The Kevin Sheehan Show - Hell Yeah Heinicke!

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

Kevin solo today with his recap of Washington's 34-30 win in Atlanta. A thorough breakdown of the Taylor Heinicke-led victory includes everything from the game that he liked, didn't like, and thoughts on the roughing-the-passer penalty on Chase Young. He talked other NFL and Terps too.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. Third and seven. Heineke, all day to throw. Nobody open.

Now, McKissick pops free. And he found him. McKissick runs through the tackle. Down the sideline. McKissick going airborne. J.D. McKissick, soaring to the goal line, and he's out of bounds inside the one. No, it's a touch.

The officials confer, and it is six for Washington, and they take the lead. You know, in most situations, we would have all been rooting for McKissick not to score that touchdown and leave time on the clock for the opponent. You could see Matt Ryan over there saying, we want it to be a touchdown, and it was a touchdown. In most situations, we would have wanted the opportunity to roll the clock down, take a couple of knees, and kick a game-winning walk-off field goal from 19 or 20 yards out. But Dustin Hopkins is our kicker.

So it's probably best that he scored. What a football game yesterday. It had everything, just like the Giant game did a couple of weeks ago. I've got a long game take that I'm going to try to shorten up a little bit for the purposes of making it consumable today. I do want to remind everybody, subscribe if you don't mind. It doesn't cost you a thing. also rate us and review us.

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and I think many of you do listen on Apple podcasts, just take two seconds to subscribe, rate and review. It really helps us. What a football game. I'm going to get to my game take. It will be a longer version of the game take, especially as it relates to the starting quarterback and the defense. The two big conversations, I think,

coming out of the game. I did want to start with an admission. I didn't want McKissick to be in the end zone on the review because if you recall on Friday, I predicted 27, 26 Washington in part because I leaned Atlanta plus the one and a half. Didn't give them out as a smell test pick, but I didn't feel comfortable with Washington's chances necessarily minus the one and a half. I thought they could win the game, but I thought it could go either way. I bet Atlanta on the happiness hedge. I had them plus one and a half. So I had a chance to thread the needle with a 31-30 win and a win on the bet.

By the way, I usually when I bet against my team, I usually don't bet a lot. I mean, it's happened in the past. But I'm fine with the win, and I'm rooting to lose the bet. But yesterday I had that chance to win both. And it almost happened. Anyway, there's an admission to start the show. It was a crazy, crazy game.

That is two game-winning drives in four games for Taylor Heineke. That's pretty damn impressive. I'm going to have a lot on Taylor Heineke when I get to my game take. But when you start the conversation about this guy, we have to start it by acknowledging that this season, they're two and two, because of two game-winning drives and a game on Thursday night

a few weeks ago against the Giants and the game yesterday against the Falcons that the quarterback, Taylor Heineke, is largely responsible for the two wins. You can't avoid that no matter what you think of him. He had a game yesterday that had a lot to it. We're going to get to all of that.

But this dude with the game on the line has delivered twice. That's the truth. He's delivered in the clutch two times in four games. The two times he's had an opportunity to deliver in the clutch, he's done it. Done it.

Remember, the charger game, they couldn't get the chargers off the field. Who knows what would have happened at the end of that game. Maybe if he had had a chance to come back on the field, they would have had a chance to win it. But that last drive, remember it was like seven minutes long

and they picked up one third down after another and basically ate the final seven minutes of the clock off. So anyway, before I get to the game take, I really want to give you the four-game quarter-pole picture that's starting to develop on this football team. It's not actually the quarter-pull anymore because it's a 17-game schedule. So technically the quarter-pole would be at the end of the first quarter

on Sunday against the Saints. The Saints a one-point favorite coming into FedEx Field Sunday. That may bode well for your Washington football team. But before we get to the game take, where I talk a lot about Taylor Heineke and the defense in particular, on the list of things that I liked and didn't like, I just wanted to sort of think about what this team is right now. You know, there's a picture that we're starting to see through four games.

What does that picture look like so far? Obviously, it's subject to change. As everything, when you're having a conversation about the NFL, it's subject to change, unless you have an elite quarterback. Well, this picture is ugly in a lot of spots, very ugly, hideously ugly, in a lot of spots. You know, the ugly part of this picture at four games, the defense and the kicker, suck. The defense and the kicker stink bad. You know, it doesn't mean that it'll stay that way, but they are major problems through four games. This could very easily be an 0 and 4 football team just because of the kicker alone, who missed two PATs yesterday and missed the kick before the Dexter

Lawrence off sides against the Giants. The defense is really hideously awful. It's a shocker. The one area of the picture so far through four games that isn't ugly. In fact, it's kind of cute, is the offense. The offense is capable. A hell of a lot more capable than anybody thought a few weeks ago. You know, I mean, right now, this picture is hideous in parts because of a defense that couldn't get right against the Falcons, those of you that thought that it would, I think, were really off, and I said so last week. But the offense is so much better than we thought it would be. It's exciting to watch.

It's giving them a chance in these games. It's amazing, right? It's never what we expect. We do this thing from January when the season ends through August, where we're trying to predict what kind of season, and we've got all of these very strong opinions. and you just can't. The NFL fools you.

You know, it's never exactly what you think it's going to be. The NFL always makes its fans and experts look silly. This league doesn't care about last year or even last week unless you've got a really good quarterback. Right now, the defense, which was supposed to be the strength, is hot garbage. That group right now is a sum that's far. less than its parts. The offense four weeks ago was supposed to be, hey, if we can just be

average with the defense, and the offense is carrying the team. And it's exciting to watch. And it's super capable. Again, none of these trends through four games are locks to hold up for the year. But the first four game trend is more promising about the offense and certainly is ominous when it comes to the defense, especially on third down. And I would say, as we sit here and look at the picture developing here through the first four weeks of the season, you really can't be a good team, a playoff team, if your defense is as bad as this defense is, especially on third down. They're giving up 60% on third down through four weeks of the season, dead last in the league. Unless you've got the chiefs,

offense or the Packers offense, you can't be this bad on defense and end up having a good season. You know, the offense is capable, but it's not great. Although, you know, it's got some good players. Like, we knew that Terry McClorn was a good player. I'm not so sure everybody knew that he was an excellent player. Antonio Gibson's very good player. Logan, Thomas got hurt yesterday, but he was on the verge of becoming a very good player. Chris Samuel has been back yesterday for the first time a pretty good player in previous years. And then, of course, there's the quarterback, and their two wins, he's been so many things wrapped up into one, but most of those things are good. Some of those things are very good. I'm not saying that he's

proven. I'm not saying that he is on the very good player list yet, but I absolutely, I'm saying that in their two wins, he's played very well. So the four-game snapshot picture is this. They're two-and-two. They're a 500 team, regardless of how they got there, which of course included some good fortune in the win over the Giants. But as Parcell's always said, you are what your record says you are, and a 500 team is what they are right now.

