The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins/Cowboys: Big Game Or Not?

Episode Date: October 18, 2018

It's a Sports Fix Thursday with Thom Loverro. Kevin and Thom start the show by talking about the fan interference call in the Red Sox/Astros game and whether Craig Counsell was right to pull the bait-and-switch with Wade Miley in the Dodgers/Brewers game. They then have a Wizards season preview, including how many wins Kevin and Thom think they end up with. They shift to the Redskins and ask if this feels like a big game, or a real Dallas week? They run down their NFL Power Polls, before sharing their thoughts on the passing of longtime Washington Redskins reporter Rich Tandler. The show wraps up with Scott Van Pelt joining the show. <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. You're listening to The Sports Fix. I'm here. Tom's here. Aaron's here. The 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, please, that we told you to call. If you missed Wizards coach Scott Brooks on the show yesterday, loved talking to him. I actually like him a lot. I don't know that he is. You don't know if he's a very good coach, though. Come on. I've had some issues with sort of some of what they do offensively over the years in Oklahoma City and here, but I really like him personally. You can listen to all of the past episodes. Like, just because you missed it yesterday doesn't mean that you can't listen to it today after you finish listening to this podcast. Because all you have to do is go into your iTunes account or, for most of you, just go to the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. hit past episodes and you can listen to every past episode, including all the ones I've done with Tommy.

You know, this is what I used to tell people when I was doing my podcast, cigars and curveballs. The beauty of the podcast is you can listen to it when you want and you can listen to two, three, four, five episodes. A lot of people will listen to the podcast while they're driving a long distance trip. If they've got to like drive to Philly or drive to New York or something like that, I get a lot of people who say I listened to three or four episodes while I was driving. I had somebody tweet me, I don't know, maybe a week ago and said, I binged you and Tommy on a drive to Pennsylvania or something. Yeah, this is what people do.

And I said, don't ever do that again. That's really not a great idea. But yeah, it's consumed differently. And thanks to all of you that are listening to the podcast and urge those that were fans of any of the shows we were involved. in together or apart or in Tommy's case is involved in now with Andy's on Saturday on 1067 and with Chad on Wednesday afternoons on 1067. Speaking of 1067. Tell everybody just to go to the Kevin Sheehan Show.com and it's so easy to listen to it right there if they don't know how to do it any other way. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaking of 1067, the fan, I was listening on the way in this morning to the junkies and I heard your boy on. Cooley told me he was going on. I didn't listen to it. Yeah. And? Well, he was on because I guess it's Burgundy Week. And I guess he's like the new mascot for the Redskins and he's going around town. Wait, wait.

Handing out merchandise. What are you talking? You know? He told me he had to do something that I don't think he was thrilled about doing. But that's beside the point. I don't want to speak out of school. He's got a hand out merchandise. Like no words.

What do you mean? Like at Walmart? Like a greeter? I think he's at Gallery Place as we speak, giving out Redskins, you know, memorabilms. billy or whatever. I don't know what you would call trinkets to anyone who's dressed in burgundy and gold. And I heard about this. This is why, look at my color shirt. You wore burgundy today. I wore burgundy. I'm hoping I see him and he gives me something. You're not. Something in particular, I'm hoping he gives me.

Okay. I have the press release right here. Chris Cooley will also be searching for fans wearing burgundy and gold throughout D.C., Maryland and Virginia this week to reward Redskins fans with autographed items and other prizes. Okay. So your problem with that is? What? No, I have no problem with it. Let me just say.

I think it's cute. Hey, you're so condescending. Here's the thing. And you, okay, put your, your relationship with my more recent partner to the side for a moment.

You, you've said that this is an organization that's dysfunctional, that's arrogant, that knows no way of being humble or being consumer-focused.

and now you've got a guy in the organization who is starting to try to push some of these things. Look, I agree. They're doing great marketing, you know, these days. They're in the ticket selling business for the first time that we know of. I mean, they've been in it for a while, but they're actually admitting to being into the ticket selling business. Yes. It's just kind of a little bit of a fall for the virus, you know? Okay, stop.

You see, you see? You see, I'm the old girlfriend. Listen, I'm the old girlfriend sitting here, buddy. All right? What do you expect? I'm in the middle of this thing, but the thing is, as you know, I've always wanted and believed that you both should be and would be the fastest of friends if you spent more time together.

Maybe we should do a three-song. I'm not going to be involved in that. Today on the show, Wizard's Season picks, NFL PowerPoll, Scott Van Pelt, a lot on the Skins Cowboys, including your calls on the Skins Cowboys, which we'll get to. And we can't tell you to call in right now because you haven't listened to the show yet because we're recording it. And we're also going to have a word or several on our friend Rich Tandler, who suddenly passed away two days ago. At the young age of 63 years old, Rich was a hell of a guy. And a lot of you that follow sports in the market, no Rich.

so we'll say a few words about him a little bit later on in the show as well. Right when this show ends, I can tell you what is on my to-do list. 7-11 for Mega Millions and Powerball. Is this the most combined dollar amount? It has to be. It's almost $900 million. Mega millions is 900 million. Powerball is $430 million.

Is it really? So that, by my math, is $1.33 million. million dollars. $1.33 billion. If you win this, you could potentially buy, I don't know, a third of the Redskins. You could. You want to start with the controversy in Houston last night? Yes, that would be a good place to start, even though most of the country only woke up to it because, I mean...

Well, that was early in the game. Yeah, but it's still, it's a second game. I want to talk about the first game, too. We'll get to that. But for those that missed it, in the bottom of the first inning, Altuve hits a deep shot to right field, all right, towards the right field wall. Runners on first. It's a 2-0 Boston lead in the bottom of the first.

Mookiee Betz gets to the wall, leaps, extends his arm high over the wall, and the ball bounces back onto the field of play. Replay show, I think clearly show that Betts' left arm stretches somewhere around the wall, We'll get to that in a moment. But as he tries to make the catch, his glove is hit by a fan. It closes the glove, and therefore what looked like a pretty good chance to make the catch, I believe, this is a very subjective thing. I thought he was on the verge of making the catch.

The fan's hand hits his glove, closes his glove, the ball comes back into the field of play. So the umpires rule that Altovae was out via fan interference. AJ Hinch, the Astros manager, comes out, argues with the crew chief and the right field umpire Joe West, who made the initial call, and then they go to replay. The review results in the call. Standing is called fan interference. That ruling nullified what would have been potentially a game tying two run homer if you don't know this.

Houston lost by two last night, eight to six in game four. They're now down three games to one in the series. Now here is the important part. MLB rule 3.16. When there is a spectator interference with any thrown or batted ball, the ball shall be dead at the moment of interference and the umpire shall impose such penalties as, in his opinion, will nullify the active interference. But the rule further states that, quote, no interference shall be allowed when a fielder reaches over a fence railing rope or into the stands to catch a ball. He does so at his own risk.

However, should a spectator reach out onto the playing field or on the other side of the wall, the playing field side of the fence, railing or rope, and plainly prevent the fielder from catching the ball, then the batsman should be called out for the spectator's interference. So the question is, to me, not whether or not the fan interfered with his ability to catch the ball, but whether or not his attempt to catch the ball was in the field of play or over the fence. And I thought that was really difficult to figure out. Where was Joe West in 1996?

Exactly. When the Orioles played the Yankees and Jeffrey Mayer, who clearly reached over the wall, put his glove out, and clearly interfered when he caught the ball, interfered with Tony Tarasco's at least opportunity to catch it. A clear fan interference. Last night to me, I'd say 85% that Mookie Betts' glove was over the wall in the stands and it was not interference. And it was a bad call. And the Astros got robbed. And just like the Orioles got robbed against the Yankees, which changed the whole direction of that ALCS against the Yankees.

You think his glove was, it's 85% that it was not in the crowd. No, I think it was. No, I think it wasn't interference. I think he reached over to catch the ball. And I think where he was trying to catch the ball was fair game for anybody, including a fan. So I don't know that it was 85%. I looked at every single replay last night and this morning.

I think it's probably more than 50%. There's the one shot where there's the one fan whose hands are on the wall, and it appears as if Betz's glove is beyond those hands, that would be sort of definitive proof. but I thought it was a tough definitive conclusion as to where that glove actually was. But I, if you told me I had to wager my life on it, I would side with you. Meaning, ultimately, it shouldn't have been fan interference and it should have been a two-run, home run. Or in that particular case, I think it would have been called a ground rule double because the ball came back out under the field, right?

But it hit one of the fans, though. It did. At least from the angle, there were two angles. One of the fans said it hit his hand. Right. It looked like it hit Betts's glove. It hits a fan and then it bounces back, which would be a home run. Joe West after the game. Did the ball cross over the wall when Betts jumped for it? West said no. Obviously, he said no. Right. That's what you call. That was the call.

And the review, the replay, stood. It wasn't confirmed. It wasn't because they said it wasn't conclusive. I didn't think it was conclusive. I thought it was conclusive. It doesn't have to be, I mean, it's like a court, a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt. to me it doesn't have to be 100% well it does per per the rule all these all these replay rules are the call on the field stands unless the

unless replay shows a conclusive result what's conclusive mean to you conclusive means what would you conclude from watching that video I think it has to be definitive I don't think there can be any sort I don't think there can be debate around it to flip the call on the field

I disagree. And I think there was legitimate debate. There's debate on almost every call, Kevin. Not everyone. So you're never going to get anything overturned if there's no room for a little bit of debate. They could have had better camera angles to determine that. Look, I thought the Astros got robbed, but I think Boston was going to win the series anyway. I picked the Red Sox to win.

David Price is starting the next game for them. I mean, because Chris Sayles in the hospital or not, I don't know if he's in the hospital, but he's got some stomach problems that they don't think will clear up. How about Jackie Bradley Jr.? I mean, this guy is so clutch in this series. And then how about the last catch by Benintended? That he doesn't catch that ball? That ball goes to the wall.

