The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins Win! - "We Want Dallas!"

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

The Redskins held on for a big win against the Panthers. Some fans were a little bit unhappy about the second half and how close the game became but Kevin had a different opinion. Adrian Peterson was great, who else stood out on the team? How was Jay Gruden's coaching? Kevin also talks about what the Redskins need to do this week, as it is Dallas Week. After taking a few of your calls, JP Finlay joins to give his recap of what happened Sunday afternoon and what the biggest keys were to the win. Kevin then goes Around the NFL, including a close look at the Sunday Night Football game between the Patriots and Chiefs, the Ravens, the Chargers, the Buccaneers/Falcons game and more. He then wraps up with Weekend DVR with a look across college football including the Maryland win over Rutgers and some major action in the SEC. <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. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them, I told you to call the Redskins beat the Panthers. 23 to 17. Let's get right to it. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right. We're not messing around this morning because there's a lot from yesterday's big win. look, they needed to play well and really needed to win the game. A bad loss like Monday Night's loss or the one to the Colts would have perhaps started the spiraling out of control, negativity and dysfunction that we've often seen with this franchise, especially when a coach appears to be in trouble. So for a week at least, as is often the case in the NFL,

things change. They changed dramatically last. week was last week and the feeling today at three and two is there's a season to be had, especially with the juice that'll be involved with the next one. Your arch rival coming to town after they had a big win to get to 500. Dallas obliterated Jacksonville, 40 to 7. So the Cowboys come to town for Sunday's late afternoon, 425 kick at FedEx Field with first place in the NFC East on the line. All right, let's get to the things I liked, the things I didn't like, and a few more observations from the game yesterday. I had this one right. 2320 was my Friday prediction.

The smell test this weekend red hot on Saturday, 10 and 4, and then for the first time in five weeks, I lost on my NFL picks yesterday. Oh, and 3. I've got the 49ers pending tonight. Overall, currently the smell test is 39, 30, and 3 on the season. so still not very bad, but let's get to the game. What I liked. First of all, this was a terrific response to Monday night in New Orleans. After a horrible game, a humiliating game, they were ready for yesterday. Give everyone credit for that. This was perhaps not a must win, but it was a definitely must play well. They were active, they were aggressive, they seemed genuinely interested in keeping their season alive with a win

versus dealing with a messy two-game losing streak and everything that would have come with a two-game losing streak. Even Jay Gruden seemed to have an edge about him yesterday. I think he had had enough of the team, the media, the situation as a whole. If you want to see him in a nasty mood, I don't know how you get this show. You probably can get it on the, their website, but the NBC4 coaches show, which aired on NBC4 Saturday night with Cooley, Larry,

and Gruden. Gruden was on edge, and yesterday he carried that edge into the game. There were some close-ups of him where he just looked hungry. He wanted and needed this one badly. He coached it and looked like a guy whose season and career as a head coach was on the line. and his team responded to his edge. They did it, by the way, without two of their important weapons on offense, Jameson Crowder and Chris Thompson. The thing I liked about yesterday is it was really sort of old-style winning football.

They had a balanced attack, and I'll get to that in a moment in more detail. They were plus three in the turnover margin category. They had limited penalties, a couple that hurt a little bit, but not many. A clean game with no turnovers and just a few penalties, and they dominated the ball. Time of possession was nearly an 11-minute advantage. Carolina started one drive beyond their own 25. The Redskins dominated field position in this game. The Redskins started two drives in Carolina territory.

The skins also played good special teams. They downed a kick at the two-yard line. Brian Quick. They went three for three on field goals, including a huge 56-yarder from Hopkins, which Jay Gruden afterwards claimed he thought it was going to be a 53-yard kick. Those of you who say they didn't do enough in the second half and they nearly blew a 17-0-0-lead, and Gruden took his foot off the pedal, yada, yada, yada, not true. Not true. The Redskins had three possessions in the second half. Three. They moved the ball on all. three of them to the tune of a nine-play drive, a 10-play drive, and a 12-play drive.

Eight up 17-plus minutes of the clock. They scored on two of those three drives, albeit field goals, but they scored. And they needed those drives that ended in field goals. No punts in the second half. This was not a take-your-foot off the pedal second half. Oh, the Redskins can't close out an opponent. big lead they nearly blew it. I'm not subscribing to that. I think it's an inaccurate take. If you're upset that they didn't throw it deep enough today, take that somewhere else, because

the protection was an issue all day long against a good defensive front in Carolina. You still don't have a quarterback and a coach on the same page quite yet, so I thought the plan all day long was a good one. I thought Jay Gruden coached a good game. there were a couple of things which I'll get to in a few minutes. One clock decision at the end of the game. I'll get to that and another thing. But for the most part, it was a good day for Jay. I liked his decision to punt near the end of the first half

after they couldn't get into field goal range. That was a smart game managing decision, in context decision. It would have been a 56-yarder with a 17-6 lead, but there was no reason to give Carolina any points and momentum after you had dominated the first half. It was good, old-style winning football formula yesterday from the Redskins. Turnovers were the difference in this game. Let's get to that.

The turnovers were the most telling statistical category yesterday, as it is in football in general. If you ever are asked, hey, you need one number to determine the winner or loser in a football game in the NFL, you take the turnover margin because the team that wins turnover margin wins the game much of the time. The skins were plus three yesterday. Ballgame. That was it. Two of the three were forced.

The Norman interception, his first in 19 games, was a result of the pressure from Ryan Carrigan and Duran Payne. Norman's punchout on DJ Moore stopped Carolina from scoring and set up excellent field position for the Redskins that led to point. That was a big swing. Instead of it being 14 to 3 or 14 to 7, it turned into 17 to nothing. It was a classic Norman play that we haven't seen in a while. The first turnover of the game was the DJ more fumbled punt return, which was really more on him for not protecting the ball. But at least unlike last week, when a ball hit the ground and they just watched it,

when Pernell McPhee just watched the Mark Ingram fumble roll around on the ground until Ingram got it back. yesterday they pounced on this one. I'd mentioned that on Friday. There had to be that sense of you get a loose ball in this game, you've got to win the turnover battle, you've got to jump on it, and they did at the Carolina 22-yard line. Next play was the touchdown pass

to Vernon Davis for a 7-0 lead. I like the Redskins balanced offensive attack yesterday. It's so, so important for this team because the quarterback is not a drop-back and chuck it 45 times a game. Quarterback. He has succeeded, as I mentioned last week, only when he's had good players around him

and always when he's had a good running game. In the three games this year where they've run the ball effectively, 3 and 0. 0 when they haven't run the ball. They could have been even more balanced, I thought, if they had stuck with the run towards the end of the first half, but overall 36 passes, 28 runs, and the runs were effective, which brings us to the next thing that I didn't like. I loved.

Adrian Peterson. He was the star of this game in my view, and it's becoming evident that he is a major reason if you are one of those predisposed to hoping that this season can be a good one, or thinking that it can be a good one. He doesn't look 33 at all. He played hurt yesterday. Remember, he got that shoulder MRIed early in the week. He went 17 carries for 97 yards, 5.7 yards per carry, and it just doesn't seem that the first tackler that gets there has any chance of getting him down. I love the shotgun runs, especially the outside stuff. I love it when they spread things out like they did yesterday and run it.

Not tight sets, but spread it and run it. It looked good yesterday. It's looked good with him and Thompson this year when they spread it a little bit and run it. Bibs looked good on some of those runs as well. By the way, there was a Samage P. Rine sighting. yesterday. Peterson was great yesterday. He's been great in three of their five games so far this year. His best run of the game was a second half, four-yard run that should have been no gain or minus one. He's really good for this team and very important too. Tommy was right last week. I'm not

sure they have a plan B for Adrian Peterson if he doesn't play well and remain healthy for the remaining 12 games. He's a difference maker right now. Thank you, Doug Williams, for doing your job and bringing him in for a workout when Geist got hurt. Dustin Hopkins yesterday. Hopkins was three-for-three with a 49-yarder and a 56-yarder that made the game in the moment a two-score game at 20 to 9. That kick was a monster kick, as it turned out in the game. And I was surprised to hear Gruden say that he thought it was from 53. I wonder what he would have done. done, would he have punted or gone for a fourth and five if he had known that it was that long of a field goal? Remember, the play before it was one of the bigger and more important

plays of the game. It was when Alex Smith got hit, fumbled, Trent Williams picked it up, and rumbled eight yards. It was, I think, a net three-yard gain, but from where he picked it up, he rumbled about eight yards, which got Hopkins into range. And remember, that Hopkins kick from 56 yards out, barely cleared the crossbar. So the Trent Williams play was big. One other thing real quickly on that play, the Trent Williams picking up the fumble from Alex Smith play, go back and look at that play and tell me if you don't think Julius Peppers goes helmet to helmet on Alex Smith. The way things get called in this day and age, I thought that could have been called. But back to special teams overall. A good day for special teams. Hopkins,

as I mentioned. Trisway had two punts downed inside the 20-yard line, including a perfectly executed punt that was down by Brian Quick at the three-yard line, which really led to another chance for the skins to get the ball back in great field position at the end of the half after Carolina went three and out. Greg Stroman had that really good punt return that started that final drive before halftime. Again, winning football formula yesterday. No turnovers, few penalties, run the ball, stay balanced, good special teams, no big mistakes. They did a lot of good things yesterday and no real bad things. And that's why they had a chance to win the game, which they did.

