The Kevin Sheehan Show - Noah Brown To IR + Suter Film

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Kevin opened with some news out of Ashburn today about Noah Brown before getting to a few more of his thoughts on Monday's night's loss to the Bears. Steve Suter jumped on with his weekly Commanders' film breakdown which included his surprise choice for the teams' best offensive lineman. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com 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 Cheen Show. He is Kevin. Steve Suter back on the show today with a film breakdown of the Bears game. He turned it around really quickly. If you haven't heard Steve do film breakdown, he is excellent.

Coolie's the goat, no doubt. But as somebody wrote last week, Steve not only does it like coolly, he sounds like coolly. I don't think that's true. but Steve does a great job on film breakdown. We'll get started with him in the next segment. This show's presenting sponsor as always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation,

windownation.com if you need new windows. This from Stephen in Damascus, and I got a bunch of emails and tweets saying pretty much the same thing that Stephen writes. He writes, Kevin, I was surprised you didn't talk about Daryl Green leading the raise hail chant with a spear on Monday night. It was awesome. Yeah, I got that from a bunch of people. I didn't mention it because I didn't know anything about it until this morning.

Somebody texted me the video of Darrell Green, I guess at the end of a quarter at the game the other night, doing the raise hail chant, which I'll be honest with you. I didn't know much about. I'm familiar with the raise hail hashtag. I saw the video. It didn't do much for me. Just one person's opinion. The whole thing looked more awkward than it did. Awesome, Stephen, if I'm being honest.

I'll be happy to see the old uniforms back. I think they come back for the first time against Seattle in a few weeks. That'll be nice. But look, there's too much meat on the bone as it relates to this game on Monday night. So that's going to be the focus, especially considering that loss was gutting. It really was. This from Izzy, Kevin, I know you love to talk about long field goals. Yes, I do, and I have talked about long field goals and long field goal attempts in NFL history.

Did you see the Bengals kicker make a 67-yarder a record, he writes in parentheses, but Lafleur called a timeout beforehand. I did see that. I was actually watching it as it happened. They trotted out McPherson, the kicker for the Bengals, at the end of the first half, to try what would have been had it been successful without the timeout. The longest field goal in NFL history.

The record is still 66 yards. So they brought him out at LAMBO. So this isn't indoors. It's at LAMbo. And Evan McPherson attempted a 67-yarder. And Matt LaFleur did one of those last second timeouts right before the ball was snapped. They snapped it anyway. McPherson kicked it.

And it hit the crossbar and went over. It was good from 67. But it didn't count. So they went back. and after the timeout, the live play happened, and he was short and a little bit wide and missed it. But I did see that, and I do like talking about field goals. I have a weird obsession with field goals,

and I am convinced we are going to see a record breaker this year and that we are going to see our first 70-yard field goal at some point. We saw it in the preseason, the Jacksonville kicker, Cam Little, I think his name is. We have not seen that in the regular season, although we've seen a couple of very long field goal attempts attempted. Field goals attempted. I think a 70-yarder at some point this year. I can't remember specifically where it was. But, you know, the reason for all of the long field goals, I've mentioned this before, is, for the lack of a better description, the juiced up ball. Kickers used to get balls 60 minutes before kickoff. Then they got them. two hours before kickoff.

And now they're getting them basically, you know, months in advance. So they've been breaking in these footballs since they got them delivered to them over the summer. So these balls are broken in. And as many people have said, they are essentially juiced footballs, the kicking balls in the NFL. But I did see that, Izzy. Thank you for writing about that. This from Ewags, EWags on Twitter. writes Sheehan, you mentioned that Quinn should not have challenged the play that he did.

I agreed with you at the time. However, it did end up being a third and one and fourth and one that we got a turnover on downs. That one challenge could have actually won us the game if we don't fumble at the end. Yeah. I mean, if Quinn had that kind of vision, and foresight that he knew in the moment that the, you know, the cause effect of the challenge that gained one yard was going to lead to a fourth and one stop. And that was the drive in which Washington got the fourth down stop with the Frankie Louvre, you know, pass breakup. Then great challenge, coach. Great predictive powers by our head coach. Yeah, look, you can't predict what's going to happen afterwards, Ewags.

But the bottom line was it was a close, very close call. And I don't think you challenge a very, very close call for one yard of benefit. This from Carter in Oakden, Carter writes, Holy cow, the smell test is on fire. Dude, I've been tracking this pretty closely this season. 11, 4, and 1 this weekend. Crazy. I've been staying on the sidelines waiting for the correction that has not yet come.

Regards Carter Hale Skins. Yeah, 7 straight winning weeks. 11, 4 and 1 over the weekend. And I am expecting the correction as well. I really am. I know how these things go. I've done it long enough. And yes, I have produced many, many more overall winning seasons than losing seasons.

But at this point now, I am at, all right, I'm at 50, 30, and 5, I think it is on the season, 50, 30, and 5. I'll have the exact record when we get to Friday or tomorrow. I may have a smell test pick on tomorrow's show. But yeah, it's nuts. I've not had a losing weekend yet since the season began, and it started Labor Day weekend with a lot of the college games. And the correction will come at some point.

Hopefully it's not a severe correction, like a market correction. I'm not expecting that, but you never know. Yeah, this weekend, and I'll tell you, this weekend, This weekend, honestly, I was even better than that personally. I tell you when sometimes the smell test is really good, but overall, you know, the games I ended up playing in addition to the smell test picks, I didn't do well. No, the reason I watched the McPherson field goal, I bet Cincinnati.

That line came down to 14. There was a lot of sharp money on the Bengals, and I had them. By the way, I also had Chicago plus the four and a half the other night and won that. I was hoping for the happiness edge. I wanted Washington. When they were up 24-22, I was like, this is perfect. Happiness Edge. My team wins, but I win the bet.

Chicago almost was a smell test pick on Monday night. But the public action wasn't as overwhelming as you would have guessed. By the way, speaking of betting on football, My Booky is the place to do it. Go to the Kevin Sheeonshow.com slash my bookie and use my promo code, DC reload to get a 50% cash bonus. But I was looking at My Bookie before the show started to see if those AFC North Odds had changed since Pittsburgh 1 and Baltimore lost. Pittsburgh's 4 and 1, Baltimore now 1 and 5. And I told you guys last week that even though the Ravens were 1 and 4 and Pittsburgh was 3 in 1, that Baltimore was still the favorite to win the AFC North, which is crazy.

Well, they're not anymore. At my bookie, the Steelers are now minus 162 to win the division. Baltimore is plus 170 now. So I guess I would have expected them to think last week that Pittsburgh was going to beat Cleveland and Baltimore was going to lose to the Rams. By the way, the Ravens played much better. It was 3 to 3 at halftime against the Rams. So I don't know what's going on with the Rams right now.

They aren't able to put anybody away. And it's 3 to 3 against a decimated Ravens team. And they lost their previous game to the 49ers who were decimated. by injuries. But My Booky has currently Pittsburgh now the favorite to win the AFC North. Philly increased their odds a little bit to win the NFC East with Washington's loss, but Washington's at plus 182 to win the division. Philly right now at minus 154 to win the division at My Booky.

The Kevin Sheeonshow.com slash my bookie. use my promo code DC Reload whether you are an existing customer or a new customer and they'll give you a 50% cash bonus. This from

Quinn Quinn writes, thank you for pushing playoff baseball. You got me hooked on the NBA playoffs the last few years. Playoffs. And now the baseball postseason, the games have been great. Yeah, I love playoff baseball. I can't watch start to finish a regular season major

league baseball game anymore. I can't do it. I mean, if the Nats are good, I will, but the last couple of years with them being terrible, I just don't watch a lot of regular season major league baseball, although the rules have really made these games so much more consumable. I mean, they've knocked so much time off the length of these games. But man, last night's Dodgers performance by Yamamoto, the pitcher, he gave up a lead-off home run and then went nine complete, the first complete postseason pitching performance since Justin Verlander eight years ago, Eight years it's been since anybody's pitched a complete game in the Major League Baseball playoffs, and Yamamoto was unbelievable.

Gave up that lead off home run, and then the rest of the way, no earned runs, two hits, 7Ks, unbelievable pitching performance by Yamamoto. And they got an unbelievable pitching performance from Blake Snell in the opener. I know that the Dodgers, and I'm learning this because I don't pay attention, as much to the regular season. The Dodgers do not have a great bullpen, so they need this effort from their starters. By the way, Shohei Otani had his first RBI last night

since the Philly series in game one, I think it was. He had gone, before getting a hit last night, he was like, oh for his last, I think it was O for his last 14. In the postseason, by the way, he's hitting a hit. 147, Shohei Otani, 15 strikeouts in these playoffs. The American League continues tonight in Seattle with the Mariners holding a 2-0 series lead. All right. Out in Ashburn today, a lot of news.

