The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley & Gruden Assess The Damage

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Cooley and Kevin start the show together recapping the debacle last night at Fed Ex Field. Former Redskins Head Coach Jay Gruden then jumped on for his weekly appearance to give his thoughts on the Commanders' 40-20 loss to the Bears. A preview of the weekend's biggest NFL games with Jay also. Kevin has eleven "Smell Test" picks and a few thoughts on Maryland-Ohio State to finish up the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Ron, you mentioned it last night that you'll review everything and look to make necessary adjustments. At this point, do you expect that to include any changes to the staff? No, no.

What, game five, we've got 12 left to play. There's plenty of football left. Ron Rivera, moments ago, he's not firing anybody, not today, anyway. No staff changes, and as far as we know, he's got his job for now as well. What a debacle last night. I put out right after the game a 45 minute or so post-game recap. That's available all weekend long wherever you get this podcast. Coolie's on the podcast here with me today.

He will jump on in about a minute. Jay Gruden after that, and then I'll finish up the show with my smelt. test and talk a little bit about Maryland's game tomorrow at Ohio State. The show, as it is every day, is presented by Window Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com. Mention my name. They'll take good care of you. They've got their best deal of the year going on right now. You buy two windows. You get two free with no limit. So if you need 20 windows, you're only going to pay for 10 of them. And then you don't have to put any money down. You won't make any payments and no interest for two years. So by the time you start making your payments,

it's the year 2025 and you're paying half price on the windows. Windonation.com or 86690 Nation. So Cooley is with me here to start the show following last night's embarrassing, humiliating, 40 to 20 loss to Chicago. That was some fun, wasn't it? That was a phenomenal game. I mean, really solid play across the board. It seemed well prepared.

It seemed like they had them ready to go, rock and roll, you know, off the bat. You had them. It was embarrassing. You took the bears, right? I took the bears outright. Of course you did. I love it.

I had them plenty. six. I wanted to take them earlier in the week plus seven. I did not take them on the money line. And I typically would, as you know, but I just these Thursday night games are so unpredictable and I wanted

Washington to win like, you know, a three I wanted them to win 24, 21, 2320, something like that. And call it a day. But that was easy for sure. Do you think, as you were, did you watch the whole or did you bail at any point?

Oh, no, I sat and watched the whole game. We watched it and had dinner at the bar with three or four buddies. So you're watching it without sound. But we sat there and drank beers and watched the entire game. It stayed fairly interesting until the end. Tell you got to the conversation we had two weeks ago, which is you are really not down two scores. down 16.

Right, right. But you really are only down two scores. Well, no, what you're saying is, down 16, when you hear people say, they're down two possessions, down two scores, no, they're more likely down three scores, because you're not more likely than not going to make both two-point conversions. But you watched and stuck it out to the end and you said it got interesting. I think it got very interesting. I think the missed field goal was the end of the game.

But if he had made it, I think Washington's got a legitimate chance to win the game. And maybe at that point, down seven with five minutes to go, having dominated the second half, and to me, Chicago looked like they were gagging. They were trying to run the clock out starting late third quarter. I think they would have won the game. I think it's very possible they would have gotten a stop, gone down the field. And by the way, let's just play out the hypothetical. He makes the field goal 30 to 23.

They get the stop. They're driving down the field. And with 18 seconds to go, they score touchdown. It's 30 to 29. Do you go for two or not? No. Me neither. Why wouldn't you?

If you just mounted, first of all, this is so dumb. It's not even close to what happened, but if you just mounted, an unprecedented comeback against the Bears, so you're a much better team then. I think you should be able to stop. Why would I risk it on one play? I really, truly at that point, feel like I'm going to beat the Bears in overtime. It's interesting a week ago with the Eagles, because it's a phenomenal team,

and you've got to continue to play really good ball. I think they should. I'm beating the Bears in overtime, Kev. It's going to happen. Yeah, I know. I'm with you. I mean, at that point, like, the reason I thought if he made the field goal, they were going to come back and tie the game or have a chance to tie the game is, you could see the Bears.

They were gassed. They were losing players left and right. They were, they had blown a 28 to 7 lead on Sunday against Denver, and they saw the whole thing, you know, repeating again in front of them. And then, you know, he missed the field goal. Many of you, by the way, said to me, it was not a good snap. And I said it was a good snap. Okay.

It wasn't a bad snap. It wasn't a picture perfect snap, but it was a picture perfect hold. I mean, he didn't miss the kick because the snap was just a tiny bit high. it was a 46. They function with a bad snap all the time. Right. That was not a bad snap. Some people were, I said last night, I said,

good weather, good snap, good hold, crap kick. And people, I had a couple of people say, dude, go back and watch it again. It was not a good snap. I watched it five times. It was a little bit high and a little bit inside, but it was totally handleable. easy to handle by Tressway, and he got it down in rhythm, the dude missed the kick.

And at that point, they had the Bears, believe it or not, on the ropes a bit. They did. But they didn't deserve to win the game. They didn't deserve that actually have a chance to win the game. So let's start there. Your big overarching theme from the 40 to 20 loss last night to the Bears was, what? My big overarching theme is something I read this morning. And it's, it's, was Ron Rivera's job in trouble this year? Is it in trouble? He's got a great reputation. He's just never had

great success, especially in Washington. It's like, this is why. You just, you can't lose these games, you can't get down early of these games to the Bears. It's like if you're a good team, win these games, if you're a good team consistently find these ways, like, they can be, but they're not. There's just, there's a lack of consistency.

And I understand the problems. You know, I understand where they're at with a lot of stuff, but geez, Kev, the overarching theme is, who are they? You got run by the Bears early in the game.

Started out with a third and nine and DJ Moore, who just tore them up the entire game, is getting deep down the field. There's an ugly game against the team that I think that they're much better than. I thought Phil played well. I thought DJ Moore was electric, but I thought Washington was garbage. By the way, are they going to stop giving up 30 points to the game? Are you going to give up 30 points to the Bears? Are they going to consistently try to run the ball?

Because I don't think they ran the ball after some point. in the second quarter. 55 consecutive offensive snaps, I think I read, without a called run. It's got to be an NFL record. I don't know if it is or isn't. But that's, you know. I mean, the Patriots did that on purpose for a few years.

Yeah. The Patriots would do that. It's got to be a record. That's unbelievable, really. Yeah. So here it is. Washington called 55 consecutive pass plays without a run from early in the second quarter until the end of the game. The longest passing streak in the PFF era. Oh my God.

So there you go. But, you know, they really should have stuck with the run because Brian Robinson, Jr. had 10 yards on six carries. I There's honestly, it's not a relevant stat Six carries Six carries 10 yards

Yeah I mean The other thing is with a young quarterback In a short week Getting him ready To throw 55 balls I mean he must have came off the field And said no I'm really seeing the defense right now

I'm really I'm feeling this defense. Put the ball in my hand, coach. So, all right. So it starts with, it starts with this. They were not prepared to play the game.

And I know that fans, and I'm one of them, will use descriptions like, you know, they're flat, they came out flat, they were unprepared, the whole thing. Last night, I really felt, the lack of energy, the lack of urgency. And to me, it showed up in a lot of places,

but where maybe somebody who's a fan can tell more than anything is tackling how many people are running towards trying to tackle somebody. It just looked lethargic from the beginning. And you played in some of these short week games. How many Sunday to Thursday games did you play in during your career? Oh, it had to be seven or eight or ten. It had to be a few. So what's the biggest challenge in getting ready from a Sunday afternoon game

and then getting ready for a Thursday night game? I think it depends on where you are. For me, mentally, it wasn't the biggest challenge to try to understand what we were going to do and how we were going to operate and understand our playbook. but, you know, against Philly last week, a tough game that they fight till they end, and getting my body ready is a big challenge for the Thursday game. Right. You know, it was most weeks.

Once I got into the season, that Wednesday was a, man, I'm sore today at practice still. Like, I got to run off some of the soreness. It wasn't rushed. It was like, jeep, I just, ugh. that's how I feel and by Thursday I started to feel okay and normally it was Friday that I felt really good

it was about that much time into the week that I felt really pretty good the bruises kind of went away and the stiffness and the lethargicness of my body started to go away some of the quick twitch came back and so for me it was

the preparation for the week They're early in the year, so I don't know if we're tired, stiff, sore. It sure didn't affect the bears. No, it didn't. What I'm getting at is, is it fair to put a lot of getting the team ready from a mental standpoint, from a physical standpoint, from a game plan standpoint, is it fair to put a lot of that on the coach and the staff? I think it's 100% fair to put a lot on the coach, a lot on the staff. And I think there are a lot of ways that you can approach a Thursday night game,

knowing you've got a Thursday night game at this point in the season. There's a lot of preparation that you can do preseason for this. You know, you can start to put together a tentative game plan for what you're going to do against the Bears on Thursday night. So you're not finishing Philly, driving back into the facility, and just crushing game film all night and trying to find a plan and trying to find it. You can have this early.

You can have a pre-prep in July for what you're going to do against the Bears. Obviously, things can change. But you have a concept. I mean, you can, like, I know who Iberflus is or whatever it.

I mean, I know he's going to do defensively large in part. You liked him as a defensive coordinator in Indianapolis. I remember that. I thought he was terrific in Indianapolis and I thought he did a really good job. But a really smart,

staff, I think, manages getting a game plan for a Thursday night. And the other aspect of it is a game plan, was the plan there, was what they wanted to do there, was it not executed? I mean, it's hard to say on some of that stuff. Did you not get them hyped up? I don't know. Did they practice? Did they have a tough day of practice? Because I hated a tough day of practice in a short week.

