The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley On The Championship Game!

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Cooley and Kevin today on the win over the Lions on Saturday night and early thoughts on the NFC Championship game Sunday in Philly. Some Eagles-Rams and Ravens-Bills too.  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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Chris Cooley will be on the show with me, starting in the next segment. So I'll keep this opening segment pretty short so we can get to Chris and get his thoughts on the game that he watched and actually broke down film on. So stay tuned for that.

The show's presenting sponsor. As always is Wind Donation 86690 Nation, Windonation.com. if you need new windows. So our team has reached one of the biggest stages in sports. Championship Sunday in the NFL, the two games that will determine the Super Bowl matchup. The only sporting event that attracts a larger audience than the upcoming two championship games is the Super Bowl itself. 121 million people watched the Super Bowl last year, the Chiefs and the 49ers. The second and third most watched television programs of the year last year were the two NFL championship games.

The AFC title game and the NFC title game. 56 million watched the 49ers and the Lions last year. And 50 million plus watched the Chiefs beat the Ravens last year. By the way, I was looking at this before the show started. The top 11 watched television shows in 2024 so far, all NFL games. And then number 12 was the presidential debate between Trump and Harris. And then 13, the Oscars. Sunday stage is huge.

You know, I've shared over the years occasionally, especially this week, I've shared this kind of dream that one of these years, you know, we'd be able to see Washington as part of Championship Sunday. Weirdly, I've thought more about this game than even the Super Bowl. There's just something magical about Championship Sunday. I've shared, you know, over the years that it would just kind of be cool to see in the divisional round, like, you know, the promotion of, All right, the championship games are set, you know, Sunday at 3 o'clock, Sunday at 6.30. And I've talked about how, God, one of these days, you know, we're going to see NFC championship game, 3 o'clock, 630 Eastern, Washington against Green Bay, or Washington against San Francisco, or Washington against whomever was really good in the NFC in that moment.

Well, yesterday, as the Buffalo or last night, as the Buffalo, Baltimore game wound down. There was a surreal moment. It was Jim Nance promoting the upcoming championship games as the Baltimore Buffalo game came to an end. Here's what he said. So now the last four teams standing for the Lombardi Trophy. On the NFC side, it's Washington and Philadelphia.

They were one and one during the regular season. First met on November 14th. So it's a third meeting in two and a half months. And Buffalo in Kansas City, we were here to see that one back November 17th. As Jim Nance set the stage as only he can do, he's talking over a graphic. And it's a bracket of kind of where we are in the NFL playoffs. And on the left side of the graphic is Washington and Philadelphia in the NFC championship game, 3 p.m. on Fox presented by Intuit TurboTax.

And then on the bottom is Buffalo and Kansas City. Same thing, except 630 on CBS. And I'm looking at it and I'm like, wow. I mean, I've seen Philadelphia in this thing. I've seen Buffalo and Kansas City in this thing. It was very much kind of surreal and a bit of a dream come true. Look, I love the NFL playoffs. And I actually think the divisional round that we just completed is

the best round of the NFL postseason. But championship Sunday is really the last, what I would call NFL Sunday, true NFL Sunday of the season, because the Super Bowl, by the time we get there, we've got to wait two weeks, it's anti-climactic, it's more based on, you know, half time and commercials, and the matchup is, you know, for football fans, but everybody else is tuning in, as they will for these two championship games. But, man, I, at least a dozen times over the last 20 years, I have said how lovely it would be. And yet how unrealistic it seemed to have been for so long. But if Washington could once again play on the upcoming Sunday.

I'm not telling you that I don't want them to win and advance and then win the Super Bowl. That is the ultimate goal. But being a part of this upcoming Sunday is special. And, you know, the other part of it that's kind of special in our first. trip back to the NFC title game in 33 years is the opponent. Facing Philadelphia at this stage of the postseason is a big deal. It's a big deal just being here. And if they were playing the Rams or the Packers or anybody else, it would still be a massive deal. But something that we talked about during the course of the season was a new beginning. You know, are we witnessing the beginning

of a run? Are we witnessing the beginning of sustained winning, sustained, contending, sustained big games and more often than not playoff games year and year out? I think before the Philadelphia game, I said this might be the first of three this year. Of course, I was thinking more about a two-seven matchup in the first round, but one of the things that I have mentioned and Tommy's mentioned is one of kind of the ancillary benefits that comes with being good is that rivalries become real again. We've been without them for a long period of time. And I'm talking about the real kind of rivalry, not, you know, we're playing the Cowboys. It's Dallas Week. Wee, they didn't care about Dallas Week or Washington Week. The Giants and the Eagles

didn't care. We were nothing to these other three teams in the division for a long period of time. They participated in big games amongst each other. But we were left out of most of those over a long period of time. And that was a big loss in rooting for this team. It was not a part of it like it had been. But being good again, being at the beginning of something that could be consistent year and year out in terms of playing big games and playing playoff games, you get the rivalries back.

And you got to beat the other teams. And we beat the Eagles. We didn't get swept. the Eagles, but playing them in the postseason, playing them in a championship game is memorable, memorable. You know, in the history of the NFC championship game, there have only been four previous all-NFC East matchups. Washington beat Dallas in 72, Washington also beat Dallas in 82, Philly beat Dallas in 80, and the

Giants beat Washington in 86. Washington's, with this matchup against Philadelphia, in all NFC East championship game matchups, Washington's played in more of them. Of the five, Washington's been in four of them. And we all know the memories we have of beating Dallas twice. Losing to the Giants is a memory, not a good one, but it was memorable because it's a game to go to the Super Bowl. And so already, you know, a third game against the Eagles in a game to determine the NFC participant in the Super Bowl is massive. It won't be forgotten no matter what the result is. I think that's kind of cool. Again, if they had faced the Rams, would have been fine with that.

Actually, watching that game yesterday, I really felt like. as the game was going on, I felt like Philadelphia was the better matchup, especially when Jalen Hertz got hurt. They're a one-dimensional football team. They can barely throw the football when he's healthy. Now with him hurt, they are a compromised one-dimensional team

because they're compromised in their run game. I'm watching Matt Stafford and the Rams move the football in the snow, and I'm thinking, yeah, it wouldn't be bad to play in L.A. because it would be a neutral, you know, home field situation. We might even have the advantage there at SoFi next Sunday. And their defense is good, but it's not as good as the Eagles defense. But I don't know, man, Sean McVeigh, Matt Stafford, Puka Nakua, they're pretty good.

Jared Verse is a monster as a rookie. And I kept thinking watching that game, I think I want the Eagles. Not because of what I just said, that I wanted a division matchup, because this game, just like all of these games, this is totally winnable. This is a winnable NFC championship game to get to a Super Bowl. The Eagles seem to be reeling a little bit. They got the win yesterday and Saquan Barkley rushed for a ridiculous number of yards, but they can't really throw the football.

Look, there's a big difference between Philly and Detroit. Philly is a defensive monster, although they did lose a big piece of their defense two weeks ago in the first round of the playoffs, or a week ago in their first playoff game in the win over the Packers in the Kobe Dean. But they're great on defense. They are good on offense in terms of offensive line being able to run the football, and they've got weapons everywhere. but Jalen Hertz just doesn't look the part at times, and now he may be compromised. I mean, what if Kenny Pickett ends up starting this game? Washington on Friday would have been a six and a half point underdog to Philly. After getting a load of Washington Saturday night in Detroit, we're now a five and a half point underdog. They're still a sizable favorite, Philly at home.

They've got the experience. They've been there, done that. they've got a massive home field advantage. It doesn't look like weather will be a factor. The long range for Sunday in Philadelphia at the link is upper 30s to 40 cloudy skies. Of course, that could change. And I do think Washington, I don't know if this is true or not. I was watching yesterday and I was wondering if we were in this game yesterday, how would we have fared?

