The Kevin Sheehan Show - Demolished in Dallas

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

Kevin with his breakdown of Washington's 56-14 blow-out loss to the Cowboys in Dallas. The off-the-field lead-up to the game was petty and embarrassing but not nearly as humiliating as the demolition that took place on the field. Kevin's "Game Take" included one player who stood out in a positive way and several parts of the team that didn't. He had a grade for Taylor Heinicke, a suggestion on who should start at QB against Philly this coming week, and then he spent a few minutes discussing the updated playoff picture. He talked other NFL and then brought on Gene Wang/Washington Post to discuss the increasing number of cancelled bowl games.  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 Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. Here goes Hineke with Antonio Gibson. He was going to be a game time decision in fighting through a toe injury, but he starts at running back. Off play action.

Hineke going deep downfield and Interception number 11 for Trayvon Diggs. You know, prior to that first offensive play from scrimmage last night, that Taylor Heineke deep shot were taking a shot on the first play to Terry McClorn. Before that play, which Trayvon Diggs intercepted, things were going pretty well. They were. They got Dallas off the field on Dallas's opening drive. They had a sack on that particular drive.

And then on that weird third and 16, they got to stop. I was wondering, by the way, did anybody else think that that was a planned lateral to Amari Cooper from Wilson on that, third and 16, I don't know. But all was well. And then the offense took the field. But that wasn't the problem. Everything was the problem last night. 56 to 14, the final, and it really wasn't that close. The show today, presented by Window Nation, they've got a really good deal going between now and the end of the month. So that's now and Friday. 50% off all windows, a house full of windows for only $99 a month. If you've been thinking about new windows, call them at 86690 Nation. Go to windownation.com.

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trust in them. 86690 Nation or windownation.com. So I am here today. We'll be here tomorrow with Tommy, Wednesday and Thursday as well. More likely than not no Friday show this week unless there's a reason to do a Friday show. And that all leads up to the Philadelphia game on Sunday. But we've got this game to talk about today, which we will do starting right now. I want to start with just kind of an overarching theme to last night. It was an embarrassment for sure. One of the more embarrassing on-field nights in franchise history, and there have been so many, especially during the Dan Snyder era. You know, I'd love to do this thing that I feel like I have done, and it's a little bit on repeat,

where when they lose a game like this, where it's just embarrassing in so many different ways, I refer to it as an organizational loss. I can remember probably 10, 11, 12 years ago, you know, some of the Zorn games is probably when I first started to say, you know, that loss wasn't on the quarterback, it wasn't on the defense, it wasn't on the coach.

That's an organizational loss, and it starts at the top. But I think the organizational loss is a little bit old, and I also think that most of you realize that all of these losses and all of these losing seasons, and there have been five in a row now, we're now guaranteed to have a fifth losing season in a row. I think you all realize how bad the owner is. I mean, it's hardly a revelation, and that, you know, it's going to be really, really difficult to win anything of note, no matter who gets duped into taking jobs here. You know, Ron Rivera, Jack Dilrio, they're real coaches, guys, okay?

I know the feeling today is to look at Ron Rivera's all the losing seasons and Jack Del Rio's lack of what, you know, so many of you refer to as adjustments. No, they're real coaches. They're longtime coaches in this league. They're respected in this league. They were lucky, honestly, given the franchise's stature in 2020, to attract guys like Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio. It just doesn't matter, you know? I mean, Snyder and now you have to say Snyder and his wife, Dan and Tanya,

you know, they were responsible, we believe, for rush ordering and getting rush delivery. of the benches, you know, the heated, low-goed benches, because their, you know, hero, Jerry Jones had done the same thing to them. I mean, how unoriginal these people are. It was an embarrassment on Tuesday night. It was an embarrassment again last night. You know, nobody in their self-absorbed world is able to say to them, this is a terrible idea. That's sort of been the MO for a long period of time. they'd listen to anybody anyway, because they've never thought any of this is their fault. It wasn't funny if that was what it was intended to be. It wasn't helpful if that's what it was intended to be.

It was just stupid. You know, it wasn't very creative and it made them look foolish. And, you know, a lot of you said last week, this isn't that big of a deal. And then I was with you, you know, when Tommy first mentioned it on the podcast, when the benches got ordered for the Philadelphia game. I was like, oh, God, whatever. But I wasn't really that worked up about it until I realized that this was not a Ron Rivera idea. This was not a football person's idea.

You know, so that made it, you know, using Ron's phrases, a little bit more important than just interesting. You know, and I'm sure there are people in that organization that don't realize why it's important. You know, why the owner and or Tanya doing something like this without necessarily the approval of a football person is not helpful. But whatever. The new team president, did you see this? Jason Wright tweeted out on Christmas night a picture of a snowman and Santa Claus animated peeing on a cowboy's helmet. on Christmas night. You can't make this up.

The team president did this. Here's what he wrote with the attached picture. Give me a second. Here it is. Good night, Washington NFL Nation. A holiday themed game day is just a day away. And there it is. Old Frosty and Santa with their trousers down,

peeing on a cowboy's helmet. I mean, the team president. You know, he tweeted out something afterwards. I think he probably realized that it was probably not the best choice. And he said, you know, friends, beat Dallas tweets are meant in good fun. I see irreverent pointed exchanges as the superficial and fun ways that fans pay homage to a historic and meaningful rivalry. A rare space where foolishness is not at odds with professional respect. I mean for you to enjoy without angst.

And then he gets into a simple translation. Chill just jokes. Okay. I mean, it's not that funny. You know? I think, you know, I don't blame, you know, it's everybody that comes into this place. For some reason, there is an ongoing yearning from those in the organization.

especially the Snyder organization and the Snyder choices, which is the organization. I'm not suggesting that there's really anybody in the organization that really understands the pre-Snyder history. There's not a lot of people in the organization that understand the history at all. But for some reason, there's this yearning from those in the organization, whether they've been here or just gotten here, to, like, communicate and please and learn from the wrong people. Like they're reaching out to people who don't think they do anything wrong. You know, Huckleberry, Burgundy, and Gold on Twitter is essentially, you know, the kind of person that they're, like, interested in getting feedback from. You know, the dude that's literally going to show up for the draft day parties, go to Harvest Feast.

and think that Snyder just wants to win and is just enamored and so pleased with the constant, constant memorializing of Sean Taylor. I'm sure more of it's coming. Wouldn't surprise me at all. No offense to Sean and his family, my God, no. I mean, we loved Sean. Love him. He was great.

