The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley Offense Film Breakdown: Cardinals

Episode Date: September 22, 2020

Kevin and Thom to start the show. Thom wasn't as discouraged about the loss to the Cardinals as you might think. Cooley then joins the show with his "Film Breakdown" of the offense. He thinks Haskins has a long way to go. Also, 15 years ago last night....the Monday Night Miracle. Cooley was there and talked about it. 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.

Tommy and Cooley on the show today. Cooley's got his offensive film breakdown. But I want you to hear about Visa here for a moment. Visa knows that local businesses are the heartbeat of our communities, whether there are corner stores or coffee spots or favorite shops. Local businesses have always been there for us. They remember our orders. They call us by name.

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You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Yes, it is a sports fix Tuesday, starting with my old partner, Tom Levero. And then we will, on the back half of the podcast today, we will do Cooley's offensive film breakdown. So you get two in one, a hell of a menu today on the podcast. That is, that's a hell of a duo.

You know, it's very interesting because, you know, look, I, people have asked me, when, when I combined you and Cooley on the same show for the first time. I got a lot of, do Tommy and Cooley get along? I think people want to know that you get along, in part because they've enjoyed you and me together, and I'm talking about the people that have. They've enjoyed you with other people. They've enjoyed me with Cooley and other people. And, you know, the answer to that question is they actually don't really get along.

And it's not that they've really ever had the opportunity to get along. but if we're being completely candid here, you know, without going into detail, Tommy, when Tommy and I had the show and it broke up, part of it was because the station wanted me to go to mornings with Cooley. And it was just to be perfectly honest, it was a huge opportunity for me from a compensation standpoint difference. And I loved doing this show with Tom more than anything. It was seven and a half years of not one day where I walked out of the studio thinking, I don't like doing this. I loved doing it.

And then I loved doing the show with Cooley for two and a half years as well. Tommy always felt that Cooley pushed it and that because he wanted to be in mornings and he wanted to work with me, that it resulted in Tommy not being with the station anymore. And, you know, over the years, I mean, you've called them a couple of names. The virus was one of the names long before coronavirus was a nickname you used. And so to answer everybody's question, it's not that they don't get along, but I think that there is some animus there on your side anyway. Did I describe that fairly or not? I think that pretty much puts it in a nutshell.

Yeah. Okay, very good. Tommy is also on Zoom today. Let me just also mention that I think if Tommy and Kooley ever did work together in any way, just like I've always told Tommy that he would love Game of Thrones if he would give it a shot, I think that they would actually really enjoy each other's company in this format. But anyway, we start with just brutal honesty. Because I was asked that several times because it's the first time I've ever combined the two of you on the podcast. And I did it because Cooley needs the extra day here to do the film breakdown. And we are going to have another solution to that at some point. Not going to really get into great detail on that. But for now, you know, during football season, certainly while he's doing film breakdown, as long as the team's competitive and people care about the film breakdown,

we will combine the Tuesday show into two parts. Anyway, Tommy's on Zoom today. I did read some of the feedback with Cooley on Zoom yesterday. A lot of you liked it. A lot of thought that he thought he sounded a bit too tinny was the word used. Tommy, you sounded a little tinny to me when we were going through this before the show started. And you said what to that? I said, you know, if that's unusual, because my words usually are made of mine.

Yeah. I have, when I speak, their words of iron. So I'm surprised to sound tinny. Yes. Your words are made of F.E. And the, and the, the, the, the things that you say, of course, are made of gold. Almost always. Now that's, I'm paraphrasing a line from the outlaw, Josie Wales. Okay. there where uh where clean eastwood where the uh one indian says the clen eastwood i think you're i think he says your words are words of iron or something like that it's a classic line in the outlaw josie wales if you've never seen it please take the time to watch it one of clean eastwood's best westerns i know you love clen eastwood's movies and i've seen a lot of them i've not seen that one i've got a list tommy's you know basically over the years hit me with so many things that are blank holes for me

and I've done the same with him too. But, you know, some of the old movies are, I've got to catch up on. I did. So on Saturday, we did a little Zoom test with Tom. And he said, guess what I'm doing right now? Guess what I'm watching right now? And immediately I just said, oh, God, you are addicted to Rockford Files right now. And that, of course, is what you are watching on a beautiful, beautiful Saturday afternoon.

It was one of the most beautiful days of the year. And Tommy's in watching Rockford Files. I'd already been out for my walk by that time. I go for a two-mile walk every day. So I'd already been outside from my walk. I did my outside bit for the day at that point. What am I supposed to do, yard work or something? Have you continued to make calls to old friends and colleagues

because you've evaluated your life situation during this pandemic? No, I kind of stopped doing that. Oh, you did? I made about 80 calls all in all of people. Wow, 80. Yeah. But I kind of like stopped doing that because I got tired of calling people. But other than that, you know, I mean, I've still stuck to my Don King philosophy when it comes to doing time, trying to make time work for me instead of doing time.

You know, you've made 80 very meaningful calls, and I'm sure some of them, you know, you probably felt at the end of it you may have wasted some time. I, on the other hand, have played 80 rounds of golf during the pandemic. That is a, that's an exaggeration. But I was, CJ said to me this morning that he was like on round 50 since the pandemic started. I don't think I've played 50. I probably played 30 to 40 rounds of golf. golf, and it has caused Tommy for me an issue. I have something called trigger finger.

Do you know what that is? I'm familiar with it. I know a lot of guitar players who have had it. Okay. That's interesting because there is basically hobbies and or occupations that involve repeat hand usage where you've got like prolonged gripping. it increases this thing or the probability of this thing called trigger finger, which let me just explain to you, it's not painful, but it is uncomfortable. It's finger, it's more than just

stiffness in your finger. When you close your fingers in your hand and then you open it up, open your hand up, when you have a finger that's triggering, it literally clicks to get back or pops back into place. It's a very, disconcerting feeling. It doesn't hurt at all. It's just uncomfortable. It's definitely, this is now the third time I've experienced this in the last four years. Yeah.

The first two, I ended up getting cortisone shots, which solved it almost immediately. Like immediately within two days, it was gone. But I know what it's caused by. It's caused by, you know, golf in person. particular because there's a grip. Oh, Kevin, Kevin. What? Come on.

I told you a couple years ago, you got to stop choking the chicken so much. That's the problem. Well, I know that's been an issue with many during the pandemic. The problem is, of course, finding the time and or the place. But that's beside the point. But for me, it really is about gripping a golf club. I know it is because each time I've ended up having it has been at the end of the summer or the early fall.

and that is after a summer of playing more golf. And so I'm going to have to go get another cortisone shot. The only issue that I have with this is that the last cortisone shot I got, my orthopedic hand guy, Mustafa Hock, who's a great guy and a great doctor, right there in the Chevy Chase building in Chevy Chase. Mustafa is great. I actually had him on the show talking about somebody's hand injury, and I can't even remember when it was.

Anyway, he said, you know, after a couple of cortisone shots, it's then a surgical procedure. Because there are only so many cortisone shots you can get. Okay. Now, I want you to stop for a minute. Step away from what we just talked about and look at this photograph. You're a, what, a 50-year-old white male talking about your malady from playing golf. Right. and how you go see a Chevy Chase doctor to get a taking care of.

Okay. Okay. Whatever. Whatever. You know, the tears are pouring out over the DMV right now. Yeah. I love you, Frederick, guys. I really do. You know, but first of all, the cortisone shot just is so easy. You know, it's just, boom, pops it in there, and it's okay, two days later, I'm all good. I don't want to get my hand operated on. I don't want that to happen.

And so I'm wondering, and I'm going to call him here in the next couple of days, because it doesn't go away. Once it locks in and it's triggering and it's popping, it stays until you get it taken care of. I think on the cortisone shot, there's like a limitation, but I think it's in a period of time. And I think also, I believe that the trigger finger that I had was on the other, the other two shots I think I had were on the other hand. So I'm wondering if it's on this hand and I haven't had it, that maybe I will be able to get another shot to take care of it. Is this the thing that John Elway does commercials for? John Elway does a commercial for some kind of medicine involving his hands. And I'm not quite sure what it is.

Well, I mean, Phil Mickelson had the arthritic condition. I know. I know that that's psoriotic. I don't know the L-Way thing that you're talking about. Yeah, there's a commercial where Elway does for some kind of medication involving pain in his hands or something to do with his hands. Yeah, I'm reading about it right now. Yeah, I'm reading about it right now. It's not the same thing because this is fingers, not hands. Yeah.

I haven't seen this ad, but I just Googled it, and I see that he's discussed this hand issue. It's called D-U-P-U-P-U-Y-T-R-E-N-S condition. I don't know. Well, you go see your doctor feel good and get your shot, buddy. That's what I'm going to try to do. All right. Let's get Tommy's reaction to the game right after I tell you about Fubo TV, which actually is perfect for any of you that are living outside the market that want a cheaper version than cable,

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Go to FubotTV.com slash athletic today, and you'll get 15% off your first month. You won't regret it. That's fubotiv.tv.com slash athletic. start your first month today. All right, I want to get your thoughts on the game. I just wanted to mention a couple of things real quickly that Cooley mentioned yesterday on the podcast if you missed his breakdown and my breakdown collectively on the game yesterday. That's still available. And I apologize, we got it out late.

We had some technical issues, but we got it out a little bit later than we wanted. Anyway, the worst throw Dwayne made was that third and two on the first drive of the second half when Cam Sims got called for holding. I went back and watched that. That is a terrible throw. Dwayne airmailed that thing by four to five feet. That's a West Coast third and two. Joe Montana rolling out, throwing an easy conversion,

move the chains throw to Jerry Rice. I mean, John Taylor. I mean, that's what you see. And Dwayne isn't even close on that throw. It wouldn't have mattered because there was offensive PI on Cam Sims, but that was a bad throw. I also, sort of upon further review, went back and watched the three drives in which they scored.

I thought Dwayne was pretty effective. You know, yes, they went to quick game. It helped a lot. There was also some drop back during that drive as well. There's the third and one to Sims Jr., which was a huge play for them and a really, really good throw by Dwayne. That ultimately led to a touchdown. You know, that was the, when they challenged the 12 men on the first,

field situation that they had and that led to keeping that drive alive and they ended up scoring as well. I thought he was pretty sharp. You know, he had a couple of good throws to Inman. He had a couple of throws that were dropped. I mean, McLaurin dropped a ball that was catchable. You know, Cooley said it was thrown too hard and felt the one to Gibson was too hard as well, but he did drop those right in the proverbial bucket with dimes. I thought he was much better in the second half. Ron Rivera said yesterday that he's going too fast, that he's thinking too quickly, that he is seeing things, he is reading things well, but he's essentially chalking up some of the inaccuracy and lack of touch to him hurrying too much and being too excited.

I think that that's something that what you're hearing from the coach means that they like some of the things that he's doing, and this is something that they think can get fixed if he can just slow his brain down a little bit. By the way, I don't know if that's necessarily what I see. I see terrible footwork and lack of touch at times, but maybe it is because his brain is going too quickly. But the fact that Rivera implied that he is seeing things the right way and making the right reads is a good sign. He also said about Dwayne, look, we've put a lot on him. We've put a lot on him. And it's just his second game in this system. And he also said the same thing about Troy Apki, about two guys that didn't play much last year. I thought those were.

interesting comments. He also had a comment about the timeouts thing at the end of the game, which we'll get to a little bit later on. But Tommy hasn't had a chance to weigh in on Sunday's game. What did you think? Well, let me just start out from reading from the beginning of my column, which you can read on Washington Times.com slash sports. Well, you can read it if you don't have an antifa blocking device like Kevin does on his that prevents him from reading. reading the lengths. No, I have to pay for it now. I have to pay for it now. I've read too many of your columns in a month and I now have to pay for it. But go ahead. Oh, you know, it's pennies, but anyway, go ahead. Here's the beginning. It's a quote from a movie you're familiar with.

A lot of holes in the desert and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you got to do it right. I mean, you got to have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Oh, Nikki. Nikki, Nikki Santoro Casino, 1995. Then I wrote, did anyone think Washington football wasn't going to wind up in a hole in the desert on their trip to Arizona to play the Cardinals and that quarterback, Kyle or Murray, wouldn't have the hole already dug? I mean, that was it. It was Kyle or Murray. I mean, you know, he was great.

I mean, he just, he was the difference maker in the whole game. they just couldn't contain him. Whatever game plan they had, and I don't know, you know, if anyone can have an effective game plan of dealing with him. I mean, look at the receivers he has. He has Larry Fitzgerald and Hopkins. Yeah. I mean, that's just unbelievable. I mean, compare it out to the Washington receivers, you know, who we don't know anything about.

