The Kevin Sheehan Show - Skins-Titans: Just Short Of Unforgettable

Episode Date: December 23, 2018

Kevin recaps the Redskins' gut-wrenching loss to the Titans. JP Finlay/NBC Sports Washington joins the show from Nashville to discuss the game and the harsh post-game comments from DJ Swearinger about Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky. You'll hear Jay Gruden's post-game press conference where he got choked up at the end. Kevin goes through the Skins' remaining long-shot playoff scenarios and touches on the Ravens' lights-out defensive performance in their win over the Chargers. <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. All right, I'm here. Aaron's here. This show's presented by Window Nation. Call 86690 Nation or visit Windonation.com. We're in here very early, very early on Sunday morning recording this podcast. J.P. Finley's going to join us from NBC Sports, Washington. He's down in Nashville, having a very late dinner. but he's going to call us from there when he gets a moment. Look, the Redskins just played one of the best games they've played all year long. Maybe it's not the best game they've played because they've won some games and they've looked impressive in a few games. But I thought this was one of their best games all year long. They lost the game. And in a bottom line league, they lost.

And in a few months, it'll be remembered mostly because it was a loss. but it had a chance to be so much more. It had a chance to be one of the more memorable and improbable wins in recent franchise history. But it wasn't. It wasn't. But if you watched that team yesterday, knowing what they had out there in terms of players, their fourth quarterback, offensive guards who had replaced offensive guards, who had replaced the second string offensive guards, I don't know how many guards they've had this season.

But it seems like Brandon Sheriff and Sean LaValle was like two years ago at this point. Yesterday they were without their two top tight ends. For that matter, really as a practical matter, their two best pass-catching threats in Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis. You knew Reed was going to be out, but Vernon Davis ended up being out. So was Mo Harris. And it looked like Josh Doxon was going to be out, but he was active for the game. Thankfully, they had guys called up for that game yesterday with names and George. Jersey numbers, none of you, including me, had heard of. They are the most injured team in the

league this year, and they were on the road against a team that had to win. They were huge underdogs. Aaron, they went off as an 11-point dog at kickoff, and I went and looked at this early in the game. It was the biggest underdog. The Redskins have been in three years. 2015, they were a 13-and-a-half-point underdog in Foxborough against the Patriots. That was the last time they were a double-digit dog of any sort. So this was the biggest and most insurmountable odds from a Vegas standpoint, a point spread standpoint, that they have faced in three years. Yet that team yesterday with several players playing in the game that nobody had heard of, all right? Few, including me, were giving them a chance to win this game. That team was so much different than even the team a week ago in Jacksonville,

and obviously much different than the team two weeks ago that got blown out by the Giants. The Redskins lost the game, but in context, they played impressively. Not that they were great, but the way they played under those circumstances, I was impressed, in so many ways impressed. There were some things that they will regret about this game. there are mischances in the game that would have impacted the final result, and we'll get to those. Jay Gruden said they didn't make enough plays after the game. That's true. They didn't. They also made many plays in the game that gave them a legitimate chance late into the fourth quarter to win it.

It was a brutal, brutal loss, the kind of loss that stings because you didn't expect it to be that kind of loss. I didn't. Most of you didn't. You expected them to not be as competitive as they were, to not have a chance. Most people were. Look, they're not out of it. Later on today, the results could eliminate them. We'll get to that. But Minnesota, Philadelphia, Seattle, you know, you've got a route for Houston beating Philadelphia is huge tomorrow. as much as Minnesota and Seattle, Philly now owns the 8-and-8 tiebreaker against the Redskins. So you need them to finish 7 and 9.

We'll worry about that this week, but for now, I want to get to the Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right, a lot of things you had to like from this game, and a lot of things that perhaps really limited the opportunities they had to win the game, really impacted their chances to win the game.

But not a lot of things. A few key plays here and there, a few opportunities. I want to start with the good. Adrian Peterson had his best game of the year, bar none. Bar none. 119 yards on 26 carries. He was quick, he was decisive, his cuts were incredible, and he was powerful.

He was trying to will the team to a, win by himself. He had some help, but he was the alpha dog today. No debate on that. He was a super badass today, a Hall of Fame player today trying to carry his depleted team to a win to keep the playoff hopes alive. The only thing you could say about his day is that he didn't break the big one. He didn't break a long one, but it sure seemed like he was close on a couple of him. He was truly great yesterday, Adrian Peterson was. Early on, you could tell too, he wanted to carry this team to the playoffs by himself. The 119 yards puts him over 1,000 on the season, first time for him since 2015. He's the 12th player now in NFL history with eight or more seasons

with 1,000 yards rushing, and he passed Eric Dickerson on the all-time rushing yards. list, rushing yardage list, that is, moving into eighth place on that list. At 33, he is still a physical freak, and any thought that he would wear down during the course of the year was answered yesterday. Emphatically no, he wasn't wearing down. Do you sign him and bring him back? I don't know that they will. They've got geis. Gice is coming off at torn ACL and then complications following that surgery. So AP should be an option. I'm not sure what he's going to cost.

I don't know that at 34 years old, despite the season that he's had, that there's going to be like this substantial market for him. Maybe they can keep him. He's had a great year. He's one of the reasons they've won seven games. He's a big reason why they've won seven, and that they had a chance to really see.

stay in the playoff hunt into week 16. By the way, quick note on this one, thank Doug Williams for this. Remember, it was Doug Williams who decided not to ask for permission, but to beg for forgiveness. If he had asked for permission, the dumb-dums above them would have said,

no, don't bring him in. And there were a lot of reasons to consider that. Being fair, there were a lot of reasons why an organization would have considered or debated whether or not to bring in Adrian Peterson in August. Doug Williams decided not to ask because he knew he needed a running back, and Adrian Peterson was the best running back they've had since Alfred Morris in terms of production.

On my good list, the quarterback, Josh Johnson. I'll start with this. How about his poise? Like, it was noticeable last week, but it's Jacksonville. this is at Tennessee, a team that's got a win to stay in the playoff race with a very good defense, and Jacksonville's got a good defense too. But like last week, did he ever look rattled even once? Not once.

The interception was unfortunate. I've watched it five times. I'm not sure what happened. The one thing you notice more than anything else about that play is that the corner blitz hurried him a little bit. Did Doxon slow down? I don't know. It's not a great throw. It's a hurried throw. But that one bad throw was basically the only bad play of the night for him. Look, bottom line, and it's been this way all year long, this team just wasn't built offensively or as a team to overcome a minus turnover margin.

they just couldn't do it at any point this year. I mean, they may have lost the game with an even turnover margin, but they couldn't afford that one turnover. It's a shame because there's a part of that drive that I'm going to be a little bit critical of here shortly that may have kept him out of that position of having to make that kind of throw. But that turnover clearly costs them a chance at overtime, and with overtime, perhaps a chance to win.

