The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins Lose Game and Smith

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

Kevin recaps the Skins' 23-21 loss to Houston, the loss of Alex Smith, and the chances with Colt McCoy moving forward. NBC Sports Washington's JP Finlay joins the show, Kevin goes Around the NFL, and then recaps the Maryland-Ohio State thriller as well as the Wizards painful weekend on Weekend DVR. <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. I'm here. Aaron's here. This show's presented by Window Nation. There are games in which you sit back as a fan and you watch them and they're pretty easy to go through and identify why they won or why they lost. Then there are games where you have pages and pages and pages when you do what I do and what I do and what I. Others like me do, of notes, Aaron. That game had just about everything, including a really, really awful injury to Alex Smith, a season-ender for him, and we'll go through all of that. But it was a 23 to 21 loss to Houston at FedEx Field. They fall to 6 and 4. They've got two home games left, four on the road, including Thursday, 430 East. Eastern in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day a game for first place after the Cowboys walked off the

Falcons with a field goal at the gun to win 22 to 19. The season is not over. Philly lost yesterday. They look lost. Then again, at this point in the NFC, there may be no reason for anybody to get very excited about any playoff game because New Orleans looks so head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd. But let's get to Redskins, Texans, the good, bad, and a lot more, the game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, there was some good in this game.

And then there was a lot of bad from this game, things I didn't like from the game. And then there were a lot of other, a ton of other in this game. It was quite a football game yesterday. Game-changing plays, season-changing plays, the injury to Alex Smith, lost opportunities. And again, at 6 and 4, what you have after yesterday is you just have a monster game on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas. Jerry Jones said tonight in their locker room, of course, he always is interviewed after a Cowboys win or loss. He said, we've won two in a row and now we get the chief rival of our franchise in one of the best rivalries in the sport on Thanksgiving Day. They're going to be ready. Colt McCoy, the last time he was down in Dallas, he won as their starting

quarterback in overtime back in 2014 in prime time on a Monday night game. All right, let me go through some of the good things from yesterday. The pass rush was exceptional, I thought, all day long. Deshawn Watson was really under siege, under duress most of the day. There were two injuries that he had along his offensive line, two guards that they lost. But this was a team that was giving up a ton of sacks coming in anyway, 30 in total before the game yesterday. The final number is actually, I don't even think we'll do the Redskins pass rush justice. It was three sacks, four to five quarterback hits.

But Watson was forced to bail on the pocket, throw quickly all day long. I thought the Redskins pass rush was exceptional most of the day. In fact, Preston Smith in particular, and I'll go to him next. he had a football game. He had the first down sack after Smith's second interception where the skins were in deep trouble there right before the end of the half, down 17-7 already, staring 24-7. Really, at that point, you're thinking no worse than 20 to 7

in that particular spot if you're the Texans. And Preston Smith gets a first down sack that ultimately knocks him into a field goal-only kind of situation. and their kicker missed a field goal at the end of the half. And the Redskins got to halftime 17 to 7 after a half that ended with a 1001-yard interception return. And then another interception deep in their own territory. And I thought Preston Smith was incredible there. Then he had the interception on what was really a poorly thrown screen pass from Watson in that spot.

But he made a great play. And remember, the team at that point was in a big. bit of shock. You know, they're down 17-7. They had just lost Alex Smith. He had been carted off the field on a stretcher. I thought that was the play that gave him a shot in the game, because that place was dead. There goes Alex Smith. Grusome injury. 17-7. Houston's got the ball back, and the Redskins hadn't really stopped them that much. They had stopped themselves, but the Redskins really hadn't stopped them. And Preston Smith comes up with that huge pick, which leads to Colt McCoy coming in the game,

a touchdown pass, and we got a ball game at 1714. I also thought that Preston Smith was called for a bogus roughing the passer penalty. I'll get to that in more detail. But Smith just seemed to be, at times yesterday, difficult to block. He was a big part of what turned out to be their best, really the best part. part of the Redskins game yesterday, which was their pass rush. On the good list, Colt McCoy. He came in and the offense looked like Jay wants it to look.

Quick reads, quick throws to wide open guys. It's not what we've seen consistently from Alex Smith this year. Now, I think Colt McCoy is a great backup. I've always talked about him being a guy that, a pinch for a few games fine, but not a 16 game starter. He never has been during his career. Now, maybe he has some sort of late career renaissance here, some sort of, you know, I mean, we've seen some of, we've seen guys like this before that you think are completely washed up, never really had the opportunity, and then late in their career, they get something.

Josh McCown. Josh McCown. Trent Green, you know, but Trent Green, you know, looked like a non-starter and looked like a career backup and then got the opportunity. I don't really think Colt McCoy's Trent Green. By the way, Trent Green's outstanding calling a game. Yes, yes. It's very good. He was on the call yesterday. Colt McCoy played well.

He may not be good enough to do what they need him to do, but my sense is the offense is going to look better and be better. They'll get more production than they were getting with Smith. It may not be a lot more, but it'll be more. And I'll take this moment to talk about Alex Smith because that was a gruesome injury, sad to see happen. You've all heard about it 33 years ago to the day when LT broke Thysman's leg in a Monday night game at RFK Stadium. Ironically, the final score of that game, too, was 23 to 21. Redskins won that night with Jay Schrader coming in.

The other irony about the Alex Smith injury, and even before the interceptions, is I actually thought there for a quarter and a half that he was in the midst of one of his better games until the pick six. He looked more confident. I don't know that the numbers would bear it out, but there were a lot of drops. But Vernon Davis had two horrible drops. He was late on a few things like he's been all year long, the Mo Harris catch out of. bounds. He's got to get rid of that quickly. That's a big play. He wasn't totally consistent with his accuracy, which he hasn't been all year long, but he was making plays inside the pocket, outside the pocket, creating time in the pocket, some good throws, the crossers to Quinn

and to Harris and to Floyd and a couple of the doxin on the sideline, a couple of them to doxen, a few to Reed, even though he's still not in sync with Reed, as we saw in the interception, the pick six. The drive down 10-0 was a big drive that he led with confident throws and a big run too. I think the pick six was probably Alex's fault. Not a great throw. I'm not entirely sure. We'll get the answer, I'm sure, coming up. Jay Gruden was sort of unclear in his press conference about whose fault it was.

But it wasn't a great throw. Jay talked about, you know, Alex had some guy, had clowny and his, face a little bit and didn't make the best throw, but he also talked about Jordan not being exactly where he was supposed to be either. Cooley will come on this week. He'll explain it to us. The second interception wasn't a good one. His season comes to an end. He's the guy next year. I want to be clear on that. He is going to be the guy next year. I don't know about the length of time of recovery for this injury, but it's not an ACL. It's not in Achilles. I would imagine, you know, it's a broken leg. I mean, it's two breaks, but that, you know, you've got

plenty of time for that thing to heal up and for him to be ready when they get to next summer. Look, they gave him a four-year contract extension. He's back. You know, not a lot of people, not a lot of you are going to be thrilled about that based on what we saw this year. And Bruce Allen's going to have to deal with the consequences of that decision at some point, unless McCoy who he likes to somehow comes in and takes them on some sort of magical run. But Alex Smith's season is over, really with more questions about his future than answers. Now, back to McCoy. He knows the offense.

He's comfortable with what Jay wants, and he's a gamer. He's always been that. He's going to make some mistakes, and he's injury prone. But my gut is that the offense will be, at the very least, slightly, more productive than it was with Smith. I think we saw a guy that doesn't lack any confidence in McCoy. How about that first play? It's a Reed option keeper. Then the perfect throw to Jordan Reed for the touchdown. He had a naked boot on a fourth and one, had a quarterback draw. They had a backup. They had a backup. It was Trey Quinn, who was the backup. And Colt McCoy's running around there, taking some shots,

too. I thought he was very good coming off the bench, given the circumstances. Didn't love his decision to throw the deep ball to Doxon at the end. I'll get to that whole play because it could have been PI in more detail in a few minutes. But if he had caught it, the game would have ended. He needed to look for something over the middle in that 5 to 10 to 12 yard range so that they could get up, spike it, and have a legitimate shot at a field goal. On my good list, Gruden's pass scheme, I'm going to go back and look at this on the All-22 and we'll have Cooley on, but I'm telling you, Some games I look against good opponents, and Jay has schemed people open, man. He gets people open with his past design, even with an injured offensive line, facing a very good defense.

People were open. They were open for Alex, and you had big drops. Vernon Davis, a big drop on what would have been a huge play, would have set him up for a score after the turnover, after one of the turnovers, I believe. Yeah, after that first interception. I thought, and this is on my good list, I thought the pass pro was good again. I mean, it wasn't spectacular. They didn't keep their quarterbacks completely unscathed. Obviously, Alex Smith had a season-ending injury on a sack.

But I thought the pass protection for a second straight week, considering the circumstances along that offensive line, wasn't bad. Now, I'd like to know on the play that Knox Smith out for the year if he picked up that blitz because he has struggled at times this year to really recognize the blitz. I don't know that he knew where it was coming from, Jackson. I think he communicated something to Byron Marshall and maybe Byron Marshall completely blew it.

It was a 13-yard loss on a play that, that knocked them out of field goal range, or at least Jay decided to punt in that spot rather than kick a 54-yard field goal. More on that coming up in a few minutes as well. But I thought the pass pro was, for the most part, pretty good. I thought Trey Quinn looked good, right? In his first game, Mr. Irrelevant, he looked pretty good.

He missed a block on the first play of the game. That bubble screened to Jordan Reed, he didn't throw a good enough block and the play got blown up. Lastly, on my good list is, you know, they got some breaks again today. Two missed field goals in this game by the opponent. I think the Redskins now lead the league in opponent field goal percentage in terms of worst field goal percentage. That's four missed field goals against the Redskins in two weeks.

They had three turnovers in the game. They won the turnover battle again yesterday. Three to two. They had a plus one in the turnover battle. Now, some of those turnovers were forced. The Preston Smith pick was a good one. The called fumble on the Hopkins catch that he never had possession of, that they called a catch fumble, and then they, after review, had the call stand.

