The Kevin Sheehan Show - Division Champs

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

Cooley and Kevin with their recap of Washington's division-clinching win over the Eagles. First blush on the playoff matchup with Tampa Bay and a few thoughts on the rest of the NFL too.  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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Where's the laterals here? That's the way the game should have been. And there it was.

Last night's 20 to 14 win over Philadelphia. It wasn't pretty coolly. It certainly wasn't smooth. And God knows that the fourth quarter. of that game was about as strange as it gets in the NFL. But as I said this morning when I opened up the show on radio, no apologies necessary at all. For the first time in five years, Washington is going to participate in the NFL playoffs as a 7-9 division champion. And just maybe, maybe this time, this is the beginning of an era, a new era, rather than being sort of a one-off

aberration as it has been when they've made the playoffs very infrequently over the last 28 years. But they got the win last night. I mean, I think we have to start. Before we get to your take on the game, or whatever we're calling it now, I forget, my game take. We have to start with the fact that this was one of the most obvious intentional tank jobs in the midst of a game. I think unprecedented. I don't think I've ever seen it before in the midst of a game. I've seen teams clearly decide in advance of a game that they aren't going to give it an effort and they're going to start the third string quarterback or they're going to bench a lot of people.

And the Eagles did, you know, sit a lot of people. in this game, several of whom were actually hurt and got hurt in the game last week or didn't even play last week. But what Doug Peterson did last night was, I've never seen it before. Have you? In the midst of a game that was totally winnable for them in the fourth quarter, put in the third string guy who gave you no chance of succeeding. And officially ruined Nate Seinfeld's career. in many ways it probably did. So I've never seen it before either.

And I don't think that it was because they were trying to win the game, as he said in the press conference. I don't really envision it as trying to tank for draft order because they're sitting there at six. The worst they would have been, I guess they could have went to 10. Yeah, I think it was either nine or 10 versus six, which could be a big deal. A thousand points of draft value to lose that game. Yeah, no doubt. The way you'd look at the draft chart, that could absolutely be a big deal.

Half of me just, I know Sudfeld. I know that he's gotten along with everybody there. I think that Peterson loves him. A small part of me just thinks that it was a small commitment to Nate Sudfeld to give him a chance as a guy, which I would never do. I would never do. Oh, the poor kid just wet the bed too.

I want to consider what you just said there because it's not something that I considered that this has been a guy that's been well-liked, well-respected, has really worked hard. There was the discussion on what was a dreadful broadcast of the game by Collinsworth and Michaels. I'm over them. It was horrible. I'll get to that in a bit. But I'm open to what you just described.

It just hit me as, you know, they mentioned during the broadcast that Doug Peterson had mentioned to them and their lead up to the game that he thought there was a chance he would get, you know, Sudfeld. He wanted to get Sudfeld some reps in the game. The problem is that Jalen Hertz is also a big part of their future, you would think, with Carson Wentz now watching out. and this was an opportunity to play in a game that wasn't going to advance your season, but could have derailed another, and it was a close game, and it was another experience for your young quarterback who was in his fourth start, and who, by the way, was the only guy on your team who was giving you a chance in that game. I love the people, again, I hate this when people just got to get bogged down.

Well, did you see his numbers? Sheen? Yeah, I did, but did you watch the game because he was the only person giving them any chance of winning the game. Look, if Nate Sudfeld had come in and started dropping bombs, it was one thing. But they knew what they were going to get with Sudfeld. They were going to get the number six pick in the draft. And they played for that. That was a tank job of the highest order in the midst of a game. I'll tell you, to be honest with you, Cooley, I thought it was a disgrace.

I thought it was wrong on every level. And I'm the guy that wanted Washington to lose games at the end of last year to ensure getting Chase Young. At the same time, I think if they had played a game at the end of the year against a playoff contender, I would have wanted them to play hard and do their best and still lose. But in a last game of the year, final game of the year with the fate of the last playoff, spot on the line. If you get behind 14-0-17-0, fine. Barrier heads in the sand and put in Sudfeld and let him play the other game. You're into the fourth quarter in a three-point game. At that point, I think in that context, you try to win the game. And by the way, I want to make one

thing clear. I don't think if Hertz had stayed in the game, it was like Washington wasn't going to win the game anyway. I think they would have won the game. I think defensively they would have come up with a big play, and they would have probably won the game anyway. But I thought that he did something last night, and maybe it was because it was the high-profile nature of the final game, national TV, that hurt the game a little bit. And they're going to have to figure out a solution to that. It's not an easy one. But that was an all-time intentional tank job.

Here's why I don't buy it. because they like Sedfeld. And you don't keep a player that you believe is going to play like he did on your roster for four years. And you don't put that kid or that at this point, man, in the other way, he's a grown-ass man, in that spot to ruin his career. Why didn't you start him then? Why didn't you, if this, if you wanted to do him a favor, why didn't you start him? I don't know why they didn't start him. I'm not opposed to the idea that they liked to come up four spots in the draft.

But I just don't, I don't see it as if you knew he was going to be that bad, why would you do, you wouldn't do, no one's going to do that to a kid. Maybe you knew that Jalen Hertz was the only opportunity to win a game. But the difference is, had Doug Peterson not said it to Michaels and Collinsworth, and they knew he was coming in. Have they not said it, then I can see tank job written all over it. I wouldn't be surprised, Kev, if the honest truth was they tanked for four spots. I wouldn't blow me away.

But at the same time, I don't think that they would do that to Nate. I just think coaches respect their players and they believe in their roster. It's not like they signed him this month. he's been a part of that team as the backup quarterback for a while. He has been. I think they just wanted to give him a chance as a dude. I'm listening to you. And I'll bet you they practiced with him.

They prepared for it. I just, I think that after the first two drives, if they really wanted to win the game, they would have hurt back in. I'm, I think that there is a chance that they didn't think it would go. as poorly as it went, but that at the same time, it wasn't going to be enough. I can see that. I mean, because the bottom line is there's nobody watching that game or involved in that game, no matter what they know about Nate Sudfeld that we don't know.

Because if Nate Sudfeld gave them a better chance of winning that game, he would have started the game. Jalen Hertz didn't do anything to prompt getting benched or yanked. He was, despite his numbers, which were incredibly pedestrian, less than pedestrian, he was the one that gave them a chance with his legs in some of the plays that he did make on a night where they didn't have a whole lot of ability to make plays. And by the way, the way they created opportunities, simply a result of his mobility.

And Nate Sudfeld's not nearly as mobile as we found out. No. I just, I don't know. I think in many, look, the Philadelphia media did not treat him well. And even Philadelphia fans, it's interesting. I, you know, I've read a lot online last night and today. They thought it was disgraceful and an embarrassing and it's representative of a changing culture that's not a good culture.

right now, which I think is really interesting because in the NFC East alone, we've had two of the three or four worst cultures in the NFL for years. And now we've added, you know, the Eagles to the mix. But Chris Mortensen, who's, you know, basically covered the NFL for, I don't know, a hundred years, basically, had the following tweet, you know, last night after the game. A hundred years. Well, I mean, Mort's been around for a little for a little while. But I thought, and I'm looking for this tweet because I had it up two seconds ago, but I think it's going to pop up here in a second. At the end of the game, Mortensen tweeted out who, where do you? Here it is.

Sorry about that. He tweeted out the following. This is the most negative barrage of comments I have received about a game's lack of integrity. And that's not even counting the Giants-related bias. consensus from those in the NFL and who have been associated with it, disgrace. That's not the fault of the Washington football team, which, of course, it's not the fault of the Washington football team. I really, coolly, I think it would have been fascinating as Washington tried to give it away with the botched fumbled snap, with the muffed punt, as I predicted with Sims. God damn, I mean, do not put him back there.

please on Saturday night again. But if Sims, let's say on the muffed punt at the end of the game, if he hadn't recovered it and Philadelphia had recovered it and they had a decent chance to recover it, what would Peterson have done first and ten at the Washington 20-yard line down 20 to 14? Do you think he would have taken knees? Do you think he would, I mean, that's an exaggeration, obviously, but do you think you would have, you think he would have just handed the ball? No, he was trying to score.

You think he would have gone and handed the ball off four times? and on fourth and six handed it off again. You think they would have really legitimately tried to score there? I think he had to be a little bit sick in his stomach, whether it was him or Roseman or Lurried, whoever made the decision that, oh my God, we're trying to give this to you, Washington, and you're trying to give it back to us.

Enough is Sims Jr. on top of turns, please. Huh? Oh, my God. It's the worst. He could have gone for two where? Like if they had scored to make it 20 to 20, he could have just gone for 20. He could have gone for two. And gone to overtime.

Anyway. Or just played bad defense and giving up a field goal. And then it would have been my overall score prediction to a T. What was your final score prediction? Mine was 17 to 10, I think. 2320. Oh, my God. Yeah.

2320. You know, the line went to six and a half. chance to get to that. Huh? Yeah, I do. Do you know what I did? I do know that. I'm going to tell you what I did and everybody that's listening to this podcast.

I told you that I had played Washington on Wednesday minus two because I knew the line was going to go up. So I played him at minus two. And when it got to six and a half yesterday, I played Philadelphia, bought the half point. You got it at plus seven. So I had a five point middle, and it hit. You had a double winner.

Yeah, I had a double winner. I had what we call a middle winner. I created a five point middle. And, you know, the bottom line was I was rooting for Washington to win the game, and I wanted them to win it without having to sweat it. But I had a feeling like, you know, I told you before, I see 16 to 10 or 17 to 10, that kind of a game. And so I did that.

That opportunity does not exist very often to create that kind of a middle on a wager. But I did it and hit both sides of it, which was very, very nice. The smell test for those of you that were wondering and were tweeting me all morning long yesterday, and I appreciate the fact that you have so much interest in it, especially after I've given you a losing season, although I'm only two games below 500. I ended up basically coolly wiping out all of the picks from the Saturday morning show. And I went with two plays. I went with Denver, which covered.

They lost by a point. And Chicago plus four and a half, which did not get it done. So I ended up going one in one. And your lock of the week came through, right? No. Oh, wait a minute. Who was your lock of the week? Cleveland?

Cleveland. Ah, right. But you had backed off that at the last second. No, they had a chance to cover in that game. Sure they did, but they did. They got to give them a fourth and whatever to Claypool. Yeah. Anyway.

So we will get to the game take here momentarily. I just, I wanted to hit on a couple of big themes before we get to, you know, Coolie's take on the game and then Kevin's game take. One, we already hit on, which is Peterson. Two is this, because this is going to be a big conversation this week, Alex Smith or Taylor Heineke against the Buccaneers. Ron Rivera did say, after the game, when he was asked about it, about whether or not he considered pulling Alex in the game last night.

He said, quote, I thought about it, but we had an idea, and we were trying to execute it for this week. I thought it worked out well enough, closed quote. Tell me what you were thinking in the moment and what you would do Saturday night against Tampa Bay. Through a big part of the first half, until he threw that touchdown to Logan Thomas, I thought he should have been out.

At least until Heineke, at least until Heineke blew it or couldn't play. guy he took a couple sacks he just couldn't move he took the sack up 10 7 in the second quarter just hanging out in the pocket tripping on his own dude and then he kept trying to leave the pocket the guy you're not going anywhere you can't move some of the throws were miracles just to get to throwaways he was really really slow it looked like he was really hurting I wasn't necessarily in fear for Alex Smith, but he was struggling. Then he made that throw to Logan Thomas, which was an incredible catch.

