The Kevin Sheehan Show - Saved By The Kick

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Kevin with a recap of the FG that saved Christmas for Washington football fans. His total recap of the Commanders-Jets game, plenty on another Sam Howell benching, and around the NFL as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheoncho. Here's Kevin. The Pro Bowl kicker in his 12th NFL season to try to save the day for the Jets from 54. Good snap, good hold. The kick from Zerline is good.

And the Jets have taken the lead with still five seconds left on the clock. Bartender, get that man a drink. Now. Nice job, Greg Zerline. Zerline saves Christmas for Washington football fans. A bit of an exaggeration, maybe, but down the road, it's possible. We look back on Sunday, Christmas Eve, 2023, as the kick that gave Washington a chance to draft its true long-term answer at quarterback. because let's be honest with each other now. I think most of us can get there. Maybe not everybody, but it's become pretty clear that they do not have their future long-term starting quarterback on the current roster, right? I would add to that, I don't think Sam is anywhere near as bad

as he's played in recent weeks, and I don't even think Sunday's loss was all about him. He got plenty of help. I still think he's got a future in the NFL. I do. It's just now so obvious after watching him start 15 games. And perhaps this last start being the last for him. More on that coming up.

But it's obvious he's just not a guy that has proven enough, despite the small sample size and 15 games is a small sample size. I think he's not proven worthy of saying, you know, of anybody saying, we've got him. We've got the guy. Let's just focus on building around him and we'll be fine. No, he's not given anybody in their right mind a reason to just ignore what will be a chance to draft a highly touted quarterback in the spring of 2024. If the pick wasn't going to be as high as theirs will be, maybe the conversation is slightly different, but not a lot different. because if they had one more win or two more wins,

but the performance was still what it's been the last few weeks, we'd be looking heavily, I would, at free agents, at potential trades, at potential trades moving up in the draft. I hope everybody had a nice Christmas. The triple header of NFL football on Christmas Day. How about that Kansas City loss to the Raiders? Have Antonio Pierce the head job now? More on that coming up in the final segment of the show. The day culminated with the game of the year on paper going in. What much of a game last night was it?

The two best teams we thought in the league would go toe to toe and in absolute 12-round war. But this one was an early knockout. I mean, what a performance by the Ravens. God, that organization. It really has been, and I think as long as Bashati and company are there, will always be one of the true badass tough guy organizations in the league. They went in to Santa Clara, the 49ers house, and smoked the supposed best team in the NFL. Five interceptions in the game could have been more. Four off of the NFL MVP frontrunner Brock Purdy ending for all intention. and purposes his chances to win the MVP. Sam Darnold came in.

Darnold came into the game and played pretty well. The Ravens defense, though, just swarmed all night long. Man, do they hit. Both of those defenses hit. And Lamar Jackson accounted for just short of 300 yards and two touchdowns in their 33 to 19 win. The Niners, they come here next, looking to get healthy off of that painful loss for them.

They've got a win to keep their number one seed in the NFC playoffs intact. I guess not a great time for Washington to see them coming to town, but then again, perhaps it's the perfect time. Truth is, it doesn't matter one way or the other. Good time to play them, bad time to play them. It's irrelevant. Washington has near zero chance in terms of winning a game against the 49ers. Sunday in Landover, regardless of who starts a quarterback. Hal Berset, you know, also are relevant

because Washington's defense isn't going to stop the 49ers from naming their number. But on the quarterback decision for Sunday, after Hal got benched for a second straight week, this was Ron Rivera after the game on Sunday. Would you start Jacoby next one? We're going to put everything and evaluate everything. we'll come into the conclusion very early in the week. Now, the come to a conclusion early in the week did not mean today, Tuesday, the 26th. Ron just held a press conference and announced that the decision on a starter for the

Niners game will likely come tomorrow, as in Wednesday the 27th, the day that they take the field and begin serious preparation for the Niners game. Now, for me, I'm okay with whatever they choose to do at this point, to be honest. I guess I would prefer to see Sam go out and fight the good fight, not because I think there's a better chance that they lose the game to the Niners. There probably is, but I don't think either quarterback is going to lead the team to a win over the 49ers on Sunday. But look, Sam's a tough competitor. We've seen that throughout the year.

I don't think his confidence can get any lower right now. And if that's it for the season for Sam after 15 games, man, that's not a feel good going into the off-season. The only chance to get a feel-good going into the off-season is to play. What's obvious, though, now, I think, is that Brissette gives the team a better chance to be competitive on offense. He's the better quarterback, period. I know some of you think Brissette is just stat compiling late in games, and what he's done the last two weeks doesn't mean much of anything. I would guess that most of you don't see it that way, but this, email from Timothy, who thinks Jacoby's results are mostly an illusion I wanted to read. Kevin,

you do realize that Brissette is stat stuffing against teams that went soft. Let's not make more of Brissette than we need to. Sam hasn't played well, but Brissette wouldn't have been that much better had he started the last two games. I did find this from Timothy from a few weeks back. he wrote in mid-November, Kevin, not sure what's taking you so long. We have our next Joe Thaisman on the roster, and for some reason, you won't admit it or you don't see it. All your off-season bluster and nonsense about Sam being a fifth rounder and the odds, L-O-L, he writes, aren't in his favor. Well, it looks like a long shot came in this time. Timothy, Timothy.

it's time for you to man up, dude. Admit it. You can do it. You can say it. At least admit, maybe that Sam might not be the guy. I can't believe we're still doing this. We were doing this way back after the Buffalo game. Just admit that maybe, just maybe he's not the guy.