Just one crucial mistake on the day for him, just one. He wasn't perfect, all right? He wasn't great. He wasn't even really good, but he was good, and he was certainly good enough for the most part to win the game. He made a ton of throws in this game. The third and six to Crowder on the opening drive for 30 yards. The third and 14 to Doxon on that incredible second quarter drive,

more on that drive coming up shortly. But what a throw that was. He extended the play on that third and 14 and made the throw to Doxon. There was the second and nine later in that drive to Sprinkle and then the perfect throw to Michael Floyd for the touchdown on the swing pass. He had a third and seven to Doxon for a first down

on the drive that ended in field goal in the third quarter that gave him a 13 to 9 lead. And then later in that drive, he had a second and five throw to Crowder for 19 yards. He made a really good run out of shotgun on 3rd and 1 on that quarterback sweep with Trent Williams out leading the way, and he had a beautiful, you know, scramble, you know, short, flushed out of the pocket, moving out of the pocket, check down throw to Chris Thompson on 3rd and 5 on that drive that gave them another field goal and the 16 to 12 lead.

He took a sack back on the 2-yard line before that super, you know, in the midst of that, you know, in the midst of that long drive that created that second and 27 on the two-yard line, I thought there was perhaps a chance for him to avoid that sack or at least throw the ball away, but it wasn't going to be easy for him to do it. He wasn't perfect, you know, but he gave them more mobility and playmaking ability from that position than any quarterback has given them this year. That's true. More mobility, more playmaking ability than any quarterback we've seen,

on this team this year. He's got a good lively arm. He knows how to play the position. He's athletic. He's dual threat when you need him to be. Now, I don't know why he hasn't stuck with any of the other 12 teams he's played for over his career at 32 years old. I'm sure there's a good reason. But what we've seen the last two weeks is an indication that this dude should have been employed by somebody in the NFL, rather than getting ready for some second-rate football endeavor in San Diego. I'm not saying as a starter, but this guy should have been a backup somewhere.

I will say this, with respect to all of the conversation about Kaepernick, I think Josh Johnson, the last two weeks, has made Jay Gruden look right for making the decision on him. Sanchez is another situation, and I bet one of Jay Gruden's regrets right now is, having not signed Josh Johnson to begin with when he signed Sanchez to back up Colt. I mean, seriously, what in God's name were they looking at? I mean, Sanchez, look, he looks the part, he talks the part.

Sanchez couldn't have been that good in practice going into the giant game with the way he looked. Look, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make Josh Johnson out to be John Elway, all right? but he's clearly based on anyone who has a set of working eyes is a hell of a lot better than Mark Sanchez. Now, do you bring him back when this season is over? Is he a better option than Colt McCoy to start 2019 if Alex Smith isn't ready? And if they decide not to draft somebody early, I think if Jay Gruden comes back, and we'll have plenty of time to talk about that in the coming weeks, But I think if Jay Gruden's back, he'll consider it.

Jay Gruden got choked up in the press conference talking about Josh Johnson and the fact that that interception really unfortunately, he hopes, doesn't make people forget about the way he played today. Good for Josh Johnson. It's easy to root for him. He played okay last week. He played very well yesterday. On the good list.

Jay Gruden's offensive game plan and his play calling in this game. I thought Gruden did a great job offensively with Johnson. First of all, he was aggressive very early in the game. He took some shots. Now, they didn't connect on that long one to Doxon, all right? But that long shot to Doxon was an attempt early to get Tennessee out of that loaded box because if they were going to run it, it was going to be hard to run it against 8 or 9. 9. So he got aggressive early, missed on the deep shot to Doxon, but hit on the big one to Crowder.

On the 3rd and 6, he let Johnson play early, and Johnson delivered with that throw to Crowder. Play calling looks good when you're running backs getting 4.6 yards per carry, and you keep feeding him. But look at the drives going back to last week in the second half. They have controlled the clock and the ball now for six quarters. In the second half against Jacksonville, they had four drives and scored on three of them, long drives. Then this week, eight for 14 on third down they were yesterday. Eight for 14, mostly because Jay Gruden got them into good down and distance situations. Not always because of the penalties, right?

They obviously overcame the second and 27 from their own two-yard line, but they converted four third and ones in the game. Four. They had four third and ones that they converted. Now, they didn't convert that first one when they were about to go forward on fourth and one and then got the penalty. Now, that was another example of Gruden saying, I'm going to be aggressive today.

I love that part of it. But they converted four third down and ones. Nothing out of their eight third down conversions, four of them were third and one. That is staying ahead of the chains for the most part, which is what Gruden did with his play calling and with his running back. The skins in their last two games with Josh Johnson and a skeleton staff on offense, they've converted 15 of 29 on 3rd down. 7 of 15 last week, 8 of 14 yesterday, that's 51.7% on 3rd down over the last two weeks

against pretty damn good defenses with Josh Johnson. I also thought that Jay Gruden didn't let some of his past play-calling tendencies get in the way of good judgment. Listen to this. By my count, Aaron, listen to this one. He called run plays on 21 of the 23 first downs he had in the game before that very final drive with 14 seconds left. 23 first down plays before that final drive with 14 seconds left, 23 first down plays, 21 runs.

One of the throws was because he was first and 15 after a false start. The other one was on the drive after the two-minute warning at the end of the game. Many of those runs, quarterback under center, Peterson getting downhill as quickly as possible. I have one criticism of Jay from yesterday. One, I don't know why he took Adrian Peterson out of the game with two and a half minutes to go in a first down at the 49-yard line. I don't... Let me just mention this.

A lot of you were critical of the pace on that drive. The drive down 1916 after Tennessee had taken the lead. You didn't like the pace. You wanted them to go for the win and go down and drive and try to get a touchdown and win the game. It's not the way I was thinking in the moment. I wanted him to call his offense. Four and a half minutes to go to start that drive.

They had been balanced, and actually not even balanced. They were run heavy. And Adrian Peterson was getting four and a half to five yards per carry. They had a chance with their base offense and that much time to get into field goal range and force overtime. And with Blaine Gabbard quarterbacking on the other side, and I know he had just led a big touchdown drive, but I would have preferred to take my shot with overtime,

especially knowing that Dustin Hopkins hasn't missed anything here recently. You only had to get the ball to about their 35-yard line. And if you had gotten a big play out of the run game or out of your balanced attack, and it had put them in position to really go for the touchdown, fine. I did not have a problem with the pace or for the lack of a better description, playing for the field goal. I thought that was fine.

What I didn't like is I didn't like him pulling Adrian Peterson out of the game with two and a half minutes to go and going with Thompson. And I thought Chris Thompson was fine yesterday. I would have fed Adrian Peterson on first and ten with two and a half minutes to go at the 49-yard line. I would have fed him again. Five yards. You're at their 45-yard line, 46-yard line. You're at the two-minute warning, second and five.

stay ahead of the chains. They were first in 10 from their own 49 with 231 to go, and they went shotgun with Peterson out of the game and put Chris Thompson in and ran Thompson for two yards and then let the clock go down to the two-minute warning. Again, I didn't have a problem with that. I'm thinking field goal. I'll take the overtime there.

If you get a play and you're in position to go for the win, fine. But it's Josh Johnson and his second start. clearly your best way of moving the football yesterday was running the football and staying, you know, a little bit unpredictable with run pass. And he pulled him out of the game. That was my only criticism of Jay, though. My only criticism of Jay. I thought Jay had, in all seriousness, one of the best days of coaching since he has been in Washington. That may seem like an exaggeration, but Jay Gruden, I thought, had one of his best days.

