The Kevin Sheehan Show - Jay Gruden's Sack Reasons & Solutions

Episode Date: October 28, 2023

Kevin had his weekly conversation with Jay Gruden and Jay discussed the reasons for the sack/pressure problem and proposed some solutions. He also discussed the 8-year anniversary of the "You Like That" comeback game against Tampa Bay that he believes saved his job. Kevin's preview of the Eagles game opened the show along with his thoughts on the Commanders' hiring of a Senior VP of Football Strategy. Six "Smell Test" picks from Kevin as well.   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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Wind Donation is the presenting sponsor of this podcast. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com. Mention my name.

You'll get a free estimate. They'll take very good care of you. My apologies for getting the podcast out later than usual on this Friday, October 27th. I had a personal matter that I had to be a part of. Jay Gruden will be with us. He is with us every Friday during football season. That is next segment. We will go back to last week.

Look, an offensive head coach in this league, I think we want not only his opinion of what he saw last week in the first half, but a solution. So I will effort to get both. Kind of a recap of what he saw on one of the most inept offensive halves of the season and get a solution. We'll also get his preview in pitch. of the Philadelphia game.

Some NFL talk as well, including his NFL lock of the week. My smell test to finish up the show 10-2-1 last week. If you haven't rated or reviewed the show, it really is helpful if you do it on Apple. And Spotify, Apple allows you to give us five stars and write a quick one-to-two-sentence review. Means the world, if you'll do it, I appreciate all of you that have done it.

my keys to a win and my prediction coming up in just a few minutes. I did want to give a quick shout out to Virginia Tech. They're not a local team, but there are a lot of people that listen to this podcast that are Hokies. They annihilated Syracuse last night, 38 to 10. They're four and four overall, but they're three and one in the ACC with a schedule that actually has them, I think, in contention for an ACC championship. They've won three out of their last four. The only loss came to Florida State.

They were in a tough game with Florida State into the second half. At one point, it was a five-point game in the third quarter. They played very well offensively. They're able to score. They have Louisville next week. If they were to somehow get that game, they would be favored, I think, in their final three games, and that could put them at eight and four. and in a tie, worst case for second in the ACC,

with their only loss being to Florida State, the team that looks like they'll finish first. I don't know, I have no idea if you hokey fans actually think there's a chance to compete for an ACC title, but they're playing better, and I think college football is better when Blacksburg is buzzing with a really good football team. Look, you guys are passionate about your,

college football team. My alma mater, Maryland, we're a basketball first school. And I mentioned two weeks ago before they played Illinois on this podcast, beware this game is a danger game for Maryland. I actually think the Terps have a tough game, a tougher than you would imagine game tomorrow in Evanston against Northwestern. Fingers crossed, because if they can get that one, they've got Penn State next week at home, and it'll feel like a slightly bigger game. If you're tuning in here for World Series analysis. Just go back to yesterday's show. Tommy gave his thoughts on the World Series.

My sense is a lot of you might be into the World Series, but aren't exactly tuning into this show for analysis or a preview of it. I like Texas and Six. I'll give you that. This email from Adam in Rockville, Adam wrote to me

he was very Sabah-esque in his praise and his devout fandom of Taylor Heineke, but I'll just give you the last sentence, which was a question in his email. By the way, you can email me at the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. You can tweet me at Kevin Sheehan, D.C. But Adam, after waxing poetic about Taylor Heineke, just finally said, Kevin, is there really a difference between Sam Howell and Taylor Heineke? Thank you, Adam. I

appreciate it? Yes, there's a difference. Taylor Heineke is an NFL backup quarterback. Sam Hal might be an NFL quarterback, a backup quarterback, but we don't know yet for sure. And the reason for that is Sam has an NFL arm, and Taylor doesn't. Adam wrote about, you know, Taylor's processing speed, his throwing with anticipation. It was a very good email. And you're right. Taylor had played in the same offense with Scott Turner and his father, Norv, in Carolina. He was familiar with the offense. He didn't need to learn a new offense. He was a veteran quarterback that had, you know, a few starts when he got here, but by the time we got to last year, had several starts. And he's ahead of Sam with the mental part of the game. But Sam's got an NFL arm and Taylor doesn't. Taylor will never be a 17

game starter for a team that aspires to be a contender in the NFL. He just doesn't have that ability. He can start games in a pinch. You know, he can do what Colt McCoy did here. He can do what some of the really good backups in the league have done. He didn't get a chance to start for an NFL team, he got signed by a team that was committed to playing a younger, more inexperienced quarterback in Desmond Ritter. And he hasn't supplanted Ritter as of now. Sam can make every NFL throw, Adam. You should see that. I mean, I think most people can see that. I know that you love Taylor Hineke, and there's a lot about Taylor Hineke that we all loved. Sam Hal to me is far from a lock to be a legitimate starting NFL quarterback.

In fact, I would not wager on that. But he's got an NFL arm and the rest of the stuff that he doesn't do well, they're going to give him some time, we think, to see if he can improve in those areas. That's the big difference, though. Real quickly, before I get to my keys to a win over Philadelphia and a pick, Washington hired Eugene Chen yesterday as their senior vice president of football strategy. He's going to oversee analytics and software development for the football operation.