Yeah. I mean, I just wanted to just walk through. I just I felt like from the jump this was a team that wasn't ready to play the game as much as I can describe it that way again the way I said it lethargic

tackling was terrible I mean Khalil Herbert on one play carried like six guys eight yards I mean and you know so let me just let me start with a couple things

So you don't know this because we haven't been talking this week. But earlier this week I did this segment on the radio show where I asked everybody their level of concern about the defense. And it was zero concern. If you were a zero-five, you were, you know, five alarm. And most people were very concerned. And I said, I'm a zero point five. I think they just played a really good effing team. I'm a little bit concerned about the secondary, which I'm a little bit concerned about the secondary,

which I was after Philadelphia. They just played Josh Allen the week before, and you cannot put that loss on the defense. The offense turned the ball over five times and got sacked for like 100 plus yards nine times. And I said, I think it'll come around. I'm still confident in it. I was a little bit, you know,

I'm still a little bit with respect to the defense upset that we don't have an absolute havoc wreaker out there, but I like pain as a player. I like John Allen as a player. I like sweat as a player. I think Chase Young played well last night. Not thrilled with the backers, but I thought the safety's coming in would be okay.

I like St. Juice in particular. But I was wrong. Okay, let me just start. I should have been more alarmed when I did this. Hey, Kevin, what's your concern on a scale of zero to five, five being a five alarm fire with Washington? defense right now. Right now, certainly a four. I'm at a, I may. He went from a 0.5 to a 4 in the span of two days. You know what? It's such a fan. But I also want to just mention because those that are

listening know that I talked about this all week and I really talked about it with Tommy yesterday. I watched that Denver-Chicago game and I said, I don't think you guys realize. Chicago's got some dudes on offense. DJ Moore is a high-level number one wide receiver in this league. Cole Commet is a developing big-time pass-catching tight end. They're running back Herbert has great vision. They've got other speed players on offense. Mooney is actually shifty and fast.

And if you haven't watched Justin Fields enough to know that he is capable of making a lot of big plays. Also, by the way, making some bad plays. But I just said, they, to me, for three quarters against Denver, but they looked awesome. And I thought that there was a chance that Chicago's best defense was going to be their offense last night. Because what was also really obvious in watching Chicago is they had the worst defense in the league coming in, and they were missing multiple players in their secondary. But with all that said, I was wrong.

I did not really, I didn't hit the alarm after Buffalo in Philly. There's no reason I should have done it after Buffalo. Sorry, I'm not backing away from the fact that the defense was not the problem against Buffalo. And in fact, they played okay. They held them to 16 points. It was defensive touchdown in short fields and just, and they played great against Arizona. You didn't watch the Arizona game. They totally took over the Arizona game and did the kind of things that we hope this defense was capable of doing, which was take over a game.

But they were not good against Philadelphia. And last night was humiliation at the highest level. And I think I talked about this on my post game pod last night, but what's really alarming about last night was as much the secondary was alarming. But they gave up 5.6 yards officially per carry, 178 yards rushing. But they gave it up to, you know, the starting running back Herbert who left the game, Roshan Johnson from Texas, the rookie who left the game. They had their backup, they had their fullback in there playing halfback in the late third quarter and fourth quarter. And he's the one that brought the average down to 5.6.

Khalil Herbert averaged 7.6 yards per carry. Roshan Johnson averaged 6.3 yards per carry. What's really in kind of almost hindsight, the most alarming part of the defensive performance last night wasn't that people were running wide open because DJ Moore's good and Justin Fields off schedule is great and they didn't get them off schedule for a lot of that. But they got gashed, gashed in the run game.

And I just, I thought that they got run on a little bit in the first two games of the year, but I thought they did a good job stopping the run against Philly last week. I thought Buffalo's yardage on the ground pretty much was the quarterback on scrambles. And then in the fourth quarter, Buffalo doesn't want to run the ball. Fourth quarter, you know, Dalvin Cook's brother ended up with a bunch of big runs, but that game was 37 to nothing at that point. I just, I can't believe how. bad they were overall, but how they completely couldn't stop the run.

They had a third and nine and a third and ten draw for two draws for first downs. I know. So, look, for me, you know, my game take, which I did last night, I'm going to do, you know, another version of it here. the defense was one, two, and three as to the reasons they lost the game. Just like the Buffalo game, you can say the defense played badly, but the offense was reason one, two, and three why they lost that football game. Last night was humiliation by a team that wasn't as good as Philly or Buffalo,

nowhere near it, but capable offensively, but nowhere near Philly in Buffalo. And they got completely torched, embarrassingly. torched. They gave up 304 yards in the first half. At half time, here are the numbers at half time in the first half. These are embarrassing numbers for an NFL team to have at half time defensively. Chicago had 307 yards, excuse me, 27 points. They were six of nine on third down, and they had 14 first towns. And you know what? It could have been a lot worse. Fields missed a couple.

It looked like a free-for-all. Fields could have, he missed a couple of throws. There was a PI clearly on St. Juice on Mooney in the end zone that they didn't call. The first play of the game was a deep shot to Mooney that misses,

but if you go back and watch it, Fuller hooks him should have been called for it. And then, you know, I had some people telling me, well, you know, they played my, much better in the second half. I think Philly, I think Chicago took their foot off the pedal. I think they were trying to run out the clock.

And they were hurt. And they were hurt. Terrible. It was really, it was really bad. And I don't know what, it's not, it is not a bad defense. Let's just put it that way. Talent-wise, it is not a bad defense. So they have the dude. So what's the issue? Is it coaching? Yeah, it's coaching and playing.

I mean, it's also playing with concerns. I mean, I'm not, it's a lot different when you're in a locker room to understand what the issue is, but I'll bet you, I'll bet you right now. I would bet on this. There's about 25 players motherfucking what happens in their week and their game plan and their coaching staff. And there's about seven coaches going, these guys just don't get it. Right. Is what I would bet you is happening right at this moment. I bet there's just every dude in that locker room pointing a finger somewhere.

Because both sides understand. The players understand that they're good players. The coaches, I'm assuming they think they're good coaches. And I know they know they have good players, but, man, these dudes just don't listen. There's a huge disconnect between coaching and playing. And I'm not sitting here putting it on either side, but I think it's probably on bowl. I think we need to figure something out. So let me mention something to you and to everybody that's listening.

It's just something that I was told. This isn't any kind of a report at all. It's just something that I was told is that the secondary very much misses Chris Harris, who was their secondary coach left in the offseason to become the defensive pass game coordinator and the cornerbacks coach in Tennessee working for Vrable. And in his place, Jack Del Rio put Brett Vistelmeyer. Vesemeyer apparently has a relationship with Del Rio.

Del Rio likes him, and this has been a big part of why they've got issues in the secondary. Is that a lot of the secondary players, a lot of people out there believe that they really miss Chris Harris. So I'll ask you, can you really miss a position coach that much where it really makes a massive difference in your play in the secondary? No. You got to really dislike a dude. I don't know that they dislike them. I think there were a few relationships that I saw in our locker room

with guys that I knew that really didn't like a couple coaches. and oddly enough, it was more times than not in the secondary. You really got to not trust the techniques you're being taught and not believe in what they're... I don't know. The crazy thing when you watch the game, though, too, with the secondary, and some with Philly, I mentioned this last week with Philly. A lot of plays that DJ Mord made are contested throws.

like Kendra Fuller trying to jump something and just not getting there and that DJ Moore's running I mean I don't see this as a like consistently where were you covering because I thought you were covering there

and now he's behind us it's guys just getting beat a lot of guys getting beat they are where they're supposed to be or they're trying to make a play in that situation but they're not making the play the other thing with some of the risk taking It's like, hey, this is a game that, like, let's make fields beat us over and over and over again.

Like, don't take risks. Don't get out of position jumping for a ball. You know, let's make him consistently make throws. He's got to make throws. We'll tackle. Can't give up six on big plays. And they just, they kept doing it. Yeah.

They're not. I don't know how much Tampa 2 they're in. Did you notice, though, early on? and I haven't gone back and watched the game yet. I don't even want to. But have you noticed, did you notice early on that their pass rush really wasn't a pass rush? It was more of a contain rush

where they just didn't want him to get outside of the pocket, which is one of the reasons he had so much time in the pocket off play action or non-play action. Like that first drive, if you go back and watch that first drive, it's like the defensive front really isn't rushing. they're just making sure that he doesn't get loose. And then it changed, and they started to rush, and they started to actually at times bring extra rushers.

Not a lot of the time. And they actually, you know, they sacked him three times and had him dead to write two or three other times. But he's, you know, he's pretty good at escaping. So is Sam Hal. Sam Hal got sacked five times in the game. It could have been 10. I mean, how many times did he escape from what appeared to be an absolute sack?

More than five. More than five. It's a lot. I think it could have been 14. I don't know about that. You expect your quarterback to escape some. They also gave, what, three or four times? They had a free rusher? Yeah.

Three unblocked rusher? Yeah, they did. He got hit a couple times. I think he shook one of them. In thinking about the short week stuff, another thing that I would really try to do is have a blitz package with some stuff that you just don't have time to prepare for. It is hard to prepare for a blitz package from another team if they're going to bring a bunch of different looks. It's hard to probably install a blitz package as well in a short week. But again, it's something maybe you work on earlier.

You work on some of this in training camp. We'd be like, hey, we're going to hold a couple of these, but we want to be ready to roll when we unveil our new blitz package on Thursday night. But it's hard to really get your line to how we're going to block it this week. There is some complications with that in a short week. All right. So let's get to our joint game take here. What did we used to call it, uh, is and ms? Do you have any?

