The Kevin Sheehan Show - Kicking And Alive

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

Kevin recaps the Redskins' win over Jacksonville and breaks down their current playoff position. JP Finlay/NBC Sports Washington joins the show from Jacksonville to describe the feeling in the locker room about Josh Johnson and their playoff hopes. Kevin goes "Around the NFL" and then finishes up the show with "Weekend DVR" where he brings in Chris Miller/NBC Sports Washington to talk about the Wizards' win last night and the Trevor Ariza trade. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. No wind. 36 yards right down the middle. Zero's on the clock.

The Redskins have come from behind to win. Kevin Harlan. And the Redskins win it in Jacksonville. And guess what? Ladies and gentlemen. They are still alive. They are still alive not only for a wild card, but they're alive in the division race. Oh, yeah, I'm here.

Aaron's here. This show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation. And tell them we told you to call. We're getting this out a little bit later this morning. I like a little bit of sleep before I do the show rather than doing it at 2 in the morning. so we're in here early, which is when I get up every morning. So did Aaron. He got up.

J.P. Finley's going to be up for us. We've got a show to talk about a win. A good 16 to 13 win over Jacksonville. Not pretty. I'm not changing my mind as to where this season is headed and where the offseason should head. But they won a game in the same way they've won their other six games this year. Good defense, win the turnover battle, field position, being a, favorable, get a couple of good offensive plays, but more importantly, no real bad ones.

Not pretty on a lot of fronts. A terrible opponent offensively could have easily gone the other way, but it didn't. They won the game, and they absolutely deserved to win that game. And with two games left, yes, they can still make the postseason, although winning next week in Tennessee is going to be a different challenge than the one that they faced yesterday. in Jacksonville. Let's get to the game take, because there's a lot to it. We get more excited, Aaron, I think, when there's a win or at least a competitive game, which we did not have a week ago, or really, we haven't had one for a few weeks. So let's get to the game take.

Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right. There's a lot of good on this list, a lot of things I liked on this list. And there are a few things I didn't like. And then there are a bunch of observations that I'll get to also, including some of the players that played a lot more than some of the players that didn't. J.P. Finley will join us right afterwards, and we will go around the NFL today because there was a shocker last night, the second biggest underdog of the year. It doesn't seem like at Eagles Rams, the Eagles as the defending champions, but they went to the Coliseum and beat the Rams, and now all of a sudden the Rams look very vulnerable. They've lost two in a row, And a first round by is no longer a lock for the Rams.

All right, let's start with the game yesterday. The Redskins showed up. They showed up. You know, after an embarrassing one-sided loss last week in a game that they trailed at 1.40 to nothing, that week and that game was followed up by a week full of controversies, Mason Foster, Zach Brown. The Redskins put all that to the side.

They showed up for the game. They didn't mail it in. They didn't cave under a four-game losing streak and all that came with it. I give credit to Gruden and the staff, but really I thought there were a few key players on both sides of the ball that really stepped up, and they are the people that you would have expected to sort of step up and play well yesterday. John Allen was spectacular. Ryan Kerrigan, Matt Ionitis, Adrian Peterson, Trent Williams, and yes, 32-year-old journeyman quarterback Josh Johnson.

I don't even know if you call him a journeyman because his journey hasn't really included much playing in recent years. But Josh Johnson had a decent game. I'll get to that in a few moments. But all of the above, all of those players, and I'm probably leaving out a few. But this was the majority of a core group of players who really didn't want another week like last week. So good for them. They really posted yesterday. defense is clearly on the things I like the list. The defense had its best game in many, many weeks,

albeit against as bad an offensive team as you're going to see this year. Cody Kessler is awful. And that offense overall is truly bad. An offense under Cody Kessler that had scored nine points last week against the Titans and six the week before. Now, the six was a win, a shutout win over the Colts. But 15 points the last two weeks during Cody Kessler's previous two starts coming in. So this was not going to be an offensive team that they really were going to struggle with. But the Skins defense still, which has really been themselves awful over the last month, they dominated. Their first half was as good a half as they played this year, truly dominant. they held Jacksonville.

If you take out Kessler's scrambles in the game, he had 68 yards worth of scrambles in the game. You're talking about a team that only ended up with 124 yards of total offense, 61 in the first half, 57 passing yards. Kessler was 9 for 17 on the day for 57 yards. He was sacked six times, and the skins could have easily had.

had another two or three sacks. And the offense of Jacksonville managed just six points. The other seven came on the punt return at the end of the half. The defense faced its weakest opponent offensively, but it took care of business. It really dominated. And specifically, I thought John Allen had the best game and the most dominant game we've seen him play. And he's had some dominant games this year that weren't as obvious statistically, but he was unblockable yesterday in the run game as a pass rusher, two sacks, three tackles for loss, pressure against Kessler the entire day. John Allen is the thing you point to when you say, if you believe this, the Redskins have a chance defensively in the next few years to be a good football team because John Allen is

spectacular. Duran Payne and Matt Ionitis are the same, but John Allen is a cut above the rest. Ryan Carrigan had a spectacular game statistically anyway. Two sacks, a forced fumble early on. He is now second on the all-time Redskinned sack list. He passed Charles Mann yesterday, still several sacks behind Dexter Manly. The turnovers were huge yesterday. I mentioned that they needed to be plus two to win this game, and that's exactly what they were, plus two. Two takeaways, no giveaways, the last of which came off a deflection, the interception by Moreau, and that set up the skins in good field position to get into field goal range for the game winning kick by Hopkins. The first turnover was Carrigan, the sack forced fumble that Alan

recovered and picked up and ran back for a few yards. They didn't score on that drive, but the Redskins finished plus two in the turnover margin, and that was the difference in the game, because if you imagine they don't get the deflection in the second turnover and Jacksonville punts the ball, well then the Redskins potentially are starting at their own 10-yard line with two and a half minutes left, Jacksonville probably gets the ball back in that particular situation

with a chance to kick a game-winning field goal themselves. Field position was huge in this game. Time of possession was big in this game. The Redskins had the ball 33 minutes, six seconds to 26 minutes, 54 seconds for Jacksonville. And even though the skins didn't score much yesterday, they dominated that time of possession in the second half in particular. Listen to this. They had four second half drives. On those four drives, they ran 39 plays and ate up 19 minutes and seven seconds of the game clock.

in addition to scoring 13 points on those four drives. So they scored three times on their four second half drives. They really limited Jacksonville's chances. Three of Jacksonville's drives started inside their own 15 in this game, two inside their own 10. You know, the Redskins had great field position, and it was, well, Jacksonville, I'm sorry, had great field position only one time,

and that was off that partially blocked punt in the first half. So field position huge, time of possession, especially in the second half, was really, really good and worked to the Redskins advantage. On my things I like the list, Adrian Peterson was on this list. Don't let the final numbers confuse anybody. Adrian Peterson carried them on the final drive of the game. The Redskins drove 36 yards on the final drive of the game to get into field goal range, chip shot field goal range. And Adrian Peterson had all 36 of those yards. He had a catch that moved the chains on a second and six at midfield.

He had a 15-yard run, had a 7-yard run. This wasn't something that Somaget P. Ryan or Rob Kelly or anybody else they have could have done. With the game on the line, Peterson carried what was really, for the most part, an anemic offense. I mean, outside of a few plays that Johnson made. He put the team on his back and got the team into field goal range. His final numbers not reflective of how important he was to the final result. His final numbers were 19 carries, 51 yards, two catches for 20 yards. All of it seemed to be all him.

Adrian Peterson, along with John Allen and Trent Williams and Ryan Carrigan, They were the differences in this game. Tress Hopsway and Dustin Hopkins were huge in this game also. Hopkins three for three, including the game winner. Tressway had a new snapper. His name was Andrew East. His wife, by the way, did you see that, Aaron? His wife, Sean Johnson, the Olympic gold medalist, gymnast.

She was there. But the new snapper was a little bit slow, a little bit high at times, which probably led to that partially blocked punt. But Tressway had another monster day, punting it, you know, wherever he wanted, the distances he wanted. And that punt return was set up beautifully by Jacksonville. It was really one of the few special teams' plays punt coverage-wise that the Redskins have given up all year long. I'm going to add one last thing to the list of things that I liked from the game yesterday. I'm going to put Josh Johnson on this list.

look his final number 16 for 25 15151 yards one touchdown no interceptions no interceptions it was actually the best passer rating of his career that was the best passer rating of Josh Johnson's career it was a 93.9 throwing for 151 yards 16 of 251 one touchdown no picks um look he used his legs all day long to really generate the bulk of the key plays offensively on the day until Adrian Peterson on the final drive. You know, that's been missing from the skin's offense all year long, a quarterback making plays with his legs. Now, maybe it would have become a more prominent part of the offense had Colt McCoy stayed healthy. But listen to this.

