The Kevin Sheehan Show - Howell Shines In Preseason Opening Win

Episode Date: August 12, 2023

Kevin with his recap of Washington's 17-15 preseason win over the Browns in Cleveland. Commanders' WR Jahan Dotson called in from the locker room in Cleveland to share his thoughts on his touchdown, Sam Howell's performance, and a lot more.  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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. All right, I held off on the podcast earlier today, figured I'd just wait until the game ended and do a post-game podcast. The first of three preseason games in the books.

And the game tonight in Cleveland was delayed by an hour and 16 minutes because of weather. But they did get it in. It just ended moments ago. and Washington won the game 17 to 15. Thank God the game did not go to overtime. More on the ending of the game later in my game take. Rarely do we get into game situation stuff in preseason games, but I do have a take on the very end of tonight's game

if you even hung in for the entirety of it. Look, the final score really doesn't matter in these games. But to be fair to Washington tonight, the final score kind of reflects what happened in the game, especially after the Cleveland starters left the game. And that is an important mention, by the way. A significant number of Cleveland starters played just one series on each side of the ball, while Washington's offensive starters stayed out there for the first three series of the game. But even with that understood, look, these preseason games are about individual play more than game situation stuff.

And so that's what we'll discuss tonight and evaluate, with the exception of that one end of game situation that I thought was interesting. I thought there was more good from this game than not. But before we get to it, let me mention that the show tonight is brought to you by MyBooky, mybooky.orgie.orgie.ag for all your sports betting needs. And also, if you're looking for an online casino, My Booky has a good one, plenty of table games, over 30 blackjack options, craps, roulette, slots too.

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But for the first time this year, even though it's a preseason game, let's get to my Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. The Game Take brought you by the Circa Million and the Circa Survivor pools out in Vegas. The Circa Million is guaranteeing $6 million in prizes. A million to the winner. You pick five games a week against the spread.

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All right, the things that I liked, I actually liked a lot. You know, it's a preseason game. I understand that. You know, everything's dialed back, but these are evaluations of player performances more than anything else. Number one on the list, just the receivers and running backs in combination. I mean, Jahan Dotson is going to be a problem for defenses, especially when you you consider the other receivers that are on the field and the other threats they have at all

of their playmaking positions. He can line up anywhere and beat anybody. And a matchup against a safety like the one he had on his touchdown tonight is just going to be a bad one for opposing defenses. Pringle and Diami Brown had good catches on very good throws by Jacoby Brissette. Kemp nearly had an excellent catch in the third quarter, but he had a foot barely out, and the play was overturned on a Cleveland challenge. Cole Turner, big target for both quarterbacks at tight end. I thought he looked good, and I thought the running backs were outstanding. Robinson Jr. had a really nice run on the last play of the first quarter. Gibson was solid on his four total touches, and Chris Rodriguez really impressed the hell out of me.

This is the guy that when we talked to Scott McLuhan said that he thought was one of the steals of the draft. McLuhan had a second round great on Rodriguez. Washington got him in the sixth round. He had five carries for 39 yards, average 7.8 yards per carry. He's got very good vision. He's got quick feet, and he is a powerful, powerful runner. I thought the running backs looked really good. tonight. Eric B. Enemy's got a ton of playmaker options at his disposal, and it's going to be fun to

see how he uses all of them when the real games start. Also on the list of things that I liked, Sam Howell, you know, considering that he faced Cleveland's defensive starting unit, and his offensive line, starting offensive line, struggled in front of him, especially in pass pro. I thought he did a nice job. I loved his feel. I loved his ability to extend plays. He had the scramble for the first down on their third and six on the opening drive. He had that fourth and three throw on their touchdown drive on their third and final drive of the first half.

He extended that play through to Cole Turner to move the sticks. And the next play was the touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson. Look, he was facing Cleveland's starting unit. and his offensive line, and we'll get to the things I didn't like, it struggled. It struggled for Jacoby Brissette, too, but they weren't facing, and he wasn't facing Cleveland's starters. I just thought he did a really nice job of extending plays, and then the touchdown pass, which came on the play after the fourth and three conversion, you know, it's a 26-yard

touchdown pass to maybe their most dangerous offensive weapon in Jahan Dotson. That throw, if you want to nitpick a bit, was a little bit behind him, but it was certainly within the catch radius for Jahan Dotson. I liked some of the decisions he made. He avoided a safety, a player two before the actual safety, but the player two before the actual safety got out of the pocket, extended the play and threw the ball out of bounds when there was pressure in the end zone. and I guess the only other knit to pick would have been the sack that he took.

