The Kevin Sheehan Show - Dallas Is Worse!

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

Cooley and Kevin with their recap of Washington's easy 25-3 win over Dallas at Fed Ex Field. They talked about Terry McLaurin's postgame speech, the state of the division, and whether or not Washington is a legit NFC East contender. They went "Around the NFL" and discussed the World Series and Antonio Brown 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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. First third down to the game for Dallas. Dalton, under pressure, hit from behind. The ball comes out. Shultz is on it in the end zone, and he's swallied up for what is likely going to be a safety,

depending on where they spotted it and it is. Those were the first two points of the game for Washington, and they only needed two more to be. The Cowboys yesterday at FedEx Field. It's a coolly and Kevin Monday here on, you know, I know, did we, when we did the radio show, did we refer to it as a victory Monday? I don't like doing that hokey stuff. I mean, not that it's hokey.

They won the game yesterday. We'll talk about the game today. I was impressed in some ways and other ways I can take it for what it was. We'll get to all of that. Landon Collins got injured a few plays later. That was unfortunate. I actually thought he was in the midst of his best game. But Cooley, let me just mention this.

I nearly tweeted this out. You know I picked Washington all week last week and picked them to win by, you know, I thought they could win by two scores. Although my prediction was 2416, so that doesn't make sense either. After that two-point play and after really the opening drive, but really after that two-point play,

when I realized that their offensive line had no hope, I nearly tweeted out game over. I just didn't want to jinx it, but I totally felt after the safety that Dallas had no chance in the game. How quickly did you realize that your prediction had gone awry? Mid-second quarter. So it took you a little longer than me? Yeah, at some point you could see, well, actually, the exact moment, the Gibson touchdown. that made it 9 to nothing.

The Gibson touchdown that made it 9 to nothing. Well, that was in the first. That was in the first quarter. The Morgan Moses block, because that dude, 79, I've seen him play hard and play through stuff, and he just stood there with Morgan. It was good block. Yeah, well, that was still the first quarter.

So you knew it late in the first quarter at 9th. Late in the first. You could just see it in Dallas's team. You could see it throughout. They didn't play as hard as a team can play. I'll guarantee you that right now. All the talk of that team not playing. hard and everyone's saying whatever they want to say, that team didn't play that hard.

No doubt. That's why I loved Washington. You could see it coming. You could see this team imploding. The thing that I mentioned to you last week, as a longtime fan and a longer time fan than you, I love the people that will say, well, just defer to Cooley. He played the game. That's fine. The great thing about Christopher is Christopher will allow me to defer if it makes sense to defer. And then on other times, he'll say, no, actually, you might be right. But I've been a fan. longer than you have, and I've been a gambler longer, much longer than you have. One of the things I mentioned to you

last week is, you know, it's at the six, seven week mark. You can start to figure out which teams are fraudulent that have good records, which teams are better than their records say they are. And then you can find the teams that are on the verge of completely falling

apart and their season cratering. And those teams are always marked by two things. One is a bad record, but two is just a slew of injuries at key positions, typically quarterback and or offensive line or D-line, and they just cannot manage professionally as a football team against another NFL team, no matter how bad that other NFL team is. And the Cowboys not only had that, they were splintering from within. The talking about Mike McCarthy, the anonymous leaks. By the way, McCarthy ripped his

team after the game yesterday for not coming to Andy Dalton's defense. I think that team is going to go three and 13. Maybe they'll win two more. That's it. They're the team that will be in the Justin Fields Trevor Lawrence business if they want to be in it. They're going to have a top five pick when all is said and done. They got a lot of problems in Dallas right now. It's kind of fun to see, don't you think it's i honestly kev about the third quarter after cd lambs third drop and maybe winning at a false start some of their lack of tackling i said shit they look like us right yeah certainly us before last week. Well, in us over

however many, the last however many years, there's been so many games where the Washington self-inploded. Agreed. That's true. That's 100% true. There were games where, I mean, like, do you know yesterday was the biggest margin between, in a Washington

win since the 47-14 went over the Saints in 2015? Like, they have not had many big margin victories. I mean, they haven't had that many victories. It's also the fewest amount of points that Washington's ever held Dallas to in any game. It's also the first time in NFL history that a team has gone six straight games by giving up more than 20 points in a half, which is what Dallas has done, 20 points in the first half. They suck. Which is also the first time this season that Washington scored more than 20 points in a game. It's the first time that Washington's been up at half time in a

game the first time they've been up and half them seriously they're seven weeks in and this the first game they've scored 20 points more than 20 yeah they had 20 they had 27 no no no they had 27 in the win over philadelphia what are we talking about yeah oh you know what it's been since the losing streak began i don't know they said it on the broadcast somewhere so right before we get to your um you know your ms which there probably plenty of and your uhs and my game take. What's your big takeaway from this yesterday? The big takeaway is that they can still win the division.

They shouldn't. They're not good. They're not bad. The defense looked really good. I don't know what to take. I don't want to make anything out of this game because it was Dallas in the current state that they were in. But you get to this two and five mark. You have the buy.

You have some time to get back, get going, get healthy. and you have an absolute garbage division where you can control your own destiny because you play Philly again, Dallas again, and New York again. Yeah. I mean, it's unheard of to think that Washington's going to have to get to six wins for sure to win this division. I just...

Really? Because Philly will win it if you don't. Five, ten, and one. So all morning long, I've been going to one of my sites to see if the update... division odds have been posted, will they now have been posted? And I predicted that Washington might be the second pick right now to win the division behind Philadelphia. Last week, Dallas and Philly were basically co-favorts at even money, and then Washington and the Giants, I think

were like both eight to one, something like that. Well, the Eagles are minus 180 to win the division. They're the favorite. Dallas is still at plus 350, all right, three and a half to one. And Washington's a plus $4.50 now, 4.5 to 1. I wish I could make a wager right now on Washington finishing in front of Dallas, because I think Dallas is going to finish dead last in this division. Now, they could make a trade for like Ryan Fitzpatrick or somebody like that that could breathe life into them because offensively they've got skill position talent. They're just decimated on their offensive line. Philadelphia being a heavy favorite makes sense to me. They possibly could get players back, too, you know, healthy players back that could really help them out.

And they're the team with some championship pedigree and they're well coached and they've got a tough, I think, a fighting kind of quarterback. But Washington is not the second pick right now, but almost the second pick. I just go to a strong hedge and bet another hundred on the Giants. I mean, why not? Either of those two come away with it. The Giants are plus 1,500. The Giants are 15 to 1 now. They're a massive long shot.

Washington at 4.5 to 1, 9 to 2. The Cowboys are 7 to 2, and the Cowboys, the Eagles are minus 180. So they are, you know, they're significant favorites the Eagles are here. But the gap has closed significantly after one, you know, game yesterday. The Washington Dallas game in particular made a difference. So that was your... Is this last game of the season on January 3rd? Is the division going to come down to that game?

Yeah, good. That both teams are going to be sitting there at five wins. Well, seriously. I mean, where are the Eagles getting a bunch more? They're going to... Okay, they win two in a row. The Eagles had the Cowboys coming up. Cowboys and Giants.

Get them to four and one. I think the... Four and one, but then they play the Browns, the Seahawks, the Packers. the Saints, the Cardinals, and they get to the Cowboys again, that'll get them to 5, 10, and 1. And then they're going to play us. He's going to be sitting there probably 5 and 10. They'll be 5, 9, and 1, and Washington will be 5 and 10 playing for the division. Somehow you're going to have to win, if you're Washington, you're going to have to win seven games.

Philly's going to get to 6, 8 and 1. 6.9 and 1. 7. So, okay, let's not get into the schedule game here, even though we just did it. So my takeaway, I was thinking about this at the end of the game, and I tweeted it out in poll form, and 4,000 votes later, there are people that I think agree with us, more people that agree with us. And I just said, look, they beat a terrible football team yesterday, but does any part of you think that maybe, just maybe, they can legitimately contend for this miserable division?

68.8% of the vote. Yes, 31.2% of the vote. No, what's interesting is that a lot of the responses are, why would you even want to contend for the division? And I'll give you my answer right now. Because one of the other big takeaways from yesterday's game is that with all of the turmoil this franchise has had, with the sickness that the coach has had, with the big decisions that have changed every week that the coach has made, the mixed messaging, all of that, some of the really bad losses. One of the worst halves of NFL football I've ever seen by an offense against the Rams, literally ever seen. They haven't bailed on him. They are still playing hard. And I understand what the competition's been like the last two weeks. I understand what the Giants and the

Alboys are. Okay, I'm not making this based on their win over Dallas. The last two weeks, two things have happened. One, they haven't quit on them, and two, it's clear through two games, I don't even think it's debatable, that he made the right decision to bench Dwayne Haskins and start Kyle Allen.

That's obvious. And anybody that would debate that at this point has an agenda or is blind. And again, I'm conceiving. on the opponents not being very good. I understand that. They are also 17 of 30 over the last two weeks on third down, 56.6%. And it's mostly because of the quarterback. And before that, they weren't just dead last on third down through their first five games. They were dead last by a lot. Like the Jets were better than them on third down. And so they are a much more competent football team offensive and it's given them the ability for two consecutive weeks to play, you know, the newest

description over the last couple of years, complementary football, where the defense isn't on the field for the entire game and the offense is moving the chains and they're making plays and it's been a competent football team against two bad opponents. I understand that. But if you go back to the first half of the Rams game in which Kyle Allen played in, they were much more competent in that game than they had been in. recent weeks before he got hurt. So my two takeaways are they were very good in the first half of that game.

Would you say? I said they weren't very good. They weren't very evident that he was the best quarterback on the roster. Yeah, I think that was more my point. It was obvious that he was, you know, better than what they had had and certainly better than Alex in the second half. But the point is they haven't quit on Rivera. They seem to be this McLaurin, have you heard the McLaurin, have you heard the McLaurin,

post game speech yet. I'm going to play it for you. We'll do that a little bit in a little bit on the podcast. And they made the right decision on the quarterback. Yeah. Why would you not want to contend if you're a fan? It's fun. It's fun to hope.

Even if you know, it's fun to look forward to something. I mean, seriously, though, they play the Giants, the Lions, the Bengals, and the Cowboys in the next four. Well, the only team they're clearly better then, though, is the Cowboys in that stretch. It's not like you can look at it and say, oh, they're better than the Giants. Well, they're not. They just lost to them.

They're better than the Lions. They're not better than the Lions. They're on par with the Bengals. They might be on par with the Bengals, but Joe Burroughs thrown for like 500 yards every week. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but he threw for over 400 yesterday. And they keep getting better. They were up 21-0-0 on the Colts last week and lost and scored with a minute to go to take the lead on Cleveland yesterday. They don't suck.

I hear what you're saying. Their defense sucks. Okay. I mean, my point is there's nobody on this schedule other than the Cowboys the rest of the way that they're better than. I think they're better than the Giants. We'll see. I think they might beat the Giants in two weeks. but I think the teams are pretty evenly matched, as we saw last week.