There's a quote from him in the news release, press release from the team. Also, one quote from one person associated with the team, and that was Ron Rivera. He's reporting to Ron Rivera. Let me just start with this. I love that Josh Harris and other people in the organization, organization weren't quoted in this press release. I love that the current head of the football operation was the quote. If you've noticed since the season started, we don't have, I mean, magic tweets, but we don't have a lot of Josh Harris quotes. We don't have a lot of owner

quotes. We don't have a lot of Jason Wright quotes on football stuff. Now, with business stuff, that's totally appropriate. I think they've gotten the message that there were just too many people communicating football stuff and that fans, whether they want Ron Rivera to speak on football matters or not, understood, that's an issue. But he is the current football head. So this kind of an announcement of, you know, of a new hire for the football operation should be a Ron Rivera announcement, or at least the quote in there from Ron Rivera. Ron Rivera said, Eugene's level of expertise to lead our analytics and software development enables us to build on our data capabilities to help inform decision making. Eugene brings a great deal of practical

NFL experience and we look forward to bringing him into our conversations about the vision of our team going forward. The willingness of our ownership group to follow through on their pledge to allocate resources to data and analytics is exciting for the future of the franchise. Shen said, quote, it's an exciting time to be joining this legendary franchise. I look forward to working with Coach Rivera in the front office to help shape the vision of the franchise going forward. By the way, he's got an MBA from MIT and a bachelor's degree from Harvard. He worked with Baltimore for six years, the Dolphins for three years, and Jacksonville for two years. He is not the general manager for those of you that think the lofty tight.

means that he's the head of the football operation, senior vice president of football strategy. It's an analytics software development position that I would assume Josh Harris probably had someone say, this is a bright mind, this is a bright analytics, data-driven mind. You want him in your organization, hire him now. So he's not the general manager. Okay. But this hire is a clear indication of what I think we've all thought for a while, which is why I don't think Ron Rivera or Martin Mayhew or Marty Herney has much of a future in the organization. This is the guy, remember, who hired Sam Hinky to run the Philadelphia 76ers and initiate the tanking process that led to horrible years, followed by lots of draft choices, and eventually multiple 50-plus win season.

Darrell Mori is his current general manager. These are two gentlemen who are data-driven, analytics-driven. I have no idea if Eugene Chen's going to become a significant figure in this organization. I do know that this is an indication or confirmation of the kind of people that Josh Harris wants in his front office. He wants smart, data-driven analytics people. whoever he hires to be the president of football operations slash general manager or senior vice president of football operations slash general manager is going to be of that ilk. And so get ready for it. It's coming. The current group is not going to run your football team starting sometime in mid to late January of 2024. for. Eugene Chen is the first hire in that general direction of the kind of hires that Josh Harris is going to make. This guy's not just being hired to tell the head coach when to

go for two or when to go for it on fourth down. It has a lot to do with all of the data that's collected from players, both in college and in pro, that leads to more informed decisions when it comes to things like roster construction, when it comes to things like health and sports science. These are the kinds of guys Josh Harris once in the organization. Let's face it, Ron doesn't even know what analytics really are. He's not a data-driven head coach. He's an old-school head coach.

Remember when he talked about analytics after the Chicago game last year when he was saying we did all the analytics on Carson Wentz? I don't even think he knew what it meant. By the way, if he had really done a lot of data-driven due diligence on Carson Wentz, he may have decided no on him and instead signed Tyrod Taylor. I was thinking about that the other day. Like Tyrod Taylor would have been a perfect fit for the team last year. Perfect fit.

And maybe a perfect fit for the team this year. I digress. Eugene Shen, the first of what I think will be many hires. where when you read the guy's resume, he's been in sports analytics, he went to MIT, he went to Harvard, he went to Wharton, wherever. Going to be a lot of those guys around. Get ready for it. All right.

Keys to beating Philadelphia. Number one. This, I think, is going to be on the list of keys to beating anybody the rest of the year until they fix it. You've got to protect the quarterback, period. 40 sacks, seven games. It just can't continue. There are lots of ways to protect the quarterback.

We've talked a lot about them this week. You've got to go to more quick game, three-step drop. You've got to go to more sprint and dash getting them out of the pocket. You've got to go to more screens, traditional and otherwise, bubbles, etc. You've got to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly. at this point, whether it's the O-line, the quarterback, or the offensive coordinator, it doesn't matter. Dropbacks are a problem, and if you're going to drop back, do it early down, under center, seven man protect, maybe eight men protect with two in the route, play action and see if you can get something big that way.

The constant drop back last week and this year, we know that more times, and not, it doesn't work, and it's ending too often in negative plays. This is on Eric Bienemy. It's on Sam to be better at the line of scrimmage with his protection calls. It's on Sam to stop holding on to it as long as he has, and it's definitely on the offensive line too. But if you know you've got an O line problem and you've got a quarterback problem, you've got to minimize the amount of times that he's put and the offense is put in harm's way. Protect the quarterback, and you have a chance to beat Philadelphia. Number two, feed Terry.

He had one target in the first half. He's had some of the biggest games of his career against the Eagles. I think Philadelphia can be attacked through the air with the quick game. I think their soft spot is their secondary. We saw it the first go-round. Feed Terry McLaren. By the way, as part of the Protect the quarterback, Feeding Terry quickly is part of the answer.

I don't know if running the football is the answer this week against Philadelphia. I do know that Philadelphia has the number one rush defense in the NFL, averaging just 62.9 yards against. But Washington of Philadelphia's seven opponents was the only one to rush for more than 100 yards. It wasn't a productive day running the football, although Brian Robinson, Jr. had a couple of good carries. Every team that Philadelphia's face, listen to this, New England, 76 yards rushing, Minnesota 28 yards rushing, Tampa Bay 41 yards rushing, the Rams, 54 yards rushing, the Jets, 89 yards rushing, and the Dolphins, 45 yards rushing last Sunday night. Nobody can run the football against Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, Fletcher Cox, etc. Nobody can. Washington had 107 yards rushing. Remember, that was a game in which they were coming off that Buffalo game,

and I think Ron said, you got to at least try to run the football. If we can run it a little bit, at least he's not going to get sacked on those plays. And they ran it a little bit. Not a lot. Some of those yards were Sam Scramble yards. I just don't see the run game being super productive, but I'm not against trying it to the extent that they did the first time. By the way, it might be Chris Rodriguez who gets the carries.

So number one, protect the quarterback. Part of that would be maybe trying to run the football a little bit. Feed Terry's number two. Defensively, I want them to blitz Jalen Hertz. I want them to get after Jalen Hertz. Jalen hurts to me watching Philadelphia the last few weeks just doesn't look healthy. I know they're saying he's healthy, and he's saying. and he's had a couple of big games rushing the football.

