The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley On Hail Mary Finish

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Kevin was joined by Chris Cooley on the show today to break down the frantic final few minutes of Washington's incredible 18-15 "Hail Mary" win over Chicago. The boys spent a ton of time on the lead up the "Hail Mary" and then the play itself. Kevin finished up the show with the revelation out of Chicago today from Bears' Head Coach Matt Eberflus. He also talked about a play that should have been challenged and something Commanders' Head Coach Dan Quinn said about the defense.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Window Nation is the presenting sponsor of this show. Call them at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com if you need new windows. I did put a show out last night after the game.

It's got my game take in it. Zach Ertz joined me from the locker room. Zach Ertz was down there on the goal line. for what really was the most memorable game ending play in franchise history. So that's out there if you want to listen to it. But today, guess who's here, everybody? Chris Cooley is with us for the first time since, I don't know, did you come on after a preseason game?

I think you came on after a preseason game. I don't think you've been on with me since the regular season started. I've been avoiding you because I haven't watched any football. I know. You have not watched any football. You're knee-deep in a home sale, in a home build, and you're living without really care to the outside world right now. And what's happening in football in particular? I'm living without care to football.

I mean, I'm immersed in this. presidential run. So I'm trying to run to. Are you into the election? No, I watch the news in the morning, but I don't, I'm not into the election. And you really haven't watched any football this year?

Man, I haven't. There's been a couple nights where I get home, some coaching wrestling again this year. Right. And we start, we, we, we have a bus ride to Colorado next weekend, which will be. awesome. I'm excited to see you guys wrestle for the first time this year. We've been in practice. I get home a lot of Thursday nights and stuff, and I'm like, I can watch the prime game.

I haven't broke down and bought the YouTube, I'll watch TV, and honestly, the other thing, it's been amazing here weather-wise, and weekends with my kids, it's nice to be out or to be able to do stuff. Right. So as of about right now, this is usually when I would start watching a little bit more football. You know, I think in the world that I'm wrapped up into and the people who are listening to this podcast, we sometimes forget that most people don't watch football. Most people in this country actually don't know what's going on on Saturdays and Sundays during football season. and most people probably haven't seen the Jaden Daniels Hail Mary play at the end of the game. I mean, you know, if you've got 30 million people watching, there are 300 million people that live in the country. Even for the Super Bowl of 120 million are watching, it's basically a third of the country.

So I know a lot of those people are very young or very old, but still, more people than not, beautiful weekend weather, living not just in Wyoming, but anywhere else, they're out and about. They're doing something other than hunkering down to watch football. That's not my life. I think the percentage changes a little bit when you talk about somebody that played football their entire life and then worked in football media for seven years. Yes. The odds are that I would be watching football.

And I'm not avoiding football. I just haven't gotten to watching football. I'm busy. I don't know. I'm excited for Washington. It's not like I'm oblivious to what's going on. I see what's going on in the NFL. I don't watch football on someday.

Well, you were oblivious to when I called you this morning. I texted you early. I texted you early. Very early year time, probably like 5.30 year time. And I said, you need to come on. with me today after what happened yesterday. And you just sent me back a question mark. And then during the radio...

You said, really? Yeah, I said, really? And then I called you during a break during the radio show, and I said, you're kidding me, right? You know what happened yesterday. And you said, I swear to you, I do not. And you didn't, right? I mean, you really...

I was the first one to tell you about this play and this ending to the game. Absolutely. But at 646 this morning when you text me. 646. Here's, here's, I did know the final score. You did? Because I was messed around a buddy and I are seeing who can win the first six-game parlay. It was actually the only game I lost.

I had the Bears outright because I just thought two points yesterday when I took it at home. It seemed odd to me. I took the Bears outright. I looked at the final score. I would have won my six-game parlay. Who were your other five games? It was Denver plus the points, Kansas City,

outright, the Lions, the 49ers to win. I can't remember. I could print you the cheat or look it up. It wasn't that I tried really hard. I was like, let's just, I honestly, when I did it Sunday morning, I thought maybe I might watch a couple of these games in the afternoon if I do this. And then I got busy and I didn't. Well, do you know why Chicago, when you actually put them into your parlay, your 16 parlay, do you know why they were favored in that moment?

Well, they weren't favored. Okay, well, they were favored early yesterday morning. They were a three-point favorite. it changed and they went off as a one or one and a half point underdog. Are you saying that you had... For me, it was two. Okay, so it got to two. It got to two.

That's fine. Do you know why the line shifted wildly? Because Jade Daniels played with her ribs. Okay, so you did know about the rib injury. Okay. Yeah, yes. Just checking to see if you knew about the rib. I do know what's going on with football.

Okay. I just don't watch very much football. But you did watch the conchews. condensed replay of the game after I asked you to do that this morning. Man, I got to all 12 and a half minutes of it. I've been to rewound it a couple times. That's the true condensed version. That's not the NFL.com all 22.

It's not every play. That's the highlights. Right, right. So you got to that. All right. So do you have, before we get to the very end, did the highlights tell you anything about how the game went until the the end.

In fact, they did, Kevin. The highlights were fairly telling of how the game went. Okay. Telling enough that you're watching the first half of this ballgame and one, Jane Daniels is out playing Caleb Williams by a landslide. Two,

they should be 17-21-0 at the half. I mean, a couple millimeters, like, Terry McLaren gets tripped up on that unbelievable beat ball dime. They get to in stride, and somehow the DB hits his foot. Ertz drops a contested

touchdown that I think Earth probably comes up with at times. McCaffrey on the first drive had just a millimeter to get both feet in. I mean, it was absolutely dominant. Washington's defense is outstanding

in the first half the ball game. And by the way, Ben may tell me, as I watch these highlights, that Washington is still dominating the game in an unthinker. believe a way. And DeAndre Swift on a wide zone from off the side of the quarterback takes one for 60. With nine missed tackles. He's good of a few played. You give up a 60 yarder or whatever it was,

more than that, I don't know. 50, it was 56, but yeah. Yeah. That was the, that was the play that all of a sudden, it's like, oh my God, it should be 30 to nothing. And, and, and, and, and, you know, and it's now 12 to 7. So it's hard to know the context of how you would have been feeling because you're watching the highlights, but you've pretty much nailed it so far before we get to the end of the game. The only thing that I would suggest, and I'm not asking you to alter your view, I think the defense played well,

but I think Caleb Williams was pretty awful for the first three quarters of the game. which in a condensed highlight, I'm just going to make the assumption that he played poorly. I'm also going to add to that that he was 10 to 24 for 131 yards. Yeah, but listen to this real quickly. He was 10 of 24 for 131 yards, but with 10 minutes to go in the game, in the game, and he's played the entire game. He didn't come in in the fourth quarter or in the third quarter. He started the game, never came out of the game,

with 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, he was four for 13 for 36 yards. Passing. Isn't that amazing? I've never heard of anything like that. Oh, I think you could look up a few games where you could find that. Nathan Peterman maybe? I don't know if completion percentage of the bad, but I remember a playoff game with Tampa Bay where Mark Brunel maybe had 40 yards in the first half.

That's true. That is true. The playoff game in 2005, you were a part of it. I think it's the fewest passing yards ever for a team that won a playoff game. I don't know if it's still the record. But Brunel, I think as a team you guys had like 110 total yards. I'm looking it up right now. And it was an NFL record at that point. Here it is. The Tampa game, you guys had a total. of 120 total yards and the net passing yards. Well, the gross passing yards in the game, he was 7 of 15 for 41 yards. Wow. You nailed it. That is probably one of the few examples you could find. But seriously, it was part defense, I'm pretty sure, but it's like one of those things

where unless I had you watching the All-22 to. tell me, oh, no, no, no, they confused him and nobody was open and they should have run the ball so it's on the offensive coordinator versus, oh, yeah, he held it, he held it, there were people open, he didn't get rid of it, he tried to run, he made some plays, you know, as a runner, but he could have had 150 yards passing in the first half if he had just let it fly. He just never seemed to let it fly. He never seemed to let it fly. I don't know. We'd have to look at that. Right.

But Washington continues to let him hang around, man. Because they don't score. The Red Zone is so bad. And the Bears should have taken the lead with, what, somewhere around six minutes of the fourth quarter, but they decide, we're going to hand it to an offensive lineman on the goal line. Yeah.

