The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins/Saints And More

Episode Date: October 8, 2018

It's a big night for the Redskins, as they play on Monday Night Football. First, Kevin talks about the historic nature of tonight as he looks at where Drew Brees ranks on the all-time quarterback list. Then he goes Around the NFL, where he talks about the Browns, Rams, Vikings and more, plus he actually agrees with Jason Garrett's decision. From there he segues into "Redskins Win If" where he breaks down what he needs to see from the players and the coach if the Redskins are going to come away with a big win today. Clinton Portis then joins to give his take on if the Redskins can win against CP's childhood team. Following Portis, Kevin goes through Weekend DVR, where he talks Maryland/Michigan and the rest of the college football slate, and has something to say about the Braves win. Finally, Andy Pollin sits in to look back at the 2012 game against the Saints, and both give their predictions on the game. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. I'm here. Aaron's here. Neil in Rockville is here. The show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows 86690 Nation or Window Nation. Tell them I told you to call much more on how you'll save big with Window Nation coming up. We're at Chatter. It's a great spot tonight to come watch the game. Plenty of high-deaf big screens, lots of good food. and drink. The bartenders are great. The wait staff is great. Chatter is at the, right at Wisconsin and Jennifer Streets, Northwest in Friendship Heights. Come out tonight to watch the game, by the way, guest bartenders, including Tony Kornheiser, Gary Williams, Mori Popovich, maybe, but they'll all be bartending tonight for the big game. The NFC East leading Washington Redskins are in New Orleans tonight to face Drew Brees and the Saints. Breeze on the verge of becoming the all-time leader in passing yardage. He needs 201 yards to pass Peyton Manning. Breeze will be the focus of all the national pregame coverage

already has been. It's been the go-to discussion this morning on ESPN, NFL Network, even the networks themselves talking about this momentous night for Drew Breeze. And I actually find it entertaining that part of the conversation is a discussion, a legitimate discussion among legitimate NFL people as to whether or not Breeze can be considered the goat, the greatest of all time when he passes Manning tonight. The greatest quarterback of all time. Drew Breeze?

Come on. Seriously. Drew Breeze is not the greatest quarterback of all time. All of you who are listening to this podcast and you are all football fans, do any of you seriously consider Drew Breeze to be the number one, number one, number one of all time? Nobody

does. Nobody does. Seriously, Drew Breeze is a lock a lock first ballot Hall of Famer. A lock first ballot hall of famer. He's going to go down as one of the great quarterbacks in the history of the game, but he's not the greatest of all time. He's not even in my view in that conversation. The conversation is subjective, of course, and I'm not dissing Breeze. He's been incredible over the years, and he's a top 10 type of guy. You know, it's close. It's close, but he's in the top 10. All right? I, I, I, I,

feel comfortable saying he's right around, you know, somewhere 7 to 10 range. Maybe somebody's got him at 11 or 12, all right? I wouldn't really debate you hard on that, but I probably have him somewhere around 9 or 10, somewhere in that range. All right, he is a great quarterback. But Brady, Manning, Elway, Marino, Montana, Unitas, and the people that watched Otto Graham, and I never did. that's the list. Some will put Rogers into that list, into the greatest of all time conversation.

I think Rogers is before Breeze. I do. Breeze is not in that group, not in my view. He's in the next group. He's in that next group that includes Young and Stawback and Favre. And then there's that third group of Tarkington and Bradshaw and Aikman and Moon. I think he's in that second group, which puts him, you know, in that six, seven to ten range. Elway was always my number one. Brady is now my number one and has been for about a year or two. Elway Brady for me, one and one A. Brady Elway probably.

Brady won John Elway 1A. Manning's probably third on my list. And because I've never, and Clay listened carefully, I've never put Super Bowls at the top of my criteria when evaluating quarterbacks. I evaluated Tony Romo at where I evaluated him, not because of the lack of Super Bowls, because I just didn't think he was that great.

He was a good quarterback. Certainly wasn't a great quarterback. The conversation to me is never about the number of Super Bowls, which is why I would have Marino in my top four. All right, my top four are Brady, Elway, Manning, and Marino. Now, Rogers, in the era of Brady, Manning, and Rogers, all three of them are better quarterbacks than Breeze. All three of them. So by default, he's not the greatest of all time.

He's got three guys in his era that I would personally put in front of him. He's a Locke First Ballot Hall of Famer. He's in a group of 10 or so in terms of the greatest 10 or so quarterbacks of all time. One of the best we've ever watched, just not anywhere near the actual greatest of all time. I just don't see any longtime football fan who has watched this game for decades upon decades putting him on that mantle. Anyway, that's the story nationally. It's all about breeze tonight and the yardage record that he is going to likely set. Sometime, I would guess, hopefully if you're a Redskins fan, in the second half, not in the first half of the game.

And I will get to the Skins beat Saints tonight if. But first, let's talk about the games from yesterday. What a day for kickers again. I mean, what a season for kickers. Remember week two? Week two, there were 19 missed kicks in the second week of the season, 12 field goals, seven extra points in the second week of the season, including several potential game winners. Remember the Daniel Carlson at Lambo missing three kicks? They cut him. Remember Zane Gonzalez, the Browns kicker, who basically cost them the first two games against. the Steelers and the Saints yesterday,

the worst performance by any kicker in modern NFL history, really. Since kickers started to make 90% of their kicks inside 50 yards, Mason Crosby missed five kicks yesterday. Four field goals, one extra point. One of the field goal attempts was a 56-yarder. Okay, so you give them that one. The others were from 41, 42, and 38 yards. in a dome stadium, and the game was played at Ford Field yesterday in Detroit,

41, 42, and 38-yard field goals are chip shots. They're in the 90% plus accuracy rate. He missed all three of them. He had the yips so badly. You could see it when he got out there after he'd missed the first two or three. Rogers had his back after the game, but you wonder what they'll do with Crosby, who's been there now. This is his 12th season.

in Green Bay. Never kick for anybody else. Remember in week two against the Vikings at Lambo, he missed a kick at the end of regulation that would have won it for the Packers. Meantime, Minnesota had Daniel Carlson, cut him, signed longtime Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey, and Bailey missed two in the first half at Philadelphia yesterday. One of them from 28 yards out. Somebody actually knew something in Dallas about Bailey because he doesn't look like the same kicker. Now, he hit one at the end to ice the game, a 52-yarder, clutch kick. I actually was surprised that Zimmer put him out there. I thought they might go for it or pun it in that spot.

But he hit the 52-yarder to ice the game for the Vikings. But still, I mean, Jesus, missing from 28 yards out, the Vikings just can't ever seem to find a kicker. Blair Walsh? It's the uniform. It has nothing to do with the talent. I'm sure if Dan Bailey got cut, he'd go somewhere and be fine. I guess.

But nobody, remember, nobody signed Bailey until the Vikings had the disaster with Carlson. Supposedly he did have offers. But for whatever reason, he waited and then got to Minnesota. Then in Cleveland yesterday, all right, the guy who replaced Gonzalez, who cost the Browns the first two games of the season, this new guy, Greg Joseph, he missed a kick at the end of regulation. It was from 55 yards out to beat the Ravens at the end of regulation. And then they get in field goal range in overtime, and he comes out for a 37-yarder.

