The Kevin Sheehan Show - Oh Hopkins!

Episode Date: August 29, 2021

A quick recap of last night's Washington-Baltimore preseason finale. 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. I don't think there's a worse offering in professional team sports than the NFL's preseason. It is dreadful to watch. It's a disgraceful offering by the league where they make people pay for it.

Season ticket holders pay for it. If you don't have season tickets, you had to pay. I don't know what you had to pay last night. Again, there weren't many people there last night. more Baltimore people probably than Washington people. But it's just really hard to watch, especially when one of the two teams involved doesn't play frontline starters. And that's the tact that Washington took last night.

Ron Rivera deciding, along with his coaches, that they were done playing their starters in preseason games. And you know what? They didn't get anybody injured, although the corner McTire, number 35, left the game. We'll have to see what that is. But Baltimore played a lot of starters last night, and they lost J.K. Dobbins for the season. Torn ACL, worst nightmare come true out of these preseason games for the Ravens losing J.K. Dobbins. That's a shame for them.

They got their 20-game record winning streak in the preseason, breaking Lombardi's record. I guarantee you, they'd give back the 37-3 win last night for J.K. Dobbins' health in a New York second. But Washington decided to go the opposite way and sit all of their starters, which made the game itself really hard to watch. And maybe even hard for the coaches to figure out. Ron Rivera said today that there were four positions up for grabs going into this game, and maybe during the game they determined that maybe another two were also up for grabs. So maybe six jobs determined last night.

Boy, that seems like a lot. If you take him at face value, though, six guys either lost jobs last night and six guys gained jobs last night. We'll see. We'll see with the 53-man final roster of the cutdown. Final cutdown date is Tuesday at 4 p.m. All right, a very brief podcast today. I'm just going to recap this game very quickly. And then I'm going to have one thought on the college, one of the college games that was played yesterday.

And then that will be it. and then tomorrow's podcast will feature the second part of the Santana Moss interview. If you miss the first part, it's there, wherever you get my podcast. Santana was great, and I had to break it into two parts because it was so long. And on tomorrow's part that I'll have for you, he talks about a lot of things, including a really good story that I had never heard about Sean Taylor. Okay, let's get to my Game Take from last night. Pay attention.

Here's Kevin's Game Take. I'm going to start on my list of things that I liked with something that I saw last night from the other team. And that was their backup quarterback, Tyler Huntley. I thought he was the best player on the field last night. Again, it's probably not saying much, considering Washington didn't have one front-line starter on the field. But I liked Tyler Huntley. I don't really remember him getting much action last year, but I think he did a little bit for the Ravens. He's in his second year out of Utah.

Forget the numbers, which were incredible, 285 yards passing on 24, 33, 4 touchdowns, no picks, no sacks. Forget that. It's the way he did it. I lauded last week Taylor Heineke, and I am complimenting another TH this week, Tyler Huntley, the quarterback of the Ravens, for a lot of the same stuff. And that is, he's just got a knack of escaping pressure and creating more time, whether it's in the pocket or outside. of it. And unlike last week where I thought Heineke was great turning, you know, extended plays into some nice runs, Huntley turned him into big throws. He was really on target all night long. He really looks like the perfect backup for Lamar Jackson. I was really impressed with Huntley, the Ravens

quarterback. This is going to seem odd, but I was impressed with Kyle Allen last night. The numbers wouldn't say that. But do you know what Baltimore did the entire night with their starters and then their backups, they just kept coming with pressure. They kept coming with five and six man pressures all night long. And Kyle Allen was out there with all of the backups and somehow he survived it and made a couple of good throws. They didn't move the ball. They didn't score points. But there's something about Kyle Allen that I think I understand what they see in him. They see a real solid backup. They see a guy that doesn't get rattled. They see a guy that can deal with pressure. They see a guy that like Taylor Heineke can

can make plays with his legs inside the pocket, outside the pocket. I think Heineke's better at that than Allen, but Allen's still pretty good. Alan's probably a little bit better at that than Fitzpatrick. He runs the offense. Last night, though, was not a normal, you know, they weren't game planning for him. Every single drop back, and he dropped back 22 times. He was under siege that entire time. and somehow he was able to complete like 10 balls, you know, out of 22, but there were a lot of throwaways in there too because of the pressures and they weren't game planned to get him picked up. But I don't know.