I mean, we can be honest about the 2-2-500 mark. We can be honest about where the arrows pointed. It's not upwards. maybe it's not downwards. If you want to be optimistic, we can say it's pointing sideways. It's also got a huge red flag hanging off that arrow sign that reads what the hell is wrong with our defense. But two and two, if you're being optimistic and arrow pointing sideways, it's a long season, longer than ever before, 13 games left. They've lost to two good teams.

They've been life and death with two teams that aren't that good. but you know here's the thing and I always remember this from coach Thompson coach Thompson said you know it was either on the air at 980 or it could have been in one of our bullpen discussions where all of us had this you know fraternity like bullpen area outside the main studios at 980 where we ate we drank and we solved all of the world's problems and the sports problems and coach Thompson would hold court in that bullpen often. And he said once about a Washington football team season that it started maybe with a couple of wins and a couple of losses, but they weren't very good. He said, you don't have to be a

good team now, but you have to win enough when you're not a good team. So in the event that you eventually become a good team, you can do something about it. And that's really what they're doing right now. There's no guarantee that they're going to become a good team, but by winning a couple of games here, when they're not a good team, if they develop into a good team, they can do something about it when they get there. And it's a long season, 13 games left. He was, of course, I think, very much referring to college basketball, his college basketball experience, because I remember him saying there's nothing more misleading in sports than college basketball in November. like there is nothing that tells you in November what a team's going to be like in March.

And that's sort of the same thought here. But you can't play your way out of it in September or early October. You know, 0 and 4 is pretty much a death sentence in the NFL. One in five wasn't last year, but one in five, you're not coming back from this year in the NFC East. Not with the Cowboys playing the way they're playing. Anyway, that's sort of the picture right now. Hidious defense, capable offense, two and two, arrow pointed sideways at best, real ominous though because of the defense,

but they've figured out a way to get two wins while they're not very good. In the event, that'll pay off if they become good because they'll have meaningful games at the end of the year. We'll see on that. All right, let me get to my game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. The game recap today presented by MyBooky.

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already written in it, erase it, and write Kevin D.C. Bet anything anytime anywhere with my bookie. Okay, my game take. We start with the things that I liked. And I start with the number one thing that I liked in this game, which was Taylor Heineke. What a performance. He had a day that included a lot of good and a lot of other, let's just say. But let's be clear here. The good won the day. And the good won the game, too. He and Terry McLaren were my co-emend. MVP's of the game. He got an A-minus from me in this game. I'm not about to bury the lead. I'll get to that A-minus here in a little bit and have a little bit more on it. But I want to start with this. You know, all the conversation about Taylor Heineke since last year, and it's been, you know, some heated

conversation, some emotional conversation. There are a few things that, you know, I think everybody's agreed on when it comes to Taylor Heineke, the people that are absolutely convinced that he's the next Tony Romo or Kurt Warner, those like me who are intrigued but are hardly convinced, and then those that absolutely think there's no chance that he's going to become anything other than maybe a career backup. But with that said, we've all agreed on several things. This is my view anyway. We've all agreed that there's a lot of gamer, a lot of baller in him.

He's unafraid. We've all agreed that he can really make plays. he's a playmaker. We've agreed that he's really mobile, you know, and really athletic and really fast. Those are the things that we've agreed on, and all of those things were on display yesterday. He used that gamer, unafraid, resilience, playmaking ability, athleticism, speed, that real natural ability to avoid pressure and extend plays to make positive plays. It was on full tilt yesterday. 23 of 33 for 290 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, no fumbles. He spread it around, he spread it around, excuse me, to nine different guys.

It was another game where he could have and probably should have been intercepted multiple times, but every game we watch as NFL fans include several balls that could have or should have been interceptions. He was lucky on several of them. We'll get to that in a little bit, but his completions were big time. His runs, his scrambles, five scrambles, 43 yards. All big. Best scrambling day of the year. He decided he was going to take off and make plays with his legs. He didn't really have that opportunity against the Giants, and he passed on that opportunity too much, I thought, against the bills. He averaged 8.6 yards per carry, 8.8 yards per pass completion. That is excellent stuff. Excellent. He made so many big time throws. I thought he'd have a chance. I thought he'd have a

to play well against Atlanta's defense. I thought that last week, and he really did. There were plenty of holes, plenty of receivers open, and when he didn't see them or he was pressured, he made excellent plays with his legs. Here are a list of my favorite plays from Taylor Heineke's game yesterday for him. When they were down 10-0 and it was looking bleak early, he had a second and 11 throw to McLaurin right on the money, moved the sticks, kept the drive on. alive, which it needed to be because if you gave the ball back to them down 10-0, that game could have gotten away from them early. That was a big completion. By the way, on that completion, look at that one, that second 11th throw to McLorne for 21 yards. Humphreys is like near

McLaren. There's something about their routes sometimes where I think they're not spaced well enough. Anyway, there was a third and eight, a few plays later on that third drive of the game when they were down 10-0. It was the third and eight touchdown to Terry McClorn. That was a rather good throw and good result. I love that play. Now, let me just say about that play. That safety over the top was probably late getting there

and probably should have been more attentive to who was on that side of the field and who the quarterback prefers to throw to. It was probably a mistake by the safety. He left Terry one-on-one. But the throw was perfect, and it was 10 to 7. There's a third and five in the third quarter when they're down 23 to 19. Actually, there's a play before that.

