The Kevin Sheehan Show - No Defense In Walk-off Loss

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

Kevin with Thom today recapping Washington's 29-26 loss in Seattle. Both had their big takeaways from the game to start. Kevin then broke down Commanders-Seahawks in his "Game-Take". Plenty on other weekend games to finish up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Third down in 10. Howell scanning the field, throwing over the middle. It's caught at the fifth hole.

The Army Brown, he'll take it to the house for the touchdown. Tommy, I swear to you, on that last drive, I was expecting them to score and tie the game on that drive. I had confidence that Howell would make a play. I was confident that Terry or someone else would make some plays and that they would have a legitimate chance to score in that final drive, which they did. Did you feel the same way on the final drive or not? Well, you know, I was watching the game up at Frederick at quartermasters,

my cigar hangout in Frederick. Uh-huh. And I turned to as the owner and I said, you know, this kid's perfectly capable of bringing I'm back here. So I don't know if that was absolutely, you know, I thought he would, but I said he's capable of doing it. I mean, I just, for whatever reason, I felt like he was going to bring him down the field and score.

Tommy is with me on Monday and Wednesday this week. He's, I don't know, he's got plans on Tuesday and Thursday, and I do what he tells me to do. So he told me to put him on Monday and Wednesday of this week. it's pretty much our relationship, actually, over the many years that we've known and worked with one another. You tell me what you're going to do, and I just say yes. Pretty much the way it goes. Would you disagree with that? I think that's equitable, don't you think?

Well, I guess with all the value you bring. Yeah. I'll read one of the reviews that doesn't really speak to that value here in a moment. The show, as always, presented by Window Nation, 866. 90 Nation for new windows right now, especially before winter arrives. You'll save big on energy bills, and you're going to save big on the windows. Mention my name. You'll get a free estimate.

86690 Nation or windownation.com. My game take coming up in its entirety in the next segment, we will freewheel it here and give our kind of overarching themes and thoughts from the game yesterday here in a moment. I do want to read two reviews. All right, two reviews that came in. We did get a one star. Occasionally somebody hears my pleading to rate and review the show and gives us a one star. If you're planning...

Well, what if they think the one star is the highest you can get? No, no, because here's what the review was. Whenever Tommy's on the show, it's the most negative commander's show ever, one star. So I don't think they thought it was five stars. And so what I would ask all of you to do is if you're going to give us one star, don't rate us. Don't waste the time because that doesn't help us. The good reviews help us. This is like you?

But I've got a really – What are you talking about? I've got a really nice review to read, though. See, I set it up with that because I had such a – a nice one to read that, you know, we got to balance it out on occasion. This was a five-star review that came from Juan. Juan wrote, appointment listening, Best DC Sports Podcast. I've been a long-time listener and don't miss an episode. Don't know what took me so long to write a review, but definitely five-stars, best DC sports cast. Kevin's, Kevin does a great job of bringing in excellent guests

for different perspectives. But my favorites are Tuesdays. and Thursdays when Tom joins Kevin. The chemistry this duo has is top-notch, and in addition to my favorite skins and commanders talk, I love when they discuss their favorite movies and shows, and they're comical and interesting stories from their past. Also, Tom's personalized Shelley's backroom ads are very entertaining. I never thought I would look forward to commercials, L.O.L.

but Tom always makes Shelley sound so appealing and inviting due to his sincerity. And I love how each ad spot is unique. So there's always fun commentary to anticipate making me want to visit Shelly's again and again. Thank you, Juan. That was a very nice review. The truth is, or the truth of the matter is, as Ron would say. The other review we got, and he did not sign his name to the review, was just a one-sentence review.

We prefer a better sentence, a more encouraging sentence, but that was a very nice one in all seriousness. But if you haven't rated and reviewed the show and you don't mind doing it, it is very helpful when you do that on Apple and Spotify, in particular. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you can

and follow us, especially on Apple and Spotify. That's a big help as well. So, wow. Where to start, Tommy? If I had just been a fan of football like I was for most of the day yesterday, yesterday was an incredible day of NFL football. Do you know that the five walk-off field goals to decide games most ever for an NFL Sunday? We had five of them yesterday. And Washington was one of the five.

They just walked it off the wrong way. Yes. Do you really, I know it is dramatic in one sense, but walk-off field goals in terms of a deciding play are pretty much a downer. I mean, it's not like hitting the bucket to win the game or hitting a walk-off home run or even a walk-off single. field goals. I mean, you know, it's hard to get excited about field goals. I know it decides the outcome.

But the actual act itself of all the game deciding plays and sports, like an overtime goal in hockey. Oh, that's number one. Okay, so, I mean, you put a field goal. Yeah. I think you're right. I mean, comparing it to everything you just compared it to, it's the least of the, game-ending walk-off plays that decide a game. I agree. It's a bit anti-clin. I'm going to watch a quarterback sneak on the goal line to decide a game. It's very anticlimactic these days because so high of a percentage of field goals are made.

Now, if the field goal is a 62-yarder, a 60-yarder, that's dramatic. but it feels like when somebody lines up to kick a field goal to end the game, if it's inside 52 yards, it feels like it's like a 90% 85% probability. You know, actually, it's more exciting of a play when the field goals missed because it's so surprising. Yes, yes, it is. Yes.

Yeah, I mean. So even though it was a very important, very unique day. I don't get juiced up over five games in one weekend decided by a field goal. Especially when it comes with that situation where you are setting up for the field goal, you've already hit the big play

to get you in field goal range and close field goal range, and now you're just taking the snap and moving it to the middle of the field or whatever, you're taking a knee. I think that's the way the Lions game amended with the Chargers. Actually, Dan Campbell, I'm telling you, man, football's different these days. There's no doubt about it. And all you got to do is go to Detroit's final drive. The score was 3838. They had a fourth down and two, Tommy, at the Chargers 26-yard line in a tie game, and they

went for it, and they got it, and they were able to run the clock down and kick a walk-off field goal. If they had missed that, the Chargers take over and they probably go down and kick a game-winning field goal. It is interesting, but basically he felt in that moment, fourth and two, they had been unstoppable all day long, pretty much. Although I looked this up, they were like four of 13 on third down. And going into that play, I think they were three of four on fourth down, so they had made fourth downs.

I don't know how many of them were sneaks, like, you know, one-yard sneaks. But you'd never see that 10 years. ago, five years ago, ever. I mean, isn't it in part, and tell me if I'm to state the obvious here what you're talking about, is you kick the field goal at that time

and you leave too much time for the other team to march down the field and beat you? Of course, that's what he was thinking. You know, given the context of that game, and I wasn't watching that game because it was on at the same time the Washington-Seattle game was, but considering that basically

here was the second half, right, there was a punt to start, and then it was touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal for each. I mean, that was every, every drive after the first drive of the third quarter was a touchdown. Chargers touchdown, Detroit touchdown. Chargers touchdown, Detroit touchdown, Chargers touchdown. And then, you know, if the Lions had wanted to score touchdown, touchdown, they probably would have. And by the way, the first half ended, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, I mean, so yeah, I guess Dan Campbell's, like, well, we're fucked if we've got to kick a field goal and we're only up three with a

minute and a half to go. They're going to go down and we're going to lose 45 to 41. So he went for it. Yeah. Probably the whole fourth down analytics crowd have a lot of fun with this and tell me that, well, there was no decision, of course, based on whatever you go for it. But context matters. And the context here was obviously yeah, you better go for it and walk them off with a field goal or you're going to lose on the other end 45-41 because you can't stop them. But anyway.

But what does it say about the game, the state of the game, that you would do that for fear that your defense can't stop another team from marching down the field with less than two minutes left to play? I know. And, you know, the funny thing is Detroit's defense has been a bit of a surprise for their team this year. They were so good offensively last year. They've been good defensively at times this year, but obviously not yesterday.

So there you go. All right. Let's open up, well, we've kind of already opened up, but let's start with our big takeaways from the 29 to 26 loss to Seattle. I'll let you go first. Well, again, I may be stating the obvious here, and if I did, then my column tomorrow should be written with a byline of Mr. Obvious, but it hit me after yesterday's loss that

for a number of years, even under Rivera, but ever since Kirk left, and even some people, when Kirk was here, for, well, let's say for Ron's tenure,

the theme has been, you know, in the last two years, at least, you know, they just need a quarterback. They have a talented roster, They have some very good players at some key positions.