How about that play? What are you doing? What are you doing? It's on a third and goal play? Like, down five? Yeah. Nothing fun up to scores on a first and one. Right. The old refrigerator peri play is not your third in goal play in the most critical moment of the game.

Crazy. That was crazy. Yeah. So. And it's hard to see if he's down or not. I don't think he, well, the ball never got into his gut. I don't think he ever had the ball. No, he didn't. He never had possession of the ball. So let's pick it up from there. The next drive after Washington,

takes over after recovering the fumble from their own three-yard line. I don't know if you got this play and the highlight reel, but Jaden Daniels on 3rd and 5 scrambles four and a half yards, and you have a half a yard, maybe less, from your own 12-yard line, fourth and inches up 12 to 7. First of all, did you see the play that I'm talking about? First of all, I know the play you're talking about, and I had a question for you because this is not explained on the highlight.

Is it challenged? It was not challenged. You thought it was a first down, too? To me, his rear ends up landing on number 91 from the Bears, and he extends, and the ball's over the line. I thought it was a first down two. You got one time out in that moment. You did.

But you're up five. Yep. So obviously, and the timeout comes in to be incredibly critical. Yeah. They've already lost one challenge. They challenged the Earth's touchdown in the first half and lost that challenge, just so you know. But the other part of this is if he's not down, does the ball come out before his shoulders sit the ground? Or he keeps the ball there. It looks like it gets rigged. I don't know. I think he's got a first down. I mean, I think it's one of those things because you have the ball. It's not like, you know, the team is hurrying up, you know, and get a quick snap it, and you don't have enough time to look at it.

They must have looked at it, and they must have said it's close. It's not going to be overturned. Don't burn the time out. That's what I'm guessing. Does the TV show a bunch of angles? Because his right knee could go down as he's on the way down. It may have been. I don't.

Yeah. It may have been his right shin or something. but no, to answer your question, there wasn't like a great angle. It just looked when he reached forward that he was actually in the back of a player and that the ball had clearly passed the yellow line. But don't you think that, you know, again, you don't have to rush there. I don't think you could, I even think you could almost take a delay a game. Well, I mean.

You don't want to, but you could really, you could send the punt team out and run it down to two seconds while you watch it. Yeah, but here's the question. So let's just assume they get the call down from the box. It says, Coach, it's not worth it. There's just no video here that's going to overturn the call. It's fourth and inches from your own 12, with four and a half minutes to go in a game that you're leading by five in.

Would you have considered going for it? 455 left in the game at that point. Clock can run down to 420. Yeah, I, think I'd consider going for it. Mike, I know I control a hell merry late, so I have that in my

back pocket. I think you could consider going for it, because if you don't get it, the bears take very little time off the clock to score. If they score, if they don't hand it off the number 68. Right. I mean,

and they have to score a touchdown. That's right. Actually, on the third and goal, I wondered if they had missed it or even lost yardage. I wonder because there were like six minutes left. I wonder if they would have kicked a field goal. If they did it, I think so. It's possible.

The analytics would have said, go for it. They wouldn't have on the neck. If they had taken over from the 13-yard line, they wouldn't have kicked the ball. I'm saying when 68 fumbled the ball, let's just say they recovered it at the three-yard line. You know, they could have kicked. There were six and a half minutes to go then. They could have kicked the field goal to make it 12 to 10. there. Everything about you giving the ball to number 68 on a third and goal tells me that you're

going to go for it on a fourth and goal. I mean, yeah. So fourth and inches, I think, I think because, and I got a better feel for this because I'd watch the game. I know they had moved the football down there, you know, before giving it to number 68, but that's the first time legitimately they had made plays on offense in the game pretty much. Other than the 56-yard touchdown run, and on that drive, by the way, that drive that got him down there started with another big run by D'Andre Swift, where he

hurtled Quinn Juan Martin. Oh, yeah. I think I would have punted figuring... Nine out of ten people, nine out of ten coaches are punting that. Maybe 19 out of 20. I'm actually interested to know

what those fourth-down analytics people would say. I bet it's a go-for- because it's the inches. I think it's a go for it. And it's also Washington's done a really good job at the line of scrimmage, and you've got a big back in Robinson. And you also have a read-option threat

with Jane Daniels. I mean, you're presenting 11 that instead of a 10-man front to run the football, you know, with the quarterback involved. Yeah. Yeah. And the other aspect of it is,

like I said, you can take it five-yard penalty from there. It's not the hugest deal in the world. It's a legitimate go-for opportunity. Do you do run a no-snap, no play, and try to draw? Yeah. But anyway, they punted the football. And then Caleb makes the best plays he's made all day.

I mean, the throw to Keenan Allen, where he extends is a great play. They end up scoring, by the way, before the touchdown on second goal, What are they doing running the fade on first and goal? Like, that didn't make sense to me. And then run the ball on second down, run the ball on third down. Say that again? So then they run the ball on third and five.

Oh, you're talking about after the – You're talking about after the PI. After the PI. Which I wanted, which I would want to discuss with you because – Okay, let's go back to that. You're going to sit on sticks. Sit on sticks. So Keenan Allens are,

in and out and up, and St. Juice is covering him. If you're going to sit on the sticks, which he's not, if Keenan Allen runs the out, Alan's breaking at the nine-yard line, St. Juice is setting at the five. He's not sitting on sticks. It's not an easy drive on. They're throwing into the boundary. The throw Williams could make, don't take the bait. You can give up the five-yard first. I mean, clearly with 34 seconds, you don't want to give up the first.

you can't give up a touchdown, and you can't get a PI. It's like the Chief Super Bowl. What was it? A year ago or two years ago. He can't get a PI in that situation. It's idiotic. And it's an obvious PI. It's an obvious call.

Yeah, it was. He gets out of position, wraps the waist to Key and Allen, and it's a very catchable ball if he doesn't touch Allen. Agreed. It's not a smart play by St. choose. Why is he not playing? Why isn't he playing sticks there? I mean, in theory, is he playing with some position where he could drive on sticks? Maybe, but a well-throw and ball on just an out-rout getting caught with him in that much of a trail position,

that much of an off position. If Alan breaks out at the nine-yard line, it's complete. They're into the boundary, you cannot play sticks into the boundary eight yards off. And so all he's doing is playing in a position, in my opinion, to get beat on a double move. Right. Yeah. I don't see, he's not playing in a position to win on a five-yard out because I don't think he can win there. So if anything, he just has to not bite on the double move and play the double move. if he's not going to play the sticks,

you can't bite on the sticks on a double move. No doubt. He's also got unlimited inside help. Why are we driving so hard on the double move? Like, you should have been another step outside anyway. Got it. Yeah. He's like, he's got two backers inside of him

and he's got safety help from the outside. Why is he so head up? Like, it should have been another step outside. Look, you're talking to somebody watch the condensed highlight. I don't know how they're calling this or how they're playing this. Maybe that's part of the defense. Look, I don't know.

But to me, I'm playing a step wider outside and a step tighter, or I'm playing two steps back. I can't get beat for a PI and I can't get beat for a touchdown. Those are the two things I can't do, because they still have to go in and score. From the nine. Yeah, especially, by the way, with blitz pressure, right? Right.

So here's a question for you because I did step out a turn chronologically and you went back to this fourth and three. I had, and this is going to be hard for you to see, the third and five play was kind of an insane play. That was the one I said, why do you run it there? Was it a quarterback designed run or was it a busted play? That's what I can't figure out. No, it's a quarterback design run. It's a quarterback draw. The sending linemen, like, 65 for the Bears,

is coming off of the line of scrimmage. Your center is coming off of the line of scrimmage to go up and try to block the second level. That's how much confidence they had in him throwing the ball is on third and five they ran a QB draw. By the way, it was their second QB draw of the game and maybe of that drive or the drive previously? but here's where it's going to be hard because you're just watching the you're clicking to play.

Washington. I don't know. Actually, I'm watching it again. I don't know. Okay. So what I want to tell you, though, is that... I think 23, the back bus and goes their own way. And the QB draw?

