The Kevin Sheehan Show - Is Anybody Getting Fired?

Episode Date: December 31, 2018

Kevin starts the show talking about why he still believes Bruce Allen will either be fired, retire, leave for another team, or be re-assigned by Snyder to a non-football position. He talks about Jay Gruden's future as well as the futures of others on the coaching staff. He recaps the Redskins-Eagles game mentioning one rookie player in particular that he believes has a big-time future with the team. JP Finlay/NBC Sports Washington and Kevin breakdown the season together and make predictions on who stays and who goes. They also spend time on what the plan should be at quarterback. Kevin goes "Around the NFL" and spends time talking about Kirk Cousins and the Vikings being eliminated by the Bears. He also recaps the ending of the Ravens clinching win over Cleveland and the Colts win over the Titans to lock down the final playoff spot. He gives his first gut on the Wild Card Weekend games. He closes the show talking about the two "College Football Playoff" semifinal games. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. Oh, boy, that was ugly. The Redskins, yes, but really what I was referring to was Kirk Cousins. Of course. God, I love all of you. You're always there when you need me. Always. More on him later in the show, the rest of the NFL as well. Aaron's here, and yes, I am here. It is. Sunday night. So we're doing this show about three hours after the game ended. About three and a half hours after the game ended. That was a quick game. That had to be one of the fastest games of the year in the NFL period. I'm going to get the official time, but it was two hours 30 something, I think. Last week was two hours 44 minutes, but this one was quick. Thankfully, it was quick time-wise. The show, as always, is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the

market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell you. them we told you to call. We will get to the other NFL games. The playoff field is nearly set, and it will be by the time we get to the around the NFL segment. I'm actually looking forward to the postseason this year. I think there are several teams capable of winning the Super Bowl, which should make for some really good matchups the next three weeks and some good games, hopefully, as well. The Redskins were truly terrible against the Eagles. Eagles in what was clearly a road game crowd at FedEx. Unbelievable, Aaron, how green it looked on television. What percentage of the crowd do you think was Eagles fans? I'd say it was at least 75, 80%. For the

first time, I can ever remember this. And I think there's a definite correlation. They didn't do individual announcements for the players coming out on the field. I heard about that. And I think it was because they were expecting every player to get booed because every time the Redsons came out in pregame, they got booed. Look, if you didn't know, where the game was and you just tuned in and started to watch it, you would have thought the game was in Philadelphia. It looked totally green on television. It also looked to me like the stadium was as packed as I've seen it all year long. But it was another reminder this game was just how low this franchise has sunk. On the game itself, I'll get to the game taking a bit, but I don't really,

I'll just be honest with you. I don't get hung up. I don't really sweat these end of season games when a team like the Redskins is in the position that they were in. You know, they didn't come prepared. I'm not judging Jay Gruden, though, on this game. I'm judging him on the 15 that came before it. It was a pathetic showing, but so was the New Orleans game earlier this year. And there wasn't a more pathetic showing than the Giant game a few weeks back when they were down 40 to nothing early in the third quarter.

I don't really think I learned much today. But we'll do a game take anyway. But before I get to the game recap, I've got a few thoughts first. Just more big picture thoughts. First of all, this was another Redskins season that ends with no playoff game. During the Snyder era now, 15 of 20 seasons have ended without the playoffs. And as we know, even in the five playoff seasons that he has been here for 1999 season, the 2005, 2007, 2012, and 2015 season.

Just two total playoff wins. All right, so two playoff wins in 20 years of Snyder. The one in 1999 and the one in 2005. It's been 14 years since the franchise's last playoff win. 14. This time next year, more likely than not, really, more likely than not, it'll be 15 years since the last playoff win. Let's hope not. But yeah, it's more likely than not that'll be the case a year from now.

Of the 20 Snyder seasons, just six have ended with a winning record. The skins lost to the Eagles today makes them seven and nine for a second straight year. That makes Jay Gruden's regular season record through five years as the head coach, 35, 44, and 1. That makes Bruce Allen's regular season record since arriving in Washington in 2010, 59-84-1, and that makes Dan Snyder's regular season record as owner, since he purchased the team in 1999, 139, 179, and 1. On Friday's show, I got on record officially saying that I thought Bruce Allen would either be fired,

retire, move on to another job elsewhere, or be reassigned to a non-football position in the organization until the new stadium location and that deal is done. There's been some reporting that he'll stay. I'm sticking with my prediction. I don't feel great about it, but I still think there's a chance. There are just too many obvious reasons for him to be gone and few, if any, for him to stay. His record has got awful on the field.

The constant clown show and PR bungling after PR bungling off the field has been embarrassing to the organization, and that's saying a lot, because it was pretty difficult to embarrass an organization that had made fools of themselves so consistently before he even got here. Add to that, the business of the Redskins has hit another new rock bottom. Fan erosion is accelerated at a record rate this year. It wasn't just in the game last night against the Eagles. The erosion's been easy to measure. ratings, attendance, etc. And the one thing that the remaining still interested portion of the fan base is demanding

is Bruce Allen to be out. The post story from over the weekend was well done. Les Carpenter, Liz Clark, I forget who the third writer on that was. My apologies. But the post story from over the weekend was well done. And there were some interesting quotes that many of you pulled out and sent to me, including this one, I read it. And hopefully most of you have read it.

And if you haven't, I would urge you to read that and the New York Times story on the Redskins. You know, everybody's taking their shots now at an organization that used to be many, many, many years ago so proud and is now so low. By the way, that was Mark Maskey, who is the third writer. I'm sorry. So it's Maskey, Carpenter, and Liz Clark.

There you go. Thank you for that. One of the quotes that was pulled out sent to me, and I read it as well, quote, Snyder was said to be stunned by backlash among fans who railed on social media and besieged Redskins Park with angry phone calls, closed quote. Now, I've mentioned several times over the last month that I've been told that he at times seems totally detached from reality, totally detached from what the fan dissatisfaction really is, the level at which it really is. that he doesn't really get or understates how much his customers despise him and Bruce Allen and the product in general. I've mentioned that on the podcast several times over the last, you know, month or so.

I probably mentioned it for the first time after the New Orleans game, because I think we all felt that New Orleans loss on Monday night that the season was going to take a hard turn south. And it didn't over the next few weeks. They got it together there briefly. but many of you said I was nuts if I believed that he really didn't know the level of customer dissatisfaction, that he sees it from his seat every Sunday, etc. Look, I've mentioned this before and I'm going to mention it again. Keep in mind, the team does a ton of charity events, good ones, and they deserve credit for those.

They do a lot in the community from a charitable standpoint. But when they do some of these events, the same people keep showing up. People who never think the organization does wrong. And the organization, trust me on this, they bathe, to use one of Tommy's favorite terms. They bathe in their unending affection, these people that show up at some of these events. They bathe in that unending affection and they misplace it as majority opinion. It's not, as most of you know. the majority opinion.

And for those of us that have been involved in things like local sports media, especially those of us who have done long-form radio, long-form talk radio. It is a unique thing, long-form talk radio, because it's truly intimate, and it's five days a week and it's hours upon hours per day, years upon years, whether at 980 or WJFK, the pulse that we've taken has been far different than the one team executives have felt when they're at these events like harvest feast or draft day parties or road game rallies. When there's been criticism in the past, there have been times when the organization's front office and even people beyond that where they've chalked it up as just a few of the fans or

they blame the media for it. And they think the media is making a bigger deal of the erosion of the fan base than it really is. They don't ever think it's. them. They believe that the owner's desire to win. We've heard that so long now. Oh, the owner really wants to win. He'll spend anything. The organization over the years still genuinely thinks, and honestly thinks that that is appreciated by the majority of the fans. And that that is more the prevailing fan opinion of Dan. That after seasons of embarrassing, that after seasons of embarrassing, and losing, that it's more that fans are disappointed, that they're just not as disgusted as what we've said or what you've said or the way we all know most of the fan-based things.

They have thought that the losing is, or the reaction to losing is more of just disappointment, not discussed. They haven't, I'm telling you, they haven't always understood. stood or felt it like we felt it. We've had conversations with a lot of these people over the years. They just have not gotten this bloodthirsty hatred, disgust, distrust of the team's front office in particular. I know it seems nuts, but yeah, it's possible that Dan Snyder was stunned by the backlash last week. It is possible. I just think that this backslip, backlash is similar to the Vinny backlash eight years ago and that Dan will feel this one

and is feeling this one a little bit more and I believe he's going to act on it when it comes to Bruce. Most of you don't. I do. Now as far as the coach and his staff, so that's my position still. That's a long way of getting to, I still think something's going to happen with Bruce Allen. As far as the coach and his staff, I think Jay stays. That was my position last week, and that was some of the reporting over the weekend as well. They owe him two years of money. There's a questionable candidate pool, and those candidates without question marks probably don't want to come here. And Jay is liked inside the building by just about everybody.

He's a good guy, but he's an average coach, average. But I think for the reasons just mentioned, they'll keep him, because they probably don't think they can do much better right now. I think Minusky is gone. I think Callahan is likely gone. Perhaps Tom Sulla retires. Maybe another assistant or two is replaced. I hope Todd Bowles, who was fired after today's game,

is brought in to be the defensive coordinator. I think Jay would finally get the defensive coordinator position right if he hires Todd Bowles. But will Bowles want to come here? He played here, but I don't know if he'll want to come here. There are probably better options. I mean, the defense has some good talent, good young talent, that he can work with, but he could probably pick a more stable organization for sure. Here, he would be one step ahead of being at least an interim head coach next year, potentially.

