The Kevin Sheehan Show - QB Film Bad; Rest of Offense Good

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

Cooley's "Film Breakdown" is not kind to either quarterback but is surprisingly complimentary of an offense that totaled just 194 yards. Kevin and Thom also on how and why Washington has been at least temporarily transformed from vile to cuddly. Plenty of talk from all three of the guys on last night's amazing Baltimore-Cleveland game. Several Dwayne-Alex questions/answers with Cooley and Kevin at the end of the show too.  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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Trailing by a point. Jackson tried to throw for it, and he's got it. And that was the touchdown pass last night from Lamar Jackson to Hollywood Brown

that gave Baltimore the lead. It would not be the winning scores. that would come on a Justin Tucker 55-yard field goal. But if you stayed up as Tommy did and as I did and watch Monday night football, you saw one of the really good, if not great regular season games in a long, long time. Coolie's going to be on with us in a bit to do his offensive film breakdown from the San Francisco game. Tommy is with me right now. That game last night was so good.

I pulled up late last night, Tommy, after the game, you know, search the web for the greatest regular season NFL games of all time, which I'm not going to put that game as the greatest. But it certainly was one of the more thrilling and dramatic. I played the Willis Reed entrance into the garden on the radio show this morning with him coming in. It's not apples to apples, but Lamar Jackson leaving the field, you know, to relieve himself to take an IV injection, whatever it was. and then to come back at the two-minute warning after Trace McSorley got hurt to throw a touchdown pass on fourth and five was awfully dramatic. The whole game was dramatic. It was a great game.

But I found this list of the greatest regular season games of all time on USA Today, which I'll get to some of them in a moment. But how good was that game last night? That was phenomenal. Well, I mean, look, it was a great game. And what it would do is send you a searching. for other great games because we all should be a little bit wary about saying the last thing we saw was the greatest thing we ever saw. I didn't say that. I know that. I know that. But generally,

what it does is what you did, you know, go searching to see, okay, how great was really this game. It's pretty great. I mean, 20 points in the last two minutes of the game, that's pretty wild. That dramatic reentry to the field by Lamar Jackson. You're right. And I love, I mean, being a Willow Street fan. I love that 50 years later, 50 years after he walked out into the garden for game seven, that is still the measure that everybody uses for, like, for courage in the athletic arena.

Not everybody, but people of a certain age. Oh, no, no, no, no. Wallace Reed was all over social media last night. I wasn't following it on social media, but it was the first thing I thought of, even though that was before the game started. He wasn't supposed to play in the game, and he came out, and he didn't play for that long either

after hitting the opening shot of the game in the garden in game seven of the NBA finals. But it was a great football game. It really was a terrific football game, thrilling football game that went back and forth, that ended with incredible drives by both quarterbacks and a backbreaking play at the end of the game if you had Cleveland plus the three or plus three and a half on the lateral play that never seems to go right if you are on the underdog and you don't want a score. Anyway, terrific game last night. So you want to hear

some of the games. I found this USA Today list of the top at the top 20 all-time regular season games. Because I've mentioned to you many times that one of the greatest, if not the greatest, and obviously the games that I remember more than any other, are those involving, you know, Washington. But the 35, 34, 1979 season finale at Texas Stadium between the skins and the Cowboys is one of the highest quality, high-stakes games I've ever watched in my life of watching pro football. It was the final Sunday of the year. It was the final game of the year. They didn't have Sunday night football back then. It was the four o'clock game. It was the only game going on.

And the game started with Washington needing to win. The game was for the NFC East Division title and the number one seed in the postseason. The winner would have home field advantage throughout. If the Cowboys lost, they would still make the playoffs as a wildcard team. But Washington was in a position because of something that had happened earlier in the day where they had to win to get into the postseason. If they lost, they were out completely. And what happened earlier in the day is that the Chicago Bears beat the Cardinals by like 44 points. And it was going to come down to point differential between the Bears and the skins, Tommy. And that basically put Washington when they took the field at four o'clock later that day, they had to win the game

to get into the postseason. They held a 13-point lead, 34-21, with three minutes to go, and Roger Stawback let a comeback and threw a touchdown pass to Tony Hill with 42 seconds left. They took a 35-34 lead. Back then, there wasn't replay or clock fixes to get, there was no precision in clock management. The skins got into field goal range for Mark Mosley, but the clock's final two seconds with Thysman pleading for a timeout ran out. They never went back and checked it. They called it game. That was a hometown clock, you know, hometown favorable clock for the Cowboys.

Isn't that amazing, by the way, when you think about that, about how precise we are now, tenths of seconds, basically, in the NBA and in basketball. And here they were, if you go back and watch, he throws a pass to Don Warren to the Cowboys, 41-yard line. The play ends with two seconds. Everybody's screaming for a timeout, and the clock just runs out, and they don't go back and fix it.

And Mosley had the leg to kick a 58-59-yard field goal. He had that strong of a leg. Who knows if he would have made it or not, but you would have liked to have seen the attempt, and they never even got it. You know, the one for me that I always remember, and it's not, well, it does involve my favorite team,

And it wasn't necessarily close, but it involved the Colts, the Baltimore Colts, and the Jets in 1972, Nameth versus Unitedis, maybe the last great game Johnny United has played. The Jets won 44 to 34, but between the two quarterbacks, they threw for almost 900 yards. Oh, my God. I mean, name it through for like 470 yards, United is through for. 370. It was just a wild game. It wasn't a close game. The Jets won by 10, but that always sticks out to me as one of the most memorable games I've ever seen. I have the box score for that game right in front of me. You ready? 44-34-Jets game played in Baltimore, September 24th,

1972. It was a week two of the season. Namath, by the way, listen to this, 15 of 28. He only completed 15 passes for 496 yards and six touchdowns. That's unbelievable. It is, isn't it? And then Unitas was 26 of 45 for 376 yards. So 872 yards total in passing for two touchdowns. But God, Namath did throw the bomb, Tommy, didn't he? I mean, he could air that thing out.

yeah yeah absolutely but but last night last night i mean you know it was the kind of game i wished i wasn't watching by myself it was a great game well you that's the way you're living these days pretty much by yourself i know yeah you don't have to tell me that you could have i mean if you'd called me up and said hey come out watch a game with me i might have thought about it may have i don't want to go anywhere near you riggins in that game i've got the box score up riggins was uh the the uh back in in New York. 21 carries it 87 yards and had a 67 yard touchdown catch

in the game. But Nameth is complete, Nameth average 33 yards per completion in that game. That's amazing. Anyway, on that list. You mentioned Rigo. The whole thing with

Lamar Jackson and what he was doing in the locker room reminded me of Rigo. and the fact that he used to use an enema before he played every game. Right. You know, because he was afraid. And what happened? It just so happened.

I'm transcribing a Joe Washington interview the other day. You know, I've been going through all these interviews and transcribing them. And he told me how he used to dress next to Riggo. And he always used to see this tube near in front of his locker. and finally asked him what to use that for. And this is what he told Joe Washington. He said, hey, little Joe, I'm not the same type of runner as you. I don't have that shiftingness.

If I happen to get a real good hit, I don't want to lose control. Yeah, you know, there are, and Rigo's told me this, there are players that never worried about whether or not it happened on the field. And it did, you know, it got awfully. the NFL back in the day and maybe it's not the same, it got a little messy on the field, and the players sometimes let it get messy on purpose. So that's not a lot of fun. Anyway, on this list from USA Today of the greatest regular season games,

the Cowboy Redskin game that I referenced was number 11. It was voted the 11th greatest regular season game of all time. There's another Washington game that's on the list, the Packers Redskins Monday Night game of 1983, 48 to 47, which was the highest scoring Monday night game of all time prior to the game that is number two on this list. And that is the Rams a few years ago when they beat the Chiefs in the Coliseum 54 to 51 on Monday night football. That was a ridiculous game, more than a thousand total offensive yards. It was Mahomes against Jared Gough and that Rams team that was, you know, lighten things up that year.

5451 is number two on the list. The greatest regular season game of all time, according to the USA Today article from a year or so ago was Jets 51 Dolphins 45. The Marino fake spike game, Tommy, where the Jets, no, that wouldn't have been the Marino fake. spike game, actually. There was another jet dolphin game, which was the Marino fake spike game, where he threw to, I forget who it was, maybe it was one of the Marx brothers for Clayton or Dupor

for the touchdown. But the jets beat the dolphins 5145 on September 21st, 1986. Ken O'Brien and Marino threw for a combined 947 yards in the game. game. Wow. Yeah. So there you go. One of our favorite things to do. We're going to talk to Washington football or not? Yeah, we're going to talk Washington football. We're going to do it right after this word from one of our sponsors.

This tweet, Tommy, I want to read to you. It came from Lowell this morning to me on Twitter at Kevin Shee in D.C. She and this defense is outstanding. It's time for some nicknames. What do you got? Loll, you got the wrong dude. I'm not coming up with any nicknames for anybody on this team. They're six and seven. I just thought it was interesting because when I read that, I knew that I would turn that into at least a discussion on the radio show this morning and then the phone lines lit up.

I could have taken calls for two hours on this. You know, are you ready for nicknames for the defense or not? And, you know, I was absolutely positive. There would be a couple of OK Boomer comments. Come on, Shan, man, old man. Come on, this is what we do now. We got a defense. It's great.

I mean, we've got to come up with, you know, a nickname. How about global swarming? How about the vaccine? That's what a caller called in with this morning. The vaccine or global swarming. The other one was King's Gambit. But anyway, I digress because I don't want. any goddamn nicknames.

Okay, this is what this organization has done to us for 21 years. It's been about marketing, not about actually winning games. Now it seems like we've got a serious group, we've got a serious coach, we have serious players like John Allen

and Chase Young. I don't think they're going to come up with nicknames. If somebody wants to do this on their own and print a T-shirt, have at it. But if the team, if they beat Seattle and held Seattle to 14 points and on Monday proclaim themselves to be, you know, we got our new nickname. It's called Global Swarming. And T-shirts are now available at 49999 at Washington

Football.com. I would be disgusted by that. I don't want any of that. I don't think most people do, but I think there's probably some that might be looking for that. How about let's go 500 this year and play a playoff game? Anyway, what do you got here on the football team? We haven't talked since Sunday. Well, the defense is at a point now where, I mean, look, it's obvious because they had, you know, they had the two big turnovers on Sunday against the 49ers. So this may be like Captain obvious.

But I think it is to some extent. They're at the point now where they can win you games. if you're if you're not playing well offensively. That may mean no turnovers and winning a 10-9 game or a 13-10 game or something like that. But they're going to need that defense because the offense is going to be challenged, you know, when they play good teams. And we saw, look, the defense, I mean, and like somebody pointed out, if you keep drafting numbers, one picks on your defensive line. Sooner or later, you better have a pretty good defense. You know, I mean, that kind of goes with the territory. But, you know, they're still, they're still

a thousand miles away from quarterback, a thousand miles away. Yeah, that right now, I mean, you know, when you have a conversation about what can they do this year, we saw the, we saw the flaw. We saw the limitation. The limitation wasn't two weeks ago the offense necessarily. It's not that they were going to light it up. It certainly wasn't that they could get into a shootout with somebody, but they were really competent professionally. But if Alex Smith can't remain healthy and upright

and every bit of what he's been before Sunday where he was compromised physically, and because of it, they were terrible at the quarterback position. and then Dwayne came in and, you know, again, not very good. I thought the first two drives were okay. I think in some ways you can manage a game around him with a great defense, but this would be where you would say they will run up against something that they can't overcome. But the point, like you said, they can manage.

He can manage a game maybe, or whoever's the quarterback can manage the game with that defense. I mean, they'll only get so far with those limitations, but they'll get someplace, I think. Yeah, we'll see. They could get someplace. We'll see. I mean, look, you know I've been a big believer of the defense, even though, even when it wasn't necessarily obvious to everybody else. And I've been a believer in that, whether it's this year or next year, there's a chance for it to become a very good, if not dominant defense. I would still say that they're at least two players away from being truly elite.

Their front four is elite. I don't think there's any doubt about that, but they still need a middle linebacker. They still could use a safety and certainly could still use another corner before you start talking about them in terms of being the best in the league or even something more. but it is there are stars on that front four. I mean, it's not just that they're relentless high energy, high motor, talented, gifted players. Chase Young is a star. Montes Sweat and Duran Payne are potential stars.

John Allen, you know, is the one that at this point gets the least amount of discussion, but he basically played on the other side of the line of scrimmage throughout the game the other day. He's a very good player as well. So, you know, they played Nick Mullins on Sunday. And the week before that, they played a team that was somewhat limited as well. They couldn't run the football. And before that, it was the Cowboys.

I mean, this Sunday is a real test. It's a real test against Russell Wilson and D.K. Metcalf and Chris Carson and that group. If they hold them to 17 or less, the Giants did. But if Washington does that and wins the game, wow. But still, it better not lead to nicknames and T-shirts and slogans. I don't need that. I want to see something accomplished. And by the way, before you tweet me and say,

remember the hogs and the fun bunch and the Smurfs and the posse and all that, of course I remember that. I also remember them winning lots of Super Bowls. And so I'd like to see the winning happen. then maybe we can print some t-shirts. But yeah, they're very good on defense, really, really good in defense with stars on defense. But they're going to get a major test Sunday. And let me just mention this before I forget it.