Josh Johnson used his legs on seven scrambles for 40 yards, another two zone readplays by my count, for about 9 to 10 years. yards. Nine carries 49 crucial yards on the day. His passing numbers weren't great, but they weren't awful. And really no ill-advised throws, even the third and 15 deflection that Jameson Crowder pulled in miraculously. It's third and 15. You might as well take a shot. Look, he took a sack on the skin's first drive of the game following Carrigan's forced fumble and recovery by Allen where they were in field goal range and the sack he took knocked them out of field goal range. That hurt because the game was going to be a game of field goals and they were in range for one on that drive. He also got very lucky on a sack where he didn't protect the ball

fumbled but Morgan Moses recovered it. That was on the touchdown drive that tied it in the fourth quarter. But for the most part, Josh Johnson gave the Redskins a chance against a good defensive team with another makeshift offensive line in front of him. He gave him a chance. The Redskins ended up 7 of 15 on 3rd down, 6 of 8 on 3rd down in the second half. He scrambled for one of them. He scrambled for 2 of them actually and one of them got called back. His best throws of the day were the 3rd down throws to Vernon Davis and Michael Floyd, Michael Floyd on the 3rd and 10. You know, he got lucky on the 3rd and 15. And that really turned out to be the 3rd. the play of the game, right? The Crowder contorting himself and catching it off a ball that

could have been intercepted and really in that particular situation, it looked like worst case for the Redskins or for Jacksonville, it was going to be incomplete and somehow Crowder came up with it. If the Redskins have to punt there, they're probably not going to drive and tie the game or if they do, the game's probably more of an overtime situation. That was the play of the game. throw wasn't close, but the Redskins got some breaks yesterday. Johnson gave the offense a chance yesterday. Sanchez could have never given him that opportunity. He was a gamer. He didn't make many bad plays, and he made enough good ones. He's on this list, the list of things I liked from the game. Let's get to the short list of the things that I didn't like from the game. It's

really hard to find a lot of bad from a game yesterday, 1613, clean game offensively. There were some penalties, too many of them. Now, the final numbers of six penalties for 48 yards really doesn't tell the story because I think there were five additional penalty calls that weren't accepted. In the first half, there were five accepted on eight flags. So the first half was a penalty fest for the Redskins. The skins had two plays of two penalties on each play. One of those situations was after they call the timeout. It was their second drive of the game. It's before a third and nine. They call a timeout and they come back with an illegal formation and offensive pass interference on the same play. Vernon Davis had another huge drop in this game.

It's been an issue for him this year. He's had some big plays and he's had some missed And on the third and eight play, it was the first play after the two-minute warning in the first half in a three-three game. Johnson throws to Davis deep and he puts it on the money. Now, I think it was in Gokwe, he a turp. I think he was in coverage and made a play on the ball, but Davis should have caught it. It was in his hand. Should have been a catch. It would have been a big play and it would have set up points for the Redskins before the half. They probably would have gone into the half with a lead rather than being forced to punt and giving up that lead. Also on the list of things I didn't like was just the punting unit, not the punter.

Trisway was spectacular. There was a partially blocked punt. That was in the second quarter on what was perhaps a high and slow snap back by the new long snapper. If you missed it, Nick Sunberg had a herniated disc, and that was it for the year. He had the herniated disc surgery, so he's done for the year. Nick Sundberg has been so consistently good over the years. But then you get to the punt return for a touchdown. And actually before that, Mo Harris really hurt the Redskins by first fair catching a really long punt

that should have been caught, turned around, and gotten up field for 15 plus yards. Whenever you see a punter outkick the coverage like their punter did from deep in their own territory, and Mo Harris is going backwards, you've got to make that catch, turn it up field, and pick up 15, 20 yards. You know, he called fair catch on that. Never call fair catch on one of those. And then he fumbled it. By the way, Mo Harris was back there because Stroman was inactive yesterday. I have no idea why.

Perhaps they wanted, I think they wanted Holesy up to try him at Corner. But he fumbled it, and he recovered the fumble, thankfully. But on that particular play, Jacksonville went from punting from their own 10-yard line, and the Redskins ended up starting from their own 18-yard line. That is a 72-yard field flip in that spot. Look, Mo Harris, God bless him. hard. I don't know that he can be on this team next year. I mean, he didn't get any separation. He's an absolute non-threat after he catches the ball offensively, and he's not very good as a

punt returner. Then came the punt return for a touchdown. That in the moment, really, I don't know how many of you felt the same way, but I thought that was it. I thought it was game over at 10 to 3. Aaron, did you think on that punt return that that was like game over? I mean, they didn't show any ability to score after that. So. I mean, all it was going to take was a defensive touchdown or a special teams touchdown. And when Jacksonville got that with four seconds to go in the half, I was like, well, you know, they hung in there and they're going to lose, you know, 16 to 6 or something like that. What was Byron Marshall doing at the end of that play?

Apparently taking out the blocker. Now, if you're going to defend him, he got pushed in the back a little bit, which sent him in the general direction of the blocker. And maybe he closed his eyes and thought that the blocker had the ball. But he did not make a play on the ball when he had an opportunity would have appeared to make a play on D.D. Westbrook's return. And all you needed there was just something to trip them up to stop him short of the end zone. And they would have had to kick a field goal because there were only a couple of seconds left in the half.

a lot more in terms of just additional observations from the game. I don't want to really, really hammer Jay Gruden for this, but I got to tell you what, on that last field goal attempt, I was really, really screaming at Jay Gruden to call that timeout, that final time. They had two timeouts left to call that time out with about eight or nine seconds left on a third down field goal attempt. Why? Well, because you have a brand new snapper, brand new long snapper. And if for whatever reason on that short game winning kick, it's a bad snap,

well then the holder and or kicker can take it, fall on it, call time out, and you can line up and kick it again. What's the downside of calling that time out with nine seconds left? Eight seconds left, 10 seconds, somewhere between 8 and 10 seconds left. What's the downside of that? What, that you make the kick and there's still time left on the clock? Or you miss the kick and there's still time left on the clock? That's Cody Kessler. What's he going to do on one play from his own, you know, from at that point it would be his own 26 yard line. It was the 36 yard kick. What's he going to do? They're going to take a knee and we're going to go to overtime if the kick is missed. And if it's made and there's still time left on the clock.

so Hopkins kicks it out of the end zone and what's Kessler going to do? I mean, are we going to see a Miami play from last week? Probably not. The more likely of all of those things is a bad snap. So you've got to prepare for that, Jay. You've got to think about those things. I know you want it to be a walk-off, let's go home. I know it's the NFL.

There should be a good snap, good hold, good kick from 36 yards out. I get that. But you got a new snapper? I would have called the time. out with about eight or nine seconds left. In the event, there's a bad snap. And if there's a bad snap, guess what? You line them up from 49, 50 yards, or whatever it would have been. It would have been actually not even that far. Josh Doxon yesterday, I've got to point this out. First of all, I think he's played better recently. He was only targeted twice yesterday and had no catches,

but the first target of the game was one of the only deep shots that they took all day long. it wasn't a great throw and he wasn't necessarily open, but at least on television, it would have appeared that he could have made some kind of play on the ball. Do you know the play I'm talking about early in the game, deep shot to Doxon, and he just sort of runs through it and lets it fall helplessly to the ground? It just looks like that's the kind of play as a receiver. You've got to work yourself towards the ball, back a little bit. Maybe you draw a PI, but make a physical, concerted effort to go get the football. Byron Marshall played yesterday. If you miss this, the Redskins released Capri Bibbs before the game. That's a player I think we've all liked, but I know why they released him. It's because

Gruden loves Byron Marshall. He has loved Byron Marshall since the first time he saw Byron Marshall. He thinks Byron Marshall is one of the most explosive players he has on his roster on offense. They threw a bubble to him. He had 17 yards. And then he also somehow decided not to tackle D.D. Westbrook on the 74-yard punt return at the end of the half. But that's why Byron Marshall was out there and they released Capri Bibbs if you miss that. In yesterday's games, the two quarterbacks combined for 117 yards rushing. Kessler 6 for 68, Johnson, 9 for 49. Six of their scrambles were for third-down conversions. Six of them, and there were two of them called back.

In that particular game, Johnson, yeah, two of them were called back, one on a Luke Bawanko hold on a big Johnson run for a first down on third down. and Johnson, if you recall, had another one lined up on a scramble, and he barely got tripped up as he was heading for another first down. That was basically the offense for both teams, Kessler and Johnson running the football, until Adrian Peterson on the final drive. I did like Jay Gruden's decision on a third and 19 on the second drive of the game. The first drive of the game, Josh Johnson takes a sack, knocks him out of field goal range. second drive of the game. They've got a third and 19 at the Jacksonville 32, and Gruden says, we're just going to run the football and kick a field goal because field goals in this game are going to decide this game.

