The Kevin Sheehan Show - Is Jayden 100%?

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

Kevin solo today the day after Washington's 28-27 loss to Pittsburgh with some discussion and information about Jayden Daniels' rib injury. Updates to his Commanders-Steelers "Game-Take" along with Dan Quinn on the Ertz 4th down spot, Zaccheus as a punt returner Thursday night in Philly, and excitement about facing the Eagles in a first-place NFC East showdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Washington has converted 11. Fourth down attempts this season. 11 of 11.

Daniel's on 4th and 9 delivers it. Wow, it's really cool. I think he's going to get it. Catch is made by Erks. And now it's going to come down to the officials and where they spot it. They're giving it to Pittsburgh short. A day later, and I still think Zach Ertz got to where he was trying to get to, I do.

Dan Quinn spoke about that fourth and nine play earlier today during his day after Monday press conference. I'm going to play what he said for you coming up here in this opening segment to the show. A show who's presenting sponsor is always his Window Nation. If you need new windows, call them 86690 Nation or go to Window. donation.com. Mention my name, they'll come out and give you a free, no obligation in-home estimate. So I did do after the game yesterday, as I have been doing this year, a post-game wrap-up. It's available wherever you listen to this podcast, past episodes, yesterday's episode dated

November 10th. I've got a few updates to the game take, which I will do in the next segment. But I wanted to open with this. and it deals with the health of Jaden Daniels. Two notes that I got a tweet and an email. This from G. Berg-Berg-Chevin writes, there's no doubt that Daniels is hurting. I was at the game yesterday and saw the trainers tending to him on multiple occasions.

From David MC, David writes, Kevin, did you talk about Daniels maybe being hurt and that being a reason why he didn't run as much yesterday, it looked like he was being looked at by doctors and trainers on the bench. I think the rib injury is a thing for him right now. On one of those runs, he went down like he did in the Panthers game to avoid being hit. So let's start with this, because yesterday after the game,

I was on the post-game show that my friend Howard Gutman and his son, Colin. They do a show together in Richmond following Washington games, and they had me on as a guest, and Colin asked me if I thought that Jaden Daniels was hurting because he didn't run as much. And to be honest with you, it didn't really occur to me that he was hurting. I didn't really notice that he was hurting yesterday, and I didn't think that he was, but it's possible that that rib injury is still bothering him. So I talked to a few people today. And there were a couple of things that I learned, including something that I didn't learn from somebody that I talked to, but I had somebody reach out to me to say that Logan Paulson said something on the radio broadcast yesterday,

which I will get to here in a few moments. But what I learned is that, yeah, the rib is still an issue. fact, before the Giants game last week, I was told to go find what Jaden said about his rib issue. By the way, let's just kind of set the timeline for this, for those that are kind of forgetting when he got hurt and how many games he's played since. It was October 20th against Carolina at home. First drive of the game. It was that read option big run. Forget how many yards it was, 50-some yards. And he injured his ribs on that play. He played. He played. the rest of that drive and did go down meekly to avoid being hit on one of those read option keepers and then left the game and Marcus Mariotta played the rest of the game as we remember.

But Jaden was back the following week for the all-time memorable ending game against Chicago and played the entire game and there was nothing about the play calling that, you know, limited him from doing what he had done during the season, played the entire game last week against the Giants. Same thing. No limiting factors. And the same against Pittsburgh yesterday. In terms of the play calling, certainly they weren't, you know, holding back if he was hurting more. I did go back, as it was suggested to me, to find the quotes from Jaden last week before the Giant game. And he said a few things after acknowledging that his ribs are sore. He said, quote, I'm still intact. Pain tolerance is always a big thing. Close quote. Then he was asked about a timeline before the pain goes away. He said,

quote, I wish I knew it's just how I feel daily, how I wake up and how I'm able to move around. And the organization here has a great plan. So I'm trusting that and following it, closed quote. So last week before the giant game, he acknowledged that the ribs were still hurting and that it's really more about pain tolerance. You know, I think we can safely say the ribbon, injury isn't 100% healed, but they protect him as much as they can, and for him it's about pain tolerance. But was it a factor in his play yesterday? Was it the reason he didn't run more? Or that his throws were a bit off or anything else associated with his performance? I don't think so. because I was told to just go back and watch the previous games

against the Bears and the Giants, where he had no issues running the ball at all. The feeling was that Pittsburgh just did a good job defensively and that some of the injuries up front combined with the lack of a running game just made things more difficult for not only him but the entire offense. Remember, he rushed for 53 yards against the Bears, And last week, 35 yards against the Giants. But in both games, he had some excellent escapes outside the pocket

and made the defenses look silly, had multiple read option keepers in both of those games. He did, you know, David M.C., he did go down quickly on one of those read options yesterday, and I went back and looked at it. But there was nowhere to run. And so he got down and protected himself, you know, rather than taking on a host of tackler. that were waiting for him. So I'm not sure that that was necessarily an indication of anything.

I tend to buy what I was told, that yesterday was more about the Steelers, and that, you know, they didn't limit anything from a play-calling standpoint, and that, you know, the two weeks following the injury, when he was probably at his sorest, he was very effective as a runner, very effective as a thrower. I mean, he had great games, right? against the bears and the giants. I tend to just buy it and think, you know, and I said this on Friday, that the Steelers remember, face Lamar Jackson twice a year. They're used to dealing with a quarterback like Jaden Daniels

because of their experience twice a year with Lamar. By the way, did you see what Mike Tomlin said after the game yesterday when he was asked about the Jaden Daniels-Lamard Jackson comp? He said the following, quote, Be real slow comparing people to Lamar Jackson. That's a multi-time MVP. That's Mr. Jackson. We'll see Mr. Jackson in a few days.