The line, remember, you know, we talked about Tommy, the point spread, the sharps were on Pittsburgh, we're on Washington against Pittsburgh. That line went from 10 to 6. The sharps were on Washington against San Francisco. That line went from four and a half down to three. Well, the sharps this week are all over Seattle. They're now a six-point favorite. They were a four-point favorite just a day and a half ago.

So there's something that the sharp better that's had a good feel for Washington here over the last couple of weeks really like Seattle. If you're asking me what I think that would be, I think it would be about really more than anything else, the fear that they don't have a completely healthy quarterback situation on Sunday. and what that would do to them against a team like Seattle, where they may have to keep pace with Seattle. I don't think it's a 10-9 game. I don't know if you can manage your way around 16-13 against Seattle. Maybe you can. You know, the Giants did somehow some way.

But I think that would be it more than anything, even though Tom Pellasaro a little while ago tweeted out that Alex is supposed to be ready to go, that they're optimistic about his chances to play and be healthy on Sunday. day. Look, before he got hurt, Alex Smith wasn't exactly lightened it up. He wasn't playing very well. He wasn't? No. According to whom? According to me. Oh, okay. Yeah, I would disagree with that. I thought he was playing very well. I thought he had... He wasn't playing very well. A lot of mispasses.

Yeah, I mean, do I need to remind you when you told me that you didn't think Chase Young was playing very well either? Alex Smith was playing, first of all, much better. Let's both agree on this. Much better than we ever thought he could have been playing. Secondly, in my opinion, his game against Detroit was exceptional. Not good, exceptional. His second half against the Giants before the mistakes. There were big mistakes in that game, no doubt, but he played well.

The Cincinnati game did what he needed to do. The Dallas game, a good game, not great. against Pittsburgh after that first, you know, field position situation played, I thought, a very good game against Pittsburgh. Against San Francisco lousy. But I think he was hurt. Yeah, I would not, there's nothing that would make me describe Alex Smith's play as not very good over his starts previous to Sunday. I said, I said in this game. Oh, I thought, before he got hurt in this game. Oh, I thought you were saying, before this game. My fault. No, no, no, no. Okay.

Before he left the field. No, he was terrible. But I think it's because he wasn't well. From the beginning? Yeah. I think there's certainly a decent. He was so bad before he left the game and so wildly inaccurate. I think he had to have had those issues, you know, from the jump. Don't you? Maybe. We don't know. I think it's entirely possible.

Yeah, that's all I'm saying. I think the 49ers, you know, put pressure on him. I think the 49ers did what you have to look. Alex Smith, it showed how fragile he is back there. It really did. I mean, the fact that he went out with the calf, and according to the coach, could have went back in the game. Right.

But I just think Alex Smith, if you put enough pressure on him, he's not going to complete passes. He's a 37-year-old quarterback who's going to be fragile back there. And, you know, Seattle will bring it. They won't be shy about bringing it either. I'm sure they're going to do the same thing. So, and then Dwayne comes in, and I'm sorry. Oh, boy.

You know, this kid hasn't learned anything. Oh, boy, here we go. Anything. His post-game comments, made you think that he was the one who suffered a broken leg two years ago and came back to play. He was emotional afterwards. He was. Oh, my God. He said it was the what he's gone through is the worst thing he's ever gone through in his life. Well, God, I hope all of us have a charm life like that.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. He was emotional. He's, you know what, in his short, very brief life, this. was traumatic getting bench. Oh, come on. I didn't say that it should be. Where's the sense of maturity? You know? I mean, come on.

I mean, making it about what a big, what a drama queen. Unbelievable. Yeah. Did you read or hear Ron Rivera's comments yesterday about if he had to start? And again, it looks now, Pellasaro from NFL Network reporting that, you know, more likely than not, it looks like Alex Smith's chances of starting against the Seahawks is really good. The team is very optimistic, even though he may be limited in practice this week. But the comment, I'm looking for it right now, bear with me, because I thought it was an interesting

where is this thing? I'm sure he said something like, Dwayne's been working really hard. No, here it is. He's been learning. Here it is, Tommy. about Dwayne if they needed to start him on Sunday against Seattle. Quote, I think Dwayne will be ready. I do if Alex can't go. And I won't know until after, meaning practice, I think. I know right now the exams are starting, and that's the beauty about starting at 1130.

That's when the training room opens, so I can't tell you guys much right now, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let me get to the point that's more important. If Alex can't go, we know Dwayne will get all the work. He'll get an opportunity to focus in, and the game plan will be directed toward Dwayne. And we'll see how that goes. We'll kind of look at it from there and go from here. As I said, I will know more later this afternoon.

I listen to that too, and there's no doubt that the game plan will change with Dwayne. And it probably changed to a certain degree, even though he said it really didn't with Dwayne in the game on Sunday. I don't know. You know, I think if Dwayne had to start games for him, and I think you just have to game plan around it. You've got a better defense than you had early in the season, much better defense than you had early in the season. You know who your weapons really are and who needs to touch the ball.

You know, can you devise a game plan where he's able to get the ball out of his hands quickly, not have to sit back and read and get the ball into McKissickson's and McLaren's hands and Sims Jr. and when Antonio Gibson gets back, use him in the running game. One of the things I've mentioned several times about Duane's season last year is that in addition to having some really good games where he showed the ability to really make plays and throw the football like in games against the Giants and the Eagles at the end of the year, he also wasn't that bad at managing a game. When Bill Callahan was very conservative early on when he got his first start against Buffalo and then another one, you know, against Carolina.

when they won. What was the big concern? Oh, my God, we're going to use up all our timeouts in the first three, you know, series, or we're going to have delay a games. And the truth is, is he was fine as a game manager. And Alex is really good as a game manager. Alex, though, definitely understands what's going on a lot more. And I think that the playbook is deeper with Alex. Look, I don't want Dwayne to play. I want them to make the playoffs. And I think their chances of making the playoffs and winning games. with Dwayne is much less than if Alex is healthy in playing. But I also wouldn't think that it was going to fall apart Mark Sanchez-style if Dwayne had to play. I agree with you. I agree with you. He did show enough last year that under certain conditions, he can manage a game. They were not, I mean, he didn't seem to struggle with the tempo of, you know, getting the plays off. there was not a lot of delay a game kind of issues.

No. That came up. I agree with all that. But there's still, you know, I know we're living in this moment, and it seems like a great moment. And there's a lot of good that could come of Ron Rivera's playoff run with this team. But are they still better off if they had been wind up 3 and 13 and got a high quarterback? back draft pick. No, they're not better off with that.

I mean, you can answer that question because you think he'd be in trouble. You think the owner wouldn't put up with a 3 and 13 first season. He's doing exactly what you thought he had to do. I know. I don't think, I mean, he's doing what he had to do to strengthen his position. I didn't necessarily think he would be in trouble if he went 3 and 13. But you thought it was in his best interest, you know, to, to win and to show incredible progress in his first year.

Yes, and that is all right. But still, at the end of that progress, they don't have a quarterback. No. And this is, look, we can have, like, it's not that I can't do both simultaneously. But it's like worrying about the future quarterback right now, while you're in the mode of actually playing excellent football, you've become a good football team, in my opinion, and you've got a chance to make the postseason in a wild year

where there's not an obvious favorite in the NFC. Kansas City's not in the NFC. There's no chiefs in the NFC, a perceived team that's almost impossible to beat. I'm not saying that I think Washington could beat New Orleans or with a healthy Drew Bowdo. Breeze or Green Bay and Aaron Rogers. I'm just saying that if they get in, they would be one of those teams that the pundits,

you know, when we talk about the postseason, they would be labeling, and they already are, Washington as dangerous. You know, Washington is a dangerous team. Rivera said it in the locker room after the game. Nobody wants to play us. Right. And in part, he's right. I mean, nobody wants to face that defense right now.

but this is like eating the candy and then not worried about the stomach ache later. And it's fine. You can do that and eating the candy is fine. It tastes great. But, you know, sooner or later you're going to have the stomach ache. I went back. Give me some frozen three musketeers and snickers and a couple of Kit Kat bars. And I'll worry about tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning.

Because I'm enjoying this. Look, you know what? The possibility exists. They go six and ten. They could lose these final three games. None of these games are absolute wins. They could be six and ten. They don't solve the quarterback issue,

and we're here next year in another season that at times it looks like it's got a chance to be a playoff season, but then again ends seven and nine or six and ten because Denver wasted several years of a really good defense with no quarterback. We saw Buffalo before they drafted Josh Allen waste a couple of years of a really good defense. Ironically, it's not as good of a defense anymore as it was. Yeah, you really do have to have the quarterback. Like the San Francisco analogy from last year is a bad one because San Francisco could really run the football. I mean, Mostert had 220 in the NFC title game,

and they just knew how to run the football. This isn't necessarily a dynamic, you know, creative run the football type of team. You know, even Tennessee last year with their deep run, with a good defense, they had Derek Henry. Jacksonville a couple of years ago with just defense and Blake Bordle's a quarterback, Leonard Fournett got really hot, and they were running the football. So, you know, you need, it is safer to have the quarterback than to not have one. And there is the possibility that until they get one, they could be really competitive

and they could win half their games each year, but not be a threat to win the Super Bowl. and they could be wasting it. That is, that's a real possibility. I went, but you mentioned all good examples. Dick Bucketts, for all you kiddies out there, is one of the maybe three or four greatest defensive players

in the history of the league. He played for the Chicago Bears for nine seasons. They went 48 and 74 with Dick Buttons on the field. You know, you need the quarterback. And I said, but for right now, this is fun. It's real. It's not fake in the sense that the defense is legitimate.

And Ron Rivera and his staff are good coaches who are doing good things. And I understand enjoying all that. And, you know, people should enjoy that. But, uh, like I, like I, like I. I wrote my column in the Washington Times that you refused to read. No, it's not that I refuse to subscribe to read. You can cut and paste it and send it to me. And I would do the same thing for you.

If I had a paywall on my content and sent you my content and you had to pay for it right now, answer me truthfully, would you? Of course I would. Oh, no, you wouldn't. Of course I would. No, you wouldn't. You would not. I would support my friend.

You would tell me, you would tell, look, if it were, you know, if you had to subscribe to my employer's paywall to get through my paywall, you would say, can you just cut and paste it and send it to me, please? No, no, that may make you feel better to believe that. No, I believe that. I know, I know, because that's what you like to do. You like to tell yourself things that make you feel better. Not feel better, just feel right. So, so, but of course I'd pay. But anyway, I wrote kind of like some of the stuff we've already been talking about,

how Rivera has turned this franchise into this lovable organization that people all around the league admire now. Teddy Bear. I mean, that's a remarkable turnaround. This is the most vilified franchise in football last year. And he's got everybody rooting for them, not just Washington fans, people around the country. I mean, the Ron Rivera story. Gil Brand went on Twitter and said Ron Rivera should be coached at a year. The guy who created the Dallas Cowboys legacy.

I love following Gil Brand on Twitter. He's a great follow. Yes. I mean, Gil Brand knows football. I didn't see that tweet. I see a lot of his stuff. I did not see that tweet. But there's Tommy, there's no doubt that Alex Smith and Ron Rivera

and their turnaround and their four-game winning streak and their first place and they're the dangerous team if they get in, all of that. They have people, NFL fans rooting for them for the first time in a long time. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. And I know you don't like to harp on this, but part of it, whether you agree with it or not, is the absence of the name. It takes away a roadblock. for some people. It does for some people.

That's not why right now. That's not why I think anybody that is a football fan but not a Washington fan or even could care less either way, I don't think because they change their mind, it plays into why they're rooting for them. The Rivera and Alex Smith stories way Trump, the name change, which happened now six months ago. But the name change is part of it. Again, you can tell yourself it's not.

but it is. I'm telling myself it isn't that big of a big of a game. There are NFL fans that could care less about the Washington Redskins, but they care about Rivera and they care about what Alex Smith is doing. And if that name was still there, there's a segment of them that would just blow it off. I'm not saying that there wouldn't be some. I just don't think it would be that big of a deal for most. Do you think if the Indians get hot this year that they'll have more people supporting them

because they're getting rid of their name, even though they're not getting rid of their name right away? Well, I think the outrage over their name was far less polarizing than Redskins. This is true. I mean, you know, I think you're comparing similar things, but different degrees. I totally agree with that. Do you think it is a bit odd, though, that there is sort of this admission that the name is insensitive and yet they're going to keep it for another year before changing. Is that what they're doing?

Because I thought they just weren't going to keep the name? Yeah, I thought I read late last night. They're going to keep the name. Yeah, here it is. We don't want to be the Cleveland baseball team or some other interim name. We will continue to be the Indians until we have identified the next name that will hopefully take us through multiple centuries, said their owner, Paul Dolan.

Okay. We'll be the Indians in 2021. Okay. I'm just asking you, they're changing, they've committed to changing their name because they now believe that it is insensitive towards Native Americans. So why wouldn't they get rid of it immediately? Is it okay to just be insensitive for another year?

I guess it's better than being stupid and not having a name. Washington football team. Look, I don't have a problem. The Washington football team, I hate, you know I hate that. I would have gone Washington FC or FC Washington permanently. I would have done that, but at least for a year. But that's really not a good comparison. You can think it's stupid to have not come up with a name, even though it's very difficult.

