The Kevin Sheehan Show - Del Rio Fired After Disaster In Dallas

Episode Date: November 24, 2023

Cooley back on the show today. The boys talked about the morning firings of Jack Del Rio and defensive backs coach Brent Vieselmeyer from the Commanders. Plenty on the Dallas disaster as well with their respective "game-takes". Jay Gruden made his weekly visit and Kevin finished with his "Smell Test".  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Happy Black Friday, everybody. NFL football today. Jets and Dolphins, first time NFL on a Friday following Thanksgiving.

Washington plays Miami next. So check out the Dolphins. The defense should be much better off because Jack Del Rio's gone. Fired earlier today. Much more on that. Guess who's joining me to open. the show on this Friday following Thanksgiving. You wanted it, and he is delivering a little bit later than we had wanted it, but Cooney's back with us today.

And the reason you're back is because you actually got to watch their game yesterday, right? I got to watch the game. Yeah. How was your Thanksgiving? It was awesome. I told you we were going to go to Chinese food, but we ended up doing Thanksgiving dinner at home. You did. Okay. Yes. Because when I talked to the other day, you said, yeah, I think we're going to just do Chinese on Thursday. And I'm like, what? And you're like, yeah, I don't really like the whole Thanksgiving thing. Or you didn't like actually hosting. No, no, that's not true.

What did you say then? I don't like the whole disaster cleanup mess of Thanksgiving and all the work that goes into Thanksgiving. So what did you end up doing? We actually ended up having one of our wrestlers over and he had a friend over. Most of our Northwest college wrestlers that I'm coaching went back to their families

and stuff but two of the international kids came over actually it was amazing they didn't have any like any of things so Maddie made an awesome mill but they hadn't had

the green bean cassero right so they were so afraid of it both of them first piece of pie they'd ever had oh come on really I swear yeah

The one of them, the one, the wrestler that we had is one of our wrestlers, the one wrestler that won the national championship for us last year. He's back, he's from Uzbekistan. The other kid is a basketball player, and he is from Abu Dhabi, which is not. Right. I think that source from, whatever. Yeah. No, it's not. But he's a man-made island.

What's that, the wealthy island? Well, Abu Dhabi is very wealthy. I mean, that's in the EU. That's, I believe in the UAE, I think. That's where it is. My son actually went there last year. Two great kids. For business.

Huh? I said two great kids. Also, we had this thing, the elementary school had this thing where if you ran the most laps in your grade, you got a free turkey. Both of my kids ran the most laps. So we had two turkeys, and they wanted them have turkeys. And my son was so excited because he won the turkey, but then he didn't eat any turkey. not even a bite. My wife ended up making him ramen noodles for Thanksgiving.

So you had one of your wrestlers, but the other kid from Abu Dhabi, if that's where he's from, he's a basketball player. It's not Abu Dhabi. Okay, wherever it is. He's from, he's on the basketball team, not the wrestling team. Yeah. Okay. So it's just that they're kind of stuck here on a holiday or when everyone goes everywhere else.

So they came over and we had. We hosted Thanksgiving. We had fun. Dominican Republic. Was it Milton Rodriguez Santana? No, it's not the, I love that you're looking up. It's not the Dominican Republic. No, I'm looking up the roster, the basketball roster for the Northwest Trappers.

No, I know. We can do this. We can do this. And you'll get it at some point. Well, what do you say it? I recognize it. It's so bad. I'm so slow right now.

It looks like there's a kid from Belgium on the team, a kid from Australia on the team. And then there's a kid from Dominican Republic on the team. There's a Mexican kid on the team, and everybody else is from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, or California. Okay. That's not the Dominican. That's this year's roster. All right. You know what?

Let's not bog down in this. So you made, did you make both of the turkeys? Did Maddie make both of the turkeys? No, I made one turkey. We still have another turkey. How did you make your turkey? Oh, I did the butter based under the skin and then I cooked it on the Trager grill. It was very good.

All right, good. And the regular, like, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, it sounds like, who made the pie? And what kind of pie was it? We had a pumpkin pie and a key lime pie, and I think we bought the pie. Okay. I like both of those pie options. They're excellent.

They're very good pies. Well, good. Oh, good, Thanksgiving. It was great. I was, so everybody, let me just give you fair warning. First of all, the show, as always, presented by Window Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com. Mention my name.

They'll take great care of you. Jay Gruden's going to be on the show as he's been most Fridays, and I did record the segment with Jay before the Jack Del Rio news came out. But I think you'll be interested in what he said anyway. So that is coming up in the next segment of the show. And then the final segment of the show will be the smell test for this weekend, which, Cooley, I actually had the Packers in the smell test yesterday. I had Washington in the smell test yesterday.

But the line went from 10 and a half on Wednesday to 14, 13 and a half, 14. I actually wanted to pull it. I didn't pull it. I played it plus 14. We'll talk a lot about the game. Jack Del Rio coming up. But as far as my Thanksgiving goes, we hosted again, I don't know, it's like 30 straight years, 25 straight years, something like that we've hosted.

And we had 20-something at our house. It was very nice. The meal was great. But here's the thing that was very noticeable to me. In years past, when Washington's played Dallas on Thanksgiving, there have been a lot of people in the house on Thanksgiving that have really cared about the game. to be honest with you, I got the sense that if we never turned the TV on yesterday, maybe a few people would have been, like, can we turn it on to at least check the score?

We watched it and we paused it at halftime to eat, and no one was in a real big hurry to get back to it. I just think that that was, it's a personal observation. Maybe many of you had a much different experience, but you're talking about some big skins fans in the group and not really caring. I mean, I understand that they were four and seven going in, and, you know, you kind of had an expectation maybe that they would get their ass kicked. I was interested because I had Washington plus 14.

And I actually felt kind of good about it through halftime and even into the third quarter. And then the game got sideways. But yeah, it was a nice Thanksgiving. Very nice Thanksgiving. Dubai. It's Dubai. Oh, it's Dubai. Okay. I still don't see him on the roster. What was his name? Well, maybe he's not on the roster right now. I don't know. We didn't talk much about it.

Yeah. Well, Dubai is also... Dubai isn't that in the same country? Isn't Dubai also in the UAE? Maybe not. I don't know. Probably. Okay. Geography. What was the kids? What was the kids' name? I can't remember. He was just at your house for Thanksgiving. I know. He said his name when he came in, and then I didn't want to ask him again when I forgot it's exactly what it was about an hour in. I'm a jerk. He's a great kid. We had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed having them.

Terrible with names. I'll admit that. It's my fault. I would tell him. I'll ask and remember next time. Oh, I don't want to embarrass you. I doubt he's listening to this podcast. I felt the same way about the game. Like, we were trying to watch it, but we were playing cards with the kids and doing some stuff. and I actually had Dallas, and I had Dallas for one reason, or really mostly one reason, and that's when you have a dead staff and a dead coach. Teams don't really play well, especially late in games. So I had this expectation that Dallas would take a game over,

and in fact, they did touch. Yeah, they did. It's hard to play when you know your coach is gone. And by the way, there's no way those guys are enjoying. the year and you look at quotes from the guys and you can see what the message coming out of the locker room is and it's obvious like they're trying their best to say you know players got to do better some guys got to do better we got it's on us it's so obvious when everyone says it's just not working we got to do something to make it work it's a clear indictment on the coaching staff

yeah yeah i think the thing that we've been hearing since the beginning of the year is that they really missed chris harris uh we've talked to about this on the podcast, you know, a couple times during the year. I mean, I can't believe that one position coach, a defensive backs coach, is the difference between a defense that finished by every advanced measure as a top 10 defense last year. And this year is now basically the worst defense in the NFL. But that's always been mentioned as a guy that was missed. and I think in many ways because he was Jack's guy. Jack, you know, brought him with him to D.C.

He was the assistant DB's coach for Chris Harris. And when Harris left, he was elevated. I mean, this guy before he came back to football was a high school football coach. He was with Jack in Oakland when Jack was the head coach. But there are people that will tell you that Jack's gone. as much because of his devotion to Brent Wieselmeyer. Whatever it is, the bottom line is Jack's responsible for the defense. I'll just say what I've been saying for the last few weeks, coolly,

because this has been a conversation for the last few weeks, which it's been about, you know, there's been a lot of people, you know, super Twitter tough people who have wanted, you know, Ron fired and Jack fired. And for a lot of you, this is not what you wanted. You wanted Ron fired. And by the way, the statement from the team essentially means that Ron is going to finish out the year as a head coach. I mean, here was the actual statement from Josh Harris. I'm not going to read the whole thing.

But he, by the way, said something that I actually reported on the radio show. I had sources tell me that this was not a Josh Harris demanded thing or mandated thing. This was Ron Rivera who made the decision and went to Josh Harris to say. say this is what I'd like to do and Harris said fine. But Josh Harris basically said, Rivera came to me, recommended that we make a change at the defensive coordinator, defensive backs coach. He wished Ron and Brent, you know, the best. It's a long statement, but I'm just going to read you the part that I actually think is relevant to all of you, because I think this is what you were looking for in some ways, was somehow the owner to not be

complacent or passive and to do something. I feel exactly how our fans feel today, disappointed and frustrated. It's how our players and staff feel as well. I knew our first season of ownership would include challenges along the way, and we will not shy away from hard work, nor will we be deterred by adversity. As Coach Rivera and I discussed, all of our energy for the remainder of the season, will be focused on playing better, more consistent football, and developing our players while intently evaluating the areas in which we need to improve this off-season.

Our fans deserve a team that can compete with the NFL's best and win sustainably over the long term. I will not waver from that mission. Thank you to our fans for the ways in which you've breathed new life into our franchise. We have not been good enough this season, but our resolve for the future is unbroken. So there you go. But I'm telling you, this was not a Josh Harris mandated thing. I think other people are reporting the same thing that I discussed this morning on radio. This was Ron's call.