Closed quote. Pittsburgh plays the Ravens this coming week. So good answer from a timetable standpoint to make sure that they are focused on Baltimore and that there's no headline created with, you know, him saying something other than something very positive about Lamar Jackson. But Jaden was fine and nothing was off limits in the first two games after the injury in the Carolina game. He was great against Chicago. He was great against the Giants. The Steelers are just better than those two teams.

And look, if he was really hurting, they wouldn't have called some of the plays they called. There were a couple of read-option keepers. There were a couple of read-option plays in which he didn't keep it. And then that QB draw at the two-minute warning that I loved, I talked about it on last night's show, which almost turned into a huge play for field goal range. You know, do they call that play if he's more compromised? I just think Pittsburgh did a great job on keeping him from hurting them with his legs. It was his lowest rushing output of the year by far, five yards.

As far as the throws, I think he was just off. And at other times, you know, the receipts. waivers were off because there were several drop passes in the game. There may be another thing, though, that I'll get to here in a moment. But I wanted to mention just one play that when I went back and watched the game, it was really a noticeable play in that he took a big shot to the rib area near the end of the game, not during the lead-up the first three quarters. This was near the end of the game on that next to last.

drive when they were deep in their own end zone. It was after the play in which he missed McCaffrey, and by the way, there was also a blatant hold in the end zone that should have been called for a safety. It was the third down-and-eight before they punted it. And he was flushed right, you know, they pressured quickly, and here comes T.J. Watt bearing down on him, and he just dumps the ball in the general direction of Echler incomplete.

But T.J. Watt lowered the boom. went right for the rib area and drilled them. It was not a cheap shot. It was not a penalty. It was just as he released the ball, but it was a big shot that Jaden took on that play. He got up, you know. He was in the back of the end zone,

like out of the end zone after the hit. But he got up and seemed to be okay. But look, on his health, he's dealing, you know, with sore ribs, not enough to keep him out of the games, not enough for them to call the games any differently. So that's what I would tell you right now. I don't think the lack of running yesterday had to do with his sore ribs.

I don't. And one other thing actually, because I was reminded of this, that remember before the Chicago game and before the giant game, Jaden was on the injury report. Last week, he wasn't. So they felt good enough about his improving condition that he wasn't even listening. at any point on the injury report last week heading in to this week's game.

One other thing, though, related to his health and maybe even his performance yesterday. So Logan Paulson, who we love, does sidelines for the team's radio broadcast of the games. Bram Weinstein does play-by-play. London Fletcher is the analyst, and Logan Paulson does sidelines. Well, yesterday, at one point early in the game, first quarter, maybe early second quarter, he suggested that Jaden's hand was being treated for perhaps a cut. Nothing was said on the TV broadcast, so I texted Logan, and Logan said, told me that he did say something about it on the air. He said that he thought it might be a cut.

because they were treating him with the stuff that they used to treat clotting that you usually see when somebody has a cut. He didn't see the cut necessarily, but he saw him being treated as if they were treating him for a cut. I had somebody else tell me that it was on his throwing hand. So make of that what you want could have affected his throwing. I have no idea. Anyway, this was Dan Quinn earlier today.

and I will play for you what he said about Ertz here in a moment. The Ertz play. But this was Dan Quinn today when he was asked about Pittsburgh keeping Jaden from getting out of the pocket and running yesterday. Here's what Quinn's answer was. They got a good blitz package. That part was there. But I thought as good as they are, John, I thought we still missed some real chances at us. And so if some of those turn into catches and big plays down the field, those are one.

You don't get back, so you don't get to say, except for this play or except for that play. And so a lot of respect for how their style is, you know, the pressure in to go. But not having the run game quite up and going like we would like also affects the play pass to John. So I think those two things go hand in hand. The coach referring to John is in John Kime, who asked Quinn the question. By the way, Kime yesterday honored before the game because yesterday was, was his 500th game as a reporter covering the team. Congrats, Kime.

He is so good at what he does, and that is quite the run that he has had. To another 500, John. We'll get John back on the show soon. So you heard Quinn give credit to the Pittsburgh Blitz package. He talked about the run game not being what they wanted and how that impacts play action. But for him, what you really heard him saying was,

even though they did a good job of not letting Jaden make plays outside the pocket, there were a lot of missed opportunities from the pocket with him throwing the football, which is very true. You know, several big missed chances with him throwing the football from the pocket. Some of them on him because he wasn't accurate, and some of them on his receivers who dropped. a lot of balls. All right, I did want you to hear what the coach said during his press conference earlier today about the fourth and nine throw to Ertz. Here's Quinn. Yeah, in fact, we have a call

today just to get some clarity on it. I know that it went to New York, so from my end, there's not a, you know, anything to go. Like a fourth down is like a, you know, a challenge. They would review it, you know, from the spot to come in. From where I was standing, I didn't have the same. view as you guys who could see the telecast and, you know, see where it was. So I'd like to find out. I know they went to New York, so they did review it. So I just want to find out, you know, where did they see it was short. It wasn't something that I could ask for a spot on because it was already under review.

So in that instance, you just got to say, we got to go get three stops and, you know, try to get the ball back into that spot. But I didn't get, you know, an answer regarding, you know, other than that. was short and they went to review. So Quinn's saying they've got a call to get some clarity on it today. So we'll see if anything comes of that. We all understand under two minutes, that's not a challengeable play. It's a booth review.