It takes typically 18 to 24 months to change the brand and the naming of a sports franchise and you would have killed them had they come up with something quickly and then had to change it again a year later. Kevin, Kevin, what? Like I've said repeatedly, a stupid organization decides they need to come up with a plan B when it's right into their face. A smart organization would have had a plan for it. Had a plan B all along. Okay, but still Tommy, to put it actually into motion, even if you have the plan to do so, you're not able to do that in a month. You're just not able to do that in a month. It takes forever just to change out all the signage and all the stuff that you've got to do.

They changed the signage right. Actually, they haven't done. They already did that. Actually, they still haven't completed it. But really, the comparisons to the stupidity in your view, in your mind, of not coming up and not having a new name ready to go, is apples to oranges to what I'm saying? I'm asking you, if you admit that it's insensitive

and that you need to change it, well, then why would you continue to be insensitive for another year? That's a good point. I guess they think the alternative for them is worse. The alternative of calling themselves the Cleveland baseball team and the embarrassment may be associated with it is worse than continuing with something that they have now decided after all of these years is incensed.

Hey, you know what? Hold on. Hold on Native American community. Hold on natives, indigenous people. We're just going to be insensitive to you for just one more year. Just one more year. You're going to have to deal with this terribly insensitive. Look, I don't even think that they, I don't even think they think it's that insensitive.

Cooley said in all of the reservation trips that he took that the number one, logo and mascot and t-shirt and garb worn was chief Wahoo on every reservation. You know, so now he did say they don't like to be called Indians, not because it's insensitive, but because they believe Indians are people from India, not them. They prefer natives. I'm not even Native Americans. Well, they must hate the Smithsonian Museum then. They must hate a lot of things, but, you know.

That's called the American Indian Museum. That's right. It is. And, you know, there's been a running debate in that community as to whether or not they prefer Indians or Native Americans. Because many, look, this gets back to the, this is the problem with this conversation. There are 552 reservations. And as Cooley said yesterday, and I've learned over the years, they're basically all their own countries, their own entities with their own beliefs. and there's a lot of differing opinion from one to the other.

Some may prefer to be called Indians. Some have, we know, from polling, that most don't have a problem with the team name Redskins. But some do, a very low percentage based on the polling. Indians has been a debate as to whether or not they prefer Indians over other things. So as it relates to that part of the argument, you know, look, the Indians and Redskins are totally different from this perspective. like you said, their degrees. The Indians are not a dictionary-defined racist slur. That's the big difference.

That's why there was always a push for Washington's nickname to be changed before we got to the Indians and soon to be, I'm sure, Braves, Chiefs and Warriors, which is coming, I would assume, at some point down the road. So I do understand the difference there. But in the same way in which the Indians may not be offensive to most natives or most Native Americans or most indigenous Americans, Redskins wasn't insensitive or deemed to be insensitive

to the majority of that community either. But anyway, I just thought it was interesting that they decided almost, and by the way, in the statement, like, we're not going, part of the statement was we're not going to be called the Cleveland baseball team or any other interim name it. It was almost a slap at Washington, like how dumb was that? Instead, we'll just continue to use our insensitive name for another year. Show you how dumb the Washington name is.

Well, I mean, Washington could have done the same. Hey, look, you know what? We're going to change this. We have a plan to change at FedEx and Bank of America and all you wonderful sponsors, Amazon, everybody. By the way, Galdi pointed this out on his show this morning. And he did the, you know, Amazon came out and essentially said that they were going to ban all red stuff. This was before they even made the decision. Remember, Bezos? He's like, you know, we're getting

rid of all of it. You're not going to be able to buy any of it. And yet there was plenty of chief Wahoo everywhere on Amazon.com, even though that had long, you know, been gone. And Galdi said he went on Amazon this morning, and there was plenty of Chief Wahoo's still there. There was definitely, you know, we know this. There was definitely an incredible push from a certain segment of our society, of our media, of even corporate America, especially in the wake of George Floyd's murder, that just said, all right, it's time, and now's the time that we can get it done.

And they got it done. Well, it is. Look, at this point, the Braves and maybe even the Blackhawks are next, it's just good to get out of the Indian mascot business. Yeah, but the, but, Again, the irony of that is that a lot of Indians or Native Americans or natives or whatever, they don't want to be out of the Indian NASCAR business. It's not good business.

Yes, but why isn't it good business? Is it good business because Native Americans have a problem with it or people who aren't Native Americans have a problem with it? It's the latter primarily. I know that. But you're right. Native Americans aren't going to. You're right. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. aren't going to keep buying your stuff. Yeah, well, that's all, that's the stuff that you see most, according to the people that have spent time. I haven't spent one minute on a reservation. Not that I wouldn't, but even my son, who was at Pine Ridge in South Dakota a few years ago, lots of Redskins, you know, jackets and hats, lots of Indians, you know, Indians garb and hats and all of that stuff.

And it's just, it's ironic. Look, to your point, to your point, it's not good business. But it's probably more not good business with non-Native Americans than with Native Americans. Yes. So there's not enough Native Americans to keep the Redskins name. How's that? I guess that's true. Anyway, what else do we have today?

What else do you want to talk about? Can I mention this name? I mentioned this name to you a couple weeks ago. He showed up against Saturday night on the ESPN boxing card. Edgar Berlanga, super middleweight. He was 15 and 0 with 15 first round knockouts. Now he's 16 and 0 with 16 first round knockouts. Knocked out a guy who was 15, 1, and 2.

Not some stiff. I wish I were still a boxing fan. I do. I love it. You need to pay attention to Edgar Berlanga. He's going to be a star. He's worth the price. Okay, I will.

16 and 0, 16 first round knockouts. And they're not, they're not like explosive Mike Tyson knockouts. They are just heavy-handed accumulation. His power just must be devastating. It's not like all of a sudden like he comes up with this uppercut. It's accumulation over one round. I mean, the guy he fought looked like he had been in a 10-round fight. I wanted to mention one other thing with you on this morning because Cooley doesn't really know the context of all of this.

You do much better. So Maryland lost last night to Rutgers in their Big Ten opener basketball. 74 to 60 at Xfinity Center, no fans. Rutgers has never wanted to Xenny. Xfinity Center. Xfinity Center is one of the most difficult places to play, whether Maryland's really good or just, you know, kind of good. But, you know, Rutgers came in and they beat him 74 to 60. And you are familiar, as I am intimately, with what we like to refer to as the extreme portion of the Maryland basketball fan base, which is very often nuts and delusional. It is as passionate a fan base,

regardless of its size. Passionate in the same way, you know, sort of the Caps fan base is, you know, super passionate about the team. But Maryland basketball for a long time has had a fan base that is very, very difficult on its teams, on its coaches. And Turgeon's been the object of their disgust for a while now. And I watched the game last night. I watch every Maryland basketball game. This is, you know, along with, you know, the Wizards and the skins, these are the three

teams that I love more than any other. town. Those are my top three. In some order, Wizards would be, you know, a distant three behind Maryland Hoops and Washington football. That's the list for me. After that, I love the Nats, and I really root for them. And, you know, from a cap standpoint, just to be brutally honest, I just don't care that much. I watched the game last night, and they got beat Maryland did by a really good team. I know basketball, enough to know that that is a good team with a couple of pros on the team. Maryland is not a terrible team and Mark Turgeon should not be fired after last night's game despite what many people on social media and different message boards

think. Oh my God, Tommy, the reaction to Turgeon after losing to Clemson last week and Rutgers last night. How can you lose to Clemson and Rutgers? You're supposed to be Maryland basketball. Like that's supposed to mean that they should be Kentucky or North Carolina or Duke or Kansas. By the way, Huckie's terrible right now. And so is Duke. They stink right now. That's why Coach K wants to stop the season. People get so upset with me defending Turgeon.

And, you know, it's true. I've probably defended them more than have been critical of them. But I've been critical of Turgeon. You know that. There are things in games I've come in here very frustrated with, you know, the way they ran zone offense or whatever or how they handled the last, you know, in-balance play or whatever. I've been very critical at times.

of different things. But overall, I know that Mark's a good coach, and I know that, and I didn't forget that they won the Big Ten regular season championship last year in what was probably the greatest year for any basketball conference ever. They were going to send 11 teams, 11 to the NCAA tournament last spring. If it wasn't 11, it was no less than 10. Would have been close there at the end. One of the teams that was a lock to make it was Rutgers. Rutgers was playing very well. And before you shut down the tournament on this podcast in early March, before anybody else did, I mentioned Rutgers is going to be a very difficult team to beat in the NCAA tournament. They were playing well. They were playing well. They had men on their team. They're well coached.

Pichael does a good job. And I really thought Rutgers had a chance to be a Sweet 16 team last year. Well, they've returned almost everybody, and they're really good. They're ranked 19th in the country. They beat Syracuse the other night by double digits, and after trailing by four early in the second half to Maryland last night, Ron Harper, Jr., you remember Ron Harper, Sr., and Gio Baker, and they had rim protection. They are good. Okay, Maryland lost to a really good team that's going to vie for the top four. four in the Big Ten this year.

No worse than top five or six. And by the way, once again, the best league in the country right now, not even close. Maryland lost their two best players off a Big Ten title team. It's going to take some time. Maryland will win enough games in the Big Ten this year to really push an NCAA tournament bid. They lost to a really good team. The problem is the Big Ten's loaded with good teams. loaded. You know, they can push for a good bit all they want. This is part of the problem.

And I don't know if anything other than a Final Four appearance, and even that will solve it. Turgeon will always be the coach that followed Gary Williams. And that's just, that's a tough act. He's always going to be that guy. You know, it's hard to get away from. I mean, you know, I love Gary, but I think people have even elevated Gary's status even more since the time he has been coaching. So Gary is revered and rightly show so, but even more, you know, with the distance of time. And Turch, and it's not Gary. Not in any way he coaches, not in the way he looks on the bench. And he's just never, that's never going to, unless he establishes something that's,

his, it's just never going to get away from that. He's also the coach that Kevin Anderson hired, and people will always blame him for that, too. Yeah, I just, look, I don't disagree with anything that you said. There isn't, you know, none of us would ever say, oh, we'll take Turgeon over Gary, okay? Look, those of us that grew up with Lefty Drusel, and I love Lefty, you love Lefty, we would never take Lefty over Gary. Gary brought us what lefty probably would have in a different era with more tournament teams, etc. But Gary brought to us two final fours and a national championship. And incredible, you know, years of, you know, really vying as upper echelon with Duke and

Carolina in the ACC. It was great. It was just a great run. And Turgeon hasn't come close to that. He is not. But I know basketball enough to know that Mark Turgeon's a good bat. You don't win as many games. as he's won, and by the way, he's won everywhere he's gone without being a good coach.

You don't win last year's Big Ten without being a decent coach. Last year was the greatest college basketball league season. I think any league has ever seen that would include the best of the Big East years or the best of the ACC years. You know, they were going to send more teams than any conference had ever sent to the NCAA tournament. They may do it again this year. You know, it's really loaded top to bottom with great teams. I mean, watch Iowa, Tommy. I mean, they are good with Luke Garza having a great year.

But this was supposed to – they were picked to finish 10th this year. This is a transition year. They lost two star players, one to the NBA as a lottery pick, and the other one who was a four-year starter who became an all-Big Ten player, Anthony Cowan. And by the way, he's going to go down as one of the top 15 to 20 greatest Maryland basketball players of all time. That's not that big of a reach on Cowan's career. So it's going to take a little bit of time. And it's a weird year. No offseason, you know, no ability to sort of gel here with a longer non-conference schedule. And they played in their first

big 10 game, a team that I'm telling you, look out. They've got men. They're They're tough. I thought they were going to be a tough out in the tournament last year. I think Rutgers has a chance to be, you know, in that top 10, top 15 discussion all season long. And a team that will push for that upper top four echelon of the Big Ten, which, by the way, Turgeon's essentially finished in the top four, I think every year but one year since they've been in the Big Ten. Maybe two years. I think they finished fifth one year. But anyway, Big Ten basketball, Tommy, you got to love it.

But Maryland basketball fan base just sometimes a little bit too much and a little bit too unrealistic. You know, I want the final four every year too. I think sometimes Maryland basketball should be better than it is. But, you know, last night's loss to Rutgers is not a reason to get all bent out of shape about Turgeon on December 14th. Okay, Rutgers is good. Clemson, by the way, who they lost to last week, also good. A veteran, well-coached team who is going to surprise people in the ACC this year. All right, anything else from you? Got to get to Cooley's Film Breakdown. I got nothing else, boss. All right, see you. All right, coolie's film breakdown right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, we'll get to

Coolie's film breakdown. Coolie's with us right now. I wanted to ask you about the game last night, which Tommy and I talked about being one of the better regular season games we've watched in a long time. It was amazing. I mean, that game had everything in it. Baker Mayfield was awesome. He was awesome. He was awesome. He was awesome. Lamar Jackson's still awesome as a runner. He ended up having cramps. McShorley comes in. Like, this thing's done. This thing's done. After the Browns battled back, which was incredible what they did battling back, I don't know. I loved it. If you want to watch ball, that game had everything for you.

The Browns were balanced. They kept trying to run the ball. They stuck with it. Mayfield made huge throws down the stretch. Baltimore just found a way. I thought one of the more impressive parts of the game was the final drive that got him into field goal range. Because you mentioned Lamar Jackson as a runner. And obviously Tommy and I talked about, you know, just that the, him coming. out of the locker room, you know, before that fourth and five to replace McSorley. I thought that final drive, he was four for four for 38 yards and every single throw was made

from the pocket. Every single throw was a dime. Every single throw afterwards, he was completely poised and under control. Even after they had burned the final time out, they made the final throw and needed to get up to the line of scrimmage and clock it. I just thought it was really impressive how poised he was and how good he was from the pocket on that final drive. And a couple of throws to Andrews, giving him a chance to run after the catch. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing because Cleveland scored so fast to take the lead there. How about me?