Oh, Houston wins. Yes. It's probably a walk-off triple. The bases are loaded for Bregman when he came up. I was up. I did not stay up until 2.30 the night before. But I did watch that game last night. I thought both games were great.

And the best part, before we get to the discussion about, the first game last yesterday afternoon and I love the the afternoon championship series games just brings me back to you know because they all seem to be played on weekdays in the afternoon you know I can remember in my English class at East Strausburg High School 1951 1969 when the Met were in the World Series right our teacher you know shutting down class for today putting on the TV was that your first sixth grade or second sixth grade year and watching the the mess. You were barely even in class at that point.

You were selling Valentine off of a truck. I was an academic whiz when I was a kid. Things went south after that. First of all, let me just say this. Clayton Kershaw, they kept describing it this way. And if you watched it from the beginning, it was very sort of appropriate. It was a grinding great performance because he was in trouble

multiple times early and was able to get out of it, go seven complete, three hits, one earned run. He was coming back for the eighth because he batted in the seventh and scored in the seventh. He walked and ended up scoring, but they put two more, I think, on the board in the seventh, had a five-one lead, so they came in with relief pitching in the eighth, and they won it. But I knew that I think Aaron, did Aaron, do you text Tommy this? I think you texted both Tommy and I, that Tommy would have a real. I put it up on Twitter.

Yeah, would have a major problem with Wade Miley being the so-called starting pitcher for game five, and he faces Lefty Bellinger to open up the game and then gets pulled. The whole plan all along was to have Lefty face Lefty and have Wade Miley start game six, and then Woodruff came in after that. What did you think of that? Well, I think the plan is to force Dave Roberts to put in a lineup that he'd have to turn around and change. And I understand that. It's a gimmick.

It's a gimmick. Craig counsel's a clown and it's a gimmick. So what else would you expect from a clown? You know, I generally have the same feeling about the analytics people that you do, and I'm going to get to that when it comes to some wizards discussion. You know, I just, I always laugh at the, you know, these people that we know and people we don't know but do who do what we do that probably didn't take a math class beyond ninth grade or 10th grade and they talk about things like regression to the mean and all this other stuff as if it really applies in sports.

But I will say this, that stuff applies much more to baseball than it does any other sport. I get that. Because so much more in baseball is measurable and measured. And you don't have to know in football that outside zone play, you don't have to know what all 11 players are all 22 on the field, what their responsibilities were. Because a lot of times these analytics guy, oh, he's terrible on that play. And then if you were in the coach's room, the coach would say, good job, Joe. You did exactly what we asked you to do.

But Kevin, that's what I always say is the difference between information and knowledge. Right. That's the difference. Definitely. People mistake knowledge for information all the time. You don't, there's a lot of people that don't have knowledge of those meetings, of those conversations. They don't have knowledge of the game itself.

They just look at numbers. Yeah. So, but I guess what I was getting to is I thought it was a pretty good strategy. Like this guy, you get him to, you force Dave Roberts's hand on the lineup. You get a lefty, lefty matchup, and this guy can still pitch game six. Your guy can still pitch game six. Look, he didn't have many options against Clayton Kirshall. You know, it's not like he had.

They had a chance to put up more runs early on Kirshan. They didn't. Yeah, but they didn't. And that's a mark of a great. That was what always amazed me about Andy Pettit with the Yankees. Andy Pettit, you could have him on the ropes early. And if you didn't get to him early, then you were done. And that's the way Kershaw pitch yesterday.

But the Brewers had no answer for Kershaw. They couldn't put another guy on the mound to match up against Clayton Kershaw. So, you know, this was their gimmick. And, you know, it didn't anger me. I just thought it was a gimmick. I mean, I think it's a strategy more than a gimmick. And their strategy, you know, and I have not. followed the brewers here, but this strategy, they believe, is largely responsible for their

big end of the season run into the postseason. And Wade Miley was all for it. He had no problem with going out there. He walked the first batter. Right. You know, he walked Bellinger to open up the game. But they did get out of that inning unscathed. They did. All right, let's talk about the wizards who open up their 2018-2019 season tonight against the Miami-Heated home. Actually, before that, Tommy, a couple things real quickly. Because There's a lot of NBA on last night. The season started two nights ago with two games, and last night there were, I don't know, 10, 12 games, something like that. This happens every beginning of the NBA season where you see new players and new uniforms and it just doesn't look right.

But DeMarre D'Arosin in a Spurs uniform, and he had 28 last night just doesn't look right. I'm still shocked. I think it's the right move. I think they got a top three player, Toronto. They got a top three player in Kauai Leonard, which gives them a legitimate chance to get to the NBA finals. Yes, it does. And by the way, his game was 24 points, 13 rebounds, and he played 37 minutes last night in Toronto's opening win over Cleveland. It was just weird.

I love DeRosen's game. It's so anti-advanced stats, you know, because it's a mid-range game, and it's floaters, and it's tough baseline 12-footers and 15-footers. And those only count two, even now. I just loved DeRosen, but it looked weird watching him in a spurs uniform. What's interesting is you talk about that. And you know, I'm on with Chad every Wednesday from 4 to 6 on 106, 7th. And we had Austin Rivers as a guest yesterday. And he talked about how the coach.

He's a good talker as an interviewer. Yes, he is. I talked to him when Duke played Maryland when he was up here. He's like beyond his years. Yeah, he was very good. But he talked about how the coach drills. into them, either a layup or a three-pointer. No mid-range shots.

Drills it into them. That, you know, mid-range shot, it's like you'll get banned for life. Yeah, well, I'll get to that in a moment, okay, because there's a problem. Your buddy, Scott Brooks. Yeah. Well, I've talked to Scott about this stuff before, and he knows what a good three versus a bad three is. He knows why the Wizards didn't have or, you know, they weren't higher up,

statistically in three-point attempts. One of the big reasons, hello, is that John Wall only played 41 games last year. So therefore, the guy that creates the most, draws the defense the most for kickouts, for open threes, which are the best threes to shoot for this particular group, the guy that really drives up-tempo, you know, pace of play, he wasn't there for 41 games.

So anyway, the wizard, so I wanted to mention one other thing before we get to the Wizards. Keep an eye on Phoenix this year. I actually saw a little bit of this last night. And DeAndre Aiton, Tommy, who was the number one, number one overall at Arizona, man, Aaron, I don't know if you thought he was any good. I thought it was going to take years for him to become a really good player. I didn't get the number one, number one overall for him. He looked great last night in that opener. And you know who plays for Phoenix? Trevor or Reza. Trevor and Devin Booker can light it up with the best of them, that's going to be a much better team.

I'll have to watch them. I don't know anything about Phoenix. Well, they were terrible last year. I knew that. They won 20 games last year. I know that. Yeah. All right, so the Wizards open up tonight.

I'm going to give you my thoughts and I want yours. I'm not a fan of Dwight Howard. I just think that the odds are in favor of this not working out. However, I'm not a fan because he's clearly selfish more than selfless. That's the way he's been throughout his entire career. that does not, however, erase what he is on the floor during a basketball game when he's really engaged and really into it, because he is a defensive NBA force in the league. And the truth of the matter is from a basketball standpoint, maybe not a locker room or, you know, chemistry standpoint, but on the floor, his defensive. abilities fits perfectly with this team. It's something this team has missed. This team plays best when it

plays up-tempo when it's able to get out on the break where John Wall can finish at the rim and get from one baseline or from one top of the key to the rim as fast as anybody in the league and finish where he thrives. We're on the break. You get guys shooting quality threes on on fast break opportunities where Beal and Porter and other guys that they've had over the years are finding their spots as John's driving it from one end of the floor to the other and he's kicking it out and they're wide open threes. And what starts that is defense. You got to get a rebound or you really can't run.

You know, the Lakers of the 80s were great at running after a made bucket. And I still think the Wizards should do it more than they have over the years. but really the teams that are able to run best are the teams that get stops and rebounds because if the ball's going through the net, it's easier to get back on defense. And it takes a little bit longer to get the ball and get it in bounds and get it up court.

He's going to provide block shots, turnovers that you don't even get to measure because somebody comes down the lane and then because Dwight's there, they turn and they make a forced pass in an area. Your defense doesn't have to convert, as much, doesn't have to help as much when you get beat, which John Wall gets beat on the perimeter a ton. And so the net of it is for me, it's a good potential basketball fit.

So I'm not discounting my guesses of the last four years, which is they have the talent and the ability to win 50 games. You should have seen the look he just gave me. Oh my God. He's been waiting for this look forever because this has been one of the... He hates Ernie Grunfeld and just can't stand this franchise. I think they can win 50 games in finishing the top three in the East and get to a conference semifinal where they have a chance to beat whoever it is they're playing,

Toronto or Boston, to get to the conference finals. That is a legitimate upside for them. I'm not saying they're going to achieve it because I don't believe... And I think the odds are stacked in favor of the Dwight Howard thing not working out from a chemistry standpoint. I also am not convinced that Beal and Wall are going to be more mature players. That's a huge key that they play 80 to 82 games, that they take it more seriously. And I'm talking about games against Phoenix at home or bad teams at home, every possession more seriously. there's a basketball maturity.

I talked to Scott Brooks about this yesterday on the podcast. He agrees they've got to take that next step. You can't say anymore about Wall for sure and even Beal that they're still so young. Their prime is still ahead of them. I mean, age-wise, Beale's not in his prime, but he's been in the league now for a while. You know, Wall is in his prime. So it's time for, they're still the keys to the team. You know, their maturity, their play, their availability.

is still going to be the biggest reasons, the two of them, if they end up having a 50-win season, which they still have not had since 1979. It's pretty amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. Like I've said so many times, the Bird and Magic era came and went.

