The Kevin Sheehan Show - Lost Game & Lost QB

Episode Date: September 13, 2021

Cooley is back with Kevin today to recap Washington's 20-16 loss to the Chargers. The guys went through the defensive and pass protection issues along with Ron Rivera's 4th and 7 decision to punt midway through the 4th qtr. They also discussed each and every NFL game from Week 1. 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. You got stacked four wide on the right side of the field. Right here. Third and goal.

Goes the other direction. End zone. And it is caught. Mike Williams for the touchdown. And the Chargers going with a little deception. It's a nice play designed to have four stacked. the right, isolate Mike Williams to left. And just think about he's dropped a couple of balls, a touchdown just like that on a deeper

pass, a showing faith and trust in Mike Williams. Coming back to him has played designed solely for him, a little back shoulder, perfect throw, nice conversion for the Chargers. Chris Cooley is with me today on the podcast. Woo! It's been a while. And people have been clamoring for Cooley's return on the podcast. And let me just say up front, we're just going to take it a day at a time.

When he's available and when he's watched something and when he feels like coming on, he'll come on. We won't have anything scheduled. Do you feel good with that? What's up, man? Yeah, I feel good with it. You watched a little bit here and there. You just haven't been watching.

I want everybody, before we get to this game yesterday, because there are a lot of people wondering what you've been up to and I've been updating people on your coaching and the team you're coaching. But just catch everybody up to speed on what you've been doing for the last, you know, a couple of months and the excitement of your new gig out in Pal Wyoming. Well, it's a really highly paid gig. I donate money to the high school and then I get a help volunteer coach. But no, seriously, I've been coaching the Pau Panther here,

high school as an assistant coach. We started in August with our training camp. We had a bunch of stuff over the summer. We're 3-0 with three blowouts, pretty good teams right now. We've got Douglas this week for Homecoming. Douglas Friday night. Yeah, well, I mean, you just got the win over Lander Valley the other night. Went over Lander Valley.

Yeah, Lander was good. But it's funny. We played Lander. Lander's one of the closer away. games. It was about a three hour and, well, for the bus, it was about a three hour and 40-minute drive. Did you get on the bus, or did you drive yourself? I drove. Really? Does it do any of the other coaches drive, or is it just you?

Well, I think one of the other coaches drove, or the head coach drives, because he drives all the stuff. One of the other coaches had his antelope tag over by Riverton, you know, So he wanted to stay over there for the weekend. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And I drove. Three hours and 40 minutes to a road game, but you've got a much, that's not even the longest trip. No, Afton is about a seven-hour drive to play Star Valley.

To play Star Valley. Afton is a seven-hour drive? What about Jackson Hole? Isn't Jackson Hole your longest trip? Well, no, Afton would be. But you hope that Yellowstone stays open. So you can drive through the park. Jackson's about four hours, four and a half.

If you're driving through Yellowstone Park, but six around. So if the pass is closed because of weather, it takes six hours. If you can go through the pass because it's nice weather, then it's four hours. That's what happens out west people. When you have these passes, it's all weather-related. And it's a difference in some cases, in this case of a two-hour drive. Now it's October 15th that you play Jackson Hole on the road. Do you think that the pass will be open on October 15th?

Is it usually open on October 15th? It can be open. The park will not have closed yet. Okay. But we'll see if they could be. I don't know. Anyways, the high school football thing is fun. It's so interesting to me because everyone said to me,

this can be hard for you because they're not going to do things the way you want them to do them. Dude, I got, I work with the tight ends a lot, and I got two kids that never played tight end, and another one who was a slow start in camp, who are all playing excellent football. I'm so proud of them. Like, I'm so pumped about the way these three kids are playing right now, and they kind of all rotate in and out. But high school kids can do more than people give them credit for them. They learn better.

They know more. I'm not saying that we put too much on them as far as that goes. We have about 11 plays. But it's so funny. We played against the Whirling two weeks ago. Yeah. Seven men front with three backers in the box. It's crazy.

All these high school teams, they play such heavy fronts. My go to the little check with me. It would kill the run plays, throw it out to the slot. We did a pretty shakeer. So why haven't you? Why are you running dive into a seven-man? We're evolving it. All right.

Our fullback is stud. All right. We ran dive on fourth and six against whirling. got it. Against a loaded box? And we got it. And you got it. Well, your 3-0, you opened up with a road win at Riverton, 37-7.

Then week two was that Worland game, 29-13. And then on Friday night, you had the blowout 35-13 win over Lander Valley. Now you got a home game this coming Friday night against Douglas. I'm curious, where are you ranked? where right now is Powell ranked in the state? Third and three A. Behind whom? So Powell has four classes.

So 1A, 28, 38, 3A, 4A. Yeah. And 1A's all seven or nine-man football. Right. We're behind Cody, which would be the biggest rival, and Jackson. Got it. And are they both three A's? They're both three A's.

Douglas's fork. Yes. they are all three. So they do the rankings by because like rankings around here, you can be a 3A or a 4A in Virginia or a 5A in Virginia along with the private schools in D.C. and the public schools in D.C. in Montgomery County. And it's just the top 25 teams in the area. But you're saying that the Wyoming rankings are based on class on, okay. Yeah, at least in the wild preps or whatever it is. Yeah, I think it's. Well, we, would not be number one in the state or number, we wouldn't be number three in the state

with a class above us. Is there a big difference between the four A's and the three A's? Well, our kids definitely think that there is, I watch it and I'm like, still high school football. Like we could play with almost, we could play with most of those things. I think there's a couple really good teams in Wyoming, but that's Wyoming. Right. Yeah, I'd love to see us play.

Jackson is supposed to be a really good 3-18. They played against Pocatello, Idaho this weekend, and got waxed. By the way, I'm looking at the Max Preps, updated rankings for Wyoming High School football. Cody's one, and Powell, your team is two, Jackson's three. Oh, because, well, they lost to a big school in Pocatello, so I guess they changed it. Yeah, so you guys have moved up to that. number two in the state in class 3A. Now, the class 4A schools, I'm going to assume that they're out of places like Cheyenne and Casper,

like the bigger cities in Wyoming, am I right? Yeah, there's two Cheyenne teams, there's two Casper team. Gillette has a team. Sheridan, Wyoming has a team. Rock Springs is number one in the state. Rock Springs, Wyoming, I guess, is the best school in 40. I don't know. I mean, is Laremie a big state city in Wyoming? Isn't that where the University of Wyoming is?

It is where the university is. It's not a big city, but it would be a 518, or 418, think. Okay. There's no big cities in Wyoming. I don't think there's any city that has over 75,000 people. Right. Well. And it's not like where you, you're. you're at where there's suburbia everywhere. And you're not exactly sure how big some of the suit. They get Cheyenne and that's Cheyenne's there.

You got to drive 30 miles to get the winner me. Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, when you're making a seven-hour road trip to Star Valley in Afton, Wyoming, seven hours here in the East Coast means that you, I mean, you've traveled through three states. That's the big difference, obviously. those I mean that is a hell of a road trip for a high school road game I'm looking at your conference star valley long trip seven hour game on Friday

October 1st it's a 5 p.m. local time game and it's a seven hour drive do you guys leave the day before and stay in a hotel no you get up early in the morning and make the seven hour drive yeah wow the morning of. I mean, that's a long trip. That's a long trip. And then you got to be... They're used to it, though.

Yeah, you got to come out and you've got to be ready to play. So right... You got to keep in mind, too, like, these guys, most of these guys play other sports. So you're doing this for basketball, wrestling, you know, anything else you're playing. They're used to that. Do you head right home after the game? Yeah. How's that bus?

Do you get two different bus drivers? Yeah. Well, I think that's pretty cool. And I also think it's pretty cool that the season, it would appear based on your schedule, ends it, you know, on October 22nd. So it looks like you play what, 10 games, 10 regular season games? I think we play eight. One, two, three, and then you've got one, two, three, four, five, six, nine left.

And then you get to the playoffs. I'm assuming that the season ends earlier, and you try to get it done earlier. because you can't get into the terrible, you know, weather because it comes so much earlier? Well, potentially, but there's not more teams to play. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Why don't 3A and 4A teams just play each other in non-conference games? I asked that question.

That's a great question. Because the 4A teams have to all play each other. That's the only way they fit their schedule. the way they did it is they all have to play each other. They don't play any out-of-conference games. Are the crowds, is it a big Friday night light situation or not?

No. It's not, it's normal to some of the Virginia schools that I've been to. Okay. But it's not Texas or Florida or Pennsylvania or Ohio. But like last year, I will say this, and I think we talked about this, last year, Pal's like Cody in the playoffs.

I struggled to see. the day to get a ticket. Yeah. That was bad. That was a big game. That was bad. How many teams make the playoffs? I don't even know, dude.

Okay. I'm really just focused on Douglas right now. You should, yeah, I mean, one game at a time, right? One game at a time. Are you, your coaching tight ends, what else? The teams make the playoffs. How many? I think six.

because you've got to win two to be in the state championship. To be in the state championship game. So that would be eight unless there are two teams with a buy. There may be buys. Okay. You're coaching tight ends. What else are you doing? Are they involving you in scheme development and play calling?

Any of that stuff? I'm in the box. I'm in the booth. Okay. It's really nice because the booth you really see a lot. No. Okay. You can't see anything.

It's like 22bI. You've got to climb a little weird little ladder to get up in there. So how many coaches are up there? Two. So I'm on the headset. We kind of all talk throughout the game. Our coaches have been great, and it's been fun. That's awesome.

