The Kevin Sheehan Show - Dwayne Done

Episode Date: December 28, 2020

Cooley and Kevin with their complete Washington-Carolina recap plus a ton on what was very likely Dwayne Haskins' final performance as a Washington quarterback. The boys gave their first thoughts on the Philly game and discussed the other NFL games from the weekend as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Askins now four of eight. Sells the fake. Pass some time and it's intercepted at the 45-yard line by Whitehead.

37 passing yards in the first half for Haskins. Got a five seconds left. Askins kicked off for the second time. He signed up for this job. that's what it is. Sometimes being human isn't enough. So just kind of own up to your responsibilities and your mistakes and then be a better person moving forward

and let's your best foot forward and pray for another opportunity when you have it to seize it and make the most of it. That was a horrendous outing from Dwayne Haskins and pretty much barring like the absolute unforeseen in terms of injuries this week, his last appearance in a Washington uniform. Coolie's here. I'm here.

It's the Monday after the Carolina Loss podcast. Happy holidays to everybody and early happy New Year. Hopefully you had a great Christmas. How was your Christmas, Coolly, with all the kids and out in Wyoming? Did you have a white Christmas? Did it snow out there? No, I had a beautiful Christmas. Oh, good.

45 degrees yesterday. I went fishing. Well, that wasn't Christmas yesterday. What was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? was Christmas was the same. It was 40 degrees. Awesome. Yeah, it was nice. It's been nice here. Oh, good. How was it? Seriously. I mean, it can be hectic with two young kids. I mean, seriously, it is, it's amazing, but it's also hectic at the same time. We actually joked about having it did 10 days at Christmas or almost a Hanukkahid type unwrapping 12 days. 12 days, yeah. Because you just, you just, you just. just it's a day of spent putting together and teaching how to use toys and going through things.

But it was fun. Right. Hanukkah would be eight days. Christmas, the 12 days of Christmas would be. We were talking about doing like the eight days of Christmas or the sick days of Christmas. Right. Our own version of it, I guess, is what I'm saying. Well, I'm glad it went well.

Did you put together any big things? Like, you know, was it, was it a dad working? late into the Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning hours working on putting together a train set for your son. Did you have anything you had to put together? No, no train sets. We had to figure out what are those little scooters that kids drive around on? They stand on. The razor scooters? Yeah, no, they're not razor scooters. The segways. We got a segue for my daughter. She's amazing at it. I can't even ride it and she can ride. She's great in an hour. They look kind of fun. But then there's a car that attaches to the Segway too. So we had to figure out the car and the thing.

Little side car. We actually botched it because, yeah, the side car that you hooked the Segway to, but we bought those on Prime Day, which is October. And we didn't know that the Segway car didn't come with actual wheels and a motor. So Santa forgot because that was Santa's president. So Santa forgot that they needed two Segway cars. But the Segway's fucking expensive. It's like 600 bucks for, or 800 bucks for that Segway piece that runs. Right.

So, I don't know. We'll see. It was good. It was Christmas. It was fun. Yeah. Ours was fine. I mean, I have older people in the home. There were a lot of gifts. It seemed to go on forever. There's not this intense desire to open up everything in five minutes. There is now, when you have older people in the home, this desire to sort of let it play out and enjoy it and have it last far too long. I love that. I love it, Kara. Thank you. Thoughtful.

Thoughtful gift. But it was, but I, I can't sit there for, you know, it's like I, I've, when we go to the beach, I can't sit on the beach for more than a couple, you know, more than an hour. I got to, I got to be doing something. So I got up and I started to make breakfast. And then when that, when that was over and gifts were still being opened up, I said, what about lunch? I can make some lunch.

I just wanted to do something other than just. sit there and relax, which should be one of the things that we enjoy doing these days. But anyway, I hope everybody had a great holiday, and I'm glad you guys did as well. Let's get to this game. You know, many disagreed with me, and I think you on Ron Rivera's decision to lightly punish Haskins last week and wanted him released or, you know, they wanted him benched. I was okay. I just essentially said, I'll defer to Ron Rivera. He knows his team. He knows what Taylor Heineke and the other guy are. And, you know, there can be some pragmatic patience. The culture statement doesn't have to come today. It can come in a month. That's my feeling. That's even my feeling today.

But with respect to Dwayne being ready to play this game, for those of you that said, you know, I don't want him to play. He should be benched based on a culture statement. Or even if you had gone a step further and said, and some of you did, after the week he's had, how well is he going to play anyway? Well, you were right. He was clearly impacted by the week that was. He looked god-awful. He looked unprepared. He looked unwilling. He almost looked coolly to me, disinterested, and almost the guy that wished he had been disciplined harder so that he didn't have to play in this game. was a god-awful performance and his last one in a Washington uniform, unless somehow Taylor

Heineke comes down with COVID and Alex can't play. I think that that last fourth and two sack where Cam Sims was sitting there wide open with a sign that said, I'm wide open. I'm right here. I think that that was the one that really got to Rivera and to Scott Turner and said, we've seen enough and I think that that was the last play of Dwayne Haskins in a Washington uniform. Oh, that was just so bad. That was so bad from top to bottom. I don't know if I agree with the punishment on Haskins. I hadn't, remember when you and I had done the last podcast, the punishment hadn't been doled out yet.

We knew that it was going to come later in that day. I did think maybe if it was your best option to win a game, then you should play Dwayne. And so I guess to some extent, I do agree. $40,000 is not very much of a fine for what seems to be conduct detrimental to your team. $40,000 is weak. Strip of captaincy probably bothers him. But again, weak. I don't know how much you can fine him for that.

The NFL is probably going to find him as well. That said, defer to run Rivera. You got to know your guys. You got to know your team best to wing. based off his performance last week where both you and I graded him as a B and I thought he played pretty well although I do think he felt his way through that game

he maybe think he's given you the best chance to win but also knowing that there's some mental there's some mental there to him maybe it's not the best situation for him to play Heineckee, here's my problem okay let's just look you should have played Heineke way earlier when should he have benched Dwayne?

The way Duane was playing, I think after that second pick, even though he was trying to force the ball down the field to make a play, that's when he should have been done. Because he was forcing the ball into something that he did not see at all. Both his picks were. He was stuck on one read and one dude. And if that wasn't it, he was done. He was going to pivot and run left. Run left. Keep running to the left.

I parted him right ten times in that game, just to force him to go to his right. right. He had no second thought, no second idea, no idea what Carolina's defense was doing. I noted early in the game that Duane has to feel his way through games, which means he's not prepared coming into games. Now, again, there are a lot of things that go into that. Sometimes you don't know exactly how to prepare his young player. But it means he's not prepared. So he feels his way through games as he starts to fill defense in the way they're playing him, instead of having any anticipation for what is going to happen early in ballgame.

He was trying to fill his way through this game. So to Rivera's credit, last week he felt his way through the first half and then turned it around late in the first half into the third quarter and then had a pretty good fourth quarter. I think Bron was probably hoping that he would find his way through this game and give him an opportunity into the fourth quarter. And as soon as he didn't, he did make that move. Duane wasn't ready to play, though, is the biggest problem. I don't know if he looked disinterested. I just think he looked in awe of what was happening. Like he had no clue and that he had something else on his mind.

So maybe there was disinterest, but it wasn't because he didn't like football. It's because he just had something else going on. You agree with the overarching discussion as it relates to him that that was it for him in Washington. That that final fourth and two was where he took the sack and he didn't throw it to the wide open Cam Sims, that we will not see him ever again in a Washington uniform. Totally agree. But don't you feel like that gives you closure? maybe they still have a chance to make the playoffs.