Start with this. To the injured reserve goes Noah Brown. You know, Quinn's saying that they just, it's not healing and they're not going to to rush it back. So they put them on IR. Sure, they could have done that earlier and had that roster spot for somebody else. Of course they could have. Hopefully Terry's back this week. If not, we'll question why Terry didn't go on IR a few weeks ago. It was encouraging on Terry the news, and he did practice today in limited capacity. The rest of the injury report includes Dorrance Armstrong with that hamstring. I'll tell you what, man, he did not practice today,

nor did Debo Samuel with the heel. I think the rest of the injuries were all rest days. You know, Ertz, rests, Von Miller, Duran Payne, Tunsel, Wagner, they all get rest days. A lot of them do on these Wednesdays, especially when the game was on Monday night. So Debo, the heel injury, I'll tell you what, man, I went back and watched the game. He was not rough. I didn't think. I'm going to ask Steve if he noticed if Debo looked a little bit off. I thought last week he looked healthy. I did not think he looked healthy against the bears. What else did we get from Quinn today? Yeah, Armstrong, they need Armstrong. I mean, Armstrong, I think, has been their best defensive player this year so far. But Noah Brown, yeah, to IR. Hopefully they get Terry back. Hopefully

they get Terry back. And that leads me to this before we get to Steve. I went back and watched the game, watched the condensed version, watched a lot of the All-22, not all of it. I don't think I emphasize something enough in my game take. Sure, Jaden, you know, cost them the game with especially the last turnover. There's no doubt. And I think what was really super disgusting for me was,

the defense didn't have his back. I mean, he's bailed that defense out now for a year and, you know, a few games, and they laid over. They literally laid down and they let, you know, D'Andre Swift run right through them, a 10 and a 15-yard run and put their kicker, Moody, into chip shot range. That was a repulsive final drive defensively. I'm going to ask Steve about that and what he thought about that. I mean, I think going back, that's the part of the game. It's like, are you kidding me? It's third and five.

You're going to give Loveland that much cushion on third and five. How about the quarterback made the worst mistake I think he's made in a game? And he owned it, by the way, after the game. I think we talked about that the other night. And you can't give a better effort to try to keep them from getting a first down and then keep them from getting into chip-shot field goal range. That was a bit much. The defense is my largest concern now just about the season in general.

But what I didn't emphasize enough, you know, I said, look, without that last fumble, Jaden's, you know, a B-plus in this game, maybe A-minus. He was really good in the game other than the turnovers, the pick, and the fumble, the botched handoff, and those are critical plays. The thing that I didn't emphasize, or I didn't even say in my post game from the, from late Monday or very early Tuesday morning, yesterday morning, is that Monday night and even last Sunday are the examples that we can now point to when we were having the conversation in the offseason, you know, about Terry in particular.

And I would say, look, Terry's great. Jaden will elevate whatever is around him, and they will be competitive on offense. They will have chances to win games with whatever is around him because he's the kind of quarterback that elevates everything around him. And the other night was an example of that. Now, he did him in with that botched handoff. Understood. Maybe not the day to say it because of the turnovers.

But Jaden Daniels elevated Chris Moore and Jalen Lane. and Luke McCaffrey. I mean, come on, man, look what's been out there with him the last two weeks. Debo was not 100%, I don't think, in that game anywhere near it. And they, you know, they rolled up 340 yards of offense, 24 points. And without the turnovers, it would have been more. Would have been more points. Turnovers are real. They happened.

And he caused two of them. He was responsible for two of them. But offensively, look, I want Terry back, and they'll be better with Terry. They need Terry. They need somebody that, you know, is better than what they have, and Terry's a lot better than what they have. But the other night was an example, as was the Charger game, of this guy's greatness. He is him, as the kids say.

He elevates everything around him. He was under duress the other night. He was pressured more than in any other game since the Green Bay game, and it was close. I mean, you know, they just, and why is he pressured and why isn't, you know, well, I thought the offensive line did a poor job picking up the Blitz the other night. But the receivers aren't threatening. They're not getting open quickly. You know, Jaden's got to make everything happen.

And he does. whether it's with his legs or his arm. He elevated the team the other night. He elevated the team against the Chargers. The defense was great against that, you know, decimated offensive line in that particular game. But if they're going to be banged up and missing pieces on offense, he's still going to give them a chance to be good on offense and to be good enough to have a chance to win these games.

They should have been able to win the other night. But the turnovers doom them. All right. Let's get to Steve Souter. We'll do it right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Guys, I introduced you to Goldbelly about a year ago. It's an amazing site that I order from now all the time. It's a place where you can get the most iconic famous foods from restaurants all across the country.

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That's goldbelly.com code Sheen for 20% off your first order. This episode's brought to you by prize picks. You and I make decisions every day, guys, but on prize picks, being right can get you paid. Don't miss any of the excitement this football season on prize picks where it's good to be right. Like, I hope I'm right tonight with 23 and a half on Jaden Daniels' passing yardage number on Monday night football against Chicago. I'm going under that because I think they're going to run the ball so successful. Prize picks is fun. It's exciting. It's a game of skill. It's easy to play. What I just gave you is how they lay it out. They give you stat projections, and all you have to do is pick more or less. That's all it is, more or less on between two and six players and their stat projections. If you get your picks right, you cash in. PrizePix is the only app that offers stacks, meaning you can pick the same player up to three times. in the same lineup.

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Steve Souter, Steve calls Maryland games with Johnny Holliday on radio. The Terps have dropped two tough heartbreakers in a row. They're out at UCLA on Saturday night. You can listen to that on the Team 980. Coverage starts at 6 o'clock, kickoff at 7 with Johnny and Steve. Steve, one of the greatest punt returners in the history of the 18th. and college football during his years in the early 2000s playing for Ralph Regions, Maryland teams. And he's been a godsend. We thank Matt Swope, the baseball coach at Maryland for the

suggestion. Steve's been doing a phenomenal job in generating a lot of reaction from a lot of you. I'm going to read this from Gary and Allme. Gary writes, Souter's film breakdowns are the best part of my week, just like they used to be with Cooley. Ask Steve if he thinks Jaden Daniels looked right after the roughing the passer low hit by Brisker. Let me just mention real quickly, Steve, before you answer that question. I had a friend of mine asked me, and somebody else emailed me, did I notice that Jaden looked different after that hit, which was a low hit and it was flagged 15 yards? I did not notice a difference, did you?

I didn't, but you know what I noticed? And I actually have the play pulled up here. I didn't like his scramble second quarter, 11 minutes, 41 seconds. I don't want to go to it. But he kind of gets, he comes out of the pocket, straight up the pocket, which is the right call because doesn't have anybody opening. He's going to scramble to make something of it. And he looks like he's breaking down the middle linebacker.

It's a 101, and he's going to get ready to get him a shake. And he just sees him kind of stop in his jukechievous. move. And I think it's because he feels something when he's bracing to do the little shimmy on his juke move. And when I saw that, I said, oh, I don't know, I don't know if that looked good right there. You could see he kind of stops

deciding to make a juke, and he just dives forward to just get what he can. What was the second quarter? Yeah, second quarter, 11 minutes, 41 seconds. They're taking a shot here, play action. He doesn't have what he wants. Let me know when you got that.

Yeah. So what do you when he scrambles up here and he's one-on-one to try a little shake here, I can just see his knee. He doesn't like what he did here, and he just gives up and goes down. I'm watching it. I'm watching it right now. Now, this is well before the low hit by, you know, that got called for roughing the passerbers.

That was the cord. I think it was already bugging him a little bit. That's just not a normal juke. You see how he kind of just, you can tell he felt something on his knee, and he's like, all right, let me call the brief. Yeah, for sure. Oh, yeah, it could be. But that one, I didn't like that one. Interesting. Just in a view of my opinion of his athleticism right there, he's more athletic, he's more fluid.

He probably has a little more juice. And so either the brace screwed him up and it made his knee feel funny or something's did feel funny. And I think he just kind of, you know, packed it in there. Not that he's going to get 10 more yards at all, obviously. But it just didn't look right when I saw that live. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. Now, there's traffic, and he's looking for a chance to get down. You know, maybe he's deciding between lunging forward and sliding. That's my initial reaction to that question. I thought I saw it earlier.