I like Kyle Allen. I don't love any one of the three quarterbacks that Washington has. I am hopeful that Ryan Fitzpatrick really is a significant upgrade. I'm hopeful that Ryan Fitzpatrick plays at the level he's played at the last two years. I think Washington's offense would be a hell of a lot better than it's been. That's not saying much. but I'm hopeful that that can be the case. There's a lot about Taylor Heineke that I like,

but I don't see him as a full-fledged NFL starter, but I would also admit, and I think most of you should admit, you don't know because you haven't seen enough of them. He's played five whole quarters. And if your goal, like my good friend Sabah, who calls into the radio show all the time, is to bail on this year but find out more about the quarterbacks of the future and play Taylor Heineke,

I can't kill you for that strategy or that idea, because they're probably not going to win the Super Bowl this year. And if that's the ultimate goal, then, you know, you're probably not going to win a Super Bowl with Ryan Fitzpatrick. So let's figure out, you know, if the quarterback of the future resides in either Taylor Heineckee or Kyle Allen. I don't think it does. By the way, I would not approach this season that way.

I think you've got a young team, a team that you have to keep evaluating, and you want the most professional quarterbacking you can get. And with that defense and the new weapons, you've got a chance to be competitive and win a division and compete for a playoff spot this year. They are. They're one of those teams that could, if everything goes well, compete for a playoff spot. If you want to bail on that idea, not that starting Taylor Heineke or Kyle Allen would be bailing on it, but they would consider it to be reducing the chances of having a real good season to find out and roll the dice to find out whether or not you've got a guy or not for the future,

that's fine. It's not the way I would do it. Not with those two. Not with those two. If they had signed, I don't know, if they had signed Darnold and it was, I don't know, I would have played Darnold too. I would have played any of the people they were considering trading for. Stafford, Darnold, Marriota, Carr. I would have played any of them, including, you know, signing Ryan Fitzpatrick over the two they had. But netting it out, I liked Kyle Allen last night. I love the way. way he survived the night. That's not a high bar, I understand, but they didn't have anybody playing around him, and Baltimore was playing frontline people, and they kept pressuring him the entire night. The wide receiver positions, Antonio Gandy Golden, Dax Milne in particular, it seems to be maybe a battle for a final roster spot. I think AGG is going to make the team. That would be my guess right now. But I would pick Milne over AGG if I was forced to take one or the other. For these reasons, number one, Milne can be a punt returner for you. And he looks like a very comfortable punt returner. To me, in the preseason, he's looked that way. Number two, I think he catches the ball more

cleanly, and I think he looks like a guy that is better after the catch than AGG. What AGG does give you is big-time size. And a real good job of using his body. you know, as a receiver in front of a defender. But I don't think he always catches it so well, and I don't think he looks like a major threat after the catch. But he would be, you know, if they were in a bind, he's a hell of a red zone, six foot four inch target. I get it.

I mean, it's splitting hairs here. But I don't know. There's something about Milne that I like and something about AGG that I don't love, but it's hard for us to make. make that decision. We haven't seen any of these people in real games with real stakes. Tressways on the list of things that I liked. I mean, come on, man. The dude's already in regular season form. It's amazing. He's entering his eighth season here. Eighth season. You know, we were talking about Dustin Hopkins and how long he's been here, and we'll get to him

in a moment. Tressway's been here. This is his eighth going on his eighth season in Washington and coming off his two best years. And look, they've needed them a lot, obviously, in the last few years, because they've punted a lot. It would be nice to see Washington be, you know, in the middle of the pack in terms of how many punts they have as a team. I'm looking up the number from last year. I wanted to see where they ranked in terms of total numbers of punts.

I think it was pretty much, it was close to the top. I think it was. Maybe it wasn't. I'm pulling it up right now. They punted last year 73 times, and it looks like only the jets and the jags punted more often than Washington last year. 73 punts in 16 games. It'd be nice to be in the 50s this coming year.

