The Kevin Sheehan Show - Postgame: Commanders Lose To Dallas

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Kevin with his post-game recap of the Commanders "bad loss" to the Cowboys. He gives his game take, including thoughts on Jayden Daniels, Dan Quinn's decision-making and more. 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. For the tie. Low snap. It is not.

Seems like they should have gone for two. I am in here about an hour or so following the 34 to 26 loss to the Cowboys. A bad loss. Yes, this one was a bad loss. The show's presenting sponsor is always. is Wind Donation. Call them at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com if you need new windows. Mention my name, they'll come out and give you a free, no-risk estimate. So two weeks ago, the loss to the Steelers from my vantage point wasn't a bad loss. It was a disappointing loss.

The loss to Philadelphia last Thursday night, in my opinion, wasn't a bad loss. It was just a bad game that they played. Today, however, as an 11-point favorite at home against a team that was in free fall, this was a bad loss. You know, despite the nature of division games, despite the history of when you least expect it in games between these two franchises in particular, it was still a bad loss. I mean, Dallas was literally a team on life support. coming in. They had lost five in a row. In most of the losses, they weren't even close. The cowboys were arguably the worst team in the NFL coming into today's game. And Washington had the rest off a mini-buy. Dallas had this short week after playing on Monday night football.

This was a should-win game, a get-right game, and neither one of those two descriptions came close. to being accurate. I mean, the game turned out to be one of the craziest finishes in the history of the series. 41 points in the fourth quarter, 38 points scored in the final five minutes and 16 seconds. The game included two missed PATs, two blocked kicks, and two kickoff returns for touchdowns. That's the first time that's ever happened in the last. league history. I can't remember a game that had as many impactful special teams plays that this game had. And I didn't even name them all. In total, there were five missed kicks,

including Austin Cybert's two missed BATs and a missed field goal. Brandon Aubrey had the one blocked. He also missed a chip shot from 42 yards in the first half. I mean, Beyond the special team's madness, there were turnovers, bad penalties, bad snaps, dropped passes. The game for the first 55 minutes was high-level ugly. I mean, hideous before the final five minutes of complete nuttiness. And those first 55 minutes, I think, were marked with one thing more than any other. I think the first 55 minutes of the game before what happened in the final five-plus minutes, the thing that stood out to me, Dallas dominated the game in the trenches, especially on defense.

You know, Parsons was a problem. 97, O'Di Gizua, a problem. They blitzed, they run blitzed, they loaded the box, they were healthier in the secondary than they've been in a while. So they had a different ability today maybe than they've had recently. And yeah, Brian Robinson Jr. got hurt on the first play from scrimmage for Washington offensively on what appeared to be a hip drop tackle. And, you know, really didn't get many chances after that. And yes, Wiley was lost during the game.

But none of that should have meant that Dallas dominated up front for the majority of the game. which is what they did. The Skins had some moments on defense, especially in short-yardage situations on third down in the first half, but the Cowboys had a chance to put up points early. And they would have, if not for them consistently shooting themselves in the foot. Their first four drives of the game in which they either move the ball or were on the verge of moving the ball ended in two miss field goals,

a fumble and a snap over the head of the quarterback. They were a team coming in that could not run the football to save their life, and Rico Dowdell had his second best rushing day of the season. This was a bad loss, and it was one of those losses that still had a chance to be saved. You know, even before the miraculous 86-yard touchdown pass to Terry with 21 seconds left, and that looked like it might be game tying or even go ahead. There were chances, you know, in the second half to overcome what was a lot of bad football. They had the ball four times in the second half down by four points or less.

And they kept self-destructing. A couple of drops, a fumble, and those chances were killed. This is one of those games, too, that includes lots of. of second-guessing. Why kick it to Turpin? Why not go for two? Why kick the field goal from 51 yards out on second down with a minute 40 left in the game? We'll get to all of that.

I mean, there was so much down the stretch that involved, you know, from our seat, second-guessing. Bottom line is, it was not a good day for our team, for the Burgundy and Gold, for the commanders, for the skins. Three straight losses now. Seven and five overall. With Tennessee coming to town next week, they beat Houston on the road today.

