard's insertion into the lineup when they get home. Do you agree? Yeah, I mean, look, it can help on the boards. But, man, if you're Dwight and if you really are dealing with back pain or what, or lower buttox pain or whatever the heck they're calling it. Do you really want to jump in the lineup with a group of perimeter players that continue to let dribble penetration happen pretty much every possession? And so you've got to come over as a help defender.

You know, you see Maheemi fouling at an alarming rate right now. And certainly that's partially on Maheemey, but it's also because he's always trying to cover somebody's tail. I mean, it's a disaster. And the guards don't seem to be interested in rebounding and, you know, in helping out in that regard. and, you know, the team hasn't shot the ball particularly well, although they did against Memphis for the most part. But, yeah, I mean, I think Howard can help, no doubt.

But then there's going to be some, you know, there's going to be some adjustments with him coming back in the lineup. I think the core guy is the three highest paid players of all got to look in the mirror, starting with D.C.'s point guard, you know, I mean, he's been awful. I mean, he finally made some threes last night. But overall, I mean, whether he's, you know, he's making threes or not, he's turning the ball over nine times. he's making all kinds of mistakes defensively. He gambles too much, doesn't sell out. I mean, it's a disaster.

You know, I think one of the problems, and I think it's been a problem here under Brooks, is, and I think it gets overlooked from a lot of people that just look at numbers, and you're not one of those people, you know basketball. He doesn't help them out with enough structure and enough of a plan on offense. There is just way too much of standing around ISO ball, occasionally one ball screen, and that's it. And what happens with that is that you're not making the other team work on defense. You know, a lot of NBA teams play this way. I'm not suggesting they're the only one.

But the Wizards rarely have a plan offensively. And when you play a decent defensive team, you're going to end up with what you ended up with last night. Wall not knowing what to do. There's no plan. There's no plan to help him out. he had nine turnovers in the game. Beale had four, should have had another one or two that he got bailed out on when the ball just sort of rolled out of bounds off of somebody's leg when he had clearly lost control of it. They have no offensive structure at all, Scott. And I don't see that changing. And I think it's a big problem and a big reason for where they are. You're right. And then if you don't get stops defensively, you don't get to go run and transition and do all the stuff that gets you easy buckets.

keeps him going. But yeah, you're right. I mean, like, you said this from early days of Brooks. You said, were you looking at him? Okay, see, and I think a lot of us wrote that off to, well, you know, he was coaching Russell Westbrook. Well, now he's coaching John Wall, and is he really coaching him? The best offensive structure, the Wizards have played in his now two-plus seasons was when John Wall was on the bench in street close last year, with Thomas Satteransky running a lot of the offense, the everybody eats era, if you will. And, you know, Marching Gortott for all the bitching and complaining. Yeah, he was a drama queen at times, but he'd said a lot of truth and some of the critiques he had about John Wall and his team, and I think it's showing its ugly

head right now, and it's awful. There's no structure in offense, and this whole idea, hey, we're going to play John Moore off the ball. Well, that's great. He doesn't run off the ball. He just stands in the corner with his hands on his knees. That's right. I mean, he's the least active guy off the ball. He's not a great shooter. My feeling was when Brooks said, hey, we're going to get John off the ball more. I thought really what he was saying was, we want John not to dribble so much. get that. I mean, give up the ball. I mean, Andy Jordan went through this with Gilbert Aranis, right? He had to get Gilbert to buy into the fact

that you can give up the ball and trust that it may come back to you late in the shot clock if it comes to that. But, you know, again, the more ball movement you have the better. You know, John, I know has these great assist numbers and he's a good passer and all that, and he's gotten some guys paid, but I think the thing that people miss is, you know, he likes to make the assist pass.

