The Kevin Sheehan Show - Daniels' News Good; Armstrong's Not

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

Kevin opened with the good news that Jayden Daniels' MRI showed nothing serious. However, the bad news today was that Dorrance Armstrong is out for the year with a torn ACL. Kevin reacted to Dan Quinn offering no real specifics on his comment last night that "we'll look at everything" when it comes to the defense. Kevin added some info to his "Game-Take" from last night's post-game show and then talked other NFL and Maryland's loss to UCLA on Saturday night.  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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Are you surprised at all of where things are at? Yes. Thank you. Dan Quinn in Dallas after the game last night,

answering a question from Nikki Jabala. She asked, are you surprised where things are at? The coach said, yes, very. The show's presenting sponsors always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation or Windonation.com if you need new windows. If you've been thinking about new windows, call them before the end of this month. You'll get access to two free windows with every two purchased and the option of not paying anything for two years. No down payment, no monthly payments and no interest charged for two full years.

86690 Nation, windonation.com. mention my name. They'll take really good care of you. My post-game show after the game went out last night is out there if you want to listen to it. Sorry, I'm losing my voice. But today, I will touch on the game take portion of last night's show with a few updates. I'll get to that in the next segment. If you haven't taken a look at what Washington's next opponent, Kansas City, did to the Raiders yesterday. I'll talk about that in the final segment. It's one of the more lopsided box scores I have ever seen from an NFL game.

I'll talk about some of the other NFL games yesterday as well, and maybe if I've got some time, touch on Maryland's loss, their third straight to UCLA on Saturday night. So let's get started with the news. Dan Quinn in his Monday day after press conference just a little while ago said that Jaden Daniels had his MRI and the news is good. Nothing serious on that hamstring. It's not significant. It's not long term. But Quinn also said his status for Monday night's game in Kansas City is unsure at this point. So here we go again with another week of will he or won't he, or it'll start off with did he or didn't he when it comes to practice. Now this week, because the game is on Monday night, we will get an update from Quinn on Thursday.

That will be the first serious prep day for the Chiefs, not the usual Wednesday. So nothing on Daniels until Thursday unless we get some kind of report. from a Schefter or somebody else beforehand. But the odds makers, they don't believe Jaden is going to play on Monday night. The line shot up with the news last night that Jaden had a hamstring injury and that an MRI was scheduled for today. There was no line when I did the postgame show last night. woke up this morning, it had gone from five and a half where it was before the game yesterday.

Kansas City minus five and a half, a five and a half point favorite, to now ten and a half. Yeah, the chiefs are ten and a half point favorites as of this moment. The line shot up five points on the news that Jaden injured his hamstring. That is a clear indication that, you know, the boys in the desert and the crew offshore, they believe that Marcus Mariotta will be the starter at Arrowhead a week from tonight. We will see. You know, on one hand, while I'm not in favor of this or advocating for this, because every game in the NFL is winnable. We've already seen so many, you know, unexpected, stunning results this year. if it works out that Jaden has to miss a game, better it be an AFC game against that team in their building.

And then get them back, hopefully healthy for the Seattle and Detroit games at home that follow the following two weeks. Because remember, with Washington playing a Monday night game, they'll have a short preparation week for a Sunday night game against Seattle. And then the following Sunday, they play Detroit at home. The Seattle game and the Detroit game, those are two games that are more important than the Kansas City game because they are NFC games. Washington is three and four and has but one win against NFC teams. That was the Giants season opener. But I'm just saying, look, I want him healthy and ready to go for all of these games. But I'm just saying that with the short week before Seattle after Monday night, if it's a close call, because it's an AFC game, because it's short preparation leading into the next one, you know, if he ends up sitting, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

That leads me to this. Where is it? I had it here a moment ago. Here it is. It's from Rick in Gatorsburg. Rick writes, Kevin, I'm a huge Jaden fan like you. But I think Mario dao played very well off the bench today. And he's already proven that there's very little difference when he plays between the offense with him and the offense with Jaden Daniels.

If he has to start a few more games, it's not a bad thing. Thank you, Rick, for that. Know this too, Rick. You're not the only person that has expressed similar thoughts, you know, over the last 20 hours or so. To you, Rick, and anybody else that wrote me about, you know, Marcus Marriota playing well yesterday, Marcus Mariotta and Jaden, not much of a difference. Are you guys serious? you think Marcus Mario da played well yesterday? What game were you watching?

I'm a fan of Marcus Marioada. And I think he's the perfect backup for Jaden because stylistically they're the same and the offense that Cliff runs is probably the best offense Marcus Mario da Vin in in his career. I'm not sure there's a better place in the league for Marioada than Washington. I'm not sure Washington could do better from a backup quarterback standpoint than having Marcus Mariotta on this roster.

And he's such a class act. I love Marcus Marietta. Everything about him. But Rick and others all do respect. But he did not play very well off the bench yesterday. According to PFF, he was the lowest rated offensive play. player in the game, both teams. I said on the show last night, the post game show, that I love the way he came in and ran the zone reads. In fact, I think he is still, even at this age, a very

good dual threat quarterback, and his decision making on zone reads is actually better than Jadens. It is. But then I also said last night, other than maybe, you know, one to two throws in the two zone read keepers. It was a rough outing for him. And I said, I don't see a QBR number out for him. The passer rating was like 22. But I said, the QBR

number is not going to be a very good one. In fact, it was super ugly. 7.4. That was his QBR in the game. I have no idea, Rick, what game you were watching.

