The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley "Film" On Houston Win

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Cooley and Kevin today featuring Cooley's thoughts on Washington's win over Houston along with his "film breakdown" of Washington's defense, Taylor Heinicke, Logan Thomas, and the overall offensive running game. Kevin had two Thanksgiving Day "Smell Test" picks as well.  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. Here's Kevin. Day before Thanksgiving, Coolie's in the house. I am here as well. This review from Roy P3,

still the best listen all week in the D.C. area, Kev and Coolly. From Coach Jeff, 7. Love Kevin's takes on the commanders. look forward to everybody, but I love the Cooley video breakdown as a former high school football coach. And then from Commander Lover, we got a one star out of five. Kevin is a Commander's hater. That's it. I said, you know, if you're going to review us, do it in one sentence, one to two sentences. And Commander Lover said Kevin is a Commander's hater and gave us one star. Um, if

you have time. That's not fair to give one star because you're a commander's hater. Well, for some of those. It doesn't mean you do a poor job. It doesn't mean you do a poor job. The product is still good. You don't like the product. Well, that's not true either. I mean, I'm not a commander's hater. I mean, if you want me to respond to that, I mean, I don't really need to respond. People that are listening know that I'm not as passionate about the team as I used to be. That is 100% true, but I'm not a commander's hater I mean

in fact I made this point the last time we talked I think you're a massive commander's lover I know you're I think you are and I think that you are

as passionate as anybody in the fan base I mean you talk about it more than anybody else you're more in tune to the team

and the coaching staff and what they're doing you never miss one thing the organization does I mean everything they miss you can you find if you're

into it, man. Okay. I think you're wrong and I don't think you're actually... I don't, well, I don't think you're serious. I think... In some ways, I'm serious. I do know how you actually feel. Right. You know exactly how I feel. It's no different than what I've shared with everybody. I just don't have the same level of passion. Now, I do think, and I've said this now for a few weeks running, and especially this week, and I am excited because I've not talked to Cooley this week. I've not talked to him since the game on Sunday. I gave him an assignment, which we'll find out here shortly if he's completed. He usually does complete the assignment. But I said yesterday to Tommy

and the same on the podcast on Monday, I think this team's winning 10 games and going to the postseason. And I think when they get there, depending on the matchup, they're going to have a chance to win a game in the playoffs. I think it's as good a defensive team as there is in the league. I would put it third right now behind San Francisco and Dallas defensively in the NFC, but it is easily a top 10 overall defense in the league, and it is probably the best rush defense in the league in terms of stopping the run right now. Of the teams that I've watched, I don't know that there's a better run-stopping team in the league. They held this dude Damien Pierce Sunday to eight yards, eight yards. He had 94 last week against the Giants. He had

137 in the game before that against the Eagles. They held them to eight. They've been doing this to everybody this year. And I think that they have turned into a good football team. I think this is different than last year, different than years past. I think they're a pretty good football team right now. But let me just, before I get your thoughts on this, I just want to ask everybody those that haven't rated and reviewed us to do so on Apple

or Spotify, Apple in particular, it just really helps us. Five stars would be better. better than one star and a quick one to two sentence review about how much you love the podcast. All right. So what did you think of the game? Well, hold on. I want to talk about the game, but I think you're right in watching them that they are in the top three defenses in the NFC.

I think that they're in the top five defenses. There are six defenses in the NFL. And here's the crazy thing, though, about Washington is if they had turnovers, especially early in the season, which they had absolutely none, and if they didn't have a couple of those games where they looked out of sorts early in the year, they're the number one statistic defense in the league. Based on the last, I'll bet you, I'll guarantee you in the last four or five weeks, they're the best defense in the NFL. They're the best defense in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, they've been really – Dallas is pretty good. I mean, Dallas has been pretty damn good defensively.

But the 49ers are pretty good defensively. But I agree. I mean, you can debate Washington's defense is better or as good as any in the league right now. And the thing is, Cooley, it's complete right now. They're getting obviously dominant front four play. I mean, dominating front four play. John and Duran, there's not a better pairing right now in terms of detackles in the league. Sweets playing at an outrageously high level.

Jamon Davis has developed, and they're secondary. I mean, I saw PFF. Somebody sent this to me this morning. Cameron Curl is the second highest rated safety in the league per PFF. Behind, by the way, Kyle Hamilton, the guy that I wanted Washington to draft at number 11 overall, the guy that's in Baltimore, who somebody tweeted me after the game. He hasn't played nearly as many snaps. as Curl has.

And then you love the corners. I do too. Well, you love St. Juice. I think Fuller's played better. And I think Forrest and McCain are playing well. I mean, it's just really front to back of really good defense that I think is exceptionally well-coached. They don't miss tackles, Cooley.

They're such a good tackling team. They have become an incredible tackling team, rally to the ball team. they've been way more consistent when you watch the last six weeks you don't see gaps in the defense. Teams that are making plays have to make plays against them. They still have given up a couple, but everyone does that. To me, it's been a really, really consistent defense.

Yeah, and the secondary play, I think, is the hugest part of it, and I think it's wild because really the change from St. Juice to St. Juice from William Jackson is essentially what started the turn of defense. And I think that other guys are their guys playing better

and the safeties have started to figure things out. I do think it's funny that camera curls their second rated safety. Like, would you take him in the top ten safeties in the league? Would you take him over Darwin James? Would you take him over the dude from San Francisco? Would you take? There's another reason

Derwin James isn't rated to die or wouldn't be because they match him up one-on-one against Travis Kelsey an entire game and he can eliminate that. He can eliminate Kelsey or take Kelsey from what he is to 10% of what he is. I actually really like

Cameron Curl, but he's not asked to do what some of the other safety in the league are asked to do. The thing is, though, with Washington's defense is they are really collectively altogether and they're playing in a fashion where it is everyone do your job and understand, hey, when we all do our job,

there are three guys up front that make our job way easier. And they do more than their job in Payne Allen and sweat. They are monsters, and they were monsters in this Texan game. Oh, yeah. I mean... I mean, this is this defense. Right now there's one hole, and it's Bostic, and he's not a starter. If you were to get a hole come back,

I think they're in really, really, really, good shape. Yeah, me too. I agree with that. And I know they really like Bostick's like IQ, but he can't run. Can't run. He can't run. How old is Bostic? Okay. Bostick, Bostic, Bostic.

John Bostick's 31 years old. 31. I wonder if John Bostick could ever run. I think he could. It's not fair to say can't, can't run. No, I'm just saying can't run fast. There was a situation in the game where they were into two men and they threw a crosser to

Cooks. Brandon Cooks, and it looked like me trying to chase a rebound this week, playing one-on-one basketball, like flailing arms and legs kicking everywhere. Right. And I'm not getting to it. Like, oh, but then you want to make it fair, that's Brandon Cooks who's really fast. So can't run as fast as maybe you'd like in some situations, but he's, I mean, he wasn't that much slower than cooks. Yeah. It wasn't me out there.

I think it's funny what you said about the PFF thing, because I do, you know, it's like I have a couple of PFF guys that I like having on the show. I think that they're good, you know, radio guests or podcast guests. This latest guy that I've had this year, Nick Ackridge does a really nice job. Sam Monson, one of the original guys at PFF, comes on, Eric Eager comes on. But what you just said, like, people will take the grade of Cameron Curl and say, look, he's the second best safety in the league. Well, if you held a draft tomorrow for safeties, he's not going to be the second pick overall. I mean, they're going to be in the top 10 pick.

He probably wouldn't be in the top 10. But I'll tell you what, in this scheme with the front four, with the other safeties. And they're playing three safeties. They're playing, you know, McCain is the slot corner, you know, when the teams line up a slot receiver. I, um, he's a good player. I mean, he is a good player.

He's a physical player, too, which is one of the reasons I really like him. But, you know, I'm a commander's hater, so it's hard to compliment anybody. I don't want it to mean Cameron Carroll because he's been one of my favorite players on this defense since he started playing a lot as a rookie. He is impressive. You know, his return. And I don't want it to mean PFF because they're just grading it as it should be graded. It's just in the scheme of what they're asking Cameron Curl to do.