I think the skin's got a bit of a break there. He never caught it. Now, what could have happened is when he, fell to the ground, perhaps the ball didn't hit the ground, and then there was a tussle for it, and maybe it was an interception. It could have been an interception, and that's about it also could have been a simultaneous possession, which would have gone to Houston. But their ruling on the field stood, I didn't think that was the right call there. So a bit of a break there, too, for the Redskins. But look, three turnovers, almost four, the sack by Carrigan and

Sweringer that forced the fumble. Houston recovered, two more missed field goals. Both of them makeable too. It wasn't like they were super long, 44 and 45 yards out. I also thought that the Redskins were the beneficiary of some questionable play calling by Houston. They had the Redskins first and goal at their six yard line, up 17 to 14. They're averaging five yards per carry running the football and they threw it three straight three straight times. There was a sack in there on second. down and they ended up kicking a field goal for a 20 to 14 lead. All right, let's go to the list of bad things, things I did not like from the game.

Well, the turnovers. You know, the pick six is a real backbreaker. The game doesn't end on the pick six. I mean, I want to, I want everybody to understand this because there are a lot of you that just watch the Redskins and don't watch the rest of the league. There are a lot of quarterbacks that throw interceptions in this league. There are a lot of quarterbacks that throw red zone interceptions in this league. And there are teams that overcome them.

That was a backbreaking play in the moment. Instead of potentially taking a 14 to 10 lead, they're down 17.7. I understand that. You know, it's either a 14-point swing. Worst case, it's a 10-point swing against them. The throw wasn't good. The miscommunication on the play may have existed. The second interception didn't give Houston points because of the Preston Smith's sack

and then the missed field goal at the end of the half. That was not a good throw by Alex Smith. He had done a good job of protecting the ball all year long, not yesterday. They almost had a few more turnovers. Peterson fumbled on a run, and Bergstrom somehow came up with it. So the number one thing on the list of not good from yesterday were the two turnovers. The rush defense was not good for a third consecutive week. The Redskins appeared to have a lights-out rush defense,

especially after that game against Dallas at home. But for three weeks in a row now, it's been a problem. The Texans running backs in the game yesterday averaged nearly five yards per carry. Last week, Tampa ran it pretty well, and Atlanta rolled up a huge day on the ground against the Redskins two weeks ago, averaging over six yards a carry in that game. So the rush defense has taken a significant step back here in recent weeks. Their rush offense wasn't good yesterday.

Their best runners were their quarterbacks yesterday. Alex Smith, four carries, 33 yards. McCoy, five carries, 35 yards. Adrian Peterson didn't seem to have much room, except on the touchdown runs where he made a couple of really good jump cuts, bounced him out outside. He went for 16 carries, 51 yards, 3.2 yards per carry. That's not great. On the things I didn't like list, Vernon Davis. Two drops. Look, that guy, Hal, the safety, knocked the first one out. But Davis should have secured it before the knockout. That was a good throw from Alex Smith.

And again, I thought Alex Smith before the pick six, before the two interceptions, was having one of his better games. games. But that throw was on the money. Davis should have secured it, got knocked out, and then after the interception by Foster, that drop by Vernon Davis was a bad one. That puts him in field goal range immediately. And who knows, maybe he's able to break a tackle and take that one to the house. But that's a bad drop right there by Vernon Davis. So he's on the list. Now let me get to the things that are going to take me a little bit of time on the things that I didn't like list. I'm going to start with Gruden and then we'll get to the officiating. Jay Gruden had a dreadful day.

Other than scheming people open, which he does so well with his pass offense. But his decision making, the team's decision making in managing the game and managing the clock was dreadful throughout. I'm going to start with this. and it was the play after Alex Smith got sacked and got knocked out of the game. They took a sack, he got carted off the field, it was fourth down, and the Redskins were down 17 to 7, and had the ball up to Houston 37-yard line. Jay decided to punt it in that spot. Now, the reason I'm putting this on the list of things I didn't like is because he tried a 63-yarder

in the other direction, which I don't know if it was with the wind or without the wind. I don't know that the wind was that much of an issue. It may have been at times. But if you're going to kick a 63-yarder where your guy says he's okay with the 63-yarder, what's wrong with the 54-yarder, down 17-7? I also thought that the play right before that the field goal for Houston, that gave him the lead. It was third and 20. All right. So it's third and 20, and it's 2120 Redskins,

and the Redskins play deep coverage, super deep, and they go super soft, and they give up an 11-yard play that allows Houston to put the field goal team out there, and the guy drills a 54-yard field goal for the lead. Look, you're playing with urgency at that point. You've got to have the goal of not letting you. them score. You can't give up soft throw underneath for field goal range. They dropped way too deep, played it far too soft. I don't like the strategy, especially with how well they had been playing defense in passing situations with pass rush, et cetera. They gave up the game winner right

there on third and 20. Bad decision. Maybe it's a Minuski decision, but Gruden's got to say in that spot. We can't give up a chunk play here short of the sticks, but puts them in field goal range. Did not like that at all. All right. Let me get to the worst part, which was the end. Jay Gruden didn't know what to do on defense with his timeouts when Houston had the ball with a 23 to 21 lead approaching the two-minute warning. I'll go through this for all of you that didn't understand it, on Twitter and believed Jay that Jay thought he was doing it right. He didn't do it right. You got to take those timeouts before the two-minute warning on defense.

You save time by doing that. It's not very difficult, math. If you wait until after the two-minute warning to take them, you're going to lose time. Where he should have definitively, no debate, taken a timeout, is at the 216 mark before the third down and five at the Redskins 37-yard line. In that particular spot, if he takes that time out, okay, if he takes that time out,

he's got one left, and let me tell you how it plays out. Third and five at the Washington 37, two minutes and 16 seconds left. Now, there was a defensive hold on the next play. The play took eight seconds. the clock stops on a penalty. Follow me here. So now it's first and 10 at the Redskins' 32-yard line with 208 left. And they've got one timeout left.

The first down play was no gain if they hit a timeout right there. Okay? The play took about four or five seconds. Now it's second and 10 before the two-minute warning. About 203 left. They've got no timeouts at this point. Miller gained three yards on that play. Now you get the two-minute warning.

Probably would have gone to about a minute 59 before third down in seven at the Redskins 29-yard line. All right, let me go through that again, very simply. If he calls the timeout with 216 left before the third and five, instead of letting the clock run down to the two-minute warning. They would have run the third and five. It was an eight second play. There was a defensive hold. First and ten now. Clock stopped, 208 left. They got no gain on the next play. You use your last

time out there. There's 203 left. Follow me. The next play took about five seconds. You're just under the two-minute warning. Call it a minute 58, a minute 59, and now they've got third and seven. third and seven, and they run that play, and instead of getting the ball back with 52 seconds after they missed that field goal, you would have gotten it back with a minute 10 left in the game. So somewhere roughly in the neighborhood of about 16, 17, 18, 19 seconds, somewhere in that range, depending exactly on how long the field goal play took. The field goal play took about three or four seconds, maybe five. Do you think they could have used, Aaron, those 16, 17, 18 seconds on that final drive?

You mean they had a chance to maybe throw it across the middle another time instead of having to kick a super long field goal? By not calling the timeouts before the two-minute warning, he cost himself at least another play or two. probably wouldn't have had to clock the ball when they clocked the ball on that first down at the Houston 45-yard line, so you would have had an extra play, a legitimate play as well. These are the things, and I've said this about Jay Gruden since I figured it out after his first year, that he's not very good at. He costs his team at least a game, if not more than that, a year. And yesterday was the game.

cost his team by not knowing how to manage the clock and how to call timeouts before the two-minute warning. He cost his team a chance to get into field goal range to have a field goal attempt, a legitimate field goal attempt, not a 63-yarder, but a legitimate attempt to kick a field goal to win the game 24 to 23. The last thing that Jay Gruden did is I don't know why you kick a 63-yarder with eight seconds to go when you passed on the 54 yard or earlier. He said that Hopkins told him that he could make it and that Adrian Peterson vouched for him. I don't even know what that means.

You know, Houston called a timeout. They had the offense on the field. So he clearly didn't know at 4th and 10 with 8 seconds to go what his field goal kickers range was. he had the offense out there, and then Houston called a timeout to set up their defense, and at that point, apparently Hopkins said, hey, coach, I can make this, and Adrian Peterson vouched for him. So he sent him out there for a kick that was six, seven, eight yards short. He did use his timeout on defense at the end of the first half in the correct way,

but they didn't do anything with it when they got the ball back at the end of the first half. look, it was not a good finish for Jay Gruden yesterday. Cost his team a legitimate shot to have more plays and more time at the end of the game. Lastly, on my things I didn't like list, the officiating in this particular game was poor. And unfortunately for the Redskins, they took the brunt of it. Let me go through a few of them. The fumble on the Hopkins catch, which I've already referenced,

I just, that wasn't a fumble. That wasn't a catch. It may have been an interception. It may have been a simultaneous possession catch for Houston, but he never had possession of the ball, so it couldn't have been catch fumble. Gene Sterator, who is on the CBS broadcast, who is also an exceptional college basketball referee.

He was your Super Bowl referee, I believe, last year. And he retired as an NFL. referee. Did he retire also as a basketball referee? I don't know if he did. I'm not sure about that one. He didn't like the decision by New York by Al Riveron. He thought it was poor. He didn't see a catch and a fumble. I don't think anybody saw a catch and a fumble. Now, what they did with it was they ruled that the call on the field stood. I think the call on the field should have been we did not see a catch. What we did see was an interception. I think, if they wanted to call it that. I was going to say, I don't think the problem was

they saw it was clearly not a fumble, but then they had no idea what happened. They didn't know if the ball hit the ground. They didn't know if someone intercepted it. All they knew is it wasn't a fumble. And since they couldn't go past there, they just said, they just threw their hands up in the air and said, it stands. I think the Preston Smith roughing the passer call, A, it wasn't late. A, B, it wasn't a hit to the head or neck. and see it wasn't a hit too low. I mean, God, you got to worry about all these things when you're rushing a quarterback.

