The Kevin Sheehan Show - Epically Bad Offense

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

Cooley and Kevin recap the Washington-Rams game and a lot more including the latest reports on Dwayne Haskins. They recapped several key NFL games and Kevin had some thoughts on the Lakers-Heat. 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. That red flag there. And now the penalty gets him that first down. And here we go.

Wow. Folks, Alex Smith for the first time since November 18th to 2018 when he had that nasty compound fracture in his right leg is back out here to play quarterback in the National Football League. And that was the. return of Alex Smith to NFL football. He came in late second quarter and it was great to see Alex Smith return to the field. It's an inspiring story. It's quite the example of competitive spirit and resilience considering what we all saw in that Project 11 documentary. And then he went

out and proceeded to produce one of the worst professional NFL football halves offensively in NFL history. And that is not an exaggeration. Cooley and Kevin Monday here. We've got our game take coming up. Coolies, uhs and ums. I doubt there are many ums, but I have a few. Um, we will go around the NFL. We will talk about the Dwayne Haskin stories that continued to come out over the weekend. Um, and where that is headed. Uh, and I'll have at the very end of the show just a thought on the Lakers winning the title last night, but really the thought is going to be more about a game five on Friday night that was one of the great performances in epic duels in NBA finals history.

Anyway, before we get started, you said right before the show started, you've got a what do you got? And I actually have a quick what do you got as well that has nothing to do with the game yesterday, but I'll let you go first. Mine has nothing to do with football. I just figured, you know, since today was going to be an incredibly positive and constructive day talking about the Washington football team that we may as well start out

with a thought. I just thought you'd like this. So I started, I moved into an office at the local radio station here. Right. I'm going to send your pictures today. I'm just very pleased to be here. Very pleased. Pal Wyoming, Cody Wyoming. Powell, Wyoming, KPOW. Of course it's okay. Right next to where I grew up. All right. Awesome. How big is this station? Is it like 5,000? No, it's probably like 3,000 square feet of space, 2,000 square feet of space? I'll bet you there's 3,000 square foot of space, 2,500-ish. It hasn't been redone in a while.

Anyways, I had to run my daughter to school and then I had to run home because I forgot a computer cord. Well, I had one of my bag that was wrong. The point is I'm listening to the radio. and I got, I can't believe we didn't think of this segment. It was the 830 want ads. And then people just call in and they're like, hey, how you doing? What's your name? This is Dave.

Ah, what are you selling, Dave? I got a kid backpack. It's got a strap that goes around the waist and keeps the weight more on your hips. $35. The phone number, $75,000. 34, 369. Okay, Dave, thanks very much. We'll get that sold for you.

All right, next call. All right, here we go. We've got Patty. Patty, what are he selling? Oh, we're selling wood pellets for fireplaces. You know, as the weather's starting to turn here, you're going to want these wood pellets. They're not the, they're not the wood pellets that you just scrape out the floor in the workshop. These are not, these are good wood pellets.

Oh, Patty, how much? Well, the pallets about $320. All right, Patty, what's the number? It's 754. 3219 I don't know if you could do that in like a bigger city but I love that it's phenomenal and I was glued to it

I'm not joking so the start of it the host here is like the hosts are actually really good here and they've been here since I was a little kid and they do it they are actually very very good they've been there since you were a little kid yes the main what's the station again what's the station name it's kpo w a m 1260 yeah am 1260 here it is right here got so the the host it's scott and russ and scott mingold's like running for park kending commissioners he's sounds like

zabe he's very professional as a radio okay that's not joking him and you know i'm serious but it's just it's just interesting that you could do one ads at 830 yeah i mean i'm driving in listen to one hens i've passed three jesus love you signs about four Trump signs, a Trump bus that someone's decorated like Trump, a guy shoveling irrigation ditch out, had to dodge cows in my driveway. I'm like, I am in another world. That's funny. And it's going to be amazing here in Palaiomi, and we're going to sit in here and talk about this crap game when I could be out fishing. Yeah, you could be. Let me get to my, what do you got here? Actually, real quickly, because I just, as we were,

you were sitting here, I pulled up the KPOW website. They've got a whole big tab for classified ads. But who's the show that's been on there for a while? Because it looks like they have mostly syndicated national programming. The morning is Scott and Russ. Oh, yes, Scott and Russ. There it is, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. And that's the show that's been on for a while?

Yeah, they've been here since I was born. And is it a sports show or just a regular music station show? Well, they Guide talk show. I talked with like 1950s music mixed in. Okay. Very good. Or 60s, maybe 7.

I don't know. They had some music mixed in that I thought was weird. Go ahead. All right. I'm going to tell this real quickly because I think people want us to get to the game, which I understand. But I told CJ this story this morning on radio. It was actually pretty funny.

So there were friends of ours in town. They live in Tampa. And my buddy Scott was telling me about he's putting into his backyard artificial grass, which I guess has become a thing. Actually, my wife mentioned it to me at one point like six months ago. I'm assuming you're familiar with this stuff because this is an area where you probably pay attention, but artificial grass, field turf, that kind of stuff is becoming more and more common in backyards. So then you don't have the cost of maintaining a lawn.

the artificial turf and the artificial grass and the field turf. It all looks like real, real grass. You're familiar with this, yes or no? Yeah, Kevin. Half the football fields in America have it. I know football fields,

but in terms of putting it into your backyard, that's become a more recent thing. I wanted to make a mulch into my front yard. Okay. So I didn't ever have to pull weeds. Yeah, no, I've thought a lot about it. Okay, so anyway,

my friend's telling me about how he's going to put this into his backyard, and he's been talking to this company down in Tampa, for a while initially, you know, he had this conversation with this guy named Mark. Mark was a really, you know, good sales guy. Mark gave him a price. And then Scott recently, you know, sort of shopped it around and then went back to this guy, Mark at his company. I think it's called Diamond Turf in Tampa. And he said, Mark, man, I got a better deal from a competing company. Mark got really, you know, really insistent, very competitive, relentless sales. guy and he's like, Scott, that product that you're talking about, it's inferior to our product. We've got

the best product in town. Like there's no chance that the company you're talking about can match our quality of product. But I'll tell you what, I'll match the price anyway. And this was a conversation that they had last week. And then Scott said, okay, let me get back to you. I'm traveling this weekend. I'll text you. We'll schedule a date. So then, you know, I'm sitting there at dinner with our friends, Scott and his wife from Tampa, and we're having a great time. And he gets a text from Mark. And Mark said, hey, you know, this week, what does Tuesday look like, Wednesday look like for installation? We need to come out there a day before and, you know, whatever. He's given him the whole thing. And Scott said, yeah, that makes sense. Tuesday is good. And then if you need to come back out on Wednesday or whenever the install date is, we'll be there.

I'll have somebody at home to do it. Mark said, awesome, Scott. Thanks so much. for your business. Then Scott looks, you know, he's texting. I said, who are you texting? He said, this guy, Mark, from, you know, a diamond turf. He's been pitching, you know, he pitched me on this artificial grass. I'm putting it in. Great guy.

And he said, it's crazy. He pitches, he walked in the first day that I met him when he made the pitch. I'm like, man, you guys look like athletes. He's big, strong dude. And there was another guy with him. And he said, yeah, yeah, we're baseball players. players. Oh, really? And he just thought, you know, maybe minor league players or whatever that have a side business. Well, as it turns out, it's Mark Malanson. Mark Malanson is the Braves closer. He's in the

middle of the National League championship series. He's already closed out four games in this postseason, and they play the Dodgers tonight in game one of the National League championship series. And I said, And Scott said, yeah, it's Mark Malanson from the Braves. And I'm like, wait a minute, this is the guy you've been going back and forth with the last couple of days and then on text for the last few minutes? And he said, yeah. And he said, I just wished, I just said, are you, you know, when's game one? And he just said, oh, it's tomorrow night. And he said, all right, great, beat the Dodgers.

I just thought that was hysterical. You kidding me? That a guy that is like the number, remember, he pitched here for the Nats, that this guy is in the middle of the National League Championships. series. He's the Braves closer, and he's negotiating deals on artificial grass in the back of a yard in Tampa. He ensures it meets the same standards the pros demand in an artificial turf sports field circuit. I just thought, you know, it also it says he's played some of the top golf courses around the world. Oh, are you looking at the website?

Yeah. Mark Millens, remember what Sam? Huff used to work for Marriott in the offseason? I do, actually. In the 60s? Yes. Actually, you worked with my father-in-law who worked at Marriott for years. And while, you know, but that was, I think that was more after his career. This guy's in the middle of the, you know, a chance to go to the World Series and he's

negotiating field turf deals with my buddy for my father's backyard. What? Look, he's making $19 million this year playing baseball. Oh, I know. He signed a one year, like I think it's a one year deal for 19 million. I forget what it is. He's my new favorite player. Well, you know what, Cooley?

I love this. This is why I wanted to bring it up with you. Because this is a guy that is able to do more than one thing at the same time. And that is somebody that totally matches up to you. Like, you know, you were running a gallery. You had your art business. You know, you were involved. You needed to be busy.

This guy clearly pitching every other day in the major leagues as a closer making millions and millions of dollars a year just isn't enough for him. He's got to be out doing other things. It's just funny that it's one thing to in the off season to maybe, you know, hey, Mark, we got this guy. You know, he could be a big client. We just need you to talk to him. All right, I'll get on the phone with him. Hey, man, I'm Mark. Mark and Melanson, you know, pitcher for the Braves.

Our company's great. We got a great product. What do you need? No, he's the sales guy. It's his company. I know. I just thought that was a great website. I thought that was hysterical.

Diamond turf. So what do you been up to, Mark? You pitch it pretty well. Yeah, I know. I do enjoy baseball, but my dream is field turf. And so I've actually, we did 340 lawns this year, which is incredible. We'll beat our number by at least 30 longs. Scott, if I can get your business, man, we will beat our budget number for the quarter.

I got to get your business. Fine. I'll match that. Our products much better. Hold on for a second. It's the manager calling. Oh, what, you need me to work out? I'll be there in a minute.

I get some stuff to work on here. I got my field turf business. I mean, it's really... I already got long costs in, Skip. I've been doing that while I'm on the phone with my wife. She's handling it. I just... Long cost is good.

I got to go in and throw a couple curveballs later. So tonight, if the Braves have a lead and he comes in in the ninth to close it out, know that very likely at some point early in the game, he was texting with a potential client about putting, you know, their product into the guy's backyard. I just thought it was hysterical. And very much something that I love because, you know, in all honesty, I understand it's a full-time commitment.

You know, you're a professional athlete. but he's pitching every, you know, third day maybe. He's got a lot of free time. He's got a lot of free time. I'm sorry? It might be more than every third day. I mean, realistically, the dude works like four hours a week. Right.

Exactly. I mean, you talk about a part-time job. He has plenty of time for his other entrepreneurial endeavor. Hey, Mark, welcome to the one ads at 830. what are you selling well scott tell you what i got the best artificial grass system don't have to waste water anymore we have the complete product you wouldn't believe it you know i'll drop anything to come in and install it just call me 941 413 2496 is that the real number you just gave out yeah uh yeah look i you don't believe in it i'll tell you what i'm

to send you our reference list. Talk to Mrs. Thompson. She was really difficult like you were. She was negotiating the deal. She was haggling on price. She wasn't sure about our product. She's a good one. But you can also talk to this person. He doesn't even know anything about the thing.

We came in and we laid down. It's probably one of the best jobs we've ever done. He had a very difficult backyard to sort of work it into. Undulating. It was an undulating backyard. Oh, my God. Anyway. Watch the game tonight.

just so this is for you. When I get out there on the mound before the first pitch, I'll triple tap my chest with my fist. And you know that was for you so I can do your work. Exactly. I'm thinking about you at all times. Know that. We do not forget about our clients. All right. Anyway, I thought you would get a kick out of that story. It was just funny sitting at dinner and then seeing the text come in from Mark Malanson. Scottie, I'm good to go, man. Yeah, we got a tough series. Don't worry about it. You know, he's saying, Thanks for the good wishes about beating the Dodgers should be a tough series, but we'll be on it on Tuesday.