Maybe they still make a run in the playoffs when Alex Smith, the savior, comes back. But my gosh, if that didn't give you enough closure to move on and say, yeah, the way it isn't going to grow here. We do not have to continue this game of, you got to give this young kid time. No, nobody feels that way anymore. Nobody does. But that was closure.

That was pure closure. Had it been last week? and then cut him. You still would have been left with that taste of live arm, make some plays when he has to make some plays, can feel his way through a game. If he gets more time, could he figure it out? No.

All of that was played out in this Carolina game as, bye-bye. See you later. We are now all dumber for having watched that performance. To quote Billy Madison. in some extent. All right, we'll get to more on Dwayne Haskins. I mean, he's going to lead my game takes list of things I didn't like.

And I think, are we calling it Chris's take on the game? Is that what we decided to do last week? And we're going to call it my thing. Let me say my thing. My son started saying that anytime he gets cut off or anytime he wants to say something, and I like it. So it's going to be my thing. Let me say my thing.

You know, let me say my thing. That's better than what do you got. That's like, hey, let me say my thing. I like that. So when we get to Chris's, let me say my thing. You'll probably focus on Dwayne as well. But, you know, the bottom line is, and look, those that are listening saying, Sheehan, I mean, did you forget your position?

No, I haven't forgotten my position. My position was, you know, from the draft, I didn't want them. And then when I saw them, there was something there that I liked and I wanted to see more of. I completely admit that I wanted to see in August and September 16 games of Dwayne Haskins. I also wanted Ron Rivera to take over this team. And if he didn't want Dwayne and if he didn't see it in Dwayne, I wanted him to make the call on Dwayne, which he did. So I was certainly deferring to Rivera, but I thought coming into this season, look, it's not going to be a playoff season. And at the end of this season, we need to see a couple of things.

We need to see that they made the right call on Rivera. We need to see the defense really take a step forward with that young talent. And we need to know definitively at the end of the year, one way or the other, if Dwayne Haskins is worth it or not. Well, we know for sure that he's not. And by the way, I think we have a good idea that the coach was a pretty good decision and that the team's young defensive talent, when coached properly and gets the addition of Chase Young can be something that.

that we can really look forward to in the future. But we have resolution on Haskins. And we have resolution on Haskins, not because Haskins doesn't have some talent. He does. But it's because he's a child. He's a toddler. And this has been the running theme with him going back now to the old group.

And you have to be more than just a guy with a strong arm and a quick release. And maybe, you know, the ability to make some plays. You've got to be grown up in this league. This is a guy who identifies with a Disney character. This was his next to last chance yesterday. He will get one more chance. There will be a team, a coach or a GM who liked him coming out of Ohio State, that will give Dwayne a chance.

And if he doesn't grow up, if he doesn't become an almost transform into a professional, then he'll be out of this league a year from now. Mark my words. If he does not... You didn't think it was really professional that on 4th and 18 he went out on the field that dapp up Heineke?

Yeah, what was that about? Come on. Seriously. I know. They stripped me of captain, but I'm still a captain to these guys. I'm going to go out there and tell him, good job.

Actually, I need to go out there and tell him right now, hey, I've already had this quiz, Heineke. The answer to this quiz is not throwing it underneath or taking a sack. You need to throw it.

to throw this one down field. That's what coach wants. I've had this quiz. I've taken this quiz before. I got the quiz early in the year, and I failed the quiz. It was a pop quiz, and I wasn't prepared for it. It was a pop quiz. I can expect this at all. Right. You probably do expect you're going to go for it here, but the thing you need to do is you need to get the first down or score here. Oh, my God. You know what, though, Cooley, seriously. We can both stop explaining. our feelings on wanting to see more on Duane. Oh, I don't want to see anymore. Somebody in the first round that you don't,

but you don't draft somebody in the first round that you, you maybe want to see more of. You draft that player in the second or third round, and then you give him a little time to develop. That's what you and I both suggest it. You don't draft a player in the first round. Now, once you did draft him in the first round, and he's showing a couple signs of things,

he's on your team. There's good reason to see more then. We did want to see more, because Washington blew a first round pick on Haskins. Blew it. Dan blew it. You tried to tell him. You tried to tell them.

He took a risk. I texted people and told people in the organization, do not do this. Do not take him. Sorry. I did. And I didn't say don't take him ever because I didn't know who he was as a person. I actually enjoy Dwayne as a person.

I know. You said he was a nice kid. I didn't know some of those things. I didn't know some of those things that we're starting to see now. All I could see is play on the field, but you could see play on the field diminish in certain games at Ohio State. Yep. When things weren't gotten well. Yeah.

Michigan State. The Penn State game. Yeah. So what was that. You know, it's, I'm glad you brought this up now. We're going to get to, you know, your let me say something. Let me say a thing. Let me say my thing.

Just let me say. Don't worry about mine. Don't worry about it. My thing. We're kidding to what we thought. But I want to get, I want to get to this because this is really, this is the most important takeaway from all this. The owner has single-handedly wrecked this franchise for 21 years.

And even though we both know and others out there know and some aren't sure that he took a big step back, you know, over the last decade with Bruce in the organization and maybe he's taking a big step back with Ron in the organization now, the boss. bottom line is, is that he intruded enough to fuck things up. You know, whether it was RG3 or whether it was on draft night 2019 when he wanted to pick a guy against the judgment of his football people because that guy went to his son's high school. You know, nobody in the...

It was McNabb in Mike Shanahan's first year. Nobody in the room wanted Dwayne Haskins at that spot except for Snyder. Haskins, look, he came into an impossible situation. which wasn't his fault and was unfortunate. There's no doubt about that. But what made it even more difficult is that he wasn't built to overcome it. He wasn't mature. He lacks self-awareness.

He doesn't have the kind of work ethic necessary to grow from a guy who's got talent but only played one college season at Ohio State. And what bothered the football people was some of that stuff. And that's the stuff that the dumb, dumb owner never considers. Because, and I mentioned this on radio, he's got a jock-sniffing brain that sees a star and maybe even a new buddy at 21 years old. I mean, this guy is a total hack of an owner. You know, the kid had talent, but he's a toddler and lacked any coolly, any of the positive intangibles that are needed to overcome a situation that was difficult to begin with. You know, it started with the league done messed up, the draft night party charging people

40 bucks to get in, the selfies when he should have been on the field at the end of the Detroit game, the thing that you know drives me crazy, the taking of Joe Thysman's protected number seven when the owner basically put it back on Joe disgracefully. What a fucking disgrace to put it back on Joe and put him into that situation of having to say No, Joe wouldn't do that, and he was put into a no-win situation. The owner knew it. The owner's a child, and he wanted Dwayne a child to get what he wanted, which was Joe's number seven, and he got it.

You know, Jason Lock and Four is pre-Sunday 1 o'clock games story yesterday on CBSSports.com basically said Haskins is out, but he also implied in that story that Ron didn't like him to begin with. You know, he said that Ron was not optimistic about Dwayne when he got. got here. And that was my position when he benched him after four games. It was like, look, this was totally unnecessary. You knew it when you put him out there. You know, who cares what people in dopes like me want, you know, to see Dwayne for 16? You didn't think he had it. And yet he was out there for the first four. Why? Well, I think we know the answer. The owner said,

give him a chance. You're going to love him. And, you know, Rivera was not very optimistic about it. So it was a sham to begin with, and he had to come back to him because of injuries because his preferred quarterbacks, Kyle Allen and Alex Smith, got hurt. Well, he's not coming back to him again. And he's got to understand Rivera does that the root cause of the problem that he inherited is Mr. Snyder, as he refers to him. Mr. Snyder fucks everything up and has for 21 years. God help us with whatever's going on with the minority owners and the league investigation, because God, do we need a new owner?

