The Kevin Sheehan Show - Tale of Two Heinicke Halves

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

Kevin's complete recap of Washington's 23-21 win over the Packers opens the show. Nick Akridge/Pro Football Focus was a guest with some of yesterday's PFF grades on Commanders' players including Taylor Heinicke's grade. Kevin finished up with Bryce Harper, the Terps's win, and some other games from "Around the NFL".  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Heineke sets up. Looking for Terry McCorn. Against Alexander.

And now. Commander. Taylor Heineke to his favorite target, Terry McLorn, 17 to 14, Washington at that point in the third quarter, a lead they would not relinquish. They win their second straight game, 23 to 21, the final over the Green Bay Packers. One guest on the show today, Nick Ackridge from Pro Football Focus.

I've enjoyed the conversations with Nick in recent months, whether it be on the radio or here on the podcast. He's a huge Washington sports fan. He'll join me, and then we'll finish up with a short segment at the end, focused on Bryce Harper, some college football, and some of the other NFL. But this first segment's all about Washington's 23 to 21 win over the Packers. I want to start before I get to my game take with two big takeaways from the game for me before I get to, you know, the list of the things that I liked and the things that I did not like. The first big takeaway for me was just how bad the Packers are on offense specifically. You know, they're talented on defense and they're not a bad defensive team. The results have not been good in recent weeks, but they're much better on defense than they're on offense.

offense. But to see Aaron Rogers and the Packers offense that limited, I tweeted out during the game, I think shortly before halftime, or maybe it was halftime, man, this game is winnable. Look, we talked about it last week. And I said, if you watched the Packers on offense against the Jets or even the giants the week before in the game in London, you knew that they weren't right. They've got offensive line issues. They've got receiver issues. Aaron Rogers has, you know, you. You know, you know, a hand slash thumb injury, whatever it is that he's dealing with, he doesn't look 100%. I have never, ever in many, many years, seeing a Packers offense so limited. It's really stunning to watch.

Their last three games, they're averaging less than 15 points a game on offense. They're 8 for 33 on 3rd down. They're 1 for 6 on 4th down. Penalties have been a problem. But the numbers really don't tell the story. Watching Aaron Rogers in his body language, he tells you, we got no chance. That's Aaron Rogers. That's the Green Bay Packers on offense.

Their offensive line stinks and is injured. Their receiver stink. They've got one weapon really in Aaron Jones. I mean, Lazard's pretty good as a receiver, but he got hurt during the game. They're in big, big trouble. They've won 39 regular season games the last three years. Man, Devante Adams, a massive difference. But it's really more than that.

How about this stat from the game yesterday? First game in the career of Aaron Rogers, where his team, the Green Bay Packers, did not convert a third down. They were 0 for 6. For the franchise, first time since October of 1999 that the Packers didn't come. convert a third down. You would have thought that in 23 years at some point along the way,

they would have had a game where they didn't convert on third down, but their quarterbacks have been Brett Fav and Aaron Rogers during those years. The Packers are in big time trouble, man. They play Buffalo this week. They are the biggest underdog of the Aaron Rogers era. They've never been double-digit underdogs. They are 10 and a half-point underdog at Buffalo on Sunday. They still have to play Dallas, Philadelphia, Minnesota. They have games against Tennessee and the Rams? I don't think Aaron Rogers is done, but I think this Packer team is in,

you know, look, the NFC is wide open, and we're going to get to that here in a moment. It certainly wouldn't be a shocker because the NFL is what the NFL is. It changes all the time. More on that coming up, too. But they don't look right. Aaron Rogers doesn't look right.

He doesn't look happy. Tom Brady doesn't look happy. he lost yesterday, too, to the Carolina Panthers, 21 to 3. And that leads me to my second big takeaway. The first being just how shockingly awful and limited right now the Green Bay Packers are on offense. My second big takeaway, before we get to my game take, is good God, we are all such suckers for what just happened

being what we think is like a conclusion. Like, this is what it is. We fall for it all the time. We don't all fall for the same things in the same way, but we fall for this all the time. I'd like to think that I've talked about falling for this so many times over the years that I am a little bit leery of falling for it. And I've said many times in the past over a long period of time

that I think a better's perspective, is actually much different than a non-better's perspective. And I think betters of the NFL over a long period of time, understand that it's so fleeting, it's so week to week, or certainly every couple of weeks, things change dramatically. And what you think you're seeing isn't necessarily going to hold up.

That's the NFL. It makes for one of the great reality shows we have, one of the most unpredictable reality shows we have. But look at this team, Washington, two weeks ago. I did think that they were improving a little bit on defense, but the reality was they were looking very much like one of the worst teams in the league. Everybody agreed. You know, the power rankings reflected it.

Fans of the team, we were all in on, my God, blow this thing up, start over, at least those that really cared. Washington was trending before the Chicago game. to be either the worst team in the league or one of the two or three worst teams in the league. Right there, by the way, with the Carolina Panthers. And of course, Carolina pounds Tampa Bay yesterday, 21-3, and Washington is now one two in a row.

Washington right now is one win away Sunday in Indianapolis to potentially holding down the seven seed in the NFC playoff picture. It would be tied more likely than not, because I think the Rams and 49ers play. I think, or there's two teams out west that play, and one of them will end up being four and four, more likely than not after the game. I think that's it. But Washington is a win-away Sunday from their third straight win and a four-and-four mark.

There are a four-point underdog at Indy. We'll see what happens. The Colts have not been playing well. They've been very inconsistent. They lost yesterday. This is a big Jim Ursay Dan Snyder match. up more coming up on that thing tomorrow at some point with Tommy, because Jay Glazer had a conversation with Jimmer,

say that made big news early in the day. But my second big takeaway is you just can't today think that what you saw yesterday is what they are. I'm not talking about Taylor Heineke. I mean, he's part of it. But to all of a sudden come in or wake up this morning and say, oh my God, they are so much better on defense. They've been better coached.

Scott Turner called a pretty good game. I think he did. Jack Del Rio's defense, he's really got things going. You know, they're getting healthy. Soon they're going to have Thomas back and Chase Young back and Dotson back. And of course, now they've got a quarterback who can really play. And I'm going to get into Taylor Heineke here with my game take, the first half and the second half, because they were quite different.

The reality is though, if we can just step back from the moment and the recency bias, is that just like it changed from two weeks ago to where many of us, many of you are this morning, I mean, there I was. I'm talking about one one away from the seven seed. It'll probably swing back again in the wrong direction and then swing back again in the right direction over the next four weeks. There are ten games left in this season. my guess, five of them will include Mondays where we come in here and we say, wow, you know, they're not that bad. They can make a run here.

Seven seeds in play. And you know what? If you get in, who knows? And on the other five Mondays, oh my God, they are effing terrible. You know, if we step back, you know, and just look at this team and not live in the moment, the team isn't the worst in the league talent-wise. It never was. and it's far from the best in the league.

It's somewhere in between, and that's with Wents at quarterback, Heineke at quarterback, Kyle Allen, if he's available and wants to play again here at quarterback. This was from the jump, a seven to nine-win team, if everything broke right, nine, if everything didn't seven, I really said that they have a very low floor this year. I didn't think a terrible team was a possibility. It still could happen that way.

But the odds are, the overwhelming odds, is that when it all comes out in the wash, 10 weeks from now, 11 weeks from now, if you count the buy week, 7, 8, 9 wins, somewhere around there. No playoffs, not a horrible team, not good enough, some fun games, some agonizing games, but at the end of the season, somewhere in the middle of the pack. And we'll probably be talking about significant change. But the good news is that conclusion that I just gave you is not a conclusion yet. They're going to go play these 10 games anyway. And people like Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio and Scott Turner and Taylor Heineke. You know, if you think about kind of the most polarizing people in that building, I think I just listed the top four.

Wentz maybe as well. I don't know. But they're all going to have the opportunity. to prove that those of you that thought they were horrible two weeks ago were wrong. Those of us that have thought from the jump, they're just okay. They're, you know, middle of the pack, best case, that were wrong. Those of you, potentially, they'll try to prove right that may have had them winning 10, 11 games. You know, a chance to prove that they aren't a pendulum that swings from one side to the other

on a week-to-week basis like most NFL teams do. All right, let's get to my Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. The Game Take today is brought to you by, my good friends, at MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and they will match your initial deposit dollar for dollar. It's a deposit match of any amount up to $1,000.

Very few places are doing this. MyBooky does. My Booky also has phenomenal contests and tournaments, including big cash prize tournaments with Blackjack. Their online casino games are great. You can bet the NFL, the NBA, the Major League Baseball playoffs, and the NHL. And certainly all football, forms of football in every kind of way you want to bet it. MyBooky.com, mybooky.ag. Use my promo code. B.C. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere with my bookie. By the way, speaking of the NBA, the Wizards had a nice win on Friday night. Last night, they lost an overtime at Cleveland, a chance to go 3-0 last night. Had a legit chance to do it, but they turned the ball over four or five times in overtime. Painful. All right, let's get to the list of things that I liked. We will start with that list. I start with the defense. It has been getting better week to week. And yesterday, they were dominant at times. You know, the thing that I think should give most of the fans out there some reason to, you know, hope a little bit. Hope's a good thing.

