The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley Film On Giants Game

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

Cooley and Kevin today with Cooley's "Film Breakdown" of Washington's game against the Giants which includes an in-depth Taylor Heinicke analysis/grade. Also, tons on the offense in general, Brian Robinson Jr., the run game, and the defense too. Kevin finished up with a reaction to the Aaron Judge contract, a deep-dive into the NFC Playoff Race, and a recap of Maryland's first loss of the year last night to Wisconsin.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. He is Kevin. I'm here. Cooley is with us to start the show. He's got a film breakdown coming up.

I will end the show with my thoughts on a couple of things. Number one being the Maryland game last night. Kevin Willard's first loss as a Maryland head coach at Wisconsin. Tough loss. And I'll have something on that. at the end of the podcast. Coolie's with us. So,

it's the first time that I've talked to you today, really, with respect to the show. What did you do for the film breakdown? I did very little. You did? I watched the game again, and I did about what I would tell, about 60% of what was normal,

but I had a big day yesterday. You had a big day yesterday. Okay. Well, good. And I knew you've got a big day today. So I don't want to mess around with, you know, hunting stories or fishing stories or anything related. I got a good story from yesterday. So you're going to hear it.

You're going to hear my wrestling story. I just, you didn't hear what I said under my breath. I said, no hunting, no, yeah, no kids. I heard it. I heard it. I heard it. Okay. And I didn't think you're going to throw in wrestling.

And you did. And so I had a wrestling story. What are you going to hear it. There's a community college in Powell, Wyoming, Northwest Community College. Trappers. Home with Trappers, buddy. Yeah. So we're doing some stuff with the school and donating.

And they have a great gym there and you work out at the college gym. So I was in a couple times. And we ran into the wrestling coach a week or so ago. And he said, hey, what, would you come wrestle with our? are heavy weights. I was like, um, didn't he,

didn't he ask you this before? Didn't somebody ask you this a while back? I don't think so. Okay. I mean, I went into the, like, help the high school kids,

but, like, uh, I don't know how that will be for me. Yeah. 40. A 40. Oh, man.

Went and, went and, went and wrestled with the college. heavy weights yesterday. Did you really? I did. And how did you do? I think I did. So these kids are 18 to 20

years old. It's junior college, right? I think they're heavy. Yeah, they're heavy. I think he's a great kid. I mean, all the kids are, I'm excited. I'm going to go, I'm going to do this a lot more. How heavy is the heavyweight? 245. So that's about, that's right around your weight. I mean,

you're a little less than that, I'm guessing, right? I'm probably a little, I'm probably right around that, yeah. Okay. I think the fact that I would say, I would say if it was Tommy bringing up the story that he did really well, because he rarely brings up a story that he doesn't perform well in. But I think in this particular case, you don't have that same level of, I think you got your ass kicked. No, I did not. Oh, you didn't? All right. No, I'm 100% certain that I would beat their heavyweight.

It wasn't a full go deal. I mean, you don't do that in practice, but yeah, I'm sure that I can beat Juko Kitt still at this point in my life. Really? How about that? Where it's funny, I mean, the funny side of the story is, I really don't know if I need that shit in my life. you're like, I don't know if I can win still. I got thought about it for a couple days.

Should I look this kid up? See how good he is? Is the kid named Cody Pinkerton? Mm-hmm. Is that him? Yeah. Yeah, that's him. Yeah, because I see him on the roster.

It says that he's actually 285. It says that he's actually 285. Well, that's the maximum weight for heavy weight. Got it. So you could be any weight below 285. That's just the most you could wait a wrestling level. Oh, it looks like a nice kid. Yeah.

Great kid. From Wyoming. Great kid. We got done, and he said they, and the coach was the coach who's here when I was a kid. He's been here forever. Oh, really? He's the same wrestling coach. Yeah.

Jim Ziegler, he's been here for 30 years, I think. You'd have to look it up. But he doesn't. He wouldn't think he's old. He must have been 21 when he got the job. Right. Yeah, I just thought about it, and I was like, I don't really want to go in and I get waxed. That's no fun for me.

I think I would win, whatever it is. It doesn't matter about me. The kids are their great kids, and they ask me to come back. That's awesome. Man, you can come back and help us some more. Do they have a football? I'm not going to, trust me, I'm not going in, like, I'm a wrestling coach here. I am a big dude that can move so they can wrestle with.

Right. That can beat him on a consistent daily basis. That's funny. That's pretty funny. I didn't know how it'd go. Kev, I haven't wrestled really. The last actual wrestling match I had, we set this whole thing up, my freshman year of college, with a guy that was a college wrestler

who thought he was very good. But it's been that, so how long has it been? 2001. It's been 21 years since I've actually wrestled, wrestled someone might. One time I did wrestle Logan Paulson and Fred Davis, but they don't know how to wrestle. Oh, they don't?

So, it's been 20 years since I've wrestled a wrestling match. Were there any players that you played with that were wrestlers? like you were? Not like I was. I can't remember if they're... The only player that I knew through the league that he would never wrestle

him. Roddy White was a state champion. Oh, he was the receiver from Atlanta? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Roddy White was apparently a very good high school wrestler. You were... It's just funny. I mean, you play or softball or rec basketball or

pick up anything. The golf, losing's fine, you know. Had that one-on-one, though. You just don't want to lose that way. Not at this point in your life. I think most people know this about you

that are listening, but you really were like a very highly recruited wrestler out of high school. And you, I mean, your Wikipedia page, and not that I didn't know this, not that I needed it to say that you were a great high school wrestler,

but I've got your record here. You were 54 and 0. Your senior year, you won the state championships, and you were an all-American wrestler. And you've told me before that basically every major wrestling program recruited you, right? Like you could have gone to Iowa. Didn't Iowa recruit you? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, great decision on my part, though. phenomenal decision of course I mean I mean the only reason I really made the decision was because I didn't want to do what those guys do every day I mean that's misery the cause it's the worst thing ever and then I mean even like out of nowhere they're like hey you know our our room's not tough enough right now we need to bring in some 40 year old now we'll find we'll find a way to make it tougher right um it's pretty pretty amazing so um I'm want to last thing you tell me if this is a good idea i've been thinking about this i don't know if we've talked about this my son went to all these tournaments last year and there's a great big one in montana called the montana open and they have a men's open division would it be a bad look if i if i

lost weight to wrestle the 230 class and and went into that tournament what do you mean it would be great all the like a lot of the guys around here do it like a lot of the former pal wrestlers and stuff go all the kids go to the montana open but then the dad's just you do it. And it's kind of a funny joke. But they work hard. They work out hard and get in shape and wrestle in it. None of the men went from Powell won last year. One guy took second or third, but I think I would win it. But would it be a bad look for me to go do it? I mean, you know.

Everyone would be like, is Chris Cooley seriously wrestling in a men's open tournament? Is Chris Cooley, the former Pro Bowl tight end in the NFL actually entering this open men's tournament at 40 years old. Yeah, I mean, I think... You just say you know, you know why I would do it. The only reason I would do it is so my son can watch me wrestle in a tournament that he's wrestling. Right.

Listen, do what makes you happy. Who cares what people say? There would be some... I think it's a bad look, though. Well, who cares? I mean, if that's the reason you're doing it, that's a good reason. I mean, who cares what people say? I mean, people... There will be people that will say, what the hell is he doing? Does he miss the limelight that much that he's got to enter an open wrestling tournament?

I mean, but who cares? If you're doing it for your son, I mean, that's a good reason. I mean, imagine. I watched it last year. We were there. I watched it last year. And I said, I'm not doing this if I don't think I win.

There was one former Division I won wrestler who was pretty good. I don't know if I'd beat him. I don't even know where I think. I didn't know if I wrestled at all. But that said, the rest of the 10 guys in that division last year, or eight or whatever, I would have beat them handily without one day of practice. If you had gone to, like, Iowa, you know, the wrestling powerhouse

and been like a big-time wrestler at Iowa, where would that have taken you? I mean, where does wrestling take anybody? There's no revenue generation out of wrestling. And I'm talking about real wrestling. They also do U.S.C. They'll do U.S.C. stuff now. Oh, they do? Okay. Or W. I think there was a really good heavyweight wrestler that came out of Minnesota, like maybe two years ago, finished up. You do Olympics.