I mean, this guy has one hall, sure, hallfamer and another potential hallfamer on the other side of the field. No, he has two, he has two Hall of Famers. DeAndre Hopkins is going to be a Hall of famer. He may already with the career he's had already be a Hall of Famer. You're right. You're right. And so, and you have a quarterback in the second year of working in a system with his new coach. They're together working all last year. And now they're in the second year. So you saw the progress of all of that. I mean, I don't know anyone who expected them to go beat the Cardinals in Arizona. I certainly did.

Oh, I think a lot of people were, as you said, curious on Friday, but I think a lot of people had high expectations for the result. Well, that was foolish. I thought I never expected them to win it. I didn't expect them to beat the Eagles. I would consider that a gift after the first game. But the Eagles, it turns out, may not be as good as we think they were. So I mean, I think a lot of it had to do with just the inability to deal with Kyle

or Murray. As far as Dwayne is concerned, I didn't have a big problem with the way he played. I thought for the most part, you know, again, he did, he had to fumble on the sack, but he didn't throw an interception for the second week in a row. He didn't make it easy for the other team, you know, to, to win with field position. I think you saw. the limited weapons. He had a big fumble. Yeah, big fumble. I'll grant you that.

But, you know, he was under duress a lot of the game because he doesn't have much of an offensive line. And Branda Sheriff went out injured during the game. So, I mean, I think you didn't see anything from Dwayne that would make you think he can't play quarterback in this league. And you got to, and Ron Rivera is right. They are so early in their relationship and development. developing the Rivera offense, the Scott Turner offense, and a shortened preseason, only the second week of the regular season, that there's going to be a lot of growing pains along the way. But there was nothing to me to indicate that the quarterback is the problem. Okay. I liked what I saw from Gibson at running back. He potentially has, as a chance to be a very outstanding back for them. I'm still very questionable about the weapons once you get behind, you know, past McLaurin at receiver. And defense, it's hard to grade them because of Kyle or Murray. You know, they go to play Cleveland this week. Do I think?

they'll play that way against Cleveland? No, I think they'll, I think they'll be Cleveland. But there was nothing that surprised me in the game and nothing for me to indicate that this team probably isn't on the path to some kind of, as long as it's owner, you know, owner protected, protected from the owner stability on the football field. That's, wow, you've got them beating Cleveland. Cleveland's got talent. I know. They don't have Kyler Murray.

I know. Yeah, they don't have Kyle Murray. And that's a defense that had eight sacks. You know, I mean, Baker Mayfield may not be a statue, but he's not Kyle Murray. I said they're capable of beating Cleveland. I didn't think they were capable of beating Arizona. I just didn't.

Arizona beat the 49ers that defending NFC champions the week before in San Francisco. So, again, I think most of Ron Rivera said after the game and his follow-up on Monday is right about a lot of things. And I know that's difficult. It's hard for Washington football fans to swallow the same crap that they had to swallow for years, that they just have to be patient. But what are your options? Well, yeah, I mean, you don't have any. options. I think he was right about everything other than his response to the timeout situation, which I will get to, I promise, a little bit later on. I feel, first of all, I'm impressed

that you didn't bury the team, bury the franchise, talk about the oar of dysfunction, talk about how Snyder picked Haskins and he got it wrong, and that you are, you're exhibiting some patience, which is unusual for you. I think that there was some reaction from Sunday because they fell behind again for the second straight week, 20 to nothing. Last week it was 17-0. The quarterback was not impressive early on. He was uncomfortable. There was no doubt about it early on.

I think also there is this current environment of a lot of young quarterbacks doing very well, the one that played for the other team. on Sunday in Kyler Murray. Justin Herbert comes into his first game week two and throws for 300 yards for the Chargers when he's not even expecting to start. So we've had some young quarterbacks performing pretty well early on. Joe Burrow in his first two starts. I mean, let's put the brakes on Justin Herbert and Burrow, even though I think Burrough is going to be great. I love them coming out. It's not going to surprise me if he turns into an elite quarterback. But there are two things that I want to mention as far as Dwayne's concern. First of all, the question

that I asked on the phones this morning, Tommy, was how long do you give him? Because I do have this sense that there are there people out there that were ready to bail on him last year, that wanted to draft Tua this year, that wanted to sign Cam Newton this past summer, that, you know, just don't believe in him. And after two games, they don't believe in him even more. There's less belief in him. And by the way, I think there's more belief that the defense isn't going to be, you know, this big expectation of last year fall flat on its face, that there's actually an elite player in Chase Young and a potential decent defense and a potential decent coaching staff. So I asked the question this morning about how long do you give him? And, you know, it was split. Most

people sort of agreed with me, which is I'm not pulling him at all this year. And I'm going to give you some context that could change that view, but I'm watching him for 14 more starts. I'm giving him a full season with this new staff and these new players around him. And there's the possibility we'll get to the end of the year, and I may advocate for more time. I'm not discounting that and dismissing that as a possibility. But there are a couple of things. The young quarterback, other young quarterbacks that just look so much more of the part, Well, first of all, they're different style quarterbacks, obviously.

Kyler Murray is a completely different style quarterback. Lamar Jackson, you know, just different. You know, all of these young guys, Pat Mahomes, different, that look great. Keep in mind, Pat Mahomes sat for the whole first year behind Alex Smith. But I pulled Josh Allen as an example and as a comparable for Dwayne Haskins from this perspective, Tommy. Josh Allen's first 11, 12, 14, 15 starts were not good. His rookie year in 2018, he started 11 games. He threw 10 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, had a 52.8% completion percentage.

Terrible. He was not good. He was wildly inaccurate. He was already being called a bust of a pick. And what did he get picked? Ninth overall, I think out of Wyoming, something like that. And no one saw it. There isn't one person out there that can say, oh, I saw it with Josh Allen. I saw it coming.

There were games last year where he was terrible. And then he started to get better. And certainly the team around him got better. And it really got better this year with the addition of Stefan Diggs as a wide receiver. And now he's thrown for more yards in the first two weeks of the season than any quarterback in the NFL. He's also now started this season. He's 28th and 29th games as a professional. He has a very good defense around him. He's got a much better supporting cast. Devin Singletary is one of my favorites. They've got Diggs and Beasley and John Brown. So they've got a better supporting cast. And there's the perfect recent example. He's thrown six touchdowns, zero interceptions,

where Buffalo fans, NFL experts, were ready to bail on him after his first 11 starts. Dwayne just started his ninth game. Allen had the benefit of being with the same coaching staff. By the way, the head coach of the Buffalo Bills is Sean McDermott. Sean McDermott was Ron Rivera's defensive coordinator in Carolina for several years. You know, I don't see Rivera bailing here. I see Rivera absolutely staying the course.

But let me give you the context in which there could be some itchiness to consider it. What if, and I'm looking at the next couple of games, because they're going to play some good defensive teams. Burrow lit up a decent defensive team that gave up 38 in the opener and 30 in game two. I realize that. But the Browns have good defensive talent. Okay, they also, they played the Ravens and then they played a red hot Joe Burrow last Thursday night. But the Browns have, I think, one of the top three pass rushers in the game in Miles Garrett. Sheldon Richardson's good. They've got, you know, on the back end, they've got Denzel Ward who is going to develop into one of the best corners in the NFL. They've got some talent.

Let's also not forget that offensively they can run the ball. There's talent on that team with Landry and Beckham Jr., too, who I haven't even mentioned. But anyway, my point is this, or my potential situation that could cause some more angst in the fan base, less patience in the fan base, and maybe even a little bit of impatience from the coaching staff, would be if the following happens, Tommy. They lose to the Browns 10 to 6. The defense shuts down Chubb, shuts down Kareem Hunt,

shuts down Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. And they're in that game, and Dwayne doesn't do anything. He's terrible. He takes four sacks. He's under 50%. He turns it over once or twice, which would be a big deal,

and they lose the game. And then in week four, they get the Ravens, unstoppable Ravens. And the defense holds. them to 16 points, you know, and less than 200 yards rushing, because it seems like every week you check the Ravens out, they're rushing for 250 plus. And they lose 13 to, you know, 16 to 7 because there's no offensive help. And part of this also would include the division around them stinks. Dallas is one and three, Philly's O and four, the Giants are one and three, whatever. That situation,

could cause a lot of, what are we doing here? If we can just get some decent quarterback play, we can win this division. I don't know if he would succumb to that, but I think that's the only possibility. But let me just also say, I don't see Dwayne being the obvious only reason that they lose 10 to 6 games. Look, the first two games, Dwayne was playing from behind. early on. Okay. That's not on Dwayne. Some of it is. Some of it is, but most of it isn't. You know, I mean, in the scenario that you're painting, the defense holds tight. You know, the defense doesn't give up 17 first half points, or 20 first half points. And under those

scenarios, you might see a different, Dwayne Haskins. If he's down, let's say, 10-3 at halftime, as opposed to 20 to nothing or 20 or or 177 or something like that. So, I mean, I again, I don't think Dwayne is the problem. He may be ultimately, my issues with Dwayne Haskins have always been the potential for a disastrous relationship with the owner. I don't know. I've never been able to say that I don't think he's talented enough to play in the league. And I think you're right. You got, unless there's some kind of scenario where you're risking a chance to actually make the postseason,

I don't see how you just don't leave the ball in Dwayne's hands the whole year. One of the things I don't want to hear, though, is I just don't want to hear if there's an opportunity. First of all, they're not blowing a defense this year. The defense is in its infancy. The best player on the team just played his second game. So the defense is on the rise. They're going to have a chance to take advantage of this defense in 2021 and 2022. Mark my words.

The defense isn't going to get worse. It'll get better. I don't know where it will rise to, but it's not going to get any worse. I don't want to hear from people. I don't mind hearing it from the coach because I like setting the low expectation bar. But I personally don't like the, yeah, we're passing on this year because we're building for the future. it's the NFL. If you've got an opportunity, you take those opportunities and you try to make the most of it. And if they're in a terrible division and they've got a really good defense, if it turns out that they do,

and they're winning a couple of close games, low-scoring games and losing a couple, but they're not getting enough offensively from the quarterback position. That would influence me at that point. I just don't see that yet. Now, in these first two games, let's not forget, five punts in their first six drives against Philadelphia, and in the game on Sunday in the first half, they punted five times and they fumbled once in the red zone after the landing Collins turnover. So you don't, the offense has contributed to the deficits here in the first two games. They've been equally culpable in the first two games because you can't punt five times out of six drives and then five times in fumble in, so you've got

now ten punts. Ten punts a miscarriage. field goal and a fumble in your 12 first half drives. But you're painting a scenario where if that happens, the defense still holds. Yes, that's true. I'm just saying that the first two games weren't about the defense giving up the leads only. No, they weren't, but the defense did not hold. No, but the defense didn't.

Not the way I'm describing. No, no, it didn't. Right, I agree. But I do think actually the defense plays. played, you know, pretty well in the game yesterday. What else was I going to say? Okay, let me ask you about bench and Dwayne Haskins situation. I mean, there is a scenario where he throws a three interception first half.

Quarterbacks kept benched in those situations all the time. And come back and start the next week? Yes, they do. How do you think he'll handle that if that comes up? that'll be a test for him. It will be. See, you know, you made the point, and it's a good point. And that is that in these two games, even as they've been falling behind,

they're not falling behind. Now, they did have the turnover in the red zone, which, you know, you don't have to necessarily blame him for. He could have protected the ball better. He could have felt where the pressure was coming from a little bit better. But it's not like they're falling behind because he's pitching it to the other team over and over again. That's not what's happening here. But if that starts to happen, and really, I guess that's part of it.

That should have been part of it, is that, you know, the defense keeps them in these games and maybe even wins one, despite him because he tossed it to the other team three times and took six sacks when people were wide open. I don't see that happening, though. I really don't. It could. and I'm concerned, let me be clear on this. I don't think that Dwayne Haskins is going to be an elite quarterback in this league. Through nine starts, that would be a bet that I would actually feel safe making. But I also would feel pretty safe making a bet that he's going to be a starting quarterback for a while.

Now, where, you know, can it be in that 12 to 16 range? I think it can be. If he ends up being the back half of the league starting quarterback, Do you really want that? No, you don't. You'd have to consider moving on from that. But you're not going to find out if he's in that range that I think he can get to 12 to 16 after 9 starts. That's for sure.

I agree. And while last year, he's not a rookie, so he has the benefit of those starts, those seven games he started last season. But last season was such a mess. It was such a chaotic disaster. that any, and, you know, that you almost have to, you can't hold any, you can't hold anything that happened last year against him. You have to almost like judge him going forward this year. So, I mean, in a way, I said in my calm that the Cardinals are a year ahead of where

the Washington football team might like to be come next season. Yeah, the big difference is they have a real difference maker at the most important position. But I'm talking about the relationship between the coach, the offense, and the quarterback. You know, the Cardinals are a year ahead of where Washington would like to be at this point. Now, what about, again, my, you know, Dwayne has been a stand-up guy so far saying all the right things. None of the stupid immaturity that we saw from him last year. He didn't tweet. He's not tweeted at all after this loss.