He makes the kill shot. He's not a guy that moves the ball quickly in the clock, dribbles too much, and now they're trying to get him out of that, and he offense is been functioning very well. And again, he's not a great outside shooter despite what he did last night. It's really interesting because last night, when

they made a run, they were down, I think, 18, and they made a run. And Ubrae played great during this run, especially on defense. But if you go compare those offensive half-court sets to the offensive sets with John Wall in the game, the ball touches

probably exponentially more hands than it does with John Wall in the game. And it's not even about that because truly when even they've moved the ball well, which is important with good spacing, there still isn't much of a plan other than to move the ball and keep the floor spaced, which is a plan. But there's not a ton of structure there. You made a great point too, and I've talked a lot about this. The problem with the Wizards, if they don't rebound or if they don't get stops and they can't

run. Wall is not the same player. I would contend that Beal and Porter aren't the same players as well. Beal's better in the half court. Porter thrives on getting open as a trailer or out in front of a fast break and being able to set up and shoot an open three. It's just been ugly all the way around, and that leads me to this. I mean, sort of the backbiting a little bit that started to develop. You know, after the loss on Friday night before the blowout to the Clippers, the Kings. After the King's loss in Sacramento, you had Wall saying we've got guys that are worrying about not getting shots and where the ball's going on the offensive end. And then Beale said, you know, we've got our own agendas on the floor.

Who are they talking about specifically? Yeah, that's a great question. They're talking about each other as the first that it comes to some mind. You know, I don't know if they can be talking about Otto Porter because it doesn't get enough shots up at this point. And that should be a point of emphasis to get him more shots. You know, who knows? I just think they talk sometimes. You know what I mean?

I think it all sounds good at the moment. And none of it means anything. None of it ends in any type of change and results. I mean, Scott Brooks finally said it last night. We've got to stop talking about it. But, yeah, I mean, look, there's a lot of this. I mean, I think there's always been the feeling, not even a feeling, but I think there's some evidence that, you know,

there's not a lot of chemistry between those guys and Otto and maybe with Otto's new contract last year that kind of ruffled some feathers on this team. I mean, I was at the Toronto game, and I could see it playing his day late in that game when they were trying to come back and that was game two where, you know, Otto Porter was running the floor hard and he was waiting, you know, in his spot on the baseline corner three, Wall, you know, looked at him and decided to make other, you know, moves instead, other passes instead of getting him the ball late in that game, which proved to be fruitless

for them because he didn't come back. And you just see things like that. And, you know, and then Scott Brooks, you know, is kind of falling into this default of blame auto too, like a lot of people have, well, you know, he's the highest paid player on the team. Well, it's ridiculous. He's not the guy who's completely agreed to him. Right. I completely agree with you. Like, it's not Otto Porter, you know. He's a dependent player. Give me a break. It's your two stars. It starts with John and then Bradley. I mean, that's where it starts. He's a totally dependent player. It's a great way to describe him, number one. Number two is that when everybody was complaining in the first two games about he's not

getting enough threes, I'm like, look, the last thing this team should be worried about is running plays to get Otto Porter threes. Like, please, like you've got two players that are your cornerstones here. That's not Otto Porter. And by the way, Scott, I actually thought Otto Porter in the first couple of games played pretty well. Like he was a big contributor in a lot of different ways to what was going on in two games that they actually had a chance to win. Like the last few, they haven't even had a chance to win. Here's the big takeaway or the big picture question that I want you to sort of end this with.

What can they do about it? I don't think there's anything they can do about it. They're not going to fire Brooks, right? I wouldn't think so. I mean, that's a lot of money, although I guess there was a report last week by, I think it was Kurt Heline who said that there was some rumblings that, you know, the seat could get high for Brooks so they don't turn this thing around. That's hard to imagine. And, you know, but let's be honest, too, if you're Ernie Grunfield, can you really, you know, recommend that to your owner and say, yeah, we're going to eat $14 or $20 million, $21 million, really, you know, on this coach that I, you know, recommended highly to come here without then the owner saying to him, well, maybe you should go. you know, because this is your team.

Look, they think this is a better team. And on paper, it looks like a better team. In reality, it isn't right now. I mean, the bottom line is these guys got to start buying in, whatever that is. And the thing that you look at, you just ask yourself, where's the leadership going to come from? Because clearly, John and Bradley, since, you know, Paul Pierce has left, you need Garrett Temple, who was offering words of advice after in Memphis to guys.