They scored so quick, but at the same time you're like, they'll be all right here. Yeah. And then they weren't. Oh, I don't know. it was awesome. I mean, it just had so much to think about in it. Yeah,

I love Cleveland going for two. When they went for two to get back to where the touchdown is going to give them the lead, I don't know. It was just such a cool momentum changing game. Yeah. To me, it was just like up and down and up and down and momentum back and forth. And no one really had it,

but it felt like somebody had it. Gosh, it was just, I mean, it was awesome. Great game. Phenomenal. But yeah, Lamar Jackson, like, Lamar Jackson had what, he had seven completions total in the game coming into that last drive.

He had over 120 yards rushing. He has only seven completions in the game. I know Hollywood Brown had two drops for Lamar Jackson. He had another big drop for Trace McSorley on a third down opportunity. But still, only seven completions. Then he comes in and he goes four for four. And it was just, I mean, it was like he comes in. The second he comes in, you just like a spark went into the Baltimore's offense.

He lifted him up. I don't know, man. I was going to watch the film last night. I ended up watching it this morning because I just got so caught up in the game. Do you know that, and I saw this from the guy, Seth, the analytics guy from ESPN, who sometimes, I mean, it's too much for me. But whatever, he put out the following. He said, last night, Lamar Jackson recorded a 99.5 QBR last night.

QBR people are different from passer rating. It's that ESPN stat that combines a lot more than what passer rating is. The passer rating is the one where like 158.3 is perfect. QBR 100 is perfect. And last night, Jackson had a 99.5 QBR, and it was the fourth time, the fourth time that Jackson's had a 99 or higher QBR. game and there's only one other player that's close. Ryan Fitzpatrick of all people has three of them over the last 15 years and then they're like six quarterbacks that have had two of them.

But Jackson's had four 99 or higher QBR games. It's obviously because the dual threat nature and what he does is a rusher and a thrower. By the way, remember the other day I said to you, doesn't it look like he just throws so much better when he's outside the pocket and on the move? And that touchdown throw to Hollywood Brown. He was outside the pocket, threw it back across the field. Great, you know, great play. But last night from the pocket on that final drive, I thought he proved something a little bit, you know, at least under pressure.

I think he absolutely did. He made four big throws. A couple of them were really big throws. And they were anticipation throws. They were stand tall, make the read. make the throw where you have to make the throw type of plays they were big time quarterback plays yeah what was baker mayfield's qb r um his had to be good too i mean he had the one pick but that's a heck of a play 87 81.6 yeah i mean that's a big time qbr how about the job i'm

starting to really like baker mayfield i told tommy the same thing or maybe i said it on the radio show this one i can't remember now you know i i was critical of them earlier this year. I'm like, you can have them, man. You can have them. Kevin Stefanski gets a lot of credit for this. No doubt. I mean, he, first of all, they can run the football, which obviously helps. I mean, Nick Chubbs in a leap back. But you know, you know what's really interesting? And maybe I just sort of missed on this. And somebody tweeted something to me this morning about this. Baker Mayfield's got a gun for an arm. He can really throw it. I mean, he really can.

I mean, and he really does a great job extending plays. His pocket movement's gotten so much better. I mean, they're down 3420, I think. He makes a throw to Higgins, who's wide open. But that was where Peters fell down, really mugging Higgins. But that said, Baker wasn't looking at Higgins to start that play. Higgins was on the right. He's working the left side of the field, but the pocket movement to get up

and really just slide up. up, then slide right, then step back up in the pocket and throw a strike to Higgins. It's like, that kid could move. And then down 3428, he pumps one and then breaks right and he's outside the pocket. And he ends up scoring where he slides into the end zone. God, he can move. I mean, he's, there's, there's a lot more to Baker Mayfield than, than people gave initial credit for.

On, on the first throw when they, after the fourth and five touchdown pass to Hollywood, Brown. When Cleveland got it back with a minute 45 or a minute 50 or whatever it was left in the game, that first down throw to People's Jones, Donovan People's Jones on the side. Oh, yeah. It was an incredible throw. That was a big time throw. And it gets them out near midfield and then all of a sudden you're like, okay, here we go. It was just an incredible game from the start. It was a phenomenal, frantic finish with just one big play, one big kick after another. and then Cooley, you do know what happened on the final play of the game and how it impacted the number, right? Oh, I didn't pay attention to the number.

Oh, yeah. So Baltimore was a three, three and a half point favorite, you know, depending on where you had it. And that final play, which was the lateral, you know, play, which scares any gambler. When you have a win and you start seeing that lateral thing going to motion and then they start going backwards with the lateral, you're like, oh, my God. God, I'm not going to lose this way again, am I? Oh yeah, you did. If you had Cleveland plus three or even plus three and a half, the safety on the final play of the game was a backbreaker. Oh, my God. I turned it off. Oh, you missed the final play. Oh, yeah. Look at that play. Look at the number of laterals. And I had some interest in this. As you're watching this, you're, once they start

to make forward progress up the field. That's when you start to feel a little bit better about the situation. I've been through, look, I'm an experienced final play lateral guy. I've been through a lot of them in my career. So I know what can happen in these situations. Why did I turn this off? And if you don't want the either touchdown or safety or something horrific, if you want the score to end where it is, you love to see the ball going forward.

forward. The ball going forward is good. The ball once it starts getting lateral backwards is not good. That's not going to usually end well. And it was something else to see it finally end up in the end zone because you'll see, I can tell you. You're like, Jarvis Landrieu picks it up and you're like, okay, this is going to be good. Oh, my gosh. I'm watching it right now. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, it's funny, after you get four or five laterals, you think maybe there's a chance. Oh yeah, because the defense could get worn out. But there's a point during that play where they're out to like the 30-yard line. Oh, no. You know, and you're like, okay, they're moving forward here. We're good. You know, it was Landry.

Like before he threw the ball all the way across the field, the ball was almost out to the 30-yard line, and then it starts going backwards, and then you know it's not going to end well. Oh, my gosh. How did I miss that? Because I didn't care. No, you didn't care.

You thought it was over. Anyway, I mean, the kick was with what, seven seconds left. Yeah. Yeah. That was the only thing that Lamar didn't manage well. He should have clocked it with two seconds to go. But anyway, great game. Yeah, the only time you clock it with more than two is if you have a timeout.

Exactly. They didn't have a time out. Because you can clock it with seven if you have a timeout for the chance of a bot snap or something, but they didn't have a timeout. That's right. All right. Let's get to your offensive film breakdown. We're going in-depth, play-by-play. The Cooley Film Breakdown.

Here's Cooley and Kevin. The offensive film breakdown with an offense that scored, no touchdowns, would seem to be horrendous. It's not going to be as bad as you think. Okay, good. Now I'm very intrigued. Film is so interesting. Sometimes you think someone doesn't play well,

or sometimes you think a team doesn't play well. I thought there was something to this game. I will say this right now. They ran the ball really effectively. Yeah, with McKissick. Why didn't they do more? With McKissick and with Barber. Barber had some good runs too.

You know, Barber had, I think, two backed up runs on the goal line, a third and two where he had to just get two, right? And then he's got, there was one tackle for loss where there was two missed blocks where he got hit in the backfield. You take a couple of those away, and Barbara actually had some pretty good runs as well. They got really good movement up front on San Francisco.

I have to think, though, real quickly, there's no possible way that this tease that you've just provided about the offense not being as bad on film as we think it was. That can't include Alex Smith. No, it doesn't. It doesn't include either quarterback. So let's start with the expectation, and let's start with both of the quarterbacks, which is where we all restart as it is. All right, Alex Smith. The good.

Did a nice job on the second drive throwing a keeper away, just throwing it out to the sideline. Who the hell runs a keeper to a three-man side? Turner goes with a fake to the left where there's just one tight end, who's going to run the crossing route to the other side, to a three-man side where San Francisco is Boston, completely overloaded to. You can't run keeper into three-man's side. What are you doing?

Crazy talk right there. He did have a, I thought it was an excellent ball on the deep shot to, who is it, Robert Davis? Robert Foster. Robert Foster was in for Inman. Oh, I want to call him Robert Davis. Well, they used to have Robert Davis. We're 19 too, didn't he?

He may have. Was Robert Davis number 19? I thought that was a good shot on a third and five. Davis was over the top of Richard Sherman. I thought the ball was fine. He just continues to slow down. Like he's going to jump for that thing. Just run under it.

That should have been a sixer. A sixer. No question about it. I don't think Richard Sherman's going to catch him. The ball's thrown perfectly. Anyway. Through a good ball of Terry McLaurin on a corner route in the second quarter. Run action pass.

Great route. Terry, but that was a really good ball. I had a good ball on a slant route to McLaurin in the second quarter on a second and ten. This one I actually loved, I wanted to talk about it. It's a second ten in the second quarter. They end up, this is a good way to get Terry the ball. They go three receivers to the left, one is Logan Thomas, and then McKissick lines up on

the left. They are basically running a two-play opportunity where they're judging alignment by San Francisco So they can go swing screen to McKissick out to the left with three receivers out in front of him blocking. Or if San Francisco overloads that side, which they did to three-man sides, then you've created a great window for Terry McLaren. It was a play where Terry caught an easy slant, and then Richard Sherman gets up, and he's looking inside with his hands up. Like, yo. Right. What the hell?

Well, Fred Warner, his eye discipline goes directly to the four-man side with the screen opportunity. He's looking at it like, this is a screen over here. so he doesn't get back out to play the slant. Got it. Sherman led him with off leverage break into the middle of the field. They clearly communicated, you know Terry's running a slant here. Let's undercut this thing with the linebacker. But the screen created enough confusion with the inside players to get Terry McClure inside.

That was a good play call. Look, had a couple easy throws, like a stick route to Logan Thomas and overroute to Logan Thomas. really when you go through Alex's game there were not a lot of great throws that he made but I mean the positive is just not really there in this ballgame do you think he was hurt all along so I'm actually really interested I think I watched this three or four times the first play of the game he ends up overthrowing Terry McLaurin on a a play action, run action, crosser. Terry's wide open.

He gets hit off the left side. The back doesn't get out in time. McKissick doesn't get out in time to pick up that blitz. You can pull up. It's the very first play of this game. And he gets hit weird, awkward in the lower body. I'm wondering if that was it. I'm watching.

Because at no point, at no point throughout the rest of this game, did he ever find rhythm or did he ever throw anything with real accuracy? Did he step into throws? It was just awkward. And it's hard to see, it's hard to see this play from the end zone copy because there's a lot of clutter. I see him getting hit low, though. He gets hit low. And I'm just interested because we're going to downgrade Alex Smith throughout this game.

Trust me, it wasn't good. But something's wrong. He's not that bad. Right. No, he's not. No, I know. I mean, he's been playing well coming into this game. What are we talking about?

He has. He's been playing well. So you go through this. First drive throws a slant to Terry McLaurin, didn't like the throw. Terry's getting mugged. It's the first third down on the first drive. It should have been DPI. I don't know how you don't call it.

You can jam them within five yards, but once the ball's turn, you can't continue to jam them. It was DPI, but it was offsetting penalties. Yeah, I was, yeah. But I still don't like that throw. Right. No. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I totally do.

Like that, that's not a throw that I love in that situation. It's behind him. It's not catchable. It's behind him. It's not catchable. He's getting mugged. It's not, I don't know. It's not a great ball.

You know, he ends up throwing an okay ball on the next third down and seven to Logan Thomas on a crosser. And Logan Thomas just gets a run down. don't see anything else open there. But like, I'm not, I don't go crazy about making crossing route throws at four yards. Like, that's what everyone should be able to do. Third and seven, he misses Terry McLaurin. I think it's on the second drive. Yeah. On a button hook. Yeah. It's a zero blitz. He's got a crossing route over the middle of the field. I think it's Sims wide open, but I don't hate the decision. Terry runs a good route. But that ball bounces five feet short of Terry. Was that the play where Terry slipped, but

still the throw would have never gotten there even if he didn't slip. Is that the play? I don't feel like he really slipped. Maybe he slips a little bit, but he comes out of the top of that route pretty clean. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's the play where he slipped. Yeah. Still.

That's the play that he slipped. But the throw was still poor. The throw bounces four yards in front of his face. Right. That said, man, they are so soft in the middle of the field. and he's got an easy throw with the crossing route coming right between the hashes to the opposite number in Stephen Sims Jr. That would have been a much easier throw in that situation.

He's wide, wide open. And look, I love Terry, but Terry's pressed and tight. It's contested. I don't know. That said, Terry doesn't slip the balls on him. It's a first down. So you can't really question where he's going with that ball. It goes to the right place.

He could have went to either place. I think something, are you moving on from this play? I can if you want to. No, if you're sticking, yeah, because I think Alex is very ginger. He looks hurt in the pocket. It's not obvious, but there's no doubt he's not stepping into that throw. Yeah, and I'm wondering if it's because he sees pressure. I mean, it's just an awkward throwing motion at the top.