Other things I liked. The wide receivers, surprise, the Redskins got decent wide receiver production yesterday. Four wide receivers caught 11 balls on 17 targets. Now, Reed was lined up as a wide receiver. wide out plenty. But in terms of your wide receiver designations, Richardson, three catches, 31 yards,

touchdown. Doxon, three catches, 20 yards, even though on one of them, I thought he was going to leave the game with an out-ie again on his heel. He got up slowly and went to the sidelines. Brian Quick, remember him, reliable at times last year? Remember the

big catch in the Seattle game when the Redskins beat Seattle? Had that big catch down the right sideline, and he got concussed on that hit. He had two catches for 12 yards. Both of them, I believe, were for first downs. Mo Harris, three catches, 13 yards. Plus, he took an option pitch on a third and short and picked up six yards in a first down. I mentioned the wide receivers because wide receiver production was kind of a surprise with Jameson Crowder out. But Reed and Davis had good days too. Reed had a great one-handed catch on a ball thrown behind him in the first half. Also drew some of the attention all day

long from Carolina, which made things easier at times for others. I'm still not sure why Josh Doxon played 59 snaps, and Jordan Reed played 47. Reed played 47 of the 70, that's 67% a little higher than in recent weeks, but he should play even more. He hasn't been, I don't believe, the liability as a blocker in the run game as he's been in the past. But it was nice overall production from a receiving core that didn't have Jameson Crows. to see them participate in a major way was one of the things I liked. Michael Floyd was out there too, didn't have a catch, played a few snaps and had a target on a third down throw, which may have been Alex Smith's worst throw of the day that nearly

got picked. Here's another thing I liked. I liked the quarterback sneaks. Where were those quarterback sneaks last year? Why didn't Gruden call one of those in New Orleans last year when they could have ended the game on third and one instead of handing it off? handing it off to Samajai P. Ryan, remember, on that slow developing run play, they got stuffed, gave the ball back to Drew Brees, and they lost in overtime. Two for two on quarterback sneaks

yesterday. The other thing I liked was this, and it had to do with Carolina. Carolina abandoned their running game. They were the number one rush offense in the league, and they ran it 18 times and threw it 40 times. In fact, the first five plays of the game were, runs for them. And then after that, they threw it on 40 of their final 53 snaps of the football game. Just so you know, in three previous games, Carolina ran it more than they threw it in two of those three games. In the other game, it was just a slight 35 to 31 pass to run ratio. This is out of character for them. You could say they got behind and it forced them to throw it, but when they were down seven, nothing, they were throwing it. When they were down,

14-0-0. They were throwing it. We're talking about in the first quarter, first half. It wasn't like they got totally stoned when they did decide to run it. It was just that Norv Turner, I guess, decided it was their best way to move the football. And it did work to a certain degree. I thought Cam Newton was exceptional for most of the day. The Redskins, interestingly, were in nickel almost the entire game,

which makes it even more surprising that Carolina didn't try to run it more. all four of the skins secondary starters played every snap of the game defensively. Norman, Dunbar, Swaranger, and Nicholson, every snap of the game. Moreau played in 52 of the 60 snaps. So the skins had 5 dBs in the game for 86.5% of the snaps in the game yesterday. So Carolina could have potentially been more effective running it against the Redskins nickel defense, which they were in almost exclusively. I'm surprised that Carolina didn't try to run it more at the end of the game.

Once they got that first down in the red zone, they had plenty of time, all three timeouts, that run should have still been an option for them, and they threw it four straight times, once underneath to McCaffrey for five yards, and then three straight incompletions to end the game. running the ball should not have been eliminated from Carolina's playbook. If I'm a Carolina fan in Charlotte today, I am railing on the play calling at the end.

Now, the Redskins came with some blitz finally on that final drive at the end, but a screen or a draw or more run sets, I thought Carolina had plenty of time not to abandon their running game. All right, let me get to what I didn't like. The pass protection was a problem. It's actually been a problem much of the season at this point, except against Arizona. Now, Carolina is not easy to block, but there were too many quick rushes that doomed chances for plays. The skins got lucky on the sack fumble that Trent Williams picked up.

It would have been a massive play for Carolina in the moment because they would have had the ball after scoring and then forcing a turnover at 17 to 9. Smith got sacked three times, he got hit seven times. He got hit hard after a bootleg that came after a big run by Capri Bibbs. There was too much pressure, too much of the day on Alex Smith. The other thing I didn't like, a couple of other things. I think there was still some secondary confusion. Look, I'm not going to say that the defense had a bad second half because I didn't really feel that way necessarily.

Carolina made plays. You know, they had three drives. There were only six drives total in the second half. The Redskins had three and Carolina had three, not counting the Redskins kneeling out the game at the end. Carolina's three drives in the second half. They scored on their first two with the last one ending in the fourth and five missed deep in Redskins territory with the game on the line.

I think Carolina made a ton of plays. I think Norv knows how to scheme people open. So you can't sit there and rail against the Redskins' second half defense. Carolina was good in the second half. That happened sometimes. They were good. I would have preferred more pressure between the 20s in the second half. They used Mason Foster at times as a spy on Newton,

and occasionally he would come when Cam was in the pocket as a fifth pass rusher. They blitz, they did blitz in the red zone more. I thought the Redskins got a lot of pressure. in the first half, not enough in the second half. The problem really, and the reason I'm mentioning this particular item on my list of things that I didn't like, is I thought that there was some occasional confusion in the secondary again, in particular on the two easy throws to Tori Smith for the touchdown and then the two-point conversion. It's just something that I think still looks like an issue they've got to get worked out.

All right, a couple of other things that I didn't love. I said before, I thought Jay coached a good game yesterday. I really do. They were ready for the football game. They played with desperation. They played smart for most of the day. They didn't beat themselves. And that's usually what decides games.

One team makes mistakes. The other team doesn't. The team that doesn't wins the game. That's what happened yesterday. But two nits to pick with Gruden. One's a play calling knit, and the other is a clock management knit. get used to that. First, the play calling, constructive criticism, because I'm not really upset about this, but I thought it was an opportunity that he didn't feel in the moment. On the drive near the

two-minute warning in the first half, I'm not talking about the last one that started at the Carolina 33 after the Redskins got them to go three and out. Carolina threw the ball on third down, the Redskin, the clock stopped, and then Stroman returned the punt to the 33. I'm talking about the drive before that. The drive were on the play just after the two-minute warning. They ran the option where Mo Harris got it, ran for six yards, got out of bounds at the Carolina 41-yard line. So you got first and 10 at the 41. The Redskins have a minute 54 left, two timeouts, plenty of time for the whole playbook to be used. That drive started, that actual drive started at their own 25 with a 19-yard Adrian Peterson runs. So it already had success run.

running the ball on that drive. Well, after that first and 10 at the Carolina 41, they threw it three straight plays. First one was an incompletion to Richardson. The second one was the deep shot to Doxon that was incomplete, and then the third and 10 Smith got sacked. Why not run the ball at some point on at least one of those plays to get some yards and get closer to field goal range?

First and 10 at the Carolina 41 with a minute 54 left, there were no runs, no points, and a punt. I just think running the ball was still an option there. I'm not talking about at the expense of being aggressive and trying to score a touchdown. But given that they had been effective, spreading it out and running it with Peterson out of the shotgun, maybe that's second and 10 at the 41.

You try that, and maybe that gets 5, 6, 7 yards. You're in field goal range at that point. You can throw it on 3rd down if you want, but at least get something to get into field goal range. That whole sequence at the end of the first half, was frustrating because when they forced Carolina to punt again, got it back at the Carolina 33 after the Stroman punt return, they didn't get points there either. The intentional grounding was a killer play. By the way, I think that was a bad call.

I thought Alex Smith got hit when he threw it, which caused the throw to be nowhere near Capri Bibbs, but Bibbs was the intended target. You can see Smith look in his direction attempting to get it into his area. but the hit affected the throw. Then after the 10-second runoff, Smith scrambled for four yards, and then on third down, he got pressured and couldn't complete something underneath to get into field goal range. So two drives at the end of the half in Carolina territory, no points.

Here's the other knit-to-pick. Gruden's end of the game, clock management. Let me explain. So Gruden, I believe, needed to use a timeout on. defense is the Panthers had gotten it into the Redskins red zone. All right, Cam Newton's working the ball down the field. On a first down run by Newton with a minute 16 left, Carolina is on the skins 20-yard line. As the coach there, you have to understand probability.

You have to understand that it is better to have time left if they score than no time left if they score. or it's better to put yourself into position to have time left if they score and not really worry about if they don't score having to run the clock out on offense. Let me explain. First, you need to understand this if you're Jay Gruden in that moment as Carolina has entered the red zone down 23 to 17 with a minute 16 left. Carolina has all three of their timeouts left. They are not going to run out of time. Let me repeat that. With 116 left at the Skin's 20-yard line with three timeouts left,

the chances of Carolina running out of time, slim and none. The much more likely probability, all right? The probability is that they are either going to score or they're going to miss on a fourth down play that they'll have to go for because they're down six. In the first of those two possibilities, the Panthers scoring, what does Jay Gruden want if he's down 24 to 23? Does he want more time or less time?