Well, yeah, this is called the is. There's a lot of us. There's not many mums. Not many of those. I'll give you something that I kind of liked from the game. I like Logan Thomas. I think he's a good player. I know he's not a good blocker.

I think he's a good, big target. He fumbled going for extra yardage last night, understood. I think he is a guy that they really value highly. And he had nine catches on 11 targets. One of those catches was at the end of the first half. I'll get to that here. shortly for like 24 yards. But I wanted to start with him because I know that you have not been fond of Logan

Thomas as a blocker. But what do you think of... I'm not that disappointed in his blocking. We have been in the past. Fond him as a blocker is of little importance right now in terms of how people value a tight end. Fair. In what in the world we're at here in the NFL.

Yeah. I mean, he's developed into a guy that, has a really good hands. And I think he's developing into a guy and is a guy that knows where he needs to be, has a good relationship with this quarterback, and is a great safety blanket. He's not a one-on-one winner. He doesn't have enough to create real one-on-one separations. But he's, you know what you're getting out of him, and he'll make plays. I like Logan Thomas. Okay. I do. He's really developed into a good player.

I mentioned last night on the list of things that I liked, you know, ums. I thought, and I prefaced with, prefaced it with, I mean, it was a dreadful defensive performance, but I thought Chase Young actually made a lot of plays and looks really healthy and explosive again. I thought sweat and pain made some plays. and yet they got gashed on the ground. And I know that's not all them. It's their linebacker play, which isn't very good. But those are the players that I thought, you know, were worthy of mentioning.

I also thought that Curtis Samuel played well. Sitting here just going through some of the game on the condensed game. I'm at that pick right at the end of the half. Yeah. Well, save that for the... Okay. Do you have any... Was there anything from the game that you liked?

Some of the good stuff. Yeah. I still like how. Right. The guy can make plays. He makes things happen. I mean, he's not going to be perfect all the time. I'm not suggesting that he is the franchise quarterback

and that he's going to be the next Peyton Manning or the next Drew Brees. I'm not saying he's not either. I think that's really lofty. But what I do see in Howe is the ability to move in the pocket, escape in the pocket, throw the ball on the move, throw the ball from the pocket, accurately throw the ball. I think he's got some zip on it. I like his arm. I do.

I'm not. I steal him in how. He's 37 of 51 in this game for 388 yards. They didn't run the ball. he's got one pick which you said we're going to get to, which is we will get to, which is an air, but I don't even know if that's on, to me, that's not even on the quarterback, just so we're clear on that. I put that on the receiver.

But I do, I do like Howell. He's, to me, is a, in this game. It might be the only one. And I know you like Chase Young. I feel like Chase Young played well. And like, there's really, there were a reason. resilient enough to get themselves in the game in the second half where if they make a field goal, it becomes really interesting.

Really, really interesting. But I mean, terrible snap, so. Not a bad snap. Again, I know that we're further into the podcast. Perfectly fine snap. Perfectly fine. We're further along. In case you jumped ahead of the conversation about the snap earlier, I didn't have Sam

on either one of my things I liked list or things I didn't like, but I did say last night, and I'll say it again right now. There are just some things in watching him now for five weeks that I like too. I'm far from, you know, coming to any conclusion. And I would still bet against him being, you know, an upper echelon starting quarterback in the NFL more likely than not. But I love his toughness. I love his ability to, you know, make plays and be tough off schedule. All of the stuff actually that we said about Taylor Heineke, but there's a big difference. Sam Howell can really Oh, of course he is. He can really throw it. And he can throw it with zip. He can throw it with touch. That touch pass down the sideline to Gibson. We know we saw one last week against Philly. He

threw a beautiful touch pass into a zone hole against a to Terry last night. He also, I think has gotten much better. And I give Eric B. Enamey some of this credit. They've gone to, like they did Sunday against Philadelphia, just much more of the quick game. Because his flaws are a problem. He holds on to it too long. Why is he holding on to it too long? I don't know. You can explain it better, but perhaps because he, he's, He's just taking too long to get through his progressions or he just wants to make a play. But he's on a record. He's on a record-breaking sack pace at this point.

And he has saved himself. He's been sacked 29 times in five games. And because of his toughness and his escapability, he's probably saved himself from another 10 to 12 sacks this year. I think sometimes he's... 15 or 20. Maybe. I think sometimes he's inaccurate. I think sometimes he's inaccurate. But I don't know that I think he's more accurate.

I think he's accurate more of the time than less accurate more of the time. But I didn't know what to expect coming into this season. That's why I was not willing to sit here and say, well, we're giving him 17 games. Well, I'm not giving him 17 games if he sucks. He's clearly proven that he's got something to him. I still think he looks small and makes himself sometimes in that pass rush when he's crowded. It's almost like he disappears sometimes and then all of a sudden reappears. But he can do some things.

I agree with you. And so I didn't have him on my good list. I thought there were some bad plays. I want to hear right now, actually I don't want to wait for it. I want to hear right now why you think that that interception that Greg Stroman came up with was on the receiver and not him, because I thought it looked like he was super late getting to it and then threw it late. He is super late getting to it, and he does throw it late.

But this goes back to how things have to happen. they are running Terry on a five to six yard sit route, just inside the numbers. Then they're carrying a flat defender outside of that with the running back. Curtis Samuel is running when he makes his break a seven-yard dig. This is a minimum first break at 10. But it's realistically to create that separation, that high-low separation, this is a 12-yard route. Like you might roll it at 10-11, but you're rolling it to 12, 13.

it's a common concept run in all football. You're trying to high-low the linebackers. Well, they really, they have man coverage. So there's no, like, you don't have to have it high-low here. But Howell is not ready to throw the ball when Samuel is open. He needed two to three more yards, pushed vertical to have the right timing to throw the ball. Okay. He shouldn't have thrown it.

as well. But the receiver runs a bad route, period. No doubt. I mean, how can say I should have thrown that ball? And Sherman does a good job jumping in front of it. But we actually had this conversation like two weeks ago. They were running into a couple in routes. We're like, man, it looks like they're running into each other. Well, it's the same real concept on this play. Logan Thomas looks like he's going to run into Samuel. Well, he's too short on their route. They're too short on their route. that route's got to be run at 10 to 12 yards. Period.

You can't completely, you can't really execute that concept with a seven-yard dig. Not realistic. I mean, I'm watching it. Going back to this, like, I'll never forget. Like, I've always laughed at this. The old drift play that we used to run all the time, Robert Griffin completed 80 balls where you can go a little bit of run action and then receivers bending into the middle of the field.

we're sitting there watching the Bengals and Chad Ocho Sinko run a drip playing. Kyle's MF and him. Like, hey, you guys know why this ball's late and high? Because Chad runs this route at seven yards. And it's a 12 to 14-yard route. And we're not set to throw it at that point. Our drop isn't tied to that.

Our eyes aren't tied to that. This has got to be three or four yards more, which is essentially a half-second longer. And that's how it's, it works. That's how the operation is understood, the timing of it. Samuel rushes as out. I mean, I'm just watching this. It, the line, explain this to me because the line of scrimmage, you see where the line

of scrimmage is, right? What does the line of scrimmage look like to you? It's a 25-yard line, correct? Yeah. Curtis Samuel breaks that, oh, you're saying he broke it at seven yards. Got it. Yeah. Okay. And you can clearly see that the first down marker that's on the field is at 10 yards.

Yeah. He starts to break that route at the first step after he crosses five yards. Yeah. He starts to break that route in, which is also why Logan Thomas is directly running into him on the play. On the other side of, I think Logan Thomas, go back to this whole concept, Logan Thomas is hop-stepping, right? If you watch this play again, Logan Thomas has taken a little hop-step.

Almost always indicates a option route. Yeah, I see it. We're going to put Logan Thomas with Dotson. We're going to let him run an option route. Well, Logan Thomas's side is soft coverage. Backers on both sides of him or a nickel on the outside and a backer on the inside of him. And he's breaking in to try to run in front of the backer.

If this is an option route, this is a sit-down route, not a break-in route, not a breakout route, not a break-in route. This is a sit-down route. You sit, which then also continues to hold the outside cornerback on to Logan Thomas because he's sitting there, and then which would allow you to throw the corner over the top, the Dotson, if you want to throw the corner over the top. It really have two failures, in my opinion, in the route running in this situation. Two failures.

You had Dotson running the corner, who could have been open had Logan Thomas sat. And by the way, that's where Sam Howe looks first. But he sees the corner soft as as Logan Thomas breaks in. I mean, you're sitting there watching it with me. I think you can kind of follow along. I've moved on to other action. I think you should have thrown at Logan on a sit down. I think he should have banged it to Logan Thomas.

But maybe he's trying to hold eyes to hold the underneath coverage long enough to throw. I mean, anyone can ask. Sam. Maybe he's holding eyes on this play long enough to know that he's going to hold 53 outside the hash so he can throw the ball into the middle of the hash to Curtis Samuel. But if he has to hold eyes long enough to throw, to hold 53, Samuel can't be breaking until he crosses 10 yards. And then it's, by the way, watch it again, fucking wide open. Yeah. An easy throw. But is he sacked by then?

The point is, it also, and this goes back to all of what it is, it is a new offense. It's a new offense coordinator. It's a new style. It's a new system. It takes some time to learn. It's a new quarterback within a new style and a new system, which doesn't make it any easier. And you're watching a lot of film that isn't you.

