The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley: Skins Beat Pats If....

Episode Date: October 4, 2019

Kevin opens the show with a Nats-Dodgers recap and thoughts on the Thursday night Seahawks-Rams game. Chris Cooley joined the show and the guys discussed what the Skins need to do to even keep it close against the Patriots. They talked Haskins, Gruden, and went around the league as well. Kevin's Smell Test is 30-8-1 over the last three weeks....he has 9 picks this week. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. Three balls, one strike. Corbyn's set. Here's the pitch. Outside ball four and the Dodgers take a one-to-nothing lead as Corbyn's taking a walk on the wild side. That's Charlie Steiner. If you're wondering where he's been all these years, he's been out in Los Angeles calling Dodgers games on radio. It's Kevin. It's Aaron today. I have no idea if we're going to have a guest or not. Cooley may be with us. Sorry to keep teasing that. But he's actually been busy. He's involved in some things. And if he's available, he's going to call me. And if not, we'll do him one day next week. We've got a lot of recap to do today, football and baseball from last night. And then we've got a lot of preview to do with all the football this weekend. and, by the way, a heavyweight, heavyweight pitching matchup tonight in the postseason,

Steven Strassberg and Clayton Kershaw in Game 2. That's where we're going to start, Aaron, because there wasn't enough offense and there was even worse defense last night for the Nats who lost game one in L.A. 6-0. And we came in with that fourth walk from Patrick Corbyn in the bottom of the first, which really did in many ways set the tone for the night. Now, they were lucky to get out of it with just allowing one run. When you walk four guys in an inning, you'll take that walked-in run as the only run. And Corbyn ended up settling down and having a pretty good night.

He went six complete, struck out nine, and only allowed one earned run, and that was the one in the top of the first when he walked home the Dodgers' first run. But it was a rough night offensively for the Nats. Just two total hits on the night. That's just seven hits in two postseason games if you go back to the wildcard game. And they really haven't hit anybody hard. It's not just that they're not generating offense by hitting the ball. They're not generating outs where the ball is being hit hard.

There were a couple on Tuesday night in the humidity. Suzuki's comes to mind. But last night they managed just two hits. Soto had one. Turner had one. They walked three times in the bottom of the fourth, had an opportunity. Soto did with two on and one out. and then Cabrera did with the bases loaded and two outs and they weren't able.

That was their best opportunity by far to generate some offense, to generate some runs, and they were unable to do that. It was the only inning that Bueller really struggled, and really the struggle of the night came with Howie Kendrick at first base, Aaron. Two errors, and another play that wasn't ruled in error, but was certainly a doable play. And ultimately, you know, what really doomed him was his second. error. Third mistake of the game is a fielder, which came in the bottom of the seventh and a still

winnable game at two nothing with two outs and the bases loaded and Max Muncie hits a ground ball to Kendrick and it goes right underneath his legs, two runs score four nothing game over. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the big thing. And yes, people are going to say, well, it doesn't matter. They would have lost anyways even without those errors because they didn't score a single run. And that's a fair point as well because, you know, that's kind of what we're getting used to to the Nats of the playoffs, especially in the first game of the playoffs. They haven't had a lead in game one of a playoff series since 2014. Is that true?

They haven't had a lead in a league in a playoff series? In game one. Oh, in game one. I was going to say because in game. You know, this is just kind of, I'm, my point, this is kind of the story of game one for the Nats is they don't score a whole lot in game one. They never have tended to. But yeah, I mean, that's going to be something. And people are going to point out and say, well, why wasn't Zim in there when we got a little bit closer in the later?

innings. That's why he's there for his defense. The answer is they didn't score any runs. They needed the bat. Yeah. And I think everybody was fine with Kendrick's bat in the lineup instead of Zimmerman's bat in the lineup. And that was the same for Tuesday night as well. And you know, Kendrick ended up going 0 for two, walked once. But I'll tell you what, in his first at bat, which came in the bottom of the second, he got rung up on a third called strike, which was so out of the zone low and out of the zone. And you saw him, he was frustrated. It was not a good night for Howie Kendrick, but he is a professional hitter. Unfortunately, he had those errors last night. But as Aaron mentioned, their lack of offense killed them last night. They could not generate

anything off Bueller and when they had the one opportunity in the fourth with three walks. It was actually an odd first four innings, wasn't it? You know, Corbyn with the four walks in the first, Bueller with the three walks in the fourth. You know, not many hits at all in those first four innings, not much offense at all, some mistakes more than really good plays. But the bottom line was they could not hit Bueller, couldn't even come close to the bullpen. And with respect to the Kendrick Air and keeping it at 2-0, Bo Porter, who does the post-game and pre-game for Masson,

was on the radio show with me a little while ago this morning. And he said one of the reasons you want to get out of that inning two nothing, worst case, is you make them use their closer, you know, in game one. You make them use Kenley Jansen so he's not super rested for tonight if they need him. And they never got to Jansen in the game because, by the way, Hunter Strickland served up two home run pitches. He does it better than anybody. And Peterson's home run in the 8th was a Titanic shot off Strickland. So the Nats dropped game 1, 6-0.

There were a couple of things that I found interesting about the game. The seventh inning and the decision that Dave Martinez made to use Rainey and Rodney in that inning with a 2-0 lead. I in the moment couldn't believe that we were seeing Rainey and Rodney in that particular inning. First of all, I actually thought there was a chance that Corbyn might come back and pitch the seventh. He did have 107 pitches thrown, but he had just come off his easiest inning of the game. It was a 1, 2, 3, 9 pitch, 6. sixth inning. And I know that, you know, Dave Martinez, we got to the seventh, it's still two nothing. I thought Corbyn could have gone another inning. But that aside, you had in that

inning, you had Peterson scheduled to bat, potentially Bellinger if you got to the fourth hitter in that inning, and then Muncie down the road. Why not bring him Doolittle there? Now, Rainey came in and struck out Pollock. Then he walked Peterson. I would have certainly in that particular situation, Eric, Aaron, Eric. I've called you worse before. Yes, you have. After you got Pollock to strike out, why not come in with Doolittle against Peterson? You know, in a lefty-lefty matchup, I would have definitely thought about that, but he didn't. So he walked Peterson, and then he gave up a single to Turner. So now you

got two runners on and Bellinger up. Now I'm like, well, now he's definitely going to go to Doolittle. And then here comes Rodney to face Bellinger. Now, Rodney struck out Bellinger. And Dave Martinez did, he was asked about it after the game and he said, I thought his change up and his off-speed stuff would be a problem for Bellinger. I'm paraphrasing there. I personally thought Doolittle Lefty would have been better against Bellinger. And if Bellinger had hit a home run or had driven in, you know, Peterson and Turner on that next a bat to get to a 4-0 lead. I think that would have been a major mistake. I didn't think we were going to see Rodney or Rainey unless we had to. We're in the seventh now. You got a chance with

Doolittle to pitch the seventh and then, you know, hopefully you get a chance to come back in the game and take the lead. You got other options, but Rodney in that spot didn't make any sense to me. But he got Bellinger to strike out. Then he stays in the game and he walks Taylor, all right, on seven pitches. By the way, after getting ahead on Taylor, 02, that was a big mistake. Now you got Muncie coming to the plate. Bases are loaded, 2-0-0 game, and 2-outs. How are you not pitching Doolittle there? Made no sense to me to leave Rodney in. He got away with it from this standpoint. He got Muncie to hit a ground ball to Howie Kendrick to end the inning. Kendrick obviously let the ball go between his legs and two runs scored. So Dave Martinez actually should have got

out of that inning with a 2-0 deficit using Rainey and Rodney. But man, I thought it had so much potential to backfire in an uglier way. I mean, he ended up giving up the two runs because of the error, but I didn't think those were the right pitching decisions in the moment. Certainly not Rodney against Muncie. I didn't think Rodney against Bellinger made sense. He explained that when he had some reasoning there. But once the other lefty, Muncie came up in that spot, I'm not sure why he didn't use doolittle. Were you thinking the same thing or not? Yeah, it was a little weird. He definitely mismanaged the bullpen a little bit.

I was just surprised in general that he brought in Rainey at first. Because we were talking about Rainey why he was on that, you know, the wild card roster. And he's a guy that you want to bring in, not in a clean inning. You want him to kind of be the guy first and third. You need a strike out here. You need a guy who won't make contact. You bring him in for one or two batters. Yeah.

Not a clean inning and expect him to go the full inning. So that was strange right off the bat. And then, yeah, if you are going to play matchups, why isn't Doolittle in there? I thought that that would have made sense. Anyway, they lose 6-0. They've got to generate more offense tonight. What you got to love about tonight is that Strasbourg told Dave Martinez, I want the ball tonight.

You know, this is a different Strasbourg, or certainly different than the perception we had of Strasbourg during the first half of his career, even more than the first half of his career. His reputation really started to change that day at Rastroft. Wrigley Field when they were down 2-1 in 2017. And, you know, the lead-up to that game was, oh, my God, he's got cold, he's got allergies. What is it that may, you know, if you recall, there was dusty, you know, essentially implying that Stephen might be too sick to pitch or not feel well enough to pitch.