Red, hopes a good thing. I think is the defense, you know, in part because the teams they're playing and will continue to play. But the defense has gotten better, whether it's because Cam Curl came back or William Jackson the third got benched or was hurt or whatever happened there. I don't think he's going to play for them anymore. It's turned around. You could see it coming a little bit against the Eagles, a little bit more against the Cowboys, even though there were still some communication issues in that game.

The defense over the last three games has played well enough for the team to win all three, and they've won two of them. Now, I get it. The Titans, Bears, and Packers are hardly big-time lighted up offenses. A lot of that's contributed to these really good defensive performances, especially the last two weeks against Chicago and Green Bay. Strange to say that about the Packers, but it's true. I mean, they are a total shit show right now on offense.

But still, I don't want to take away from the truth that Washington's playing well defensively. They're almost impossible to run on between the tackles. They're hard to block up front. Their defensive tackles, Duran Payne and John Allen are having tremendous seasons. Their weaknesses early in the year at linebacker and in the secondary, are areas that are improving. I think Jamin Davis had a really good game yesterday. I thought Holcomb had a good game yesterday.

Davis really seems to be playing freer. I think they have perhaps simplified everything. And the secondary, Benjamin St. Juice on the outside is a great, you know, coolly called that. He's like, just get him on the outside. You know, I don't care what you do, but get him on the outside. I think his suggestion really was to move fuller on the inside. They're doing that with Wild Goose.

Wild Goose can cover a little bit. He did struggle with tackling. The Packers knew it from the jump. They came into this understanding their own limitations, but understanding that Washington was a tremendous, tremendous challenge up front. The only places they ran with success was trying to run outside with Aaron Jones, and every single throw seemed like it was a throw in which Aaron Rogers was playing hot potato with the football. It's like, how quickly can I get this out of my hand?

My God, I am not going to give my offensive line against their defensive line, a chance. A lot of throws of the line of scrimmage, a lot of quick throws. I mean, how often do you see a Green Bay team that scared? I thought they looked and played scared. Let me put it differently. They played very conservatively. They played as if there was this incredible small margin for error if they were going to win the game, which is the way Washington has to play too. That's what's ironic about it. That's the Green Bay Packers over there. That's Aaron Rogers. but they knew what they were in for, and the defense held them to 76 yards in the first half. They didn't go over 100 yards until the final play of the third quarter.

They ended up with 236 total yards of offense, you know, and 14 points of scoring. Seven came on the pick six. And really, the yardage that they had in the game came on the final two drives, including the final two plays of the game. They were 0 for 6 on 3rd down, 0 for 1 on 4th down, already told you that, and the incredible stat about Aaron Rogers never having played in a game in which his team didn't convert a third down. It seemed that the Packers had no chance to move the football. I thought that as I was watching it. I think I tweeted out.

This is such a winnable game. The Packers are so, so limited. Really, in watching it, it looked like we were watching a team. Like watching Washington against Philly or against Dallas a few weeks ago. Like there wasn't much of a chance to really move the football. They held the Packers to 38 yards on 12 carries, Washington, fourth in the league over the last four games and rush defense. The pressure didn't result in sacks, but that's because Rogers wasn't holding onto the ball. He was getting it out quickly.

The balls that were completed that were big plays were really all Aaron Rogers, like the touchdown pass to Aaron Jones when he created more time and threw it deep into the end zone to make it 2321. You know, look, one of the reasons the defense was so dominant is they were fresh. They only played 54 snaps, 47 actual plays. There were seven penalties with Green Bay offensive snaps. 47 actual plays. That's a lot of getting them out and forcing them to punt on third down, not one conversion. On fourth down, not one conversion. And in the second half, in particular, late in the first half and in the second half,

the team started to play complementary football with the offense moving the sticks and converting on third downs. One criticism of the defense, too many penalties on that final packer drive, and a bunch of mistackles, wild goose in particular. Next on the list of things that I liked. They ran the football yesterday, 166 yards on 38 carries, Robinson 20 for 73, Gibson 10 for 59, Samuel 5 for 26. They ran the ball without the quarterback being involved in the rush attack. A lot of their big rushing games last year, Heineke was a big part of it as a scrambler in particular. He didn't have any rushing yards or maybe four total. I really like Antonio Gibson right now. I think he's better than Brian Robinson, Jr.

No disrespect intended towards a guy who's only played three games. He may end up being that guy. Right now, Gibson's better, in my opinion. He is quicker. He's faster. He's as powerful as Robinson. To me, Robinson, in watching here for three games, he runs a little bit too upright for me. I don't think he's got great feel for what the coaches would say are the paths, you know, the lanes to run in. He is a powerful guy, no doubt about it.

That was a great 20-yard run, even though it ended with, you know, a questionable fumble. I think if it had been called a fumble on the field, it wouldn't have been overturned. I thought they got it right by not overturning the call because it does. You can make the case that he regained possession after losing it. I just like Robinson. I excuse me, I just like Gibson more now. I do. I like him as a kick returner, too.

More than that coming up. But here's the bottom line. If you can run the football like they did yesterday, that is the model. That's the formula for this team. Whether it's Heineke or Wentz, you know, it's the formula for a lot of teams, probably for 15 to 25 quarterbacks in the game. Hell, Aaron Rogers right now desperately needs a running game. So they really, really did a nice job on the ground yesterday, and you ended up with 38 rushes. Wow, for 166 yards. I thought the game plan, that's next on my list. I thought it was good offensively. I thought Scott Turner was in his comfort zone.

You know, he's got a quarterback that he's comfortable with on offense right now, who's comfortable. with him. He's been with him for several years now, going back to Carolina. I think he kept the defense guessing using Curtis Samuel in a lot of different ways, Terry McClureen, in a lot of different ways, lots of different formations. They ran some pistol, you know, with the back directly behind Heineke. I think He's a run threat out of that with some of that mesh. He kept it on one of them late in the game, didn't get much. He used Armani Rogers, who was a quarterback in college as a zone-reed quarterback in the Red Zone. You know, he stuck it in Samuel's gut, left it there for an eight-yard game. I think Turner did a really nice job of getting the ball into the hands of his best players.

Heineke had something to do with that, too. Don't get me wrong. Understood. You know, the targets for Terry and the big plays to Terry. I think Turner did a really nice job giving his quarterback in this game easier opportunities against the Blitz in particular. And they came with extra man pressure many times. and Heineke had some options. We talked about it with Cooley. There wasn't a lot on some of those third downs in Chicago for Wentz to throw to. There wasn't a lot there on those immediate pressures, especially those extra man pressures.

And I think, you know, Turner did a nice job this week of giving his quarterback some options. But then again, I think one of the reasons is Turner's not focused on stretching the field with Taylor Heineke. I think it's more comfortable for him. He kept them in great down and distant situations all day long. They only had two-third and legit longs. A third and 11 and 11 they picked up, and then the third and nine at the end of the game to Terry. I also will tell you this, that I think that I thought that Cornelius Lucas and Tyler Larson in particular,

you know, I think these are upgrades over the last two weeks to the offensive line. And when Cosmy's ready and he was ready yesterday, I think that you're going to have some more ability for Scott Turner because of the quarterback and the familiarity. And by the way, just the quarterback's understanding of the offense and quicker decision-making than the other guy and his mobility. Hopefully that'll get worked into the game plan more. But I think Larson's an upgrade at center.

And Lucas is definitely at left tackle doing a decent job. Although I think he got beat a couple of times. May have had a false start or two. I think Leno Jr. is solid. I think if Cosme gets back and ready to play, even though he was there for an emergency situation yesterday, maybe they move him to guard. Terry McClorne's obviously on the list of things that I liked. I thought this was his best game of the year. He's got a clear chemistry with Taylor Heineke. He's got a trust. He's got experience with him. Five catches, 73 yards. Touchdown catch, perfect throw by Heineke. Such an important drive of the game to. first and 10 shot. They're going after one of the best corners and coverage corners in the game. Jair Alexander, who's traveling a lot of the game with Terry. McLaren's final drive catches that second and six where he stayed in bounds for 14 yards.

And then the third and nine before the two-minute warning where he comes back and makes a great catch on a ball that Heineke just trusts him on. You know, I mean, that is in the face with Kenny Clark. third and nine, if you get stopped, Green Bay is going to get the ball back needing only a field goal. Did he throw it up for grabs a little bit? I don't know if that's how I would describe it. It was a bit of a balloon ball, but it's in the direction of his best receiver, and he knows where he's running the route and coming back to. It's actually a great play by both of them on that third and nine.