You're watching a lot of film that Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City and just takes some time. Right. But I don't hate howell doing. I didn't. I give him a grade for the game last night. I mean, it's hard for you. I mean, I don't know. I didn't watch it close enough to, but C plus, B minus.

That's what I gave him, C plus, B minus range. I like it more than you, so maybe it's a B. Okay, fine. It's hard for me to say when I watch it on TV. There's a lot that's going on, and I think a lot of it has to do with last week. I think the change from all of the dropbacks, to more quick game, I think, really suits him, and he looks good, and he looks good doing it.

I thought there was a deep throw to Diami Brown, his college teammate that I thought was just a little bit overthrown. Should have been a touchdown. But I also thought Diomi could have laid out for that a little bit. But there's a lot to like about Sam. I've, you know, I'm not, you're not there, and I'm not there either. we got to see a lot more. But there are some things that he does very well.

And, you know, part of me does think that some of this is because of what we've watched the last couple of years, that it's just better than what we're comparing it to what we've watched the last couple of years. And it's better than that. Anyway, let me go through real quickly the list of things that I didn't like. The whole start was awful. We've kind of touched on that. They tackled poorly. They couldn't cover.

They couldn't stop the run, which was so frustrating. Fields made a lot of really good plays. Obviously, DJ Moore made a lot of good plays. But, you know, they got lucky. I mean, Fields missed some wide open receivers. I think there were at least two missed defensive pass interference calls, including the one in the end zone on the ball to Mooney in the first half. You know, they just, 304 yards, 27.

point six of nine on third down. That's as bad as you can possibly, possibly do in a half of football in the NFL. The team didn't punt. Chicago didn't punt in the first half. I thought Cody Barton, I think 57, Cooley is really struggling. They benched Forbes. He was really struggled last week against Philly. Then last night he was struggling again. They benched him. They brought in Danny Johnson. It just was one of the worst halves of football. And you just can't, you can recover, and they almost did recover from 27 to 3 down. But again, I would say that all the injuries to Chicago in the second half, they took their foot off the gas pedal offensively.

They played a little bit soft, even though they were sending pressure defensively. and they were trying to run the clock out, which led to some of the second half benefit, which was a half in which the offense put up in the second half, 304 yards in the second half, and 17 points, and it should have been 20. And if it had been 20, it may have been more than that if they had gotten a score to 30, 23. But, you know, I'm not one to sit there and say that all of a quarterback's yards when they're down by three touchdown, are garbage yards against soft defense. Sometimes it's true.

Sometimes it isn't. I don't think all of Sam's 37 completions in 388 yards were garbage yards against soft defense. They were coming after him a lot in the second half, which is why he continued to get hit. He continued to get sacked. By the way, just as a quick aside, when that game was over, I just would not have had Sam dropping back anymore. He got sacked another two times. Like run the ball or throw bubble screens or throw screens, but don't drop them back down 37 to 20 with the game over.

He took it. Right. They did it in the Buffalo game as well. They did it in the Buffalo game as well. He took a beating and unnecessary beating. Also on the first half, just a disaster, you know, completely with the defense. But I don't think it is out of line to suggest that the offense didn't do its part in the first half either. Okay, this was a horrendous defense coming in, and they had three starters out.

And they couldn't run the football. They tried briefly, and they averaged 1.7 yards per carry with Brian Robbins and Jr. By the way, on that first third down stop on their very first drive of the game, I think somebody, we never saw the replay, but I went back and looked at it. I think Logan Thomas on the second down throw may have had the first down, but they didn't look at it and they didn't challenge it and whatever. They got stuffed on a third and one, Gates whiffed. They threw an interception.

They had three points. They were lucky to get the three because he had a pass deflected on third and four that should have been intercepted. The offensive line stinks. I mean, Sam holds it too long, but it's not a good run blocking line and it's not a good pass blocking line. I already mentioned the fact that Rivera's obviously at the top of this list, too, for not having his team ready. For those that didn't listen to it last night, the end of the first half was a joke. You're down 20 to 3.

They're getting ready to score either on a field goal or a touchdown to go up 23 to 3 or 27 to 3. you've got three timeouts and there's over a minute to go and you don't use any of them. Like once it was first and goal at the four with a minute left, you should have hit your first timeout. Second and goal, second and goal, second time out. You should have had that ball back with 40 some odd seconds left and a chance to go down. Instead, you got it back with 19 and you took one time out with three seconds to go on a drive at the end of the first half that you really weren't trying to score. Just terrible.

Ron was stunned by the whole nature of the first half. You can't be stunned as the head coach. You've got to get extra possessions when you're down 24 points. And then Joey Sly missing the field goal is on the list of things I didn't like. A couple of other quick observations, and I'm going to ask you a question. At 27 to 11, they were driving. They got to stop their driving. It's third quarter, about three and a half to go.

Sam gets out of one of those, you know, should be sacks on third and 12, and he runs for nine yards. And it's fourth and three. Did you have a problem with him kicking the field goal to make it 27 to 14, or would you have gone for it? I'd have gone for it. I was okay with him kicking the field goal. There were lots. Well, you're down 27. Okay.

So you're trying at that point to make it a two-score game, and you do have tie. my concern at the point we're at 27-11 with this fourth and three. My concern is that we haven't stopped Chicago enough. Well, you had them in the first drive of the second half. I understand that, but throughout this game, my concern is, can we stop them? We can't trade field goals. Like, if we can't stop Chicago at all throughout the game, and then we do end up stopping them to hold them to fill them.

We're just trading point, which is exactly what happened, right? Didn't Chicago immediately go down the field and kick a figgle? Yes. So you're trading three for three. Well, you're not trying to trade three for three. But in my mind, I think maybe potentially your mind, I think a lot of people watching the game, the feeling was you're not going to stop them. You haven't stopped them.

And I think that's hard. Like a coaching staff doesn't understand that necessarily. By the way, that's the drive of the, DJ Moore steps out of bounds that he probably has a chance to score on if he doesn't step out of bounds. And then he's jumping up and down on the right sideline. Like, ah, darn it. I don't, no, I would have went for it.

I would have went for it. It's deep enough in the game, in my opinion, that you're saying if we trade three, like, if they do have a drive where they go down to get three, they're going to take five, six, four minutes off the clock for sure, and we're back in that position where we're in trouble. whatever. It all worked out because they go and score and they have a chance if they make the field goal. So real quickly, they open up the second half and they go 75 yards and five plays in three minutes and they get the two-point conversion, which I love that play by Sam, you know, the play action, the off schedule, the run for the two-point conversion. They get a, they force a punt,

then the Logan Thomas fumble is the next drive. Then it's a three and out with a sack and a forced punt. So the defense has now gotten Chicago off the field quickly in two straight drives. Washington's got a little momentum. They're driving. They get down there. It's fourth and three at the Chicago 13. If it's fourth and one, fourth and two, I think maybe.

Fourth and one, definitely, even though they had been stopped on fourth and one. fourth and three I'm kicking because I think there are too many possessions and too many different scoring opportunities and scoring types left in the game. And I think at that point, if I come away and I get stopped with no points, it's devastating. You know, and it just keeps us chipping away. I have no idea what the fourth down analytics people would say. My guess is that fourth and one, fourth and two, they probably say go for it. Yeah, well, there's no real fourth down. The context is what does a fourth down and three look like with our guys against their guys?

Right. Yeah, I mean, the percentages drastically change. Like, Vegas would weigh that differently on the line on that. With any defense in the NFL would be a different line. Right. Or a lot of them. And I like our dudes, if I'm the enemy, I like my dudes more than their dudes. They're not a great defense.

We got enough dudes, and our guy Sam could potentially run for it. Okay. I'd go for it. All right. Another quick observation, there were a lot of, I don't know if you picked this up watching it in a bar with friends, but there were a lot of high snaps to Justin Fields. So many. They had the backup center in. Yeah, they had issues with the snaps.

And my God, he had good. great hands and great reaction to that. But I kept thinking that if we can get it close, like this, and put some game pressure on them, maybe the next one isn't handled so easily. And you end up with a big play. Also, No, but it was the next one.

It was the next one. I think at the point you said that was when he bats down to himself and then takes it for, like, it looks like you bat down quarterback drawn. I'm like, it's actually pretty nifty. Yeah. I can't, I shouldn't say I can't believe. I would not have been surprised if when John Allen sacked Fields and pile drove him into the ground, I would not have been surprised had that been flagged.

I would have hated it, but I have seen a lot less flagged. I mean, he went full pile drive into the ground on Fields, and it wasn't Fields as a runner. It was Fields still in the pocket. for a sack. Yeah, what else did I have on my list? I didn't think that it was past interference on the Terry McLaurin play

where they picked up the flag. I think, you know, you hate to see them throw the flag and then pick it up, but I didn't really think that that was PI against them. I thought there were penalties they missed against us. I love to see a crew pick up a flag and have a conversation and say, let's just get the right call here. Did you think it was past interference or not?

No. Lastly, it is, hold on, where is it? So Chicago, you know, won the toss and didn't defer. They took the ball. They were very confident with their offense coming into this game. They were very confident and probably not nearly as confident about their defense. And they did not want to get behind in this game. didn't, and they never, ever trailed in the game. It's, you know, I think Al Michael said 91% of

the teams that win the toss defer, and the bears didn't. And I thought that was interesting because I had somebody on from Chicago last week who said they felt really good about the way they played against Denver. They've been feeling much better about the way they're playing offensively. And you could see that confidence come in. And, you could see that confidence come in, And, you know, I mentioned, I think, on the podcast after the game last night, if I didn't have a true rooting interest were a betting interest in this game, I would have really, as an NFL fan, I would have really respected what Chicago did last night. You know, everybody's got their coach fired last night. The quarterback benched, you know, the defensive coordinator. It's a dead team.

