The Kevin Sheehan Show - Denver Outlasts Washington In OT, 27-26

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Kevin with all of his thoughts and detailed "Game-Take" following the Commanders 27-26 overtime loss to the Broncos. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match��Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it, you don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show, here's Kevin. Washington for the win. Mario is rejected by Benito, and Depper has won't know how you leave the best player on the field unblocked on the biggest play of the game, but Nick Benito had a third. free run at Marcus Marietta. He's a great player. He made a great play, and it was the decisive play in what turned out to be a really good game. This show's presenting sponsor is always Window Nation 86690 Nation, Windonation.com if you need new windows. Apologies for getting this out

much later than usual. It was not my intention. I'll get it back on schedule on Sunday following the game in Minnesota against the Vikings. What a game Denver and Washington produced last night to finish up Thanksgiving weekend. A pretty compelling weekend of NFL football, starting with the triple header on Thanksgiving Day, three underdog outright winners, and then Chicago going into Philly on Black Friday and doing what they did. We had Carolina beating what we thought was the best team in the league at 1 o'clock yesterday. the other great one o'clock window game, of course, Houston going into indie and winning.

And look, the game last night was not sexy for most NFL fans. Denver's a really good team, no doubt. But the last time they saw Washington on Sunday night football against Seattle, it was 31 to 7 at halftime. So the expectations for a great game, I don't think were there, but it turned out to be a great game. I mean, both teams landing haymaker after haymaker, especially in the fourth quarter. quarter and in overtime. The game lasted three hours and 36 minutes. It was an excellent game, and it's a shame that it didn't end differently. You're going to hear me somewhat upbeat and really positive about a lot of what happened last night. Don't get confused, though. I am very

aware that they lost the game to the Broncos 27 to 26 in overtime, and I'm not happy about it. I really wanted them to win that game, snap the losing skid, get to four and eight, and make a run back to a respectable finish. I am not into, not in late November, moral victories or like the perfect scenario, which is, hey, play great but lose for better draft position. No, that's not me. There's no regime change. There's no quarterback need. I want them to, win these games. And look, it's seven straight now in defeats. The last two, more attractive defeats than the three that preceded them, but still, they are losses. And it was a second straight overtime loss. This one different than the loss in Madrid to Miami, because the

dolphins are not a good team. Denver is not only one of the league's best teams and one of the league's hottest teams, they are arguably the best defensive team in the NFL. Now, I would personally put Houston in that conversation with Denver. But coming into the game, and we talked about this on Friday's show, Washington had its hands full with a great defensive football team. So I will have my game take, and I'll be positive in my game take about, you know, the improvement defensively since Dan Quinn took over. The incredible night that Cliff Kingsbury was able to coach up because I thought the game plan and the play calling were outstanding, albeit on that final two-point conversion, leaving Nick Benito unblocked. I'm sure was not the intention,

but it turned out that way. They ran the ball last night. The offensive line was really good. Terry McCloran's return, so impactful. Marcus Marriota, Dan Quinn called him a warrior, said it was a warrior performance. I mean, he had a brutal interception early in the game, and then, you know, he turned into Gunslinger in the fourth quarter and in overtime. Yeah, there were a lot of individual performances that I'm going to be super positive about. But yes, I am totally aware of the fact that they lost the game. I'm going to focus here, though, in the opening segment, on something that I was thinking about watching the game last night. You know, I know a lot of you will say, not all of you, but it's kind of, you know, a crutch for people to say when their team loses.

They weren't ready. They didn't give it their best. They didn't fight. They didn't compete. It's coaching. Yeah, I just don't see that with this particular organization. I didn't see it really last year. Look, the Seattle and the Detroit games were really bad, really bad.

And there are a lot of reasons for that. They were, you know, a shell of what they thought they would be in those games in terms of personnel. They were playing two teams that were lights out at that point. The Kansas City loss, I mean, they fought like hell. I can understand watching the Seattle and the Detroit games and being upset about sort of the overall effort. But I think for the most part, the MO of this head coach of this organization is that their culture is to compete and to fight and to be resilient and to not throw people under the bus and to not implode. And I thought we saw a glimpse of a healthy culture last night. and even to a certain degree in Madrid.

This season has gone sideways at every turn. You know, it has been one, whatever can go wrong, will go wrong moment after another. In Madrid and last night, you saw a team nowhere near ready to quit, nowhere near ready to bail on the head coach or the coaching staff or other players in that building. Maybe it's coming. I doubt it.

I think the players that they brought in last year and this year, that there's a real focus to bring in a certain type of competitive profile, a certain team first oriented personality that leads to, in these very difficult times, surviving. Now, surviving is not going to lead to a winning record this year. That was snuffed out with the loss last night, the ninth loss of the year. It's not going to lead survival won't to contention over these final five games of this particular season. But I think there's benefit. I think there's short, medium, and long-term benefit to everybody being on the same page. That page being, we're in here preparing to win and we're playing to win. And that's what we've seen the last two games in particular.