The Jordan era came and went. The Shaq Kobe era came and went. And the LeBron era is in its down years. And this team still hasn't won 50 games in a season that whole time. And gotten past the second round of the playoffs that whole time. You know, I wish you could make that pitch for Dwight Howard. I'd love to see you make that pitch about Dwight Howard's value basketball-wise in front of executives for, well, the Houston Rockets or the Atlanta Hawks or maybe to Charlotte Horn.

It's like for Jordan. I love for you to make that pitch for Jordan. Or let's throw in the Brooklyn Nets who had them for 20 minutes. Okay, but don't ignore. of the fact that I said, I'm guessing that it's not going to work out. Yeah, I know that. But you talked for 15 minutes about how great he was on the basketball court. And then in 30 seconds, you said, I may be totally wrong.

No, I think I'm going to be right about the chemistry not working out and that this being a bad idea. That's my prediction. That was my prediction when they made the deal. I want to be on the record right now with you that I personally am not optimistic about this working out. I think, you know, at this point in his life and his career, he's who he is. He's who he is. Yeah. He's who he is.

You know, based on the- But hold on, but I can say in the same breath that on the floor at times, his defensive ability, he's a force defensively. And that's what this team's needed. But all that does is illustrate the stench of him in the locker room and in the organization. Fair point. That he can be such a valuable contributor. nobody wants a part of. I think that's a fair, totally fair.

Totally fair. And here's the thing. He's not entering a locker room or a franchise that is, you know, overflowing with maturity and leadership. No, no. It just isn't. You know, they had it for a season with Paul Pierce and it's never been back. They had it.

They had it with Paul Pierce after that, too. Yeah, I guess they did. They did. You're right. And if they managed it somehow. So what do you think is going to happen this year? Oh, I think 44 wins, if they're lucky, I think they might be seventh, maybe eighth again. Look, I think John Wall shot physically.

I think his needs are done. I think he's not going to hold up over the course of his season. I mean, he's had double knee surgery, and his recovery since then has been rocky. So I think John Wall physically can't hold up. And we've seen the one year, well, the year they played Boston to the seventh game. That was him coming off surgery, and he had like the six or seven most minutes in the league, and eventually it warmed down. I don't think he's going to be able to keep up doing that. I think you're looking at the downside of John Wall's career.

I do think that what you're saying is that I think that, you know, to talk in sports cliche, you know, terms, the window for him, which means it's the window for this team. Yeah. is really potentially much shorter than people think because of that very reason. Because once he loses that speed, he doesn't have the rest of the game. John Wall is, I've always said this about him. I love him. Okay, but he is much more athlete than really basketball player. He's a great basketball player.

Don't get me wrong. He leads, you know, it leads the team and assists, and he's always in the top three in assists in the league, and he sees the floor well. but he's not Those of you who really know the game understand what I'm saying You get down to a big possession

And it's a half court possession It's still his athleticism That he relies on Even in that situation You know getting a ball screen And turning that corner with ferocity And speed It's not you know

It's not working his way Into a high percentage shot It's not step back threes If your defender goes underneath the screen it's a lot more athleticism. Before we move on to the next topic, I think you'll understand

where I'm coming from and I think you're going to agree with me. I got a text last night or the night before and I was going to save it for you from a friend of mine who said, you know, I was just watching a Wizards pre-season thing.

I don't know what it was on. Could have been ESPN. Could have been NBA TV. It could have been... NBC. NBC Sports Washington. Could have been that too. And don't you?

And he said, it seems to me that everybody thinks that the key to the season is Otto Porter is shooting more threes. I just started laughing. I said, are you kidding? And he said, no, that was a big focus of it, that Otto Porter was third in the league last year in three point percentage. And for this team to really thrive, he's got to shoot more threes. Let me just tell you where that would rank on my list of things.

that are important for this team. No better than eighth on the list. All right. This is what drives me nuts. And you feel the same way to a certain extent. I'm so sick of these advanced stats geekheads who couldn't tell you at any point watching a game how things are actually happening.

They're looking at the score, and they certainly know pace of play numbers. They know possessions per 48 minutes. They know offensive efficiency numbers. They know defensive efficiency numbers. But they cannot tell you why things are happening or why things aren't happening. You know, as someone who coached and has coached on and off for quarter of a century basketball, some of my favorite questions always came from parents who, you know, were into sports but didn't really know what's going on.

Like simple questions, like, why didn't you press more? Well, we didn't make any shots. I don't get it. Well, you pretty much have to make the shots to get your press set up. You know, like, some teams can press off of missed shots or turnovers, but really at certain levels to set up your full court press, if you have one, you really got to make a few shots. And so, you know, these are the things that these advanced geek guys,

just they don't, it's not what they look at. They're looking at pure numbers. I don't want to hear about the three-point shooting percentage and the desire from all of these advanced stats people for Otto Porter to please shoot more threes. Don't you know that he needs to shoot more threes, Kevin? Don't you know that? Yeah, his percentage is great.

And I'd love it if Otto Porter shot more threes. Don't get me wrong. I'd love it if the Wizards as a team shot more threes. But you don't just say you got to shoot more threes. I hear this all the time from people Tommy their eyes are watering because they're so deep in these numbers, but they have no idea why things are happening in a real game. The Wizards did, all right, have the fourth best three-point shooting percentage as a team last year, and they did shoot three-point attempts at a rate that was

23rd in the league. And Otto Porter was third in percentage, but he was way down the list in three-point attempts. So you ask, why did Otto Porter, shoot a high percentage on threes. Well, he's a good shooter. He is a good shooter. He's got good form. He's got a good release. And when he shoots Tommy with his feet set, catch and shoot threes behind the three point line already, very often unguarded on the catch, those are the threes you want

Otto Porter to shoot. Now, to get him into the position to shoot more of those, You need to do more things offensively to create that. Having John Wall on the floor for 41 more games than he was on the floor last year will likely, given that this is an emphasis now for the team, result in Otto Porter shooting more threes. Okay, so stop telling me he didn't shoot enough threes. John Wall wasn't on the floor for 41 games last year.

John Wall creates opportunities for everybody else in this team like nobody else. I am not going to disagree with any of you that say, I'd like more three point attempts. I would too. I would like that continued three point percentage. I would too. But I'm going to tell you right now, if you tell Otto Porter to just start shooting more threes,

and now he's trying to create on his own more three point out. That's obvious. Three point attempts. He can't do that. His percentage is going to suck. Yes. He gets the threes that create the high percentage. As I said,

feet set behind the line, catching it, very often unguarded on the catch because of creation somewhere else or because of a fast break opportunity. Those are the threes you want him to shoot. You do not want him trying to create off the dribble and jumping back and trying to shoot step-back threes. That's not what you want from him. So he gets his attempts up.

In fact, he's a better mid-range player. As a basketball player, he's a better. mid-range player than he is a three-point shooting, you know, guy. Yeah, but that game doesn't exist when it comes to the Wizards. What, mid-range? Yeah. Well, he's got mid-range, and Bradley Beale's got some decent mid-range game. Oh, I know they got it, but I'm just telling you what Austin Rivers told us is being

drilled into their heads. Yeah. Well, look, I mean, it's just, it drives me nuts because it's these people, they, it's like you, it's like they just want you to do better. Just do better. Well, how? I just shoot more threes. It's like they have their kid come home with a bad report card,

and they say to their kid, you got to get more A's than C's. A's are better than C's. Don't you understand that? Well, yeah, but how are you going to get your kid to get A's? Like maybe let's talk about a tutor. Let's talk about not being home from school with the sniffles for a week. That might help them get more A's. Because you know those people are probably with their kids.

Oh, you can't go to school today. You got the sniffles. You got a terrible cold. My kids, people are going to hate me for this. I made my kids go to school almost. I mean, I get out the door. Showing up is 80% of life. Yes, absolutely.

Okay, so you got to show up. The mistake your kids made was not trying to stay home, but once they got to school, leaving. That was always my plan. Yeah, that was my plan too. netting it out. I think the Wizards can win 50 games this year. I do.

No, you don't. I do. No, you don't. I think they can. Do you think they will? No. Okay. I want them to.

What odds would it have to be for you to take that bet? What is there over under in Vegas? I haven't even looked at. I'm going to guess it's like 46. Yeah, something like that, 45. Okay, Kevin. They, they, you know, it's, if 45's the number, it's the right number. Okay.

44 and a half apparently. There you go. That's what I hit. 44, I said, if they're lucky. If that happens, are you going to fire the general manager finally? Yeah, again, I've said this to you for many years. Don't tell me. Don't tell me what's your solution.

Don't tell me what you're, because I did that once. I did that for you once. One time you did it. Well, because it's not that hard to find a solution. Whatever with you. You want the job? I'll give it to you. You know what?

I think I could do it. You would have drafted Kauai Leonard. I would have drafted Kauai Leonard. Yes. I would have tried to draft Steph Curry. I would have thought about Steph Curry too. You always forget about that one. I love Steph Curry in that draft.

Look, you're the general manager. There you go. How's that? Tommy, I know that this is really going to sound self-serving. I think I could do it in basketball. Of course you do. And you think you could be the clock management coach in the NFL. Oh, I know I could do that.

Oh, my God. Is there anything you can't do, Kevin? A lot of things. I can't do. One of the things you should do is you should get Windows from Window Nation. Harley and Aaron from Window Nation are big fans of this podcast, believers in Tommy and me. We trust them. They trust us.

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It was cold. Up in Frederick, it's a little bit colder. You're in a different climate up there in Frederick. Yes, we are. I think the average temperature is like three degrees less than it is where I am. It really is. I know. You're starting to get up there in the foothills.

Remember when I couldn't get out of my house for five days? Because I'm in an apartment complex and we were deep in the complex. And by the time they got to, it snowed on a Friday afternoon. By the time they got to us, it was Tuesday afternoon. You must have been so pleasant by around Sunday of that weekend. We'll get to Redskins Cowboys here in a moment. Scott Van Peltz going to join us. I want to play what Bill Belichick said yesterday.