Great throw, too. Great throw, great catch, big time play. He thought, okay. But then through large parts of the third quarter, he was done. He was done. He's almost like he's a closer now. He can give you two innings. Or he can give you a quarter of ball if you needed it

if Heineke wasn't good enough. I just thought, I just thought he's, he's not all there. Athletically. He's hurting. There's no doubt about it. Yeah, I thought he was wincing. He's doing this new weird thing with his face where his lips kind of go up. I think that's a wince.

No, I do. I know. I know the look you're talking about. The thing is, if I have this knee problem right now that I can't even move my leg and now I'm starting to make these new face gestures because every time I take a step or something, even if it's a little one, you go, I think he's hurting, man. And, you know, then he throws the pick. After he threw the pick to Logan Thomas, I don't know if that ball's not picked if Logan doesn't fall down, but he was bad in this game. And it wasn't because he couldn't

see it. He couldn't survive long enough to make a throw down the field. And his nature, is to move outside of the pocket to make some of those throws. It's just not to avoid and hang in the pocket. Now, there were some pressures up the middle, but I just, I just don't see it, Kev. So you would start Taylor Heineke Saturday night in a playoff game? No, I think that Heineke, I would have brought Heineke in this game, especially in the third quarter when they went up 1714, and then you got a Heineke-Sudflot game.

I don't know what I would have done. It's hard not to write it out with Alex. It is. It's hard not to write it out with Alex Smith, but God, it gets to the point where he fumbles the snap. He's throwing a couple picks. It's just, I mean, the pick that he threw at McKissick, that shouldn't have been a pick,

but that ball should have been somewhere else. He was just getting rid of it. So I felt differently. I don't feel differently about his condition and his lack of mobility and the wincing and the bit of skittishness. But in the moment last night, as I was sitting there with people in the room, my son's saying, got to get him out, got to get him out. And I'm getting text messages from everybody.

Tim Legler's text to me, got to get him out. This is awful. Other friends got to get him out. I didn't feel that way. I understood that his lack of mobility was definitely. a factor in the game. But I did not see the guy from the first half of the 49ers game.

The big difference from the 49ers game and last night in the first half is that Alex was accurate in the first half. Against San Francisco, he couldn't throw the football. He couldn't get it anywhere near receivers. He was inaccurate. He was lucky that he didn't end up

with more turnovers in that game. He was totally. incapable in that first half against San Francisco. Last night, he had lack of mobility. He was wincing. He didn't want to get hit. All of those things were in play. And at the same time, he was 17 of 22 for 131 yards, two touchdowns, and his team was

six for nine on third down, and it scored 17 points, which is more than they had scored in the last game, the game before. and the 14 points on offense were more than they had scored in totality in their last three games. And so there is no effing way I would have pulled them at halftime. I saw a guy that saw the field, knew what he was doing, was getting the ball out more times than not, and getting it out on time and accurately and allowing them to make plays. He had a great drive, the best opening drive of the year, and had a couple of big-time throws on the drive before halftime

that took the lead back for good as it turned out. And there's just no way I was going to put Taylor Heineke in there. You know, this Taylor Heineke thing from, you know, the fourth quarter of the Carolina game, I mean, it might be something, but I don't know, nor does anybody know if it's real. We don't know what Taylor Heineke can do in a game that you have to have. Not even a little bit.

Yeah. It could be Sunfeld-like. Right. He's more mobile. Look, Alex Smith, you know, I love the people that will just over the last couple of years just always, you know, tweet me as record, okay? Okay, fine. You know, and if you're all about a starting quarterback's record, you know, that's a limitation, I believe. And I know what I've watched in Alex Smith going back to before his injury.

He's average. He's an average quarterback. But on this team this year, right now, he's the best they have. He is a big part of why they won seven games, why they won five of their final seven and have a chance to go to the postseason. It's his veteranness. It's his experience. It's his understanding of this offense.

It's the intangibles. It's not his dynamic ability, and it's certainly not his mobility any. And it's very obvious. He's not nearly as mobile as he was against Detroit or the Giants or the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. This calf thing is an issue. But I did not see the guy from the first half of the San Francisco game last night. I saw a guy that was compromised and it was going to be hard for him to push the ball down the field. It was certainly going to be hard for him to escape with any mobility.

But at the same time, there are a lot of quarterbacks that aren't mobile. Philip Rivers isn't mobile. Tom Brady's not mobile. Ben Raffelberger's not mobile. There are a lot of quarterbacks. There used to be in a mobile, though, and Alex isn't. That's fair. I mean, in fairness to this whole conversation, would you have pulled him at half time?

One, what I'm saying to you, I texted you in San Francisco. I'll bet before anybody else did. You did. He's got to come out. I didn't text you last night. No, you didn't. I did not. So you know, I knew he had to come out two weeks ago.

Right. And I didn't text you last night. Now, that said, when he had to get the ball out of his hands and miss Cam Sims wide open in the back of the end zone, because he didn't survive a half a second longer. I was like, this is it. And then he makes the throw to Logan Thomas, which buys you another drive. Yeah. There was never a point now got into the fourth quarter where you could just see. It was like, God, but at the same time, Philly couldn't score. They weren't going to. score. Right. And, you know, going into that, like, in the moment in the second half, I was like, you know what, he's, they just have to survive. Survive. You know, survive, don't make any bad plays. And then the McKissick throws not a great throw. He hangs him out to dry, but it shouldn't have been an interception either. McKissick should have caught it and taken a big hit. McKissick also dropped a third down play on the one drive in the second half where they were actually on the move a little bit, and he dropped a third and four ball.

The intercept, Logan Thomas falling down to me had nothing to do with the interception. It was a terrible throw. It was a terrible throw into traffic. He did recover the fumbled snap. I did, there's no, look, I tweeted out the following at halftime. What I just said, you know, big difference is Alex is accurate tonight, even with the lack of mobility. It's not the San Francisco game.

You can't pull them. I'm not going to pull him. But I'll tell you what, there was a moment in the second half where I'm like, oh, my God, I may be regretting, you know, not feeling that he should have been pulled. But, you know, Peterson put Sudfeld in. And again, I don't know if Hertz would have done it either because I think the defense was outstanding for most of the night. You could rely on it. But it was the turnovers. I mean, they had three turnovers in the second half.

They had three turnovers. I'm sorry, two turnovers in the second half, but nearly four, if you count the Sims muff. And, you know, that fumble, by the way, bounced right up into an Eagles defender's hands and you just couldn't grab it. And then Alex, you know, pounced on it. Good for him. But as far as the playoff game, you would have to tell me that Alex is back to San Francisco calf injury, and then I'm fine with Taylor Heineke.

but if you tell me he can be as effective as he was at times last night, which he was. He made some big-time throws last night. You know, on third down. I don't know if I can tell you that is the problem. Well, you can't tell me that. And I'm saying that based on Tampa's defense. But what I'm saying to you is if they deem him to be as healthy as he was last night before the game, Then go with old reliable.

I am. Oh, reliable Alex Smith. Yeah. Cooley, I made this analogy, and this is strictly for those older people listening, and you're not going to, I don't think you're going to get the reference. In the 70s, when Joe Thaisman was the backup to Billy Kilmer, after Sonny Jurgensen had retired, there was always this debate. You know, do you play Joe now?

Is it time to send, is it time to shoot old yellow right between the eyes and put him out to pasture. And in the big games, at the end of some of those years, Billy Kilmer's final years, George Allen went with Billy Kilmer. And you couldn't push the ball down the field and the ball was going to come out wobbly and he was immobile. But he won some big games for them down the stretch by not, but you know, it's a different time. I understand that in the NFL. But I really think that old Yeller, that's how the Washington football team's playing ball right now. This is the only chance they have. Now, if they know something about Heineke that we don't know other than what we saw,

you know, it's got to be they have all the information. We don't. But if you tell me that I get Alex Smith from last night, not Alex Smith from the San Francisco game, but Alex Smith from last night, I'm going to go with that in a playoff game against Tom Brady and Tampa. because I'll tell you what Todd Bowles will do to a quarterback that's barely played in the NFL. He will absolutely make him look amateur. And they won't, I don't think have a chance in that game. Now, you might say they have to have mobility at the quarterback spot or they have no chance.

And that might be true too. And maybe because of it we have no chance. But I'm going with Alex. if he's as healthy as he was last night. Now, if he's much less healthy than that, then I get it. Because, you know, what I don't think you saw as much, remember in the early part of the 49er game, I texted you two, or maybe it was the game before him. Like, he looked skittish, too.

I think it was the Pittsburgh game. I don't want to see that either. I want to see some confidence, which we did see. Last night there was a lot of hits and a lot of misses. in the San Francisco game, there wasn't anything. You knew he was incapable of producing anything positive. Yeah. It's almost like, I like your Kilmer analogy.

It's almost like a baseball player. It's almost like when Scherzer went back into the third a couple years ago in the playoffs. I'd rather lose with Scherzer. I know he's beat down, worn down, exhausted, can't move, but I'm going to lose with my guy. And you can't lose a playoff game without playing Alex. now he might only give you a four innings in the Tampa game they might play because they're going to play to keep everything in front of them they don't play that short stuff they're

going to get after him in the pocket right if if he's got to move to get a ball down the field to get him off the spot and they can't run it which they did a little bit last night then you might have to have the reliever come in for a little bit and then maybe you end up going back to Alex. I don't know what you do with it. And you said they don't have all the information or they, they have the information. They don't have it all.

Maybe not. They don't know exactly what Heineke is in a playoff game, in a big spot. They don't know how much guts Alex is actually going to come up with and have in this playoff game. They don't know how much tort all they're going to shoot up into. No, they'd actually do that. But I mean, it's, it's tricky. You don't lose.

a game without, you don't lose a game not playing your guy. Can you imagine the devastation if they were to just bench Alex for the game and get run because Heineke threw three picks? You'd be crucified. I'll lose with Alex getting sacked and thrown a couple of picks.

I'm okay losing that way. I don't think they'd be crucified. I think there's a lot of people that think it is better. I think it's going to be a very debate. You'll get killed. I think it's going to be a very debatable topic all week long. You'll get killed. You're going to get killed.

I'll kill him for not playing Alex Smith. Now, I just won't kill him if they end up realizing that Alex isn't the answer once the game begins. Or if the game plays out differently to where he can't become the answer. Can't move, Kev. You know, somebody texted me earlier, a friend of mine said, this is 2012. This is RG3 Kirk Cousins. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. No, no, it's not.

First of all, Alex is no RG3 at the end of 2012 in terms of what he had produced during the course of the year and what you still thought he could produce. Number two is no offense to those of you that love to mock Kirk Cousins who just threw 37 touchdown passes this year. Taylor Heineke's no Kirk cousins. And oh, by the way, Scott Turner is no Kyle Shanahan or Mike Shanahan. So, no, this is not a comparable situation at all. And by the way, just for the record, I was totally against, totally against pulling RG3 in that game. I was totally fine with them leaving him in that game. You know that.

We've had this debate many, many times. I don't know. The doctors cleared him. You know, they told Shanahan it was the brace that was making him look awkward. And, you know, ultimately, it's a playoff game. I mean, Philip Rivers played on a torn ACL for crying out loud in an AFC championship game. You know, this, we got to save him. No, you were in a playoff game with a team that had a chance, a legitimate chance to make a run that year.