It's our only savior. I'm going to read this because I saved this from Barry's Verluga's column from the other day, because I thought it was such an apropos line. I thought he nailed it here. He was writing not about the team or Dwayne, but about the situation involving the minority owners and this story in the post last week revealing that he had this encounter on his private plane. coming back from Las Vegas. Barry wrote, What a franchise.

When you root for sports teams, whether it's by birth or by choice, you bring a desire for everyone involved, the players, the coaches, even the owner, to be upstanding, hardworking, trustworthy people. Maybe that's unreasonable. It's certainly unrealistic. But with Snyder in charge, fans of the Washington football team can never fully embrace the organization as a whole because the leadership is so. so ruinous and something always lurks around the corner.

That's what we're dealing with here. And it's so much fun to live in the moment and dissect these games and talk about the games and should they have gone for the fourth and two or should they have started, you know, Taylor Heineke instead. But what works around the corner is this ruinous owner that will, that fucked up the best of resumeed coaches that have been here. And it's what, you know, Tommy always says, the aura of dysfunction. It will never be eradicated until he is out as owner. It's not going to stop us from talking about these games and analyzing these games and having, you know, a fun time, but we have

to recognize that Ron Rivera, I think, is a good man and a good coach. But why, Tommy believes that, and I don't believe this, I do not believe that Dan basically told Ronnie can't cut Dwayne last week. I think Ron legitimately thought, we got a chance to win this game. I can cut him when the season's over, but I'm going to, you know, I'm going to exert some pragmatic patience here and give ourselves and the other 52 players in this locker room a chance to get to the postseason. And he thought Dwayne gave him the best chance this week if Alex couldn't play. And, you know, but whatever. The point is that all of this goes back to the owner. and what he did on draft night 2019,

and what he did with McNabb, and what he did with RG3, and what he always does, he screws it all up. And as long as he's lurking around the corner, I don't know if this franchise will ever, ever sort of get to the point where we can consider them to be a winner. I just don't think it'll ever happen.

Now, you know, they can win on Sunday night and be in the playoffs. You know, that's the update for those. of you, you know, unfamiliar with what this situation is, it's really simple. If they beat Philly, they're in. Period. If they lose, they're out. And the winner of the Giants Cowboys game is in. The game for those of you that didn't know or don't know has been flexed to the Sunday night season finale. They've played in that, you know, they played that in 2012 at the end of the year. You were in that game or you were certainly in the stadium the night that you guys beat the Cowboys, 28 to 18, Alfred Morris rushed for 200 yards. That was the Sunday

night season finale. This game gets flexed. We'll know, you know, going into that game, what we know tonight, which is when you're in, lose you're out. I think personally, you know, I did not think they were going to beat Carolina. I had Carolina in the smell test. I picked Carolina to win the game. I actually think if Alex Smith is back and healthy, I actually think Washington will win at Philadelphia. If he's not, I have no idea what will happen, but I guarantee you that it'll be Taylor Heinekees starting, not Dwayne Haskins. Anyway, I wanted to get that off my chest because you mentioned the owner, and I just thought it was the right time to bring that up.

We can sit here and do what we do every single podcast, every single radio show after every game and during the season and during the off season. But as long as he's lurking, as Barry's Verluga writes, this is what you're going to end up with. You know, you're going to end up with a guy that went to high school with his son, who he saw as a buddy and a star, but doesn't know one goddamn thing about what kind of person or makeup is required to be a good starting quarterback in the NFL. It's always going to be a possibility, even if things get going in the right direction, that it will get messed up, period.

The other side of it is you have a group of football people that you've hired that run your organization. And then you have outside influence. that you trust more than your group of football people that you've hired. Because nobody wanted Dwayne with his group of football people. So outside influences told him to wane your guy. Yeah. It's always been about that. It's always been about some form of hype or some form of outside influence

affecting the team that he's put together to make the decisions. Now, every once in a while, there are people within his group that have been part of the outside influence world. But not this time. There was anybody in that draft room that said, Dwayne, it's got to be right here. Take him now. Nobody. Since you admitted it, can I just, you know, for the record here, say, because I knew this

to be the case, that you were among those influences that said you're making a mistake, picking this person at this level. I know, I know. But you had a voice and you had access. And you said this is way too high for this player, way too high. I don't know if I personally told the owner. Well, I know you told other people. I told a lot of other people.

But a lot of other people agreed with me. So it didn't matter. Okay. Let's get to our game take and Chris's Let Me Save My Thing right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right. Chris will go first with his Let Me Say My Thing. and then I'll get to my game take. Go. Let me say my thing.

All right. Here's what I like from the game. Our early defense, Dron Payne, Allen, they get pressure, they get a sack, they get them off the field on a fourth and five situation. I thought Derby was good on the next two third down possessions

within breaking routes. Their kicker missed a PAT. That was nice to see. Our kicker actually made a kick, a 48-yarder. That was nice to see. That was nice to see. Chase Young was good in this game.

He was. Chase Young was really good in this game. Had the sack fumble, had the tip ball that ended up getting picked by camera curl. He was good. I thought Heineke was good late in this game. I did. I thought he came in and he was accurate and he was smart with the football. He's got a ball dropped down the field on a dig by Gandy Golden.

He had another ball dropped by Cam Sims that would have put him down to the two-yard line on a big-time throw. I thought he made some – I thought the throw that there was a holding call on swighting. or down there to make it, what, third and 18 instead of third and eight that he completed. There was a touchdown pass. That was a, I mean, that was a big time throw. That was the biggest acting job of all time by Zach Kerr. He is, like, immediately starts throwing his hands up.

There was no hold on that play. I'm going to watch it on film, but there was no hold on that play. That was good, man. He converted on Fortune 3 to Cam Sims. I thought Heineke should have went in earlier. In hindsight, in knowing Duane, I would have played and I think towards the end of our podcast early in this week I said I would have I would just I would just move on And in that in that case they could have got Heineckee ready to play

I don't know if you said that I think I changed and you do you actually said is this is this your new postulate? No I don't know if I said postulate but posth And I said no this is this you said is this your new position I said I don't I don't know because we talked through it I just felt like what did I say? I think I do remember something where you changed your mind and I said, so is this your position now?

And you're like, yeah. So I can't remember what it was because I'll tell you what. The last time you were on with me seems like it was three months ago at this point with all the holidays in between. It does seem like forever ago. But there wasn't a ton to like in this game. I thought the defense was actually okay after they gave up a couple drives. I thought the defense was good enough again. second half defense is unbelievable

Washington's second half defense is legit good they're legit good did it really look like Carolina was trying super hard to really be aggressive and with a 20 to 3 lead to 20 to 6 lead I thought that they took their foot off the pedal a little bit but but go ahead

I like at one point that Brandon Godin said this Washington team's just not built to come back and I'm like every game they've had this season they've came back in Right. Literally, every single game they've had, they've come back here. That's right.

Okay. Really smart call there, buddy. Who's the other guy with God and Charles? I don't know. Who's the play-by-play? Or who's the color? I don't know who was doing the game yesterday. They do Madden.