I think some might argue his best day when you consider the condition of that team heading into that game. I thought he was outstanding today. His team was ready to play the big picture stuff, the macro stuff. The team was ready to play with players that had to introduce themselves to each other all week long and yesterday. and I thought it was one of his better play-calling games of his time in Washington as the head coach. On the good list, I just mentioned it, their third down offense. Eight for 14, they were four for six in the first half. Look, they only had eight drives in the game, and the eighth one was that final one with 14 seconds.

You know, it was a weird game in that it was a super short game. The game was over. I think the final time is going to be about two hours, 47 minutes somewhere around there. Because the game started at 4.30 and it was over at 716 or 717, something like that, PM. It was a super fast game. That's what you'll have when you've got two teams running the football and moving the chains. But their third down offense was great. The drive of the year is on this list. It wasn't the longest drive of the year in the NFL. It was the second longest drive of the year in the NFL. 17 plays, 93 yards, 10 minutes and 58 seconds to take a 10 to 6 lead.

They actually had 19 snaps in total because they had two penalties against them. And they actually had to cover after the sack to Josh Johnson back at the two yard line, 98 yards. officially though, 17 plays 93 yards, 10 minutes 58 seconds, and did anybody, did anybody think when he got sacked, and they were second and 27 from their two-yard line, that they would end up with a first down? Adrian Peterson ripped off a big run, and then Josh Johnson completed a third and 14 for the first down. incredible. It was really an incredible change in momentum.

You're down 6-3, you're staring punt or safety potentially in the face, and the punt's going to be fielded at the 50 or their own 40, and Adory Jackson's probably going to return it into Redskins territory, and Tennessee's probably going to go up at least 9 to 3, if not 13 to 3. and instead from second and 27, they convert in two plays and they finish it off with a couple of big plays by Josh Johnson and a really good touchdown pass to Michael Floyd.

What a drive. When they finish that drive and they were up 10 to 6, I thought they were going to win the game. I certainly thought they were going to have a really good chance to win that game. Dustin Hopkins is on the good list. has Dustin Hopkins been here recently? You know, this guy missed a lot of big kicks in 2016, missed some big kicks in 2017 as well.

This year, Dustin Hopkins right now on the season, and you really got to look at what he's done here in the last few weeks, but on the season now, 26 of 29 on field goals. and he is made now his last nine, nine for nine. And in the game yesterday, he had the 50-yarder to start it off. Then he had a 40-yarder, and then he kicked a 46-yarder. There was no doubt that Nat Park yesterday, driving at the end, I felt like if they got to the 35-37-yard line,

the game was going to be tied. Dustin Hopkins, another good day. I thought Jameson Crowder was outstanding yesterday. And think about this, what if they didn't have Crowder yesterday with the receivers they had out there? I think all of their receivers played pretty well. You know, all of them, Michael Floyd had the big drop, and I'll get to some of the missed opportunities, had the big drop that potentially could have, it would have moved the sticks and potentially could have resulted in a touchdown on a drive that resulted in a field goal. But I thought Crowder was really good.

Five catches, 78 yards, was really quick, looked healthy, looked real healthy for the first time this year. Remember Cooley on Friday? Talked about Matt Flanagan. He gave you that, you know, that fantasy game winning play at 9 to 9 where Matt Flanagan and DJ Holtz and a bunch of dudes out there that you've never heard of made plays. Matt Flanagan's number 88. And I'm going to say, I'm going to repeat what Cooley said on Friday with emphasis, now that you've seen it and I've seen it. He's the best blocking tight end they've had here in a few years, and it's not close.

Cooley told us on Friday, he said, he's their best tight end. I go, what do you mean he's the best tight end? No, he's the best tight end they have. And Cooley, I talked to him late last night, and he said, Flanagan is better than anybody they've had. He said, you can argue Jordan Reed, but Jordan Reed is just, a receiver. Flanagan's easily their best blocking tight end. The tight ends blocked their asses off. Flanagan in particular, and it's one of the reasons Peterson had a big day.

A couple of other players real quickly on this good list. John Allen was dominant. He's become their best, I don't know, maybe it's Trent Williams, but John Allen's a close second in terms of their best pound-for-pound football player on the team. He had his eighth sack at a year. He had pressures. He was outstanding. Duran Payne was outstanding in the game. I thought Sean Dionne Hamilton, I'm naming all the Bama guys now. I thought Sean Dion Hamilton was really, really good. And I think we're starting to see why they drafted this guy, despite the injuries that he had at Bama. And we heard when they drafted him that they thought he was a much higher pick potentially with good health. he looks the part to me, man. He looks better than anything they've had inside talent-wise. I still like Zach Brown's speed. And then there's Mason Foster. After all the stuff with Mason Foster here recently, and all the criticism of his play, this may have been one of his best games of the year. He was outstanding. Had the sack on the blitz pressure. I don't know if it was a blitz or whether or not he had Dionne Lewis,

responsibilities and when Lewis stayed in, he went. I don't know how that worked on that particular play, but I thought Mason Foster was outstanding in the game yesterday. That's pretty much the good list. There was a lot there. There's a lot good in the game. Let me get to the things I didn't like. Look, the missed opportunities in the game yesterday really cost them. Last week, they got every break and they converted on all of those plays that should have gone the other way, but they made go their way, like the deflection to Crowder in the game last week. That was pretty much a game saving or a game impacting play. The deflection at the end on the Cody Kessler throw that Moreau picks off, that gives them great field position and allows them to go short distance for

field goal range. Well, yesterday you had missed opportunities. First of all, how many missed sacks? How many escapes did Marietta have? McPhee, Alan, Carrigan. Those were missed opportunities to get him down to stop that drive, that first drive of theirs that ended up in a touchdown. They also had the deep shot to Doxon. Look, Doxon had a step on defenders. You know, Johnson, if he makes that play,

imagine the second play of the game is a 77-yard touchdown pass. The fourth and one opportunity, when they were going to go for it deep in their own territory, What was that? The second drive of the game, I believe, was the second drive of the game for the Redskins. They had the field goal in the first drive. The second drive of the game was a third and one that got stopped. It was the only third and one that they didn't convert. And they had a fourth and one from their own 34, 35 yard line, and they were going to go for it. But some dude named Tim Paris jumped.

I mean, they had Paris in there, Fuller in there. Zach Karen got hurt. He came back in. they are really like on their 10th or 11th set of guards this year. So the fourth and one was, you know, it was an opportunity. With the way they were running the football, they may have gotten it. That may have been another drive for them. They only had two, three and outs in the entire game. Now, again, they only had eight drives in the game, scored on four of them.

Last week in the second half, four drives scored on three of them. And then there was the Michael Floyd drop and the Ha Ha Clinton Dix missed interception opportunity. The Clinton Dix missed opportunity on the interception was really crushing because it's a third and eight play. This is the Titans' third drive of the second half. They're down 13 to 9 and it goes right through Clinton Dix's hands and right into the hands of Jennings for a first down. And that was a drive that ended up in Tennessee points. They kicked a field goal on that drive to make it 13 to 12. But that opportunity on that third down play that they converted on was crushing.