I don't know if you feel the same way. And by the way, big picture, not that I want to spend any time on this today. I think what we have, I mean, I'd never count. this dude out. Don't get me wrong. He's already proven everybody wrong many times. But I think what we've seen clearly is that Alex Smith can't be the guy in 2021. It's just you're going to have to re-sign Kyle Allen and come up, I think, with a veteran option. And that'll be the path, I think, in the off-season. But then again, maybe he'll convince them, no, no, no, this was the year one. I get another offseason.

It's going to be back to what it was in 2015. I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't bet against this dude at this point. By the way, one last thing before we get to the game takes. I just want to mention that, you know, first of all, Ron Rivera did a hell of a job this year. He and his staff did a hell of a job. This team is so much improved in so many different ways. I'm talking about the football side of the operation than it was a year ago.

It's not just that they more than doubled their win total from last year. They were better coached. They added more talent in the offseason via free agency and the draft. They got better as the season went on. They did so against the backdrop of everything that could have gone wrong that was going wrong early at 1 in 5 and 2 and 7, a coach with cancer, you know, all this did this shit that was going on. in the organization. And it's very rare that you have the opportunity for sort of icing on the cake, which was

improvement, but the division allowed it. And, you know, most years we'd be sitting here on the Monday following a seven and nine season talking about who's getting fired, who's staying, what's the, and it would have been lots of drama about, you know, is Bruce going to stay or it's time to get rid of Gruden or whatever it would have been, and draft positioning. and the opponents on the schedule next year. That would have been the conversation today. That's what we're used to.

I'm really, really happy that we get at least one year where we can do something different the week after the season ends. We've got a playoff game. I mean, and it's a difficult game Saturday night. It's a tough ask. You know, they are on a role. Tampa is on a role. A month ago, I would have said, bring them on.

They got issues. But they've seemed to have cleaned those issues up. They're averaging 45 and a half points a game in their last two games. Okay, they've scored 91 in their last two games. They are crushing people having won four in a row. With that said, you know what, Cooley? I think Washington has a chance. I do too.

I actually think they have a chance. I do too. And that's all you can ask for this time of year. We don't get this chance very often in this town. It's not what, you know, it was three decades ago. This is a one out of every five or six years thing. So hopefully it's the beginning of something new. And I like the people that are leading this right now.

But I'm going to enjoy it. Saturday night, triple-header, six wild card round games this weekend. You know, maybe we can get some weather in here on Saturday night. I can tell you it's going to be cold. it's going to be in the 20s more likely than not at kickoff on Saturday night. There is a chance for a potential snowstorm this weekend or early following week. The timing on it, nobody really knows at this point. It's only Monday.

But, you know, Brady's used to playing in the bad weather, I understand, but bring in some bad weather. You got a really good defense. You got a stationary quarterback, not a mobile quarterback. They do have a defense that's going to get after them. I mean, you know how much I love Todd Bowles as a coach and as a defensive mind and coach. And even though I think Washington has a chance, I also think Tampa has a chance to win the Super Bowl. So I think, you know, it's going to be a crazy weekend. But I'm looking forward to it.

It beats the shit out of the alternative of sitting here going, okay. What are we going to do with the coach? Is Bruce gone yet? Who's the quarter? I mean, at least who are we going to draft? What's the schedule? Do you see Rebell and the presser afterwards and well, now we've got to play a first place schedule?

That was actually, you know what? That was actually kind of cute. That was like him going, oh, I got to play the first. Like thinking about everything a coach would think about, but I think that was partially tongue in cheek. I mean, how thrilled they must be. You know, this is the first Washington football coach in his first year to go to the playoffs since George Allen did it in 1971, nearly 50 years ago. George Allen came in, said the future is now, traded away all the draft choices, brought in all these veteran players.

They went 9-4-1, 14-game season, and lost in a close game at San Francisco as the wild card team. in the divisional round of the playoffs. They only had four teams each conference back then. Every other coach. Jack Pardee didn't get to the postseason his first year. Joe Gibbs didn't get to the postseason his first year, went eight and eight in his first year, and Richie Pettibone obviously didn't,

and Norff Turner didn't, and Marty Schottenheimer didn't, and Steve Spurrier didn't. Let's see if I keep going naming the coaches, Joe Gibbs didn't in his second stitch, and Jim Zorn didn't. And Mike Shanahan didn't and Jay Gruden didn't. There you go.

But Ron Rivera did. And he did with the backdrop of an organization that was in utter chaos during a time in which the world was in utter chaos. I give him a lot of credit, man. A lot of credit. I think there's something to him. I don't think he's an elite coach, but I think he's a winner. And I think he figured it out. this year. Good for him. I'm happy. I can't wait for Saturday night. All right. We'll take a

break, and when we come back, Cooley will have the Cooley take on the game, and then after his take on the game, I'll have my game take right after this word from one of our sponsors. One man rush. The back. The end zone reaching up and making the graph of the touchdown. Logan Thomas high in the ear to put Washington back on top again. And they scored on the opening drive, Kev. Yeah, they did. With that, let me tell you my thing. Oh, yeah.

Is that what we're calling it? What was it again? Yeah, I told you. That's what I'm like, this is my thing. This is your thing. Okay. This is my thing.

All right. Let's say with the things that I liked. They scored on the opening drive. Yeah. They finally did it. Good for them. They had a slick little reverse, pump screen reverse to Sims Jr.

A little screen. Green to Logan Thomas. They put some things together, some different things to put together an opening drive. Good for them. They started fast like you wanted. You had to feel like that game was over when they were up 10-0, didn't you? I swear to God, when they got the turnover, and for whatever reason, one of my sons just said, why did you do that? But two of my boys, Corvin and I both said if they get a touchdown here, it's over. And my oldest son, Casey, goes, why would you guys say that? Why would you jinx it? Why would you? And we're like, we're like, and he's the one that's not the big sports fan, but was, but, you know, gets into it when there's a big event. And Corby and I just said,

Philly's done. If they fall behind 14 nothing, this thing's over. They got to stick it in. They're 10 nothing, not enough, but 14 nothing would be. But yeah, I really felt like the way that game started. this had, you know, 24 to 6 written all over it at that point. It sure seemed like it was going to be a 24 to 6 game. It did. It wasn't, though. It was the most interesting game I've watched it a long time. God.

I liked the hats on Sunday all day in the NFL. Those are cool hats. I'm going to get a hat. I don't know if I'm going to get a Washington football team hat, but I'm going to get a hat. Which hat do you won? Yeah, sometimes those, I don't know. You mean the winter cat, the winter ski cats?

No, the baseball caps. The caps that, the week 17 baseball caps that every team had were pretty cool all day. I was watching, thinking those are dang cool hats. Man, the throw to tell you was a big time throw. It was. And, well, Alex wasn't in my good. There were some throws that he made that were big throws. You made a couple big throws to Cam Sims, one on the.

the opening drive one on the drive right before the end of the half that were big throws to cam sims the third down conversions especially early in this game were good and the one to mackissick that he ends up getting hurt on on the first drives another like here you go this is this is who they are let me just stop right there this is what i like about this team and rivera they know exactly who they are yes they know exactly how they have to win games they don't try to be something that they're not they realize that they need to score on four possessions. They need two field goals and two touchdowns. If they can score on four possessions,

three and outs or maybe a couple first downs and punt isn't the worst case scenario. I love that they actually know who they are. They have an identity. And while sometimes I don't think Turner's game plan or calling throughout it is the best, they have an offensive style. they have an identity, they know who needs to get the ball, they get their guys that need to get it touches, and they manage a game on offense.

And then defensively, obviously, they're great. You know, I thought the defensive line was outstanding. Other than Settle, who I think really struggled again in this game, we'll see when we watched some of the film. I don't know how much you played. But I thought the defensive line was good. The past rush was demonstrative. Hertz was under pressure all day.

He had to move. He had to run. There were easy throws for Hertz to make. Made a couple good scrambles, but he was under pressure. I mean, Chase Young is amazing. He's on my I love list. He's on my I love love in the NFL list. That RPO play where he fakes hurts, like he's going to take the back and then change his course to go hit hurts.

You know how many guys can actually do that in the league? Can I just correct you for one second? because you just made the mistake that Chris Collinsworth made. That was not an RPO. That was a read option. Sorry, I met Zone Read. Yeah, there was no receivers out on the route. Chris Collinsworth called it.

He called it an R-D-O. Did I say RPO? Did I say R-D-O? You said R-P-O. My writing, it says R-D-O-type. You said R-P. It was not a RPO. No, it was not an appeal.

Yes, correct. And I know that Chris Collinsworth said R-P-O, but I know that he knows it was not an R-P-O. Actually, I don't know that, but it was his own replay. You don't know that Collinsworth didn't know that. What was your point? I'm not sure. I think he does.

I don't know that he does, but go ahead. Okay. He's incredible. I love his leadership. I love his enthusiasm. It's great. They just keep showing him just pacing the sideline, talking to himself, talking to anybody he runs into. He doesn't sit down.

No. He's just in the game, man. the entire game just chattering her way talking about ball watching ball it's awesome he is my favorite player on this team and he was outstanding he was again i thought he was hugely impactful in this game he ran off the field saying tom brady i'm coming i want you tom would you have said that if i was 22 and playing the way he was sure okay why not you know it's one thing to run your mouth when you're a bunch of losers like they've been for so long and hear people who aren't very good running their mouths. Chase Young in his rookie season has earned the right to not really create bulletin board

material, but to say, hey, Tom Brady, I'm ready for you. You know, bring them on. He's been phenomenal. Good God. Can you imagine if they had won that game against the Giants last year? And they got, who'd they take? Andrew Thomas, the left tackle? Yeah. Oh, my God. They wouldn't have taken Andrew Thomas. Washington wouldn't have taken Andrew Thomas.

Well, they needed a left tackle. I know, but they wouldn't have taken Andrew Thomas. Would they have taken Worf's? I don't know who they would have taken exactly, but I know that people weren't in love with Andrew Thomas. Okay. Oh, they would have taken Isaiah Simmons, wouldn't they have? Oh, they would have taken Okuda. They would have taken a...

They would have... Okuda, yeah. That's exactly who they would have taken. Actually, but Okuda would have been gone. They would have been... They would have gone from second to fourth. So Kuda would have been gone. But I knew they really liked Okuda.

Didn't some... Didn't they really like Isaiah Simmons? Did Kyle like Isaiah? No. I don't know if they really liked Isaiah Simmons, but everybody as the draft progressed around the analysts and the pundits liked Isaiah Simmons. You know, he got better as the season went on.

on. He did get better. He struggled early. He's a tweener player that can become awesome. Right. Find the exact spot for him. Camera curl, I loved in this game. God, how important has Cameron Curl been? Huge. In the last half of the season. So huge. He's been a big time reason for why they're winning. He just, he's been excellent. He's got three picks in what, the last three or four games, had another one in this game. He can play at the line of scrimmage. He sorts things out.

He's physical. He's tough. He hits. He tackles. He's gotten so much better in coverage. I actually see him as a guy that can play man to man. Camacurl is becoming a big time player. The defense was good.

No, they only ended up giving up like 3.3 per rush on the ground. They had a couple scrambles and one long one that gashed them down the middle. They ended up giving up 118 on the ground. But the defense was pretty good. Most of the balls were contested. The one big throw to Arthagga White Side, that's contested. That's good defense. He makes a heck of a catch there.

I loved him at Stanford. He caught everything at Stanford. And then it looked like when he came out, he was sort of a big, a bit of a bust. But he caught everything at Stanford in a pro-style system. I thought he really impressed last night, even though, well, it says two catches 40 yards. I thought he had more. He drew the PI. He drew the PI on full.