There's a play before that where he scrambles for 20 yards to the near sideline where you really saw his speed. You know, there are some really athletic quarterbacks in the league. Kyler Murray, obviously, would be, you know, the fastest or the quickest of the quarterback. Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray are the two that come to mind more than anybody else. But you know who's super fast and super athletic? Taylor Heineke, I'm not saying he's Kyler Murray. I'm not saying he's Lamar Jackson. But I'll tell you what, his 40 time, I don't know what it is,

but his game speed is exceptional, and it showed on that 20-yard run. Third and five down 2319 in the third quarter. It was an incomplete pass, but I thought it was one of the better throws he made to Ricky C.O. Jones. Jones should have caught it. It was put up high, outside shoulder. Only Seals Jones could make the catch. The throw is great. Now, I don't know if that was the right read. Seals Jones was one of five wide outs, but he was the lone pass catcher split out to the right side. There were four receivers to the other side in an empty set backfield. Maybe he should have thrown to McKissick coming across the middle. McKissick was wide open, but I think that's probably a pre-snap

Reed to take the guy that's in man coverage definitely, and he made a great throw. It set up a fourth and five where he delivered a clutch throw to Chris Samuel, who did that thing on third and fourth and short where you see the receiver come hard, like, you know, on an in route and then break back out, and he makes a perfect throw to Samuel to pick up the first down. I thought one of the best throws he made all day, down 30 to 22, second and 16, there's pressure immediately that forces him to backpedal. He doesn't panic. He's backpedaling and he makes a throw to Terry McLorne for a big gain that moves the sticks. Off his back foot, moving backwards, under pressure. Incredible throw. You know, again, his idol was Brett Favre. You see a lot of Favre in him.

You see the way he plays as Favvesque. The The ball that probably should have been picked that he threw to McLaren Deep, which set up a third nine. The third nine was a great escape by him. He flushes his right, avoids the pressure, and finds McKissick for a first down. On the final drive, he throws a really good ball to D'Andre Carter that moves the sticks. He throws another one in stride to Adam Humphreys that moves the sticks. And then the touchdown throw to McKissick is crazy. It shows crazy playmaking ability. First of all, I loved that they weren't trusting Hopkins on that kick.

You know, they felt like they had to get closer because third and seven, you know, the ball's at the 30-yard line. You're sort of taking a risk dropping your quarterback back. They could have run it. They could have made Atlanta use their last time out and kicked, you know, a field goal and left Atlanta with like 35, 37, 39 seconds, something like that left with no timeouts down 313. But after the missed two PATs, they didn't trust Hopkins. and they put the game in Heineke's hands. And, you know, on 3rd and 7, there he is, flushed left, running around,

and somehow he comes all the way back to McKissick. That is a straight playground Brett Farv kind of play. You know, it's probably a play that doesn't get a lot of, you know, this is what we want you to look for on this play. Or there's a lot of advising of throwing the ball back across the field. But he made a hell of a play, man. A hell of a play on that touch end.

And McKissick made a great run, avoiding Dion Jones, who's super fast and outracing everybody to the end zone. So, you know, he played and he made so many plays in this game. He was a significant influencer on the final outcome of the game. We'd also be completely naive if we went straight, you know, he was great throughout and didn't make any mistakes. He made some mistakes in this game, and he missed some things too. And I'm going to mention a couple of them. First drive of the game, he misses high and late to Terry McLorne. I mention that because that's what he does when he

misses. He misses high and he misses late. That throw to McClorn was too late. It was behind him, and it was too high. You know, against cover two, cover three teams, sometimes you're lucky that those balls that are high aren't picked off. He really hasn't been picked off. That that much. Three times right on the year, the one against the Giants, the two against Buffalo. I think that's it. But, you know, he missed McLaren there. He missed McLorn on the next play, which was a third and five, where McLorne had a step on his defender coming down the near sideline. You got to hit that one. He wasn't close. Then there was a weird couple of plays here that I wanted to spend just, you know, a minute and a half or two minutes on, because it's one of those I'll pull Cooley in later in the

week to help me with. So there were two players as a runner where he slid too early, which is surprising to me because he's got such great feel and vision and understanding of where he is and where everything is on the field. At least that's the way I see it. But that second drive of the game, he scrambled on third and seven and slid early to set up a fourth and one. I think he could have easily made it. It's the fourth and one, though, that I really want to talk about. They ran a read option for him. I actually thought they did a lot of things to help him out in this game. There were more boots. there were more play actions. They had this, you know, read option call in their forum.

But I'm not really sure it was a read option. First of all, again, just to be clear, when the quarterback, you know, has the option of running it or leaving it in the gut of the running back, that's a read option. When the quarterback runs an RPO, that stands for run-pass option. I still hear, you know, on read-option runs,

like Daniel Jones's read-option runs against Washington. Washington last Thursday night. I still hear people describing those plays as RPO's. Those are not RPO's. Those are read options or zone reads, however you want to say it. RPO's are when you pull it from the gut and you throw the ball quickly. It has to be done quickly because there's a one-yard-downfield ineligible for the linemen. The linemen are blocking run. That's what college football popularized, and you see it all the time in college football. They actually have the benefit of having a three-yard down the field rule before a lineman is ruled ineligible. So it makes it even easier to run RPO's.

He did run an RPO yesterday, at least one. But the play I'm talking about is that fourth and one where they went for it. It's a read-option style play, but this is why I bring it up. Cooley, many years ago, when we were talking RG3 and read-option football, which obviously still exists today, made it very clear that sometimes, they look like read options, but they're not. When you see the D-end or the linebacker, outside linebacker, blocked, that's actually not the quarterback reading that player.

That is blocked so that the quarterback can keep it, regardless of what that D-N does, because it's a player that's being blocked. So let me walk through this. A read option typically is the quarterback reads the D-N or the outside linebacker. If the outside linebacker crashes down, he keeps the ball and he runs. If the outside linebacker or DN stays home, he leaves it in the gut of the runner and the running back runs the ball, period. He's reading and then optioning off of that read. But in this particular situation, they bought Ricky Seals Jones from the right side of the formation to the left side of the formation.

And he blocked down on the outside linebacker, which would have been the read for the quarterback. Cooley always taught me if they're blocking it, then the quarterback is keeping it. He's not reading it. They're blocking it to get the quarterback room to run it. It was blocked by Ricky Seals Jones, and if Taylor Heineke keeps it, it's a first down. I don't know why he didn't keep it. I could be totally wrong about this. But again, if it was a read option presentation of the play, but he wasn't reading the outside linebacker because the outside linebacker was blocked.

Why would you block that player if the goal isn't for the quarterback to keep it and run it? I think he made a mistake there. I don't know. I could be wrong again, but the fourth and one failed, and they were 0 for two on their first two drives. So the next sort of miss or mistake was the first drive of the third quarter, and he took a first and 10 deep shot to McLaren that was late and nearly picked. Sanchez, who some people were really down on, I actually thought he did a pretty good job calling the

game and explaining a lot of the quarterback stuff. And he said their bottom line was the ball had to come out like a half a second earlier and it would have had a shot. It was way too late. On that same drive, probably his worst play of the day, although the touchdown to McClureen was really a wing and a prayer. We'll get to that in a moment. But the third and goal down 23 to 19, he threw it right into the hands of the defensive back Harmon in the end zone. The blitzers coming at him. He's under pressure and he just threw it up for grabs.

