The Kevin Sheehan Show - Taylor's Road Test

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

Kevin opened the show with why Sunday's game at Buffalo will be the most revealing moment so far about Taylor Heinicke. Kevin had Scott Van Pelt on the show to talk Washington Football Team, Terps, NFL, Aaron Rodgers, taunting rule, and more. Kevin finished the show with a 1991 Super Bowl season look-back.  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. First of all, I think they're a measuring step. You know, when you talk about teams that have opportunities every year now to compete and do some great things, this is one of them. So you should measure yourself to the great teams in this league right now,

the teams that are really, really good. So that's how we feel. We feel like we're coming up against a measuring stick and really kind of see where we are and how far we have to go. That was Ron Rivera, saying that Sunday's game at Buffalo is a measuring stick game. He was also asked about Taylor Heineke's first road game as a Washington football team quarterback. I'm going to play that for you.

And also what Taylor Heineke said about this being his first road game, we are going to get to that as well. Scott Van Pelt is going to be on the show today. Cooley is not going to be on. on the show today. He had a family matter that came up late last night. He apologizes for not coming on today, but he is going to come on the show on Friday to help preview the Buffalo game on Sunday. So he will be on Friday's podcast, not today. Scott will be on a little bit later. We'll talk about everything. We'll talk about Maryland. We'll talk about the Washington football team. We'll talk about the NFL. We'll mix some gambling into the conversation and a lot more

got coming up. Just as a reminder, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't. It doesn't cost you a thing. It really helps us. Rate us and review us if you can as well. That really helps, especially if you give us five stars and write us a one to two sentence positive review. Many of you have asked, many of you have done it, A, and I appreciate it very much, many of you have asked, is that more important than how many people listen? We have great numbers on the podcast, which it's always been that way. But advertisers base a lot of their buying decisions on how loyal the audience is and how much they enjoy the hosts and co-hosts of the show.

So positive ratings and reviews are important because it allows us to attract even more advertisers. Not that we're going to increase the number of spots. Many of you have said we've got too many already. I do understand that, but it is necessary. But it allows us to increase the rates in which we are charging the advertisers. Anyway, a little bit behind the curtain stuff, but I do appreciate all of you that have done that for us recently. If you haven't done it, and you can, very helpful to rate us and review us, especially on Apple, Spotify, and Google. And again, subscribe if you can. It doesn't cost you a thing.

You'll just get the show delivered without having to go out and reach for it every day. And that helps us as well. So I want to talk about this game as it relates to Taylor Heineke. I understand that the defense is a question mark, and they're going to be facing a quarterback that's been struggling. And I am certainly a little bit concerned after two games. and I want the defense to become what we thought the defense could become, and this is a big test on the road against a guy that was on that list of

quarterbacks with offensive weapons like Stefan Diggs that we all talked about before the season started, even though he hasn't been playing well. So it would be even more concerning if the defense has another bad day on Sunday. But to me, the more intriguing storyline for the defense, for Sunday is Taylor Heineke's first road game. And I talked a little bit yesterday on the podcast with Tommy as to why I think this is intriguing. And netting it out, I believe it's a big reveal. Like, I think it will be very revealing and maybe will be the single biggest, you know, and most important data point we have so far on Taylor Heineke. Now, let me be clear,

there's nothing conclusive that I'm going to draw from anything that happens on Sunday. I would probably tell you that I could probably lean in the direction of being less of a believer if I was inclined to be a believer in Taylor Heineke. I'm not a believer and I'm not a non-believer at this point. I don't have any idea. I'm intrigued and he's been in A so far in the 11 and a half quarters. that he's played, but I'm just neither on him yet. It's just too early.

Now, if he goes in and tears it up, I would probably say that's really impressive to do that in that environment. But I think the bigger, a step in the more, in the direction of some sort of conclusion, which again, it would be a small step, would be if he went in there and really performed poorly and looked and appeared to be overwhelmed, which, by the way, I don't think it's going to happen. But I think as it relates to Taylor Heineke, we have some data points through 11 and a half quarters.

You know, we've got a couple of things that we understand that these things suggest something about him. Again, they don't lead to conclusions about him, but we do know that from the limited data that we have, have the limited number of times that we've seen him, that he's pretty good off schedule. In fact, I've said before, I think he is off schedule at a very high level for an NFL quarterback. I think it's his number one attribute. And yet the game last Thursday night, he didn't even use his mobility. They kept him in the pocket, forced him to throw from the pocket

against soft zone coverage primarily, and he did it. And that leads me to a second data point. We had no idea if he could throw from the pocket and beat somebody from the pocket and perform well from the pocket, well, it's just one game, but the performance against the Giants would suggest that he's capable of doing that. We saw him make a terrible play at the end of the giant game and yet bounce back and lead them to a game-winning field goal attempt. So there's a, you know, there's something to suggest that he's pretty damn. resilient and that he has got some ballers we sort of sensed from last year in him. What we don't know at this point is how he's going to react to an environment that he

hasn't played in yet and we haven't seen him in yet. And that is a non-supportive environment. Everything about the NFL, we're all NFL fans. We can picture the difference between quarterbacks who are. you know, one quarterback at home and totally different on the road. Now, I think he'll do fine. I don't think he'll curl up in a ball. I think he'll be fearless and I think the results will be fine.

But I want to see it. I want to see him go into this environment. I want to see him face third and 15 from his own eight-yard line, you know, down 17 to 10 with the crowd at full throat and see what he does and how he handles it. And if he can make a big throw or a big play, maybe it's not third and 10. Maybe it's third and seven from his own 14. The end zone's super loud. He's got to go hand signals and he's got to make a play. Or is he getting hit, you know, in bum rushed and he never sees it coming and the ball's loose and it's going through the end zone three times in the game. These are things

that I think are very revealing. You don't know enough about anything related to a quarterback specifically until you've seen that quarterback play in a tough road environment. This is what Taylor Heineke said about playing on the road for the first time and if he has to do anything different. Not really. It'll be my first road game starting, like you said, but it's at Buffalo with fans, so it's going to be loud.

There's going to be some silent. stuff that we're working on this week. But again, it's a good defense, and, you know, we're excited for the opportunity and the challenge. That's the other thing, too, that last line when he says it's a good defense, we're excited for the opportunity and the challenge. It's not just that it's a hostile, you know, inhospitable environment that he's going to be in for the first time in his career as the starting quarterback. It's that he's facing a good team and a very aggressive defense.