I mean, they have zero leadership in that locker room. And the default is to point fingers and blame each other. And, you know, I heard about, hey, you know, don't you worry about Dwight Howard this off season. He can't be as devices as marching Gortat. Hell, we haven't even seen Dwight Howard yet, and his team's falling apart of the scene. So, you know, I don't know, man. They've got to get better. I mean, I just keep saying it's early, but it's getting, you know, but sooner or later, it will get late for them.

It just doesn't seem like all the stuff they've talked about stressing this year. They've even come close to checking ending the boxes. I just love all the people that thought Gortot provided no value at all. They've been out rebounded in every single game they've played in. Their screen and roll offense when they actually apply it has been nowhere near as effective without him setting the screens. But, you know, I'm sure there were a bunch of number crunchers who had it all figured out that Gortot was a zero. There was something that you just said that I wanted to follow up on it.

I'm just trying to think, oh, what I was going to say with respect to the coaches, they can't. The admission that Brooks isn't the right guy in year three with the contract they gave him would be death to Ernie. I mean, I think it would be. So those chances to me are slim and none. But I have thought about, to me, the higher was Tibbs. They needed a structured, you know, possession by possession, both ends of the floor. And I know that that isn't necessarily player friendly all the time. Like Randy, he wasn't player friendly.

friendly all the time. But this particular core, Wall and Beal, even though they don't think they need it, they need structure. They need a plan. Absolutely. Absolutely. They don't have it. And I don't know if Scott Brooks will ever give it to him. And again, the thing that worries me

is he just come off like a guy that is just too concerned about going to battle with his stars and he doesn't want to do it. You know, we saw this last year with some empty promises about lineup changes that never happened. So this is a big concern. If they don't around this year. Those rumbling to the latter. You just look at what Brad Stevens does when he has

the left in the court in Boston. And for a while, again, like I said, I think Brooks did a good job with it last year. Wall was out, but he's got to figure out a way to make this team better with Wall-in because they're overly invested in John Wall for several more years. And that's not changing. Nobody's going to take that contract off your hands, especially the way he's playing out. He looks like a diminishing player, and that's scary because he's not that old. I mean, he just really looks like a diminishing player right now, and he's supposed to be completely healthy. So yeah, they've got to figure it out within. I mean, you know, it's not pretty right now. And, you know, again, NBA seasons are long and teams, the good teams find a way to fight through

this kind of stuff. You just wouldn't expect them to go through it this early. All right, thanks. Good to catch up. You're on 980 all week long, one to four in your, and the spot you occupied for a long time with Brian out. Enjoy it and I'll talk to you soon. All right, Kevin. Thanks. Let's do some coaching blunders. Bad play calls. Clock management gaffs. Missed opportunities.

It's Coach Ian's Blunders of the week. All right. A couple of them. You know, there haven't been in the last few weeks, and Coach Patrol, you guys are doing a good job. But we haven't had any of those obvious major sort of gaffes. I actually think there was an interesting strafes. strategic decision made by Sean McVeigh that should have backfired on him and didn't because

Time Montgomery decided to return that kickoff out of the end zone. The Packers traded him yesterday. But I'll just start with a couple of them from Saturday. Georgia didn't call a time out at the end of the first half. Cost him 40 seconds. And what happened in this game against Florida, which, man, these SEC games, I've mentioned it each week. And this week we got another one with the doubleheader with Georgia, Kentucky, and then obviously the big one with LSU and Bama. That's the biggest game of the college football season. That is the biggest football game to date of this football season,

2018, LSU hosting Alabama on Saturday night. Although the game Sunday night, Packers, Patriots is a pretty good one. And certainly we've seen some good ones here recently, like the Chiefs in the Pats. and there are a lot of great NFL games down the road. I'm getting sidetracked here. In the Georgia-Florida game, at the end of the first half, Georgia was basically in a position where they could easily get the ball back

at the end of the first half by using their timeouts. And at the very end of that first half, Florida's got the ball, third down and one from their own 36, and they get stopped. and Georgia doesn't call a timeout. They just let the 40 seconds, you know, tick off the clock, and Florida punts the ball with 50 seconds left. So the third one play was with a minute 55 left, and the punt came 50 seconds.