So the test would be for him if he has a bad first half. And Ron Rivera benches him just for the half. What would his reaction be today? You know, knowing that it wouldn't, I'm not saying it would cost him his job, but those situations come up. He'd go from the league done messed up to the coach done messes. up. We might get that on social media. And, you know, I mean, but I don't think you will. I don't think you will. I think that he has a

different mentality. And I think Ron Rivera's presence is so far early on in a glimpse that we've got is enough to keep the owner at bay when it comes to screwing around with his football team. I think that's true. I think that's true. All right. Let me quickly tell you about Magic Spoon because this is actually something I'm excited to tell you about. Magic Spoon is a kind of a cereal. I think I mentioned to you, Tommy, a while back. I've been eating a lot of cereal during the pandemic. I rediscovered some sugar cereals like Captain Crunch, which weren't necessarily healthy for me. But my God, Captain Crunch, what a great cereal Captain Crunch is. But I've been eating a lot of cereal and I got sent Magic Spoon cereal prior to reading this spot because I am into cereal and I've always actually been into cereal. I'll eat cereal dry. Like I'll just, you know, pick from a cereal box, you know, during the day if I'm just snacking. I know that the high sugar cereals, that's not healthy. And that's where Magic Spoon comes in. Zero sugar, 11 grams of protein, and only three net grams of carbs each serving.

There are four flavors. I got sent all four of the flavors. Coco, fruity, frosted, and blueberry. I loved the blueberry, and I loved the chocolate, the cocoa. They were amazing. It really tastes great. It tastes like normal cereal. It's almost too good to be true.

It's gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, low-carb, and GMO-free as well. Go to magic spoon.com right now slash Kevin DC. That's magic spoon.com slash Kevin DC to grab a variety pack and try it today. And be sure to use my promo code Kevin DC at checkout to get free shipping. Magic Spoon's so confident in their product, it's backed with a 100% happiness guarantee. So if you don't like it for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. That's magic spoon.com slash Kevin D.C. and use the code Kevin D.C. for free shipping.

We thank MagicSpoon for sponsoring this podcast. A happiness guarantee, Tommy. I mean, how many people can give you, not even Ted Leonis can give you a happiness guarantee, even though he thinks he can? Yes, he can. In fact, he wrote the book on happiness. Oh, God. such a great book.

You know, if you don't know how to be happy, just pick up the business of happiness by Ted Leonces, because it's a wonderful lecture on how to become happy. In fact, there's a new addition with, I think, with new chapters added to it. And that's not true. You just made that part up. No, no, no, I think there is. Really? I'm not kidding.

I'm serious. I think there is because I think he's even happier now than he was when he wrote the book. Well, I mean, he does have a Stanley Cup, you know, title. That certainly would make him happier. Do you, I'm sure there are things where you add chapters to books. You got to be really confident that people want more chapters to the book. Don't you have to be?

Well, I mean, you just pointed out, I mean, a Stanley Cup, you know, when you win a championship? You know, usually part of the spoils is somebody writes a book about it. Yeah. Now, in hockey, you're not going to sell that many copies. So instead of writing another book, you just add a couple of chapters. I guess that's true. I wanted to ask you, you know, whether or not, so football on Sunday was amazing. It really was. The games were super intense. There were so many close games. There were so many incredible finishes, the Cowboys Falcons game, the Chiefs Chargers game, the Patriots Seahawks game. The Monday night game last night was really, I think, a revelation of sorts about Darren

Waller, the tight end for the Raiders. But anyway, the ratings, I think, are sort of mixed. They're up and some markets down and others. I've been trying to find the ratings. for this market for the two games that Washington's played so far, and I haven't been able to find them yet. But I have an issue right now, and last night really highlighted it for me. Something's missing from these games, and the something's obvious, and that is fans in this stadium. The games were great Sunday, but it's not the same, Tommy. It doesn't feel the same watching them. First of all, this piped-in noise is just off. Like, it's not right.

Like, I know this is a challenge, and I know the guy that's doing it here locally for the home games here. So he did the Philadelphia game. He's responsible for the piped-in television noise. Someone else is responsible for the piped-in stadium noise that the coaches and the players here. But, like last night, I'm watching the game. And this is Vegas and the debut of the Raiders in Vegas in this new stadium.

Like, their safety, Jonathan Abram, who is going to be a star player. He was part of that Mississippi State defense with Montes sweat a few years ago. He is really going to be a good player. Jonathan Abram, number 24 for the Raiders. I mean a fast, big-hitting playmaking safety. And he had a big hit on the Saints opening drive. And the cheering, the noise from the hometown crowd, basically got piped in two to three seconds after the play ended.

You know, so it was really off. And I've noticed that about a lot of games. It's just really off. And then when you get the shots of no fans, it sort of belies in many ways what's happening on the field where I think there's really, you know, meaningful intensity and energy in these games. I mean, you know, and the games themselves were great.

And the NFL, Tommy, good God. I mean, do they live a charmed life or what? But I'm, last night in particular, something's missing here. It's just missing. And I don't know why these teams that have basically written off the year with no fans. Washington's one of those teams. I don't know why they won't reconsider. I think, you know, even what Dallas had, a couple of the stadiums have had,

socially distanced, mask-wearing 15 to 20,000 fans is better than none. The none really, I think, is disconcerting. For me, it has been. Not that I'm not watching it, and not that I'm not betting on it. I had the Raiders last night, my only winner of the weekend. I just, I'm wondering if the league can really sustain this when there is a bit of an odd disconnect watching it. At least there is for me.

What do you think? It doesn't bother me that much. It bothers me more with baseball than it does with football, not to have the crowds. Football is more of a surgical laboratory kind of sport for me than baseball is. And that's only because of my upbringing. I mean, baseball, I mean, I didn't go. to an NFL football game until I was, I'm thinking probably 25, 26, you know?

I mean, you grew up going to football, so it's different. But I went to, you know, I went to Ebbets Field when I was three years old. So the crowd has more of an impact for me for baseball than it does for football. Not having the crowds there has not basically impacted my viewing. at all. I enjoyed watching last night's game. So it's just not at the same impact for me. Isn't it sad? Now, in Washington, I'm looking for this because I think the president of the team, Jason Wright,

has basically come out and said in his weekly address, according to Sam Fortier of the Washington Post, that Washington will not reconsider having fans back. Here's the reasons. Three reasons. One, sports accelerated the spread of COVID in Europe, COVID. So they believe that it contributes to the spread of the disease to have fans in the stands. Data is still coming in from NFL teams with fans in the stands.

And here's a big one. PG County, Maryland still caps outdoor gathering. at 250 people. Right. You have to deal with local legislative issues. I understand that. I understand that there are a limitation. They're different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

I don't know. The Ravens have chosen not to have fans so far, but I think they're planning on having some as the year goes on. But if there's a surge, I think that will put that away. But one of the big reasons that Washington isn't have them is because P.T. County, it doesn't allow it at this point. Yeah. No, I get that. Look, you've got 14, well, 15 weekends of football to go.

College football is going to change this coming weekend with the SEC starting, and Big 12 matchups. It's going to feel more like a college football Saturday if you're just walking, you know, by a TV, you know, and you've got, you know, Alabama playing Missouri, or you've got Tennessee and South Carolina at night, or you've got Kansas State and Oklahoma. It's going to seem more like the first three weeks of college football season have been just hideous.

I mean, you just haven't had any real games, and it just hasn't felt like a Saturday in the fall. This Saturday will, and then when we get to the middle of October, and the Big Ten starts, it'll feel even more like it. And I think down south, they're going to have fans. You know, I think LSU, I think, opens up this weekend with Mississippi State in Death Valley. I think there are going to be fans in Baton Rouge in that stadium for that 330 CBS game. So it's going to feel more like it.

I don't know. I think the NFL is going to have a problem with this. The ratings have been up and down. I did see the – I've been looking for local ratings. The only ratings I've been able to find, and I even called Scott Allen from the post the other day, just to see, because he usually finds some of this stuff. And I should probably call John Oran, too, because he usually has access to this. I wanted to see what the Washington numbers were so far, and they haven't been made available. But I did see the New York numbers, and they're the lowest in history in New York for the Jets and the Giants in the first two weeks.

Now, those teams are bad teams. and you've had baseball going, I mean, you typically have baseball, but you've got basketball. You had the U.S. Open this weekend in New York at Wingfoot. So there's been a lot of competition for the Giants and the Jets games, although the first giant game was on Monday Night Football. But my guess is, especially in an election, in a crazy election year, I think the NFL numbers are going to be way down as long as fans aren't in the stands. I think we're going to find out that we're interested in watching the games and the games are compelling and the whole thing. And we're happy it's on TV, but it's not feeling like the same. And there are going to be a lot of other factors, like I just mentioned, the election and the virus and everything else that will take away from the ratings.

But I bet you that the NFL has a bad TV ratings year. I think you're probably right. but because there are so many different variables, it's going to be hard to react to it. It's going to be hard to say, this is how we fix it. I mean, again, I think that there's maybe a small segment, but I think there's a segment of the population that have moved on from sports and may not come back, not with the same intensity they used to because, you know, of their life. lives with the virus. So there's so many variables, like you mentioned, with an election year to boot, that it's going to be hard to say, well, we need to do this to fix this. It's a stretch to think that people in the stands are going to have a significant impact on TV ratings.

Yeah. I mean, look, just numbers alone, if you take people out of the stands, it means the only way they can consume the game is to watch it. So from that standpoint, you get, you know, on average, 75,000 people, additional eyeballs to a TV set for a game if they're not in the stadium. But that's a big number. I mean, it's a number that could actually move the needle at least slightly. But I just, we'll see, we'll see. I watched football, you know, I'm wagering on football.

I'm glad football's back. It would seem really abnormal if football. weren't here, and there was a chance, remember, during the summer, we weren't sure that it would be back. But I'm glad it is here. It just seems different watching it. That's all. One last thing for you, Tommy, I saw this story very early this morning. And it's just, it's a quick reaction to it. I don't know that there's a long conversation about it. But Federal Express held their first shareholder meetings since the Washington football team changed. its name with, as we know, a lot of pressure from Federal Express to change the name and other

sponsors too. PepsiCo was a big part of that Bank of America and others. Nike that really pressured in the face of a completely different world environment after George Floyd to change the name. Well, Fred Smith and Federal Express held their first, you know, shareholder meetings since that happened. And people, you know, express. dismay over their pressuring of Washington to change its name. Fred Smith actually read one specific shareholder letter who said that, you know, why, you know, you've alienated wide swaths of customers who are sick to death of loud performative wotness.

And they want, others, you know, wrote in or said, Just focus on your core business. This should not have been an area for you to be involved in. Now, Fred Smith himself, as a, by the way, minority shareholder in the organization, did not respond to some of these criticisms. But the FedEx chief marketing officer, his or her name, I think it's Bree Carrere. I'm going to assume it's female, said, quote, the company evaluates all marketing sponsorships through our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We appreciate very much the Washington football team's decision to change its name and its logo.

And please remember that it was the team's decision. It is also important to remember that at FedEx Field, we have a great opportunity to host a wide variety of sports and entertainment events and activities. We value very much our sponsorship of FedEx Field, and we look forward to the next steps of the team's rebranding. It's also important to remember that, you know, this was a team decision. Well, the team would not have made the decision without the pressure from Federal Express and other sponsors. We always knew from day one, once there was the threat of lost revenue, significant lost sponsorship revenue, that's when something might happen, might happen.

Yes. That's what I thought was going to happen four or five years ago when the, casino when the Indian casino boss Ray Hallibati? Yeah, the Oneida Nation guy, yeah. Right. When he got heavily involved in this, I thought he had the resources

to pressure corporate boardrooms. That never did happen. So, you know, the circumstances no one could have predicted in this country changed all that. No. Not at all.

I got one last thing. Okay. I want to do a rest in peace to the craziest white man to ever make the scene in the American music history. And that's Roy Head. Roy Head died at the age of 79. He had one hit single, a great hit single called Treater Wright, a fabulous song, a legendary performer. I urge you to Google Roy Head for some of the video. of him on stage.

Some of the stories about this guy behind the scenes, including getting beaten up by Elvis Presley's bodyguards after biting Elvis on the ankle in a fight that they had. Yes, yes. This was one crazy SOB, but what a great performer. What are greatest performers of his time? Roy Head, check him out on YouTube. I'm going to be totally honest with you.

