The Kevin Sheehan Show - Hopkins!

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

Cooley and Kevin recap Washington's 20-15 loss to Seattle. Kevin explained all of Washington's playoff "scenarios" too. The guys discussed some of the Dan Snyder vs minority owner stories that came out from the weekend. They also spent time on the rest of the NFL games played on Saturday and Sunday.  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. Haskins on fourth down. Here comes the rush. He's been sacked the last two plays.

Penalty flag has been thrown. Here we go. As Haskins fires downfield to the end zone. Ball was patted down by Shaquille Griffin. And with that, a 20 to 15 loss at home to Seattle. The furious comeback was ended. Their four-game win streak is over, but their season is far from over. Chris Cooley and Kevin Monday recapping the game in some of the other NFL from over the weekend.

And we'll get to that in a moment. Cooley, I'm going to start with this real quickly. It's a good friend of mine, Ernie Bauer, the legendary iconic producer slash director of local television in town. He listens to the podcast all the time. and he said, number one, I would have given you the cut sign real early on in that 10 to 15 minute overtime discussion that went on forever the other day. And number two. It was not a discussion that was an argument. Right.

And then number two, he goes, go back to like the good, bad and ugly with coolly and kill the ums and the us. I agree with both of those things. And as I said to Ernie, he's always going to be the director and producer, even though. he's retired. He's a retired legend in this town people, all right? He produced and he directed Warner Wolf and Glenn Brenner and everybody. Everybody that was big in this town, Ernie directed and produced over the years. And my very first job, Cooley, was working for Steve Buchance and Ernie Bauer. And I've said this many times. I wished that my boys, that their first job as, you know, young people in their early 20s

would be with people like Buck and Ernie who were not only so great to be around, but so encouraging and so... Oh, that's my phone. He probably would recommend that I turn my phone out. They even would have told you to put your phone on silent. But that was before phones, really, for you. Yeah, that was.

I mean, you would have... Ernie Bauer is one of my favorite all-time people. We're going to take his suggestions. my game repack cap has been just called Kevin's Game Take, and yours can be whatever you want to call it, but I'm done with the ums and the us too. I'm done with it. It's over,

and we'll try not to have overtime discussions last 10 to 15 minutes longer than they should. But I have a feeling based on many of the inane conversations that the two of us have had over the years, that something comparable to that will happen again. It will. That's the beauty of this format, is that you could have a 15-minute overtime conversation and someone can take that little ball on their phone

and just move it forward a little bit until it's over. That's true. That's true, whereas in radio, they just had to endure it. Or switch to another station. Yeah, you don't, if you don't like our overtime conversation, you can fast-forward podcasts. It takes me a while to figure that out. Now, I like the Rogan podcast a lot,

and Rogan is now up to seven minutes of ads before every single podcast. Oh, boy. and I used to sit there and go, God, I don't want to listen to these ads. I'm such a moron because all they had to do was scroll forward. Even in your car, it comes up on the screen on the dash. We don't want to suggest that people fast forward through our ads.

They're very important to the ability of it. I was suggesting the fast forward to the first, if you've listened to Rogan's podcast, his ads are all at once built up at the first of the podcast. Oh, got it, got it. It's like the first seven and a half minutes are ads. I know. I know that people have commented on the number of spots that we're running in these podcasts. And by the way, we spread them out.

15 second forward. I can't help you, people. This is what allows us to actually do these podcasts. If not, we would just be doing them for grins and giggles, which is... I mean, I feel like that's about what I'm doing it for. All right. So we'll get to our game recap in a moment. to start with, and I'll try not to go on for too long, that yesterday's loss really didn't

change their playoff positioning because the Browns beat the Giants last night. The Eagles lost to the Cardinals, and the Cowboys did win. But I'm going to give you the whole playoff situation for Washington as we sit here on Monday, December 21st. It's really simple. But if they win two, they're in, no matter what. They're in first place right now at 6 and 8. The Giants and the Cowboys are five and nine. Technically, the Cowboys are in second place because they beat the Giants earlier in the year. They'll play one more time in the season's 17th and final week. In Philadelphia, at 4-9-1 is in dead last place. None of the four teams in the division have been mathematically eliminated yet. All four are still alive for the division title. None of the

four are no longer in play for a wild-cart spot. I know some of you are like laughing at that, But coming into this past weekend, believe it or not, the NFC East was back in contention for a wild-card spot. Not after yesterday, not after Arizona's win, and Washington and New York losing in particular eliminated that. Now, Washington is a heavy favorite to win this division. Why? If they win both of their games against Carolina and Philadelphia, they're in. But they don't need to win both to win the division. They can still get there without two wins.

They would get there by winning once in their final two and having the Giants lose one of their final two, which seems very likely given that the Giants face the Ravens this coming week, are 10-point underdogs in a game the Ravens have to have. If you watch the Giants last night or even the week before, they're dead in the water with Colt McCoy. And they're not, you know, if Daniel Jones... I don't know about that. We can talk about that. They were in the red zone, the first three positions of that ball game. No doubt.

No doubt. That's true. That is true. And I tweeted this out a little fourth down analytics. Man, those coaches are clever, aren't they? They basically should have had nine points minimum and had three. But they're not going to beat the Ravens more likely than not. And if Washington wins one of its final two and the Giants lose one of their final two, they're in.

Now, if Washington loses both of their final games, they cannot win the division. That would be it. They have to win one of the two, and that doesn't guarantee it, but it's probable that they get in. They could lose both two and get in. No, they can't. Yeah, the Eagles and Cowboys would have to tie next week. No, they cannot get in with two losses. Because, Chris, if Washington loses two, they end up at six and ten.

Oh, Dallas would be six, nine and one if they were to tie. You're right. You're right. Don't get in the way of my playoff scenarios a bit. I can get in the way. I'm bored. So basically, win two they're in, win one more likely than not they're in. Don't win either one, and they're out. If they win on Sunday and the Giants lose, it's over. The final week becomes meaningless.

If they win on Sunday, it eliminates immediately Dallas and Philadelphia. The Giants would have to beat the Ravens to remain in the hunt. with one more week. So it looks pretty good. With that said, Washington is a mere coolie, a mere two-point favorite over the Panthers this week. You know, it's not like Vegas thinks this is a lock to beat the Panthers, nor should it be. If you watch the Panthers play, and I've been talking about them all year long, they don't suck. Their record sucks at 4 and 10, but Washington's only two games better at 6 and 8. So they are a 2-point favorite over the Panthers and already, given that Washington can win the division potentially by winning the game,

the public, early public action all over Washington laying less than a field goal. So it feels a little bit like a trap game, but we'll see. It's Ron Rivera's revenge game, if you will. And by the way, just as a quick digression from the game, Marty Herney, the general manager in Carolina, worked with Ron Rivera for Every single year, Ron Rivera was in Carolina, Marty Herney, a native to Washington, D.C., went to good counsel, went to Catholic University, worked for the old Washington star slash Washington Times eventually covering the team. He's one of these guys that was a media member who got a job and eventually became a general manager in the league. Marty Herney is available.

And already Jason Lock and Forre told me last week on the radio show that he thinks Washington will hire a GM. and he thinks Rick Smith is very much in play. Plenty of time to talk about that down the road. Overall, though, Cooley, it was a loss, but I sort of loved the way they hung in there. I'll get to Dwayne when we get to my game take. I love the way they hung in there. They've been a resilient team all year long.

They had a legitimate chance to win that game at the end. It's a loss. I get it, and they made mistakes, and they didn't deserve it, necessarily, but I still don't feel any differently than I did last week, which is, I think this is a team playing well and a team that's pretty much close to being a good team right now. And if they get in, I think a team that could win a game or two. Anyway, what's your overall?

Brian Arapo said they can play with anybody. Well, we went toe to toe with the champs, is what Brian Arapco said that year after you guys lost battle on a Monday. I know what do you got before I get going on this game take. Do you see what Lions did with Chris Spielman? Yeah. Of course, you know who I thought. Detroit Lions hired Chris Spielman as a special assistant to the owner.

What does that mean? Well, in part it means that he'll be involved in every interview for the team's vacant general manager position, as well as the head coaching positions. Although those that they hire won't report directly to Spilman. he's going to be involved is basically what they're saying he's going to help hire the candidates he's been around football for a long time he understands it he gets it he knows it no he's a resource this should have been my job in washington i'm just going to say it i know this should have been

my job four years ago yep this is a i think this is a good job for spillman i think he'll do a heck of a job. He had been doing color commentary. Didn't you just have him on? Did I have him? The radio? Didn't you just talk to Spielman? No, I mentioned him. Somebody else likes Spielman. He's part of that of what's

what's his face? The barstool guy, the kicker. His show on Sirius XM. Why am I blanking on his name? The indie guy, Pat McAfee. He's part of his show. I think that's why I mentioned. This is a full

time opportunity for Chris that will allow him to work across various departments on both the football and business sides of our organization. Right. No job ever suited me better. It's the first thing I thought of when I read this over the weekend. This is what they should have done with you here and it would have been a much different situation over the last four years. But, you know, what do you? One thing I've always felt like I've been pretty good at is understanding who can coach and who can scout. Yep. I'm pretty good at who can play too,

but the who can coach thing, I'm pretty sure on that one. Yeah. I've been good at it too. You've been pretty good at it. Proven with you. Okay. You know what?