PFF had him as the lowest offensive rated player in the game, graded player in the game, and his QBR was horrendous at 7.4. Now look, it wasn't, you know, his fault entirely. He had to deal with the same thing Jaden had to deal with. The guy who led the team in receptions, Robbie Chosen, has been here for like a week and probably has like five total reps in practice with Jaden, let alone, you know, getting something with Marcus Mariotta. Not to mention, in addition to him having the same limitations with the receivers, he came into the game when it was already kind of over at 34 to 15.

I love Marcus Marietta being the backup here. I mean, let's be clear, I loved the signing when they made it back in the winter of 2024. Most of our fans, and many of you mocked it, mocked it. And I said, no, this is a perfect fit if they're going to end up drafting Jaden Daniels. But he did not play well. I mean, the pick six was atrocious. The miss to McCaffrey on fourth down was not even close.

Like it was 10 yards off. And McCaffrey was wide open. Mariotta took two sacks in 11 dropbacks. That's not a good percentage. He almost took two more. I don't even know why I'm wasting time with this, but Rick wasn't the only person to suggest this. I mean, people, Marcus Marietta is a really good backup

and in a pinch is as good as you can do for a short-term starter. And this situation and the offense is perfect for him. And I'll predict right now. If he has to play Monday night against Kansas City, he'll be fine. It'll be a professional offense with him running it because of his dual-threadability. He'll get results. He will. He looks great to me this year, especially as a runner.

After that Raiders game in week three, I said he looks like the Heisman version of Marietta from Oregon. But no, he didn't play very well. yesterday. And there is a big difference, Rick, between Marcus, Marioada, and Jaden Daniels. All right. The other piece of injury news was not good. In fact, it's devastating news, really, Dorrance Armstrong, done for the year. Torn ACL, he has been arguably their best defensive player. He got hurt early in the game yesterday, did not return, and Quinn announced a little while ago, along with the Jaden news,

that Armstrong's season is over. He leads the team with five and a half sacks. He leads the team with seven tackles for loss. It is a brutal loss for a defense that is already in big, big trouble. And here's the deal. You know, with now three defensive ends lost for the year. There are two starters at the beginning of the year, Armstrong and Wise, and also John Baptiste. The crisis at that position, defensive end, is worse than the crisis at wide receiver.

I mean, Terry should be back this week. That's my educated guess. I do think that there's a really good chance Terry is back for the Chiefs game. Debo will hopefully be back soon. They have nothing at defensive end right now in terms of edge-setting run-stoppers. You know, Von Miller wasn't signed to play 40 snaps a game at defensive end. Preston Smith, same thing. You know, right now, if they had to play a game tonight,

the starting defensive ends would be Jacob Martin, who's been a decent pass rusher, not so much against the run, and probably Preston Smith. You know, they released Jalen Holmes over the weekend, number 96, he played a little bit this year, over the weekend to make room for Sam Cosmi's return to the active roster. I'd be surprised if they don't try to resign Jalen Holmes. They don't have anybody at defensive end. They've got Von Miller, Preston Smith, Jacob Martin.

That's what they have. Okay? none of those players are run-stopping players. I would guess that Preston Smith, Jacob Martin, and then hopefully if they can get somebody like Jalen Holmes in there, are going to be the three-man run-stopping rotation at defensive end. You know, there is a possibility. Duran has played outside before.

Kinlaw has played defensive end before. for. Actually, that might be the way they go, is to take Duran or Kinlaw and have them play defensive end. They are in a bind at that position. It is a bigger bind than the one that they have at receiver because this defense right now is, you know, it's abysmal. I mean, it's gruesome how bad it's gotten. And now with the loss of Armstrong, crushing, you know, I guess you could say how much worse can the defense get? I think the answer isn't really how much worse can the defense get, but is there any hope of it improving? You know, with Armstrong, yeah, there's some hope. That is a tough, tough loss for this football team. Really, really loved the season he was having.

saw it towards the end of last year and into the postseason. This is one of those years so far. Every team, you know, experiences these injury-riddled seasons and injuries, you know, top two factor in terms of, you know, impacts on seasons, the how seasons go. I mean, the quarterback is probably the biggest determining factor to the kind of season that you have. And then injuries are probably after that. And Washington is feeling the brunt now of the injury bug through the first seven games. And defensive end has been hit really hard. Two starters from the beginning of the year gone.

Back up, gone. Replacing Armstrong, I think, is near impossible. Speaking of the defense, so this is what I want to sort of wrap up this opening segment with. So last night after the game, Dan Quinn's first question came from John Kynne. And it spurred the answer that I talked about on the post-game show last night from the coach that perked up a lot of ears. Here was the question. Here was Dan Quinn's answer. This kicked off the press conference following the 44 to 22 loss in Dallas last night.

Dan, with those big plays keep happening. How frustrating, and first of all, why, I guess, but just how frustrating is it that game after game they keep happening? Yeah, it's very frustrating. We'll look at everything, man. We're going to look at everything to, you know, have a play that goes down the field and you, you know, throw up your head or a good battle.

Like, I can live with that one. But the ones of the big explosive plays that I can't put my finger on, that's a lot for us to dig into. If I had one specific reason, I'd say this or this. But we got, like I said, a lot to get better at. It's definitely frustrating. So that question was specifically about the explosive plays on defense, and Quinn said, we'll look at everything.