I will tell you this. What was really interesting about Terry McLaurin yesterday is how enthusiastic he was. Being targeted, there is no doubt that Terry McLaren prefers Taylor Heineke to Carson Wentz. I think that, you know, putting it nicely, I don't think there was a lot of concern in that locker room about the quarterback change. We'll leave it at that. Curtis Samuels on the list of things that I liked. I mean, 10 touches for 79 yards, five rushes, 26, five catches for 53. yards. The third and 11 third quarter catch was a good one in traffic to move the chains. That was the longest third down they had all day by far. He had a third and eight in the fourth

quarter with the game at 20 to 14 where he was wide open and then makes a great move in open space to avoid the tackle, turns it into a 26-yard gain with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness on Stokes after the play. By the way, look at that play. I think Cornelius Lucas false started. Maybe. It was close. Curtis Samuel, when they get him involved like they did in the opener, big time. Keep in mind, one of the reasons you end up with lots of different formations, lots of different looks, lots of different motions, lots of different touches for different people, is you ran 71 plays. 74 actual snaps taking into consideration of the penalties. 71 plays. Whenever we complain, man, they didn't get Terry enough touches. Man, I mean, they didn't run the ball.

man, they didn't do this, they didn't do that, what Scott Turner are doing. A lot of times it's because you didn't get off the field on defense and you couldn't move the sticks offensively and you ended up with 49 plays or 50 plays. Yesterday, they had it for a lot of plays. I thought the challenge by Ron Rivera was an excellent one, an obvious one, but never put obvious past them. Shouldn't do that with them. But it was the first in 10 at the Packers 38 with them leading 20 to 4. 14 in the third quarter, or 17 to 14 in the third quarter. And Heineke gets blitzed and number 55 beats Armani Rogers.

I don't know why. I saw some tight ends occasionally against blitzes have guys like Roshan Gary and 55, who's really good. I forget his name. He's a new player for Green Bay. Man, we've got to get tight ends off some of those really good players. But Heineke's hand with the ball in it was clearly coming forward. They ruled it a fumble. Rivera challenged one.

First successful challenge of the year. Saved him 13 yards. It was second in 10 instead of second in 23. Gibson goes 11 yards on the next play. They're in field goal range, and they got three on that drive, an important three points in a two-point game. It was great that they got a second straight muffed punt in a game. Chicago on Thursday night yesterday.

Rogers booted it. Gabe Washington, its first points. big play in the game, no doubt. And then lastly, on the things that I liked, saving the best for last. Actually, the best was the defense yesterday. But Taylor Heineke's second half, come on, man. I mean, no matter what you think about Taylor Heineke, and I think, and nothing yesterday changed my mind.

In fact, it may have reinforced it. I think he's a backup in the NFL. I still like him. I still love, I mean, you know, this is the thing. I mean, it's not a black and white world we live in people. there is nuance, there is a lot of gray. Everybody likes Taylor Heineke. Some people not only like Taylor Heineke, they think he should be the starting quarterback.

Some people like me really like Taylor Heineke and a lot about Taylor Heineke, that don't think he should be the starting quarterback. And I'm talking about big picture long term. We can disagree on those things, but it doesn't mean that there aren't things about Taylor Heineke that I don't like. And there are things about him from the jump that I've really liked, his mobility, but really his competitiveness. And is, you know, I've called him, not me, just me, everybody has. He's really got some baller and gamer in him.

He's so confident. Let's talk about the second half, though. Good throws, good decisions, big time throws with pressure in his face, created time to make some key throws to move the sticks. Statistically, in the second half, hard to do much better than 13 of 16 for 16 yards and a touchdown. He was four for six for 67 yards on four third down conversion throws. Excellent. His best third down play, in my opinion, was early in the second half, the same drive where Rivera won the challenge. Earlier in that drive, it was third and two. Sidique Charles

is beat immediately. By the way, that may have been a sack with Wentz. Heineke-ducks steps up, throws sidearm to Armani for 17 yards and a first down. He had on that drive a third and 11 throw to Samuel, big time throw. I mean, was it perfect? No, Samuel makes a great catch on it, but he's under pressure and he puts it in a spot where the defender couldn't get it, which was much different, of course, from the first half. As mentioned, that was the only third and long they had all day. That was a throw into an eight-man coverage scheme with three pass rushers.

The touchdown pass to Terry McClarn. Wow, that's a beauty. three by one, three receivers on one side. Terry all by himself with Alexander and man coverage on the right side. Shotgun first and ten. There's some play action with Gibson in the back field. And he hits that third step and he looks off that safety and he dropped it in the bucket. Coverage was good. Terry didn't have great separation, maybe had a half step no more. Ball had to be perfect and it was. He throws that ball well. You know, the ball. ball where it's receiver, defender, man coverage towards the pylon or towards the flag, he throws that much better than he throws the post because you can put air under those throws. And he's got good touch on those throws. There were some really good completions against pressure. There was a four-yard throw off his back foot.

There was a lot of backfoot throwing. Part of his problem while he was being hit to Terry. Then the third and nine at the end with Kenny Clark bearing down on him again. I think, you know, it's amazing that he went at Alexander on the biggest play of the game, but he was going to Terry, and Terry makes an amazing play. Let's be clear on that. But under that pressure to get that ball into the area where Terry can make a play on it, was a really good job by him.

By the way, on that third and nine, you notice Gibson's there is kind of a checkdown, or, you know, he's kind of a very shallow crosser. He's never tempted to take that under pressure. Never. He is looking downfield. I was pretty much ballgame right there. I mean, if Terry had stayed inbounds, and I'm not criticizing him for his great catch,

but if he stays inbounds, it's three knees, and the game's over. Taylor made a really good decision on the throw in the red zone before the field goal that made it 2314 in the third quarter. third quarter or fourth quarter. There was nobody open on that rollout. He had to unload it to avoid the sack. Did a nice job rather than trying to force something. He threw it away. That's probably an example of some growth from last year. Last year, maybe he tries to make a play and ends up making a bad one. He missed some things in the second half. He wasn't perfect in the second half. He had to throw to Terry with Milne wide open on a deeper route. That would have been a big play. And on a third down before the field goal that made it 2014 versus the Blitz, Gibson is wide open. I'm sorry, Samuel is wide open. It's the ball to Gibson that he overthrows into the end zone.

Samuel is waving his arms by himself in the middle of the field for a first down. And there's pressure as there was for a lot of the day, especially interior pressure again. He got rid of that quickly. you know, that's, by the way, kind of some of the throws that Wentz has made, you know, under, you know, pretty quick pressure in not hanging in there, taking the big hit and throwing to the wide open guy. He had that chance, I think, there, but he decided to get rid of it and avoid what maybe could have been a sack and a bad play. But overall, he was outstanding in the second half. He played winning football, had the benefit of a run game. which was a huge benefit, had the benefit of a team that was running out of gas defensively because they were out there so much because their offense couldn't give them a break when they were on the field.

But, you know, you got to love what he brought in the second half. That brings us to the list of things that I didn't like. And it's a perfect segue in why I waited until the final thing on the list of things that I liked to mention Terry. in his second half, it just more easily flowed. You don't have to really worry about where I ranked them there. Defense was number one. But Heineke in the first half is the number one thing on the list of things I did not like. Personally, I don't want to hear about him being tight or jittery or rusty. You know, whatever description makes you feel better about his rough start, that's not

who Taylor Heineke's been. We've gotten to know him over the last year and a half. You know, we know that he's not nervous coming in. He wasn't nervous coming in against Carolina in his first game. He wasn't nervous in his first start in the playoffs against Tampa Bay. He doesn't get nervous. He was just awful in the first half. A special kind of awful in the first half. If this were a normal Green Bay offense, the game would have been over in the first half based on some of the throws that he made.

Look, this is who he is. He has the capability of doing what he did in the second half when you've got a run game and the coordinator's calling a good set of plays for him. He's a baller. He's a gamer. He's going to make some plays for you and he's going to make some good throws. He's also capable at times of what we saw in the first half. Four-fifths of that first half was as dreadful as quarterbacking gets. He was late, he was indecisive, he was wildly inaccurate. He had those floater balloon balls going in every direction,

especially some of those outside throws that require zip, that you just cannot throw up here, as Coach Joe might say. He was intercepted once on a pick six, but flat out so lucky that he wasn't intercepted another three to four times. officially the numbers in the first half, seven of 17 for 40 yards, one TD, one pick six. It should have been worse, much worse.

You know, if you go through it, the first throw of the game is behind Terry, the one that he dropped, the one that Green Bay challenged. I mean, you know, that's a bad throw. And then the first third down from his own end zone, he's throwing that thing into double coverage, up in the air floater,

and Terry did a great job. I should have mentioned this when I had Terry McClearn on my list of things that I like. Terry made a big play early by breaking up what should have been Rasul Douglas's first of three interceptions in the first half. Second offensive drive, third and short, he's late and behind Terry and Douglas almost has another one. Pressure in his face, interior pressure, same kind went saw over and over again, but he's got to deliver this sooner. I think he wanted to see it. It was too late at that point. Lucky Douglas didn't come up with it. After that, after the muffed punt third and goal,

he decides to throw to Cole Turner on the fade, not even close. I mean, just never gave him a shot. First and 10 on their third drive midfield, Terry McCorns opened by a mile. He misses him by half a mile. Two plays later, third and five, he throws the pick six. Yes, he got hit a little bit on the throw, but it was late. It was covered. McKissick should not have been the read there.

