The Kevin Sheehan Show - Nats Getting Close; Skins Not

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

Kevin opened with the Skins' "win" in Miami and the Nats 2-0 series lead over the Cardinals in the NLCS. He talked about the pregame reports yesterday about Dan Snyder targeting Mike Tomlin, went around the NFL's biggest games from yesterday, and talked Terps's loss and other college football. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. Three receivers out to the left, including the tight end. Durham Spice number 81. Matchups at the bottom of the spring. Preston Williams, Josh Norman. Quick to Drake, he dropped it. They wanted a quick throw, and Drake was going to run it in. But it drops. It's no good. And Washington. maintains the lead. Oh my God. They almost lost to the dolphins.

Are you serious? Oh, my goodness. Good day. Good evening. Good morning. Whenever you're listening to this. I'm here. Aaron's here.

We're going to do a lot of Nats. All right. We're going to do a lot of football, a lot of Redskins. There were big pregame reports yesterday about Mike Tomlin and then a count. counter report on Tomlin from Schefter. So we got a lot of that stuff to get to.

We got all the other NFL games to get to. Crazy weekend of sports. And by the way, really starting to get just difficult to figure out the NFL. And Aaron said that to me this morning as you walked in. He's like, I don't even know how you bet the NFL anymore. This isn't that new. It's this way every year. Once you think something, you've got something figured out,

especially in the first eight weeks of the season, just give it a week or two and it changes. It's a hard sport to bet, Aaron. Part of it is I've been killing it the past few years in the NFL. I've just been on a real heater in the NFL. I feel like this year's a little bit worse than usual. Usually, yeah, there's parity. There's teams that kind of come out of nowhere, teams that go on streak.

This year I think there's legitimately like three good teams, three bad teams, and the remaining 26 teams could do anything any week. I think that's basically the NFL every year. A couple of teams at the top, a couple of bottom feeders, and everybody else is basically, you know, somewhere between 6 and 10 and 10 and 6 based on how healthy they remain and how lucky they get or not get. I think that's the NFL every year. But to your point, just one quick thing before we get into the Redskins and to the Nats,

I mean, the Chiefs have dropped two games in a row and look mortal all of a sudden. By the way, they're not very good defensively again for the second straight year. The Cowboys have lost three games in a row and appear to be reeling with the Eagles coming into town. And the NFC East, which looked like, hey, you got two of the best five teams in the NFC, four teams in the NFC, and the Eagles and Cowboys, they're both 500 teams. Meantime, the 49ers are 5-0 and clearly the surprise of the NFL season, but there are other surprises like New Orleans without Breeze. One again, they're 5 in 1, and the Carolina Panthers, and I've mentioned this the last

couple of weeks, are a good football team. That may change in a couple of weeks, but right now they are a good football. football team, and they have won four games in a row, and their defense is good. And offensively, they've got an MVP candidate and Christian McCaffrey. And by the way, they've got a buy week, and then they get the 49ers on the road after the 49ers come here. It's crazy the league is every year. And, you know, you go from, I think the biggest thing really of the last few weeks is you go from the Kansas City Chiefs being a clear-cut co-favorite with the Patriots to get to the Super Bowl. to losing two games in a row, being a little bit banged up,

and both of those games, by the way, at Arrowhead, and all of a sudden looking very mortal. It's the NFL. By the way, I wanted to mention before I get into the Redskins, you know, a lot of you will say, you listen to the radio show, and you listen to this. But a lot of you have told me, and that's very interesting to me,

that you're just listening to this. And that's why, you know, the content differences that there are some from the radio show to this. Very often we'll have different guests here. Obviously, Tommy's on with me two days a week. That's a big difference from the radio show. Coolie's been coming on at least one day a week. That's a big difference from the radio show.

But on a day like today, when we've got Redskins recap and Nats, NLCS recap to do, some of it's going to sound repetitive. And understand that, you know, for a lot of people listening, it's not repetitive because they did not listen to the radio show. Our numbers, by the way, if you were curious, they're off a little bit, but not by a whole lot. I think I was expecting when I went back to radio that a lot of people would basically do away with the podcast since I was available on local radio for three hours, but a lot of you are hanging in there. The numbers

haven't dropped that much at all, and I appreciate that a lot. By the way, we have an app now available. You can listen to the podcast on an app. We just finished with the app. It's out there in the Apple store on your iPhone. It's in the it's if you've got an Android, it's available through Google Play. Also, when you listen to the app, always helps us if you can rate it and review it with five stars preferably. That really helps and mentioned to other people that the app is out there. It's just another and easier way to have it right on your phone, download it from the app store, the Kevin Sheehan Show. It's right there in the app store and listen to it via the app. if that makes it easier for you.

And again, if you do rate us and review us, that really helps as well. Where reviews are available and rating it is available. All right, let's get to the Redskins. I promise we're going to get to the Nats here shortly. But that really was a very weird feeling at the end of that game, because I'm going to be totally candid with you up front. I did not want the Redskins to win the game there at the end. I was hoping that Miami would make the two-point conversion,

call it a gallows humor sort of situation on one hand, because really, let's be fair here. I mean, they were falling apart in the fourth quarter against the Dolphins, a team that had allowed coming in 41 points against, and they were only scoring six points four. People were annihilating the Dolphins by an average of 41 to 6 coming into this game, And there they are with old man Fitzpatrick at the helm in the fourth quarter, making the defense look really silly.

It was about to be one of the all-time shit show endings for this organization. And I was sort of in a very morbid curiosity way rooting for it. But I was also, as I've been, I'm like, this season's going nowhere. And now that you actually have a chance to lose to the dolphins, which seemed really improbable going. in, considering how openly they're trying to tank. This is a team, as I mentioned on Friday, that is organizationally trying to lose more than any team in NFL history has tried to lose. That is an organizational mantra. We do not want to give up the first pick in the draft. We want

to be at the top of the draft board next year. And by the way, we're going to do everything we can to ensure that that happens. Trading away key players. Sitting key players. Sitting key players. Their best player yesterday, their corner Howard, practiced all week with a sore knee and then was scratched right before the game, was put on the inactive list. That is, by the way, subtle tanking, as was the two-point conversion. Anybody else think that they weren't trying to make that two-point conversion, that they weren't trying to win the game at the end? Let me explain to you, Aaron. first of all, you know, subtle tanking is when you are fake punting in a spot where, you know, it's like you don't really care if it doesn't go right.

You're kicking on sides kicks. One of them they had to kick there at the end. The other one, you know, trying to catch them off guard. Hey, it's a high risk play, a very, very low probability play, but who cares? And then to run, to choose not to go to overtime, which let's be clear here, the better odds play for them in that spot with all of the momentum was to kick, go to overtime, and have a chance to win in overtime versus taking a less than 50-50 play. And then, by the way, running that play on a high-risk sort of schemed up play with the player that hadn't practiced it. Let me explain.

After the game, I was listening to some of the Miami stuff. That two-point conversion play was in the playbook. All week long, they had practiced that two-point conversion play with Mark Walton Jr. is the running back in that spot. Well, he had a really good game yesterday. He's a good back, by the way. Portis told me, I know he's a University of Miami guy. Portis told me three years ago, he goes, this guy's going to, if somebody gives him a chance and it's the right scheme, he'll be a good back. And he actually looked pretty good yesterday. But they practiced all week with Walton, Jr. And then very conveniently, they ran it with Kenyon Drake in the game. And Drake said I hadn't, been a part of the practicing of that play, I just did the best I could. That is when you are

subtly, you're not openly tanking, but you are taking the longer odds, you're making the longer odds choices. All right? I don't think the general manager or the owner called down and said, what are you guys doing? I mean, that's really cool what Fitzpatrick did. I just didn't think the Redskins were that bad, but please don't make this two-point conversion because they're not going to win another game and all of a sudden we're going to look back at this October game and say, my God, all we had to do was miss the two-point conversion to get the top pick. I don't think that anybody made that call, but I do think that organizationally, they do not want to win games. Now, it's hard to keep your players from not playing hard. They're out there trying to put

their best product on tape. They may not be here next year. They want other teams to look at them and say, hey, that guy's pretty good. So they're out there trying, their players are trying, but they didn't start their best player. They had him inactive. And then they took a lot of high risk chances, low probability chances, including that two-point conversion play, which was a joke.

