The Kevin Sheehan Show - Skins-Cowboys Recap with Cooley

Episode Date: September 16, 2019

Kevin opened the show with a recap of the Redskins-Cowboys game and then Cooley jumped on with his recap. Some other NFL too. <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. And Aaron's here with me. Coolie's going to be calling in here shortly. So we'll have him on the show today helping recap Redskins Cowboys. They're 0-2. And look, I'm going to shred parts of this football team and organization today because it's deserved. But they did lose yesterday to a much better team. They lost last week to a much better team. The Eagles and Cowboys are better than the Redskins. That could change. Like Dallas could lose Dak Prescott to an injury, three-fifths of their offensive line, like the Redskins have lost over the last couple of years, you know, Elliot,

and they could become a lesser team than the Redskins. But right now, as a healthy football team, Dallas is much better than the Redskins. And Dallas is actually, I hate to say, say it. They're a contender in the NFC. They are, as I discussed here on Friday, a very difficult check offensively. They really are. They've got a quarterback who has figured it out here in year four and has enough around him. He's got a top three offensive line. He's got a top three running back. He's got weapons at wide receiver. And he is good. He is a good quarterback.

It takes, you know, time. Ups and downs, didn't have any weapons there for a little while. Dak Prescott's playing at a high level to start this 2019 season. So the Redskins are 0-2, but they have lost to teams that are better than them. And so that's not a shocker. Like I never once suggested that the Redskins were better than the Eagles or the Cowboys. What I did suggest is that their defense would be an improved defense this year. And through two weeks, it's gone the other way in a big way.

It is second only to the dolphins in terms of the worst defensive performer in the NFL in the first two weeks. We'll get to that in the game take. Let's jump there right now, Aaron, and get to it. And real quickly, I do want to thank Mama Lucia for bringing lunch to us today. David did a great job. Chicken parm today. Pizza last week. Mama Lucia, Elm Street, Bethesda.

where I go. You can find out all their locations, but they were so nice to bring us lunch today. Let's get to the Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, let's do some things we like from the game. It's a short list. I like Terry McLaren for a second straight week. I think they got it right on him, at least based on the first two games. You know, we heard about how smart he was, about how fast he was, about, you know, how tough he was. He was hurt in the preseason, which is why we didn't see a lot of them, but they also didn't want to expose him. They wanted to keep him in bubble wrap to a certain degree because they knew what they had. They're right about him. He can play. Five catches, 62 yards yesterday. That last back shoulder catch for a touchdown was impressive.

He's the most promising deep threat franchise drafted receiver they've had in years. Deep threat. I like Duran Payne. Tough to pick out anything from the defense yesterday, which was just lousy. But Payne was really good for the first half anyway, and I think the defense wore down. They couldn't get off the field. I like Doran Payne. I think he is an absolute stud as an interior defensive lineman, whether it was Martin or Connor Williams or Fred. It didn't matter who was trying to block him. They had a difficult time matching up with him.

The interception by Nicholson early was really caused by Payne's pressure on Prescott. that forced the inaccurate throw that got tipped and picked. Kerrigan had a sack in the second quarter on a third and five. It was Payne who got the early pressure on that particular play. Duran Payne was one of the lone bright spots on the day, especially on defense. Jimmy Morland, it's another defensive player, and I'm going to shred the defense here shortly. I just like Jimmy Morland. He looks like he belongs.

He's aggressive. I don't know how the film would grade him. out from yesterday or the coaches would grade the film. But they need more guys like Morland. He's tough. That holding penalty was a difficult penalty in the Red Zone gave the Cowboys the first and goal on a third down in completion. I like Jimmy Morland. I think they found themselves a future corner in this organization in the seventh round out of JMU. Tressway, second straight week, he's on the list of things I liked. Average 49.5 yards per boot this week. Aaron, do you know, and I bet you did not know this. He pinned four of his five

punts inside the 20, and he became the all-time leader for the Redskins yesterday in pinning, and punting inside the 20. He passed Matt Turk. You knew that. I did know that. I was in the press box yesterday. Ah, there you go. You're in the press box. You get all the announcements like Adrian Peterson passing Jim Brown on the all-time rushing touchdowns list. He passed him for number five on the list. Nothing else is on the list of things that I liked. Let's get to the things that were just dreadful yesterday. I'll start with the defense, and I'll just mention two things before I really get into it.

Number one is Dallas is going to have a big year offensively, and I knew they were going to be a difficult matchup going in. Talked about it on Friday. I thought this would be a very tough matchup for the Redskins, especially without John Allen and Quentin Dunbar and Fabian Moreau. I don't even know what Moreau. We haven't seen enough of Moreau to really understand if they're missing something with Moro. I like his talent.

John Allen, my God, the pressure on him next Monday night against the Bears, because if you listen to the people in the organization, John Allen's Aaron Donald. Like they were missing the best player in the NFL. I don't know that John Allen would have made that much of a difference. He's a good player. You know, you think about it, they have played two very good offensive teams, and they've already gotten to the point where, they're banged up and they're talking about injuries again.

But none of that matters. The defense was terrible yesterday. It was awful. Dallas scored on five consecutive drives starting in the second quarter and then the final drive of the game. They ran the clock out. It's really hard to do in the NFL to score on five consecutive drives. The Redskins got stops on the first three of the game.

And then the Cowboys went, seven plays 97 yards, 11 plays 83 yards. touchdown, touchdown. Nine plays 75 yards, touchdown. 11 plays 68 yards, field goal. 10 plays 54 yards, touchdown. Six plays 45 yards. Clock runs out, game over.

Listen carefully to what I just described. The Redskins did not get off the field defensively for the final three quarters of the game. Do you know how hard that is to do in the NFL? Usually you'll get a team that will have self-inflicted stops, a penalty here, a drop pass there. The Redskins did not get a defensive stop over nearly the final three quarters of the game.

Dallas converted 7 of 8 on 3rd down after the first three drives. The only one they didn't convert was when they had a third and goal from the 15 after a penalty or two, and they kicked the field goal. The average, by the way, on 3rd down for the Cowboys, was 3rd and 3.7 yards. What does that mean?

It means that they were pretty damn effective on first and second down. And then they were effective on third down. Seven of their final eight on third down. Seven for 11 for the game. The Redskins have now allowed 18 out of 28 and two games on third down. That's horrendous. Horrendous. This is five straight scoring drives and then a run-the-clock out drive against what Josh Norman believed a few weeks ago would be in all-time defense. He said that. Rob Ryan said a month or so ago it was a top five talent defensively. our top five talent on defense, top five team, I'm sorry, from a talent perspective on defense. What a buffoon he is.

Landon Collins said it was the best defense he's been a part of, and it would be, you know, it would lead them to Super Bowl's plural in Washington. And that leads to this, and if you were listening this morning, this is where I got a little bit worked up, and I will try to generate the same enthusiasm for this, because it was certainly off the cuff this morning with a few notes. But this is what the organizations become. They have created the culture of promising big but never delivering on those promises.

Never. We have all heard and seen the big declarations over the years that never come close. They fall miles short of their mark. This year it was the defense primarily doing all the talking. Collins, Norman, Rob Ryan. You know, the rookie quarterback's going to have his chance, Aaron. He already claimed that the league done messed up, so he'll get his chance to back up that big boast.

