The Kevin Sheehan Show - Good Day On Defense Or Not?

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

Kevin and Thom today opened the show discussing Thom's latest ailment. His angst over an odd-looking arm indentation didn't stop him from weighing in on the Commanders' 24-16 win in Atlanta on Sunday. The boys debated how the defense played on Sunday and talked Sam Howell too. Cowboys-Chargers, MLB playoffs plus the Caps' win and sell-out streak ending finished up the show.   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. Tommy's here. I am here. The show, as always, is presented by Windonation.

Call them at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com. Mention my name. You will get a free estimate and access to their best deal of the year. Buy to get too free with no limit plus no money down. No payments and no interest for two. full years. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com. Lots of really good reviews have come in over the last couple of weeks.

A couple that are flattering and also unflattering. We read those two. This is from Steve. This is his pod take. He gave us five stars, Tommy. And it's a rather lengthy review. You do not have to write a. dissertation for your review. It can be just one to two quick sentences on Apple or wherever you're

allowed to review a podcast. Steve writes, I'm a longtime Redskins fan and I've been listening to Kevin Sheehan from the UK for over 10 years now. So get ready because here's Stevie's pod take. Stevie's created his own pod take, which is very, very nice. By the way, we have a lot of listeners from the UK. You know, I get all... Yes, we do. And they're very passionate listeners. Very passionate listeners.

I love how football has really grown in Europe. I know it's so popular in the UK, so popular in Germany. But we have, you know, I get the numbers on where all of our listeners come from. One of the interesting things about this podcast, and I'll just take you behind the curtain, if you will, is that because this fan base of this team, or just because Washington tends to be a more transient town than other towns, many of our listeners, you know, roughly 50% of the listeners to this podcast don't live in the DMV.

That has always surprised people about whether it's the radio show or, you know, any of the radio show is in town. Certainly with a podcast, we get 50% of our listens from outside the DMV. I mean, I think L.A., Tommy, is like our number four market. I mean, we have thousands of listeners from Los Angeles. We have a lot of listeners from the UK. We've already made, you know, our case for being, I think it's the number one football podcast in Jordan and in Bermuda for whatever reason.

But what it is, and I have to explain. explain this sometimes to potential advertisers because they look at it and they say, wow, why is it that your show is a DC sports podcast, yet 50% of your listeners aren't from the DC area? And the explanation, I think, is pretty simple. It is that Redskin fans, DC sports fans, but Skins fans in particular, commanders fans, they've lived here. They lived here at some point, but they don't live here anymore. but they want to continue to follow the team. And this is one of the ways that they do it. That's not an explanation.

What's the explanation? I know what you're going to say. This is the explanation. Talent has no boundaries. Right. That's the explanation. From Stevie's pod take, some things I like, some things I don't like, and a few other observations. Look, I'm not going to read your entire take Stevie because this has to be a show that

we finish within like an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. But he writes on the things that I like list, Kevin's game and situational analysis is superb. He sees through the smokescreen and gets to the heart of the story. His weekly game take is accurate and detailed. His interviews and variety of guests, both football and non-football people, is very good. Cooley is the best. Doc is great.

He looks at the whole organization and the bigger picture, not just the games on the field. This is very nice. but some of the things I don't like. Kevin can take a 10-minute topic and talk about it for hours, often repeating the same information and opinion again and again. He puts far too much emphasis on information and opinions from other reporters rather than football players and coaches who really know what they're talking about. Each example, did Heineke really have to convince Ron to play Sam in the Dallas game?

Have you actually heard that from one or more of those three people? Or have you just repeated it so many times now that you believe it? He goes on and on and he mentions you. But I wanted to just say that that actually really makes me laugh. Because first of all, in terms of Taylor trying to convince, did Heineke really have to convince Ron to play Sam in the Dallas game? Remember, it wasn't a reporter. It was Ron who told us that, just to be clear.

Ron told us that Taylor came to him and said, play the kid. But I do completely agree with you that sometimes I can take something that should be shortened up or take something that I'll do once and then I'll repeat it over and over again. And not that this is an excuse, but Tommy will back me up on this. Radio sports talk show, you know, training. And what we hear and have heard our whole lives from program directors is that you have to continue to play the hits that people are tuning in for five to ten minutes. You have to keep coming back to the same subject over and over again if it is your, you're, you're in. you know, one of your top subjects of the day.