So I think that there's a real, I think it's very interesting to see how he handles this on Sunday. Now, Rivera was asked about Heineke playing on the road and whether or not he expected the road environment to have an impact on Taylor Heineke. Here's what Rivera said. No, I don't expect an impact. I don't think it should be that big a deal. Again, I think that I'd classify that under the interesting, you know, to him it's really about being on the field and playing on the field. field. You know, he's played a lot of football in his past in terms of what he did collegiately and then some of his opportunities coming up. But yeah, this is his first real big shot. But like I said,

to me, that's interesting. That was Rivera answering the question with his now pretty common answer to things that he doesn't think are very significant. He'll say, well, I think that's interesting. It's not important or it's not significant. It minimizes not necessarily the question, but it minimizes the importance of his answer, I guess, really. The question was how will Heineke adjust to playing on the road, and do you expect playing on the road to impact him? And he says, no, I don't expect, you know, an impact. But the bottom line is, I mean, anybody that's watched NFL football

and coached NFL football understands that if they're on this path to also figuring out what we're trying to figure out, which is, is he just a backup? or is there something to him that could result in him being the starter? This is another data point. To me, a very revealing one, an important one, not one that I would come to a conclusion one way or the other on, but I think they realize that too. I think they'd love to see, you know, third and seven and big spot,

fourth quarter, crowded full throat and see him deliver a ball from the pocket to Terry McLaren to move the sticks. you know, in a big drive down, you know, down four late in the game. I mean, they want to see how he reacts to that environment. Anyway, just, again, elaborating a little bit more, flogging this dead horse a little bit more on the topic of Taylor Heineke's first road game. It's intriguing to me. It may or may not be to many of you,

but I can't wait for Sunday at one to see how he handles it. All right, up next, Scott Van Pelt, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Scott Van Pelt is with us on the podcast today. Is Maryland football any good? I think so. I mean, they live on a really rough side of the street, right? Big East, Big East, the Big Ten East is good. There's no bombs on their side of the division.

So they'll probably end up with, you know, a decent number of losses. but just beating, figuring out how to win that game at Illinois is the difference maker. All Maryland fans remember the Temple spot a few years ago in advance of a potentially huge game at home against Penn State. And they went up there and they were right there and the game was there to be one. And then it kind of set the wheels in motion where the wheels fell off. And then they got destroyed by Penn State and everything went sideways. So, I mean, they could still have a bunch of losses. whatever else, but they also won that game.

And I think that's significant because it shows that in the middle of a moment of question and adversity and whatever, they had an answer. And so if you can beat Kent State on Saturday and you got a four-and-oh home game against the top five team, that's as big a game as Maryland has had at home in ages. So that right there makes them better than they've been. But I'll tell you what, Kent State's actually pretty competitive. Anybody that follows television football really closely knows they played Iowa and A&M, and they've battled for a half in each of them.

So you can't just sleepwalk into this game and think you're going to roll them because they're from the Mac or whatever, because that would be a bad, bad mistake to make. This game's got Kent State Plus 14 written all over it for smell test. You went for your winners segment last week, you actually went with Illinois, the number one and got the happiness hedge with the Terps winning by three, which how many times on your winner's segment on your show have you picked against Maryland? It's rare, but I think I don't know this to be accurate, but my guess is anytime I have, it's one.

I mean, as Terp fans who think the way you and I think, I mean, we knew the Temple spot was a disaster, you know? And I mean, this Kent State spot, you're right. I mean, just from the way I think I would say take Kent State plus the points. I don't do it often just because I don't want to have to explain to Maryland fans. I'm not picking against Maryland or rooting against Maryland. I just think the spot speaks to a certain opportunity from a picking games perspective. And it went exactly the way you wanted it to go.

Exactly. You know, over the years on the smell test, whenever I've had. Washington in the smell test, either as the team that I've picked or their opponent, I'm like 64% on those games over the years. It's something like that. I looked a number up and I went back maybe like a year ago or two years ago, and I don't know how I did last year, but at one point it was like 64%. And when you think about it, it's a little bit ironic that for someone like me and you who handicap in a way that sort of admits we don't really really. know, but these guys that make the point spreads do know and the public doesn't know.

And yet the teams that we're most familiar with, there's like a flashbulb that comes on that, you know, when we see a line that reeks with that team that makes us salivate even more over their games. But it shouldn't be that way, right? Because it's a contrarian handicapping philosophy that says, well, we don't really care if we know anything about these teams or not. Well, and the reason that the flashbow comes on more quickly is where in those other spots, we're going basically just off of what our guts telling us based on, oh, the public's going going to love this, the public's going to love that. In this case, we actually know something about the team that's involved.

You know, because often it's like a running joke. I'll say, you know, we'll put a pickup and Steve will say, can you name one person on this team? And I'll say, I cannot. I am not well-versed on, you know, whomever, some Sunbelt team. But in the Maryland case, you have much better sense of it. But, I mean, let's take the gambling piece out. I'm just happy for Mike Lockley. You know him, I know him.

He knows the score here. He knows that recruiting is fine. Getting that massive investment to turn coal into the Jones Hill House is a game changer. But you've got to win games, and he understands that. And so they've won the first three that they've played again. The schedule is really difficult. So I don't think any sane Maryland fan out there has playoff hopes or, you know, 10 and 2 hopes. I think just win Saturday and set yourself up for a Friday game against Iowa

that I hope to God that the administrators out there sorted out. They did. They did. They sorted it out. Okay, I know you were vocal about that, and I'm glad you were because you just have to have some common sense about the setup. And it would be, it's already a cluster getting in and out of there for games. Because campus, I'm convinced campus will never stop being built. God, I think you can say that about almost any campus.

No doubt. Steve and I talk about all the time, like when they would travel every weekend for Game Day Radio. He says, is there any campus that's done? I'm like, what do you mean? He's like they're all one enormous construction site, which is true, but getting in and out is a challenge, and this is going to be a huge crowd.

And so you just got to sort it out and give people a chance to get in there in advance. Yeah, I don't think I've talked to you since I got back from Penn State over the weekend, but lots of construction there, too. I'm sure. What a scene that was, I did not go to the game. I just tailgated from about 11 a.m. until about 8.30 p.m., which was quite interesting. But I've been to the whiteout game, and it's fabulous.

It just is the next whiteout game I go to is I'm going in only because my seating is preferable and comfortable. The bench seating and a sold-out 112,000 seat stadium can get old after a while unless you've got a real vested interest in either team, and I don't necessarily. I wanted to just real quickly wrap up the Maryland thing. Steve Souter has come on the podcast and the radio show a couple of times this year. He thinks the recruiting is finally kicked in, that this is now a legitimate, like two years ago against Temple, they weren't anywhere near where they are now, and that they've got, you know, top quarter, top 20 percent talent in the Big Ten, and because of it, they're legit real in these head-to-heads that we're

going to have coming up against all of these Big Ten teams. Sure, I mean, and that's something that I talk to Mike about. I understand the, I mean, every, every team and every new coach has to come in with some kind of social media slogan that you can sell. And the best is ahead is what Maryland has been going with. And I said, you know, that can be true. But in order for it to be true, you have to be doing the things each day so that right now builds you towards that. I said, it seems like you have the players now where right now is going to get you there. And he's like that's entirely true, that they just have, they just have more depth of talent.