I'm aware of what we saw last week. I still think they're better than the Giants. Not by much. Okay. This will be interesting. It's going to come down to they're going to have to, they're going to win five games. They'll be sitting at five wins, four or five wins in week 17. I think they're going to win five too, which takes.

him out of the Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields opportunity. But maybe not. Who knows? You never can predict these draft things. The point that you made about why would you want them to do anything but, you know, win games and contend? It's fun. It's beyond that. Like last year at the end of the year, I wanted them to lose to the Giants and lose to the Eagles, but have Haskins play well and continue to progress. That was the goal. Because none of those people were coming back. A lot of the players weren't going to be coming back. And you weren't going to have much, you know, in terms of culture building with old, you know, Coach Cal and the, and Bruce Allen's still there. This is different. You've got a completely new group. You have a culture change that is, you know, ongoing

an attempt to change the culture. And I don't, I want John Allen and I want Duran Payne and Chase Young, and Cole Holcomb, who has been just superb in the last two weeks, and Antonio Gibson and J.D. McKissick, and even a guy like Kyle Allen, I want him to go out and try to win as many games as they can. I think they're going to be competitive in a lot of these games. Even against better teams, I think they're going to be much more competitive than they were early in the season. And to your point, I'd be surprised if they don't win three more to get to five and 11.

I'd be very, I'd be surprised. Now, they could end up being decimated by injuries, which could completely, you know, those are the things you can't predict. But if they stay relatively healthy, I think there's enough fight in this group and enough talent on defense in particular in their front four where I think that they will win a minimum of three more games to finish five and 11. Well, they should. Let's put it that way. They should. They're good enough to win at least three more games. I mean, it's just they're not good.

They're a long way from being really good, but they're just not a long way from being a playoff team, which actually is a lot of fun. Because, as you know, and anybody that watches football knows, anything can happen in one game. I mean, we realize what probably will happen. They play someone very good in the playoffs, but anything can happen.

Shoot, Chase Young could have seven sacks or five. sacks and there could be two sack fumbles in a game against a good football team and they're like found a way to win one they're not going to win more than one still it's fun i don't think they're going to make the playoffs let me be clear on that i think Philadelphia will win the division with i think somehow philly'll get to six or seven and that'll be more um and they'll win the division but uh you know i think that they're going to be competitive the rest of the way unless they get decimated by injuries and I think that they can win three of their final. What are they two?

They have nine games. I think they could go three and six over their final nine games. Definitely. I definitely think that that's in play. All right. Let's get to our game recap right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right. Let's get to our game take.

We'll start with coolies and umms. You like the way I did that. By the way, you sent me something this morning was very funny. You've been doing this recently. sending me texts of the weather that you've had out in Wyoming. You had the picture of the snow coming down in the backyard and, God, it looked windy and frigid. And then you sent me your, you know, your weather temperature.

It was minus six this morning. How much snow did you get over the weekend? It's hard to say. It drifted quite a bit. I don't think it's no more than two or three inches, but there are drift piles of two feet in my front yard yeah that's what you get out west you get a lot of blowing and drifting because of all the open spaces and the wind and the whole thing that was one of my biggest is of the weekend we we took a drive into this town called cody which is close to us i swear to you on the

way home there was not more than two car lengths visibility really the wind was blowing 45 miles an hour it was snowing here it was insane don't you love that though kind of i don't love it to be quite honest in October. Right. It'll be fine. It's supposed to warm, like you sent the bet, a really good message back to me that said 50 on Friday. Yeah, 52 on Friday. 52 on Friday that will feel like a hundred.

It's negative six degrees right now. Negative six. That has to, I've been looking at it up. That has to be a record. Oh, my God. I mean. From October 22nd in Wyoming, it's, I mean, I know it's Wyoming. Trust me.

I get it. There's that's cold kev it actually and here's it doesn't feel like negative six though that's not windy today i want to say it you're really cold you notice it after you're outside for two or three minutes but you don't walk out the front door right now and say it's negative six well when there's no wind and their sun even the coldest of temperatures it just doesn't seem nearly as bad i mean it can be 30 and windy and just be brutal um it's your fingertips pretty quick Yeah. Denver, I obviously was the same weather system that went through Denver. Denver had snow during their game and it wasn't just a 32 degree snow. It was a 16 degree snow. Yeah, we were watching that game and looked it up. It said 13. Yeah, that's brutal. All right. Let's get to our game recap. You start. The thing I really liked, I said this on Friday, I said going forward and especially in this game, they're going to have to find ways to run the ball on the edge. Yeah. They did.

And it opened up a lot of their passing game, and it changed the dynamic of how they ran the football. Like that little jet sweep action with Gibson that he took for 40. Yeah, that little inside jet sweep inside handoff, weird looking, but it worked. Well, if you remember weird looking, that's a play that Steven Sims Jr. scored on last year against England. Yes. You don't always have to.

to just run stretch zone, that's a good way to get to the edge. And throughout the day, I thought the backs did a good job getting to the edge and getting outside. That was something that I think is going to be really big for this team. I just, if you can't get outside, you're doomed. Just in general, Gibson, I thought was much better than he'd been. And statistically, it'll show that. You know, he had 128 yards on 20 carries, which is 6.4. You know, you even take the 40-yarder out and make that a 10-yarder,

and he's still going to have a five-yard average on the day. So I thought he did a pretty good job. I hate doing this. I think Chase Young is unbelievable. And Montes Sweat is absolutely awesome as well. I find it hard now at times when I watch the game on television. to watch anything besides Chishu. Right. I do the same thing. I find myself doing the same thing.

I realize that I haven't watched any part of the play, but he is so much fun to watch because, one, he's incredibly explosive. He's so powerful, but he's relentless. He is, the way he's playing right now, like encapsulate every bit of what he is right now, that's a football player that's what Scott McLuhan can say

that's a football player that dude's a football player Chase Young is unbelievable yeah he's a football player and Chris Chris he's a football football player

football player Hey what do you what do you think Cole Holcomb football player what do you think is Chaser Everett football player he's a football player

What do you think about the way Landon Collins has been playing well it used to be a football player Oh my gosh. But really, really good. I think Cole Holcomb's awesome. You said last week, and I made this point on radio, you said after one game, it's very obvious, and they know it too.

He is their best linebacker, and it's not even close. It's not even close. He is really, really good. Was it Jay who really? it was Jay who really fell in love with him, right, when they were working somebody else out? I think he was a Jay draft pick. Yeah. Now, obviously, Kyle is really liked him too.

Right. But I think he was a guy that Jay went and said, like, this dude, we need this dude. They were looking at film of somebody else. Well, no, they were watching, like, they were watching an NC state game. Harmon. They were watching Harmon's film. Kelvin Harmon, yeah. Kelvin Harmon.

And they said, who's this backer from North Carolina? because he could really rub. It's funny how you fall into those things. Right. I mean, someone would have evaluated them anyway, but Jay was watching Harmon. Um, I didn't like the hit on Dalton. That's just dumb. I don't think it was on, I don't think it was, it was, look, you can't do it.

It's, you've got to have restraint. But I don't think John Bostic was trying to hurt him. I don't think John Bostic's a dirty player. And he actually went shoulder first, but the helmet, It's hit. You can't dive in your shoulder first. It's impossible. So you have to realize through basically the design of the human body won't allow you to take your head out of the way when you create a human missile, which is diving.

So you can't do it. You have to leave. You can't leave your feet. Plus, it was third and ten. Dalton was like three yards downfield or five yards. He wasn't even close to the sticks. But you remember, Bostick's drop is very shallow. He feels like he's dropping to 15 yards, but it's really only six or seven.

So he did think that, no, I'm just kidding. Maybe not. Yeah, I know. Maybe not. Bostick never gets enough depth on his drop, so maybe he felt like, maybe he does feel like he's getting enough depth, which would make him feel like he was beyond the sticks. I don't know. I don't like seeing that, though. Yeah, that was tough to see.

He's not going to get suspended, which I think is the right decision. I don't think he should be suspended. He'll get fined significantly, and that's what the league does for those shots. And he deserves to get fined. He deserved to be ejected. But I don't think he went in there with ill intent. I don't think he's that type of player. But anyway, it did not turn out well for Andy Dalton, that's for sure.

No, it did not. I was interested to see the kid from JMU, though. Yeah. I thought he was pretty good at JMU. Yeah. That was, I also, like, I like this. How many times have you said, man, this is not the defensive line I'd want to come into as a rookie quarterback in my first start for us? I know, true.

Never. Well, especially with the offensive line that he had in front of them. But in general. Right. You don't sit there Like normally We've been the ideal spot For a rookie quarterback to come in and play

Right True Yeah I don't God So Washington I got to go in and play Chase Young and Jean Payne and Montes sweat

I don't know Can we do it next week We're playing We're playing Atlanta next week Can I do Can I start back? Can I start back? I don't know

like Kyle Allen in this game. He wasn't amazing. He made some risky throws, one for sure to Logan Thomas that Thomas came down with. But there's something to him where he's just got a good sense to move the sticks. And this is this, this was a spark this offense needed. It's how they're going to grow offensively. Right now they might not get a lot of big plays. There's not going to be a lot of Terry McLaurin just straight running by somebody. Well, there was yesterday. I there's not going to be a lot of that he was sitting on slant if you wanted to you know yeah they showed that and everyone's like I don't know what he's doing watch him play slant throughout the game who train don't diggs was not going to give up a slant to Terry yeah and Terry took a little bit outside stem and he thought he was going to slant and he just shit his pants he didn't run the slant but I like Kyle Allen because I just think he's got an understanding of how to move the sticks, especially in third down situations. And the more you move the sticks, the more you get to in your game plan, the more you understand what you can and can't do as an offense, the more

you believe in you, I mean, there's just so much to it. Right now, this team, if they want to get better, they do at least have to make first downs. I mean, they don't have to score 25 a week, but they can't finish games with nine first downs. We talked about Duane throughout last year, but look at some of those games with Callahan. Like, there was a month span where they didn't have more than 14 first downs in a game. Right. Or to get better when you're doing that. You can survive, but they weren't getting better.

Yeah. They were surviving. And so I think Allen's giving them a chance right now to get better. I still don't know if he's the guy next year or not. But at least we get to find out. They have 45 first downs in two weeks. I know. Well, Dallas is the worst defense in the NFL.

Yeah, they're terrible. I mean, what do you want to do? Again, I, I, I, I, used that as a key they had to be a great tackling defense. I thought they tackled really well defensively. I thought one of your keys was absolutely spot on. Now Dallas, again, self-imploded quite a bit. C.D. Lamb had a couple big drops on, like, early in the game,

on the middle, and it was like, I hope we would have tackled him there. He may have scored on that one. He may have. But they were a good tackling defense on the day, much better. Landon, he was in, was much better. I think DeShazer is playing pretty good football through a couple games. Like, I just love seeing the safety fly into the TV screen and smack somebody. Right.

Yeah. He comes in and hits people, man. He absolutely comes in and hits people. So that's a fun thing to watch. I'm not sure if for sure that you don't get the fourth and one on the first drive, that you don't convert and score. I'm just not convinced in that situation that I go for it. Okay.

I know what they're thinking. I don't fault the play call. I like it. You're going to run behind Brandon Sheriff. The quarterback sneaks a good play. I don't, I'm not going to sit here and hate on the decision. I'm not. To me, it's 50-50.