But to your point, Stevie, I don't need to do that on the podcast. I don't. Now, repeating something today that I repeated yesterday, I'll continue to do because not everybody listens to every show. And by the way, sometimes I feel it's warranted to emphasis. But yes, talk show radio hosts are told every 10 minutes you have a completely new audience. I've never ever really bought into that completely, Tommy, because like you said, you know, the high quality of our show,

people start listening. They can't leave. They stick with it. But that's the way we're all programmed and trained, is that, you know, you have to understand that every 10 minutes you've got a completely new audience and you can't cater to what are called P1s in the business, the people that will sit there and listen,

for the entirety start to finish of your three-hour radio show. That's not who you're supposed to address. The radio programmers will tell you they're going to be there whether you repeat something or don't repeat something, whether you say something they like or don't like. They're going to be there. It's the people that are coming in for 10 minutes that you've got to catch.

And if you don't, with an off-topic or with something that you feel, you know, doesn't fit into a linear kind of a show that you want to do. You'll lose. And so anyway, but it doesn't apply to a podcast, Stevie. So there you go. Stevie loves himself some Cooley film reviews for sure. And there is one coming tomorrow on tomorrow's show. Cooley's going to review Sam Howe, some of the interceptions in the game,

and a few other things for tomorrow's show. But anyway. Steve's a little naive if he thinks that we should dismiss what people write and report and just rely on what players and coaches say. Right, true. Good point. A little naive. Yeah. This from NFL field goal kicker 999 via Apple podcast, this is a short review. He refers to himself as cash tag Nats, North Phillies.

Yeah, Schwabber, Trey Turnbull. Bryce Harper. We'll get to Game 1 of the National League series and also the American League series as well in the next segment. No one is more passionate about sports than Kevin. Tom is passionate about his fleeting singing career,

baseball and boxing. It's a great show. Been listening a long time. Cooley is an added feature with the Bear Stories and his NFL smarts. That's the kind of review that you can, you know, produce very quickly. Even if you

pause this podcast right now, give us five stars and write a quick one to two sentence review. It is very helpful when you do that. Follow us as well. It's easy to follow us on Apple and on Spotify. Hit the follow button or hit the plus button and subscribe to the podcast as well. So Tommy, I want to hear, go ahead. Before we get started, yes. Real quick. I just need to share this with everybody because it's a revelation that just happened right now. I'm looking at my left arm. You know, the left arm that I cut real bad in Spain? Yeah. I told you about.

Yeah. And there's a dent in it. I mean, it's all healed, but there's a dent in my arm now. Well, matches the one in your head. I wasn't there before. Well, I guess so. But just a little bit unnerving. I mean, it's significant dent.

A significant dent. A significant. If I can see it, you know it's significant. Right. Right. because you've got to get really close to it to see it. Yes. So I'm a little bit worried about that.

Well, let's move on. No, I don't want to move on. I don't want to move on. Should we Google it? Should we go to, you know, MD.com or whatever the, you know, the medical sites on the internet. Never go to md.com. Whatever it is. Never.

No, those things are absolute anxiety increases. Anytime I have something. and I look it up on the internet, it's like I need to immediately walk over to the liquor cabinet and take a shot as something just to relax me. Oh my God, I have that. I wouldn't worry. I don't think this is, it's not debilitating or anything, but it's a change in my body. We can't have changes to your body.

Your body. Not in that part. I'm used to change in the other part. Temple. I'm not used to changes in my arm. We'll go have somebody look at it. Here, I'm going to look it up anyway. Dent in arm. Let's see. It looks like it might be a bicep tendon tear. Yeah, except it's not on my bicep. A dent with a scar formed in the upper. It's okay. All right. Well, go. Maybe it has to do with cigar smoking. I don't know.

I don't think it has anything to do with cigar smoking. I don't. And I don't think it's cancer and I don't think it's some horrible blood disease. I think you took a big fall. You injured yourself and it created a little bit of a dent that you may have to live with the rest of your life, but why don't you go? I may be permanently disfigured. You know what? That'll make it easier for you to park at sporting events, won't it? All right. What did you think of the game on Sunday? Well, I thought, look, I picked the Washington to win 24 to 20. You're pretty damn close.

So I had the Washington point total, right? I thought it was a winnable game. I thought Atlanta had the potential to self-destruct a little bit, and they self-destructed a lot. But I'm real curious, and I know I'm probably in a minority here, from what I've read. I'm real curious about all the accolades for the defense, and what a defensive win it was. And I thought the defense wasn't very good. I mean, you know, they still ran for over 100 yards. They gained over 400 yards, Falcons did.