Did you hear what he said when he was asked about Khalil Mack? Patriots play the Bears this weekend. It was like all of a sudden Belichick forgot he was Belichick. Exactly. Yes. This is what Belichick said. He was asked about what he thought of Khalil Mack and how good Khalil Mack was. We're talking about Lawrence Taylor now.

Yeah, I'm not putting anybody in Lawrence Taylor's class. So you put everybody down below that. That's with a lot of respect to a lot of good players now. But we're talking about Lawrence Taylor. You know, his voice is so low. He could sing for the temptations. That's unbelievable how low that voice is. And basically, he went out of Belichick-Cote speak with that.

It was like somebody rang a bell instead. I said, Lawrence Taylor, are you kidding me? I loved it. Yeah. I loved it. And did you see Twitter on this? Like, even for people who can't stand Belichick, it was like he was standing up in that moment being un-Belichick-like. Yes.

To tell everybody who doesn't know, no, no, no, no. This guy, LT, he's the greatest ever and there is no debate. It's kind of like Tommy, for your generation, the Jim Brown debate. Like anybody that used to talk about Jim Brown would say, no, it's Jim Brown, and then we can talk about other guys like Walter Payton and whomever. Right. For me, it's LT1 and whoever's two, you've got to walk down five flights of steps to get to number two. He's the greatest football player of my lifetime in my life of watching football from the 70s on. And nobody's close.

Do you feel the same way about LT or not? That's the greatest defensive player I've ever seen, yeah. Not necessarily the greatest football player. Who was a better football player? Well, Jim Brown was a better football player. Okay. Well, I'm saying my lifetime, my generation of watching football. And I would actually, I would put Unitas in there as well. Okay.

But he's the best defensive football player I ever saw. And the remarkable thing is he will always be when you think about it. That will never change because defense is being legislated out of the league. Lawrence Taylor couldn't play the style of football he plays. Did you see the football life? Lawrence Taylor yet? Yeah. I mean, I'm sitting there watching it with one of my sons and he kept saying those plays

were allowed? Yeah. Yeah, they were allowed. That was football. So there couldn't be an LT today. So I think, you know, in a way, there's certain records that will always stand because what those guys did is at, you know, has been legislated or out of the game or the game has changed. They'll never be anyone better than Lawrence Taylor as a defensive player.

Never. Nobody, I don't think anybody before him, you know, Joe Green, Butkiss. I don't think those were... Butkus is close. Okay, but... Butkus is close. Nobody was more influential on changing the way offenses had to deal with a pass rusher.

Deacon Jones did. Did he? Deacon Jones. I mean, they outlawed the head slap because of Deacon Jones. Which was basically remarkable that the defensive lineman could actually punch the guy in front of him and get away with it. The guy's head. Yes.

LT Twitter lit up Because again, I think there's this generation of people 35 to however old they are that will just say as a football fan When you watched it,

you just knew there's never been anything that looked like that. No defensive player ever When you sat down to watch a football game, ever, He was the most dominant player on the field. Everybody knew where he was. You had to run...

I remember the Redskins a couple times would try to run Adam to nullify his speed. That didn't work either. Nothing worked. Jacoby with the H-back block, nothing worked. I don't even think for all the people that want to bring Reggie White into the conversation, I don't see it. I know how great Reggie White was. And maybe it's because LT was more of an outside edge...

speed guy and that that it was it's an image that you you sort of never forget is that this fear that he induced with that edge speed I know reggie white was a great player I think Ronnie lot was a great player I think Ed Reed was a great defensive player I think um you know I I think Ken Easley was one of the best defensive players I've ever watched but none of them compare to LT no he's the best and he'll always be the best It's the nature of the game now. He'll always have that crown. Belichick, you had to go to some pass rusher to say,

where do you rank Khalil Mac? It's Lawrence Taylor. I mean, no disrespect to anybody else, but the conversation starts and ends with Lawrence Taylor. All right, let's get to some phone calls. And the question is, do you feel it for this game? Do you feel the momentum building for this game that this is now a big game Sunday Redskins Cowboys.

What is your current feeling? Remember, this was after the New Orleans game, a lot of people are like, oh, there goes another season. Here we go, you know, spiraling out of control. Then they get a win, and now all of a sudden the Cowboys had this big win. I think part of this, Tommy, is that the Cowboys had this big win last weekend. Oh, yeah. I think that juices it up a lot.

I think it does too. All right, let's get to the Redskins Cowboys, Tommy. It does feel all of the sudden for me, and I think part of it is because the Cowboys won the way they did Sunday against Jacksonville, and the Redskins won their game against Carolina. It feels here on a Thursday, and I said this yesterday, it's starting to feel like a big game. Like it's a legitimate big Redskins Cowboys game.

Let's get to the phone lines, and we'll start with our good friend Clarence, Golsboro. Clay's on our hotline, on our Windonation hotlines. Actually, we have not given Window Nation that sponsorship yet. They're the title sponsorship of the show, That's a way to tease that those of you advertisers that are considering being the guest hotline sponsor. That's how we do it. Let's go to the Windonation guest hotlines and bring on Clay.

Clay, what do you say? Kevin, Tommy, thanks for having me on. I'm a first-time podcast call on a long-time listener. You know, if you look at the last few years of this robbery, then yes, you could say this game means moving. than some of the others have met. Oh, boy. But if you go back even further to when it really mattered, it's nothing compared to that.

I mean, I can still remember being young and watching Glenn Brenner. What was the name of that show he had on that 730? Redskins sidelines. And remember the participants that were there kind of jumping up and down saying, we want Dallas. I mean, that was big. I mean, that's, you know, so relatively speaking, no, it's not big, but it does matter more than it's matter in the past because both organizations

have been terrible. Both owners are awful, and both coaches are average to below average. So given all of those, I think, realities, and yes, it is bigger than a set. I think it's definitely bigger than what we expected when we looked at the schedule. Absolutely. And I think that changed in the last week, like Kevin said. Not just the Cowboys win, but the margin of their victory, the way they seemingly you know, at least offensively, found the game plan. I think that raises the stakes of the game.

I'm really surprised at you. You've handled this very well because I was convinced, I was very convinced that you were going to say, well, no, it's not a big game. I mean, we've won the last four pretty handily over the Redskins and five of the last six. And so, you know, you could see how it would be big for Redskin fans, but it's not very big for cowboy fans. But you sort of acknowledge there that, you know,

for an early season Redskins Cowboys game compared to recent years, it's important and it feels big to a certain degree. So thank you for that. That was selfless. Well, you're welcome. And you also mentioned that we had a big win last week. And Tommy will love this analogy. We fought a one-handed boxer last week.

So imagine if you're in a ring with a guy who only had one hand. The Jaguars do not have an NFL quarterback. They don't have a guy who can actually complete a forward pass consistently. Consistently. Consistently, right. I just count that completely. And I do want to add as well that, and I said this to Richard Walker, that I'm going to petition NFL and make a statement that it is unfair to give Dallas

two home games against Washington every year. I think that when we play you guys, it looks like you're in Texas. They need to do something about tickets we can get. It's awfully kind of you to go to that length to get that change. You know, you might want to contact Redskins marketing. I think they might like that idea. But you know this, although you don't,

because you've never traveled outside of the area, that the games in Dallas, aren't home games for the Cowboys either. And there are a lot of Redskins in Texas for the games down there. But you are correct. This Sunday, I am guessing at best for the Redskins, it's a 50-50 split at best.

If they're lucky. All right, thank you. Wait a minute. One question for you. Yes. One question for you. Do you think that the five-game home winning streak will be broken on Sunday?

Because I need to know if I'm going to bet or not bet on your comments. You've won four in a row. No, it's five. Five in a row at your husband. Five in Washington. That's right. That's right. Good God. It's been five years since it's the RG3 game in 2012 was the last time that we've beaten the Cowboys at so-called home. And by the way, thank you. Don't get rid of him yet because, I mean, he made this statement about the game they played last week against a one-arm boxer. Listen, I've seen the Cowboys fight one-arm boxers with a straight jacket. Okay.

One quick one quick one. Of course, one more quick thought. Colin Kaepernick has two arms, FYI. Just for anybody in Jacksonville, who may be listening and may want to be reasonable. All right. Just put it out there. Thanks for that statement. You made a statement here today on the show.

I'll talk to you later. Thanks very much. Let's go to Brad. Brad, thanks for holding. You're on with Tommy and me. What's up? Hey, Kevin. What's up, buddy?

How you doing, Brad? Hi, Brad. I'm good. Hey, Tom. How are you, man? All right. Good to hear from you. Yeah, good to hear from you guys.

Oh, I miss you being on the air, Kevin. Thanks, Brad. I've missed talking to you, too. What's going on? Hey, man. Let me see if I can say this properly. As consistently inconsistent as the team is, I don't see how any fans could really be up for any game,

even Dallas. I don't feel like that how they can see any game is a big game. From the standpoint, the letdowns that this team gives you. So, you know, as a fan, it's hard to really get up for any game when you kind of feel like that letdown's coming, you know what I mean? But you see, all that could change with a win on Sunday. I mean, so I think that's the carrot out there, is that this is the potential where the narrative could at least slightly change.

Hey, Brad, first of all, I now realize it's my favorite Brad who always called it. Yeah, yes. Because it didn't sound like you at the beginning of the call. But Brad, to me, has always been a top five. sharp caller. I feel, I know what you're saying. I just think that the combination of the win over Carolina, which pretty much saved the season, I think it would have spiraled out of control potentially, internally had they lost that game.

