The Kevin Sheehan Show - Take Haskins Out?

Episode Date: December 9, 2019

Kevin recaps Redskins-Packers. He updates on the Bruce Allen possibilities for this week. Lots of discussion about Dwayne Haskins including "should he or shouldn't he have stayed in the game" along with his performance and grade against the Packers. Kevin went "Around the NFL" to talk about the incredible 49ers-Saints and Chiefs-Patriots games. He and Aaron finished up talking Terps over Illinois, Georgetown over SMU, and the College Football Playoff. <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. competitor, John, didn't want to come out. He felt fine. It felt good.

There was no medical reasons to make a switch or anything of that nature. Never entered our mind or anybody else's mind. So we rolled with Dwayne. You know, I mean, he battled hard and battled through some tough, you know, bumps, I guess. But, you know, there was never an instant. is where we were thinking of taking them out of the game. It never occurred to us. Never occurred to them to take Dwayne Haskins out of the game.

I'm here. Aaron is here. We're going to do a lot of Redskins follow up. A lot of big picture Redskins stuff. A lot of Dwayne Haskins injury stuff. J.P. Finley will join us from Wisconsin. He has not yet gotten on a plane to come back, so we'll catch him before he does. We'll go around the NFL where there were.

really compelling games yesterday. The 49ers Saints game, the Patriots Chiefs game, those were football games. You know, the Redskins pretty much have been non-participants in the NFL competitive season. And it has been a great NFL season. And with three weeks left, still some really big games to go. And yesterday, the 49ers Saints game may have been the game of the year. The Patriots Chiefs game may have been the most controversial game of the year, led by Jerome Bogor and his officiating crew, which turned the game into an absolute mess. How he works a game of significance is beyond me.

It seems like every game Bogers involved in. Kirk Triplett there for a few years. Bogor and company in recent years, it just turns into an utter shit show with him and his crew, but yet they keep putting them out there. The Patriots got absolutely. Hosed in the game. It's about time. It happens to them, Aaron. You know, it never seems to happen to them, but they really got jobbed. And more on that game and all of the other games, including last night, coming up when we go around the NFL, because this NFL season really has been very, very good. It's got the potential to get much better. The playoffs are going to be really, really interesting. And the Redskins just haven't, you know, obviously been in that portion of the NFL. season and that part of the NFL season. They're off sort of with a couple of other terrible

teams, you know, muddling, muddling through a very long 2019. Now, I say that, and I do recognize that yesterday was the day that they were actually finally eliminated mathematically from the playoff picture. I mean, it would have happened weeks ago in any other division but the NFC East, which has just been horrible this year, but it is official with the loss at Green Bay. yesterday that they are not going to the playoffs. That is a fourth year in a row no playoffs. That is an eighth time in the last 10 years, no playoffs. That is a 16th time in the last 20 years, no playoffs. In the NFC, only the Lions have been to the playoffs fewer times over the last 20 years than the Redskins. The Redskins truly are bottom feeders. You know, they're not close.

They haven't been close. There have been moments over the years where we've all been fooled, into thinking things might be in the right direction or on the right path, but they never really are, and they probably won't ever be. Not as long as Dan Snyder owns the team, not as long as he continues to employ incompetent lead figures in the football operation. There might be, you know, we've talked about this so many times in the past. There's a head fake season here and there, you know, a run to nine and seven and a six seed and a first round loss. That might come once every three or four years, every five years. But then they'll do something really dumb, which will halt any momentum that they might actually be in the process of creating. It's what they are. It's what they do.

And we have to deal with that, even if there are big changes coming. And that's where I will start. I will get to the Dwayne Haskins injury stuff and some of my thoughts and tweets during the game and after the game that seemed to rile a few of you up. We will do a game. We will do a game, take as well because there's actually, you know, some credit to be handed out and given to some of the people involved with yesterday for a second straight week. But we sort of start with this. Will there be news this week about the Redskins? I said last week, or the week before, I forget now, I think it was early last week, Aaron. I said, keep your eyes and ears, said it on the radio show, set it on the podcast. Keep your eyes and ears open for news this week.

And I said last week, I said next week, but it's this week that may come out during the league meetings in Texas, which are mid this week. Jason Lock and Fora from CBS Sports yesterday during the morning NFL show said the following. Quote, sources say Snyder is beginning to understand the gravity of his situation and that major changes could be coming to the Skins front office this week. He also mentioned that David Shaw, the Stanford coach, could be a target for the skins. David Shaw is one of those guys that has been on the skin shortlist at various times and other teams shortlists at various times. I think David Shaw is a phenomenal college football coach. He's been in the NFL before.

I can tell you right now what he's not good at, Aaron. David Shaw is not a good clock manager, time manager, score manager guy, but I think his football teams have always been highly disciplined, and he usually gets more out of less, which to me is always the indication of a really good coach. Now, as it relates to what Lock and Forer reported and what I discussed last week, I think there's a decent chance. We're going to get some news this week. If I had to wager, I'd wager that the news is that the Bruce Allen era is over in Washington.

I don't have that on good enough sources. I don't have good enough sources on that to go with that as a report. But I have been given indication from various people that I trust over a month now that Bruce wasn't going to be here in 2020. And then last week was sort of told that some news on this could come as early as this week. This would be also the time that Dan fired Vinny. It was during the league meetings back in 2009 when he got rid of Vinny. and he hired Bruce Allen.

Again, if Bruce leaves the organization, I get it. I know what a lot of you have said to me over the last couple of years in the last couple of months when I've sort of emphatically said, I actually think this is going to be it for Bruce. It doesn't mean the organization has gotten rid of its biggest problem, which is the owner. I get that. That's true.

You know, a lot more has to happen. than just ridding themselves of Bruce Allen. The owner has to own all of this himself. He's got to do something about it. He's got to have a legitimate epiphany at 55 years old, that he's been the problem, that this problem for 20 years of absolute ineptitude is his. He's got to own it.

He's got to change. He's got to hire somebody, give him total autonomy over the football operation. He's got to promise contractually to stay comfortable. completely out of the football operation unless asked for help on something. You know, this could be an interesting week. You know, it could. But ultimately, I get what a lot of you have said to me. I understand that, that it's not going to automatically mean, here we go, we now can go have an organization.

Bruce is a symptom. He's not the root cause. He's a very, very obvious symptom. He is a symptom that has sort of appeared in ugly warp form and ugly, you know, marks all over your body, rash form. I understand that. But it's not going to be like this incredible news that people will celebrate, but it won't be the thing that turns this organization around. The owner has to do that.

And obviously the best chance any of us would have is if he sold the team, which I don't believe he'll ever do. The 20 to 15 loss of the Packers had a lot packed into it. We're going to get to that in a moment. But I did want to mention some of the stuff from yesterday regarding the Dwayne Haskins injury. I did something on Twitter yesterday that I do quite often, and I don't really care about what people think about it,

but it was one of those things, and it won't be the first time, it won't be the last, where a lot of you got really, really angry at me. You know, the last place, Aaron, you really want to just sort of throw a thought out there if you're not ready to take the heat for it is in 280 characters or less on Twitter, you know. But all of you out there, let me just say up front,

all of you that were criticizing me and some of you demanding an apology, hell will freeze over before you get an apology for me on anything I tweeted yesterday. Understand that. You're not getting that. It ain't going to happen. Not going to happen. Now, what you really got after me about was something that I tweeted out following the game yesterday. It was a follow-up to a tweet, an earlier tweet.

And I tweeted the following. This is what I wrote. I wrote that maybe he, meaning Haskins, wasn't as injured as he appeared. And perhaps he's just overly dramatic. And they know that about him. I didn't hear that from anyone. That was just a guess. Remember the wrist excuse from a few weeks back, question mark.

And then I hashtagged it Redskins. and a lot of you really, really came after me because you thought I was accusing him of faking an injury. I was not doing that. I did not do that. I was not accusing him of faking an injury. I don't really have that much of a problem if you came to that conclusion from that one tweet and you didn't see any of the earlier tweets or you haven't listened to the podcast or the radio show. But for those of you demanding that I apologize for it, not going to happen.

You know, that tweet was just a follow-up to an earlier tweet. I had tweeted earlier that perhaps he was the type of person that is overly dramatic when it comes to things and that the team maybe knows this about him. You know, people thought I may have known something or heard something about what the team thought. I didn't. The tweet was just to clear up that this was not something I was reporting that I had heard. It was just a guess as to one possibility why they may have kept him in the game when he was sort of hobbling around. You misinterpreted that tweet if you thought I was accusing him of faking an injury. I was not.

If you read my earlier tweets or you've listened to me over the last month or so whenever Dwayne Haskins got that first start, you know, and a lot of you reached out and said, you know, I know what you're talking about. I've been one of the few around to praise Haskins and his progress over the last month. And you're going to hear more of that in a few minutes, even though I thought he had not anywhere near his best game of the five that he started. Now, did I suggest that one of the possible reasons they kept him in the game despite him hopping and hobbling around was because the ankle injury wasn't as bad as it looked? Yes, I did suggest that. Bill Callahan, you heard him,

said as much after the game, said he was cleared to play and they didn't think the injury was that big of a deal at all. Didn't occur to them to pull him. Did I also suggest that it was possible that they kept him in the game because not only did they know the injury wasn't that bad, nearly as bad as it looked, but perhaps they know him in a way that we don't yet, that they know him as the kind of player that will look worse off than he actually is, that he can be overly dramatic in those situations? Yes, I did suggest that as a possibility. That's not accusing him of faking an injury.