They controlled the ball most of the game. I think what happened was what Jack Del Rio has been preaching through – you know, just about turnovers, just through circumstances, finally happened. And they were able to capitalize on three turnovers. Because they're usually at the bottom of the league

when it comes to turnover ratio. I mean, they were last year, like 28th or 27th, and they were this year before Sunday. So I just think that you had a defense that just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and I don't think that's the shape of things to come,

And I still think they're an underachieving, disappointing unit that got lucky on Sunday. That's funny because I was going to read this. I was going to read this from Seth on Twitter. Seth wrote, Kevin, three turnovers is the only reason they won the game? Can I get more analysis than that? Yeah, the show yesterday, Seth, was an hour and 20 minutes. I may have taken a 10-minute topic and, you know, done it 12 times yesterday. But no, I mean, look, the bottom line is there are games that you watch as a fan of football,

and you can pretty, especially like a long-time fan of football, which most of us are. And you can sum it up pretty easily for somebody that didn't watch the game. Atlanta had three turnovers. Washington didn't. It was the number one reason Washington won the game. Like, there's no close second. There's a lot that happened in the game. And Seth, if you had listened to more than maybe just the first 10 minutes,

you wouldn't have gotten the repeat yesterday. You would have gotten my complete game take. Tommy, with respect to what you said, the defense, yesterday, Sunday's game, and I said this yesterday, you can't look at the yardage and say, Well, the defense didn't play well. In my opinion, I think the defense actually did play well. Now, consider the opponent, for starters. You know, this was not Josh Allen or Jalen Hertz.

This wasn't Buffalo or Philadelphia. But this is, by the way, one of the few teams in the league that have kind of an identity, you know, and they also do it sort of the old school way. They want to run the football first. They want to be physical at the line of scrimmage. Both sides of the line of scrimmage. They're not going to throw it a hell of a lot. a lot. And the game plan coming in, it was very obvious to see, starting with the first drive in

terms of Jack Del Rio's game plan, which was, we're going to play a lot of five-man front on first down, second down, certainly on first down. And our goal is to stop the run and make Desmond Ritter beat us because we don't think he can. And he was right. They held, you know, the NFL rookie of the year, you know, at this point, Bijon Robinson, to his one. worst day of the year. He averaged 2.8 yards per carry. And the only reason it got up to 2.8 is he had a 9-yard carry late in the game. They held, you know, overall Atlanta, not counting Ritter and his two scrambles, they held them to 3.2 yards per rush. So they completely shut down a run-first team and made them beat them through the air. The interesting thing is,

is they did beat him through the air in the first half. Ritter completed some big-time balls to Drake London in particular, who is a big target. And I still think the coverage was much more energetic, much livelier, more coordinated with the pass rush. I think all three interceptions, certainly the first two, were completely coordinated with blitz pressure and timing.

Fuller jumped it because he knew they were sending six and the ball was going to have to come out early. By the way, Fuller's done that a lot during his career. He's very, very good at anticipating. I'm repeating this, by the way, from yesterday's show Stevie's take on pods. Boy, Stevie hit a sore spot. But Fuller did a good job. And then the pick that St. Juice had, they came with pressure and Ritter panicked.

So I actually disagree with you. I wouldn't say that, like, the defense was great or dominant, but they accomplished. what they wanted to accomplish, and it was a winning strategy on Sunday against that team. And it was a much better effort from an energy standpoint, from a tackling standpoint, than the last time we saw them against Chicago. Okay. Yeah, I mean, if that's the way you want to see it, that's fine. I still think that they are not, all of a sudden, a turnover machine,

are not going to be a turnover machine. And I think, well, you know, again, without the turnover, then you think that it was the defensive alignment that helped create the turnovers, and you're probably right. But I just don't see it as this great defensive effort by the team. I think they just got lucky on Sunday for the most part. I don't. You could see you say they created their luck.

Oh, I definitely think two of the three. Actually, I would say all three of the turnovers were, look, Desmond Ritter handed them the one, but it was pressure, and it was pressure and the idea of pressure, and the need to score a touchdown on that third and goal from the seven. The Fuller play was just timed up perfectly. They knew it had to come out quickly. He did a great job. I'm not sure. The Jamon Davis interception, it's a really good play by Jamie Davis. It's an excellent play. I don't know if Bejohn Robinson and ran that route correctly. I think he's got to cross the face there on that in route.