They're not smoking mirrors in spots where they were initially. So, you know, and we all, we know, and a lot of your listeners who are local, know, that it's a tough sell. You know, Maryland football always has been. I was in that stadium when it was known as Bird. It was Jerry Claiborne. And I'd be happy when it was Band Day because the whole back end of the, end zone would get filled in.

And they had really good teams. So, I mean, through the years, just filling that stadium is a challenge because you're not in, you're not in, you know, state college, Pennsylvania in the middle of nowhere. You're here. And so you've got options and you've got distractions, and they haven't been great. So just being good, I'm not saying you can't, as we know, you can fill it. You just need to be good. and Ralph got it going like that. And so it would be great fun for that to happen again.

And I think the process is underway. It's just it's not going to be an easy build given the Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State trio you're dealing with. And then Michigan State looks way better, and Chiano makes Rutgers more competitive. Indiana was awfully good last year. They've lost a couple. But it's just not like you look at somebody and go, okay, well, we're going to beat them. You know, there's just, you know, there's none of that.

What do you think of Washington so far in the NFL? I don't know. I think their defense looks like it's not what we or they thought they were. You know, that first game couldn't get off the field. That was the biggest issue. That was such an odd game. There were so many strange things that happened. I mean, I think Washington's record probably feels right,

And I think that if they would have won the first one and lost the second, and it would have made just as much sense. You know what I'm saying? Just outcome-wise, just having paid attention to the games. And I think living here, and we've talked about this for years, I think living here makes me pay attention more closely. I watch more of each of the games on Thursday. And I just Thursday night is a standalone, so you're paying attention that one exclusively.

But listen, I think I think Heineke's not unlike if it's Patrick. I think there's a little bit of a, I could keep you in it and put you in danger simultaneously in games. I think he has a certain, I don't give a bleep mentality. It probably comes from the fact that he wasn't even in the league this time a year ago. So, I don't know, I kind of, I like him. But I just defensively, I'm just thinking, I don't know. I mean, yeah, they got talent. but are they is is it all sort of cohesive at the moment i don't know it doesn't necessarily appear to

be yeah the thing um that i talked about Tommy and I talked about it on the podcast yesterday and I talked about it in the opening segment of this show is i actually on Heineke i i the odds are he's not going to be a long-term answer i mean those are just the odds you know we don't we have one example maybe two you know of quarterbacks becoming franchise quarterbacks at 28 years old after really not playing at all. You know, Tony Romo to a certain extent, and then Kurt Warner is the ultimate all-timers. So he's probably not going to be that. With that said, he has the fan base, at least some of it, really ginned up with the way he's played.

And he's played really well. He's played 11 and a half quarters for this team. He played a quarter against Carolina last year, Scott. He played the Tampa playoff game. He played two and a half quarters against the Chargers, and he played the game last Thursday night against the Giants. And, you know, he has shown something. I mean, he's played at a high level, actually. And he made a terrible mistake the other night late in the game and bounced back with a great drive to win the game, courtesy of an offsides against the Giants.

But I think, and this isn't just a sports talk segment trying to create something to talk about. I think this Sunday is going to be the biggest reveal yet. And nothing's going to drive us to a conclusion after four games or five games. I mean, it's just too small of a sample size. But I think you really aren't sure about quarterbacks until you see them on the road in a true, tough environment against a good team. And that's what he's going to get on Sunday. It's his first road game in the NFL.

It'll be the first time that he's played on. on the road in the NFL. He's been in a totally supportive environment, but I just think as a longtime football fan like you are, I think there's this vision I have of, well, can he do it when it's third and nine and he's at his own 14-yard line, and they're losing 17 to 12,

and the crowd's going absolutely bonkers. Can he hang in the pocket and make a throw, or can he escape it and make a run? And I don't think you know enough until a quarterback does it on the road in that environment. What do you think? Like that's entirely accurate. And, I mean, the spot you're painting him into is one that even the made guys in the league struggle with, right? I mean, you know, as you just explained it, I mean, you know, the Rogers, Brady Mahome types, you know, you could name others.

But in that spot, you'd expect them to deliver. and in a Heinz case, Heineke's case, it's not that you expect him not to. It's just that you haven't seen him be asked to, and now you are. So the larger point is

do you think that Heineke, not just Buffalo, but for the balance of the time that he'll be on the field until Fitzpatrick gets well enough to get back, or maybe he doesn't, do you think that he gives you a chance to compete? and I do believe that the Buffalo game is the first real step towards an answer

because that Washington schedule, I mean, you've got to first place schedule, and there's a – I mean, I was looking at it during that giant game, and I'm thinking, man, you lose this one. I want to say their next three home games are some combination of the Saints, the Buccaneers, and the Chiefs. It's the Saints, Chiefs, Bucks in that order with, by the way, road trips to Green Bay to Lambo in Denver. Sure. So, I mean, there's a lot here.

So there's a lot here that makes it a steep hill to climb for the entire team. But Heineke, if you're asking me right now, I mean, again, not everything is through the prism of gambling. So I'm not saying, like, shorting him or whatever. I'm just saying, you know, would you, I won't say bet, would you guess that he can do it? I wouldn't guess he couldn't, right? Is that you know what I'm saying? I'm not saying that I back him entirely because I just think you don't know. But I also, I'm not sitting here thinking, oh, God, they don't have a chance because they don't have a quarterback. No, I don't think they know what they have.

But see, I think what I'm saying about the road game is that if I agree with you, there's been nothing that I've seen that would make me dismiss him at this point. Nothing. But there could be something on Sunday that makes me lean towards dismissing him. And I wouldn't come to a definitive conclusion because it's his first chance, and he may not play well. But it's not about the results of the game. It's how he handles himself during this game. Because to be honest— Think about this, Kevin.

Think about this. The guy who Washington brought in has spent a career of having ups and downs where he's being seemingly simultaneously dismissed and endorsed. And that's maybe the level of quarterbacking here. expecting when you when you give a guy a decent amount of money to be your backup based off a quarter and a game um so sure you know this is the spot where you start to get some some real feedback but i just think that the guy they brought in to be the guy was was always walking the edge of he can't do it or that's why he has something called fits magic attached to his name so look man the position's really hard to play there aren't there aren't a ton of guys that

week in week out venue is not venue dependent or who they are through two weeks of this season so far and we both know and anybody the bets understands that it's really hard after two weeks to really come to any conclusions but what's your gut tell you about the NFC East Dallas is so injured and that first game was fascinating because they threw it 58 times

and the second one was interesting because Pollard looked like almost if not a better back than Zeeke he looked like absolutely a 1A to Zix 1. I think that makes them a team that can lean more into that looks like they could run more.