The reason I think it's that, I think it's that same outside zone play that they scored on almost because they're cracking their receiver 14 down and pulling their tackle, their left tackle around the end. Yeah, I see that. The quarterback is not running a quarterback sweep here, and he doesn't run it with any intent. 23 bus. They're running like a tossed or tech play, like a tackle down and around play, or tackle around play. If you watch the left tackle, he's pulling around the end. The 14's cracking. It's the same exact look as they ran on the DeAndre Swift touchdown play. By the way, the play before it, the second Nate play is the other QB draw play that I'm talking about. And Duran Payne trips him up barely because he's going to get a first down. Go back to the second Nate play.

That's a QB draw, and Payne literally reaches out and shoe strings him or he has, potentially with his size, and I think that's Jeremy Chin, you know, coming up, he probably gets to the first down. So they ran, they ran a QB draw there. Now, let me understand what you're saying here in the third and five. Are you now saying you do think it was a bit of a busted play? It's a busted run play. 23 is supposed to go sweep left. So if you watch, especially watch the receiver on the end of the line of scrimmage crack down on the D-end and the left tackle try to pull around the receiver. If it were designed quarterback run, be trying to get outside of the end.

Somebody's trying to get outside of the end. Yeah. Maybe, like, maybe it's quarterback sweep. That's crazy to me if they're running quarterback sweep right there. But it's a sweet. It's an outside play. It's an outside design play. No doubt.

With the wide receiver crack. I've seen a lot of weird stuff in the little football. I've watched over the last couple years where you got guys pulling in two different directions and you're still running up the whittle trying to influence linebackers with different things. Right. To me, on a third down, in that situation, I'd be calling a sound run play, something I saw a sound, not deceptive.

But anyways, that's where you're at. So what I was going to ask? You mentioned running, and by the way, the second out play, that's not a highlight, I can't see that play. That's not a what? That's not a highlight. So you missed that play. I can't see that play.

Okay. It's a quarterback draw that Duran literally reaches out of hand and trips them up. not, he probably picks up the first down. So the thing about this third and five play, look down at the scoreboard. Washington's got one timeout left, right? So it's a play that ends up in bounds. And yes, it's fourth and three now, but I talked about this yesterday and also in the open. I think you've got to bang that time out right there defensively.

it's 40 seconds, you know, in between, because when they take that next step, next snap, excuse me, on fourth and goal, there are, you know, or three seconds left on the play clock. So they burn basically 37 seconds that they would have had back after the kickoff following the touchdown, because remember, next play is the penalty. That stops the clock. The next play after that is the fade, which I don't understand why you throw a fade on first and goal.

it seems like only bad things can happen with the way he's been throwing it. And then they run it. Also, if you score right there, I mean, you're not necessarily trying to give them whatever 30 seconds left on the clock. I'd rather have them have a little bit less if I had to run it once. If you had to fade on second, that way. You have three time out. You've got three time out. No, I'm saying Washington should have called the time out after the...

Oh, I know what you're saying. No, I know what you're saying. I don't know if I agree with that. Why? Only because you've got 34 seconds, and they're sitting there. No, there's a minute 14 when the third down, minute 13 when the third down play ends. Yeah, but it's going to run down, and they still got a score touchdown. If they manage the clock incorrectly, it starts to put pressure on them.

They have three timeouts. They're not going to manage, they've got, they're not going to run out of time. You have to protect against the worst case. But here's the thing. They can also run the clock down to what they want to run the clock to. I don't know. I don't hate saving that timeout, and it came out. It was really important that they saved the timeout.

Well, they won the game because they saved the timeout. No. The other way to look at it is instead of the timeout, it would have been better to not have the timeout instead of 19 seconds after the kickoff return to have 55 seconds. Which would you have right? I understand. 55 seconds.

That doesn't mean they're going to get 55 seconds. The bear should run the ball on the next play and take 50 seconds off the clock on the next play. Well, they're at the one-yard line after the interference. I mean, they've got to throw on fourth and three. They're not going to run the ball to run the clock on fourth and three. They've got to go get the first down. And they get the interference.

If you don't know that they're going to get an interference and get the one-yard line, but they're going to throw five-yard out. You don't, but you have to protect. against that as a possibility. Here's the other thing. Here's the other thing you need to know. You don't know that they're going to get a two-point conversion on a shovel pass and that the game is going to be a game where you have to score with the hell Mary,

that you don't need to rush a field goal. You're down three. It's a field goal either way that you're trying to get, whether you're down one or down three. You're not going to get a big enough foot. You don't know that you're not going to get a big enough play to rush that you can't rush your field goal team on. Chris, you have to. to protect against the worst case in that moment. The bears are not going to run out of time.

They are not going to run out of time. You have a time out. When you use it on defense, that saves the most time because you can control. I'm aware of that. Okay, I know you are. I'm aware of that. So based on the way it played out, and yes, it's possible that it wouldn't have played out. Maybe they would have run the ball in first down rather than throwing the fade and it would have gotten stopped, and then they could have run the clock in another 40 seconds. And therefore, using the timeout really didn't matter, all right? But it's very... It's 40 seconds.

I know what you're saying. Yeah. I do. The way it played out, they would have had the ball with about 55 seconds to go after the kickoff with no timeouts. That's much better than 19 seconds with one timeout, when you're just in need of a field. The way it played out, it is absolutely much better. Yes.

But there's a lot of scenarios that, and I don't know how the Bears play it, but there's a lot of scenarios of 55 a minute on the clock that you never don't try to score from the one-yard length. You don't know what's going to happen after that? You know what you could have done if you had used the timeout, and there was, you know, basically, you know, after the third down play, all right, just walk through it with me, after the third down play a minute 13, you bang the timeout. You don't get your fourth down stop.

They're at the one-yard line. When they snap the next play, the first down in goal would have been with basically a minute seven left. You let them score. Played madden. Well, I mean, first and goal at the one, odds are they're going to score. You want them to score with the most amount of time left on the clock. I'm not suggesting that that would have been my strategy. I'm just suggesting that it is clear cut that they should have banged the time out on defense

and not saved it for the end. The only reason I don't let them score there is because a field goal doesn't give them anything. And let's say, I'm with you. I won. On the first one, they baffle a snap. Of course. Or is your penalty? There's a penalty.

Yes, I'm with you. Yeah. I'm not going to let them walk. I'm not either. I'm not either. I'm just saying there are some teams that may have considered that. I'm just saying I don't think I can be talked out of it was the right thing to do to bang the time out in defense

where you can save nearly 40 seconds of clock time. And yes, it could have played out differently and they would have lost that time anyway, but I think in that mode you have to protect against worst case, which is them scoring. Because not protecting against that leaves you with 19 seconds in one timeout, which isn't nearly as good as 54, 55 seconds to go and no timeouts. But anyway, let's get to what happened after this.

So it's 15 to 12. You've got one timeout left and there are 25 seconds left on the kickoff. I'll ask you this, because this was another, you know, knit that I picked. I don't think that they should have returned that kickoff. I think that they should have down the kickoff and gotten the ball at the 30-yard line with 25 seconds to go. Rather, because Echler basically fielded it about a yard deep in the end zone, so they could have taken 30-yard line and 25 seconds left. Instead, it was 19 seconds at the 24-yard line.

I'm downing that kick. Yeah. If you don't have the opportunity to run three plays, I'd consider it. If I need that kickoff return to be able to get myself to the 45-yard line, you know, there's 11 seconds or 12 seconds, I don't know, I'd down the kick. Yeah. And by the way, the context you don't have is Echler's actually been pretty good as a kickoff returner, but still it would not have mattered.

Because this quarterback, you give him the ball at the 30-yard line with a timeout, all they need is field goal range to potentially tie the game. I know. That timeout was huge. Well, 55 seconds would have been better, and with no time else. No, a lot better. You can't disagree with that. I mean, you keep giving me the time after the kick return now.

Okay, 48 seconds, 48 seconds. my timeout. 48 seconds to go. No timeouts is still better than 19 seconds in no timeout. Whatever. They are where they are. All right. Let's get to the very end.

The final two plays. Both of those plays, very significant. Let's take a break before we do it. We will return with Cooley and we'll break down the throat of Terry on the sideline that got him out to the 48-yard line and then the Hail Mary play itself. And we'll do it right after. these words from a few of our sponsors. Is there anything better when you're a football fan than this time of year?

