The Kevin Sheehan Show - Howell Shines Again In Win Over Pats

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Kevin opened with his big takeaway from Washington's 20-17 win over the Patriots in Foxboro. His complete breakdown of the game came next and included his list of favorite Sam Howell plays from the game. Doc Walker jumped on with Kevin to talk about a Commanders' team that is 4-5 and a game out of the NFC's last wild-card spot. 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 down at 23, following the sack. Howell, across midfield. Howell stays on his feet.

And is close to a commander's first down. Looks like he picked it. I think he got it. Wow. On third and 23, Howell picks up a Washington first down. That was one of the most incredible scrambles you will ever see. Kenny Albert on the call yesterday for Fox. Sam Howell, on 3rd and 23 late in the first half,

scrambling for 24 yards. A second straight week of really good Sam Howell play in a 20 to 17 win over the Patriots in Foxborough, Washington now 4 and 5. They are one game out of the 7 seed. in the NFC playoffs. The show today presented, as always, by Window Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.com.

If you need new windows, mention my name. They will take great care of you, I promise, 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com. This from Sam, Sam wrote me and said, Kevin, I know that your opinion before the season, and so far during this season on Sam Howell was no opinion. at all. I respect that because most people in your position think that the hot take one way or the other is necessary. But after yesterday, I would hope that your skepticism is fading. This guy really looks like a star. Can't wait to hear what you say about Sam now. Thanks for the podcast. It's the best part

of my day. Well, thank you, Sam, very much. And I think actually at the beginning of your note, you did a proper job in describing my non-opinion on Sam. But then you went and said that you hope that my skepticism is fading. Well, skepticism would imply that I had an opinion and it was skeptical. I didn't have an opinion and I wasn't skeptical. Although, although if you had forced me to either be skeptical or not skeptical before the season started, or after the Buffalo game, or after the Giants game, being completely honest, I would have been skeptical. I would have leaned skeptical.

So I know that a lot of the people out there that already made up their mind on Sam a while back, and it was, this is our guy. I think anybody that didn't jump on board was always going to be viewed as skeptical or worse, even though that's not fair and it's not true. But while I did not have an opinion one way or the other, if you sensed Sam that if I had been forced to be skeptical or non-sceptical, that I would have been skeptical, I think you would have been right. No, I know you would have been right.

By the way, this is not leading towards me anointing Sam, the starting quarterback for the next 10 years. But he was great yesterday. Thanks for the note, Sam. You can rate and review this podcast on Apple and Spotify. Helpful when you do it. Five stars on Apple with a quick one to two sentence review is a huge boost for us. Subscribing to the podcast and following the podcast helps as well.

It's easy to follow. Apple allows you to hit the follow or the plus button in the top right-hand corner of the podcast homepage. Spotify, it's down the left-hand side. many of you have asked me in previous years and months, and I'm just mentioning it for those that may not know that you can listen to us on Apple. Most of you listen on your iPhone, on Apple podcasts, but I have had people ask me, how do I listen on my iPhone or on Apple? Well, there's a purple podcast icon on your iPhone.

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Search the Kevin Sheehan show. That mostly black with some burgundy gold logo option is the one you want to click on. And then you can rate and review us as well. Doc Walker will be on the show with me in the final segment today. Tough day for the Terps on Saturday, 51 to 15 against Penn State after I predicted they would win the game outright and gave out the Terps plus the eight in the smell test. Yeah, that was ugly. Penn State's really good defensively, and the Terps as a one-dimensional team just weren't anywhere near good enough. and, you know, they've got, they still got to win one more game to become bowl eligible.

Tough weekend for the smell test overall, four, nine and one, I think it was. Damn, those cowboys. I mean, they should have gotten it done. My God, is that team undisciplined? Leads the league in penalties again. In the last three seasons, Dallas has so many more penalties than any other team in the league. And when they got to that first and five, actually, at the six-yard line at the end of the game with 27 seconds to go, Their win probability in the moment had to be 80% or higher.

And they went backwards 21 yards. False start, delay a game, a sack that Dax should have never taken. That was after Dax stepped out of bounds on a two-point play on their previous score, which was crucial. Wild day in the NFL. I will try to get to some of it, but I probably won't have time to do that because I'm going to spend some time with Doc, and I'm going to spend some time on this game. breakdown. But before I get to the game breakdown, I do want to start with this. So it was a win yesterday, and more times than not, the fact that they won the game would be the lead. You know,

it would be the big takeaway, the big storyline. And I'm not going to argue with people that would say, hey, you know, whatever you're going to say about Sam Hal or Eric B. Enemy or the interception at the end or the referee, the K.J. Henry roughing the passer, just remember, they won the game. They won the game. That's the lead. I never argue with somebody that just focuses on winning and losing as a headline writer or somebody that's got to have the number one takeaway. They did win the game. They beat a two and sixteen to get to four and five. But my top takeaway from the game yesterday, from the winner of the Patriots, is that this was a second consecutive game where the starting quarterback Sam Hal and the offensive coordinator, Eric Bianimi, were outstanding. And that is takeaway number one from the

game yesterday. And it's really the part that's worth talking about and exploring because it means much more to not only the rest of the season, but beyond it. Neither Hal nor Bianemi had put together back-to-back weeks like they have the last two weeks, last week against Philadelphia in a loss. and yesterday against New England in a win. Last week was first class all the way around, and I talked about it, and they were the top two things that I liked on my recap. And they put together perhaps you could argue an even better performance yesterday when you consider that they were up against Bill Belichick,

you know, one of the best to ever scheme it up, defensively. Over the last two weeks, Eric B. Enemy's offense has averaged 25 and a half points, produced 904 yards, and has gone 16 of 29 on third down. In his last two games, Sam Howell has completed 68 of 97 passes. That's just over 70%. He's thrown for 722 yards and five touchdowns. And after being sacked, nearly six times a game on average in the first seven games, he's only been sacked an average of two times per game over the last two games. He's second, by the way, right now in the NFL in passing yards. Now, there are other numbers that knock down his overall QBR and puts it kind of far down the list.

But he's second in the league in passing yards right now behind Tua. On third down yesterday, Hal was seven for 11 for 104 yards, five of those seven completions for first downs. And he had, you know, a little 24-yard run on third and 23, as you heard coming into the show. The game called, excuse me, by Bienemy this week, it was not a mirror of last weeks, but the concept, the overall concept was the same. same. His quarterback thrives when throwing the ball quickly and when the quick game and the quick screens and the dashes and sprint outs are called. That's what he does well. And when he calls that game for Sam, it seems to me that two things result. One, he gets into a quick

rhythm. He gets very confident. And then secondly, the ball is thrown and then lands in the hands of some pretty good playmakers who do something with it when they have it. And when that starts to happen, you've seen it two weeks in a row. Defenses are on their heels. And then they get a little frustrated. There have been mistakes the last two weeks, some big ones that hurt. Last week's interception hurt badly, probably cost them a chance to win the game. Yesterday's interception at the end of the first half was a terrible one, and it was costly, could have been even more costly. By the way, I didn't put that solely on Sam.

I'll explain in a bit. But interceptions, they happen when you throw the ball as much as Washington's throwing it. You know, quarterbacks, veterans and young quarterbacks, they throw picks. It happens. The bottom line over the last two weeks, though, the significant majority of plays on offense have produced great results more than they have bad results. There's been a lot more good and great than bad overall.

This franchise, okay, here it comes. This franchise hasn't had back-to-back games by their starting quarterback, as promising as the last two by Sam Hal since, as Galdi would say, you know who was here. You know who. Should I say his name? Say my name. Say it. Yeah, cousins, that guy. Seriously, it's been six years since a quarterback for this franchise has had two games back-to-back like Sam Hal has. I'm not even talking statistically. because it's been outstanding statistically. I'm talking about just the promise of what you're watching, the eye test.

You can find some Alex Smith games that were really well managed. You can find Taylor Heineckee back to back in games like Alex Smith that were well managed. You certainly aren't going to find Carson Wentz back to back like this. Dwayne Haskins back to back like this. Kyle Allen back to back like this. Maybe Case Keenham early in 2019. had a couple of really good back-to-back games, but I don't think anybody's put together two games in a row for this franchise

that show as much promise like Sam Howe's last two since Kirk was here. You know, and I understand what I'm saying here, and I want to make sure you guys are clear with what I'm saying. I'm not comparing Sam Howell to the best that ever did it or the best in today's game. You know, we're comparing him to what we've had here, for the last five seasons since Kirk left. You know, Wentz, Smith, Haskins, Heineke.