I do like points early in the game. I have something to interject. here. It was on my game take thing to pose the question, but you just brought this into the discussion, so I want to mention this to you. I would like to see the following statistic,

and that is this. Before a fourth down and very short, if the play before it is a play that ends up getting replayed, like that was, it was a situation where McLaren scored, they went to replay, it was overturned, so three

to five minutes later, however long it took was when they lined up to go for the fourth down. I'd like to see what the numbers are on those fourth downs versus the fourth downs that happen in sequence, like in normal timing sequence. Like, okay, McClarence stops short, it's fourth and goal from inside the one. Dallas has been on the field for 11 plays and approaching six minutes and the offense gets up there and they go for it. I think anytime there's a delay like that, I'm always sitting there as a fan thinking, you know what, I don't know if I'd go for it now. Like I think the momentum or the ability to rest

or the ability to plan for this fourth down is going to give the defense more of an advantage than they would have otherwise had. What do you make of that? I think that on our show, or at some point we had McVeigh on a couple, this is back of ways. But I remember there being like a third and two or three

against Philly and he called a run play. And he came back and said, you know, in hindsight, we had him on the ropes right there, but there was a timeout that took three minutes. I shouldn't have run the ball. Yeah. I remember, I'm pretty sure it was in Philly that he did it. It was on the road. It might have been New York. It was New York or Philly. But he came back. I think he said it with us because we were asking him about the play call. If he didn't, we talked about it. And I asked him personally. Well, I mean, it would be someone like, Sean. that would think of it that way. But it's also a natural feeling.

As a football fan, when you're watching, you feel a little bit more squeamish about those fourth downs that you've just waited five minutes before you finally realized, oh, it's fourth down. We didn't score a touchdown. To really answer your question, Kevin, I think you're right. Well, then I guess you didn't ask a question necessarily, but I think that running it there after a defensive reset is tough.

Just going for it is probably tough And maybe, you know, the run play or the quarterback sneak is the toughest. The other thing, too, is I like the quarterback sneaks or the runs from a different set. Not a, you know, hey, we're going to run it set or we're going to bootleg it to one player who will be out in the flat set. Spread the field and run it. And they run, they run Peyton Barber as an example, spreading the field shotgun. he's got pretty good vision in those situations. I may have done that.

Whatever. Hindsight's, you know, 50, 50, Spreier always said. But I didn't have a problem with them coming back and going for it because, you know, I had a feeling Dallas offensively was going to be in trouble yesterday with that offensive line. So having them start inside the one. It's funny, Kyle Allen fumbled the football, but they marked it forward progress stopped. So it could have been that Cowboys with the ball

at the two-yard line or three-yard line after the fumble recovery, but they had the forward progress stop just short of the goal line. And then, of course, promptly, they jumped off sides and gave the Cowboys the ball at the six-yard line to start.

But anyway, it worked out. I mean, they got a fumble. Or they got a safety of the next possession. That possession, yeah. Yeah, exactly the next one. A couple more things quickly. I thought Logan Thomas was pretty good,

made some big plays in this game. Right. Terry, again, you know, the touchdown really, really good. But it wasn't that tough of a play. I mean, I don't know, Terry, Terry's a playmaker. A couple that is just, I told you I don't get the game live. Yeah. I actually am just going to go next week and, or in two weeks and just watch it at the bar.

Get lunch, breakfast, whatever. but I listened I listened to it on the broadcast on your station before you watched it you mean yeah I listened to the game in real time okay I thought about watching the Steelers Titans game but I saw the score and I just I listened to it my next it was the go for two yeah I just don't know why you go like I didn't feel like they needed to go for two

there no but Julie Donaldson and I love Julie says you know, one of these important situations, they're going to get it one of these times in an important situation. I was like, yeah, last week was one of those. Remember when they lost the game because they didn't get it one week ago and think where they would be right now if they had won that game? Right. Maybe winning the division. I actually, I thought Bram, I think Bram does a pretty nice job. I don't know if you've listened to the game.

I haven't listened a lot, but, you know, I'm rooting for him to do well. And I figured DeAngelo would be pretty good at this. Yeah, I think DeAngelo will grow into it, and he'll learn. And just like, I mean, everybody has a style and everybody has something different and brings something different. And there are certain things that I love about DeAngelo, and there's certain things that I think he's going to get better at. But I thought it was a listenable broadcast.

I enjoyed following the game that way. And I think Bram does a very nice job. So Bram, keep it going, buddy. I've been impressed with Bram. One thing I, and this isn't just really the game in general, but this is kind of the team so far coming out of that camp, and it came up on the broadcast enough that my wife mentioned it. They keep talking about everyone in the media

saying something about some position or some player. It keeps being, getting to listen to the noise. These media people have been saying this stuff. Shut up. about the media. Shut up. Fucking bad about you. You were at the time,

one in five, a stink team. What do you expect? I know. It's just, the noises deserved. Totally drives me crazy. They weren't good enough.

So, drives me crazy that they hear it. He just keeps coming up and coming up and coming up. And Ron says it and everybody out there says it. Dwayne was saying it. And on the broadcast, they're talking about the media. Like,

you suck. They didn't suck yesterday. But just a, Just a thought in general is. Well, the best way to acknowledge bad media is to not acknowledge it. I just want to act like you don't hear the noise. Don't mention the noise.

Or combat it. Look, I used to say this to you all the time. I mean, and I felt the same way about Mike and I love Mike. Mike thought that this was a tough media market. Well, that's because he had come from Denver. Jay thought this was a tough media. market, that's because he was in Cincinnati. You know, Ron might think this is a tough media market.

That's because he's coming from Charlotte. Like, it just isn't, you know, compared to legitimate tough sports media markets. I'm not talking about other news-related things. Look, the football team is scrutinized, heavily scrutinized. There's a lot of conversation about the football team in this town more than any other team. It's been that way for a long, long time. And the football team has been terrible. for 20 years.

And so you're going to get even in the nice places like Denver and Cincinnati and Charlotte. If Mike's teams had sucked in Denver, he would have been even ripped in Denver. Same thing in Cincinnati or Charlotte. Bottom line is, you're right, stop acknowledging media and noise if you're in that organization. Okay. Stop acknowledging the criticism and the scrutiny and, you know, we're being unfairly criticized. and it's a tough media. Just go out and play and win and get better.

And then by the way, and I've said this to you many, many times over the years. There is no town. Well, I don't know if it's this way anymore because I think the fan base really has been diminished significantly and even the potential fan base. But there certainly was a time recently. If the team had done really well and won, you would have never, ever seen a reaction from a town like this one. I don't know if that's the case anymore.

I think the owner has done such damage to this sports town, the football part of this sports town, the Skins fan-based portion of this sports town, that it's borderline irreparable. A lot of it is irreparable. Some people will be back when and if they win. Some people will never ever want to have anything to do with this franchise as long as he owns it. I know a lot of those people, and so do you. and so, but there certainly was a time five years ago, 10 years ago, where if this team had ever won and one big, you wouldn't have believed what the reaction would have been. I live through it.

Many of you listening know what this place in this city was a much different city back then. It didn't have nearly the same number of people. It didn't have the same number of sports fans. It didn't have a lot of what it has now. But anyway, I agree with you. Shut up. stop acknowledging, you know, bad criticism and understand that if you were in Philly or New York, if you were in Philly, you'd need 24-hour security some of the people that have coached, and certainly owned the team over the last 20 years. This is an easy-peasy media market. What else do you have before I get to my game?

Oh, can I have kick or make a kick? Jesus, got it. They probably need to start thinking about going in a different direction here. It's bi-week. They should bring some kickers in. They need to bring some kickers in. I like him a lot. Hopkins is one of my favorite dudes, but you can't be 60% on the year and keep a job. It doesn't happen in the NFL.

The number you have to be above to really keep a job is 80%. You need to be 80% or better as a good kicker. That's the number, no less. Totally agree with you. I'm looking at the percentages right now. He is 30th among 32 kickers in field goal percentage. He's missed four. He's 8 of 12.

He has none blocked. Gostkowski, yeah, none of them have been blocked. Missed one at the gun to force overtime yesterday. He's 10 for 16, 62 and a percent dead last. There are five kickers right now in the NFL that are 100 percent. And the top half of the league is basically. basically at 88% or higher. And your guy, Dustin, is at 66.7%.

I've said about Hopkins many times over the years. I love the way the ball explodes off his foot. I love his kick-offs, and I think he's got so much potential to be a great kicker. But he's missed so many big kicks for this team. You know, they could be three and four if he hadn't missed a kick last week. They would have been in the postseason in 2016 had he, you know, made the kick in London. made one of, you know, at least one of the two kicks in Dallas, the kick in Detroit. Like, he's missed some big, important kicks, and some of them have been indoors.

You know, they haven't been like that. Yesterday, it wasn't great weather, but, you know, you got to be able to kick in that. It was a 44-yarder he missed. Come on, dude. A 44-yarder is basically, you know, it's seven yards longer than the extra point now. You got to be able to, you've got to make that kick, period. All right. Are we ready for my game take?

I'm ready for your game take. All right, let's do it right after a word from one of our sponsors. Pay attention. He's Kevin's Game Take. All right. I'll list of things I like, didn't like, and then I do want to spend a little bit more time on Kyle Allen in particular. Some of this will be repetitive.

I'll try not to be repetitive from you. First of all, what I liked was, as somebody who went out on a limb last Monday and said Washington's going to be Dallas and then really emphasized it late in the week, including on the podcast. I was glad that the team that I was hoping they would face showed up because I just had a feeling Dallas was turning into a really bad football team and that Washington still had a little bit of fight and that they were coming off

their most competent performance of the year against the Giants. And so, you know, Dallas just looked completely dead coming in and they're more dead leaving. They looked disinterested at times. CD Lamb didn't have a catch. He should have had three. They just are too banged up, and then they got the backup quarterback, and they got a terrible defensive coordinator, and they're, you know, they're sniping at each other, and there's press leaks. It's all the stuff that we've been as a franchise they've got going on right now. And clearly, Mike McCarthy has not been able to save it. You know, Ron Rivera, give him credit, he's been able to keep his team in it. So I was glad that team showed up.

I swear to you Cooley, at two to nothing, I so wanted, I just was superstitious about it, I so wanted to tweet out, it's over, because I really felt on that first offensive possession for Dallas that resulted in the safety, I thought it was over. I didn't think they had a chance, and I thought the team that I was expecting to show up looked like that team. By the way, I bet a ton on Washington at a pickum yesterday. I also had Houston, which was not so good. Third down offense, let's just talk about the third down.

offense. So, you know, they were 32nd dead last in third down defense two weeks ago. Like, it wasn't even close. Like, they were three, I think they were, they were three percentage points worse than the Jets were 31st, I think. They have moved up in two weeks from 32nd to 27th. That's a big jump. Like, they've gone from 29.9% to now 38.1%. And they're actually starting to approach into the, you know, low 20s in 20s. terms of third down offense. Why? Because of Kyle Allen more than anything else. I mean, they were 8 for 15 last week on third down. They were 9 for 15 yesterday. They're 17 to 30 the last two weeks. That would be good for first in the league at 56.6%. They have played two poor

opponents, okay? I understand that. And that is one of the reasons that they are doing so well. But the other reason is clearly the quarterback's decision-making, he's decisive, and his playmaking ability. You know, it's not like yesterday all of them were third and shorts either. They converted four third downs of third and six or longer. And as we know, you convert on third down, you score more, you possess the ball more, you punt less. There were only two punch yesterday. There was only one last week. And I think if yesterday had been a more competitive game, they wouldn't have punted at all. They had six. One of those punch was awesome, by the way. The one that just died on the three. Yeah, at the three, exactly. Zero. Zero.

three and outs yesterday after one last week. Look, the bottom line is, you know, they are competent offensively, mostly because the quarterback changed and the quarterback is better. And I was a Dwayne hopeful, you know, I was a Dwayne encouraged by guy. It's just not even close, and we shouldn't act like it's close either. I think I already said this, but if you really are still looking at this and coming up with excuses as to why Kyle Allen has looked better and you don't think he really is or that the offense isn't more professional. You're either blind or you have an agenda, period. It's much better. I also love their bunch sets. I'm surprised you didn't mention that. They really seemed to confuse Dallas with some of those bunch sets with a bunch of guys

that haven't played a lot of snaps. You know, Cam Sims being one of those guys. I love love that they ran the football. You mentioned that. I think the key yesterday, like, I was listening after my show to Doc and Galdi for a little while, and Doc's like, well, this is who they have to be. And I thought, it's not going to be who they are. They ran the ball and they intended to run the ball for the first time this year because of the defense they were facing, one of the worst rush defenses in the league. Everybody had run the football in Dallas, and they felt like this was an opportunity to really run it. They came out on the first snap of the game with a statement intending to run the ball with Peyton Barber in the backfield.