And he was last night, if I didn't emphasize this on the post-game show last night, he was not happy. He used the word frustrated there. He was pissed. during that press conference. And so, you know, hearing him say that we're going to look at everything, I think everybody, you know, immediately thought, okay, maybe something related to the defensive coordinator, Joe Witt Jr., is on the table.

Maybe big personnel changes are on the table. So today, there was a follow-up question to kick off the Monday presser just a little while ago. Also a question from John Kime, following up on Dan Quinn, saying we're going to look at everything last night. Here's how that exchange went down. You've talked about looking at everything to help the defense, right? So when you're looking at that, how do you parcel out like coaching issues, coaching mistakes versus player mistakes, if the same things oftentimes keep happening? Yeah, I think it's, that's what we're, and it's ongoing.

It's tonight. It's through the next few days to get there. From a philosophy standpoint, if there's a certain issue that can keep coming up, it's time for that, you know, call to change all the way, John. So more often than not, it gets simpler as you go to make sure you can nail the things that you need to nail. So that's generally been the best course of action to tighten some things up to make sure it doesn't come up and, you know, hit you again. But yeah, it's ongoing as we're starting that process and we'll dig into that hard tonight before we get our preparation into Kansas City tonight and morning is really spent on us. So what Dan Quinn did there was essentially push everything back until Thursday. They've got the extra day this week. He doesn't have to speak to the media again until Thursday. So when he said after the game last night, we're going to look at everything. He is saying today that the looking into everything doesn't begin until tonight. Now, I'm sure that they have already started the process of looking into everything. But he said it's ongoing. It's tonight. It's through the next few days

to get there. Of course, the question is when they get there after they've looked into everything, what are they going to find and what are they going to do? Clearly, out of the game last night, The two biggest topics are Jaden Daniels' health. We learn something about that. And oh my God, this defense is terrible. What's Dan Quinn going to do about this? Is Joe Witt, Jr., the defensive coordinator, as an example, on the hot seat right now?

Now, specific to Joe Witt, Jr. And today's press conference, his name specifically did not come up. Maybe it'll come up on Thursday. Maybe Quinn will preempt any questions about Joe Witt, Jr. In his introduction to the press conference on Thursday. But here are his options as he looks into everything. And I talked about these on last night's show after the game. Number one is he could do nothing.

Number two is he could do something with Joe Witt, Jr. He could demote Joe Witt, Jr., or pull play-calling responsibilities on game day away from Joe Witt, Jr. That is option number two. Option number three is the looking into everything produces significant personnel changes. Option number four is both. He could do something with Joe Witt, Jr., and also make meaningful personnel changes. Option number five, which I talked about last night, I do not think that this is in play.

I would be shocked, would be to move on from Joe Witt Jr. right now, as in to fire him. I don't see that happening. But I do think that the possibility exists of doing something with Joe Witt, Jr., or doing something with personnel, or doing both. Nikki asked a follow-up question today that was more specific to potential personnel changes here's the question and here's Dan Quinn's answer

And then on the back end of the defense I know you basically said of the game that all things are on the table as you sort of dig into it But has there been any consideration to make any personnel changes on the back end or anywhere else on the defense? Yeah, well look like I said tonight we're really digging in on some more to find it, Nikki, and see, you know, what changes could be there for us.

But before I get into, you know, I want to go through everything and take all the information and then make our decisions from there. So Quinn did with Nikki's question, what he did with John's question, which is not offer any specificity in his answer. Push it back to later in the week and, you know, suggest that the process of looking into everything, as he's, he said last night isn't going to begin until tonight. How convenient. He doesn't need to answer what they found after they looked into everything today, if they haven't begun the process of looking into everything until tonight. So we will learn more about what they find on Thursday.

There was one more question from today's press conference that I thought was interesting. and I'm going to play for you when we come back along with the answer. And the question was, after watching the tape, was anything worse than he even thought it was last night? You'll hear his answer when we come back after these words from a few of our sponsors. So guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same type of underwear for years, in my case, boxer briefs, same brand, same type for a long time. Well, not anymore for me. I want to tell you about skims for men, something I've discovered recently, the softest underwear I've ever worn. I got a few pairs of the five-inch boxer briefs so comfortable, no matter what you're doing from sitting in a chair in your

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I've got a couple of additions to it. I'll get to that in a moment. But Quinn was asked today about after watching the game, you know, on film, was anything worse than he thought it was last night? Here's what he said. I don't know if it was worse than I thought, but I thought the game really took a turn, you know, at the end of the half. We scored a touchdown to go and then coming back to allow a touchdown at the end of the half. That was the hardest part. I sensed that going in, but that was the spot that left the biggest mark for me.

So that answer from Dan Quinn was an interesting answer from this perspective for me anyway. And that is that, yes, it was a gut punch to give up a four-play 72-yard drive in 35-7. seconds after you had gone in and scored a touchdown to close the gap to five points, 20 to 15. But Dallas's ability to match Washington in such short order was in part due to the way that Dan Quinn managed the clock when they were on offense. Now, I went back and looked at the whole sequence. So Washington down 20 to 8, take. over after a punt, there weren't many of those, at their own 32-yard line with a minute 56 left in the first half. They had two timeouts. The Cowboys had two timeouts. The opportunity for a double

dip, scoring at the end of the first half, getting the ball to start the third quarter and scoring again existed, meaning Washington had an opportunity to take the lead in the third quarter after their opening drive if they played it well. So what happened on this final offensive drive for Washington is they took eight snaps. And on those eight snaps, seven of them ended with the clock stopping, meaning a play that went out of bounds, an incomplete pass, a penalty, or in the case of the final play of that drive, the touchdown, that Jaden Daniels ran in after bobbling the snap.