Since you started with that, I've got two things. LSU beat Ole Miss on Saturday night, 53 to 48. Kishon Bout. a receiver for LSU. By the way, Max Johnson is the quarterback at LSU right now. He's Brad Johnson's son, and he's the guy that came in just a few weeks ago and got his

first start against Florida, upset Florida, and he's 2-0 now as a starter. I think he's 2-0 as a starter. He may have started another game and lost, but that's, I've had Brad Johnson on the show. I don't know if I've had him on the podcast or just the radio show. He's really a good dude, and Brad Johnson, the last time he was on, which I think was over the summer. We were talking about his son and he said, yeah, my son might, you know, get time as a freshman at LSU. Anyway, Kayshan Bouté, and I wonder, by the way, if he is Mark Bouté's son. Mark Bouté played for Washington as a defensive lineman, and I think played at LSU as well.

So there may be a relation there. Kishon Boutte had 14 receptions for 308 yards in LSU's win over Ole Miss. That's not why I'm telling you this story. The reason I'm telling you this story, is he was targeted in the game 29 times. It's almost the same as Logan Thomas. He just had more yards. I know, but I don't know that I've ever heard of anybody targeted 29 times. Now, Max Johnson was 27 to 51, so he had 24 incompletions. So 15 of those 24 incompletions were in completions to Kayshan Boutte.

less there were penalties involved. That's a lot of targets. It's a lot of, and also, by the way, Cooley just goes to show you the length of these college games and the number of plays, like they had 94 snaps in the game. It's just totally different than the NFL game. That game lasted four hours plus. I know that because I had some interest in Ole Miss Leng a point.

Anyway, I thought that that was amazing. And then number two, before we get to our game take, is the incredible stories that came out over the weekend from the New York Times, from the Washington Post, and from the Richmond Times dispatch about the guy that you should have been special assistant to, Dan Snyder. All right? I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this today because Tommy will be on with me tomorrow and will dissect it a little bit more. But basically the New York Times story, which was written by Ken Belson and Catherine Rossman, who have been all over the Washington story, just like Liz Clark and the other people that she's been working closely with at the Washington Post have been all over the story. But basically, this story has a couple of pieces to it that are interesting.

Number one is that Dan Snyder is in talks right now to buy out the three partners, all right? and the sale price that they're talking about may be less than the price that these guys apparently could have gotten on their own, in part because Dwight Schar, not only has been accused, but there is significant and perhaps very meaningful proof that Dwight Schar tried to smear Dan Snyder. We've been talking about this for months, but this apparently is no longer just an accusation. A lot of the stuff was uncovered via a court order, which included a lot of information about things like burner phones and profane text messages and accusations of leaks and of information to news media about Snyder, threats of extortion. Dwight Schar and this woman remember Mary Ellen Blair, who was Dan's assistant through 2017. There was the accusation in the summer that Mary Ellen Blair was somehow involved in this effort to smear Snyder

and that she was tied to Schar and Schar's daughter. Well, court filing showed that Mary Ellen Blair was and Dwight Schar spoke 157 times between July and October for a combined 11.6 hours. Additionally, there is an indication that Blair was. was purchased a burner phone, another phone, so that her calls with both Dwight Schar and Schar's daughter could be hidden. There are text messages and phone records that go way deep with Mary Ellen Blair and the Schar's. But beyond that, there are two pieces of information that are new, because some of that has been accused, and there's just more detail around. So the first is this. Two

investigations conducted, this is in the New York Times, two investigations conducted in 2009, one by the team and another by an outside law firm hired by the team, said they were unable to substantiate a woman's claim that Snyder had accosted her in April 2009 on a flight to Washington from Las Vegas. The team fired the woman because it said she lied to the team's lawyers. To avoid any potential negative publicity if the woman sued Snyder. The team paid her a financial settlement and five other people, including Snyder and the accuser, I'm sorry, let me read that sentence again. To avoid any potential negative publicity if the woman sued Snyder, the team paid her a financial settlement, and then five people, including Snyder and the accuser, signed non-disclosure agreements

according to a person with knowledge of the arrangement. So this is like apparently a potential smoking gun, but we don't know if it's true or not. We know that the team investigated it, thought the woman was lying, yet they ended up settling with her. That was one thing that came out of the New York Times piece. The other thing that came out,

and this was on Friday in the Richmond Times Dispatch, but it's all part of the stuff, the court records that were disclosed. And I just need to find what I was looking for here. Bear with me for one second. All right. So John Mogue is the investment banker in Baltimore who is handling the attempted sale of the minority shares

of the Washington football team on behalf of Fred Smith, Dwight Sharpe. and Bob Rothman. John Mogue sent Dan Snyder a text message at some point that it's recently, but there's not an actual date on it. And the text message read as follows, Hey, Dan, my lawyer sent me your filing in which you are representing yourself. I'd be glad to represent myself, but only private discussions with you as well.

That requires a business deal, not a legal process. If you continue your game, you know what I know and what I've never spoken about. And you know it has nothing to do about the media shit. It's the more serious shit. If you want to get a clean conclusion, let me know. If you want a shit show, we are on for that too. John. Now, you don't need to be a lawyer.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know a threat when you read one. That is a threat. Now, I don't know what the threat is about. I don't know what their normal conversations are about. I don't know for all intents of purposes if it isn't just some sort of joke between the two, but I don't think it is. I don't know what the serious shit is. I don't know what this shit show would be.

But, man, there is some stuff going on between these three minority shareholds. holders, Bob Rothman, Dwight Sharr, and Fred Smith, and the owner, Dan Snyder. And they want to sell their shares, but Snyder apparently had to write a first refusal on it. Snyder does not want Sharr to benefit from the sale. I don't think he cares, according to the reporting, what happens with Fred Smith and Bob Rothman, but Snyder thinks Sharr tried to smear him. And Sharr may, according to the New York Times story, have to take less because of it. the whole thing is incredibly intriguing.

We're going to get to the game here, and we can save this for later. And if you don't want to comment, coolly, you don't have to comment. I don't think you know anything because we've talked about. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, I know. Exactly.

You said over the weekend or Friday, you're like, what's the serious shit? I'm like, I don't know. I'm just glad that I'm not the executive director to the owner right now. I should have had that position. Yeah. Yeah. Me saying I should have, that would have been a great fit. I am very pleased that I do not have that position as of right now.

Yeah. Crazy. But I have no idea what the serious shit could be. Right. No idea. Well, there's going to be a lot coming out about this. Remember the Beth Wilkinson investigation has not been disclosed. But, you know, the post went, I guess, to a court to get a lot of this stuff revealed. and it was revealed and again, you know, it's hard to make heads out of tails.

My gut is that they can't stand Dan. They don't like the way the organization's been run. They wanted to sell and get away from him, which apparently everybody does. But at the same time, in the process of trying to force his hand, Dwight Schar may have crossed a serious, serious line. a line in which he could be in serious, serious trouble. So we'll see. The New York Times story indicates that the owners appear to sort of support Dan,

especially as it relates to Sharr, that there's no place for what Sharr is accused of doing. We don't know if he did it or not, but if he conducted and was behind that smear campaign that tied Snyder to among us, others, Jeffrey Epstein, prior to that first story, excuse me, by the Post in July, he could be in a hell of a lot of trouble. And maybe losing value on the sale of his shares he should perhaps hope for.

Now, for Washington football fans, this could result in Snyder owning even more of the team, which I know wouldn't be good for anybody. We all recognize that. All right, after this break, we will get to our complete game recap. I'll have my game take, and Cooley will have his whatever he's going to call it, right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, let's get right to it. We'll start with Cooley's recap of the game,

and I'll get to my game take following Washington's 20 to 15 loss yesterday to Seattle. All right, Cooley, go ahead. Yeah, I'll come up with a really smart way to title this, but for now it's going to be my take on the game, and then we'll get to your game take. Okay. Your take on the game. Coolies, take on the game.

Oh, man. Can our kicker stop missing kicks? Yeah. Seriously. Can the kicker stop missing kicks? It's a freaking PAT. I don't know, can he? It's almost every single game this year.

He's missed a kick in some form or fashion. Mm-hmm. it's nine out of the 14 games. Nine out of the 14 games, Dustin Hopkins has missed either a PAT or a field goal. Is that good? I don't think so. I don't think so.

I really don't. Unless you're making four out of five every game, it's really not that good. No. You got to be 80% or better. Look, you and I have talked about this yesterday. The PAT was huge. They would have went down and tied that ball game

if he'd made the PAT. Yeah, I mean. But the butterfly effect says anything else could have happened. The butterfly effect, though, says in most cases, anything else could have happened. In this case, there's only one change, and that is, does Seattle play it differently down or up 20 to 17 than they played it up 20 to 15? Everything else that led up to it probably doesn't change at all. I don't think they do. I don't think they played it differently.

All right, the good from this game. Duane was excellent in the second half, or more so the fourth quarter of this ballgame. Yep. He was excellent. There's something that goes off inside of him down 17 points. I don't know what it is. Is it his give a shit factor gets turned down?

Does he actually start to get a feel for defenses. Because that could be something to it. A young quarterback hasn't seen a lot of looks from. Is he that quick on the uptake of what a defense is providing? I didn't think Seattle changed anything in the second half of the ballgame. They still stayed with the five-man front, played a zone coverage a lot of the time.