I thought that perhaps he held on to it a little bit too long. Maybe Dotson was open if he gets that out quickly. But for the most part, I thought Sam Hal was really solid. And again, part of the consideration for him in his night, which ended 9 of 12 for 77 yards in a touchdown, had a scramble for a first down, a couple of plays doing a nice job of avoiding bad plays. Part of that consideration of really liking his performance is that he wasn't protected very well, and it came against Cleveland's starting defensive unit.

Next on the list of things that I liked, I liked Jacoby Brissette. I'm surprised he played as much as he did. He played into the third quarter. His first drive was flawless through two grand. balls to Pringle and Diami Brown, scrambled for a first down, and then scrambled with great vision and great poise for a touchdown. He had a bad throw at the end of the first half when they had a chance to get into field goal range. That was after the Percy Butler interception and return. You know, maybe he doesn't throw that ball in a regular season game and he was just taking a

chance there at the end of the first half. You know, if Hal ends up being the guy, and I think he's going to, certainly to start. I'm confident that they have an excellent NFL backup in Jacoby Bresset. And actually, they have a guy that could start for several teams in the league. I'm not talking about, you know, the top 20 teams, you know, in the league. He had a good year in Cleveland last year, maybe his best of his career. He just looked in total control operating the offense tonight. he's very poised. You know, again, it was against Cleveland's backups primarily, but there's a poise and a confidence about him that he plays with

that I would bet is very comforting for the team around him and the coaching staff. But Jacoby Brissette ended up going six for 10, 75 yards, had the one touchdown, I'm sorry, had the one interception, but had the touchdown run of 12 yards. which was really, it just looked really calm and poised in that pocket and found that little backdoor exit for an easy touchdown run. So I was impressed with both quarterbacks tonight. The starter, Sam Hal and Jacoby Brissette as well.

Also on the list of things that I liked, I thought that the defense, and I've got a couple of constructive criticisms of the defense, which I'll get to on my list of things that I didn't like from the game. But I just think that Jack Dale Rio's defense is here, especially kind of after the first few weeks of the season, I think they fly around. I think they run to the ball. I think they hustle. I think they're disciplined.

And I think they hit. And I like that about their defense. I think they're a physical defense. And I think it's everybody. It's the starting group. It's the backups. It's the guys that may not even be on the team. I think this has been something that's been a consistent trait here for his defenses.

Again, not necessarily early in the season, but they like to hit. Christian Holmes stood out to me as a guy that was flying around making hits, broke up, I think, two potential catches. The goal line stand featured Emmanuel Forbes and Cameron Curl on the third and goal, and then Montez Sweat on the fourth and goal. I actually think they got a little bit lucky that Kevin Staphan the head coach for Cleveland didn't challenge the second goal run by Felton because I thought that that was a touchdown. I thought several players in the secondary in particular were flying around and at times looked good.

I thought 37. I think that's Wild Goose had some good plays. I wrote down that Forrest and Reeves had some plays. 26. I think I looked it up. It's Castro Fields had a player too. Yeah, I think that that's one thing that we've seen, you know, with the exception of very early in the year, Del Rio's defenses, they fly around, they fly to the ball, they play to the whistle, and they will hit you. Lastly, on the things that I liked list, Joey Sly connected on a 49-yard field goal and made his only extra point of the game. So there you go. Five things that I liked. the receivers and running backs, Sam Howl, Jacoby Brissette, just kind of the hustle and the pace and the hitting from the defense,

and then Joey Sly, one for one on field goals, one for one on his extra point. The list of things that I didn't like right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Coming up in the next segment, Jehan Dodson will jump on with me for a few. minutes. So we'll have Jehan Dodson, who caught a touchdown pass tonight with the starting unit early in the second quarter. He will be my guest coming up in the final segment. Let me get real quickly through the list of things that I didn't like from tonight's game and a couple of other observations. Number one on the list of things that I didn't like was the offensive line, the pass protection in particular. Wiley, the new edition from Kansas City, two holding penalties. including one in the end zone for his safety where he was just beaten badly. Keep in mind, no game planning, no strategic help in certain matchups. Even so, the one-on-one matchups went Cleveland's way against the first unit. I don't think that anybody watching the game saw it any other way.