If you haven't seen the Greg Joseph game winner for the Browns, it is the ugliest kick you've ever seen. It was a knuckle ball that traveled no more than like four and a half feet. How tall is the crossbar? Is the crossbar more than, what's the crossbar? It's about 10, right? Is it 10 feet? The crossbar is 10 feet?

Okay, so this thing traveled at about 10 and a half feet the whole way and barely got over the crossbar. And the Browns have now won two games. Then there's Graham Ganoe, the former Redskin Kicker, who now has made 35 straight field goals at home. He kicks one from 63 yards out at the gun to beat the Giants, 3331, tying him with Dempsey, Akers, Janikowski, and Jason Elam for the second longest field goal in NFL history. Prater holds the record from 64 yards out. If you were wondering, Dempsey's kick and Acres kick were the two and now Gano's kick or the three that were kicked from 63 or 64 yards that were not in Denver.

The others, Prater, Elam, and Janakowski, all in Denver in the thin air. You know, Tom Dempsey held that record for 28 years. The 63-yard field goal record stood for 28 seasons until, somebody, I think it was in 98, I think it was Elam tied it in 98. Cam Newton's quote yesterday was the quote of the day about Graham Gano's winner. Quote, a wise man told me once that a great quarterback is only as good as his kicker. Graham put the whole team on his back today, well, on his toe today. That was Cam Newton.

Let's get to some other games. How about last night's game, Dallas Houston? We'll get to the Redskins beat the Saints if in a moment. What a football game. The quarterbacks took a beating in that game. These are two pretty good defensive teams. Actually, Houston's a very good defensive team with Watt and Clowny healthy again. Deshawn Watson getting back to form. He's a playmaker. He's very difficult to defend, and it helps that he's got Hopkins. I mean, DeAndre Hopkins right now is at the top of his game. He's a top two or three receiver in this league right now with the best hands, arguably, in the league. He never seems to drop a ball ever.

Nine catches, 151 yards for Hopkins last night, including the play in overtime. It was a 49-yard pitch, catch, and run that set up the game winner. The Cowboys were out gained last night, 462 to 292. And watching this game, it did seem like Dallas was a bit fortunate to be in the game hanging around. They got a huge stop at the end of the first half

when Bill O'Brien decided to go for a fourth and goal from the one on the final play of the first half, and Jalen Smith made a great play on Deshawn Watson. I mean, leveled him. Watson took a beating last night. I think he walked away from that game with something rib-related, which this morning, if you've ever had a rib injury, it's the next day or two where it is painful.

And you can't even, you can barely breathe, and God forbid you have to sneeze. Anyway, that was a big stop. Then the Cowboys got a turnover early in the third quarter that set up their only touchdown. And, you know, a lot of Cowboy fans are wringing their hands over Jason Garrett's decision in overtime with a fourth and two at the Houston 42 to punt it. I didn't have any problem with that decision. If you're a cowboy fan in that spot, do you really think you're going to make fourth and two against Houston? And you want to give them that field position?

Dallas's defense is good. You punt it. You stick them inside the 10-yard line and you get the ball. back hopefully in a short field situation. They did not get to stop. I thought that was 100% the right decision by Garrett. I think Jerry Jones questioned him a little bit. The cowboy fans were going nuts. That's your chance to go win the game.

You're a first down away from potentially having a game-winning field goal attempt. It wouldn't be a game-winning field goal attempt because it was the first possession of overtime. Was it the first possession? I thought they already had each had a possession by that point. I think that's Dallas's first possession. Pull that up. Okay, I mean, because there was only a few minutes.

left in overtime, so they definitely... No, it wasn't a few minutes. Because Houston took over it on their own 10, and they drove it. Look, remember, overtime is only 10 minutes now. Right. Which is why you've already got some... You've got more ties. It was set up to end up having the possibility of more ties in the game.

Look that up. I think that's Dallas's first possession. I could be wrong in overtime. I didn't have a problem with them not going for the fourth and two. I think punning it was the smart move. It was the third. into where if that was a true read option play, I think Prescott made the mistake. He had Tavon Austin with him as a potential pitch guy.

He should have kept it instead of leaving it in Zeke Elliott's hands. I will say this. The Cowboys just aren't going to win many games. Even with a pretty good defense, if Zeke Elliott's going to average 2.7 yards per carry, 20 carries, 54 yards last night. Houston's defense was exceptional at times last night. Eagles Vikings. Did you find it?

Was it the first drive of overtime? ESPN doesn't have the play-by-play. Well, they ended in regulations. I'm trying to pull it up. Hold on. All right. I know Cowboys did win the toss, but I think both teams had punted before that. All right, look it up. When you get the answer, chime out.

Eagles, Vikings. Minnesota's defense stepped up for the first time this year. Their safeties, Harrison Smith and Sendejo were awesome. Zimmer got much more aggressive for the first time in five games. And that Minnesota defense, at least for a game after getting torched at times this year, looked like a playoff defense. I don't know if it looked like a Super Bowl defense, but it looked like a playoff defense. But right now, offensively, the Vikings have three players.

They have Stefan Diggs, they have Adam Thielen, and they have Kurt Cousins. Cousins was brilliant yesterday. Most of you hate to hear that, but he was. They've got no running game, none. He's used to that. Didn't have any here. Dalvin Cook was out. Cook was only averaging 2.7 yards per carry anyway.

The vikes are dead last in the NFL and rushing. So their only hope is for Kirk Diggs and Thielen to make plays. And Kirk got sacked once yesterday on a 30 for 37 day, 301 yards, not because the offensive line's great because it isn't. It's leaky. He got pounded all day long. But he did what he does very well. It's the thing that makes him a top 10,

to top 12 quarterback. Not an elite quarterback, not top five. All right, never said that. But it makes him a top half of the league, I think top 10 to 12 quarterback is he reads well and he gets rid of it quickly. And right now, that's their only hope of moving the football. And on the drive up 20 to 14, he completed some balls that got them into field goal range. I was surprised they kicked it. I thought they might go for it or punt it in that spot after moving it for five minutes of possession. Adam Thielen is phenomenal. Five straight 100-yard receiving games to start the NFL season.

First ever. First-ever time that's happened. Five straight-100-yard receiving games for Adam Thielen and NFL record to start a season. Diggs is spectacular. He's really the only hope they have when they hand him the ball. He was their leading rusher at halftime. I think Kirk is their leading rusher for the season.

I don't know how long Minnesota can be that one-dimensional and thrive. A playoff team, perhaps. a Super Bowl contender with no threat of being able to run the football. It's hard to do. You know, it's not Aaron Rogers quarterbacking. It's not Tom Brady quarterbacking. It's not Drew Breez quarterbacking. Kirk is very good.

He's not at that level where you can be one-dimensional and go win the Super Bowl. They've got to find some balance, and then they will be more of a threat. I think they're a potential playoff team. I just don't think they're a Super Bowl team. Meantime, Philly's two and three. Why did Doug Peterson go for two when it was 20 to 12 after they scored a touchdown? That would have really been a head scratcher had he missed it. It was a head scratcher anyway.