Can't hit him too high, can't hit him too low, and then you can't come down with your full weight on top of the quarterback. And I don't think that Preston Smith did. He actually tried to let up after the hit. I thought it was a terrible call. On that play, Zach Brown had a pick six right in his hands and dropped it.

All right, let's get to the third and five. hold on Norman, the one in which prior to that play, there should have been a timeout with 216 left, and that play should have happened to two minutes and 16 seconds instead of being the first play after the two-minute warning. It's just a terrible call. There's no meaningful contact, and Watson's already scrambling at the point where there was minimal contact. It's just an absolutely unacceptable call, and it costs the Redskins dearly, cost them their best chance to win the game at the end. Houston attempts a field goal from 51 yards in that spot. He missed the next one from 45 yards. Maybe they go for it on fourth and two after the three-yard

scramble, but it's a horrendous call. You cannot make that call in any situation, let alone that one. If you're going to make that call, then you have to call the pass interference on Josh Doxon at the end. What a complete butcher. of the final two minutes by the officiating crew and lead referee Alex Kemp. It was incompetent. It was beastly officiating on the part of that crew. He was lost all day long, this Alex Kemp. Remember on the field goal that Houston made, there was an off-sides call,

and he basically said it's going to be a Houston, you know, fourth down repeat. Did you miss the field goal that they made, dude? He even said something funny. he's like, my bad, or something along those lines after. It was a bad day. It costs the skins more than the Texans. It's not sour grapes. The skins did a lot of stuff to themselves before the end of the game,

where they didn't deserve necessarily the chance to win the game. But that holding call on Josh Norman is an absurd call. Absurd. And then if you're going to call that, Josh Doxon is interfered with then. You kind of throw the flag because there's contact with the ball in the air. All right, a few other things. If you notice yesterday that the Redskins on a lot of third downs decided they wanted to keep Houston's personnel on the field and go hurry up on third downs. Didn't work out a lot for them.

They had two, if not three sacks on those third downs where they went hurry up. The Floyd catch early in the game on the sideline that he ended up losing possession of out of bounds had both feet in, then apparently didn't finish the or didn't complete the catch. I'm glad that Jay didn't challenge that play. It was getting overturned. I didn't think it would have gotten overturned,

although he did take a third step with possession of the ball. Yeah, but he was going down and that's what they probably would have looked at. The Hopkins touchdown catch in this game was a great catch. He is such a good wide receiver. That is an incredible two-handed snag on a bullet of a pass that Norman was laid on on the play, but still he's closing, and Watson puts that thing on the money with steam, and somehow he just catches it without effort.

Hey, Tressway, who's been a significant part of the season so far for the Redskins, had his worst day of the year and had a really bad punt on a key possession, their next to last offensive drive that they were forced to punt on. That gave Houston great field position there for that last stretch. The skins were three for four in the Red Zone yesterday. Of course, the one that they didn't complete. the touchdown on was a touchdown the other way. The skins right now, one of the things you've got to look at,

and I'll get the numbers on this, but yesterday in the game, they had another day where they just aren't getting enough yards per play. I think their yards per play yesterday, Aaron, I'm actually pulling it up right now. They're yards per play, 3.8 yards per play on the day. They've got to be close to the bottom of the league in yards per play. Now, maybe this will change a little bit with Colt.

I think the ball's going to get out quicker, and I think there are going to be some of those pitch-and-catch opportunities, especially against zone coverage. They are, by the way, 26th in yards per play. Yeah, it had to be. And probably after this week, it'll go even lower. on these alt uniforms can they get the helmets to match the uniforms can we figure that out because those helmets don't match the uniform is it me i it's a weird thing i i don't think they

can't change the helmets they're not allowed to well then get the uniform to match the helmet well that's yeah well that's not true because they've had the r helmet before well how long ago before I can't remember the last one. It was in recent years with all the helmet stuff that they, NFL dictated, you can only have one helmet. The crowd, you were there, had a lot of reports from a lot of friends. I did not go to the game yesterday that the crowd was very enthusiastic, still a very sparse in the club level and upper deck. You can see that on television. But I did love Josh Norman's comments at the end of the game.

He said, quote, what an atmosphere, right? You guys came out, you showed up in a big way, we can't be more proud and excited to be among you guys. I applaud you all for sure, close quote. In the game, I'm sure you caught this, Adrian Peterson passed Rigo for sole possession of sixth all time on the touchdown list. He's one behind Jim Brown now for fifth. The injury of the day was the one we've already referenced multiple times. The quarterback Alex Smith is done for the year. But John Allen was evaluated for concussion in the game.

I also think Haha Clinton Dix was during the game as well. Trent Williams was not active for the game. I'm thinking Thursday he will be. We'll ask J.P. Finley about that. Chris Thompson missed his third consecutive game with those injured ribs. They don't look like they're healing very quickly. they could really use Chris Thompson. Capri Bibbs was really a non-factor in the game yesterday. Here we go. I mean, you've got a game in week 11, week 12, 11th game for the Redskins

that is really in many ways potentially going to decide this division. Now, you know, Philly's four and six, they're two games back with two games against the Redskins, but the Cowboys right now, Now, the Eagles played the Saints, but the Eagles also just lost to the Cowboys, and the Eagles still have the Rams on the road. They've got the Texans at home. They've got to go to Dallas. So it's not crazy right now to say that this Thanksgiving Day game is for the Redskins, a game that could, for all intents and purposes, clinch the division. It's not going to clinch it mathematically. But if they were to win to go to seven and four, with the Cowboys falling to five and six.

And the Eagles playing the Giants this weekend, right? They played the Giants at home, and the Giants all the sudden, now they're starting to get it going offensively. What you were talking about? This was a team early in the year I liked, but whatever. They're what, three and seven now? Oh, I mean, they're out of it,

but they're a team that you knew would get it together towards the end of the season. I thought they would. And actually, you know, at three and seven, No, it's not completely crazy on the Giants. It is if the Redskins win Thursday, crazy. But if the Redskins lose to the Cowboys and both of those teams are six and five, and they beat the Eagles to go to four and seven, they're two back with five to go,

and they still play the Cowboys and the Redskins. Yeah. But I'm not going to count them as legitimate. Here's what you've got to know, is if somehow Colt McCoy is an eight-point underdog, and he was in Dallas the night that they won in overtime in 2014, I think a 9.5 or 10-point underdog in that game. Now, that was in the midst of a very good Dallas season, if you recall, in 2014.

But if the Redskins can somehow go to Dallas on Turkey Day and win, they would have a two-game mathematical lead over the Cowboys, but in essence it would be a three-game lead because they will have completed the sweep of the Cowboys. If the Cowboys win the game, you've got two six and five teams with the Redskins still having the Eagles twice, Jacksonville and Tennessee both on the road.

Jacksonville is starting to look done even though they played probably their best defensive game of the year and then gave it up at the end to the Steelers yesterday. and Tennessee got run out of the building by Indianapolis, and we mentioned, I think both of us were in agreement on this, that Indianapolis is starting to play well. But, and the Cowboys still have the Saints. So, you know, here's the opportunity for the Redskins here on Thanksgiving Day

really is to almost put the division on ice. Now, they would still have five games left. I understand that. But they'd probably at that point, point only need to win two of those games to win the division. All you have to win one against the Eagles. That's the thing. No, to your point, if they win on Thanksgiving Day, you said this last week that they could

potentially lose two to the Eagles? Well, the Eagles now at four and six, they're not, I mean, they're going to lose to the Rams. That's a seventh loss. So the Redskins at seven and four, yeah, I guess they, at that. that point they got to win. Yeah, one win against the Eagles would basically clinch it. That's all you would need. That's all you would need. And maybe you wouldn't even need that. Right. Big game Thursday. The season is still very much in play for them. I know that there seems to have been, you know, this feeling when Alex Smith went out and they lose this game when it was

winnable at the end and the coach mangles the clock as he's done in the past and people are upset about that and you send your field goal kicker out for a 63-yard field goal that doesn't come close with eight seconds to go, that there's some frustration there. But if they go to Dallas and they win, then they're looking at a division that's really theirs to lose at that point. You know, the other thing too, and I'll just throw this out there, the Redskins are very much in contention for the second wild card, or for a wild card. Or for a wild card. part spot, period. Carolina lost yesterday to Detroit. Atlanta lost to Dallas. Philly lost to New Orleans. Minnesota lost last night in Chicago. Green Bay lost Thursday night. You know, you've got a lot of stuff

going on where there are a lot of teams in the NFC right now in the playoff race. The lions at four and six aren't out of it. The Packers clearly aren't out of it. You know, you've got the Packers, the Panthers and the Seahawks are very much in it. The Cowboys now are very much in it as well. All right, let me tell you about Wind Donation. You hear that noise? It's your alarm going off at 4 a.m. For Black Friday shopping. Yuck. Wind Donation has an offer, though, that you can't refuse. And it'll keep you out of those long Black Friday lines. Free windows and televisions. Right now, get two free windows for every two you buy. Buy four. Get four, get four, free by six, get six free, there is no limit. Plus, zero percent financing for five full years.

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you know what, you're pretty much, you got it all figured out, and there's not a whole lot to it, and then you have games like yesterday, where it's just one thing after another, the twists and turns during the course of that game, and of course the injury and what it does to a season potentially, and then the intrigue about the new quarterback, and he looked pretty good, by the way, in relief, just your overall thoughts, and then I'll get to some specific questions, JP. But what's your big takeaway from yesterday?

One of the wildest games I've seen in a long time. I thought, I mean, I guess the biggest takeaway is, is in a way I was impressed with the Redskins. You know, we've all talked time and again about how there hasn't been a lead change in any of their games until that Texans game. but even bigger than that, in the three losses they had prior, two of them were absolute blowouts, and the Colts game, they were never competitive. I thought it said something about the team to fight back and get a few stops when they needed to.