I don't know. I don't know who was doing the game. Was Kenny Albert doing the game? No. It's Brandon and. Whatever. I don't even know who's calling me. I loved that he says, you know, I think he even said,

like I've been trying to get through to Dwayne. Just if you don't see it, just take off. And then he pulls up the fourth and four play or the fourth down play where he misses Cam Sims. He's like, see, here he's got a running lane. He's just got to take off. And you're like, no, no, no. He just got to throw it to a fucking wide open receiver

standing right in front of his face. Right. Oh, that's right. On that fourth and two, he totally missed the Cam Sims was wide open. And then he scrambled. Like, he did try to run. And he scrambled. He scrambled in his direction and still didn't see him.

Oh, God. My God, blinders. All right. Yes. Was it Iron Eagle and Charles Davis doing the game? Yeah, maybe it was I. Charles Davis. Yeah.

Charles Davis. Here's the negative from the game. Let me say my thing about the negative. Their first half offense is so bad, so unbelievably bad. I think they've scored 40 points all year in the first quarter. If that, they stink. Yeah, they're not good in first time. I don't know what it is.

There's no plan that really gets going early. Although there were some things they did on that first drive. The first drive, they had a couple things going. Their turnovers are horrendous, especially with Dwayne in the game. They have 25 turnovers this season. It's a boatload of turnovers on offense. Mm-hmm. 25, dude.

I think that's fifth in the league. When giveaways, it is? Yeah. I'm going to look it up real quickly. And giveaways, they are fifth in the league with 25 giveaways. Yeah, they are, that's correct. Only the Broncos, Niners, and Eagles have given it away more. Yep.

So the Eagles give it away a lot, too, which is, we'll get to that. But Jalen Hertz is a guy that definitely likes to keep up. both teams in the game at the same time. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And Carson once is also that guy. Oh, and like, I thought Gibson was good. And this gets me to, I'm just, if you're getting yards on first and second down,

just keep running it. Yeah. Just keep running it. Yep. And I think Ron was asked about it in his press conference, and he said not necessarily, and I understand the ideal of balance. but when your quarterback can't throw the ball

and he is really struggling fuck especially as you get towards midfield just say we're going to go for it on fourth down and if it's third and six we're going to run it again and we're going to plan if we get three yards we're going to run it on fourth down yeah you run the ball Carolina plays a three down front

they play that college three three five front where they bring a linebacker up to the line of scrimage it and I think it's Shaq Thompson most of the time where essentially they'll play him as what looks like a down lineman, but it's like a three, four with, but it's a three-three. Right. I mean, just keep running the football. Gibson average six yards of carry.

The game started to get away from a 20 to three, but in the first half, there should have been no second down throws. I have a lot on this one. I don't know. That was a game take. That's just, I thought McKissick was okay again in this game. I thought Logan Thomas was okay. again in this game. McKick,

McKistic had 77 yards receiving. Duane, look, we can go through all the throws, all the things, whatever you want to do. But here's the ultimate thought is he has to feel his way through a game.

He gets better progressively as games goes on. And I think the thought process is, man, once he says, F it, and we get into the second half, and he starts slinging a little bit, then he starts to gain some confidence.

I don't believe that. I think he is a fairly quick learner. But I don't think he goes into games, understanding what anybody's trying to do against him, what coverage is he seeing, how he's seen those coverages, what underneath defenders who are going to do, has no idea how to manipulate coverage. Okay, none. He's going to look at number one, and he's going to throw it to number one. And you know what, Kev, there are a lot of times that he's guessing,

and his arm's strong enough that when he guesses right, he's going to make the right throws. He can even be a little bit late, staying with. with his number one because he's going to make throws that get to them. Right. But right now, he does not even have an idea of how to look off underneath coverage. No clue. Those three or four or at times five underneath defenders doesn't give a shit or have a thought of what they're doing. He's looking at the top shell, the safeties and corners, and that's where he's, that's where he's ended with his process.

What's the top shell coverage look like? Okay. but the idea of how to manipulate some of the underneath players look to the flat to throw to the middle of the field look to the middle of the field to throw it back outside that is non-existent for him non-existent the sack fumble sucked for them that was a drive where they had something going a little bit early

I do think it was a fumble I do too I was fine with the call I'm with you knocked loose of his hand he never really regained possession and then he pushed a fumble forward I agree It's exactly the way I saw that. Let me just say this. If it had been called incomplete on the field, I don't think they could have overturned it. But once they called it a fumble on the field, I thought it was going to be difficult to overturn it because that ball got knocked out of his hand or got knocked loose in his hand before that hand came forward.

I agree with you. I actually think if they would have called it in an incompletion, Carolina would have challenged it. It would have been overturned to a fumble because I think it was a fumble. I don't think that, but go ahead. But I thought it was going to be a very different... It was loose in his hand, and then he pushed it forward. He never grasped it again with his hand to throw it. He pushed a fumble forward.

That's what I think as well, but I think that that wouldn't have been overturned had it been called incomplete to a fumble. But anyway, we can agree to... I didn't like that they didn't challenge the Moreland interception on the second drive. It hit the ground. I couldn't see it. I saw it. trust me on it.

Did he truly hit the ground? God, my brother who is watching from far away distant lands is emailing me. That's a moral interception. I'm like, no. He's like, I'm like, what are you watching it on? He goes, oh, well, yeah, it hit the ground. There was definitely. He had control of the ball?

Well, it wouldn't have been overturned. I'm telling you right now, the ball hit the ground. He never had possession of the ball. Okay. It looked like he did to me. Well, you'll see it on the NFL game. pass. There was one last replay where you saw it hit the ground. I saw that the ball grazed the ground, but I thought he had possession at that point. I'll take your word for it. Stephen Sims finally did it,

Kevin. He finally did it. You keep talking about it and you talked him into it. He botched a punt. He stinks. Right to his hands. What a disappointment. Maybe the biggest disappointment of the year. Maybe. Certainly one of them. He's up there. There's a third and one strength. play that they didn't get that I wanted to see. The TV copy did a terrible job of showing the little trick play that they had on 3rd and 1. You mean the Logan Thomas? It was a wildcat snap, and he kept it.

They got to the play late. No, he was in shotgun. I rewound it twice. I couldn't really see. You're right. They got to the play late after the snap, but you could see, I went back almost to the frame in which they switched the. the shot and he had taken a shotgun snap because I wasn't sure either. Yeah, that was interesting.

Yeah. The first Wayne pick, obviously, he just doesn't feel underneath coverage. That's the linebacker staring it down the entire time. He's staring it down the entire time, which means he has no clue and no idea where the linebacker's coming from. That ball was picked and he probably went, huh, wonder where he came from. God damn, I didn't see him. It really did look like, you know, that underneath zone. guy where the inexperienced quarterback is like, hmm, where did he come from? I mean, seriously, if you're playing Duane, you're going to play zone coverage and your first coaching point is wherever he looks, he's throwing the ball. Go there. He looks at it, run to it.

There's a third and 16 late in the second quarter. Can anyone cover Curtis Samuel? He's good, Coley. He is good, but it's third and 16 and he's in the middle of the field right open. I mean, that's good, but that's stupid too. I like him a lot. I like DJ more a lot. I like their team. I've told you this all year long. I think they're going to be a good team next year.

