The Kevin Sheehan Show - Still Optimistic + Smoot

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

Kevin opened with a big picture look at the team through four games. He also responded to some of what Dan Quinn said today about Jayden Daniels' prognosis and the defensive issues. He recapped his "Game-Take" from last night's show as well. Fred Smoot jumped on with his thoughts on the Commanders' loss to the Falcons. Smoot also revealed a step-by-step plan to fix the defense. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheen Show. He is Kevin. They would probably ask us about Jayden. He has strong workout here Saturday. And we'll take today and tomorrow and work out his practice plan. Go through the whole process with him this week, medically, how he feels,

all the practices, and giving the updates Wednesday as I know him. That was Dan Quinn just a little while. ago saying they'll take this thing to Wednesday again before we get another update on Jaden Daniels. That's three consecutive weeks now of him saying on Monday. We'll find out more on Wednesday. But as I said last night on the postgame podcast, the reporting pretty consistent during the pregame shows yesterday and even during the game, most reporting Jaden Daniels expected back and on the field playing Sunday in L.A. The Chargers. The show's presenting sponsor is always,

Window Nation, 86690 Nation, Windonation.com if you need new windows. Fred Smoot's going to join me on the show today. We'll get Fred's thoughts on the loss yesterday in Atlanta. I think, by the way, the week will go this way. Just my hunch here on Monday. On Wednesday, we'll find out that Jaden was a full participant in practice, but Quinn won't commit to Jaden as the starter. He's going to make the Chargers prepare for both Mariotta and Jaden. But I think he'll be a full participant, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And on Friday, Dan Quinn will announce that Jaden Daniels will be the starting quarterback against the Chargers.

That's my hunch. I think the reporting kind of indicated that yesterday, so it's not out on a limb by a long shot. but in terms of the way Quinn handles it this week, I think that's the way it will play out. We'll see. So here we are, 24 hours removed from the loss in Atlanta, two and two now through four games, approaching the quarter poll of the season. Four games used to be the quarter poll when we had a 16-game schedule. The actual quarter pole will be at the end of the first quarter in L.A. on Sunday against the

chargers. So I wanted to give you sort of a big picture, you know, where I am through four games. Where I am is I'm still optimistic about this season. And I think if you were like me optimistic a month ago that this season could be similar to last season or even better, I don't think there's a reason to bail on that optimism. It's too early to bail. Injuries have hit home. hard, they've hit quickly, and yet they've won two home games. They were favored to win, and they've lost two games in which they were underdogs. They're going to start getting players back, starting with the most important player, the quarterback. Quinn said the signs on Terry, Noah Brown, and John Bates are pointing upwards. So that's good news. And I think, you know,

even if we don't have all three of them back on Sunday, I bet at least one or two of them are back. maybe Terry's out another week. The Terry situation is a bit interesting. I'm very interested to see how it plays out this week. You know, the going for other opinions, the going to the specialist, you know, all of that being made public. I don't know what's going on there. But Quinn suggested that, you know, the arrow is pointing upwards on all three of those players. He did talk about the John Baptiste.

injury yesterday. That is a serious injury, and John Baptiste is going to be lost for a while. I thought he played pretty well yesterday. So, you know, for me through four games, I am still optimistic that they can go have themselves another great season. The defense is still the biggest question mark as it was a month ago. The fact that the offense, though, played pretty well in two games without Jaden Daniels, without, you know, key pieces, I think is encouraging as to what it can do fully healthy. I still believe the offense with Jaden at the helm, and hopefully Terry coming back sooner rather than later, will be what leads this team to more wins than losses. And I still think enough wins for the team to end up being an NFC playoff participant when all is said in.

done. Now, if you were to say, well, what would make you bail, you know, from your very aggressive belief before the season started a month ago that this was a team that would contend for the NFC championship in a Super Bowl? I think, you know, two things are of concern for me right now. But again, I think that I'm still very optimistic, big picture on the whole. because I think the offense will end up being what I thought it would be before the season started and what it was last year. But if someone were to say what would make you take a big step back from your optimism, you know, I had hope that the defense could be much better.

So I'll start there. Number one is the defense has not revealed itself in four games to be that much better than it was last year. And that was part of the equation for being aggressive because they were going to face, you know, a potentially much more difficult path to, you know, 12 wins. I predicted 11 this year. And I was hoping that the defense would be improved, but I wasn't sure that it would be. And I think through four games, you know, we have not realized yet a better defense. I think there are better players, especially up front. Kinlaw is a major upgrade, in my opinion, on what John Allen was last year.

But the jury's still out. Part of the problem through four games is that a few of the players who played well last year, and we were hoping and expecting actually that they would take a bigger step forward and become even better players, that hasn't happened. with guys like Sanristil, you know, Kwan Martin. Even Louvo, to a certain degree, hasn't been consistent through four games. So two things I would point to if I decided to take a step back from my optimism that this can be a Super Bowl contending team. The defense through four games, and I think four games from now, if it hasn't improved, I might, you know, take a step back.

from that, although I'll still believe that the offense is capable of winning games in January because they proved they could last year. The other thing, though, is that the NFC has really good teams. Philly is really good. I think the Lions are really good again. The key for them last year was they didn't get beyond the second round because they had a lot of injuries on defense, and they ran into a buzzsaw. Jaden Daniels in Washington's offense.

I think the Rams have revealed themselves to be contenders as well. So the NFC is loaded and the defense is still a big mystery. I have hoped that it can improve, but there's no guarantee. But I still believe the quarterback five is going to have a big season. It's not the start he wanted with two games on the shelf, but fingers crossed, he stays healthy and starts lighting teams up like he did last year. I think it starts Sunday, and I'll tell you right now, you know, I told you last Monday, even Sunday in the post game, that I thought that Atlanta was going to be a real difficult game

and one that I didn't think that they would win. I hope that they would win, but I pretty much predicted Atlanta would win all week, had them in the smell test, predicted them to win outright 24 to 17. I think Washington's going to win Sunday against the Chargers. You know, it's the thing where it's like, okay, they didn't look that good. They got beat by the Falcons. Now, the Chargers lost to the Giants, too. So this could be a really good football game between two teams that really need to kind of bounce back off of losses.

but I like Washington. I like the matchup. I like the Jaden's going to be back. If there's some rust there that he needs to shake off, that could be a bit problematic. But I like them this week. Just, you know, an early, you know, blush thought. I think Washington goes into L.A. and beats the Chargers Sunday. More on that as we get through the rest of the week. Now, back to yesterday and the top reason, the number one, reason for the loss. The defense. If you missed my game take on last night's show, I will run through it in a minute or so and add a few things to it. But this was Dan Quinn a little bit earlier on two

things that I wanted you to hear him answer. The first, the coverage issues. You know, what's going on with the coverage that's led to these big explosive plays? The Falcons yesterday, the Green Bay game in week two. Even the Raiders had some of those last week. John Kime asked the question. Here's the coach's answer. And then one of the themes has been those explosive plays in the past game allowed. Why does that keep happening?