So there wasn't a lot of opportunity for Dan Quinn to really run the clock down, but there was one play that I'll get to in a moment. But I first want to just mention, yes, they could have stayed in bounds on some of their plays, but Jaden scrambled twice on that final drive. Do you want him staying in bounds, sliding in bounds, when there's an easy, opportunity to get out of bounds and not put any part of his body at risk. I don't want that. There's a play early in that drive, a pass to McNichols where McNichols gets to the sideline, and it's early enough in the drive, and the ball is only pushed out to their own 44.

I don't have a problem with him, you know, trying to play the clock and make sure Dallas has no time left on the clock on that first play of the drive. Also, his big 19-yard run where he breaks two tackles and keeps his balance, he goes out of bounds on that play, but he almost scores on that play. You know, he gets it down to the one-yard line. So I don't think that there are any plays, you know, of the eight snaps, the seven that ended with the clock stopping. I don't think there were, like, obvious opportunities for them to keep the clock running,

Obviously, an incomplete pass, you don't have a choice. A penalty, you don't have a choice. But there was one play. First and 10 at the Dallas 27-yard line with a minute 22 to go in the first half. It's a pass over the middle of the field to Jalen Lane for seven yards to the Dallas 20-yard line. He gets tackled in the middle of the field, and so the clock is running. Now, Washington, even with the clock stopped on this final drive, they are going hurry up, up tempo, no huddle. They are doing what they do quite often.

And by the way, you know, if the answer to what I'm about to say is, yeah, we didn't consider burning clock after the throw to Jalen Lane because the hurry up was what was making our final drive effective. Dallas defensively wasn't able to sub, they were getting gassed, et cetera. I would understand that answer. But on that pass to Jalen Lane, there was an opportunity, even going up tempo to get to the line of scrimmage and let another 21 seconds roll off the clock before the next snap. At that point, they're in no danger, you know, with a minute 22 to go, when that play ended about a minute 17 to go, there are no danger of having the clock run out on themselves without getting a chance at a touchdown.

That's no longer an issue based on field position, based on the number of timeouts they have. And so what they did going up tempo and snapping, the ball with still 21 seconds left on the play clock is they missed out on an opportunity to have Dallas get the ball back with instead of 40 seconds left, more like 21 less than that, that would be 19 seconds left. Now, could they have scored a touchdown? Probably not. Could they have gotten three, yes. They could have easily gotten

three with Brandon Aubrey's range and still having two timeouts. You could also say that if Washington got up to the line of scrimmage after the Jalen Lane catch and then made, you know, the final 21 seconds of that

play clock wind down before the next snap. Dallas could have used one of their timeouts on defense, but I don't think they were in that mode at that point. They thought Washington, was going fast because they had been going fast and that they were going to snap the ball and not run the clock. But that was the opportunity right there. The throw to Jalen Lane over the middle, they could have burned an extra 21 seconds. And so when Dallas got the ball back after

the kickoff return following the touchdown, they would have had 19 seconds left starting at their own 28-yard line. They still would have had two timeouts left. But touchdown, more likely than not, would have been taken out of the equation. Although I don't want to take anything out of the equation against our defense. A field goal would have been more than likely, actually, even with 19 seconds left, given Brandon Aubrey's range. But Dan Quinn very upset about that turning point at the end of the first half, and they contributed to it.

Washington did. Again, let me emphasize. if the answer is, yeah, we know what we could have done, but going up tempo and going hurry up was why we were having success on that drive. I would understand that. But I think getting the team to the line of scrimmage and making Dallas, you know, sit in a three-point stance for an extra 21 seconds is probably still advantage offense. And again, Dallas could have called a timeout,

but it didn't look like they were thinking about calling one there. All right. On my game take, there are just a couple of additions to what I had last night and some information, too. So I'm going to go through this real quickly. I'm not going to go through it in the level of detail that I went through it last night. The list of things that I thought were good from the game, Duran Payne. Without question, Duran was outstanding last night. and I did get from the same person that sent me Marcus Mariotas' pf grade. Duran was the highest rated player in the game for Washington. He was outstanding. He had the tackle for safety, and he also had three tipped passes in the game

and multiple pass rush pressures. Number 94 was. the best defensive player in the game last night on, you know, a day which, you know, a day and night, which was very difficult for the defense. Tressway was on the list of things that I liked. I mean, that punt was amazing. The play by Percy Butler, along with another really good punt coverage tackle, put Percy Butler on the list of things that I liked. Luke McCaffrey on kickoff returns again, he is so good at that, made the list of. of things that I thought were good from the game.

I really thought Jeremy McNichols was really solid again, had that unbelievable 19-yard run at the end of the first half. Four touches in the game, 45 yards. He's good, man. He's legit good. I think they need more touches for McNichols. Steve Souter talked about that last week. He was not ready to hand the keys over to old Bill Krosky Merritt.

Not quite yet. He likes McNichols. Robbie Chosen was on the list, four catches, four targets, 36 yards, plus he drew two defensive pass interference calls, one of which wasn't called. The one at the end of the first half, ridiculous that that wasn't called. And the one that was called was a Marcus Marieto, a fourth and eight throw to him. I actually didn't think that was a good call. I put Jacob Martin on the list of players that I thought, you know, certainly had a game as a pass rusher. And yeah, and I thought Frankie Louvo was all over the field at times, both as a rusher, as a tackler, not as a tackler, because they didn't tackle well overall.