The degree of difficulty is not the same as maybe what Derwin James would have. You mentioned, you know, you mentioned a significant event in the turnaround of the defense was them, you know, saying goodbye to William Jackson the third. I think that's a big deal. Cam Curl came back week three against the Eagles. That was the first week, and I said it on that Monday morning, and I think you said it too, that the defense didn't play that badly against the Eagles. They really shut down the run. So I think it's a combination.

Tommy wrote a column about this. It's a combination of Curl's return. It's a combination of Jackson leaving. And you go back to the beginning of training camp when Ron Rivera made the decision to fire Sam Mills, you know, the junior or the third or whatever, you know, the Sam Mills that none of the D-Lineman really ever cozied up to. I mean, Matt Ionitis won it out pretty much year one. He was not a favorite. Coach Z is and Ryan Carrigan's become a favorite among the players. All three of those things added up, I think, to a defense that we thought we were going to get

last year. We thought we were, but we didn't. And now Chase Young, might start playing a little bit here and there. Which should be huge for them. Yeah, it's just weird. It should be huge for them. It's weird the way they're... It might not be huge in week one and two of his return, but as he gets back in in rhythm,

if this defense continues to play the way they are and they continue to win some football games, it would be massive as they get closer to playoffs. It's a really great turnaround that they put together in the last five weeks. How much credit do you give to Ron Rivera? I give a lot of credit to Ron Rivera. I give a lot of credit to Jack Del Rio.

I give a lot of credit to Taylor Heineke. I think Heineke, that's the other differences. In the interim of the defense playing better, the offenses playing better. They might not be dynamic, But you mentioned Dallas is one of the best defenses in town-wise. They are, and there's a lot of things about them. But that's also an offense that's been able to possess the ball, to run the ball,

to get first down, to keep their defense off the field, to not exhaust them, to not to keep offenses or potentially keep offenses one-dimensional. That changes what you do on the defense, too. And Heineke is essentially when Heineke came in, the defense was better. and even even further this is a weird thing and I don't I don't know how William Jackson

was in the locker and I don't know how Carson wins as the leader at the quarterback position and that but I do know that I'd heard like there are guys that are disgruntled

and when you're one and four and obviously that's normal but the cohesion being right can change things as well you don't have a guy bitching and complaining every week like

I'm a man corner this is a stupid defense why don't they play me where I belong? It makes just a shadow of a doubt in what we're doing from a guy like William Jackson, who is a very good player in Cincinnati. A couple of those guys can change the dynamic about how you feel about a game plan. I think the cohesion with Heineke and with Jackson out and the way they want to do things is definitely a benefit to them

without Sam Mills, who I know no one liked on the defense of line. All that stuff combined, you have. to give Rivera a lot of credit. Now, the Heineke thing was in the decision because Wentz was her. Now I don't think it's a decision because of the way Heineke's playing. I think William Jackson made that an easy decision

for them. But at the same time, you see teams all the time continue to do things or feel like they're obligated to play guys in a certain way. And Ron has not done that this year, and they found a way to turn things around. It's been awesome for them. And they do have a chance to win some

games down the stretch. Like, I don't see why they can't beat the Giants at least one of the two times. They can beat the Falcons. We'll see what the Browns are. It's not going to be an easy. I think they're a team that wins nine games for sure. They are, for those that are interested, and I am, because I was looking for this yesterday, and I found it last night, next week against the Giants,

and their first of back-to-back games against the Giants with a by-week in between, the game's on the road, Washington is favored. Three weeks ago, Washington would have been about a four-point underdog, three to four-point underdog in the Meadowlands against the Giants. They are now the favored team. What does that mean? It means the boys in the desert understand how good this football team is and how much better it's getting.

That was a big surprise. Washington's going to end up being favored in four straight games. You know, Houston, and then they will be favored against the Falcons this week and then back to back against the Giants. Also, one quick thing just to keep an eye on, the week of December 17th, 18th, the weekend of December 17th and 18th, there are five NFL games that have been held back from when the schedule was released for a triple header on Saturday. They have not announced it, but I'm guessing right now, Washington, New York, which is one of the five games held back, will be a Saturday, December 17th game. Maybe a prime time game, although Miami and Buffalo are potential,

is a potential game for that day as well. I wanted to read real quickly, because you know Arthur Smith. You got to know him when he was here. Arthur Smith is the head coach of the Falcons. And talking about Taylor Heineke today, he said, quote, tough player.

I've got an appreciation for a guy who has waited his turn. Reminds me of Ryan Fitzpatrick a little bit tougher than hell, not afraid to make any throw. You can see why his teammates love him. He can get out of there and extend plays and hurt you. He did that last year to us. Yeah, his most memorable game,

although I would submit that the Indianapolis finish this year, is his moment more than any other. But that game against the Falcons last year was a wild game. and the throw that he made after bouncing around in and out and throwing to McKissick for the game-winning touchdown, that was probably, I think statistically, it was his best game last year. And it certainly was one of the more exciting games of the year. They won that game. It's the most points they've scored with him by a lot.

They won that game 34 to 30. He had an 88.7 QBR, 127.1-passen-a-passer rating. And he was 23 of 33, three touchdowns, no picks. Five carries for 43 yards. So, yeah, they got to look at him last year. By the way, it's a Kyle Smith game here. But it was Kyle Smith game last year in Atlanta, too. The former GM here.

Yeah, well, it's not really a Kyle Smith game. I know, but I'm just saying that Kyle Smith. I'm not involved in the game planner, much of this game in general. All right. Want to talk about... Where would you like to start? I would like to start with... Where did I tell you to start?

I'd like to start with you just talking more specifically about the defense from the Houston game. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. There's a triple header of games. I've got a smell test pick for tomorrow's pro card. And I have a college pick for the edge.

Egg Bowl. You know what the Egg Bowl is, Cooney? You know who plays in the Egg Bowl? Not a clue. Mississippi and Mississippi State playing the Egg Bowl. That's a Thanksgiving night game pretty much every year. And I like a side in that game. So I'll get to that in the final segment of the show. All right. I asked you to do a couple things. Do Heineke, do the defense. I also just wanted you to kind of comment on what Scott Turner's doing with a lot of the pre-snap run game action. And then I wrote down Logan Thomas, too, because I think he finally had a game on Sunday.

But why don't we take it defense first, then Heineke? Go ahead. Because they allowed five net yards in the first half of the football game. Yeah. Like, they allowed one first down, one first down, in which they had to hurry up to get a quarterback sneak in a third and one. But that's also not allowing any, any first downs on first or second down,

which means you allowed zero chunk plays to the Houston Texans. You allow zero big run plays. They essentially shut them down entirely. Go through the first half. In this kind of game, right? I think no players think about this or understand this, but you do, and it's a game that Washington should have been favored by seven and a half, especially after watching it play out.

But early in the game, you get this tight formation and emotion. Kendall Fuller recognizes that they're going to run a quickout and jumps it and it's a pick six to start a game with your defense. That is a dagger. I mean, that's an absolute game changer for Washington to begin this game. It was a huge play by Fuller,

who is playing over the last couple weeks so much better. He's much more fluid. He's so much more instinctual. He's not jumping stuff that he shouldn't jump. His eyes and assignment is way on point as opposed to where it was early in the season. And essentially, that's the way I see this entire defense is they are in position. They're in position. They are, when they're playing zone, they are in spots to play zone.

their pattern matching incredibly well. They have a very good understanding of what offenses are trying to do to them. And ultimately, because of the D-line play, you're not getting that crazy shit down the field where you're like, oh, my God, it's four and a half, five seconds,

and we've got to cover everything. And they can take those chances and jump routes and do things that they need to do because they know the quarterback can be flushed or be hit in the pocket. So that play, That play was huge for them. The D-line, Jonathan Allen is an absolute monster.

He has a bullrush sack in the first quarter of the ballgame where he essentially double underhooks. The guard walks him into the quarterback and takes the quarterback down. Come on, dude. A double underhook? That's not a pass. And he just walked in back five yards. He did it later in the game.

I don't know, like a third down. that they got a holding call, the offensive lineman had to hip throw him. He's getting pushed back so hard. It's like a wrestling move, hip throw. It's the easiest holding call of all. He drew two, I think he drew two holding calls in the game. He did. He drew two holding calls in the game.