He should not have thrown it to him. By the way, he makes a great hustle play, and that's who he is, man. You know, that is really who he is. almost got to Campbell as Campbell was high stepping it at the three-yard line. I thought actually Taylor got blocked in the back while Campbell was still at the three-yard line, two-yard line. It could have been called. First and ten on the next drive, late again, indecisive for sure.

And this is the one that should have been picked off by Douglas. That one was for Samuel. I have no idea how Douglas dropped that one. He was right there. It was in his hands, and he just dropped it. You know, on that drive, remember Gibson and Robinson run it down into the red zone. Robinson with that big run that was challenged by Green Bay. Heineke, you know, completed a nice little sidearmored to McCorn on a third down.

And then, you know, and then he throws, you know, a really nice touchdown pass to Gibson. But on the second Nate throw before the touchdown at the nine-yard line, he throws to McKissick in coverage late and that one was dangerous. There was more drama to come. The fumble return for a touchdown. He does a great job, which he often does in escaping pressure in the pocket. He had no idea where Rishon Gary was, though. He takes a big hit fumbles, and finally Rasul Douglas picks it up and has the ball on his hands and possession of it and returns it for a touchdown.

I have to tell you, though, I think the call was a good call. Stokes and Gibson, Stokes had his hands on Gibson enough, and this has been the call that they told you from the beginning of the year. they were going to emphasize a legal contact, period. He was in the pocket when that contact happened. Last year, it's a touchdown this year or not. You want to say Ticky Tack had nothing to do with the play? That's not the point. They are emphasizing that this year.

That was a big break, clearly a big break for Washington because that's 21 to 10 at that point. And then, you know, one more play worth pointing out, after they survived the fumble return for a touchdown, They've got a third and four, and Heineke's way behind Curtis Samuel, and Douglas easily breaks it up. Just an inaccurate throw. He was so off. That wasn't nearly the pick opportunity, but that preceded the next play, which was the missed field goal by Joey Sly. He actually made at the end of the half a good throw to Cole Turner. The play that Turner got injured on, I know that that ball's up high and Turner's exposed, but I don't know where else he's going to put that. under pressure. He was under a pressure a lot. We've seen that with this team all year long with

Wentz. Overall, for Taylor Heinecke yesterday, from my standpoint, an absolute awful first half with the one drive and an excellent second half. I mean, and it's kind of who he's been. Again, very lucky that the first half wasn't much worse in overall results, because they could have dug a hole for themselves that they would not have been able to climb out of, even as limited as Green Bay was on offense. But I give him based on, you know, based on kind of the overall day, I give him a C, but I'm going to give him a C plus overall because what we've seen from him is, you know, not that different from what we saw yesterday, including. the way he bounces back. You know, how resilient he is, how tough he is. He just doesn't think

that bad plays are ever going to be part of the whole story. He's got a basketball shooter's mentality. He can miss nine in a row and the next one's going in. He's got a cornerback mentality. He's gotten beat four times. Next ball in the air, he's got, he's going to return for a pick six. You know, we've had some legit awful games from him start to finish, but more of the games have been like yesterday, some really bad plays and bad moments and bad series, and then some moments where he fights back and makes a couple of plays and they get into scoring position.

His best attribute, beyond the physical attribute, which is his playmaking ability, his escape ability, his extend the playability. his best attribute really is his confidence, his belief in himself, which never waivers. And it just endears him to everybody in that locker room. He has natural leadership, you know, tendencies. Look, he's quarterbacked a lot in his life. You know, a lot of snaps, a lot of throws, a lot of touchdowns at Old Dominion and in high school before that.

But yesterday was him in a nutshell. and it's probably what we're going to see from him going forward. But there's no way that you can watch Taylor Heineke and not like him. He's likable. Do I think he's a starting quarterback 17 games a year for a contending NFL team? I do not. I do not. I think he is a backup quarterback.

I think he's got too many physical limitations in throwing the football. And they were all on display in the first. half. But do I love him as a backup quarterback and as a baller, competitor, a gamer? I really do. He's the kind of athlete I love. I love guys like him. I just don't want him to be the long-term starting quarterback and he won't be. But he'll have a chance to prove me and others wrong because he's going to get several starts here while Carson is out. It'll be interesting to see if Carson's back and healthy what they do. All right, let me finish up. Pass Pro is on the list of things that I didn't like. I thought it was better, but not great. Part of that is Taylor escaping some of the stuff,

and that's why you didn't have many sacks. But he was pressured on the interior pretty quickly, too. I thought Sadiq Charles in particular struggled at times. Green Bay blitzed a bunch. Again, I think Turner had some answers to blitz pressure a little bit more this week than he did with Chicago. penalties were a problem again, seven for 56, the three accepted on that final drive. There were four that were called. Joey Sly's on the list of things I didn't like. He missed another field goal. You got to make everything inside 50 in my book.

And then here's one that maybe some of you missed. So after the Packers made it 23 to 21, they kicked off and they weren't going to onside kick because they had three timeouts and they wanted to get a stop and get the ball back and hopefully get a field goal to win the game. Antonio Gibson had returned three Mesa. Crosby kickoffs in the game, all three of them, for an average of 26 yards per return. I love Gibson on returns right now, kickoff returns. They had Dax Milne back there on that kickoff. Why? But more than that, Milne never looks at the

football. The football, he waves off as if we'll take it at the 25-yard line. And maybe that was the direction. Rivera just said, no return here, no risk of a penalty, bad field position, fumble, get Gibson out of there, put Milne in there. It's a waste of time. We're going to let the ball go into the end zone. We'll take it at the 25. Okay, but you have to watch that football, because what if it hits at the one and bounces backwards? You know, the football takes weird bounces. Milne never looked at it. There's a coaching point for you. There's a coach Sheen coaching point. If you're a kickoff returner and you're told to let it go, let it go, but watch it go into the end zone and get whistled dead. Because if it hits at the one and stays,

in and you're over at the sideline already, Green Bay is recovering it, and now they're going in for a touchdown to take the lead. But I would have put Gibson back there. I would have put Gibson back there. All right, a couple of other observations real quickly, and then we will get to Nick Ackeridge. A big play in the game that nobody talked about, except for my friend Steve Buchance. Buck texted me about this. Fourth quarter, 20 to 14, Washington, third and 10 for the Packers. All right? This was the throw before the fourth and one that they missed. on. He throws to Amari Rogers for a play that he comes up just short of the mark. However, watch that play on replay. He catches that ball, rolls to near the first down line, if not to it.

It gets marked a full yard, if not more than a yard away. Bad spot, terrible spot. When Holcomb touches him down, you know, he is at least three quarters of a year. yard ahead of where that ball eventually got marked. Why is that big? Because the Packers threw it on fourth and a long one. On fourth and what should have been maybe an inch or two, it's a sneak or a run, and maybe they get the first down easily, and they continue that drive. They throw it to Dobbs instead. He can't hang onto it. Fuller made a nice play there, and Washington takes over. Terrible spot. I thought Clark, Land Clark, the head referee and his crew, was not a good crew yesterday. not a good crew at all. I thought they missed a couple of calls, which I'll get to in a moment.

The game yesterday, eerily similar to the box scores of the games during the four-game winning streak last year. Yesterday, they had a 71 to 47 play advantage in actual plays that were run, a 37-minute to 23-minute time of possession advantage. 38 runs, 33-throws, two-point win. Last year, when they beat Tampa in that first game after the buy, 71-47 play advantage. Exactly the same. minutes to 21 minutes time of possession. 34 runs, 32 throws. They had a 10 point win, but they were up four when Gibson scored, if you recall, with like 20 seconds to go in that game. Carolina game last year, 65 to 49 in play advantage. 36 minutes to 24. 40 runs, 22 throws, six point win. Seattle on Monday night last year, 79 to 45 in play differential. 42 minutes to 18 in time of possession

advantage. That's unbelievable. And they had 43 runs and 35 throws in a two-point win. A lot of similarities. That's the formula that with Taylor Heineke, Scott Turner and Ron Rivera want to employ. They want to stay balanced because they know that he's got a better chance of succeeding as most quarterbacks do. I'm not saying it's just Taylor Heineke with a running game that keeps a defense on its heels a little bit. And they want to convert short, they want to give him a chance to convert, and they think he's got a much better chance of converting on third in shorts rather than third in longs. And that was the formula during that four-game win streak last year, and that was the formula yesterday. Green Bay, by the way, real quickly, that challenge to save

four yards on Washington's first drive of the game, which they won. I don't know. I mean, do you really challenge? It's third and three versus third and seven. By the way, they could have use that challenge on that bad spot. Because when they challenged the Robinson fumble and lost it, that was it. They didn't have any left. I thought Taylor Heineke got hit late on a third down throw right before the field goal that made it 20 to 14. There was no call.