Because remember this too. If you get that interception, that interception is at about the 25-yard line. You might get a little bit of a return. You might have some field position after that. and you're up 13 to 9, Clinton Dix has to make that play right through his hands. And Michael Floyd's drop, that was really crushing as well,

because you've got a second and seven at the Tennessee 22-yard line. It's 13 to 9. I'm sorry, it's 10 to 9 at that point. You've got a chance to extend that lead to 8 and make that missed extra point painful for Tennessee, and Floyd's right there at the eight-yard line with a catch that would have given them them first and goal to go, and he dropped it. He's got an odd way of catching the football,

an odd way of trying to catch the football. It's like he closes his hands right before the ball arrives, instead of opening his hands. Remember he had a big drop in the Tampa game, too. They won that game though. But that's been his problem. Big problem with Michael Floyd has been staying in shape and not catching balls. But that was a big missed opportunity, both of them. The penalties weren't good yesterday, but I'm going to tell you what about the penalties. I don't really blame Jay for this stuff. When you've got that many new players offensively, they ended

up with eight penalties for 49 yards. I think they had six in the first half. Hold on. I have my, It was six in the first half, six for 39 yards, and it hurt them. It impacted them. But you got Fuller in the game and Paris in the game, and you got guys that just haven't been in your system. You got a quarterback with different cadence. I don't know how you stop that. I don't know how you play a clean game with that many new players. When all was said and done, it was eight penalties for 49 yards.

Now they declined, I think two of them, so there were 10 called on the Redskins. You put it on the list of things you didn't like, but if you're being reasonable, and I know they've been the most penalized team in the league, I get that. So penalties have been an issue all year long. I think last week and this week, you really have to give them at least a partial pass for it. I didn't like that they didn't get enough pressure on Blaine Gabbard. They got a lot of pressure on Marriota when he was in the game. I didn't think they got enough pressure on Marietta,

and that leads me to this. The coverage wasn't great really at any point during the game, and the weakness defensively has been the secondary. Now, they went through that long stretch of not being able to stop the run, and Derek Henry had some big runs yesterday in the game. Henry ended up 21 carries 8. 84 yards, 4 yards of carry. He didn't have the kind of day he had the last two weeks,

and they did a pretty good job with him, and I thought they were really physical with him, and they went low consistently trying to take his legs out. But the coverage wasn't great. Marriota completed some passes when he had time. That's why I thought the pressure in the first half, that was able to get them off the field, you know, a couple of times. The Moreau penalty was costly,

but it was also very questionable in my opinion. I don't even know what that penalty is anymore. There's no consistency to the call, game to game, even play to play. He had his hands on the receiver. I didn't think he grabbed him. I don't think he really tugged the jersey, which we see a lot get called. There was some hands there.

But we've seen what Moreau did on that play a hundred times in the last month alone and not seen it called. and we've seen it called before. Both. So have at it if you hate it. I hated it. But this call one way or the other, man,

seems to impact so many of these games. These third-down conversions on really ticky-tack, defensive holding or illegal contact calls. I didn't like the call. Few other observations. First of all, their punter was really good. Kern.

punt there at the end was a killer, you know, it's out at the 15-yard line. You know, you're hoping in that spot after, you know, they don't get the first down. I'm talking about at the very end. You know, I'm still, even after that interception, the game wasn't over at that point. You know, they punted it with 21 seconds left. You know, he's standing back at his own 18-yard line when he punts the football, or his own 20-yard line, somewhere around there. So if you get, you know, if you get Crowder, and it was Crowder returning punts,

If you get Crowder to catch it on the run after a heavy rush and he tries to kick it quickly, you know, you might get a play and then a long, long field goaler attempt, or maybe even a Hail Mary. That dude punted it 50 yards out of bounds at the Redskins 15-yard line. It's a hell of a pun. I thought he was really good in the game, and he's a pro bowler. Matt Ionitis got hurt during the game. help him. I thought Chris Thompson, I said this last week. I thought Thompson, even though the

numbers weren't there last week, I saw some signs of him playing with more abandoned, which is a sign that he was healthy, and I thought he looked healthy yesterday. You know, Thompson, healthy, it really shows you what they miss when he's not there. How about what happened at the end of the first half with Tennessee? So Tennessee is on the move, right down 10 to 6. Moriota gets sacked by Allen and he's hurt on the play. There's about 55 seconds to go when he got hurt, I think. 50 seconds, somewhere around there. Call it 50.

I think that's, I'm within a few seconds. And they're at the Redskins. You know, after the sack, they're still at the 21-yard line of Washington with 50 seconds to go. Gabbard comes in. They run the ball for two yards. and then they're not going to try to score a touchdown with Blaine Gabbard there. They had two timeouts left, but they decided when Marietta went out

that even at the Redskins 21, and I think it was a second in 18 or second and 17 after the sack, they just decided, Rebel did, we're playing for the field goal. We're not having Gabbard drop back and try to throw one into the end zone, or even try to just get a first down. They had two timeouts left. They had plenty of time at the Redskin 21-yard line to get a touchdown or to go for the touchdown.

They played for the field goal, and then they nearly made a catastrophic mistake. When they decided not to go for the touchdown and to play for the field goal, they still had Gabbard line up on whatever it was, third and 15 or something like that at the Redskins 20-yard line and run a play. Well, he's flushed and he steps up in the pocket. Now all of a sudden the clock's ticking down. And I'm like, if he gets out of that and he starts to run with this thing, the clock's going to run out on Tennessee. It was a terrible job by Vrable and Gabbard, for that matter.

Now, the clock didn't run out. They got the time out and they were able to kick the field goal and go in 10 to 9. But man, that was close. They played that too close. I mean, you should have called your second time out after the second down play. All right. And if you wanted to run some clock and not leave the Redskins with anything, I mean, at that point, you'd seen enough of the Redskins last weekend,

even in the first half to know that if they take over from their own 25-yard line with 25 seconds to go, they're not going for it. They're taking that into the locker room. But they did get the field goal off and Ryan suck up who had missed the P.A. made the field goal and it was 10 to 9. All right, I want to get to the DJs Sweringer stuff and the John Allen stuff and the Josh Norman and Taylor Luan stuff. That was Luan at the end of the game going over to Josh Norman

who took forever to leave the bench when the game ended. He was dejected beyond belief. The rest of the team is essentially in the locker. room. He's still on the bench. And, you know, one of the better players in this league went over and apparently had an issue with Norman going low on Henry and thought there were a couple of dirty plays by Norman. I thought Norman actually came up and made some great plays on Henry. You've got to go low on Henry. You've got to go for legs and knees. He came over and he gave Josh Norman a get-the-hell out of our stadium and that

and gave Josh Norman the bow and arrow. Norman went after him. There was a bit of a scuffle. Low-rent stuff, though, from Tennessee. Then we get into DJ Sweringer. DJ Sweringer and John Allen's follow-up tweet. Let's start with D.J. Swaranger. First of all, his criticism of Greg Mniewski in the locker room,

I'm going to play here in a moment, but I want to set it up because he talks about a lot of different things. And specifically what he's upset about is the defensive scheme and play calling. And he'll talk about a couple of plays in particular. But DJ Sweringer believes that they should have been in straight zone coverage against Blaine Gabbard, that playing as much man coverage as they did gave Blaine Gabbard a chance to succeed and put Fabian Moreau on that third down into a tough position. But he really goes after Greg Minusky here, his defensive coordinator.