That's not me accusing him of anything. Is it really that crazy to think? that one of the reasons they kept him in there was because they know him a little bit more and they considered that it was a possibility that he was being a little bit dramatic, not that he wasn't injured, but that it just wasn't as serious as he was making it appear to be. Don't we all know people who can be a bit more on the theatrical and the dramatic side when they get hurt or they get sick? Of course we do. That's all that was. Most of you got that. Some of you didn't. My favorite was in limbo on Twitter.

He retweeted my tweet with a very succinct comment, not needing 280 characters to do it. And he directed the following three words at me with the retweet of my tweet about Haskins. I hate you is what he wrote. I laughed out loud. It made me laugh in limbo. It was so good. Twitter can be dog eat dog on game days. I talked about this on radio this morning, especially when you are living in the world of a losing fan base like ours.

We're so battered as a fan base. And nowhere does that get reflected more than on Twitter, on game days in particular. It gets, Aaron, how heated does Twitter get on game day? Just a little bit. It gets so heated and when you're a fan of a perennial loser like we are, the emotion on game days boils. You know, it boils over into 280 characters of anger and frustration and it turns our little corner of Twitter into a jungle.

Hopefully, when we all get done yesterday and we all move on to doing something else and the day is over or ready to go to sleep, hopefully nobody's legitimately going to bed mad. I'm not. I think there's a lot to like about Haskins through five starts. I've made that very clear, and there was more yesterday that I liked about him. Some things I didn't like also. That's true.

There were some things I did not love about the game yesterday. We'll get to that as we now get to the Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. And the game take today is presented by Mama Lucia restaurants. They brought pizzas in. I love their pizza. Tommy loves their pizza.

Aaron loves their pizza. But they've got so much more than pizza. I mean, they've brought in so much good food here over the course of this football season. And we appreciate it. David's doing a great job. Jimmy, it's good to see him recently. Mama Lucia's has locations all over town. The one that right in Beth,

Bethesda on Elm Street is a phenomenal restaurant. There's the one in College Park. There's one in Alney. There's one in Rockville. A couple of them, actually, in Rockville. One in Silver Spring on East West Highway. Mammaluchia restaurants. Their pizzas are the best.

Stop in. Their pastas are great. Great appetizers, too. Great people as well. And we appreciate their taking good care of us here on the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast. All right. On the game. First of all, you know, you had an injury to Darius Geis.

The news from that so far as we sit here and record the podcast this morning from Tom Pellasaro of the NFL network is that it's an MCL. That was really one of the big pieces of news to come out of the game yesterday. I was told that Darius was telling people that he had a torn MCL, and I was also told that this was a similar thought back a year ago in the preseason when he debuted against the Patriots. They thought it was an MCL as well and it turned out to be an ACL. Let's hope it's not that. There's an MRI scheduled. There will be news on this later on today. On the game itself, you know, it was one of those games that I was watching, similar to like the Minnesota and Buffalo games where I never legitimately thought they had a chance to win the game, even though score-wise they were in the game. I did think that they played.

pretty well, you know, played well enough to lose by five to a good team, a playoff team on the road in a very difficult, a difficult place to play. You know, the Redskins, if you pay, if you pay attention to this stuff, and Aaron and I do, they're becoming a covering machine, five and two against the number over the last seven. And one of the reasons they're a covering machine is the number one thing on the things I liked list. And I know this sounds like it's, you know, a or it's cliche. But, you know, for teams that are three and nine coming into a game like that, a lot of times you do not see the effort that the Callahan teams here over the last few weeks

have put out. They played really hard. I'm not a big Bill Callahan fan, as I'm sure you know. I've been very critical of him and I'll continue to be when warranted. And, you know, the truth is, if he coaches any team in 2020, I don't think that team will be a good team. But at the same time, I have to acknowledge that this team is better under him now than it was at any point earlier in the season with Gruden.

Ultimately, he's got wins over Miami, Detroit, and Carolina. So the results, you know, aren't great. But they play hard. And other than the jet game, they've been a more physical team than they were before he took over. more often than that, they've been a better team than they were before he took over. Not a good team, mind you. All right, but for a second consecutive week, I'm going to give some credit where I think credit is due. This coaching staff is getting more out of this group than I thought they would. It's not great. It's not something I would want to see more of next year with the same group back. I do not want to

see that. But for a team with a really bad record and nothing really to play for standings-wise, they've played hard, and at times they've played, you know, better than I thought they would play. I didn't think they had a chance to win the game yesterday. I think, you know, if they had taken a lead at Green Bay, Aaron Rogers would have done something to win the game. Last week, they fell behind 14. Nothing came back and won the game. You know, the Minnesota game and the Buffalo games were games I really watching didn't think they were very good in. You know, the Minnesota game was that Thursday night game. They were never really in the game, even though score-wise it indicated they were in the game. It never really felt like Minnesota had their pedal on the gas, you know, and they could have put it on the gas any point at any point during that game. I sort of felt the same way about the Buffalo game, but, you know, Detroit, Carolina,

and then yesterday, three really, three efforts in a row worthy of some praise. So that's the first thing on my list. The second thing on the list of things I liked, the defense again. You know, it wasn't a perfect day. by a long shot. But the thing that stood out more than anything else was they made one of the great quarterbacks in the history of the game,

and one of the great quarterbacks in the game currently, they made Aaron Rogers look ordinary. They made him look uncomfortable, really. The pressure on him was consistent. It got him off his game. You know, last week against Kyle Allen and the Panthers, the Redskins probably had their best pass rush day in years. They had seven sacks, and it felt like it could have been nine or ten.

You know, yesterday was another good day. Ionitis, he collapses the interior of the pocket. He does. He's a good player. Payne and Allen are good players. Carrigan before he got hurt yesterday was pretty good. They sacked Rogers four times, but it could have easily been five or six sacks. Now, Rogers missed some wide open throws that could have made the game a little bit easier for Green Bay.

but you know what? I sort of credit the Redskins defense for making him uncomfortable, getting him out of his rhythm. The coverage was good most of the day too. When you play the Packers, you have to contain Aaron Rogers. You cannot let him get comfortable. You know, whether it's on schedule or off schedule. If you can do that, if you can make him have an un-Aaron Rogers-like day, you know, when he went 18 for 28 for a buck 95, that's it. four times as mentioned, only had maybe one or two big downfield completions. You've got a chance to keep it close. The Skins' run defense wasn't that good, but going up against Green Bay, what's the top priority?

You can't let Aaron Rogers get off. You've got to try to slow them down, and they did that. Packers went five for 13 on third down. At one point, they were three for 10. That's a big improvement for the skins defensively. The Packers started drives multiple times near midfield in the game, and the skins gave up a total of 20 points on the day. That's a good day for the defense.

Credit to Greg Minusky also and his staff. Now, at the end of that game, the Packers had one of those drives that we've seen teams sort of put together against the Redskins when they really needed it at the end of games. This one was seven minutes and 24 seconds and 14 plays to kick what essentially was the, you know, the game clinching field goal. You know, we've seen that multiple times this year. Starting with the San Francisco game, that was like a six-minute drive.

The Minnesota game was like an eight-minute drive. The Buffalo game, they did it to them again. The Packers did that to them, but overall, I thought it was a pretty good day for the defense. Second consecutive, pretty good day for the defense. You know, some of you, after last week, when I praised the defense, said, well, this is what we expected all year. Would the year have been significantly different? if the defense had played that way all year.

Well, it would have been different. You know, if the defense had played the way it played the last two games in every single game this year, you know, they would be like what Denver was last year or Buffalo was last year. Two, you know, pretty good defensive teams that went six and ten. They're not going to be three and thirteen, you know, if the defense is as good as they've been in the last two weeks. But they're also not going to be 10 and 6. or 9 and 7. So that answers that.

The rush offense was good yesterday. Again, you know, the Redskins have emphasized the running game since Callahan took over, and they've done it well, much of the time. They rushed for 121 yards yesterday, 4.3 yards per carry. Adrian Peterson was really good again. And then there was Darius Geis. You know, off to a good start, five carries, 42 yards, 8.3 yards per carry. got hurt. God, I hope he's not seriously injured. You know, he's good, but he's perhaps, as we've

mentioned, too injury prone. I feel badly for him if this is season ending. I wanted to see more from him this year, including some proof that he could stay upright, and maybe we saw that he can't. You know, the early portion of the game, Adrian Peterson got the bulk of the carries. I think at one point he had seven carries and Geis only had one. And some of you were saying, well, why is that? I mean, play the young guys. I agree with that. But I think Callahan's giving carries to Adrian Peterson as the lead guy still, because he really respects Adrian Peterson. And he's got a philosophy of, you know, rewarding guys who are earning their time with preparation and in Adrian Peterson's case leadership.

I think he's trying to send a message that this guy prepares. He's a pro. He's a leader. And even though we're going young in a lot of spots and we really like Darius, Adrian's still going to be a big part of this thing. I think there's something to admire about that when it comes to Callahan. You know, perhaps no choice now with if Geis is hurting out. The last thing on my things that I like list is Terry McClearn.