The Giants, I don't know, I mean, Daniel Jones actually looks like he can give him a chance to compete in games with his legs as well as his arm. Didn't turn it over against Washington on a rainy night, which has to be seen as a win for them. That Denver game, they couldn't really get much of anything going. Philly's, I don't know, Philly's first game hurts looks great, but it's kind of, you play Atlanta who's going to struggle this year, and then they can't get anything much going on all at home against the Niners. I still feel like the divisions are shrug. I just don't think there's a great deal of separation.

I don't think anybody's much better than anybody else, and I don't think anybody's glaringly worse than anybody else. Yeah, I completely agree. I don't think we've seen anything through two weeks. I mean, my initial thought on the division is there are going to be four teams between seven and ten wins, and I can't tell you there's no order of finish that would be shocking to me. Perfectly said. Well, Ross Tucker said it to me, and I've been using it ever since.

But it's exactly the way I feel. Do you have any strong thoughts one way or the other on the emphasis of calling this taunting rule? I mean, I saw an interesting thing. Chris Sims tweeted out this morning about, you know, you think this is something that a bunch of old owners came up with, there really is a bunch of coaches that put it through. and, you know, he listed the names of the coaches that suggested it, the names of the coaches that are the competition committee that, I guess, endorsed it. I don't, I mean.

Ron Rivera's rules. I understand that. Mike Tom was one. I mean, I saw the names that I just figured these are people that I respect. And, I mean, I think, like a lot of these rules, Kevin, that the notion is maybe correct, but it's the execution and the implomely. of it and then adjudicating it in real time. It's the issue.

Like, I think sometimes when a guy stands up and he's, you know, like I think Keenan Allen got one the other day. I think he was just mad. He got tackled in a certain way or something where, you know, there's a little bit of boys will be boys out there. And you're not torn anybody. You're just maybe you want to, you know, you're going to get to the guy's face and say something.

You can't take all that out with that significant penalty. So, I mean, I just think like a lot of things, I assume it'll wane to a degree. I mean, if you want to throw a 15 every time a dude stands up and spins a football, I mean, I don't know. It just feels like you're getting in your own way. You've got a product that's so loved and so demonstrated every week with the ratings. I mean, just stop doing little nickel-dime stuff that impacts that adversely. Yeah, I think the calls will wane. I just, you know, people have heard my opinion on this.

You haven't. But the net of it is it really hasn't been a problem. So I don't understand why it became an issue for them. Ron Rivera was asked about it yesterday and he said, we're trying to keep, you know, these things from turning into brawls. Well, when's the last brawl we saw, you know, that was provoked by some sort of taunt? They've been calling, taunting. You know, they're going to call the guy.

Think about baseball. Yeah. Think about baseball, where the way the game is played leads to certain retaliatory measures that lead to either full-on brawls or we're right there on the precipice of it. That almost never happens in NFL games. Sometimes idiots want to punch helmets, and if they do, they're invited to watch from the locker room for the rest of the game. But I agree. I think they created a problem more than they tried to, you know, rein one in. Did you see what Aaron Rogers said yesterday on the Pat McAfee show?

He's a guest on that every Tuesday during the season. And referring to... Which part specific? Well, the media part where, you know, and the people out there who are analysts and so-called experts when he said, quote, to be honest, you know, on one hand, it's absolute horseshit to give a platform to people who have no idea what they're talking about as far as my mental state. And as you know, my focus, my work habits, people that haven't been around me that aren't in my life. I don't have communication with them. They're not in the locker room. I mean, it's just chicken shit.

It's so ridiculous that people get a platform to do this, and it's the same type of people. And then he got into, you know, just the overreactions to everything that happens. Right. I did see that. I watched that. He said it's not just overreaction Monday or Tuesday or week one anymore. It's just never-ending overreaction. And there's undoubtedly truth to that.

you know, our business, you know, has created an entire genre of programming that's basically sort of, you know, who can have the take that's the loudest or the hottest or whatever. And then, you know, and I'm not singling out, you know, people specifically, I mean, because when I say the loudest, you might say, is he talking about Stephen A. Smith? There's no bigger Rogers backer than Stephen A. Smith. So I'm not talking about Stephen A. I'm just saying that any of those sort of debate type shows. It's like this guy's either greater, he stinks.

And, you know, I work on the other side of the day to day shift, and we cover the results of games, and that is the lane that I've been in. So I understand what Rogers is saying, because, yeah, that's the way media, a lot of media goes.

And your, you know, your, your, your legacy is an ongoing debate based on what you've done most recently. I think Rogers is a very, interesting guy. He's a different kind of guy as I think he's exhibited.

I think he's, I think he'd be a difficult guy because of that, because he is bright, because he is a thinker, because he isn't just to bring your lunchbox to the factory kind of a guy. He wants to go sit in the factory owner's offices and say, hey, I don't want to do this this way, or I want to work

with these people and they're looking at him like, you know, I think the Packers probably mishandled this situation. pretty clearly. A guy's the MVP in the league, and he's all pissed off. But having said all of those things where I understand his perspective, I also think that he's a bright enough guy to get that when you're the MVP of the league and you're the face of a franchise and you spend an entire off-season essentially saying,

I'm not going to go there, I don't want to go there, or if I do go there, it's just for one last sort of last dance kind of gig. it would seemingly create an environment where it's hard to do that. And that's not, that topic of conversation is not unreasonable. And when you go out and you perform the way they did week one, it's not unreasonable to say, wow, off the offseason they just had, that's not the way you want to start this presumed last dance. Nothing about that is unreasonable, in my opinion. But look, I admit to, I like Rogers.

I know him some through Andy North, who is one of Aaron's very, very best friends actually in the world. And so I've had chances to be around him and talk to him. And you'd like him, and you'd like him a lot. I have a feeling I would. He seems interesting. He seems smart. He's got great taste. I know that because his two favorite shows are The Office and Game of Thrones.

those are my, certainly in my top five of all time. But he's a reader of books. He says, again, he's a thinker. I appreciate that. I appreciate people who are interested in learning things and reading things. Curious. Pardon? Being curious.