I like Todd Bulls, you can tell. Everything about him. I've liked him for a long time. From watching him afar, his defenses are smart, tough, and his players get better. he hasn't had a quarterback in New York. He has one now, but it was too late for him. So as of 11 p.m. here on Sunday night, December 30th, I think Bruce will be out or reassigned. I think Jay stays. I think Minusky and a few others are out. That's where I stand. Now one more thing before we get to the final game take of this 2018 season. The big push by many in the fan base to let Dan Snyder

know how repulsed they are by Bruce Allen might work. It might influence the owner. It might not. But let's be clear about this. And this one, I don't think any of you will debate or push back on me for. Firing Bruce Allen, if it happens, or reassigning him, if that happens, isn't the answer to much. It could lead to something better. It would be hard for it not to lead to something better. Same feeling we had when Vinny was here. You know, it's like you can. can't get any lower than you are right now. Considering how bad and embarrassing the results have been, it would be hard to do worse. But the best we can all hope for as a fan base, as long as Dan Snyder owns the team, is limited success. That's your upside. The kind that the league is

designed to produce every once in a while. The one season out of four or five that breaks right and you end up with a playoff game or maybe two. That's the best you are going to get from a Dan Snyder-owned organization. Sustained success, that's never going to happen. Never going to happen. Dan Snyder has proven to be too flawed to be able to ever find, employ, or empower the type of competence and quality to build something of substance and durability. He'll never get it right enough for a sustained winning franchise. Building a sustained

winner would require an epiphany of extraordinary size for someone like him. It would have to start with a major admission, an admission that he owns and presides over one of the worst professional sports franchises in all of sports in North America. I would bet personally against him ever making that admission. I don't think he'll ever admit it. To get better, he has to admit it. He's got to admit that he's been the problem. He's the reason more than any other that the Redskins brand has been tarnished if not ruined, a brand that was recognized for winning and one of the most passionate, loyal fan bases in sports. That's what the brand was known for. Winners, they were winners for a long period of time and they had a passionate, loyal fan base, as passionate and loyal as any fan base

in sports and all of us were a part of that. What used to be an ongoing source of area pride has become a constant source of national embarrassment. So again, and I've said this many times for many years, I don't want a good team. I want a good franchise. We may get the occasional good team one out of every four or five years. And I'll be right here, hopefully, knock on wood, to wait it out for that good team out of every four or five years and to talk about it. And in the process to get to that one team every four or five years, we'll have to talk about a lot of bad teams and mediocre teams. We will. But hoping for a good franchise at this point with this owner, after the 20 years we've all lived through as fans,

it's not going to happen. So anyway, let's be childish over the next few weeks and root against Dallas. Let's just do that. By the way, I'd take Jerry Jones over Dan Snyder without any hesitation, but I am certainly not going to root for them. That's the only thing we've got left to root for here.

If that even matters to you anymore, it really, I guess it does matter to me. I don't want them or their fans to win. All right, let's get to a quick game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, this isn't going to be that long. All right, then we'll get to the NFL.

We're going to get to J.P. Finley, too. He's going to join us. I've got a short good list. Tress Ways on it. I mean, he's been on this list most of the year as one of the best punters in the league this year. He's on the list today, though, not just because he punted pretty well. Because he did. he had a 57-yard punt early with no return,

but he completed a fake punt pass for seven yards in a first down. One of the only first downs of the day. One of the big offensive plays of the game. Seven yards. Good for Tressway. A good guy, a ton of personality. They really needed him this year with the offense they put out there from the jump. He really influenced games this year with his punting.

Not one touchback the entire season on 79. punts, the only punter in the league to do it this year, just the second punter to do that in the last five years. He also led the league in punts inside the 20. It was a great year for him. He should have been a pro bowler. Tressaway leads the very short list of things that I liked from the game. Two more names to throw on the good list because I think they deserve mention for the games they had, but I also wanted to mention them because I think they could end up being two new starters in 2019. Sean Dionne Hamilton's a player.

Number 51 on your play sheet there for those that haven't been paying attention. He was on this list last week. He's on it again this week, another Bama player, and another good Bama player. He had a sack, he nearly had a pick, he had eight tackles. I think he's turned into a likely starter in 2019

at inside linebacker. Good instincts, move, just looks like a player. Would be two straight years the Redskins have done well in the sixth round. I mean, Chase Ruey a year ago, Dion Hamilton, last spring.

The other mention is DeShazer Everett. A player over the years we've seen play well when he's gotten a chance to play. Remember the huge interception, the huge pick in the end zone in Philadelphia back in 2016. He played well yesterday, had the interception on the bad throw by Foles.

That was just a terrible overthrow, but he was flying around hitting people. He's always been a hitter. I like him. He's under contract next year. He and Monta Nicholson are probably what you have coming back at safety. Obviously, the Nicholson part depends on him being available after he gets through the legal system. I really like Sean Dionne Hamilton. I like Deheseer Everett.

Sean Dionne Hamilton, though, he's going to be a good player, I think. One other quick brief mention. I thought Pernel McPhee played pretty well. I thought he brought it. That's it. That's the list of the good things. Let's get to the list of the things that I didn't like, and I'll just start with this. The entire game, both sides of the ball.

Just a complete beatdown on both sides of the ball. The offense was as bad as any offensive performance was this season in the NFL, I think. I mean, it was just plain horrific. More specifically, I'll start with this. What was Jay Gruden thinking today? I mean, was he thinking, let's try to win the game, or let's make it hard to win the game so we don't lose ground on draft position? Because if that was the case, good on him, smart,

because he chose to drop Josh Johnson back too much of the game. That was not a recipe for success. Josh Johnson's not a drop-back quarterback. Hell, Alex Smith isn't a drop-back quarterback. Colt McCoy is not a drop-back quarterback. Where was all season long the Jay Gruden Quick game, the West Coast game, that he's been so good at calling in recent years. We didn't see enough of it this year.

I think injuries are an excuse for many things this year, but going back to when the team was healthy, the offense wasn't very good, in part, because Jay didn't scheme it up the same way he has in the past. I think that's true. I also think he didn't get good quarterback play much of the year, but Johnson was dropped back too much in this game. He didn't have a chance. Play action was tough because they couldn't run the ball, and they got into down-and-distance problems because of lost yardage plays on early downs. Do you know the Redskins led the league this year? in negative rushing plays.

Led the league this year in negative rushing place. You know what? They can't scheme up a run game. Gruden Callahan. This has been a weakness since Jay got here. It's been inconsistent and more often than not just consistently bad. I just didn't like Josh Johnson getting dropped back the entire game. I thought it was an absolute wrestling.

for losing. And maybe that was the intent. You know, they were great in two straight games staying ahead of the chains by running the ball and getting Johnson out on bootlegs and, you know, some good down and distance play action. Today, though, it wasn't the way Johnson was going to be successful. It wasn't the way the offense was going to succeed. Overall, offensively, it was an epic disaster of a game. They were hovering around some of the lowest yardage games in NFL history there for a while. They ended up with 89 total yards. 89.

They only ran 44 plays because Philly had it for so long in the game, but the offense could have changed that by keeping it occasionally. 0 for 9 on 3rd down. And that was after going 15 of 29 the last two weeks against Jacksonville and Tennessee. The Redskins averaged two yards per play in the game, two. And they possessed the ball for 16 minutes. 41 seconds. That's it. 44 snaps in the game on offense. Had to be one of the worst time of possession deficits all year in the NFL. Had to be. The offensive numbers really were staggering. The time

of possession I just mentioned, the 89 total yards I mentioned, the two yards per play. How about just one play in the entire game offensively of 20 yards? They only had eight first downs. you're looking around like you don't know which one it was. I think he threw to Doxon for 20 yards. They say so. I think it was a 20-yard play. They had eight total first downs and just one of them came, or one of them came on a fake punt.

They rushed for 21 yards on 12 carries as a team. That's a week after Adrian Peterson nearly carried them by himself to a win. He had four carries, zero yards against Philadelphia. But hey, we saw Samajapirai Pry. three carries seven yards Johnson never had a chance under siege from the get-go he bailed out early and occasionally looked like he would make a play

but then he threw it inaccurately and on occasion he was badly inaccurate he threw an interception on his first throw of the game he could have easily been picked off two three four times in this game he turned into a pumpkin in the game against Philadelphia I like them, though. I liked what we saw at Tennessee and at Jacksonville.

Defensively, I actually thought that they came out with some energy defensively. I did. I thought they did. The first three Philadelphia drives were interception, three and out, and then the Redskins held them to a red zone field goal on their third drive of the game. It was three nothing into the second quarter. And then came the drive. 19 plays 87 yards, 11 minutes and 48 seconds. Similar to the drive the skins had last week in Tennessee. Was it the longest drive of the year? You looked it up last week,

and I thought that it was another Philadelphia drive that was longer than the Redskins drive last week. The Eagles converted their first three third downs on that drive, then a fourth and one. That drive started with 12 minutes and 19 seconds left in the second quarter, in a 3-0-0 game and ended with 30 seconds left in the half and the Eagles up 10-0. Ball game at that point pretty much. At the half, the skins had 30 total yards on 16 snaps.

That's unbelievable. You'll have to watch another 100 football games to see that, maybe another 500. By the way, that is the longest drive of the season. And so was the previous longest in Eagle Drive-Doo? Yes, it was Eagles against Indianapolis. Yeah, I remember you looked that up last week. The skins allowed the Eagles to convert 8 of 14 on third down. And that was with pretty decent pressure at times.

You know, they sacked Foles three times, banged them up a bit. We got to see Nate Sudfeld. He came in and threw a touchdown pass. Ended up with a perfect QB rating. One for one, 22 yards in a touchdown. will give you that 158.3 passer rating. And then he had to steal the ball back from a kid. Yeah.

The defense was out there far too long. The offense never allowed them to rest. And we may have seen the final games for people like Josh Norman, Zach Brown, Mason Foster, Preston Smith, Ha Ha Ha, Clinton Dicks for sure. Next year it's Allen Payne, Ionitis. Ionitis was a scratch. That's a good young nucleus,

but they may need four to five new starters and a new coordinator, I think, too. A few more things about the game. Gruden at the end of the half didn't want the ball back by using timeouts on defense. Should I even do this for this game? Like, should I bash him on clock management in this game? I was just curious as to why he didn't use his timeouts

on that super long drive by Philadelphia when his intention was to try to do something when he got the ball back, because when he got it back, with 30 seconds to go, he dropped Josh Johnson back, tried to move the ball down the field, tried to matriculate the ball down the field, boys. And if he had used his timeouts on defense, he may have had a minute 30 instead of 30 seconds left. How about those gold pants? What was that?