Hopefully the offense can provide that opportunity. By the way, I think the international player, Bada, David Bada, I thought he showed pretty well. How to sack, how to deflected pass. Did he have a deflected extra point or field goal, too, I think, in the game? I wasn't paying super close attention when it got to that point in the game. All right, those are the things that I liked. I'll get to the list of the things that I didn't like right after these words from a few of our sponsors. What did you make of Dustin Hopkins' first kick? Was it a lot who can really tell him, and also his bounce back later on in 40-yard? Well, you know, I really didn't care if he made that 55-yard. What I was really more concerned about was the operation. I wanted to see a good snap, a good hold, and a good swing.

That's all I was looking at. You know, it was a little bit further than what they had given me as his distance. But I was going to send him out there because I wanted to see the operation. And that, to me, is probably more important than what the result was going to be. If he had made it great, if he didn't, as long as it was a good operation, I'm okay with that. Because it's what this is really about. This was really about getting the operation done. Came back, he kicked another one.

It was perfect. I loved the operation. Good snap. Good place. Good stroke. That was Ron Rivera talking about, Dustin Hopkins, he's not getting cut, and I don't think they're going to bring somebody in to push him before the opener. I think Rivera really believes in the operation is the issue right now, but my God, that long field goal attempt was a bit of a train wreck on the kickers part.

We'll get to that in a moment because Dustin Hopkins had a very lengthy reason for what went wrong there. After a week of not having to talk about Hopkins, I guess we have to talk about him. Look, it's a 55-yarder. The result isn't the issue. The issue is how poorly he kicked it. I mean, he chunked it. He basically, you know, kicked behind the ball or hit turf. It came up, hit the high portion of the ball, the way he explained it,

and then it may have been deflected by a line of scrimmage guy for Baltimore. But, you know, missing a 55-yarder is hardly a reason to cut a player. but the actual attempt was bad. Anyway, this was Dustin Hopkins and his explanation of what went wrong last night. It was a rather long explanation. Here it was. Well, thank the Lord for preseason, first of all.

But it's honestly, cheese has been so good on so many levels. It's just, and trust always. But our rhythm was off for a little bit. That was not what happened tonight. Like, that was just 100% of me. that operation was great. But yeah, I guess you're trying to learn.

I'm trying to learn every rep. So, like, for example, tonight, this would be a learning experience. Going out there, we call for field goal. It's one of those situations that we're planning, or we field goal, run out, call field goal. I'm looking at the play clock, and, well, let me backtrack. You know, I've talked to y'all, I think, I've said this before, of wanting to be process-oriented. And so if I put myself in a position to be successful through the process that I set up pre-snap, I can live with the results.

Tonight, my process was not good on the first kick, and it bothers me. So trying to be process-oriented, going to that kick, I'm looking at the play clock, and all I'm thinking about is trying to hurry up. And I didn't have any of the keys that I usually have going into a kick that typically make me successful. And so I hate that a huge mental error led to poor, physical execution. And then recognizing that after and being able to make sure that I'm just harping on those keys, I was able to come out and hit a better ball.

So, yeah, I guess just learning through every rep, but also gaining that chemistry with cheese and tress in timing and rhythm, it's hard unless you're in it to feel like how even small pauses or small jumping it can like change the way you feel going into a ball. And there are things that I can do. Like ultimately I'm the last guy to get a look at the ball and I need to make kicks. And I've been playing long enough where that falls on me. And I want to do that better. So just learning, I guess.

I don't know. But I don't think even if it was blocked, it was probably because I hit a low ball, if I'm guessing, judging on what I felt. I hit back behind the ball on the ground. As a result, your toe bounces up, hits high on the ball, and you hit a squirly kick. So even if it was tipped, I'm sure it was probably a result of me rather than the line or something like that. Netting it out, I think he's going to be the kicker, and I don't think they're going to put pressure on him with outside competition before the opener.

Anybody that they can bring in now, they probably feel like maybe they can bring them in after the opener or after the first week of the season. They need somebody to kick twice and five days at home on that field. He's used to it. He also gives them what they want in terms of kickoffs that the other team's going to start at the 25-yard line more times than not without an opportunity for a big-time return. It's such a fine line. There was a lot of mental gymnastics with that answer from him. There's just such a fine line with kickers with talent. And he's got talent. They are, you know, a couple of made kicks in a row from a big-time role and hitting on 85 to 90 percent or higher with no miss PATs and hitting every clutch kick. And then, you know, if everything is just a bit off, he can have a 78 percent year and miss a lot of big kicks, including, you know, a couple of PATs.