But there's no doubt. If the Redskins had gone in yesterday, Aaron, and won the game, you know, 45 to 10, and it was like, whoa, they really, they dominated that team just like everybody else had. They did what everybody else did. You know, then I'd be like, okay, let's see what happens again.

against the Niners. Who knows? Maybe they can get back to the Alex Smith formula last year, running the football, stopping the run, you know, trying to put the quarterback into a position where he really doesn't hurt you or can't hurt you. And, you know, maybe they'll, you know, San Francisco off a big win, coming in for a one o'clock kick, you know, East Coast time, early a.m. West Coast time. Maybe they'll be ripe for the taking. You get that one. Then it's a short week against Minnesota. I mean, come on. And oh, by the way, the NFC, East is falling apart. There are only two, I mean, many of you sent this to me,

we're only two games out of first after yesterday. Come on, guys. Seriously. They beat Miami, 17 to 16, and needed Miami to essentially take the lowest probability, make the lowest probability choices at the end to hang on for the win. By the way, did you hear what Smoot called it, Aaron? The two-point conversion?

I didn't. He called it two, For Tua. Yep, pretty much. Pretty good. Pretty good, Smoot. Fred was in jail last week for some traffic violation? Yeah.

I think he is really good as a guest and really good on radio. Anyway, two for two. He basically felt the same way. Like, what are you doing? That is not a real two point play. That's a low probability two point play. Anyway, I'll get back to the Redskins and I'll give you my game take. here momentarily. But I wanted to skip to the Nats real quickly because the best part of this

past weekend was Friday night and Saturday, late afternoon, and into the evening. The Nats went into St. Louis and in less than 24 hours produced two games that were epic. They were historic in terms of the pitching result. Two back-to-back postseason games where the starting pitchers went more than six innings with no-hitter's intact. Annabelle Sanchez on Friday took a no-hitter into the 8th. Max Scherzer in game two on Saturday took a no-hitter into the seventh. That had never happened in the history of postseason baseball. Never. And I was thinking it was like, it was already so good that the Nats were in the National League Championship Series. It was already so good that they were in St. Louis with chances to win games one and two.

But then on top of it, boy, did you hear my voice just peeked there? On top of it, they had a chance for two no-hitters. It was almost too much to handle. It was so, so cool to watch, both of those games. First of all, the Friday night game. It was one of, as a sports fan, there are a lot of things I enjoy and I get pumped up about. And Friday night's one of those situations, and I'll explain why.

You had a guy in Annabel Sanchez who was working pitching speeds between like the low 60s and somewhere around 90 miles per hour. He wasn't overpowering anybody. He was clever. He was crafty. It was the kind of performance that I have always enjoyed watching. The brain performance over the physical performance. The pitcher, by the way, that the Cardinals were sure they could beat because they had to, because it was Max and Strasbourg and Corbyn that were coming after Annabelle Sanchez.

But Sanchez was so fascinating watching him work Friday night. He had this look that to me is really cool to watch. It's one of those moments in sports for me that I've always appreciated. A guy who is, he's been there, done that. You know, over the long course of a long career, and I said this on radio this morning, it's experience manifesting itself into supreme confidence. And it's so beautiful to watch. He knew it that night. First of all, there was cold weather. You know, the ball wasn't going to fly very much. It was a lineup that wasn't filled with big hitters and big bangers. He had pitched well,

in his previous performance in the in the dodger series and no one was really expecting a whole lot from him on friday night but he knew you know he's mixing and matching pitches with speed and different looks and and the different speeds it was fascinating to see him go one pitch 63 miles per hour and the next one at 88 they couldn't figure him out they could not figure this dude out he was completely bamboozling them you know with, by the way, nothing that was really easy to see or pinpoint. It was inside of him. It was his creativity.

It was his brain. It was his level of know-how that the Cardinals had no chance against. But they didn't really recognize it as it was happening against him, even after the game. And I found this quote from Tommy Edmund. Edmund said about Sanchez on Friday night. He said, quote, he was good. He was just hitting his spots. keeping us off balance, off balance all night.

We just really didn't execute our plan very well, close quote. As if to say it was more on them than it was about what he did. He baffled them all night long. I love a performance like that. I love an older, experienced guy who's not doing it with physical, you know, talent. He's doing it with so much more. That was fun to watch. And then comes Saturday.

the opposite of Friday night. Scherzer's a freaking animal. He's a bulldog. No sneaking up on the Cardinals, Max Scher like Sanchez did. He's right there in your face intimidating you with an overpowering array of pitches. After a few innings of that game, it didn't seem to me like the Cardinals had a chance to put a ball in play, let alone get a base hit. He was dominant. And by the way, when Goldschmidt got the lead off single in the seventh. That may not have been a hit in a regular season game. Soto probably doesn't play it as conservatively as he did in left field in a regular season game. Or if the game wasn't quite as close. Or if they've got a five-nothing lead. It's a one-nothing game. You know, he can't go after it so hard because if it gets by him, Goldschmidt's off to the races and now that one-nothing

leads in Big Jeopardy. You know, he finished the seventh, left the game with a one-hitter in 11 strikeouts. It was a man against boys. Overwhelming performance. The best for him in any postseason start that he's had for the nationals. By the way, when he was pulled for Matt Adams in the 8th, you know, I sat there and I wondered, I'm like, you know, he's got a one hitter. They cannot hit him. He's only at 101 pitches. I know it's a one-nothing lead. But when Taylor got out to lead off the 8th, I thought there was a chance, but, you know, Matt Adams was already up. And at that point, I was not questioning Davy Martinez. He's done no wrong in this postseason.

Everything he's touched turned to gold. You know, I did think for a moment, I'm like, could this be the Jock Peterson, you know, moment from Game 5 in 2016? You know, he gives up one single. Wasn't a home run. The Peterson thing was a home run. The thing about it that I found interesting is that Churzer was not, you know, adamant about him being left in the game.

like he wasn't in game 5 in 2016. He didn't have a problem with Dusty pulling him in 2016, and he didn't have a problem there. And look, that was a different case the other night than it was in game five against the Dodgers. It was a home run. And this is a one-nothing game. That was a one-nothing game at the time, too, that became 1-1.

And I know that Davey was like, I got to take him out before it's too late. Just with that bullpen this year, you know, you just wondered. But anyway. They're not using the bullpen, though. Well, they use Corbin for one for one. Right, they're using Corbyn. They're using Doolittle. They're using Hutz. Well, Doolittle is still part of the, the, no, I know, I know, but they're not using

anybody outside of Doolittle and Hudson. Although they did, they did at times have, um, Raney, well, Raney pitched in game one. And they had, you know, Raney up a couple of times there. You know, who knows? Like, Raney was up in game one, but he was up in game one, didn't pitch game one, my fault. He was up. He pitched in game five against the Dodgers. Yes. But he was up.

In fact, it was very. very interesting with Sanchez, you know, in the midst of a no-hitter, how many times you got a shot of the bullpen and the gnats have people warming up, you know, for a guy that's got a no-no going. But anyway, two spectacular all-time pitching performances. And now it's Strasbourg's turn tonight. Like, if you're the Cardinals and you dealt with what you had to deal with on Friday and Saturday at home, and now you've got to deal with Strasbourg on the road, you know, it looks like a long shot. You know, the Nats, you know, I said this on the radio this morning, and I did a call segment

on it on the radio this morning, that, you know, typically you wait until, in a Best of 7, you wait until somebody has a 3-0 series lead to use the description in command, like the Nats are in command up 3-0 in this series. I sort of feel like they're in command right now up to nothing. That's what it feels like to me. Sure. I mean 100% there, you're in a man. Like, I think that...

Not trying to jinx it. No, no, no. Not trying to jinx it right now, but you could... I'm not going to say feel it, but as that game two progressed, you almost felt the life kind of drain out of the Cardinals. Yeah, I mean, that, again, I don't want to jinx it. I understand it's baseball. I understand that the Nats were not an offensive juggernaut in St. Louis, by the way.

I mean, Michaelis and Wainwright pitched great. Yep. Like in any other situation. they deserved at least one out of those two games, if not both of them. But the Natsbats, we know can go silent. We've seen it at times. There's just a feeling I have in watching them, that we are watching a team that doesn't think they're going to lose,

and why would they? They are 80 and 40 over the last four and a half months. Since that infamous now 19 and 31 on May 23rd, they're 80 and 40. I mean, they don't think they're going to lose right now. And why would they? It doesn't happen very much. It's hard not to start thinking about a World Series in Washington, D.C.

And I talked about this too on the radio show, and part of what sort of made me think about this was reading Boswell over the weekend, who's so excited about this, and I can really feel his excitement over, you know, the Nats having a chance to get to the World Series, because for many Washingtonians, Now, Boz is older than I am, but for many of us of a certain age, this is a dream come true. You know, a lot of you don't know this about me because football and basketball, they're my two first, they're my first, basketball is probably my first love. I love football too.