It may have been a struggle in the snow on a field like that against that defense. but the Rams got it going at the end. I don't know, maybe Jaden would be even harder to stop in the snow. But this is truly special. It really is. It's special in that it is long awaited, but it's also so unexpected. This wasn't a buildup from the beginning of the year. You know, if they had lost to Tampa last week,

there would have been a big buildup to next year, you know, given whatever they acquire in the offseason with all their salary cap space, whatever they draft, there would have been a lot of people saying Washington is a Super Bowl contender out of the NFC. Because even if they had lost to Tampa or lost to Detroit on Saturday night, there would have been recognition that Washington's coming back with the best quarterback in the conference. If you've got the best quarterback in the conference, you are year and year out going to be consistent. a contender for the Super Bowl, which get used to it, that's going to be the case. And they're going to play six primetime games next year or six standalone games next year. But the unexpected nature to this is thrilling. And more than that, it has seemed so legit real. I mean, it's surreal seeing it up on a screen, but I'm talking about the way they have played.

they're effing good. They are so good on offense. They were not stopped at all in their last two games other than one punt and a miss field goal and a couple of fourth down stops. But even on the fourth downstops and the miss field goal stop, they move the football. Like they punted once Saturday night, no times against Tampa.

They move the ball. Their average yards per drive are the high. highest of any of these playoff teams. They are scoring at will. The only reason they didn't score more than 23 against Tampa is there were only in the football game seven possessions. They had 31 at halftime in this divisional round playoff game. And offense really is the most important thing in the NFL. They have a really good chance to not only win Sunday in Philadelphia, but to win the whole thing, would you give them a chance against Buffalo or Kansas City? I would.

As I said in my post-game recap, I've gotten to the point, and I think I've said this multiple times now, I can't even envision Jaden Daniels playing poorly. I can't even envision this offense somehow being stopped and tressaway punting five or six times in the game. That ain't happening. Now, Philly, they caused us a lot of problems in the first meeting on that Thursday night. I credit them a lot, as I did at the time. Vic Fangio is a mastermind. They have great defensive pieces.

They don't have to blitz to generate pass rush pressure. There's a lot of things that Philadelphia is unique in defensively, and that was a problem for Washington with a four-day turnaround. And I think they suffered from that. They had a very, you know, dramatic, epic kind of back and forth affair with Pittsburgh on the Sunday before, and Philadelphia played the Cowboys and annihilated them and sat their starters for much of the second half or their fourth quarter. But that second game was truly crazy, right? I mean, how many teams this year could turn the ball over five times against the Philadelphia Eagles and score 36 points?

and win the game. The answer is one team, our team, a team that's preparing to play in the NFC championship game Sunday in Philadelphia. Championship Week here on the podcast. Chris Cooley's going to kick it off with us next. Let me just ask you for a quick favor. If you can rate us and review us on Apple and Spotify,

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86690 Nation, windownation.com. Chris Cooley is with us today, and it's good to have you on. a day like today, a week like this one, it's incredible where they are. And we won't do a lot of the wrestling and bear attack talk today. We'll stick with football because that's what people really want to hear on a day like today. So what did you think? I thought it was awesome. I think the last couple games have been awesome.

I actually missed the first game. We were flying back from Oklahoma, and we were in the airport, and then we take off. and it was two and a half hours. The game ends, the field goal, we get service to get NFL network as the field goal goes through. Against Tampa. So, I mean, I got a chance to go back and watch a lot of that game as well. And it's incredible.

It's really, for me, it's a fun run for this team. The quarterback is unbelievably, unbelievably exceptional. They answer, they're resilient. It's a team that is committed. I love watching them play. I think it's hilarious. I don't know who isn't thinking this. It happens in any time you leave a sport.

Can you, I just, I'm sorry, but I'm envisioning this Dan Snyder sitting there. Two years later, just going, Jesus Christ, they're winning. All of a sudden they're winning. It's 24 years he couldn't do it. And it's so defining of the problem. I mean, you had to have some fortune, some good fortune. You had to have a draft pick and a quarterback. But my God, Kevin.

Two years in the head and the NFL. I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about him because... I don't want to spoil it out of everybody. I am curious. I am not going to sit there and think of someone sitting there. I know. I am curious. And I bet people have thought about this.

Like, what's Dan doing? How is he handling this? Do you think, and, you know, among his players over the years, I'm not going to say that you were the one. the one that he, you know, enjoyed the most in terms of company or whatever. But you knew him. You knew him. You knew the family.

What do you think his reaction to this is? I can only answer with what I think my reaction would be. I don't know. Which is incredible frustration with myself. Yeah, but that takes self-awareness to recognize that. Well, that's all I can answer it. Okay. Well, you have self-awareness.

I would hope that. And I would hope that it's excitement that they're having the success they're having. It's really incredible. There's no way he's excited about this. No way. No, but I don't think I would be either. He is, this person ruined something for a quarter century, something that was so sacred. He chased much of it away.

And a year and a half after he sold the team, they're within a game of making the Super Bowl. something that he couldn't sniff. The Tampa win was the first playoff win since you played in a playoff game in one. Tampa. It's been 20 years. 19 years since they won a playoff game. And now they've won two for the first time in 33 years.

I would bet. And now there's nothing stopping them. Nothing stopping them. I don't care about the spread of the Eagles game. They're going all the way. Honestly, I think so. I mean, I certainly think they can win Sunday. They absolutely can win Sunday.

Yeah. I mean, Hertz got a little banged up. They played this team. Washington is a different team than earlier in the year with the first game they played the Eagles. I think they've really found a rhythm. I think they found an identity offensively, a complete identity offensively. Their defense doesn't give up a ton of idiotic big plays. They don't make a ton of mistakes.

Yeah, they can win this game. No question about it. All right. Let's get to, I know you've got a lot of notes, and I know you did some film breakdown, and I know you've got some thoughts on Philadelphia, and we can keep those for later on in the show or maybe save them for later on in the week. But I want to start with just this question, because the guy has just finished putting together one of the greatest rookie seasons in the history of sports. It's clearly the greatest rookie season in the history of the NFL. Right now, who's better than him? I don't know at this point right now in the year.

You'll see if it plays out over a couple years. But the thing I love about Jane Daniels is his unbelievable poise, his excitement for the game of football, his ability to continue to process and do things the right way. I went through the entire game. He makes very few mistakes in this game. Right. You watch him on the sideline. You watch him in the huddle.

You watch him at the line of scrimmage. It's just always just same guy, same tone, have fun, no pressure. I'm sure he feels pressure, I think. But he's stone cold. It's like Wyoming cold. Well, D.C. cold. D.C. cold right now. Powell, Powell, Powell cold.

Colder here. What's the temperature there right now? Oh, it's negative 14 when I woke up. Oh, yeah, it is colder. Yeah, it's just... It's cold enough that you go outside and you can feel the hairs in your nose freeze. That's not fun. When you walk for 10 steps.

Yeah, no, it's a... It's a balmy 19 right now, it looks like, with wind chill, you know, right around zero or below zero. It's cold for here. It's been a cold winter so far, but nobody wants... Nobody wants to hear us, you know, compare winters. No, I mean, the... I mean, he's just ice cold. he's totally unaffected by any kind of pressure.

Physical or mental? In the last couple games, especially this game, he's decisive. I mean, absolutely decisive with what he's doing with the football. I think he had unbelievable poise in the pocket, knew what he wanted to do, knew where he wanted to go with the ball, stayed alive in the pocket to make those throws, resilient and courageous, made big throws with guys pressuring him directly, the face. He was patient. I thought he showed great patience as a passer to look off deeper coverage,

to really look at it, to try to take a shot, to come back down and hit the checkdown. He's so unbelievably athletic. He's a threat at all times. He's unbelievable. It is really, really fun to watch, and it's really, really hard to defend against. And I'm really impressed with what Washington's doing consistently on offense. I went back and watched this game. They make Detroit defend them the entire field. Right. You defend side-line to sideline, end-one to end-zone, and it puts an unbelievable amount of pressure on a defense. It really did throughout the game.

They're early. They're throwing the ball out to the sideline. They're screen passes. You've come back. You've got quarterback threat with run. You got a runner who can run with real power in Robinson. The counter game, the tackle poles, some of that stuff in the run game is incredibly powerful. They're suck the linebackers up. They make Detroit have to constantly make mistakes, and they're capitalizing on those mistakes. And it's awesome.

It's a really well-rounded, consistent offense. You know what he's going to sit here and go through his game and say, wow, he's his ball 28 times down the field and was unbelievable of that. But it doesn't matter. Look what Josh Allen did last night. Josh Allen. Yeah. But what do you have?

