The Kevin Sheehan Show - Gruden Gone; Nats Face Elimination

Episode Date: October 7, 2019

Kevin and Aaron opened with a Nats-Dodgers recap then got to the Jay Gruden firing early this morning. Kevin had ESPN's John Keim on the show to discuss what's next including early names on the 2020 Skins' coaching list. Kevin did a Skins-Pats game recap and talked Terps and other NFL too. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now, here's Kevin. All right, I'm here and errands here. It's a breaking news kind of day. Jay Gruden was fired early this morning. Bill Callahan was elevated to interim coach. I'm going to update everybody on the radio conversations that I had this morning with J.P. Finley and Diana Rusini here shortly. we're hopeful of having John Kymond, but all of the beat reporters today that have various pieces of information, they're all super busy. There's a 1 p.m. press conference, and we're recording this a couple of hours before that press conference. But anyway, I'm going to try to get something out here quickly so that you can digest it, and obviously a lot of this will change or a lot of this will be perhaps old news by the time we get to the press conference. But anyway, let me start with this, okay?

I was so even last night after the game in full expectation mode that something more likely than not was going to happen today. I couldn't have cared less, Aaron. I was so into the baseball game last night. And it turned really ugly in the sixth inning when they tried to do what they've already done in this postseason, which is go with a starter in relation. leaf. It worked in the wild card game, bringing Strasbourg in. It worked Friday night in one of the more compelling postseason games. This franchise has ever played in. There haven't been a lot of them.

This is the fifth year being in the postseason as the Washington Nationals. That game two in Dodger Stadium on Friday night was as good and high quality as it gets with incredible decisions made by the manager, which we will get to, one of which was to bring Max Scherzer out of the to pitch a perfect eighth inning, struck out all three, and that immediately, I guess, made it so that he would not be able to start game three. He's going to start tonight. But they had to win that game, and they were up in the moment in that game, and they wanted to keep that lead, and he kept that lead,

and then they turned to Hudson in the ninth, and he loaded up the bases. And I shouldn't say he loaded up the bases, because Dave Martinez made the decision to walk Muncie and bring the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the 9th on Friday Night, Aaron. Was that unbelievable? I'm sitting there watching. I'm like, you're going to bring the winning run to the plate? I know Muncie's killing you. But you can't do that.

Yeah, that's why I understood it. I didn't hate it quite as much as that. Really? Did you hate it after he walked Smith on four pitches? Well, sure. I mean, my God. And he got away with it. It was crazy. The Scherzer decision, I think, was brilliant. I think the Strasbourg decision in the wildcard game was brilliant.

And not just because they worked out, but because they were your, it was a recognition of the flaw, the flaw being your bullpen. And we're pitching our best guys. Our bullpen is Doolittle and Hudson in a game we have a chance to win. Obviously, we've seen other guys in the first game, which they got blown out in. And then last night, when they fell behind by six runs at the end of the sixth inning. But man, Walking Muncie and bringing the winning run up to the plate on Friday night was about as ballsy a move as I've seen in forever. Their analytics base, the matchup with Smith is the one they wanted. They didn't think they could get Muncie out. And Muncie, by the way, if he had hit a home run, it would have been a tie score.

But if Smith had hit a home run, it would have been game over. Smith, they walked promptly in four pitches. Hudson walked him in four pitches, so it really didn't work out. and then they had to face Corey Seeger, who he did get to strike out on the eighth and final pitch of that at bat. Man, that pitch for pitch with the bases jacked in the bottom of the ninth on Friday night was great. Last night, the pitch by pitch in the sixth when they got into trouble and they brought Corbin in was really compelling. I didn't think Corbin pitched poorly. Ray Knight, I had him on the radio show this morning, said that really he made one mistake.

It was the pitch to Hernandez, the one that Hernandez doubled off the wall, that essentially gave them the 5-2 lead. He said the pitch that he made to Martin in the top of the 6th was actually a slider that hit nearly the spot he wanted to hit. He had two strike counts on all three. The Nats in the sixth inning last night had 0 and 2 counts on the three players that drove in the seven runs in the inning. That's hard to do.

Hard to do. To have 0 and 2 counts on the 3. the two players that they drove in, it was a rough sixth inning. Anyway, tonight is the night, and tonight's a big night for Max Scher because Max has not pitched well as a Nats playoff pitcher. He pitched well the other night. He really did. Struck out the side in a crucial eighth inning with the Nats clinging to the lead in a game that they had to have or they would have gone back to Washington potentially down to nothing in the series could have ended last night. But tonight's one of those moments, man, because this is what he gets paid all.

that money for. He gets paid to win this game tonight, not to go six innings and leave with a in a one-one game or a two-to-one lead. He's paid to go seven or eight, allow no more than an earned run on four or five hits max. That's what Max Scherzer needs to do tonight. And then Strasbourg would be there and available for a fifth and deciding game. And the way he's pitched, I'd feel pretty good about their chances in a fifth and deciding game, which, by the way, would be opposite of Bueller, because Rich Hill's going tonight for the Dodgers. It'll be fascinating to see exactly how they handle Max if it does start like it did last week.

If we have, you know, do they afford him that time to, okay, you gave up an early home run? Do you let him settle down now? Or do you pull him basically immediately if he starts looking like he's in trouble? And put in who? The answer would probably be Strauss. I thought about that Because here's what I thought about I thought about

He's up to 115 pitches In a 4-4 game Or a 4-3 game In the 5th You know Or the 100 pitches in the 5th Like he's really laboring

He's labored But he's only given up three runs And the Nats are up 4 3 or 5 3 Something like that Knowing that you have to win To keep your season alive Would you turn to Strasbourg and at that point.

And then who starts tomorrow night? Joe Ross? Yeah, boy. Yeah, I mean. I mean, maybe the Corbyn, how many pitches did he have last night? He had a lot of pitches. Right. 35 pitches last night.

You could go with Corby. You probably would go with Corbyn. Yeah, you might go with Corbyn and then depending on how many innings Strasbourg pitched, Strasbourg. And I don't know. Anyway. I guess the question is, my. your question is if he gives up three runs early like that, do you let him settle down?

Again, I mean, if you're talking about going to Strasbourg in that spot, you know, let's say, well, I mean, look, they didn't bring Strasbourg in in the third. They could have in the wild card game. You know, they let Max bat in a moment where I thought if Robles had actually let off the inning with a single or a walk, they may have brought a pinch hitter in for Scherzer in the third in that wild card game. I don't know what they'll do. But, but you know what, here's what we do know based on the way they've played these first four games of the postseason. When they have to win, like in the wild card game or in game two on Friday night, which

was pretty much a must have, they're going to pitch their best pitchers. And they're going to worry about the consequences later, because there is no tomorrow if they don't get through tonight. And if they decide that they're going to go Swero and Rodney and Rainey tonight if Scher struggles, then by the time, then you'll never get to Strasbourg

tomorrow night. Right. So that's what I would anticipate. I think you bring up something. I was thinking about it, that it's not impossible that we see Max and Strasbourg tonight. Yeah. Let's hope that Scher does what he, you know, really

is paid to do as an ace. He's paid to perform and pitch and carry your club in a game it has to have in the postseason. All right, let's get to all the other stuff because there's a lot of other stuff. All right, so Jay Gruden got fired. This is hardly a surprise to anybody. Look, yesterday was another debacle. Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder were at the game. I don't know if anybody saw the shots of their motorcade,

basically leaving the bowels of FedEx Field after the game. It was like, God, there's so much self-importance there. Like the security and the multiple vehicles. And I can see the two of them sitting back there with Coors lights and hands, which by the way I mentioned earlier in the radio show, you know, that's what Bruce drinks. You know, cheap beer for basically, you know, lower rent people. Not that there's anything wrong with Coors Light. I drink a lot of cheap beer.