If you can't do that after the last five games, get your vision checked. As far as the other nonsensical, ramblings. The Rams and Jets, I think most of you know this, were not playing pre-vent, they weren't playing soft. You know, is it possible that they got a little bit more vanilla and more base defense-oriented with big leads? Yeah, maybe. But Brissette took the lead against the Jets from 20 points down. Maybe he wouldn't have been as effective as a starter against the Jets or Rams. But come on, it's obvious now. Brissette's a better quarterback than how.

A lot of it because of experience, of course, but some of it is he's just better. But it doesn't really matter because he's not the answer either long term. Also on Howell, again, Sunday like the Sunday before and the Sunday before that, it wasn't entirely his fault. He's been pretty bad, yes, but he's had plenty of help. Drop passes, Samuel falling down on the second interception. That wasn't Hal's fault. should have been probably an incomplete pass. He's on a team right now that's not very good around him.

Brissette is, of course, better. And it's clear that Sam's regressed playing against better defensive teams, but I think it's also true that Sam didn't get much help on Sunday against the Jets. On the decision for Ron this week, I think he's going to go with Brissette. Again, I don't have much of a preference, maybe a slight preference to put Hal back out there on Sunday. It can't get any worse than it. it's been so what's really the downside. I want to see him fight through this. He's got a lot of really good qualities. I'd like to be reminded of the good qualities to a certain extent. But, you know,

as we've discussed all season long, he's got too many flaws and too many serious flaws, and they've been exposed against some really good defensive NFL teams when earlier in the season, some porous defensive teams didn't expose them nearly as much. A few. of them are really problematic for his ability to be a regular NFL starter. We've mentioned these throughout the year. Maybe some of you are willing to be more open-minded to these. First and foremost, as Ron would say, he plays to his size. He's a shorter quarterback who doesn't play big in the pocket. Secondly, and this is the biggest issue he has, he doesn't appear to process quickly enough, which limits an offense is upside.

and brings into play a disastrous offensive downside. You know, it makes him indecisive, which is what they've said a lot about him recently, and that indecisiveness leads to bailing on plays too quickly. And while he does make a lot of off-schedule plays that look really good, they aren't the plays they want them to make. They've got plays out there that they think Sam should be seeing, and being decisive about.

And he doesn't make those plays and hasn't made them here in recent weeks. Sam said Sunday after the game that these games here recently won't define him. I believe him on that. You know, he's better than what we've seen here recently. But, man, the defensive teams that they've faced recently versus those earlier in the year have made a difference because there were good games. There were encouraging moments. but many of those came against lesser defensive competition.

They just did, and the better defenses here recently have eaten him alive. And his confidence is shaky because of it. He does not look anything like the guy we saw when he was playing well. He looks now more like the guy we saw at times in the opener against Arizona, certainly in the Buffalo game, the Giants twice. And he looks shot mentally. And I think Ron's decision will be to sit him because of that. Coaches always say they've got an entire roster to look after.

And even though I said last week, I didn't think that that was part of the decision making, it might be now, you know, can they really evaluate the rest of the offense with Hal playing the way he's playing at quarterback over the last two games? You know, in the next two games meaning, can they really evaluate the rest of the offense? I don't know that that's going to be the driving force in the decision, but I think they realized that Sam, his struggles, you know, could really be a problem for an offense against a San Francisco defense and then a Dallas defense. You know, they gave him the shot against the jet defense and it didn't work out.

I also wonder if Bienemy at this point says to Ron, man, I need some help here. You know, I need someone who can run my offense, be decisive, take what's there. I need the rest of the league to see that I can coordinate an offense. You know, Jacoby makes it look better. It makes, you know, he makes it look more professional, and I need that. That could be in play over these final two games as well. But my prediction is that Ron will announce tomorrow that Jacoby starts against the Niners.

And, you know, he'll say that Sam needs a break, and Jacoby has earned the right to play. what he shouldn't say tomorrow, and you just never know with Rivera, what he shouldn't say if he makes the decision to start Jacoby, is kind of what he said about Dwayne Haskins back in 2020 when he demoted Dwayne to third string, and he said, I've got 52 other players to be concerned about putting it all on Haskins publicly. Not that it wasn't true at the time,

but with Hal, no reason to publicly knock him in the process. subtly or not so subtly, and I don't think he will. We'll see. They're not beating San Francisco with Berset or with Sam, so I don't really think that should be part of the decision. You could always call up Jake Fromm from the practice squad, give him the start on Sunday. That would certainly wreak of an organizational move

to ensure the best chance of losing, but again, I think they're going to lose to the 49ers regardless. The NFL is never a given Sunday to Sunday, but this one seems like a given. Meantime, look, the best news about Sunday was them losing to the Jets, you know, that the amazing comeback didn't result in an actual win. When they took a 2827 lead, the possibility of a draft doomsday scenario was in play. But you knew that there was a good chance, even against Trevor Scy. that the defense wouldn't hold up, and it did not disappoint. The Jets went 31 yards and seven

plays setting up the game winning kick. And with the 30 to 28 loss, coupled with the Patriots losing Sunday night in Denver, I'm sorry, the Patriots winning Sunday night in Denver, Washington moved into the third spot in the draft. Yeah, they are now, as of today, picking third in the draft. Somebody mentioned, how is that possible when Washington beat New England? Well, it's possible because for NFL draft slotting, the tiebreaker is not head-to-head. The tiebreaker is strength of schedule. The team with the easier schedule, which Washington has had compared to the Patriots,

gets the higher pick because the thinking is, the logic is, they were four and 13 against an easier schedule. That means they're even worse than the Patriots who went four and 13, despite the head-to-head. So, yeah, the skins end up with the third pick as of now. There is still a chance they could go higher with two more losses. If the Cardinals can win one more game, not likely because they've got the Eagles on the road in Seattle, Seattle at home to finish up the season.