11 completions, something like that, 13, 14 completions? You take advantage of what you do best in these playoffs games. And Washington and Jaden Daniels knew what they did best. They know how they can execute. They get the ball in the hands of their players. They spread the field. They come back in. They run with power.

And they integrate the quarterback threat. And then you start bringing in some of the different aspects where you can go under center and you can go with a boot. you go RPO stuff. It was really incredibly versatile, Kev, what they did offensively. It was never at high risk on offense, and I understand a couple of the Fort Down choices and situations, but they were never high-risk plays.

But Detroit was always on their heels. You had them on their heels the entire game, and you just continued to capitalize on forcing Detroit to make mistakes, putting pressure on that defense. Yeah, it never seemed like, let me just give you some, context for the game, if you didn't know this already. Detroit was a wounded defensive football team over the last half of the season. Like 18 players, they lost on defense alone. It's one of the worst cases of the injury bug for one side of the ball for one team we've ever seen. That was a

decent defense early in the year. And they became, I mean, the bills, and I pointed to this game as maybe, you know, something that Washington would be able to do. When the bills played the lions, about a month ago. They had 550 yards, scored 48 points. Detroit couldn't stop them at all. And that was the case the other night. I think one of the interesting things you're pointing out is it's not like Washington's doing anything that is high risk. Everything just seems to be easy. You know, okay, you're going to blitz Brian Branch. We'll throw the bubble screen. You're going to keep them, you know, you're going to stay in coverage. We'll run read option. Like it just, they just seem to make it easy based on what the defense is showing them.

They did, and I thought, take it even a step further. Kingsbury did a phenomenal drop with three by two sets or four by one sets in defining zone man coverage and playing a simple game of math. If we go three by two and you have three to the two side, we'll work the three. If you got four to the three side, we'll work the two side. The four by one, some of the motion, some of the tight-end motion, some of the back hops and shifts in defining and understanding coverage pre-snap. He forced Detroit into showing their hand pre-snap throughout the entire game.

Daniels was also a part of that with the tempo and timing of the offense. But it was an exceptional performance from quarterback to coordinator to offensive line execution across the board. It was a really well-executed day. Look, nobody has really stopped them this year. Dallas did, for whatever reason, on two different occasions. Detroit was just a, I just wanted you to know that Detroit, they're going to face probably the best defense in football on Sunday, and they may have just faced one of the worst on Saturday night

based on all of their injuries. Plus they lost their starting corner early in the game. Now, with that said, the last time they faced Philadelphia, they turned it over five times and still scored 36 points. I mean, that's what makes you confident, I believe, in me and everybody else, is that in this day and age, defense matters, but not as much as it did 20 years ago, and nobody can stop Washington when they have the ball. Cooley, they have scored now in the two playoff games on 11 of 16 drives.

11 of 16. You know, on Saturday night, they punted once in two games, once in two games. That's insane how productive they've been. no one can get them off the field in three downs for sure. It's a massive struggle to get them off the field, and because when they play error-free and they don't have the holding penalties or the setback penalties,

it's hard to keep that team in a third and five or more. So they have the ability to execute a third and five with the understanding that they can get a fourth and two or a fourth and three, depending on where they are in the field. You know, the other thing that I just found so impressive from this Washington team was every single time

Detroit had a chance to take momentum in this game. Washington's offense came back down and answered. Yeah. Yep. Every single time. But on the big plays by Detroit, the big reverse, Washington just comes back in answer. I mean, it was never,

and Detroit's a team that has played this way for a while where they'll play a little bit of a high-scoring game, but they keep putting it on you offensively. And as soon as you make a mistake, turn the ball over, then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, they go up. And they were never, they were never able to get into their rhythm to do what they wanted to do the way Detroit played football all year. Washington had an answer every single time. It was incredibly resilient. Well, that second quarter, I mean, a big 12 game broke out. I mean, it was just neither team could be stopped, just going up and down the field. You know, even Detroit, to their credit, golf, you know, overthrows the receiver,

it gets picked and run back. There should have been a penalty on that return. And now they're down 24-14, and they just come back three-play, 73 yards touchdown. Then Washington scores again, and I thought the critical moment really was the end of the half-interception by Sandra still, because Detroit was going in to make it 3124 or 3128 at halftime. I mean, they had 300. They combined for 621 yards, 52 points and 31 first downs in the first half between the two teams. That's a big 12 game. It was a big 12 game.

It's funny. He said that with the center still. I wrote play of the game. Yeah, it was huge. I thought that pick was the play of the game. Because it gave him a chance to go up three. scores at the beginning of the second half, although they didn't. They didn't. That was their only punt of the game. Didn't they punt on the first position? No, they got stopped on the fourth and two

when Marioota went under center. Right, right, right. That was an interesting play. I'm not sure how that was what the design was. I think I got it figured out. I think he was going to fake like he was going to sneak it. He was going to turn around lateral it back to Jaden, and Jaden was going to look deep for Diami Brown. Or he was just going to take off and run the football around the edge. And Diommy Brown's never releasing deep. Brian Robinson Jr. got, you know, in the middle of... He runs into Marieto.

Yeah. I haven't seen the All-22 yet. So I'm going to, yeah, you might be right. Let me just tell you this. The lesson learned from that play is do not take the ball out of number five's hands on fourth down. Actually, don't... Pretty good lesson. Don't take the ball out of his hands on any down, let alone fourth and one.

By a long shot? Yeah, I mean, they do so many different things on the fourth and one. You know, you mentioned he's under center and they run that boot. I'm telling you, you know, sometimes I feel this way that fans that watch every single game and every single play of every game sometimes understand their team's tendencies even more than the opponent. I'm telling you, that's the third or fourth time on third and run. one or fourth in one, he's gone under center and run a naked boot. I mean, there have been a couple where there's been a tight end, you know,

chipping and then, you know, jumping out to the flat. This one was straight naked boot run. You'd think that somebody's like, he's under center, he's coming back the other way. Let's make sure we play that, but they clearly didn't know. It's the worst fake of all time. It doesn't matter. it doesn't matter seriously

I started off by asking you this right now in the league who would you take would you take Mahomes yeah you'd take Mahomes anybody else it'd be hard

it'd be a tough decision to not take Lamar who was unbelievable last night and gave him a chance to win a game to not take Josh Allen those two guys that have done it more But I don't honestly, I mean, he's every bit of what Lamar is right now.

Yeah, I mean, look, this is a conversation for later. I've just been talking a lot about it because as much as this is an incredible moment for so many of us that have been fans of the team for so long, and even for a younger generation who's never seen anything good, I still just consistently, every time I watch him play, I can't get over how good he is. And you and I both loved him coming out. We loved him. I mean, I forced you to go watch the film and do the film breakdown, and you just came in and you said he's the best in the draft.

It's not even close. You have to take him if he's there too. Can you even imagine you're sitting there, your Chicago sitting there right now watching it? And I don't think you and I had a question or concern about what this was. Right, but we also didn't. We didn't guess it would be this good in his rookie year. It's really fascinating.

how some of these young quarterbacks with some of the style change can be this good in their first year, C.J. Stroud last year. No one would have been that good for C.J. Stroud. It's this good, though. It is this good. He is that good right now. I was thinking about it because you and I text back and forth, and it's like

everything that a lot of these young quarterbacks want, I don't know if you think back to Dak Prescott, how he basically went to school and his degrees and leadership and, you know what I think? Jake Daniel just has all the things. Yeah. He's a phenomenal leader.

He's got great poise. We could do this all day. It's just there. It's there for him. It's fun. Yeah. And, you know, knock on wood, that he stays healthy. It is, you know, always is the number one predictor of being really good in the league for a long time.

Like being consistently in contention. It doesn't guarantee you that you're going to win Super Bowls or because look at Jackson. Look at, you know, Burrow hasn't won one, he got to one. Look at Josh Allen. He may get one this year. But it means that you're going to be in contention, you know, for 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, win seasons. And you're going to be playing playoff games for the next many years with him. He's that good.

Anyway, all right. Let's just talk about the game Saturday night because I know you well enough to know that you've got a notebook with several pages of things that you want to talk about that you saw and observed. We've obviously talked a lot about Jaden. What else? Go ahead and empty your notebook for us. Well, one, we were talking about the Marriota play, so that's on the top of my mind right now. It almost looks like he fumbled the ball.