Yeah, he had three catches all year. Is that it? Jesus. That's, I think they said that in the broadcast. He had three catches all year. But I thought the defense was really good. They gave up two drives. Again, they gave up two drives.

They consistently do that. That's like they're going to give up two to three drives in the first half of a ballgame, and then they are going to stop you. How about the statistic of the Washington's plus minus in the first half, where they were like minus 106 or something? Sure. 30th in the league and then plus one whatever in the second half second in the league. Their second half, their second half plus minus is second best in the NFL.

The first half plus minus is 30th. That is the weirdest stat I think I've ever seen in football. It is weird because there's not, it wasn't, the way it happened wasn't consistent week to week. You know, a lot of it was some turnovers in the first half. you know, more often than not, it was self-inflicted in the first half. It wasn't because they were flat or weren't ready. I never thought that way anyway. Well, they've given up drives in the first half, too.

And I've thought so much about it. Like, one, you've got to credit them for figuring teams out, especially Del Rio defensively. But, two, I thought about this in this game. I think that D-line just ends up wearing people out. Yeah. I do. I think that as you get,

get into the third quarter, they just start wearing you down. They do. To me, that's probably the answer is defensively they just start wearing people out. Makes sense. I thought Dustin Hopkins was good in this game. You know, I think as you, as we've been so critical, I think he ended up over 80% for the year. He was at 78% before he hit his last two kicks. I think he ends up over 80%.

And that's what you have to be as a kicker over 80%. You're keeping a job forever over 80%. He was 79.4% for the year. That's close enough. Well, he finished 24th out of 32 kickers. And he missed. How many PATs did he miss? He missed.

Not more than two. He missed two. He missed two. But one of them was a big one against Seattle. Really big. Really big. I keep I like I do like Logan Thomas and I like it because I know exactly who he is

and everybody knows who he is but somehow he finds a way to make some plays in every game to help the football team and he's getting better with the ball in his hands he had a couple of screenplays where he's getting better with the ball in his hands is he a number one is he a number one tight end

no yes yes he is on how many on how many teams bottom half okay 15 okay 16 teams i think he's a i think he's proven that he's a number one tight end he doesn't scare he's not you no one no one will game plan for logan thomas he won't scare you anybody but he's good enough to now make plays and then with the ball on his hands get you some extra yards he's not a good blocker they keep saying that he's he's improved as a blocker he has he's not much of a better blocker still physical enough as a blocker he's not a separate

one-on-one, but he's getting more of a knack for stemming routes and creating some leverage on some of the routes. And he's a guy that can still, but he can stretch the field with some speed. And I do think he's got ball skills. What do you think about, he's a starting tight end. What do you think about a two-year, $6 million deal for him? Pretty damn good. Done. Well, no, that's what he signed. So he's under contract next year. I mean, I think that was a massively profitable free agent signing. That was really well done. As McKissick was and a couple of others. Lucas was, they did pretty well and Darby definitely was Fuller. They did pretty well in free agency last year. They really did. No doubt. No doubt about it. All right. Here's what I didn't like about

this game. One, I thought the broadcast was awful. Yeah, I've got more on that. Yeah. Just, just, just, I'll let you get to more on it. But I'll give you a point here. I won't get, I won't get too far into it. They are wanking Jalen Hertz as a, as a passer throughout the entire game. And there is a point where, I think right before the half, where he sprints right to throw a throwback screen back to the left. Oh, yeah. The one where he's really patient. And he then, Collinsworth goes into this description of how good he is with his eyes

and how patient is he is. He's rolling all the way right and he doesn't have anything over there. And then he comes back across the field. Dude, it's a screen. Yeah. Like, there's four offensive linemen over there blocking for the guys throwing to. It's a screen. I like Jeline.

Jalen hurts. I think he's got a chance. I think there's some accuracy there. But there's also that, and at times they're like, man, he's he's not just going to take off. He's not going to go one read. No, he is. He is going to take off. And a lot of times, Kevin, he should.

Yeah, definitely. There's nothing wrong with taking off. If he, if he's got an A gap to take off up to middle and gain five, that is what I want, my young quarterback to do. He's got a lot of Russell Wilson in him. He's got a lot of Russell Wilson in him. You know, his vision as a runner in the way he's able to get down. And, you know, I told you last week, you know, watching him a lot. At Bamma, you never thought he was a thrower. That was the one comment they made that I think was spot on. When he was at Alabama, you didn't consider

him to be anything other than a running quarterback. At Oklahoma, however, he really was a baller. There's a game if you ever get a chance to watch. Oklahoma's comeback against Baylor last year in the regular season. And the game that Hertz played, it was the game where I said, man, I love this guy. Now, the thing about him is he has been throughout his career, Bama, Oklahoma, and so far at Philadelphia, a bit of a turnover machine. He can be very casual with the ball, I told you, six fumbles in his three starts. He only lost two of them.

He didn't have a fumble, but he had an interception. So ended up, I think, with, you know, something like four or five turnovers in the three games that he started. But he can make plays. Like, I think there's something too hurts. I think there's something to hurts as well. Okay. But keep in mind, he was 7 to 20 for 72 yards. Understood.

But he did make some throws. And there were some contested balls that we talked about that I thought the secondary did a good job of breaking some things up. Yeah, well, Jalen Rager should have had that first deep ball. Yep, absolutely. Okay, the stuff I didn't like. Oh, one more thing with the broadcast. It took more than the entire first half for Collinsworth to stop calling Montez Jeff. He called him Jeff Sweat three times in the first half.

Oh, I didn't pick up on that. That's funny. I missed that. Like, his name's not Jeff. No, it's not. It's not even close. It's been even close to Jeff. Maybe his friends call him Jeff.

Hey, how you doing, Jeff? It's Montez. My bad. My bad. So, Jeff. How good is sweat. He was really good. He was really good.

I mean, just how his upside. Like, he could div. They got two of them. I mean, they actually have two potential, all pro, you know, perennial candidate defense events. I mean. You pay two, though? I'm sorry? Can you pay two?

in the league. I know some people think they're both $100 million contract guys. I think some people believe corners now are more important. I know pro football focus does than pass rushers.

God damn, I don't want to lose either one of them. This defense is proving to you that two prolific pass rushers is more important than corners. They're both $100 million guys though. Yeah. Agree.

And anybody that's going to sit here and say that out of all of this defensive line, the most upside, might be Montez Sweat. Nope. There's a ton of upside. The most upside is Chey Chong all day. Chey Shang.

He has the most upside of any player on most football fields. By the way, I think in terms of number two, it's pain. No, I think sweat is probably too. It's close. Sweat is a better pass rusher. Can do both. Yeah. The first touchdown drive for Philly,

Sweat has a sack. Jeff Sweat has a nice sack. Yeah, Jeff, I thought Jeff played really well on that drive. And they had a defensive holding on Holcomb. There's no hold. They said it was a hold on a third and six. Oh, I thought it was. I didn't think so.

I thought he mugged him. It was within five yards. Not after five yards it wasn't as he was still holding onto him. I think he held him after five yards. But even still, back to our point with that penalty. It's third and six. The ball didn't go that way. Should have been third and one.

It's a shame because Jeff... Five-yard replay the down. Jeff had a great pass rush. Jeff just smoked toth on that play. By the way, his first name, for real, is Chequan. It's Chequan Montez Sweat. We can call him Shaq. Maybe you were hearing Shaq instead of Jeff.

Is it a... I'm trying to think of it. Is it a M? No. It's got to be a J. Jeff Jeff is it Oh my gosh I didn't like the Holcomb personal foul on Hertz on the first driver I didn't either I didn't like

I don't know what you're Half the time he's going to fly around and make you miss And now all of a sudden he's going to slide And I thought Holcomb tried to turn his head out of it I actually I actually think Holcomb played well I think Holcomb's an outstanding player Agreed I do

Um They need to They need to do a better way of stopping Jalen Hertz as a runner. And to me, that's Bostic a lot of times. There's the one play where he runs in, you're like, Bostick's even the spy right here. You better tackle him if you're the spy. I know he's got a lot of speed. But you need to do a better job of Hertz as a rusher.

They're really going to have to focus on that with Tom Brady this week. Really going to have to think about that. Don't want him out there, jukeying you. The couple picks I didn't like. I didn't think McKissick played well at all. And he got hurt, if you recall, early in this game. On the third down, he got hurt, he came up limping. And anybody that's a Washington fan, anybody, it's like, oh, shoot.

I know. I'm sure the Giants players watching this game, it was hysterical to watch them tweet throughout the game. I'm sure the Giants players were like, yes, that's the only dude they got. He's down. Well, I mean, yeah, it's true. When he was limping off, I'm like, oh. Oh, God. You know, now, at least Dave Gibson, but yes.

And I thought it's the first time, I think, all year I've had McKissick on the things that I didn't like list. You know, he caused that interception. The throw wasn't great, but he should have caught it. He dropped a sack with a terrible pass pro. He dropped a third and four ball that was perfectly thrown by Alex that should have moved the chains. Yeah, it was not, it was far from his best game. no doubt about it, but maybe it's because he was hurt. That happened early in the game.

Yeah, it did happen earlier in the game. You know, I watched that interception a few more times, that incredible play. Yeah. Was he down by contact? Yes. I don't know if he had control of the ball or the ball got into his hands until after contact. Okay. I'll go back and look at it.

It'd be interesting to see. I don't know exactly how they're going to rule that. It didn't matter because Peterson, well, that was a turnover, so it would have been reviewed anyway. Peterson had no interest in throwing. No, he didn't want that to, you know. He wanted that down by contact. Oh, I didn't mention, speaking of Peterson doing things, I didn't mention on the things I like,

the huge defensive stop inside the five-yard line, where Cam Carroll comes up with the tackle on the run on first down. Yeah. They force Hertz outside the pocket. The fourth down play. Oh, God. The one difference between Hertz and Wilson right now, Wilson makes that throw on fourth down.

He's open. They had a shot. on that fourth down play. Wait. Oh, between Russell Wilson and Jalen Hurts. I got it. No, no, no. The Wilson is Russell Wilson.

You're going to make that throw. But he had somebody in his face, too, as he unloaded. Again, Russell Wilson's going to make that throw. Who was in his face on that play? I can't remember exactly who it was. Yeah, me neither. But it was, he was definitely. It was Bostic.

Yeah. It was Bostic who was in his face on that play. But yeah, Wilson's going to make that throw. I don't. Look, you and I hit six. teams. You go for it, down for it down. Context. Oh, my God. If you really want to win a game,

context, tying a tie in a ballgame's a pretty good shot. Kick the field goal, you idiot. I mean, this guy is just, this is what would drive me nuts, and I think drives Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman nuts. I think it's why, you know, people were talking about him potentially after winning a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, you know, being on a hot seat. It appears as if he's going to stay there now. he's just way too clever for his own good. And, you know, if you're not sure, just ask him because he is a big fan of all of his, you know, analytic stuff.

And I'm sorry, there is no effing way on God's green earth he should have gone for fourth and goal from the fore with that context. With that pass rush, with that defense, you have a chance in watching, by the way, Washington's offense. Now, part of it is, well, we'll leave Alex Smith first and 10 from his own four-yard line. We'll get it back. And if that was part of the thinking, I think it's reasonable. Well, that's part of the general consensus of why you would go for it there anyway. The extra four points having that opportunity is more valuable than not getting it. And then your float position.

