The Kevin Sheehan Show - Defense Coming Attraction...."Improved Play"

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

Kevin opened with Dan Quinn's comments on what will change with the defense. Jay Gruden jumped on to evaluate the team and come up with answers for a struggling defense. He had his "NFL Lock Of The Week" as well. Kevin finished with 10 "Smell Test" picks. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com 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 Chean Show. Here's Kevin. So you said you're looking at everything on defense. You really see any changes on defense. What you'll see is improved play.

The coach says we're going to see improved play from the defense. All right then. Do you guys feel better? The rest of Dan Quinn's answer to John, Time's question coming up shortly. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, Windonation, 86690 Nation, windownation.com if you need new windows. Jay Gruden will be on the show today.

We'll get Jay's thoughts about the defense, also about Jayden Daniels. I'll ask him if he thinks the season is salvageable. You'll hear Jay starting in the next segment, and then I'll finish off the show today with smell test picks. By the way, how bad is Carson Wentz? And why was he allowed to stay in the game? Why did they keep Carson Wentz in the game last night? The Vikings and Chargers last night on Thursday night football,

the first snoozer on Thursday night football that we've had in a while. Carson Wentz entered the game with an injured non-throwing shoulder, and he must have doubled over in pain a half dozen times minimum in the game. I mean, there was real drama from him. Real pain it appeared. And yet Kevin O'Connell kept putting him back out there. And he is terrible. I mean, he's just not a starting quarterback.

He doesn't see it. He gets sacked too much because he doesn't see it. He's not an accurate thrower. He can get hot occasionally, but for the most part, he is a road to nowhere if he is your starter. And I think the Vikings are done, man. They lost last night 37 to 10. I think that's the one NFC team that we were thinking might be a playoff contender.

I think you can count them out. You know, unless J.J. McCarthy advanced significantly while not playing, because Carson Wentz is not the answer. So I think the Viking season, not salvageable. I don't think their season is salvageable. They have good players on that team. They've got a better roster than our team. But when you don't have a viable starting quarterback, you really don't have much hope.

Also, you know, the Sam Darnold thing, you know, where everybody is saying, boy, they made a massive mistake, not resigning Sam Darnold after the season he had. Keep in mind two things. One, the season ended very poorly for Sam Darnold. He had a terrible game in the season finale against Detroit. That game was for the one seed, the overall top seed in the season. NFC and then he had a terrible playoff game. But the other part of it is Sam Darnold had choices.

He didn't need to re-sign in Minnesota. Why would he have come back to Minnesota where they had drafted J.J. McCarthy the year before and there was a real yearning to see what J.J. McCarthy was. He went to Seattle where they basically said you're the unquestioned starter. He had a choice. He was an unrestricted free agent. The idea and the hand-wringing over Minnesota making a big mistake, I don't know that Sam Darnold would have resigned with Minnesota had they wanted him.

All right, so back to Quinn. So when a super pissed off Dan Quinn in Dallas the other day after the game, when asked about his defense, said, quote, we're going to look at everything, closed quote. Everybody's ears perked up, and we were waiting for some sort of shoot a fall. Monday he pushed the answer back to yesterday. And so John Kime yesterday kicked off the press conference wanting to find out what the coach had found out about the defense when it looked into everything. And here's the entire Quinn answer.

So you said you're going to look at everything on defense. Will we see any changes on defense? I think what you'll see is improved play. I think that's obvious that we want to dig in. So when we wanted to look and assess to where we needed to make chains and make adjustments, sometimes they're not these big overhauls, John, that go, that make the major improvement. It's these small calibrations and adjustments. And so that is definitely underway.

You know, as we get out of practice today, I'm looking forward to seeing the speed. We're trying to eliminate the hesitation. And we will do that. So four days after Quinn stood there after the Dallas game peaved for sure saying we're going to look at everything as it relates to the defense. There's no blockbuster headline. There's no big overhaul, as he said. And really, it's just about small calibrations and adjustments. And the net of it is those small calibrations and adjustments will produce improved play, according to.

to the head coach. Time will tell on that one. You know, I wasn't expecting a scalp this week, Joe Witt Jr.'s or a big personnel move, but I certainly thought it was in play with the way he answered the question in Dallas. Look, I've been told now three times over the last four weeks.

It's not one thing. And I think Quinn has essentially said that this week. It's not one thing. If it were one thing, there may have been a big move, a big announcement yesterday. But it's not one thing. They're dealing with a lot of leaks right now. And they're just trying to plug them up with small calibrations and adjustments. And we'll see if it works.

Of course, part of the issue is they don't have a lot of solutions. If it's not obviously coaching and play calling and scheme and it's everything, you know, where do you go personnel-wise to fix things? I mean, they've got a major problem at defensive end. They have a major problem in coverage. You know, as Steve Souter pointed out the other day, he said, look, at one point, I thought it was more play calling and scheme because they were busting so many coverages. But at this point, they've actually buttoned some of that up, and it's obvious that their

personnel is a major problem. You know, he basically said, man coverage is really not an option. for this team because they don't have anybody that can man cover. That if you have Latimore and Sanra still on the field, that's who the other team will be looking for if they identify that you're going to play man coverage. And of course, we also know that the other part of that is if they play man coverage and they rely on four to get home, it's not going to happen without Doran's Armstrong.