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L-E-A-Filter.com slash Kevin. See representative for warranty details. We continue with Chris Cooley after I tell you that this segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. and use my promo code. And if you're new to my bookie, you'll receive a 100% deposit bonus. That is doubling your bankroll. They'll double your initial deposit if you're new to my bookie. That gives you twice the firepower in betting. They're just going to put that money into your account to bet with,

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The third earth is huge. Yeah. But throw the earth on a second 10 is absolutely massive because if you don't get to the 35-yard line, then you're trying to throw the out route to the 35-yard line. Yeah, right. With six seconds, you know, if you incomplete that play, now we're trying to throw the out-rout 35-yard line. Right.

We got an extra time out, so we wouldn't necessarily have to throw the out-rout. If you think of a plate, you could throw the middle still. But the play that's astounding to me is you're on the 35-yard line, He could probably, can he throw the ball 65 yards in the air? Well, he did, but from the 35, you're probably going to have to throw it 70 plus yards in the air. Right. The fact that the bears are going to allow that sideline play is absolutely beyond me.

Like, they have, if you look at that, they have seven guys past, well, one guy standing on the 32 of the other side of the field. Seven guys deep. To play five receivers and Washington releases three checks and releases. If you can play two guys up on the boundary at 12 yards, like on the sideline at 12 yards, you still got five deep. I know. It's...

This is a blatant mistake. Right. you just can't give that up. And I guess Iberflux is thinking, well, even if they throw the side-vine play, they have to immediately go out of bounds. But if you have three more seconds, Terry can turn this up for 12 more cards. So let's start with this. How much time has to be on the clock to throw the out route that they're not covering?

Six seconds got you to two. So is it five, no less than five, right? With four, I'm not going to take the chance. Yeah. I'm not going to take the chance at four. With five, I'm okay. I'm expecting there's no holding. There's no issue.

The ball's in and out of my hand. Right. I guess the interesting conversation here is if I'm calling the out route, you know, what happens when I line up with receivers running out routes and the bears are sitting with a guy at seven, a guy at 14 on both sides. Like, do I convert to hell Mary there? Well, you can't get it. See, that's the thing, is that...

Your quarterback can still just throw it out of bounds. Overthrow the out route. Of course, and he can still try to throw the out route into traffic, you know, or to try to find a hole. But it's now you're getting into perhaps a longer throw, and now six seconds is dangerous. no, the ball's going over the middle of the field and they're playing pitch and lateral. And that's probably the game.

Well, I'm assuming my quarterback can throw it 70 yards. Okay. Maybe not, 65. He threw it 65 on the final play. 65 yards in the air. Well, you also have to understand if you're the Bears, who you're playing. Jake Daniels is going to, which they completely misunderstand. stood on the Helmerit, which we can get to.

Yeah, but let's stick with the play before. Eberfluse said the following after the game. And I know you love Eberflus as a defensive coordinator, and I think he's done a great job as a defensive guy in the league as well. He was asked about defending the second to last play of the game. He said, you're defending a touchdown there, and them throwing a ball for 13 yards or whatever it was, really doesn't matter.

It's always going to come down to the last play. Dude, that's all that mattered on that play. They get no shot at throwing a legitimate Hail Mary to the goal line or into the end zone without that 13-yard play. They don't get a chance to do that. How... You said you take five, you put them deep, and you take one to cover each boundary, right?

I mean, given that the ball snapped on the left hash, it's really the left boundary that you have to be most aware of, right? Given that the ball snapped on the left hash and Terry McLoren's the receiver on the left side of the field, I'm pretty sure that I'd come up and play the boundary on Terry McLaren. Yeah. But I mean, do you have to play the right boundary on a snap from the left hash? Yeah. Yeah, you do. With six seconds, 100%.

Yeah, he can throw the right boundary. Agreed. I think he can make that throw. How stupid is that comment from him? Here's why it's so stupid. Here's the other aspect of it. It dramatically enhances the ability to get the ball into the end zone on the next play. And I'll just give you this context to it.

It's the end of the game, and we're exhausted. We had a first down play, a second down play, now boundary play. but we're also talking about 15 yards further that we've got to run down the field to choreograph or orchestrate three or four guys finding their area around the goal line, which we also, by the way, don't know about because we don't know if our quarterback can throw it 70 yards. So do we set up a guy on 10 to 5 in the end zone or the goal line? From the 50, I know exactly where I'm setting. Like, I'm a tight end.

I'm the post guy. I'm going to be on the goal line. I'm the short receiver, I'm going to be on the four. I'm the deep receiver on five yards deep, on three yards deep. It changes dramatically when I don't know where the ball's going to land. I'll be honest. So it impacted the last play quite a bit. I'll be honest with you.

I don't think they throw it deep downfield if they're playing the boundaries. I think maybe there's a chance to just force one into the boundary on the sideline and you just hope. Or they're throwing it over the middle to Echler. And Echler's starting a pitch and lateral thing with Jaden, by the way, trailing and being involved in the play because he's your most elusive runner. I'll give you another aspect. When you're sitting on the boundary at 12 yards and the guy goes blazing by you, obviously not attacking the boundary, do you stay there? Or maybe do you just trail? It depends how many receivers are on that side of the field.

But in that instance, Terry McClory goes streaking by you. to a Hail Mary situation. Right. Is there no ability to recover and just run with him? Yes. No, you're right. Of course there is. Exactly.

Just put you on the boundary. Yeah. If they run by, you have two more dudes that run deep with the receiver. Yeah. I mean, so true. All right. I mean, all they got to do is sit with their 10 yards, 10 to 12 yards,

literally with their heels on the sidelines facing inward. And as soon as the receiver runs by, you just start running. All right. Before we... Nothing doing that. Okay, go ahead. Before we get to the specifics of the final play, I want to ask you a few things. In your day of playing or in your day of being around the team, you know, and, you know, Jay's teams in particular, how often does this get practiced, Hail Mary's, and how does it get practiced?

It gets... It normally is practiced with one versus two. at the end of a practice, I would say six times a season, eight times a season, max. I don't think I ever practice it in training camp. It's almost always one of those things where, oh, we're going to get the hell married this week. It's usually on a Friday, no pads. It's not practiced a ton. That said, a lot of these plays, like the boundary plays, whether we got to get 18 yards in this situation in the last minute,

do get practice on occasion. This boundary play to Terry was it was practice. Maybe not every week, but it's something that they have in. They probably got it in the last week of training camp. And it's up to the coach, but you might hit it every couple weeks. It takes eight minutes out of a practice on a Friday. All right. So do you practice it?

You said that you don't practice it fully uniform. So is it a walkthrough? No, you would practice at 1-vers-2. You'd go up Thursday afternoon or Friday, 2-minute drill, 1-1-1-1-1-2. 1-0 versus 1-2. And you'll just run, you'd run a 2-minute drill. They run their D, we run our offense. It's not scripted.

And then at the end of that, we'll set the ball where we want to set the ball and create a couple situations. Okay, so when you practice the Hail Mary, what's the strategy offensively? I think the first thing that you like to have is two guys in the middle around the goal line. You always have to have someone as a trail guy, which Brown is clearly the trail guy, and they did a good job of orchestrating that. And then you like another guy in front.

Brown would have been called the trail guy, right, who's trailing. kind of behind the play with Noah Brown being the exterior player, the one that gets behind the two players. I think you just described it in a way that was, maybe it's the right way to describe it. I don't know. But we know what you're saying. Noah Brown, there's a deep player behind the two players that you just described. And then there's a player that's in front of those players in case the ball gets knocked in that direction. All right.

So that's the form. There's three levels spread out about seven total yards. Okay. Eight yards is what you really like is about three levels. Noah Brown's the back level. And to me, it's pretty clear because when everyone goes up into the jump, he stays back. He hangs.

Right. You don't go up for the jump ball with everybody else. You hang back. You also want a guy that hangs in front. Right. And Terry's the front player. Right. Terry sitting on about the six-yard line

because as a defender, which we will also discuss, if the ball's batted forward or tipped where it goes in front of the scrum, you want a guy in front to be able to get that ball. So the way Washington's doing it is they're sending two into the middle up a three-man side and one deep and brown and one short in Terry.

And they leave seven to six to protect. The other thing is you have to have six seconds protected for the quarterback, for that to set up and end up working to where we get guys in position that we like to create a jump ball scenario. So before we get... You have to have the quarterback long enough for him to be able to throw that ball with guys being able to, like, I need to get to the goal line and be able to start to turn around before the ball really gets into the air.