There is a reasonable deal to go for that. Cooley, fourth and two, fourth and one, fourth and fourth. four in that context. You know, you're not dynamic offensively tonight. You're playing a really good defensive front. You've gotten stopped on three plays, two of which have already been passes. And it's 17, 14, late in the third quarter. And oh, by the way, if you kick off and they start at the 25-yard line, you know,

I know it's not the five-yard, the four-yard line, but it is still, you know, you still have to feel good about what you've seen. in what you're seeing in Alex Smith. Bottom line, would you have kicked the field goal or gone for it? I would have kicked the field goal. Me too. But I'm interesting and I'd be interested in having the numbers guy who does this 5% advantage. Explain why.

But they never do with context. They just do with historical numbers and percentages of. Yeah, no, I hear you. But I guess you're saying that first and four having, if there's a, let's called a 30% chance, three downs in a row or four downs in a row from the four, that extra down gives you a chance, you should get it in. Yeah. Whatever.

The problem is, I would kick the field goal. I would have tied the game up right there. The pressure of, you know, I think a lot of the fourth down analytics stuff, look, the numbers are what the numbers are historically. That's fine. But there's a whole level of pressure in some fourth down situations versus others. Fourth downs on the road. Now, I know we don't have road home.

You know, fourth downs in big games, fourth downs on a condensed field, fourth downs against there's just so much there. In that context, when he lined up to go for it, I was like, yes, because I really felt like they weren't going to get it. In watching that game, I felt like they were not going to make the fourth and goal from the four. And I thought 17-17, the pressure was back on Washington to do something with that next drive. And so that's the way I felt. I was happy they went for it. I thought it was the wrong

decision. If it had been me, I would have kicked the field goal. I thought it would have been me. I would have kicked the field goal, but I would like to listen to that explained a little bit clear. That said, context, best defensive line in football, rookie quarterback, lack of weapons, Alex Smith playing the way Alex Smith's playing. I don't know. On the list of things I didn't like, I thought the offensive line did a pretty poor job of protecting Alex, especially with some interior pressures, one of which included McKissick. But I didn't think this was their best game in terms of past protection.

The Eagles got some dudes, but... They didn't have a lecture talk to Derek Barnett. Right. So I didn't like the offensive line. And I thought although Gibson had a few decent runs, I didn't think they did a great job running the football either, where I thought they could have got some more. yards up the middle.

Sims Jr. dropped another punt. He did have a good punt return before the end of the half that put them into position where they could go down the field. Give him good field position. I'm like, all right. Yeah, no, it was. You've got to figure it out. How did he not go back this week and catch 5,000 punts? I mean, my my vision of him costing them a playoff spot nearly came true. Again, Philadelphia wasn't trying to win the game, so who knows. knows what they would have done first and 10 at Washington's 20-yard line late in the fourth quarter

down six. But again, I'll say, they were going four downs. I'll say it again. Well, they would have had to there. I'll say it for a second week. They should have their effing heads examined if they put him back there in a playoff game on Saturday night. And last night was in effect a playoff game. If they put him back there to receive a pun, he has no confidence, he is going to muff another one, and it's going to cost you dearly if you don't recover it. They recovered it. It was lucky he recovered it because that ball did get separation from his body. But, you know, Philadelphia probably dressed a few people in the stands to cover the punt, you know, because they didn't want anybody down there just in the event that he did Muffet to recover it.

I just don't know what the options are. I understand I'm not familiar with the options other than Isaiah right at this point. Did Lamar Miller ever return punts? He was not active for the game. game. I just, I think Lamar Miller returned some kickoffs. 15 should not be back on a punt next week. Not one. Not one. Especially deep in their own territory. If he's got to receive a pun inside his 35-yard line, most of them are. I'm not going to have him back there. I'd rather just not put anybody back there. Most of a ball back. On side your own 35.

The way punters hit a ball now. God, can't, don't you have one guy that's just a guy that is going to make every catch? And even if it's a fair catch or he gets three yards of return, you're not going to risk a backbreaking play. And they sign Randall L? You know who's really good at it? Who? Trey Quinn. Well, he's not on the roster.

I am aware of that. He's not on any roster. And it's not like they're loaded at the receiver position. Trey Quinn was as sure-handed back there and made great decisions as anybody we've seen in a while. Not going to get a lot of yards, but not botching a punt. And he's not going to let it bounce and give yards up. I need some white dude wearing like 43, you know, back there. You know, 39.

No, I don't need some quick guy with a single-digit number or a number in the teens back there. I know that that guy might break it, 85 for a touchdown. I need the guy that's wearing 48 on his jersey to stick that arm way up in the air and just make that solid catch. Who's that dude? There was one guy that made this sweet one-handed catch on the sideline. He was wearing number 46.

Do you see that? Yeah. There was a ball that took down the bounds. Cully Cudson, I think. No, he's wearing 46 now. It's Cully Cudson, isn't it? He changed from 47 to 46. Oh, who was 46?

Was that Lamar Miller? No. No, he was inactive. It's Cole Luke. Who is? Oh, Cole Luke? Yeah, I need a guy that's got a name like Cole Luke. Cole Hand Luke.

Yeah. He snag that thing up like it was nobody's business. You know what? Throw him back on punt return. You know what he did? I caught that too. It was just one of those quick stick your hand up. That is it.

Those are hands. That dude has great hands. He's always at it. His perception. Took him. problem to reach down. He knew exactly where that thing was going to get. Cole Luke's our punt returner. Cole?

Cole, can you put your arm up in the air and make a catch? I can do that, sir. You are our punt return. By the way, didn't Kendall Fuller at some point return punts at Virginia Tech? I know he returned kicks. Yeah. I'm just looking through the list of guys. Because you cannot put 15 back there on Saturday night.

You can't. Luke. Done. What about McKissick? Why couldn't he do it? What about Gibson? I just don't want him back there. If I Google, can Cole Luke return punts?

What will come up? I don't know. I don't know. But if he returned punts, here he is. Okay, he played... Cole looked played at Notre Dame. I don't see anything in his career about return. Hmm. He's caught a couple for sure. I'm betting on Col Luke back there next week.

And I'll finish up here. The last couple of things. Well, I'm saying I don't like the fumbled punt and I don't like the fumbled snap, but I did. I loved it. The drama was awesome. Oh, come on. I mean, that was laugh. But they're trying to give, they're trying to piss this game away. And then on the other side, the Eagles are like, no, no, no, no. We don't want it. We don't want to win this. thing. It was one of the strangest. Oh, I love Sudfeld's first throw that essentially resulted in a punt. Then he just threw up for grabs with Jeremy Reeves over the top. Yeah. What are you doing? It was better than a punt. What are you doing? And then all those Sudfeld's gestures, all this, every time he could see him talking to himself. Like, oh my God. Who really liked him? Was it Jay who really liked him when they drafted him? Yeah, obviously Peterson really likes him.

Well, I know that. Everyone likes Sudfeld. But when everyone liked him, we, we drafted him. I was out there enough, I never saw anything. Yeah, in the seventh round, right? Yeah, sixth round, I think. You never saw anything? I never saw anything that I would have said,

this guy's a starting NFL quarterback. Right. All right. We'll get to my game take right after this word from one of our sponsors. the back. The end zone reaching up and making the graph of the touchdown. Logan Thomas high in the air to put Washington back on top again. Yeah, that was the touchdown pass to Logan Thomas that capped off a really good end-of-half drive that, you know, regain the momentum.

They were going to get the ball to start the second half. It was a really good throw. The play after Cooley, he missed Cam Sims wide open in the end zone. But there were a couple of throws on that drive, which I'll get to here in a moment. Let me go through my list of things that I liked and things that I didn't like from the game. I won't be repetitive. I'll just mention it rather than going into it. The opening drive was number one on my list.

15 plays, 91 yards, great balance, eight throws, seven runs. They were four for four on third down conversions on that drive. I thought the play calling was outstanding. I thought the scheme. I thought the Sims run. You know, I saw a lot of people saying, why do they get all three? tricky with the runs. I don't have any problem with any of this shit. I'm going to be honest with you. The wrinkles in the run game, the screen game, I think you nailed it. I think they know who they are.

I think they know what they're good at. And, you know, I don't give a shit if they're moving the ball and moving the chains with checkdown throws, with wrinkle runs. And some of them have put them into a bind. I understand that. But I, you know, the biggest problem I've had in any of these games, with Scott Turner was last week. I thought last week the run pass imbalance didn't make a lot of sense. And I thought that they could have run it a little bit more, but I did not have a major problem with Scott Turner in this game. The opening drive was brilliant. They got off to a really good start, and as we talked about, they get the turnover and they're up 10-0. Chase Young, for all the reasons you said on the list of things that I liked. Terry McClorn, I don't think he was 100%. And they weren't

going to stretch the field with McLaurin last night. That was very clear. But I thought there were two things about McLaren that I really like. Number one, he does catch everything usually. Number two, he gets open. And number three, he does block, man. He blocks his ass off. Terry McLaren's a complete player, and they needed him last night. And his numbers aren't going to blow anybody away. He had seven catches for 40 yards. His longest catch of the night was 11 yards, and that was from the four-yard line, coolly on the first play after the fourth and goal from the four where the Eagles missed. You know, so much for keeping Alex Smith, you know, pinned. He comes right out and he throws to McLaurin.

They move the sticks on an 11-yard play, and it was a huge play. I thought Cam Sims was open a lot in this game. I think he gets open a lot. I thought he was good. Logan Thomas, for the same reasons mentioned. The front four defensively as a whole, you know, I said on the show, I think Saturday, I think, and I know that I tweeted this out pregame yesterday. Follow me on Twitter at Kevin Gn, D.C. if you want, at Kevin Sheen, D.C. You know, I don't, I am not in the camp of this

defense is elite. This front four is elite at this point. I think the defensive line is really good. I think it's getting better, and I think it has a chance to be elite. But until, you see them dominate a game like last night's game where they understand that their offense is hurting a little bit, they understand that they've got backups that they're playing against on offense, you have to dominate that game. You have to be, you know, Khalil Mack or Von Miller. You know, Sam Mills was quoted, he did a presser the other day, and I don't have all the quotes in front of me, but he was asked about the progress of the defense, and he said, look, you know, Do we have a Nick Bosa on this team? Do we have a Nick Bosa from his rookie? And he essentially said not yet. He acknowledges what Chase Young can become. And I think Chase Young is a monster already. And I think he's going to be one of the two or three best defensive players in the game over a long period of time. But the truth is that this year, the Washington defense is not what the San Francisco defense was last year. Now, the San Francisco defense last year had the benefit of a much more consistent offense.

that ran the football and burn the clock and all of those things. And, you know, Washington's had some of that in the second half of the year as well, possessing the ball, making first downs, keeping the defense fresh as well. But I wanted to see the front four dominate last night and win the game. And they dominated last night. And they nearly had another touchdown, you know, off the, you know, off the fumble with Chase Young picking it up. Chase Young was chasing people down, including Jalen Hertz all night long. I thought pain was good.

I thought Allen seemed to be on the other side of the line of scrimmage a lot. I thought sweat was awesome. And they are two to three pieces away defensively, maybe just two pieces away, defensively from being a top five kind of a defense next year and for years to come. And that excites me. And that should really excite anybody that's still thinking that this organization will never be able find its way out of the mess that it's been in, which may be true, but they do have a huge, huge potential defensively. I thought that Dustin Hopkins was good. I thought that their third

down offense pretty much, well, they went six for their first nine. They had a third down drop. They were not good in the second half, but their third down offense in the first half was exceptional. It was very important that their red zone offense be functional, and it was. They were two for two. Imagine if they come away with, you know, two field goals, you know, instead of two touchdowns there. You're talking about a game that's much different. It's 14-12. They're losing. So their red zone offense was huge in this game as well. On the list of things that I didn't like, you know, I know that Alex's lack of mobility hurt the offense. I understand that. but my feelings still are the same.