I thought Sunday night he looked slow, he looked hurt, and he's put it up for grabs a couple of times in recent weeks. I think pressuring Jalen Hertz and being less concerned about containing him in the pocket, you know, he's so dangerous if he gets outside the pocket. Let's just see what happens if we send extra man pressure after him. Let's see if he can escape it. He's been great at that throughout his career, his young career. But he just doesn't look right to me.

Lastly, you've got to play a clean game. I know that this is going to be part of the, you know, cliched keys to a game. You can't turn it over against Philadelphia, which they didn't the first time. You can't have a lot of penalties like you had last week against the Giants. It's got to be a clean football game. You know, last time the Eagles didn't turn it over, but they did have a lot of penalties. 11 penalties for a lot of yardage against Washington. So ultimately, you know, Philadelphia played a less clean game than Washington did. Do you need plus two or more in the turnover margin? Maybe.

They didn't the first time, but maybe you need it on Sunday. I think they've got a chance. I think they've got a chance in this game simply because recent impressions usually don't mean much. and Washington was awful and Philadelphia beat Miami. And Philadelphia has just an unbelievable schedule upcoming after Washington. I think I mentioned this with Tommy yesterday, but they played the Cowboys next week, the Chiefs, two weeks after that after a by week, the Bills, the 49ers, the Cowboys, and the Seahawks again. How about that six-game stretch for Philadelphia after the game against Washington on Sunday? Dallas, KC, Buffalo, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle.

So if they lose and they're five and three going into that stretch, or maybe they're looking past Washington, assuming they'll be six and two, looking at that stretch, I don't know. I see a close game. I see 22 to 17 Philadelphia. I know that I mentioned that I thought Washington could score again on Philadelphia. I don't know if they will or not. Second time around division opponents, a lot of familiarity, a high scoring game the first time.

I like 22 to 17, Philadelphia. WindowNation.com, 86690 Nation. Mention my name. You get a free estimate plus right now. Buy two, get two free with no limit, with no money down, no payments, and no interest until the year 2025. You're dealing with the best window company in America. they've installed over 2 million windows. 96% of them have required no follow-up service.

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Jay Gruden coming up in this segment. Before we get to Jay, this segment is brought to you by Surfside and Surfside's Fahita Box. Good news, friends, your favorite spot for tacos in the district is making it easier than ever to feed your family fast. Lots of family time coming up this season and Surfside's fajita boxes. are here to make your dinners easy. On the go or on your way home, they are the best way to feed your crew with a meal everyone will love. Fahita chicken, steak, veggies,

and all the fixings in a convenient grab-and-go box. Thinking ahead, hop online to order a fajita box in advance. On the fly, fajita boxes can be ready in minutes flat and delivered straight to your door. Learn more at surfsideDC.com. Their fajitas, are great. Jay Gruden's jumping on with us as he does every Friday during football season, and I'm going to start with an email that I got from Art. Art wanted me to ask you what your

early hunch is on Sam Howell. Does Jay have an early hunch on whether or not Sam Howell will ultimately be a legitimate NFL starting quarterback? So let's start there. What do you say to art? My gut says he's got the tools, right? He's athletic. He's got the arm. But I just don't know if he's that guy. You know what I mean?

I think that there's the problem is there's only about 10 to 12 of them in the world right now. For him to be in the top 10 or 12 that can win you championships, I don't think he's that guy right now. All right. Well, then I'll add to it. What do you think his best case? is. Is it what we saw on Sunday with the Giants at Tyrod Taylor? Is it your guy, Colt McCoy? Is it a little bit more than that? Is it a little bit less than that? I mean, you've already said he's not, you know, one of those guys, which I think we all kind of understand anyway going in. But is he,

you know, what is he long term? I think he's a guy like, I put him in the Gardner-Minshoe category. He's a guy that has some exciting moments. but over the course of 17 games, I don't think he can get you to the promise land. But he's a heck of a player, heck of a fun guy to root for and pull for. You know, does that make sense? Yeah. Well, I mean, that's why I brought up Colt McCoy because he was near and dear to your heart. Isn't Colt McCoy in the same category of Gardner Minshew?

Or did you think he was a category above that? I think Colt was a category untapped because of all his injuries. I think that a healthy Colt McCoy could have been, in my mind, maybe not anybody else's mind, could have been a lot better personally because he had great anticipation, great accuracy, he was a tough guy, he was a great leader. I don't know all the things about Sam Howell that I know about Colt McCoy, but I know that he had the intangibles needed to be a successful quarterback. He just had too many injuries that hindered his progress. All right, let's go back to the Giant Game for a moment. You know, it was your lock of the week. It stopped a three week run of winners.

You know, it's pretty hard to go four straight weeks with your lock of the week hitting. And that was not a winner. But everybody appreciates the three winners that came before that. So there's been a lot of talk, Jay. We've talked about it here about the sack issue and who's at fault. And I thought, and I want to hear your answer. I don't want to give you my answer. without just asking the question and getting out of the way.

But I want to make sure that the offensive coordinator and that the coaching staff is a possibility in your answer. You know, rather than, you know, was it the offensive line or was it Sam as it relates to the pressure in the sacks? Because last week, I think any time you have 46 yards on 26 plays and seven punts in a half and your quarterback gets sacked five times. in the same half. I personally thought a lot of it fell into the lap of Eric B. Enemy.

What did you think? After further review, I had time to watch this tape and look at this. I agree with you. You have to protect Sam Hill. I mean, you have to have protection schemes that help him. 40 sacks and seven games is inexcusable. And then to not have any kind of plan for the looks that the Giants gave you to have free runners often and over and over again is inexcusable.