Neither receiver is going out. They're not going on going vertical. It's not a pitch pass. But it's like Robinson's going to push him, but he fumbles the ball. and then he turns back into it. I don't know. You can pull it up and look at it. I've looked at it several times.

I mean, I think that they were trying something tricky there with Jaden. Maybe. I mean, here it is again. I'm looking. He comes in motion. He gets under center. And then, no, he turns around too quickly. Even if he is bobbing the ball because Robinson gets in the way,

he turns around too quickly. It's almost like he's bobbing the ball, he's looking for something to do with the ball. Okay. Maybe it's that too. I don't know. But Daniels certainly looks like he's going to get it. And here's what I would say. Here's what I will say. If Daniel is going to get the ball, smart play by Marioo to eat it. Would you say?

If it is a pitch to Daniels, I think it's a smart play by Marietta. Oh, yes. It's definitely a pitch. Jaden looks like he's ready to take a pitch. and I don't know if it's going to be a throw or a run, but he's ready to take a pitch. But to your point, once Marriota, once that thing got blown

up, the smartest thing to do is to go down because if not, that pitch could get picked up and it could go the other way. Well, the only reason I don't think it's a pitch is because the back's running right up the back of Mariotta, eliminating pitch. Like, he's trying to push Marriota

in the back. Who's that? Robin. That's Robinson. He's trying to shove Mariot in the back. So either Robinson makes a mistake, and runs into him and forget that they were going, push pitch, whatever. It's so benign right. It could be that just Robinson, they have a tush-push play,

and that he just didn't get the message that we're running. They can't it. We're running the tricky number instead. Yeah, we said we can't run the trick-play, dude. Yeah. What else is in your notes? Look, what I ended up doing was what I thought were key plays of the game. Without the game start to finish.

And then I went through and basically looked at everything the quarterback did and a lot of a defensive stuff. So we can do that together. You can do it how you want to do it. I don't care what you. Just start telling me what you wrote down. All right. Key plays offensively drive one. Third and 14.

It's a checkdown to Crowder. It's not a first down, but it gets them into that fourth down play where they could convert. It's a really smart play by the quarterback. He's taken a look down field. It's early in the game. He's a young quarterback in a big-time game. doesn't have it, gets it to Crowder, who by the way, looks like he gets the first. Everybody on Washington sidelines saying he got the first,

I didn't watch this actual, I was late to this, and I didn't see this live. And I could go back and look at it live if they were going to look at it or not. But he leaves his feet, and it looks like he's at least closer than they marked the ball. So two things. One, Fox gets back to this play late. They really messed up. Secondly, you're right. It does look like it's close enough for maybe a challenge.

I'm assuming because there was, I believe, an injury on the field during this play that they had time to look at it. Thirdly, is that the play that set up third and 14, the play before, I don't think was a false start by Tyler Biotta. She was third and nine. If you go back and look at the play before the play you're talking about, It's third month. I couldn't see it either. He ducked, he moves his head because clearly it's silent count, and they call them for false start.

Was it too abrupt? No. Okay. Whatever. When I shot, I looked at it and I wondered why it would. So you love the fact that he... So what this is interesting is, I think Crowder, okay, I think when you freeze frame this, he's clearly in, he's died.

This is a first down. Okay. It's possible. But let me just tell you, the reason Fox got back to the play a little bit late, they went with that, you know, screen, half the screen is the game, half the screen is a commercial. They never really said why. It was before the fourth and one, right? I don't know.

Did they, were they waiting for New York to overturn the spot on the field? That may have happened. I assumed it was an injury, but I may have assumed in, correctly. They came back to that play. As the play had already started, you just pick it up with Crowder catching the ball on the checkdown, and he gets there. I'm going to guess that part of the delay was the referees were waiting that maybe they had spotted it, because that's what you see New York do more often than anything else, which is, you know, sorry that you guys had the spot wrong. It's actually a first down, which is why Washington wouldn't have challenged it, right?

Yeah, no, it had to have not been a first down, it just seems like it's, If it's not a first down, it's fourth and then two inches. Right. Unless he stepped out. Which would mean you should just run the tush push. By the way, it's not like I don't like Marriota doing it, but what Baltimore's been doing with Andrews, can Ertz not do that? I don't know. Good question.

Or Robinson? I don't know. To me, I'd rather have a back to it than your back of quarterback. I don't know. Yeah, I think it's hard sometimes when, you're not involved in the flow of a game. And if it is that he pumbled the ball a little bit, because you're not involved in the flow of the game.

It's still early at that point. All right. What's next? I thought it was smart to get checked down to Echler and get the checkdown to Crowder and give him a chance to get that. But that's smart play by that quarterback early in the game. Next series, they come out. They score a field goal in the next series.

Huge on a third down in 10 on three search routes to the middle of the field, and he hits Crowder in a third down in 10. Perfect timing. I thought that was exceptional. another third down in 10 at the 29. They end up going a 4-by-one offense. Amazing throw, plant, and drive to Brown on the crosser. And he dropped it.

And he dropped it. And in comes old 47, making me famous. Yeah. I'm telling you, I get 20 texts a game because of this dude, 47. I mean, there have been a lot of 47s. But I really like this kicker now because I get all kinds of sex. Do you know his story? He's rejuvenating my number.

I die down. So did you see before he came on? It sounds like you didn't see it like you literally got it just as the kick was going through. But before the kick in Tampa, they got a sideline shot of him and he's taken off to socks and then putting him back on and then shoes and the socks off and back on. Then when he's coming out onto the field, he takes his helmet off. He does something with his hair. Then he puts his helmet on.

Then he takes it off. He's got OCD. And he's been very public about it. but nobody really knew he had been public about it until that scene played out against Tampa Bay. And he seems like the nicest kid. I saw an interview. I tried to get him on the show last week.

They just didn't have time to give him to me. But I'm fascinated with his story. But he kicked the opening kickoff out of bounds in Detroit. That's not good. Indoorse with no wind. And he missed a field goal late. They've had kicking issues all season. You know what, though?

That first gets all right. man. That first kid, he did a great job directional kicking the rest of the game. I actually needed to know that Washington's coverage team did a good job. Oh, great coverage teams. That was a warm-up. He did a warm-up kick to get going on those corner sideline kicks. It's fine. You should have taken the warm-ups. That one gets warm-up in, and he had to test the air in the dome. Well, is the only time Detroit punted in the game, so that was big. That opening drive, believe it or not, they start at the 40, you know, and that was the only time they punted. They either turn the ball over or scored. All right, what's next on your list?

So you come back to third possession, it's another cross of the brown, it's phenomenal ball down the field. Zone read is five yards, and you start to really get the feel with some of these zone reads. I think he did a great job on a lot of these zone reads and plays where he could have gotten more yards cutting it up, making sure he got to the sidebine, staying safe. The only play I hate, and I know you hate it as well, I hate this quarterback counter.

Backside tackle pole. I hate this quarterback counter. They're trying to run with him. They ran a triple. Yeah, they ran a triple option with a pitch guy last week. That's like inviting your quarterback to get blown up on a pitch. Well, those counterplays are inviting him to get hit from both sides. I know.

The zone replays, and when he gets out of bounds, he can manage where he takes the hit. Agreed. Or not taking the hit. The quarterback counters, you start looking to your left as you're running left, and all of a sudden you maybe make a cut. Bang. Here it comes from the backside. I don't like the quarterback counterplay. They've been running them all year, especially in the red zone, and they just like the 11-on-11 with him running in 10 blockers.

And they think, you know, he's good enough to, you know, he's protected himself even in traffic a couple of times this year. But I'm with you. I've talked about it since the opener. I hate those plays because it's the best chance of him. him getting into a pile or getting tackled really hard because he's a running back on those plays. And he's not Cam Newton and he's not Josh Allen. Those teams also, you know, Buffalo runs a ton of quarterback counter. So does Lamar. But anyway, they've been successful. What's next? Well, this is a big drive for him because you take the team down the field. He ends up getting,

he ends up having one of his under center boot plays. And I think this is one where he could have cut it up and he doesn't. you get to a third and two. He could have cut it up and got the first. I'm fine with him not doing that in that situation. One of the only misses he misses Earth on a crosser in the third and two. It's an overthrow. It's an overthrow. Who is 14?