Washington still holds down the last wild card spot in the NFC for right now, but it doesn't seem like the right time, does it, to be talking about postseason? The only thing that matters now is they've got to beat somebody. and soon, very soon. I'll get to my game take next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, no man wants to lose his hair, but for men, it's actually very common. And now with Hymns, the solution is simple.

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Daniels throws down the sidelines. That was the second time this year. I stood up and screamed, oh my God, during a Washington game. Of course, we remember the first time. What was Dallas doing? Eight in coverage. They only rushed three.

Terry was as open as he had been all day long, and they never touched him after the catch. A great play by him. Immediately, Dan Quinn held up one finger, signaling, we're kicking it to send it into overtime, but a bad snap and a missed PAT later, no overtime. A loss instead. In fact, the ensuing on-side kick returned for a touch.

touchdown two kickoff returns in the final two minutes and 50 seconds of the game. It got nuts late, that's for sure. All right, let's get to my game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. My game take brought to you by Window Nation. Give them a call at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com if you need new windows. So the forecast is for a rainy Thanksgiving.

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If you've been thinking about new windows, if you've got older windows, just give Window Nation the first shot. All right, my game take, what I like, didn't like, and a lot more, I'm sure. tomorrow late when I have had a chance to digest this a little bit more. I might have some more in either direction, but let me go with it right now here about an hour and 20 minutes following the game. All right, what I liked, here's what I wrote down. Frankie Louvre might be the best player on the team if Jaden isn't. He had three batted passes in the game.

Sniffed out a screen in the second quarter right after Dall Dallas had that interception on Washington's screen pass. That play was huge because Dallas had the ball at Washington's 49-yard line. I think to start that drive, it was a three-yard loss, and Dallas ended up punning after they got the turnover. He's just all over the field. And he's really the one, I think, that offenses need to account for more than any other. Quinn has really used him, and Joe Witt Jr., of course, have used him in a way,

that they used Micah Parsons, not necessarily the same talent, but man, Louvo's good. He did get away with something, though. He took a swat at somebody after a play in the second quarter could have easily been a 15-yard penalty. But I love Frankie Louvue. He is, I think I've said this going back to maybe the second or third week of the season. He's their best defensive player. On the list of things that I liked, third down defense. Dallas was two-fing. 11 on third down. There were two third and two stops, and I think a third and one stop. Really good job on third down overall.

And that was probably what kept them in the game as much as anything else. They had a forced fumble, a strip by Wagner and Newton on Dowdell. That was big. Other than that, though, it was not a great day overall defensively, despite being excellent on third down. Dorrance Armstrong, I wrote down. He stood out to me as much as anybody else other than Louvo. He had a huge tackle for loss on C.D. Lamb, which was really the key play on Dallas's opening drive that ended with the blocked field goal. He also, Trey Lance came into the game a couple of times. I don't know why Dallas put him into the game.

It seemed to derail some of their drives. But Armstrong dumped him for like a two or a three-yard loss on a play in the third. quarter. Yeah, Armstrong. He's had several good games this year, and this one came against his former team. Terry McClarns on the list of things that I liked. It wasn't great outside of the 86-yard touchdown pass, but that play alone gets him on the list. I mean, the throw is great. It is, and the coverage is not great, but what he showed you, and he doesn't always show this, but when he caught that ball, nobody touched him. And there seemed to be some angles on him early after the catch. Five catches for 102 yards on the day, but of course the other four went for just 16 yards.

I would have targeted him a lot more with some of the quick game stuff, and I'll get to that when I get to the list of things that I did not like. On the list of things that I like, Jaden Daniels is a runner. I'm glad, at least for now, we can put. put the injured or not injured conversation in the rearview. He was outstanding as a runner. And keep in mind, you know, Dallas does have some athletes on defense, of course, led by Parsons. Seven carries for 74 yards, a mix of scrambles, reed option keepers, designed runs.

The 17-yard touchdown run was a beauty. The two-point conversion was a designed run. That was outstanding. He looked quick, fast, and look, it helps when the defense. you're playing isn't Pittsburgh's or Philadelphia's. Also in the list of things that I like. Two blocked kicks. Kwan Martin on the blocked field goal with the Mike Davis,

34-yard return on the first Dallas possession of the game. And then the blocked punt by Phil Mathis, even though the kick did end up traveling, I think, 23, 24 yards after the block. He got a hand on it. Duran Payne was there for that one, that one as well. They got some pressure on another punt or two, both Mathis and Payne did. So the two blocked kicks are on the list of things that I liked.