I was like, ooh, I want to be tweaked his knee right there. And he just was like, let me just put this down. Well, we are recording this before the first injury report comes out for the Dallas game on Sunday. It'll come out later today on Wednesday, the 15th. I'm not expecting him to be on it, but it's interesting that multiple people now sort of observed Jaden not looking like he was right. But everybody else has suggested it after the low hit on the roughing the passer. All right. Well, we'll get to Jaden shortly enough.

What we do with Steve every week is he gives us his overview of the game. then we'll get to Jaden and his grade, and then he'll give us the top three and the bottom three grades for offense and defense in a game that ended up being a very disappointing 25 to 24 loss. So go ahead, have at it. What did you take away from the loss on Monday night? Well, it certainly looked like a philosophy that you and I talked about on defense especially. This was a classic Ben, but don't break and almost pull it off. I mean, they were bending the whole game, right? They just helped him do some field goals, and that looked like was going to be enough there at the end.

So as you're watching the game, my initial reaction is like, man, it's just kind of sloppy on both sides. The film's probably going to be terrible when I turned it on and go to the All-22. Defensively, though, not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Wasn't so many mistakes that were just blatant and obvious. It was more of just guys playing neutral, I guess, is the best way you describe it, not over-extending themselves, not making mistakes, but not making plays either. and that kind of coincides with that bend, but don't break kind of attitude.

It looked like it just took over the whole team. I mean, I'm going to run you through a series of plays that we're going to look at this coverage that they keep running. They keep screwing them up every time they do it. But that's more of a technical thing. Just from an overall standpoint, watching the film and breaking it down,

just classic, sometimes some guys are make plays, but it would only be one, not enough. A couple guys taking plays off, and then that would cost them for the six to seven-yard game. So defensively, not very aggressive from a play call standpoint either. They only bring pressure a handful of times, and if they did it was only bringing five. I think they only bring more than five people once or twice.

And if you can recall, the one time they bring safety pressure with Savage, Williams breaks his tackle, but then Louvo put that big hit on them in the sidelines. It was still a successful blitz because guys get home. But that was one of the rare occasions that they bring more people than the Bears had in protection so most of it was sitting back rushing for, see if we can get the coverage correctly, see if we can play a zone and try to trick Caleb into making a mistake, which he didn't make throughout the night. Now, I've been critical of the secondary all season and their communication,

how horrible it's been. They were much better this weekend. It looked like it was on purpose. There was a lot more pointing. There was a lot. Once motion happened from the bear's offense, guys redirecting their points, confirming their points. I got this guy, I got that guy.

So it really did look obvious to me that communication had been at this point this week in the secondary. Now, I'm not saying they did it all correctly every time, but we're going to go to the clips. But it did look like pre-snap. It was something that they were paying attention more. So I'm glad to see that. And hopefully they realized that it's an Achilles' heel. They've got to figure that out. Offensively, we'll get into jail.

But they just couldn't run the ball like they've been all season. And they didn't run enough, I didn't think. their extra Trent Scott 6-0-Lignment formation. I think they got a little cute when they got into that and threw some play actions early instead of trying to establish

run from there. And the defensive coordinator from the Bears is on his game a couple of times because they would be in too high safeties when Washington's in that six extra linemen formation, which you shouldn't be.

You would assume Washington's going to run. You need to bring another safety in the box. And they would still be sitting too high safety. And that's because they knew it,

wasn't a run. So I don't know how they got a beat on Kingsbury or when he was going to call play act on their formation, but they did a good job and they took a lot of those big potential plays away. So just not really hitting on all fillers offensively. Jaden, not too many mistakes.

Let's get to this point. They just don't have anybody that can win in man coverage. Washington does outside. No, Debo can occasionally but he's not a killer in man coverage. He's more of a gimmicky guy, get the ball, phase, figure it out, maybe he'll beat a guy on a slant once or twice, but a majority of time in man coverage, he's probably getting covered.

But Chris Moore's not breaking anybody down. McCaffrey's not. It's just not a team on the perimeter. Lane's definitely not. I mean, I know he had the hitch and go. Good job. He had a good route, but that's one of, you know, 80 plays in the game. So they need to find a guy outside that can win in man coverage. The Bears ran a lot of it because they think they had the matchups than they did. They locked everybody down for the most part. So Jaden, not many options. He's dropping back to pass, and all those scrambles that he's doing for six or seven yards is because he has to.

There's nobody open. So he's making a play. Otherwise, he's going to have to continue to throw the ball away. They need to figure something out. I think offensively, they've got to do more trick stuff pre-snap. And I'm talking motions, getting bunch, have somebody come in motions, switch the formations. And they need to do that to try and trick the secondary when they're in man coverage like teams do to Washington so that they can get the benefit of something. somebody getting open. Otherwise, if I'm watching this film, I'm playing man coverage against

Washington until they burn me, and I'm going to bring pressure every now and then because they were getting confused on protection. Bears forced them hot quite a few times throughout the night, so you don't really have an option. They're bringing an extra guy. You're not picking it up. You have to throw hot. So Jayden's in jam. You've got to throw hot. Now, sometimes I don't even think they're on the same page. The line sliding to the right. They're leaving the left defensive end. Jaden should know this, and he's not, so he's not looking hot right away. And all you needed a split second for that time and it get messed up. So a lot being said there, but it was a game of missed opportunities for sure,

and then just not taking advantage on defense. They just sat too passive, in my opinion. You know, Terry McClaren's absence, I think people listening to you would be an answer to it. But the truth is, while Terry is a deep threat, he's not a big separation guy, and has never been a big separation guy. He is a contested catch guy and has been one of the best in the league at that. But I would imagine just having a legitimate number one on the field would provide them with an upgrade. Because I even said this morning, you know, in going back and watching the game, you know,

there was a lot of conversation during the offseason, you know, when Terry was holding out. and I said, look, I think Jaden's going to elevate even average to, you know, an offense that's more than functional and has the ability to win games. And I thought that's what happened the other night. You know, with a lot of average performers around him, that offense still moved, and he made a lot of plays. First of all, did you see it that way? Yeah, he's, he is the reason the first downs take place for the most part. But if you're not getting him on the ground and he doesn't have to think, right, you're just taking them out, you're handing the ball off, you're getting first down jarded on the ground with Bill and McNeichael has been great.

But if it's not, if it's a pathway, he is the key. I mean, I know it's funny to say because most quarterbacks are the key, but it's more pressure on him than I see, or I would think other quarterbacks are under because of what I already described. He's not getting the obvious. I got man coverage. It's obvious man coverage. it's pressed with a single high safety, I'm going to Deboe, or I'm going to McCaffrey,

or I'm going McCorm because I know 85% of the time, this receiver, whoever he thinks it is has manned coverage, is going to win or going to be close to winning, and I'm going to make a judgment call after I see it. He doesn't have that luxury. So, I mean, he drops back, he takes a look at these first two reads. They're not open majority of time,

and now he's going to think, less in his pocket or either go get six or seven. So there's a lot of pressure on to make a right decision with less, I agree. And then that's why he's such an X factor because the defenses are taken away the scheme post-snap, and he's still managing to move the ball down the field

and extend drive and keep chains moving. So from that standpoint, he's really impressive. I mean, I know he's going to have a bad, he's not even going to have that bad a great for me today, even though he cost the game, right? He threw the pick. I think he got tricked on the pick. It's a better play from Briskier than I think is the bad play from Jaden.

But he gets tricked on the coverage and he throws the pick. in the red zone. That's a costly turnover, obviously. Then he has the fumble at the end of the game, which costs him the game. So these are, he gets the lowest grade I give on a, on one play for losing the fumble because it costs him the game. And he's still not the lowest player on offense from a great standpoint. Yeah, I mean, because of all the other plays he's making. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I, I, did, PFF had him as the highest graded offensive player. And I said after the game, you, you have to downgrade him for the

two turnovers, and the last one legitimately cost them a football game. Yeah, that's too heavy a factor there. Yeah, but without those two plays, he was, you know, he was Jaden all night. Agreed. Yeah, so if you take away the fumble at the end, then he's my second highest on the offense. Yeah. But if you add in, then he's not. I think one of the things I want to mention about Steve in the way he's graded, because it's certainly something I think we've all picked up on. If somebody has a really bad play, Steve dings him for it, big time. And sometimes it's hard to overcome, you know, a game-changing mistake as an example. I mean, we can go back to,

you know, Will Harris in Green Bay, you know, as an example. But let me, let me just, before we get to Jaden and talk about his game in more detail, the part about Terry McClure and his return, Will that be a benefit? Will teams have to play Washington differently? I think, I don't know if they're going to do it differently. I wouldn't do it differently to start. I make Terry show me that I have to play you differently because the games I watch,

and I was critical of Terry against the Packers. He just looked like an average guy. He looks slow out there, not the Terry, scary Terry that I've heard of and that Washington has been used to. So he needs to come back healthy and show that he can beat man coverage to them. you can eliminate some of these defenses that you're going to see so you can find yourself some favorable matchups.