I mean, what we've seen in the last two weeks has not been matched. You know, it's been six years since this team has had a quarterback play two straight games the way Hal has played the last two, period. And I give Eric Bianamy a ton of the credit for the results the last two weeks. he has figured out, maybe he knew it already, but he has decided that what he's figured out he's going to employ, which is an offense that suits his starting quarterback. He's also figured out that he's got some pretty good players on offense

who are pretty good if you can get him the ball. You know, it's much better to see Terry McClorn or Antonio Gibson or Brian Robinson Jr., or Jehan Dodson or Curtis Sam, or Byron Pringle or Jameson Crowder or Logan Thomas with the ball quickly in their hands rather than waiting for them consistently to get downfield because by that time, a lot of the time this year, they'd turn around and see their quarterback flat on his ass, eight yards behind the line of scrimmage.

I think the enemy is doing a great job of figuring out what the opposing defenses do well. and don't do well, unlike the game against the Giants two weeks ago. He's done a great job of completely dissecting two straight defenses. One, in the Eagles defense that was thought to be pretty good before they played Washington twice. And then the other, the Patriots injured. Okay, they were injured yesterday defensively. They were missing their best pass rusher and best defensive player in Matthew Judon. All right.

They are still missing Christian Gonzalez. but still it's a defense coached by a defensive wizard in Belichick. I do realize they only scored 20 yesterday. I know they punted on their last three possessions of the game with the game on the line. Yes, I saw the interception that he threw before the end of the half, but Hal and Bianamy and the rest of that offense, they got something going on right now. You know, for the first time in six years, I'm watching,

a team that looks like a legitimate team on offense. That's the big takeaway for me from yesterday's 20 to 17 win in Foxborough. Again, let me just repeat, I'm comparing the offense right now more to what they've been than I am to other NFL teams with truly explosive offenses and elite quarterbacking. I'm not saying that Hal is, you know, that Hal and Biennamy are Mahomes and Reed. All right? I'm not saying that they're Cincinnati or Miami or KC or San Francisco or Philadelphia. For those that have really dialed back the optimism and are hearing this as way too over the top, don't distort what I'm saying as, oh my God, Cheon went nuts today on his podcast. He said they're one of the best offenses in the league. I'm not doing that. I'm just saying that this is a

pretty decent offensive team here the last two weeks. We saw evidence of that early in the season against Denver, earlier in the season against Philly on the road, and it just appears to be now, you know, with two consecutive games played at this level, it appears that the offensive coordinator and the quarterback are growing and maybe getting better. Again, the last two games, 25 and a half points per game, 452 yards per game, converting 55% on third down. They are averaging over six yards per play the last two weeks. To give you an idea of what that means, only two teams in the league coming into yesterday were averaging more than six yards per play for the season.

Miami and the 49ers. Sure, you could find two game small sample sizes of six yards. you know, per player more. I guarantee you Baltimore's got a couple of those games, or two game sample sizes, but Washington's two-game stretch year, impressive offensively. I am not going to rush my answer on Sam Howl. I'm not going to do what many have done. I'm still not ready to rush an answer on Hal. I'm not ready to rush an answer on Eric B. Enemy. Let's not forget that we are still just two weeks removed from that deba, Backel against the Giants. But I love what Sam Hal has done the last two weeks. I love maybe even

as much or more so what Eric B. Enemy's done the last two weeks. The improvement since the giant game is a testament to everybody on offense and maybe even the change to the offensive line with Tyler Larson and Chris Paul, Tyler Larson specifically. But Sam Hal and Eric B. Enemy, above of all else the last two weeks. And yesterday, they played a pretty decent game on defense. Gave up a big play for sure, but I think yesterday was the first time all year. We've had kind of a coordinated, you know, good offensive day, good defensive day in the same game. And I know that they did not beat a very good team, understood.

But they've lost to worst teams this year. Check out the Bears and the Giants games. So good for them. Four and five, they're a game out in the NFC playoff race with eight to go. They get Seattle next on the road. That is a challenge. The road environment will be their biggest road environment challenge. Foxborough seemed incredibly subdued yesterday, didn't it? Seattle got blown the blank out by Baltimore yesterday. By the way, Seattle is a six-point favorite. Two weeks ago, they would have been a nine-point favorite after the giant games. So even the odds makers are catching up a little bit on Washington being maybe a little bit more capable than we thought. And remember this, man, Ron Rivera, he is now 9 and 3 in the

month of November. I said last week, one of the things you can't count on is this team bailing on Ron Rivera after the trades, because they've never done it. They didn't do it in Carolina. They haven't done it here. Probably the best trait for him is somehow keeping his players and coaching staff motivated even when it looks bleak. Don't be surprised if they get on a bit of a run here. You know, you can't rule that out. They've got Seattle next, but then the Giants after that at home. The Giants yesterday had Tommy DeVito at quarterback because Daniel Jones tore his ACL. He's done. Maybe Tyrod Taylor will be back for the game in two weeks. But if it's Tommy DeVito, you've got to be able to beat Tommy DeVito, right, in two weeks?

Anyway, look, they got to beat somebody good for us to take them seriously, super seriously. I am a little bit giddy right now because I'd much prefer to live in the moment than think about the future with respect to this franchise, especially in the middle of a season. And, you know, they haven't beaten anybody. You know, Arizona, Denver, Atlanta, and the Patriots are their four wins. Those teams have an aggregate record of 10 and 25. And each of those four games was super, they were super close. They could have gone either way.

You know, they beat Arizona by four, Denver by two, Atlanta by eight, and then the Patriots yesterday by three. three. So let's beat somebody decent before we get even gidier. I will. Seattle would be a good place to start. That would be a solid win to go on the road there and win. All right. Up next, my game take, what I liked, what I didn't like, and a lot more. That's right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. He is Kevin's The game take brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. Go to MyBooky. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and MyBooky will give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. You've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. If there's something written in the promo code section, just erase it and write Kevin D.C. Right now, Seattle, as I mentioned before, six-point favorites over Washington on Sunday. I think I like Washington right now.

I think they're going to go there and play well. If you're looking to bet Monday night football, interesting matchup tonight. The Jets actually have the winning record at home at 4 and 3 against the Chargers who are 3 and 4. L.A. is a 3-point favorite. I said L.A. with Chargers. I didn't say San Diego. Maybe it's finally starting to sink in. MyBooky.ag promo code Kevin D.C.

All right, what I liked, what I didn't like, and a few other observations from the game. I'll start with this, the offensive plan. Again, that was my number one last week after the loss to Philadelphia. Quick game, slants, sprint outs, dashes, screens. One observation on their quick bubble screens, a lot of them to running backs, where they split Gibson or Robinson Jr. out wide. And it almost seems like they run those quick, you know, sort of wide-out bubble screens more to their running backs

than they do their wide receivers. But anyway, the dropbacks in the game, and there were more this week than last week, seemed to almost always include extra man protections. Really solid plan overall for a second straight week by Eric B. Enemy. It was perfect last week and it was perfect again for Sam Hal. And they've got playmakers. You know, we talked all offseason, you know, D-Line and the playmakers, strength of the team.

I mean, Samuel was out, but Crowder stepped up. You know, they're not the dolphins. They're not the 49ers. They're not the Bengals. They're not, you know, the Eagles. But Terry McLaren and Jahan Dotson and Logan Thomas and Pringle and Crowder and Samuel and Gibson and Robinson Jr. They got decent players.

You know, look at what the Patriots had with McChones yesterday. I mean, that is bare cupboard. They got some stuff in the cupboard. It's a lot easier to talk about it when they're productive like they've been the last two weeks. But there's something there with their playmakers and the ball in their hands. The enemy's plan the last two weeks has been to speak. eat it up, ensure with the quick game and with the screens and with the sprint outs that the ball has to come out right away because that's what Sam does well. And as I mentioned in the opening

segment, he gets into a rhythm, he gets confident. And now all of a sudden he's even quicker getting rid of it in some of their dropback game, even though there was extra man protection in a lot of it like there was last week when they ran it. Oh, by the way, all the sudden the running game comes around a little bit. You know, when you've got a defense on its heels. They ran the ball yesterday more than in any game this year with their non-scramble, you know, non-quarterback runs. 24 combined carries for Robinson Jr. and Gibson, the most of the year for their non-quarterback rushes. All right. So that's the most. By the way, here's a quote from Ron Rivera after the game.