And the DB Harmon just dropped it. I mean, there were several dropped interceptions, but that was the most egregious. That was a terrible decision by Heineke. And ball should have been intercepted. It would be intercepted eight out of ten times. The only reason not ten out of ten, D.Bs have bad hands. But that was right in his hands. Terrible decision. Should have been picked.

Should have been Atlanta's ball at the 20-yard line with a 2319 lead. He also took a shot where he lobbed a throw down the left sideline for Terry McClureen against Cover 2, trying to throw it into that hole where, you know, the corner sluffs off and the cover 2 safety is coming over. little bit of a hole there on that sideline route against cover two, and he just lobbed it, and it was nearly picked off. McClorn got a little bit banged up on the play. They were running, as Cooley's described many times in the past, four verticals, four verts, and the fourverts against that defense left the checkdown, McKissick, wide open, standing by himself for a checkdown throw and run of 10 to 15 yards, and that's the play there.

bad decision and it could have ended poorly and then finally the touchdown pass to McLaren that made it 30 to 28 I mean come on that is a wing and a prayer and a terrible decision on first and 10 down too late in the game that is a 50-50 interception or incomplete more times than not and Terry McLaurin makes a phenomenal play because he's great and he bales his quarterback out a little bit of pressure avoids the sack as he does the entire game. He's incredible at avoiding the sack. And on a first and 10, down two with plenty of time left, he throws the ball straight up into the air. And it's a dying duck coming down and somehow McCloren makes the play to get to it. That's not a good decision. I heard somebody texted me that somebody on radio this morning, I think it was Travis,

was saying that Heineke was talking about how they practice those scramble drill things. Well, yeah, on fourth and ten or the last play of the game, you throw it up for grabs. But you don't throw it up for grabs on first and ten, period. There's nobody that will tell you that that was a good decision. Great play by McLaren. And by the way, I thought McLaurin may have been interfered with, actually. Bates, by the way, the tight end that was playing yesterday because Logan Thomas was out and they needed the other tight end, active tight end, which was the rookie Bates.

He got beat on that play by Fowler Jr. so badly in Pass Pro. And he actually hooked and held Fowler briefly. Now Fowler was not slowed down by it, which is why I think it didn't get flagged. But if he had been slowed down even a little bit, that would have been called back because Bates stuck his arm out and hooked him and held him. Tried to, desperately, and probably got enough of them to wear if Fowler had been slow down a little bit, it probably would have been called. By the way, the two-point conversion throw was, you know, a throw that Wilts Chamberlain couldn't have brought down. It was,

it was 12 feet over Seals Jones's head, which was unfortunate because on a two-point conversion, you don't care if it's intercepted. Just give your guy a chance down to, and his misses are high. There's no doubt about it. I like some of the things they did with him this week. I thought that the, you know, the boots and the play action. I think by my count, 14 of 22 first and tens or some form of play action throws. I love that. Good job by them starting to sort of build a game plan around what his abilities are. You know, when he goes play action, now he can throw into, you know, bigger windows instead of tight windows where, you know, arm strength and accuracy can be maybe an issue off that play action, you know, especially when

you've got a chance to run the football with Antonio Gibson. He's thrown into big holes. And look, they knew they could attack Atlanta's secondary. Atlanta was bad defensively coming in. They knew they could take advantage of it, and they did. He was an A-minus for me. He made two to three times as many good plays as he made bad plays or bad decisions. But it could have easily been a C-plus if the bad decisions and bad throws he made had ended badly. But most of them did not. This time, anyway. But I like him.

I like a lot about him. It's hard not to. They have a chance right now offensively. They're capable offensively because of him. I have no idea if the same results would be there through four games if Fitzpatrick had stayed upright or with Kyle Allen. But there's no way that either one of those two guys is the athlete or playmaker that Heineke is. next week a much tougher test.

The Saints' defense much better than the Falcons defense, even though the Saints' defense gave up a 400-yard passing day yesterday to Daniel Jones. On my list of things that I liked after Taylor Heineke, Terry McLaren, 13 targets for him. I love that. Only six catches. Most of those targets weren't catches because they weren't great throws, to be fair. He also dropped one that nearly got called a fumble late in the game.

I think that was a dropped. I don't think that was a fumble. Terry's legit. You know, 123 yards, two more touchdowns, you know, and really on the touchdown pass from Heineke at the end, really made a great play to figure out how to go get that one. I like Antonio Gibson. I love the way he runs. I love the physicality in which he runs. I think he's still missing some cutbacks occasionally, but the pile moves forward every time he hits it. He played banged up coming in. He got a little bit more banged up in the game. 14 carries, 63 yards touchdown. I like Antonio

Gibson. I thought J.D. McKissick had a great game and is having a really nice season again. Five catches, five targets, two to three plays where he should have been the target and wasn't. He is really good after the catch and certainly being available

and then making that run at the end was phenomenal. D'Andre Carter, a 101-yard kickoff return. It's been a while for this organization. It's tied a record, by the way, I would have thought that there would have been a longer kickoff return in franchise history with the likes of, you know, Brian Mitchell and Eddie Brown and Mike Nelms and Herb Mulkey and Larry Jones and Tony Green and you want me to keep going. This franchise has had a lot of great

returners in its history. Brian Mitchell had a 101-yarder and Rashad Ross in 2015 had a 101-yarder. DeAndre Carter's first kickoff return for a touchdown ties. the franchise record. He also had a 24-yard catch on that final drive of the game. It's nice to have a kick returner and a punt returner back there that you think has a chance to make a big play. On my list of things that I liked, I like Duran Payne in this game, especially on that last play. First of all, I think Duran Payne on a defense, it's been so bad, has had some good games. I, you know, I see 94 and 93 and Ionitis also as by far in away the best players on a terrible defense right now. But Duran Payne's IQ, football IQ on that final run by Matt Ryan,

to be on top of him but then to sell it like he may have recovered a fumble, which made them think, oh, what's going on here? He's got his hands around the ball, so does Ryan. It was smart because, It prevented, I think, the referees calling a delay a game penalty on him in that spot because it looked like he was fighting for the ball. That was a really smart play. On the list of things that I liked, how about their punter getting hurt on a kickoff? Turned out to be a big injury in the game because their kicker, Koo, had a 25-yard punt on his first attempt, gave Washington excellent field position.