And so they ran it for 208 yards on 39 carries over 5.3 yards per carry. They had an intention to run the football, I think, for the first time this year. But I think it's as much because of who they were playing. It opened up all of the play action stuff for the first time this year. Cooley, you'll be able to talk more about that. But it looked to me like they ran power stuff. They ran zone stuff. They had some RPO in there as well.

We mentioned some of that twists, the twist to the running game on the Gibson 40-yarder. By the way, one quick thought. Look at the run before the 40-yard run. I thought that was the perfect example of what you've given of Gibson not pressing the edge. He turned it up way too early on the play right before the 40-yard run. And to me, it looked like a run in which he should have gotten to the outside and gotten big yardage. But anyway, really good job by the backs, by the offensive line against a really bad run-stopping team. But they went out there and they made a statement that they wanted to run the ball and then everything worked off of it.

You know, just sorry to interject. Again, I listen to the team broadcast. And it's interesting because a lot of times, and we did too, you have different information or have more information. And they talked multiple times about coaches saying Gibson's going to be really good. We're doing too much with him. He's seeing too much. We keep seeing these sparks. And so we add to it, but we got to continue to limit for him.

You know, you see him do some things, and you're like, let's build on that. But they talked about that multiple times. And so you could definitely tell it Turner, Ron, whoever, Randy, is insane? Like, this kid's going to be good, but there's so much going on his head right now. Right. I, Cooley, the next thing on my list is, look, Gibson was really good, and it was the biggest day of the year for him. But I still, and I agree with you on this, McKissick is the guy that, to me, deserves more touches. McKissick has quicker feet and much better vision.

And look, Gibson's got some power to him that I didn't realize he had before the year started coming out of Memphis. I liked some of that power. He falls forward. I mean, he pushes the pile. I liked them both. I thought Barbara was good. I thought Barbara pass blocked well yesterday. But, um...

I read 10 carries. What'd you say? I said, it's interesting that Barbara had double the carries that McKissick had. Yeah, but I like McKissick a lot. I mean, I really do. You do. McClorn's just exceptional. Logan Thomas was on my list of things.

that I liked. You know, there was that 50-50 ball that I think you mentioned, which I don't, you know, it's interesting. I'm going to get to Kyle Allen here in a moment. But Logan Thomas made the catch on that. Obviously, and you started with this or it was one of your first things, the defensive front, you know, I had some discussion with somebody who called in today on the radio show and they said, look, do you know who they had their sacks against Sheehan? Philadelphia's offensive line was decimated, Dallas's was. I'm like, don't look at the sacks. Watch the play. they're really good up front. And even in these games where they haven't gotten sacks,

it's in part because the complimentary football wasn't there. There wasn't an offense. They were on the field for too long. The Rams died, you know, it shredded them. You know, that's the one game you look at and you say, whoa, they were really not very good in that game, especially in the first half. But my God, if you can't be optimistic,

if you're looking for one thing to be optimistic about, It is young, pain, Allen, sweat, ionitis when he comes back next year. That is a front four right now. No exaggeration, and I watch the league. That's a top 10 defensive front right now. I mean, maybe top 12 worst case. But with the potential a year from now and two years from now to be elite, those are elite talents up front.

they have drafted very well up front. And Dallas was a mess, of course. They were super compromised because of injury. Of course, I'm not going nuts over one game over Dallas six sacks. That's not what I'm excited about. I've been excited about it all year long. And yesterday, how many times in recent years have they played a bad team that was hurt? And then you were like on Monday, oh my God, they can't even beat them.

They can't even stop the run against them. They can't even get pressure against them. Well, they did. They dominated against every thing that Dallas wanted to do. Dallas's biggest play of the game yesterday was a kickoff return, period. They had an offensive day that wasn't as bad as the second half with Alex Smith a couple of weeks ago, but was pretty, they were thoroughly thrashed and dominated. Cole Holcomb's on the list of things I like.

And I mentioned, I think on the radio show on Friday, that you had said, about Holcomb that it's not even close. He's their best linebacker. And I was, as I'm watching the game yesterday, I'm like, you know, cool, he's right again about something else. What's really, the speed we knew we had, you know, I remember you talking in the offseason, you said he'll make a really good weakside linebacker

and a four or three because he can really run. And it's such a difference. Now, I think KPL can run too. And I like, and I like the way he really, finishes tackles. I think he's very aggressive. But Holcomb, you know, had, not only did he just blow up Zique on that sack, which was so good to see. The interception is a great athletic, you know, reaction to a deflected ball that stopped to drive it. You know, the Cowboys weren't going to get back into that game, but it would have given them a little bit of life had they scored anything at the end

of the half. But, you know, now you throw a young Holcomb maybe, you know, into the mix of pain. and Allen and sweat and young. And it's like, you know, you add a corner, you add a safety in the next couple of years. Look out defensively. What I didn't like from the game was some of the things you already mentioned. Dustin Hopkins, we've talked about that. The Bostic hit, although I did not think it was an intentional dirty hit. And what we talked about on the first drive of the game.

I mean, there wasn't a whole lot to dislike from the game other than that. Kyle Allen, here are a couple of thoughts. I want to start with this. Yesterday, he didn't turn the ball over, you know, so that's big. But he plays coolly. At sometimes, it's what I used to say about Bradley Beale. Like sometimes he's too casual. Sometimes, like, I think it was Randy Whitman who said he's too cool for school,

or somebody said that about Beale. I think sometimes he's got this kind of West Coast, very casual, cool, not really rattled. And there is the delay a game where he had no idea it was a delay a game. I thought the 50-50 ball that Logan Thomas caught was risky. There was a ball in the red zone that he threw into the end zone, willy-nilly that could have easily been picked. He fumbled on the quarterback sneak, even though his progress had been stopped.

He fumbled on another sack after he was ruled down, which was the right call. He does a lot of things well. Like he's decisive. He knows what's going on. You can see it. The third down stuff, he's not only able to convert, but he's able to convert in multiple ways with quick thinking, decisive throws, or with extending the play and either, as you said, throwing after he extends or using his legs. He had that 13-yard run on that third and nine. I also think he's really good at avoiding big losses at times.

I thought twice yesterday he avoided sacks and got out of there and was able to throw the ball away. The thing that I'm convinced of is, number one, they're a hell of a lot better. They made the right decision, clearly. They're not going to give Duane another chance. So for those of you that want Dwayne to get another chance, which I wanted to, it's just not going to happen. Okay, it's not going to happen. And we can talk about Dwayne getting fine for having the guests in his room. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on there.

you know, and they don't want anything to do with him anymore. And what really angers me actually on some level is I really, I don't expect Alan to be the savior long term. I don't expect him to be the franchise quarterback. If he gets the turnover thing fixed, he's going to be in this league for a long time, either as a backup or as an occasional starter or maybe as a starter. He's going to be in the league a long time if he gets the turnover thing because he can do some things. but what makes me upset is that they knew this. They knew this from the jump.

And like I said, what were we wasting our time with? They should have gone to Dan and made it very clear. Sorry, we're playing this guy, period. And maybe if they had had a training camp or real training camp, it would have revealed itself so obviously that they could have done that. But, you know, the bottom line is, is the first five games of the year were sort of a waste of time from their standpoint. Because they knew Cooley, they knew it would be much better with Allen. I don't think there's any doubt that they knew it would be more professional with Allen.

Again, I don't think they are convinced he's the savior, that he's the franchise guy. I'm certainly not. You're not. And I think there are going to be several Mondays where we come in here and we're like, I mean, Kyle threw three picks, got hit backside and fumbled against the Steelers, and it was just ugly. But there are going to be days when we come in like today and say, or even last week and say, yeah, the offense is competent. Like it's a competent offense. But again, to repeat, if you don't think things are better with him, you're seriously not being honest with yourself.

I've had several people just blame it on the opponents, and the opponents have been terrible the last two weeks. Kyle Allen's been much better running this offense, and he should be. By the way, another observation. Tell me if I'm right. You know how you had said, and they actually did, they went more hurry up at times with Dwayne, you know, keep the playbook limited, keep the same defensive personnel on the field, and they did that. And they were trying to do everything they could to help Dwayne. they don't need to do that with him with Kyle Allen.

Clearly the playbook is wide open with him. They feel totally comfortable with him. And by the way, it shouldn't be a surprise. He knows the offense. He was in it for a year. He was in it for a year. 100%. And look, I said this and people take huge offense to this.

And I understand why. He said it was a high school offense. I said there could be multiple reasons. Right, starting to look like the reason was that was all the quarterback had as a capacity to operate in. It's unfortunate. I think that there is, Dwayne, if he was given four years of continuing to grow and started to do it the right way, would eventually have more potential than Kyle Allen. It's just not what it was. It is more open.

The thing, the only thing that concerns with Kyle Allen is, I think, I think, while I think he moves well in the pocket, a lot of times I don't think he has to. Right. I think he flushes too easily. Okay. But I think. Moose Johnston pointed that out on one of one. I mean, there's a play where Inman's wide open and he's running and you're like, all right.

I mean, go make a play. Last week on the fourth down play, you're like, where are you running? Got a guy wide open in front of your face. He ends up converting. That was on a throw to Inman. But that'd be the one thing from Allen. the thing is is a lot of these flushes and scrambles, it's not what you want per se or the way you drew it up.

But there are times where he's making a play. He's got some playmaking ability to him. He does. Do you, what do you make of my observation that he, and I'm telling you, you see this like Josh Rosen was sort of this way to a certain degree. there is the West Coast laid back a little bit too casual at times. Do you see that or not?

Well, he backed up Cam Newton, the most casual of casual, for a year. He's got to shake himself of that. Yeah, you see more of a smile and grin than you do, you know, that killer instinct in his eye. I see a gamer. I see a competitor. I haven't. I just don't. I see a guy that sometimes, like, you know, after that run, like he winks at the camera,

I think he's, put it this way, I think he's very confident in himself, which is good. I don't mind that at all. But I see willy-nilly throws at times, and it's like, no, no, no, no, please don't do that one. And that's why he's had some turnovers, you know. Don't do that one. We're going to have days where he's turned the ball over three times in the game. go back and watch all the Carolina games. I went back and watched four or five of them.

There's some willy-nilly in him. Yeah, there's some willy-nilly. And there's at times some throwing hope. And there's some throwing hope. That's one thing of young quarterbacks, a lot of young quarterbacks end up having that. I mean, that's one thing you hope your quarterback grows out of a little bit. There's just a little of it, but there's some throwing hope.