Right. So. I've got to be able to run 50 yards before he really releases it. Ideally, if I can run 50 yards and start to set up as he's releasing the ball, we're really good in that situation. So for me, to run 50 yards at the end of the game is like 5.5 seconds, 6 seconds. So it's a minute. It takes some time.

By the way, what yard line moving from the goal line towards midfield and beyond constitutes a true Hail Mary strategy. Is it at the other team's 40, the other team's 45, the other team's 35? Obviously on the other side of half of midfield, it was at the 48-yard line after the throw to Terry. That's Hail Mary territory. But what yard line are you not just running a normal play to try to throw it into the end?

I've done how far my quarterback can throw the ball. Well, no, but I'm saying how close do you have to be? to the goal line before you wouldn't be in a Hail Mary throwing it up for grabs running a Hail Mary? I understand what you're saying. 30. The 30-yard line. You mentioned... Maybe 35.

Okay. But why couldn't you throw a Hail Mary from the 35? You could. I'm asking you, like, at what point are you going to Hail Mary versus running this normal play? Probably 35. Okay. It seems to me that it would have been closer, but that's fine because it's just one play. You can't throw a checkdown, can't throw something shallow.

It's got to go into the end zone. But they also have to be able to tackle and you can spread the field enough that they can't just sit in the end zone away. I mean, I guess you could, you know, you don't know where I'm attacking. You have to be able to come up to tackle. It's not like you can put eight guys on the back line and go, sure we'll tackle them from the 35. Again, before we get to this specific play, you mentioned the offensive line. What were when this got practiced when you played, what were the offensive linemen's

responsibilities? Stay with the block. I know to block. No, not two blocks. Stay with the block. Stay with the block. You might get beat around the backside, but if the quarterback's got to move, be able to recover and continue to block the dude without holding.

Yeah, and also... The other huge aspect, especially with the, you can't take a penalty here. Right. You can't be illegally downfield or a hold. And the quarterback has got an opportunity that he might run around. So you've got to stay available to be there to block when you get a situation to block. The Bears actually fell entirely on the back end of this in my, or, the front end of this. They're rushing three, and they're spying Daniels with 53.

53 never rushes. I know. He's just bopping around back there. I know. I know. Why do you think, I mean, they've already butchered the play before. Why do you think they decided to spy him on this play as part of their hell-married defense? I have the whole fucking idea.

Yeah. If he's not running, the dude isn't going to run at 50 yards and score. Well, that's where. By the way, he already jukes. Like, 53, he lost his shoes twice. Yeah. That wasn't amazing in the first half. Right.

Nobody can spy. What do you can spy Daniels? Like, Daniels is going to give him a one-two and it's going to be over. I just don't. I rush five there. To me, if I'm in Chicago, I rush five. I agree with that wholeheartedly. And I would even say, I mean, especially when Washington put the back in the backfield.

like the back stays in the backfield and I would rush when he stays in the back field which gives you six to cover four yeah I'm rushing five and I'm really rushing

three up the middle to just press the pocket and I'm just going to slowly condense a pocket I don't want the quarterback to be able to make seven moves back there and do what I said which is by about five and a half seconds to be able to have everybody set up

on the goal line. The biggest thing that really the hardest thing when we'd run a now, Mary, is when I'm on the five-yard line and I know the balls in the air, and I'm supposed to get to the goal line, turn around, find it, and try to jump. It's a hardest thing.

I am. How long does he back there? One thousand? Two and thousand. I'll tell you. Four one thousand. Five one thousand. Six one thousand. Seven one thousand.

Eight one thousand. 9,000, 10,000, 11, 11 seconds. No, it was 12.19 seconds. Okay, 12.19 seconds. Yeah, 12.19 seconds. When you give someone 12 seconds to set up and everyone a chance to set up. And then I'm going to go to my last point on defense.

I fucking hate batting the ball. Everyone goes up and you start trying to bat balls with one hand. or bat balls around and you get bumped and if I can catch the ball and catch the ball. I just never liked the bat situation. Okay, we'll get to that in a second. 12.79 seconds, by the way.

And he covered 40.7 yards before throwing. One of the things I was going to ask you about because it just kind of occurred to me as I was watching this play for the 75th time. I think once he gets outside on the first, you know, lose of contain. You can't let him come back and kind of retrace. No.

Like he's actually trying to get back out to contain and send him back towards the pocket. On that play, it's 95 or 55, the D-N. I think at that point you then have to steer him towards the sideline. Now we're talking about, I think you're absolutely. right. Now we're talking about something that's not been practice and is absolutely not instinctual. Right. Let him break

contain? Right. Yeah, I want him to break the tail. I want him to run farther to the sideline and even think about running it. But that's not. I doubt that's a practice thing. Man, if he gets outside of you, if there's

a chance, let him outside of you. I know. It's the opposite. Yes. but you get my point is retracing back to the pocket. Oh, I see it completely. It's worse for Chicago. So we've already talked about the spy. That's on my list. We've talked about the 12.19 seconds.

I mean, how many quarter – here's the other thing. There are only three or four quarterbacks. Mahomes, Jackson, Allen, and probably Jaden. It will end Jaden. that can buy 12.179 seconds. I don't know. Caleb Williams' guy that could buy that time. You see him move in the pocket.

There's, well, here, let me put it to you this way. There's about 20 of them when you rush three. Okay, fair enough. And you protect with six. Yeah. And one guy just stands around doing nothing, eight yards deep. I'm with you. In that situation, I'm not rushing three.

And I'm certainly, here's the one thing about the spy. Let me just tell you my one theory. And I don't think they did it this way because they had already shown to be dumb-dums with a lot of stuff they did down the stretch. The reason I'm spying him is, believe it or not, he is a threat to run. I know that sounds insane, but he's so elite. And by the way, to your point, it doesn't matter because spying him is worthless. They can't stay in front of them. But once he takes off and you could get to a point where, let's just say,

he's at the 25-yard line and he could throw a lateral back to Echler, who's trailing down the left side line, like there are things that might be equal in terms of probability of scoring to the actual Hail Mary pass with him on the field as a runner. I'm just saying, you know, The Chiefs one year, the Chiefs one year, instead of throwing a Hail Mary, threw the ball underneath to Tyreek Hill. And they said, go score from the 35-yard line.

And there were pitch people all over the field. But because he's so ridiculously fast and elusive, he almost got in. He got to like the two-yard line and never pitched it. He almost got in. So with Daniels, if you're Chicago, maybe you are thinking, we don't want him to get into the open field as a runner on this play. Then why is 53 spying? He had spied him a few times during the game. He's like you said, the guy was just completely...

Putting my most athletic DB in the play. True. That's a good point, too. If I'm actually worried he's breaking out of there, I'm not going to have 53. Daniel just juked out three times, be my spy. How about the throw? I think the throw is another big part of this. First of all, he lets it go from the 35, so it's 65 yards into the air.

I mean, enough from people who were looking at highlight reels during the spring about his arm strength. But how about just the arc you have to put on it, the height you've got to get on it, and turn it into a true jump ball? It's an awesome throw. What does it land on about the two? About the one? Yeah, something like that. It would have probably actually landed without being touched right on the goal line.

Well, here's why the throw is important. Because we're setting up with two guys right on the goal line and a guy in a trail position, two yards deep, and a guy on the four. And if you throw that ball to the four-yard line, that adjustment now becomes an odd thing. Right. with ball in the air and a lot going on around you. It's a big time throw. The throw is huge. Yeah.

I mean, remember to this, if he doesn't throw it away on the second to last play if they're covering the boundaries and the ball goes over the field, it's pitching lateral in the game probably ends. You can't, the line of scrimmage was the 48. On the Hail Mary, he let it go from the 35. So if the line of scrimmage had been the 35, then he would, would have let it go from the 22. He can't throw the ball 78 yards in the air. That's a Hail Mary if you throw it that way instead of playing pitch and lateral that's

going to land at about the 15. So here's something you don't know about the play. I don't think you know about the play. The guy that tipped the ball, 29 Stevenson, do you know what he was doing at the beginning of this play? I don't. What was he playing Tiddlywinks? He's missed the first 4.1 seconds of the play. He's over on the sideline mouthing off at fans

as the play has begun. No! Yeah, it's all, I mean, you can find it on social media. Tyreek Stevenson. He literally is not paying attention. Jaden's already 4.1 seconds into the 12 seconds, and he is at the 15-yard line, basically,

jawing at fans not looking at the play. Is he on the field, though? He's on the field, and then he realizes, oh, my God, and he gets back over to a spot before the throw, but he's not paying attention to the play. This is a guy that had been jawing back and forth with Terry during the game. He got flagged for poking his fingers through Sam Cosmy's face mask. And he did apologize on social media. Profusely apologized and take accountability last night after the game.