Okay, so there we go. There's the Cooley update. Coaching PAL football, the PALPANthers. When you Google it, if you're looking for it, Make sure you put in Powell, Wyoming, because there's a Powell Panthers team in Nashville, Tennessee. But Max Preps is one of the really good high school football sites and basketball in every sport, really. And they give you the schedule and they give you the box scores and they give you the state rankings. So you can follow, you know, the Powell High School team.

They're 3 and O. They get Douglas at home and then a big one against Cody, their rival on Friday. night, September 24th. I'm looking forward to that one very much. So again, Coolie's, he's going to come on when he can come on and when he's watched stuff and when he's up to date. And so we'll just, we'll

do this pretty much ad hoc here. I know what everybody wants to know and they want me to ask you and we've talked about it, but I'll let you answer it. And the question of course has come you know, not dozens of times

but this would be no exaggeration. that it's come hundreds of times over the last month, is Cooley, actually a caller this morning on the radio show asked, is Cooley going to do film breakdown this year? I don't think so, buddy. Here's what I will do for you. If there's a big game or if we get into the season or if we want to talk about,

like if you wanted to talk about Heineck next week, as he does its first full start, I'll do a player. I think that's perfect. Look, here's the, reason, and Chris and I have talked about this, he's got his own team's film breakdown. He's at practice every single day. He's got young kids who are in school. So he just doesn't have the time for it. But I actually think that that's a good idea. We hadn't talked about that. And from the opener yesterday, I'm trying to think of like the one player that people would want to evaluate it. I think

it would either be Heineke and there are very few snaps of Heineke because they barely had the ball. That might be the easiest one to do. Third down defense would be a good one. Third down defense would be a good one. They had 18 opportunities. They converted on 14 of them. Yeah, so that's what we'll do that. If you're up for it, when you can do it, we'll pick one film breakdown topic.

It'll be a player or it'll be third down defense. And we'll try to get that done prior to the next week's game at some point during the week, after maybe a recap on Mondays, if you have time for it like today. So let's get to the game yesterday. I've got a full-fledged game take. I want to get Cooleys, us and ums. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Expect him to be aggressive here.

Probably a draw or a screen. Try to keep that clock running. Maybe Eckler can make a play. Herbert, off the same. It's Allen. What a play. First down Chargers. That was the excruciatingly awful third and 16 conversion on that final drive for the Chargers

where they ran the clock out. We're going to do the game take together. We're just going to do it together. I'm going to start with an overarching theme. Cooley can hit his overarching theme. And then we'll get into the things that we like to. and didn't like. Just a reminder to all of you to subscribe to the podcast.

If you haven't, it doesn't cost you a thing. It helps us. Rate us and review us where you can as well, especially on Apple, Spotify, and Google. Rate us five stars and give us a nice one to two sentence review. That helps us a lot. And as I've mentioned before, those of you that have been doing that, I much appreciate it.

So my overarching theme to this game is really simple. The defense was terrible, and Justin Herbert was great. Those are the number one and number two reasons that they lost the game, and whatever number three is, it's a distant third. The defense was terrible, especially on third down, and Justin Herbert was really, really good. Your overarching theme is what? Well, third down is absolutely killing them, like watching this game,

into the last drive. You're like, how are you not getting up the field here? You have enough dudes that you have got to make some plays in third down situations. You've got to get pressures in third down situations. You've got to make it harder on Erber.

Because literally, you can go on NFL.com, and there's a thing that Justin Herbert, best throws of the day. And there's like 26 of them. Yeah. Well, those are you magician. But, I mean, they didn't have answers.

and I would give him a ton of credit, because he made so many good reads. For a second year quarterback, he played with a ton of poise. He put the ball where it had to be. He understood exactly what Washington was given him on defense. He was a really smart performance by Herbert, as well as athletically a good performance,

throwing the football. The other thing for me, it was a game they should have had a chance to steal. They really should have won the game. and had Gibson not fumbled immediately after that interception, you got a chance to really just outright win a game that you should never win, at least statistically. And that's such a dagger.

Yeah, you know, it's funny because I think they were dominated so much, and one of the things that I'll mention, you know how you'll get from people a lot of the time? Well, the defense played well, they only allowed 13 points because really the fumble by Gibson, but that was the most misleading thing about yesterday's game, in my opinion, the points allowed. It was an aberration.

You know, when you give up 14 of 18 on third down, when they're in the red zone seven times in one game, and you only allow 20 points, it's a fluke. And, you know, they drop six passes in the game. They had an incomplete pass that was ruled a fumble and was somehow upheld by replay. It was a total fluke. If you're hung up on points allowed,

like thinking the defense played well because it only allowed 13 points and you're not going to give them credit for seven because of the Gibson fumble inside the five, I think you're delusional. It was one of the more dominant performances by a team to only score 20 points that we've seen. But to your point,

And I think it's a good one, and I didn't focus on it enough. I mentioned it this morning. But they had a lead 16 to 13 and made an interception in the red zone on what may have been the only bad play that Herbert made all day. And you got the ball with, you know, 12 minutes to go in a three-point lead. You know, so you had an absolute chance to steal one. It's a great point. They had a chance to steal one. no reason and certainly did not deserve to win, but they had a chance to steal one.

It was almost like that Tampa game a couple years ago. But they did win that one. But they did win. Yeah. But it statistically would have been the most misleading win of all time. Right. Which involved Fitzpatrick in this game. It did.

But they ended up getting stops in the red zone. or having Chargers make mistakes or some interesting officiating calls. But they got worked, buddy. Watching that game, they got outplayed by the Chargers in a big way. And some of that probably has to do with the fact that your 90-year-old quarterback broke his hip. Early in the game and you had to play Zineke, who I think it will be fine, but didn't get the week of work. Right. And that doesn't help you on offense when your backup quarterback didn't get the week of work.

And the Chargers game, they have to still a really good defense. Joey Bose is a problem. What a player. Yeah, what a player. So let's start with this. Let's start on the positive. The things I liked and the things that you would say, too. I'll go first.

I thought Taylor Heineke actually did a pretty. good job. And I think what we saw from Taylor Heineke is what we saw last year in the, you know, five quarters that he played, the playoff game and the, and the, in the last quarter against Carolina. And I raved about this in the preseason game against the Bengals. I think he does something at a very high NFL level, Chris. And the thing that he does at a very high NFL level is that he has really good feel for pressure and escaping it most of the time. And when he does, he's capable of making some really big plays with his feet in terms of as a runner. He's much faster than I think most people think.

And he's able to make plays with his arm when he escapes pressure. This is a high-level feature to what he is. Now, I said this during the preseason after the Bengals game, I'm impressed with his playmaking ability. I think everything else else he does is pretty average. You know, I think he's inaccurate at times. I think he's inconsistent with his accuracy. I think his arm strength is just okay,

but I think he throws a catchable ball. And, you know, we've only seen seven plus quarters of this guy. So it's really hard for me anyway to be definitive. I'm not suggesting that some of you and maybe you coolly aren't going to say, no, I've seen enough. This guy's the real deal. For me, I'd like to see more than seven quarters. But the other positive I would say about him is that he's very decisive and he certainly doesn't seem to be rattled or struggling mentally.

He seems pretty with it out there. As far as, you know, he's going to play. I mean, the Ryan Fitzpatrick injury, as we're recording this, there's not an actual report. on it quite yet, and I'm checking Twitter as we're continuing to record this podcast. But the reporting is that this could be a serious injury, and he could be out for a while, if not the year potentially. It would certainly seem like Heineke's going to get this start Thursday night against the Giants. It's impossible to evaluate Fitzpatrick from yesterday's game. He played in three drives, and he was under siege from the jump, as was Heineke.

You know, he was sacked once. He was harassed. And when he left the game with the injury, I thought, and I tweeted out, I think Heineke's mobility and escapability actually is going to give him a better chance in this game against Joey Bosa and that defense. They couldn't protect yesterday. But it's impossible, in my opinion, to evaluate fits from the game. But I did think when Heineke came in, this is just my sense, that he probably gave them a better chance offensively to produce than Fitzpatrick did in that game.

I don't, I can't, I am not buying that one. Okay, why? There's a reason Fitzpatrick was the starting quarterback, and there's a reason that he's been a starting quarterback for six different teams and six different openers. Like, he gives a team a chance. It's just, he's... That wasn't a huge hit, man. She's old.

Yeah. It's really hard when you're old. It's harder when you're old. I kind of strain my quad trying to climb over a fence the other day, and I was like, man, I'm 39 stuff. Well, Fitzpatrick's 38 years old.

I realize it's probably better shape than I am. But seriously, things start to happen at that age. Unless you're Tom Brady. But I don't know. I don't think I'm excited. he gave him a better chance to win in that game. I think Fitzpatrick probably had a better grasp of what they were doing. I'm sure he had a better grasp of what the Chargers were doing.

I do agree with you on the escapeability of the Heineke. But Fitzpatrick can still move. It's just you don't want him getting hit. When I watch Heineke again, it's like, are we going to do this quarterback carousel of injured quarterbacks because is he going to survive a season like this? Like some of his escapeability, you're like, just throw it. Just get the ball out of your hand.

Get his checkout right now. Let's go. I'm sure his offensive line would fill the same way. We're doing our best. Yeah, the thing is, is when he takes off, he's able to make plays. We saw it in a Tampa game. You're at a slight disadvantage with Samuel Cosme at right tackle. Look, I'm not suggesting that I think Heineke should be the starter.

It looks like he's going to be anyway. You just thought in that game he was a better suited to beat the Chargers? Yeah, because from the jump, Fitzpatrick was completely under siege, and he was not able to escape on the first three drives. You know who would have given him the best chance to win that game? Because Alex Smith. Okay. You know who would have been better.