It's booth, New York, you know, however you want to describe it. And I just would like to know exactly when he's ruled down, you know, because I think the catch is at the line to game. But if he's not touched when he makes that catch, is that not considered sort of forward progress on the catch so that they can spot it there? Is it, you know, when he gets touched and was the ball then a little bit behind the line to gain when he got touched? Maybe that was it. I'd love to hear an explanation. One thing you see when you go back and you watch that play is that the referee that spots the ball is nowhere near in position to see where Hurtz caught it. He's actually 10 yards behind where he caught it. He's at the line of scrimmage.

He sprints down after the catch and he comes into market where he marked it. And by the way, the mark is a terrible mark. Like even if you are convinced that it wasn't enough for the first down, it was inches, not three quarters of a yard, you know, or almost a full yard. The spot of the ball was not correct. If ultimately they decided that, you know, there wasn't enough video evidence to turn it, to turn the call into a first down and they just say the call stands, maybe that's why they don't move the ball to the proper spot because it's not a first down anyway. But look, there were a lot of other plays in the game.

There were a lot of other opportunities. And Pittsburgh has plenty of gripes from the game as well. As I mentioned on the podcast last night, the throw that he misses to McCaffrey from his own end zone, there is such a blatant Trent Scott hold on T.J. Watt in the end zone. It is blatant. I watched the All-22 from the end zone view. It is clearly a hold. The referees right there, they didn't throw the flag. If they had thrown the flag, that's a safety. and it's 2723 and Washington's punting it back and Pittsburgh ends up with worse field position and we talked about sort of the strategy of maybe taking a safety anyway, which I thought there was too much time to do that. But Pittsburgh had some complaints. You know, there was a hold on a

field goal from Gonzalez, the 41-yarder that he made. There was a clear hold on that play. That would have moved it back 10 yards. But, you know, you always tend to go with the call that happened last because it tends to be the most impactful. And certainly that one will be talked about for a while. All right, I've got a few revisions to my game take. I'll get to that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Euro step around that hot take and make a play today with Robin Hood. With a 3% boost on your annual IRA contributions with Robin Hood gold,

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I am confident in him. and knowing that, you know, to have one come out and, you know, on the possession and lose that one, that's a big deal. But the guys working incredibly hard at it and, you don't have any change into that space as we're heading into this game. But, yeah, very fair question on that. Dan Quinn answering what he acknowledged was a fair question about Olomidi Zakias returning punts against Philadelphia on Thursday night. He will return punts against the Eagles on Thursday night. Quinn sang, and you heard it, don't have any change into that space as we're heading into this game. All right.

You know, when he said into this game, maybe that's a hint that this is the last shot for Zichias. One more bobble, one more fumble. That could be a problem. He had two yesterday, bobbled one recovered it. Obviously had the fumble that cost him seven points. had a fumble in the Chicago game that he recovered, had a sketchy catch in the giant game that didn't hit the ground. He's had some issues catching it.

I like the player. I like Zakias. I like him when he catches it as a returner. I like him as a receiver. Fingers crossed because, you know, a fumbled punt, you know, muffed punt on Thursday night in Philadelphia, that's not going to help their chances of winning that game. All right, let's get to a quick recap of my game take from last night with a few thoughts beyond what I mentioned last night.

And I want to say this to start because there was a lot of angst over this loss. You know, they lost a game to a good team in Pittsburgh coming off a buy week. They played the game essentially on the road, not really, but more of a home game for the Steelers yesterday. Landover than it was for Washington. The skins were banged up. They were missing offensive starters, two key starters, Wiley and Brian Robinson, Jr. And they were right there, up 10 in the third quarter.

They lost by a point to a team who is good, now 7 and 2. You know, one good spot from the ref on the Earth's catch, one catch that wasn't dropped, one throw that was more on the mark, and they probably win the game. You know, here's a play, by the way, that I didn't mention yesterday in my game take, that was an underrated big play. One of those plays that had it gone their way, it was a call by an official, maybe they end up winning the game.

And I'm skeptical about this call after watching the All-22, but it was the drive when they were backed up after Kwan Martin, you know, forced the fumble on Jalen Warren. And Chris Rodriguez is in the backfield with them. with the ball at the one yard line. And he rips off two good runs. He rips off a four-yard run out to the five-yard line. And on second and six, he gets basically five and a half yards to the 10-yard line or just beyond the 10. And John Bates gets called for holding. It was questionable. It backed them up to the three instead of having third and like a foot to make a first down, to eat another

minute 30 to two minutes of the clock to potentially rip off another first down and eat more of the clock. And now you're getting into the territory of up six with the ball, moving it out in better field position. That was a huge call that went against them. I've already mentioned the quarterback draw at the two-minute warning was such a good call by Kingsbury. I loved that call. Talked about it last night. And 95, Benton, he makes a great play. but Cosmy, I think, missed taking care of him.

You know, Cosmy's such a good player, but I think Benton makes a good play on Cosmy. If Cosmy can hold him back from the play, Jaden's off to the races. It's a 10, 15, maybe bigger play, down the field and into field goal range. Look, I said, you know, emphatically at the start of the show last night, this was not a bad loss.

I know how some of you think this was a really bad loss. Like, you know, you can't lose a game that way. You know, I don't know what you're talking about. It was a disappointing loss. That game was two good teams, good game, not the cleanest at all times, but intense and important. And all of the factors that I mentioned, Steelers off a buy week, Steelers are good, Steelers are healthy, Washington at home, but really on the road,

Washington banged up. It's a disappointing loss. It's not a bad loss. You know what a bad loss is? We've seen a lot of them. Let me give you some recently. How about last year on Thursday night football when they were a sizable favorite over the Bears and they got absolutely embarrassed on national television by a lesser team?