All right, I do. But anyway, unfortunately, everybody, firing Jay Gruden, you know, isn't the solution. I am for it. I was for it in January when I advocated for a total reboot. I absolutely wanted Jay Gruden gone. It made no sense bringing him back. It made no sense bringing him back. It made no sense bringing Bruce Allen back. To me, it made no sense moving on from people like Trent Williams and Ryan Kerrigan for a package of picks in January. They can fire Jay Gruden, just like they did Mike Shanahan, and just like Dan did in the past with Zorn and Spurrier and Schottenheimer and Norv. A fired coach and a new one to follow isn't going to fix this problem. The problem is them. They hired Jay Gruden. They kept Jay Gruden for over five.

years despite his final record of 3549 and 1. And an obvious inability to be the leader of an actual football team as a head coach. It's not his strength. I can only imagine, by the way, what Dan and Bruce were talking about yesterday is they sped out of FedEx Field. By the way, a stadium that now has delivered seven straight losses in front of the opponent's fan base. That's basically going on a year now. The last home win, you know, in air quotes, home win, came in October when they beat the Cowboys 20 to 17 last October. Since then, they've lost seven games in a row at FedEx Field by a combined score of 220 to 94.

If you want to do the averages on that, that would be 31 to 13. Somewhere around there, 3114. That's not good. Like they haven't been close at home. You were going to say something. You brought up the air quotes around home game. That was the worst it's ever been. Not worse than Philadelphia.

I was it was percentage wise, I think it was. I think there were maybe not as many as Philadelphia as many fans, but there were less Redskins fans there were no Redskins fans at the Philadelphia game, none. I feel like that was as bad. And the stadium was nearly filled with Philadelphia fans. It was filled with Patriots fans. Look at what we're debating. How pathetic.

Yeah. Alan and Snyder have been and have seemed to be the only two people on the planet that don't know that they are the stewards over one of the worst franchises in all of sports. They lack so much in self-awareness. Don't you get to a point in life, I think a lot of you out there where it's like, God, I hope I'm more self-aware than that person. You know, it's like such an important characteristic. and the two of them essentially deserve each other. They lack in self-awareness both of them to a degree that it's funny. I made this analogy earlier, that essentially they're like two monkeys playing with hand grenades.

You know, it's funny to look at, but it's also borderline dangerous as well. You know, this has been and continues to be a blind leading the blind situation. I almost will guarantee you that when you hear from Bruce Allen, first of all, I don't know that he'll take questions. I hope he does, but I don't think he will. I will guarantee you that the two of them believe that their problem here is a combination of all of these injuries, the referees targeting them, and this dopey coach that they hired, which just, you know, the dopey coach essentially just ran out of steam. I bet you they still believe that a new stadium is going to be a jolt to the franchise. That's delusional. Nobody gives a shit about a new stadium if you're not putting something new and something that people can be optimistic about in it.

Look, here's one thing that I want to make very clear. These two gentlemen, the owner and the team president, half, they're going to be. going to make the hires. They're going to hire, you know, they're going to elevate Kyle Smith, or they're going to hire somebody like Lewis Riddick and Alan will get in his way and they're going to hire some coach and they'll get in their way. These two have proven that they should not be allowed to hire anybody on the football side of the operation. They just shouldn't. I know Snyder's the owner. Well, how, Kevin, can you prevent the owner from hiring somebody? He needs to prevent himself from making the decision. He's got to bring somebody in. Joe, Charlie. I'm mentioning those

names because he doesn't know anybody else. And nobody else would be willing to help him that they come in and they hire the next, you know, GM. They hire the next, you know, head coach or with the GM. They, well, they hire the GM and the GM hires the next coach. Jay Grude, I mean, my God, he started Colt McCoy yesterday. He went out with his guy Colt. A quarterback, by the way, that is now one and six is a starter for him. Colt McCoy had one night for this coach. Talked about this earlier on the radio show. You know, if you remember it, and I went to look at this last night,

he played great that night. I'm not going to take that away from him, but it was also sort of a fluky night for the Cowboys. Tony Romo got hurt. Brandon Whedon played significant minutes in the second half of that Monday night game back in 2014. The one game out of seven that Colt McCoy started for the Redskins, actually won. Colt McCoy's one win as a Redskins starter in seven tries. His one win came that particular night. His first start. By the way, I bet you didn't know this. He's now seven and 22 as a

starter in the NFL coldest. That doesn't even qualify as a journeyman. No. Um, anyway, the coach, you know, he's a good guy. Jay's a good guy. He's got a great sense of humor, but he's missed out on the fact that the jokes essentially on him, Colt McCoy can't play. He's an NFL backup. The guy who knows quarterbacks should have known that. But anyway, Gruden was hired by Allen, a hiring endorsed by the owner. And again, based on those two things alone, neither of them should be allowed to hire the next coaching staff, neither of them. This should be left up to a new person. At this point, any person other than either one of them, you know, and that's probably not going to happen. You know, this were close, you know, if we only didn't have these injuries, if we only

had Trent and Jordan and Brandon Sheriff, all the referees are picking on us. It's, no, no, no. What's been obvious, Dan Snyder, to almost everybody in this city and around the NFL, but you better be obvious now. It's right there in front of you. We have drawn it out in crayon so you can see it and understand it. Your team and organization is a bottom feeder. It stinks. It's got no culture, no soul, no brains or wit, no humility. And by the way, if you wait another year or two before making massive changes and admitting that you're the problem, you're not going to have any fans left. I mean, think about the things we were told about this team between January and the opener. Top five defense, lockdown defense, top five. The offensive line went

healthy. You know, it's one of the best offensive lines in the league. No, it isn't. Your quarterbacks, I mean, we've got case, we got Colt, we got, you know, a young rookie. We're in good, I mean, plus we got a head coach that really knows how to deal with quarterbacks. You got a scouting department. Look at the drafts we've had. Yeah, look at them, carefully. They're not that great. And oh, by the way, if your scouting department, Dan, is so great. why did you trump their decision on Haskins? He said, look, this is now something we've been talking about on the podcast, on the radio show, going back to the draft. I had Diana Rusini on the show this morning.

We had her on the podcast shortly after the draft. She was the one, one of two or three, but I think the first person to report that the football people did not have Haskins rated as high and that Dan Snyder made the pick. and that the football people actually really were enamored with Daniel Jones. They couldn't pick Jones. Let's all remember that. That gets lost in this. Some of you continue to say, yeah, they fuck the whole thing up. They should have taken Daniel Jones. They couldn't take Daniel Jones.

They would have had to trade up in front of the Giants to take Daniel Jones. Saying goodbye to Jay is a beginning. It's not the end. Bruce needs to go immediately. He's not. Diana Rusini and J.P. Finley both told me that this morning on the radio show. They do not think that Bruce is going anywhere. In fact, J.P. threw in this little nugget. He says that the team, the franchise is in the red zone when it comes to its new stadium, meaning they're about to score a deal, which I would assume is with D.C. And he pretty much confirmed that. That's news. It's not going to change the way I feel about the organization. I'm not all of a sudden going to be optimistic. everything's going to turn around because we've got a new structure to play in. Bruce needs to go.

Minusky should go. Name Kyle Smith, the interim GM. Let him trade Trent Williams now and anybody else that has value that won't be a part of the future, or certainly a part of the effort to win in the future. I would have named Kevin O'Connell, the head coach, and Ray Horton, defensive coordinator, but they have elevated Bill Callahan. Old Bill. Old Bill Callahan's going to be the head coach.

According to reports, they are going to, in the offseason, replace Bill Callahan with a new coach. But Callahan has accepted the interim role. John Kime actually reported this morning that, and it was actually maybe an Ed Wurter report. Ed Wurter, yeah. It was an Ed Wurter report about the possibilities that the Redskins would be looking at in the off season. And they included Mike Tomlin, who by the way, last checked,

I think he still coaches the Steelers. and then you also had Todd Bowles and Eric B. Enemy were the three names. And Bowles is the name that I've been mentioning. And the reason, again, I don't have any knowledge of this. It's just a connect the dots situation. I think he will turn to Joe Gibbs at some point and ask Joe what he thinks. Joe is a big-time believer in Todd Bulls. That's why Todd Bowles, I think, will be certainly somebody that they interview.