He's just, he's really become, is he the best draft choice they've had in, in how long? I don't know. I mean, I don't have the list in front of me. He's really good, okay? He is a starter. He's a number one. I don't know if he's an elite number one. I think it's too early to say that.

He's better than Josh Doxon. I think we can definitely say that. much. Terry McClureen made an incredible catch in that end zone. That ball was behind him. He snagged it with his opposite hand, reaching back, left-handed. What a catch. What a season he's put together. Where is he in the rookie of the year? I mean, he's low on the rookie in the air. Yeah, like top eight, top nine, something like that. But that definitely was one of the catches of the year. Great catch. Really good catch. You know, in looking at their recent, you know, Jonathan Allen's a run. I'm looking for like, you know, the mid-rounder. Matt Ionitis would be the guy.

Matt Ionitis has Pro Bowl potential as an interior defensive lineman. He hasn't been in the Pro Bowl yet. I doubt he will coming off, you know, being a part of this team this year. He is a very good defensive tackle. Very good. He stops the run and he is able to do what we've always wanted from the interior DeLyman, and that is to create push to disrupt the pocket. He does that. By the way, Terry McLaurin, tied

for seventh on rookie of the year right now. Okay. I mean, he's not going to be the rookie of the year? No. But he is having a very good rookie season. Things that I didn't like, you can't fall behind in all of these games 14-0. They did it last week. You know, the start.

You've got to be ready when this game starts. I didn't think the pass protection once again was consistent enough. Dwayne got sacked four times, and I don't know how many of them were his fault. I know that when you see a four-man rush more times than not, that's not on the quarterback. And there was a four-man rush or two that either got sacks or really wreaked havoc. The run defense, even though I complimented the defense because he kept Aaron Rogers under wraps, it was almost like, you know, we're going to pick our poison, we're going to let them run, but we're going to get Rogers.

and I think they made the right choice there, but man, is Aaron Jones good? The Packers rush for a buck 75, 6.2 yards per carry. The Redskins have not been a great run-stopping team this year. It almost makes you wonder why, you know, Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rogers don't come to some sort of an agreement that in some of these games, it's better to run Aaron Jones just a lot more. You know, he's really a legit back. He's very good. You know, they've got the other guy, Jamal Williams,

as well. But yeah, I, people are going to give up on the Packers, and they're going to see the two blowout losses recently to the Chargers and the 49ers and barely beating the Redskins, or at least the perception based on the score as they barely beat the Redskins. I still think that they have a pass rush,

and they're able to run the football better than maybe they give themselves a chance to run it, you know, week in and week out. The last thing on the things I didn't like list, Callahan at the end of the first half. He doesn't know what to do. I mean, there's no other way to explain it. If you understand, like I understand, how to do this stuff, you know that he didn't handle the clock well at all. They got the big play from Ryan Anderson, the sack force fumble, and the recovery on Aaron Rogers. they've got the ball first and 10 from their own 40 with 51 seconds left and three timeouts.

He went to the locker room with one of the timeouts in his pocket. The opportunity to save a shitload of time came after the very first snap. They ran a screen to Chris Thompson. It got three or four yards. The play ended at about 45 seconds, 44 seconds. And they did not call time out. And then they took their next snap at 28 seconds. That's 16 seconds. You know, between 15 and 17 seconds, they could have saved.

They had three timeouts. Use it. Get organized. Come up with a good second and seven play. You got a chance to get three before the end of the half. You don't have that far to travel to get in range for Dustin Hopkins. It's 14 to 6. You got a chance to cut it to 14 to 9 at halftime.

You got great field position. You can't let 15 or 16 seconds roll off the clock. in that spot. You can't. All of us know that. It's amazing how many coaches don't know that. So they take the next snap at 28 seconds. Haskins hit Sims for 11 yards,

and they call a timeout with 21 seconds left. There should have been 36 seconds left after that first down throw. They got first and 10 at the Green Bay, 46-yard line. There should have been 36 or 37 seconds left. Instead, there were 21. That's just horrible managing of the clock. You know, if he said, well, you know, we're not really confident in Dwayne in getting us into field goal range, even with the field position, and we were really, really wanted to be conservative. Conservative.

There's no team in football, first and ten from their own 40 with 51 seconds left that isn't thinking score. And you should definitely be thinking score. You're a three and nine football team. Who cares if he turns it over? Who cares if you don't get in field goal range? You've got to try. This is some of the learning stuff. We want to see him.

And then sure enough, you know, they come out with 28 seconds left, or with 21 seconds left, when there should have been about 36 seconds left. And he gets sacked by Martinez, who's really good. So is Preston Smith. And Green Bay had a penalty on the play, an illegal substitution on the play. And now they've got a first intent at the Green Bay 46.

And there are 14 seconds left in the game. Hello? Seriously? He threw an interception on that last play, trying to force something. The snap came with eight seconds to go. There should have been 24 seconds left. And maybe he doesn't force the ball to harm.

And he was laid on that ball. It was picked off by Amos, the safety that they got from the Bears last year. He's been a good player for them. Ridiculous. Just a complete lack of understanding on how to use timeouts and manage the clock at the end of the half. He's clueless. A lot of them are, but man, you see him looking over there and he's just, he's stumped by the whole situation.

I mean, he's completely mystified. I think a guy like him, because he's such a control thing and he thinks he's so brilliant, I think he hates to be in those situations. he would have preferred to have had the ball at his own 15-yard line so he could take a couple of knees and go to the locker room and not have to make the decisions on the clock and the timeouts. He's horrible at this. I don't know, maybe it's Kevin O'Connell.

Maybe it's O'Connell that's horrible at it. I'm telling you right now, there is no coach they can hire next year that I will be in favor of if that coach comes with horrible clock management history on his resume. give me somebody who knows what the hell they're doing. Callahan, God bless his heart. He is completely and utterly clueless when it comes to calling timeouts. They took a timeout into the locker room with him.

Amazing. All right. I want to get to Dwayne Haskins here. So let me first tell you what I thought of his performance. I thought it was a step-back performance for the most part. And when I say that, he made a lot. a lot of good plays in the game. But I thought he missed a lot of plays, too. Now, some of that may have been because he was banged up a little bit with the ankle and not nearly as mobile as he was.

We're going to get to that here shortly. I didn't think he picked up the blitzes early on on the skin's second drive. He was sacked on the first play of the game, and Chris Thompson missed a couple of blocks, too, just like Adrian Peterson did last week. But Amos came on a safety blitz. We've seen a lot of safety blitzes really confuse him. Mike Petten's a good defensive coordinator, and I think he confused Haskins a lot. There were a couple of times where it looked like they were overloading one side, and they came with the safety on the other side. I think Dwayne got confused a lot by that. I don't know why they went third and one with an empty backfield shotgun, if you remember that. He threw to McClorn, a ball that got batted down. But I thought that Dwayne looked more

confused at times. I thought there were a couple of complete and complete misses. There was a throw down the middle of the field into cover two to McClearn where Sims is sitting in the hole between the linebackers and the two deep safeties for a first down throw. This is something that Cooley taught me over the years. He's like, this is sort of an easy, you know, elementary 101 kind of thing for quarterback. play, you know, you know, and when you see cover two and you see that shell, you know where you're going to go with the ball if your receiver can get there and you can protect. There's going to be a hole if they sit down in front of that thing over the linebackers and in front of the two safeties.

And Sims was sitting there and he forces one into the cover two to McLaren. You know, that's just, that's a bad decision, guys, it really is. He's got to get better on that stuff. That was a third and six, I think. They had a chance to, you know, they probably, the throw would have been to Sim short of the sticks, but he would have turned and easily gotten the first down. I also thought he made a lot of good throws. He had a really, really good throw to Harmon for 30 yards on the drive that resulted in the first touchdown. That was the third and 13, you know, he's back there.

and that came after he was injured too. He's back there and he held on to it, and some of you think he's holding on to it too long. I like his quick flick release when he waits for somebody to get open in the pocket, and that one was a really good throw to Harmon under duress, and Harmon made a really good catch and run that got him down to the two-yard line.

They scored on the next play, I think it was, with Peterson. I loved that throw in the game. He had a really good third down and four throw in the third quarter to Sims for eight yards. He had a great throw to McLaurin on quick, unblocked pressure on a slant on third and two. This is another example. We've seen this in his five games. He is willing to take the big shot in the pocket, not afraid to take the big shot.

The eyes don't go down. He doesn't cower. He hangs in there. He makes the throw. He takes the big shot. This is encouraging. This is one of the ones. of the things I'm encouraged by. This is the thing I pointed out last week or the week before

that Joe Gibbs, I'll never forget when he said it about Doug Williams. What does Doug Williams do? He's willing to take the big shot to make the throw. Doesn't see it. His eyes never go down. They stay down the field. You see that with Haskins? Look at that third and two slant throw to McLaurin. It's on the money. It's a quick throw. Here comes the pressure, and he takes a big shot. You know, that last drive is, you know, it's 20 to 9, it's two and a half minutes to go. They're playing soft coverage. I don't look at that as much as I looked at some of the other throws as being impressive. Anyway, overall, I loved the way he competed on what was, you know, at the very least, a slightly injured ankle.