Both those teams need those games. But if they were to win one more, Washington would have the number two pick because Seattle's schedule is tougher than Washington's right now. Carolina is right now holding the number one overall pick, but of course that it was traded to Chicago, so it's really Chicago, but it's Carolina's results that matter. Carolina, if they were to win their final two against Jacksonville and Tampa and Arizona were to win one more, Washington would have the top pick in the draft. I'm not expecting Carolina, even though they've played much better recently to win two games. And I don't think that Arizona will win one of the final two either, although it's possible they could.

you know, they could get to the Seattle game and maybe Seattle's clinch their position in the postseason. And you get a game in which Arizona goes out and wins at home against Seattle. Who knows? But Washington right now solidly in the three spot, two more losses. And, you know, you finish anywhere in the top three this year. And the new regime has a ton of options. And right now, option number one, I think is seriously considering drafting a quarterback. Real quickly, speaking of quarterbacks in the draft, did you see this on Caleb Williams from over the weekend,

the current favorite to be the number one quarterback selected in the draft, the USC quarterback, the Gonzaga Purple Eagle quarterback? He did something a lot of people do. He liked a tweet. What tweet did he post a like to? Well, a Chicago sports fan with less than 100 followers on Twitter on X. Christmas Eve tweeted the following, quote, only one option for the Chicago Bears in the 2024 NFL draft. Remember, Chicago has Carolina's first round pick.

Only one option for the Chicago Bears in the 2024 NFL draft. It's not Caleb Williams we want. It's Justin Fields. The answer is Marvin Harrison, meaning we want to keep fields and we want to draft Marvin Harrison Jr. We do not want to draft Caleb Williams. Well, Caleb Williams liked that tweet, which indicates, more likely than not, that he doesn't want to play in Chicago.

So Caleb Williams is taking some criticism for this, just as he did when there was the report that he and his group of family members and advisors were, wanting equity in the NFL franchise that selected him number one overall or perhaps he would go back to school. My take on this is pretty simple. It has less to do with the apparent attempt to get the message out that he doesn't want to play for the bears and much more to do with him noticing the tweet to begin with and then acting on it. Look, there is a maturity question that you want to have a feel for when you are a team, when you decide to invest heavily into any player, but specifically a quarterback at the highest levels of the draft. There is so much due diligence on the personality,

on the person that they are going to invest heavily in. And the maturity of Caleb Williams and every other player at the top of the draft will be scrutinized in so many different ways. And combing through their social media will be one of the top due diligence items. I think noticing this tweet and having it drive him enough to act on it isn't the best look for him. That's all. If I were an agent or an advisor, I'd tell all of them right now to get the hell off social media. There's no upside to it with NFL teams. It's not the real world.

It provokes more than promotes. And getting provoked, especially if it provokes an answer that can be perceived as negative, is so not worth it. Among many things, teams really want to see focus, maturity, thick skin, and many other things as well. All things that social media interaction more often than not undermine. So I, you know, to notice that tweet and then act on it, even if you think it's just a minor thing,

it will be a thing that will be on the list of many due diligence items as teams, you know, investigate and thoroughly go through what they are about to invest or not invest in in terms of players. All right, my game take from Sunday when we come back, right after these words, from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. The Game Take brought to you by Wind donation. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com. Mention my name and they'll take really good care of you.

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I've liked him, as most of you know, since training camp, since preseason. I also know that they have liked him. They have certainly liked his talent. Ten carries 58 yards. He had back-to-back runs in the fourth quarter on that drive that gave them the lead 28, 27. They had a first and 15. He ripped off an 11-yard run. And then probably the run of the day for him, that 16-yarder where he tried to hurdle the tackler.

He's got great vision, quick feet, and then he is so powerful. He does not go down easy. The 12-yard touchdown run, evidence. of that. You know, remember earlier in the year I mentioned that it was pretty much a given that if he was in the game, he was getting the football. It was almost a one-to-one ratio of snap counts to carries. Well, it's not that obvious anymore, but I went back because I was curious as to what

that ratio was now. 97 snaps on the year for Rodriguez, 51 carries. 52 and a half percent of the time, if he's in the game, he's getting the ball. By the way, some bad news after the game. He had an injured ankle, and Ron said today that he's going to have an MRI. So they re-signed Jarrett Patterson back to the practice squad. Because remember, Brian Robinson Jr., still not ready to go maybe. So they needed Patterson if Rodriguez can't go against the Niners. But I really liked Rodriguez on Sunday against the Jets.