That's it for now on the list of things that I like. Let's get to the list of things that I did not like. Number one, and I mentioned this in the open, is that they lost at the line of scrimmage today. and they lost at the line of scrimmage to a team that had not really won at the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball much at all this year. You know, it costs them more on offense than on defense, but neither side of the ball won enough up front. You know, other than Daniels, they couldn't run the football. Their best runs were read-option plays in which Jaden either kept it or didn't keep it. McNichols had a 13-yard run on one of those plays where Jaden was played by, I think it was Parsons.

But, you know, there were just too many runs of, you know, zero yards or negative yards or two yards or three yards unless it was Jaden running. You know, it seemed like it was more an interior issue than a tackle issue, but that needs probably a longer look. That's just first blush. Jaden was under pressure quickly in the dropback game, quickly in the play action game. And I'll tell you, and I'm going to get to this, I was just surprised that they didn't adjust a bit more to the problems that they were having offensively up front. Dallas's defense basically played for much of the game, certainly in the first half, on Washington's side of the line of scrimmage. On the other side of the ball, it wasn't great either. You know, for a team that could not run the football coming in, Rico Dowdell had 86 yards on 19 carries.

That's four and a half yards per carry. And that gave Cooper Rush the ability in Dallas's offense, the ability to be balanced, and that made play action more effective for him. That made some of the boot, you know, action for him more effective. And Washington didn't get anywhere near enough pressure on him. Dallas won the line of scrimmage. Again, more so on defense than on offense, but this was a team that had been dominated at the line of scrimmage by most of their opponents, and Washington didn't do what others were able to do.

I know Dallas was healthier on defense. I understand that, but they were a mess offensively up front. I thought this was one of the worst offensive line days of the season. Number two on the list of things that I did not like. Well, it was a special teams fiasco. I mean, it really was. Yeah, they had a blocked field goal. They had a blocked punt.

And yet, it was still one of the worst special teams days that I can ever remember. Before the Turpin kickoff for a touchdown, the 99-yard return, he had already had a 38-yard kickoff return on the opening kickoff of the game. And he had another one that went 30 yards. Why the hell would you keep kicking it to him? You know, one reason I guess is that cyber it's not capable of a touchback kick or maybe wasn't today coming off the injury. You know, that's a dangerous kickoff returner. We talked about this on Friday that this was one of the keys to a win is don't let him change the game and he did.

You know, the irony is that the kickoff that he returned 99 yards was an effective kickoff. It was. it bounced short, it went through his legs, he had to turn around and go back and get it. Those often, as we know, being football fans, sometimes are the ones that precede big returns, the ones that bounce or get bobbled or fumbled and then picked up. I mean, it was an incredible return.

You know, this spin, this speed, one of the fastest players in the game. But we talked about it on Friday. Don't let him change the game, and he ended up changing the game with that 99-yard return. That ball needs to be kicked through the end zone in that spot. You know, he's too dangerous, and you don't want the clock running on a kickoff return. That wasn't going to help you.

I have not heard from Quinn yet. I don't know what the answer to that will be. I would assume they'll feel on some level that they've been successful all year long covering kicks because they have been, and they wanted Dallas to start short of the third. 30-yard line. Maybe Cybert wasn't capable of getting it there into the end zone. Maybe, you know, I don't know, was there wind in that direction? Was it him coming off the injury? You need a kicker who can do that if you need it done. You need a kicker capable of saying, nope, we're not letting you return the kickoff. We're going to give you the ball at the 30-yard line.