That had Bruce written all over it. All over it. They brought the gold pants back. That is Bruce's face. favorite thing. For those that don't know the backstory on this, the Redskins under George Allen wore burgundy tops, gold pants at home, yellow pants, mustard pants, whatever you want to call them. And when Joe Gibbs came in, I'm sorry, when Jack Pardee came in after George Allen, the first year they had the gold pants and then they developed a new uniform, which included the white

pants at home. And they never wore gold pants again until Bruce Allen came back and said in 2010, hey, this is what we wore during my dad's days. This is what we're going to wear now. Well, they went away from it this year. But that had to be a Bruce decision. Had to be a Bruce decision. Joe Gibbs was at the game. Why was Joe Gibbs at the game? Do we know if Snyder asked him or if Gibbs offered to come. Because if Snyder asked him to come to that game, shameful. What's he doing? Bringing him in for cover?

Now, if Joe was planning on coming or he was, or he asked to come himself, fine. If he was asked by the owner to come, that's indecent of the owner. To make Joe Gibbs come back and witness in person the, the, damage done to what he made great. Good for Joe, I guess, if he was asked and he did it. Disgraceful, disgraceful in my view for the owner to ask him if that's the way it went down. All right, let me tell you about Window Nation. Windonation likes this podcast.

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That's 86690 Nation or shopwindonation.com. All right, let's bring in J.P. Finley from NBC Sports, Washington. He was at the game back from Philly pretty early. You made it back pretty quickly from Philadelphia. Sure. It seemed like the game was in Philadelphia. My God, that is honestly, you know, that Pittsburgh game will forever be known as a road game to those of us that were there on that Monday night in 2008. I wasn't there today, but from what I've been told from friends of mine or a friend of mine that actually was there, that it was worse than the Pittsburgh game that night. Yeah, I think what stood out, and I wasn't at that Steelers game, but watching it on TV was all the terrible towels or kept their eye, you know? Yeah.

I think what made this Eagles game today, or the Eagles game on Sunday, was that the FedEx has been so empty all year. So not only were there a lot of Eagles fans, but I think that was the biggest crowd FedEx has had all year. So it was like, oh my gosh, this place is full. Oh, my gosh, this place is full and it's green. I mean, Oster was sitting there behind me. I think that was certainly the biggest crowd at FedEx, right? Oh, without question. I think I looked at up.

I think they announced officially $62,000. Yeah, he said it earlier. I don't know what the announcements are anymore. You know, right. But it was packed and it was packed with Eagles fans. Just out of curiosity, do you think that the tickets were more accessible this week for anybody that wanted to go than they were for the previous seven home games? I don't know. And I don't know enough about that ticket broker business. And, you know,

I know a big thing with the guys that got fired was that they were going to take the tickets out of the broker's hands. But I'd also heard that as that plan was going really bad with just the really low crowds at FedEx, that maybe they were kind of, even before those guys were gone, kind of going back. They were cheating on that anyway. Just kind of going back to that business model. Yeah. And frankly, I don't know. You know, Michael Phillips from Richard Times Dispatch does a good job of kind of like monitoring Stubhub throughout the week. And he said the prices held pretty firm. Like this was not one of those games where you saw like, you know, $7 tickets floating around online. They all stayed. I want to say $70, 80. So I think it was just that there are

plenty of Eagles fans. It's a close drive, and it was a win and in-game for them coming off a Super Bowl year, and they got their guy Nick Foles back. So I just think there was a lot of momentum if you were an Eagles fan to make that trip and be at that game. I didn't see, I may have missed it. I didn't see any shots of the owner's box during the game. Joe Gibbs was at the game. I've already talked about that. I personally, JP, think, and again, I'll allow for the possibility that Joe called up and asked to come to this game where there was a plan for him to come to the game to begin with. But if the owner called him up and said, hey, Joe, I need you here. I think that's borderline shameful. It's just to have him come back and have to witness what this franchise has become here, you know, this year in particular.

But over a long period of time, as we know, leading up to this year, I just don't like as a lifelong fan of this team for Gibbs to be there. but good for him that he showed up. But I was curious if anyone else was in his box or if you even know. I don't know and didn't see. You know, I don't get to watch the broadcast fully. A lot of times I'll go back and rewatch the broadcast. Just, you know, if you have a DVR it and you can go through it in about a really short time. You're not going to watch this one.

Come on. There's no point. Because I used to do that all the time, too. When I was at the games, I would DVR him come back. But these games, late in seasons that were meaningless, I rarely went back and watched again. Because the biggest question, and I'll watch you all 22 later in the week, but I won't do it for this either. Because a lot of that is about building on for next week and seeing what went well, what didn't. None of that matters.

There is no next week. And frankly, the question marks for 2019 are so massive that what happened in week 17 is largely irrelevant. Agreed. Agreed. All right, what was the reaction in the locker room when you were in there, players, coaches, et cetera? Sad. I think the players really don't want Jay Gruden to be fired, and I don't think he's going to be, but I think the players, all week, all week out, after that loss last week in Nashville,

the players were just kind of depressed, and the bulk of them all would say, and this was just not with a microphone or cameras in their face, just kind of guys talking and, you know, you build real relationships with some of these guys over the years. These guys all think they were kind of robbed of a real chance to do something in January when Alex Smith went down. And we can sit and talk about whether or not, you know, that six and three record was Fools Gold and how they got really beat up

in their three losses at that point. but the players in the locker room believed in what they were doing. And they just, it seemed it was a depressed bunch. And then you compound that with getting your butt kicked up and down the field by the Eagles. And it just, you know, a lot of guys got out of their quick. But there are kind of those unique moments where you have pending free agents and guys that know their contract status. A guy like Josh Norman is a pretty savvy NFL veteran. He knows that this is the first year on his deal with a real off-ramp, and he recognizes.

You know, there's a lot of those moments where guys are kind of looking around, taking it all in. Like, for instance, my producer in Fotog, Mitch Tishler, caught a moment between Ryan Carrigan and Preston Smith, where usually guys do their jersey exchange with guys on the other. team, but Carrigan and Preston did their jersey exchange with each other and, like, wrote nice notes on there to one another. And stuff like that, you typically don't see unless one of the players that I'd expect to be there next year. And, you know, Preston's going to be a free agent. I saw something similar last year. And really, like, last night's game and locker room situation into locker clean out, which will happen Monday is the last day.

the guys are really in the facility altogether. Last year I saw Bashad Breeland leave his jersey on Quentin Dunbar's locker and write a nice note. So a lot of these guys kind of know what's going to happen. All right, let's get to what's next. Let's start with Bruce Allen. Is he here, gone, reassigned what? I think he's back and I think he's reassigned.

But I will say that as long as Bruce is there, you can reassign him, but I'm not sure his influence will really wane. Well, I mean, reassigned is interesting because I threw that out as one of the possibilities, but I was specific to say reassigned to a non-football position in the organization, where they would elevate others in the organization to run the football operation, whether that be Eric Schaefer, Kyle Smith, a combination of both, potentially hire somebody from the outside. I think that's a long shot.

But my thinking on reassigned, if he is reassigned, is that it's made clear he's no longer involved in the football operation. It sounds like you think differently. Well, so it's kind of funny. And I don't know if you and I talked about this, but I've talked about this with a bunch of people going back as far as, like, training camp of the 2018 season, that I thought there was a good path towards,

Bruce kind of being able to walk away on his own volition and feeling like he had finally set the skins up for success. They had a QB. They liked. They trusted. They had rebuilt the defense. You would think they'd have a stadium announcement sometime soon, at least the location, and be able to put out blueprints and all that kind of stuff. And it would look like, hey, I've done a lot.

I've done what I'm supposed to do. I'm leaving out on my own terms. And I kind of think that was. to plan. Obviously, things went ballistic, and that's not going to happen. I just, I don't know, and I hear you, I think it makes sense if he's in a business role, because I would add, with Brian Lofamita gone, the Redskins don't have anybody to run their stadium search now. So they've kind of painted themselves into a corner where they need Bruce, and they need his political contacts, and they need his ability to maybe kind of,

of wheel-in deal on a high-stakes thing like a new NFL stadium. And Lopamino was brought in because he had a very specific skill set where he's gotten stadium deals done across the country, and he was supposed to be the guy driving that, and now they don't have that person. I think they're in a real kind of danger zone stadium-wise. But I just, knowing what I know of Bruce's tenure and the way things operate, I just don't see his title might change, but I would just have a hard time believing if he's still in the building day-to-day that people wouldn't look to him or that he wouldn't exert his influence on situations.

It's just kind of the way it's been. Now, maybe that changes that he's not there every day and things really do start to look different. But the things people there will tell you is that it's always been collaborative. It's always been everybody has a say in it. And I'd be surprised if Bruce just didn't have a say anymore. I mean, you know, I've heard that too, that there is a lot of, you know, at times on certain issues, consensus building, you know, exercises. But we certainly have a gut feel, if not know, for sure,

that some of the biggest things that have happened on the football side have been unilateral. You know, the Alex Smith trade to a certain degree. Right. Well, I mean, it's not even, it's reported. Like, Bruce Allen makes the trades, and Doug Williams has said that, and Jay Gruden has said that. And, you know, if he moves out of the football role, I guess that would fall to Schaefer and Kyle and Doug. The other thing in all this is Doug. Everybody talks about Schaefer and Kyle. Is Doug not in line for that promotion? I kind of don't think he is because he's been. very clear from day one that he doesn't want to deal with contracts and agents and all that stuff. He just wants to be on the player evaluation side, and I think whoever kind of gets promoted has to be able to deal with all of that stuff. And frankly, I think it'll be Shafer, and I think they run the risk of losing Kyle Smith if they don't put him into more of a position, a higher-up position, and I don't think they want to do that.

But the thing to keep in mind in all of this is Bruce and Kyle Smith's dad are very close friends. So there's a lot of familiarity in all of this. Yeah, it's, boy, I mean, just the thought of everybody coming back or everybody's staying in place, the challenge they will have to generate even minimal interest in a 2019 NFL season at that stadium. will be the greatest challenge that hashtag isn't going away. I don't know if you've looked at that. Of course, yeah. It's overpowering.