Listen to what he said in the locker room. You know, I think with the playmakers we got on defense, man, there's no way we should have lost this game. It felt like we was the better team. And I felt like we could have been in a better call on that third down, man, just been 100. in that type of situation, man, you got a backup quarterback, bro. I wouldn't call man-in-man-and-and-make-it-he had to practice all week. So the skies the zone and let him throw the ball right to us. He just had to throw the ball right to us on the third down before that.

We just didn't make the play. That's what I say. You know, we didn't make the plays, you know, that we needed to. But, of course, you know, in this crash time, bro, put us in somewhere where we can make a play, bro. Don't put us in man-in-man where, you know, it's easy for the quarterback. Man, that's too easy for the quarterback. Man, you got a young guy like Fab. And, man, regardless if he did a PR or not, you know, bad call or not, man, put us in somewhere we can just see the quarterback and get out the field.

If I'm the decontoriting, I'm calling zone every time on third down because you got to back up quarterback. Make him beat us. Make him, okay, zone, go here. And we go pick you off. He's, man, three by one, we're going backside every time. A kindergarten quarterback can know that, man, you know? So I've watched my frustration every single time I come off the field. I'm a very smart football player.

I probably watch more than the coach. And that's 100. That's probably documented, you know. But, you know, I try to get my insight, but, you know, it doesn't work. So I can only put my heart in this shit. Put my heart in this and just give them what I can give them. You know, whether they take it or not, you know, that's another thing. That's where the frustration comes in at.

So there you go. You've got DJ Sweringer after a very difficult, loss and a stinging, you know, loss, a brutal loss, a loss that more likely than not has ended the Redskins season and eliminated them from the playoffs. They may not be eliminated by the end of the day today, later on today, but their chances of making the playoffs are now slim and none. But Sweringer, who has been mouthey at times all year, has also, you know, said at times, look, put it on us, put it on the defense, we can carry this team. And it didn't carry this team when this losing streak started. The Redskins now have lost five of their last six, and the

defense has been a major culprit in a lot of those losses. But you cannot do what he did. You cannot do it. He is a veteran. We thought he was one of the leaders. I'm going to read to you what John Allen tweeted out here in a moment, but DJ Sweringer in an organization that has accountability and structure and discipline, he would be at a minimum benched for the finale. I don't know if you cut him. I think some organizations would consider it when the year was over. you'd actually have some cap savings in 2019. You also don't have any safeties on this team either,

and Sweringer's talented. But he went off on the defensive coordinator. I don't think he's the only one that has had an issue with Greg Minnusky, and if I had to predict one thing as definitive, while others are more 50-50 to maybe a little bit more than 50-50 with Bruce, and maybe now Jay's 50-50. Maybe Jay may be coming back now after these last two games.

But I would say definitively, the Redskins will have a new defensive coordinator next year. I don't think anybody's pleased with Minnowski. Jay now, if he gets rid of Minusckey and he comes back, that will be defensive coordinator number four. He'll be on, right? Because we were Hazlitt, Barry,

Manusky, he'll be on. number four next year. Now there's a good chance some of these head coaches who are defensive-minded may be available, and we've already talked about Todd Bowles in the past. I would do Todd Bowles in a heartbeat if he's available. I'd think about Todd Bowles as a head coach. No one else would, but I think Todd Bowles is very impressive. I just think that they've had some bad talent and some bad luck, and they haven't had a quarterback, but I think he's got one now in Darnold. he may, if I'd keep bulls if I were the Jets, but if he becomes available, he's my number one go-to if Gruden's coming back. For two reasons. One, he's a great defensive coordinator and mind. Two, you've got a head coach now on your staff, a legitimate head coach on your staff if you decide at some point next year to move on from Gruden.

Sweringer's got to be disciplined for that. You cannot do what he did. in a locker room. And I know there are high emotions and it was a devastating loss. But if this were the first time, then you give them some leeway. There have been too many moments this year where I think everybody there would have preferred for DJ to keep his mouth shut. And here's the thing about zone versus man coverage. They've got Blaine Gabbert at quarterback. Blaine Gabbart, and I tweeted this out at halftime. Went 16 of 41 against the Redskins last year when he came in here with Arizona. And when he came in that game and they didn't even try to score a touchdown at the end of the first half, I tweeted out that if Marriota doesn't come back, the Redskins are coming home eight and

seven. Because I've seen Gabbert. He's awful. So with respect to Zone versus Man, you know, they don't have, I like Corey Davis a lot. I think he's actually really good. But it's not like they've got this incredible group of receivers. Just cover them. It's playing Gabbard for crying out loud. Play the defense that's called. I think they should have gotten more pressure defensively in the second half on Gabbard. That would have been my one criticism. Look, he only threw 11 times between the end of the first half and in the second half. They were balanced. You know, they ran, they only had 52 plays in the game. The Redskins once again won the time of possession battle like they did last week.

But I think there should be some discipline for DJ Swaranger. You can't cut your nose off despite your face because you don't have any safeties. So somebody that wants to be super hard ass and just say enough, we're changing the tune of this franchise, we're not putting up with this bullshit anymore, and you want to cut him, that's fine. The problem is, is you don't have anybody at safety next year. Sweringer is a good player. He is a good player.

He misses some plays. They all do in the secondary. But he's a pretty good player. And you have him under contract, I believe, for one more year. I think he signed that three years. It was like a three-year deal. And I want to say, I don't know, $14 million a year, $13 million a year, something like that. If my memory serves me correctly.

So if it was right around 13, so he's somewhere in the neighborhood of four and a half a year. The signing bonus was probably seven or eight somewhere like that. So I'm just going to guess, I don't have this in front of me. I'm going to guess that there would be a cap savings if you weren't on the team next year. Yeah, it looks like it would be a dead cap penalty of $1.3 million. What's his base salary? What was it?

Base salary is $4.25 in 2019. Okay, so there you go. So it was a $12 to $13 million deal somewhere in that neighborhood for three years. It's a three-year deal, right? Three year, 13.5. Okay. So, I don't know. I mean, we don't know who's coming back.

We don't know who the defensive coordinator is going to be. All of that will get sorted out. But you know what? If they want to make a statement about this organization and a new day, perhaps, in this organization, you sit him in that Philadelphia game. You cannot allow one of your supposed better players and leaders to throw one of the coaches under the bus publicly

in front of the media after a loss like that. That was inexcusable. Here was John Allen's tweet. John Allen, after hearing about clearly, after hearing about DJ Swaranger going off on Greg Minusky, John Allen tweeted the following, quote, Greg coached a great game, closed quote. What is that something?

that says his own teammate and the best player on the defensive side of the ball, arguably the best player on the team, and a leader on this team said, shut the F up. Minnowski coached a great game. And you know what would be really ironic? Is if John Allen didn't think Greg Minoski was a great defensive coordinator. But he knows better.