He made it and that put him in position if they could have gotten a stop at 20 to 14 to potentially win the game. He also had a terrible challenge that cost the Eagles a timeout. The Eagles just look off right now. They have too many penalties. They had three illegal formation penalties. That's usually a sign of things being a little bit too loose. right now. It's a hangover situation. It's a Carson Wentz coming into the, you know,

into the fold a little bit later situation. I still like the Eagles to eventually get it together. They play Thursday night in the Meadowlands against the Giants. Sort of a must win situation. Would you call it that? I mean, two and four, it may be a division where nine and seven's good enough. Just depends on how the Redskins do. It may depend on how the Redskins do. I don't think anybody thinks that the Redskins are going to run away and win 11 or 12 and leave Philly in the dust. Tonight's big on that. I mean, imagine they win in the Superdome on Drew Bree's night to get to 3-1 and they've got a game and a half lead in the division. Thursday night in the Meadowlands is a huge spot for the Eagles. I mean, they got to win that game. The Giants meantime lost a heartbreaker.

I mean, they got more aggressive. They threw the ball down the field. They took more risks and they still lost a game on a 63-yard field goal. A couple of other games real quickly. Jacksonville's defense, I didn't get to see this game other than what they were showing on the Red Zone channel. I don't think the defense got torched like perhaps some would just look at the final score and the final yardage thing and think they got torched.

Four interceptions. Four interceptions is what did them. Five turnovers is what did them in. You know, the chiefs did on their first two drives. I mean, give them credit against the best defense in the league, or arguably the best defense in the league. They ran 24 plays, rolled up 155 yards, over 10 minutes time of possession, and they had a 10-0 lead. That set the tone for that game. It was a total S-show for Bordles after that.

Four picks, including a pick six, five total turnovers. Kansas City's 5-0. For the first time this year, Mahomes didn't throw a touchdown pass. He threw two picks in the game, but they won the game going away 30 to 14. 23 points offensively. They had a pick six in that game. Next Sunday night, Kansas City and Foxborough. That's going to be fun.

To face the Patriots. Baltimore and Cleveland. Baltimore couldn't convert on third down. I've talked about this since the beginning of the season. Cleveland's defense is legit good. So is Baltimore's. Two really good defensive teams. And Cleveland wins a game.

That was a smell test lean. Was not an official play. I like the Browns. I like the bills also. but Baltimore, yes, I still, I'm not backing off them. I think they have a chance to be the AFC champion this year. I do. They're three and two, and they're a game now, full game behind the Bengals,

and they've already lost to the Bengals, and the Bengals came back from 17-0-0-0-down to beat, I think, a very average to less-than-average Miami Dolphins team. Seattle gave the Rams. That was a smell test pick, gave the Rams everything that they had and lost 33-31. I'm going to give you a player that I really like. I mentioned him last year with Cooley at one point.

Mike Davis, the running back for Seattle, who played at South Carolina. They're giving Carson a lot of the carries too, but Mike Davis is a very good back. You know, he's one of those guys that is going to get an opportunity if he doesn't stick in Seattle as the number one guy to be a number one guy somewhere else.

Sort of like Alex Collins? I loved Alex Collins, too. I've been right about a lot of running back. I've been wrong about a lot of other things, though. But I like Mike Davis a lot. I liked him at South Carolina. He was a fourth-round pick. The Rams, you know, they, first of all, I thought it was a sketchy spot on the third down at the end of regulation of 33-31. Seattle's got one timeout left. They use it. The Rams show like they're going to punt. Then, you know, after the timeout, they changed their mind and they put golf out there and he sneaks it. And, you know, Wade Phillips comes by and smacks, you know, McVeigh on the back and they're, you know, celebrating. trading on the sideline, giving McVeigh props.

You know, you miss that fourth and one. It's game over because they're almost in field goal range right there with Janikowski from their own 43 yard liner wherever it was. But he went for it, ended the game. A lot of coaches wouldn't do that. But it's probably in that spot less than a yard. It's got to be an 80% eight out of 10 play. No, it's 90.

Is it 90? I believe it's 90. Context is everything, right? So it depends on the team. Yeah, it depends on the team. By the way, did you hear what Gurley said after the game? What did he say? You can't stop our offense because we have the best coach in the league.

There you go. You know what's interesting about the Rams? They were also thought to have the best defense or one of the best defenses in the league with Donald and Sue in the two corners. They got torched. Second stray week. I mean, Minnesota rolled it up on them and Seattle rolled it up on them yesterday. But the Rams are still 5 and 0.

We'll get to the other games that we didn't spend lot of time on because I want to get to the Redskins Saints and really spend much of the rest of the show previewing Redskins Saints. Window Nation, I want to tell you about right now. They're a believer in this podcast. They're a believer in me. I want you to believe in them. If you are in the market for Windows, please reach out to Window Nation. Harley and Aaron are the two owners of Window Nation. They are huge sports fans and they've supported me for over a decade now for 10 years at 980 and they were the first to reach out to say, we've got your back on this podcast. What do you need us to do? I said, I need you to spend some money and support the podcast and they said, done.

Fact, Halloween is this month. Fact, Thanksgiving is next month and then it's Christmas. That means winter is coming. So now is the time to start acting when it comes to winterizing your home. And you'll do it hopefully with Window Nation windows. Call Windonation today and you save 50% off all styles of windows plus no down payment, no payments, and no interest for one full year. And if you purchase a house of windows, if you purchase a whole house of windows by the end of this week, Windonation will pay your utility bills until your new windows are installed. Call 86690 Nation or visit windonation.com by this Sunday. That's windownation.com or 86690 Nation. All right, let's get to Redskinsbeat Saints if. All right, the Redskins beat the Saints. If they move the football, it's not that hard.

The formula for beating the Saints has really always been. Keep Drew Breeze off the field. You know, they did that last year. Tonight is a big measuring stick game for the defense. I believe the defense is better. But the offense has to help out tonight. Last year, the Redskins scored on four of their first six drives against the Saints. And they didn't have a three and until the fourth quarter. That's a formula for beating the Saints or having a chance to beat the Saints if your defense and your head coach doesn't melt down at the end of the game, like last year. The best defensive strategy keep Drew Breeze off the field. You've got to convert third downs to do that. You got to keep the chains and the clock moving. The Saints are 29th in the

NFL on third down defense. The skins need to convert. Alex Smith tonight is going to have to make some plays, not for a quarter, but for four of them. All right? Consistency, time of possession, move the football, convert third downs, score no less than 27 points on 11 drives. Okay, the typical drive count in a football game is 12. If you're moving it and you're eating the clock, maybe you get 11, you've got to score on five of them tonight. Three touchdowns, two field goals, you got a chance to win the game.

Alex Smith has to handle the blitz. You know, New Orleans blitzed Kirk a ton in that game last November. And Kirk, if you didn't know this, was one of the best quarterbacks against the Blitz in the league last year. And he made New Orleans pay. Remember that offense for three quarters last year. Torched New Orleans. If New Orleans comes after Alex Smith,

Alex Smith is going to have to do the same thing. Gruden will have a scheme that allows the quarterback to beat the Blitz, to identify the blitz and to beat the blitz. He's got to do it. They did it last year. They got to do it tonight. Can't drop balls. They had five drops against New Orleans in that November game.