I'd never heard of him. I just Googled him. He's got quite, you know, the discography, which takes him into the 80s, actually. I thought you were going to hit me with a guy that was basically like the 50s and 60s, which he's got a lot in the 60s as well. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, the one last thing, when we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, we talked about TV.

I'm urging you, Kevin, to watch. watch Sneaky Pete. I know I've heard it's great. You love it. We just finished watching the third and final season. It's it's a show made for you right up your alley. You got to watch it. Okay. What are you going to do for me then? What are you going to watch for the, that I've just did something for you. I told you to watch Sneaky Pete. I know. And I've tried to do things for you in the past and you just ignore them. I don't need anything. You're the one who needs help. No, I don't need anything. I have found lots of things that I've tried to do. You're the one. You're the one share with you.

You're the one with your hands all crumpling up. See you. We'll talk on Thursday. All right, boss. All right. Coolie's next right after this word from Indochino. Hi, this is Paul Tenorio from The Athletic. When I buy dress shirts off the rack,

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who's not on Zoom today, as he was yesterday. He is back on his phone. We're going to get these things figured out. It's, I don't even know how to explain what we just went through over the last 15 minutes, but we decided to just move to the phone, and we'll do it this way today. Coolie's got his offensive film breakdown coming up. I, two things I wanted to do before you started your film breakdown. Number one is, do you know that 15 years ago last night was the Monday Night Miracle in Dallas, the Mark Brunel twice to Santana Moss, and what really is coolly for us fans and, you know, rivalry historians, if you will, it's a top five to top 10 all-time skins cowboy game. And the funny thing about that game is it was such a terrible game

through the first three quarters in 12 minutes. It was 13 to nothing, and you guys couldn't get anything offensively. You hadn't scored a touchdown yet because you opened up the season the previous week with a 9 to 7 three-field goal win over the Bears. But that was a really, really special night with Brunel to Santana Moss at the end. What was it like to be a part of that? Now, this is when you find out about your offense and defense. I mean, this is what good offense is when you can make plays in this situation.

Good defense is when you can stop those plays. From the 30. Brunel going deep for Mawson. And he makes the touchdown. Wow. And again, it's Lynn and Williams on the coverage. He beats the same two guys. Unbelievable.

He just outran him. And Mark Brunel got it out there. That's what I say, this is offense, this is defense. You can play great defense a whole game, but you have to make a play here. You can play lousy offense a whole game, but you have to make a play here. And the team that makes the players, the team is going to win. 70 yards to Moss, and so the Redskins go almost two full games without a touchdown, and then they get them back to back, and the extra point will give them the lead.

It was hot. I played pretty average in that game. We expected to play better offensively. Brunel never quit, though. I always remember that. Let's just go to our attitude. Our defense played great. Sean Taylor played great in that game.

The defense was outstanding throughout the entire game. And Santana made two big plays over the top. I remember being exhausted at the end of the game. It was a tough game that we played. I mean, it wasn't good offensively, but it was so hot in Dallas. that old stadium. And it was one of those deals where we kind of walked off the field and went,

okay, we won. It didn't feel offensively. It didn't feel like we won. You made two plays in the game. Essentially, that was it. You had two catches for 20 yards. I had Sean Springs on the show this morning. The first thing he said was, I remember it was really hot.

And I was watching some of it on YouTube last night, Monday night football, Al Michaels, John Madden. as you just heard one of the plays from the game. And it was 100 degrees on the field, 100 degrees. It was far from fall in Texas, and it was only week two of the season. But it was really one of the more shocking games in cowboy redskin lore.

It was just so out of the blue. No one expected it. There were so many people in this city, Cooley, that turned it off and didn't see it and didn't find out about it until the following morning. Well, that's the disadvantage of living on the East Coast. You've got to stay awake late for football games. If you were out here in Wyoming with me, man, it would have been about 10 o'clock that that would have happened. You'd have been wide awake, pumped up as could be.

Yeah, I think. But no, everyone, when we got home, I remember so many people telling me they woke up and looked at the score and went. What? What? So it was fun. I remember a lot of games that we won, getting on planes and having fun. Everyone was exhausted. Gibbs was so happy at the end of that game. Clinton Portis, and I think, I don't know who the –

I'm trying to think of who the other person was. It was Clinton Portis, and maybe it was James Thrash who, you know, poured a Gatorade bucket over the end, over top of him at the end. And he's jumping around and Clinton's grabbing him from behind. He was so fired up, at least at the end of that game. Parcells comes over. They exchange a very, very quick, you know, handshake. They barely even looked at each other. I mean, that was a rivalry between the two of them.

and it was such a meaningful win for the fan base. It really was. It was huge, I think, for all of us, too. It was one of those games. I hadn't been a part of a lot of games that you shouldn't have won. I'd been part of some games in college in the first year that we'd given up a league, but not games that you shouldn't have won that you ended up pulling out in the end. So it was fun.

It was a good game to look back on. But, I mean, for me, it's just those two throws were perfect to Santana. And you knew Brunel was gassed at the end. And he was however old he was. And it just happened, man. Those two guys made two plays, and that was it. That's really what it was. That's what the game came down.

Defensively, you can talk about a bad game, but defensively, they were out there. Yeah, they were. And it was really one of the first games where Sean Taylor was very obvious what he was going to be. he destroyed Patrick Creighton on a third down play. The Cowboys, you know, last three-third-down play. And then Walt Harris made the final play of that game. And, you know, stopping Glenn, I think it was, on a catch. And it was a crazy, crazy 14, 13 Monday night win.

You know, in the annals of Cowboys skins, that's on the list. You know, that's on the top 10 list. I mean, there have been so many of them. But it just fits in with what the series has always been about, and that is when you least expect it, expect it. You just never, and still to this day, when both of those teams play, there's something, even though the players are different, there's just something that leads to an unexpected result more times than not. And that one was unexpected. Why are you going to use your timeout, play? You just never know. Yeah, we're going to get to that here in a moment.

Oh, yeah, he already got to that. Actually, I do want to get back to the Rivera thing, because Rivera quoted Hemingway yesterday about, you know, those that actually fight bulls in the arena and those that narrate it or write about it. Actually, we can respond to this right now. He basically said, you know, for those of you that aren't in the arena fighting the bulls and in the midst of it, don't question me, which, look, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

It's a honeymoon period. But I did want to mention this one thing, Christopher, and that is if you Google Ron Rivera clock management, you get pages and pages of stories and blogs and things that he did in Carolina that drove Panther fans nuts. So he's had a history of this. And one of the reasons TEPA, the new owner in Carolina, a big analytics guy, I think he was ready to move on from Ron, is because Ron's old school, which, by the way, I love the old school nature.

I think the straight math analytics people are crazy. I think there's so much context in this sport to every decision that it's a piece of information. It's a tool. It's not a Bible. But when he said what he said yesterday, I just thought to myself, hey, Ron, look, you can't say that you made the right decision and then explain why you made the right decision, but your actions on the field actually went against it. You screwed up. It's okay. It's all right. By the way, if you want to be in the ring fighting the bull, then call your damn time.

outs and fight the damn bull until the end. And that way, those of us that are just writing and yakking about it won't have anything to talk about. Anyway, I've said my piece on that. Do you have anything on that before you start your film breakdown? I think you put it perfectly. If you're going to fight the bull, you've got to wave the little thing. You've got to play a Matador. You've got to have fights. You've got to stick. I don't know much about bull fighting. I'm not going to go much further on that. But, yeah, I mean, don't question me on my film breakdown because I'm right.

And that's how I stand on it. And that's how Ron stands on it. But here's what I'm willing to, here's what I'm willing to concede. You can believe that I'm wrong, and I got no problem if you criticize it or judge it. And as a head coach, as a quarterback, as an analyst, as a football player, as anybody in the public eye, you're going to get judged. and you're not always right. And some of the decisions could have been right decisions.

His wasn't. His was the wrong decision, in my opinion. It wasn't an overwhelming win-lose decision at that point. No. But at the same time, nobody wants to see that, and nobody likes putting football into the process. What's about the process of getting better? Really, this was a practice for us.

Ultimately, we went to Arizona, no one we're going to get our ass whooped. And thinking that if we were in a ballgame, wait, that we would play a ball game. But because we weren't, we just said this is a practice game. You know, then there's all the COVID stuff and everything going. Everything's crazy. We went out there and thought, let's get a little bit better today. This is really about next year and the year after that and the culture and the process. This isn't about winning football games right now.

Come on. Everyone should know that. No question me. Yeah. That is, I mean, that's sarcasm, and I'm with you on it because I'm all four. a long-term plan. But this is the NFL, and you get 16 shots at it, and you're there to try to win the football game. Don't tell me you're there because you've got this three, four, five-year plan, because if that were actually true, then at the end of that game, you would have seen more

young players, more players that hadn't gotten action, to protect those younger players that you were concerned about getting hurt, that were in the midst of a three-and-a-half-quarter development process. I'm with you on that. I wanted to ask you one more thing, actually. I lied. One more thing before we get to the film breakdown. I did the following call segment this morning. How long do you give Dwayne Haskins?

Because there is definitely a sense in the fan base that he's not the guy. There are some that feel that way. I don't feel that way yet. I don't. But some do. And I think, and you said this yesterday, you got to give him the rest of the year. And so we're on the same page on that. I wonder whether or not there is a situation.

whereby they might get a little fidgety and get a little impatient. And the situation would be this. Winning 10-7, losing 13-3, then losing 17-7. Dwayne's turning it over. He's making mistakes. The defense is proving to be a juggernaut and capable of being a playoff deep into the playoff defense. Do you think that that is a context that could create some impatience with Rivera and Scott Turner and the staff? I think there's absolute context to the decision.

I just don't see them being a truly relevant playoff team 12 weeks into this season. I think you get to, let's say, five and five, and Duane is no part of why you want. won five games, but potentially a big part of why you lost five games, which I think he was a big part of why you lost this last game against Arizona. I also think the offense, and in general, the way it was called, and maybe that's because of Duane, was a big part of why you lost against Arizona and why you couldn't score points. Also, Kyler Murray was over there. But if you're still available and there's an opportunity to win down the stretch, and you believe that Duane isn't the right guy to win down the stretch, then that's the end. I mean,

to me, I think that's the point where you've seen enough of Dwayne Haskins moving forward. I don't think you would keep him into next year at that point either way. But you don't see that happening. But ultimately, if you're two games back at any given time halfway through the season where you're probably not in it, then no, I think that you're giving Dwayne the entire season. But there is context to it, Kevin, because you do want to grow as an offense. And if you believe that Kyle Allen could come in and give your offensive spark where the guys really start to feel it and see it the way it's being coached, that your coordinator can expand on what they're doing, then you should make the change. But you don't see that happening.

I just want to be clear on that. I don't see it happening because I don't see them winning enough games early to make that happen. but you never know. If this defense really is that good and they continue to get better, then maybe. I still also don't think there's enough pieces on defense to be consistently that good.

I think there are too many holes, although I think they could be so good next year if you were to add a legit free safety, another DB and a big-time linebacker. If you were ad, and I don't think you can't win with this defense that you have now, I think you absolutely can, and they can have some big.

attempt games, but I do think there are a couple holes defensively where they're going to allow too many plays. And ultimately, to me, having to score 20 plus a week for this offense is unrealistic. If the defense isn't scoring or turning those other team over and giving them good field positions, I don't see this offense taking three drives down the field to full field and scoring three times. All right. That sounds like a perfect segue to get to your film breakdown right after I tell you about erectile dysfunction. Yeah. it's not easy to talk about it. Usually we just brush it off or blame ourselves saying things like, you know,

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So this will be an interesting film breakdown, and I think it has a lot to do with Dwayne. I also think it has a lot to do with the offense and the way the game's called and the versatility of the offense. And before we get to the film breakdown, I thought it was really interesting reading an article in the post by Les Carpenter,

where Ron Rivera is talking about Dwayne Haskins, and essentially saying, one, is he asking too much of his team, or his assistant coach is asking too much of his team, are they pushing Duane too fast? Also saying Duane gets too hyped up before games, we've got to settle him down, and then essentially that everybody in the second half can see, or everybody can see in the second half,

that he starts making plays. He's been dreadful in the first half of the both the last two games. In this last game, he was 9 to 16 for 66 yards, then he had a pumble. He's much better in the second. half. But he was never great in this game. I think my overarching theme of this offense is that at this point, it's a high school

playbook. It is really simple. Now, I'm not saying they don't have more plays and they don't have more things that they can get to, but they are running the most simple, basic concepts. So much of it has to do with just underneath basing. three, four guys sitting at five yards, slants, flat, RPO's. There is no complexity to the passing game. Really, there's very, very little complexity to the passing game,

and it extends all the way through third down, and it really extends into very, very basic run-action pass concepts as well, which they don't get too often. So to me, you're asking, is Scott Turner really slow playing this for what reason? Is it because he doesn't believe Duane can handle or process more than they're currently giving him? Is it because he didn't have enough time installing through the offseason with his team? Does he not have the complexity as a play caller?