They brought pressure when they felt like they needed to bring. There wasn't any real change to dictate that Dwayne should be that much better. Right. It wasn't prevent defense. They didn't alter the defense. They played the same defense. Right. And all of a sudden, he's dicing him up.

He's making throws down the field. I mean, what did he start the game? Seven for eight for like 20 yards or seven for 10 for 20 yards, something like that. He was 15 of 24 for 98 yards at halftime with, I don't know, four drops, five drops. Certainly four. I don't think it was five drops, but it was three or four. Yeah. No, I mean, it wasn't great in terms of guys making plays down the field, but at the same time,

all the throws were just underneath throws. And this is one of those games where I'm really excited to go watch the film, which I think is available by noon today for me to see. Is the middle of the field open in the first half of the game? Right. Because in the first half, you saw, like, Logan Thomas had, what, nine receptions all under five yards? And you're thinking, okay, well, you can't see the back end on the TV copy, but is he making some high, low reads where he's just going underneath?

quickly. The Alex stat. Right. Renamed that to the Dwayne's stat for the first half of this ballgame. But was there something open over the top? So I thought Dwayne was excellent the second half of this game. I thought he looked poised. I thought he looked comfortable. Shit, he ran to the right twice and got yards. Oh my God, I forgot about that. Yeah, exactly. He ran to the right and looked comfortable doing it. Two scrambles where he looked comfortable running out to the right.

Yep. So, I mean, even to that last drive, I mean, obviously you don't like the last two sacks, but the last drive, he made some throws, man. They kept balance. They're down 2015. They kept balance. They have a McKissick run on first down to start the drive. And then Haskins makes a great decision to climb the A gap and scramble for a first down.

It's Logan Thomas a second down in that drive. And then on third and two, he gets it right. down they challenged by Pete Carroll there was no way that was a first down right to one to mcissick oh I know yeah it was it was weird yeah I exactly I mean then even at that after 72 gives up the sack fumble I'm not calling him by his name he's 72 to me uh sharp he makes a big throw on second 21 to right and then he makes another throw on third and 11 to Terry where KJ Wright's called for a personal foul that was absolute or shit. Wasn't a personal foul.

But it's still on third and 11, he would have had him to fourth and three. Right. He then makes a good throw to Sims on a next second and five, moving left to throw. He's not running. He starts to move left. He realizes that Jamal Adams will hawk him down in an instant. So he makes a throw to Sims. And I thought he took a shot to Logan Thomas.

I don't know. I just, I thought as the second half of that game went on, kind of went through all those plays and I thought other than the third the second down sack and the third down sack I thought he was really good on those last two drives hey let me ask you a question here what do you do on fourth and 24

uh well I mean it would have been a 54 yard kick yeah but you only had you had one time out yeah what's the percentage of a fourth and 24 versus a kick of field going on sides about the same right no fourth and 24 has got to be a higher percentage especially you know you could get a flag you get a flag I don't think it is you get a flag I the onside kick is you know seven percent or whatever it is this year whatever you know

it's just not a very good shot it's between seven and 12 I think with the changes in the last few years they had one time out left with a minute three left so it's it's It's over if you don't get an onside kick. No, I, no. Interesting because that last drive, yeah. They made a decision to stay balanced and essentially either score and win the game. When you say they stayed balanced, how many runs did they have on that drive?

McKissick had a run to open it up on first down. McKissick had another run. Oh, I guess they only had two runs early. Yeah, there are a couple scrambles in there from, from Dwayne. That was it. In fact, one of the notes I made. to myself towards the end of that, you know, like at two minutes or whatever, that I thought they could have stayed more balanced. You know, they had, they had two timeouts after the two

minute warning. They were, you know, they could have, they could have run the ball a little bit more. But whatever, he was on a roll. I mean, he was on a bit of a heater. Yeah, and then they take that first down shot to Logan Thomas in the end zone. That's the one I wanted to ask you about. I thought, out of all of his throws down the stretch. That was the one that was a little bit inaccurate and had a chance had it been accurate. Yeah, I had a chance. I thought he was over to the top of the safety right there. It's also, I think, the throw that he struggles the most with, the deep crossing route. That to me is not the throw that I want him making right there. Had to fit that one in there. He took a shot.

Yep. But no on your answer. on 4th and 24 calling a timeout, minute three left. I think your odds are better on converting 4th and 24 than making a 55-yard field goal with a kicker who's already missed a PAT and then recovering an on-side kick. It's neither is very... Neither is a very good possibility, but I think if you throw that ball down the field,

you've got a chance of at least getting a flag. I mean, first of all, your guy... Did get a flag on that play. What's the chance is your... They got a holding on Schweitzer that wasn't hold. What's the chance is your dude's going to make a 55-yarder? Less than 50-50 from 50 yards? No.

It's more than 50-50. 55%? No, it's over 60. It's between 60 and 70. Yes, it is. Okay. Yeah, it is. It might seem like when you flip a quarter, you get tails every time.

but it is going to start getting it. That's not it at all. I mean, I'll look up his numbers. I'll look up his numbers right now on kicks this year beyond 50 yards. I'll bet you'll look them up right. You'll bet you'll look them up right. Yeah, you do. You look it up.

I'll bet it's more than 50-50. On kicks beyond 50 yards this year. You ready? You're talking about this year, which I like. And by the way, this is not 55 yards. This is 50 yards. He's two for four on 50 plus. That's 50%.

Yeah, what's he in his career? Um, in his current, not good brother, 13 of 25. So, no. Just over 50, 50, isn't it? It's barely over 50%. Yeah, I was wrong. You were right. I was wrong.

Yeah. So, and that's 50 plus, not 55 plus. Well, yeah, but that could that be a 59er? Um, I would, the further you go back, the percentage tends to drop. It's not the other. way around. Yeah, I don't, but you're, let's say the 50 plus is an average of a 55-yard attempt. Yeah. No, there, there was, no, you got to compound that. You got to compound that 52% chance that he makes the kick with the 11% chance that they get the onsides kick or seven per this year.

And you're down to about 4%, which is probably very close to what a 4th and 24 would be. I'll take the fourth and 24. I would too, but I didn't like the play call on fourth and 24. I didn't want to throw hellmery. Well, I mean, okay. I mean, true. You didn't have to throw Hail Mary, but he was flushed, and he had to unload it and you had a flag down anyway.

It wasn't a holding. Well, it was because they threw the flag, but... Even the bull come on. I'm just saying... Don't do that. No, I know what you're saying. Obviously, I'm just saying that, you know, it was coming back anyway. He got flushed and he's running around

and now he's just got to get the ball down in the field because he's about to get walloped. Mollywopped. Molly wapped. What else you got? Does Peyton Barber, he didn't get the two, I didn't like the two point, but does he ever not get a third and one?

He always gets a third and one, it seems. He's awesome. Yeah. Why'd they throw it two times before they ran it on third down with him? I don't know. give Duane some it was a quiz

it was a quiz it was an in-game quiz actually the the one that he gave Terry a chance on I thought was a decent throw I did too that dude was the 39 god he had a heck of a game for Seattle

yeah I thought the O line was excellent in giving Haskins a ton of time all day until the final two plays until 72 came in and then Morgan Moses came in and then got just smoked and then he laid there again. Oh, God, did he ever get run over?

Oh, that was bad. That was bad. If you look at Dwayne in the pocket, he was clean in the pocket on a lot of throws. Fair point. Which is why I'm really considering some of those early checkdown throws. Like, did you really not have anything over the top because you didn't have to flush or move on a lot of them?

You'll tell us tomorrow, I guess. I'll tell you tomorrow. I thought he was good on some of the third downplays. Yeah, I get Terry down the field on the third down play. Good. He was outstanding on third downs. I mean, take away the two turnovers. They weren't even on third down.

One of them was the second down. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, I think DeWain is the biggest positive takeaway. Defensively, I think DeLrio does do a good job of making adjustments. I think early in this game, one of my keys was make them run the ball. You don't want Russell Wilson to beat you. And they did that.

they just lost doing that. I didn't think that Seattle would be able to run the ball the way they did against them. Clearly Del Rio didn't think that they would be able to run the ball the way they did against them. I'm not, I'm not pleased with that. But then Del Rio says, fuck it. We'll go five men front. You want to run the ball that way? We'll come out and we'll play five man front and you won't.

I mean, Seattle's a high-powered offense. They only gave up 20 points. It didn't look good at times. And they got gashed a little bit. But I think Del Rio is a great in-game adjustment. guy and it's proven out. I love that. With their defensive statistics over the second half of every game this year.

I love that. I'm glad you said that because there definitely are better things going on in the second half, no doubt. So, I mean, to me, you're putting together a defense with a lot of issues in the secondary or injuries. Right. And at the linebacker position, there's moving pieces in the back of the back. end of that defense.

So I think, you know, we'll see if it's the D line in the first half or potentially if it's linebacker fits in some of those run plays. They played Sean D on Hamilton a lot until he got hurt. He was hurt. Well, 47 was in there like seeing that. He actually 47 made a big play on that last drive for Seattle. Right. Tackle for loss in the backfield.

Huge play. Montez Sweat had another tip pick. Yes, he did. That is that that's two. He's going to be up there in terms of leading the league and tip passes. He's got to be. He's got to be. You know, Javan Curse, Julius Peppers, long, great timing, the whole thing.