There are seven of eight games by less than a touchdown. I know. There was a drop by Cam Sims at the end of the half that would have been the third down conversion. No doubt. That was a drop. That was brutal. Yeah. There was a third down checked out.

to Rodney Smith right there right before the young interception that I liked. But that was a checkdown play to Rodney Smith. You're like, God, I mean, the Curtis Samuel run where nobody could get him down was brutal. The fourth down goal, they run it in. Like, you're really going to run it in on us on fourth and yard and a half? This is why I'm a little bit surprised that you're being impressed with the defense. Still, it was 20 points. They had a 10 play, 80 yards.

It was actually 14. points the defense gave up. What have I... I understand that. Here's what I will tell you. If I'm coaching a football game, I'm the head coach, pregame, you say, Cooley, your defense is going to allow 14 points today. I'd say we got a 95% chance of winning with Delane as quarterback.

No, I would say that it was 50-50. I would say you're going to have to hold this to 10. But I guess... You told me right now, they're going to score 14 points. Keep out of the conversation. that Sims is going to botch a punt and that they're going to run it in to get another six.

14, I'm going to say, we're going to pound the football all day. We're a pound the football. I agree with you that second half, the second half defense this year has been really good, especially in recent weeks. And whatever they're doing adjustment-wise,

and look, they've got talent to begin with. And yesterday, you know, they were without Kevin Pierre-Lewis. They had Holcomb back. I thought that was huge. You know, Michael Kendricks came in, you know, picked off somebody's practice squad. I can't even remember who's now. He actually, I don't know how many, I haven't looked at the snap count yet. I'm going to pull that up right now, but Kendricks was in there a bunch yesterday.

I guess I'm, I guess I agree with you that the second half defense was better. I thought Carolina got very conservative in the second half with an understanding that they probably had enough points to win the game. and that the defense is totally capable of changing the game, our defense. But what has been my number one concern in recent weeks is that are we really a good run-stopping team? And we weren't again yesterday. We gave up five and a half yards of carry in the first half, 91 yards, 17 carries. And on a 10-play 80-yard drive, they didn't throw the ball. one time. Do you know how rare that is? A 10-play 80-yard touchdown drive without one pass?

You know, I think that they deserve some of the blame in falling behind 20 to nothing at halftime. You know, obviously Stephen Sims is a big part of that. Dwayne Haskins is a big part of it, and their inability to stop the run in the first half was a big part of it. Cooley, every team that has tried to run it against them over the last couple of months, has for the most part been able to do it. Not very many of those teams have scored points doing it. They give up some yards, but they don't give up a ton of points. They've been a very good red zone defense.

That's true. That is true. But remember, the Steelers, the Cowboys, the Bengals didn't even try to run it. And the Lions did and did score a shitload of points. All right? The Giants did and they scored points. Seattle did, but you're right, they didn't finish enough, to your point. And Carolina, again, maybe in the second half had they been in a game that they felt they could lose?

Maybe they would have been more aggressive in the second half. I thought they- She would feel like they could lose any game because they've given up leads in a bunch of games. They should never feel comfortable. Okay, well, they're not Atlanta in giving up leads. Yeah. Michael Kendrick's played eight plays. Oh, that was it.

It seemed like- He only played eight plays. Well, still, I know I noticed him on the field, and I was somewhat surprised at that, even though I think late in the week Rivera said Kendricks, you know, looks good. It's, it's, I mean, they pulled them off the scrap heap this week, and he was in there for nine, how many snaps did Hudson play? I don't have the snap count in front of me. Blake Hudson played 17 plays. Okay. All right. And Holcomb and Bostick probably never came off the field in the same way.

never comes off the field bostick never plays well bostick's not a positive influence on this team but you get what you get with bostick i thought on defense i thought young allen fuller derby holcomb all played pretty well i thought curle was okay had a mistackle i thought pain played well reeves had a mistackle too reeves played poorly i thought in this game all right um i think that was also part of the deep one i talked about with curtis samuel down the field that's my thing kev is They're just, here's the big thing. There's an aura that surrounds the quarterback that did not support this team. They didn't look like they cared to win a football game at any point in that game.

There wasn't, Carolina was more aggressive. They played faster. They played more physical. And that was not a picture of what I have seen this Washington football team as through their five or six game span, where they got back into the playoff picture. They were the team that dictated the temple of the game. game. Carolina dictated the tempo of this game and somehow, some way, I got to see it's a fashion of the quarterback not really having it. Other than he dapped up high and a key late. I loved that.

That was, that was big. All right. My game take. Kevin's game take right after this word from one of our sponsors. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's game take. All right. Some of this I'm going to avoid because it would just be repetitive based on the conversation that we've already had, but I will mention it without getting into a great detail. The list of things that I liked starts with Chase Young. I think he has wrapped up the defensive rookie of the year. He accounted for two turnovers yesterday. He had multiple, I think four tackles, had a sack,

had multiple quarterback hurries, deflected a pass or two, forced fumble, forced interception, fumble recovery. the dude's an absolute beast. Chase Young, I loved. I loved Antonio Gibson in this game. His return, he was healthy. I'm continually, I don't, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. I guess I just got hung up on Memphis wide receivers slash running backs being super

fast, but not so powerful. God, is he powerful? He had nine carries for 67 yards in the first half. He had one carry for minus six yards in the second. I'll get to this in more detail on the list of things I didn't like. Weird toss play. Yeah. But I loved Antonio Gibson in his return.

And it really makes me think that with that kind of production from him, and by the way, there's a lot of yards after contact with him, the pile moves forward with him. I think that they're, you know, they're with really good defense. and, you know, an offensive model that maybe changes a little bit if the quarterback isn't, you know, capable, whether that's Alex or Heineke, God, Gibson's return was huge. I thought Ronald Darby and Kendall Fuller in this game were both very good. You and I have talked about Kendall Fuller sniffing out bubbles and screens better than any player. Like going back to his first two years here before he got traded in the Alex Smith trade to Kansas City,

he really anticipates so well. And I think, you know, Fuller's had a couple of games, you know, where we've been like, whoa. But, you know, in this day and age in the NFL, there's no corner that's going to be perfect. There's no corner that's going to play a game that's like 100% clean. It's almost impossible in this day and age. I think Darby was a hell of an addition. And I think he played really well yesterday. I think he's played well.

I thought Fuller was outstanding yesterday also. All right. The list of things, by the way, I think Duran Payne had moments yesterday. I think John Allen had moments yesterday. I think Montez Sweat had moments yesterday. I thought Cole Holcomb had some moments yesterday. But it's hard for me to really sit there and go through a list of defensive stalwarts during the game. And they were better in the second half.

There's no doubt about it. And the defense certainly didn't cost you the game. but they gave up too many yards on the ground. They gave up too many yards down field. You know, there were big plays in this game. There was a 45-yard run. There was a 44-yard catch, both by Curtis Samuel. And they were missing.

They're starting left tackle and backup left tackle in this game. Anyway, that's the list of things that I liked. The list of things that I didn't like. Look, Dwayne sucked. There's no other way to describe it. His first half was about as bad as it gets in the NFL. It's interesting. We have had two halves by quarterbacks this year for this team.

The Alex Smith second half against the Rams and the Dwayne Haskins first half yesterday that are about as bad of halves as NFL quarterbacks can produce. 36 yards passing, two interceptions, a fumble. he was utterly unprepared and I thought completely overwhelmed by the weak and the magnitude of the game. His accuracy was off with the first throw. He threw it behind Logan Thomas. He threw a ball to Antonio Gibson on a little almost checkdown, planned checkdown, that missed by eight feet. It was just horrible.