But I think they actually did a really good job based on what the plan was. I think they executed the plan. I think a reason for the yards ultimately is, look, they had some yards in the first half, and they had some third down conversions in the first half as well. They were four for eight on third down in the first half. And I thought Ritter actually looked sharp in the first half. And London and Pitts, these guys are big, big targets, Tommy.

I mean, they've got some players. But ultimately, you know, in the second half, they were, you know, on third down, they were one for seven, you know. And yeah, they had some yards, but it would have been nice if the offense could have done anything after the first half because then I think, you know, the number of plays that the defense was out there would have been minimized as well. But overall, I think, you know, it wasn't a. a great game by anybody necessarily.

But it was one of those, remember back in 2018 when they started off, you know, five and two, six and two, and we kind of knew that they weren't really a good team. They certainly weren't a very good offensive team, but they were winning the turnover battle. The Alex Smith year. The Alex Smith year. 100%. Yeah, the Alex Smith year.

They were winning the turnover battle. They were winning the penalty battle. They were winning the field position battle, et cetera, et cetera. The truth is they didn't necessarily win the field position battle all day the other day. But it's the kind of win that you shouldn't apologize. See, I saw a lot of people reaching out to me saying, ugly win, you know, Ron kind of implied. Ben told me that it was kind of an ugly win. I'll take plus three in the turnover margin without making any mistakes on your own.

against a team that you're kind of even with, which is what Atlanta and Washington basically are, that's how they got to five and two or six and two, whatever it was in 2018. They needed that, and that's the, they won the game because they didn't make mistakes. And they didn't make any big mistakes defensively either. But what they really did, what they did well, Tommy, defensively on Sunday, I don't want to let this go. They did do one thing exceptionally well. They shut down a team that wants to run it down your throat. And they shut down the best rookie running back in the league and held him to nothing in the game. And he has killed people at times this year. So that was, to me, that was a huge key to the game, was their ability to stop the run. Okay. You talk about the

turnovers. I don't think they have now become some kind of turnover machine. I think this was probably a one-time thing. And let's talk about, let's talk about Sam Howe for a second. Yep. Because, you know, I point out in my column in today's paper that of the two liabilities, intersections versus sacks for a quarterback, sacks are far more easier to live with. Right.

I mean, Sam Hal got sacked four times. Right. On Sunday. Five times. Five times. Two. Five times. He doesn't throw the ball to the other team. He hasn't since the Buffalo game. That's true. I mean, he had... Other than that, he's only had two interceptions this year.

Right. Other than a Buffalo game. So as maddening as the sacks may be, and it could add up to a problem, I think it's much better than him throwing in a desperation mode and putting the ball up in the air. No doubt. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you're going to take... I mean, those are... The sacks are a much lesser evil than interceptions, of course. Yes. But sacks the way he's taking them and at the rate that he's taking them.

And, you know, if you buy into, you know, that most of them are attributable to him, which I have bought into, it's a fatal flaw. You're not going to be a full-time NFL starter taking 96 sacks a year, you know, which is what he's on pace for. But, you know, and I talked about this a lot yesterday, Tommy, you know, six games in, right, more than a third of the season. So, you know, now we've seen six real NFL starts. And I'm talking about real NFL starts, not a meaningless end of season game where, you know, you've got nothing, you know, to play for other than to impress people, which he did, I guess, in that Dallas game last year. but it's now kind of a chance to have a bit of a hunch on him. You know, far from enough of a sample size to have a conclusion,

we understand that as football fans watching quarterbacks through the years. If somebody came to a conclusion on Gino Smith after year seven, they would have been wrong, let alone, you know, six games. But the good far outweighs the bad in these first six games with Sam Howell. agree. I agree. I feel much more positive about him than the uncertainty that I felt going into the season. Absolutely. He can make the throws. All of them. All of them. And he's mobile and he's tough and there's just a lot of things that he does well. I also, you know, I saw a lot of criticism on my Twitter notifications of Eric B. Enemy. I didn't buy that at all. I didn't buy that at all. I I know the offense did zero in the second half. I do understand that, and that was not helpful to the cause on Sunday. But I think really in the recent games, he's done a much better job of making it easier for Sam.