And I'd say, I don't know if you're, are you getting all those replies? No. Because people were with me with them. And it's like, I'm not in charge. Yeah, well, I think people know we're not in charge. I think they just hope we keep pounding the drum. And look, you know, I thought the post story was, you know, it's one of those stories that we've read before. It's not the first time we've, you know, read this particular story about

Rock Bottom and, and this once proud franchise crumbling. But there were some new things in there that I thought were interesting. And I spent some time on it earlier and I'll just give you a chance to, to weigh in as well. I think the quote in the story where somebody in talking about Snyder said, quote, Snyder was said to be stunned by backlash among fans who railed on social media and besieged Redskins Park with angry phone calls, you know, in sort of referring to, among other things, the fire Bruce Allen hashtag, which was trending for the first 24 or 48 hours that it was out there. And my answer, and I'll keep it brief, is I have been told many times in the past that he is detached from sort of the reality, of much of his fan base's dissatisfaction, and that that wasn't a shock to me to read it.

What do you think? Not a surprise, not a shock. I agree with you. I think on some level, Kevin, I think billionaires lead different lives than we do, and they are insulated from regular dudes like you and I and people that drive to work and go to Giant and say,

way. You know, like, it's a different existence when you, when you have that much cash and you, and you, it's a different life. And I think specific to the social media stuff, I would imagine on some level it'd be unhealthy if ownership was, was living and dying by what happened on Twitter, which can be a pretty crazy, negative place. But I think if you need an example of being detached from reality, look at the Ruben Foster signing. I mean, the team thought that was a PR thing that would blow over relatively quickly and the potential of the player outweighed the negativity of the signing. And we're almost two months past when they signed them or at least six weeks, and it's still a major eyesore for the team.

And one event that a lot of people will point to as part of the undue, of the season, you know? And this hashtag, it's overpowering all of their social media channels. Yeah, I mean, social media channels are important for their business. Yeah, and look, I mean, of course, I mean, I think all reasonable people understand that, you know, at a certain level, you are, you are detached from reality at a certain economic level, and they shouldn't react to every social media outrage. their team. I mean, I used to hate when they would react to a lot of fan and media attention on certain things. But I pointed it out because people were stunned by that. And I do think that

this one he's heard and he realizes, and certainly today had to be another one of those, you know, eye-opening days for him in that stadium if there weren't three or four of them already this year. But today was even different. I mean, I think that indie game, the home opener was really the most jarring and telling of the entire season because they were 1-0 with Adrian Peterson, Alex Smith, and a home opener on a beautiful day, and the stadium was half-filled. I mean, that was a tangible, tangible, that's tangible evidence of the acceleration of this fan base eroding in front of his very eyes.

But what I was just going to say, and let me just finish this one thought, is he did get to the point in 2009 where he realized that if he had kept Vinnie Serrato for one more day, that people were not going to revolt, but that it was going to significantly continue to hurt his business and bottom line. And maybe they're approaching that. The two things I would say, they're there. They're there. For sure. I meant, I think they're there on the bottom line.

I think maybe it's approaching, realizing the realization that happened with Vinnie Serrado having to go. The one game, I think, really started to ignite whatever the situation was between the executives that got fired and ownership was the Houston game. Because you had a team that was six and three in first place. Because for years we've heard if they win, the place will be packed. If they win, the place will be packed. They were six and three in first place facing the Texans who were six and three in first place. That game had juice. That game mattered on the field, and the place was maybe two-thirds full.

You know, I think that was the first game. The home opener, absolutely. But nobody was really sure you could buy them yet, maybe. But by then we're talking mid-October and a good football weather. That game stands out to me. and this is the other thing. Sorry, I'll try. I jumped in.

No, keep going. Circling all the way back to talking about Gibbs early, I do think Gibbs being at FedEx, I do think Snyder and Gibbs have a relationship that Dan might have brought Joe up or asked Joe to come because he really doesn't know what the heck to do. And he believes Gibbs will give him honest and good advice. and, you know, maybe you can do that over the phone. Maybe they wanted to do it in person.

But when I saw Joe Gibbs there, because normally when – so I just happened to be in the tunnel of the stadium by the locker room when Gibbs first came in. Normally, if Joe's going to be there, there's a press release and, you know, our photo – like every camera guy and inside the beltway is standing there ready to shoot him walking in. and it kind of was like, oh, Joe Gibbs is there. Like, it wasn't, it was certainly nothing I expected, and I'm fairly plugged in the kind of marketing efforts and stuff they're trying to roll out at the stadium.

So I wonder if that was Dan legitimately trying to lean on somebody he trusts and has expertise? Because I don't think he really knows what to do. But we were talking about it before we started recording, what is what are you looking forward to in 2019 given the situation? Look, I'm all for him reaching out to Joe Gibbs. In fact, Andy was with me as he is on all these Friday shows during the football season, and he said, you know what the go-to move is for Sunday, right?

And I said, yep, it's bringing old Joe back. And, you know, we said it sort of, you know, tongue-in-cheek, but Andy was like, no, well, that's the move. And it has been the move. But I just think again, and it speaks to detachment, you know, to a certain degree, some self-awareness would be, you know what, Joe, I need your help, but you're not coming up here today because it's going to be ugly in this stadium. And you don't need to see that.

And I don't need to be, you know, I don't. And the other thing, again, a little self-awareness would, he'd realize, or someone would realize everybody thinks you're bringing in. Joe for personal cover. You know what I mean? Totally. I think they don't recognize that most of their moves are met with skepticism or cynicism. And I don't think they, and I don't think that's just ownership.

I think that's the whole, all of them out there, so many of them. And we joke about this every year, like the Skins Media folks, when the Nats and the Caps and the Wiz send out their press release at the beginning of the season about all the cool new food they've got for sale that season. And every team does it, right? Like the Nats are going to brag about new, you know, new organic hot dogs coming this summer or whatever it is. There's always some kind of like unique marketing angle that most of the town is like,

oh, this looks cool. The Nats are going to have their own beer or whatever it is. When the skins send that out, they get hammered for it. No matter what, every year. Every move they make is greeted with a different reaction. action, and I don't think they recognize that. Yeah, they've missed, they miss out on a lot of things when it comes to public relations. All right, so let me just stay with Gibbs and just ask one follow-up question on Gibbs,

because I guess I didn't, and I don't, I don't consider this to be a possibility, but do you consider it a possibility that, yeah, I don't either, not as a coach, but as some, I did suggest like two months ago, have Joe consult you on who to bring in, who to hire. Because I think one of the issues we all get hung up on is change, change, fire Bruce Allen, fire Jay Gruden, but who's going to pick their replacements? Like there's no confidence that any of us have that Dan Snyder, you know, by himself would pick the right people. You know, you've got to have a certain disposition, a certain security. about yourself. This has been part of the problem with the organization, the insecurity, the arrogance, all of it sort of bundled together that has led to less than competent and less than quality people running the organization and being involved in the day to day of the organization. They've got to find competence and quality. And Gibbs would be good at that. Gibbs was the master at picking people. He was great at picking people. I think whether it is an official

consultant's role or conversations between two men, I would suggest that it's happening. I don't think I don't think it was coincidence that Gibbs was there when the organization was really in turmoil

and I don't think maybe I'm naive being naive in this situation. I won't rule that out, but I don't think that was a PR play to have him out there. Because there was no PR. If there was a press release or something, I would have seen it, and there wasn't.

But they did have him out there before the game, I think, right? Did he come out on the field before the game? You were there. I saw social media shots of him, and Doug Woodens walking on the field. I don't know if there was like a ceremony or something. But we're getting too caught up. All right, let's rip through the rest of this real quickly. Other coaches, Minoski back or not?

No on any of these, Kevin. It's very, normally by now you'd have some idea. Well, I mean, my sense of it is that at the very least, they're going to be coaching staff changes. If Bruce stays in his role and Jay stays in his role, and I think Bruce's role is going to change or be gone, eliminated, that's my prediction. I just don't think that, I just can't imagine the overwhelming response, consumer response to this entire situation is one demand, and that is fire Bruce Allen, or. or reassign them, although most people don't want that, and that it won't happen. I think it still will. I know most people don't think it'll happen.

But on the other coaches front, I think Minnowski's gone. He hasn't gotten that defensive coordinator thing right yet, and there are going to be some talented defensive minds available. Todd Bowles, for starters. Big time, and that's a guy that won a Super Bowl here with Doug Williams. Another thing that would be pretty interesting if Minnowski goes, what if Mike Zimmer gets fired in Minnesota? And that's a guy that Jay worked with on that Bengals staff for years.

You've got to imagine those two have a good relationship. And Zimmer is a different guy than Jay. Zimmer is very much the taskmaster in your face. Maybe not Greg Williams, but in that same vein. And I think the Todd Bowles is the obvious one that kind of jumps off to pay because he's already available and he has the ties to the organization. But if you look at what Jay Gruden has usually done is hire someone he knows, and he certainly knows Mike Zimmer,

but there's nothing for sure that Zimmer's going to become available. You know, I know this about me more times than not when it comes to football coaches. I actually probably am in the minority here again. I like the hard-ass, tough disciplinarian, you know, coach like Mike Zimmer. He's too conservative at times, you know. As a head coach, though. As a head coach. But if Mike Zimmer is available, Minnesota's made a mistake, and I would, I mean, he didn't come in as my defensive coordinator.

He comes in as my head coach. But that's for another day. That would be interesting. I know that there are rumors flying around late tonight about the possibility that Minnesota would move on, that the Wolf's, the Wolf family would move on from him. I think they'd be insane to do that. They might be insane, but they got too much money tied into a quarterback with a head coach that doesn't want to throw the ball.