Who would have won the game with is Justin Herbert. Yeah. Yeah, well. They don't have Justin Herbert. At least you didn't miss. At least you didn't what? At least you didn't miss when you didn't take Justin Herbert. That's a question that's been asked several times.

Like, you know, redrafting 2020, like to me it's a ridiculous question. It's not a ridiculous question. It's just a very easy answer. If you actually had the chance to go back into a redo on the 2020 draft and you're Washington, of course you take Justin Herbert number two. And that's not a knock on Chase Young at all. It is just an acknowledgement that the position is exponentially more important. And you saw enough of him in his rookie year to know that the Chargers probably have their guy. And they may have an elite guy. It's very... He's an elite guy. Yeah. So that's not even a debate. Although a lot of people

would debate it, but that's fine. Look, the net of it on Heineke, for me, is I was not on board with some sort of quarterback competition. I wanted to see Fitzpatrick. What we saw from him the last couple of years was encouraging. You needed a savvy veteran. You needed a guy that could, you know, upgrade the offense if you believed that the defense was going to improve. But in yesterday's game, I thought even in three drives, it looked difficult for him because of the pressure and the immediate pressure. And when Heineke came in, he was also immediately pressured, but he made plays. So that's why I think Heineke may have been better suited for yesterday's game against the likes of Bosa and that defense. Now, it doesn't matter. He's going to start.

We're going to get a chance probably to see him for a few games. That's my guess. Maybe Fitzpatrick, has the MRI and it comes back that he's fine and he felt much better today and they go with him against the giants. I actually think there are two other interesting things off of this quarterback conversation. Number one is Cam Newton. I would say 100% no to that and I don't think they'll do it. I love Cam Newton back in the day. I watched him last year. He does not look like a starting quarterback to me anymore. He's available if Fitz is lost for the year. I don't think they'll sign him. They've had chances. It was done it last year. I'm sorry? They would have done it last year.

Exactly. For free. And this would be for free too. But they traded for Kyle Allen, which leads me to the other thing, and that is, I still think they really, really like Kyle Allen. And when I say they, Ron and Scott Turner like Kyle Allen a lot. He didn't win the number two job because he was coming off serious injury and he wasn't available for a lot of the offseason. but I think if he had been available, I think he would have won the number two job. I think that they have a lot of confidence in him.

But I also think they're intrigued with Heineke. But they didn't think either one of them was a starter because they tried desperately to trade for Matt Stafford and looked at several other quarterbacks and ended up settling on a one-year $10 million deal for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Cooley, I predicted my bold prediction for the year was that Fitzpatrick would start 17 games. That is over after three series. So that was the first thing on my list of the things that I liked. I thought Heineke played pretty well. Do you agree or disagree? No, I think Heineke did play pretty well. I think he did exactly what you wanted the backup quarterback to do, which is

survive a game to run around, to make some plays to give yourself a chance. He did. They had a chance to win a game. I mean, that's kind of, my initial game take is that they should have stole a game that they probably had no business winning. And he did give, he did give him enough to do that. I just think you're still limited. And I felt like they were limited on offense with what they were doing with Ioneckee. Just like, after watching the Tampa game on film last year,

it was like, you know, against Tampa Bay, 12 completions came on one pattern. His in the Tampa Bay. It can match like one or two different patterns, and that was 90% of the game. It was shallow cross and dig. And he was working a triangle in the middle of the field, which you did a very good job of.

But you're limited if you can't open and expand the playbook. And I do think if you give him some time, he's a smart dude, you'll be fine with that. That's why I thought Fitz would have given you a better chance to win in that game. Because you probably had a game plan that you wanted to evolve offensively, and then immediately you're out of it. You know, the other thing, too, on Heineke's performance. He was in there for 39 total offensive snaps.

Well, they had like 43 total plays. They had 55 snaps, if you count penalties, 49 that actually were, you know, registered and measured in the game, to 78 for the chargers. And that's an incredible difference. Let me get to two other, three other quick things that I like from the game. I thought, you know, again, the caveat here is very limited snaps offensively in the game. But Terry McLaurin with the limited snaps was targeted four times, had four catches,

including that bomb, which should have been intercepted. You know, another break on the day. I mean, it went right through the defender's hands. But I thought he looked good. And, you know, Logan Thomas, three targets, three catches. And then, you know, but again, I don't think either one of them would have been on the things that I like list had had been a normal game offensively where they had a normal number of snaps and other things, you know, happened in the game. But, you know, I like McLaren a lot. And I like Logan Thomas a lot.

I think he's big and a coolie. I think he's got really, really good hands too. And it's such a nice looking target. And then I thought special teams-wise was the one area. of the game where not only did they outplay the Chargers, but they looked much better than they did a year ago. When they were down 7-0-0, Tressway had a 56-yard punt that, you know, pinned the Chargers deep.

That was a huge field flip. Now, KJ. Hill made a mistake not getting up to field the punt, but that was one of the two drives that Washington in the game got stops on, you know, and I'm talking about like immediate stops. They forced the charger starting at their own 12-yard line to punt there, and that was a big punt in the game, and Tressway was outstanding, as always. I thought their new kickoff returner and punt-returner,

DeAndre Carter looked really good. It's nice when you can make a guy miss, right? Yeah, and he's also quick and fast, and looks fearless, like he's not tentative. He had a 31-yard kickoff return in the game. 11-yard punt return average in the game. I thought he looked good. I thought special teams-wise overall, it was an improvement.

Now, Hopkins missed one of his field goals, and there was a penalty on that punt before the fourth and seven, which we will get to. But for the most part, I thought the special teams were pretty good in this game. What else did you like from the game? What was one of your... Yeah, I feel I liked the defensive line. I think that that's going to be a problem for anybody.

I think because of Chase Young and Sweat, at this point, Jonathan Allen, who they just paid, and he deserved the contract he got, is a huge impact on the game. I think Jonathan Allen is outstanding. And I think Chase Young can play. I just think you've got to have a little bit more in the back end, like the ball was out.

But I liked the defensive line. I thought those guys look like they can really, they can really play. I thought Gibson was okay as a back. I mean, he's going to really hate that fumble that's going to haunt him a little bit. But I like Gibson. I think he's growing.

Yeah. I actually like, I love the sewage leak at FedEx. That was great. I thought that was hysterical. Apparently wasn't sewage. Apparently it was some sort of regular water. But they had several suites. Everyone will know what is sewage.

They have several suites that they could move them into, because the sweets were empty yesterday. We'll get to that a little bit later on. So I did on my list of things that I liked. I said after, I wrote after, you know, mentioning Heineke, McClorn, Logan Thomas, and special teams. I said, in a normal situation, I would have thought about putting Cam Curl, William Jackson, and John Allen on the list,

but I just could not put anybody. I didn't think it would be appropriate to put anybody from defense on on the good list after an overall performance like that. And I feel the same way about Antonio Gibson, but when you cough it up, and by the way, he dropped two balls and also had another fumble out of bounds, but I actually thought he was,

you know, he along with Heineke, really were the guys that gave him a chance. And he showed the flashes and the production that lead all of us, I think, to believe that he's going to be a really, good player. But, you know, you've got to mention this. That's a big fumble, and he had two of them last year. You had one against the Browns and the giants that were very impactful. So he's got to learn, you know, how to protect the ball. But I was... You know, those were the only two fumbles

last year. They were the only two fumbles last year, but he had a couple of drops and he had a couple of bobbles, you know, that weren't registered as fumbles because I went back and looked at my notes from from Gibson last year. I'm not saying that it's what Zeke Elliott was last year, but he's had some big cough-ups. And I would ask you on the play that he fumbled on, should he have bounced that or should he have turned that up sooner?

I thought he could hit it up sooner. I think he gets, I don't know, I think he gets a little too excited with bouncing thing and did all last year as well. which is indicative of a young back. All right. Let's get to the list of things that we didn't like. I'll start with this.

It's the defense. It was all-encompassing as it relates to the defense. It was the third down defense. It was coverage. It was the pass rush. It was tackling. I thought that there was penetration at times by the defensive front. but I also thought for whatever reason there were some timely runs by Echler and the other guy

Roundtree that hurt him. This was very similar in many ways to the Tampa game last year, the game that so many people spent all offseason saying, look at, you know, they took the eventual champs to the limit, and I thought that it wasn't really reflective of the game that it was. Tampa dominated the defense. They gave it 500 yards. and Chris Godwin himself had four drops in the game. And I think there were a lot of similarities.

I mean, look, you can't be any worse on third down than this team was in the game. It'd be really hard. I think it was the all-time third-down conversions in franchise history allowed. The Chargers had nine possessions offensively. Seven of them were in the red zone. Now, one of those is obviously after the Gibson fumbles. So, okay, strike that one. That means six of their nine.

possessions, they made it into the red zone. It's a fluke that they only scored 20 points, as I mentioned earlier. There were multiple drop passes. There was a fumble that should have been called an incomplete pass. And you just got dominated. The Chargers star players in this game on offense, before we even get to Bosa, Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Austin Echler, their new tackle, Roshan Slater, dominated Washington in this game. Justin Herbert was 13 of 16 for 160 yards on third down. He had 11 first down throws in the game on third down, conversions. You know, the issue would be in debating it, was it more the defense or was it more him?

it was probably both, but you can't give up 14 of 18 and it not be mostly about you. I think before you respond to this, I think we just have to be realistic. We've been having this conversation for eight and a half months. We saw an improved defense last year, but we did not see an elite defense last year. We saw an improved defense with a lot of good young players, especially on the defensive line, but it wasn't a great defense. A great defense doesn't get run on like it did last year. A great defense doesn't get lit up in a playoff game to the tune of 500 yards.