So to answer that shortly, I would make him show he can beat me. But yes, I would hope he's the guy that can help out this offense because they just don't have the perimeter. And Debo is doing a lot of it by himself. Even the touchdown to McCaffey, right? It's a fake screen. I give Debo points on that play because he's the reason that they bite the screen because he's the Debo factor. They're not

biting that if it's to Noah Brown or it's to Chris Moore. They don't care that much. But their defense is coming up so hard because the play fake is going to Devo that allowed McCaffrey to sneak out. So that stuff, you need more of those guys that attract that kind of attention that Ben, you can

draw a trick plays up for him. But you don't believe it if it's laying out there. The DV's not going to believe it. Who cares? Throw a screen down to him. Go a screen out to McCaffrey. Throw a screen out to Chris Moore. We don't care. But we care because you're throwing a out to Debo, who can turn a screen into 20 yards. Did you think he looked healthy?

Did you think he looked healthy? Debo? I mean, it's a little trickier off this film because the field's wet and it's kind of sloppy and maybe he's not cutting as hard because he doesn't want to fall. But I don't know. I wouldn't say he looked as spry, maybe as he did last week, but not enough to where I would. It didn't, like, Fred Flagg didn't go up and say, is he hurt. Because he was on the injury report again all week with the heel injury.

There was apparently more concern than there was in L.A. against the Chargers about him potentially being inactive. So before we get to Jaden, I do want to – so I'll stick with the offense because you brought up the play. Why – everybody understands Debo on a bubble is, you know, everybody's playing that. But it just seems to me – and I asked Logan Paulson this yesterday. At any level of football, it seems like that fake bubble with some receivers slipping out, sucking the defense up, it works all the time. It just seems like it works all the time.

Well, I think you think it works because when you see it, it works. Now, I watch it. It doesn't always work, but there's usually checkdowns built in. Like McCaffrey, let's say that they don't bite that on Debo, how you're taught to run that route, right? stalk block, fake block, and then take off. But if the secondary stay is on top of you and you're not going to get by anybody, then you break it off and it turns into like a 15-yard comeback. But I wouldn't say it works all the time.

I just think it appears that way because when it works, it's usually a big play for a touchdown. So that's the best way I can answer that. By the way, I mean, it's my memory that you probably were involved in a bunch of those bubble screens. Absolutely. Absolutely. It should have been more. Yeah. But, I mean, you were such a threat with the ball in your hand, and I'm trying to remember, did you break any of them for big gains, long gains, touchdowns?

I don't know if I have any wire receiver screen that always broke. We would have this play called Double Screen where I would run a rocket screen on the left, and then Bruce Perry would be the running back, run the screen to the right from the back field. So that's why we call it a double screen. every time we'd watch it on film, I would be so open. And then I would yell at Scott McBrion during the film. And why did you throw it to Bruce?

He can't score. I can score and just, you know, have fun there talking trash. What was your 40 time? 435 was my fastest. 435. Yeah, you could just freaking fly. I haven't asked you this before, but Ralph, to me, is, and I've talked to other coaches about this over the years,

people have always said one of the most underrated offensive minds, quarterback whispers, et cetera, because he, you know, was in the pros as Bobby Ross's offensive coordinator for a Chargers team that went to the Super Bowl. But so many, like sometimes I'll get it unsolicited if Maryland comes at, man, one of my all-time favorite coaches watching him and studying him was Ralph Regian. What was he like to play for? His exes and those were top-notch, I'll say that for sure. And you didn't really, I didn't realize that I'm young.

I mean, I was one of the players, the cerebral players on the team for sure. I'm understanding the offense, and I liked knowing all those types of intricate things. Most guys didn't. They just tell me where to line out, tell me where to go. So from an aspect of maybe not appreciating how intelligent he was from an exos and those, that I'm regretful that I wasn't as aware, maybe as I was going through it by him now. But just knowing we were prepared without knowing I was prepared because he had done the preparation.

So there was, you know, there's examples I can run off, but one sticks out in my head, and it's a touchdown that I caught first Clemson, but it was an odd coverage that Clemson would run every now and then where their corners turned into cover two guys, and it was something we had never seen before, but they did it maybe five or six times a game, and we practiced it all week.

We had one play against it that we wanted to run, we wanted to call, and we knew it was going to work if we caught them in that defense. Well, sure enough, Ralph had that instant. instinct and he called the play against Clemson at home. Scotty throws me the ball to touchdown, and it was one of the four times they ran the defense that game. So it was about instincts and his preparation.

He knew the down-and-distance. He best had the opportunity to run that play against the defense, and he got it. And I'm sure there's many other examples like that that I'm not even aware of that we would be practicing during the week and not realizing that he was getting ready to call this on a third and 12 and know what he was going to get. So the preparation was just really good from him.

That's what I remember. And then he was a computer behind the line of scrimmage on every play in practice. The ball would be snapped. And my teammates and I would just watch him sometimes. It was the oddest thing. His head would bobble like a bobble head, no lie. It would just go up and down. His chin would go up and down.

His head would shake. And it was literally like his brain was computing every player on the play and what they did or didn't do correctly. And he was pulling it off in his brain in a second and a half. very, very odd to watch, but it was certainly working. Man, I love some of those stories because I loved some of those teams. And by the way, just mentioning Clemson, you know, we owned West Virginia those years, and we beat the shit out of Clemson multiple times, too, including down there in Death Valley.

Somehow, some way, he had Clemson's number, you know, he really did during those years and had West Virginia's number. He had the West Virginia number like crazy. They ran a defense call a 3-3-5, 3-down linemen, and what you would call three linebackers that played five DPs, and the one guy would be, they called him a rover, I believe, those names. But he's like an extra safety slash linebacker,

and our blocking scheme in the run game against them, he just tore it apart. They had no chance to stop us. The run game just ate that defensive front up all day long, and that's why I thought Nebraska, we don't want to sidetrack too much here, thought Nebraska was going to run at that 3-3-5 last week against Maryland. And then I was really excited that because Coach Lofsky was part of that run game

with Fridon against West Virginia against the 3-3-5. So I thought he was going to be able to take advantage of it, but they didn't do it as much as I was hoping. Yeah. All right. We digress from Maryland talk. Sorry about that for those of you who don't care. But I've got one more for you about the game. So I think your defensive overview is interesting to me because

that was what was most frustrating watching the game for me. Look, Jaden's turnover is number one. You know, the three turnovers in total, obviously, when you're minus three, 95% of the time, you don't even have to know what happened in the game to know what happened in the game. But last year, because you don't know the team from last year, they were horrible against the run. And this year, they've been improved, but again, you know,

their best defensive days have come against Russell. Wilson's giants, you know, Gino Smith's Raiders and an absolute, you know, decimated offensive line in L.A. with the Chargers. They could not defend anything on the edge last year. They got absolutely shredded in the run game. And on that final drive in particular, I thought it was just disgusting to watch. They know they're going to run because after they picked up the first down to Loveland because they're going to try to make Maryland use their timeouts. They're going to try to whittle that clock down. And Swift has a 10-yard run off the edge and then a pitch sweep, you know, 15-yard run off the edge. And I hated the lack of any sort of recognition that

they were going to run the football and then just no resistance whatsoever. Not to mention just the chunk plays. And I thought Caleb Williams must have missed at least a half dozen people that were open. And Zakias, I'm sure you'll point to this. Zikaas from the three-yard line drops a pass that may go 97 yards for a touchdown. Yeah. Yeah, it would 100%. So let me jump on that. Yeah.

You're missing wise. You miss wise big time. Yeah. It's such a huge loss because Preston Smith, no, bro. No. He's nothing. He's giving you nothing. He should even, I mean, he's just, he's not even. out there, but he's out there, but he's not out there. And then Martin, who I thought played Jacob Martin, I thought he did well.