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86690 Nation or WindowNation.com. That's 8669Nation or shopwindonation.com. Tell them, I sent you. Let's bring in JP Finley from NBC Sports Washington. He's still down in Nashville. And, you know, I talked about this being, you know, JP, one of the more inspiring efforts from this team in a long, long time. and I actually said this, and I may have exaggerated this to a point,

but I actually believe that this was one of Jay Gruden's finest moments as the head coach of this football team. Is that too much of an exaggeration? Kevin, I'm with you, man. And, you know, on my podcast, we had a conversation where it's like, it's really hard to kind of blame anybody. And I think a big part of it is that the Josh Johnson's story is just such a great one that you tend to root for the guy.

And I think whether or not we're supposed to, I will confess that I kind of got caught up in that just because he's such a nice, engaging guy, and the story is just so remarkable. I think Jay Gruden did a great job, play calling, maybe until that last drive where they got a little casual with the clock, AP maybe should have been on the field. but the only question is they did lose to a team in a playoff situation with Blaine Gabbard, a quarterback. You know, both these teams had to win, and Blaine Gabbard was able to go get the win. You'd like to think your defense could get a stop late in that game. But I think offensively, what they did, you know, there are losses where you can talk about effort and preparation and was the team focused, but not to

one. I don't think that was the case at all on Saturday. I had less of an issue with the playing for the field goal. If that's indeed what he was doing, I mean, I think that's the reaction that everybody had. I was less critical of that. I did not have a problem with that. I think getting into overtime was your first goal and moving the football, running your normal offense was the way to get there. But I agree with you. I don't know why Adrian Peterson left the game with two and a half minutes to go. I would have kept him in there. You know what?

It sounds crazy, but I think there are chances of scoring a touchdown with him in there in breaking a big run, maybe not for the distance, but getting him into striking range. Absolutely. He was so close on so many of them. That was his best game as a Redskin.

What Peterson did was crazy. I mean, and he didn't really break a long one and still went for one. That's right. I mean, the way he was cutting, the jump cuts, the spin moves, I mean, Peterson was just very, he was really impressive. A lot, there have been flashes of, oh, that's the old AP. Today was, like, actually him for the whole game. It was an amazing performance by him.

It was his best day of the year, and it's one of those days where we walk away from it, thinking a lot of different things like Jay Gruden's future after the last two weeks. Josh Johnson's availability to be re-signed. Adrian Peterson, all of that stuff will come more likely than not after next week unless they're eliminated later today, which is a possibility. But I just thought that Peterson and Johnson and Gruden, just they gave, you know, with a skeleton staff, essentially gave him an incredible opportunity to win the game today. Totally agree. And it was one that stinks because you hate –

Oh, yeah. You hate for Josh Johnson to throw that pick. And I said this on my podcast. We have seen game-ending interceptions before, but this one just – it felt like it hurt differently. It just felt different. Specifics. On that play, we'll start there.

Was there any conversation about – about whether or not Doxon slowed down a little bit, whose fault that was on that pick? Did he rush it because of the corner blitz? What was the takeaway you got on that play if you got anything in the locker room at all? So there was, but I didn't really get to hear it. Gruden talked about it,

but I wasn't in with Gruden because I was doing TV stuff. And then Doxon even did a media scrub, which he rarely ever does. And I didn't get to be in that, because I was in with DJ Sweringer and kind of run it around. So I don't have a precise answer. Gruden's answer would be the best. I think Gruden said it wasn't the wrong route.

I honestly don't know. My guess is that Josh sailed that football a little bit. And, you know, the knock on him is that he doesn't have the most accurate arm. You see it in warmups. You see it. He's got a cannon, and sometimes I think he just gets too much on the ball. And that's kind of my. take on it, but I got to go back and watch it.

What about the hold on Moreau? Did people have a problem with that? Before we get to the DJ Sweringer comments, which we'll get to, but I thought, J.P., I thought that was one of those that really was tickey tack from my standpoint, watching it on television. What's crazy is live in the stadium, it seemed like an obvious call to me, because you saw the tug on the jersey. Like, I saw that live in full game speed.

Now, once I watched it again later, you wonder, hey, I'm not sure you have to call that. That's pretty tough. In that situation, on a third down, when the defense is getting off the field. But live as it happened, I wasn't surprised by the player. Yeah, I mean, I don't even, I don't think I saw the tug. I mean, on every replay, there wasn't, there was some contact there. There's no doubt there was some contact, but it was. And that's what's crazy is.

in game feed it just looks different. And that might be what the rest are seeing too. All right. Let's get to DJ Swaranger and then also the John Allen follow-up tweet. Sweringer ripped Minnowski in post-game, said that they shouldn't have been in man coverage. They should have been in zone coverage against Blaine Gabbard. And that he, I mean, these were harshly critical comments

from DJ Swarindger after the game. And then John Allen follows up with tweet paraphrasing Greg Minoski called a great game give me your takeaway who you talk to and what Swaranger was I mean I'm hoping for

some sort of repercussion to that criticism of a coach after a game for him I think there's a lot here right I do think the skin should have mixed some things up on Gabbard

I think they probably should have been more aggressive for me, I think you go after the quarterback. You know who's a really aggressive blitzer because he has crazy speed and they just don't do it? Is Zach Brown? I think that's a situation where maybe you try to rely on him. All of that said, DJ has a history now of calling out teammates, coaches, players, and his comments went over the line. I mean, just because they were so pointed, you know, it was so obvious what he was saying.

and I don't know how they all get in a meeting room come Wednesday to install the game plan for next week. You know, like I think that situation appears to be reaching some sort of breaking point, especially for John Allen to reply on Twitter like that. And none of it is direct, but it's pretty darn clear. And I'll say this, John Allen is a very, he's only in his second year, but he's widely respected. And Kevin, you and I have talked about this a little bit, that there's kind of the front seven versus the secondary has been a thing at times this year. And, you know, there's also, like the Alabama guys don't speak much. They're not big media guys.

They would never question a coach, I don't think. So I think that has something to do with this as well. But it's tough because you said it how impressive. you were by the game and the effort, and then you have to deal with this stuff on the back end of it. Look, they've got issues at safety, and DJ Sweringer is a great player, and who the hell knows who's coming back and who isn't next year, but it would be a hell of a statement to sit him for this final game, especially, I mean, it's the easy thing to do if they've got nothing to play for, which is possible, but that's out of line to be that harshly critical

of your coordinator. And it's not the first time he's run his mouth this year either. And to me, that's what makes it harder to take him seriously when you hear it. Almost after every loss, there's some sort of, we didn't practice hard enough, practice isn't serious enough. These guys aren't, you know what I mean? There seems to almost always be something. Yeah, he was also the one that said, you know, the defense can carry this team. It can carry it. and you know you were facing blaine gabbert and a couple of tight ends that no one's ever heard of and a couple of receivers with the exception of corey davis that few have heard of so just covering right it's like the scheme may have had flaws and i would argue in spots it did but you can

still go make a play you know you can still end it yourself i think your i think your criticism was the more apt one and that is that they probably should have come after gabber a little bit more like they did Marriota in the first half. You know, they seem to have... That makes it foster blitz? I mean, and I don't know if it was a blitz or if he had, you know, if his responsibility was a running back that didn't go out on a pattern or whatever. Right, Lewis.