You know, some thought he was sort of calling him out a little bit publicly. And then Strasbourg shows up and strikes out 12 and pitches a gem and they win that game to force a fifth and deciding game. And on that day, really, more than any other, Strasbourg's repughey. mutation began to change. He has been their best pitcher this year. There is no doubt about it. He should have started Tuesday night. He should have been the starting pitcher in that game. The fact that they won that game with Max starting the game doesn't mean that it was the right decision. They needed the best closer in the sport to choke with four outs left and holding a two-run lead for that

decision to have paid off for Davey or to have for him to have looked good. with that decision. Scherzer got behind 3-0 in a winner go-home game. It was not the right decision. Tonight is the right decision, and the fact that Strasbourg wants the ball tonight makes it even more right. Because now you get Strass tonight in a true, like what a marquee pitching matchup for October in a division series. Kershaw and Strasbourg at Dodgers Stadium. I mean, it really, I'm not talking about Nats fans or Dodgers fans. Baseball fans are looking forward to watching this tonight. That should be an outstanding matchup. And if he pitches the way he's been pitching,

then that's don't have to provide a lot of offense, but they've got to provide more than they provided last night. And really more than they provided in the wild card game. You know, they've got to generate some real offense. Bo Porter, to bring his name back into it, had a really interesting point. He essentially said that they were not able to take care of the fastball last night, Walker Bueller's fastball.

You know, there were opportunities and they let themselves get behind in the count because they couldn't hit the fastball. Well, you don't get the same velocity anymore with Kershaw tonight. But, man, when it comes to placement and when it comes to diversity of pitches, versatility of pitches, you get it all from him tonight. But they've got to be some, they've got to be aggressive and they've got to generate more than two hits and zero runs. Like you've got to have a seven, eight hit night that generates three, four, four, five runs tonight. You may not need more than three with Strasbourg. If you get one of those outings from Strasbourg tonight, like you've gotten three innings the other night, he's going to keep you in the game. He's going to give you a chance. By the way, I was thinking about this.

You know, Strasbourg's really got a chance to cement his legend in this postseason. He's going up against Kershaw here in game two. And then potentially if somehow the Nats got to a fifth in deciding game back at Dodger Stadium, he would get Walker Bueller more likely than not. And game five. Can you imagine if somehow he gets two wins in this series and Scherzer gets one, you know, or Corbyn gets one in game four? Sure. But what an opportunity for Strasbourg tonight. Cannot wait to watch that one. Can't wait to watch the game tonight. Should be a great game. By the way, the Dodgers are minus 140, 14, 145 favorites. So a much slighter favorite tonight, obviously against Strauss than they were last night against Corbyn. Also, there was that feeling

going into the game that Bueller was unhittable. And as it turns out, he pretty much was. Yep. Last night. Two errors killed them last night, but ultimately, to me, it was the lack of any offense. Like, ultimately, it doesn't matter how many errors Cowie Kendrick had if you couldn't generate one run offensively, and they couldn't. And they needed more than one last night. They needed at least three in the context of the game going into the eighth inning in that game. All right. The other thing that went on last night was an unbelievable NFL game between Seattle and the Rams.

Now, I really was paying attention primarily to the baseball game last night. But I gave out Seattle as a smell test pick minus one and a half, and they won by one. So the smell test is off to an 0-1 start to the week. It's a shame because Metcalf had a chance to haul in that two-point conversion, which would have given Seattle the three-point lead. When Seattle took the lead, they went for two up. 30 to 29, and it was a really good, schemed up play, and D.K. Metcalf is open, and Russell Wilson throws the ball, and Metcalf should have pulled that in for a 3229 lead. But you didn't get that,

and then the Rams went down the field and had a chip shot field goal for Zerline from 44 yards out with 10 seconds to go, and he missed it, so Seattle won by a point. By the way, you know, those of you that do bet football and have bet football over the years know all of the different scenarios and situations that will play out at the end of a game to get you a win. So when Seattle scored the winning touchdown, or the go-ahead touchdown, I'm sorry, with 228 left in the game and missed the two-point conversion, the Rams had two-timeouts left, and you're thinking, okay, somehow we need a fourth-down miss with, them still having at least one timeout left, Aaron, you know, where then the Seahawks are going to be in a

position with like 20 seconds to go, 30 to 29 on a fourth down at the Ram, 20-yard line with, you know, kick the field goal or go for it. You know, you're in one of those situations. And the Rams ended up throwing an interception. It was not ruled an interception. Reply took care of it with Thompson getting an incredible interception on a throw that was deflected off the tight end, Everett. Once that happened, then it was pretty much over. But when the Rams took over at 30 to 29, there was still a legitimate chance of Seattle having an opportunity to kick a field goal if they could have gotten a four-down stop.

And they had them on 3rd and 10, and that was the play where the ball was intercepted. I was praying for that to be ruled no interception, even though it was clear that it was, so the Rams would have a 4th and 10 miss, and then you would have gotten the field goal opportunity at the very least from the Seahawks. But they didn't cover.

All right, they didn't cover. Great football game. And if you haven't seen the first Seattle touchdown, did you see that Tyler Lockett touchdown? I saw it, yeah, I did see it live because I was watching that Nass game. I saw it on Twitter. Oh, my God. What a throw.

I mean, he's throwing it to the corner of the end zone. And what a catch by Tyler Lockett to give Seattle a 7 to 6 lead in that game. It's one of those things where I really wonder if Russell was even trying to really give him a chance or if he was just kind of throwing it. All right. Most likely nobody's going to catch it. maybe he makes a miracle and I'm just going to kind of put it there. Right, exactly.

I think there's something wrong with the Rams a little bit. They're three and two. I said that before the season. I didn't pick them, you know, I picked them to be a wild card and pick Seattle to win the division. I don't know what it is. There's an issue with Gurley, even though he tried to feed Gurley the ball last night, especially early. And Gurley had a couple of really good runs.

Had two touchdowns, by the way. I don't know. The Rams are three and two. they're still a very, very capable team. I think Seattle's really good. All right. Anyway, that's it about the Seattle game. Let's bring in Chris Cooley, who is available to chat today.

The Redskins beat the Patriots if, Cooley. It's a fun game to play, isn't it? Is there any chance? The Redskins beat the Patriots if this defense steps up and acts in any semblance like everyone said this defense was supposed to act. they play better than they played. They get off the field on third down, which is unbelievable how bad they've been on third downs.

Probably have to create a couple turnovers, which is tough. And then offensively, New England's so good on defense, man. You got to beat man-to-man coverage. You've got to separate. I don't see them running the ball. Like, they haven't ran the ball. I don't think that's a big-time expectation.

But here's what they got to have. They got to have a couple receivers, make a big-time catch, break a couple tackles, break a tackle. It's all man-to-man, so you break a tackle, and you can get a bigger play. So you need a few things like that. And to me, it's going to have to be an under-20 game for them to win the ballgame. What's the over-under on this thing? What is the total, Aaron? I'm going to get – I haven't looked at it.

I'm going to guess it's like in the low to mid-40s. 42 right now. I got 42 right now. Yeah. So New England can't score 20. want to win the game. So there were a couple of things, and I'll save my sarcastic responses for when you hang up, because I don't want you to be attached to them in any way. But you mentioned the third down defense. First of all, the difference is stark and incredibly stunning, because

the Patriots' third down defense is only allowing 13.5 percent conversions on third down, and the Redskins are allowing 63%. One team is the best on third down, the other. One team is the best on third down, is the worst in the league on third down. And right now, historically awful through the first quarter of the season on third down. But here's a silver lining, if you will. The Patriots' best offensive opponent that they will face may be the Redskins on Sunday. They faced the Steelers who were lifeless in the opener and were playing an injured Ben Rafflesberger. They have faced Miami, the Jets, and last week,

bills with Matt Barkley for half the game. The Redskins actually may pose not much of a threat, but the biggest threat offensively to the Patriots defense this year, the stats that the Patts have compiled here defensively, number one in yards allowed, number one in scoring defense, they're only allowing 6.8 points per game, number two rush defense, number two pass defense, number one in takeaways. They've got 10 takeaways, by the way, as an aside, all of them are interceptions. They haven't recovered a fumble yet this year. But they haven't, they've played four awful offensive teams because the Steelers were terrible in that Monday, in that Sunday night opener. They were playing Rafflesberger who basically couldn't throw the football. And they didn't try to

run the football. You go back on the Steelers game. They had 14 total carries in that game. Yeah. And granted, I understand that they got down. And now that's the world that we live in as, well, we were behind or we had an holding penalty. So we couldn't run the ball in it. But they couldn't run the ball when they tried to run the ball. So I didn't think the Steelers would be as life was against the Patriots. But when you watch this Patriots defense, I don't know if the Jets receivers, the Bills receivers, the Dolphins receivers are all really that bad. But, man, they are so good in coverage.

