The Kevin Sheehan Show - Nepotism

Episode Date: January 20, 2020

Kevin opens with his thoughts on nepotism as it relates to the Kyle Shanahan-led 49ers advancing to Super Bowl 54. Kevin recaps both the NFC Championship and AFC Championship games. He talked about the JP Finlay (NBC Sports Washington) report that Kevin O'Connell wanted the OC job in DC but Scott Turner won the battle of interviews. Caps, Terps, and Hoyas too. <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. All right, Aaron's here. I'm here. That's it. No guests today. Tommy will be in tomorrow. We got a lot to get to. The Super Bowl is set. The team that runs the ball and plays defense in the 49ers against the team that has the best quarterback, if not the best player right now on the planet Earth. Patrick Mahomes yesterday. He was sensational. He's been sensational in these two playoff games. And really, these first two seasons of him starting have been spectacular. Do you remember in the very early days of the podcast, which is now, you know, just a year and a half old? But in the early days, when Patrick Mahomes started off 2018, you know, he threw for like six touchdowns in the second week. And people were already saying,

This is the greatest quarterback I've ever seen, and I just said, you know, pump the brakes. Come on. He's not in the Hall of Fame quite yet. He's good, but I really said, let's see what happens over the course of an entire season. He's ridiculous. He's just a massive, you know, he's an eraser of everything that goes wrong in a game. He can erase it all against a good defensive team, a bad, you know, a great defensive team. And he played a good defensive team yesterday, and he's got a great.

great defensive team he'll face in the Super Bowl. He was spectacular. Yeah, I mean, he's the guy that you're never comfortable facing. There's no point in that game, even when the Titans went up and even the week before. Go ahead. Tell everybody what you did. Hey, I bet the Chiefs they got down to minus two and a half live. At 177, was it minus two and a half? I'm pretty sure it was 177. It was minus two and a half. What was the price of that of the minus two and a half in game? Was it minus 120? Yeah, minus 120. Yeah, I bought it. But again, It just doesn't matter what the score is you never feel like you're out of it if you're on that side with Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, you don't.

I mean, that's the thing. Like most teams third and 14 is checked down and pun it. Third and 14 with him is look out. They're throwing the ball way down field. One thing seems obvious about this Super Bowl. This is a very good matchup. Game open pick them. It's a KC minus one minus one and a half now, depending on where you're looking.

two excellent teams, two contrast in styles. You know, you've got storylines all over the place. You've got Kansas City in the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years. I mean, how many times are we going to see Hank Stram's, you know, 65 toss power trap, NFL film stuff from Super Bowl 4? Or, come on, boys, let's matriculate the ball down the field, boys. We're going to be getting that in the week leading up to Super Bowl 54. Andy Reid, a Hall of Fame career without a Super Bowl trying to get his first. You know, San Francisco looking for its first Super Bowl win in 25 years with the son of a two-time Super Bowl winner.

Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, the son has led the team to a Super Bowl. Kansas City, a one-point favorite. A great quarterback is essentially the reason they are a one-point favorite in this game. It's like it's a great quarterback as a slight favorite over perhaps a better overall team. I'm looking forward to this Super Bowl. This is the first Super Bowl in seven years without either Tom Brady or Peyton Manning as a quarterback. You know, if you go in order, so there's sort of a new blood feel to this game, which I like. The last six Super Bowls, the AFC representatives, in order.

Denver, New England, New England, New England, New England, New England. So for the last six until this year, we had either Tom Brady or Peyton Manning as a starting quarterback in the Super Bowl, you won't have that this time. It's Kansas City in the AFC. The NFC, you know, it's been much different. San Francisco is going to be the fifth different team in five years to make the Super Bowl. And the fourth NFC team in the last five years to make the Super Bowl following a losing season or a 500 season the year before they made it. The 49ers were 4 and 12 last year. The Eagles were 7 and 9 the year before they won it. The Panthers were 7, 8, and 1 the year before they got. to it. And the Falcons, the year they got to it and lost, were eight and eight. So it's been

sort of an NFC trend to jump from not very good to really good to like NFC championship good. And I know that that provides a lot of hope for Redskinned fans. And we'll have a lot of opportunity to talk about that over the next two weeks. This Super Bowl also continues a trend that says you better be a top two seat and have that first round bottom. to make it. It's seven straight years now of the Super Bowl featuring a top two seed from each conference. The last team not to have wildcard weekend as a buy and to make it the 2012 Ravens who won it. So the Super Bowl really has represented during a seven-year stretch the best of the regular season. You know, the first weekend by and obviously home field advantage

in at least one of the two games is once again, you know, seems to be crucial. until it won't be anymore because I went back and in looking up all this I found that you know the last seven years you had to be a top two seed to make the Super Bowl but the three years before that we basically had three years in a row of the team winning at all playing on wildcard weekend I will get to sort of game take abbreviated versions of each of the game takes here in a few minutes but I wanted to get to this because there was a lot of conversation on Twitter yesterday about nepotism. You know, it's been one of those things sort of attached to Kyle Shanahan for many, many years here when he was here in 2010, 2011,

2012, and 2013. I mean, many of you admit it, you know, regardless of what you see now in the last couple of years, admit it, you thought the only reason he had the job was because his father's name was Mike Shanahan and he was the head coach. So many of you, I remember those days and I would fight it internally with guys at the station saying, are you guys out of your mind? This guy's a proven, a proven offensive coordinator and offensive mind and coach, you know, and people would say, come on, man, this dude, he's here because his father's Mike. I looked up the definition of nepotism last night. I'll read it to you. It's the practice among those with or influence of favoring relatives or friends. I thought it was just relatives, actually, or friends,

especially by giving them jobs. So using it in a sentence accurately when applied to Kyle Shanahan, I would write the sentence as follows. Kyle Shanahan got his first opportunities as a coach, primarily because of his father, Mike Shanahan's longtime success as an NFL head coach, a career that includes two Super Bowl championships. Of course, I threw in the Mike stuff just because I like Mike. Used in a sentence inaccurately, Kyle Shanahan was hired by his father in Washington to be the offensive coordinator because he was the head coach's son. That's just not true. It wasn't true then. It's not true now. He's not a Super Bowl participating head coach because of his father. Nepotism, it's amazing that word.