And he ran a draw to Chris Thompson, I believe, and Hopkins buried the field goal to give them a 3-0 lead. That's good game management by Gruden in that spot. Your quarterback isn't going to complete a third and 19. He's not even going to complete a quick hit or an underneath route. You can't drop him back in that spot and risk a second sack knocked out of field goal range. That's a good understanding of managing the game by Jay Gruden. I'll tell you this as it relates to Jay Gruden screwing it up before the punt return at the end of the half. I didn't think so. A lot of people were tweeting me, how do you throw the ball to Mo Harris and he goes out of bounds?

That killed the Redskins in that spot? No, it didn't. it didn't. If he stays in bounds, first of all, then Jacksonville just calls a timeout. They had one more and he returns the punt for a touchdown. Look, I actually liked the call. They were deep, deep in their own territory. A little safe bootleg to Mo Harris to get some yards to give your punter more room was fine.

It was fine. It's unfortunate that Mo Harris went out of bounds. It would have been better had he remained inbounds. But it wasn't going to end the half him staying in bounds. Jacksonville was still going to call a time out, and as it turned out, Jacksonville returned the punt for a touchdown anyway. Do you know that this was the first time in the last 16 games in which the Redskins trailed at halftime that they won the game?

Coming into this game, the Redskins had lost 16 games in a row in which it trailed at half time. time. That's not a very good number when you are evaluating a coaching staff, that you've lost 16 consecutive games after trailing at halftime. I do find it interesting. I know some of you have gotten hung up on this, me not as much. The stretch of games this year were the team that has scored first has won the game and the games in which the Redskins have played, that the Redskins continued to defer. Look, here's the defer thing. The NFL defers. Most coaches defer when they win the toss because of the following. If you're the road team, the crowd is typically

empty at the beginning of the third quarter. If you notice most NFL stadiums early in the third quarter, there are a lot of empty seats. Why? Because halftime's not that long. and there is a run to the bathrooms and the concession stands and people don't get back into their seats until about midway through the third quarter. It's just the way it is in almost every stadium. I'm sure Arrowhead's different. I'm sure Lambo's different. The fan bases that are really coached up well.

But in most cases, you'd rather as the road team start on offense in the second half than at the beginning of the game, when there are more people in their seats, hence more noise being made and generally more fired up crowd. That's the reason that Belichick and a lot of the good coaches over the years have deferred. If you're the home team, you defer because you want the road team to start on offense. You want your defense out there with the crowd fired up. If you're the road team, you defer because you'd rather have that ball to start the second half. But I'm just going to say that in Jacksonville yesterday, there's no crowd to begin with.

It doesn't really matter. At FedEx this year, it really hasn't mattered. You know, you've had essentially half to three-quarter filled stadiums anyway. So there's not a real advantage first half, second half. A couple of other things. Morgan Moses now leads the league in penalties. He had a hold in the third quarter. there was another head-scratching penalty yesterday in the game.

A.J. Bouye got called for a defenseless hit on Vernon Davis on the Skins opening drive of the second half. It was a second and ten in completion. Think about that drive. The Redskins drove it a long distance, kicked a field goal. Third and ten would have been problematic for them. There was a call for a hit on Davis for being defenseless. Vernon Davis was defenseless on the play. That part of it, I think, was correct. The incorrect part was there was no hit. There was no contact.

It's really hard I would think to flag somebody for a defenseless hit on a receiver when there wasn't actually a hit. Chris Thompson yesterday, I know nothing he did statistically will impress anybody, but I just want to make this point right now. I saw signs personally that Chris Thompson is getting closer, and the signs were he was more willing to take a hit yesterday, so I think he's getting healthier, and I think he's going to have a good game or two over these final two to finish up what's been a very disappointing and injury-riddled season for him. Ha-ha Clinton Dix yesterday played every defensive snap.

Monta-Nicholson didn't play one defensive snap. Monta-Nicholson was active for the game and he played on special teams, not one defensive snap. I point this out because I listened to Zab's interview with Jay Gruden on Friday, where Zabe asked him about Clinton Dix and Monta Nicholson, and Jay gave an answer of, well, we traded for Haha Clinton Dix. And I will just tell you that what that means, the translation, management is telling me I've got to play Haha Clinton Dix because we traded for him. There have been a couple of those instances this year.

early in the season, if you go back and check play counts, snap counts, there's not a whole lot of rotation in the defensive front. And the reason for that, I believe, is that management said, we're not drafting defensive linemen in the first round in back-to-back years and having them rotate with other guys. We're not having them rotate with anybody else. They're going to play the entire game. And if you look at through the first half of the season,

you saw a lot of the first round picks, Don Payne and John Allen playing most of the snaps. And when I say most of, I'm talking about like 95% of the snaps. Now in recent weeks, there's been much more of a rotation as we've gotten later in the season. I believe that was because management told the coaching staff, I don't want the rotation anymore. I want to see my first round picks on the field. Look, the Redskins finally got the breaks to go their way.

and they needed all of them yesterday. The deflected pass to Crowder on 3rd and 15. That is a game-changing, perhaps the most impactful play of the day. Crowder made a really, really good play. It's not a great throw. I don't have a problem with the throw. It's 3rd and 15. Chuck it down the field, try to make something happen.

But Crowder contorts himself, comes up with the ball on a 3rd and 15 in a 13-6 game in the 4th quarter, and makes a spectacular catch. The Redskins still had to take advantage of that, and they did. They took it in for their only touchdown of the day. The deflected interception by Moreau, huge, huge play in the game.

Because if they don't get that interception, and instead it's an incomplete pass, then Jacksonville punts, and the Redskins are pinned deep with two and a half to go. And instead, on the interception, they had it at their own 45-yard line. Imagine Jacksonville punts it to the 13-yard line. That's major advantage Jacksonville, right, with two and a half minutes to go.

But the interception off the deflection, it flips the advantage to the Redskins because of the field position. Two huge deflections that both went the Redskins way. It just hasn't happened much this year or in recent weeks. The fumble by Josh Johnson in the pocket where he really didn't protect the ball gets recovered by Morgan Moses. Big break. the offensive PI, which I think was an offensive PI, on the third and six, in the 13 to 13 game, Jacksonville actually started to move the football for the first time all day. They had a big run by Fournette.

They had a big run by the other running back. I forget what his name was. It wasn't yelled in. It was the bigger dude. And they're moving. And instead, you get that offensive PI and the next, that knocks him out of field goal range. And the next play is the Moreau Interception. All the breaks went the Redskins away finally, and they needed all of them.

They had lost on some bad breaks. The Houston game in particular is really the Josh Doxon non-interference call cost them a game. It cost them a chance at a chip shot field goal, walk off field goal. The Dallas and Philadelphia games, nothing went their way. Even if things had gone their way against the Giants, it wouldn't have mattered. But yesterday, everything. went their way. They finished with six sacks yesterday. They've now recorded six or more sacks in two games this year. The last time that happened 18 years ago, there is one thing that you can

take away from this season, I believe, and that is that while the defense has been very inconsistent, it is improved. It's the one light at the end of the tunnel part of the roster that you look at and you say John Allen is legit good. Duron Payne is really good. Matt Ionitis is good. You know, the interior of your defensive front is your building block. It may be the only building block you have because I think at the end of this season you're going to look at needing six new starters offensively and four to five defensively. I know we have this conversation every year, but that's the way it appears to me. But they have talent, young talent, along their defensive front.

By the way, the Redskins win yesterday was the 600th win in franchise history, and they become just the fifth franchise in NFL history to accomplish that feat of 600 regular season wins. The Bears, the Packers, the Giants, the Steelers, and now, The Redskins. And one last thing. There were stories yesterday about Alex Smith who got released from the hospital. His wife sent out a picture of him yesterday. He's healthy. Thank God. There was conflicting reports in terms of the optimistic level for him returning next year. Adam Schaefter said it's a guarded situation as it relates to Alex Smith, that there are a lot of

concerns. And then there was a report, I think, from Ian Rappaport who said people, you know, people in the organization are more optimistic that he is going to be able to make a return to football. At this point, who really cares about this? You'd just love to see that he is out of the hospital and the leg from an infection standpoint is healthy. Because I think there were some serious concerns. Look, the press release that the team sent out was a great. grave, grave-sounding press release. His wife sent out an Instagram and she wrote, Home, this last month has been a difficult ride.

Our family is beyond happy to have this man, and there's a picture of Alex Smith in a wheelchair with a Redskins mug, coffee mug, with a blanket, a Redskins blanket covering his lower portion of his body. But his wife says, the last month's been a difficult ride. Our family's been, our family is beyond happy to have this man with us and home. This experience has given us great perspective and gratitude for all the people

and blessings in our lives. We couldn't have gotten through it without our amazing family, friends, and community. A special thank you to the relentless doctors, nurses, techs, hospital administrators, the Snyder family, and the Washington Redskins. Very happy that Alex Smith is healthy and better. I put out another Josh Johnson Twitter poll. Aaron. I did see this. Last week, it was tongue placed firmly in cheek when I asked if Josh Johnson would lead the Redskins to the playoffs. This week, the tongue is still in cheek, but not as firmly. But I asked the question, will Josh Johnson lead the Redskins to the playoffs?