They still did a good job generating turnovers. Obviously, you shouldn't lose to Houston at home. I wonder if Dustin Hopkins doesn't have a healthy groin and he's not kicking into such a fierce wind. You know, that kick probably went 57 yards or so, and obviously you needed kind of a miracle to get 63. Was it into a stiff wind? Yeah, I talked to a few of the guys afterwards in the locker room,

and Nick Sundberg, the long sniper, actually told me he said it was crazy when we were on the sideline. You know, the kickers and the holder and everybody, they're practicing the whole drive on the side. sideline. And he's like, the last snap I made on the sideline, it was still. And then as soon as we got out on the field, it was blowing right in our face. Hopkins took the high road.

He wouldn't make any excuses. He said he just had to get it there and he didn't get it there. And you can't be overly impressed in a loss. They lost the game that I think they could have won. But I think the skin showed a little something. I agree with you. I think Colt looked pretty good out there. I think this offense is going to move the ball better.

Now, with that, might be some turnovers. Things are going to look different than they did with Alex. But the craziest part, Kevin, and I wrote about this for NBC Sports, Washington, there's so many skin fans are now so focused on what happens in 2019 and is the team going to draft a quarterback and salary cap implications and all this stuff. And to me, what is, there are six very important games left.

You've got four division games left. The focus needs to remain on 2018 and trying to get into the playoffs. Yeah, I've gotten a lot of that too since the game ended. And I'm like, wait a minute, you got a game against the Cowboys for, you know, another two-game lead in the division over them. Right. And not only would it be a two-game lead, it would essentially, for all intents and purposes, be a three-game lead over them.

because they've already, that would complete the sweep. So you still have a division right there for the taking, regardless of what you think, you know, happened yesterday at FedEx Field. I want to go back to something that you said, though, because if there was a stiff wind, I'm wondering why he kicked it, A, B, why he passed on the 54-yarder that they would have had on the play after. Alex Smith got injured going in the other direction. If the wind was going in that direction,

why would he pass on a 54-yarder and punt it and then kick a 63-yarder into the wind? It doesn't make any sense to me. Help me out. The wind was swirling, is what those guys said. It was kind of coming in. The end zone they were kicking, it was coming in from there and then along the sideline. So I don't know that it gave you a real directional boost

going the other way. But you lost me on kicking on the play. Well, when Smith took the sack, the play that broke his leg, it was at the 37-yard line of Houston, and Jay punted it. After he got carted off the field, he punted the ball there. But based on what you're telling me, and let me just tell you, the announcers on television didn't tell you anything about wind all day. and I actually had heard that it was not that much at any given point during the game,

but Jay punted it instead of kicking a 54-yard field goal down 17-7 in that spot. You know, I don't know. After the cart came out there, there was so much going on for us trying to write. Yeah, I'm sure. And maybe for him too. Some capacity for Gruden as well, you know. And they have been doing a good job of playing field positions and trespassing guys deep. but I don't know.

And it's interesting, too, because Hopkins wanted to dismiss any conversation about the wind with the kick late. And whereas Sundberg and Tress would kind of talk about it, when you're the kicker, you want to just own that you didn't get it there. I also, regardless, I think it was the right call to kick. I don't think the odds of the Hail Mary working and certainly the odds of getting a 10-yard pickup and getting out of bounds, I think you try to go for that there. I was okay with that decision at the end. I mean, to a certain degree, if the kicker tells you he can get it there, and then he made the comment Gruden did in the post-game press conference

that Adrian Peterson vouched for him. I didn't really catch that connection. Maybe you did. But if there was confidence that he could get it 63 yards, well, yeah, because the fourth and 10 to the sideline to pick it up and get out of bounds, you know, they're not giving you that play. That's a difficult play to get in that particular spot. But if they thought it was, you know, a 10 or 20 percent, you know, possibility or probability, I think you've got to run a play there. But did you get that connection

with Adrian Peterson? He mentioned Adrian vouched for him, he said. I did not. And frankly, I think Hopkins has the leg. Me too. That kick. Or has had it. Yeah, if he's helping. Right. I don't know that he had it.

But, you know, and I'm guessing we're going to get to this. But I think they should have called time out before the two-minute warning and things should have kind of come. I've already gone through that. Yeah. All right. I know that's top of my. I know you go nuts about the clock stuff. I just think that's where they probably left a real opportunity on the field.

And, you know, I said this on our podcast. my dude rich tannler was absolutely crazy about teams overly relying on spiking the ball to kill the clock and you should have two plays called and have that play ready and you wonder if it's not fourth and 10 on that on that long kick if it was third down and they maybe could have just thrown it away if they had nothing right away or that gives them an opportunity people always just focus on a clock in late game situations, whereas having an extra down can be a big help as well. Yeah, I mean, Rich, it was 100% right about that. He used to go nuts about that. As he was about a lot of things. Yeah, I mean, Gruden, I mean, I've said this before, you know,

every one of his seasons here, the last couple of years that he's going to cost you a game a year, and he cost him a chance to win the game there by not knowing how to call timeouts before the two-minute warning. them probably 18, 19 seconds in potential clock time, which would have been the difference there potentially. You wouldn't have had to spike it on one of those plays. You would have had an extra down. You would have had extra time. And he just didn't know what he was doing. Back to call. And add to that, though, Kevin, the hold call on Norman on that third down cost them 20, 30 seconds as well, just because they were able to run another, you know, another play. And then eventually the guy

misses the kick, but still, that was a dagger penalty. Oh, the officiating in this game was really brutal. I mean, it was really a tough one to swallow as a fan of this team because that was a horrendous call, just an absolute horrendous call. And, you know, I've already gone through this and gotten pretty emotional going through it, but if you're going to have the stones to flag that, then you better flag it on the other end because Doxon took some contact there on that deep shot. So I mean, I don't personally think it should have been called pass interference if all things are equal.

But if you're going to call it the other way on that other call, that one, you've got to throw the flag too. And by the way, that also hurt them there, JP, because taking that deep shot in that spot, I'll tell you what, if he catches it, it's game over. because the clock would have run out. It was too far down the field. The play took too long. He needed to go over the middle on that play for eight to 10 yards, spike it and get Hopkins out there to kick it. We're talking to-

And that's some of the stuff where you'll see Colt's willingness to take shots where Alex didn't isn't always going to be the right answer either. And I know fans got so perhaps fed up with Alex's playing in safe mentality, but there's little things like that that kind of go unnoticed. Let's get back to Colt McCoy because I think you sensed what I did. And I think a lot of fans sensed this as well. And that is immediately the offense looked different to me. It was quick throws.

The quick game that Jay loves, you know, the easy pitch and catch stuff, he comes out on that second drive and he's hitting on that. and Colt knows that offense cold. And, you know, he's been in it now since 2014, since Jay got here. So there's huge advantages in that. But you mentioned that some of the players in the locker room are very confident. Who did you talk to? And what did they say specifically?

I mean, really, to a man, I think you'd get the same reaction. But I talked to Adrian Peterson, and he said he's got all the faith in Colt. I talked to a couple different offensive linemen. And then I talked to Trey Quinn. And he's like, I've known Colt, you know, kind of since he was a young man, since he was a kid, a high school kid, and knows that he can get it done. But for me, you just, two things you can point to. What Gruden said after the game about Colt, and I think Gruden's comments,

I'm not sure how much of this you heard, but he walked into the locker room and was basically like, guys, we got Dallas on Thursday. say that's the focus. Let's go win that game. He wasn't looking back at all. And a lot of times when you see a starting quarterback go down like that, there is some thought in the organization, man, we're finished, we're through. And there's none of that thought here. And you brought up 2014.

If you remember late that season, the starting QB job was Colt's job. And then he hurt his neck late in the year. And that's what got Kirk back in. Kirk had been vensed for Colt already. Well, got RG3 back in. Right, and then back to Kirk. But also earlier in January of 2018, before anybody knew what was going to happen with Kirk,

I reported this. There were multiple people in the Redskins front office coaching staff that were willing to go into the season with Colt. And maybe you bring in another veteran to compete with him in training camp, But the organization truly believes that Colt McCoy can get this done. Now, there's legitimate questions about if he can do it over the course of 16 games. Colt has gotten injured in his history. But, you know, I'm looking for six right now.

And I think Colt can move the ball in an offense he knows very well. I tend to agree with you. And you just brought something up and it made me think of something. I think we both know that Jay Gruden, And in the way he walked into that press conference, and I did, I watched it and went back and watched it on Redskins.com. And I would just, by the way, I'd like to register just one complaint with you, if I may, about your network. I wish you guys would carry the entire press conference. You guys bail out of it.

It's like, look, I can't wait to hear Trevor and be Mitch and the gang, but I want to hear, you know, Gruden start to finish. But anyway, I went back and watched the whole thing on Redskins.com, and you nailed it. He walked into that thing. He's upset. They're all upset about Alex Smith. I'm not suggesting that they're not. Alex Smith is a great guy, and he is a leader, but I sort of sensed with Jay Gruden that I know he's always liked him, JP. So do you. I mean, we both know he's always liked Colt. I'm not even sure if the decision were solely his. at the end of last year and during this offseason, he wouldn't have just said,

let's go spend the money elsewhere. Colt's going to be just fine. And I think that on some level, when they get through the shock of losing Alex Smith, I think Gruden believes he's got something up his sleeve the rest of the way. I agree with you. And, I mean, we can go back and really look at it,

but Jay didn't make that trade for Alex. He found out about it after the fact. Jesus God. I mean, not that we're going back all the way to that. No, you're right. It's a Bruce Allen deal. Doug didn't even know about it. That said, Jay was happy to get Alex, but I think there have been some points of frustration

among the coaching staff of not getting everything that's there this year with the offense. I mean, just for me, just look at the numbers. This offense has produced 4,000-yard passers every year Jay Gruden's. been here. And that includes, if you add up all three quarterbacks in 2014, the numbers were nowhere close to that. And they were able to win games, so it wasn't that big of the deal. But I think you'll see with Colt, the numbers are going to look better. A couple of concern areas right now for me. All of a sudden, the rush defense that was pretty dominant and really sort of, yeah, sort of reached this top level where it was borderline elite

after they shut down Zeke Elliott. They've now been run on three consecutive weeks, and they, if not for the quarterbacks yesterday, it was a rough day for Adrian Peterson at 3.2 yards per carry. So running the ball and stopping the run, because you know what? Even with the pick six, JP and the other interception, they won the turnover battle yesterday again.