I mean, that was a... He rocked Mariotto on that hit. All right, I know you got to run, but I'm going to ask you one question before you go. Has Jay Gruden, if his job was in jeopardy prior to the Jackson's... Jacksonville game, has he saved it these last two weeks? I believe, I don't know that it was, but I believe Bruins is the coach in 2019. And frankly, I believe he deserves it. All right, thank you for doing this.

I think Todd Bowles is your defensive coordinator. That would make me very happy. I think Todd Bowles is a brilliant defensive mind. And I would, last year, after last year, I would have considered him had he gotten fired in New York. even be a head coach somewhere. Sure. I just, I think he's that good. Thank you very much for doing this.

Get back to dinner. Okay. Merry Christmas. All right. Merry Christmas to you and thank you so much for all you've done and we'll talk before the new year. Sounds great. Take care, cab.

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If you like this show and you're thinking about anything new, I give you my word you'll be taking good care of if you head out to Farish and Fairfax and ask for Ralph Perkins. They're located right there in Fairfax Circle. Ask for Ralph when you get there. Tell them, I told you, to ask for him and to come out there. You can find out everything Farish has right now, including live inventory and live pricing at Ferris Carers. com. All right, since it's early in the morning and most of you have probably not heard the Jay Gruden Press Conference yet. I want you to listen to it. It's short, but this was a hurtful loss. You know, it would have been one thing, Aaron, if they'd gone in there and they'd gotten

blown out. But the way that game developed and you're sitting there and you're watching this guy Josh Johnson kill it. And again, he wasn't Elway. He wasn't Marino. He wasn't great, but given the expectations and what was around him, he played a hell of a game. This was Jay Gruden meeting the media right after the game. Obviously a tough finish. Would you make of the way Josh competed through the game? I thought he competed, you know, like a champ, man. I thought he made some great plays with his legs, some scrambles, keeping some drives alive.

You know, I thought AP ran a ball hard, our offense line blocked pretty well for the most part. and just didn't make enough plays at the end of the day. Jay, what would you say about the defense's effort? Every time the offense scored, the defense gave up the score after that. I asked you about this earlier. What happened with the defense today? Yeah, that's unfortunate. You know what?

It's not a lack of effort. I think they have a good running back and tough physical offense line. We gave up a couple uncharacteristic runs again and a couple play action passes that hurt us. The last call on Fabian, I got to see it. Third down, a couple third down convergers I had in the first half. I don't know. That's a combination. things but you got to give credit to the titans also jay from a tempo standpoint when you guys got the

ball on that what turned out to be your final drive what were you kind of thinking in terms of killing clock how much time you wanted to leave versus trying to get as many plays especially with AP in there the way he was running it before you switch to two minutes yeah we stuck with the running game pretty we have four and a half minutes to go and I want to make sure we still continue to pound them a little bit I don't want to put it all on Josh right there you know I think once jameson caught the ball in a choice route to make a third down and two uh thought we had a good play called and uh brought a corner blitz and they made a pick. Jay, when you see a quarterback like Marriota go down,

I mean, is there almost a thought, well, this could be something that could work in your favor? No, you never think that. Blaine Gabbard's played a lot of football, too. You know, he started a lot of games and been pretty productive as a starter. He's very skilled, very much like Mariotta. He can run, very athletic, which he showed today.

But, no, you've got to continue to play. And you know, they're going to stick with their game plan. It's not like Mariotta is going to drop back and throw it 50 times either. You know, Gabbard's going to hand the ball off and work his play actions, and they kept with a game plan and did a nice job. Jay, how do you kind of digest your team's playoff hopes now? Not totally dashed, but pretty bleak going into tomorrow's games. Yeah, you know, I think just trying to wrap my head around this game, I think we play with great effort. And, you know, it's tough.

You guys played hard and just didn't make enough plays to get it down. And then we'll just watch the games tomorrow, I guess, take a day off. Players will and figure out what happens next. Jay, can you take us through the interception? It looked like Josh kind of stopped. I don't know if he was supposed to keep going up. What was supposed to come up? No, it wasn't on Josh.

It was a little, it was a play that we just worked a wrong side of the field. You know, so unfortunately. They brought a corner cat, and I think it kind of just froze Josh Johnson a little bit. And then I think he saw a flash of Josh Doxon and tried to throw it in there. And Josh wasn't running the route inside. It's supposed to be an outside breaking route. Jay, of any of the losses this year, does this one sting most? Yeah, I think they all sting pretty bad, but this one's the most current.

So, yeah, this one stings. And I think the way these guys came out and played, our style of football, physical style of football game and just left a couple. I feel like we left some plays out there on the field that we could have made. You know, we missed a pick by a, ha-ha, just missed that by an inch. You know, Michael Floyd just had that ball and got it knocked out by Byard there in the red zone. And we just had so many close plays that we were just not the. the PI on Fabian.

I don't, you know, there's so many what-if plays. But the other day, they made the place, that's off to Coach Frable. He's doing a great job by that team. What was working so well with aging in the run game, do you feel? We were getting movement, you know. So when you see your offensive line moving them, you're going to stick with that.

And AP was running a ball physical right up the middle and getting us four or five yards. You can see what type of offense we want to be when we're getting four or five yards on a first down. We're not going to just drop back We're going to continue to pound it until they stop it. We worked some play actions. Try to hit a couple shot plays off of those same looks.

Didn't have a lot of success, but the running game was outstanding. How do you kind of assess Josh after two plus games in terms of how he's managed the game, how he's kept you guys in it? Oh, man, I think you couldn't ask for anything more from a guy coming from his couch playing pickup basketball a couple weeks ago to learn everything, to go in here with full speed people coming at him, full speed and handling the play call and the protections and the hand you know the run game just can't say enough about him you know i just very proud i'm sick for uh the way it ended for him tonight because he really displayed uh just great poise courage effort leadership all in three weeks

uh so uh i hate for him to be judged on that one pass you know but overall i just very very proud of the way he came in here and led this team uh jay i went back this morning i looked at the the the two deep offensive depth chart from right before the season opener, 25 players, 14 of them were out because of injury. Not looking for you to make an excuse here, but at some point does that just become too much for a team to overcome? Yeah, I mean, it's hard. You know, you talk about very good players that we worked a lot, spent a lot of time with,

you know, quarterbacks, guards, tight ends, you know, running back, you know, it's difficult, but that's pro football. That happens from time to time, and it just seems to hit us pretty hard. but the guys that came in here played hard, man, and did some good things. And it's our job to coach you guys are available. And I think Coach Callahan, the offense staff, did a pretty good job coaching the guys we had. And defensively, same thing. So next man up, and guys did a pretty good job.

Jay, considering all those adversities, the energy that your team brought today and the effort that they gave on both sides of the ball, how much can you speak to how much the guys that are still playing have really brought it throughout these weeks? Yeah, that's what makes me, that's what hurts the most, is I feel like these guys are laying on out on the line. And it's too bad it didn't get done. All right, you can hear Jay Gruden getting choked up a little bit there at the end. A stinging loss, it was.