I thought he showed some toughness there. And it's what I've been saying about him, you know, going back to preseason, the thing that I, it just my gut tells me watching him, he's got confidence, he has a very, he's got a strong psyche, and he's tough and competitive. And I like that about him, and I think we saw that again yesterday. I think he was inaccurate at times, though. I think he missed a lot. I give him a C-minus for the game yesterday.

It's probably my lowest grade for him so far. You know, the comeback went over Detroit was not a great game through three-and-a-half quarters for him. Wasn't his worst. It wasn't as bad as I thought some people made it out to be, but the final two drives, which won the game. You know, I upgraded him for that. C-C-minus yesterday.

But again, I admire his compete. I really do. I admire his compete. Now, on the injury, I almost want to take you through my thoughts chronologically, because as I was watching the game live on television, I am definitely wondering why he's still in the game. You know, he's hobling around pretty good. There's that one play where he reaches to handoff,

it looks like he can't get to Peterson. I think he actually tripped on Sims or on Sheriff. But, you know, this isn't. a playoff game. Maybe they viewed it as a playoff game because if they had won, they would have still been in mathematical contention this morning. But you know, you're not a playoff team. He's your future, or at least presumably your future. If he's hurt, why is he playing? Why are you risking it? That's what I thought as it was going on. You know, I tweeted out at one point during the game, he's hopping around onto the field. What am I missing? Why is he in here? However,

with that said, after listening to Callahan, after listening to his press conference, after listening to Dwayne say, I'm not coming out, I was, I'm going to play, I'm a competitor. To listening to some of what his teammates said, and I'll ask JP about this when he joins us, they seem to really have some respect for him hanging in there. Now again, I wouldn't be shocked if the injury was what Callahan said it was, which is not so serious. You know, but he was certainly hampered. You could see that with his lack of mobility. But at the end of the game, when I heard Callahan,

I heard him talk about the competitiveness. And I heard him talk about a competitor. And I heard him say that he was cleared to play. And when I heard him say that, I liked the answer. I did. I, if he was cleared to play, you play him. The mindset for a team that is set by a coach and quarterback in particular is that if a game's being played, you compete and you try to win that game.

You know, most fans, and I'm one of them, would prefer close losses right now so that they've got a chance for Chase Young or a chance to trade something for a haul. But, you know, that would not be my preference if I were actually involved in the operation. I understand the people that are in the operation. they are competitive people. They're professional athletes and professional coaches. They're competitive people. They're in that game to win the game.

You know, Dwayne had an ankle injury. He was cleared to play. No one was saying that he was so badly hurt that he needed to come out. He doesn't want to come out. He wants to compete. You let him compete. I like the answers from them. I think like a lot of these things,

you know, we don't know when we're watching this, what is actually going on in the game. We only know what we're seeing. We don't know if doctors have cleared them or if they're saying, hey, it's a little bit, you know, dicey or iffy. And you can laugh at their track record when it comes to medical and training and, you know, as recently as this year, we saw Darius Geis probably stay in the game in the opener a little bit too long. You know, and I do, I do think that it's still in play that he may have been overly dramatic with the way. he was carrying himself on the field.

I am not accusing him of faking injury. It's not what I'm saying. There's a distinction. Bottom line is after the injury, he hooked up with Harmon on that 30-yard play to set up a touchdown. The total post-injury numbers were 14 of 22, 148 yards,

and he only got sacked one more time in the game. I also would say to you, this wasn't a concussion, this wasn't a knee, this was an ankle. Now, if you're compromised with an ankle, it could put you in position to take on another injury. I understand that, but the dude competes. Callahan recognized it, his teammates recognized it.

I actually think it was a bit of a moment for him. Net, net. Didn't have a problem with it afterwards. Had a problem with it in the moment, not afterwards. And of course, you know, this is one of those things. We do pretty well as a media base, as a fan base, man. We don't do controversial wins and losses very well because we don't have many of those. There aren't enough games that matter around here.

We do injury controversies pretty well. We do medical stuff pretty well. And here it comes the outrage. How could they not see that he was carrying his leg and his arms around the field? I mean, it's back to the RG3 thing, the Seattle playoff game. That was a playoff game, people. We have litigated that. We have discussed that for years. It is one of the moments in Redskins history that really, really polarized a lot of the fan base. A lot of you saying they ruined him for good. They had a responsibility to pull him from the game.

And, you know, I'll never forget watching that game. I certainly thought, man, he doesn't look good. I'm certain he's coming out at some point. But when you heard all of the people after the fact, you know, the doctors cleared him, Dr. Beanie, you know, James, why am I blanking on James' last name from Birmingham, Andrews? Dr. James Andrews, you know, coming out of a room in the locker room where Robert wasn't, you know, around for the locker room for the halftime meetings. And everybody's like, where is he? Shanahan's getting ready. He's already told Kirk, Kirk, you're going out to start. And they come out, Robert's begging him to play, saying there's nothing wrong with my knee. We were just adjusting the brace.

It was the playoffs, you know. Context for that was this dude had carried them to the playoffs. And pulling him out in that spot with the doctors clearing him to play would not have been an easy thing for any coach to do. Never ever after the fact thought that that was the issue that many of you did. In fact, I pretty much have taken the view that people that were so up in arms and exaggerated it like he was carrying, you know, his leg. He was walking around on one leg as, you know, sort of,

and I said this earlier in radio, and I believe it, it's a bit of a non-competitive pansy-like answer for me. It is. Yesterday's different. It's not the playoffs. Maybe they thought they were playing for the playoffs. So if they had pulled them and said, ah, which is not going to take a chance, the doctors cleared them,

I wouldn't have had a problem with that. But the fact that the doctors cleared him and you heard about the, you know, you heard the reaction with everybody, appreciating that he had toughed it out. I didn't have a problem with that either. You know, these things are not black and white. They're gray. I get it.

And they're really, really gray when we don't have all of the information. So we'll agree to disagree or we'll agree to agree, depending on where your position is. I didn't feel during the game that he should be in it, but after the game, I didn't have a problem with him staying in it. There you go. C-minus, maybe a C on the day. wasn't his best day, wasn't his worst. You know, every game he's making some plays that make you encouraged or makes me encouraged. And at the same time, I want to be clear on this too.

The jury's way out on him. Way out. Like, I am nowhere near convinced that Dwayne Haskins is and should be the franchise's future. I am just where I've been the last few weeks. Intrigued? more impressed than I thought I would be in a lot of the things that he does and not completely opposed to seeing him come back unless you've got a chance to draft Joe Burrow.

Now, there's no chance if the Redskins were on the board with Burrow there that I wouldn't take Burrow if I'm the Redskins. I'm not passing on the next Aaron Rogers if I think as an organization he could be the next Aaron Rogers in hopes that Dwayne becomes the next Ben Rathlisberger. You know, Burrow looks more Aaron Rogers possible than Dwayne does Ben Rathusberger. And if you get to April and Burroughs on the board when you pick, if it were me, right now on December 9th, I would pick Burrow and figure out an answer for Dwayne.

But I don't think they're going to have a chance to take Joe Burrow. I think he's going to go number one overall, probably to the Bengals, who will replace Andy Dalton with him. and with that understood and more likely than not, you know, I am still intrigued with Haskins. I'm not bailing on them by any stretch. You know, three weeks from now I may bail on him. I'm going to mention this one thing, and this is a thing that you're going to say,

oh, this is something that you would do with Tommy or Tommy would say, no, Tommy will probably weigh in on it. I'm not going to debate that. But he tweeted out, He responded to an Antonio Brown Instagram. Antonio Brown put out this long Instagram, essentially apologizing, right, Aaron? It was an apology for all of the shenanigans.

I mean, do you believe him? I don't. He's unstable. But Dwayne Haskins responded to the Instagram with A.B. to D.C., Let's go, bro. So I don't like that. Call me Boomer, call me old, call me whatever you want. I don't care, okay?

He's got young receivers in McLaren and Harmon that people are excited about. You know, like focus on your guys. It's a bit of a slap at those guys to be out there on social media responding to Antonio Brown's, you know, apology on Instagram, coming from Dwayne Haskins saying, let's go, bro, A.B. Antonio Brown, to D.C., District of Columbia, with the emoji of two eyes.

Like, hey, we're watching. How about focus on your team, on your young receivers, you've got some good ones, and let the front office people handle that stuff. You know, let the front office people handle that stuff. Now, with that said, hell, why not? I mean, bring them on. Bring them on next year.

I mean, they're not going to be any good next year, more likely than not. It's going to depend on the coaching staff. If they, let me retract that. If they come back with Bruce Allen and Bill Callahan and all of these dumb-dums next year, bring on Antonio Brown and Ruben Foster. Let's go out and sign all of them. All of the players that have some issues, let's get all of them that are talented. I'm all for that next year.

But if you've got legitimate football people, in your front office and a new head coaching staff? No, you don't, I don't think that that's something you want. All right, let's bring in J.P. Finley, who is at the airport, getting ready to board a flight back home from Wisconsin. First of all, I don't know that I asked you this last week. Had you been to Lambo before? I had not, man. It is an incredible place. It was really, I really enjoyed walking around and just seeing it. Yeah, I haven't been. Ben, I've heard it's spectacular. All right, let's get to Redskins stuff, not game-related.