He was definitely hit late on that play. I also think the referees missed a delay of game penalty on Green Bay on that final touchdown drive for them. They picked up 11 yards and moved the sticks on a play where there was a beat or two minimum after the clock hit zeros. The first half total passing yardage combo of 87 yards was the lowest in the league this year. Amazing. Tressway had a big time day. I probably should have put him on the list of things that I liked. And that punt at the end of the first half, good replay review because Christian Holmes

or Butler, whichever one it was, was not the first to touch it. Good job of replay keeping that ball. the one, although do you really think that Green Bay would have moved it from their own 20? Like, they couldn't do anything in the game. All of the other stuff from the game, all of the, you know, celebration, homecoming alumni, all of the stuff that all of you have been sending, the Mosley spelling, the cupcake fiasco, the halftime embarrassment. Apparently halftime was just one of the more disorganized messes. that from 25 people since yesterday at halftime.

I'll get into all this stuff, including, you know, the thing that Jay Glazer said about his conversation with Jim Merce. We'll do that with Tommy on tomorrow's show. I mean, look, at this point, does anything they do really surprise? They won the game yesterday. Let's, you know, for people like me, it's a good thing. I bet them yesterday. I bet them on the money line yesterday.

So I was happy that they won the game. But like I say, every year, let's just get to Thanksgiving with like a prayer. And yesterday went a long way towards that. Big game coming up to get to 500. We'll see. All right. Nick Ackridge from Pro Football Focus next.

Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify. If you don't mind, five stars. and a quick one to two sentence review on Apple is very helpful for us. Joining me now on the podcast, we've had Nick on before, both the podcast and the radio show, and I've enjoyed the conversations with Nick, not only because he really knows the game,

but he's a Washington sports fan, and he's a Washington Commanders fan at PFF underscore Nick Ackridge. Nick joins us right now. Usually I have you on a little bit later in the week, and when I've had you on, when the grades were finished and I just asked you as we were getting ready to start, I'm like, are you even done with the grades of Washington? And you said, yeah, you would just finish them up.

So perfect timing to get to Nick. Overall, let me just start with this. What did you think of the game yesterday? I thought it was, it reminded me a lot of last year with Heineke-under-center. It didn't look very pretty at times, but he made some key plays and somehow found a way to win.

I don't really know how to describe the game. It was kind of weird. It didn't really feel like they were playing that well, but it turned out to be a win. That's all it really matters. We'll get to some of your grades without disclosing all of them, because I know that's a PFF thing. But one of the big takeaways for me, Nick,

was just how stunningly limited Green Bay is on offense. I mean, I saw it last week against the Jets because we were able to watch. Actually, the last two games, because the London game against the Giants was the week before. But my God, I mean, they are in big trouble offensively. Yeah, it's bad. I'm not really sure why it's so bad.

Obviously, they missed Devante Adams, but the receivers aren't terrible. I don't know, Rogers is, it seems like, and I tweeted this out during the game, that when Rogers was accurate, they were dropping everything. When Rogers was inaccurate, they were open it. It was just a weird, like everything just kind of seemed, off. Like Washington wasn't really doing anything special. They weren't blitzing a ton. They weren't

disguising coverages. They were just simply just dropping back, playing some zone, playing man. I mean, it was just very simple defense. And, you know, they got pretty lucky at times of some breaks and drop passes in big situations. But, yeah, the Packers offense just does not look good at all. I mean, wouldn't you think that they have to try to make a move before the trade deadline, at least try for a clay pool or a DJ more. I know Carolina said that they're not making DJ more available. I'm forgetting somebody that might be available right now, but don't they have to make a move?

Because from their standpoint, they're three and four. The season is still salvageable. They still have Aaron Rogers. Yeah, Packers are always weird. They don't really like to go after receivers. They don't like to draft them. They don't like to trade for them. They don't like to really sign them.

And it's kind of worked out where Rogers has kind of made from, you know, average to below average players into very good players just because, you know, he's there in Rogers. But I don't see if I'm really doing anything. It's just not in their DNA to do it. So I'd be kind of shocked. I mean, obviously, they've, the Odell Beckham name has been floated around for pretty much ever since he was, you know, a free agent and stuff. And I don't know if he's healthy or not. But that'd be cool to see. I just don't see them doing anything close to that.

And I don't know if a Chase Claypool or a DJ Moore would really turn anything around. round for them. I think Rogers is an interesting character and he needs, like, he needs rapport with his receivers because a lot of the times he's kind of ad-living routes and stuff, and him and Adams were just so good at that. So I just don't think he fully trust them all yet. There's some young receivers. He trusts Lazard, but, you know, Lazzard isn't, you know, your true number one receiver. He's a good piece, but I wouldn't trust him to be the focal point of an offense. I said in the open of the podcast that, you know, I noticed, and I'm sure you did early, and I just want your thoughts on it, they, you know, to see Green Bay in sort of a defensive posture

offensively is just so weird. You know, they came out, they realized that, you know, whether it's because of their own limitations or because they really respected Washington defensively, especially up front, and maybe it's a combination of both. They didn't run at Payne and Allen. Every throw, I mean, was lightning quick in terms of being, you know, short throws, line of scrimmage throws. They didn't take many big shots. I mean, they dialed up a few of them, but they played scared. Did you agree with that or not? Yeah, that's just kind of been their offense this year. For some reason, they don't run the ball very much, even though they're pretty good at it.

Aaron Jones is a top running back, and he was pretty much their top receiver yesterday as well. It's just, it's interesting, and it's weird to see from a Packers offense, but Rogers doesn't really look like himself. He's missing some of his easy throws, and it could be the thumb injury, reason. That would explain some of the inaccuracies. But it just doesn't seem very, very fun. Like usually with the Packers' offense, it's fun. They're scoring a lot of points. It's just very, very bland, very vanilla right now. All right. I think, you know, people who are listening are waiting for us to talk about Taylor Heineke. I'm going to make them wait a little bit longer.

Defensively, tell me who the highest graded defensive players for Washington were yesterday, per PFF. Yeah, the two highest were Jamie Davis was 71 and then Derek Forrest was a 69.9. Both of them played a little over 30 snaps and up the full 54 snaps. They started to kind of play, at least for the Packers game. They played a lot of dime, which they had 60Bs. So they would take Jamie Davis out in like obvious passing situations and kind of move curl down in the box and bring Forrest in.

So that seemed to work really well. But those two kind of stood out. I think it was one of Jamie Davis' best game. He just looks like he knows where he's supposed to be now. That was not the case at all last year. He's setting up blocks well. He's diagnosing plays a lot better. Still could be some plays where he could diagnose quicker,

but I think it's a very nice improvement to see. I agree with that. I'm wondering if it's just that. I mean, look, part of this is, you know, I've heard some of this from various people, sort of in the know that they very much kind of simplified it for him. You know, it became

simpler just by nature of going from middle linebacker to outside linebacker in the offseason. But even now, it's like, this is what we want you to do, go do it. And it looks like he is playing free of thought. Yeah, no, you can definitely see that. He's just reacting quicker and sometimes

it'll bite him in the butt and he can guess wrong, but if he sees a run key, he's just attacking it. And it's good to see because he can use his athleticism to kind of recover from some mental mistakes. But when he's kind of quick reacting and stuff like that, it's definitely something you need to see. Yeah, and you know, the thing is, is I actually like him as a blitzing linebacker. I mean, he's got, you know, that burst. But I don't think they blitzed much yesterday at all. No, not at all.

They were just rushing four, dropping back seven, and it was working fine. I mean, the Packers just kind of kept everything underneath. and you just break down and make some tackles. And sometimes they got away with some drops. But it was a very simple defensive plan and it worked. I haven't talked to you in a few weeks. Just tell me overall where PFF have John Allen and Duran Payne's seasons sort of in total at right now. Yeah, they have them a little.

It's around like the top 30, top 20. And it's always tough with the grades for Allen and Payne. It's because they just play so much. we don't have very many you know plays off so a lot of times you'll see teams kind of rotate into your defensive lineman and that they're playing so some of the best ones are playing like 60 to 70% of the time Alan and Payne are playing almost 90% of the time I mean Alan had 47 snaps Prane had 46 snaps out of 54 that's just a lot of lot of snaps so sometimes a zero grade for a defensive lineman means he's not winning in a pass rush but they could just simply be just

worn out like it's it's tough for us to kind of grade that so So I've always taken their grades with a little bit more of a grain of salt because you still see some of the dominant wins in the run game and the past game. And I think they've been very solid. But it's tough to kind of look at their grade and be like, wow, they've been really good. But if you kind of use the context of they're playing almost every single snap, which you just do not see very often from interior linemen, they need breaks. I think it's been pretty incredible what they're doing. Yeah, that's interesting because that makes a lot of sense. I mean, when, because you've actually, you know, you've mentioned in the past, because I remember some of the players that you had highly graded just didn't have a lot of snaps, which means, you know, you just ended up having exceptional snaps on just a few, which obviously, you know, it increases that, it gives you a much higher grade.