The worst possible thing would be for Carolina to score a walk-off touchdown or a touchdown that leaves very little time left. What you can't have happen in that situation is they score and you take your two timeouts with you to the locker room. That's why you use timeouts on defense. Can you imagine if they had scored with eight seconds to go and Gruden's sitting there down 24, 23 with two timeouts left? You've got to use them on defense. There's only one chance to use a timeout after the play where Cam ran it for a third down,

and Carolina called it, which was stupid on Rivera's part, and then they threw the three incomplete passes. You can't risk a walk-off loss with two timeouts in your back pocket. that's a knit it's more of a knit really to pick it is what gruden really hasn't grasped as most coaches in the league don't really grasp you can't let the clock run out on you and lose the game 2423 if you understand that all right then you can deal with oh they got stopped on fourth down we used our two timeouts left and there's still a lot of time left in the game a minute nine left minute 10 left And in that particular situation, just so you know, it's a simple strategy. All right, so let's say the Redskins use both of their timeouts, and the Panthers failed on fourth and five.

At that point, there's going to be roughly 49 or 50 seconds left in the game. So now the Redskins have the ball from their own 16-yard line call it. Carolina still has three timeouts left, and you'll run three plays to force them to call all of their timeouts. And if you don't get a first down, yes, you're going to be forced to punt the ball with 30 seconds left in the game. All right. Now, in yesterday's situation, and these are all things you have to consider as a head coach, score, time, probability. And yesterday's situation, up 2317, if you had gotten the ball back and there were, like I mentioned, you got the ball back, and there were 49 seconds left when you got it back, and you ran three plays,

and now there are roughly 30 seconds left, 31 seconds left, and you've got to punt it, you're up six, you know what you do in that situation deep in your own territory, you snap it to your punter, and you tell them to run around for seven or eight seconds in the end zone and take a safety. Because 23 to 19 is no different than 23 to 17. Carolina is still forced to score a touchdown to win the game,

and now you can flip the field on the punt after the safety. and when Carolina finally gets it back, they've got it back with about 18 seconds left at their own 25-yard line, no timeouts, your chance of winning the game at that point is 99%. They're going to have to win it on a Hail Mary. Your chance of winning the game if they had scored on offense Carolina with 20 seconds to go was next to nothing. You've got to understand these things as a head coach.

I think Jay Gruden should have called the timeout on defense after they got into the red zone with a minute 16 left. And I would have burned both of my remaining timeouts to make sure that if they did score, I had time to go get in range for a winning field goal attempt. I mean, your kicker had already proven that he could kick one from 56 yards out. I did want to mention one other thing real quickly. I liked what Jay Gruden did overall on the day. Again, I think he had a very good day. there was a situation where he really managed it well.

Third and 12 at the Carolina 37-yard line in the second quarter. Gruden called a quick bubble screen to Capri Bibbs. Got six yards set up, it set up a much more makeable field goal. That's smart. All right? He's starting to realize third and 12, Smith isn't the guy to drop back. All right, his O-line's not having a great day protecting. They're already up 14-0.

He took the easy play for six yards and a field goal. I loved that decision. I want to get to a few other things. And then we're going to take a couple of calls. We're going to try that today, see if it works. For those of you that are listening, they didn't know that I was going to take calls today. You can write this down, 240, 245, 6225.

240, 245, 6225. So in the future, I'll tweet out that we're going to take calls at a specific time, and then you can call in. and I want to make that more of the show. I miss that from radio. I miss not being able to take calls. A quick couple of observations in addition to the things that I just went through the things I liked and didn't like.

Alex Smith's performance. He made a ton of plays, but to me he still doesn't look totally comfortable yet. He still isn't on the same page with Gruden, and I still think there should be more quick game, all right, quick passing game than we've seen. We saw it in the second half, not enough. of it in the first half. He's still occasionally getting quick against blitz pressure, and sometimes it's sort of false blitz pressure that he hasn't really assessed at the line of

scrimmage well. He was late a few times yesterday. Didn't really make a terrible throw that hurt his team. Got away with that double pump late throw to Floyd on a third down, could have been picked. But really the positive from yesterday is that he managed things very well. If you give Alex Smith, as I've mentioned here, since the trade, you give him a running game, you give him a balanced attack, you give him good field position, and they had that most of the day. He's going to play winning football. His two touchdown passes were beauties. The look-off, the safety to Vernon Davis throw coming back to the other side was a great throw. All right, the extra time that he created on the third and goal finding Richardson for a 14-0 lead, Vintage Alex Smith. He was

really accurate throwing to Vernon Davis in particular. How about the third and one play action throw to Davis? He's definitely the guy Vernon Davis that has some chemistry with Smith, and that's obvious from their days in Kansas City together. He made multiple extended play throws from the pocket and outside of it. He stepped up, maneuvered the pocket, found Richardson for 19 yards on a second quarter of throw. There was another throw to Richardson where he left the pocket, and came back to him over the middle for a first down throw. I loved him being used as an option quarterback on third and short when they pitched it to Harris. I think he used his cadence well, drew a couple of offsides, neutral zone infractions,

and he was really good on third downs. A couple of other observations. Josh Norman. I didn't put Josh Norman on the good list because I thought he had a good game and made some big plays. He also got, you know, he got torched a little bit in the second half. when they finally started to throw at him with Tori Smith and Devin Funches. But his forced fumble was a winning play, and they need more of those from him. He's so capable of making those plays.

He had a tough week, brought on by his play on Monday night and his benching. But he is one competitive SOB. That's always been what he's about. He got back to a corner, came out with one of the best games he's played in a long time. Good for him. A couple of other quick observations. I don't know if you guys noticed this at all, but the Redskins don't have any rotation in their defensive line.

None. Alan Payne and Ionitis are the only defensive linemen who played yesterday. Ziggi Hood, Tim Settle, didn't play one down of defense. Now, the skins were nickel almost the entire day, all right, with Fabian Moreau out there. They've also had Harvey Clemens out there for Zach Brown. That's in passing situations. It's clear that Greg Minnowski doesn't want Brown on the field covering anybody, which is good.

And Harvey Clemens had McCaffrey on the final plays. Brown can't cover. He's a major liability, even though I think he's one of their better playmakers in the run game. But there's been a mandate here, clearly from somebody, that the rotation of D-Linman that we've seen in recent years, that's not happening anymore. The best players are playing on defense the significant majority of the game. And it makes sense because in recent years, there wasn't much of a difference between, you know, the four or five or six guys.

There's a big difference between John Allen, Duran Payne, and Matt Ionitis. It's Dallas week. Seems like it's been a while for a Dallas-Washington game with some stakes. And did you know, by the way, that this will be just the third time in six seasons that the Redskins will enter a game against the Cowboys with a winning record. 2015 in the finale when they were 8 and 7 and then the 2016 Thanksgiving Day game was probably the biggest game in recent memory

between the Cowboys and the Redskins but the skins are a 1.5-2-point favorite Sunday at home and a battle for first place. All right, let's take some calls. Let's see how this goes. Let's go to Robert and Annapolis. It's been a while since we have talked to Robert and Annapolis.

Robert, how you doing? Good morning, sir. How are you? It's been a while. It's good to have you back on the air, especially during NFL season. I know you might have some other call or something. I make a couple quick comments on the two local teams. I was surprised you've been doing very well with your smell picks, I know, but I was

surprised you didn't give out the Ravens. A lot of action had gone on Tennessee, so using your philosophy, I want a few ducats on that. I leaned Ravens, liked the Ravens last week, and I should have put them in there, but believe it or not, there was some sharp money late in the week on Tennessee, which is why I backed off it. Understood. Now, on both of the local teams, on the Redskins, of course, it appears they have enough talent to be competitive. They have a problem if they get behind.

If they get ahead like they did yesterday, they're much more effective team. I don't think they have enough speed on really either side of the ball or some big-time playmakers. And I know you've got your eye on the Ravens. I think they're flying under the radar to many others, but they got a lot of speed on defense. And as long as Flacco and its receivers perform well, you know, they fall flat every now and then like they did against the Brown. I think both of these teams have legitimate shots to make the playoff. All right. Just one correction.

We don't have two local teams, Robert. You do where you live, but where I live in Washington, D.C. Yes, there's one local team, but you are right. I am super high on the Ravens. I pretty much picked him to get to the Super Bowl this year. And even after watching last night's game, the Chiefs Patriots game, I'm not convinced that it's preordained that we're going to have Chiefs Patriots, too, in the AFC Championship game.