That offense would have scored 40 plus had Vernon Davis not dropped one, Crowder not dropped one, Doxon not dropped one in that game. You've got to move the football tonight. You've got to keep Drew Brees off the field. This is a night, and I mentioned this last week. It's a measuring stick game for the defense. Yes, but this is a big game for Alex Smith in this offense. They are facing a bad defensive football team right now in New Orleans.

You can move it against them and you should be able to score points. If you can't tonight, it is a signal that the offense has a long way to go. The Redskins beat the Saints tonight if they catch the two to three balls that Drew Brees will typically put up for grabs in a game. Did you know that last year was the first season in 13 that Drew Breeze did not have double-digit interceptions? He only had eight last year and has not thrown one in four games this year, not one yet. But Drew Breeze, if you've watched Drew Breeze over the course of his career, you know that there are one to two, sometimes three chances where he will take a high risk,

make a high risk throw, take a chance, and put the ball into an area where it can be intercepted. you've got to catch him. You have to. There's going to be, I'm telling you right now, there's going to be one to two minimum chances. For Nicholson or Sweringer or Dunbar or somebody to come up with a pick, you got to make him pay when he makes those one to two throws that he'd like to have back.

Have to do it. Redskins beat the Saints if Jay Gruden doesn't do anything stupid tonight. Here's the list. last year. Do you remember this? At the end of the first half, Nick Rose had kicked a 55-yard field goal the week before outdoors at FedEx against the Vikings and Gruden wouldn't let him kick one at the end of the first half indoors in the Superdome. That was dumb. All right, dumb. The play calling before that was super conservative. Sometimes Jay at the end of a half or the end the game gets too conservative.

Against New Orleans, you need more possessions and you need to stay aggressive. You got to think that you can't win this game without scoring 30 plus. You've got to think that way. Remember last year when they tried to make the Saints use all their timeouts and they got into the third and won and they ran that slow developing play to P. Rhine? You got to sneak it in that situation. second down, you got to throw it in that situation. All right, you had 238 left.

It's third and one. A first down ends the game. The Saints have 10 in the box. The crowd's roaring, and you go with some slow developing running play. Sneak it. The grounding penalty, remember that at the end of regulation, that prevented the Redskins from having an opportunity to kick a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation. That's on the quarterback to a certain degree, but that's on the coach, too.

It's the head coach's responsibility to know the 10-second runoff rule and communicate it to his quarterback. Remember the stupid challenge on Kobe Fleener's catch with about 350 to go? Cost them a timeout, the timeout that they needed before the 10-second runoff at the end of regulation. Jay Gruden also called that fake punt in the New Orleans game last year. And something like that is important tonight, too. he's got to stay aggressive and he can't make mistakes. You don't win these games when your head coach doesn't know how to manage a clock, can't count, and doesn't stay aggressive.

All right, let's bring in Clinton Portis. I just went through a couple of things that I think are important if they're going to win tonight. And one of those things is what they did last year, which gave them a chance, which is be aggressive, stay aggressive, and they did that through the first three quarters, and understand that you're going to have to put up 27 plus, even though we think the defense is much improved, scoring, moving the ball, keeping Drew Breeze off the field is a key.

What are your keys? I totally agree. You're going to have to put up more than 27. You know, you look at Drew Breeze. This is going to be a historic night for him. Monday night football, the entire city. That entire organization will be partied and ready. So you're going to have to be prepared to be in a dog fight.

you know, after last year, you look at it two ways. Last year you had this game and you lost it in eight minutes after being up 15. That gives New Orleans hope. That let them know, hey, you know what? This team feels good, but this is what happened last year. So I'm sure they don't want to get out to a slow start and have to fight back. And for us, it's finding a way to maintain. You know, you got to come out and score early.

You got to keep Drew Reeves off the field. You can't allow them to get into a run. rhythm and you can't allow one individual like Mark Ingram got hot last year and became unstoppable. You can't allow that to happen. You can't allow one guy to beat you. It needs to be a collective effort and make them have to go to people that you don't expect. Thomas, Kamara, and Ingram can't be the ones that beat you. You know, make someone else be that guy. Do you think it could be a bit of an advantage tonight with Mark Ingram back? off suspension for his first game.

If they are trying to work him back into the rotation, instead of sticking with Kamara, who's been as good as anybody's been at that position through four weeks? I think the tough part for Ingram is, of course, you're five weeks in. Everyone else is kind of in football shape now. So he's going to have to come in, eliminate carries. you can't expect him to come out and get 20 or 25 carries in week one because I don't think he's ready for that, especially with everyone else endurance and gameplay being five weeks in. So when you look at Kamar, they use him within the system.

This is not a team that forced him to ball. They go through their plays and their progressions and get him to ball. It's not like, oh, we got to get him the ball less amount of time, so we got to do this. man just find a way to make plays. And you've got to figure out a way to limit him. You're not going to take him out of the game. You've got to limit him. And I think if you can put the saints in position to be behind on the chains,

that help you because now they need to get the ball downfield and they don't really want to dump the ball off to Kamar in space. Because if they got to dump it off, you can come up in game tackle, which is skin has been doing a good job. this season. But if he's allowed to come out in a test and they're always in third and four, third and three, he's going to be dangerous. What I was sort of alluding to is that if they try, if they try to force him back in there, then that may take a few touches away from Kamara, who's been deadly, and that could work in the Redskins favor. I would rather see Ingram

tonight than I'd love to see Ingram take eight. to 10 of Kamara's touches away tonight. I think that would benefit the Redskins. Well, the only reason I say he's, like I said, it's going to be hard to take touches away because they don't have a set number of plays to get to out. You know, when you look at Ingram, he's just going to be within the game plan. They're not going to try to force him back. I think they did a good job. You know, they had AP, Ingram and Kamar, and AP was the odd man out because they found a one-two punch that didn't require us to run downhill this amount of plays to get AP involved in the game.

So therefore, he was easy to move on from him because McAmarra kind of past the game, running game, look, when they're on the field, you don't know what to expect because they could do both. Whereas if you had AP on the field in New Orleans, they didn't realize how to use him or get him going in the passing game. So it was just not a perfect fit for their offense. When you look at these two, I mean, they're shifting. I think Ingram made a move last year that might have been one of the top days in the NFL. You know, so when you look at that shifting, that quickness, having Drew Brees, who you always got to worry about, Thomas going into elite status, again, being able to blow the top off of coverage.

You have to respect the Saints offense. Now, when you look at their defense, you're looking at your top thing. this defense don't, I mean, they're just on the field. They just buying Drew Reed some time to get some oxygen before he got to come back out and run it up. So if we can hold them and limit them to three points when they have a good drive, you can't give up seven, seven, seven. You know, at some point, you have to bear now and be bend, don't break, and make them kick threes, make them take freeze.