But oh my God, you have to see this. It's unbelievable. And he's the one. Now, what we don't know is, and I haven't asked you, defensively, isn't the cardinal sin to let somebody get behind you on that play. Somebody, or the Bears, should play the trail guy. We don't need all six of our guys jumping.

Yeah. And normally you would coach that defensively. Now, two are playing, I guess the trail, like, they're playing there are two playing the front. No one's playing the home brown on the back. Two are playing in front of Terry by Terry. Two are playing Terry. Four are in the jump with McAfri and Ertz.

And nobody's on Noah Brown. And 29, Stevenson, if that was his responsibility to be the back guy to be where Brown was, oh my God. I mean, young people make mistakes and he took accountability and he apologized, which, you know, is giving him all the credit in the world. He immediately did that. that and you want, you know, you want them to learn from that. But if his job, like, the Bears have to have somebody, somebody fucked up on this play,

clearly. But somebody fucks up on so many Hilary plays that you complete it. It probably takes, unless somebody comes like, if, if Ertz goes up as 6'6 and comes down with the ball in the crowd, and there are only three of them and somebody's covering Brown, and that's not necessarily, you know, getting the play messed up. Well, a lot of times, though, even with Ertz, and I don't know how they're coaching it is. If you're in that scrum, you want the ball to go up in the air.

Yeah, I had Ertz on the show. Ertz said his first job is to try to catch it and then potentially tip it somewhere to keep it alive. He did not get his hands on it. 29 Stevenson is the only one. But Earth does a great job. Right. Not allowed, like with a big body, not allowing anywhere with the bears

to get up, really, to get two. two hands on. Fair point. Really good point. He does. I mean, you can credit Earth a lot on this by knocking guys around enough that no one can get a square two-hand volleyball spike down on it.

That's the thing I don't like is that one-handed volleyball spike that Stevenson comes up with. With a high ball like that, that move is a practice for him. Have you ever been on the field for a Hail Mary conversion?

Yeah, a couple. I can't remember if they're, we never completed one. No, that's what I'm saying. A successful one? No. Yeah. Were you on, what was your job typically? Ertz's job.

Erts's job. Wow. Incredible, wasn't it? The other benefit to this help Mary is they, you know, they only had, they ran four plays. I think a couple of the hellmeries I've been on. You're like seven plays in. You're exhausted as you're running down the field.

Ah. Well, oh, here's the other thing, too. So, they make the mistake on the next to last play, and they have three timeouts. Let me just mention real quickly, Caleb Williams

was screaming at Eber Fluse and screaming at the players to come up and cover the boundary. I thought it was interesting. I'm assuming that's what he was screaming, because he was waving the players up to come up and play the boundary on the second and last play. He's wavering him up. Tony Romo's drawn an out route on the screen. Yeah. Yeah.

But everyone was like, I don't care about that. He said, yeah, not a big deal. But the other thing is, before the Hail Mary, I mean, they've got three timeouts. Like, I think you call it, forget about Stevenson for a moment, because once you saw him over there not participating in the first four seconds of the play. But you saw him jawing before the snap. You've got to call time out. You've got to call time out.

We have three. The other thing you could do is see the formation. That's my point. Yeah. Why not just call it to see what to remind everybody. Okay, this is the formation. We've practiced this six times. You said six to eight times this season.

Here are the rules we got. Yeah. Whoever is the back guy, just make sure he's not standing there by himself. surprised they didn't put number 63 in. 68. 68. Yeah. Can you imagine Kramer?

Kramer fumbles the handoff and then he's back there? It's crazy. I mean, here's the thing is Washington should have won the game. They won the game. They outplayed the Bears definitively. And in a problem where the Bears have a chance to win, they blow it. They completely blow it, allowing Washington to get down to mid-term. field and have a chance to throw the Hail Mary.

Lastly, on your OutRout play. Okay, Caleb Williams is screaming out-rout or call time out, in your opinion. Tony are almost darned on the screen. I would just ask Evan Flute this, what is every fucking offense in the NFL going to do from there? What is every offense going to do? They're going to run the boundary play. It's amazing.

It's amazing. Nobody's throwing the fucking El Mary. from the 35. Every single offense, like, here, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. They are going to run a boundary play here. They have six seconds. They're trying to gain some yards. Even six yards would be huge.

Even if you're playing boundary at 14, I'm saying break it off at seven. Let's get the sideline play. Definitely. And let's get out of bounds. Definitely. Like, let's get seven more yards if we get seven more yards. Let's get as close as we care. Do you know that?

There's a lot of instances where, like, we even practice this with Shanahan, where if they have one, like if we're running a boundary play, like the other side, I don't know what happened on the other side, the three-man side. We'll run one guy at five, one guy at 12, and one guy at 18. And if you're not playing two on the boundary, we'll still get the boundary to play with a high-low situation. How about this, Chris? I haven't thought about this. They've got, as you mentioned, seven players back at the 30-yard line and beyond.

Okay, they are literally... 20, 35 yards from the line of scrimmage. There's six seconds left, right? I mean, if you see this formation, whether it's Terry or whoever's split far right, I can't see who it is right now. If you throw just a lead pass to the outside receiver, can he get to the 40-yard line and get out of bounds in six seconds? I'm not risking that.

Because now you've got a field goal attempt to tie the game. It's true. I just, I know, like, that boundary play, we've timed. Well, he gets out to you. That was, of course. I know we can get it, I know we can get it done in five seconds. That five is the ultimate maximum. I understand, but let's just say. I don't know if we can get it done in four. I don't know if I run.

No, you did get it done in four. You got it done in four because there were two seconds left. But I don't know. But I don't know. Like, if we run, I mean, we could time a bunch of them. But if we run five yards deeper, does that ball get out in time to get the clock? It's risky. I like what they did. I know, but I don't think you...

Look, the idea... I did it. The idea of... Did you kick a field goal? Say what? I get it. Could we get into field goal range here? Yeah.

The other thing is that you don't know, and the Bears aren't going to play this next week, you don't always see these plays. You don't always see these defenses. This isn't just to pull up and see what the Bears do on second and ten from the 30s. five with six seconds left. You don't know they're not going to play a boundary play, so you don't know what, I mean,

there's probably an option on the other side with the boundary play to throw a beat down the little further. You've missed the first eight games of the season. They are six and two. And when I tell you, Jaden Daniels is a legitimate, not rookie of the year, he's going to, I mean, basically, he's already wrapped up the offensive rookie of the year. He is a legitimate MVP of the league candidate. I'm well aware of that.

Okay. I'm just, well, I don't know what you're aware of or not. I mean, you're putting, you know, foam in attics. You're spraying foam all day on the weekends. And you're coaching the Northwest Trappers. How are we doing so far with this wrestling season? I can look at stats pretty quick. We start November 2nd.

We have a first match, our first tournament match, this weekend coming up. How long's the drive on the bus? 12 hours. You've got to be kidding me. You're going to be on a... We're going to go. We're going to make it.

It's a big trip. We're going to make it all the way to Denver on the first day. I think we can. We'll see. Oh, my. I mean, the bus can only... The driver from the time our driver gets up and starts the bus. I think really from the time he's up,

can go 10 hours. Oh, my God. Shoot me. 12 hours, 10 hours on a bus. Hang out. Talk to the guys who stop, get lunched. I don't mind it. Bless your heart. It's a dude trip.

I know, and this is your passion, man. I mean, I thoroughly enjoy it right now. I know you do. Jaden right now at My Bookie with updated lines is behind Lamar, Patrick, Josh Allen, Jared Goff, Jordan Love for most valuable player. How are he behind the homes? The Holmes going at the last week had six touchdowns and eight pitch. Yeah, you knew that.

