The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins-Falcons Wrap

Episode Date: August 23, 2019

Kevin handles the Skins-Falcons recap to start. He and Aaron also talked Scherzer's return, the start of college football, and more. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, Aaron's here. I am here. We'll get to the Redskins recap here in a moment. Max Scherzer was back on the mound last night and he did pretty well. I mean, through 71 pitches, four innings, gave up a hit. I'm sorry, gave up a run, gave up four hits. Nats with a huge series starting this afternoon at Wrigley. That will be big for them. And did anybody see, Aaron, what happened in the Raiders Packers' preseason game last night? Did you see that? Unbelievable. First ever game in Western Canada. By the way, the background for this was that the Raiders, this was a Raiders home game in the preseason. And when they made the preseason schedule, they still weren't sure about whether or not it was going to be Oakland or somewhere else for the 2019 season.

And then the A's scheduled a game there, so they had to find another place to play the game. and they decided on Winnipeg, Manitoba for the game last night. Oh, those Canadian friends, because it always works out in Canada. Typically it does. Toronto, Montreal have always had decent games up north. It's the games down south that tend to be the problem like Mexico City last year and some of these London games with the field conditions over the years. But last night, the field was in such bad shape in the end zones that they reconfigure, the field to 80 yards.

The 10-yard lines became the goal lines on both ends. And so they played an 80-yard football field last night. Now, do you have any idea as to whether or not any wagers made on this particular game were accepted or were they voided out because it wasn't a typical NFL game? Now, here's the funny thing with Vegas, and Vegas in particular, your online sports book might have done something different. But if you are going to avoid a game, it has to be in writing beforehand the stipulations that can lead to a no action bet. So, for example, if there was a change of venue, if the game got moved, or in baseball, if a starting pitcher gets changed, usually books will have it there that says if the starting pitcher changes, we can make it no action. Well, also lightning in an NFL preseason game, I think is a no action game.

Well, as long as it doesn't go 55 minutes. So yesterday, the Eagles Ravens game was a no action because it did not go the full 55 minutes. It got ended by lightning? Yes, that got ended by rain and lightning and stuff. They could have played, but obviously it was preseason. So that was a no action. There's nothing in the books that say if it gets changed to an 80-yard field. Well, why would there be?

Exactly. It's never had me before. It's something that's never come up and never even conceived. So, yeah, all the, especially the totals, that was the big one that got, you know, really hammered because obviously an 80-yard field, more scoring. What was the final score? 21-22. So it wasn't that crazy, but the over-under was, I believe, 37. Don't ever give the score is 21-22. That sounds like the way my wife would read the score.

It's 22-21-1 is the way we- Did I say 21-2? Yes, you did. You said 21-22. Never done that. But yes, 22, 21-43. It went over. But yeah, I was talking to some people out Vegas, and they said, yeah, we're going to put something in the books that if, for whatever reason, it's not played under standard NFL rules, we can rule it a no action. Well, I mean, here's the thing. Like, some of these field conditions we've had in the UK games,

in the London games in particular, where these fields have not been NFL caliber. Now, I've actually enjoyed some of those games because when I was younger and I became an NFL fan, you had true mud games. You had true weather games. Like, there's no mud on a field anymore. You know, you get the field turf fields,

but even the natural grass fields are like a sand, base. So you don't get the dirt that turns into mud during a rainstorm. Plus, the drainage systems are so good. You rarely even get standing water on a field anymore, even in a downpour. I mean, the rare game occasionally where it's really bad weather, like Miami's had a couple of games in recent years, and not that recently, but games in which they had the baseball diamond out on the field early in the season, and they had thunderstorms, and you had like a real mud game, Oh, God, if you want to find a mud game that was the all-time mud game, go to YouTube, search Rams Vikings' 1977 playoffs. That game is available start to finish as CBS broadcasted it.

And I think it was, I believe, I believe it was Lindsay Nelson. No, it was Vince Scully. I think it was Vince Scully, who called the game. Maybe with George Allen, by the way. or maybe not in 1977. Anyway, that game, it had rained all day, the day before, all night long, and all day leading up to this playoff game between the Rams and the Vikings, and they didn't have a tarp on the field. It was the best mud game of all time.

You could not distinguish between the players on either side by the time you got to late in the second quarter. Outstanding. Anyway, on the betting thing, the Mexico City game, if it had been played last year, that shitty field. Do you think that they would have taken action? They wouldn't have had a rule against that? It's sort of a subjective thing. Like, how do you put it in the rules that the field's not in good enough condition for the bet to stand for it to become a no action bet? I assume they would have been action because, you know, nothing changed. It was just a really crappy field.