And they faced a ton of majorly limited offensive teams with backup quarterbacks and third-string quarterbacks. And we've been talking all throughout this offseason about the offenses they faced last year and the ones on paper going into this year and the quarterbacks that they have to face this year, and they got a dose of it yesterday. Look, I do believe they've got enough talent to be a good defense and maybe better than good at some point. But they weren't elite last year. They were not elite yesterday, and they're probably not going to be elite this year.

And I think yesterday's performance was ominous, to say the least. And I'm not a big believer in week one results. I think they are major headfakes in the NFL. But I don't want to hear from those of you screaming that they were in too much zone or not enough man. They got beaten both. And the Chargers have great players. Herbert was 31 of 47 for 337 yards and had 5 to 6 balls dropped. They targeted Benjamin St. Juist.

That was clear. They targeted Fuller a few times. There were moments I thought they were okay in coverage, but Herbert just made perfect throws. to really good players. The third and three to Guyton early was a perfect throw. They had one to Williams against Jackson, and Jackson was all over them. Perfect throw.

But 14 of 18, it was 14 of 19 statistically, but the last one was a kneel down. 14 of 18 is a problem. It's a red flag. And by the way, here's the other issue, Cooley. 11 of their conversions were third and fives or shorter. seven of them were third and fours are shorter. So that tells you that they're not really good on first and second down or not good enough either.

I didn't think they tackled well in the game. St. Juiced, Fuller, Bostic, all miss tackles. Their pass rush on 49 dropbacks generated five pressures. And I know the ball's coming out quickly. I get it. That last drive, though, the ball wasn't coming out necessarily that quickly on third and 16, and they didn't sniff him. Sniff him.

I just thought it was a horrible defensive performance that the 20 points was very misleading. And the final drive in particular was galling to watch. This is where your supposed defensive stars have to step up. And they converted third and 16, third and three, third and seven, third and four game over, with very little pressure at all.

all. This is where your first round pick from 2020, the number two pick overall, has to take the game over and get your team off the field. And people were wide open and there was very little pressure. And yeah, Herbert on the third and seven made a great throw. But that was not good enough and that was not reflective of a defense that all of us are hoping will, you know, for those of us that didn't think it was elite, was going to progress to being a great defense this year. That was not a good sign on that front. No, it's not a good sign at all. And it's like you sit here watching this game and this last drive,

they're throws in front of guys like McTire. Yeah, McTire was on the field there. Is Tori McTire part of what is an elite defense? And yet, while they, I think they did a pretty good job limiting them in the run, game. The Chargers state balance the entire time. But you never took them out of offensive balance. You never took them out of offensive rhythm. They called plays exactly as they wanted this structure every single drive, and you never disrupted it. And really, without a couple penalties and calls and droughts on the Chargers, this game is ultimately like 35 to 10. I mean, I do think

they got completely outplayed. I think that they're, especially there's, zone coverage, which got it. I remember early last year, they played a lot of cover three and mixed in some quarters. I thought it was really soft. I thought it was average in the middle of the field. So you've got to understand the backers are probably not getting depth, getting drops to spots where they need to get. It was suspect. And, you know, I think at points of last year, Del Rio really fixed it by bringing extra pressure.

You know, there were some problems throughout the year, but once he brought extra pressure, it's really when they started to fix it. And if I'm playing Washington, or sorry, if I'm Washington, I'm bringing pressure off of either sweat side or either Chase Young side, so I can get singled up free rushes so I can make sure the back can help to those guys.

Especially once it's 14 of whatever, they're 10 of 12, whatever they were at that point. It's like, okay, what do you want to do here? Do you want to keep playing stop coverage here? Try to get stops, or do I want to handle this? The 3rd and 16, they're obviously, they rushed 4. They didn't rush 3.

They rushed 4 and they didn't sniff them. And it wasn't, you know, it was a full-fledged dropback on 3rd and 16. And it's funny, like, I was not expecting him to, I was not expecting screen or draw and punt. I was expecting them to go for it. You know, they had thrown the ball down the field pretty successfully all day. How against zone coverage where you allow the underneath throw and you rally and you tackle short of the sticks, how are you playing that far behind the sticks and you let them complete a 15 or a 14-yard throw and let them lunge forward easily for a first down there?

It makes literally no sense to me. And the other part of it is, how on third and 16 are you throwing over the top of the second level? You're playing either three or four underneath there in the middle of the field. Why are those three or four not sitting at sticks and driving up or sitting at 14? Why is their drop allowing a ball to be thrown into that, in between the secondary and linebacker level? Right. it just can't happen like that. You can't allow that ball to be thrown there.

That should be either he's taking a shot over the top that he's probably not going to get. Way down the field or he's hitting a checkdown. But, dude, I mean, we ask these questions and it's like, it doesn't seem to matter what Washington defense or coordinator or coach it is. Literally, like, lots more third and 16 convergence

over the past 10 years that I can handle. Yeah, like, they rushed four in this and how many DBSs did they have on the field? Did they have six DBSs out there and one backer?

So Bostick's out there. I'm just watching this play again. This was rough. Well, Bostick gets so cut up. I'm watching the third and three on the last year. towards midfield and Boston. They're zone coverage in POSC

is running with a crossing route instead of dropping. You just got to, like, you have to trust the guys you're playing with if you want to play some zone coverage that when you pass something off, that somebody else will be there for it. Like you can't chase things,

you know, out of zone. And you never know exactly how they're calling it. And maybe they're saying, hey, if you did get crossed or you on third and short with a run with it this week. But seriously, the way it looks, that the eye discipline was not good. They were overcommitted and guessing on things

that they should have been guessing on and Herbert made them pay for a big time. Yeah, this third and 16 is so bad of all of them. And they don't sniff them. And this is not a quick throw. This is a normal dropback, and they don't get anywhere near them. On the things I didn't like list,

the pass protection was terrible yesterday. It was really bad. They had some tough matchups, obviously, with a rookie right tackle who they love through camp, and they penciled him in pretty much day one when they drafted him, but he was solo early against Bosa. Then they gave him some help. Leno, the other tackle, got beat too.

He got beat badly on the play that Fitzpatrick was injured on. They had seven QB pressures on 21 total pass attempts. That's not good. They really struggled. What did you see there? No. That was, they really struggled, and the chargers didn't. But the charges didn't have to bring pressure.

Like, the place that Patrick gets hurt on, he's trying to throw a freaking swing route in two and a half seconds. You can't get that fast. I know. I know. I mean, a couple of the pressures were just so, so immediate. It was almost a backwards pass. It was very close to a backwards path.

Well, they reviewed it. They, I think they reviewed it. I know, I thought. Yeah, so that wasn't good enough the pass protection. The Gibson fumbles, obviously, on this list. We've talked about that. It was a devastating play. They had too many crucial penalties.

Both teams got away with things. Look, the missed face mask early on Gibson. That was bad. That was an egregious miss. And it cost them points. You know, probably cost them a touchdown opportunity when you walk off 15 and said they're in second and 12, and they end up with a field goal.

I thought the low-hit call on Bosa was ridiculous. I don't... I think the late hit at the end of the first half was the right call. That's a bad discipline play by him. But I thought the low-hit call on Heineke, which was on that drive that ultimately led to the fourth and seven decision to punt, they would have been, the chargers would have been off the field right there. It wasn't high.

It wasn't super low. It wasn't late. It wasn't, you know, malicious, you know, rough. If that's the rule, that's the rule, it just didn't seem like that's one that gets called. They had the penalty on the long snapper Cheeseman on the punt, the fourth, you know, when they decided to punt. That meant the Charger started that last drive on the 18 instead of the 8-yard line. The penalty on Humphreys was a good call. Per the new rules, you're not allowed to go low outside the box anymore.

They had two neutral zone infractions. Brandon Sheriff had a false start on a third and four. That's amazing. Yeah, that backed them up and eventually led to the misfield goal by Hopkins, which would have given them a 1913 lead. So they had too many penalties, and they were crucial penalties in this game. And there were some that I thought were bad on the other. On that last drive, they called their right guard for legal hands.

face on a ball thrown right in front of Landa Collins. It was like, he's barely up around his jester neck right there. No doubt. They replayed that one. They got away with that one, which gets them into the third and 16. Yeah, got to be the third and 16. Get them on the stop on the screen and you're like, come on. I mean, that plays, that ball's thrown, the ball thrown on a seam in front of a quarter safety

in Landon Collins. You should never be playing at 20 yards and quarter. Right. You know what I mean? It's just one of those deals where it's like, you don't know. Like they played quarters on the 3rd and 16 after they gave up the big shot on the scene, and they literally threw it across the middle of the field in front of Land and Collins again with no back or death. Yeah, that play on the hands to the face.

That was the Keenan Allen, like 20-yard catch, right? Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, like, again, it's one of those things where you get poor drop underneath, your safeties are too deep. And I'm looking at this last drive again, you're not winning 20 to 16.

You're losing 20 to 16. You need a big stop there. Well. They played it like they were ahead. They converted third and 16, third and three, third and three, three, and seven, third and four. The third and 16 was ridiculous. It was way too easy.

The third and three was pretty easy. The third and seven is a really good throw. And St. Juist is actually, the coverage isn't terrible right before the two-minute warning. And then the third and four, you know, how at this point you don't understand that he's going to be looking at Keenan Allen? Because Keenan Allen is an elite receiver. And that was too easy. And then you get into the kneel downs, which was, again, another red zone trip where they didn't need to score because the game was over at that point. But they had held on to it for 15 plays in the last six minutes and 53 seconds of the game.