Like when the ball comes to the top, it's like he just doesn't have it. He did this two or three times in the game. Like he did the same thing down in the red zone where he threw a low ball to Foster. It's a second quarter throw where he throws this low, awkward, weird ball behind Foster that he's got time to make the throw. And it looks like he has the yips on that throw. Ball comes out of his hand really. It's stuck in his hand, comes out of his hand late. his mechanics have changed for whatever reason.

I think it's because he's hurt. I think he's hurt. I think he's hurt. I'm with you. I think this happened. I think that he went into this game not well. No, I'm totally with you. You get into the third series. He's way late on a checkdown throw to Peyton Barber.

He double clutches it. He's not sure that he wants to make it. Then he's way overthrows an easy speed out route to McKissick. Oh, yeah. Like air mails it to the sideline. And I'm watching. That's what I think when I text you during the actual game. Yeah, when you said they should be thinking,

they should be thinking about benching him. They should be thinking about benching him. And I said that because that's a throw that he makes. We've watched him make that throw eight times this season. Right. He's accurate with that ball. It's into the short side of the field, the boundary side of the field. With McKistick, a guy that he's completely comfortable with,

running in a route on a speed out that they've run. 25 times, it seems like, yeah. Yeah, like that's a throw that he's capable of making. That ball's not even close. No. That ball sails over his head by five yards. Well, five feet, not five yards. Five yards would be way over his head.

Five yards would be 15 feet. That's a high ball right there. Not even close. By the way, I don't even know if that gets the first down, but still, it's not close. Yeah. It gives him a chance if he puts it out in front of him where he can. Yeah. again, they can't convert a screen to a running back.

It's unbelievable. You know, McKissick had that little screen where he ends up getting tripped up a little bit. But Alex throws that ball way early. And he throws it with some zip. And he's expected McKiss to come out of there, but I don't know. They cannot get a screen to the back. The interception was shitty. Doesn't necessarily see the coverage.

Sims is late getting down the field. It's quarters. he's thinking that corners can fall off into the inside route. They're running three verts up that side. Logan Thomas is wide open in the middle of the field on the interception. This was a terrible throw and a terrible decision, right? This was a, like hurts one thing, bad decision's another. And I saw this as an awful decision.

Awful decision. He threw into double coverage easily. Like, well, he threw into coverage. I don't know if he threw into double coverage per se, but. You don't? Sims that's kind of wheeling down the sideline. Well, yeah, but look, I mean, the corner's hanging out down there. You know, I mean, the corners.

No, no, no, no, no. No, I understand that. Right. We're saying, I didn't say it right. It may not have been intended double coverage, but there are two defenders in the area of the intended receiver. Yeah. And I think, Kev, I think he's guessing that as Cam Sims is running kind of the delayed scene, the wheel seam, that the quarter's corner is going to be collected by the inside seam,

who's eight yards up the field. But the corner just sits there, like, no, I still know what I got. I'll pass that off to the safety. That said, Logan Thomas is wide open. He's throwing this one, too, a little bit. I mean, he's not well in the pocket. No. He can't drive that ball.

Nope. So. It's all arm. It's all arm. and that's probably what it is, Kev. You probably nailed it. You know, they get the ball down in the red zone late in the second half as well. The first one I mentioned bad ball to Foster,

had a chance to get down to about the three. The second play down in the red zone late in the second quarter, he leaves the pocket way early. Find that red zone situation down there later in the second quarter. Yeah, I know the spot. Right before he took the sack. Yeah. This was that.

Pull up the second down play. Yeah, this was after the first fumble recovery. Yeah, he's out of there. And by the way, if he flushes left up into the pocket, you know, he's got plenty of space. Yeah, I mean, by the way, if he just stays in the pocket where he's got plenty of time and throws the ball to Isaiah right, who's open on a slant in the middle of the field, then it's a touchdown.

Yeah. I forget how did they get down there after the... Bumble recovery by pain. How did they get down there? Thomas for nine yards from Smith, Smith short right to Isaiah, right for nine yards. Yeah, so, yeah, they'll throw a little hook over the middle of the Logan Thomas. Logan Thomas turns up in the shadow, gets a few yards, and then they throw the bubble out to Isaiah Wright. So they get down to about the seven-yard line.

But this second down play, if you watch this again, Isaiah Wright breaks off. Yeah, I see it. Green Lobb, who just really. hangs and then the safety from depth is going to play him 33. But Wright crosses the face of the dropping defensive lineman. They're really in a three-man pressure dropping a D-Linman. There is no chance. The D-Lineman's 95 dropping.

Alex has plenty of time. Just bang it on right. It's a touchdown. If it's not a touchdown, he's tackled at the one. And then he's scrambling right. And then he takes a sack on the third and eight. And you're like, he just, he can't move. That would, you pull up the next play, the third night.

You're like, he really can't move. He, and not only that, he went down in a way in which he did not want to take a shot anywhere. And he didn't want to, he, he just jumps forward. He doesn't want that calf messed with. This was, this really, to me, looks like he entered the game as questionable and played. So I'm more concerned if he entered the game as questionable and played. than I am if that got banged on the first play. Okay, well, I guess that's possible.

Because if he enters, because he gets it banged up on the first play or has some strain in this game, then I get the sense that that's something we're going to treat. We're going to move forward with that it happened within the game. If it's something that he entered the game is questionable with, I think that it's his leg starting to wear down. You know what I'm saying?

Like, if he's starting to get real stiffness and soreness in that calf, from overworking it and overuse, then we have problems moving forward. Well, and if it's that, then there's got to be a strong consideration that he'd not play this week. And I'll track that back to

Robert Griffin and Kurt Cousins, and Robert ends up not playing the Browns game, should not have played the Eagles game the next week. And you're saying, look, it's still a really impactful game for us. It's probably, it's not a must win, but it's a need to win. If Alex is really stiff and sore from overuse, you need to give him time. Well, the problem is if you give him time, you may have a lot of time because you may not be playing.

Any further. Pellisar this morning said he reported, Washington's optimistic about Alex Smith's chances for starting Sunday against the Seahawks, though his practice time this week is expected to be limited. Now, what's interesting, and I mentioned this to Tommy, I have not mentioned it to you. We know that the sharks, I like to say sharp with Tommy, sharks with you. The sharks have been on Washington in the last two games,

hence the point spread went from 10 down to 6 against Pittsburgh and from 4.5 down to 3 against San Francisco. Guess where Seattle is right now? Right now, I'm looking right now at multiple shops. They have gone from a 3.5 point favorite. to a six-point favorite. I think that's telling you that Alex Smith's probably not healthy. I think that's a big part of it, no doubt.

I do. I think that's probably a huge part of it. Like, Alex Smith was a D-D-minus in this game. Okay. Let's get to Dwayne. Dwayne, the good. Third and two early in the game, quick to get the ball out to the flat and McKissick, lets him turn up the sideline and run. Big play. Really nice timing on a run-action pass, Logan Thomas down the field on a corner route really does a good job of driving that ball on

Logan Thomas. That's a big play in the game. That's a big play for Duane should feel like he can get some things going with this. Right. You know, I had another good flat route to McKissick later in the game that McKissick has to get that first down. Greenlaw tackles him. It's a hell of a play, but good ball in that situation.

Had a wheel route on a run action play that I actually thought was really well designed. Terry on a slant Sims and Isaiah Wright coming from. the other side sims wheeling up the scene right on the bubble behind him nice play it's an okay ball on the sideline to sims he's got to go down and get it but still it's an okay ball in that situation did a nice job on a third down at six decisive throwing the crossing route to logan thomas logan was chipping and then gets out into the route san francisco soft he gets it on him quick uh i thought it was an okay ball the sims that was dropped on the third and seven yeah i mean it's a a corner route. It's a catchable ball. It's not a ideal. It's not in position A, as you'd put it,

for a receiver to make a catch. But he's got to, you got to understand, it's third down and seven. It doesn't matter if you run for one more yard after you catch that ball. You got to catch that ball. That's it. I don't care if you go sliding down, if you've got to dive for it, what you have to do, but you got to make an adjustment to it. And Sims is just having a, I think, a little bit of a hard time adjusting his hands to some of these. Like, sometimes, in those situations you're like dude body it just body that ball let it hit you right in the chest dive let it hit you right in the chest go down it's fine um you know dwayne was seven for 12 i thought he made a couple good throws one on the downfield route to logan thomas and one on that

third and seven to sims other than that though i mean it's a couple flats to mackisick a bad ball completed to peyton barbara way low that he caught a will that was an okay ball and then a good timing throw to Logan Thomas on a crossing route. Like, not a... He also threw a plat to Sims late on a third and long. Not overly impressive with great play there. Tell me about the third... Tell me, yeah, because the third and goal is what I want to hear you describe.

You want to start with that? No, you start with wherever you want. I just... I don't want you to forget about the third and goal because I've watched... We'll just start with the third and goal. Okay. Okay. The third and goal is...

a two-man side. He's got Terry McLaurin running across her and Stephen Sims on that side's in a stack set running a quick flat route. His eyes are stuck dead on Terry McLaurin. He is staying with McLaren no matter what. He does not see the mesh and in the mesh between the two. Sims breaks wide open to the flat and it's a wide open easy touchdown throw. He's drifting back in the pocket. It's poor with his eyes. He is clearly stuck on Terry as the number one throw. And then he throws a risky ball that could have been picked in the end zone right at Terry you got to be able to feel and see that and sense that mesh between those two you just do I know they probably talked about within that mesh that maybe Terry comes clean on the crossing route but that that's such an open

throw and it's different if he's working the right side of the field first this this combination starts on the left right he starts with Terry and he stays with Terry. So as he starts with Terry, to not see Sims is really almost questionable. Like, what are you seeing? There is a bad, that was a bad, bad play right there. There is a play.

I think we got to go back to the opener this year against Philadelphia. And I'm doing that as we speak, because I know he has made this throw in the red zone before, where he's come and he's worked his way across, his reads and found the wide open guy. And I want to say it was in week one against Philadelphia to Logan Thomas. It was one, it was early, I'm looking for it right now. But he's made that throw before, Cooley. He has made the progressions and made that throw in the red zone before. I am absolutely sure of it. And for whatever reason, it's not even close for him to even look at it

this time, which has to bother anybody there. I'm pulling up, let's see if this is the play that I remember or not. It's You're pulling it up. The thing about the Sims play is, you can talk about guys not getting reps and

not playing in practice and stuff, but this is one you want a quarterback to just see. I know. You want anybody to come in and go, oh, shit, he's wide open. He started with that side. He should have easily felt it sensed it. He just locked on Terry.

Yeah. It's not the Eagle game. It's a game from last year. I'm not going to go look for it right now. I'm telling you he has worked his way progression-wise, extended the play, and found it. I got you. It's just not much of a progression that he's got to work through. Okay. I'm just saying... It should have been number one.

Yeah, well... Started on that side with Terry as number one. You got to feel that with your number one. How does that pick unfold? How does that mesh unfold? Who comes through that open? God, Sims is wide open. He's wide open. All right.

Let's get through some of the back. Would you call that good scheme, good red zone scheme, third and goal at the three? Yeah, I love crossing routes and crossing combinations with flats on third or on any, anything inside the five, because a lot of times you do get man-to-man coverage. Oh, God, is he wide open? That's got to be one. What are they telling him watching the film of this on Monday? What happened, buddy?

What are you looking at? What are you seeing? walk me through what your thought process is here. Early in you know, I actually started okay with a couple throws, but early in they tried to throw that old Sean McVe bootleg keeper leak play.

Like the keep leak. And he does a good job of getting off of Logan Thomas who's covered on the backside leak. But then he does this weird, awkward jump, backward sidearm throw to sprinkle that Sprinkle has no chance of catching. You're like, you had the right idea there. You just didn't execute that idea.

Right. It's really interesting body movement. Poor body control to even try to make that throw. We talked to a bad ball in the flat that was caught by Peyton Barber. He actually had blitz pressure off that side and kind of side arms it around 20 coming off his right side on that awkward throw to Barber where it was great hands in the flat. Right.

It's not the worst case situation. there was a run-action crosser. This is five minutes and 57 seconds in the fourth quarter. He ends up awkwardly flipping the ball forward to avoid a sack. Sims is so wide open in the middle of the field. I don't, I can't, I don't know how he doesn't see him. Which player are you talking about? Where's the ball?

It's one of these, like. Is this, is this the second down before the interception? around the back up between yes. This was the play I described to you yesterday. It's a second down

before the interception. Yeah, this is the one I wanted you to explain as to, first of all, what in God's name is the play here?

Because this was a really dicey play. He looks confused. I don't know what's going on. This is the play before he threw the interception that got overturned by replay.

Well, it's a run action. It's an RPO that he pulls. It is an RPO? It's an RPO. It's an RPO because the Well, the entire offensive line is blocking run. Yeah. Like, McKissick and Barber are not looking for the ball.

They're not even looking for the ball. And Sims is coming. So what? Cam Sims is on the backside. This, Cam Sims, if he pulls it, the only throw is Cam Sims. I don't, Sims is open. Oh, boy. You know what I'm saying?

Like, like, he's just got to trust that you can throw it over the top of a linebacker here. He goes with this little RPO run, which. I think he probably should have handed. He gets spooked. Well, there's immediate pressure. But if you see, if you're watching this play, Sims crossing the field, he's just got to put it right. But Greenlaw's buzzing out to it. He has no idea where it is.