And last night against a team that is much. better than Washington. You know, this head coach, and I've mentioned this before, Dan Quinn, in his regular season stints as a head coach in Atlanta and in Washington, over his final four regular season games in each season as a head coach, his teams are 20 and 4. Now, they haven't gotten to the final four quite yet, but I bring that up and I've brought that up in the past because that is an indication. of how players and coaches and people in the buildings that he's been in,

how they think and what they think of him. Not every one of these seasons in which they went three in one or four and oh over their final four games, were they in contention? They were just fighting to get back to seven and nine or to eight and eight or to nine and seven. You know, this is though a pretty impressive and I think telling number. You know, maybe if I went back and looked at it, season, oh, they play terrible teams in each of those seasons down the stretch. Now, we know last year they didn't play terrible teams. They played Philadelphia and a playoff contending

Atlanta in back-to-back games over the final four weeks of the season last year. But I've said this a couple of times over a year and a half, or maybe two years since Dan Quinn was hired coming up on two years. I like Dan Quinn. I like the group that is out there coaching and running football operations. I think it's a good football organization right now. And I think we saw a sign of that last night. I'm not going to harp on it much longer, but I don't get the few of you. I'll say a few. I think it's probably more than a few. But over the last month, month and a half want everybody fired. I just don't know how you get to the point where you're ready to run people when they

haven't had their team out there. They haven't had their starting quarterback for six and a half of the 12 games that have been played. I mean, last night, what you saw in addition to this culture, I think, sign of a good culture, you saw just getting a few of their key starters back on the field, how much different it looks. Imagine when Jaden returns what it will look like. I think they would have won both of these last two overtime games had Jaden been the quarterback. That's no knock on Mariota. I loved Marioada last night. Love the performance. But there's no doubt in my mind that with

Jaden, this is hardly a controversial take, that with Jaden, I think they win the game last night. I think they win the game in Madrid, and I think they're five and seven, and we've got playoff scenario talk going on right now. It's no knock on Marioita. I think he's the best backup in the league right now, and I think this system and this locker room is the best for him. And I'd think about trying to lock him up right now if he's interested in a two-year deal to stay in this organization. But you see the difference that just a few players coming back you know, means to this team. Having Terry back, of course, having a healthy Debo with Terry,

having Brooks back, who knew, what a catch last night, far different right than, you know, Robbie Chosen and Jacoby Jones and Chris Moore and Tay Martin and Jacori Brooks and the other players that were out there. By the way, did you hear Chris Collinsworth last night talk about what I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? This is something that I knew a couple of weeks ago and shared with all of you guys about the Seattle game. And clearly, Torrico and Collinsworth got it from, you know, their pregame interviews. But Collinsworth mentioned that the Seattle game, there were receivers in that game running the wrong routes. It was, you know, it was a total S show, not to mention, as I mentioned to you guys,

in addition to having somebody tell me that guys were running the wrong routes, which is why. why Jaden was taking off so quickly that night. They also said it was also the worst night, you know, along with the Green Bay game for the offensive line and what has been for the most part a pretty decent season for the offensive line. But that was, you know, the reason I ended up finding that out is, you know, the Kurt Warner video became a big topic and, you know, I think, you know, I mean, I'm not going to get into detail about why the person I know reached out, but I think that there was inside that

building some amusement over the Kurt Warner take, not that they're amused that he, you know, isn't capable of breaking down film as a Hall of Fame quarterback, but they just are like, dude, you have no idea. We had receivers that weren't even running the correct routes in the game, which is why our quarterback looked in that game like he wasn't. processing or anticipating. He couldn't possibly anticipate because they weren't anywhere near where they were supposed to be. Yeah, Collinsworth referenced that in the game. Anyway, I digress. Look, you know, Will Harris, Duran Payne, you know, Terry, obviously, a healthy Debo, Berks makes a difference when some of your key players are coming back. And I'm not suggesting

that Berks was supposed to be a key player, although who knows, he was a former first round pick. But I felt good about this game. I'm not going to lie to you. I felt good about the game. I wanted the win, you know, no moral victories in late November. And I'm certainly not the guy rooting for draft positioning. But, you know, unlike the Seattle and Detroit games that were basically over before they started, they've competed in the last two games. and they almost beat a very good and very hot team last night. I mean, look at what they did to arguably the best defense in football. 419 yards. Second most against Denver's defense this year. Eight of 17 on third down against the number one third down defense. Three of three on

fourth down. They lost last night. They did. But they're going to be a team that, you know, from a betting perspective, you're going to want to take a long, hard look at over these final five games, especially if they're starting quarterback comes back, if a Noah Brown comes back as well. As they get healthier, they get some players back. They're going to be a live dog the rest of the way. And they might not even be an underdog come Sunday at one in Minnesota. Now, again, none of these games in the NFL are givens ever. and they're playing a really good defense this coming week,

but man, it'll be the first time all year. It seems like, right, that they've played, you know, a team that offensively was in the same shape some of the teams they played last year were in. You know, you've got a Max Brasmer who threw four picks against Seattle in his first start, even if it's J.J. McCarthy, I mean, they are a turnover machine. Now, we can't get turnovers,

but maybe playing teams like that will result. and a couple of takeaways, a couple of short fields, and, you know, an opportunity to snap the losing skid. Yeah, I liked last night. I did. I didn't like the loss, but I liked what they produced, not just because they covered, by the way, the first losing weekend for the smell test this year. Not a cratered weekend, four, five, and one overall, but we did get Washington to come home with that touchdown in overtime to cover easily. I don't think Denver's going to win the Super Bowl personally. They could be the one seed in the AFC playoffs.

I'm not sold yet on Knicks. They miss J.K. Dobbins in that backfield. There's no doubt about that. But it's a damn good football team. And Washington was right there, one play away. But Nick Benito, who is legitimately, as I talked about on Friday, one of the best edge defensive players in the league. He made a great play.