They won it. Which is crazy. But they didn't, but they couldn't stop. the run and they couldn't run the football really except for the quarterbacks who did a nice job running the ball. Kind of two things, right? I think stopping the run has to be top of mind for this Redskins team going to Dallas, especially. Zeke had, I think, 200 total yards in their win against Atlanta. You know, 120 on the ground. Zeeke has done very well against the Redskins. But I'm going to give, I'm going to put a little asterisk on the last couple games because I really think

Atlanta, Tampa, Houston, Greg Minnowski's team has focused on not giving up big plays and allowing some underneath stuff. And I think in turn, they've allowed probably more rush yards than they'd like. And largely that it didn't work against Julio, but against Mike Evans and then against Hopkins today, there were never those big backbreaking plays. I think against Dallas, the scheme is not like that because Dak Prescott's not a guy that beat you that way. they just traded for Mari Cooper, but that hasn't really been the case with Dallas. And I think the scheme changes to focus on the run again and what should be and what certainly we thought the first half of this season playing to the Redskins defensive strength.

As far as their ability to run the football, I think on some level you're seeing the reality of Tony Bergstrom, Jonathan Cooper, Ty and Seckier. You know, it's a rebuild offensive line. They're kind of learning on the fly. I would expect Trent Williams plays Thursday in Dallas. I would expect that helps a lot in the run game. But, yeah, you know, what do you have? He had 52 yards, 3.2 yards per carry.

That's not enough of what they want to do. Yeah, it was 51 on 16 carries. Yeah. And it just wasn't, there wasn't sort of a real. legitimate running back threat. You know, some of the read option keepers, some of the scrambles, the cold had that QB draw. Those were the plays that generated the rushing yardage on the day.

You just said something, and it just left me, which it often does now, as you get to a certain point at a certain hour. But, oh, what I was going to say is that the irony about the last two weeks with the offensive line is I actually think while they haven't run the ball very effectively, that they've actually protected fairly well. I mean, you know, Alex Smith. It's against Watt and Clownies. Yeah.

Today you thought it might be a bloodbats. Well, I guess that's kind of a rude thing to say considering what happened. Right. You know what I meant. We know you didn't mean it, yes. Right. The other thing to consider is, are they really going to keep carrying all these running backs? I'm a little surprised to see kind of what the long-term plan is.

I think clearly they want to have a traditional first and second down running back behind Adrian Peterson, and that's why Simaji stays on the roster. I think that's right, but I was surprised, too, when they activated Marshall and you had all those running backs up with some of the needs that they have. And now, and we'll finish up with this, now they've got the need to bring in a quarterback to back up Colt McCoy. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, Aaron. and I forget if I mentioned this earlier,

but Trey Quinn was the actual backup yesterday had Colt McCoy gone down, and he was running around there. He could have taken a couple of shots. But do you have any sense at this point, JP, who they'll bring in, and is there any sort of leading contender, any connect the dots guy out there? It is crazy how much they were running Colt when they had no other quarterback. You know, you got to go to Trey Quinn. You keep calling your backup quarterback.

number. But, you know, Schaefter reported a bunch of names, Mark Sanchez, E.J. Manuel, guys like that. Mark Sanchez? Sanchez has a ton of connections to this team. But he's not on a roster. He's not on a roster last year. Wasn't he the, he was the backup. Somewhere, you're right. Somewhere with a young quarterback last year. I can't remember who it was right now. I think, I think, young QB spoke really highly. He was on the Bears last year.

With Trebisky. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Oster. Saving the dick. That's right. I don't know what they're going to do there.

Josh Johnson is another name. T.J. Yates. T.J. Yash. Josh Johnson. God, I didn't think he was, you know, anywhere near the league anymore. The names that are interesting to watch, I think will be Sam Bradford, Paxton Lynch.

Paxon Lynch was already in the building. this year. If you remember, they brought some guys in when Colt was dealing with that thumb injury, but remember, too, that the guys they were bringing in then was they had Alex, they had Colt, who was probably a week, needed a week off, two veterans, so maybe you have space for a young guy to develop. The situation is very, very different now. The organization would go for Bradford in a second if they think he is healthy enough to play. There are serious questions about his knee. You know, you're picking up a quarterback at Thanksgiving and the trade deadline's done.

Your options are going to be, you know, pretty bad, frankly. And I don't, I think fans just kind of have to make peace of that. Of course, there's going to be the Colin Kaepernick conversation. Mike Floreal reported that Kaepernick's not going to get a call from the Redskins and not to expect that. You know, I think Kaepernick, he hasn't been on the field in a while, but when he was last on the field, he produced in a way that the other names we're talking about have not. Actually, one last one. Is the injury that Alex Smith has, this, you know, broken tibia and broken fibula, is there a timeline that anybody's sort of made you aware of with respect to when he would be back and ready to go?

because I've heard different people say this could be, you know, at some point, you know, after next season begins. And I was thinking, well, it's not, we're not talking about Achilles, we're not talking about ACL, we're talking about a broken leg. I think it all depends. And I'm out of my element here, right? Like, I'm not a doc. But I think it all depends on if they're clean breaks or not. And I think if it's, because it's two bones, not one bone, it's two bones. and I think it depends on compound fractures or not

and getting that thing set and how quickly you can start on all that. And honestly, without no, I don't have enough knowledge to speak on it. I certainly agree with you, though. This isn't a blown-out knee that typically takes a year, 18 months. This is a broken bone is a broken bone.

You set it and you let it heal. So you'd think maybe this isn't something that would last into next year, but again, I don't know. Yeah. Well, he is 34 years old, and, you know, this is one of those things. I mean, he's been relatively healthy for the majority of his career. I lied again because I just had one last thought, and I don't know if you know the answer to this, but going back to the pick six that was a significant play in the game, they had plenty of chances to overcome that, including on that final drive.

to win the game. But was there any sense? I listened to Jay's answer, and I really didn't get a read from Jay's answer as to whether or not that was Jordan Reed or Alex Smith. You know, a lot of times you get a better answer from Jay on Monday once he's watched the film and not just kind of reacting. I'll be honest, I thought his podium session Sunday, he clearly had a lot on his mind. Agreed.

You know, trying to figure out, hey, my court. about surgery. Colts my guy now. And I thought Jay was really focused on making sure his team new season ain't over and we're focused on that. And the rest of the stuff is rather trivial. I don't even know that my post game is pretty chaotic. I don't even know that I heard the answer on that pick. But that's something I will certainly follow up with on Monday. Thank you for doing this. Really appreciate it. I'll talk to you this week. Okay, thanks, Kevin. Talk to you later. J.P. Finley from NBC Sports, Washington.

Interesting situation with the quarterbacks they're going to bring in, as JP just mentioned. Josh Johnson, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, if he's healthy, quick thrower, quick reader of defenses. That seems like sort of a good fit as a backup. He's an accurate thrower. I'm not a massive Sam Bradford fan by any stretch of the imagination, but they need, look, This isn't a four and six team playing out the string. You don't get many opportunities. This franchise certainly doesn't to be in a legitimate playoff race over the final six games of the season. The Redskins have a game Thursday where they can, for all intents and purposes, nearly clinch the division.

Not mathematically. Again, I went through this. But they'd have a three-game lead over the Cowboys. They'd have this significant lead over the Eagles. They'd have this significant lead over the Eagles as well, even though they've got two games against the Eagles left. But the Eagles really, they are imploding right now. So you're in the thick of this thing. They've got to make a good call here.

And it's got to be somebody, and J.P, I think, said this, and we're going to play some of this sound coming up now. But they've got to find a quick study right now. It's not about reps. It's about a quick conditioning test to make sure that they're healthy, a quick mess. and then how quickly can they grasp the offense so that it's not super scaled down if they have to go to a backup quarterback. All right, I want to play some of the sound from the post game because there are a couple of things that I want to sort of react to and I want everybody to hear if they haven't heard it already. This was Jay Gruden talking about Colt McCoy.

And, you know, J.P. said it and I felt the same way. and if you weren't watching the Jay Gruden press conference or you haven't seen it online, he's upset about Alex Smith, and everybody is. That was a terrible injury, and Alex Smith is a great guy, and he's been a leader. But we know, and I think you know, but a lot of us in the media have known this for a while.

Jay Gruden really believes in Colt McCoy, and I don't think that he is sweating this as much as everybody else is. This was Jay Gruden's initial comments about Colt McCoy. He's got great comfort level, I believe. He hasn't played a whole lot. So we'll see how he does. But I have confidence in Colt, always have.

Big firm believer in Colt McCoy's ability to play quarterback in National Football League. So there's an opportunity of a lifetime for him. I know he would like it in different circumstances. But things happen for a reason. And it's an opportunity for Colton. I think he'll take advantage of it. You've never been shy about your confidence in Colt. the fact that he's going to Dallas, the place he's won before on national TV.

Does that make you rest maybe a little bit easier tonight? You know, anytime you lose a football game like this, you're not going to rest easy. And then when you lose a quarterback like Alex or a player like Alex, it's not going to make you rest easy. But I'm sure once we get to work on Monday and the pit in our stomach is gone, we're looking forward to the next game. And yes, I feel very confident in Colt McCoy is our starting quarterback. Always been a big fan of his. But, you know, I just wish there were different circumstances.

so to speak. All right. So that was Jay Gruden following the game yesterday on Colt McCoy. I'm telling you this, and I know this. He believes in Colt McCoy. JP said it, and these are things that we've heard for a while, and I think actually JP may have even reported it back in January before the Alex Smith trade,

that they were seriously considering going with Colt McCoy in 2018. I will tell you, I would have never been a fan of that. I think Colt McCoy's a backup quarterback in the NFL, a really good backup in a pinch. He knows this offense. He's comfortable with it. But personally, I think if you start Colt McCoy for 16 games,

you're going 6 and 10 or 7 and 9. However, they had an offense really this year for most of the nine and a half games that Alex Smith played that was really, look, The nicest thing you can say is that it was a work in progress. The other nice thing you can say is that they didn't really hurt the team's chances of winning games in which they had a lead. But they didn't have the ability to go on the road in the playoffs or from behind in a game in which you needed significant offense to win. they just didn't have that with Alex Smith. Maybe they'll have that next year. Maybe year two in the

same system if he's healthy coming back and he should be by the time they get to the beginning of next year. Maybe it'll be a different thing. I saw Alex Smith at times play very well in San Francisco and in Kansas City with better weapons on better teams. But I saw something with Colt McCoy yesterday. I do think that offensively they have a chance to be more productive. I don't know that it'll be good enough. I mentioned that earlier, but I think Jay Gruden thinks deep down that he's fine and he's okay with the quarterback situation for these final five games.