There are no lapses in that secondary. They are tight when they play man-to-man. They are communicating when they play zone. They are smart. They are all over the field. It's a defense that you can't really look at and say, this player does this thing, you have to look at every player as an X. We don't care what number he's wearing or they'm on the jersey.

He's an X. And so it's really interesting, though. I think the Redskins have struggled as much against some of the zone coverage they've seen through the first four weeks, and the Patriots run way more man-to-man coverage. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Patriots play vanilla in the zone and say, your receivers haven't executed well enough to create spacing and create distribution, and they're not going to do it against us.

So we'll play more vanilla. But that's just a thought. You know, they're so good, though, man. Like, they have so many, when you watch this game, you'll see it. They have so many mug looks with linebackers at the line of scrimmage with six, seven guys at the line of scrimmage all over. They're dropping three of them. They're rushing three of them.

They just confuse consistently. They're relentless with their different looks. Play in and play out. By the way, you know, you mentioned their secondary in particular. particular. I watched some of that Buffalo game. How good is Devin McCordy is a safety? He's amazing. And Jason McCordy is a good corner. Really good corner. Butler's a good corner. Or the guy that got out of Buffalo. Yeah.

It's a really good corner. And they had a kid that's a second year player out of Maryland. He's 27. It's a really good player. Had a pick. Yeah, J.C. Jackson. Yeah. Yeah, they're just, but the thing is, it's a demand for them. It's almost the thing of art when you watch these guys cover in man to man, because they just trail perfectly. They don't hold, they don't grab, they just have this innate trail ability that has got to be coached. But it's pretty awesome. So here was another sort of silver lining from the playbook for Sunday that I wanted to ask you about specifically. I mentioned it on the radio show.

So when you watched the Buffalo New England game last week, and most of you probably didn't watch it, Buffalo's defense is really, really good. And they really took it to the Patriots physically. And I just wonder, you know, how many games you played in like that where it was a physical draining battle. You couldn't get anything going offensively. You were sore after the game like you typically weren't. how much of that carries over to the following week, especially when you're playing an opponent that's probably difficult to get up for. Yeah, some of it can carry over.

I watched that Bill's game a few times. I don't know if they're banged up because of the game. And I think there's also this sense of frustration when you don't operate offensively, but then you're looking at the Patriots and you're saying they're not frustrated that they didn't operate that week offensively. They're the Patriots. They just move off. So I don't know if they're overly banged up, but I will tell you what, when you watch Buffalo's defense,

and it's another one of those things where you're like, Trent Murphy and Lorenzo Alexander are standout players for them. They play so fast. Their defensive line plays so fast. Their backers play so fast. That guy Milano, smart, smart player. Yeah. Yeah, really good linebackers. A kid from Boston College.

Yeah, they fly around, man. And the kid out of Virginia Tech. Tremaine Edvitz. Golly, Tremaine. But we remember when we were doing film breakdown? We loved him. We loved him. He was like 19, too, when he got drafted two years ago.

Yeah, he's tough. He is so influential. Yeah, I mean, we don't have to spend a lot of time on Buffalo. But I was just curious if there's a game that you remember where, you know, you played a really good defensive team. And then the following week, like, it's the Alabama effect, which I've talked to you about. And I've mentioned on the podcast before. It's like any team that plays Bama, LSU, or Auburn, the following week, you bet against them because they're, they just are too worn out to play the following week.

New England was, so it's an interesting way that you put it, that perhaps they were more frustrated, but, you know, it's New England, so they're going to be fine this Sunday. We didn't play a lot of games against Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh was really physical defense. You had to play against them. They were a violent defense. guys like James Harrison and Troy Palomala, which is laid on you. Philly was always a really physical defense, the Jim Johnson defenses, which is essentially what Buffalo is right now with Sean McDermott. He was there with Johnson and Philly.

So they were always incredibly physical. And I remember those games being some of the toughest games that we played. But to say that it carried over, buddy, I don't know if I remember it really carrying over. Look, you know, if there is any character, over effect, this is the perfect opponent for the Patriots because they actually have, you know, a lot of really good teams on their schedule. You know, they've got the Ravens on the road. They've got the Eagles and the Cowboys and the Browns and the Texans and the Chiefs. This is perfect for them coming off a game that really they were sort of lucky to win to have the Redskins and be 15.5

point favorites in a stadium, by the way, that will not be a road environment for them. Okay. About the first five games on their schedule, my God. You'd expect Pittsburgh to be a little bit better, but you get Pittsburgh, who is essentially had a loss of Bell and Brown. Well, Rothesberger couldn't throw the ball, you know, vertically that night. I know. And look, we like James Washington and Juju, but they're not Antonio Brown. And just to look at the first five games that they got versus our first five games,

it's crazy. Right. Well, I mean, I think the bills are actually pretty good, but still, it's the bills. But yeah, to start with basically a quarterback less Steelers team, because Rathlisberger was compromised, the dolphins, jets, bills, and Redskins. And by the way, next week they get the Giants at home. And then they're at the Jets. But then it gets dicey. You got Cleveland, Baltimore, Philly, Dallas, Houston, and Kansas City during a stretch.

I guess one of the things that – part of the reason I bring it up is, you know, everybody's talking about, could this be like a 2007 Patriots team? is it the greatest defensive team that Bill Belichick's ever had? How can you really know when they've played the teams they've played to start the season? Just inept offensive teams? It's hard to really know. I can tell you watching the Patriots offensively, the one thing they do lack is that dynamic down-the-field weapon. The thing with that undefeated year was Randy Moss, right? Right.

And the way they operate offensively, they forever were spread offense team. And they would pass it 50 times a game. And I think a lot of it at this point is probably to protect Tom Brady. Essentially, like, everything Belichick does is to protect the quarterback. And I think now with, you know, the way with Brady's age and what it is, there are a lot of eye backs and strong with fullback in the backfield and heavy stuff. And they need a vertical threat. Like, after watching them, I could see why Tom Brady was so adamant about Antonio Brown

was so excited to have Antonio Brown as a part of that team. Because when you have that power eye offense and that power stuff, you have to have the deep threat that can win. And I just don't know if Josh Gordon is it. I love Edelman, but he's a slot player. So to say that they'll have the totally special year, that year that they went 16 and O, they were blowing everybody out. They're going to win some tight games this year if they're going to want them all.

That year that they went 16 and O and then 18 and O, and they were blowing everybody out, You played in one of those games against them and lost 52 to 7. Yeah, a great game plan we had going in defensively. We're just going to play straight cover two and let Brady pick you apart. It's like, I don't care if they're really smart. You still have to try to show them different stuff. You can't just show them your coverage.

Is that what happened that day? I think we played all cover two. It was a Greg Williams defense if I remember, right? And normally we're in an attack, blitzing defense, and we just, Set up and played cover two. Wow. You had three catches that day for 31 yards and a touchdown. The one score and the 52-7 loss was Chris Cooley's touchdown catch.

Two-minute drill at the end of the game, I'll take it. From Jason Campbell, who had a rough outing, to say the least. That's the last time, by the way, the Redskins were this big of an underdog. And that was a road game. This is the biggest home dog, I think they've ever been, 15 and a half at home. if you want to call it home. They are at home. It's not New England.

It won't feel like it crowd-wise. You know, this is going to be a very interesting crowd Sunday because this is actually the toughest ticket of the year because people want to see the Patriots. Is it really a tough ticket? Relatively speaking, it is. It's still not a tough ticket. But I think I was checking Stubhub a couple of days ago,

and the prices for this game were definitely they were holding firm at much higher prices than we had seen for the other games. I just think there's a lot of interest. The LeBron James. The LeBron James effect when you want to go watch a Wizards game? Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You're paying to see the Patriots. It's like the Patriots are in town. Wow. I mean, it only happens once every eight years. You know, you play these AFC teams once every four years, but only once every eight years at home. So there's that opportunity. All right, I want to get to something with you that I did on the radio show this morning by myself, but I'm looking forward to doing it with you more. Yesterday, the show ended, and I'm watching First Take, a replay of it with Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman,

and yesterday Damien Woody was on the show, and then Molly, whatever her name, is sort of the moderator of the show. And the Redskins, by the way, are the only 0-and-4 team that could possibly be getting this much conversation and being this much of a topic at O and 4. I mean, they're totally irrelevant in the standings, but still very prominent in discussion. This is the conversation about the Redskins specific to Dwayne Haskins playing Sunday in New York.

I want you to listen to what Max Kellerman said. Let me tell you something. Haskins has already been damaged by this. Yes. By reputation. And if you don't believe me, just imagine if your team needs a quarterback and you just traded for Dwayne Haskins.