Right. But that's a different style wrestling than college wrestling. That's freestyle or Greco-Roman. It's scored different, and it's definitely different than collegiate-style wrestling. Could you have been an Olympic wrestler? I'd like to tell you, I certainly could have. Yes. Why, yeah.

No doubt. I don't know. It's hard to say. I found it. I'm good, but I mean, you could do that. But the kid from Minnesota, I think, is in, like, the WWF right now. I found this story. He was like a two-time national champ.

I found this story from April 16, 2000, titled Chris Cooley wrestles his way to an All-American. Chris Cooley doesn't care much for Pittsburgh, but it treated him well. Cooley, who is concentrating more in his future with Utah State University, shoulder pads, and he is on wearing wrestling tights, finished his grappling career as one of the nation's best. Invited to the National High School Wrestling Championships in Pittsburgh last month, Cooley returned to, is it Cache Valley or Cache Valley? Cash Valley and All-American, six.

in his 215 pound weight class. Quote, it's more of a big deal to others than it is to me. Boy, that's pretty much been your whole professional life. Kind of a big deal to all of them. I don't know. I'm just here, you know, having fun. I mean, like three or four. I went and did it.

You said it was good to. It was good to see where you stand. I probably, wait, what does it say? Cooley signed with Utah State is one of McDonahe's top recruits. Yeah, there's a bunch of quotes in here from you. Yeah, well, neat. I'll probably give you the same ones today. I took six.

I probably should take a second. I don't know if I'd beat the kid that won it. I lost a second, but there was 137 guys in a double elimination bracket. Right. You had to be a state champ to go into it. I lost the second match. I had to wrestle like 18 matches through the wrestlebacks to get into medals. It was an exhausting week.

I did well. I had no offers before that tournament. So I wanted to go wrestling college. Yeah. I think I was like 40 and 0 that year with 39 10, but I had no offers going into the year out of Utah from anyone, maybe some Jukos and stuff. But after that tournament where I went 18 matches in a row. against state champions, then I think people are like, oh, yeah, okay, well, we see a lot of

this dude. But all my offers were at 197. Oh. I wait 255. Do you remember all of your offers? Yeah, I mean, the one that I was going to, the one that I was interested in Minnesota. They were the coaching staff for some reason I like the best at that point. I don't remember their names or who they were, but I remember thinking, and I would, that would be cool.

I'm looking to see because Iowa always comes up in my mind is like the greatest wrestling program of all time. Apparently the five greatest... Right now Penn State is not even close. Yeah, Penn State right now is the best. Iowa, Iowa State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma

state. Apparently are the... Minnesota's good. Yeah. No, Iowa's Dan Gable. Right. All right. Okay. Tell me what you got on the game. Okay, start with offense, start the Heineke, some of the stuff.

So before we get into Heineke, they have glaring protection issues. Yeah. And they know they have glaring protection issues because they are max protecting 70% of the time. Yep, saw that. And when you're talking about max protecting, you're talking about a tight end, a lot of the time, just staying in. They wanted to chip a ton as well, but they wanted to, like, literally you are

staying in and you're blocking the edge. And then they're adding a back to help somewhere. And there are a few of these where they're not even trying to get them out. Like, they are blocking it up and running three-man route combination. That is 1987 Don Correel, or 1977 Don Coriel. That is hard to do in the NFL right. It's really hard to execute. and you are really, really putting a lot on your quarterback

to make big-time throws down the field. They play, the defenses don't just play basic coverages. They have principles to those coverages. They adapt. We talked about this the other day. It is a hard deal to get it done with three-man route combinations, especially in third and eight, 10 plus, and especially when you're down in the red zone,

where they did it a few times. Man, that is brutal. Now, you're like, why are you back protecting? There's something, there's an element to the protection scheme, to the quarterback checking protections,

to the offensive line calling or flipping protections, to them understanding edge pressures that they are missing. There were three or four, or five, or six, unblocked edge pressures.

Right. It cannot turn guys free off the edge. And I'm not talking about like, a corner crept in from the boundary side, and we didn't pick him up. Maybe the fact got to see that. I'm talking about B ends coming up the end and waxing you at the one-yard line in overtime.

You can't turn that free. And I think that was the one I'm talking about right now. Leno just doesn't. see him? He's got a linebacker inside of him and a detackle mugged right inside the linebacker and he got his eyes inside. But the Giants are getting free hitters on five-man rushes.

I get it when you stink at protecting because your guys struggle physically. But this is a consistent problem for Washington. And to me, it's that they're not flipping protections, that they're not changing the line side. And I don't know if they don't know how to do it, if they don't, if their quarterback doesn't see it,

if they don't have someone on the field that can manage it. But just so we're all clear on this, when we talk about if we want to go, if we have a line side, we're essentially taking four guys to the right, or we want to take four guys to the right, and we want to make a Ricky call or a Reno call, right. I always have to remind myself,

there is a coach up above who has a microphone to call it into the quarterback's here. Like 15 seconds. In which all the quarterback has to do is relay the call. We can change line perfection at the line of scrimmage. It was done my whole career. It wasn't done with Gibbs. We threw hot a lot. And teams can throw hot.

You can. You can't really throw hot with a, I mean, and you don't in a max protection scheme. But they don't. Washington doesn't throw hot. They don't throw hot, and they don't do a good job really picking up pressures unless they have an answer with a sixth, or excuse me, a seventh man element. Right. Which is the tight and staying in and then the back scanning and actually helping, which gives you, which reduces your eligibles by 40%. Right.

You cannot score points in the NFL this way. You can score 20 points. You can find a way to execute, make a couple throws on a couple drives. You cannot consistently drive the ball down the field and score when you're max protecting 70% of the time, and when you're not, you have glaring protection issues. You cannot do it. The way maybe could do it is if you have probably two backs

that can really smoke a defense, hit a home run, which is not Brian Robinson and we can get into that and I'm sorry, he's a great back and he's recovering from being shot and he's getting better week in and week out, I agree with that. He's still not going to hit a home run this year. No, you talked about

that the other day. You use the baseball analogies. It's going to be a lot of singles and maybe he'll round first really hard and somebody will bungle something in the outfield and he'll get to second on occasion. And I think we all understand that.

Maybe he rips one right into the gap every once in a while. Yeah. Look, this offense, this offense does not have one 30-yard-plus play in the last three games and only has one in the last four games. It's like you said, and I've been harping on the same thing for a while. It is a small margin for error offense. And that's why the other day, when they were in all-year-old. of those third and longs, it's going to be really hard for them to score points until that final

drive, which was amazing. But, yeah, so on the max protect, first of all, what do you consider to be max protect? Six blocking or seven blocking? Seven. Okay. Well, true max protection, true max. Is two-man route? Would be two-man-rout combination. Yeah. Two tight ends in and a back, or leave a receiver in, which nobody does. Right. But the other problem with their max protection is, Logan Thomas and Bates are not good past protectors.

Right. The second sack fumble after Logan Thomas gets a penalty, which is not a good call, but he's the one that gets beat for the fumble. Right. So, you know, I don't, I mean, but they're in a seven-man protection. I actually made a joke of this if I was running in an offense that I would call them, how would you term your protection? You know, some people call it 70 or 71. I would term it by birth control methods.

Yeah, this is my safety measure. Like, a five-man protection is the least protected. We'll call that the rhythm method, the pull and pray. Okay, all right. The six-man protection is the Trojan protection. It works better. It works a lot better. The seven-man protection is any real form of birth control, like the pill method.

And the eight-man is the vasectomy or hysterectomy protection. Well done. Good job. Yeah, I... You're going to need to run that. above a high school level, though. So the one thing that I would just say to you is early in the season when Wents was quarterbacking, this was even a bigger issue because they, I mean, when Tyler Larson

came back, which was, I think, for the Chicago game, I think it got a little bit better. It still hasn't been great. Now Larson's out. He's done, and they're going to have to play that dude Nick Martin, who when he played at center was terrible. I think they should play Schweitzer at center. But that's just, I think he's played better at center than the kid Martin has. But it's potentially going to get worse here without Larson.