The Falcons going for two up 23 to 19. I'll be real brief on this. The chart says go for two when you're up four. Well, the chart shouldn't say that. The chart should say go for two when you're up four in the final minute of a game when there is like one possession left. They would have been up 31 to 22 had they kicked the extra point instead of 30 to 22. Big difference between an eight point lead and a nine point lead.

It was stupid. You don't go for two up four with, you know, 18, 19 minutes left in the game. All right. The list of things that I didn't like. We start with number one because it's a clear-cut number one, although there's a closer number two this week. The defense was really, really bad. You know, as they say in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, bad defense, bad, bad, bad defense.

Maybe not very good. But my best effort. The Falcons weren't as bad as most of you thought they were on offense. I tried to tell you that, that Matt Ryan isn't what you think he is. They are flawed along the offensive line, but they schemed around that against the Giants. I did not think this was a get-right opportunity for the defense, and it wasn't. Say what you want to say about Matt Ryan, but he all day long was playing chess. against Washington's defense, which was playing checkers.

He was one step ahead of everything all day long. 44 dropbacks sacked once, just five legit hurries by my count. Most of it because he knew exactly what the defense was doing, and he knew exactly where to go with the ball, and he got it out quickly, on time, usually accurately. He's 36 years old or 37, whatever he is. He's not that mobile. He may have lost some arm strength.

I don't know. but his football brain was working just fine yesterday. He had several balls dropped, you know, several of them dropped. Five drops. Washington had some drops too, but number 17 had a big drop on a big chunk play. Ridley had a drop or two. There was a catchable ball by pits that he didn't pull in. It seems like that's been the story for Washington's opponents.

I thought the Chargers had too many drops in that game. The Giants had them, obviously, in a long one. a touchdown. I thought Ryan could have easily been 30 for 42 for 320. As it was, he was 25 of 42 for 283 and four touchdowns, no interceptions, one sack with a sketchy offensive line in front of him. He had some guys that were making plays. We talked all last week about how I love Cordarelle Patterson. He's one of my favorite players in the league, always has been. He was incredible in the game. Mike Davis broke three tackles on one of those touchdown passes. I was terrible. tackling, but what an effort by him.

You know, Ryan had some help with some big-time playmakers. Patterson in particular. No problem, though, for the defense was bigger than third down once again. Washington now officially dead last on third down after allowing 10 of 16 yesterday. The Falcons made 10 of their first 14 in the game. Should have been 11 of 15, but they picked up that flag on the Torrey-McTire interference on Ridley. I mean, of course that was interference. He mulled him, and they picked it up.

What a break that was. Matt Ryan, by my count, against this defense, was 11 for 16 on third down for 122 yards, and those plays resulted in seven first downs and three touchdowns. That's not a game for a quarterback. That's a month for a quarterback. 11 of 16 on third down, 122 yards. He had seven first downs, three touchdowns. That means 10 of the 11 completions resulted in a first down or a touchdown.

And they weren't short third downs. He converted a third in 10, a third and eight, a third and 13, another third and 13, and a third and seven. There wasn't enough pressure, and the coverage wasn't nearly good enough. And Matt Ryan was one step ahead of everybody. You know, I'll give Jack Del Rio some credit. He's schemed up some things. I mean, he schemed up some things in this game for Chase Young.

Cooley threw it out Friday. He's like, move him around, which they've done before. Move him around, stunt him, put him next to sweat, put him next to pain, put him inside, put him outside, put him over a weak guard, put him over a weak tight end. And they tried some of that stuff. I thought Chase Young in this game was really high energy. The results weren't necessarily there, although he had. some big stops on run plays. So did John Allen. There were several

TFLs in the game, tackles for loss. But, you know, he lined him up, you know, next to pain and sweat and then stunted him around pain on one pressure. Young wasn't terrible yesterday. He wasn't great, which is what people were expecting. But high energy,

decent against the run, some pressures, but just Matt Ryan was getting it out quickly. They had five-man fronts, you know, in the game. They had some run blitzes, They seem to have the box loaded a lot in this game. So they tried different things to be or at least present the idea that they were going to be more aggressive. But they got torched.

They got torched. They're dead last allowing 60% on third down in the league. You know, tackling was a problem yesterday. That was a big issue. And it's just not good enough right now. It's not good enough. You cannot be a good team. unless you've got the Chiefs offense or you've got Aaron Rogers,

you cannot be a good team, like a 500 or better team, a playoff team, with a defense playing this poorly, especially on third down. They gave up 30 points, nearly 400 yards. They didn't get a turnover. They're next to last in the league in takeaways with two through four games. They are dead last on third down. It's a disaster right now defensively, an utter disaster. And then you get this guy, Bobby McCain. Do you know who he is?

Bobby McCain is the new free agent DB number 20, the guy that is still chasing Patterson on the bomb that made it 10 to nothing. I mean, are you kidding me? He totally, he admitted it was his fault. Good for him for admitting it. But he took a shot at the media yesterday after the game. I don't know how many people saw this, but apparently there was a second quarter defensive team meeting on the side. sideline, and McCain was asked about this afterwards, and he said, yeah, I know exactly what it was about, but I'm not going to tell you guys, because you guys aren't on my side. I respect what you do,

but defensively, we'll get it together. We meet, and we're going to figure out all the details, and when we start bawling and we start playing our asses off, I want you all to write that same shit that y'all right now. Um, you know, it's not really his fault. It's a stupid thing to say, I mean, after a game like that, right, to blame the media. You know, you guys aren't on my side. First of all, Bobby, little PR 101. It's not the media's job to be on your side. Most of the media, many in the media,

are not fans of the team. I am, but I don't even consider myself sort of a member of the media. I think we sports talk hosts are in a category all by ourselves. We can be fans, we can cheer games, we can wear, you know, team garb if we want, I don't. But, you know, the bottom line is with these players that come here and say the fans are too negative and the media is too negative, well, first of all, you know, there have been reasons for the negativity.

They've sucked for 30 years. But they're getting that from the team. They've been getting that. There's been this era, and this is inside baseball stuff, and you may not care, but there's been this era of a decade plus of PR people that are telling the players this is a really difficult media market. This is a really difficult and negative fan base. It's really tough here. It really is. This is the big time, man. You know, Bobby, you came from Miami. This is the big time now. This place cares and it is hyper, hypercritical. Well, it's not true relative to

real hypercritical markets. But you really, you know, this week I'd prefer not to hear anything about being undisciplined or not doing your job or not playing the scheme. I don't want to hear excuses. I don't want to hear Bobby McCain running his mouth when he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, especially after he got beat like a drum and he was on a defense that gave up a ridiculous number of third down conversions and is the worst defense in the league right now. Go out and show us.