If they get a quarterback, it will put them over to hump. Like Dan Snyder said to those gambling officials a couple years ago, or last summer, now we have a quarterback. That was the key. That was the difference maker. That was to take you to the next step. Well, that's not the case. I mean, you wake up today and you say, well, we have a quarterback, but we're four and six.

Well, I'm going to. You're still losing. I'm going to give you, if you haven't written a column already. Ron Rivera last year, when they were in last place and the other three teams in the division were doing well, was asked, why are you in last place? He said, quarterback. Remember? That's right. He said quarterback.

And so I would. I would ask him now, so what's your excuse now? Look, that was a legitimate excuse last year, because you know why? The defense was better last year. It just was, for whatever reason, it was better. Whatever reason it was. But this year, you know, when I say this year, you know, we're all in recency bias mode, always in these conversations. And yet, you know, the NFL changes so quickly. but the last three weeks, their quarterback and their offense has played well enough to win three straight games, and they've lost two of them. And I know two of the opponents were pretty good in Philly and in Seattle, Philly in particular. And Seattle's a tough venue to play them, and that game was on the road.

But they played better, like I said last week, and I'll say it again this week when I get to my recap, For the first time since 2017, the last three weeks have felt like Washington's got a legitimate offense, and they haven't had it since 2017. You can come up with a couple of Alex Smith games that were managed well, a couple of Taylor Heineke games that were managed well. But we've never had the kind of offense since Kirk left that we've had the last three weeks. could change, but it's been very promising the last three weeks. But yeah, Ron said quarterback a year ago.

Yes. What's his excuse now? So that was kind of like my takeaway from yesterday is they have a quarterback, but yet this team is still flawed in a number of areas, particularly on defense, and not really as close as they always made them out to be. And the whole roster building exercise has just been an exercise pretty much its utility. They have a quarterback, and they're four and six against teams that combined record of the teams they've faced are 35 and 50. Well, their four wins are against teams that are, we're 10 and 25.

They are now. Let me figure it out real quickly. Arizona ones. That's 11 and 25. Atlanta lost. That's 11 and 26. Denver plays tonight. They didn't beat the Giants.

And the Bears won. So 12 and 26. They went on Thursday night. So I have a follow-up to your big takeaway. So this week, are you still questioning whether it's a quarterback, or the quarterback. Okay. The only reason I would still say a quarterback

is because you're going to have new decision makers in the building. Okay. And they may want, if there's a quarterback in the draft that they want, they may still draft another quarterback. That's fine. What do you think? What do you think?

Not what you think they think. No, not what you think they think. What do you think? Do you think he's a quarterback or should be the quarterback? I think he's a quarterback and I would draft another quarterback. Okay. I don't think that's an unreasonable answer still now. It's three games.

It's been three very promising games. So a couple of things. First of all, I'm going to tell you right now, yesterday hit me hard. I really wanted them to win that game. I know you were very enthusiastic about their chance. I know I was. And I kind of feel like, you know, whatever. The passion's not what it was, and now it's fleeting.

It's here and there. But I kind of felt like I kind of felt like I did before the Buffalo game earlier this year, where I thought, hmm, there might be something going on here. And they walked into that stadium against Buffalo with this swag, and I thought, man, I think they might. And then they got absolutely bludgeoned. But I felt the same way going into yesterday's game. I gave them out as a smell test pick. They covered.

And I actually played them personally on the money line as well. But it was more than that. I was really invested in the idea that if they beat a good team on the road. In Seattle, by the way, just so everybody understands, they are a good team. They are a good team. They're also the 21st ranked DVOA defense. I looked that up this morning. Was it 21st or 19th?

Hold on for once. 21st. You know, Washington still hasn't played in their good games offensively a really good defense. That's not changing my mind about how promising it's been, though. I just saw this opportunity yesterday on November 12th, while the season is just really starting to get to the fun part of an NFL season where the fall is turning, we'll turn to winter soon and the big games. And I just am like, I want them involved in some of these big games.

And if they can win this game, they're going to Dallas on Thanksgiving at 6 and 5 because the giants have thrown in the towel on this particular season. They gave up 600 plus yards to the Cowboys yesterday. Like, I'll get to the fact that Washington's a double-digit favorite, which I mentioned it could happen on Friday, you know, towards a little bit later on in the show. But number one is I really wanted them to win. And I also, by the way, just not for the importance of games and the fun of them. that and being relevant and having people talk about Washington being, you know, a team that's

decent, you know, and potentially a playoff team. I think it's better for those that really feel like Sam Hal is the right guy or for those of you who still want to continue to continue to evaluate Sam Hal, I think it's much better for them to play, you know, meaningful games through the rest of the year. You know, A game against the 49ers or the Jets or the Rams late in the season, if they are still mathematically alive and can hang in there, that's a better measuring stick on Sam Howl than like the game at the end of last year. In my opinion, it's not even opinion.

It's true. It's just like when you're playing a game that you have to win, that's a better measuring stick than a game in which they're going to try different things. And we're going to try this guy at left guard. We want to see what he looks like when you're kind of, you know, long-term planning here. The other thing that was just two other quick takeaways. Number one is this. They needed one effing stop yesterday, just one, and they couldn't get it.

And it's pretty much been the story of the year. I know they had an interception to end the game last week, okay? I get it. I'm talking about trying to win. win a game against a good team this year. They had two opportunities against Philadelphia, and they couldn't get one stop. Three drives to end the game for Seattle. They scored on all three of them. 28 plays, 175 yards, two fourth down conversions, one on a key penalty, which, you know, I think was the right call. Gino Smith all of a sudden got hot. He was 12 of 15 for 100.

and 228 yards. And they needed all of that to offset what Sam Hal was doing and the Washington offense was doing to them, where they were unstoppable down the stretch. Now, to be fair, and I think this is accurate, offensively, it wasn't smooth throughout the first three quarters. I mean, they had managed just 12 points and barely over 200 yards until we got to the point where we were three minutes into the fourth quarter. But man, Like that Philadelphia game when he drove him down the field and threw the touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson on the final player regulation, those final two drives, it clicked. The offense did. They absolutely erupted in the final 12 minutes. Sam Hal led them on big drives where he had to deliver on multiple third downs, a fourth down. He threw two touchdowns.

Tough environment, Seattle is always, and it didn't phase him at all. It never does. The noise, the pressure, he just kept slinging it. Same thing that he did in Philly. And like in Philly, they lost an overtime there. They lost on a walk-off here. They couldn't get a stop.

In Philly, they gave up that cushion on that third and long, which gave him field goal range, which was just Bush League. And yesterday on a third and four, you know, they didn't play soft, you know, off coverage for those of you that kept saying that they did. It's just that St. Juice didn't get his hands. And he gave him a free release off the line of scrimmage. You need one stop. So one last takeaway. And that is, I said this this morning, and I actually heard it in my voice and I mentioned it.

And Denton had no idea what I was talking about, but I think you will. I said, Sam is making a case right now. He is making a really good case. And then Tommy, as I said that, I thought about a certain movie and I said, Sam's got a big case. He's arguing. He's making a case. You know, he made law review.

That was, by the way, Lieutenant Caffey talking to Lieutenant Weinberg, who I guessed correctly was Kevin Pollock because immediately Neil, I said, is his name Kevin Pollock? And Neil and Rockville texted me immediately to say yes, Kevin Pollock. But back to the theme. He's making a really good case right now. It's three straight weeks of really promising football. I'm not sure what you define or would. define as consistency because you need to see consistency. It's definitely more than three in a row.

Okay? It's definitely more than three in a row. Especially, to be honest, again, against three teams that aren't spectacular defensively. But it doesn't feel in this moment right now that it needs to be a lot more than three in a row. You know, like it feels like you give me another three like that, in a row over the giants, which should be easy, the Cowboys, you know, the week after that on Thanksgiving, and then the Dolphins. And then I'm going to probably be saying it's not just about if they should bring him back. I'll demand that they bring them back. Now, to your point, and I totally hear you, new GM, new staff, they're going to do what they want. And this is a draft that is going to be loaded with first round quarterbacks.