All right. I wanted to also play, and Aaron bring it up on the quarterback situation, on the quarterback plan for who's going to back up Colt McCoy. Yeah, we have to, we'll have four or five guys come in here. Hopefully they're on a plane now. So I'll talk to Alex Santos and Doug Williams. Doug Williams, I think they're already on it. A couple names, so I haven't heard the names yet,

but I'm sure we have to. We only have obviously one quarterback in the building, so we've got to get one soon. So Jay Gruden talking about the process, and we know from talking to JP, and also Adam Schepter's report, you know, last night that the Redskins are bringing in E.J. Manuel, T.J. Yates, Mark Sanchez, and as well as Josh Johnson was also reported, and then Kellyn Clemens was the other name.

Kellyn Clemens. I think Kellyn Clemens started his career here. I think he did. He started with the Jets. He was here for one off season in 2011. Tennessee, right? His college? No, Oregon. Oregon. That's right. Kellan Clemens, Oregon. That's right. So there you go. I don't really have a preference. I'm surprised that Sam Bradson. Adford's not coming in. Yates, Sanchez, E.J. Manuel, Josh Johnson, seriously? Josh Johnson's in Ebersles, the AAFL or whatever. It's called the American, the thing that's starting in fall. He was in the spring. He was drafted by San Diego. So that's where he is right now. When's the last time he or Mark Sanchez took an NFL snap? I mean, T.J. Yates has probably taken a couple of snaps in recent years with some.

Somebody. Oh, yeah. He would play last year when Houston went, when Deshaun Watson went down, I think. Yates was the quarterback in Houston last year when Watson went down? I believe so. I think he might be right on that. I know Yates was the quarterback in Houston for one of their playoff games a few years ago. I don't know that it was, was it last year? Yeah, he went, he was there 2011, 2013, bounced around and came back last year. North Carolina? Yep. All right, I got that one right. All right, so that was Jay Gruden. I also want you to listen to what Jay Gruden said about the final decision that he had, which was the setup for the field goal.

Remember that the Redskins had their offense out there. Then Houston called a timeout. And then Jay Gruden sort of goes into how the decision came about to let Dustin Hopkins try a 63-yard field goal. Happened after the call timeout. I had a little dash play. I was going to try to launch it in the end zone, get a touchdown. You know, the hard part was I would love to throw it a little quick out for five yards and kick a field goal, but it was fourth and ten. You know what I mean?

So it was either trying to get a 12-yard out route, which I doubt that they would have given us, you know, or take a shot in the end zone. So or kicked a field goal. So Hopkins said, yeah, I can make it. Adrian Peterson vouched for him, and we throw him out there and let him kick it. You know, there's been 63-yarders made in the NFL before. It's not like out of the, you know, question for him to make it. And Hop's got a powerful leg, so we get let him make it. He does have a powerful leg.

I don't, I'd love more explanation on the Adrian Peterson vouched for him. Maybe Adrian Pearson's an amateur kickologist, like you do the weather, he does kickers. I mean, maybe Adrian Peterson was hanging out one day this week, just watching him kick. And he went, you know, when he said, yeah, I think I can make a 63-yarder. And Adrian Peterson came out of nowhere and said, I saw him do it last week out in Ashburn. Look, he was hurt last week. Jay passed on the 54-yarder, as I've mentioned a few times already. I don't, he wasn't even close on the 63-yarder.

When it came up six, seven-yard short, it reminded me, Norv Turner's final game as the Redskins coach in 2000 was a game at home against the New York Giants that they had to win to stay sort of really legitimately in contention. They ended up losing that game, I believe, 9 to 7, and Eddie Murray, who was probably 43, 44 years old at the time, was told by Norv Turner to go out to kick a 46-47-yard field goal to win the game. But Eddie Murray looked at Norv and said, I can't get it that far.

And Norv said, go kick it anyway. And it came up well short, and Norv was fired the next day. Dustin Hopkins, if he told him he could make it from 63, he told him he can make it from 63. And in that spot, knowing that Hopkins has a massive leg, Graham Gano made a 63-yarder this year to beat the Giants. I mean, I'll tell you what, right when it came off his foot, when you're watching it on TV, it's dead center.

But you could tell by sort of some of the Houston players' reactions that it was going to come up short. So there you go. That was Jay Gruden. Let me tell you about Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep in Fairfax. The holidays are coming up. thinking about something new for yourself or somebody else. Give Ferrisch, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Fairfax a shot. I've known Kevin Farish and Ralph Perkins forever. They've been friends of

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The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. What a day in the NFL yesterday. I mean, you had many games coming down to the final possession, the final kick, the final throw. We'll start in Atlanta where the Cowboys beat the Falcons 22 to 19. And the Cowboys now, after losing that Monday night game to the Titans, have won two straight on the road to get to five. and to get themselves in position with a win at home on Thanksgiving Day against the Redskins to be in first place in the division.

Zeke Elliott, once again, the key to their win. 23 carries 122 yards, that's 5.3 yards per carry, plus seven catches for 79 yards in the game. Zeke Elliott was a beast, as was Leighton Vanderec, their rookie linebacker, who had an interception in the game. He had three pass breakups in the game. This guy is a star in the making as a rookie. And right now, Dallas, who's never had an answer defensively when Sean Lee hasn't been available,

they seem to have an answer. And I'll tell you something about the Cowboys in this game. They were banged up going into this game against one of the better offensive teams in the league. Atlanta, they got to Matt Ryan three times. They hit him seven times in the game, eight times in the game. The pressure was relentless throughout this thing. DeMarcus Lawrence is a sack and a half.

He's unblockable. This is a very good defensive football team. I felt that way all season long about the Cowboys. That Tennessee game on that Monday night, where we sort of buried them after they lost it, remember that game early? They had a chance to be up 17-0 in that game. And Prescott threw the interception,

missed a field goal. By the way, their kicker is a problem. Now, he made the game winner barely, but he missed an extra point in this game too that was critical. The Falcons, after coming here and winning 3814 to get to 500 have now lost back-to-back games to Cleveland and Dallas. That one yesterday for them was a real back-breaking loss because it was at home and they get New Orleans on Thanksgiving night on the road, so they're going to be four and seven. I think you can write them off. I think you can too. And that is still, for my money, a top five, six, seven offensive football team.

Look, they started this year with so many injuries on defense. And the only team that hasn't been able to move the ball, well, the Eagles on opening night. Okay, the opening night, 18 to 12 loss that they had. the Redskins were the only team not to roll up massive yards and massive points against them. It's weird here you can say that about so many teams that the Redskins have played. Yes, it's true. The Ravens started Lamar Jackson yesterday because Joe Flacco's got a hip injury. Apparently he's had this injury for a few weeks now.

And the Ravens, to keep their season alive, had to beat the Bengals at home. And if they beat the Bengals at home, they'd get to five and five, and they'd actually be right there as a wild card team and in the wild card race. Jackson, remember, was sick at practice last week and missed a practice, and that's why some of the conversation about Lomart about potentially RG3 playing.

RG3 suited up and was actually in on a couple of offensive plays, Aaron, from my understanding, I didn't see this game as a back or a receiver or as a quarterback potentially split out wide in certain formations. But let me just tell you about Lamar Jackson's day yesterday. He's a quarterback in the NFL. He rushed the ball 27 times in the game for 117 yards.

And then he was 13 and 19 for 150 throwing it. He had an interception in the game. John Harbaugh said that his performance was spectacular for his first performance. and that it put the defense in jeopardy the whole afternoon his ability to run the football. They were down 21-13 after Dalton led a couple of drives to start the second half, and they scored and got a two-point conversion, which is huge, and then they got the game-winning field goal midway through the fourth quarter, and then their defense held on.

The defense played pretty well for them yesterday, really shut down the run completely. Be interesting to see what they do here. Apparently, Lamar Jackson will get the start against Oakland. They'll be a heavy, heavy favorite against the Raiders. I'm assuming they'll be even with Jackson a 10 double-digit favorite against the Raiders. How about in addition to Jackson, they also switched running backs midway through the game to this Gus Edwards guy. I know. Yeah, completely out of nowhere.

I hadn't even, you know, he played at Rutgers and I had barely heard of them. Did Alex Collins get hurt? No. They just hot hand. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, because Collins scored, I think, their first touchdown of the game. I don't know, I haven't, and I can probably find this out real quickly,

but Lamar Jackson had to set some sort of record for quarterback carries in a game. I believe you did, 27. Yeah. Yeah. And on the opening drive of the game for the Ravens, which went for a touchdown, on that drive, they did not have one attempted throw. on the drive. It was Collins, Jackson, Collins, Jackson, Jackson Edwards, Josh Brown on a sweep, a wide receiver sweep, Jackson, Collins. All runs. 11 plays, 75 yards, not one attempted pass play on the drive. That's unbelievable. I got to think that that

hasn't happened in a long, long time. But it probably has. I'm sure there have been drives where they've been all runs, but not that many quarterback runs on a drive. A couple of other games. You and I both said that Jacksonville was the team that could pull off the upset yesterday. Jacksonville was a smell test pick. The smell test, if you were wondering, is 7 and 0 going into tonight's game where I've got the Rams laying three and a half. Seven and O. Not too bad. It's okay. Also in the NFL now, 4 and O last week, 3 and O yesterday with the Jaguars who blew a 16-0-lead in this game. Rathlisberger ended up scoring on a quarterback keeper on a touchdown with three seconds to go.