Right. That's the line and lasso, right? Be curious, don't be curious. Don't be curious. Don't be cynical. Right. He's that. So anyway, these are. observation. I think he's also really, really good at what he does. I don't know what happened that week one. They were absolute crap in week one, and they weren't in week two. You know, there's this increased discussion over the last several months about media criticism,

fan criticism, analyst criticism of athletes. I mean, we saw it play out with Naomi Osaka, tennis and it's just interesting to see Rogers, you know, bite back the way he did. Again, I don't have a problem with it at all. I was just curious as to what you thought. You know, you said something a little while ago that is really true when it comes to Scott. Scott, even though it wasn't true when he was hosting a national radio show with Ryan Rosillo, but you are in in this mode with a late night show that really is at its core more of a highlight show than an opinion show, even though you do, you know, my one big, your one big thing and you do a lot of interviews with a lot of guests, but it's so much

different than what Stephen A does the following morning. Which do you prefer? Well, what I, what I do if I wanted to do something, if I wanted to be arguing with people in the morning, then I would have figured out how to get that space. You say if you're arguing for some of your conversations with some of your friends, including me. Sure. Well, I just – listen, I'm a game – I'm a game person. I like – and that's why the mornings would be a disaster for me. Because you and I are the ones like in the middle of the –

I love games too. That's my point. Like we're the ones late at night at 2.30 in the morning or whatever, some West Coast game still going on? Can you believe this game? I like games too much to get up early in the morning, and you could never do both. You couldn't watch the games and get up and do those shows. That's why I've always been such a vocal proponent of how much respect I have for, like,

Stephen A, having the ability to be on my show late at night following a playoff game, and then next thing in the morning you turn it on, and he's there covering that. So that's, I just, I like being on in the immediacy of following games. What happened? What, why, how? When you get to, you know, have conversation with the people that were in the, in the games, the coaches, the players, and all that. To me, that's fun.

But you know what's nuts is like, this starts our seventh year, which when I say it out loud, I mean, it's just impossible, but it's this show as we've been doing it is, you know, is the seventh year we've done it, which I don't know, makes me think, I don't know, I can't see doing seven more. Wow, it's got seven years. So it's been seven years since you did the radio show with Ryan?

Yeah. Oh, my God. That doesn't seem like it's been that long. No. All right. Let's finish up with a couple of NFL things. Give me, it's only two weeks. Give me a team that you thought was going,

to not be very good that you now think is going to be good? Or it can just be a team that no one thought was going to be good, that now you're convinced will be. Maybe you had them before the season started. I'm paying attention to Carolina just because I, for some reason, I'm rooting for Sam Darnold. I say for some reason. I know why.

I think the quarterback position in the NFL is fascinating. I think they drafted Darnold when he was like, he was the youngest kid in the league, and he goes to New York, and they weren't good. They had a coaching situation that didn't work. He had very little talent around him. And like three years later, they just cut bait and drafted another guy out of BYU who, you know, like can he do? I don't know if he can do it, but it's going to be hard to figure out, right? Like it's hard.

It's hard to be quarterbacking only. Anyway, I'm rooting for Darnold. I think rules really interesting, going back to his temple days, then, like, going to Baylor. Like, he's been a program builder. He's well regarded as a coach and a culture developer. And I think defensively they're good, and I'm rooting for Donald to be good, and having McCaffrey in your backfield, obviously, makes the team better. So I think Carolina might be decent. I don't know that they were dismissed before the season, so maybe I'm not answering your question specifically.

I don't think that anybody really had them. Well, I mean, look, they had two home games, and they won them. And now they go out on the road and they play Houston. To morning. Yeah. Who, obviously, is not great, and they're down to their rookie quarterback in Mills. So, you know, if they start 3-0, like last year, every team that started 3-0 went to playoffs. So they'd be on, they'd be trending in that direction.

So maybe Carolina would be the answer to that. I think a team who is good that I thought was going to be good is the Rams. I was anxious to see Stafford in that setup. And I think Stafford and McVeigh together with the weapons that they have, I think the Rams, that game with New England this week is really interesting. I said New England. It's Tampa because I want to see that defense with Brady. Because I said the other than I'm the show, Kevin,

and I'm convinced Brady's goal is to obliterate every record before he walks away so that no one even looks at it and thinks that they can try to climb the hill. Like he had 50 touchdowns in what, 2007. I think he'll have more than that this year. Yeah, it's just, I mean, the conversation has already, it's already been over for a few years, and he's obviously just trying to create the most distance between anybody that thinks he isn't the goat.

Right, some unborn kid. He's fighting against some unborn kid. Just so you know, unborn kid, I will put the mark on the wall so high that you will not dream of trying to get on your ladder to put a mark higher than mine. It's just he's 44. If five times done the other day, it's a joke. Yeah, it's the, it's the bad teacher, Jason, oh, God, why am I blanking on Jason's last name, the actor? you know, when he has the argument, LeBron versus Jordan. Do you know the movie I'm talking about with Cameron Diaz?

No. Okay. Cameron Diaz and Jason, whatever his name is, last name, Jason Siegel. Jason Segal are teachers at a school, and there's some kid that's having an argument with Jason Segal, who's the PE teacher, and it's LeBron versus Jordan. And the kid says, you know, basically, you know, all you guys do is, argue about Jordan's, you know, six titles in Jason Siegel's answer is, what other argument is there? It's, uh, and that's what essentially right now, Brady's essentially trying to end any future argument between Brady and whoever, you know, thinks he's the next Brady.

Maybe it'll be Trevor Lawrence, although not after the first two games, but somebody will, people have already bailed on Trevor Lawrence after two games, please. I don't think they have. And in it they have their absolute buffoons that don't understand what the, your circumstance dictates what you do at that position. And you often get drafted into very, very difficult circumstances. What did you think of Lamar? Yeah, go ahead. Finish your thoughts.

Sorry. No, that's what Donald got drafted into. That's all. Give me your thoughts on Lamar Jackson's performance the other night. And just the Ravens in general. I love them. I really, really have such respect for them organizationally. From Steve Boshadhi, who's a guy I've had begun to know just through the years at like Maryland games and talking to him. And I just, I think he sets the direction.

And then he lets his people do their thing. I think, you know, whether it's Newsom or Harbaugh, and all the way on through their organization, like culture is such a buzzword. and it's so overstated. I feel like they, I really think that was an organizational culture win. Like you lose on Monday to the Raiders, blow a 14-point lead. You fly back short week. You got to play. Oh, good, we get the Chiefs.

And it's not just the Chiefs. It's the Chiefs who played and beat you the last three years. It's your MVP against their MVP. You're down double digits in the fourth quarter and you win. And you win because people are going to say, oh, well, the Chiefs turned it over, which implies that, like, the Chiefs. Chiefs just gave them the ball and said, here, no, the Ravens turned him over. You know, they put Mahomes in a spot where he tried to make a play and he got picked,

and then they strip it after they take the lead. And Jackson's out there making play after play, and it clearly meant a lot to him. You can imagine, right? You're going head to head with this dude who you can't beat. You're like, damn it, I got to beat them. And, you know, the whole, I thought the whole, do you want to go for a thing with Harbaugh, I was theatrical. Of course.