Howell's 12 pass attempts, I added up that seven to eight of those pass attempts were amazing. immediate pressures, like quick pressures, the kind that we saw a lot last year. This is an area that, you know, is one of those areas of unknown. Did they just add bodies that were more, you know, kind of a quantity solution, or did they add quality? You know, Sam Cosmy moving to guard, I actually like that move. We'll watch the center position very carefully. But, man, Cleveland's good up front, but this was a rough start offensively to the season. I mean, that first drive, they picked up that first down with Sam Hal's scramble on third and six. And then they actually had a pass to Samuel where he broke a tackle and picked up a first down. And then, you know,

and I'll get to a couple of the other things on the list of things that I didn't like. There was the drop by baits. There was the sack. Hal took. there was a screen that went for negative yardage, and it was third and 30. And then, you know, from their own five-yard line on the second drive, Hal had to scramble after being pressured and throw out of bounds to avoid his safety. Then Gibson got nailed, and then Hal was pressured and threw short to Gibson, but there was holding in the end zone on Wiley. It was a rough night early for the starting offensive line unit,

and this is going to be, I think, a concern, and we saw it in individual matchups. Again, these are the kinds of things that you can coach around, not completely, as we saw last year. You know, if it's a total sieve in pass pro, that's hard to coach around. Then you end up in max protection, and now you don't have some of those weapons on the field. But it was a rough night for the offensive line, especially in pass protection. The second thing on my list of things that I didn't like, I thought the starting defense seemed a bit off balance. I thought that they had trouble getting off blocks. I think they missed some opportunities for tackles before some big runs in particular.

I think they were lucky that Browns didn't challenge that Felton second goal run. I thought that was a touchdown before they actually got the goal line stand on third and fourth downs. Look, Cleveland did the same thing to this defense on New Year's Day. Remember that. I mean, the defense had been really playing lights out football, and Cleveland, you know, rolled up 175 yards on three straight touchdown possessions, 21 points that decided the game. You know, everybody wants to point to how bad Wentz was in that game,

and it's true. I'm not denying that. The start was hideous. But he did have the longest drive right before the end of the first half of the NFL season and they had a 7 to 6 lead and then Cleveland rampaged through Washington's defense the rest of the way. Watson, I thought, looked good. More on him coming up in a moment. And I thought the defense in the second half gave up, you know, a ton of completions. And I'll mention some of the backup quarterback play for Cleveland here when I get to kind

of the other observations. But I just didn't think the starting defense was very sharp at all. Lots of penalties. You know, total seven for 55, I think maybe one or two were declined, but they were hurtful penalties, including one that, you know, led to the first score of the game, a safety. So those penalties are, you know, not unusual in preseason games, but they had a couple of key ones with their starting unit out there. A couple of drop balls. The big one was by Bates early on a good throw by howl that would have really, well, one. One, wasn't going to move the chains because there was a holding penalty on Wiley. That was Wiley's first of two holding penalties. But Bates has to make that catch. I know they like Bates.

They like his versatility as a blocker, and they believe he's better as a target in the past game than maybe some of us feel. But you got to hold on to that ball when it's put right into your hands. It would have been called back anyway, but still. And then the only other things I didn't like is, and again, I don't know anything right now, probably no more tomorrow or during the press conference with Ron, which is going on right now. I'll have more on this on Monday, but Phil Mathis left early in the game, and then Chase Young had a bit of a neck stinger. I mean, he was up, you know, roaming the sidelines, firing everybody up. That seems to be what he does better than anything else. Hopefully his play on the field gets back to what it was at the end of his rookie year.

and hopefully he is healthy. That is pretty much the list of things that I didn't like O-line, starting defense, some of the defense too in the second half, the penalties, the dropped passes, and in particular the Bates drop pass, and then we'll see about the injuries, and I'll have more on what comes out of that on Monday. Few other observations real quickly, and then we'll get to Jahan Dotson. The end of the game, I mean, thank you. God, they missed that two-point conversion, and there wasn't a potential overtime.

But what was really interesting was after they didn't pick up the two-point conversion, they had no timeouts, and Kevin Stefansky chose to not kick an on-side kick, which is a dangerous play, and instead concede and take the loss. They kicked it deep into the end zone, and they had no time out, so Washington need out the game. Obviously, that would never happen in a regular game, but that goes to show you what, you know, what coaches believe about these preseason results, wins, losses. It just doesn't mean anything. Baltimore's got this incredible run of preseason, you know, success, and people will point to it and say,

well, and then they've got regular season success as well. But most coaches and Kevin Stefansky in that situation chose everybody's health over a preseason win. Other observations, it looks like Kaz Allen from UCLA is going to get the chance to be the returner. He had the first two kickoff returns, the first punt return, then he had a big punt return in the second half, which got called back by a penalty. He is explosive. You know, I had him on the radio show right after they signed him as an undrafted free agent. And I think I've mentioned this before. He holds the record for high school touchdowns in the season. 72 of them. He had 72 touchdowns in a 13-game high school season. They like him. That's why