You know, obviously the 99-yard turn was, return was massive. And the decision to kick it to him, you know, again, maybe they didn't have an option. And the kickoff, I want to emphasize, was an effective kickoff, but I would have never given number nine a chance with the ball in his hands. Seibert obviously had other issues, a missed field goal from 51 in the first half, where once again on a long field goal, he seemed to hit too much turf trying to drive. it instead of hitting the ball cleanly. It had no shot. He missed a PAT after the touchdown to start the second half, so it was 9 to 3 instead of 10 to 3. And then after he made a 51-yard field goal,

which we'll talk about, to close the game to 27 to 20, he misses, of course, the PAT following the near, you know, miracle. It was a miracle, an 86-yard touchdown pass to Terry. It was a bad snap on that one. Tressway did a nice job of getting it up. But, you know, whenever you have a bad snap, it can always be a disruptive play, but it doesn't always end with a miss. Tresway got it up, and he just wasn't able to knock it through. I'll add this to the list of bad special teams plays. On the kickoff return that Echler got knocked out on at the very end, hope he's okay, he probably shouldn't have returned it. You know, it took five or six seconds off the clock, I think.

It wasn't a bad return before he got absolutely nailed. But the ball got booted into the end zone. They should have kept the time on the clock and taken the ball at the 30. Because then I think it would have been 14 seconds or 15 seconds left. You've got a chance for a chunk play over the middle, clock it, and then you've got a closer shot at taking a half. Hail Mary like they did in the Chicago game. You know, that's your only chance at that point.

Oh, yeah, of course. They gave up another kickoff return for a touchdown as well as special teams did, although that one Dallas made the mistake. He shouldn't have scored, as we know. It made the lead eight. It didn't put the game out of reach there. He should have gone down short of the end zone and the game would have been over. Bad, bad day on special teams.

I mean, this is a day that we probably, probably won't forget when it comes to special teams. Next on the list of things that I didn't like. No running game other than, you know, Jaden running the football. Brian Robinson, Jr., of course, was injured on the first play from scrimmage. He was a hip-drop tackle. He came back, you know, briefly here and there.

Five carries, 13 yards. Best run, other than all of Jadens, was the reverse to Diami Brown for 14 yards. Dallas was a team that was 31st in the league rush defense and they got healthy against Washington, except, of course, for Jaden's big output. Next up on the list, look, I didn't think personally there was enough adjusting from Cliff Kingsbury. This is always tough, you know, questioning, play calling, and in-game adjustments. We don't know anywhere near as much as we think we know. But I thought with Dallas kind of

dominating the line of scrimmage, you know, A, I think I would have been. been more patient with the run game, especially the read-option stuff, because that was working. Even if it meant you ended up running Jaden another four or five times on read-option keepers, they were all pretty successful plays. And the best run they had, other than the Diami reverse, was a McNichols run on a play in which it was a read-option play. And Jaden just kept the ball in McNickle's gut and let him run for it. And then I definitely would have gone to something quicker in the past game. I actually tweeted out at one point.

More quick game. You're getting dominated at the line of scrimmage, more read option stuff and more quick game. And on their sixth drive of the game, okay, they've got a 3-0 lead, and they came out, a zone read, Echlor got a few yards. Then it was a quick game throw to Noah Brown, to Terry and to Zakias.

And then they went drop back. and they didn't have any answers for blitzes. There was no hot. There didn't seem to be anything hot. It's very possible that there was and Jaden didn't get to it. Okay? So full, you know, I mean, disclosure here could be that Jaden F things up. You know, at the line of scrimmage,

by not checking two plays against some of the blitz pressures that they couldn't account for or that they weren't handling very well. I thought that a lot more quick stuff. I thought that was the drive where it's like, okay, you know, now you've adjusted here, and it didn't take until halftime. You know, it's that sixth drive of the game. They go Echler on a read option run for three or four yards. Then he goes to Noah Brown for 11, quick game, quick game to Terry for six yards,

quick to Zakias for eight yards. Then it's first and ten, and then they drop them back. and he ends up scrambling and actually one, two of the sacks were on that drive. Jaden got sacked three times in the game, but really they weren't sack sacks. They were, you know, scrambles on dropbacks on that particular drive. He had back-to-back scrambles because they were immediate pressures. You got to have answers. Maybe the answers were there.