What can you guys do to fix them? Yeah, and we definitely have to. It's for sure, you know, a combination of things, like most things, when there's, you know, some issues that you want to fix, you want to get it cleaned up as quickly as you can. On some, it could be as simple as a communication of a, of a switch of a, you know, receiver of two and three. It certainly helps, you know, from our pass rush when we're really ripping into that space to go.

And then communication, you know, like in line, how does it go, you know, the calls quickly to, you know, communicate to one another. So we'll work really hard to nail that. We have to and we will get better at that for sure. So the part of Dan Quinn's answer that I thought was interesting and was the reason I played that soundbite is when he talked about the pass rush. he said it certainly helps when our pass rush is, I think he said, ripping into that space. You know, he was saying that yesterday the pass rush wasn't good enough. And it has been pretty good. It was good against the Giants, the Raiders.

It wasn't that bad in the second half against the Packers. You know, essentially what he's saying is we need that pass rush that we've had at times this year because it masks some of the back-end deficiencies. The problem with that is if they can't fix the coverage issues and they're going to rely on pass rush to minimize to cover up those back-end problems, it's hard to do when you don't have anybody special. I like Louvue, I like Armstrong, I like Wagner's a blitzer,

but they don't have anybody special. They don't have a game record. They don't have somebody you have to game plan for as a pass rusher. You know, all off season, we talked about the need for a true special defensive player. You know, a guy that could stop the run, yes, but could also scare the crap out of teams as a pass rusher. When Miles Garrett, you know, for a brief moment, was potentially going to be on the trade block, that's why I was like, I'm all in. That is the difference.

He's like adding two, and he makes everybody around him and the entire defense better. But that was not legitimately a possibility. Trey Hendrickson was, and the team was interested in Trey Hendrickson for good reason, because somebody like him would make that pass rush more consistently protective of the back end. I know those guys are hard to find, you know, but it would be nice to have somebody like Trey Hendrickson or T.J. Watt or Miles Garrett, but they don't. And that's where they're going to have to fix the back-end problems because you can't consistently rely on an effective, scary pass rush when you don't have a special pass rusher. And look, the offenses,

they're facing this year are better. And if we're hoping that 36-year-old Von Miller is going to play like 30-year-old Von Miller, yeah, that's not going to happen. They don't have that guy on D. This was another Quinn soundbite that I wanted you to listen to. I mentioned in my post game that tackling defense was the number one reason for the loss as far as, you know, our team goes, and that tackling was a big part of it, and I said, man, there were a lot of mistackles. I didn't have the number.

But Quinn spoke to the number in this answer. Dan, what's your level of concern with the mistackles yesterday, and is there anything you can do mid-season to address that? Oh, yeah. There's plenty to do in each practice and each day. You can work on that hard time. It doesn't have to be something that you have to take to the ground, but you do have to get your angles, your tracking correct. but they're way too high. We were in double digits, and if you hit double digits between defense and special teams,

that is too many. Going into it, we knew Bijan is somebody that's exceptional at that, but you track two-man tackles and we've got work to do. We were not pleased with our tackling performance, and yes, there is plenty of you can do to work on that. Double-digit mistackles yesterday. Quinn's saying, if you hit double digits between defense and special teams, That's too many.

Yeah, it is too many. You know, I think back to after the giant game in week one, we did a segment on radio. I think we did it on the podcast, too. I think Tommy and I did it, where we said, look, week one is always, you know, fools gold, head fake, all of those things. But is there anything that we can take from the win over the giants that we think will hold up over 17 games? And I said, tackling. My rationale was if you can tackle in week one after not tackling for nine months, you're probably going to be a good tackling team.

Well, they weren't yesterday, that's for sure. They've had some good tackling games, including that opener, but not yesterday. And that leads me to this. You know, after a game like yesterday, everybody wants somebody's head on a platter. Marshawn Latimore, Joe Witt Jr., you know, Latimore, let's bench Latimore, let's move. Mikey outside, move Noah Eye inside. Look, you know, offensively they made changes to both guard positions. Brandon Coleman hasn't been active the last two weeks. So yes, changes if this continues to be an issue on the back end in particular, yeah, I would expect some changes.

I don't think you're going to get Joe Witt Jr. as a change, not during the season. It just does not, you know, Quinn just doesn't strike me as that kind of a coach. And Joe Witt Jr. was his hire and his guy, and he's going to give him 13 games to figure it out. And Quinn should participate in this. And I'm sure he is. Some of you want Quinn to take over defensive play calling. I don't think he'll do that. If he does do that, Joe Witt Jr.'s done. We would know that immediately. I think it's really hard. I'm going to talk to smooth about this. I think it's really hard for us to, you know, have the answers. We don't know what everybody's responsibilities are. The, you know, the obvious stuff, you know, the Bobby Wagner's in coverage, the, you know, the bad tackling, the explosive plays with, you know, coverage issues, especially when there's motion and a guy that, you know, is better at press coverage that is running with the guy in man coverage.

By the way, they played a number of defenses yesterday. that was obvious when I went back and just watched a part of the game after the radio show today is they were in man, they were in zone, they were in multiple things. It's not like they're not trying different things. But yeah, I think, you know, like Kingsbury did on offense, it'd be interesting to see if some changes personnel-wise are coming. That would obviously be pointing the finger at personnel. And they may not do that at this point because, you know, statistically, there's still ranked after the games against the Giants and the Raiders fairly high in a lot of categories. They were the number one third down defense before yesterday's game.

But I think that, you know, you got to do something here. And if it's personnel related and you're concerned, you can't take Bobby Wagner off the field. Like, what's Joe Witts Jr. is supposed to do. Wagner is the best against the run. He's probably their best blitzer. And he's a coach. on the field. He can't cover, but occasionally he's going to have to. I don't know that it's Joe Witt Jr.'s fault that Bobby Wagner can't cover at his age. He's too valuable in other areas of the team. It's going to be obviously an ongoing observation and conversation about this defense unless we get more performances like the ones against the Giants and the Raiders. And those may be

fewer and far and further between because of the schedule. You know, it's the Chargers this week, a capable offensive team. The Bears all of a sudden have it, you know, going in the right direction offensively. The Cowboys are the number one yards per game offense in the league. The chiefs are getting healthier and they started to hit their stride yesterday. The Seahawks are good offensively. The lions are lethal offensively. You know, I'm just looking at the rest of the schedule. And of course we've got, you know, two against the Eagles and another against the Cowboys. So, you know, the giant and raider type of offenses, unless they're banged up like those two teams were injury-wise, big challenges ahead for this defense. All right. If you missed

the show yesterday, you can go back and listen to my, it was like a 45-minute post-game show. but I will give you right now kind of a summary of my game take. You know, what I liked, didn't like, and a few other observations. The list of things that I liked from the game yesterday was rather long, and it was basically all offense. They had big plays offensively and in the return game. Chris Rodriguez ripped off a 48-yard run. Luke McCaffrey had a 58-yard kickoff return.