Better because the way that they've avoided this is they've stayed in second and seven, six. Right, a lot of the time. And third and four, five. Right. And you avoid having to go into some of the stuff that you don't like. Right. But they went into the same. game saying we have a problem for texting against the

yeah there's no question about that yes yeah I mean I I talked about it on Monday I'm like you know even when they were in Max Protect it seemed like he was still getting hit and he was you know he was because he don't have anyone

open when you run a three men route like his that first sack fumble is a Max Protect yeah both baits and I'm pretty sure it's Gibson are in the game they don't even get out we don't they don't even try to regain eligible they leave them all in it is a just a three-man route and they run a corner on the right and then on the left they run a kind of through the middle of the field and behind it they run it 15 yard in or a dig it's it's red corner to through to dig one to two to three but when one to two to three isn't open, which it isn't, where are we going with the ball? You know, he went one to two to three back to two. I think he's got to step up in, I think he's got to step up and take off.

He's got to run. He's got to run more. Because that play. If you're max protecting, yes, if you're max protecting and you look at your corner route on the right side, a single side, right side, and it's bracketed, doubled. That's dead immediately. Now we're looking at this middle route running through the middle. of the field to basically see if it's clearing for the dagger.

As soon as it's not, we're gone. One to two-ish, I mean, you call it two-three, but it's really just a read. It's the two-man combination to go. Or get out of the pocket, one or the other. Get out of the pocket and make something happen or run. I totally agree. Who was he throwing to on the fumble when O'Jolari got the ball before it went forward? drawing the middle of the field

steam rail, which he's going to have to make an incredible throw to anyway. I'm pretty sure it's same. Okay. So... So... So...

And he's not good enough right now with his eyes. He is not quick enough with his eyes to get from one, two, to three to make those... I mean, he gets through them, but it's still delayed from what elite would be.

Yeah. He hitches a lot, too. And by the way, the thing that I noticed about this game, because this was something that you said about whence, he backed up a lot rather than stepped up. Yeah, I'm just not sure if he's not more accurate when he's drifting backwards. Okay. Because when he steps up, there's seven or eight throws in this game that he's stepping up,

and he's throwing the ball high. Another odd notice from this game that I had, everything was from right to left and every time they wanted to throw the end, the crosser, anything was to the left. It was almost, this is a random number, you'd have to do the math.

PFF puts out of throw chart. But down the field, he's throwing everything to the left side of the field. And when he's accurate, he's working the left side of the field a lot more. When he's working crossers coming from the right, side of the field, he's high. Why would that... Why would that be?

I don't know. I think he's high when he... He's just... visually, he sees it differently. You said when... Think of the first throw to Logan Thomas. I mean, that... Logan is crossing from the right side of the field. That's a touchdown. I mean, you'd have to be really high to miss that throw. Missed it badly.

With the ball. He's wide. He missed it badly, and he's late to it. And that's a two-man combination. It was? Yeah, well, they had a, I think they had a receiver set down. But really, it's just two vertical receivers. It's just deep crosses.

Yeah, I'm watching it right now. How did the Giants lose Logan Thomas so easily? I mean, I got people back there in coverage. He's wide open. He's wide open. The answer, Tau, they lost him, in my opinion. It goes back to what I think they should have went to, especially if you know you're going to have to max protect the ton.

They should have went back to the time. tempo. They were in tempo that entire drive. They were in hurry-up. And they were moving the ball progressively down the field. And they never went back to tempo. That's where sometimes you get confusion in that.

But man, when you are playing slow and running three-man route combinations, dude, we're talking about a lot of really good throws. And we're talking about Marino. Like, we need a rifle back there.

You know, the one One thing that you said that it just doesn't, it doesn't strike me as what I've been seeing is I think he's high when he throws off his back foot. That's when it sails to me. Like I think about that Minnesota throw or, you know, like the throw, but then again, you're right on this Logan Thomas throw, he's high and he's stepping up into the pocket. He's actually got plenty of time. It's a clean pocket. So it's strange. He's really hard to get a handle on, but continue.

So the other thing that really never, they didn't help them, they really did not go into more of the empty, quick, get the ball out type of stuff, and he never got into a rhythm on a lot of that. But he also missed a couple of reads that I don't normally see a miss. in the fourth quarter before the touchdown drive they have a penalty

that backs him up he airmails one in the middle of the field then they're like a second 16 or second 15 and he throws a flat to Logan Thomas that's immediately tackled right

it's a slant and a flat and he on the other side he has two slants it's cover two So I know enough to know that when you have cover two, you throw the two slant side. The inside slant will hold the inside defender, and that corner won't cover the outside. So it's the second guy coming through. Yeah, but if you throw the slant flat on the other side, then the corner is just sitting there waiting for the flat to blow it up.

And so miss that throw. He missed two slants, and he threw a flat early in the game to Gibson that went over. head, like maybe the first drive. The one out in the flight. Yeah, two is right. Again, high over the head of Gibson. He's covered enough, but the second slide, they have two slants. The second slant is open.

The linebacker's running with the, this is not covered two. When you have two slants in a flat, if the underneath linebacker sprints with the flat, that dictates that the slant behind it will be open. Right. And so he missed some of those throws. and some of those opportunities. You know, they had a bunch set in the second quarter where Logan Thomas is running a corner, they're running across,

and the back's coming out of the back field in the flat, and he's late to that flat throw, and he also has a five-yard spot throw in the middle of that. He didn't see the field very well, in my opinion, in this game, and maybe that was because it was ingrained in him. You're going to get hit all day because we can't protect against them. I don't know. Um, it's funny.

So, I mean, these are the, these are the negatives and these are the concerns from the game. My other concern is he does not, then this is where he's really limited. He does not have the arm strength to get the ball truly down the field. And so you're going to have guys play deeper, not because they're scared, they're going to play deeper on their toes to drive on everything underneath it. And I think one of my best examples of this, I'll give you two. There's a DPI that's picked up against Terry McClure. Remember the DPI with Fabian Morrow.

It's all-out blitz. He is a little bit off his back foot. But this is a ball you let go high to the back corner of the end zone, see if Terry can run it down. He can't get it there. It is DPI. It should have been called. Fabian Morrow made contact in the chest to Terry McClurent before he turned in, look for the ball. He hit him in the chest, clearly.

And the problem where you're saying is maybe it isn't DPI is Terry can't just run. He doesn't have to allow Terry to just run through him. It's impossible. He's not a ghost. So if the ball is thrown deeper, he's going to get the call. But he does not have the ability to get that ball deeper down the field. There's another throw that he makes to Dotson in the fourth quarter on a corner route again, where I think it was – it might have been Moreau.

And it gets undercut and it's almost picked. It's on the touchdown drive. Yeah, I know. It's the throw that was almost picked by number 44. They're running like a 10-yard out with Logan Thomas and then the high-angle corner over the top of it. That's not a flatten your receiver corner. That's throw the ball high and let him go get it on an angle.

He has, he does not have the arm strength to throw that ball on a high angle, is my guess. It is. he doesn't have it. So he's struggling to get big-time high-angle throws down the field, high-level throws into what is really the third level, or push it 30 yards down the field. So he can make those 15 to 20-yard team throws,

and that's benefiting him. And when he throws him with accuracy and timing, which he can do, and we'll talk about a couple of them, you're in good shape. But shit, when you have a three-man route combination and you have to put an high-angle ball down the field, And that's the throw, the one throw that has to be made, he cannot make that throw for you. So you're limited.

You're very limited. Why? With what they did this weekend. So with the DBs, they'll play deeper so that they can drive on the ball rather than playing. That's what New York is. Right. Is that better than playing at what you think his outer reaches are in terms of arm strength and making it really difficult for the underneath.

throws? Well, yes, but there's a way to do it in a lot of the way that Giants did it through this game is just play two-man and bracket the single side. And so you are essentially you're taking away the underneath throws because you're manning them, but you have safety help over the top. But he shouldn't be able to play that much two-man in early down and distances. It's hard to get away with as much as they did in this game. He just can't make, he can't get the ball down the field. Right. All right. Um, the good throws. Early in the game, back shoulder fades, Dotson first drive. Dotson falls down still catch. It's a good throw. Dotson falls down, but he makes a catch. Uh, run action crosser to Terry's, a really good throw. Um, I actually

like their run stuff from under center in rhythm and timing. The run fake stuff from under center. they went with some of that like no no tight end on the ball what it's almost like a it's a Maryland pro set right a Maryland I would be three backs in the eye everyone calls it a Maryland eye Maryland used to run that a lot that way it's Maryland I mean they always with Bobby Ross way back in the day they just ran a lot of pro style stuff for a college team well so this is like two back split in the back field right and then a third back deep. Yeah.