And if he didn't, it looked like a walk-off win because McNichols was wide open on that play. Don't know how you leave Benito, but that was zero coverage blitz, and I don't think they were anticipating it. All right, let me get to the game take. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Guys, everybody understands that from time.

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with a 32-yard field goal. Watch the footing here. Snap was good. We put it down. Moody tied the game, and we'll go to overtime. Jake Moody's 32-yard field goal at the gun forced overtime.

Jake Moody, on October 13th, in the same stadium, but for the opponent, the Chicago Bears, kicked a 38-yard field goal at the gun to beat Washington, 25 to 24. Window Nation is the presenting sponsor of this show and of this segment. December, they are extending their year-end sale,

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windownation.com. All right, let's get to my game take. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, the Game Take, as always, is a list of things that were good, a list of things that were bad, and a few other observations. And there are actually several other observations, because we've got to get into things like, did they do the right thing by choosing to kick in overtime when they won the toss? Did they do the right thing by going for two with still two minutes and 47 seconds,

the two-minute warning and one time out left? We'll get into those things when we're. we get to the final segment of the show. Let's start with the things that I liked. Look, I'll mention it again. The culture, the overall readiness, the compete, the fight in the team that has lived in existence of whatever it can go wrong, will go wrong this year. It really started, I think, with the fumbled handoff at the end of the Chicago game back

on October 13th. I just loved the way they competed not only last night, but in Madrid. Dan Quinn, his staff, the players, especially the locker room leaders, you know, some of the people that, you know, most of you want runoff like three weeks ago, the Ertz's and the Wagners of the world, a credit to all of them. I know they didn't win the game. It sounds like we are talking about a W with a lot of the positivity, but they played a very good football team and had every chance to win the game with still their best. best player, not playing for them. Number two on this list has to be Cliff Kingsbury and the offense. It was a great night for Cliff Kingsbury. Anybody that had questions about Kingsbury, I'm not sitting here telling you that, you know,

it's not justifiable to question some of the play-calling games, but, you know, he hasn't had his starting quarterback. He hasn't had his second best player for most of the season. and Terry McLaurin, you start to get some of these players back. It starts to look a little bit different. But look, the challenge going into this game, and I talked about it on Friday, like I thought they were going to have to win, you know, a 70 to 17 game, 2320, I think, was my prediction, Denver 2320.

It almost ended up that way. But, you know, I just thought they were going to need Denver to help out. Nix was going to have to throw a pick or two. He threw one. But they were incredible offensive. against arguably the best defense in football. The running game worked, especially early. The quick game, the quick passing game led to an incredible stat that I saw on NextGen. Per Next Gen, Washington held Denver to a 17.9% pressure rate. That's the Broncos lowest in a game

since they allowed 70 points to the Dolphins in week three of 2023. Remember when the Dolphins that year were scoring all those points. The Broncos coming in had produced an NFL high, 41.3% pressure rate in the first 12 weeks of the season. Look, a lot of this is on cliff in the game plan to get the ball out quickly, immediately, before any pressure could come. They actually backed off the pressure because of the quick game. Denver realized the ball's coming out too quickly. We can't even get there. But how about that?

The lowest pass rush pressure rate for Denver since 2023. They had produced an NFL high all season long at 41.3%. Remember, too, they led the league in sacks coming into this weekend. They did get two last night, but 46, 47 dropbacks or whatever, only two sacks against that team. But this was a night in which our offensive coordinator had their number one, number two defense scrambling. You know, the run game was a huge part of it early. I think it really set the tone. Eleven of the first 21 plays were runs for 65 yards, so nearly six yards per carry. Rodriguez was the starter. I love Rodriguez. Mariotta was sprinkled in as a designed

runner, as an actual scheduled runner. Had some scrambles, too. But early on, it was Rodriguez. and primarily Crosky Merritt, who had his two good runs of the four that he had on his first two runs, six and 12 yards, respectively. 33 total rushes in the game for 143 yards. Now, some of those were scrambles, four or five of them, and really good scrambles by Marcus Mariota. But overall, Rodriguez and Bill combined to go 17 for 71, so just over four yards per carry, Mario da ended up the leading rusher in the game.

A lot of that was scrambles, but there was the 19-yard zone read keeper, but he was 10 for 55. The run game combined with the quick pass game, I'm talking about real quick. You saw it coming out quickly early and often to Earths, screens, quick game. It was all the plan. We talked about this on Friday. You cannot let, you know, Nick Benito and Cooper and company, wreck this game. Benito's capable of doing it. You can't

be in dropback mode. You've got to stay ahead of the change. You've got to run the football. Marioo's got to extend plays. He's got to be a part of the run game. You've got to include quick game and screens because Denver is lethal as a pass rushing

unit and the combination of all of it was the perfect game plan. Even when they got to later in the game and they started dropping back in times because of necessity. I mean, the O-Line did a really good job, but it was set early with quick game

and with running ability and with time of possession and long drives and keeping that defense on the field. Washington ran 85 offensive plays. 85! I can't remember the last time they ran 85 plays in a game. Now, there was overtime involved, of course. But still, you know, even the opening drive of the game was like 10 plays, 40 yards, you know, five plus minutes.