They would have obviously moved the lines around. Yeah, they would have adjusted the lines. But any bets that were in, they would have had to accept. Anyway, they played it on this 80-yard field and they started drives without kickoffs or no kickoffs at 15 yard lines, which meant you were essentially starting five yards from your own goal line to start a drive, which I'm sure was uncomfortable. The Packers seemed to be the most upset. They sat most of their front line players who were expected to play. Aaron Rogers was questionable with the sore back, but I think he was going to play, but he didn't because of this situation. And John Gruden last night said, I'm not going to sit here and complain about anything. This was a football game. We saw it as a great opportunity

to play the Packers. And if you've been watching the Hard Knocks thing, one of the things he's definitely emphasizing is there's no excuses. We play anywhere or any time, one o'clock games on the East Coast, even though we're a West Coast team. We're not going to have excuses. We're going to be ready every week. And that sort of continued with him last night. By the way, this should make for a very interesting Hard Knocks episode with this 80-yard reconfigured field. Yeah, I'm excited to see that. Hopefully we will get some really good conversations, you know, pregame about the field, and we'll hear what John Gruden really had to say. Before I get to my game take from last night, I wanted to address some of the follow-up

to my report yesterday that the Patriots were willing to offer their 20-20 first round pick for Trent Williams, but we're told by the Redskins it wasn't enough. J.P. Finley came out with the same report. Actually, he furthered the report, had some interesting information in his report, which also, the headline of which was the Patriots were willing to offer a first round pick for Trent Williams. But there was significant pushback on the report from a couple of national reporters, Ian Rappaport being one. He shot it down in a big way. Field Yates, who I really like a lot, actually. We had Field, remember a few weeks ago on the podcast.

He's got ties to New England. I believe. He used to work with the Patriots. Yeah, he shot it down as well. So anyway, I wanted to respond to that because I did mention after I said yesterday that the Patriots were willing to offer their 20-20 first round pick for Trent Williams, but were told by the Redskins it wasn't enough. I said, and I predicted that this would be denied by everybody. It wasn't in anybody's interest for this to get out, and I knew the Redskins would deny it, and mention that. I also referred to this offer in the past tense, not the present tense, meaning, you know, as I said yesterday, if you followed the chronology of all of this Trent Williams trade talk, a few weeks ago,

a Patriots beat writer, J.P. Finley, a few others suggested that Trent Williams, that teams had inquired about Trent Williams, J.P's report said three teams, including the Patriots, had inquired about Trent Williams. And then after those reports, a few days, later, there were follow-up reports that suggested that the Patriots weren't interested at all. And what I said yesterday is that that makes sense to me because they were interested and they offered a first. And then when the Redskins were buffed that offer and wanted more, then they weren't interested anymore. So that level of reporting made sense. Anyway, my report yesterday was the Patriots were willing to offer a first round pick for Trent Williams,

but the skins wanted more than that. And I'm sticking with that. there's no nothing that I have there's no conversation that I've had since then that would make me want to rescind that at all or think differently about it. JP had the same story. JP furthered the story by saying the Redskins were also asking for a first and second. He had the detailed information as to what the Redskins wanted. But anyway, these reports, JPs, mine, were, were. refuted, I mean, Ian Rappaport said this is false, unequivocally not true, was the precise wording, so carry on. Look, I mean, I'm not going to knock his sources. I just know that for me, you know, I'll say a couple of things. I'm sticking with my story. My sources on this one have never

steered me wrong in the past. As most of you know, I don't have this kind of stuff a lot, but when I've had it in the past, I've been right and I feel the same about this one. The other thing, too, is what some suggested, like pro football talk, that somehow the Redskins were leaking this information through me and JP. That's not true. The Redskins have never leaked information through me. Not in the past, not now, not ever. Nor will they, by the way.

Trust me on this. Now, I did hear from them. I heard from them, as I expected to, to tell me that it was wrong. I knew they would deny it. But if you look at my recent track record on stories involving the Redskins, it's not like I've had a lot of these stories to begin with. But when I've had them, A, I've been right. B, they haven't been the stories a team would ever want to leak to me. The team would never want to leak the Josh Norman headphones in New Orleans at halftime story. All right, come on. Use some common sense here. You think

the team's really going to leak that one? I had that one. It was right. A lot of people were very upset about that early on. There weren't denials necessarily from the team on that. But some other reporters, you know, who I guess were upset that they didn't have it, you know, it's refuted it early on, which was fine. I expected that too. But that's not the story that's going to get leaked by the team through me. They're not leaking anything through me. Also, by the way, seriously, for anybody locally that would suggest for one second that this kind of thing would be leaked through JP or or me intentionally by the team, you haven't been paying attention. The Redskins never leak anything locally. Nobody locally gets anything from them. When they leak, they leak exclusively through their

national contacts, not local contacts. That's been a given under this regime from the start. I mean, the owner owned the radio station that I worked for for 12 years. We were the rights holding flagship for that station, and we never got anything from them. When they leak, they leak to national guys, not local guys. Most of the reporters in this market know that and understand it. So I'm surprised that anybody would suggest the possibility that the Redskins would leak something through me or anybody else locally. They've never done it before, certainly not through me. And I don't think they ever will, to be honest with you. Anyway, I stand by what I said yesterday. And as I predicted, it was in everyone's best

interest to deny it, which is what I expected. And that's fine. They should deny it. Also, by the way, enough about that, but I will also say that I think they should trade them. I think it's clear that the Redskins may consider trading them. And hopefully Bruce will be patient and wait for a blockbuster opportunity. I actually think so far from my perspective, he's handling this pretty well, but, you know, this has to finish well before any of us give, you know, real credit to him. Anyway, let's get to the game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take.