I doubt that. I really do doubt that. But ultimately, Kev, I see very little, very little diversity in the passing game. And when you have guys that can get downfield, I can carry a lot. McClor and Sims Jr. You've got to get them down the field. You've got to get your quarterback to be able to take those shots down the field, and you've got to find ways to make some bigger plays.

They are not good enough to operate, taking five and six-yard gains, three-and-four-yard gains, and trying to run after the catch. If it's not Terry, they're not getting run after the catch. If it's not screen to Sims, they're not getting any of those quick plays. They actually ran the ball pretty well in this game, and I don't think it was gimmicky because of the second half. They average 5.1,

Kerry and Gibson and McKessick were both good. The run game, I thought, was actually a good plan going into this game. And there was some good run diversity in this game. So I'm thinking you're probably sitting

here suggesting that this is what Duane's comfortable with at this point in the season, as far as offensive complexity. Okay. But I just think that that is true, but I think the reason, and you suggested it could have been a reason, is a very unique and very

limited off-season with a new staff? Yeah, I would agree that there could be a limited off-season. And I would also say that a ton of the meetings, ten of the things they've done are Zoom meetings or Zoom calls, are not in the facility-type meetings. I don't know how much time Duane's spending with anybody in that building. in the offseason or in any given week. I've got to assume it's a lot at this point right now. But, man, it's really not good enough to win in the NFL at this point.

It's so hard and it's funny because I think this is a really interesting comment that Rivera made in its opening press. All they have to do is what we're asking them and we'll win football games. Well, I remember when Jim Zorn was asking his team to run a non-complex offense where we did the same things of the same formations and essentially you're saying they're really good on the other side of the ball and if we don't continue to build on what we're doing, it doesn't matter how good we're operating. We can't just out-operate them.

We're not Bill Walshing them because you're not giving us a chance to you're not creating different formations and looks. I think all that Scott Turner is trying to do right now is disguised with motion and shift. And essentially, what you're going to end up getting is just numbers counts at the end of the shift or at the end of the motion. And you're going to say, in certain number counts, in certain splits, we're going to get these routes up. And I'm not sitting here saying that it's incredibly predictable run pass. I'm not sitting here saying that you know exactly what's coming. I think he's done a decent job of mixing run path. I think he's done a good job of integrating

some of the run-action pass when he needs to. I just think as far as when you know you're throwing the ball, there's just so little in two games that the defense has had to make adjustments to. Okay. So let's get to Dwayne Haskins. I want to start with one play in general, and I've been talking about the offense. Really, I'll start with a couple plays.

Before I go to all the positives and negative, there's a third down and 10 sack on the fifth ride. it's the sack that took them out of field position. It's one of the ugliest plays of all time. They're running on a third and ten really quick game. They got two five-yard stick routes on the inside, and on the outside, Sims looks like he's running a go.

Could be an out-and-up. Maybe they were going to out-and-up on the outside, but out-n-ups on the outside with Terry and did. Third and ten, no one's jumping a five-yard, out route. There's literally zero separation whatsoever. The back has to stay in the backfield for blitz. Dandy Golden looks like he's blocking. He's getting so deep up in man-to-man coverage. And you're like, where do you want him to go with the ball initially? And so this is a problem for the quarterback, but then at the same time, you know, the quarterback got to understand the

situation he's in. And Duane ends up trying to scramble out to his left. The pocket it's not terrible, but he's trying to scramble out to his left, and he scrambles right into a stunt. And it's just bad. It's dirty pool offense. It's dirty pool offense. I'm watching it now. There is nobody open on the coaches film. Nobody open. So here's nobody, no, there's nobody open. But here's the next thing that I've come to the conclusion to, and watching Duane this year and a lot of last year. And also there was a sack early in the game

that on a first and 10 that took him to a second 19 were stepped up to his left and got sacked pretty quick. Duane can't scramble to his right. Think of all the Duane runs. To his left. He moves and flushes to his left. So if you watch what Arizona does on this play, to Duane's left, they stunt their defensive end down inside hard,

and then they loop the detackle. And their loop de-tackle is really the contained player. They're actually enticing him to flush to his left because they think if he stepped up to his left, then he's going to run left, and they have a player there for him. They've actually created a look where they're forcing Dwayne to move left. They're going to sack him right there. And that's one of the problems when the quarterback, like, last week,

he sees man-a-man coverage, and he feels like he can run. He'd get out of the pocket and just take off. Well, this is a good job by Arizona. They did this a couple times, got a couple sacks out of it, where they crashed their defensive end on that side and just had a loop player, and Duane fell right into it, and it was a sack. Yeah. He needs to understand this.

They need to understand this offensively, that if he can't move up in the pocket to his right, which he struggled big time with, then everybody's going to rush accordingly. They're going to force him to scramble left. They're going to play man coverage. They don't believe anybody but Terry can separate against man coverage, and they don't think Duane's going to see.

anything in front of him. No problem if he can't step up and move to his right. Why can't he step up and move to his right? Why would that be? I just think he just think he feels comfortable moving to his left. I'm not sure why. In part, it might be because I don't think he likes to drive off his back foot and throw. I think he likes to open his front foot, his left foot. I think he always likes to open it. And moving to his left, it allows him to open his hip, take his left foot and pivot it backwards to make his throw.

I doubt he's ever thought about any of this, and this could be completely untrue, but to me, I don't see him driving that front foot forward. I always see him throwing it with it open. And so when he starts to move to his right, he's got to open his back foot up and almost square his hips to the line of scrimmage. Think about the next play that I'm going to talk about,

which is the next ugliest play on offense. it's a third down in two where Tam Sims Hold on for one second before you get to the third and two. The really interesting thing about what you've described, which is really, really interesting, the flushing left,

because I sort of envision that over the nine games that he's played. And the sort of default, if he's going to move to the left, think about the scramble in this game, it was to his left. Think about the big run last week. It was to his left.

There's a big, hole to his right on this play, where if he does scramble right against man coverage, he's potentially, if he can get out of there quickly enough, he's going to have an opportunity. But I think the other thing about this play, and this is a play that I've been very critical about, you can't take the sack. He could unload it as he flushes left. He's outside the pocket, even though he's not outside the hash. He's outside the pocket because that play starts on the right hash.

and he could unload it quickly, you know, in the direction. He didn't expect the stunt. He didn't expect the stunt. That's what I was going to say. It surprised him. He felt the defensive end crash and it surprised him. It had already happened early in the game. He'd already taken a stack early in the game on the same defensive look.

Yeah. Okay. Your third and two, which third and two? The one that Cam Sims play? To me, goes hand in hand with Duane just a little bit on this play, and this is kind of why I tied them together. It was the Cam Sims OPI. Rolling right.

But he's rolling right. If you watch that third and two, where Duane's rolling right, he almost has to jump back running right. He's almost got to jump backwards and make this weird, awkward jump throw where he's rotating his body the wrong way to make the throw. Jumping almost backwards to open his hips to almost square them to the line of scrimmage to make a throw outside of him to his right. Yeah.

So I just do not think he's ever comfortable making any throw where he's driving moving forward to his right side. Interesting. Interesting observation. This is, yeah. All the throws need to be squaring its hips to the line of scrimmage, where if you think of normal technique of the quarterback, your hips would be perpendicular to the line of scrimmage as opposed to almost always trying to get parallel to the line of scrimmage

when you're making these strokes. Yeah, this is not... So I think those plays go hand in hand. I think a lot of the incompletions that he has goes hand in hand with technique as a passer. I mean, if you freeze frame this West Coast, you know, Montana to Jerry Rice third and two play with a little bit of pick action, which, you know, it's a penalty on the pick.

He didn't even need to pick him. He was going to be wide open. He didn't even need to put his – Sam Sims did not even need to put his hands on the DB. The DB was going to run with him, man, man. There's a freeze – The fence was already created. I freeze Dwayne with just the most uncomfortable-looking setup for this throw on the move.

and he jumps, he jumps to make the throw. And he, it's a touch throw to a wide open guy, and he sails this over his head and outside. Like, it's not just sailed over his head. It misses wide, right, and high by a mile. My suggestion to Scott Turner would be that this is actually still a very viable play that's good play. For most quarterbacks, you're very comfortable rolling to their right.

rolled the way and left on this type of play. He can throw the ball moving to his left. Same thing. Last week, he's rolling right and misses Terry McLauron on a wide open crossing route, throws it behind him by two feet. He has no accuracy moving to his right. Moving to his right. Throwing to his right from, you know, in quick game and stuff is fine. It's still not as good as to his left.

And if you really start to look at a lot of its completion, they're left to middle. Okay, continue. Okay. So we'll go through the positives here with DeWain Haskins before we get to some of the negatives, and then ultimately the grade. Look, almost every throw completed was short and to the left. I think he had one slant on the inside to Terry McClellan that Terry scored on. That was a big time throw.

he had the scramble on the first drive of the second half for nine yards that ended up being a pretty good play. I thought he had Terry open on a crasser on that. I had a boot in the second half where he kind of checked it down to Thomas. That's a good play. I like to see him just find the open guy in front of him. Later in the game, to me, he had the sideline throw to Terry McLaren on the go ball that I thought was a very good throw. I thought Terry had to come down with that. It's not absolutely perfect, but he put it where his receiver could get it.

I thought that was a good throw. I thought the sideline throw to Gibson in real time was a bullet and was tough to catch. If you think, I think fourth quartered Gibson running down the right sideline, Gibson makes a terrible adjustment with his hands there. That balls on the money. We'll get to that with Gibson. And that's also a progression through the pocket where Gibson's probably the fourth read. I thought his best throw of the day was in the fourth quarter.

It was a third and ten. He split in the pocket and threw a dig to Inman on the left side. Yeah. To me, that was a pretty good throw. And then his other best throw, he hit Sims Jr. on a corner route right after the challenge, after the Rivera challenge, that took him down inside the red zone. So there's some good throws there. I mean, there's some good throws there. He can make good throw.

He's just too inaccurate. That's where we're going to get, and that's ultimately what I'm going to get to is I get to the negative. So I'm watching this game, and I'm well into the third quarter, and there has not been a ball completed over 10 yards. In fact, he only completed two passes throughout the day over 10 yards. The one that ended up being towards the middle to Inman on the 3rd and 10th, and the 1 to Sims on a corner of. Right.

That was it. Right. I mean, you're like two of 12 down the field. can't win a football game that way. I told you Arizona was good on the outside, but that doesn't mean that you can't attack the middle of the field, that you can't take a couple more shots. And there were, Kevin, there were a couple more shots available for Dwayne to take in this game.

I wanted to just make this one comment, so I don't forget. The third and one is a throw to the right corner to Sims, you know, after the challenge. And he's not moving to his right, but he's a little bit fidget. in the pocket, and then he delivers a perfect ball. Yeah, it was a great ball. Yeah.

Okay. It was. It was a great ball. All right. All right. So let's go through the game, negative, and this will be essentially progressively throughout the game. The first drive, third down and six, has an overthrow out to his left.

It's not a bad ball. It's a possible catch, but it's still, it's a high ball. It's an overthrow a little bit. And those balls in tight situations have to be on the money. They just have to be on the money. I thought it was catchable by Thomas. It would have been a great catch, but I thought he had a shot. He did have a shot.

And I'll get to that with Thomas because I'm going to question Thomas' hands a little bit. And maybe not his hands as much as his ball adjustment in the air. It's still not a great ball. Okay. Agreed. He takes a sack on the second drive on a first. and 10. He's not even looking to throw the ball down the field.

If you pull up, I think they've gotten a first down on the second drive, and then there's a first and 10 that he ends up taking a sack. If you pull up that first and 10 play, Terry McCorn is screaming open on a corner route. It's man-a-man coverage of the safety in the middle of the field, and Terry McCorn is wide open. It's the throw. There's not a question. He doesn't look at him.

If he looks at him, he's going to make the throw. But essentially, he's looking to throw the ball underneath in that situation. He's got to be looking to throw the ball, especially in man-to-man coverage, down the field first. It's a first in ten. Throw the ball down the field. Beyond that, he ends up taking a sack. This is terrible movement in the pocket. I've described that stunt on Duane's left side.

He just sees man-to-man, and he starts to flush left. There is no way that Dron Christian can understand that he's going to be there when he gets there. If he just sits in the pocket, they pick this up. They picked a stunt up just fine. He runs right into the set. Yeah, he did. And because it's man coverage, you can't just run and flush left. Teams play that.