And if you guys watch college football on Saturday, my God, Pennix Jr., Bo Nix, and Jaden Daniels. I mean, I think the LSU quarterback personally is the best that I've watched all year. I've been saying that since early in the season, that they're the best offensive team. That was a performance for the ages by a quarterback. I don't see any chance he doesn't go in the top half of the first round. But anyway, to your point that I'm making, is that they may do what they want to do, but he is making a case. And the good news is they don't have to decide now.

We don't have to, you know, declare anything because he's got seven games left in this regular season, and they can't sign him to a long contract extension or they can't sign him to a contract extension, excuse me, until after next year, after the third year. So, yeah, Sam, doing a pretty good job the last three weeks, as has Eric Bien of me, and I'll get to that. But I don't know, yesterday's game was important, and I was really at the end of it, I was drained a little bit, and I was like, God damn it, I really wanted five and five and then six and five going to Dallas. You know what part of it is too, Tommy for me? The buildup to that Philadelphia game last week and the constant, the rivalry, you know, Philly, Dallas,

it's like Washington Dallas is just so completely forgotten by football fans. Even older football fans don't even acknowledge it anymore. And by the way, justifiably so. The Eagles Cowboys is a great rivalry. It is the rivalry in the NFC East, and it's one of the best rivalries. in football. Washington doesn't get to partake in that anymore because they have sucked for so long. But man, a Thanksgiving Day game, six and five, Cowboys at seven and three, that would have been, I would have been up for that. But that ain't going to happen. I was polling for that because

you're right. Thanksgiving, Cowboys, and Redskins, now commanders. with a meaningful game. Okay. To me, it would have, it would have been a great story. It would have been a great story. Would you have needed your little table in a different room as everybody else celebrated Thanksgiving?

Well, I'm still going to need that, yeah. I'm still going to need that. You know, I just, and if they beat the Giants, they're five and six, It actually is the exact same record they had when they went to Dallas in 2012 with RG3, and that win got them to six and six. I'm not going to sit here and do playoff scenarios. I was definitely going to do it had they won yesterday.

But, you know, they're far from mathematically eliminated, far from it. And assuming they'll beat the Giants this week, you know, they can hang in there in contention for a few weeks. The problem is, you know, they're. this stretch after they beat the Giants, assuming they will. If they lose to the Giants, at that point, these giants, not the Giants from a few weeks ago. That's a totally different football team than the one they're playing this Sunday. They faced one of the players that played him the first time yesterday in Leonard Williams. But if they were to lose to the Giants, then I'm all in, you know, kind of at that point,

with just play out the string, let Sam play well, and try to get. get, you know, as good a position as you can get. But they should beat the Giants. They can't lose to these giants. Tommy, I mentioned this on... Jersey Tommy Davido? I know. They're going to lose to him?

He lives at home with his parents, which, by the way, is smart at his age. I mentioned this on Friday's show. It has been six years since Washington was a double-digit favorite over anybody. six years. Do you know how I didn't go through the rest of the league, okay, and find out if it had been as long. I can't, because everybody's had at least a fleeting moment of more success than Washington's had over the last five and a half years, but they are right now a 10-point favorite

against the Giants. First time, they'll be a double-digit favorite if it goes off on that, if it goes off at 10 since October 15th, 2017 against Kyle Shanahan's 49ers, the first year that he was coaching there. And Washington was, you know, a really good offensive team. And then they got injured that year. You can't be typically favored by double digits, Tommy, unless you can really score or unless you're playing a completely in-nep team and you're dominant defensively. But anyway. They've got a combination of both right now. Yeah, they can score. They can score.

That is for sure. Yeah, I, uh, okay, well, they didn't win. Um, you know, Sam Hal made play after play after play. He was making them on schedule, off schedule, and he's just promising right now. Um, well, one other quick thing before we get to my game taken, then you can have at it as well. I, I've talked over the years about those. that are so hell-bent on making win-loss records a quarterback stat. It's silly to make it a quarterback stat when the offense isn't out there for the entire game to

start with. I mean, they're out there for kind of half the game. But yesterday was one of those perfect examples of if somebody tells you that win-loss is the most important quarterback stat, it just isn't. Sam Hal did more than enough to win that football. game. His defense let him down. All right, my game take, Tommy's take on the game when we come back right after

these words from a few of our sponsors. Jason Myers for the Seattle win. Good snap. Good hold. Good kick. Seattle wins it. 29. 26. The final.

Jason Myers walk-off kick ends Washington's day 2926. And as I mentioned, Tommy, hard for me. I know it's not for some that think about the big picture solely because they're just thinking, you know, hey, Sam look good, Dan's gone, Rivera, Jack, Jell Rio, they're all gone anyway, so who cares? I get it. I mean, I think about the big picture, too, and I can't wait for the offseason. It's going to be an exciting off season on this podcast. Stay tuned. Get your ratings and reviews ready. We are going to have a busy January after the season ends. Yes, draft picks by the dozen and salary cap of money by the

changes. Yeah, but first the big changes that are coming. They're coming. That's a given. A hundred percent a given. All right. I want to tell you real quickly. Wait a minute. Wait, before we go quickly, just a brief interlude, if they won against Seattle, and they had beaten the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, those changes are up in the air. If they had won yesterday and beaten the Giants and they were six and five and they went to Dallas and won to get to seven and five, yeah, you know, I don't know.

We still, I'd go back to what I said at the beginning of the season, and I wouldn't have changed at that point, and that is they have to make the playoffs and win at least one playoff game. The thing is, is they would have been in position for part one of that, which would have been to make the playoffs. But, you know, with the Dolphins, Rams, Jets, 49ers, Cowboys again, I mean, they could have, they probably would have done just what they, that's the thing.

No matter what happened yesterday, no matter what, you know, even your scenario, we know where this is headed. It's 8 and 9, 9 and 8. And, you know, even if they eeked in, it's not like they're good enough to win anything. Polly and I, Paulie from the 757, got into an argument on the show. I love Polly. He said, they're a bad team.

They are a bad football team. And I'm like, no, they're not bad. It's just that they're not good. There's a difference. If they were bad, they wouldn't have taken C.S. and Philadelphia two times to the brink, which is what they've done. I think they're just what we thought they would be before this season started. We're actually right for once.

You know, this is a team that's somewhere in the middle, lower middle, upper middle, probably closer to lower middle, but it's not a bad football team. We've watched some bad – now they've lost to some bad football teams, but they're not a bad football team. Anyway, I want to tell you real quickly, Windonation has a really good deal going on right now. The cold weather is coming. I was looking at the long range today. Looks like right now a chance for a cold Thanksgiving.

And then December, Doug Camer was on with me last week. All the weather people, Tommy, are predicting a snowier than normal winter. In some cases, much snowier. All has to do with El Nino. Look, if you've got windows that are running, old, 10 years of age or older, you should get new windows because you're losing a lot of money by paying much higher heating and air conditioning bills. If you've been thinking about windows, even if they aren't, you know, old, but you want new windows, you want your home to look better, just give

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Call them at 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com. Mention my name. They are very excited right now, by the way, Harley and Aaron are because they are huge Cleveland Browns fans and the Browns won. You know, that was a walk-off field goal, Tommy, but that was an exciting walk-off field goal. That game was perfect as a lead-in to the Washington game.

All right. Time for my game take. Attention, here's Kevin's Game Take. The Game Take brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. They'll take good care of you. The line tonight is seven. The smell test so far this weekend, six and four,

with Denver plus seven tonight pending. And that is the line at MyBooky. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. By the way, C.J. Stroud, right now the fifth pick to win the MVP at MyBooky. What a season he is having in Houston. What an incredible year the Texans are having, Tommy. They, along with Arizona, were universally picked to be the two worst teams in the league.

If Houston makes the playoffs, and they could, they're a game behind Jacksonville in the AFC South. They've already beaten Jacksonville once. They play them again at home in a couple of weeks. which will be a huge game in that division. Their next three games are at home against the Cardinals, Jags, and then Broncos. They still have the Titans twice, the Colts and the Jets. If Houston makes the playoffs, I think it'll be one of the longest preseason odds to make the playoffs winners in forever.

They've been exciting. MyBooky.ag or MyBooky.com promo code. Kevin D.C. All right, what I liked, what I didn't like, and a few other observations. I'll start with this, Sam Howell. Sam Howell in the fourth quarter, and when they had to have it in particular. Down twice by seven in the fourth quarter, he drove his team eight plays, 73 yards, through a touchdown past to Antonio Gibson, and then down seven drove him 71 yards in 10 plays and threw a touchdown on third and 10 to Diami Brown to tie it. Three for four on third downs over those final two, drives one for one on fourth down.