I definitely do not want to see. Look, if the season, if they got to two in 10 and Dwayne was still on the roster, start Dwayne in the final four games. That's fine. But at this point, that's not going to happen. They want to move on. We're just going to have to accept that. I can accept now very clearly that they knew that Kyle Allen was better for now. Doesn't mean necessarily he would have been better for the long term. And it doesn't mean that Dwayne wouldn't have continued to improve had he kept playing. But I think that they were seeing things during the week that were leading them to believe that the improvement wasn't going to come.

Well, they might have been seeing it during the week. I was seeing it in the game. You were seeing what in the game? I was seeing no growth. Yeah, no, I understand that. And I'm just saying like... So either way, when you see both a little in the week and no... growth week to week. It's not a hard decision.

Just, you know, Kyle, if they've moved on from Dwayne, I think they have. Kyle Allen for the final nine games, and it would not surprise me if they go three and six, four and five, and if there's like a big game or two coming up here over the next month in terms of the standings, I don't think they're a good football team at all. But I think they will be more than capable in several of the remaining games of, you know, hanging in there with a chance. You know, there's that stretch, and I hate playing the schedule game because it's stupid, because the Steelers or the 49ers or the Seahawks or the Panthers.

They play those four teams in a row starting in December. My God, what a December lineup. Steelers, Niners, Seahawks, and then a Panthers team that's pretty good, even though they lost again yesterday, and they're three and four. And so you've got, you know, I mean, they could play the 49ers and they could be on their fifth quarterback at that point. Who knows? But these next four, Giants, Lions, Bengals, Cowboys,

they might be favored over the Giants in two weeks. They won't be favored at Detroit. It's possible they could be favored against the Bengals and the Cowboys. They were favored yesterday. The line was really funky yesterday. I woke up yesterday. Washington was minus one. Then it went to Dallas minus one.

then it went back to pick them, then to Washington minus one, and then right before kickoff, it went to Dallas minus one. So there was a lot of activity on the game, and I think a lot of guessing on what Dallas was going to come with, and anybody that guessed that they were going to come with, you know, some fight were wrong because they're done. But anyway, there was one other, actually two other quick things. I thought Danny Johnson did a really good job on returns. I think on a day like yesterday, it is tough and here.

He fielded every single punt, and some of those punts were short punts, which are always the harder punt to get up and field without letting it bounce. And I thought that, you know, I think he had two or three fair catches on punts, maybe more than that. And I thought he did a really competent job on that. So I wanted to mention that. He also had a decent kickoff return in the game. One of them, anyway, was decent.

Tressway's become a lot less busy the last two weeks than he was there for the first several games of the year. I didn't like the two-point conversion either, too, just to add to that. It should have, I mean, it's too early to go for two. They should have got it, but. It's just too early to play the 0173s better than 16 to 3. It's way too early. There are two and a half quarters left in the game. There are going to be so many drives, so many different scoring operations.

opportunities and scoring types. You don't know how it's going to fall in the number at that point. And, you know, unless they were just absolutely convinced that Dallas couldn't stop them, but they did stop them. So they didn't, you know, the play didn't work. And it ended up being 15 to 3 instead of 16 to 3. I want to play the Terry McLaren sound for those that haven't heard it. Cooley's heard it. I've heard it. We're going to play that here. After the game, Ron Rivera, you'll hear Rivera's voice first, ask if there's anybody that wants to speak, and Terry McCorns stands up and talks to the team. Anybody got anything?

I know I'm still a young guy and the captain of nothing, but the way we came out this week, it was better than last week. I thought we deserved to win last week the way we came out in practice. That was complimentary football from the offense to the defense to the special teams, man. That's what they feel this. Enjoy this shit right now because that's what we can build on. Now we're right in the thick of it. So we're going to take this week off, take care of yourself, take care of each other,

take care of your bodies, man, because we're right in the middle of everything that we want. So I just had to say that, man, and let's come back to even stronger after this by-week. Team one three, one, two, three. He's been really impressive since day one, Cooley. Terry McLaurin has. You got a chance to be around him a little bit last year. I also heard him talk on two post-game interviews yesterday, one on our station, and one, I think was the network.

I forget where I heard the other one. He talked about how good practice was and how the ball never hit the ground in practice and how that's a big emphasis. I thought that was interesting to hear him talk about. But this is a guy that just really seems to have his act together as a young player and then has the talent to back it up. But I think you saw something yesterday.

I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but I think that it's clear that they have not given up and that they believe in the staff at this point to a certain degree. What would you say about McLaurin speech? I absolutely agree. I thought the McLaurin speech was great. I told you, after I watched it, I said the smile on his face is hysterical. If I didn't know Terry wasn't very good at that, it was almost, if you watch it on TV,

he finishes the speech, everyone kind of cheers. And then I think he looks at Ron. You can't see exactly what he looks, but he's almost got this smile like, I did a good job, didn't I coach? Yeah. But that said, if I didn't know what Terry was, I really would have believed that. But honestly, I think a big part of drafting Terry McLauran was some of the stuff they watched from the Ohio State locker rooms. Right.

I don't know if you can find that anywhere. I've seen it. He was the team leader. He was the team captain. In the, well, what was the Redskins, but in the Washington facility, some of the things that he did as a leader, the way he talked to the team and addressed the team at Ohio State, were I think a big part of why they drafted Terry McLaurin where they did. Right. They said, there's a lot to Terry as a true leader. Now, I've been around Terry enough to know that there are a lot of times where he's quiet. But when he talks, it's impactful.

and it was that way of Ohio State. Do you remember training camp last year and all of the discussion about McLorne? Because remember, they drafted him in the third round and there was some talk early on, look, he's going to be a really good special teams player. He's going to be an excellent special teams player and people are really excited about him as a special teams player.

And then training camp started and you started to hear, oh, no, no, no, McLaurin's going to be their guy. like he's going to be their go-to guy in this offense with Case Keenham if it's Keenham and there was all this talk and then there was nothing in any of the preseason games that would indicate that and then the opener the only good game they played all year last year was the opener against the Eagles and he you know has a 70-yard touchdown catch for a touchdown goes for over 100 yards and receptions and you know for that another one where they missed him where he I got him over from deep where he's wide open. Keenham overthrew him on another one that would have been. That's right. It would have been a huge play. Oh, yeah. Look, they were up 20 to 10 at halftime in that game.

I think it was, 20 to 10. That was the best half of football they played all year, until the very end of the year when they played the Giants and the Eagles. And a lot of it was just McLorn. And remember, Deshawn Jackson completely changed that game. He was the game changer in that game. Deshawn Jackson went. I think both of the throws, I don't know why we're talking about this.

I don't either. It's McClorn. Third and Longs. They were like third in 20 and third and 12. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. I mean, I want to see this team continue to grow. I want to see the culture change.

I want to see them continue to believe in the head coach. The reason I liked him is I thought he was tough, disciplined. You know, there was this really good story over the weekend that Kime wrote off of the presser on Friday where Rivera talked about everything he's been going through. It's really, I would urge people to read it if you haven't read it yet. It was on Friday that Kime wrote this story. And one of the, you know, we've been very nitpicky of his press conferences and critical of some of the decisions. And I'm not backing off any of those.

But, you know, he talked about the side effects of the treatment that he's been going through. and the fatigue that he's feeling and the nausea and the vertigo and the equilibrium being off and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon being completely exhausted when he's used to working until 10, 30, or 11 at night every day. And you can just see this guy's in a battle right now, you know, and yet he's shown up for work, and I think maybe some of these players are seeing this too, and there's an appreciation for that and a desire. to play for that. Now, to me, it makes me think coolly, look, I know that I'm not in a position to tell

them what to do or don't do. I'm not as doctor. Neither one of us is. But it is a professional football outfit that's being run here. And the bottom line is the first five, six weeks have been a little bit disjointed because in part, the coach has been disjointed because he's battling cancer and he's going through these treatments and, you know, he's fatigued and he's vertigoed and he's not And he's really got a lot of, you know, side effects going on with this thing that he, that he detailed in this Kime story. But anyway, my point is that maybe somebody should have said, Ron, you know, come in every day and be busy and do whatever you need to do for your health.

But for right now, Jack's got to handle the team. You know, once you finish this treatment, you're back, you know, and you can be here and you can address the team, but this is, you know, this is Jack's team right now. By the way, he wasn't going to address the media today either because he gets his final chemo treatment today. But I don't know, I feel for him and his family and, of course, wishing him the best, but I think a lot of what we've seen over the first five, six weeks can be summed up with he hasn't been right physically, clearly. He's been going through a lot. Anyway. Anyway. Let's go around the NFL, talk about one of the craziest games of the year from last night

and another ridiculous ending for the Atlanta Falcons. We'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. All right, let's go around the NFL. And let's start with the game last night, really the Seattle-Harizona game, which had a play in the game. For those that haven't seen it, you can Google it after you're done listening today.

rest of the podcast. But an interception by Russell Wilson in the red zone at the goal line that gets picked off by Buda Baker, who starts to run basically 100 yards towards the end zone, has a 15-yard start on anybody, and D.K. Metcalf chases him down and makes a tackle at the 10-yard line. That is one of the great plays that you'll see all year long. So much reminiscent for Washington fans of Daryl Green's famous first game where he chased down Tony Dorset from like 30 yards behind Dorset and caught him at the five-yard line in the season opener in 1983. It was Daryl Green's first game as a rookie. And it's one of the famous plays in franchise history.

He also did the same thing to Eric Dickerson. But my God, D.K. Metcalfe. What a player he has become. That play was amazing. It was so awesome. I think Buda Baker said that's the first time he's ever been hawked down. Buda Baker can run. Yeah.

He's a hell of a play by Buda Baker too. He's a good player, man. Really good player. D.K. Metcalf, Buddha is about the two-yard line where he picks it and he's dead sprint. He picks it in a dead sprint. Metcalf never even hesitates. He's running a crossing route and he just sticks his foot in the ground. He's like, here we go.

And to see him open his stride the way he did, I mean, I got one. through the eyes of the child and an all new version of the absolute ability to run. And everyone knows that about D.K. Metcalf. That was never a hidden. That was never a secret. It is so much. I watched it seven times this morning. It's amazing. It's the number one highlight on NFL.com.

It's the play of the year so far. And just so everybody understands, and this is where the analytic stuff drive me crazy. The Cardinals didn't score. They had it first in goal at the 10-yard line. And after he ran them, down, they decided to go for a fourth and goal from the three in a 13-7 game in the second

quarter. And they, you know, Kyler Marie gets chased around and he's going backwards and he just heaves it into the end zone incomplete. So they didn't even get any points off of it. So what should? If you're a defense, like your defense comes out on the field after that play, and there's got to be, there's got to be a player's only meeting before you go back out of the building. This is, if we're going to hold anybody anywhere at any time, this is the time.

That dude makes that play. I mean, we're going to stop them. It was really... Awesome, man. So awesome. Such a great play. It was really an incredible game. There were a couple of things about this game that were amazing.

Number one, it's the first time in NFL history that two quarterbacks in the same game have thrown for 300 yards and rushed for 50 or more. Russell Wilson threw for 388 and rushed for 84 yards. And Kyler Murray threw for 360 and rushed for 50 or more. for 67 yards. Now, the big difference in the game and the reason the Cardinals won the game is that the leading candidate to be the MVP in the league, Russell Wilson, through the first five games of the year, through three interceptions.