Zakias. Yeah, he misses. He overthrows. The Keith is open coming back the other way. That's one missary that he has in the game. But he comes back on a fourth and two and hits Earth, beats the dropper of the spy guy, come back to the middle of the field. Perfect time throw.

hits her right over the middle, and it had to be thrown exactly at that second, and you go ahead and you convert. About the only other throw he misses is the next play where he misses Bates in the flat on a walk-in touchdown. Yeah, on the RPO, yeah. Pretty limited in what they miss. Come back out, next possession after Detroit scores. On a second down, he hit the Brown on a hook-out, perfectly thrown ball,

and then you go to Terry, which, by the way, is a perfectly thrown ball on the screen to allow him to run with the ball. And this is a difference in this being 7, 8, 10 yards, or touchdown. You hit Terry making him move one step forward in the chest where he doesn't have to even look at the ball. He can immediately address where blocks are and what's going on with those blocks. And it's a huge play.

It's also phenomenal blocking by 14. Yeah. Zakias has actually blocked pretty well this year. He's willing. It's like Ryan Grant. Where's the same? number. It doesn't plant off his back heel.

He just constantly he'll back down. They get the pick six, and then he's got to run for 15 on the next drive. Great throw again to Brown. God, he's, you get down on the red zone, and second down, he's a really smart throwaway.

He makes a phenomenal throw to Earth, which I thought was a terrific play. You motion Earth outside. You run two verticals inside of him, and you get that double stick from the outside, which every West Coast team called Skinner. I don't know why they call it Skinner, but you call it Skinner. Erd's double sticks. Balls perfectly put on him. And they're rolling. They're absolutely rolling at this point. You didn't talk about the deep-throated Diami

Brown, though. Oh my God. No, the, yeah, sorry. Deep shot, run action. Brown. I wrote it's an ice bucket ball. I wrote it's a bucket ball, but then I wrote he's ice cold. Then I wrote all the kinds of cold. I don't know why, so I admitted it because it was stupid. drop the ball in the bucket. That quarterback game, when they throw it in the bucket. I mean, what a shot. Brown running from left or right across the field.

Perfectly throwing ball. He's open, but it's got to be thrown perfect. Oh, my God, Kevin. I mean, he's under pressure, and that thing just, he just bucket drops it. Good God, what a throw. He did. By the way, Andrew Wiley played well in this game.

Okay. Wiley's pretty good. He's a Wiley veteran. Yeah, he is. Well, he's played and he played for the Chiefs. He and Allegrety both were part of the Chiefs. I don't know how many Super Bowls they each have. They have a couple of them. Ertz has one.

You know, Bobby Wagner has one. There's some players on this team that have Super Bowls. Does that matter? I think it does. I think that aspect of knowing how to win does matter. I think it factors into game management, to critical situations, to poise. I honestly think it matters. matters.

Okay. I don't think it's the end all. I wouldn't base my team around trying to find at least six guys that are Super Bowl. Right. How many rings do you? Super Bowl ringers. Real quickly, though, in the touchdown pass to Ertz, you said that double stick. How do you run that route real quickly?

He's in motion. It's not an option route, right? No, it's not an option route. So what you're trying to do with that route is essentially, as he motions out, he's out-leverage to the inside and he needs to get inside. So what he wants to do is he wants to set his left foot down, pick his left foot and put it down as the first stick, a little stick. Just pick it up, put it down a bigger, hard right stick to really make that DB with inside leverage,

believe he went one-two, so he's going to break out. He went left and then big right, so he's going to go back out. And then you come back with a basketball crossover. Yeah. But John Wall. A little bit of the left. Big right, that left, little left, big right, hard left in the middle of the field. And he does a great job creating leverage and getting back to cross-based with it.

I mean, it helps, too, that while he doesn't have leverage, the motion starts to make the DB go out. But when he sets his right foot down hard with the big right, and then that DB mirrors hard with his left, he gets across his face. Jordan Reed was the best I've ever seen at this. And this is one, two, three. It's really nice by Ertz. It's such an interesting throw.

Like Jaden has this incredibly quick, compact flick of a wrist release, you know, that sometimes he steps into, sometimes he doesn't and it doesn't really matter. But this ball is just perfect. Ertz has been incredibly important for him this year. Earth has been really instrumental. He's well-rounded across the board, always there. And he can still win in tight man-a-man situations.

And I think that was one of the things they lacked some with Logan Thomas, was, I think, over the last few years, Logan Thomas did a great job. He's downfield, but he put him in a critical man-a-man situation on third down, and he's not always a winner. So you don't have to put, you don't have to star cover him. You don't have to make a big emphasis. You can put a safety on him in man-a-man, and you're going to take care of him. That's not the case of Earth.

Ertz is clearly number one on this. Yeah, it's essentially a one-man show. You know, you've got Crowder and Diommy Brown, and Crowder really should be running through the inside shoulder of the near safety. Diommy Brown's clearing just inside of his guy, and you're throwing this ball's going to Earth's. All right. This falls a run at this point.

So offensive, I mean, it's almost weird to do it offensive. but a big play in the game as I went offensive before the one, as Joe Gibbs would call it, naked. Nicked boo. It's absolutely awesome. You know what else was being? It's a little thought. What?

But Brown fumbles the ball out of bounds. Yeah. And that ball goes out of bounds, and that's a big deal. And it's almost last, like, and you can tackle just roll that, bowl that ball forward about five yards and get an extra three on the fumble. Right. But it's, those are big. bounces in the game, Kev.

And sometimes those bounces don't go your way. And having a couple of those bounces go your way is huge. You don't know what's going to happen with that ball the way it comes out. You're not throwing it at the sideline. It's lucky. Yeah. I mean, I don't think actually they got credit for the forward fumble yardage for whatever reason.

It wasn't, you know, a fourth down or it wasn't the final two minutes or whatever. I'm not sure why they didn't mark the ball where it went out, but they didn't. But anyway, yeah, to your point, you know, you put it in play on the ground, even though it was super close to the sideline. You never know how that ball will bounce. But it's a situation where it's 3128 in the tournament there. I know. Dynamically changes the game, and they're fortunate on that. They're also, in my opinion, later that drive, this is idiotic by Detroit.

They leave 12 men on the field. Well, that's part of that. That's part of that drive. That's the next fourth down. It's incredible how much they hurt themselves. Yeah. They're all sitting there screaming from the sideline. Call time out.

Brady was screaming for it on TV. It's like they got 12. You got a call time out. Brady said something after that that I thought was interesting, too. I can't remember exactly how he phrased it. Like Bill Belichick used to say you can't learn how to win until you stop learning how to lose or you stop finding ways to lose. And honestly, that's what Detroit did all game.

They found ways to lose. Washington answered and found ways to win. It was really the story of the entire game. I think lastly, offensively, what I thought was awesome was, you know, they get a pick. It's a 10-point game, and they come back out and Ackler takes it for 35 yards. And then really the only other miss is a third and two where he throws behind Terry, where Daniel throws behind Terry on a sprint. Right.

Then he comes back out and throws a perfect ball with pressure in his face. Right. He's just always an answer, man. Yeah. I mean, that... He does not get set back. He does not get frustrated. They're always answered. That, that to me, like, I thought that Bates throw on that RPO when they were first in goal that he missed. And then the third and two to Terry clearly throws behind him. And then the next one, he's like, that's okay. We've got another down. It's fourth and two. My coach is going to leave me out here. I'll be good. Oh, yeah, no, there's pressure in my face.

It's okay. Let me throw it to Terry. No, no, I got it. Hey, guys, I got this. Yeah. All right, what else offensively? Well, offensively, I think we went through a lot of it. I don't think you can underestimate the fact that they run the ball physically,

and Robinson had a big impact on the game. And Echler as well, I think had a big impact on the game, being able to run the ball. Do not discount the fact that Daniels can do so many things as a runner, that it opens up some of these things. And also because he can be that dynamic runner, you can't just say, hey, they're going to try to throw these slip screens and easy short passes.

You've got to put another guy in the box, and now you're available on the outside because they have one less defender out there. Because if you don't bring that defender in, Daniel's going to take it for 30. He's going to take it for 12 or 10, or at least five with an escort to the sideline and walk out of bounds with an easy carry.