Don't tell us, show us. It's been the biggest single problem with this organization for years. They talk, they overpromise, and they consistently under-deliver. By the way, I don't think this defense really did over-promise. I think everybody else over-promised for it. So it's unlike a little bit in previous years this year. John Allen is not going to over-promise. John Allen is, you know, class, quality, you know, gets it.

I kind of feel that way about a lot of the guys on the defense. I hope they figure it out. If they don't, it's going to be a long year despite yesterday. They certainly should be a lot better than the way they've played. But don't get hung up on fan criticism or media criticism. You've got much bigger fish to fry, dude. You're on a defense right now that is an absolute train wreck. Defense, number one, on the list of things I didn't like.

Hopkins is number two. P-A-T's. I would think that he'd be in trouble, but I have a feeling he isn't. The two wins could easily be two losses because of Dustin Hopkins. He got a second chance on the field goal after Dexter Lawrence jumped off sides, and the two missed P-A-Ts were killers yesterday. Also on this list are the injuries. To Logan Thomas in particular, also Brandon Sheriff, once again, I don't know how serious these are. By the time you listen to this podcast, you might know more about the injuries. And lastly on the game yesterday, I want to finish with this. The unnecessary roughness, the roughing the passer penalty on Chase Young.

It's real simple, sort of the way that I feel about this. I don't like the call. I didn't like the call. I thought it was tiki-tack. Total tiki-tack call. But here's what I think prompted the whole scenario there. It's the fear of hitting quarterbacks by defensive players. that makes them very hesitant whenever they get close to a quarterback,

especially a quarterback like Matt Ryan who had flushed from the pocket and was just standing there like a sitting duck. I can sympathize with the conflict that these defensive players in Chase Young was in that moment. I think I can. I could be wrong. But he's thinking if I hit him really hard, if I go after him and I sack him, and it's a big time tackle, I might get flagged and it's fourth down. get off the field here. And he looks like he's in trouble. And there's also a little bit of a

pump fake by Matt Ryan. But it's the legislating out of the game of the the hits on quarterbacks, you know, being able to tackle a quarterback that has everybody thinking, oh my God, am I too low, am I too high, am I too close to the head, is my helmet in the wrong spot? Was it too hard of a hit? Did I land on him or did I land on the side of him? The same thing DBs have to go are going through with receivers. Oh my God, he's going to catch this and I'm going to hit him and it's going to be a flag. I have to let him catch it and then try to tackle him. Look, the forearm to the head and neck area was not the way to go. That was not a good play by Chase Young. The fact that it was flagged seems really tick-y-tack to me, and I think it was sold by the sideline, more than

anything else by the Falcon sideline, but he should have just tackled the quarterback. Okay? It may have gotten flagged because tackling gets flagged when you tackle a quarterback these days. But that was the right play. By the way, speaking of Bobby McCain, the wrong play on the other end was to intercept the ball, which is what he did. Because if it had been called an interception with no flag, he would have cost the team about 25 yards in field position, not a very high IQ play by Mr. McCain. But then again, if the penalty hadn't been called, Matt Ryan's knee

was down and the ball would have been marked right there. And by the way, Chase Young would have had himself a sack. But he doesn't. Okay. So that's it. That's the recap of the game. When we come back, a couple of things from the NFL Sunday, and I do have

three minutes, I promise, no more than three minutes on Maryland's beating at the hands of Iowa on Friday night. We'll be back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Turns and receives. Kick is airborne to the uplands. A line drive pick. Fighting off the goal and hit the left upright. It hit the left upright. Tampa Bay still leads by two. The pats were oh so close to pulling off what would have been a huge win for Bill Belichick last night in what was really one of the most anticipated regular season games in NFL history. This segment is sponsored by my good friends at Window Nation. If you've been thinking about Windows,

please use Window Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation. Go to Window Nation. Mention. Mention my name. You'll get a free estimate. It's totally worth it right now. You get two free windows with every two you buy with no limit and you don't have to pay anything with no interest for 24 months. I totally trust Windon Nation. I know these guys. better than any company that I endorse. I've known them for 12 years. If you think you need new windows, if you want to save on energy bills, call them at 86690 Nation or go to windownation.com and mention my name. So I'm sure many of you did too. I stayed up and I watched everything last night with the game last night. The pregame, the entrance to the field by Brady. It was a wonderful

ovation that he got and then he got booed when he took the field to take his first snap, which was perfect. The game was tight. It was close. I thought New England was really good defensively. I thought they fooled Brady a little bit. I mean, look, he was 22 of 43. I mean, he was barely, barely over a 50% completion percentage in the game. Now, he didn't throw any picks, you know, and he only got sacked once, but he didn't throw for a touchdown. And Mack Jones, by the way, threw for two. I thought Leonard Fournett was outstanding. And by the way, Leonard Fournett this year, to me, looks faster. He looks lighter. I don't know if that's true. He looks like he's in the best shape of his life. He just looks good to me. You know, there was a lot of discussion, obviously, you know, about Ronald

Jones or Leonard Fournett, if you're a Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan. I don't know. Fornett last night in that game, and I felt this way too in their win over Atlanta, I think it was, when I saw a little bit of that game and watched a little bit of that game before the Falcons game with Washington this week. I think he looks just like a better player overall and a more energetic player. Anyway, Falk had the 56-yarder. That's a long kick in the rain.

Had the distance, hit the upright. Another Sunday night thriller in the NFL, and Tampa gets the win. I really enjoyed watching Brady walk off the field last night as he talked to, I think probably everybody in the organization with the Patriots. It was a, I mean, Brady really has had now the all-time NFL career for a player. I mean, there's just, he's the goat at the most important position.

And for him to go back to the place in which he did it, you know, it was, it was an odd night, but it really felt for him at the end to be an incredibly special night. It was weird. It was, I found myself. being sort of sports emotional, not like screaming and yelling, but really having, I like Brady, and I've always liked Brady, so maybe that's part of it. But watching every single player from New England and every single employee, it seemed like, come up and hug him and talk to him on the field afterwards, was kind of cool. Anyway, there were a couple of other games I wanted to mention. First of all,

the Cowboys are rolling. I mean, they are. are rolling offensively. You know, they're the number two rush offense in the NFL, and basically, that's for three games because they didn't even try, didn't even try to run the ball against Tampa. By the way, speaking of that, one quick thing back to New England and Tampa last night, one of the more odd box scores you'll ever see, New England, like Dallas in the opener, decided, well, we can't run against Tampa's front. So they didn't.