They haven't won. Yeah. Yeah. I just think that. Great job by Chicago. Great job by Chicago. And then that leads me to this and we can finish up. Rivera said right before we started to record this podcast that nobody is getting fired.

There aren't going to be any staff changes. Should there be? Who's going to get fired? Del Rio, Ron Rivera. Fans want, they want a scalp for this for last night. I don't. see, it goes back to whatever's happening in the building. Does someone need fired because something's going on in the building that isn't discussed?

And then maybe there's an example set. But I don't, this is like the old high school game that we're going to now run 20 gassers on the field after the game. Because coach is so mad. Gassers, hills. Line them up. Line them up. For us, it was suicide. Get your stopwatch out. Get your stopwatch.

Yeah. Over back. 52 seconds. We got beat on a Friday night by 30. Coach said, you're in tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. and we were running suicides for about 45 minutes. People are throwing up. You don't want to play hard to start a game? Must have saved some energy. Let me find a way to burn that extra energy.

that we didn't burn in the game. Line them up. Start running. Here's what... Hey, your legs look tired, guys. Why don't you give me 300 push-ups? Okay, now rest your arms. Run again.

Oh, my God. I mean, you know, the funny thing about that stuff, I know we've talked about this probably before. Like, the whole running people, like, I don't know if I've told you this before, but I, I was talking to Gary one day, as in Hall of Fame basketball coach, Gary Williams.

And Gary would always, when I was really coaching a lot, Gary would occasionally, I'd call him about something. And he always had great advice. But one of the things he, I remember he asked me, said, do you run your kids like sprint, suicides? And I go, no. And he said, why? And I said, well, first of all, we have limited practice time. You know, this is the era of they play more games than they practice. and he said, and I said, I want the practice time.

If they're practicing well, they're getting, you know, they're getting into condition. And he said to me, and I'll never forget it. He said, I never ran my guys. You know what we did? We practiced press and press break. You want to get a workout? 90 feet of press and press break over and over again. So they're getting the same cardio benefit, except,

they're doing something that's helping them in a game, that they'll actually be doing in a game. And I just, I always felt kind of intuitively that way, but from that moment on, it was like, we're, you know,

really, you guys are goofing off. We're just going to, we're going to practice press and press break. Which, by the way, for anybody that's coaching youth basketball and competitive youth basketball,

not, you know, where you can't press or whatever, you get wreck league rules or whatever. Press and press break should be the first. first things that you are working on and trying to perfect, especially press break, because at young ages for kids, when you play teams that are maybe more athletic, quicker, and they're full court pressing you, and you don't know how to break it, and your kids aren't comfortable

breaking it, the game gets completely away from you, and it's not fun for the kids. So work on press and press break. But anyway, we just got sidetracked. I wanted to read to you what magic. We can't tackle Oklahoma drill. Let's go. Let's go. Magic Johnson, you know, is one of the owners. And this is what was his quote after the game last night. Quote,

Tonight the commanders played with no intensity or fire. We didn't compete in the first half and got down 27 to 3 heading into halftime. It was too big of a hole to climb out of, and that is why we ended up losing 40 to 20. So let me just... That's a pretty good overarching theme. It's a pretty good recap of the game. But with ownership and magic's, you know, a former player,

but he's a bit of baseball owner and now he's a football owner, et cetera. When you use words like intensity and fire and we didn't compete, when those things are said, that is an owner that's pissed off about the effort, about perhaps the coaching readiness, the competitive effort put forth. And that's when you start, and I'm not saying magic's the decision maker, but magic in many ways might end up being the face of this franchise.

And I'm a lifelong, massive Magic Johnson fan. But I don't think a change is coming anytime soon. I don't. I really don't. I think that these guys have come in and this is a sit and watch and learn year, and the changes are going to be made when this season is over. But if you have another one like last night, somebody's probably going to pay with their job.

And I also want to mention this. Josh Harris, who owns the 76ers, Cooley, and is not the most popular owner for 76ers fans. They're not big fans, you know, typically of Josh Harris. Their next home game here is against the Eagles. There will be, per usual, a lot of Philadelphia fans. fans in the crowd. Imagine if that game gets sideways and the Philly fans start going after Josh Harris. Oh my God, they won't.

No, they will. Of course they will. They will. They wouldn't do that. They're good fans. They're nice. What else do you have? That's all I got, man. That was dreadful. I got a big Friday afternoon to not worry about this team again today. Well, we both won our wagers last night. You won a couple of them. You won point spread and money line. Good for you. All right, brother.

Have a good weekend. Yeah, you do the same. Jay Gruden next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, the fall weather is here. This is the best time of the year in our city. And if you're looking for the ultimate outdoor destination to watch up, coming games, hang out with friends, drink beers, listen to music, look no further than the bullpen. The bullpen located right in the heart of Navy Yard, right next to Nats Park. It's been

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All right, jumping on the show as he does every Friday, Jay Gruden, the former head coach of the Washington Redskins. Jay was very involved in watching the game last night. This is the first time. Actually, we'll probably get to do this one more time after a game because they play Thanksgiving Day. Let's see if they can get prepared for that one in four days. But let me just begin. begin with what the hell happened last night? I don't know. I know Chicago came out, and they're grown men, and they have been getting destroyed in the media. The coaches, the offensive coordinator, the quarterback, they have all been getting crushed in the media. Their secondaries all banged up. Nobody gave these guys a chance,

including me. I said, there's no way Chicago can get this done. And they came out and threw haymakers early. And Washington just never responded until it was too late in the third quarter. They tried to throw a little body blow, but it was too late. They were already knocked out. And hats off to Chicago. I mean, you've got to give them a lot of credit because you look at that secondary, and I couldn't name one of those guys playing back there. You look at, you know, offensively, they did a little bit better last week against Denver,

but they've struggled mightily. They've been asking for this coordinator to get fired. They came out and guns ablazing, man. Justin Fields was putting ball in the money. DJ Moore was relentless with his ability to just beat whoever they put on. I'm saying, Juice, there was Forbes. It was Fuller. just pick your poison. And they played too deep one time. They hit a whole shot. So whatever Washington did

defensively, Chicago had an answer and hats off to them. And I don't know what's wrong with Washington's defense, but they have to figure something out, especially in a secondary linebacker. You know, I'm glad you actually mentioned Chicago. I think a lot of fans here are focused on just how bad Washington was, and they were bad. But I thought, I said earlier that if, If I were just an NFL fan last night, I would have really appreciated the position Chicago was in coming in and the game they played because they were awful as a team defensively coming in. I mean, they were Denver bad, and they played the best game they played all year defensively. And then offensively, they were good last week. And you know they've got potential.

But I just thought that they were flawless in the first half in particular. And at some point, not 40 to 20, it's a lot on you, obviously, but at some point, too, you've got to tip the cap and say the other team played pretty well. Yeah, for sure. And that's what everybody thought Chicago would be before the season. Justin Fields is going to make this huge strides to be a great quarterback. And he struggled mightily early. And then he started to show signs last week, but then he had crucial turnovers and sacks and fumbles against Denver, which costs him the game. when Justin Fields protects the ball, doesn't turn the ball over, doesn't run into sacks,

Chicago can be pretty good on offense. I mean, they played the whole second half without a tailback, for God's sake. I know. And I don't even know who the secondary guys were there running out on the field. When Stroman got hurt, they ran this guy out with, I don't know, number six, I think he was. Yeah. So, I mean, these guys played, and he refuses still blitzing, doing some double A gaps and blitzing the nickel. It was an impressive performance by Chicago.

And obviously, you know, you have to look at Washington and figure out what happened, but they just could never get something going, and they just got ambushed early and couldn't recover. Did you think the field goal, if he makes that field goal and it's 30 to 23 with just over five minutes to go, that they've got a legit shot, I did. Yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah. Got it to seven, I think everybody's got hope. I think the defense comes running out there with a little pep in their step and maybe makes a play. But when you're down 10, two possessions with like five minutes to go or whatever.

it is. That's a heart-wrenching feeling. But, you know, it should have never got out of hand in the first place, in my opinion, you know, offensively in the first half, you know, the first drive of the first half, right? It's seven nothing. They got third and five, and they run a stick concept. And Logan Thomas gets the first down. You guys probably didn't see that. They gave a terrible spot. They go forward on early. The third and one. It was the second of five. On third and one, you know, they run a dive,

they'll lose two yards. They have to punt. You know, so I don't know if he was a challenge there or not for a minimal gain like that, but that was an unfortunate spot, and that killed them, and then all of a sudden it's 10-0, and then they get stopped getting at 17 to nothing, and the floodgates were open. Yeah, I mentioned that, that I wasn't sure if it was a good spot or a bad spot on that play. I don't think that you use a challenge there because you're playing a team coming in that you think you're going to shred, you know, and it's third and less than one.

But you may have been right. We never got a legitimate replay on that play. You know, you can't go back at 40 to 20, right? Or can you? And say, man, if they actually... The first drive of the game, would have been first in 10 at the 35. I know. It opens up a whole new thing.

And it's 7-3 or 7-7. I'm the way a defense for the Bears has been over the course of the season. Yeah. But then it's 10-0. And then you have a tough drive, and then it's 17 and nothing. She, so, Pete, that hell is on. Unbelievable. Let me just say. I think Jay had Washington laying the six points last night. Oh, for sure. I mean, the only reason is not any disrespect to Chicago's players. I just knew that they were battered and bruised up, and they flew to Denver on Sunday.