He was asked about Robinson Jr. and Gibson and the games that they had. And he said, our running backs all ran hard. A little disappointed that we lost the fumble, but B. Rob, Brian Robinson, Jr., came right back, and he continued to play hard. And that's why we want a kid like that in this offense. Because when there's balance and we run the ball like that, you can be successful. and E.B., Eric B. Enemy, knows that. Closed quote.

Interesting quote from Ron Rivera. Because I have talked about it here since the Buffalo game, that Ron was going to have a sit down with Eric B. Enemy and say, we can't keep doing this. Now, I don't know if Ron's emphasized the past to run ratio or just the past types, you know, the dropbacks that they had in the Buffalo. game or in the giant game, the pure dropbacks, the five and seven-step dropbacks. But I think Ron's been hitting very hard with B'Anne, the importance of balance.

Now, for me, I don't give a shit about balance, as I've said many times for many years. I care that you're able to move the football and score points, and I don't care how it's done. Is my preference more balance and more physical, you know, run it down their, throat and basically take their will from them. Yeah, I love watching that like anybody else does. But in today's game, you've got to be able to throw the ball, and the Earthby enemy comes from the Andy Reed tree. And so they have had the highest pass-to-run ratio in the league. Yesterday, it was not the highest-pass run ratio for them this year. Yesterday, you had 29 total rushes if you count the quarterback Reed Option Keeper, which didn't go well. And, and

and the scrambles, but 24 rushes from their running backs for 97 yards, and they had 48 pass plays called. I think maybe the ratio pass to run was a little bit narrower in the Atlanta game. They didn't have the ball a lot in that game, but still, I bet you Ron was happy yesterday. Number one on the list of things that I liked, the offensive plan for a second consecutive week. And that really is a big thumbs up for Eric Bianamy again yesterday. Number two on the list, as he was last week, the quarterback, Sam Hal. He backed up last week's performance with another really good day. I know there were mistakes. I will get to those. But this offense just fits him well. And again, I'm stating the obvious of what we've seen

the last two weeks, you know, right from the jump, quick game, quick game, slant, slant. Even some of the shots they take are on three-step. But I just thought he looked really, really confident. You know, the interception at the end of the half sucked. There were occasional misses, but right now the good outweighs all of the bad things, and there aren't many. Quarterbacks in this league make mistakes, they throw picks, even the best do. And when the ball is in the air, as much as it has been for Washington and Sam Howe this year, it's going to happen. He leads the league in pass attempts. Washington leads the league in pass attempts. Right now, overall, Washington's overall pass attempt number is at 353 through nine games. Patrick Mahomes is second. And,

in Kansas City, 19 less at 3.34. So Washington's attempted more throws than anybody in the league this year. You're going to throw some picks. Sam leads the league in interceptions too. He's tied for interceptions with nine. He's tied with a bunch of guys, by the way, with nine interceptions. I mean, Garoppolo, Allen, Mack Jones, Hal all have nine picks to lead the league this year in interceptions. But when you put it up that much, you're going to throw those picks. I'll tell you what, that's so much of a non-issue for me right now versus the sacks that he was taking. I just expect

young quarterbacks are going to throw picks. The sacks are more of an issue for me, and they have improved in the last two games. All right, some of the plays from yesterday that I liked and then didn't like. I have two plays that were my favorites from Sam Hal yesterday, the 24-yard run on third and 23, which gave him a chance to score at the end of the first half because they were going to punt the ball there. They didn't score. I'll get to that. But man, he was breaking tackles. We've seen that this year. That was just a spectacular play. The other one was his third and eight throw to Terry McClorn on the second drive of the second half. He is under pressure. He is off. He is off his back foot, and he drops in an absolute dime to McLaurin for 26 yards.

That is a big-time throw. That is throwing with anticipation under duress while falling backwards. He's got to get it out some distance. He's got to land it with touch. It was just a first-rate throw. They took the lead on that drive in the third quarter with a field goal. some of the other plays that I loved. First of all, I thought yesterday he played off schedule, you know, better than he had and more often than he had maybe all year long.

I'm not talking about the games where he was under duress and sacked, you know, so many times. I'm talking about, you know, he got off schedule because he didn't see something and, you know, maybe the pressure was there, but he got outside the pocket and he made plays. That third and seven throwback across the field to Pringle for 26. yards. You know, usually when you see a quarterback rolling right, rolling right, and then throwing across the field, it's usually an uh-oh, but nobody was near Pringle. He had another off-schedule throw to Pringle on a third and nine in the first half. He had a throw into the end zone before the pick to Diami Brown that I thought was just a perfect throw. He just, Diami, I thought, could have

brought it in. I don't know if he would have gotten both feet down, but it was a good throw. The touchdown pass to Dotson was a great throw. By the way, why was Terry McClurent so close to him? I don't think that spacing was right. But he led Dotson, put it out there for him, to slant into a tight window for Terry for 36 yards. Great throw. He was just really good. 29 to 45, 325 yards, just three sacks on 48 dropbacks or 48, you know, called pass plays. He wasn't perfect. The interception was bad. I'm not happy with Ron Rivera on that play.

I'll explain that in a moment. But he's going to make some mistakes. He missed some things throughout the game. Let me go through my list. First of all, on the drive at the end of the first half before the interception, he actually missed Bates on what looked like zero coverage blitz. And Bates is wide open down the middle of the field for a touchdown. and he just overthrew him on that play.

He had a couple dropped, by the way. I want to just mention Dotson dropped on that first third and two. Dropped a ball. He had a bad throw on a deep shot to Terry McLorn with peppers in coverage. I thought there was a chance that that could have been defensive pass interference. It wasn't called. He overthrew Pringle on an off-schedged throw. Pringle was right there for an easy pitch and catch,

he just sailed it over his head. You know, I thought the sack that he took that was a big sack with the corner blitz, I don't think he saw that. I don't know who that was on. Obviously, the interception leads the list of bad plays on the day for Sam. What else do I have from him that wasn't super good?

I didn't like the final offensive snap at a game before the kneeled down at the end after the interception. It was third and six. They took the deep shot to Diami Brown down the right sideline. I don't know what the progression was there, but man, it looked like Jahan was wide open over the middle for what would be an easy pitch catch first down game over. Three knees after that.

I think maybe the play was just to, you know, again, quick game, three step, get it out, lead to Diami Brown. if he makes a catch great. If not, it's incomplete, you punt. I just didn't like that play. I thought that they had done a really good job with the crossers. They had had a third and eight to Terry earlier on a crosser. So, yeah, I didn't love that.

I wouldn't have even minded something short of the sticks. Because of the quick game, even on third and longs, they've thrown short of the sticks a lot just to ensure that he doesn't get sacked. You know, you get into, you know, perhaps a chance to go forward and forth down. Not in that spot, I'm not saying. But overall, to me, Sam was an A minus again, A minus B plus worst case, if you want to really downgrade him for the interception. But I'm going to get after Ron here for that in a moment. Third down offense, 9 of 17.

That's on my list of things that I liked. They had six third in shorts. That's good game management. They also converted some third in longs, two third and tens, the third and 23, that, you know, Hal got scrambling. A third in seven, a third and eight, they did a great job staying on the field, moving the chains. The last two games, they've run 21 more offensive plays than their opponents. That's pretty good. Third down defense yesterday is on the list of things that I liked.

Look, defensively, they were playing the first. Patriots, I understand that. They didn't have, you know, Kendrick Bourne. They are struggling offensively for the most part, although they've had some decent games recently. Real quick note on Mac Jones. I watched the Miami game last week sort of in preparation for some of the shows, some of the Buffalo game, and then I watched him live yesterday on television. I don't think he stinks as much as everybody else does. I think he gets the ball out quickly. I think he processes very quickly, reads the field. I think he can throw it. He's got good size. You know, he's inaccurate at times. I'm not saying that he's great, but, you know, they just don't have

anything for him. Anyway, three for 12, third down. So good job by the defense. I would put, but I'm not going to, another good day stopping the run, but I can't do that because they gave up a 64-yard run. And I'm not going to be the guy that says, other than that 64-yard run, they were great against the run. I mean, Stevenson was nine carries, 87 yards. He's a good back. And without that run, he's, you know, eight carries for 23 yards, you know, so he's less than three yards per carry. Zeke Elliott, six carries 17 yards, 2.8 yards per carry. The one time they tried, you know, quick-fly sweep to the rookie Douglas from Liberty, you know, Forbes made a good play. And stopped him for no yardage. But there was a mix up on that, you know, play with the linebackers.