They punted, but they moved the football and they kept that defense on the field. And eventually it wore out, you know, on that final overtime drive, the final drive of regulation, 17 plays. Cliff's game plan made sure that the Bronco pass rush, which was the best in the league, didn't ruin Washington's offense. Kudos to him. I mean, against this defense, 419 yards, 31st downs, 30, 8 of 17 on third down against the number one third down defense in the league. Three of three on fourth down, 26 points. You know, they played cleanly for the most part. They've had a couple of these games recently, you know, on offense, without the penalties, without all the drops. There were a couple of drops. Zach Ertz had a chance to pull in that deep ball, and then in overtime

before the game tying, or the touchdown that made it 27 to 26 to Terry on fourth and goal, the third and goal, great throw by Marioota. Ertz just dropped. But, you know, not a lot of penalties. One bad decision, the Marioita decision, there were a couple of other bad decisions. He wasn't perfect last night, but he was a competitor, that's for sure. You know, a few substitution issues, actually both on offense and defense. A couple of plays that, you know, they had a chance to make work and they didn't work. But yeah, it just was a really, really impressive game plan and play calling performance. I'll point out one thing that I didn't like. I don't like the Wildcat snaps in the red zone. I thought Collinsworth actually broke that down well. They were countering on some of those and they were slower developing run plays. You can't do that against Denver. They're too good up front. They didn't work. They used Kroski-Marit on one.

They used Debo on another. You know, I don't want to go 10 on 11 in the run game. I don't want to use my quarterback as a decoy. You know, he's on the field on those. I'm not a big fan of wildcatting it against a great defense like that one. And if you're going to wildcat it, give me Rodriguez. Give me Rodriguez, you know, right when he takes the snap, running it right between the tackles. Yeah, Cliff, you know, he's on the list of things that I liked, you know, getting weapons back, Terry in particular, huge.

Two weeks to prepare, you know, off the by week, Denver did too. How about the play with Yankoff lining up in the backfield and coming out and catching a 14-yard pass? Look, that defense, upper-tier monsters against everybody, and Washington carved it up all night long. If you don't recognize the great night that Cliff Kingsbury had as an offensive coordinator and play caller, you're, I can't help you on that one. Next up on the list, Marcus Mariotta. Man, you know, he's just a completely different player in Washington than he ever was in Tennessee or in Atlanta or in Philadelphia or in Vegas. You know, I was a fan of Marcus Mariotta.

I always thought he was better than most people. thought. Most fans were, you know, like, what are they doing signing him? They thought it was a terrible signing. I did not. Now, I didn't know what it was going to be, and I didn't know the troubles he had in Philadelphia, both, you know, professionally and personally. He was ready to quit football. This is such a great place for him. It's such a great system. It's such a great spot. And I'm telling you, man, it looks like a new Marcus Marriota, not that it's Oregon Marcus Marriota, although running the ball, it looks like it. He was a gunslinger in the second half of that game.

He legit tried to take the game over, which think about Marioita in Tennessee and even Atlanta. That wasn't his personality. He was 19 of 37 in the second half and in overtime for 222 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for, here I'm going to tell you right now, in the second half, rushed for he rushed for 43 yards in the second half through for 222 rushed for 43 he nearly produced a 300-yard aggregate yardage half he was look not every play was perfect

and I did see before I recorded this somebody tweet out that Mariotta was not necessarily graded that highly by PFF. I'm going to grade him highly, but I understand why, you know, perhaps in an analytic, you know, advanced evaluation of Mariotto was more average last night or a little bit less than average. He threw a terrible pick. And he does that. You know, he did it against Dallas. He did it in overtime against Miami. It's why he's not the full-time starting quarterback, or it's one of the reasons. But I loved the way he went after it. He was taking deep shot after deep shot. And that was from the dropback game. A lot of play action and a lot of what

they did early set that up. And a lot of the Denver defense being on the field played to Washington's advantage. But I loved what Mario did last night. There was the, you know, overcoming the second down in 25, third and 25 after that terrible grounding penalty, just looking deep, you know, making plays with his legs when he had to he was decisive all night long he was you know not consistently super accurate but for the most part the accuracy was there i mean look he ended up 28 to 50 you know that's not the greatest accuracy uh night um on the season and some of them were you know misses but urts could have pulled in a couple of those balls as well um i loved you know there were a couple of plays

The third and 25, after that terrible intentional grounding call, he extends outside the pocket. I talked about this Friday. I'm like, you can't make plays typically on schedule outside a quick game against Denver. So, you know, on third and long, he's going to have to extend it. And on that third and 25, he extended it, extended it, and then fired to Terry for 19 yards to set up the fourth and six. And then on that next throw to Ertz, God, that was a good throw. Terry, by the way, wasn't even on the field for that play. Remember last night, first game back in several weeks.

He was actually on a bit of a pitch count that I think he exceeded. The fourth and six play in overtime was the play of the game. I mean, he is sacked. Somehow he escapes it. And then he makes a throw towards Jeremy McNichols and Hufanga gets there early. And they called it. And it was the right call. But it never happens without Mariota's escape and the throw in the general area of

Jeremy McNichols, because a sack there ends the game. Incredible that he was able to escape that. Just a really, really large sample size of really good throws and plays. I mean, the fourth and goal touchdown, look, that's a pick that doesn't get called. I mean, there's no doubt Debo picked off Sartan that freed up Terry. Terry ran a really good route. Those are Terry's best routes, I think, those slants. and Mario to makes a really good throw, such a good throw.