Now, they had a timeout in that particular situation. And so in that spot down 16 to 13, they could have. kicked the field goal had he not scored to go to overtime, but Jacksonville blew a 16-0-0 lead in that game, and their season now is done. They needed that one. Pittsburgh comes away with the win to go to 7, 2-1, winning the game 20 to 16. How about some of these other late game wins? The Lions beat the Panthers. The Lions were a smell test pick yesterday as well. Carry on Johnson continues to have a big season. 15 carries 87 yards for the rookie from Auburn.

Had a touchdown running the football. Stafford threw for 220. Had a touchdown. Cam Newton threw for three touchdowns. But in this particular game, real interesting call because Carolina scores with a minute seven to go, 20 to 19, and they went for the two-point conversion. I'm so foregoing to two-point conversions in most situations. with that much time left on the clock in that situation,

it actually, no matter who you asked, the analytics, whoever, it was a bad call. I don't want to get into the analytics. I mean, the Bears last night went for two on every single touchdown, including the last one, which made no sense. It extended their lead to 16, but if they had missed it, they would have only been up 14. It didn't make any sense at all in that particular spot. They went for it early.

Okay, you want to, you got some play. You got some ball plays that'll work? Run them, I guess. I do wonder if they were afraid of Graham Ganoe after he missed a few kicks. Ganoe did miss a few kicks. They went for the two. Yeah, in that game, Ganoe was missed a field goal and an extra point in that game. What's going on in Detroit?

You're talking about the Redskins earlier having a lot of kicks missed in Detroit between Crosby and Ganoe. And I think there was another big one. They seem to have kickers missing all the time against them. Yeah. in that building. You're right. Now, Detroit gets Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, and that's the next game we've got to talk about, because I'm sure people are waiting for me to talk about how Kirk Cousins compiled a bunch of fake stats at the end of the game. Look, the Bears won the game last night, 25 to 20. Kirk Cousins was not good in this game. I watched the entire game. He had a pick six in the game. He had another bad pick at the end of the first half that took points off the board. it was a bad night for Cousins. It was a bad night for the Minnesota offense.

They couldn't run the football. When you have a ground game that goes 14 carries for 22 yards against that defense, and right now I think we are beginning to see that Chicago's defense is elite, it's going to be a rough night for virtually any quarterback, not named Breeze or Rogers or Brady or the elite quarterbacks, which Kirk Cousins isn't. But you've got to run. the football a little bit. They couldn't run the football. They did have a chance to recover an

on-side kick at the end and potentially make a miraculous comeback. But the pick six, when they got the ball back down, 14-6 was the back-breaking play. It was a terrible throw by Cousins. And he had a bad game. And Minnesota now is 5-4-1 in that division with a brutal, I mean brutal schedule. Packers next Sunday night. The Patriots on the road, the Seahawks on the road. And they still play the Bears one more time. Not an easy schedule. I think it's the fifth toughest schedule remaining schedule in the NFL. And the Bears are obviously now in the NFC, the big surprise team, because last night I think what we saw, and think about this with the Bears, because we've basically said it's New Orleans and the Rams, and that's true. New Orleans looks like the true team that

can't be beat right now. Although a rematch with the Rams would be interesting. The Rams are the team recently that had a shot. But think about the Bears season, right? They're 7 and 3. They lost a game in which Aaron Rogers brought him back from 17 nothing down in the opener. They lost a game that they had one in Miami. That game was all

but over in Miami. And they lost that one in overtime. And then the Patriots needed two special teams touchdowns, and then the Hail Mary got stopped at like the half-yard line. The Bears are so close to being ten and oh, because their wins, for the most part, haven't been close.

I'll say this. If you're looking for a dark horse in the playoffs, when you have Khalil Mack there who could get to the quarterback at Will, I'm not going to say I wouldn't pick them, but would it shock you if I told you, oh, they just get to breeze over and over again and beat them? I'll tell you what's more than likely going to be very difficult. Now, Trubisky will put some up for grabs. He threw a couple of picks last night, but what's going to be really difficult is assuming New Orleans and the Rams end up with the two buys, and that's not a complete lock at this point, but it's pretty close to a lock. But the Bears are going to have a home game in that first weekend in Chicago in January

with that defense, and that defense is nasty. They're going to be the team that goes to New Orleans or to the Rams in the second weekend of the playoffs, and it's going to be very interesting. I was not a believer in the Bears this year. This is the biggest surprise to me. in the NFC. The Bears appear to be legit. Why? Because they're dynamic offensively. Trubiske's a runner as much as he is a passer. They've got weapons. Cohen's ridiculous.

Robinson was a great ad. Jordan Howard's a good back. Miller was a guy that I loved coming out of Memphis. He's turning into a big-time threat. And then they've got a pass rush and speed defensively. That's really tough to match. The Saints destroyed the Eagles in New Orleans. It's the worst beating any Super Bowl defending Super Bowl champion has ever taken. This game was 48 to 7 the final score.

There was never a threat, even at 177. You know, when the Eagles scored, they got the ball back there briefly, and I'm thinking, maybe they'll make a game of it. No. Drew Breez unstoppable, four touchdown passes. 363 yards throwing the ball. Kamara and Ingram combined for 170. years rushing.

And then there's, of course, Treyquan Smith, because everybody had him before the season started on their fantasy team, right? Yeah. 10 catches, 157 yards, and a touchdown

for the rookie from UCF. My God, they're just finding people coming out of the woodworks, because this was a team that really, for, you know, a stretch there looked for a moment like, you know what, It's Michael Thomas, but where are the other receivers?

That's why they brought in Des Bryant. What a football team. They are. They right now are clearly threatening the NFL scoring record. They have scored in the last three weeks, 45, 51, and 48 points. Six times this year, they have been 40 were higher in a football game. And what is the most surprising part, of New Orleans's year is the development of that defense up front in particular.

Philly, they look done to me. I'm sure somebody else will say, they'll get it together at four and six and make a run here, and they'll lose to the Rams, but they'll win the division at nine and seven. Really? It doesn't look like it. Carson went through three interceptions in that game yesterday. Denver was another smell test pick. That's the three and O day. Denver, Detroit. Detroit and Jacksonville. And then I got the Rams tonight. And Case Keenham led a big-time drive late in the game.

Boy, the Chargers had a chance to put it away on offense, and they couldn't do it up 22 to 20 in that game. Philip Rivers, by the way, threw for over 400 yards in the game. But it was Case Keenum leading a long drive to get in range for their kicker McManus. and he booted one through at the gun, 23-22 Denver. And I've mentioned this about the Chargers. I do like the Chargers. There's sort of one of my teams that I've always sort of liked

because I'm a huge Philip Rivers fan, and I've just looked at them over the years thinking that their results should have been much better. They've had a ton of injuries in different seasons along the way that have always sort of derailed their seasons. They got Joey Bosa back yesterday. He didn't have a sack in the game. But you look at this,

where the Chargers have compiled and built up, you know, a whole bunch of wins over the last year, going back to last year. They still haven't beaten anybody really good. And they lost Denver at home yesterday. The Broncos get it to four and six in the AFC. There's an interesting game coming up in two weeks, and that is the Chargers at the Steelers on a Sunday night. They also have to play the Chiefs on the road as well this year. I miss a game. I think I missed. The Colts are rolling.

The Cults and Giants. Yeah, the Colts are rolling now. They've got it to 500 with their 3810 win over the Titans. Luck three touchdowns, 297 yards. And in this particular game again, Andrew Luck kept upright the entire day. No sacks. This offensive line is one of the shockers of the year. And then the Giants just won their second game in a row.

I mean, they're three and seven. They played much better in that comeback win over San Francisco on the Eli Drive late. This was another weird Tampa game where they get behind by a bunch and they score a bunch of points in the fourth quarter. James Winston came up the bench. He scored 21. They had a chance down three on two different occasions, but they could not stop the Giants. They stopped the Redskins all day. They couldn't stop the Giants.

Eli Manning, 17 of 18. When do you see a stat line like this from a quarterback? 17 of 18, 231 yards, two touchdowns. Sequin Barclay rushed for 142 and two touchdowns in the game and also had a touchdown reception in the game. The Giants get the Eagles at home, then they play the Bears at home before traveling here. Kaleel Mack against Eli Manning.

Right. I think that wraps up the whole NFL day. think I missed a game. Raiders Cardinals I missed. Okay, the Raiders had a walkoff field goal as well. A lot of walk off field goals yesterday, huh? Broncos, Raiders, the Steelers with a walk-off touchdown, basically. You had the Cowboys in that game. The Redskins could have had a walk-off field goal, but it was just a bit too long for Dustin Hopkins. All right, let's do a quick weekend DVR to wrap up the show today. Did you have a busy weekend? Don't worry.

We've got you covered. It's time for Weekend DBR. All right. I guess we got to start with the Maryland-Ohio State game in weekend DBR because it was really one of, you know, Scott Van Pelt was on with us, Scott Van Pelt was on with us Friday and he said, you know, this college football season has really been not a great college football season because there haven't been memorable games, memorable moments, and it looks like we're just headed towards Alabama Clemson.

and then you get in college park of all places, one of the games of the year. I was at the game Saturday. You were to, I mentioned last week, I think a week ago after Maryland had lost to Indiana. I said on the podcast that Anthony McFarland is a future first-round NFL pick and that he is going to be one of those guys on a Heisman list. in a year or two. I think that was, that may not have been it verbatim. Pretty close. But I've loved watching Anthony McFarlane, who's a freshman out of Dematha. And I'm going to get to D'Math in Gonzaga here too. If you haven't heard about what happened last night in the WCAC final, it may be one of the all-time football at any level endings, which we will get to.

but Anthony McFarland went for 298 yards against Ohio State on 21 carries. In his first three carries, he had touchdown runs of 81 and 75 yards in the first quarter. He was well over 200 at halftime, and Maryland jumped out to a 17-3 lead against Ohio State and had to lead the entire game until overtime. That was the first time they trailed in the game. is when Ohio State took a 52 to 45 lead in overtime. A couple of things about this game. Ohio State had four turnovers, which helped.