As a rusher, run stopper, and even in coverage. I mean, Louvoo's all over the field. So that was the list of things that I liked, and I didn't add anything to that list. There was nothing worth adding to that list. Now, on the list of things that I didn't like, I talked about on Friday, too many mistakes will doom you in this game. You cannot make mistakes, especially on offense. You have to keep the penalties to a minimum. You can't drop passes, and you can't turn the ball over.

And they did all three of those things. at a high level. 11 penalties in the game for 118 yards. They didn't tackle great. I don't know if it was as bad a tackling game as the one on Monday night. They had two more turnovers and they had three drop passes. By the way, Washington leads the NFL in dropped passes. You know, everything that you couldn't do offensively

because you had to match Dallas in this game, they did. I talked about on Friday, this being a lot of, four-down game. You had to think about being aggressive on four downs. You had to treat these drives as if you really needed to produce something on each drive. And they went for the first fourth down. They lined up to go for it and they had a false start. Fourth and three from their own 46 false start. Too many mistakes to win a game like yesterday's game. The defense, obviously, on the list of things that I didn't like. It was another just dreadful, awful, horrendous, bad day for the defense.

With that said, there were some plays. Already talked about Duran's plays. Talked a little bit about, I thought, Frankie Louvo and Jacob Martin made some plays. There were some past breakups, including, you know, by Mikey Sanders still. You know, Lattimore got beat like a drum like he typically does, but I thought he was closer to some of the plays. than he's been. I also thought that the DPI on the opening drive was, you know, it was probably a call that gets made 50 or 60% of the time. But I guess I got frustrated by Brady

saying he didn't look back. He did look back. But, you know, Dallas basically played three quarters a little bit into the fourth. And they ended up with 37 offensive points. they had to pick six, don't forget. 409 yards, 6 for 12 on third down, 12 plays in the game of 10 yards or more, and of those 12, 7 of those plays were 17 yards or more, including a 74-yard touchdown, a 44-yard play, a 33-yard play,

a 24-yard play, an 18-yard play, and 2, 17-yard plays. They were terrible against, the run again. 6.1 yards per carry for Javante Williams, 116 yards on 19 carries. In two games, they've given up 224 yards to the lead running back on the other team, Swift on Monday night, Williams yesterday, on 33 carries. That's 6.8 yards per carry. Dak Prescott had a banner day, 21 of 30, 264, three touchdowns, no intercept. a 130.4 passer rating and 88 QBR. The coverage was pretty much disastrous in terms of the final

result. They were closer on some plays. And when I went back and watched it again, you know, I thought Latimore was actually in good position on that, you know, big one to pick-ins at the end of the first half. It was just the perfect drop in the bucket throw. You had another Juan Martin Latimore, you know, collision on the 74-yarder to C.D. Lamb. It was just a terrible defensive day. And I've got some numbers that I wanted to add to this. So Washington is now, in the NFL, allowed the sixth most explosive plays. Explosive plays are defined as 16 or more yards on completions, 12 yards or more on rushes. Five of those explosive plays this year have gone for more than 50 yards. That's best or worst, excuse me, in the NFL, the most in the

NFL in terms of plays of 50 yards or more they have given up. That is not a recipe for a good team defensively. They're not a good team defensively. They are now currently fourth in the traditional yards allowed, fourth worst in the NFL. And unlike last year, and I talked about this on the post game show last night, where they had an offense and a quarterback that was able to overcome a bad defense, this year is different primarily because the december. The the offenses they're facing are so much better than the offenses they faced last year. You don't have Kenny Pickett, Spencer Rattler, Jay Canner, Deshawn Watson, you know, and the list goes on and on. You have coming up, Patrick Mahomes, Sam Darnold in Seattle's offense, Jared Gough and Detroit's offense, Denver in what they're doing offensively.

You still have two games with Jalen Hertz and another game against Dak Prescott. This defense could be in for a season in which we look back on it and say, worst ever. There have been a lot of those over the last 10 to 15 years. The defense, number two on the list of things that I didn't like. Number three, the offense was just out of sync, you know. Look, some of the numbers and some of the numbers. of the results. You know, when I went back and looked at it and watched it a little bit,

they had some success. You know, in the first half, they rolled up 214 yards of offense with a lot of penalties and a lot of bad field position, you know, because of penalties on special teams. 15 points, 214 yards, 5 for 10 for the game on third down before the Jaden injury. they did some good things, but none of it looked, you know, like it was consistent enough. They punted too much in the game. You know, Tressaway punted five times. I said on Friday, any more than two or three punts. I mean, that may be the thing you go right to to look at.

That in, you know, things like turnover margin, red zone, etc. But there were too many drop passes, too many penalties. Jaden missed on things. He missed to Ertz. He missed to Lane. He had some good plays, though. He really did. I'll get to, you know, what I graded him and whether or not I've changed the grade a day after the fact. But the offense was just out of sync and nothing was consistent enough. Bad ending to the first half, we've already talked about the one opportunity that they had to run the clock. But it was only one opportunity. I didn't really know that last night. I mean, eight, six. snaps, seven of them, the clock stopped. So when they were going hurry up, they were going up tempo, no huddle, seven out of the eight snaps, they were doing it with the clock stopped already. It was just that one play to Jalen Lane over the middle that was the opportunity.