It's like, you know, I always talk about that drift play. Like, we're not going to worry about the linebacker who are drifting over the top of. Well, that's exactly what Cam Sims is doing. He's drifting right over the top of Greenlaw and should have been thrown. Yeah, I got it. There's immediate pressure. The next place, the, I mean, it's. There's pressure.

I mean, there's a lot of pressure. There's a guy in his face. Although I would call it immediate, it's almost indecisive pressure. Yeah, the defensive end is unblocked, but he's scraping down the line of scrimmage initially. Dwayne, oddly enough, on this RPO plays, got to know that that D.N's unblocked and drifts right into him instead of drifting away from the pressure. It's really an awkward play that could have gone poorly before. It's an awkward play, but that said, yeah, that said, it could have went excellent. Yeah, well, the next.

He's got a guy. The next play has to be his first. Yeah, I mean, the next play is not a good play either. You know, it's a 150 mile an hour fastball to Terry McClure in the middle of the field. Six yards. He's running an inside slant. He's wide open, and that ball is, that ball is hot, man. Where's his touch?

is hot. Like, yeah. In all seriousness? I mean, you want to be able to throw this ball on Terry where he can run? I could make this throw. So the thing that's interesting that I'm being, I know you can make this. facetious, but this is this has got to be the easiest throw for an NFL quarterback. It is third down in 10 and he's got somebody right in front of his face, crossing right in front of his face, wide open.

It's his best receiver. and it's a little just, it's pitch and catch for 15 yards, move the chains. And he fires it like it's a fastball on a two-two count that he's trying to get in front of the guy that's swinging at it. And it's just really bad, really bad. This is what worries me, because I like so much about Dwayne. I love his quick release. I love the strength of his arm. Boy, he does not throw with much touch usually.

Remember early in the year we were complaining about, you know, the swing passes, and he just can't throw with touch. That's a problem because that's like a feel thing. You either have touch at 14 or you're never going to have it. Like don't you think like the kids that you play touch football with people out there that have good hands and good feel and good feel for space but aren't, you know, fast or anything, they throw with touch and they lead you perfectly. He can't lead anybody.

He can't throw with touch. What's going on here? This is bad. This is so bad and it's so funny because this is what I thought of when I watched this play. I thought of all those balls that you saw on Instagram and Twitter deep down the field. Like, look at these deep balls. He's throwing, look at his next offseason should be spent on throwing crossing routes only with touch. Instagram pictures in videos of Dwayne throwing to Antonio Brown and Terry McCorn on eight-yard crossing routes against no defense.

Can we see those next summer? Yeah, like you got Logan Thomas running five yards and sitting down right over the ball. And that's the throw I want to see him make a bunch of times. But here, to your point, I don't know if you can develop that. I don't need. That's what scares me. It's such a feel. It's like when we talk about Troy Apke and his lack of lack of depth perception to take an angle.

Right. Like I don't think he's going to get better at that. You have to feel. It's a feel thing. It's a touch thing. It's like the, it's the finesse part of playing a sport. And he is, he's got a fastball. There's no doubt about that.

I don't think he's got to change up or a curve, though. No, he doesn't. It's, no, there's no, this is a, this is a 3-1 count, and you think he's going to chase it upstairs, and you're going to blaze that thing at 103 miles an hour. Let's just find out. I mean, I mean, you. You know, seriously, it's like you want to see.

These are the concerning throws. How would he throw this in seven-on-seven? Would he miss-on-seven? Would he miss this badly at seven-on-seven? So that's an interesting. Would he miss it this badly in practice with somebody in front of him? Because his body adjustment to make these throws, he doesn't ever push. Like, it's all arm.

All-arm. Like, his throws are all-arm. It's twist hips and all-arm. like drift back flip it as hard as you can flip it all arm he flicks it quickly it comes out quickly that's for sure so one of the things he does well he's yeah like he throws so hard but we're worried about Tommy John here in his near future maybe we just go and get that done right now but I don't know I mean he's got Terry open anyways so the bad look I thought there were three or four bad balls one huge risk throw one

easy opportunity for a pick throw. I thought he missed two open receivers down the field. He had one sack that was really Logan Thomas's fault on the one sack load and sitting across from the backside. But it was interesting on the first and 10. Like he just sits there. Like you want to step up? That's a tough block.

You might climb the little bit in that situation. I'm not putting that on Dwayne. I'm not. I didn't downgrade him for that. That was Logan Thomas. But still like, avoid. Yeah, step up. Run.

Step up and run. Go. Logan Thomas sack was, he just sits there and takes it like, oh, shoot, I was looking down the field a little bit too long. You're here now. You got to have a feel that Logan Thomas, that's a tough block. All right. Let's, Duane was a D. Okay.

Let's get to the skill players. Let's do it. Alex and Dwayne were, Alex was, I mean, if Alex was, if Alex was, was if I knew Alex was healthy, he's still a D-D-minus, but if he was healthy, that's scary. I just think he wasn't. All right. Let's get to the part of that's going to surprise people about an offense that generated 193 total yards.

Let's go. All right. You want to surprise people? Let's mix it up a little bit. Offensive line. Here we go. All right. 78.

Lucas. He actually can have a name. He was so much better this week. He was athletic versus last week looking stiff and slow. He's not great job climbing on the backside to get the backers on the second level. Really good pass set, hand punch placement. Good drop back on drop back passes finishing with an anchor where he's not getting bolder pushed back into the pocket. Pretty awesome.

I thought really good on the front side of RPO runs attacking aggressively. There was an RPO run late in the game or in the maybe the fourth quarter where they stunt the defensive end across his face and he punches, punches him down, passes it off to Switzer, and then climbs to the backer on the second level, and you're like, yeah, buddy, we understand this zone run game. Pass this off. We're not going to get trapped inside and let them scrape over the top and blow us up on the edge.

Pass it off. Switzer comes, picks it up, and you're going to climb to the second level. Like, that's big time play. At times, especially on run action pass, I thought he was locked down and protection. Pretty good. Thought he was an A.

A minus. Cornelius Lucas A minus. I love it. Switzer. Yeah. Really, there are times, like great frontside movement and double teams with Ruiye. Frontside zone plays where they're stretching it. Post for Rueh Rueh.

By the way, you're asking me about Greg Jennings. One of the things he said, he's like, oh, good block by Ruehier. I know, I know. I heard that. That's true. You're right. That's okay. That happens, man.

That's tough to remember. how to pronounce everyone's name. That's, I'm not going to fault. You got one game a week. You got to get some of that right. Ruehier. Is that what he called him? Yeah, something like that.

Rier. Yeah. Well, I mean, there is an R at the end. Who knew it was silent? Talked about that zone run play stunt, picking it up on the zone play on RPO was awesome. Good angles throughout the game on some of the backside cutoff blocks. But some of them he overran, the linebacker, taking too much of an angle.

You just got to be alert for the fallback. Those end up, when they fall back off, five yards down field, it still ends up being a tackle for five, six yards. But if you do catch him just right, then it's a big block. Look, a couple times slow off the ball. There was a third and two early in the game where he was slow off the ball, way slow off the ball. But he still gets enough to let Peyton Barber get the job done.

That was an excellent block by Lucas on that third down and short early in the ball game. So I threw it was a B in this game. Rui, Rui, Rui. man, he kicked ass in the run game. This has been something that I have not said about Ruyer so far this season. But his tight zone double team movement with either Switzer or Sheriff, Sheriff, was excellent, like really excellent movement with their detackles. Lateral stretch in the run game was outstanding.

Getting to second level was really good. And he had a pull in space where he gets out. on Fred Warner, great block on the second level. That was awesome. One-on-one where he's got to just pick up, they call it a little scoop block on the minus or the shade technique was really good with lateral movement. His pass protection was pretty good as well

throughout the entire game. I mean, I'm talking about like really excellent movement by a center on multiple levels. Like they're running duo, they're tight fit double teams, climbing to the second level. It was great. It was great. The only negative is like it gave up an interior pressure on a run action pass that still ended up being a completion. There's one run play where he maybe gets stuck too long on the defensive tackle and he can't climb to the second level, but Peyton Barbara has a little spin move and makes him miss anyways. And one of the duo

plays on a second down and one in the third quarter, he lunges early on a stunt and it ends up being a tackle for lost. Moses missed on that play as well. But for the most part, man, this was Rooyer's best game. He was an A. Wow, we got some offensive line rolling here. You know what? Yeah, Sheriff. Double team, ass kicking. I mean, you want to see a great play by Sheriff. The second drive of the game, you can pull this up. I actually, I did all 22 on the NFL again. This. this week and I don't always do it because I have another film access but I just did the NFL to check it out and it really helped me describe plays for you yeah and where they're at so the second drive in the first quarter it's a first down play pull that sucker up they're at the Washington 40809

yeah I got it watch Brandon sheriff hold on you really you want to get to the end zone copy here oh yeah how about skunk's green law knocks him out of the hole and then Greenlaw has to come back in and finish and then sheriff just chaos him get out of here. That is unbelievable. This is a angle on the pole. This was another one that I think this was where Ruiar got on to Fred Warner here.

Does a good job. Okay, let's stop with Rueh. Rolls him. This is a Brandon Sheriff Pay Me. That's a Brandon Sheriff special, man. He was knocking dudes around. He was excellent in the past game. Brandon Sheriff was an A-minus.

Morgan Moses. Yeah. That same play I'm talking about. Watch him get a pin on the edge. That's an awesome. That play you had right there. Watch Morgan Moses get a pin block on the edge. That's excellent there.

He was good in past protection. Maybe once or twice. There was one run play where I think it was a tackle for no gain. He's on the backside. And him and Sheriff are going down on the D tackle to climb to the linebacker. And all of a sudden the safety comes in shows behind. it and he leaves the double team to go to the safety and the double team falls off sheriff right behind him and he makes the play and you're like don't worry about that safety buddy you got

stick with your double team because sheriff is trying to climb to that backer this is this zone run scheme we're going to make him run the back's got to make that guy miss uh he had one lunge player on a duo that i just talked about with chase ruyer and okay i'm done now and that ended up being a tackle for loss but moses really getting past protection throughout the game this offensive line really didn't give up a sack. What was most? Offensive line. Moses was a B plus.

So to recap your offensive line, Lucas was an A minus, Switzer was a B, Ruiy was an A, sheriff was an A minus, Morgan Moses was a B. I'm dead set on those grades. I'm absolutely sure on those grades. I have no question, the offensive line did a heck of a job this week.

They should have run the ball more. Yeah. They should have stuck with running the football in this game. You know what? That's encouraging about what they might be able to do on Sunday against a team that I don't know, well, their linebacking is pretty damn good. Warner being out of the game may have hurt San Francisco when they lost him. But I love that.

You've actually had a couple of games this year where you've really been high on the offensive line. Overall, it's like what we talked about when we were talking about the skill position players, how we thought before the year versus how we thought now. Sort of the same with the offensive line. Big question mark before the year. but it's turned out to be nowhere near as much of a weakness as we thought it would be. All right. The skilled position players, running backs, receivers, tight ends when we come back right after this word from one of our sponsors.

Kev, let's get to the running backs in the film breakdown. You have said two different times this week, man, I thought they missed a lot of cutbacks. And I have an answer for you. Okay. They ran a ton of RPO. and the RPO is a zone run scheme for them out of gun. But on the backside of the RPO, the offensive line doesn't climb to the backside backer.

They use a technique. They call it a big technique. That means the backside guard and tackle both go man to man on the backside defensive tackle on the backside defensive end. In a normal zone run scheme, the backside garden tackle would double team the defensive end or the excuse me the defensive tackle up to that next backer they would turn the defensive end free and that defensive ends responsibility is still to play boot so you hope he holds long enough that the cutback beats him

inside they can't do that because you're going to get your quarterback caoed if you turn one of those two defensive end tackle players free would probably be the defensive end if the quarterback pulls it because now all of a sudden he's just going to beeline the quarterback because that's his responsibility in boot anyway and he's going to hit him in chin so when the back is taking these rPO zone plays to the front side he knows if he cuts back he's cutting back to an unblocked linebacker sitting right in that hole okay you're hoping that some of the rPO action with some width will hold them a little bit longer but i don't i thought for the most part, both Barber and

McKissick did a good job getting yards pushing front side all the way on some of the RPO runs. And there might be one late in the game that McKissick could have cut back early. He had a three yard game later in the game, where if he cuts it, I think he gets five

or six. Can I give you the one that I've got right now? Go to first and ten before hold on for a second. Before the end of the first. Second quarter, first and ten at the two-minute warning. I'm sorry, first and ten right before the two-minute warning from their own 28-yard line.

Because this is, it just appears, this is a good run. It's a really good run by McKissick, but I remember this one specifically because a big hole opens up on a cutback opportunity. But I don't know that he made the wrong decision. Yeah, it's an RPO run. Yeah, I see the RPA. And it looks like there's a huge hole, but Fred Warren. left completely unblocked in the middle of the field. Yeah, I, right.