It's a word that implies more often than not something very negative, or at least something worthy of an eye roll. You know, we see that all the time. It happens in all walks of life. Kids get more playing time in youth sports than they should very often because their father or mother is the coach, you know, or an older brother. Kids, brothers, sisters, daughters, getting jobs they don't deserve because dad or mom or older brother or older sister is in a position to provide an opportunity for a loved one that

really hasn't been earned yet. We see that happen all the time. Happens in business all the time. More than in sports, really, more than in entertainment, where a certain level of talent is pretty much imperative or it becomes too obvious that the person hired because of nepotism didn't deserve it. You can hide someone in a company and give them a good salary, if they're not producing much because dad owns the company. It's really hard for a professional coach to put his son on an NFL roster and pay him if the kid actually can't do it. You can see my point. There is a different thing.

You know, in a business owned by dad or mom or in a company where the dad is the president or CEO or the mom is, much easier to hide somebody and give them an opportunity that they haven't earned and that they don't continue to earn through production. But when you're in a position in pro sports or entertainment, really hard to kind of hide that. Yesterday, Joe Buck was calling the NFC championship game because he's really good at what he does. He got that way on his own,

but he got that way also with the help of his father, the legendary Jack Buck, who took Joe everywhere he went professionally. If you've ever read the story of the Bucks, Everywhere old man Jack Buck went, he took his son. Games, son would be in the booth. Son had a lot of access as a kid. It wore off, clearly. Not Joe's fault. I mean, what a great childhood. Joe may have gotten his first job with the help from his dad or because of who his dad was, but he's not the number one Fox play-by-play guy because his dad's name is Jack Buck.

Okay, Joe Buck isn't in the position he's in now because of Neppek. He may have been given a chance at 22 years old with the Louisville Redbirds, which was a minor league affiliate to the St. Louis Cardinals, where his dad was doing games forever, but he's not the number one NFL play-by-play guy on Fox because of his father's influence over Joe's employers. It was probably more of a jeans thing with Joe and Jack Buck. Joe had the chops, as it turned out. In sports, many great players are children of great players. players, you know, or former players. You don't think Steph Curry got the best coaching, the best AAU team opportunities in part because he was Del Curry's son. How about Clay Thompson or Austin

Rivers or Barry Bonds, you know, but ultimately in sports, you got to have the talent, you got to have the goods for the most part on your own, or it completely exposes everybody. Kyle Shanahan started as a UCLA grad assistant. Maybe Mike made the call. He then got an offensive QC job, quality coach job in Tampa. Maybe Mike made a call to John Gruden. I'm not going to suggest that that isn't a possibility. But after that, after those opportunities perhaps created because of nepotism, the rest he had to prove.

In Houston from 2006 to 2009, working for Gary Kubiak, which, you know, Gary's almost like a family member to the Shanahan's, you could almost say that Gary Kubiak gave Kyle Shanahan his opportunity because of nepotism. But he was a wide receiver coach. He was a quarterback's coach. He was an offensive coordinator for two years. You know, Mike's told this story before. Mike could have hired him in Denver when Mike was hiring Denver, didn't want to. Told him that they should not work together until Kyle had proved himself on his own. and that if they were to work together, that it would be obvious that it was based on merit.

Mike needed Kyle more than Kyle needed Mike in Washington. Mike has told the story that he wasn't going to hire Kyle or consider working with Kyle until Kyle had produced a top five offense, which, by the way, Kyle did twice in Houston as the offensive coordinator. They were the third ranked offense in 2008 with Matt Schaub, a quarterback, and the number four offense in the NFL in 2009. One of the, one of the quarterbacks that was on that Houston roster and actually got some starts, I think when Shob was hurt, was Sage Rosenfels, who was actually drafted by the Redskins in Marty Schottenheimer in 2001.

Sage Rosenfels was asked recently about the year that he got to Houston when Shanahan was the receivers coach. Houston's head coach at the time was Gary Kubiak, and Rosenfels tells the story. He said, I get there, and it's like Kyle Shanahan's here, and he goes, I was thinking to myself, all right, here we go. We've got a Kubiak hiring Mike Shanahan's son. We know how this is going to go. And then Rosenfels said, after being in the same room with him multiple times, he was completely blown away. Quote, I learned the most football from him that year. and the following year when Shanahan became the offensive coordinator than I learned from anybody at any point in my career. Rosenfels played for six teams over a nine-year career. That 2007 year,

I knew he was the real deal. That's when he was a quarterback's coach. He was not the OC in 2007. He became the O.C. in 2008, 2009. Quote, somehow, he made me a decent NFL quarterback. I never had as much success or understood the game as well before or since. That was all him. He related to players so well, whether it was Andre Johnson or Kevin Walters, the wide receivers or the quarterbacks. He really had an ability to relate to players and was very likable. More than anything, though, he knew how to dissect the defense and how to adjust. He knew exactly what to do if the defense did X. He would do Y, close quote. That from Sage Rosenfels. So I guess the purpose of this is just to say if you actually really are going to get into this nepotism debate, know what you're talking about.

Nepotism probably benefited someone like Kyle Shanahan early in his career. You know, there's no doubt that, you know, being Mike Shanahan's son, first of all, just being around Mike, like Joe Buck, Kyle has talked about how he was always around Mike's teams in Denver in particular. You know, he was at training camp every year. And being a part of that and being around it clearly wore off. Obviously, he was bright and he was interested. You know, all of us who are fathers with sons, daughters, etc., you know that when the kid isn't interested, you cannot force the success. You cannot force that child to end up loving the same things you love. I'm not going to sit here and preach,

but I just always thought it was a mistake. I've made a lot of mistakes as a parent. I remember one thing when it came to sports because of my love for sports, I made it a point. If my son and I have three boys doesn't love sports, that's fine. If he's not a good athlete, that's fine.

And they've got, one thing I remember is if you love something, you'll end up probably being much better at that than you will something that you don't love doing. Kyle obviously was around his father and loved what his father did. And so he soaked it all up. And he deserves to be here. And he may have gotten here even without his father's,

without Mike Shanahan being his father, if he had been introduced to football in any other way, because he's extremely bright. And, man, what a hell of a head coach he's turned into here in San Francisco. You know, with respect to the Washington thing, it's just always been frustrating to me as a Redskins fan to know that we had all of this talent under one roof. And it was really one of the only, I mean, we had it with Marty when he was here, you know, Joe to a certain extent. But, you know, in 2010 coming off two of the real rock bottom moment, certainly 2009 was a rock bottom moment. You had a two-time Super Bowl winning coach and you had a lot of talent in the building.

You had potentially a run of Mike Shanahan followed by Kyle Shanahan. I know what Mike's record was. It was 24 and 40. I know what his record was. A lot of reasons for that. A lot of reasons. And Mike didn't do his part when it came to, he was given the authority, but he didn't exercise it in the same way that say Marty did. Marty left.