I mean, there are protections that you can use that will guarantee his protection, get the ball out. He may not have the greatest pass routes against a seven-man drop zone, what have you, but you can find places that throw the ball. But you have to protect the quarterback. And it was a debacle as far as past protection is concerned. I don't know if it's a line coach. I don't know if it's a quarterback and center communication,

but it was not good. And it hasn't been good for seven games to be sacked 40 times. He's on pace to be sacked 100 times. It's incredible. As a longtime coach is a longtime offensive coach. And you've already said that, you know, as an offensive coordinator, you can't allow this to continue to happen. But when you're watching this game on Sunday,

and then you said you watched it again upon further review, what were you seeing specifically as to why it was happening, why the pressures were happening, why the sacks were happening, where was the lack of understanding or execution? Well, they couldn't pick up any stunts and they had too many free runners. So the center, I don't know what they're doing and how they're communicating, but you can't let guys come up the A-gap. You can't let corners or safeties or nickels or linebackers rush off the edge unblocked. So, yeah, it's past protection is a very intricate thing.

There's five-man protections or six-man or seven-man. They had a seven-man protection one time. They had a free runner off the edge, which I've never seen in my life. So there's issues going on there as far as communication, scheme, whatever it was. It might be Sam Al, not redirecting the point. It might be the center. It might be a tackle. I don't know.

I know that they have serious issues schematically going on there with past protection. Explain what Sam Howell's, let's just say that Sam Howell had some responsibility. Let me back up. The center or the quarterback, how does it typically work in terms of adjusting your protection scheme at the line of scrimmage? Well, you start out with the base protection, whether it's a six-man protection. The center's going one way, the back's protecting the other way, and then the back's responsible for four strong or four week going whichever way. If there's an issue, the quarterback always has a chance to trump the center and say,

no, we're not going right. We're going to go left. Okay, that's fine. Let's say we go left with a slide, and the people come right. The quarterback needs to know that. He needs to know he's got to get the ball out of the ham quicker. And for whatever reason, Sam doesn't understand that there's a free runner somewhere. Maybe he thinks he's being protected, the tackle is not kicking out.

whatever it is, Sam has to understand where the free runner is. If he says the center one way, he has to understand that there could be a free runner coming the other way. Right now, I don't think there's a understanding that's where the free runners are coming from. And sometimes he is protected, but they're still a free runner because they can't pick up a stunt. So there's issues that are just, they've got to fix them quickly because Philadelphia is coming to town,

and they have a lot of good stunts. I mean, their linebacker last time they played until they had three sacks. That gives you an indication. The center is going the wrong way or the back can't pick up the blitz. One of the other. So what does Eric B. Enemy do to minimize these issues? Well, there's a lot of things. There are some protections that the quarterback should be safe on at all costs.

So you have to change your protections. You can go on quick counts. You can get the ball out quicker, quick game, screens. Obviously, running the ball helps a lot. Put Sam in harm's way 30 to 40 times a game where it's a five-man or six-man protection and they're not protected as unheard of. I mean, you have to protect it. You look at the guy for Tyson Badgett for the Bears played last week.

He's played Division II football and is the first start of his career. I think he got back one time. So there are things you can do with the bootlegs, the max protection, the slide, the screens that can protect your quarterback. They just haven't done it. Yeah, I mean, I actually looked at that because the kid played at Shepard College up in Shepardstown, West Virginia, where we actually have listeners because it's considered, you know, just outside the DMV. And we've heard about this kid for a while. So I looked at the, at least the box score of that game. They did rush the ball for 173 yards. So that helps. I mean,

There's that old adage, and you already mentioned it, that a running game is a young quarterback's best friend. Washington doesn't seem interested in running the football at all. Why do you think that is? I personally believe it's because the lack of tight end blocking ability. Logan Thomas is a wide receiver. He's not a tight end. He can't play in-line tight-end and block. So if you want to have a tight end cut off the backside or tight end to,

power two-step and run, you know, duo plays at the tight end. It's not possible. They have to get a tight end there that can block a seven technique or a six technique, whatever is defensive end or cut off the backside. They don't have that right now with Logan Thomas. So Logan Thomas has to be spread out. If he spread out, that means you have basically five guys blocking. You have to do more zone reads, more RPO's, which is not Brian Robinson's forte.

Brian is more of a downhill power type runner, and they don't have the personnel to block that. I'm surprised they haven't addressed that with a different tight end. It can actually block a defensive end. Well, they do have that guy Bates on the roster. He has appeared to be much more of a blocker than Logan Thomas in the past. Yeah, then you put him in there. Then you'll probably get more, you know, an extra guy in a box because they know he's not much of a past threat.

So it's a very tough position to fill. There's not many of them. That's why Travis Kelsey's so good, George Gill is so good, because they could do both. They're a threat in a passing game, and they're obviously, they can hold their own in the running game. And those guys are few and far between. You didn't have a blocker. You had a receiver in Jordan Reed. Did that complicate matters for your run game?

Because you guys never were much of, I mean, you tried it, but you didn't have a top-tier rushing attack to go with the pass attack that you had. Was that because of Jordan? Yeah, yeah, definitely did. Jordan was not the greatest blocker world, but he was athletic enough where he could get up on linebackers for the outside zones where he could chip the defensive end and get up to the linebackers. He was actually athletic enough to do that. Some of the inserts where he was insert in on linebackers, he wouldn't stick on very long, but he could get up there and get away and do some things in the running game a little bit more than Logan can. So yeah, but his passing threat was way, way more effective than the titans they have there at Washington. By the way, speaking of Jordan Reed, two days ago was the anniversary of the You Like that game, the eight-year anniversary.

It was October 25, 2015, you're two and four, and I'm assuming, because I think you've told me before, you're feeling it a little bit heading into the game against Tampa, and you guys are down 24 to nothing. Just quickly, what are your memories of that game? Yes, that was a tough game to start. We had a tough start to the season, and things weren't looking good for the future of my coaching career as far as being head coach for the Washington Reds game.

We just hired Scott McLuhan, and somebody told me from the media that they hire Scott McClure to fire me after the Buccaneer game if we lost. It was 24 to nothing. And thankfully, we got an onside kick. I did a surprise onside kick to start the second half. Kirk made some incredible throws. Jordan Reed made some plays.