Cooley, you and I haven't talked about this necessarily. My position for the last couple of weeks has been, if he does something, fine. If he doesn't do anything, that's fine too. I don't personally as a fan need him to prove to me that he's not complacent or that he's passive. I've waited 24 years for a real NFL franchise. I can wait another month and a half. I've known from the beginning of the year that Ron Rivera and his staff were lame duck coaches. You know, the B-enemy thing, you know, sort of is a wild card here.

and I can wait another month and a half and I'm not going to, you know, if I haven't, for people who were threatening to bail, if he didn't fire somebody, so for 24 years you didn't bail, and now you're going to bail because he didn't fire anybody in season, have at it all you want. Look, it's justified. It's totally justified, and I'm okay with it.

But I would have been fine had he done nothing. But I think a lot of you are disappointed because you wanted it to be Ron. Well, now Ron gets back to coaching the defense. watch this, Cooley. Watch them shut down the dolphins and shut down the 49ers and shut down the Cowboys. And all of a sudden, Josh is like, Ron, you should have been coaching the defense all along. That's not going to happen. But anyway, there you go.

That's the story from out there. You felt like it was going to happen. That's why you bet the Cowboys. You felt like they were turning on Jack? No, no, no. I didn't feel. I didn't feel like they were going to file Jack Del Rio this week. I didn't know or have an expectation if they're going to fire Ron Rivera this week.

I'm just telling you, go back to a dead coach on the roster, and it's like you just don't play well. Jim Zorn era. Yeah. You know, and to the Groo and stuff, the Callahan stuff. You know, it's interesting when you fire head coach. It's almost unbelievable. I think that the interim coach wins the next game every single time.

Yeah. So if you want a better draft spot, you keep Ron Rivera in place. Well, they play Miami next. I don't care. I really don't care if they make Craig Hoffman head coach. They're going to win the next game if they hire the interim head coach. Okay, that was unnecessary. That was not necessary.

I'm going to need to. The first name I came up with. It's the first name I came up with. So here's a couple interesting things that I was thinking about with this. with Rivera and somewhat of how this year's unfolded and the BNAMI and just the team I felt like whether or not it was exactly the identity

that I believed in that Ron Rivera and Del Rio were pushing for last year was that we need to be able to run the football and we really need to commit to run the football we have two great backs we've got to find a way to run the ball and we've got to control the clock and this is the style of football that we want to play I know you remember that that was kind of the message that came out before they hired a new offensive coordinator.

Well, instead, you hire BNAMI and you throw the ball more times than anybody in the league with a rookie quarterback. And I'm not saying it's not great for the development of how it's not great to see what BNemi could be as the full-time offensive coordinator for that team, potentially a head coach in the future. But ultimately, Rivera had this idea of what his identity as a team was going to be and then did a complete 180 and said, we'll go this way. I think if I'm Del Rio right now, I'm sitting here saying in part, we went from a top 10 defense to 30th in the league because we throw the ball on every fucking down. Yeah.

That makes it hard on us, guys. But get it that it's also both sides of the ball affect both sides of the ball. And by no means it is an excuse. And I'm in no way making an excuse for Del Rio or for what the secondary has been and for the yards that they've given up and big plays. But at the same time, it doesn't help. And it doesn't help that you, in theory, if that was your mindset, whether or not you lucked into or fell into or whatever it happened

that you believed that you were a physical run-the-ball team, that in one off season, you went, really four months, you went from that to a complete past heavy offense. Right. And to me, what's weird about that in some ways is Ron Rivera's been head coach in this league and played in the league and been around for long enough, that I'm almost blown away that he immediately fell into that. Well, okay, we'll just do this now.

Like you would think a guy that had been around the way he has would have said, no, this is what I want. If this is going to be on my last year, I'm going out, doing what I want to do. Yeah, you know, this is interesting because we haven't talked a lot about this. And it is interesting to revisit it because you're right. The talk when the season ended was, you know, run first, heavy run. And, you know, we were all sitting here talking about it. Heavy run.

They're going to, you know, line up with eight tight ends and run Brian Robinson Jr. 50 times a game. And then when they hired Bienemy, things changed. And, you know, then there was the, you know, yeah. So what's interesting is as you're sitting there saying it, two things popped into my mind. Number one is it's the way they've played well under Ron Rivera here when they've played well. You know, when after the poor starts, all of a sudden they became a runover pass team, a control the clock team. The defense isn't on the field as much team in 2020, you know, when they went from one and five to, you know, a division title at seven and nine. But they were, you know, Antonio Gibson had multiple hundred yard days.

In 2021, when they came back off of the by week two and six and they beat Tampa in that game, you know, the time of possession was something like, you know, 40 to 20, you know, and you had, you know, like 38 carries in that game and they got on a four-game win streak and they got on a four-game win streak and they got. got back to 500 before COVID really did him in. To be fair to them, COVID really was what did him in. And then last year when they got on a roll and won, you know, starting with that Philadelphia game on Monday night, I mean, they ran it 49 times that, you know, that particular night. And they became more of a team that relied on balance and defense to be competitive. And so that really is who Ron's been about. But the second thought that I had, as you were talking, was in the beginning of the year, I kind of had this sense with, you know, the BNemi hiring and the Sam Howe designation in the offseason, which, you know, has turned out to look pretty good.

And we'll certainly get to Sam's performance yesterday when we get to our game take. But that I had this sense that Ron was resigned to his fate. That new ownership and what new ownership typically wants to do is they want to bring in their their own group. And he had been through so much already, you know, being here when he came in working for Dan, COVID, personal health crisis, all these investigations. I mean, he dealt with a lot of shit from the moment he came in a lot more than even any of the previous coaches that failed here had to deal with. And I just think that he was ready for this resigned to and even ready to move on after this season ended. So in that,

particular mindset, it would make it easy for one to say, yeah, what the hell? I mean, let's let Eric run the offense. We make him assistant head coach and let's see if he can develop a quarterback any which way he wants to. And if it's with the Andy Reed heavy Passover run, so be it. I don't know that it's necessarily impacted or lessened their chances of winning more games, like if they were a little bit more of a balanced team. But if they were, balanced and successful and they ate up clock and scored, it would have kept the defense off the field a little bit more, that's for sure. But yeah, it's kind of been a foregone conclusion all along that Ron was gone. And once we got a load of the B-enemy idea offensively,

it's been sort of an obvious thing that this season's been partly about developing a quarterback in the way that Eric Bianimi thinks he should develop a quarterback. I understand, but if it's my last year as a head coach and I'm resigned to my fader, I think that I am. I'm going down swinging the way I want to go down swinging. Yeah. That's just where I'm at with it. And it's really interesting the way it shakes out with Rivera and the end of the year.

When we do this every year and I've done this year, And a lot of times when you have three, four hot coaching candidates coming up or a guy that you know that you really want, then you fire your coach and you really start addressing those coaching candidates. But I don't know if you've had a chance to look through this or look at the names. It's not good. Or realistically, it doesn't look good. Well, the one... Go ahead.

Go ahead. The one, what? Well, Ben Johnson is the one that everybody's talking about. The offensive coordinator for the Detroit lines, he had opportunities last year. He passed on it. He came back to Detroit. By the way, just as a quick side note, Detroit was much better earlier in the season on defense, which is what people were really excited about.

They have been torched three straight weeks in a row now, their defense. The Chargers, the Bears, and the Packers have completely torched them. Yeah, I mean, in terms of the offensive guys, it's Ben Johnson and then Brian Johnson in Philadelphia, and I guess to a lesser degree, maybe Kellynne Moore with the chargers that are going to get, because my belief is they'll probably hire a general manager that will be heavy in analytics, heavy on data, and maybe predisposed to hiring an offensive younger head coach. But in terms of those, you know, I just gave it in names. that are being mentioned the most?

Yeah. I mean, there's three. I'm looking at a list right now. Bobby Sloick, too, is the other one. The Houston coach, who, you know, has gotten C.J. Stroud to have one of the greatest rookie seasons for a rookie quarter. Who was in Washington with Jay Gurdon. Exactly.

Yeah. But he was a Shan... The Sloics were Shanahan guys, right? I think Bobby stayed on with Jay. If I remember, you'd have to look up the years. No. There were both. He did not.

He was, yeah, I guess it was the father who was with, you know, Bob Sloak, Sr., who was with Denver and Mike for many years. No, he did not make it through Jay. Oh, my fault. Sloak remained on the coaching staff as a defensive assistant through the 2013 NFL season. Oh, no. That was Shanahan's final year. Sorry.

He left with when Shanahan got fired. He was not with Jay. So that'll just be another head coach from the Shannon's staff. Yeah, yeah. He went with Kyle to San Francisco and then took over as the OC in Houston this year, and they're obviously doing very well. Damico Ryan's brought him from San Francisco to Houston. So there you go. That's what we know about.

of Sloak. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of the direction they'll go. You've probably not been paying attention. There's been a, there's been conversation about Bill Belichick to D.C. in the form of a trade at the end of this year. There's been Jim Harbaugh discussion because people think this is it for him at Michigan. But my, my guess, and I have no idea, my guess is that they'll end up doing something with a general manager first who will hire the next young up-and-comer who will probably be offensive-oriented. To what started this portion of the conversation, you said sometimes they like to dump the head coach to really prepare for that. It would not shock me like if Ron actually, actually at this point, it would. They'll just fire him the day after the season ends on January 8th or whatever day that is.

I mean, it's not going to... Yeah, and I have no problem with that. I think if you were to make Eric Bienemy the interim head coach, what's the opportunity that you're giving him? Not a good... Not a good one. I've talked about this, and I forget if you and I even have talked about it off the air. If I were Eric Bianami, I wouldn't even take it.