They saw that against Philly. They've watched that last year. They understand that if he's going to flush, he's going to flush left. So let's entice it. Let's crash that defensive end so he feels like he's got an edge to run left against man-to-man-man coverage. And then we'll loop right into a sack. It was a good design by Arizona, but that's a bad sack. Now you're sitting there in the second and 19 when you should have had a 30-yard completion to Terry McCorm.

Yeah, Terry. They pointed that out on the TV copy that McCloren breaks free right from the line of scrimmage, and he's got to be the guy you throw to, and it's a massive play. It's a massive play. So they get back to, after a good run, they get back to a third and ten on that second drive, and he throws what looks like a really dangerous ball. to Terry McCorn in the middle of the field. Terry McCorn gets banged by Patrick Peterson

and essentially falls down. I wanted to describe this play because it's really interesting the way you coach these plays and sometimes how things can work. The Cardinals are bringing a five-man pressure, right? And so the safety's understanding that he's probably going to get a ball out early.

On the left, they're running too deep in-rout on the outside, and then Stephen Sims, Jr. is going down the middle of the field. He's diving in front of the safety's face, the single high, the free safety in the middle field, diving in front of a safe. Well, that inside route is always coached to run through the inside shoulder of the safety. Try to pull the safety with you. If Sims just splits the hashes, there is no way that safety sitting on that route can cover it. So it's really interesting how you coach it. I mean, this is the way it's coached. The way it's always been coached for me, but essentially this is make a play when there's a play available.

that safety on that other side or in the middle is really hedging towards Terry just attack right down the seam and Sims is going to be wide open he's thrown to McLaurin Duane is I'm not I didn't downgrade Duane on this play but I just wanted to say like this is where you start to operate offensively the play within the play if Sims takes this vertical on the third and ten there's no way anyone's run with it it just seems that it's an odd looking play because both of those receivers are just too close to each other. Well, and so the reason that Sims is too close is because he's been coached to attack the

inside shoulder of the safety. It's a, they call it like a through route, like you're going through the safety. You're trying to pull the safety, so he runs with you. You want to take him out of the equation. Well, once you're not going to take that safety out of the equation, take it deep. The safety is almost just sitting at 12 yards in the middle of the field, almost like a Tampa linebacker. Like, he's playing the middle of the field.

Essentially, Kevin? He's betting on the fact that Duane is not going to throw the ball down the field, and he's right. And so, again, where you start to have complexity on offense, you can't just throw in-rout on third and long. And this is what they did against Philadelphia. They had all hook routes at the sticks, and they had all in-rout and third-down situation. Right. You've got to find a way to push the ball down the field.

It's one of the things I do. Look, Carson-Went doesn't always good, but it's one of the thing I like about the eagle. Is it third and 20? Who the hell cares? Let's see if we get over the top. Right, instead of running a drawer screen and punning. Right, those are plays where you can take shots. Josh Allen had a third and ten where he took a shot over the top.

Third and ten is not a bad. Because of third and ten doesn't mean you have to get ten yards. You can get 50. Right. And so that to me, it's bad by Terry. It's not bad by Tim's the way he's coached, the way, what I would assume. You know, I just wanted to describe the play. Yeah.

The sack fumble. This is a seven-man protection. This is a big-time play that it killed them. So they're running a two-man crossing route, deep crosses between Sims Jr. and Terry McClure. As Terry goes across the field, Patrick Peterson and the single high safety essentially pass it off to each other.

So Peterson stays home in his third, and the safety cuts the crossing route. if Duane senses Peterson setting back, he should throw Terry for a touchdown. If he throws that one out towards the far corner of the end zone, with some touch, Terry's going to run under that. It's a touchdown. And he has that in the timing of the play. Now, I like that he pulled the ball down because he was going to throw to Sims,

and he felt Peterson sitting home, and so he tries to pull it down. But then you take the sack fumble. So when I look at this play again, Brandon Sheriff does get beat, and Brandon Sheriff takes an edge on his guy, and he still has some presence. But if Duane just steps up in the pocket, he's not taking a sax fumble there. It's a seven-step drop. You don't have a action, too. It's a run-action pass.

If you don't have that initially, you can't sit that deep off the run-action. You have to climb the pocket. It's a seven-step drop. You have to climb the pocket. You don't have it. Now, I'm not leaving sheriff from anything here. He gave up pressure. But if Duane steps up, there's nobody in front of him.

It wouldn't have resulted in a fumble. It might have resulted in a scramble. And it might have resulted in him seeing Terry come open in a second window or third reeds. I mean, it could have resulted in a good six or seven-yard agap scramble. You tell me there's anybody in front of Duane there, because there is not. The only thing is, is it's not just sheriff's guy that's pressuring him. He's getting pressured off the other side, too, off of, you know, Martin's getting pushed back into the backfield in that play, too. Yeah, Martin's pushed back in the back field, but Martin's still in front of his guy.

Look, it just doesn't, what I'm suggesting to you is this doesn't need to result in a sack fumble. It either results in a sack or a result in the quarterback, kind of the pocket and getting a game. You know, we've got to protect the ball. Where are the checkdowns in this offense? This play doesn't necessarily have a lot of checkdowns because you're blocking both your tight ends and you're going to run action to the back. So the checkdown would be the back here.

I always like there's a tight end to be able to turn around, but they're bringing pressure off both of the tight end sides of the play. So there's not a lot of checkdown availability. But that said, I don't think you needed the checkdown. Your crossing routes got what you wanted. It's just he saw the combo off too late with the safety and Patrick Peterson, Ontario. You really think, you really think if, what, if he throws early and leads McLaren to the corner

that he's got a chance because McLaren's, you know, it's not like he's open. There's no way the single high safety can run under that. No way. I'm not saying that this is an easy read. Yeah. He would have had to fill Peterson sluff off on this. But this is also something when you're playing a team that plays 3D coverage and you've looked to the crossing route against those teams.

You see how they play these things. These are also things that you watch film for. Now, maybe it was a look they've never seen. That could be possible as well, but this is something you watch film for. Okay. There's third and two on the next drive where he throws a little spot route to Inman,

bounce pass almost to him, it's an awful ball. Yeah. I mean, that's not good enough. On the fourth drive, throws a slant to Terry trying to throw or sorry after a slant to Terry McCorn

that he completed. He's trying to throw a little swing route to Gibson on the 4th Drive. Yeah. He actually I think with Rivera talking about touch and everyone talking about touch, it actually looks like he tries to put touch on this ball. But he throws it on the

back hip of Gibson. It ends up being an incompletion. It would have been a tackle for a loss of 4. The swing rounds can't be on the back. If you can't make that running back, hesitate. They did call it minus three. They did call it a catch and a loss. Oh, they did call that a catch.

It looked like he dropped it. Yeah, it did, but they called it a catch and a loss. So it went from second and one to third and four. Second and one, why are you running that play anyway? I got a problem with that play on second and one. That's the play that play they run 10 times a game. They have a spot in a swing. I understand that.

Not what they wanted to some extent because they had leverage with Gibson, but leverage is taken away by the ball being slow on the back hip. That ball's got to be out in front of him so he can go out and run and continue to the flat with it. I see that. Essentially, he allows Reddick to undercut the play. It's almost forcing Gibson to have to cut back. Gibson builds it.

He bothers the ball as well. But that ended up being an easier tackle than it needed to be. Right. There's a third and four on the fourth drive, the next play. Inman's running a shot. hollow crossing route. The ball's late on Inman, and I think he's trying to protect him with the ball on the back hip. There's a cross between Gibson and Inman, but the Inman's open early, and they're soft enough that the ball should have just been on the Inman early. I'm also going to say the Inman's got to run

that route to depth, but still, that ball's got to be out earlier to Inman on that play. There's a third and two at the end of the half that he throws to Logan Thomas. It's the one that he threw it way out in front of him. He's open by a step and a half. He just misses him. This is not the one that results in the field goal. This is the end of the first half. And yeah, he just threw it too wide to him.

He was open. Yeah, he does struggle with crossing rounds. He's really struggling with accuracy right now. Yeah, no doubt. Into the second half. We talked about the third and two rolling right. You miss Logan Thomas in the end zone. I don't think that's a terrible ball of Logan Thomas.

Logan goes up with one hand. It's hard when you just throw one hand up at it. I think Logan's got to try to elevate a little bit and go up with two hands right there. It's still not a great ball. It's like a little bit more touch on it. I'm not going to be crazy with it. Later. That's a throw that you see that.

You've got to put more air on that, don't you? He's got him beat. It might result. Well, it might result in Thomas catching it closer to the end line, but it gives him a better chance to catch it. Totally agree. I also try to go through these, especially with a tight-in situation. This is stupid, but I do this, and I try to put myself in that position.

Can I catch that ball? I think I could have caught that ball. It's not a great ball, but it would have been a big-time catch. Sure. Kyle Rudolph catches that ball. Yeah, he does. Travis Kelsey catches that ball. The guys with really good hands and bigger.

Yeah, well, and bigger, I guess. I don't know. Logan Thomas isn't small. True. And then just a couple more bad balls later in the game. He overthrew Sims. I think there was a penalty on the play. He threw Sims on a go or on a seam on the outside.

It landed seven yards out of bounds. I know. And then in the fourth quarter, he throws a dig to Inman. in a great pocket, and he just sails it over his head. So while he was better in the second half, he still missed throws in the second half. So ultimately, when I look at DeWain right now, I see a guy who is not confident throwing the ball down the field.

He's not completing balls, especially in the intermediate range down the field. And he's struggling with that dramatically. He's not overly accurate with underneath balls. I mean, he can throw a slant to Terry McCorn. There's no doubt about that. And he completed about five. Terry was a slant machine in this game, Kev.

Yeah. But when you go through this game, it's a deep performance. I mean, it's not pretty by any means. And while it got a little bit better, it got better because there was some soft coverage and Terry made some plays underneath, and Sims had a little screen where he took one for 15.

There was nothing complete down the field. nothing. The Sims ball was the only one, and the Inman one was a good throw, but Inman still had to go up and get it. It didn't hit him in stride. The two balls down the field, one of them completed was okay. One wasn't. It wasn't great. It doesn't, to me, seem to matter right now if he's under pressure, if he's not under pressure, with where he's throwing the ball. I didn't think he was pressured as much as it seemed in the game. A couple of the sacks I thought were on him. one would have been on receivers a little bit, but also on him. Another one, then I talked about that Petunah 2nd19, it was exclusively on him. He missed Jerry McCorn, and he ran right into a sec.

So I didn't think it was as much pressure as the Philly game. Guys weren't beat immediately up front. I mean, it wasn't a good game for Dwayne. A D for Dwayne. I've got one question about Dwayne, and it's this. There was a play that came in the second quarter on a second and 15 early in the second quarter. And I think we saw some of this last week. I think when he's blitzed and there's a really good connection and understanding like McLaren on this play,

it's second and 15. The play goes for 25 yards. Dwayne sees the blitz, feels the blitz. It's a quick throw as McLaren sits down and then he gets yards after the catch. But I actually think he throws when he's throwing super quickly, in the quick game or recognizes blitz and he can get it out quickly. I think he's effective on those throws. Yeah, I think he can be effective on those throws.

I'm not saying that he's not. It's also a five-yard spot route on the hash right in front of him where Terry's open. And he got the ball out, and he put it on Terry. But Terry did the rest in that situation. And really you're looking at it as a five-yard completion. But if he knows where the blitz is coming, coming and who's going to be open because of the side that the blitz is coming from. That's all.

And he gets it out quickly. And I would also agree with the fact that he doesn't panic, the fact that he doesn't look uncomfortable back there. But I just wonder if he doesn't start making some throws, and you don't start getting the ball down the field and people start playing them way more aggressively, is this becoming a problem? Does he start to press a little bit? I would also say this for a young quarterback, for any young quarterback,

I would encourage him right now to let it go. I would encourage him to test himself a little bit. I would encourage him to throw the ball down the field a little bit more, to take a look down the field before you just throw the immediate underneath stuff. I would give him some more looks down the field. I would. I think he needs that. I would give him some more run-action path. I would definitely try to roll him left. I would give him some boot stuff moving to his left more because I think he's more comfortable moving to his left than he is to his right. I mean, I think there are

some things that you can do here to build confidence in Duane. But, I mean, right now, you look at one game and it just, it wasn't good enough. In any way, it wasn't good enough to win a ball game. All right. You'll get to the rest of the grades in more rapid fire format right after I tell you about my bookie. Last night, Cooley, the Raiders game went from five and a half to four. The Saints went from minus five and a half to minus four right before kickoff. I gave the Raiders out. They were my only smell test winner. The smell test is atrocious right now. but I did get the Raiders to finish it off on Monday night. And hopefully you got a better number. It didn't matter.