They had to fly back to Chicago, and all the way here, it's not all the way, it's not that far, but. And then here, you know, new secondary, and they don't have much of a pass rush. They haven't, the whole season. Yonick hasn't really done anything. and they still get five sacks somehow, some way. Yeah, it's just they played out of their mind. I mean, sometimes when you're back in the corner and people are calling your names, their own men will fight back, and that's what Chicago did. Yeah, they really did. And just back to the Miss Field goal again, because I really,

I saw a Chicago team that was hemorrhaging. They were trying to run the clock out. I think they almost started to try to run the clock out at the end of the third quarter, you know, towards the end of the third quarter, they were gassed. Like you said, their players coming in that are backups to the backups. You have no idea who these people are. They got a full back playing running back because every running back's lost.

And I just thought the game pressure of it being a seven-point game with five minutes to go, they would have been in deep trouble. Yeah. And the other play that was crucial other than the misfield goal was the non-call on Terry. How do you throw a flag right there and then pick it up? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have thrown it. The guy standing right there. It was an underthrown ball.

Terry tried to come back to it. The guy had no vision on the ball whatsoever. And it was a flag. And they picked it up and said, oh, never mind. And I think that's the drive where they missed the field goal. Instead of being first and ten at the 15 going in. Was that the drive?

You may be right. I thought, I actually didn't think that that was a bad pickup of the flag. I did not think it was DPI. Why do you throw it then? Yeah. Don't throw the flag. So obviously you saw something there as a referee to throw the flag.

Yeah. So he thrives throws it. Well, let me ask you, if you were the coach of the Bears in that moment, you looked up and you saw the replay, wouldn't you be pissed that it was thrown? Well, it was an underthrown go ball, right? Which happens all the time. Terry tried to stick his foot in the ground to come back, and the guy did not allow him access to do that.

And he had no vision on the ball whatsoever, and Terry was not able to come back because of the defensive back holding him or in his way or whatever. I know there's no face guarding anymore, but I thought it was a clear disruption of Terry's ability to come back to the ball because the defensive back told them. That's just me. You know how fans react to these kinds of things. You know, it's a coaching loss. They were unprepared. They were out-coached.

What a despicable display of readiness for a game that's on national TV that you got to win. because you've lost two in a row. What did you think? Is this the kind of loss that you hang on a head coach and his staff? Well, I think there has to be some accountability for the players and the technique that they use. Maybe that's coaching, especially in the secondary. I don't think there's any excuse to give,

after giving AJ Brown 150 or 160 yards last week, and then Chicago really have a one receiver that's really legitimate. Moody's a good player. He got hurt a little bit and to allow him to get 200 plus yards and three touchdowns, I think is a little bit of coaching, a little bit of technique work for the secondary, but that can't happen.

You know, I mean, you just can't happen. I can see some quarterback design runs, but I can see fields scrambling and getting some yards and doing some things, maybe Colcomette over the middle every once in a while, but to have DJ more hitching for 250.

That's hard to fathom. And offensively, you know, they just didn't get the ball a whole lot in the first half. They had a three and out early, and then they had another quick one, and next thing, you know, they're down 17 and nothing, and trying to play catch up.

So it was a very difficult position for the offense to be in. Defensively is where you just got to look at what are they doing, what happened, and why? That's the biggest issue. Well, why do you, other than coverage, what else? What else did you see last night? Well, I was disappointed in the push, the pressure. And I think Herbert had way too many runs between the tackles for gashes.

I mean, they had two runs on third and seven plus. They just ran inside zone right up in the middle of the first down. And that can't happen. with that front. And the linebackers got to step up and make some plays. And I don't know if the linebackers losing their gap integrity or defense line getting out of their gap integrity, whatever it is. But there shouldn't be gashes like that. I don't care if it's a light box or not. There should be a solo gap football. There should be a body in there and there should be a helmet, you know, on the running back numbers within four or five yards all the time. They can't let

Herbert run for 10 yards on third and eight. That just can't happen. And then, And some of the design runs, like I said, those are good plays. Gatsky did a good job. But DJ Moore, whole shots, cover two safety, bad technique. You know, man-to-man, outside leverage, letting the guy get inside and back outside and just losing them and just getting beat by 10 yards. That can't happen. Trying to break on these short hitch routes and not secure in a tackle going for the ball

and letting DJ more catch it and run for 50 yards after the catch. That can't happen either. Those are technical issues that D. defensive backs have to work on and make sure they secure tackles before they go for the ball. I mean, you can't just let the guy catch a hitch and run for 50 yards. Yeah, and, you know, one of those was Emmanuel Forbes, and eventually they benched him and put Danny Johnson in the game. How do you handle a young corner first-round pick that's clearly struggling?

Well, you know, that's unfortunate. He's obviously got some talent, but he's got to get himself in position. You know, he did it against AJ Brown. He fit, they gave up a hitch and go on him. He caught a couple short passes and broke tackles. He's got a stuff. He's not a very big guy, but there has been corners that's not that big that have been very successful. I think there was one here in Darrell Green.

He wasn't very big, but he got people on the ground. He's got to get people on the ground after the catch. He's got great ball skills, but he's got to make sure he secures tackles before he goes. The interceptions will come, but he's got to make sure he plays sound technique and gets people on the grass first and not allow big play. Why is he even on DJ Moore and AJ Brown? Maybe he's their best corner. You know, it's Kendall Fuller or him, right?

So I think, you know, we had Campbell Fuller here. We draft them in a third round. We put him a nickel. So, you know, and Kendall's a good corner, but Forbes was drafted in the first round and has all the hype, and he's supposed to be a shutdown ball-hawk corner. Do you remember, is there a game that, you know, was super ugly like this where the noise was increased and the noise is there today.

It is they want Del Rio fired. They want Rivera fired. Personally, I don't think anything's going to happen. I think this new ownership group is going to just sit back and wait until the end of the year before they do anything. But do you remember how you felt, how you handled these kinds of, you know, day after games? Yeah, it was at my first year. I felt the heat after like five games, four games. You know, the whole second year felt it early in the season, you know. And so we made that run after we beat Tampa and came back, I felt the heat.

I felt the heat every game. Kevin, that's the way it is around here. You feel the heat when you lose. This is a very proud franchise with fans that cared deeply about their football team and haven't won since the Joe Gibbs run that he had. So they're dying for success. And when they don't get it, they want change. And that's what they want.

That's what's going to happen. So you just got to go as business as usual. You've got to make sure you continue to work and fight and battle and prepare the best way you can and try to get the players in the best position as possible to win football games moving forward. And you've got to try to ignore the noise and focus on your job and make sure the players focus on their job. And quit looking at Twitter, quit looking at Instagram,

whatever the heck they're looking at, and just focus on the next opponent in the next day and go from there. Certainly don't want to go back and look at your Instagram of your prediction of the game last night or whatever that was. I don't want to do that. That's not a good pick. I take accountability for that. I take very, I take a lot of pride in my preparation for my pick.

I don't put any money on there like you guys do, but, you know, I try to help some people out and on paper, if you look at the game, defense-in-line for Washington should have been better than the offensive line for Chicago, right? The offensive line for Washington should have been better than the defense line for Chicago and the secondary was not as good as the receivers for Washington. So the matchups all pointed in the favor of Washington. However, you still have to strap it up and play the game. And there's something called intensity, fire, momentum. Momentum was just huge in that game. It was just one way the whole first half and Washington can never get it back.

That's why it's a great game. You can never predict it. Look, you're talking to a guy who during the course of the week did a call segment on his radio show where I said, what's your concern level on the defense after the Philadelphia game? Five, very concerned, zero, zero concerned. I said I'm only a zero point five. I wasn't concerned at all. I just thought that they had played Josh Allen and Jalen Hertz. And I actually didn't think the defense was that bad against Buffalo and that it would come around. I was a little bit concerned about the secondary, but I was clearly dead wrong. There is something going, on defensively that ain't right. Oh, one more question on the defense. It was clear early to me, tell me if I'm right or wrong, that the plan wasn't to rush Justin Fields. It was to kind of contain rush. Like you could see some of the replays of some of those early play actions where he just stood in the pocket completely without pressure and found receivers down the field, including a third and 14 touchdown throw to a wide open receiver. How often do you see that? How often do you

see that. But was that what they were doing early? It was more about, hey, we don't think you can beat us from the pocket. We're going to just play contain rush. Yeah, I mean, over the first four games, that's probably the case. You watch them in the pocket. You saw him against Tampa Bay struggle. He stepped into a lot of sacks. Tampa Bay didn't get a lot of pressure, but they still sacked them because he had nobody open. He just ran into sacks. So yeah, that probably was the plan. Hey, don't lose contain. Just keep your eyes on the quarterback and be ready to get off blocks when he takes it down and run. And we'll cover him in the secondary. and go from there and make him beat us with his arm.

Unfortunately, Justin's figured out how to throw the ball in whole shots and guys wide opened down the sideline and made some plays. So eventually your plan has to change in the first quarter, hey, we got to go get this. We've got to go hunting fast, and we've got to get him on the ground now and not let this guy set his feet and throw. And unfortunately, that didn't take place until late in the third quarter. Was there any player on defense that you thought played okay?