Now, you know, part of that will be how to say. Tampa do this year? How does Tampa's defense do this year? Didn't look good yesterday. Yeah. I mean, it's, they've given up a lot of points here recently, although they're turning people over, or at least they were until yesterday. I didn't really follow the game, the Saints' Bucks game yesterday. But Bowls, you know, BNemey's the offensive coordinator in Kansas City and everybody knows who Mike Tomlin is. But he needs to find out also on Dwayne Haskins once and for all. I will be I'm not going to get furious anymore. I don't get furious about anything having to do with the team.

Sometimes my voice is raised and I sound really emotional. I get frustrated with incompetence more than anything else. It drives me effing crazy when things are so obviously clear to everybody paying attention to the granular detail, day-to-day detail of a situation. And the dumb-dums who run the team can't figure it out. That drives me nuts. but in terms of being, like, you know, yesterday, did anybody really care that they got thumped by the Patriots?

Like, the losses this year just don't make me upset. They don't. By the way, I do have a game take. I was going to ask that. I thought a couple of players played well yesterday. I'm going to, there's a tease for you. That's coming up shortly. But I will be absolutely puzzled.

And borderline angry, if Haskins doesn't start Sunday in Miami and for the final 11 games, barring, you know, injury. There is nothing that makes sense. I got into an argument with Clinton today on the radio show. Clinton still doesn't want to play him. I'm like, why? And the reasons that Clinton and Sean Springs and Fred Smoot and DeAngelo Hall of the ex-players that I've talked to don't want Haskins to play is they believe the fans will turn on him if he doesn't play well. I don't believe that to be the case at all. I think the fans are going to be absolutely incensed if he doesn't play.

Look, there is business, there are business reasons to play him. The business reasons are you have to find out because you, believe it or not, as bad as you are as an NFL franchise, they're going to still let you draft next year. And you're probably going to have a top two or three pick. And it is, according to most of the experts, and trust me, I understand what that means. It's a crapshoot when it comes to this draft, especially with quarterbacks. But this is one of the deepest quarterback drafts in years.

You must find out, or at the very least, learn enough to make an educated guess on Haskins. And to find out whether or not, you know, you may have stumbled on to somebody really good. Like maybe the owner got this right. More likely than not, he screwed it up. But you're not going to know that until he plays. He's got to play and the organization needs to learn. Again, next year's draft, too rich in quarterback talent. The organization needs to know if this quarterback is going to be the guy moving forward.

You can't find out anything about him. On the scout team or in meeting rooms, anywhere near the level you can find out if he plays. I've mentioned this over and over again. I think he should have played yesterday. Those that scream sabotage because a rookie backup quarterback came into a game last week and oh my God, he played, like it was the most egregious mistake in NFL history? I don't even understand that. Do you know that I looked this up actually after the radio show this morning,

or somebody sent this to me, I'm sorry. If Haskins doesn't play, doesn't get significant playing time on a non-playoff team the rest of the way, it would be the first time in the last 20 years that a first round quarterback didn't get significant time. Now, I've gone through the list of the 20 of 24. So 24 quarterbacks have been drafted in the top half of the first round over the last 10 years. 20 of them have gotten their first NFL start by week five of their rookie year. The four that haven't are Patrick Mahomes, Christian Ponder, Jake Locker, and now Dwayne Haskins.

Those are the four. That's it. But Locker and Ponder played a lot. They played a ton towards the end of the year. It's not like they sat the entire year. They just didn't get a start by week five. Mahomes didn't. Mahomes played in a meaningless game end of year after they had clinched, but that's because he was on a really good team.

So he doesn't qualify. The person that sent me this tweet said, Haskins would be the first quarterback in the last 20 years drafted in the first round, not to get significant playing time, on a non-playoff team. I don't know what significant playing time is. I mean, I'm going to just pull up Jake Locker here real quickly

because I've looked this stuff up before, but it's Locker's Locker's, Locker did not start a game by Week 5. Was a top half of the league draft choice. He got his first significant playing time in his rookie year. Off the bench. Yeah, he didn't start at all in his work here. Yeah, he got five, it got four, really four appearances,

three meaningful appearances where he threw 19 times, 29 times, and 16 times. All right, towards the end of his first year. And then the other one is Ponder. I think Ponder played or started games his rookie year late in that year. You're doing it at the same time. Yeah, Ponder started 10 games. He started 10 games, but not before week five because he would have been, yeah. His first start came in week seven of his rookie season.

And then he started, yes, 10 games. So there you go. So it's, I don't know why. It totally completely and utterly puzzles me why so many people think that playing a first round pick on a bad football team is somehow unique. It's just, no, the opposite would be totally unique. Not playing him would be, to me, as I've said before, and I said this during training camp, would be a major red flag. Diana Rusini also told me this morning that a conversation with the coaching staff,

that somebody on the coaching staff anonymously revealed to her that he thinks this dude is one to two years away from being ready to play an NFL game. If this guy really is a disaster, you know, and really is a major project, which I think we all now are beginning to realize he more likely than not is, it still would not stop me from playing him. I would not stop him from playing him. What are you going to do? You're going to play Case Keenham?

Colt McCoy, winning games means nothing. You're going to tell me that you can't give him the preseason playbook? He looked fine in the preseason? Why can't he hand off a couple times and get in shotgun and throw some passes? Are you serious? You can't cut the playbook by two-thirds and let him practice 15 plays over and over again, calling him in the huddle and getting to the line of scrimmage? You know, Cooley said this to us last week on the podcast,

and I had sort of referenced this in an earlier podcast, is that one of the difficulties young quarterbacks have, and their rookie year. And Dwayne Haskins is no different. But some just really struggle with it. Is getting the protection right. You know, getting the pass protection right. And you've got to identify who the middle linebacker is. You have to shift your line.

You have to, you've got to set your protection pre-snap based on reading the defense, based on knowing who's coming and who's not coming defensively. And Cooley said to me, said, The easiest thing to do when a quarterback isn't comfortable yet in reading defenses and setting protections is don't have him do that. Block with a five-man line and let him throw hot on every pass play. And what that means, just so you know, is that, and I think most of you do, but when you get to the line of scrimmage and you don't have full pass protection, you're throwing hot, meaning you're throwing to the part of the field where the blitz isn't coming.

from. Okay? So here comes, or to the side that the blitz is coming from. Here comes the blitz. I'm throwing into that area that they've just vacated. All right? So Cooley's like, that's easy. You know, you can put together a playbook with nothing but hot throws. And then you can run some two minute with him and shotgun where he's not reading as much. And you definitely work a lot of screen, a lot of bubble, a lot of that stuff in at a shotgun to get him comfortable. And then you can hand off a bunch. I don't get, I must be missing something here. I play, I would have played him Sunday and I definitely, definitely think that part of the plan beginning today, after you've said goodbye to Jay, and it's not going to happen, this is my plan, Dan, fire Jay, fire Bruce, fire Minuski,

name Kyle Smith the interim GM. Let him trade Trent Williams, try to get the best deal for Trent Williams now. This pettiness with Bruce and Trent is over. All right, it's hurting the team. Anybody else that's got value, Kerrigan, either quarterback, maybe Pittsburgh wants them. They lost Mason Rudolph to a severe concussion yesterday. Trade them too. Name Kevin O'Connell head coach.

That ship has already sailed because it's Bill Callahan. I would have named O'Connell head coach. Ray Horton, defensive coordinator. Let O'Connell announce that Haskins is going to be the starter Sunday and for the rest of the year. And then let's go ask Joe Gibbs, Charlie Casserly, the league, anybody that you, that will have a conversation with you, reach out to people and ask them to help you hire the next head of the football organization. And then to convince that person to come here, you're probably going to have to do some backflips. You're going to more likely than not have to give them a contract that gives them essentially total. autonomy over the football operation or it might cost you a lot more.