And really catering to what I think Sam will ultimately, if he ends up being a starting quarterback in the league for years to come, will do best, which is true, you know, not necessarily true West Coast, but true quick game. game. You hit that third step and the ball is out. It doesn't even matter how great the offensive line is. This is what he excels in. Getting him out of the pocket, getting him on the move is something that he does pretty well. I loved that he kept it in his own read on fourth and one, you know, and he made the right read. I think he did. I didn't go back and watch that play closely. But there's a lot to like. But there's one major, major. concern. It's not a minor concern because it's not sustainable at this rate. They have to

coach it out of him. He's got to allow it to be coached out of him. It's got to improve. The holding onto the ball is not only a sack taken a lot of the times. In many cases, it's a missed play that they could have had, you know, a missed positive play. But like I pointed out yesterday, 215 yards in six games in sack lost yardage is just not something that you can win more games than you lose with over the course of 17. But the positive is so encouraging that I'm all in for seeing, you know, the good continue to get better and the concern or to hopefully improve. dramatically. And it may not improve dramatically next week or the week after, but you want to see gradual improvement. And this gets to, by the way, I'm just thinking about our conversations before the season started. Let's just say they end up going eight and nine, seven and ten, you know,

which is a possibility. They're right, you know, 500 team, a game around 500 and they don't make the postseason. But Sam Hal ends up... I take a probability more than a possibility. So this... But Sam Hal ends up being, you know, a promising future candidate to finally be the franchise's starting quarterback moving forward. Because right now, there's a chance he could be that. I wouldn't bet on it yet, but I wouldn't bet against it either right now. Not to sound like I'm waffling, but I know what, I gave the list of quarterbacks that have taken the kind of sacks, not even at the rate he's taking it at. And other than Deshawn Watson, this century, the list is like Kittna and Burline, and I'm forgetting one other one that I mentioned yesterday. But it's just, you know,

you're talking about something that can't be, that neat. It's David Carr, of course, David Carr twice. You're talking about quarterbacks that just, it turned out taking that kind of sack rate. They were backup quarterbacks. Deshawn Watson had one big season. of sacks, but I would say that his talent level is off the charts, not to mention, you know, size, physical attributes, et cetera. But anyway, I'm looking forward to continuing to see him grow, and I think Eric B. Enemy's done a pretty good job. I like a lot of their play design. I like a lot of the play calling. A lot of people couldn't stand the play calling Sunday. I still can't get one example of where, you know, you're convinced he made a horrible call.

that, you know, change the game or impacted the game. I just don't think they executed in the second half. What other thoughts from the game do you have? Oh, that's pretty much it. Again, I don't have a rosy picture as you do. I still think even though they held Robinson to less than three yards to carry, running back still ran for 90 yards. I don't think that's a complete shutdown.

Well, 3.2 yards per carry for running backs is pretty good, considering who they were facing. You know, good offensive line, too. They did a – are you saying that you don't think they did a good job against the run? I don't think they did a bad job, but I don't think it was a complete shutdown. Again, I don't think – I think it had a lot more to do with the interceptions than anything else. And I don't think that that's something that you'll see every week. Yeah, I would just say that the two go hand in hand. The ability to shut them down on the run forced Ritter to beat him through the air,

and that's why ultimately, you know, they got the picks. But anyway, look, it was a necessary win. I mean, and Ron's at being at 3 and 3, Tommy, at this point, we have seen consistency from 2020 through 2022 right about, you know, end of October, November, they start to play better football. They start to play their best football of the year. So if that happens again, you know, with the Giants and the Eagles and the Patriots and the Seahawks and the Giants again before the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, they'll be in the mix. They'll be in the NFC mix entering December. I think that that's very possible. I'm not saying, I'm not predicting

that they'll make the playoffs. But, you know, I did. the 8, 8, and 1 before the season, partly as schick, but it's kind of what I also thought, that this is like essentially a 500 NFL team. And if they stay around 500 heading into December, they're going to be in the mix for a wild card spot. I see very few victories ahead for this team. I'm concerned about Sunday. Very concerned. Sequin Barclay is a massive difference maker for that team. and they just, it looks like Daniel Jones may not play. Speaking of other teams, that Monday night game last night, I mean, flags are still flying.

I mean, there were 20 actual assessed penalties, but I think there were 27 flags in the game when you consider either two penalties on one play or a decline penalty. I mean, that game was just over. officiated to the point where it became really hard to watch no matter how intense it was. And it was really intense. The Cowboys, for those of you that missed it, beat the Chargers in what amounted to a home game for them at SoFive.