The fourth and two of the second drive of the second half was the play that got him benched. Cam Sims is sitting there, you know, hey, there's nobody within eight yards of me, dude. This is an easy high school level pitch and catch, move the chains. And, you know, it's 20 to 6 at that point. You move the chains there, even if you get a field goal, it's still the third quarter. And he completely panics, flushes left, gets sacked. And even when he's scrambling, there's Sims, hello? And he just keep, that was the place.

can't read a simple spacing concept. That was the play. That was the play where Scott Turner, you know, said to Ron Rivera in his ear, get him the hell out of the game. He cannot see. I tweeted right after that play, I said, that may be it for him.

And it was. And when I say it, I mean, it's over for him. You know, I thought that the play that he made where he's scrambling around and he throws back to Cam Sims and it's a 50-yard play. You know, it was a, I mean, it was a good play, and I was hoping it would spark him. And by the way, you know, when should he have been benched?

Well, he should have in hindsight been benched at halftime. Rivera said after the game, definitely at halftime. Hindsight should have been Tuesday. Okay. Okay, that's real hindsight. Game hindsight, halftime. But what Rivera said, I actually don't have a problem with his explanation, which was, and it sort of dovetails with you about how he sort of figures it out as the game goes,

and that's what we've seen from him, including going back to the opener against Philadelphia, including against Cleveland in the second half, you know, that eventually he kind of gets there because he's unprepared to start, and then maybe he starts to figure it out. And I think that Rivera was probably thinking, if I can get his second half from last week, we have a chance. Okay. So anyway, he was God awful. It was, you know, he at six feet four inches tall, he had two or three balls deflected. By the way, Derek Brown, who I loved in that draft last year from Auburn, he is turning into a monster. I think I said to you that obviously, Chey Chung, but if they were to trade back and they picked up two picks and I'd want the quarterback. And I'd want the quarterback. And I'd, I'd want Derek Brown. He started off very slowly, but he is turning into a dominant player. Watch

Derek Brown. A lot of people thought Chase Young started slowly. Yes. Statistically. Statistically. The turnovers obviously are on the list of things I didn't like. You can't turn it over four times and a half and win in the NFL. Stephen Sims Jr. set the tone for this football game with his muffed punt that turned into a touchdown. There is zero chance. I would have him back on punt returns in the game against Philadelphia. In fact, if my receiver core is healthy, I would probably deactivate him for the game. He has the equivalent of the yips right now. He is lacking in confidence on punt returns. Even when he makes a catch, it looks a little sketchy. He will cost you a playoff spot if you put him back there on punt returns. I don't know

if Isaiah Wright is that much better, but Sims is a fumble or drop pass waiting to happen. One of the biggest disappointments of the year. He is a net negative to this team right now. On the list of things I didn't like, as I mentioned to you before, I just don't know how you give up 91 first half rushing yards, 5.4 yards per carry, and give up a 10-play 80-yard drive, all runs, and think that the defense was good enough in the first half. I didn't think it was. I thought it was better in the second half, but I also think to a certain degree, Carolina figured they had enough points and that the only way to rule, that was to let Chase Young ruin the game, which he nearly did, you know, with the turnover forces in the second half. I think their run defense in many ways right now is a bit of their Achilles heel. We'll see as if the season goes beyond next week, but it's my biggest defensive concern.

And then as it relates to Scott Turner, the bottom line is they came out in the second half. after I will concede this point. The score is 20 to 3, and Carolina has opened up the second half with an eight-minute drive against that defense that you said was so great in the second half. Eight minutes, 13 plays, 45 yards. The clock is now winding down in the third quarter, and you haven't touched the ball in offense. Now, Chase Young gets the strip sack fumble, and it gives the ball to the offense 15 of the first 16 calls. after Antonio Gibson had 67 yards and average 7.4 yards per carry in the first half,

15 of Scott Turner's 16 first 16 play calls were passes. And with that quarterback yesterday, I thought for the first time this year, pretty much, I really thought Scott Turner didn't feel the game enough. But again, the score often dictates the run-pass ratio. I sort of understand that. The eight minutes that they took off the clock to start the third quarter, put them in this bind of feeling we got to get it quickly. But I think that they did not run the football anywhere near enough when they had success doing it.

What did you say? He had some cool plays. I agreed. He had some cool plays drawn up, though. He had some things he wanted to get to. Yeah, well, I guess. I wanted to just mention a couple of observations. That's a joke.

I'm joking. I know it is. I know it is. A couple of other quick observations on that 10 play 80-yard drive. Part of why they were. able to go for it on the fourth and goal from the one rather than force a field goal on a fourth and goal from the two was they had 12 men on the field defensively. That wasn't very good. Yeah, exactly. You know, we mentioned, oh, God, I haven't gone and looked at this.

When Haskins made maybe the first decent play of the game for him, where he rolled left on a third and eight, and he threw to Sims Jr., who had the only good play of the day for him, and he caught the ball on the sideline, and he got two feet in, did you think Duane was, was close to crossing the line of scrimmage. I need to go back and look at that again. I haven't. Obviously, Carolina didn't, so I'm sure I'm way off on that.

But I thought it looked like he had gone beyond the line of scrimmage on that throw. He was certainly close to it, I think. Maybe not. The... What else did I have here? Oh, the opportunity of the game was the Mike Davis fumble that got whistled too quickly. That was a terrible, terrible fall. That was a fumble. That was an absolute fumble. I mean, the whistle blew, first of all, too early because he was still fighting for yardage,

but when we saw the replay, the whistle blew after the fumble. Curl made a really good play on the strip, and it was just a, you know, Gene Steretor, who I love as a rules expert, and I mean, he was one of the great college basketball referees, one of the great lead NFL referees, reason. I think he's really good on CBS's, you know, Mike Pereira role. But he agreed with the call. I thought that that was so obvious. Forward progress. His forward progress was never stopped. Somebody's got him by the leg. Like, Bostick's holding his ankle, holding on for dear life. Mike Davis can break that tackle. Yeah, no doubt. Progress was not stopped. That was an absolute fumble. Bajwater also had a fumble on a third

down that they luckily Oh, that was my next thing. You know, there was an opportunity early on that eight-minute drive to start the third quarter. You know, Morland knocks the ball out of Bridgewater's hands. That was a nice scramble by Bridgewater. He had a couple of them

and DJ Moore recovered it and that would have been a huge play. But yeah, that didn't, the call on Mike Davis, that was, I thought that was terrible. I wanted to mention also that you would, you had said that Robert

Foster's a guy they like. I think you can tell that. You can see the speed and the catch that he made on that third and eight and took it up the sideline was pretty impressive. Meantime, Gandy Golden was out there a shitload. Do you have the snap count in front of you? Because he was out there too much for a guy that was targeted three times and dropped a ball. I know they like him and I'm sure that he'll develop into a good player. They didn't have McClorin. I understand that. I understand that. How many? He played 59 snaps. Wow. I didn't know it was that many. He did nothing for them. No.

Taylor Heineke, you know, my question for you is, did you see, was Carolina playing soft? I know they weren't playing pre-vents. Were they playing soft? But he was still made, they were playing soft, but he still made some throws down the field. Yeah, he did. That's why I was going to say, even if they were playing soft. He made a big, yeah, he made big throws. Golden dropped one in the middle, and Sims dropped one deep. They were down the field throws. Logan Thomas had a chance to bring one in deep, too. You know, he also had a ball that was way overthrown that should have been picked.