I don't know why they call that a Maryland eye. That's not something that... Well, the Maryland eye would have been quarterback and then full back and then midback and then tailback all in an eye formation. That's what you would call the Maryland eye. Okay. Right, three backs in a line.

Not something that Marilyn ran with Ross or freejack. The reason I would say is pro is when you, the old school, two-back split. Yeah. That's a pro set. Yeah, that's a pro set. Exactly. And the eye formation is just full back, tail back behind the full back.

Yes, right. Okay. So they ran some of that. And they had some good misdirection, run action stuff out of it. And early in the game, it was good. And when they're in timing and they're in rhythm of the drive, it's stuff that they have that works. Right. Again, a couple really good slant throws to Terry on the left side of the field.

The touchdown that he ends up throwing into the crosser to Terry is awesome pocket movement. And that's the one thing I do really like. Like he has that ability to quick turn his right shoulder down to avoid pressure to come back up, eyes down the field, and deliver the ball down the field. Like he never quits on the down the field stuff. Right.

And that was sidearm. I think he needs to, yeah, that was the off-platform sidearm throw. In the third quarter, a hook to Terry McLaurin, pressure in his face, free unblocked pressure off his left side, pressure in space, he still gets out and throws a strike to Terry on a 12-yard hookup.

Love that throw. Yeah. I love that throw, too. And that's something, and that's another answer for them, and they need to think more about this with their run-action stuff and their three-man stuff. If they're getting more of that two-man and over-the-top help

on the vertical stuff, Don't throw it vertical. Right. Let Terry McCorn run a 12-yard hook. Yeah, just do that. Once you get to 15, once you press to 15, you get into trouble. But let him throw the 12-yard hook stuff. Right.

Off script on the rollout in the fourth quarter is literally unbelievable that he makes that throw. I loved it. That's so amazing. How was Samuel... How was Samuel not covered on that? he was covered he starts on that side and he's running I'm pretty sure he's running that through or dig to cross the field and he sees the quarterback start to move left

and he just pivoted out of the route and does a very good job keeping a friendly angle to the quarterback where he needs to be it's a great off-script operation by the quarterback and the receiver those are tough I mean that's tough to cover it they only rushed four right they I can't remember I think they only rushed four on that play. But anyway. We can pull it back up, but

yeah, I'm pretty sure they rush for. And 51 is on the defensive right, the offensive left kind of goes up and under. He gets outside and he pumps him a little bit, and then that holds them enough to get to the edge. But you can't just manufacture, like, it'd be great if you could just manufacture off-script looks with Iniki.

I think I would bet you, and I would be surprised if they didn't, but take some of the stuff that they did to get Jones out out of the pocket. Or the Giants have done to get Jones outside of the pocket because it's not as much boot stuff. And it makes a hell of a throw on a corner route to Samuel on that touchdown drive. Great timing.

Great timing. Love that throw. The thing I do like about him is even though there are times that I think he's got to stare things down in this, he is looking only at Daniel. He's not looking at the post. Maybe he's looking at the mesh and of the two dbs. one of them passes the other off. But at least when he's looking it down, it's on, it's on in terms of timing.

Like his anticipation is good when he's staring at it. You think guys, like, look at it and have to see it open. He didn't have to see it open. He knew it was coming open. Well, when he throws decisively like that with timing, because that balls out before Samuel ever comes out of that break. By the way, that was their only scissors combination in the entire day. Well done.

At that point, you think maybe we'll go back to it. Was the Logan Thomas overthrown in the first quarter? That wasn't a scissors combination? I can't remember. No, well, the reason you know, it wasn't. That was a, you could call it, it would look like the scissors to some extent, but they're crossing from either side of the field. The scissors are two men on one side running a post in a corner.

Right. It makes you get thrown a touchdown to Dawson. No, it's just Ultimately, I don't I don't know how to say exactly what He missed too many throws to be graded well in this game

The sack fumbles are costly You know, the first one where you give it up is tough, in my opinion, because the answer is run. The second one, he probably could have had the ball out. They're running two deep comebacks

and he looks way too hard to the first comeback, and tries to come back way too late to Terry. The progressions has got to be faster, and he probably gets that ball out with the completion to Terry. But I think the way he's seeing it, you don't want to run those 18-yard comebacks. You want to run them at 12. He'll see it quicker. He'll feel it quicker, and the timing with the offensive lines quicker.

And you'd like to see tempo. And I would like to see them 100% operate in more tempo, yes, no doubt about it. What's the downside of tempo? three and outs and you're putting your defense back on the field it's like it's like it's it's in conflict with what they're doing which is slowing the game down you know what I mean

like they've been able to slow the game down and possess the ball shorten these games and have a chance in all of these games with limitations offensively in their pass offense and so if you go up tempo because it's what he does well it better work.

Yeah, but it has worked. The thing that they've been able to do is run the ball up tempo. And if you're going to hit singles, hit a lot of them. Hit more singles. Faster. Here you're going to swing the first pitch, baby. Here we go. Get up, hit a single.

Let's go. Hit a single. Let's go. Like, I just don't see the offense being dynamic enough to really truly set things up as you go. And without being able to protect, it doesn't matter sometimes if you get things set up the way you want to get him set up. So, I mean, that's kind of Heineke, again, you know, the couple risky throws, not egregious. You know, the fumble, the two fumbles hurt you.

He makes some big plays to keep him in the game, but you watch this film and tell me it's not 20 points. Like, it's 20 points. I'm not finding a lot more out there. Here's what it is. it's 23. If Logan Thomas doesn't miss a block in overtime after the Samuel run, and he just absolutely whiffs on a second down in nine or second down in eight. The three-yard loss to Robinson.

Right. I mean, he is. He comes over in motion that the run play to the left, he's got leverage to block the to just basically feel the end. A lot of times when you're tied in and you come over, in motion that way and you feel that immediate leverage like wow he did not widen at all with my motion

you gotta fucking know he didn't widen for a reason it's because he's going to go inside of you and he comes off at enough in an outside angle that he just gets immediately undercut up and under so what's his grade Heineke is a C

I there's one question that I have for you on him like the throw there are two throws on their final possession of regulation after they've tied the game one of them he's staring Terry down and to me like if I'm if I'm defending Washington I know where he wants to throw the ball like 75% of the time he wants to throw the ball to Terry McCorn it's who he trusts the most and it's this it's the short hitch deep in their own territory when they got the ball back in regulation with the score tied

2020. And it's like the underneath corner, the flat corner who's covering, I think Samuel maybe, who's running. He got it just over his head, yeah. I mean, it's like he's playing him to throw it to Terry. If the guy had, he was a practice squad corner that got called up the day before the game. I mean, if he's got any kind of hops, isn't that a dangerous throw? So dangerous, but, you know, sometimes you feel it. He's feeling that leverage. It's dangerous.

But it's funny what you say. Yeah, the throws, it's the completion, it's dangerous. But it's funny what you say because it really is more like in the past game, it's Terry McLaurin

50 plus percent of the time and that's where he's going to look unless the play's been literally created for another guy. And so then we're going to say, okay, and so after the 60% we got Logan Thomas for the next 20-ish percent.

And I'm going to excludes screens, which would be the next 20%, to maybe we'll find Samuel somewhere. And Dotson's borderline afterthought. You've got to incorporate these guys better. There's got to be a better way of incorporating, getting the ball to some of these other guys down the field. I say that, but still somehow he finds Terry McLaurin

for whatever percentage at the time he does. I know. That one, though, to me on that last drive was the one with where you just were like, oh, my God. and then the one to Cam Sims that Moreau almost got. I mean, the guy from PFF was on radio with me this morning, and he said they actually did not grade that throw. The throw to Sims is a turnover-worthy throw.

He threw it off his back foot straight up into the air. Moro almost came down with it. I still think Sims just missed times his jump, though. Okay. I think it's a catchable ball as much as it is a turnover-worthy throw. I think Sims should have came down with it. I think you should watch that again. I mean, Moro's got a beat on it the whole way.