All right, this was, you know, what they like to refer to is the all-important third preseason game, the dress rehearsal game, which really actually has gotten to the point where, you know, a lot of these NFL teams aren't playing starters even in this game anymore. You know, the Falcons did on offense and defense. a lot of their starters anyway. Julio Jones wasn't out there, but, you know, Calvin Ridley was out there and Hooper was out there and Matt Ryan was out there and McKinley was out there. They had a lot of their starters. And the Redskins, you know, we saw what we believe to be the starters right now as they will be pegged in on opening day against the Eagles. Let me mention one thing about the Eagles game. I said yesterday, I think I said it on the podcast. I know I said it on the radio show. I like the Redskins. in the opener against the Eagles. And so I played them yesterday at plus nine. And what I noticed this morning, Aaron, is it was down to eight and a half.

There's some sharp money coming in on the Redskins for the opener. It's not an indication of the way I feel about the season. I just think there might be an opportunity in week one. Anyway, the big takeaway from the game last night is that Case Keenham went out there with the starters and played a full half with basically the starters. And then came out after halftime, and Dwayne Haskins went in and played with the backups. And so that's a clear-cut indication of what John Kime told me on the radio station yesterday, and that is that Case Keenham is going to start.

Or it's certainly at the very least a clear indication that Case Keenham is ahead of Dwayne Haskins. And so unless Colt McCoy comes back and gets super healthy, it's going to be Haskins against Philadelphia in the opener. How do I feel about that? You ask, or you may ask, I want to see Haskins sooner rather than later, but I'm going to trust the football people out at the park that are in every meeting and in every practice,

and they know who's ready and who isn't. I personally would err on the side of Haskins if it's close, but it sounds like it's not close. Nothing I saw last night indicates that there's this huge, disparity between the two of them, but then again, Case was playing with the ones against the ones, and Haskins wasn't. That was my biggest disappointment from the night last night, is I wanted to see Haskins get some starter minutes. I thought Keenham looked good. I thought Haskins looked good. You know, Keenham missed a receiver, missed number 15, which I think is

Stephen Sims, not Cam Sims, who I really like, number 89, missed him through behind him in the end zone, you know, got a strip sack fumble, can't give up the ball, you know, can't turn the ball over. That set up Atlanta's one short drive for a touchdown. But I thought he looked pretty sharp. Got him in and out of the huddle, looked decisive, look quick, got the ball out quickly. I thought he looked pretty good. And then I thought Haskins came in and looked really good. Like, he looks the part. I mean, I love the way he's, his feel in the pocket and his quickness, actually, with his feet in the pocket, it's very impressive to me. I mean, it's, it's actually, you know, revealing of something that I didn't think existed. I did not think he was

that mobile. I didn't think he was that elusive in the pocket. I thought that was going to have to be worked on. He's got some natural ability in the pocket. I think he slimmed down a little bit. But whatever, I thought he looked the part last night too. Again, in a different circumstance, obviously, because he's playing in the second half against lesser players, but I thought they both looked fine. The biggest disappointment of the night, clearly, is the injury to Jordan Reed. He's back in concussion protocol. He's had a lot of concussions during the course of his career. This is something that's concerning. It's a shame, too, because, you know, from a foot and hamstring and other toes, he appeared to be very healthy. That was a wicked shot and a dirty shot in many ways by Keanu Neal.

You know, not intentionally, so maybe dirty's a little bit too strong, but it was a wicked shot he took. and it was a shame because Jordan Reed's special man when he's healthy. He's good. He's a difference maker. Without him, you know, who are the difference makers out there without him? Well, one of them might be Darius Geis. He was clearly, you know, along with I think Landon Collins, the two most impressive players for the Redskins in the game. Geis looked good. He looked decisive. He looked confident. He looked good cutting. He looked good accelerating. He looked good with power. He look good with vision. I really liked the way Darius Geis looked.

I mean, I think everybody did. He got 11 carries for 44 yards. He looked ready. I mean, it's clear that, you know, Jay wanted to get him the work. It's been a year since that ACL against New England in the preseason game a year ago. He got the work. And we're going to see a lot of Darius Geis and Adrian Peterson, you know, sharing carries. And then we're going to see a lot of Chris Thompson on third down and in passing situations.

That's the strength right there, the offense. I mean, there it is. is Geis, Peterson, Thompson. You know, could be Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis, but now we've got issues with Jordan Reed and some question marks about his health for the opener. But Geis, Thompson, and Peterson. That is the known on offense right now.

Because the receivers, I don't know who distinguished themselves. Robert Davis continues to do a lot of good things. I mean, special teams clearly. Kitsy played the slot for Quinn looked good. McLaurin, you know, drew a PI in the, in the end zone. Doxon had a catch last night. The guy that I thought really stood out as a receiver is the guy, Aaron, who John Allen, when he came on the show with us a month or so ago, and I asked him, I said, give me one player on the entire team that's going to super surprise everybody

this year. And he said, he said Cam Sims. I wasn't expecting him to say an offensive player. He said Cam Sims is going to be the surprise contributor this year. And number 89, who by the way is 6-5 and is about 2, you know, 15 and can run. And we saw that last night. I think he's going to make the team. The receiver situation is going to be very interesting in terms of the final cuts. J.P. Finley was on with me earlier and just suggested that the Redskins will likely keep seven. Like there's a legitimate chance they could keep.