Marcus Marriota had a 22-yard fourth, third and 14, scramble. He threw a fourth and three touchdown pass to Debo Samuel. Big explosives. They drew a 25-yard defensive pass interference penalty on that final drive. I like that. I loved the rush offense. I mean, Rodriguez and Bill Kroski-Marrick combined for 106 yards on 14 carries. That's 7.55 yards per carry. They did a great job. The O-Line did a good job. I liked the way they ran the football, just didn't think they did it enough. I thought Marcus Marietta was really good. Again, it was a good, you know, encore to last week's, you know, main event for him, which was, you know, an A performance last week. And I called yesterday's performance a B plus, but, you know, A minus B plus in that general

area. The only thing he gets knocked down for is the pick, which I think was on him. And, you know, the intentional grounding. And I didn't think he saw the feet. as clearly as he did against the Raiders, but he was really, really good in this game. And they are very lucky to have somebody like him. You know, Jaden Daniels missed two games. You know, a Pro Bowl NFC quarterback missed two games, and they were one in one,

and they had a chance in the game that they lost. Debo was on the list of things that I liked. He's having a hell of a year. McCaffrey with the kickoff return, just two catches, but one of them was for a touchdown. Matt Gay, four for four, including a 52-yarder on the good list. They got a takeaway, finally. They have one takeaway in four games.

Sanra still caught that interception, had a decent return on it as well. It was a bad throw by Pennix. He was trying to get that over Sanra still, that zone to what looked like a wide-open receiver. I thought there were some big hits on special teams. the guy Cahoe had a big hit. Number 34 had a big hit. And then, you know, defensively, I thought Kinlaugh, Duran had the force fumble. Eddie Goldman had a big stop on a third and one. They had seven TFLs in the game, tackles for loss.

John Baptiste, Louvo. That's a lot of TFLs in a game with only one of them being a sack. They only sacked Pennix once. I had a caller today say, you know, even though Bejon Robinson and Tyler Algier had good days, he felt like the defense against the run had some enough negative plays that he's not super concerned. I mean, Bejon Robinson and Tyler Algier, that's one of the best combos you'll face, although they'll face the other one in Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery when the Lions come to town later in the year. but my caller was right because, look, they were not, it was their worst game against the run,

but they've been pretty solid against the run this year. And they did have six tackles for loss, seven total, including the sack, and a lot of them were unrunning place. And, you know, it was not a good day for the defense, but Kinlaw Man is a force inside. Pain is a force inside. All right, the list of things that I didn't like, you know, I started with the defense. And by the way, my big sort of theme to the game was Atlanta played great. And that was a big part of the final result. Atlanta was a desperate team, a dangerous team.

We talked about it all last week. And their best players played really well. Drake London was exceptional. Bijon Robinson is a superstar and Michael Pennix Jr. was really good. What a bounce back game for him. If I were a fan of another team and not Washington, I would have given him, you know, major, major kudos and been happy for him. I was a fan of Pennix Jr. coming out.

I liked him third behind Caleb and Jaden. And I thought, I think he looks the part. I thought he looked the part at Washington. I think he looks the part in the NFL. He's seven starts into his career. He is entitled to a bad game, which he had last week. But the defense was, you know, too many points, too many yards, 34 points, 435 yards. In their two losses now, it's 839 yards and 61 points.

I mentioned the tackling. I mentioned the explosive plays. I mentioned the third down defense. All were issues. and certainly the three consecutive third downs on the Falcons final drive. How painful. Just get off the field once and you've got the ball with, you know, and had moved it on the previous two drives with a chance.

You know, I wouldn't have given Marcus the same chance I would have given Jaden with the ball at the end, but Marcus was capable of driving them down the field and, you know, punching one in if they had had the chance down seven. Coverage, obviously, I talked about that. You know, just defense was number one on the list of things that I didn't like. Cliff's play calling made that list, made the bad list. I just thought they should have run the ball more. I hate criticizing play calling because there's so much we don't know about what they know.

But when you're averaging 7.5 yards per carry with your two running backs, I think it's time for, you know, the two backs. whichever one it is that they like the most, or just, you know, split them. But instead of 14 carries, let's get that thing up to 24 carries. You know, Kroski Merritt has 29 carries in four games, all right, for 181 yards. I think that's what it is. Let me pull it up again here. I looked at this earlier.

He has 29 carries 172 yards. He's averaging 5.9 yards per carry. I'm going to get him more carries. Rodriguez has 18 carries for 98 yards. That's 5.4 yards per carry. I like those numbers. I like the way it's looked beyond the numbers. I think they're both good vision backs.

I think Bill has real talent. And if pass pro is holding him back, well, coach him up because he needs to be on the field more, you know. And Rodriguez needs more opportunities as well. So loved the run game but did not like the fact that it wasn't used enough. And I kind of criticized Kingsbury in the Green Bay game. Let me just say, I love Kingsbury. I think he's a special offensive mind.

And I'm thrilled that we have him. I think he's a big part of the last year and now four games. But when Bill ripped off a 16-yard run on the first play of the second half, it's like, look, you just went through a half where you were dead. doubled up time of possession, doubled up on plays. You've got to keep your defense off the field. You can do that by running the ball. You're bigger than this team up front.

You've got two good backs that are going pretty well. Let's lean on that. It was only 17 to 10, you know, but here, you know, came a plethora of, you know, pass play calls. It was 33 for the game, if you count penalties, sacks, scrambles, etc. 33 called pass plays and 20 calls. run plays. Also on the list of things that I had a problem with, they fumbled a couple of times. What's Lane even doing back there at the end of the half? He muffed two of them.

So they got lucky, you know, on those two plays. Atlanta fumbled a couple of times, too. All of the fumbles in the game yesterday and not one turnover. I went through this last night. I'll hit on it quickly. I understand the rationale at the end of the first half. when you had a defense that was reeling and you didn't want Atlanta to get the ball back and, you know, come back out onto the field down more than seven, especially since you were getting the ball to start the second half. Let's, you know, go into the locker room down seven and we'll start over at the beginning of the third quarter. But when they went from their own eight to the 33 and just a couple of plays, I would have preferred Quinn to, you know, do what he typically does,

which is go for it, be aggressive, and they weren't at the end of that half. And Rahim Morris didn't take advantage of that because he's not very good. And then I talked about this last night. The bottom line is when they kicked the field goal down 3424 with a minute 29 left, it was too early to kick the field goal. You've got too much time left in the game when you're going to have to kick an on-sides kick regardless and recover it because you don't have timeouts left and you're under two minutes. you could have gone another 30 to 45 seconds, honestly, without kicking the field goal,

which could have been another three, four, five, depending on incompletions and out of bounds, you know, three, four, five more plays. You were at the 24-yard line. Go get the touchdown. You're on a roll. Get the hard part over with the touchdown. And then if you recover an on-side kick, you only need three. If you have 30 seconds left and only need three or 45-second.

left and only need three, that's actually easier than needing seven down, you know, with a minute 20 to go. Because, you know, you're at their 24-yard line right now, and you're on a roll, and you clocked it and kicked the field goal. It was not the right thing analytically or otherwise, common sense-wise. But that's kind of the list of things that I didn't like. I think on the other observation list. Man, Rahim Morris is a terrible in-game clock management coach. He's just really bad at it. He cost his team a playoff spot last year. They should have won the game in Landover. Had he managed the clock the right way at the end of the first half and at the end of the game. And he had a chance to get the ball back at the end of the first half. And he basically blew it.