He gets to it before Sims does. And then the ball's knocked up in the air. But the Suns is sitting there and goes up with his hands high and then comes down and the ball's still over his head, right? And then it's battle-bobbled around after there's not a completion. Is that what we're talking about? I think I'm not sure who touches the ball first. It's really close.

Even on the All-22, I'm watching it. Moreau's there. I mean, it's not like Sims has a clean opportunity. Moreau, I think, actually gets his hand on it before Sims did. And then the ball gets bobbled up in the air and Moreau nearly comes down with it on the ground. You're just going to keep seeing a lot of these throws. That's Heineke. I know. And he's been blessed on so many of them.

But the thing I do appreciate about Heineke is I truly, believe, for the most part, if he's throwing picks, it's because things aren't going well on throws where he's a 50-50 ball to a guy that, it's not the wrong throw a lot of the time. He's not not seeing the defense at all. It's just a bad throw. The thing that I like about him is if he makes a bad throw, it doesn't mean that the next throw isn't going to be a good one. Does not give a wrap. No. All right.

Let's take a quick break. I know you've got some Brian Robinson to talk about also some defense. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Go to MyBooky.com. Kevin D.C. And MyBooky will give you free money.

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my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll give you a doubling of your first deposit. All right, Cooley, I know you wanted to talk running game and Brian Robinson, Jr. in particular. I still feel the same about Robinson, as we say,

on Monday. I think that he's getting better as far as burst. There's a couple of plays that I really like from Rob. I like the two catches out of the backfield. The first one coming across the field, pretty fluid as far as a receiver. The second one, they kind of whip him behind, and they run that wide and swing screen where the receivers are blocking for me.

It does a really good job of spin-moving, essentially becoming his own blocker for an unblocked player. and making him miss and getting four yards. I like him downhill. I actually, he is the best duo type runner. I'd run a lot more of that. Two double teams, duo, two double teams.

And I would let him run that stuff more than I'd run some of the counter stuff. I thought that's what he ran really well last week against Atlanta. Yeah. Because you explained Duo to me. Remember, you hated Duo with Gruden and with some. some of those backs. And I remember being sort of, you know, pre-conditioned to think that it's not a great run play, but I noticed against Atlanta last week, and maybe you mentioned this last week to me, that they were running a lot of that inside, you know, vertical blocking, double-teaming,

and letting him handle whoever the unblocked linebacker was, and I thought he was doing really well. No, I think he does a good job with that, and I think he has good patience, and it's a two-to-three-yard play a lot of a time, but that's what they're looking for. and let him get the two-yard play, and he'll push the pile. Yeah. And you'll get three and a half. Right. I like that more than the counter stuff.

The counter is a great compliment to it. I just think that they're using the duo play as a compliment to their counter stuff. I think the counter stuff looks great. Tell me about that real quickly, because I've noticed a lot more of that in recent weeks, whether it's the guard or whether it's actually a lot. a tight end. Tell me what you're seeing in their counter game, because I kind of like him in the counter game. No, I do. I like him in the counter game as well. And the counter game is more effective against the three down front. And they ran so much of against the Eagles. You can run it

against a four down front, but it's a great three, four, three down front run scheme. I mean, the counter with the tight end pole is Joe Gibbs, like Joe created it for Buddy Ryan's defense. Right. You know, against the Eagles is how do we run against this defense that is so stout up front with the five-man front. And the counter is a great way of doing that. Robinson does a good job of failing hitting counter. I think the timing on counter stuff is good. I just, you know I hate duo, so it's a weird thing for me to say this is I think that's your one play with Robinson.

Your two plays, your counterplay stuff. But they do a good job with misdirection and create a misdirection. Essentially what you're doing with counter or any of the force play runs, is their gap scheme runs, is you're going to leave the N-manel line of scrimidgen-block. You're going to pull a guard, and you're going to kick that guy out. And then you're pulling a second player, and you're going to turn him up in the hole for the first linebacker.

You're leaving two unblocked on the front side of the run. You're blocking them with two players from the backside of the run. So the thing is they just don't get very much movement on anybody up front. so that's why you're not getting big gaping gashing holes on the counter stuff like their line is not a dominant offense line they seem to get more of it last week than they did against dexter lawrence and williams and that group yeah but i do i mean i like robinson i i still think that gibson is up in my opinion is a 50-50 split and i think both of them can run all types of runs. I don't think Robinson is as good when you really get the zone. The one thing I did write down, and I would say this is, like he's got to trust his speed a little bit more. I would like to see him trust his speed a little bit more. Trust his speed, you said. Yeah. Explain. A good example. A good example. Before the, in overtime, Logan Thomas has a

miss on second eight. That sucks. That's not on the back. But the first down play, he gets to the edge and there's a linebacker overhang sitting out there. I'd like to just see him run through the outside shoulder of that linebacker and take I think he can get there. I see what you're saying. His cut's not like immediate

and hardens. He's not that, I always do this like when I'm making a cutter, but we see it back and it's like three steps and he's like, ah, bah, like he doesn't have that. It's cut. And they're not bad cuts. It's just not like boom, boom. It's not twitching.

but he's got enough speed like run through that outside edge of that lineback I think he gets six Tell me about that play because there are two tight ends Turner and Bates in the backfield and they're running counteraction here and I agree with you

it looks like he if he hits it hard off the outside shoulder of that linebacker it's going to be bigger than the three-yard gain that it ended up being well the plays those plays unless you actually design them to bounce and this is not a design to bounce play.

You're told to hit it up inside. I mean, we're going to keep hitting it up inside. And sometimes that up inside, that backside pulling tight-end, they're late to that block. Or it takes a little bit longer for them to get onto that block. But if you just have enough patience and hit it hard inside, they'll get that block done at the last second. But there are times, and I think Gibson has done a very good job of this,

where that counterplay gets to that edge, the inside's not there, and he just takes it. Yeah. Well, he's got better speed. But Robinson's not slow. He's got to trust his speed. He's got to trust his physicality. There's one more that I would say the same thing.

Like, trust that speed, trust that physicality. It's the first drive of the game where they go quick toss to the left, and he gets out to the edge. And I think he gets down to about the eight-yard line. Well, he shouldn't. He should have scored. He's got leverage on number 27, and he kind of just comes up and goes out of bounds.

You are a big punishing back, and you are a rookie. you are going to either cut to get back upfield and try to score because you're at the eight or you're going to bury your head into the 27th chest and you're going to pay for it. You do not let 27 off the hook on the sideline. You saw that play, right? He thinks he stepped out of bounds and he didn't. I mean, it wasn't even close. He was just trending toward the sideline.

He needs to cut it back up at side or he needs to, at the point he gets between numbers and the hash, he needs to put laser targets on the DB coming to tackle and be like, oh, you're going to get this, buddy. Right. You are going to get some. I like that little pitch, you know. They ran it two times in a row, and they never ran it again in the game. Oh, right.

They ran at the very next play as well, a different look of it, but they ran the exact same pitch the next play. They've run that a couple times with Gibson, too, this year. I actually, you know, it's certainly a play that starts with the idea that it's going to be a much bigger play than whatever duo, produces. But you're right. It's a great compliment. That's a compliment way to do.

You know, you start that downhill run look and then, here we are on the edge. But, I mean, he should have sized up 27 and just bulldozed him into the end zone, or at least down to about the three. I'd just like to see him finish runs at the third level better. I think he's fine through the line of scrimmage. He's got a good cut. he's great at running through contact with the second level, the linebacker level.

He's not making a lot of guys miss, but I'd like to see that third level really make a guy miss. Or really make a guy. One or the other, you make him miss or you make him pay for it. But if you don't make a miss or you make him pay for it, then you're nothing because there's nothing there. Like at least make him pay for it for a while,

and then guys look at it and go, yeah, shit, he gets to me, and I'm going to take one. And then you can make a miss because now they're concerned. You've got to create a, a level of concern. Yeah, I see exactly what you're saying.

By the way, since you're down at that portion of the game, there was another play that I wanted to ask you about. And that was they kicked the field goal because on, you know, third and, on second and goal, he throws the ball out to Samuel with Terry running a corner route. And it just seemed to me like the ball had to be out to Samuel earlier

and it would have been a touchdown. or close to it. He hitched. Yeah, I know. I know what you're saying. So that's actually the second down and the third down, and I was fascinated by this. They're both max protect plays.