And Georgia had their timeouts left. And so Georgia, instead of getting the ball back with a minute 45 left in the half, they got it back with, or a minute 40 left, they got it back and started their drive with about 48 seconds left, from their own 20. And they moved the football down the field. And they got into a first and goal at the Florida five-yard line, and there were six seconds left in the half.

There should have been 46 seconds left in the half in that particular spot. It's just always beyond me that these coaches don't understand how to create and maximize possessions in a game by using their timeouts. The bottom line is that Georgia basically, ended up kicking a field goal on second and goal from the five with six seconds left. With six seconds left, and they went to halftime with two timeouts. If they'd use those timeouts on defense, if they had used them even better on offense during that final drive, but really in particular on defense, remember, on defense,

you can't control when the play starts because you don't have the ball. So you control that by using your time. amounts. Georgia should have had a touchdown at the end of the half, or at the very least, they should have been able to comfortably run a second and third down play at the end of the half before kicking a field goal. They settled for the field goal. They went to the break up 13 to 7 and promptly fell behind on the first drive of the second half, 14, 13, 13. But they should have had a really good chance to go up 17.7. That's a major blunder by Georgia's coaching staff, to not Kirby Smart to not call timeouts on defense after a third down stop and to let 40 seconds go off the clock

is pure clock management negligence. James Franklin in the Penn State game on Saturday against Iowa, they won that game. Boy, Penn State's actually been disappointing this year. I think a lot of people thought, you know, going into that Ohio State game that they were a national championship or they were a final four contender, and they lost that devastating game to Ohio State, the game that I was at in State College. They lost the following week or two weeks later

after the buy to Michigan State at home. Now, they've won back-to-back games against Indiana and Iowa, but really could have lost both of those games. But at the end of the game, end of the first half, Penn State is in position to kick a field goal. And James Franklin

takes a timeout not on offense to save more time to get into better field goal range, but to basically try to psych his kicker out. He called a timeout

before his kicker lined up to kick the field goal at the end of the half. And even the announcers were a little bit puzzled and said, what are you doing? You're trying to psych your kicker out?

Well, it didn't work. He tried to psych his kicker out. It didn't work. And his kicker made the field goal to tie the game 1717 at the end of the first half. But that was an odd circumstance. He had not called timeouts to save more time to potentially go for more than just a field goal. He seemed to be pleased to settle for the field goal and then used his timeout to try to

psych his kicker out. End of the game and the Rams game. I talked about this a little bit on Monday. I think Sean McVeigh playing for the field goal at the end was. insane. That didn't make any sense. The probability of them winning the game with a field goal at the two-minute mark, 29-27, was one and four. It really was. I don't know what the ESPN win-probability percentage said in that moment. I don't watch that stuff. Gut feel, when they ran the ball on second and third down and settled for the field goal, I know they were second and 20 after the

penalty. I understand that they went to second and 20 at the Green Bay 23. But when they decided to run Gurley twice and kick the field goal, to me, that was a losing strategy. That was a, that, that really decreased their probability of winning the game. As you were watching that game, did anybody that was watching that game feel like Green Bay down two wouldn't have gotten in field goal range had they had the football starting first and 10 from their own 25 with two minutes to go. I mean, I don't care how many timeouts they had or didn't have. All they needed was three. It was Aaron Rogers. So it was very surprising to me that Sean McVeigh really settled for the field goal, Gurley for four yards, and then Todd Gurley for three yards. So we went from second and 20 to

third and 17 to fourth and 14, and they kicked a field goal with 205 left in the game to take a 29 to 27 lead. That was a losing strategy. Sean is brilliant. I love him as a head coach. I got to know him a little bit when he was here. I had some great conversations with Sean with Cooley and sometimes without him. I would, if I, the next time I see him, I'm going to ask him,

why did you run the ball twice instead of get super aggressive and think in terms of you had to not only score a touchdown, but you needed to make a two-point conversion to really, you know, give yourself the best chance to win. Now, they won the game. They won the game because Ty Montgomery made a terrible error, one of selfishness, as it turns out, and the Packers traded him yesterday. But if Ty Montgomery doesn't lose his mind, then Green Bay wins 30 to 29 in a walkoff, more likely than not. Maybe Mason Crosby misses the field goal, although I don't don't think he's missed since the Detroit game where he missed all those kicks. I think he's been perfect since. But that was a curious strategy running the ball. You know, on the second 20,