Yeah. You know, I mean, you've had two O.C. You've had nocy get fired in Filippo. You've had an OCE quit because of Zimmer. Yeah, multiple OCs quit. I don't know that that can coexist. Yeah, I think they had major problems everywhere. Kirk was terrible today.

and I'm going to get to that when I go around the NFL, but their offensive line, you talk to anybody in Minnesota, the number one reason they didn't make the postseason this year, they'll tell you is that their offensive line was a sieve. They couldn't run the football. They couldn't protect all year long. Isn't it crazy that this year and last year both end at seven and nine, but they're just so different?

Yeah, I mean, well, this time last year, you know, we still didn't know how the whole quarterback thing would play out. So there was a lot of drama with respect to that. But I also think the feeling about Jay Gruden, among many, I would put myself into this group, was, you know what, considering what you went through last year with injuries, he did a decent job. This year, I think people feel a little bit differently because I think the six and three wasn't perceived as they're a good team. It was perceived as they're doing some good things and they're playing smart and things are breaking their way, but I don't think anybody at 6 and 3 said that's a good team.

I had a player last week tell me, he's like, the craziest thing about playing here sometimes is that even when things are good, it feels like they're not. Yeah, that's that's bullshit. That's a Redskins PR pushed narrative. I mean, this was an off-the-record, like, I'm not telling you with a player. But I've talked, and I'll let you finish, but I've talked to players before over the years, and it's almost like a running line within all of the people out in Ashburn about what a tough media market it is and how tough and demanding the fan base is. look, there are many tougher media markets and many tougher fan bases in the NFL than Washington's.

That's fair, but they were 6 and 3, and it didn't feel like they were, like the Texans, that Texans game, that Week 10 Texas game. You know, Houston came in 6 and 3, but they had won 6 in a row at that point, and everybody was talking about, oh, my gosh, could they be a team that pushes the Patriots or whatever? And the conversation with the skins was, are they even going to win the division? they haven't beaten a good team. You know, it was just, it was very different. And a lot of that, I think, is because of what we saw in the field, especially in their losses, were just blowout losses.

Look, everybody views it within, you know, with their own perspective. But I think that the fan base, and I think the media base, for the most part, was more bullish than bearish at 6 and 3. There was absolute acknowledgement that, we weren't watching what we thought to be a juggernaut team that could compete with the better teams in the NFC at that moment, which were New Orleans and the Rams. I mean, that was obvious. To say anything but that, you would have sounded stupid. But I think folks thought they could win a wild card round. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that, yeah, I think there was a sense that if

they continued to run the football, play excellent defense, stop the run, run the football, win the turnover battle field position, play smart, that they could win nine games, maybe 10, and host a playoff game in a division that at that point really looked like it was weak and without any other competitors. I got, I saw some of that. The Cowboys trade for Cooper. Right. I saw some of that too on Twitter with, you know, people saying, you know, even at six and three, people were bashing them. Nobody was bashing them at six and three. I think there was more of a sense of good on them for taking what they have, making the best out of it, and being in contention right now to play meaningful games in December. At least

that's what I was saying. I thought they were going to be involved in meaningful games in December, and they were, I guess, mathematically. Not even just math. I think if Johnson doesn't throw that pick. How about this? If they've won last week in Nashville, I bet that crowd today would have been sold out, and it would have looked way different. I think people liked the Josh Johnson storyline, and were kind of getting back on board with the skins, oddly, just because it was so crazy in a way.

I don't know. And that's a weird what is. I think that giant game being down 40 to nothing earlier in the third quarter took the life out of whatever life was left in the few people that still had it. That's what I think. Starting Mark Sanchez was the worst strategic move of the year. And maybe signing Mark Sanchez. And I don't know if they win that game starting Josh Johnson, but we know from the Jacksonville and Tennessee games that they would have been more competitive, but then we saw what would happen today too. I think had the Redskins pulled off a miraculous win last week, which Adrian Peterson

and nearly pulled off by himself. I think you still would have seen a significant difference in Philadelphia fans to Washington fans. It may not have been 80, 20, or 75, 25, it may have been 6040, but I just don't think there was much juice left from anywhere after that giant game. I don't. But that's, that's where I was on it too. All right. What else did I have for you?

Let me just, I had something else for you. Oh, any, has there been any update on Alex Smith from anybody? Because, you know, the organization, remember, said over and over again, this is for Alex to sort of talk about. It's his privacy that we're respecting. Other than the Instagram from his wife when he left the hospital and a couple of reports from Schefter and Rappaport, and maybe I'm missing somebody else, have we gotten anything else?

Nothing official. Nothing official, right? I don't think I've heard anything. What is your gut? What do you think, what do you think his, the possibility that he plays in 2019 is just a gut feel right now? Nope. Doesn't happen. Yep.

That means, you know, the cell, if there is, if we get to the point where they start overpromising like they usually do in the offseason, it's going to be because they draft somebody in the first round. They're going to draft a quarterback in the first round. think it's important that they don't feel they have to draft somebody in the first round. I think the team needs a lot, and I just, I hope that they don't convince themselves that the quarterback will make all the difference, because I don't know that it will. I think if you can sign a lot of it's going to be money, I don't know who you can really afford, but McCoy, I just, I don't, I don't think you have, Colt McCoy and Josh Johnson aren't going to win you 10 games, but I don't know that anybody is.

And if you have – so they're going to have the 15th pick, I don't know that these quarterbacks are good enough. I like Dwayne Haskins, a boatload, but I think he goes way before 15. I don't think the skins are in position to make any crazy trades like we've seen in the past. I just – I think you add a stud safety or a corner, and you build your team the right way, and then you look for a quarterback in 2020. or you just, you cannot feel like you have to get somebody there if somebody's not there to be gotten. I totally agree with that. I've always been, you know, a best player available,

especially for an organization like this that can always use, you know, let's face it, like we're on year 15 of needing, you know, a minimum of four starters on each side of the ball, you know, and that's not an exaggeration. So what is there to be encouraged about that? young D-line. So keep it, they need an edge rusher desperately. I doubt Preston Smith's back. Right. There's just so much they need. Yeah, I agree with all that. Thank you for doing this all year long. It's so appreciated, and some of these nights have been truly late nights, early mornings after games. I really appreciate it. It's been great. I'm going to keep calling you to have you on this show, but JP's got a great podcast of his own. You can

get it anywhere. You get a podcast, get a podcast, and you can also get it on the NBC Sports Washington website as well. That's a great listen also. Maybe we'll catch up later in the week or certainly within the next few weeks. And if something goes down this week, I'll give you a call. Sounds good. Hey, can I plug something? Please. We are, we're doing a live podcast January 17th at William, excuse me, at William Jeffries Tavern in Arlington. Kev, if you decide to show up, you and Oster, I got, I got your beers and your food. It's going to be a fun night. We're coming.

Free beer? Sounds good. Thank you, fellas. Thanks, JP so much. Appreciate it. JP's the best. Does such a good job on television, does a great job with his podcast, and I have really enjoyed having him on the show on Mondays or the days after games. What are they going to do next year, though?

Like, just big picture, the Redskins. I don't know that we can really answer a lot of the questions until we know who's here and who's gone. You know, JP just gave you his gut that Alex Smith doesn't play in 2019. That's a big piece of information that whomever it is that moves forward in building the roster. If it's the people they have now or it's a new group, that's the biggest piece of information you've got to come to a conclusion on before free agency starts because maybe Bridgewater's a guy you go after. Maybe. I personally think now it's time to look at the draft.

I like Drew Locke. I know that Doug Williams was down at the Duke bowl game that they played at the end of the week to watch Daniel Jones. I've watched Daniel Jones a few times this year. I like Drew Locke more. I think everyone likes Drew. I don't think he's there for the Redskins unless they move up. Yeah. So anyway, look, if Alan and Gruden are back, they're going to be picked to finish dead last in the division.

That's the only lock right now that I can give you about 2019. It won't even be close. No one will have them finishing better than dead last because the Cowboys, Eagles, and Giants, the Giants, you know, with the way they played here in the second half of the season, will all be picked ahead of them. And I'm not saying that it even matters where they get picked. I'm the person typically that says who cares. I mean, it's usually half the teams you don't expect end up having really good years.

I'm just indicating that the expectations are going to be super low. You know, it kind of goes back to what you were saying at the beginning, especially about Bruce Allen. If they expect that Alex Smith isn't there, what are they selling for next year? And one of the easy things to sell would be Bruce Allen gone. Well, yeah, but even beyond that, drafting a quarterback in the first round would be, there would be some excitement there to watch that quarterback, especially if Alex Smith is perhaps out for 2019 and maybe out for good.

I mean, again, we don't know that for sure. That's JP's gut feel. I think their draft position looked at that up real quickly. I think it's 15th. I thought it might be 12. Let me look it up real quick. I thought Atlanta winning was going to push them ahead of Atlanta, but somebody tweeted me and said that that wasn't the case.

But, you know, with or without Alex Smith... It is 15. It's 15. Okay, so with or without Alex Smith, are they ahead of Atlanta or behind Atlanta? Behind Atlanta. How did that happen? They have the same record with Atlanta. Atlanta beat them, and Atlanta's...

I know, I know, but their strength of schedule. I looked it up, that the Redskins had a... I thought that they had an easier strength of schedule, which would mean that they performed poorly against an easier schedule, and they'd be in front of Atlanta. I guess I got that one wrong. All right, so they're 15th in the NFL draft right now. All right, so 15th.

I'm going to give you their schedule next year, too, in terms of the opponents, which are set in stone, but they're two opponents that got determined here over the weekend. But what I was going to say is this, like on the quarterback situation, They've got to start thinking long term with or without Alex Smith. If Alex Smith returns, that would be awesome. You just want him healthy. If he returns and he's healthy and he can start for you in 2019, that's fine.

But you also have to consider the possibility that even if he does return, that the injury that he suffered may make him a different player. And his mobility in Kansas City in particular was crucial to the successes that he did. have. He didn't use it enough here, I didn't think. But overall, I think they've got to start thinking about a long-term solution to quarterback. I would give Josh Johnson a chance to come in and compete for a spot. The cap situation isn't great, but it's not insurmountable. They can make a lot of moves here to get into a healthier cap situation. They need major talent upgrades at the very least, at wide receiver, guard, corner, pass rusher, safety, quarterback, tight end.