This is on the owner. It's his job to create a culture that includes discipline, smarts, class. This organization has been classless during the Snyder era and has rarely had discipline and intelligence in the organization. Gibbs brought a professional decorum to walk back to Washington that was appreciated in the same way it was the first time around. But he couldn't escape the absolute shenanigans going on around him. He tried.

The defense should not be this bad. And I don't personally think it will stay this bad. But they are reaping what they sowed. You run your mouth and you're allowed to run your mouth, then you are going to have expectations and a high standard created by the fan base and the media. People are going to assume that, well, I don't anymore. I laugh at all of their big proclamations. But once you run your mouth about how good you are,

fans, media people alike, are going to hold you to a high standard. And they've played well below that standard so far. Five straight drives of Dallas ramming it down their throats. And the complaining about the refereeing, do it if you want. Even if some of those missed holding penalties, and there was a hold on the Dak Prescott Zone read, even some of those missed penalties,

they weren't going to change the result. Seriously. Because you know what would have happened on first and 20? Dak would have just lined it up, found Josh Norman, and thrown it to whomever he was covering. I said this morning, the most impressive moment of the year so far was Josh jumping over the Bulls in Pamplona.

The organization got a big kid, out of it. I wonder what they're thinking now. He's bad right now. They should have released him in the offseason. He's been a major disappointment since he got here. He's never come close to earning the salary and the contract that he's gotten paid. He's a very interesting dude. I've said this before. I actually like him. He's different. He's interesting. He's interested. He's eclectic. He, but he's just not a good player. I think we can all agree. He's been a massive disappointment. He competes, but he's not a good player. He's lost a step or two, and he wasn't that fast to begin with. Specifically, the run defense was a joke, but they made up

for that with terrible pass defense. Josh Norman, by the way, was at fault on that first 51-yard touchdown pass. Some of you want to think that it was Montaie Nicholson's job. Cooley will join us shortly to help us with that. But Nicholson, I believe, was. was going in the right direction. Cooley will help us with that. All right. The run defense allowed 213 yards, 6.3 yards per carry. Zeke at 111 yards.

The defense is in two weeks, the second worst defense in the NFL behind Miami, who's not even trying. 63 points, 911 yards, 18 for 28 on third down, is what this defense is allowed in two games. Two good opponents, yes. Two hideous performances by the defense. Also, yes.

I said this this morning. If the defense doesn't improve dramatically, they're going to lose 13, 14 games this year, maybe more. Also on the list of things that I didn't like. I'm not going to take the offense off the hook in this game because one of the things it needs to realize is that defensively they can't get off the field. So when they have the ball, they've got to score.

I said Friday they're going to need 27 plus points, and they probably needed more than that. They needed the plus to that. You know, they bounced back off that opening third quarter drive that put them in a 21-7 hole with a really good drive, 21-14. And then on the next drive down 24-14, it was the right decision to go for the fourth and three at midfield. You know, at that point, it was obvious they were going to need a miracle defensively to get off the field. They never got that miracle. So they had to go for it.

Couldn't kick it back to him because it would be 25 minutes before they touched the ball again. And sure enough, when they missed the fourth and three, which, by the way, followed a play in which Keenham missed a wide open Paul Richardson. The fourth and three was a bad throw. Thompson's open to move the chains, and by the time they got the ball back, it was 31-14 game over. The defense has really got awful in two weeks.

The offense has to do more. Not taking them off the hook, but it's crazy that we're saying that because two weeks ago, we all thought it had to do with the offense not losing the game. Defense is going to be good. Offense just can't lose the game. More penalties yesterday.

By the way, that as an excuse, Dallas had more penalties called against their team than the Redskins had against them. Dallas, eight penalties, 67 yards, Redskins, six penalties, 44 yards, two holding penalties from Brandon Sheriff, the guy they lowballed in the offseason. You think his head's not into it right now? You think he can't wait to get somewhere else? Oh, it was bad. It was an awful performance defensively. It really was dreadful. And it's a shame because this was an area in which if it made meaningful improvement, I think we all thought this could be a top 10 defense.

I thought 10 to 12, some of you were nuts thinking that it was an elite defense. How little we know. I mean, what a joke it is when we get all wrapped up into this stuff over the summer and the offseason. With this organization, we need to just understand going in. It won't be as good as they say it will. It won't. It'll be worse than they say it is.

And even when we're convinced of it, we need to take a step back and hesitate. Is John Allen really Aaron Donald? No, he's not. Duran Payne looks really good to me. Holcomb looks good to me. I like Jimmy Morland. You know, Landon Collins was decent yesterday. They couldn't get off the field.

My God, 1,000 yards essentially, approaching 1,000 yards in 63 points in two games. I guess that's an exaggeration. It's 9-11 on the total. the yardage. So it's closer to 900 yards. It just sounds better if you say a thousand. No turnovers. And Case Keenham, I actually thought, you know, he was okay. He's so far down the list of the issues. He's not accurate, which we've known coming in. This is one of the reasons I was not a big Keenham fan. He's not accurate all the time. He also will throw some bad balls. He should have two to three picks on the season. You can say that about a lot of

quarterbacks. I do like Keenham, though, in this offense. I've been impressed. He's not the reason that they're owe and two. He's the one giving him a chance. The pass offense is the one thing that's given him a chance to stay in these games. Miss Thompson on the fourth and three at 2414, that was big, because if you went and got a touchdown on that drive to make it 2421, just like if he had hit McClorin last week in Philadelphia to retake the lead, could have been big moments, could to change the context of the game, but the truth of the matter, like last week in the second half, and yesterday from the second quarter on, the defense was not going to be able to get a stop. The offensive line, the pass protection, you know, wasn't that terrible? I mean, it's not a

great offensive line. What's interesting is that the left side's better than the right side right now. I mean, Penn and Flowers are actually out playing Moses and Sheriff. Sheriff got two holding penalties, Moses got beat a couple of times. My God, if Jay Gruden talks about Dallas's stunting defensive line that's given them so much trouble over the last few years, as if stunting is something new in the NFL. It's been going on for decades. They're poorly coached. They have players that are in a culture that does not require accountability, discipline, class. The whole situation is rough. They didn't have any turnovers again yesterday. Two straight weeks, no turnovers. And they're 0-2. This is the other thing that I wanted to mention real

quickly. And that is the Pam Oliver report about Adrian Peterson. Adrian Peterson really tough to really evaluate his game, to be fair. He carried it 10 times for 25 yards in the game, and he only was in on 18 of the game's 62 snaps. That's unbelievable. Adrian Peterson back, active, 18 to 62 snaps. So Pam Oliver, they go to her on the sideline yesterday. And this is her quote about Adrian Peterson. I'm assuming she got it from Jay Gruden.

Quote, Jay Gruden is still not in favor of Peterson's strength, which is a north-south running style. He feels like it limits the offense and gives the defense way too many operations. opportunities, closed quote. Why would Jay leak that to Pam Oliver? My God, does he have it out for Adrian Peterson? Why would you be doing that publicly? I agree that if he didn't want him back, that the management should have been more open to it. They're the ones that brought Jay back. He's the coach. He should have final say on who plays and who makes the team. I'm glad Peterson's here, but now I'm not so glad he's here because Jay doesn't really want him here.