Pain is an absolute beast. He's got a sack in the second quarter. And he's developing some of these little, the sack in the second quarter he got, just a quick, two-handed swap move. when you get guys like Payne and Alan who are that strong but then can beat you with technique, hands, feet, they're menaces. It's impossible in that situation. They had a ton of loop stuff. They had a ton of stunt stuff up front.

They took advantage of that. Montez Sweat was awesome. He had, what, two or two or three sex in this game? He had two. Alan had two, sweat had two, Payne had one. And they're both of sweat. there are both of sweat sacks

were on loop twist plays that he is continuing to move and run they're not immediate wins but because they're able to keep the pocket with the

detackles on the stunts he's able to get in there and make plays on the quarterback two hill played really good they're shedding blocks they're getting off of guys they're making plays

in the run game they're making plays in the backfield they push and change the line of scrimmage they're not allowing double teams to get up to their linebackers who are playing much better right now. I feel like they're so good at this point up front that you get guys like Ridgeway who's like, I got to show these guys that I'm as big and tough and strong.

Like, hey, look, guys, I can be great too. Watch me super power slam the running back. Like, I've actually never, I don't know if I've really ever seen that. Yeah, that was crazy. That's so stupid. Yeah. But I feel like it looks like they're playing and having fun, and I don't think he was doing it to be a violent asshole

and try to hurt somebody. I think he's doing it because they're having fun, and he's trying to show his dudes, like, I'm a part of this group. Look what I can do, boys. Right. It's amazing. I want you to just explain to everybody, because I've been thinking about this,

because, you know, Del Rio's talked about it a bunch. when they're pattern matching in their zone. Explain to everybody what that means. Okay. So let's envision most of the pattern match stuff in a zone comes underneath. There's some stuff guys do over the top, but it comes in a lot of the underneath stuff in that 5 to 12-yard range. So I'll explain like a quarters coverage in a pattern match.

So quarters coverage would have. four deep players, the corner, safety, safety corner. They're all going to play a deep quarter of the field. Now, the safeties could potentially interchange how they match the middle of the field if there's a crosser. Sometimes one of the safeties would essentially cut and run with that crosser, and it would ultimately change what the back end is as quarters, but it starts as a quarter's coverage. And teams play that differently. But underneath, if there are four deeps, underneath, there are three underneath. This is a no-blit situation. You're rushing. for. There's three in the middle of the field from five to 12, and then there's four deep.

Right. Those three underneath, one's essentially responsible for hook flat on the right. The middle player plays the entire middle from five to 12, and the other players hooked to flat on the other side. A lot of these incidents. Right. Well, if you have nobody underneath in your zone to the right, and somebody's coming out and going back across the field, you essentially become a man defender. You have to look back inside to make sure no one would be coming,

but you would essentially lock and play man within your zone on whatever receiver or whatever eligible is coming into your zone. It is one of those things that's driven me nuts since I started watching the film and watching more defense over the last 10 years and watching Washington and go back to the, when we would joke about Perry Riley, like you're not a Madden defender. This isn't like Xbox. You don't just go to a circle and dare them not to throw into the circle.

You become a man defender within your zone to some extent. So that's what you're saying. You're matching the pattern or the route, but essentially you're a man-matched defender within your zone. If that makes sense, you're locking into a man situation. You're saying this is the only possible threat that could come into my zone at this point. So I've got to play this threat. Don't just stand there and say, maybe you're not.

Maybe he's not coming into my zone, but I'm going to stand here in my zone. He's going to stop just outside the circle. I'm not going to go over and cover him because he didn't reach my zone. Exactly. And it really started to change, you know, in the 90s and 2000s and 2011. of the Belichick stuff, when zone blitz started to integrate into the NFL and into NFL defenses and some of the hybrid

players and saying, hey, look, we have to drop guys we don't necessarily want to drop, but we can't shit, we just can't drop them into a circle. Like they're going to have to find a way to match anybody coming into that zone. So that is really how they're pattern matching things. And like I said, you can do it on the back end too in some of the coverages.

Right. You know, if, let's say it's a quarter's coverage, right? Imagine two receivers on either side going deep down the field. Right. The one on one side runs a deep crossing route. The other one runs a deep post on the other side. The corner on your side, on the crosser side, doesn't necessarily have anyone deep to defend. So now he's got to look to the other side of the field to match where that post is going to cross and potentially be thrown, deep into his own.

As a corner on the opposite side of the field. As a corner on the opposite side, you've got to make sure that you don't have. Because the safeties have the two inside receivers. Anyone on the inside the safeties can have, yes. And a lot of times the safety to the near side of the crossing route will end up matching a crossing route, a deep crossing route into the lock it. Yeah. You just say, hey, we're going to lock crossers this week.

So there's a lot of different ways teams. play it. There's a lot of different principles about who locks what concepts and what type routes. Like, we're not going to lock a corner route. If there are two receivers on the left, the safety on that side isn't going to lock the corner route. They're going to pass those off. You can play, you can in and out different things in zone coverage and lock. If somebody from inside goes outside, we'll essentially, on a cross-release, we'll abort zone and will man-lock that within our zone. So there are principles, within the zone that based on the initial start of the route or the pattern concept,

change the way you're playing zone coverage. All that explains what Washington is doing a phenomenal job of right now is communicating and understanding the principles within their zone coverages and how they want to play that zone based on the way the offense plays out. In basketball defensively, one of the fundamentals of team defense is to really talk. You know, you've got to talk. You've got to communicate with one another. You know, you're switching a screen or in a zone.

You're passing off, you know, a wing player into another area. You're constantly talking defensively. Do secondary players, are they constantly talking to each other? Or do they just have an idea, given that it's a play that's coming right at them that, you know, isn't going to be pushed back outside and the ball's going to move from side to side to side? little bit different, but is talking a big thing for defensive secondary players? Yeah, and if it was my secondary, I would want them constantly talking because it's constantly reassuring everyone of where I am, where you are, what you have coming, alert to your guy.

There's never anything hurting when you're like, you, you, you, you, you know, me, me, me, me, it just, it's that constant reassurance. You don't want to talk late, and you want to see. it early and you want to continue to talk. And I think talking and communicating is huge on every level when you're, when you have a group of guys, offensive line talking is massive. Right. You see that. So deep communicating is absolutely huge.

Obviously you understand. And if you want to do the basketball, you would like, you're playing a three, two, or a two three zone. You would like to understand that if somebody's going to kick out on the wing, that you're, one of your lower defenders can kick out and play that. You don't want to have to tell them, like, hey, he's coming out to the wing. Right. Can you get out there?

Make sure you get, like, you don't want to have to do that. But you can say, I mean, you could sit there and say, hey, be ready for this. Essentially is what I'm doing. You know, here's what's coming. Here's what's coming. Once you're communicating after he's already kicked out, you're like, that's too late now. All right. What else on the defense before we get to Heineke?

I mean, we could go through a ton of the game. I mean, essentially they were phenomenal all day on defense. You know, Curl makes a great play down on the goal line to, on that zone read, hold them to a field goal on defense, on a second down zone read from the quarterback. It's actually funny because the next play, he looks at, they run what Joe Gibbs called a whiz motion, like a back, fourth, and then back. and that would have been a touchdown because Jamon Davis did not get there in time to cover 38 going out on the flat, but then they make a big play.

Forrest made a huge play on an interception, and this was really thin juice. If you watch that play, they're running four verts. They have one safety in the middle of the field, and that's Forrest. The tight end running up the seam is a 15 to 20-yard completion. I don't know how he doesn't throw that.

And it's tough, maybe because you didn't, communicator enough or somebody didn't put hands on the tight end and essentially gave him free release. But the idea that Forrest right now can, and Davis did an okay job holding his eyes down the middle of the field. The idea that Forrest can key eyes and has that range to get there. I know he didn't make a play on the ball, but to get there in time to get a tip pass is really big. And you're saying as a coach, like, hey, we're going to have to get hands on a tight end because he's free up the scene.

That is a problem in this coverage, and he should have been exploited. But do what happens when you do what we talk about. You key eyes, you make a break, you open your hips and run, and you're rewarded. I know that you weren't there to go, like middle of the field to sideline, but you were there to go what you call redline to redline. You know, he's got the ability to key eyes and run to get redline.