I mean, the two of them are, for me, you know, they're top shelf, and then you go down to the next shelf, and it's not that far below. I love baseball. I played baseball, and I loved it as a kid. I am just barely old enough to remember the Washington senators, and my father are taking me to send me to Senators games right before they left town in 1971. You know, I remember Denny McLean getting traded to the senators, and my father took me to his first pitching performance at RFK Stadium. And they left, and then for 34 years, there was no baseball here.

I was, Aaron, I had massive baseball card collections. I had football card collections, but I had baseball card collections. Football cards weren't. They were big if you were into football, but baseball cards were the thing. And I had senators' cards that, oh, God, my mother gets upset every time I mention this because she denies that this actually happened. So if you're listening, just turn it off right now, Mother, and jump ahead 15 seconds. You can hit that fast word. In sort of a garage sale when we sold our house way back when she sold my baseball card collection.

Didn't know it. She sold my baseball. And there were cards in there that would probably be very valuable today. She sold my beer can collection, too. I collected beer cans as a kid in junior high. But anyway, we called it junior high back then, not middle school. Right. But, you know, for many of us, you know, 34 years without a team, which, by the way, when you just think about it,

it was ridiculous while it was happening, it seems even more ridiculous today. That cities like Phoenix, Denver, Miami, and Seattle got teams before this city. did. You know, we had baseball in Washington was a tradition. You know, presidents throwing out first balls on opening day from 1901 to 1971. It was a staple. Baseball in Washington. American League, all right? And then 34 years without baseball with smaller cities getting baseball with no baseball history in those cities. If the Nats make the World Series, there won't be the same discussion about how long long it's been that there was with the Cubs or the Red Sox or the Indians or whatever in recent years. But the World Series drought for the nationals for a Washington professional baseball team.

They have not played in a World Series since 1933. That's 86 years ago. Somebody, you miss this on Friday. I forget if I mentioned it on the podcast, but a caller to the radio show on Friday reminded me of something and then said something. He reminded reminded me that throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s during Redskin games, there would be huge banners and huge signs during Redskin games, bring baseball back to the nation's capital, bring baseball back to D.C. And there were, you know, if it was 1984, bring baseball back in 1984. And there was always a push to get baseball back. Initially, it was, you know, are the Padre's going to move here? That was the possibility. And there were other teams they were possibly going

to move. And then expansion possibility, all of that, before finally getting the Expos to move here in 2005. But somebody called in the other day and said, wouldn't it be really funny if tonight at the Nationals game, there was a big banner that said, bring football back to the nation's capital. That would be funny. That would be pretty good.

But anyway, after spending basically a lifetime without baseball in October, meaning anything personally, it means a whole lot now. And it's going to be really fun the next three, maybe only two nights. But they've got a chance here over the next three days to clinch a spot in the World Series for the first time since 1933, something that never seemed possible growing up in this city. And even living it as an adult for most of those years, I was an adult, you know, of not having baseball. But anyway, tonight, by the way, Jack Flaherty, who has been the best pitcher in the major league since the All-Star break. He's got a 0.91 ERA in 15 starts since the All-Star break. He's gone seven and two.

It's the third best post-all-star break ERA in baseball history behind only Jake Arietta in 2015 and Greg Maddox in 1994. By the way, he had 16 strikeouts and 13 innings pitched against the Braves in the NLDS. Anyway, he's here tonight and the Nats pitch Strasbourg, who's been their best postseason pitcher, although now Sanchez and Scherzer after those performances, incredible. There were some really good performances, by the way, over the weekend. The performance by Gomes in game one,

the Eaton, you know, a big hit and big catch in game two. Zimmerman's catch to preserve the no-hitter, you know, on Friday night, the Doolittle four-out save, which came because Daniel Hudson was on paternity leave, Oh, God, all that nonsense from some of the national sports writers. Well, you might get some of the same nonsense from me right now. You think so?

Yeah, perhaps. I don't know your position on that. I will just tell you that what's your position? My position is that to say that basically you're a bad teammate and a bad person for going to see your child being born is ridiculous. Right. Okay, so it's not that we're on opposite sides. I wouldn't.

Someone like basically literally wrote that. Oh, he's not a bad person for doing that. No. Here's the thing. So my position in the past has always been, you know, when you have a unique job and you're a highly compensated specialist and the livelihoods of many people that you work with and work for depend on your performance and you being available, that it would be really hard to leave that situation. in a critical moment. Like we're probably heading towards, you know, an NFC championship game or even a Super Bowl where the starting quarterback says, sorry, my wife's delivering, I'm out.

And it'll get much more attention then. So my position has always been, that wouldn't be my choice. My choice if I were in that position as a highly compensated specialist where livelihoods depend on me being available, I sort of have always had the feeling. that being there for the kids' entire life is much more important than being there on that night. And by the way, I am doing it for my family by showing up to work and getting highly compensated so that my family never has to worry about money again for the rest of their lives. But anyway, I want to get to this.

That's not what the conversation was about the other day. The conversation was not about whether, and a lot of you had at it with me on Twitter because you know my position previously, and there were other people involved that I guess feel the same way. I think Zabe is one of them. I haven't heard his position, but you guys tweeted to Zabe and I that we have the same position on this.

The irony of this particular situation is that it wasn't a debate about him missing the child, the birth of a child for a game. He was there for the birth of his child. And according to reports, the mother and child were fine, and then he had plenty of time to spend with them and get to the game on Friday night.

This was not a debate that we've had before about choosing to be there with your wife and your child that's being born versus being at the game. He chose to be with his family, which he was, and then he had a chance to make the choice to also be at the game Friday night and he chose not to. So let's not make this into a debate as to whether or not he was choosing team and employment situation over being there for the birth of his child. He was there for the birth of his child. This was a different situation than the one that's been discussed in the past. He was there for the birth of his child and also had a chance once all was well with mother and child to also be there for the game for Friday night and he chose not to be. you can feel the way you want to feel and everybody's entitled to their own perspective on this

I would just say it's really important for those of you that are absolutely you're absolutists and you're like it's always family over job to also be open-minded to the other side and this is the one conclusion I've come to in the past on this thing that I think is again my perspective It's not everybody's perspective, but it's mine.

I really think that most people who are against this and who say, oh, this is ridiculous. And Aaron, you're one of them. But again, we're not having a debate as to whether or not he missed the birth of his child. This is different. But I have found in the past that many people who are against this are people, and no offense intended to you or anybody else, are people who haven't been highly compensated in a job before for a lot more responsibility, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not being condescending here. There are plenty of people that prefer the lifestyle of 9 to 5, 17 floating

holidays, three weeks of vacation, two weeks of vacation, lots of paternity leave, etc. There's nothing wrong with that. And then there are people out there, all right, and many of you who listen to this podcast are these kinds of people. I know that. all right that are highly compensated and you have a lot more responsibility and accountability to the others in your organization because if you are not there it impacts their lives as well and you understand what i'm saying is it relates to daniel hudson and some of you don't my i can just tell you this i would never for a radio show in this radio career that i have i would never miss the birth of my child to be on radio. Okay? It's not the job that I just described. Me being here,

now there are people whose livelihoods do are sort of tied to the performance of the radio shows that we do. All right, I understand that, but it's not so tied to it. But I can tell you this, in a previous life, when I wasn't on radio and I was more in entrepreneurial businesses, some of which did well, some of which did not, there were instances where I had to choose employment over family. But I was choosing employment over family because I had family first in mind, because there was too much at stake financially for me not to be in a certain place at a certain time that would have impacted my family in a negative way had I not been there. And my family and my wife understood that. I had to commute for a year and a half from Monday,

through Friday, with my kids being very young to Boston up Monday back on Friday because the opportunity was too huge to turn down. It was too big of an opportunity for me to turn it down. I hated it. I hated being away from my kids four days a week when they were young for a year, almost a year and a half. But people make those decisions all the time. I know a lot of people in my life that are forced to make those decisions and do so with their family first in mind. All right. Not everybody can, not everybody agrees with that. Some people would say, forget the compensation upside.

Forget all of the stock or the equity opportunity or the options opportunity you have in a company that may be on the verge of going public. You know, forget about that. That doesn't mean anything. Your family means more. Being there for them. Again, everybody's entitled. to their own opinion. But back to the Hudson thing, just netting it out, the dumb part of the

conversation on Friday was that so many were trying to make it a conversation about him choosing family over team like it was a no-brainer. That's fine. But that was not the choice Friday. He was there for the birth of his child, and he could have also been there for his team. He could have done both, and he chose not to. But you know what? Doolittle got a four-out safe. Good for him, and it didn't hurt the Nats at all. And I'm so thrilled, by the way, for Daniel and his wife and their third child, who apparently, according to all the reports, everybody's healthy, everybody's doing well. And I was glad to see him back in the bullpen on Saturday, even though he claimed to have been physically exhausted. Let me tell you who's more

physically exhausted by the birth of a child, the mother. All right, just so everybody knows. Anyway, let's get to the game take here in a moment from yesterday's Redskins game, right after I tell you about mybooky.ag. Mybooky.orgie.ag is a reliable gambling website. If you've been looking for a place to wager, guys, mybooky.orgie.orgie.g is a great option. It's just as important who you're betting with as who you're betting on. You want to be sure that you're getting fast payouts. You want to make sure you're getting good lines.