they signed him. I watched him a lot. Late Night Pack 12. There won't be as much of that in the future. I think he's got a chance. You know, Dax Milne had one of those punt-return. where he stepped out of bounds. He didn't need to step out of bounds. It was almost as if he was unaware of where he was. It's going to be Allen or Milne as a punt returner on this team. And then, you know, I would expect if it's Alan, Allen would also be the kickoff return. Remember, you've got the new kickoff rules. Fair catch inside the 25 goes right to the 25. So there may be fewer returns with that rule. But he looks like a guy that can really flip the field and make some big plays. So I think he's got a big game coming up a week from Monday night against Baltimore.

The last observation was about Cleveland. The Deshawn Watson looked like Deshawn Watson. He was throwing the ball accurately. He was extending plays, making plays, getting out of trouble. I thought, you know, and I've said this before, if you end up getting the Deshawn Watson of, you know, what he was in Houston with that roster, and they've got a really good roster, that could be a real good team this year. They're in the AFC North, very, very difficult.

They're in the AFC overall, incredibly difficult. But I thought Deshawn Watson looked really, really sharp. And he didn't in those six games that he played at the end of the year, with the exception of the Washington game. That was the one game. I had somebody from Cleveland on the show, on the radio show today, and I said, other than the Washington game, you know, how much of last year was a concern? And he said, well, you're right.

The Washington game was the one game everybody's been pointing to in this offseason to say, that's the Deshawn Watson we need in 2023. He's a really good quarterback. He really is. I don't know what that year and a half or whatever it was in total will do to him. but I thought he looked really sharp tonight. And then a guy that I really liked at UCLA, and I talked about this guy before the draft

is a guy that I'd love to see Washington take a flyer on. Dorian Thompson-Robinson, DTR, by the way, Kaz Allen's quarterback at UCLA. He played well in that Hall of Fame game last week. And tonight, 9 of 10, 102 yards, ran it a few times. I think he has real dual-threat ability and also big playability with his arm. I think it's his arm and his decision-making

that is the reason ultimately he lasted until the fifth round. But Dorian Thompson, Robinson, I was just a fan of him at UCLA watching him. I just thought he was a big-time kind of big game player. Like that USC game, he had bad plays and he had some great plays and that shootout against SC. I just, I thought he looked really sharp, and I'm not a Kellyn Monde fan at all. Wasn't a Kellyn Monde fan when he was at Texas A&M, and he was drafted by the Vikings, and the Vikings moved on from him.

And I'm not a big Josh Dobbs fan either, but I thought Kellan Monde looked pretty good tonight for them. Overall, I think Thompson and Monde and Watson went 19 of 24, I think it was, for over 200 yards passing, or close to 200 yards passing, something like that. I also thought they're running back to Mitrick Felton. He's a UCLA back as well from a few years ago. I thought he looks like a player too. I'm actually very intrigued by Cleveland and maybe the prospect of a wager on Cleveland's over,

which is seven and a half this year, especially if you, take the leap that Deshawn Watson is going to be back to Deshawn Watson. Remember, Nick Chubb didn't play tonight. And I like the way they work, and it looks like they're going to work Elijah more into that offense as well. But no, you know, they were without starters on offense. Keep in mind, no Amari Cooper, no Nick Chubb in the game. So, yeah. Anyway, that was the list of things I didn't like and a few other observations.

All right, let's get to Jahan Dotson. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. If you get an opportunity, it would be much appreciated if you would rate us and review us wherever you can. Apple and Spotify in particular, which is where most of you listen to this podcast. A quick one to two sentence review on Apple is really helpful. Five stars, if you see fit, is a big deal for us as well. And follow us on both Apple and Spotify. also. That's a big help, especially this time of year, as we are heading into football season.

All right, let's go out to Cleveland, where Jahan Dotson's going to jump on with us right now. And I really appreciate you making time. I know that you guys are getting wrapped up there in the locker room, and we'll be heading to the airport shortly. Jahan had the touchdown catch early in the second quarter in Washington's 17 to 15 win tonight over the Browns in Cleveland. So before I get to that particular touchdown catch, I did want to ask, was there an expectation, Jehan, on how much the starting offense was going to play? Because you guys played that third series into the second quarter. Yeah, they told us we probably play the first quarter.