There were people ready to pounce, I think, in the building had they laid another egg like they did in the Monday night game against the Saints. I believe that the combination of winning that game and the Cowboys killing Jacksonville and the fact that their records are what they are, give us a chance here for sort of one of those environments pre-kickoff at 425 that'll feel big. I think it's going to feel big by the time we get to it. And to Tom's point, and to that point, though, I felt like the Saints was that game, right? We all went in this Saints game saying, oh, here's your opportunity. on national stage, like, are you, you know, and it's just we always do this, and they're just

so inconsistent that it's just, you know, history has told us this is what they are, right? This is we have this and we're like, oh, God, right? Like, yes, would a win would change all that. I totally agree, but I feel like we've been saying that, right? Yeah, I know. A win here would change it and they don't win that game. We just identified, by the way, we just identified an issue with taking calls on podcast, we're going to have to get corrected, and that is the call waiting beeping noise is beeping throughout this call. So we have, we took calls the other day, but we only took

a few, and now we got calls coming in. So we're, we're going to have to figure out how to get that beeping sound off the air somehow. Brad, thanks so much for calling it. It's great to hear your voice, man. Yeah, keep posting some stuff, Kevin, so I know what you guys got going on. I want to, congratulations on your new endeavors, man. I want to kind of keep up with you guys, but So keep posting some stuff. If you're out there, you're doing some, you know, you're in some places, man. Put it out there. We will.

We will. We will. We will, Brad. Thanks so much. No problem, buddy. Good luck. Appreciate it. Let's go to, what are we going to do about that beeping?

We can't stop it. I have to basically tweet out and now stop calling. Is Ian on hold? Really, he was the first to call in. Let's take Ian. Let's go. Ian, what's up? Kevin, Tommy.

How are you? I ain, it's great to hear from you. No, you don't mean that. Yes, I do. Look, I met Ian. I know you're the one. Actually, more, I think Ion, you've, I may be the only person you haven't met, right? I think so.

We got a call or we got a call waiting issue. Ignore it. Ignore it, Kevin. It's hard to ignore it. Kevin, I know. Look, there's voices in your head all the time that you ignore. So am I the only one hearing that? All right, Ian, what do you got?

So here's my thought. The reason why it doesn't feel like a real week is because they haven't won two games in a row. I think the NFL pivots on two or three game winning streaks. You build that, you build excitement. You lose two or three games in a row, the season's over, regardless of when it occurs. So the reason why it's hard for anybody to be truly ramped up is because there's no flow to the season. And every time someone wants to build optimism, they're met with pessimism. And like Tom always says, there's always the backdrop of something bad's going to happen.

And it's amazing to me, Kevin, you've talked about this on the podcast. Every other week we talk about if gluten doesn't do X, it could mean departure Y. If you have that backdrop constantly, it's hard for anybody to believe like, yep, let's get on board. This is a playoff team. This is a team we can build on. This is something we can look forward to. You have an aging quarterback that's not better than the previous guy. We all agree on that.

We agree on that. Not everybody agrees on that. But a few of us agree on that. Go ahead. You can't debate facts with crazy people. You know, so let's not get into that. But the reason, I just think the season hasn't been able to take off until you get some true momentum. Now, look, they win Dallas this week.

They win another game, you're really talking about some excitement. But right now, you go 1 in 0, 1 in 1, 2 and 2 and 2, 3 and 2, potentially 3 and 3. How can anybody get that excited? You know, the thing is, I don't even think you, like you're getting into a lot of stuff as to why you feel the way you feel or the way people feel the way they feel. And I can only speak from my perspective. And after the New Orleans game, I think I really sense that the Carolina game was a got to play well and really, if they know it's best for them, have to win the game. And now for me, there's this different feeling of, hey, Dallas was impressive.

The Redskins are 3 and 2. The Cowboys are 3 and 3. We even had a matchup between the two teams where at least one of the teams didn't have a losing record in forever. It's like, like I said, it's a bigger game than we expected when we saw it on the schedule. It's a big TV window, the 425. It's, you know, CBS, Nance, Romo, like, there'll be some cold weather. It just feels bigger to me all of a sudden. All of a sudden.

Ian's right that everything will jump significantly to another level if they win. If Washington wins. All right, Ian, thanks, as always. Appreciate it. Let's go to Steve. Steve, Steve, thanks so much for holding. Go ahead. Oh, boy. That call waiting. Hey, no. How are you guys doing? I'm here. Sorry about that. No, no. It's not you. It's not you. It's not you. We got the beeping. going on here from the call waiting. We're going to figure that out at some point. It's going to have his team work on that. My big team here. Yes, it'll be me on the phone with Verizon. Go ahead, Steve. Thank you guys for having me on.

And yeah, man, loving the podcast, loving the format, and loving Tommy on the show. So it's great. I just want to say, yeah, I mean, this week has so many cool storylines starting with defense up front. I mean, they get rid of Ziggy Hood. What are they going to do with that Robin? spot. I don't know if you already addressed that or whatnot. I find that interesting,

but it's showing we have confidence in those big, big dogs. We got the secondary trying to get together. Are they going to be able to, you know, defend Dallas, who doesn't have the great receiving core, you know, and the things that it used to kind of have? Also, you know, Gruden is he going to keep his foot and intensity down and really make this game, you know, a statement or are we going to lose another one after another win? And then, you know, And, you know, is this going to just lead us into the next steps? I feel like this team has a lot of room to grow. I feel like this game is big and I'm excited.

So that's kind of how I feel about it. Thanks, Steve, so much for the call. Thank you, Steve. Yeah, appreciate you listening. All right, talk to these guys later. All right, take care. You know, he talked about Gruden's intensity. You know, the coach had to defend his intensity yesterday.

He basically had to say it's not ring around the Rosie around here. Did he explain to half the media corps what ring around the rose he was? I haven't talked about the release of Ziggy Hood and Steve just brought it up. I did mention on Monday that the Redskins have gone away from this defensive line rotation strategy that they've had. It's not their strategy anymore. Pain, Ionitis and Allen are playing the majority of the snaps. Ziggy Hood and Tim Settle didn't even play a defensive snap on Sunday. I find that interesting.

It's a total change in strategy. Now, it makes sense because they haven't had players as good as Allen and Payne, and they're young, and defense has been a major problem. And with them on the field, it's not as much of a problem anymore. My guess is, though, they're not going to add another D-Linman. I don't think that'll be the player that they add to the roster. And perhaps by the time we get to the end of today, they've already added a player. I don't know what they'll add, but they've got, you know, they played nickel 52 of 60

defensive snaps last week. So they had, you know, they had guys like McPhee and Josh Harvey Clemens in the game, Ryan Anderson in the game a little bit. There was no room for Settle and for Ziggie Hood anyway. The one thing I've heard about Ziggie Hood, though, over the last couple of years is that he was one of the real glue guys. He was. He was a good. guy and he was a respected guy in the locker room. But they seem to have other guys like that now. Jonathan Allen seems to be merging as that kind of guy. And, you know, I mean, you can't just keep a guy around because he's a good cheerleader.

No, you can't. You know? You can't. The one thing I wanted to talk about, about Redskins. Yes. Can I get it in now? Yes, you may. Do I have time?

You do I call? Should I call? No, don't call. No, because the beep people will start. And for those of you that are listening and we, We didn't get to it. We're just, we're going to figure out the answer here with the beeping on the call waiting. Because I would imagine that that was a bit annoying.

Somebody's going to pay it Verizon for this. I could tell you that. So we go from one annoying thing to listen to now what Tommy has to say. Go ahead. Again, I know this, you'll love to hear this again. But when I was on with Chad on Wednesday, we talked about this. And, you know, he went off about the fact that people keep saying, well, this is just like same old redskins. You know, they're nothing to be excited about, you know, I mean, you know, it's, they've been the same team.

They've been a 500 team for years. And, you know, he pointed out that they were four and 12, three and 13. They've had a lot of bad years where 500 would have looked pretty good. That's true. So, but my point was that it's the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. In other words, five and two, four and 12, five and 11 might might be. a lot worse than 7 and 9 or 8 and 8. But 8 and 8 feels like 5 and 11.

I'm with you on that. It just feels like you can't fool the fan base on this. They've been through it too many times. So it's not an 8 and 8 team that you really can buy in is on the upswing. It's who they are. It just has the same feel. So yeah, they've been 4 and 12 and they've been 5 and 11, 3 and 13. And 8 and 8, 9 and 7 is a hell of a lot better.

but it doesn't feel that way. Look, I tried to make the case after the 2016 season. When they didn't make the playoffs, they went 8, 7, and 1, and they had that horrific loss to the Giants to end the season and get the game that knocked him out of the playoffs. I tried to make the case to people that, look, if you really are paying attention here, first of all, that's the first back-to-back winning season record situation

since I think it was the late 90s. I think it was 99, 2000 was, 99 was 10 and 6, 2000 was 8 and 8. But there also was a 96, 97, I think was like a 9 and 7 and maybe an 8, 7 and 1, which was exactly what 2015 was 9 and 7 playoffs, 2016 was 8, 7 and 1, and should have been in the playoffs. And yes, Kirk threw a terrible interception at the giant game, but also, yes, the kicker, a point-blank 30-yard field goal in London that would have been the difference,

and missed two kicks against Detroit and two against the Cowboys that would have been the difference. And if the defense could have stopped anybody for just one other game that year. But my point was that if they continued to add pieces that they were heading in the right direction, that those two years back-to-back, and it may have been Tommy because I liked Kirk. And I thought they had finally found an answer quarterback. Now, I needed them to lock it up long term. which they never did. But that those two middling seasons, record-wise,

97-8-7-1 with one playoff season, and really what could have been very easily a second playoff season, was momentum. I thought it was. See, I think the Giants' loss killed all the momentum. I think Sean McVeigh leaving killed all the momentum. I think the Giants lost, when they lost that game, I called it one of the biggest losses in decades for this team.