In the red zone at the eight-yard line. Well, it was that the four-yard line. Yeah. So the problem with the Samuel deal is, if you throw it earlier, they're rallying to the ball. I don't see him scored me. He gives it enough time for them to drop.

I don't see that play. scoring it anyway. Would you have thrown it to Terry? Would you have gotten the ball out? I'm with you. No, it wasn't open to Terry. I'm with you out of throwing it to Samuel quicker, but I still don't know if that scores. Okay. And then they maxed it up the next play and there's just nothing there. Yeah, nothing. Although on that next, on that next play, hold on, I want to look at it again because I did make a note. I think he's got, this is another one where he's just got to be more decisive, faster, and run. I thought there was a chance for him to flush it up the other side, and he rolled left.

But anyway, what else you got? I know you've got to run. The Heineke and Robbins and stuff is great. I just got my truck. And, you know, the one thing we talked about is why our guy is open so much on the other side of the ball. And I said it wasn't as bad as you thought, you know. They played the run pretty well. They let Jones out of the pocket a couple too many times. they gave up the deep one to Slayton early in the game, and they're up 103 or 10-0 at that point. I think it was 10-0. It was like, what is 34 doing?

Like, go play the freaking ball. You're playing the ball. You're in great position, and all of a sudden, Holmes. You let Slaten just wrap, just wrap you and go get it? Right. Like, that was crazy to me. You know he's going to get outside of the pocket or in the boot stuff.

And I do think James and Davis at times, was good, and he's way more all over the field than he's ever been. But you've got to know he's going to boot, and he's going to get out of the pocket, and you've got to be able to tackle him outside of the pocket, or you've got to be able to at least not give him immediate receivers free outside of the pocket. And so it wasn't, but it would have something to kill him. They all lucky a few times on defense, for sure. The Giants had the ball more at midfield and couldn't finish drive than you would have liked to have had happen.

Yeah. But, like, the answer to why are guys open as much? And there are a lot of guys open in the middle of the field. And I called you, there was that third and ten play, the 18 tot. Yeah, Dodson, the tight end that's new to them, 18, yeah. There was a mistackle there by Curl, right? No, it was by, no, Curl was, they had a swing outside. I'm thinking about a different part.

And then that's a spot route inside. and curled, no, yeah, but curl jumps way outside to the swing, and they did this two or three times. The thing is, is like, you want them to throw the widest swing route to the outside. You want to really sit and hold on the inside route longer than they did, because the widened route, you have a sideline as an extra offense. You want to force them to throw that late and rally to the sideline, and that's what they have done really well over the past few weeks, and I think they gave up more inside,

are really running hard to the outside of that. I also don't think they needed to blitz as much as they blitz. I don't think they needed to bring as much pressure as they did throughout the game. The Giants are not a great protection line. They probably could have played some more cover three. They played a lot more cover four. And unless you're underneath defenders are really good in cover four, and they're not. They're not bad, but they're not really good.

You're going to get gaps and holes in the underneath stuff. I think they could have played a little bit more three or spied the quarterback a little bit more. There were probably some opportunities to do that. But maybe the thought process was the Giants have nobody who can beat us down the field. So let's bring pressure. Let's steam up. I think that's why you saw a lot of that five-man front too, which they run occasionally because they're not fearing that Jones is going to beat him because there's nobody to get open.

By the way, that five-man front with Ridgeway at, knows. The only thing that worries me on those is if a Barclay, like if a Barclay gets through, then it can really turn into a big play. You know, it's like what you said the other day about Robinson's second and one and second and two runs, and I'm not saying that this is totally analogous. But it's like, I love the five-man front and I want them to put their best football players on the field. And if they're not fearing, you know, the downfield throw have at it. But if, if, If a back like Barkley gets through, it can be a big play. And I don't know that they really need it.

He didn't have too many. He had one on the touchdown where Ridgeway plays behind a block. Right. It's a zone run. Ridgeway obviously plays behind a block. The way they had it played out as Jim and Davis was taking the other guy going, the receiver going out into the flat. And he had a big one on a draw.

The other, yeah. And the other big thing with the blitz. stuff is Jones is going to scramble. If you're really bringing pressure, you're not spying him with the blitz. Then when he gets out, he's out. Right. And that's the only way they can beat you. By the way, this is the last thing I wanted to mention.

We talked about this on Monday. We talked about the draw play on 3rd and 10. You said draw. Bring this up, and then I've got to go. The 3rd and 10 draw in overtime, watch that 3rd and 10 draw. Internio Gibson takes out off a little bit to his right, and then he cuts it hard behind the guard who's blocking the detackle,

and he essentially runs into the detackle. Right. And he tackled for six. That's what I said. If he bounces it, he probably gets it. I said that. You were right. I'm confirming.

I'm confirming. If he just bounces it, like he's trying to get skinny between that detackle and the linebacker outside of him, put it on that linebacker one-on-one and make him play and make him beat you. That's why I said the third and ten, especially against, you know, you could have got it. That, I think that they called it because they were playing the game context conservatively, but I also think that they thought they had a chance to get it. And they did. Yeah, I think they did. Well, hey, buddy, I got to go. All right. That was awesome.

Appreciate he's coming on with me, but I got to end this. It's great to be your guest. Thanks. I'll talk to you later. Appreciate it. Chris Cooley, everybody. He'll come back with one final segment, talk about the Terps game and a couple of other things from yesterday. and even today, the breaking news of Aaron Judge's big contract to stay in New York. We'll get to all of that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. That was historic number 62 for Aaron Judge at the end of what was an incredible Major League Baseball season in 2022. Aaron Judge bet on himself in the 2022 season, turning down an offer in spring training that equated to seven years, $213.5 million, roughly $30 million a year. And today he signed a nine-year,

$360 million contract to stay in New York and play with the Yankees. I would say that $150 million of newfound money betting on yourself is probably the greatest return on a bet made on yourself. by any athlete in sports history. You know, Lamar Jackson kind of betting on himself this year to see what that would turn out to be in 2023. Who knows he's injured right now. Joe Flacco, if you recall, went into the 2012 season deciding not to sign a deal playing on the final year of his deal in Baltimore.

They won the Super Bowl. He was outstanding during that postseason. He ended up signing the richest deal in the history of the league. at the time. It was a $120 million deal that paid him more money per year than any player in the league, just barely topping Drew Breeze at the time. That was a bet on himself that really returned in a big way. But my God, Aaron Judge, $360 million, nine years, $40 million a year, more than any player in history surpassing Mike Trout's $36 million per year. You know, I was following the news this morning of the signing and listening to a lot of the discussion about it.

And we've not, you know, here on this podcast, I certainly haven't been following the day-to-day of the Aaron Judge kind of sweepstakes. I knew the Giants were certainly involved. That was his hometown team. And the possibility of him returning to San Francisco, I guess, was part of the driver. The Yankees did not want to lose Aaron Judge. Brian Cashman was not going to be the general manager that lost the guy that hit 62 home runs. But apparently there was a Time magazine interview published yesterday where Judge essentially said that the Yankees disclosing what the offer was that he turned down had upset him and had made him think that the Yankees were intending to turn the fans and the media against.

against him last spring. And he didn't like that. And that particular disclosure, which came out in Time Magazine yesterday, made the Yankees think that the possibility of him leaving to go to San Francisco was real. And apparently that got them to this number that then Aaron Judge didn't turn down. Who knows if he was playing them? But whatever he did, it worked out really well for Aaron Judge. an all-time contract in terms of average annual and really in terms of the difference between

what he turned down and what he ended up signing for after one season. I don't think we'll see that any time soon in terms of the percentage increase, yes, but the aggregate dollar amount of $150 million more by betting on yourself for that season and coming up big is truly incredible. I wanted to real quickly talk about the NFL playoff picture because a lot of you have reached out to me and suggested that some of the discussion I've had relating to the NFC is a little bit murky. So to me, 9-7 and 1 winning two of the final four,

as long as one of those two is against the Giants, is pretty much a lock for Washington to make it as one of the two remaining wild cards, the six seed or the seven seed. I think at this point, you almost have to concede that the five seed is going to be the NFC East runner-up, Dallas or Philadelphia. Now, it's possible Dallas could slip back and Washington could make a run at the five-seat or somebody else could. Seattle or the Giants could, but Dallas is playing pretty well right now. And I think what we're talking about as we're talking about Washington, New York, Seattle, and I think Detroit, four teams for two spots. Now, one of those four teams, Seattle, could ultimately end up battling it out with San Francisco now that San Francisco is starting their third string quarterback in Brock Purdy.