But it's gotten to the point where it's like obvious that their go-to, move is to try and garner credibility with what's remaining of the fan base based on like this input they're getting from the true slice, tiny slice of what's remaining. You know, Jason writes Christmas night tweet was funny to those people. Not to the people that actually could help him. You know, understand what this organization is. Or more importantly, could help Dan. and Tanya on like should we order to these benches without asking Ron? No! No! Don't copycat Jerry. You look like an idiot.

Should we, hey, what do you think about this tweet? No, Jeb, do me a favor. Don't say anything. You just got your ass kicked two weeks ago by this team. Week and a half ago, you just got your ass kicked on Tuesday night by another division rival. No, stay low. Don't say anything. Let's stupid Huckleberry, Burgundy, and Gold tweet that shit out. They just never, never read the room well. In part because the new people in the organization are new to the room. They haven't been in this room. They're not familiar with the room. I've had conversations with Jason before. Jason's really bright. You know, He is very bright, and he is in a tough, tough situation. You know, a lot of the stuff that happened in this organization that has been, you know, major news happened long before he got into the organization. And he's trying, he's got a marketing and a business background, and he's trying to create some attachment and a relationship with the fan base.

But most of the fan base that matters to the business of that team is gone. you know, gone. Now, it doesn't mean they can't be learned from, but somehow it's like everybody there, it's just like Bruce, the whole group. Like they would show up at these parties on Saturday nights in road cities, and they'd think, whoa, wow, people are still into us.

No, that's not representative. Look at your stadium on Sundays. look at the television ratings. These people that you're, you know, attaching yourself to, you know, bathing yourself in, these people are few and far between. And by the way, I'm not being critical of these people as part of the problem. I think there is a certain, you know, element of any fan base, no matter how poorly treated for no matter how long,

that is just always going to be. And in their mind, it's loyalty. You know, in others, you can't. could say, well, it's naivete. You know, you could say it's, you know, there are a lot of things you could say. I'm not actually being critical of those people. I'm being critical of the organization for thinking that that somehow represents any kind of meaningful percentage of the people that still barely care or the people that don't care at all anymore. You need to reach out to the people that used to buy those blocks of club seats and those sweets and find out what the hell they think.

You know? I mean, those people are good for you. You can learn from them even if they're gone for good. Find out why they're gone for good. Those are the people you need to learn from. Those are the people that will tell you straight to your face. Sean Taylor was a great player. He was. And you know what? At some point, if you want to retire his jersey, go for it. But there are 10 other jerseys, champions, Hall of Famers, that should have their jerseys retired before Sean's jersey gets retired.

And if you're going to do this because it's special to this particular owner, then do it right. I'm telling you, would not shock me if all the stuff that's coming. when the season ends with regard to the name, if there's a lot more 21. And again, no disrespect to Sean's family. God, I mean, looking at his family and how much they've grown up, and it's heartbreaking still to this day. That's not the point.

The point is they got their ass kicked last night, 56 to 14, by a team that used to be an arch rival. And every time something like this happens, it's like it brings you back to the reality of the situation. You know, the big picture. The big picture, you know, is like I can sit here day to day and tell you that I think Ron Rivera is a really good man. I think he's a good coach. I think he's got a decent staff. A lot of you don't agree with me.

That's fine. I mean, I certainly feel like given the state of the franchise, at the end of the 2019 season, they couldn't have done any better. You know, you've got to work with what you have. There aren't a whole lot of people here willing to come here. And then, you know, in terms of like the new guy, you know, Brandon Staley or, I mean, our owner doesn't know how to,

he doesn't know who those people are. He wouldn't be able to sit down and judge somebody in terms of whether or not they'd make a great. great organizational head. Let's be clear. If he went for the new young guy, we'd all just be convinced that that guy would be interfered with on the regular. The owner's still here. They don't have a quarterback.

Those are the two big macro things. They're 0 for two in the most important categories for a football franchise. Good ownership and a good damn quarterback. Now, as far as the game goes, I think there's a certain fairness that you have to have in analyzing the game last night. I understand that there's a lot of emotion with those of you that still care. I know a lot of you that turned it off at halftime. But being fair, this group of young men and these coaches have been through it the last two weeks, man. I mean, it started with an ass kicking at a stadium that was dominated by the opposing fans

and what felt like one of the bigger home games they've had in forever, but it really wasn't a home game. They got their ass kicked. You know, we were told that it was kind of a tale of two halves. It really wasn't. And then all of the sudden COVID racks this team. I mean, it spreads like wildfire. You've got three teams that have to have, Washington being.

one of them have to have their Sunday games rescheduled for Tuesday in hopes that they can actually field safely a team. Then you've got a lot of injuries on top of it for this group. And then on Christmas Eve, you know, or I'm sorry, on Thursday night. I think it was Thursday night. Deshaeser Everett, a captain on this team, you know, a very good special teams player. He gets in an accident where a young woman in the car with him,

29 years old, is killed. We don't know the details of this, so I'm not going to speculate. But, you know, you've just, they've been through a shit show over the last, you know, 12 to 14 days. You know, not to mention they got their ass kicked twice at the beginning of this five-game round robin, you know, that everybody out there was so excited about off a four-game win streak. And kudos to them for putting themselves into a position during that four-game win-streek to make some of these games matter.

Because on Halloween, it looked like the season was completely over. We got at least a month of, you know, enjoying something. But, you know, you can't just analyze this game without mentioning that they were, totally depleted. Whomever was available for the game, many of those people really didn't practice much in preparation for the game. They were out so many players,

COVID and injury-wise, so many players on defense, Holcomb, Collins, Jackson, Jamon, Davis, you didn't have sheriff on offense. You were getting players back after, you know, a rough week. Taylor Heineke was legitimately sick. Not hospitalized sick from COVID. But, you know, he talked about last week, he couldn't, you know, couldn't catch his breath for a couple of days.