There were so many plays from the game that I loved them. I'm going to go through some of them. And there were a few, you know, a few nits to pick. But early on, first drive of the game, you know, he is off schedule on quick game because it's not there. He extends plays. The last two weeks, he's been brilliant at extending plays. He gets out and there's Robinson Jr. as the backer comes for Sam Hal. and he just flicks one and it's 51 yards in a touchdown.

Brilliant play. Can I say something about, can I interrupt for a second? On that play in particular, there were so many things impressive about it. To me, it was his touch. Oh, yeah. That was so impressive. Excellent point. The touch on that pass was so good.

Well, when you're... So calm. It was such a calm touch, a calm pro when all hell was breaking loose. This is, you know, the best quarterbacks are no longer Brady Manning, you know, etc. Pure pocket quarterbacks. The game has just changed a lot. If you can't play well off schedule, if you don't have mobility, it's tough. I mean, I say that, and you know who was having the career year before he got injured is primarily a pocket quarterback.

And you still see it occasionally, and you can play at a high level from there. but Sam is not that quarterback. Sam isn't a traditional pocket passer. And on that play, I mean, they're going quick game and he decides it he doesn't like the look. And he comes out of that pocket and he's flushing left. And it's not only great touch, but he throws with so many different arm angles. It is not comparing him, okay, to Mahomes or to Josh Allen. But he's able to make the throws. You see a lot of quarterbacks, young quarterback.

now making with all of these different angles. And it was necessary, and it was with great touch. Second drive of the game. There's a quick game. It's not there. He goes off schedule again and finds Terry for 13 yards. There's a play on the drive that made it 9 to 3 in the second quarter where it's a quick game to Gibson on 3rd and 3. I'm going to get to Biena here in a moment, but he's just so good.

good in the quick game. And the three-step drop, get it out, in the screen game, he's got a super solid release. And when he's forced to be decisive, he is and he's accurate and it looks good. Second quarter, there's one of the dropbacks in the game that he had, third and two. And what I've noticed about some of their third and, say, less than sevens, when they do drop them back five steps, seven. steps. They're running those underneath crossers and they're just working for them right

now. And this one is to Logan Thomas. He hits him perfect stride for a big play. Third quarter, there's a drop back off schedule, another incredible throw to Robinson Jr. on a play that was almost identical to the touchdown pass. It's almost identical

to it. He's looking in one direction. He comes back and there's Robinson Jr. on the move with the backer coming to stop Hal from running. And as you said, throws with great touch on that one. The drive that tied it at 1919. They had to drop back on third and three. And again, you got some of those crossers, but he goes off schedule and he finds Logan

Thomas. There's a second in 10 where he gets Robinson out of the backfield on probably one of those choice routes, as coolly calls him, or it may have been the pattern he was supposed to run. Perfect throw, quick game in stride 17 yards. And then for me, my favorite play, and there were plenty of them, the touchdown pass to Gibson's, my favorite Sam Hal play of the game. It is immediate pressure because Wiley gets beat.

And there is an opportunity for him to step up into a pocket that's been created as Wiley got beat to the outside. And instead, as he is literally being contacted. by the pass rusher, he just slides barely to his left and flicks the ball, can't get his body into this throw. It's almost a flick of the wrist to a spot where he knew Gibson would be. And to have that kind of strength under pressure, throwing it not with your normal motion, that's the, they've got a quarterback that can really, think he can really throw it.

We've known that for, I mean, that was never in doubt that he had that kind of arm strength, but he's really throwing to the spot. He understands is available versus that defense, but he is being contacted as the ball gets out of his hands. I love that. The final drive that tied it at 2626, the third and two slant to McClorn, so decisive. Again, you know, it's three-step hits the back foot. It's out on time quick.

he's got another one of those where he's maneuvering through the pocket on a dropback. He does a great job of avoiding the pressure. He rolls right and he throws to Crowder who just drops it. That was unfortunate, but it was still a really good play by Sam. The throw to Gibson, where Gibson didn't get out of bounds in the final two minutes on third and ten, that is, you know, seven-man protection, just five rushers. So they came with an extra man, but you got seven. blockers. He is being pressured. He, you know, he gets to, he gets to, you know, off schedule and is

able to throw to Gibson on the checkdown. And Gibson nearly turns it into a first down. Excellent play by Sam to avoid the pressure and to get out of there and find a receiver. Because obviously in that particular situation, a sack would not have been good. And in completion wouldn't have been great. That would have set up four. and 10. I'll get to the clock management part of that in a little bit. The fourth and one slant to Doxon outstanding. Outstanding route, they played without much contact at the line of scrimmage on some of those big plays as well. We let Metcalf, you know, sort of run off the line of scrimmage without contact. They did the same thing with Terry on two slants on the final drive. The play that tied the game,

the touchdown pass. I mean, it's a great play by Sam to be patient. I mean, he drops it, you know, on one of those throws that is a, it's a great throw. Don't get me wrong. It's also just barely a great throw, but still, it was great touch. But the interesting thing about that play is when you go back and you watch it, Seattle doesn't rush him the same way. It's third and ten, and they're playing contain. They don't want him to go off schedule. They want him to stay in the pocket and make a throw against their coverage. It's actually a four-man rush technically, but one of them is just hanging back. He's not even rushing.

And he had the time, and he threw it to Diami Brown, and he had a checkdown open that would have been short of the sticks on third and ten, but would have set up a fourth and short. He took the higher risk play, which he's been, you know, known to do here. And Diami Brown, how about the accelerants? after he caught it. But just really, really, for a third straight week, so many more outstanding plays. And I think for the second straight week, he was as good as he's been off schedule as any other game that preceded the last two. I mean, just a couple of, you know, when you, look, when you call 47 pass plays, they're not all going to be perfect. I mean, people, if you've watched football and you have, you understand that.

He didn't throw an interception yesterday. Could have. He had a fumble. We'll get to that. But there's an early pass in the second drive of the game. It's one of those dropbacks. They only had 17 of those out of the 47 that were called. But it was the kind of dropback they'd be doing.

First and 10 play action under center. And the center gets pushed. right back into Sam. He's got pressure in his face, and he threw a ball that probably shouldn't have been thrown and could have easily been picked by Witherspoon. But again, you know, these are going to happen. He's got a screen in the second quarter to Gibson that he just didn't wait long enough. He rushed it. I think people will say, well, Gibson let it go through his hands. Okay, but Gibson was just barely even turned around. And I think Sam just had to be a little bit more patient on that. He took a sack on one of those dropbacks. Every sack was on a pure dropback,

all three of them. In the third quarter that dropped them to much further field goal range, he's got to figure out a way to get out of that one and throw it somewhere. Although I didn't think he held it that long on that particular one, but still, it turned it into a 49-yard field goal. He made it. Sly made the kick. The second sack, I think it was the second one. He held it too long. I mean, we've seen that this year. Pure dropback second and 10, and he just held it. And he took a big sack. I thought the worst play for Sam all day was, it was an odd throw. Maybe it just came out of his hand poorly. It was a quick game to McClorn.

And the ball's just woefully underthrown. And Witherspoon's got a chance at it again. It could have just been one of those balls that just didn't come out of his hand. the right way. Obviously, he had the fumble on the Reed Option Keeper. He's just got to learn to go down. I mean, he's fighting for yards that you don't need. You're putting the ball at risk for yards you don't need. He's done that a couple of times this year. He'll learn, hopefully. I mean, he takes too much punishment on those plays, too. I love him as his own Reed quarterback. He's got very good vision as a runner. I think he's a good decision maker. And then the last just, you know, to me, He was a little bit too close for call.

On the play before the touchdown pass to Diami Brown, he gets pressured. It's second in 10. He gets pressured, and there's a near sack, and he's able to avoid the sack. That would have been a devastating sack. It would have set up third and forever. But when he avoided the sack with great ability, he just chucked one down the middle of the field. And he's looking for Pringle, but that thing almost got picked by Diggs.