I think the first game I watched the Giants, he hasn't given you much either since then. And they're trying to find a way to play wise. And the problem is Armstrong is your best B-Lyman. And he is obviously the best B-Lyman. Well, sorry, I should say, I'm sorry, KynLaw is close. Those two are the best, too, but they can't play every snap. And when you take Armstrong out, you would at least have WISE in there, but you don't have wise there.

They're trying to figure out who to put it in there. You can't put Von Miller in there. He's not stopping the run. He never had. And he's playing hard only when it's third and 12 or second and tall. He thinks he gets a rush to pass. Jacob Martin is not going to hold the edge. And Preston Smith, damn sure, ain't holding the edge.

So you got to figure it. I don't know what you can do. But I would switch up some of these line substitutions they have. It looks like they go with Armstrong, Paine, Kinlaw, and now Martin. That's like their starter. Right. And then they bring in Newton and Goldman occasionally. And now Jay Lynn, is it, well, it was 96.

Yeah, Holmes. Yeah. Holmes. And they bring him in. But I would try to switch it up. Don't start pain. Don't bring pain in. Put Newton with Kinlaw or they need to start making some type of, you know, soup in there

within that D-Line where they're trying to mix and match some recipes because it's just too evident with Armstrong's out of the game. And Kinlo is out of the game. You're just sitting on your back deals in to stop the run. But yes, very disappointing there at the end where they didn't want to step up and stop the run. But it's like the last one that they tossed, that's right at Preston Smith. He's got a receiver that's right next to him in a tight split. That streams if you're the defensive end that you're going to get cracked or at least the guy's going to try and seal you.

Now he deals with him pretty quick, but the pulling guards are already out in front of him and now he gets to seal him too. so there's your 15-yard runoff by Swift and it's the president's not setting the edge hard enough and it's just he just doesn't belong in the field he's not helping Washington at all but he's there. And in the big chunk, let's go through some of these but I want to show you some of this.

Go to 415 in the first quarter and this is a so we've talked about By the way, it's a great point about WISE I think because the injury happened now over a month ago people kind of forget But he had looked good, and they were a better run-stopping team earlier in the season than they had been at any point last year. All right, where are we going again?

And then you can rotate Armstrong and Wise, right? They can both get rest. Yeah. To go to 415 on the first quarter. Yeah. Okay, so this is, you're going to think this is a good play, right? Because it's going to be a no gain to the tight end screen. The problem is Wagner has the tight end, but he has no idea that he has him.

And so this is an issue. So the motion comes across the field. You hear that you see the secondary point. Their point, like, I'm locking, I'm locking. So you get Latimore and Kwan to lock them to receivers. Bobby's lost here in the middle. He doesn't realize he has a tie-in. What if that tight end doesn't chip block to run a screen

and he just runs out to the flat? Right. Nobody's guarding him. So this is a coverage where they're not figuring this out, and Bobby's involved. And he gets lucky here that they throw a screen right back to him. But wasn't Bobby on Zekees on the play that we just talked about? No, so right here.

So they pass it, right? They pass it. Zhekiah comes in motion. Quaumar is going to pick him up, man. So you're good there. Amos has got the slot. You're good there. But Bobby's got number three, who is the tight end.

But he doesn't, he has no idea. He has number three here. And he gets lucked out, okay? So now go to, now go to 35 seconds. in the second quarter. 35s, yep, this is the Louvre sack. Yep, so you get the sack here, but watch. So this is a coverage that Washington is running here,

and I don't, admittedly, don't understand all the principles. This is like a man coverage or a cover three match where Bobby is responsible for whoever comes underneath first. So if you watch this, Sandra Stills in the slot, his guy is going to run an underneath drag towards Bobby. Bobby picks him up, and then he runs with a man. But Sandra still obviously is confused here. He doesn't realize that Bobby's supposed to pick him up.

Right. And they leave, and they leave the tight end butt-ass naked coming down the sideline. That's an uncovered man for a touchdown if the pressure doesn't get home. Fortunately, for Washington, the pressure gets home. But this is another example. They just leaving a guy uncovered. And I think those rules are if a guy comes underneath Bobby, he picks him up, man, and you let him go. Now, the reason I say this, let's go to the next play.

Go to 1104 in the third quarter. All right. Now you're going to watch, now you're going to watch the same principle. I was going to ask you about this play. So go ahead. Go ahead. That's why I set you up for the play prior, right? Yeah.

Dan just Phil passes him off the Wagner on an underneath route. will watch Latimore. So this is where it's tough to figure out who's wrong here, and I want to say, because they don't know the rules, so Latimore starts yelling. You see him start yelling to Bobby. Cross are coming, cross are coming, and then Latimer just peels off of it.

But Bobby doesn't pick it up. So now leave Adun's a wide open because it's, I think the foundation of this defensive play call is flawed because it's too difficult for them to get. get on the same page. So if he's yelling crosser, crosser, I mean, the guy goes behind Bobby. Who does he goes behind him, so he doesn't see him.

He's just going to have to hope he hears Latimer and starts getting on his horse. But if I'm Latimore here, I don't like this play from him either. He clearly sees, watch his body language after. I see it. Yeah. He's like, what happened? Oh, shit. He's like, all shit, this is going to work.

He's blood naked. But instead of him busting his ass to go help try to cover a Dunezay again, and when he catches the ball, because you know he is, maybe he stops it for a 13-yard gain and not an 18, but he just trots. And at the end of the play, he turns around and he's like, what are we doing here? Yeah, what are we doing here? Okay, so you do two things to me, Latimore. You either bust your ass to go back and help try to patch this coverage up again,

or you turn around and double the in-cut coming behind you. You do something. Right. Don't just try. Yeah. So that's frustrating, right? Okay, so then here we go. and then that's the same principle of the play you brought up a minute 38 in the four quarter

it's the same thing it's the same coverage the underneath guy is coming across to bobby and he's supposed to pick him up a man and it's the key is and you can't run with that dude so the need the whole the whole scheme is flawed they need to they need to figure this out patch it up change the rules or don't involve bobby but try to involve him because he's on the field you got to use him, but he's just, he's lost in past coverage. How much, like, I made the comment after the game. They had 381 yards and 25 points, but they probably left 100 plus yards of offense out there because of Caleb, or drops.

What did you think? Well, he certainly left 97 out there to the key, that's for sure. I would say, yeah, Caleb didn't, I was actually excited to break the son of because I I hear about Caleb, you see all the punants, everybody talks about. He's this big point of conversation. So I wanted to see it for myself and how I would analyze him. I would say arm talent, I was impressed because he can make some really crazy throws from an arm strength standpoint. But I think he's not got it all together inside the pocket, dissecting the defense yet.

So I wasn't as impressive as I guess I wanted to be actually. Yeah, he didn't even if some throws. But to, and I get it. it calling defensive plays where you're not going to cover everything and you're going to take a gamble and you're going to take a chance. You're going to say, I think, based off my research and my film study, that the probability of them running this concept on this play is high. So I'm going to call a defense that's going to leave myself vulnerable to whatever it is I'm going to be vulnerable for. I get taking a gamble like that and you have to sometimes. But for the four plays that

I showed you, that is just too easy to pick apart. And they're never going to get this right. They're never going to pass that off correctly to Bobby, in my opinion. And what if two guys run across them, then what happens? Does the one guy leave them, or do they all leave them, or do they both say with them? How do you simplify it then if you're the defensive coordinator? Yeah. Well, gosh, man, this is simple. Like, don't call this play.

Don't call this play. Like, what is Lattimore, on the one where he just passes the Dunezay off to him, what in the coach's room are they saying, okay, Latimore, when Adunze runs a short cross across the field and you yell to Bobby, he's yours, well, then what do you do? Because he clearly does nothing. Yeah, no, it's a good point. It's not like they're switching.

It's not like it's a pick and they're switching, and he's got somebody else obviously. He just stopped playing. So, like, that's flawed. But he'd go back to the fundamentals and just throw this defensive scheme out. I mean, they ran it four or five times. I showed each time they ran it, and every time it didn't work. So figure it out or don't run it. Yeah.

You got to get rid of that. You know, back to Caleb. And then I'll just say, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, sorry, go ahead. No, you. I was just going to say defensively. Like, Sandra still is a problem. He's, he can't cover, in-man coverage.

All the games I've watched, he's the clear liability of man coverage. Time after time on this film, he's beat. And you wouldn't know it on the broadcast because the camera didn't come his way, because Caleb didn't see him to your point. But let's say he was in past coverage and man coverage 15 times throughout the night, maybe 13 of them. Their receiver was open. I don't know the exact number.