And then you start getting turnovers because you're rewarded because you're in position. Right. You're there to be playing. It's a hell of a play by St. Jesus. He's playing great defense right now. I think the defense is playing with really good eyes.

Davis is playing much better. He's much, much better in the run game. He's still got some things that he misses. He's overrunning a run-action play, and he's beat on a keeper play, but really he's playing so much better. Ultimately, across the board, I think this defense is playing much better.

You give up a couple things. The biggest play was the Cook's crossing route, right? Was that the biggest play? Against Bostic, yeah. You get into a two-man situation, and all of a sudden, Bostic's got to match cooks running a crosser, not what you love. And you're like, hey, Bostic, if you see Croster coming early,

you better take a better angle early to that kind of thing. But really, ultimately, when you go back, this defense, when they go back and evaluate this film, they're not correcting them a bunch of mistakes, and they're essentially building on the way they played. There's some little things that we can clean up, but ultimately, we just played within ourselves as a defense,

and we can grow from this entire thing. I mean, the only touchdown drive they give up is late. They don't have all their starters in. The game's essentially over. I mean... Yeah, the odd thing. Mills made a couple big throws. Like, Mills made his best throw the game down the theme,

to Brandon Cook's and it was incomplete over Bostic. But that was the, like, finally he started to let it go and made a couple big plays. Yeah, I was going to say. I did have two questions for you on this game defensively as they go through the rest of this. But to wrap the defense before the questions, they played within themselves. Del Rio did a really good job, changing coverages between what they can play well between two, three, and four. He got home with some of the blitzes when they brought five.

They got home with some of the blitzes, and they put their guys in good position to win throughout the entire day. It was excellent. Here's a couple questions to you. Maybe just one. The third drive of the game, Alan gets held. I think that's where he gets hit tough, or they draw the holding. Okay.

On a third and one, set the 34-yard line. They declined the penalty to go to a fourth and one. Was that the ineligible downfield? What was that? It's in the first quarter of this game. I'm pretty sure. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, first of all, that poor Kenyon Green, the first rounder from Texas A&M, the Guard, that just got destroyed by Allen all day. Yeah, they had a fourth and won, and Washington declined the holding penalty, and essentially said, go ahead and go for it from your own 34, see how that works out for you. And they didn't do it. They punted.

Well, the only reason I don't, I don't think it was, it was a long one. It was a long one. It was a long one. They are going to punt. But you're going to let them pump from the 34-yard line instead of go to a third and 11, where are they, I mean, maybe they're going to run a draw player screenplay and you don't want to get beat on an easy play. But gosh, if they drop back and throw it, it's a great turnover opportunity. And essentially, you're pushing it back.

10 yards of fill position. Do you really think Davis Mills is going to beat you on a third and 11? I think it's a really good point because I think the context of the game, because I talked about this on Monday, because I tweeted it out at 7 to nothing, and it was after Houston's I think second drive. I'm like,

this game's over. And I hesitated to do that because it was so early, but it was so apparent that Houston was not going to have a chance offensively to score points. And so to your point, they would have punted from right around the 17-yard line, their own 17, or I'm sorry, they would have had third and

18 from their own 17-yard line. Are they going to get 16 yards back to the fourth and one? No, they're probably going to end up with an improved position in terms of where Houston's punting from. So, yeah, you're right. They probably should have taken the penalty. That's right. It wasn't a third-and-seven. It was a third-and-seven, and they declined the penalty, right? Third-and-eight. Yeah, third and eight. Third and eight, yeah. Third and eight, and they got seven yards. That's what it says on the play-by-play sheet. I'm looking at the play-by-play sheet. That's exactly right.

Great job by curl coming up. I'm making a tackle there to force a fourth and one. Was that? Third and eight, third and eighteen. Yeah. I was just clutch them back and taking the field position. They're not getting that third and 18.

I think one of the things, I think one of the things you think of as a coach in those situations is given this day and age of almost anything getting flagged, they're not going to pick up a third and 18. Good point. But you could get an illegal contact, and it's like, are you kidding me? They were going to punt it on fourth and one.

You said you had two questions. Do you have another one? Well, the other point, I guess, or the other thing I'm thinking about this. On the other side is, okay, so on third and 18, if we don't come after them, which I would have done, are we going to give up a 10-yard throw to get back to a fourth and eight to essentially close to where it would have been anyways.

Right. I don't know. I would have pushed them back. But I understand completely. Yeah. I mean, I just would have come after him with six and said, you're not going to beat, like, you're just not going to beat this right now. Well, the other thing, too, is offensively you had gone three and out, three and out

and punted. And you had a near interception on the first drive. So field position, it was going to be kind of a field position game. So I would have considered it for sure. I have a question for you before you get to Heineke. and watching the All-22, which I didn't do as intently this week as I did the Monday night game, I think what's interesting to me is how you see in, you know, whether it's their quarters coverage or cover two, because sometimes I have a difficult time distinguishing between the two.

You are, you know, you've got their basic four-three front, and they, Del Rio mixes it up. between Curl and McCain. Now, Forrest is really never down there as the third linebacker. It's pretty much exclusively, you know, it's Bostick Davis in either Curl or Kane. Now, McCain. Now, McCain is the third corner. They don't bring in a third corner. He covers the slot receiver when they go to three receivers or more.

but who's better in the box, Curl or McCain? Because I think McCain all of the sudden has become a really good in the box safety too. I think curl's better in the box than McCain. I think I would much rather have curl in the box, and it must be a debate of would we rather have curl over the top or is it because we want to play different zones with McCain?

but to me it's Curl's more instinctual and quicker at reacting to throws underneath. Like one of the first downs they got on a third and eight or third and nine, something like that. It was a third and eight. You know, McCain's late driving on a ball and you get a first down. They were backed up at that time. You know, I don't think Curl gets beat that way. I think McCain's less instinctual underneath than Curl. But maybe the question is, you know, do you want to give up one or three?

two third and eight and potentially have a playmaker over the top or give up nothing over the top. I would, to me, it would be curl underneath. The other thing, too, is just, I think, you know, I think this is good coaching because they just made the decision that their best players are going to be on the field. Now, Holcomb's out, we understand that, but if Holcomb was here, they're still only playing two linebackers. They're playing three safeties every single defensive snap. every single defensive snap, Forrest, McCain, and Curl are out there. How many teams, just off the top of your head, play three safeties and play a safety as a linebacker? We know the hybrid position.

We understand the hybrid position. Landing Collins played a lot of it last year. But how many teams play that exclusively for every single defensive snap? app? I don't know. I think the thing the thing is that wasn't the intent. The intent was really to play St.

Jusuf's in the nickel and then let William Jackson go and you're saying is McCain better than Danny Johnson, Jeremy Reeves, Percy Butler, or Rashad Wildgustin, and... The answer is yes, clearly. The answer is that McCain is better. And so you are playing

three guys that are designated as safeties. But when they're playing three guys, he's a nickel-swatt corner. Yeah. Or he's a, you know, a buffalo nickel or a linebacker. I mean, this is the thing that Colin...

He's lining up. I give. I don't care what it says on paper if it says FS next to him. He's now an NB. Yeah, I mean, on first downs against you know, against 12 personnel. They're a linebacker. I mean, Curl is a linebacker.

McCain's a linebacker. You see it. It's a base 4-3 defense with three linebackers. You know, Davis, Bostic, and either Curl or McCain. You know, they're not playing a receiver at that point because you don't have the third receiver on the field. All right. Let's get to Heineke.

All right. Taylor, Heineke, Kev. You want to start with the good, the bad, which was limited. The misses. Where do you want to start? Wherever you want to fire this thing off. However you want to start. The overall, the overarching theme, what do you want to do here?