Am I missing anybody or any spots? Inside linebacker? Did I say inside linebacker? Although I really like Sean Dionne Hamilton a lot. I think he's going to be the starter. But they've got a lot of talent that they need to add here. next year. Their draft position 15th, I mentioned that. Their schedule next year in terms of the teams that they're going to play at home. It's the three division teams, the giants, the Cowboys, and the

Eagles. They play the NFC North next year and the AFC East. So they get the Bears and Lions at home, the Patriots and Jets at home, and then their other eighth opponent at home will be the 49ers. If the Cardinals had won today, it would have been the Cardinals. The Cardinals were close to winning. So that's their home schedule. Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, Bears, Lions, Patriots, Jets, and 49ers. On the road, the three division teams, the Cowboys, the Giants, and the Eagles. And then they also play NFC North teams Green Bay at Lambo and Minnesota.

in Minneapolis. They play the Dolphins and the Bills in Miami and Buffalo, and they'll have a road game at Carolina. Carolina finished third in the AFC South. That's where the 49ers finished in the NFC South, excuse me, and that's where the 49ers finished in the NFC West. The schedule, who knows howl the schedule will play out. But I can tell you this in looking at the schedule.

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Ask for Ralph Perkins if you head out there, please tell him I told you to go in there. They're located right there in the heart of Fairfax and Fairfax Circle. All right, let's go around the NFL. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. All right, let's start with the, and really the games that we're going to do here, the games that mattered early, that one o'clock window.

And I guess it's often this way in the final weekend of this season. But my God, that was just dreadful football. I mean, the Cowboys came back to beat the Giants 36, 35. They went for the two at the end. And the Cowboys finished 10 and 6. Layton Van deresh got hurt in that game. I don't think seriously. No, it's just mild.

I don't understand why all those guys were out on the field in the second half. That was crazy. You know, Chicago did the same thing, too, until the very end in their game. But the Rams were up. And the Rams were up and I guess they wanted to knock out the Vikings. But there was no reason for the Cowboys to have their guys out there. The Cowboys, look, they ended up winning seven of their final eight games. And the one loss was a loss to Indianapolis.

And the Colts have been surging. The Colts started one in five, and they're in the playoffs after beating Tennessee in that season finale. But that one o'clock window was awful. The two games that had some meaning were the New England and Houston games. Houston wrapped up the division by beating Jacksonville 20 to 3. Jacksonville was the smell test pick. As a quick aside, first losing smell test weekend in seven weeks. So it was a bad Sunday.

Bad Sunday. And I didn't like any of the damn games. And it's a good thing I didn't play all of them because even the liens didn't work. But Houston won that game 20 to 3. interesting thing came out of that game. I don't know if anybody caught this. But Jacksonville's team president, Tom Coughlin, called Leonard Fournett and T.J. Yeldon's behavior during the game, immature, childish, and unprofessional. I guess they weren't really into the game. The quote from Coughlin, I am disappointed in the behavior today from T.J.

Yeldon and Leonard Fournette. They were disrespectful, selfish, and their behavior was unbecoming of a professional football player. Fournette was inactive because of foot and ankle injuries. Yelden was, he and Yelden were caught by TV cameras sitting on the bench and chatting while the offense had the ball. They were clearly disengaged with teammates and coaches. I think we do know, though, that Doug Marone's coming back, right? That was announced. They announced both the coach and jam. The other thing about Fournette is because of his suspension earlier this year, they went ahead and said, we can void the rest of your guarantees for Fournet.

But he's under contract for the rest of his rookie deal. He's under contract, but they can cut him without any penalty cap hit at all. They're not going to cut him. Probably not, but. Although Coughlin's the kind of guy that would do it. Exactly. The Patriots won that other game. They had to win to lock up the two seed.

They crushed the Jets, 38 to 3. Todd Bowles was fired after the game. Then we got to the 4 o'clock window in all of the truly meaningful games. The play-in game that came Sunday night between the Colts and the Titans. The Colts won that game 33 to 17. Andrew left three touchdowns also threw in the game one pick, a bad pick. It was a pick six and had another two or three balls that were just horribly thrown that should have been picked.

But man, do they protect Andrew Luck? That offensive line that used to be the problem in Indianapolis is outstanding. He was protected. You can see why Indianapolis has surged from a 1-5 start to a 10-and-6 final record and in the playoffs. And by the way, you mentioned this, just a 2.5 point underdog at Houston in the first playoff game. We'll get to that and we'll get to the lines here in a moment. Marlon Max become a threat as a running back. They won that game 3317.

I kept it in the smell test. I could have bailed on that. I told you on Friday I could have bailed and was thinking about bailing if Marriota didn't get the start. I urged you not to play it if Marriota didn't get the start. The line went off at five and a half, pretty much across the board, I think, five and a half, maybe even a six here or there. Blaine Gabbard, not good enough.

Two interceptions in the game. So that was the true play-in game. game. Minnesota obviously played in a playing game, and I'll spend a minute on this. I love all of you guys. I do, and I love the sports conversations that we've had over the years, and we continue to have. I just always find it fascinating when he plays poorly how my Twitter lights up, and when he has really good games like he had in the previous two, I don't hear from anybody. But that's beside the point. He was awful.

The Vikings were awful. As a team, they were awful. But he didn't overcome any of their other flawed areas, which were, by the way, defensively, they couldn't get off the field against the Bears. The Bears were 8 for 12 on 3rd down until the game was out of reach there at the end, and I think they missed their last 3rd down.

But they couldn't get off the field. I mean, when the Vikings actually had closed it to 13 to 10 in the third quarter, Chicago went on a 16-place, 75-yard drive that took nine minutes and five seconds, and that pretty much put the game away. At 21-10, they went for two in that spot also and took an 11-point lead, and there were only five minutes left in the game at that point, or six or seven minutes, something like that.

But Kirk was, he was terrible in this game. He couldn't overcome anything, couldn't make plays under siege the entire day, as he has been all year long, and no running game to speak of, but he just didn't make plays. There wasn't, you know, like many times before in some of these spots, he doesn't have this desperation, this urgency to do it on his own. I totally see that as a Kirk jerk, as someone who loves Kirk, and still believes in him becoming a really good starting quarterback.

That is the thing that's always been obvious. He doesn't extend plays. He doesn't make plays. And with the game on the line and his team struggling in so many different areas, he doesn't even attempt really to do more. You know, it's the process thing that he always discussed. And that is frustrating for someone like me who's a Kirk Cousins fan and wants to see him evolve and improve in those areas.

And until he does, he's going to be reliant, like most quarterbacks are, on being a part of team wins. And when the team doesn't play well, he's rarely going to be able to elevate the team, especially when they're playing a good team. Witness his record against teams with winning records. Now, a lot of that isn't and hasn't been just him. I mean, go back and look at some of the scores and some of his performances in games in which they lost because of their defense.

Same thing in Minnesota earlier in this year. He was incredible in games early in the year that they lost, like to the Rams on the road 3831. But anyway, I'm not shying away from this. He was awful. He didn't do nearly enough. It was the same game he played at Seattle, at New England, and at Chicago the first time.

The bears are really, really good. They wreak havoc defensively up front and against a porous offensive line and a quarterback that isn't going to make people miss and get out of the way and try to make something happen. It's going to totally bog down an offense. And while the defense couldn't get off the field at any point when it mattered in that game, the offense didn't do enough early. They had their first four positions. possessions were three and outs. That was the same thing that happened to Detroit last week. He just, he, he, my tweet, I love you guys.

I called it a step back season for Kirk. And you guys killed me for it saying it wasn't a step back. That's who he is. Okay. Well, you know, if you're going to go in that direction, I'll just mention, oh, by the way, that he had correct. year years and touchdown passes, completion percentage, and there was something else. Interceptions, fewest interceptions he's ever thrown as a starter. Most touchdowns he's thrown as a starter

and his highest completion percentage. But look, it's much more it is, always much more about the numbers. This football team was not the team they had last year. Don't be stupid and act like he just took a championship contending team to 8, 7, and 1. When you read Courtney Cronin, who's the ESPN, the John Kime equivalent, when you read some of the people in there, yeah, they were not pleased with his performance as a whole in some of these key games, but this team was a wreck along the offensive line start to finish. They lost players, and they lost Tony Spirano, their offensive line coach.

when he passed away unexpectedly before the season. They changed offensive coordinators. I can't believe it's possible that Mike Zimmer gets fired. I think Zimmer's a good coach. And if he gets fired for this season, I think that that is way, way too impulsive and too emotional of a reaction. I think he's a tough-minded coach, disciplined teams. Now defensively, they were good during a stretch here.

You know, in late November and December, they played poorly today. And maybe he coached poorly. He had a terrible challenge right before their touchdown that closed it to 13 to 10. I like him as a coach. I don't get to see every one of their games. I'm not in the day-to-day granular detail that all the Minnesota people are, but I'd be really surprised if Zimmer gets let go. Really surprised.

Is he conservative, super conservative in his approach? Yes. Does that, has that made his offensive coordinators unhappy to be there coaching with him? Yes. You can go back, Norv, you know, left mid-season, remember? And Pat Schumer got a head coaching position, and then DiFilippo gone, you know, before the final three weeks. of the season. But anyway, netting it out on Minnesota, disappointing year, disappointing year for Kirk. He didn't get better this year. And that's perhaps why I guess I referred to it as a step

back. I thought being in a better organization, being with better talent, certainly at the wide receiver position. I thought he would take a step up and have a big year. And I wouldn't be surprised if he does next year. But he was not very good. today. Nowhere near good enough to win a game they had to have to get into the postseason, and because of it, Philadelphia is in. What did you make of all the stuff with Dylan on the sideline? Well, I know I was watching the game. I had two screens going because I was interested in that game and the Baltimore game as well, which was a crazy game. I'll get to that. There were a couple of plays on that particular drive that ended up in a field goal to make it 13 to 3 in the first half.

where it really appeared as if Dalvin Cook ran a wrong route on the play before that. Kirk got upset with Dalvin Cook, and then Thielen, he thought Thielen was running, you know, a corner route and threw it there. He was also pressured immediately and had to unload it. But, you know, look, it's, it reminded me of the, you know, the turning point sound that we had, that NFL turning point show, the NFL film sound of Kirk, you know, talking about Mo Harris in the giant game that they lost, that, you know, he was panicky on the sideline. You know, he has some of that in him. And until he actually comes through in some of these big spots,

you know, it's going to be a justifiable criticism. He deserves to get criticized for the game he had against the Bears, both games against the Bears. really good. You know, the games he lost, the Buffalo game early was the worst game of the year for the Vikings because they should beat Buffalo at home as a 17 and a half point favorite in that particular game. But they also made a young Josh Allen look damn good early in that season as well. Anyway, I don't know what else you want me to say, people. I love the conversation. It entertains me to no end. There is one

there was one tweet I wanted to read that was so incredibly stupid that I just felt it deserved a mention and I'm looking for it right now. It was on Kirk Cousins.