Marty said, nope, it's going to work this way or I'm out of here. I know you're not having fun. That was sort of the point. Marty said to Dan and the other owners. Part of the problem was you. I recognize that I asked for total control. If you're going to take it away from me, I'm leaving. And I think Mike probably, in hindsight, could have stood up a little bit more and said,

nope, it's either him or me right now before the 2013 season. The all-in for week one was a sabotaged season, courtesy of the owner and the quarterback, and his part in it, the head coach, for not exerting the authority that he was supposedly given to say, we're doing it my way or I'm out of here. You know, we read the stories about after the Seattle game and some of the stuff that was going on then, he almost packed up his bags and left then, but it didn't happen. What makes me upset as a Redskin fan is to think that, you know, the combination, and I've said this many times, arrogance, not that bright and bright.

boy, pettiness and insecurity, that kind of culture that has really, you know, the organization has been soaked in for so long, has really kept it more than anything else from thriving, you know, and being successful. Hopefully this is a new day with Ron Rivera, and hopefully Ron Rivera realizes what's gone wrong in the past with other quality people who have been here, and he's able to change it. Or maybe the owner will change it himself because he's so desperate. I'm happy for Kyle. I don't know Kyle. I know Mike much better. I got to know Mike when he was here. And I've had conversations with Kyle. You know, not many. Had him on the air a couple of times. I've had another conversation. I can tell you this, that Mike was less confrontational than his own son.

And his son, and Mike always said this, is a better coach than he, was ever going to think about being. He felt that way from the get-go. I remember him saying very early on, Kyle's going to be a much better head coach than I was. Anyway, by the way, that kind of, you know, it's his son, of course, and you root for that. But to have the ability to say that, to be secure enough to say that, we need more of that out in Ashburn now. Anyway, let's get to the game takes. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. Now, let's start with the, first game, which Aaron in-gamed Kansas City minus two and a half when they were down 17-7,

and that was a winner. Nice job out of view. Well done. I, so it's really hard, let me begin with this. After last week and now after yesterday, it's really hard to even envision Kansas City being slowed down offensively. Like, you're a football fan, you watch a lot of games, you've watched the Chiefs, you know, score 41 unanswered against the Texans. And then yesterday down 17-7, you know, run off a 28 to 7 stretch of football. And it just seems like with Mahomes and their weapons that they're unstoppable. And it's one of those things you've got to think about as we get to the Super Bowl weekend two weeks from now, or a little bit less than two weeks from now, I mean, that great defense against that,

really can you see them being slowed down can you see them being stopped it's hard to it's hard to imagine that in this game yesterday there were a couple of things first of all you know I would not have in-game Kansas City at 17 to 7 so good for you I mean the smell test was 0 and 3 this will be the worst year the smell test in the 14 years that I've been doing it I will now have to my record 10 winning seasons four losing seasons but the three losing seasons prior to this one were really close to like 50%. Just barely losing seasons, you know, minus two or three units. I'm now down nine units.

I'm nine units below 500 after being up 26. It's crazy. Anyway, the reason I wouldn't have done it is because Tennessee was moving the ball pretty easily. You know, their first three drives were, you know, eight plays, 58 yards, field goal 3-0. 9 plays 58 yards, touchdown, they're up 10-0. 15 plays 75 yards, 9 minutes and 7 seconds. And if you were watching in D.C. with a lot of audio interruptions on CBS,

you told me, Aaron, this morning that that was a W-USA Channel 9 thing, that people were not experiencing that nationally. It was a little bit frustrating. But anyway, and at that point, they've got a 17-7-7, lead, all right, after that 15 play drive. And that drive ends with six, just over six minutes to go in the first half. What's amazing about that first half, okay, is that Tennessee scores, they have the ball four times. They score on the first three drives, the fourth, the fourth drive they ended up punting on. They punted once, they had no turnovers, and they're down 21 to 17,

with 19 minutes and 8 seconds time of possession. It couldn't have gone any better the first half for them. They possessed the ball, they scored when they had it, they didn't give Mahomes many opportunities, and yet they're still down, 21-17 at the half, in part because Mahomes made a phenomenal run for a touchdown. A second and 10, first of all, let me just mention this. That was a clock management error there by Andy Reholt.

in that final minute of the first half. He had all of his timeouts left, or at least two, two or three timeouts left. And on one of the plays, I think it was the throw to Watkins, basically let 25 seconds roll off before they got their next snap. You know, they could have used that, because if Mahomes gets tackled there, you know, even if it's down at the two or three yard line

where there were more mistackles, there was a hesitation pull up when he was tightroping the sideline thinking he would go out of bounds. And that, by the way, is a total result of just the rules now where you can't hit the quarterback, because I thought that he was getable at that point. But if he goes down, say, at the two-yard line, three-yard line, they get him down there, they're only going to have 11 seconds left. That's an opportunity for Tennessee.

They should have had at that point every bit of 30 seconds left had Andy Reid manage the clockwell. Anyway, it doesn't matter. He makes one of the great runs by a quarterback for a touchdown you'll ever see. And that was the game there. That was really the game. because Tennessee needed, at least in the moment you're thinking Kansas City is going to get the ball to start the second half. They're up four.

Now they're going to go up 11. They didn't. But you really, if you were Tennessee, needed to hold them to a field goal in that particular spot to go in 17-17 at the half. That was unfortunate and it was 21-17. But anyway, netting it out, Derek Henry, for all of the talk after the game about how Henry was shut down

and how Henry wasn't the factor everybody thought he would be. You know, at halftime he's sitting there, 10 carries 62 yards. He's averaging 6.2 yards per carry. And it's 2117 and they've only punted once in the game. Like if you're Tennessee, you're going into that game thinking, you know, we can't punt more than three times in the game. We only punted once in the first half. Derek Henry's got 6.2 yards per carry.

and Tannahill's throwing the ball well. You know, he's 11 of 17 for 120 yards. So you're playing well. You've done, you've executed the game plan to a T to pull the upset at Arrowhead. And you're still down 2117, which is really, it's going to get to when we get into the conversation about the Super Bowl.

It's what scares you is that you can execute the perfect game plan if you're a running football team like Tennessee and you can possess the ball for, at a two to one ratio and still get beat. It was the second half in which I thought that Tennessee, Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator, Braybill, I thought that they panicked a little bit. They got to stop on Kansas City's first drive.

Kansas City had a pretty good drive going, and then they got a stop and they got a punt. And so Tennessee did get the ball back in the third quarter, down by four, with a chance to take the lead, to get it back into the kind of game it had to be, which is we need to score, and then even if they score, we get it back with a chance to take the lead. And in that particular drive, they moved the ball. They were moving the ball, and it was a penalty that really derailed it.