The bad, the interception, I don't know what he was doing. There was another jump in the air throw that could have been picked. There was the throw backwards to Bates under pressure that was a lateral that was loose on the ground. Bates fell on it for a seven-yard loss. And then, look, the final play of the game, you got to know that zero blitz coverage, they're coming with everybody. And I don't think he saw it on the two-point conversion. He said, there's a quote here that Vance Joseph was showing zero all night long and dropping out of it, and he expected that to happen.

Instead, there was a free runner. It was the best player on the field, Nick Benito, and he's long and he's tall, and Mario has to let it go earlier and much higher, and it's got a chance because certainly McNichols is open. I mean, you've got to probably see that before and block it up better. You know, but the guy that would have blocked it up, and we'll talk to Souter about that play a lot on Wednesday, probably was McNichols, which means you're probably waiting for Terry to clear on the crosser in the back of the end zone. Overall, I mean, to me, Marcus Mariotta was a B-plus. They, you know, the normal run-of-the-mill backup quarterback, you're getting beat badly in that game. You're getting beat handily. you don't have a chance to win it. He was, he went full on Mario to Gunslinger. I don't think you don't see that with him.

You haven't seen it a lot. You know, that's not necessarily his personality, but I love the confidence that I think he's actually, you know, increased since becoming a part of this organization. Terry McClorn's on the good list, obviously. His presence not only means something to the past game, It means something to the run game because they can't ignore the receivers and say, we can man coverage everybody.

Nobody can get separation. Nobody can win a contested catch. We can, you know, load the box. I mean, it helps with the run game. It helps overall. You know, for those of you that, it's just a few of you, and I do notice that it's very repetitive with just, you know, a dozen or so, that say, you're going to tell me Terry didn't influence the team that he's not significant.

Of course he's significant to this team. I've never said anything other than if he doesn't play, they'd miss him terribly, that they're much better with him than without him. The argument isn't about whether or not I think Terry is a good receiver, a really good receiver, or really important to this team. The argument has been and is currently and probably will be, is Terry up among the really great receivers in the league? I don't think he is.

I think he's in that group of 10 to 20, you know, 10 to 25 now, because there's so many of in the league. He's a true number one, but he's not elite. But my God, he makes a difference for this team. Of course he does. He's by far and away their best receiver, you know, in terms of a true receiver. Debo's a hell of a playmaker. Terry's a legit receiver, and other teams have to respect.

There's no respect for Washington's receiver core the whole season with Terry not on the field. With them on the field, there's more respect, and you get other things. It makes it easier for Ertz. It makes it easier for the running game. Makes it easier for Debo. Makes it easier for, you know, Noah Brown when he comes back. Terry's on the list. Zach Ertz, despite the long deep ball that was perfectly thrown that he did not pull in or the drop in overtime before.

were the fourth in goal, touchdown pass to Terry. He had 10 catches in the game. 10 catches for 106 yards. You know, good, decent yak on some of the short, you know, quick game stuff. 13 targets, 10 catches, 106 yards. I don't know what he was as a blocker. Souter will probably tell us that. But I'm keeping Ertz on the good list despite the drop in overtime.

Chris Rodriguez, just a tough runner, man. Decisive, too, and quicker than people probably think. I thought the touchdown run, we've seen that before. When he is decisive and he gets going, you know, kind of going downhill, he's more explosive than you think. The final numbers don't do his overall performance justice, 11 for 41. He's got the ability to run the football and make it easier for the rest of the offense. You know, you got a good Rodriguez, a Terry, you got, you know, you get Jaden back, you got a chance. the offensive line, again, 50 plus dropbacks, two sacks, lowest pressure rate for Denver in over two years. Again, a lot of that's Cliff, but a lot of that is Tunsel. A lot of that is Connerley. A lot of that is Cosmy. I thought, you know, the tackles in particular, Connerley Jr. and Tunsel with their edge rushers did an excellent, excellent job. I thought run defense was really good in this game. You know,

It's not been good this year. Even against Miami, you know, A-chan had all of those edge runs, went for a buck 20, you know, over five yards per carry. Denver in this game rushed in total for 87 yards on 23 carries, 3.8 yards per carry. Harvey and McLaughlin, I actually thought McLaughlin was the more explosive runner. 19 for 59. Okay? So Washington doing a much better job last night against the run.

They missed J.K. Dobbins a ton. The Bobby Wagner, a couple of defensive names. Bobby Wagner, look, down 20 to 14. They got to get off the field. Wagner reads it. Nix doesn't see it, throws it right to him interception. Right. Takeaway, finally.

I love the play where Wagner jumps up. I think he checked to a different play call. and moved Jacob Martin into coverage on that third and four down 20 to 17. They get a first down there. It might be nearly game over. And Martin drops to exactly where Bobby Wagner wanted him to drop to, and he has a PBU, a pass breakup. I mean, he is, you know, the extension of, you know, Dan Quinn, Joe Whit Jr. before.

He's a coach on the field. They don't take him off the field because they think they'll be much worse without him. He's a liability in coverage. saw that in overtime against Angram, okay? Understood. But there's a lot that he does well. He tackles well. He pressures well. And he is the guy that gets everybody else, even though it didn't look like that much of the year. Yeah. Don't ask me if I want Wagner back next year. I feel very good about Jordan McGee. I thought Jordan McGee had a really solid game as well. He is an athlete. There is no doubt about Jordan McGee.