Yeah, he's a special player. I thought Logan Thomas was good. You know, I thought Logan Thomas. How many, we... It's 13 catches. He was on pace for like 21. 13 catches. Yeah, he was...

How many yards did he have? Did he have 100 yards? I don't think so. 107, I think that's right. Holy, that's... 101, 101. My fault. 101.

That is not a great average yards per catch. But, I mean, he's getting better. There was a throw that I thought was actually a good throw. It was a boot out to the right where they had... Isaiah right underneath and Logan Thomas in the flat, and Duane had to dump it. And he's definitely throwing it to Logan Thomas. But Logan's got to go down and get it.

Logan Thomas is getting better every single week, Kev. He is. I'm continuing to be impressed with Logan Thomas, especially as a receiver. I see him getting better every single week. Look, they're a resilient team in the second half. Well, let's get to some of the ugly. You can't go down 14 points in every game.

10 plus points in every game to good football teams. And as much as we're talking about them making plays in the back end on the second half of this game, Seattle's terrible on the back end in coverage. They've been bad all year. They've gotten better now that they've gotten a little healthier, and they've gotten Adams back. But you can't go down every single game. I don't know as good as they've been at making adjustments

and getting things figured out into the second half of ball games. What is the problem with understanding how to score early? games. They're the only team that hasn't scored on an opening drive. How about Jamal Adams? They can't score when they get the... How about Jamal Adams has nine and a half sets? That's really incredible. It is. It's really, really incredible.

But God, he's fast. He's best safety of football right now. You know, Duane isn't necessarily slow, but watching Adams hawk him down, it's Duane scrambled left in that game. It was like, he was, There was no chance, no chance that Dwayne was getting there. The drops were ugly.

Robert Foster had a drop. Terry had a drop. Sims had a drop. He can't drop this many balls this late in the season. We've got to be more adept at catching the football. It's, you're in week 13, week 14, week 14. You're in week three. We're done coaching the fundamentals of throwing and catching the football. If we are going back to fundamentally coaching, catching the football, we are done. Catch the ball.

Catch a damn ball. It's not a catching. It's not a coaching point. Like, my God. How about two consecutive false starts on defense on third down? Yeah, off sides, yeah. Oh, yeah, off sides. Yep.

That kills you. I mean, they ended up getting off the field on one of them with a great stop by Kendall Fuller on third and two. Yep. Yeah, the Wilson 38-yard stramble. Chase Young's got to learn. You can't just get mixed up fighting with two tight ends. You're still contained player, buddy.

Russell Wilson's fast. Well, hold on. I think he's got to learn not to not to force the guy that's blocking him to snag his face mask and yank it forward. That was such a- He still wasn't going to make a tackle. It was a terrible missed call, though. I mean, the dude's grabbing his face mask right in front of him, too. I thought that that was one of the, there were a couple of misses. You know, Duran Payne got held badly on the interception that he had.

perhaps the reason he was in position to make the interception is he was held so badly. Yeah. No, there's no doubt about it. The Bostic matchup on Hollister, really Bostic matching up on anybody's struggle. But what a absolute throw. What a dime that was to go up 13-0. First of all, that was the one that Gibbs was here, that route that was described in the game by Vilma. we called a pressure route.

I caught, when I caught three touchdowns against Dallas, the easiest one to describe is the one where I had to dive going away into the end zone. You run until you get to the edge of the backer or the player in the middle of the field, you pressure and pivot out off of it. It's such a great concept down in the red zone. But my God, when Russell Wilson drove that ball on Hollister, it didn't. There was no, no one's covering that.

That was such, I talked about that. this morning on the radio show. He throws that ball before Hollister turns and there's just hardly any room to fit it in. It's such a great throw. Like, Bostick's coverage wasn't terrible. No, it wasn't terrible, but there was no chance. Wow. Wilson. I mean, Wilson made a couple throws in this game. My God, man. He can play. There's no doubt about that. The four-play touchdown drive in the second half. Yeah, disappointing. I was watching on Friday the college football,

the 150 years of college football, and they were doing Notre Dame, and they were talking about all the Notre Dame coaches. Isn't that a good one? I watched that like two weeks ago. It's outstanding. It is really good. But since it was so fresh in my memory,

I think it was Lou Holtz talking about Leahy. one of the prolific Notre Dame coaches. Yeah, right. And Leahy said, if I can run the ball on every play of the opening drive of the second half and score, I take all the momentum from the other team. That's what Seattle did. That drive was a dagger. Those four runs.

Right? Was there a pass in that second drive? I think the first play was a pass, maybe a dump off to Carson. but yeah, after that it was run, run, run. Run, run. It was a four-play 75-yard drive. Here it is. Yeah, Wilson dumped it off to Carson for three yards.

Then Carson for 13, Carson for nine, hide for 50. I told you. We talked about taking the game. It was a concern. Taking the game right there. Yeah. Wow. Unbelievable.

the interceptions by Duane. Yes. They were so costly. And to me, it's like you've been taking the underneath. Now, he got better later in the game, which I'm pleased by. But you've been going underneath, underneath, underneath, underneath. And then the first time you start to really throw it down the field where it's not just man-to-man is a pick, throwing at Sims, overthrow. You're like, can you throw it down the field?

And then the second interception came off of, it was a third. and six where he threw that fade to Terry, that great ball and the fade to Terry, and I think he was just feeling it because he then tries to throw the crosser, and he has no idea that the corner's going to slough off into it. And that's really when you want to throw that crosser. You've got to have a sense for one, the safety is the safety going to carry deep with the vertical route? And two, that backside corner, is he going to fall off into it? Can we go, just go to the first one real quickly. And obviously your film breakdown will reveal more and you'll know more. But Isaiah Wright and Cam Sims are within three yards of each other.

Now, he- It's off-script. It is off-script. That's right. I understand that, which is why, you know, I'm not chalking it up to one of the two running a bad route. You know, Dwayne's on the run. He's off-script, which, by the way, I loved the way he extended plays yesterday. But who's he throwing to, do you think, there? Sims or right? Sims. Okay. It's, I think it's an overthrow. It's a bad, well, Sims is behind, right. Okay, rights in front. Sims was behind.

It's a bad throw. It's a wobbler. It's a Billy Kilmer wobbler, for those of you that remember old Billy Kilmer, old whiskey. But it's, now the second one is exactly, he explained it the exact way you explained it on the post-game show. He said he thinks the corner is going to fall off, but the corner didn't fall off. He thought the corner was going to run with the other, with the deep route. And he didn't, unfortunately. No, he didn't.

Yeah, and you're right. That was one play after what I thought was the best throw he made in the game, a third and six, where he throws a dime and gives McClorn a great chance on a one-on-one with a good touch throw. I actually thought he had some decent touch throws yesterday. I thought he was good. His throws to the middle of the field were accurate. Yeah.

Yeah, no doubt about it. No, the two picks were daggers. They were absolute daggers. And then, you know, like some of the things, I think it was a third down in short that he threw a flat out to McKissick. Yeah, to check down the got stopped. It was the possession after he threw the second pick. And that's one of those ones where that's such an easy read for a quarterback.

And you don't want to see the quarterback. guess. He had a flat and a slant. And you're essentially reading Jamal Adams as the number one. If he's a zone or if he's man, if he's man, and he's going with that flat, you throw the slant behind it. If he's zone, you got to watch how wide he's dropping. If he's hanging in tight, then you throw the flat. If he's buzzing hard to the flat route, then you throw the slant behind it. He guessed he threw the flat at Jamal Adams, who's running with the flat. Yeah. I made a note that this was one of the worst decisions I thought Dwayne made all day. And I was like, I can't wait for your film breakdown because obviously he did not read Adams correctly.

It's one thing to give McKissick a chance in the flat against somebody. But that's a third and five, was it, Cooley, third and four. Yeah, it's third and four, I think, or third and three even. There's not a lot. There's got to be somebody else open. I think when I went back yesterday and looked at it maybe since the slant behind it's open. Okay. If he hits it in the first window before the slant gets to the middle backer, it's open.

Yeah. It was not a hard decision. But that said, I still do think that he made a lot of good reads. Yeah, I do. I thought McKissick was okay as a back. You know, Vailma kept talking about dancing, dancing, dancing. I mean, he has 13 carries 51, 51 yards. they still could have run it a little bit more.

I did. I thought they could run the ball a little bit more. Some of the other negatives, like, if it's not Logan Thomas or Terry McLaren, and then I guess McChic you're talking about, because between the three of them, they have it all. But who else is going to make a play? Got to have another guy that's going to make a play right now. If you have one more guy that's going to make a play,

to me it's not Alex or Duane. Well, it's on both of them all the time. but for this offense to take the next step, you need one more guy to make a play. The way they're playing is, I guess, you know, if they're a pound it run team, the way Gibbs was in 0405, you can have me and Santana in a checkdown back.

Right. Because you're pounding it and you're creating opportunities for those players. If you don't have another guy, then Terry's going to average 10 yards of reception like he did instead of 15. Logan Thomas is going to average seven and eight yards of reception. And now you're going to start to control McKissick where he's under six or seven yards of reception. And you're not going to find those opportunities down the field. There's got to be another guy. Well, you know, it would be nice if it were Sims Jr. in terms of a true playmaker.