But, but, I understand that that explains maybe not having high expectations going in. That explains maybe losing the game. It sure as hell doesn't explain 56 to 14. 56 to 14 is a level that reflects more than just what they've gone through as a collective group the last two weeks. Washington took a beating last night, unlike many they've taken before. I mean, it kind of reminds you of the Monday Night Massacre in 2010 to the Eagles, but that final score was like 59 to 35 or something like that. last, it was 42 to 7 and 56 to 7.

Dallas could have scored 80 if they had really wanted to. They had to stop themselves from scoring by taking everybody out and putting Cooper Rush into the game and he still drove him to a touchdown. The defense was a sieve for a second straight game. The offense was not up to the occasion for the second time against the defense. the same team in two weeks. The quarterback just isn't a quarterback that's going to keep pace with a team like the one he faced last night.

You know, on Taylor Heineke's best day, he's a seven or eight win quarterback on a good team. And on his worst day, he really shouldn't be out there unless it's a break glass emergency situation like it was, you know, in the playoff game. Look, he's a smart guy, he's a good guy. there's so many redeeming features about him. He's not. He's not the long-term answer. It doesn't mean that there's not a place for him in this league and on this team. I hope he is on this team, but not as a 17 game starter. Not if winning something of note is the goal. They have to aim higher at quarterback. And they will. They will. All right, my game take, what I like,

what I didn't like, some more observations, who I think should start at quarterback against Philadelphia. The updated playoff picture for those of you that are still wondering, is there still a chance after a 56 to 14 blowout? You know, look, the NFL teams get blown out. These things happen. You know, you get blown out in the NFL. Good teams get blown out. Good teams get blown out. Good teams lose to horrible teams. The Chargers got beaten, gave up 41 against the Texans yesterday. These things happen, and one thing I have learned, and I'm telling you, those of you that gamble on football know what I am about to say, you cannot be beholden to recency, because that will burn you every single time in this league. It is a week-to-week league. And the only teams,

that really sort of rise above the week-to-week nature are either the really good organizations or the teams with the really elite quarterbacks. Okay, lots of stuff coming up right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. My Game Take presented by MyBooky.

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left. We still have two regular season weeks left. And then, of course, all the playoff games. And there's still a lot of bowl games, even though several of them have been canceled. By the way, Gene Wong from the Washington Post is going to join us in her final segment just to talk about these bowl games and why they're being canceled and why they haven't changed some of the protocols in college football with respect to COVID. There are a bunch of issues going on. Unfortunately, Steve Beck, who runs the military bowl and is a friend of mine, they had to shut down the military bowl today. It would have happened today at Navy Marine Corps Stadium.

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you have a certain amount, you're going to use it as an entertainment, a form of entertainment, it can be, it can be fine. It's not fine for everybody, though. Mybooky.orgie.orgie.com. All right, let's get to my game take. Let me start with just mentioning that the playoffs, it's real simple. Like, they've got to win their final two games against Philadelphia and the Giants. And then they've got to hope a lot of things happen. You know, at eight and nine right now with the standings being where they are, with Philadelphia right now holding onto that seventh spot with already their eighth win, and still two games left.

If they lose to Washington, Washington can control, excuse me, they can control the Philadelphia situation this coming week, but then Philadelphia will end with Dallas. Now, Dallas is probably going to have to win that game for seating. you know, either the top seed overall or the number two seed. I don't think I've mentioned enough that the two seed's important because the two seed, while it doesn't give you the first round by that it used to, it does give you the opportunity if you win during that opening weekend a chance to play that second weekend game at home as well. If you're a top two seed, you're guaranteed of playing, you know, that first game at home.

If you're the number one seed, any game you play will be at home in the postseason. If you're the number two seed, it guarantees that you'll play that second game at home if you win the first weekend. So Dallas is probably going to have to win that game. So if Washington pulled off and they're a three-point underdog, a win over Philadelphia, it's a week-to-week league. Things change. They really do. I know what we saw last night, and I'm about to go through it.

But things are weird. And Philadelphia lost Miles Sanders to a potential fraction. at hand. That would be a big loss for them. They're a dangerous team. I really think they are, but the Sanders loss could be a big one for them. They're not the only other team, though. Like even if Philadelphia lost their final two and Washington won their final two games, you know, as part of maybe a three-way tie if Minnesota loses one of their final two, and they play the Packers this coming week. You still have the Saints to deal with. They play Miami tonight. There are a lot of different permutations. The bottom,

line is, the chances are slim and none. They have to win both, and then they've got to hope for a lot of other things to happen. We can get into more detail if they beat Philadelphia going into the final week of exactly what they need. Let's see if they can beat Philadelphia first, one o'clock Sunday, because I don't think they can. I wouldn't put it past them. You know, I wouldn't put it pass this league to lose 5614 on Sunday night football as part of a three-game losing streak and then come back and play a team that's one of the hottest in the NFL. All right, let's get to the game take. Start with the things that I liked.

You know, this list is short, obviously, it should be after a 56 to 14 loss, but I really liked the tight end John Bates, you know, the pick from Boise. Last night was a moment for him. He had two catches for 45 yards, but it was his effort after the catch on both of his catches. Now, he did fumble that second catch, but he hustled, fought for the ball, got it back, and as he got it back, it crossed the goal line or crossed the plane of the goal line on the ground, and John Bates was credited with a touchdown.

I thought John Bates was really good. I think, you know, given the opportunity that he has with Logan, Thomas being out. Ricky Seals Jones, even though he was back last night, not, you know, probably 100% healthy. I think Bates has shown you something this year at times. Deami Brown's catch when they were down 21-0-0 that ultimately led to Washington's first of two touchdowns on the night was really an excellent catch for a guy that's had kind of a disappointing rookie season when the expectations were high, maybe too high for Diami Brown. He was a third round pick. I mean, you're not going to strike on two Terry McClorns in a row usually.

But they were really excited about Diami Brown. And we saw some things during the preseason where it was like, you know what? This guy is really going to help him. And he really hasn't. And he hasn't been healthy the whole year. That catch, though, which was thrown into double coverage, was a really good catch. It was a 48-yard catch. I thought Gibson last night, given that, you know, he was potentially going to be a

scratch for last night. I thought he really, you know, he didn't play a lot of snaps. When the game got out of hand, they justifiably. you know, pulled him from the game. But I thought early on, he looked like Antonio Gibson, you know, six carries 29 yards. We'll get to the play calling here in a moment. A couple of catches as well for 29 yards.