Don't forget, we'll be there at 4 o'clock on Tuesday. Anyway, let's get to our game take right after a word from one of our sponsors. All right, let's get to our game take. We'll start with coolies, uhs, and ums. And then I'll get to my game take. Obviously, it was a beat down, Cooley. of epic proportions for recent NFL football in terms of the offensive futility in the second half,

minus six yards in the second half. I mentioned on Twitter, I don't know that I've ever watched a team that didn't turn the ball over be worse offensively. We know that you can be awful offensively by turning it over four times and a half, and it's like, oh my God, that was a disaster. But this was just so different.

because they didn't turn it over. They had seven drives. They had six, three and outs, and then a four and out. They failed on third down, failed on fourth down. For minus six yards. It was dreadful. But anyway, Alex Smith was back, and that was certainly inspirational, and I'm sure they're working on something from a marketing standpoint.

I'm sure Dan's, you know, thinking up a lot of ideas based on Alex's return yesterday. But let's start with your game take, your isn't. Go ahead. Yeah, Alex Smith worked really hard to come and dump it off in half a second before he even looked down the field just so he didn't get massacred by Aaron Donald. Yeah. Okay, just in general. That was the biggest beat.

That score could have been 60 to zero. That was a beating. Across the board, beating. And it was terrible offensively throughout the entire game. But defensively, it was. horrific in the first half as well. Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Three drives in a row for the Rams to start the ball game.

Dude, we talked about this on Friday. What are the things you got to do to beat the Rams? Well, Jared Goff can't get in a rhythm. They can't let an offense go into rhythm, hurry up, tempo, you beat you to death. I mean, what were the first, what was he, 10 for 10, 11 for 11? Yeah, it was ridiculous. He was 14 of 18 in the first half. Whatever they wanted.

it was it was whatever they wanted in the first half for the rams offense they just got there their players got outplayed but their coaches got out coached it was a top to bottom ass whooping it wasn't it was a good varsity football team playing a shitty jv football team right it was bad i mean i i don't know what i don't know what else to tell you that there's nothing to really love from this game. Here are my ums, the things I like. They did bounce back on their second drive offensively and score a touchdown. Big throw to Terry McLauron on a third down.

Gibson had a couple big plays and it was a great scramble by Kyle Allen in the red zone. That's how you score when you get inside the 10 as you make plays, extend plays, do things as a quarterback. Right. That drive was still aided by two penalties. Yeah. I mean, two of the big plays on that drive were penalties.

One, 088 gets thrown down because he's playing to the whistle. What's that, the new tight end? Hemingway. I thought Hemingway did pretty good job. Yeah, I had to look at them up. I was unfamiliar with the number, and then I looked it up online to see who it was, and it was Hemingway. Yeah.

Have a nice fight to the whistle and you get thrown down late and that's just because he's playing through the whistle. Because some players do like to play hard every play they're in. Right. You get the Dallas Cowboys. But that was awesome. And then Ramsey hits Kyle Allen on the sideline, which I thought was a bad penalty. Oh, no, that was later. Yeah, later.

It was the high, low penalty on Aaron Donald. That was also a dumb penalty. No, the high-low hit on Allen was on that touchdown drive. Yeah, that's the one. I didn't think they should call. That was the one penalty. Well, I mean, there was a bit of a blow to the head in the process. I thought it was a good call.

Yeah, but I thought he was trying to dodge him a little bit. I don't know. Hmm. Hmm. This is good. I think Kendall Fuller can play. Yeah. Another interception.

Nice job baiting a throw. Is it covered two corner? gave him a chance right there to botch it at the end of the half is what he did. Yeah. You know, their first stop came on a third and four with three minutes left in the second, or in the second quarter. Ronald Darby finally came up and made a play. Yeah, he did.

I like the golf spike and everybody laughing. I thought that was interesting. Montez Sweat had a strip sack. I mean, there's a couple players that, flash on defense. I agree. I think Gibson can flash on offense. I just watched this team get waxed.

I like the Alex Smith family moment with his wife. Right. And his kids there. I did like that. I thought that was awesome. He worked hard to get back to where he is, really hard. Yeah. I got a lot of this.

Yeah, this may take a while. Let's just start with this. Hey, boss. Not feeling very good today. So what do you want me to do? Well, Duane, it's all this COVID stuff, so stay home. It wasn't apparently COVID related. Are you fucking serious?

There was no COVID concern. We're going to call in sick. Right. Let's just drop that shit right now. Do you think there's any chance he was sick? Nope. Obviously, there's a chance. Do I think he was?

Probably not. I get that he's upset, but you show up and go to the game. Even if you are sick. That's a bad look. Yeah, agreed. Show up and go to the game. Sit in a locker room. That was unheard of, in my opinion.

Yeah. This was just a random note, but God, they blew Jack Del Rio all game on the broadcast. They did? They did. It was like the first time they finally got him in third and 20. Oh, man, this is what Jack Dale Rio wanted. Wanted to get him in long. Yeah, no shit.

Every defensive coordinator wants to get him in third and 20. Right. He just got gutted for an entire half and he finally gets him in third and 20. But it was like every time they'd get a little stop, like this Jack Dale Rio defense to be really tough. You know, he was talking about watching the 2018 Bears game, how to shut down the Rams, watching some of the stuff from the Giants last week, didn't want to give away his game plan.

Did Jack Del Rio just open the book in the pregame meeting with the broadcast crew? Did he just, did he slip a couple $100 bills across the table? Right. What can I show you in this hand that'll make. He just punked him. Yeah. Like here's what happened to Jack Del Rio. He got fucking punked by Sean McVeyer.

Okay. With his son on the staff and all their buddies on the staff and everyone together on the staff. You know, his son who's the QC who coached one year in high school last year, got a QC job in the NFL. You're going to end up drug testing me after I give you one of the things that I liked from the game and it has to do with the defense. But continue. Opening drives.

both teams three and out by Washington and then promptly the Rams marched down the field, rhythm offense. They converted to second 15 on that drive. Yeah, right. In which I noted, I don't know if I've seen anybody better than Sean at getting eight yards in second long. To set up a third and makeable. I mean, just unbelievable. And then after the first Rams touchdown, they noted in the broadcast that in the first half, Washington's been outscored 75 to 24. Yeah, it's been, well, one of the keys on Friday for me was just keep it close. They've been down double digits at halftime in every game this year. And yesterday they were down 20 to 10 at halftime.

And we ended that key with you got to be ahead at the end, which obviously didn't happen. Yeah. The man coverage and third downs in the first half was not good. They're not a man coverage team. So why are they playing man coverage? Like, why has John Bostick split out on Gerald Everett? Yeah, why is that? I know.

That's a gimmy. Like, you split Everett out wide and Bostick watts out there. Every quarterback in America is going to throw it to Everett. But he didn't on that one play. I think he went to the other side. Did on the first third and four. Okay. And Everett caught it and converted.

I mean, the tight ends gashed every gashed him. Yeah. Run action shot, D. to Robert Woods, 56 yard down the field. The fuck were they even playing? Like, it looks like to me that they're in quarters in the corner gets sucked up. I'm not sure what they're in.

Obviously, Landon Collins, the closest. That was bad, man. They looked. That was right after Washington had scored to take the lead, seven, six. And I just sat there and I said, great defenses don't give up key momentum changes every time you get momentum.

Great defenses take over. Well, that was the drive, though, and it was the play before, I believe, or maybe two plays before, where they actually had a third and long, and Deshaezer Everett was called for a legitimate defensive pass interference. It was close. It was only about two seconds before the baller up. Well, the issue was, I think he could have made the play there without interfering, and they would have been off the field. So the Rams had a couple of penalties also that aided drives like that one. No, there's no doubt about it. Back to Bostick, who was a big I for me in this game.

The 40-yard or wherever it comes out of the backfield, watch Bostick react to that. Go watch that play and watch Bostick's reaction to it. It's a sneak little play where he's acting like he's lead block, and I used to love that little play. and then he leaks down the sideline and then they took quarters coverage off down the sideline. But Bostick's dropping the opposite direction of wherever it's running.

Where is the flat defense or anyone to carry him? I just wrote, Bostick is so lost. He was lost. Yeah. Yeah. Special teams, again, Isaiah Wright fumbles a punt. Tressway nearly gets a pump blocked. There were a couple key plays away from this getting out of hands.

hand quick. Well, Isaiah Wright also fielded a punt at the four-yard line. Yep. Fair caught it. He's got great situational awareness, clearly, because we'll get to another one of the years. The end of the half, if there's a chance for them to blow any kind of two-minute operation, they blow it. I mean, it was unbelievable. You get to check down to McKissick.

midfield. You have two timeouts. You don't call a timeout. You get another checkdown where he cuts it back up into field and it's like 28 seconds, 27 seconds. That's the one. And you're like, why are we not taking a timeout here? Because he doesn't know how to do this. Just like your boy, Gruden didn't know how to do it. They end up getting a snap with like 20 seconds left.

18. It's 18 and they throw a spot route to Terry McLaren. You're like, that's going to, that got us into field. range right there, baby. Three points. Here we go. Time out. 14 seconds left. They could have. If 14 seconds left, every huddle I've ever been in, you didn't have to practice this. Every huddle of every team I've ever been and said, you get the ball, just get out of bounce. Do you get the ball short? Get out of bounce. And Isaiah Wright catches the ball out in the flat on a little out route. It cuts it back up field. Yeah. Like, what are we doing?

And by the way, you can't look at that play yet on film, but I have. Take a shot. Terry McLaren's wide open on the post. The safety's cheated over to the three-man side. Terry McClurentz steps on Jalen Ramsey's toes, and he is over the top. It is a touchdown if the ball's thrown in the right spot. Take a shot.

You're down. They're going to keep scoring. You had a shot. I know that Alex Smith just got in the game, but the safety's cheated, Terry runs a heck of a post. Just look at the safety for a second before you dump it off of me.

That was before we'd been getting our ass kicked behind the line of scrimmage, at least Alex had. He hadn't taken a ton of hits at that point. We took a shot. The most obvious on the final drive before the end of the half is that McKissick is tackled on the play that gets you, you know, approaching field goal range with 34, 33 seconds left. You've got to, you've got to call it right then and there, right then and there. No question. And instead, they don't take their next snap until they're 18 seconds left and that next play ends with 14 seconds left. And now you take your second time out.

Now you've eliminated your chance at scoring a touchdown. Even if you don't want to take it, like go spike it. I know. No, don't spike it. Take the time out. Spiking it's going to take eight, nine seconds unnecessarily at the clock. I'm not going to debate that you should take the time out. It's not a debate.

But at least don't get to the line of scrimmage and try to call. play. It's ridiculous. It was so ridiculous. Yeah. But the whole operation every single time this season that they've had a chance to mess something up in a two-minute situation or in a hurry-up situation, they have botched it. They were playing for the, they were clearly just playing for the field goal. And you know why? Because they were convinced that now with Alex in the game, they were going to be explosive and score a lot of points in the second half. So let's just get three here because there's plenty more to come. No chance.

Which leads me to one of my biggest is Scott Turner and the game plan was dog crap. I know. It was all of the credit that he's gotten just because we got to get the ball out to beat Baltimore. We've got to throw it short because that's how we're going to operate with Duane. The game plan was garbage. They had literally no plan for Aaron Donald who wrecked the game, ball game. Like we said, he could do that. I don't know if maybe they hadn't heard of them.

You know, West Martin's been playing pretty well. Let's just five-man protect as much as we can, get the back out, get the ball out of our hands quick, and maybe Aaron Donald won't just destroy every play. Oh, well, he is. What do you want to do? Same thing. We just got to block him better.

Okay, two drives later. It's still not working. What do you want to do? You want to keep a back end, chip him something? No, no, no, no, no. Wessel step it up. Okay. Wesel step it up against Donald.

I mean, I wrote down in my notes while I was watching some film this morning. It was like big brother, little brother. But then I've noted it wasn't even really like that. It was like when we used to play football with my friends and it was like my friend Chris Hadowski's little brother, Joey, who was even smaller than my little brother.

That's how bad I beat, Joey. It was embarrassing. The offensive line was embarrassing. Drunk Christian was terrible. West Martin was terrible. They continued to get their ass kicked throughout the game. Moses was much slower. They aborted all technique.

Anytime anyone who was on Aaron Donald, it was just panic set. They played so unsoundly up front. And I just go back to this whole thing where it's like, in the culture change, you just do what we're asking you to do and we'll win games. And you know who else said that?