But, you know, I think there's been flashes. If it was Cam Sims, I mean, Campsons, yeah, I was just going to say, there have been flashes of Cams since. Five yards. Hell, I mean. Pat and Barber had a bad drop in this game. Who did? Barber. Yeah, Barber had a drop.

He wasn't looking for that ball, which was weird. That's why he dropped it. He wasn't expecting the ball on him that quick. That was a nice little play. They had that play that they ran three times where the back went wide. And they went two vertical routes with tight ends and then they slanted the back underneath them. That was a good play for three deep coverage because those two vertical routes will take both those inside nickel and Mike and make them carry a little bit vertical, which leaves the back wide open in the middle of the field.

I like that design of that play. I'd like the back to be McKissick. Yeah, I mean, but that said, Peyton Barber made two excellent catches with his hands out of the backfield last week. I know. I know. Look, I mean, I'm probably missing a couple things from my notes here in this game. Let me see. Well, why don't you...

Let's get to your game take. Yeah. Well, we just had the game take by Chris Cooley. And right after this work... It was my take on the game. Right after this work from one of our sponsors, we'll get to Kevin's Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take.

All right. Let me go through things I like, didn't like in Kevin's Game Take, which followed the game take by Chris Cool. No, no. Get it right, Kevin. What is it? It's the take on the game. Oh, the take on the game.

I like that, the take on the game by Christopher Cooley. All right, let me just start with what I really liked, which is there's just something about this team, you know, and being down a bunch and getting back into games. I mean, I think that that is, you know, I think this notion that they come out flat has been wrong. I've talked about that. I think there, you know, there's just been circumstances. You know, we've had a lot of first half turnovers. We've had first half penalties. We've given up some big plays in the first half.

But, you know, they had a legit chance to win after being down 20 to 3 with 14 minutes left in the game against one of the better teams in the league. This has been a constant with them this year, down by double digits at half, and then having a chance to win the game. Yesterday, Cooley, out of the 14 games that they've played, it was the 10th time out of 14 games this year, they were down double digits at halftime. It was also the seventh of those 10 times that they had a legit chance to win the game in the fourth quarter. Most of those coming in the final two minutes. So how did they do it? Well, they had a quarterback that really got hot and started playing well and making plays, and I'm going to get to more on him in a moment.

And then the defense shored up. Like you said, there must be a lot going on with adjustments, although the first drive of the second half wouldn't have been reflective of great adjustments. But on off. They scored on a 50-yard run, so it got out the gate on one. Yeah, well, they also had a 9-yard run and a 10-yard run before that to get it to midfield. I understand, but midfield doesn't mean you're just going to score. The 50-yard run got out the game.

Here's what they didn't do. I mean, they didn't come out and shut them down three-and-out and make them punt. They went, I mean, Carson had a 13-yard run, a 9-yard run, and then Carlos Hyde went 50. So those halftime adjustments, it took a little while. They were more like, hey, let's get our adjustments ready for just after the first drive. Because the final four drives for Seattle were punt, three and out punt, three and out punt, interception after six plays. By the way, they were on the move with D.K. Metcalf on that drive.

And then three receptions. And then three, exactly. And then three and out and punt. But offensively, their last three drives, of the game totaled 39 plays. They ran 39 plays on three drives. Okay, I can do the math on that. That would be 13 plays per drive. They generated 209 yards of offense on three drives. And unfortunately, they were only able to score 12 points when it really should have been 17 if the kicker had made the frickin' extra point. Because the rest of the team did their part,

and got them the ball back, and then the offense got them into scoring position, and then they scored points, and then the kicker screwed it up for everybody. He just screwed it up for everybody. It's ridiculous that you can't make that freaking extra point, and it really did hurt their chances to win the game. Now, they could have gotten a two-point conversion, but they are now 0 for 5 this year on 2-point conversions. 0-4-5.

I liked J.D. McKissick in this game. I like J.D. McKissick, I think, pretty much in every game. He had nine catches for 56 yards, 13 carries for 51 yards, 22 carries, 107 yards, one touchdown. I just, this is something that I remember at one point when we were talking about Gibson, you were like, yeah, and I agreed with you. But I think McKissick needs just as many touches, if not more. And I agree with you on that. And obviously they don't have a choice because they don't have an Antonio Gibson right now. now, but I just really like J.D. McKissick. I thought Logan Thomas was outstanding. I don't care, by the way, whether or not they move the ball via checkdown or, you know, safer, more conservative throws. They're moving the football, okay? Because on my list of things that I liked, 10 for 17 on third down, 10 for 17. What did we say when Kyle Allen took over and then eventually Alex? This is a more

competent offense. It's a professional offense. They're possessing the ball. They're converting third downs, and they weren't doing that with Dwayne, which was 100% true. Yesterday's game looked like Kyle Allen and Alex Smith games from the last two months. They possessed

the ball. They ran 25 more plays than the opponent. They made third downs. They were 10 of 17 on third down. Dwayne was exceptional on third down. He was nine where is it? He was nine for 15 in total on third down throws. Now, the six that he didn't convert, one of them was the play to Terry that, you know, you had the 15-yard penalty on top of it,

so they actually moved the chains. And one of them was that ridiculous sack where, you know, Morgan Moses got thrown into Dwayne on that final third down. So you take those two plays out, and it's nine for 13. And actually the nine, you know, the one to McLaurin did end up being a first down. exceptional on third down. This is what we said about Kyle Allen and what we said about Alex Smith all year. You know, Cooley, I wasn't really following this other than on group text. I know on Twitter and Ben Standing told me about this and I think Galdi was talking about it on his show that, you know, basically, and a lot of my friends were like, oh my God, this guy's so fucking terrible. And you know, he had a couple of bad picks. And he had probably, and you'll identify a couple of

other missed opportunities. But let me just explain something to everybody out there. Take Twain out of the occasion. When you drop somebody back 60 times in a game, 60, okay, 55 throws. He was sacked four times or another, I think, one to two penalties on throw attempts. So 60 plus times he was dropped back, not everything's going to go well. There are going to be some mishaps along the way. But he was... But in all fairness to your group messages, he was terrible in the first half of the ball again. I don't think he was terrible. He made a couple.

I don't think he was good. He made a couple. I don't think he was terrible. He made a couple throws down the field. Yeah. I think the first half is going to indicate that he missed opportunities down the field. And I'm not talking about missed them by not by making poor throws. I think that they're probably guys open the first half.

Maybe not. We'll see. But he wasn't terrible in the second half of that game. It was way more good than bad. Oh, no. No, he was the final three drives, I think. you could say that he was good, if not very good. I think in the first half, it was a bit misleading. You know, they had, you know, obviously the interception was a killer. You know, there's no doubt about

that. And you're going to identify missed opportunities. I have no doubt about that. But I didn't feel like I was watching a player that was completely inept. I think the last time we saw him, you know, in a start, not the Baltimore game, we saw some inept games and inept long stretches of games. The field goal drive at the end of the first half, when he hit Logan Thomas for a first down on third and seven, and then on the third and six hit Terry to get him into field goal range on the 18-yard slant, he was starting to get into a rhythm.

It was very similar to the Pittsburgh game, I felt coolly, where they did nothing for the first half, and then Alex got into a little bit of rhythm right before half, They got the field goal to make it 14 to 3. And remember, field position had been an issue. And field position was an issue early in the game. They had one of the drives that they started at their own four-yard line. And the other drives were, I think, the 20 and the 25.

And then the interception drive, I think, was after a score or field goal to make it 6-0. And they were on the move on that drive before the interception. And then they got the field goal at the end. Look, he was subpar in the first half. He wasn't terrible in the first. half. It was similar to that Pittsburgh first half in many ways with Alex. Anyway, back to, you know, the list of things I liked. McKissick Thomas, 10 for 17 on third down. I really liked Kaleek Hudson in this game. I thought he was outstanding this game. I was curious as to him,

I think we talked about this on Friday, what they were going to do without KPL and without Holcomb. Well, they put Sean Dionne Hamilton in their base sets in the middle, and they had Bostic and Kaleek Hudson on the outside, and then they played a lot of nickel yesterday, a lot of Morland in there with two backers. But I thought Kaleek Hudson, and we've mentioned him before this year as a special team standout, I thought he was excellent. In his play, after they made it 20 to 15 on the first and 10, that four-yard loss, when he dropped Carson for a four-yard loss, it was a massive play because it was second and 14, and now you got him behind the chains, and you forced a three-and-out punt. I thought Hudson was really outstanding

in the game. And then on my list of things that I liked was Dwayne. I think Dwayne was a B performance yesterday. And if not for the two interceptions, and I hated the throw that that throw that we talked about to Sims. And maybe he missed Thomas on the first and ten at the end. I thought Dwayne overall had a B kind of a day, which is in the area in which I've given Alex and Kyle Allen, somewhere in that range, maybe a little bit higher on one of the games for Alex.