I think they're going to ride it out here with Hopkins to start. But he was clearly on my list of things that I didn't love from last night. he came back and made the 48-yarder. Also on the list of things that I didn't like, Peyton Barber had a rough night. I don't know if he's going to make the team or not. I have no idea. They love him in short-yardage, but he missed a key pass block opportunity. One of those pressures, quick pressures on Kyle Allen with the blitz pressure was Patrick

Queen, the first round pick from a year ago that blitzed and Barber just whiffed on him. I thought Patterson did a better job during the preseason pass. blocking. I don't know if Barbara's going to make the team. Wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't, and they go with Gibson on short-yardage. Or maybe Patterson's the guy they look for on short-yardage. I think Patterson is similar to Gibson and similar to McKissick. Like, he's got, you know, the inside-the-tackles running ability,

even though he's smaller, and he's obviously got the in-space ability as well. But I thought it was a rough night for Barber. I thought it was a tough night for Tori McTire. I don't know. Maybe that injury that he had is ultimately going to lead him to injured reserve. They like him. He's played well throughout the preseason, and he had a couple of good coverages last night before he got hurt. But that's essentially the list of things that I didn't like from last night. I mean, obviously they gave up a lot of yards, and they gave up big gash plays, big chunk plays to the Ravens, but it's so hard to evaluate that stuff. As far as

the 53-man roster, let's take Ron at his word, that four to six spots were determined last night. I guess we'll find out who they are Tuesday at 4. I'll have more thoughts potentially on that on the 53 man. I'm not going to do a 53 man, but maybe some of the key battles for final spots on tomorrow show. But that was essentially the list of things I didn't like. I don't think I'm missing anything else. A few more observations when we come back and a quick thought about one of the college football teams that played yesterday and the state of their program. right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

A couple of final observations and then a thought on the Nebraska football program. Tim Settle was in the game really late. I wonder why. I think a lot of the front-line starters just didn't play, but he's not a front-line starter, but he's part of what we expect to be, you know, a rotation with ionitis and Settle working in there with the other four that we know we have penciled in as starters,

young, sweat, Allen, and pain. I just thought it was strange that he was in the game late in the game. AGG was on special teams. So was Milne. I think that receiver situation is interesting for sure. But they definitely wanted to get a look at AGG on special teams as well. Also, I didn't know this. Maybe you all did.

Has nothing to do with the actual game itself last night? I didn't know Channel 7 locally was the home of the Ravens. They showed all their, I have shown all their preseason games. I figured that out last night. I guess maybe that's been the case in Revenue. recent years. I don't know. I haven't been paying attention, but it's just strange. I think that a DC station locally is televising all of the Ravens games. And then lastly, I'm sure you saw this. If you didn't, I'll tell you, they're really promoting for these tickets for the first two home games. They

obviously have a lot of tickets to sell. They're going for $49. I don't know where the seats are. I'm assuming upper deck. $49 for the charger game, $45 for the giant game. We'll see a lot of really pushing to get As many people into that stadium for the opener, it's the Chargers, it's Justin Herbert. You know, they've got high expectations. They didn't play anybody last night. And at 27, nothing lost to Seattle. Washington's got high expectations, you know, coming off last year. And, you know, a lot of people thinking they've got a chance to compete for the division and get to the playoffs.

So I think there's more expectations going into this year than there have been in six, seven, maybe eight years since 2013. I don't think it's going to be, you know, dissoning. crowd for the opener. You know, I don't see 40,000 in the stadium, but I would be surprised if it's a sellout, but I'd like to see at least 60 of the capacity. I think capacity now with all the areas up top that are covered is 72. But it's interesting to me, and the observation is this, and I'll net it out. Just for somebody of my generation who remembers the value of one of these tickets and how hard it was,

It was Augusta. It was the Masters in terms of ticket availability. It was the ACC tournament. I'm talking about one of the hardest tickets in sports. You were so lucky to get one. People used to go to the preseason games because they couldn't go to the regular season games. But it is interesting to see them. Finally, for the first time, probably in about seven years.