I think Jamie Davis was responsible for that. So I'm not going to put run stopping on the list of things that I liked, but I will put their three for 12 third down defensive day. On the list of things that I liked continuing, Antonio Gibson. You know he's been one of my favorite players for a while, six rushes 34 yards, five catches 42 yards, and he had a 37 year kickoff return to open up the game. He's just good. I just want to see him with the ball in his hands more. I really like Antonio Gibson.

I think he is versatile. I think he's good as your first down runner. I like Robinson, Jr. too. I think he's great in space. I think he's really good as a kickoff returner. I think he's good as a kickoff returner, not really good. Antonio Gibson on the list of things that I liked. I think kind of almost all of their past catchers are on the list.

Although, you know, Jehan Dodson had a drop. Jehan Dodson had another play where he, you know, a deep shot where he tried to one-hand it. I think he could have gotten two hands on it. Stop. These receivers, you know, they do the one-handed thing to either show that they can catch it one-handed or to try to emphasize that they're being interfered with with their other arm. I thought that was a catchable ball with two hands by Dotson. and he dropped the third and two early, but he still had some good plays. Four catches, 69 yards,

average, you know, per reception, 17.3 yards per. How about Pringle? Three catches, 55 yards, all in the first half. Terry, with that slant and go, that was big time. Deami, I thought he could have caught the one before the end of the first half. It was a good throw by Sam. Got to pull that in. You got to have real, you know, good hands there. It was a tough throw, and it would have been tough to get two hands. two feet down, but Logan Thomas, Crowder was good again for Samuel. Yeah, you know, nine different people caught balls all in the first half, too. All of their eligible pass receivers yesterday, I think that played. I think caught balls. McClorn, Dotson, Pringle, Gibson, Brown, Thomas, Crowder, Robinson, Jr., and Bates. I guess Cole Turner played and

did not catch a ball. But a good day with, for the most part, with their past catchers. I've thought the offensive line was pretty solid again. The communication appears to be the big key there. Emmanuel Forbes, best game of the year, albeit against a team that doesn't really have very explosive wide receivers. They were missing Kendrick Bourne. But still, that was a great day for 13. He had a really good tackle on Douglas on that one-fly sweep for no gain. Forbes bounced back. That was nice to see. Yeah, that's kind of the list of things that I liked from the game. I don't think I'm missing anything.

I'm just going through my notes here. Forbes, Gibson, Howl, Bienemy, third down offense, third down defense, O-line. I can't tell you specifically who played well in the O-line. That takes a lot of time. But I thought Emmanuel Forbes was outstanding yesterday. You know, next week, bigger challenge, D.K. Metcalf, Smith, Najigba, Lockett, I mean, runners that are physical. So much different test next week. All right, the list of things that I did not like. Two turnovers. You know, they won the game losing the turnover battle. But the punchout by Tavia on Robinson Jr. really turned the game in the first half. And then the interception by Sam at the end of the first half.

and that will segue me into number two on my list of things that I didn't like. I got to give Ron some of the blame here for the interception at the end of the first half. I'm not saying that Sam threw a good ball or made a good decision. It was a terrible decision and a terrible throw. Okay, I understand that. He's to blame the most. But here's the thing. On the throw to Pringle, okay, that goes out of bounds but wasn't,

call that out of bounds. They called forward progress stopped. We see this in the NFL all the time. They love to wind that arm and keep the clock rolling to speed the games up. Okay. Ron should have called the time out. Why were they rushing? It was first and goal at the five yard line. Why are they in, you know, running around like chickens with their heads cut off mode? That was just really, this is the part, he's not good at this, hasn't been. he's not good at it. I mean, he made another decision during the game, which was actually well done and maybe planned for. But I mean, you had first and goal at the five. Now, would I have recommended taking the timeout with 40 seconds to go in that spot? Probably not. Because if you

score in the next play, you don't want to give New England 33 seconds left and they've got, you know, a couple of timeouts. But after that throw to Pringle on third and 10, which was big time, out of bounds at 42, 43 seconds left. Washington's got three timeouts, but they don't call it out of bounds. Maybe initially they're like, we thought it was out of bounds, but no, they didn't think it was out of bounds because they went hurry up. And by the time they snapped the ball, 20 seconds had gone off the clock, and they run this sprint out, cutting the field in half, and he throws a terrible ball and the interception. How about letting the clock roll down to about 34 seconds, 33 seconds.

That way, if you score on the next play, they only got like 28. But you also have plenty of time for four plays, or maybe more than four plays if you get a defensive hold or an interference that gives you a first down, you know, half the distance of the goal, or maybe at the one-yard line. I just don't know what they were in a hurry for. They got three timeouts left. You got a young quarterback. Why are you making him rush?

Why are you taking the run game out of first and goal from the five? Robinson Jr. has already scored on a five-yard run. Why isn't there every option? You should be playing that first and goal from the five just like you would be if there were 10 minutes left in the first quarter. You had everything at your disposal. Now, I guess they could say, no, no, no, you don't understand. and you don't understand football.

We thought that the best chance was to keep their defensive personnel on the field like they had on the third and ten because we liked the play we had with that sprint out, you know, cutting the field in half. That's not the answer. But if they said that, I couldn't argue with them. You know, like they thought that that was the best chance. No, to me, the best chance to score would be to have three to four downs to do it and plenty of time. and lots of different options and lots of different plays. That was stupid.

Next on the list of things that I didn't like. Obviously, the K.J. Henry roughing the passer penalty. Crucial play. K.J. Henry, in his first action gets maybe one of the best pass rushes we've seen all year. He hits Mack Jones blindside, forces the fumble, Washington recovers. it's 14 to 10, third quarter, Washington's got the ball at midfield. Nope, it's not that. That was really, really the kind of thing that we have seen in football that just drives us nuts now.

It's the ruining of the game. Here was the explanation in the pool report when Nikki Javala asked the referee, Adrian Hill, about this. Hill said, I was the calling official and the call was roughing the passer due to full body weight. The ruling on the field was that the defender came down with forcible contact chest to chest. He didn't perform one of those acts to remove most of the body weight, an act that would be a gator roll or a clear to the side when he was coming in. He came down directly with the force on the player, so the category was full body weight. Nikki Javala from the Washington Post, who was the pool reporter, followed up with in those situations where the defender is coming from

that weak side, and the quarterback has sort of turned his back to him, what's the defender supposed to do to avoid putting his full body weight on him? Adrian Hill, the referee in the game, quote, there are two common techniques. One we call the gator roll, where if he takes the player and rolls to the side, takes the player rolls to the side so they both land on their side, that 90-degree rotation as he comes around, or he comes down and breaks the fall first with hands and knees almost in crab-like fashion on top of the quarterback. I mean, all of this is so ridiculous. You know, once you start doing that, now the quarterback escapes

and the quarterback throws a touchdown pass, and it's like, what were you doing? I actually thought KJ. Henry did a decent job of rolling off of Mack Jones. He does come down on him, but then immediately rolls off as a terrible call. Also on the list of things that I didn't like. the pass rush wasn't very good yesterday. Now, I need to make sure that I'm right that the pass rush wasn't very good because the pass rush wasn't very good.

Versus Mac Jones just gets the ball out of his hands pretty damn quickly, which he does. There were some dropbacks there, but without sweat and without Chase Young, there wasn't much of a pass rush. zero sacks, one quarterback hit, very few pressures. KJ. Henry would have had a game-changing play without the penalty called. There were drops in the game, Doxon early, as I mentioned on the first third and two. Brown had a chance to pull that thing in in the end zone before the end of the first half. A couple of other observations. I thought the Patriots were off sides a couple of times, and it wasn't called. There was a third and five on an incompletion to Crowder where it seemed like

Hal and Crowder weren't on the same page. That looked like offsides to me. They finally, man, how about, you know, them calling off sides on Washington's punt with a lot more time left in the game? You know, when Washington retained possession after that offsides on the special teams call, that was incredible, right? Washington, you know, had, you know, had, the ball, I'm sorry, let me slow down here. When they got called for the off sides, New England on trestways punt, they would have started, all right, on that drive, because the return was 19 yards.

There was holding on the return. So it would have been walked, it would have been deep, but they would have had two minutes and 25 seconds left to move down the field. Instead, Washington kept the ball. New England then was forced to call all of their timeouts left, And they got the ball back basically with two minutes to go, needing a field goal to tie and force overtime. So that finally got called.