But it was entirely in line with what I think there as an organization. Because what are you doing? You know the answer already, but you're giving your leader the chance to make it feel like it's his decision. Because he's got a vote and a voice. You're empowering your whole group to say, hey, Lamar wanted to go for it. So we're going to get behind him. We're going to get this chart. And then when you do, then you all get to look at each other and go, wasn't that awesome?

And it was. but I just you know the analytics of that of that team has always been to be as aggressive as you can from the jump

so they're going for fourth and one because you can't give the ball back to Mahams because you lose but I just I love the game because I thought

it's I thought that it was entirely what the Ravens are and I agree as a fan and I just admire that I admire having that kind of competitive

fight and I don't think everybody in the league's got it, but I know they do. Yeah, I mean, the culture thing, I understand that it can be sort of an overrated, cliched thing. I think identity can be too, but I think what's interesting about the Ravens is that they're one of only a couple of teams that really truly have an identity. You know, the Steelers have one, the Ravens have one. I don't know if anybody else has one in the entire league because teams change so much. But the Ravens and the Steelers have always been these tough, hard-nosed physical defensive outfits

that are, that are, you know, highly competent in front office and coaching staff, etc. But to Jackson for, you go ahead. Well, I just, I think, I think you hit the nail in the head, though, because it's organizational. It's the Rooney. family there. It's Tomlin. It's having a sort of core belief in what you do and how you do it. I think it's why those teams have had such great games

and battles through the years. Ryan Clark is in our studio every Sunday night and I said the other night I said, you remember that? It was the AFC title game, wasn't it where the dude got knocked out the first play and McGaie got injured at the end of that game? And I said, have you ever been involved in a more

involved? And I couldn't even get the word violin out. He said, no. No. and I said, can you imagine the 30 for 30 just on that game? Because I just, I don't ever remember seeing anything quite like that. And he said, bro, it was, he said, you know the craziest thing? And he said, neither team blinked because it was like looking in the mirror. Each team looks at the other, like, we hate the things about you that we hate, but we probably identify with them as well, which I think that's why they've been who they are.

You're going to say something about Lamar. Well, I just, I'm rooting for him. And you said about Sam Darnold that you're rooting for him. And it's a good point. Came in so young. They cut bait after three years. And it's probably way too early. And it'll probably prove them wrong.

I think he will. For whatever reason, I always loved him coming out of USC. But there's just something about Jackson that is, like, he strapped that team to its back, to his back when they were down 11 in the third quarter. He did the same thing that year in Seattle. I remember that first game thinking, wow, this guy is different, but he's also special. And, you know, there's so much constructive criticism of Jackson. I think there's fair criticism about, you know, doing it in the postseason, and does he have the ability to do it with his arm?

I just really love watching him play and I'm rooting for him. And that's all I was going to say, and I was curious as to what your thoughts were on him. Often the case, you and I sort of see things similarly. I know that the team loves him. Right. They love him. And you saw when Ingram, who's now with Houston, I mean, he would, you know, was so effusive in, you know, the whole big trust thing and this and that, like with Jackson.

And he was, you know, he's a young guy that was doubted because, well, can he do it, given that they, you know, he struggled in a post, the one postseason game, but was evolving. into what he became, which is an MVP of the league. I know that he's beloved by his teammates. And I feel similarly watching him most games, but particularly in that one. And it wasn't just the running. I mean, he made that one downfield throw to Hollywood Brown. It was like a Mahomes throw, which, and a Mahomes throw, I mean, something that seems preposterous

that probably isn't going to work and shouldn't be tried, but it does. And he's running up into the pocket hanging in mid-air. and somehow has the armed talent to get it downfield of the guy that's wide open. And then, you know, the runs for the touchdowns and the run on fourth down. It was just a spectacular game. It's amazing, amazing to me, the National Football League. And it shouldn't be. But, I mean, how often is that main window game a dud?

Well, not often. But how often is that main window game, the Thursday night game between the Bucks and the Cowboys, the Thursday night game between Washington and the Giants? The Monday night game between the Raiders and the Ravens. The Sunday night game between the Ravens and the Chiefs. I don't remember what the first Sunday night week is Sunday night game. It was Rams Bears. I went through the whole rundown, too, of how great this prime time things have been.

And then we got Packers' Lions, but... Right. So there's been two. The Rams and the Bears was behind the Packers and the Lions for a half was really interesting. But just to already have had that high a hit rate of not entertaining it, but just preposterous games where, you know, the game, the lead changes hands several times in the last two minutes, and the chiefs, you know, build this lead and the Ravens Company. I mean, it's just, it's a joke two weeks in to have already this many games that have felt as significant

as these have. But, you know, that's why one of many reasons why the league is king. You know, it's funny because I was looking at the schedule for this upcoming weekend. and I forget if I said it on the podcast or radio show yesterday. But, you know, the Thursday night game on paper seems like a dud Panthers at Texans, although, you know, I think the Panthers are actually for real. I like them before the season started. And Houston's been a surprise.

I mean, they're 2 and 0 against the number. And if Tyrod Taylor didn't get hurt, they may have had a chance against Cleveland. And then, you know, you're looking at these games, and I was going through it the other day, and I'm like, Jesus, does anybody suck in this? league because every matchup seems to be such a great matchup. You know, like at one o'clock, like Washington Buffalo is interesting. Chargers, Chiefs, Saints, Patriots, you know, and then you get at 425 bucks, Rams, Seahawks, Vikings, the Vikings should be 2 and 0, easily could be 2 and 0.

The Sunday night game's Packers, Niners, and the Monday night game is Eagles Cowboys. I think the Eagles, by the way, are much better than anybody thought they would be. I think they're excellent on defense. Now, Brandon Graham got hurt, and I think that's going to be a big loss for them. But I think Hertz is better than a lot of people think. Carolina, Denver, and Philadelphia were three teams that I like to make a run this year before. I think we're going to learn a lot about the Eagles and the Cowboys on Monday night. But when you look at the games, it's like, Jesus, like, does anybody suck in the league?

Like Houston was supposed to suck. With Tyrod Taylor, if he had stayed healthy, I don't think they were going to suck this year. I mean, through two games, because they can move the football. I mean, they beat Jacksonville week one. And then they're trading punches with Cleveland right up to the point where Tyrod Taylor goes and let scramble and pulls up with the injury on a touchdown. It was, you know, obviously costly because now he heads to the IR. But to your point, they had been far more competitive through a game and a half than I guess a lot of people kind of expected.

But to answer your question, you know the answer. Does anyone suck? Sure, sure. They'll show themselves over the course of, you know, the next month. We'll figure out who's going to really struggle to compete to win games. But, I mean, I think early on there's some trends that we can, you and I've said forever, we don't know anything. Well, I know that the NFC West is really good.