And we came back and won the game. And I kept my job and went to the playoffs. Do you think you were going to get, I mean, it was entering a bye week, if my memory serves me correctly. Were you going to get fired if you lost that game? I don't know for sure. but somebody told me in the media that it was very close with Scott McLuhan that that was the rumor, and that was going to happen if it was a loss.

Who would they have named coach? Who was on your staff at that point that would have been a head coach? I have no idea. Probably Callahan, I guess. Was he still there? Was he there? Yeah, not in 2015. Yeah, he was there.

In 2015 he was there? I forget. I don't know. I can't remember. What's the game plan against Philadelphia offensively? Well, obviously, the easy answer is, hey, just run the ball. But obviously the issues they have at tight end is going to be difficult to run the ball just effectively. But they have to have some form of running game to take a little pressure off Sam.

He can just drop back and throw it all the time. Some of the bootlegs would be great. If they can run the ball, then you've got the bootlegs off of it. Max's play passes work. He should be protected at three-level throws. So, yeah, I say just, you know, they have to be diverse in what they do, but they can't put too much pressure on Sam to drop back and throw it 50 times. The ideal game plan would be Sam throwing at 25 to 30 times, having 25 to 30 rushes,

eating up some clock, keep it, Jaylen hurts off the field and controlling the ball and obviously scoring. But making some plays easier for Sam where he's not dropping back and trying to read defenses and change protections and all that stuff. Let's give them some simple throw, some screens of the receivers, some bootlegs, things of that nature, run the ball, and hopefully eat up some time. Philadelphia, the number one rush defense in the NFL with those big dudes up front. They're allowing just 62.9 yards per game on the ground against them. It's not the team.

Actually, Washington in the first game against Philadelphia, even though they didn't run it successfully, they ended up with Sam's, you know, take out Sam's scramble yardage, they still ended up with about 70-something yards rushing, which is more than the average against Philadelphia. I'd be happy with that number. I'd be a good number to get. Yeah. They attacked him through the air pretty effectively. That was Sam's best game considering the opponent, the first one.

He threw for 290, had a really high QBR number. I thought that one of the reasons for that was that Philadelphia. is secondary is big in name recognition, but maybe the weakness of that defense. What do you think? I wouldn't say, I think they have some injuries, but various slaves are a pretty good player. And I don't know if Maddox is playing the nickel, but he's pretty good. So I wouldn't say it's their weakness. I think a lot of times if you're Philadelphia and you're playing against a guy like Sam

Howell, you'll probably bring a safety down, which means it will be more single high. so the corners will be more vulnerable. And if the strength of Washington is the receiving core, then that could be a good thing for them. They should be able to get some plays down the field, hopefully. But you've got to protect. And the good thing about Philadelphia's defense or bad thing for Washington is they'll be able to get pressure with just four.

They don't have to do all the crazy blitzes that McMartindale did with the New York Giants. So it'll be an interesting deal. They're going to have to drop back and throw it eventually, obviously, but I just would like to see more like bootlegs get Sam outside the pocket, more of the quarterback design rollout, I guess, try to get him outside the pocket so he can feed down the field and deliver the ball without get hit the face. Defensively, what do you do against Philadelphia?

Defensively, this should be a pretty good matchup. I just feel like the defense is underachieved the entire year. You know, with the four first rounders on the front, you know, they had a linebacker that was drafted in the first round of Jammin, Davis. They have, you know, Kendall Fuller, who is a third-round pick, and a first-round corner who's not even playing. I don't understand why they're struggling so much on defense. This is a unit that has to get the ball for the offense in good field position,

turn the ball over and help Sam out and get more stops and get more opportunities for the offense, and it's just not happening for whatever reason. But they obviously have to defend A.J. Brown better than they did the first time. I mean, to have A.J. Brown have 150-plus yards, and I mean, A.J. Brown's over here. Let's make sure we cover him. Yeah. Yeah. He, I mean, people have been talking about him as a potential MVP candidate this year. I mean, he's having that kind of a season right now. I mean, I personally, I would still, well, where do you put A.J. Brown on the list of receivers right now in the game?

Oh, he's got to be top five, right? I mean, Tyree kill, all those guys. guys up, Justin Jefferson, even though he's hurt, Cooper Cup, A.J. Brown, those guys are all in the same conversation. Is there anybody in the league that puts more fear into a defensive coordinator than Tariq Hill? No, no. Nobody can run like that. This guy is a freak. He's a 4-2 flat 40, and they use them in good motion situations where you can't get your hands on them. It'd be one thing if he lined up in the same spot on the ball, you could jam them and have a safety over the top and run underneath.

You know, the guy for New England did a good job on him, the rookie, but he had, you know, help over the top, and he was playing undercutting a lot of stuff, and he did some good things against him. But when he goes to the motion, if you're playing any kind of single high, and he gets a corner on an island, it's basically a rap.

You have to have somebody underneath them, and a hook player, you have to have a safety over the top. You can take him away, but you're going to give up a lot of areas, of the field because of that to waddle in their tight end and their back, Mozart, who's the back as well. As of this moment, Philadelphia is a seven-point favorite.

What's your prediction on the game Sunday? Well, Washington and Philly, it's a great robbery game, and Washington typically plays Philly pretty good. I mean, last year, Philly was undefeated, and Washington went there and beat them, and this year they already played a three-point game, so I'm taking it. I would take the points if I was playing the game just because it's a division matchup, I think. A lot of times when you have a bad game, Jonathan Allen came out, went crazy. I'm a mic, and coaches are getting hammered, and players are getting belittled.

Redskins or the commanders should have a lot of pride, and I think they're going to come out fighting this week, and I really think they'll play it close and maybe even come out with a victory. Who knows? We like to say that, you know, the familiarity between teams and the same division makes it different than other games. Is that true? I think there is some truth to that. There's, you know, these guys, you already played them once, and you see the film, and you've seen what you did against them last time.

You know the personnel very well. You know the coaching on the other side very well. So familiarity does help a little bit. Now it comes time to, you've got to eliminate the turnovers and a negative plays on offense. And negative plays on offense are just, they're ridiculous. They've got to stop. You've got to stop the fact, obviously.