I might be exactly looking. He's a weak link. And I mentioned this two weeks ago, and I'll say it again. But if I know it's man coverage and I'm a quarterback against the commanders, I'm looking for zero and I'm looking for two. And those are my first two looks. And Sand is still just, he had a rough game, man. Well, the touchdown pass that got called back for the illegal formation, which was a terrible call, by the way.

Yeah, but I would, I'm on Zandrifield side of this. I think that was an obvious push-off fight, dude. I would have been really pissed if that touchdown would have held up against him. So I'm, I didn't ding him for that, obviously because it played in, but technically because of the penalty, but even if I would have been leaning on him, that was a two-handed shove, in my opinion, by a dude Zane. He would have had a legitimate right. you what, though, that gets called 30% of the time, a third of the time.

Yes, your percentage is probably correct, but I still would have been pissed. Okay, but the reason I was going to that play, and then when you were talking about Sandor still, is just proving that Caleb Williams really can throw it. Like, that's a great throw. Oh, absolutely. That is back shoulder. It is on the money. And by the way, Caleb's, you know, still going backwards.

He's got ridiculous arm talent. I just think he doesn't see it, and I think he's wildly inaccurate on throws that he does see a lot of the time. Yeah, I would agree with that. Or it's just inconsistent. All right. Let's get to Jaden. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Guys, personal experience with a product that I want to tell you about, it's Z biotics and their product called pre-alcohol.

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Remember to head to Zbiotics.com slash Sheen and use the code Sheen, S-H-E-E-H-A-N at Check. out for 15% off. We'll continue with Steve here in a moment. I know things are tough right now for some of you in the D.C. area, especially with the government shutdown. If you've been impacted, window nation wants to help. Right now, buy two windows, get the next two free and pay nothing, including no interest, for two full years.

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You can't overcome those. The interception, again, I'll say it. I think you just got tricked. I thought Bristker was going to come out to the flash there. And once you go past that first line of the linebacker, he was going to throw that dart in there. So we got tricked. I think it's more of a Bricker ad-limbing.

I think he did like an Ed Reed type situation where he just read in Jane's eyes and he tracked the ball. So, hey, tip your cap, good play by you. and then the fumble, obviously. Other than that, he's making plays on his seat. He's leaving the pocket when he has to, not when he wants to. And the only time I thought he had a chance to make a play inside the pocket where he didn't was in the fourth quarter, it's five minutes and 26 seconds.

Is this when he misses Ertz? Yep, this is Zach Kurtz coming across the middle here. And he has him, and he should anticipate that this linebacker is going to jump DeBell and he's going to have Ertz behind him. and he could sting this in there. Yeah, he might take a hit here because the twist is coming and it kind of splits through wily. But the guy flashes in front of him a little bit and he doesn't stand tall in the pocket.

And you see he kind of pump fakes it. Yeah. He's thinking about it, but he just doesn't cut it loose. But he should cut this loose. This is an easy first down, search is wide open. That would be, this is the only play that I would be critical of him for leaving the pocket deciding not to throw. Sorry, he doesn't get out of the pocket here.

deciding not to throw when he should have. And that's one play out of all of his drop-pack. So he was probably, I'll say, 50-50 on the zone read stuff. Should it gave the first one? He was right to pull the second one, but Edwards just too fast while he couldn't get to him. So he's not going to make – he's not going to get any yards. You know it's the right play to pull. He's got a pool, and then another one I said he should have gave.

So he's like 50-50 on those. And that goes back to your point where I think it was our first week or second week we talked when he thought maybe that. that could be something he needs to improve on. So I'm paying attention to that, too, and I would agree with you, 50, 50 on those. On the play that you dinged him for, it's funny because that was the sack that he took that I said, I think it's on him. I think Ertz, he's got to let that go with anticipation for Ertz.

But I'm watching it from the end zone view for the first time. On that twist, do you think he thinks the D-Tackle that is twisting? Let's see who that is. It's Dexter Senior. I think it's 90. Is it 90? It might be 90. But do you think he thinks he's going to get a hand on the ball?

And that's where he, but no, he's got to cut that loose. He's got to cut that loose. Yeah. Well, so what I mean, the person getting dinged on this play is Wiley. He's getting crushed here. He's getting beat on an inside move to a five technique. Yeah. Who's way outside him.

You can't get beat inside here. The guy's running into you. You pass that's too deep. I mean, this is where he gets to trouble as he's a, I'm assuming I'm right here. He's a traditional tackle playing a guard here. Yeah. So he's passed setting as a tackle here from guard.

You don't want to do that. You can't get beat inside here because this is all picked up. This picture should be real clear for Jaden, and he should be able to hit Earth's no problem. But while he getting beat on this is unacceptable. And that's what causes the fact. So Wiley's the one getting dinged. I'm shocked he didn't let this go. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, because. I can also say, you could also argue, I'm up to, it's in the fourth quarter, I'm just going to eat this. If he was unsure at all, let's not risk the turn over. Maybe that flash in his head. And then you say, all right, all right, well, better than you being unsure throwing a ball in the coverage. But I'm making an excuse from there.

I think he needs to cut this loose. Yeah, I mean, look. He'll take a hit. This is a play, too, just so everybody remembers. This is the play. This is the drive where he fumbles. where they botched the handoff and he loses control the ball and Chicago takes over and ultimately runs the clock out and kicks the game winning field goal.

If he hits this to Ertz, this is a solid 15, 16, 17-yard completion. They're first in 10. They're, you know, at the Chicago, whatever. They're at the Chicago 38-yard line or whatever. And you're getting close to field goal range to at the very least to make it 27 to 22. if they don't score touchdown. But yeah, and they eventually got the first down after the sack on the incredible McNichols play again. But yeah, that was the one that I didn't know why he didn't cut it loose.

But all right, continue. The zone reads, by the way, you know, they had, you had mentioned something earlier about sort of cover two. And they almost felt, it almost felt like you were saying maybe they knew what was coming. Maybe they were signed stealing in this game. But there were also a lot of rundowns where there were eight in the box as well. And I thought that some of, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. I was going to say, yeah, I was probably in a little bit inaccurate.

I said they ran a lot of two high safeties. I was more shocked at when they ran the two high safeties because it was than when they decided to run play action off of those big formation. So that was very, you know, I started like, dang, how do they know. They didn't even care about this play action. The safeties are 12 yards deep before the snub of the ball. So I don't know the evolution of Daniels. I don't know what he's been given and his privileges at the line of scrimmage. Because if I'm in a play action situation, I got the extra line.

I got Trent Scott in here. We want to go to quarter to 11 minutes, 41 seconds. Okay. And see, this is an example. They're in the big formation. they got Trent Scott in here. This is first in 10. This is a rundown.

You're on your own 33 going in. This is a rundown. Bears are sitting in the obvious cover, too. Safetys are 12 yards off the ball. Yeah, they are. So this goes in. I don't know what Jaylen's allowed to do here, but this is checked to me.

This is audible because they're trying to take a shot here. This is going to be a play action. They're bringing yank off in motion, and they're going to try to take a shot. Now, this route combination that you see is because they think they're getting cover three because that's what they get in this formation. They get that guy down the box. So they want to send this receiver Tay Martin on a deep post, assuming there's a deep safety

there in cover three, but there isn't. And then Yankov's coming behind. It could be a big chunk. But this is covered two. It's obvious cover two. This play's not going to work because they know it's passed for some reason. This is just... Well, to answer your question, yes, we see him check all the time.

So there's a there's a can, can check with me here. And you're saying because it's first and 10 and they're in cover two. And they've been, you know, in more run-stopping defenses. You've got to check to a run here. Of course, you've got to run against cover two. Yeah, it would be easy, easy, kill, kill, and then whatever, your backup run play. So Jaden's missing this pre-snap or he wasn't given the option. Or he thinks or, or let me pose a number.

another thing that he thinks. He loves that they're in cover too because when he drops back, he knows he's going to be able to scramble for a bunch of yards. It'll be possible. I mean, you know, look, you can't, you know, they're in cover

too and they're zone everywhere else. Well, yeah, there's zone everywhere else. So it's harder for a big scramble against zone coverage than it is man coverage. But anyway, yeah, I'm just throwing that out. All right. What else? Yeah. So that was just an example. Yeah. I'm just timely good coverage,

calls by the Bears taking away the shot plays that Washington was trying to run. But all in all, I mean, Jaden still had a passing grade for me. He's not in the bottom three. He's not in the top three. He's sitting right in the middle. And it's just from those turners. He would have been obviously top performer. And he's going to be moving the rest of the way as long as he can continue, or excuse me,

try not to turn the ball over. And so for top three performers. Hold on. Before we get to that, a couple more on Jaden. First of all, the touchdown pass to Moore is versus six-man pressure, and McNichols picks it up, but how good of a throw is that? Yeah, it's a great throw. It's an absolute perfect ball.