How would you defend this team? there's just not a lot of answers for them. I know. So, I mean, what would you do? Would you just play everything in front of you and then try to stop them in the red zone? The way you defend this team is to get them behind the sticks. You have to put them into

what you really believe is a passing situation. You've got to make him try to throw the ball. You've got to make him stay in the pocket. And the thing I think that Washington has to worry about is teams are going to try to force him to roll right and then immediately come up with answers where he thinks he can evade the pocket

to the right and then there's nothing there. I thought last night with Baltimore and Josh Allen, they're going to slant defensive line all the way so he feels comfortable evading a little bit to his right and then you're scraping a lineback or hard to someone right in his face. The difference with Allen and even Daniels though is Daniels can one, two, and juke the guy. So you've got to be incredibly precise as a tackler and continue to use the sideline. But to me, you get him behind the sticks and you force him to run right and get him off time. So you want to slant that D-line so that he feels comfortable going right?

Yeah, he wants to. I would much rather have him go right and drift right than evade inside the pocket. So I'm going to slam my D-N away from him. I'm going to slam my D-line to their right, trying to allow him what seems like somewhat of an edge outside of the right side of the pocket. And then I'm always following behind with the scrape guy. Someone bringing pressure off that side. So that he immediately just flushes right and then you'll take your lumps if he juke somebody and runs.

Yeah, we got to go and we got to go and make a tackle. I think Detroit did try to do that, but they constantly tried to bring pressure off his backside. A lot of their pressures they were trying to bring off his left, but there were no answers for them as he started to drift right. And he was able to make a couple plays. He was able to make some scrambles where there were down. a guy on that side. I don't think bringing pressure off Daniel's left to have one left on

his right necessarily the answer, because he makes one guy mess, and then he's running for 15. I think four-man pressures flint everything inside, scrape linebackers is what you would be concerned about if you're Washington offensively in those second, nine, ten situations. He's overcome second and longs and third and longs, all season long.

So I hear you on that, and I do think that, obviously, longer second and third downs, now you know they are going to throw the football, and at least you have that advantage. Something I wanted to ask you about. You know, in watching the rush on Saturday night, when they didn't blitz, they basically contain rushed. But it doesn't matter, like whether you're watching a team rush him with four and trying to contain or you're watching, you know, a guy come off the edge or come up the A gap as as a blitzer, an extra man pass rusher. The rushers always seem tentative with him. Like,

they are so aware that if they overrun him or if they give him any sort of opportunity to get out of trouble, it's such a big play going the other way against them. And you see it, kind of this fear of, I want to rush him like I would rush a normal quarterback, but I really can't do that with him. No. How many times has he made a free rusher miss? All season long. It's like it's nothing.

If you don't have alternate interior pressure with the free rusher, he just makes the guy miss. All right. Let's take a quick break and then I want to get your thoughts on the defense Saturday night against the lions. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, being healthy is a big part of my life, but I'm not hardcore about it. I just want to incorporate better habits into my life, like getting more protein in my diet. And our next sponsor makes it easy to do just that. That sponsor is Orgaine.

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One last time, for 30% off. percent off. Head to organe.com. That's orgian.com slash sheen. Use my code. Sheen. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to my bookie. Go to my bookie. com. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. And they'll give you a 50% cash bonus on your initial sign up. Take the free money from MyBooky. Ohio State tonight minus eight and a half over Notre Dame in the national championship game. And then the two championship games on Sunday, Washington is minus five and a half over

Philadelphia with the total at 48. And currently, Kansas City is just a one and a half point favorite over the Bills and the AFC championship game. The total in that one is 48 as well. Go to my bookie.ag. Use my promo code. Kevin D.C. We continue with Christopher. So let's flip it around to the other side of the football.

What did you make of their defense? I thought the defense was really good. I know that Detroit moved the ball up and down the field, but you force turnovers and you made critical plays when you had to make critical plays. They lost on a couple big plays. You know, Detroit, and Detroit gets those. That reverse was awesome.

By the way, on that reverse play that they score on, somebody's got to take a hold there. There are five Detroit Lions out leveraging two Washington commanders. That's funny. On the edge, I'm taking a flop. I'm taking an absolute flop there. Just to try to draw it. Yeah, there's, you're just, you're just,

you're just dead there. I mean, what do you do? Both Chin and Martin are like two pump jumps diving into the middle of nowhere. I think you get the point. They just lost it a little early. That ball is out of the edge-free.

Like, you got us. It was a well-time call. They got them. I don't know what you do. They made big plays throughout the day. They made big plays throughout the day. Sanders knows came up, had a couple big plays. Pressure, I thought, was really good, actually.

It wasn't a ton of sacks, but I thought pressure was consistent enough on golf to force him into some throws and situations that he didn't want. There was another stop they should have had that was a face-mass penalty that was absolutely not a face-mast penalty. Yeah, definitely. Detroit got behind the sticks a couple times with some idiotic false starts as well. Yeah. To me, Washington needed to do a better job consistently addressing the C-Gap and some of the

cutbacks in the run game. They give up some of them. Gibbs is really good. I mean, the guy is awesome. Detroit's really good on offense as well. But, gosh, they made big plays when they had to make big plays. I mean, a couple of the plays I wanted to talk about. The Martin pick six is exceptional.

They're in a cover two defense. Washington is on that pick six. and that's a critical moment in that game. And when you watch the play, if you look at the depth of the underneath defenders, let's just call him number one, because I can't say his name. Noah, I.

We'll just call him Noah. Yeah, if you watch the depth of Noah, it forces Goff to have to throw a ball over the top of him high to try to fit it into a window there. And it's not a good thing by Goff. He should just go ahead and throw the checkdown to Wupporta who's underneath him. But he's trying to force a ball, a bigger throw down the field into a window,

and he's got to throw a high, and Martin's sitting there for a pick. And really, the pick should go to no eye. It's a great job defensively of getting enough depth in understanding, whatever, throw that underneath ball, we're fine. We'll let you throw, we'll rally, we'll tackle. I thought that was really good to make him have to throw. It was zone perfection. What was the penalty? By the way,

Louvo, Louvo got away, Louvo got away with a defenseless hit on Goff. Goff wasn't defenseless. Yeah, he was. He was going to go make a tackle. No, he was up in the upper head. You can't do that. The What's his face, Pereira came on and said that absolutely should have been penalized.

But like I said the other night, like, okay, fine, it's not a touchdown on the return. We would have just scored three or four plays later anyway. Right. You know, you're first. focus on this particular play, the pick six, is making me think about something that is sort of tangential to something that I've been talking about all year long. I've been saying all year long, Cooley, that their best defense is their offense. The offense has possessed the ball,

scored with the ball, they don't pun a lot, keep the defense on the sideline. But there's another aspect to that, and that is when your offense is as prolific as Washington's, it puts so much pressure on the opposing offense to score, to possess the ball themselves, to not go three and out and punt. And I think in the game the other night, you know, that particular sequence, it's 17 to 14. You're already in a game that you feel is going to be like a shootout. And Goff and the Detroit offense starts to feel the pressure

of their defense not being able to get off the field. And because of it, he kind of serves up. a gift. You know, he should have hit the checkdown on that play, clearly, LaPorta, but instead he puts one up for grabs. So, you know, I think it's a gift throw, but at the same time, it is part of the overall context of that game, which is, we better not leave the field because when number five gets back on it, they're going to score. Yeah, but it's also, when you look at the way the zone's dispersed. Yes, Goff should have thrown to Leporta, and it should have been a third down in seven. And that's, by the way, what we're complimenting Daniels on for doing so well.

Goss made a big mistake. Now, if he throws this ball perfectly to a spot, and he throws it in a little bit better timing, it likely is the completion right around the 36-yard line, and they moved the sticks. But on a second and 14, This is a big mistake by Goff. I don't think you have to do this. That's my point. That's my point. Third and 14, maybe you make this decision.

I don't know. I'm giving Washington credit for putting the game into a context of golf starting to feel the pressure of, we got to answer them. This is going to be, you know, 48, 45, and we can't afford to punt. It's second and 14. I'm going for the chunk here to get the first down rather than hitting Laporta. And I think Leporta gets at least eight or nine yards. I think it's more than, I think it's less than third and seven on that play.