And on the other end, we got to capitalize. We got to be able to run the ball and get into the end zone. That's a really good point because sometimes in these games, you know, when you're playing a team like the Saints and you know they're going to move the ball, I mean, we both are more excited and more optimistic about the Redskins defensively than we've been in years, but still you're facing Drew Breeze. And sometimes it comes down to, you know, a holding penalty that sort of derails a drive or a drop pass on a condensed field in the red zone that leads to a field goal. Those are the things that have to go in the Redskins favor. tonight. I want to ask you defensively. So it's obvious that Alan and pain and ionitis that the front seven is better, that the defense is just better. What's missing though from the defense? Why can't they generate a consistent fear-inducing pass rush?

Well, I think the four guys that you look for, you talk about the D-line been much improved. if you talk about the unity and the secondary, the guys that we expected to carry this team as a linebacker court. And that's Preston Smith, Carrigan, Foster, and Brown. And those guys have been kind of missing. They haven't really made plays. You know, you look at Carrigan. Carragon consistency.

He's gotten a lot of holding calls this year that helped, but he hasn't gotten any of the sacks. You look at Preston Smith. he hasn't gotten to set. Zach Brown hasn't been the force that we've seen coming down here last year that made everyone so excited about his silence. So coming off of a bye week, and you see Carrigan and Preston Smith in coverage a lot, dropping into zone.

I don't like to see that. I hate it. Oh, man, I hate that. But you have to get them going back to the quarterback, and you can't have them dropping into coverage on third down or second. second down because that limits them to one pass rush for four downs. You know, you want a pass rusher getting after the quarterback. You want to give him an opportunity to set up and set up his move and work to tackle

and, you know, get the guy off his feet. But if on second or third down, he's dropping into coverage and then, you know, you come to third and short and they get the ball out quick, that's not working. But, you know, I'm sure the Redskins defense look at or, coordinate and look at our position as a team instead of pat-nose guys' stats. Like, well, we're winning without these guys being influenced, so I'm okay with that. Whereas carrying a Preston-Smith start growing sacks and getting two sacks per game to finish out the season, and defensively you're losing or you're not doing as good, then, you know,

that raised other concerns. So it's kept like, hey, ain't there wrong. Don't touch it. Don't fix it. You know, so I just would rather see Carrigan and Preston Smith with their hand down attacking. You know, you don't want Zach Brown in coverage against Alvin or Mark. So you got to figure out a way to play within the scheme, but still allow those guys to be effective and get involved in the game. Because, as I said, Kerrigan, who's drawn a lot of penalties this season and put you in position,

has been close numerous times, but just hasn't gotten there. Clinton's doing a podcast. It's called 26 minutes with Clinton Portis, and it's available any way you get a podcast, but also at Redskins.com. I urge you to check it out. You're doing that once a week, right? Yeah, once a week. It comes out every Wednesday.

Monica McNutt, Jake Chris Reifles. Every Wednesday, you can download the podcast, subscribe to it, iTunes, Google Play. Redskins.com, of course. So check it out. You know, one thing that I know about you, and I don't know if most Redskinned fans know this about you, maybe they do, but you, tonight when the Redskins play the Saints, they're playing the team of your youth, the team that you rooted for,

and this particular quarterback is your guy. When you're not rooting for the Redskins every week, do you still follow the Saints? Listen, it's no, they're playing the team with my youth. They're playing my team. I'm the Saints fan. We're not, we're not singing cold. I'm a St.

I grew up. I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Bobby A. Barry and Deuce McAllister for the game this week. And I was so excited to be on the phone with Bob. It felt like a kid. I was telling him about Don Hilli had been my favorite player growing up. And Pat was a Ricky Jackson, You know, all the greats and legends from the Saints at that time.

So I was like a kid in the Kansas store, but I'm still a Saints fan. I'm still in New Orleans all the time. A lot of my friends, you know, you think of Charles Grant and some of the guys that played for the Saints, are good pals. Like, I'm a Saints fan. You know, I'm a Redskins fan because this is where, you know, I came. This is where I played. This city loves me and has a lot of support.

but I grew up off the Saints and it's not like, you know, a lot of people like, well, I can dump the seat. I can't dump the Saints. We married. We go together for help us. So what do you do tonight? What do you do when the Redskins play them? Do you root for the Saints? Oh, no, I definitely root for the Saints.

I wouldn't. I wouldn't root for Drew Breeze. Now, I'm not even going to sit here and lie and play like, oh, I don't want to see him get this record. I want us to win this game, but at the same time, when he goes. goes to 202, I'm going to take that moment and put my glass up to have a toast for what he's accomplished in that black and gold. You know, it's funny when you mentioned Bobby A-Bair,

you just reminded me, I can't believe that I didn't call him to ask him to come on the podcast because he's been a guest on every radio show before every Redskins Saints game, and I've gone on their shows many times. He is a great radio talk show host and guest. He's really entertaining, and he's, He was, well, he was the quarterback that got you guys to the playoffs for the first time, right? That was the first Saints playoff game against the Vikings back in, you know, 80-something, 87 or something like that.

Yeah, back then it was hard to come by, but we had the best defense. Right. Great defense. Our linebacker core, our entire line back in court used to go to the Pro Bowl, along with the Eagles D line, and then you'll have Dion and whoever the other. Darrell Green. Corners was. But yeah, Darry Green.

That's what it used to be. Dion and Darryl Green, and then the two safeties was probably the interchangeable ones. But it was the Eagles D-Lines of the team's linebackers. So that's all I remember growing up offensively. We were just in the division that had the Falcons and the Falcons were dangerous. The Rams at that time were Eric Dickson. And then you had the Niners. The Niners.

The Niners who were the Kings of the 90s. So we were in the tough. It was hard for us to get out, but defensively, oh, we had everything. Toy Cook was my man. Oh, I love the Saints, man. All right. Who wins tonight and why? Well, I think the skins win.

And the number one reason we're to date this weekend, zero and three in the NFCEs. All the teams lost. You can't expect the NFCE to get shut out on this weekend. The skins are in perfect position to gain control of the NFCE. and you go in and play team ball, which this defense has been playing great and creating turnovers. And I think that's been overlooked the turnovers they created. So you look at this young D line, figuring out a way to get their hands up, batted balls in the air.

We're going to have to create turnovers, and we're going to have to run the ball. Offensively, I'm not worried about us because I don't feel as if the Saints defense, can stop anymore. Defensively, I think if we can hold them to three, then we got a better shot. If you can get out early, which this team has shown this season, getting out to hot starts and not finishing, but knowing you're in New Orleans,

knowing what happened last year, you're going to have to keep your foot on the pedal. And I think that changes Jay game plan to never come out of attack mode. So if you get up 17, 10, or anything else, going to be in attack mode the entire time. Although it's going to be a good night in the Orleans and everybody all red tailgating and pumped and, you know, I want to go get a droop research.

But I like the skins. I think this is the one moment. You know, me and Kuhle normally argue about this and go back to Green Bay where I didn't give us a chance against Green Bay. And Kulay said, I think we're going to beat them. And I said, no, I don't see it. You should have known better because that line was fishy. Yeah, but tonight, I like us for some reason.

And I'm not someone that always brag. I know. I'm not Larry Michael. I'm not giving you, hey, this is the skin. Hey, I understand Larry. No, you picked against him. I've heard you pick against him before. Yeah, exactly.