But I thought Dwayne's, you know, over the last three drives, Dwayne was 19 of 254 for 156 yards, one touchdown, three scramble, for 28 yards. He, five for six on third down. He was exceptional. And the two sacks at the end of the game, it was unfortunate because Lucas gets beat so

badly on the second and 10. He had no chance on that one. And then Moses comes back into the game and gets thrown into Dwayne by Dunlap on the third down. And I really, coolly, I'm watching this. I'm like, we got a quarterback that's playing the way. you and I, like I described him this win, I think you agreed, with a level of confidence and a level of competitiveness last year that we saw that we didn't see early this year. And he was hot and he was

confident and he was making plays. And when they got that ball back, I thought they were going to go down and win the game or at least take the lead. You know, you can, you never know what the I mean, all it takes is Russell Wilson with 30 seconds to go, you know, in a 2120 game after they missed their sixth two-point conversion had they had they scored um but still i i i played every bit of the same that alex played in a lot of the games i agree has wins from i agree i didn't think i thought it was a very slow start but that's been common for alex sure this year and i thought he got rhythm and got hot later in the game and it was the it was nearly identical to what alice has done in some of the wins and we've said can we survive

with that type of play at quarterback, and we both have agreed that the answer is, yes, you don't put limitations on them if the quarterback can play at that level. No doubt. The two picks cost them early. There's no question about it, but they were there, and Duane picked it up. And funny thing is, without watching and going through this whole thing, I would guess he's in the B range as well. It's funny because, you know, There's no doubt that, look, we've gotten to the point with him. I think there are a lot of red flags about Dwayne as well, okay? All of you out there that are saying, yeah, but he's not the guy.

I'm not sitting here telling you he's the guy. I'm sitting here and telling you what I think he was yesterday. And what it was yesterday is matched up to what I thought he was at the end of last year, which is a guy that I'd like to see more of. Now, that doesn't mean that I want him to replace Alex if Alex is 100% healthy for the Panther game. I don't. I want Alex back there. I think Alex has the intangibles, and I think that there's something there that they've got going with Alex. And I bet Cooley is going to identify many more missed opportunities with Dwayne than maybe with Alex or Kyle Allen from earlier in the

year. But with that said, if they were out of the playoffs, I would tell you that I absolutely want Dwayne to start the final two games. I don't care to see Alex or anybody else if they were out of the playoff chase because I do think there is something there. Let me just mention one other thing that he does that we've talked about before. First of all, he has a very strong arm. Secondly, Cooley, he's got a super quick release and he's got a super quick release when, you know, he's throwing against the blitz. There's a throw from the end zone that he makes to Sims Jr. maybe. I got to go back and look at my notes here. There's a throw from in the end zone that he makes against the Blitz that was just an outstanding throw, quick release. Whatever, I can't find it.

Anyway, the bottom, I don't know, I can't find it. Bottom line is there is something there physically, there's something there with his level of compete, but there's also a shitload missing. Okay, so I understand that. I do. And yeah, those of you that sent me what he was doing on Twitter the other day, look, there are red flags. I get it. With that said, I'm just talking about what I saw on the field yesterday, and I saw the guy that I saw at times at the end of last year for the first time this year.

And to me, it wasn't that much different than in Alex Smith. performance this year in a game that Alex either won or lost. And in fact, in some ways, he gives you the ability to do a little bit more with his mobility. This is what we talked about last week. His mobility is underrated. He is more athletic than he was at Ohio State. He's quicker than he was. And when he's decisive, he's going to move to chains with his legs.

And I thought he was really decisive yesterday. All right, the things that I didn't like. obviously really hard to beat a good team with two interceptions, especially as you are nearing, you're in scoring range on one of them and you're nearing scoring range on the other. That's hard to overcome. Number two, the kicker. Hopkins missing an extra point.

Number three was one of the things I've talked to you about for several weeks running, and that is I think the rush defense, you know, numbers are a bit misleading because nobody's really tried to run the football against them. And when they have tried, they've been successful. See Detroit, see the Giants from a month and a half ago. See the 49ers in the first quarter. Now, they made adjustments, and, you know, the 49ers also got behind and were forced to throw. Seattle gashed them, Cooley.

They flat out gashed them. They ran for 181 yards, seven yards per carry. If you want to take the scrambles out of it, it's still six yards of carry. All right? If you want to say Carlos Hyde had a 50-yard run in, let's cut it down to 15 and say somebody makes a tackle. I love when we do that. Yeah, but he did have 50 on one run.

Okay, bottom line is they were well over five yards per carry. You know, Carson's been really good since he came back at the end of the month. They've been very balanced and Carson is a first rate back. And they didn't even see Penny or they saw very little a penny who came back yesterday. I am concerned about consistently being able to stop the run without loading the box. and so next week Mike Davis you know I loved him when he was a backup in Seattle and I thought we should sign him. He's been having a good year in Carolina. And then you know, you don't necessarily get something against Philadelphia in the final at this point.

Oh, you get a quarterback who can run. But why are you concerned? Because they didn't get gassed by Russell Wilson down the field when they loaded the box. They didn't get gashed by San Francisco when they loaded the box. Well, Nick Mullins isn't going to gas you. And when you're talking about loading the box, really what their adjustment is is to play five down linemen. Here's the bottom line.

Anybody that's tried to run it on him has run it on them, period. The Bengals didn't try, the Cowboys didn't try, the Steelers didn't try. The 49ers averaged over five yards of carry and rushed for 54. They were on pace for 200 yards after the first quarter. and then they got stronger against the run. Yesterday in a driving, a defining drive in a 13-3 game, they got it run right down their throat to start the second half. And like you said, it should have destroyed them.

Because I thought at that point game over, 20 to 3. And then even when we scored it to make it 20 to 9, the DK Metcalf drive before the tipped interception, I thought they were heading towards a score at that point. But I'm just telling you that one of the top. three reasons they lost yesterday, in order, put them in any order you want. I'd put them in the following order. I would put Hopkins Miss P.A.T.

Followed by Can't Stop the Run, followed by two interceptions, because they had already overcome the interceptions. You know, they were in the midst of overcoming the interceptions. I think stopping the run was a problem yesterday in this game. I thought it was a problem. By the way, just on the- I think as a top three. And a big part of why they only have six wins is they don't know how to start a game.

And I'm with you, I don't suggest that they're flat. Right. But they're not good enough at the beginnings of ballgames, especially on offense. And that's a Turner thing. Because they've been not good enough with three different quarterbacks, but with all three quarterbacks found a way to become good enough in the second half of games. Have they not scored on any drive? No.

They're the only team in the league that hasn't. Didn't they have a field goal on an opening drive against somebody? I don't think so. I think it wasn't there a stat in the game that says they haven't scored on any opening drive? Oh, maybe. So they didn't score against Dallas when they blew them out? Or Dallas on Thanksgiving Day?

I'm looking at it. I don't think so. Okay. They haven't scored a touchdown on any opening drive. You'd have to explain that one to me. I don't get it. I do not understand that at all. because the truth is there have been drives that they've moved the ball in the opening drive.

And they've ended up with a turnover or they've ended up with a miss field goal maybe or they maybe turned it over on downs. I don't have the list in front of me. But I just, you agree with me. I don't see a team that's like, well, here's the giant game that they lost at the Meadowlands. 12 plays, they're driving, they miss a field goal. You know, second, you know, third. in that giant game in the first half, they were misfield goal interception, made field goal

touchdown. I don't know. They're not good enough. They've been behind double digits in, what did I say, 10 of the 14 games? That's not good. That's just not good enough. So it would be nice to start off Sunday against the Panthers with a 14 to nothing lead. That would be great.

That would be really nice. I mentioned the drops and you mentioned the drops. You know, Terry McClurens had a couple of drops here. I think that back shoulder throat of McLoran was a beauty. And I think he's got to pull that in. It was. I count that as a drop. It's contested, but I'm with you.

You know, I thought that, you know, you mentioned Barbara. You mentioned Barbara had a drop. Cam Sims had a drop. McClure had really potentially two drops. Foster had a drop. Foster. Foster. I want to call him Davis. Yeah, Foster had a drop.

And, you know, that's like five. It's like five of them. And so, you know, I'm not big into like just looking at Dwayne's numbers. I've already given you how good he was on third down. I already gave you what he was on those final three drives of the game. But, you know, you cut those drops in half. He's like 41 of 55 for like 320 in the game. You know, he was every bit of what Alex was or what Kyle was in games that they had a chance to win and either won or didn't win.

It's a shame that the offensive line got completely blown up when they moved it on that last drive. I'm they're in the midst of a long drive. He's completed a third and two for a first down, a third and 11 that turned into. a first down, and he's used his legs on that drive, and they've got a first and 10 at the Seattle 23 with plenty of time. Minute 20 left. At that point, I think they had two timeouts left, maybe three, I forget, and they're in good shape, and he misses that deep shot to Thomas, and then boom, Lucas gets beat badly, and Moses gets blown up, and now it's fourth and 24. That's too bad, because I actually thought they were heading in.

Part of me was coolly like, don't give Russell Wilson enough time because he will come back and their kicker is awesome. He hasn't missed a kick all year. But it would have been a phenomenal win. It's still not a terrible loss. And as I mentioned at the beginning, they're still in very good shape to make it to the postseason. I do think it was very interesting that Rivera didn't even. think twice. It was absolutely Alex is our starter and Dwayne is our backup. But let's see what

happens with that calf injury. Because what's clear coolly is if he wasn't ready to play yesterday, that was bullshit last week about the discussion about we could have put Alex back in if we really needed him. No, if that's true, he would have been ready for yesterday. I disagree with that. Why? Because it was more warm. It was what? No, you could have put it back in. It's a castron. We went through this on Friday. It's going to be lingering and nagging.