But that's what you've reduced this franchise to. You're desperate. You're desperate. You can't continue this lack of self-awareness being oversold by your team president that you're close to something that you're not close to. I think I said this last week on the podcast, Aaron, with Tommy. What a hell of a case study the Redskins would be at Wharton. You know, seriously.

Any business school. Like, I would like to actually bring the idea of the Redskins as a case study on how, you know, how you lose a huge, massive, fiercely loyal customer base in short order. Like, that's hard to do. They've done it. So it would be a great case study to learn what they did. And then obviously the conversation would be, well, this was mistake number one. and what should they have done here? This was missed, and then you would go through the list of probably now triple digits worth of mistakes

that they've never corrected or never learned from. Jay Gruden, nice guy, gone, respected offensive mind in the league, and by the way, he's going to get a job. Now, one other quick thing, if you missed it late Friday afternoon, shortly after he announced Colt McCoy would start in his final stand. By the way, when I said he's going to get a job as an offensive coordinator, not a head coach, he will. He'll get hired.

next year unless he's got to sit out to get paid by the Redskins. Diana Rusini told me via text because I asked her, because I didn't get to ask her on the show. This video that surfaced Friday of Gruden from three years ago, two to three years ago, hammered, inebriated on a street with a young woman who was not his wife. You've seen the video at this point. Oh, yes. Two videos. Most of you have probably seen the video.

It is not irrational or unjustifiable for your first reaction after you saw that video leaked to think that somebody in the organization leaked it. Of course we all thought that. This is their move. Their low-rent mean-spirited people. What they did to Scott McLuhan was unconscionable. Now, Scott McLuhan, from everything I know, absolutely deserved to be dismissed.

They were right to fire him. He was not well and should not have been the general manager of the organization. He was not a, functioning general manager. Now, I would argue probably him in whatever state he was in was probably still better than anybody else they've had. But besides that, they leaked that story to the post that totally chopped his legs off publicly. That was mean and low rent and very transparent. We all knew where it came from. They thought it would somehow make them look good for firing him.

No, it actually backfired and made us all realize, oh my God, this guy's not well, and you leaked this information about him to the Washington Post. And so when we saw this video the other day, it was not irrational to think they leaked this video about Jay because they're about to fire him, which they did this morning. And then, by the way, they're going to try to get away with not paying him his final year in 2020. They'll try to fire him with cause, even though this video is three years. years old. Diana told me they've had the video for three years. Now, does that mean that they told this guy that released it on Friday, who by the way had a private account to do so? I don't know that. But it's not crazy for you and me and others to think that they did, that they had something to do with the release of that video to make their coach look awful so that when they fired them on

Monday, they could sort of say, yeah, we've developed some other issues. We got this video and then try to fire him with cause so that they don't have to pay them next year. It's amazing. We're talking about this in the press box yesterday. 31 organizations in the NFL, if you had speculated about that, it would be considered extremely reckless, dangerous. You can't do that for 31 organizations. For one organization in the NFL, it's not just not reckless. It's probable. Well, I don't even, look, in this particular situation, I'm not going to place odds on it. I'm just going to say what I said this morning and what I'm saying right now. If you, like I, had the reaction that, oh my God, the team leaked this video. It's not an unjustifiable first thought or first

reaction based on their track record. It isn't. They leaked, remember, the post leak on Scott McLuhan came from somebody high up in the organization, a senior person in the organization speaking on the condition of anonymity. Go back and read that story. The quotes about Scott McClewine, McLuhan. I mean, coming from the organization, and by the way, the reporter, an odd reporter for that story from Tampa, you can sort of, you know, use your brain to connect the dots. Anyway, all right, quick update on mybooky.ag, and then I think we're going to talk to John Kime, who's been writing all morning about this. Guys, if you want to bet, by the way, the smell test overall for going back to Thursday night, five and five. So my first non-winning weekend in three weeks, I'm still 41, 20, and

one on the season, 67, 68 percent. But I was five and five on the weekend. Actually, five and four, but the Thursday pick counts on this week's record. I had Seattle. But it's the last time I think I'll have the Redskins involved in the smell test this year. But anyway, if you want to bet these smell test picks or your own picks, hopefully your own picks, go to mybooky.orgie.ag if you don't have a place to play. Don't forget, guys, where you bet is just as important as who you're betting on. Now, go to my bookie.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and you're going to activate the following offer. If you join today, MyBooky will double your first deposit if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Now, I want to be clear about this. You can't go there with, you know,

$500, open up an account. They double it, and now you've got a $1,000 balance, and then just take it out. doesn't work that way. You've got to wager, you know, for a certain period of time, certain number of games, certain number of, you know, certain amount of volume, and then you'll be able to take your money out. But if you're going to accept that offer of your first deposit, being doubled using my promo code, which you should, you just, you got to play. It's not, you can't scam them out of doubling your first deposit. It doesn't work that way. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., at my bookie.orgie. Today, you play, you win, you get paid. All right, let's bring in John Kime from ESPN, of course, and on the beat for

the Redskins for ESPN and ESPN.com. This is one of those days that, you know, is very busy for John, so he's given us some time and we appreciate it. All right, first of all, when you left that stadium last night, did you think this was going to happen this morning? Yeah, I did. I think there was an overwhelming sense. I think that this had become inevitable and that, um, I know people on his side were bracing for news like this. So, yes, when I left there, I thought we would be having these kind of things being discussed today. We know that Jay Gruden was Bruce Allen's hire. And this is, and it was a relationship that was fairly close.

What do we know about their relationship recently, say, over the last year? you know that's a good question Kevin and I don't know that I can provide a ton into that I know that that you know my understanding is that Bruce still liked him Bruce was reluctant to you know this is gathering stuff from people who know Bruce well as well just that that Bruce Allen was reluctant to go this way probably because it's a rough this was his hire so and it didn't you know when you're fire a guy you're admitting that it didn't work and um so I think that you know that is part of the discussion, but I think we all know that over the last year that it didn't seem like Jay had the same level of authority or say in certain matters.

And, you know, but I even, you know, I had talked to Jay the other day, and I think even in talking to him then, I think he was still looking forward to this season despite whatever was happened, whatever went on in the off season or whatever was perceived to go on in the offseason, that he was still looking forward to this because he kind of liked the roster that they were building. I'm seeing reports now that Jay Gruden is expected to be paid the remainder of his contract, which goes through next year. One of my questions was going to be, do you think that the video that came out Friday was, and look, I said this on radio this morning, I said it on the podcast. I don't know what's true and what isn't true. I can just say this as a longtime media person and fan of the team.

It's not an irrational or unjustifiable reaction to say, there goes the team. The team put that out. I don't know if they did or didn't. But based on history, it's not crazy to have had that reaction and then to have taken it one step further to say, they're trying to get out of paying Jay Gruden, his full contract, trying to fire him with cause. But it sounds like that's not going to happen, right? No, and I had talked to some people over the weekend. He's like, there is no, there's nothing on that video that where you'd say,

exactly. So that, so like that was, the timing is bad. And here's what I'd say, Kevin, too, is that I think what it reflects to is people's skeptical or skepticism of this organization. Whether it's, you know, and I've talked to people here, and of course they're going to say, no, they didn't put it out. What would be to gain from that? But the fact that people believe they could do that is kind of what they've built here over the years.

That, to me, is part of the problem. It doesn't, you know, whether or not they did or not, people actually think that maybe they did. I'm not, I just don't know what they would have been to game because, you know, when they, obviously there was a statement put out about McLuhan several years ago. I think some of that was to show why they made this move, one that was unpopular with fans, whether or not it was right or not, it was unpopular with fans. and in this case, you know, Jay Groom's got his record. It is what it is.