And as we're approaching 3,000 votes, 58% of you still say no, all right? 26% say yes. 16% still aren't sure What were the numbers last week? 78% No I think it was 16%

Yes And 6% Not sure I think that's what it was So Josh Johnson Getting some believers A few more believers This week

As far as the Redskins Playoff hopes Look they are alive They're alive And kicking In the NFC playoff race they're not out of the division race. How would they do that?

They'd win their final two games, and Dallas would need to lose their final two games. The Cowboys have a better division record and a better conference record. Now, if the Cowboys beat Tampa but lost to the Giants, they still would beat the Redskins in a 9-and-7 tiebreaker head-to-head. If the Redskins win the final two and the Cowboys lose the final two, then the Redskins are 9-7 and their NFC East champions. That's the way to the NFC East.

The way to a wild card is actually much easier. It relies on Minnesota more than anybody else to lose one more time. If the Vikings were to lose one more game and the Redskins win both of them over Tennessee and Philly, the Redskins are going to be a playoff team because they would have eliminated Philadelphia themselves. They would have ended up with a better record than Minnesota, who with one more loss would finish at best 8, 7, and 1. Carolina could still finish nine and seven. However, the Redskins beat the Panthers head to head.

The Seahawks right now with the Cardinals as their final game, even though they've got the Chiefs, are nine and seven. And they, too, have a better conference record than the Redskins. So the Redskins would lose a tiebreaker with Seattle. But if the Redskins win their final two, and Minnesota loses once, either Sunday at Detroit or in the finale, to the Bears. And what made the final game against the Bears interesting from a, from the perspective of other teams chasing the Vikings for that number six spot is the Bears now will

have a chance potentially to get the two seed in the NFC. So they will be playing that game to win it in Minnesota at the end, hoping that the Rams falter one time. And if the Rams falter once, because the Bears beat the Rams head to head, the Bears could end up getting a first round by, believe it or not, and a home playoff game in the second round. Now, again, the Rams have the 49ers and the Cardinals. I think in inverse order to finish up the season. Cardinals first than 49ers. 49ers are playing much better. They beat the Seahawks yesterday. But Minnesota loses once. Redskins lose twice. Redskins are worst case going to be a six-seed in the NFC playoffs. And that would probably put them in the wild.

card round at Chicago or at Los Angeles, which is still a possibility. And there's still a chance it could be at Dallas. Dallas could still snag the three seed ahead of Chicago. That's still a possibility, although not a very good one. So that's the playoff situation for the Redskins. Now, is there a way they could lose Saturday and still get in? Yeah, they could lose Saturday to fall to seven and eight. End up beating the Eagles could lose to Houston. Redskins beat Eagles, so then the Redskins would be eight and eight. The Eagles would be seven and nine.

The Panthers would need to lose at least one of their final three to get to eight and eight. They have the Saints twice. That's probable. But the real key there would be the Vikings would have to lose their final two games to finish seven, eight, and one. Because eight, seven, and one, trump's eight and eight. The Vikings have Detroit this week again, and they finish with Chicago at home. So 8 and 8, still a possibility, not a good one. It would require the Vikings to lose twice if the Redskins lose to Tennessee and beat Philly.

That would have to be the way it works for the Redskins. They'd have to beat Philadelphia in that particular scenario for 8 and 8 to work. The Redskins are 10-point underdogs next week at Tennessee. It's a Saturday 430 kick. In Nashville, Tennessee shut out the Giants, 17, nothing more on that, and Derek Henry's performance coming up when we go around the NFL. But it won't be the same team that they faced yesterday. Tennessee's playing well, they're 8 and 6, they are very much alive in the playoff race.

In fact, if they win their final two games, which includes a season finale against Indianapolis, and Baltimore loses one game, they will be in the postseason as a wild card team. Tennessee with a good chance because Baltimore plays in Los Angeles against the Chargers. I think actually they're not out of the division race. Houston would have to lose their final two. Houston plays at Philadelphia this week, but finishes at home against Jacksonville and we saw what Jacksonville is. Wind Donation is a big fan of this podcast. Harley and Aaron and Eric listen all the time. If you've been thinking about new windows,

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At least you had some nice weather yesterday. It rained the entire weekend here, which was lovely. But I want to start with this. How much of this win was the Redskins? really summoning up some sort of toughness, you know, and resolve versus being fortunate to play the team they played yesterday? I think it can be both, Kevin. I think the Jags are a bad team, and that's important to point out their offense is terrible.

But at the same time, the Jaguars, when they decide to play, have a pretty good defense. And Redskins, when they needed to, were able to move the ball. I think that says something about Josh Johnson. It says something about the way these guys competed. And I thought Adrian Peterson, particularly late in that game, playing behind some, you know, I believe they played the 10th guard yesterday on the season. I think you got to credit them a little bit for that.

And I didn't think they were going to lose out on the year and did away. Luckily, I've been kind of proven right on that one. but I still don't think this changes much. I still wouldn't say this is a playoff team. I don't think the kind of miraculous three-game industry to finish the year is coming. But it was a good win.

And certainly a big part of it is Cody Kessler is scared to throw the ball down the field. And the B-line got after him. I think you got to credit the Renton's defensive front for getting back to what they do well, forcing a turnover, a bunch of sacks. And then the interception by Fabio Moreau was huge. And I don't think he's had the best year, but that was a big play in a spot they really needed.

So I think you can credit the Redkins with a certain understanding that they beat a bad team. After the week that they had, starting with the embarrassing loss last week at FedEx Field to the Giants, what was the reaction like in the locker room? What was the feeling about, you know, a win and then still being a lot? live legitimately in the playoff race? You know, it was, I found it kind of interesting. I didn't actually think for a win, especially a late win like that, it wasn't a particularly giddy locker room.

I thought things were fairly subdued. I mean, there were some guys that were excited, and they were definitely, you know, smiles. But having been in that locker room all year and for a few years, there have been, I would almost say there have been losses where the team seemed a little bit more upbeat than after yesterday's win, if that makes sense. So while on some level I think the Skins also realize that, you know, let's, I'm not going to quote the wolf from Pulp Fiction, but I think they realize they shouldn't quite be too excited about the win over Jacksonville. Yeah, we all know that scene. on Josh Johnson.

What was the feeling from his teammates before the game? And then what do you think it was after the game? You know, I kind of, I think I bothered to people by saying this, but I truly believe that the skins quit on Mark Sanchez last week after he threw that pick six. And I think a lot of that is, some of it was Sanchez's ineffectiveness, but it was also about giving the team a little bit of a lift going to Johnson last week late against the Giants. And I thought all week there was some level of belief in Johnson in the skin's locker room,

just that the guys thought, hey, this guy's going to be able to move the ball. He can make plays if things break down. And I think we saw it going into the game. I think you and I talked about it, like that Trent Williams seemed to be talking to him. Jay Gruden has a relationship with Johnson. Those two know each other and are able to kind of talk in a different way. Johnson said after the game that Gruden just came up to him and said, calm down, which I thought was pretty interesting.

He was watching Johnson and pregame warmups, he looked like he was going a million miles an hour. He was sailing the football on warm-up tosses. We were working on corner routes in the end zone, and he threw a ball down the tunnel, like out of the – out of the playing field. So I think he did a good job of calming down once the game started. The second half of your question,

how much do they believe in him going forward? I think this team is going to go to Nashville with a legitimate thought that they can win. You know, the Titans have been an up-and-down team. They don't score a ton. They're running the football really well right now, which is going to present a challenge to his game. But I also think, you know,

thing I'm hearing is that there's a good chance Colt McCoy really is back for week 17. So I think the skins probably believe in what they can maybe do more than the rest of us. Colt McCoy is going to really be back for the final game against the Eagles. That's

a legitimate possibility? I would certainly say legitimate possibility. Wow. We're talking to J.P. Finley. And maybe that shifts if they lose the national, you know? Right. Well, what would be interesting is if they go to Tennessee as a 10-point underdog and Josh Johnson plays well and they were to win that game to give themselves a chance at

the postseason, then would they're actually, can you imagine going into the Philadelphia game with a quarterback controversy? Colt McCoy's ready, but no one wants to do it because Josh Johnson's won two in a row. By the way, Josh Johnson, only in Washington. Josh Johnson's 16 of 251 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, was the highest passer rating of his career as a starter, 93.9, which, you know, we watched the game. It wasn't like he lit it up, but he made some plays, and there were some other guys, and you mentioned Adrian Peterson on that last drive, and he basically carried them into field goal range by himself. But I thought John Allen, against, you know, we have to preface it by saying this may have been the worst officer.