Jim Zorn said that. And we operated the shit offense that really gave us. no chance to just do what you're telling us to do. That was what Jim Zorn said. And that offense looked like Jim Zorn's offense. It was telegraphed. It was easily understood.

It was diagnosed by the Rams. And like, here's another point. If they would have handed off any of the fly sweeps that they had action, they were all gainers. Go back and watch the Rams linebackers look at fly sweep. Oh, they didn't. You can't give all these motions and not use them. You're doing things to do things.

You don't have a purpose for them. You can't just do things because they look good or you think they're cool. Like if there's no purpose, they understand there's no purpose. And so you're just wasting a guy. Can the fly sweep off? Their ability to get the ball down the field is non-existent. It's non-existent. And it got bad in the second half.

I understand with Alex that maybe late in the game, he finally threw the ball down the field a couple of times. It wasn't very good. He overthrew Terry on one deep ball that he was open. He threw into coverage on a deep shot over the middle of the Logan Thomas, didn't hold the safety, didn't see the safety. Great play by the dude. But ultimately, they can't get the ball down the field. They could not run the ball in this game.

They could not do anything. Well, they didn't really try to run the ball. They tried. Get anything going. Would they have 12 carries? They had 54 total plays and like five of them were penalties. Yeah. So, I mean, it's like top to bottom.

It was bad. It was so bad. On Friday, you said about Kyle Allen, look, they're going to operate a more, you know, sophisticated professional offense than they did last week against Baltimore. And I mentioned to you, I said, you know, Baltimore is really good on defense and the Rams are good up front. I think that they should employ the Baltimore scheme, even with Kyle Allen. Balls should be out quickly.

They should run a lot of bubbles, a lot of run extension throws to the backs, a lot of back behind the line of scrimmage, line of scrimmage stuff, because it actually did work last week. They moved the football that way. They tried to do some of that on the first drive of the second half with Alex. And they didn't get anything, and then they started to drop them back. back, which was an absolute, it was irresponsible in my view, but more on that coming up. Well, the first drive of the second half, he misses an RPO give and he throws a bubble out

into coverage. Yeah. And then the second drive was like indicative of the rest of the second play of the second half was indicative of his game throughout. He threw a swing to the back. He was really trying to high low the corner between Logan Thomas and the swing, two-man combination on two and zone. You have to at least entertain throwing the ball down the field to make the corner, make the decision.

Back off, yeah. You can't just make the decision, throw the back, and then let the Rams come up and tackle. And the Rams looked like the best tackling defense in the history of football. We couldn't break a tackle. But Alex was way too quick getting the ball out of his hands to underneath throw. Well, you can understand why he was. I mean, again, we're talking about the second play of the second half. Yeah.

he'd been sacked once he had a little pressure now it was a memorable sack it was Aaron Donald jumping on his back and with his all of his weight falling on top of him no I understand that completely I mean my god but memorable or not it doesn't mean we just are going to

quit playing oh and then just listening to Alex press conference afterwards I watched the whole thing. Like he said tough sledding 39 times. Yeah, Alex, it was tough sledding for sure. Right. So, right. They got out coached. They didn't just get outplayed. They got out coached.

You missed that. You didn't respond to what I just did. What'd you do? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Completely. Ultimately, completely. Right. It's tough sledding. Ultimately, it was completely tough sledding. What a story though, huh? Seriously, an amazing story. There was no chance in my mind after watching Project 11 that he would ever see an NFL field again except for maybe a ceremonial, you know, kneel down snap in a game,

like a preseason game when there was still a chance that there was a preseason. I just can't believe that that leg that I watched, whatever it was that was left of it, his leg that he's out there on an NFL field with Aaron Donald stalking him. Seriously, I just can't believe that it happened. It's incredible. There's no doubt about it that he is walking, running. Yeah.

Go and check down. Do you have any more? No, no, go ahead. All right. I'll get to my game take right. I'll get to my game take right after this word from one of our sponsors. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take.

All right, I have a couple of things that I liked, and I've got a longer list of things I didn't like, and then I think we should just focus in on a quarterback situation, because I think that's the conversation today, especially when you consider what Ron Rivera said after the game about why he didn't put Kyle Allen back in the game, and then all of the Dwayne Haskin stuff as well. I just had one note from your, from your, from your is and ums, that I, that I really made me think about something that was very interesting. You said, Sean McVeigh does such a good job on second and long in getting back to third makeable. And I was thinking about that because there are some teams that view second as 20 as we can get it all here.

Those teams are Kansas City, Seattle, and, you know, Green Bay to a lesser extent. but the teams that have the quarterbacks that can really extend the plays, they think about just getting the whole chunk back on second and 17 or second and 20. But then, Sean, and you notice this all of the time with Kevin Stefansky and the Vikings and last year, and then this year with Gary Kubiak and the Vikings and Kevin Stifansky with Mayfield, I've noticed. Second 20 is all about getting 11, 12, 13 yards to set up third and something makeable. It's just different philosophies.

You know, if you've got Mahomes and you've got Tyrie Kill and Travis Kelsey and McColl Hardman and Sammy Watkins, you have a chance of getting, I mean, why would we mess around with just trying to get 10 yards to set up 3rd and 10? We'll take two shots at 2nd and 20, and then 3rd and 20, we'll make one of these two. You know, you've noticed that, right? That there's some teams that are really good at setting up the 3rd makeable, and then, their teams that never want to see a third down. I just, it's... No, you're absolutely right, because in second and 15, second in 10 to 15, you're going to

take what they're going to give you, which essentially is a six to eight yard throw. Right. They want you to throw the check down, but they'll give you that six to eight yard throw. And then to your point, I actually did note this down. On the third and longs, like at some point, you've got to get over the top. Like, Philly does it all the time. It's not like it's always going to be there, but if you don't ever throw it over the top, Scott Turner,

you can't throw sticks routes on 3rd and 15 every single time. Well, they're waiting on the sticks routes. If you haven't taken a shot, they don't believe you're going to take a shot, so you don't ever have a throw. You know, cool. It's so...

A lot of times, they're sitting on sticks, and you can get over the top. Forget about 3rd and 18. It's so funny that you're mentioning this, because I think in just watching games as a fan, that on the third and fours, third and five's, third and sixes, they're sitting on sticks. And that's the opportunity to get a big chunk play, to forget about just moving the chains. But if you can really, if you can put the threat out there that you're not just going to look to move the chains,

but you're going to take a shot and potentially punt if you miss, then you're going to make the third and fives and the third and sixes, easier. I think there are too many teams that I watch that in third and four, third and five, quarterbacks in the shotgun, that's fine. They're looking for the play that just moves the chains, where those are the opportunities to really take a shot. Yeah, no. And I think you're right, Philadelphia is. Dup at McKissick on third and seven, three yards and hope he can run for it. Right. Philadelphia is one of those teams. Kansas City is one of those teams. I mean, third and six, they're not looking to move the chains. They are still in, we're chucking the ball,

down the field mode. Anyway, let me get to my list of things that I liked. One of them you're going probably drug test me on. I'll start with this. I mean, the return of Alex Smith was beyond incredible, obviously. I just think that, you know, this guy is a winner in life, period. When you have that kind of competitive spirit and resilience, whatever word you want to use, it's an incredible thing. I do not, and I'm just going to say this right now, I do not want to see Alex Smith again. I I don't think that it's a path to nowhere in my view. I'm thinking about the franchise in trying to become a competitive franchise in the NFL, not about, you know, creating a great story for maybe a movie script.

I'm not into that. I saw what I needed to see yesterday. I know that there was rust on them and all of that's true. But there's no there's no path to major success in going down the Alex. Smith Road. There just isn't. You know, he wasn't that good in 2018. So how is it that all of a sudden he's going to become much better in 2020 after being off two years? On the list of things, more on him coming up, on the list of things I liked. And I just want you to bear, you know, give me a chance here. I know that McVeigh did exactly, and Kevin O'Connell did exactly what you feared would happen,

which is, you know, they've got golf into a rhythm. They're gaining yards on first down, and they've got Washington's defeat defense completely and utterly bamboozled for the first three drives of the game. And those first three drives of the game set the tone for the rest of the game because they scored three times. There were three touchdowns. They built a two-score lead. And it was, you know, it was massively impactful to the final result of the game.

With that said, After the first three drives, in which they scored 20 points, had 232 yards, were four for four on third down, and average 10.4 yards per play. They then had nine possessions. I didn't count the last one on the kneel downs, in which they were two for 10 on third down. The defense had an interception. They had a stop on fourth down, which was lucky because it was more of a drop. and they basically the Rams averaged like five yards per play. I understand the importance and significance of those first three drives.

Don't get me wrong. I also know that the rain started to come down and they had a lead, and maybe they took their foot off the pedal to a certain degree, although I didn't really see that in the first couple of drives of the second half or the last two of the first half. but the defense after the first three drives played well. It did. I bet when you go back and you do your film breakdown of the defense this week,

that you're going to see a much better effort and a much better idea of what the Rams were doing. I specifically think Montez Sweat, who's been good all year long, was outstanding yesterday. And the thing that we didn't see from him in the first 10, 12, games last year. The thing that I loved and told you about when I said, this dude from Mississippi State is going to be a badass in the NFL is that he just has great athletic ability and speed, but he's also got such a good energy and motor. We didn't see that last year. I think he was thinking too much. How about the play late in the game when the game's over and Cam Acres breaks a tackle

and he's out in the open and here comes Montez's sweat from I don't know how far back to make the tackle. I just love the effort and the energy and the motor on Montes-Sweat, which goes with tremendous athletic ability. I thought that was a bad roughing the passer call on him, too. I didn't think that was roughing the passer. I didn't think it was roughing the pass. I didn't like that call. The last two things on the things that I liked list, I thought in the first half, the only offensive player that in the entire game that stood out was McKissick because of the way he made people miss after he had six, he hit six catches for 46 yards in the first half and did a really good job of making people miss. There was that, there was that nice job where he sort of

tightroped almost backwards, sideways, down the sideline to turn a four-yard play into an eight-yard play. And then on the next play, it was third and two, and it was a great second effort run, probably their best run of the day other than the quarterback run. But I thought he was pretty good. And then the Kyle Allen touchdown run was a good play. And it was a good challenge. You know, not everybody picked up on this because the broadcast, I think, struggled with it. I think initially they thought it was a touchdown being reviewed by the Rams. But it actually wasn't.

It was a play that wasn't called a touchdown that Rivera challenged. And I had, you know, I had my son saying, why did he stick the ball out that way? Why didn't he put it over? And I said, well, he knows the rule that the pylon, once you're in the end zone, extends for infinity. Like he protected the ball in that particular spot. It was a good play. It was a good challenge.

All right. Now let me get to the things that I didn't like. The early defense, the first three drives of the game were the tone setter. So I'm complimentary of the defense after the first three drives, but I recognize that, you know, despite the play being a good play, Mrs. Lincoln, you know, lost her husband that night. So I understand that the first three drives produced three. Rams touchdowns and 20 points.

And that defensively, they seem to not be prepared, the motions, the bootlegs, the running game, people running wide open. And when they weren't wide open and you had a chance to get off the field, DeShazer Everett, who was out there a lot for Apkey yesterday, I'm committed to pass interference call. There were mistackles again. And look, your guy who should be here is just really good at scheming it up and calling plays. There's a reason the Rams came into this game is one of the most efficient

offenses in the NFL and one of the best third down offenses in the NFL. By the way, one other quick point, and I think I said this to you on Friday, I've heard a lot of people say the Rams have a bunch of, you know, okay players, but it's just the scheme. Henderson and Acres are very good as backs. Cup and Woods are good, and their tight ends are more than capable. I don't think that they've got a bunch of scrubs offensively, and it's just just, genius offense, you know, offensively in terms of scheme that's creating the results. I think, if you recall, Henderson was one of the backside of Memphis that I liked. I did not love Acres, but man, he's good too.

Next thing on the list of things that I didn't like list. It was just, for me, as a lifelong football fan, I've never seen a more inept offensive performance than what I saw in the second half in particular. Look, the game itself, 108 total yards, third fewest yards since 1961 in an NFL game. But the second half offense with Alex Smith at the helm was the worst offensive display I have ever seen without a turnover. You know, I mentioned before.