It turns out they weren't a lesser team, but we thought they were going into the game. How about the Cleveland loss at the end of 2022 on New Year's Day? New Year's Day, 2023, when they had to win to get into the playoffs, and then Ron Rivera was asked after the game about, you know, would he start Sam Howell if they were eliminated? And he didn't even know that they could be eliminated. You know, that was a bad loss. Cleveland wasn't a good team coming into that game. No worse loss in recent memory than the loss at the end of 2016. All they had to do was win against the Giants on New Year's Day at FedEx Field. Giants had already clinched a playoff berth. They had nothing to play for. They played their starters, you know, a lot of the game, but they played a very vanilla game, and Washington lost that game. That's a bad loss. That is a horrendous loss. Yesterday, a game they could have won, yes, but Pittsburgh deserves a lot of credit. They played well. They made some big time plays. Russell Wilson made some big time throws. The catch by Mike Williams insane.

And they made a few more plays. And they got a few more breaks. That's all. All right. For those of you that missed it, I'll run through it real quickly. What I liked, didn't like a few other observations. And I'll add a few to this as well as I already have. So overall, what I really liked was the run defense. I like the defense. I like the defense. in general. But the run defense was a major step up from a run defense standpoint in this game. They had been vulnerable to the run all year long in the games against good teams. They had been torched by some of these better teams. Even in the games where they weren't run on, they were run on so significantly in the games against better teams. They were 30th in rush defense. They were

I'm sorry, 30th in, 31st in yards allowed per rush, in 29th over on rush defense, 26th DVOA. And they held the Steelers to 3.3 yards per rush. You know, and going back and looking at it, a couple of things stood out to me. Number one, man, did they load the box up at times? You know, they, I counted four different nine-man boxes. nine. Now these were run, you know, defense first in 10 against 13 personnel, all right, one back, three tight ends. So they crowded the box, you know, expecting run. And by the way,

there were a couple of good runs against it. But they had eight in the box. They walked down Kwan Martin as an eighth into the box. And behind it, one of the reasons they got burned deep a couple of times is they were playing man coverage, often with single high safety. You know, if you're going to commit to stopping the run, that's the poison you want to stop. You're going to be vulnerable on the back end. And that's one of the reasons they went out and got Latimore. You know, Latimore hopefully will be a big help being able to take away at least the number one on the other team. And by the way, the team they face Thursday night has A.J. Brown, Devante Smith. And oh, by the way, Sequin Barkley. And oh, by the way, Jalen Hertz is part

of the run game, but I would imagine they're going to commit a lot to the box to stop the run Thursday night. So, you know, they were, they gave up 140 yards on the ground, but it was 43 carries. You know, I mentioned that they shut down Najee Harris for all intents and purposes. 21 for 53, that's 2.5 yards per carry for him. He was averaging over six in his last three games coming in. So the run defense for the first time made the things I liked list. And again, they had a plan. It was kind of like the Baltimore game. They had a plan.

They were going to stop. They were going to do their best to stop the run. They got torched through the air and then got torched on the ground against Baltimore. Jalen Warren had a couple outside with a crowded up box, but for the most part, excellent. The defense overall, you know, I mentioned, you know, on. the show last night. They had been giving up, you know, basically, they led the league in points per drive,

fewest punts per game, but their defense was giving up too many points per drive and wasn't forcing enough punts. Well, Pittsburgh punted five times. They had 13 drives. They scored on four of them. That's not bad. The problem, of course, is the four scores were all touchdowns.

But on 75 offensive plays. They held Pittsburgh to 312 yards, 4.2 yards per play. That was a lot less than the six and a half yards per play. The Steelers had averaged in their last two games. Again, the strategy you could tell much of the time, you know, even when they had seven in the box, it was typically seven in the box, you know, on 11 personnel or 12 personnel, you know, they just, or really 11 personnel, 12 personnel or 13 personnel, one back, two tight ends, one back three tight ends. They were loaded up, man. They were like, we are, we need to stop the run.

Overall defensively, I mentioned, you know, in the show that I thought a few players stood out. The two safeties, I love Chin and Martin. I think they're playing very well. I thought Lou Vu played well. I thought Payne played well. I thought Payne had one of his better games. I thought Sanra Still, Butler played well. Fowler Jr. played well.

Number 64, Sheldon Day played well. He was in on 31% of the snaps. He actually graded out as the highest graded player on the team per PFF. Chin led the team in tackles. Sheldon Day, number 64, was second. He's noticeable, especially when you go back and watch the team. tape. No doubt he is. The other player that stood out when you went back and watched the tape, I thought Igben O'Gennie actually, you know, covered well. Like that touchdown pass to Pickens

is the perfect throw. And I thought Sanristill, as much as you guys want to complain about St. Juice, and I'll get to him when I get to the list of things that I didn't like, you know, they targeted Santerstall a few times. He was on Pickens. Piggins had a couple of big catches with Sanra still covering. But Igben O'Gennie, the same thing. I thought Johnny Newton played well, despite the jumping off sides. He was another one that I didn't mention last night. And I thought Dorrance Armstrong, you know, once again showed up.

I think Armstrong's having a pretty good season for them. All right. So defensively, you know, that made the good list. Corn was on the things I liked list. I mean, he was outstanding. Good God. Five catches, 113 yards, 22.6 yards per reception. The catches he made, you know, the 28-yard sideline catch is ridiculous. He had the 54-yard slant that took off, you know, that he took off on the first drive of the third quarter. You know, Terry did have four-three speed coming out. I don't know if he's got four-three speed anymore, but who cares? Because he makes every contested catch.