It's a setup for failing. I mean, they got Miami, San Francisco, Dallas twice. They have to play the Jets who have a great deal. defense on Christmas Eve. They got to go to SoFi to play the Rams. I mean, right now, the chances are much better of a top five pick than they are a couple of wins. And, you know, Bienimi, to me, for multiple weeks running Cooley on this show, I've been saying this season is no longer about who's coaching now. It's about who's coaching next. What's about now is Sam Howell. And to figure out over the final five, six, seven games as we started to say this, to find out whether or not he's a guy

that you want to build around, or he's a guy that you are going to take somebody in the draft, especially if you have a top five pick to try to find somebody special. And so if I were B enemy and I want to be a head coach, I mean, how many interim coaches go at this point with, what do they have? They have five games left, go one and four and end up being a head coach. so his best move is to stick where he is and I think the firing of Del Rio today ensures that he'll be the offensive coordinator the rest of the way

and Rivera will remain the head coach the rest of the way I mean it could be even as much as that Josh Harris has had the conversation with Ron Rivera and said that you unfortunately are going to move in a different direction how do you want to handle it? Do you want to finish the team with this year, this year with this team or do you want us to do it now and you can move in whatever direction you want to do as of today.

I really wouldn't be surprised if that conversation's already been had. All right. Do you have anything else on Del Rio or Rivera or anything non- Thanksgiving Day game-related? If not, we'll get to our game take. What do you want to do? We can get to the game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. The Game Take brought to you today by our Good friends at Surfside, D.C. Right now, Surfside, D.C. is allowing all of you families with family members and friends in town to order dinner easily. Surfside's fajita boxes are excellent. You can pick

them up on the go or on your way home. Best way to feed your crew with a meal everybody will love. Fahita chicken, steak, veggies, all the fixings in a convenient grab and go box. If you're thinking ahead, just hop online to order a fajita box in advance, or fajita boxes can be ready in minutes flat and delivered straight to your door. Learn more at surfsideDC.com. I had these fajitas in a fajita box delivered by Surfside a few weeks ago. They were excellent. The meat is very good, very flavorful. Learn more at SurfsideDC.com. All right, the things we like, the things we didn't like in anything else we want to add to the conversation. You start with the things you liked. I still have enough hope and Howell. There's something there. I don't know if it's

exactly what you hope for, but there's something there. I think the kid can throw the ball. I think he's got accuracy. I think he's in a tough spot. I think you have to compliment him and be able to run the ball. But there's something about Hal. The other thing, you guys, I mean, he's got, I mean, got to like that they're in the game. You felt that way, too, because I haven't talked about this, but look, I bet Washington, so I was sort of, you know, looking for every positive during that game. But I really felt like, you know, they had two drives in the third quarter down 20 to 10. Both giving them opportunities.

I know. And they had a fourth and one that they missed on a handoff to Robinson where the backfield was all fucked up with Jehan Dodson in motion. I don't know what was going on on that point. Oh, my God. But that was... I know what's going on with that. What was going on with that?

Well, first of all, let's just... Let's have a quick discussion about those last two plays. You get to a third and one, you call time out. Yeah. To set up a third and one play where you take a shot down the field, incomplete. And then you're in a split zone with Johan Dotson on a fourth and one. And Dotson, your left guard gets pushed back, or your center your guard gets pushed back. And instead of Dotson, bubble him,

behind him and getting across the line of scrimmage to pull the linebacker in split zone. He puts these out, and he just goes, uh-do-l-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. I understand what he did. I'm not. I rescind the pusses out, but he just, I get across to the split zone. He's got to play faster. They're not playing very fast. He gets bubbling in the back, and you take it to your block.

In a third-and-one situation where you've called time-out. Fourth. I understand that, but before the third-in-one, they proceed in the third-and-one. They called it time-out. did. They did. Yeah, the play clock was rolling down. That's tough. And then you got a split zone with poor timing.

Where are you getting boat back to the line of scrimmage? Dotson's got to cross the line of scrimmage. Like, he's got to go. You've got to go. Yeah, so as far as that... Of course and one, we can't get pushback. That sequence, the third and one, to be honest with you,

I've seen them do it all year. I mean, I don't care that they took a shot there, knowing that they were going to come back on fourth and one and go for it. The one comment I have about the third and one play after the timeout is I love Terry. I do think Terry's a really good receiver, but you know, you got Gilmore on you, who's 34, 35 years old. There's just not a lot of separation there on, you know, on a stop and go, man coverage,

you know, play action. And, you know, Sam puts the ball there, Terry. I think Terry may have been interfered with, but I thought C.D. Lamb got interfered with on the drive before that by St. Juice. But I just, you know, if you're a take-the-game-over-elite receiver, there's got to be more separation there on that play. And even when there wasn't, somehow you've got to make a stronger play on the ball. That's my one comment on that play.

And then the fourth and one, I wanted him to go for it, just like I wanted them to go for the fourth and two to start the game on their second drive, but that play was doomed from the beginning. Yeah, the thing with Terry, I've never seen him as a great double-moved guy. I think he's an unbelievable separation guy. Just put him on a slant. Separation at the line of scrimmage. I'm talking about on that deep route.

He didn't get enough. I understand what you're talking about. I've just never seen him as a great double-moved guy. Like, any time you put him on a stutter or hitch and go or slant and go, like, you're just not a good enough. Like losing when he sells the first round. but it hasn't been a thing. Right. It's not like he can't do it.

He's just, he's not great at it. All right, let's go back to... He's graded almost every other thing. But they're like, they're the thing. Like, they're in this ball game. Yeah. And they got a great opportunity in the second quarter where they go down and score and make it 14 to 10.

Yeah. And you're like, okay, it's a minute 51. Let's let Dallas pick the ball back and score in essentially, a minute and 30 just walk down the field. Yeah. My God.

A joke, the defense yesterday. So now you go 20 to 10. Like, this should have been a game. At worst, let's give up three. Yeah. You know, let's find a way to give up three. It wasn't even a pressure situation. Their first and seven with 30 seconds left,

and they gash them running it up the middle. Yeah, I know. that was overcoming a second and 25. They overcame a second and 25, Dallas did in the game, and they ran it on third and seven. Yeah, I, 45 to 10 was the final score. Trust me, I'm not sitting here telling you that Washington had a legitimate chance to win this game, and the game is four quarters in length.

I understand that. They just, I thought, played well. enough offensively. They churned out yards. They churned out first downs. They still only ended up with 10 points. It's not good enough. Okay. It's not good enough. But it was a 20 to 10 game. They had the ball twice in the third quarter down 20 to 10, and they moved it on both of those drives. And then at 2310, they had the ball back. Like the game got out of hand completely in the fourth quarter. Now, you can make the argument. It should have. been out of hand because Dallas should have scored on the first deep shot to C.D. Lamb,

Dak Prescott overthrew him. Like, Dak, they had, they had 10 major explosive plays. Washington leads a team in allowing, leads a league in allowing explosives. Ten plays of 16 or more yards through the air, 12 or more on the ground, and it should have been another three or four. So they were never, they were the junior varsity to the varsity in that game yesterday. But for me, it was more about just hoping they could hang in there and get a back door cover. And I thought it was, they were looking good enough offensively where I thought there were some points that might be coming. But they never got them. They never did. And then the game got completely sideways in the fourth quarter and they lost by a score that wasn't

necessarily reflective of the three quarter game, but they do play four quarters in the NFL. And so there you go. Let's get back to how, though. You still like that. You still like. Howell, what did you see yesterday from Hal? I still see a guy that throws the ball confidently down the field. Kevin, I see a guy that's got enough arm and enough accuracy that he can make a ton of throws. He believes in where he's put in the ball. He trusts where he's throwing the ball. I don't think you've got enough arm to throw off his back foot,

and you saw him underthrow some things drifting backwards in the pocket. But I also think he's a guy that has the ability to step up. I think he's got some courage. I think he moves in the pocket. I think he can scramble when he's got to scramble. I see a guy that by no means says he cannot be the quarterback next year. I think he's building how.

I'm not suggesting that if you had a top five pick and the guy you want there, or if you have a top five pick that you don't trade up a couple to get to a guy that you really, really want. But I think HAL is a guy that he can build around. I mean, my God, he's throwing more balls in the year than most people do in three, so he's got a lot of practice. Yeah, he certainly is.

you're going to throw it that much, you also keep in mind that you're probably practicing that way. So he probably throws the ball 300 times every single practice. 300 times in practice, yeah. What else did you like from the game yesterday? I thought Curtis Samuel was really good. I thought John Dodson's good. Statistically, I don't love like John Dodson's five receptions for 52 yards. It's not explosive, but I think he's a guy that plays fast.

I think he's a guy that absolutely can play fast. Right. I think Terry's pretty good in every game, but his target's reception was horrible. He dropped a couple. He dropped one or third down. It's just there's such a difference. One of you think about it, too,

is just a team that believes in themselves a little bit that can find a way to win and a team that doesn't. The team that doesn't will hang in for a while, but Dallas put it on them. Here's one of the things I was amazed by, And I thought about this, I looked up the time of possession. How do you lose 45 to 10 when you have 37 minutes of time of possession? Do you want to hear something?

I'm going to tell you this right now. Hold on. Where is it on my notes here? All right, here it is. This is something that has never happened in the last 25 years, happened yesterday during the game. Teams that had at least 100 plus rushing yards, 250 or more passing yards, 35 minutes or more of time of possession, no more than 25 penalty yards and no more than one turnover, were 57 and 0 in the last 25 years before yesterday.