They won the game outright. And you could have played it at MyBooky. And if you played it at MyBooky.ag and used my promo code Kevin D.C, they would have doubled your first deposit all the way up to $1,000. MyBooky is reliable. They've got fair lines. They've got fair pricing. And if you win, you get paid.

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Go to my bookie.orgie.orgie and use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. All right, cool, get to the skilled position players and the offensive line. You gave Dwayne Haskins a D. and said it just wasn't good enough to win a game. It wasn't, and we'll get to the skill players. We'll start with Terry McClure, who I thought was as good as anybody in this ballgame. He was a slant machine.

It didn't matter who covered him, and on what side of the field he caught the ball. And he was so good after the catch. I mean, absolutely so good after the catch. We talked about the second 15. It's 20 yards after the catch, that he shows a real burst and he's breaking tackles. The next play, he's catching.

a slant. It's just such a good little stick at the top. It's patience. It's a little hesitation. It was awesome, man. Or catch early in the fourth quarter, he's breaking tackled, he's making plays. Another slant after that, he scored a touchdown on. I literally wrote Slant Machine.

It was awesome. And then later in the fourth quarter, he rushed to slant. And I think that was the play that was a challenge play. That he, it was like a one-step slam. That was the only bad flat route. He ran in that game. It was an incompletion that they challenged. He was really good with the ball on his hands.

He's a guy that you're going to have to find ways to get the ball on his hands in the middle of the field underneath. And to me, he's also a guy that you've got to get the ball down the field, too. I talked about this early where Duane took a sack, that Terry's wide open on the corner out against man-to-man coverage. Terry has its ability to separate. And it's like there's no DB, there's no situation. that's too big. I love

his competitiveness. I love his ability to win against anybody. The more I watch Terry, the more I'm truly deciding that he is not a two receiver. He's excellent. The negatives

from Terry in this game, Duane had a throw that I didn't talk about, that he threw down the sideline on a ball to Terry McLaurin, where the ball was way short. I think Terry had a missed assignment on that play, probably a coverage adjustment where he should have hooked up at about 10 or back shoulder fade throw. I don't think that was on Duane.

I thought that was on Terry. The other side, Sims ends up sitting down on the other side. So it looks like Terry probably had a missed assignment on that one. He dropped the one seam ball late, which I thought he could have adjusted to. It's still good creating space and good holding. You call that like holding the line to give the quarterback a window to throw. between the numbers and the side line. I thought he did a pretty job with that.

And then lastly, the one risky, it looked like a third and ten, it was a risky throw at Duane. Peterson kind of banged him. He fell down. I thought he was short on the route. I think he could have pressed more vertical of Peterson and tried to slip inside and still, called it almost stacking them.

Like slip inside, take three more steps up the field. If he tried to slip inside, he just rolled inside, and Peterson bumped him down. It wasn't PI. But Terry was really the most impactful. player in this game. He was in A minus. Inman. Yeah. Not a lot to Inman.

That was two receptions, 17 yards. The one on third and ten, to me, was a big one. I thought Duane missed him a couple times. You could block on the Sims Jr. slip screen. There was a third and four early in the game where I said I thought he could have hit him on a shallow crowd earlier. He hit him. It ended up being a three-yard completion. can't run shallow crosses on third down to two and three yards. Sims did it as well. Those have to attack sticks.

I talk about this all the time, but when you're running across the field, the crossing around has to continue to gain ground across the field. It has to keep gaining yards as you get further across the field. You can't bend that back down. And he did and it ended up being short. They converted the fourth and one, though. as I watch the first two games a lot of times when you have zone coverage with those

crossing routes the crossing around sit down what we call it at the ghost tight end or outside the tackle on the other side they don't sit down in this offense I think that they're coaching him just stay on the move makes it really hard when you have zone though because you're just running into somebody to get decapitated right there the one where he could have hit him in earlier

remember you talked about? I thought Enman could have hit Inman earlier, or Inman could have sat down there in the middle. He ran into the defender. Yeah, and because that defender is sitting out there, if they have to stay on the move, it's hard not

to bend back downhill. You want to just keep running straight at the dude? Like, you're trying to run in front. You create a window for the quarterback to throw coming downhill a little bit. I don't know if they're coached that way or not. That would be interesting question. to ask. One of the beat reporters could ask him, like, hey, do you shallow crosses sit down

versus zone? Are you just always on the move to get their heads knocked off? Yeah, I mean, you've explained that so many times in the past against Zone. You've got to find that spot and you've got to sit down. You can't keep moving. Can't keep moving. I don't think Inman separates really well against man-to-man coverage. I think he struggles when he gets hands on him a little bit.

He was a C in this game. Sims Jr. The positive. The corner out was awesome in the fourth corner. Fourth quarter. That was a big time play to get down inside. It was an awesome job on the little screen pass on a third and eight situation. And as I watch him with the ball in his hands,

I know he had a fumble early in the game on a parry turn. But as I watch him with the ball on his hands, I just can't stop thinking fly sweet, more screens, more opportunities. Yeah. I don't think they're using Sims the way they need to use him. As we started this film breakdown, I described Sims running a vertical route to cross the safety face. He's always running the clear route on the inside. I just don't think they have a versatile enough route tree for Sims right now.

I think he's a good enough route runner where he can win more. I think they've got to find ways to create for him more. Picks into the middle. There's a lot of things that you can do. I mean, I just don't think he's utilized quite enough so far. I did note a couple of things negative. One, a crossing round on a third and six, that he ends up catching the ball at two yards.

Two yards deep. He's bowling that back down. Can't run your crossing route. That was the too many men on the field play. Four. That was the one. Okay, yeah. There was no chance for him to get a first down right there.

And then he kind of just fell down. Yeah, he did. And again, that's one that I would think you would sit down. But I haven't seen them sit down any problems. Right, they just keep moving. One thing with Sims, I think that he could have more patience and threaten defenders in tight man coverage vertical before he makes a move.

Or if he does make a move, he could continue back up the field. I think he can rush her out just a little bit. But I say that, and at the same time, I think there's also routes where he shows a ton of patience. So it's interesting with Sims. I would like to see more targets. I would like to see more carries. I mean, I just think Sims is more of a eight-touch guy than a five-target guy. He had three receptions for 53 yards on five targets.

He had no carries. I think right now he's your second scariest player. You need to have eight touches. I agree with that. So they've got to find ways to create for Sims. Logan Thomas. What was Sims grade? Sims grade was a B.

Okay. Sims Jr. was a B. Sims Jr. B. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's two Sims. I know. We can call the other one Cam Sims and the other one Sims Jr. Logan Thomas. Yeah.

this is a one-grade one-game-grade system, but this is an overall. This is, I think, through two games and watching a lot of Logan Thomas. This is what I see in Logan Thomas. I see him as a guy that has enough speed to threaten zones down the field a little bit. I see him as a guy that can run after the catch and make some plays underneath, as long as they're not contested. So to me, he's a guy that's as a zone-beater tight end. I don't see him as a guy that can separate.

I actually didn't note this. The one overthrow to Logan Thomas early on the third down, you said it was a good ball. I thought it was a great ball. It was on the outside to the right. He was running a scene. Right. The third and six.

He's got his hands. He's got to come down with that. It's a tough catch, but you've got to make that play. They got the look they wanted. He got them matched up where you wanted him matched up. He's got to go make that play. It really does. there's a drop on the fifth drive.

He's running a little whip route. He doesn't separate at all, but the ball hits his hand. He's got to catch that ball. The ball that he doesn't come down within the end zone, he's got to make a play on that ball. A better play. Maybe the ball isn't good enough, but he's got to find a way to make a better play on that ball.

He can't just throw his right hand up at it. So when I look at Logan, I think he's an okay blocker. I think he's physical when he needs to be physical. I don't think he's an elite in-line blocker. I see him as his zone defender with average hands. I think he has average adjustment to ball in the air, and I think he has average hands. He's a big dude.

He's a big target. I think, you know, yeah, he seems to have average hands. Be nice if a couple of the balls were thrown with a little bit more touch. Logan Thomas was a C-minus in this game. Jeremy Sprinkle. Jeremy didn't play that much. He didn't play much of it. all. He played a lot less in this game than he did last week.

I don't remember. I'm just going to... Six snaps. Here are my notes. Verbatim. I'll just read them. Awful and slow feet on the front side of zone run. Out-leveraged ASAP, poor hands, beat. Shitty on the edge on a toss play on a fifth drive.

Reddick is the contained defender. He's coming out of the backfield. You got to just take him to the sideline. He gets thrown inside and Reddick blows the ball. play out. It was a good play. It was a good design and Sprinkle Kosovo play. On the backside of a counterplay, which wasn't much impact, he has a step down and then hinge back outside. Well, there's a defender blazing off the outside. Just go block the guy. Like, don't just do the thing you're supposed to, but the guy's coming. You're stepping and hinging to protect him, but he's

to block the guy. Here's Sprinkle. Not good enough in the game. If you want to grade, I think you understand what that was. He actually, as I did columns on IMAC, ended up in the call them labeled F. You gave an F out last week. You gave an F out to Sean Dionne Hamilton last week. And Dionne Hamilton got a lot fewer snaps this week. A lot fewer snaps, and he was an F last week. And Sprinkle was an F this week, and they need another tight end.

Marcus Vaugh wasn't bad. I thought Marcus Baugh looked awful in the first game. I didn't think Marcus Baugh was bad in this game. I thought he was okay as a run blocker. I didn't think he sustained blocks late, but I thought he got in good position early. He's not a guy that's going to beat anybody down the field. He's really average as a route runner.

He is stiff in his hip. I mean, one catch for two yards, ball as a C in this game. And then Gandhi Golden had one catch, but there's no real grade for Gandy Golden. Got it. And the last two skill players that I'm going to grade are McKissick and Gibson. McKissick was awesome.

Yeah. One cut in downhill on zone plays, the burst to the line of scrimmage, I thought was great. There was a run on the second drive of the second half where he breaks a tackle and bounces out to the sidebine. I thought the one interesting thing with McKissick and Gibson, McKissick eight carries 53 yards. Did McKissick have a touch in the first half? I don't know. I don't think he did. They didn't have, yeah, I don't know if he did or didn't.

They didn't do much offensively in the first half. The way they varied the play between the two of them, I thought was interesting. I thought McIthick was in A, the way he ran the ball in this game. I thought he should have had more touches. I thought he could have more opportunities. But I did want to mention, Jay said this all the time, like when they asked him about how many times you run the football. And he said it perfectly, and I think it was somewhat fitting to this game.

We're in second 19. you. How do you want to run the ball? Right. If you want to run the football, your quarterback has to convert on third down. Your offense has to convert on third down. Right. If you want more than 20 carries in a game, you have to convert on third down. And converting on third down means not taking sacks in the first down situation.

I remember... We're making a big throw in a third down. I remember in, I don't know, 2012, 2013, probably 2013. I remember this one guy, I'm not going to mention his name, who was part of the Beatrah crew. He's not anymore. And he would constantly ask Shanahan when Alfred Morse didn't have a lot of carries. Why isn't Alfred Morris getting more carries? And Mike would say, well, we were down 27 to 3.

Or it was, we had, you know, on first down, he averaged zero yards per carry. You know, it's like these guys aren't. stupid most of the time, right? Like, sometimes you've got to look at, well, you're down 27-0-0-24-0-0, and you've got to start throwing the football, and somebody's questioning as to why Alfred Morris didn't get enough carries. The game changes, the context of the game changes. But anyway, continue. They did keep some balance in the second half. They did continue. They did. I thought my kids, it ran the ball well. Right. I thought throughout the game, they blocked well in the run game, and they had a pretty good design.

as far as running the ball against Arizona, and I thought they did a good job running throughout the game, offensive line, and both the back. I thought McKissick was an A. I think McKissick, I liked him. You know, I liked him in Detroit, especially when he was there. I like him as a pass receiver, too. To me, there's like the comp when they signed him was like to McKinnon,

you know, to Jerich McKinnon, another McCah. I think that he can be a really effective player for them. One of the things I said this morning on the show was for everybody that says that the skill position group around Dwayne this year is the worst in the league, I'm not sure we know that yet, because McCorn's clearly not the worst in the league. He's really good, and the two backs, I think, are really going to give him options as well. But continue, what about Gibson? I would agree with you. And I think before we move on to Gibson, I think it's really interesting how dynamic Carolina. was with Christian McCaffrey out of the backfield, and all of the things that they have built

into that offense get the running back the ball in a third down situation or in a passing situation, and then they're not doing any of it. Now, I'm not suggesting that either of their back right now or any of the three are Christian McCaffrey. Don't get me wrong on that, but you've got to give them opportunities to make plays in the past game. McKissick had no, no target. Maybe he's better than... They gave him a bunch of targets last week. Yeah. Let's get to Gibson.