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times 10. Hopefully that happens. MyBooky.orgie.ag, you play, you win, you get paid. All right, let's get to the Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right. As we get back to Redskins, Dolphins, 17, 16.

There were some things I liked, I guess. I mean, you sort of have to preface this with they were playing the dolphins. But I do like Adrian Peterson a lot. I really do. I've mentioned him multiple times, you know, going back to last year. He's just a competitive badass, and I love that about him. You know, I don't know anything about Adrian Peterson, the person. There's been obviously a lot that's gone on personally with him, you know, over the years. On the field, he is a Hall of Famer and is still playing at a high level.

I mentioned last week, Aaron, remember that interception by Nicholson? where they start at the one-yard line. It should have come out to the 20, and they gave it to Adrian Peterson, and he was stopped in the end zone for what should have been a safety, and somehow he carried like five people out to the three-yard line. He's just still really good and really effective.

You know what? I mean, obviously it's against the dolphins. I understand that. I just love the way he competes. I love how hard he runs. I've pointed to the game last year against Tennessee multiple times as a game in which, you know, there are few of them, you know, each year where you get a team that's battling for a playoff spot and they have to win a game as an underdog, like the Redskins were Tennessee on a Saturday in late December last year.

And they're not very good as a team. And Adrian Peterson basically just put him, put the team on his back and tried to will them to a victory with Josh Johnson a quarterback. He went for 120 yards on the day, you know, and just was, was. incredible that day. He was really good yesterday. I just like him a lot. By the way, they ran a lot of multiple tight-in sets, if you notice that. That was one of the things that, you know, old Bill Callahan said he was going to do, run the ball. By the way, as a quick aside, on Friday, or actually on Wednesday or Thursday on the podcast, you know, we talked about the press conference that

Callahan had on Wednesday where, you know, he was taking subtle shots at Jay. The whole organization was taking subtle shots at Jay Gruden all week. And Callahan started off by saying, I'm not real big into talking about injuries. Remember that, Aaron, from the press conference the other day? Real subtle shot at Jay. You know, I just don't think it makes much sense to sit here and talk about injuries on a Wednesday,

and it's not my thing. Because, by the way, Jay Gruden started every press conference off with listing all the injuries. A lot of coaches do, by the way. But Cooley on the podcast, Friday, if you were listening, said, he was funny. He said, you know, it's really funny and ironic that Callahan would say, I don't like to talk about injuries, and that's what the other guy did, you know, basically implying that it's dumb to tell everybody in your competition about all the injuries when you don't have to. And then he proceeded, as coolly said on Friday, to tell you the game plan for Sunday, which is we're going to run the football.

You know, that was pretty funny. I liked Adrian Peterson a lot yesterday. Again, all of this is with the caveat of it was against the dolphins. Terry McLaren, dolphins or no dolphins, he's really good. The Redskins found something in Terry McLaren. I mean, I think we would all agree with that. He has incredible route running ability. He's got a big burst in great speed.

He separates. I mean, think about how many times this year Terry McLaurin's been wide open. You know, going back to the Philadelphia opener. He had in the game yesterday, four catches, 100 yards, two more touchdowns. You know, Terry McLaren is a top five candidate right now for offensive rookie of the year. I'm not kidding about that. Kyler Murray, Gardner Minshew, Daniel Jones, Terry McLaren. That's the list right now.

Maybe the guy from Oakland, the running back, Jacobs. McLaren's on that list right now for offensive. rookie of the year. He's really good. Even if he did it against the dolphins, he's been good against other teams. I think a bunch of defensive players actually played well yesterday. Again, they're facing a truly dreadful offensive football team, especially with Josh Rosen in the game. And by the way, I like Josh Rosen. I've liked him. Not with that team, not yesterday. I'll grant you that. But there's something about Rosen that I've liked going back to UCLA. It may not work out for him.

You know what? Here's the deal on most of these first round quarterbacks. It doesn't work out for most of them. The majority of them aren't good in the NFL. I thought there were players that played well on defense yesterday. I thought Collins played well. I thought Bostic looked good. I thought Allen was exceptional, John Allen.

Dunbar, how about Dunbar? Like, he's actually a good cornerback. The guy Trayvon Hester, who you didn't, know who that was before yesterday, number 96, played well. I thought Ryan Anderson before he got hurt played well. That was a terrible, terrible, roughing the passer penalty called on him. Pain, Ionitis, Sean Dionne Hamilton had a nice day. It was the best day of the season defensively. But again, you've got to consider the competition. Miami was an awful all-around team coming into the game. They were 31st overall in offense, dead last in rush offense. And the truth is they actually

ran it pretty well against the Redskins at times. Walton and Drake combined for 72 yards on 16 carries. That's um, 164, 64, 8, that's 4.5 yards per carry. 72 yards on 16 carries. The defense had five sacks. Early down sacks, too. A couple of them were first in 10 sacks.

They held Miami to three for 14 on third down. So the historically bad third down numbers through the first four games have improved here over the last two weeks. They have. Right now, the Redskins on third down defensively, after the last two weeks of decent performances, are giving up 50.6% on third down. That's still god-awful, but it's now up to 31st. Atlanta's giving up 56% on third down right now. So the Redskins are 31st in third down defense. An improvement, and they were really good yesterday.

By the way, doesn't that tell you just how bad it's been over the first five weeks that the dolphins went three for 14 yesterday, and the skins are still only 31st on third down defense? So the defense had some good performers. Look, I don't know what their talent is. I don't know that it's great talent. It probably isn't great talent, but they do have good talent. John Allen's talented. Landon Collins is talented.

Pain and Ionitis are pretty good. I think this guy Holcomb looks like a talent. Dunbar's pretty good. Is it a good defense with this decent talent? Not from a production standpoint. You know, yesterday through three quarters against a horrible quarterback team and a horrible offensive team, it looked good. but then Ryan Fitzpatrick came in and made it look not so good.

I don't know what they are defensively as a team. I think they're not great. I don't think they've got a great coaching situation defensively. And I think their talent is good, not elite. And they certainly don't have a game changer. You know, they don't have a Khalil Mack. They don't have a Von Miller. I thought Montez Sweat was a little bit better.

I think he's getting more comfortable. He's a hope. He's one of my hopes anyway for the future on defense. Also in the things I liked list, I think Jeremy Sprinkle's pretty good. Does anybody else feel that way? He can block. He had a really good catch on a Case Keenham throw that was typical of a lot of the throws which were inaccurate.

I don't know, I like Sprinkle. I think he's a player. What else did I have on this list? Tressway, wasn't his best day, but I'll just keep him on this list. I thought Kevin O'Connell, in his first day of calling plays, did a pretty decent job of keeping Miami a little bit off balance. All right, the things that I didn't like. Case Keenham's not a very good quarterback.

I hope you all realize that at this point. It's not that he's terrible, and he's a competitor, and he tries hard, and he makes plays, and he can make some throws. You know, he made some good throws to McLaren, two touchdown passes, and then, by the way, McCloren should have pulled in. I didn't mention this when I was mentioning Terry McLaren.

He had a drop on a play that probably would have been a 50-yard play. You know, he had so much work. room to catch and run with it. But Keenham's just so inaccurate. I mean, we've seen this going back to the Philadelphia game, and he misses, you know, wide open guys. And the third down throws to Quinn twice, and I think Paul Richardson on another occasion, where they were easy pitch and catch move the chain throws, and he overthrows him by like six feet. He nearly threw an absolute horrible interception under pressure there late in the fourth quarter when he's running backwards, and running around near the goal line,

and then he just chucked it in the general direction of two Miami defensive players. Keenham's, I just don't, I'm clearly missing something on the not playing Haskins thing. Are you going to tell me that Haskins couldn't have done what Keenham could have done yesterday? Are you going to tell me that Haskins, Aaron, couldn't do what Duck Hodges is doing in Pittsburgh?