And everyone laughed at me. No, nobody laughed at it. It was a devastating. Maybe they just laugh at me for other stuff. That's true. But I do tend to agree with you that it's not really necessarily about the record. It's a more non-quantifiable thing. It's the way you feel, it's what you just watched.

I mean, 8 and 8 can look and feel like 3 and 13. It can also feel like 11 and 5. Yes, it can for a team on the rise. And, you know, the fatigue clouds everything. There's a fatigue that this fan base, has had to deal with. And it's tough to make sometimes rational judgments when you're tired.

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Ask for Ralph when you get there. Tell them I sent you. He'll put you in touch with their best salesperson. You can also find out everything you need to know about Farish right now, including live inventory and pricing at ferrish cars.com. All right, let's get to the NFL PowerPole for the week. Rangham, 1 to 5. It's time for our weekly NFL PowerPole.

Thank you, Ralph Wesley. It's time for our weekly power poll, or NFL PowerPole, your favorite segment of the week. Top five, a couple of other teams to keep an eye on. You're looking at me like you're actually ready to go. Well, no, I'm kind of confused because I was ready for an NFL power ranking. I wasn't quite ready for an NFL power poll. We titled it differently.

Oh, you see, and you didn't tell me? Well, you've been on the show now for a month. I didn't get anything. This would have been, this would be our fifth one of the year. I was prepared for NFL power ranking. You're never prepared for anything. Not for a poll, but I'll do my best. Can we turn that music down a little bit, Aaron, underneath?

I don't know what it sounds like on the air, but we'll just turn it down a little bit because I can barely hear Tommy and he's yelling at me. Go ahead. What's your top five? Okay, my top five, you'll be happy with this one. Number five, the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens defense is legitimate. Joe Flacco is back to being January Joe, except he's doing it in September and October.

They've got a string of games coming up. against real good teams. So we'll find out exactly how good the Ravens are moving forward. They play the Saints, I think, this week. So the Ravens are my number five pick. Number four are the Saints. You know, we'll find out they play the Ravens this week. We'll find out which of those teams is legit

and which of those teams falls back after that. The Chiefs finally lost in a hell of a game, a hell of a shootout, Hall of Fame quarterback Pat Mahomes, still leading a team that has an unbelievable, powerful offense and still no defense. Kansas City Chiefs at number three. The New England Patriots are

number two because they're the Patriots because they're Belichick and I don't really see any challenge to them when push comes to shove in the AFC and the Rams they should just give them the title now. They just give them their tickets

of the Super Bowl now. Number one. Who's going to beat the Rams? I don't know. I'm not going to pencil them in to the Super Bowl quite yet. I think both the AFC and NFC, right now, like if the season ended right now, there would be some fascinating matchups. I would love to see Baltimore's defense against Kansas City, which we're going to see in the regular season.

Yes. Actually, I think the one team that the Patriots would not want to play are the Ravens. I think that would have been the case last year. You know, the Ravens have the Saints this week. Yes. They play the Steelers again. They play the Panthers on the Roe. They've played the chiefs on the road.

They play the chargers on the road. Wow, that is a schedule. Yeah. My number five teams, Kansas City. I just can't get over my gut feeling that this is not a Super Bowl team. It is a fun team to watch offensively. I will grant you that. I mean, they have some weapons in Mahomes.

Definitely looks like the real deal, even though I wouldn't hand them a gold jacket quite yet. They have weapons like we haven't seen one team have weapons like Kansas City does in the speed area in particular with Hill and Hunt. I just, I almost thought about having them outside of the top five. Oh, you can't do that. Well, I could do that. It's my show too. I could do that if I wanted to do it.

Yeah, but you would have looked more foolish than normal. That's true. And maybe I just didn't want to look foolish, but that's never stopped me before, has it? I don't think that they They're going to win the AFC West, I think. I mean, the Chargers may have something to say about that. The Chargers are my team to watch from the outside looking in. But they've already beaten the Chargers on the so-called road so far.

I mean, their next game with the Chargers is in December at home. The Chiefs do play the Rams. That's going to be a heavyweight matchup. That's a Monday night game in November. Now Eric Barry isn't playing yet for them, I don't think. Eric, Eric Perry, playing. I don't think he is. He's, I think he's been playing.

Okay. No, you may be right. Yeah, I don't think he is yet. I don't know how much of a difference maker that'll be. He's not playing yet. He's not playing yet. When he comes back. I'm going to put him at five.

Kansas City is number five. I can't make the case, a reasonable case that somebody's better than them outside the top five. But I will tell you who I do have in front of them. I've got the Ravens in front of them. Yeah, I can see that. The Ravens came up 106 yards to Tennessee. Tennessee had the ball nine times and punted nine times and had five, three and outs.

All right, Tennessee's not a great offensive team. I'll grant you that. Yeah, but any NFL team to have those kind of numbers is absurd. The Saints are the third best team, and this is a big game. And sort of a, an under the radar game because it's in that non-national TV 405 start on Fox Sunday in Baltimore, Saints at Ravens. But you're talking about a great offense against a great defense. That's such a good game. I wish that were, I wish that were the Thursday night game.

Yes. You know what? I actually would have thought about if I were the NFL flexing that game to Sunday night instead of Kansas City Cincinnati, but they want Mahomes and the Chiefs right now. because that is, it's a big draw. So I guess they made the right move there. But the Saints are the third best team. I got the Patriots at two. Boy, the Patriots all of a sudden, man, have some weapons offensively.

I mean, that's the big difference here. They all of the sudden, over the last three weeks, have put up massive numbers with Edelman back, with Josh Gordon into the fold, with Gronk Healthy, with the emergence of Sony and Michelle. The Patriots are a dangerous team, although I think that they are on upset alert Sunday at Soldier Field. that looks like a smell test pick to me tomorrow. And then the Rams are the best team, Tommy. They're the best team in the league. They're undefeated.

They've survived some tests here on the road the last two weeks. You know, they had three straight home games to get them to 4-0. And then they played at Seattle, at Denver, won two close games. Now they're at 49ers on Sunday. You know, that should be a win for them. They have some big matchups coming up. You know, you look down the road. I already mentioned they've got that Monday night game with the Chiefs

in November, but two weeks prior to that, you're going to get a Rams Saints game in the Superdome. That's going to be a big game. Potentially, by the time we get to December, Philadelphia is back in form, and you've got an Eagles Rams Sunday night game scheduled in December. But the one thing that's becoming clear about the NFL right now is that there is one division pretty much decided, and it's the NFC West. the Rams are going to be more likely than not a top two seed in the NFC with a first round by and a home field in the second game as the NFC West champ.

I don't know that you can definitely say that about the Chiefs in the AFC West. And I don't even know that you can definitely say that about the Patriots in the AFC East, although I would say that. But the Jets are a team that's very interesting, Tommy, and that's my team to sort of keep an eye on. And they have a game Sunday at home against Minnesota. And the Jet Media, the New York media, and the Jet fan base, they want Kirk Cousins' blood. They think he disrespected them during the free agent process, used them as leverage, and then taunted them through that little, you know, video thing that he did about the process.

And they are out for blood this week against Minnesota in the Meadowlands. and the Jets have quietly won two games in a row impressively. I'm not saying against great opponents, Denver and Indianapolis, but they have a good defense. They actually have at this point, they've got potentially a very good defense. They did last year too, but Jamal Adams, the rookie looks good, and with Williams and Copeland and some of the guys they've got up front. This is a good defensive team who can run the ball offensively.

Keep an eye on the Jets. I don't think that this is a team that is going to limp to some sort of five and 11 or six and 10 or worse finish. I think this is a team that's going to be right around the 500 or better mark most of the year. Who are you asking everybody to keep an eye on? Mine was the Chargers. Right. I mean, somebody needs to keep an eye on the Chargers because nobody in Los Angeles is paying attention to them, apparently. There are stories that the Chargers may be in trouble their future in L.A.

this two NFL team move to L.A. is looking really foolish now. And their speculation about the Chargers may be moving back to San Diego. I would love that as an NFL fan. I don't want them in Los Angeles. There's no reason for them to be in Los Angeles. Nobody's going to root for the Chargers in Los Angeles. The Rams, at least, were in L.A. San Diego's a big enough market to support an NFL team.

And you know what? If they don't get the great new stadium with all the luxury stuff, because the voters don't want it there, have them play at Qualcomm or Jack Murphy or whatever it's still called at this point. Yeah, I mean, the bigger issue for the Chargers in L.A., there's not enough advertising and sponsorship money to go around to support two NFL football teams. You would think the L.A. economy could support it. Yeah, I know, but it's a really competitive market for sponsorship and entertainment dollars. Yes, it is. It is true. It's true. I mean, you know, Will Bond was on with me yesterday and he said, look, the Lakers are still number one. The Lakers are always the number one out there. And it's not the Rams and it's not the Dodgers, even with the Dodgers competing, you know, what is this? The fourth straight year, third straight year, where they potentially are going to, you know, have a chance to win a World Series for the first time in a long time. And you know this too. When USC's a powerhouse in football, that's a a massive story in Los Angeles.

All right, we're going to get to Scott Van Pelt here momentarily, but, God, there was just tragic news yesterday, the passing of Rich Tandler, who both of us knew. You knew much better than I, because you've covered the team and you've spent much more time with the media core at Redskins Park when Rich was there. But I knew Rich well enough and had him on the show, you know, when, whether it was with you or with Cooley or by myself for the Redskins pregame show, dozens and dozens of times. And he was always just such, he was such a gentleman, so nice,

and he was an egoless. Like, you know, Tommy, like for me, there were times where I would call Rich 10 minutes before a segment started. And I'd say during a break, hey, I hate to do this to you. I'm so sorry for the late ask. Any chance you're available in 10 minutes? No problem. Let me get to a landline, and he would go out of his way to sort of help people. I loved my conversations, whether they were in person whenever I saw him or on the air about the Redskins,

because he was one of those guys, and I feel like, you know, I love having conversations with people like Rich about Redskins and Redskins history and some of the great games and some of the great players and some of the great situations, and he knew his stuff cold. and it's just sad. So my sympathy is out to his family, and I will remember Rich is just a really, really good guy. Not everybody in the media, although this is a pretty good sports media town. Everybody pretty much gets along with everybody. Exactly, but Rich really was a super nice, kind guy.