Washington lost by 35. Exactly. How does that happen? Well, it happens when you give up all these explosive plays on defense, you throw a pick six. but Washington had in the game, all right, 300 passing yards, 108 rushing yards. They had just one turnover. They had 36 minutes, 54 seconds of time of possession, and they had four penalties for just 25 yards. If that mix, 57 and 0 before yesterday, and I bet you on the 57 and 0, if anybody got close to losing, it was like, you know, if it had had,

happened, it would have been a super close game. You wouldn't have lost by 35. Yeah. How does it happen? It never does, is the answer, pretty much. If you laid those out for you before the game, you'd have said absolute cover, no doubt. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, offensively, they played a pretty clean game other than the pick six for the NFL record. Put an 0 for 3s on 4 counts. Put an 0 for 3s on 4 counts. Yeah, that was big. Yeah. That doesn't help. The pick six. The pick six is awesome.

I mean, that's pretty cool planned. Yeah. That's an NFL record. And they should have got him down, really. Like four opportunities to tackle him. 100%. Yeah. Good return.

They ran 74. Washington ran 75 offensive plays to 50. Yeah. Yeah, because they stayed on the field. They were 7 to 15 on third down. All right. Let me run through my list of things that I liked, and then we'll get to the list of things that we didn't like.

Sam Howell's number one on my list of things that I liked from the game yesterday. There was only one reason the game was competitive within reach, however you want to describe it out there, through three quarters. And it was howl. I mean, this was a bounceback game off of another game last week that wasn't great, wasn't his worst, but we've seen it all year long. When he has a bad game, the next game is pretty good. The Arizona opener not good. Denver was great week too. The Bill's game was horrific. The next week at Philly was really good. The Bears game not good. The next week, at least in the first half against the Falcons, really good. The giant game, in the Meadowlands, horrendous. Then the next week at Philly, really good. And that started the three-game stretch of the Eagles, Patriots, and Seahawks replayed well. The giant game wasn't his worst game last week, but it wasn't good. And I thought he bounced back yesterday. with a solid outing. This is the part here over the last five weeks, Coley,

where I've inserted. I love what Eric B. Enemy's done with him since the first giant game. They are much more quick game oriented. They're much more screen-oriented. They move the pocket. They sprint them out. They cut the field in half. He's still not as a drop-back, pure drop-back quarterback,

a guy that can do it consistently. And with the offensive line, he has in front of him, It's been a problem. Bienaimi frustrated me. The opening drive of the game, they are moving the football down the field. And all I've been talking about Cooley for five weeks is, you know, I don't care if it's third and ten. You know, the ball's got to get out in a hurry or it's even money that he's going to be sacked. You know, he's still on pace to set the record for sacks.

And there they are. They're moving the football down the field. They're at midfield. And on a first and 10, he drops some. back, play action. He likes to go first and ten play action on the deeper dropbacks to take a shot. It's very predictable now with this play calling. Whether it's under center or shotgun, when they want to take a shot, it's first and 10 after they've made a first down or two. And there's a minus eight yard sack. This is a team that you were not going to be able to block going into the game. It's the best

defense you faced all year. And that totally derailed the opening drive. I don't know why they couldn't have continued with Quick, with some running game mixed in, and he got very aggressive there, wanted to take a shot. And I'm sorry, it's not who you are. It isn't who you've been at all. And when you've been in that short game mode, you know, when you get your quarterback into rhythm and you get a defense off balance, then you can take some shots a little bit later, but you've got to establish it.

They hadn't. But I thought Sam had, first of all, he's really good off schedule. He's really good in the quick game. He's really good off schedule. He's really good at extending plays, and he's been that all year. But there are a couple of throws that I wanted to point out that I thought were excellent. On their third drive, he's got a third and ten. So here's where you have to drop back.

You've got to allow longer developing routes if you're not going to throw something quick underneath, which I still would recommend, given how many times he's been sacked in dropback. But they actually blocked up six pass rushers with six themselves. I think better than they have on any play this year in pure dropback. He still got pressured, and you mentioned you don't like him throwing off his back foot, and you're right. There are a lot of throws that he underthrows. This one was like the New England game a couple of weeks ago on a third and eight to Terry.

he's off his back foot and he drops a dime to Samuel for 30 yards. That was to me the best throw of the day for Sam Hal. And we've seen him do it a couple of times this year. I also thought it was the best blocked up extra man pressure of the year, considering who was pressuring on the other end, Micah Parsons. He had a quick slant in the second quarter to Doxon. He really throws that slant when it's got to come out quickly. goes that so well. Did it to Logan Thomas on a third and 18 on, I love that. I don't want to drop

back and try to make a third and 18 with this group. It's going to lead to more ugliness more often than success. Had a second and 12 to Terry in the second quarter that was really good. He found Doxon when he, on a third and 11, when he did a great job stepping up into the pocket and finding him. There were, the touchdown run, you know, that's a straight option play. I've not seen, I've not seen that call. We've seen some zone read. We've seen read option.

That was a straight option. And by the way, if he pitches it to Robinson Jr., it's a walk-in touchdown. And he turned it up field, love the toughness. Third quarter, first drive, he escapes. He finds Dotson for 12 yards. he's got another throw under pressure to Samuel on their fourth drive. Terry dropped that third and three on that particular drive. I think it was one of those games where as I was watching it, I'm like,

this is the Sam when he's played well. We're probably going to get a couple of bad plays along the way, but it's going to be much more good than bad. The bad plays really came primarily in the second half. there is a there's a hold on let me find it the worst throw of the game for me

it was third and 13 and they're actually throwing it pretty quick to Samuel underneath but it was right at the first down stick so it was more than an underneath route and he threw it way behind him he just threw it behind him and it's unfortunate

because if the ball's completed they pick up a third and 13 which is you know which is big time for them. There's a second and 10 on their third drive in the second half that's nearly picked off by number 14. It's an out pattern. It's not a good throw. It's similar to the ball that got picked six. He threw it. He was late. He threw it two inside. He took a fourth and one sack. Samuel's wide open if you watch out if he gets rid of it quickly on that play. There's a fourth and three where Dotson's wide open. And that's a play where

Romo says, you got to let that thing go. He says, you got to let it go now. And that's still some of the stuff we've seen from Sam this year is, you know, the pick six is a bad throw, but you're pressing there at the end of the game. So some of that stuff at the end is because you're getting your ass kicked and you're pressing a little bit. But overall, I thought Sam was a solid B. I mean, he was 28 to 44 with a few drops in the game for 300 yards. He had the pick six when he's pressing. He took four sacks. He could have been, he had more turnover-worthy plays yesterday than he's had in a lot of games because he has not been a high turnover-worthy quarterback, but I thought number 14 had a pick

there. I thought there was, you know, the bad throw could have been picked. And I thought a couple of the sacks, there were options for them. But overall, I mean, it's just, I I still, I'm not here to declare that I'm ready to build around Sam Hal, not if you've got a top five pick, no fucking way. Not yet anyway. But the good news is they're going to play another really good defense in the Jets defense on Christmas Eve, the 49er defense, the Dallas defense again.

These are the best tests for him. They have not played a great defensive team schedule. I was impressed yesterday, much more impressed than uninterested. impressed with Sam. I gave him a B grade. Samuel and Dotson, like you, I had him on the list of things that I liked. It's probably as good a day for Samuel as he's had here. He was nine catches for 100

yards. He drew an interference call on a third down early on. I thought Dotson was open a lot. He had five catches, 52 yards on six targets in the game. Tressway had three punts, all of them inside the 20.

You know, the first two punts were basically from midfield. Then he bombed a 57-yard or inside the 20. That's the list of things that I liked. That's it. What didn't you like yesterday? Because to me, it starts with defense. But off your list of things really quick. It's amazing.

Somehow leads the league in yards. Yeah, he's played more games than everybody, too. I mean, they played, they're the first. Okay, well, take away the 300 yards that he had. Yeah, yards per game right now, he is fifth in the league. He'll lead the league in yards. Well, he's fifth in the league in yards per game, because he's got 12 games and there are a few quarterbacks with 10 and 11 in front of them.

Sure, but those quarterbacks would have been, they've been out of game or whatever it is. The point is. No, C.J. Stroud. If we're talking about yards, when Stroud plays on Sunday, he'll lead the league at the end of this weekend playing his 11th game. He could. He's got to throw for 350 yards. I'm sorry, he won't leave. He'll lead the league after.

after his next two games. He's two games behind Sam. He's played 10. He's averaging 22 yards more a game in passing yards. No, but just the point that Sam Hal is where he is. Yeah, no, it's... He leads the league in interceptions as well. And sacks, yes. So... Yeah. But he may not be the league leader in interceptions at the end of the weekend. Yeah. But he leads to the league interceptions by one. It's not like he's got 20 interceptions to... Agreed.

Most of the league haven't 10. I mean, if he's got 13 and you look at Josh Allen's got 12. Right, no. And like I said with the yards, the interceptions in reverse. I mean, Josh Allen may lead the league in interceptions with 12 games played at the end of Sunday. So, yeah. Sure. But he's not going from the last place in the league to the middle of the pack here after two games.

Right. That's not going to happen. But I think it's been an impressive year for him. As far as throwing the ball, it's been impressive for the enemy, but they have weapons. So there's that aspect of it, too. Some of the things I didn't like, I mean, this is a laundry list of things.

You can go through the things you didn't like. But just overall, one of the things I don't like, and I've watched a couple of the last games, I've watched some of the season. One of the players that I think can make a real impact that we've talked about today is Antonio Gibson. If you look at Gibson, they don't get him involved. I think Gibson...