Do you know who Duck Hodges is, people? he's the third string quarterback in Pittsburgh who was an undrafted quarterback out of Samford University. Not Stanford. Not Stanford. Sam Ford. Devlin Hodges, look them up. 15 of 20 for 13-12 yards in Los Angeles last night. They ran the ball well, which is what the Redskins did against the Dolphins. And he now, as a starter, is 1-0 as an undrafted 3rd.

string rookie quarterback. He's playing, you're going to tell me Haskins can't play. We're getting week by week. We're getting very close to the point. By the way, old man Callahan already said Case Keenham's going to start against the 49ers. Of course he is because they don't think their season's over. They think they're going to get back into this thing. We're going to hear in a couple of weeks get to the point where we will all know definitively that if he's not in there as the quarterback, they overdrafted him. Period. End of discussion. And by the way, over drafted him by a lot because other quarterbacks are getting opportunities that weren't drafted. Now, some of them because of injury, like Hodges, like Minshue, okay? Allen. Allen with Cam Newton, which that whole

situation is weird right now. I don't know that if Cam Newton wants to play that they'd even give him his starting job back. I'd say right now, Kyle Allen's a better quarterback. From what we've seen for the past two years from Cam Newton, and you can say injuries or whatever, I don't know if there's a such thing as a healthy Cam Newton anymore. And I don't know that Kyle Allen isn't better. Now, Allen was good yesterday. He had a bunch of picks last week. Yes. Their defense is what's really leading them right now and McCaffrey. But Kyle Allen is running. their offense. I'm sure the way North Turner really wants to run the offense. These Panthers played the same bucks a few weeks ago, and the offenses look

drastically different. Anyway, Case Keenham isn't very good. Haskins should be playing. My God, yesterday was the perfect opportunity to play him against that team. Although they did defensively throw a lot of those what they call amoeba looks. Like they're jumping around at the line of scrimmage pre-snap. It's some of the similar stuff that Flores obviously learned from Belichick. But anyway, on the list of things I didn't like, the penalties, you know, all the wind sprints and the turning the music off was supposed to lead to more accountability and

discipline. And they had five first half penalties that killed them, a bunch of them on special teams. And then there was this on the list of things I didn't like. Bill Callahan, he doesn't know anything about managing a clock, that's for sure. He didn't learn, he learned or he chose not. to learn from Jay Gruden not knowing how to do this and figuring it out on his own. What they did at the end of the first half was embarrassing. Embarrassing. An 0-and-5 team against the dolphins approaching midfield to let the clock run out and to go to halftime with a time out in your pocket,

that's an embarrassment. And I can't, you know, I always have a hard time figuring out, was that really what he wanted to do or is he just totally clueless on how to manage the clock? I bet it's the ladder. He said afterwards, we wanted to play it conservatively, except for the fact that they were throwing the ball there at the end. Just to be clear here, the Redskins had a 7-0 lead when Miami was stopped on a third down near the end of the first half. And the Redskins had a timeout left, and they chose not to take it. And that would have been with about a minute 47 left, and instead the field goal went through with a minute seven left. So basically they burned 38 to 40 seconds roughly.

I think it was 38. I think it was a minute 45 when the play before it ended. I can't remember exactly. Bottom line is he should have taken the time out of defense after they stopped Miami on 3rd and 11 at the Redskin 27 yard line and it was fourth and six because he knew Miami was going to kick a field goal and it would have given the offense a minute 40 after the kickoff to try to go get more points before the end.

of the half, but he didn't do that. He let the clock run. They kicked the field goal. There was a minute seven left at the end of the field goal. They started at their own 25 with a timeout left in a minute seven. Still plenty of time. They gave the ball to Thompson for no game. And then Miami called a timeout, okay? Miami decides we want to get the ball back, which is they're an 0 and 4 team.

They're trying to play it aggressively. and our guy, old man Bill, he's over there as dottering around like, we're going to play conservatively, he said in the post game. No, that's not what really happened. What really happened is you didn't know how to take a time out to give your team a chance to score. Aaron, I've asked you this question before, and I've asked Greg this question many times. If you're trying to score at the end of the half or the end of a game, is it better to have more time or less time?

I believe it's more time. I think it is too. Good answer. Bill didn't understand that. And then he throws a pass to Peterson. All right, Peterson gets knocked out of bounds. All right? And he's already let the clock after the Keenham scramble get down to 21. Now there's 14 seconds left from their own 39, and he throws another pass.

You're at the 39-yard line. It's two completions for field goal range, one completion maybe. And on the next play from their own 39, with a timeout left in 10 seconds, he runs Chris Thompson for four yards and lets the clock run out. You talk about Loserville. That is just absolutely something that cannot be explained. Here's the one explanation. Here's the one.

He saw Ryan Fitzpatrick over there warming up on the sideline, and he didn't want to give Ryan Fitzpatrick a chance with the ball at the end of the first half, because he knew that Fitzpatrick would light up the defense. That's obviously not the answer. I'm just coming up with something that he could have said, but no, he said we played it conservatively. Seven to three, they go to the half. And by the way, Miami got the ball first to start the second half.

That's loser football, people. Luser situational football. That's how you get your ass beat in a game that matters if they ever have one, you know, a few years down the road. What else didn't I like? I thought his decision to kick the 55-yard field goal was stupid. I mean, he's playing it conservatively at the end of the half. And then up 14 with Miami having no chance to do anything offensively.

He gives him a spark by trotting Hopkins out there to kick a 55-yarder and give him field position. And with that, Brian Flores said, hey, Fitzpatrick, get into the game. And then we had a ball game. touchdown 1710 and then touchdown at the end before the two-point conversion. A couple of other things real quickly from the game. It's part of the game take, I guess. How about the sign flying over the stadium before the game? Help Skins fans fire Bruce Allen.

I wonder if he saw that. Oh, he definitely saw it at some point. If he didn't see it live, he saw the pictures. He had to. It was everywhere. Probably. And then did you notice watching the game, Montes Sweat has an Old Spice commercial? I missed that one.

Good for him. Yeah. No more sweat with Old Spice. Hey, it works perfectly, yeah. By the way, one other thing from over the weekend, Jordan Reed placed on injured reserve. If you miss that, it's sad, actually, and I just wish the best for him. He's destined now to be remembered by Redskin fans as an extraordinary. extraordinary talent that sort of went

unrealized for the most part. He had terrific moments in 2015 and 2016, but the injuries just shortened what should have been a prolific career. He really was an uncheckable pass catching tight end in those years.

I hope he's okay. I really, really do. All right. Wanted to mention that if you're listening to us on iTunes or Apple podcasts to rate us in view us please. And that would really help. And also subscribe. Subscribe. That helps us as well. And as I mentioned at the top of the show, you can download our app now as well. Before we get to

the rest of the NFL, I wanted to mention real quickly the two stories that came out pregame yesterday. We had stories from Jason Lockenforah, who reported that the Redskins, his sources say that Dan Snyder is going to go after Mike Tomlin when this season is over, that he's got a really good relationship with Tomlin. Dino Tomlin, Mike Tomlin's son, is at Maryland as a football player. He's a freshman at Maryland, has one catch on the year. I actually believe that I saw him at the Maryland Penn State game from a long distance away. I said to my friend, I think that's Mike Tomlin walking in that direction. And they had a Monday night game that week against the Bengals and his son plays for Maryland. I probably was right. He probably was at that game. So anyway,

Lock and Forra had the report during the pregame yesterday that the Redskins are going to make a big run from Mike Tomlin. By the way, Terry Bradshaw said that Josh McDaniels is going to be the target for the Redskins. This happens, right? When you're the first team to fire a coach midseason, a lot of the next several weeks, the pregame

topics are who are the Redskins thinking about? And then, you know, it's also the Redskins. They seem to get a lot of attention for being horrible and dysfunctional, etc. people love to bash them. We've obviously taken that route here in recent years based on what we've witnessed personally on a day-to-day basis here. And they jump on it from a national standpoint as well. But Jason Lockham-Four says that the Redskins and Dan Snyder,

that Snyder has a good relationship with Tomlin and that he's going to target Mike Tomlin to be the head coach next year. Got a lot of attention pre-game yesterday. Mike Tomlin is still the head coach in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, first of all. And secondly, that team that he has, even with Duck Hodges playing, they can run the ball and they're really good defensively this year. They should have beaten the Ravens last week. They should be three and three and sitting there tied for first. I bet you he thinks they've got a chance to make a run here with a really, really good defense

this year. Why not? They play the dolphins next. They have a buy week and then they get the dolphins to get to three and four. They actually have three home games in a row, Pittsburgh does. The dolphins, the Colts, and then the Rams, who are struggling. All winnable. All winnable at home. That's right. They are.