You know, I don't think you had to justify whether or not, you know, you think he's a or not, you know how this lead goes. He knows how this lead goes. He's known how this lead goes. So you didn't have to justify it by releasing a video. And again, there was no reason to believe that it could be, he could be fired with cause for what was a guy coming out of a bar with a cigarette and, you know, or stront by other young ladies.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, excellent point. I made that on radio this morning. That video actually on its own isn't a fire with cause video, I didn't believe, but I'm not an employment law lawyer, so I wouldn't know. But no, I mean, when you go back to, you know, March of 2017, when they, when the Post had the anonymous, you know, team source saying, you know, essentially crushing him as a locker room drunk, you know, as multiple relapses, you know, the disaster, showing up to games drunk, showing up, you know, that was truly low-road, mean-spirited stuff. And that's why it's not crazy to have that reaction as a fan.

And this is the part, John, that I think they always miss. It's not just the losing. It's the off-putting way in which they lose that has been as much of the issue. All right, let's get back to this situation. here. So why Callahan and not O'Connell? Well, first of all, Callahan has the experience. He was a head coach for the Raiders, head coach in Nebraska. I don't think, everything I've heard on, excuse me, on Kevin O'Connell is that they view him, people view him as a guy who could become a head coach. I don't talk

to anybody who says he could become a head coach next year or in two years. I think there's still a process he has to go through to show, to put him in that sort of conversation. Now, if this team had come out and done really well this year and Haskins was great, then I think you would look at him as a guy that you could elevate to that manner. But I don't think we're at that point yet. So my thing is then, first of all, an interim coach is a no-win situation. If I am Cali O'Connell's agent, I tell him, I don't want you taking this. I don't think there's anything to gain from that because you can only hurt your reputation.

Because you look at this roster, is this roster set up to have this great recovery? it's not no so why would you why would you try to tarnish like you know and i know people say well it shows what he can do it's not really this isn't his team right now you know this is a survival situation if i'm o'connell the best thing for him is to go now and call plays so what you can do as a play caller look at you know i look at cleveland last year with freddy kitchens and what he was able to show as a play caller he was not in any conversation about a head coach until he showed he could call plays and what his offense could do. Calling plays doesn't make you a great head coach, but I just, my thought has been like,

it would have put him, because here's the other thing, Kevin, he would have been put in a situation where he's now an interim head coach and then calling plays for the first time. It is a recipe for a bad situation. Okay, that's fair enough. I just don't, you know, at this point, I just don't see the upside in having Bill Callahan. But I don't see the upside for O'Connell either. Yeah, okay, fair enough. So, you know, you know what 95% of the fans want more than anything else, even more than

Jay Gruden being fired. They want Bruce Allen gone. Do you see that being part of the Dan Snyder decision-making moving forward at some point? Well, not right now, no, and I don't know that going forward it will be either. I haven't gotten that sense. So I don't know that that's going to be the case, Kevin. And, you know, I just, I think my only thought was if they had this outright disaster this year, I don't know how you could justify keeping status quo. And we're headed toward that area, but I don't know that it will still result in change. I don't know that. And, you know, I just can't give anybody that kind of answer because I don't know. Do you think Dwayne Haskins starts this week and then for the rest of the year? I think the answer I've been saying is that,

I don't, first of all, I don't know if he'll start. I know that if he, it wasn't like this move was done because Jay was not starting Haskins. That's not the case at all. This is about his five plus years. It was not about the quarterback situation. So, but we all know that in this spot, they are starting over now. So to me, if you're starting over, then this is a natural time to put him in.

Even though, you know, I talked to Groot in the other day about this, this has been, this has been a staff decision to do what they're doing with Haskins. They want to build his game and they thought, maybe later in the year, he would be ready. I don't think he's any more ready than he was last week. I don't know that you're putting him in in a good spot. So why would you still want to rush it? But we both know that if he does play, to me,

it's indicative of somebody from above saying, we want to play this guy now. Well, I mean, at this point, you know, I don't know the coaching staff, why you would, they didn't trust him on draft night, any of the football people. Why would you think they would trust him here? but it's funny because I would find myself taking the side of management in this situation. Do you know that if Dwayne Haskins doesn't play significant, you know, get significant time this year,

he'll be like one of two quarterbacks over the last 20 years to have been drafted in the first round, not to get significant game action in his rookie season on a non-playoff team? It doesn't make any sense to me why you wouldn't put him out there, totally, you know, minimize the playbook, give him 15 things he can do and he can call, work on him over and over again. I just don't get it. I must be missing something here. But if Dwayne Haskins doesn't play significant, get significant starts this year on a team that's already 0.5,

that's the biggest red flag of the season. Correct. I agree with that. And I think eventually he will. I don't know if it will be this weekend. But I think eventually he will because what else do you have this season? It's going to become about his development because it's not about – it's not about going to be anything else.

It's the most important spot here. And they have to know. I mean, they have to know what they have there at some point. First of all, let me say this. I think they know a lot of what they have already. That's why they're taking it slow. And, you know, I think you have to remember that. But I do know that at a certain point,

All the stuff I say is like, yeah, your job is going to be to get to really kind of give him some action and see and go from there. And Kevin O'Connell had to do this last year when you bring guys in off the street. He was creating packages for them. Clearly they can go do some of that with Haskins. He's going to have to help themselves. People who think this is always on the coaches are diluting themselves. It's not. But, you know, there are things he's going to have to do and that they can do with him that you're going to see.

I mean, this is, the season becomes about nothing else. You have to know this going forward. We know what the, we know Case Keenham. We know Colt McCoy. You know, if you're, if you're 0 and 8 and he's still not playing, you're right. That, to me, would be a colossal red flag. Colossal. Yeah.

And so, you know, I mean, so I agree with you. At some point, the kid's got to play because this becomes about his development. All right. I know you've, you've got TV responsibilities and other stuff going on. So I want to finish up with three quick ones, all right? the new coaches, Ed Wurter, the tweet, and I actually read it in your story as well. Edwarder's already got three coaches that according to a source close to Dan Snyder, Snyder would be interested in. Mike Tomlin, who by the way isn't available.

Todd Bowles, which, by the way, just for me, has been a connected dot situation for a while now. And then Eric B. Enemy, the offensive coordinator in Kansas City. Is this what you're hearing as well? Well, those, yeah, and I think, especially the first guy, really makes sense because of, you know, he's got a good reputation league. You know, it's funny because I talked to him the other day about him, and it's still Andy Reid's offense, and Andy Reid is calling the plays. So, you know, we always have to keep that mind, but I know he's got to be enemy, yes,

but you know that he's got a good reputation. I know that Tomlin is the guy that Snyder gets along with, so yes, I could see that. And Bowles make sense, too. a connection with Doug. There's a, you know, there's a connection here. And they did talk to him last year during that whole, when they were thinking about replacing Greg Minnowski. So, yes, those all make sense. Trent Williams, any possibility that now that they have moved on from the competitive portion of 2019, that they'll trade him sooner rather than later? That I don't know. And I think it was all, it's like everything I always heard is that if they

got something really, really good, then I think, you know, they would, they would consider that. I mean, at a certain point, because it's obvious that he's not coming back. Well, what we've always, John, hold on for one second. What we've always heard is that they're not going to trade him. I've, well, yeah, I'm not, I don't know that it's like that definitive, you know, so I think in any case, if you get something that's really, really good, you're going to do it. And I think the same would apply here. But I also thought that, Kevin, I also thought the time to trade him might be,

well, obviously you got the trade deadline coming up. But then also in the off season after, like, depending on whether or not he returns. If he doesn't return this year, then you enter the off season with two more years still on his contract, and it becomes an easier trade, and you maybe can get better value for him. That was the thinking of some people here. So I don't, you know, but I don't know that this, listen, to me, it should speed things. up because now you're entering a different phase in your organizational history. You're entering a rebuild, you know, or you're going to tear down more. So if you can, whatever assets you can accrue,

I would start accruing them and start planning for the 2020 draft and building from there. Last one. It really was sort of hysterical, wasn't it yesterday, to watch the Jay's final shot of trying to prove somebody, I don't know who, wrong, to watch. To watch the Jay's final shot at just, of trying to watch Colt McCoy out there. It was so sad. And at the same time, you know, it was funny because what made Jay Gruden fall in love with Colt McCoy? He can't be a starter in this league. And everybody, but Jay Gruden seemed to understand that. Yeah. And well, the one thing I'll say, too, is every time they, until now, when they had a better alternative, they always went to the better alternative, whether was Kirk Cousins or whether was Alex Smith.