Are you psyched about that? Are you thinking, oh, maybe a project, maybe it'll work out, maybe not, we're still looking for a quarterback. Because he was the 15th pick in the draft, and I thought he might have been the best player in the draft. I don't think it's damage yet just by the first game three picks. No, no, not by the first game three picks, by the association with this organization, by the way he's been handled so far. By the way, good for Molly, whatever her name is, stepping in and saying damaged. I've already been damaged by reputation because he played football last week in relief. Explain this one to me.

This really, you know, I really have gotten frustrated with the national piling on, the hyperbole, the exaggeration from guys like Kellerman and Lewis Riddick and like the Redskins playing Dwayne Haskins is sabotaging him. Stephen A said that again yesterday, that there's an agenda. And Max Kellerman says they've damaged his reputation for good. What do you make of all of this? Yeah, it's a headline. It's wild. I wonder where – I don't know where it's coming from.

Let me just – you didn't damage his reputation for good. Right now, every league – every team in the league had an evaluation on Dwayne Haskins and seeing him play 22 snaps in relief did not damage him. Now, is that what the conversation is about that they put him in? And there was a certain amount of film on him that we could watch now and it wasn't good enough. Because he did actually make some good throws in that ballgame. Or is it the he's not ready conversation? And then at that point, you've got to ask, like, what is the conversation you want to have

and how do you want to move forward with discussing Dwayne Haskins if he isn't ready? Or if – and you and I believe he is ready. It's just you change what you're doing for him. Right. But we've had this conversation. You know, to run a West Coast offense at its fullest where you're going to have to six-man protect everything and you've got to flip your line and you've got to know where the back is and you've got to call Mike.

And you've, by the way, never done that in college. You've been mostly five-man and play action stuff. Maybe some six, but not a lot. Colleges don't do that. And now all of a sudden you have to identify fronts and you have to identify known rushers and you're like, oh, yeah, that pass play that I'm calling. I still need to see the secondary and stuff, too. It's a lot.

I think my easiest comparison, as I've thought about this year the last week, is essentially saying when you take your wife to play blackjack if she never went, she has to add all the numbers. You get a seven and a six, and she sits there and she says, seven, six, that's 13. And then you get two, and she's like, okay, 15. Should I hit or should I not hit? But you in your mind as a blackjack player go, like,

do, do, do, do, do, you just see them together, and that's what it is. So as a quarterback starts to understand defense over a couple years in the NFL, then they can really do a lot of that stuff. Saying that he's not ready to do that isn't saying that he's not ready. There's a lot of ways that we can go right now. You know, Kansas City runs very little six-man protection. There are five-man play action. They let Mahomes run around a little bit.

Not ready is just not quite ready to operate at the West Coast with the verbiage and terminology in the aspect that it is. I don't think he's damaged in any way. I just, you know, to me, you're going to learn a lot about Dwayne Haskins this year. I said this to you when we drafted him. I've said this afterwards. You know, if he plays and has to deal with adversity, or if he has to deal with adversity of not playing this year,

if you're going to find out more of who he is throughout the end of the year. Like, how do you handle this whole situation? If he handles it poorly, and he was damaged, then you didn't want that type of a player. You don't want a guy that's going to be damaged over some media criticism. or some criticism with the situation. You want a guy who's going to be relentless and continue to be available and believe in himself

no matter what happens in his first year. Exactly. Exactly. So would you start him Sunday? Would you, if you were coaching this team, would you change the offense and give him something that he can operate in and get him started on a season that's basically over at O'N4?

Because you know what I think. I think I would. Look, the way I've looked at this is I do want him to believe in himself, and I do want to tell him that he's ready enough. And unless I sit him down and say, look, I know that you're ready enough to run some of the stuff you did at Ohio State, but we're not going to do that here. And that's our choice and whatever. Then you could move on and start somebody else.

Or you could start Case if he's ready and say, look, we named him the starter. He's been the starter. You're the two. But if you start Colt, you are to some extent saying, you know, you aren't ready. Yeah. Unless you're going to, like, it just has to be so transparent with everybody involved. But what would you do? But if you start Colt, you have to sit down and then you have to say, like, look, Colt was our starter in week one if he was healthy. He was no unquestionably the starter. We knew he was going to be the starter. But that's hard to say because that wasn't ever really discussed. There was a quarterback competition with three guys as the preseason went on until Colt wasn't ready.

Yeah, I mean, one of the things, you didn't answer the question specifically. Who would you start? Would you start the Haskins-era Sunday? Yeah, bro, you're o' and four. And coaches have a commitment to try to win every ballgame that they can possibly win. I understand that. They're committed to the other coaches on their staff. They're committed to the future of those coaches.

They're committed to the players working day in and day out. and if you do believe that you're not going to win with Duane because he's not ready to do what you want him to do, then I understand the dilemma that you're facing. Like, I'm committed to everybody that comes and works every day, and look, we want him to be ready. We do believe he's going to get there at some point, but not right in the second.

I get that commitment. And I also get it with the pressure of Jay moving forward. Like, is he here? What's happening? What's going on? You know, who's his commitment too? Because it's definitely to his coaches and players right now. but when you look at it for me like if if if i had if this was my first year as a coach there's no

question it's doing right if in my fifth year where i'm getting fired or the potential to get fired i don't know i think that's a different i think there's context to that i guess there's context but then it's up to management to take that context away if that's preventing him from moving forward with what's best for the organization as a whole, then he shouldn't be there. And here's the thing, Coley, like, I wanted to go back to the Kellerman stuff and the Lewis Riddick stuff from the other night, and Stephen A also, you know, piling on. He wasn't damaged. If he was damaged from 22 snaps and some media criticism, then they've got the wrong guy, and I think he's more thick skin than that. That's my hunch from

afar. So do I. But here's the thing that is mind-boggling to me with the criticism that's coming from people like Lewis Riddick and Max Kellerman and others, Stephen A. Smith, in particular on ESPN, if they're so convinced that Jay Gruden and this coaching staff is somehow has an agenda and are sabotaging this guy and ruining this guy and damaging this guy, why aren't they all over, Dan, for continuing to keep Jay in the building? Like, if that were really true and I'm the owner and I've got a guy that, abusing and sabotaging my number one quarterback, there's no chance I'm letting him back in the building. Zero chance. He's gone. My point being, that's really not. My gut feel is that Jay isn't

intentionally sabotaging Dwayne Haskins. Jay's not going to intentionally sabotage anything. I think I just, back to what we just went through, Jay is committed to his players and coaches, and they like him, and he likes them. Not going to sabotage Duane. I just, I will assure you that that's not happening, that that's not the case. He is in a spot where he's got to make tough decisions, but sabotage is way out of bounds here. Yeah, completely. That's saying Jay Gruden's like semi-evil.

And that, you know, Jay, you watch it. There's nothing evil about him. You know, some people are bringing up the fact that, you know, he put Griffin out there. He knew Griffin couldn't succeed. And it was sort of making the point with the owner that this. this guy, you know, we can't succeed with. And look, I think the situations are Apple. It's an apples and oranges situation because at the time, Robert wasn't well liked.

There was so much frustration with Robert, with respect to being coachable and having the relationship with the owner. And a lot of other shit was going on during that time. He was brought into coach Robert initially. That was the initial thought process when it happened. He's going to get Robert back on track. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that was the first memo on his death.

By the way, that's sort of an interesting comparison, because the next coach that's brought in is probably not going to get the job if he says, I don't believe in Dwayne Haskins. It's the same situation that Griffin was in after 2013. They had to find the coach that made the owner happy and saying, oh, yeah, he's a drop-back quarterback. He's not a runner.

I can turn him into that. Well, the next head coach is going to be a guy that's going to have to say, I believed in Haskins at Ohio State. I had him as a first-round guy. I can't wait to coach him, right? Probably is the understatement of the year. If someone comes in and says, no, no, no, he's not the guy. But I'll build a standard here.

Okay, I'm a great day. See you later. Thank you. That sucks. Because what if the best coach is, the best operational, the best option, opportunity for the organization from a hiring a head coach moving forward standpoint. What if he doesn't believe in Dwayne? We know. Most coaches are pretty arrogant in believing that they can coach up players, especially from the

onset. So most coaches are going to say, yeah, I can get this done. What if they hire the GM first? What if they replace Bruce and the GM says, I had him rated as a third round prospect? We've got a chance to draft Tua at the top of this draft. that's what we're doing, because he's going to be a superstar at the position in the league, or Justin Herbert, or, you know, Jalen Hertz or whomever. That guy's not getting the job either, because he's not a Dwayne Haskins fan. By the way, this is why he's got to play. If they hire the GM first, he better make some incredibly valid points,

and he better have a very, very good plan with the steps he wants to take to move away from somebody else, anybody else that was already drafted in the first round on this roster. This is why playing him and learning from him playing, you know, finding out how he faces. Well, if I said this from day one. I know, I know, but it's amazing how many people think it's the wrong thing to do. A lot of your former teammates think it's the wrong thing to do. It's almost like they're fearing that he's going to fail and that, you know, like DeAngelo Hall, was it DeAngelo or Sean Spring said to me, he said, Kevin, the fans will be all over him if he plays and he's not ready.