So he's not going to really do much to make it easier on Adrian, to create an offense that fits his strengths. And I don't even know if I want that anymore. Adrian Peterson's 34. He's not the future here. But why would you say that? Why would you let that get out? Last week it was 55 times from the I-Formation,

and this week is he's a north-south running style. It limits the offense and gives the defense way too many opportunities. Trent Williams, still nothing there, but San Francisco lost Staley their tackle. Garrett Bowles in Denver was horrendous yesterday. They need a left tackle. And Isaiah win in New England got hurt. There's probably going to be a bunch of calls made to Ashburn about the availability of Trent Williams, but leave it to Bruce.

I mean, he's going to win this standoff, but he'll lose in the process of winning this standoff. He needs to trade Trent Williams today to one of those three teams for a first and a third or a first and a fourth and a sixth. There's something like that. Needs to do that today. All right, a quick word about mybooky.ag. If you found $100 on the street, would you pick it up or keep walking? Of course, you take the money.

So why do you keep picking winners and not betting on them? Why do you keep listening to Sheehan's smell test and not wagering on them? Well, gambling can be difficult, and it's not for everybody. There's an old friend of mine. We used to go to Vegas all the time, and we'd be in Vegas having a blast, and there was one friend of ours that would always, you know, sort of be back in the hotel room, didn't want to wager, didn't want to go to some of the places that we would go to, and we would say, you know, Vegas, it's not for everybody. And it's not. But if it is for you, you've got to have the right place to wager. It's important to know who you're betting with, just as important as who you are betting on.

I wouldn't be telling you guys to bet with my bookie.ag if they weren't the best. Do the smart thing. If you're going to bet this football season, bet with my bookie. First of all, they take action on everything. They've got in-game action, quarter action, second half-wagering opportunities. If you're the kind of guy that loves to bet parlays or teasers, you've got that opportunity at MyBooky as well. MyBooky.orgie.ag is the premier place to bet on all your favorite sports action, especially college and pro football. the weekends. Join now and MyBooky will double your first deposit. Use my promo code. It's Kevin D.C.,

K-E-V-I-N-D-C to activate the offer. So go to MyBooky.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. And you'll play, you'll win if you listen to my picks recently, and you'll get paid. You're not always going to win? Trust me. But if you're going to play, play through a reputable site like MyBooky.ag. If you win, you will get paid by them. That's important to know that. MyBooky.ag, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All right, let's bring in Chris Cooley, who joins us here on the podcast. He called the game, obviously, yesterday on the Redskins Radio Network with Doc and with Larry. Two games in. They're 0-and-2. They played two very good teams, and I pointed that out. I think two excellent

teams, and the team we saw yesterday is very good. But overall, what was your big takeaway from yesterday. The defense that was supposed to be a top five defense is in a top five defense, and that they have to regroup and they have to figure out how to get people off the field. You can't allow five straight scoring drives and then allow someone to run out the clock on the six drive and not get stops. They can't get pressure, and they've had some problems in the secondary. And I get that there are injuries, man.

I do. I get that John Allen's going to make a big difference. and I understand that having Moreau and Dunbar is going to be helpful to your communication. But we're not talking about a game that the Cowboys scored on a few drives because they scored on every drive. And so that's something that they have to remedy right now. And they're good offenses. You know, here's the other thing. They're good offenses.

But I don't know. I watched that game last night. Philly is a good offense. Atlanta gave up 20. You have to get more stops. Yeah, it's really hard to do what Dallas and Philly have done the last two weeks, which is essentially take like a stretch of the football game and not give up the football. Last week, Philly had that stretch of like scoring on like, I think they scored on every drive of the second half.

It was a touchdown, a touchdown, a touchdown, a field goal, and then they took a need to end the game. Dallas from basically the early portion of the second quarter had five scoring drives and then ran the clock out on the final drive. You know, the Redskins only had eight opportunities in the game yesterday with the football. Eight, that's unbelievable. You know this. These are things you watch. To have eight possessions in a game, something's not right. And what wasn't right is that the Cowboys scored and went on long drives on every possession beginning in the early portion of the second quarter.

what specifically is making the defense so god awful? Well, that's the thing is it's hard to make it specific because I think it's across the board. They lack pass rush. They're not getting after the quarterback, the way you'd like to get after the quarterback. I think they lack coverage on the back end of things, and they're not, here's what's making them so got awful.

They're so bad right now in third-down situations. You and I talked last night, And there was a stat, and I'd kind of done this over the last week, and then you told me the stat. Carson Wentz on third down a week ago was 12 or 13 for 195 yards and two touchdowns. And it's like he was those were third and longs, too. And the Cowboys, although they didn't have a ton of third downs, operated in third down.

And we didn't make plays. If you can't be better in third down, you're dead. It kills you. Yeah, they've given up 18 out of 20. third downs in the first two weeks of the season. It's got to be, I would assume it's got to be the worst third down. I'm going to look that up right now as we're sitting here. Anything over 50% at the end of the season is going to be the worst.

Yeah, the Redskins are the worst in the league through two weeks. 64.3% on third down. The dolphins are better. The dolphins are better. You know, you should look up, you should look up the worst all-time third-down percentage over a season. It's in the 50s. I remember there was a year, a few years ago. like New Orleans was like a 49 something.

One of those years where New Orleans was really horrific defensively, and I thought that that was either the record or close to the record, because I remember reading about it during the course of the year. The Redskins, look, it's not going to be this for the season. I mentioned in the open here, if their defense doesn't improve, this is going to be a 14, 13 or 14 lost season. Like they're not winning more than two games, three games. Well, they do play Miami.

Right. Miami's defense so far is better on third down than the Redskins defense. Well, that's one staff. Miami's overall, I mean, Miami's horrendous. So you got that going for you. You got a couple Giants games, right? You got a couple Giants games. Well, they're going to be an undergone in New York.

You're going to play the Jets, and Sam Darnold should still have mono at that point. Come on, man. I'm trying to have a little fun here. I know, but it's crazy. It's crazy because you weren't necessarily expected to win either of the first two games, but you had chances to win both of the first two games. You didn't have a chance yesterday. You can say that all you want to say that.

Where was the chance? You hit Paul Richardson in the middle of the field. And it's 24-21, and then you're not going to get up. Yeah, and then what? And then it's going to be 3121. It's still a different ball game. It is. So it would have ended 3128.

which was my predicted final score on Friday. But you were never going to get them off the field. You could not get them. That was your predicted score. Yeah, 3128. That's so weird. I was driving to the game with my father-in-law and one of our friends, Bob, and I said, I think the Redskins end up covering this thing.

But it's not in a touchdown that's meaningful. I think it's 3121, and then they score in the last couple minutes or the last minute and have to kick it on time. It's kick, and it's 3128. Actually, my prediction on Friday was 3128 with Prescott scoring with under a minute to go on a third and goal keeper, bootleg keeper, naked bootleg keeper. Oh, I didn't see it. I didn't see it quite that close. I'm sorry.

Well, I mean, you know, my point is that I think they had a better shot to win last week in game than this week. If he hits McClorin on the deep ball last week, it's 2721, you know, in the third quarter. No, I understand that. And here's the crazy thing about the last two weeks. It happened in the Eagles game where the Eagles scored like 21 points with three or four offensive plays for the Redskins or six. This week, you're up seven zero. Dallas is a ball at the three-yard line. Yeah.

They go seven plays 97 yards. They score a touchdown, seven-seven. You go three and out. Dallas goes seven plays, 83 yards. Or 11 plays, 83 yards. Score another touchdown. Now you're down 14 to seven. You have one play where you take a knee.