But it's something else, man. When they need him to make a play, he just makes a play. There's no doubt. He's been awesome. It's fun watching him. It's fun watching him have great success. I'm really happy for everyone there. Yeah, it's really.

You and I both love Daniels all offseason, so I mean, he's been, I mean, he's been even better than I thought he would be as a rookie. This is ridiculous. But the fact that they're six and two, now the Eagles all of a sudden have played better football. They went to Cincinnati yesterday and won by 20. And actually, the odds have changed and the Eagles are now favored to win the division. Washington's been the favorite to win the division in the last two weeks. but yeah, I know you're busy. This was perfect. I mean, if we could just do this, if we could just do this every week, you watch 12 minutes of the highlights. What?

Why not? I'm going to start watching a little more. I'll do it with you every week. I'll come on. All right. I'll believe it when I see it, but I love you for doing this. I appreciate it.

I'll talk to you later. See you, Jeff. Chris Cooley, everybody. That actually worked out really well today because really we were focused more on just the situation at the end of the game. And that made it easier for him to consume that portion of it without having to go back and do literally film breakdown of, you know, 30 players, even one player. It is very time-consuming to do what he used to do with those film breakdowns. All right. We'll try to get him to do that in the future.

We'll hope for situations in the game or close games like that, dramatic games like that, and get him on to talk about it. And he's already told me, once he gets settled into their new house, he's going to have the ability to do more. We'll see. It was great to have them on today, that's for sure. All right, just a little bit more show. Some follow-up thoughts to my post-game recap show last night

and something Dan Quinn said in his press conference this afternoon. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So, guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same type of underwear for years, in my case, boxer briefs, same brand. same type for a long time? Well, not anymore for me. I want to tell you about skims for men, something I've discovered recently, the softest underwear I've ever worn. I got a few pairs of the 5-inch boxer briefs so comfortable, no matter what you're doing from sitting in a chair in your office to working out, they are so comfortable. They don't bunch up. They were made to recover

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or head to windonation.com if you need new windows. By the way, you don't have to pay anything for these new windows for two full years because right now part of the deal is no money down, no payments, and also no interest charged for two full years. Contact them today for a free in-home estimate, 86690 Nation or windonation.com. All right, a few things to finish up. show with today. Number one is this. Just moments ago, Matt Everflus, the Bears head coach, during his Monday day after press conference in Chicago, said that Tyreek Stevenson, number 29,

the guy who was mouthing off to the crowd when the final play began, he was oblivious to it for four to five seconds that the play was even happening as he was jawing back and forth with fans on the sideline or near the sideline. Matt Everflus confirmed. today that he was the player responsible for taking Noah Brown and boxing him out in the end zone on that final play. Ouch. Instead, Stevenson, of course, very late to the play, came back and decided to jump up and try to knock the ball down instead of doing his job. And of course, he didn't knocked the ball down. He got a hand on it and it went backwards into the waiting arms of Noah Brown who was completely left open and uncovered by the man responsible for covering him,

Tyreek Stevenson. Stevenson did last night apologize and take accountability for being a knucklehead basically on that final play of the game. My personal view on this as I've gotten older, young people make a lot of mistakes, and we all did. And as long as they're willing to own up to it and apologize and take responsibility, you've got to give him a second chance. He's a talented player in his second year. He started all 16 games last year.

And look, at this point, and here's another thing that I wanted to mention from Matt Eberfluse's press conference today. How does Eberfluse, come down hard on a player in that situation when he hasn't taken any accountability for what happened on the play before it. Listen to this. We know what he said last night. I mentioned it during this show. He said last night that the play to Terry McClure for 13 yards before the Hail Mary play, quote, didn't really matter. Giving up those 13 yards didn't matter. Close quote. Well, obviously, they clearly mattered a lot.

Well, today, he kind of doubled down on the decision. He didn't take responsibility for what was a horrific decision. He said, quote, in that particular situation, you always know what they're going to do. With six seconds to go at the 35, they're going to either go for the end zone or just try to get more yards. So if you want to play sideline defense, what they're going to do is convert to the Hail Mary there and just run everybody off the sideline. Then you've got to pick them up from the sideline and do the same job that you're going to do in the Hail Mary. I mean, that doesn't make any sense. First of all, you're not going to be able to actually execute a legitimate.

Hail Mary, meaning one to the end zone, or at least to the goal line, from your own 35-yard line. But what Cooley said is true. You could have played the sideline, and if, as Everfleu suggested, they decided to go Hail Mary because the sidelines were covered, then they could have dropped back with the receivers and run with them and been in position that they would have been in anyway. I mean, what am I missing here? The bottom line is it's irrelevant because you really can't throw a true Hail Mary from your own 35 because the quarterback now has to throw it more like 70 or 75 yards.

You know, you're not typically when you're doing what Jaden did going to get back to the line of scrimmage to make the throw. Remember yesterday the line of scrimmage was the 48-yard line on the Hail Mary play. He threw it from his 35. That's 13 yards behind the line of scrimmage. You go 13 yards behind the line of scrimmage at the 35-yard line. It's the 22-yard line. You're throwing the ball 78 yards to get it to the goal line. Not possible.

So, by the way, not everybody felt the same as the head coach. Kevin Byard, who's on that roster, he's a longtime veteran, DB, said he had a conversation with his head coach about this strategy. And he said, quote, he's got feelings about it. I think it's a lot of different ways you can defend those plays. But me personally, I think that in that scenario, possibly we could have had the corners pressed up there because they just ran two outcuts. and the play was called just to get a couple of more yards to throw it down the field on the next play. If we had pressed up, maybe they convert to verticals, and they actually run the Hail Mary then. But even if they do that, our corners run with those guys.

And then he said, I'm not saying he doesn't have the arm strength, but you think about the ball may be landing 10 yards shorter, and it may be a little different. I mean, yeah, yeah, for sure. The player had it right. The coach didn't have it right yesterday, and he didn't have it right today. Okay, the second thing that I wanted to mention here before we finish up the show, there's a play in the second half.

It's actually early in the fourth quarter. It's 12 to 7. The Bears had the series after the D'Andre Swift touchdown, where they went three and out, and by the way, inexplicably threw the ball three times. And then they punted. And Washington had a third and six from their own 13-yard line with 12 minutes and 43 seconds to go. Jaden Daniels under pressure steps up into the pocket. Man, he is good at that.

And he throws a ball to Terry McClure. And Terry McClureen goes down and appears to make the catch for an 18-yard game. But I don't think it was a catch. There are multiple television angles that show that that ball was moving and hit the ground as he tried to cradle it and keep it cradled. Washington, though, super smart. They rushed to the line of scrimmage and ran a play so that Chicago didn't have time to challenge it. that was a huge play in the moment, of course, Chicago would get the ball back and ultimately take the lead in the game. But in that moment, there were about 12 minutes and 43 seconds to go, and Washington, in terrible field position, would have been punting had the challenge occurred.

And instead, they had first and 10 from the 31. Now, they ended up punting themselves on that drive after they converted another first down. but I think that was a missed challenge opportunity by the Bears. You know, it was close. It was close. I'm not going to sit here and tell you it was definitively a play that would have been overturned, but I think there's a pretty good chance it would have been overturned. The third thing that I wanted to get to is something Dan Quinn said today.

So he was asked about whether or not he thought yesterday was a bit of an indication that the defense has turned a corner. Here's what he said. I'm hopeful that it was another step forward of getting stronger. And there was another play that I forgot to mention that I should have on the fourth downstop by St. Juice. It was a tackle. They had a run play and they threw what's called a run solution outside. And so for him to step up, make the tackle, you saw. Lou Vu coming to run to go. So those kind of stops, you know, although it wasn't a turnover,

it was like one, you know, being on the fourth downplay. But we've been aiming at improvement and making, you know, significant improvement in a lot of the spots. And you don't get to take away the long run. You don't get to take away those ones. But what I would say, man, I loved some of the running and the hitting. And to see those guys really speeded up. And I thought Bobby Wagner, David was in the very front of it like a quarterback, very in control. We had to get in and out of some checks based on empties and new alignments and new calls. And I thought he just showed that poise came through. We were very fortunate to have him here because of that.