So, you know, 58 yards of offense on eight touches, a couple of, you know, good runs, a couple of good, you know, runs after catch, had a touchdown on what was really the third, you know, checkdown read for Heineke. I think Gibson looked good. I mean, Gibson's, if they're going to win the final two, or if they're going to win on Sunday, I still think Gibson's got to be a big part of it. He wasn't enough of a part of the play calling, which I'll get to in a moment. Also on the list of things that I liked, and I bet you guys were wondering, when are you going to get to this?

The fight between John Allen and Duran Payne. I thought John Allen had a quick, short right hook that was very boxer-like. and I thought pain did a pretty good job of slipping it. You know, there was no direct contact on that punch in part. His pain did a really nice job, I think, of anticipating it. He should have anticipated it because he stuck his finger right in John Allen's forehead. And he did a nice job of avoiding a direct blow. I thought it was impressive on both of their parts.

Now, in all seriousness as it relates to this, they are friends, if you didn't know that, I think this is one of those things where by the time they got back to D.C. and landed on the plane at Dulles, it was not forgotten, but they're still boys and they're going to be fine. And this is frustration. This is frayed nerves. This is getting your ass kicked. This is, you know, let me just tell you, John is the real pro. he's one of there's more than just one there are three or four legit maybe more than that I shouldn't say three or four

there are some legit professional you know guys on this team and there are some legit tough guys on this team and John's one of them Duran obviously was upset they were talking about something they were pissed off at each other both of them really shunned it and shut it down

you know afterwards is something that, you know, is just part of the game. I'm sure this happens a lot that we never see. It was a little bit much for the sideline on a Sunday night game, which is part of the reason that it got, you know, blown up so much. And, you know, you don't see every day somebody take a legitimate punch at a teammate with helmets off. That's usually reserved for the other team.

But on some level, I'm glad that they were both so pissed off with the results rather than, you know, the last time that they got their ass kicked, you know, giving up 50-something points to Philadelphia in that Monday Night Massacre. That was the game where Albert Haynesworth was just lying on the ground, like, you know, a beached whale. So I, most of you know I'm a big fan of John Allen. I'm a big, big fan of John Allen in every way. I'm sure that he regrets that to a certain point, but I'm also pretty sure that this isn't like a lingering thing. Now, Duran to me is an extraordinary talent.

I don't know that he is as serious about football, you know, like John Allen and maybe Matt Ionitis are, in terms of those positions. He's an incredible talent. These guys go way back. They play together at Alabama. I hope, you know, this is not a lingering thing, and I don't expect it to be. All right, the list of things that I didn't like. Well, you know, let me start with kind of the non-football stuff.

You know, the players being out, Holcomb, Collins, you know, Jackson, Jamie Davis defensively. I mean, they were, they didn't have any linebackers last night. And they didn't play any linebackers except for Mayo. Mayo played every single snap in the game last night defensively. They were lined up in a five-man front with one linebacker and five DBs a hell of a lot last night. The only other listed linebackers that played in the game were Harris and Kuna Chick, if that's how you pronounce their names. And they only combined for, you know, one of them played 14 snaps, the other one played 11.

So, yeah, I mean, they were really hurting going in. to this game. I mean, the line was at like nine, eight and a half, then it went back to nine, then it went to ten. This was really, like in hindsight, I didn't play the game. I did not like either side in this game because I just didn't know. Dallas wasn't very good, you know, in recent weeks. I mean, they, they didn't look good against the giants, you know, and the giants are terrible. They might be worse than Washington. Organizationally right now, they're a mess as well. But, you know, they had like Mayo and Dejan Harris and this dude Eiffler, Milo Eifler, who was on the COVID list last week. If you were watching the NBC, you know, Sunday night football introductions where, you know, it's like, you know, I'm, I'm Duran Payne, defensive tackle, Alabama.

And then they went to Milo Eifler. And there was no recorded introduction. Because they didn't know he would play. And by the way, I don't think he did play. I can't, I don't think I ever saw him in the game. He played on special teams, I think. I could be wrong about that too. But what a shit show defensively what they had, you know, going into this game.

Again, I mean, I don't want to sit here and make excuses for 5614. That's hard to do. But you're really being unfair and really naive. If you don't think that all of what's gone on over the last week and a half to, you know, to 14 days impacted and led to a lot of what we saw last night. The bench is just another thing. Look, it's on my list of things I didn't like. I just, I don't get it. You know, unoriginal, stupid attempt at gamesmanship, if that's what it was.

Most likely, you know, the clueless owner's idea. if they were trying to be helpful, it wasn't. If they were trying to be funny, it fell flat. If you were trying to rejuvenate a rivalry, then why the hell did you bring them to Philadelphia on Tuesday night? If you're going to do any of this, you got to do it with your coach-centric coach approving it. Otherwise, it just reeks of, you know, same old, same old.

All right, specifically on the game, and the team. Topping really the list of things that I didn't like is I didn't think the team was ready to play. Again, maybe part of this was understandable, but 56 to 14 means you really weren't ready. You know, this has been a team, and I've credited them for bringing the energy, bringing the discipline, bringing the aggressiveness. You know, after that Denver game, when they fell to two and six, I said the rest of this season is about how the players respond to Ron Rivera. We'll they continue to fight? Will they continue to, you know, be an energetic plucky, as Ben Standig called them last week, a plucky group, a feisty group? And they have been. They really have.

They were not last night, though. They were out hustled. They were outplayed. They were out-coached. And they were out-classed. And that's the part that, to me, is troubling because I've seen them, get out-hustled, out-played-out-coached, not a lot during even some ugly games. I mean, out-played, yes. But they've at least been a team that's put up, you know, a fight. The talent last night between these two teams, if you look at the two games against Dallas, remember at the beginning of the year in August, we thought, okay, well, they got a quarterback and they got a lot of offensive weapons,

and at least I said this, I understand why they're favored. I think they should be favored to win the division. But, you know, we all held out hope that defensively, Washington had a little bit of something going on there. You know, and that maybe because of the defense, they're not that far off from Dallas. They're far off. Dallas has playmakers everywhere you look. It's really, you know, we didn't see a lot of this coming. We thought, you know, in talking about Dallas before the season, that if they were helped,

than they were last year, and especially with their new defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, that it could make a significant turnaround. But nobody saw Parsons being the star. Nobody saw Randy Gregory breaking out. You know, you still have, you know, Van der Esch and Lawrence and, you know, other guys like Casey and Jordan and Diggs. Nobody saw Diggs, 11 interceptions, tying Everson Walls for their franchise record. And I, I know he gets beat a lot. Plus they've got depth, man. You know, they've got some depth defensively.