But if you took Allen and Payne's best, you know, 10 plays from every game or best 20 snaps from every game, considering how many snaps. they've played, it's got to be up there among the better defensive tackle, you know, performances of the year, right, or not? No, 100%. I mean, I still watch Jonathan Allen plays, and I can kind of go through and see what his highest-graded plays are, and he still has some absolutely incredible plays. But like I said, there are some place where he needs to sort of not give 100% effort because they don't have anybody to rotate in for him.

No, right. They don't. So it's tough for us to kind of great. that because, you know, we have to grade every single play like it's an individual play. So it's pretty tough, but, again, they're still grading out pretty well considering how many snaps they have to play. You think Payne's going to get paid big time? I think he is.

Obviously, don't know if it's going to be with Washington, but I think he will. He's a very, very good player. You know, a lot of teams want those interior, you know, run-stopping defensive line. I mean, I could see him going to the Browns because they need him. they need interior help badly so I could see him getting a big payday there I just don't know if Washington can afford to pay that I think you might have to take between pain and sweat

and you might have to let both of them go it's just tough to pay that much money on the defensive line well certainly when you have 28 million invested in a quarterback but at least that's only for one more year all right we'll get to the quarterback here in a moment we're talking with Nick Ackridge from pro football focus Nick's a huge skins fan a huge DCC sports fan. By the way, I just remembered. You are a huge Tennessee volunteer fan, and my God,

that game last week was unbelievable. I got to tell you, I almost bet UT Martin in the first half just based on the letdown factor, but it was 52 to 7 at halftime. But that's great. That game coming up against Georgia will be, you know, the second game of the year for sure. So, By the way, real quickly, we'll digress here for a moment. Who's got a better chance of making the playoff, Tennessee or Alabama? I think it's Alabama. Because like you said, Tennessee has to play Georgia. And if you lose that game to Georgia, you probably aren't making a championship,

the SEC championship game. That would mean Georgia would. And Alabama is most likely going to make the SEC championship game. And so you usually put in an Alabama team that even if they lose the SEC championship game, they're still usually going to playoff. So I think it's more likely Alabama. You know, the Georgia game is funny. I'm going to actually be a best man in a wedding on that day.

So that's going to be torture for me. Yeah, that's not good planning by your guy there. You know, I was talking to my producer this morning, and we didn't do any college football, obviously, on a Monday. And I'm doing it now because we have more time on the podcast. But Clemson, to me, is going to end up in the podcast. playoff, but they're nowhere near as good as five or six or seven teams in the country. But I don't think they'll lose now after beating Syracuse.

And what was a kind of a controversial game, I don't know if you saw it on Saturday. You know, so Clemson, like I was thinking, how do you get Tennessee, Georgia, and Bama in there? Or certainly two of the three. Clemson is probably a near lock at this point. They do play South Carolina at the end of the year, which could be, you know, a tough game. South Carolina is playing much better. they beat A&M. The Ohio State Michigan winner is pretty much a lock.

The Georgia Tennessee winner is pretty much a lock. And then you've got teams like, you know, TCU and Oregon. Oregon might be as good as anybody right now. It's crazy that they lost 49 to 3, you know, to Georgia in the opener. Because I don't think that's the way the game would go now. But anyway, whatever. I love college football, and I think you do too. So anyway, we'll do that in a time.

I do when Tennessee is good, which is not. not happen in a very long time. Now I can see why people are so just over the top of their fandom with some of the other teams. It's pretty incredible because every single game means the absolute most. It's pretty intense. All right. Offensively, who were the highest-graded players yesterday? Top two were Terry McCornie, the 78.1, and then Antonio Gibson, a 76.9.9. Leno finished with third, 69.5 again. Wait, who finished? Who finished third?

Charles Leno, Jr. Oh, Leno Jr., I'm sorry. Okay, yeah. Yeah, he's always been solid as a pass protector. Run blocking grade always kind of brings it down a little bit, but he's just very, very solid as a past protector, so he's always kind of up there with the grade. Just out of curiosity, did anybody on the offensive line really struggle in pass pro?

Sadiq Charles definitely did. Cornelius Lucas had a couple bad reps but Charles really kind of struggling in the past pro Tyler Larson had a couple bad reps too and then just a tight end sometimes when they were asked to block for Sean Gary which is just wild to me but yeah I would just say that interior

three kind of was not as good again it's kind of in the theme of that offensive line but you're just kind of rotating people in and out of that center and right guard spots it's kind of tough All right. McClure and Gibson make a lot of sense to me. And by the way, just as a quick aside, and I want your thought on it, I just think Gibson's better right now than Robinson Jr. And I don't think it has anything to do with the fewer touches and being fresher.

The truth is he carried the load a couple of times in 2020 and last year as well with 20-plus touches in games and got better as the game went along. But I just think he's better than Robinson Jr. right now. What do you think? I think it's an interesting dynamic because I think Gibson offers you more in space. He's going to make more people miss. He's going to get those extra yards if you can get him in space, and that's what they've done in the passing game.

And he adds that added element that Brian Robinson doesn't really. But Brian Robinson is going to get you three, four, five yards every single time. Like he will fall forward. He will drag defenders. He might not make people miss out in space like Antonio Gibson, but he will get the tough, gritty kind of yards. and you do kind of need that one-two punch, and I think it works really well right now

when you can kind of go back and forth between them. Ryan Robinson was fine. Like I said, he was just getting those consistent yards, but Gibson had a nice couple plays in the passing game, some of those big rushes where he was able to get out in space and make people miss. Yeah, I think personally, I don't think Gibson's any less powerful

in terms of the finishing off of runs than Robinson Jr. is. I think Gibson pushes the pile. forward as well. I think he's much bigger and stronger than, you know, than people really realize because he was that wide receiver coming out of Memphis. But anyway, let's get to what everybody I think wants to hear. And that is tell everybody from Pro Football Focus's vantage point. What kind of day Taylor Heineke had? It was, it was interesting. It's one of the weirdest blitz from a first half and second half grade that I've ever seen. So in the first half, he had a 20.4 overall grade, which is pretty bad.

We had him with five turnover worthy plays, which one of them was the fumble that was returned, but we got a penalty to call to go our way. And then the other were the pick six, and then a couple more dropped interceptions. Five turnover worthy plays in a game is very, very bad. In one half is not something I've ever really seen before. And then in the second half, completely different person, 86.8 overall grade. Two big-time throws, which is our highest-graded throws. The McCorn one for the touchdown, and the McCorn one at the end.

A lot of people were kind of calling that a Hail Mary sort of ball, but that was a really, really impressive throw. He timed that throw perfectly while he was getting hit, and Jire Alexander was in a really good position on McCorn, but it was a good ball. A lot of people were just saying he just kind of chucked it up there for Terry, but it was a really well-thrown ball on basically perfect timing. So you had, you said a 20 point something in the first half, which is really bad.

And what was the second half grade again? 86.8. Okay, so was his overall grade somewhere in the 40s? It was 34.7. So those turnover worthy plays are going to skew your grade a lot, a lot towards the bad part, obviously. and it's pretty much impossible to kind of get that grade up because if you have five turnover worthy plays, you need at least five or six of those big-time graded throws to kind of even it out and get it back towards 60. He was just more efficient in the second half, and like I said, he did have those bigger throws.

But yeah, it's kind of tough to come back from five-turnerworthy plays in our grading system. For those that need it simplified, the 34.7 would be equivalent to what is a letter grade? probably a D. Yeah, a lot of people kind of see our grades as letter grades, but a 60 is average for a PFF grade. Anything above 60 is seen as above average and anything below 60 is not great. So 34.7 is probably close to that D minus range. But again, it's tough to kind of overcome what he did in the first half,

but the second half he did what he had to do. So you're a fan of a team. why do you think that there was such a disparity between the first half and the second half? Probably jitters, nerves. You know, he hasn't played in a little bit. It's kind of tough to come in there and just be good all of a sudden. And this is kind of who Taylor has been his whole year. He's just hot and cold just during a game.

A lot of quarterbacks, you kind of get good and bad games. He has that all in one game. And it's entertaining, but it's not something that you can really keep sustaining. It almost really, really cost them. I think we're having a much different discussion if that illegal contact penalty wasn't called, and that fumble was returned, and that would have put them up 21 to 10. I think it was the right call, but we're definitely having a different discussion if that wasn't called. Yeah, I mean, I think Rassul Douglas had three, I think your other three interceptions were all Douglas interceptions,

one of which he just flat out dropped, and the other two he probably should have had at least one of them. And yeah, and, you know, if you're playing somebody capable offensively to ending those possessions, that abruptly is going to hurt you as well, even if it doesn't turn into a turnover. But Green Bay couldn't do anything with the football yesterday. All right, what do you see? Let me give me your first sort of gut feel on the indie game. I had to toss up. I think they're four and a half, four and underdogs right now.

I think it's going to be a really close game of just two teams that are still going to kind of, I think it's going to be similar to this Green Bay game where two teams are kind of going to struggle and, you know, one team is going to get away with some lucky breaks. I think it'll be very close. I think they can win. For whatever reason, this team just loves to play for Heineke. I don't know what it is. I'm not a big momentum guy when you work for an analytics company.