You know, you see offenses like, remember Nathan Peterman had that ridiculously awful game for Buffalo a couple of years ago? but I've never seen what we saw yesterday, which is total and utter ineptness offensively without a turnover. It was all-time bad. I mean, I don't know what yesterday – I haven't seen it stack up historically to anything, but I have to think it's on the list of the worst offensive halves without a turnover in NFL history. Zero points, zero first downs, minus six yards, six three and outs, and then the three and out where they went for it on fourth down and didn't get it.

It was the most feeble offensive half I've ever seen. I don't remember one this feeble. If you guys know one that comes to mind, tweet me at Kevin Sheen, D.C. Alex Smith in the second half was four for 11 for two yards. Two yards of passing. I mean, that's like impossible in this day and age. Now, was it all his fault? No, the offensive line was dominated, overwhelmed from the start. The Rams stopped the few attempts at running the ball that Washington tried.

They had 12 real runs, if you count the two that were more quarterback-oriented, that they got back to the line of scrimmage. The pass pressure was immediate, which forced Turner. See, something you said on Friday and then you said it again today. I think that they felt once they sat Dwayne, oh, now we got a real quarterback and we're going to be able to throw the ball down the field. Well, not against this team. They weren't going to be able to do it. And I just, and I told you on Friday, it wouldn't surprise me if we see more of the Baltimore stuff, more of the sideways stuff and line of scrimmage stuff. And, you know, Kyle Allen was okay.

I noticed that him under siege a couple of times, he was able to get it out quickly. His mobility helped. He was nine for 13 for 74 yards. I noticed one particular play where he recognized the blitz, checked into something, got the ball out very quickly to McKissick underneath, and McKissick got like six of the seven yards. I think it set up a third and one, something like that. But poor Alex Smith was immediately under siege and was coolly, I went back and looked. He was sacked on five of the 15 pass plays called in the second half, six sacks.

overall, counting the first one by Aaron Donald. On the 15 pass play is called, he was hit on 10 of the 15. If it was a drop back, it was better than even money that he was either going to get sacked or hit. The return of Alex Smith was an amazing story. He and his offense were brutal to watch. Brutal to watch. I, again, I didn't think Kyle Allen was terrible. He wasn't

great, but his mobility gave them more of a chance. I think Dwayne would have been more effective than Alex. But the bottom line is, like, if you're being kind in describing Alex Smith's play, you would say, well, he was rusty.

You know, he hasn't been out there for two years. and there would have been something accurate about describing it that way. But if you're not being as kind, you would say it was one of the worst quarterback performances you have ever watched as an NFL fan. And he wasn't totally at fault himself. But we have seen, you know, worse situations. Baltimore's defense is better than the Rams defense.

And then to me, the biggest, you know, thing that I didn't like for the entire game, game was I just felt they exposed Alex Smith unnecessarily in the second half. He should have been pulled. And Rivera's... I'm sorry? Or Logan Thomas? No, no, Kyle Allen was cleared. Kyle. That's right. Kyle Allen was cleared to play. And Ron Rivera said after the game, continuing with his complete and utter confusing pressers post-game and midweek pressers and day after pressers. He said that he didn't want to put Kyle Allen back into the game for, quote, an abundance of caution, closed quote. Seriously? Think about that. Allen was cleared to play.

He had been talking about, hey, we're going to make some hay in this division now. This division's winnable. And Kyle Allen was cleared to play and was clearly the better option and did not come back into the game. But abundance of caution, Rivera, for two straight weeks, was protected. his players, he said, by not calling timeouts. Once he could see that Alex Smith wasn't capable of doing much, Alex Smith should have been the reason for abundance of caution. Be abundantly cautious with the guy that nearly died two years ago and is playing in his first game since the near leg amputation death situation. He was ambushed by Aaron Donald. I was sitting there watching this. I'm going, get him the hell out of the game.

Did it occur to Ron once that Alex was the one that needed the abundant caution? At least Kyle Allen's got some mobility. If Alex Smith had been injured in that game Cooley yesterday on one of those six sacks or ten hits, it would have been on Rivera for not pulling him. They sent him to slaughter. You know, and you know me, I'm the one that said, don't pull Robert Griffin the third from that playoff game. It's a fucking playoff game.

and he's been cleared by the doctor, and it's a close game. Philip Rivers played on a torn ACL, so I'm not the guy that is squeamish and doesn't want somebody who might get hurt out of the game. This is Alex Smith. He just nearly lost his life two years ago. And the coach is telling us that he's not putting Alan back into the game for abundant caution. Is he serious? He was a sitting duck.

he's very lucky to have gotten out of that game unscathed. Thank God, you know, thank God. He was mauled, mauled for an hour and a half. You threw in the towel, Ron, two weeks ago for two straight weeks, in week two and week three, and talked about protecting your players, and then he left Alex Smith out there to be slaughtered. I couldn't believe it. You had rain falling, you had a slick field,

you had an offensive line that was leaking like a sieve, and Aaron Donald was stalking him down on every dropback. He was twisted, he was knocked around, he was overwhelmed on every pass attempt. Abundance of caution, not for the guy that nearly died two years ago, but for the other guy, Cooley, that was as confusing oppressor as I've ever seen. When he said that, I'm like, oh my God, this is an organization that for two decades has continued to confuse and confound and puzzle everybody that follows it.

But the last month, I've never, never been more confused by these postgame and midweek pressers more than I've been over the last month. And look, I want Ron to be well. That's most important. The other stuff doesn't matter compared to his health. he's clearly not, you know, totally with it right now. He just isn't. I think we can all recognize that. And he has every justification to not be totally with it right now.

But my God, did he, I thought it was irresponsible to leave Alex Smith in that game. Utterly irresponsible. And not to mention the fact that where is it going with Alex Smith anyway? Like, were we hoping for the miracle so that we had the, finish to the movie that Snyder's going to get the rights to? That was obscene. And then at the very end, Cooley, the final drive, they're at their, you know, four-yard line or whatever it is. And there's the two-minute warning and they've got like a third and five or something. And I tweeted out right before that, if Rivera really cares about his players, now is the time to

protect them. Take a knee, punt it, and let them take three knees and get the hell out without having anybody exposed anymore. But no, he's got Alex Smith and shotgun, and Smith throws a ball out to McKissick and Jordan Fuller blew him up, blew him up for no gain. I mean, what are we doing here? We trying to win, not trying to win. Are we protecting the players or are we not protecting the players? We got to get this thing together before somebody makes a big mistake. Yesterday, leaving Alex Smith in that game with the rain pouring down with no chance to win with Aaron Donald just I mean by the way Aaron Donald was not taking it easy on Alex Smith there was no desire for for Aaron Donald to say oh I read I watch your documentary too I'm going to take it easy on you no he was trying to set the record for sacks in a game by an interior defensive lineman and and and he's going to he he didn't put Kyle out of Allen back into the game because of an abundance of caution? Help me with that one. That's one of the biggest disconnects of all time, and he left the guy that nearly died two years ago out there to be

slaughtered. Slaughtered. Look at some of the twisting, ugly hits he took in that game. I just, I could not believe it. I could not believe it. And I'm glad that he said Kyle Allen's the starter next week. and he apparently backed that up in his presser today, but said, you know, as long as he's cleared, well, he was cleared yesterday. So there is no end game. There's the path with Alex Smith leads to nowhere. The path with Kyle Allen likely leads to nowhere. But if they're not going to give Dwayne another chance here, and it sounds like they're not,

we'll get to that next, then just play Kyle Allen, bring up Stephen Montez from the practice squad, have him back up Allen, and let's draft a quarterback. You know, let's hopefully you end up in the top five, which is a distinct possibility, and you have a chance at Fields or the guy from North Dakota State, if you like him. This Alex Smith, again, God bless him. It's an incredible story. I'm so impressed. He should not have been in that game yesterday after, I don't know, the third quarter,

and he should not be back on the field again, period. I totally agree with you 100% no questions asked. I'm going to take a little bit different track on this particular game and say, Kyle Allen was your best opportunity to win. Yes. Kyle Allen was better than Alex Smith in the game. And after Alex started the second half, and you could clearly see that he was not going to hold on the ball long enough to get it down the field.

And if he was, he was going to die back there. You had to get somebody in who could at least run around. Kyle Allen was much better than Alex Smith. Yeah, he was. That's point A is when you watch the game, I'm not going to sit here and suggest that Kyle Allen was an A performance, but it was better than Alex Smith, at least in operating the garbage that they were trying to operate offensively

because it was an ugly, it was an ugly game plan. And they can say whatever they want to say, and Scott Turner can stand up and say, look, we were getting pressured every single. They find a way. There's things you've got to be able to do. You've always said you can scheme around bad pass pro. There are a lot of ways to scheme around bad path pro, and it's not put three guys in the backfield

and try to run some rinky dink screen where Kyle Allen's got to dump it into the ground because four Rams players saw the screen on second and one. I mean, that's not always the way. They also didn't throw one slip screen when the week before they executed on nine of them. Actually, I think they did one to Gibson that he got out, something like that. But they didn't go back to that.

Alex Smith is 100% not the answer. It is a great story. I got no problem with that. And Alex Smith is going to be a fine guy if you have to bring him in to back up. You know, it's cadence, I noted, was excellent at the line of scrimmage. Defendative, you could hear him clearer than Dwayne or Kyle Al. Get him in and he knows what he's doing. Right.

But that's what you're asking out of your backup. It's so funny all the people that told me I loved Alex Smith from 2018. No, I didn't. I thought he was terrible in 2018 here. I didn't think he was good then. I'm not going to suggest that he was good at all now. You're going to get a lot of three-outs. What is this Alex Smith? What is this Alex Smith thing about Coley, organizationally? I mean, is it about the story?

I mean, you know, I said something. I was talking to Ben Standing today after the radio show briefly off the air, and he asked me something. And I said, look, if you're in these meeting rooms and you're in the middle of this thing, like I could see where, you know, Dwayne's a child, you know, Alan knows more, but Alex has this incredible authority of experience and leadership and the whole thing. And you're like, after dealing with Dwayne, who apparently is rather immature, we're going to get to all of that, that you just, you believe in Alex. Like, he's probably a guy that really makes you believe.

I totally get that. And so now you're, since he's been. been clear, you're like, well, maybe he's the answer. The one thing I know from a lot of experiences, leadership demands success. And if you can't play, you can't really lead. Everyone's going to look up to Alex

and everyone's going to believe in all the work. But if you can't really play, it's hard to lead. Because everyone wants to succeed. So I think that's I think that's tough. I just, He wasn't ready to play. I don't know if he's ever going to be really ready to play.

And if it is, it's where he could be protected by the best offensive in the league or he at least has a definitive one and two that can win. But when I say that, that was always Alex Smith. The good Alex Smith was when he had a definitive one and two who could win right now. And a running game. Like if you know Tariq Hill is going to win within a second and a half of the the play, that changes everything. We don't have that.

So, I mean, to me, it was Kyle Allen. It will be Kyle Allen. You're not, obviously, not going anywhere with Alex Smith, right? Completely understand that, right? I think that's true. I'm not even slightly betting on the fact that you do have anything in Allen, but at least there's a chance to find out if you can play that hand.

right you're folding if you're going to play alex smith right or your talk and the story's going to end and it's not it's what do you want this this fairy tale deal to be 32 yards a game by the way the record of negative seven yards in one game Seattle 1979 oddly enough we mentioned in this story Jim Zorn who was two of 17 25 years yards sacked for over 55 yards. Our friend Sherman Smith, seven carries 16 yards. And they ended a game with negative seven total yards. Unbelievable.

That's going to be a hard one to break. Yeah. Against the Rams. That's funny. Yeah, those late 70s Rams teams were good on defense. Yeah. I'm totally with you. There's nothing I need to see in the future from Alex Smith.

There's no storyline that I need to play out. Unless you really want to draft a quarterback. What, and then play them so you're guaranteed to lose? No, it's just an easier way to tank. You know, I mean, I think two things. First of all, you haven't responded to my criticism of Ron Rivera hanging him out to dry unnecessarily. Do you agree with me on that?

Nope. You don't. I think that Alex was capable of getting the ball out of his hands, and he did. and he wanted to play, and he's been cleared by every doctor in the history of doctors. And so if Ferran's going to play him, he's been assured that Alex isn't going to have another catastrophic leg injury. So you were more... I don't agree that Kyle Allen, I don't...