And I'm like, no, they won't. I don't agree with that at all. No, they won't blame him. I think they'll blame coaching at this point. But they'll also recognize as a rookie quarterback. It's going to take some time. But I want to see how he competes. I want to see how he handles adversity.

I want to see how he leads. I want to see how he does in learning and getting more. I don't know. There's something about watching him. I want to see him start to anticipate throws and start to trust where he's going to go with his one read. I want to see him start to learn the time has dropped up to some of these NFL concepts. And I want to see a lot of what he could potentially do.

If you're not going to have meaningful games late in the season, he's the guy right now moving forward. You can't teach experience. Do not teach it. But we're not going to see it Sunday, are we? We're going to see Colt. I don't know, man. I don't know.

I think it's a tough decision that you got. Really? I don't know what you're going to see. Okay. We'll leave it at that. Okay, so my feeling is this, and it's based on not knowing anything, because you can see Chris isn't going to answer the question, which is fine.

I don't want to put them on the spot with that. My feeling is this, which, by the way, I shared this with you yesterday, and you're like, I'm not going to comment on that, and I'm like, fine. If Colt is healthy, this is what Jay wants to do. If he's healthy and he's upright and he can go out there physically, Jay wants to see Colt one last time. If he's going down, he wants to go down with the guy that I think he believes had he stayed healthy last year, they would have been in the postseason.

Well, the one thing it does make is a pretty interesting storyline. if Colton were to start and then were to come out and beat the Patriots. Can you imagine, like, even if they didn't win the game, but they put up 31 and lose, you know, in overtime, 3431 or 3731. It would be pretty interesting, definitely. All right. What else? Like, just league stuff. Here are a couple of things.

I was really surprised. Did you watch last week's Sunday night game, the Cowboys Saints game? Yeah. I thought that was a poor called game by Dallas. They were very predictable. They didn't use Prescott and a lot of the stuff that they had used him in in the first part of the season. He was uncomfortable. They couldn't run the football.

By the way, the Saints must be much better defensively than I thought. They were good on defense last year. They were surprised on defense, but it's funny you say that because I threw the first three games in watching Dallas, and when we played them, really had this concept like Kellan Moore has taken this offense to another level. They're kind of letting DAC play a little bit more. They're opening it up a little bit. It isn't as predictable. It isn't as simplistic. And then you watch them against New Orleans, you're like, back to Jason Garrett Vanilla.

Yeah, completely. It was almost as if they felt like New Orleans really wasn't going to score more. much and they didn't need a lot. It's interesting how that game really was like a total mirror of the game they had played late last year on that Thursday night when the Cowboys won that game 13 to 10 in Dallas. A couple of teams that I want to bounce off you. I think Tampa, first of all, Vegas loves Tampa. The Sharps in Vegas believe that Tampa is really good and really difficult to check offensively. How much have you seen to them? And do you think? think they're for real.

They've been explosive offensively without really throwing to Mike Evans. Yeah, well, they didn't throw to him a lot last week. That's for sure. Not until very late in that ballgame. No, they haven't thrown to him a lot because he's on my freaking fantasy team and he's not scoring any points. Well, he had a monster day against the Giants. That's right.

That's right. That's right. Man, you beat the Rams, score 50? That's a pretty good deal right there. And I think it's what I love Bulls as a defensive coordinator. Yeah, I do too. You think he's a head coach again. But I don't know.

You never know the dynamics that went into what he had at New York, but that never seemed to be a good fit with him as a head coach. And sometimes there's just this, some guys are good at coaching ball, and some guys are good at executively managing a football organization. And I see Bulls as a ball coach. Like if I look at it like guys like Bulls and Greg Williams, I don't even know if they really want a head coach. I think they love what they do

coaching defense. Right. I can see that. And Ariens is the overall manager, and he had such a good run in Arizona. And they put together so much organizationally. And I really thought, like go back to Arizona for a second,

I really thought, you really got a credit kind their general manager for all this stuff they put together. And now over the last couple years, you look at what Arizona did, drafting Rosen, trading Rosen, then having drafting Murray and trading away a bunch of their players on defense. You're like, was Ariens really the glue that held that together in Arizona? Was it more of an Arian deal than it was a GM deal?

Because he's immediately made an impact on what Tampa is. And Bulls is good on defense, man. He's a tough defensive coach. I will tell you that. He is a good, good scheme guy. I would have felt so good, the Redskins have been able to hire him. So good. You might be right about the head coach thing,

because I've got friends who are Jet fans who, every time I bring up Todd Bowles and say, I would love him to be the Redskins next head coach. No, you don't. You want him to be the defensive coordinator. I just don't think he ever had a quarterback in New York. And when they finally got one last year, Darnold, they didn't let him see it through. I mean, he did not have any decent professional quarterbacking while he was there. Went 10 and 6 his first year in New York, too.

Anyway. I never thought they were very good. What else? I did always think they had good defense. How about missing a kick? How about the Rams kicker missing a kick last night from 48 to lose the game? 44. Yeah, Zerling.

Oh, yeah, you're right. Those are 44. They got a couple yards on. You know what? I thought about this as I watched the game. And everybody ices the kicker. I think because everybody ices the kicker, the best thing you can possibly do in that situation is not call time out.

Because they're expecting it. Because that kicker is sitting there going, they're going to call time out. They're going to call time out. Yeah. When are they going to call? I guess we're going to snap this ball. It's almost like it becomes so normal at the end of games. The Rams didn't have a timeout left.

But if I had a timeout left and I got to the point, I'd say let that play clock run down to five. If he doesn't ice you, I'm going to do it. I'm going to call time out. Offensively? Yeah, but you've got to let him know you're going to do it. No, of course you're going to let him know you're going to do it. But I was sitting there watching that game last night, like, man,

don't call time out here because that's going through your time. thought process as a kicker as a holder or snapper like when is the timeout coming right i loved that i thought that was really smart by p karel yeah i mean i was expecting it sitting there watching him line up i was certainly expecting the timeout to come they had two to burn and i thought they would use one there and he missed he just barely missed but he missed uh there by the way Seattle's good Seattle yeah well getting clownie back and you can tell clownie's playing here. Getting clowny from Houston was massive for them.

That's when those defense were so good. The secondary has always been good, but when they have those big-time rush guys, and they have those guys they could shoot gaps with, and then another guy that they can two-gap with, they're a tough defense again. Well, Hans is good, too. And Goff looked off.

I think Goffs looked off all year. I think he looked really off against Cleveland, and Cleveland's really good defensively, too. By the way, real quickly on Clowny, because it's, you know, I was pushing, I would have been totally for Clownie coming here if it had been, you know, the right situation. People are saying, man, Clownie didn't do, Clownie's not making a massive difference. They gave up 29 points. I'm like, have you watched any of Seattle's games?

He's got a pick six. He's got two forced fumbles. And according to one of those, you know, advanced stats things, you know, football outsiders or what's the other one, pro football, focus? because Seattle's pressures are up like 25% from a year ago. Clownie's a massive impact player. Like if you don't see that as a football fan and you're just looking for sack totals or something else, you're missing it. He is a major impact player defensively.

Well, the thing I would have loved about Clowny, I don't know anything about him personally. I do know by the trade the way that went on. they could have got a comp pick. Actually, they weren't going to get a comp pick for Clownie. I think I figured that out. But to give it away for that, they had to not want it there. But if you're watching Clowny Field with Houston last year, look at how many places he lined up on the defensive front.

Like, at least I know he's smart enough to line up all over the field and do so many things in a versatile way. And so I love that in Clowny. He's not just a speed defensive end. He's a guy that'll line up on the center. He's a guy that can bounce around. He can play the B gaps. I think Clowny is a pretty versatile dude.

I think the Texans, you know, I think other teams would have gotten more for Clowny. I mean, the Texans essentially really didn't have a GM. They had an interim GM, and they gave away Clowny, and then they overpaid for Tunsell. You know, it was like those things happened, like, within a week of each other or whatever. It was not a good situation for them. I think they buched all of that. I think they did, too. Anything else around the league impress you or concern you?

You want to weigh in on the Kirk thing? I haven't done that yet today. I did it on the radio show. Diggs apparently wants to be traded, although the Minnesota beat people are saying no. Thielen, you know, was frustrated last week. I got to apologize for missing him four times. The interesting thing with the dig thing,

I love when players have no idea the repercussions on the salary cap. Like, he signed a massive deal last year. Like, if they trade him, they got to, eat all of that cap. They're not going to like, hey, there's zero chance he gets traded. But, I mean, think of that right now. What if they wanted to left tackle? Like, how, that would be

an awesome deal that trade for Trent. They're going to have to negotiate it with, deal with Trent. You're going to get them eating most of the deal with Diggs. Like, that would be a sweet deal right there for the Reds. Well, remember his brother, Trayvon Diggs, who, by the way, is killing it at Alabama. It's going to be a first round pick next year

from the area as well. Remember when he tweeted out over the summer, Aaron He tweeted out like a picture of Stefan Diggs with like a Redskins helmet or a Redskins jersey or something. And people started going nuts. I'm like, you don't understand. The deal that this dude just signed, there's no way in hell Minnesota can trade him. It would be an accelerated salary cap hit, which they would not be able to afford. And why would Minnesota want to trade him in the first place? By the way, real quickly, and you can respond to this. So before the season started, you know how much I like cousins. And you liked cousins a lot as a player too. You thought they should have re-signed him.