And Seattle could pass San Francisco and win the division. And then it would be San Francisco, Washington, the Giants, and Detroit for the six and seven. seven seed for two spots. That's pretty much the way the NFC is shaking out. There's nobody else really involved. And Detroit being involved is a bit of a long shot because they'd have to run the table to get to 10 and 7. The reason I give it a chance is because they're playing very well. There are two and a half point favorite now at home against a 10 and 2 team in the Vikings. And the Lions, you know, if they were to beat Minnesota this weekend, and if you're a Washington fan, you are rooting for Kirk Cousins and the Vikings to put the lions to sleep this weekend.

Because an eighth loss is kind of a dagger at this point. You know, there's a lot that could happen. I mean, you know, Washington could lose all four or three of the final four. And the Giants could lose a bunch of games. And Detroit could potentially get in at nine and eight. You know, the interesting thing about the Detroit situation is that the last thing they really wanted was a tie between Washington and the Giants. They would have preferred somebody to have won that game

and then the other team to kind of tank the rest of the way because they would have owned the tiebreaker against both New York and Washington. They beat Washington in Week 2, and they beat the Giants a month ago. And so with the ties, there's no tiebreaker in play. They're going to have to beat out both of those teams. But again, we're talking about two spots, and we're talking about Seattle, Washington, the Giants, and the Lions, or San Francisco, the Giants, Washington, and Detroit for two of those spots.

Detroit being a long shot. And I think if Washington gets two wins to get to 9, 7, and 1, and one of those two wins is against New York, they're really solid, really solid. Two wins with one of them being against the Giants pretty much is a lock for them to make it in either the six or the seven spot. And the reason I say that is the Giants have a brutal schedule. You know, the Giants are six and a half, seven-point underdogs this week against the Eagles. They have the Eagles twice.

They have the Vikings on the road. And obviously they have the game at Washington. The one game on their schedule that is winnable, and this would be the problem if they beat Washington on the 18th, they do have a game on January 1st against the Colts. and that could give them their ninth win. And now you're talking about Washington if they were to lose to New York, needing kind of to run the table against the Niners, Browns, and Cowboys.

And maybe that Cowboys game is an easy game because the Cowboys and the Eagles, the division's been decided and the Cowboys have their number five seed penciled in and they may treat it as a buy week. It's possible that that could happen. But 9-7-1 with a win over the Giants to me is pretty much a lock. if they don't beat the Giants, 9-7-1 isn't an eliminator. If they get two of their final three against San Francisco, Cleveland, and Dallas, they'd still have, you know, not a 50-50 shot, maybe more like a 40% shot.

And what they would need then is for Seattle to lose three of their final five games or for San Francisco to completely fall apart with Washington having a win and contributing to San Francisco falling apart. don't see that personally, even with Brock Purdy. I just see Kyle Shanahan and the weapons they have and the defense, which I think is the best, still being good enough to kind of win some games here. But Seattle, just so you know, they're playing Carolina this weekend. Carolina is going to be in the smell test. I promise you that. They're plus three and a half. The Panthers have played well on defense in particular. And Seattle hasn't played well recently. They lost the Bucks in London.

then they lost at home to the Raiders in overtime, and they were on the ropes against a wretched Rams team on Sunday. But Seattle does have four of its final five games at home. And even though the Panthers are going to be a tougher than expected opponent, the Niners on Thursday night football, the Jets and the Rams all at home, and they've got the Chiefs at Arrowhead, if Washington doesn't beat the Giants,

but they get to 9-7-1 by beating, let's just say it's the Browns and the Cowboys, well, then they would need Seattle to finish 9 and 8, which means they're sitting there at 7 and 5. They've got to go 2 and 3 the rest of the way. And with 4 out of their final 5 at home, that's a big ask, even though I think it's in play. I mean, the 49ers and the Chiefs will probably,

I don't know what the line will be with the 49ers on Thursday night. They play them a week from tomorrow night. That's a huge game, obviously, in the NFC West. and if Seattle ended up winning the division, you know, the problem with the Niners is they only have to win two more to get to 10. You know, I'm focused in on 9, 7, and 1. It's not that I'm discounting a 10-win season, you know, or maybe an 11-win season. They haven't had one of those since 1991. If they run the table here, they're 11, 5, and 1.

That would be their best regular season record since the 14 and 2 in 1990. I think they do have a chance to win three. And certainly 10-6-1 would be almost a lock that they get in. Even if the one win isn't against, even if the one losses to the Giants, it would still be pretty much a lock to get in. But as I view these games, I think they can win them and I think they can lose them. I think it's kind of what we've seen, although what we've seen is kind of the same situation with the exception of the Houston game,

and they have won six of those and tied another. They've only lost one of those that were kind of, you know, coin flip games going in. And that's what they have the rest of the way. I mean, there's no other way to say it. I mean, you know, they are limited right now in their ability to really hang a big number on somebody. And so understanding that,

you're going to be in these, you know, low margin for error games. But they seem to have, you know, been the luckier or just the better in clutch time than their opponents in most of those. But that's pretty much the playoff picture there for Washington. You know, get two out of the final four with one of the two being against the Giants and you're good. You get three, you're a lock. You get four, of course, there's, you know, you get four and you're 11, 6, and 1.

You're definitely the sixth seed. And depending on, you know, what Dallas does in the coming weeks, who knows, you might have a shot at them. I would not count on that, though. Dallas still, to me, has a shot to win the division. The Cowboys next two weeks, Texans, Jags. So pencil them in for 11 and 3 going into that game against the Eagles on Christmas Eve. And if the Eagles, you know, if they were to beat the Eagles and the Eagles haven't lost going into that game, you know, you're now into a position where Dallas is a game back and the Eagles, you know,

the Eagles have to win out to win the division because right now in that scenario, the Cowboys would have the better division record because their only loss would have been to the Eagles earlier in the year. And the Eagles at that point would have two division losses. So they'd have the head-to-head that would be split and then it goes to division record and the Eagles lost to Washington. So they would have two division losses. The Cowboys would have one. So I am not. I'm not bailing on Dallas as a potential NFC East champion. I mean, they're going to get to 11 and 3.

I mean, Texans and Jags, you know, and then they play that game against the Eagles on Christmas Eve at home. You know, that game is such a big game in the NFL season as it's shaping up. I mean, that is a massive game, you know, because it's very likely the Cowboys will be 11 and 3. it's possible the Eagles could be 13 and 1. I mean, that will be the heavyweight matchup of this season. And the Cowboys would need to win that game

to kind of keep their division hopes alive. And that game, just as a side note, will be going on at the same time as Washington's playing San Francisco. Washington will be against San Francisco on Christmas Eve in a 405 start on CBS. actually, while the Cowboys and the Eagles have the double-header, massive game on Christmas Eve, you know, in Dallas. That's going to be a big game. As long as the Cowboys beat the Texans and the Jags, even if the Eagles beat their upcoming two opponents, which are the Giants on Sunday and then the Bears, it's still going to be a big game because if the Cowboys win it, they're basically one game back with two to go for a chance to win the division. We don't want them coming to Washington the final week of the season having a chance to win the division.

By the way, it's not just winning the division, it's getting the number one seed and the first weekend by. If it comes down to Dallas beats Philadelphia on Christmas Eve and they go into that final week of the season and the Eagles are 14 and 2 and the Cowboys are 13 and 3. then the Eagles and Cowboys are going to both have to play those final weeks against the Giants in Washington, respectively. The Eagles would have the ability to clinch with a win, but a loss in a Cowboys win, the Cowboys would win the division. So lots to consider, look, here's the bottom line during the by week. You have to root this coming weekend for the Vikings, number one, to beat the Lions. the Eagles to beat the Giants and the Panthers to beat the Seahawks.