Offsides finally got called, but I thought they missed a couple of off sides. In fact, the game as a whole was not closely officiated. They let them play other than the KJ. Henry play. Only eight flags in the entire game, four on each team. How about Ron's challenge of the Douglas. catch, okay, with James Smith Williams on the ground with a supposed, air quote, injury. You learned from last week on the Devante Smith, if that was planned for, kudos to them. Because that wasn't a catch, gave him time to look at it with James Smith Williams on the field,

injured, and they threw the challenge flag, and it was a big challenge. The catch was overturned. Next play, by the way, was the third and six wheel to Stevenson, where Jamie Davis, made a really good play. So good job on the challenge and good job in creating something maybe that gave you more time to consider the challenge. If that's what it was, good on them. Chris Rodriguez and the other rookies in the class. Pretty good game for the rookie class yesterday. Were you paying attention? If you weren't paying attention, Kwan Martin interception at the end.

Emmanuel Forbes, best game of the year. K.J. Henry should have been credited with a sack and forced fumble. Chris Rodriguez, unbelievable punt coverage tackle. I still don't know why he's not getting any carries when I was convinced he was going to start getting a lot of them. I mean, I'm glad Antonio Gibson was featured the way he was yesterday. I love Gibson. I like Rodriguez too. Andre Jones Jr., their seventh round pick, tackle, deflected pass in the game. Not a bad day for Washington's 2023 draft class, for those of you who have maligned it so prematurely. You know, that pumping up of the draft class after one game is as useless and worthless as all of the conversation that came before

about how bad the draft class was. Just irrelevant to try to evaluate a draft class four, five, six, seven, eight games into a season or nine games into a season. All right, here we go. They're four and five. By the way, the last time they beat the Patriots back in 2002, 2003, whatever it was,

20 to 17 was the final score, Brady was the quarterback. I just, I'm glad that for, if they had lost to New England, the competitive portion of the season was actually kind of over. And even though it wasn't mathematically, you know, this year in the NFC, it's not going to be over mathematically for most teams until, you know, mid to late December at this point. But winning that game and having sort of the uptick of the offense playing so well, for those that don't want it because you think it's going to save Ron's job, it's not. okay for those that don't want it because you want better draft positioning i don't know i don't live that way in november i just can't we're going to have more likely than not at least one win in the next two and a five and six record worst case on thanksgiving against the cowboys which would put them right in the mix of the nfc playoff race how about that win for minnesota josh dobbs man i crushed him

before the opener against the Cardinals. He's played great. He hasn't played great. He's played really at times well for the Cardinals and then coming in for the Vikings yesterday. They've won four in a row. Look, they're going to struggle. That was the Falcons they were playing yesterday.

They got the Saints. They do have the Broncos and the Bears and the Raiders. They have the Bengals and the Lions twice still. I don't know. Minnesota, without Kirk and an NFC, they're not going to be as dynamic as they were before. I mean, they were really humming offensively. If it's Dobbs the rest of the way, he's got mobility. He's got some fight and some, you know, gamer in them, you know?

The quarterback they faced yesterday in Atlanta, got some gamer in him. Taylor Heineke, by the way, named starter next week against Arizona. There was some question after the game because he threw a pick and apparently missed some receivers and it was like 21 to 38, but apparently he did enough in the game to warrant getting another opportunity before their buy week. But the NFC, man, it is wide open for somebody like Washington to get to 8 and 9 or 9 and 8. 8 and 9 might do it. All right. Up next, Doc Walker, we will get Doc's thoughts on what he watched yesterday, right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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much less on your heating and then eventually your air conditioning bill. 86690 Nation, windownation.com. Mention my name, Kevin Sheehan. They'll take very good care of you. All right. Jumping on with me right now is one Rick Doc Walker where it's time for Ex-Zes-Z. and O's. Burgundy and gold. You can listen to Doc's podcast at patreon.com slash Doc Walker. You can listen to him on the team 980.

He's got a schedule that is always in flux, shall we say? Every Tuesday with the rooster, brother. Every Tuesday with the rooster, but I thought I saw the schedule where you're on this week's solo on Thursday or Friday. Is that right? I don't know about that. I mean, I'll do it, but every Saturday, well, for the most part, Saturdays, and then Sunday with the Post game show, the Burgundy and Gold Post game show, and then whenever Tom Laverro or Chris Cooley

aren't available, I get the nod to join you, and I'm very pleased about that. Well, that's not necessarily true, but it is true that Chris Cooley has been kind of unavailable. He just is not watching any of the games. He doesn't care at all. He's coaching, his wrestling, program out in Wyoming. Do you blame him? No, I don't at all. Not at all. I don't at all.

I don't. But, you know, people like to hear you and Cooley on this podcast. And, you know, he just, he loves coming on, but he's like, I'm not going to come on if I haven't watched the game. And this year, I can't. Sometimes I can make them watch the game. I'll say, just give me 30 minutes of just, you know, the condensed version of the game. Right.

And then he'll come on and say some shit. But I think... You be surprised. I call guys, it really, I've called, whether I'm calling Charles Mann or I'll call Daryl Grant, I called some guys, and last week I called Clarence Vaughn. Bernie, hey, Gage, do you see... I want to ask you a couple of the game.

Did you watch it? No. I know. And that's when I go, the disconnect is so real with this organization and I think we're on that platform has come to a halt. I don't think we're losing. I think we're kind of stagnant with a chance to turn in a new direction. But make no mistake about it.

As much as I kid you about it, we've taken a massive hit and we've lost thousands and thousands of people. I think we can get most of them back, but it's going to take more wind and less talk out of this present group. Right. And what would help too is a quarterback that excites everybody. So let's start there before I get to your overall impressions of the game. Sam Howell, yesterday, last week, recently.

How good has he been? I'm so encouraged. I'm going to break this on your show. because I make most people wait until around 340 on Tuesdays with the rooster to announce my Covenant K-9 award recipient. And this week, for the first time, since we've been passing out this award, it's going to the quarterback. And he may have had better performances,

but the combination of accuracy, the run for the first down that will be on his highlight film when he retires. That run, I think they were down 23, you got 24 yards. Yeah, crazy. But that, a couple of his throws, which he's done some things that only the elite can ever do

in terms of his ball placement. I don't care who you are, what round you would draft it. There's only a handful of people. And usually they're all going to first round, and he's got that. He's also built, he's durable enough. His body type is perfect for taking hits because nobody takes more hits. And now, and he's not afraid he's resilient. There's so many things I love about this kid.

He just got to win more. And that's why last week he got the nod for me because you could never get an aid for me if your team don't win as a quarterback. And he got it this week. And I'm happy to give it to him. The last time you're on, which was last week or a month ago? A month ago. No, it was a week and a half ago.

It was a month ago. Because you actually said, why is Tyler Larson not playing? That was a week and a half ago. And then they put them in the lineup, along with Chris Paul. Thank you. Tell me the difference that they've made up front. Well, you've mentioned it to your fan, to your listening audience, so I don't want to bore them. But this is your podcast audience, so maybe they haven't heard it yet.

Experience, you may have more knowledge than you have muscle. The thing about the NFL is that the older you get, your recognition increases, your strength decreases. But he's such a big man. An interior pressure by a quarterback that's under 6-2, it's imperative that you not get bum rush up the gut. Nick's Gates just doesn't have enough rocks in his behind to do it. And so in terms of the calls,

now Nick should have been a rocket scientist because he's not stout blocker. So if he also wasn't great with the calls, and he can't block air, then he's useless as hits on the bull. Yeah. Because that's my thing, is either or. Very few people are great at both things. You either a good blocker or a receiver or a wreck, either or. But I'm still trying to figure out what is he?

Now, I love his tenacious. He's a tenacious guy. Love that. But once the ball is snap, show me who you are. I can't have him an inconsistency cause me on one side and then we had the LSU Tiger on the other it's just too much youth

I got to have some anchor Larson is an anchor makes the proper calls adjustments you can't bullrush him his size is perfect I don't think he can play 17 games that's the problem because he's long and a tooth but with Chris Paul who's a viper big physical freak.

And it's really worked out well for him for two weeks. And thank God they finally recognized it and took action. How much credit do you give Eric B. Enemy for the offense being as productive as it's been for two straight weeks? Eric, I respect the fact that he's going to take our past game to a whole new level. It's never my preference in terms of style. but I'm trying to adapt to it because maybe they're right. And they are the people that think you can throw 50 times a week. I don't think you can do it unless you have Patrick Mahon.