For sure, it's not going to happen. I'm going to talk to Jay about all of this and see what he would be thinking. You know, he coached a couple of teams here that were pretty bad on defense and where the defensive coordinator was being questioned. So we'll talk about, you know, his overview of the defense and if he thinks there is a solution. So I want to finish up this opening segment by reading something that I read on radio this morning. I really wish Tommy were here, but I don't want to wait for him to get back. on Tuesday. I read this after the show yesterday. It came from Randall. Randall claims to be a sports psychologist. He writes, Kevin, I'm a sports psychologist, and while fan behavior isn't my specialty,

I know a psychologically damaged fan base when I see one. Nothing exemplifies the damage done by Dan Snyder to the Commander's Redskins fan base more than the sudden turn by many against the GM coach and QB. Last year was actually an uncomfortable place and something called trauma bonding. That's what's occurring now. It's a form of Stockholm syndrome where for many Washington fans, they are finding it difficult to engage in behavior that will release or detach themselves from their abuser. This is so good. This is why you've heard from so many fans who have taken the first sign that last year was a fluke was abnormal and used it as a reason to embrace an abusive past, which became their norm. I thought this would help.

Yeah, this has been a weird week, man, with a lot of the fan reaction. And it's not everybody. I understand that. But I, you know, before these shows, before the recording of this podcast or before the radio show, That's when I actually typically will spend more than two minutes on social media because I end up getting really good ideas for the show. Sometimes it's to refute something that's been written or said. Sometimes they're just good ideas for segments on the show. But this is fascinating to me because Tommy's been saying it all along that the reason this first adverse moment of the new regime is. is being, you know, treated with a level of hysteria, a level of doom and gloom that may not be normal in another market with another team is because of the past. It's because we've got this PTSD going on.

We kind of expect the worst to happen. You know, we're not doing well with, you know, the freedom from Dan Snyder. You know, I've mentioned on radio this morning. I've used the Shawshank Redemption institutionalized speech by Red when Brooks Hadlin died as a way to kind of describe our fan base. You know, we were institutionalized. You know, Red says these walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them enough time passes. You get so you depend on them.

That's institutionalized. And that's kind of part of what's going on here. As a fan base, we're not doing well with our freedom. We feel like we still are behind bars, but we're not. You know, Josh Harris, Dan Snyder selling the team, Josh Harris buying the team, and then putting a quality group of people in charge to run the organization. Yes, quality people, Adam Peters, Dan Quinn, you know, they've already done so much to help us escape the past. last year. Come on, man. That is an unbelievable introduction to our freedom.

12 and 5, 2 playoff wins on the road in 60 minutes from the Super Bowl. You know, I just think that this adverse period, 3 and 4 quarterback, not playing at the same level he was last year, not that far away from it, you know, in some of the games. he's been banged up. He's missed three of the seven games, or he's about to miss his third of eight games, excuse me, third of eight. But, you know, we do have to kind of take a step back and say, okay, that is the past, man. This new regime's already delivered a 17 and 10 overall record, two and one in the playoffs in just one completed season. You know, if you weren't willing to do what I did before last year, which was to blissfully give them the benefit of the doubt before they had proved anything,

just because I wanted to give this organization the benefit of the doubt because it was so impossible to do it for 20 years. But if you weren't able to join me last year for benefit of the doubt before the season began, how aren't you doing it now after last season? I mean, I'm not doing it blindly. I have good support for continuing to give these guys benefit of the doubt. Much more support than I had a year ago. I have one season in the books, and they went 12 and 5 and won two road playoff games

with, you know, a roster that was really not up to snuff, but was evolving. Now, sometimes in the evolution of a roster, you have stepbacks. Somebody asked me this morning, I think he's, it's my guy Kevin in Arlington. You know, through all of this, what I can't explain is Sanristil's regression, Senate not coming through, Brandon Coleman's regression. Here's one explanation, and I'm not saying it's the only possibility. Young players, super young players, sometimes have up and down starts to their career.

Actually, most times, they'll have a good game here, they'll have a bad game here, they might have a good season here, might have a bad season here. these guys are still so young, so inexperienced. Sandra still was terrific last year. Maybe the easy answer there is just that he should be on the outside, not the inside. Senate actually has developed into a blocking guy. Look, the Coleman thing looks like it's not a good thing. I will concede that when you get benched after starting for basically now five games,

it'll be five games in a row if it happens on Monday night, six games in a row, whatever it'll be. But not every draft choice hits. Most don't. A good hit rate is hitting on 37, 38%. So not all of them are going to be good players. But look, I went back because I was thinking about something in response to Randall's sports psychologist email. Ben Standing, you know, every summer for the last six or seven years, has done this NFL agent survey.

and he conducts it in the summer and then produces the survey results. And for all the years that he was doing it with Snyder here, it was like Washington is the worst organization in the league. Washington is the worst front office. Washington, everything was bottom, right? Well, this past summer, remember, and we read some of these quotes and we're like, is this our organization that people are talking about? Here are some of the quotes from agents about Washington.