He let 35 seconds roll off the clock. Bejohn Robinson, so special. Michael Pennix, Jr., his best day. Drake London, their stars were great. You know, the Falcons made a PAT after somebody got a hand on it. I still haven't gone back and looked to find out who it was. And it went through from 33 yards out on the PAT to make it, I think that made it 31-16. If they had missed that P-A-T, if it hadn't snuck through the uprights, Washington wouldn't have had to go for two. And that was my last observation is, you know, I don't love going. for two down nine. I know that more information is better than less information and the analytics

people, the two-point conversion people will tell you, analytics people will tell you, you need more information sooner rather than having that later. And I get that. I understand that. I think game context is important. I think game pressure is important. If they miss that, it's a nine point game. There's no game pressure on Atlanta. They made it, so good for them, and it's a 31-24 game. But the probability of making a two-point conversion is still in this league less than 50-50. And 3123 is more game pressure because it's perceived then as a one-score game. Even though technically it's by odds, by probability, a two-score game.

Because, again, two-point conversions are a less than 50-50 probability. for most teams, I would kick there and I'd make it an eight-point game and I'd go for the, I'd go for the two on the next touchdown. But by going for the two then, you've got more information because if you miss it, now you know you actually are in a two-score game. I just think that it puts a certain level of game pressure on the opponent at 3123 versus 3122. But it wasn't 3122. They had a great, a great two-point play. Loved it. It was a mixture of zone read and RPO.

It was fake zone read into an RPO, and they sucked everybody up, and Ertz was wide open. Mario did a great job selling it. It was a very good two-point play. You know, part of that is in their calculus, I would imagine, too. We've got a play that against them will work. We think it's an 75% probability. We're going to go for it now. So that's part of the thinking, too, and part of the,

you know, calculus that, you know, I'm not privy to. Real quickly, before we get to Smoot, how about that cowboy Packer game last night? Oh, my God. How about Matt LaFleur at the end of that game and Jordan Love? They almost lost because at the end, if you didn't stay up and watch this game last night, it's overtime. The Cowboys, by the way, second overtime game of the year, and with the same score at the end of regulation, 37 to 37.

They won that game against the Giants in week 2, 40 to 37, and last night's game ended in a tie 40 to 40. But the Packers got down to the Dallas 25-yard line with a minute 20 to go. They should have been thinking touchdown end the game. Dallas's defense is bad. And instead, they got really conservative. They got conservative and they let the clock run and they let it keep rolling. They had one timeout left.

They used it with 28 seconds left. And then they never threw into the end zone when they were at the Dallas 12-yard line. And then they threw a checkdown, Love did. And then with no timeouts left, the clock is rolling. And they took their time. They get up to the line of scrimmage and they snapped it with six seconds left. And he threw into the end zone. And there was one second left on the clock when it fell incomplete.

First of all, Dallas' clock operator rolled that last second off. Make them go to the replay. There was a case to be made that the last second could have rolled off, and they wouldn't have been able to overturn it with replay. They left a second standing when it was really close. I mean, a home clock operator, they did that to Washington in 1979, the famous 35-34 season finale of 1979, Stauback leading the Cowboys from 13 down to win the game,

win the division, win the one seed, and knock Washington completely out of the postseason. To me, the most gut-wrenching regular season loss of my life following this team. You know, Washington was in field goal range on a pass from Thysman to Don Warren with three seconds left on the clock, and they roll them off. And back then, there was no replay to fix it. They just said, game over. And last night, with, you know, precision on timing, they should have rolled back. that last second off. But my God, the Packers and the way they managed that, they got lucky. They got lucky that they didn't lose the game. And it really seemed like they weren't going to

win the game. It was like Brandon Aubrey's kicking potential scared the living crap out of them. It's like if we do end up having to kick a field goal, we don't want to kick this field goal with time left on the clock because Turpin will return it out to the 40 and then they'll have one play to get it to the 50, and then here comes this Aubrey guy out to kick a 67-yarder to beat us. I get it, and that should be part of it, but go score a touchdown and win the game. Dallas, you had scored 37 points in the game. Jordan Love had three touchdown passes. Josh Jacobs had two touchdown runs.

You had scored five touchdowns in the game. And I don't know. I love Matt LaFleur. I think he's a really good coach. I thought he blew that. Another insane day in the NFL. injury to Lamar Jackson will be very interesting. The Ravens are one and three. I would not count them out. Not in that division. Pittsburgh's three and one. That was my preseason prediction in that division.

And they played their best offensive game. By the way, that was another coach, Tomlin, with his decision making. They had a fourth and a foot at the end of the game up 2421 hanging by a thread. They had a big lead. and Minnesota cut it to 2421, and they've got a fourth and a foot, and they punted. I mean, you've got to be kidding me. Yeah, there was a really, really good play by a defensive player for Pittsburgh on a long bomb. Jordan Addison got behind him. This was 2414, okay? And Jordan Addison, I'm sorry, it was 20, yeah, 24.

2414, Jordan Addison gets behind him for an 81-yard play, and he got caught from behind, and they had to run multiple plays and a lot of clock before they scored the touchdown, and that killed their opportunities to be able to kick deep, play defense, and use the two-minute warning and some time. That was a huge play. Aaron Rogers was 18 of 22 for 200 yards and a touchdown an 80-yarder to D.K. Metcalf.

You know, every Sunday, man, you watch some of these receivers. This isn't about Terry, okay? But D.K. Metcalf and Justin Jefferson in that game, wow. They are dominant receivers. Yeah, a lot of, I mean, the bears are playing better. The Eagles, you know, did not complete a pass in the second half, but still beat the bucks. Another blocked kick.

That was a blocked punt for a score. There were blocked field goals all over the league. How about the Colts and their receiver, Mitchell, losing control of the ball, trying to hold it up in the air before he crossed the end line. When are players going to learn? This wasn't a dropping it, but he was trying to hold it up as he was at the half-yard line and he lost control, went through the back of the end zone. Stafford let him down the field.

well, not down the field, 88-yard touchdown pass to win it. I think the Colts are good, though. Yeah, Jags over the Niners. Niners had four turnovers in that game, minus four in the turnover margin, and they still had a chance against Jacksonville. Some good NFL and more of it to come tonight. 10, 5, and 1 on the smell test with the Bengals plus 7 and a half pending this evening.

I had the team yesterday that lost 30 to nothing. last week, and I've got the team that lost 48 to 10 last week in the Bengals. All right, Fred Smoot next, after these words from a few of our sponsors. So, guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same type of underwear for years, in my case, boxer briefs, same brand, same type for a long time. Well, not anymore for me. I want to tell you about skims for men, something I've discovered recently, the softest underwear I've ever worn. I got a few pairs of the five-inch boxer briefs so comfortable, no matter what you're doing, from sitting in a chair in your office to working out, they are so comfortable.