No, not one. pain had some plays up the middle in there but I still think that some of those inside zones and the draws on third down I just were disheartening to me that was a gut punch but yeah I just think they all underachieve last night and then the secondary was just absolutely lost and they had no answer

for anything that they did they played cover two they hit the whole shot like I said they played you know man to man on one side they'd get DJ more matched up over there they went three by one DJ by himself and They tried to overload the three-man side, man up the weak side, and DJ Moore touchdown. I mean, it was just no answer for the best player on the field. All right, let's talk about Sam Howell, because that's a weekly conversation,

as we try to find out this year whether or not this is a quarterback that's going to be around here as a starter for a long time. What did you see from him last night? Well, you look at the stat line. If he has, you know, I think 35 or more passes, it's probably going to be a loss. You know, they have to stay balanced. They couldn't last night. They were down 17-0-0 before they got their shoes tied out of the tunnel, and they had to play catch-ups.

So it was a bad representation of what Sam Howell is all about. He's a gritty fighter-type guy, still taking way too many sacks. And he took five more last night. He's on pace to break the record in the NFL. But they have to stay balanced. They got to get Brian Robinson involved, and obviously Gibson in the backfield. And they need to throw the ball like 25 to 30 times and have a chance and stay balanced and stay on track.

but, you know, they're just not good enough right now up front to throw the ball 50 plus times. Yeah. I mean, I think the last two games, what I've noticed, tell me if I'm right or wrong, is that there is a little bit more decisiveness. The ball's coming out quicker. Maybe that's just the scheme and the play calling. Not that he does it all the time because he took, you know, that team had two sacks coming in. They had five last night, and I thought it could have been seven or eight.

He got out of several of those sacks. I know it's amazing how many times he got out of it. But are you seeing the ball come out a little bit quicker, him processing a little bit faster or not? A little bit, yeah. There are certain times in the game where he does that, where he set his feet and left the rip when he sees it. You know, sometimes if the rush comes a little bit,

he can't see his intended receiver like he had a, he had a one at the goal line. It might have been a two-point. It was a two-point point. Gibson. Yeah, but he just comes. couldn't see. I don't think you could see over the three techniques. So then he scrambled around. And that's the biggest issue.

His height sometimes comes into play. He kind of, you know, he bends his knees when he's getting ready to throw and he shrinks a little bit where he can't see. Drew Brees stood on his toes. I don't know if that's an issue or not. But, you know, he has some pocket awareness issues still he's dealing with. But overall, I think he's shown enough where he can make all the throws. He's got athletic ability to keep putting them in there and keep letting them develop and see how he does. I think he's got some talent. You've got the armed talent.

He's got the tenacity. You've got the mental toughness, the physical toughness to warrant. Keep going with Sam and see how he does, see how he progresses. All right. The next opponent is Atlanta on the road. And it's like this long period after, you know, a Thursday night game. How is it for you guys in this spot? You know, I think as fans, a lot of us realize how week to week this league is

and how quickly things change. I mean, we went from Buffalo to Philadelphia. They lost the game against Philadelphia, but they played completely different to what they did last night. How much, you know, how do you handle messaging the players that this is a league that just changes so quickly? And, you know, we're two and three. We still have a chance. Yeah, I mean, they're two and three, and Chicago's one and four. Who feels better right now?

The one in four teams are the two and three teams. Right. The one of four teams feels like they won a Super Bowl, and the sky's a limit. and the two and three team feels like the world's about to end. So I think the most important thing, you give them a couple days off here, and then when they come back to work, you tell them they better be focused,

ready to go give it their best shot every single day of their existence when I enter that building over there at Dashburn. So it should be all about football when they come back, all about taking care of each other, working to get better and figuring this thing out and trying to get the three and three against Atlanta. You get the three and three against Atlanta, then everybody's going to be feeling better,

you'll still have a chance to, you know, play for Wild Carter Division. championships. Now, let's talk about the other NFL games this weekend. There is a big, big game Sunday night. Dallas at San Francisco. What are your thoughts on that one? That'll be a good one.

I just think Dallas, you know, they better figure out how to stop the run because they're going to see a heavy dose of it, especially to the left behind my guy, big trend. So, you know, I think San Frangis has too many ways to hurt you. You know, if they want to buckle down and try to stop the run and the play passes with Purdy and Iyuk and Samuel are sick and Kittle. And if they want to play coverage, then Christian McAfrio hurt them pretty bad in the running game.

And then offensively, I just think somebody's got to step up other than CD Lamb. Last year, CD had like 10 catches against them and did pretty well, but nobody else did anything. The running game was not existent. No other receiver stepped up. So Cook, Gallup, Ferguson, somebody on offense has to step up, and DAC has to stay on track. They don't want to be in known passing situations like Washington was last night.

Otherwise, it'll be a debacle. But if they could keep the game close in the fourth quarter, then sure Dallas has a chance. But I just think Sam Fran has too much going for them. Now they have an elite pass rush and elite linebacker and elite safety. And obviously, offensively, they have so many different ways to hurt you. I mean, I actually, and I mentioned this yesterday, I think on the radio show, I don't think people realize how good Brandon Ayuk is.

Like, I think he is, I mean, Samuel's great, Kittles great, McCaffrey's great, Trent's great. They've got true superstars, you know, in so many spots. but I think Ayuk's becoming that. Do you like him or not? I do like him a lot. He's really progressed from his first year. He was not really sure of himself,

but now he knows where he's going. He knows how to get there, and he's powerful runner, and he's good after the catch. Another thing about the 49ers receivers, are they the most incredible, incredibly, incredible blocking receivers there is in football.

Debo will block your face off. Ayuk will block. They bring in this Jenny's Juan, Jenny's guy, he'll block linebackers defense events. I mean, that's why they're so successful. the running game. I know McCabby is great, but you have to have receivers that will dig out for us, block corners, block safeties, and those guys are great at doing that, and they're

big and they're strong. And then Kyle's famous for the play actions off of those runs, and that's why they're so effective. I got to give you credit. You called Houston even before the last two weeks. You thought Stroud may be the best in the class, and they've destroyed two straight opponents, Jacksonville and Pittsburgh, and they look like right now maybe the surprise team of the NFL four games into the season. I know they're injured. They've got some injuries heading into the game against Atlanta, but as you look at that division, are you picking Houston to win this division? Do you think they can win the division? I am actually, yeah. I actually think they can. They get some of these linemen back. I think they're pretty good. I really do. I think this Dell and

Nico Collins and Robert Woods is a great role player. He can do it all. Like I mentioned about walk and Pierce is a good running back, and CJ has the poise and the accuracy and anticipation of a 10-year vet right now. So I'm impressed with Houston, and I think DeMarco Ryan's is a very good defensive football coach. He'll get them in positions to succeed. And I think that'd be a good pick. Take Houston to win a division and take Ryan as the beat coach of the year. What did you think of Zach Wilson and the Jets on Sunday night? Well, he got better. I mean, he should. He's been there for a few years now. It's not like he's a free agent slappy off the street.

This is like a top draft pick. You've got some talent. I mean, let's work with his talent. He's got a couple good receivers, right? And a good running game. They've got two dominant running backs. I know their offensive lines in shambles a little bit. They've struggled, but they're not terrible. They're not as bad as a lot of these offensive lines in pro football.

So, yeah, they should be good. They should be better, and they have an elite defense. So it's good to see him, you know, silence the critics a little bit. They've still lost. He still dropped the key snap late in the game. but, you know, if he can get away from his mistakes and protect the football and punk when they have to punt, the Jets defense will keep them in the game until the fourth quarter no matter who they play. Yeah, I said watching Sunday night to my son who was with me that night, I'm like, you know,

if Aaron Rogers hadn't got hurt, this would have been a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Like, they would have had a chance to win the whole thing. Well, I said after the first two games, I didn't, I don't care if Joe Namath came back, they wouldn't have a chance because they couldn't protect, they couldn't get open, the route concepts, the protection schemes were awful. Hopefully they're getting better in that regard and protecting the quarterback a little bit better. So if they could do that, then they'll have a chance because their defense is so good. They had two elite corners, and they're fun to watch.

Do you sense at all that the chiefs are just kind of coasting right now? I've noticed that in years past where it almost looks like they get a little bit bored at times with the regular season. What are you seeing with them? Yeah, I just think they, you know, the receiving corps is not very good right now. Right. And they have to have somebody else besides Kelsey that can stretch a defense or force cover two or something. Right now they don't have that. They can cover Kelsey and everybody else's really non-existent.

Skymore's got to step up. Valdez Scantley's got somebody's got to step up on that receiving core for them to get better. And then Patrick just can't force a ball, you know, like he did against a jet a couple times. But Patrick's, you know, Patrick's Packers, they'll be fine. They'll get the ball in the end zone three or four times a game. Their defense is playing extremely well, and they'll still win 12, 13 games probably. Do you give Minnesota a shot at home Sunday? Yeah, of course, you have to.

Kirk at home in a dome with Justin Jefferson offensively. They should be able to move the ball a little bit. I just worry about them defensively a little bit, trying to stop them. But, you know, skull to school chants are pretty loud there. It's pretty intimidating to play at that place, but I still think Kansas City's overall a better team. All right, two more. Real quickly on the Giants.