Three interceptions. I mean, this season, he had only thrown two, I think, coming into the game. Two was the most that he had thrown in any game. In 2019, he didn't throw more than one the entire season in 2019. In the 2018 regular season, he threw two interceptions only once. In 2017, it was the last time he threw three interceptions in a game against Jacksonville in 2017. Jacksonville's defense was excellent that year. He threw three, including a backbreaker in overtime to Isaiah Simmons.

interestingly enough. And that set up what turned out to be Zane Gonzalez's redemption, because he missed the field goal early in overtime and then kicked a 48 yarder to win it. Although he did make a goal at the end of regulation. End of regulation made. Then he missed one in overtime, and then he made one in overtime. So he had quite the finish. It was just a great football game. My couple thoughts from this game. Tyler Lockett's awesome. Cooley, he was one of my guys in that draft. You and I were not

I don't think we were doing a show together in 2015. I forget if we were or weren't. I don't think we were. I think that was, we were not. And one of my guys in the 2015 draft, I loved Lockett and I loved Diggs. Diggs and Lockett were the two guys that I loved. And we took Crowder.

The stat line for Tyler Lockett in this game is unbelievable. They must have a matchup they liked. Tyler Lockett had 20 targets. My God, was it 20? 20. He had 15 receptions, 200 yards, 3 touchdowns. The next most targets to anybody was 5.

That was D.K. Metcalf. This isn't a game where Russell Wilson threw the ball 50 times. 50 times, 20 of them worth a Tyler Lockett. That's unbelievable. That's unbelievable. It's really rare that you see anybody get 20 targets.

Oh, my God. I don't think, I mean, I mean, Ben used to target Antonio Brown like 15 to 20, like it's 15 times a game. 20 targets in a game? That's unbelievable. And he caught 15 of them for 200 yards and three touchdowns. And a couple of them are big time highlight plays. Like he caught one.

It was a ball that, and I love this. Russell Wilson throws such a good deep bomb. He throws it straight up in the freaking air. But Lockett catches it in the end zone. Well, Patrick Peterson, he's splitting. between Peterson and I think, I don't know if it was but it's the other safety. Peterson gets his hand on his face mask, on Lockett's face mask, as the ball's coming into his chest. So the concentration to come down with that, one, the speed to run by Patrick Peterson right away, pretty incredible.

But then the concentration to catch that ball that's dropping out of the sky, that's amazing. My other thought from this game, Arizona's pretty good. Yeah. They have a lot of talent. Fitzgerald, Christian Kirk, Hopkins, Chase Edmonds was outstanding with some big runs in that ballgame. Kenyon Drake can play. He didn't have a huge impact. But, God, if Murray gets any better,

as far as accuracy. And look, he completed 70% in this game. They're really talented. As talented as anybody on offense. I mean, I like Isabella, he only had one catch in this game, but you got four big-time receivers for Arizona. You have two backs who can play, and Kyler and Murray is freak.

I mean, the touchdown run, he had on a little read option or whatever left. Can anybody tackle him? No. Makes me feel better on the play for we missed him, but nobody can tackle him. Yeah, he's really impossible. He can be inaccurate, though, throwing the ball. I don't think there's any doubt.

He was very accurate last night. Tyler Lockett, just as a quick aside, so my fantasy team isn't very good in the 980 league. I was playing Solly last night, and we went into the Sunday night game. He had one player left, and I had a four-point lead, and his one player was Tyler Long. Locket. So like, you know I never pay attention to this, but my team is terrible. So I really

tried to craft my roster this weekend and make some ads and subtractions. And so I did pay attention to where I was last night going into the game. And I've got a four point lead. I won last week. So maybe I win two in a row. I got a four point lead on Sully. And then I'm like, Tyler Lockett, well, I can't, I mean, unless he gets hurt, there's no way he's not going to get four points. He had 53 fantasy points last night. Fifty-three. He had 20 targets. I lost 166 to 115 to Sali because he had Tyler Lockett. And I had CD-Lam who produced zero points. But it wouldn't have mattered if I had put my whole bench together and put them in, the whole bench, and put them in for CD Lamb,

I still wouldn't have beaten what Tyler Lockett had in fantasy points last night. At least you turned it off pretty early. Well, at least the fantasy aspect of it. The fantasy aspect. I have a pickup for you when we get to another game. I watched a game and I'll tell you who I think you can get. There was a couple guys yesterday I was thinking about too,

so maybe we're on the same guy. So the next game I want to get to real quickly is Detroit and Atlanta because of the ending. Because there were two endings in football this. weekend that really were unfortunate because the team that should have won didn't win. First of all, I'll start before I get to Detroit, Atlanta with what happened Saturday night between Penn State and Indiana. I don't know how many people were watching this first big 10 weekend of the year. Penn State has come from behind. They've got a 21 to 20 lead over

Indiana, and they've got the ball late in regulation, and they, you know, the worst thing that can happen. Indiana has used their last timeout after a fourth and down, after a fourth down miss, they've got no timeouts left. Minute 42 to go. Penn State lines up to run, and I'm like, what are they doing? What are they doing? Actually, I think Indiana have one timeout left. Don't score. Whatever you do, do not score. Indiana is going to open it up and let you score here. It's a one-point game. They want to get it back down eight. And they hand the ball off to this guy, Devin Ford, who runs. And then at the very last second, you could see, try to, to make up his mind not to run into the end zone

because he picked up the first down, but he goes into the end zone, touchdown. Now, what's funny about that real quickly for you, Penn State fans that are listening, because I know there are some, I hear from you because I've got a son at Penn State. I know what everybody thinks of James Franklin's game management, clock management. He is horrible.

And right before that play, I was like, James Franklin will not know not to score. He will not know that Indiana is going to open it up and let them score here. And, Indiana is going to have a chance to tie the game with a minute 40 to go. And so the truth is you could see the running back at the very last second.

Remember not to score. So I think he told them not to score. But anyway, he did score. Indiana comes down the field, scores a touchdown, gets the two-point conversion, and wins the game in overtime. So Penn State was in a three-knee situation game over, and instead they lose an overtime. That brings us to Sunday.

It's a slightly different situation. It's Detroit and Atlanta. and no one's worth lost more ridiculous ways this year than the Atlanta Falcons. No one has. Going back to week two against the Cowboys where they blew the big lead and then they had that little squibbler of an onside kick recovered. They got a three-score lead on the Bears in the fourth quarter. It's just one game after another that they keep blowing.

Well, yesterday, their situation was as follows. They're down 16, 14 late. Was Detroit your play? No. Houston. Oh yeah, and I had Houston too. I had Houston and Washington in the pro. Smell test was actually a good seven and four this weekend. So Atlanta is in you know easy you know 10-yard line field goal range. Detroit shoes their last time out. Atlanta can take a knee and then kick like a you know less than 25-yard field goal to

win the game 17 to 16. And that's the play there. It's a little bit different because Penn State literally could knee out the game. You still have to execute the field goal to win the game, but what you don't want to do here is you don't want to score and give Detroit the only chance they have, which is down, you know, a point or down, you know, if you score the touchdown, down five points or six points, they went for two, and have a chance to come down and win the game.

The odds of missing a 25-yard field goal are like literally one in, you know, one in 10, you know, one in 100. I mean, it just doesn't happen. That's like a 98% conversion rate. So they hand the ball off to Todd Gurley, and Gurley's running to the end zone. Detroit's letting him score. And he's like, no, I don't want, oh, I'm in the end zone.

Touchdown. He tried to fall down. Remember, he did that several years ago and fell down before the end zone, and it was the right play. He gets in the end zone, and then here comes Detroit. They get the ball back down.

2216 and Matt Stafford throws a touchdown pass to T.J. Hawkinson on the final play at a game and the Lions win at 2322. It's crazy the way Atlanta's lost football games this year. Unbelievable. I mean, they should have three wins in addition to the win they had over Minnesota. They should be a four and three football team. Four and three. There's no doubt. I mean, this game, this was so funny. This was almost identical to what, 2017, when Kurt Cousins runs the zone read in, a little too early,

you give Matt Stafford the ball with the minute left. Right. But they needed a touchdown. I'm aware of that. But I mean, you give Matt Stafford the ball with a full minute left. Right. Nobody wants that Staford have the ball. The throw he makes the Gala Day to get down to like the 10-yard line.

It's unbelievable. Yeah. And then they're hurrying up to clock it. And did you see Kerry on Johnson come in and slip right behind? Yeah. It was amazing. I mean, it's an amazing, amazing drive by Detroit. Stafford can do that.

But yeah, I feel bad because Gurley was trying to go down. He breaks through the line of scrimmage and you can see him. He crosses the ball crosses the plane by no more than six inches. No more than six inches. Yeah, I know. I mean, it wasn't a dumb play. He was trying to make the right play. Yeah, terrible.

terrible loss for Atlanta. By the way, one quick thing about the Penn State game, because I forgot this from the end of the game. So Penn State gets the ball back, you know, after Indiana scores. And Indiana tries like a little squib thing. And Penn State's got it in field goal range at the end of regulation. Like, you know, in a tie game at that point at 2828. And I'm telling you, this dude, Franklin, is so bad at this stuff, Cooley.

It's amazing to me. We talk about it all the time. He's so bad at this. But they have a second in inches at the Indiana 40-yard line with eight seconds left, okay? The clock stops after first downs in college. Penn State doesn't have any timeouts left, but that's a 57-yard field goal that his kicker cannot kick. And instead of lining it up and running the ball for three or four yards to improve, your field goal range, clocking it, which you would do because the clock would stop,

and you'd have the chance to clock it, and then send him out there to kick like a 52-yarder. Instead, he sends his guy out there to kick a 57-yarder on second-in-one. It was second in inches. And, you know, predictably, it's not even close. Like it misses and the game goes to overtime and they lose. I just, I don't understand how some of these guys are, they just don't understand this. this stuff. And I know that some of you out there roll your eyes and like, oh,

like you would be able to do it better or like, you know, how do you know all the information? I don't know. I'm just watching the game. I'm watching the game and it's second in inches and in college the clock stops after a first down. Run the ball for a couple yards, improve your field goal range,

clock it and have your guy kick a 52 yarder or a 53 yarder instead of a 57 or 58 yarder that he can't make. But anyway, what do I know? The other games from the league yesterday that were really very exciting, the Pittsburgh Tennessee game, man. Look, the Steelers are for real. I think the Titans are good, too.

The only reason the Titans were back into that game after trailing by 20s, Ben kept throwing picks. You know, he's so good, but he threw three picks. Does anybody throw a back shoulder to a guy in the middle of the field, coolly with a defender's back turned more than Rathlisberger? and one of them got picked in the end zone because it got deflected up into the air and the safety came over and picked it off. I don't think I see anybody throw that 50-50 back shoulder in the middle of the field

more than he does. The guys that I can think of, Drew Breeze is a guy that it's not as much now, but when he had Jimmy Graham, it was always those back shoulder throws in the middle of the field. There was a few years where nobody ran Burt's better, and it was because of Brees's accuracy. Brady does it. Brady's really good. All the throws to Edelman back shoulder in the middle of the field. Grunk when he was there.

Aaron Rogers can do it and does it quite a bit. It's one of those throws where you get anyone kind of man to man. Even if you have too high safeties or something, you're too man. And it's such a impactful throw. But yeah, Ben's really good. You know, I watched this game and I watched the end of it as I was listening to our game. They threw three. he threw three picks one was a tip ball at the line of scrimmage another one was one that was

batted up in the air or by his guy so really and the last one was still a tip pick he threw three picks all three picks were flukish good ball flukeish they were not real picks you know the thing especially as they started the game they go at 14 zero they were six for their first six and third downs wow and two the last two were like third and 10 pluses They were 13 of 18. And he's really, he's got this, he feels comfortable with these weird flips and weird tosses. He's, I like Ben. He was good in this game.