Maybe he'll prove me wrong. But he's not far away from it. If he just get a little more run in his game, I'd be just ecstatic. But maybe he's right. I mean, I can't speak for an offense. don't understand. But I do know this. If they caught everything he's thrown,

Eric's right. He's right. Damien Brown dropped one two weeks ago. Bomb would have been touchdown. The Nidney line has dropped a couple. If I look at the drop, I go, hell, how can I say Eric's wrong? He called the right play.

They just don't execute properly. And that's not his fault. So I'm uncomfortable with the style, but I'm accepting it because if long as it can give me wins, I don't want an air show. I'm not the Air Force. I'm not doing the Blue Angels. I don't give a damn about entertaining the crowd. I want to win games. And as long as we can win with this, I'll grow into it.

You know, they did run more yesterday than they've run in any game this year. Amen. Amen. Amen. Tell me about I, in the open to the show, I thought it was Antonio Gibson's best game. He's been one of my favorite players. I don't think he's been used enough this year. What do you think of old number 24?

Well, we agree again. He's an alien because, you know, the one of the problems with our team and any team, that doesn't win. There's a, I don't know, a dozen of them. They're just absolutely amazing athletes. He's got alien tendencies. This guy, I don't think we've seen the ceiling. I got to get Ron, a lot of credit for this.

You know, he's talked a lot about position, flex, and all that, and very little of it is amounted to wins. But in this case, he's right. This guy is, amazingly talented. If we could just get a lead and be able to dictate more and get more of protection, he has

truly got alien tendencies, which means he's a freak of nature. And I'm glad he's being utilized. And he may not be the only one. I thought Cole Turner has some alien in him right now maybe we'll have to wait until next year that hasn't surfaced.

Logan Thomas, he's giving you his best ball. And he's getting better every week. And we need him to get to one more level. He's one more notch to go to where we could be a matchup hell for anybody on defense. And I don't know if they're giving protection. You could stop this arsenal. The way Demi Brown has emerged, scary.

I just think we have so many weapons. But if I can't get the ball to them, they're useless. Real quickly, because, you know, I do like to talk about you every single. once in a while. You were a very versatile player in your day. And I think one of the things... Why do you do this? Let me ask you a question. You just, you love making fun of me, don't you? No, I'm not going to make fun of you at all. I want to ask you. It's one of your pet peeves. Here we are actually talking sports. Talking about what the people want to hear about, and that is the current team. Because you brought up Logan Thomas, it made me think of this, because I think Logan is a

pass-catching tight end. Not that he's a receiver like Jordan Reed was, but his strength is not blocking. You could do both. You were a tight end and played that role in the Gibbs offense where you were part of the hogs as a blocker. But I always wondered, you know, you, Doc, for those of you that don't know,

was a track guy, okay, in high school. Doc had phenomenal speed at UCLA and playmaking ability. Do you ever wish that you had been featured more as a past catching tight end?

Here's the thing. In your career. You've got to do two things. Every kid growing up you want the ball. You define, and Coach Thompson taught me this. Right. Most people they identify themselves offensively.

basketball, more importantly, is a shooter, never a defender. Football, when you play that position, and our dear friend, Chris Cooley, is one of the finest tight ends and the receiver I've ever seen have seen. Here's your trade-off. Having been, once I broke my arm twice in Cincinnati, had ligaments in by me and was losing three straight years. Don't forget, I had five.

coaches my first five years in the league. So from my standpoint, A, you're trying to be in the league. B, you do anything to, I just need, I have to win. My problem is I'm an addict, have to win. If I have to do whatever it takes, if I got to do the dirt, I don't care what it is, special teams, I love teams, I just wanted to be a part of something great. And I got the chance to be a part of something great here. and my role was to do whatever Joe Jackson gives and Joe Buegel needed done,

on the move, on the run, whatever. And I accepted the role because I've won a championship on every level I ever played in every sport. I could not be an adult and live with the fact that I was not a champion. So to me, even though there's always a part of you that wants to be the same, guy in there doing all that, not if it meant me not winning and being a champion. So that was it. And I did whatever they asked me to do and loved every moment of it. I'd rather be part of something great than have been a big thing on a team that nobody remembers.

Right. Period. No, I understand that. You won a Pack 8 championship, you know, in the Big Ten, won a Rose Bowl. won the Super Bowl. Stop, let me finish. Nobody cares. I care. No, you don't.

You like to mock me. So did you guys won the state championship in football in high school? We won Irvine League's championship, yes. Okay. Was that the state championship or was that your conference championship? No, no, no. We didn't win the state. We won a CIF in our region, our deal. Okay.

And then what happened? It wasn't like a national championship. No, no, no. In other words, every level of my life, I've been able to say, well, yeah, we won that. We won that. I've been undefeated in baseball, been 25 and 0 champions, little league dot champions. It's just a member collector. How many championships can you collect?

Now, I've also been in Latin, and when you lose in the pros, it's humiliating. I don't know how these got, well, I know how they do it because it checks. So you got to understand, I came. to an era where you didn't make money unless you won. $70,000 was at the end of the rainbow for winning. And nobody listened to me, but our fan base, if they made the Super Bowl financially incentivized by like $2 million per player, three, four million per player, you'd see a whole different attitude.

You got people now that just absolutely to me don't mind losing because they're too rich to care. And so it's a different game. But just why we got to get more competitive, and we got competitive people on this team. But this is your show, so I will do it your way, and continue with this mockery of what you've done. I just, I appreciate. No, it's not true. You know how much I appreciate your career here.

I just know that a lot of fans that think back of a certain age to your career, they know how valuable you, were to winning, and that's all you care about. I don't know that they know how athletic you were, and you weren't featured in that way. What difference does it make, though? I know. Well, it makes a difference to some people, as you said. You got to understand, but we had options, too. I know.

Yeah, we had a lot of options. And I'll say this, every guy wants the rock. Every guy does. You've got to want to do that. But you also got to say, I don't want to be in last place with 50 catches. In the championship that you won, Super Bowl 17 against the Miami Dolphins, Doc had a catch for 27 yards and had a reverse run for six yards. They're not running reverses to non-athletes. They ran that reverse to Doc many times in games.

They were horrible. I think you had two of them in the playoff game over Detroit. I'm not sure. What'd you say? I said, I'm not sure. I only remember the wins. I know, I know. I'm just helping you remember your personal achievements in those games. And what you seem to dwell, well, you're a historian, so I can understand that. Me, as a person that never, ever, I'm an advocate for you've got to look ahead, not backwards.

Because there's no, other than you, there's no residual. my pass. Zero. Here's what I do remember about the past. Doc Walker, Super Bowl champion. Doc Walker, Rose Bowl champion. Pack 8. Don't forget the NFC.

Are you upset? The NFC championship twice, two-time NFC champion. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Are you upset that the PAC-12 is falling apart? No. Not at all because you've got to make money

and the money is in the Big Ten and the SEC. Eventually it's going to be like the AFL and the NFC, I think. And yeah, we got it's a big picture. It really is. And watch what happens with Stanford in the ACC. Just remember you heard it here first. Okay. Let's get back to yesterday's game.

What did you see without sweat and Chase Young in the lineup? We did not have as much pressure as we needed, in my opinion, and that will come because we played without Chase pretty much half his career. But you can't do both sides in one week. That ain't going to happen. I thought, and I didn't know what we would get, but I knew Too Hill people will focus on him more.

Smith Williams, I mean, he's good player, great run stopper. I'm waiting on one of these babies to come up with KJ Henry. And what happens is that when they come up, then you make a play and head, and I don't like to dwell on officials because I think you get a lot of it back.

Andre Jones Jr. and KJ. Henry, I expected them to be savages since training camp, but they hadn't busted a grape. And then the guy comes in and gets a clean sack and gets penalized for it, strip sack. And one of the worst calls

I've ever seen in my life in the NFL. So, the young group responded. The biggest thing was that Forbes didn't tank. He could have just I mean, guys have committed suicide for less prominently.

life. Okay. No, really. To be humiliated nationally, to be beaten like a drum, and to be bench, yeah, people have done some dumb things. He didn't. He fought through it. It didn't cost him his swagger. He came back, and that's a huge plus. Or his life, thankfully. Yeah, huge plus. Well, Mississippi State, come on. Yeah, exactly. He played a good game. You know, we should point out, that New England doesn't have a receiver that actually belongs in the NFL. But he played great, and I was glad to see it for him, because, as you know, I root for young people facing adversity. Yep.