They threw it 42 times, and they had eight rushes. one of those by a quarterback. So they only had five rushes by running backs in the games. In the game, they had eight rushes for minus one yard of rushing. Mack Jones threw it 40 times. Jacoby Myers, the receiver who was a quarterback, I guess, in high school or college, went two for two on throws. So 42 passes, eight runs in a game that was, you know, back and forth,

one score the whole way. It's not like they were playing catch up. That's odd. Back to the Cowboys. 36, 28 winners over Carolina. Zeke Elliott had another big day. 20 carries, 143 yards. The Cowboys average 7.2 yards per carry in the game

against a very good and fast defense for Carolina. Prescott 14 to 22, four touchdowns on only 188 yards passing. Four touchdowns, 14 completions, not bad. The Cowboys are really good. I'm not. I don't think I'm overstating that. I think this is a very, very good football team. They sack Sam Darnold five times.

The defense is making big plays. They've got the number one turnover margin in the league because they have playmakers. Trayvon Diggs, two interceptions in the game yesterday. Trayvon Diggs right now through four games has five interceptions in four games. Stefan's brother, five interceptions in four games. Right now, he's actually. an early candidate for the defensive MVP, which usually goes to a more dominant pass rusher. Trayvon Diggs is right now a candidate for the defensive MVP.

I know it's a long shot, but he is playing high-level football. What a difference it makes if you've got a really good defensive coordinator, which they have and Dan Quinn. The Cowboys are the class right now of not only the division, but they are one of the class teams in the NFC. And if you think it's going to implode, okay, fine, but don't think it's fake. This is a team that's so balanced offensively, number two rush offense in the NFL, top three or four offense overall in the NFL, and a playmaking takeaway defense. They play the Giants this coming week. The Giants, which was one of my stronger pushes in the smell test on Friday. I really

like their chances to cover and even win the game. I think the Giants aren't as bad as people think, and I've been saying that, even though they were 0-and-3. They beat the Saints in overtime, and Daniel Jones threw for 402 yards in the game against the Saints who come to FedEx Field on Sunday as a one-point favorite. I don't know, man, something's not totally right with the Saints. Defensively, they have been really good, but they gave up a lot of yards and lost an overtime. time yesterday. Ghaladay, Cadarious, Tony had his breakout game for the Giants yesterday, six catches, 78 yards. John Ross was out there catching bombs from Daniel Jones. Sequin Barclay had the touchdown at the end. They went for two, and then they had another

made field goal by Ganoe, who I think missed for the first time in like 85 games or something like that. The Giants knock off the Saints in overtime, 27, 21. So Washington gets a two-and-two New Orleans team coming in here off of a loss. You know, it's odd to watch James and Winston so far this season. He's really not throwing the ball that much. Listen to the attempt totals for him. 20, 22, 21, 23. He hasn't had one game where he's had more than 23 pass attempts in a game.

You're going to get a lot of Taysam Hill in this game, too. He was two for three throwing it, and he ran six times for 28 yards against the Giants. Alvin Camara 120 yards. See, that would be one of those where if the Saints came in here missing Camara, you'd feel like, okay, the schedule's breaking right. They have talent on defense. They have a lot of talent on defense. And I think this is going to be a much tougher test to go against the likes of Cam Jordan and Malcolm Jenkins and Marshawn Latimore, et cetera. This should be a much more difficult test for Taylor Heineke in the offense than yesterday was. What other games did I want to mention?

Oh, well, the most impressive performance of the day may have been in a matchup of two, three and O teams. The Cardinals and Kyler Murray going to L.A. after they beat Tampa last week and absolutely thumping the Rams 37 to 20. So the Cardinals are 4-0. When do we start taking the Cardinals super seriously as a super-series? Super Bowl contender. They play the 49ers and Browns the next two weeks. The Browns are nasty with their running game and their defense. They beat the Vikings 14 to 7. That derails Kirk's run there for a while.

They couldn't run the ball. You know this about Kirk. I know this about Kirk. You give him a complimentary offensive football team with a running game. He will shred you. He's accurate. He's smart. He's decisive. You put him out there without a running game against a defense. with guys like Miles Garrett and company, it's going to be a problem. Now, the bigger problem is they couldn't stop the run. Five yards a carry for the Browns yesterday with Chub and Hunt. And you have to say this about the Browns, right?

They are three and one. They have allowed, now, Texans, Bears, and Vikings have been their three wins, but they should have won that Chiefs game. They could have very easily been four and O. They have a very interesting game coming up Sunday in L.A. against the Chargers and a match against the Cardinals in two weeks that could potentially be two. Oh, no, Cleveland's got the loss. My thought I was going to say two undefeated teams.

Not true. The Jets got their first win in overtime over Tennessee. Tennessee's had an up and down year. Justin Fields bounced back with a really good performance, but I heard that if Andy Dalton's healthy, Dalton's going to start. They beat the Lions who slumped to O and 4. And then the Eagles are just down. estimated with injuries. They had one starting

offensive line healthy for the game yesterday. They lost to the Chiefs 42 to 30. Good win for Seattle and San Francisco where Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt. And the Steelers, man, they're done, aren't they? I mean, Ben looks completely shot. They have no offensive line. And then the Ravens beat the Broncos 23-7. A game that was tight there for a while, you know, that Lamar Jackson threw for 300 yesterday. But their streak of rushing performances of 100 yards or more, which was 42 games in a row. They needed to be more than 100

yards for a 43rd game to tie Pittsburgh's mark set in the mid-70s. Well, instead of taking a knee in the final seconds of the game, Jackson took a shotgun snap and basically ran around left end for five yards so that they could keep their streak alive. They finished with 102 yards rushing for the 43rd consecutive game, 100 or more, one more, and they break the record. All right. We'll finish up the show with a few minutes on Maryland's loss Friday night against Iowa, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. There it is, crossing pattern right to Tyler Goodson and he's gone.