Well, he was coming off. Cooley an injury. He was out last week with a toe injury, so this was his first game back in two weeks. But even through the year, like he's just maybe his toes really bothering him. No, I think he's been underutilized for the most part as well. I think one of his better games was his game against Seattle a few weeks ago. And that came off a pretty good game against New England. I think it was. I forget now. But no, I'm with you. I'm a Gibson fan. I've been a Gibson fan. No, I just think that he's not involved as much as you'd want him to be. I think Curtis Samuel could be involved.

We've talked about this over the last couple years. And you think about his time in Carolina and what he can do as far as coming out of the backfield and running the ball. I think he could be more like Debo Samuel. By the way, unbelievable right now. Oh, he's so good. He's so good. I think Samuel is a guy that you can use in a bunch of different positions and change things up. So especially if you want to throw the ball as much as you throw in the ball.

You've got to mix formations more. You've got to put him back in the backfield more. I have more stuff going on if you're going to throw the ball 70% of the time. All right. List of things that we did not love. The big play after big play is unbelievably bad for the defense. I mean, Dak Prescott throwing bullets down the middle of the field to wide open receivers is hard to watch. The fact that they can't pressure a quarterback, and I know where they are with their defensive line right now and what's happened to the other.

The fact that they can't find a way to really pressure a quarterback in a game like that is, tough. I mean, it makes it really, really tough on a secondary. You give up six yards to carry to Pollard. We didn't have a ton of carries, but got gashed by Pollard when they handed them to law. I mean, Dallas did whatever they wanted to do on offense. After the game started to kind of get into the second quarter, third quarter, Dallas was tough to stop. Really hard, impossible to stop in the fourth quarter. Yeah, I mean, Pollard had the best day he's had all year in yards per carry, 6.1.

I mean, they're getting gashed every which way. It's just, yeah. I mean, that's number one on my list. Like, before Del Rio got fired this morning, I'm on radio, and I said, number one on the list of why they lost this game, it's very obvious defensively. And I said, this actually may have been the worst game they've played all year, and there are a lot of choices.

Since week three, they've been a disaster. and Dallas had 26 offensive plays in the first half. Fifteen of them went for first downs. I mean, I mean, and you talked about the pressure. It didn't matter if they sent, you know,

blitz pressure to extra. I mean, I saw one play where it's Davis and Barton, actually that was the only play they got pressure. But they had no sacks. They had very few pressures. I remember this is a team that when they traded sweat and Young in particular with Chase Young, they leaked out information that it was addition by subtraction.

I'm not here to tell you that Chase Young would have made a big difference. I'm here to tell you, though, it's certainly not addition by subtraction. This pass rush, other than the game they had against Tommy DeVito last week, is dog shit. And it had, I mean, it's really ineffective. I don't know. Defensively, you mentioned the 6.1 yards to Pollard. They had 10, you know, 10 plays that were explosives. as I mentioned earlier, could have been a lot more.

Their lucky Dak missed Lamb on the opening drive. St. Juice had the worst game of the year, I think, for St. Juice. They had him almost traveling with Lamb. It looked like a lot of the day. Ferguson was wide open. Tolbert was wide open on plays. Dak missed some yesterday. Dallas had 431 yards on 50 plays.

They were 6 to 10 on 3rd down. They were 3 for 3 in the red zone. They overcame a second and 25. against a team that couldn't stop the run, couldn't stop the pass, couldn't get any pass rush pressure. This has been the massive disappointment of this season, is a defense that finished as a legitimate in the conversation top 10 defense last year by most advanced metrics top 10 last year, and it fell flat on its face. I can't believe that it was just because of Chris Harris. But, yeah, Defense number one on my list.

What else do you have on your list of things you didn't like? I think we went through it. I got a couple of them that you like. Fourth and two on the second drive. Does Rivera think this is going to be a field position game? Why are you punting there at the Dallas 43-yard line? You're four fucking seven. It's fourth and two.

You've moved the ball on both drives. You have nothing to show for it. The game zero-zero. do you really think this is a 14 to 10 kind of a game? Like you had to know going into the game that your defense was going to be at a major disadvantage. You were going to need 24, 27 plus points to win the game. I have no idea what went through his mind. Well, he did.

He said we kind of felt good about, you know, playing some field position there. Well, you shouldn't have felt good about playing field position there. end of the first half after they took a 14 to 10 lead. When Dallas hit the play to Tolbert, I think it was, down to the 7-yard line, they should have banged a timeout defensively right there at 53 seconds. You know they're going to score first and goal at the 7. You've got three timeouts left. You've moved the ball all half.

Okay, six plays 31 yards, 8 plays 39 yards, 9 plays 50 yards field goal, 13 plays 75. yards on your last drive, six and a half minutes. All right, you've, you're, Dallas is getting the ball to start the second half. You got to bang a timeout with 53 seconds when that play ends in bounds, period. If you have any desire to actually get the extra possession, instead they get it back with 26 seconds to go and all three timeouts. Stupid, dumb, dumb stuff. And then James and Crowder, he had a big punt return coolly earlier in the year.

61-yard punt return. And he's, I like Crowder a lot. Last week, four punt returns zero yards. Yesterday, two punt returns nine yards. And the one that doesn't count was the one that he fielded on the two-yard line and he got bailed out by a face mask. He's made some bad decisions in the punt return game. That's it.

I mean, defense, just a disaster. And Del Rio's gone. and now we get Rivera, who will be calling defensive signals for the first time since he took it over in 2018 in Carolina. Ron has not been involved specifically on either side of the ball. He's a defensive head coach since 2018. He's been a CEO coach here. Delegated everything. It would be really interesting if they started to play better defensively.

I don't think it's going to matter at all. Do you? Well, I don't think it matters one bit for the future of this team, for the future of Ron Rivera. But does it matter for the guys in the next five weeks? Yeah, it does. It'd be nice to play well. And they show up and work hard every day.

They show up and practice every day, and it's nice to have some purpose. It's nice to play well. It's also really, really nice when things make sense and you're doing the right thing. I'm not suggesting that that's exactly what's going to happen. I don't know if it is or isn't. But when it's not, you've got to fix it. So maybe that's what he did. I just don't see if it gets any better.

What was the environment like after Jay got fired and Callahan took over? It was, well, I wasn't in the locker room. But weren't you kind of hanging around at that point or not? I mean, somewhat. I mean, I was there. I just, it was, I don't know, it wasn't great. They were owned five, I think. Yeah, Owen Foy.

Jay got fired and Bill had. had this, we're going to be tough and run the ball thing. They went and, when we go the first week to build? We went to like Tennessee or something. They ran the ball every single play. Where was it? Was it Dwayne's first start in Baltimore? Was it, no.

I think so. Oh, oh, yes. It was the, yeah, it was the, it was the Miami game. the Miami game. Yeah. That's where it was. They ran the ball like every single first down. And Miami came back at the end of the game. Because Miami had like a backup quarterback that couldn't move the ball at all. They bench the quarterback. No, no, Josh Rosen started. He was terrible.

Yes. And they put Ryan Fitzpatrick in and Fitzpatrick brought him back. They had a two-point conversion to win the game and they ran a play that they hadn't practiced all week. How convenient for a team that at the time was tanking for Tua. Remember? It was literally the last time an interim head coach lost his first game. No. I don't think it was great at all. They won the game. Washington won the game.

Oh, they did. Yeah, they didn't get the two-point conversion. Did it go to overtime? No, because, again, Miami went for two at the end. Oh, with five seconds or something left in the game, and they didn't, they ran a shitty play. That was the tink for two of a play. They ran that little screenplay. Exactly. A play that they all admitted they had not practiced it, but they had practiced it with different players.

So they put players who hadn't practiced it on the field. You go out and run it. Exactly. This is a quiz. We'll see if we've learned our office. The quiz. Yeah. I don't remember it being an entirely positive locker room. I don't. I think guys liked Jay. Yeah.

For the most part, I think Jay was light. I don't know if there was a huge belief, especially 0-15, but it was the right situation. But there was a ton of thermal. There's been a ton of turmoil in Washington since I've got trapped. There's Joe left. I know. Really since Joe left.

Yep. Well. But Shanahan assembled the best staff in the history of the NFL, which we couldn't win with. Yeah. So that disproved the staff theory. Can't win with those guys. Who you can win with? Right.

Actually, here's the thing. If you're going to put together a staff, you can't have nine head coaches who will go on to have playoff wins on your step at one time. There's just too much conflict with that much talent. Does that have worse coach? Oh, boy. Here's Ron Reverse. Maybe next year. Here's Ron.

Maybe next year. Well, I mean, I think actually the intrigue going into this off-season. You know, first full offseason without Dan will be, you know, to me, the true restart of the post-Dan era. Ron Rivera, here's his statement from his presser today. His opening statement, quote, as you guys know for the most part, I made a decision this morning. I relieved Jack Del Rio and Brent Wieselmeyer of their duties. We're going to be moving forward, going to do things a little differently. It was very tough.

It was difficult decisions because these are two really good men. football coaches, guys that have had a lot of success in this league and just unfortunate the situation circumstances, but did feel that change was something that we needed to do going forward, really to see if we can shake up some things and get some things started. So with that, he then took questions and, yeah, Richard Rogers kind of is going to game plan with him. Christian Garcia will be the DB's coach. And there you go. And as far as Josh Harris goes, he said, for the most part, after going through it yesterday and a very long evening, I reached out to Mr. Harris and I informed him of what I was deciding and what I was going to do and wanted to make sure he was aligned with me and he agreed and he signed off on the decision. I went forward, but I called him early and just told him just kind of looking at that situation that circumstances had kind of snowballed.

I use the snowball analogy. So there you go. If I was in that locker, I'd be on a hard day count, like a nine-year-old counting down days for Christmas. Would you have the little Advent calendar up with a piece of candy taken out of it every day? Every day I'd get a little gift. I'd put a little gift for myself. Yes, 24 days left. It really is something else. Look, some of you got what you wanted in Del Rio being fired.