I mean, it was so loud, cowboy fans. But they beat him 20 to 17. Justin Herbert, I think, leads the league now in the last three years in fourth quarter interceptions. And so he threw a pick after getting. sacked by Micah Parsons on really what turned out to be maybe the biggest play of the game. I mean, good God, did he get through quickly and just bury Herbert. It was entertaining. I had both baseball and football on simultaneously last night.

And so I was watching both. But every time you looked up, you saw the head referee in discussions with other referees and then calling penalties. It was ridiculous. Dak bounced back. He was okay. Had a really nice read-option touchdown run. His numbers look good. I still think Dallas doesn't look super crisp offensively, consistent offensively. But they got a big win for them.

That was a big win for the Cowboys after they got embarrassed last week. Big win for them. Imagine if they were 3-3 in Washington was right now tied for second in the division, Tommy. Yeah. You know, you're right. It was an important win for doubts. Yeah. They have the Rams this coming week.

Actually, this coming week, they have a buy. They have a buy this week. Then they have the Rams, and then they play their first of two against the Eagles on November 5th in Philadelphia. So I'm not a big fan of the Cowboy team this year. Like I think their offense is hit and miss. I think DAC is average. A lot of you got after me last week saying, you know, you think that,

how can you say that DAC sucks? I didn't say that. I never said that. Listen carefully. I said DAC is average. I still believe that. But he really came up big last night. And if you like Dak, and I do like Dak, the leader, the person,

you were kind of rooting for him to really bounce back last night. because he, when you're the quarterback of that team, Tommy, and you don't play well, man, is it tough? You know, is that the number one, in professional football, the quarterback of the Cowboys scrutinize more than any player in the league, right? Probably. Probably. You know, I would argue for years sometimes it was the Washington quarterback. league-wide?

Yeah. Yeah. I think it had a national profile because of the political implications of being in Washington. When Nixon and then Reagan were in the White House, yeah, I think so. I think the Washington

quarterback position may have been just as scrutinized and justice under the microscope as Dallas. What about when Carter was in the White House or Clinton? was it as scrutinized? Why was it different with just Nixon and Reagan? I don't think, look, because I just think that, like, you mean,

Reagan paid attention to football. Nixon paid attention to football. Oh, I see what you're saying. Carter was, Clinton was a sports fan, but I think more of a college sports fan. Yeah. Carter went to some games. You know, I'll tell you the games right now that I know Jimmy Carter was at

when he was president. He was at game seven of the NBA's Eastern Conference semifinals, Washington and Atlanta, the bullets against the Hawks. He was at that game. Elvin Hayes, I think maybe the game of Elvin Hayes' career in Washington. 39 points, Tommy. I think 19 rebounds in like seven blocks shots in a game seven. Something like that. I may be off on the rebounds and block shots, but I know it was 39 points. And then Washington played Dallas on a Monday night. I think he was at Washington versus Dallas a couple of times on Monday night football. He and Rosalind were.

I'm pretty sure. By the way, why am I blanking on this? Is she still alive? I don't know. Because he's still alive. I mean, I think he's approaching 100 years old. She's still alive, too, right? I think so.

I'm looking it up right now. Hold on. She's still alive. She's 96 years old. And her husband is 99 years old. He just turned 99. That's remarkable. A couple that is 99, 96 and still going strong.

You know what, though? They did not have a dent in their arm. I think that's why they've survived as long as they've survived. All right. Let's get to some baseball. Let's get to the caps getting a win last night. But something interesting about their home game last night against Calgary. All of that coming up, let me first tell you that when donations deal is buy to get too free with no limit, zero money down, zero payments, and zero percent interest for two full years. You're not going to pay for these windows until the year 2025. Simply put, all right, if you're looking for Windows right now, go to Window Nation, give them the first chance.

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Now Harper, deep in the right center, and he'll be. Watch this one fly. Second home run of the inning. Bryce Harper's fourth home run of these playoffs. It came two batters after Kyle Schwerber led the game off in the bottom of the first for the Phillies anyway and their first at bat with a home run off of Zach Gowan's first pitch last night. The Phillies win game won five to three.

We'll get to more on that game. and the surprising result so far of the American League Championship Series after Tommy tells us about Shelley's. Well, you know, on Sunday, I watched the Commander's game down at Shelly's. I was there with Bob, Matarazzi, the owner of Shelly. Love Bob. Bob knows a lot about football. Oh, Bob's a huge skins fan.