I think the Ravens could bloody up either one of those two teams. Because you have to focus on the defense Yes, it's nice to score a lot of points But those teams give up too many points And that's what the Ravens are able to do And the Redskins have been performing well defensively too They're much better on that front seven Thank you so much for calling

It's great to hear your voice again But less Ravens talk the next time you call in Thanks Robert Let's go to Ian Ian, been a while What's going on? Kevin, so proud of you loving the podcast. Actually enjoy it more than the radio show, but missed the call-in. So loving

that you added this component. But I think the topic de jure is, is this team any good? And it's what you said at the beginning of the year. They are a bounce away from being a good team, a bounce away from being a bad team. But after five games, I think this is an eight-and-eight average team, average coach, average defense, some days above average. And a quarterback that, will give you a good day, bad day. Everyone wants to pin it on Adrian Peterson, and I wish Tom was in today, and you were taking these calls,

because the thing with Adrian Peterson is, I think you'll see this pattern throughout the year. He'll have an outstanding game, a bad game. An outstanding game, two bad games, because his body just needs more time to recover, and more and more defenses, I think, are going to kind of understand where the flow is of this team. Look, the division is not great.

I don't think Dallas is that good. Giants are horrible, and Philly is not the runaway winner that we thought they would be. I think this is an eight and eight team. Look, I think after yesterday I've come to one conclusion that, and I'm going to give him credit for it when he's on with me tomorrow. I think they are very reliant offensively on Adrian Peterson. If they run the ball, they give the quarterback what he needs, which is balance. He's got to have balance to succeed. Most of us knew that when they made the trade.

It's not a bad thing. That's not criticism. People were killing me last week for saying, God, you're so condescending towards Smith. No, most quarterbacks can't succeed without good balance, without a good team around them. My point was when they made the trade, and what we've seen here in the first five games,

is that he's not the last guy where you can just drop him back 40 times a game and have success moving the ball and score. points. That's not going to happen with this guy. This guy needs a running game. It's proven over a long career with him. You need some playmakers. And if you get that, he will play winning football, which is what he did yesterday. He made just enough plays, creating time in the pocket or outside of it, and he didn't make any killer mistakes. And they won a game that they deserved to win because the other team beat themselves and the Redskins didn't. So I, but back to

Adrian Peterson, I do think now that there is something so unique about him compared to the other people they have. Not Thompson. Thompson can run effectively like Peterson, especially when they spread it out and run it. But Peterson's a difference maker on this team. And if he's healthy and if he runs well over these final 12 games, I'm sorry, final 11 games, they're going to have a chance to win in these games where he plays well. You may be right. It's one game on, one game off because of his age.

I don't necessarily think that's the truth. I think they have to concentrate on figuring out ways to stay balanced with him being effective in the run game. And they couldn't do it against the Saints because they got behind quickly. And Indianapolis stoned their running game. They couldn't run it against him. Yeah, and I think I don't disagree with anything you said. The issue is that you've seen passing numbers continue to increase. I get that the Redskins receivers aren't good, elite, or whatever adjective you want to use,

but you need a quarterback, especially when you bring him on, you extend him, that you can't be focused on having a balanced running attack. The NFL every single day, every single year goes more and more towards passing. Yeah, but that doesn't eliminate the old winning style of football, and that's what I led with today is the Redskins won with an old trial. ride and true winning formula. Balanced attack, good special teams, win the turnover battle, don't commit any heinous penalties, and you're going to have a chance to win the game. And that, you're right, more teams than not are trying to throw the football to succeed, and

that works too. But the old formula works also, and it's the old formula that is going to work for this team if it's going to work at all, because they don't have a guy that they can just drop back and spread everybody out and kill people with weapons all over the field through the air. They don't have that guy. The other formula, though, Ian does work. Thanks for the call. Appreciate it. Believe it or not, I'm actually glad to hear your voice. Yeah, same. Same. So we'll try to continue to take some calls even if Ian calls in more often than others. We're going to keep trying to make that happen, and it worked pretty well there, at least on the first try.

Bring in J.P. Finley from NBC Sports Washington, who has been kind enough to be our after game guest to sort of go through everything that happened yesterday. I started off by saying that, you know, I heard a lot of reaction from fans about not, you know, being overly impressed with the win. And I'm thinking, what are you guys talking about? That was old style winning football. win the turnover battle, control the clock, control field position, don't make big mistakes, run the football, be balanced. And I just thought overall, it was much more positive, especially given where they were Monday night after the New Orleans game, that it was a really solid response. And if you're predisposed to thinking glass half full, that was a glass

half full performance. What did you think? I'm with you, Ken. I think there's a lot to move forward from. I think the performance of Adrian Peterson isn't getting talked about enough. Yes. That guy was legitimately hurt. He separated his shoulder a week ago, and he went out there and was really the Redskins offense. I mean, Alex did not play particularly well. He didn't play bad, but he didn't play very well. And Adrian Peterson, to me, went out and won that game for the Redskins, him and the defense. And there's nothing wrong with that. If we, football, football has gotten to be everybody wants what that Chief's Pats game was Sunday night,

which was an awesome game to watch, but you don't have to score 43 points to win. It's kind of interesting. If you look at the other side of the field, what the Panthers have done for a while, they've proven capable of having some big offensive outputs, but they've been running the ball and playing defense for a while in Charlotte, and it's worked. Now, the Redskins don't have a dynamic passer like Cam Newton, a dynamic talent like Cam Newton. But I think yesterday's win is more important than a 2317 final.

And certainly, you know, Cam had an opportunity to get the score late in the game that could have lost it, but they didn't. And I think that's a Redskins fan to look at is, hey, they're three and two, first place in the division. Onward, they keep moving this thing forward. And there was way more to take away that's good than bad. We can sit here and dissect the second half offensive struggles as much as you want, but they move the ball enough to get those big field goals.

Their special teams played really well. I mean, how often have we talked about games where special teams let them down? That wasn't the case yesterday. And we've also seen a lot of Redskins games where situations like that, there is a late turnover that turns the tide in a game and costs them a win. That turnover never came yesterday. Boy, you know, average minds think alike. because you and I are on the total same page because number one, you know, the second half,

and I mentioned this, I'm like, for those, and I got a lot of this on social media, for those that think they took the pedal off the gas in the second half, that's just an inaccurate take. They had three drives in the second half where they kept the ball for nine plays, ten plays, and twelve plays, scored on two of them, field goals, but they scored on two of them, and they ate up 17 plus minutes of the clock. That is not an unproductive second half by any measure in a tight football game where you have the lead, by the way. Secondly, totally agree with you on special teams. It goes back to what I said, old style winning football.

You mentioned this. There are multiple ways to win in the NFL. A lot of people are winning by just opening it up and throwing the football a ton like in the game we saw last night. although New England really ran the football well in that game with Sony-Michel, but the Redskins won the turnover battle, won the penalty battle, won the time of possession, one field position, and their special teams were outstanding yesterday, making play after play, and they won the game.

And the last thing, and this is what I want to get to, because to me this is now a major sort of key moving forward. Adrian Peterson, to me, was the star of the game yesterday, and it's not even close. He doesn't look 33. He played hurt, as you mentioned. He averaged 5.7 yards per carry. The first tackler never gets him down. I know how important, and you know how important,

a balanced attack, a running game is for Alex Smith. I think he's the key right now to the rest of the season because I don't see a plan B for Peterson right now on the roster. What do you think, like project, can we get 11 more games from Adrian Peterson like the one we got yesterday? I know the Redskins would love to get that kind of performance for 11 more games, but there's two factors. In the five games they played so far, that performance hasn't been consistent.

As good as AP was yesterday, as good as he was against the Packers, and as good as he was against the Cardinals, there were two dog games against the Colts and against the Saints. It's not all-on-Petersson. The offensive line played a big part in that. You know, the defense played a bit away from the run game because they were facing big deficits. But to say 11 more games of Peterson, like we saw yesterday, I think honestly you'd hope to get

seven or eight more games like that and give the skin the chance to win six or seven of those. I think the other part of this is the injuries are mounting. What he did yesterday was incredible, and we talked to him in the locker master and he said, I knew it was going to be painful, but I just decided it was going to be mind over matter. And that is admirable and impressive, but I don't know the long time. term ability that brings. A separated shoulder like he told us he's

sustained in the Saints game, the only real recipe for that to fix that is rest. Obviously, rest isn't in the cards for Adrian Peterson. And Kevin, I wanted to suck it back to one other thing. The fans that want to say they took their foot off the gas towel in the second half,

Jay Gruden made a very aggressive play call to go for it on fourth and out early in the third quarter. And that granted they did not convert and so then all of a sudden it's a bad play call but that is absolutely not taking your foot off the gas if anything I kind of had this in my notes from the game

I would have liked I think it would have made more sense for the Redskins to try to kick the really long field goal going into halftime rather than punting if you remember they punted what would have been like a 56 57 yarder I think it would have made more sense to kick there and then to kick the field goal, it's to start the third quarter than what they did in reverse to punt and to try to go. Well, for the first time in this conversation,

the average minds are going to separate a bit because I actually mentioned earlier that given that they had a 17-6 lead at that point, it was frustrating that they had two possessions there in the final two minutes of the first half and came away with no points in Carolina territory. but I actually thought that was a good, smart decision because the last thing you want is a missed 56-yarder, and now you got Carolina with time and a chance to get on the board at 17, 9 at half. I actually, I like that decision. So by the time that kick gets up through the air, we're talking about nine seconds on the clock.