Oh, this one from Ross on Twitter. I won't even give out his Twitter handle because it's so idiotic. And maybe you were kidding, Ross. You perhaps were. He tweets to me, does this Kirk Cousins missing the playoffs debacle save Bruce Allen's job? I hope you're kidding. Because if you're not kidding, it's honestly so missing the point and missing the point now for three years. It's not

that anybody thought Kirk Cousins was Drew Brees or Aaron Rogers or Tom Brady, not even me. The point is the handling of the situation start to finish was negligent on every level. They got nothing for him.

Imagine how good Bruce Allen would look today had he traded Kirk for a first round pick. Now you could have given Bruce Allen props and said, Bruce, best move you ever made was trading Kirk Cousins and getting that first round pick back.

but he got nothing for him. Here's what I'll say about that tweet. They're in an indirect way. You could say that if Kirk had made the playoffs, that would have made Dan Snyder mad enough to make a move like that. Oh, there is no doubt, Aaron, that they were rooting for Minnesota to lose. If you want to look at it that way, maybe that tweet has some merit. I'm not so sure that they didn't lie down to a certain extent against Philadelphia

to make sure that Minnesota didn't get in. So in that case, Petty is something that is never, ever, ever been beneath them. I mentioned this earlier. The game plan of dropping Josh Johnson back was like a recipe to get beat badly. Anyway, that's it on them. Next year we'll go through this whole thing again, and you'll tell me how wrong I was,

and maybe he'll play better, and they'll make the postseason, and maybe they won't. Look, I have admitted being wrong. in the past. I was not wrong and will never ever be wrong on criticizing the organization for the way they handled

the Kirk Cousins' contract situation because no one advocated more for a quick signing at a low cost and for a trade when I realized he wasn't coming back and they didn't want him. And that's exactly the way it should

have been handled in both situations. All right. The Baltimore game was ridiculous. Oh, my God. I mean, they had leads in this game. They led 20 to 7. Lamar Jackson had a touchdown. What appeared to be a touchdown to give him a 26, would have been 27 to 7 lead, but he stuck the ball out. It didn't apparently break the plane. It was a fumble. They're lucky that they whistled the dead. It would have been a touchdown going the other way. It was unlucky that they didn't get the touchdown, but also very lucky that the Browns didn't get the touchdown there. Exactly. And Baltimore, but still, Baltimore had a, 20 to 7 lead at halftime.

Had a 23-14 lead at the end of the third quarter. Justin Tucker kicked a field goal, his fourth field goal of the game, with 720 to go in the game that gave him a 26 to 17 lead. But damn, did Baker-Mayfield ball out in this game? And he ended up having a rookie season that will make almost everybody say they made a pretty damn good choice. Right now it looks good. That team was a really.

really good team the last month and a half of this season. Look, he threw some picks. It's the best defense in the NFL. They couldn't run the ball against Baltimore to save their life. Nick Chubb, who's had big games, nine carries 24 yards, 2.7 yards per Gary. They picked Mayfield off three times, including on the last play, the last 4th and 10, where C.J. Mosley picked him off, and then for whatever reason got up and started running with the ball when the game was over and could have been stripped from behind. But they held on. And here's the problem with Baltimore.

They're good enough to win the Super Bowl. They are. But the game context has to stay within a score, almost the whole way, in these playoff games. Because I fear that if they get behind two scores, it's over. And Lamar Jackson, I mean, he is a dynamic. I mean, there were a couple of breathtaking runs in this game by him. We get to see Baker-Lamar twice a year for the next decade.

Yeah. So excited. He ended up with 20 carries for 90 yards. Kenneth Dixon went over 100. Baltimore had another game in which they had nearly 300 yards rushing. They had another game in which they dominated time of possession, 38 minutes to 22 minutes, basically. They won the turnover battle in the game by two.

and they had to hold on for dear life at the end. I thought really when Baker Mayfield on that last drive, he completed two balls on that last drive, that replay had to one overturn and the other one uphold. The last one to Landry gave them a first and ten at the Baltimore 39-yard line with a minute 18 left. And I just, I thought, my God, for the second consecutive year, the best defensive team's not going to the postseason.

but on four straight plays, they brought the kitchen sink after Mayfield. He had one throw to Landry on the sideline on a second and 10, where Landry was open against the man, the zero, I think it was zero coverage. Had Landry open and threw it just behind him. That completion would have put him in field goal range. They went forward on 4th and 10. It would have been a 57-yard field goal. They went forward on 4th and 10, and Mayfield got blitzed,

and through, Mosley dropped as everybody else was coming. He made a really good interception, and now Baltimore wins the AFC North. That was my, I had two teams that I picked as surprise teams this year that weren't in the playoffs last year, Baltimore and the Giants. It looked like, you know, neither one of them was going to make it. Baltimore did make it. It's going to be interesting to watch them in the postseason, and they get the rematch with the Chargers on Sunday. Sunday afternoon at 1 o'clock. The other games that mattered late, the Seahawks were in position actually to potentially

go to Chicago had they lost to the Cardinals, but they won on a walk-off field goal. The Steelers stayed alive and then watched the end of that Cleveland game, but they didn't play very well. They were down at one point, I think 10-0 to Cincinnati. The Rams locked up the two-seed, destroying the 49ers who were a smell test pick, 48. to 32. Still no Gurley, saving him for the postseason, but they got off to a big start, and they had three interceptions of Nick Mullins, so I thought at times played well, but San Francisco couldn't overcome four turnovers, even though they put up 32 points.

Alfred Morris, just as an aside, went for over 100 yards in that game for the 49ers. So did I miss? I don't think I missed a game. the Chiefs wrapped up the division. The Chargers won two, but the Chiefs jumped out. That game was over early. Mahomes ends up with how many touchdowns? 50 or 51?

What was it on the year? Look at this. Yeah, 50. Ended up with 50 on the dot. Not bad for his first year starting. All right. So the playoff games are set. and the lines are out.

And it starts Saturday afternoon with an AFC South matchup. And that matchup is a really interesting matchup from a point spread perspective. I personally think Houston's good enough to go to the Super Bowl. I think they're good enough on both sides of the ball. They are only a two and a half point favorite at home against Indianapolis in the first game Saturday at 435. I would have never guessed that point spread. If you told me the point spread earlier,

I would have guessed this to be four and a half, five, somewhere in that neighborhood, maybe even more. I can tell you this, more likely than not, I think Indy might be a smell test pick, but then again, with the way they're playing and Andrew Luck, they may be the public side this week. But Houston being less than a field goal is really the most interesting point spread

of the week. That game is followed Saturday night by Cowboys Seahawks, and the Cowboys are a two and a half point favorite at home over Seattle in that game. Remember, Dallas earlier in the season played Seattle. I think it was week three and lost at home to the Seahawks, but that was really a different Dallas team at that point. But Dallas, a two and a half point favorite at home Saturday. night in the Saturday night game. The way the networks are splitting this up, by the way,

is it's an ESPN indie Houston game, then it's Fox on Saturday night, Dallas, Seattle, CBS Sunday at 1 for Baltimore hosting the Chargers, and the Ravens are favored by two and a half. Remember, they just went to Los Angeles and stoned the Chargers, 22 to 10, and it wasn't really that close. I mean, the Chargers could not move the ball. against Baltimore. And their only touchdown came courtesy of a turnover that set up a short field. And then late on Sunday, the 440 kickoff time Sunday, and that game is on NBC late Sunday. Usually in the past, we've seen CBS and Fox on Sunday with the other networks, whomever, whichever ones they were, do Saturday games. But the NBC game is the late game on Sunday,

Philadelphia at Chicago. And you told me you saw Bears minus seven earlier? I mean, I saw that originally. I'm seeing 5.5. Now, yes. I'm looking at 5.5. Yes. On one of my shots.

I'm seeing everything else is 5.5. When I first saw it at basically the beginning of the show, I did see 7 early. What's interesting to me, and I mentioned this on Friday, that the look ahead lines were, for Chicago, were minus 5 and a half against Philadelphia, which is where it is. And it was only three and a half against Minnesota, but I guarantee you, after watching the Bears twice against the Vikings this year, the Bears would never have lost a game to Minnesota next week at home, Soldier Field. The matchup just is not a good matchup for Minnesota. I thought that, you know, especially when the Rams were way ahead at halftime, I thought the Bears would pack it in and say,

all right, we want to play the Vikings. I think on the final drive they had their second string. defense in there. So Chicago is laying five and a half at home to Philadelphia. I think it's a really interesting playoff field. Looking at all four of these games, would any result in any one of these four games surprise you? Wouldn't me. Houston winning, Indie winning. I actually think Houston's going to win that game. I don't know what my betting instincts will be by the time we get there. But I think Houston's good. Remember, they had two spectacular games against Indy this year. It was that first win that Houston had at Indianapolis. Remember when Frank

Reich went for the fourth down? That got them started if I, right, that was their first win. They were 0 and 3. And they won that game 37, 34 and overtime. And then the more recent game was the game they lost at home 24-21. So, you know, that's that. That, That's one of the reasons, too, that the line is a little bit shorter than maybe I would have guessed it to be. Houston, Indy, I mean, any result is possible in this one. I mean, no one's going to be surprised at either one of those two teams winning. Seattle at Dallas, I think a lot of people are going to think Seattle's going to win. I think Dallas has a pretty good chance to win at home in that playoff game.