offensive team they faced all year and maybe the worst in many years. But I thought John Allen had one of his most obvious dominant games of his career. Agree or disagree? Absolutely. He was everywhere. Ryan Kerrigan as well, getting two sacks and getting past Charles Mann on the all-time list. But Allen was great and I thought pain was really good. When those guys are right and especially against a terrible offense that just cannot throw the ball, they should tee off and they did and I thought that was a really good sign I'm talking one member of the skin's coaching staff as they were leaving the field and I was just like man you guys really needed that and looked at me and said you have no idea I think all the controversy surrounding I mean think about all the all the off field stuff we've been talking about for a few weeks now all of it has come from the defensive side of the football right all of it has come in the locker room It all comes from about six walkers out of 63, you know, and I think they're happy to answer questions, well, barring another Instagram fiasco or something, they're happy to be answering

questions about football for a week rather than their future and their relationship with fans and their relationship with one another. The only other thing I wanted to point out, Ken, I really believe it's more important what Josh Johnson didn't do and turn the ball over, than what he did do. Because when you go to backups and particularly this far down or QB depth chart,

it's those killer interceptions fumbles, that stuff is that that varies you in a game. And no pick. He had the fumble and Borden Moses had a bad game, but he made a very, very important fumble for coming. He did. He did. I mean, Josh John, it was one of those games where every, they

haven't had the brakes go their way, but the deflected pass to Crowder, which could have been picked, and the deflection to Moreau and the recovered fumble by Moses, everything seemed to break their way. Two more, and I'll let you run. First of all, Clinton Dix, for all of the criticism that he has taken from the fan base and from media members, etc. He played every snap yesterday defensively, and we didn't see any of Monta Nicholson. Anything to read into that with respect to, you know, the push for Nicholson from all. I thought even potentially Jay Gruden.

That is one of the weird situations. You've got to wonder. So clearly Monk is healthy and available because they're playing him on specialty. He's on the active roster. If he wasn't playing, you'd wonder about his health. It's a guy that has, you know, encountered concussion problems. I think there is some question about his not availability, but maybe dependability after last. season. I think he deals with migraines. And yesterday, I believe, maybe his first game here,

but yesterday was one of the best games Clinton Dixon's had since he got to Washington. And he had a big pass break up early in that game at a third down. Didn't take any terribly bad angles like we've seen in the past few weeks. You know, there's something there with Monta. I can't exactly put my finger on it. I think Clinton Dix is dependable. They know that he can be out there. And I think there must be questions about that with Monta. Because, you know, we asked Rudy this week,

kind of started pushing him a little on what's going on here. I asked him directly, you know, in Indy at the combine last February, he compared Monta Nicholson's importance to Jordan Reed. And now we're talking about a guy that doesn't get on the field, So something doesn't add up. Something changed along the way. I've cited that quote multiple times this year, and I would add this one to it, and I'm going to paraphrase. But in his weekly visit with Zabe on Friday, he, Zabe asked him about Clinton Dix and Montaing Nicholson, and he essentially indicated, I mean, what I read from it, and I think what most fans would have read from it was,

we traded for Clinton Dix. Management wants me to play Clinton Dix. And that's sort of the way it shook out, which I can't stand to hear that. The coach needs to have the ability to play the players that gives him the best chance to play. I've heard some things about the rotation up front this year with Payne and Allen. The management didn't want to see as much of a rotation defensively up front this year. They wanted the best players to play the significant majority of snaps. Right. You know, so there's still some of that going on, it would appear.

Oh, Kevin, there's plenty of that going on. I think that is the current management style. And as long as that current management stays employed, I don't know that that will change, frankly. The senior offices at Regents Park right now are hands-on people. Yeah, let's be clear on that too, rather than beating around the bush. Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder don't want five different defensive linemen rotating during the course of the game. They want their number one picks, Alan and Duran Payne. This goes back to week two, week three of this season, playing the significant majority of the snaps.

Now, recently, in recent games, there's been much more of a rotation, which obviously I think, the coaching staff eventually got their way on that. That's been more in recent weeks. But early in the season, if you go back and check those playtime percentage charts, I mean, those guys... 98%? Yeah, they were playing 95% to 100% of the snaps of the game. That's changed in recent weeks.

And I just thought it was interesting with all the Clinton Dix... I'm sorry, the one thing I would clarify is I don't know that Dan has been that hands-on in those sorts of situations. But I will say that from what I've heard, I do think Bruce has been heavily involved in that kind of stuff. And, you know, again, the Clinton Dix thing, he didn't, you know, with the troubles he had, I guess against Cody Kessler, there was no way he was coming off the field.

He was going to have come hell or high water a game in which it wasn't a disaster. And it would have been hard to play in the secondary yesterday and not look good against Cody Kessler. Last one, I'll let you run. You give him any chance of going to Tennessee and winning against a team that has to win. Remember, Tennessee, this is a must-win situation for them to hang in there in the playoff race. I mean, you can say the same thing for the skins, right?

It's must-win for them to hang at the playoff race. Right. The NFL, everybody's got a chance every week. I think... We saw that last night. I think a 10-point line is crazy. I kind of like the points. But it would be, I think the Jaguar's defense,

is one of the best units in the NFL when they are interested. I don't know how interested they were yesterday. I think the Titans will absolutely be interested in coming off a shutout in New York. It's tough. It's a short week. Does that make much of an impact? I think this can certainly have a chance. They got to stick to the same formula we saw where Johnson cannot have interceptions,

cannot turn the ball over, and you've got to try to be an opportunistic. I mean, I give them, what do you figure? A 20, 25% chance, one and four, seems about right for me. I think it's a little bit longer than that, but you know what? The NFL... I mean, Penic team can't move the ball. Outside of... Now, Derek Henry's been a beast all of a sudden,

and it's somebody who had him in fantasy when he wasn't a beast all year. I'm a little perturbed by it. But I don't... I mean, you think the Titans are going to... What a minute? You break it down. the quadrants, right? And what quadrants do I definitely not see? I don't see a Redskins blow out win. I think we can rule that out. I don't know if I see a Titans blow out then either. I think

the game would be relatively tight and kind of come down to who gets great. I'll tell you what, this NFL season, we saw a 17-point dog win outright. We saw 13 and a half point underdog last night went outright. Anything's crazy. Anything can happen. I think they're going to play a football team that's much more interested on Saturday. And I think a very well coach team, too. I think Vrable's doing a hell of a job there. You probably know this, though. Aren't the skins like, haven't they won outright six games

where they're underdogs this year? Yeah. They've been an underdog. I mean, I'm trying to think of the games they've been favored in. They were favored obviously at home. Which games were they favored in? I'm guessing they were favored. Would they were favored against the Colts in week two?

The Giants on the road? No, they weren't favored in that game. I can't even remember now. Were they favored at Tampa? I don't know either. You've got me interested now. I'm going to go back and look at this here and let everybody know after the fact. Get on the plane.

Thanks for joining me, as always. I'll talk to you this week. All right. Great talk, helps. You let it. All right. J.P. Finley, everybody. All right, I've got it actually right here, Aaron.

The Redskins have been favored three times this year. They were a six-point favorite over the Colts lost that game. They were a one-point favorite in the Meadowlands against the Giants, and they won that game. So they did win one game as a favorite. They were also favored at kickoff against Atlanta. They were a one-and-a-half-point favorite when we got to kickoff against the Falcons, and they got blown out in that game.

So they've been a favorite three times. They're a 10-point underdog Saturday at Tennessee. It seems like a lot. Tennessee's playing some pretty good football right now, and they obviously have everything to play for, so do the Redskins. They're trying to get to the postseason. But Tennessee's been a pretty good defensive team most of the year, and they've got some things going on offensively as well. They shut out the Giants yesterday in the Meadowlands, 17 to nothing, and that's impressive when you consider what the Giants have been doing lately. Let me tell you about Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Fairfax. If you're considering, something new, Ferris should be on your list for a new vehicle. Go to ferrishcars.com right now. You can see their live inventory, live pricing, and best deals right now at ferrishcars.com. If you head out

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The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. All right, let's touch on every game quickly, and we'll start with Saturday, where Houston held off the Jets 2922. You know what? Sam Darnold looks really good to me. He just looks like the right choice. All of these rookie quarterbacks have had their moment in their moments this year.

Even Jason Rosen, Josh Rosen, on a terrible team out in Arizona. But Darnold really played well. I mean, the Jets had the lead in the fourth quarter of this game. Houston lost Lamar Miller in the game. That would be a big loss. I don't know what the extent of the injury is in terms of time projected to be out. But the star of this game was D'Andre Hopkins, who continues to just be a guy that if you throw the ball anywhere in his general area,

he catches it. 10 catches, 170 yards. Houston right now is the number two seed in the AFC after New England's loss yesterday to Pittsburgh. The Texans play at Philadelphia Sunday, more on them in a moment. The Cleveland Denver game, look, Denver's playoff hopes were still, you know, there with a win to get to 7 and 7. And Cleveland still, believe it or not, has not been eliminated. It would have helped them had Baltimore and or Pittsburgh lost. yesterday, but Baker Mayfield quietly having a pretty damn good rookie season. The Browns have now,

after beating Denver 17 to 16, the Browns have now won four of five. And to me, if that doesn't make Greg Williams a decent chance in terms of returning as the head coach, I don't know what they're looking at, but that's a tough-minded, disciplined, physical defensive football team. You can look at the teams they've beaten, the Falcons, the Bengals, the Panthers, and Broncos, and not be overly impressed, but they're six, seven, and one, and they play Cincinnati this week at home to get to 500 and finish up the season at Baltimore, and there's still a chance that that game could mean something for Cleveland. With, you mentioned Baker there, with Cleveland win and Sequin kind of laying an egg this weekend, did Baker get in the rookie of the year conversation, do you think?