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Let them know I sent you. After you place your order, select podcast in the survey and select my show in the drop-down. menu that follows. Two Monday night games tonight if you want to bet on them, my recommendation is to go to my bookie and take the 50% cash bonus they're offering to listeners of this podcast. How do you get access to it? Use my promo code, DC Reload. DCR-E-L-O-A-D.

If you're a returning customer or an existing customer, go make another deposit, but put my promo code into my bookie. There's a section that says promo code when you make a new deposit, put DC reload, and they'll add 50% of that deposit into your account. If you're a new customer, go to the Kevin Sheeonshow.com slash my bookie and use my promo code, DC reload. Looking at what they have for the upcoming weekend, Washington right now, a two and a half point underdog in L.A. against the Chargers. The total is 47 and a half. The number was three last night,

Washington now a two and a half point dog. Again, the Kevin Sheeonshow.com slash my bookie promo code DC Reload and they're going to give you 50% of your deposit as a cash bonus. Joining me right now, one of your favorites. One of my favorites also, Fred Smoot is with us. I just want to go back to yesterday to start. Why did they lose? Well, first of all, one thing about it is you do never want a corner of a wounded dog. And the one thing we knew about the faculty coming out there 30 to zero lost in the division of Panthers that really ran out of the cage. You got coaches getting fired. You got a team that's stirring the pot. You've got a team that's playing at a home. You got a team that's relatively healthy, especially when they come to

they start players. We met a team that understood the situation. They were playing a backup quarterback. Even though I thought Marietta played, I thought Marietta played well yesterday. I thought he made some throws. I thought some balls was dropped. I thought we got a lot of penalties. And I think the penitives to me really, really hurts. You can't get them on the road. Like sometimes you can withstand those penalties at home, but on the road, you just cannot do it.

And that's stars. I always say this. If you let a team stars show up and play, they're going to win the game. B. John Robinson showed up to play. I almost had 200 total yards yesterday. day. Kyle Pitts made plays all over the field yesterday. Drake London made plays all over the field. You cannot

stop a team. I mean, be the team at home like that if you can't stop at least two of those stars. You know, I totally agree with everything you said. I'm going to ask you something because you played in the NFL for a while.

And I just watch it and wager on it. But I talked about this game all week last week saying this is a wounded animal they're facing. In the NFL, we know that whatever you look like one week, if it's bad, you're coming back and it's going to be the best effort and you're going to catch the team's best. And when they're talented like the Falcons are, that's a problem. I actually didn't think they were going to win the game yesterday. But as a guy that played in the

league, why is the league so week to week, so unpredictable? When you least expect it, expect You know, recency bias, throw it out the window. It doesn't matter what you saw last week because the next Sunday can be completely different. Look at the Packers through the first three weeks and then they gave up 40 last night. Why is that? Why is the league that way? Because the talent disparity is not big as y'all think it is. Yes, there's some unicorns out here.

Yes, there's some players that could change games out here. But you have one injury away from me. I'm not playing next week. I didn't say playing the week after that. I said playing D next week, getting four quarters out the same exact unit. If that unit changed, it fluctuates in situations. I just say this ain't it. Let's say we were good at third down at beginning of the season, not so much since the first two games.

Well, you think maybe Dieter Wye's got something to do with that and his versatility? Well, you have to understand when the end a game plan changes. how you play one team is not how you're going to play the next. And then as I study a team, you have to realize this. If something worked against us last week, that team might not run that so far, but now that's going to be part of their repertoire. So the forever morphine playbook, you mixed that with a fluctuation of the roster, have to depend on your backup quarterback.

And I think the one thing that Marcus has done a good job with us is keep us at ease when he's playing. Like, how many teams can say our backup plan today, we expect to win? Like, that's how much I guess he's gained our respect. When he starts, we don't expect for anything to change. Yeah, that's true. It's a great backup quarterback situation because he's a good player for starters. Secondly, nothing has to change.

With that said, and let's go there, because it does look like, and Quinn hasn't spoken yet as we are recording this, and maybe he won't provide any information anyway. It's only Monday. But all of the reports suggest that Jaden Daniels will be healthy and will be back on Sunday against the Chargers. There is a difference. As good as Marcus is and as good a fit as it is,

there's a difference between Jaden Daniels and Marcus Marietta. Describe it. Professor, if you take a Jane Daniels out for all 13th, the two teams, them teams become worst teams. I don't care who you're feeling in it. The dynamic as a defensive player, we're going to prepare

for them very similar but differently. We're going to prepare with J.D5 with caution. Everything that we do with him is, all right, simply. Guys, I want you all to rush up front, but I don't want you all to rush all the way. I want

y'all to sugar rush. I want you all to go and stop and not open up lane. When we play these zones, I want y'all to be tight against y'all coverages because he can take off running, but we're not going to play a lot of man under and a lot of man to man because I don't want y'all to turn y'all back to him. These are all cautious that you're going to take with a guy that's a precision passer, but also a lethal runner, and that changes the way defenses are caught. It puts defensive coordinators on their heels. It makes them call the game in such a careful manner that it changes everything.

Look, I thought Marcus played really well yesterday, but I'm going to ask you the following question that I was asked on my show yesterday following the game. Would they have won that game had Jaden played and been healthy? I'm always saying any game that J.D.5 is in the game that we got a chance to win it. He showed me that last year he showed me that every time he comes out there. Like I say, he's an lethal threat that has to be reckoned with. So long as we got him dressed up in a jersey, we got a chance to beat anybody. And it was one of those games that I think it would have been right in his wheel well

because he loved to score it when people want to have these scoring duels with us. He likes to put up points over. Yeah, I would have thought we would have had a chance to beat him no matter like. And this is what I always tell people. Because he's a force multiplier, it doesn't matter who is at Y receiver. in a position, he makes them that much better with his game. Yeah. Yesterday, I agree with you.

Look, it would have been one of those games that we saw last year, where the defense couldn't get off the field, but instead of kicking four field goals, he would have probably figured out a way to get two touchdowns and we would have won a close game. At least one or two with his legs, at least another couple of with his own. And here's going to think about it. With him on the field, he becomes our best defensive weapon because he keeps Desjone to Mustard Robertson on the sideline and Greg Lumpin.

All these guys. He keeps these guys on the sideline and watching the games with them 12 play drives, with them long drives. So now the time of possession waived in our favor. And they become the team that now has to become one-dimensional. And now they become a passing team, Allah, given a good. our defense to edge. By the way, Bijan, Dijon, the mustard Robinson. I love that nickname. I mean, I said yesterday, and I've talked about him a bunch on my show, I think he is mesmerizing to watch. I think he is at the top of the heap. I don't know who I would take.

Sequin or him, Derek Henry or him, he's right there with him. Am I right or wrong? He's such a lethal weapon. It's like the dude that shows up. Nobody knows at the wedding. And he's the best dance out of everybody. It's just mesmerizing. He dances through the hole. If it's like he's just figuring out a puzzle or something,

and he's politely doing it. It's like he's going through that thing and it's hugely to everybody. And he like literally blows by him. And like I always say this, When I'm seeing, when I see great players, the game becomes slow motion when I watched him. When I was watching this game, I felt like I was watching him literally crawled through the hole. And he was just sitting there, setting people up, making his mind up.