The comment that he made about the safety of Kyle Allen is on par with Mike Shanahan saying that Rex Grossman was in better cardiovascular shape than Donovan. He weren't really protecting Kyle Allen. Really? Did you really believe that? I don't know what to believe anymore from him. I'm not blaming him for his, you know, right now his inconsistency and, you know, misgist, the information being confusing, I think he's got a hell of a lot going on in his life right now.

So I'm empathetic towards that. You felt like Kyle Allen gave him the much better. chance to win, so why not play Kyle Allen since he had been cleared? I'm just telling you that if true, like if your reason is, oh, he'd been cleared by all the doctors and he was fine and they didn't have any concern about him being out there, that may be true, but once you saw what was going on, I would have gotten him out of there because what was going on was an absolute ambushing of him. And he was getting absolutely twisted, turned, and hit, and hit hard and sacked.

I mean, the dude got sacked five times on 15 dropbacks. I mean, did you want him to get sacked? Did you want him to get, you know, compromised? Did you want risk of injury? Even if you didn't have the history? If you're going to even question that, then just cut him. Well, no, that's not what the owner wants. That's not going to happen.

I'm suggesting to you, if you're worried about it, then he can't be on your team. I don't worried about it. Look, and it was fine. I'm not into, I'm, there are two things here. One, I can, you know, I can certainly on one hand say how much I respect him as a person and an athlete and a competitor. And I'm glad for him that he got himself back into the other, into the position he did. And then on a completely different subject, say, as a fan of the football team, I want to what's best for the football team.

And I don't see where Alex Smith playing for this team is best for the football team long term. I don't see that. That's where I'm trying to go with it, not necessarily that I'm worried about Alex's health. Okay. Well, I get your argument to Ron's point. If you were worried for one of their safety, who would it be? Yes. That's really more.

The argument's ridiculous. The other thing, too, coolly, is that I actually. Actually, as we're sitting here, I'm not trying to say that every single time that Alex Smith takes the field, it's going to be four for 11 for two yards in the second half. Or seven for, what was he, nine for 17 for 37 yards overall, okay, with a QBR of three. I'm not saying that he won't have a better day offensively and that against a worst team and, you know, with maybe Brandon Sheriff back or whatever, that he might not have. a moment or two, just like I think Kyle Allen could have a moment or two. The point here is they're going nowhere this year. They have to figure out their long-term quarterback answer. It's become clear over the last week that it's not Dwayne. It's clear to me that it's not

Alex. So what's the point of playing Alex? It might be Kyle. I think that's a long shot, but it might, it's got more of a chance of being Kyle than Alex. So I'd like to see Kyle Allen be in the lineup starting every game from here on out. If they want to keep Alex as a backup, okay. Personally, they got this guy, Montez, on the practice squad. He played pretty well at Colorado. I'd rather see him. But that's not the organization, Cooley, per usual, is not just focused on football. They're focused on stories and marketing and the relationship clearly between Alex and the owner, which is, you know, as you know, a love affair, this is important to the owner, as was giving Dwayne a chance, which is why they, you know, foolishly went down that path and wasted

everybody's goddamn time for the first four weeks of the season when the head coach knew that he didn't want to do anything with Dwayne, but he did it anyway. So we're in this, you know, this Washington football vortex of hell consistently. I just don't see the Alex Smith road leading to anywhere, even though I will concede that he'll play a lot better than he did yesterday when the rust is knocked off and they play a worse opponent and maybe they've got a healthier offensive line. I mean, he'll get better, I'm sure, but I keep thinking back to 2018. How many times have we had this conversation? Those of you that were, you know, fooled into believing that six and three was going to turn into 12 and 4 in a Super Bowl run.

I think you're crazy. I think that offense was a house of cards and that it wasn't, that it was going to barely make the playoffs if it was going to make the playoffs at all. I thought Alex Smith was very pedestrian in 2018. I thought that they were really a very unimpressive offensive football team. Was he great at checking down and not turning the ball over and letting the game stay in the game and win some close?

games, yeah, but we know what happened when they played good teams like Atlanta that year or New Orleans. They got blown the blank out. You know, they weren't going to beat Dallas or they weren't going to win that division. They may have gone nine and seven instead of seven and nine and eaked out a wild card spot, but they weren't going to do anything. It was a bad, it was a very subpar offensive football team. And it was subpar quarterbacking other than protecting the ball, which is important, and hitting the checkdown. No question about it. Their best case scenario was everyone completely healthy, which they weren't.

They needed Jordan Reed in that year. They needed to have Jamison Crowder completely healthy all season. Paul Richardson was an absolute bust. Yeah. They weren't good enough on offense in 2018 to win 10 games. And the defense was a fraud. The best case scenario, the best case scenario, the best case scenario was 10 wins at 6 and 3.

And that is a game that's in which they still should have beat Houston to go to 7 and 3. Should have won that game. Yeah, the real answer is he was a 6 and 4 quarterback. They were going to lose the game. He was in the midst of his worst game of the year when he got hurt. He had thrown two picks in the first half, one got returned 100 yards for a touchdown. And he wasn't very good. I'm looking it up right now because I forget the numbers.

He was 12 of 27 before he got hurt. 12 of 27 for 135 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions, excuse me, no touchdowns, and was sacked three times in basically a half of football. And they were down- We're just not going to play this. They were going to win. I'm not going to pull. You and I were doing the show together.

We both know what that team was. He was never better than a C-plus in any game, I think, that season. I'd go back and look through my notes. Maybe he had one B in nine games. The Green Bay game was his best game. When Aaron Rogers was hurt. Right. You know, and they were able to beat the past.

hackers in week three. The team, and probably walk and still played. Yeah, the defense was fraudulent, too. They were great against, you know, average offensive teams are effective enough. And then, you know, when they played Atlanta or played New

Orleans, I mean, Tampa had five, one of the biggest statistical anomalies in history, Tampa was the first team in NFL history to record 500 yards plus of offense and only score three points. They missed three field goals. They turned it over four times inside the skin's 25-yard line or whatever

it was, and then they gave up 40 and a half to the Giants that year. I mean, let's not forget that. I mean, this team was not, it wasn't just Alex Smith. The team was a house of cards. I actually think that Jay Gruden did his best coaching job that year, by far, especially late in the year with Josh Johnson. I think the game that they had at Tennessee was one of the best game plans and understandings of a situation that Jay Gruden never coached him when he basically said, we got one way, and it's Adrian Peterson. And Peterson basically strapped them to their back and nearly won the game. Wasn't there a backdoor cover on the final play of the game? Wasn't there a big backdoor cover? Yeah, didn't they turn it over the last, one of the last

plays in that game? One of the pitch around plays, and then it got returned. I think it was. I remember the Kansas City game in 2017 was the backdoor cover on the, you know, let's throw it around on the final play deal. and it ended up in a touchdown. I think the Tennessee game was the same thing right here. Anyway. You're right on that. We've got to talk about Dwayne Haskins next,

right after this word from a sponsor. All right, I want to get to this Dwayne Haskins thing, but just one quick thought about the defense. I just want your response. Through five games, I know that there's a lot of criticism of the defense today. It was the first game in which they were torched early. defensively. I'm not talking about the turnovers that set up scores. That's not true. Philadelphia

torched them early with the tight ends. But I am still optimistic that A, they're a much better defense this year than they were last year. That's not saying much. I understand that. B, that they're better coached and C, there's a real bright future defensively with maybe another piece or two. But I'm still, I still see signs that this defense has a chance this time next year to be really good. What do you see? There's absolutely signs that they have a chance to be really good.

And it's clear to see what they lack, but at least what they have, I think, are massive positives. I think your front five are all massive positives. You're going to end up having to pay these guys, though, as you get into the next couple of years. like Jonathan Allen's probably up for a contract here very soon. Well, they picked up the option for next year, right? They picked up the fifth year option. You're going to have to pay him. Drum Payne's going to be right there where you're going to have to pick up an option.

I mean, Montez is going to be three years in next year. You don't have to do it right away. They lack at least one good linebacker. So maybe if Ruben Foster happened to have been that guy, I don't know, you definitely need a safety and then what are you going to do with landing Collins because right now it's not good well you're on the hook for another two years for him I'm aware of the fact that you're on the hook but when does he get good is he terrible no he's not terrible but when you pay here's I did like this forever cap analysis I remember and there's a million different ways

the teams utilize their cap positionally, how they do is a quarterback, is a skill players, or defense, whatever. The teams that win are the teams that get the most out of the high paid players. That's the only thing that I could ultimately come up with,

was the cap number players, over $6,7 million are your stars. And Colin's cap numbers, $14.2 million this year. It's not a star. It's more the next couple years. Right. Next year, you have dead money of $33 million if you were to cut him. So you're obviously not. You're not doing that. But I mean, he's 17.2 next year in 2021, $17.2 million for a box safety.

So yeah, you can be good on defense, but you got to get the most out of those big time players. Right. Right. Yeah. You know, that, that to me was the only cap analysis that I could ultimately come up with was be damn sure when you overpay. Well, I remember part of your analysis was you came up with a list of the highest paid players. It was like every player was either hurt, not very good, or, you know, holding out like Trent. You know, it was.

Well, that was one, that was a Washington cap analysis. But two, I did a general overall across the league span. and who's paying what positions, you know, trying to figure out where you're denoting money. Yeah. And ultimately it was your star players have to play well. And right now you're paying Alex Smith, what's his cap number this year?

$20 million. And Landon Collins is $14 million. And Ryan Kerrigan, who plays 20 plays a game. 11.5. Is $11.6 million on the cap this year. Yeah. Your three highest paid players are you're getting nothing out of. which means you're not going to win games.

Rebuild or no rebuild, when your three highest paid players are C players or less, you lose. That's really what it comes down to. Your top five paid players have to be your five best players. All right. Let's get to the... So, yeah, if they can be good next year, they have talent.

They do need a couple key pieces. Let's get to Dwayne Haskins. So since Friday, since the show, you know, We had the less carpenter piece, which we knew. We had the story, a few stories, including one, I think, from Grant Paulson on 106-7, that Dwayne was celebrating after the Baltimore game, his fantasy numbers for that game. Then we had Jason Lockenfora yesterday morning come out with the following story, titled Strong Expectation, Dwayne Haskins will be traded before the deadline.

some rival execs are already watching film. He wrote that Rivera's, the relationship between the quarterback and Rivera's staff is already fairly toxic. And according to multiple sources within the organization, he believes, after talking to those sources within the organization, that a trade by the end of the month is the most likely outcome. several sources close to Haskins have advised him that a trade would be far and away the best possible outcome, ideally to a solid franchise with an experienced veteran quarterback that 23-year-old could learn from. And then there was this in the Lock and Forrest story. Numerous sources who have been in contact with Washington staff members told me that there was the strong perception that Haskins was not a good fit early on

and that he was only a starter because he was a favorite of owner Daniel Snyder, whose children went to school with Askins. They did not go to school with Haskins. Yeah, I know. His son attended Bullets. Long after DeWing was going. Right. Quote, what they'll tell. That's, by the way, great controlling the media.

One league source telling a lot of Lachinfora. What they'll tell you in that building is that he is a project who was drafted by the owner and the owner's son. That's the bottom line there. Alan is their guy. They think he fits their system. They didn't really want to, anything to do with Haskins from the beginning. Close quote. Look, I, first of all, I believe. Don't sign here. Don't coach here. True. You're saying Rivera. Rivera. Yeah, I agree. If you don't want to participate in the science project, then don't participate. You know, I'm doing a little mini planetarium here.

You should see my Saturn. I've built the best rings for Saturn. And then I've got the coolest red spot for Jupiter Cooley. And, you know, I have, I mean, my Pluto, which actually is no longer a planet. But when I was a kid, it was a planet. I've got the cutest little Pluto. Wait till you see my project. You're going to love it.

Worf. Yeah, dwarf. I just, no, number one, I believe that Dwayne's camp has asked for a trade. I'll just mention that. I have a strong suspicion that Dwayne's camp has asked for a trade as well. So I think there are a couple of things here. Number one, for me, based on his performance last, year and his performance this year.