No takeaways was on the list of bad. They have three total, only the jets with one have fewer. And I thought it was ridiculous to go for two after their first touchdown with an eight to seven lead. You shouldn't be going for two with seven minutes and 38 seconds left in the first quarter. That makes no sense to me unless your plan, your plan is we think this team is so bad defensively Dallas. We got nine different two-point plays that we're convinced are going to work. We're going to go for two every single time because we're going to try to pick up points that way in a game in which we're going to need every possible point. But that's not why they went. for two. If they were doing that, they would have gone for two at the end of the first half as well

when they scored. They were going for two because the score was eight to seven and the chart says go for two when you're up one. Don't look at the chart with seven minutes and 38 seconds to go in the first quarter of a game that is going to have a lot of scores and a lot of points and a lot of opportunities if you need to go for two to go for two. The other observations, and I've got a couple of more numbers that I didn't have last night. So Jaden's day overall, before exiting with the injury, and really, you know, the overarching theme to the game yesterday was the defense is once again so bad, and Jaden gets injured a lot, and that is a bigger picture conversation. But, you know, But, you know, Jaden was 12 of 22 for 156 yards with three drop passes.

Jaden scrambled, you know, on a couple of occasions, looked good doing it. Had the third and two on the first drive of the third quarter where you reach the ball out on the sideline and moved the sticks. Had some really good throws, including the 44-yarder to Moore, the touchdown pass to Ertz, the third and 10, 13-yarder in the first half to Robbie Chosen. the 35-yarder to Jalen Lane on a third and six. I mean, considering the limits of what they had offensively, he had more good than bad in the game.

But he missed some throws. Accuracy has been an issue for him this year. That's just the fact of the matter is going back to the Giant Game. He has had some accuracy issues this year. Look, if that's the worst thing, occasional accuracy issues, when for the most part he's a very accurate quarterback, you know, I'll live with that because, you know, he's able to bounce back the next play and fired on a dime like last week or two weeks ago against the Chargers. A rough start, rusty start, and then third and 16, he's on the money

to Jalen Lane for the first down that really changed the game around. After, of course, the roughing, the punter. Yeah, you know, Brady said he missed some things. I think he missed something at the end of the first half. There was a scramble at the end of the first half on their touchdown drive where he got to the sideline, the far sideline and got out of bounds. It certainly looked like he could have hit a checkdown. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he's in the mode of we got to hurry,

we got to score quickly, the clock. The clock wasn't in jeopardy of running out on them. and he was probably thinking if I hit the checkdown and it's just a four or a five yard gain, we're going to have to burn a time out or the clock's going to run. Instead, I'm going to take off and get out of bounds. But I don't know, there may have been another play or two where he could have, you know, thrown the ball elsewhere. I gave him a C last night, and I think that's the grade.

It's not lower than that. And it's certainly not higher than that, given that, you know, on the play, in which he got hurt, he turned the ball over, and it was a critical turnover. You know, I said this last night, and I didn't feel any differently today. We've seen a lot of games in which Jaden Daniels and the offense have, you know, had kind of a roller coaster first half, and then they've come back in the second half and been dominant. And I thought against that team that scoring at the end of the first half, and then on the move and at Dallas's 39-yard line early in the third.

third quarter, I thought they were going to score, make it 27-22, and I thought the offense was going to be off and running. Now, would it have been enough because they had fallen behind two scores and the defense couldn't get off the field? Probably not. But I think we were on the verge of seeing a much better and more consistent performance in the second half. I did not love overall the lack of trying to run the football, even against what turned out to be loaded boxes. You know, this was more information that I found today. This actually came from the athletic.

It was Nicky's write-up of the game. So Dallas, I talked about last night, man, Dallas loaded the box, and they played a lot of man coverage, which isn't something they had done. The Cowboys used man coverage in the game, 48.4% of the snaps, the highest percentage of any NFL team that played yesterday and the seventh highest by any team this season. Why did they do that? Well, because they weren't fearful of what Washington could do to them against man coverage with their three top receivers, or really their two top, Terry and Debo, out of the game. And they loaded the box. I still would have preferred more of an effort to run the football.

you know, with their heavy personnel or against with heavy personnel throwing out of that heavy personnel. But I still don't think that they've really figured out the against, you know, that's a bad defensive team, no matter how they switched it up. And I know that, and I feel this way most of the time, look, you take what the defense gives you.

If they're going to load the box and you've got Jaden Daniels and you've got Cliffs, you know, offense, you're going to check to a throw. But I don't know. I think that you could have still tried a little bit more, especially given the context of, man, you need to hold onto the football and burn some of this clock and let your defense sit over there

and let their offense sit over there. What else did I have on sort of the other list? You know, there were a bunch of bad calls, I thought, in the game. Defensive pass interference on Latimore, that wasn't a bad call. That's a 50-50 call. I just didn't like it. They're roughing the passer on Martin where Dax helmet came off. That was ridiculous.

That was not roughing the passer. There was a legal contact on that play, but that's a 15-yard versus five-yard difference. I thought the false start on the long snapper was a crucial bad call. Washington maintains possession with a first down after a five-yard off sides, if it's called off-sides. And Pereira was on the, you know, call saying he did not think that that was a false start what the long snapper did. You know, it was not a jarring move. It was a normal move, normal motion. And I thought, how the hell do you miss the pass interference against Robbie Chosen on that free play with Dallas off-sides?

Jaden took that deep shot. I mean, that's crazy to miss that call for sure. Mariotta, I've kind of already talked about him on the show. I'm not going to grade him. PFF did lowest grade of any offensive player in the game. But I love the way he runs the football as a dual-threat quarterback in the zone read game. And he can still throw the football. He's just not a drop-back passer.