Oh, you're talking about the very final. I was, I'm sorry, I was talking about the one before it. Okay, well, the one at the very end of the half would have then been about a 59 yarder, I think, right? It was a bomb, but I think given the situation and given the Hopkins has a big leg, now, Hopkins was somebody before the game, the field was kind of wet and the air was heavy, so the ball wasn't flying quite as much as it would on a, you know, a good warmer day. So I think that was probably a part of it. But I think if people want to say they took their point off the bass,

from the second half. I don't think that's accurate. It's not accurate. He tried to go for the kill shot right away in the third quarter. Listen. I think that's what the team needed. Listen, there's nothing that says that your foot's off the pedal when you send your kicker out in a one possession game at 17 to 9 to boot a 56-yard field goal.

All right? That's aggressive. But we did find out, right, that Jay thought it was a 53-yarder. You heard what he said in the press conference. But how does your coach not know that that's a 56-yarder? He thought it was 53, and he said if he had known it was 56, he may have called a time out, and maybe either punted it or gone for it. But Hopkins—

They needed it. Yeah, Hopkins nailed it. I know you've got to run real quickly. Did they get out of the game unscathed? What's the deal with Sheriff? Any other injuries? You know, Brent's Sheriff came back in the game after the new scare and finished that game, so you've got to think he's okay, but clearly he's playing through serious game.

Every day in the locker room, we see him and he has a big break. some of there. That me is an issue, but I think maybe the injuries will kind of the up direction that you might get Chris Thompson back, you might get Jameson Crowder back. I'd be very curious. I know Thompson wanted to go Sunday. Crowder's injury, I think, I wasn't surprised he didn't play, but poor Richardson has been good for him. I don't think he ain't worse yesterday. So, you know, as far as injuries, well, coming out of New Orleans, there was so much trouble to be had. Yesterday, like most guys got through it, I'll talk. Hey, thanks for the time. As always, I'll talk to you this week.

I am happy to be the day after game guy for the Kevin Shea podcast. And as always, JP and Rich Tanler do a great podcast, Redskins podcast as well. That's available everywhere. You can download a podcast, and it's available at NBCSportswhington.com, right? It is. One podcast or another. I think it's very cool that you're trying to bring the call, man. I think that's great. I overworked out. Yeah, we just tried it today for the first time because we're in this new studio where we can do that.

We'll see how it works. Thanks, JP. As always, really appreciate it. See you later, man. Great to have JP Finley as a part of this show on the day after the game. He does such a good job of covering the team for NBC Sports, Washington. And again, that's a good podcast, too, with JP and Rich. Let's go around the NFL.

Crazy day in the NFL yesterday. Again, you know, this NFL, season through six weeks has been one of the most entertaining starts to a season in forever. Points are up, offenses up, but that's not really the reason. I think that's a reason that a lot of people are enjoying it. I like good old style defensive football. Like I actually really enjoyed watching the Ravens do to Tennessee what they did yesterday. I'll get to that in a moment. but the games have been tight, close games at one point in the one o'clock window. I think he had four or five games that were one possession games in the final five minutes.

The late games yesterday, not so much. They were all blowouts. And then last night you got what was to date the game of the year, and it lived up to it. I don't want to sound overly hyperbolic. I think that's the word. that was one of the great regular season games in NFL history. It will go down as one of the more memorable NFL games in recent NFL history in the regular season.

We've had some great memorable playoff games in recent years. But last night's game, the hype going into it, Patrick Mahomes, 5 in O Kansas City in Foxborough against Tom Brady. So the air appearance there, according to everybody, And then you've got the goat, and it's in Foxborough, and it's on Sunday night, and the Patriots have turned it around. They now look like the Patriots again. And it was just a game that was breathtaking start to finish. The Patriots start off.

They can't be stopped. I'm telling you, and I've said this all year, Kansas City is not going to be in the Super Bowl. I do not see a team that bad defensively, and they may be one of the worst three or four teams in the league. defensively. You just, you know, Indy did it one year, but the year that Peyton won it and their defense wasn't very good. They were injured most of the year and then they got guys like Mathis and Frini back late in the season. So all of the sudden, when they got into the postseason, they had a pass rush. You know, Kansas City just sucks on defense. They can't stop anybody. And I just don't see a team like that. New Orleans won the Super Bowl. I think New Orleans

had the worst ranked defense of any Super Bowl winner in NFL history. I think it was 22nd. I could be wrong. That's my memory. It was something in the 20s. Kansas City has right now one of the three or four worst defenses in the NFL. But good God, are they unbelievable to watch offensively? Here's the counter, though, to the point, in the AFC, outside the Ravens,

among the presumable Super Bowl contenders, who has a good defense? Not the Steelers, not the Patriots. Chargers have potentially a very good defense. defense, especially when they get Joey Bosa back. That's true. And I'm just going to throw out one other team. People laughed at me on Twitter last night when I said, don't presume that what we saw last night is going to be repeated in the playoffs in the AFC championship game because the AFC is deeper than people thought at the beginning of the year.

And Baltimore, Pittsburgh, the Chargers, and yes, the Texans may have something to say about that when we get to the postseason. And in terms of defense, Aaron, the Ravens and the Texans will bloody you up. And they'll bloody teams like New England and Kansas City up in a cold weather game in January. I don't think the Texans are going to win the Super Bowl or get to the Super Bowl or even get to the AFC championship game. I'm just telling you that the Texans defensively are nasty. Baltimore is unbelievable defensively. I'll get to them in a second and what they did.

It was nearly historic. The game last night featured Tom Brady throwing for 340 yards in the game. Patrick Mahomes throwing for 352 yards in the game. Tyreek Hill had three touchdown passes, three touchdown catches out of the four that Mahomes threw. Mahomes also threw two picks in the game, including one early. They got behind in that game 24 to 9. And then they came back. They had a long kickoff return in the game.

It was just one offensive body blow followed by the next one. I don't think, I'm going to look this up real quickly. I don't think New England punted in the game. I meant to look that up before I started, but I can get that real quickly. I don't think New England punted in the football game. They did not punt. No punts for New England in the entire football game.

They went for it on fourth down, that first drive, and then after it. Dustin Colquitt only punted once. You had one punt in the entire game. You had a game in which Kansas City threw for 352, ran it for 94, Hunt averaged eight yards per carry. New England threw it for 340, but they ran it for 173. Sony, Michelle, is now, you know, look,

you know, we've always said about New England, where are the stars that Brady plays with? Well, Grunkowski, we know, is a star. Guess who may be their next star? Sony Michelle. 106 yards last night, four and a half yards per carry. Edelman is now back and looks great.

Josh Gordon had five catches last night. They used Cordell Patterson as a runner and a pass catcher. James White, hello? James White's still a good player for them. You know, 40 yards rushing and another 53 catching. Hogan, the lacrosse player, was big last night. It was just an incredible game. I will just get to this point at the very end when Kansas City tied the game at 40 to 40.

They tied the game at 40 to 40 on a 75-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Hill, where Hill catches it in the middle of the field and then is a blur to the end zone. He is the most electrifying NFL pass-catching star. The game is seen from a speed standstill. point in a long, long time. I know some of you old-timers will say Bob Hayes. I know there have been great speedsters over the years, Jerry Rice, although Jerry Rice wasn't a 4-3 guy.

Tyree kills a 4-2 guy, and in a uniform looks faster. But when they scored with three minutes and three seconds left, I was hopeful of a 47-47 overtime game, but I knew with 303 left the Patriots would figure out of for a walkoff. And the one opportunity that Kansas City had on the long pass to Grinkowski was to let Grinkowski score. I know that sounds crazy. But in that game last night, all right, the long pass to Gromk, it was a 40-yard pass that went down to the Kansas City nine-yard line, with under a minute to go. The only chance Kansas City had at that point was to let him score,

don't tackle them. I don't think Gronk would have been smart enough to get down. And then you would have had 50 seconds or so for Kansas City to try to answer and force overtime. It's one of those things you don't think of at all when you're a player but one of the coaches I feel like before the drive said

if anyone gets behind you, you'll let them score. You don't try to tackle them. Yeah, because it's going to happen eventually in New England off of that play. They were then in perfect position for the walk-off field goal, which Gostowski made, and it ended up being an all-timer, 43-40. And those of you that have listened to my radio show in the past, you know I'm into

these things, don't ask me why, but usually things numbers related I'm into. It was the first 43-40 NFL final in history. Squaragami. Never has happened before. Let's get to the Cowboys and the Jaguars. I actually almost gave Dallas out as a... a smell test pick. I liked Dallas. I didn't say it. I may have said it that I sort of thought they had a chance to win this game, but nobody could have seen coming what came yesterday with

the Cowboys, the Redskins next opponent. They beat the Jaguars 40 to 7. Prescott was throwing the ball around the field in the first half, but more importantly, and this is the key to Dallas's offense, I said it a few weeks ago. Dak Prescott, like Cam Newton, like a few others, if you pose him as a run threat, as a part of your run game, and you can create 11 on 11 in the run game. With Prescott running a lot of zone read, a lot of RPO stuff, you are going to be much more successful moving the football and your play action stuff is going to work a lot better. He had 82 yards rushing on 11 carries. Zeke Elliott went for a buck six, but really where they did their damage was in the first half

with him throwing the football because they had Jacksonville completely off kilter. Jacksonville didn't know if Prescott was going to run, if he was going to hand it to Elliot, they couldn't figure it out. And Beasley ended up with nine catches, his big day of the year so far, 101 yards and two touchdowns. And they destroyed Jacksonville, who I really thought coming into this season had a chance to duplicate what they did last year because of their defensive talent. Offensively, they have missed Fournet.