Okay. And Jaden is, you know, having some rookie quarterbacking. right now. And maybe there were built-in answers. But, you know, they ended up punting on that drive after they got to, you know, basically near midfield on a couple of quick game, three quick game throws. I just didn't see enough of, you know, adjusting to the problems they were having up front. And I think I would have been more patient in the run game, especially sticking with some of the read option stuff. That was their best opportunity for running backs to get yards. That was their best opportunity to get yards in general. Next up on the list of things that I

didn't like. The past defense overall, I mean, they weren't great against the run. You know, already mentioned Dowdle having one of the best days of the year. You know, and that really hurt because Dallas, you know, they don't run the football. And, you know, so they ran the football. somewhat effectively. And then Washington just gave up way too many easy completions in the game. Soft coverage at times, bad coverage at other times, no pass rush to speak of. Cooper Rush was 24 of 32 for 247 and two touchdowns, no interceptions, got sacked just once. He completed 75% of his passes. As a starter, and I just looked this up since Dak got hurt, his completion percentages in three starts, 52%, 50%.

56 and a half percent, 58 percent. Today he was 75 percent, and some of them were really easy. Some of it was quick game, but there were coverage issues. There were breakdowns, including on that touchdown pass to Schoonmaker that made it 20 to 9, you know, after the Bates fumble, busted coverage on that one. It looked like Chin was expecting help. You know, they got lucky on a few, too. You know, Tolbert dropped a third down on the opening drive of the game before the blocked field goal by Kwan Martin. There was also an easy completion on a third down to Lamb, where Dallas got called for a holding penalty that was not a good call.

Everybody got beat a little bit, it seemed, and Dallas, with a makeshift offensive line, gave rush more than enough time to find people. It was not a good day, you know, past defense-wise in particular, and it wasn't great against the run either. Their best attribute defensively all day was their third down defense, especially in short yardage, as I mentioned earlier. Next up on the list of things that I didn't like, I counted at least three drop passes. Some of them weren't super obvious, but I thought Noah Brown could have pulled in two different throws from Jaden.

He caught the ball on the sideline that actually was a bad throw. It was a great catch by him. But there was a third and short before the missed Cybert field goal in the first half that he could have pulled in. There was a third and six, third and seven in the third quarter that he could have caught, even though Butler, I think it was, defended it pretty well, but it was still a catchable ball. And then remember the play from when they, it was basically their only bad starting field position of the day when they started deep in their own territory after a punt. And Jaden got pressured up the middle and he flipped one, you know, pushed one to Echler. And Echler couldn't hold onto it.

If Echlor catches that he turns, it's a big play. So there were opportunities there that they had on some balls that were dropped. And I'm not suggesting that Jaden threw it great all day. There were a couple of misses he had as well. Penalties were a problem that's next on the list. Eight for 78 yards. Four of them resulted in Dallas first downs. There's a 12 men on the field penalty on a third and one.

They were sloppy today, just in so many aspects of the game. They lost the turnover battle to a team that had been losing the turnover battle. They got the one really good forced fumble undoubtle, great play by Wagner, great play by Newton. Then they had the screen pass intercepted. It was a really good play by Golston. Robinson Jr. had a chance at it. We've seen Jaden dirt some of those that weren't going to be big plays. He decided to throw that one to Robinson Jr.

And certainly could have pulled it in. The other turnover of note, and it was a big one, was the Bates fumble on a nicely designed play that went for like 12, 13, 14 yards, something like that before he got a punched. Yeah, big play in the game, obviously, that one. Because Dallas, a few plays later, they were in the end zone on that busted coverage. They were up 20 to 9. The third turnover was the Hail Mary interception. at the end of the game. What else?

Just the wasted field position all day long offensively because they had much better field position throughout the game than Dallas had. Yeah, I think that is it for now. All right, a lot of other observations, including the second guessing of some of the decisions that were made. We'll finish up with that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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Line drive to Turpin at a boxers through his legs. Here comes. Devonty Turpin spinning three. An incredible return by Turpin. It really was. But again, man, you've got to have the option with your kicker in a game with that kind of a returner to kick it away from him out of the end zone. especially in that spot. If Cybert wasn't capable of kicking the ball through the back of the end zone today with Turpin as a returner, then maybe he shouldn't have been up, and Zane Gonzalez should have been.