But beside that, before the season started, there were a number of comments from him where I could tell that he was not comfortable with what they were going to do offensively this year. And that's why I predicted that the Vikings would not make the playoffs and that he was going to have a difficult, you know, season. I really did feel that going in, and I predicted that. And I don't want that. You know, I'm rooting for him to do well. Just from a selfish standpoint, I want to be right about him. The frustration, if you read the Minnesota beat reporters, it's not specifically with cousins. It's with Zimmer. It's with this philosophy of basically turning their offense into a run-heavy scheme and Kirk being only a game manager. Do you know how many passes they threw in the opener against Atlanta?

Ten. Ten. Ten passes. By the way, their offensive line is a... sive in pass blocking. He's not playing well. Man, has he lost some confidence? But when people have been tweeting me as they have been for several days now, which has been highly entertaining, it's not, Diggs and Thielen, they may have a problem with Kirk, and Kirk missed Thielen on a deep one early. They could have been a difference maker in the game. But they are, if you read the beat guys in Minnesota and gals, this Courtney Cronin who covers them for ESPN.com, they're really frustrated with the offensive philosophy. Last year, they dropped him back too much, and they,

you know, they generated huge numbers, especially in the first, you know, half of the season. And this year, they're barely letting them throw unless they're behind. I mean, last year, the coordinator was Di Filippo, who's doing a really good job with Mitchie right now in Jacksonville. Yeah. But they hired this guy, Kevin Sofansky, and remember last year, they said to their offensive coordinator, Di Filippo, like, you're, you're, you're, you're you're going to run the ball. Yeah. And the next game, you ran the ball like nine times.

I'm like, sweet, bro, you're fired. Right. So it is Zimmer's philosophy, though. Zimmer's the guy that I think looks at a game and says, how many points do we have to score this week to win? What can we hold them to? It's like, we need 20 points. That's what we need.

So you're going to run the ball, and we're going to try to get 20 points. I hate it, man. I like scoring as many times as I can score. Listen, North Turner had a problem with Z. I have digs, and I have Phelon, and they drafted a young tight end. I can't remember who they drafted, but they drafted. They drafted Irv Smith from Alabama.

And they have Kyle Rudolph. You're built to throw the ball. Yeah. And that's where, again, I mean, I know a lot of people are having at it on Kirk. A lot of the people that didn't like Kirk. And by the way, he's not been good. All right. Let me just, again, be really clear. He hasn't been good enough.

He wasn't good enough last year at the end of the season when they needed to win games. They've had other issues. They've got major offensive line issues. but, you know, Zimmer, who, by the way, I believe is a good head coach and a really good defensive guy. Norv Turner didn't want to be there with him because he got frustrated with Zimmer. Stefansky got fired. He probably didn't want to be there. And I would bet it, and not Stapansky, DiPhilippo, I would bet at this point, I mean, Zimmer's going like George Allen old school.

He wants you to, you know, run it three times. If you have to throw it, make sure you don't take any chances, punt. Our defense and special teams will win the game. game. If they don't make the playoffs, Zimmer's not going to make it through the year. Yeah. Or Zimmer's not going to make it to next year. If they don't make the playoffs, we just talked about a couple of guys that are defensive

coordinators like Greg Williams and Bulls and maybe Zimmer's a defensive coordinator. Because he is hard to play against with those defenses, the way he operates defensively. They're tough. When he was in Cincinnati and then everything they show in Minnesota, it's tough. scheme. Yeah. He's smart D-coordinator, but you can't go into games and say, we're not going to score points this week because we can shut them down on defense. We want to run it every down. Like, that's asking for it. You know, watching Cousins last week against the Bears defense, which is elite, you can see he's lost confidence. Like, the scheme isn't right. He's not playing well. He's

getting bum rushed, which we know, you know, if he's being ambushed, he's typically not going to react to it well, especially with a scheme that doesn't sort of, you know, lend itself to, yeah, bring everybody and we'll get it out quickly. He's a mess right now. By the way, just one other comment. It's his third scheme in three years. I know, but no one wants to hear that. Well, that's a, hear it because it matters. So I wanted to say about Chase Daniel, who came in for Mitch Trubisky, and I'm just curious as, I said this on the show, I'm just curious as to what you think about this. If Chase Daniel were six feet or taller, I think he'd be an outstanding NFL quarterback. I think Chase Daniels amazing. Remember, he was here out of Missouri. Yeah. I know he was

here. He was here. He was awesome. And he's a guy that's been with Andy Reed in Kansas City and with Sean Peyton and New Orleans behind Breeze and behind some of these guys. He's got a very good base for football. That'll be an interesting decision if he plays really well. I guess there's no decision, right? You've got to stay with the guy you traded at. Yeah. Is Trimisky starting in London Sunday? I don't even know. I like the Raiders, by the way, plus the points, the public's all over Chicago Sunday. I just, in watching Daniel last week against a really good defensive team in Minnesota, and look, they only scored 16 points, but they were moving the football day. That game was really odd. Each team only had two possessions in the

first half. It was crazy. Like, just two super long possessions. Diggs actually fumbled the ball at the end of one of Minnesota's possessions. But Daniel just to me, I'm like, wow, this dude, there's a reason that smart people like Andy Reid and Sean Peyton and in Philadelphia have wanted him in their locker room as a backup. It's just unfortunate that he's like 5'6 or whatever he is. Whatever he's listed, he looks three inches shorter than that. got to be 510, 511. You think? He looks tiny out there, doesn't he?

I know. He does. All right. What else? It's your podcast. Who's going to start Sunday? Is Jay getting fired if they lose Sunday? Yeah, how would I know? Okay. I mean, it's just crazy.

I think it's got to be so hard to be, to be, Jay in this situation. I mean, especially if somebody's essentially told, I don't know if they've told him his fate or not. He's had the gallows humor for two years going on now. I always think when Jay talks and he kind of jokes about it. It's like, man, I don't know if I'd be doing that. I'd say, like, I believe in this team no matter what. Remember, it's almost like Zorn when they took the play calling away from him.

He's like, you know, I just, like, calling the plays is so much fun. I'm so excited to be the coach here. It was like, really? Well, yeah, that was, that was an interesting situation, because remember at the very end he was using, like, legal words, like, I will comply with their requests. Like, basically, my whole feeling at the time was Jim Zorn's wife realized that he would never have the opportunity to make this kind of money again,

as a head coach, and there was no way she was going to allow him to quit and not get paid the rest of what they owed him. Because remember, he had another year on that deal. You know, so he was going to comply come hell or high water to make sure he got that money. I would. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I think Jim wasn't getting what we had judges. I think Jim was at like $2 million a year. Yeah, exactly. But again, I mean, no one, first of all, no one was going to give him a chance to be an offensive coordinator, which is what they first hired him to be. And then he got elevated to the head coach, which, you know, I think I've told you this story before. But when Tommy happened to have been at the park, Zorn's walking out of the front

door, and Tommy overhears him on the phone saying, I got to come home and change and go to Dan's house. And then you just hear him say, no, no, no, no, the head coach. That's what he wants to talk to me about. Like the wife was like, what? No, no, no, I'm going to be interviewed to be the head coach. Anyway, all right. I'll be listening Sunday. Hopefully we can catch up next week. By the way, the Redskins are the biggest anti-public play of the entire weekend.

There's no other game that's got more action on one team. They're going to cover. They're going to cover. I don't know if they're going to cover. I mean, I can tell you this. Every bookmaker on the planet is going to need the Redskins to cover. Well, then that usually ends up being a pretty good theory. Yeah.

It's been working recently. Probably go sideways here this weekend. All right, I'll talk to you later. I've been doing a great job. You should listen. Everybody should listen to your picks, man. Not anymore. They should get off them right now.

If they've ridden them for three weeks, they should probably get off them right now. What? Why? You never get off a heater. You never leave a heater. You never leave a heater. You had a couple bad years. You know, I always joked with you.

I said, I'm the bad luck. Because the last couple years, your anti-public picks have been... Or have been... No, I had a winning year last year. Oh, that's right. We didn't do the show. The two years with you, I had, like, a one barely winning year, and I had my worst year, which was, like, 48.9% or something.

I know, so now you're back on a good shoe, and so let's ride it. This is a good shoe. Shuffle the... Hold on. Give me the thing. Let me just stick it right in that spot right there. All right, go ahead. This deck's super positive at this point, man.