And I'm shocked that he goes to him because Moore is the only one that has off-coverage pre-snap, and he's running a fade. You wouldn't think that Moore would be able to get over top of him. That's just me looking at a pre-snap. I don't know if I would have been looking there. But he does, and he has to throw a perfect. ball. Any throw is a perfect ball. Absolutely. Okay. The touchdown pass to Ertz. Really decisive, great throw. Is that where he should have gone?

Yeah. He had either option. He had Ertz or he had more. They're both running the same route on the opposite sides of the ball. And he just picked, and he picks Ertz. And I would pick Earth, too, just because more dropped the pass every game. So I'm going to the guy who doesn't drop the ball notoriously, and that's So he looks the safety off, little eyes to the left, and then just throw the dart to earth. So really, it's an awesome football. On the pick, is he late or is it just, because you kind of alluded to this, is it just a great play by Brisker? I think it's a better play by Bristker. I honestly don't know if it gets completed, even if Bristker doesn't pick it.

That safety's coming over from the middle of the field. It's going to be really close, even if Brisker's not there. I think, in my opinion, as I watch the play go out. And this is just Daniels. You have to do a little better job with his eyes because, like I said, even if Bristker's not there, I think the safety's still going to get a chance to make a play on the ball. He's going to have to throw a frozen road to Debo to beat him. And I just think, I think he thinks Brisker is going to drift down to the flat to cover that flat route

that's showing up late. And he just doesn't. He sinks underneath it. Because what position is Brisker playing there? What is his own is he responsible for? right there. Yeah. And I can't answer one.

I think he's playing a robber. I think he's just doing a little freelance and he's just reing James eyes. And he's, and I would shade the Debo too. If I'm a guy and Devo's in my zone, I'm leaning his way too. Because you don't have many other threats out there.

A couple of other plays. That was a bad intentional grounding, right? Or did he have an option? No, it's a bad. Well, he doesn't have an option to throw the football to anybody because that goes back to nobody winning a man coverage. But he has an option to throw the ball over his head

in a way that it looks like it's not intentional grounding. You can't chuck it 40 feet over the guy's head. Exactly. So yeah, I ding jaded for that. That's the penalty's all on him. He's doing the right thing. I got nobody open and I can't get out of the pocket. He can't get out of the pocket.

You throw the ball away. Well, he knows how to throw the ball away without getting an intentional grounding, and he just doesn't do it. what about the I thought the fourth and two conversion the play before that

I thought Moore's wide open and that was one of his misses he was high on that throw oh no I'm giving at the Moore man that's a drop is it a drop? That's a drop

all right it's hit both of his hands man I'm a receiver too I'm not well you gave the high ball to Ertz last week as a drop also. I just...

I did. Yeah. Two hands on the football. You're an NFL player. Make the catch, man. You don't get any reprieve for me. On the fourth and two, oh, on the fourth and two to McNichols,

does he have a chance if it's a better throw for a lot more yards after catch? I would say, so I heard that on the broadcast, right? I disagree. I disagree. I disagree. Fourth and two, I'm putting the ball on the guy.

I'm not trying to get fancy and get 60. I'm putting the ball on the guy. Getting the first down. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine with him back tooring that to make it a much steeper throw, make sure he catches it instead of risking trying to put that ball over the top and have to be perfect to catch the ball in a run.

So yeah, I disagree with Aikman or wherever it was that I remember hearing it too. You got to put that ball on the guy, move the chains. All right. Before I get to the fumble, I want to just ask about one point. play. And I asked Logan Paulson on radio today about this play. So I thought the RPO was so quick in his decision making. And the ball was out so quick to McCaffrey. And I don't know in the NFL with a one-yard rule with the lineman. Now, maybe Logan pointed out, he's like, well, you're going to take a little bit more time when you're in pistol, when you're in shotgun. Well, that's the only way you run

RPO. You know, the RPO's run from not under center. So I thought it was, I mean, I think in many ways, it's just because there's such an emphasis now on calling the ineligible player downfield, RPO's getting really hard to run in the NFL. I don't disagree with that either, but you coach, I ding Wiley on the play. You have to have some sort of timing, yourself clocking your head and understand the rule. And he just leaves as soon as a ball snap, basically. He checks to make sure he has no pressure or no blocking responsibility.

He doesn't and they just starts going to the second level. Right. I mean, that's on Wiley. You're telling me they install this play, they don't, the linemen don't know it's an RPO, and that they can't just bolt down the field as soon as a ball snap. I mean, that's crazy. that, you can't do it. Regardless if the rule is good or not, the rule is the rule, so this is on Wiley. You've got to sit tight for a little bit. Not even a little bit.

You got to sit tight for a count, one count. Say one, Mississippi, two, then you can go. You just can't do it. I mean, it's a good RPO. They bite, linebacker bite. Right. They get exactly what they want. Jayden Reed is good. McCaffrey's open on the slant and solid first down. Yeah, no, no. He's downfield, but it's like, because there's now such an emphasis to call this. Like my sense of it from watching a lot of NFL football, even going back to last year,

is that I don't think that the NFL wants the game to morph into the college game from that standpoint. Because let's face it, RPO at the college level with the three-yard rule, if you've got some talent, it's almost impossible to stop.

Almost impossible to stop. And, you know, you just see, and that's why you see, you know, in the Big 12, the outrageous scores, you know, that you've seen over the years. Real quickly on the fumble, before we get to your three highest and three lowest-graded offensive and defensive players. So he fumbled earlier in the game, and it just bounced right back up into his hands. I think he hit that ball with his thigh on that first one.

I don't think he just dropped it. No, you're right. That's true. but on the play that mattered maybe more than any other play in the game what's the coaching point wet ball etc man it's a good question and I don't know what else you tell the guy other than focus

you got to know that the ball is wet secure the catch and secure the handoff but it's you would have to do something different and maybe you should have told him that you got to use different mechanics here it's two hands to hand the ball off not the one because he catches it and drives a transit it to his right hand to do the one-handed handoff

that he does every day in practice 800 times throughout the season. Should you have told him, hey, two hands, it's wet football, two hands on the handoff here. Maybe. That would be the only

other coaching thing I would think of. What about, you know, he took on the ball in there. He took accountability. He said it was a lack of focus after the game.

Oh, 100%. Yeah, you can't say anything else. That's all on him. Nobody made him drop that ball, a lot of people hate, you know, and I got a lot of calls on this. Why is he in shotgun? Why is he in pistol? Why, you know, I'm trying to think of, was he in pistol or shotgun? I think he was in pistol. I think he was in pistol. Yeah. So why is he in pistol instead of under center? Well, because

the whole league, you know, runs pistol and shotgun on third one. And by the way, they were the most successful fourth down team in history last year. But the point that people tried to make is there would have been less risk of a fumble with him under center. I actually don't know if I agree with that. What do you think? I don't know if I'd agree with either. I don't know this. There's some stat coming out.

I'd like to know what is the difference between drop shotgun snaps versus fumbled snap. Yeah. I bet it's the same, if not less. I'm sure. I mean, Jaden is, I would be more confident catching a shotgun snap than going under center for sure. He just dropped it. He didn't even drop it off the catch. Yeah. He didn't even drop it off the catch. He caught it. He just dropped it. Yeah. When he's transitioning to hand the ball up, which would have happened from under center two, you still transition into one

hand to hand the football off. Yeah, I don't, I think you're grasped and straw to try to blame something there other than Jaden Degg him. He dropped the football. All right. What was your letter grade for him in the game? So what do I say like B, if you get a B, you're a getting a starting grade. So he's probably he's a B, he's just almost a B plus. He's still in the B range. Let's get to your highest graded, lowest graded, offensive and defensive players

to finish up. The show, we'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, let's finish up with Steve's three highest graded offensive players, three lowest graded offensive players, then we'll go to the defense. Three highest graded offensive players. Go ahead.

three highest go-toe number one, McNichols. He was fantastic, especially Blitz pickup time after time. He was tracking linebackers across multiple offensive linemen to pick him up, and he was stoned him when he did. You mentioned the big third down. That was a huge play in the game where he had to get most of it on his own and then finish off the run to get the first down. And I even dinged him for his drop pass on the other third down.