They're two totally different performances. However, if I'm just judging the organization based on what I see on the field, I would want Dwayne to play the final 11 games. At the same time, I totally recognize and can appreciate and would side with a coaching staff, new coaching staff, that says, we don't think he's it and we don't want to waste any more time. And then beyond that, if the reasons that they don't think he's it is because he's immature, because he's got bad work ethic because he just doesn't get it,

which, let's be honest, we all as adults know people that we work with or work for or have managed that don't get it, and he may be one of these guys. Look, this is coaching staff number two. We used to say this about Bob, about Bobby Three Sticks. We would say, look, it's not just the Shanahan staff,

but it's the Gruden staff, and then it's the Cleveland staff. So at some point, for those of you that were hanging on to Robert Griffin the 3rd should be a starter in the NFL, it was him. It wasn't everybody else. So where there's smoke, there's fire. Like, if he's not mature enough and the coaching staff doesn't believe in him, they should cut bait right now and they should trade him. And I'm totally behind that. I just hate that they wasted four weeks of our time to try to please the owner. To me, that's just an indication that the franchise isn't changing and it's not going to change. But I think Duane's got to be dealt. If all of this stuff is true, they just need to trade them now or certainly before the trade deadline.

What would be the reason you would keep him on this roster? There's not one. He'll get traded. He'll absolutely get traded. It's just in that story by luck and four, it goes on to mention that the Cardinals traded Josh Rosen for a second round pick in 2019, just selecting him 10th overall. Well, you ain't getting a second rounder.

Not after the way they've summarined him publicly. Well, there were personality issues with Josh Rosen. A lot of people were concerned that Rosen couldn't fit in the locker room. Right, but they built him up. They made it appear like it was, you know, hard for them to part with him. This organization, this organization leaks stuff about the guy to totally make him look terrible. And if he wants traded,

like, you better stop calling in sick to work. I mean... That's bad advice, man. You know? Like, Hey, boss. If he's your client,

what would you have told him yesterday morning? Get to the field. Yeah. Now. Doc. It's going to be the meaning as hell when you get, when someone trades a sixth. Doc said this morning

He said if I were involved with the young man I would have had him in Sibley and I would have been there speaking on behalf of him saying yeah he's really really ill This is you know pray for him We think he's going to survive But he got a terrible terrible stomach virus Not COVID

But you know I I think I don't think you're not getting a second I doubt you're getting a third You said conditional third I doubt you're getting a conditional third. I think you're starting to entertain what comes up in the fourth.

But when you do, when you have two staffs, and by the way, completely different mentalities and two staffs. True. Like, Jay Gruden is one mentality, and Ron Rivera is an entirely different personality. And you have two staffs. You have every GM and every coach that would be involved in this trade around the league, talking to these guys and saying, well, what the hell happened here? And if you think they're going to sub-orreen him to the media,

they're going to submarine him everywhere. You also have people, like, you have people in the building didn't want to draft him. So for their benefit to some extent, are saying, we didn't want to see, we knew this would happen. And they don't want to sit here and say, he's great, he's great, we loved him, just didn't work out. You know, we evaluated him high and that's why we took him. No, no, no, no, no. If I'm evaluating players for the draft and you call me and ask about Duane, I'm saying all day, it. Yeah, I knew we were going to get this.

The owner took it. You're just not getting a positive endorsement. And for whatever reasons, it is D.C. Or Virginia or Maryland or wherever you want to call this team, it's Washington team. It, you have enough people that want to protect themselves and protect their own interest that no one's going to endorse him. It's a small enough community.

Calls are made. Here's the bottom. line. The bottom line is if you can get two teams interested, you've got a chance to get something of value. If you can get two teams that say, I'd like to work with this guy. He has been in a position. It's fair to say, Cooley, and I'm not defending him, because if his actions have been what they've been reported to be, he's old enough. He's a grown man, and he's not listening to people who have told him differently. Or maybe the people around him are not giving him good advice. But somebody out there could say he got drafted by a group of coaches that didn't want him.

Then the new coaching staff that came in, didn't draft him, didn't want him. He's never had somebody, you know, in the football organization other than the owner advocating on his behalf, wanting him to be successful, being invested into him being successful. You know, I mentioned this the other day. I'd love to see him with Mike Tomlin. I'd love to see him with Frank Reich. Like a couple of places where he could sit for a year or two, or in the case of Pittsburgh, maybe longer, behind a real guy with a real coaching staff that, you know, that could work with them. But, you know, there's also part of me that understands if he's one of these kids that's got all the answers and he's not, you know, he doesn't get it and he's not going to get it,

then he's going to be out of the league. a lot sooner than anybody would have anticipated. No, there's no doubt. I think Indy would be one real potential. I'm looking at trade fits right now. New England, not going to happen. They don't want to teach people how to work. In that comment, I'm not suggesting that he doesn't think he's willing.

My suggestion has always been he has to learn how to work. Right. That's not an indictment on Duane's personality. It's just suggesting a lot of young players have to learn this. I see Las Vegas. No, John is going to talk to Jay on that one. They're not going to do that. Denver, I think they like Drew Locke.

New Orleans is not going to take him. Indy Pittsburgh? Those are the two that I came up with. San Francisco? No. No. Who has quarterback issues right now, you know? Well, San Francisco's got quarterback issues,

but I can tell you right now, I don't think that, I think Mike's opinion of him coming out was that it was going to take a lot of work. Mike, not a fan. Yeah, that it was going to take a lot of work. What about... What about Tampa?

What about Tampa? Tampa would be a great fit for him. Tampa would be a good fit. Yeah. Chicago? I can't see... I don't see the Andy Ray. to back up,

Indy to back up. It'd be interesting if he ended up backing up Daniel Jones in New York. I don't think that would be the case, though. Let's be clear about something. They're three and a half point underdogs against the Giants. This whole idea of winning the division, Washington's the worst team in the division, okay? They're the worst team in the division right now.

They are the worst team offensively in the league, certainly one of the worst teams offensively in the league. And if you watch Daniel Jones people, sorry, I'm going to say this. Daniel Jones is going to be. Daniel Jones has so much more potential than anything we've watched in a Washington uniform this year at quarterback. I know that he makes killer mistakes after killer mistakes. I've watched him now multiple times this year. There is something to Daniel Jones coolly.

I don't know if he's going to make it or not, but he is a, he's an extender. He's a playmaker, and that team's better than us. It's why they're favored. We're not sweeping the Giants. This notion, oh, well, you know, we get the Giants twice, and we get the Cowboys and the Lions and Bengals. We're going to be underdogs in almost all of those games. I mean, maybe the Giants at home, maybe.

This is a 3 and 13, 4 and 12 team, unless Kyle Allen turns out to be a savior. You know, the funny thing is, is you continue to say this defense, you still think could be a good defense. You thought when we started the season with our season opening picks that they could win seven games this year, six games. You picked the over five. And I was like, ah, I don't know.

And they beat Philly. And I'm like, maybe Kevin. Yeah, no, you're right. I'm not going to be right on that. I'm not going to be right. They're not one in five games. They've had a brutal schedule. Let's also be clear that they've played their last three games

are against three, four, and one football teams. And their week two game was against a team that. three and two, and their week one game is against Philly, and Philly's, you know, Philly's Philly. I mean, they're banged up, and they were banged up for the opener, and they've really had a tough time because of the injuries. They were on the verge, though, of taking the lead with three minutes to go at Pittsburgh yesterday after beating the Niners on Sunday night. They've had a brutal schedule. It doesn't, it's not that it gets so easier for them, but it does get easier relative to what they just played, but I don't, I mean, does anybody see

them like have you watched the Giants like they got playmakers on their team what do you think of Daniel Jones I don't think he's terrible I think he's a young player that's making a lot of mistakes in the NFL and he hasn't quite adjusted to the speed of the NFL I do think he's got some skill set

I still didn't think he was worked taking where the Giants took him right we'll end up finding that out there was a moment in the broadcast where they made a point they said I think Ron Rivera wants to go four and two over the next six games and then promptly said, I don't think this was one of the games he thought they would win, which ultimately

means that Ron Farras sat with the broadcast team on Friday and said, I think we got to go four and two over the next six, but realistically, we're going to have to go four and one over the next five. After today, after Sunday. After today, I'm going to count it. I don't want to say it doesn't count, but realistically, between playing the Giants, the Cowboys, the Giants, the Lions, the Bengals, and the Cowboys, like, we got to win four of those games. No chance.

You know what's interesting? I was thinking about this, too. I think actually Big Tony sent me this text. You know, they played Carson Wentz. But other than Carson Wentz, Jared Goff was a more traditional quarterback, but they played, you know, Murray and Mayfield and Jackson. They haven't played... What? Mayfield is traditional.

The Browns are traditional. I know, but I'm thinking, the same offense. I'm saying a good quarterback, traditional quarterback. They haven't played Matt Stafford yet. They haven't played Ben Rothesberger yet. They haven't played, I mean, Russell Wilson's different. I think you're going to be surprised. I think I'm going to be right about the Panthers this year

being a legitimate playoff contender, shocking playoff contender in the NFC. But, like, I mean, what's, I'm bullish about the defense still. You can check me into a home if you think I'm that. crazy, but I'm just going to, I like some of what I see, and I actually think Del Rio does in slash Rivera know what they're doing defensively. Anyway, I don't even know where I'm going with that, but the schedule, the schedule, stop looking at the schedule, Ron. Okay, start looking at your team here. You're an underdog against an 0-and-5 football team this Sunday.

If you think this is like a chance to, as you said last week, make a, I don't see it personally. Could they win one of these next three games against the Giants twice and the Cowboys? They could. Then could they win one against the Lions and the Bengals? Yeah, sure. That gets you to three. The Cowboys with Andy Dalton or the Eagles with Carson Wentz are going to end up winning this division with like, you know, a seven and nine record kind of the thing.

Maybe somebody gets to eight and eight barely where the Eagles won't get to. They've got the tie. Washington's going to win five games tops, tops. No teams ever won a division at five and 11. So that's not going to happen. I'm not saying don't go out and try to win the games. You can do both. You can develop and you can plan for the future all the while trying to win games.

I would advocate to try to win these games. Absolutely. Some people are convinced that what we saw yesterday was a tanking for Trevor move. I don't think I saw that. Did you? I don't. I didn't see it, but I think they should do it. Yeah.

It's going to be hard to beat the Jets. Yeah. The games with the Giants will be huge games, although the Giants are going to end up winning four games. The Giants are going to get better as the season goes on. They're not good, but they'll get better. I agree. Let's just put it there.

We stink. They're not good. No, they're not good. They're not even close to good right now. Yesterday was really, truly one of the more embarrassing offensive things I've ever watched. That was so – it was actually, after a while, I'm like, is there a possibility they'll have a play where they gain more than five yards? Can they get a first down? On that last drive, Cooley, I was like, maybe they'll get their first, first down here.

And then I was like really protect everybody, Ron. You did it in weeks two and three when you actually had a chance to get back into the game, take the knee, punt it. Tressway was 10 punts yesterday. Ten punts in the game. He wasn't very good, just as an aside. He missed some opportunities to pin him deep. He punted better out of his own end zone.

Anyway, let's get to the other NFL games here right after I tell you about my bookie. So the smell test this weekend was, hold on Georgia Tech, 2 and 1 on Saturday. What was I yesterday? Ooh, three and five weekend. God damn. Not a good weekend. Three and five. Kooley did text me on Friday night and said,

if I lose this Georgia Tech bet, I'm not coming on the show Monday. And I said, just relax. It'll happen. And it did. It came in pretty easily. If you're looking to bet and you don't have a place, my bookie.

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They've got presidential prop bets, all the major sports and more. Sign up today to begin your winning season exclusively at my bookie. MLB playoffs tonight, Cooley. No more NBA, not after last night, but plenty of football. And some weird scheduling of games, too, Cooley. It's going to be a gambler's specialty here over the next couple of months. You've got a game tonight. you got a game tomorrow night in the NFL.

The NFL is going to have some weird scheduling going on with all of these makeup games. They already came up with seven changes, I think, yesterday. But this week alone after tomorrow night, you get the Tuesday night game between Buffalo and Tennessee, if that holds up, depending on COVID-19 testing. All right. Let's talk about Dak Prescott here, Cooley, because Were you watching that live when it happened? Nope.