I would have never pulled Alex Smith, and if he can be at least what he was last night in the first half, on Saturday night, I would start him. I would not take a chance starting Heineke. They had too many penalties in the first half. You know, the Holcomb penalty on the unnecessary roughness, I've seen less penalized, but still I hated it. I thought the hold was a hold.

Obviously, the turnovers at the end in what was one of the strangest, We don't want it. You don't want it. Who's going to take it? You know, fourth quarters. It weren't good. And the two near turnovers were near disastrous. Again, Sims Jr. back on punt returns. No thank you. On Collinsworth and Michaels, here's my biggest problem with them. I used to think that Michaels was among the best. I'm just not, I think he lost his fastball a while back, and it's just never coming back. I think Torrico and Dungey are going to call the game Saturday night,

and I think Collinsworth and Michaels have the Sunday night NBC game, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. At least I hope that's the case. I know a lot of people aren't big Dungey fans. I'm a huge Tariko fan. They just, they're storytellers during this game. They're, you know, let's talk about Ron Rivera's cancer for 10 minutes. Let's talk about all the problems in the organization for another 10 minutes.

Let's talk about Alex Smith and all of his. stuff for 15 minutes. You know, I know it's a national TV game and Washington hasn't been in that Sunday night spotlight. But this is the season finale with two, with a playoff birth on the line. Let's focus on the game, people. They, I'm going to go through a couple of other things here that one in particular that we haven't talked about at all on a specific play that just was missed, I think, by everybody. But there was the fourth and seven delay of game penalty that Philadelphia took in the, their second drive at the 35-yard line. They chose not to kick a field goal. They have a kicker who has that kind of a leg. There was no wind last

night in the stadium. On fourth and two, I thought that's a spot you go for it. I actually think it was a legitimate delay of game. I don't think they were intentionally taking it. And Alan Chris aren't even picking up on how big of a missed opportunity. Like, they're telling stories. They were in the midst of some story about something. I mean, it may have been Collinsworth going on and on about pro football focus numbers, which just is nauseating at this point. For those of you that don't understand why it's nauseating, he's the majority owner of the company. Like, you know, there's some, I know NBC is contracted with pro football focus and that they're using their numbers in the grades of these players. But the fact that

Collinsworth is the majority owner, and you know it benefits. him every single time he's talking about it. And then you understand what Cooley understands and has taught all of us that, you know, there are very, there are significant inherent flaws in the pro football focus grading system. Look, they've come a long way. Chris has said that in the past. I love my guy Sam Monson, who I have on radio every once in a while and I think I've had on the podcast.

But I don't want to hear it from Collinsworth. I don't want to hear it from the owner, okay? Give the freaking numbers and stop with the. going on and on. And I don't even know what story they were telling in the middle of that delay a game, but shut up and focus on the goddamn game. I mean, they missed the whole game last night. They missed the entire game. I'll tell you what was the biggest miss of the night. Let me get to this. This is sort of in the category of other things that don't fall under the what I liked list or what I didn't like list. First of all, I think Chase Young was off sides on the Cameron Curl interception.

I've watched it 15 times. I think he's in the neutral zone pre-snap. He definitely moved in that direction. Whether he makes it to the neutral zone is certainly debatable. And I don't have a problem that it wasn't called because it was close. They don't even mention it. How can you not go back and say, oh, did Chase Young get away with anything there? But here's the biggest one.

The first play of the second half, the Antonio Gibson run, where the ball is on the ground and it is picked up, and there's a Philadelphia Eagle wearing number 42 who's going in the other direction for a touchdown. Cooley, I have watched that play a hundred times. I don't know what angles Doug Peterson had or what NBC had. They essentially glossed right over this play. This was a massive potential play. in the game. The first play people of the second half, Antonio Gibson is hit in in the pile. The ball is out and it's backwards. If you really

try to sync it up without a lot of camera angles, it's impossible to get a definitive answer. But how do we not see every angle of that play? How do we not see that? He was probably just down by contact. Well, he could have been down by contact. He wasn't. He wasn't. I thought the same thing. It's a touchdown.

I don't know if it's a touchdown or not. What I don't understand is these two dudes are telling stories, and they're missing the damn game. I mean, look, Doug Peterson, if he had had every angle that proved that it was a fumble, I bet he wouldn't have thrown the flag last night anyway. I don't think he would have challenged it. I don't think he wanted any part of a defensive touchdown for the lead. But are you serious that on that play, this ball comes out so quickly.

Was he down? It's possible. But it's not just that it's on the ground. It's on the ground backwards, which meant it had to come out almost instantaneously. Maybe he's down. Maybe he isn't. You've got to tell us what happened. You've got to come back after the next break.

And you've got to say, hey, we missed this earlier. But this was why Doug Peterson didn't challenge it, because you can see from this angle, we did not get one replay of that. Not one. Terrible job by NBC. Terrible job by Collinsworth and Al Michaels, who completely missed it. They completely missed it. The, what else did I have here on my other list? I thought the decision to go for the fourth and one with four, what was it, four something minutes to go. Let me pull it up real quickly. Let me get the hard count. Yeah.

Look, part of why Alex Smith played a good, a game that was acceptable to me is the two drives in the first half and the hard counts. That's a huge hard count. That is a massive play in the game. That is fourth and one with four minutes to go. And you are at the, where was the ball at that point? It was at midfield. It was at the 49-yard line. It's fourth and one at midfield.

I'm sorry, two minutes to go. Why did I say four minutes? Two minutes to go. By the way, not one time out before the two-minute warning from Peterson. He had zero interest in getting the ball back. I'll tell you what, Cooley, I know fourth and inches is a big high probability make there. But given that Nate Sudfeld was coming back into the game, I don't think that there was, I think the chances of them driving 90 yards after a trestway punt to the 10-yard line,

even with two timeouts left at that point, I think are slim and none. I think I would have punted it I was sitting there No they were going for it I'm sorry I don't know that they were going for it You don't know that it wasn't just a hard count play They had a weird shift on Yep you're right

You're 100% right They may not have been going for it It certainly was an outstanding hard count That got the neutral zone infraction And got the first down And then I was just watching to see If Peterson would even use his final timeout So I was curious if he would just let the clock run out

because I think at that point it would have been, in his own mind, almost too obvious. Like, it was already obvious, but maybe he was fooling himself into believing that it wasn't obvious at that point. So he had to call those timeouts, but he knew there was no chance Sudfeld getting the ball back that they were going to be able to score. But on that fourth and inches, look, I was fine with them going forward. But the only chance I thought Philadelphia had was to stop them. and then maybe Boston Scott on a draw play busts one out or a little screen play ends up going the distance

because they weren't, you know, that could happen from midfield that wasn't going to happen from their own 10-yard line. So I didn't, I had sort of an issue with that, and then I thought the fourth and one at the 36 with a minute to go was the right call to punt there. I don't know, maybe that's super conservative, But given what you were facing, a guy that had pretty much zero chance to go 90 yards for a game winning.

And zero. And zero timeouts. Well, they had, if they had punted with the two minute left, I think Philadelphia would have had two timeouts left. But you also basically had a coach that was. Well, after they punted it with the 36 yard line, there was, what, 50-some seconds in the timeouts? Yeah, 50 seconds and no timeouts. But I'm saying even at the two-minute warning, you had a quarterback that couldn't do it, and you had a coach that really was going to try not to allow it.

So I don't think I would have given them the possibility of a short field. But to your point, I don't know that they were going to go for it. It could have been a total hard count strategy the whole way. I think that was all. Oh, I wanted to mention Peyton Barber had a great run in this game. Oh, my gosh. A great one. The third one was a great run.

He's done that multiple times this year. Well, that's why you go forward on fourth and one. I don't think there's been a time that he didn't get a short yardage situation. I think, you know what? I can't remember him missing on a short yardage. I cannot. I don't know if he's missed once on a short yardage. I mean, maybe go way back to week one, two, and three,

but it's been 100%. And that was a heck of a run by Barber to extend the ball. Yeah. And then Collinsworth's going to do is, I don't know. Let's see where that knee was. was on the replay, which I don't know. I don't know if I can take any more of them. I think that they,

Michaels used to be among the best. Collinsworth, I've never really had an issue with him over the years. I think this pro football focus thing has sent me over the top. I mean, it's, he's, he's so knee-deep in the analytics and their numbers and the whole thing. And the two of them, you know, have become, you know, with their winter sweaters on, They've essentially just become, you know, Uncle Tommy storytime tellers. You know, Tom used to do this segment, you know, Uncle Tommy story time. And that's what it is.

I mean, you're hearing stories the whole game. You got a goddamn game going on. And it's a big game, you know. And then, oh, by the way, we had to sit there and listen to them, talk about the giant fans and how this was impacting the giants the whole, you know, after Sutherfeld came in the game. Have you texted Logan Ryan again? Hey, Michelle, what did Logan Ryan say on his text back to you? Jesus Christ.

Look, I give him credit for calling out Peterson. You know, I think that the NFL was embarrassed last night. And clearly, this is something that's going to... The problem is I don't know how you can address it. You know, I don't know how you stop it. Because you can always fake like you are doing your best, which is what Peterson tried to do after the game. But, you know, they did call, they called it out.

You know, this was a, you know, I think at one point, Collinsworth said, I just, I can't imagine as a player being okay with this. And I don't think his player. He also said, like, I'm probably going to get fired for this. No, he wasn't. At one point, he said he's going to get fired for something he was going to say. You know, I hate when. They did say Redskins twice.

I hate when people do that, actually. I hate when people do the old. I might get fired for something. saying this because, I mean, this is really edgy and controversial, and it really isn't, you know? And it's like, okay, dude, you're not going to get fired for saying this. You're going to be called an idiot if you don't address it. Okay? In this particular situation, everybody watching this game is saying to themselves,

oh, my God, their coach is intentionally tanking the game. If you ignored it, you should have been fired. By the way, Peterson's saying after the game, disingenuously, obviously, he's lying that he was still trying to win the game. I think he was. If he was really trying to win the game and he really believed that, I wouldn't want him as my coach. If you can't see what your only chance was during that game and it was your young quarterback who may be your starter next year, number two, who's running around keeping you, keeping you. you guys in this thing. Despite his numbers, the numbers were just,

it just didn't matter in that game. I mean, if you're watching this game, they had one chance. It was Jalen Hertz running around and making a play with his legs. Either as a thrower or a runner, period. Or, of course, our number 11 throwing it or fumbling it away at the end. We're 15 doing the same thing. Or number 15. Yeah, exactly.

Or our number 24, who we made. mentioned probably fumbled. That one, to me, Cooley, I mean, I don't understand. I've got it up here again. I mean, you know, here it is. It's a straight handoff. What's really amazing about the play is how quickly 42 picks up the ball and is running the other way.

Like, if it came out after his knee or elbow hit the ground, it was super close. It had to be. There's no, because he wasn't on the ground. for more than a tenth of a second if he was on the ground. The ball squirted out backwards and 42 picks it up. And these numskulls call him the game, they missed it. They missed it entirely. And that's where I think a producer has to say, hey, we had a fumble on that play.