All winnable at home. So that was that report. And then Adam Schaefter quickly responded. And let me just, for context purposes, mention that Adam Schaefter, I like Adam a lot. I've had him on my show a lot. I consider Adam to be a friend. We've talked a lot. off the air, you know, texted each other a lot off the air. He was a weekly recurring guest for

seven years on the show with Tommy and me. And so, plus a really good fraternity brother, friend of his is a really good friend of mine who lives here in D.C. I like Adam. I know a lot of you say that Adam isn't always, you know, the best guest because he's a reporter and he's reporting stuff and sometimes he doesn't have strong opinions. He just, knows what he has informationally. He's an information guy, and he's damn good at it. One of the best. I think he is the best. And he's been right. His track record with the Redskins in recent years has been spot on right for the most part. Recently, when Lock and Forra came out, remember Aaron during training camp with it's imminent that Trent's going to be traded. Lock and Forra immediately shot it down

with he's not going to be traded. The Redskins are not going to trade him. So right after the Lock and Forre report about Tomlin. Here was Schaefter coming out literally within an hour after the Lock and Forer report with his own report saying, quote, according to his sources, Tomlin, with two years remaining on his contract, for him to wind up in Washington,

one source said, close to the situation, said, quote, not going to happen. Quote, here's the second part of the quote. So let me close out the first. part of the quote. All right, not going to happen. Here's the second part of the quote. I don't, this is from Schefter's source. I don't see Mike going to Washington. That is so far fetched. It's so far out there. It would have to be a deal that the league never has seen before and would change the way business is done in football. And I don't see that happening, closed quote. Now, why would it be a deal that

would be unlike any other that's ever happened in football? Because he's got two years left on his contract. So for the Redskins to get Mike Tomlin, they'd have to trade for him. And to trade for him. Or hope he gets fired. Or hope he gets fired. But to trade for him, they'd also have to give him a deal that he'd want to accept it. It'd have to be a killer deal. So I don't, I'm with Schefter on this. I don't think, I don't see this happening with Tomlin. There's a lot of reports, you know, between now and the end of the season. We still have 10 weeks left in the season. Actually, 11 weeks. left in the season. Ten games for the Redskins, they'll have a buy week in there. The other thing that Schefter reported yesterday was even, to me, more interesting.

He reported yesterday the following about the Redskins coaching situation. Washington, Adam, writes, intends to give interim head coach Bill Callahan and the rest of the coaches on its staff, including offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell, the rest of the season to prove their worth before making any significant coaching moves in another direction, that according to a source. Adam writes, Washington officials even referred to what the Cleveland Browns did last season when they fired Hugh Jackson, hired Freddie Kitchens as their interim coach, and then gave him the full-time head coaching job after the season.

Adam continues, Washington intends to be patient, let the season play out, and then move its head coaching search into overdrive. Do you understand what he's suggesting there that according to his source, Bill Callahan's got a chance to be the head coach moving forward here. Yep. Woo! That'll get everybody fired up. Well, look, it goes hand in hand with the reporting last week on the radio show with me

and on the podcast. J.P. Finley had multiple people on tell me, Bruce ain't going anywhere. And Bruce and Bill have a relationship going back a long way. Bruce is the reason Bill is still here, because if it had been up to Jay Gruden, Callahan would have been gone after last year. Callahan and Jay did not see eye-to-eye,

did not really appreciate one another. We're seeing that from Bill now that he's the head coach, the subtle jabs at Jay Gruden. Anyway, by the way, the other jab towards Jay Gruden in the post game was our serious work of, Our serious week, I'm sorry, our week of serious practice this week really paid off, as if to say, practice before was a joke under Jay. It may have been, it probably was, and it probably was more serious last week.

They barely beat the dolphins. You don't leave that, you don't go into that press conference raising your arms in a V after beating the dolphins when the dolphins may have, may have thrown out a long long shot two-point conversion play because they didn't want to win. Anyway, that part of it is a little bit exaggerated. I think Kenyon Drake wasn't trying to drop it on purpose. I don't think the general manager called down and said, hey, what are you guys doing?

Stop it. Tell Ryan he's got to overthrow somebody in the back of the end zone. Call some play that's got no chance of succeeding. I'm not suggesting that happened, but organizationally, they took the lower problem. play, which was going for two, then at the time, kicking and going to overtime with all of the momentum heading into overtime. And they did call a play where even if the play works and he catches it, it's still not necessarily going to get into the end zone. That's right, because it wasn't

thrown into the end zone. Right. Anyway, I believe Adam Schefter, I think this Tomlin thing is probably something from somebody in the organization that, wants people to continue to pay attention to the organization at 0 and 5. Anyway, that's that. All right, let's go around the NFL. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. All right. I want to start with the first game yesterday, and that was the game over in London between the Panthers and the Buccaneers, a game that was truly sloppy. But did you know what happened at the end of the first half? I was watching. Did you know the rules?

I did know the rule. It's something that doesn't come up very often, but as soon as it happened, I realized exactly what was going on. I knew the rule, too. In fact, there was a game a few years ago where the Redskins had a chance at the end of regulation in a tie game with the other team punting to call for a fair catch and get a free kick opportunity, and they didn't do it. They actually called for a fair catch and then threw a Hail Mary. And I remember criticizing. them for that in the moment. But yesterday, let me just make sure I should have explained it before. Yesterday, Tampa at the end of the half with eight seconds to go punting from their own end zone,

punted it, and Carolina called for a fair catch at the 50-yard line. When you'd call for a fair catch, you have the opportunity for what's called a free kick. That is, the other team

does not rush. You get holder that gets to hold the ball for you. You can't put it on a T, but you get to kick it right from where it's caught, not seven yards back from where it would be snapped to. You get a chance to trot your kicker out there, and from 60 yards out with no rush, get a free kick at three points. Rarely, rarely do you see it? You saw it at the end of the half, and the guy sly, the kicker for Carolina missed it wide right from 60 yards out. That game was really sloppy. but Carolina is defensively they're really good. I think Ron Rivera, I don't know why I've always liked Ron Rivera.

I think he's, I think he's been bashed by fans and by NFL fans, Carolina fans and NFL fans unnecessarily over the years. I think he's a good defensive mind. Gerald McCoy was a monster yesterday. Luke Keeckley's always a monster. Shaq Thompson can play. Bruce Irvin can pass, rush the passer. Brian Burns is the rookie.

of Florida State. Remember there was a debate, you know, Burns or sweat for the Redskins at 15. Burns went to Carolina 16 overall. The Redskins took Askins at 15. Burns so far on the season as a rookie, four and a half sacks. You know, he's a big dude. He's like 6'6 and like long-armed. It's got a lot of sweat in him but didn't, you know, have the combine that sweat had. Carolyn is really good on defense, and they have won four games in a row, and they're four and two in that division. A division that is led by New Orleans at 5-1, they continue to win with really good defense.

And boy, they have set it up for when Breeze comes back. When is Breeze supposed to come back? I don't think it's imminent, but I want to say, like, early November probably. Five and one. Nobody saw this coming when they lost Breeze. All right, let's go to the division games yesterday. start with the Cowboys. It was really, really stupid that I didn't give the Jets out. I gave it a hard leaning on the Jets on the Smell Test. I played it personally, but God damn, I should have given

out the Jets on Friday. They were plus seven. The world was on Dallas. There was just some information I got late Thursday that there was some sharp money on the Cowboys that backed me off it, which is fine, whatever. Look, here's the bottom line with my smell test over the years, Aaron. I don't know if I'm being repetitive here. I forget if I mentioned this at the top of the podcast, but there have been many weeks where I've come in here and I've told you. It's a good thing I didn't give out all of my picks because I would have gotten destroyed. And then there are weekends like this one where I say, very honestly, I wish I'd given out some of the other plays that I leaned hard on

because they all won, which they did. But anyway, 7 and 9 smell test with Detroit pending tonight plus the 4, even though I think it's gone to 3.5 in spots. The Cowboys had injuries. they've had injuries. They were missing both of their left tackles, both of their tackles, Doran Smith and their starting right tackle. They're banged up right now. There's no doubt about that. And the Jets got Sam Darnold back. And Darnold really does look like he's got something to him. We saw it last year, at the end of last year. You know, they blew that opener to Buffalo this year,

and they were winless going into the game yesterday. But what Darnold really does well, and you saw it at SC, is he's great inside the pocket at creating more time. And then keeping eyes down the field, where he's got some receivers like Robbie Anderson. By the way, Jameson Crowder had a big day in that game yesterday. Six catches, 98 yards for Crowder. Dallas got back into it. They scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, had a chance with a two-point conversion to tie it late.

By the way, Maher who kicked a 62-yarder at the end of the first half, missed a short one in the fourth quarter. That could have been the difference. But they're banged up right now. They've lost three games in a row, and they get Philadelphia in a Sunday night game for first place this coming week. The Cowboys wheeling a little bit. And then you had the Eagles in Minnesota against Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings.

Look, you and I talked about it earlier in the show. The NFL is a week-to-week league. sometimes it's a within the game league. Things change so dramatically. And two weeks ago after a game against Minnesota, a game against Chicago, where Kirk was terrible, but the offense was terrible.