I think the AFC West is pretty good. I think the fact that the Raiders just beat the Steelers and the Ravens and Carr threw for the kind of numbers you did against those. teams make me think maybe they're real. But I think in labeling anybody is just horrible and labeling anybody great, you know, two weeks is not nearly enough time to be certain. But I think some trends are fairly obviously. The NFC East is going to be similar to what it was a year ago. I think it'll be a big bar brawl.

Maybe nobody's got a great record, but it should be, as it always is, you know, compelling. Okay. Have you picked out your first winner for your segment? No. No, I got a card in the office. How's Wisconsin now a six? How's Wisconsin a six and a half point favorite over Notre Dame? I think a lot of it sort of, it's like the transit of thing is going on where people are going, let's see.

Toledo. Notre Dame B. Florida State. That really good game. But then Florida State lost at Jacksonville State. got trucked by Wig Forest. Notre Dame almost lost at Toledo. Oh, well, Toledo's good. No, Toledo just lost at home to Vanderb...

Colorado State. Who had just lost to Vanderbilt, who had just lost to East Tennessee State. So I think people are looking at Notre Dame who's pretty banged up and thinking, maybe they're not that... But I'm with you. Like, that number stinks to me.

I wrote Wisconsin down. Am I going to give a favorite? I wouldn't want to lay that many points, though, to Notre Dame, just because I don't think that they're six points worse than Wisconsin. But that number kind of stuck out. Anyway, I've got a card in my office that has a bunch of names written down on it. And then I'll do that thing I do every week where I stare at them

and try to figure out how I can tell which ones are the right ones. What's your staring produced so far in three weeks? We went four in one week one, and then the last two weeks we went four and four. and I was giving out the ones that almost made it, right? Because, you know, I mean, I just make fun of myself at this point. I'm like, Steve, now I'm going to stay the ones that I didn't give officially, but if they win, I want credit for them. And those had been six and one, so I hadn't chosen well, right?

I hadn't done a good job narrowed. That's why you give them all out. Well, but then last week those weren't any good either. So I think I'm going to try my best to limit it to maybe the five or six I like. like the best and just live with it. But, you know, I'm actually, when I hang up with you, that's going to go do it. I'm going to go hunker down and try to get people up. It's kind of fun to do it. I mean, you do it for your segment. I do it for the smell test. I love sitting down and going game by game. And then, you know, we know some people that live in foreign lands where there's a lot

of information that starts to flow in, usually on Thursday afternoon for me anyway. And I start to put it all together. And last week, it produced 14 selections. What the 14 selections go? I was 6 and 8, but it was a painful 6 and 8 because it should have been much better, but we've all been there. Like we've had 8 and 6 weekends. It should have been 4 and 10. But how did Indiana not cover?

I mean, they're at 14-0. That targeting penalty was horseshit, as Aaron Rogers would say. And that turned that whole game around. Yeah, they had a lot of opportunities to do better than they did. that Cincinnati Notre Dame game a couple weeks is big that Cincinnati needs Notre Dame

to be clean when they get to them so they can you know you get a win at Indiana that was ranked and you beat you beat Notre Dame

that'd be big for their for their claims but I don't know man like I you know it's funny is that you and I forever

have been doing some version of pick segments and now that it's more legal more places every bozo that's in our job and I say that would love

because you and I are bozo too but everybody's tweeting out their picks. And I find that, I don't know what the right word is to say. I think I just, I think I just eye roll at all of it. Like, I didn't invent this by any stretch of the imagination, but having everybody out there touting their picks,

and it feels like there goes the neighborhood, right? Like, everybody's doing, everybody's doing the thing that we've always, our whole mindset is contrarian, so we should be out of this business right now, now that everybody's in it. And we should be trying to find the next thing that no one else is doing. But we've never been that smart. Of course. We've always, we've always been so smart just ask us.

And then in retrospect, we were probably, we probably were smart about things, but we weren't smart enough to figure out how to, you know, monetize them and get out of Dodge. You know, the other thing is you're just seeing it infiltrate, you know, all of these broadcasts, whether it's the live play-by-play call or any of the pregame shows. I talked about this the other day that Tony Dungey was very critical of, like, the producers for NBC coming to him saying, hey, you got to pick and over under on Nick Chubbs rushing yards. You know, it's like prop bets.

And it's like, to a certain degree, I think it's too much also. I mean, once it became legal and more importantly, once these sports sports, books, legal sports books, created these massive customer acquisition advertising budgets to start spending with everybody, which I and everybody else is benefiting from. You were going to, you know, you were going to get a lot of content. But I don't know, like, I don't, I want to hear Dungee talk about what he's good at talking about, which is analyzing the game. And by the way, he's typically a go-against for me. But I don't, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, don't need Tariko giving me Nick Chubbs over under yardage.

I'm wondering. I'm with you. I think that when you see, you know, everyone is being asked to participate in that, and you know, like you said with Dungey, he's been very vocal about the proliferation of gambling into that space. I mean, it's one thing where everyone on the panel is supposed to give you who's going to win the game. I think that's been sort of impartial with these pregame type shows.

but when it gets that specific with whomever you're you know gambling draft partner is sponsored version of you know how many field goals are we going to have in the first quarter that doesn't trouble me but you know your broadcast partners

might have people that are you know are against it I mean again I think Tony Dongey's been pretty vocal about that among others so but I mean that you would talk about toothpaste it out of the two man I mean this is this is It's gone.

It's gone. And by the way, this segment is brought to you by and presented by MyBooky at mybooky.orgie. By the way, my bookies, of course it is. My bookie's got a $50,000 survivor contest going on right now. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll match your deposit, dollar for dollar. Scott, I always mentioned to everybody because I will get people that will say to me, hey, they match my deposit.

and then I tried to withdraw it and they wouldn't let me just take it out. That's always my favorite. Yeah, they're going to double your money on your deposit and allow you to just take it out. No, they want you to gamble with it. But it's a great offer. Trust me, you know, for guys like us that have bet illegally, no bookmaker was saying, hey, I'm going to double your first deposit. Well, first of all, we just had credit.

But no one was going to say, hey, your first $500, loss is on me. Nobody was ever going to do that. My bookie's going to do that. They're going to match your deposit, dollar for dollar. Go to my bookie at my bookie.orgie. At my bookie.orgie. At my promo code, Kevin, D.C. and play their $50,000 survivor contest. I don't know. You know, I am, obviously we're all benefiting from this right now. God, in in the sports talk radio business, you know, with the pandemic and what it did to radio in general, for sports content, you know, the legalized gambling and the huge budgets that these companies have to spend is huge for those industries. But I think for a long time, people like us who have taken

our lumps over the years, there is definitely a positioning of, hey, this is, you know, this is your new job. You don't have to worry about working. You can do this. No, you can't. as I always say before the smell test, for entertainment purposes only, because if it's for something else, it's going to be a troubling experience for you. Right, that's why I wouldn't any time people have pushed back about, about, you know, bad beats or whatever. When the term, like, your glorifying gambling is used, I'd say, have you seen the segment?