He did have one throw that was, but he also had a nice scramble play. Yeah. Look, I have no idea whether or not Taylor Heineke should, for those of you that said... Alex Smith's going to start. If Alex Smith is 100% he starts, period. For those of you that think you saw enough from Taylor Heineke, that he's, that he should start over 100% Alex Smith. I don't think that that's...

I just don't think you know enough to say that. You don't. So, but, you know, I don't know. I put it this way. I think if Alex Smith is 100% in plays, which I think is a big if, I actually think they're going to win the game Sunday night. I think if he isn't, they're going to lose the game. But then again, I don't know what to expect from Taylor Heineke.

I have no idea. What is clear in Ron Rivera may... this very clear after the game is Heineke knows the offense. And he went through his progressions and he pointed out almost as a way to diss Dwayne. You know, he found where you were supposed to go with the ball and he threw it there. And he was in the system last year, you know, in Carolina. So that's why he's got some familiarity with it. So there you go. By the way, I thought the onside kick was a really good effort. I thought it was a nice little onside kick deal. They didn't get it. It was recovered, but I like the way the ball was hopping around there,

and I thought for a second there was going to be a chance. I also just wanted to mention, I cannot stand anymore, especially when you don't have any offense. Danny Johnson on kickoff returns, letting the ball basically hit at the goal line. Like, if it's coming down at the goal line, I know he's being instructed to do it. Teams really just want the ball at the 25. They don't want to risk the penalty that, you know, now they got to start at their own 14 or 15.

year line. I understand that. But when you need something, and I actually think the returns he's had this year, he looks like a decent returner. But he's choosing not to return. Also, Sims Jr., I forgot to point out, let a punt sail over his head and bounce inside the 10-yard line. I've had enough of him. Would you have fielded that punt at that point?

Me? No. You should actually call that a thing that you liked in this game. Oh, no. They should, if they don't have a guy that can field puns, They should just rush 11 and let whatever happens happen. Right. You know what?

Who are their potential punt returners on this team? We've seen Isaiah Wright back there, okay? You're not going to put Terry McLaren back there, especially if he's not healthy, and I have no idea if he could do it anyway. I have no idea about AGG as a punt returner. You know who I think could return punts is Gibson or McKissick. Why couldn't McKissick return? Why can't McKissick return punts?

But Cooley, if they have 15 back there returning punts, they should have their heads examined on Sunday night because this guy doesn't want anything to do with it. Do you know, I mean, that's got to be his fourth botched fumble, not necessarily lost, but botched return this year. And Isaiah Wright had one or two also. So I'm not so sure he would be a lot better. Anyway, that's my game take. I wanted to talk real quickly about the rest of the NFL.

You watched some games. I watched a bunch of games, but I want to start with the Saturday night Miami-Oklin game. Because this was one of the great endings of a game this year. And God damn, do I love, I just love Ryan Fitzpatrick. There's just something about this guy that is so likable. This game, if you didn't stay up and watch Saturday night, first of all, Miami's playing for their playoff lives. So are the Raiders, although the Raiders' chances were much longer, even if they won the game.

But the final five minutes of the game were just, it was incredible. But Fitzpatrick comes into the game with about nine minutes to go. They're trailing 16 to 13 in the fourth quarter because Tua really did not look very good. I mean, and this is against a bad defense. You know, people have carved up the Raiders defense. And Tua just, I don't think he saw the field. You could tell he was really struggling. Fitzpatrick comes in, they go right down the field, field goal 1616.

Then the Raiders answer on an 85-yard bomb to Nelson Aguilar, but they missed the extra point. It's 22-16 Raiders, three and a half to go. Here comes Fitzpatrick right back down the field, throws a pass underneath coverage to Miles Gaskin, the guy from the University of Washington, who was just an explosive player. Gaskin cuts back, in the middle of the field, cuts back to the sideline, takes it to the house, they're up 23-22. Here come the Raiders. They get an unbelievably awful DPI call on Miami that sets them up in a position where they have the ability, coolly, to run the clock down and kick a go-ahead field goal.

Now, this is really an interesting setup. First of all, it's become really, really vogue in the last five, six, seven years, whatever you want to say, to not score, right? Oh, don't score, don't score. We don't want to give the ball back to him. We want to kick the field goal in the final play of the game. Well, there are a couple of things with this. First of all, to me, if you can really run the clock down to almost nothing and it's really a super short field goal, you do it,

but I'm always a little bit leery when I'm trailing in the game, and I would have been even more leery of it with a kicker who had just missed an extra point, even though he's a good kicker, Carlson, the kicker from Auburn. But they did a poor job, first of all, on a kneel down play where they should have burned as much time as they could. They kept calling timeouts instead of taking delay at games, which added another two seconds to the clock. The bottom line is they were going to give Ryan Fitzpatrick the ball back.

The plan was to give it back to him with no timeouts and roughly 20 seconds left in the game down by a point after they hit the go-head, or down by two points after they hit the go-head field goal. I think that's dicey. If you can get it down to less than 10 seconds, that's one thing. If you're going to leave 19, 20 seconds on the clock, that's two to three snaps, and that is a chance, at least a chance, not a great chance, for field goal range. I think the Raiders on third down should have scored the touchdown. I felt this way in the moment watching the game.

I was watching the game with one of my sons. I'm like, they should score the touchdown. They'll go for two. They're up seven. And even though there will be 50 some seconds left and Miami. But what is Miami going to do? Are they really with no timeout is going to score a touchdown at the? this point, I just wouldn't have done it. They took the knee. They left. At least run it in and

try to score the touchdown. Because if you get tackled, yeah, it's fine. Then the clock's still going to run. Yeah, but Miami was going to let them score. Miami was going to let them score, though. That was their plan. They tried to let Jacob score on the second downplay, but Jacob slid down, you know, at the one yard line. That's why you don't take the, that's why you don't take the time out. You take the delay a game. You go back to the six yard line and run it from the and see what they're going to do. But at the same time, you don't think that Fitzpatrick's going to step up, get face mask ripped to the ground,

and throw 40 yards down the field and hit Hollins on the sideline. No, you don't. You don't. Nobody thinks that. That's the play of the year by a quarterback in the NFL. Cooley, you don't think that. But you know what you... You do know that you suck as a cover two team if you're Oakland because they can't

play cover two. They shouldn't stay in cover two. They fired their coordinator. Now all they do is play cover two with Marinelli. and they can't get over to the top to Hollins. But Coolly, with 20 seconds to go, with 20 seconds to go, you don't expect what happened to happen. Fitzpatrick, for those of you that missed it, throws a 35-yard pass to Mack Hollins who gets out of bounds, but there was also Fitzpatrick was a prayer as he was getting his helmet twisted behind his head,

so they added 15 yards to it, which put him in automatic field goal range. But with 20 seconds to go, you can get, you know, a comeback to the sideline for 14 yards out to the 39-yard line, and now there are 14 seconds left. And then you could get, you know, a play over the middle for 20 yards and a quick spike. And there's one second. Yeah, 14. 14, you can do it? With 14 you think you can get it over the middle?

Yeah. That's five seconds. No, no chance. With 14 seconds left, you're going to throw something that's going to take six seconds. And then you're getting, so now you're down to eight and you're going to spike it in eight seconds. Belichick's done all this. It's like somewhere between, depending on the length of the throw, 14 to 16 seconds to throw. to throw the ball down the middle of the field and get a spike.

But it would be close. But let's just say the first one went to the 38-yard line, okay? And by the way, you could do that in four seconds, and now there are 15 seconds left. And let's say you do take a shot down the middle of the field and you get it to their 40 and you get the spike with one second left. 20 seconds to go is not impossible for field goal range. Okay, it's not.