But he's wide open with nobody really behind him for him to turn it up field. I think golf is starting to feel the pressure of the game a little bit. He's already fumbled. I would agree with that. He's already fumbled once, which cost him, you know, a two-score lead. And that was a good play by Armstrong. Don't get me wrong, but he's starting to maybe feel it a little bit. I give Washington credit there, but that's not a day.

defensive forced turnover in the individual play. It may have been more so about the game context. I agree. I agree. I mean, if you just, let's just think about the four turnovers or some of the mistakes they make offensively. The problem is a third and one. I know.

They go to an empty set. Yeah. And Washington brings a five-man pressure. They end up getting one-on-one across the board. five on five. And it's a great rush, and golf doesn't have anywhere to go to football. It's also a pretty decent defense.

Maybe on that third and one he could throw it out wide to Leporta into the field side and potentially get one. He's trying to look at the over out of the middle of the field, and he ends up fumbling. By the way, that's a ball. That's golf as well. He can't fumble that ball. No, I mean, it's a great.

It's a good rush. It's a great play by Armstrong, but nine times out of ten, the quarterback doesn't fumble it. He just gets sacked on that play. Yeah, no, he coughed it up. I mean, it's a bad deal by golf. He shouldn't fumble there. But ultimately, I think it's a shit decision by the Lions.

And that situation in the game, the way they know they can run the ball, how they've run the ball in the last couple years, you got Gibbs back there, hand it off. I think it's an interesting choice by them in the third one. Yeah, I mean, let me just say that if they go up two schools, scores there on that drive, I still think Washington's going to, I still think we've got a shot to win the game, but it was a, you know, the Santer still picked because of the way the game had evolved at that point. But it's third and one. They have marched it right down the field

for the second straight time, and it's going to be 14 to 3 pretty quickly, and that is a different early game situation. And while Armstrong makes a really good play, I mean, that's usually just the sack. Golf just kind of throws it forward. I don't know what he's doing. But here's the mistake that Detroit made that I highlighted in my recap that you haven't touched on, although you've mentioned him. The fact that they ever took Jemir Gibbs out of that football game and had David Montgomery in instead is ridiculous. Gibbs was the second best player in the game. They could not stop him. He average 10 and a half yards per carry. He had 96 yards at halftime. And they took him out of the game consistently to give Montgomery, who was coming back off of an injury, some of his carries.

I think that was massively beneficial for Washington defensively, is that Montgomery was in the game instead of Gibbs. The only benefit was what I thought was really close. cool play was that toss shovel. That was pretty cool. I've never seen that play before. I've never seen that play. Montgomery to Amon-Ross-St. Brown.

I think he gets too tricky. I mean, the Jameson Williams throw was stupid. They were not getting stopped by normal football. No, they accept themselves. The Jameson Williams throw is idiotic. It's funny, too, big... You see Antoine Randallel L on the sideline,

and I just reimagined all the little trick plays we had with him I think he threw a touchdown pass to me in Philadelphia. And he's like, he's good common. He's like, you can't throw that ball. Here's the thing. You can't call that play down 10 and put the ball in a receiver fan. He was so pumped to any pass he could possibly make that he's fucking throwing it.

I agree. I didn't. I'm surprised that you started with the defense played well. I get I I just think they didn't give up the big play there was very few times that I thought they could have had the big play

there was a couple got one vertical down the middle that I think he got over top of coverage but I don't I didn't other than the reverse in a couple of little trick things I thought they played consistently and I think when your offense is scoring that way

to turn them over and get some of those big plays on defense I thought they just kept everything in front of them. They played with the zone intent to keep it in front, not give Detroit those big explosive, take games over type of plays. And, yeah, to some extent got beat some in the run game, especially like C-Gap, gave up a lot of underneath stuff, but didn't give up those vertical, kill-you type of plays.

And they never, I don't think, ever felt that pressure that, these six, seven, eight-yard carries are going to lose the game. We're not going to lose the game with this. Detroit's got a finish drive. And Detroit couldn't, and they proved it consistently that they would make mistakes. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because on Friday, one of my keys to a win over Detroit on the show was choosing Ben Don't Break Defense over being aggressive.

I just thought Detroit's too explosive. The band will be playing on a three-four play drive, and you'll be back out under the field after giving up a touchdown if you're too aggressive. And on longer drives, there's always the chance that a team is going to make a mistake and it's going to force a field goal or force a punt, whether it's a penalty or a Dan Campbell decision to go for a fourth down that they shouldn't go for. But when I said that, I didn't expect that they would roll up 312 yards of offense and 21 points in a half with three turnovers.

And none of their drives were long. There was like a six-play drive, a six-play drive and a three-play drive, even against sort of a bend don't break defense. They had 521 yards for the game. You know, the mistakes were obviously the difference along with Jaden. You know, it's interesting because they have had a terrible run defense all year long. And the bottom line is, in today's day and age, it may not matter. I mean, Cooley, they were third-de-law.

last in rush defense, third to last in average yards per carry. They're the 26th ranked defense per DVOA in rush defense. I think 23rd or 24th overall. They have good players defensively as well. That's what's always been a bit of a disconnect for me. I think Louvo is great. Wagner's been great. Chin's been great. Fowler Jr. has been awesome. Armstrong's been good. Juan Martin, even before Saturday night, he's been good. But it's just, it's interesting, right? That here I've been for many weeks saying you've got to stop the run, you've got to do a better job of stopping the run.

You can't win a Super Bowl or really contend for a Super Bowl when you can't stop the run. I mean, Jemir Gibbs went for 10 and a half yards per carry in the first half. They rushed for over 200 yards in this game and over 8 yards per carry. Now, 61 of it was James and Williams, but still that's a run. The other two running backs, you know, Montgomery and Gibbs still averaged five plus yards per carry. And yet, it hasn't mattered. You know, what do I know?

It's a different, you know, day and age. Offense wins. They have been, you know, a team that's given up a lot of points and a lot of yards, especially on the ground. And yet they just keep winning. It's interesting. So maybe, you know, Sunday against Philadelphia, maybe Sequin Barclay can rush for 190 yards and they can still win the game. But anyway, you had mentioned something to me during the break about the way Washington defends and how it's similar to something that you had talked about last year. Tell me what that is.

So I did, I wrote a couple of these things down. It's not that dissimilar from some of the things Philly was doing. and I think what we talked about a year ago, where even the two tight ends, they're playing like a five-down-one-backer safety in the box, like a 5-1, or a 4-2 defense. They're not playing this heavy box defense with all intent to stop the run.

They're playing a defense. But they have. They have. They did it against Philly a couple times this year, and it didn't work. They've played with heavy boxes and gotten run on, and they've played with light boxes and gotten run on. True.

But in this game, they were not playing with a consistent defensive front that says, we feel like stopping the run is the number one aspect of this game. They played a defense to me that said, we feel like not giving Detroit the big play is what's going to win at this game. Right. And Detroit played into their hand in that situation. Better fits, better C-Gab stuff, better tackling on the edge immediately. All those things would be big time.

but then they make those big plays defensively. Huge. And it changes everything. And, you know, the three of the four are bad. The Santerstil pick is just an unbelievable play. What a draft pick that guy is. Yeah, he's absolutely. He ends up playing.

It looks like a quarter coverage on that pick, and he ends up being one-on-one of the post and undercuts it. I don't know how much better that ball can be thrown, honestly. I mean, it's just a perfect... Pry throws that ball two yards further out with Sanders still trying to undercut it, and he's got a chance, but it's not a bad ball, and it's not a bad decision by golf. The other mistakes, speaking to mistakes,

I think Detroit makes a bunch of them. And I can imagine, I was thinking of you at this time, they're huddling up with six minutes and 50 seconds left in this game, down 17 points. Yeah, I notice it. And I really don't care if it's to get your ex-receiver one-on-one somewhere open. You're down three scores.

The urgency on that drive was just not there. It was almost like a frustration on their end that they could get what they want. I mean, I have joked that Detroit should start thinking about kicking onside's kicks even earlier. I forget what the rule is in terms of being down by two scores or fourth quarter or whatever, but they just had no hope of getting the ball back at any point. You know, when they kick that onside kick with five minutes to go, I'm sure some people thought, well, it's kind of too early for that. No, it wasn't too early for that.