Quote, Washington is the most stable organization. from top to bottom, closed quote. I remember reading that in the, you know, late summer when Ben put that survey out, I'm like, are they talking about us? Here's another quote. They emphasized culture and character, and I don't mean that just with the players,

but with the front office and coaching staff as well. Everyone talks about family these days, right? Every company's a family. You can never truly have a genuine family dynamic with a team because it's a business. But I think that Adam and the guys have done the best, job in the league of really trying to put that together and create that, closed quote. Another quote specific to Adam Peters. I know it's only one season, but I think what Adam Peters

is done and what I think he's going to continue to do, I think the culture that he's building is going to sustain success for a long time, closed quote. That was just two months ago. Two months ago. And now some of you, not the majority of you, I know, you're killing Adam Peters. You're like, we got the wrong guy at quarterback. We should have drafted Drake May. Dan Quinn is just, you know, he's not the right guy. We should have waited for Ben Johnson. Two months ago, the whole league, the agents in this league,

and people say it all around the league now. Washington's completely different. In one year, less than one year, really, they completely changed the culture of the organization. Do you know how amazing that is, the work that they've done to make this place a destination for players. Two months ago, agents were saying this. Two weeks ago, I mean, two weeks ago, almost everybody agreed after the first two series

of the game, Jaden was lights out, A plus the rest of the way against the Chargers. And it's like, all right, deep breath, he's healthy, and we got him back, and we're fine. We're good. Oh, by the way, Adam Peters, great job with Kroski Merritt in the seventh round. he has got a chance to win NFL rookie of the year offensively. And Trey Amos could be in the hunt for the defensive rookie of the year. That was just two weeks ago. You know, I mean, it's deep breath time, man.

This is an adverse period of time, and it is primarily due to a run of injuries and losing key players, for a lot of games. That is the number one reason they are three and four. You know, the irony is one fumble, one botched handoff in the rain against Chicago. And if that doesn't happen, they're four and three. And I think the actual tone is different. Now, I don't think it would be different about the defense.

And with Jaden getting hurt in Dallas, that conversation, which, by the way, I think that is a legitimate conversation and the only legitimate conversation about Jaden right now. is are we going to be in this, will he or won't he play, will he or won't he practice, you know, environment, you know, multiple times per season, every season. That is a legitimate concern. There's no other, you know, concern about Jaden's game that I have. I know he didn't play well on Sunday. He didn't see things. He didn't process quickly. Part of that's probably because, as Steve said, the receivers he had out there were practice squad guys and a couple of backups.

I mean, you know, young quarterbacks are entitled to games that aren't A pluses. That game for him, even Suter said C minus, wasn't an F, wasn't a D. I'll tell you this, though, after Monday night, it's going to get worse. I cannot sell you on an upset at Arrowhead Monday night. We'll see if Jay Gruden can. We'll get to him next after these words from a few of our sponsors. So guys, I introduced you to a really good product a while back, and I want to remind everybody, for those of you that have been wearing the same boxer briefs, the same any kind of underwear for a long time now,

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This segment of the show brought you by Window Nation. If you need new Windows 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com, they're offering two free windows with every two purchased, and the option of not paying anything for two full years. No money down, no monthly payments, and no interest charged until the year 2027. Wind Donation knows that DMVers, many of you are struggling with the government shut down and they want to help. It starts with a free estimate. No obligation required, no pressure put on you.

If you call them at 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com, they'll schedule it. They'll do it for you in an hour. or less. When they come to install the windows, they do it in a day or less. Give Window Nation a shot and do it before October 31st to get access to free windows, two of them for every two purchased, and nothing owed for two years. 86690 Nation, Window Nation.com. Joining me right now as he does every Friday during football season, the former head coach of the Washington Redskins, J. Gruden. We will get his lock of the week in a bit. We'll talk about some of the key games on Sunday. But we've got to start with our team that went to Dallas on Sunday and got absolutely

blown out 44 to 22. And now they're heading to Arrowhead for a Monday night game in which as of this moment, they are 13-point underdogs with Jaden Daniels sitting in Marcus Marietta starting. So before we go to Monday night. I do want to get your thoughts just on the state of the team right now and what you're seeing because the defense is in disarray clearly and we can start there if you'd like. What's the problem and is there a solution? I think the problem is right now other than Bobby Wagner's experience and his ability to play between the tackles, they really don't have anything that's a strength. They can't rely on a four-man and pass rush. They can't rely on their past coverage. They can't rely on really anything right now

because they're not very talented at any position. Ladamore's giving up big plays and getting penalties. The rookie Amos is coming along okay. But the biggest concern for me is the ability to pressure the quarterback and create turnovers by doing that. And they just don't have the people to do it. You know, Jacob Martin had a couple hits. You know, Von Miller's a little bit older. You know, you're hoping pain can do something on the inside, but it's just not coming together for them. And they're not putting themselves in good situation to rush the passer because they're giving up some hits on the running game as well. So they're not stopping to run very good. They're not rushing the pass are very good, and their coverage isn't very good right now. So I don't know. They've got to figure something out