Start with this. What are you hearing about potential changes? I talked about it last week on the radio show and on the podcast that I thought this week could be an interesting week in terms of news with the league meetings going on. It was sort of at the same point back in 2009 when Dan canned Vinny and hired Bruce Allen. Are you hearing that anything's imminent? You know, eminent is such a tricky word.

That could mean tomorrow or it could mean... This week. You know, I asked some folks that this week is the week and didn't really get a firm answer. Okay. I think it's imminent, but I don't know that it's this week. And, you know, if you go back when Vinny got fired and Bruce got hired was December 17, 2009. So that could be next week. I tell you what's not going to help is what I expect.

to happen next Sunday when they play the Eagles is going to be 60, 70% green, you know, guys fans wearing green at FedEx Field. I do think the situation is, I think it's a done deal. It's just a matter of when. I don't think it's a matter of if anymore. What specifically, what specifically do you think is a done deal? That Bruce will be gone. Now, whether they let him resign, in some capacity or kind of walk away on his own terms. I don't know if he'll be outright fired, but I think just judging from a million little things

and a couple, you know, real conversations I've had, it just seems like this is going to happen. It's never seemed like this, certainly in the five years I've been out of Reds Park and longer than that as an observer of this team. Yeah, I agree with you, and I said as much earlier. J.P. Finley joining us here on the podcast as he's getting ready to head back to D.C. On the game yesterday, I want to start with Dwayne Haskins. How injured do you think he was? Is it serious?

I don't think it's serious. He seemed to be moving around like pretty much okay after the game. Now, it's possible that maybe he could have kicked in or, you know, he had gotten, I know he was getting a ton of treatment on the ankle throughout the second half. that every time he wasn't on the field, trainers were on the bench working with that ankle and, you know, keeping it loose, I would say. But I don't think it's a concern that he would miss the next start, anything like that. As best I can tell is that he got it rolled in late in the second quarter

when Preston Smith kind of landed on him, and he was in some pain. And, you know, early in that third quarter, I thought he shouldn't be in the game. I thought it seemed pretty obvious he wasn't mobile. But as the game went on, he really seemed to be. be okay. I think he played better, you know, late to third and early in the fourth quarter, and he seemed to be moving way better, you know, by the fourth quarter than he was coming out

at half time. I listen to you and everybody Pepper Callahan afterwards with questions about it. What did you make of his response, which was essentially he's a competitor. He was cleared. there wasn't much concern about the ankle injury. What did you make of that whole press conference in his answers? You know, I found it pretty interesting because, I mean, Callahan doesn't waver in his opinions pretty much, and he certainly doesn't seem to care about scrutiny from the media. There are, you know, a few of us that asked him a series of questions about the ankle. And I think on some level, it might not.

might not have been a very big deal. And I think because he looked pretty gimpy, you know in basketball, when a shooter rolls his ankle and his next couple trips up and down the court, he looks pretty gimpy, but then five, ten minutes later, he's fine. Right. I kind of think that might have been the situation.

And in the moment, I didn't. In the moment, watching that game, you know, I thought he should be on the bench. A team should be in there. And I think watching Kate's warm up pretty aggressively. I think Kate kind of thought he should go in. but I think by the fourth quarter he was okay and then talking with Dwayne after the game

talking with Bill after the game kind of just talking with some other folks around the locker room I think I think it was one of those situations where if the kid had come back and won that game this would be celebrated in you know the cover of the post today with some sort of heroic headline

with a picture of him you know limping a lot I think it was an opportunity for him to prove you know I'm a rookie I'm tough I'll play through it I think the linemen appreciate that kind of stuff. And I don't think they were ever putting his long-term future in jeopardy. Maybe for that first drive in the third quarter when they had the ball,

and he really couldn't move. Somebody could have teed off on him. But that kind of stuff can happen at any moment in a football game, too. What did people in the locker room, other than Callahan, which we heard, you know, back here, and listening to Dwayne with Larry afterwards, listen to that. What did players think of him being out there? Largely, I mean, I think the guys were impressed. McLaurin, I interviewed Terry after the game,

and he said that's the kind of competitor he is. He's going to stay out there and give it everything he's got. I think Morgan Moses is a pretty similar comment. I think by and large the players think, I think on some level, they're like, that's what you're supposed to do, and they're happy to see a first-round rookie take that mindset. Do you think that this, him playing yesterday, you felt the same way I did in the moment.

In the moment, watching it on television, I thought, what's he doing in there? This is a meaningless game, and he's your future, and I didn't feel that way about Griffin in 2012. But do you think that this is going to turn into one of those things? Like I always think the Griffin thing is one of the most polarizing issues among media and fans of all time. What happened in that Seattle game. This is not going to...

They should have pulled him in the Seattle game. No, this is nowhere close to that. Yeah. Robert was dragging his leg on the glass. No, see, stop, stop, stop. No, you're a Sanny defender on this. No, I'm a big defender of Shannie on this. He was told by the doctors, he was cleared by the doctors.

and there was a lot of context to that as well, and it was a playoff game. So you and I will agree. As somebody who has coined and trademarked the smell test, there's also the eye test. When you've watched that game, Robert clearly shouldn't have been on the field. I don't think Duane yesterday ever came close to that. It wasn't a playoff game. I mean, I think to your point, I think trying to compare those two situations is not even close to. But what I was going to get to is I think a lot of our,

a lot of our friends in the media are going to start making it out, that Dwayne was dragging his leg around and his arm yesterday for much of the second half. I will not, and I will put back on those two. You have my words. Actually, Griffin in that playoff game, I did think watching it that, wow, he should probably come out. They probably have a better shot with cousins. But after hearing the explanation afterwards,

I never, ever had an issue with him continuing to play that. game in a playoff game when the doctors just flat out told the coaches that that that that they cleared him and that the only reason he was gone in that locker room at halftime they said was because they tried to fix the brace that he'd come loose um but anyway well we that that's history what did you make of the game yesterday they were competitive again for the second straight week you know i never thought and i don't know if you did i never thought they were going to win the game yesterday um And last week, they obviously got the lead, and so you had to think there was a chance they could win the game. But I thought that they competed hard, and I thought that, you know, for the second consecutive week, they accounted for themselves pretty well.

I mean, you and I pay attention to the same thing. I like the pins with the points all week. I thought 13 was too many. Yep. I don't think Green Bay is quite the powerhouse that their record might indicate. and, you know, I said this on my podcast last night. On some level, Callahan deserves a little bit of credit because he's got these guys playing really tough,

and it's not exciting, but the way they're running the football and committing to running the football, you know, this is what I'll say. So after the Minnesota game, if you remember, that's when Bill was saying, hey, we went toe-to-to-to-with one of the best teams. No, you didn't. You just slowed the game down enough that the Vikings didn't run away with it.

And because it was a Thursday, game, they were happy to just get out of there with a win. But yesterday, against the Packers, I'm not going to use toe-to-to-to, but the skins were competitive. And, you know, Green Bay got made the plays they needed to. When they got that field goal, the game was basically over. It's nice that Duane was able to lead them on a two-minute drill touchdown. But, you know, in some ways, those points don't really matter outside of covering.

But I think, I think you're learning. something about the young players on this team. I think Terry McClorin is, I mean, the best draft pick this organization has had when you consider like the value and stuff. I mean, for a third and some time, I think Matt Ionitis is the third. I think Durant Payne is a really, really good player. Cole Holcomb is all over the place. You're learning some good things about the team that I really believe in 2020 and beyond.

I think assuming Bruce goes and the structure of this organization starts to look different, If there's a new football ball, I think that guy can sell some head coaching candidate on real opportunity. Yeah, it's hard to disagree with that. Obviously, Snyder's still there as the owner. So that's an impediment for a lot of quality people to come here, even if Bruce is gone. But to your point, I think what we've learned here over the last several days is that, several games, is that they actually have some players. I know you've got to run.

Last thing, I gave Callahan some credit, too. You think Bruce is gone. I think Bruce is gone. Do you think there's any chance Callahan's back? No. I mean, I won't say zero, but I don't see it happening. All right. Go get your flight.

Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, Kevin. See later. J.P. Finley, everybody. Listen to his Redskins Talk podcast. Follow him on Twitter at J.P. Finley, NBCS. And also, use mybooky.ag if you're looking to gamble.

All right? MyBooky.orgie.ag is one of those reliable places that you can have faith that if you give money, you're going to get it out, you're going to be able to bet with quality lines, you're going to be able to wager in many different ways, straight bets, parley, teasers, future bets, et cetera. Go to mybooky.orgie.orgie. And if you do that right now, here's their offer right now. If you join, MyBooky's going to match your deposit halfway all the way up to $1,000.