Whatever you want to do. It's up to you. All right. Here's the overarching theme on Heineke. 15 to 27, 191 yards. He didn't have to be special in this game. He really didn't have to do anything in the second half. One thing that I didn't love was that they didn't just put

it on Houston in the second half. Put it as what? I'm sorry. I didn't get that. But they didn't just put it on Houston in the second half. Right. You know, they would have had a ton of opportunities. It would have been a game. I think they could have had a ton of fun and probably put up 30 plus points. And really, they shut it down a lot in the second half. I mean, they had the couple

third and three and outs early, but to me, the way it was playing out was you had a lot of opportunities to get the ball down the field. Houston is not very good on either side of the ball, to be honest with you. I mean, they're terrible often. But, again, you're up 20 to 0 or 20 to 3

and you know Houston can't score. So what do you want to do? So essentially, this is mostly a Taylor Heineckee first half evaluation. It's pretty limited. But I have that, and we'll get to it. Well, that's fair.

I think you're right. I mean, I think they were definitely, they understood that there was literally no chance for Houston to score the 20 that they had scored in the first half unless they gave them the ball. You know, and they scored on defense. So they played it more conservatively. I hear you. All right. Go ahead. All right.

So I think this is this first completion. This is a big time throw. He throws a deep in that everyone calls a dagger, but it's a deep in route to Terry McLaren. I think they probably call it a four route the way it plays out. I think that's how they do. But he's in between the numbers and the hash. The safety in the middle of the field sucks up probably more than you'd expect him to.

But Heineke does a really good job getting this out in timing to not lead him into that safety. He's hung down there too long. And they get a big completion to Terry McLaren. right after that, he throws a great ball to John Dockson on a comeback to his left side. It's a 13-yard completion. This is awesome by Heineke, though, just subtly sliding left in the pocket to create just a little bit more time because Dotson's running, which should be, you know, an 18-to-20-yard comeback.

It takes a second to get that ball out and get that route run. And He just subtly just moves, slides in the pocket, and delivers a heck of a ball. It's a really good route by John Dotson as well. There's a second and five, and this is a little play, but I love this, and his offensive line loves this, and his coaches love this, 259 left in the second quarter. It's a second and five. There ends up being an illegal contact called Down the Field on Terry McCorn.

He sits there at about six yards in the pocket. He's looking at McCloren. He turns it down because McCorm is getting tackled 14, yards down the field and then stays just tight, compact, composed in the pocket and throws a crosser to Logan Thomas in the middle of the field. It's fucking

awesome, man. Tell you win games. And take out of account that it's a penalty. I think the play didn't even count. But if McCorn, he sees McCorn doesn't win, okay?

Yeah. Let's say McCorm falls down. It's just great D. Did you say $259 left in the second quarter? Yeah. I'm looking for that play. I want to see that play. But he just sits there, right?

Like he doesn't panic, he doesn't flush, he doesn't move. And one of the questions I have, to some extent on Heineke, but he's answering it more and more, is, and I wrote this down before I started any of this. does he have to scramble or go off script to work his third and four three? Or can he keep himself alive and keep himself composed in the pocket? And there are three or four times in this game that he proved exactly that. And this is one of them.

I think it was a second and five. It ends up being a four-yard completion. I don't think they get the first down. They take the illegal contact. But this is great. He throws a deeper corner route to Logan Thomas down to his on the left side. it's great. Again, subtle hop step left in the pocket

to create throwing lane and get himself away from trouble and then does a phenomenal job of flattening that ball to where only Logan Thomas can get it. And it's picture perfect how you want to throw and run a corner out. As Logan Thomas gets about 10 yards and he sets a higher angle up the field towards the corner and then he can come back down flat to get that ball and give Heineken opportunity, but it's a perfect ball.

I love that. Yeah, I know which one you're talking about. Go ahead. Sorry. Late in the second quarter, they go with a gun run action play. The Texans bring a blitz, and they bring a corner off the edge or a nickel off the edge, and Logan Thomas picks him up, and then they bring a backer in the middle of the field, and somehow Robinson ends up trying to help the guard on a detackle.

He's got a shot down the field in McCorm, but he understands he can't get that. that ball thrown. And Robinson never gets off. It's a free hitter for the linebacker coming up on Heineke's right side in the B gap. And he does this little jump back throw to get it to Logan Thomas again, short, takes a hit. Oh, yeah, I know what's right you're talking about. It's a huge deal. They don't always result in huge plays.

And I think this one ended up Logan got the run after the catch on this thing. but to be able to survive to take a look down the field, truly take the look down the field, and then, oh, I got to get rid of it, boom, jump back. He's really good at any, like, if you look at this one again, he could have sat there and just got blown up, but he's good at absorbing the contact, so he's not taking that big hit. Yeah.

He's an athlete. And I'm not talking about just physically athletic. he's just got really good you know coordination feel vision you know the ability to I mean you'd hate to be playing two-hand touch with him in the backyard

oh yeah he would do great at that Zorn drill where they swung the bats or the pool floaties at the quarterback right hit from Clorin deep right um in the back end

getting hit again later in the second quarter really, really good. By the way, that play, I thought was really, really interesting because I think they had a holding penalty on that, and so they had like a first and 20. And, you know, he threw something to Gibson short, but they were still like second and 15. And these are the down and, like unlike Monday night,

they did not have great down and distances in this game. You know, they didn't have this six third and ones, the four third and twos. and they overcame first and 20. And the throw I think you're talking about where he got nailed was a second and 14 throw. First down, move the chains. Big time throw, getting hit, and it's a strike to Terry.

Yeah. Another great corner out to Logan Thomas, 17-yard throw in a hurry-up situation. The old Apache, the Apache call. It was what I would have a gruden called it. Apache was their first. hurry-up code. He throws a dig at the end of the second half to

Simms down the field. This is one of my favorite throws in the game. And again, it's probably, I don't know, 15 to 18-yard completion to Sims. Houston's playing a soft shell defense, way soft. And it is, they're enticing in that hurry-up mode. They're just enticing the quarterback to throw the ball short and try to get out of bounds and get six yards

or see if we can tackle them and keep him inbound. And I love that he truly reads out and gets the second level throw and he makes a window throw to Sims instead of just taking the easy underneath throw. He does a great job looking at the underneath throw and holding that underneath coverage to make them move, moving the coverage to then create a window to throw the ball down the field to Sims.

It was really, really good. The rest of the good second half. there's a run action pass in the second half where he's got it he's also getting blown up he's got pressure in the face and he makes this nifty little side arm off the side of his body throw to Logan Thomas

um bait's got blown up on the protection and he's still a big completion to Logan Thomas uh and then one of the last things I wrote is a second 14 in the third quarter and he ends up scrambling for four yards I think he had a chance to throw

or it's a third and 14 I think he had a chance to throw it nope second 14 I think he had a chance to throw the ball down the field but it's like okay now we're going to be smart we're not going to force one we don't have to force one we're going to scramble for four yards

get to a third and ten they throw a screenplay that they end up getting to a fourth and one and Robinson gets the first down it's like okay let's just get us four or five to get into third and something that we can manage or third and something we can throw a screenplay. Let's not take a sack. Let's not get out of field goal range here. Let's just take the four yards that we can get. Now, I think he maybe missed a cornerout debate on kind of a honey hole type of throw. But the same time,

maybe that corner takes one step back, right? When he lets it go, fails, does a jump catch, you throw a pick. He was smart with the ball there. So I thought that was really good. I mean, ultimately, the good's pretty good for Heineke. He still makes, you know, several really good throws. But to me, with it's even better, he's really starting to show a lot of poison the pocket. Okay. The misses.

The bad, there's not a lot of bad in this game. Okay, the bad is really, I think, his first throw of the game. He throws a ball on a go route down the middle of the field or a theme route, to Terry McCloran down the middle of the field. It's off script. There's no way he's going to throw this. If Terry keeps running, Terry ends up kind of making contact with the defender at about 16 to 18 yards with the safety and then stops.

It could have been a pick. There's no doubt about that. But I don't think he can even get that. If Terry doesn't stop, I don't think he can throw it far enough. It had to be a 60-yard ball. I looked at it four or five times. if Terry just avoids which Heineki off script thinks he's going to. Right.

I don't think he's got the arm to get it down the field to McClorne. It's still going to be a jump ball. And I guess that's fine. Me and you were sitting here and we're coaching this team. You're like, hey, Terry's turned free 101 of the safety. If it's underthrown a little bit, who's going to get it? I think we're coaching the team saying Perry's going to get it. Right.