I think he's a keeper for the new regime. On the list of things that I liked, Jacoby Brissette, of course, 10 of 13 for 100 yards and a touchdown. Before the final offensive drive of the game, which was three handoffs to make the Jets burn their timeouts with a 28 to 27 lead, he had gone five drives, five touchdowns produced in two games. The QBR scale, which is a scale of zero to 100,

his QBR in the two games in which he's played is 95. His passer rating 158.3 is perfection is 146.8. I mean, what makes him effective? Well, first of all, his experience allows him to see it. His size also allows him to see it. He gets it out quickly. He's definitely more mobile. We talked about this when they signed him.

He's more mobile than most people think. He's capable as a runner, makes good plays off schedule. How about the play when C.J. Mosley grabbed his face mask. He got away and threw a great ball on the move to Jahan Dotson for 21 yards. That's evidence of his playmaking ability. He gets through every read, makes, you know, throws to sometimes his third or fourth read. There was a third and four where he threw to Dotson. It was clearly like his third or fourth part of the progression.

The touchdown pass to Logan Thomas. That's a ball. It's got to be out on time. It's got to be thrown accurately and with velocity or it's picked off. Worst case, incomplete. In most cases, he makes the perfect throw. He like a lot of quarterbacks, and Sam in particular, is excellent in the quick game. On that drive that made it 27 to 21, there's a quick throw to Terry for a big catch-and-run after the catch of 29-year-old.

He's next play. He goes quick debates for 11. He's looked really good in that quick game, just like Sam had, you know, at times previously. But he's looked good with everything he's done. And by extension, you know, he makes Eric Bianimi's offense look less worse than it's been. No doubt that the season-long development project of Sam Hal meant fewer wins for the team this year. And I'll just take a moment to say this. Going back to January last year when Ron decided that Sam Hal was, you know, a good deflection from all of the criticism he was getting about the end of the 2022 season, in particular the Browns game, the decision to start Wentz, the not knowing that they could be eliminated from the postseason when that game ended. From the moment he went with, you know, really liked Sam against Dallas, Sam's our QB one heading into the offseason. This was a wishcast. He was wishcasting. Nobody out there in Ashburn was totally confident that Sam Hal was like the long-term answer. They were all hoping, but they didn't know. You know, nobody knew.

This was a theme for me in the offseason and in the summer. It's like, come on, man, how could you possibly really know? He played one game and it wasn't really a meaningful game at the end of last year. They didn't know. They like some of his physical arm talent, which, of course, in comparison to what they had had, recently was a major upgrade, and they liked him personally, but they had no real clue as to how this whole thing would play out. That's why Ron went out and paid $8 million for Berset, because if Sam couldn't do it, he needed a professional he could turn to.

Ben Standing brought up an interesting hypothetical a few weeks back. I think I've mentioned it, but he said, what if the schedule had been reversed, and they had played all of these better defensive teams early in the season versus late in the season? You know, what if they had opened with Dallas and then got the 49ers and the Jets, you know, and they had played some of these teams early? You know, if the schedule had been flipped. Well, you never know for sure, but more likely than not, we would have never gotten to the point where Hal produced enough good to keep them on the field. We would have likely gotten Brissette earlier, and who knows, you know, we would have got enough wins maybe to still be in contention for the seven seed, but probably on the outside

looking in just because of the defense and the way it played all year. Brissette for more games would have led ultimately, I believe, to a lesser draft pick in April because they would have had more wins. So it probably worked out for the best for the new regime anyway, but Rivera in his last year decided to have his last season hinge on hope. Not the way to get things done typically. You know, doers usually outlast dreamers. Jacoby Berset was on the list of things that I liked from the game on Sunday for a second straight week. Also on the list of things that I liked, how about the second half defense? Not first half, second half defense. The Jets had 27 points in the first half. They got three in the second. However, we know that the 27 in the first half was a lot because of

offensive and special teams, blunders, setting up short fields. But the second half, three points, five punts and interception. By the way, nearly another two to three interceptions as well. The jets were three of nine on third down, had 110 total yards, average 2.97 yards per play. I mean, the jet offense is horrendous. Trust me on that. But still, the first half defense, not good, the second half defense much better. Individually, I thought Barton, Hudson, Allen, Curl, K.J. Henry again, stood out with some good plays. Second half defense on the list of things that I liked. Lastly, on the list of things that I liked. So I mentioned, I think, during the week last week, that Sam Cosmy had been the second highest rated guard over the last five weeks

per PFF in the entire league. I watched him just a little bit more closely on Sunday at times. I thought he played well again. I think Sam Cosmi is a definite keeper for the new regime. And that jet defense is one of the best in the league overall. I think the offensive line actually held up pretty well considering that. All right. list of things that I didn't like. How about just the start to the game? One of the worst I can remember. Interception. Punt blocked. Drop kickoff, start at the nine-yard line. Bad punt, fumbled punt, penalties mixed in, bad defense, 17 to nothing before you even knew it. The Jets had one touchdown. All season long, the Jets had one touchdown in the first quarter. They had two on

Sunday. They scored 27 points in the first half the Jets did. They are a bad offensive football team, and they had 27 at halftime. Yeah, that start to that game was embarrassing. Specifically, the special teams just overall, they're next on the list highlighted. Blocked punt, bad punts, fumbled punt return. Did I miss anything? Terrible day for the special teams. But you know what I I didn't mention a bad snap. I don't think I saw a bad snap. Also on the list of things that I didn't like, the first half defense, 246 yards they allowed to the Jets in the first half.