Make no bones about it. You can say what you want about T.J. Yeldon, he's a really nice back. You can control the clock offensively with Fournet. And Bortles off of Fournet, running the football consistently is better. Bortles yesterday, another pick, sacked a bunch of times, and Jacksonville right now really struggling to score points. and it's going to hurt more when they keep turning it over. I think they had two or three more turnovers yesterday after five last week.

Dallas comes to Washington, three and three. They've won three home games. They've lost three road games. And you've got a first round battle at FedEx Field. The Redskins early one and a half, two-point favorite somewhere around there. How about the Rams yesterday? Gurley, 208 yards rushing a record high for him. It was a homecoming for Wade Phillips.

The game was supposed to be a snow game, but the snow stopped right before kickoff. It was still cold, 25 degrees. In fact, this actually surprised me. The game time temperature of 25 degrees, the second coldest in Denver history for a football game prior to November. I remember a couple of Monday night games in the 80s in October that were snow games, but I guess the temperature was above 25 when it snowed. Denver's defense is still really good. Look, they held a team averaging 33 points a game to 23 in the 23 to 20 win.

Von Miller had a sack and a half, and Bradley Chubb, their first round pick, three sacks in the game yesterday for Denver. There's still, you know, a work in progress offensively with Case Keenham, but their defense is still good. We get to the Ravens. The Ravens piled up a team record, 11 sacks in their 21-0-0 shutout of Tennessee. Okay, Tennessee's struggled offensively this year.

I get it. But they're a good football team. Tennessee's not a terrible football team, and they had zero chance in this football game because of Baltimore's defense. Zero chance. They had nine drives Tennessee did in the game. They punted it nine times.

Nine punts, nine drives, nine punts, Five, three and outs. Baltimore's first drive was 17 plays 94 yards, and it took over nine minutes off the clock. They converted 12 of 17 on third down. Baltimore's balanced this year offensively because they've got weapons, as I mentioned early in the year, finally for Flacco to throw to. Sneed is a player. John Brown is a difference maker that they haven't had speed-wise,

and Crabtree, I thought, had his best game of the year. year. I don't think he dropped a ball yesterday. And I love Alex Collins. Love him. I think he's a really good back. He had 19 carries 54 yards. Tennessee's defense is really good. But Collins can play and will be a factor for them in some of these games late in the year in cold weather when they approach the postseason, which I think they're going to be in. Baltimore was just dominant. The most dominant defensive day of the year. They get their biggest test, really, of the season next week at home against New Orleans. So you get one of the best offensive teams coming in against Baltimore's, perhaps, best defense in the NFL next week.

That is a big game in the NFL next week. Minnesota 1-2717. Kirk ran for one, through for one. but how about Adam Thielen? Another 100-yard-plus performance catching the ball. The sixth in a row, first player in the NFL since 1961 to start a season with a streak that long. His 58 catches right now are the most in the league, and he's on target right now to shatter the record for catches in a season.

Now, one thing that came out of the game, you're going to be surprised about this, but Kirk had another fumble. It's his fifth fumble of the year. He leads the league with five lost fumbles. And yes, that has been a problem for him in the past. They also have a major problem along their offensive line and pass pro. He got hit yesterday. He got sacked four times, hit eight times,

and he had seven passes deflected at the line of scrimmage because of the pressure. With that said, finally, Minnesota, against a bad opponent, I will grant you that. Against a bad opponent, though, the worst rush offense in the NFL, Minnesota, by a mile coming into the game, got their first breakout performance running the ball of the season. Latavius Murray went for a buck 55 in the game. Minnesota gets to three, two, and one.

But they have a much tougher than you would think opponent next week on the road in the New York Jets who are playing some defense right now. Pittsburgh is now all of a sudden right back into the thick of it. You know, that Tampa game that they had on Monday night a few weeks ago was for many sort of a make or break game because in the moment they were, you know, zero, one, and one. And they beat the bucks. They got pummeled by the Ravens. The score wasn't really reflective of how they got dominated. But now two big wins in a row against Atlanta last week and going to Cincinnati and what really is a fierce rivalry. I mean, you talk about two teams that hate each other. Bengals and Steelers, and they scored on, they were in field goal range at the end of the game with 10 seconds to go,

and Ben noticed something at the line of scrimmage and threw a quick slant to Antonio Brown, who ran it in, sprinted into the end zone 31 yards. They went at 2821. By the way, listen to this. The Bengals are 2 and 16 against the Steelers in Cincinnati during Marvin Lewis's 16 seasons. That includes two playoff losses. Two and 16. He has faced Pittsburgh 18 times at home since he's been the coach, and they're two and 16 against the Steelers at home. There was a great game in the one o'clock window yesterday. Crazy game. The dolphins beat the Bears in overtime, 31.28, and this almost didn't happen because Kenyon Drake fumbled as he was going into the end zone on the first drive of overtime to win the game. Fumbled. The Bears got a back. and they drove it down into field goal range,

but Cody Parky missed the field goal, and then the Dolphins took over, and they ended up winning a walk-off overtime, final play of the overtime field goal. We were almost in another tie situation. I hate this 10-minute overtime rule, people. I think it should go back to 15 minutes. Come on, seriously, how much safety is there really

in an additional five minutes of overtime? you're going to have another tie or two this year. You've already had two of them, and there have been a couple of games like this one that have come down to the last kick in overtime. Last week, the Browns did it against the Ravens, and you're going to end up with some more ties. But Miami, I don't know.

I mean, I just haven't seen enough of them to know if their four and two is totally fraudulent. But Brock Osweiler started. Brock Osweiler is the Bears Cryptide, apparently. Apparently so. he threw for 380 yards and three touchdowns, subbing for Ryan Tannaill, who they scratched late because of a shoulder injury in that game. Mitch Trubisky, 316 yards throwing at three second half touchdowns,

but they had two turnovers in the red zone. I don't know what to make of the Bears either. You know, there are a couple of interesting divisions right now. I think the AFC East will be won by New England, potentially going away, but Miami's better. they're four and two, but the Patriots destroyed them. I'll tell you who is good, really good on defense are the Jets, and you know who else is really good on defense?

And I mentioned this on Friday, even though I took the Texans, because I thought the line sort of reeked a little bit. It was too high. The bills are very good on defense, very good on defense, with two X Redskins leading the way as pass rushers. Lorenzo Alexander, as we know, he's done in Buffalo, but Trent Murphy as well. The Chargers blew out the Browns. That was a smell test pick that went awry. The Brown's first non-competitive loss, non-competitive game they've been involved in this season. You know, the Chargers are quietly four and two. The two losses being to the Rams and the Chiefs, they still, at this point, still do not have Joey Bosa back. You know, he is a defensive MVP type of player.

have talent, though, on defense, and Durwin James is really turning into the player many thought he would be when he was drafted by San Diego, by Los Angeles. But Ingram and Perryman and Brandon Mebain, they've got defensive players. Casey Hayward, they've got players defensively. They're really good players. Chargers are a team to keep an eye on. The Texans got an interception late to beat the bills. Nathan Peterman. I don't know. know what anybody sees in him. And the game that was really almost decided by what would have been one of the craziest plays was the Tampa Atlanta game. Tampa was a smell test pick yesterday plus three. And I will just mention this and this is the last game I will mention from yesterday.

It's 2420. I'm sorry, it's 3129 Atlanta late in the game. All right. They have failed on a third in two at the Tampa. Tampa's out of timeouts and they have failed on a third and two play at Tampa's 39 yard line. There's about a minute 10 left in the game after they run the clock down before a fourth down decision. They sent their field goal kicker out there. Now this clearly upset me because I had Tampa Bay plus three and the score was 31-29. So I was expecting a punt. I was expecting a in that situation, not a 57-yard field goal attempt. You know, a 57-yard field goal attempt, there's a decent chance it's going to be missed,

even in this day and age indoors, and Matt Bryant's a hell of a kicker. If it's Tucker 1, it's probably Matt Bryant number 2 right now in the league. But they sent old Matt Bryant out there, and he nailed it from 57 yards out to give the Falcons a five-point lead. If he misses that kick, Tampa is one. uncompletion away from field goal range. And not for a tie, but for a win. He made the kick, and Tampa drove it right back down the field on the final play of the game. This was an interesting

strategy on the final play of the game. Tampa's got no timeouts left, and the ball is at the Atlanta 20-yard line, right around the 28- 21-yard line. James Winston was outstanding for most of the day yesterday in his first start. I'll get to that in one second. But the final play of instead of throwing it into an end zone where Atlanta had dropped their entire defense just into the short of the goal line just before the goal line to make sure nobody gets behind and whatever they throw has to be underneath they run a quarterback draw with Winston. He starts rumbling and stumbling and then the plan was to pitch it to O.J. Howard, I believe. It got to Mike Evans.