Where are you on Daniel Jones? Because I think you've liked Daniel Jones since he's come into the league. Where are you on him? Well, I just wish they had somebody to help them. You know, they need to say quambach. They need to get their offensive lineback in fact. You know, and you can't really run the ball, and you're force to fill the ball, and you can't protect,

and you don't have receivers to get open. It's really tough for a quarterback. I don't know if you guys understand how. harder it is to play quarterback when nobody's open and nobody's blocking. It's really difficult. So they have to get some kind weapons outside. They've got to get the people open somehow and Daniel's got

to make sure he's at least see, I was glad to to see him run for 50 or 60 yards. I feel like for the Giants to have a chance in a game, he has to rush for over 50 yards. He has to make some players quarterback design runs like Justin Fields had last night. And he's got to use his legs on third down to convert

some first downs and try to keep the ball board. And the problem they have is they don't have any big play ability right now. So all their drives have to be, you know, 10 plays, 75 yards. And that's very difficult in the NFL with the players that they have. So it's going to be a struggle for them. And defensively, they're not really good enough to keep them in games for four quarters. They're going to give up to big plays because they're not really talented on defense either. So they're going to, it's going to be a tough day for them against Miami, I think. All right. What's your lock of the week?

I'm trying to, you did hit. Miami. Miami. Miami. Oh, you did hit on your pick last week. You had Seattle last week. So you're two and one now in the last three weeks. I forget where you were in week one. So you like the dolphins laying at 12 and a half now. It's up to 12 and a half over the Giants at home. Yeah, I think the Giants defense has not been very good,

and they're planning against one of the best offenses in the last five years in Miami. So, yeah, the speed of Miami's offense. And then Miami's defense has been struggling, but the Giants really don't have anything to hang their hat on. an identity right now. If Sequin comes back, that'll help. I need to get Andrew Thomas back their left tackle. If they're both healthy, then I'll give them a chance to cover that line. But if not, there's no chance in my opinion. I think it'll be about a 25, 30-point game. Right, I lied. One more. You grew up an Ohio State fan, didn't you?

No. I was born in Ohio, but my dad coached at IU at Notre Dame, so I never liked Ohio State. So who was your team? Was it Notre Dame? when he was a coach there when he got fired by Jerry Fowles we hated Notre Dame we're very loyal group and group if you fire us we don't like you

I like Washington now because the owner's gone so I root for Washington now because I know some people there on the field and on staff so I pull for them I pulled for them last night

and didn't work out but no I'm in college I'm a Louisville guy because I went to Louisville yeah well I understand that your alma mater yeah braum man Louisville's 4-0 did you know that

they're 5 and oh I think I think they're 5-0. I think they're 5-0. And I think they have who do they have this week? They have a tough game. They play Notre Dame this week, I think. Notre Dame, yeah.

Notre Dame. All right, good job. Really appreciate it. It's good to catch up the day after a game. I will talk to you next week. You got it. Jay Gruden, everybody, the smell test to finish up the show next. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash

and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. The smell test brought to you by my good friends at MyBooky who are continuing to offer an incredible cash bonus on your initial deposit of 110%. This is exclusive to just the listeners of this podcast. You go to MyBooky.orgie.org, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. This isn't going to be something that you find on their site.

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and they're offering something that no other sportsbook in the world is offering. 110% on your initial deposit, take advantage of it by going to mybooky.ag and using my promo code, Kevin D.C. Before I get to my picks, I just want to mention real quickly, Maryland at Ohio State tomorrow. I'm really excited. 12 noon, Fox. One of the biggest games Maryland's had in a long, long time. I mean, it may be all the way back to 2001. Ralph Regens' first year. They started 7-0, and they went down to Tallahassee to face Florida State as the 10th ranked team in the country.

They lost that game. They went on to win the ACC championship that year. Maryland's not ranked 10th now. They are 26th. They're just outside the rankings. But at 5-0 and coming off, what I really think was their best complete game of the year, the blowout win last week over Indiana. They're playing Ohio State in Columbus.

They're 19-point underdogs. But there is a sense that a lot of people have that Ohio State's not Ohio State this year. They're not as good as they've been. They're not as explosive as they've been. The quarterback's been, you know, iffy so far. And Maryland's an experienced team. They went to Michigan last year, if you recall, and they nearly knocked off the Wolverines in the Big House.

They lost that game 34 to 27 at home late in the season. They were down three with the ball against Ohio State in college park in the fourth quarter. They have been run over in Columbus since they entered the Big Ten. But there is a sense among Maryland fans like me that tomorrow they've got a chance to be more competitive. Ohio State is laying a big number and the action is on Maryland. Ohio State's not in the smell test. But yeah, I'm looking forward to this. I really like this team.

I love the job that Loxley's done. And tomorrow could be a massive step. You know, no moral victories if it's a close loss, but it would be encouraging and it would show progress, even though, again, they played Ohio State in Michigan close last year, but they haven't played Ohio State closely in Columbus. I think the Terps hang in there. I think they lose a game that looks something like 38 to 28, something like that.

But I think they hang in there and they play a really good game. And the games this year against Michigan, Penn State, and Ohio State are the three games that they will be underdogs in. But they've got a chance to win the rest of their games and go 10 and 3 in the regular season and maybe go 9 and 3 in the regular season and maybe win a bowl game to end up with 10 wins, double-digit. wins. I know Maryland fans are excited about this tomorrow. A lot of Maryland fans are Orioles fans, too. They're excited about the Orioles opening up the playoffs at Camden Yards tomorrow against the Rangers as well. Busy sports weekend for sure. All right, let's get to the smell test. Last week, 8 and 7, 25, 22, and 2 on the year. Let me rip through these pretty quickly. Got a couple of Mac games, Mid-American Conference games.

for tomorrow. Nothing tonight. I like Buffalo tomorrow. Buffalo is a three-point dog against Central Michigan. Central Michigan's three and two. Buffalo's one and four. The line is super short. Public backing Central Michigan. Give me Buffalo plus the three. Bowling Green is catching 10 at Miami of Ohio. That line opened at 12. It's down to 10. A ton of sharp money on bowling green. A lot of public money on Miami of Ohio. Beautiful college town that Oxford, Ohio is. Some of you are familiar with Oxford, Ohio, and Miami of Ohio. I mean, just, you know, one of these perfect kind of Americana College small towns.

It's beautiful there. Anyway, Bowling Green plus the 10 against Miami-O. I like Purdue plus three against Iowa. That line is short. Iowa coming off a win over Michigan State. Purdue's been pretty good this year. They've been much better than I think people thought they would be. UCLA is laying three and a half against unbeaten Washington State.

UCLA is very good on defense. Washington State is a massive public play for the weekend in all of football. UCLA minus the three and a half. They're excellent on defense. I like A&M getting the points against Bama, plus three at home, against Alabama. I think Alabama is still a work in progress offensively. I think A&M is very good on defense. It's not going to surprise me if A&M wins that game and wins that game big. It's about time. They sort of live up to some of the expectations of this Jimbo Fisher era and all of their

number one recruiting classes and all the NIL money that they're doling out. I think A&M tomorrow is a good day for Aggie Land. I like A&M plus the three. George. is laying a big number to Kentucky. It's 14 and a half. I'll buy the half point and take Georgia laying the 14 against undefeated Kentucky. And then the biggest play, perhaps, of tomorrow, if it's not Washington State, is Michigan laying 18 against a Minnesota team that the public really deems to be pretty poor. There's some sharp money on Minnesota as well.

I'll take the gophers plus the 18. Let's go to Sunday. The opening game of Sunday is another international game. Buffalo laying five and a half against the Jags. I'll take Jacksonville plus the five and a half. They won last week in the international game. Buffalo coming off that big-time win, blowout win over Miami. There's a lot of expectations on Buffalo this week.

I'll take the underdog there. This one is going to make you wince and perhaps even get sick a little bit. The Giants plus 12 and a half at Miami. Miami is the biggest NFL public play of the day. Nothing's really close to it. Now, I'm going to give you a heads up on this. I want you to check in with me on Twitter before kickoff on Sunday. If that line goes to 13 and a half, 14, I'm off it.

I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it just would mean sharp money is coming in late on the dolphins. If that line stays at 12.5 or even dips a little bit, I'll stay on the Giants. But look, it fits the formula. You know, we saw it last night with Washington. The public just pounding the home team last night, and they're going to pound the dolphins because the Giants looked so awful last week. The Rams plus four at home against Philly and Dallas.

Yeah, Dallas plus three and a half. against the 49ers. The 49ers are a big public play, and there is super sharp money on Dallas. All right. That makes it, what does that make it? 11 picks for the weekend. Buffalo plus three. That's Buffalo in college football.

Purdue plus three, UCLA minus three and a half. Bowling Green plus 10. Texas A&M plus three, Georgia minus 14, Minnesota plus 18. and then the Jags plus 5 and a half, the Giants plus 12 and a half, just check back on that one. The Rams plus 4 and the Cowboys plus 3 and a half. All right, that is it following a very, very difficult night last night for a lot of fans of this football team.

That was a blow to the hopes that they would be, you know, more than just a middling team this year. year, you know, that they would sort of establish themselves with a win over a bad team in Chicago and maybe a couple of more against Atlanta and the Giants to get to five and two. And then who knows where that could go to. Instead, two and three, the ugliest loss by far of the year. One of the ugliest losses truly of the Ron Rivera era. You know, the Cleveland game at the end of last year was bad.

Remember at the end of the COVID year in 2021, they got blown out. in Dallas, 56 to 14. But those COVID games were strange. The Cleveland game was a massive disappointment for sure. Last night, though, in terms of a thorough beating, again, even though they got back into the game at the very end and had a chance, but that first half is one of the absolute, you know, start to end of half, one-sided beatings we've seen a Ron Rivera team take. There have been a few of them, but I don't know if anything resembles last night.

I think this was more equivalent to, although they got back into the game, but the Monday night massacre against Philadelphia in 2010, where it was, I think it was 28-0 at the end of the first quarter, but one play into the second quarter, it was 35 to nothing. That was a debacle. So was last night. Back at it on Monday, enjoy the football weekend.