But, you know, you like to get fortunate on some of those plays. And they got fortunate a couple of times yesterday. I don't think he's a high turnover worthy quarterback at all. In fact, I think I had somebody on from, maybe it was Nick Ackridge, who said that, you know, he was kind of middle of the pack on turnoff. overworthy throws. But I mean, for me, and this is a big part of my overall game take, I mean, Sam was excellent. I want to just take, you know, a moment because I didn't put Eric B. Enemy and the game plan and the play calling on the list of things that I loved like I have the last two weeks,

but I thought it was solid. Again, I think he gets a lot of credit. That's a stretch. What is? I don't think it was solid. I think it was fortunate. What was? You ran the ball five times in the first half. Yeah, for nine yards. That's the fewest that they've run the ball in like three years in the first half. Yeah.

So the reason it's not on the list this week is I do think that the pass to run ratio was almost too extreme. But still, I totally prefer this. This is a guy that for whatever reason in the giant game, I don't know what he could have been thinking when he designed the game plan and called that game in the first half. But the last three weeks for me, he gets a lot of credit for the Howl success. There were 47 pass plays called, by my count, 30. 30 of them were quick game, screens, you know, sprint outs.

There were 17 pure dropbacks, five to seven step drops. Several of those came on first and ten under center with play action and extra man protection where you're trying to take a shot, but they always had a checkdown available. And the others, for the most part, were kind of third and longs where you've got to drop back, you know, to a certain degree. And the results on those 17 dropbacks aren't great. The two touchdowns came on those in the fourth quarter, but for the most part, all three sacks, some throwaways, some incompletions. I love what Eric B. Enemy's done over the last three games.

I think that he really does get a lot of credit. And I think a lot of the throws now really are run extension throws. I mean, they are true quick game, bubbles, you know, quick swing passes to backs coming out of the back field. And they are basically his runs for all intents and purposes. But yeah, I mean, over the last three games, this offense, 25.6 points per game, 1260 yards, that's 420 per game, over 50% on third down. Howell's throwing is 69% completions, 1,034 yards and 8 touchdowns, 3 straight 300 plus yard games.

And it's not because he's throwing 300 yards, garbage yards. These are all competitive games. the sack total has come way down. In fact, you know, he was on pace to shatter David Carr's record just a few weeks ago. And although he is still on pace to break the record, he's trending big time away from that, having been sacked just seven times in the last three games. So from six times a game on average almost to just over two per game, Eric Bionemi gets a lot of credit for that. it gets them, you know, just looking at the first couple of drives, it's basically all-quick game and he gets into a rhythm, you know, and he made that play to Robinson Jr.

I liked it. You know, now, what you said, Tommy, I can't have them running just for the sake of running. So in the first half, five rushes for nine yards just isn't, you know, it's not a beckoning to to continue to try to run in the second half. Would I like to see more runs because I think it'll take even more pressure off them and it'll make play action work even more? Yeah, I would.

I would prefer that. But all I care about is that they move the football and score points. They've been doing that the last three weeks. My grade for Sam A-minus. You know, again, it wasn't brilliant for three quarters, but it was decent to good, but the fourth quarter was brilliant. And with the game on the line, when you deliver the way he did, it's in a game. By the way, here's some numbers for him that are pretty amazing.

29 to 44 for 312 yesterday. He's got four 300-yard passing games in his young career. That's already tied for 10th in franchise history, and he's only played 11 games. He also has a game this year where he threw for 299. and 290. His three consecutive games of 300 plus passing yards, first time that's happened since you know who did it in 2016. He's the eighth player in NFL history to have four games of 300 plus passing yards in their first 11 career games. All right, the most recent to do it, Burrow and Herbert. His 2952 passing yards, by the way,

He is number one in the league right now in passing yardage. In passing yards. Now, he's played 10 games and everybody right behind him has only played 9. So his average yards passing per game is actually, I think, fifth or sixth in the league. But still. But is 2952 through his first 11 games? Only Mahomes, Herbert, Andrew Luck, and Cam Newton were better in their first 11 games. He's also the only one of two Washington quarterbacks to record 18 or more passing touchdowns in their first 11 starts.

Rip was the other one, Mark Rippin. Brian Robinson, Jr. on the list of things that I liked. I mean, before the season started, they were telling us he was more versatile as a pass catcher. I believe it now. He's got 20 catches for 256 yards and three touchdowns this year. 157 total yards for him on 14 touches yesterday, including 8 for 38. He came alive in that second half. Ironically, Tommy, to your running the ball more, what started them on their final two drives where they had to have them were four straight runs for 34 yards. That was the only moment of the game that they really stuck with it and were successful with it.

Gibson's on my list of things that he liked, not just for nine touches 55 yards, 26.6 yards per kickoff return yesterday. He is second in the league right now in kickoff return yardage, average yards per return, of guys with at least 10 attempts. There are a couple of guys with like two or three, but guys with at least 10 kickoff return second in the league. McLoran's on the list of things that I liked because of his big catch. in that final drive, even though he only had four for the game.

They definitely tried to take Terry out of it a little bit, Dotson a little bit out of it, which made it easier for Bates and Logan Thomas. They combined for eight catches for 62 yards and multiple first downs. I thought Bates was great after the catch on two of his catches. The only defensive player I put on the things I liked list, I thought Jaman Davis made several plays. I think he had two or three tackles for loss. But he still at times is a liability in coverage,

although he made the play of the game last week in coverage. And then Tressway. I mean, not just for his punting, but his holding. He had two really good holds. And on one of the bad snaps, they missed the extra point. List of things that I didn't like. It was one of my keys on Friday. You know, key number one, keep running offensively.

the kind of offense you've been running, quick game, lots of it. That'll lead to other opportunities with dropback, et cetera, running game, et cetera. And the second key was you've got to limit the explosive plays on defense. This has been their Achilles heel all year long. And, you know, they gave up four plays of 20 yards or more, five plays of 15 yards or more. five of the nine plays that went for 15 yards or more happened in the fourth quarter. Seattle was only 4 or 14 on third down, but they had too many big plays on first and second down. The 64-yard or to Walker, I tweeted out at half time because Charbonnet has been one of my favorite backs,

and so was Walker for a while now, and you could see them start to get it going a little bit at the end of the first half for Seattle. And first drive, or second drive, they throw it to Walker, and he's off to the race of 64 yards, breaks a tackle. You calls it. Percy Butler. Charbonnet was phenomenal, too. They've got, look, they've got one of the things about the defense yesterday, they were facing a team with a lot of good playmakers, but still, you gave up just way too many big plays. Why is it happening?

I don't have an answer to that. You know, true coaches will have an answer. From this seat, number one is, I don't know why going into yesterday, and I'd have to look at yesterday's game a little bit more, why they've played so much more man coverage than they played last year. They drafted a corner who excelled with his eyes in the backfield, his eyes on the quarterback in zone coverage. And for whatever reason, they've played more man coverage this year.

I don't love it. And, yes, Tommy Friday, I said, I don't care if this is a bend, don't break, and you give up a lot of yardage in this game. Just don't give up the big plays. Because let them try to go 14 plays. Let them try to score touchdowns. They held them to five field goals in this game, people. Five in the game. But still, there were big plays.

You can't allow these big plays. It's tackling occasionally as an issue, like the six. 64-yard or Percy Butler misses a tackle. He's got to make. I know Walker's good. But yeah, defense was the reason. They lost the game yesterday, especially the defense in the fourth quarter.

When they're facing a very good offensive team with playmakers, I get it. Like, D.K. Metcalfe and Lockett and Charbonnet and Walker are really good. And Gino got hot. He got really hot. 12 of 15, 128 yards in the final three drives, but just not good enough defensively. And it hasn't been. It's the biggest disappointment of the season.

You know, it just especially over the last, you know, two games against good opponents where they had a chance to win, Philly and Seattle. You know, if they had just made a play, third and four, last drive, a play, fourth and five, I think that was PI. I do on St. Juice. I like St. Juice. I actually think he might be their best corner, but he's way too grabby, and he got called, and that was a good call. The ball was high, but you're not going to pick up a flag for a ball thrown to D.K. Metcalf that's high, when he got completely grabbed and held coming out of his break. That was a good call. And I thought St. Juice had some good plays in the first half, but that's a massive play. And you know what Tommy? It followed a third down stop by Percy Butler on Noah Fant on a third and short where he dropped

him for a two-yard loss on a great play. And, you know, they had a, they forced an intentional grounding at the end of the first half and the clock, you know, ran off on Gino Smith. He made a bad play, but the defense forced him into it. But they just gave up too many backbreaking game losing plays. the Forbes play to me terrible call. Absolutely a 15-yard penalty. To me, it wasn't an ejection play. But I don't know what I'm looking at anymore. I just can't believe it came from New York that he got tossed for that.