Dallas gets the ball. They go down the field and score again. You ran four offensive plays, and they scored 21 points in that span of time. Yeah. Yeah. So you can say offense as much as you want to say offense, and the offense has got to be better. I'm not suggesting that they were perfect and that things were great. But you had four plays, and one of them was a knee.

In Dallas, in the meantime, scored 21 points on like 20-some plays and 300 yards of offense or 250 yards of offense. Honestly, you have to be blind if you watched these. two games and you think anything other than the defensive side of the ball is the number one reason they're 0 and 2. You got to be blind or stupid because what you just described, I want everybody to understand that. The Cowboys scored 21 points in a stretch where the Redskins really only had one opportunity with the ball. They knelt down on the final play of the first half because they didn't have an opportunity. There was no time left. They scored 21 points in three drives to the Redskins one drive.

Again, I'm going to beat this dead horse. How often do you see an NFL team take the ball early in the second quarter and never get stopped the rest of the game? Ever. From that first touchdown drive, which started with 10 or 11 minutes

to go in the second quarter, they never again got stopped. Well, they held them to a field goal. Yeah, courtesy of a couple of penalties. All right, specifically on defense, on the first bomb to Devin Smith, who had his first catch since 2015 or 2016,

is that Josh Norman's fault, or was it something else? First of all, yes, it was Josh Norman's fault, okay? Because he is the deep corner in what starts as a cover three. I'll just explain this to you, because I've watched this, and I've heard everyone try to talk about this. It starts, the play begins as cover three. Okay, so you got my first. Monta Nicholson in the middle of the field.

The Cowboys, from their offensive right side, run two crossing routes, one at about eight and one at about 15. So now you've taken all three players on Dallas's offense that are running routes to the far side of the field. So now you're asking Monta Nicholson to do what is called cut the coverage. So the three safety, he's going to cut the deep crosser. When you cut a coverage, you have to replace it from somewhere. So Rogers Carmardi on the other side is now –

assuming this responsibility that he's cutting back to the deep half. So cover three, Kevin, becomes what is called as a two cut. And Rogers Comarty would have had an opportunity. And a lot of corners, you see this in the NFL. A quarterback's almost blind to that corner can cut and pick that ball. Now, I am well aware of the physical capabilities of Rogers Carmardi in this game, but he's not cutting the coverage. He is not replacing that coverage.

And if you pause the player, if you're looking at it on film, there is no one within 25 yards on that side of the ball of Rogers Carmardi Deep. He was just out there watching. He's got to cut deep. Now, again, I'm not going to alleviate Josh because that is on his half of the field, and he becomes that corner. And really, I think he looked out for the ball, expecting that maybe a ball wasn't going to be there. I don't know what he was looking for because the receiver had him by three steps. So it was like a moment where you better put your head down and run and then adjust to the receiver's body. body language to the ball. So it's still Josh. I'm not taking that out, but it isn't

Monte. Monta's doing what he's coach to do. Okay. That was a good explanation. DRC probably should have been back over there giving Josh some help, but once Josh sees that Monta is, what did you call that cutting the coverage? Yeah. Once he's got, he's got to be with Smith. He's in man coverage at that point. And he initially began as the deep third, which just essentially translated into the deep half. And I promise you, there's, no one else in the deep third or the deep half. So that is essentially becoming his guy in a man-to-man situation. It becomes the only man in his zone, so you better go play him.

How about the play on the drive where they took the lead at the end of the first half where Prescott threw it deep to Gallop. And Josh looked like he was... I don't know what he looked like. It was a touchdown. It was Prescott's worst throw of the day. That should have been a touchdown. That was what was initially called is a cover two.

inverted cover two. Normally cover two of the two safeties, deep in the deep halves of the field, and the corners up short. The Redskins and a lot of teams, Dallas did this a few times, are playing what is an inverted cover two. So it looks like to a quarterback, it might be covered three. There's a safety in the middle of the field.

That safety then rotates down and plays underneath, and both corners play the deep halves. I can't tell you what Josh was seen on that play. That ball is thrown on the money, or even close to on the money, and that's a walking touchdown. But he was responsible for that, yes. He was culpable for both of those. You and I both like Josh Norman, like he's interesting.

And, you know, the three or four times that we, you know, I had a chance with you to sit down at the park and have him on the show. There's something about him. He's charismatic. There's a lot that I like about the fact that he's interesting and he's, you know, but he can't play anymore, right? Like, this should have been an off-season cap savings cut. So here's the thing that I think about Josh, and this happens to a lot of guys as their careers progress.

Josh and Carolina was able to play with vision to the quarterback and really read quarterback eyes and try to jump things and try to bait things. And he had enough makeup speed on the back end to end up closing on a lot of those plays. I think Josh feels like he still has that makeup speed. The way I watch him still try to read and react, he's acting like he's got that type of makeup speed. So he's playing press bail. A lot of times he's playing tight on receivers, but not putting his hands on him. and then he's bailing with eyes to the quarterback thinking, I'll just run and catch up if that's the necessity.

He's just not catching up. So at some point, you have to adjust your game in those situations. Would he be a good safety? No. I think it's hard. Well, I'm not saying he couldn't be a good safety, but it's hard to, how many corners adjust to really play safety at a high level? Not that many, man.

That's like a cliche myth in football. And by the way, we don't need another safety right now. We need a corner. We need corners. Was there anybody on defense that you liked because there was one player I liked? I thought Dron Payne was pretty impactful up front. Ezekiel Elliott ended up getting over 100 yards and that was late. And he didn't play a lot in the third quarter,

but they didn't get a lot of big carries on first down. You know, I think they got some stops in first down situations. The one pressure that was really a pressure on DAC, which resulted in the Carrigan sack was a Duran Payne pressure. I thought Duran Payne was actually okay in the game. Yeah, that was the guy I liked. And actually the pick, the pick that Nicholson had off the tip ball, Payne was pressuring Prescott on that play.

Payne had pressure there. That was a good play by Cole Holcomb, too, playing the middle of the field and jumping that route. Cole Holcomb was the one that set that up. I actually like him, and I like Jimmy Morland, too, and I have no idea what the tape will reveal about Morland's performance. I just like how aggressive he is. I love how aggressive he is. I think he's raw in a couple spots, and I think he's adjusting to NFL speed. And he's also adjusting to

playing inside versus playing outside. So he's going to come a long way, I think. I'm not doubting that Jimmy Morland's going to be a good player in this league. He hasn't been exceptional at this point, but he's a guy that throws his head in there, and he's a guy that I think sniff things out. Offensively, what did you make of Case Keenham's? performance and just overall the offense in yesterday's game. So I'm not in any way going to put this on Case's shoulders and say that Case is the reason that they lost this ballgame. But I'm going to say in watching most of the offensive film that I think Case was a C.

And I think for them to win, Case has got to play at a B, B plus level. And that's it for Case. I think he could be a B plus type quarterback. But I thought he missed him throws. I thought he missed some opportunities. You know, you can easily single out the two big. biggest misses in the game and say, you know, the first throw to Terry McLaurin, which, by the way, was a cover three that turned into a two cut, that the backside corner didn't cut for Dallas. That was the first play from scrimmage, right?