The offensive line was a sieve. They couldn't move the football. Thielen's complaining. Diggs is complaining. And everybody's chalking it up to they hate Kirk Cousins. And then last week, and I mentioned this, on the pregame shows, all of them corrected it.

Thelan and Diggs were not upset with Kirk Cousins. They were upset with Mike Zimmer. They were upset with the play calling. They essentially were like, you've got the most money invested in two receivers and a quarterback, and you want to run the ball against a wall 90% of the time. We can't win doing that. And so last week against a lesser team in the Giants, they lit up the Giants. And then yesterday, against a banged up Philadelphia team,

Cousins, 22 of 29, 33 yards, four touchdowns. One pick, the pick was not his fault. Okay, it hit off the hands of Stefan Diggs, and then off Diggs's helmet got popped up in the air and picked off. It was the throw that should have been a first down completion, or move the chains, third down completion, and instead turned into a pick. But they do have talent on that team. Diggs, seven catches 167 yards and three touchdowns yesterday. Last week, it was Thielen having the big day. They just had to become more balanced. They had to become more dynamic offensively.

become more unpredictable offensively. And now all of a sudden the play action stuff that he's so good at, it's working. But it's the NFL. Like it could change next week. They're on the road against Detroit. Detroit's a good defensive team. Who knows? But he is much better if you've got a coach that is going to scheme up a balanced attack

with a lot of play action and early down play action. and let him take the deep shots and let him read out the defense and throw to where you're supposed to read out, he's fine. It's the top 12 quarterback if you let him do that. Philadelphia had a chance in this game. They got to within 2420. Carson Wentz has a great touchdown pass in this game to Alshan Jeffrey under pressure, dodging inside the pocket,

and they're throwing back across his body to Jeffrey for a touchdown. It was beautiful. Phillies dropped now their third game. They're three and three, and they go to Dallas. for a huge NFC East showdown next week with the Cowboys. What is that line? It's probably totally contingent on Dallas getting some of these players back. Didn't they lose somebody else yesterday?

Did they lose Amari Cooper yesterday? He got her. I don't think that's supposed to be a long term. Let me guess the line before you tell it to me. Is it out? It should be out. I got to pull it up here. I'm going to guess Dallas is a three-point favorite.

I'm going to guess they're a three-point favorite. By the way, the Redskins are 10-point underdogs to the 49ers next month. Yes, they are. Cowboys are three-point favorites. There you go. Yes. I don't know a lot about a lot of things, but I know a lot about sports gambling and handicapping and odds-making and line-making.

How about the 49ers yesterday? Going into Los Angeles and did you, have you guys seen the numbers for Jared Gough yet? Aaron, have you? They were good because I had, was. debating between him and James for my fantasy team. I'd pick James, but yeah. Jared Gough in an NFL game, in which his team was losing, by the way, and faced some soft defenses at the end, down two scores late in the game. Jared Gough was 13 of 24 for 78 yards. You're not paying attention to me. No, I'm paying exact attention. You were in your phone there, like all of you

young people. I was, get out of your phone. I was checking my phone. Start communicating with people. It was about as bad as you can possibly get for an NFL quarterback. Oh my God. Which begs the question, how much of that is Jared Gough? Or is this 49ers defense, which is now shut down multiple pretty good offenses, really, really good? So the answer lies in the 49ers defense more likely than not is the answer. Although I'm not a massive Jared Gough fan, but whatever. The 49ers defense is really good and it's super fast.

Bosa, Solomon Thomas up front, so fast on the back end to have guys like, oh, Jesus, why am I blanking on the corner? Jimmy Ward, Ward is playing outstanding football right now for them. Number 20, all right, first round pick, I don't know, 2013, 2014, way back in the day. He's outstanding. Sherman's, you know, in that secondary as well. I think they probably pick on Sherman a little bit more than they pick on Ward. The 49ers are very good defensively. They didn't even run the ball yesterday.

They've been averaging 200 yards a game on the ground. They only had 99 yesterday on 41 carries. By the way, I was thinking about next week, San Francisco coming here, early start, West Coast team, 1 o'clock East Coast start coming off, an emotional big win. Like, could they be right for the taking? the 49ers are 10-point favorites, which would indicate to you that they're not right for the taking.

But Kyle Shanahan is going to sit down with his team in that introductory to the game plan meeting on Wednesday when they begin serious preparation. And he's going to say to his entire organization, I don't want to win this game by 10. I want to win this game by 110. I hate these people. These people are awful.

they effed my father and me. They had my father, me, Sean McVeigh, Matt LaFleur, all in the same organization, and cut us all loose. Well, they kept Sean. They don't like me. I don't like them. I want to bury them. So for a moment, I thought maybe it's a good spot for the Redskins,

and then I thought about that, and that quickly changed my mind. No. How about the chiefs now, having a lot of, lost two in a row at home at Arrowhead. And the Texans and the legitimate possibility that Deshawn Watson is putting together an MVP type of year, they rushed, Kansas City's defense stinks again. It stinks again. They gave up nearly 200 yards on the ground at home.

All right? After, by the way, last week, what did Indy have on the ground? Didn't Indy have like a buck 80 or something like that on the ground? Marlon Mack was a beast. Kansas City defensively stinks. They've got some injuries. I understand they're banged up and Mahomes is banged up. they've lost two in a row and they head to the Denver Broncos for a Thursday night short week set up with the Broncos having won two in a row.

Is it possible I could get my surprise team back in the hunt with a win? You know, if they do win, they're only a game out. Exactly. Who do the Raiders have this week? The Raiders were on a buy week after the London win. They're at Packers. They could be three and three and the Broncos could win at three and four and there. The Chiefs are at four and three.

and the chargers are flailing around. Look, I've said this about the Broncos this year, and it's why I played them last week against the Chargers, gave them out. They're nowhere near as bad as their record indicates. They should be a four-and-two football team. They had two games stolen from them by horrible officiating calls. They did lose Emmanuel Sanders yesterday, which could be a problem.

They shut out the Titans, if you were wondering, their defense really, really stepped up and shut them down. And by the way, in that game, just as an aside, Marriota benched for Ryan Tannehill. Yeah, Marieto was awful in that game. Seven sacks for the Broncos in that game. They finally remember the first few weeks they weren't getting sacks. They got them yesterday in big numbers. And I do like that Philip Lindsay, man.

He can play. And you know who's developing into a real number one? Cortland Sutton. Yes, he is. Watch Cortland Sutton play in Denver. He's a big dude. with hands, with great flow. There's something about him.

You can just see it. 16-0-0. They won that game. Baltimore. How about the performance by Lamar Jackson? This is what John Harbaugh was talking about during the off-season when he said, we're going to play offensive football like it's never been seen before. Yesterday, for the first time in NFL regular season history,

a quarterback rushed for more than 150 and threw for more than 200. It happened in a playoff game with Colin Kaepern. back in 2012 when I think he rushed for a buck 83 and threw for like two thirty eight against the packers it had never happened in a regular season game yesterday jackson 19 carries a buck 52 on the ground and he threw for two 36 and they beat the bengals 23 to 17 to get to four and two um kiler murray had a game yesterday all of a sudden the cardinals that looked dead and gone there after a few weeks they've now won two in a row.

They had that tied open up the season. They're two, three and one. And Kyler Murray threw three touchdowns in for $3.40 yesterday in that game. Atlanta's defense is horrible. Yeah, I think Atlanta's not very good, but I think Arizona, first of all, the NFC West is the best division in football. And part of it is because-NFC North. No, the Cardinals. NFC North is the best division of football.

Oh, you think the NFC? Okay, I could see that. Well, I think NFC West is at worst the second best. And part of it is because you have Arizona at the very bottom being very frisky. Yeah, more than frisky. They're two, three, and one. Now, I understand who they've beaten here in the last two weeks. The Bengals and the Falcons, man, the Falcons are so good offensively, but they are really, really.

They're just a mess as a team. They appear to be. If Dan Quinn finishes the season, he's just finishing the season. Yeah, apparently he's not getting fired today, although that could happen here. and I could look wrong here, but in reading late last night, it looked like he was not going to get fired today. Then last night, the Sunday night game, the Steelers go in there.