What did you think of that play? I thought it was definitely a 15-yard penalty. Did not expect him to be ejected. It was a penalty that I didn't think warranted that injection. I was very surprised. You know, I had been watching the Ravens game earlier where Patrick Queen basically clubbed to Sean Watson with his arm

as he ran out of bounds, right in front of the referee, and they didn't call anything. So I don't know what, I'm like you, I don't know what I'm looking at anymore either. I mean, on Friday's show, I mentioned that the Alex Kemp crew is number one in percentage flags thrown, number one in percentage flags thrown on the road team.

He actually threw more on Seattle yesterday. The final penalty count in the game was, hold on, I'm pulling it up right now. Seattle was 8 for 50, Washington was 6 for 39. Five, I believe five of the six penalties for Washington on defense. So that's on the list of things that I didn't like. John Dodson was only targeted twice. And on both targets, one, he didn't get his head around in time. Another one, I thought he could have fought more for the ball.

I don't know why he wasn't targeted. I think Seattle's plan, if I go back and watch the game again, was to try to take Terry and Jahan out and make the backs and the tight ends beat you, which they almost did, make the quarterback beat you, which he almost did, should have. Lastly, on the list of things that I didn't like is the long snapper yesterday. I mean, the first PAT snap was high and they missed the kick. I don't know if that impacted the kick, but, you know, may have. He had a low snap on the field goal that made it 12 to 9.

I mean, this is going to be another one of those things where Ron says, well, we'll just wait for something really bad to happen. And it's like, okay, well, just so everybody knows, you know, the point after, if you play it out the whole way, all right, you go from, you know, it would have been 7 to 3, then it would have been, you know, 10 to 3, then it would have been 10 to 6 and then 10 to 9. Okay, follow along with me.

Instead of being 9 to 9 at halftime, it would have been 10 to 9 at halftime. And then to start the second half, Washington would have kicked a field goal to go up 13 to 9. Then Seattle would have scored to go up 16 to 13. And then Washington, then they would have kicked the field goal to go up 19 to 13. And that's when the extra point comes into play. Because Washington would have scored kick to go up 20 to 19. And then when Seattle scored, they would have gone for two. at 25 to 20. If they made it, it's 27 to 20, and you're basically back to where you ended up.

If they had missed it, it's 25 to 20, and then Washington's next touchdown would have come with a two-point conversion at 26, 25. So with a made PAT, the possibility existed for Washington to have been up 28 to 25 on that final drive instead of the score being 26 to 26. If you didn't follow, it. Tommy teaches a Georgetown math class on Wednesday nights, which you can attend via audit and by Zoom. All right, a couple of quick things real quickly, and then you can add to this whatever you want. So the clock management complaints about Ron. So let me take you through a couple of things real quickly. I actually didn't have a major problem. A lot of you just kept saying you're going to crush them for clock management tomorrow. I'm not going to crush them for clock management. There were things that I didn't love, but none of it was catastrophic or

really, really awful like some of it's been at various points in the season. But let me start with the end of the first half. They had the ball. They had called timeouts to get to, to get the ball back after Seattle kicked a field goal. They called two of their timeout. So they had one timeout left. And they take over a minute 47 to go their own 25 yard line after the kickoff in a nine to game. So here's the one thing that I would just suggest to their analytics person, because Ron's not going to understand this, is after the second down throw to Gibson, which did not get out of bounds, and you've got a third and a long three from your own 32-yard line, at that point, I mean, I'm aggressive. Don't get me wrong. I'm trying to score. There's no doubt. There's a minute 47

to go. You know, you've got a quarterback capable of taking you down in the field, down the field and getting points. But on that third and three, they went hurry up. And on a third and three, I would have let some clock roll off and snapped it with, instead of a minute nine left, something like 50 seconds left. And if you get it, you're still okay. You're still moving forward and you're going to have a chance to get in field goal range with plenty of time and a timeout left. The problem was they missed it and they left Seattle with a lot of time. So that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, That's not a major gaff by any stretch of the imagination. It isn't.

But Seattle took over with 54 seconds left, and if they had let the clock run before third down, they'd have either forced Seattle to call a timeout or Seattle would have gotten the ball back with like 35 seconds left, which is a little bit harder from their own 27-yard line or whatever it was. Fast forward to the end of the game. So the part that a lot of you really were upset about. So let's start with, you know, Sam on a second and ten throws an incomplete pass to Jameson Crowder.

It's not incomplete. It was incomplete, but Crowder just dropped it. Right. And they are forced to call a time out with the clock stopped at a minute 48. And the reason was, according to Ron, they had some sort of personnel issue. They didn't have the right personnel. And therefore, the play clock was ticking down. Look, the mistake is not getting the play in on time, not having the right person.

personnel on time. They had to take the time out. You could not take a five-yard penalty there. A five-yard penalty, and now it's second and 15, I'm sorry, it's now third and 15 instead of third and 10, is devastating to them, especially because now you are in pure dropback, which isn't great for them. So I had no issue at all with him taking the time out there. I have an issue that for whatever reason, the play wasn't communicated, personnel wasn't right, and the play clock got down to the point where they had to call a timeout. And then you go to the play to Gibson. First of all, I thought Gibson got out of bounds. They showed that play multiple places and showed an elbow with the ball in bounds, but his feet have already touched out of bounds.

That's out of bounds. When your foot goes out of bounds, it's out of bounds. If the feet came down after the elbow and the ball in bounds, it would have been in play. This wasn't a forward progress where the ref rolls his arm because forward progress was stopped. They called, they rolled the clock because they said he landed in bounds. But if you watch that closely, his feet are touching out of bounds on the stretch to try to get the ball to the, to the marker. I thought it should have been out of bounds. Anyway, by the way, Gibson should not have gone out of bounds in that spot short of the first down. He did exactly what he should have done, which is you try on third and ten to get the first down. There's a minute 48 when that play starts. You're not

worried about running out of bounds. You're worried about getting a first down. Like that's not a oh, he's got to get out of bounds situation. No, no, no, no, no. He's got to go get the first down. It just happened that in stretching for the chain, it was at the sideline and I thought he actually got bounds, but they didn't rule them out of bounds. So at that point, the play ends with about a minute 39, minute 40 left, and the timeout isn't taken until a minute 28. And a lot of you had a major problem with that. That is not a major, major gaff. And I'll explain why. Sure, you'd rather more time than less time if you're losing by seven. I understand that. But I think there are a couple of things at play here. Number one is they had to first identify whether or not he had

stretched out and got the first down. Number two, I don't think they knew initially that he was in bounds. Number three, it was a fourth and one, and you could go hurry up there on fourth and one and save your time out, all right, in that particular situation, because you still got two left. but I think what happened was they weren't sure if he was in-bounds or out-of-bounds. They weren't sure if, you know, was it fourth in inches? Was it fourth in one? Is it possible that this will get reviewed?

And then it took Ron 12 seconds to call the timeout. Here's the bottom line. With a minute 28 versus a minute 39, you're not going to run out of time on that final drive more likely than not. Clearly, if you're down to 30 seconds left or whatever, then you're crushing him because the ball's at midfield. I just, on the list of Ron Clock Management gaffs over the years,

this is down the list for me, way down the list. Would I have preferred more time? Yes. Would I have preferred immediate understanding of, hey, he's in bounds and he's a yard short of the first down, time out. Okay. because I do think before that fourth and one, it was best to make sure that the play that you wanted

was the play that was getting called and maybe with the right personnel on the field. You know, going hurry up, you know, I think this, a lot of you, especially my guy, Zed, I think your name is Zed 70 something, you're so spot on 99 times out of 100 when you tweet me. But I don't think in this particular situation, I agree with you.

I thought it was down the list, just not that major. Would have preferred it, but I think there were a lot of circumstances that probably led to them calling the time out 11 to 12 seconds after the play ended. All right, last thing on my list of other observations is the two-point conversion opportunity that they had at 26, 25 after the touchdown. So the first thing I just want to explain to everybody, because I know that there's this immediate description of going for the win. With 52 seconds left in the game, you're not going for the win. You're going for the lead.