They were screened to death all day long. Screen pass after screen pass. They couldn't figure it out. Breece Hall had 125 combined yards in the half. I love him as a player. Garrett Wilson had eight catches for 65 yards in the half. Trevor Simeon, who's not very good. 15 of 26 for 131 yards and a touchdown in the first half.

Again, you know, the offense and special teams ineptitude set up short fields. But even when there weren't short fields, the first half defense gave up too much. The Jets only punted one time in the first half. They lead the league in punts. They had only one in the first half. Again, starting field position because of Washington's offensive and special team, Gaffs had a lot to do with the punt totals, but the defense rarely got off the field in the first half. If not for Trevor Simeon mishandling a snap and fumbling, if not for Conklin lining up on a

fourth and one and getting stopped on a sneak, the defense was bad in the first half. Also on the list of things I didn't like. Drops, you know, Samuel, Thomas on the drive, although on the Thomas drop, which ended up being picked. I've got more on that coming up when I talk about Sam Howell. Bates dropped a few. Too many for an offense and a quarterback in Hal that needed more help. Drops were a problem. Next up on the list of things that I did not like, Sam Hal. Another rough day for Sam. He didn't get much help, as mentioned. Two interceptions for Sam. Interesting on both of them, I think. The second one, Curtis Samuel just falls down, or trips and falls down. that ball does not get intercepted if he doesn't fall down.

The first one, which actually people chalk up as a drop by Logan Thomas, yes, he could have caught the ball. The ball was drilled. I mean, fired in there from what, six, seven yards out? I don't know. I thought there could have been more touch on that. But, you know, Sam wasn't helped out in this game. I don't think he was helped out by his offensive coordinator in this game.

You know, this is a game in which Sam, enters in a bit of a confidence crisis. How about, you know, let's not, you know, let's not drop them back. Let's not throw the ball in every play. Seven of the first nine calls, pass plays. Then on their third drive, they finally get to the run. And Rodriguez goes for 14 yards on back-to-back carries. And then what do they do? Three passes punt. There's a third and inches, all right, in the third quarter from their own 15-yard line. And Sam's in shotgun three. throwing to Curtis Samuel, the ball gets batted down, Jehan Dotson lined up off sides anyway. Come on, Eric, it's third and inches. Give the ball to Rodriguez.

Run a read option if you want them in shotgun, whatever. I mean, remember in the Thanksgiving Day game and Tommy came in and was so upset that they were in shotgun, he thought it was completely, it was grounds for never hiring Eric Bianney to do anything anymore. And I said, Tommy, watch football, man. Fourth and one, fourth and two, half the league's in shotgun. It's not quite. half, but it's close to half. But I don't know, third and inches from your own 15, you need a first down, you need a new set of downs, and he's in shotgun trying to throw the ball backpedaling to Curtis Samuel, who was totally covered. There was a third and eight in the first half where Sam got

pressured. He was hit, the ball fluttered into the air. It was lucky that it wasn't picked off. But Adam Archeletta, who, by the way, was outstanding on the broadcast. I think we had him earlier in the year as well. I think he's very good. He pointed out all of the options for Sam were long developing routes. We've had this before. We're on, you know, third and long in particular. Where's the checkdown? There wasn't one. You know, the offense hasn't been tweaked enough to accommodate for Sam's limitations, in my opinion. Maybe that was never the point of the exercise anyway. But anyway, but anyway, Besides the help he didn't get, he didn't help himself at all, and he hasn't for the last several games.

The bottom line for him is the things we don't see, as they do when they look at the film. He's not seeing the field. And because of it, he bails out of the pocket too quickly a lot of the time. Archeletta pointed this out, and clearly he pointed this out, even before it started to happen a lot, which means the conversation with Bianami and with Rivera before the game. game or with Rivera before the game probably focused on, you know, he's not seeing things so he bails too quickly because Archelaena pointed that out multiple times. But they don't get to the things that they believe have been there. You know, they just don't. And Brissette does, as we've

seen in the last two weeks. The jet defense is outstanding. And I would never hold a bad performance against that defense as a tell-all be-all. But Sam couldn't find the ocean from a boat on Sunday. Seriously. Six of 22 for 56 yards. The two interceptions, as mentioned. That is just bad, you know. But this performance really coupled with the last game against the Rams. He's now gone 17 of 48 the last two weeks. That's a 35.4% completely percentage. His QBR, the last three games, 20.1 against Miami, 28.1 against the Rams, 1.7 on Sunday against the Jets. That was his passer rating, too. 1.7. In his last three games, he's thrown for 285 yards. That's it. Remember when some out there were drooling over him

leading the league in passing yards? He's 11th now. He still leads the league in interceptions with 17, sacks with 60, batted passes with 18, his QBR is 23rd, his passer rating is 27th, Sam's thrown two touchdown passes in his last five games while throwing eight interceptions. Not all the interceptions are on him, but still, the numbers now over 15 games with the good defenses worked into the evaluation are abysmal. Numbers don't tell the whole story, of course, they never do. But numbers aside, the eye test hasn't been a good one. It's been pretty ugly over the last month and a half. Not even sure really a grade is necessary for this particular game, but let me just add that while even in his overall worst games this year, there were some good