The fourth drive, he has a high-low read on his drive. side, ends up scrambling. I think he had a definite shot to throw a corner out again. He throws a bad ball on the opposite side to Dotson running a crosser, and this is an overthrow kind of off-script. Interception opportunity on this one as well. But I thought he did a really good job on that play to extend, to give him a chance to convert. He didn't have to. I guess where I think it's where I wrote it and misses is not that he's over Dostin as much as I think he has a chance to throw the corner up on his right side that he looked at. They have a keeper to the right side of the field, and it's a bounce ball to Terry McLaurin

on a 15-yard comeback or a run back to the ball on the back keeper. It didn't get enough on that ball. He has a zone read pull second goal in the second quarter. I'm not sure. if he went into baller mode or just he wanted to score. But you freeze frame that when he gets outside. You can freeze frame it into a V of five Texans defenders and then essentially only nine.

That's the first and goal play when it's, that was after he made that good dump off to Gibson to get down there. And then it was not a good read. By the way, if you notice that, that play, and I'm just pulling it up right now. So they do have Logan, you know, coming in motion as a blocker. So is it a zone read or is it a keeper all the way? It's a zone read.

Okay. So he's got Logan coming over to block for him. By the way, on a play that started with an unbalanced line, it looks like, to the opposite side. Yeah, they did unbalanced a couple times in this game. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that was a give. What about?

Yeah, yeah. That's a give all day. What's funny is he had another zone read later in the game in the third quarter that he probably should have pulled. You know, I understand it at that point where you're like, last time I pulled it and got out there, nine guys tackling me. You know, it's interesting on Friday we talked about and you said, look, there are four-three defense. You're going to see a lot more of Turner. You know, for all the people that have been saying, you got to get him outside, you got to move them, you got to move the pocket, you got to have some zone read. And you're like, well, you couldn't do that against Philadelphia.

And, you know, it was harder against Minnesota with those two outside players in Hunter and Smith. Well, we did get him on the move a lot more on Sunday. You were right about that. But what's interesting. It wasn't there, though. No, it wasn't. It wasn't there at all. By the way, I've got a question about that when you get to that, if you do.

But the Zone Read stuff, you know, they've had it in the offense. They had it last year. I think he makes a lot of bad decisions on read options. I don't think he reads it well. In fact, the team they're playing this weekend, Atlanta, last year in that Atlanta game, they had a couple of short-yarded situations, which were clear read options, and he made the wrong decision on two of them. on one of them he'd still be running

but the DN crashed down right into Gibson I think it was Gibson it may have been McKissick I forget and on this one it's definitely a keep the ball in Gibson's gut he runs into five guys

all right continue because I want to I want to hear about the third goal player you asked me to do some of the run game so I'll save a couple of zone read ideas for what they have in the run game but what about the third goal here where Logan Thomas, I thought if he gets rid of it with touch early, it's a touchdown. Did you see it that way or not?

Yeah, but here's the reason he can't. I did. And this is actually not a bad play. It is in the missed list. But they're running outside of Logan Thomas, and Logan Thomas is running a corner route, and it's really into cover two. If he gets rid of it, and he's got to ensure that the cornerback is going to take the five-yard out route. If the cornerback outside falls off, It's a pick.

I see what you're saying. So I think he does a really good job holding the corner and ensuring. And he's not, the way it's read out, he's not sitting there looking at the out route to throw the corner. Like if the cornerbacks sluffs off, he's throwing the out route. You're reading that corner as you would write number one on the corner. I got it. I got it. That's the reason.

Is the corner. Yeah. It had to be perfect is the thing. The ball just had to be absolutely perfect. Yeah, if he's the I think it's a miss and I think it could have come out an incident earlier and if he truly knew hey when they're in cover two

in the red zone that corner will hold on the out route he's going to I know it I've seen it he had to hold it just as not even a half a second too long which many couldn't really throw it with touch or Logan Thomas would have caught it out of bounds

right and that's that ball I mean, I've been in this offense. This is Al Sunder's. That's really a, what you call it, like a crash corner, like the corner is going to hard crash roll and hard crashed outside about 13 yards. That ball does not come on you with touch very often.

That ball's driven on you. Well, then it's just too high. Yeah, it's high. And if it's a millisecond earlier, it could have been driven on and where he could make the play. Right. Okay. I get it with the corner why he had to wait.

watching it initially I was like if that thing comes out with touch to that corner that's six and I thought he held it too long but you're saying he's got to hold the corner or the corner falls off there and it could be a pick yep got it a couple other and I mean he misses the throw in the third quarter on a third and two to bait it's an unbalanced offensive line they do the oh shit tight-in play Bates doesn't sell it long enough. And that's another one. He's got to make a tough throw across the field.

It's the other thing about it, if you can think of that play on a third and two and third quarter, it is a shitty gun run fake. You got to hold him longer, and that gun run fake is just not enough. Yeah. Yeah. Was it a tough throw? It's a miss, but it's a very tough throw. and it's also Bates

has got to delay it a little bit longer like when you really want to for the tight ends when you really want to do that oh shit play the best way to do is really step down and really try to block the deep tackle

inside of you hard enough that it makes you fall down you know and then you get up off his knee and run once defenders see a tight end fall down they disregard you to fall down you can even do it you can even do a belly roll you got tons of all it's a one-man show

it's you your job is to sell the job to sell the deal not great by basically I miss and then really or he fumbled a gun snap that hits in the hand not good right they kill the drive

and then there's a third and ten in the fourth quarter they're up 23 to three all right he's trying to really take a look down the field again Houston's very soft All he's got to, you just throw a swing To Gibson

Throw the swing He probably actually gets it on a certain 10 I mean I get it But the game's over You don't want to throw a pick If you throw the swing and he gets six You punt the game's still over Right

Like you're taking the token look down the field Is this the play where he just Where he comes off of it And throws to Turner incomplete Yes He throws incomplete to Turner because he was really, really looking hard down the field on the right side.

You can see that. And he's looking to make the throw down the field. And honestly, if it's a critical situation and he makes the throw down the field, I think he's got a shot. But in this situation, risky. I just think know where you're at.

You're the starter now. You don't have to make every throw and you don't have to make every play. And this is a great, trust the process throw. They take the token look. get it into Gibson's hands. Right. And they're going to be soft.

Maybe he makes one or two miss, and he gets a big-out. Yeah, because Gibson's the checkdown there, not Turner. Well, Turner's also a check-down. I know, but Gibson's the better option. Yeah, I would agree with that. And again, it should have just been quick. You know, before he gets too wide and doesn't have room, you take the look, you let the linebackers drop two to three,

yards and give some space to make a play. But I mean, overall, the other thing you look, like, there's some smart plays he makes to, you know, there are a couple keeper plays, like, everybody that wants just keeper, like, it wasn't there. You had to throw a couple of them away. There's a really smart throw in the second quarter. Keeper meaning bootleg for those that don't see it. I know, but Coley, here's my question about their bootlegs.

There isn't a hard sell on the run. No. Uh-uh. Why not? No, I hated, and I hated the way they set it up. Like, a couple of them are gun plays where you're really not holding guy. No. I mean, there's just not enough of, you don't see the ball.

The gun plays, you see the ball the entire time. Right. But I'm talking about under center. There's one or two. Under center, there's one or two. Where, instead of going with the hard zone action, and they run zone from under center. Right. They go with a fly switch motion, and they fake pitch to the fly sweep guy, and it's like,

I agree. Let them extend the ball and put it in their running back stomach and pull it. Yes. Hide the ball. Yeah. Why do they do it that way? I'm not sure, but, man, if I was a quarterback and we're going to go fake fly sweet pitch stuff, first of all, I wouldn't fake the pitch.

I would fake the, I would full fake the handoff. I'd delay my fly sweet motion just a little bit. So they really believe they're going to tackle the guy on the end of the line of scrimmage. He's not going to get the edge. But I would show the ball as a handoff, not fake pitch it. Totally agree. It did nothing. And it more like just use the fly sweep motion as a full decoy.