Gies athletic ability. I thought he was excellent against the run. I thought he was relentless, as was Frankie Louvre, relentless motor for Louvo. I love Louvo. You know, the sack on on fourth down, in the fourth quarter down 20 to 17 on a third and three, that was massive. He did get away with a helmet to helmet on Knicks before that second field goal in the first half. He's a good player. You just need better defensive linemen in front of him. I thought Payne played a pretty good football, especially against the run as a tackler. I thought Duran Payne was outstanding. I thought Goldman was good again. I think he's a good tackler. I think Kwan Martin tackled well in the game. I thought Sanra still tackled well in the game. He had some

big hits. He's much better in zone coverage, being able to see it play out before him. Number 31, Jonathan Jones, I thought, man, he nearly sniffed out a pick six. I thought he flashed for me. Who am I forgetting? Yeah. Jake Moody, last one. Two for two, didn't miss an extra point. Who knows? Maybe this will be the place for Jake Moody. who was a draft choice of the San Francisco 49ers and just has not found his way yet. These kickers, you never know when the light bulb will come on. But in his first game, he drilled two field goals, including a game-tying field goal to force overtime. All right, the list of things that I did not like for this game.

So I think I just start with, they just aren't very good as a pass-rushing team without Armstrong. wrong without wise, you know, without a better front. They're going to have to work on that in the offseason. One sack on what, 45, 46, 47, Knicks dropbacks, something like that. If you count the scrambles or even some of the penalties, just too many easy pitch and catch, you know, no pressure plays for Denver. I thought Denver could have had a lot more. There were three to four misses by Knicks that were easy to Engram in particular. There were two to three balls. that were dropped. But, yeah, the pass rush just isn't good enough.

They had their moments, but there was that play. It was a third and 11, Washington up 14, 13, after they scored on the opening drive of the third quarter. If they can get off the field, get the ball back, maybe they can, you know, create a bigger lead against the Broncos. And Knicks had all day, and he finds Sutton for 31 yards down the far sideline. that's just an example of not enough pass rush with the group they have. And the problem is if they send pressure, you know, blitz pressure,

trying to cover behind it's a disaster for them, especially if they're in man coverage. It's just kind of easy pitch and catch against their pass rush. There were a couple of moments. I mean, you know, there was the Knicks touchdown pass under pressure where the knee almost hit the ground. And that was an incredible throw by Knicks. And I thought that was good pressure.

There were a couple of others where they got him off the mark and forced him out. And he made some throws that were errant. He's not an accurate thrower a lot of the time, especially, you know, with a little bit of pressure. By the way, there was a play, and I made no to this. It was a third and five in the third quarter. And they basically almost conceded that they didn't have a pass rush. They rushed three, but it was really more like two and a half. And they dropped more like eight and a half in coverage.

And Denver still got a 21-yard gain on a slant to number 13, Bryant. Number one on the list of things that I didn't like. Not enough pass rush overall. And I think, you know, I'll just add to that here at number two. The defense is better. It's more organized. It's more connected. It appears to be the number of explosive plays week in and week out

or have decreased here, you know, against lesser offensive teams, to be fair. You know, Denver and Miami are not Seattle and Detroit, but you don't see these, you know, super. The Engram 41-yard or in overtime was the big explosive, and then the 31-yard or to Sutton. But, you know, there were some catches around the line of scrimmage with some good runs, but you're not giving up just one explosive play after another. With that said, you know, and by the way, with the acknowledgement already that they played the run better, look, they gave up 402 yards, they gave up 27 points, 7 to 15 on third down. The drive and overtime was embarrassing. A sieve, the defense was. Five plays 76 yards touchdown. Reminded me of how easy it was for the Lions when they played Detroit. So the defense is more connected, more organized, communicates better. It's been simplified.

They play a lot more zone. Obviously, it fits maybe their personnel a little bit better. They stopped the run much better last night, but really this is a team without J.K. Dobbins that doesn't have the same run threat that, say, Miami does with A. Chan that, you know, Seattle and Detroit with Gibbs and et cetera have. But, you know, I'm pleased with the defense, but I'm comparing it to some really, really bad days. If we were just looking at this defense as if it were a regular defense, you wouldn't

say that it was a great night. Not when you give up that many points, that many yards, that many third down conversions, that many easy pitch and catches, that kind of drive in overtime. I didn't like the end of the first half. Debo returns the kickoff to the 35-yard lane. He fumbled it. McNichols dug it out, which was nice. 16 seconds to go two timeouts. and they decided to knee it out. I'm sorry. I know you're getting the ball to start the third quarter. It's 13 to 7.

You have just come off your first touchdown drive of the game in which you move the football, 71 yards and 11 plays. And now with 16 seconds left, you're not going to run a, you know, a draw or a screen just to see if it pops. Like, give me a bubble screen. Give me just, you know, some kind of screen.

or run a draw with Rodriguez or McNichols. McNichols makes big plays every game. Maybe you get a 10, 15-yard run out to near midfield and you can bang a quick time out with, you know, 10 seconds to go. And now you've got a shot to throw one down the middle call a timeout with the second time out and send Moody out there for a long field goal attempt. He's got a big leg. I just, I understand the concern with Denver's defense and drop back.