and try to do some different things on the back end. Maybe blitz a little bit more with Lou Who and Bobby Wagner try to create pressure on the quarterback and force the merit throws. But like I said, there's just not a lot that they can hang their hat. And, okay, we're really good at this. Let's feature this and sprinkle some other things in. I just don't know what they're really good at. So I want to come back to that in a moment, but specific to a couple of players, what's happened to Sanra still this year? Last year on the outside primarily played exceptionally well as a rookie. This year, you know, along with Latimore, it seems like teams are just going after him. Why? You know, I don't know. You're not a very big guy, but he wasn't a very big

last year, he had a great year last year, I thought, when he had to move to the outside. And, you know, I bounced around positions, might have an effect on them. You know, it's kind of like, you know, we had Kendall Fuller. We moved on the inside. He played pretty good. Then we moved back outside. He got traded. He's outside.

He's kind of never really found a home. Well, sometimes it's not easy just to, okay, go play nickel today. You know, you go play outside today. You go cover this guy here today. You know, sometimes they just need a constant place to really feel secure in what they're doing, defensively, maybe just a lot of moving around, a lot of stuff has affected him a little bit. But I don't think he's really been the problem too much. He's got target a little bit more than he did last year.

But I think the whole team has got some issues. They all have a bullseye on their front right now. I've asked you this a couple of times, I think, already this year. And look, the injuries, they've lost, you know, their top two starting defensive ends, you know, Wise and then Armstrong, a devastating loss after last week. They lost John Baptiste, who was the backup defensive. And they've had injuries on that side of the ball as much as the offense has had injuries on its side of the ball. But you are a coach.

You're an offensive coach, but you were a head coach. How much of this for people like me is coaching and scheme versus personnel? Well, I think it's a lot about personnel. I've always believed it's about the players, not to play so much. and when you run out of players, it's very difficult to scheme up anything. Okay, what are we going to do today with our third stream defense to tackle? You know, we're going to stunt them in the A-gap. We're going to play them two.

It's just very hard. It's very, very difficult. They just don't have the firepower now. I don't know. You can pull out Buddy Ryan and run the 46 zone. The old Chicago Bear defense may get gutted right now. Yeah, there's just not a lot they can hang their hat on. They just got to try to fight through this period of time right now.

Hopefully get some guys back. Hopefully find some guys that are young and can develop or maybe hit a home run on a practice squad guy or pick somebody up off somebody else's practice squad and hit a homer somehow. Whether the storm till Jaden gets back, but Terry gets back, Delibo gets back, and they can put up the points and win some games,

some high-scoring games. I'm wondering if you've observed the following. The one thing that, for me, watching them, is I don't see like a defense that's, dejected that's thrown in the towel, that isn't trying to fly around and play with a level of urgency and competitiveness. And you do see that with some teams when, you know, one side of the ball or both sides of the ball just are terrible and they just, they're going through the motions. I don't see that with the defense, do you? No, not at all. And I think that's what,

I think that's why they still have a chance because they do play hard. You know, the issue with them is If they give up an 8 to 10 of 12-play drive, they get tired, and they lose that ability to play fast and physical. They get worn out instead of playing 100% ficey and all that stuff. Now, I'm tired. I'm breathing heavy. Now my pad level gets higher. Now we really get gutted.

So if they can stay fresh, the offense can keep them on the sideline with some good long drives of their own, and they can play fresh and they can run around and do some stunts and T.E stunts and plant the A gap and B gap and let Bobby come into the A gap. and create havoc and run and play fast, then they have a chance. But when they get tired, they got no chance. So you coached some teams here, and we've talked about them many times, that were terrible on defense, the 2015, the 2016 team in particular. I mean, you know, guys like David Bruton and Greg Toler back there,

and it's a disaster. So do you ever get to the point where you're thinking drastically as a head? head coach. Like, we just got to do something to be, we're sending seven or six on every single, you know, run down, pass down, it doesn't matter. We're going to die going down swinging. Like, do you think that way? And is that actually plausible to put into play for a team that's so vulnerable? Yeah, when the defense coordinator calls it all out, but something like that, I turn my head and go to the water cooler and wait for the crowd noise and go, Oh,

Musk. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you don't want to put your corners at that damn brisk, and some of the receivers will get to go get. It's great.

Then you play cover two, then you play cover three to cover fours and change the coverage is up, and it's a gain of five, gain of eight, gain of 12, and you're sitting there, and your best players on offense are standing on a sideline looking at you. Like,

when are we going to go back in? I just hold on, just wait until they score. Yeah. So, yeah, it's hard. It's a situation of being, just hoping that somehow you get a tip-fall interception

or they get a whole in call or take them out of field position. But I think Phil Washington has enough talent on that team with Bobby Lou Who and Marshaun and Kwan's got to play better and some of these guys are drawn and Newton.

They just, you know, it's kind of weather storm and make some play. The D-Corpsator calls an all-out zero-coverage blitz. Where's the head coach? He's back at the water cold cooler with his ears perked up. waiting to hear the crowd noise. That's pretty funny.