Like, it's a thing to be admired. Now I know how people felt when they seen true Barry Sanders, like Oklahoma State and early Barry Sanders. Now I know how they truly feel. And Jamar Gibbs gives me that same feeling watching him too. It's amazing with some of these guys. I think Gibbs is faster, but he, the style is just slightly different. There's something about the way he cuts. It's not such a hard cut.

It's quicker. He's quicker and smoother. And Gibbs is more speed meets. How could I say violent cuts? Yeah. I couldn't believe at the end of the game that he only had 75 yards. I was convinced that he had a buck 50. Now, he had 181 total yards, but it just, it seemed like he had so much more.

You know, if you go back to that playoff game against Detroit, you know, Gibbs was averaging 10 yards a carry in the first half, and then they brought in Montgomery, and I'm like, well, thank you, because he should have had 25 carries in that game, and they would have never had all those turnovers. But yeah, we'll move on from Bijon. He's just super, super special. It's memory right. He literally, it's an art to what he does. It really is. Like, I used to love watching Levion Bell. I'm not comparing the two, but I had never seen a back that was that patient, where he would literally come to a stop in the backfield with the ball and then decide what he was going to do. And there's something like very unique in a different way with Bejohn that there was with Levy on Bell during his prime.

He had the ability to set up blocks like like, like Le Danian Cummings used to. Like the one thing about the Danian, he was so smooth. But what y'all wasn't seeing was he was so patient that he was, he was giving the block of time to get there. And when I say he'd be in here put the pedal to the metal, it's over with. Yeah, well, you know, there was the game in 2005 in overtime where he, I'm pulling it up right now because I want to see, oh, you weren't on the 2005 team. No, I was, I was in Minnesota. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I forgot that. What did you say?

What did you just say? You were what? I said, I was with the Vikings at the time. Yeah, you were with the Vikings at the time, exactly. But I did play Ladani in my first game. We played as rookies against each other, my first ever game in 01 with Shatlin. Yeah, right, exactly, which did not go very well. And do you really...

It went well for me. I got played out of the week. I know you did. We've talked about that game. You know what the other interesting thing about that game is if we haven't talked about it. Do you know what happened two days later? What was that? 9-11.

Oh, yes. Yes. It was yes. You were right. You are totally right. It was Marty's first year. We opened up in San Diego, got absolutely blown out. 9-11 happened. The next week's games were canceled. And then we were the first Monday night game after 9-11 at Lambo. And that was ugly. I totally remember. It was an ugly start for us, period. But the game that I was referring to, L.T. Gibbs in 2005, this was the year that his second year went to the playoffs by winning the last six games of the year. But the last game that we lost was an overtime. And L.T. went for like 50 yards for a touchdown. 25 carries 184 yards in the game. He was good. He was really good. He was more and some grass that day.

All right. Let's talk about running the football. Why didn't they? do more of it yesterday, our team? Well, because running is a luxury. You have to earn the right to run. You can't be down 15 points and think you're just going to run. They weren't down 15 the whole game. But you have to, you got to understand. You're on the road. You got an offense over there that's scoring points.

Our defense is not stopping them. You see the flow of the game. Yeah. The flow of the game, the flow of the games, the flow of the game, digs take how aggressive you have to be and how patient you can be. And the one thing about it was we were going to have to make some plays. And you can't just think like, I'm going to tell you in a perfect world, people don't believe me when I say this, but we're actually in our best when we almost remind teams of Georgia Tech

with Joey Hamilton and Nebraska with coverage. Because we're about getting rush on. But we get it from so many different ways that before you know it, we can get to the full quarter, and we got 200 rush shorts on you. but that's when we're playing good defense. That's when we winning on first down. See, the problem was in Atlanta, we didn't win on first down. Once you don't win on first down and it's second and long,

your playbook and your thought has to change. And that's what they was doing. The Falcons was winning on defense on first down, and that changes everything when it comes to a coordinator. I hear you, and I, the questioning play calling is always a dicey thing for fans. but I think you're being too protective of Cliff. We can all be Monday, Monday coordinators if we want to and say what didn't work and what should have worked.

Well, the thing about it is, if I can't you, you already going into the game, handicapped with your quarterback not there. No matter how you feel about the backup, he ain't, he ain't five. No. My quarterback there, my number one wide receiver ain't there. I got a manufacturer of yours, and I got to hit the plays. why we got it when they're hot. Like it's a whole different way

or you have to adjust the coordinator. That's just like a defensive guy. If you go in there, I'm missing London Fletcher and I'm missing my two best corners. I'm playing the whole game. Look, I hear you, but everything you're saying makes the case even more so if you can run the football,

do it because your defense isn't getting off the field, so your best defense needs to be your offense and keeping Bijon Mustard Robinson on the bench, keeping Drake London on the bench, keeping Pennix Jr., who was outstanding yesterday. And all I would say is that Chris Rodriguez and Bill Kroski-Marrett averaged in 14 carries seven and a half yards per carry. I understand in the Green Bay game, no baits, and they, you know, they couldn't control the line of scrimmage. No baits in this game.

But now you've gone to the Trent Scott model, which you did against the Raiders, and you ran it right down their throat. And yesterday, it seemed like that opportunity existed, and they didn't take advantage of it. I do not agree. The game flow did not tell me that I thought they ran the ball. I thought they ran the ball well. I did too.

I thought they ran it well. I just didn't think they ran it enough. At no one point that I was sitting here watching the game thinking to myself, they're passing the ball too much. I didn't think inappropriately. I never said that, like, hey, because it never, the game folks, I thought the play calls was good calls. I thought the execution of some of those plays was not there.

And that's on the players, not the coordinator. Look, I admit it's one of those situations where, you know, they have their reasons for doing what they're doing, and I don't have anywhere near enough information. But the information that I do have is that the two running backs, 22 and 36, average 7.5 yards per carry in 14 rushes, and the team called 33 pass plays and just 20 run plays. And yes, the score got to 50. in the fourth quarter, but it was 17, 10 at halftime, 17, 13, 24, 16. How long did we have the ball in the first quarter?

We got doubled up, and we got doubled up in the, yeah, but that's part of why I'm... And guess what that takes away from you. It takes one, it takes your rhythm. Two, it takes the, now the emergency starts to happen. And now, you know, emergency. I don't care. Everybody got a plan until they get hit in the mouth. Right.

If you don't get the ball in the first quarter enough to even get going, you have got hit in the mouth. All right, now, whatever you thought you was going to do to beat this person has to change. Now, if the luxury to run, it looks good on paper. Yeah, seven, five, no, that ain't what the game told me. The game told me, you need to throw the ball

if y'all going to beat this team. All right, they're missing their best corner and AJ Terrell. Like, we left so many plays on the field between penalties and guys not doing the running the plate correctly. Man, we had a chance to go beat this team while they got they topped off without our quarterback, without our number one, we still had a chance to beat this team. Now, we have got to a point as a fan base that we're so sprawled that even when our second screen quarterback is started, we expect to win.