Some of you didn't get enough because you wanted Rivera gone. Bottom line here is five games left. Let's see Sam continue to play well, develop. And then there are options, you know. It'd be great if he threw for 300 and a couple of touchdowns each week, and they lost out and they ended up with a top three to top five pick at four and 13. That gives you a lot of options going into the offseason for the new general manager, the new head coach, the new regime, which we are going to get.

I'm going to say, I'm going to end with this for you. If the new regime as far as the organization does some of the right things and is willing to continue to do the right things, which is what it seems, it is not easy to win a Super Bowl. It is not easy to have a consistent playoff 10, 11, 12 win team like the chiefs have done or some of the yield. But it is not hard to build a decent team and have good people around you. it is not hard to evaluate talent to draft the right players to make the right moves to interview and know what kind of culture and what kind of guys you want to create i just i'm going to stand by that i've seen it done i've been a part of watching it not be done i know for a fact it is not that hard to build a team that has somewhat of a chance

got to pick the right people to make the decisions to build that team though so that's really the new owners top priority but what But for the right people, it is something that is very doable. Well, I'll leave you with this thought. This is the most attractive Washington has been to people that will be looking for big jobs in an offseason. Then it's been since Dan arrived in 1999. Not only is Dan gone, that's number one, which makes it immediately more attractive to a lot of quality people out there. there. You have the third most cap space and entering next off season. You have five picks in the

first three rounds of the draft, and it looks like they're all going to be high picks. Not only your own, but the second round pick that you got from the Bears for Montez Sweat should be a pretty high choice as well. So if you end up deciding you want to make a big move for Caleb Williams or for, you know, Drake May or for Daniels or Knicks and you're not in position with your own pick, you may have the ability to do that. So not to mention all of the things that we've talked about for years, which is if Dan leaves, there will be renewed interest and it's an untapped market for professional football. And if you come in and do the job, you're going to be, you're going to be lauded as a hero. And so will Josh Harris.

and his ownership team, but this is an attractive gig, Coley, much more attractive than it's ever been. It is. It is. They just got to, at this point, the search has got to be, eliminate ego from coaching staff, find people that love ball, find people that know, no players, that know personalities, that no talent, can see some talent, but eliminate ego and build around them with other smart people.

Right. It's how you win. It's how you win in business. It's how you win in the NFL. Are you going to eat leftovers today? Probably. I'm still full. Yeah.

All right. I appreciate you doing this. I know that you had a busy day, but you watched Washington for the first time in a while, so we got your perspective. It's always fun to do this with you. I'll talk to you later. See you. See you.

Have a great day. All right, Cooley, everybody. Jay Gruden next, and as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, I recorded this with Jay before the Del Rio News. Jay next, the smell test after that, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by Window Nation. Window Nation has a really good deal going on right now. Buy two windows, get two free, plus zero percent interest for five full years if you choose to finance that purchase. been working with Window Nation for 14 years. Simply put, they've never disappointed. They are

right there for all of my listeners, all of my friends and family members, starting with a free estimate, which means you've got no risk. If you've got windows that are 10 years of age or older, you're paying way too much on your heating bill in the winter, your air conditioning bill over the summer. Your home doesn't look as up to date as it should. Give them a call. at 86690 Nation or go to windownation.com and mention my name. Jay Gruden is with us, as he always is, on Fridays during football season, even this Friday, this quiet Friday following the holiday. How was your Thanksgiving yesterday? Thanksgiving was great. Anytime you get together with your older kids, it's great to see them,

your grandkids. I have two grandkids, nine and five, Jacob and Trey, and it was great to see them. So we had a great time. Wow, you have grandkids nine and five. That's unbelievable. Because I think, you know, basically we're the same age and we have boys the same age. I had all three of mine in town as well, along with, you know, another 17 relatives at our house. Wow. Which here was the thing that was interesting. Over the years, Jay, Washington's plan on Thanksgiving, I would say, because we host Thanksgiving every year, I would say that 40% of the group, you know, the male population of the group, that's all they're concerned about is the game. There were many yesterday that just couldn't have cared less about the game.

You know, we paused. We ate at halftime. We paused the game, and nobody was in a hurry, and the game was competitive at halftime. and nobody was super excited before and nobody was in a big hurry to get back after it. It's just not the same anymore. It might be one day, but it isn't anymore. I noticed that with my group. I wonder if others had the same experience,

but it was not a highly anticipated Washington-Dallas Thanksgiving Day in the Sheehan household for the first time in a long time. Yeah, it's the same because that used to be the, I mean, used to be the number one rivalry in all sports. You know, Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins, and for that to have people nowadays not even really care, rather have a second play of stuffing and watch a game. It's concerning, but I think they can get back to the level of that rivalry soon, I hope. Well, the stuffing was really good. The gravy was even better. So there was that.

But yeah, I don't know, man. It's just different. I don't know if it's different for everybody. I have this conversation all the time, and we take calls all the time on the radio show. There's no doubt that the fan base was during the Snyder years, especially the last 10 or so, was really diminished. People just got tired, and they just assumed, I think, justifiably so,

that as long as Dan was there, it was never going to improve, now there's new ownership and this is a rough season, you know, right now. I think really from an ownership standpoint, and I'm interested to hear what you think, they got in so late, you know, late July, early August that really you don't start judging them until this season ends, although some people would say they expect and feel like that Ron Rivera or somebody should roll now based on the performance. So what do you think? Well, in fairness to the ownership that are new to the National Football League, so I could see why they would want to wait until the year is over,

figure out their options and go from there. And I could also see them making a move and letting Eric be enemy take over the reins and give him a six-game trial run, see how he does, see how the team responds to his coaching, and then make a decision at the end of the year for the entire staff. So there's a couple options there. I'm never in favor of firing a coach because it's a tough job. But it's a production-based business, and somebody probably should move on because there's been other teams already.

Matt Canada, they got let go. Obviously, Josh Daniels got let go. The guy at the bills, Dorsey got let go. And when you don't produce, somebody's got to get let go. Some changes have to be made. You can't just keep doing the same thing over and over. Why not? What purpose would it serve?

Well, I think for the players' sake, I think they need to see some change, you know, for them to come into a building and have the same thing over and over again can be monotonous. You know, it's usually, you know, I'm not saying it's the coach's fault, but somebody has to provide some change, some culture change, some play change, some, I don't know what, but that's what usually have to happen when teams struggle so much like they have this year defensively especially. It's been a train wreck over there and hasn't been good tackling, not good coverage. So, yeah, I don't know. Something needs to happen either now or at the end of the year. Well, I think we all understand it's going to happen at the end of the year. I think the conversation is whether or not it should happen now, and it sounds to me like you think it should.

Well, I mean, you saw a Buffalo did. You can't blame Ken Dorsey for Josh Allen throwing a pass across the middle of how it bounce off Gabe Davis's face and intercepted. and Josh Allen, some of the mistakes that he made. We all know that they're talented, but, you know, obviously McDermott thought they needed a change, and he made it, and they played pretty well the next week. Now, how they do the coming weeks, we don't know. Same thing with Matt Canada.

Obviously, they've been struggling offensively mightily. It's not all Canada's fault. They're offensive lines struggled. Their tight ends been hurt. Their receivers are small. They don't really block and run support. So it's hard for these offensive coordinators, But as a head coach, you know, sometimes you have to make tough decisions

or the betterment of the football team, whether it's a betterment or not, but you have to make decisions like that to prove to the players that, hey, you are trying everything you can to put the right person in place to get you guys in the right situations to succeed. So my pushback to that would be this. Like in Vegas, it was a toxic situation with Josh McDaniels, right? I mean, the players couldn't stand them, and, you know, something had to change. Buffalo, the expectations have been Super Bowl or bust this year.

And, you know, I still don't get the firing of Ken Dorsey, but it was almost as if somebody's head needed to roll because the expectations are so high. In Pittsburgh, it was becoming toxic with Matt Canada, even though it was so anti what the Steelers organization has always been about. What I'm trying to, and I'm totally open to, you know, new ownership. And the one argument that I've heard that makes sense to me is that they'll be perceived new ownership will be perceived as complacent if they don't do something. For me, I've waited 24 years as a fan, Jay. They're not going to lose me if they make me wait another month and a half for somebody's head to roll. But anyway, you say what to that?

No, I mean, I can agree with that. I wouldn't be surprised with whatever they do. If they make a change right now, if they do something with the defensive side of the ball, they do something with the head coach, if they don't do anything at all, and see how they finish the season. Because, you know, they have some tough games left, and I don't know who's going to come in there right now, provide a spark, and they still have Dallas and San Francisco and Miami left.

So maybe just let it play out, see how these. guys finish it up and then go from there and then make your decision at the end of the year, where you have more time to really think about your possible replacements or whatever you want to do as the ownership. That's a beauty. When you have $20 billion or whatever it is, you can make your own decision. That's what Josh is going to do. But I think the good thing about him is he's going to have the betterment of the city and

he's going to want to make this his team and make it competitive again, however way he chooses it. And that's going to be the most interesting thing to figure out and watch. One more thing on sort of the current situation and whether or not something happens. Because you mentioned Bianami. To me, it would almost be unfair to Bianami. Because this team, like you said, I mean, they've got San Francisco, they've got Dallas another time. I mean, they've got a schedule that does not, Miami coming up.