Doxon, Richardson, Quinn, McLorn, Harmon, Davis, Kitsy, and Cam Sims. You know, that would leave a guy like Brian Quick, who we know Jay Gruden likes. out of the equation. But that's a possibility. I thought Geis was the most impressive player on offense, and I thought Landon Collins was the most impressive player on defense. And I thought that way, I thought the same last week. Joe Thaisman said something during the broadcast that stood out to me

because I felt the same way. And he said, quote, he said, this defense right now looks very coordinated. And I agree with that. There is a cohesive, you know, playing together feel, at least for a preseason game that looks good to me. And then you throw in the fact that they're faster, they're probably more athletic. I'll tell you who's definitely more athletic is Duran Payne. And they're energetic, and Landon Collins has really brought the energy.

And, you know, people remember said about him, he's an in-the-box safety, and that's what he is. and you don't pay that kind of money to Justin, in-the-box safety. And there was pushback to that. You know, Cooley said he's more than that. And other people have said, you know, he's more than that. He can cover as well. Well, he can cover. He almost had a pick, should have had a pick.

But one of the things that's obvious here in two games is he's a hell of an in-the-box safety. Like he anticipates well. He's aggressive. He's one step ahead of everybody. And he tackles exceptionally well. I really like the promise of Landon Collins this year. I was also very impressed with Duran Payne for a second straight week. He looks like a different athlete to me, and he looks like he is going to be impossible to block.

I thought Bostick, their inside linebacker, gave you indication as to why they were comfortable moving on from Mason Foster. And at times, I thought Montes Sweat was okay. And at other times, I thought he looked a little bit stiff, to be honest with you. But he pressured the passer. And then, you know, some of the plays in which I thought he looked stiff, and Fred Smoot suggested to me this morning. on the radio show that he might be heard a little bit. One of the things you saw from him at Mississippi State was this relentless motor,

where he's running guys down from the backside and, you know, running right to the whistle. And he looks stiff last night to me. That's what he looked like to me. Well, anyway, I love Casanova McKinsey number 58. I don't know how Greg Minusky will keep him off the field. He had two sacks. One of the things that's so obvious, you don't have to be, of course, coach or inside or watching film to pick up on the fact that Casanova McKinsey has true

edge speed as a pass rusher. I think he's going to be very difficult to keep off the field and third and long. He's a guy you just turn loose and say go get him with that speed. And on the other side you got Kerrigan and somewhere you got sweat. And on the interior you got pain and Allen and ionitis. There's a lot of talent defensively. Let's just hope as I've mentioned here recently it gets coached up well and that they don't get figured out. and that they play together, and they got some talent defensively. It's the path to a competitive season. Is a defense that steps up from a middle-of-the-road defense last year,

which was much improved from 2017, to a top 10 or higher defense this year. They've got some talent. They could end up being a very, very good defense this year. And if they are, they're going to be in a lot of those games, like they were last year early in the season, when they weren't turning the ball over, where they were winning field position, and they were winning a lot of close games

that their defense was keeping them in and that the offense wasn't ruining with turnovers or mistakes. You know, the Carolina game, the Dallas game, in particular, all, you know, sort of jump out as games that the defense kept them in and the offense didn't make any mistakes. And then you got breaks.

You know, you got breaks like the cowboy kicker missing the kick to force overtime at the end. So, anyway, that's what I like. That's what I didn't like. I'll mention one other thing I didn't like. Two other things. actually. Actually, have I mentioned anything that I didn't like? Probably not. I focused more on the positive here, because I thought there was a lot of it. I thought there's plenty of it. The two negatives,

Eric Flowers made a big mistake at the goal line with a holding penalty, then gave up a sack. Some caller mentioned to me, he looks like an injured Sean LaValle. Well, that would be scary. Yeah, it looks like he's struggling. You know, hopefully West Martin, you know, is a guy that can step in and play sooner rather than later. I mean, Flowers is moving to a new position. It's going to take him some time. He is a big athletic dude. And I don't know that he played poorly on every play. It's hard for us to tell that when it comes to offensive line and D-line play and what their responsibilities are, et cetera. But, you know, Eric Flowers looks like a question mark on this roster right now. And I would also tell you, even though it's a preseason game,

but this is one of the things I always sort of pick up on when it happens. And I want Jay to become better at this. And it's preseason and you don't have to get super alarmed by it. But when they got the ball back at the end of the half, they had two timeouts, good field position at the 32-yard line with I think 43 seconds left. They ran a play where they dumped it off to Chris Thompson and he lost a yard or two. And the next time they took a snap was with 17 seconds left in the half. And they threw it.