Now, it was the third and one stop on Henry against a goal line defense. I don't know if you heard Romo say this. So Tennessee's first drive of the second half, they're driving it, and they've picked up, they've already made two first downs, I think, at that point on the drive. and it's third and one from their own 41-yard line. They had made one first down, excuse me. And Derek Henry against goal-line defense. And when I say goal-line defense, that means 11 people at the line of scrimmage.

They had 11 people at the line of scrimmage on that play. Go back and watch that play. There's no safety. It's everybody at the line of scrimmage with trying to stop a third and one because they knew they were going to run the ball. And they did, and they stopped them. Now, there was a holding penalty against Tennessee. Very interesting decision there for Andy Reid.

Does he take the penalty and give him another down, or does he decline the penalty and allow Tennessee potentially at that point from their own 41-yard line to go for it? They may have. In fact, given what we know about Kansas City offensively, it's almost a half to go for it. And it would have been third and a little bit less than one. Reed took the penalty. I think it was the right thing to do. And so then they had a third and 11, and that was the play Tannahill scrambled and got absolutely crunched by Sorensen.

and they punted it back again. And this is where I think the game got a little bit away from Tennessee. First of all, Kansas City converts a couple of third downs on the drive. And then, and they score. They end up scoring to take a 28-17 lead. And they took the rest of the quarter, the rest of the third quarter on that drive into the fourth quarter is when they scored the touchdown, and it's 28-17.

So Tennessee is now going to touch the ball, Aaron, for just the second time in the second half, and it's already the fourth quarter. Think about that for a moment. I was thinking about this. I always do for some reason. The college game last week, in the first quarter of the game, Clemson had five possessions. LSU had four, whatever. There were nine possessions, and the game was 7-7 at the end of the first quarter. It's not like people were just punting. In an NFL game in the second half, Tennessee didn't even touch the ball for the second time until the fourth quarter. And at that point is where they decided Derek Henry is not going to be a part of this game anymore.

You know, I thought it was wrong. He had 10 carry 62 yards, 6.2 yards per carry. You needed to get your defense off the field after that long, keep the defense off the field for a while. And they went Tannahill pass to Corey Davis, which was a big play for 15 yards. And then it was Tannahill to Derek Henry on sort of a panic checkdown. Tana Hill to A.J. Brown. Tannahill sacked. punt. So that was not good. That was giving up on the run. They didn't run the ball once on that particular drive. And I thought that that was not a point in the game early in the fourth quarter where you had to become unbalanced. And that was it basically for Derek Henry. I mean,

I think he had another carry maybe in the game. Actually, he may not have had another carry after that. Not one more carry for Derek Henry after that. 10 carries 62 yards, okay, in the first half. And then on that first drive of the third quarter, he got it once, twice, three times, four, five, six times. How did he end up with 19 carries then? It says 19 carry six. He must have had a couple of other carries in the second half.

Anyway, I digress. First half, perfect game plan. second half got away from the game plan when it became a two-score game. And then when it became a three-score game, they did fake that punt, which is beautiful. But that's an indication just by chance of a coach who does not believe in his quarterback's ability on his own to pick up a fourth down conversion. He goes with the punter on a fake punt on fourth and eight from their own 22-yard line. Like, not only does he go for a fake punt, he goes for a fake punt. He goes for a fake punt in an obvious fake punt situation. He had more confidence in the fake punt play than he did in

Tana Hill in converting a fourth and eight. Tannahill's perfect in good down and distance. Obviously, you force him to throw. It's going to be a problem. 35, 24, the final in that game, Mahomes, throws for three, runs for another. He ends up becoming the first quarterback in NFL history in the postseason to lead his team twice in two games to the Super Bowl in rushing. It carries 53 yards. and that's really part of his greatness, is he's such an effortless runner. You know, it's always last resort, but it's usually the right thing to do.

One of the things that was pointed out by Romo, and Clinton Portis talked about it with me this morning on the radio show, is that it's really hard to confuse Mahomes, but when you do with a zone that looks like man pre-snap or vice versa, he doesn't force it, he recognizes it post-snap, and then he uses his legs to hurt you with a run or an extension of the play. I don't know, really, other than Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson,

Aaron Rogers. You know, people point out Stauback and Tarkington from way back. I know there are others. There's something about Mahomes because of the combination of his elusiveness and his arm strength that may separate him from everybody else. He is an eraser of bad situations.

He takes a pass rush and he alludes it and then he keeps extending the play. And when you have Tyree Kill and you have Travis Kelsey and Watkins and Hardman, etc. Somebody's going to be open and he's going to have the arm strength to get it to you. The second game yesterday featured one of the most dominant, one-sided beat-down halves I've ever seen in a big game. We talked about it on Friday, Aaron, that San Francisco is a healthy defense was just going to be too much for Green Bay. Like that Sunday night game, we watched, it's like, what's changed? Nothing. 37 to 8, Rogers couldn't, you know, had no time, had 75 yards passing into the fourth quarter.

And yesterday in the second half, it changed. But in the first half, first of all, Rahim Mostert, in the first half, 14 carries 160. yards in a half. Garoppolo only threw the ball six times in a half. Eight for the game. More on that coming up here shortly. It was under siege for Green Bay. It was, okay, we can't protect our guy.

We have to throw screens to... It was the same thing. Remember I said last week about Minnesota? They're trying screens and it doesn't work against San Francisco. They react too quickly. They're too fast. Same thing yesterday. They're trying screens to get something going

going, and they're getting nailed. Now, what did work for them in the first half, and I was surprised that they didn't do more of it, was Aaron Jones carried the ball nine times for 49 yards in the first half. A lot of that yardage coming on sort of toss sweeps, you know, toss zone sweeps. That seemed to be an opportunity for them, but they got away from it a little bit. Now, it started to get stopped after a while, but he averaged 5.4 yards per carry, you know, on those nine carries, it looked like it was the only chance Green Bay had to move it. The problem, of course, is that when San Francisco had it, they possessed it. And they possessed it by just

running the football and doing very little else. They ran the football down Green Bay's throat, start to finish. You know, the first drive of the game was a three and out punt for San Francisco. They get stopped on the third and one. It was the only good defensive play, essentially all day by Green Bay. After that, it was touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal, and then after the interception right before the half, another touchdown. How about the first touchdown? It's third and eight against

five, I think it was five DBSs, I think it was nickel, it may have been six, and Kyle says, no, we're going to run a sort of a draw, but a trap draw with Moster, who takes it 36 yards for a score. Sometimes I don't think you see enough coaches willing to run the ball in third and seven, third

and eight against a defense that is five, six, six, dbs and everybody playing, you know, the sticks. I think sometimes you don't see enough coaches run the ball in that spot. They ran it for a touchdown. Mostert was incredible. Second best day in NFL history, postseason history, the 220 yards in the game. Second only to Eric Dickerson's 248 yards. I'm pretty sure that came against the Cowboys in the mid-80s. I could be wrong. Mostert 29 carries 220 yards, average 7.6 yards and had four touchdowns, four on the day. And because they could not be stopped rushing the football,

Jimmy Garoppolo had one of the most incredible stat lines from a 21st century quarterback I think I've ever seen. Six of eight was Jimmy Garapolo for 77 yards. Six of eight. That's ridiculous. That's Bob Greasy numbers from the 1970s. It is quite rare to see what we've seen. this postseason, which is multiple quarterbacks winning games throwing for less than 100 yards.