Although I don't know if Zane Gonzalez would have been capable of kicking it through the back of the end zone. A touchback certainly would have been a much better alternative. And obviously it looks right in hindsight, But that dude is just too freaking dangerous. He had already had a 38 and a 30-yard return in the game and was one of the best kickoff returners coming into the game. All right, before I get to all of the other stuff, and I do have a bunch of other stuff,

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than a touchdown favorite at home against a Tennessee team who did win. but is three and eight overall. Mybooky.ag for all of your sports betting needs. You have to use my promo code just as I described it, Kevin D.C. All right. The other observations from the game, and I will include in this A. Jaden Daniels grade as I do every week. All right, let's do the second guessing first.

Kicking it to Turpin, bad idea. Okay, not because of the. result, but because of the kind of returner he is. There were three minutes and two seconds left. You had two timeouts. You would cut it to 20 to 17. You had a chance by getting them off the field and three downs or less to get the ball back needing three for overtime or perhaps even having the ball on a chance to go down and score to win the game. And you put the ball in the hands of probably their second most dangerous, maybe the most dangerous player on their team. And, And it didn't work out.

Man, I'm sure there are Larry Izzo, the special teams coach, is going to have some instructional about the ball going through his leg and him picking it up. And how about just the delay by Turpin before he spun? Just a phenomenal return seemed to be hemmed in, but all of a sudden he was in the clear. So look, second guess, easy. First guess, easy on that one. If you have the capability, and maybe they didn't. kick the ball out of the end zone, kick it deep into the end zone.

Let's get a touchback. All right. So how about the 51-yard field goal that they kicked on second down with a minute 40 left in the game? So here's, you know, with the two timeouts, as they were on the move there, I actually wanted them to get closer than 51 yards. But I was hoping that they could certainly get into that. spot where at least a minute 40 seconds are left in the game. Because then you're talking about getting the ball back with something approximating

45 to 55 seconds after a punt if you can get three stops. Now they ended up getting it back with 33 seconds to go. But that's because the field goal took some time. And then, yeah. So would I've kicked the field goal there with that kick? today? No, I wouldn't have. Do I understand why they did it? I do. Because I understand with two timeouts left, you know, if you are going to be on defense after an unsuccessful on-sides kick or a kickoff, which I'll get to here in a moment, you know, with two timeouts left, you will only

have one of those plays if they run the football. And there's always the chance they'll, and they did roll them out on a boot. And he kept it and he got sacked up. that play. What if he had thrown it and it was incomplete, then you would have had an even bigger opportunity. But you do understand in that spot, you know, the made field goal is with a minute 40 to go that you're going to get just one of those plays, if you can get three stops, that are going to churn 40 seconds of game clock. They ended up getting the ball back after the punt and after a couple of, you know, Cooper Rush keepers, which, you know, it resulted in like, what, minus eight, minus nine yards, something like that.

They ended up getting the ball back with 33 seconds to go from their own 14. Again, 51-yard field goal with that guy after he'd missed a field goal and missed a PAT at that point, I would have wanted it closer. But for them to end up with what they had, and I was hoping they would end up with even more time than that, they had to kick it soon. Now, I don't know that I would have kicked the onside kick after the 51-yard field goal with two timeouts left. The odds of recovering an on-side kick are so remote now that I think I would have kicked it. Now, not to turpin, I would have wanted to boot it through the end zone.

But the on-side kick took some time. That ate up seconds off the clock. and you weren't probably going to get it. They just don't recover them. With two timeouts left, if they had started at the 30, and they go for what they ended up going for, which was minus eight yards, they probably would have handed it off

from that particular spot on the field. But let's just say that it's three plays. You don't burn time on the onside kick. This assumes they can kick it into the end zone, which I'm not, you know, that's probably the wrong assumption. But I thought that there was a debate as to whether or not to kick the onside kick or kick a deep with two timeouts left. 50-50 on that one depends on your confidence and your on-side kicker.

He wasn't very good at doing it. Leads us into the should they or shouldn't they have gone for two after the Terry touchdown. So I'll give you my answer right now. After, you know, the absolute screaming and yelling being completely shocked by another unbelievable miracle type of play in Landover. I did see Dan Quinn holding up the one finger, as in we're kicking to tie. I in that moment thought, no, go for two. Now, I wasn't screaming, no, no, no, no, no, you got to go for two. It's a very debatable question here that we're talking about. I do not see it as a slam dunk have to go for two.