And I actually think that it's better odds on, field goal range with 19 seconds left from your own 25 no timeouts than a touchdown is from your own 25 with no timeouts and 45 seconds left or 50 seconds left. I think that that's, that's what I think. 100%. Okay, so I would have scored the touchdown. Yes, me too. Anyway, what a great finish. Fitzpatrick's reaction with Gasecki, the tight end from Penn State, when the kick went through and they won the game was priceless. This is a guy 16-year career. Do you remember his first start as an NFL quarterback?

Very first start. You don't. He started for the Rams in 2005 against the St. Louis Rams, against your Washington Redskins. In the start of that four to five, whatever, with five-game win streak to end the season. You guys won the game. Fitzpatrick was the starter in his first NFL start.

You guys won the game 24 to 9. There was a big kickoff return or punt return in that game. I forget. And that started the run to the 2005 postseason. But anyway, Miami can beat Buffalo. Buffalo basically has nothing to play for. I'd actually really like to see Buffalo, Miami in the postseason. By the way, Brian Flores said after the game,

He said the two is going to start against the bills. I wouldn't start him. I would start Fitzpatrick. But anyway, the other games, how frustrated, and I know Jared Gough broke his hand or his thumb in this game. How frustrated do you think Sean McVey is with Jared Gough? Can't stand him. I actually think everybody really likes Gough, but Gough played so bad in this game. I watched a lot of the Rams game.

He missed throws. He made stupid decisions. There was one play that I think you could see Sean's frustration if you watch this game completely. That on somewhere around a third and eight, Goff takes up scrambling up to middle and then slides a yard short of the first down marker. He comes over to the sideline.

McVeigh looks at him like, dude, like, What are you doing? We want the slide, but like maybe dive there or get the, like know where you are on the field. My God. I think incredibly frustrated with Goff. All right. By the way, the news and this just came through, Rivera announced moments ago that Haskins is moving back to third string. Alex Smith will start if he's healthy, and if he can't go, then it will be Tyler Heineke.

So there you go. Official Dwayne Haskins back to third string. Ron Rivera said about Haskins. Sometimes you have to go through some hard knocks. Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom. his rise from rock bottom will happen elsewhere. I don't think there's any doubt about that. The only other game... How good was Ben and the Steelers in the second half of the ballgame against the Colt? So I read this story. I read this story about this game.

You know, apparently the Colts were calling out all of the signals in the first half. Ben comes out in the second half and resorts to like last year's calls with some of the players. and they lit up the Colts in the second half and put the Colts now in jeopardy of not making the playoffs potentially. That was a phenomenal. You know, the Steelers were a Smeltest pick. Smeltest was 5-2-and-1 after a 6-1-1 weekend. I'm almost back to 500 for the year.

It takes a while, coolly, but I've worked my way back there. The Rams were one of my losses. I really felt like they defensively played well enough to win that game. They were really good on defense, especially early in that ballgame. Seattle couldn't run it against them. So one last thought for the day, and it's this. You know, the Cowboys, offensively... Turning it up with Dalton.

They are turning it up with Dalton, man. And I know Fletcher Cox got hurt in the game yesterday, but their receivers, Cooper and Lamb and Gallup, then all of a sudden Elliot's going over 100 yards. If they do get in and Washington loses to Philadelphia and they beat the Giants, the Cowboys, by the way, are two and a half point favorites over the Giants. Washington is a one-point underdog at first.

Philadelphia. Second straight week, they're playing a team that has nothing to play for, and they're going to be an underdog in that game. Now, it would not surprise me, Cooley, if it becomes apparent that Alex Smith is going to be the starter, if that line changes a little bit, and Washington's favored by game time, that would have surprised me this week against Carolina. It would not surprise me against Philadelphia. I think they can turn hurts over a bunch and win this game, but I think they need to obviously have a healthy Alex Smith. On the Heineke front, I have no idea what we would see from Hinescy. No idea. But anyway, the Cowboys offensively are good. And you know, the other thing they do,

and we talked about this before the Thanksgiving Day game, I said, they're not a good defensive team, and you can run on it, run on them at will. But they do have speed in their front seven, and they do rush the passer well. And they did that yesterday again, and wreaked havoc on Hertz on some of these plays. Forced three turnovers on the day. Hertz had two fumbles, one lost fumble, and two interceptions in the game. Three total turnovers in the game.

And the Cowboys outscored the Eagles 34 to three over the final three quarters. They've won three in a row, and I think they will beat the Giants. Daniel Jones is stationary. You can't move. Cannot move. And that changed their season, profoundly. I mean, you can think

what you want about Daniel Jones. This team with a healthy Daniel Jones was playing good football. And once he got hurt in that Bengals game and Colt McCoy, their season was over. I mean, so Daniel Jones, it turns out, was the most valuable player for the Giants this year. I don't think you can understate that. I don't think you can overstate that. Excuse me. I think he, Daniel Jones is going to be a player for them, but that injury derailed their season. I think the Cowboys win that game. And then, you know, I think Washington's got a good chance. That's my first blush. We've got plenty more. I did not.

feel good about the Carolina game last week. I put Carolina in the smell test. It was painful. I predicted Carolina to win. I think right now, I think Washington's going to beat Philadelphia and win the division. And then it'll be most likely Tampa here in the first weekend if they can win the division. I guess that's it. That's all I have for the day. You got anything else? No, we'll get into a bunch more tomorrow, and we got the film breakdown as well tomorrow. but it's an interesting question in the NFC East. I'm going to ask you tomorrow. Who would you rather play?

Yeah, because it's two totally different. There are three teams that anybody could end up playing here this week. Well, the team that you'd love to play would be the Giants, because Daniel Jones doesn't look like he's going to be healthy. I know, but he's going to continue to get healthier, and their defense has got something to it. Dallas is up right now, but who are they? God, what a season.

Who would you least want to play? Who would you most want to play? I think that week in and week out that's changed to the NFC East to right now probably you wouldn't want to play Dallas. But then that said, if Alex is playing and you get a consistent form of Washington with the defense that Washington has, then maybe you don't want to play Washington. I don't know. You don't want to see Chase Young and Montez sweat, you know, in a game because he really can. I mean, we've seen it now. The two of them, the defense, Chase Young more than anybody else, can really totally, using the phrase that I love, wreck a game.

And keep your team in a game when it's not very good on offense. By the way, one last thought. We sort of mentioned this earlier. It is funny how, you know, context is everything, which is why at the beginning of a season to say, you know, what kind of season would you be happy with? Well, at the beginning of the season, we would have said if we learned that they got a pretty good season. good coach, that their defense is legit, that we got an answer one way or the other on the quarterback. And oh, by the way, they went six and ten or seven and nine, you would have taken that, you know. But if they lose to the Eagles to finish six and ten, even though you feel

like you've got the right coach, you've got a really good defense in the making, you got an answer on the quarterback, it's going to feel awful. And as the giant season may have been derailed by the Daniel Jones loss. It's also totally fair to say that Washington season may have come up one game short because of the Alex Smith injury. There's no doubt because you would have never bought that. Never. Never. But I do think that his injury and it makes it very clear that he can't be your number one next year. That you're going to have, he's not going to be able to play 16 games. He's not the answer. But he's the answer on Sunday. in January, beyond in January, if they can get there.

All right, back tomorrow with Cooley's Film Breakdown. Have a great day.