But this also gets into the point with some of the zone reads and stuff. Like you've got to show, you can't show misdirection in your run action path. Like we could run this way, we could fly sweep this way, but now we're booting this way. like no you want to show everything one way like if you don't hit the fly sweep that way you want the run action fake also going everything should be going left if you're going keeper right don't show

running back right fly sweep left because even if you've confused them you've confused them enough that you haven't moved them yeah I agree they're not displacing or moving guys in their keeper game no they well they didn't that's why the keepers the bootlegs didn't work because the defense wasn't flowing in the opposite direction when he came back the other way.

It's also why the Zone Reade stuff didn't work. And we talked about the one that he should have put in Gibson's gut in the third quarter. Well, they're running Samuel on fly sweep action to where he's going to pull it. And essentially, you drag another defender across the pool. Well, not on the one with Logan, not on the one with Logan Thomas pulling and leading the way on the block. There was no Samuel on that one. No, but they do this a lot. For directions, and it's...

You want to pull everyone out of where you want to go, in my opinion. No, I get it. I mean, it's funny because we've talked about this for three weeks running about getting them out on the edge, moving them. And they did do that, but I don't think that they're doing it the right way. Well, I shouldn't say that. On the bootleg stuff, it's just an odd way to run bootleg. Because to your point, you have to show like you're going to go outside zone, stick it in the back. back's gut and have everybody going one way and then come back the other way with, you know,

a short and a medium-level receiver. Okay. It's whatever. I mean, it's what, I watched the 49ers play the last couple weeks, and Kyle's running a lot of motion misdirection stuff and gun boot. It's not, it doesn't work the way Mike ran it. Mike was great tell Ron

sell this way tell them this way defenses are dumb that the players are not brilliant like if all action motion is going that way and then

you know then we're blocking it that way they'll go that way tell where to go I mean okay like a great example and this was a keeper

the first throw of the game that was an interception opportunity They're really trying to throw the 12-yard-in, or the dig, or what we always call the drive concept, the 12-yard-in away from run-fake. The run-fake is non-existent. So now the backers are dropping into that 12-yard-in. If you don't get them to step up a step, you can't throw a 12-yard in behind them. If they take one step up, you don't even look at them.

It's over. And I don't think that Heineke is a guy that you have to have see the whole play. You're afraid sometimes when they're turning their back to a play that they don't see it, but I think he's a guy that sees it. I mean, fuck, Robert Griffin through that that concept of the first play of the game, 83 times for 1,300 yards. You're just trusting that the run action is going to pull the backer. Right.

You've got to pull the backer. All right. Maybe he was going to keep it, but he's not going to drive on him. What else you go? I mean, ultimately, though, Heineke was, again, he was good. He was more subtly good. I think he was smart a lot of times, and I think he made great decisions throughout. I also think he's a guy that's tough to fool.

And you'd mention a quick throwout to Gibson in the flat later in the second quarter and a two-minute drill. That's a hot grow. Yeah. And he's got, he knows he's hot, and he's, boom, it's immediate. His decision process is anticipation, his understanding of what going on around him is excellent right now. Great. Great. Great.

Playing starter quarterback ball over the last few weeks. Great. B plus. Okay. That's where I was. B plus. Logan Thomas is pretty simple. I thought he looks way more fluid.

Like you can see South here. I had a much better ability to stretch the field and do what Logan does is vertically get down the field. And then really three of the catches were excellent hands catches or four. Oh, yeah, definitely. He went and made great catches for his quarterback. Hands catcher. He's got him way out there too. He's a nice compliment to what they're doing.

I mean, we talked about this early in the year and said, man, you got Kurtz Samuel and John Dotson and Terry McLauran. But really this offense right now is the way I look at it, aside from what you're doing in the run game and Gibson is Terry's one. Logan Thomas is probably too. Curtis Samuel is a great mix in with some of the reverse stuff and some of the niche stuff in third down situations, but he hasn't shown that he's

the true guy that you can deliver it to. And then Johan Dotson is they've got to continue to find ways to get him the ball, get him down the field. That's one step that I'd like to see is Dotson really developing as what he was at Penn State is as though a true vertical stretch of build

threat. Right. this offense has been better in so much that Terry McLaurin is now the primary receiver. It's crazy that it took him five weeks to figure out, hey, we're really good when he touches the ball 10 times a game. The rest of it opens up. Yeah, he only touched it four on Sunday, but still, they didn't need it anymore. Yeah, seven targets. Yep. Something like that.

Yeah. But yeah, Logan, Logan is a very nice compliment to what they're doing an offense. And I can say all I want, like, man, he's not a true one-on-one matcher problem. And he's not. But at the same time, I got to remember, I was in this office. Now, it's different the way some of it is, but this style offense, the Turner, the old school Gibbs, the Al Saunders,

is be where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there. That's Logan Thomas. Yep. All right. Finish it up with whatever I asked you to do. What was it, the run game and the action and all this? Oh, you want to talk about the run game. Here's the first thing I like about the run game.

I'm still, I'm not sure why it's not more Gibson. I agree. And obviously, I understand that it was more Gibson. Yeah, Sunday was. He had 18 carries to Robinson's 15 carries. and it's again, it's a it's a run game that gets 3.8 yards for carry against a defense that's giving up the run

pretty easily. It was a resett and I said this to you Friday. Rint to repeat and essentially you're going to utilize the same run game and you're going to disguise it with different formations and motions. That's exactly what they did. I mean, they run inside, outside zone, they compliment with some counter stuff. They ran less counter stuff because

the 4-3 defense is not a defense that you run as much counter. It's hard to get guys up to the linebackers when you're running a lot of pullers. So you're against a true 4-3, I'm going to be way heavier as a zone run team, especially when I run a lot of zones.

And that's really what they did. I think it was a really nice compliment to mix in Samuel on a couple of those. low-fly sweet plays to mix in some of the reverses. They had a drive where they went two reverses, you know, within the Phantom Chloria.

Four plays. Those plays aren't always going to get you a ton of yards. Sometimes they will. But it's great when you use that motion and that stuff to always have it viable. We got to account for it. They can do it. I think that the running backs miss some stuff. You know, I think that Gibson missed a couple.

in the second half of this game that really he could have had better runs. One, on a second and two, which I don't think he got, he misses a front side hole that's really easy,

easily there, and he doesn't just hit it hard. There's a zone play for you or for anyone, they had a 10-yard shovel on a first and down, first and 10, to Samuel

or a shovel play. The next play, they run outside zone left. They bring both tight ends to the left side, and they run the outside zone left. Gibson stretches it all the way to the edge of the outside zone, and it's almost a no game. This is the most defined cutback for eight yards of all time.

Like, you're running outside zone until you can't get outside, well, he's never getting outside. Right. The cutback was there all day. I just hit the fucking cut or hit the cut back I'm gonna find that play I want to see that because

this is some of the stuff that PFF said you know last year why they didn't grade him as high and I thought he got better at it and you said you know his his rookie year that he he's missing a lot he doesn't have a feel for it which there's a second two the first one is a second and two there's seven minutes and 18 seconds in the third quarter

he gets a one-yard game. I think he has a miss in that particular play. Okay, I'll find it. You keep going. The next one is a first and ten with two minutes in the third quarter. It's a negative four-yard run play. I think it's potentially at eight to ten-yard run play, where it's open to make that cutback,

and the cutback should have been early, have been easily defined to him. I still think his ability to bounce runs and outrun the defense is awesome. I thought early in the game, you know, he does sea lanes and he hits things hard. And I like when you just make a decision and hit it hard, it's amazing when you're coaching young backs. Like make the decision, trust it, hit it hard, and more times than not, you're on that second level making plays. And then I would say when I watch both these backs, the biggest difference, right now is at contact or near contact.

Gibson's making a cut, a move, lowering his shoulder. He is going to be the decision maker at contact. He's going to make the decision for the defense. Robinson's pausing too much at contact. Like, can I do something else here? No. He makes it work, and he's going to get three or four yards at times because he's strong enough that he absorbs the contact a little bit,

and then he's able to drive. But until he is more decisive at that moment of contact or moment at the second level, he's not going to get big runs. Right. He's got to be more decisive. You have a nice run on the fourth and one, the offset deal, where he bounces it out to the left,

but he didn't even have to bounce that on fourth and one. It opened up that he could have just drilled it up in the hole. What do you think about Samuel as a runner? So I like Samuel as a runner as a mix-in runner. I like being able to mix in Samuel. I like that compliment of, are we going to use him out of the back field as a receiver? Is he a back?