And moving the ball, 10, 20 yards, and punting is not the end of the world. Let your defense make some play. But yeah, familiarity does help, and it should make it a close game. That's been a theme of yours here for a few weeks. Punting's not a terrible thing. I guess it's better than turning the ball over. Not bad. But you're an offensive guy.

You hated to punt. If you have a – like, there was different philosophies that I've had as a coach. When I was at Washington, our defense wasn't very good. You had to be a little bit more aggressive, obviously. When I was at Cincinnati, we had a really good defense at Mike Zimmer and Andy Dalton's rookie quarterback, and I did my best to protect them and hell, just punt the ball. Sometimes on third and 12 run a screen or a drawl and maybe it pops, and if it doesn't, let's just punt it.

But I'm not going to put Andy in, you know, five-man protection and get him hit the face and turn over another negative play and then punt and let the team get the ball at the 50 yard line, you know, it's insanity. Sometimes you have to understand your defense, the situation, your offense, the limitations that you have, and sometimes you accept the fact that maybe punting is a good option. It's a good option. Yeah, no, I mean, I think the teams that you had in 2015-16, every time you sent a punter out there, I thought it was a lost chance because I felt like defensively they were going to

give up points. like you almost had to score on more than half of your possessions to have a chance in some of those games. All right, let's look at the rest of the league real quickly. First of all, last night, Buffalo got the win. I mean, there was a Hail Mary there on the final play of the game that just hit the turf. Like, nobody even touched the ball.

It almost looked catchable for Godwin in the end zone for what would have been a stunner. What do you think are the issues with Buffalo right now? I mean, I thought they looked like a Super Bowl contender. a few weeks ago. Yeah, I think, well, defensively, they've lost, you know, kind of similar to when I was at Washington, you lose your quarterback, you're tight, and your left tackle, you're running back. I mean, they've lost their two defensive line, and a middle linebacker in their best corner.

I mean, they're a little bit depleted on defense, and they're doing a heck of a job still competing and doing a good job on defense to stay alive. And offensively, because another team is probably underachieving a little bit, Josh, and they just don't have much of a running game. I don't know if it's the offensive line or whatever, but they're leaving too much on Josh Allen and, you know, just not working out. There's just too many issues with them being consistent on offense, and I don't know what it is.

Josh is not the most accurate quarterback. He's obviously a hell of a quarterback, probably top five quarterback in the league. But accuracy-wise, he misses some throws and kill some drives with turnovers or sacks or penalties or what have you. and it's just not flowing right now, but they're a team that obviously can catch fire at any time and can string wins back to back to back to back to back, because they have the talent on offense to do that. Just right now, it's not looking great,

but they're still in position to win the AFC East. He just, every time I watch him, like, I love Josh Allen. I love watching him, but he seems to me to be like one of those guys. You almost have to get him involved physically in the run game where he takes a couple of shots, and then all of a sudden he's Josh Allen. Like running for him is a must for him to be at his best. I don't know if you feel that way or not watching him.

Oh, for sure. That's what he is. He is a big physical dude, and he likes contact. He likes to mix it up. And I was kind of, you know, back when I played, when I was a long time ago, I didn't feel like I was in the game until I got hit in the fate. You know what I mean?

It's just something about getting hit in the physicality of the game. kind of gets your blood flowing. And that's the way Josh is. Josh, I think, thrives on that physicality and that competitive spirit of getting hit and being physical. Yeah. All right. The rest of the card. I'm not comparing myself and Josh Allen, by the way.

No. Let's make that. I think everybody understood that. Although you had one hell of a career in that league, whatever it was called, the Arena League. Right? It was the Arena League? Yeah. Yeah.

You were pretty damn good. Yeah. I'm in the Hall of Fame. I'm in the Hall of Fame, Kevin. don't forget that. I don't know where that. Hall of Fame is, but it's somewhat. Well, you're in the Louisville Hall of Fame as well, aren't you?

No, I didn't make that one. You didn't make that one? But you had a very good college career at Louisville. I had a great college career. I'm very upset that I'm not in my Louisville Hall of Fame. That bothers me. Were you guys an independent when you played at Louisville? Yeah, we were.

Yeah. Like, who was your, did you guys play games during the season that were? rivalry games or not? Like, you know, Louisville... We really didn't have, I think Cincinnati and Southern Miss were our main rivalries when I played. Right. We never got a chance to play Kentucky. But yeah, those were our two main rivalries, I guess. Yeah. Played against Brett Fav. You were really, when you were at Louisville, you were at a basketball first school. Basketball matter a lot more than football. Yes, 100%. Nobody gave a damn about the football. players. It was all about basketball. Never nervous, Purvis,

Nelson Spencer, and Kenny Payne, all those guys, yeah. They were big time on campus. We were just, we were just like normal students. Well, they won it in 86. They beat Duke in the final with Pervis Ellison as a freshman. You were there, right? Were you there then? Yeah, that was my first year, yep. That was your first year. And had one of the all-time great coaches in Denny Crum, one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all-time. You know what tree he's off of, don't you?

or not? No. He coached for John Wooden at UCLA. Oh, that's right. I knew that. He was his assistant before building what he

built at Louisville. Part of the Metro Cont, it was the Metro League back then. It was Louisville and Memphis in Florida State before they went into the ACC. Good days.

All right. What about the rest of the NFL card real quickly? I'm looking at the 49ers Bengals. By the way, what did you think of Monday night? of the Minnesota win.

I thought that was one of Kirk Cousers' best games he's ever played. I mean, he's lacking Justin Jefferson. I mean, he threw the ball accurately on time, getting hit. I mean, Kirk's a tough son of a gun. I mean, I just don't understand how he does it, stays healthy. He never misses a game. He gets hit a lot, and he still throws the ball accurately and on time. I mean, all of Kirk Cuthers' haters, I just don't understand why.