I don't think it was going to be a big play, but he still got dinged for it. So he was really solid for me offensively, led the way. Number two is I'm a broken record here. Chris Paul, another solid game by him. He's the best alignment on the field each week for Washington. And then Beiotich came in third. Those are my top three. And Biotic has been playing really solid too. And now I'll transition here to the three lowest and I guess I'll say for that. So the three lowest go to Chris Moore. Not only from the drop pass, so it should have been a first down, but blocking. He didn't help out a lot at all. a couple of times he was asked to set the edge,

and he was the reason that played in work. So he was getting deemed on those plays. Connerley, not his best game, not his worst game, but he's in the bottom three, Connerley Jr., and then Wiley, by far, the worst player on the field offensively. And that's back-to-back games. He's been on the bottom for me.

I forget the All-World Guard that you say you have coming back. Sam Cosby, hopefully. Yeah, so you need, is there, when could he be coming back? because they didn't insert him. It could be this week. It could be this week. You know, he's in that 21 day where you've got the opportunity to, you know, activate him.

Okay. He tore his ACL in the playoff game against the Lions last year. Oh, okay. I didn't know. So that's the, so, you know, it basically the normal recovery is late September, early October. So here we are. But yes. And by the way, his position is right guard.

So it... Oh, yeah, you need him. Yeah, so that's... There's been some question among some of the people that cover the team. Will he come in for Paul, or will he come in for Wiley? Oh, he's not coming in. He is not coming in for Paul.

If he comes in for Paul, I have lost all faith and trust in anybody knows anything about football over there. Okay, yeah. I don't know how obvious I can say it. He's your best linemen on the field. Tundle's a close second, or no, I'd say Biont's second. Tundle is the third if I'm ranking him. Chris Paul does not mess up, and he mauls guys consistently,

he better not leave the field or stop watching the game. You know, you were the first one you did, you're like, this dude Allegrety and this dude Brandon Coleman, they might need to sit, and they ended up sitting the following week. So Wiley's been so bad the last two weeks, maybe they bring Aligretti back in. Yeah, maybe, because Coleman's been just flat out inactive. He hasn't been active on game days. Allegretti has been, I think, active on most of these game days.

You can say this with complete confidence that he's going in the right guard when it comes back or Wiley. She is not coming in for Paul. So the Chris Moore thing is interesting to me, although the touchdown catch, it wasn't a clean catch. It was a perfect ball, and he really kind of chest catch caught it. And he's lucky he held onto it. But he did do a good job of getting the knee down. Yeah, and I gave him points for it. You get credit for it.

I didn't not give him the points he should earn for that play. It's a good play. It's a good catch. He just was not a factor and not in the run game the rest of the way. And then the drop I gave about this. I give the same score there for the touchdown and the drop because you don't know you're going to get the fourth down the next play. So essentially, and I say this on the broadcast,

and I'm doing Marin all the time, a third down drop to me is a turnover. You're punting the ball now. So because you dropped the ball and you didn't get the first down, I consider it a turnover. I think it should be a stat. It's not a pick. It's not a fumble, but it is a turnover because you're giving the ball back. So for the same point you got for the touchdown,

they get a race for the third down drop, and then he just had some other bad. Well, then I know what's coming on defense, because Kwan Martin basically turned the ball over by not tackling Swift on the 55-yard touchdown. But we'll get to that in a moment. I wanted to ask you about Zach Ertz, because you have basically, since you started doing this,

you are not an Ertz guy. It's very clear that you're not, or, you know, based on the games that he's played so far, what did you think of his game Monday night? He's on my bottom three. Yeah, no, he's not. I'll tell you what I thought. Yeah, so he did great.

He was one of, well, I would say great, but he is, let's see, I mean, he's just under the top three, and it's because he made plays in the passing game. He wasn't asked to do much. much from a block. Actually, go to I highlighted this. The play right before the Jaden pick.

Okay. I don't have that timestamp. It's first quarter. It is 617. The play before first quarter. Okay, the play before, yeah, is 650. Yeah. So

this is the most aggressive urch has been all year and run blocking. He cuts this guy as he comes across the line of scrimmage. Yep. want this. He has to. Like,

you have to block this guy. He's a D-N. I know you don't want to do it, but you have to. He goes low and he chopped his leg up. Now, does this guy still technically get in on the tackle?

Yeah. You think he's just not really interested at this age and doing a lot of blocking? 100% he doesn't want to do it. This is the only probably plus credit I've given him on a run play all season. And I gave it to him. I mean, he gets credit.

I'm asking a lot of you to come across and take on a D-end, and he does it, and he knocks, he gets him on the ground. That's a successful block if I get you on the ground. What did you think? So let's give him his props there. Yeah, what did you think of Cross-Eamert? What did you think of Bill in this game? I think Bill's, I'm not ready to hand the keys to him,

just like I wasn't ready to hand the keys to him after the Chargers game. I'm a big fan of McNichols. And he's growing on me more and more. Bill's coming along. He's past protection is getting better. He had one, one that was his fault with a pocket bro down, but he's also standing up, too. I know issues with Bill. I'm just not ready to give him the keys.

I think the Nichols still has earned some touches, and I think you've seen it. He's got big first down potential. The last two weeks getting first down, and it's not just that. His path blocking is, what's pickup is better. It's really good, actually. He's got good hands other than the drop, and I think he's got some shaking him, too. It's just a different kind of shake. So I just

I'm fine with Bill coming along I'm all for it And he looks good But don't Stop giving the ball And Nichols It's don't stop giving him reps Now I did make this other note

This is your second time Fumbling Bill And back to back week And you know what coaches do to this You know coaches just Rewind that film And then say This guy's a fumbler

Rewind it This guy's a fumbler Rewind it This guy's a fumbler And that's They'll just repeat that And now the defenses each week are now going to think, and it's just going to be part of their tackling,

is they're going to think Bill's a fumbler. So you've got to overcome that, because once defenses smell that blood, then they're going to come after it. So he's going to have to do a good job of figuring out how to not fumble again and try to erase that narrative that he has now. All right. Defensive, top three, bottom three?

Top three defense go to Kinlaw, Louvo and Darnell Savage played well. Wow. He came in, yeah, I was a fan of him. And then Armstrong, honorable mention, he's right there. They're basically the same score, but those are my top three. Bottom three go to Wagner, just caught too much in pass covers and out in space and not getting it done. But he made up for a little bit in the run game here and there.

So he kind of bounces out, but he's still my bottom three. Preston Smith, I just, he's just nothing out there right now. so he's got to be in there. And then by far with Sanders still, and it's just from all the mistakes in man coverage, they're not covering, it lost in coverage. I ding him for dropping that interception.

I mean, that interception was the easiest one. He's probably going to have all season, and he dropped it down there in the goal line. The one he caught last week was much more difficult. Right. So you got to make that play, because that's points coming off the board if you make that play.

And he's just a liability in man coverage, so he rounds out the bottom. San Ristill, the lowest-graded defensive player and the lowest-graded offensive player was wily. Man, you like McNichols. By the way, they love him. I do like him. They love him. Oh, I like him.

Oh, good. And I think it's one of the, I mean, look, Bill ended up getting 17 carries in this game, which is the most for him. But that fumble, it's a good hit by sweat to knock it out. But to your point, they're going to be. be searching for it now. All right. What else that I haven't asked you about or you haven't mentioned?

I think we got it, man. It's covered it. They need to get Terry back. They need to find a way to get more dynamic on the edge with winning man coverage or they're just going to be in a war.

It's just going to be too much on Jaylen moving forward the rest of the season. If they have another game like this where the run game isn't taking up chunk yardage like it was. Oh, by the way, thought because of that egregious mistackle on Swift on the 55-yard touchdown pass that Martin was going to be

a bottom three or for you. Yeah. I mean, he got dinged on it for sure. I gave him the equivalent of giving up a touchdown because he did. Now, he gets picked again too. It's just, I don't know why. He did get back. I don't know why him and Latimore just like,

him and Latimer just, they can't stay out of each other way. I know. Crazy. All right. Great job on short turnaround. Appreciate it so much. We'll talk next week. All right.

Thanks, Kevin. Steve Suter, everybody. Really good stuff. Back tomorrow.