Huge. Yeah, and particularly college football. He's got a tremendous depth of knowledge about college football. And the place was filled with football fans. It was a great atmosphere of most of them commanders fans, you know, sitting all around me. But it was such a great atmosphere, you know, smoking a couple of cigars, eating off the great menu they had. I had a meatball sub on Sunday, which was absolutely fabulous like all their food is.

and it's a great place to watch sporting events, particularly NFL football, on a Sunday afternoon. As it gets colder and colder out, if you're a cigar smoker, and you know you can't smoke indoors at home, head down the Shelley's back room at 1331 F Street, Northwest, in the district. It's a great place to watch football, and a great place to smoke cigars, and a great place to eat great food. Look, I know Bob is a huge skins fan,

a lifelong skins fan. I did not know that he was a huge college football fan, but Shelley's is awesome, great place to watch games for sure. All right, let's talk some baseball playoffs. Before we get to Philly last night, what about the Rangers in the first two games? That was some drama yesterday at the end of that game, throughout that game, actually.

But the Rangers now in the postseason have not lost. They took the first two games against Tampa Bay, eliminated them. they swept the Orioles, and now they're two up on the Astros. And Tommy, what's interesting is they are now 7 and 0 in these Major League Baseball playoffs. They've played just one home game. They're about to play at least two, if not three home games in a row against Houston

because it's the 232 format. But what do you make of that series so far? I mean, I had no idea Texas was that good. I didn't really pay much attention in American League West. you know, throughout the season. And the Rangers, you know, led the division, I think, most of the year. It was only near the end of the year where they faltered. And it wound up in a three-way race between them, the Mariners, and the Astros,

with the Astros winning it. But the Rangers were dominant throughout much of the year. And it's tremendous turnaround, because I think this team only won 68 games last year. and you've got a tribute a large part of that turnaround that Bruce Bochy you know being in a dugout this year a guy who won three World Series

as the manager of the Giants a huge impact on the team and I mean I don't think Houston that has what it takes to come back from a two-nothing deficit to beat the Rangers

I wouldn't count the Astros out because they have a championship pedigree, you know. But the Rangers, look, the Rangers and the Phillies, if that's the way it rolls, those are the two best teams playing in the postseason, that's for sure. You mentioned Bruce Bochy. You're right. They won 68 games last year. He arrives in Texas. After not managing Tommy for four seasons, his last year in San Francisco was 2019. You know, he won Three World Series as the manager, as you mentioned, of the Giants in 2010, 2012, 2014.

Hall of Fame manager, right? He didn't even need to come back. No, no, he's a Hall of Fame lock. And he has totally turned Texas around. And this would be amazing if they go through and they end up in the World Series. And it would be, you know, a great matchup with Philadelphia if we see that. Arizona came back last night. By the way, they've gotten.

great pitching, you know, in the postseason. Of all these, ERA is, you know, two point something in his three starts, one start against Tampa, one start against Baltimore, and then start yesterday against Houston. But look, I don't care about some sort of fabricated rivalry between the Nats and the Phillies. I mean, this is my home city. I don't feel a rivalry with the Phillies. I am rooting for Bryce Harper. I'm kind of rooting for Trey Turner, but not as much as I am for Bryce Harper. He homered again last night, his fourth homer of the postseason. He was two for three. He also had an RBI single in the game. He walked. He's hitting 409 in the postseason. He's got a 567 on base percentage and 95-slugging percentage. He's just been incredible for the second

straight year in the postseason. But how about Castianos? He had another home run last night. I know. This is a guy that went back-to-back games in the Atlanta series, closing the Braves out, with two home runs in each one of those games. He's now got five homers in three games. It was a good game. That was a good game last night as well.

They got off to a quick strike. Arizona came back. Made it a game. And the home run barrage may only get worse for Arizona, because if Swarber, who hit the first pitch into the stats for the home run, the first pitch that they took, if he gets on a roll, this is the guy who hits home runs in bunches. When he was with Washington in 2021, he had 16 home runs in the month of June.

So if Swarver gets hot, then, I mean, we are looking at almost like a cartoonish power display. Yeah, and they got a nice. another really good outing from Zach Wheeler. He's been outstanding, and they pitch their second best pitcher. Their one-two is pretty strong with Wheeler and Aaron Nola. He goes tonight to try to make it two games to nothing in that National League championship series. All right. I want to finish up with the caps.

We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This final segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to my bookie. use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and you'll get a cash deposit bonus from MyBooky. My bookie's got everything you need, every sport. They've got an online casino, a world-class online casino. You can bet the horses if you want to do that at MyBooky. All of the NFL lines are up. Washington, a two-point favorite right now, Sunday in the Meadowlands against the Giants. MyBooky.ag.