That's pretty incredible to see. Miami through, it was the second fewest passes thrown in a playoff game. Miami threw six and seven passes following the 1973 playoffs. to go back to the 1973 playoffs. That would not have been the year that they beat the Redskins. It was the 73 Super Bowl that they beat the Redskins. But if you go back to the 1973 season, in their playoff games on their way to another Super Bowl went over the Vikings. Bob Greasy, here it is, in the two, in the playoff, here, hold on for one second,

against the Raiders and the AFC championship game. Bob Greasy was three for six for 34 yards in the AFC title win over the Raiders. They beat the Raiders 27 to 10 and Bob Greasy was three for six as the starting quarterback for 34 yards. They rushed the ball in that game. Zonka had over 100. Mercury Morris had 86 and Greasy himself had 39 yards rushing. And then in the Super Bowl that year against Minnesota, Bob Greasy went six for seven, 73 yards, and a Super Bowl win, a 24 to 7 Super Bowl win over Miami.

So the fewest yesterday since those two games by Bob Greasy following the 73 season. Jimmy Garoppolo's eight passes yesterday, the fewest since then. Amazing in this day and age that that could happen, but it did. Really impressed with the 49er run game, obviously, really. really impressed with their speed on defense. It just, it leads to this, this sort of thought about the Super Bowl, and that is this great defense and this great running game. It would seem to be what you would need to beat a Patrick Mahomes-led team, but at the same time, can you envision the Chiefs scoring less than 30 points against anybody right now? They've scored 86 in two weeks

against decent, well, Houston, not a decent defensive team. Tennessee, not only a decent defensive team, a well-coached defensive team. Got plenty of time to make a pick on that game. You're going to want my pick because you'll want to go opposite of it, more likely than not. If you do choose to go opposite of my plays, Aaron, and you don't have a place to play, my bookie.ag. It is reliable. It's got fast payouts.

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That'll activate the offer. All right, let's get to some Redskins news real quickly, and then we'll do some of the other things that happened over the weekend. So if you miss this story, Ruben Foster, who had that injury back in, May torn ACL. Ian Rappaport reported that not only did he have a torn ACL, he had a torn LCL and MCL as well. All right. So he did damage to that and he had significant nerve damage to the knee. And it's just, it's strange, man, just the redskins and these injuries, like they just can't break a leg and have it heal properly. You know, they can't just have a torn ACL and have everything go the normal rehab route. There's always something else. And this nerve damage was reported yesterday by

Ian Rappaport. It came from Foster's agent. Apparently Foster could not feel his toes for several months following the surgery and the injury. But apparently he now has that feeling back and there's more optimism today than there was, say, a week or two ago. And there is some hope that Foster can participate in some form or fashion come training camp. No timetable for his return. I would just say this. I'm not going to put it in the Alex Smith category, but I wouldn't count on Ruben Foster if I'm a Redskinned fan in 2020. He's a young guy, and I'm sure there's going to be an opportunity down the road. But, you know, these are injuries. When you hear nerve damage, that ends up being, you know, typically one of those things scary, you know, and can be career-threatening. We'll

see, and I, you know, wish him the best and hope that he's back. I don't even know what Ron Rivera's feeling about Ruben Foster would be in the first place. They're going to a four-three. You know, Ruben Foster could fit in a couple of spots, including the middle. Right now, in terms of the players that you may have, Sean Dionne Hamilton would be your middle linebacker if you had to start playing tomorrow because John Bostic's not under contract, although Bostick's really smart and is a bit of a team leader, and I think can play that middle linebacker's spot. There was also a story earlier this morning from J.P. Finley, who wrote a story on NBCSportswashington.com about Scott Turner and Kevin O'Connell in the whole offensive coordinator situation that got resolved by Ron Rivera hiring Scott Turner. And I think there was a lot of mystery as to, well, did Kevin O'Connell even want the job?

Did he want to get out of Washington? did he want to go work for Josh McDaniels? If he got a job, he ended up getting a job with Sean McVeigh. Who else was in the running? Well, JP did some reporting this morning and essentially wrote that this was a competition that O'Connell wanted the job, wanted to stay in Washington, but that Scott Turner just, you know, interviewed very well, and Ron Rivera decided to go with Scott Turner over Kevin O'Connell, period. I mean, that's essentially it.

He did add one little twist of the story, which I'll get to in a moment. The Redskins did ask, and there was some reporting around this, they did ask to interview former Giants head coach, Pat Shermer. But Shermer declined the interview. And at that point, you know, after the interviews, Rivera decided to go with Turner. Now, one thing that JP threw in as a guest on my radio show this morning, he said that one of the people that interviewed Scott Turner was Dan Snyder. that part of the interviewing process included a sit-down interview with Dan Snyder.

Dan Snyder, I think, really wanted Kevin O'Connell to be here and wanted that relationship that he, you know, began last year with Dwayne Haskins to continue. I don't, when JP told me that this morning, I'm not going to make a big deal out of this. I'm not, I'm just going to tell you that it doesn't sit well with me. Like, I'm not sitting there going, oh, good, Dan, Dan interviewed Scott, and everybody's on the same page. I don't want him to be on anybody's page. I want it to be the Ron Rivera book. In every page he writes or people he chooses fills in all the detail, makes all the decisions. I don't want Dan, I don't want him to feel like we got to have Mr. Snyder sit down with him for his approval.

I mean, that's gotten us nothing but just awful catastrophic season after season. when he's involved even at a minimal amount. So I didn't really like to hear that. But at the same time, it could have been, for all we know, I mean, I consider maybe this context. I've known Scott since he was a kid. He was here. He was a teenager.