That means if you deposit $2,000, you get an extra $1,000 in free money to play with. All you got to do is use my promo code Kevin D.C. To activate the offer. Once again, that's promo code Kevin D.C. To get your extra cash from MyBooky. Let's go around the NFL, Aaron. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go.

around the NFL. Snap is high, the kick is up, and it is good. What a game in the Superdome yesterday. 4846, that was the Robbie Gold kick at the gun to win it in an incredible game of the year and a potential, a potential preview of a playoff game, perhaps the NFC championship game. You know, the NFL fools you week in and week out, and this was. supposed to be a game, a highly intense, potentially a defensive type of game, Aaron, with the 49ers recently showing their defensive capabilities, you know, holding the Packers to eight points,

the Ravens to 20. Even the Seahawks, the game they lost. It was really turnovers in a short field and a defensive touchdown in that one. But this was a shootout, and it turned out to be a spectacular game with great quarterback and offensive play. Jimmy Garapolo, as the 49ers won the game 4846, Jimmy Garapolo in his last four games has thrown 11 touchdown passes, three interceptions. He's been over 350 yards twice, including yesterday where he threw four touchdowns in a pick. Went for 424 in a win over Arizona. A comeback win, if you recall that from a few weeks ago. He is playing at a super high level. He appeared to be the flaw, the Achilles heel of this team, and he's playing the best football of his career under Kyle Shanahan. This game really came down to, you know, neither team being able to stop

the other. And at the very end after New Orleans had taken the lead, they missed the two-point conversion to take a 46-45 lead with 53 seconds left. The 49ers needing just field goal range to potentially win the game. They were faced with a fourth and two from their own 33-yard line. Garapolo throws a quick out to George Kittle, who is turned into a monster tight end. Kittle goes 39 yards with saints hanging all over him and with one saint pulling on his face mask for the last 10 yards. That was in all a 54-yard play. Got the ball down to the New Orleans 13-14-yard line, and that set up the Robbie Gold game winner. 4846.

Could be a preview of the NFC championship game. May not be. You know, the Packers may have something to say about that. I know that some of you don't feel really good watching the Packers. I get it. I understand your concern over them, but they are 10 and 3. The Saints are 10 and 3. The 49ers are 11 and 2.

The Seahawks are 10 and 3 in the NFC. here's a lock, Aaron. I think I called this maybe a month ago. Actually, I shouldn't say it's a lock. There are two possibilities for the week 17 Sunday night finale. It looks like it should be San Francisco, Seattle for the division at Seattle. Because Seattle, if they were to win that game and finish in a tie or better, they would win the division because they would have swept the 49ers. Seattle right now, to get to that game with just three losses, they've got the Panthers and the Cardinals the next two weeks. The 49ers sitting there at 11 and 2 have next week the Falcons at home, not easy, and then the Rams at home before going to Seattle.

I'd say that's likely the only other game that would be. Tennessee Houston. Yeah, that was the other one that's now in play. Yeah. Because they play twice in the final three weeks, including this coming week. And I'll get to Tennessee in a moment because I actually think they're a very, very intriguing team. I agree. Right now.

The Ravens beat the Bills 24 to 17. The Bills had the ball deep in Baltimore territory with a chance to tie the game later, potentially win it if they decided to go for two. It was a defensive game. Lamar Jackson went over 1,000 yards for the year rushing but did not have one of his better rushing days. Just 40 yards on 11 carries. He threw for three touchdowns in the game. And you've mentioned, you know, the tight ends.

Nick Boyle had a touchdown. Hayden Hurst had a 61-yard touchdown catch early to give them a 10-to-nothing lead. This was the game on CBS. I'll be interested to see what the television numbers are. It was opposite the Redskins Packers on Fox, big-time matchup. Ravens have won nine in a row. They're 11 and 2. They are obviously now the frontrunner to capture the number one seed in the AFC

with the Patriots losing, especially yesterday, They own the tiebreaker over the Patriots. The Ravens have left on their schedule. The Jets, Browns, and then a season finale at home against the Steelers. Could be a game the Steelers need. Could be a game that means nothing to Baltimore. Buffalo is actually interesting. I think they're a good team.

But they are nine and four now. They have the number one wild card spot in the AFC. However, their next two games at Steelers Sunday night, at Patriots, six days later on a Saturday. They could go from nine and three to a three-game losing streak at nine and six and out of the postseason picture. That is possible in the AFC with Houston, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, you know, all sitting there with five losses. I think Buffalo is a good team. I think they'll have a chance Sunday night at Pittsburgh. That game got flexed into the Sunday night spot. It's a huge game in the AFC wild

card race between Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Now, Buffalo is actually still in the AFC East race. You know, if they run the table, finish 12 and 4 beating the Patriots who would finish then with four losses, I think Buffalo gets it on common games or on conference record. But I'm actually not 100% sure that. I thought I saw that tweeted out. But, you know, the Bills who have had a hell of a season, really good season so far, their losses have all been winnable, the exception of that game against Philadelphia, where they got sort of handled at home by the Eagles. But they lost the game at Cleveland they could have won. They lost the game early in the season to the Patriots that they could have won. And they lost Sunday to the Ravens where they had

a chance late down there to tie. Now let's get to the other game of the day. The late game on CBS. The Patriots and the Chiefs from Foxborough. Won by the Chiefs 23 to 16 in a game that was so miserably officiated that I know that you get caught up in the recency and in the moment. I can't remember seeing a ref crew, the Jerome Boger crew, have a worse 25 to 30 minute stretch of calls ever. It started with in the third quarter, late third quarter, the Patriots blocked a punt basically to get back into this game. Okay, they block a punt down 23 to 7. They went for two. They did not get the two-point conversion. version. It's 23 to 13. They then are on defense, and there's a third and four throw from Mahomes

to Sammy Watkins, who is clearly very, very close to the mark on television, but not anywhere near where they ended up marking the football. He was stopped somewhere around the 39-yard line. they marked it at the 40. The first down sticks were at the 39. Belichick very smartly challenges the play figuring they're going to see this. It may not be a first down, but they've missed the spot by a full yard at the very least. They'll move it back of yard. They'll measure. We'll see. You know, he also simultaneously, did you know what he did on that challenge? He not only challenged the spot, he challenged offensive PI. You can challenge more than one thing on one. throw of the flag.

Did not realize that. That's what they said on the broadcast, Romo and Nance. So anyway, it was not offensive pass interference, although it actually looked like it on Kelsey. But somehow Jerome Boger comes back as Romo and Nance are completely convinced that they're going to move the ball back

to the 39-yard line and then bring out the sticks to measure again. Jerome Boger says the call on the field stands. And anybody watching that game that saw the replay has to think at that moment. Is Jerome Boger blind? Or is somebody back in New York blind, or did they not have the replay that we looked at?

So Kansas City has a first down. Several plays later. Four or five players later. They've got a third and two at the New England 37. Mahomes hits Kelsey for a first down. And before Kelsey hits the ground, he's stripped of the ball. It's a fumble recovered by McCordy, who starts to run towards the end zone. and the play gets whistled down by contact.

I'm sorry, get down by contact saying that Kelsey's knee was on the ground. What have we been told over the last couple of years? Let these plays finish. You can go back and fix it on replay. Do not blow the whistle on a bang, bang play that could be a fumble, could be a completed pass down by contact. Let it play out so you give that team a chance. to make the return.

Boger and crew blow the play dead. And here comes Belichick, challenging it again. He's pissed this time. Do you see how angry he was when he challenged this one? They knew it was a fumble. The fumble got overturned the call on the field got overturned to

a fumble, New England's ball, but they didn't get the benefit of the return. So now they've got the ball at their own 37-yard line. I actually think the recovery was like at their own 40 or somewhere around there. of potentially the score being 23 to 20. Now, I looked at the replay a couple of times.

I don't know if McCordy's going to take it the distance or not. He's going to take it for a good 30 yards before maybe Tyreek Hill, you know, runs him down. But they're going to have a chance for a much better field position. Instead, they take over at their own 43, and now they're driving, and we're still in the window of the Boger crew disaster. because on a third down and three, on a third down and three with about 39 seconds left. So now the Patriots takeover, down 23, 13 with the ball after that turnover,

and they are on the move again. And here comes another Jerome Bogor and crew mess up during literally like a 25 to 35 minute stretch. It was just about as bad as you can see. So bad that I wonder if the league will consider suspending this crew. Now, it happened to the Patriots, so none of us are losing sleep over it. I actually bet the Patriots, but that's beside the point. But most people don't care. It's the Patriots.

They've been on the right side of this stuff for years. But here come the Patriots down the field. And keep in mind that after that challenge of the Kelsey Fumble, the Patriots, because they lost it. the first challenge, which they should have also won, had no challenges left. Brady hits Nikiel Harry, the rookie from Arizona State. He gets into the end zone for a touchdown, but he's ruled out on the three-yard line. And clearly, the replay shows not even close to being out of bounds.

Should have been a touchdown with about 13 minutes to go, 2320. Instead, it's New England ball first and 10 at the Kansas City 3, because they're could not challenge it. Belichick was out of challenges. If he had another challenge, would it challenge that? It's 23 to 20. Should have had the other challenge, didn't. Then another play from that drive. The next play from that goal line drive is a pass into the end zone on second goal, I think at the Kansas City five-yard line to Myers in the end zone, who looks like he makes the catch. It's ruled a catch. Both teams are walking off the field and the referees get together, Aaron, and they say, nope, it was an incomplete pass. And they were right about that.