Helped a lot. Maryland, we talked about how Maryland against lines of scrimmage that were really dominant, like Iowa's and Michigan's and Michigan states, Maryland couldn't run the football, but against everybody else they could run the football, which is why they had chances to win and had come into the game as a five-and-five football team. But I just figured Ohio State's line of scrimmage would be dominant too.

But the point spread, Maryland was a smell test pick, the points spread indicated that Ohio State was fraudulent, and the odds makers saw it. And I've not been a fan of Ohio State all year long. I've said that I don't think that this is a great football team. But I certainly thought they should have been a 20-point favorite over Maryland. And they went off as a 14-point favorite over the Terps. And the reason was, is because,

Maryland was going to be able to run the football. 339 yards worth of rushing offense. Maryland fell behind in overtime. Ohio State got it first. They scored, and then Maryland scored and decided that instead of extending the game with an extra point, they tried to go for the win right there. Now, I don't have any problem with them doing this. I mean, I didn't think they could stop Ohio State, but I also felt like Ohio State,

They could have made a mistake on one of their possessions in overtime because they had made several mistakes. They had four turnovers in the game. But they went for two, and I will tell you this, Aaron, not because it didn't work. It should have worked. But the last thing I wanted to see Matt Canada do, Matt Canada, the head coach of Maryland do, is put it in the quarterback's hands as a thrower in that spot. Terrell Piggum, you know, had a decent game. He was six for 13, 181 yards.

Hit a couple of deep balls that were huge. Some beautiful passes in that game. But that was pretty much the only, those were the only throws he completed, were deep ones. And I just thought on a condensed field it was going to be tough for him to make a throw. But sure enough, on a rollout play on the two-point conversion to win the game 53-52, to make Maryland bowl eligible to pull off their single biggest win since joining the Big Ten. And to eliminate Ohio State from the playoff race, he's, got a receiver wide open in the end zone. And all it was, he just had to lob it to him. He didn't

need to fire to just lob it to him. He's wide open. And he missed him and missed him by about five yards. It wasn't even close. And so Maryland lost the game 52-51. I told you that, you know, Maryland football, in all of the tragedy and the unnecessary tragedy, in a lot of the unnecessary drama associated with the way they handled it has really, you know, been troubling to a lot of people, but these kids didn't have anything to do with that. And it would have been awesome for them to go to a bowl game. And you know what? Maybe they can go to Penn State Saturday and win. They're only a 13 and a half point dog at Penn State. Maybe they think Maryland can run the football against Penn State too. They didn't look good this weekend. But if you haven't seen Anthony McFarland

play, and Maryland's got a lot of backs. I mean, Javon Leak can really play. You know, they've got Tavon Fleet Davis. They just have skill positions, speed and playmakers. Lolo Harrison can't get on the field because it's so good. And he was so good as a freshman. Maryland, when healthy, might have the best running, or one of the best running back stables in the country. Yeah, this is what they've been building. They've been building some talent at Maryland.

And Anthony McFarlane is a star. He's, they have a lot of talent in their backfield, but Farlane's different because of what he does after contact in particular. He's not a big dude. He's like 5-8. I'm going to guess he's barely even 200 pounds, but he's got breakaway speed and he is powerful. That second touchdown, he got hit right at the last scrimmage, shed it and was gone. And you know, that game yesterday, and I, you know, I didn't see that game coming, but that's the kind of game that's going to make him come back next year and people are going to have him. Some people will have him on a Heisman list. It'll be a long shot, Heisman. But he'll be on somebody's list. But he'll be on somebody's

list. You know, 125 to 1 in Vegas or whatever? Yeah, but people now know who he is. Enjoy him. You get him for one more year, Maryland fans. Yeah, because he's a redshirt freshman. Elsewhere in college football, I mean,

some weekends, man, you just get it right. I had Notre Dame routing. Syracuse and a smell test pick laying the 10. That thing was never close. 363. I had Kansas State plus 6 against Texas. Tech. They won that game outright, and I had Florida State. I said, I don't know how they're only

getting a point in half. They stink. And they won the game outright against Boston College. They needed a late touchdown. Maybe one of the most shocking things about Saturday was the halftime score of the Alabama Citadel game. That was great. 10-10. Of course, Alabama outscored them 40 to 7 in the second half of the season, second half of the game. Michigan struggled with Indiana. That sets up Michigan, Ohio State on Saturday in Columbus. Michigan's a four-point favorite. They won that game 31 to 20. And Washington State in the late-night game against Arizona put up 55 points on Arizona in the first half. They were on pace for 110. One of my you heard it here first predictions with Tom about four years ago was that somebody in the next five years was going to score 100 points in college

football. They ended up with 69. They only scored 14 in the second half. The game was over. They didn't have to score. They won 69 to 28. But Gardner Minshew, the quarterback for Washington State, was 43 of 55 for 473 yards and seven touchdowns. Oklahoma State came from behind and knock West Virginia out of any hopes they had for the playoff. So the only team in the Big 12 left with a chance would be Oklahoma, but they need things to happen. They get West Virginia in Morgantown Friday and then potentially a Pac-12 championship game. I wanted to just mention that UCF crushed Cincinnati. I know Cincinnati's not great. They were ranked. The thing about UCF is they're not going to be in the playoff as an undefeated team at the end of this year for a second

straight year. But they're good. They're really, really good. I don't know that they would have any chance, and I don't think they would have any chance against Bama or Clemson or Michigan or Notre Dame more likely than not, and they don't deserve to be there if they go undefeated. But they're good. Like last year, they beat Auburn in that bowl game, and Auburn had beaten Alabama.

Auburn lost the SEC title game to Georgia last year, but UCF, they handled Auburn in that play. bowl game. I think they won by seven or ten somewhere in that neighborhood to finish off their 13 and 0 season. They're going to be 13 and 0 again, more likely than that. Who do they have UCF projected to play in a bowl game? You know who I'd like to see them play? I'd like to see him play LSU. That'd be fun. That's a matchup I'd like to see. A couple of other quick things in weekend DVR. The Wizards are horrible right now. I thought it couldn't get any worse than they're embarrassing loss to Brooklyn on Friday night, 115 to 104.

But then last night, they were down by at one point, I think, 29 to Portland at home last night. They lose 119. I don't know. They're 5 and 11. This homestand was supposed to be, you know, a get-right homestand, and it wasn't. John Wall had some comment after the game about, I got to find the exact quote because I want to read it. here it is you can't teach effort

you can't teach heart that came from John Wall the big run that the Wizards made in the fourth quarter I think was without John Wall on the floor and Scott Brooks said afterwards he said yeah our bench played really well played with a lot of heart

the wizards are a mess right now people I have no idea what's going to happen I don't know if there's a coaching change possibility I would doubt it he'd make $7 million a year and he's only in year three of year five. The trades that they could potentially make and package up. I mean, Jesus. I mean, why didn't they go after Jimmy Butler hard?

I don't know that they would have been able to complete a deal, but he had not only a block shot to save the game the other night, but then drill the three on the other end to win it on a night where Kembo Walker for Charlotte went for 60. LeBron had 51 last night for the Lakers. They won. Condoleezza Rice. Did you see this story yesterday?

in the NFL. I did see it. Condoleezza Rice, was it Shefter who broke the story? Yeah. Shefter broke his story that Condoleezza Rice was being considered as potentially the next Brown's head coach. I don't get this one because it's clear, like she immediately came out and actually had a really good statement about how, you know, she's not going to be a coach, but she wishes more women, you know, there are more women in coaching in the NFL. Shefter doesn't normally get something this wrong. So I'm trying to figure out what happened there. She posted, I love my Browns, I know they will hire an experienced coach to take us to the next level. On a more serious note, I do hope that the NFL will start to bring women into the coaching profession. As position coaches and eventually coordinators and head coaches, etc., etc.

Yeah, Schaefter, you got that wrong. Now, you know what? It wouldn't surprise me if she's brought in, at least for an interview first. front office job if she wants it. Can't hire Condoleezza Rice to be a head coach in the NFL. No. She doesn't have any experience. She's never coached. What else did I have? That might be it.

WCAC. Oh yeah. Okay. So last night, hold on, I'm going to give this to you. So last night was the WCAC championship game between Gonzaga, who beat St. John's last week in an upset and Dematha. and the last 35 seconds of the game may be an all-timer in football, period. I mean, it seems like we get these stories all the time. Remember a few weeks ago it was, was it an old Dominion ending against somebody? Yeah.

So last night, Gonzaga was down 3633 with about 35 seconds left in the game, and they scored to take a 40 to 36 lead. They kicked off and Damatha returned it for a touchdown. So now with about 20 seconds to go, it's 43 to 40, Dematha. Gonzaga gets the ball back, they run two plays, and they throw a Hail Mary into the end zone and complete it to win the game 47-43. Unbelievable. Just the video footage of it is incredible.

Before Gonzaga took the lead for the first time with like 30 seconds, 35 seconds to go in the game, they had converted a third and 33 to keep their season. a lot. It was total bedlam at the end of the game at Catholic University. It really was, I've seen the highlights of this thing. It was an all-time football ending. Congrats to the Purple Eagles of Gonzaga for not only beating Demathal last night in the craziest ending ever, but beating St. John's, they just beat back-to-back weeks. Two top 25 nationally ranked teams. Man, that's a good football league. We know how. good of a basketball league is, but it is a great football league as well.

All right. Tommy will be back tomorrow, and he's going to be so excited about Colt McCoy. So join us for that. Thanks to J.P. Finley. Thanks to Aaron. He did an excellent job as we put this thing together super early in the morning to get it out to all of you. All right. Have a great Monday back tomorrow. Normal time.

It'll be out by about 10.30, 11 tomorrow morning. and we will start to get you ready. Remember, it's a short week, holiday week. We'll start to get you ready for Cowboys Redskins on Thanksgiving Day. Amazing that Dallas is an eight-point favorite in this game. I didn't see that coming even with the quarterback change. I can tell you this, the public's going to more likely than not be on the Redskins, I think, in this game. Have a great day.