The picks, I, I'm not holding any of the picks really against Ben. 13 of 18 on third down they were. They dominated time of possession 36 to 23, which by the way, Washington did. We didn't mention that second straight week. They've dominated time of possession. That's interesting. Like when you started ripping off those other quarterbacks, I totally. Totally pictured it. Same thing. You know, it's also interesting. Like even Matt Ryan when he had, when he's had really good tight ends, I think it's more tight ends in the middle of the field back shoulder against guys like linebackers that maybe the quarterbacks don't fear as much.

Well, I mean, to that point, a coaching point I always remember for the quarterback, and I mentioned two men, was that if you get split safeties and that linebacker runs with me, put it on my back shoulder and let me go up and get it. Right. Let me open my hips and rotate because he can't make a play on that ball. So your worst case should be an incompletion. That said, when you do have split safeties and someone backs that ball up in the air, someone's there to make a play on the ball.

Pittsburgh's, I was impressed by Tannahill late in this game by Tennessee's resilience. I mean, they missed a kick to tie it. They should have tied it up. But I'm so impressed by Pittsburgh's defense. Oh, man. To hold Derek Henry to 75 yards and under four yards of carry is really hard to do. And to hold Tannenhill to 60% completions with some of their run action stuff and some of the easy throws that that that creates is hard to do.

And they have guys, they got dudes on that defense that can make plays. I mean, God, they're just... I'm so glad. Aiding's awesome. Fitzpatrick's a really good player. Up front, they're outstanding. T.J. Watt is just relentless. Pittsburgh's really tough.

The kid from Virginia Tech, the really young kid, Edmonds is really developing into a good player. Really good player. I'm so glad that the skins don't play this coming Sunday because it's Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and it's one o'clock. And that is just, you get Pittsburgh Baltimore twice over the next month. You get them this coming Sunday and you get them Thanksgiving night, Raven Steelers. And these are going to be, this is going to make it. I mean, I know the fans can't come to the games and that sucks because the intensity of some of those games over the years has been so good. But, man, Pittsburgh, you're right.

I mean, what says it all is what we thought, and that is defensively, they may be the best defensive team in football. And to hold Tennessee to 3.6 yards per carry for the game is just, you know, says it all. I mean, they held that team to 292 yards of total offense. So that's really, now keep in mind, Tennessee's had a tough stretch here. Oh, brutal. Nobody's had a brutal stretch. but Houston's had the all-time most brutal schedule. Chiefs Ravens Steelers, well, they had Vikings Jags, but, you know,

then Titans Packers. I mean, six of their first eight games. But, yeah, Tennessee's had quite the stretch. It's just their stretch and the timing of the games that have had to be quite. No practices, game on Tuesday, next game on Sunday. Right. The turnaround to some of Tennessee stuff has been really, really tough. It'd be hard to be healthy and hard to be healthy and hard to.

play that way and they just played one of the best three teams in the NFL right now and they're they were resilient in that game. Rabel's a good coach really good coach and he's you know he's got your boy Arthur Smith is the offensive coordinator how about the Patriots losing the in the worst way during the Belichick era in Foxborough 33 to 6 they had never been beaten worse at home during the Belichick era in New England and it was really interesting because I did watch this game this was the CBS game here locally and I was back and forth between that in the red zone because I wanted to watch the snow game. It wasn't that much snow in Denver during the game.

But anyway, San Francisco, the way they can run the football, I mean, and the people they put in there, like this guy, Jeff Wilson got hurt. He had replaced Most hurt. They got some guy named Hasty. I don't even know who that is. And Debo Samuel, he's really so good and so valuable in so many ways. Man, they just, they ran it right over. I mean, they could not stop the run.

Could not stop the run, New England. And New England's got a good defense. New England has a great, I think Kyle has a good feel for Bill Belichick. Was the last time Kyle played Belichick? Was that the Super Bowl game? Yeah. Because they gashed him in the Super Bowl. Yeah, they did when he was.

Wet the bed at the end. They gashed him. He had him in the Super Bowl. So this dude, Jamichael Hasty comes in, undrafted out of Baylor, finishes the game, nine carries 57 yards. He's the guy you should pick up in your fantasy team, right now. I'm watching the game. I watch this game as well. He's got something to him. He does. You watch him run the ball and he's got some quickness and he's got some cuts.

They were actually talking on the broadcast. This is almost like a little Marshawn Lynch. No, it was a lot more Barry Sanders than it was Marshal Lynch. He's shifty. He's got a burst. Hasty can play. He'd be a big time fantasy pickup. The other dude who's just awesome is Iyuk, the receiver. Oh, yeah, really good. Yeah. Cam Newton was horrendous in this game, and anybody that watched it had to see this.

I noticed this when we played them a couple years ago, but my God, he labors to throw the football. I mean, it looks like it hurts him every time he throws the ball. It's awful. He holds it for so long. We talk about throwing hope. Man, there's so much throwing hope for Cam. I think they cut him this week.

So he... They're a team who will be signing a quarterback. or trading for a quarterback. Yeah, he... Unless they believe they're out of it. He thinks that he's in trouble. He told Boston Sports Radio, W-E-E-E-I, he said,

you keep playing games like that, bro. It's going to be a permanent change. I mean, this is the kind of week. This is for Cam. He's been coached hard. They've been ripping his ass. Everybody's all over him. He probably hates it.

And he got into the facility today, and he walked past Bill Belichick, and Belichep just snubed him. Put his head down and walked right by him. we're done coaching you he did he did test positive for COVID a couple of weeks ago um but yeah he's he's he's got he's got seven picks in four games or whatever it hurts me it hurts me to watch him throw the football he's done he's done here's my you're just saying physically physically he's done he's done as a quarterback in the league yeah here's my other thing i was going to if we had a what do you got

Rivera knew it well yes I think a lot of people in carolina felt that that Cam had was kind of more into living his life at this point. Not that there's anything wrong with that than he was loving football. Right. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but I think that was the consensus in Carolina. Cam was more about being Cam than he was Cam, the quarterback.

But my thought was, you go as an older player to New England and you fail, you're done. Right. You're better coached there and given more opportunities to, they know how to get it done. If you can't get it done for them, you are done. You are done.

Yeah. That is the end of the road. You go to New England and have a good year and go somewhere else. You're doing New England and fail. You're done. So true. Like if you can't get it done there, you can't get it done anywhere. We both liked Houston.

Again, the smell test was seven and four. I was six and five and three Saturday. I had the Giants on Thursday. Then I had Washington and Houston yesterday. So they had a chance to cover. I know. I know. I was paying attention.

It's 2813. They were down, what, 287? They battle back a little bit. They get to a fourth and one with six minutes left, and you're like, they'll get this. They run a speed option, and they don't get it. And they're like, well, turn that one off. Covers over. Well, yeah, they still had a chance with two scores.

But really what hurt them is they had to kick two. short field goals when they were down there on successive drives down 287 when they really had a chance to get touchdowns. Like they were moving the football and I'm like, because the thing about Houston is they're capable offensively. Like Watson's having a good year. Like Deshawn Watson is having a good year. Their defense isn't very good. Watson yesterday, what was he yesterday? Let me just see. He was 29 to 39. 3.09 through touchdown. And maybe a lot of that came in the second half. I don't know. I was sort of paying attention to the game. They obviously could not stop Green Bay enough. But Houston is a capable team. When it got to 28-7, they drove the field. They were at the Green Bay,

first and goal at like their 15, first and 10 at the 15, they ended up kicking a field goal. Their second one, they basically got it first and goal at the Green Bay 8, and they had to kick a field goal. So that was their chance. You know, in the second half, they obviously came out to play and they had two touchdown opportunities. It could have been 2821 instead of 2813. And then, you know, to your point, they got it back again. And they started to drive. And then they went for fourth and inches and you still had eight minutes left. So if they gotten a quick one, you know, who knows what would have happened. But whatever. So many people, I just, this is the best, coolly when I get from people,

I told you, man, you never ever bet against Aaron Rogers after he plays a bad game. I hit 16 against a 10. Just understand that. I will do it every single time, no matter who is dealing. All right? I don't care how hot the dealer is or how ugly he is. I'm hitting 16 against a king every single time. Okay, that's the system. And, you know, 11, 10 out of 14 years, just so, you know, no one's ever gotten killed taking my picks. Sunday the biggest anti-public play on the board was Houston, although the Jets were close. The Jets were very... But I told you there was some sharp money on Buffalo, which is why I backed off it. And I'd given the Jets out, I think two weeks in a row.

And, of course, they did cover yesterday. I didn't... I mean, the Jets are terrible. I didn't even play the game personally. Like, sometimes I'll be like, yeah, I mean, the Jets have to be the right side. I didn't even play them personally. I did play the Panthers. yesterday and they got it done. I don't know if you saw this, but their kicker Joey Sly attempted a

65-yard field goal. They were 4th and 19 at midfield down 27-24 with no timeouts left, so they had to, you know, they could have gone for 4th and 19, and rules sent them out there to kick a 65-yard field goal, and it just barely missed. It would have been an all-time record setter. Caroline is a good team. I've been saying that for a month now. They're a, they're a problem for people. And they've just played some good teams. You know, they lost a close game last week to the Bears. They lost a close game to the Saints.

They lost early in the year a game against the Raiders that they were really close in and could have won. I think they're going to be an interesting team to watch the rest of the way. The problem in the NFC for a team like Carolina, as an example, is you've got the NFC West, 5 in 1, Seattle, 5 and 2, Arizona, 4 and 2 the Rams, 4 and 3 and 3. three and really coming on the 49ers. I mean, you could have all three wild cards end up being out of the NFC West, although I don't know if that's even possible because they play each other.

Somebody's going to end up being nine and seven, right? I mean, the fourth place team isn't going to have 10 wins, are they? I mean, that would essentially mean these teams won every single game except for the games they played against each other for the most part. And Green Bay, Chicago. You got that situation. Well, yeah, you got Chicago Green Bay. So that's going to be, you also have the Saints, Panthers.

I don't think the Saints are that good. I think that they're the team that could go the other way. I said that before this weekend, and they won, they won, and they're missing pieces. I know they're missing pieces offensively, obviously, with Thomas out. But I just don't think New Orleans is anywhere near as good as the other teams, the good teams in the NFC. I'm with you, but they're well-coached, and they know how to win. games when you know caroline had three possessions in the second half is it they only had three possessions three second i i know the game was like the fastest game of the day it like ended at like

three 43 like you know so it was like two hours and 43 minutes if you look at the statistics it it shows that they had eight possessions but one was like a kickoff at the end of the half oh yeah so that doesn't count really had seven total possessions in the game yeah that's unbelievable i'm looking at it right now that's unbelievable wow So what I'm saying is... 43 plays they ran. 43 plays. That's it.

Right. And they weren't terrible on offense. Bridgewater threw for 254. They couldn't run the ball. They scored 24 points on seven possessions. That's excellent. I know. It's outstanding.

But, I mean, Breeze completed 80% of his passes. They kept converting. They ran Latavius Murray. They ran Camara. Cameras really, he's something special. So I'm with you. I don't think New Orleans has that spark, but they have Drew Breeze.