You can't do that. It's a preseason practice clock management. Once Chris Thompson got tackled in play, that's a timeout right there. That is a timeout. Now you got 37 seconds, 36 seconds, to take your second down snap with still a timeout left. Instead, they snapped it with 17 seconds left. So you basically lost 18 to 20 seconds.

You can't do that. Jay's not been good at this before. We were told that Kevin O'Connell was going to be a bigger part of this. we're going to be watching this all season long. I know it's the preseason, but what do you have to lose to practice good clock management in a preseason game at the end of the half with the guy you want to be your quarterback in the opener

trying to get in field goal range with a kicker who was exceptional last night? It had already made his first two, ended up making two more in the second half. Indoor, all you got to do is get to the 40-yard line for this guy to give him a shot. You know, so you're only, you know, at that point, 25 yards, 30 yards away from field goal range. Got to leave yourself with some time.

You can't take a snap at 43 seconds and then have the next snap come at 17 seconds. Can't do that. Got to understand how to manage the clock to increase the opportunity that you will have more plays to try to get points on the board. Is it better, Aaron, at the end of a half when you're on offense? to have more plays or less plays. I'm going to say more plays. That's the right answer.

That's the right answer. It's something that for the life of me, so many coaches have never been able to figure out, and Jay Gruden, I hate to say it, is one of those coaches. He's never been able to figure out how to use his timeouts the right way at the end of a half. It is better to have more opportunities to run plays than less opportunities to run plays. All right, quick word about stamps.com. Stamps.com right now is the most popular time-saving tool for small businesses. It eliminates trips to the post office and saves money with discounts you can't even get at the post office. I know we're a small business. We use Stamps.com. Stamps.com brings all of the amazing services of the U.S. Post Office right to your computer. Whether you're a small office sending invoice,

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The other big story in town last night was the return of Mad Max. You know, out there for the first time since July 25th, just his third start in the last two and a half months with the injuries that he had and the All-Star break, et cetera. And he went out there. I watched the beginning, Aaron, did you watch a lot of this or were you focused on the Redskins game? I was flipping back and forth between several games. Yeah, I certainly watched the beginning, and the first batter for them was Frazier, who hit a deep shot to right center that I thought when it left it was heading out,

and I was like, oh, God, that would suck if the first batter that he faces hits a home run, but it was caught on the warning track, and he got out of that inning unscathed. One, two, three inning. I think he gave up his first, you know, hit, maybe two hits in the second inning. But for the most part, you know, he labored a little bit.

He threw 71 pitches through four innings. You know, that's a lot of pitches through four innings. But he got through it, you know, giving up one run. They gave them the two-run lead early. And that's really been their move here recently. As in the first two or three innings, they've been jumping on people, you know, and getting big leads. And, you know, after it's interesting to watch them,

they had the stretch of 43 runs in three days. and then they opened with a 13-0-0-1-I'm sorry, the 43 runs were the two games against the Brewers and the one game against the Pirates on Monday, and then they had one run in the loss on Tuesday night. Then they came back with 11 in 7. They are, you know, explosive offensively, but they're getting on top of people early. And here's the thing that I wanted to mention. They're in the midst of this stretch of schedule, which is favorable. This weekend isn't.

You know, they get the Cubs starting this afternoon for three at Wrigley. The Cubs have won five in a row. But, you know, they took care of Pittsburgh winning three or four, which was huge. They've got two with Baltimore next week, three with Miami next week. And, you know, I was thinking you take three or four from Pittsburgh, two from Baltimore. You take, you know, hopefully two or three, if not three straight, you know, against the Marlins. And you're going to be really close to first. You know, you're going to be within three games, four games, you know, max before you get.

into some of these games with the Braves. Have you seen what the National League East has been doing? Yeah, they've been on fire lately. On fire. I mean, the Braves have won five in a row. The Mets have won five in a row. The Nats have won two straight, but they're on this role going back to the Milwaukee. They've won three series in a row. The Phillies all of a sudden are playing their best baseball. They've won two in a row. The National League East may not be the best record aggregate, you know, one loss, but they're the only division in baseball with four out of their five teams with winning records. I mean, their fourth place team, Philadelphia is 66 and 60, six games above 500. And so you've got a division. Atlanta's probably, I think we

mentioned this yesterday. I mean, here are the Nats having this unbelievable stretch. And here are the Mets, by the way, on a 21 and five run the Mets are on. And still, the Braves are up six on the Nats and up nine on the Mets. It's pretty impressive. The Braves have continued to play great baseball and maybe, you know, a little bit under the radar because the Dodgers have been so good, the Astros have been so good, and the Yankees have been so good. You know, they're having great regular seasons,

and the Braves are sitting there at 77 and 52, just holding off the red hot teams below them because they continue to play really well. Who do they get this weekend? The Braves get the Mets. All right, so huge series. Like, the Mets have a chance to really make some hay here and get back into this thing to a certain degree. They're not going to win the division at 9 back.