Well, you're a coach. Yeah. So, back to Sam for one more. You're giving him the K-9 Award for the week when you're on with Russell tomorrow. And let's go beyond that. So we've watched him start nine games now this year. Do you have a gut feel as to whether or not he'll be the guy long-term or not? I can't call it because I would have never suspected that he'd let a hand grenade blow up in his hand eight times.

So now he hasn't done it in two weeks. Right. That was your description of him taking all those sacks. No, it was holding the ball in his hand and taking the sacks. Like I said, maybe on another show, they gave him another hand, and he let that get blown. He lost like four or five artificial hands. Yeah. So I didn't know if he was going to be mentally able to get over that.

Right. He's thrown with an artificial hand now. Yeah, but he did. He got over it. Now, the next thing I've got to see if he can overcome, see, because I'm not certain yet, I can't make him the guy until he wins three or four in a row. I'm not making a guy the guy just because of his stats or his arm. I need a winner. See, I don't need a guy with the strongest arm.

I need a guy with the biggest brain that can help lead us to victories. We're so used to losing around here, you start settling. I am not settling. I need this thing built the right way. And so if this kid, he could be it. And it's going to mean a lot this week. Because I need to get on a string. We've beaten, I was listening to a local show here today around 1030.

And the host was saying that they hadn't eaten anybody. And he was giving this guy really in the stats. Yeah. He gave the cumulative record of the opponents they'd beaten. Not impressed at all. No. 10 and 25, I think, is what he said. You're probably right.

You sound a little bit like it. Yeah, that's exactly it. So, look, I'm excited, but I'm also cautious because we've been here before. And I'm hoping if Sam's the guy, I'm hoping that Eric's the guy. and both guys right now, they've got to do it together. And I don't need that separated. Everybody's telling them I'll blow it up, blow this and change that. Be careful.

Be careful. Because the experiment is not about Eric or Ron. It's about your quarterback. Well, at least he's learned that holding a hand grenade too long is painful because he's gotten rid of it this last two weeks. even if it is with an artificial hand. Well, he wasn't, he was being, how many, come on. You think that was a bit abnormal?

Oh, I mean, he was averaging nearly six sacks a game. He was holding on to hand grenades six times plus a game. Yeah, exactly. And now it's down to just two on average the last two weeks. That's pretty good. That's learning to not let it blow up in your hand. There you go. He got rid of it.

He's getting rid of it. Yeah. It could have been a phobia. It could have been one of those corners he couldn't. turn. Right. And who does that? Just drop the ball. Hell, do anything. He couldn't do it. Drop it. Hold on. Do anything. Back to throw. Here it comes. Just drop the ball and move away. Did you think that's kind of unusual? It was painful there. I reminded everybody that is ready to rush to judgment as they were after the Baltimore preseason game.

Right. Exactly. That the giant game is just two weeks ago. That giant game, which was about as ugly as it gets. But, man, he has been super sharp. And I think E.B.'s done a phenomenal job the last two weeks. You know what I think, too, he can take it to have played as poorly as he's played in areas and had not messed with his psyche. Amen. Yeah. He's built for the NFL.

Yeah. He's built for this. His body type is perfect for this offensive line. And I keep thinking if by some chance, whoever's in charge moving forward, if they would make the offensive line their number one priority in life, we might be in good position. Speaking of people that I'm concerned about with respect to trauma that they might be going through, have you talked to Cowboy Clay today?

Have you talked to Clay? No, you know, Clarence, as you well know, because we share a thread, he's been over me. Because whenever we lose and they win, I hear from him like twice a day. He'll never make a, he's just checking on me, you know. He'll bring up things, but I know why he's going on you. Just check. He's just checking on me. Yeah.

But I know how painful last night was to him. Oh, my God. And I don't have the courage or the heart. Can you imagine on the last play? when they threw the seeded lamb, the level of emotion that Clarence had to be experiencing, probably had 100 people at his mansion yesterday, to watch it.

And once again, once again, they come up a little short. I know. It's just... They're the work of the most undisciplined. Oh, yeah. talented team I've ever seen until the last year's version of them

or the year before that version of Dallas. It's just a, you can't make this up. You can't make it up. They lead the league. Well, you know, I can't tell you about it. I was listening to somebody this morning at about 10.20 a.m. talking about the Cowboys and the penalties. They're first in the league in penalties right now.

They were first in the league in penalties in 2021. They were second overall in penalties last year. But here's my favorite stat from the guy that I was listening. listening to this morning at about 10 to 15 this morning. He said that they have more than double the number of any other team in the league in off-sides penalties, and they line up off-sides more than anybody does in the league. You know how hard it is to do that? They, this is a team. You got to practice that. Oh, yeah. No, what my point, I'm not trying to be funny. They must be off-sides in practice, too. Yeah. In other words, you can't do

without practicing that. That's how bad. Let's practice being off sides. No, there's just that bad. And Fred Funstone, who I must admit, is done a much better job. Now he's calling plays. He's more engaged.

You're talking about Michael McCarthy? Yeah, oh yeah, Fred Funstone. You know, it's the circus, it's the gift that just keeps so given. And I'm not throwing stones at them. I'm so happy. And Michael Park, see, because I try to explain this to the Cowboy fans. I don't hate them.

I love the game. How can I hate 11? And Lawrence. Yeah. As hard as they play? Yeah. I wish I had somebody like that. I don't.

I love their effort. And the kid got held. He got snatched last night. Oh, yeah. He didn't call it, thank God. 11, yeah. He got, we took an inside angle. and I was

I swear I was laughing it's sick that I take so much joy and knowing that my my buddy is in so much pain and I say Clarence have you booked your rooms already because Super Bowl's in Vegas he might want to do it early

he gets so offended when I mentioned Super Bowl and his quarterback couldn't have played better yesterday for three quarters I mean that's his because he's out of bounds

He just steps out of bounds On the plate on the two-point conversion How did he step out of bounds? I mean, how can you be that careless? Well, I'm just saying He's a nice kid too. I pull for him. How can you not like him?

You know what? It's hard not to like Dak Prescott. How can you not like him? And then he takes the sack. Did you see the look in his eyes when he got up after he took that sack? They didn't know what to do. I mean, the panic, and they had that thing basically won at the six-yard line.

Oh, my God. I know. You know, the thing about it is that I hope that that gets out of there at some point in his career so that he can see what it's like to actually be with a fully functional organization. I hope he didn't have to spend his whole career dealing with this and coming up short and failing and being dysfunctional. It's like what we used to say about Ryan Carrigan. Yeah.

You know what? Or just throughout Ryan Carrigan. Like a really good player who was here. Like people have said about John Allen in recent years, it'd be really great for John to get to a place where he can actually win. He deserves it. I don't know. Yeah.

Maybe they're about. John's deal is, I'm really scratching my head now because I love John. to death. But John's comments we should go after the game, and I suggest that he'd do that before the game. And then I suggest to say, that really told me

that maybe they're not listening to him. And I'm assuming he's a leader on this team. You can't lead if nobody's listening to you. Nope. So I'm really concerned now about the dynamics of who are their team leaders.

Who do you think they are? I think Terry is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll give you Terry. I think you're right with Terry. I'll give you Terry. I'll give you Terry. But who on the defensive side?

Well, I think we've always assumed John, but John is cut from the... John leads John. He's cut from a different... John's a great leader. John's really... By example. Yeah, exactly. And by the way, he's really...

smart and, you know, some of these guys came from programs where they never lost. So there's an ex- I know. You know, when you come from that, your expectation level for everybody else is consistent with what you had when you were at those places like Alabama. And not everybody's on that program. You think Chase followed John? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't. I don't.

I don't. I'm not. Okay. Yeah. So my point is that some of their best players. I'm starting to say now defensively, which they have a lot of respect for them, and they have some really, really good players. But I'm looking for leadership now,

and right when they needed it most, going through as I thought, is it Cam Curl? She's a leader? He's a hell of a player. And they needed leadership because Forbes just went through a tough time. Yep. Colleague Hudson seems like a leader, but you can't.

is it get enough time to do it? I just not sure. And David Mayo is not in their age group. Right. I like that he's a good leading experience, but they got him covering people who can't run. Right. And it's not pain.