They've got a schedule where it doesn't almost matter at this point who the coach is or the interim coach is. They're probably going to lose another three or four football game. and no interim coach has ever become a head coach off of an 0-and-5 finish or a 1-4 finish. And I don't know, to me, the emphasis here should be on Sam Howe and the continued development of Sam Howe. And if Eric Beannamy takes over his head coach, does that pull his focus away from the development of Sam Howe? I mean, I almost feel like Beenemy, if he were offered, it should turn it down. Yeah, I mean, there's America. to that, but there's also, you know, if the players rally around them and play hard and sneak

out a couple wins, they still have some good players on their football team. They should be competitive. They were right in the game against the Dallas Cowboys at halftime. They got a big stop to start the third quarter and got the ball back. If it wasn't for some short yardage gaps, then they would have been right there. But at the end of the day, coaching is about, you know, getting your players better, seeing how they play for you. Are they going to play hard? And even if you lose games, if you lose games that are really, really close, you guys are fighting hard and they react to your style of coaching, then maybe you can maintain the job and retain it.

But if you just sit in there and you continue doing what you're doing, and I don't know how they retain anybody on the staff. Right. Well, I think we all know it's ending at the end of the season, regardless of whether or not it happens sooner rather than later. And then it'll be a brand new day in terms of this ownership and whatever new regime they bring in. You just said something.

go to yesterday's game, that, you know, they had, you know, a third and one and a fourth and one after getting a stop to open up the second half. I mean, got a little bit lucky because that deep shot to C.D. Lamb was certainly, could have been DPI on St. Juice, but whatever, it was also almost caught. But I kind of felt the same way. I think you just sort of implied, which is they were within a whisker there midway through the third quarter of making it legitimate game. And it had been a game up till that point. Yeah, I mean, it was competitive. Sam was throwing a ball around pretty good and making some plays on third down, moving out of the pocket, making some plays.

Defensively, they weren't playing great. They were fortunate that early in the game back over through CDU's wide open by about eight yards and over through another guy. Right. But still, at least it was competitive, right? I mean, you're still right there and you have a chance to take it to the fourth quarter and see what happens. But obviously the fourth and one, the third and one, and then, you know, a couple of times early in the game, I thought maybe they might go forward on Dallas's plus side of the territory, fourth and two or three. But, you know, they didn't do it, and Dallas took full advantage. And when you start playing a team like that, you give a team like Dallas more opportunities with the league, they're going to make some plays. That's

what happened, and then they pull away at the end. Yeah, I was surprised fourth and two on their second drive in a zero-zero-zero game. And they had moved the ball on their opening drive. They had moved the ball on that drive, and they've got a fourth down. and two, and they're in plus territory, as you said, Dallas is 42-43-yard line, and he punted the ball. I mean, you're 4-7. What are you doing? You're 4-7, and you're moving the ball pretty good.

And if you get the first down, it's another three or four or five minutes off the clock and gives your opportunities for Brian Robinson or whoever to get the ball down in there and move a ball. Yeah, if you're 7-2 and it might be a different story, but I agree with you. I think you have to roll the dice. You know, his name's riverboat wound for a reason, and I thought both of them he should have gone for them on the first two drives. But, you know, unfortunately they punted and gave Dallas a chance,

and they went down to sport. Yeah. All right. How did Sam Howell play? Sam has his moments where you just love the kid, right? I mean, he just battles his tail off. He's a tough guy, and he can tell why the players love him and want to play for him. But he obviously missed some throws and,

and did some things there at the end. You know, when you're behind and you're trying to make some plays and trying to get back in the game, you're going to force some things you normally wouldn't force. But overall, you know, I think the way he's played the entire year, not just yesterday, has been solid. It's been exciting at times. He's obviously had his up and downs,

which you're going to have as a young quarterback. He can't expect to be perfect all the time. But I do like the way he plays. I like the way he competes. He's proven that he can make every throw. And he's a tough kid. He's mentally tough. He's physically tough.

So moving forward, I think, they have their guy personally unless somebody just wows them at the combine and they have an opportunity to get them because they're going to have a pretty high pick, obviously. So they're going to be in a mix for the kid at Washington, a kid at LSU if he comes out, or maybe a kid at North Carolina drops to him at four or five, whatever it might be. So that'll be a tough decision for the franchise moving forward, whoever is there. That's going to be the toughest part. But I love Sam, and I think if they stuck with Sam and try to get some good players around,

get another tackle, get a couple pass rushers, get another corner, whatever it might be. then they can be right back in the mix. So that's going to be the issue here in the off season because we can almost see it now. They're heading towards a top five-ish kind of a pick, barring, you know, a complete turnaround. And at this point, I don't think any fan wants them to turn it around. I think they want them to end up with some options there.

So if they end up with a top-five-ish kind of a pick, and it's Caleb Williams, and it's Drake May, and it's Bo Nix, and it's Daniels, And it's, you know, and it's, you know, it's Pennix Jr. And you love, you know, two of them, let's just say, that have a chance to fall to you without even having to trade up. And you think one of them's potentially, you know, special. What do you do? So you take the special guy.

You have to. I mean, because you're talking about the future your franchise for the next 15 years. So that has to be pretty, it has to be pretty. obvious. He's got to jump out at you. If we get this guy, this guy, he's a franchise changer. Now, if not, then you feel good about Sam. He can do this and this, but is he really better than Sam? That much better than Sam?

Is it worth the risk? Then maybe you, you know, had another tackler of the top pass rush in college, or the top corner in college. So you'll have great options there, but if it's a quarterback, you better, you better be damn sure that he's, A, way better than Sam, and B, he can carry your franchise for the next 15, 20 years.

So you've loved Caleb Williams from the beginning. That would be a no-brainer for you, right? Like if somehow they ended up with a chance to get him. Okay. What about Drake May? Have you seen enough of him? I'm not really, you know, I haven't really watched all of the games. You know, I wasn't like, he didn't like wow me in the last game that he played.

I watched him last week. And he had a little stiffness to him, but he's a big physical guy that can run. So, I mean, you got to watch more of them and get them known. You know, all these guys, you've got to get them in your building and talk to them and drill them and see how they react to some of the terminology. how they pick things up. And obviously all of them can do it because they're doing it right now at a pretty high level. But still, you've got to get to know them and put them through the ringer.

Yeah, no, you've mentioned that before, that that's the important part is getting to know them and understanding, you know, who they are and their overall makeup. But in terms of, let's just assume all of them were of kind of high, you know, character, high, you know, outstanding work ethic, love football, all the things that you guys always talk about in terms of the intangibles and the things that due diligence has to, you know, reveal as far as the person that you're getting.

Caleb Williams, no-brainer for you. Drake May, not so sure. What about Jaden Daniels? Have you watched him this year? Yeah, yeah. He's pretty electric. His ability to run and move is pretty special. He obviously can throw the ball as well, so he's moving up the list really, really fast. This day and agent pro football, you've got to be able to run a little bit. The days of the true drop-back pocket-tight passers that are statues, the Joe Montana, or the Tom Brady's, and the Peyton Manning, those are long shots. I mean, you've got to spend a lot of time with those guys. You got to have somebody to run. You know, Tony Romo mentioned that yesterday on the

broadcast. It's very hard to find those true drop-back passers. Nowadays, it's about athleticism. It's about keep them play alive, off-schedule plays, RPO's, zone reads, all those things are what pro football is all about. Jaden Daniels. It's that pill. perfectly. What about real quickly? Penix Jr. or Bo Nix?

How much of them have you watched and do you have any quick opinion on either one of them? I'll tell you when Bo was at Auburn, I wasn't that impressed.

When he went to Oregon, he's been very impressive. He's a very tough guy. He's got a similar skill set to Sam Howell, really, a very tough-minded kid. He's,

you know, he's a good player. You know, I just got to check his accuracy out and all that stuff. But obviously he's a great leader and a tough guy and people love him.

What about Penn? Panics, Jr. I haven't really watched him a lot on the West Coast. Some of the highlights I've seen, he's been impressive. Obviously, you could spin it. You've got a great receiver out there. That receiver would be in the mix. And Marvin Harrison, Jr. would be in the mix.

But, you know, also, when you look at dynamic pass rushers, if there's a guy out there, I don't know yet. You know, a top-notch corner, a lockdown corner. You see what happens when you have a lockdown corner, how important that is. And obviously, that's a huge need for Washington moving forward. So they'll have some options there at 5 for sure. On the game, back to the game yesterday, I mean defensively.

I mean, the explosives, the lack of any sort of pass rush. I mean, I made this comment in the open to the show. I mean, this, you know, idea that they leaked out on Chase Young, that it's addition by subtraction. That looks silly right now. And it's not even about Chase Young. But it's almost about, you know, how they were trying to get out there that they're going to be much better as a defense, you know, after getting 90s. out of the building. I thought yesterday was one of the worst efforts of the year.

What did you think? Well, I thought last week was bad to the Giants, who haven't done anything offensively. And the big plays they gave up to the Giants. You can't give up big plays like that to a team like the Giants right now. He was struggling mightily with a third-string quarterback. At least Dallas has some weapons, and Dallas has been hurting people last four or five weeks.

Back Prescott's been one of top quarterbacks in the league, and they got weapons all across the board. So I can see big plays happen in that game, but last week was awful. Even the Bears game was awful when they were struggling mightily early in the season. So the big play that they've given up are inexcusable, you know, especially with, you know, typical Jack Del Rio defense is more of a coverage-type deal where you make the quarterbacks check it down and rush your four guys and play coverage

and don't give up the big play, but they have given up Miami, many, many, way too many big plays. All right. Let's talk about other NFL. What did you think? Did you watch Jordan Love yesterday? Yes, the last two weeks, he's been outstanding. You know, yeah, early in the season, obviously everybody had a lot of doubt about his progression and his future for the team. But I think the last couple weeks, if he can keep this going last four or five games, they can get in the playoffs. They're only getting back, I believe.