But if you thought you had no chance with DeWayne, it would have been different. I don't think, I think that they could have played Alex. Okay. Let me. I just, I didn't think there was a reason to. I also don't think that Alex is going to be definitively better. Then I wouldn't play him. That's what I was just about to say.

Not until he, yes, until he's 100%. But could they have played him? I do believe they could have. Did they want to risk it? No, and they probably made the right choice. I am not, I've seen what Alex Smith looks like at less than 100%, and I do not want him to play at less than 100%, period. Nope.

Because Dwayne gave you, you know, pretty much an Alex Smith performance yesterday. And so I'll take the Alex Smith performance by the substitute Sunday against Carolina rather than the Alex Smith compromised performance. That is a, that's a horror show. We do not need to see. All right. Let's go around the NFL and talk about some of the games from yesterday

right after this word from one of our sponsors. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. 6-1-1 smell test this weekend. I was six, Oh and one heading into last night's Giants Browns game. And by the way, you know, earlier in the show, you're right. I tweeted out the following Cooley when they went for the two fourth downs in the red zone.

One was a fourth and two. One was a fourth and four of the Giants. They moved the football on their opening drives, the three opening drives of the game, and they came away with three points. And I just said, fourth down analytics is keeping Washington in first place. I just can't stand these clever coaches that think they're so clever. ever. You know, the Giants have moved the football. They've possessed the football. Look, I'm glad that they lost the game. I was hoping for a Giants cover and a loss. But, you know, you come down opening drive and you've got a fourth and five at the Cleveland 8 on a condensed field. You're going to go for that? That was the fake field goal thing. The second drive, they kicked the field goal. The third one, it's fourth and three at the Cleveland Six. You're going to go for that? Take the freaking field goal.

I just... Especially when you think it's different if you don't believe in your defense or you think as a coach, today's a 28 plus point date of winning ballgame or 25 or whatever number is. But their defense is good enough that they should kick the field goal. Yeah, agreed. By the way, on that game last night, Baker Mayfield was great. I'm shocked by how good. good. He's been the last couple of times I've watched him. The Monday night game last week

against Baltimore and then the game last night. He just, he was so accurate. He was so decisive. He was so good. 27 to 32 the dude was. Two touchdowns, no picks. I thought he was really good, and he was outstanding against Baltimore. And he was freaking amazing against Tennessee in that game where they got off to that big lead. Kevin Stefansky, man, really, what a job. And the Browns moved their record to 10 and 4. Pittsburgh play Cincinnati tonight. Probably going to be hard to win the division,

but Cleveland really getting very close to a playoff spot. The other division games, Dallas won a second in a row. I told you basically their only route is to win the two and have Washington lose to. That's the only way they can make it. the Giants would have to lose one as well, which they would to Dallas. And then, so that's Dallas's route. And then Philadelphia was engaged in a wild one at Arizona. Arizona was in deep trouble, and Philadelphia looked like they were on the verge of potentially

coming from behind to win a second straight against, you know, a decent NFC team last week, New Orleans, this week, Arizona. And Arizona faked a punt, man. they faked a punt at 26-26. That guy Andy Lee threw a great pass. They went down. DeAndre Hopkins made a great grab. They went up, and then Philadelphia had two opportunities in the red zone at the end of the game.

And, well, the last one wasn't at the reds. It was approaching the red zone. And they didn't get it done. They lost 33 to 26. You know, Philadelphia had won that game, Cooley. God, how good. DeAndre Hopkins. Oh.

Oh, go ahead. No, the best, Hopkins. The best. The best hands is absolutely unbelievable. The best hands there are in the league. And the best ball tracking and ability to high point it and go up and get it and take it from a defender. God, he is really, really good. I thought Hertz was pretty good in this game.

I thought Hertz made a lot of plays in this game, no doubt. You know, Arizona's pass rush with that guy, Gardek and also Reddick, it's really, something else. You know, Arizona a couple weeks ago, I was like, they stink. And by the way, I'm not a massive Murray fan at this point. He makes some unbelievable plays, though. He does, and he makes some terrible plays, too.

Some bad ones, too. There's a bad pick in this game. Yeah. And I know they've beaten the Giants and the Eagles in back-to-back games, and it's really interesting. They play the 49ers this week, and they're only a two-point favorite against the 49ers, and they've been eliminated. or two and a half point favorite. That one reeks to high heaven.

Arizona, I think, just got to win one of their final two to clinch. I think that's it. That last wild card spot. They finish at the Rams, which will be a big game for the Rams, and that's where we'll go next. Wow. I mean, the New York Jets. Played their way out of Trevor Lawrence.

Trevor Lawrence now will go to Jacksonville as long as Jacksonville loses their final two games. Jacksonville plays the Bears and the Colts. The Bears are rolling. Colts will need it. And the Jets beat the Rams in incredible fashion. That's a bad loss for the Rams. 17-point favorite. It's I think one of the biggest underdogs, winless underdogs to win that late in the season. But those are the two big takeaways. The Jets lost out on the, you know, Jacksonville wins the tiebreaker to get the first pick. and the nature of being a 17-point favorite

and seemingly having no chance to lose that game and the Rams going and lose that game. I think it's hysterical because the Jets punter Brandon Mann makes a touchdown saving tackle on a punt return. And now everyone in New York is furious with him. Like, Brandon Mann just cost us Trevor Lawrence. Meanwhile, Sam Donald's high-fiving Brandon, man. Like, thank you. Thank you, buddy.

It doesn't mean they lost Trevor Lawrence. There's still three more games, anything happened in the NFL. But you're going to be some quarterbacks. There's going to be some quarterbacks available next year if Washington wants to go that route. Stafford, Ryan, Darnold, potentially, although maybe not Darnold anymore. I'll tell you what, I watch Justin Fields now two straight weeks. There is no chance that if I had a top 10, 15 pick, I would take Justin Fields. I am off of him.

He feels pressure. He cannot see the field, man. That is so obvious. When you pressure him, it's a problem. Trevor Lawrence, oh my God, is he good? He's amazing. He's so good. We'll have time to prep for the, and talk about the two semifinal games.

I think the four teams deserve to be in there. Personally, I think Florida would not only beat Ohio State, Notre Dame. They'd probably be favored over both of them, but they didn't deserve to be in with the two losses that lost LSU crushed them. Back to the NFL, though. You know, a couple of other games. The Chief Saints game, man, Breeze looked terrible. I know he ended up throwing a replay. Yeah, he just shouldn't have played.

Be interesting to see what they do. They have a short week. They play on Christmas Day Friday against the Vikings. The Chiefs, you know, like we talked about, they just sort of, you know, Edward Zillera got hurt in that game. It's just so easy for him is almost what it is. Edward Salar may be out for a while. I mean, they have Levi-on-Bell.

Heavy on Bell. Yeah. I love the Saints on defense, though. Like, they really made Mahomes look uncomfortable. He made some incredible throws, but under duress. He was sacked, I think, four or five times in the game, and could have been sacked eight times in the game. New Orleans is really good, Cooley, on defense.

Really good on defense. And if they had the Drew Brees from, like, you know, two years back, To me, they would be the prohibitive favorite out of the NFC to make it to the Super Bowl. If you had the Drew Breeze from eight weeks back. Maybe. And you're still going to get that guy. I think he's going to get healthier. Well, I don't think that.

He's going to get healthier. But, God, it's funny because they are thick. You watch them, and they fly around on defense. But that's it. You could still get eight sacks in Kansas City's putting up 30. Yeah, you could. It's amazing. You could sack them eight times, and they're still.

going to name their number. And it's going to be three more. By the way, that last touchdown got the push. I had New Orleans plus three. And they were setting up to kick a field goal to keep the time on the clock to make it 32, 25, and Breeze through the touchdown pass, which was beautiful. The Buccaneers got behind Atlanta, 17. Nothing came back.

Brady hit Antonio Brown on a deep one. And Brady ended up throwing for 390 and two touchdowns. And my God, the season the Falcons had, you could write a book about the number of late blown lead losses is just extraordinary the season they've had. They have, they really haven't lost, I think, that's not true. I think New Orleans handled them pretty easily twice, but other than that, almost every single game was basically down to the last couple of minutes. And in most of those games, they had a double-digit lead that they blew. But the Buccaneers have, you know, when they were scrambling a little bit, they went two in a row

over Minnesota and Atlanta, and now they are firmly, not only, look, you've got to consider them with the way Breeze played to be in this division chase. New Orleans has, let me just see who they finish up with. New Orleans has Minnesota on Christmas Day and then at the Panthers. They're going to win one of those to clinch the division, I would think. I don't know who wins the tie break. Well, they would because they swept Tampa. What was the other game that I wanted to talk? Oh, I just wanted to talk about Buffalo on Saturday.

That was your lock of the week. It did not work. And I leaned Denver, but I stayed off it because of the injuries. And the line didn't change. It actually came down. Denver went off as a five and a half point underdog. There was a lot of shark money on Denver. It was heavy in the water.

God damn, is Josh Allen good? I mean, it's, what is it, a two-horse race for the MVP, but you're not going to consider Alan in that MVP race? It's Rogers and Mahomes, odds-wise. I'll see where he's climbed up. I'm going to check it right now to see where he is. God, I mean, it's not crazy that he's in the mix. Oh, they haven't updated it, so I don't have it for today.