I'm telling you how I feel. Now, I hate to get on a bandwagon or hate to get excited about the skins for this reason because anytime you have a perfect golden opportunity, to take advantage of, we don't show up. For whatever reason, we don't show up. You look at indie. We didn't show up. We weren't there to take the home crowd over.

Now you have another opportunity on primetime television, Monday night football in the dome is going to be historic regardless. How could you not have goosebumps? How could you not have chill bumps? How could you not be ready for this game? So I look for the skin to find away to pull it out. We need to win by one point.

I don't care how the game goes. We need to win by one point and come out victorious and really secure this NFC. I was six and two this weekend with my, with my picks, with my show picks. I need to call you before the game. Well, I told you on Thursday night

I love Florida and I loved Pitt. Told you about both of those. I told you, I just been staying away, which I did. I stayed away. Well, you should always stay away. you should always stay away. But the NFL, for three straight weeks, I was three and oh yesterday, killing it. Seattle yesterday, the Jets yesterday, and the lions.

All of them were fishy. All of those lines were fishy. You said that about Seattle as well. I know. I took Seattle. I'll tell you what, I don't like the game tonight either way. Like if you forced me to play it, I think I'd play the. the skins. You know, that number is at six in a lot of spots now. So it's sort of like they're

trying to get you to bet the Saints laying less than a touchdown. But I don't, I got to see it to believe it. Clinton, I've said on last week's podcast, Thursday and Friday, I said, this is one of the biggest early season sort of measuring stick games that this franchise has had in a long time because as fans, we all think the defense is much improved, but we're going really know tonight. We think the offense, you know, has a chance, but if they don't move the ball and score points on this defense tonight, it's not a good sign. I think tomorrow we're going to have some answers, not that it's going to be conclusive on what this season is, because you still got 12 games left, but I think we're going to learn a lot tonight about this team.

Well, I think you've got to learn a lot about this team. It's not getting any easier. You look at the quarterbacks we face this season. You start out week one in air. on and I think Carson Palmer, not Carson Palmer, Sam Brackett got benched after that. But every quarterback you face, Lug Rogers, Breeze, Cam Newton next week. It doesn't get any easier for this team. You know, the great thing about it is everybody in the NFC has these same teams at some point eventually. So they're going to go through the same thing. But if we can find a way to get a win in the process, it's not going to be easy.

You know it's going to be a battle. you know it's going to be a shootout. You know, as you said, this D-Line that you're so excited about, the show is so much promise as a young group, as a core group, has to come out. This is your moment. Like, you worked well against Aaron Rogers. Now, you got Drew Brees.

He doesn't have an element. He's not injured. He's ready. He's focused. He's going to get the ball out of his hand. He can extend plays. He's accurate. So you're going to have.

to come out ready. And this is their moment. And the great thing about these guys, including Matt Ionitis. Those Alabama kids are really playing up to part right now. And then you add Ionitis that's just hungry. And he came off a good defense. So he know what it's like having these guys. Now, I need to see this lineback in court that everyone is excited by. I need to see Carrigan with his arms around Drew Brees. I need to see Preston Smith in the same position. And Zach Brown. You got to come downhill, make those backs blocked to keep them from getting out in pass coverage. The same game playing Indie had against us putting pressure, I mean, yeah, Indie or Green Bay had against us putting pressure on Chris Thompson when he was in the backfield to make

him stay in the block. You can't have free runners. You're not going to let them tee off on Drew Grease. So therefore, make the running backs have to block and not allow them to get in covers because I don't think Mason-Foss or Zach Brown is capable of covering those guys for an entire game or even running them down for that matter. So you don't want to let these guys unleash on our secondary where guys are going to be trelling. And you've got to worry about getting blowing off the top of Michael Thomas catching the ball in the traffic. You don't want to have to worry about perfect coverage on the back end and all of a sudden letting the back run for 30 or 40 yards because no one is in position to make the tackle.

All right. Thank you. 26 minutes with Clinton Portis is his podcast. Comes out every Wednesday. You can find it. iTunes. Tune in any of the places, Google play, any of the places you get podcasts. You can also go to Redskins.com to listen to it. I will see you later in the week. I appreciate it. All right. Peace out. Appreciate it. Clinton Portis, everybody, want to tell you a little bit about Ferris Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Fairfax. You've heard me talk a lot about Ralph Perkins over the years. He's a real person. He's actually indeed my friend.

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If you like this podcast, I promise you, if you're in the market for something new, you'd do a lot worse than going to Ferrisch Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Fairfax. Farishcars.com. That's ferrishcars.com to find out everything else you need to know. All right, let's get to some weekend DVR. I'll start with Maryland in Michigan on Saturday. I mentioned here on Friday with Tim Murray that if Maryland's not balanced, if they can't run the football, they have zero chance. Kassim Hill just is not right now anyway. A quarterback you can ask to drop back and throw the football to win a game or to move the football.

He can't do that. It's not what he's good at. He is a quarterback that is a play action thrower. He's a bootleg thrower. To make those two things work, more often than not, you've got to be able to run the football and they could not run the football. They had 43 total yards of offensive. halftime, a game in which they trailed 17-7, but that was thanks to Ty Johnson's long kickoff return.

He's had a few of those now in his career. But Maryland just up front was a mismatch for Michigan. And this is going to be the problem in games against Ohio State and Penn State and potentially even Iowa, although I think Michigan State is more of a winnable game. Rutgers is definitely a winnable game this weekend. They're a 23-point favorite over Rutgers on Saturday. I think Indiana, though, could be a problem for them. I think Indiana is pretty good.

So if you look at Maryland right now at three and two with seven games left, to get to six, they're going to have to beat Rutgers, they're going to have to beat Indiana, and then either Michigan State or Iowa, they're going to have to win one of those two games to get to six and get to a bowl game. I'd call it 50-50 coin flip. They have no chance, obviously, against Ohio State or Penn State.

or what's the other game I'm missing? Do they play Wisconsin this year? I'm missing another game. Find their schedule. They played five and I just mentioned six games. Illinois. Illinois. Illinois is a winnable game.

Yeah. Illinois is a winnable game. But they are they are absolutely beholden to being able to run the football. If they can't, they're dead in the water. Dead. Interesting question. A lot of Maryland fans say Piggy, maybe she'd get the start against Rutgers. What's your thought? Against the teams where they can't block up front, he's probably a better choice. I don't think this week is that choice. This week you stick with Hill because you're going to be able to run the football and stay balanced. And Hill is a better thrower of the football if you're running it and he can go play action and bootleg.