You know, this guy that I have on, he's one of the all-time great punt returners in NCAA history, calls Maryland games on the radio broadcast, and he's just excellent sort of breaking down the film. And he said to me the other day, he said, when it comes to Latimore at this point, he may just want to really study hard and start guessing, and start gambling,

and just try to make a play if he's going to get torched, at least make one or two plays by guessing right once or twice. Would you advocate for that for a guy like Lattimore? No. I think Lattimore feels more comfortable playing bump and run. You can see that. And unfortunately, people are taking advantage of that. They're not afraid of it anymore, and they're throwing the ball up there

because they know, A, it's going to be caught, or B, it's going to be a P.I. And they're not worried about him with his ball skills, getting the picks. So he's got to play the ball better when he plays bump and run. The play at the end of the half was just an absolute killer. I mean, it was an absolute one of the worst plays I've seen in pro football a long time in that situation to give up that to... Because why? Because they were playing it incorrectly. They should have been playing. They were 25 seconds ago and a half of the second and seven.

I mean, just play off and let us get the hitch. Exactly. Let Abe, let Aubrey kick a 68-yard field goal to get a half. That's fine. Well, whose fault was that? look you can still play bump and run. I would have played, I would have clouded both sides. You know, I'm putting somebody over CD and somebody over Pickens in that situation.

There's no way I'm going to let Back Prescott throw just a fade ball down the left sideline. One on one, pickets against Lattimore with the way Blattimore's been playing, and the chance of a PI or something like that. That's just, that I think, you know, I try not to criticize coaches call that one I did not like. And if the coach is going to say, oh, you know what, or I trust you. just not going to get beat deep. Don't get beat deep. I mean, play on this top shoulder.

You know what I mean? If he catches a back shoulder for a game of 15, that's fine, but you can't give up a 40-yard bomb in that situation. So, yeah, that play really bothered me because that play made it at 27 to 15. Yeah. Yeah. And the next play of the team, because Washington had the ball coming out. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. They blow a blip pick up, and Jane gets third. They don't pick up the flip. And Jane gets hurt, and then the next thing you know, if Marcus comes in the pick six and the game's over. So, I mean, the game's,

was right there still for Washington. As ugly as it looked, it was 20 to 15, going into halftime with the ball. So that play, that three-play drive, I think, was really rough, and then Washington couldn't recover. I'm glad you said that because I said that after the game and then again on Monday and Tuesday that, you know, after that drive at the end of the first half that made it 20 to 15, you know, even down 2715, they're on the move. First and 10, Jaden had completed that third and 10 sort of off-scheduled a more.

they're probably going to go in and score again. And I don't think they're going to stop Dallas enough to win the game, but it's at least a game. And we've seen, you know, Rocky up and down first halves with Jaden and the offense going back to last year, where in the second half they come out and light it up. But with respect to that last Dallas drive, I just want everybody to be clear on what Jay saying. You can't be in man coverage. You can't give a fade ball, even though it was perfectly thrown. by Prescott, you can't give them that opportunity.

You've got to make them throw underneath and get, you know, 10 yards, 12 yards, and let Aubrey try a 65-yarder at the end of the half and be down 23 to 15, maybe, not 27 to 15. Yeah, that was infuriating. All right, let's talk about the offense, you know, how much of what you watched Sunday was, you know, not enough bodies that are capable at wide receiver on the field. Yeah, all of it really.

They're just not very talented, unfortunately. And it's very difficult. We said this before the season when Terry was holding out. If Terry holds out, that receiver room is very average, even with Devo, it's probably bottom third, maybe even lower than that as far as skill set on the, at the receiver position in tight end position, you can add, and running back position you can add in for the skilled position without Terry. he goes down, you know,

got to be bottom ranked 28th or 29th probably. Now with Terry and Ebo out, now you're talking about who's going to win in man coverage? Who the hell are you going to look to if you're Jayden Daniels? I mean, is it Zach Gertz? You know, the older tight end on a basic cross route getting open, hopefully. Is it Chris Moore? Is it McCaffrey?

Who's it going to be? And right now they don't have that guy, and that's a big concern because as good as Jaden is, I don't even think he can put on a Superman cape and consistently make plays that need to be made to have a successful offense. Clips are great offensive coordinator, but right now they just don't have the Joe's, you know,

to make this thing work. Did you see Jaden a little bit hesitant to pull the trigger a few times because perhaps he was not trusting of the wide receiver group or was he just missing things and it was on him? I saw one, he threw a, he threw a, we called a Thunder out in the boundary, And I think it was Chris Moore. It might have been Chris Moore.

Lane. The chosen one. He just went too deep. Jaden was on quick game footwork, and the guy went, you know, two extra steps on his route, and the ball looked like it was an apparent throw. But Jane threw it on time. The receiver was just too deep. And then the one to Zach Ertzty missed, you know, it was a fail cut,

and Zach batted down on the zone. And Jaden was anticipating him to take it out a little bit more, and he missed that one. You missed another one on the sideline. But, you know, sometimes when you have these new receipts, receivers and then, you know, the timing's not there. Jayden's expecting a certain thing. And if it's not there, it's very difficult for a rhythm-type quarterback. And now, if you're not sure the guy's going to be there in the right spot, the right footwork,

and right timing, now you're going to be hesitant, then you're going to be late. And then all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose, you've got to scramble for a three-yard game. So they've got to get together. You know, if these guys are going to play here the next few weeks, Chris Moore, he's got to get more detailed. The Robbie chosen, he's got to get more detailed. I don't know how that's going to work, but yeah, somebody's got to step up and make some play if Terry doesn't play. I'll ask you the question that I asked callers earlier in the week.