He is really playing good football right now. Oh my God, he is something else. What a, what a baller. You know, this is where, look, I'm not comparing Dwayne Haskins to Josh Allen. Josh Allen's, Dwayne Haskins started, I think, his 12th game yesterday, 13th start, hasn't started 16 games yet. Josh Allen was terrible his rookie year. He was, he was being chalked up as a total bust that first year and even early into his second year. And I'm, look, Josh Allen. But my God, they had nobody. And that's what I think to some extent you'd say about Duane last year. Right.

God, they didn't have anybody to work with. No, they didn't. Josh Allen, you know, he went through even last year where it was still wildly inaccurate. And I watched a lot of games last year where Josh Allen make plays. Josh Allen can make plays. That's what you'd like to see Duane develop into. It gets potentially more accurate. Can he really turn into a dude that just makes plays?

Are they the biggest threat in the AFC to the Chiefs? Yes. I think they are because I like Buffalo's defense. And I don't know, Pittsburgh is, I'm still a believer in Pittsburgh. Even though that's crazy the way they've been playing, I just, I'm not going to discount that Pittsburgh's still a really good football team. I think Indy's dangerous. I think they're good defensive.

I do too, but Indies just, they're like a real sleeper. Yeah, I know they're a real sleeper. Cleveland would be too. I think Indy's more of a sleeper than Cleveland. You mean more capable? No, I think Cleveland's more capable. Oh, okay. And I don't know why I'm really saying that because I do believe in Indy.

I think Frank Raggs got the ability to put a game plan together and get his team ready to play against anybody. I just don't think that they're good enough to just really beat anybody, you know, outright to smoke somebody. Did you see the way that game ended for the second time in three weeks against Houston against Indy? Houston a few weeks back was first and goal down 2620 against the Colts two weeks ago, in fact. And on the final drive of the game, they had it. I'm pulling it up right. first and goal at the Indy 6 down 2620, and Watson fumbled game over. Here he hit that guy, Kute, the receiver.

He's going into the end zone for the, yeah, Kiki. He's going into the end zone for the game tie, tire. I mean, who knows, maybe they would have gone for two. What the hell? And he gets hit and fumbles into the end zone. Touchback Colts win, 2720. The smell test had it at seven and a half. I'm sure some of you had it at seven.

I actually played it at seven as well. get it in time at seven and a half, but still counts as a smell test win. But that was a brutal ending. Houston's had one of those crazy years. But yeah, you know, I guess that's it.

I mean, in terms of the games from, yeah, the Vikings, you know, of course, it's Kirk's fault when they lose a game, no matter what, despite the fact that they made Mitch Trubisky, their defense, made Trubisky look like an all pro. Trabisky was really good, though. Do you know what? He's been really good recently.

They have all this, do you know, Chicago, the team that could not score with Nick Foles, since Trubisky's come back into the lineup, they've scored 30, 36, and 33. Now, they have not played, they played Detroit, Houston, and Minnesota, three terrible defensive teams. Minnesota is awful on defense. And they couldn't get them off the field. But Trubisky and the Bears, with that win, go to 7-and-7. Montgomery had 150 yards. Trubisky was 15 of 21 for 202, and they won the game 33-27.

There was a Hail Mary at the end that actually got tipped up into the air and nearly caught by Minnesota. But that pretty much does Minnesota in. They'd have to win their final two and hope a bunch of stuff happens. But the Bears are definitely now back into it. And you know what, Cooley, I like their defense. I think they're a good defensive team. and if Tribisky, and they've got this stuff going with Montgomery and Robinson, you know, if they might play Green Bay in a meaningless game for Green Bay at the end.

If they get to 9 and 7, I think they get in over Arizona, if Arizona loses one more. I think they would be more dangerous in the postseason than Arizona. Because I think they're much... I think you flip a coin on that one. You're right. I'll flip the coin. I'll flip the coin.

Because Arizona defensively is pretty good. They said that Bill Lasers started calling plays in Cleveland. And that's been a good change for them. Yeah, Chicago. Yeah. He was their offensive coordinator. Anybody that doesn't know, he was the quarterbacks coach for Mark Brunel in 2004, or five, maybe even six something.

Right. Everyone always joked and called him Blaze, you know, short of Bill and Lays. Right. So, um, anyway. Yeah, they've been a better team on offense. I don't hate Trubitsky. There's nothing I'm going to say that I truly love about the guy. But when he's making plays with his legs and he's even remotely accurate,

they got something there. Well, the key with him, um, he's another one of those quarterbacks. First of all, he's incredibly mobile and he really can motor. Um, but if they've got a running game and he, they don't have to drop him back, but they can play action and they can bootleg. him and they can get him out on the edge, he is dangerous. And, you know, they were basically counted out with foals. But once they replaced foals with, Trubisky's first start, my fault, was that Green Bay Sunday

night game, and they got blown out. But the last three games, they blew a huge lead against Detroit and scored 30. And then they blew out Houston last week, 36, 7, and they hung on to beat Minnesota 33 to 27 and they're seven and seven. They've got a shot to make the postseason. All right, real quickly, let's wrap up the show. I've got one quick thing right after I tell you about my bookie. It's the most wonderful time of the year. It can't end soon enough. We all deserve a win. We all deserve a little extra money in our pocket. We all deserve to have a little fun. The only place you're guaranteed to get all three is my bookie. They're the only sports book that doesn't care whether

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This winter, bet with the best. Bet with my bookie. The Monday night game is an absolute snoozer. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh gives Pittsburgh a chance to end a two-game losing skid after they went 11 and 0 to start. Lost to Washington, lost to Buffalo last week. They're 14-point favorites over the Bengals. I wanted to finish with this one thing on the Philadelphia game with Jalen Hertz playing well. Did you see this story on Carson Wentz before the Sunday 1 o'clock game started? Wence does not want to be a part of the Eagles if he's not going to be guaranteed to start. He wants out.

There's a lot of stories out there that the relationship's been damaged. Now, look, Doug Peterson may not be back. I mean, that's crazy, but Peterson may not be back. But if Carson Wentz became available, even with that contract, would you be interested? Yep. I think I would too. I really think that there's a lot to Carson Wentz, including a bad fit right now. and maybe it's emotionally, which is the one thing I don't really love,

is there a problem with Philly and all of the, can he just put his head down at work? But to me, everything he says and the way he plays, I just think he can. I think that there's, I think Carson's one is still a pretty special player. I think he could be too. Now, what it would take to get him and then you've got that contract, but, you know, Washington has a lot of space.

I think they're going to, you know, here's the net of it. And we're going to have so much time to talk about this. There are going to be a lot of options in the offseason for veteran quarterbacks, a ton of options. You know, I would not consider Cam Newton to be one of them anymore. But, you know, Stafford, Ryan, Darnold, Wentz, James, if you were interested in that, there are going to be a ton of options,

ton of options. The way in if he plays again and continues to grow. I mean, who knows? That's going to be interesting to follow this week, and it'll start on Wednesday with who takes the reps. You'd like to get the win Sunday and get the Baltimore win over the Giants and end it right there

rather than have it come down to a game at Philadelphia against a team that seems to be a bit more inspired and more capable here underd. Jalen Hertz. Look, Cooley, you know what? I don't care what Vegas says, and they're sort of indicating that the Panthers might be a smart play here plus a very short number. If you can't beat the Panthers to clinch a playoff berth or to, you know, pretty much set up more likely than not a clinched playoff berth, then whatever happens happens. This is the opportunity. Nobody expected you to beat Seattle and you played well. You got to beat the Panthers Sunday. You got to beat Teddy Bridgewater

and the Panthers on Sunday. And I don't think it's going to be easy. I think they're a capable team. I think they're also a well-coached team. But I, if you're, if we think they're dangerous as a post-season team, well, then you beat Carolina Sunday. And by the way. Yeah, but they're dangerous as a post-season team,

but they're also a team that could lose any thing that they play. So the style of football they play makes them dangerous against anybody, but it also makes them susceptible to lose to a lot of people. Chase Young. And Carolina is a good. Rules doing a good job. Montez Sweat, John Allen, Duran Payne, go dominate Teddy Bridgewater. You know, they got some weapons over there.

They do. You know, DJ Moore and, who am I forgetting? Curtis Samuel and Robbie Anderson, right, is on that team. And you know how much I loved Mike Davis and wanted to Washington to sign him. He's had a really good season for Carolina. Go beat the Panthers. All right. The Panthers, they've had some good results this year. They nearly beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead. They nearly beat the Vikings. They were right, you know, they played a good game against the Packers the other night. They nearly beat the Saints earlier this year. But go beat the

Panthers, please. And let's not, you know, and by the way, throttle them. You know, beat them soundly, like 24 to 10. That kind of a win. with the defense dominating and then we'll feel a lot better about going in than if they were to lose to the Panthers and then, oh boy, because can you imagine losing out. Yeah, I can. I can't imagine. I know, me too.

It's almost like it's what I think is going to happen. Oh, boy. I can't imagine. It could happen, of course. You know what? If they lose Sunday and Philadelphia wins and the Giants, it wouldn't surprise me if Philadelphia is favored over Washington in that finale. With hurts the way playing the way he is right now, they would be favored.

Plenty of time to talk about that. All right, everybody have a great day. Cooley back tomorrow with Offensive Film Breakdown.