Switzer and Ruey have a double team that's going up. They've, they've actually probably misidentified this. So they put the safety, the 49ers put the safety down in the box of the nickel player wearing number 27 in the box. He starts to come in like he's blitzing. So then they say, let's double team there. Now he doesn't blitz and you would then have an opportunity to hold him outside, but they got to go, they got to go front side to him.

him. So that means they're going to leave Warner and Greenlaw unblocked backside. The double team doesn't even get up to the nickel player, but still, McKissick makes him miss. Right. Okay. So if he cuts this back, he's cutting this back right to Fred Warner. I know. But then again, it's McKissick versus Warner in a hole. And Warner's tough, but, you know, McKissick has really shown the ability to make people miss. And if he makes him miss, it's a big play. actually think that Stephen Sims Jr. busts on this play. They're running RPO to his side and he's running a slant. He should be blocking front side of run. He should have blocked the nickel. They should have double teamed back to Warner in the middle of the field, left Greenlaw three, which would have

then probably given an opportunity to cutback, but he sees Greenlaw City, or he sees Warner hanging out there. I think this is a great decision by McKissick to just push this front side, outrun the nickel, great block bike Terry McLaren down the field. Okay. I just, I don't know, you know, you cut that back and you've got to make Fred Warner miss right there.

I think it was a good job using his blockers. Look, McKissick really did a good job running the football, good speed to the edge, ability to run through contact. A couple of those toss plays, nice job getting outside. I actually noted, you know,

excellent job pushing all the way front side on the play you're talking about at the end of the half plus nine. Okay. I thought it was an excellent job pushing all the way to the front side of that thing. I mean, that may not. And it makes it so they can't just sit there and hold back. Like if you want to get anything off of it, then you can't, you can't just sit there and make them hold into cutback plays. I will tell you this, the way they were getting movement in some of these zone run plays, they should have pulled the RPO out of it.

They should have left the backside and free, took in the, taking the big off of the backside and double team double team. to the backers. They were they that was a Turner mistake in my opinion. How many from RPO? How much RPO are we using the P? Almost all of these zone run plays. I know how much how much of the RPO ends up in a P? Well that is dictated by San Francisco no I understand that but I'm talking about that you're not going to get the P you got to take the R yeah because they believe that they're going to stop the R and not give up the P yeah because I'm looking I'm looking through all of these you know these RPO zone runs and it seems like

they all end up in ours. They did. They did almost all end up in ours. All right. Continue. But that's not, that's that there's another week where you end up with 15 total runs in the game

and the O.C. comes back and he's like, well, I called these RPO plays and we've had too many P's. They've resulted in P's because the defense. Yeah, right. Um, McKissick was an A, right? No, he wasn't an A, but I'll get to that. He had another really good run on a second and ten third quarter where he makes a nice cut inside, comes up, makes the safety miss.

This is where he takes this down to about the seven yard line. Right. Which I thought was an excellent. Watch this play. Pull it up. It's a second 10, 12.03 in the third quarter. Watch Chase Rueh. I mean, this is just Brouier and Switzer just kicked a shit out of 95.

sheriff gets his face crossed a little bit because he's on that big play he's not full going zone he's bigging backside i love that he's bigging backside he could have come down a little bit more he tries his turn and torque but mickisick runs through the detackle beats the safety across his face and then takes it down to the seven this is an awesome run i can't it's an awesome run i can't find the play well it's a second 10 in the third quarter yeah i got 12 o3 it's just a really good run by mickick but it's so, so well done by your center and left guard here. I mean, it's just awesome. All right.

It's great lateral movement and stretch. Give him enough room to push that away from the guy who crosses sheriff's face. This is really well done in the run game. The bad for McKissick. Early in the game, he misses an edge pressure on the play action. Alex's hit on the first pass of the game. He sees it late, but he doesn't get there in time. You got to get there quicker.

It did look like he missed a cut back on an RPO play early in this game. He ends up pushing it front side. It's the second drive, the second play of the second drive. I get that both linebackers are free, so he keeps this front side. That was one I did think he could have kept pushed or that he could have cut back a little bit. The screenplay, you've got to stay on your feet, man. He runs into the offensive line and ends up falling down. That one's tough.

there's a duo run an inside zone duo run that he has a great cut but he trips on the leg of Switzer and ends up falling down or that would have been a pretty good play and then that last flat play of the game man he's got to get that first down

he's got to get that first down it's a good play defensively though too it's an amazing play okay Green lot does a hell of a job there McKissick was a B Barber Good cut on a third and two on the second drive to get a first down. Good hands on a couple different swing passes out where both of them were bad balls.

He ends up catching both of the swing passes. He has good hands. He's got natural hands. Great cut on a front side zone play. It's the first play of the second quarter. Like some of these you almost just have to bring up because they're just so well blocked. I mean, the first play out from offense in the second quarter, he ends up getting seven yards. It's just really nice.

really nicely done by this offense. Barbara pushes at Moses, cuts back inside, gets downhill quick. He has a good feel for getting downhill. Yep, a couple of those. There's one down by the goal line

where he just dives through that tight window hole. Right. And you're like, he got more yards than I thought he was going to get. Oh, he did he got a few more yards than I thought. There's no doubt about that. He's got a little spin move that he used,

a little RPO cut inside. He makes 51 miss with who's unblocked. A little spin move makes a miss. Oh, yeah. a couple decent runs backed up at the goal line as well. The first downplay after the sprinkle fall start to get three on the goal line was a nice run by Peyton Barber. A couple of the bad, you know, this wasn't really a bad play. He has a negative two-yard run, both Moses and Ruey miss up front.

I can't really put that on Barber in that situation. There's one run action pass with a blitz picker. up where he ends up giving up pressure from Warner off the edge. He gets too far upfield on the fake. And then late in the game, it's the first play of the fourth quarter. I thought he had an opportunity to bounce duo. You know, Adrian Peterson did that all the time. That drive play and then all of a sudden they bounce it. Logan Thomas, the tight end, gets his face crossed inside. The linebacker's holding inside. His read is that linebacker. If the linebacker's inside, it's a bounce opportunity. It wouldn't have mattered because Sims didn't get his block done,

but I don't think he saw that. So I would like to see him bounce there. So I would say that would be a vision mistake on his part. But still, I mean, it's not a truly negative play. It's just not a great play. Payton Barber was also a B in this ballgame. So both of your running backs ended up with B grades in this game. Got it.

Let's get to the receivers. Terry McLaurin. Man, the first play of the game, his crossing routes are exceptional. There's a great stair-step stick on the first cross. It's overthrown, but he wins. And that's what you want to see. I mean, he's open. Alex gets hit as he throws the ball.

The first third down, that slant play, you got to get off. It's a weird, you know, offsetting penalty call, but he's got to get off better than that. Normally he does in press coverage. And there's a great route, the hook play that he kind of falls down on coming back to the ball. It's awesome snapping his head down. and coming out of that thing, it's a weird little slip play, but that's a bad ball.

I think if the ball's on him, even with the slip, he ends up making that catch. The corner route that he caught, second down in 10, the one where he spun Richard Sherman around, he sticks outside, then he breaks in and pushes hard vertical,

snaps his head down at about 12 yards and breaks across his face back outside. That's clinic. If you're a high school coach and you want to show a corner route versus tight coverage, pull that second down. play up to McClorn, it's as good as it gets from a receiver. And then he had another slant catch inside on a second 10, which is a good play.

The negative is really not a whole lot. That was the one where he got up a little bit hobbled, I think. Yeah, he did. He did. And then he didn't catch another ball in this game after that point. He did have a false start on a third and five that hurt them. Terry McLaurin was a B. Cam Sims, good speed on the fly sweep.

I like the physical finish. I like Cam Sims with the ball in his hands. I think he's a good runner. he's always an extra yards kind of guy he works hard at that uh really good catch on a sideline throw the wheel route by duane that was low went down for the ball i mean if you want to say like amazing he would just shoe stringotic no i'm kidding that was a good catch and then i think sims does a good job blocking downfield on some of the bubbles right had a bubble where he's just locked down on a corner uh good downfield finish on the 17 yard run by mackisick he he's really consistent with that

some of the negatives with Sims. He's just such a slow starter, and he's got too much wasted movement at the line of scrimmage, especially versus press. We've got to press harder vertical quickly. Too much wasted movement, not enough quick twitch at the line of scrimmage. Cam Sims was a C plus.

Robert Foster. The dude has real vertical speed, Kev. I mean, pull up the third, the first play, excuse me, the first third down of the game. Find the first third down of the game. the game in the first quarter and watch him run vertical on the corner where Alex throws it to Logan Thomas let me see because I got it right here too no that's not the first yeah it's the one to Logan or it's it's the it's the it's the DPI play just

watch Robert Foster run though I mean he is smoking oh oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I got it I mean I understand like this is one that your mom watches the game and she's like baby you were so open on that first third down play and he's like yeah I know I was mom I was super fast but the ball was out like six seconds ago six seconds before you saw wow but yeah I was open this is really I mean for a guy that I didn't even know who he was this I'm really glad you showed this to me because this is this is game changing you know offline of scrimmage from the slot speed like if if he if out of Alex gets back and just throws, lost that ball out there. That could be six.

I mean, what would you? Yeah, it should actually be it. I think it's a scissors combination, like a post corner. And Cam Sims gets hemmed up about six yards downfield or eight yards downfield on the corner. And you're like, why are you running directly into the corner? Like fly past him. You have got to clear out that zone. Robert Foster should be under Sims on this play.

but he is getting pressed shoulder down five yards past since down the field he's fast he is fast he's blazing fast he's more than fast he's quick off the line of scrimmage too yeah and watch him shoulder down on this thing yeah like he's got press coverage he posts his left hand and then he gets his left shoulder down and turns inside that this is good speed man you watch the deep ball that he just misjudges or slows down down the field he steps on Sherman's toes on that post I actually think he could have taken one more step or two more steps vertical before he broke to the post, which would have given him a better angle downfield for the quarterback to throw the ball.

But that said, his ability to run is really, really good. Obviously, he didn't have a big impact in this game. He only played five snaps. But you just see some real speed. We don't grade five plays. Yeah, I understand that, but I'm glad you brought it up because it wouldn't surprise me if this film, gets him more snaps.

Yeah, I think he's a guy that he's, I think he's one of those interesting guys that the scouts want to see him play more and the coaches aren't ready for that yet. Right. That happens a lot with a lot of guys. Right. Good on a bubble screen after the catch. He had a nice little crack to help the running back get outside.

Just enough. It wasn't awesome, but just enough. It writes a guy that'll block for you. And then he had the duff. double pass. How the fuck did he not see Terry McLauran wide open down the field? Yeah. Watch the double pass. Terry is crossing from the opposite side and right is stuck on the wheel route with Sims and it's like, dude, he's doubled. Like, take a look. I hated that call though. Yeah, well, you would have loved it if he'd have thrown a deep in Terry. Yeah. If he throws it right

away, you're right. It certainly looks like he could and he never looked. He never even looked at McLaren. No, he didn't. I mean, that's just something we've got to coach our quarterbacks to see. Terry's open. They played the hell out of the wheel route with Sims on the far sideline. They saw that coming. But they did not cover Terry McClure. Terry was open.

Right. Now that said is here's the other thing with Terry. Like he's got a step and he's one-on-one. Logan Thomas let one hang in the air last week or two weeks ago, whatever it was against Dallas. Right. Terry will go up and get that thing for you. It's one-on-one.

500, here you go. 500, baby. That was a C-plus. Here it comes. Get out of my way. I'm pushing everybody, and I'm going to catch it. Yeah, if he lets that thing go, he's probably got a chance to hit McLaurin on a big play. I don't know what bothered me.

I know we talked about this yesterday, but, you know, Dwayne had some confidence. He had driven him down the field, a couple of good throws, the third and one to McKissick on that first third down. And a throw to Logan Thomas. They got a field goal out of it, even though he missed Sims on the third and goal. and they're on the move again. They're on the move again on that drive, and they're in San Francisco territory. Let's manage the game here.

Your defense is playing well. You're up 16 to 7. You know, you got a good chance to get into field goal range and add another three. I don't know. I just, I didn't like the play call. No, and the other part of the play call is throw it away earlier. He almost gets a big tackle for loss.

it's not that far away from getting picked. If you're not going to throw it early, if you're not going to throw it early, then get rid of it earlier. Yeah, throw it 18 rows up. Yeah, throw it 18 rows up. Let's see, let's at least show your arm strength. All right.

What was Isaiah right? He was a C plus. Sims Jr. Yeah. Could do a better job avoiding DVs downfield, got hemmed up a couple times. You know, early in the game, Alex threw a check down to him

that was an awkward throw, it would have been a loss. It was better than he dropped it, but he still dropped it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, it was that little, it was still a drop. He's had a lot of drops this year, which is why I wouldn't have had it back there fielding the punt with three seconds to go in the half inside five-yard line. He hasn't dropped any punch yet.

Yes, he has. He's fumbled a punt in the Cardinals game. Remember? That was a big turn. That was Isaiah right. Sims has a fumble on a punt return this year. They may have not lost it, but he's got a fumble. That was Isaiah Wright against the Cardinals?

Yeah, you might be right. Or does some to have a fumble after he didn't drop the pun? He was fumbled it after he was returning the pun. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I understand. Okay. Yeah, ball security problems and catching problems. You sure that was Isaiah right against the Cardinals?

I don't know. It doesn't even matter. What I mean? Poor angle blocking toss. Really bad on a duo where he's tight to the line of scrimmage. He's slow off the ball. He's unsure who he's blocking the back. It's the one I said that could have been bounced,

but it wouldn't have mattered because Sims wasn't there. It was bad. It looked like Inman the week before. You didn't see as much because it didn't come right out to him. Man, I will tell you this. There are times where he's a hell of a route runner, though. Like the corner route that he dropped, man, that's an awesome stem inside.