Baltimore Chargers, I mean, after what we saw last Saturday night, however, you know, I was rooting for Philip Rivers in that Saturday night game. I love the people that have tweeted me saying, oh, you're a Ravens fan. No, I'm not a Ravens fan. I just respect the hell out of that franchise. I am intrigued by that franchise and how well-run and how often they get it right

versus, well, my team, for starters. But I'm a much bigger Philip Rivers fan. I've always been a Rivers fan. And some of you have mocked me for that over the years. So that is what my number one rooting interest will be in the postseason is to root for Philip Rivers to win the Super Bowl. And root for the Cowboys to lose, I guess. I think they're going to have a tough time, though, against Baltimore.

I do. I think Baltimore, actually, with that defense at home, I think that that's a tough spot for the Chargers. And then I think Baltimore, more likely than not. Now, if Indy wins, they would go to Arrowhead. Yes. And Baltimore would go to New England. I would bet you any amount of money New England does not want to see the Ravens.

Oh, they definitely don't want to see the Ravens. I think the one interesting thing about the Chargers Ravens game, this will be the first time Lamar Jackson's face the same team twice. How does that change things? Yeah, I mean, but then again, it's as basic as it gets to begin with. It's not like they're trying to fool anybody. You know, they're easy to game plan for. They're just hard to stop from executing.

Philly at Chicago, I don't know, man. The Bears are awfully good. I, I, I, maybe that, actually, that would be the game that would surprise me now. If Philadelphia goes into Soldier Field and beats the Bears, and I know that it's the defending champions. Don't they have the Team of Destiny thing around them? Who, the Bears or the Eagles? No, the Eagles right now. I, I don't, I don't like the matchup for them in Chicago.

I'm going to look at, I'm going to look at a couple of weather look aheads too. I like doing that to see, because you got, you got Arrow. Well, next weekend, you've got Chicago and Baltimore outdoors, Houston and Dallas Inside. I think the weather here next weekend, meaning in Baltimore, is going to be okay. I have no idea what it's going to be in Chicago. But I'm going to look it up for you right now just to see what the extended forecast is for Chicago next Sunday afternoon. partly sunny, high near 40 next Sunday. Not bad for Chicago this time of year. And then the following week, you've got New England and Kansas City waiting for the winners.

You've got the Saints and the Rams waiting for the winners. If the Eagles were to win, let's just look at it this way. If the Eagles win, they're going back to New Orleans in a 6-1 matchup. Does anybody want to see that game again? 48 to 7 the first go-round? Seattle, Dallas winner, more likely than not, will go to L.A. if Chicago wins, Chicago, I'm sorry, we'll go to L.A. in the 3-2 game, and the Dallas-Seattle winner would go to New Orleans. These playoffs are going to be great. You know, there was a time where at the end of a Redskins season, I would be so disappointed. I wouldn't even be thinking about watching the playoffs. I watch them every year, but the day after. But we've been anticipating the end of this season for quite some time. There's been some, been some, some very, very good football, fascinating football this year played, you know, from the great offenses and the big-time offensive games to some of the really good defensive teams and some of the really good defensive battles that have taken place. The Saints are the overall favorite to win the Super Bowl.

They are, according to Westgate in Las Vegas, they are plus 225. Kansas cities next at plus 400, and then it's the Patriots and the Rams at plus 500. I'm looking for where the Ravens are plus 2,000. The Bears are plus 900. The Chargers are plus 1,600. The Chargers are actually a better odds favorite to win the Super Bowl than the Ravens, and they've got to play in Baltimore in that first round. The long shot of the postseason, Philadelphia, plus 3,000. So 30 to 1, the Eagles are.

And look, here's the reason. If they were to beat Chicago, we've seen the New Orleans game, and the New Orleans game was 48 to 7. The Colts are 25 to 1. Cowboys are 25 to 1. Anyway, we've got plenty of time to go through all of that. the firing so far Tampa fired their coach

Dirk cutter and then Todd Bowles is out in New York Those are the official ones I think at this point I think people are expecting actually Steve Wilkes to lose his job after a year Vance Joseph to lose his job

and then of course we already have the jobs that were already available And Greg Williams sounds like right now is not going to be retained I mean he's another one I would certainly think about for here. Anyway, let's finish up the show real quickly with a little weekend DVR. There wasn't much else, but we'll talk about the two college games here.

Did you have a busy weekend? Don't worry. We've got you covered. It's time for weekend DVR. All right. We'll do the two college games, and that's really it. John Wall is out for the year, or is going to have surgery, according to reports, that will put him out for the year. The Wizards beat the Bulls the other night.

The caps continue to roll. My God, they are on fire. The two semi-final games on Saturday. Notre Dame Clemson. You know, the final score was 30 to 3, and Clemson was a smell test pick. I didn't feel watching that game early on that it was as one-sided as it ultimately turned out to be score-wise.

I think Notre Dame actually got, you know, screwed a little bit on that kickoff return where they forced the fumble, but the ball was shown over at least part of the sideline, part of the white on the sideline. I didn't think it was conclusive that the ball was touching the white. That's the way I saw it watching. I think many people felt the same way and maybe others didn't. It was a crucial point in the game.

It was three to three. You were in the second quarter, second quarter, late first, whatever it was. And Notre Dame had done a pretty good job early in that game. You know, Clemson had, I think, two punts on their first three drives, and after Notre Dame kicked that field goal to tie it, they had an opportunity there for a first in ten at like the first and goal at the Clemson nine, eight-yard line, something like that.

But they called the ball out of bounds, let Clemson, take it over from that point. I thought it was inconclusive, and that would have been a big difference maker in that game. I mean, Notre Dame would have, and worst case, been up six to three, unless they turned it over and missed a field goal. And I thought they played well early. The second half, though, really, and actually the very end of the first half, when Clemson scored twice at 9 to 3 in the final two minutes on two big play touchdown passes, Trevor Lawrence was spectacular. And their big play ability just was something that Notre Dame had to contain, didn't contain. Very early on in that game, Notre Dame was playing everything underneath, coming up and making tackles.

And then all of a sudden, Clemson started to beat him deep. Lawrence was spectacular in that game. And Travis Etienne, one of the better backs in the country, was really held in check for, like, the first half or so. And then he broke a big one in the second half, and they win the game. 30 to 3. The Alabama Oklahoma game seemed to be over before it started, and then all of a sudden the second half came. And while there was never any threat of Oklahoma winning this game, watching Kyler Murray play

quarterback for Oklahoma in that second half in particular when they were down 28-0 early second quarter and watching him make plays was, well, it was fun all year long to watch him make plays. They scored 34 points in three quarters against Alabama. You know, they essentially, after getting behind 28-0 and punting on, I think, their first three drives, after that, they really weren't stopped the rest of the way. And they just needed a turnover. They needed one play, really, to get it to. to within a one score game, and they couldn't do that. They couldn't stop Bama. I think I predicted

63, 36 or 35 or something on Friday and said Bama wouldn't punt in the entire game or might punt once. I think they punted twice in the game. I think they punted twice in the game. But Oklahoma's defense was among the worst, if not the worst, in the Power Five conferences all year long. and those of you that said, oh, the committee got it wrong, they got it wrong, you know, anybody could have seen that Oklahoma's defense couldn't hold up or Notre Dame couldn't hold up. Both of those teams were deserving with the way the formula works. Would Georgia have given Alabama a much better game? Well, of course they would.

They nearly won the SEC title game. Would Georgia had given Clemson a much better game? Yes, they would have. But they had two losses. They should have beat in LSU if they had wanted to get in to the field. Alabama is a six-point favorite in the national championship game. I thought it was going to be more. I know I looked at the look-ahead line recently,

and I guess I didn't remember it to be six. I thought it was seven or eight. It's six. It's a hell of a match-up. You know, I know that a lot of people are sick of seeing Bama and Clemson. And there's a certain part of that that I agree with, but these are the clear-cut two best teams. Georgia's really close.

Georgia's exceptionally close. I personally don't think Ohio State's in that conversation. I think it's Bama Clemson, Georgia, and then there's a drop-off to everybody else. But we should see a hell of a national championship game. A week from Monday night. A week from tonight now, because we are officially into December, 31st. Anything else from the weekend?

Mark Rick retired and within hours Miami found their replacement. Boy, that was surprising. That was a surprising retirement. Yeah. So what did it? Was it two full years? Was it only two years at Miami? I believe so, yeah. And he did a good job. Remember, he had him in the hunt last year. But anyway, that was both of those games. Neither one of them was compelling and you know I know a lot of people are you know for expanding the playoff field as am I and I think others aren't I just personally have always felt that if you

had a quarter final Saturday that that that army navy play and you've got four games and a in a quadruple header that it would become one of the great days in all of sports and you know what you would have had is you would have had the possibility of a better final four because a two lost team like Georgia this year, very likely as a five seed, would have beaten the four seed, or as a six seed would have beaten the three seed, and perhaps would have been into the final four. Anyway, you didn't get that. All right, thanks to J.P. Finley. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to all of you. Happy New Year, everybody. I love, trust me. I love doing this. I love the interaction that I've had with so many of you over so many years,

but in particular this fall with this endeavor. The support's been really, really nice, and it's meant a hell of a lot to me. And I'm looking forward to doing this moving forward. So I wish everybody a happy new year. If there is news related to the Redskins, a firing of some sort, we will come in and do a podcast on that when it happens,

or certainly shortly thereafter. But if not, we won't do a show on New Year's Day. We'll be back Wednesday. Tommy's actually not going to be here this week, I don't think. He had, there was a death in the family of a friend, and I think he's going to have to go to a funeral on Thursday. So we'll miss him this week. He's written some great columns, though, recently.

If you want to read them, they're on the Washington Times.com. It's a tough website to navigate through. Anyway, happy New Year, everybody.