Because in what way is this? Yeah, this is scared. This is scared straight. I mean, this is Exhibit A that even when it appears that you have won. Yeah, it really is. Like, you're not going to win. And guess what? You might lose in the most hideous way imaginable,

and that will be trumped by what happens next week. So it is just very funny is not the right word. Funny is the lazy word to use, which doesn't mean what I want to say. Well, the bottom line is if you lose in a hideous way, you can jump on social media and threaten the player that screwed you. That's what we couldn't do way back in the day. No, but what I was going to say about just the whole of this content, like picks, bad beats, the whole of it.

Like, there's lots of people. We didn't invent it, and there have been lots of people that have done it forever. Pete Axel. Jimmy the Greek. Of course, Jimmy. Right, exactly. But it's funny now how, you know, how many people are in the space. and it's just

I mean it's only going to get more and more crowded but the good news is that who knows it could create a lane for us to occupy when everybody else decides we're unemployable

you know we could we can try in some way to capitalize on that part of the year that'll happen to me much before it happens to you Scott of course every single night sometimes at midnight, sometimes earlier, sometimes later,

on the Scott Van Pelt Sports Center, which is, you know, award-winning with his sidekick, Stanford, Steve, who has not been on the show in a couple of weeks. I got to get him on. How's he doing with his? I haven't even followed his in the Bears' picks. I think he's been good. I mean, Steve's always pretty good.

Steve's always, yeah, I mean, and he, listen, the last night we were sitting there, you know, getting ready to do sports. And he's doing what I do, what I'm going to go do now. He's grinding it out, writing it down a card. He's shaking and said, I got too many. You know, I got too many. And he just laughs at me because he knows how I and you look at it.

He'll say, you're going to have 15 games. He'll text me and he'll say you and Scott are going to have bump, bump, bump, bump, and bump. Yeah, you pretty much got him all right. He scoffs at the way we do it. I don't think he's a total believer. No, he just, he knows what it is. He just, I don't know, I mean, I think there's something to having played it at the level he did

and having the kind of network of coaching people that he talks to, and he's not calling him up, probing them for information to bet about as much as he is, he talks about the sport constantly. That's one of his main things to do is talk about college football. So he just knows a lot. And so he's got, but sometimes as we know, you can, knowing a lot only serves to lead you to the wrong place. That's right. Whatever, me. Look, whatever.

We can talk about this forever, and we've been doing it, and people are probably over it. Thank you. And we don't, and if we won a lot, we wouldn't have to work, and we don't. If we won a lot, we wouldn't be talking about this. This is what always cracks me up, is all the people that have all the, you know, all the information, all the data, all the number crunching, all the analytics, and they're out there selling their picks. No, if they were winning big, they wouldn't be selling their picks.

They would just be betting those games. Why do you need my 20 bucks for your Colorado State Toledo winner? Just put a million on it and walk to the beach. Right. Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it. Always fun. See you.

All right. Thanks to Scott. Appreciate that. Up next five minutes on 30 years ago. today as the 1991 Redskins were progressing through the greatest season in franchise history, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. You play to watch the Redskins as tough as you can play them. If they think they're walking in here playing a team that's not going to be ready to play,

they're mistaken. That was Sam Weich, the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. Washington's opponent 30 years ago today on September 22nd, 1991 at 1,191 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Sam Whitech, who, by the way, was a Washington Redskin quarterback and holder on the 1972 George Allen team that went to the Super Bowl with Billy Kilmer and Sonny Jurgensen ahead of them. Sunny was hurt that year, Tours Achilles, and so Sam Whitech was the backup. But Sam was the very successful coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Bengals had started

off the 1991 season, O&3. but they had been to the Super Bowl three years prior. They had had playoff seasons. In fact, the year before they had lost in the divisional round to the L.A. Raiders. That was the game, by the way, where Bo Jackson injured his hip and that ended his football career. It was against the Bengals the year before, and the Bengals were supposed to be good in 1991. But they came into the game, 0 and 3 against Washington, who was 3 and 0. the lions they had beaten in the opener 45-0.

They had beaten the Cowboys in week 2, 33 to 31, and had beaten Joe Bugles, Phoenix Cardinals, 34-0-Novee, so they had two shutouts in the first three weeks of the season, and now they were on the road to face Cincinnati, and even though Cincinnati was 0-3, they were still considered to be a very live dog. And in fact, they were a very short underdog that day,

a two and a half point underdog. 3-0 versus 0-3. I guarantee you the Bengals would have been in the smell test that particular year in 1991. It would not have worked because Washington won the game 3427, but it was a very competitive game. Cincinnati had an early lead.

Then Washington built a 17-point lead, and then the Bengals in the third quarter early fourth came roaring back to tie the game at 27-20. before Washington went on a long drive that ended in a Gerald Riggs touchdown run to win it 3427. On the day, Riggs had three touchdowns rushing. 10 carry 61 yards, three touchdowns. Biner 18 carries 75 yards. Also had a bunch of catches in the game.

Not the biggest day of the year for Rippin. 15 of 23 for 217 yards, no touchdowns, one interception. and he did get sacked that day in Cincinnati. It was one of just seven times that Ripon was sacked on the entire season. Boomer Asiason was the quarterback for Sam Whitech's Bengals. He threw for 212, got sacked four times in the game. James Brooks was a big-time player for the Bengals, as was receivers Tim McGee, who would eventually play for Washington and Eddie Brown.

But that was one of those games that felt. a little bit like a trap game, and Washington got through it, and they won it 34 to 27 to go to 4-0. The Bengals would end up having a terrible season in 1991, the first of their bad seasons. They went 0-and-4 and would finish that year, 3 and 13 for Sam Weich's Bengals, and the following year, David Shula would become the head coach in Cincinnati. They had a good run the Bengals did, and they were considered a prominent team at the time, even though they had started off poorly. But Washington got through it. Close, competitive, tough game. In fact, it was one of those games in which, you know, the yardage was identical.

The first downs were identical. The turnovers were pretty tight, but Washington was able to eke it out on a long drive and a Gerald Riggs touchdown at the end of the game. Also, on that day. Our guest from last week, Brad Edwards, he had another interception in that game. So anyway, that's what happened 30 years ago today. We'll do this every Wednesday on the show, taking you back to 30 years ago and the game that they played in that corresponding week in 1991. All right, we're done for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy. And again, coolly scheduled to be on the show now on Friday. Take care.