They're well-coached. They have some big-time backs. They just have no receivers right now. They get Thomas back in there. It's a different ball club. Look, New Orleans might end up being a playoff team. They're not better than Tampa Bay in their own division, you know, unless Antonio Brown ruins the team, which is.

Oh, yeah, we can even talk about that, which is not going to happen because it's Tom Brady's now adopted son. Like, how much was. that all Tom Brady? That was all Tom Brady. That's not what Bruce Ariens said. Did you read what he said? I know what he said, but he wanted to take credit for it. So he took the pain, so he'll leave Brady of any issues. Yeah, well.

Yeah, Ariens is like, he better not talk about competing for balls than this offense. I will, I'll read to you, where is it, hold on here for a second, because I do want to read this to you, what Andrew Brandt tweeted out on Saturday after

this became official that Antonio Brown was going to sign with Tampa. Hold on. I want to get this because it totally sums it up here it is. In the last year, the Steelers ate $21 million in cap to trade

Antonio Brown. The Raiders ate two draft choices to cut them, and the Patriots ate $9 million to release them. Good luck, buccaneers. I totally agree with that statement. This guy is so much

more than a bad human being and a clearly troubled human being. He has, this, Bruce Ariens talked about second chances. This isn't a second chance. This is just based on what Brandt laid out. This is a fourth chance. And by the way, the Steelers, you know, gave him more than one chance. So this is like chance number five or six. Not to mention the fact that he is committed more likely than not multiple crimes.

Now, they're alleged and they still have to be investigated. But this guy, you know what? I picked Tampa to win the Super Bowl. He's really good. He's really good. But I think this is a mistake. I don't think they need him. I don't think they need him. And maybe Seattle had Seattle had him in Metcalf that Tampa would have been like,

we can't stop that. Maybe it was almost a preventative kind of move to prevent one of the other contenders from getting him because he's so talented. but I don't know, man. People have spent more money on him and bailed faster than you ever see in the NFL. It's also a clear indication. It doesn't matter what anybody does when it comes to misogyny, when it comes to sexual harassment.

If you're super talented in any of these leagues in the NFL as well, which he is, he's a generational talent. You're going to just keep getting chances. I mean, but God forbid you kneel for the anthem because you're not going to get a chance. And I know what you would say to that, and I would say the same thing. Big difference between Kaepernick and Antonio Brown

in terms of talent. Like they're not even comparable. But I don't think this will work out for Tampa. I don't think it'll work out for them at all. I'm predicting that this thing ends within a month. Oh, one other thing, Cooley? What'd they pay him? It's some sort of incentive

latent deal where he can make, I think, two and a half million bucks. One other quick thing, because we have... It's going to work out. I'll tell you why it's going to work out. Because of Brady, you said because of Brady. Because in his fourth chance, the one thing that diminishes as your chances continue to go

is the money that you're going to get paid during these chances. He has got to be a stand-up dude. Now, I understand what you're saying with mental issues, and that could change everything. but if he wanted to make money again in this league, he has to make the most of his fourth chance, not second chance. Yeah, I get it.

I mean, really, New England had to release him. Yeah. Like, that wasn't, that was... The minute the dude showed up in a balloon and stepped off the balloon with frozen feet from cryotherapy where he fell asleep, I would have just looked at... I would have looked at my GM if it was my GM's decision

and said, are you fucking out of your mind? I told you, this guy's completely off his rocker. We don't need that. I wanted to mention one other game here, and that is Joe Burroughs numbers. He threw for 406 yards yesterday, and what he's been doing as a rookie quarterback has really been impressive. This is now, I think, five games where he's thrown for 300 or more, and they've been competitive. It's not like these are late garbage yards. You know, they lost in the final seconds yesterday after he drove him down to give him the lead.

They had a chance against Indianapolis, a 21-0 lead. They beat Jacksonville. They tied Philadelphia. They had a chance in that Thursday night game against Cleveland. They lost by a field goal against the Chargers. This dude, you know, he's making some mistakes, but, man, is he fearless to watch him? He was 35 of 47, 406 yards, three touchdowns in a game where multiple times in the fourth quarter after they gave up the lead, he drove him down in the field to get him the lead right

back. It was really, they scored 20, they scored, you know, I think on two consecutive fourth quarter drives when they were down by by four to take the lead by three. By the way, they just couldn't stop Cleveland who scored on every possession essentially in the second half. And Baker Mayfield, that's probably his biggest moment as a pro. He took that team 75 yards in under a minute at the end of the game. 75 yards. I mean, the goal there was to get him in field goal range to force overtime. He throws a touchdown pass to that Michigan guy, People's Jones, and they beat him. By the way, that was a huge missed extra point for those of you that know what I'm talking about. Massive missed extra point. And the game was a three and a half point number.

And Cleveland won by three after that missed extra point to win 37-34. Burrow, though, I mean, certainly looks like the real deal and Herbert looks like the real deal too. That game was fun to watch. Herbert was good. That game was fun. Minchu was good. Minchu made big throws in that game. You know what I do notice about Minchu, man?

God, is he slow? Oh my God, when he starts to run, it's painful. Like for a smaller guy, he's so slow. But, yeah, he made some good throws. You know, it's funny because I was watching some of that game. And what's clear is that Jacksonville is trying really hard. Like their defense is still, they still have some players on defense. They blocked a punt and scored.

Like they were definitely trying. And who's that back James Robinson that they have? He's good. Like one of the best. I think he's scored as many fantasy points as anybody else. He's really good. He's a rookie, right? He's a rookie.

I think so, yeah. But anyway. It was a fun week of football, man. It was fun. You know, it's really interesting. You go through and you look at, I think there's some uncertainty in the NFC. I think there's more certainty in the AFC. Green Bay gets blown out a couple weeks ago or gets beat and run by Tampa.

But Tampa's awesome. That Green Bay comes back and has a huge win against Houston. San Francisco gets run by Miami. God knows what happened to them in Miami. and now all of a sudden they blow out the Patriots and a big win against the Rams. I don't know who's who in the NFC. I feel like I know who's who in the AFC.

Yeah, the AFC has three, maybe four really, really exceptional teams in Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Baltimore, and maybe even Tennessee. Whereas the NFC, I think Tampa could end up being that team, although I'm worried about the Brown signing. I think Seattle's defense, you know, is going to keep getting exposed. I mean, that's their point. problem is they can't stop anybody. But God, I mean, when Russell Wilson's on the field and they do get stopped, I'm always surprised. I'm always surprised when Seattle is punting. And last night, it was

turnovers. I don't believe in Arizona as much as I believe in the other NFC West teams. I think San Francisco is the second best team in the NFC West. And I think that'll be proven over time. I love the bucks. You know, obviously the Packers are dangerous. I think the Bears are really defensively and nobody in the NFC East. Yeah, it's tough. There's a game tonight I want to mention right after I tell you quickly about MyBooky.ag, because if you want some action on the game tonight, that would be the place to play it. I had a couple of you tweet me and say, do you actually play on MyBooky.orgie. I do. I have an account there. I have an account at a couple of places. Okay. It's not the only place I play. But the reason I play there is not just because I endorse them,

but because it's really convenient and it's easy and I'm able to shop lines. So if you have a spot where you're playing, I would still sign up at mybooky.ag. Take, by the way, the easy matching dollar for dollar deposit, you might as well. And then just compare lines. And you'll be able to place some wagers there because they'll have better lines than maybe your site. And if your site's offering a better line, play it there. I mean, that's basically the way I do it. So they've got a ton of futures opportunities, a ton of opportunities everywhere.

But what you really want to know if this is your first time is, is the place reliable or am I going to lose my money? No, you're not going to lose your money. You're going to make your deposit. They're going to match a dollar for dollar up to $1,000 if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C., that's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. They'll match it all the way up to $1,000. So if you deposit $500, they'll give you $500 additional dollars. to play with. And it's a good, reliable, safe, fair place to wager. MyBooky.ag, use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. Real quickly before we go for the day. The World Series has been great. The game on Saturday

night was phenomenal. It was one of the most incredible endings in World Series history, in my lifetime anyway. The game last night was awesome. And I'm a big Kershaw fan, as I've mentioned before. and I'm fine with Dave Roberts pulling him where they pulled him. They know him. He got out of that incredible fourth inning jam where there are runners, two runners on, nobody out, and Margot tries to steal home. That was amazing. I mean, I don't know when the last time I've seen anybody try to steal home in the

playoffs or in a World Series. In a World Series? Yeah. It was incredible. Kershaw throws him out at the plate. That ends the inning. And then he came out and he pitched, in that bottom of the fifth and got into the sixth inning.

He retired seven guys in a row, and then he pulled him out from May to face Margo in a four-two game in the bottom of the sixth. And I was fine with that because I think the problem with Kershaw is they haven't pulled him out at times early enough, and they've left him in there one batter or two batters too long. We saw that last year in the playoffs against Washington. He's 2-0 in the World Series. He's 4-1 in the postseason, and if the Dodgers win, he's going to have his World Series. He's a lock first ballot hall of famer, and he's four-and-one in the postseason.

I don't know what else. If you're going to criticize him last night for being super-sharp, he wasn't his super-sharp self, but he got out of jams, kept his team in the game, and ended up when all was said and done, going five-and-two-thirds and allowing, I think it was two-earned runs on five hits, striking out six or seven in the game. And when he didn't have his best stuff, had his best stuff in game one. and was outstanding in game one. But overall, in this postseason,

he's 4-1 with a 2.92, I think it was ERA. I think that's what they put up there last night. So I'm rooting for the Dodgers to win this. I've got friends who are Dodgers fans, L.A. guys, and they haven't won it since 88. So I'm rooting for that. I thought it was great baseball all weekend long. Who do you like tonight?

I actually like the Rams. I didn't give him out as a smell test pick minus the 6. I think he should. But I really would lean Rams in a heavy way tonight, laying the six. You want me to give it out? Yeah, I think you should. I can't. I can't.

I can't. Five and one team. They haven't played well of late. There's nothing that tells you you shouldn't bet on the bears. It's just the Rams are a much better football team. I just, I'm going to read you the text that I got on Thursday night. Well, it's Monday now. I understand that.

But the reason I didn't give them out on Friday, and I will check again, but I'm not going to give out the Rams officially as a play because the text that I had Thursday night was super sharp money on the Bears. And that's why, and I went to look at this, the line did come down. It's at six. I think it opened at six and a half.

I kind of like the Rams. I do, but I'm going to stay off the game. But you're afraid of super sharp money? I do not. I go against the public, but I go against the public a lot more when there's also super sharp on the anti-pubble. side, which I would be on. I would play Rams if I had to play it, no doubt. I might play the

Rams. I'm just not going to give it out as a smell test pick. You know what? A seven and four weekend gets me back, a Mitching back close to 500. I'm going to stick with, you know, with the way I do it. And this is a game that comes close, but doesn't. The game I should have given out is I should have given out the Jets yesterday. I should have just said, you know what, sorry. I'm going to give you a terrible team for the third straight week, but I think this time is going to be the right time. And it would have been. That line actually came down to nine right before the game. You got anything else? I'm looking at Antonio Brown in an anti-suicide smock that he wore to court in front of a judge this year in January. Look up the picture of Antonio Brown in like a straight

jacket smock. What is his problem? He needs help. I mean, maybe he's gotten it. Maybe this really is the chance. And, you know, as a human being, I hope it works out for him. All right, coolly tomorrow with the offensive film breakdown. Have a great day.