I get it. So run a draw, run a screen, run something and see if it pops. Give it a shot. I didn't like that. I'll tell you what, man, how about the call with 19 seconds left in regulation, down 20 to 17, 3rd and 3 at the Denver 20-yard line, and they call QB draw? I mean, that is a risky play. Now, 19 seconds left. let's, you know, kind of do the, let's play it out.

Like, let's say instead of Mariotta breaking for the sideline, it opens up in the middle of the field, and he's able to get eight, nine yards and get down, you know, get the first down. They can get up there on a QB draw, up the middle of the field. They can probably clock it with eight seconds to go. Now you got a shot on first and 10 to the end zone before kicking a field goal.

But it's still risky. Like if you, with no timeouts left, If they read it and they stop it short of the first down in the field of play, you're now rushing that field goal team out fire drill style to kick a game-tying field goal. Now, you know, more likely than not, as long as it's like, I think, 14 seconds, 13 seconds or less you can do it. And a quarterback draw that gets stuffed immediately might end with 13 seconds left. But what if it ends in a pile and it's slow getting everybody?

It's just kind of high risk. And Mario, by the way, takes off for the sideline. so he's already extending the length of the play and yes he did a great job of getting out of bounds and then using forward momentum so that they didn't say his progress had been stopped because I was waiting to see if they were going to roll that clock if they had he did have a first down so you'd be able to come back and probably clock it with a few seconds left I just I don't know to me let's take a shot on third and three into the corner of the end zone for burks or Terry you know on a fade. That's a quick throw, no risk of sack. You can get it out quickly. But the whole idea of the play I thought was higher risk than I think, you know, I would have been thinking about. Maybe he thought it could score. You know, sometimes you see a QB draw from that 15 to 18 yard line there with the 20 with an athletic quarterback that's fast. Maybe he thought the Cs would part that they wouldn't be expecting it, that they'd be playing

close man coverage because they don't want the quick out and a first down and shots to the end zone. I don't know what Cliff thought. I thought it was a high risk play. What else is on this list? This was a poorly officiated game, man. They lost the umpire in the game. Why doesn't the NFL have backup officials? I don't understand that. They certainly can afford it. So I'm going to go through the list that I have here. Denver's third drive first half, third and eight before their second field goal that made it six to nothing.

By the way, I'm giving you all of what were I thought really misses or bad calls, and some of them affected Denver, no doubt. Because that was that Louvre play where he gets the pressure and he goes helmet to helmet on Nick's. Nix is screaming about it. They just missed it.

Should have been a first and goal for Denver after a half the distance to the goal. line. That was clearly helmet to helmet. The personal foul on Benito, pulling Biotish off the pile, was according to Terry McCauley, the referee expert, the wrong call. He thought Tunsell, I think it was tonsill, should have been flagged for the retaliation on Benito. Apparently, it wasn't enough of a pile. Like, the rule is you can't pull somebody off a pile, but was Biotish

really in a pile? I thought that was an interesting conversation. The missed tripping penalty on Mario da sack, 12-yard sack. You just, you can't miss that. You know, it should have been first and 10 at their 48-yard line at Denver's 48. Instead, it's third and 21, Washington at their own 25. I mean, they had to punt down 20 to 17. That missed call nearly cost them the football game or a chance to win the football game. The false start on Terry McClure, I mean, where? Where was it? It wasn't. What were they looking at? The intentional grounding call on Marriota on their final drive on the throw that, you know, sails over Terry's head to the sideline.

Again, McCauley, Terry McCauley said it shouldn't have been called, that that was not grounding, that, you know, it was over Terry's head, but it was in the vicinity of Terry and should not have been called. That created a second and 25 and then a third in 25. They amazingly overcame it, amazing, some of the long down and distance, you know, conversions that Washington's had over the last two seasons. I'll tell you what, man, I thought they were going to consider calling grounding on Marioada on the play after the third and three run to the sideline.

He threw that ball from the pocket, unloaded it over everybody's head, out of the end zone. It nearly landed in the first row of seats. I thought that they might consider grounding. He clearly did ground it. There were receivers in the end zone that he overthrew by about 30 feet. Sometimes you see that get called, and if it had been called there, the runoff would have ended the game. Terry's game tying touchdown and overtime, I mean, I thought two things they missed on that play. I thought Denver was off sides on the play, but that's a clear pick by Debo.

That could have easily been OPI, but they let it go. What else do I have on the bad list? Just the new sod seemed to create a slippery environment. Terry slipped a couple times, including one time where he caught the ball. All right, other observations, including the decision to kick in overtime and the decision to go for the win with 247 left in overtime. We'll get to that to finish up the show after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, I introduced you to True Classic a few weeks ago.

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checkout for 15% off. Game decided Mario inside the quarterback touchdown. Going for two and the win. Washington

and roll the ice. Man, that drive and overtime combined with the drive at the end of regulation, 18 plays 71 yards at the the end of regulation before Moody's game-tying field goal. 11 plays 65 yards in overtime. That was memories of last year. You know, some of the games they pulled off and won.

In this particular case, they didn't win it at the very end. But I really had kind of this feeling of last year and they're going to win this game. That fourth and goal touchdown pass to Terry. Again, Debo with a nice little pick there. But Terry making a huge impact in his return with seven catches, 96 yards, and that touchdown on fourth and goal. Following the play where Zach Ertz could have pulled it in, but did not. This segment of the show brought to you by My Bookie. If you want to bet on sports, my recommendation is to do it at My Bookie.