Yeah, you're right. That hands to the face was a terrible, terrible call against the Chargers. All right, I'm going to save this last one on the things that I didn't like list, the fourth and the fourth down decision to punt for right after these words from a few of our sponsors. 13, everyone covered. He tucks it away. He's going to run for it. Needed about the 33.

He's short. Runs for nine. It's an interesting situation. I don't trust my defense because the charges have been moving the ball at will on me. So if you punt the ball down, you punt it down inside the 10. Do you punt it or do you try and kick a field goal? You're down four. This would be a 57-yard field goal after Hopkins just missed a 51-yarder.

I think I'd try and go for it here. That run by Taylor Heineke set up a fourth down in seven with about 740 to go roughly in-charger territory at their 40-yard line down 20 to 16. First big decision for Ron Rivera this year. Fourth and seven, seven and a half, a little bit more than seven and a half to go. down by 4, 20 to 16, at the charger 40-yard line. Do you go for it? Do you pun it or do you do something else? Cooley, take the first swing at it. What do you think he should have done?

Well, I understand that you can't protect your quarterback. You feel like you maybe don't have an answer in fourth and seven in that situation. But the flip side of it is you pun it and you can't get them off the field because you haven't got them off the field all day. And Rivera is going to sit there and say, over and over. I'm going to trust my defense. I'm going to trust my front. I'm going to trust my line. I'm going to trust my guys.

I think that you've got to go for that, Kev. Now, the other thing is, like, at that point, you're down four. If you don't get it, you say let's hold them to a field goal. We can go score. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I understand what you're talking about, but it's like, you have third and 16, and Heineke ran it for nine. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Like you had third and 16, he runs it to the 40-yard line. Yep, ran at 9 yards. Look, I understood there's 728 left in the game. I would be interested at what distance he would have felt comfortable going for that. 43 does he feel like he can go for it? Fourth and four does you feel like he can go for it? Yeah.

Well, that becomes a no-brainer. At home versus on the road like he does two-point conversion. I mean, it's just, look, I get it. You're like, okay, we have a punter who should back them up. That's going to be easy. Let's get a stop. We should get the ball back around midfield. But ultimately, like, Heineke's a gamer.

That's the one thing I like about him. You mentioned it. We've talked about it. I think the guy loves big situations. He, to me, seems like he steps up to the plate. and in a big situation is a guy that you trust. He's going to get the hit, man. And I think you've got to go for it right there.

You've got to show confidence in your offense. You've got to show confidence in your team. And you're saying I have confidence in my defense plenty, but at the same time, you could say you have confidence in your defense to get a stop right there at the 40. So. Yeah. So I'll start with this.

I agree with you. I think that he should have gone for it, and I would have gone for it on fourth and seven had I been in that situation to make that decision. But the one thing I want to be clear on, I don't think that this was an obvious no-brainer go-for decision. And you guys can send me all of the fourth-down analytics numbers and all of the, you know, terrible fourth-down punt decision, you know, Twitter pages you want.

And I've seen them all. Information's great. Historical data is a nice little tool, but context most of the time is equally, if not more important in these key decisions. And for me, the case for not going for isn't a ridiculous case. And I think a lot of people out there are like, dude, don't you know what the fourth down analytics are? I mean, they gave up 22 yards of field position for a 45 percent, whatever. Context matters. And the argument you could make for not going for it is you're down by four with still plenty of time left.

That last play ended with 748 left. You're not down 10 with four minutes to go. You're down one score with nearly half the quarter left. You're in position with a punt and a great punter to pin them deep. And in the game yesterday, the only two times the Chargers were forced to punt. themselves were on drives that started inside their own 20 yard line. Your offense was three for 10 on third downs, and two of the three third downs that you made were a third and one and a third and two.

So for Rivera to think that fourth and seven might be a tough conversion today with that pass rush and the past protection issues that you've got, there's your argument for punting the ball. Again, I would have gone for it, and I would have gone for it for these reasons, and Cooley mentioned several of them. The defense is awful all day long, so what are your chances in your mind at that point that you're going to punt it and get a stop? Number two is even a good punt that lands inside the 10 creates more field for them if they get it rolling to run more of the clock on that ensuing drive, and actually gives them the chance to do what they did, which is run the clock out.

If they take over actually after an incomplete pass on fourth and seven at the 40, then they can't run the clock out from there. And you can hope to get a stop after two or three first downs, use your timeouts, and you get the ball back down 7, 2316. So actually, you know, in situations where your defense is really struggling, you have to think in terms of getting the ball back about how much field you're giving them to burn more clock. Thirdly, what you said I would have considered.

Heineke is exactly the kind of quarterback that, you know, he's going to try to make a play in this situation with his legs. He had run nine yards on third and 16 before that to create the fourth and seven. I get, to me, I get why it wasn't super obvious to Rivera because I think there's a reasonable argument for punting it. I would have gone for it, and I would have gone for the reasons that I mentioned, but I don't think it's like an outrageous, you know, mistake that he punted it there with that much time left in the game, with it being fourth and seven.

To your point, if it's fourth and three, fourth and four, of course he's going for it in that spot. I don't think there's any doubt that a fourth and three, fourth and four, they're going for it. Even if it's still at the 40. Let's just say they had to make the 36-yard line fourth and four from the 40. The third option that should have been in consideration, you know, to a certain degree, and I wouldn't have done this either, is field goal. You know, a 57 to 58-yard field goal attempt is not an unusual thing in today's game. And Hopkins has the leg for it, although Rivera said it may have been too long for him yesterday. Maybe it was that direction. So I'll concede that point there. But I wouldn't have kicked the field goal either.

I would have thought, you know what? Fourth and seven is my best chance to win the game. 20 to 19 if he makes it is great. If he misses it, you know, I'm not leaving them with a lot of field to burn clock, although they are going to start that drive at the 47-yard line or 48-yard line wherever the spot would have been on the kick. But I would have gone for it. but I don't think it's like a no-brainer and was a no-brainer decision. Unfortunately for him, the punt was a good one, but there was a penalty, so they got to tack 10 yards on and go from the 8 to the 18 to start. And then he gets him in a 3rd and 16, which is exactly, you know, the plan there.

And to get off the field, which you do in this league nine times out of 10 on 3rd and 16, even with a bad defense, you usually get off the field on 3rd and 16, unless you're facing Mahomes, and maybe, you know, Herbert's, you know, in that next rung down at this point. But I would have gone for it for the reasons that I stated. Here's the other thing that you really need to be aware of is you're coaching these games. You're on the 40. You can line up and at least try to draw them. Yeah, but they didn't do that.

up in motion and see, like, hey, critical situation, what's your best, what's your best fourth and four to seven call? What's your best fourth and four to six call? And if we were to get a certain look, like if they're going to give us man pressure, can we get it? And you can line up and you can send Humphreys in motion or McClorin in motion and see what they're in. And without any problem, take a delay a game there. Did you see... That's the other thing. No, no other thing.

Absolutely. There's literally no reason to send your punt unit directly onto the field. You at least have an opportunity for a free five yards at a minimum. Everyone, for charges are going to say don't jump, don't jump. But still, you have that opportunity for the free five yards. You also have that opportunity to see the defensive front and coverage that you're going to get. And if you like it, run the play.

something else happened in that sequence, which was actually, I'm not sure why it happened. But when Heineke scrambled up for nine yards on third and 16, that play ended at about 748, somewhere on there, 747. I don't have it in front of me. Exactly 747. Okay, so 747. So the 42nd clock starts, meaning that, you know, you could, you know, have it all the way down to 707 in trying to draw them off sides. by keeping your offense out there, and then you punt it on fourth and 12 if you take the delay a game penalty in that particular spot, if this is what you wanted to do.

Now, what happened was he sent the punt unit out there. And then if you notice Kooley, for whatever reason, there was a reset of the play clock to 25 seconds. So they actually ended up losing time on that exchange from 747. They didn't punt the ball, check it for me, until like 653 or something like that. I don't have it in front of me. My NFL game passes. And maybe they had a fake opportunity. Well, Troy Abke ended up false starting.

He ended up false starting. And so, and by the way, Jay, who's the kicker that was on the broadcast? Jay Feely. Jay Feely was saying they're trying to draw them off sides with the punt formation. I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, oh, they shouldn't be trying to. to draw them off sides with the punt formation. They should be trying to draw them off sides with their offense, which is true.

They weren't trying to draw them off sides. Apki false started, but for whatever reason, the ref reset the game clock to 25, the play clock to 25, which means by the time that Apkey got that false start, a minute, nearly a minute of the clock, not 40 seconds. It was more like 50, 52, 53 seconds had burned off the clock. So that was unfortunate for them. I mean, look, ultimately... I don't think he's sitting there thinking about six to six.

Here's the last thing. He is not thinking about them running the clock out. I guarantee it 740. Them taking the ball and running a seven-minute drive, it doesn't even enter his mind. I agree with that, but I think about those things, don't you? All the time. Right. So...

Without question, all the time. and on the flip of it is let's say they get four first downs and punt. How much time do I have left at that point? Right. I mean, but see, that was the more important thing. What's going through my mind is, am I going to be able to stop them? I haven't all day long. But in his defense, he may be saying, I can't get the fourth and seven because I can't

protect my quarterback. So let's try to pin him deep and maybe get. He just scrambled for nine, he just scrambled for nine on the play before. I know. I know. I would have gone for it. You could take the delay a game there. And try to draw them off sides and get fourth and two.