So there's a big difference from the Dotson play in Philadelphia, which was the last play of regulation. There were zeros on the clock. You are going for the win there. You know, if it's under 20 seconds, you're going for the win for the most part. 52 seconds left, you are going for the lead. You're not going for the win. And because there were 52 seconds left and Washington only had one time out left, they 100% in my opinion made the right decision by kicking.

There's no way you want them to lose the game on one play. Because the game's over. I mean, you've got to go kick an on-side kick now. But Seattle, they had a third and four. If somehow F.A. Obata, did you see how close his fingertip was to the ball on the slant to Metcalf on the third and four? If he somehow tips it, you're going to get the ball back at a tie game with a chance to win it in regulation. So that was a possibility as well, although most would say the defense wasn't going to get a stop. And I hear you, not yesterday it didn't seem like.

But it never even occurred to me when Diami Brown scored. It occurred to me on that final drive if they score really late, will they go for the two? And I don't know if he would have or wouldn't have, but with 52 seconds left with one time out, no, I don't do that. Again, the two-point conversion play is a less than 50-50 play. So I'll take kicking and potentially getting it back, potentially losing on a field goal as you did in regulation. The other possibility was overtime. All right. That is it for my game take. What do you got, Tommy? Well, I agree with you on the two-point play.

I mean, I agree with Ron's call on the two-point play and when he made it. Let me ask you, when did Washington take over possession of the ball late in the fourth quarter? Was there about three minutes left? I think there was more than that. Wouldn't it closer to four? I'm looking at up. right now. Whatever it was. And don't get if I'm wrong. I know you will.

3.40. 3.40 left. Okay. Why wasn't there more of a sense of urgency there? Because there's plenty of time. They've got all three timeouts. I mean, they're down seven. They're not down two scores.

Okay. I mean, there's, you're not. You need to be, you need to convert plays there. I mean, three minutes and 47. is a lifetime. I mean, their drive on the drive before, I'm looking at it right now, was a four-minute, 14-second drive and eight plays. So with three-timeouts, you've got, you know,

as long as you have good positive plays, you're going to have a chance, you know, hopefully down in the red zone with, like, you know, a minute or so left. And they didn't even need the red zone. They didn't even need it because he threw the ball to Diami. And my God, Diami Brown has some speed, man. You could see it on the acceleration after he caught it. Yeah. I mean, I can't even remember now, were they huddling up? I would have had no problem if they were huddling up.

Yeah, they were huddling up. Yeah, I would have had no problem with that before the two-minute warning. Just get the right plays and get the ball. I mean, your first thing at that point, Tommy, we got to make a first down. We got to get into a rhythm here and get a drive going. And then I'm looking at the play-by-play here and my notes. So, you know, they had the third and two. to Terry on this slant. And that puts it out at the 48 at the two-minute warning. And, you know, you got at that point, you got all three timeouts left. You're at midfield. And if anything, if you're, you know, as confident as I was that they were going to score,

you'd rather score with less time so Seattle doesn't have what they ended up having, which was 52 seconds, two timeouts to go down and get in field goal range for a walkoff. But yeah. What else from you? That's it. I talked about my things for the game earlier. Right. All right.

That's it. Well, that's it on them. God. Man, it was an exciting football game. That's for sure. I did want to mention real quickly, if I didn't mention this already, about the B-enemy thing, because I went after the radio show this morning, and I just charted it real quickly on just the kind of game he called.

So there were 47 called pass plays, three of them ended in sacks. So there were 44 balls thrown on the day. 30 of them were quick game screens, sprint outs, dashes. 17 of them were pure dropback. But even in their pure dropback now, you got to love the way they've changed that. Not often are they in five-man protection? more often there's at least, you know, there's at least a chipping back or an extra protector or two. There were some seven-man protects.

I love the first and ten eye formation with the fullback in the game, Alex Arma. He actually threw to him on a checkdown. I like that the checkdowns are available now in that giant game. I remember pointing out on a couple of occasions on some of those dropbacks. Everybody was like 15 yards down the field or further. And so they've just. They've just gotten a lot smarter since the giant game. But there were moments this year.

Remember I told you after the Denver game, or I said it as part of my recap, that I'm never going to forget the stretch in the Denver game where they scored 32 points in like 25 minutes. And I'm like, that is something that we haven't seen around here in years. Now, I know now that the Denver defense early in the year was horrendous because the next week they gave up 70 to Miami. But that 32-point outburst, if you go back and you watch it, it was a lot of what you saw yesterday last week and the week before. They got the ball out of his hands quickly. They went quick. They were moving quickly. And we forget that one of the one we were wrong.

about, which is defensively, they've got some really good talent on defense, especially up front. Well, that talent doesn't even exist anymore up front. I mean, John and Duran are there. Durant almost had an interception yesterday. He had a sack where John hugged the offensive lineman and got called for it. But we forget that the other strength of this football team that we talked about for all of those months, the playmakers on offense. They have good, Terry McCorn's a really good receiver. All right, Jehan Dotson, Diyami Brown, the tight ends, the backs. I think their backs are underrated.

I think Gibson and Robinson Jr. are good enough. Now, I love Seattle's backs. I'm not going to lie to you. I loved Kenneth Walker, the third, coming out of Michigan State. I love Charbonnet coming out of UCLA. Talked about both of them as guys I would love to see on our team. They are, that was a hell of a one-two punch. I didn't even mention this.

Washington gave up too much on the ground, especially in the second half. You know, they gave up 10-yard chunks. I mean, Washington's first drive that cut it to 19 or tied it at 19 started with two runs, and their first of three drives in which they scored in the fourth quarter started on Walker the third and Charbonnet runs. The other thing I wanted to mention just lastly, Gino Smith is impressive to me sometimes. Not all the time, but he did not have a good first half. half, but it doesn't bother him at all either. You can see it.

He just keeps slinging it too. And then he really got hot in the fourth quarter and made some really good throws. Yeah, he's an interesting story. 33 years old. I mean, you know, the Jets as, you know, the second round pick out of West Virginia and just never, ever caught on. Chargers one year, I think. I think he may have been in New York one year, maybe Atlanta another year. And then Seattle.

Jaw broken in a fight in the locker of New York. Right. And then in Seattle, nothing. And then last year, they trade Russell Wilson, and they're supposed to be awful, not as bad as Houston was supposed to be this year. And he goes to the Pro Bowl, you know, and leads his team to the postseason.

I, there's something about him. I had somebody on from Seattle last week who said he's not played well, and it's frustrating because they have a good offensive line, and they've got some really good playmakers, and there's been some frustration with Gino this year. I thought he wasn't very good in the first half. I thought that they, you know, got after him a lot. I mean, for all of you that have begged me,

why doesn't Jack Del Rio Blitzed? He blitzed yesterday. Sometimes it worked. It forced Gino into a lot of throwaways. but they also got burned by it a couple of times. But anyway, all right, we'll finish up with some other NFL talking a few other things that happened this weekend right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. You know, last week, in fact, I think it was Saturday, was a day of celebration.

It was Shelly's backroom owner, Bob Monterazzi's birthday. Oh, was? Yes. So we want to wish Bob a happy birthday. Happy birthday, Bob. Yes, for the guy who has given us the gift of Shelley's back room, a place where you can go. You can't go anyplace else in Washington and do what you can at Shelley's back room.

Have a nice cigar, a great Drake, eat a great meal, share some camarader with fellow sports fans, other people, if you're not a sports fan. Bob provides all that. So let's wish Bob a happy birthday at Shelly's backroom. You know, it's interesting when every, you know, I go usually on Thursday nights after I teach class. And I always post when I go. You know, I'm always post I'm going to Shelly's, you know, to help promote it. I mean, that's the reason I do it.

And some of the responses I get from people, like, Like one guy tweeted back to me, do you have some Keith Richards blood in you? Out smoking, drinking, running around at your age? Yeah, hopefully you survive as long as he has. Yes, that would be nice, but I don't drink and smoke as much as you may think. No, but the women, the carousing of women, no difference between Mick, Keith, and Tommy. Yeah, yeah, that's it. that that's it like some guy tweeted

texted me or tweeted out how many cigars do you smoke a day and I don't smoke I smoke cigars one every other day I don't smoke multiple cigars a day some people do I don't so I appreciate your concern out there but

I'm doing fine baby happy birthday Robert happy birthday Kelly's backroom dot com 1331 F Street Northwest This from Magic Johnson yesterday after the game, or AI-generated Magic Johnson, heartbreaking loss to the Seattle Seahawks today. Defensively, we couldn't come up with a big play to stop Seattle during their last two drives.