plays to point to, I'm not sure there were any in this game. Lastly, on the list of things that I didn't like, why at this point in the season, like if I really cared about them winning the game, why at 4th and 3 down 17, nothing at the Jet 46-yard line, are you punting? I mean, come on, Riverboat, Ron. It's 4th and 3. It's at their 46-yard line. You're down 17-0 in a completely meaningless game. I would bet you, you the analytics said go for it, whatever. The jet defense against Washington's offense, a bit of a mismatch understood, but he punted it. Okay, whatever. A couple of other quick observations, and then we'll get to the finish of the show, which will include

just wrapping up the NFL weekend that was. Washington's last offensive possession was three runs forcing the jets to call two timeouts. There was the two-minute warning. There was the two-minute warning mixed in there as well, and punt. They did not, if I had cared about them winning the game, I would have been absolutely apoplectic about the way they handled their final offensive drive. And they were trying to win the game. Understand that. They ran Rodriguez up the middle for minus one.

They ran Rodriguez up the middle for one yard. And then on third and ten, they ran Gibson up the middle for two yards. Like they didn't once, after Jacoby Berset had been five for five. on drives, going back to the Rams game, they didn't once allow Brissette to throw the football. It was almost a little bit suspicious that they were going to give the Jets the ball back with another chance to win the game.

But I don't believe it that the suspicion would lead to anything because I think Washington was legitimately trying to win the game. And I'm glad they did what they did, and they gave the ball back to the Jets. I just think that in most cases, when your offense had just gone touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, and the quarterback that had led those three touchdown drives, now was five for five on touchdown drives,

that you would have given him an opportunity on that final offensive drive with a 28 to 27 lead to throw the ball to try to end the game, but they did not. Burgess, number 32, had a great tackle on special teams on a punt return, I think it was, kickoff return. I noticed him. He's number one in Provo voting. We all think that the voters have gotten confused with Jeremy Reeves and Terrell Burgess. Lastly, this is just a real, you know, this is minutia at the highest level.

But I did notice something at the end of the first half that I just wanted to mention. The Jets had an intentional grounding penalty called on them with about 45 seconds to go in the first half. Washington had one timeout left, and the ball went from the jet 29-yard line all the way back to their own four-yard line. And they were given the option of calling a timeout to save 10 seconds or allowing a 10-second runoff. Of course, at that point, with a 27-7 lead, they did not opt for the timeout to save 10 seconds. They said, go ahead, run the 10 seconds off the clock. and then they had a second and 40 from their own four-yard line. Shouldn't the defense get the option of saying no 10-second runoff when it's a penalty by the offense,

intentional grounding, a loss of down? Shouldn't they get the option of saying, no, no, no, no 10-second runoff? And because it was a penalty, the clock stops, put it back to 45 seconds, make them run a second downplay, we'll call time out, make them run a third down play, and maybe, you know, fourth down from their own two-yard line, they'll have to snap it to their punter in the end zone or something like that. I don't know. But shouldn't the defense have the option of saying when the penalties on the offense to say, it doesn't really matter what they decide, we're opting for the non-10-second runoff?

I don't know. Maybe they did have that option, and they just decided not to take it for all I know. Okay. When we come back, we'll quickly go around the Saturday, Sunday. NFL Slate. I have strong feelings about Antonio Pierce and something that coolly shared with me that I will share with all of you if I haven't already when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This final segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky, go to mybooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit.

Five and four smell test this weekend when you include the Saints game. as well. That was a loser. Then Saturday, I had the Charger Saturday night. Had South Alabama, that was an easy winner. They were laying a big number. Troy, nowhere near a winner. And then Sunday had the Vikings.

They almost got it done. The Falcons, how about the Falcons behind Taylor Heineke and company on Sunday? He had a very good game, and they stayed alive in the playoff race, beating the Colts 29 to 10, made no sense that they were favored by two and a half in that game. They crushed in. I had the Panthers. They came back and covered. Had the Patriots Sunday night. And I think I mentioned on the show on Friday, Friday, that I like the Patriots to potentially

win that game outright against Denver, which they did, which was helpful to Washington's draft position as well. And I had the Cowboys plus one and a half. Some of you had it at plus two and pushed. But a five and four overall weekend when you include the Saints game from Thursday night. I had no bowl games today. I would have put those out earlier had I had any of the bowl action today. There may be some bowl action tomorrow, okay?

There is a chance, and if there is bowl action tomorrow, I will tweet it out. So follow me on Twitter, check me out on Twitter at Kevin Sheen, D.C. The military bowl is tomorrow. Virginia Tech Tulane up in Annapolis. It's always a great day up there for that. particular bowl game, which really now has, you know, some history to it as well. But if I have any smell test picks for the bowl games tomorrow, I will tweet them out before the first kickoff tomorrow, which is at 2 o'clock, which is the military bowl in Annapolis. MyBooky.ag, they've got all of the

points spreads up for this weekend's game. I've seen the Washington, San Francisco game be off the board in some spots. My bookie right now has the Niners as 13 and a half point favorites with a total at 48.5. So, you know, the situation with Purdy last night and then obviously the Washington situation being up in the air, it's possible that line will change. I have seen it off the board in spots, but my bookie's got it up. My bookie's the best. Fair point spreads, fair pricing. you'll get paid if you win. Totally worth it. MyBooky.orgie.com promo code have to use it to get the cash bonus is Kevin D.C. So I want to start with this. Antonio Pierce, I think, should be hired by Mark Davis and the Raiders. Cooley told me, if I didn't mention this, about a month ago,

Cooley said to me, Antonio Pierce was one of the smartest and best. best teammates he had in Washington. And that goes back to Coolie's rookie year, basically, first two years in the league. And they made a mistake by letting Pierce go to the Giants. But he said Pierce was incredibly smart, had incredible leadership ability. And he said to me, like three weeks ago, he said, I bet you anything that they fall in love with Antonio Pierce, and he gets that job. It's certainly, looks like there's a chance because the Raiders, since he took over for Josh McDaniel, are now four and three. But, you know, the three losses were all games in which they had chances in.