But they, you know, we thought when they were going through that big winning streak, you know, that ended with the Marlins. We're like, all right, well, they got the Nats now and they got the Braves and they got the Indians coming up. Well, they took two or three from the Nats on those two dramatic games. They then lost two of three to Atlanta, but they took two or three from the Royals. easy and then they just swept the Indians. Crush the Indians right now because the Indians were

in a tight division race. They're now three and a half back of Minnesota. And in that, God, that American League, have you looked at that wild card race in the American League? It is nasty. I mean, you've got good teams that aren't like right now, Oakland, Tampa, and Cleveland. Cleveland's 20 games above 500 and they are out of the wild card as of today. It's impressive. That's unbelievable. One of those three teams between Oakland, Tampa, and Cleveland is not going to be in the postseason. And Boston's really slipped here recently.

There's seven games above 500. They're not going to be in the postseason at this point. It's a long shot. And the National League has more teams that are involved in the race, but not. as good, although the Nats right now are really good at 13 games above 500. Then the Cardinals are the second wildcard spot. And then chasing that second wildcard spot are the Mets, the Phillies, and the Brewers all within, you know, the Mets are a game and a half out, the Phillies, two games out,

and the Brewers are three and a half out. And the Giants made that brief run for a moment. They've now lost four in a row, and they're likely out of it, even though there are still, you know, 38, 37 games left. an interesting playoff race, both leagues. And for the Nats, it's amazing that they've played as well as they have, and they are still being kept at bay by the brave six games back. You would have thought at this point they'd be a little bit closer.

You got a chance, you know, but this is a big series with the Cubs who are Red Hot, too. I know the Nats have Sanchez, and then they probably have Ross if he's healthy. Let me see what they have scheduled. here it is, Sanchez Ross, Strasburg Sunday, against Lester, Kintana, and Hamels. All right. And then they get the two with the Orioles at Nats Park next week. Real quickly, launch workplaces in Bethesda is a place where if you live in that area,

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but if you're working from home and it's not working out and you live in this general area or you want to move your office, consider launch workplaces of Bethesda or anywhere else where they have a location. All right, finally on the show today, real football this weekend. Two college football games tomorrow night.

I do not have an initial smell test selection for either Miami versus Florida or Arizona versus Hawaii. You get a double header tomorrow night. It's actually, I mean, double-header. Most of you aren't going to stay up for Arizona, Hawaii on CBS Sports Network. But you do get from Orlando the University of Miami with their new coach, Mani Diaz, against eighth-ranked Florida, a team that I really like. I liked them last year, too.

I think they've got a chance to be a really good football team and be one of those teams in the SEC that could potentially win the SEC East and have a chance at Bama, you know, perhaps in the SEC title game to get to a playoff spot. I think Florida is that good. Defensively, they lost some guys. They lost that guy polite, who I loved. They've got some talent, though, defensively. And hopefully, finally, Felipe Franks, who was really one of the top quarterbacks in the country when he came out of high school,

if he can start to play a little bit like he played at the end of last year, Florida's got a shot to be a really good football team this year. So it's our first chance to see a top 10 team and SEC team that finished incredibly strong last year. They crushed Michigan, remember in the Chick-fil-A Beach Beach Bowl. By the way, that was a smell test pick, if I remember correctly. But anyway, they've got a good team back. They've got that running back, P. Rine back. They've got Franks back.

I think they've got one of their receivers back as well, and they've got some defensive talent for sure. Going to be an interesting team. I mean, they really finished strong last year in the first year under Mullen. And I just, I like their team. team. I mean, they start off with a game against Miami. Miami's not ranked preseason, right? Am I right about that? I don't think they're ranked this year. I think you're right. They might be in the low 20s somewhere. Well, they're not supposed to be that good in Diaz's first year, but I like Mullen. I thought

when Mullen got the job at Florida, he could turn the Gators around. And we'll see. They've got a favorable start, I think, to the schedule. You know, with this game on a neutral field, They've got Kentucky on the road, Tennessee at home. Their first real test, I guess tomorrow night is a real test. But their first real test comes early October, Auburn's at home. Then they go to Baton Rouge. And then, of course, obviously, the Georgia Florida game in early November in Jacksonville. But I like Florida.

I can't wait to watch them play. They were one of my surprise teams last year. They didn't quite get as far as I thought they could get. I would pick them as a dark horse to be in the playoff this year. So you get your first shot at that. You don't like that, do you? Then I don't like them in the playoff. I mean, that's assuming, if we're assuming that Alabama,

are you assuming that they pass Georgia and make the SEC title game? Yeah. That would be the way. I just, I think Georgia's really good. I really like Fromm. God, man, this whole SEC again, because LSU's dangerous. The whole league really looks good. You know, the Gators, it's time for the Gators to get back into the contending circle.

It's been a while for them. I think they're good. I don't think they're better than Georgia. But we get real football tomorrow. We do get real football. It'll be great. It'll be awesome. Why are they opening the season this weekend?

I think they just, you know, more and they want the more TV time. I think next year actually it's supposed to be, for some reason I feel like it's supposed to be even bigger next year. They want to make this a thing, get kind of a teaser with a pretty good game. And who does? It might be this game in the future. I know they just signed, I believe they signed a home and home for 2024 and 2025. Miami's not ranked, by the way.