How about three, Magic? Actually, how about four? I'll tell you, man, that AI is pretty, pretty statement, obvious statement generator. Yes. Yes, it is. This guy is so bored. This guy is so bored now with this team that he can't even put his own tweets out there. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. All right, just a few things to wrap up here.

Number one, yeah, Maryland hoops, rough start for Maryland. They lost on Friday night to Davidson. I still don't know what they're doing defensively, leaving the guy that had made all the threes wide open in the corner to shoot a three. I know everybody's convinced it was Dante Scott. I'm not so sure. I think he thought that they weren't switching and long did. I don't know. And then they lost yesterday to UAB.

All I will tell you is I can't do the they, you know, now have to look for a new coach thing. And Kevin Willard's second year, I just, I can't do that with you guys. Okay. I also can't go back and do the Turgeon thing anymore. All right, it's November. They have lost games to bad teams in November before and have had decent seasons. I'll just, you know, of course I would have preferred that they had won both games and went to Villanova this Friday night undefeated. I would have loved to have done that.

I think I am going to Nova Friday night to go to the game, although now that they're one and two I have a little bit less interest in going to Villanova on Friday night. but I'll never forget when I came in one year to do the sports fix with Tommy and Maryland, it was November and Maryland had some big win over somebody, I don't know, Michigan State or something like that in Madison Square Garden. And I'm walking out of the studio and Coach Thompson sitting there waiting for me and he just said, MF her, because that's what he called all of us. there is nothing more irrelevant than November college basketball. And I said, is that why you played St. Louis, St. Leo's in Hawaii,

Hilo every November? And we would always have these conversations. And he said, it's a sport where your roster change. And by the way, imagine now where the roster changes even more, you know, every year. He's like, every year is you don't figure anything out as a coach. until you get into conference play, not before it. And, you know, he's right. This sport is not won or lost in November.

Now, there are games that you can win or lose that really impact your ability to get to March and to March madness. There were troubling things about both of their losses. I'm not going to lie to you, but I'm not overly worked up about it. I am happy that Maryland beat Nebraska in football, although that was a game that neither team really wanted to win. but Loxley Bowl eligible. I think they needed that one because they play Michigan this week.

It's the big noon game on Fox in College Park, and it will be a lot of Michigan fans, Tommy, in college park for this game. We'll find out during the week if Harbaugh is going to be present for that game or not. If I were a Penn State fan and I have a son that graduated from Penn State, I don't know what I would do anymore with James Franklin. I would be so beyond my wits. He can't beat anybody that's better than him ever. I think he's 4 and 16 now against Ohio State and Michigan.

And he just, I don't know. You know, when I was growing up, Penn State was Ohio State in Michigan. Yeah. They were a top five team. They were a team that played for a national championship. This is what the people there are used to. okay and if you're if you're incapable of playing competing at that level then they need to move on and get somebody else in there who can well it's too late they've signed that they've signed him forever you know

Franklin is is uh it's an eastrasbourg guy he's a rudy's tavern guy is he i'd want to see him succeed but that was just frustrating they fired their offensive coordinator um look the quarterback's too young. He's not ready yet, I don't think. But you're not, I mean, look, they don't have, they have money at Penn State. They don't have Texas A&M money. I mean, they're not able to eat $75 million for Jimbo Fisher's deal. Franklin signed that 10-year deal recently. It takes him through, I think, 2030 or 2031. I mean, they just, what's he? He's chasing two-point conversion. because he went for two too early. And he can't even explain it after the game. And he is... Well, you know what? He comes off.

Unlike Texas NAM, I'll bet you his contract language does have an offset. So if he goes someplace else, you know, the damage would be less. Jimbo Fisher collects it all, even if he coaches tomorrow. That's amazing. Amazing. The quarterback playing college football on Saturday was just incredible. incredible. From Pennix Jr. to Daniels, who I think had maybe one of the greatest individual quarterback games I think I've ever seen against Florida on Saturday night to

Knicks. It just was so good. The quarterbacking this year in college football has been fun. Ohio State, Michigan in two weeks, unbelievable game. We're going to probably get Georgia Bama for sure now in an SEC title game. The PAC 12 has been so great to watch all year long. Love all of those teams. I personally think Oregon is the better team, even though they lost to Washington. I actually also like Knicks a little bit more than I like Pennix Jr. Oregon State this week, all right?

Oregon State this week at home against Washington Saturday night is a huge game. Oregon State, they are definitely capable. of knocking Washington off. Just been a, I mean, when we go to the expanded playoff, it's going to be great too, don't get me wrong. But man, college football all day, the Texas TCU ending was phenomenal. TCU almost came back and won that game.

Florida State Miami was nuts. Just such a great sport. Anyway, Georgetown lost a Holy Cross in basketball. There you go. How'd you like to be them, turf fans? How'd you like to be Georgetown? basketball, even though I do love Ed Cooley, and he was great on the radio show last week. NFL yesterday, Tommy, to me, the team other than Houston that's become so much fun to follow

and watch is Cleveland. I mean, that game against Baltimore was insane. And Miles Garrett, to me, watching him, he is definitely the best defensive player in football. I don't think anybody would argue with that now. I don't think. I wonder if it's possible that he's just flat out the best player in football right now. That may be an exaggeration. The quarterback play is so important.

But Miles Garrett is a havoc wreaker like none other that exists in the game on defense. None other. And that defense overall is awesome. Baltimore scored 31, but they had to pick six in the game. And yeah, Cleveland. Deshawn Watson made some plays. on that final drive, man. He did. Now sets up

since the Bengals lost, two angry teams facing each other Thursday night in Baltimore. Great Thursday night game. How about this for the prime? You know, that's the game I'm going to. You're going to Cincinnati, Baltimore, Thursday night, with Rocco? Well, with my son and his friend, and

we're taking Liz's Spanish cousin flying over to come to the game. Right, exactly. Well, that's going to be one hell of a game to go to. I think so. Bengals Ravens Thursday night. And then the Monday night game right now setting up to be the game of the year, rematch of the Super Bowl, Philly at Kansas City,

with both of those teams coming off by weeks. Imagine Monday night Thanksgiving week Arrowhead Eagles Chiefs. You think many people will watch that one? We got Washington and the Giant Sunday. This should be, this should be, Dallas yesterday, let me read to you the numbers here. Okay, for the Cowboys yesterday. You ready? The Cowboys yesterday beat the Giants 49 to 17.

They did not have a defensive touchdown, which is odd for them because it seems like they have one all the time. The Cowboys had 640 yards of offense. They had 32 first towns in the game. Dack threw for 404. and the Giants were 0 for 12 on third down. If Washington can't beat the Giants Sunday, or let me just say that, if it's close, forget it. This is the first time I will say in several years,

of course they should win this game. You have not been able to say that since 2017. Of course they should win this game. The Giants aren't the Giants right. now. I'll be curious to see what the crowd looks like at FedEx Field, because I don't think Giants are making any trips anymore to go watch their team play. No. So I'll be real curious what it's like, because normally, if the Giants were competitive, there'd be a lot of blue there. I'm not sure they're going to be making the trip anymore. I do know this, that they sold out

the Cardinals game, the Bills game, the Bears game, and the Eagles game. This game is not currently as we record right now, a sellout. You know, one of those things about having that game on the Sunday going into a holiday week is that, you know, there will be some people in town that may want to go out to that game because they didn't get to the first four games. Maybe. Yeah. It should be a Washington crowd.

Oh, yes, absolutely. It's too bad they didn't beat Seattle. There would have been some, not juice to the game, but there would have been interest. the game. And then we get four days and it's a Thanksgiving day game against the Cowboys who have shown the ability to beat up on bad teams. That's for sure, except for the Cardinals. All right. Anything else from you? Nothing else for you, boss. Tommy, Monday and Wednesday this week, I will be back tomorrow, maybe, maybe with a guest or a co-host that some of you have wanted to hear from in a while. Have a good rest of the day.

Is your father proud of you? Don't do this to yourself. I'll bet he is. I'll bet he bores this shit out of the neighbors and the relatives. Sam's made law review. It's got a big case he's making. He's arguing. He's making an argument.