It was an incomplete pass. But what they didn't do was reset the play clock. And by not resetting the play clock, they forced the Patriots to take a time out. Belichick and Brader saying, wait a minute, we got our extra point team coming out on the field. And Brady didn't. Brady never left the field. I think he knew it wasn't a catch. And Boger and crew just said, sorry, you got to use a timeout or you're going to take a five-yard penalty. They had to kick a field goal on that drive to make a 23-216. It was utterly disastrous,

but what a finish to the game. The Patriots got two stops and got the ball back two more times. And on their final drive, they've got a fourth and six at the Kansas City 29-yard line. And Brady runs for the first down. He runs 17 yards for that first down. I've never seen them

look that fired up. I've never seen them. move that fast. I had Greg looked this up earlier this morning. His longest rush in his career is 22 yards. I was thinking that this may have been it, but they had a first intent at the Kansas City 12, and ultimately they did not get in. And Bashad Breeland made a phenomenal play on the fourth and goal at the Kansas City five-yard line to break up a pass intended for Edelman. And New England loses for the first time and 21 times in Foxborough. A game marred by one of the worst officiated and worst official crews you can get. How Bogers allowed to operate these big games, I have no idea.

It's a disgrace that the NFL and Al Riveron and the Powers that B put him on any game of significance. He appears to be completely lost during these games, and we've seen this before with his crew. So anyway, that was a hell of a football game. I want to get to Tennessee real quickly. The Titans destroyed the Raiders in the Coliseum. And I was looking this up late yesterday to see just how well the Titans are playing. First of all, with Ryan Tannahill, since he started against the Chargers, he came in against the Broncos in an October game that they lost 16 to nothing,

and then he started the following week against the Chargers. They've won six of seven games with him as a starter. You can look at the resume and say it's the Chargers, the Bucks, the Jags, the Colts, the Raiders, they did beat the Chiefs, and Mahomes was back for that game, threw for 446 in that game. They are the second highest scoring team in the league since he took over.

In the last four games, all wins, they're averaging 37 and a half points per game. Going back to last year, I thought that the Titans were a pretty well-coached team with Rabel. They've always been pretty sound defensively. They have Derek Henry, who's kicking ass this year. He's going to get paid. I know it's the running back position. He's the second

leading rusher in the league behind. I think Nick Chubb is Chubb or McCaffrey the leading rusher in the league? It's not Cook anymore after the last couple games. It might be Henry now. I was going to say Henry was in third coming in. It might be Henry. He had a hundred yard day. But I think it's Chubb or McCaffrey. I think I saw that. Here it is. Chubb. Yeah, Chubb and then Henry, then McCaffrey, then Cook. Derek Henry is going to get paid, but what do we make of the Titans? Like, I'll tell you what I make of them right now. They're the favorite to win that division.

I agree with you. I think they're the favorite to win the division. And they're a team. I can't say I don't want to see them in the playoffs. I'm an AFC team because the, you know, the Ravens and the Chiefs and the Patriots should have no problem with them. But they're interesting. And, you know, we saw it at the end of last year with Derek Henry going off again.

And it's continued this year. And it really makes you want. wonder if, you know, just how bad was Marcus Marriota? I know that, but remember the playoff win over Alex Smith and the Chiefs in the wild card round two years ago that they ended up firing their coach after they lost to the Patriots, which they were very competitive. Right. And that Patriot game in the divisional round, how that was really like Derek Henry's almost

coming out party. Like he was so good in that game. And Mariota was actually clutch in that game. Of course, then Derek Henry did nothing for the first 12 games last year. Yeah, I know. So, well, here, here. Here's what you make of the AFC right now. What looked like a lock for Patriots, Ravens in an AFC title game,

either in Foxborough or Baltimore, now looks like the Ravens are going to be the number one seed. They're going to host. They're minus money right now to win the AFC. Yeah, they're going to host both playoff games after a first round by. If they win the first one, they'll host the AFC championship game. But you've got more people in the mix. Kansas City's back in the mix. I'm not a big fan of the Chiefs, though.

When I say that, they're so dangerous, and Andy Ree can coach him up, although he's always sort of coming up short in the postseason. Houston's, you know, how do they, how about my Denver team? You know what? I'm very, I'm getting closer to winning my season bet. Yes, you are. Drew Locke, is he a thing or? He looked great yesterday. Cooley was all over Locke. I liked Locke, too. Locke was one of those quarterbacks I said I would take before Haskins, you know, along with Murray. Murray, Locke, and we're the ones in terms of first-round potential that I liked more than Haskins. Anyway, what I was going to say about Denver is they go into, I mean, they didn't just beat Houston.

They destroyed Houston. They're so good defensively, Denver is. And they have been all season long. And now Philip Lindsay's got it going, Locke's playing well. I bet them at the beginning of the year to win more than seven games. I need to get to seven for the push. They're five and eight. They've got the Chiefs, Lions, and Raiders to finish up the season.

They've got to win two of those three. Definitely possible to meet the Lions and the Raiders at home to finish up the season. You know what? They're not going to be an easy out at Arrowhead next week. When you have that kind of defense and that thing travels. But anyway, wrapping up the AFC, I don't, you know, you're going to end up, here's what I'm rooting for, Aaron. I'm rooting for a Chiefs Patriots rematch in the divisional round.

I'd like to see that game. That's the game I'd like to see. I think the Ravens are going to be in the Super Bowl. Last night, the Seahawks five-game winning streak came to an end. They got absolutely taken to the woodshed by the Rams. It was there. They had the Monday night game, draining game Monday night. The Rams went off as a favorite.

I would have given them out as a smell test pick. I actually played them personally. I should have given them out. They were plus one or plus one and a half on Friday. I kind of liked them. I leaned them, if you recall, but I should have given them out. You know, the Rams have a very, they're right back in this thing in terms of the wild card picture in the NFC.

They are sitting there with games the next two weeks on the road at Dallas and at San Francisco. Obviously, that's going to determine their future. They need Minnesota to lose as well. The Vikings won yesterday. not overly impressive after the Monday night loss in Seattle, but they got the win, and now they've got a huge game in Los Angeles next week against the Chargers. The NFC playoff picture is, you know, you've got the NFC East, somebody's going to win that division.

There's no wildcard, obviously. Green Bay and Minnesota both in play for the NFC North, and you've got San Francisco, Seattle, and New Orleans, essentially, and Green Bay fighting it out for the top two seeds in the NFC. And, you know, you've got some big games left, the 40s. 49ers still have the Seahawks, the 49ers still have the Rams. God, the 49ers schedule has just been brutal. And the fact that they're 11 and 2 with that schedule is so impressive here as of late. The Saints have wrapped up the NFC South, but now they're looking for, you know, obviously a couple more wins so they can get a first round by.

To see a rematch of that San Francisco, New Orleans game in the postseason, that's, I think, what everybody's rooting for. Seattle may have something to say about that. Minnesota is in a position. where they control their own destiny here. And they finish up the season with Green Bay and Chicago at home. They have one more road game. It's next Sunday, as I mentioned in L.A. against the Chargers, not really a road environment, but the Chargers got some life yesterday and destroyed Jacksonville on Philip Rivers' birthday.

He had a monster day yesterday down in Jacksonville. The Jags have really turned into a horrible team. but Rivers was just 16 of 22, but for 314 yards. He averaged 14.3 yards per completion in that game. And Austin Echler, what a day for him. Eight runs for 101 yards, four catches for 112 yards. He's become quite the weapon. But some really good football, the rest of the way, in the NFL.

We've missed a lot of it because we've been paying attention to this. sorry team here. But man, there is some good football still to come. I think, just as an aside, I'd lean Eagles tonight. That's a big number against the Giants and Eli. I think this is a public favorite tonight, the Giants. The smell test went three and two over the weekend. If you count Thursday, Chicago, I had Miami of Ohio, which went out right.

I had Georgia, which wasn't close. I had the Jets. They didn't get it done, but I gave out the Redskins plus the big number. and two smell test weekend. I would lean heavily Philly tonight. I'm going to play them personally, not a smell test pick,

but I would lean eagles in the game tonight. All right, let's finish up the show real quickly with some weekend DVR. Did you have a busy weekend? Don't worry. We've got you covered. It's time for weekend DVR.

All right, we're going to focus on just quickly the college football and the college basketball. The caps won again. They're on a roll. They won six in a row. Boston this week after Columbus tonight. The Wizards lost to the Clippers

last night. A lot of complaining, a lot of technical fouls. Beals not getting the calls. They think that he should get. But Aaron was at the game Saturday in College Park. I watched it. What a college basketball game that was not pretty. First conference game of the year. Maryland's

down the entire way. The only lead they had in the game was with 2.1 seconds left when Anthony County. They did have one very shortly. They had 3-2 early on. They were 3-2. They They led for 28 seconds of the game. Okay, so 28 seconds of the game they led. That was a hell of a comeback.