No, I think Barclay's still the rookie of the year offensively. I think it's a lock now defensively that Derwin James is the rookie of the year defensively, the safety from the Chargers. Baltimore won 20 to 12. I wanted to mention this game for a couple of reasons. First of all, Baltimore would have taken over first place in the AFC North had New England beaten Pittsburgh.

They're in second. They're still the number six seed, but it's tenuous for Baltimore because they play the Chargers this week while Tennessee plays the Redskins. and Indianapolis has a winnable game as well this coming week. The Colts play the Giants. So the Colts and Titans finish up the year against each other. So the problem with that is that if Baltimore loses to the Chargers

and Tennessee and Indy both win on Sunday, then they're going to have to hope, then they're out basically based on either one of those two teams winning. They'd be out of the division at that point, and they would, not out of the division, actually, but they would be out of the wild card race if both Tennessee and Indy win this week, and they lose to the Chargers.

But they won the game yesterday against the Buccaneers 20 to 12. This is the way they've been doing it through this stretch. I want you to listen to these numbers, all right? Baltimore ran 74 plays to 45 for Tampa. 74 offensive snaps for Baltimore, 45 for the Buccaneers. Baltimore ran it 49 times for 242 yards. Lamar Jackson nearly had another 100-yard day, 18 carries, 95 yards.

Gus Edwards, all right, out of nowhere. No one had heard of Gus Edwards a few weeks ago. The rookie out of Rutgers, he went for 100 yards again. Jackson was 14 to 23 for 13-131 yards, a touchdown in the game, had another lost fumble in the game, but did not throw an interception. Baltimore wins 20 to 12 by dominating the ball. 37 minutes plus a possession to just 22 minutes plus for Tampa. What a huge game for the Ravens Saturday night in Los Angeles against the Chargers. It's really a near must-win situation for Baltimore. If they win that game and then can

beat Cleveland in the finale and the Saints beat the Steelers on Sunday, then Baltimore would win the AFC North with a 10 and 6 record. So everything's there for Baltimore. The problem, of course, is that one loss really, really hurts their playoff possibilities because of the division and then because of Indy and Tennessee both coming up with wins yesterday against the NFC East. One of those was Indianapolis shutting out Dallas 23 to nothing. This is an odd game. I'm just going to tell you that the score wasn't necessarily reflective of the competitive level of Dallas. Dallas has been playing great recently. They had that big windstreet coming in and they get shut out 23 to nothing. But I want you to listen to this in terms of Dallas's opportunities. They took the opening kickoff

and went 10 plays, ate up five minutes of the clock, and had a field goal blocked. Then on their second drive of the game. Fifteen plays, 70 yards, and on a fourth and one at the Indianapolis three, they got stopped. Then their next drive, 14 plays, seven minutes and 13 seconds elapsed, and they were forced to punt at the Indy 47-yard line after Prescott took a sack. Think about that in the first half. Dallas had the ball for five minutes, had a field goal blocked, had a possession of seven minutes and couldn't make a fourth and one at the Indianapolis three, and then had a third possession for seven minutes and didn't score. I don't know if this is true, but I would think it has to be the most plays and most minutes

of offensive football without scoring a point in NFL history. It's got to be, if not close, it's got to be really one of the only times we ever seen that happen. Unbelievable that that happened. Look, in the second half, Dallas moved the football as well. They just couldn't score. And when they got behind 10-0, Indianapolis made them pay with a couple of plays on offense. And they win the game 23-0. Personally, this would not deter me from getting off Dallas. Dallas has Tampa at home this week to essentially get to 9 and 6. have a strangle hold on the division. Remember, they win the tiebreaker with the Redskins based on division record at this point. Philly's still with a chance, though. Philly's still with a chance if they

can beat Houston and then beat Washington. Speaking of the division, the Giants got shut out at home against Tennessee. The significance of this game is this is the Redskins next opponent. And Derek Henry now, in the last two games, has carried the ball 50 times for 408 yards. And, and six touchdowns in two games. Yesterday, 33 carries a buck 70. He was over 200, well over 200, and that Thursday night win over Jacksonville. The Giants have been playing well recently.

They've been playing well offensively, and they got shut out in this game. No Odell Beckham, Jr., again this week. Sequin Barclay was held to 31 yards rushing in this game on 14 carries. is one of these teams that defensively they can get it done. And offensively, they are dynamic with their run attack and having the quarterback involved in the run game.

And I really believe that Corey Davis is becoming one of the real star receivers in the game. Tennessee, to me, would be a dangerous playoff team. I believe that I actually think more dangerous in some ways because of their defense than Indianapolis as a wild card. Now, Baltimore out of the three potential wild cards to go with the AFC West runner-up, because that team, whether it's Kansas City or the Chargers, will be the first wildcard, the five-seed, you know, obviously is the most dangerous of the AFC wildcards, but the six-seed in the AFC playoffs, Tennessee, Baltimore, or Indy,

not going to be easy. Not going to be easy for what looks like it could be New England as the three-seed in the AFC. Elsewhere, the game of the day really was Pittsburgh, New England. Pittsburgh finally breaks the New England run against them. Look, Brady made some mistakes. He threw an interception in the red zone and then couldn't complete it at the end. I thought it was interesting at the end that the last three throws for New England at the end of that game, as they drove it down the field.

They had a first and 10 at the Pittsburgh 16 with 44 seconds to go, second and five at the Pittsburgh 11. Now, they don't have any timeouts left, but I thought that. there was still time when they got backed up after an offensive holding penalty back to the Pittsburgh 21. I thought there was still time to throw it underneath and get the first down and then clock it. But they went three straight plays on second and 15, third and 15 and fourth and 15 to the end zone. All three of them, incomplete passes. Pittsburgh wins 1710. Look for Pittsburgh. That was a season saving win. If they had lost that game, they would have been staring at going to New Orleans in potentially being eliminated next week from the postseason. Instead, now they're in pretty

decent shape, especially when you consider Baltimore playing at the Chargers. They'll be huge charger fans on Saturday night, but they will be underdogs, and I think they are seven-point underdogs at New Orleans next Sunday. That was a must-win to stop that three-game skid that Pittsburgh got. The Vikings bounced back yesterday off of the tough losses. at New England and at Seattle with a 41 to 17 win at Miami. Look, they wanted a new way of playing, and I thought it was very interesting listening to Zimmer after the game. Kirk Cousins took more snaps under center than he has all year long.

What did that do for them? It got him into play action and bootleg, which worked much better than him at a shotgun, which is where DiFilippo had him the majority of the time. They also ran the ball yesterday, and that's huge for them. Dalvin Cook went for 136 yards. Latavius Murray had 68. Kirk was 14 of 21, so they ran it 40 times, threw it 21 times, 21 times, 215 yards, two touchdowns, and a bad interception that he threw for a pick six.

God, he throws a lot of pick sixes, I'll give you that. But they won the game 41-17. He had a huge third and nine touchdown pass to Aldrich Robinson, which really was the big play in the second. half. I will say this, the Minnesota defense, after a poor start to this season, they got Everson Griffin back, and they had nine sacks in the game. This is a championship defense that Minnesota has right now. If they can run the football like they did yesterday, they are going to be difficult to take out, although they'll have to play all of their playoff games if they make the playoffs on the road. Elsewhere yesterday, Chicago.

eliminated Green Bay. Look, Aaron Rogers had a chance late to get into the end zone with a touchdown, and he had it picked off off of a deflection. The first interception he's thrown in forever. Chicago looks good, man. They wrap up the division. They're going to play a home playoff game. And with the Rams losing last night,

which is a game I'll get to here to finish up around the NFL, they still have a chance. They still have a chance. The Bears do of a top two seed. Rams could end up playing wild card weekend if you can believe that. The Rams have to win both of these games. Now they play the Cardinals and the 49ers. The 49ers, though, are playing much better football. If the Rams drop one and Chicago wins two, Chicago ends up being the two-seed in the NFC. It'll come down to the final game of the season where the Rams after that loss last night are going to have

to win both with Chicago winning both to lock up the two-seat, that two-seed. That two-sseason. seed still in play. Now, we'll finish up. Actually, real quickly, on the smell test, 2 and O. I mean, it's just, honestly, I think it's now 42, 16 and 1 over the last five or six weeks. It's about as good a run as I've had. And almost every lien I gave out came through to, except for Middle Tennessee on Saturday. That didn't work, but my NFL liens were the Browns. I think I gave the jets out. That would have pushed, I think, for most of you. But I like the lions. I you, I liked indie in Minnesota, and who else did I tell you?