Those are the three games that matter the most this upcoming weekend. And I think the Seahawks being a short favorite at home are in a bit of trouble. And I think also, you know, the Lions, I don't know, the Lions look pretty good to me right now, laying two and a half as a five and seven team against a 10 and two team. You don't think the odds makers have a lot of respect. for Detroit right now. They also recognize Minnesota has the worst pass defense in the NFL, which they do. It's the 32nd ranked pass defense in the NFL. Do the Giants have a chance this

weekend at home against the Eagles? Not the way the Eagles have been playing. But yeah. Oh, one other quick thing in the NFC playoff picture, don't count Tampa Bay out from making a run to the six seed, I'm sorry, to the three seed with the NFC West champion being the four seed. There's been kind of a default that the NFC South winner is going to be the four seed. You know, they might have a losing record, and they're going to play a home game as the four seed like Washington did in 2020, where they were the four seed playing Tampa as a seven and nine team against what was Tampa that year, 11 and 5, whatever it was, and Tampa went on to win the Super Bowl. But the Buccaneers now that the 49ers are injured at quarterback, they play the 49ers this week.

If the Bucks win that game, they're a game behind the 49ers with four to go for basically the three seed. Not to mention the Bucks beat the Seahawks too. So they would have the tiebreaker over both Seattle and Tampa Bay if they could get it back to say 9 and 8 or 2. 10 and 7, they might have a chance to move up to the three seed, which, by the way, is going to be crucial in the NFC because the four seed's going to have to play the NFC East runner up at home. And they'll be an underdog in that game, whether it's the 49ers against the Eagles, 49ers against the Cowboys, or the Buccaneers versus the Eagles or Buccaneers versus the Cowboys. or if it's Seattle versus the Eagles or Seattle versus the Cowboys,

you know, in that four or five game. The bucks are looking, look, I don't think the bucks are very good right now, but the 49ers are compromised right now, and Seattle is playing their worst football of the year. So that's in play as well. So there you go. Less murky, I don't know. Get to 9, 7, and 1 with one of the two wins against the Giants,

and you're in. And if you're in as the 7 seed, and you go to Minnesota. I guess, by the way, Minnesota still has a chance to be the one seed. I forgot that particular part of the equation. So that is actually in play as well.

Minnesota being the one seed and the Cowboys or Eagles being the two seed. And the seven goes to the two in the opening weekend. And if Washington's the seven, they got a shot at Minnesota. We already saw that game. I don't feel great about them going to Dallas.

I don't feel great about them going to Philly. I don't feel great really about them going to Tampa or San Francisco, although either one of those two games is winnable. Minnesota is the team that really is vulnerable because they can't stop anybody. And so Washington being physical in the run game and running the ball against them and controlling it and maybe a little bit better right now that having seen them once, I think they'd have a really good chance in a playoff game at Minnesota. I wouldn't discount their chances at Tampa or at San Francisco either. We're at Seattle. So lots to really think about. Again, root for Carolina, root for Detroit, and root for the Eagles this week.

Those would be three really good results. Two of the three would be outstanding. Detroit's the one that's kind of a long shot to get back into it. But if they beat Minnesota, they're going to be favored in maybe all of their remaining games, except the jet game. And I don't know how that'll play out. That's a tough team, man. The Jets are really, really nasty defensively.

And with Mike White clearly better offensively than they were with Zach Wilson. Fascinating year in the NFC. By the way, fascinating year in the AFC. Like, you know, a lot of people, including my producer on Radio Denton, they're all now starting to look at the Raiders who have, you know, gotten red hot.

If they were to run the table and, you know, they got a chance. They got games against the Rams, the Patriots, the Steelers, the Niners, you know, with Brock Purdy, and then they finish against the Chiefs, and who knows if the Chiefs will have anything to play for. The Raiders are playing their way back into this thing in the AFC. They got the Jets to catch, though, which may be difficult. All right, I wanted to finish up with this. Maryland's loss last night to Wisconsin, first loss of the year for Kevin Willey.

I really love the way Maryland defends. I love the way they rebound, especially for their size. Man, Dante Scott's a rebounder. Dante Scott had three block shots. The game last night, to me, came down to Maryland just got stopped offensively. Wisconsin was excellent on defense, and Maryland got a little bit stagnant, and they were having a difficult time running their stuff. they missed a lot of shots, a lot of twos.

They were okay from behind the arc. They were 10 of 24 from behind the arc. But they had some buckets that just, they were out of sync offensively. And I give Wisconsin a lot of credit for that. And look, Wisconsin in those games in Madison have been so tough. I mean, it seems like all the scores are, you know, 64, 60, 6462, 6459, which was last night. I mean, Maryland's been a high score. team all season long.

They got 59 last night. Didn't help that they didn't shoot free throws well, but Wisconsin didn't either. I just thought ultimately, Maryland couldn't get into the kind of game that they wanted to get into. You know, they had a difficult, they were forced to run a lot of half-court offense, and Wisconsin defended it very well. And even when they had shots, they didn't make enough of them. They shot 38.2 percent from the field.

they only made 11 two-point field goals on the night. And here's the other thing. Maryland likes to get out in transition. They like to use their press a lot. And to use their press, for any team that's a pressing team, most pressing teams, to get into your press, you've got to be able to score. So when you're not scoring, you're not setting up your press.

you're dropping back on defense and you're not able to use your pressure defense to create more tempo in the game and potentially more turnovers. Marilyn turned the ball over too much offensively and then because they weren't able to set up their press because they didn't score enough and by the way when you miss free throws you can't set up your press either and they were seven of 12 from the free throw line and I think two of them were front ends of one and ones. So it just was an out of kilter night for the Terps. Look, they weren't going to go undefeated. Wisconsin's a good team, really tough to play in their building. And Maryland still kind of withstood the big haymaker that

Wisconsin threw at them early. They were up 12 and Maryland hadn't trailed at all, basically, in any game this year. And they came back and they took the lead. And so I loved the fight. I loved the defense. I love the rebounding. They really got after it in terms of shot blocking. I think Scott had three or four block shots. Reese had a couple. Reese is still finding his way offensively. It's just a little bit, you know, he's not polished offensively. He had two big free throws, by the way, down the end. And at the end, by the way, Maryland was down 10. They hit two threes. And then they were down five after a miss free throw. And they came down with 14 seconds left, 13, 12, 11, clock's ticking down, you're down five.

They still had a timeout left. They never got up a shot. That was unfortunate because they hit threes, and if they'd gotten another three, because Jemir Young had hit one on the previous possession, you get another three at 64, 62, and a quick time out with, you know, six, seven, eight seconds left. You got a shot, but they never even got a shot up. Dante Scott had the ball. You got to shoot the ball, Dante.

You got to shoot the three. It doesn't matter if it's defended. You got to go up with it and give yourself a shot up. chance they never got a shot off. But I love the effort. It just was not a smooth night offensively. I give Wisconsin a lot of credit for that. And the tempo that Maryland wants to play, it's going to be hard to get that tempo, you know, which starts with some of their full court, you know, in three-quarter court pressures when you're not scoring. And they weren't last night. Up next Tennessee Sunday, 4.30 p.m. at Barclays in Brooklyn. Big time game. Tennessee's ranked 7th in the country. And then it's UCLA next Wednesday.

But I like, you know, I like the way they battled last night. There's some fight in this team. Look, it's not like the most overly talented team. They're going to lose games, guys. They're going to lose games in the Big Ten. You know, I don't think they're going to win the Big Ten. You know, I think they've got to, a much better team than I thought. I think Jemir Young is a big part of that, huge part of that. We didn't know what we were getting in the Charlotte transfer. Sometimes, you know, step up to this kind of level

can be too big of a step, but it's not for him. So they've got, you know, in him a really solid point guard who can score. By the way, is, you know, really crafty defensively, anticipates well, especially when they're able to pressure. and then Scott and Hart obviously have to be big for them. And they got to shoot it better than they shot it last night. They were five for 24 from the field. So that's going to hurt.

But they're going to lose games. But they look like a tournament team. It's only December 7th. So there's a lot to go here. And, you know, one key injury could really derail it for them because they're not deep. I love the energy that Martinez gives him. I actually think he's got a very good stroke. I don't mind when he shoots it, but he's a little bit out of control,

helter-skelter offensively. We've seen that, you know, in a bit of a turnover machine. But defensively, man, he gets after it. And I like Emmeline and I like long. But, you know, it's a short bench for sure. It is short for sure. All right, that's it for the show today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.