But beating the Chiefs on Christmas Day at Arrowhead and making the Chiefs look so, so awful offensively. I mean, the Chiefs ended up with 300 yards of offense. That was it. Mahomes was 27 of 44. Got sacked four times, had a totally low for him QBR number at 31.6. And they won that game, and they are still alive for an AFC wildcard berth. Actually, they're still alive in the division. If they were to win out, if the Raiders were to win out by beating the Colts and Broncos, and the Chiefs, and this is not likely, although with the way they're playing, who the hell knows?

I mean, they have lost four of their last six games. They play Cincinnati at home Sunday. they finish with the chargers on the road on January 7th. But if they were to lose those two and the Raiders were to win those, their two, the Raiders would win the AFC West. And the Chiefs could be out of the playoffs altogether. Again, I don't think the Chiefs are going to lose out. I don't.

But, man, that was an impressive performance by the Raiders, who listened to this, if you didn't see this. Aiden O'Connell, I liked him coming out of Purdue. He was 9 of 21 for 62 yards. All 62 of his passing yards, first quarter. He didn't have a passing yard after the first quarter. Zemir White rushed for 145 yards. Just an amazing and odd win.

But there wasn't a point in the game in watching that game where I didn't think that the Raiders deserve to be where they were in that game, which was with the lead. Yeah, the Raiders, I wanted to start with that. Antonio Pierce, by all accounts, has made a case with everybody that is around him now. And if you ask anybody that's been around him in the past, they love him. Remember, that was kind of the beginning of the tough stretch. I mean, that 2006 off season with Washington is one of the worst ever.

You know, Ryan Clark, Antonio Pierce, players that were just crucial for them. and they went out and signed, by the way, Adam Archeletta, who was on the call of the game yesterday, and I thought was pretty damn good on the call. All right, real quickly, the Saturday games, how about Pittsburgh in the offense they generated with Mason Rudolph? Amazing. I mean, Tomlin, you're writing them off.

They're done, and they score 34. They had 24 to halftime. They beat the Bengals 34 to 11. Jake Browning really, in some ways in the same way Josh Dobbs kind of got to that point where it's like ah that's who you really are

Jake Browning three interceptions and none of them were pretty in that game the Steelers are right back in the thick of it for a potential wild card and then the Chargers really pushed the bills one of the reasons I love the Chargers was A everybody was on the bills expecting a blowout win and B

the Bills had had that emotional win over the Cowboys they were expected to win and they needed a last minute drive and a walk-off field goal to beat the Chargers 24 to 22. Seahawks stayed alive, and they did so, man, when they were in trouble. Man, Tennessee's played so well at home, but give Gino Smith some credit because it had not been a great game at all. And in the final two drives of the game for Seattle, 10 plays 96 yards to take the lead. 12 to 10. Then when they fell behind in the game, 13 to 10, excuse me, when they fell behind 17, 13, 14 plays 75 yards touchdown. The Seahawks get to 8 and 7. Gino Smith, 227 yards passing,

but the two drives at the end of the game after they had done very little were so, so big time for him. So Seattle remains alive. The Lions clinched their first division title since 1993. They beat the Vikings 30 to 24. Look, the Vikings, you know, I have to mention you know who. They have not been the same since you know who got hurt. They had, you know, the brief fleeting moment from Dobbs. I mean, Nick Mullins had four bad interceptions in this game that were crucial.

He threw for 411. Justin Jefferson was back. But the Lions won the game 30 to 24. With that defense, the way it played, and it hasn't played great in recent weeks, but with Brian Flores doing what he did to that defense this year, had Kirk stayed healthy, honestly, I think the Vikings would have been not only a playoff team, but perhaps a division champion for a second straight year. The Panthers are playing better.

Just as a quick aside, so was Bryce Young. He threw for 312 in this game. And everybody, C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, it's over. The conversation's over. It's not over. Bryce Young threw for 312 against that Green Bay defense and two touchdowns, and they rallied and had a chance, and Green Bay had a late field goal to win at 3330. The Flacco thing continues, I mean, they had no kicker and no punter in the second half of that football game. I don't know if you heard about that, so they were going for a lot of fourth downs, but Flacco had like $2.50 at halftime in the game.

He threw for 368 and three touchdowns. He had two picks. one of them wasn't great, but one of them was because they had to go for a fourth down at the end of the half because they didn't have a kicker, and he just put it up for grabs in the end zone on the last play of the half. At 87.2 QBR for Flacco and the Browns are 10 and 5. They crush Houston 36 to 22, and they did it without a running game again. Cleveland's been known as a team that's had good running back situations, even with, you know, chub out and guys like Ford in,

They have not run the football since Flacco took over. They had like 50 yards on Sunday. They had 29 against the Bears. And yet, with Flacco, they are a 3-1 football team with the Jets on Thursday night. The Baltimore win basically eliminates their legitimate chances to win the division. But the Brown's likely going to be a very dangerous wildcard team when we get to the playoffs. How about the Buccaneers? and Baker Mayfield in particular.