And it's a big win as he reestablishes vertical. It's too bad because it's a really good route. And it should have been caught. It was Sims Jr. It was Sims who fumbled in the Cardinal game. And I thought he had at least one misassignment in the run game, if not two misassignments in the run game. He was a D-minus in this game. Did you hear what I said?

No. It was Sims in the Cardinals game who fumbled the punt. Did he fumble the pun as he caught it? No, he fumbled it on the return. He fumbled it on the return. And he said at least another fumble this season as a receiver. Yeah. Yeah.

That's too many fumbles. Right. How about catch everything? Maybe that's why, you know. It's now it's becoming why. Yeah. Like I'm seeing it. Logan Thomas.

Yeah. Dude, we keep talking about that little outside play to McKissick, but hell of a job by Logan Thomas on a pin on that play. He had outside leverage with the defensive end wide. He gets out to him and pins him and gets the edge. That's really, really good. Great seal block on the third and two on the second drive. Barbara ends up getting it.

Switzer was laid off the ball. great job by Logan Thomas coming across the line of scrimmage, getting a kickout block right there. Good fight on a third and 10. They threw him a little screen. He doesn't get the first down, but he's getting, you know what I'm really noticing with Logan Thomas?

He's getting way more comfortable with the ball in his hands, like getting extra yards, turning up field, knowing where he needs to go. It's probably been hard in the past, you know, you get 15 catches a year. He's getting a good field with the ball in his hands. He had another one where he turned up a little spot route, turned it up in the shadow.

There was a nine-yard gain in the same. second quarter. It's a good job just turning, getting up field. I love it. The corner route that he caught on a run action pass that Duane through, he does a nice job in a two-band side, stacking right behind the wide receiver with a vertical release. He's almost hiding behind the receiver right there, and then he comes out of the break nice and flat, gives an easy target to the quarterback. That's a big play right there. Third and six on the chip crossing route, a heck of a job with a chip, and then getting the first down on the third and six. The negatives. Backside of the, have a zone run, shitty cut off, just trying to cut the defensive end,

turns, falls his butt on the ground. That's not how you cut. We go, you know, shoulder through the thighboard is what they like to say, not turn your back to them and fall and roll. That's not good cut technique. The funny thing was, is the very next play on the other side, he does cut the defensive end to the ground. So I would say, if I'm coaching Longa Thomas,

if you're on the left side, you're not cutting because you're not good at getting your left shoulder through the thighboard of the defensive end. If you're on the right side, you do have a good feel so you can cut block because your right shoulder goes through. I'm saying that because I actually know that. I felt that. Right. Like I never like to cut on my right side, but my left side I could feel like I could always get my body through. A couple times in pass protection coming from across the line of scrimmage, too soft, gave up one sack in that situation.

He can be so physical at that sift blocker. Go knock the shit out of a man. Go take a shot right there. Like don't go set up in pass protect. He's not a good protector. He's a very physical across the scrimmage, not guys down blocker. Just go go kill him like it's run.

I don't know. Logan Thomas was good in this game. He's just getting... I thought Logan Thomas was good. There was a duo run play. He's not a good blocker at the line of scrimmage from a two-point stance. There was the one duo that I said Barbara could have bounced.

He's in a two-point stance, so it means he's standing up. And he gets beat inside. But he's getting... better he is he's really really like if you say inline blocking he's still c minus d plus but out in space and stuff he's a b blocker getting on the second level guys he's a b blocker and he's turning into like a b receiver right now he's much better than i expected him to be he was a b in this ball game okay sprinkled 15 plays in this game not much of an impact did have a couple okay blocks really nice on the sims fly

sweep sprinkle was um and then had a good backside cut off twice in this game good angle uh sprinkled is just so heavy-footed, you know, you see him running routes down field. He's just so heavy-footed as a runner, and he's still too slow off the ball as a blocker. For as big as he is, and I think he's quicker than that, he's too slow off the ball as a blocker. Sprinkle was a C-minus in this game. So to recap, Kevin, recapping your skilled players, both backs, McKissick and Barbara were B's. Terry McCorn was a B. Cam Sims was a C-plus.

Stephen Sims, Jr. was a D-minus. Yeah. Robert Foster played five plays. He has some speed. That's what I wrote down. No grade, but man, does he have some speed? Well, there you go. Right was a C plus in this game. Logan Thomas was a B and Sprinkle was a C minus in this ballgame.

And that concludes your offensive film breakdown versus the San Francisco 49ers in December of 2020. So I've got two questions for you right after I tell you about my bookie, all right, use my promo code Kevin D.C. and you'll get your deposit matched halfway up to $1,000.000. It's that time of the year. They've got lots going on. Not only can you bet on the NFL college football, the NBA college basketball, et cetera. But my bookie's got more contests and giveaways than any site out there. MyBooky.ag, use my promo code Kevin D.C., and they will get your deposit matched halfway up to $1,000. This winter, bet with the best, bet with my bookie.

All right. So I think an interesting thing just to discuss very briefly, because I want to get this podcast up for everybody to have plenty of time to listen to it, is whether or not Scott Turner changed his play calling and or game plan when Dwayne came in because I think, you know, there's at least an outside chance that Dwayne might play again this year. How much different was it with Dwayne in the game than with Alex in the game? I don't think it was any different. How much different do you think it would be going into a new game?

Right now where the offense is, I think that they would limit some of the dropback stuff. Like if you went into a game and said, okay, there are 12 first and 10 dropbacks. We'd cut that down to eight. If you said that there are 15 run action and pass concepts, we'd cut that down to 10. and then I think you'd supplement with, you know, maybe some more RPO stuff. Look, you could. But I don't, I think you cut it back about 30%. You called this.

In terms of volume. You called this in the first four weeks of the season about as simplistic and high school issues as you can get in an offensive ability in terms of a playbook. So now you're saying you would cut it back 30%. That's what I would do, yes. Okay. But your offense has come a wrong way in the last six weeks. with some of the versatility that they've been able to get to.

Here's the other thing that I would try to do with Duane. And to be honest, this is something that I think Scott Turner could do a better job of too. But it's also, when I say this, I understand it's the Coriol system. I think that they'd be better suited, especially with Duane, to go to some of those two-man combinations and run action pass. To maybe go some more under center and get to some more two-man combinations versus is some of the three-man combinations that they really try to get to with some of the run-action pass stuff. And it is, they're not going to do that. Carolina in the Cori-L-type system with Norv was a three-man play-action, run-action pass combinations. Al Saunders in the Cori-L system that I was

in was a three-man run-action pass combination guy. Casha and Ann Chan-Mek-Veigh-Mat-Lefar, it's like a two-man combination. It's just, it's a heavier set, more two-man combinations. I think it's easier for the quarterback to read that out. If you get, and I haven't watched Seattle enough and maybe you'll have more information at the end of the week, if we get a lot of the, you know, a lot of the zone stuff that Seattle's run under Pete Carroll for a long time, right? Will that, if Dwayne has to play, would that bode better to a lot of the stuff that they ran against Baltimore as an example?

A lot of quick, get it out quickly, bubble stuff. You know, the swing pass stuff is tough because he doesn't throw it with great touch. But a lot of line of scrimmage throws. Yeah, it's really interesting how you try to play Duane because I think that... I mean, by the way, this may not be the case. I mean, I'm just, I'm wondering if we get into this situation, how do we move the football with Dwayne versus the way we've been doing it with Alex? Yeah, so I think that they have the ability to run the football a little bit more.

and I think that they can go with some boot and keeper stuff. I think they can go with some more two-man combinations down the field. If I'm Seattle, I'm probably going to come with a lot of like five-man pressures. I want to force him to throw the checkdown or to throw the underneath route quick with the expectation that 50% of them are going to be hot or slightly inaccurate. And because they don't immediately give the back a chance to run, even with less underneath the fenders, I have the ability to rally to some of those. balls. I want to put pressure on him throughout the game. You know, you might start hoping you can

get some four-man pressures, but this line's doing a pretty good job. The other thing I think when you're looking at Duane is, I think early in the season, he struggled to see where pressure was coming from and pick some of those pressures up. And so to me, he's a guy that you might get some unblocked looks to. We talked about this in the past as well. The other thing, he's not a guy that moves to his right. He's a guy that consistently moves to his left. So you can bring pressure off of his right and loop back out to his left where he's going to move and run. So you probably see some of the pressures off his right side with defensive tackles looping back out. Okay. Where do they know he's going to run? I don't know. It'll be interesting how Seattle prepares for Duane and plays

Duane in this ballgame. Well, I mean, when I look at this team, yeah, when I look at this team, I see like I see some some questions with can I really lock these dudes down in man-to-man covers like Terry I feel like can win in man-to-man and give open looks right away. I feel like Stephen Sims, although he hasn't caught a lot of balls, can do that. Robert Foster, if he were to grow in this game plan, can do some of those things. Yeah, it'll, I think you just bring a versatile package at Dwayne. Okay. Thanks.

Good job. Defense tomorrow. It's going to be a good one tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Well, it wasn't that bad today. No, more positive than negative. Surprisingly complimentary of much of the offense after the quarterbacks. I have a question for you.

Okay. Who would you rather see play quarterback this week out of pure interest? Alex or Duane? Alex, I want to win. I want to see Duane play again. Why? I'm more interested. I want to win the game and I think a healthy, you know, it's a big, well.

Yeah, trust me, everyone feels that way. I'm asking you that of pure interest. No, pure interest, Alex, because I want them to win. I want to see a playoff game. I want to see them continue to win. And you know, I was, you know, I'm one of the people that thinks Dwayne's got a future maybe. Or at least I did. But what I saw on Sunday just concerns me.

Like, here's a question back to you. Forget what your interest is. Do they have a better chance of beating Seattle with a. healthy Dwayne versus a compromised Alex physically. Yeah, I think you're 50-50 at that. Depends on how compromised Alex is. Here's another question back to you. Do you have a better chance of making it a run in the playoffs with a healthy Alex if

you were to sit out this one week? And do you take that chance? If you told me that I'm not going to get Alex at 100% and there's some risk of playing him against Seattle, then I'm not playing him against Seattle because they're not out of with a loss to Seattle. You know, they're still in it. And look, the Giants may have to start Colt McCoy on Sunday night against the Browns who lost last night.

So, you know, look, no, if you told me that I'm risking Alex by playing him against Seattle, Seattle is not a must win. If they lose the game, it ain't over. They're still very much in it. Remember, the Giants also play the Ravens the following week. So more likely, there's a better chance of Washington clinching before the final week of the season than being knocked out of it before the final week of the season. Right now, there's a pretty good chance, worst case. They're going to play a game on the final Sunday of the year with a chance to make the postseason.

So I would definitely, I would sit him if you told me it's a real. risk to the rest of the season to play him. I would, especially in this game, which... I think it's hard to really look at this the way we look at it. But I think that the Eagles and the Giants lose this week. Certainly the Giants, if they have to start Colt McCoy... The Eagles are six and a half point dogs right now. The Giants are only four.

I know. To Arizona. and Arizona, yeah, it's a weird line that the Eagles are six and a half point dogs. Why? Do you think Arizona's six and a half points better than the Eagles? I didn't think that Arizona was three points better than the Giants. I thought that line was a little bit off. Clearly it wasn't, and probably they knew Daniel Jones wasn't going to be anywhere near 100%.

Maybe what they're counting on is Jalen Hertz to not be able to do much in his second start. Right. So I don't know the – And I'm just saying I think both of those games result in NFC East losses. Well, they certainly could. And then you're looking at Dallas, San Francisco, you're like, if Dallas, you even have a chance to get back in this thing because it seems impossible.

Dallas – look, all NFC East teams are underdogs this weekend. So if all four of them lose, Washington's still in first place by themselves. And even if Dallas wins and the other three lose, Washington's still in first place by themselves. Which is why if Alex says, it healthy this week, I'm going to go with Duane. No, I would answer the question the same way. And the other part of that answer is I truly believe that if Alex is healthy, they have a chance to win some games in the playoffs.

I do too. And I'd rather have him healthy and have a chance to win some games in the playoffs and take the slight risk of this week, maybe we don't get a win. Can you imagine if they start Duane because they want to be, you know, precautionary reasons with Alex, which is why they didn't put him back in the game. It is funny to me and ironic that they protected Kyle Allen in that Rams game and served up Alex Smith to basically Aaron Donald for dinner. But I, what would be really interesting is if Dwayne came in and had the best game of his career against Seattle, they won, Alex is ready to go against the Panthers. And now what do we do? Alex.

I know. I understand. that. You know, one other quick just note, it's just a thought I had in watching Alex on Sunday. And, you know, he obviously wasn't right physically, whether it happened early in the game or whether it was before the game, whatever. And he's been very good beforehand. But it's really the reason you can't come back next year with him as your starter. Or that you absolutely say he's my starter next year. You've got to bring Kyle Allen back also. Even if you draft a young quarterback,

Kyle Allen needs to be on this team next year. Yeah, and if you like Kyle Allen, I think it gives you the ability to not draft a quarterback in the first round. I think they do like Kyle. I think it gives you ability to take an inside

linebacker or to take a free safety or to take a left tackle or to take or a corner or someone that you really need or left. Kevin a wide receiver. Yeah. I know. I think that if you could do, I don't know, there's a

be an interesting offseason. Interesting off season. All right, very good. Back tomorrow with your defensive film breakdown.