We got to check, we got to see what happened on that thing. We got to get the other angles. And maybe it's so obvious that his elbow hit the ground and it came out. with his elbow hitting the ground and squirted backwards, but we didn't see it. They never showed it. They were talking, by the way, you know what? Because I'm watching, it was all about Alex Smith.

They had a whole planned segment at the beginning of the third quarter about Alex Smith's first half, and him throwing under two and a half seconds versus longer than two and a half seconds. And you come back and they're, you know, you had the referee announcing down by contact, but you never got a replay. And Doug Peterson, by the way, at that point, I think he was already thinking about Sudfeld and he was disinterested in even – they probably were – hey, coach, coach, we think it might be a fumble.

I can't hear you. I can't hear you. What do you want me to do? Oh, they snapped the ball. We missed the chance. He didn't want any part of a replay. We got the segment planned, so let's not even talk about it. Let's just continue with our plan segment.

give everybody our first blush of the Tampa game, and we'll do a little bit around the NFL from yesterday's action right after this word from one of our sponsors. Kickoff from FedEx Field. Tampa Bay now Cooley, they opened as a seven and a half point favorite. It's up to eight. I see in a lot of spots right now. Eight point favorite. No home field advantage, obviously. I mean, the cold could be somewhat impactful, I guess, for some of the Buccaneers. It's not going to be for Brady. He's played every single playoff game in cold weather during the course of his career. Here's the one thing I would just say about the Buccaneers, and then I'll let you give your first thoughts.

You know, there was this stretch where when they played good defensive teams, they were struggling. The Saints pummeled them. I mean, pummeled them. The Rams beat them. Those are the two best defensive teams they've really played. They played the Bears who were really good defensively, have been. good defensively and they lost that game. They lost to the Saints. They lost to the Rams. The three best defensive teams they have faced this year, they've lost to. In their four-game winning streak,

which they are on right now to end the season, they played the Vikings, a game that the kicker missed four kicks in the game, two PATs and two field goals in the game. That game was much closer. Minnesota moved the football up and down the field, and they couldn't make a kick. I mean, defensively, they were pretty decent, and Minnesota's bad defensive team, pretty decent. But since then, you know, the Falcons, the Lions, and the Falcons that they've rolled up 31, 47, and 44 against in three straight games to finish the year. So the one thing that I would just say is even though a lot of people are back on the Bucks Bandwagon and the possibility of making a deep run into the postseason, they have caught fire here at the end of the year against four. bad defensive teams. Minnesota, Atlanta twice, and Detroit. So I would just keep that in mind. The really good defensive teams they face this year, they have lost to, all of them, the Bears,

the Saints, and the Rams. All the three best defensive teams they face this year, they lost to. So just something to keep in mind. By the way, they lost to the Saints twice, including on opening day. But remember that that Monday night game, I think it was a Monday night game, it may have been a Sunday night game, was one of the worst losses of Brady's career. 38 to 3 through three interceptions in the game. They had five yards rushing or something like that in the game. It was horrendous. New Orleans is really good defensively. I understand that. And they have been all year. But this will be the first good defense they have faced in over a month. So just something to keep in mind.

I think Washington has a chance. My concern, obviously, is if you do not have a quarterback capable of making plays. That would be the concern going into it. Your first blush is what? Well, it's also the first really balanced team they've played in a long time. Because Tampa is, I think, seventh in the league in total yards. Yep. Kev?

Yeah. They're third in the league in points a game. they're averaging 30 points a game. The thing that Washington's really had to their advantage is they haven't played a team that can really score other than Seattle. And Seattle's offense has stunk over the last month. You look through the teams that Washington's played over the last six, seven, eight weeks, and you're looking at teams that can't score.

Carolina's 24th. The Giants are 31st. The Bengals are 29th. you know, the 49ers are 21st. Dallas has scored a little bit, but a lot of that was early. They haven't played anybody that is really dynamic on offense. And right now,

Tampa's got their dudes at receiver. I mean, Antonio Brown had a big game last week. And then you had Mike Evans and... Evans got hurt a little bit. You had... He did get hurt a little bit yesterday. I saw that.

I mean, we'll see, you know. Right. But you add Grunkowski, the other kid camera break can play a little bit at tight end. Goddard is as good as it gets, or Godwin is as good as it gets as a receiver. You know, I like Jones as a back. They have four net. This is a talented offense. And they're figuring it out through the last couple of weeks. And we asked the same question as Washington got through that four or five weeks span where they started to play good football. Does this make a difference when you play good? teams. Well, it did. It turned out it did make a difference because they figured out who they were. I think Tampa maybe figured it out a little bit over the last couple weeks. It's going to be a game. The game to watch if you want to beat Tampa is the Green Bay game. The pressure that Green Bay put on Aaron Rogers or on Tom Brady and how they just turn that thing around defensively. That's to me the game. Wait, which game. No, I'm thinking of. No, no, no, you're thinking of the New Orleans game.

I'm thinking of what they did Aaron Rogers. Yeah. Yeah. They, they're the one team. They're the one team. Right, right, right. Completely bad. Aaron Rogers, yes. It's also a team that I think has a bad matchup for you with so much speed in the middle of the field. The linebackers for Tampa are absolutely incredible. And so I can't remember who it was that matched up with us with really good inside linebacker playing. You're like, this is going to be a struggle because McKissick's not going to get as much room.

You're not going to give as much room for those dumpoffs to your tight ends, those little spot routes inside. like their linebackers can play in Tampa. So they're going to get after you with four men rushes and some pressures and they're going to make it hard to get yards with those dump off throws. You're going to have to find a way to make plays on offense. That's where I'm saying early in this show. My concern is, man, if Alex doesn't get some of those easy throws and those underneath throws and he can't move,

where are they going with the ball? Right. Right. What are they going to do with the ball? And then the flip side is, look they have speed at receiver enough speed that even with good pressure the ball might be out this has really balanced football team they're playing really good football they're going to have to force brady to turn it over they're going to have to get

it done on defense this is where like you said they're not elite they're a top five defense and that defensive line is good enough to keep them a top five defense they're going to have to show something elite and make some place um yeah i didn't say they're top five. I said they can be top five. They are next year. I know they are statistically. Well, they are. They have been. Yeah. Well, I don't view them as a top five. I view them just outside of it and approaching it. I do. And I certainly view the front four as top five. So here's the thing about Todd

Bowles. He is going to scheme up some pressure. He's going to scheme up some pressure. And if he's got to sitting duck quarterback, and that could be Heineke too. I mean, I don't even want to talk about Heineke. I don't know anything about Heineke other than what we saw. I mean, what are we talking about? We're talking about a guy that literally no one wanted, except for the guy that coached him last year for a little bit. That's fine. This is a stay ahead of the chains game offensively. You have to figure out and scheme up ways to get five yards on first down and have third and two and make a couple of plays, you know, have Peyton Barber, Gibson on third and twos, you know, on zone runs. And you've got to stay ahead of the chains. It's so cliche, but it's really, you said, and it's really a good point,

and I think that this is a real compliment to them. They sort of understand what they are, you know, what they have and what they don't have, what their limitations are, and who their best players are. And what they've really done a good job since benching Dwayne Haskins back early October is they've done a good job more often than not of sticking to a formula that says we just got to move the chains. We've got to make first downs. We've got to convert on third downs. We've got to have third downs. We can convert. And we've got to stay ahead of the chains and we got to possess the ball because we keep that defense fresh. It's going to be even better. And they've done that in a lot of their games. I know it's going to be much harder against this team

to do that. But somehow that's going to be the key to the game. is to possess the ball and to convert somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% on third down. And to turn, you know, because it would be great to think that Chase Young could turn this game around. But you know what, Brady's never struggled against edge rushers. It's always the interior pressure that's always gotten to Brady during the course of his career. So Payne and Allen are going to have to have big days. They're going to have to get pressure up the middle. And you're right.

They are balanced. They have the ability to run the football. I bet they try to run the football more than they have in recent weeks. Because that's been the one thing that you could say about Washington's defense that has not been elite. You know, they've not been an elite run-stopping team this year. You know, some of the numbers are skewed because teams didn't try to run it against them. There was a three or four-week period in a row with the Dallas game and the, the, the, um, the, the, the, um, the Pittsburgh game where they didn't even try to run it.

So I just think somehow, some way, when you're playing Tom Brady and Mike Evans and Antonio Brown and Chris Godwin and Cameron Brate and Rob Gruncowski and Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournett, you better end up having the ball for 35 minutes of this game. And you better be, to do that, you're going to have to be better than 50% on third down. and you're going to have to do what you've done best and have it work. And, you know, again, like you could end up with a really good defensive effort against a team that hasn't played a great defense in weeks. So maybe that will be.

Maybe we'll see that Tampa really has just feasted on some bad defensive teams here down the stretch. And it's going to be an eye-opener for them against this team. But I don't know, I think that you get to, you get into this. this thing, especially given that there's no home field, there's no impossible situation, you know, in any of these games. And you've got a player on defense or two that could totally turn the game around with two to three plays in the game. I give them a chance. I give them a chance. I'm not expecting them to win, but it's not going to surprise me if they get blown out.

but my gut is that this is going to be a really competitive game Saturday night. I hope it is. I don't think it is. I think it's a bad matchup for him. But I thought San Francisco would be a bad matchup to some extent. No, not with San Francisco's offense. I thought they'd run it a little bit better. I don't like the matchup.

No. I just don't like the match up, especially with Tampa's defense being so strong, where Washington is also strong. like you talk about their front with jason pierre paul who's been banged up a little bit and golston and domic and sue were then create pressure and then linebackers with absolute speed with lavante david and devon white who's going to be off the covid list he was on the COVID list last week and i just think you know where are they getting yards all right we've got where they're going to find yards we got we got a lot we got a lot of stuff to get into it's way better than talking about

who we're going to sign and who we're going to fire. That's such a good point that you made. It's so much more fun to talk about a relevant football game. And it's the NFL, so everyone's got a chance. Yeah, it's going to be a fun weekend. All right, five minutes on the rest of the league right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, this final segment brought to you by My Bookie. If you're looking for a place to bet these playoff games this weekend,

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All right, real quickly, you know, the Dallas game yesterday, the Cowboy fans have had it with Jason Garrett after one year. What you mean McCarthy? I'm sorry, Mike McCarthy. They had had it with Jason Garrett for many years. The thing that they're really complaining about is that Dallas scored a touchdown with eight and a half minutes to go in the game. in the third quarter, eight and a half minutes to go in the third quarter, they scored a touchdown to make it 20 to 15. And they're all screaming that McCarthy didn't go for two.

Because if he had gone for two, then on the final drive of the game, they would have been down 23 to 20, potentially, with a chance to kick a field goal instead of throwing an interception late on a desperation play. I wouldn't have gone for two that early. I think he made the right call. You know, eight and a half minutes to go in the third quarter, and I'll take 20 to 16 because when they kick a field goal in their next drive, I want to be down seven.

I don't want to be down eight. You know, there are too many possessions. This is what I've said many times about two-point analytics or strategy. I hate analytics. Strategy. I wouldn't think about it in almost 90% of the situations until I got to the fourth quarter. When you have many possessions left in a game, you also have many different scoring opportunities and scoring types. Field goals, touchdowns, touchdowns missed extra points, safeties.