What? We haven't expected to win in 20, 30 years. We've expected nothing but the worst for 30 years until JD5 arrived. Until JD5 arrived. So he has nothing to do with that history. I know. He has none to do with their home. But you said it as if it's like something that we've lived with expecting greatness.

We've expected nothing but the worse until last year. Let me just end the running more or the amount that they did with this. you made the case that they only had the ball and they got doubled up time of possession and play count basically in the first half. To me, that's the case for trying to stay on the field, trying to run that clock. Look, the touchdown drive that they had

was Rodriguez for three, Rodriguez for 48, Rodriguez for two, and then that started the drive. The clock is rolling and they ended up in a second and goal after Debo went for a, caught a pass and got out of bounds. I think that that was because of the size

difference up front, especially when they went heavy with the jumbo with Trent Scott, which they didn't do as much yesterday as they did last week. I thought it was another way to skin the cat and get a win with your defense not being exposed as much.

Trent Scott, that thing when he's in, it works in spurts, it works in unexpected. But if I had a week to plan for that, we're just going to put a big package in to match that knowing that there's no throwing threat. It's a true run signal.

That's the one thing that y'all people are not missing because when I threw one big play last week off of it. But when I say the name, John Bates, people, because he's not a fantasy, darling, they don't know how important he is to the game playing. Well, let me tell you what happens when people check into Base Motel. They don't leave, right? They stay there for the rest of their life. Because he is the best blocking titan.

One of the best in the game, and you take him out. It undresses these little things and wrinkles that we had in these formations that we could really dictate people on. So when people bring up the engine, they never bring up your own base. They never bring him up. I bring him up. I now refer to him as Hitchcock. The Bates Motel.

Yeah. You can start calling him Hitchcock. They miss him. They miss him, no doubt. Here, one more. Look, I want to move to the defense because this is, you know, I think the biggest issue they have. Here's one last question on the running back situation. If I told you that in five weeks, either Rodriguez or Bill,

Marrett was now the bell cow. He is now getting, in this offense, 16, 17, 18 carries a game, and the other guy's only getting, you know, three or four. Which of the two would you guess it would have turned out to be? Most definitely, I would have said, be a Crosky Maron. Now, he goes to limitations of a Crosky Marrins. He has to round out his full running back game. If he doesn't, he undresses it for defensive players like me. Once we know guys come in and they're not good at pass protection, we automatically know key to run, play low, play tight, all right, because this guy doesn't have the ability to block the passers,

so they're not going to put him in those situations. So he has to get better in those situations so they can keep him on the field. I think he's good when it comes to catching the ball at the backfield, so he needs to just hunker down and talk to beat Mitch or some older guys, and figure out how can I help my pass blocking technique and skill. Other than that, he's shown that when he's in the game, he changes the way the offense looks. He runs with an explosion.

He runs very similar, a smooth of Pacheco. He's not tearing up the soil like Pacheco, but his cuts are very violent and very expressive, let's say that. You know what's interesting about Isaiah Pacheco? In the last 10 years, he's the only seventh round running back that has contributed in a meaningful way to an NFL roster. So that was... Not anymore.

Exactly. Maybe Bill will be the next one. All right, I think I would go with that. I think he's got gifts. I think he's got great vision. By the way, I think Rodriguez has very good vision, too. Yes, and him slim enough has... Add it to his seat.

Yep, yep, yep. And he runs with a hunger. The one thing I know about a hunger, dog, it will bite you. And he's running with that, you know. I haven't been through the Jersey changes. I've been on the practice squad. I'm not going back. He's running with that.

All right. Fred's going to stick around. We'll talk defense after these words from a few of our sponsors. If you have the chance and you haven't done it already and you don't mind doing it, rate and review this podcast. It takes all of about. a minute to do it. Apple and Spotify give you the opportunity to give us up to five stars. That's helpful. Apple also gives you a chance to write a quick one to two sentence review. These things

are big for us when we get them. Also following the podcast, that's hitting the plus button or the follow button really helps us out as well. We continue with Fred Smoot. Defensively, what are the issues? The issues to me, and here go another unsung hero, people don't, you know. Will Harris, let me tell you what this guy brought to this team. He became the vocal, Liza up the back end. He had the ability to play tight ends in a way that no other safety on his roster. I've watched him in Zach Ertz battle all season.

He didn't play Tucker Crafts very well. listen to me. I'm never judging nobody about one day. I know what this got brought to this team. And now that he is missing in his defensive backfield,

now that they continue to try to play out of man and man. If you can't play man to man if you ain't got people changing it to boxes and triangles and doing checks when they motion

and understanding how to get the the most play out of the less, putting people in the less spots that's going to get them. Like the one thing about it is

as much people on Lattimore, sometimes it's what you call and how you execute it. Some of these things where he's running all the way across these formations, me and Sean Spring would have been checked there before that play evening came. So it's how do you talk and how do you weaponize communication and what are those communication checks? What can we check to? What are our options?

So that's how I'm saying is before people go and say what a person can and cannot do, you need to know what he got at his full repertoire. And what's the communication? So if I can say anything that I'm seeing with my eye, they need to be on the same page. And they're not. It's almost like everybody, because we in man to man, everybody out there playing survival mode.

And that ain't how I got to be played. Okay. So you, I think, are implying an answer to my next question, which is for people like me, I think it's really hard to figure out. You know, obviously you don't want Bobby Wagner, you know, covering Bejan Robinson or Kyle Pitts. You know, him in coverage doesn't seem... You don't want Bobby Wagner from 10 years ago, Cheval.

Exactly. So there are certain things that are obvious. But when it comes to why people have gotten so wide open against the two opponents that are capable offensively, because the Giants and Raiders were not that capable offensively on the days we played him anyway. on the days we played it. So you give them credit, so you discredit them when they don't stop offense, but when they do stop offenses because they're 302-t because they don't compare to the other one.

Because guess what? Their Green Bay office is one of the top offices in football. Their Falcons office got three layers of stars. If the quarterback continues to grow, they're going to have a star-study cast. And now the defense scrubbing against two good offense. It happened. You are really in two and two. You're in two and two mode right now.

You're in 500 mode. You needed them to win yesterday. You needed them to be three and one. So did I. I prefer that. No, what I was saying was, is that,

you know, they played the Giants who were a bit of a mess on opening day. No, Andrew Thomas, that offensive line was a mess. They played the Raiders. Their best guard didn't play. You know, they were on a short week,

Monday night football, west to East Coast, one o'clock start. And a lot of people got very, excited about the defensive performances. And I think it's, and I think, okay, well, in my view, I think it was, you know, there was cautiousness in the approach to they're much better. Why? Because when they played a good offense, they got torched against Green Bay. And when they played a better than average offense yesterday, they got torched again. So I think it is still very much a wait

and see here. But after yesterday, there are concerns. But back to what I was going to say about coverage, I think it's really hard for us that didn't play, didn't coach to understand, is it more players and execution, or is it more scheme in play calling? And it sounded to me, they both are always going to be married in a way that can't be separated. it's the play called the players the DNA of all of those days is only like think about a coordinator if you ain't got the players you need to call a certain style defense you're going to stay away from that defense no matter how much you love that defense because i don't have the soldiers for it so they are so married to each other we're sometimes we are never know unless we end that locker room truly which one is the weakness now the only thing they can tell us sometimes if it's because it's because

start to be patterns. If the certain person that continue to get beat and it becomes a pattern, then it's more of a good person thing than it is a technique thing. What's going on with the play car? All right. You know what?