I was. I'm going to tell you, I don't like the Cowboys, obviously, it was really emotional to watch. I can only imagine if I were a cowboy fan, and I'm not a Cowboy fan, obviously, but the reaction to Dax's injury from both teams, all the players on his team, You had Jason Garrett on the field as the offensive coordinator for the Giants now.

He comes over. He's standing next to Mike McCarthy. To see Dak, you know, thumbs up to the crowd with tears coming out of his eyes, here's a guy that I don't know, you know, I don't know much about Dak Prescott other than what I read. But in watching the reaction yesterday and then reading the reaction from around the sports world, he must be a great dude. And I felt so awful for him because he's really having a phenomenal year. And I think he's a really good player.

And he's had recent tragedy in his life with his brother passing away. And I just, there's something so likable from afar about Dak Prescott. but when you started to sort of sense the reaction, that was totally genuine and heartfelt. It's too bad. I mean, it's a compound fracture. It's a dislocated ankle. He's out. It says four to six months, so he's not going to play this year, obviously.

They have Andy Dalton. They did something smart. You know, the Cowboys for so many years never had a backup quarterback. It seemed like to Romo, and it always hurt him. But they've got, you know, a guy that started a lot of games for a lot of years in the NFL. And Dalton, and Dalton came into the game yesterday and was good enough. I mean, he led the final drive, got him into field goal range, and the Cowboys, every single game they played in this year.

Every single game is essentially come down to, you know, the Cleveland game got a little bit out of hand, but then they had a chance down three. But every single game they've been in has been a wild game. The two games that they've won have been walk off field goals by Zerline. But what do you know about Dak Prescott? Do you know anything about them or people that know them? because I thought the reaction was really incredible throughout the sports world. I think everybody loves him.

And that injury was nasty. I mean, I saw the play. You asked me if I was watching it live. I've seen the three minutes of video. And anytime you see someone's ankle do that, just, ugh. Yeah. I mean, that thing was sideways, man. Yeah.

And he is having an incredible year. was on pace by miles to break the yardage record. Right. Probably would have because of that offense. You know, I've always thought, I've liked Dak a lot, and I've joked with you about, man, my kid's going to play baseball. You look at the quarterback's that play baseball. And the thing with Dak is like, look at his degree. Dak went to school to be an NFL quarterback.

Like his degrees are like in leadership and management. Right. I think he's an incredible leader. I think he's gotten so much better over the last couple years. In his first two seasons, they really had to manage what they did with them, but the running game helped manipulate it. But it's gotten to the point where he sees the field really well. He's making throws.

He's making plays. He can run his pocket management has gotten better. He's a really tough quarterback to play against, especially when you have the talent that they have. Oddly enough, they'll end up winning more games with Andy Dalton in than they did early because the ball. to Hesekiel Elliott. That's what I've said to you,

four weeks in a row. They don't win when Zieg gets 12 carries. Right. They're built to run the football. Their defense is horrendous. Oh, it's terrible. They'll end up running the ball more efficiently, more effectively,

and have at least 10 more carries a game. And Dalton's capable. Yeah, it's capable. I'd rather play them with Dalton than Dak. Don't get me wrong on that. I think Dak's a much better quarterback than Dalton. Just think McCarthy will, will have to manage a game plan where they should actually do what they're supposed to do.

They are really bad on defense. My God. I mean, the Giants, the Giants had, I think they're like two or three touchdowns called back, including a fake field goal touchdown in that game, but with penalties. They're really talented offensively. I mean, we know Cooper, and we We know CD Lamb, and we obviously know Zeke. But my God, Michael Gallup has really developed into an incredible receiver. The last two catches that got them into field goal range were incredible sideline catches by Gallup to stay in bounds and make the catches and get two feet in bounds. I mean, there's no reason, they're two and three there in first place. There's no reason why Dallas shouldn't win eight games.

Like they have, you know, they have clearly, they still have. Washington twice in another game with the Giants. They've got to look at that as three wins, right? So that's three right there. They have the Bengals, they have, the Cardinals, that won't be easy. I don't know. Maybe their defense is just bad enough to keep them, you know, sub-500. What Xavier Woods said.

This was news over the weekend. Xavier Woods went on radio, I think, the fan in Dallas. One of five, three, the fan of Dallas. And said, you don't expect guys to go full speed for 70 plays. That's not possible. We're going to push as hard as we can. You don't expect a backside corner to make a play on the opposite side. If he's running full speed, the whole time, it's just not possible.

For real? And NFL players are going to come out and say that you don't expect NFL players to play hard every play? I thought about that a lot because there's times when you know you can take a play off here or there. You get your block done and you hang on and just sit there, brother-in-law. but defensively that's the key to the game. So is there a mentality that goes around that defense?

Like, yeah, if you're not in the play, just kind of trot along and get into the film towards the end. That'll be good enough. They don't play hard. They're terrible on defense. It's a poorly executed scheme with tremendous talent. Mike Nolan, man. Mike Nolan's awful.

But Dallas, to me, defensively, has the talent to be capable of holding some under 200 yards in any given week. Maybe it's Philly that's good enough to win the division, even though they're won three and one. Like there's some toughness to that team, you know, when you watch them. Now, they gave up a lot yesterday to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's obviously excellent this year, but against that Pittsburgh defense, they generated, you know, they generated 29 points.

Like they, you know, Miles Sanders had, I think, a 75-yard touchdown run in that game. a big chunk of it, but they turned it over too much and they missed a fuel goal in the game, which was huge. Maybe Philadelphia coaching-wise and with, you know, a toughness to him, maybe they figure out a way to get to 7, 8, and 1 and win the division. I mean, they have no one. It's Travis Bullgraw. He had like 11 catches yesterday or something like that. Because the only guy that was the only receiver they could throw the ball to.

that dude Jalen Rager's on IR, the guy that tore us apart, no opener. What about Deshawn? What's his deal? Deshawn's always hurt. Jeffrey's still hurt, right? Yeah, they get Alshan Jeffrey back. That would be big for them.

And they get Goddard back and healthy, and that'd be big for them. But they got to have something. I mean, and Wentz just continues to throw picks. There are two more picks in that game. He did? Yeah. Baltimore real quickly against Cincinnati.

This was actually, kind of interesting. First of all, you know, they had one of those defensive shutdown games. I mean, it was the worst game for Cincinnati and for Borough this year. I think Cincinnati barely broke 200 yards of total offense, which was still 100 more than Washington had. But Patrick Queen, who I told you that I think he's going to be a star. And you said, yeah, he's been okay. He's got some speed. He was great against us. Yeah. He was great against us. He had a he had a touchdown return, and fumble return for a touchdown, and they were shown the highlight, and apparently he and Burrow can't stand each other. They played on the same team at LSU together last year.

But man, the Ravens, I mean, the Ravens are going to struggle against teams that can score against them and can take the lead against them, and the Bengals in Washington, their last two opponents, aren't those teams. Their first game, I was looking at this, you know, that division all of a sudden has three four-on-one teams in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and now Cleveland. Actually, Pittsburgh is four and oh, excuse me. They're undefeated, and they miss that game against Tennessee. I was looking to see when Baltimore plays Pittsburgh. They've already played Cleveland once.

They play Pittsburgh in two weeks after a by-week. And then they play the Steelers. I think they might be the Thanksgiving night game. I think that's right. I think they play Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving night. but they have the Eagles, they've got the Steelers, they got the Colts, they got the Patriots, they've the Titans, they have the Browns again. They got a real schedule the rest of the way, but they're fun to watch. Kansas City lost yesterday to Oakland. Henry Ruggs was back for the Raiders.

I mean, that dude, he's 4-2. I mean, he is a true stretch-the-field guy and a difference maker or when he's on the field for them. He's Al Davis's dream. Oh, Al Davis's dream. No doubt. And Derek Carr was good Derek Carr. Derek Carr has the ability to be so good. You like him.

I know, and he played great yesterday. I told you, but he's either a B plus or a D. It's crazy. Like, if Derek Carr unleashes it a little bit and gets the ball down the field, then there's something to him. He threw for 347. Kansas City's defense isn't terrible. Why did you say a B plus or D instead of a ball,

like he's either an A plus or an F, an A or an F. You went with D or B plus. B plus because his average for attempt is like four. He doesn't like to throw the ball down on the field. It's hard for me to get you into the A range there. He's probably an A in this game. Yeah. Josh Jacobs is really good.

Very good. Josh Jacobs is going to be one of those special backs. He only average three yards of carry in this game, but Josh Jacobs is really good. Las Vegas is there's something to Las Vegas. That's weird calling him Las Vegas. I don't like it. I don't like calling him Las Vegas and I don't like saying Washington.

Me neither. How about Miami, San Francisco, 43 to 17? I mean, Garoppolo got benched early in that game. He stinks. I'm sorry. I don't see it with him. Kyle doesn't have a quarterback, period. That's why I suggested Dwayne.

I mean, the mic thing's definitely not. gonna get it done. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Mosterts are really good back. Miami, it's funny about watching them this year. They've been so close in so many of these games. I mean, they were right there with Seattle until the end. They were right there with Buffalo until the end.

They were in the game in the opener against the Patriots. They beat the Jags. They beat the 49ers. They didn't beat the 49ers. They destroyed the 49ers. That's crazy. They had like 450, of offense in the game, and they scored 43 points. Fitzpatrick, man, you talk about an A or a D

D minus F. That's Fitzpatrick. Well, the only reason he's going to be an F is because he's going to throw three picks, getting guys off his down the field where one inch, one way or another could be completion. Yeah. San Francisco, like, their D-line was so amazing last year. And you lose Bosa, and they lost the one dude. Buckner. DeForest Buckner, who was their second best player on the defensive line.

And yeah, I like Fred Warner. I think he can play his balls off. And I like Eric Armstead. But without those two players, it's not the same D-line. Apparently not. Apparently not. That's an interesting loss, though.

I mean, that's a brutal loss. I like the Panthers, Cooley. I've said that to you the last two weeks. I think Matt Rule's going to get it done there. I think Joe Brady's going to be an eventual head coach. I think their talent is underrated. I think they've got a quarterback. It's interesting.

Rivera leaves Carolina. Now, you know, they've got Teddy Bridgewater. They added Mike Davis, who continues to really impress. And Rivera didn't choose to leave Carolina. I know. Of course. That's true. I didn't mean to put it that way.

They added Robbie Anderson to go with DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel. This is a team. They are now, believe it or not. they are in first place, tied for first place in the NFC South. I don't think they're going to win that division. But I think this is a team that was, you know, along with Jacksonville, Washington, and Cincinnati, those were the teams that had the lowest over-under numbers in Vegas

before the year started. And Carolina is going to win eight, they're going to win eight games this year. And they're going to get it done with Matt Rule there. I think I like that team, man. It's funny yesterday, like Atlanta sort of fit the smell test criteria, but I backed off it because I think Carolina's, legit. And they got, that game finally got Dan Quinn and Demetrov fired after that game. But keep an eye on the Panthers. I think that that, well, that division, you know, with the Saints and

the Bucks and the Panthers is an interesting division. I think we have to now pay attention to Cleveland a little bit more. Like, I'm not a Mayfield fan, you know, but the Colts weren't, we're not allowing anything offensively. And they gave up 32 points. and you know Cleveland turned it over several times in the game too. I know Mayfield had two picks in the game. So did Rivers. And Cleveland's four and one. I mean, the Browns are four and one.

The Ravens are four and one. The Steelers are four and oh. That's, you know, I would say an aggregate record. That's got to be the best division in football right now. Has to be, right? I think the NFC West is pretty good too. But yeah, you would say an aggregate, it does. We've only had nine possessions in that game.

Who did? Cleveland. Wow. The NFC West is 14 and 6 aggregate, and the AFC North is 12, 13, and 5. So basically the same. Quickly before you did this, I told you,

watch any team in your little smell test that fires their head coach. Watch Atlanta next week. They're playing Minnesota. But Houston destroyed Jacksonville. Yeah, they did. You're right. And I kind of gave me one lock of the week because that's all I get. But I said if I had two, I'd take Houston.