But here's why I think my decision would have been to go for two. Number one is it's Jaden Daniels, and I think you've got a better chance of converting two-point plays than most teams in the league because of him. Number two is you're going for the win. You're not going for the lead. We've talked about this many times in the past. When you go for two to take the lead with, say, more than 30 seconds,

30 seconds or more, you're going for the lead. You're not going for the win. And by going for the lead in that spot, you're giving that other team four downs when they take over with the football to get into field goal range to beat you. Not three downs because they can't punt when they're down one in that situation. There were 21 seconds left when he scored. That is a going for the win situation. they're basically not going to have time for four downs.

And if they do, the fourth down play, if they were to have a fourth down play, is probably, you know, a Hail Mary kind of a situation to get the ball down the field. So you are very much in that spot with 21 seconds to go going for the win, especially against a team like Dallas. They don't have big strike ability, although they did get a big strike at the end of the first half. and they do have a kicker in Aubrey that has an unbelievable leg. But still, I view anything kind of under 25 seconds probably is the cutoff as going for the win. Everything north of 25 seconds is going for the lead.

And I think in addition to going for the win based on the time, having Jaden Daniels, I think Dallas was a little bit shell-shocked. They'd given up a 10-point lead over the final two-plus. minutes and, you know, everything's been going wrong for them this year, which, by the way, is also an argument for going to overtime because they were shell-shocked in the moment. I think I would have gone for two. It's a very slight lean in that direction, but I think I would have gone for two. Now, the reasons that, and I've not heard their reasons, but there are a couple of them as

to why you would kick. Number one is, let's not forget, even though he had missed a PAT and missed a field goal, he had made the 51-yarder on his kick previously. Number two is we don't know what two-point plays they had going into the game. Maybe they use their best one on the previous touchdown, and they didn't feel as good about their other two-point play. Number three is, and we've already talked about this, Dallas had owned the line of scrimmage for much of the game,

And you're on a condensed field there. And yeah, they don't have Trayvon Diggs in coverage. You know, he was inactive. But you still have Jordan Lewis out there. You still have Duran Blan. You've got Michael Parsons who can be disruptive. And so, you know, there are reasons. And the shell-shock nature of Dallas's, you know, condition at that point,

you may think favors you going into overtime, whether you get the ball or you don't get the ball. I think the one thing, too, because of Aubrey and his distance is, you know, you've got to be careful in that spot. If they get the ball second, they only have to get to about the 45-yard line, and they're sending that guy out there to end the game. But slight lean for me going for two, but I think it's a very debatable subject. I do. All right. Also on the list of kind of other things. Well, let's talk about Jaden's game. A-plus as a runner today, A-plus. The speed option on the third and 12 on their opening drive was outstanding. Several of the read-option keepers where he was able to get to the outside, use his speed, get out of bounds, protect himself. He had the third and three read-option keeper for four or five yards early in the third quarter. to keep that touchdown drive alive. A few plays later, he kept it for like five yards on a read option keeper, and then he scored from 17 yards out.

Got a great block by Senate on that play. That was a great run. Really good decision-making all day in the Zone Reed game. And, yeah, A-plus as a runner, Jaden was in the game. As a passer, hard for me to tell right now, The all 22 will be more revealing, you know, for sure. And, you know, not as revealing to me as true experts. But I think he probably missed some things today.

And I'm not talking about just missing some throws because he missed one to Ertz, missed one that actually got caught by Noah Brown. You know, that deep shot to Terry, there may have been some PI on that, defensive PI. I thought Terry got pulled a little bit. But I think maybe there were some moments in which he was a been under duress and maybe had other options than where he threw it that would have been better go-toes in terms of where to throw the football. Look, a lot of the yardage, passing yardage,

the 275 yards came on the 86-yarder and on the drive before that, and you could make the case that Dallas may have been playing a little bit softer on that long drive. And clearly, I don't know how the 86 yarder happened. I don't. They rushed three. They ate eight in coverage. They had eight in coverage. He never got touched. That's insane. But the numbers, you know, passing yardage wise are clearly a bit misleading in terms of the first 52 minutes of the game or whatever. But he had some really good throws. I thought some of the quick game stuff should have been more emphasized after it was clear that they were going to have a difficult time running the football, difficult time protecting.