That presence and he's a good blitzer, but more than anything, I just felt him in total control defensively, like a coach on the field. And it was really one of his better games in that way. I just really felt the control of him. In terms of free agency, Bobby Wagner was a massive addition. We are really learning that here over the first half of the season. They just haven't had a player or person of his ilk in the organization in a long, long time. There have been a couple of players here and there. John Allen comes to mind recently, but Bobby Wagner is a hall of famer. And his, as a communicator, as a high IQ player, as a productive player still at the age of 34. He led the league in tackles last year. He is second in the NFC right now in tackles. Something to keep an eye on here over the final nine games.

You know, will he actually get to a point where he is on a defense that isn't very good, but could he be a pro bowler again this year? second in the NFC to Buda Baker in tackles right now. But tremendous off-season addition. I think Louvoo's the other one, because I do think Louvoo has proven to be their best player defensively. You could look at offense and say the additions of Echler and Ertz were similar, but they don't play quarterback.

And Bobby Wagner is the quarterback of the defense. He's the coach on the field defensively, and the quarterback always has to be that on offense. Tremendous season. Look, whether or not they are turning the corner defensively or not, I don't know. Yesterday's performance was improved, and he mentioned the Benjamin St. Juice play on the fourth and one. It was an outstanding play. It really was. and they've had a season in which you can identify some good players.

You know, Wagner and Louvo, obviously, I think Juan Martin is a good player. We'd certainly have high expectations for Mikey Santer still, you know, at some point. You know, there have been other players that have played well, but just not consistently well. We'll see if it all comes together. still a little skeptical. I watched a lot of the game, not as much on defense yet. I will get to that this week. I still think the Bears had something to do with it. I think Caleb Williams, who came on strong, let's face it, on those final two drives. But man, one of the things you notice when you watch some of the game back, he's asked, it looks like, to do an awful lot. Man, I think

Cliff Kingsbury has kept it simple to a certain degree. I'm not. talking about paring down the playbook, but it looks like to me, and I could be wrong, Caleb's up there not only deciding which play they're going to run, the play called or the check, but you see him pointing out, you know, Mike linebackers, it's almost like he's also dealing with protections. Seems like they had him doing way too much. He did have a fourth quarter. There is no doubt about that. Those final two drives, that throw to Keenan Allen, the throw to DJ more, you know, and he can really create with his legs. I mean, he is really a magician and escape artist as a runner.

But, you know, that brings me kind of, it's a decent segue into kind of my last thought on all of this. And that is, it was pretty obvious yesterday that Jaden Daniels is so far ahead of Caleb Williams. That doesn't mean he's going to end up there. It's a long game with these young quarterbacks. Caleb Williams right now is having a normal rookie season. Plenty of ups, plenty of downs, plenty of reasons to feel super encourage, plenty of reasons to feel a bit concerned. That's normal.

And he was blessed as the number one, number one overall with about the best situation we've seen from that draft slot in ages. You know, it's because Chicago didn't have their own pick at number one. They had Carolina's pick. They had a good roster that he walked into, a decent situation that he walked into. But his situation is normal. Jaden Daniels is not normal.

He's having the greatest start to a career that we've ever seen at the position, ever. He is an elite quarterback already. Who are you taking in front of him right now? Serious question. Mahomes, Jackson, Josh Allen. Are you taking Burrow in front of him? Are you taking Justin Herbert in front of him? Are you taking C.J. Stroud in front of him?

Are you taking any of the older guys that are playing at a high level right now? Jared Gough, Kirk Cousins? No. Are you taking Trevor Lawrence in front of him? Are you taking Jordan Love in front of him? Jordan Love, by the way, got hurt again yesterday. I think right now, Mahomes, Alan, Jackson, that's the list of quarterbacks right now

that are at a higher level. And it's only because of the experience that they have. They're not playing at a higher level. Mahomes isn't playing at a higher level. Then Jaden is right now. He's not. I mean, of course he will when it matters the most. We have in seven plus games, we already have an elite quarterback.

I was thinking about, you know, the ending of the game yesterday. And I was thinking it is the greatest game ending play in franchise history. You know, the Rigo run came with 10 plus minutes in Super Bowl. 17. The, you know, Dexter Manly, Darrell Grant, you know, knocked the ball up into the air. Daryl Grant picks it off, returns it against Gary Hogueboom and the Cowboys in the 82 championship game. There was still plenty of time left in the game. Darrell Green's punt return at Soldier Field in the 86 season, the January 87 playoff game. That was in the third quarter. This for a game-ending play is number one on the

list all time. That's not even debatable. You could also put it in the category of maybe the most memorable regular season play in franchise history. I'm not going to put it ahead of Rigo or Daryl Green or, you know, Daryl Grant, or, you know, they just had too much success in too many memorable plays in the postseason. You know, Daryl's play on Darren Nelson in the championship game after a week after the punt return. We talked a little bit about that during the Daryl Green, Jersey retirement, You're not going to put it in front of that, but in a regular season, maybe Kenny Houston stopping Walt Garrison in 73. You know, maybe the two throws to Santana Moss in Dallas.

I mean, that wasn't game ending, but in terms of memorable regular season moments, the, you know, Troy Vincent blocked fuel goal that Sean Taylor picked up. That was, you know, that was all-time memorable and stunning. Gary Clark's reception on the hitch returned and then ran it against the Vikings for a 44-38 walk-off overtime win. Santana Moss had one against Jacksonville. We talked about Darrell Green's pick six against Detroit in overtime. You know, Mosley's kick in the snow, Griffin's 76-yard touchdown run. There are some memorable plays in franchise history.

that's the number one game ending play in franchise history. It's also way up there in terms of regular season memorable plays. But you know why it's super memorable? Not because it was a Hail Mary to beat the Bears in late October in week eight. It's because it was him. We already know. And I know it can be too early to, to make a call on this.

But the reason we are, we reacted, the way we reacted, the reason that we think it will be one of the true memorable moments is because we're expecting this career to continue the way it started. He plays for us. You know, we can say with common sense that it's too early to say what he is or isn't. But we also know that they drafted a kid that has had the greatest start to a career in NFL history at his position. And that it's not crazy that we're talking about this guy as an elite quarterback in the league right now. Health is everything.

Okay? I understand that. You know, he's got to stay healthy. He's already had a rib injury. He's got a slight frame. those are or that specifically is a legitimate concern, but he is special, you know, he's a special player. And it kind of feels like because of him and a lot of what he's elevated,

and by the way, a lot of what Peters and Quinn and, you know, Josh Harris as well, what they've created here culturally in this first season, feels like this season. has something special to it. You know, it's, everything seems to be breaking right. And sometimes that just continues in certain seasons. But even if it doesn't, what we know, what we know is that we got the guy, we got a guy. We may have the guy.

And it just feels like it's the beginning. And the play yesterday feels like it's one where we're going to look back and say, You know, it all started there. You know, his rookie season, they were off to a great start. He was off to a great start, and he had that Hail Mary throw against the Bears. And if we didn't know before that play, we knew it then. Like I always say, though, they're going to go ahead and play the other games anyway. They got nine left, including Sunday in the Meadowlands against a giant team that plays tonight.

The Giants are a smell test pick plus six, nine. six and one, I think, on the smell test so far. Is it that what it was, five, five and one, then I was four and one yesterday. So that's nine, yeah, nine, six and one so far through this week. And I've got the Giants tonight and then the Giants next week at home against Washington. They'll be off of a short week. And then, by the way, Washington has what will be a big time showdown at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers. they'll be coming off their by week.

So they will be extra rested for the game against Washington after they play the Giants tonight. You know, the two Eagle games are setting up to be massive games. The Eagles blew out the Bengals yesterday. And they are now favorites in the NFC East. After the impressive performance by Philadelphia, they move ahead of Washington at my bookie as the favorites. They're minus 123 Washington plus 140. Last week, Washington was the favorite to win the NFC East. But right now, what we do have is we've got two massive showdowns with the Eagles looming.

The first one is on Thursday night, November 14th. That's the game Washington has after the Pittsburgh game on the 10th. And then they play the Eagles at home December 22nd. I looked at the schedule. that looks like a flexible game to Sunday night football. Pencil it in right now. Sunday night, December 22nd, in Landover, I can't say Northwest Stadium, in Landover,

Washington, Philadelphia gets flexed to Sunday night football. And you know why the game currently scheduled for that particular weekend? Tampa at Dallas. Dallas lost again. I think their season is shot. All right, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.