You're kind of, the word momentum is kind of a sin that you talk about that. but I think for whatever reason I'd like to play for Heineke and I think if you can limit I mean if you got away with a five turnover really play game it's it's tough to get worse than that in a half and still come away with the win so you just need a consistent Taylor Heineke and I think once he got that first half out of him in that first touchdown that he hit to Gibson I think he kind of settled down and it was a lot better so I think again it's always going to come down to the quarterback and Matt Ryan hasn't looked great But if you get a consistent, decent, Taylor Hineke, I think they have a good chance to win it. At PFF underscore Nick Ackridge. Nick, I enjoyed the conversation once again. Thanks for doing this.

We'll talk soon. Yeah, anytime. A quick segment to finish up some NFL, some college football, and Bryce Harper, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Bryce Harper's two-run Homer in the bottom of the 8th puts the Phillies into the World Series. I must admit, I know I've admitted this before, I'm a big Bryce Harper fan.

I was when he was here. I didn't like that he left. I blamed the organization in part, but understood, certainly, that Bryce didn't necessarily want to stay either. It's crazy, actually, to think that Bryce Harper just turned 30 the other day. He was this prodigy at 16 years old on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He's been gone from Washington now for four years. He was here for seven after arriving as a generational prospect.

You can make up your own mind as to whether or not you thought he lived up to the hype here in D.C. I loved him. He was the 2015 MVP here. He had 19 playoff games in Washington, part of the first of four playoff appearances. for this franchise in D.C. He had five homers, 10 RBIs in 19 playoff games, not bad. Then he goes to Philadelphia, you know, and what he implied at the time, and I remember having this conversation, I remember having this conversation with Tommy. He wanted a real sports town. He's a big sports fan. He wanted to play in a big time sports city. He certainly wanted to play in New York, even before

playing in Philadelphia. And look, if we're being honest with ourselves, Phillies a better sports town than Washington. You know, you can say that they're fickle and lukewarm and bandwaggy when it comes to, you know, the Phillies, maybe more so than the Eagles. But it's a good sports town. He wins an MVP in 2021. He was on his way to contention for an MVP this year before getting hurt in June. But it's interesting about his career.

And I listened to Arod and I listened to Frank Thomas and Big Poppy after the game. game last night. Talk about Bryce Harper and what he did in this series and what he's done in the postseason so far. Five home runs, 11 RBIs hitting 413. He's got six doubles in their 11 playoff games so far. I think he has now set the record for most playoff games in a row with at least one extra base hit. He's got the go ahead, you know, either home runs or RBI singles and or doubles now in multiple games in the postseason, including the last two. He had the RBI go-ahead double on Saturday. Then, you know, yesterday slash last evening's eighth inning two run Homer. He's just, they were saying that it's weird, but he's kind of underrated. You know, for a while

it was Bryce Harper's overrated, you know, and yet he had won an MVP. Then it was still kind of, well, you know, he doesn't have the team results and he won a second MVP. And, you know, yet, you know, heading into this postseason, I don't know if there were huge expectations for Harper to lead Philadelphia. Now, Reese Hoskins has gone off as well. You know, Kyle Schwerber's got a couple of bombs, you know, in the postseason. But Harper won the National League, you know, a championship series MVP, and it wasn't close. And what he is bringing to the World Series, I think, is a lot of juice to it. You know, especially since the Yankees aren't there. and I don't know if that's big juice or not.

It certainly is in New York. But I guess, you know, even though I'm a Nats fan, and I don't have this thing for the Phillies like some of you have. I don't think the Nats have a rivalry. You know, there's not a natural rival. I just loved him here. And he, for me, is one of those athletes that seems built for the big moment. And I knew heading into this postseason that I told Tommy this.

I'm like, I just want to see if Bryce Harper will be as clutch as he's been in the past. And he has exceeded expectations. That home run last night is an all-time moment in Philadelphia. I'm not going to put it up there with some of the big. It's a top 10 all-time moment in the history of Philadelphia sports, if not top five. It is certainly the most memorable home run in the history of that city. Did you see the celebration in the streets last night? That crowd, and I mentioned this, you know, after the games early in the city.

the series against the Braves about how loud that crowd was. It's been incredible. He loves that, you know, by the way. I love that stuff too. You know, I miss that for in our city. I think the Caps crowds are great. You know how I feel about, you know, the Maryland basketball crowds when it's really good. But I miss the whole football team, home field advantage. I mean, there was nothing better than knowing that this city had a football team that most other NFL teams feared coming to because it was such a big disadvantage to play at RFK Stadium. And, you know, FedEx to a certain degree for some of those years, although it was never, ever RFK. But Harper's two run shot last night to win the National League pennant, career signature moment for him. And there may be

more to come for him in the World Series. I can't wait to watch this World Series. It certainly does get masked by football, it seems to, in recent years, but I'm all in on this one. The thing that stinks, it doesn't start until Friday night. Are you kidding me? This is the problem, by the way, and I've mentioned this before about the national championship game in football when there's, you know, 10, 11, 12 days, sometimes more between the semifinals and the actual championship game. There used to be more when you, it's kind of this out of sight out of mind. You know, the NBA playoffs, you get to the championship series, and there's a fixed date that the NBA finals will start on, regardless of when the conference finals end. And I think that's the case with this World Series.

This World Series is going to bleed into November. But I think it's an exciting World Series, and you've got Dusty and Bryce Harper. And you just had Bryce Harper against Juan Soto. And Juan Soto had a couple of big moments in the National League Championship Series. But there's something about Harper. You know, I just, I don't think he's the most sophisticated person. I think he's probably very narrow in many ways. I think this is, you know, from the couch.

I think he is dialed in and has been his entire life on one thing, one thing only. And that is being a star baseball player. He is built for it. You know, I've interviewed Bryce before. He's not the greatest of interviews. He's not the best of communicators. He's not terrible at all. But he just, even last night in watching the aftermath, you know, he was celebrating.

But it was, you know, I think Frank Thomas said this, or it may have been A-Rod. Even during the celebration, they're like, look at him, he's still locked in. You know, there have been people like that, you know, the Jordans, the Tigers of the world. I'm not saying Bryce Harper is Jordan or Tiger, okay? I always think of Joe Gibbs in the same way. Joe Gibbs had no clue what was going on in the outside world. Didn't care, had zero interest. And I'll never forget, in particular, the Oliver North hearings.

The Oliver North hearings, the Iran-Contra hearings are going on. Somebody asked Gibbs about it during the fall, during a week leading into a game. He had no idea who Oliver North was. just totally dialed in on winning. I don't know if it's the right way to go through life or not. I'm not being critical of it at all. In fact, it's fascinating to me. But Harper's that guy.

He just is built for this, and he's only 30, and, you know, I'd like to see him win a World Series here. I'd like to see this run continue, this incredible post-season run continue. and I'd like for him to sort of be recognized for the great player that he is. He's been great. He's got two MVP's and he may be headed now towards something bigger and better from a team standpoint. That was exciting yesterday. It's been exciting.

I can't wait for the World Series. Let's go to College Park on Saturday for the Terps who are in trouble against Northwestern. He's going to indeed turn to the run and hit me. Bracks three. foot race. Roman Hemby. The sideline in. One play.

75 years. Maryland back in front. Roman Hemby. What a season he is having for Maryland in his freshman season. Hemby, you know, did play in a few games last year, but retains his freshman status. 681 yards now in the season averaging six and a half yards per carry, seven touchdowns. And on Saturday, when they needed him the most, with the score tied at 17 at 24, 24, 24, and three and a half minutes to go, he goes 75 yards for the touchdown.

Marilyn holds on to beat Northwestern 3124. The Terps are bowl eligible as early as they've been in years. They are six and two. And this was not an easy one. because Leah Tunga Vailoa did not play. They held them out. I suggested that they could hold them out and be fine. Billy Edwards Jr.

It showed some moxie in games against Michigan. And then in that comeback win over Indiana the week before when Leah got hurt, you know, I like the way he runs. Boy, he missed a lot of plays it looked like in the past game. And Marilyn was in a dog fight with Northwestern. Northwestern's not been a good team. They're one and six. Now, if you're paying attention, they were competitive against Penn State.

They beat Nebraska early in the year. They were competitive against a Duke team that's pretty good. Like all of their losses, with the exception of their loss to Wisconsin, were all close games. So they've been pretty good under Pat Fitzgerald in terms of their competitiveness. Their record stinks, though. And Maryland couldn't get stops on a quarterback and a running back situation. The quarterback, Brendan Sullivan, was really playing for the first time.

this year. But the Terps got the win. I mean, this is a game they would have lost in recent years. Now they get a week off, a buy. They get Leah back for the big stretch run of at Wisconsin, at Penn State, and Ohio State at home. I'm not very optimistic about the Ohio State game, but I do think Maryland's got legit chances at Wisconsin and at Penn State. They've already played Michigan tougher than anybody, you know, and really got royally screwed. in that game in Ann Arbor, with two interceptions by Leah, both of which should have been overturned by replay, and neither was. But Maryland is, this is his best team. We talked about this before the year. I think he'll get his seventh and maybe an eighth win. I think there are two more wins in these final four games and a really

solid bold game. They're very close to being ranked right now. If they hadn't lost that game against Purdue, they'd be, you know, they'd be in the top 20 by now, certainly somewhere between 20 and 20. in that range. But that was a big win for them to hold on to that. And Hemby's a great back. They've got just a lot of talent on that team. They really, really do. Otherwise, college football, and I talked to Nick about it,

Nick Ackridge about it in our earlier segment. But Clemson's win over Syracuse came, if you were watching this, with a situation late in the third quarter, Syracuse up 21 to 10. And it's a third and 25 for Clemson. And their quarterback, their backup quarterback, Cade Clubnick, who would come in for DJU. He came in, he runs out of bounds, 15 yards short of the first down, and there is minimal contact.