Positive. He ran the ball really well in the first half. He did. I mean, an inside zone cut back where he's breaking a tackle on the second drive was a big-time run. The second 19, he made Hicks miss at the line of scrimmage. He made Bouda Baker missed two yards down the field. and he ends up getting a 10-yard carry out of almost nothing. Some inside cuts on traps, right downhill.

I thought was good. He ended up bouncing a trap on the third drive for nine yards. I thought that was awesome. I think he runs with power. I think he runs physical. I think he runs well between the tackle. The negatives on Gibson. The thing that surprised me, Cooley, about him,

because I didn't know this, I knew he was bigger than most of the Memphis guys like Henderson and some of the others in recent years. He's a physical runner. He's a very physical runner. Yeah, I would agree. I think he's a very physical runner. Negatives. Here's the negative.

I do think that he's a downhill in between the tackle type of runner. I think he's going to have to gain vision and patience as he gets to be an outside on the edge type of runner, especially in the zone. The second play of the game, it's an outside zone to the right. Sprinkle was bad. He got bowed back into the backfield. But there's a cutback lane available. and McKissickson just pushes it right into the back in between Sprinck and Moses, and it's a no game.

You don't have to get to the edge once you coach to get, coach to run to the outside ass of the tight end until it's not there, and then cut it back to the next cutback. Well, there was a cutback in the A-gap that I thought he could add five yards. It was pretty well blocked play other than the edge. So just a little bit more patience as he gets to the outside. I'm also talking about the second play of the game, and I also understand that ICE is always significant.

just the back tried to get to the edge first to make the linebackers run in zone. But still, make the cutback there. Right. My concerns, I don't think he has good hands. I've been saying that I think he's an H-back, but in watching a couple pass opportunities, the swing route that he caught that Duane, I said, threw on his back hip. Right.

He body caught it. Yeah. You can't body catch that. You can't wait. You've got to reach your hands out and make that catch with your hands out. The ball did have touch on it. When you body catch those balls, it's almost like you're afraid you're going to drop the ball. And then there was a sideline throw that I thought Duane made a good throw in the fourth quarter

that I thought he adjusted hands very poorly. Like you look at little kids when they do it, and the ball's high, and you always think of both hands, like make a cup with your hands and extend them and kind of leave it like that. You can't, when the ball's high and outside, you've got to rotate on that side, you've got to rotate your left hand up and over the top. So your left hand is facing your right hand almost over the top. It was a poor hand adjustment.

Ask Clinton Portis about that. He had the worst hand adjustment of all time. He claims that he could catch anything, but it looked like he was trying to clap at balls. So that would be a concern, I think, as a couple of those. If it's not right on him, I don't know if he's got great game. It's one game, but it was two adjustments to a ball. ball that I didn't like. Gibson was a B in this game.

And that gives us to the offensive line where we'll go left to right on the offensive line, drawing Christian across the board, including West Switzer, came in for Brandon's sheriff. Right. Christian. I just don't think he's as bad as everybody thinks through a couple games. Okay. I get that he's given up some pressures, and I get that he's not going to mall any.

anybody. But he was okay as far as a past protector in this game. It looked bad early, especially because there were two sacks essentially right over the top of it, but I didn't think either of the sacks around him were his fault. You know, he did give up a quarterback hit later in the game. He did give up some pressures, but it wasn't a glaring deficiency in the past game. It wasn't something that I thought they had to work around. And it wasn't Like they had to chip for him every time or they had to protect him. For the most part, athletically, he stayed in front of whoever was there. And even if it was Jones, it was fine.

In the run game, I'd still like to see him be more physical. I think he is good with his feet and his initial first step. I'd like to see him use his hands better. He's got almost no punch in the run game. So I'd like to see more physicality in the run game. Geron Christian was a B-minus. Okay. West Martin.

Kevin. I was really impressed with West Martin in this game. I know you like him to begin with. I do like him to begin with, but I was really, really impressed with Martin. I thought good movement created in the run game, a good footwork. His cutoffs on zone plays, I thought were exceptional. He climbed to the second level.

He was on guys on the second level. They ran a bunch of trap plays where Martin was the polar. He did a good job pulling and kicking out the defensive end on trap plays. he did a good job when they asked him to pull to the opposite defensive end all the way across the line of scrimmage and was consistently on pretty much everybody he had for the most part very little pressure is given up in pass protection he was pretty stout i don't know i don't necessarily think Arizona's dominant with their defensive tackles up front but i thought he was pretty stout and then again really impressed with his angles in in the zone run game when he's asked to stretch down the line open up and then attack the

second level. A lot of linemen don't take a good angle and then they get outrun on the second level. I thought West Martin was really consistent as a run blocker and was a big impact as to why they ran the ball effectively in this game. I mean, the sack that took them out of field goal position, I would love to see him stay with Reddick a little bit longer. But again, he doesn't necessarily sense as a guard that Duane's going to be outside of him as quick as he is. I would have like to see him attack and stay more there with Reddick. But I thought West Martin was really good. I graded him a B plus. Okay. That's much better than last week. He gave him a D-plus last week, and we're very disappointed. What about Rueh. Rueh, to me, was there. Sometimes good stretch.

At one point, I noted great stretch on the front side of a zone play against a shade technique or someone just barely outside of him. beating his shoulder to the side of that play. A good movement on the fourth and one play. He's not going to dominate anybody, but a lot of the time in the run game, he's getting on guys. The first real negative I had noted that he got his head down on a run-action pass against 96. I said that guy's name earlier in the show today.

Actually, it was a run play, and he gives up a swim move inside. Rueh was a beat. He's consistent in this game. He's not dominant, but he's there where he needs to be. 96 is Blackson, the guy that had this sack against the 49ers. Right. The guy from Houston. Right. That's right. Ruih was a big. Brandon. Brandon Sheriff. Yeah. Before he got hurt.

Before he got hurt in the run was really pretty damn good. Grated attacking second level players. It's good on the trap play, sells a trap play, gets up to the linebackers, mall of the linebacker. good movement on a fourth and one with Ruiye. I mean, pretty darn good in the past game. He gives up the one-stack fumble, and that's, to me, not necessarily because he gets beat. That's because he's taken a side too early. I mean, he does get beat.

But the deep tackle gets outside of him and kind of tries to throw and pin him outside. And he's probably thinking Dwayne will move up. But look, I mean, gave up a sack, I guess. it's not pretty, but it wasn't this awful play. It was a little technique issue to me. There was a second one where I think he struggled to identify a linebacker and was late getting up to a linebacker, ends up making a tackle for loss, put him in a third and two situation.

He was a C-plus before he went out in this game. You just keep in mind when you watch Sheriff, like, he's the franchise tag guy, and he's a guy that wants a $70 million contract. I just haven't seen that in the first two games, and I didn't see it last year in game. I see in his attitude. I see it with the kind of player that I think he can be. It's a new system. It's a new scheme.

He's going to continue to grow. I'm glad that it's not a torn ACL. It's just an MCL, I think, that came back. Yeah, three to five weeks. They put him on injured reserve. They put him on the three-week injured reserve. Right. But, you know, you mentioned he's the franchise guy.

He's the guy that wants the big contract. and the real issue here now is that we're now three years running where he's gotten hurt. I don't know that you can pay him. There's running where he's getting hurt, and you're still talking about a guy that gives up too many sacks. Yeah, I don't know that you can pay him after this year. You certainly can't franchise him again. I am just going to say that I suggested this to Brandon, and this is how I feel. and you know, I've talked about this with players in a lot of situations.

Take the contract. Negotiate. Don't leave it all on your agents. Have some business savvy. Maybe you're not going to get $70 million this year, but they would have given him $55. Right. Yeah. And in part, that's what I think he's worth.

Going into this year, I didn't think he was worth $70. And now, let me say this. I should never say what someone is. I think someone isn't worth because guys hate that and guys have attacked me for that. And it is what it is. I don't want to hurt his money per se as a former player. I think that's probably bad business on my part. But at the same time, I would have taken the contract.

I don't know if he's going to get a $70 million contract. All right. That said, though, that franchise taxed pretty good money for a guard at this point. Right. What about Morgan Moses, your highest graded player last week on offense? Yeah, so some of the fun things when you watch film, you find things, and there's some in every game, and this is just one of them. On the second drive, you can pull this up. It's the second drive.

It's the second down in six. He shuffles down inside and post for sheriff, and then Simmons comes back out him off, back out, outside off the edge, and Morgan punches, hits him square in the chest and just, knock Simmons flat on his ass with a punch. It was awesome, man. There's not a second and six on the second drive. Was it a second and four? It might have been. It's the second drive. I mean, there's not a lot of plays on the second drive. It's a past play. I wrote second six, so I thought it might have said second six on the film copy. Yeah, it's the second of four. He just knocked Simmons flat on his ass. It's great. Okay.

I bet he did a good job passing off stunts to the game. I thought he did a great job athletically when they ran zone plays at him, a weakside zone to the tide ends away. And he's the edge player on the line of scrimmage. I thought he did a heck of a job athletically, getting out there, opening up and attacking with some whist and stretching a defensive end. I thought that was really good by Moses. I think he's been so much better through two games in the run game. I think this game, he clearly fits. and I think he understands more of the stretch zone type of scheme

than that Callahan mentality. And I didn't like the Callahan scheme. I like this type of scheme better, but Morgan has been a natural fit into it. I found the play. Yeah, it's, I mean, first of all, he's moving better, don't you think, this year? He's been so much better this year in three or two games.

He looks healthy. he looks really good. He looks like the guy when I saw Morgan Moses three or four years ago, and I said he would be one of the best right tackles in the league. This is to me what he looks like. Yeah. And he's not false starting and not getting called for it. I don't think I've seen any of those this year.

Not false starting, no. Yeah. All right. So what was his great? I mean, he had a holding on the three-yard line that was costly. He was laid off the ball on that play. He had a holding down on the three-yard line that took him to second 13. Right.

only getting three out of that. That was costly, and that was a headlock. That was one of those ones where it was like, you've got to find another way. You've got to turn your ass into them. You've got to do something. You've got to get it in away. You've already got beat. You've got to find another way. It's better on the three-yard line, if you think about it situationally, that the running back get tackled right there for a loss of one than it is to go to second and 13. It's better to have a third and four from the four, in my opinion. So those are the ones where you just, you just got to let go. he allowed one quarterback hit

son regular caten up and under it was the third drive on a third and two it was no real impact on the play the ball was out he was low to inman I don't think it affected the play but he did get beaten up and under in a quarterback hit and then a fourth and one I said shitty slow off the ball

but for the most part I thought Morgan Moses was really pretty good in this game I graded him AB plus in this ball game and that oh that doesn't conclude your offensive line it's close Shweiser. Shwitzer. Shwitzer.

Schweitzer was bad. Really? Yeah, Switzer wasn't very good at all. Quarterback hit on a run-action pass, the first drive of the second half. It's after the first intended Terry, the receiver's wide open. Dwayne's taking a shot to the middle of the field. It's probably going to be there. He gets beat really quick.

He missed a linebacker on a McKittick run that was down inside the 10-yard line that got it to a second-degree, that if he doesn't miss the linebacker, the touchdown. Look, overall, he has slow feet. His poor hip movement, he has slow feet, he struggles to pass up stunts. He struggles to maintain blocks on the second level in this game. He was a D. Switzer was not very good. It is hard to come in late after not practicing at all within the week. So I'll be interested to see what Switzer looks like with a little bit of time with the ones. He was out there for a bunch of it. He was out there for more than half the game. So they're going to need him over the next three to five weeks as Brandon Sheriff has gone on that

three-week injured reserve. Highest graded player was McKissick at an A. McClorn was an A-minus, and I think the most surprising takeaway for me from week two offensively is your offensive line grades across the board with the exception of Schweitzer who came in, but you had Christian playing well at a B-minus,

Martin playing well to B-plus, Moses playing well to B-plus, and then that right guard spot was the bad was the soft and the weak link with Sheriff at a C-plus and Schweitzer coming in as a D. I think most fans would have watched that game and said it was not a good day for the O line. You thought it was much more the case of a bad day for the quarterback. Yeah, I did. I mean, look, they ran the ball for 5.1 yards per carry. They gave up three sacks to them.

I would think were more on Duane or on receivers than the offensive line. and I thought they gave him time in a lot of situations where maybe it didn't look like he had time. But in looking at that performance by the offensive line, if I'm the offensive coordinator, I'm going to say, shoot, I've got to try to get the ball down the field. Maybe my guys can protect more than I think they can protect. All right. Great job. Defense of Film Breakdown tomorrow. Thanks to everybody that's listening. And again, tomorrow, Cooley will have his defensive film breakdown.