The best, one of the best three or four football games of the entire weekend, maybe the best game of the weekend, was the LSU Florida game on Saturday. If you want to watch a physical, hard-hitting, intense, people forget the swamp, Aaron. The swamp may be, other than LSU, the loudest, most intense atmosphere in the SEC when the Gators are good. Florida, I think, has a top three or four defense in college football. They were spectacular in that game. It was just a high-quality football game that Florida ended up winning. It was interesting. They had a 20-19 lead, and they got a pick six where if the defender falls down before scoring,

it's two-nees game over, three-nees game over. Instead, he scores to give him an eight-point lead, which gave LSU the ball with a minute and a half left and a chance to tie at the end. LSU has Georgia this week. I can already tell you right now. LSU is going to be a smell test pick. That lines at seven. Florida was a big smell test pick,

and I told you that I've loved Florida all year as an underrated team in the SEC. They lost to Kentucky early. They're now five and one, and they have an opportunity here in a few weeks to face Georgia in the world's largest outdoor cocktail party game in Jacksonville, and a win there,

they'd have a chance to run the table and be in the SEC title game against Alabama. and they can't beat Alabama, but LSU can in Baton Rouge in a few weeks. God, the SEC is so head and shoulders above the rest of the country, including the Big Ten East, I believe that. Virginia Tech was a threat to Notre Dame for a half, and that was about it. Ian Book is the difference maker for Notre Dame right now. They're just much better offensively than they were early in the season without them.

And really, you look at it now, Notre Dame has to play Southern Cow on that final game of the year in L.A. and SC will probably be one of those teams that's going to improve with their young quarterback. They play Colorado this week. They're favored by seven. SC is over undefeated Colorado. But I don't think, I think that's the only game. Syracuse just doesn't have enough defense to give Notre Dame a game, but it looks like Notre Dame will basically have, I think.

We always say this and we get a little bit too ahead of ourselves on this stuff because things happen. But I think Notre Dame's going to have a game in the Coliseum is that I think that might be Thanksgiving weekend to be in the playoff with a perfect season. The Braves last night beat the Dodgers to keep that series alive. I was going back and forth between that and the football, and I just, the only reason I'm bringing it up is not to dissect the Braves Dodgers game three last night, but just to say how hypocritical it is that people never seem to mention this outward mocking of Native Americans. with that chant.

I don't, the people that have gotten hung up on the Redskins name, a word that actually for over a half century, has meant the professional football team that plays in Washington, and they've ignored the tomahawk chop in Atlanta. It's unbelievable to me. That, again, maybe there are plenty of Native American tribes that are not offended by that, but that is offensive. If you're looking for something that's truly offensive,

the Tomahawk chop, an outward mocking of Native Americans 55,000 strong, or whatever the Atlanta ballpark holds, always cracks me up that that never or very rarely gets mentioned. The smell test, six and two this weekend, 3 and 0 in the NFL, another blistering NFL weekend for the smell test.

Over the last, the smell test now, in the NFL over the last four weeks is now 13, 2, and 1. That's pretty good for NFL picks. The college picks were 3 and 2.

And so the smell test now overall is like 29, 22, and 3, I think. So 7 games above 500. I think that's it. It might be 6 games above 500. But my NFL picks are, as Steve Sands texted me last night, they are

Sizzling. Yes, they are. I don't love the game tonight. If you force me to play it, I'd play the Redskins, but I'm not going to play the game tonight. My liens in the NFL were the Browns and the Bills. I also leaned Falcons. So if I had taken the liens, I would have been five and one in the NFL instead of three and O. And my liens in college, Boston College, Utah were both winners in Nebraska was a push. Anyway, that's it. Let's bring Andy Poland in. And Andy is joining us. on Fridays before Redskins Sundays, and on Mondays, when they play on Monday night, and they have one other Monday night game this year. It's against the Eagles in December. Andy's going to join us with sort of a historical look back at the opponent and the history of the Redskins against that opponent, and then I'll stick around with me for our Redskins score and more segment.

What do you got? Do you know that the Redskins were once in the same division with the New Orleans Saints? Like 1969, right? Two years. The Saints came in as an expansion team in, 1967. They had no place to put them. So they took the Giants and they put them in what was called the Century Division with Pittsburgh and Cleveland and St. Louis. And they shoved New Orleans it. So there were two games against them. Then 68, they went back and the Saints weren't in

the same division. 69, they're back in again. Right. Capital Division. The Giants are back out. And then 1970 was the merger and that's when they re-organized. I think, Andy, the Lombardi season of 7, 5, and 2, which was a winning season, was clinched against the Saints late in the season with a win against the Saints. The Lombardi won season in 69, I think. I was there. I was there for that game.

So anyway, they have a little bit of history with them, and there have been some memorable games, but of course, the most memorable game took place in 2012. Yes. What Tom Levero calls the shock and awe game. He called it before the game. Yes. And I asked him, why did you know it was going to go like that? And he said, I just saw the

way that his teammates react to him. And they had Tom at Hello when Griffin said, there's a plane flying over, but would you like me to repeat what I just said? Oh my God, it got so annoying when he would say, he knew what he was looking up at this guy and the planes are flying and they waited

for them to fly over. Boy, he was easy for. Tom was really sold at Hello and said how savvy he was. Right. Well, he came in and he said, put my locker next to London Fletcher so I can learn how to lead. And we all bought into it. Let's

face it, we did. At the beginning. And on this day, September 9, 2012, we were smitten. Now, in the preseason, they hadn't shown any of the read option. That was all under wraps. So here was the big moment. Second play from scrimmage of this game. Second and 10 from the 32, RG3 lines up four yards behind center. The pistol. Let me just interrupt you for one second, because I'm going to give myself a little bit of credit. During training camp, early in training camp, we were. out there. And I'm watching them practice a little bit. And I said to whoever was with me, I said, they're in the pistol. Like, that's the Nevada formation, the Kaepernick formation at Nevada.

Yeah. Because you know I'm a big college football fan. And Nevada had played Maryland in a bowl game. Yeah. And I said, so I said to Tom the next day, I said, they're going to do some things with Griffin in the red zone. I was thinking it was a red zone thing. They're going to line him up in some formations the NFL hasn't seen. Because, and you know what, I'm sure the Redskins were sitting there that day going, we can run some of this stuff. None of these dumb media people are going to know what they're looking at. But I remember looking at it and saying, and then coming in on the next show with Tommy saying, they were in the pistol in practice the other day.

You could have had the scoop of all scoops. I could have, but I just thought it was maybe a red zone thing they were working on. Well, it worked. Anyway, Griffin put the ball in Alfred Morris's gut, then pulled it out and ran upfield for 12 yards. But the Redskins did fall behind seven to three with three and a half minutes left in the first quarter. That's when Griffin ran read option through an 88-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garsohn and then did what was called griffening, sitting on his butt and putting his two arms up in the air. And the rest of the game was back and forth.

I mean, they had to score to win. The Saints scored 32 points, but the Redskins scored 40. Griffin 19 of 26, 320 yards, two touchdown passes. He also carried nine times for 42 yards. And Alfred Morris, who you remember was a sixth round pick. didn't think he was going to make the team. I remember interviewing him in training camp and thinking, that's a nice kid. I hope they keep him on the practice squad. Remember we thought it was going to be High Tower? Yeah, yeah. They had a couple of other veterans that were in the running for that,

but he started. Reister, Evan Royster. Royster was on the roster, but he carried 28 times for 96 yards and two touchdowns. The Redskins had 459 total yards. And we thought, wow, this is going to be unbelievable. It was incredible. But in fact, here's the other. amazing part of this. They lost six of their next eight games. I know. They lost the next week to the Rams. Remember in a close game? And in that process, the one of the two that they won was the incredible running head against Minnesota. He's electrifying. The Larry Michael called it here all the time. But they go into the by week and they played Carolina on Homecoming Week. Remember that? And they go to... DeAngelo Williams.