And Philly. I gave you, I think I leaned Philly on Friday. I forget what my actual liens were. I can just tell you the teams I played yesterday in addition to the Smelt Test picks, which were San Francisco and Pittsburgh. I played the Eagles last night. I played the Lions. I played the Vikings. I played the Colts.

My loser was Green Bay. I had Green Bay yesterday plus the points. But the smell test, 2 and O with Carolina pending tonight. The 49ers won the game outright, 26, 23. Seattle hasn't locked up a playoff berth yet, and they play Kansas City Sunday night. They do finish, however, with Arizona. They just need to win one of these final two, I think,

to lock up a playoff spot. I forget who wins that tiebreaker with the Eagles, whether it's Seattle or Philly. I've got to play around with that playoff machine and have more information for you tomorrow. But look, Philadelphia last night was awesome. And the Rams weren't. Philadelphia, first of all, I thought, put together one of their best defensive days of the year.

They were physical at the line of scrimmage with all of their, you know, defensive players that we know have talent. You know, Fletcher Cox had a great game. You had, you know, Bratum, you had Graham, you had all of these guys, Chris Long, all of them playing great football. They sacked, they had five sacks last night, five pressures of Jared Gough last night and a couple of sacks, but many near sacks. They picked them off twice last night. They stopped the run. Gurley got hurt in the middle portion of the game, sat out a few series, came back late. Philadelphia built a 30 to 13 lead, and they were about to go in 37, 13, or 3313, and Foles through the one bad volley through all night, got picked off, and then the Rams nearly came back.

They had it at the end down 30 to 23 with a chance to win. I thought Sproles looked good last night. Small would look good for them last night. Jeffrey was the receiver that he targeted most of the night, not Ertz, like Wentz had been doing. Foles was 24 of 31, 270 yards. Could we see a run here for Philadelphia and the defending champs to get to that six seed? They play Houston at home on Sunday and they finish up here in Washington.

Very impressive win. second biggest underdog of the year to win. Buffalo beat Minnesota as a 17-point dog, and Philly is a 13 and a half point underdog last night. One outright. What a game for them. Let's get to Weekend DVR. Did you have a busy weekend? Don't worry. We've got you covered. It's time for Weekend DVR. All right, we're going to start with the Wizards last night. They beat the Lakers 128-110, John Wall went off last night, 40 points, 14 assists, six rebounds, two block shots, and three steals in the game.

And we're going to bring in NBC Sports Washington's Chris Miller, who, of course, covers the Wizards and was there last night. You know, it's one of those games, Sunday at 6. You got the Patriots Steelers going on, Chris, and I'm watching football, but I was recording the game and going back sort of in watching it. especially with the first half that John had. He had 28 points and 8 assists in the game.

That was something else last night. We'll get to the Trevor Areza trade, both part one and part two here in a moment. But that was John, one of the best John Wall performances I can remember in a long, long time. Do you agree? I do. It was just fun to be in a building where it was a raucous crowd, Kevin, a Capital One arena. And to be on it, as you know, one of my major pet peeves in this town as being someone that's lived in Washington for 12 years now,

I hate when the opposition's fan base just rolls in here and just not only takes pockets of seats, but it really felt like almost 60, 40 Laker fans in here. And that's the one thing about John that I've always respected and appreciated is he uses little slights or maybe even big slight as motivation. And I felt like last night, he knew that it was going to be that type of crowd. And he put on the show. And he quieted Laker fans. And as I tweeted out, you know, they got to sit here and watch John Wall actually be the best player on the floor when LeBron James is on the opposition. Yeah, he was, he was spectacular last night.

And it started with what I thought was just an unbelievable amount of energy early on. And we've seen some of these games, Chris, this year, where they get behind by 20 in the first half. There have been plenty of them. But last night, and we've sort of seen this over the years with Bradley and John, where the bigger the opponent, the bigger the spotlight, the more energy they bring. And on one hand, that's problematic. On the other hand, it's been pretty consistent against really good teams is where they both play well. And I just thought you could see it in the first quarter as they built a 16-point lead. Yeah, it was 26 to 8 before you know it.

I said it in our post-game show before you could actually just sit down and enjoy your beverage and talk to your friend next to you. You know, Washington jumped all over the Lakers. And yes, the Lakers played the night before in Charlotte. Everybody's got back-to-bats. But I just like the focus on both ends of the floor, Kevin. And you're right. When Wall and Beal sees either being on national television or there's a big-time opponent that they're facing, and they elevate their game to a higher level.

Now, the question is, is how do you build upon that as they're getting ready to get on a plane and we're going to Atlanta for a game against the Hawks on Tuesday? This is the thing that's kind of been just a head scratcher during this wall build era is when the competition is not at that level as it was last night, can they still be that type of back court to kind of lead this team? And, you know, we'll talk about the Trevor A Reason deal, but I feel like now having TA back, a lot of those playing up and down hopefully will come to an end as this team tries to maximize

their potential. Again, very disappointing season because so many things have happened, but I think the people can kind of calm the waters, if you will. Two more things on last night's game before we get to the Areza thing. Number one is Sam Decker last night, who came via that Jason Smith trade about a week and a half ago, I guess it is now. You know, no one's really followed, I'm sure, his pro career, which has been very limited in terms of productivity. A lot of people will certainly remember him from his participation in a final four with Wisconsin. But he was really good last night.

20 points off the bench in 22 minutes. He rebounded the ball. He's got high IQ, Chris. Playing with Sato in particular, there was just some incredible passing between the two of them. This was his first real, what I would call highly productive game. They must have seen something in him that they liked. He got the most minutes and the most production in any game this year. Kevin, listen, you coach kids, so you understand this. When you tell kids, even professionals, if you just play hard, you give yourself a chance. And the high IQ part I agree

with he just moves without the basketball. Great things happen. You know, even Scott and Brooks said it last night. It might be out of ten times you cut and position yourself in an angle where you can get the ball. Maybe seven times you don't get it, but you're cutting hard and you're making the defense move. Simple, small things like that I thought Decker was really good at last night. Listen, they didn't call any plays for him. He was just active.

And the fact that Wall saw him cutting a couple times, you got that big time dunk in the first half. It really got the crowd going and Sam showed some emotion there. It was just doing those little things that made it a 20 point knife. Again, you go back and look at the film, they called no sets for him. He has no idea, really, the sets that they even call. He was just out there just playing basketball. Why did Otto Porter miss last night and why has he missed a couple of these games here recently? Right knee contusion. He's going to get an MRI today. Normally Otto has those mix and bruises and he might, you know, miss the game in which he suffers the injury, but very rarely, if any, has he missed, like, three straight games dealing with the

same element. So, cautiously optimistic that it's nothing serious with him. But there's some depth now, Kevin, at that wing position with some guys that can – Jeff Green had 20 last night. Now you're talking about Sam Decker. You're talking about now bringing in Trevor O'Reilly's. there is a there's a surplus of talent that at that wing position with guys that can do multiple things on the floor.

All right. Let's talk about what happened on late Friday night and then early Saturday morning. The first reports came out that the Wizards were involved in a three-team deal with Memphis and Phoenix that was going to send Kelly Ubre to Memphis and Eriza was going to work his way back to Washington. and the deal fell apart for those that missed this, because Memphis claims that the Brooks that they were going to involve in the deal was not Dylan Brooks, but Marchon Brooks, and that communication was not made accurately.

And I thought that the Memphis general manager, Chris Wallace, pointed the finger indirectly at Ernie Grunfeld, but Phoenix says that they had conversational. directly with Memphis. Sort this thing out for us in terms of Trevor Areza Trade Part 1. We'll get to Part 2 here in a moment. Well, the Part 1 part was really crazy because it's going on right after the game ended in Brooklyn. So we're on the air. We're breaking down this lackluster effort in Brooklyn. And we kiss off Bucking Carrots. Tell them thanks. Safe Travels home. My producers in my ears like, check your phone.

I'm checking my phone. It's the beauty of what I do, Kevin. I love live TV. I love live breaking news as it's happening because, you know, you got Phil Schneer next to me, you got Drew Gooden, guys that can really offer analysis on trades and, you know, who's coming in, who's going out. So the Areza part 1.1.1 version of the trade was Ubrae, as you said, going to Memphis, Austin Rivers going to Phoenix.

TA coming back and the wizard's getting two second round picks in one in 2019, one in 2020. Well, the first blush analysis live on TV as it's happening is, well, we're getting an asset that can help right away and we're getting two second round picks down the road. Maybe those can be flipped. Maybe you can flip them for cash, whatever. So we're trying to break all that down as it's happening. Then all of a sudden, the craziest thing happened, Kevin, the wizard's actually made

Austin Rivers and Kelly UberA available in the locker room. I know. So my producer's telling me, hey, listen, it's your call, but how do we handle this? And we're in a commercial break, and I'm like, well, listen, if they're talking, it's in the public square. It's going to end up in Twitter or it's going to end up somewhere.