He was in high school. And when Norv was here for two years and, yeah, I want to sit down with him, see how he's doing and see if he feels good about the organism. Whatever. It could have been something like that rather than how his plan for developing the quarterbacks. And maybe he asked him that too. But I hope Ron Rivera is not relying or feeling that he's got to get, you know, well, I don't know. Remember who wrote this? It was in the Kime story. Somebody said the best way to handle Dan is to do it your way, but make him feel like it's

his idea, essentially. Yes. So maybe that's part of what Rivera was doing there as well. If you want to try to spin it in a positive way, you could just say that, well, Rivera, do Turner a lot. He didn't want to show favoritism. So he wanted somebody else to sit in there. Now, having it be Dan was probably a problem. But if you want to spend it in a positive way, Rivera not just saying, oh, I know Turner, I don't know O'Connell. Clearly I will lean towards Turner. So let's get somebody else in there to talk to him as well. It's possible. You could spin that in a positive way.

One other quick note in terms of hirings from over the weekend. The Giants did hire Jason Garrett to be their offensive coordinator. So Jason Garrett, staying in the division as an OC in New York, working for Joe Judge and the New York Giants. All right, let's finish up the show by getting to all the things we haven't gotten to yet from the past weekend. Did you have a busy weekend? Don't worry. We've got you covered. It's time for weekend DBR. All right, let's start with the caps. Before we get to the Alex Ovechkin hat trick, for the second game in a row. Their comeback went over the Islanders.

If you didn't see this story, I thought it was interesting. So the Islanders had a four-to-one lead, Aaron, at the end of the second period in their Saturday game against the Caps. And on a goal, late in the second period by Devin Taves, which gave them that four-to-one lead, Taves did the Evgeny Kuznetsov, you know, flapping Birdwalk thing, that Coosie does after his goals.

It was sort of in a mocking way. And the Islander's Twitter account put out the video of that goal. And after the Caps basically came back in the third period with five unanswered to win the game six to four, the Islander's Twitter account couldn't handle all of the criticism of them putting that video out. and they deleted the tweet. See, we've had this conversation before a little bit, various times.

When you decide that you're going to tweet in the middle of a game, just remember, because we all do it. I do it. Aaron does it. Anybody that tweets in the middle of the game knows that there is a chance that that tweet may not age well. So you've got to be willing to, accept the consequences of your tweet not aging well. One of my favorite responses on tweets that don't age well is that didn't age very well,

did it? You got to deal with it. If you're going to head into this jungle that we refer to as in-game tweeting, you've got to be prepared to deal with the consequences, which includes getting abused in every way possible in 280 characters. or less. If you don't have this stomach for this, watch the game, share your opinions with those that are in the room with you, and that's it. Your friends and family members, those that are sitting around, hey man, look at the Islanders. They're kicking the Caps ass. Look at him. He's

doing the... That's great. He's mocking coosie. If you're not, if you're going to enter social media in-game tweeting or Instagramming or anything else, you've got to be prepared and be okay with the consequences. I've been called out so many times for, that didn't age very well. That tweet didn't age very well. Come on, man. You can't pull that down.

Old takes exposed as fun. Yes. Unless it's an old take. Look, there are reasons to delete a tweet. You know, like if you're a business or a team and somebody, or you're a player that's employed by an employer that's going to be really, upset. Yeah, you better delete it quickly. This is all in sort of

the in-game jawing back and forth at each other. It's the talking trash area. And if you're not willing to accept the consequences of your trash talking, coming back, and looking terrible

and making you look awful and dumb, then don't tweet in game. Don't. There are many times I sit down. I'm like, you know what? I have a real strong feeling right now that this game's about to turn in this direction, and then just as I'm finishing the tweet, something happens and saves me. Oh, thank God, I didn't send that one. Oh, God, that is so weak on the Islanders part, so weak. Meantime, Alex Ovechkin, my God. I mean, where do you start? He's got eight

goals in the last three games. Eight goals in the last three games. And he passed, he passed Lemieux. He's tied with Eisman now on that list. And you basically have a situation. He's two behind Messia. Two behind Messia. So he needs three more to pass Messier. And we talked about this last week.

I think I did it on the podcast. With Tommy, yeah. Yeah, he's going to catch Gordy Howell for the number two spot. He's going to, but unless there's an injury, knock on wood. If he doesn't get seriously injured and have his career cut short at this point, he's going to probably within two years, two and a half years,

be the number two goal score of all time. How's at 801 goals? And Gretzky's, I think, at 894, right? It's 894. So now Gretzky, it may take like four years to get to him, four and a half years to get to him. And now you're talking about a 38-year-old Ovechkin, but I think that number two is pretty safe.

Yeah, it's not a lock that he catches Gretzky. It's not a lock that he catches Gretzky, but I think it's a lock that he gets a lock that he. catches Gordy how. Barring some, again, barring an injury, barring something weird happening. Now what's too bad for the caps is, you know, they get on a roll here, you know, right before their buy week and All-Star break combined. Yes.

And because he's not, he's passing on the All-Star game again, it's a one-game suspension, which means he's not going to play until the 29th against Nashville at home. So he goes from eight goals in three games to now having to sit for 11 days. before he plays another game. I don't know if that's good or bad. Or you could frame it as he gets to sit for 11 years. Yeah, maybe, but he's on a roll right now. And the Caps are winning their last three heading into this byweek and this All-Star break. And the Caps, it's interesting because, and I've mentioned this a few times now,

and had Joe B on the show last week on the radio show. Yeah, we had Joe B on the radio show, right? Not this? Yes. The Caps are at 71 points, best record in hockey. But in their division, the penguins have 67 points, and they are playing so well. Their goal differential is better than the caps at plus 35. The penguins are excellent right now, and the caps still have four games over their final 33 of the regular season against Pittsburgh. So those games, more likely than not, are going to determine who ends up, if they play each other,

who ends up having home ice advantage in that series. I mean, they're in a division with the Islanders. They just beat the Islanders of 61 points. Columbus has won five games in a row. They've got 60 points. You're talking about a loaded east in general with Boston. And now, if you haven't been paying attention, one of the most disappointing teams up until just a few weeks ago were the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It was almost like they were still, you know, in a comatose after getting swept in the first round as the number one seed last year. In the last basically month, they've won 12 of 14 games. They did have a 10-game winning streak. They've been on a roll, and now they're right back where I think a lot of people thought they would be before the season. How about that for some hockey talk today? Let's talk some college basketball from over the weekend. We'll start with Maryland.