So, you know, and I would talk to people here, other people here who really liked him as well. So it wasn't just Jay Gruden, but obviously he was the face of the whole Colt McCoy train. He was driving that because of his job. And I think in this case, but I will say this too, Kevin, I know last year that in the offseason, and I think he'd have been okay going with Colt and a rookie from the draft, you know, and they ended up going and trading for Alex Smith. So it's not like this was something that he wasn't okay with. he's always like Colt because he knows the offense, he's smart and all that.

But, like, I mean, he didn't have, I don't think anybody you put out there yesterday was going to have much of a chance unless you were somebody who was over talented. And they, Uber talented and already at a certain level with your game. And that guy does not play here right now. So I don't think it was a win-win situation. It was going to be a win-win situation for anybody at that position. But, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen with McCoy. if they would start him Sunday against Miami,

hoping that maybe they can get a win out of that game and keep Dwayne on the bench for another couple weeks. I don't know. You know, so I don't know, Kevin. That's fine. Here's the one last thing going back to the hiring of a new coach, is that it's a little deja vu with the 2014 offseason in that you've got a quarterback that the owner really likes and wants.

And you may have a lot of qualified candidates that don't like the quarterback and don't think that the quarterback can play. And that's going to prevent you potentially from hiring the best, you know, and the best qualified guy. You know, so not to mention the fact that if you are a qualified guy, you may not want to come here in the first place. But then you're definitely not going to want to hear, well, the owner really likes this quarterback and wants you to develop the quarterback. Well, that's not what I'm here to do. I'm here to win games. And I think the other part of that equation is, not only, listen, the people here that I talk to like Dwayne Haskins. Everybody likes him.

I've been told the same thing, yes. And it's like they always say he has huge upside. And so I don't want, like, I'm not ready to, I'm not even coming close to saying this kid can't play or couldn't be good for somebody. I think I feel bad for him because he went to a situation that was created that was going to be difficult for him. and, you know, because now you're going to be in a different, you know, you're going to be with a new offense, et cetera. And there's a lot that you can still learn about reading defenses that aren't beholden to whatever offense you're in.

So there's still a lot of stuff you can learn. But I think it was a tough situation for him. I think the other part of that, too, the coach looks at it. Now only they say, well, you know, I don't love him or whatever, but it's also why is he here? Because, you know, the owner wanted to go get him. So is that something you're comfortable with? It's also, you know what I mean?

So, you know, whether or not you like him, it's also, well, if I want a guy and can't get a guy or if this guy tells me, what's he going to tell me, who's you going to tell me to draft? But the other thing, the other thing, too, is we heard some of the same stuff with Jared Gough during Jeff Fisher's year. And Sean McVeigh, when he went out there, there was some skepticism on his part about Jared Gaw. Yeah. And it seems to have worked out okay for him. So this is not an impossible situation for someone. And you're right. But I do wonder about the candidate.

Is it going to be somebody who would be somebody who's either desperate for a chance, desperate to get back in, and maybe this is their last chance to show, et cetera. So I think that is a, you know, God, there's so many factors here. I know that. I know. Well, you're busy. Go. Thanks for making time for me.

I really appreciate it. that and I'll talk to you soon. All right, Kevin. Thanks. All right, John Kine, everybody. Follow him, by the way, on Twitter at John underscore Kine. A couple of quick things that I've been noodling through over the last 20 minutes during the John conversation before it. Joe Banner, who we've had on the podcast before him, by the way, now doesn't want to come on the podcast or the radio show. He actually hasn't said that to me, but he hasn't responded. And we had a great interview with him a while back, and he actually sent me a note thanking me saying it was great.

I think he doesn't want to be on in Washington because he's being very critical on Twitter of everything that's going on in Washington. Joe Banner, former president's CEO with the Eagles, the Browns, but he basically tweeted out the following just a few minutes ago. The Skin's organization is awful,

and I've been very critical of it. But media people giving Jay Gruden a semi-pass are not doing anything but defending a friend. He also has not been good. I don't know who's defending Jay Gruden in the media. I haven't heard anybody that's defending Jay Gruden in the media. But by the way, all of those things are true. He's not very good, and the people he's worked for aren't very good.

Nothing in this organization is very good. But there was something good in the game yesterday. Let's get to the Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, this is going to be super quick, and then we'll talk about some other things it happened over the weekend, including some of the NFL games yesterday.

There were a few things I liked from the game yesterday. I like Stephen Sims Jr. He seems to make place every time he touches the ball. That was a little, you know, tricky number. A little design with a fake handoff and some jet sweep action and took it 65 yards to the house and they were up 7-0. Woo! Let's go beat the Patriots! Anyway, he's pretty good.

Dunbar is pretty good. You know, he really is. Like, he's smart. He sees, anticipates well. He's got some longer arms. He's pretty good. I said this this morning, and it's true. He's Doc Walker's greatest training camp discovery, Quentin Dunbar.

I'll never forget the training camp. Doc came on his show, I think. There's this guy, he's a receiver. They're trying to turn him into a corner. And he's really, he's going to be a good corner. He's a decent cornerback. I thought I and I, and I. Payne, Allen, Holcomb, Kerrigan, all had their moments.

Overall, look, it was the best defensive day of the season. And I recognize that's not saying much. But they got some pressure. They confused Brady at times with coverages. Did you see how Brady a couple times pumped? And he's like, oh, I can't go there. And then he got sacked three times yesterday. All in the first half.

You know, they hurried him, and that led to that interception by Monta Nicholson down at the goal line. They got a third down day for the first time in the season. Two for nine in the first half the Patriots were. Five for 15 overall the Patriots were. 33.3% on third down. Wow. That is a massive improvement. Best of the year by Miles. They had a fourth down stop early as well. They held New England to a field goal after the Colt McCoy interception after the Nicholson interception. Now, it was not, by most measures. Let me backtrack a little bit.

They're on the list of things that I liked because it was the best defensive day of the season. But by most measures, when you give up 33 points and the other team rolls up 442 yards, and it has scoring drives of 75, 61, 75, 88, and 58 yards, including two easy, breezy touchdown drives to open up the second half, which, by the way, effectively ended the game if you thought it was a game 12 to 7 at halftime. That's not a really good defensive day, right? Brady also missed a wide open Josh Gordon in the first half on a deep shot that should have been a touchdown. But anyway, the takeaway is really that the defense, while not good, it was okay in the first half and overall so much better than it's been, which, as we know, has been just awful.

through the first quarter of the season. The things that I... Oh, one more thing that I liked. Two more things. Tressaway, he's on the list every week. Do you know how many times he punted yesterday, Aaron? Yeah, it was... Ten.

Ten punts. The average 50 yards of punt. His streak ended, too. That was the sad thing. Which streak? The lack of touchbacks. He had a touchback yesterday. Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah. I didn't know that. Adrian Peterson is on my list. when they had the Monty Nicholson interception that should have actually gone out to the 20. I don't know how they didn't rule that his momentum carried him into the end zone. I have no idea how that didn't happen.