Yeah, I echo all that. I'm going to talk about the professional life of Rich Tanler. they should build an exhibit to him at the museum because what he did in this day and age is remarkable. He built himself up. He was a restaurant manager until what? He was in his like 40s. But he really wanted to write about the Redskins.

And he started writing these history books, these remarkable history books, where he went back. And he wrote books that chronicled every single game the Redskins ever played. A write-up and a box score of every single game this franchise had played. Remarkable books. I knew about Rich's work long before he started blogging. Then when blogging became a thing like around 2004 or so, he started writing this blog,

Real Redskins. And he just wrote himself into being relevant. when Comcast started their website around 2010, 2010, 2011, they kind of picked him up as an afterthought, the blog. Yes. And once he was in that door, he wasn't getting out. Right. He became an integral part of now NBC Sports Washington's coverage of the Redskins.

And this was all self-made. And for this to have for a 55, 60-year-old white male in this day and age, to be able to crack into the internet age of sports reporting like he did, it's astounding. I mean, odds were against him. It was 100 to 1,000 to 1 shot that he would have gotten to the point where he did. And he did it all through hard work. He did it all because he was the first guy to post every day on the Redskins beat.

5, 6 o'clock in the morning, Tanlon would be posting stuff. And 141 days to training camp, 152 to the first preseason game. I read his blog, Tommy, on every day that I did a radio show, I would go read his blog just to see if I missed anything or to see what his thought of the day was. Yeah, that was saying he gave relevant information. He gave great ideas, we both know that this position is creative more than it is anything else. and he gave great creative ideas for topics every day through his blog. He did.

Go ahead. I'm just just what he did. It's again, you know, kids come up to me and say, how can I get in the business? And I don't have much to say for kids except, you know, I mean, the one thing about this era is you can start your own blog and you can start writing and you can. And eventually, if you're really good, people will notice. Do you say that to a 50-year-old guy? No. No, but that's what he did.

I know. I didn't know that story until you shared that with me yesterday. I knew that he was late into the business. I didn't realize it was that late. That is an incredible testament to him. It really is. And again, he became a must-read in this town. And it's a tragedy.

I mean, because he was so well-liked. He was always the first one at FedEx Field in the press box for games. I used to try to beat him. Sometimes I would, but most of the time he was the first one there. And you could tell he knew how great that job was, you know, because he, that was his dream. So he valued all that. And that came across. And it's, it's a shame.

It's really, it's, it was a horrible, horrible news. He'll be missed for sure. Let's talk to Scott Van Pelt for his weekly appearance on the show. We, Tommy and I just finished talking about a friend, a colleague in the market, Rich Tandler. You were the one that actually texted me yesterday to tell me that you were seeing this on Twitter, but he passed away way, way too early, and he was a terrific guy. So that was a sad thing here yesterday in the market. All right, let's get to some sports.

First of all, what did you think last night of the Betts play on the Altuvei Hill? into right field. As an Oriole fan, it's hard for me to ever see anything be called interference that isn't as egregious as Jeffrey Mayer against the Orioles back in the day because the kid put his entire upper body on the field and stole a game, and I don't know if I'll ever quite be over that. I refer to him on the air as a truant often, which is ridiculous because by the time that that game was in the night inning. It was long

after he should have been in school, but I just refer to him as a truant. Betz is in the stands. And I don't know what those people are supposed to do. Like, they're supposed to, like, remove themselves. Did the guy hit the glove? I think he did,

or the glove hit the fan? I just thought it was a home run. I'll stop right there and just say. I thought it was a home run because I don't know. Did they interfere with him? Like, at what point are they not bound from like moving out of the way of a ball that's coming directly at them? I thought they replied, I mean, reacted the way any human being would. So I thought it was a home run.

I thought it was a home run too. And look, once he crosses over into the stands, the ball's fair game for anybody. I mean, fans don't have to get out of the way. And that's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's the way it always is. So they're trying to make the case that somehow he didn't cross over into that plane or it wasn't conclusive that he did. And I think it is ridiculous. You know, one thing, I was going to say, so by rule, if you believe that he had gone over the

wall to make that catch, then it can't be fan interference. Right. So it should have been a home run. With that said, because now, and I'm sure you guys will tell me that we've known this rule in the way it's described per MLB rule 3.16 before, but, you know, what we're all saying here is that once somebody reaches into the crowd, if you're the home crowd and that's a visiting outfielder, you should try to interfere. You should try to get in the way of that player making the catch because it won't, it will not be called fan interference if it's obvious that he

has gone over the wall to try to make that catch. I don't, perhaps fans and baseball fans know that anyway. The reason it wasn't overturned is because it was somewhat debatable based on the camera angles and the replays as to whether or not his glove was actually over the wall. I think it probably was, but replay wasn't conclusive. But all I'm saying is now that a fan knows that, I mean, they can get involved. They'll have an opportunity, you know, every fifth game or whatever, every 10th game to get involved. I don't think people are. that clever and I think you're human and you react like a human being.

Probably. Most people did it was react like a human being and by the way, I think it was definitive and I think that that home team just got screwed out of two runs which as it turned out was the margin of defeat and I don't think that they're going to be motivated to do it because they're going to

go, hell this guy in Houston did it and they took two runs away from them. I don't think anyone knows for sure. I think everyone thinks of Bartman and I think everyone always just thinks I should try to get out of the way. I shouldn't say, I think everyone does because I also think that there's that guy who sees it coming

and just like I want to get the ball from my kid. I just think people react like human beings, which those people do last night. Yeah, I mean, I think they do too. And it depends on where you're talking about where the balls. If the ball's in the outfield, you'll probably have more savvy fans in the outfield. If the ball is along the rails, like first or third baseline,

you're going to have people with money who don't know what they're doing. Right, who barely even pay the field. attention to the previous pitch. That's true. Rich Jones. Yeah, Rick Jones. Yeah, I hate it. Yeah, I mean, at Nat's games, I mean, you know, the people, Tommy, in playoff games, last year, you know, against the Cubs and the year before against the Dodgers with a three and two count in a big spot with Strasberger Scherzer would tell you to sit down, you know, and not get up in sheer. Seriously, that happened at a playoff game.

So it depends on where the ball is. If it's in the outfield, then you've got a chance of getting a fan who knows what's at stake. Along the rails, you know, you've got some girl who's looking up at her phone and sees a ball in her face. Right. Could be a guy looking at his phone, too, is way too much of that.

But just as far as, I mean, that was the, but that's the first. I mean, the night thing of that game was suffocating with the pressure. And the catch that Reddick makes amazing. And then it's trumped by the catch that Benettony makes.

Yes. He misses that. Astros won the game. Clears the bases. Games over if he missed. That ball goes to the wall. Without question. Without question. God, that was such a great game.

You know what? I did not. You were up for the Dodger Brewer 13-inning game. I fell asleep during it. But, God, this time of year, I don't know. I had Wilbon on the show yesterday, and he said he thinks that playoff hockey and the sudden ending of a goal in playoff hockey is as thrilling. But I think the pitch-by-pitch tension, that there's no more tense moments then the tension sort of associated with a close game, eighth, ninth, tenth,

inning in the playoffs. And we've seen so much of it here over the last few nights. Yes. Yeah, go ahead. No, I'll just say, again, I think that tension gets diminished when you have guys coming in and pitch every two innings. I don't know that that change. I don't think that changes the feeling at all.

I think it actually. I'll say this. If you watch the Dodgers and the Brewers and where I, I, I, I agree, it seemed no one seemed capable of scoring. And then ultimately, why they chose to pitch in that spot to, it was Bellinger, right? Why are you pitched there? I have no idea. The council decision to pitch to Bellinger with Grendal on deck and then the pitcher with nobody else that could hit for the pitcher,

was, I mean, that's basic strategy, isn't? How did he pitch to him with first base open? I don't know. I think everyone had been rolled in the sleep. Like, no one could hit a baseball. Like I said, I didn't feel that that was as tense as much as I just felt like I was intellectually invested. And I was like, if I gave up, I would have wanted to know who wanted I'm a night owl anyway.

But that to me was more boring. The Houston, the Houston Boston game at any moment, something felt like it could happen. And that's where that hockey analogy, I think hockey, like an overtime playoff game in hockey is impossible. The tension is impossible. Anytime the puck's in your zone, you're terrified. And also in that sport, a weird bounce happens and then one, two, three, and it's over. Whereas baseball, at least you're preparing yourself every time your team's pitching, that something bad can happen. In hockey, one weird bounce and a pass in front in the game is. I think that's the most, I think that's the most tension you can experience in sports.

You don't care as much anymore. Actually, you don't care that much at all. But do you have any sense up there that this Redskin Cowboy game is a big game or not? None. None. The perception of the NFC East is that it stinks. And, you know, the Cowboys beating Jacksonville wasn't a result that was surprising. The manner in which they did it certainly was. But I think that, and this is amazing, but I'll just speak to the way people viewed it Sunday and Monday was more through the eyes of,

wow, that's odd for Jacksonville than it was for Dallas. It was like, hey, this team was supposed to be real good. Jaylon Ramsey likes to talk, and now he's reduced to one-word answers, and they just got smoked two in a row. And now, like, the idea that Jacksonville as a football topic would be a bigger one than Dallas. That's just the way it was for our show. So, no, I have, you know, no sense of at all. Here's my question.