I know the prime time stuff in the playoffs. stuff and all that stuff, but he is one hell of a quarterback, and I've just been more and more impressive, Kirk, more I watch him. But you knew it coaching him, right? Yeah, but the durability that he has, you never know that. Right. I don't know if that luck, I don't know how he, I don't know if it's his plotty that he does. I don't know how he stays healthy all the time.

I mean, there's a lot of core. I mean, Brock Bertie, you know, there's already concussion protocol, and he missed, I mean, these quarterbacks, I don't know how they stay healthy and some of them get hurt. It's just luck of the draw, luck of the way you land. I don't know how it is, but he's been hit a lot and he's stayed healthy. He's been durable. He's been available. But we knew about his accuracy and his anticipation,

but you never know about somebody's durability and how they handle past rush and get hit. Is beyond the durability, is the secret sauce for him, his anticipation, his processing? His, yeah, his diligence studying the game plan and understanding where people are. His accuracy is really uncanny. He's got Drew Bree's accuracy. He can throw the ball where he wants it, when he wants it, how he wants it, with touch, with pace, however he wants to go, he can do it. Now, the issue is obviously he doesn't have the ability to make things happen when they aren't there.

his off-script plays, they don't come naturally to him. But as far as if you call a play and it's open, you better believe it the ball will be there beyond time of the accurate. When have you ever seen a Kirk Couss' pass like inaccurate? No. Look, I think I've told you this before. Too much Kirk Cousins talk really upsets a lot of the listeners. I've had to refer to him. Actually, my good buddy Al Galdi refers to him as you know who. because just the mention of his name is so polarizing to our fan base. But I think, you know, I've been such a big fan of his forever. And I thought, see, I think Monday night was a big,

if they had lost the game, people still would have figured out a way to blame him. If the 49ers had scored on the last possession, for whatever reason they would have said, see, the dude can't win on Monday night or can't win in prime time. and he played brilliantly. I mean, how many of it, remember the Kansas City game on Monday night, played brilliantly. You just were up against a really good team and lost on a walk-off field goal. There were a bunch of those.

But don't get me started on defending Kirk because it really irritates people. You coached him, you know, you and Mike have both, you know, told a lot of us over the years what made him special. And he's still out there doing it. I got into that really not intentionally to ask you about Kirk, was to say the 49ers all of a sudden have lost two games in a row. They may not have a purdy on Sunday against the Bengals. They'll have Sam Darnold potentially in that game. The league is crazy.

It's so week to week. Two weeks ago we thought easily they're the best team in the league. Now they've lost two and there's a prospect of them losing three in a row. How do you see that game? and the 49ers right now overall. Yeah, that 49er bangle game is weird, because you think of the bengal, Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, Pete Higgins, and Joe Mixen is a great offense.

Their offense isn't very good, and I can't put my finger on it. Why? I think it might be Joe's injury. I don't know if it's a scheme, play call, and whatever, but I think they're like a 29th or 30th in the league on offense with that skill. I just can't figure that one out. So I think 49ers defensively will do their thing, and I think it will be a low-scoring game,

and 49ers will win. Even with Sam Darnold. I think Sam Donald's got a chance to succeed. I think he'll be able to do more things with his legs. I think Kyle will probably put in some zone read-type things where Sam can run a little bit, which will help. I don't know if Trent's playing or not, but hopefully Trent plays and they'll be able to run the ball effectively.

In that 2018 draft, you know, we've talked about the 20s, 18th season because you didn't look at it that much because you traded for Alex Smith. But I don't know if I've ever asked you about Sam Darnold. What did you think of Darnold? What do you think of Darnold? Well, obviously, Sam talented and he has all the arm traits that you need for a quarterback and he's athletic. So, yeah, he was probably the top quarterback in that draft, I thought.

And, you know, for whatever reason, he has not, you know, had the success that a lot of people thought he might have. But he's still a young player, and he still has the ability to have success, but maybe a little better supporting cast around them and a better coaching staff. So time will tell, I mean, but early on, he obviously hasn't panned out the way a lot of people thought he would, including myself. Two more. Who's the best team in football right now? Best team in football is Kansas City. I don't think it's close, really. When you talk about their defense being a top five defense, that's really where it should end

because they obviously have the best quarterback in football has seen in a long time. And I'd say Kansas City. And then right after that, I'd probably go Baltimore than Philly than San France. Lock of the week this week is what? Lock of the week this week. Kevin would be Detroit Lions. Did you just wing it?

You didn't have it ready to go, did you? No, no, I thought about it. I thought about it. I think Detroit, they ran into a buzzsaw against Baltimore. I mean, Baltimore scored on the first possession. Detroit goes three and out. Baltimore scores again. Detroit goes three and out.

Baltimore scores again. And that was kind of a, that was a crazy game. I just think Detroit bounces back in a big way. And at home on a prime time game, they're going to play well. You love your favorites. Detroit laying seven and a half Monday night football. That line's moved a little bit. It opened it like eight, eight and a half.

half right around there. It's down to seven and a half. If you watched the game, the Bears and the Raiders game last week, you would say that just take whoever the Raiders play. That's basically what I did. I know. But you should know now that because the Raiders look so awful, everybody assumes that the Lions are going to kill them. So I may be on that. But you've got to understand. Sometimes when you lose a game, it never is it okay to lose a game. But when you lose a game because of effort and poor tackling,

and guys just, you can just see the demeanor of players walking off the field to the sideline. They just, I don't think they get that back in a week. Now, if you play your ass off and you lose a close game, then obviously you can come back to them next week because you have the effort there. I just don't think the Raiders are playing with any effort. All right. If you are only firing in on Jay's lock of the week, you've got to wait until Monday night. He's giving out the Lions minus the 7 and a half at home against the Raiders. God, it seems like it's been forever since we've seen the Lions. That place is going to be rocking it. It's great. It will be. I was last time they had a Monday night game. I don't know. I was just thinking about that. I think it's been a long time. I'm sure that information's out there. I just didn't look it up. But they will have a great home crowd. Washington on Sunday, you like them plus the points.