He got sacked technically, I think, I think it was four times, did we say, in the game. But like two or three of them basically were scrambles that just ended up short of the line of scrimmage. So, you know, overall, I think, you know, A plus is a runner. I'll give them a C as a passer. So it probably lands somewhere around a B minus for the day. I'm going to guess more to come on that when I've had a chance to kind of go back and look at it. But that's my guess for right now.

You know, really, you know, they had on the day, you know, 400 plus yards of offense, but a lot of that came in the final two drives. But a lot of the offense they had prior to the final two drives basically was just Jaden's runs. you know, he had 74 yards rushing before the final two drives. Yeah, I mean, B minus it felt like. But again, what carried the grade to a B minus was the running. And it's one of those things where you've got to go back to see, you know, were there people open?

I think there were more people open in this game than there were in the Philly game for sure. Also on the list of kind of other things, man, to give up that deep shot to Brooks at the end of the first half that allowed that field goal, oaf, that was, I mean, they're just not a big play capable offense. And Cooper Rush, first of all, they had, you know, the interception by Igman O'Gennie, who ended up, I think, with two defensive penalties on the day. So that nullified the interception.

And then, you know, 12, 13 seconds, and he goes deep to Brooks St. Juice's in coverage. He got called for a legal contact. See, at that point, if you're going to illegal contact him, a legal contact him. There are only 14 seconds left in the half. Grab them. Don't let him go by. Don't hook them and let him run. I mean, tackle him at that point.

Five yards? That doesn't hurt you. It just was painful to give up that, that, field goal at the end of the first half. How about that hit by chin on Brooks on that third and 12? Wow. And Washington challenged that play. I thought there was a chance that maybe it was a fumble,

but the ruling of incomplete stood on the field. There was a catch by Terry. I forgot to mention this when I talked about Terry, where it was on the drive down 20 to 9, where they ended up scoring and getting the two-point conversion. It was a quick, you know, hit. and he had about a six, five or six yard gain, and then he broke a tackle and went backwards so he didn't have the forward progress that he would have gotten.

And instead, it was like, I think, a zero yard gain or maybe a one yard gain. By the way, speaking of Terry, he recovered that Echler fumble on the drive after Turpin's kickoff return for a touchdown. Yeah, I'm sure I'll have more tomorrow. Look, one of the things that has me concern now is, Robinson Jr. status, Echler's status, he had to have been concussed, right? Wiley status for next week against a team that's a better defensive team than Dallas is in Tennessee. You know, they're only a five and a half point favorite right now.

All right, that's all I got for now. Bad loss. First bad loss of the year to a team that, good God, I mean, the NFL, it just, I mean, Carolina was, you know, an 11-point favorite and nearly pulled off, you know, an upset over Casey. They had a two-point conversion to tie the game. I mean, they gave up a game-winning field goal. They had a two-point conversion that did tie it, and they ended up losing by three. It's just crazy, the NFL, right?

These big underdogs this year that, you know, have come up big. I mean, you had Tennessee as a big underdog went outright. Carolina almost did. Dallas did. I'll tell you one thing, man. You know, we talked about the rivalry being, you know, certainly barely simmering at this point. But in the history of this rivalry and this series, there have been more when you least expected, expected games than they've ever had against Philly or the Giants. I mean, crazy games, the Colt McCoy game when they went in as a double-digit underdog on Monday night football.

The Troy Vincent block field goal, Sean Taylor, end of game in 2006. The Monday night miracle. Hell, coming up this Thursday, 50 years since the Clint Longley game, when you least expect it, expect it in Dallas and Washington, and you got that today. Bad loss. Seven and five, hey, five left still can accomplish what we thought they could accomplish at various points. in this season, but this is true adversity right now, staring them in the face. And Sunday against Tennessee, I don't want to call it must win, because it's not like

they're eliminated if they don't get it, but it feels very much like a have-to-have game. All right, back tomorrow with more coolie-may-jointed-jointed me tomorrow. I shouldn't have teased that because, you know, it doesn't always happen, but he called me. He was watching the end of this game and he was like, I might be available tomorrow. He didn't see the whole game, but he saw the last 10, 15 minutes of the game. So try to get him to watch the at least condensed version of the game and then maybe get him on the show tomorrow. All right, that's it for the night. Yeah, tough one.