Is this season salvageable, meaning can they make the postseason or at least go to the final week of the season with a chance to make the postseason? I think so. I think any time that guy runs out of tunnel is your quarterback, you got a chance. So please, okay after, you know, after this week, probably take one on a chin against Kansas City, you know, battle, play hard. come back after Monday night and get Jaden back and get Debo back and get Terry back 100% and make it run offensively. And offensively, they got to really be precise and they got to take advantage of every drive that they have. And it really helped the defense out.

But I really do. I would never count out a team with Jaden Daniels and his starting quarterback. All right. What is the formula for what would be a pretty shocking upset? We see it happen in the NFL all the time. But what would you be thinking we have to do with Mario? a quarterback and a defense that's in, you know, in tatters and you're facing a healthy Kansas City offense on Monday night at Arrowhead. Give me, give me a, you know, a somewhat, somewhat plausible

formula for pulling off the upset. You know, I saw the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Kansas City Chiefs, so it's not impossible for Washington to go in there and get a upset, really. I know they got Rishie Rice back and everybody's like, oh, my God, the whole weapons were back. know, Jacksonville beat them. So they're not unbeatable for God's sake. I think you go in there and you play good sound defense. You got to hustle and hit two hats on the ball every time. Try to get some punch out.

These guys can be careless with the football. Hollywood Brown can be careless with the football. Pacheco can be careless with football. We've got to get the ball out and create some turnovers on defense. And offensively, you've got to play a physical brand of football. You've got to match their physicality up front. It's going to be difficult. But got to try to possess the football.

Be very, very good on have the best third down plan of the year. make sure we possess the football, keep our defense fresh, and obviously convert in the red zone if given the opportunity. Last time Washington played at Arrowhead, it was a Monday night game in 2017, and that was one hell of a football game. And Doxon had the ball in his hands in the end zone for the lead with under a minute to go. I think you've told me before about that play that Kirk should have gone to Jordan Reed. Oh, it's wide open. It was a sluggles-themed type of route.

We had a hitch-and-go by Jordan Reed on one side against the safety, and if it was man-to-man and the safety state in the middle, we were going to work Jordan Reed one-on-one to the field, and Jordan Reed just diced them up. I mean, a hook-line and sinker wide open, and Kirk went right to the scene ball, which is Dockson, which, you know, he threw a great ball, and Josh went up for the catch and just couldn't hold on to it.

But I would have loved to see him throw the ball to Jordan there. But, you know, he threw a good ball. But I wish you were thought of Jordan. Yeah. All right. When we come back, Jay will give us some thoughts on the big games of the week and give us his lock of the week right after these words from a few of our sponsors. A bunched-up NFCJ right now standings-wise.

I mean, the NFC West has three, five, and two teams. you've got in the NFC North. Well, now you finally have a team with a losing record after last night. Minnesota's in deep trouble, aren't they? Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep trouble, as deep as you can get. They just don't have a quarterback at this point. Yeah, I think they're all looking at each other saying what the hell of we let that guy go for. Lambdarnold, you know, you're banking on a rookie entire season with the me,

and he's already, he played two games against hurt to get hurt again, and now you're dealing with Carson Wentz. It's too bad. You know, I was just watching that team play last night. It's tough. They played a tough game against Philly last week. Then you've got to fly to California. It's stupidest thing ever. I mean, if you're going to play Thursday night football, just try to have the games kind of local. I mean, so you don't have to fly cross-country for God's sake.

Yeah. It's stupid. I don't know if people understand how hard that is. So you kind of take that one on Shimp. But yeah, they're not very good at anything right now. It's tough to watch because they were, what, like 14 and 3 last year? 14 and 3. Yeah, 14 and 3. And by the way, the five seed because Detroit was 15 and 2, right? I think that's how it shook out. Yeah. Right now, best team in the NFC is who?

I would probably say Detroit, followed by the Rams and then Philadelphia. Those three teams right there, I think, can beat each other anytime, any place. And then Green Bay is close behind them with San Francisco, creeping up a little bit when Brock Bertie comes back. what do you make of Drake May and the Patriots through seven weeks yeah they've been they've been very very good you know I like the way Drake May's playing a lot of confidence and I think what New England did to address the defensive side of the ball I think they want to find seven veterans to help that

defense and they're all performing at a pretty good level and Stefan digg was huge for him to give Drake May a target that you can really rely on so yeah I like where they're at Stevenson's running the ball pretty good Josh McDaniels calling good games for Drake and they're in a good thought right now. I think they're playing a lot of confidence. But we'll see, you know, some of these teams like Indianapolis and New England. We'll see how they can maintain the success they've had early. That's the trick. The consistency to maintain. Do you believe in Indianapolis? I believe that they have a very good roster top to bottom, so they're going to be in a lot of

games, and I really like Shane's a very good play caller. So I do believe that they're going to be something to deal with towards the end of the season. What makes Shane such a good play caller? I was listening to Flacco the other day on a podcast, and he was talking about why he went to Indianapolis last year, and he said he's just a big fan and a big believer in Shane Steichen. Why do people feel that way about him? Well, he does a great job of mixing things up. He keeps everything on balance.