You give them a chance to win a close game. Yeah, I'm not happy. You know, I don't like that pick. I wouldn't go crazy with it. I just think this game between these two teams is always pretty close. NFC East. Philadelphia's Jalen's a little bit banged up. And, you know, they come in with a little bit cocky attitude thinking they're just to blow them out.

And I think it'll be, I think Washington should come out and play a lot of pride, play some passion, play some physicality, keep it closer even win the game. How was it coaching a game at home that felt like a road game? Because that's what Sunday will feel like. Yeah, we actually had to go silent count one time at home. We played Minnesota, all those cold guys yelling. We actually had to go silent count at home, which is I'm heard of. Yeah, it's not fun.

And, yeah, didn't like it. That surprises me that it was that game, which was a really, a great game, if I recall, a real shootout game. But I just would have thought it would have been against the Cowboys or the Eagles. Cowboys were, yeah. They were all pretty much like that. I mean, both those teams travel well. I mean, so wherever they play, they're going to have their presence known.

And we actually, you know, we had some road games where I felt our presence known as well. Right. It's weird that way. It's been that way. It's almost as if during those latter Snyder, years, there were more fans that lived outside the area than inside the area. Because we had better crowds on the road than we did sometimes at home. All right.

I think part of it is that stadium. I think we have plenty of fans that would come to games. I just think that stadium is such a pain in the ass. You know, they'd rather sell their tickets sometimes than go. Nothing worse than a weekday night game at FedEx Field to deal with that traffic. There is nothing worse. Well, there are things worse, but that's in the top five. I mean, as far as, yeah.

I mean, the preseason games used to kill me because they're all night games during the week, and they used to take like two days off my life because, you know, you get home at like 2 o'clock in the morning. You have to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. I hated that. Oh, yeah. All right. Enjoy the football this weekend. I'll talk to you next week.

You got it. Thanks, Kevin. Jay Gruden, everybody with me every Friday. Smell test next to finish up the show. after these words from a few of our sponsors. Smell test brought to you by, as always, MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and they're continuing the offer, and it's only through Sunday now.

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MyBooky.ag promo code Kevin, DC. Take this incredible 110% cash bonus on your initial deposit and run with it. Please. Last chance to do it. It's available through Sunday. one and one on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday last week. A big weekend for me, 10, 2, and 1 overall because I had the Thursday night college game with Marshall last week. Still, that was a big week. It puts me two games over 500 for the year. It followed a brutally awful week, but last weekend

was a huge week for the sports books, especially when you consider that some of the big underdogs like New England won outright. That kills those betters that love to put big favorites into money line parlays into three-team teasers where all they have to do is win the game. But this week, I don't love the card, to be honest with you. There's not a lot of games that really stuck out. I've been saying all week that I thought I would have Washington in the smell test. I actually don't. There's some sharp money now on Philadelphia that's moved the number to seven. We'll see what happens between now and Sunday, but I've taken the skins out of the smell test. I thought I was going to have the Packers in the

smell test, but there's sharp money on the Vikings this week. That lined open at plus one, and Minnesota is now minus one and a half, even though it seems like the obvious letdown spot after their win on Monday night. College-wise, I'm going to give you two big favorites starting tomorrow. Kansas State's a 17-point favorite over Houston. Houston just nearly knocked off Texas. I know Quinn Ewers got hurt in the game, but they lost by seven. It was tied late. They had beaten West Virginia the week before I had them that week, and the smell test, it was a Thursday night game, and they won on a Hail Mary. But the public likes Houston getting all those points in the Little Apple, Manhattan, Kansas. Give me K State, laying the 17.

The Keynes at the University of Miami are laying 18 to Virginia who just knocked off North Carolina. So the public loves recent impressions. so they're like, why is Virginia who just beat a top 10 team an 18-point underdog? I'll take Miami and lay the 18. I hate this next one, and it really actually is painful because I almost gave out Illinois against Maryland two weeks ago, and I said that this was a big beware game. I thought it was, and it felt like coming off that Ohio State game, like a letdown, and the Terps lost outright to the Illini.

they're laying 13 and a half against Northwestern, that number just for all of you out there, when you see two and a halves and six and a halves and 13 and a halves on key numbers like three, seven, and 14, they're kind of begging you to bet the favorite. It's like, hey, all they got to, if they win by 14 or more, you win. So they leave the number there at 13 and a half just incentivizing more action on the favorite. and that's what you've seen this week. Maryland's a big public favorite this week. I'll take Northwestern by the half point

and take them at plus 14. Sunday, the Cowboys are at 6.5 And the public's pounding Dallas minus 6.5. I'll take the Rams by the half point plus 7. The Broncos are not at 6.5. They're actually getting 7.5 against Kansas City at home. Big public play on the Chiefs. That line at one point was 8.

It's down to seven and a half. I gave the Broncos out just two weeks ago against the Chiefs on Thursday night football, getting 10 and a half, and they lost by 11. I'm going to try the Broncos against the Chiefs one more time. Denver's played better recently, but nobody will have Denver on Sunday. I'll take the Broncos plus the seven and a half. And then Monday night, I like the Raiders. That number's down from 8, 8.5 to 7.5.

They're sharp money. I think it's partly because Garapolo's, expected to play. I may change this on Monday, so don't play it yet, wait. But for now, the Raiders are in the smell test Monday night at Detroit plus seven and a half. We'll see what happens. Like if Garoppolo is out and that line jumps to 10, I may get off of it. If it stays at seven and a half, eight somewhere around there and Garoppolo's playing, I'll probably keep it. Now, if Garapolo doesn't play and the line stays at seven and a half or goes to seven, well, then I'll probably stay on the Raiders. None of that makes sense to some of you. It does make sense to a few of you.

Recapping, K-State minus 17, Miami-19, and Northwestern plus 14 tomorrow. The Rams plus seven and the Broncos plus seven and a half on Sunday, and the Raiders plus seven and a half on Monday night football. We will be back before that Monday night football game back here on Monday to recap Washington and the Eagles. I think it'll be a close game. I'm expecting that. Have a good weekend.