Yeah, they're others receiving votes. Yeah, they're right at the top of the others receiving votes. Yeah, so they're not ranked. I wonder if they had, I mean, part of that is definitely the whole Tate Martel and the fact that he didn't pan out the way they thought. I wonder if he was starting if he had panned out if they would have snuck into the top 25. Yeah, I mean, when he transferred to Miami, I think everybody thought he would be the starting quarterback, but he's not. You're starting to get, by the way, over the last few days, a lot of those announcements on starting quarterbacks. And speaking of quarterbacks,

Kasim Hill, who was this big-time, you know, quarterback, athlete, but really, you know, considered to be a quarterback more than the athlete designation when it comes to recruiting out of St. Johns here locally that went to Maryland. And tore his ACL, not once, but twice. He's transferring

to Tennessee. So I hope he gets a chance, you know, down there. Does he have to sit out a year? Probably not with the new coach, right? I think he probably would. He is going to sit out the 2019 season. I was going to say even if it wasn't, it would probably make sense for him.

And boy, he's probably going to get a medical red shirt. He'll have a lot of eligibility. He says he's got two seasons of eligibility left and possibly three. I was going to say three with the medical. If they appeal to the NCAA about a medical red shirt. To be honest with you, I was excited about Kassim Hill. His uncle was a referee. that I used to run into all the time as a coach for many years,

especially over at High Point in various areas around town and in PG County with one of the teams that I coached. And I loved his uncle. He was one of the greatest guys and was an excellent referee and a big-time high school referee. And he would always tell me, like, you know, going back years before Qasim even became his start, St. John's, I got a nephew, he's going to be a college quarterback.

And then when he committed to Maryland, I was so excited. So I followed the Kasim Hill St. John's thing. And I just never thought he was a good enough thrower of the football. They had to really, he was fine play action. He was fine as a boot quarterback. But on third down and 10, when he had to throw and make a throw, that was not really his strength. It isn't for a lot of college quarterbacks.

He had great mobility, but after two ACLs, we don't know what that'll look like. but I'm certainly rooting for Kasim Hill, who will end up at Tennessee, you know, in a big time program in the SEC with, you know, a chance that if he ends up starting one of those years and playing well, he'll get noticed. You know, he will get noticed. So anyway, you know, you've got a lot of announcements on the quarterbacks. UCF, he's, you know, incredible quarterback situations here in offensive situations. They're going to start Brandon Wimbush, the Notre Dame transfer.

That got announced the other day. There were a couple of others that I saw. Jalen Hertz officially got announced. Yeah, of course. I mean, Jalen Hertz wasn't going to Oklahoma without starting. Of course. But, I mean, that's what a lot of these announcements are. Most of them weren't real competition.

It was just, all right, we're officially announcing this guy who we knew was going to be a quarterback is the quarterback. It's going to be a really good college football season. The part of the college football season upcoming that you just don't like, I think, is just the predictable nature of. of who's going to end up in the playoff. Like it's almost a lock that Clemson and Alabama, it feels like it now every year, are going to be there.

I mean, you know, what's different about this year? What will change Clemson, Bama, for what would it be, a sixth straight season, you know, in the playoffs or championship, fifth or six, whatever it is at this point? But my God, I mean, the talent that these teams have, you know, from Trevor Lawrence and Travis Aten,

you know, offensively for Clemson to Tua, and Jerry Judy at Alabama. I mean, you're talking about right there four Heisman candidates, you know, on offense. You just have a lot of explosiveness. Clemson's number one going into this year. This may be Dabo's best team, you know, coming off the national championship.

Could be his best team. They ended up being the consensus number one in both polls, Bama 2, Georgia 3, Oklahoma, and Ohio State 4 or 5. And, you know, right now you would bet it's Clemson, Bama, and then between Georgia Oklahoma and Ohio State, at least one of those. And then I'm hoping for somebody new. I was going to say, if you want to say Big Ten champion instead of Ohio State, but yes, that if you want to believe in Michigan a little bit. Yeah. But.

I mean, if it's Clemson, Bam, Ohio State, and then you get a second SEC team, I'd like it to be Florida. I'd like it to be somebody new. Or LSU. How many playoff games has LSU played? Have they played in it? I don't know. I'm just trying to think. Yeah, that's a very good question.

Off the top of my head, I don't think they have. I mean, they are probably out of the teams. I mean, Notre Dame's been in a playoff game. Florida State's been in it. Oregon's been in it. Auburn's been in it. I'm talking about since we've gone to the 14th playoff. LSU would probably be the biggest name program not to have played in the playoff if that's true.

How many years are we in? Five. This will be the sixth year. So we're five years in. Yeah. And no LSU, right? No LSU. Oregon was in one of them, right?

Yeah, Oregon was in the first one. You had the first one Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State. All right, because you ended up with Ohio State beating Oregon in the title game. When Ohio State really shocked Alabama with Cardell Jones. Yeah, I mean, it's very much, you know, Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, Florida State, Michigan State, Notre Dame. Oh, that's right. Michigan State made it the year. They beat Iowa in the Big Ten title game. And that was a good team, but they got walloped by Bama.