Cut it right there. cut it right in the right spot. God, look at that, right off the bat, an ace and a jack. Boom. Look at that. You got a Friday night college football blackjack. There's a six and a five against a six. We're on a roll here.

You're right, and by the way, just as an aside, I have definitely pressed very much so on this heater. But you do at some point get up from the table and say, I did a really good job. I got a really good shoe. I pressed them. I look at all the, look at my pile of chips, and now I'm going to get up and walk. You got to know when to get up and walk. Also.

All right, I'll talk to you later. All right, good to catch up with Cooley. Quick word before we get to the smell test on stamps.com. If you're a small business, you really do need Stamps.com. It's one of the most popular time-saving tools for small businesses. Stamps.com eliminates strutelytum. eliminates trips to the post office and saves you money with discounts you can't even get at the post office. It brings you all of the amazing services of the U.S. Post Office right to your computer,

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That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. Stamps.com, use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. All right, I'll get to the smell test here momentarily. But I did want to go back to something we briefly mentioned yesterday. and that is the list of coaches that are favorites to replace Jay Gruden. The odds on who the next Redskins head coach will be. Almost everybody assumes Jay Gruden is going to get fired, whether it's on Monday or after a Miami loss, if that were to happen or at the end of the year.

It's going to happen. He's not going to be the coach here next year. That is a mortal lock at this point. Actually, unless Colt McCoy comes in and beats the Patriots and starts a resurgent run. on this season. But Aaron mentioned yesterday that Byron Leftwich is actually the favorite. He's the offensive coordinator in Tampa. Todd Bowles is the defensive coordinator. They're coaching for Bruce Ariens. And they are a very good offensive team with, by the way, a lot of offensive weapons in Tampa. But he is a two and a half to one favorite. He's a five to two favorite

to be the Redskins next head coach. Mike McCarthy is next in line. I do not want Mike McCarthy as the Redskins next head coach. Caldwell is 4 to 1. You know, I've always liked Jim Caldwell. I think he is a leader. I think he is an executive manager of a football team like Cooley just, you know, perhaps described Todd Bowles as not being of that. But I like Caldwell. Caldwell right now, by the way, if you didn't know, is in Miami. He's the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach in Miami. After Caldwell is Ken Wisenhunt. He's with the Chargers still. You know, Wisenhunt was a Gibbs player, so if Gibbs gets consulted, he might throw

Wisenhunt's name into the mix. Brian Schottinheimer is the offensive coordinator in Seattle. Wouldn't it be interesting if he came back to Washington? He was here with his father. He was the quarterback's coach. It was his first pro position coach job when Marty was here in 2001. Josh McDaniels is 8 to 1 and Eric Bienemey's 10 to 1. Eric Bienemy, a lot of people think, is going to get a job somewhere next year. He's the offensive coordinator in Kansas City.

A lot of people think he's super talented. He's now coached with Andy Reed for a couple of years. He was the running backs coach before becoming the O.C. With Andy Reed. And a lot of people like Bianamy a lot. So Aaron mentioned it yesterday. Todd Bowles isn't on this list. I think he will be at some point when Jay Gruden gets fired.

I think the question, and when you look at that list, it seems like they're assuming that. that probably largely because of it's either going to be Haskins or it might be a new quarterback, that the Redskins are going to want an offensive mind in there to try to kind of mold the new quarterback, whoever it is. So that's why maybe Todd Bowles wasn't on that list. Well, it might be exactly why every name on here is an offensive guy. Right, exactly. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That's actually a really good observation.

Maybe the betting choice is that the Redskins will not hire a defensive guy. You know what? they haven't had a defensive guy as a head coach since Marty Schottenheimer, Spurrier, offensive guy, Gibbs, offensive guy first, Zorn, I mean, whatever you want to call him, he was an offensive guy, Shanahan, Offensive Guy, Gruden, offensive guy. All right, let's get to the smell test. Kevin looks where the John Q Public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test.

Well, yeah. The smell test has been working recently. Over the last three weeks, 38 and 1. That's unbelievable. Actually, after last night, 39 and 1 with the Seattle loss. I did give out South Alabama as a lien, and that came through very easily. That was a never-in-doubt situation. The game went to overtime. They lost in an overtime to Georgia Southern, but that doesn't go on the smell test record. These leans are just leans. You can play them if you want. It's usually an indication that I'm going to play the game personally, but they didn't fit the smell test criteria, which means major anti-public play and information that sharp money is with me as well. But a 38-in-one run is really damn good in the handicapping world. I've been asked over the years at times to have my picks, Aaron, followed by these sites that sort of keep up to date with handicappers, and then you're competing against other handicappers,

and I've always opted out. I don't really care to do that because I'm not selling my picks like a lot of these handicappers do. I'm just doing them for the purposes of the show. But if I were in one of those contests, I'd be at the top of the board right now. I'd be very much one of the hottest handicappers in the country. And by the way, I'm not a professional handicapper.

I'm a professional gambler. No, I'm not even that either. But I do enjoy this, as most of you know, and this is a true run. I've had a lot of these runs in the past. I don't think anything's matched 38 and 1 over three weeks. I'm 36, 15, and 1 on the year. Again, it's not a regression to the mean thing.

That doesn't exist in the world we're talking about. What it is, though, is it's an understanding that I'm not going to sit there and just collect from my bookie every week. Eventually, he's going to get some of this back. it's just the way it works. But I do like the board this week. There are some games that I really like, and we'll start in college football on Saturday tomorrow. Tulane's laying two and a half to Army.

Army gets a lot of play from the public. They know that Army's been a really difficult team to deal with in recent years. They took Michigan to the mat a few weeks ago probably should have won that game. They had a field goal to win the game in the big house. Army beat a bad team last week, crushed a bad team last week. They're on a two-game winning streak since beating Michigan, but they really haven't played anybody. I actually gave out Rice against Army in week one, if you recall. Rice was getting like 24, and they covered easily in that game.

I don't think Armies as good as they've been. And Tulane I gave out in their last game, it was a Thursday night game against Houston as a four-point favorite. and we sort of got lucky in that win, but we got the win on a play that should have been field goal range for a walk-off field goal, but instead the guy broke a tackle and sprinted into the end zone with just a few 30-something seconds left in the game, I think it was, and they ended up covering winning 38-31.

I like Tulane. I mentioned it before that game. I think that they are an up-and-coming program. I think they played Auburn about as tough as anybody outside of Oregon. They actually were in that game. not really in it so much, but they went into it and they held Auburn to 24 points and they moved the football even though they didn't score a lot. Tulane's good. They're laying two and a half and the public's on Army. Take Tulane, lay the two and a half. TCU is going to Iowa State and the

public loves this Iowa State team. They're well coached. That has a lot to do with it. TCU lost two weeks ago to SMU in a game in which it was winnable. SMU, by the way, is having the best season they've had since the Pony Express back in the early 80s, which, by the way, put them on death penalty probation. One of the best 30 for 30s ever done, by the way. TCU's getting three and a half at Iowa State. It's a short number perceived by the public to be short. Iowa State's two and two.

TCU's three and one, they crushed Kansas last week, but Iowa State's losses have been to, they lost to Iowa. by a point, and they lost a Baylor who's pretty good by two. By the way, Matt rules an excellent coach, excellent coach at Baylor. And Iowa State's well coached, too, with Matt Campbell. Anyway, I like TCU getting the three and a half at Iowa State. I think the public loves Iowa State, and I think there's a little bit of sharp money on TCU. The game I really like is Florida. Florida in this spot last year, beat LSU at home, and they're only catching two and a half.

tomorrow at home against Auburn. I've loved Florida's defense for a couple of years running. It is so good. It is so fast. Felipe Franks is out for the year. He was leading them to nowhere offensively. Now the backup quarterback's in. He's played pretty well here over the last couple of weeks. They beat Tennessee. They crushed Tennessee a few weeks ago. Came back against Kentucky the night that Franks got hurt. The backup quarterback, by the way, is trass. His name's Kyle Trask. He's a big dude. Like Franks.

I mean, Franks is 6-6. This dude Trask is like 6-4, 6-5, but like 240. He runs over people. You know, he doesn't have what I would call the most explosive of moves as a runner. And he's not what I would call a great anticipatory thrower, but he's better than Franks. And Franks was a head case too. I love Florida tomorrow.

They're going to beat Auburn. And by the way, they then go to LSU next week. How about the schedules in the SEC? Florida plus two and a half at home against Auburn. And then New Mexico State is winless, and they're only catching four against Liberty, who's three and two. I had New Mexico last week against Liberty, and they got the backdoor cover.

I like New Mexico State at home plus four against Liberty. Let's go to Sunday. The Redskins are the biggest anti-public side on the board the entire weekend. There are no players betting the Redskins. Nobody's betting the Redskins this weekend. Every bookmaker in the country is going to need the Redskins for their lungs tomorrow. And what's interesting is the line's just been hovering there at about 15, 15 and a half.