And then to Mike Evans and then to Deshawn Jackson. and it was not the cleanest of pitch, from a pitch standpoint, execution standpoint, but on the last pitch to Deshawn Jackson, if it's a good pitch, he scores, and it's game over. But the pitch was at his feet, and he couldn't come up with it, and the ball lay on the turf. I think he got kicked out of bounds, and Atlanta held on for the win. It would have been an incredible finish, and it's a new strategy, and I think somebody, one of their players, I read this quote, essentially said, it's a shame because you can only do something like that one time.

Now teams are going to expect it, but think about that strategy. Instead of throwing it into the end zone on the final play of the game, they decided that they would try to run it in with a couple of pitches from the 21-yard line, and they got a good head start because the whole defense was back at the goal line. I remember Kansas City on a final Hail Mary opportunity at the end of the half in Dallas. Last year or the year before, I forget which year

it was, threw it underneath to Tyree Kill. And because the defense was sitting back on the goal line, he avoided a couple of tackles and ran it right in from about the 20-yard line. But anyway, I wanted to mention that, you know, there was a lot of discussion about James Winston getting this start for Ryan Fitzpatrick after Fitzpatrick had played pretty well in staking Tampa to a two-and-two start. James Winston did have two picks. One of them was a deflected pick in the red zone. But he was 30 of 41 for 395 yards. Atlanta's defense is another one that stinks.

And they move the ball up and down the field against the Falcons. The Falcons get to 2 and 4 and pretty much save their season because they get the Giants next Monday night at home to get to 3 and 4. And then after a buy, they come here to FedEx. But that was your day in the NFL. Give me a second to tell you about Window Nation. Harley and Aaron from Window Nation are fans and believers in this podcast and me and I want you to trust in them if you need new windows. They are my favorite window company, Window Nation is and it should be yours too. Temperatures are

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That's windownation.com or call 86690 Nation today. And remember this. I've purchased Windonation Windows, and I promise you that if you're even thinking about it, just call them and get a free estimate. There's no risk to having them come out to your home, giving you a free estimate, so you can take advantage of this huge offer. Call now 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com. Let's finish up the show with Weekend DBR.

I want to clear something up from Friday's show, first of all. The information that I had on the show Friday about Josh Norman did generate a lot of attention. I broke the news here if you missed it, that Norman was benched to start the second half in New Orleans because he was wearing headphones while Gruden was addressing the team at halftime and it didn't go well from there. It was picked up by many media outlets and was a topic yesterday morning on all the pregame shows and even during the broadcast of the game yesterday. As I mentioned on Friday, breaking stories hasn't and isn't really a focus for this show or any of the shows I've been a part of over the years. People like me are show hosts, not reporters.

It's a big difference. Breaking stories aren't really expected from us. It happens every once in a while, but people aren't listening to me or Zabe or Galdi or Doc or the guys on 1067 because they're expecting us to break stories. Most of the information I've been exposed to over the years has usually been. been used for my purposes for background information so that I can sort of through opinion on a specific topic be more informed. But a few times over the years, I've done more with the information, especially if I knew for sure that the information was right. And I thought that perhaps it could benefit the station I was working for, or in Friday's case, it could benefit

this podcast by being the outlet to break the story. Although I didn't really leave here on Friday thinking Aaron that it was going to get as much attention as it did. But it was good and I'm glad it did. But anyway, let me get to the point. Since the story broke here on Friday, something was assumed by a few, if not many that I'd like to clear up. My source for the Josh Norman story was not Chris Cooley. On my life and the life of my three sons, my source for the Josh Norman story.

story wasn't coolly. Because we did a show together and because we're good friends, I guess it's not illogical for people who don't know him well to think that he could have been my source, but he wasn't. And I promise you that if he had been the one to share that information with me, I would have never used it. And he knows I would have never used it had he been the one to share it with me. It wouldn't have been important enough to me to be to.

put him into that situation. So there's that. It wasn't coolly. The smell test over the weekend, 10 and 4 on Saturday, 0 and 3 yesterday in the NFL. The Tampa game was a painful loss. I've got the 49ers going tonight plus 9.5.

Overall, 39, 30, and 3 on the season. So still pretty damn good. The college really came through for me. A couple of the games that I was really, really adamant about came through. and a couple of them that didn't should have, like the Florida Vanderbilt game. Vanderbilt lost their best player in the first half

with a 21 to 3 lead and ended up losing by 10. Another late field goal when it looked like the push was a possibility. Maryland beat Temple handily. They've got an interesting... What did I say? Temple. They lost to Temple.

Maryland beat Rutgers Handily. Rutgers may be... Aaron, you texted me this during the game, and I think you're right about this. I think they're the worst division one. team in America. I don't know about Division 1, but definitely Power 5. Definitely.

They're the worst Power 5 team. Yes. It's close. It's close. Like, they are as bad as any team I've seen come into College Park in a long, long time. I don't think they would beat Liberty, who won again. I had them as a plus 9 smell test pick. Look, this is the deal with the Terps this year.

They've got four wins, two losses. You've got to get to six for bowl eligibility. and I'm not forgetting what's going on out there. Somebody tweeted me last week when I was talking about Maryland. How can you talk about Maryland without mentioning what's going on out there? I've talked about it a lot. We're talking football on this show. I don't know what will be revealed by the second investigation into Maryland football

to find out whether or not this toxic culture exists and what will happen to DJ Durkin. It's remarkable to me that there hasn't been a resolution to this at this point. I don't know why. I don't have, I have some insight on it, but it's not good enough to go with. I have an idea why. Go ahead. I mean, just based on the- Not reporting this, are you? No, no, not reporting this at all. It's just my gut, my hunch is they are looking for a reason to fire DJ jerking with costs.

They don't have it yet. I think that that is a very logical conclusion from any smart person that's followed this situation. They would like to not owe him any money when they fire him, but it's gone on this long. They haven't found something that would legally stand up. I don't think DJ Durkin's going to coach this football team ever again. I also don't think that if they found that he was not this toxic person in an organization that was abusive, I personally am not the person that thinks that bringing him back, he'll never be able to succeed after this. because he won't be able to recruit.

I think that's exaggerated a little bit, but I understand why it would be taken into consideration. Back to the football part of it, they have four wins to get the bowl eligibility. You need six. You need to be six and six. They have a win over Texas, which will be a really impressive win at the end of the year,

more likely than not. Texas could win the Big 12. I mean, hell, you know, it's one of those situations where if Texas did run the table, and there were upsets along the way, like West Virginia got beat, Notre Dame nearly got beat by Pitt. If they were to win against Oak State or they've got a home game against West Virginia, every other game on their schedule, they should be favored to win.

They've got tough games. They've got to play out Oak State, Oklahoma State this weekend. They're not very good. Actually, in two weekends, I think they have a bye week. They still have to play at Texas Tech, and they've got to play a tough Iowa State team. But imagine Texas gets to the end of the year is 11 and 1. and is one of those teams being bandied about about a playoff spot, but they keep coming back to, yeah, but they lost to Maryland.

That's a possibility. Maryland's got Iowa this week. Iowa's pretty good. Iowa is five and one with their one loss being to Wisconsin. They destroyed Indiana. Indiana was a smell test loser, one of the four of the 14 that lost on Saturday. They also really haven't beaten anybody, you know,

wins over Minnesota. you know, a tough win early over Iowa so I don't know what you'll get from Iowa, but here's what I know about Maryland. If they can't run the ball, they've got no chance. They have to be able to rush the football. You know, and on Saturday, on Homecoming,

they ran the football, nearly 300 yards rushing. They only had 85 yards passing in the game. But the most incredible statistic out of the Maryland Rutgers game was Rutgers through for eight total yards in the game. Two for 17 for eight yards throwing the football. In today's college football is just incredible. A couple of other games from Saturday that I wanted to mention.

The Georgia LSU game, it wasn't a close game like Florida LSU was the week before, but if you want to see the NFL before they get to the NFL, Just watch the SEC games on Saturday because the defense and the hitting and the speed defensively is unbelievable to watch. Man, the SEC, LSU is right there now. I mean, this LSU Bama game will be the biggest game of the year. It's certainly setting up that way. If LSU can take care of Mississippi State at home, that's their next game next week. And then they get a buy and then you get Alabama and LSU.

It'll be number one at that point against worst-case. number five, which is where they are right now, probably ranked even higher maybe. I don't know if anybody else is going to lose between now and then. Clemson has NC State this week. There are 17 point favorite. That's a high number. I think it might be a smell test selection this week. But if LSU can beat Mississippi State this week, then Saturday night, November 3rd in Baton Rouge, Death Valley, that'll be the game of the year. It'll be the first time Alabama has a legitimate test. LSU will be be playing at that in that moment for a playoff berth. Yes, they will be. They'll have to win an SEC title game, potentially in a rematch against Georgia or Florida, you know, in early December.