But, you know, when you're getting ready for a game, you've got to make sure that, you know, you're ready to play all four quarters no matter what the timetable is. You've got to be ready. So we're prepared for it. We've been practicing hard and, you know, it's been getting us prepared for these moments. Yeah, it was a weird night, too, with the hour and 16 minute delay. But you guys finally got it going on that third and final drive for the starters. I just mentioned it in my breakdown of the game.

Man, I don't think safety should be covering you at any point in time. So tell me about the touchdown pass and how that was set up. Yeah, we got a good look, a good man-to-man look. Like you said, yeah, safety's covered me. That was a bad idea. But, you know, Coach Mianami dialed up a great play to get me in space, and I was able to, you know, get by my defender, get open, and get in the end zone. John, tell me, you know, we saw a lot of it last year at times with you.

Your speed, your quickness, your route running, what do you think more than anything else is the hardest thing to check when it comes to you as a receiver for a defender? I would say my patient. I'm very patient when either I'm at the line getting pressed or I'm at the top of my route. I'm very patient. VBs kind of have a little time clock in their head of when they kind of have to get out of their press or different things like that. And I'm kind of patient. I wait to see those things out. And I feel like that's the biggest thing that gets me open. I also, in watching you, and I think maybe I talked to you about this when I had you on once before,

you were a basketball player, right? I mean, you've got, you certainly have some of those quick moves and some of that wiggle, like crossover stuff that just loses people, you know, and leaves them dead in their tracks. I'm assuming you were a pretty good basketball player. Yeah, I was definitely pretty good back in my day. Yeah, I got a lot of buckets. You've got a lot of buckets. Did you have good hops, too?

Oh, for sure. Yeah. All right, so how do you think Sam did tonight? Yeah, I think it was good. It was a lot of an experience. You know, I think he had some good flashes. But it's definitely good taste to learn from for all of us. as the offense as a whole, how to operate in game situations.

I think it was really good to get that stuff on tape. We got a good amount of time in the game, so it's going to be a lot to learn from. Hopefully we can improve next week. What do you think the big takeaways from tonight will be in terms of things that you will use as a learning experience? You, Sam, the offensive line, the offense as a whole? I would just say our operation time, just operating a little faster. Coach E.B. stress is getting out of the huddle fast, getting up the line ready to play. I feel like we could do a little better job with that.

That just becomes just getting comfortable in the offense. So it's over time. I feel like that will happen, but it was good to get that game experience today. We're talking, of course, with Jehan Dodson. So the playmakers on this offense, and you're adding to him. I thought Chris Rodriguez looked really good running the football. Pringle had a really big-time catch. Give me a player that you think fans and even media members like me are going to be surprised at when we get to the regular season

in terms of the contribution that player will make. I think number two, Diami Brown, I think he's going to have a big contribution to our team. He's a great piece for our room, a guy who can really stretch the field, and get the ball down the field. He has that great connection from college with Sam. I feel like he's going to have a big year. That's a good one, and I think a lot of people have started to realize that Diami, you know, can really,

we've seen it before where he can stretch the field, and he, you know, obviously was a college teammate of Sam Howes. Last one, and I'll let you run, and I so appreciate you doing this. Tell me about playing for Bienimi so far, through training camp and after one preseason game. Yeah, it's been great. Learning from a great mind and Coach Vienemy. He's pushing the guys hard. He demands excellence. He demands success.

He doesn't settle for anything else. And that's kind of what you wanted to coach. The guy who's going to push you, make sure he brings the best out of you every single rep. Make sure you're not taking anything. Any reps off. That's really what you want. And we're really glad to have him here in Washington. Were you glad the game didn't go into overtime?

tonight? 100% was glad the game didn't go on overtime tonight. Thank you for doing this. Really fun to watch you tonight and can't wait for the next few and then the regular season. Yes, sir. Appreciate it.

John Dotson, everybody, he is good. And he's going to be really good, I think, for this team for a long time to come. Thanks to him and thanks to the PR group for the team for putting that together and getting me somebody after the game. It's much appreciated.

By the way, I think I've told this story before. But Jahan Dotson, my youngest son, graduated from Penn State and was in the same graduation ceremony with Jahan Dotson and walked right before Dotson walked across the stage, picking up his diploma. And when my son Ryan walked across, and then all the sudden there was like some cheering, my wife quickly thought,

is that for Ryan? Why would they be cheering? And I said, no, hon. Actually, it's for the young man walking right behind him. And that was Jahan Dotson. And I actually have a picture of my son right in front of Jahan walking at graduation at Penn State. Anyway, all right, that's it for tonight.

I'll be back on Monday.