The smell test finally with a losing weekend, first of the year, four, five, and one. the weekend, and I'm sure there will be some games this coming weekend that fit the smell test criteria. If you don't have a place to wager on those picks, my bookies is good a place to do it as any other. I promise you that. And they're offering a 50% cash bonus to all of my listeners. If you're a new listener, go to the Kevin Sheeonshow.com slash my bookie. Use my promo code DC Reload. If you're an existing customer, just log on. with your account name and your password. And then in the promo code, put DC Reload after you make a new deposit.

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You know, I think that there is some confusion in the way that it's communicated to the players before overtime. This is not a defer situation. There's no deferring the decision to a second half. There's no second half. You win the toss. You get the choice to either kick or receive, and then the other team gets the choice of which direction to go in.

Although I think if you choose to kick, you get to choose the direction. So Way said, we're kicking, we're going in this direction. that's the strategy with the new overtime rules in almost every situation, in my opinion. And the reason for it is the same reason in college overtimes that you go on defense first so that when you get your opportunity on offense and you're guaranteed of that with the new overtime rules, you know exactly what you need. Do we just need any points? Do we need a field goal to tie?

Are we down seven? Do we need a touchdown? And then if you are down, you've got four downs to chase it. You know, there's no punting in overtime. If you take possession of the ball, down points. You have to go for it and you have that opportunity and that luxury of an extra down. And Washington needed it in their overtime drive. So needed it twice.

They converted two fourth downs in the overtime, including obviously the fourth down to Terry for the game winner. So I think that's the way to go. Now, there's always context with everything. You know, the context would be in last night's game, man, after that drive at the end of regulation, I mean, they are gassed. They are gassed. If that defense has to go back on the field, it's going to be easy to go down the field and score touchdown. You know, and there are other weather conditions and, you know, types of games. There's lots of, you know, potential reasons not to kick, but I had no problem with the decision to kick.

It turned out that Denver went down the field easily, and now you needed a touchdown to tie or a touchdown in a two-point conversion to win. But you had four downs to do it, so you had a fourth and six where, you know, at the Denver 41 in a tie game, you might have considered punning. In a game down by three, you may have considered a 58-59-yard field. goal. But you had no decision down seven. You had to go for it. And that was the play in which McNichols was interfered with on an incredible escape by Marcus Marietta. And then obviously fourth and goal at the end at the Denver three yard line with two minutes and 47 seconds left.

And overtime, it's not like you're down three and you can kick the field goal to tie it. If you want to, you've got to go for it. So there's a real benefit. to having four downs and knowing what you need. So I had no problem with their decision, and I think that's the right decision, the significant majority of the time. The decision to go for two in the win, I was totally fine with it.

I would have done it myself. I do think there's a case to be made, though, for kicking the extra point with two minutes and 47 seconds left and a timeout. You've got the two-minute warning in overtime. So, you know, one stop, and then all you need is field goal range to win the game. But last night, the defense had given up that easy touchdown drive in overtime. You know, I definitely thought it was in their best interest to try to end it on one play,

even though one play on a condensed field against that defense with a player like Nick Benito on the field, you know, probably the best player on the field in that moment, Um, you know, there are reasons why you might kick because you think, but, you know, those reasons have to include being confident that you can get a stop defensively after you kick off. And I think that's where that one ends. Um, I thought the decision to go for two was a good one. I thought the two point play seemed to be perfectly set up. You know, there was some, uh, discussion in the, uh, Denver locker room about that two point play. Apparently, Nick, They called a timeout before it, and, you know, there was some discussion that they thought they were going to run what they ended up running, which is why they came after him. They knew there'd be a free rusher with a zero coverage blitz. And again, I don't think Mario da picked up on it. I think that he missed picking up on the zero coverage and they didn't get Benito blocked up. You know, there's always going to be a free rusher typically on zero coverage blitz, but that one was quick, and it was the,

their best player and their tallest player and their longest player, and it didn't end well. What else do I have? Quinn called one of his timeouts on defense at the end of regulation about four seconds after the play ended. I mean, it's a nitpick, but you got to be prepared. You know, it was 316 left when they gave it to him. He should have called it when the play ended at like three minutes and 20 seconds. Tressway had a really big punt in the game.

He's clutch, man. They had a new long snapper. Tyler Ott was sick. They had a new long snapper in the game. You know, per usual this year, there was another player or two whose number I didn't even recognize, number 59 played in the game. Number 59, if you're wondering, was Magar Anayanga. And he played on defense.

Number 59 did. I think that's it. yeah i mean if you know by all accounts it was kind of a road game there last night um that's tough man uh you know we were hoping we were beyond that uh but we're not and god knows philly and dallas the next two home games uh they are going to be road games for our team with those two teams battling it out for the division uh those are going to be true road game environments on December 20th against the Eagles, and then on Christmas Day against the Cowboys, the whole country watching on Christmas Day, Dallas and Washington and Landover, and they're going to thank

the games in Dallas more likely than not. I don't know, I'm looking forward to these final five games. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting Jaden back on Sunday against Minnesota. I love Marioita. I love his fight. I love the way he's played. He's not Jaden Daniels. He doesn't give you the best chance to be a great team and to be a consistent winning team. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure there will be some rust, but let's see him get it back out there, only if he's healthy, only if he's healthy. But his mother apparently told somebody on the way out of the stadium last night that he's going to be ready to play next week. All right, that's it. Back tomorrow with Tommy.