So after the loss to Wisconsin, man, you know, Aaron, you're sort of in this group. You're in the group of people that just doesn't think Turgeon's very good. that he's not a good coach, that they can do better. That last part, yes. It's not so much that I don't think he's a good coach. I just think they can do better. Okay. Well, you might be right.

I mean, you could probably say that about 90% of the coaching jobs in America that you probably could do better. You know, I do think we live in a day and age now where it's not, hey, you get rid of him and you're going to have the choice of a lot of people. God, so many of these really good coaches have just stayed, and they just leverage these openings for more. money. It's a be careful what you wish for situations sometimes.

I think Maryland, look, I don't care what anybody else says. I know what Maryland is from a coaching community standpoint. It's a top 10 to top 15 job in America. Job. I didn't say program. Those two things are different. They're exclusive of one another.

The Maryland basketball job is a top 15 job. Worst case. It's probably closer to 10 than it is 15. In terms of where it is as a program, it's more like a top 20 program, top 25 program. The job, though, because of a lot of things, the tradition in history, the on-campus incredible arena, the recruiting area that you have in D.C. and Baltimore in your backyard, the league that it's in.

All of those things, when you put it all together, make it a top 10 to top 15. job. It is. Anybody that wants to debate me on this, I'm just going to tell you right now, it's not worthy of a debate. You're wrong. Ask any coach in America where they would put the Maryland job if it opened up. It would be

no worse than a top 15 job. Program right now? It's a top 20 to top 25 program. Is that fair, Aaron? You know, somewhere in that area? Yeah. You know, I mean, it's, you know, right now, whatever. I mean, you can debate that they're not that if you want to on the

program side, that's different. They haven't been into the Sweet 16, but one time during the Mark Turgeon era. So in many ways, that sort of defines that they're barely a top 20 program. We talked the other day. I said they'll bounce back. They're going to play games in which you think they're really good, and they're going to play some games where you think they're bad. I'll tell you one thing, and Turgeon emphasizes this. I wish he wouldn't emphasize it as much because it sounds defensive to me at times, but he's under siege right now. He's feeling it. He actually got really upset with some of the reporters on Friday before this game. Including Don Marcus, who's the longtime reporter there.

So I watched that on YouTube. Was it Don that he was upset? Who was the other person? I'm not sure who the other one was, but I know. He barked a little bit during this presser, this informal press thing that they do the day before a game on the court at Xfinity Center. It's always available on YouTube. I watch it a lot. And he was upset at some of the questions that were asked because they were sort of leading questions and negative questions.

There were negative questions, but I didn't think they were. were out of line at all. I didn't either. But you can tell that he's feeling the heat. Last week, not being able to get the ball in bounds against Wisconsin, he's feeling some heat, okay? He's feeling it. And trust me, he's such a good dude, great wife, great family.

They feel it. I've said this many times. He's coached in places where it didn't matter before he got here. and the level of the level of scrutiny is not something he was used to now he's used to it now but I think he always looks at it and says

my God do you know how many games we've won it's not that though we know it's not it's March this is a March sport you got to do better in March period but anyway I think he's a good coach I don't think he's an elite coach we don't need to have that conversation

now we've had it twice last week I think he's a good coach and I knew that they would be prepared on Saturday. And they were. And they had a terrific first half. They had a 16-point lead. They played very good defense. He's an excellent defensive coach.

You know, anybody that knows anything about basketball, you know. Watch how well they play. You know, first of all, he's played more his own this year in the last couple of years than he ever used to. So he mixes his defense is much better. But he's a really good coach of man-to-man defense. Man, do they play team defense and they communicate. very, very well, and they scout exceptionally well on a defensive standpoint. This is something he is very good at.

You can talk about the turnovers and they're not getting the ball in bounds and some of the offense that you think is disorganized and not right, which isn't always the case, just so you know, but he's an excellent defensive coach, and they're always well coached defensively, and they were so good in the first half. 36 to 20 at halftime, and here was a big difference on Saturday, man. and Dockich said it on the broadcast. Maybe it was Dockich or maybe it was somebody else who said it at halftime or after the game. Maryland's one of those teams where if they shoot the ball well and they will, oh, you know where I heard it?

I heard it from Matt Painter after the game. Matt Painter said after the game, the Purdue coach, the thing about Maryland is their three-point shooting percentage for the year is not reflective of how good they can be as a three-point shooting team. They've got better shooters than their percentage indicates. And he said, when they shoot it, they're, really difficult to beat because of how good they are defensively. And that's why Maryland, you can't bail on them. They have the potential to beat anybody. They can put it together.

They've got talent. You know, I'd like to see him keep. Like when the lead got cut to, you know, 3, 5 in the second half, eventually got cut to 3 at 50, 3 to 50. One of the things I kept thinking is do not hesitate on taking the open threes. They hadn't made any in the second half. I think you tweeted that out at one point. Yeah, but they were running. decent offense. They were running decent offense. They were getting looks.

And, you know, they didn't knock down the killer three there. They made a couple of big defensive stops in particular. Sticks was outstanding on defense again. I mean, a lot of times did not get the help. Turch decided not to give him the help, and he defended Williams and or harm straight up. And by the way, this Trevion Williams, this six-foot-nine, six-foot-10-inch, 275-pounder sophomore for Purdue. star in the making, star. And sticks did a great job. I mean, ended up with four block shots in the game, 10 rebounds, 18 points.

And he is right now, more than anybody, the guy that when he's open from three on that pick and pop, I feel best about him shooting. Yeah. He was two for five from long range. And they knocked down in Wiggins, you know, made a couple threes early off of making some threes against Wisconsin. Keep in mind about Maryland right now, okay? for all we want to say about how painful that loss was to Wisconsin and how ugly it was against Iowa.

In their last six games now, they've won four of them, and they've played well in five of them. That's just, they played well at Wisconsin. You may not like 54 points. It's Wisconsin. You know, this is what people do against Wisconsin. I mean,

Michigan State, beat Wisconsin last week with 67 points. Okay, but more times than not, that's the nature of the game with these teams, all right, in the Big Ten. And the Big Ten is freaking crazy. Did we talk about this, that the Bracketology that Lunardi put out the other day, has 12 of the 14 Big Ten teams in the field at this point. Rutgers won again yesterday.

They're in second place in the Big Ten. Rutgers is. Maryland has to play them twice. I'm going to tell you right now, they are not beaten Rutgers twice. splitting with Rutgers, hopefully. Rutgers has talent, and Pichael's doing a great job there. Illinois won again over the weekend, too, right? I think they're five and two in the Big Ten.

They beat Northwestern. Maryland's got a big game tomorrow night. It's Northwestern on the road, and it's the one team on the road this year that people need to beat. It really is. The Big Ten is so good, top to bottom, and the only bad team in the league is Northwestern, and they were really close at Illinois the other day. Really close.