Mayfield is lighting it up and their defense is good. Trevor Lawrence got a little bit banged up in this game. Jacksonville sinking, Tampa Bay soaring. The Bucks have won four in a row. They blew out the Jags, and now they've got a massive game against the Saints, and then they finish with the Panthers. It's looking more and more like Tampa is going to be the division winner and maybe a dangerous four-seat division winner.

out of the NFC South. Baker Mayfield, listen to this in his last few games. Okay, he's having this stretch of his career right now. Sunday against Jacksonville, 26 to 35, 283, two touchdowns, no picks, a 167 passer rating, a 90.4 QBR. Last week, he became the first quarterback in history to be a road quarterback with a perfect passer rating at Lambeau Field, with 381 and four touchdowns, a 158. The week before that, two touchdowns, no picks, and a comeback win and a final drive win to beat the Falcons on the road. This guy in the last three games has eight touchdowns, no picks, has an average QBR of 79 and a passerating of 121. Baker Mayfield with the stretch of his career right now, and Tampa is good on defense to begin with. Mike,

Evans also, man. Big part of that. And then, you know, the two games Sunday, late Sunday and Sunday night, the dolphins beating the Cowboys, man, you know, they're just, for me and watching Dallas, there's just too much self-infliction at times with them, had a couple of penalties that were disastrous for them. They lose 22 to 20. They just needed to stop. That was a hell of a drive that gave him the lead. I had Dallas. I was rooting for Dallas. I had them plus one and a half. And So when they took that long drive, went down the field. And that drive on the Brandon Cook's touchdown was 17 plays in seven and a half minutes. But they couldn't get off the field on defense on that final drive.

And Jason Sanders kicked his fifth field goal. And the Dolphins beat the Cowboys 22 to 20. Cowboys still without an impressive road win all year long. They get Detroit Saturday night at home. Detroit's still fighting for seating for sure. And then in that nightcap, Christmas Eve night, the Patriots gave up a 23 to 7 lead, and then the Broncos had the ball after scoring twice

and converting two-two-point conversions to tie it, but they couldn't get it done, and then the Patriots had Chad Rylan kick a long field goal to beat the Broncos on the final play of the game. Just a soul-crushing loss for Denver, who had really fought their way back from that one-and-five. start to be in playoff contention. They got blown out by the Lions last Saturday,

and then they lose to the Pats at home. It doesn't look good for Russell Wilson sticking around with Sean Payton. There's definitely a disconnect there. And then yesterday's games, you know, already talked about the Raiders Chiefs game. Giants played competitively again. Finally benched DeVito brought in Tyrod Taylor, and they lose 3325 to the Eagles.

Eagles still not looking great, but they got a big win. needed it. And then last night, the Ravens just kicked the 49ers ass. I think the one thing that was interesting about the game is that Purdy, it wasn't just the four interceptions. He was just off accuracy-wise. And I don't know why they went away from the run. I know they got behind 32-12 and felt like they had to throw it, but McCaffrey averaged seven and a half yards per carry, had 103 yards and 14 carries. It looked early like we were going to see a back-and-four kind of fight. There was that safety with Lamar Jackson stumbling over the referee and the official in the end zone. I don't know, man. When Jackson's running around like that and he's

going backwards, sometimes shit happens. People were really blaming the ref for that safety. But they're part of the field by rule. But I thought what was really interesting too with the Niners is that Darnold came in and that offense, I know that they had a big deficit and they were coming back. But man, I don't know that there's a, Purdy's better. Don't get me wrong. But I bet you if they had to go with Sam Darnold all year, they still would have been one hell of a football team. I like Purdy, though. I think Purdy's good. Like he's a quick processing, get it out quickly, you know, game managing, more than that. And that's not a, that's not, it's not a criticism. Most quarterbacks that are really good are good game managers as well. But man, he had a rough outing.

and he lost the MVP. Any chance, he was the favorite. And it's over after a performance like that in front of a national audience against a good team. And the Niners that looked, you know, they looked so unbeatable. Now it's the Ravens that look that way. The Ravens have won five games in a row.

One of the teams, they finished with the Dolphins and Steelers. That game against the Dolphins right now, a game that really probably will determine the number one seed in the AFC with the chiefs at 9 and 6 and the Jags at 8 and 7. It's the Ravens at 12 and 3 and the dolphins at 11 and 4. So this is really for the one seed this week.

It's a 1 o'clock game too. They should have moved that game when they could have with flex scheduling. But Baltimore blew out the 49ers and were life and death with the Rams. And that's the last thing that I just want to mention is the L.A. Rams. They are playing really good football. They have won five of six with their only loss being to the Ravens who destroyed the 49ers. They have the Giants and then they finish with the Niners the Rams do. I think if the Rams get into the postseason, they are going to be dangerous.

And right now you're talking about potentially as the sixth seed, and that may be a first round matchup with Matt Stafford's old team, Detroit. That would be fascinating, right, in terms of. of a first round wild card weekend playoff matchup to see potentially, by the way, Flacco at some point against the Ravens in the postseason, that's a possibility. But we may see in weekend number one, we may see Stafford against the Lions. All right, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.