It would essentially be the exact same result as the initial play we talked about with Josh Norman. He's got to throw that ball out across the middle of the field. But that's not him making a mental mistake. That's a ball that got away from him just a little bit in that situation. Everyone understands that he missed Paul Richardson in the deep middle of the field. Dallas had, again, a two-invert coverage where the safety and linebacker blew the middle of the field. There's communication between Jalen Smith and whoever the other safety as it wasn't Heath, and neither of them played the middle of the field, and that inverted too,

and Paul Richardson's deep down the middle, and it looks like he should have easily sought, and I know that he's going to be the first one to say, my gosh, that gets back in the game. But he missed some other throws in the game that I think he had opportunities to get the ball down the field in some situations and to make some better throws. And there's some that he would want back. So a couple of plays. But it's not that dissimilar from what Alex did. It's not, it wasn't bad.

It was just average. It was an average performance on the day. What did you grade his performance last week? I thought last week it was probably a C plus B minus type of performance. But he didn't have very many throws in the second half of that ballgame. The first half, he was as good as he could be other than maybe one throw to Vernon Davis. In the second half, getting missed a throw deep to McLaren, and I think there were things he could have hit in the second half,

like a third and 17 to Vernon on the sideline. But less opportunity in the last week. I think he missed a few things that, you know, when I say missed, he could have hit a deeper ball into the checkdown. An early driving, they overcame this hold on a Brandon Sheriff holding penalty. He ends up rolling, flushing right when he didn't need to. you just throw the check down over the ball. There's some things that,

but I think this is fairly normal for a quarterback in a completely new system. The fourth and seven that they went for, in that moment, like if you and I had been communicating during the game, I would have said fourth and seven kicked the field goal, make it 21, 10, you need points on this drive. They went for it, they got it. I'm glad they did. I think it was the, I didn't sense it in the moment.

I certainly sensed it on the fourth and three on their next drive. that Jay knew at that point they had to score touchdowns like every single time they had the ball or they were going to get run out of the building because they were not going to get off the field defensively. I love that throw to Quinn. And then Richardson makes a really good touchdown run after the catch on that short one. On the fourth and three, after he missed a wide open Richardson on third and three, that's just a bad throw to Thompson, right? that Thompson's there for a move to chains fourth and three completion. Yeah, I think Thompson really runs a pretty good route when you look at it. You know, initially on the field, I thought maybe he was a yard short.

He runs that route at about right about three and a half yards is where he outbreaks that route. It's a five-yard route. And when you're thinking about just quarterback and gun, plant and pivot and throw, he's expecting that be about a yard deeper. And they would have worked to the yard deeper. But yes, he did, he did miss the throw. I thought Thompson could have pressed one more step up the field. But he wins. If the ball's

put on him, it's the first down. The thing about... By the way, by the way, just as an aside, they went on that fourth and three late in the game with an empty set. They went with three receivers and a bunch set to the right, which was into the boundary.

They went with two receivers into the field side. The field they ran kind of a little spin route with Trey Quinn that might have won. But the boundary side, where Chris Thompson's essentially starting just inside the numbers to run an out route, I would have flipped that play call. Maybe they liked that into the boundary.

Maybe they thought they were going to get the coverage they wanted if they ran that play into the boundary. But that makes that such a tight window throw. That ball's got to be so immediately on Thompson before he gets to the sideline. It gives him a little bit less. I think you sense it that it's got to be quicker for whatever reason because you're closer to the sideline.

I think they should have flipped. that call. Well, because you're running out of room, essentially, right? So it's got to happen quickly, or he's going to catch it out of bounds. We ran that out a little out route into the boundary side, and it's just got to be so accurate where the field side gives you a little bit more space to throw that ball. By the way, on Chris Thompson, I actually think that he's been pretty damn good in the first two weeks, and he looks just as fast and as quick and as healthy as he's been. Why did we get a driver two with Wendell Smallwood instead of him? Or was Smallwood in for Peterson in those spots? Smallwood played 17 plays in that game.

18. 18. No, no, no. I'm sorry. 16 for him, 18 for Peterson. Yeah, and so when you counted on my thing, you count penalties as plays as well, so he's in for another play. But yeah, we're saying the same thing there. I don't know the answer to that. Jay's consistently done that, though, with all of his players. You know, we've joked about it, and I joked about it with him. I think last year on the coaches show, I said, why are we rotating so much? And he said, well, they're all wearing jerseys. Let's get him out there and play them.

But that's kind of Jay's rotational style. But Jay said this a lot of times, and ultimately he's the head coach, but he said, you know, I let my position coaches work the rotation. And so you'd say, really, that's a question for Randy Jordan. Until Jay says, this guy's going to play the entire time. This is what I want the rotation to be. Thompson's been... I like Smallwood, though.

Like, I like Smallwood. I like Thompson better. You had 62 offensive snaps, and Thompson was in on 28 of them. I would have them out there more. That's just me. And honestly, honestly, I like Sims Jr. I do. But I don't see a reason that some of that fly-sweep stuff can't be out of empty sets

and have Chris Thompson doing some of that stuff, too. By the way, I know everybody got excited about Sims in the carries he had. He played, I think, five offensive snaps and had, what, three carries in the game, something like that? I thought he was not patient enough as a runner. I thought he was excited, which, you know, his first opportunity to play. And on a couple of those, if he had been a little bit more patient, they could have turned into bigger plays. And he sort of ran in. Ooh, I like that you say that because I think he was too patient.

I think the first fly sweep to the outside, he should have just went hard to the sideline. He hesitated trying to set up a block and cut it back. I think the second one, that little inside sweep, maybe a little bit too patient, so just turning straight down field. Well, one of them where he stumbles a little bit forward into the tackle, I thought he needed to wait a little bit on that one. That was the inside trap type of sweep, the inside power type of sweep. But there's nothing to be patient for.

There's two guys coming from inside, and Jeremy Sprinkles kind of out. they're hesitant on blocking the corner from inside out. There's really nowhere from to go. Adrian Peterson. I've watched all these plays, just so you know. Adrian Peterson, 18 snaps, 62 overall offensive snaps. 10 carries 25 yards. One of those drives got derailed by a blow-up in the back field.

What did you see from AP in his first action? I thought he had some really good runs. I did. I thought he got into some tight holes. I thought he set some things up pretty well. You look at one of the ones that was, I think it went his first carries, if not his first carry, it was a four-yard loss. They stunted up front. You got a de-end or a detackle right in your face. He tries to cut it back.

You can't. You know, other than that, I saw some good runs. And by the way, a couple of nice catches, one on a holding for sheriff where he went up and really caught it. I thought he did, I thought he did well. Here's what I would say. It's exactly what I would expect at this point out of Adrian Peterson. Did you hear about what Pam Oliver reported on the sideline? No. Okay. I'm going to remember. read it to you. This is early first half. They go to Pam Oliver on the sideline. Jay Gruden is still

not in favor of Peterson's strength, which is a north-south running style. He feels like it limits the offense and gives the defense way too many opportunities. Closed quote. Well, clearly someone's telling Pam something, but I didn't see a lot of East-West run type of plays called for Adrian Peterson. They were downhill plays. They were inside tight zone and inside gap run place. it might not be what he prefers. But I thought he ran the ball well. Why is he picking on Adrian Peterson? Isn't it obvious now, 55 runs-eye formation?