Yeah. It was the one that just mocked them for having Homecoming. Yes. How can you have home? I look at the program. This is home company. Really? This is the NFL. Three and six. I know we disagreed on that.

But clearly, to me, Mike Shanahan, after the game, was talking about evaluating players for next year. I never felt that. That's what I felt. And Robert Griffin was asked about that in the locker room. He says, I don't know about the coach, but I'm going to take my biweek and I'm going to come back and I'm going to lead this team to the playoffs.

Conody did. Of course, there was the Holodinata play. And then Creson's playing against Cleveland. Griffin not wanting to run the read option anymore because Kirk didn't have to run it. Right. And on one leg, he wound up beating Philadelphia and Dallas with Morris running for 200 yards. And then the Hindenberg, it just blew up against Seattle. And it takes nothing these days to bring two talk show hosts together to start discussing that.

And everybody gets heated about it. Yeah, I know. Look, I mean, you know, the Seattle game for Redskin fans, the Seattle playoff game of January 2013 will be. one of those games we talk about forever. That's not the point of this particular segment. We'll wait until they play Seattle in the playoffs and we'll do it this year. But it really was one of those very confusing days.

Bottom line is, I always say this to those that say Griffin should have been pulled from the game. Philip Rivers played the AFC championship game on a torn ACL. A torn ACL. It's the playoffs. And he never indicated that he was hurt and would have thrown a fit had the coached. Coach pulled them out of the game. I've been told that they tried that at halftime and that he did full of fit.

Yeah. So anyway, that game, Andy really is, they've had a lot of great games against the Saints over the years. That game really was one of the most incredible season openers. And the feeling was from anybody, not only do they, does this guy play the position different than anybody that we've seen? But they haven't had a quarterback in years. They made the right decision by trading to get him. whole thing was coming together after one game. Realize this, and this is only six years ago, and Drew Breeze is still the quarterback

for the Saints. He had been the quarterback for the Saints at that point, five, six, seven years, something like that. Look what the Redskins have been through just since this game, Griffin and Cousins. You could even throw Colt McCoy in there, if you like, and now Alex Smith, and just shows you the value of having a guy who can stay there a long time. All right, that was, I'll tell you what, last year's game against the Saints was memorable to. Yeah.

I'm blowing a 15-point lead in the final, you know, two and a half minutes of the game with just, you know, I wrote this down on my notes looking at last year's game. They gave up 213 yards and 15 points on, I'm sorry, and 18 points on their three final drives in five minutes. The defense was so god-awful last year. All right, let's finish up the show with Redskins score and more. Andy will stick around with me. Redskins at Saints tonight, Andy, I've called this game like, for the last few episodes of the podcast,

that this is one of the real early season defining measuring stick type of games we've had. The Chief's game last year, I felt the same way about going into... How about the Raiders? Not as much. The Chief game, because it was on the road after they had beaten the Raiders,

and you're like, whoa. The Raider game really was the first game where we were like, this defense is different. And the Raiders were supposed to be good. And the Raiders were supposed to be good in the moment. And so now you got to take it on the road on a Monday night where they had

never performed very well at Arrowhead, one of the toughest venues in the league against a team that was undefeated. And it was for me, I remember going into that game thinking, I got to see this defense against Kansas City. If it does it here, you've got a legitimate defense. You've actually now got a chance to be a real playoff team because the offense really, no matter what people want to say about Kurt, the offense was never the issue. You're calling Kurt? Yeah, I did. The offense was never the issue last year. This, to me, is the game. to find out what this defense is because I do believe it's getting better. I believe it's got talent, young talent, and it'll eventually be very good.

But where it is right now gets defined tonight. Well, it gets defined tonight against Breeze and the Saints. The front three, you've got a rookie and two guys who've been with the team two years or less? Ionitis a little bit longer than that now. But yeah. But yeah, so that's a group that, you know, you cross your fingers are going to be together for a long time. But yes, this could be a defining game for that trio. The offense is going against a porous defense.

Everybody's moved the football against the Saints. Everybody scored points against the Saints, except for the Giants. And if the offense, I believe it's still sort of a work in progress. I'm not overly confident, but it should be able to put up 24 plus against this defense. If it doesn't, it's another sort of signal of perhaps things to come. I'll get your prediction and I'll save mine for afterwards. I don't think you can win in this league anymore without 30 points. So they scored 31 the last time out.

I think it's going to take 31 points again. And I think if they can hold the Saints to four touchdowns, that'll be good. And they win the game. But I also think that Alvin Kumar is going to get his yards. And I just don't think that the Redskins are going to be coming out of this game feeling like, wow, we're really the power in the division. Though the division right now stinks. So they have an opportunity.

But that's what I think. 31 points is what it's going to take to win this. game. I think you're going to end up with an under game tonight, simply because everybody thinks this is going to be an overgame tonight. So I think you'll be under the 53, which is where it is right now, or right on the number. So I'll give you the number, because it'll show that I'm barely hedging either way. 30 to 23 Saints, they win by 7, which would basically mean they cover, because they've been somewhere between 6 and 7, and right at the number. I believe in the this defense. I think it's improving. I think it's a lot better talent-wise than it's been,

and it's young, too, which is encouraging. But this is one of those nights. It's probably a Drew Breeze night. But I think they're good enough to hold them to three field goals when they're in the red zone and they'll give the opportunity to the offense to win the game. But I will tell you, Andy, I think this offense just isn't quite there yet. Not only that, they're one injury away from being just average. Jordan Reed goes down. They're not good. Adrian Peterson. Do you want Somaget, P. Ryan, is your number one back? P. Ryan had over 100 yards against the Saints

in that game last year in the Superdome. Against the Saints. Yeah. But I know, look, the Redskins offensively right now, Jordan Reed and Chris Thompson are crucial. If you lose either one of them, you're at a real deficit. If you were to lose both of them, you're in big trouble.

They don't have anything on the outside. The offense is good enough healthy. All right. Smith, Crowder, Reed, Thompson. I think Vernon Davis could have a big game tonight. He did last year against the Saints. But getting to your question about Peterson, of all those people, I'd actually be better if they lost Peterson. Or if Peterson's production waned a little bit than losing Reed, Thompson, or Crowder. Those are critical guys to this season. They are critical. But Peterson is two. I mean, the two wins they've had, he's played an enormous role in both of them. He has. You're right. So your prediction is Saints win? 31, 28. I don't think the Redskins store 30. And I've got it 30 to 23 Saints, but I think we're going to walk away feeling okay about it. Like they had a chance. They were in the game. Offensively, again, I don't see something consistently good quite yet.

But it's a fascinating game tonight because I think we're going to learn a lot, certainly about the skins defense in particular. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks to Aaron today. Thanks to Clinton Portis, who joined us on the show today. Thanks to Neil and Rockville, who sat in and listened to the show today. And thanks to all of you. Sorry, I'm getting this out so late today. We're going to try to get it out super early tomorrow as a postgame for the Skins and Saints tonight. Come to chatter tonight to watch the game.