What was your first one? Minnesota. Oh, yeah. We both. Minnesota has been a gravy against the spread train for four weeks in a row. Three weeks in a row, definitely. Maybe four. I think they covered against Tennessee too. So that leads us to that Sunday night game because you texted me. the end of the game. First of all, those of you that didn't stay up to watch Minnesota, Seattle,

it was really a compelling back and forth momentum switching game. I mean, Minnesota dominated the first half. They dominated time of possession. Russell Wilson barely touched the ball and when he did, he was getting sacked, and it was 13-0 Minnesota. Then in the second half, Kirk throws fumbles on what looked like an incomplete pass but got overturned. And, and, and was rightly called a fumble. And then through an interception on a great interception by KJ. Wright. And Seattle scores 21 points in a minute 53. And Minnesota goes from up 13 nothing to down 2113.

I have to say, I thought it was over at that point. I thought Minnesota was going to get the doors blown off of them at that point. It sure looked like it, but, God, they turned it around. They can run the ball. Dalvin Cook was out in that game. And this dude, Madison comes in. Love Madison. An enormous second half.

The two possessions after Kirk threw that pick were two of the best rebound possessions, bounce back possessions, big completions and third down situations, big throws down the field when he had to make throws down the field, complete balance, no panic. I mean, it was, they took the game back over entirely. It was up 26, 21 on the six-yard line. with two minutes left in the game, 26, 21, two minutes in the game,

fourth and two. No, no, fourth in inches. Fourth and inches. Oh, no, it was fourth in half a yard? But at that point, you're like, okay, if we kick a field goal, coach, how many points do we go ahead here? By eight.

By eight. Could we lose the game in regulation? If we don't make it? I don't think. so. Oh, if we make the field goal, the worst case is you're going to overtime. Is there a chance that you get a next possession in the fourth quarter? Yeah, there is. There's still even a chance at that. Who the fuck goes for it? Well, do you know that the analytics people said that there was a slight, very, very tiny win probability advantage by going for versus kicking the field goal? I'm with

you. I mean, it's just like, let's do the blackjack thing. You know, there's a six showing, and you deal me at 12, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, that 12 is always a tough call. There's a lot of other cards I could get here. Is sticking on 12, the kicking the field goal and hitting 12 the going for it? Both dudes next year are like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, he's going to bust. He's going to bust. He's going to bust. Ah. And then what about, I mean, you never, you never hit a 12 versus a 16, but what about a 12 versus a 3? That was probably more the comp. All the 12 versus a 2, but that's not the comp.

It was a 12 versus a 4 or 5. So. So here's the deal. So then, so then he turns over his 4 and he turns over a 9 and you're like, okay, well, monkey. Come on, let's go. And it gets it. Then he turns over another two, and you're like, all right, we're still, we're still in this thing. And then on 4th of 10, he completes the D.K. METCAft.

You're like, what are we doing here? He's getting more cards. What the hell's going on? This bullcraft, it's rig. Yeah. Oh, wait. It's Russell Wilson. Yeah, it's Russell Wilson.

God, that was bad. That was bad business. They outplayed Seattle. I watched the whole game. They outplayed Seattle. I, you know, it's funny because you know that during these primetime cousins games, I get inundated on Twitter. How's your boy Kirk doing?

Who would a loser? I'd rather have it, Kyle Allen. Sure you would. You know, he's done this more times than not than people want to give him credit for. But to your point, it was an incredible bounceback from two plays that really put their team in dire jeopardy, and then he makes every big third down throw

on two drives that were 11 play 77 yards and 15 plays 97 yards. And they go from 2113 down to 2621 up. And then they get the big interception, and there they are down at the six-yard line, ready to ice the game. Now, the play, Madison missed the hole. It was a bounce out for a touchdown.

And he just ran it into the traffic and got stopped. Zimmer said we were there to win the game, and if we make half a yard, it's game over. And he's right about that. And the downside is if you miss, they still have to go 94 yards with under two minutes to go, and they only have one timeout left. You know, it was advantage Minnesota, whether they, it was game over if they make it, and it was still significant advantage Minnesota if they miss it. Now, if you kick the field goal, they start at the 25-yard line, more likely than not, with one timeout in a minute 50 something to go. And there's a better

chance of Russell Wilson driving and scoring a touchdown. But then they've got to get a two-point conversion as well. What do you do there, pal? What would I do? Yep. Well, during the decision was made during a two-minute warning and I was sitting there thinking to myself,

this is a very difficult call, but I think I would kick the field goal. Now, you know, it's funny, there was a lot of context there that would lead to going for it. like they had run the ball down their throat on that drive. Secondly, there's no crowd noise, which is always a problem in those fourth and inches in Seattle. So there was a lot of context that would have said, if you're ever going to do it, this is the time to do it. You've got them on their heels. They haven't been able to stop the run. And it's inches. It's not a full yard. It's less than a yard. And it's game over. And the ball's at the six yard line. You know, there's a lot

of things there. I mean, to me, I had no... Everyone in the building knows you're going to run the ball because you've been running the ball down their throat, which means Seattle knows you're going to run the ball. Yeah. And so, to me, it's almost like, boot him. Boot it. And throw it. Yeah, and the end zone. Let's go with a naked boot here. But I think, I think in the moment I would have kicked the field goal because I would have said, look, Minnesota's defense had actually played better in the second half because it was really, they were short field touchdowns. Seattle. And even though Russell Wilson's a magician, I think I say, you know what, if you can drive it, 75 yards, score and make a two-point conversion, you know, you're going to have all the

momentum back and it's going to be a tough deal in overtime for us. But I think, you know, as a defensive coach in Zimmer, I can get the stop. And I'd rather be able to get the stop, you know, with an eight-point lead and have that comfort rather than, you know, knowing that a touchdown beats me. So I would have kicked the field goal. But let me just mention really, quickly because I don't want to spend a lot more time in this game. But I thought, per usual, you know, the analytics guys who are into, you know, whether or not to go for two, my personal view of all of that is I'm not, I'm not going for two until I have to. And I don't have to until the game has a limited number of possessions left in scoring opportunities.

So at 2113, when they scored to make it 2119, it was in the third quarter, you know, we're talking about still four minutes to go in the third quarter, they went for two. I would have kicked the extra point there. There's just too much game left, too many scoring opportunities. I would have made it 21-20. Now, on the next drive, you know, they scored with, you know, seven minutes to go. I would have gone for two there. So I may have ended up in the same point, which would have been 26-21 with a miss,

but if I would have waited and I would have gone for it there, and if I make it there, it's 28-21. and I've got that seven-point lead. And then there's no doubt about kicking the field goal, obviously. If it's 28-21 rather than 26-21, then you're kicking for a 10-point lead. But I always feel like going for it too early is a problem. And then, Cooley, when they did score at 21-19 to make it 26 to 21, there's like seven minutes to go.

You could make the case that they should have gone for two there to make it a six-point lead. Now, you know, people are, convinced that that's what the chart says. The problem is if you miss, then they score, you're down 28, 25 rather than 27, 26 with them trying to make a two-point conversion for a three-point lead. But I think in that particular spot, you may have wanted to go for two to make a 27-21, which then would have also meant if you had made it, if you had made that one, that it would have been 25-20. Put it this way, Cooley. At 25-

I think we had to make the PAT. Yeah. At 27-21, you kick the field goal too, because then it's a nine-point lead. At 25-21, then you might, you know, be more inclined to go for it there because then it's a touchdown for overtime or a touchdown two-point conversion to beach. Anyway, the bottom line is, if you're curious and most of you aren't, Seattle's really good, really good. Russell's so special. So is D.K. Metcalfe. Minnesota is the best one-and-four team in the NFL. chance to really make a run here over the final 11 games. They've improved significantly on

defense here, and they just have a bad offensive line, and their secondary is a bit of an issue. But Kirk- They have a bad offensive line when they lead the league in rushing. Pass-Pro line. Sure, but I mean... Yeah, pass-pro line is a problem for them. But I like their team. I like, you know, this... Jefferson didn't have a big game last night, but God, feeling so reliable.

And, you know, no matter what anybody says, I know what the truth is, and I think you know what the truth is. Kirk Cousins is a top half of the league starter, worst case. You know, best case, he's top 12. And you can... The argument that you and I made and the only argument that we made, it wasn't to pay him $100 million. No.

It was that to have the 13th best quarterback or a tier two quarterback on your your team gives you a chance to win anytime. Yeah. That was all we talked about when this whole thing happened. Of course. Of course. The reason to go back to it is because you're indicted for saying like you're anything good about it. I'm being defensive.

I reckon. I was getting the second half. I just, my last point is, and you started to make it, that you kick the field go there and you go up eight and you feel like defensively, you can play more aggressive and have a chance to make plays versus we have to. protect the end zone. Right. I agree with that. I think there's a mindset, too. That's a really good point. There's a mindset, hey, we can't lose in regulation. Let's try to make a play here and end it right here. And they had a couple of opportunities, you know, they had, they had them on fourth and

10 and then fourth and goal. Wilson's a magician. He's so good. That catch by Metcalf for the touchdown was fabulous. It was covered well. The fourth and 10 play was fabulous. Yeah. I was wrong on Metcalf. I will admit that. I've been wrong on a couple things. I feel like I'm right more than wrong, but I was very unsure on D.K. McKaff, and he has become one of the best receivers in the NFL in two years. You weren't the only one that was wrong. You know, he went well after he was projected to go, especially after the combine that year. Hey, one last thing before we go, the Lakers won the title last night. It's so odd. I mean, you know, it's October 12th and talking about the NBA crowning their champion last night. LeBron was fabulous. And

they were the better team. The game Friday night between Miami and the Lakers, game five, the heat won 111 to 1.08 to force the sixth game, was, I already mentioned that Jimmy Butler in this series in game three had one of the all-time great individual performances by a player. But the game on Friday night was unbelievable. It was one of the best back-and-forth epic duels between two great players that you'll ever see in a big spot. Butler against LeBron. LeBron had 40 in the game. Butler had 35. Butler came out for all of 32 seconds in the game. He played 47 and a half out of the 48 minutes of the game.

Ended up with 35 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals in the game. He was so good, but you could see it at the end of the game. He was so spent physically, as was. their whole team that there wasn't going to be much of a chance playing 48 hours later. And there wasn't much of a chance. They got completely blown out last night. But I'll remember this Orlando bubble NBA playoffs is, first of all, incredibly exciting, incredibly intense.

And then the performances from Jimmy Butler in particular to carry the heat to the finals, and then his two performances in the NBA finals in game three. ending game five. We're all-time great NBA finals performances. 40 in that game, in that game three to lead his team as part of a triple double. And then the 35, 12, 11 with five steals on Friday night against LeBron, who was brilliant. And I don't like LeBron, but I've never doubted his brilliance. And he was just so good in these playoffs and in these NBA finals. and he absolutely deserved. I heard some people debating as to whether or not AD Anthony Davis should have been the MVP.

The answer was obvious to me. It was LeBron James, who won his fourth MVP of the NBA finals. And the first time anybody's ever won it with three different franchises. He won it with Miami. He won it with Cleveland a few years ago. And he won it last night with the Lakers. Weird, you know, all of these titles that are being decided, You know, the NHL, the NBA, the Major League Baseball playoffs.

It's all strange, and they're all going to be remembered as COVID-19 years. But the NBA playoffs in this Orlando bubble, remember when people are saying, oh, they'll never finish it. You know, baseball never finish. Hockey will never finish. Well, they finished all of it. You know, I give them a lot of credit. And a lot of people had issues with some of the politics and stuff.

Not me. I just enjoyed the basketball. I thought it was phenomenal throughout. out. It's a shame that it's sort of matched up against football here over the last month, but it was really an incredible playoffs. And LeBron was fabulous, but Jimmy Butler is what I'm going to remember from this weird year. You got anything else? Nope. I was cheering for Jimmy Butler, man. I watched game five. I watched game four and five. I didn't watch the last two games, but I watched game.

and five and it was just so much fun to watch a player play that hard and you see how bad he wanted to win uh by the way Rivera said today I'm just reading it he did say once again Kyle Allen is going to start against the New York Giants hey you know what they got to go four and one here in the next five coolly four and one what are the odds that they go four and one in the next five one in what 10, 12, 17, 1 in 17. I had 1 in 15, so there you go. Take Cooley's odds if you like the bet. You'll get a better return.

All right. Cooley will have his offensive film breakdown tomorrow. We'll keep it much shorter. Have a great day, everybody.