maybe you run to try to get a chunk play. And then on third down, you throw it into the end zone. But the Rams, as good as they are to get conservative in that spot, I thought was a real losing strategy. And it didn't hurt them because of Montgomery, but boy, the chances of them losing that game 30 to 29 with that strategy were pretty high in that moment. All right, a couple of things I want to get to before we finish up the show today. A couple things that I haven't mentioned from just over the weekend. We saw what Golden State did the other night with Clay Thompson going off. And Golden State, you know, this start that they're off to right now, seven. and one and the points they're scoring in these games. I mean, 149 the other night against the Bulls,

144 against the Wizards. They had 92 in the first half against the Bulls the other night, and Clay Thompson's record setting three-point shooting performance. A game from over the weekend, and I've just had this in my notes that I did not mention. They were in a pretty good, close game against the Knicks on Friday night. May have been Saturday night. I think it was Friday night. They outscored the New York Knicks in the fourth quarter. 47 to 16. 47 to 16 they outscored the Knicks in the fourth quarter. They were down going into the fourth quarter and they said enough of this. Kevin Durant scored 25 in the fourth quarter. as a team they outscored the Knicks by 31 points in a quarter.

I don't think I've ever heard of that. Just like the other night against the Bulls. How many times is a team up by 40 points at halftime? It was 42 points. They were up 42 points at halftime. But the other night they outscored the Knicks by 31 in a quarter. a quarter in what was a competitive close game. The next thing I wanted to mention is I got a tweet, a lot of tweets, obviously, after Kirk Cousins game on Sunday night against the Saints, where all

of you geniuses out there blamed him for the loss, like Adam Thielen's fumble at the end of the first half, didn't have anything to do with it. But from LL. Fresh, please, I challenge you to dig out how many career pick sixes Kirk has given up. I challenge you. And I'm telling you there are like six exclamation points in this tweet. So I went back and it's not an easy stat to find. You've got to go

game by game to figure it out. In his career, the pick six the other night when Stefan Diggs did not keep running, but of course that's on the quarterback, he's thrown eight pick sixes, but I would say seven because remember Ryan Grant fell down. Remember the Ryan

Grant fall down game against the Alkins in overtime. So I would count it as seven. But if you want to know if I've met the challenge there, LL Fresh, eight career pick sixes, that's a lot. I will grant you that. It is a lot. I'm still a believer in Kirk Cousins.

You don't think a game like Sunday. If you think a Sunday night's game would get me off Kirk Cousins as a top 10 quarterback, top 10 to top 12 quarterback, you're insane. He didn't play poorly Sunday night. Yeah, I read Mike Freeman's column. I don't agree with any of it. Sunday night, Kirk Cousins, was not the problem in Minnesota's loss. He was probably, he was much more of the problem in the loss to Buffalo when he had key

turnovers early in the game that really hurt them. But they also couldn't stop anything that Buffalo did in that game. Minnesota's not as good as they were last year. I mean, I'm not making excuses for Kirk Cousins. It's just a fact. They were the top one defense in the league last year. They're nowhere near that this year. They had a better running game last year, not much of one,

but a better running game with Jerich McKinnon, actually after Dalvin Cook got hurt than they have right now with Latavius Murray. They're just not as good a football team as they were last year. You're going to tell me that you really think the difference is Kirk Cousins versus Case Keenham? Have you seen Case Keenham in Denver? Please. No, Denver's just not as good as they were last year. Now, they got Everson Griffin back this past week, and that could be a big difference maker for them moving forward.