Enough about why. Let's I'm going to be Tyrion Lannister right now. I'm going to be the hand and I'm going to we got to come up with solutions here. So what's this? What's the solution? You're Tyrion Lannister, not me.

No, no, no, I'm more Litterfinger. I'm about chaos is a ladder. Yeah, but that's... Chaos is a ladder to greatness. You've got to realize Little Finger started the game of Thrones. He started all the drama. I know, but you can't trust Little Finger, and I want to be able to trust you. And guess what?

In this world, you can't trust nobody. I understand me. I always understand it. All right. What's the solution? The fix is, one, I think they need to simplify to play faster. Two, understand you don't have the depth you started the season off with.

You're going to have to make sure that some guys are being rotated in, not because you want to, because they have to, because they could be a starter within a drop of a dive. Three, like I said, after simplifying it, after making sure you maximizes the people, I want to see guys like Tyler Owens on the feet. I want to see other guys that we haven't been utilizing. I want to see these guys utilize. And on that defensive front, I know they've been running. Rotating, I think you need to find

rich duos, which pairs, which guys work better together. Because I don't think I don't think this happened yet. I don't think they found, all right, these, these work together, these work together. Like, I don't think they found

that quick shuffle over there. So I think simplify, put these guys in less, let's, how should I say, high-risk situation? And I think you need to be a complementizing and making sure that everybody's on the same page so everybody can play fast, everybody can play physical. And people need to, when anything get bad, they need to understand truly.

They just have to lean on that technique, man. Technique is everything. You know, on the D-line thing that you just talked about, what do you think the best combo of players is? Are you talking about just the front-for? their base four, like which four should be out there the most? Well, first of all, I like anything with Ken Laugh. If people really want to appreciate some good trench warfare,

go get you all 22 and watch so Ken Laugh. He's throwing people out the club. And pain is getting that edge back and see, he's not getting double-teened as much because Kenlaught is in there. So any combination of them, and Doris Armstrong is the unappreciated man. This Rodney Dangerfield right there. He gets no respect. He just ended a streak of a sack per game

starting back to last year. So he has been getting out of the past Russia. So any mix of those three plus whoever else needs to be in that past Russian core. They need to find the true mixture of what's needed. All right. Well, you know, it changes, and there's still plenty of time. There are 13 games left in the season. They're going to play them anyway, even though some people expected more and are disappointed. I think considering your best player didn't play in two games, two and two is fine. I mean, yeah, two and two is fine. How do you see Sunday's match up against the Chargers? Well, like I told you, anytime we got a game that number five

is dressed up at Jedi, we always got a chance. Now, the one thing that I think we're going to see a little bit of a different Georgia team because Joe Ott, one of the best offensive linemen in football, you don't lose a player like that

and get better, especially after them all ready losing Rashon Slater. So it's going to be some trench warfare that's going to decide that game. The big uglies we'll decide this game right here. And it's going to be one of the things. They got Amaranhampton.

They got a... And Herbert is... I have never seen him look good, but I'm not shot because that's what Harbaugh does. He's a quarterback whisper. He understands. We'll be a challenge going to play them over there. But like I said, any time we got number five, we got a chance. I agree with that.

A couple of quick league questions. How much trouble are the Ravens in? You know what? If anybody can find their way out, it's their team, because they're too damn challenge. but also look at their first four scheduled games. Like, they've been had this number one, you know, this top schedule for so long, and we've been used to them skating through it that sometimes you don't stop to see how hard this schedule is.

I just schedule I only get better. I mean, thought as it goes with two games against Cincinnati and Jake Brown. Hell, they might have Russell Wilson by that time. So the schedule with the will get, I think. They will play like this. I'm never counting out in a team with Lamar Jackson quarterback and Derek Henry at the running back. I don't care how the defense look. Now, you want to talk about how a team feel about their defense.

Would you want to go to sleep and wake up a Baltimore Raven fan and talk about defense? When it's been their identity for a billion years and all of a sudden now, they can't stop a nosebleed? No, that's different. Well, the expectations for great defense in Baltimore have been earned. That's for sure. Well, this team didn't earn it. They can't be living off Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. I'm saying the fan expectation. Yes. No, you're right. But I tend to agree with you. I think they'll figure it out. And they're in a division that's certainly still getable. In the NFC right now, you know, again, it's only four games and the Packers look great. And then last night they gave up 40. But do you have a team in the NFC that you feel really good about that this team is going to be there? in late January with a chance.

And you're saying from the NFC, period? NFC. The Detroit Lions will be there. That's mine. That's mine. They will be there. I would also say the L.A. Rams will be there. And I hate to say this.

The bleacher creatures of Philadelphia will be there. That team right there, to me, is the most complete roster in football. When you go roster plus coaching and synergy, they win ugly, but they can win any way they want to. Sequin is off to a slow start. Nobody is saying nothing about it. A.J. Brown is off to a slow start. Everybody's talking about it. And they just continue to win, right?

They just continue to win. But, Washington, we will have something to say about it, too. Yeah, because I still believe that five you could argue is the best quarterback in the conference. And if you have the best quarterback in the conference, you get a shot. But that's interesting because those are the three teams for me right now. Like if you said of the final four, the four that participate in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs, the Rams, as long as Stafford's healthy, the Lions and the Eagles are the only three that I feel really good about. You know, Green Bay, I think I would have said them two weeks ago, and it would have been too early.

I think they're really good and they're really talented. But I like Jordan Love. I like him a lot, but there are still some things that occasionally he does that'll cost you. But I think he's- He has to prove. He has to prove it in the playoffs. See, he goes to think about it. Oh, ball coach told y'all did agree.

Y'all can't be crowning them. Y'all want to crown him. Y'all want to crowd these guys after two games and make them the best team in NFL, and they just went head to tail with the Cowboys, who people said two weeks ago were the worst team. Right. All right. You're the best.

Thanks for doing this. Hope you're well. Everybody can watch Fred. He's a part of all the stuff on the commander's, you know, website, YouTube channel with Logan and with Santana and everybody else. appreciate you doing this. Oh, also post-game show with Jackson on radio. Yeah, most definitely.

Coach game show with Jackson, also Barstool Sport for John Gruden. So I'm out of a little bit. There you go. And it just reminded me the last time we talked was after the first preseason game. And I said to you, you know, they played the Patriots. I said, is there anything worse than having to do three hours of post-game after they got their ass kicked in the first preseason game. That was tough.

That is, that's a grind. This real man works. This real man. It's grunge work right there. That is a grind. All right, brother. Appreciate it as always. Anytime, Professor.

Fred Smoot, everybody. All right, that'll do it for today, back tomorrow with Tommy.