Now, I'm going to make a claim here to being able to pull the Redskins off the smell test if Dwayne Haskins is the starter. If he's the starter, that line's going to go to 17 or 18, and it's not a smell test play. So don't play it today. Wait until you know for sure who the starter is. If it's McCoy or Keenham, the Redskins at plus 15.5 are a smell test pick. I don't know how they keep it close, but I just know that my bookmaker and every bookmaker in the country will need the Redskins to cover. I like the Raiders plus five in the London game against the Bears. I like the Panthers laying three and a half against Jacksonville.

By the way, I think the Panthers are good. They're really good defensively, and I think this change at quarterback and really running North Turner's system, the way Norv Turner wants it run, is going to be a good thing for the Panthers. I actually think they're a dangerous team in that NFC South the rest of the way. I like the Panthers laying three and a half. The public's on Jacksonville. Minchu's availability, and he's going to play. It's just a matter of how healthy he is, but the public's in love with Jacksonville in that game.

Take the Panthers lay the three and a half. And then you're going to, you know, you're going to cringe on this one, you're going to say she and get off the Broncos. But the Broncos are a major anti-public play. They're catching less than a touchdown against the Chargers. Like that's begging you to bet the Chargers laying six and a half. Buy the half point, get it to seven, but play the Broncos on Sunday. And then I like the Cowboys.

The public is backing Green Bay in this game, getting three and a half at Dallas. You know, it's almost like, wow, we get the extra half point on that. The Packers are the play. I like the Cowboys laying three and a half. There's your smell test. Tulane minus two and a half. TCU plus three and a half. Florida plus two and a half,

by the half point there to get it to three. New Mexico plus four. And then on Sunday, the Redskins plus 15 and a half, if Haskins doesn't play, or if he doesn't start, if he does start, which by the way, I want him to start.

As a Redskin fan, I want Haskins to start. But if he starts the game, the Redskins are off the smell test. Raiders plus five. Panthers minus three and a half, Broncos plus six and a half, and the Cowboys minus three and a half. And again, if you're wondering why on the Haskins thing, because I think the line will go to 18 or maybe higher, and I think then you'll get some people playing the Redskins and it won't be nearly the anti-public play that it is right now at 15.5. Do you agree with me that if Haskins is named starter, which I don't think is going to happen,

that line shoots to like 18, 19. You know, I honestly don't know simply because Vegas had no problem putting this line up immediately. Usually if there's a question about quarterbacks, if they think there's a big difference between quarterbacks or even a, even if it's not a big one, but a somewhat significant one that would move the line, they would hold it. But they had no problem on Sunday immediately putting this line up. So I don't think they think there's a huge difference. They may just have assumed that there's no way the Redskins are going to start Haskins against New England.

Look, I think there's a chance the line's going to go up regardless between now because they're going to want to want to incent some Washington action, some of it, because the tickets are all New England, all right? The money is all New England in this game. And so they may have to up the line to 16, 16 and a half, 17 anyway, just to get some people to play the Redskins so that they can, you know, they're not going to even the book out on this, but they're going to want some Redskins action.

and to do that. They're going to have to up the line here. But by the way, if McCoy or Keenham start and that line just sticks at 15 and a half, it's going to be a big play for me on Sunday personally. Again, I don't know how they keep it close, but no way is Vegas going to expose themselves to, you know, a lopsided, you know, 80-20 New England dollar amount and ticket amount if they don't think the Redskins have a legitimate shot of covering this game. So there you go. That's the smell test. Quick word about my bookie.ag. Mybooky.ag is a great place to bet. Now, there's an offer that I'm going to tell you about if you use my promo code, but let me just

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Football QuickPix. Best games of the weekend this weekend, Aaron. Tomorrow there are two really good college games. Florida Auburn, can't wait to see that. Boy, the schedules, and the games upcoming and the SEC are just going to be a lot of fun to watch. I mean, Auburn still has Florida. They still have LSU. They still have Georgia. They still have Bama. Florida gets LSU next week, and I think in two or three weeks, Georgia. Unbelievable schedule. There's a game early in the day, though, that I'm going to be interested in watching. And I'll get to Maryland here momentarily. But Iowa at Michigan, Iowa may be a little bit sneaky good. They're very good defensively. And if they can win this game,

Iowa may be a contender. They play Wisconsin, I think, in early November. Iowa may be better than most people realize right now. They're very good defensively. If they go into the big house tomorrow and beat Michigan, I think people are going to recognize Iowa as a legitimate contender in the Big Ten West and a chance to get to the Big Ten title game. Obviously, they will play Wisconsin. Wisconsin, by the way, does play Ohio State in a regular season. That's going to be an unbelievable game when we get to it. The best NFL game of the weekend is Packers Cowboys. By the way, the only 4-25 game in that window. There's a 4 o'clock game, Denver at Los Angeles. Packers Cowboys, the only 425 game on Fox. Looking forward to watching that. I'm actually interested in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, because I think Pittsburgh now has a little bit of momentum after Monday night.

They've got a good defense, I think. They've got playmakers offensively. It's got to be about Rudolph. I thought he looked better on Monday night. And I don't think Baltimore's as good as most people think. I loved Baltimore last year. I just think they're a different team defensively this year. The team I'm most interested in watching this weekend

or the Minnesota Vikings, if they lose to the Giants Sunday, their season is over. It will unravel quickly. I'm very interested to see how they respond to this incredibly tumultuous week that started with a loss to Chicago, with Thielen being frustrated, digs being frustrated, Kirk looking completely lost,

Zimmer being questioned, interesting team to watch Sunday there in the Meadowlands. And if the Giants win, that's a three-game winning streak with Daniel Jones. They're three-and-two. Teams on upset alert, I've already mentioned Auburn. I don't know if you call them, they're two-and-a-half-point favorite, but I think Florida can win that game. And I think the Broncos, look out for them to finally win their first game, possibly in Los Angeles against the Chargers as a six-and-a-half-point dog. They'll probably lose on a late field goal. You've already lost two games. at the gun on field goals that were influenced in a real egregious way, wrongful way by two

roughing the passer penalties at home against the Bears and then last week against Jacksonville. Maryland plays Rutgers tomorrow. Rutgers fired their head coach last week. I had Loxley on the show earlier. I'm worried about this game. I think Marilyn wins this game. I think Marilyn's rattled a little bit right now. They're also injured. along the offensive line. You know, they've got, and Josh Jackson's confidence is taking a hit. I think Maryland wins this game tomorrow because Rutgers is pretty bad, Aaron. But I don't think it's easy tomorrow at Rutgers.

Boy, if it's not, if it's not easy, that's going to say a lot about Maryland. Like, this should be an absolute romping. And we've seen that when they do have advantages, especially on offense, they're able to take advantage of it. they should have those advantages this weekend. So if they don't take advantage of it, then yeah, you should probably start sounding the alarms a little bit. You know who almost made the smell test was Rutgers?

Most of the tickets are Maryland, and there's a little bit of sharp action on Rutgers. They almost qualified for it. I'd lean Rutgers plus the 13 or wherever it is right now. All right, real quickly, I'll take you the non-NFL smell test games. I would lean Tennessee, laying three. I would lean bucks plus three in New Orleans. I really like this Buccaneers team.

By the way, Minnesota is now a five-point favorite. Really? Wow, that's a lot of points. I think the public's going to be on the Giants a little bit. They are leaning the Giants, not enough for it to be a smell test pick, but I'd lay the five and take the Vikings. I like the Jets to cover at Philly. Remember, these are not official picks.

The official smell test pro picks, already mentioned them. The Redskins, the Raiders, the Panthers, the Bronthers, the Broncos and the Cowboys. I like the Falcons to play well. This is their season at Houston. They're a four-point dog. Would be very surprised if Atlanta doesn't play well. If they don't, Dan Quinn could be a coach

that's on a hot seat in season as well. They have underperformed. I don't know about the Colts Chief Sunday night. I would lean Colts plus the 11 because I love big double-digit dogs in the NFL. NFL. Ravens Steelers, Ravens are three and a half point favorites at Pittsburgh. It's a division right now that is, you know, I think Cleveland's to take personally, they're both two and two. The Ravens and the Browns are. The Steelers could get themselves back into it with a win. They'd be

actually ahead of the Ravens in the standings if they beat him Sunday in Pittsburgh. Go Nats tonight. I like Strasbourg to win tonight as a slight underdog in that game to get them back on track in this series. I'm looking forward really this weekend to watching tonight as much as anything else football tonight. What a matchup, Strasbourg and Kershaw tonight in L.A. All right. If you're listening to us on Apple Podcasts or iTunes and you haven't rated us and you haven't reviewed us, do that. It's a big help to us. Also, subscribe. That's a big help as well and it doesn't cost you a thing. Thanks to Cooley for coming on today. Thanks to Aaron for producing and contributing as well. We'll be back on Monday to recap the football and baseball weekend as we are into the month of October.

And by the way, it felt like it this morning, early this morning. It felt great. All right, have a great day.