But just like the Redskins are a much better football team this year, Kirk Cousins is playing for a team that wasn't as good as they were a year ago. The Redskins are much different. They are the second ranked rush defense in the NFL. They were dead last a year ago. They were near the bottom of the league in Rush. offense a year ago, and they are now number eight overall in the NFL this year. Those are the reasons the Redskins are five and two. Alex Smith not turning the ball over is a contributing

factor. I'm not going to say that it isn't, and I'm not, you know, I'm not off of Alex Smith, because I believe that Alex Smith is a good quarterback, and he hasn't played well, all right? These wins, really, you can sit there and you can hang your hat on him not turning the ball over. part of it, the bigger part of it is that they have completely shut down the opponent's ability to run the football and they themselves have been able to run the football and they've played very good special teams. Those things are bigger factors in their 5 and 2 record right now than their quarterback who hasn't been able to hit the ocean from a boat not turning the ball over. But I'm not minimizing the no turnovers because I know it's important in the way they're

playing is fine with me right now. I'd like to see more from him, and I think we will see more from him. I think he will get better as the year goes on. Real quickly, on the trade deadline, the Eagles getting Golden Tate, look, the bottom line is the Cowboys, in hindsight, and I said this when it happened, I thought they overpaid for Amari Cooper. I would not have given up a first rounder for Amari Cooper. Some of you, you know, some of you tweeted me and said, are you kidding me? You have no idea what that first round pick's going to be, and Amari Cooper is a potential star. I loved

Amari Cooper coming out of the draft. I did not love Amari Cooper's overall body of work in Oakland, and it could have been Oakland. You know, it definitely could have been more about Oakland than Amari Cooper, but there was just some,

there was body language from Amari Cooper when you watch the Raiders that didn't look great. It looked sort of Josh Doxon-esque to a certain degree. Maybe it'll work out for the Cowboys, but I think what we have learned from that is that they overpaid. Meantime, the Eagles getting Golden Tate,

they have added another receiver. I'll tell you what, to be honest with you, I like the Eagles receivers. I like Alshan Jeffrey. I like Nelson Al Gore. I think their tight ends are great. I don't know why they felt so compelled to go out and get Golden Tate.

I think their situation at receiver wasn't terrible. I do think that Tate's a different. type of receiver, especially with yards after catch. He's really good at that, and that's something they really needed the guy who could make plays after making the catch. So for that, I can see why they would think that Golden Tate would be that guy. Yeah, look, that's fine. And Golden Tate, to me, is a really good player. I love his competitive level. He's tough. You just talked about it, yards after catch. I'm just saying that, you know, as Carson Wentz gets back into it, You're starting to see a sign that the Eagles are becoming a much better offensive team.

Look, Jacksonville in that game Sunday had a chance to win the game. But in that game, too, the Eagles, you know, the Eagles moved the football. They ended up with over 400 yards offense and 24 points. And it could have been more if Carson Wentz had a turnover, you know, in the red zone, you know, in the first half of that game. But Jordan Matthews came up with big catches in that game. I like Jeffrey. I like Aguilar. I think Goddard looks like a star. That tight end that they drafted last year. And clearly, Ertz is already a star. But now you add something else to it.

I think their needs were more on defense, especially at Corner. This is going to be, I mean, this is setting up in the division potentially to be a three-team race, but more likely than not, a two-team race between the Eagles and the Redskins with two huge games in December. and the Redskins play the Eagles to finish up the season at home. Right now to make the prediction, you heard it here first prediction, that the Redskins and Eagles will play for the NFC East on December 30th at FedEx Field, it's not crazy. And maybe the Sunday night game to end the regular season.

Not crazy to think that way. I think the Eagles are going to be a threat here. And I didn't feel that way last week. I think Sunday was really, really big for them. Now they get the buy week. They come back off the by week with the Cowboys, and they have a difficult schedule. If you look at the Eagles schedule, it's not easy. They still play the Saints, and they play the Saints on the road.

They still have the Rams on the road. They still have Houston, but they also have five division games left, five of them, two against the Cowboys, two against the Redskins, and they still play the Giants at home. They're going to be a factor in this race. in a division that right now isn't going to take, I don't think, more than 10 wins to win. All right, thanks to Aaron, thanks to Cooley,

thanks to Scott Jackson, thanks to all of you. A reminder that you can follow us on Facebook, you can follow us on Instagram. We also have a show Twitter page. You can follow me on Twitter at Kevin Sheen, D.C. And I tweet out a lot about the show and when the show is up and when the show is coming out, et cetera, et cetera. Have a great day.

Back tomorrow, Van Pelt will be with us and we'll do more on Maryland and what happened there with Scott tomorrow. Tommy will be in as well. Have a great day, everybody. Take care.