And then offensively, you knew, you know, that they had a better quarterback situation. And last year had DAC played and not gotten hurt, Washington doesn't win the division last year. And their running back situation, even though it's been hampered and, you know, injured, you know, both healthy, Zeke and Pollard, pretty good combination. Schultz has emerged at a position where they were unsure. He took a big shot from McCann. last night. That was rightly flagged. I did not think the officiating was very good last night, not that it mattered. Dallas's offensive line went healthy is good, and then these receivers, man, Cooper, Lamb, Gallup, Wilson, and then how about this dude, Malik Turner, didn't even

know him? He comes in with Cooper Rush, and he makes one of the best 61-yard catch and runs you'll see all year and then scored a touchdown. Dallas is a lot better. They're a lot better from a personnel standpoint. A lot better. I think that's a bit of a revelation this year. I think we thought it early, and then maybe as we started to inch back towards Washington and have a winning streak,

Dallas has fallen off a little bit, you know, because many of us thought they were going to compete. I did, you know, a couple weeks ago. But they're outclassed by Dallas. Outclassed. The defense was truly horrendous. last night. They're on the list of things I didn't like. I'm just going to

read from the first half stats, because they're really amazing. I mean, in one half, Dallas managed 42 points. I know that seven of them, you know, came on the pick six by Lawrence. So they had 35

points offensively. 388 yards, 24 first downs. I've never heard of that in a first half before. 24 is a lot for a game. They were on pace for 48 first downs. They were seven of nine on third down. I've never heard of anything like that. Dack had the best first half passing yardage wise of this season, 27 to 35, 321 yards, four touchdowns, became the first

quarterback ever to throw touchdown passes to a wide receiver or running back a tight end and in offensive tackle, first NFL quarterback in history to do that in a regular season game. I mean, this was an ass kicking. Defensively in two weeks now, in two weeks, Washington has given up. I wrote it down here. Where is it? They've given up in two games, two straight weeks, or two straight games against the Eagles and the Cowboys. They've given up, they've given up 83 points, 1,016 yards, 51 first downs, 17 of 28 on third down. Holy shit.

I mean, this is one of those games where the revamped culture discussion takes a big hit. Takes a big hit. The defense was a joke last night. It wasn't very good on Tuesday night. It was just as bad, if not worse, last night. because they didn't get the turnovers that they got in the game against Philadelphia, even though one of them was kind of a flukeish turnover. But this was an ugly, ugly night for defense that was ravaged.

We understood that. But still, you know, at one point, you know, the only thing I would say is I thought there were times when they got decent pressure on DAC. They sacked them three times in the game. but I thought that there were some times where they got decent pressure and they just let him off the hook a little bit. He escaped, created some room, made big plays downfield. The coverage was poor.

He made a couple of runs, you know, two weeks ago he didn't look like he wanted to run at all last night. He just looked better. But the defense, just a dreadful night last night in Dallas. You know, the start of the game was, you know, the intercept. the touchdown drive where they had a free play with an off-sides that landed them a 23-yard DAC to Cooper completion. Then they had the next drive that ended in a touchdown two. There was another off-sides which created a free play opportunity that went to Lamb for 22 yards.

Dax started 11 of 12 with two of the easiest bootleg touchdown passes you'll ever see. Barnes gets the pick six, it's 21-0-0 game over. The start was hideous. Hidious. On the list of things that I didn't like, I thought the play calling offensively, and I've been a Scott Turner supporter, and I think I understand what he was trying to do, and I'm going to talk about it right now, but I think because two weeks ago they couldn't run the football when they tried on early downs, and knowing how crucial running the football would be, because you're not. You know, you can't ask Taylor to sit back and throw the ball. It's just not going to work for them. But I think Scott Turner's plan was to try to stretch the field early with the idea of coming back and running it

after you would stretch the field a little bit. You know, Dallas knew in that opener that they were going to try to run the ball like they had for the four-game winning streak. And they wrecked the line scrimmage in that game at FedEx Field. So I think an early down first and 10 shot, which they took to Terry McClurent intercepted. They took a little bit later on in the game to Diami Brown and it connected into double coverage. But I think the plan for Scott Turner was we got to loosen this defense up. We're going to have to throw it early and then come back to running the football. And, you know, there's some sense you can make. The problem is, you know, stretching the field, you know, the attempts that they tried, it started with an interception by Diggs,

and Terry McCorn wasn't open on that play. You know, there was no separation. So, you know, if you're going to stretch the field, you better not throw interceptions, you know. There may be some benefit to making them think, hey, they're going to take some shots in this game and backing them off a little bit, but you either have to complete them or have them fall incomplete. The bottom line is Turner knew that he couldn't get into bad down in distance because that is an absolute death sentence for Taylor Heineke. You can't ask Taylor Heineke to drop back on third and long and expect him to succeed consistently.

It's not going to happen. On the list of things that I didn't like, there were a couple of linemen down the field for Dallas that weren't called. The officiating missed some stuff. It didn't matter. I mean, you're talking about the difference between 5614 and maybe 49 to 21. There was the crown of the helmet shot to Taylor Heineke that wasn't called. Bates took a crown to the helmet on a sideline play.

Just some miscalls. You had the Randy Gregory lying on the ground sort of taunting Taylor Heineke when he was on the ground. I thought that that should have been flagged or could have been flagged. You know, there were two plays on defense. I think I know why now this happened, but there were two plays on defense where there was a player late getting on to the field as the 11th defensive player. It happened with James Smith Williams.

And by the way, he's jogging onto the field, but I think he was jogging onto the field because he was hurt and shouldn't have been on the field. And Dallas completed a pass essentially against 10 players because Smith Williams never made it into position. And then the same thing happened with Casey Two Hill, like either the next play or two plays later. It might have been the next play.