Oh, and the other guy that I've got on the things that I liked list is Adrian Peterson. Remember after the Nicholson interception, which by the way should have been brought back to the 20? I think his forward momentum carried him into the end zone, but whatever. They started from their own one yard line, and the first play was a handoff to Peterson,

and it looked like any good running back would have been tackled in the end zone for a safety, and somehow Peterson moved the pile forward three yards to the four-yard line. I love Adrian Peterson's effort and competitive will in spirit. He plays so hard, he runs so hard, he's an all-time running back, an all-time competitor, a Hall of Famer. That run from the half-yard line, no, all of the, among the top ten backs in the league,

eight of them would have been tackled for a safety. Adrian Peterson got nearly four yards out of it. I love him. The things I didn't like list, everything. But really, you start with offense and Colt McCoy. I mean, they go hand in hand. McCoy was off. and that's putting it nicely.

He shouldn't have played in the game. He threw high, he threw low, he threw late. He didn't handle pressure very well. What a disastrous day for the offense and for Colt McCoy. If you want to put it on the offensive line or the penalties that got him into long, down, and distant situations, have at it. Both of those things are true, by the way. Just as McCoy was God-awful is true, too.

He finished the game with 119 yards and 4.4 yards per pass attempt. He was sacked six times. He wasn't ready to play in an NFL game yesterday, let alone against the Patriots. Jay Gruden, look, he knows more about the NFL and offenses and quarterbacks than I'll ever know, but it's hard to believe that he really thought that Colt McCoy gave him the best chance to, I don't even, I hate even saying win the game, the best chance to keep it close and cover the point spread. that's what they should have been thinking about yesterday covering the number the penalties again issue

and few to not enough touches for Chris Thompson I would be using Chris Thompson a hell of a lot more by the way how about when Brady slid into the turf and Norman and a couple of others were helping clean the dirt out from his knee brace why would you help Tom Brady do anything in that situation

I have no idea That's it Oh, Jay Gordon must have been so confident about McCoy yesterday They won the toss and took the ball first Wow Delusion All of them

Well now it's not all of them anymore It's just two of them I don't know, maybe we'll learn that Bill Callahan's just as delusional I'll tell you one thing I don't like about Bill Callahan is the run scheme that he's employed. It doesn't really produce good runs. I would think a run scheme would effort to produce positive runs. The Redskins over the last few years have had more minus ones and minus twos

than any team in the league, I would think. All right, let's go around the NFL. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. All right. There were some good games yesterday. By the way, we got to start with last night. The Colts, as an 11-point underdog,

went into Arrowhead and beat the Chiefs 19 to 13. Here's how they did it, just so you know. They ran 74 offensive plays and held onto the ball for 37 minutes and 15 seconds to the Chief's 22 minutes and 45 seconds. they did that by running Marlon Mack, who is turning into a star if you're not paying attention. Marlon Mack is what, in his second year at a USF? Third.

It's third year? Yes. Fourth rounder, something like that? Around there. He can really flat out play. And Jacoby Brissette, he's good enough. And they've got some weapons with Hilton, obviously, and Heinz and Eric Ebron. They dominated time of possession.

I mean, Kansas City just didn't have enough opportunities. In the second half, I think Kansas City had three real drives. And then the last one was when they were down nine, and they were just trying to get down there against the soft defense, kick a field goal, and then try to recover an on-side kick. So they really only had three legitimate drives in the second half until the final, you know, whatever it was, two and a half minutes. Colts did a great job. The Colts are three and two. The Chiefs dropped their first game.

In the game, Patrick Mahomes had his ankle, you know, banged up a little bit. I think he's going to be all right. They couldn't run the football against the Colts. That was one of their issues. Could not run it at all. The game in London yesterday was crazy. The Raiders were a smell test pick, getting five and a half, I think it was. And they took a 17-0-0 lead and were completely dominating the bears. And then early in the third quarter, up 17-0, you'll have to find the play to watch it. But Derek Carr, after holding the Bears to a three-and-out and in total control of the game,

from their own 22-yard line, Derek Carr turns and pitches the ball to Josh Jacobs, who, by the way, is definitely in the running for rookie of the year, offensive rookie of the year, the first round running back out of Alabama. And the pitch doesn't go anywhere near Jacobs and goes 10 yards behind him. Chicago falls on the ball. Two plays later, they scored. All of a sudden, it's 17-7. They're back in the game.

They scored three touchdowns in a row to take a 21-17 lead in the third quarter, and then the Raiders had the break of the day. down 2117 and deep in their own territory on a fourth and six they chose to punt there was a running into the kicker call then it was fourth and one and they decided not to go for it but they faked the punt snapped it to the up guy they got the first down and that kept the drive going a drive that ended with the go-ahead touchdown with under two minutes to go and there are the raiders at three and two outright winners in a crazy back and forth game in London on a field that actually looked if you saw it maybe they put new

turf in there because it actually looked like a normal field which we have not seen in London many years it was a different stadium they were playing at oh it wasn't Wembley yeah no it was the Tottenham Tottenham oh they were playing that game in Tottenham okay I didn't know that um how about the Raven Steelers game uh first of all one of the scariest concussion plays of all time was Mason Rudolph getting hit by Earl Thomas and being knocked out on his feet falling, limp to the ground and then banging his head again on the turf. It was one of those injuries that when you watch it, I wasn't watching it live, I've just seen the replays, and you see the players and you see their reactions like, oh my God, is this person alive? You know, you get that with a broken bone

when people see a bone sticking out of a leg, or you get it in these cases when someone is completely knocked out unconscious, as Mason Rudolph was. Devlin Hodges came into the game for Mason Rudolph. He's their third string quarterback. He's a rookie from Samford. Okay, wasn't drafted, undrafted free agent, and he came in and went seven of nine for 68 yards, and they scored, they scored the go-ahead touchdown with him in the game. The game went to overtime, and Tom did something that coaches rarely do, especially with the new overtime rules of the last four or five years, which is, you know, you score on that first possession, a touchdown on the first possession, it's game over. A field goal doesn't end it. Tomlin won the toss and deferred

and got the stop he needed on the first drive. And then in overtime, on their first possession, this guy Hodges hits Juju Smith-Schuster, and Marlon Humphrey makes a phenomenal play, punching the ball loose, Ravens recovered, and then here comes Justin Tucker, who's awesome to kick the game-winning field goal. Big, big game in the AFC North, which is tightened up. I mean, you know, if the Steelers had figured out a way to hold on to their fourth quarter lead, they would have been in first place right now in the AFC North after starting 0-2, or 0-and-3. They would have been tied for first anyway with Cleveland pending. Lamar Jackson threw three interceptions in the game. A couple of them.

I saw it, they were bad. He was also their leading rusher. Ravens are three and two. The Browns play tonight against the 49ers, and they don't play again until the second to last week in the season in Cleveland. You would think that that's where you're headed in the AFC North, a Baltimore-C-November Cleveland thing.