Well, you could have a hard count play or a double cadence and hard count play and at least make a decision on what coverage in front they're in if you think you have a chance. Right. Yeah. It's another option. That was the fourth option. Pun it, go for it. Kick the field goal or let your offense try to draw offsides.

No, I think the best option is be decisive, call the play, and go for it in their territory at the 40-yard line with seven and a half minutes to go down four. Because your defense, I've got no confidence at that point that I can stop the best. player in this game by miles, Justin Herbert. I do not want to see that dude with the ball in his hands. I would have almost thought about it in the same way that I would have thought about Mahomes and giving the ball back to Mahomes. I don't want to give him the ball.

I don't care where Tressway is going to punt it to. I don't want to give him the ball. And maybe he's not thinking about them running out the clock, but I'm thinking about them making three or four first downs or maybe five and burning a lot of the clock and kicking a field goal. from way down there. I'm going for it. That's my best chance to win the game, given the context to that game yesterday. I think so. So I'm with you. I'm with you, and I'm going for it as well. And this is not crazy, but with seven minutes left, if you wanted to see front and coverage

and take a timeout, because you didn't like it, with the opportunity that you're still going to go for it on fourth down? Yeah, you don't take the time out and then punt it. Right. there's still no you don't take the time out the punt you take the time out to make to go for it on fourth down yep yeah well knowing that the charger might take a time out on the flip like you might take a time out get to the line to have what you want and then charges might take another time out make make an adjuster because if i did that if somebody did that to me and i'm up there i might think about taking another time out too well i might try to draw them off sides and instead of taking the delay a game take the take the take the time out and then say we're going for it now we didn't get that

him to jump. Yeah, now we're going for it. Yeah. And then if, and then worst case as it fails, I say in the media right afterwards, it was a quiz for Taylor Heineke. I wanted what you would do in this. Yeah. It was a quiz for Taylor Heineke. We're no more in-game quizzes. Please.

Boy, he, he bothers you. There's, there's something about him that bothers you. No, not really. I really, really doesn't. Okay. That was a joke about something that happened. Okay. That was, but everybody understood.

I mean, that comment was as bad as Mike Shanahan saying that Donovan McNabb was in cardiovascular health. Right. Run a two-minute drive. I mean, it's just ludicrous. So bother not. How would that not bother anybody? So a couple of other quick observations. Did we exhaust?

And I think that the delay-of-game thing, and even the delay-of-game thing with a timeout, were two additions to this thing that were really smart. Because I think all of that could have been in play. But here's what I would have taken out of play. I would have taken out of play the punning the ball. I just, I, and again, I'm conceding that it's not a no-brainer and that there's a reasonable argument to punt there. I am. Like people that say, no, it's fourth down analytics, game time.

No, no, no, no. It's context, okay? And he's looking at it as, have you seen my past protection? also, by the way, the only two times in the game that we forced them to punt is when we pinned them super deep. And maybe we can get this, you know, the smallest crowd in the history of opening day at our, for a Washington football game. Maybe we can really get them into it. Maybe we can get a false start and maybe they'll be back to the two-yard line. And who knows, maybe we can block a punt, get a safety, then get the ball and have a field goal to win the game.

Who knows? But to me, fourth and seven is their best chance. One first down, what does the first, first down take the clock to? Well, it depends when you make it. It depends when you make it on first, second, or third down. The charges. I know, it depends if you make it on first, second or third down. If you make it on third down, it's going to take up 40 times three.

It's going to take up 120 seconds, two minutes, if they play it right. Yeah, I mean, they're going to be down to five minutes and they're going to be their own 30. So you're still very much in it. You have to get a stop, though. After the first down, it was 517. Yeah, there you go. And that was with a penalty, right? Because they had the hands to the face.

They get two first downs, but out to the 30, which means they're going to completely flip the field, and you're getting the ball with probably two of your timeouts at four minutes. You still have time, but you've got to go to the whole field. Yeah. Well, the bottom line is they had had in the game to that point drives of 12 plays 68 yards, 18 plays 65 yards, 10 plays 76 yards, and 10 play 75 yards. They were going on into that drive, if they finished 14 of 18, and they were 4 for 4 there,

so they were 10 of 14 going into that drive. I'm just... How about this? What? How about this? I'm watching this last year, just to see the time. The third and three that they got around midfield. Yeah.

Herbert snaps with 16 seconds left on the play clock. I saw that. I saw that. They were not doing a good job. But they also... You know what he did? And this is something that they'll re-all, I'll guarantee it. He hurried up to the ball so they couldn't get their...

That's what I was just going to say to you. He hurried up on third down. Yeah, it was the third downs where they were not worried about eating the clock. They were worried about the best opportunity to convert the third down, which, by the way, is smart. Okay, should I burn, should I eat this clock and play clock down to two and then have less of a chance to get the third down? Or should I snap it with 16 seconds left on the play clock and get the third down? Well, it's obviously the latter. I don't know about any of you that were watching this.

I had no doubt that they were going to convert on all of them. The third and 16, I thought they were going to take a shot. And I told my son watching it, I go, he's going to throw this ball down field. This is not going to be a draw or a screen. He's thrown this ball. I thought he was going to throw it beyond the sticks. Because he is, and with their weapons, and we couldn't guard him, and we couldn't cover him. But the third and 16, I still didn't think they were going to make it.

No doubt. Here's the last one as I rethink this in today's time. The third and seven at the 43? Yeah. That's that great throw at Williams, right? Like 240 left after the... Take your time out there and get that up on third down. Of course. That's on my other notes.

You've got to take the time out. You've got to take the time out after the Echler run. Look, we've said this and we've tried to tell everybody how this should be done, and Ron Rivera didn't do it properly. He did it properly at the end of the first half. He did a great job using his timeouts on defense. it ultimately led to them getting that field goal at the end of the half. Joey Bosa's late hit was the key play in that drive.

But after, look, you could make the argument they could have called them even earlier, but after the second down run by Echler at 250, you call your first time out right there. Before the third and seven, they got to run that third and seven at 246 or whatever would have been left. you give your chance defensively to get set, to get rested, and to get ready for it, and you don't allow them to burn 40 seconds or 35 seconds or whatever it was. And they didn't do that. They picked up that third and seven. That was a great throw, wasn't it?

Oh, that was a dime. And then he started calling the timeouts after the two-minute morning. And by the way, one of the best plays defensively of the day was the play that Chase Young made. on second and one after they gave up a big run to Echler on first down after the two-minute warning. And again, I think they had some really timely runs that were hurtful to Washington. I mean, they didn't have a lot of yards rushing

or big yards per average on carries, but I thought they got hurt with the run with timely runs, like the Echler 9-yard run after the two-minute warning. But Chase Young made a great play on second and one. Actually, the whole defensive interior came through and they nailed Echler, and that set up the third and four, which gave you a chance.

Like if you can get the stop here, they're going to kick the field goal, 2316. And if that third and four, by the way, is incomplete, you're still going to have a timeout left and a minute 40 left down 2316. You're going to have a chance. But Keenan Allen, you know, should have been, it should have been known who number 13 was at that point in the game. He's like wide open for the easiest pitch and catch third and four conversion. If they figured it out, Kev.

You want to talk about some of these other NFL games? Big day. Big day in the NFL. All right, let's do that. I also have one more thing that I thought Ron Rivera erred on. We'll do that when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Before we talked about the rest of the league from yesterday, week one, I did think there were a couple of things. I thought Rivera could have challenged.

There was a third and three tight throw to Keenan. Allen where Jackson actually really had pretty good coverage. And Alan made the catch. It was in the first half right before the end of the first half. And if you looked at that and they ran the replay of it, he catches it initially. It looks like he's got total control of it in front of the sticks, but he never had full control until he got knocked back behind the sticks. I thought that was a challengeable play for Rivera. That was number one. I don't know. It would have been close, but I thought it was worth challenging. I also thought on one of those fourth and ones that Gibson made,

I thought Washington got away with a false start. I think Washington got away with a lot of things. The face mask on Gibson was the worst miss call. I think almost every other call or a lot of them went in the Chargers favor during yesterday's game. And the other thing that was very noticeable is they played a lot of guys on defense. There was a lot of rotation coolly. You know, they came in with James Smith Williams. They came in with Two Hill.

They came in with Settle. They came in with Ionitis. They were really moving guys in and out. They played a lot of nickel with two linebackers. But really, the third linebacker was a lot of times Cam Curl or McCain or Collins. They did not feel comfortable. Jamon Davis did play. I think I looked this up earlier.

He was in third. He was played on. 30 of the 80, no more than that. Davis played 45 of the 81 snaps. So he played more than half the snaps, 56% of the snaps. But they really had a lot of nickel, but really what they call that buffalo nickel where Cam Curl's really the third linebacker. And that's what they played with. They're clearly not comfortable yet with putting their first round pick. out there is a starting middle linebacker. And it takes a lot of these guys a little bit of time.

They just gave him a package of stuff to work with. Yeah. I thought he looked really indecisive when he was out there too, when he was out there. I also thought it was interesting that Ricky Seals-Jones was really their starting, you know, they had a lot of two tight-end sets, and it was, you know, Ricky Seals-Jones, Sammis Reyes was inactive.

but it was Seals Jones who, you know, nobody who covers the team even thought he was going to make the team, you know, three weeks ago. But they obviously like him. And he was in there early on in a lot of two tight end sets with Logan Thomas. I do think I saw the guy from Boise, Bates on the field. Did I see him on the field for offensive snaps? Yeah, he was on two offensive snaps in the game. Dax Milne in the game. So was D'Anne Carter was in there for two offensive snaps. But they played a lot. Like, I'm looking at defensively. So Chase Young played of the defensive front, 70 of the 81 snaps.