Those are the kind of games that because you really felt I did anyway, that through three and a half quarters, they were going to win this game. And even on that final drive down 1916, I thought they're going to get in range for a field goal here. And with the way Hopkins is kicking, this game's going to overtime. I wish that he hadn't taken Peterson out of the game. I also think on third and two, third and three in that spot, they could have run the football too. He did say, and you heard him say,

that Josh worked the wrong side of the field on that play. So it didn't have anything to do with Doxon, that Josh worked the wrong side of the field there. You also heard him there, you know, really feel for Josh Johnson because he doesn't want Josh Johnson to be remembered for that play, but in these games, you know, sometimes those are the plays you do remember. But I'm going to remember him playing awfully well, considering the circumstances. You also heard Jay Gruden say in that final drive that he didn't want to put it all on Josh.

Now, by taking Peterson out, in some ways he did there at the very end. but I liked the way they approached that final drive. All right, here's their playoff picture right now. They're not eliminated. They could be by the end of today. So if you're listening to this thing on Monday or late Sunday night, late tonight, this portion of the program could be completely irrelevant. But if you're listening to it before all of these Sunday games,

here's the bottom line with their playoff hopes. They're out of the division race. They were eliminated from the division race with the loss to Tennessee. Later today, if Philadelphia wins against Houston, and they're a two and a half point favorite, the Redskins are out. No matter what happens with Minnesota and Seattle, the Redskins are out if Philadelphia wins today. Now, if Philadelphia loses to Houston today, the Redskins would still be out if Minnesota and Seattle win. Minnesota's at Detroit and Seattle in the Sunday night game has Kansas City in.

They would be alive for a playoff spot if Philadelphia loses and either Minnesota or Seattle loses today. All right. Got it? So Philadelphia wins done. You don't even have to worry about Minnesota or Seattle. The Redskins lose tiebreakers, the third tiebreaker after head-to-head in division games, and they would have split with Philadelphia. This assumes the Redskins would win next week, and they would have the same division record, but Philadelphia would win on the third tie-breaking criteria common games. So if Philly wins tomorrow, Philly's eight and eight, even if the Redskins beat Philadelphia next week, will trump the Redskins. 8 and 8, and therefore the Redskins will be eliminated from the playoff race.

The reason for that, too, is that if Philadelphia, let's say, grab the first wild card, even if Minnesota lost their final two and Seattle lost their final two, Seattle would win a tiebreaker with the Redskins for the second Wild Card spot. So again, no division title, that's done. Wild card is still in play if they beat Philadelphia, but it may not matter if Philadelphia wins today against Houston. Philadelphia eliminates Washington with a win against Houston. If they lose to the Texans, the Redskins then need either Minnesota or Seattle to lose

to still have a chance going into the final week of the season. Look, I want to mention the other game that was played last. night because it was one of the best defensive performances you will ever see. The Ravens beat the Chargers, 22 to 10. They now control their own playoff destiny. They did going into the game, but they were an underdog in this game. That was a smell test pick the Titans were a smell test pick. Smelt test is two and one going into today's picks, by the way, because I had BYU. And I'm sorry about that, by the way. I thought it was a Saturday game. It ended up being a Friday game, but it was still a winner.

But the Ravens last night defensively, they put a hurting on Philip Rivers and the Chargers. And I wanted Philip Rivers to win that game. I wanted them to bring them down the field and win that game. I wanted them to win that AFC West because I thought if they won that AFC West, they'd have a chance to get to the Super Bowl. Not because they've got a great home field advantage, but now they're going to have to go on the road. for three consecutive weeks. I mean, there's still a chance they could win the division if Kansas City loses their final two games,

but they finish next week with the Raiders. So now Casey just needs one win to clinch the division. But the defense of Baltimore, this is why I loved them early in the season, and I liked them last year if they had made the playoffs. I just think they have right now one of the better defenses we've seen in a long time, and they just completely shut the Chargers down.

The Chargers only touchdown came off of a turnover and a short field situation early in the third quarter. Lamar Jackson, if you haven't heard Cooley talk about Lamar Jackson from Friday's podcast, listen to it. It's in the past episodes. You can listen to it. He had some very strong thoughts on Jackson, thought he's an incredible runner, but really cannot do it throwing the football.

There are throws he made last night that were horrific. He got lucky on a couple of them, and then he made a couple of big throws. Down 14 to 10 in the third quarter, I'm sorry, down 10 to 6 in the third quarter. He threw a bomb touchdown pass to Mark Andrews for 68 yards that was perfect. Justin Tucker had a 56-yard field goal in the game. By the way, in that game last night, Aaron, you probably didn't see it because you were at the Maryland game.

Justin Tucker attempted a 65-yard field goal at the end of the first half. It would have been the longest field goal in NFL history, and it came up a couple of yards short. Yeah, I did actually. I was just getting home for that one as it happened. It was only about probably, what, two yards short? It was. I wanted the Chargers to win. I want Philip Rivers to be in a Super Bowl.

But the takeaway from last night was what I had. thought about Baltimore going back to the beginning of the season and then it didn't look very good there for a while. I think the Ravens can win the Super Bowl. They have a very unconventional offense. I will grant you that. But their defense, remember when they won their first Super Bowl, they didn't have much of an offense either. And this offense, actually, there's something to it. I mean, they are difficult to stop with Jackson as a runner and Gus Edwards as a runner and the occasional throw that he's able to make. He misses a lot of them too. But this is a championship defense that the Ravens have, and they are going to be hell to deal with in the postseason.

They have to beat Cleveland next week. If they beat Cleveland and Pittsburgh loses one of the final two, their final two games, and they've got the Saints later today, the Ravens will be the AFC North champions, and they'll play that first game at home. And then probably have to go to Arrowhead, where they nearly won two weeks ago and probably should have won that game two weeks ago. But I think what you learned last night from that game is they are a legitimate Super Bowl contender heading into the playoffs if they get there by beating the Browns next week. All right. Thanks to Aaron.

Thanks to J.P. Finley. Here's the deal. If there is significant reason, a significant reason to come in here on. Christmas Eve and do a show tomorrow on all of the NFL that happens today. We'll do that. But if the Redskins are eliminated after today, we probably won't. And we'll be back on Wednesday. But I'll let you know via Twitter. Aaron will let you know with the show's account via Twitter. But this show is really the post-game show with a mention of the Ravens. I didn't mention the Wizards Triple Overtime win last night. I didn't see any of

of it, but they won 149 to 146 in triple overtime over the suns. Bradley Beale had a triple double, and Maryland lost at home to Seton Hall, and I was able to tune in for the last five minutes of that, and you were at the game, and that was a painful last five minutes. They went from a four-point lead to a five-point deficit in what seemed like about a minute and a half, tough loss for them. Merry Christmas to everybody out there. Happy holidays to all.

Again, there's a good chance I'll be in for a shorter version of the podcast tomorrow Christmas Eve. But if not, we'll be back on Wednesday the day after Christmas. So have a great holiday. Thanks for all of your support. I wish all of you the best for the holidays. Painful loss for sure. But I didn't think. they had a chance going in in the first place.

Enjoy it.