Yeah, and maybe that's something between the two of those guys, and that's their business. But this run game, whether I like it, you know I don't particularly love this style that the Redskins run the ball. It hasn't changed. they didn't change the way they run the ball from three years ago before Adrian Peterson got here. They're still doing the same things they're doing. So picking on him is, like, okay, I love AP as much as anybody else.

I think he's amazing. I do. Like one of my favorite guys in the last couple years that I've met. But was AP, when it comes to picking on him, were there a lot of calls for Adrian Peterson last year after Arizona? Did we hear about anyone tried to trade him when we deactivated him? We're not picking on him. We're the one team giving him an opportunity. So he's got to find a way to make it work in the system.

Like it or not, that's part of the game, man. You know how many times I sat in a meeting room and said, I don't like what we're doing a lot. I did it through the Zorn era. I did it through that Zorn era for a couple years. I did it a little bit in the way we, We did it with Al Saunders. That's what you do.

Okay. So let me back up here for a second. What I have a problem with is Jay Gruden expressing his frustration about Adrian Peterson publicly. Do you think Jay Gruden told Pam Oliver? Well, who do you think told Pam Oliver? Well, it doesn't seem like Jay Gruden told Pam Oliver that we're not going to use Adrian Peterson's running style. I don't think any coach would say that to a reporter. I don't want to use his running style.

I want to use my running style. Well, I think most people believe that this is Gruden telling Pam Oliver, that I'm not in favor of Peterson's strength. It limits the offense, gives the defense way too many opportunities. I don't know who told Pam Oliver. We know that Jay Gruden sarcastically took a shot at Peterson last week when he said, you know, when we run it 55 times from the I formation, you know, that's when we'll play him.

I guess let me just get to this. Here's what's hard, though. Why is he on the, why doesn't Jay want him on the team? I don't know. Jay hasn't said he doesn't want him on the team. Well, there was the report from the junkies before the opener that Jay wanted to cut him on cut down day. I know, and where did that come from? I don't know where it came from.

It was Jason on the junkies reported. When there's a random unnamed source to tell you where something came from, you can't just say it was Jay. No, I didn't say it came from Jay. I'm just saying that the report was that that's what Jay wanted to. The Pam thing came from Jay. No, I'm saying that I would assume that the Pam Oliver stuff came from Jay. In terms of what Jason on the junkies got that Jay wanted to cut him, I'm not assuming that that came from Jay.

It doesn't really matter. If it's true, why do you think he wanted to cut him? I don't know. I don't know why he would want to cut Adrian Peterson. Here's what I do know, and this is where it gets hard. for everyone. When you bring in players at the end of their career, and they're not the biggest impact,

and maybe AP could be, there's so many politics that go into that. What? What are you talking about? They go into playing a player, playing them in a certain way, dressing a player, activating a player.

There's so many politics that go into all that. So both parties are putting a little bit of a tough spot. Yeah, the issue that they ran up against last week when he deactivated him, if it'd been another veteran that wasn't a Hall of Famer, would have been a hell of a lot different in terms of the reaction. It's just amazing to me. I'm not saying that it's handled right in any situation.

Don't think I'm saying that to you. But New England can do it, and they can say, we're just doing what's best for the team. And that's all that needs to be said. That's it. We're going to do what's best for the team. We're going to do what we believe gives us the best opportunity to win this week. Our guys are here.

They're happy to be here. We're going to do what's best for this team to win this week. Thank you. Yeah, well, there's something called benefit of the doubt, Chris. Well, there is benefit of the doubt, and there's also, that's all you need to say, which has not been the case in this scenario. There's something new. There's always some other thing.

It seems personal. Don't put any other thing out there. Just say, we're going to do its best for the team. We love AP. He's had an amazing career. And our belief is this style, this choice, this system, this activation or deactivation, is, in our opinion, what's best this week for our team? That's what we believe. That's our business.

Yeah, why can't they do that? Why can't he do that? But that's all you have to do. Well, I understand that, but that's not what they do. Now, I mean, it is tough. And by the way, you did an amazing job with Mike Shanahan on 980 last week. I thought it was one of the best interviews I've heard Shanahan do. Really? To anyone that has it, because he was very forthcoming.

I thought he was more honest. And he really said that. Like, I probably should have been more transparent in a lot of cases. Right. And you use the Donovan McNabb example. when he benched Donovan McNabb. Now, I remember that day. I walked in that day, which was a Wednesday,

and Donovan walked towards me through the building and said, I think I just got benched. What do you mean? He think you just got benched. He said, well, they told me I'm going to split reps in practice this week, and they want to give Rex some looks. And that's what he was told. And the team wasn't told anything.

And it's Donovan McNabb. And for the most part, a lot of young players, defensive players, guys know exactly what's going on and go, what the hell would we do this? It's Donovan McNabb. And so it creates this lack of, not a lack of transparency, although it is. It's an omission. It's an omission to your team.

Mike really said it really well is sometimes you just have to tell your team, whether they like it or not, this is the decision we're making. And just so you understand this is why. And we're not going to say anything. We're together on this. And I'm not going to say anything publicly. Yes. And I thought he really was very clear.

and I thought it was a pretty elegant way he put it. Yeah, he was very reflective on a time in which he essentially admitted that he should have been more honest with the team and everybody around the team. And really admitted a couple of the mistakes he thought he had made while he was here. I thought it was really good. I text him afterwards and told him. I thought it was really good. Back to this team. Well, yeah, you know what? You know that you like him in the same way that I do because we both recognize it.

He's really smart and he really, really knows football and has his sense. And this, you know, whenever we have this conversation, they're like a half dozen people that'll just, you know, either text me or tweet me his record while he was here. Yet look at the, look at all the talent on that coaching staff and was in the building there for a few years. And that gets me back, you know, whenever I think about this, just to the organization.

It's almost like nothing works here. It just doesn't work. But back to... Success avoids us, as Larry put it this morning. Yeah, yeah, Larry did say that this morning. All right, back to Adrian Peterson. So ultimately, like, it's not a good fit for Jay. It doesn't seem like it's a good fit.

It's not a comfortable fit. That being leaked to Oliver, whether it was him or somebody else, along with the 55 runs and the eye formation. It just seems like it's an uncomfortable situation with Peterson right now. Just like, you know, it may be, you know, there may be some people looking at Josh Norman saying, this dude can't play anymore. Like at what point, and it's not at O and 2, I'm not suggesting it's at O and 2, but at what point do you just say, Jay, do it the way you want to do it? And we'll just ride it out that way. Well, also, at what point does a coach who is coaching for his job, I guess, to put it lightly, just say I'm going to do it.

way. Right. Well, I think he did that last weekend. It totally backfired. I think he did it his way last weekend in Philadelphia. He put the guy down that he doesn't like and doesn't feel fits his style of rush offense or offense in particular. He's got the guy that is excited about up. That guy gets injured. The whole thing just completely backfired. You know, the locker rooms, you know, upset about it. The reports are, you know, Jay's taking a pounding. I mean, people are harpooning him in public because he just benched a Hall of Fame running back. And the guy that he likes a lot got hurt in the game in the first quarter and was because there was no real replacement for him, I guess, had to stay in the game. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, you kind of led it into the Josh

Norman. Do you think Jay's wants to bench Josh Norman? I have no idea. Because they finished three and a half quarters of a game with another corner who could barely walk because they were so light at the position. No, I know. They had no choice yesterday, although they did play the guy that they just picked up briefly. You saw that, right? Yeah. I don't even know what his name was. They picked up Aaron Coleman. Colvin. But they played, the other kid was 38. 38 played. 38 played. Who was he? Yeah, I know his name, but it's not coming to me right now. It's not even that important. It really isn't.