So, yeah, they're right. They're sick of things right now. And he's playing good, and the defense, Joe Barry's doing a good job of that defense. So, yeah, they're right there. And all of a sudden, Detroit, who's the same? you and I talked about this early in the year, that it was their defense that was surprisingly improved. I know they've had some injuries over there,

but, I mean, you know, basically fields and love and back-to-back weeks have torn them up. Yeah, and Herbert had five straight touchdowns against them to do in L.A. Yeah, good point. Five straight drives for touchdown. So, yeah, they're struggling a lot on defense. I was actually, I thought he did a great job early in season at that defense because they weren't very good last year,

but they're starting to resort back to their poor ways of defense. I'd be concerned if I was a Detroit fan of where they're playing defense. The way teams are getting after golf a little bit the last couple weeks. Yeah, for those that aren't paying attention, Green Bay now at 5 and 6, all right, is a game behind Seattle and Minnesota for the 6 and 7 spot, and they have played much better. They've won three out of their last 4,

and the one loss was a winnable game at Pittsburgh. if Steelers won one of those kinds of games that they always win without a lot of offense, you know, 23 to 20 or whatever it was. San Francisco last night, I don't know how much of it you saw, but, you know, since getting healthy, they're back to their dominant ways. I mean, 34 to 3 over Jacksonville, you know, beating the Bucks last week, although the Bucks had the ball in the red zone like three times in the fourth quarter

and came away with no points. and then Seattle last night. I came away from last night just thinking this is actually the best overall team in the NFC, and I like Philly, but I think it's San Francisco. What do you think? I think the number one seed is going to be critical.

I think if San Fran has to travel to Philly, it'll be a big advantage for Philly and vice versa. You know, I think so that number one seat is going to be critical. You get to buy in the first round, get a couple home games. So yeah, I think either team can do great things. Obviously, they're clearly, well, I think Dallas is right there now, too. I think Dallas is pretty good.

I think Dallas can travel. So those are clearly the top three teams and the NFC, and it'll be interesting to watch it. But I think I still err on the side of Philly, the way Jaylen Hurst is playing, and I think the secondary start to get more healthy for Philadelphia. But either way, men, they're both great. That's the game next week.

Philly hosting San Francisco. believable ramifications in that game because of what you just talked about. Philly's got Buffalo on Sunday. All right. Let's wrap this up with your lock of the week. Who do you got this weekend? Well, my lock of the week would have been Dallas, but, you know, very play.

Oh, really? So if they were playing on Sunday, oh, you want me to go, you want me to just give you credit for it? Did you like Dallas in all seriousness? Did you like them laying? I did love Dallas. I did love Dallas. I studied the game pretty much, and I figured Dallas could have their own way with Washington.

Maybe you were the one that moved the line. Maybe your opinion moved the line, because that line went from 10.5 to 13 and a half, from Friday morning until game time. All right. So with the games left to be played, do you have a lock of the week? Let me think about it here. give me some games. I forgot who's playing. All right, let me give you, I'm going to predict the game that you'll like here.

You are going to want to have, ooh, this is not an easy card this week. You're going to probably, you're going to like the, here's the game you're going to like. Oh, do you have it already? Let me, do you have it in your mind? I have one in my mind. It's kind of an upset special. I was going to take Buffalo plus a three and a half against Philly. Okay. That's not the one I would have guessed.

Billy coming off that tough Monday night game and emotional and I think Buffalo is going to be in a state of mind where they've got to win and I think Josh Allen makes some plays and Stefan Diggs will show up in a big way. Gabe Davis will catch the ball this week and I think they'll keep it close at least. All right. I like that pick actually.

I like that pick a lot. I like Buffalo a lot this week. I was going to guess that you were going to like Jacksonville laying a point. on the road at Houston this week to get revenge over the game. That's going to be a great game. Over the game that they had lost earlier in the year at home. All right.

Jack DeVille's kind of weird because they've looked really, really good. And they look bad. They look bad. You saw it. San Fran did to them. And Houston is rolling. And I like the fact that C.J. Stroud overcame some poor plays last week to get the win, and they're playing a lot of confidence.

That's going to be a great game to watch. I'm pulling for Houston. I'm pulling. I like both those teams. Both those teams are fun to watch. Well, don't you have, do you still have a lot of people in that organization that you know, Jacksonville? In Jacksonville?

No, no, they clean house. Well, they cleaned house, but what about players? Not really. Really, no, there's only about four or five left. Okay. Crazy. You know, yeah. Teams turn over so fast nowadays, the NFL's insane.

All right. Buffalo plus the three and a half. I'm going to give you the three and a half. half, although I see mostly threes now. It's down to three, but I'm going to give you the three and a half because it's been three and a half all week. Good luck with that. Enjoy the weekend. I'll talk to you next week. All right, Kevin, thanks. I like that Buffalo pick from Jay. It might be in the smell test as well. We might actually agree on a pick. Last week he had Washington. I didn't want to remind him of that. He's been pretty good. He's five and three on the season with his locks of the week. Five and three, six and three? I don't know. I'm not really

keeping track. I should. I know it is five, at least five wins and now at least three losses. My smell test picks when we come back to finish up the show right after these words from a few of our sponsors. 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 has always brought to you by My Bookie. My Bookie offering right now through the rest of this Thanksgiving weekend the 100,000, 110% cash bonus on your initial deposit. You have to use my promo code, Kevin DC, not Kevin S980, not Kevin SDC, Kevin SDC. Kevin DC.

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MyBooky's well beyond that. MyBooky.ag promo code Kevin D.C. You get a doubling of your money on your initial deposit. All right. I have already given out a game for this Friday. Didn't do it on Wednesday. I apologize. And I knew I was going to have Nebraska.

But you may be better off as of the recording of this podcast. because they're down 7-0. But I gave out Nebraska on the radio show early, laying two and a half at home today against Iowa. And a game that has the lowest total in the history of totals since they've been tracked, 25, 25 and a half is where that game went off. That was the over-under total. Real quickly, too, in-game over-under total on the game at 0-0 in the first quarter. It had dropped to 18, 18 after the game.

had started. They are already, you know, into the second quarter as of the recording of this portion of this show today. All right, let me rip through the other picks. Five and five last week. I had Green Bay yesterday. Had Washington, of course, really wish that I had pulled it back. I considered it very much so, but because I had played it at plus 14, I just let it ride. And got hurt by it, both in my smell test record and where it really hurts, which is in my wallet. So one in one so far with Nebraska pending today. So let's get to it with Saturday and Sunday picks. So Michigan is laying three and a half against Ohio State in one of the biggest games of the season.

Both teams 11 and 0. Tomorrow high noon in Ann Arbor. It'll be a chilly overcast day. The public's playing Ohio State. They have been a great defensive team all year long. They have gotten much better here offensively. And the last impression of Michigan was hanging on to beat Maryland, 31 to 24. They don't have their head coach on the sideline.

Their quarterback seems to be a bit banged up. So the public's all over Ohio State. The number has stayed there at three and a half all week long. Michigan is the play minus three and a half. Cincinnati's getting seven against Kansas. Cincinnati's played better recently. they weren't that great against West Virginia last week. Kansas, a disappointing loss to arch rival K State last week in a great game. The public likes Kansas to bounce back. They are taking the

favorite. I'll take the dog, Cincinnati plus seven. Ball State's playing Miami of Ohio, who's having a great season. This line is super short. It's five and a half on the road against four and seven Ball State. I'll take Ball State plus the five and a half. Alabama crushed their non-SEC opponent last week, while Auburn lost to New Mexico State as a 25-point favorite. They lost outright at home, 31 to 10. Public thinks that Alabama will do every bit of what New Mexico State did, if not more, Lang 14. I'll take Auburn at Jordan Hare plus the 14. Rivalry game between Arizona State and a very good Arizona team.

Arizona's been underrated all year long. Arizona's laying 10 and a half. Public loves them. I'll take the Sun Devils at home plus the 10 and a half. And San Diego State against Fresno, take San Diego State plus five and a half. That line should be seven plus and it's less than a touchdown. Let's go to Sunday where I like the Falcons and they're coming off that bye week. And Atlanta's getting a point in a half at home against New Orleans in a huge NFC South game right now.

Desmond Ritters back in the lineup. Public really likes the Saints. I will take the Falcons plus the one and a half. The Cardinals coming off a loss, but a covering loss last week at Houston are getting a point in a half at home against the Rams tomorrow who beat Seattle. I'll take Arizona plus the one and a half.

Listen to this. One of the biggest public plays of Sunday, the New York Giants. The public loves the Giants getting three and a half at home against the Patriots. I guess Tommy DeVito really convinced him last week. I'll take the Patriots laying the three and a half

and a major sort of contrarian play there. And then Buffalo's getting three at Philly. There's sharp money on the bills. There's public money on Philly. Philly's coming off that emotional draining game Monday night at Arrowhead short week for them. I'll take the bills plus the three at Lincoln Financial. Sunday night, Chargers, plus

the four at home against the Ravens. The Ravens are a big public play. And Monday night, one of the biggest public plays of the weekend in either college or pro is Minnesota laying three against the Bears on Monday night football in Minneapolis. I'll take the Bears plus the three. So recapping, I had Nebraska from earlier today, laying two and a half. I have no idea how that'll turn out. It doesn't look good right now. So you're probably in good shape that you didn't get it unless you were listening to the radio show. And if you did that, you're probably cursing me right now. Tomorrow, Michigan minus three and a half, Cincinnati plus seven, Ball State plus five and a half,

Auburn plus 14, Arizona State plus 10 and a half, San Diego State plus five and a half, Sunday, the Falcons plus one and a half, the Cardinals plus one and a half, the Pats minus three and a half, the Bills plus three, the Chargers plus four, Monday night, the Bears plus three. football weekend, one of the best weekends of the year for sports. Enjoy it back on Monday.