And again, that may have been James Smith-Williams injury-related. So I don't know if that was more of a disorganized, bad coaching, bad communication, or they had an injury, and because he didn't go down on the field and because he tried to come back in, it may have gotten all messed up. All right. A couple of other observations. I want to start with Taylor Heineke. Okay.

He wasn't very good. I don't think I gave a grade for Taylor Heineke on the radio show this morning, but I'll give a grade for him here momentarily. Look, I tweeted out at halftime. For those that are having this conversation at 427 about what should we do at quarterback for the second half, kind of a worthless conversation to have down 427, okay? It's a more appropriate question now for the Philadelphia game, But apparently Ron's already weighed in on that, or he did in the post game.

Taylor's going to be the starter against Philadelphia. The first play of the game, the shot to McClorn, you know, if you're going to call a shot and take a shot, you've got to see a sign that McLorne's going to win a little bit, and he never saw that sign. And he took the shot anyway. I mean, part of that is what we love about Heineke. He's just going to give his receiver a chance, but that ball was thrown inside. It's got to be thrown to the outside if he's going to be covered to give him a better chance. at the ball. He had a great sidearm throw to Dax Milne, sort of Patrick Mahomes style for 10 yards on

their second drive. Then he came right back and had a bad throw to McLaren against Diggs again. Ball was high. It was late. Taylor was covered. Fortunately, it was incomplete. He had a horrible throw on the third drive of the game to Gibson and the flat just missed him completely. You know, the DeMarcus Lawrence pick six, kind of like the Randy Gregory play in the game two weeks ago. good defensive plays. It was a weak attempt, super weak attempt by Heineke to tackle him, though. The throw to Diommy Brown's into double coverage. I don't know what Scott Turner would tell you about that, but he gave Diommy Brown a chance, I guess, and they made the play 48 yards. He had a couple of bad misses, really bad misses. He had a second and goal before the touchdown to Gibson where he

escaped, which he does better than anything else he does, escaped pressure, and then threw the ball three feet over Humphrey's head. Incomplete, fortunately. We see that all the time, you know, with his inaccuracy, typically being high. But he misses out patterns too. He missed an out to Cam Sims, who was wide open right before the two-minute warning. I did like the touchdown throw to Gibson. That I think was his checkdown, you know, on the total.

opposite side of the field that he was reading out. And I like his ability to get to different options there. And he had some time there. And he got the ball to Gibson and Gibson. Gibson looked good. You know, for the turf toe being an issue of going in, I thought he looked pretty solid. Heineke had the worst throw of the night was the third and ten on the first drive of the third quarter when he scrambled out of the pocket, had two receivers open.

And instead of sailing it over people's heads, he threw it into the ground, you know, three, four feet short. Had a throw also in the second half, way behind Adam Humphreys, had a third and 15 that was high that was nearly picked off. He wasn't very good in this game. You know, the pass protection wasn't good. They didn't have a running game, and the score got out of hand. It's tough to really, you know, say, well, if they had, you know,

gotten a few more stops, and it had been 21 to 10 at halftime or something, Who knows? But, you know, he was a C-minus D-plus in the game, probably. Kyle Allen came into the game. The other team was up 56 to 7. I don't know how you evaluate Kyle Allen in a game like that where he's playing against a lot of reserves. Can you really learn anything from that?

Here's what you know with Kyle Allen. I think it's pretty obvious. He's bigger. He looks bigger in the pocket. And he just throws the ball better, period. He's not as mobile. He's not as athletic. He's not unathletic.

But I'll tell you what, I know Ron is probably going to start Taylor Heineke. I think I'd just give Kyle Allen the ball Sunday against Philadelphia. Try something new. It's been a tough three weeks for He misses a game. The other two are his worst games of the year. He ended up with a 4.0. QBR after, you know, in the last game against Dallas having a 5.5 QBR, that's terrible. You know, probably, I gave him what, a C minus D plus. It's probably more of a D minus based on that,

but I'll stick with the C minus D plus. I don't know. I mean, nobody did much to help him in the game. But I think I'd just go with Kyle Allen. I think I'd just do that. he throws it better. Now maybe if you feel like you're not going to be able to run the ball or he's going to be under duress, well maybe Heineke gives you a better chance with some playmaking ability. I told you after the Philadelphia game

that I thought two punts were nearly blocked in that game and that they had an issue with punt protection in the game. Well, Dallas blocked a punt. You know, Washington's had some issues with punt protection. Now, part of that may be that some of these special teamers have been out too. You know, David Mayo plays a lot on special teams. Last night, he played every single snap defensively. So that could be part of the issue, too, is that on the two nights where they were really depleted,

a lot of those guys that were either out or had to play more defensive snaps weren't as maybe productive from a special teams standpoint. One other last quick thing, just an observation. There was the second and goal run to Pollard where they nearly pushed them into the end zone. I think that has been so inconsistently officiated. There are times where runners are getting held up and the whistle immediately blows because they don't want anybody to get hurt. And then there are other times like last night where everybody jumps in, including the quarterback and trying to push the pile and they just let it go.

go. I wish they'd get a handle on that because I think it's very, very inconsistent right now. Okay, that's it on the game. Real quickly from the other NFL games, the stunner yesterday was clearly the Texans knocking off the Chargers. This is the NFL. You know, Justin Herbert, Star, San Diego, or sorry, L.A. Chargers. heading to the playoffs, 13-point favorites on the road against a horrible Houston team, and they're not even close. I mean, they get beat 41 to 29. Herbert throws two picks, including a pick six in Davis Mills. After, you know, this was the guy that Cooley really liked coming out of the draft from Stanford,

picked, I think, in the fourth round or third round by the Texans. He's had a couple of really good games in a row. He's 6'4-225. He plays like Kirk Cousins. That's his style. I think that was Cooley's comparison. He's had a couple of really good games in a row. Shocker there, though.

The Eagles crushed the Giants 34 to 10, but again, as mentioned, they could have lost, may have lost Miles Sanders in the game. That would be a problem. The Rams beat the Vikings 30 to 23. My Kirk update, he didn't play very well. And they had a problem because they couldn't run the football. They averaged, you know, like 2.9 yards per carry.