Tyler Goodson is gone. How do you do? I guess I should apologize for building Maryland and Leotong of Iloa up as much as I did the last couple of weeks, but I was really, really buying it this time. I wasn't going to buy it heading into the Ohio State or Penn State games, but I did think that Friday night was a huge opportunity. They got blown out 51 to 14. Two years ago, Penn State came in and beat them 59 to nothing on a Friday night, and that was a major mismatch talent-wise. I didn't think the same thing existed this past Friday night. I was better. Don't get me wrong, but it was more

Maryland and their self-destruction tendencies in this game. They had a seven to three lead entering the second quarter, and for a brief moment, I was like, hmm, I think this is going to be fun. I think they've got a chance. But one thing struck me very early. And that was Maryland was one-dimensional. And I just don't think you can be one-dimensional. against a smart, disciplined Iowa defense. The Terps threw the ball on 19 of their first 22 snaps against a cover two shell with a box that wasn't loaded. You know, they were going right into the strength of Iowa's defense.

Now, maybe they thought they had no chance of running it even against a box that wasn't loaded. Maybe they thought they had a major disadvantage up front. And as it turns out, they would have been right about that. but if protecting their quarterback was a priority, they needed to at least make Iowa respect the possibility that they might run the football and they didn't. So I thought first and foremost, I didn't like the offensive game plan against that Iowa defense. I thought they went, yes, with their strength, which is, you know, at least going in, their quarterback and receivers, but too much into their strength. And their strength was waiting

for you to come right into that strength. Marilyn was penalized a lot again. This is not a first-time occurrence. They had eight penalties in the first half, and they were all damaging. They had false starts that turned a fourth and one on their first drive into a fourth and six punt. They had a third and one false start on their second drive that turned into a third and six, which then led to the first interception of the half, a five in the half for Leah.

These backbreaking drive-killing penalties are not a new issue. Maryland led the Big Ten last year in penalties, and they're leading the Big Ten in penalties so far this year. You know, it's a lack of discipline when you're committing that many penalties. You can't beat good teams, you know, essentially killing drives yourself. They had five turnovers in the first half. You can't win a football game against anybody with five turnovers. and a half. Leah's

interceptions were a mix, but for the most part the bottom line was he stared down zone defenders and then threw the ball to the zone defenders. You know, that cover two that Iowa was playing, to me, screamed for at least

some balance in running the football. Steve Suter was on the show on Friday, on the radio show, I believe, and he said that he thought one of the keys to the game would be the patience of Tunga-Loa's passes against Iowa's cover two shell. He said he's going to have to be patient.

He can't force the ball. He's got to check it down. They've got to have some sideways throws and let guys make plays from, you know, behind the line of scrimmage or just barely in front of it. But he can't force the ball. His patience would be key to the game. It turns out his patience was super thin.

He had an awful game. There's no other way to describe Leah Tunga Viloa's game. He had been so brilliant through the first four games, and they had, you know, among those first four games, West Virginia, a really good defensive team, which he carved up. You know, I'm not sure why they decided to attack Iowa strength over and over again, but I think they put their quarterback into a tough spot. I do. There was another issue in this game. The other issue was an issue that I think we as Maryland fans and Maryland alumni,

were hoping wasn't as much an issue anymore, but there was a big difference at the line of scrimmage again. That's been the issue since they've entered the league. And look, if they didn't have a big disadvantage on the line of scrimmage, would they have won the game? No, not with the penalties and the turnovers. But they got dominated at the line of scrimmage. So getting dominated in the trenches appears to still be an issue when they're playing that level of Big Ten competition. The Deemis injury was really unfortunate. You could argue that he was their second most valuable player during their 4-0 start behind Tungaailoa.

Not only was he injured on a kickoff return, but he left the ball on the ground, which turned a 10-7 deficit quickly into a 17-7 deficit. By the way, I'll just say parenthetically, I thought his forward progress on that play had been stopped. I think it should have been whistle dead, and the fumble should not have been called a fumble. But they didn't blow the whistle, and he put the ball on the ground. round and it was recovered and it was 177 a few plays later. A few other things on this game. I don't know how they didn't recover the fumble after they tackled the guy who had an interception return.

The ball was right there on the ground. There was like three marim players that jumped on it and they didn't recover it. Number two, this game is one game and the job of Loxley and his staff is to make sure that the season doesn't get away from them. They are absolutely more talented than that. they've been in recent years. They're capable of winning two, three more games and getting to their first bowl under Loxley, Loxley, which would be a step in the right direction. With that said, Friday night was a big missed opportunity for a program and a product that needed something good

to happen. They had a chance to grab some market share, if you will, or some share of the attention in the market with a win or even a competitive loss. You know, Maryland football, I've said this many times and most of you know this. Maryland football is a distant number two to Maryland basketball at that university. It's always been that way. It might always be that way. It's a basketball first school. However, Mike Loxley knows that there have been moments in the past, years in the past, most recently under Ralph Region, where they were good enough to grab the headlines once or twice in a big way during a football season.

with big matchups and games that mattered. The big thinkers and dreamers hope that Loxley can build something that can compete year and year out in the second toughest college football division in the country, the Big Ten East, with the likes of Ohio State and Penn State. I don't know that that's really reasonable, but I do think that they can get back to where they were under Ralph, under Bobby Ross, under Jerry Claiborne. Different league.

Okay, different competitive environment. I understand that. But they still have a chance to be an eight win, nine win, you know, a year team. You know, and maybe once every couple of years have a really, really good season where they win double digits and they actually contend for a big 10 title. That may be a reach. But eight wins isn't. It's just that the other night was this opportunity.

It just seemed like they had a chance. to really get people buzzing about this program. They would have been 5 and O. They would have been ranked. They would have been headed to Ohio State this weekend for a big showdown, which they're a 20-point underdog. But ultimately they didn't deliver in this game. And Friday night showed that they're a long way away from even that level that I'd subscribe to,

which is being a 7-8-9 win team. you know, every year. Maybe not at the Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State level, but, you know, capable of being in the mix of all of the teams below. Anyway, it doesn't get easier for the Terps. They have a stretch after Ohio State of Penn State, Michigan, State, Michigan in November when they get there. That's a couple of weeks after this weekend. You know, the ACC days usually meant, you know, okay, you get absolutely pounded by Florida State, but you get to come home and play Waker Duke. Not in the Big Ten. It's not that way. All right, that's it for the show today. It was me solo. My smell test six and seven, so that's floundering right now early in the season. Three and two in the

NFL. I might actually have a winning NFL record. I don't know. Not doing very well on the college plays, but we will stay at it. Hopefully you guys will join us tomorrow when Tommy will be with me. That's it for the day. Back tomorrow.