But after that, Payne had 61, sweat had 53, and Allen had 47. Ionitis was in there for 43 snaps. James Smith Williams for 30 snaps and then settle in two hill less. But they really rotated, and I'm sure it was because, A, it was a hot day, coolly, and B, they have a quick turnaround with another game on Thursday night. Yeah, and C, they had 70 some plays. 81 total snaps when you count the penalties. They had 15-play drives. I mean, it's unbelievable. Also, I go forward on 14-7, your defense is literally exhausted. There were 26 more offensive snaps for the Chargers

than there were for the Washington football team. And in actual plays that counted, it was 79 to 48, so that would be 31 if you take the penalties out. That's not a good day. One more thing from the game, and I haven't mentioned it yet. I don't think I've mentioned it yet. The crowd was announced yesterday, paid attendance-wise, 52,753. I believe that if you go back to before they started to sell out RFK Stadium, which I think started

in 1966, I think you'd probably have to go back to 1965, so that would be 56 years ago to find a lower opening home paid attendance. crowd. RFK Stadium had 55,000 plus. Now, maybe they didn't early on. Maybe they were at 52 or 51. So I could be wrong about that. RFK at its capacity, really starting in the early to mid-70s, was 55,000-35. I think that's exactly what the sold-out paid attendance was, and all those games were sold out season ticket-wise. So at least back to the early to mid-70, this would be the lowest paid attendance number in over 50 years at least, the 52,753. For the Colt game back in 2018, which was game two, the home opener, they did 57,000.

Then in 2019, the Cowboys were here. They had a huge crowd for that one, obviously. And then in 2020, there wasn't anybody for the home opener against the Eagles last year. I know there were a lot of Chargers fans. I don't really want to get into this other than to share with you that I think the 52,753 official paid attendance number, whether it's accurate or not, would be the lowest paid attendance number in at least 50 years, is my guess. I don't know. Maybe it's 45 years. Maybe they went from 50,000 to 55,000 in the mid-70s at RFK.

Anyway, that's it on that. I know there were some Charger fans in there, too. I have no idea what percentage. I wasn't there. I heard wild numbers like it was 30%. And then I heard people say, no, no, no. It was more like 10 to 15%. It was not an eagle or a cowboy fan takeover.

That's for sure. All right, let's get to the NFL. Let's start with James Winston. He was brilliant, coolly in this game. He threw five touchdown passes on 14 of 20, Fourteen of his five of his 14 completions were touchdowns. I'm happy for James Winston. I think he's in the right place.

I think he can resurrect his career. I don't think he was available to any other team looking for a quarterback in the offseason, but I'm excited for him and I'm rooting for him. I think he's a really good quarterback who can have tremendous success on that team, which is a good team, and with that coach, Sean Peyton. Winston has been a guy that to throw the ball down the field.

I mean, that's not been an issue whatsoever. Man, they took shots late in that game up, too. But yet, Winston, to me, he's the guy that really need someone like Sean Peyton, who will manage a game for him, which he's done, by the way, for Breeze a lot over the past couple years. Once they built a defense in New Orleans, Breeze did not have to score 30. every week to win football games. So they have the ability to run. They're one of the best screen teams in the league.

It's built well for Winston, and he's just got to protect the football. I think it's a good fit. And you look a great thinner. It's a good team, too. It's a good team, too. They just have to stay healthy. But that's a good team with obviously Camara and no Michael Thomas yet. but Aaron Rogers and the Packers were,

it's the worst loss of Rogers' career losing by 35, 38 to 3. Did he see him in the pressure? Did he age 7 years this offseason? Did he look much older? I didn't notice that. Oh, yeah, he looked way older. Weird getting gray. It's a weird Steven Seagall look going into the game.

Yeah, I did notice that. I didn't notice that he looked so old. So you had that game. I thought James was great, but I thought, you know, watching some of that game, Peyton just did a terrific job, Colin Blaze against Green Bay's defense. I think the Saints are a really interesting team. The Chiefs rallied to beat the Browns 3329.

The Mahomes touchdown passed at Taree Hill was ridiculous. Three-kill, 11 catches 197 yards, one touchdown. I don't understand. I mean, you know what so hard about Trico? That play should have never been complete. It could have been a pick. But three kill so fast that anybody's covering him vertically down the field that's got to over-commit, run through hard,

that he adjusted the ball really well. They can't because they are in full-thrip mode, making it up. They're in fear of losing him. No doubt. I thought Cleveland was going to be in really good shape, though Baker played really well early. I thought made some of the best throws I've seen him make. They did a great job running football.

And I don't know if you watch this game. This is stupid, and it's not really a point at all. But they ran the coolest non-Hell-Merry end of half play I've seen in a long time. I didn't. I think I caught it on a highlight. They played way soft. They threw it underneath. I think he was Joku.

And then they ran the lateral to Baker Mayfield. Yeah, I did see that. And then he ended up laterallying it to somebody who got tackled. You know who? They almost scored on it. Not that Alex Smith was involved in this play. But the year that Kansas City, the last year Alex Smith was there, I think they played a game against Dallas,

and they scored at the end of the half with Tariq Hill on the field. And I think Kareem Hunt on the field as well, where Dallas was back in Hail Mary Prevent, and they threw it just a short pass, and they started pitching it around, and they ran it in for a score. I mean, it's probably your chances on that, are probably greater than throwing the Hail Mary into the end zone,

especially if you get that running start, because nobody's in the middle of the field. They're all down there, you know, on the goal line. No, I love that play. I don't know. I love the opportunity to catch and run and see what happens. It's just there's so much speed from some of these guys. It's hard to get the last 10 yards.

But as far as that game goes, I was actually, I thought Cleveland would finish that game. I mean, with Miles Garrett, And Giadabian Clowny and a two-score lead in the second half. Right. You should be able to get after Mahomes. The most impressive player in that game to me is Nick Chubb. I think he's become, and maybe people will say, Kevin, he's already there.

I think he's an elite running back. Elite. Yeah, you know, he's there. He's there. Yeah. And they also have Kareem Hunt in the backfield as. well. But Nick Chubb is so good, decisive, and so powerful. And he runs with so much urgency. And he's got the breakaway speed. I really love Nick Chubb. He's a big dude, too. What is his weight?

Is he 225? He looks like he's 225. I don't know if he's that big. Hold on. He might be. Gosh, he runs. 511, 227. Nice. He is powerful. How about the Browns drop up on that? That dude had to feel bad. They had a chance. They were funny.

They look like a good team yesterday against another team that we know is good. Defansky does a good job. You got to remember when you're playing Kansas City that there at some point when you start scoring. And so even of 2920, you've got to find a way to put another touchdown or two more scores on the board. You got to score 35 if you want to beat Kansas City. The Eagles beat the Falcons 32 to 6.

I'm a pet favorite. Yeah, I had Philly. I've liked Philly all offseason as a team that could surprise. I bet them on their total over 7 plus 120. Because you and I have talked about this. Their talent defensively is pretty good. And last year, it was their offensive line in the injuries that really crushed them. and then the quarterback injuries as well.

But I thought Jalen Hertz played pretty well at the end of last year when he had the opportunity. And he's the big question. Like if he plays well, and we don't know anything about the coaching staff, but I just thought that they were worth playing over seven because of their talent. And they destroyed Atlanta. Destroyed Atlanta. I was surprised Atlanta wasn't a little better on offense,

but Atlanta's defense is terrible. They're one of the worst defensive talent-wise across the board in the league. Yeah, but offensively, they couldn't do anything against the Eagles. No, they couldn't. Every year when healthy, the Eagles are of good defense. They've been a good defense talent. Yep. The Steelers were another smell test pick.

They won 2316 outright at Buffalo. You know, the guy that I think has a chance to end up being the offensive rookie of the years, Najee Harris. He didn't not have a big day, but they blocked a punt and scored, and their defense was and T.J. Watt, who just signed the biggest contract for a defensive player and NFL history had two sacks in the opener. And this is where... And a forced fumble. This is where we just need to understand. We all think Chase Young is really talented, you know, and Montes Sweat, too, but that Chase Young could be, you know, an all-time great kind of a player. It's fine that we think that. And he's only in his second

year, and there's plenty of time here. But T.J. W. W. is a dominant player. Joey Bosa right now is a dominant player. They took games over yesterday. And so our guy- Taylor Jones had five sacks. We'll get to that. It's the titan. Our guy- I mean, those are that's dominant play. Our guy in his last two games hasn't gotten one. In the playoff game, where his defense allowed 500 yards, and yesterday where they got dominated to the tune of 14 of 18 on third down. Those are dominant pass rushers in the league.

Miles Garrett is a dominant pass rusher in this league right now. Joey Bosa, what did Nick Bosa do in the game yesterday, back healthy? I didn't even look to see what he did in his game. All I did was watch the Lions cover late. Bosa had a sack and two quarterback hits. So, you know, too many of, of, our fans watch our games and they don't watch the league. Right now, Chase Young has extraordinary potential, and he's a good player, and he had a very good year last year. He's not an elite

player yet. Not yet. The players I just mentioned are elite right now. Chandler Jones had five sacks for the Arizona Cardinals as they sacked Ryan Tannhill six times, and they blew out Tennessee with Kyler Murray accounting for five touchdowns in the game. Man, this division, every one of the NFC West teams won in week one, what a division that division's going to be. The AFC West is going to be. And I think the NFC South is better than people think too. But the Cardinals, man, they, I don't know.