They needed to play anybody who is healthy. They played the Shazer Everett a lot in this lot because they didn't have anyone else. When Rogers Cromarty left the game for that brief moment, it looked like Everett moved a corner. He did. Simeon Thomas is number 38. Simeon Thomas. That's who it is. He played, I saw him out there for a couple of plays, at least.

He may have been out there more than that. What have you seen from sweat in the first two games? I thought he looked better this game. I thought he looked better, especially in the run game. He did a better job disengaging and making some plays in the run game. I was surprised on a couple of the zone read runs that, and by the way, I do not like how we're playing zone read right now. But I was surprised on a couple of his own read runs how he was a little bit out of place, because that's something he's seen a billion times in Mississippi State.

but now you're probably playing it a different way. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions on sweat and his ability to rush the passer through two weeks of playing two of the best left tackles in the NFL. I've told you for as long as we've been friends, that position just seems to take some time to develop. And I think it's because you just don't see as many dropbacks in college. You don't see as many tackles who really set. And now all of a sudden, you get.

guys like Tyron Smith who are setting three to four yards deep in an instant. They're big, they're athletic, they're strong. And you just have to adjust to really start to put together a couple moves to set things up. And it's different. It's different than college. You have very good players out of the position. And he's athletic. He's a big athletic dude. He's going to be fine, in my opinion. I mean, what we saw last year of Mississippi State in the last couple years there. He's so freak athletic-like that he's just got to develop a little routine and a little bit of comfortability there. But they still, if that doesn't happen though, and you don't start to pressure the passer, you better find some ways to get there. Yeah. And then I say that,

and it's like what were we going to do, put DRC and Josh in straight man-to-man and didn't find out. I mean, I don't know if that was the plan either. I got a couple of rapid fire questions for you. Ready? Do you write them down? I've got a couple in my head and I've written a couple of them down. You ready? Go.

All right side or left side of the offensive line, which has been better? I'm sane. Morgan Moses struggled a little bit through the first for the season, and I think Donald Penn's played all right. You know this line's only given up two sacks and two weeks. I know that. Sheriff had two holding penalties. yesterday. Yeah. The first one happened with the quarterback rolling out of the pocket, and he's just like,

just let go. But it wasn't a, I got beat, so I had to hold. It was all of a sudden the quarterback's way outside, and why is this guy going this way? Did Landon Collins play well yesterday? He had a lot of tackles. I thought he was okay. Here's the thing with Landon, and I want this to seem like a bad thing. He's not a playmaker. He's just a, very good, keep everything in front of you, can get downhill in the run game at times type of guy. I don't expect Landon Collins to have seven interceptions this year. I just don't expect him to miss tackles and to blow any coverages. And he reacts well.

Will anybody get fired this week, coaching staff? No, I can't imagine anybody's getting fired this week. How much pressure is on Greg Minoski right now? And how much of the defense of performance is his fault or the staff's fault? I don't know that, Kevin. I missed those defensive meetings this week, so I don't know how much is the staff's fault and how much is the players' fault. I think it's collective across the board.

You got guys that are missing plays. You got some stuff that I think is tough, but they weren't overly complex in the secondary last week. I think it should have been a little bit more consistent for the coverage based on the players more than the coaches. But it's everyone. Is Terry McClure in the real deal after two games? Geez, he sure seems like it.

I think Terry McClorin's got so much to him. And most importantly, his ability to take the top off of defense is just what we needed in a big way. Do you think Jordan Reed's ever going to play again? I don't know. I hope so. I know he wants to. Why were they so optimistic and then as we got to the weekend it became apparent he wasn't going to play? I don't know. The concussion thing now is such a serious and sensitive thing. that I think everyone just wants to make sure, and that's what he should do. He should take his time and make sure that he feels comfortable.

He doesn't, I think after even three, four, you know, you got to constantly in the back of your mind go, what if I take another hit? And so at that point, you have to feel completely clear that you're fine before you're comfortable. He should take his time. Do you think he's considering retirement right now? I haven't talked to Jordan about that. Okay.

what should they do with Trent Williams? There was a left tackle lost in San Francisco. Hopefully they would deal with Kyle, although, you know, apparently they didn't when Kyle reached out and the 49ers reached out about Kirk a few years ago. The Broncos have a major issue at left tackle. That guy, Garrett Bowles, is horrifically bad. Isaiah Wynn got banged up in New England.

So now, you know, through week two, now we've got a couple of teams that have a need. Do you think Bruce Allen will listen? I would trade him, but I've said that all along, and I'm saying that when you know this, you know I like Trent Williams. I just think that it's a situation where if you can get a one, you'll avoid a lot of the issues down the line.

You know, you said you should train him in January, and I said, you're crazy, and now I wish I'd have said, you're brilliant. And I'm sure that they would have thought that they would have had any of this. they would have done that before the draft before people drafted other left tackles. But look, I thought, I think it was DeAngelo Hall said that Bruce told him that we'll fire anybody that you want to fire. That's not a good standard, pal. We can't just go firing people because one player says that our staff's not good enough and we need to fire people.

I think that's a bad example, leadership-wise, from the organization. I think the organization's really got to self-evaluate and come to a conclusion their self versus have a player tell them because you do that and now players start having this, I don't like him and I don't like this guy and I don't like the way we do this. Now what are we going to do about that? Well, I think it's a bad future standard. Well, obviously, that's an awful way to do business to let a key player basically dictate who's employed and who isn't.

My whole take on that when I read it was, you know, I'd like to hear the tone. Like, it could have been Bruce saying, hey, Trent, if there's somebody here that's really awful, tell me who he is and we'll get rid of them. You know, but we've got a good medical team. We've got a great training staff. You know, it could have been in that tone as well. It could also be someone that's not in the building that Trent's talking about. Right.

Like, hey, we have this doctor that we use. We won't use them anymore. I get that. But then once that's really out there, now it's even more. It's like, now we're going to go, that's almost like Freddie Kitchen saying anybody that leaks is getting fired, done, period. Okay, man. Now you're the one that's going to leak it because you're leaking that they leaked it. Right.

Now that we're two games into the season, how much progress is Dwayne Haskins making on a daily basis? Well, my answer to that question is zero progress. Okay. But that was, that's not, and that's not a slight to Dwayne. Look, look, some, and I would call it limited process, because he is going through the game plan, and he is understanding what an NFL install is and what it takes, you know, as a quarterback, week in and week out to prepare and get ready. And if, you know, Howard Dwayne, I'd be in here every day.

It would be like Costanza leaving my car at work on Seinfeld. Like, I'd just be here all the time. Like, look at me, look at me, look at me, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. In the meantime, you're Ubering home. Yeah, you're Ubering home. they're like Duane's cars here. Have you guys seen him? Ah, no, I think. And then you'd text one of your coaches, and about 20 minutes later, you're like, nah, just downstairs watching film and in the players lounge or wherever it is.