He had to slant on third and nine on that opening drive of the third quarter. He had another slant in the first half that he advanced to within, I think that was four or first down or just short of the first down. There was one ball that you might construe as a drop. It was a little bit behind it, but it was catchable. But McCorn outstanding. I thought Luke McCaffrey had a good game. One catch, 23 yards on the third and four in the first half. obviously the missed opportunity from deep in the end zone.

Jaden, that's the one he wants back more than any other. He gets huge separation on a play in which Jaden got sacked on. Jaden's first sack of the day, and I didn't talk about these. It's third and three. It's a second drive. They're five rushing. There's a spy on him, and Highsmith beats Coleman. Coleman had what appeared to be kind of a rough day.

Alex Highsmith is a tough, you know, task. Highsmith beat him a couple times badly, but McCaffrey, so much separation. On this third and three, it was the first sack for Jaden. McAfree's open on the crosser. Jaden's got to throw it. He didn't throw it. I don't know why he didn't throw it. Well, the one reason would be is he's working Terry's side of the field and Terry gets no separation at all. Terry's not open. You know, Porter Jr.'s got him locked down. Terry had some catches where he had separation, had some edges where he didn't. I think McCaffrey gets the best separation, if not Noah Brown, of the receivers. But, you know, McCaffrey, and the one that I think they're calling a drop, I actually thought the

DB got, you know, disrupted that on the sideline. That was a good throw. It could have been caught, but it wasn't like a given to be caught. It was covered, and I thought it was a good play. I'm telling you, Luke McCaffrey, we are not that far away from a big Luke McCaffrey day. You know, a seven-catch, 88-yard two-touch-touch-eight-yard two-touchdown day. You know, an eight-yard, a nine-catch, 140, two touchdowns. Let's really get crazy. He's open a lot. I love Declor's game.

The numbers don't show it, but he had some good runs. and was excellent on kickoff returns, had a 39-yarder, average 29 and a half yards per return. And I mentioned that on the list of things that I liked, you know, the special teams did a good job, minus the Zakias Fumble and then the fake punt drop. I mean, they came in to show pressure and they left the gunner wide open and they just dropped it. That was lucky. The Zakeas Fumble, those two plays are bad plays by the special teams, but their kick coverage is good. They gave up that punt return on a great punt by Tressway out of the end zone that set up Pittsburgh's last drive at the Washington 46.

But they're good on returns with Echler. You know, I would love to see Echler back on punt returns. I don't know, maybe he can't do it. And then Zane Gonzalez, I mean, the guy comes in off the street hadn't kicked since 2021. Austin Cybert's down. He goes two for two and doesn't miss a PAT. The things that I did not like, look, it was mistakes and missed opportunities yesterday for Washington. There were a lot of good plays in between.

But the Zakias fumbled snap, that is a big mistake. The Newton offside's penalty, obviously a big mistake. I'm convinced that if they get the ball back there, Jaden's taking him down there and getting him into field goal range. I felt that way. Look, they were close to it anyway with the throw to Zach Ertz on fourth and nine. You know, there were key penalties. Chin had a roughing the passer. Penalties. St. Juice had a PI on the opening drive. That was the same drive in which Chin had the second and ten incomplete pass, roughing the passer. That was the Steelers first touchdown drive, not their first drive of the game. Fowler was off sides on a key play that took it from second and eight to second and three on the drive where the Steelers made it 24-21. Drop passes. Look, after going back, officially there were three. Statistical.

realistically, that's not right. Deami Brown, Zach Ertz on that second and 11 in the third quarter. I mean, come on, you got to catch that. That's a huge play. And instead of having a chance to get a touchdown, they kicked the field goal to go up 27 to 21. They could have on that drive extended their lead back to 10 points. Noah Brown had that shot on that final drive before the Ertz catch short of the sticks or at the sticks. I think he's got to catch that. That's probably not officially a drop. It's an underthrown ball, but it's right there.

It hits him in his chest. I thought that Terry had a drop. I thought Zichias had a ball that was close that he could have caught. Yeah, four to five drop balls. And of course, Jaden, the missed throws, missed opportunities. The first third down, I went back and looked at that. That's just a miss throw. He's got Zakias third and three. There is some pressure, but that ball's got to be out. It's got to be accurate, and it's a little bit wide for Zakias.

He missed Zichias, too, on another big one when they were driving 24-21. Zakias wide open, you know, on, you know, the middle of the field, and he just was a little bit inaccurate. Zichias could have had it, but it wasn't a great throw. He threw a ball or two that was completed, one to Noah Brown in the first half that was complete. for a first down that wasn't well thrown, and then the missed to McCaffrey. And again, I'll just mention, again, they should have called holding on Trent Scott. It was T.J. Watt. I mean, you're pretty focused on number 90. And he gets held, and that's in the end zone, and that should have been a safety. And then I mentioned this one. The Noah Brown catch

when they had offsetting penalties. That was Jaden's best throw of the day. He's scrambling, he's moving, he got outside of the pocket on that one, and he threw an absolute dime to the sideline to Noah Brown, who made a great catch and stayed in bounds, but it was not a play that counted because of offsetting penalties. That was a missed opportunity there. Beaudish got called for the holding.

And then I don't know why Diami Brown didn't throw it, on the called throwback to Jaden with the wall set up on the first play of the fourth quarter. Third and 16, they dialed this play up in Tampa in the opener, and McCaffrey didn't throw it, and then Diami didn't throw it. You know, one of the things I noticed when I went back, it's Preston Smith who recognizes the play. He was playing in his first game after the trade to the Steelers. Yes, that Preston Smith. But still, Diami, if he throws it and leads Jaden, it is a big play.

the wall was set up to block for Jaden on that one. I don't know why he didn't throw it. I don't know why McCaffrey didn't throw it in the opener. Also on the list of things that I didn't like, no running game. And in going back, I would say that what probably spooked Kingsbury a little bit, there were some blow-up plays in the backfield. Echler got hit for two or three TFLs. They were struggling up front with some of the injuries.