That's not what he does. You know, you're not going to win a lot of games if Marcus, Mariotta is a pocket passer for, you know, big moments in games. It's not what he does well. He does a lot of other things very well. And again, this offense fits him

perfectly. And if he has to play on Monday night against the Chiefs, it'll be a professional operation. It will. We saw that against the Raiders. We saw it against Atlanta. Doesn't mean that I think he's going to lead them to victory, but I don't know if Jaden could lead them to victory on Monday

night if he's healthy with the way the chiefs are playing currently against our defense. Sam Cosmi's return. I talked about it last night that I thought he was really good. I think he was excellent, actually, in past protection more than anything else. And I thought Chris Paul was excellent in past protection as well. I thought past protection for the most part with Jaden in the game was pretty good. I mean, he had to extend some. He had to create off schedule on a few plays.

But I thought that they held up much better than they did on Monday night against Chicago when Chicago blitzed. Yeah, that was it pretty much. Dallas 40 plus point games at home this year. That's all they've had. 40, 40 and 44 in their three games at home this year. By the way, the other thing, if I didn't mention this last night, You know, Dallas made a lot of mistakes in the game, too. They had 10 penalties for 79 yards.

So there were opportunities for them to end up with a lot more in the game. What else did I have from that in my notes? I think that's it. All right, we'll finish up with just an amazing box score for Kansas City, Vegas yesterday. Washington's next opponent is rolling. More on that after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show is brought to you by my bookie if you want to bet on tonight's NFL doubleheader. And I do have one smell test pick left.

It is Houston plus the points tonight at Seattle in the late game. The smell test this weekend so far, 5, 4, and 1. So I need the game tonight. to make it eight consecutive winning weeks. I was five, one in one through Saturday, 0 and 3 yesterday. I had the jets, not even close. I had the Titans, not close. And I had in the late window, I had the Broncos Lang 7,

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It's totally worth it. Go to the Kevin Sheeonshow.com slash my bookie. Use my promo code. DC reload. All right. Next Monday night, Washington goes to Kansas City. The chiefs are now four and three after wins over the Lions last Sunday night. And after a win over the Raiders yesterday, 31 to nothing, more on that in a moment. The Chiefs have won four of their last five games. They're only lost coming in that Monday night game against Jacksonville. Now, in the game yesterday, dominated the Raiders to a level that honestly, I don't know if I've ever seen this kind of

domination from a box score standpoint. So the final score was 31 to nothing. In the game, the Chiefs had 30 first downs. The Raiders had three. Three. On third down, the Raiders were 0.4. 0 for 7 on third down. O for one on fourth down. Their three first downs obviously came via penalty in one case. And then on two other cases, they actually passed the ball beyond the sticks. The final yardage number was Chiefs 434 yards, Raiders, 90s. The total play count in the game. Listen to this. The Chiefs ran 77 offensive plays, the Raiders, in a four-quarter game without a running clock. They don't have a running clock in the NFL if you don't know what running clock means. In, you know, the youth levels, if there's a big time blowout, one team's much better than the other, you get to the second half and the clock just constant. runs so that the game doesn't continue to be a battering.

They don't have that at the professional level. 77 to 30. Play count. Play count. Time of possession. Chiefs, 42 minutes, 8 seconds. The Raiders, 17 minutes, 52 seconds. Gino Smith was 10 of 16 for 67 yards.

They rushed for 25 total yards. Ashton Genty 6 for 21. I just, I've never seen one team dominated in a box score in professional football like the Chiefs did to the Raiders. Here were the Chief's possessions. You ready? Possession number one, nine plays 92 yards touchdown. Possession number two, 17 plays 84 yards touchdown. Possession number three, 16 plays 94 yards, touchdown.

They had the ball three times in the first half, and they ran a nine-play drive for a touchdown, a 17-play drive for a touchdown, and a 16-play drive for a touchdown. Their fourth drive came in the third quarter. 11 plays touchdown. And then, oh my God, up 28-0, their fifth drive, nine plays 66-year. yards field goal. And then in the fourth quarter, they just ran the ball, didn't try to do anything and just let the clock run basically out. 31-0. The chiefs have won four or five, and they get Washington on Monday night football. By the way, did you know that Washington's game yesterday, the first half, the 15 combined possessions, Dallas had eight, Washington had seven, technically

Washington had eight, but the last possession was a kneel down. The most possessions of any game in a half this year in the NFL. Yeah, if it seemed like it was a long game and a long first half in particular, it's

because it was. The Chiefs, by the way, after Washington on Monday night, they go to Buffalo, to Denver, then get the Colts and then get the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day. By the way, that Chiefs Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game is shaping up to be maybe the most

watched regular season NFL game in history. So real quickly, the other NFL games, I'll just start with what happened in Denver. The Giants dominated the Denver Broncos for about three and a half quarters. And up 19-0-0 entering the fourth quarter, and then up 26 to 8 with just under six minutes to go, they got beat. Denver scored 33 points in the fourth quarter and won the game 33 to 32. First team in NFL history to enter the fourth quarter without a point, then score that many points in the fourth quarter and win the game. 3332, the Giants, guys, the Giants are a good football team. Look, they're going to find ways to lose games, I'm sure. were in the driver's seat for back-to-back wins over the Eagles and the Broncos on the road. They are a mess after this one.