Man, you were, you were tricky. Like, simultaneously, like, because guys get film on their phone, like, just, you know, screen cap, like, one play and be like, oh, I think this is, when they play this coverage, coach, what do you think? And they're like, man, Duane's watching a lot of film. But I told you this before the season started, we've talked about it all long, The scout team reps are not NFL reps. They're just not. And the way they practice now, and this is every NFL team,

where Wednesday is going to be no pads and half a Wednesday is going to be at 80%. And then Thursdays pads for half the day. And then Friday's a slow, what progress is a quarterback? What coverages are he seen to your concepts and your things? The answer to that, Kevin, is zero. So it'll be a slow progress for Duane until he starts playing. All right. The Bears come to town Monday night. Just your first blush on that. The Bears are terrible on offense, so if we don't get stops, I'm going to be very disappointed.

But you think about this, and you say, look, this is a tough first five games. And we knew that, and everybody knew that. And you never look at the schedule game, because if you play the Steelers next week, it's different all the way like Mason Rudolph. But you know the Eagles and the Cowboys are going to be tough in week one and week two. And you know the Patriots of the Patriots and like five and it's a Monday night. But could you find a way to beat the Bears at home on Monday night? And it might be 10 to 9.

Could you just find a way to beat the Bears on Monday night and then play the Giants? And a season that was 0 and 2 could get back to 2 and 2. And for the most part, whether or not you believe they're going to go have a season at that point or anybody listening to the podcast believes they're going to have a season at that point, they'll believe it. The team will believe it. The team needs to win a game right now, and they need to get some sense of we are good enough.

Because if they don't, then chatter enters the building, and you start to feel all the controversy. I've done it. I've done it here multiple times as a player. You get to where you're doomed, and then everything seems like a big deal, and everything seems like a problem, and everyone's doing something wrong. They need to win two games badly. It has to start with one game. So my initial feel is this game is so big, just for the players to feel like we can do something. Because as soon as they don't, it's done.

They're a four-point underdog Monday night. They'll be an underdog in the Meadowlands. Trust me on that one, unless the Giants get run next week and have a bunch of injuries. How about it? How long is New York going to give Eli? They battled back in that game late, but I'm interested. Have you looked at that in New York News? See, I didn't follow the game yesterday.

I didn't follow any. No, but I was just, I was going to look up some of the New York stuff because they've got to be thinking, how long are we going to give Eli? Same as the Dwayne situation. Daniel Jones seemed like he was ready in the preseason. Everyone said he would be the most pro-ready quarterback based on his system at Duke and Cuckcliffe. Like, how long are they going to go before that guy doesn't come in?

All right, I got to run. I appreciate you doing this. Can I just give you one thought before I go? Please. It's so annoying when you talk to somebody on the phone and they eat ice cream. Last night, last night I was eating some ice cream and he got very upset. He said, this is rude. I think you're very upset.

I just said you should stop eating ice cream. I didn't want it to melt. I didn't know how long I would be on the phone with you. I guess I could have put it back in the freezer. I told you put it back in the freezer. I know. It wasn't that bothersome. Come on.

But the fact is that you guess. I mean, it's the perception is... You guessed it. You're like, I'm sorry. Hold on for a second. Are you eating ice cream? I mean, you don't make a lot of noise when you're eating ice cream. Yeah, you do.

You do. Yeah. All right, I got to go. See you. Thanks. All right, good to catch up with Cooley. Don't forget if you're listening on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, rate us, review us, subscribe. It doesn't cost you a thing.

It helps us. Maryland lost on Saturday. That was painful. They had all of these opportunities Aaron inside Temple's 10-yard line, and they couldn't score. Josh Jackson really struggled more than anything else. I think that was the key to the game. Merrill's defense was okay. We warned you on Friday that the line reeked a little bit and gave a lean towards Temple. I didn't play the game. I probably should have. But Temple's athletic. They're very athletic. They're better than people understand or know. I still think Maryland will have a chance against Penn State a week from this coming Friday night.

But it was really a shame. All of those opportunities down 20 to 15 late. They had a punt return to the four-yard line, went first and goal from the four, couldn't get it in. Then they had a punt that went seven yards, and they started at Temple's 10-yard line, and couldn't get it in as well. So tough loss for Maryland at Temple, 20 to 17 ended up being the final score. And they get a buy week this week, and then it's Penn State after that. In the NFL yesterday real quickly before we leave you for the day, Kirk Cousins was awful.

He was. He was absolutely terrible. He had three turnovers and one of the worst interceptions that ended their best chance to take the lead after falling behind 21-0-0. They gave him 21 unanswered to start that game, and he was dreadful. I watched the press conference with him. I watched the press conference with Zimmer and had some plays. He connected on a couple of bombs, one to,

to Diggs for a touchdown. Had a touchdown called back by a New York in New York jumped in replay in the final two minutes of the first half to call an offensive pass interference penalty on Dalvin Cook, which was horrendous, and that took a touchdown off the board, but God, it was Kirk bad, really bad.

This is why I didn't pick them this year. I had this sense before this season started that something was off there. They could turn it around. But I told you guys this before the year, even though I'm a huge Kirk Cousins fan, I thought that something wasn't right there. And I was not convinced that the Vikings were going to be a playoff team. I did not pick them to be a playoff team.

And I was a little bit concerned about the situation there with him. And he's under a lot of pressure right now, two games into this season. The worst call of the day, by far, was the call in the Coliseum, with the fumble that got whistled dead that would have been returned for a touchdown to give New Orleans a 10 to 3 lead. They are coached these referees are to not blow a play like that dead. They did it anyway. They came back.

They ruled it a fumble after the fact. You're supposed to let that play go. There's a mechanism replay in place to correct a wrong, but you cannot blow a play like that dead. That's been a running theme with officials on a turnover. You let that thing get returned. You do not blow that incomplete versus fumble call. You do not blow that play dead.

that was a crushing blow to New Orleans. I'm sure they'll sue everybody in New Orleans over that call, and it just happened to have happened in the revenge rematch game in the Coliseum yesterday, which the Rams won going away. Breeze got hurt. I do not know how long Breeze is out. Rafflesberger, according to breaking news, is out for the year.

And the other worst call of the day... Drew Breeze, by the way, six weeks is the prediction. Six weeks on Drew Breeze. The other terrible call of the day was the, roughing the passer call on Bradley Chubb in the Denver-Chicago game, which gave Chicago 15 yards and put them in position to get a late walk-off field goal. That was a phenomenal ending to that game. They finally found a kicker that can kick,

and that was after Flacco drove him down the field for the game. What should have been the game, tying touchdown, but they went for two. Just like Jacksonville did yesterday, you had two situations yesterday where NFL teams down seven went for two, and the win, and didn't get it in Jacksonville, did get it in Denver. It should have been enough to hold off for the win, but that terrible call on Chubb was a, it was a crusher for the Broncos who are now 0 and 2. My pick to be the surprise team in the NFL is 0 and 2.

Should have won that game yesterday. Eagles lost last night in Atlanta, too many turnovers, but man, that was an intense game, and the Falcons desperately needed that one and got it back. And how about Mahomes? four touchdowns in one quarter of the game. And that's all. They had 28 points in one quarter. All of them pretty much 20, you know, I think 40-yard plus bombs and then a 28-yard touchdown pass as well. Nats need to win some of these games in St. Louis. All of a sudden, they are just two and a half games up on that second spot in the wild card race. We're done for the day. Tommy will be in tomorrow. We'll do more on the NFL, a lot on the skins.

Enjoy the day, everybody.