And Washington got it one year. Washington got beat by Alabama pretty good, too. The game, the game of the playoff era was the game between Georgia and Oklahoma a couple of years ago. Yeah. The one that went 50-something to 40-something in an overtime or whatever. 54, 48, two overtimes. Two overtimes. That game was sick. Remember, Oklahoma jumped out to a big lead and then Georgia came back and,

It was an awesome game. I just remember having Georgia for the limit in that game, in that particular game. That Ohio State Alabama game the first year, the 42-35 game. It was incredible. That was the Cardell Jones game. Exactly. I mean, and Ohio State was the four-seed. That was the year, the first year of the playoff was when they got in and TCU didn't.

And that was the big controversy. You remember TCU, you know, and that was my son's freshman or sophomore year at TCU. and I remember him saying that everybody down there felt they got robbed and they were going with the big name over the non-markey football school. But TCU, Baylor was in it too that year. Baylor had a legitimate shot to make the playoff that year as well. I'd love to see some new blood in the playoff this year, definitely. You got some real stars in college football this year.

The quarterback position with Lawrence and Tua and Herbert, who, by the way, somebody mentioned the other day, right now is essentially the number one quarterback projected in next year's draft. It's not Tua. It's Herbert from Oregon. Plus, you've got the guy from Texas, Sam Ealinger, who had a decent year. A lot of people like Texas. You've got a defensive back like Grant Delpit at LSU who's going to be a star already is. You've got some transfers like Jalen Hertz to Oklahoma, Justin Fields to Ohio State that are going to be really interesting to watch this. year. You've got some new coach situations out there. It'll be cool to see less miles back in

college football. He's at Kansas. And, you know, I just, I love Saturdays as much as I love Sundays have always felt that way. You know, we'll have some predictions more before the next, you know, before the full, you know, first weekend of college football season. I'm excited about Maryland in Locksley. I don't know how good they're going to be this year. You know, they're going to be young. It's a new system. But, you know, it's going to be really interesting because Mike Locksley is going to get players to College Park. They're going to have talent at Maryland here over the next few years. And they actually have had it in the last few years. And so it'll be interesting to see if he can bring Maryland football, you know, back to, you know, where it was best recently. And that would have been the Ralph Regian era. You know, where Ralph went to 10 bowl games. One seven of them. I'm sorry, went to seven bowl games in 10 years, won five of them. And that's really, I think, what Maryland football can and should be.

Even in the Big Ten, you know, they should be going to bowl games pretty much, you know, three out of four years. And, you know, in the Big Ten, it would be awesome if one out of every five years they were actually in contention for the Big Ten title game. Hard to do it in the division that they are in the Big Ten with Ohio State and Michigan and Michigan State and Penn State. Anyway, one last thing, actually, because I know that you actually bet on this game already early.

I was watching ESPN yesterday. I forget which show it was, but Lewis Riddick was on the show, and he made a comment that I just totally agreed with, and it's something that is completely just random when it comes to NFL talk here, but I'm going to mention it because he said, about Colts backup quarterback Jacoby Brissette. He said, Brissette is a starting caliber winning quarterback.

I hope he gets the chance to show it for reasons other than because of an Andrew Luck injury. And so if you don't know this, Luck's injured right now, and he's questionable to start the regular season when, by the way, the Colts open up in Los Angeles against the Chargers and are three-point underdogs. And Aaron played this game like a week of. ago telling me luck's not going to play. I'm going to hedge on luck not playing and play the Chargers minus three. Anyway, when Riddick said that, and I happened to be watching it, I just said, God, I totally agree with that. Whatever it is about Jacoby Brissette, going back to his

days at NC State, I have loved him as a quarterback, and I've always sort of thought, this dude is an NFL quarterback. He's big, he's got the size, he's got the, he's got the, he's got the arm. He's got some great mobility and great feel. And, you know, he had the opportunity in 2017 when luck was hurt to play a lot. Yes. But they had a terrible team around him. The offensive line was horrendous. So he did not have great results. But anyway, when Riddick said that yesterday, I thought, you know, he's going to get a shot next year. He's going to be an unrestricted free agent. And I would bet you that in part because Bill Belichick liked Berset, remember, he was in New England, that and now that you know you get Indianapolis that he's been there for a couple of years

and maybe he'll get an opportunity to start some games and play well this year. But I'm just going to make a prediction and basically saddle up next to Riddick's prediction. I think Jacoby Brissette is going to get a chance to start in the NFL next year as an unrestricted free agent. I don't know what it is about him. I've always liked him. And by the way, just as an aside, I checked the line this morning still minus three. I'm seeing four on my book. Oh, you are sing four?

Yeah. Well, maybe it went up today. Maybe there's new news on luck. But I don't think it's going to change dramatically. It'll change a little bit because... I could see it getting up to, let's say, five or six if luck officially doesn't play. If he does, you should middle the game. You should come back hard Colts plus five because Brissette will be good enough to keep them competitive.

All right. On Monday, I think we'll have Chris Cooley on. We'll get his thoughts on this pre-season. season game from last night as we, you know, wind our way, wind our way towards the regular season. We're 16 games and counting. God, next week's preseason game will be dreadful. 16 days away from Philadelphia. Have a great weekend, everybody.