We mentioned it earlier. They were able to run the football. They put this guy, Devlin Hodges, in good positions. And the Chargers, you know, a team that some people had being a Super Bowl contender are now reeling at two and four. They were also banged up going into this game. But they made a late run. They lose 24-7.

at home in a game that sounded like a road game, by the way. Oh, yeah. And now they've lost two straight games at home to Denver and to Pittsburgh. And they play the NFC North this year. The AFC West does. They already lost to the Lions. They still have games against the Bears, Packers, and Vikings on their schedule. It looks like a year that the Chargers are not going to be in the hunt,

more likely than not in that division. But again, Kansas City has inched backwards, and that division could really. become, like just two weeks ago, it looked like the AFC West and the NFC East at the top had a chance to be, you know, produce a couple of teams capable of getting to the, you know, the AFC or NFC championship game and maybe even the Super Bowl and now

both divisions are reeling. I've got the lines tonight in the Monday night game. Plus four. That was the Friday line. I don't know where it is right now. I can check. I think it came down a little bit. I think there was some sharp action on Detroit over the weekend. That number right now is three and a half. But I give it out based on the Friday lines.

I got the Lions as a smell test pick plus the four tonight. Real quickly, Maryland really got crushed on Saturday by Purdue. Aaron, I don't know if you were out in Vegas. I don't know if you saw any of the game. Yeah, I was actually at the South Point watching that game. Not good. No, I gave Purdue out. Some of you tweeted me, said,

how do you give out a smell test pick against Maryland? I've done it against Maryland. I've done it against the Redskins many times. Purdue fit the smell test. What do you want me to say? One of the things it was really frustrating about watching the Terps game on Saturday was Purdue kept running. It seemed the same play over and over and over again on third down. It was the clear-out by one receiver and then the other receiver comes in after the clear-out route on the slant and it's just wide open.

Merrill never adjusted. Purdue, I think, ended up being like 65. percent on third down in that game. And it just rolled up yardage. Produce not very good. Maryland had a lot of penalties too in the game. A ton of penalties. And they tend to be, you know, capable of a big play on any given snap, but they seem to be incapable of long drives.

They go, they host Indiana this week. And it's their last, I mean, seriously. They're underdogs. At home, they're underdogs? They're two and a half point underdogs at home. This is their, this could very well be their last chance. for a win this year. Mm-hmm.

I mean, after that Syracuse game, we're all jacked up. Then they lose to Temple and get blown up by Penn State. They beat Rutgers. And then you're like, okay, you got at Purdue in Indiana. And you got a chance maybe to win two games. It wasn't even close. Yeah, that was the disappointing thing, is that if they had won, there still was that road.

And even if bowl, you know, bowl eligibility seemed unlikely. At Minnesota is a winnable game, home against Nebraska a little less. But, you know, there were winnable games on the schedule. But losing this one doesn't completely shut the door, but almost does. Three other quick college football thoughts. Number one, the SEC. I mean, Georgia losing at home in double overtime to South Carolina.

I mean, it's like, you know, you're a 20-point favorite at home in an SEC game, but you have to know in that league, especially with the football powers. I'm not talking about Vandy. You know, I'm not talking about really Kentucky, all right? But when you're playing a South Carolina where football matters, you know, and they're pretty well coached with a must champ, you know, you got a chance for it to be a game. And they're cornerback in that game. Israel, Makumwa, he had three interceptions, including a takeback of one of them to the house in the game. He's a big dude, long-armed. He was awesome against Jake Fromm. That game, I don't know where he was on anybody's draft board.

He's a sophomore right now. I don't even know if he's a redshirt sophomore. But with those long arms at 6-4, he just became a future projected first round pick with the game he had against Georgia. Georgia is still alive, you know, for a playoff berth. That is not a loss that crushes them because they'll have a chance to control their own destiny in the east

by beating Florida. They still have a game at Auburn in the regular season, A&M at home, and then they'd have an SEC title matchup against LSU or Alabama. You know, that game, by the way, looming is going to be so big in college football this year. But Georgia didn't, you know, that loss doesn't knock them out of the race. The two other mentions real quickly, how about the difference between Clemson and Florida State now?

Florida State is so far behind Clemson, it's almost, it's not something you would have ever guessed. It's like similar to the conversation we had last week about 20 years ago, if somebody told you the Redskins would be, among the worst NFL franchises in all of sports and would have two playoff wins over the last 20 years, would you have believed them? Of course not. If somebody had told you just eight years ago,

Florida State is going to be so far behind Clemson, they're going to look like Wake Forest compared to Clemson. You would have said, well, that's impossible. But that's really what they are now. Oh, it's not even close, yeah. Clemson just rolled Florida State. And then finally, I wanted to mention this about the college football Saturday. The LSU Florida game on Saturday night was spectacular.

That was a game that from start to finish, it was hard to turn from, first of all, just the atmosphere in Death Valley. Saturday night in Death Valley is brutal. Brutal. I've been there for Bam LSU. It's a top five sporting event that I've ever been to. And Death Valley was electric for the unbeaten matchup between seventh ranked Florida and fifth ranked LSU. LSU. And Florida hung in there, man. Considering they had that big win against Auburn the week before, they came in there, and it wasn't the game I expected. I expected great defense in the game,

and Florida matched LSU with offense. Kyle Trask is so much better than Felipe Franks. Florida would not be in this position without Trask. First of all, they would have never beaten Kentucky had Franks finished the game that he got hurt in. They would have lost that game. Trask brought him back, and they won that game. But it was something else. man. Joe Burrow, awesome. Kyle Trask, awesome. The running game for LSU was ridiculous. Florida, Florida was missing two key defensive linemen in that game, and it made a big difference in the game. How fun is Grant Delpit to watch? Well, he's a top 10 pick in the draft, the safety out of LSU, is incredible. And a lot of people have been going nuts over the cornerback, Stingley, who's a true freshman playing corner at LSU.

The truth of the matter is he did have to be. have an interception, he also got picked on all night long and gave up a lot of yardage. Excellent game. If you were betting the game and you had Florida, hopefully you bought the half point to plus 14 and pushed. If you had LSU, you got it at minus 13 and a half and you won, but that game was not a 14 point game. If you were watching, that game was there for anybody to have going into the fourth quarter. It was, there was a possession errand in that game at 28 at 3528. 3528.

Florida's moving and they were using the other quarterback. You know, his name escapes me right now. They used him against Auburn to Emery Jones. They were using him in the red zone a lot all night. But in that spot at the end, they're driving the ball down the field. They're in the midst of a very long drive. So much so that I thought Ed Ogeron did a really smart thing with LSU getting ready to tie the game up deep into. LSU territory midway through the fourth quarter in a 35-28 game.

He used a timeout on defense. And I think it was just flat out to let his defense catch their breath and rest because Florida was having their way with them moving down the field. And out of the timeout, he put Emery Jones into the game on a second and two, Dan Mullen did. And he only got a yard which set up a third and one. And then he put Kyle Trask back in the game and Trask threw the one bad ball he threw all night. into the end zone intercepted, pretty much game over at that point. It wasn't game over, but then LSU went down and scored, made it a 14-point game, and it was game over.

With these quarterbacks, you know, they promise so much in recruiting, and it's really hard not to play these guys. And Emery Jones was pretty good against Auburn last week, he was pretty good in the red zone on Saturday night. I just would have never taken Traskout in that moment. And then if you're going to put Emery Jones in there on a second and two to go get the first down and he doesn't, on third and one, leave him in there to get the first down by running him or running zone read. Anyway, great football game on Saturday night. Just a spectacular football game on Saturday night. In the SEC, it just doesn't stop with the big games. It's unbelievable what we're going to get the rest of the way in SEC football. This coming week,

I'm trying to think of what the game is this week in the SEC. Let me pull it up so I get it right. week, Florida at South Carolina, with South Carolina coming off that win, and Florida still having a legitimate chance to win the SEC East, that's a huge game this week. And then in two weeks, you get Auburn LSU. Hello, Auburn LSU, probably at night in Death Valley. Might be the 3.30 game, who knows. Then on the weekend of November 2nd, that is Georgia, Florida weekend. That is the largest outdoor cocktail party in Jacksonville, Georgia, Florida, which will basically more likely than not decide the East and decide who goes on to face LSU or Bama in the SEC championship game.

And then on Saturday, November 9th, right now looking like what should be the game of the year in college football, LSU at Alabama, Tuscaloosite could be number one against number two that night. That's where the polls are right now. LSU moved up to number two after their win over Florida. It's just, and then, of course, Auburn, Alabama, you get, right, in week 12 the week after that, or two weeks after that I think it is. By the way, keep one team in mind in the SEC East. Missouri might be decent. They actually might be pretty good. They lost a game early to Wyoming that they shouldn't have lost, and they've been really lights out since.

They've crushed South Carolina. They crushed Ole Miss. I don't think Ole Miss is very good. they get Vandy and Kentucky the next two weeks to get to seven and one before they go to Georgia for a game and then play Florida the following week. Maybe Missouri is going to be a part of the SEC East Race. Anyway, I love college football more than anything, and we've got a hell of a season going on right now. All right, thanks to Aaron. Thanks to all of you. Enjoy the day back tomorrow with Tommy.