There are lots of ways you take the point in that spot. Now, a lot of people will tell you you go for two on every one of them. You just keep going for two. Well, you know, right now, Dallas in a game where they had only scored 15 points and we're having a difficult time against the Giants, I'm kicking with Zerlind to make it 20 to 16. But anyway, the bottom line is the Giants defensively were good. Daniel Jones was much better yesterday in terms of his movement, healthier. And I actually think that if Washington hadn't won last night, I actually think that Dallas and or New York, but New York primarily because their defense and their ability to run the

ball, would have been a very, you know, interesting matchup for any team they faced as well. Like, I know the NFC East had a terrible year. Okay, and by the way, if the Giants had gotten in, they would have gotten in with a 6 and 10 record. Six and 10. But I found that game and I watched a lot of that game primarily, even though I was going back and forth with Red Zone and even the Ravens Bengals game. I thought that both teams played, I don't think that Washington, the Giants, and the cowboys here at the end of the year are terrible teams.

you know, the division gets painted that way, and it is what it is over the course of 16. But I actually think all three of these teams really improved as the season went on. But anyway, a little bit of a surprise to a lot of people. I think a lot of people thought Dallas was going to roll in this game. They had been rolling. But Daniel Jones looked healthier yesterday, and I thought, you know, I thought he played pretty well. He had two turnovers. That was part of the problem, and that's going to be his problem.

If he doesn't cut that out, he's not going to rise to. to a level much beyond a serviceable starter. But anyway, the Giants won, and they were the team sitting there rooting for Philadelphia on Sunday night. I don't think any of the teams are great football teams. Actually, they're better. The Cowboys would be a different team with Dak Prescott at this point. They figured out of play defense in the back half of the season

a little bit more under Mike Nolan. They're better defense. but without Dak Prescott, I just, I don't see it with Dalton, even with the weapons that they have. That's funny because Dalton wasn't a bad quarterback even up to a year ago in Cincinnati, but no one really thought Dalton was a top 20 quarterback.

Right. The Giants have a chance to be good here in the future, though. I agree with that. I do. Daniel Jones will cut out the turnover thing. I mean, it's just what direction does Daniel Jones go? Because right now he's a guy that can run around, make some plays, make a lot of throws.

Very close to what a guy like Josh Allen was, a year ago, who under Brian Dable and Buffalo, looks like if he's not one or two, he's the third best quarterback in the league right now. That's crazy. He's amazing. If you watch Josh Allen, I called that he was a good quarterback. He's 10 times better than he was when he came into the league. Yeah, but you, with his footwork and his delivery.

You said he was going to be, you said he was going to be a really good quarterback that the accuracy issues weren't going to be an issue for him and that he was going to be a big time playmaker. and you were right. But Daniel Jones can take that step. If he could take a step to be even 80% of what Allen is right now, they will have a shot. They'll get it figured out on defense. And they've done it with clearly not the most talented defense,

been pretty good in New York. Right. They have a shot next year. Dallas will have a shot next year with DAC. But none of these teams, they're New York, the Cowboys, Washington, probably not Super Bowl contend. Washington a little bit different with Alex's Alex from pre-calf injury.

There's a little bit more to them. Well, I think if they went out and ended up batting like a Matt Stafford, you know, and a dynamic receiver in the draft and or a middle linebacker in the draft. Yeah, but I mean, I'm talking about right now. No, no, no, but I'm saying Washington to me, actually, because their defense is a, is a good veteran quarterback, a quarterback answer. away. Now, that's a big if we understand that. I'm not saying it's just easy to go out and get that answer. And by the way, they are also the furthest away without a quarterback. You know, maybe not any further. I think they're all very similar. I think they're all very comparable teams as you

begin next year without, you know, everyone's going to make improvements. So we'll see where they get. All right. Let's get to a couple of the other meaningful games and get out of here for the day. The Rams started John Wolford for golf. a pick on his first play. Through a pick on its first play, but ended up having a very effective day as a runner and a thrower. Kyler-Murray left a game that was devastating to the Cardinals. They came in with Chris Streveller, who was terrible.

And the Rams win it 18 to 7 with a really good defense against a backup quarterback who just wasn't very good. Kyler Murray came back late in the game, but didn't really have the mobility. They had a field goal blocked when they had a chance to get it to 18 to 10, early in the fourth quarter. But I have to ask you, do you think that Sean McVeigh starts John Wolford, even if Goff's ready to go in the playoff game this weekend? No. He doesn't think Wolford's better than Goff. Okay.

No, I think that there's a debate of Goffs at 75% or less. But I think Sean McVeigh probably believes he can run the football and his defense is the best defense in the NFL right now. they play at Seattle, a game they lost two weeks ago, which determines sort of the home field, even though there's really not home field, but allowed Seattle to go on to win the division. If not, the Rams would be sitting there, 11 and 5 as division winners,

and this game would be in their new place in L.A. I actually give the Rams a really decent chance. I just don't like Jared Gough. No, I don't. He was awful in that game against Seattle, but he hurt his thumb early. He broke it early. on his throwing hand.

Yeah. So you had that. I think the Rams are a better team in the playoffs than the Cardinals, though. I'm glad that Los Angeles won that game. I'd rather see the Rams than the Cardinals. I totally agree. And I actually think the Bears are better than the Cardinals, too. So I'm glad they got in because they got in because the Rams won.

I actually, the Bears have to play the Saints. I watched a lot of that Green Bay Chicago game yesterday. You know, they were right there. I mean, they were on the move on a long drive, 21-16. into the fourth quarter. It was the midst of a 15-play drive. They were at the Green Bay 25-yard line, and they tried to convert their third, fourth down of the drive.

And I think it was the right decision to go for it, even though at that point they were in field goal range and could have made it 21-19. The problem was Aaron Rogers is just right now. He can sling it. You think so? The ball comes out of his hand so fast. I mean, he was perfect going into the second half when what?

Valdez-hypened. Scantling dropped the ball deep down the middle of the field that hit him in the chest. That would have probably been enough to touch. Exactly. He was perfect, like a perfect 10 for 10 with three touchdowns, I think, at that point or two of them. And then they dropped a bomb. Cooley, I think they're going to be very difficult to beat. I think they are, but I think the Saints are a pretty good football team right now.

I do too. I think so too. And I think a Tampa rematch with Queen Bay would be very interesting. interesting too. And I think you can run the football against Green Bay. But with that said, the Bears did get in. They got in because down the stretch, you know, they had really good production from Mitch Trubisky, believe it or not, and David Montgomery. And, you know, they have a good defense. It didn't show yesterday. That's for sure. But they've had a good defense down the stretch in these games, and they're in the postseason. And I think, I agree with you.

I think both Chicago and L.A. in there in front of Arizona is better, especially if Kyler Murray isn't healthy. Although I thought Arizona's defense really turned into a really dynamic playmaking defense. Over to the AFC real quickly, I just want to mention Buffalo. You know, this was not a must-win game for Buffalo. The only thing that it determined, was they were the two seed, which means they'll face Pittsburgh in Buffalo, and they are going to get some fans for their two, you know, a playoff game this weekend against Indianapolis, which I think is an interesting game because Indies good defensively. And by the way, I'm glad Indy got in.

And I really loved the Fitzpatrick game from a week ago. But if Tua was going to be the quarterback, I'm glad that Indies in and not Miami. Because I think Indies got a chance to win a game or two. I don't think Miami does. But have you seen, I mean, the numbers that Buffalo has put up here over the last several weeks? This is amazing. I've seen the numbers that they put up. I've watched Josh Allen play.

He's his footwork and decision making, you watch him move in the pocket. He is highly confident right now as a passer. He is really, really good, Kevin. I mean, Buffalo is really good, but Josh Allen over this season has become elite. He's playing at elite level at quarterback. Let me just make sure everybody understands what Buffalo is right now. They are a team that has won six games in a row. In those six games, none of them have been by less than double digits.

They have scored 56, 38, and 48 in their last three. games. By the way, against three good, very good defensive teams. Forty-eight-19 over Denver, 38 to 9 over New England, and 56 to 26 in a game they didn't even need to play anybody in against Miami to eliminate the Dolphins. Now, the Dolphins could have gotten back in had Indy lost to Jacksonville. They lost in the midst of this six-game winning streak. It's really nine out of the last 10, and the one they didn't win was the Kyler Murray to DeAndre Hopkins' Hail Mary game. Okay? The game that they lost before that was to Kansas City. Remember on that Monday afternoon, they played it at like 4 o'clock because of the COVID issues. It got postponed. And that was a weird game in the rain.

And Kansas City won that game. Buffalo right now in the AFC, which is going to be a fascinating playoff situation. But Buffalo is the clear-cut contender, or the team that can beat Kansas City. And I don't know, I mean, I don't think Pittsburgh can beat Buffalo. I don't, as much as I'd like, who can. Who can? Indy. Well, that's who they play this weekend. You think Indy can? I think they can. Do you see what this kid Taylor's? Do Jonathan Taylor's amazing? 252 yards yesterday. That was Jacksonville who's completely done. Yeah.

But Taylor's, they've really started to run it with Taylor, and he's good. I loved him. They can run it, and then, of course, Derek Henry had 240-something yards yesterday as well. That was cool. What? Good for him. He had a fumble late in that ballgame, and Houston came rolling back. It didn't, it mattered for Tennessee because they had to win it to win the division,

but they were in the playoffs going into that game. What's interesting is the difference is, you know, they get to play. in Nashville against Baltimore, or they would have gone on the road to play Buffalo. I don't know. The way Baltimore is running it right now. I mean, to me, the big, look, Tennessee, because they can run it,

and by the way, what a great throw by Tanna Hill to A.J. Brown at the end to get to how do you give that up? Oh, my God, but what a great throw. Yeah, that was the throw of the year. The AFC, I mean, you know what? It's weird. I'm going to say this. I know that I've been saying Kansas City's been bored and that, you know, they're just waiting for the playoffs.

I don't know if they're as good as Buffalo right now. I don't know. They're definitely not playing with the enthusiasm that Buffalo is playing with, but they get the week off and you have Mahomes and you have a good defense. Kansas City wouldn't surprise me to roll to the Super Bowl. But I'm with you. I think they can be beat. Yeah. Well, anyway, what else?

Are we missing anything else from the NFL yesterday? Key games? I mean, not really. No. There was one, one an easy one. Baltimore won an easy one. Yeah. I mean.

The Titans, Texans came to end the season or end that four o'clock window, along with Denver and the Raiders, and I was interested. because I had Denver plus the three. And the Raiders scored and then went for two. I knew he would go for two there, which is what I needed to happen. Yeah. Rather than go to overtime. That would have been bad for you.

I think the Packers right now in the NFC, look, I think the Saints are better defensively. I just don't see anybody playing at Aaron Rogers level right now, other than Josh Allen. I mean, seriously, it's John. The Holmes is. He hasn't recently. He's just that good. I know he's that good. I get it.

God, is Aaron Rogers wrapped up, I think, the MVP. You just don't, well, you don't like the Saints for some reason? No, I didn't early in the season. I'm totally with you. I think in the NFC, they're the best defensive team. I think they're, I think the Rams are the best defensive team. I think the Rams are close. I think I'll take the Saints defense right now.

And then Washington, Tampa are both really good. Yep. Yeah, Chicago is very good defensively, too. Chicago's another really good defense. Yeah. It'll be a fun weekend. It will be. We'll have plenty of time to talk about it. All right.

Have a great day. Everybody, thanks for listening. Back tomorrow with some film breakdown of the Philadelphia game for the offense. Tommy will be with us, too, to start the show. Enjoy the day.