Obviously, they have a very good running back in there. He used his light as that to his strength. He's going to make sure he gets his best player of the ball, and he does that, and then he plays off of that with great misdirection and great bootlegs and play passes and all that. stuff. You know, he's got good receiving core, solid receiving core, and a quarterback that's not making many mistakes. So when you

have a good sound running game with the best left guard at pro football and a very solid offensive line, you can do a lot of good things. And Shane does a great job of mixing it up not being one-dimensional, despite having a one-dimensional type player. They're not one-dimensional at all. Back to the NFC. What can the Cowboys be

this year? Average, you know, their defense isn't good enough to me. I think their offense is absolutely terrific. There's no doubt about it. But I think at the end of the day, it's going to be hard to score 35, 45 points. When you play home game and you score 40 points, and you tie, there's problems. Yeah, that's true.

You know what I mean? I just think that they're going to sizzle out at some point unless they figure out something on defense where they can get a stop or two. They play the Broncos in a highlighted spot late afternoon on Sunday. Who do you like in that game? I like Denver. I think that you play good defense. I think the way Denver plays defense, they'll get the stops they need. I'm not a big man of Bo Nix. Really, I just think

he's too inconsistent. He's a great competitor, great athlete. I do like that about him, but I still think Denver will get the job done against Dallas. Dallas just lost to Carolina not too long ago. We forget about that. They beat a dismantled, injured Washington Commander team this past weekend. So they're going to get a full strength Denver Bronco team, and we'll see how they do.

earlier in the day, did the Giants have a chance to sweep the Eagles at the link? No, I don't think so, but, you know, Eagles, I think that when you come off a devastating loss like that, that takes a toll on you.

You know what I mean? Yeah. It really does. I mean, this is a game they had right in their hands. If he doesn't throw the pick and they get to, hey, there's so many plays you can point to in that game the Giants should have won,

but you come out of that game on the road to the loss, I think they're going to be still shaking up. I think Philadelphia takes care of them. Was there a devastating loss for you in your career that nothing equaled what Denver did to the Giants? I understand that. But one that was really hard to then, you know. The Giants for last game in the year, which could have made the playoffs. Right.

The most devastating, obviously the playoff loss is the Green Bay. But yeah, yeah, those two are the worst losses. The giant game, we should have won that game, damn it? Yeah. We've been playing enough fun offense. But I was thinking more of a game in the middle of the season where it was so heartbreaking, so devastating that it was safe three. I went on the road. That was a tough one.

We should have won that one. Yeah, that was the one I was thinking of because the lead was, you know, 15 with like two minutes to go. And it got away from us. All right. Sunday night, Aaron Rogers against his former team. Who do you like? That's a tough one. I think the way Pittsburgh's playing defense, I just don't understand it with the people that they have. I don't think they can, I don't think they can win against Green Bay. I think Jordan Love will do enough. I think Josh Jacobs will do enough to get it done in Pittsburgh. I just can't believe how poorly Pittsburgh's defense is playing right now. I can't believe they give up 17, 16 catches is Jamar Chase. I know he's great and all that stuff. I mean, good God, you have two good corners. You have Jaylon Ramsey and poor. I mean, for God's sake. Can we get a hat on them? Can we make a photo to somebody else?

Yeah. But I don't know if they can bounce back or not, I think defensively, I'm sure Mike Tomlin's challenging the hell out of them. So that scares me a little bit, but I still think Green Bay will get it done, even though I have not been as impressed with Green Bay as a lot of people have been. The AFC North is going to be so interesting the way it plays out. I mean, the Steelers, if they lose to the Packers, they've got the Colts next week. They've got the chargers on the road the week after that.

Cincinnati and Baltimore are still. very much in this thing. We'll see about the Ravens. They've got to show that with Lamar that they can win games with the defense playing the way it is, but that's going to be a fascinating watch the rest of the year, that division. I mean, somebody could win it at 9 and 8. I can't believe the ASC North, you're telling me, I mean, just based on my history, that the Ravens defense is horrific, the Steelers defense is sub and the Bengals defense is awful. I mean, back in the day, I mean, you're lucky to score 15 points. Yeah.

Now you're looking to score 40. unheard of. Yeah. All right. Lock of the week time. You had the Saints last week. I actually liked that play on the road against the Bears and it did not cash.

They turned it over too much in the first half. They were in the game though. You know, came back and had a chance. I'm sure you were watching it closely. You're paying attention to it. But who do you have this week? I am going to take I want to take the Buffalo Bill

I'm going to lay the point. I think they're going to come out and play very spirited type of football game. Andy Dalton is going to start. I love Andy Dalton. Obviously, I coach him helped me get a job with the Washington Redskins, but I think Buffalo Bills are going to start their sprint to the finish line to win the AFD. All right. I'm looking for some sevens so you don't have to lay seven in the hook, and I found one.