You've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and you will get a cash deposit bonus if you do so. Tommy, so last night the Caps rallied to beat the Calgary Flames in a shootout. They were down two nothing, so it meant that they went, I think, their first four periods of the season without scoring. By the way, they're the last NHL team to play their second game. I'm not sure why so few games to start the season here. But anyway, their streak last night of 58 consecutive sellouts at Capital One Arena, at MCI Center, at whatever it's been called, dating back to March 5th, 2009, came to an end last night. They did not sell out the game last night. And it looked like there was still a pretty good-sized crowd.

Like when Washington's football franchise stopped selling out games and you'd look on television at the crowd, you just saw big blotches of empty seats. I flipped it to the Caps game last night when I saw it trending that they didn't sell out the game. It still looked like a pretty packed house to me. But anyway, any significance in this story to you at all other than that they didn't make the playoffs last year? That might be a reason. Well, I went to the Caps opener Friday night, which they lost 4-0. They didn't look good.

They looked old. Ovescun looked 38 years old. That's just one game. It could be. And again, this is totally unfair. It's just one game. If I didn't get the greatest vibe off the new coach, Spencer Carberry. You didn't?

Why? in the post game press conference he seemed tense he seemed tense and as soon as the press conference was over he left the building literally I saw him stand in front of the elevator

by himself usually coaches will go back to her office you know talk you know have discussions usually see guys leave with friends or family, particularly of his first game. No, just by him, it's just a weird situation.

I just didn't get a good feeling about him. Totally unfair for one game. Just my first game impressions of the team. They look old. They look slow and a lot of uncertainty, I think, with a new coach who's new to the NHL as well. As far as, you know, the lack of a sellout, Yeah, I think, I think, you know, what, five years removed now from the Stanley Cup and not making a playoff last year in particular, but have something to do with it.

The whole issue of downtown has become an issue for Ted Leones. I wrote about this in my column on Friday that he's fighting with the city, although the city is coming around to helping finance improvements, major improvements to the arena. There's been some talk that Ted would consider moving to Northern Virginia over in Arlington next to Amazon new headquarters for a new arena there. And the downtown area, there's some vacant stores around there where there weren't before. And crime has become an issue in that neighborhood. So I think all these could contribute to the demise of the sellout.

I'm reading something from our guy, Eric, who likes to follow sort of sports and media and, you know, ratings and things like that. Eric's always been helpful in the past. He said that basically there's no way that they sold out games at the end of last year. So them claiming sellouts at the end of last year was complete gibberish. But it's, you know, a long run of sellouts anyway. I mean, they clearly had a long run of sellouts. But the fact that he's just suggesting that there's no chance that last night was the first non-sellout since 2009, given what the crowds looked like, I guess at the end of last year when they were not going to be a playoff team.

I don't know. I don't follow it that closely. I do know this about the Capps fan base in this town. It is super passionate. It's super hardcore. You know, it's not, you know, high volume. Sorry, but it just isn't the highest volume fan base in town by a long shot. But the people that are into it love it.

And I still think in terms of going to a live sporting event. And I'm not talking about a big game. I'm not talking about the event. You know, we are very much an event town in so many ways. I'm just talking about a run-of-the-mill. You're going to go to a regular season game at FedEx Field. you're going to go to a regular season game at Nats Park. You're going to go to a regular season game, Wizards, Caps.

In terms of the professional teams, I think in terms of the value for what you're spending, Caps games are great. I think being there live at a game is so much better than watching it on TV. And I feel completely opposite about the other sports. Absolutely. And I think that's part of it, too, is that, No, the biggest part of it is they've been really good, and they've had a superstar generational player. But, yeah, so if they're good again, and I have no idea if they're going to be good this year or not,

and certainly the Ovechkin countdown to Gretzky's goal scoring mark will fill up that building a lot as well. But anyway, I mean, we're a long way. We're a long way from that happening still. That's next year. Yeah. It is next year. Maybe. Maybe. No, listen, that's next year. 73 goals looked a long way away Friday night.

He didn't score last night, right? I don't think he did. No, he didn't. Yeah, he is 73 away from Gretzky. So that is in a normal situation for him, that would be sometime late next season. We'll see. All right. You got anything else? I got nothing else for you today, Ball. All right.

Great job, as always. And I will be back tomorrow with Cooley.