You know, and Biotich came out at one point, Dieter came in. Forget how many plays Biotish missed. I'm going to look that up real quickly. Beaudish missed five plays in the game. Deeter played five plays at center. So you had, you know, no Wiley, even though he was active. You had Brandon Coleman struggling. You had the center.

Beaudish get hurt and get replaced during the game. And you didn't have your best running back. and Brian Robinson, Jr. I think I would have tried Rodriguez more. I still like Echler, though. But I think, you know, with Echler, they understand that a certain number of touches, like he's not built right now at this age probably for 22 carries, or 20 carries. The pass pro struggled at times.

We've talked about that. I mean, Hayward blew up a play. There's a sack that was not counted. as a sack. It's the drive at the end of the first half, which the drive at the end of the first half and the drive at the beginning of the third quarter were the drives that we've seen all year, right? There's a sack that did not get registered as a sack. It's a first in ten, and they've got six blocking, in blocking, with five rushing. And Jaden gets sacked by Highsmith because Coleman completely whiffed, but they got bailed out down the field

by a defensive hold and a defensive face mask. The third sack, by the way, was Beaudish being completely blown up by Cameron Hayward. I mean, Cam Hayward just, I mean, it was, Jaden had no shot on that play. I wanted to just see real quickly, because I'll tell you what, man, Cameron Hayward is still a good player. They had eight TFLs in the game, okay? Eight TFLs in the game and three sacks. So they had five other plays of lost yardage. That's why they didn't run the football as much.

They were just afraid of just ending up in second and long. They ran a nice draw to Echler on a second and long situation. Also on the list of things I didn't like. Look, Benjamin St. Juice struggled in this game. Even more so than I thought last night. Last night I focused on the Mike Williams touchdown. And that's a bad one. St. Juice had a couple of penalties.

Look, he's at two-corner at best, and they need Lattimore, and they all understand that. I don't know what they'll do when Lattimore is ready to play, because I think Sanra still didn't have his best game on the outside yesterday. But then again, you're playing loaded box and you're on an island in some of those situations with maybe one safety, single high to help. The touchdown to Mike Williams is galling in that, first of all, you give Pittsburgh all the credit in the world. I mean, Russell's under pressure, and he throws the ball with Williams basically at the 20-yard line, and he, you know, has that moon ball that he throws, and it lands right in Williams' hands over his shoulder. It's a great throw. It's a great catch.

There's no other way to describe it. However, because they're playing back, St. Juice is 10 yards off. Williams, how do you let them run by you when you're playing 10 yards off? So lastly, on the things that I didn't like list, I talked about this last night, Red Zone, they gave up three touchdowns in four Red Zone trips, and the one that they didn't was the fumble by Warren, which you could have said was forward progress stopped, potentially. I don't think they should have called that because if he got and pushed into the end zone,

they probably would have called it a touchdown. But, you know, it was a great throw from Wilson to Pickens for that first touchdown in the Red Zone. They had a penalty that from a second and eight to a second and three, That hurt him on another red zone touchdown, the one that Najee Harris scored on. And the touchdown throw at a Friermouth. That's Chin and Noah Igben Ogeny. I don't know why they don't switch that off. Like that's a pick, but it wasn't a pick because there wasn't contact, so there's no flag.

But it's clearly the intent to shade, to pick. And I think in goal line situations, I think most teams pass, you know, they switch. Think of it in basketball. Somebody comes down to set a screen. You either fight over the top of the screen and stay with the guy you're guarding, right? Or you switch the screen. It's the same thing in that situation. Chin stayed with Friermuth instead of switching with Noah I.

And I think that was the problem. I don't know how they're supposed to play it. What do I know? I know a lot of teams will switch in that situation on the bunch, on the bunch set. And with a pick. And they didn't. And Friermuth was open, wide open, touch. down. All right, other, on the other list, I'll start with Jaden. I gave him a C-plus. I think what we're doing

here is we're comparing him to the great games, which he had eight of them, basically coming in to the game. I think if this had been a game in which Jaden was, let's say, a late first round or an early second round pick and he was getting his first start, I think we would have come off that game saying, wow, I mean, he looked pretty good. They just played Pittsburgh down to the wire. missed a couple throws, made some big-time throws, you know, but because we're comparing it to the other games, and because he missed a lot, C-plus, 17 to 34, worst completion percentage, part of that is on the drops, part of it is on him missing. But he, you know, the missed opportunities we've gone through, okay, but man, there were some good throws, the 28-yard to Terry, the one that I mentioned to Noah Brown, maybe the best throw, one of the best throws he's made all year.

And it was, you know, called back by offsetting penalties. The throw to Noah Brown right before the two-minute warning that moved the sticks and put him out at midfield when they were driving for hopefully a field goal opportunity. And I talked about this, and it's even more clear watching it afterwards. He managed the game. Well, there were two screens that he dirted the ball. He threw it into the ground rather than, you know, try to make a ball. play so smart, so smart, because they were going nowhere. They did not have a screen game

against Baltimore. There was also a bubble they threw to Diami that got blown up pretty quickly. It was not a great throw by Jaden, but he was being pressured too. It seemed like there was no chance to screen Pittsburgh yesterday, and he saved some big lost yardage plays with that. He checked one down to Echler that improved the field goal position for Gonzalez on his 41-yarder. What else did I write down here that was new? Yeah. I just think that he managed the game well. You know, the running, we've talked about this.