They should have been doing this for the last six, seven years. Jason Wright recognizes it. Brian Lafamina recognized it. It's like we have tickets. We have to advertise that we have them. We have to tell people that we have them. We have to create opportunities and incentives for them to buy. I want them to do that.

You have a great defensive football team potentially this year. I mean, a team that could be great defensively. And wouldn't it be great to see loud home crowds with them on defense against some really good teams and good quarterbacks this year? There could be some big home games this year. I don't think the opener or the Thursday night game will be sellout, either one of them, but I think the opener's got to get 60,000, right? We will soon find out. All right, last thing. Nebraska lost to Illinois in college football yesterday. There were a few

college football games that opened up the season yesterday. Nebraska was a seven-point favorite over Illinois. They lost 30 to 22. Brett Bielma is the coach at Illinois after his years at Arkansas, and then in the NFL with Belichick as an assistant. He's a great coach. Was great at Wisconsin. I actually think he's got a chance to really turn Illinois around. But the observation here to finish up the show is about Nebraska. Nebraska is one of those programs. And I used to say this about NC State basketball. Herb Sendeck put the Wolfpack into the tournament like six years in a row and then they fired him because it wasn't good enough.

Maryland basketball, we've had these conversations in the past, similar. You know, Turch has been to the tournament six out of the last seven years and yet people wanted something different. Fortunately, they didn't get it. Be careful what you wish for. Nebraska, you're not Nebraska. anymore. You haven't been Nebraska for two plus decades. Tom Osborne, Frank Solich did a good job. It's been 24 years since Osborne was here. Young kids don't remember Nebraska being Nebraska. They remember Nebraska being,

eh, it's this middle of the pack, big 10 team. By the way, I thought Mike Riley was a really good coach and did a good job there. They ran him off. I don't know what his overall record was, but he was in bowl games, I think. I know he was in at least one bowl game. He had a really good season under Mike Riley. Riley, by the way, coach and was one of those guys that sort of won wherever he went. Anyway, Nebraska, you're not Nebraska anymore, so don't run Scott Frost here. Now, if he's in trouble, that's a different story.

Scott Frost is one of your own. You're not going to do a lot better than Scott Frost. You're in Lincoln, Nebraska. It's hard to recruit to Lincoln, Nebraska, when you don't have to. much pedigree, when you don't have much, you know, of recent history to turn, you know, a recruit's eyes towards. Be careful what you wish for. There's a lot of talk already about Scott Frost being run before the end of this season. I think Scott Frost can coach the fact that he did what he did at UCF. Now, good talent, you know, state of Florida, being able to recruit,

you know, all the players that Miami, Florida State and Florida don't pick where the SEC doesn't pick still. There's plenty of talent there, and it's probably harder to get him to Nebraska than it is to UCF, which is crazy. But he can coach. I give him more time before you run him off. Don't make the mistake that a lot of used-to-bees make, which is thinking that you still are what you used to be. You're not anymore. You're not. You are a sub-500 program pretty much that finishes in the middle of the pack or near the bottom of your league year in and year out. That's what it's been. Since 2015, they have had a sub-500 record in the last seven seasons, a sub-500 record six times, and they've been sub-500 in the league five times. They're on a run right now of finishing fifth in the

Big Ten West Division four consecutive years. five out of seven teams. They're just not what they used to be. I'd love it. I'd love Nebraska, Oklahoma games to be big. Nebraska against, you know, somebody in the Big Ten, they don't have a rival in the Big Ten. They've been there a lot longer than Maryland has. Or not that much longer, I guess, but long enough. Anyway, they're not what they used to be.

And yesterday was a perfect example because there were some high expectations for this year. Not super high, but the highest they've been. since Scott Frost was coach. Okay, that's it for the day. Done rambling. Part 2 of Santana Moss tomorrow. If you miss part one, it's still out there. He was great.

And on tomorrow's show, you'll hear him talk about Sean Taylor. You'll hear him talk about being a punt returner in the NFL and what he thought he could have been had he done that for his entire career and if he has any regrets about it and a lot more. And then anything that happens, rest of today and tomorrow will be here to do another podcast tomorrow. Have a great rest of the day. Sorry I got this out late. I wanted to wait for Rivera to speak and a couple of other things to happen. But back tomorrow.