So I'm going to give you the Bills minus seven against the Panthers, who have been on a bit of a role here recently and are back to... I'm not convinced. They look awful against it. That was maybe one of the worst football games I've seen in a while as well. There's been a bad football game. The Jet Game? The Jet Panther game was absolutely a barf bag was needed to...

Can somebody... If Justin Fields is allowed back out onto the field to play quarterback, could somebody just say, we don't even care where you throw it? just throw the damn ball. He's not very decisive or accurate or he doesn't have very good pocket presence. Other than that, he's playing good quarterback. So, I mean, you're not accurate, you're not decisive and you don't have good pocket presence.

It's going to be a struggle. And Justin has a long way to go to a development to be a starting quarterback. He's got a long way to go. He's got to go somewhere and be a backup to an established player, maybe back up Josh Allen or maybe back up somebody that's a very good player so we can learn how to play the game the right way. But right now it is. it is oh god i can't watch it it's it i i said the denver game in in london two weeks ago i thought

was one of the most painful quarterback games i've ever watched he just would not throw the football and just kept getting sacked over and over again zero yards of offense and then you're going to say okay team we're going to start with this guy again yeah yeah i mean there's no way Tyrod Taylor can't be, he has to play for that team. When you have to have to play. I mean, look, you had, you had RG3 at a time in which he wouldn't throw the football. He'd sit back there and take sacks. We remember that 2014 season and towards the end of it, the Ram game, the Buccaneer game.

Like, how do you convince the rest of the team I'm going to trot him back out there again? Well, you can't. You know, that's the worst kind of turmoil you can have in-house is when they don't think the coach has control of the football team, and they think the puppet strings are coming from somewhere else. So you've got to make that tough call. I mean, you just got to do it. I mean, otherwise you'll lose the locker room.

And I'm sure I lost the locker room before, but you kind of make the move if you're head coach. You only get one opportunity to be a head coach. You've got to make the decisions that you think are right to win football game. And Aaron Glenn has got to make that tough call. All right. Buffalo minus 7 over the third. The Panthers is the pick. I'll talk to you next week. Thanks.

All right, thanks. Jay Gruden, everybody. I'll finish up the show next with the smell test. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. The smell test is always brought to you by My Bookie. If you want to bet on sports, I would recommend My Bookie. Even if you've got another spot in which you're betting on sports, take advantage of what My Bookie is offering my listeners.

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series gets started tonight. You can bet on that if you have interest. But if you're a sports better, my advice is to sign up with my bookie and take the 50% cash bonus and have a second place where you can comparison shop on things like point spreads, totals, et cetera. All right, let's get to the smell test. Five five and one last week. First non-winning week of the season. It wasn't a losing week. I said, expect a correction at some. point. I'll take the correction being a 500 record. Let's hope it doesn't correct even further this weekend, but 56, 35, and 5 on the season, that's 61.5%. Let's start tomorrow, Saturday. Oklahoma's laying five and a half against Lane Kiffin's team coming off that disappointing

but exciting loss at Georgia. And Oklahoma hasn't looked good recently. They beat South Carolina last week after getting thumped by Texas. There are some questions about their ability to score. This number is high, and there's going to be a theme to this smell test. I'm giving out more favorites than I typically give out. Oklahoma's laying five and a half. The public's backing Ole Miss. I'll take the Sooners and lay the five and a half.

UCLA's won three in a row behind their new coach and New Heisel's son as the offensive coordinator. They're playing Indiana. Indiana's laying 26, believe it or not, the public wants the points. against the number two team in the country. I'll lay them. Indiana minus 26. Minnesota's won a couple of games in a row. Iowa barely squeaked by Penn State with their new interim coach. I was laying too big of a number to Minnesota so the public likes a dog here as well. I'll take Iowa and lay the nine. Vandy is a public darling right now, favorite or underdog. They were laying a short number last week against LSU and I gave out LSU. It did not get. home. It was the only college loss that I had. How are they only laying three against Missouri at home? I'll take Missouri plus the three. Cincinnati's been rolling, and they're laying a short number at home against Baylor. I'll take Baylor plus the four. And then Miami, after their loss last Friday night to Louisville, they're playing Stanford. Stanford beat Florida State last week, and Miami's

laying 30. I'll take the canes and lay the 30. Let's go. go to Sunday. How's Houston favored over San Francisco? Two-point favorite over the 49ers. I gave Houston out Monday night at Seattle. Did not get there. I understand. Nico Collins is probably out of this game as well. And the number's gone up. Sharp money on Houston, public money on San Francisco. I'll take the Texans and lay the two. Going against New England again, sorry, but the Browns are a major anti-public play. I'll take them plus seven. And yes, I'm going to do it again. You know what? This This will be the last time I do it. The Jets, buying the half point plus seven at Cincinnati.

And then the Saints are the biggest anti-public play on Sunday. They're getting four at home against Tampa Bay. I'll take New Orleans. That's it. Let me recap. Oklahoma, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Baylor, and Miami on Saturday. Sunday, the Texans, Browns, Jets, and Saints. That is it for this Friday back on Monday to preview Skins Chiefs.