I personally think Cleveland is the best team in that division, and I think they're going to win that division. So the Vikings Giants game. A couple of things, real quick. and I'm not going to bore you with Kirk Cousins talk other than just to say that they were 24, 23, and 1 as him starting

here in Washington in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and they're 7 and 13 cents. Anyway, so if you watched any of the pregame shows yesterday, it's exactly what I talked about late last week. All of the pregame shows were all reporting that Thielen and Diggs

were not upset with Kirk Cousins. They were upset with Mike Zimmer and the offensive philosophy this year. I mentioned that last week and a lot of you crushed me for it saying, are you kidding? They hate Kirk. No, all of the pregame shows, the ESPN pregame show, the Fox pregame show, the two that I watched,

all basically said the same thing. Thielen and Diggs can't believe that they've invested this much money into two receivers and a quarterback and they want to run the ball 70% of the time. they've hated the play calling. The offensive line's been a mess too, which Randy Moss pointed out very well, and Jimmy Johnson did as well. But they came out and they were,

they still were run heavy, but not early. They threw the ball early, and they threw it well. Kirk had a first half in the Meadowlands where he threw for nearly 300 yards in the first half. He was at halftime, I think he was 19 of 22, for 287 or something. like that and a touchdown, and they had scored, I think, on every drive they had the ball, and they had an 18 to 7 lead. There was a safety in there somewhere. And they cruised to a 2810

win. I'll tell you what, Daniel Jones got him into scoring position multiple times, and the Minnesota's defense really stepped up. But anyway, they changed their philosophy yesterday. They threw the ball early. They threw the ball to set up the run yesterday. Thielen had seven catches, two touchdowns for 130 yards. Diggs had three catches for 44 yards. And Dalvin Cook ended up rushing for a buck 32. Minnesota's got to throw the football more. You can't in this league anymore, just line it up and say, my quarterback's going to throw the ball 10 times and we're going to win a game. That's what Diggs and Thielen were upset about. Or at least that was what they were upset about according to the pregame shows yesterday. And that's what I had

suggested after reading some of the Minnesota reporters late last week. All the Redskin fans said Sishian, they hate Kirk. He sucks. Well, he may suck, but the outcry from Diggs and Thielen was not about Cousins. It was about Zimmer and the offensive philosophy. And Zimmer is a defensive coach, but he's essentially said to the offensive coordinators, you're running the ball. We're not taking chances throwing the football. Elsewhere around the league. I got Denver right finally yesterday, picked him in the smell test plus the six and a half and said that the chargers were on upset alert. Vegas knows, man, that's the perfect example, Aaron, of a Vegas has it figured out. And I know it's the team that I picked early, and that's why people are going to say I had them.

That's not why I had them. I had them because they were getting less than a touchdown. An O and 4 team on the road against a perceived really good team getting less than a touchdown. and they won the game outright 20 to 13. Philip Lindsay's really good. All right, Packers Cowboys in the one late 425 window game. Man, I watched this game. I was trying to pay attention to see if anybody was getting fired,

but I really wanted to watch this game. And Prescott moved them up and down the field in the first half, and they had turnovers. The first turnover was a perfectly thrown ball that Amari Cooper just dropped. right in his hands, and it got picked off off the deflection. Dallas was going in for what would have been probably a 7-0 lead to start the game. And then all of a sudden it's, you know, Aaron Rogers and company making plays,

and their defense making plays. They made some plays. But in the first half, the Cowboys drove the football and ended up having two interceptions and a missed field goal, and they're down 17-0 at the half. That lead grew to 24 to nothing, and then all of a sudden, at 310, Dallas got on a roll. They scored. They forced a punt. Then they threw an interception, held them to a field goal, then scored again. They were within 10 with like seven minutes to go after being down 24 to zip.

But they couldn't pull it off. It was an effort. I had Dallas in the smell test. Prescott threw for 463 in the loss, but those three interceptions by him killed him. There was a challenge by Jason Garrett on a on a play early in the game that made no sense, and he was out of challenges for what would have been an absolute pass interference overturn on one of Prescott's interceptions.

Green Bay defensively is really, really good. Like the, you know, Preston Smith had another sack yesterday. Zadarius Smith had two sacks yesterday. Adrian Amos had like two quarter tackles for loss, or tackles right at the line of screen. image. They're really good defensively, and they're figuring it out offensively. Aaron Jones had a big day for them. Those are the games I think I wanted to mention. Christian McCaffrey got hurt at the end, but what a day he had in their win. That was another smell test pick. He had 176 yards on the

ground and then had another ridiculous, like 61 yards in a touchdown through the air. Is he a top three candidate for MVP right now? Yeah Him Mahomes Wilson Yeah I mean you've caught me off guard Let me think about it Definitely McCaffrey Definitely Mahomes

Um You know Even though the Packers have started off 4 and 1 Aaron Rogers no At this point I don't think so No I think it's Russell Wilson Would be the third Yeah

Yeah I'm scrolling through Just to think See if we're I mean Kaleal Mack is dominant he's a dominant player but yeah that that that's the list that would be the list right now I think McAfree something or at least going into the weekend was something like 15 to 1 to 21 might be some value there yeah definitely um all right that's uh you know real quickly on the weekend and then

we're going to run for the day um first of all you know I'll mention the caps they started 2 and oh and then they lost to Carolina in overtime the team that knocked them out in the postseason Maryland won on Saturday. Boy, they've got explosive skill position talent. And they had just one big play after another in that win over Rutgers. They were up. It was funny because I'm getting texts from people saying, they're going to lose this game.

They're going to lose this game because it was 7-7 into, like early in the second quarter, Aaron. And then Maryland just exploded. They had two long throws that ended up in a touchdown. Then they got a turnover in Javon Leak, who by the way, is an NFL. back. Trust me. 42-yard run. Then Leak had a 100-yard kickoff return. Then McFarlane had an 80-yard touchdown run and they rolled 48-7. The news out of this game is that Josh Jackson, their starting

quarterback, hurt his ankle. I don't know that we've heard anything perhaps you have in terms of the seriousness of it. But Terrell Pigram came in and actually looked pretty good. But it was against Rutgers. I do know that they were optimistic about Jeff. and not, it might, it wasn't like a season-ending injury. It wasn't season-end. From what I understand, nothing's been officially released yet or anything, but it does seem like they were optimistic coming out of the game. Well, there's no line.

They play Purdue on the road this coming weekend. There's no line on the game, probably because of the quarterback situation. I did want to mention one other college game from the weekend, and that was Florida and Auburn. I did give out Florida said that they would win the game outright, had them plus two and a half. If you were watching that game, CBS 330, the SEC on CBS at 330. So awesome. The swamp was lit. Did you watch this, Aaron? Oh, that was crazy. By the way, just really quickly there. One sports book, Circa, in Las Vegas, which is known for releasing lines early, did release an early line for Maryland.

What is it? Maryland minus five right now. At Purdue, minus five. At Purdue. Wow. I would get him to a fourth win, and they'd be too short of bowl eligibility. Florida and Auburn, this game, you had so many turnovers, you had so many penalties, all caused by two defenses that are so much fun to watch. I don't know that any two defenses have more speed defensively than Auburn and Florida have. They're so disruptive. NFL players all over the field. Florida won the game 24 to 13. neither offense could do very much. Florida came out chucking the ball all around the field because

they realized they couldn't run it. Auburn, Derek Brown, he's got to be a top 10 pick, right? They're de-tackle. They're a great team. I was happy for Florida. I'm a Dan Mullen fan. I always have been. Florida was the team that I thought had a chance to be a surprise team last year. I backed off them early this year because Felipe Franks just isn't the guy. He got hurt. Now they got this guy Kyle Trask in their quarterbacking. They play after beating Auburn in the swamp. And the swamp was packed to the rafters and was electric. You could feel it watching this game at the beginning.

Now, yeah, big win. Guess what you got next. LSU on the road. Unbelievable. And then two weeks after that, Georgia on the road. Man, it does not get easy in the SEC. But this is a big game. This is the game of the week.

at LSU. And do you know what LSU's favored by in this game? I don't. I just looked at it. Does not bode well for the Gators. LSU's a 13-point favorite at home over Florida. Oh my God. Still, I'm excited to see that game on Saturday night. That's the 8 p.m. ESPN game, because the CBS game, I think, is Bama A&M. Anyway, go Nats tonight. This is a big moment for Max Scher's. Scherzer. This is the moment you paid him for. He's got to get this series back to L.A. Hopefully they can do it without using Strasbourg, and you can pitch Strasbourg in game five. Anyway, I think that's it. Did we forget anything? Probably we did, but the big story, obviously, today. Gruden and the Nats losing game three last night. Back tomorrow. Tommy will be with me,

and he could be on the way to Los Angeles tomorrow morning. So he may have to call in again. We'll see, depending on what the Nats do. Have a great day. Don't forget, rate us, review us on Apple or on iTunes, and subscribe. That always helps us. Appreciate all of the kind words on Twitter, so does Aaron. Have a great day back tomorrow.