And it seemed like it just wasn't going to happen because they just couldn't get over the hump. They would get it to six or five, then it would go back to seven or eight, and they couldn't get it done. But Anthony Cowan came through. And I, you know, Anthony Cowan's been one of those Maryland players for we Maryland fans that people have argued about

for a couple of years. You know, I've heard from a lot of my friends, including a lot of guys that I really respect opinion-wise, say, eh, you know, he's not a point guard, he's not a pro, he's not this, he's not that. I've always liked Anthony Cowan. I like the style in which they're playing this year. I think he's thriving in that style, and he has been clutch for them since he was a freshman. If you go back to that Georgetown game at Capitol One Arena on Verizon's,

center that particular night. When he hit like seven free throws in the final two minutes of the game and came up big in that comeback, that shocking comeback to beat Georgetown. Cowan's been the guy. You know, once Mello left, Cowan has been the guy. He hits every big shot for them. He's Juan Dixon light. That is quite the statement because Juan Dixon was a national champion. He was the player of the year. He's arguably the best player in Maryland basketball history, although I have him second to bias. to me is the number one player of all time. Dixon's number two. I just love Anthony County. He played all 40 minutes on Saturday. Didn't come out of the game. 20 points,

six assists, seven rebounds, and a 30-footer to tie the game at 58 on a play that wasn't a play. Yeah, it was completely broken and it's funny just asking him about that shot after. He just basically said, yeah, I saw there was open space in front of me, so I knew I'd get the shot in. Like he had that sort of confidence. He's hit a lot of those, as we know over the years, a lot of those big shots. Big shots, but not that deep. No, not that deep. That one was deep. That was from the Gary's signature. And then you get on the other end, he gets involved, he gets a steal, he gets foul, he comes down and he makes a free throw to give him the lead and they win the game 59-58. It was a really good win. Maryland's had a lot of games in a short period of

time. They played three last week in Orlando over the weekend, and they came back and had, the Notre Dame game on Wednesday night, and then they had Illinois in a conference game. You know, they get Penn State tomorrow night. So they got a short turnaround for Penn State as well. Penn State's going to be dangerous tomorrow night. You watch. Maryland has struggled up there. There was the end of the game, though, Aaron. You know, I do this a lot. I understand that. But too bad. It's one of the things I like to talk about because I think I understand it to a certain degree. I talked about Callahan's lack of understanding of clock management and game management. Brad Underwood, who's doing a good job at Illinois, and they're going to win some Big Ten games

this year. They're a good team. They've got a couple of guys that look like pros, especially their big dude. Both of their big dudes. But Brad Underwood had one time out left after Anthony Cowan made the first free throw with 2.1 seconds left to give Maryland a 59-58 lead, and he used it there before the second free throw. Right when that happened, I said, What are you doing Brad Underwood? And I started screaming at my TV as if he could hear me. Turg, have Anthony missed the second free throw on purpose. I hope you pick up on this because the only chance Illinois has is if you make the second free throw.

If you miss the second free throw on purpose, the best thing they're going to have is a heave from the back court from 75 feet. Once Underwood called that time out, they had no chance to, if Maryland missed the free throw, to throw the ball from the back court into the front court to get a shot. It was really, really a terrible coaching move. Nobody asked, I watched his press conference. You said they were there. Nobody asked him about it. It was almost like they were afraid of him.

Or they didn't know about it. But Terge picked up on it, realized it all the credit to him, because there are a lot of coaches that wouldn't have understood that. Anthony came out, intentionally missed the free throw. They grabbed the rebound, the clock rolls off. They didn't even get the shot off, you know, from basically just beyond half court. And Maryland won the game 59 to 58. Really good win for them.

Penn State's going to be very difficult tomorrow night. They've not played well there. Penn State's coming off a blowout lost Ohio State. My God, Ohio State is good. And Ohio State really good. Just jump Maryland in the polls, so Maryland number four. Oh, really? I mean, they should.

So Maryland's four, Ohio State's three. Yep. Louisville, Kansas, Ohio State, Maryland, Michigan. You know what? I don't really have a problem with that. No. So Virginia fell to sixth? Nine. Oh, that's right. They lost a game earlier in the week. That's right. Yeah, Gonzaga is six, Duke seven, Kentucky, eight, Virginia nine, Oregon, 10.

I don't care that Maryland's at four. I think Ohio State has been the most impressive team in the country this year. They have arguably the two most impressive wins, two blowout wins, Villanova and North Carolina. And really a blowout win over Penn State's impressive, too, if you really know that Penn State's good. North Carolina lost to Virginia last night, 56 to 47. The heels have now played consecutive games where they've scored less than 50 points. That's almost unheard of. And almost impossible to think that it's true with a Roy Williams coached team. Georgetown went to SMU. I wanted to mention that because that's really

impressive that they beat Oklahoma State on the road and SMU on the road after what happened to their program last week. I give whoever Patrick Ewing and staff a lot of credit. That was a difficult situation last week they were likely dealing with. It certainly appeared to be from the outside looking in and they went and beat a one-loss team Oklahoma State in their building and an undefeated SMU blew them out on Saturday night in their building. You know their next game, right? Yeah, Syracuse. But Syracuse is not good this year. No, Syracuse is not good. But Still Georgetown, Syracuse. Still Georgetown, Syracuse.

The college football Saturday, first of all, Friday night, I was blown away with Utah getting beat as badly as they did. The thing that was most surprising if you've watched Utah all year long is they gave up 239 yards on the ground, 208 to C.J. Verdell for Oregon. Oregon was really good. I'm not a Justin Herbert fan. I just want to put that out there right now.

I've watched enough of him this year. I would not draft him personally. I think, you know, he's going to go in the first round more likely than that. not because of the desperation for quarterbacks. I just don't see him as being a really good pro at the next level. I feel completely differently about Joe Burrow, who I think looks like Aaron Rogers, a combination of Andrew Luckin and Aaron Rogers. But Utah, a team that I liked all year, certainly didn't prove it on Friday night.

Then we get to Saturday, and you get the early games, which the game of the day really was the Oklahoma Baylor game, Oklahoma winning in overtime over. Baylor. You know, that became the de facto, you know, play in game, assuming Georgia was going to lose to LSU. Baylor, I think, would have been in the field had they won the game, and they had a chance to win the game with their third string quarterback who came into the game, Jacob Zeno, and through two passes for 159 yards, completed two passes for 159 yards. One of them was for a touchdown. and one of them was for a near touchdown. That was a really good game.

One comment, I hate the college overtime rule. I've always hated the college overtime rule. And in this particular game, which I watch start to finish, Baylor was at a disadvantage with the game going into overtime with the college rules. They needed a full-length field. Their defense was good enough to win that game in overtime on a football field, not a 25-yard field. Oklahoma got it at the 25.

They scored. Baylor didn't. Oklahoma advances and gets the fourth spot courtesy of LSU's blowout win over Georgia. Joe Burrow was sensational in the game. And then the Ohio State Wisconsin game on Saturday night. I mean, I thought Wisconsin at halftime was going to win the game. Why wouldn't you? They were up 21 to 7. Ohio State showed no life, no ability in that game. They could not stop Wisconsin in the first half of that game. Wisconsin was super impressive. They scored, I think, three touchdowns, four drives in that first half. And they were up 21 to 7. And Ohio State came out and out scored him 27 to nothing. The big play was a fumble early in the second half up 2114 by Wisconsin. And then

a third and 18 pickup for Ohio State up 24 to 21. They had a third and 18. It's fourth quarter. Wisconsin's fixing to get the ball back down 24, 21. And Justin Fields, who I love. He's going to be a big-time pro. He completed a third and 18 pass to Benjamin and Victor. Great catch and run after the fact. And Ohio State rolls. Ultimately, though, Ohio State, and I think it's right, Aaron, they lose the number one seed to LSU.

I think LSU's resume is flat out better. I felt that way going into Friday. We had Stanford Steve on the show. He thought that that was the case as well. And you get LSU jumping Ohio State with the one. Ohio State's the two seed, They get Clemson, and the four ends up being Oklahoma. LSU is a 10-point favored over Oklahoma, and Clemson is favored over Ohio State,

laying one and a half or two over Ohio State. What did you think of those point spreads? It was interesting. I had expected that because talking to odds makers, they had said they had Clemson as better than they would be favored over. I think they said it would be a pick against LSU, but favored over everybody. else in the field. So actually it surprised me because it opened at one place, the Westgate Superbook at one and then immediately swung about three points there. It opened at Ohio State minus one and immediately swung. So that it landed about where I thought it would. I am a little surprised just a little bit at how much LSU is favored by at this point. 12. I saw 10 and a half 11. I actually thought the number was going to be higher. When the matchup got, I had not looked to see at what the potential point spreads were for the matchups before yesterday.

And I told my son Corbin, who's into this stuff too, he goes, what do you think LSU will be favored by? And I said, it may be two touchdowns. I thought it could be 14. And I saw, the first number I saw was either 10 or 11, and I thought that that was kind of short. It's 12, 12 and a half across the border right now. Yeah. I mean, LSU's defense is healthy now. You know, the one thing that you could have said about them a month ago is, you know, they give up a lot of yards.

They give up a lot of points. I mean, Ole Miss put 37 on them. You know, you had Vanderbilt, remember earlier in the year, putting 38 on them. Alabama put 41 on them. But their defense is much healthier now than it was. And they've been, you know, they held Texas A&M to 7, and they really shut down Georgia. And Jake Fromm is to me, he's got major issues at the next level. He should have come out. Could he have come out last year? I forget now. I don't remember. I don't remember either. But I'm looking forward to that playoff.

It'll be a good buildup to the 28th, and that's that Saturday before the final NFL Sunday of the year. And I personally think that LSU is going to win the whole thing, but I'm not discounting Clemson. I think Clemson could be undervalued right now. I think you might be right about that. But LSU probably has the best player in the first. field, and that is Joe Burrow, left in the field. All right, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.