I picked them to finish last. I like the other three teams more, but that division's a total coin flip. Any one of the four could win it at a high level where any one of the four in the NFC East, I think, could win it, but not at as high of a level. Any thoughts on the Cardinals and Titans? I thought the Titans looked horrible on offense. Julio Jones did absolutely nothing in that game. They're supposed to have weapons.

They should be a dynamic offense. Losing Arthur Smith, I think. hurt them. And the Falcons weren't good this week, but I don't think the Falcons are talented where Arthur Smith went. But I thought Arthur Smith as an O.C. did a heck of a job in Tennessee. They have to be better on offense than that. You've got to be much better on offense than they were in that game. Kyler Murray played excellent. DeAndre Hopkins is so unbelievably good. Yeah. I think the charges a problem, though. Sorry, the Cardinal doing me a problem for people. they have dudes, man.

They have dudes on defense, too. The Giants lost their opener against the Broncos. I didn't see any of this game. But I've loved Denver, and I picked Denver to be a surprise playoff team this year. They just have to get the quarterback play right. I thought it would be

Drew Locke. It was Bridgewater. He was really good. Bridgewater played great in this game. Daniel Jones didn't. Had another fumble that he cost him in the game on a scramble where he fumbled it's eight yards down the field. And the guy, like Daniel Jones can throw the ball. He can make some plays, and they should have some weapons,

but he's a turnover machine. And Denver was good on offense. Washington, a four-point favorite right now, regardless of the quarterback situation on Thursday night against the Giants. The Dolphins beat the Mack Jones debut Patriots, but Mac Jones played well. And the Dolphins held on for a 17-16.

win. I didn't see any of this game. The dolphins are tougher. The dolphins are one of the better defenses in the league. So for Mack Jones to play well this week is a real positive. I didn't see the game, but I know that New England was threatening deep in Miami territory down 17, 16, and Damien Harris fumbled. And that was a killer in that game. Miami then literally ran the clock out and won the game 17 to 16. The first NFL game actually, believe it or not, to ever be decided with zero zero zero on the clock in overtime happened yesterday. I can't believe that. I would have thought that that would have happened.

There would have been a game winning field goal at the gun in overtime. But Minnesota rallied from 217 and 2414 down against the Bengals on the road. cousins had a big day. Do you know that they set an NFL record? In the first half, there were 14 penalties called against the Vikings, 10 accepted. The 14 in a first half is an NFL record on one team. That's unbelievable.

Dalvin Cook, they were in field goal range in overtime, and Dalvin Cook fumbled. and Cincinnati took over, and then they had a fourth and inches at midfield, and Joe Burrow threw up. He threw the tight-end leak play. Yeah. The fake boot, tight-end leaked back across the field. The old Mike Shanahan, YLeak, got it for like 25.

And they kicked out. And that's what 30 seconds left in the game. That's a big call right there. That's a ballsy call. I know. But it was, apparently, it was either going to be a quarterback sneaker, it was a check with me. And when they crowded the middle on the quarterback sneak, he checked it to that play.

And somebody was talking about on the NBC broadcast last night that Zimmer said they had practiced for that because they had the same check with me play last year on a fourth and inches, and they had practiced against covering the leaking tight end. But they didn't. Well, the backside corner almost got into it and could have. He looked at him and then he let him go. you're like just go run with them it'll kill it in a wild game uh the 49ers basically blew out the Detroit Lions for three and a half quarters and then nearly gave up a 41 to 17 lead let me let me

let everybody know it was 41 to 17 with two minutes to go in the game and Detroit ended up having the ball with a chance to tie at the end. And here's how it happened. Detroit scored with a minute 53 left to make it 41.23, went for two, got it, 41.25. They recovered an onside kick. They scored in 50 seconds, went for the two. It's 4133. They still had all three timeouts left. The 49ers up 4133 recovered the next onside kick. Recovered the next one side kick. Recovered the next one. And, and, and, and, and, and the, but they fumbled on third and 13, Garoppolo threw a pass to Debo Samuel. And he fumbled and Detroit recovered it.

And so they had the ball and they drove it to the 49 or 25 yard line was still 30 seconds left in the game down 41, 33. Now, the lions were a smell, that my smell test pro picks were Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago. I gave out Detroit plus seven and a half on Friday. If you played Detroit at any point after Friday, you got eight, eight and a half or nine. Most of you won with that wager. I'm not going to count it as a win in the smell test. Just like if it moves in my favor, I won't count. I'll count it if it wins.

But I had Detroit plus nine yesterday. So that was an incredible backdoor cover. that one. Lastly, Cooley, Matt Stafford was incredible in his debut last night. He was awesome. He was awesome. Yeah. That's a game changer for them. Yeah, I love the people that think because Matt Stafford didn't win playoff games in Detroit that that many wasn't a good quarterback and that we shouldn't try to trade for him. How good would we be with Matt Stafford? We would have... We would be much better. Much better.

He completed 20 passes for 321 yards. Also, the guy Daryl Henderson, who was the teammate of Antonio Gibson at Memphis, I actually like him a lot. He played really well for them. But did you watch the game last night or just highlights? Yeah. I know I watched a lot of the game last night. I thought Chicago looked good on offense.

I know they only scored 14 points, but they moved the football. And David Montgomery was outstanding for them. And I thought Dalton was pretty decent. I mean, they actually, again, week one being head fake, they play the Bengals at home in their home opener, and they worked Justin Fields into that game last night a couple of times. I actually thought that they looked so much better than in recent years on offense. We'll see if it holds up.

But the guy that you love, Cole Komet, the Titan from Notre Dame looks good. Marquise Goodwin looks good. Alan Robinson looks good. They're two backs. Montgomery and Damien Williams are really good. I, and, you know, Dalton's just a distributor. You know, he's not going to do a whole hell of a lot, but distribute the ball if you've got playmakers. They had issues on the offensive line.

They had to bring in Peters, Jason Peters, who ended up getting hurt late in training camp. But the 3414, it didn't cover. I had Chicago last. night in the smell test, but I certainly thought watching most of the game that they had a chance to cover it because they were moving the football. They just couldn't make it pay off with points. They had a deflected pass that got picked off in the end zone. They had a drive that ended on downs in Ram territory. They fumbled in Ram territory. And then they also went for a fourth down in Ram territory and missed it.

And then at the end, Dalton took a big sack on a fourth down in their territory. So they were moving the football. They just couldn't make it pay off. The Rams were super explosive. And that whole division with San Francisco, the Rams, Seattle and Arizona, man, explosive teams. Although the 49ers may have lost Mostert for a little while. They're running back. and they also lost their corner.

I never stay healthy. I know. Did we miss any games? The Seahawks beat the Colts. Wentz did start in that game. I had a big fumble on a fourth and one quarterback sneak that cost them. Yeah. Russell Wilson was outstanding in the game. Chris Carson really good in the game and D.K. Metcalf, outstanding.

The Panthers beat the Jets. The Panthers are one of my surprised playoff teams this year. I thought Sam Darnold looked really good, but it makes a big difference when Christian McCaffrey's in the lineup. 21 carries 98 yards, nine catches, 89 yards. I mean, that's 30 touches offensively for Christian McCaffrey. That's pretty smart if you've got him to get him 30 touches in a game. They win. And they did win.

And I thought the highlights anyway, Zach Wilson looked good late, apparently. Not so good early. And then the perceived worst team in the NFL with the worst situation in the NFL, the Houston Texans, they blew out the Jags in their opener, 37 to 21. Yeah, Tyrod Taylor. It was really bad. He threw three bad picks in that game. Bad picks in that game. It's early for him, very early.

Yeah. All right, ma'am. I appreciate it. All right, buddy. Well, it was fun. I got to go. Okay, go do your thing, and I'll talk to you later or tomorrow. Chris Cooley, everybody, will be, again, a part of the podcast.

We'll figure it out as we go, but he came up with a good idea to pick, like, one player or one segment of the game to do some film breakdown each week. This week might be tough because it's a short week, and we've got a game on Thursday, but hopefully we'll start that next week. All right, there is a Monday night game tonight to finish out week one of the NFL season, the Ravens and the Raiders. The Raiders are four-point underdog. against the Ravens, even though the Ravens have lost all of those players. First home game at Allegiance Stadium in Las Vegas. Remember, they played all of those home games last year without fans in their new stadium during the pandemic. If you want to bet the game, how about MyBooky at MyBooky.ag?

Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll instantly double your deposit. If you have a place where you're already betting, you should be looking at other places to comparison, on point spreads, pricing, et cetera. My bookie is fair, it's reliable, and they'll double your first deposit. I mean, they're giving away free money for you to play with. You've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens tonight at the Raiders is four-point favorites. By the way, the Sunday night game next week is Ravens Chiefs.

So some great football, obviously, with the Giants and skins on Thursday night as well. Go to my bookie at mybooky.orgie. promo code Kevin DC and they'll instantly double your deposit. As I'm looking here, as I'm about to wrap it up for the day, there is news. Ryan Fitzpatrick is headed to injured reserve with a hip injury, that according to ESPN's Adam Schaefter. There you go. A source telling Adam Schaefter that Ryan Fitzpatrick is headed to injured reserve.

with the hip injury. I don't know if that's season-ending injured reserve. I know there are now exceptions where you can bring players back when they go on the injured reserve. So that's my guess, but it's obviously a serious enough injury. And Taylor Heineke will be the starter. Kyle Allen will be the backup. So there it is. There's the news.

Ryan Fitzpatrick to injured reserve with the hip injury. All right, that's it for the day. enjoyed the football over the weekend. Tommy will be with me tomorrow.