Is it going to be sold out? And if it is, is it mostly cowboy fans? If it's sold out, it'll be mostly cowboy fans. I don't think it'll be sold out. It's not going to be mostly. No, if it's sold out, it will be because of mostly cowboys fans. I don't know that that's necessarily true either. You say if it's more than 50 to 50, if there's 75,000 people in those stands, how many do you think are cowboy fans?

Let me just say this, that if the Redskins had lost to Carolina, it would be 70, 30, how many of people were in the crowd, Cowboys to Redskins fans. And what I'm saying now is with the Redskins coming off that win, and I think we all agree here in town that there is some juice to this right now. Yes, there is. Unexpected because the Redskins won a big game, the Cowboys all of a sudden look good. Scott, this is the first time they both, you know, that they played each other without one of them having a losing record in, you know, it's like only the third time that's happened in seven years. So, I mean, that's how, you know, far this rivalry and the importance of this game has fallen. Okay, 5545, which way?

Redskins to Cowboys fans. If you tell me that it's 55-45, it'll be Redskins to Cowboys. I think it will be. To answer your question, I don't know if it'll be a sell-out. It's their best chance to sell out a game, and it may be the best chance of the entire season to sell out a game because it is the Cowboys in town. But they've got a couple of games late in the year.

Like they have a season-ender against Philadelphia. You have no idea what that could mean now. But, yeah, it is amazing. It's amazing to say that. When I said it earlier this week, I said it to Aaron, I'm like, maybe this is their first sellout of the year. And I thought, wow, that's a conversation or comment that's never been made, even though we've known for several years, they haven't really been sold out. Who do you like to? Just the fact that it would take a cowboy game and it would take an influx of their fans to help get you to the number.

I mean, that's just, and look, that's been going on for a long time, too, whether it was like that Steelers Monday Night game years ago, where they just came in and took over, whatever. But for it to be the Cowboys, I don't know, man, as a kid that, you know, they grew up there and continues to watch from afar. It's just, it's remarkable where, what they aren't anymore. What they aren't is something that resonates in that market. That's incredible, incredible. Yeah, you know, the other thing, too, and I don't think this gets talked about around. hear enough when we have these conversations about the Redskins is that there are a lot of other teams whose parks are invaded by opposing fans around the league that's happened that's been

more of a recent phenomena where it's actually more fun sometimes for a fan base to go to a road game than a home home game yeah listen if it's an NFL problem every NFL problem add 50% when it comes to the Redskins yeah well let me let me make let me let me make let me make a point about the cowboys. It happens to the cowboys in their stage. All the time. Yes, it does. With the Redskins there. Right, but sure, sure, but just again, you know what I'm saying. I know what you're saying, of course. RFK, now granted, RFK was 52,000 or whatever, so it just, it wouldn't have happened.

But, I mean, you took your life in your hands if you came into that joint and really wanted to let people know you're a cowboy fan back in the day. And I've talked about way back in the day. So just the idea now that that's what it is, again, it's, it's a, it's a, departure. Anybody that's under the age of 40, you know, doesn't even really know what I'm talking about. So, you know, again, this is where I'm the old guy. As civil as, you know, sort of the Redskin fan base is compared to the Philadelphia fan base as an example in the division. What you just said is true. You know, you go back to games 70s, 80s, I'll throw in early 90s. If you were a cowboy fan, you did not. You were taking a big risk.

at RFK Stadium, rooting for the Cowboys. Maybe not at the same level of walking into the vet with a Cowboy jersey or Redskins jersey on. But RFK was, as you like to say, the snake pit of all snake pits. It really was. It was so good. It was the best. Who do you like this weekend?

Who do you like this weekend? You'll have winners out tonight. What have you identified so far? Well, LSU looked. awesome last week. They beat the crap out of the number two team in the country, and now they're given less than a touchdown at home to Mississippi State. That seems odd to me. I'll probably be on the Cal Bells from Starkville in that one. There's a, as you know, I mean, I'm not going to give out 18 games. That seemed to rather

aggressive. Who is aggressive last week? I was 11 and 7, though. Hey, listen, I went six and three giving out nine. I'm sure I'll get to nine. The question is, will I stop there? And honestly, I'm a little bit frightened because my main man, Stanford, Steve, who I know you had on last weekend, who is as hot as anyone in the country giving out games. No, he's like my security blanket. Like, when I gave out picks, I just enjoy having him around to kind of give me like, you know, he'll heckle me or he'll kind of, you know, goad me on. Like, if I don't want to pick a game, we're like, come on. And he's on the road for us this week.

So I don't have Steve there. Where is he? Well, he's out west. There's an Arizona State Stanford game tonight. He's there. He's going to Pullman tomorrow to be on our show live because game days in Washington State. for the first time ever, and the people there have lost their mind. So he's going to be live with us from that.

And then I think he's going to the Laker games Saturday because we're on after the Laker games. So he's just out west racking up frequent flyer miles, hotel points, and per diem. Stanford, Steve, and this is documented, is 25, 8 and 1, I think, on the season. That is ridiculous. Like that... Yeah, it's what? But you know it's coming.

You know it's coming, Kevin. I know it's coming. regression to the regression to the mean. Don't say the regression to the mean thing, please, God. I mean, all the people that want to sound smart. But he's hitting at basically 76%, which if anybody said to us without documentation, yeah, I'm hitting at 76%. We'd both roll our eyes and say, yeah, right. He actually is hitting at 76%.

Well, that's because he gives them out on a podcast, so it's not like you can't very well lie about them. There's a record each week of what he's given. Yeah, you mean people actually? do that to you? They actually tweet you or reach out to you to say, yeah, yeah, but I'm 70%? You really? We're your picks. And they're great at telling you who they had after the

weekends over. They're great at telling us what we do doesn't work. You know, whatever, it's been, gambling, Twitter is, there are many sewers. Gambling Twitter is the sewer of all. You are so right, and not enough people are participating, but it'll grow here over the next few

years. Indeed. Explain to me how Temple is playing an undefeated team in Cincinnati and Temple's laying three this weekend. That was the first one that jumped off the page at me. I'm like, wait a minute, Cincinnati's undefeated, and Temple is favored in this game. Yep, that sure is an odd one. You know, I haven't given a favorite all year, but that streak will end tonight.

Well, you may want to check their offensive DVO. before you do that because that's really, really important in figuring out who to pick in these games. I haven't modeled that part of it yet. I don't know. You know what? Predictive modeling to beat the market man in sports betting have at it because you and I would fight each other to take that action. All right. Thanks.

Enjoy it. I'll talk to you later. Thank you, Scott. Bye, boys. Be well. Take you. The Kevin Sheehan's show podcast, especially when Tommy's around, should be rated. It should be rated by you if you have.

haven't rated the podcast on iTunes or any other place that you listen to it, rate it for us, write a review. It really helps the ranking, which helps the show. We appreciate all of you that have been listening to it. And again, I mention this a couple of times a week. But if you know people that just don't do podcasts or they don't know how to do it, just tell them to go to the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. And there's a big play button right there, and anybody of any age can do it.

Since you're not going to be here tomorrow to give me your Redskins Cowboys pick, who do you like Sunday? I like Dallas 24 to 19. Why? Well, because I don't think the Redskins can score. I think they're offensively limited. Dallas is offensively limited. Well, you know what? I think that they've got to, if they use DAC, like they used them against Jacksonville, if they run DAC more, the Redskins are going to have a problem with that.

I mean, if DAC is mobile running the ball, you know, doing the boots and stuff like that, they're going to have a problem. Stop in Dallas then. So I like the Cowboys 2419. I just, I think that, you know, when Jay Gruden comes out and

says he'd like his quarterback to get rid of the ball quicker, you've got to figure that's the sanitized version for how frustrated he really is. I am hearing that he's frustrated. But at the same time, this is something I don't think I said to you on Tuesday.

I don't even know if I've said it on the podcast, but I had this thought with Cooley the other day when I was doing his podcast. I am starting to think, Tommy, that Jay Gruden, because he played the position, because he does believe in what he's doing, that he may be one of these guys that will never, ever be totally pleased

with the quarterback play. That it'll always not be, it'll never be enough. You know, there was always something there that wasn't enough with the last guy. He bailed on Kirk, I'm sorry, he bailed on RG3 so quickly because he realized he had no chance with him. And I think Alex Smith, even this veteran with all of this experience, and he's a good quarterback, I think Jay, you know, the grass always looks greener on the other side, and I think he thought it was going to be greener.

But I think for him, it would take Aaron Rogers to not be frustrated with quarterback play. That's a reasonable possibility. I think that's his mindset. Let's not get nuts either. He played arena football quarterback. I know, but he played quarterback. Okay. And he knows the position.

And I don't think anybody can be perfect enough for him. That's my guess. You know what? I know what he feels like doing this podcast. I'm sure you do. I'm sure you do. I do not have a smell test pick for tonight. There's no side really in the Denver, Arizona game.

What a terrible Thursday night game it is. You know, Arkansas State looks right a little bit, laying a big number tonight. at home against Georgia State, but I'm not playing it personally, and it's definitely not a smell test pick. But there are going to be eight to ten selections tomorrow. I don't think 18 this week, but eight to ten tomorrow. Also tomorrow on the show, Mike Shanahan's going to join the show, talk to him the other day. He's excited to come on. He wants to look at what the Redskins are doing well, what they're not doing well, and sort of size up Dallas as well. So he's been watching some of that film. He'll join us tomorrow. John Kime will be with us, and he'll be

with us. Big Football Friday. Tom, we'll be back on Tuesday. Thanks to Aaron, who's doing a phenomenal job on running this show because it's not easy, but he's doing a great job, and thanks to all of you. Have a wonderful rest of your Thursday. Go play Powerball or Mega Millions. You know what? Everybody's playing Mega Millions. Let's go play Powerball. Maybe our chances will be better. I like my chances of getting some Redskins gear from Chris Cooley before the day's out. Okay, enough of that. Have a great day, everybody.