He's not a vocal guy like that. No. I didn't think it was sweat. I love Chase. I think Chase got their attention, but I don't know if they were going to follow him. Right. So I really started to say to myself,

dude, I think you missed this. not that I'm around them. So it's not, I can say it because I'm not around this group. When I was around him, I could tell you who was a leader. Like a Percy Butler type personality or a guy that really, being the best player doesn't mean you're a leader. Nope. You've got to figure out who is the leader.

And it's always not the quarterback. Who is, you know, you know, it's not the quarterback. It's not the quarterback on this team either. He's an introvert. Yeah. But it's Terry on offense. You're right? Yeah.

And I think... Like Larson. Yeah. You mentioned the older guy? Yeah. I guarantee they listen to him. See, remember we should call the E.F. Hutton. Leno Jr. too.

Yeah, who's the E.F. Hutton? I think Lino Jr. commands a lot of respect. Yeah. The backs are young. Antonio Gibson may be a leader. Curtis Samuel may be a leader. See, it's the thing about this thing. We don't know.

And that's a problem. It's a problem. But they're handling it. I'll tell you one guy I'm so proud of, Jameson Crowder. That could be a leader for you. A guy that just comes in, grabs the bull by the horns, you know, and makes plays and is grabbing once more. He wants more. You know, and the thing is that, you know, Kendall Fuller has leadership.

leadership qualities. He's still making plays. I don't know if they follow him, though. You know what I'm saying? There's certain guys you know, like our guy, who I think we mutually really are very fond of, Clinton Portis. Yeah.

C.P. Dude. Yeah. Because he leads by example. Right. Physical stuff. Yep. Now, I'm not saying he's the first guy in the wait room doing all that stuff,

but let me tell you something. I'd follow C.P. into a fire. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I know that you like to go back and talk about things from way back in the day, so I'll ask you something about that. Here we go.

All seriousness, though, on your championship teams, there were so many people, personality-wise, that were capable of leading. You're one of them. And I'm being serious, as you know. Doc is an incredible leader, mentor, motivational communicator. But it's always been with all of you guys seven. It was Thysman.

But there were so many people capable of it. Am I right or wrong? Well, yeah, because Joe T. J.T., if you're writing it up about a quarterback, I'm writing it up with Joe T. and I was so lucky because John Shire at UCLA, same guy. He was? Same guy.

He didn't beat him at anything. He was at everything. He's first. He goes the hardest. He goes the longest. He gives the most. It's amazing. These guys put it out.

Joe's at the facility at 6.30 every morning. See, a lot of guys that are stars, Notre Dame, all that. No, he's the first guy. I'm telling you, workaholic. Right. And so, and like, the guy that doesn't get credit for working hard, you don't really want you to know this. I'm going to say some, JR. Yeah.

He ain't out working John Riggins, man. The boys would be workers. I mean, and it's about how hard you work. People talk about decks all the time. I hope they always remember he was at there 6 a.m. in the wait room. You couldn't out work him. Who was? Who was?

What was the leader on defense on the 82, 83 teams? Tony McGee is a leader. Neil Oak Dogg was a leader. I'm telling you, man, these dudes, Chuck Mann's a leader. You've got to understand, these guys in every area has his own lieutenants. That's secondary, Darryl Green is not a follower. He's a leader. You know, and when your stars are accountable, because they're never late, they're on time.

They don't miss workouts. It's just, now you can have some bad boys, then be great leaders too. But what they can never fail you at is in conditioning. They don't cut corners when it comes to the sport, you know. And I don't care for guys are alcoholic. he'd be so big it's over every day because they ain't missing no work you can't cut corners on work and if you go back through most of the two decades of losing ear you have to beg people to come to work out beg them to come to oTAs i would cut you the moment you didn't show up to anything that's

not mandatory eventually i'd get rid of you especially if you lived in town it tells me you don't give a damn. You live in town. I'm asking you to come. I didn't ask you to show up. Too big. You can't do that. You'd be gone.

If you're telling me, it's not a high enough priority for you. I remember what you said when Chey Chung missed all of those OTA days. Because there were nine of them, and 89 players showed up, and only one didn't. And you said, you said, if you're a captain and you got that C on your chest, it doesn't matter if it's mandatory or voluntary. If you don't show up, you give everybody a reason to doubt you. Why would you ever put yourself in that position? I said it'll never work here.

Day one, I go because, and I like the kid a lot, but eventually he'll come back on your show and say, hey, you know what, I was young, well, okay. But that's why not everybody can play at home. Yeah. because it's much more difficult at home, but it's also the organization you're with. He got away with that here, with these people.

He'd have never gotten away with that at Ohio State. Right. You follow what I'm saying? Urban Meyer? Yeah. You think he did that to Urban Meyer? Right. No.

Oh, hell no. Yeah. I think you and I talked about this last week because we were both on the air talking about this. I put a lot of it on the kid. Okay, he did not. his own demise here he was responsible for, but, you know, the coaching staff let him, you know, self-destruct. And to me, that's cowardly.

And you know what happens? When this happens, not saying it necessarily applies to here, but if it does, then go for it, is that when you don't discipline young people, is if that wasn't your selection. Because I'm going, this organization, whenever an organization is not doing the right thing, there's casualties. You're going to lose kids in the cracks. But a really tight-nitch organization saves them. Yeah. They develop them.

You know, Joe Gibbs and them, they weren't the only, they didn't the only person to scout Joe Jacoby, but they got him here. So you can go from an undrafted free agent to Hall of Fame. caliber because they took even though they didn't know if he was off with the defense they knew he was

worth a shot and more importantly they had a future Hall of Fame coach coaching him Joe Bugal what we never talk about

around this town enough is about you got to understand your staff if they can be your buddies that you grew up in high school with

but they damn sure better know something about the sport otherwise you're going to underdevelop your talent. Right. You keep your friend, but you underdevelop talent. Because they're learning on the job. If I'm an owner, you would not be practicing on my watch.

I would hire the best at each position to help the kid. And I would make, that's why you've got to have a GM that has no connection with the head coach. Because if not, everybody, buddy, buddy's up. Yeah. The GM has a different perspective on it. And you can't let the guy do it. That's what you think, Beth, get better than give,

eventually comes to a head. But by then, you're champions. Right. You fight your Super Bowl guys fighting over stuff. Right. I can handle that one. I can handle that one. I can handle that one with Richie and Henning and Peck and Beagle and, yeah, all of them.

Torgi. But look how much talent you had. Look how much talent. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of them brought on their buddies. Everybody does it. All of them do it.

Right. But you've got to have a petty bone in that group. If I got a petty bone and bugle, I can sprinkle in a couple of high school coaches in the mix. No problem. But if I got to have the bugle and the petty bone. That's my point. Like Be in a me right now, it's only works as long as he's allowed to continue it. it's not a quick fix

and a one-year deal they're doing apricadabra if they don't keep this together those two guys you're going to end up hurting his kids

overall growth in my opinion I don't care what they do do not make Sam have to restart again if Sam ends this season

that's the number one right right right we still got all we got time left It's a done deal. To me, it's a done deal. Now we can get ready to get you back in the program. You were outstanding today.

You get my K-9 of the week award. Yeah. You love to make fun of it. I'm your punching bag. All your rich friends. Everybody's the club. Nobody's got wealthy. Nobody in my life has more wealthy friends than at Rick.

Doc Walker. No. No. Patreon.com slash Doc Walker. Everybody asked me and say, we said, Kevin. I said, I don't see Kevin because Kevin doesn't come to work. Okay.

He works out of the Sheehan Studios. Yeah, but I work. I said. I work at it. No, whoa, whoa. Just make sure to dovetail it off that conversation. I work at this thing. I show up for work.

I said work at the office with the rest of. I have my own. I have my own studio since the... That's what I meant. And other people do, too. I'm not the only one. Oh, no, you're right. Howard Stern.

Okay. Does the same thing. And the media, yeah. This was outstanding. What are you doing tonight that I should promote? Who are you going to be on? With actually taping a show, a new version of a show that will happen for the commanders. with Doug Williams and Fred Smoot and Santana Moss over D.C. Prime tonight.

This is a pilot. It's going to be three episodes. They want to, you know, bring, I guess, some of the older methods of, I always call it the secret ingredient winning. They want to talk about it. So if they ask me to come on, hopefully I've got to believe it's about winning. So I'll be putting on a little short seminar tonight on that topic. Look forward to it. All right, good job.

I'll talk to you later. Appreciate it. Hey, thank you very much. And whoever's in the hospital, and I couldn't make the day, I'll take it well. Doc Walker, everybody, awesome, as always. All right, that is it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.