We have a responsibility to the viewer to have them listen to what these kids have to say. And Austin was very short and sweet to the point. Listen, he's like, we just played a game. I just got traded. I really don't have anything for you guys. Kelly Ubre is like, listen, it's nothing official yet. I'm still trying to process all of this.

So that's going on. So we spent 45 minutes, Kevin, really talking about the first version of it. Then we go and tape our podcast, and in the middle of our podcast, it comes out that the trade is dead. Now you've got all these kind of promotions, whose fault is and who's to blame. I've been able to ascertain that whoever's fault it is, and I'm not going to lay that at the feet of anybody, because, again, I wasn't in on that conversation, but I was told, Kevin,

when you send medical reports to the other team, it's kind of like your medical chart when you go to the doctor. It has your last name, comma, first name, okay? And it has the information of the player's medical on it. For me, I don't understand where there was lost, in the confusion of which Brooks it is because if the training staffs for each teams are exchanging the medicals, it has both people's names, first and last name on it. So I don't understand the confusion on that part. So again, for what I've been told, once it gets to that medical

part where the trainers are sending the information to the other teams, there should be no confusion in that. Well, there was because the first name got confused, at least according to to Memphis. And look, the bottom line from the Wizards perspective is they went back on Saturday morning or late Friday night, early Saturday morning, and they completed a deal straight up with Phoenix, sending Rivers and Ubre to Phoenix for Trevor Areza. The net loss in the two deals is two first round picks from a wizard's perspective, two second round picks, which let's be fair. I mean, they probably would have sold one of them anyway, given their history with second round picks. So let's talk about this deal.

First of all, do you believe that there was one reason and one reason only that they dealt Ubrey, and that was they didn't think that they could afford him at the end of this season? I think that's exactly what it was. Again, the kid plays hard every night. Now, many people are saying, you know, he had an agenda this year, really offensive-minded. Listen, I get it. The kids playing for a contract.

That's what happens when you're in the last year. deal. But the kid plays hard. I think the Wizards realize, listen, we're not going to be able to accommodate the dollars that he and his representatives are going to be asking for. So we might as well flip the asset. Now, the Austin River's part of this, Kevin, to be real honest with you, it just wasn't a good fit. The kid just didn't blend in. He's not a blend in type player. It just didn't work, which is fine. It happens in sports. But the second version of this deal, like you said, you're losing the potential to maybe flip some assets in the second round. And they had to make the deal, Kevin.

There was no way Austin Rivers and Kelly Uvray could have walked into that wizard's practice facility on Saturday after what went down Friday night. Trade, no trade. Okay, we got to trade again. It would have been very uncomfortable having those guys trying to practice getting ready for a Laker game. Yeah, I mean, no doubt. Look, from, I've heard the river stuff too, it was like they had to get rivers. They had to move rivers. The one thing I would say about Ubrae before we get to the return of Trevor Arezzo, which warms my heart.

I thought it was, I think he's been missed so much over the last few years. But the one thing I would say about Ubre, Chris, is that maybe if they had waited and they had gotten close to the deadline, they could have gotten more. It's the only thing I would say. I love it that Arese is coming back. I'm looking forward to that. But I think ultimately, Ernie, if he had waited, maybe he could have had more leverage with Ubre,

who to me is one of those players that enough teams are going to look at and say, that guy could be special as he grows up physically and in every other aspect because of the way he competes and the way he defecutes and the way he defecutes. Fends. But from the Wizards perspective, I get it. They already have three max players. You just weren't going to be able to afford Ubrey. I mean, is that fair? Yeah, I think that's fair, but I think the issue is if you're trying to wait to the trade deadline, the Wizards in win, they're in Wins now mode, and I don't know if you can get 10 more games, 15 games more down the road where you're trying to wait and assess and evaluate before

you can't make a deal because now if this team kept playing the way that they were playing before that Laker game, Kevin, some people were going to be in some, they were going to have some problems over there. This is not a, Ted is not ready to actually flip the roster yet. I think they're still trying to evaluate and see what they have with Wall and Beal and trying to figure out what happens when Dwight Howard comes back, hopefully at March. But waiting, I don't know if this team could have. did that. I think they needed to get somebody in here right now, especially a guy like

Arisa that can calm the waters in that locker room. And I'm with you. I'm a huge Trevor Arisa fan. I always have been, even when he was drafted in the second round by the Knicks. I just love the guy's makeup the way he goes about his business. So making this deal now, if you're going to lose maybe, I don't think they could have got a first rounder for Ubre. I just from what I was thought, I don't think that would have been even an option. But those two second round picks, I understand that in the first part of the deal. You can accept that. All right. Let's talk about Areza real quickly. First of all, have Bradley, Beal, and John Wall missed Trevor Areza as much, or do they recognize how much they've missed them as much

as people like you and me and others realize? Yeah. I'm going to give you a cautionary tale with Trevor 2.0 coming back to Washington, no, Kevin. He's 33. He's 33. And I'm curious to see how his leadership now works back in the room with the core three of

Wall, Beal, and Porter now being max players. As you know, in the NBA, there is a hierarchy of talent, compensation, and leadership. And now, you've got three guys that weren't in that position of power in terms of their financial

commitments with the organization when Trevor left. Now he's back. Will they placate to his leadership? And I don't mean being subservient and being like, hey, Trevor, you're the leader. I'm just saying they have to blend their talent and allow Trevor to just be true. Because again, Kevin, he's not a loud leader. He's EF. Hutton when he talks to everybody listen. Because he doesn't do it a lot. But I'm curious to see how the room works now with Wal, Bill, and Porter being the core three and compensated as such.

Is there a chance that they will re-sign? Let's assume that he plays well. Let's assume that he gives the Wizards, at least what he gave the Rockets, which is a grown-up, a defender, a high- IQ play. a three-point feet-set shooter off of James Harden and now off of Wall and Beal kind of a player. If he gives him that, do you think that Ernie made this deal with the expectation of resigning him in the off-season? Well, I'll be curious to know what Trevor's looking for. Again, as we said, he's 33 years old.

I would feel like there would come some point in his career, especially in the latter stages of it right now, or he'd like to stay somewhere for a couple of years. So when this trade becomes official, hopefully on Monday, I'm interested to know what Trevor's thoughts are. Does he want this just to be a one-stop shop? Whatever happens at the end of this season, we'll deal with it, or is he actually looking for a multi-year commitment from Washington? I'm more curious than that than anything.

But I feel like once we get down that road of trying to get an extension, Kevin, this wizard's team is going to have to do something more than just qualify for the playoffs. They're going to have to make a significant run. Yeah, I agree with you. I don't, and I personally, you brought up all of the same concerns. I'm hopeful that it ends up being a more mature team and that John and Brad really benefit from this and they can go on a run and end up winning 43 and be a six-seed and push somebody in the first round and maybe win a first round series.

I think that's in play now. but there are no guarantees. He's 33, and as you said, the locker room dynamic could be completely different. I really appreciate the time. I was with you on Friday night. You drew and Phil the entire time. Just fascinated with what was going on. And then to only, you know, about a half an hour after you guys went off the air, find out that the deal had been killed and then revived again early in the morning. Thanks, Chris, as always. It's never, hey, Kevin, it's never happened to me in my 20 years in this business. So it was kind of a fun experience. But again, when you're dealing with human beings and people's lives being effective.

You had to keep that also in perspective, man. I appreciate your time. Thank you. I appreciate yours. Chris Miller, everybody from NBC Sports, Washington. The only other thing from weekend DVR, Aaron, before we sign off for the day, is that the caps won twice over the weekend. Both shootout wins over Carolina and then Buffalo. And in the Buffalo game, Ovechkin extended his point streak to a career high, 14 games. He is going off.

this year and the caps have won five in a row. Remember when they were saying maybe he'd have some sort of a Stanley Cup hangover? Maybe he's having a hangover, but he's unbelievable. Unbelievable weekend for him. Unbelievable weekend for the caps. They get the pens coming up on Wednesday night in a national television game. I'll be there. At 8 o'clock at Capitol 1 arena.

But they've won five games in a row and they are now, you know, I think their biggest margin in the Metropolitan Division. vision. They're six points up on Columbus. A lot of season to go, but they are playing very, very well right now. All right. I want to thank J.P. Finley for joining the show today. Thank Chris Miller for joining the show today. Tommy will be in tomorrow. We'll go through all of the playoff scenarios tomorrow in more detail. But look, the Redskins are alive. That's the takeaway. They didn't beat a great team. They beat a horrible offensive team yesterday. But they should. showed something yesterday after the week that they had last week. Now they go to Tennessee as a

massive double-digit underdog needing to win. There's actually still a way they could lose and still be alive going into week 17 against the Eagles. But more likely than not, they're going to have to win on Saturday at Tennessee. Have a great day, everybody.