They can't stop the other team in their day. down two scores. I mean, that's... That can kick a pretty good onside kick. That was a good onside kick. That was an absolute good onside kick. I was actually concerned when they were down there with 30, 40 seconds to go. If they actually punch it in and line up for an onside kick,

that was a really good onside kick. It was a great recovery by Hertz. Oh, terrific by Hertz. Yeah. I think this defense has a chance. I don't think there's bad. I understand the DVOA, but I think they got dudes that can make plays. I think that they're playing the way they want.

And it's funny because we've said a lot about Daniels and a lot of Detroit's mistakes. The other thing, I have a bed there, and I don't know the guy, but Dan Quinn does a really good job with this team. No doubt. Absolutely. I really, I think a lot of credit needs to go to Dan Quinn, and the preparation that has gone into getting this team ready to play, the way as coordinators have coached offensively, defensively,

the style they play for the type of players they have, they put their guys in situations to win where they think they can win. They're not putting guys in bad leverage and disadvantaged situations. They're playing the type of football that gives them the opportunity to win games. And you've really got to credit the coach a ton for that. Quinn's doing a terrific job with this team. No doubt. has changed the culture and he brought in a lot of really solid coaches to help him change the

culture. And Cliff Kingsbury, I mean, he gets a lot of credit for what they've been offensively. You're not going to do that without, you know, what he has talent-wise, a quarterback, but it's been a perfect fit. Yeah, he's been great. That was another thought I got yesterday with him is even if he's given an opportunity, gosh, it's a good place to be for a little bit. Yeah.

And he's getting paid like a head coach. I wouldn't want to leave. He's getting paid really well. Because the Cardinals still. He's got an unbluom and a weapon. He's able to have fun and do it he wants to do in terms of being creative and unique offensively with a quarterback that allows you to do whatever the fuck you want. I wouldn't leave it.

I think he's going to stay. Yeah, I think it would be a really smart decision for. him to stay. I'm impressed. I think the team's well coach. I think Witt does a good job. I love Larry Isoh. I was friends with Larry Iso. I think he does a great job. I think it's a really good staff. I think it's a well-put-together team. You talk about, I have it defensively. I mean, you didn't mention it, but you have as Louvout's. Louvoo.

Louvoo. Louvou. Salar's big time. Lovu's big time. Jeremy Chin's been great. Yeah. Ladamores. Latimore is awesome. Well, yeah, he wasn't last week, but he played well on Saturday. But who he is is as a player, you're going to count on more times than not. Yeah, I mean, I've said it already today, and I've said it all season long. They have some good players on defense.

It just has not kind of come together into a good, team output defensively. They weren't a takeaway team coolly this year at all. I mean, Saturday night was completely different than much of the season has been. I think they were in the bottom third of the league in takeaways. So getting five in a game was the most by far they've had. And obviously, if they start taking the ball away, there's no chance they can lose. No, it's true.

Well, another basket of this run defense is Allen got back two weeks ago. John, I thought that was one of the updates to what I had the other night. I thought John Allen played the best game he's played since he's been back. He really... I wrote down that he's a massive impact in both sides. Throw on the ball, run the ball. He's a big-time impact player. And he didn't, what did he play percentage twice?

40, 50. Of the snaps? I didn't see a snap down. He wasn't out there in the entire game by any means. No, he didn't. And he hasn't been since he's been back, yeah. But he hasn't read back long. He's a big time impact in them stopping the run,

first and second down situation. Yeah. When he's completely healthy and he's getting healthy. Jeff, I think this is a team. I do. And you know I'm not saying this as a homer, because you don't have been over the left. I think this is a team that has a legit.

I know. Clearly, by where they are right now. Absolutely. They could win this thing. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, and the reason, I mean, the reason I feel this way is that when you watch this team, you're like, who's going to stop them? They don't get stopped. Like, they're going to play a Philadelphia team that they played a month ago. They had five turnovers in the game and scored 36 points and won. Who wins games minus four in the turnover margin? That's what they were in that game.

Now, Jalen Hertz left the game early and they were up 21 to 7, Philly was, and Washington couldn't stop Barkley or anybody in that game. But yeah, I mean, that's why they have a chance because in this day and age of football, if you can move the football and you've got the best quarterback on the field, you got a shot. And they've got the best quarterback on the field Sunday, that's for sure. Yeah, I agree completely. What did you see? They will have to stop.

They will have to stop. the run on Sunday. Yeah, but without Jalen Hertz as part of the run game, and with Kenny Pickett, potentially, I think that this is, I mean, the bigger issue is can you block Jalen Carter? Can you do the same thing to Philly's defense that you did last time? I don't know. I mean, I felt better about playing Philly when I was watching the Rams Philadelphia game yesterday than I did about playing the Rams? I'd rather go to Los Angeles. You would have rather gone to L.A.?

Yeah. Yeah, it wouldn't have been a road game. It would have been a neutral environment, best case. But Matt Stafford and the Rams can move the football. Philly can't, they're a one-dimensional team, even with Hertz healthy. They seem to not be able to throw the football.

They should be able to throw the football because they have a couple dynamics receivers in an outstanding tight-in. Why can't they? In a back to, in a back who could, the quarterback's been heard. He's been struggling. Barclay had 205 yards in the snow yesterday. He's pretty good.

He was unstoppable. All right. He was unstoppable. By the way, how bad. I have not been on, I literally haven't been in any form of social media at all or anything in the news like that. How about Mark Andrews? I know.

Gosh. Do you know him? I do. I don't know him well. I had a chance to meet him at the Combine when he was at the Combine. He's a great football player. What? I don't know how he has.

I don't know how he swallow that. I understand that he's probably going to get a lot of grief or is getting a lot of grief, but I don't think that's one of those ones where, like, you kid messes up and you don't even say anything because they know. He did the guy. I know. He's been. They single-handedly lost the game for them.

No doubt. You know, that's a big topic today. You know, Lamar not, you know, Lamar's record now is three and five in the postseason. He's not going on to a Super Bowl again. I'll tell you this, and I'm a massive Lamar Jackson fan, and I was rooting so hard for Baltimore last night. I think that that last drive, that 88-yard drive with Lamarge's dealing, and then having and then having the two-point pass dropped, not him overthrowing somebody or missing somebody,

I think he is off the hook because up until that drive, he had cost them a lot in that game. I mean, that was a terrible fumble. That was a terrible interception, you know, in the first half. And it was the reason they were in a hole to begin with. But he was so outstanding on that final drive. And I don't know. I think even Lamar Jackson's harshest critics can say, look, that game could have been different, you know, and it wouldn't have come down to that last drive if, you know, he doesn't throw that bad pick or if he doesn't fumble. But he was so good on that final drive.

So good. I think he's so good. For me, it was not even a question at this point where he is. I felt like you knew he was going to take him down the field. I wasn't sure, and I was rooting for it. I just felt like as I was watching the game and watching his demeanor throughout the entire game that there was not a question that he would take him down the field.

And I was actually blown away on the touchdown pass that he throws the likely that Buffalo brings almost no pressure. Like, you just can't let the guy sit back there and stand for seven seconds. he's become so unbelievably good. It's not just off-schedule, but his vision of the field's too good, and his ability to deliver a ball is really, really good. I couldn't believe Buffalo let him sit back and throw that thing.

Got to come after him, though. I wasn't sure he was going to do it, and I was rooting for him. And the first play on that drive, he throws the likely who's wide open, and he underthrows him, he pulls the string a little bit on it, and I'm like, uh-oh, uh-oh. Yeah. All right Well, I thought it was a good weekend of football

And it was sure a lot of fun It really makes it So much fun It's awesome to see Washington Where they're at All right Well, will you join me again Later in the week

With a preview of the Philadelphia game Where are you just going to tell me that you'll do it And then you'll, because you've forgotten And then you'll be at a wrestling tournament I won't be at a wrestling tournament We're off this weekend Okay But I can promise you Philly we'll have green on

They will wear green on They will wear green somewhere. Yes. They'll have green somewhere, even if they wear their alt blacks. I don't know what they'll wear. All blacks are all white Stormtrooper. I'm glad we're going with the burgundy pants. That's all I'm thrilled with with the white pants.

That's what matters to you. I like that. Actually, it really doesn't matter. All right. Hey, you did a good job. Thanks for helping me. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

All right, I'll talk to you later in the week. Bye. Cooley, everybody. Hopefully we'll get him back at the end of the week. All right, that is it for the day. Championship Week continues tomorrow with Tommy joining the show.