Pittsburgh played it well. Pittsburgh's played Lamar Jackson twice a year. And, you know, I don't think it had anything to do with anything more than Pittsburgh with playing it well. I didn't see, and going back and looking at it, a lot of opportunities for Jaden to pull it and scramble. I think there were maybe one or two read option plays where there were big runs, but I think maybe he could have pulled it and also had some yards. But they were playing him pretty well on the zone read. There's a really good zone read pull by him. Patrick Queen ran him down on the sidelines. Queen's a good player, man. Athletic as hell.

still have not gotten really an answer. Actually, not true. We did get an answer on this. Quinn talked about it after the game. The fumble on the third and one, when Harris got hurt and Johnny Newton recovered the ball. It looked like it was loose. Quinn said they didn't have a good replay to challenge it, and they didn't think it would be overturned. Man, it looked like it from the TV copy, but I'll trust Dave Garty and, and the group he's got. Yeah. That was, you know, I mentioned, oh, Emmanuel Forbes played two snaps.

I noticed, I think, one of them. Noah Brown drew another DPI. He's got to be up there among receivers drawing defensive pass interference penalties. You know, against a good team like Pittsburgh, one of the things you realize is you take their best corner, you know, Porter Jr. Terry's going to make some, have to make,

make some tough catches, you know, and he also drew some penalties. And Noah Brown did too. Noah Brown and McCaffrey got more separation. So I'm surprised that they didn't end up with more catches. I think Noah Brown had a decent game. I just think that he should have pulled in that last one. That would have been a great catch, but it was right there, even though it was a bit underthrown. I talked about, you know, should they have taken a safety at 27, 21? You know, no, there was too much time. There are too many potential possessions left. If there's less than three to go, less than two to go, you take a safety there

instead of punning it from your own end zone and you make them start in much worse field position than in your territory at the 46. But I didn't have a problem with them not, you know, taking that safety. It's too much time left in the game. And I talked about the crowd. It was a road game. It was. There's no other way to describe it.

But there are two reasons for it. One, Pittsburgh travels well. Two, the schedule came out in May. We had no idea that this team was going to be seven and two with an MVP candidate quarterback, at least going into yesterday's game. Next year, you start to judge them on the crowd split. 70-30. I took about six different solid opinions. They range from 60-40 to 80-20, so I'll split it down the middle and say it was 70-30. It felt like that watching it on TV. All right. I think that's, oh, one other thing. So Zakias fumbled the first one, recovered it, fumbled the second one, didn't recover it, lost it.

The Pittsburgh punter, it was mentioned on the broadcast, radio broadcast by London Fletcher, that that particular kicker, the way he kicked the style in which he kicked, it was an odd flight to the ball and that the wind was swirling in the stadium yesterday. Remember, the rain kind of came after the game? I thought it was an interesting observation that I was told that London Fletcher made during the broadcast. That doesn't explain some of the other issues that Zakias had, but maybe it explains that one. Left-footed kicker, you know, sort of an odd ball flight. Apparently he gets more hang time than most punters, and it's an odd ball flight, for whatever it's worth.

All right, when we come back, just a little bit about the NFL day, just a little bit. And what Dan Quinn said today about the Eagles game. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Is there anything better when you're a football fan than this time of year? It seems like there are games on around the clock. It's a changing time of year. The weather gets chillier. The leaves start to change color.

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It's like better than the alternative of like not talking about big games. So like this is what like division games should be, man. like an absolute blast, like Philadelphia and Washington, battling for it? Like, hell yeah, like more. Dan Quinn talking about the Thursday night matchup in Philadelphia answering a question from Sam 40A saying it's better than the alternative of not being able to talk about big games. Love that he's fired up for it. I'll give you something interesting about this matchup between Philadelphia and Washington in a moment. This segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com.

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Mentioned it on radio, I also tweeted it out. So if you don't get this in time, I pulled the dolphins. The line went to two and a half, three, and there was a lot of sharp money on the Rams. Seven and four weekend. That's three straight winning weekends. And now a game over 500 for the year. Some of the losses on Saturday were painful. North Texas had four opportunities inside the Army 10-yard line and came away with no points and lost 14 to 3 getting three and a half. That one was tough to take.

MyBooky.ag, go there, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll take good care of you. So here's something to know about this Philadelphia game. This is my research. I think I'm accurate on this one. The combined record of Philadelphia and Washington, going into this game, Philly with a half-game lead in the division at 7 and 2, Washington at 7 and 3 in second place, 14 and 5, the aggregate record. This is the biggest matchup in terms of best overall aggregate record post-November 1st since 1996 between these two teams. Washington's had some big late-season games against Dallas over the years. They've had a couple of decent-sized games, I guess, against the Giants. Not many, really. And I'm talking about a game where it's big for both teams.

You know, Washington had that December game against the Giants in 2022, the Sunday night game that they lost. You know, that was for really a playoff spot. The Dallas Division game in 2012, they have not had that kind of game against Philadelphia. During all of those years, the Snyder years, they didn't have one game against Philadelphia like this one post-November 1st. The 1996 skins, they both went into that game seven and three. So it was 14 and 6 was the record, so not even as good as this one. But that was the last time that it was a meaningful matchup.

That 96 team, remember, was the team that started 7 and 1 and then finish 9 and 7 and missed the playoffs. but they beat Philly that day at the vet, 26 to 21, to get to 8 and 3. Gus Ferrat was the starting quarterback for Washington. Ty Detmer was the starting quarterback for Philadelphia. But this is really the, and it'll probably be the first of two here, that are going to be significant, but they haven't had this kind of massive matchup where it was huge for both teams. In November or later, since 96.