So it's a game Maryland's got to go win tomorrow night. If they don't go win at Northwestern, we'll have a different conversation on Wednesday. By the way, really quick about Rutgers. AP poll's not quite out yet. It looks like it could be the first time Rutgers ranks since 78, 79. Wow. Yeah. Do you know Rutgers was in the final four?

in 1976. Okay, the year Indiana won it was the year that Rutgers, I believe, am I right about that? Hold on. I think Rutgers was in the Final Four in 1976. Yes, I was right about that. Okay, good. Rutgers played in the Final Four in 1976. They played Michigan and lost in the Final Four.

Indiana beat UCLA in the other Final Four game, and then Indiana, completed the last perfect season, which was 1976, with a 20-point win over Michigan in the final that particular year. On that team in 1976, on that Rutgers team in 1976, Eddie Jordan. And he averaged 14 points per game for Rutgers. Eddie Jordan was on that Rutgers team. Eddie Jordan, the former Wizards coach. If you're wondering which Eddie Jordan I was talking about, Eddie Jordan, the former Wizards. Where is Eddie Jordan right now? I think he's still living in the area.

I ran into him once, like last year, I think it was. He's such a good dude, too. But is he coaching anywhere? Anywhere? I don't think so right now. Last I can see, yeah, he was at Rutgers. Yeah, no, nothing. Nothing right now.

He was an assistant, here it is. He was an assistant in Charlotte, 2017 and 28. So he's not coaching this year. We're sure about that? I'm not 100%, but I do not see him listed. Says he's retired. Yeah. Says he's currently retired.

Eddie Jordan, anyway. Yeah, really, really good college basketball player and played in the final four on that Rutgers team. After growing up in D.C. and attending Carol, Archbishop Carroll, which was one of the all-time great high school basketball teams, long before Eddie Jordan, though, played there. Lastly, Georgetown lost over the weekend. Marcus Howard went for 42 against him. I mean, Marcus Howard's just amazing. How did Maryland hold him to nothing? Darryl Morsel.

That's one of the most shocking things of this season. Yeah, Darryl Morsell was awesome. Darryl Morsell was awesome that day, but seriously, what did they hold them to? Three points? Was it three points that day that he scored? It was very little. I mean, because he is the nation's best score that I've seen. He's leading the league in scoring points per game.

I believe he's second. Is he leading the nation in scoring? Yes. Yeah, he's leading the... Oh, did I say league? I meant leading the country. 28.2 points per game. He's second in the odds for the wooden award.

And against Marilyn, Maryland held him to six points. His low by far this year. He was one for 12 against the Terps in that Orlando tournament. In his last... How about this? How about just his last eight games? 26 points, 32 points, 30, 29, 29, 27, 35, and 42. He's had a 51-point game this year, had that against Southern Cal.

That was in Orlando the day before they played Maryland. And he had a 40-point game against Davidson also in that tournament this year. So anyway, Georgetown loses. Georgetown's still in good shape. That would have been a really good win for the Hoyas. Marquette's good. Marquette's a potential tournament team. Big stretch for Georgetown coming up, though. They've got Xavier and Butler in their next two.

They still have Butler twice, I believe. The Hoyas, too. I think that's it. Oh, the one other thing I was going to mention from this weekend is Cincinnati. The Bengals apparently have made it very clear that they are going to use the number one pick. They're not going to trade it. I mean, there's a lot of time between now and then. If they get the right offer, they'll trade it.

But I just, the more you think about it, can you imagine if they don't take Joe Burrow? No, it's stupid. They're going to take Joe Burrow. It doesn't matter if Chase Young is evaluated at a higher level because it's the quarterback spot. Here's the only way they don't take Joe Burrow. If they love Tua more. Which I don't see happening. But if you tell me that that's what ends up happening, that Tua is 100% healthy and people, you know, for what he tests well, he shows up at the combine, he shows up everything well.

Okay, maybe. That's the only way. Last thought on the show. Andy Reid has a chance to win a Super Bowl. I think his career is Hall of Fame already. But, you know, he's one of those coaches that has always sort of gotten himself. You know, remember how slow they were playing down two scores in the one Super Bowl? You know, so many clock management, timeout management.

He's been one of the worst at this over the years. Even yesterday we talk about him having clock management issues. I mean, he has been one of the worst at this over the years. But, God, he's a damn good football coach. Offensively, he's creative. but also how fortunate for him is it that he got Patrick Mahomes. Now he recognized Mahomes and traded up to take Mahomes with Alex Smith as his quarterback. You know, no one was projecting Patrick Mahomes that high.

You know, at least the public wasn't. And he traded up and he took him. And Patrick Mahomes is going to, he's got a really good chance of a great quarterback delivering a Super Bowl title to him. but just think about his playoff losses in Kansas City alone. They blew a 3810 lead in the second half in a wild card game at Indianapolis, lost that game 45 to 44. Then they lost those games at Arrowhead. You know, they made a two-point conversion that got called back for holding Leitna

and an 18 to 16 loss to the Steelers. They had a 21-3 lead against Tennessee and Marcus Marriota in the wild card round and then lost that game 22 to 21, courtesy primarily of Derek Henry in that game in that second half. I am, you know, I'm not one of these people that really wanted Andy Reed to get back to a Super Bowl and win it, but I do like Andy Reid. He's so well liked in the profession. And he's a damn good coach.

He really is, a Hall of Fame coach, even if he loses his Super Bowl. But to get back for another chance, it took Patrick Mahomes. And that's, there's a, there are many ways to win in the NFL. You know, the 49ers did it with a running game in defense. The Chiefs did it with unbelievable speed at the wide receiver and playmaking spots on offense, and a great, maybe one of the most talented and gifted quarterbacks we've seen in a long, long time. There's so many ways to do it.

But man, when you have the chance on the quarterback, when you have the chance, that's still pretty much the one thing that guarantees that you're going to have a chance if you've got an elite quarterback more than anything else. An elite defense doesn't guarantee you anything, an elite running game doesn't guarantee you anything. An elite quarterback pretty much guarantees you're going to have several swings at it in the postseason. And that's something that everybody's going to have to think about at the beginning of this 2020 April draft, especially if there are, if there's a quarterback or two, two-a, that gets evaluated in the same way that Patrick Mahomes gets evaluated. I can't imagine any of them are going to be.

Patrick Mahomes. He's spectacular. I don't know that I've seen a better extend the play off-schedule quarterback than Patrick Mahomes. All right, that's it for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.