What are we going to do with him? How are you going to play coverage? They don't use it enough that it's, if I'm coordinating against it, it's not enough that it's going to scare me to death. I think he made a couple decisions. a fly sweep early in the game that he could have got to be outside, but he cuts back and gets less yards.

He does have the nice fly sweep or whatever he had on the touchdown run. He makes a really good cut there and sets up Leno to really bounce it outside. It holds them long enough. But if you're going to give a receiver a ball two to three times a game, he's not always going to make the right decisions as a runner. Okay. He's not going to be as fluid and have that feel as a runner. And I always defer to Clinton Portis on this.

This was Clinton's standby is, and if you're not going to continue to get me carries, I'm not going to get into a feel of a game. So you've got to get him into the feel of a game. But what's funny is the Gibson's, I thought two worst runs were after he had quite a few carries in the first half. Yeah. So.

Okay. I mean, good stuff. Do you have anything else in your notes that you want to mention? I don't have anything else in my notes that I want to mention, but the last thing that I want to mention is really what, to me, indicative of a good football team is a team that soundly beat the team that they're better then. They didn't have to do anything crazy. They made plays that they had to make.

They played excellent defense, and they soundly beat. Houston. Watching the game and watching the film and watching everything. Jonathan Allen had a sack somewhere in the middle of the third quarter. I wrote, while I was watching the game, game over. It's done. The game was over. I thought it was over in the first quarter.

You never know. Oh, God, they... Cover over, third quarter, the cover was over to. Yeah, right. Is that fair to you? If I would text you right there. No, I mean, I... Dick Washington minus, it's over.

You'd have said, oh, no, it's never over. No, no, no. That one, and I talked about this Monday, every once in a while as a football fan, we're all football fans. You get this sense. There's no chance for the other team. And I felt that way after Houston's second or third offensive drive. And it was seven to nothing on the Fuller pick six.

And the offense, by the way, had done nothing at that point. You know, they had punted three times. So I, but I still thought there's just no chance because Houston's not going to be able to move the football. Not against Allen and pain and sweat. I mean, it was a mismatch up front. I think that's the one thing as a football fan, especially in games in which there is a clear underdog.

You know, like I'll give you an example. Like with Maryland this year against Big Ten teams, I'm always looking when they play Penn State or Wisconsin as an example. I'm always looking at the line of scrimmage early in the game. And you can tell if they're completely overmatched. And if they're overmatched there, then it would be a fluke for them to win the game or have a chance to win the game. Now, they actually had a chance to beat Ohio State last week. I watched that game. I know.

It was the most watched game of the weekend. I just read that earlier today. But this one... That was insane, though. I know. They had the ball in midfield down three. The crazy thing was they stopped Ohio State early. Yeah.

They had them on the ropes early because Ohio State couldn't score. I mean, when the fourth quarter, you're like, every time Ohio State touched the ball, they're going to score. I know. Ohio State was down to their third string running back, too, and he was great. But in this game, it was just defense versus their offense. it was a total mismatch up front. A total mismatch.

I wonder what it'll be against Atlanta. Why don't we talk about that on Friday? What are you doing for Thanksgiving? I'm watching football. All right. We're doing Thanksgiving at our house with a couple friends. Oh, here's my other question I wrote down. I had one other question for you today.

I know you're leaving. No, it's okay. Did you watch the Illinois Penn State game or Illinois Michigan game? I did. How does Illinois not take a time out? in that game. Well, they were... First of all, so there was a catch late in the game from Michigan that wasn't a catch.

They challenged, or it was looked at, and they called it a catch. It wasn't a catch. Well, they missed the... But they let the clock run all the way down, and then Michigan's still trying to take a shot late, but how do you... You had one time out left if you're Illinois with like 38 seconds left, and it's a third and six. Take the time out. Yeah.

I think I know what you're doing. Look, I was watching the game, but I was at a... sports bar in Dallas with all of my son's TCU friends watching the TCU game. You were not doing. You were not doing Kevin. You were not doing Kevin. The CCU game was insane too. Exactly. But the play that they missed was the offensive pass interference on the fourth and three. That was ridiculous. And that's where the Illinois coach Brett Bielmo went nuts after the game. Basically saying the league's rigged. Your time management is so, you're such a stickler, so I figured you to do you to watch.

Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Enjoy. Enjoy your family, buddy. You enjoy yours and I'll talk to you on Friday. Thanks. Let it. All right. I will finish up the show with a couple of smell test picks right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, just two quick smell test picks to finish up the show today for Thanksgiving Day. They are brought to you by my good friends at MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. use my promo code Kevin D.C. And there's a holiday offer from MyBooky that I want to just quickly explain to you. On a deposit of $50 or more using my promo code, Kevin D.C., you can receive a 10% cash bonus all the way up to $2,000. So if you deposit $2,000, you're going to get a $200 cash bonus.

That's $200 for your money. you and you only have to play through once your initial deposit. It's a cash in, cash out opportunity at MyBooky. Again, use my promo code Kevin D.C. It's on a deposit of $50 or more, up to $2,000. You're going to get a 10% cash bonus and you only have to play through one time on your initial amount. Remember what I've said to you about My Booky in the past. Fair point spreads, fair totals, fair money lines, and fair pricing. You get paid when you win, too. Go to my bookie.ag for this latest offer. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All right, six, three and one last week. So the winning weeks continue. I think that's seven out of the last nine weeks with two

of the weeks that didn't win. I think one of them was a 500 week. I've got two plays for Thanksgiving day and then I'll be back on Friday with the rest of the weekend picks. I like Mississippi State tomorrow night in the Egg Bowl. They're getting two and a half by the half point, get it to three and take Mississippi State against Ole Miss. Lots of Lane Kiffin discussion about him perhaps leaving Oxford to head to Auburn. Mississippi State's capable. This is a great rivalry game.

Ole Miss has lost two in a row. That eight and one start now is eight and three. I'll take the short number with the public backing Ole Miss and take Mississippi State tomorrow night plus the three. In the NFL, I like the Patriots. They're getting two and a half by the half point there, get it to three. Minnesota last week took the worst beating that we've seen, and most of you would say, well, Sheen, you always say, you know,

you don't go with what you've recently seen. You go with the opposite of what you've recently seen. Yeah, but New England only scored 10 points and a 10 to 3 win over the Jets. The public likes Minnesota in this game. They view that number to be a short number. And the truth is the matchup is not a good one for the Vikings. You know, they got scored on Sunday on seven consecutive drives to open the game. Six of them, you know, on full-length fields.

You know, it wasn't like there were a lot of turnovers. the fumble that Parsons got cousins on on the opening drive. After that, six drives. So seven in total that they scored on, and Minnesota's really banged up along their offensive line without Christian Darry saw their best offensive linemen their starting left tackle. And Matthew Judon leads the league in sacks with 13.

The Patriots defense is good, really good. So Michael Parsons kind of wrecked Minnesota. on Sunday, and Judon might do the same thing tomorrow night. I'm not, you know, despite my, you know, certain, you know, fondness for one, Kirk Cousins, I've said all year, I don't love this team. I think they're good. I think they'll be in the postseason. I think they're going to win the NFC North, but I thought they were much better offensively

last year. They need to get stops, which it'll be easier against New England. And then they're going to have to move the football a little bit against a defense that is first rate. They got Dallas last week. They get New England tomorrow night. They get the Jets next week. I mean, you're talking about three of the best defenses in the league in a row with a banged-up offensive line. I like New England tomorrow night.

I think Minnesota is at a point here in the season where they're going to struggle a little bit. They're going to come back to Earth. I think they'll end up being in the postseason as the NFC North champion with probably, you know, 10, 11 wins somewhere. around there, but they're going to be a candidate to exit quickly once we get to January. If they don't figure out that O line and if they can't figure out how to stop teams, they can move the football. There you go. Mississippi State plus the three, buying the half point, New England plus the three tomorrow night.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I appreciate so much that you listen to this podcast and support the podcast. I hope you have a great holiday. tomorrow. I'll be back on Friday with Cooney.