But that's what we're headed towards. I think they can beat Mississippi State at home. Mississippi State's a really good football team, very good football team. God, it's one after another for LSU over this stretch. It was Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, and Alabama in order. They still play Texas A&M to finish up the season in college station late. But that's what we're headed towards. And there is a big one in the SEC coming up. I said this about Florida to you on Friday, Aaron. I said they will prove a lot to me after their big win over LSU because I've been a Florida fan from the beginning of this year.

I think they have the most, they have the fastest defense in the country, and I think maybe the best defense in the country. and they were laying this short number to Vanderbilt, and they were down 21-3 in this game, and Vanderbilt lost their best player, but Florida got it going, and they won a game that was really telling for me. They won a game on the road that was a built-in trap game,

the let-down game on the road against a middling SEC team, the game that was ripe for upset, and they're getting the doors kicked off of them in the first half, 21 to 3, and they came back and they started to run the football. They started to make plays defensively. Felipe Franks is getting more and more confident. I like this Florida team in the Florida Georgia game,

which comes up in two weeks. Florida has a buy, then they get Georgia, and the game in Jacksonville is a massive game. In fact, back-to-back weeks, you get Florida, Georgia on October 27th, and then LSU Bama on November 3rd. And the college football season is really good. Michigan destroyed Wisconsin.

I like that. Oregon beat Washington in overtime. Man, Washington had a field goal in regulation to end it and missed it. Wasn't a long field goal. And SC as predicted here handled Colorado easily. And I will tell you that that freshman quarterback is getting better. And they're the team now. Now Notre Dame struggled with Pitt on Saturday.

They were lucky to win that game against Pitt. But SC's the team Thanksgiving weekend that could knock. off of Notre Dame. That would be the game that Notre Dame could lose now, because right now it would appear that Notre Dame's headed for 11.0. After surviving pit, they have Navy. Navy's not very good. I guess at Northwestern, Northwestern is not bad. Boy, Nebraska had a chance to get Scott Frost his first win. They did cover losing 34-31, but they had a 31-21 lead late and blew it lost in overtime. Florida State's not going to beat Notre Dame. They stink. Syracuse can't stop anybody. They're not going to beat Notre Dame in South Bend. So the game for the Irish between

being a participant in the 14th playoff or not is at Southern Cal in the Coliseum on Thanksgiving weekend. That's the game because SC started off slowly with their freshman quarterback, but all the sudden, all the sudden, you've got a guy in Daniels in their freshman quarterback that's starting to play better, and they're getting better. SC's going to be a dangerous team the rest of the way. It was a good college football weekend. Baseball-wise, I watched both the Dodgers Brewers game one, which was great. Oh, yeah.

You know, the Dodgers rallied late, had a chance with Justin Turner at the plate on Friday night, and then he redeemed himself with the home run, with the three-run shot on Saturday that helped the Dodgers even up that series. I'll be honest with you. I really, because of the football last night and on Saturday, really didn't catch much of either of the ALCS games. I know Boston last night was able to even up that series. I watched game one late Saturday.

You know, Bradley had the big shot, I think, in that one that drove in three runs and gave him the lead in the third inning. But good, both the series right now, one-one, so some competitive series there. in the baseball. Let me tell you about Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, because if you're thinking about a Chrysler, a Dodge, a Jeep, a Subaru, go to Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep in Fairfax. I've been friends with Ralph Perkins and Kevin Farish for over a decade.

They advertised on 980 with me as the title sponsor for my Redskins at one segment with Tommy for seven years, and my Redskins at eight segment with Cooley for two plus years, and they are with me here on this podcast. I want you to support them. I want you to give Ferrisch Chrysler Dodge Jeep a chance. I want you to call them up or head out to Farish and Fairfax. Tell Ralph Perkins you're there. He's going to connect you with the best salesperson that they have at Ferris.

They've got plenty of inventory. Great deals right now. Any Jeep right now, you're going to save big. As mentioned, they're located right there in Fairfax Circle. Ralph is in the store every day. He barely takes a day off. He'll come out and I promise you he's real. So many people have said, is Ralph Perkins made up? No, he's not made up and he is a friend of mine and he will know who I am if you mention my name. Farish Cars.com is a website that's got all of their inventory and live pricing. So if you want to just check out what they have, go to ferrishcars.com.

But if you've been thinking about something new, a car, a truck, an SUV, a minivan, give Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Fairfax a shot. You're going to get a great deal. Their service team is first rate, so you'll have that going for you as well after you purchase something from them. They've got to use cartelot, too. So if you're thinking about something used, give them a chance. All right, Redskins get a big win. It's Dallas Week. I'm excited about Dallas Week. Thank God they won the game and played well yesterday. They did play well. This was not a laydown second half effort. You're dreaming if you think that's what happened. They had three drives in the second half. They moved it on all of them. They kicked two field goals and they went

for a fourth down on the other one. This was a well-coached game for the most part. They bounced back with a level of urgency and desperation and fight that they had to have because if they didn't, the season we would have been talking about today would have been on the brink of disaster. Instead, they're three and two. They're in first place, and they have back-to-back division games now against the Cowboys at Home and the Giants on the road. They will be favored already to beat Dallas. They're one and a half, two-point favorites. And then the following week, more likely than not the way the Giants have been playing, they'll be favored to beat the Giants. They have a chance here to get to five and two. Do you know what the last, I think the last

time the Redskins were five and two was either 1999, potentially, I think they were five and two in 1999, and they definitely were five and two in 1991. And also 1996. They started off seven and one that year. But they've got a chance here, got a chance here with the schedule breaking right. Right now, the Redskins schedule, and I saw Steinberg tweet this out earlier, Dan Steinberg, The Redskins schedule right now, the rest of the way, as we speak, does not include a team with a winning record. Not one team on the schedule, the rest of the way, with a winning record. Now, are there teams that are 500? Yes.

The Texans are 500. The Cowboys are 500. The Eagles are 500. The Jags are 500. Are the Titans 500? I don't know if the Titans are 500. They've got some teams that we know forget record-wise aren't going to be easy. The Falcons aren't going to be easy because the Falcons can score.

At Tampa won't be easy. Houston at home won't be easy. All of the division games, even the two giant games, aren't going to be easy. At Jacksonville late in December, who knows what it'll be by the time you get there, but it doesn't look easy. At Tennessee doesn't look easy. But I just wanted to point out what Steinberg tweeted earlier that right now, the Redskins schedule, the rest of the way, does not include a team right now that has a winning record. It's Dallas week.

It's a big game between the Cowboys and the Redskins. As I mentioned, this will be just the third time in the last six seasons that the Redskins have played the Cowboys with a winning record. That's incredible to think about. That this rivalry that was once the best in the NFL and is not anymore, it's not been for a long time. It means a lot to the fans of the two teams, especially the fans that live through the heyday of the rivalry,

like me, I get excited. about all Dallas games every year. I'm not one of those people that says, hey, just give me two wins over Dallas and it's a great year. No, I don't want that. In fact, I'd trade two losses against Dallas for a 12 and 4 season and a number one seed in the NFC playoffs. But these games are always important.

The Redskins have not been successful against Dallas very often in recent years. It would be nice to get a win at home. Remember that game last year at home in the rain with all of the, the injuries that they had going into it. And they had the lead, I think, in the first half and at halftime. And then it was a Zeke Elliott show in the second half. They're better on defense. It should be, I believe, the first sellout of the year.

Isn't that weird to say? But this game should be the first sellout of the season. A lot of Dallas fans will be in the park. There were a lot of Carolina fans in the park yesterday. But this is a big game, even though just six days ago, go, a lot of you, and even me, were thinking, uh-oh, this is on the verge of spiraling out of control. That was a really good win yesterday. A good win. I'm not going to nitpick some of the things about the win that many of you have tweeted me about. Some of you weren't impressed at all.

Some of you called it fortunate or lucky. It wasn't fortunate or lucky. It was deserved. The Redskins didn't make mistakes. The other team did. The Redskins took it advantage of them. They played smart football. They played winning football yesterday. And they are three and two with a big home game against their arch rival on Sunday. A lot more on that game. We'll try to take calls again this week. The number 240, 245-6-225-2-2-5. I will tweet out a time in which we're going to take calls, but I would like now that we have the ability to do that to work that more into the show because that's probably more than anything else what I missed the most from radio, that I miss the most from radio, doing calls and interacting with callers,

especially on days after wins or losses and, you know, big topics and Fridays going into a football weekend. I always loved taking calls and making the callers a part of the show. If you like this show and you haven't rated it yet and you're listening to it on iTunes or any particular rating service, please rate it. That helps us write a review, quick review of it. That helps us as well. And for those that want to listen to the show and don't know how to do podcasts, tell them, first of all, subscribing doesn't mean they're paying for it. It's free, but very easily all they have to do is go to the kevin Sheehan show.com. There's a website. I think everybody that doesn't do podcasts that is intimidated by the word,

I think they all know how to go to a website, the Kevin Sheeenshow.com and the big play buttons right there. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to J.P. Finley for joining me today. Back tomorrow with Tommy will get his take on the Redskins win over Carolina. My guess is it isn't as positive as mine. Enjoy the day, everybody. Thanks.