That's always going to be a problem. They couldn't block Aaron Donald. And they gave up a punt return for a touchdown. And Kirk threw for 315 and a touchdown and had an interception in the red zone that was, you know, it was catchable by KJ Osborne, but whatever. He didn't come through. You know, the quarterback gets a lot of the blame

and a lot of the credit. And he, you know, takes a lot of the blame yesterday for not overcoming a really good Rams team on a role, but a Rams team where Matt Stafford didn't play well. The games on Saturday on Christmas Day, how did Cleveland stop running the football with three timeouts? The ball at midfield down 24-22? It was a terrible job to put that game into Mayfield's hands.

And I know that that last throw was defensive holding and it should have been called, but God, was Mayfield horrible? Why Stifansky with Nick Chub averaging 7 and a half yards per carry, three timeouts left, down 24-22, and you've got the ball first and 10 at the 50, with a minute to go in three-timeouts, why aren't you running Chubb to the tune of seven and a half yards per carry? Instead, he put the ball into Mayfield's hands, incomplete, incomplete, intercepted game over. Cleveland's playoff chances pretty much ended with that one. I thought the game of the weekend was the game on Thursday night.

We didn't have a podcast on Friday or over the weekend. I thought the Titans 49ers game was sensational. I thought Tannihil and A.J. Brown in the second half were great. Garapolo throws two picks, hurtful picks, and then drives them 98 yards to tie it up at 17. What a football game that was. What a football game that was. The Colts Cardinals game pretty good as well. The Cardinals obviously really, really struggling.

The Bengals blew out the Ravens. They take total control of the AFC North. Josh Johnson had to quarterback because Huntley got COVID as well. And the bills took first place from the Patriots, even though they've both got nine and six records. The bills were the better division record. They go into Foxborough and win 33 to 21. Chiefs destroyed Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh's 7-7-1, and every time I watch them, I'm like, how is this team, 7-7-1, so that's 15 games? How is this team not 3 and 12? I don't know how they've won seven games. credit to Tomlin, really. And the Raiders won again, and they won twice in five days during their COVID week, not their COVID week, but the Rams, the Brown's COVID week, which made them play on, you know, Monday late.

Was it Monday late? Yeah, Monday late. And then they came back home and they beat the Broncos 17 to 13. Broncos couldn't run the ball against Vegas. The smell test for the weekend three and two. I had Miami of Ohio, which was a winner. I had Cleveland, which was a winner. I had the Jacksonville Jets over, which I tweeted out as a winner. But I had Minnesota and Denver, both of them losers. So three and two, I think I'm 500 or a game above 500. If there are bowl games this week that I like, you will have them on the podcast. All right. We're going to finish up with just the bowl picture and why all these games are canceling. And I'm curious. who gets paid and who doesn't when these games cancel. Gene Wong from the Washington Post next.

All right, let's finish up the show today by talking some college football, because it is a big week, which, by the way, for now, you know, culminates. It doesn't culminate. Friday's not the end of the week, but we will get the two semi-final games on December 31st, Alabama, Cincinnati, and then Michigan and Georgia. Hopefully we get both of those games with both teams. healthy when we get there. Gene Wong, of course, has been writing for the Washington Post for years, has covered college football for many years, among many things. At Gene underscore W-A-N-G.

I heard him on with Andy this morning, and I call them, and he was nice enough to jump on on short notice, because today was supposed to be the day that my good friend Steve Beck's bowl, the Military Bowl was going to be played at Marine Corps Stadium at the Naval Academy. That got canceled because BC could not field a team. The bowl that Virginia is in, the Fenway Bowl up at Fenway Park in Boston has been scrapped. Gene's been covering this story. So I'll start with this question. You know, college rosters are so deep.

Like they're 100 plus. what kind of outbreak did BC and Virginia have that they, you know, and A&M, by the way, before that with the Gator Bowl, and then I think it was Hawaii or Memphis on Christmas Eve in that Honolulu Bowl. What kind of level of outbreaks and positive tests are these teams having? Well, they're having positive tests to starting players, and then you have obviously close contact in the locker room. they're not masking on the practice field. It's not masking when they're

in the locker room getting dressed. So you have that interaction for dozens of teammates. And then you're testing around the, not around the clock, but you're testing regularly every day. And so it just becomes a cycle of once you have, let's say, a dozen players who have tested positive,

you just have to assume that most of the rest of the team, or at least the people that have been in contact with them on the practice field have contracted today, just to be on the safe side. And the risk is that if you take a test, we've seen false positives, too. So you need two or three rounds of testing to guarantee, to assume that everyone is safe. And then it just becomes kind of an endless cycle of testing when you stop, when you feel safe to go back on the field.

So, yes, possible teams have larger roaches in the NFL, for sure. We know that. But then it also gets to a question of safety, because you're having a scotch from a scout team who've never stepped foot on the field for a meaningful college football game in the regular season, now expecting a play and a bowl game, that's just not feasible. So even though the rosters are much bigger than in the NFL, logistically, it just doesn't make sense when you have your first second and some of your third string guys unavailable to play, and you don't know what the rate of infection is throughout the entire team.

Gene, we saw what the NFL did, you know, last week, where they changed their protocols. You know, they actually changed them twice. They went from, we're going to create an easy path to get positive players back with two concurrent negatives, but the testing on those can be more frequent. And then they also came up with a way to get a positive player back if you weren't as contagious because of their cycle threshold, their viral load number. College football seems to be working, correct me if I'm wrong, with essentially the same rules slash protocol. calls that existed before the season started. True or not? Yes, it's sort of an evolving process. In general, yes. But now it's become sort of ad hoc

depending on what bowls you have. And like you mentioned, the college football playoff, I promise you that they will do whatever they can to get the main stars on the field. I mean, anyone on the field for those games, because those games aren't being scrapped. Okay, that would be, that would take something catastrophic for that to happen. there are so many bowl games now. The whole bowl system is watered down. We can all agree on that. It doesn't mean as much as it used to when you're going to be 500 and go to a bowl game.