A flag flies. It was a bullshit call. And it changed the course of that game. And maybe the course of the playoff. field this year. Clemson was well on their way to losing that game. They ended up scoring a touchdown on that drive to get back to 2117. And the bottom line is, I don't think if they punt there, Syracuse gets the ball, decent field position in, or not great field position, but they get the ball up 21 to 10 in the fourth quarter. I don't think they lose that game. I don't. A horrible, horrible

call. And Clemson now, again, they do have South Carolina. Carolina at the end of the year in South Carolina has played well. Their other games are Notre Dame, Louisville, Miami. None of those teams are that good. But I don't think Clemson's that good. But if they go undefeated, they're going to get one of the four playoff spots. But college football really heating up and getting very interesting in terms of, you know, what's going on in the Big 12 with TCU, what's going on in the PAC 12 with Oregon knocking off UCLA. Oregon looks like a really good team right now. The Michigan, Ohio State game obviously is going to have massive implications on the playoff and the Tennessee Georgia game coming up in a couple of weeks.

Massive implications as well. Don't look now, but here comes Brian Kelly and LSU. LSU now in back-to-back weeks have wins over Florida and an undefeated seventh ranked Ole Miss team, and they blew Ole Miss out in the second half. That was one of the smell test picks. Smell tested well in college, three and one on Saturday, not as well in the NFL yesterday. I do of Chicago tonight plus the points in the last smell test pick. But LSU gets a week off and then they get Bama in Death Valley. Wow. I mean, that turns out now to be a big, big game.

It's too bad. Their kicker missed an extra point in the opener against Florida State and they lost 24-23 on Labor. I think it was Labor Day night or maybe it was that Sunday night before Labor Day. LSU is playing really, really good football right now. Brian Kelly, it doesn't matter. matter what you think of him. He's a hell of a coach. He really is. And I think he's going to end up winning big at LSU. All right. Let's get to just some of the NFL from yesterday and then

wrap up the show. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. Play number nine on this drive, second and 13. Quick pass is intercepted. Picked off bottoms and he's got him. And the Titans. Washington's next opponent, the Colts lose to Tennessee, 19 to 10. The Colts now swept by the Titans, losing two games against Tennessee in the last three weeks. 24 to 17 a few weeks ago at Indy, 19 to 10 in Nashville yesterday. Matt Ryan, after throwing for 389 yards and three touchdowns in their win over Jacksonville last week, was 33 of 44 for 243, but two interceptions in the game against Tennessee, including a pick six.

And the Colts come in with Jonathan Taylor back. They do have their receivers right now, Paris Campbell, Michael Pittman, and Alex Pierce all healthy. And really for the Colts, this is a big time game like it was for the Packers yesterday. But this is a big game. It's a matchup between Jim Ursay. And we will get to the Ursae comments to Jay Glazer on tomorrow's show with Tommy. But the Colts have, you know, a stretch here of Washington, New England, and Vegas. And if they're going to be in the hunt in the AFC South, they're going to have to win a couple of these games. And the only home game in that stretch is Washington. There are a four-point favorite Sunday against Washington right now.

That game opened at five and a half. A lot of sharp money on. Washington bringing that number down. But that's the next opponent. We'll have a lot more on them later in the week. How about the Giants against Jacksonville? Second down, going deep. Daniel Jones. Did he catch it?

Darius Slayton has a giant touchdown. So the Giants are six and one after a 23 to 17 come from behind win at Jacksonville yesterday. All six of their wins. are by eight points or less. Their loss was a seven-point loss to the Cowboys on Monday Night Football in week three. This is what they've been doing.

They've been coming from behind. They've been winning late. They've been winning with their quarterback, making big plays. Daniel Jones, 107 yards rushing yesterday, 202 passing with reportedly four to five drops in the game. Saquan Barkley, another big game, had 110 yards on the ground, had four catches in the game.

Jacksonville was a smell test pick. I couldn't believe they were three-point favorites, and I played them. And it looked good for a while. They were up 17, 13. They had opportunities throughout the game. They fumbled in the first half down at the Giants 17-yard line. They also fumbled at the 50-yard line on another drive.

They got stopped on another on downs at the Giants' 20-yard line on a fourth-and-one. I mean, they moved the ball on the giant. The Giants were in Ben, don't break mode. I mean, Jacksonville put up like 450 yards of offense in the game. And Trevor Lawrence threw for like well over 300. But the Giants are doing a hell of a job right now. Well-coached, not making the mistakes, no turnovers in the game. Daniel Jones on the season.

Remember, we've talked about Daniel Jones a lot over the years. Two interceptions now in seven games. That's it. Brian Dable's really getting the most out of Daniel Jones, and the Giants are six and one. And listen to this. They play at Seattle next week. Seattle's in first place after beating the Chargers yesterday. They're in first place by themselves in the NFC West, with, by the way, Kenneth Walker,

the third, having an incredible game and putting himself in three or four games now into the conversation for NFL offensive rookie of the year. All right, let's go to Dallas for the Cowboys and the Lions. First and goal. Back to Zeke. Touchdown. Dallas. Imposing their will. Jack's starting to get back into that rhythm there.

Dallas beats Detroit 24 to 6. The story, of course, was the return to the lineup for Dak Prescott. 19 of 25, 207 yards. One touchdown, no picks in the game. Look, the story. of this game was really simple. Detroit turned the ball over five times. This was a rough one. I had Detroit plus the seven in the smell test, and I played them outright on the money line yesterday as well. They had a first and goal at the one and fumbled. Five turnovers. Gough had two

interceptions and two fumbles in the game. Dallas's defense is awesome. Don't get me wrong. I mean, this might be the best defense in the NFL. It's certainly one of the top two or three. But the Cowboys just didn't have to do much offensively in this game. They only had three points at halftime. It was six to three at halftime. And it was just the turnovers that ultimately ended up giving them opportunities for points. And then Detroit finally just sort of succumbed at the end. But Dallas won the game 24 to 6.

They also punted six times in the game. All right. So it was not an offensive juggernaut of a performance for them. But the Cowboys are five and two. and defense is leading them right now. And they've got, you know, the next two against the two teams that Washington just beat up on. The Bears and the Packers, two teams who are really struggling in the NFC North. The Cowboys are 10-point favorites over Chicago next Sunday.

They'll probably be favored at Lambo. At this point, I don't know, that feels like a pick-em game. You know, worst-case, Dallas might be favored. Who knows? It depends on what the Packers do against Buffalo, where they are a 10-and-a-half-point underdog. on Sunday. But the Cowboys are five and two. I mean, you know, they've got the loss to the Eagles and the opening night loss to Tampa, the game that Dak got hurt in. I think they're better off with Dak. I'm not one of those people that believes are better off with Cooper Rush. But as long as they keep

running the ball and playing the kind of defense, they're playing, they're going to be, you know, a 10-win team when this is all said and done. I mean, they got the Bears, the Packers, the Texans, the Jags, you know, Washington one more time on the. the road. You know, they've got the Colts. You know, they've got a big game in Minnesota. That's going to be a huge game in late November. But Dallas, you know, certainly feels like defensively alone. They've got four to five more wins in them easily, right, to be a playoff team. The NFC East, you know, right now it's just amazing with the Eagles having to buy and not, you know, all three NFC East teams won yesterday. Right now, the aggregate record 20 and 7 in the NFC East.

You know, I mean, it is possible. It's never happened before in the history of the league. It's a much better possibility now with seven playoff teams. But you've never had an entire division make the postseason. It was just a couple of years ago where people were saying, hey, you know, can we just exclude the NFC East altogether from the postseason? Nope, Washington gets in at 7 and 9 as a division winner. This year, I'm not getting ahead of myself.

Back to the early theme to the show. but right now there are probably people looking at the rest of the NFC wondering my God if Washington gets to eight wins, nine wins, Dallas is at 10, the Giants are 10, Philadelphia is at 13, there could be four teams from the NFC East in the postseason. I mean, right now the second place teams in the other three division, the Rams at 500 because they had to buy, the Falcons 3 and 4, the Packers, 3 and 4. long way to go, certainly. But that's pretty much the NFL story for me on this show.

There were other things that happened in the league yesterday, and we'll get to some of those, I guess, for the rest of the week. But let's wrap it up for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.