If somebody thinks I'm wrong about that, tweet me. I spent too much time looking through the history of Washington, Philadelphia, early on. By the way, that second Philadelphia game on Sunday, December 22nd, that's a game that I really think will get flexed, as long as it means something. And I think there's a chance that it'll mean something. Sunday, December 22nd, the current Sunday night game is Dallas, Tampa. They're going to start pulling Dallas from some of these scheduled national TV games. They are. It's Dallas, yes, but they stink.

And Tampa is actually not a terrible team, but their record isn't great. And that particular day, the other games just aren't going to match up to Philly at Washington, which right now is scheduled as a 1 o'clock game. on Fox. You know, there's Denver and the Chargers. That could be a meaningful game, maybe. San Francisco plays Miami, but that's the huge CBS double header game. That won't get moved. Look for Washington, Philadelphia. We're, you know, we're three, four weeks away from something like that getting announced. But I would bet you anything, Washington, Philly moves to Sunday night, December 22nd. And I've already mentioned the following week, their game against the Falcons

could very easily, a few weeks later, week 17, excuse me, could get moved to Saturday, December 28th. They play the Falcons right now. It's scheduled for December 29th, but they're one of the five games that could get flexed to Saturday, December 28th. It wouldn't surprise me if Falcons, Washington ends up being a huge game at the end of the year.

Although the Falcons have basically a two-game lead in their division, even though they lost yesterday. I gave out the Saints as a smell test pick. Love them yesterday. All right. Real quickly, yesterday's NFL games. I think we have to start with just the state of the Cowboys. The Eagles went in there and pummeled them 34 to 6. Michael Parsons took down Mike McCarthy after the game.

I mean, back for his first game. And I don't know. I listened to what he said. about McCarthy, you know, essentially he said about Mike McCarthy that who really cares about where he ends up. It's about some of these guys in the locker room.

You know, this, it's imploding in Dallas. It is kind of fun to see. And without DAC, I mean, Cooper Rush threw for 45 yards.

45 on 13 completions for 45 yards. Okay? That is not good. Basically three and a half yards per completed pass. Trey Lance came into the game. He threw a pick. Philadelphia destroyed Dallas 34 to 6. And look, Philly's playing well. But you know, the Eagles five-game win streak. The Browns, who they barely beat, the Giants, the Bengals on the road impressive, the Jags, which they held on to win, and the Cowboys. You know, let's see.

Look, they are talented. No doubt about it. They are a talented football team. Elsewhere around the NFL, Caleb Williams is not going to get benched in Chicago, even though there was conversation of it. He was 16 to 30 for a buck 20. Got sacked nine times by New England's defense and had a 13.6 QBR in the game. Not good. They lost to the Patriots 19. to three. By the way, that was Jay Gruden's lock of the week, the Patriots. The Chiefs, I mean, come on, they block a field goal, a short field goal at that. I thought the Broncos would play them tough. Talked about that, I think on maybe radio on Friday with my producer Denton. But the Chiefs hang on and they get a block field goal and win 16 to 14. They're 9-0. They get the bills this week. mentioned the Saints winning. Then the 49ers, how about some of the plays in the 49ers game?

How about the play that Baker Mayfield made with Nick Bosa grabbing his arm to throw the ball down the field instead of getting sacked on a fourth and seven? And then the 49ers kicker was among a few kickers who missed three. The Atlanta kicker, Chu missed three field goals in the game at New Orleans. I'm glad he did because if he had made him, I wouldn't have won the first. The Saints plus three and a half. And Moody, the kicker for San Francisco, was two for five. He missed three field goals.

The year, the kicker, and we saw him miss field goals all over the place on Sunday. But the 49ers got the win 23 to 20. They're five and four. I think maybe the most impressive win before we get to Sunday night is the Cardinals destroying the Jets. All right, I'm off the Jets. I'm finally off the Jets. But how about the Cardinals and the run they are on?

They've won four in a row. They have looked impressive. Washington's most impressive win of the season is probably the Arizona game on the road. The way it looks now, Kyler Murray, 22 of 24 in the game. Kyler Murray, since playing poorly against Washington, has three games of a QBR over 83, 22 of 24, 266 in the game. the Cardinals are in first place in the NFC West. A bunched-up NFC West with the 49ers a half game back.

But remember, they lost their first game to the Cardinals. And the Rams played a night to try to get to five and four and be right there. The Seahawks had the buy week. They are four and five. And then, look, Detroit's just got it going, man. Jared Gough threw five interceptions in the game, and they won 26 to 23. Thank God. It didn't go to overtime and they scored a touchdown because I did give up.

Houston plus three and a half. Houston had a 23-7 lead courtesy of the golf five interceptions. Who throws five interceptions and wins? I mean, that's how good they are. And I'll tell you who's so impressive. Jemir Gibbs is so impressive as a runner for Detroit. They got something going there, man. They did not play well and they still won. Look, Washington didn't play well yesterday, you could say, on offense, and they nearly won. Nobody's Detroit. right now in the NFC. And Minnesota barely escaped Jacksonville. I don't know what Jacksonville was wearing in those games yesterday.

Four field goals, and they overcame three interceptions. Sam Darnold threw three interceptions in the game, and Minnesota won it 12 to 7. The Viking schedule is just so easy. You know, they played the Colts last week. They played the Jags yesterday. They got the Titans, the Bears twice. they still have the lions and the Packers and the Falcons, I guess. And the Cardinals.

The Cardinals now look like a tough game on anybody's schedule. All right, that is it for the day back tomorrow with Tommy.