So it's not as big a deal if you miss the Fenway Bowl or if you miss the military bowl, it certainly stinks for the people who have worked so tirelessly to put those events together. But obviously the money is not the same as it is in the college football playoff. And then the safety concern, you know, that's certainly a big deal. but in the way in this day and age where money almost trumps everything, sometimes safety takes the back seat. We've seen that in sports, in life in general. So when you have a bowl game that's going to draw 25,000,

and the TV revenue is not going to be huge necessarily, you can probably say, okay, this game doesn't have to be played. But, you know, when you're talking about the four teams we mentioned in the playoffs, that's going to happen. So tell me, because I heard you, discussing this with Andy, and this was part of what really interested me. How do the economics work here? These teams are promised payouts. Both teams are. With no game, like, let's just look at the Military Bowl, where

BC was supposed to play East Carolina, or the Fenway Bowl, where Virginia was supposed to face SMU. The two teams that were the reasons for those games canceling were BC and Virginia, respectively. Does anybody get paid? Well, here's the deal. Your promise whatever the amount is based on TV revenue ads, and if there's no game, there's no TV, and therefore there's no revenue. So the answer is you're out of luck. That's just the way the world is in the pandemic.

It's a tough way to go at the end of the season when you're expecting a little bit of reward, expecting a trip to whatever city or destination you're going to. You mentioned Memphis. They're in Hawaii. That's not bad. You're not going to play a game, but you're going to play a game. That's true. But that being said, it's life during the coronavirus the last two years.

And a lot of people, not just college sports, regular people in general, have to, you know, manage things that they never felt they would. And, you know, sometimes things fall by the wayside. In this case, that's going to be your bull revenue because there's no TV. Yeah. And just to be clear, that means that the teams they were supposed to play East Carolina in SMU, they don't get their bowl payout either. And you just mentioned the Memphis situation. You know, traveling from Memphis to Hawaii, that's a costly dime for them. And it's based on, you know, a simple, you know, revenue minus cost equals X amount of profit, you know.

And they're not going to have any of the revenue to offset those costs. So it's probably a pretty pricey trip for them. Or did or will the bowl game pay the costs? Yeah, you know, that's all negotiated between the bowl officials and the schools. And here's the other part of it. You know, this is an end-of-the-season deal where, sir, it's a big cost, but they look at it as a reward, even though they're not playing. So you're disappointed you're not getting in the field, but if you're making a trip like that,

the players are, I'm sure, not complaining about spending, you know, five days on the beach, right? So, yeah, things are not playing, but there could be worse things to do than being in Hawaii. during the holiday. Oh, yeah. Well, if you're a kid and you don't care about the operating budget, it really doesn't matter. They don't care about the operating budget, but they tell you. No, they don't. They do care about NIL now.

All right. So last one for you. You just said there's no way in hell that either one of these two semi-final games on Friday are going to be scrapped, even though the playoff committee did come out and say, that if a team has a major outbreak, they're going to forfeit. And the team that was scheduled to play them will advance. You know, how do they avoid this? Because I want to be able to sit down on Friday afternoon and Friday night

and watch these semi-final games, which actually has become kind of a cool day in sports. I actually think it's better than the championship game itself. Oh, no, I love it. It's fantastic. I couldn't agree more. The way you avoid it is just how people have done. tried to manage the virus, you know, in the last two years. It's masked up, keep social distance.

When possible, avoid, you know, the risk. So stay in your hotel, stay within your circle, test frequently. I mean, it sounds like, you know, it sounds cliche, but that's what you would hear to the guidelines from the CDC and don't take unnecessary risk, which means don't go out to a restaurant if you don't have to you. Don't go out to obviously bars and clubs, you know, which can be tempting if you're high-profile college athlete. You have to, you know, manage all that knowing that what's at stake is much bigger than a night

out. So, and I know the committee has said that a team would have to forfeit, but I would, like I said, it would have to be infections throughout the entire team and, you know, like literally every single member of the team, the coaching staff where they couldn't have any coaches out there for something like this happened because there's too much money at stake. There's just far too much money at stake for, I mean, You can simply move it if they had to. I mean, we've seen stuff happening during the pandemic where schedules have been adjusted just to make just so teams can play.

And so when you have this much money involved, I got to believe they'll find a way to do it, barring again, something just completely catastrophic and unperseen. last one actually because I was just thinking about college basketball because Maryland's game with Loyola got canceled because I think Loyola had an outbreak I saw while you know over the holiday weekend at the ACC and the Big East have lessened their sort of severe you know consequence to COVID outbreak so just update everybody there have been a lot of missed college basketball games here over the last week and a half some of them resulting in forfeits especially in the big East, including games involving Georgetown. What's the latest on that? The latest on that is, well, the ACC had initially before the season said that if you can't play because of coronavirus, it's a forfeit, then they changed that because so many teams were unable to play that it would have been, you know, untenable to have a season where you had a team play, let's say, seven ACC games and maybe be declared the winner because they went six in one. So they realized that that wasn't a realistic expectation.

So they amended their policy now to have games potentially rescheduled, and that's the key word, potentially. Give you an example, Virginia Tech and North Carolina's game on Wednesday, just got postponed because of an outbreak in the Virginia Tech locker room. Who knows that that game is going to be rescheduled. Virginia won the ACC last year under similar circumstances. They were able to play more games than at most every other team in the conference. They managed it better, whether you want to call luck, managing better a combination.

They played more games that had the best winning percentage, even though they didn't have to face the team that's second Florida State. So, I mean, it's, you know, the Wild West now when it comes to the pandemic, even though we've been in it for two years, it's still ever-evolving, ever-changing. I cannot see the Big East and the ACC or any of the Power Five School thing. It seems to have to, say, five games if they can't have, if they don't have players, because even if they follow the rules as strictly as they can, they follow all the guidelines, and they still have players who contract the virus.

That happens in everyday life, but that seems to me an unfair way of doing things. They're going to be – they're going to do all they can to reschedule these games, and if they can't make it up, they can't make it up. But it's not to be for lack of trying. Thanks for doing this on short notice. It's great to catch up. I hope you're well. Hope your holidays went well.

Happy New Year to you, Gene Wong from the Washington Post. Thanks, Gene so much. My pleasure. Happy holidays to you, Ken. All right, that's it for the day. Thanks to Gene. Thanks to all of you who are listening. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. Rate us and review us, especially where you can and especially on Apple and Spotify. That's really big for us. And it really has helped over the last four to six months since we really started to ask you to do it. If you haven't done it, you can take 30 seconds to do it. It's really helpful. That's it. Done for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.