And maybe this game is such a horrific loss. This season will, you know, go to the, you know, into the tank. I don't know. But Jackson Dart, obviously a much better answer, a quarterback than Russell Wilson was. And their defense is nasty. They gave up points in the fourth quarter because Jackson Dart threw an absolute terrible interception, but I don't even put it on him. With four minutes and 56 seconds to go, Denver's got one timeout left.

It's third and five from their own 35. If they run the ball, Denver takes their last time out. They pun it, and basically it's almost game over. Because Denver is going to have to go a long distance down 2616 at the time to score a touchdown and then more likely than not, they're going to be in position with no timeouts left to have to kick an onside kick. The percentage of recovering onside kicks is super low. Throwing the ball and having it intercepted essentially allowed Denver to score within a minute after the interception. And that allowed them to kick off, get a stop, get a score to take the lead.

And then the Giants retook the lead. But with 37 seconds to go, they made. missed the extra point. It was the second missed PAT on the day for the guy that's replacing Graham Ganoe right now. He's some Irish kicker who kicked at Rutgers. He missed two PATs. The last one obviously crucial because Denver's field goal at the gun was to win it instead of to force overtime. The Philadelphia game earlier in the day, man, just when you think you got it figured out, you don't, right? Jalen Hertz, the Eagles can't throw the football. Jalen hurts, 19 of 23, 326 yards, three touchdowns, a perfect passer rating of 158.3, a QBR of 95.2. That is on the road

against a Minnesota Brian Flores coach defense in a hostile, a very hostile environment. And so many of those throws were deep throws. and big shots in big moments. Big win for Philly, man, 2822. I'll tell you what, Kevin O'Connell made, I thought, a crazy call. Same thing that Matt LaFleur did in the game against Arizona. He went for a fourth down when they were down 2819, where they ultimately had to kick a field goal,

but they ended up kicking a field goal like two minutes later instead of kicking it. They needed the field goal. There's no nine-point touchdown. And he went for it. They got it. They actually converted, but then didn't get it into the end zone. There was a controversial overturn on a T.J. Hawkinson catch. I didn't like that call from Kevin O'Connell. The Vikings are three and three. The Eagles got a much needed win, man. You know, after two losses to the Broncos and the Giants, they needed that one. They play the Giants again this coming week in Philly. And then they've got a stretch of at Packers. Lions at Cowboys. So that was a big game, obviously, in the NFC East. If Minnesota had figured out a way to win, Philly would be four and three.

Dallas would be three, three and one. Washington would be a game back. Philly at five and two, Dallas in second place at three, three and one. What else from yesterday? Man, the Rams, I said last week, they haven't been impressive recently, even though they've won games. Impressive yesterday, 357. How about the Bears on a four-game win streak now?

at four and two after beating the Saints 26 to 14. Same thing with the Patriots. They're rolling and Drake May looks awesome. They also have really good pieces and a decent defense. I mean, Diggs and Hunter Henry and Ramondri Stevenson has been underrated for a while, but man, Drake May looks the part, man. Really looks the part. What else did I have? Colts are 6 and 1. They ran the chargers in L.A., 38 to 24. The Colts now, you know, by far in a way the highest scoring team in the league. They're averaging 33.1 points per game. Who had that before the season started with Daniel Jones at quarterback?

Jonathan Taylor is having himself a season. Another big day yesterday. Three more Russian. touchdowns. He's got 10 on the season, added another 94 yards to his now season best, 697 yards in just seven games. Yeah, the Packers, they won, the LaFleur call that I was talking about, fourth and two down three, with two and a half to go, they went for it in field goal range. If they had missed it, it was basically game over, and they had a chance. to kick a field goal to tie. But they went for fourth and two. Look, there's no chance.

I don't think that fourth down analytics would tell you to go for fourth and two when you're down three and in field goal range with two and a half minutes left in the game. He did it anyway, and they got it. It paid off. And they ended up winning the game 27, 23. And then look, the Falcons are a good football team that have had some bad games. They had that 30 to nothing shut out against Carolina, and Michael Pennix and their offense was off last night. The 49ers were awesome defensively, and they won that game 20 to 10. The 49ers are now 5 and 2.

And, you know, if you want to talk injuries and how they impact seasons, injuries have impacted 49ers seasons a couple of times in the last four, five, six years, including last year. But they've had the same number of injuries that they had last year. this year, and they are five and two, and they won a big game last night. Real quickly, on Maryland's loss Saturday night at UCLA, painful. They could not run the football. Those of you that are killing Pep Hamilton, Pep Hamilton's done a good job with the quarterback this year. The truth is the quarterback is flawed.

He really is. I like Malik Washington. I like his size. I like his arm, but he's terribly inaccurate as a thrower at this point. And that's always something you've got to be leery of because, you know, people will tell you that once inaccurate, usually you can become more accurate, but not deadly accurate. And he is not an accurate thrower. He's got other attributes that I'd like to see him use more of like his running ability. But Marilyn really struggled on offense.

They got a touchdown with a pick six in the game. I love their defense. I do. It just couldn't hold up all night long with the offense doing so little. They lost 20 to 17 on a walk-off field goal after a long drive after Marilyn had tied it with a touchdown. Really the best drive of the season offensively, a clutch drive where Malik was really, really good. especially as a runner on that final drive. Terps have lost three in a row to fall to four and three.

They get a buy week, and then they will welcome currently the number two team in America, Indiana, to college park. I'll still say the same thing. I think this team is better, better now than their record indicates, but not that much better. But I think it's one of his better teams, in part because I think they're pretty good. pretty damn good on defense. All right, that's it for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.