The Kevin Sheehan Show - Taylor's Turn

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

Kevin and Thom today open the show with what might be the start of the Taylor Heinicke era? He's got an opportunity that was far from guaranteed when the team signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to a one-year $10million deal. They went back to tie up some loose ends from Sunday's loss to the Chargers and then they weighed in on the Peyton-Eli Monday Night Football alternate broadcast on ESPN 2.  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 Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy is here with me today on this September 14th. Two days after the loss of the Chargers, two days before what feels like a pretty big game against the Giants.

He will weigh in on the game. If you missed Cooley yesterday on the show, Cooley had a lot to say about the game on Sunday. and he will continue to join us periodically throughout this season on this podcast. If you missed him yesterday, just go back to yesterday's show on any platform. And if you have issues with the platform like Apple, I know there have been some issues recently with sort of a timeliness of the show being available. You can always go to the Kevin Sheehan Show.com.

The show is always available on the website that we created. minutes after it's published. So sometimes well before it's available on Apple, Google, or Spotify. But I get most of my podcast from Apple. I listen to this one on Apple as well. And if you're doing that and you haven't rated us or reviewed us, if you could do that, that really helps. Some really nice reviews coming in from some of you.

If you rate us five stars and give us a one to two sentence review, that really helps us. you guys really like Tommy and I together, and that's much appreciated. From Steve L. Best Show in the DMV. Kevin and Tom together are gold. I appreciate that. A lot of people listen from outside the area, and we've always known that. Great show.

Glad I can listen from Iowa, says Christopher Trapp via Apple Podcast. Some of you had some constructive criticism. Sheehan's love affair with basketball is a weak point. It leads to a lot of fast forwarding. I'm sorry about that, but at least you have the fast forwarding feature in the podcast. And substandard on the delays in posting the show means one less star for me. Again, on the posting of the show delays recently, it's been an Apple issue. A lot of podcasts have had problems with that.

We apologize. We're doing everything we can, but I know the last couple of days it's been better. All right. We are going to get to a lot of football here in this opening segment. And I'll start the show by acknowledging this. You are not a big fan of the Ryan Fitzpatrick signing. You really didn't say specifically why you just had this. feeling that at 37 years old, the chances were much greater that it wouldn't work out than it

would. And you were right. You were 100% right. Now, on our bold predictions, you said he would lose the starting job a little bit later than he did. You didn't predict the three drives into the season, the quarter and a half. And I predicted he'd start all 17 games. So were you peacocking all around your townhouse family room, living room on Sunday when he went down? And it looked pretty serious? Well, I was at the stadium. Oh, I know you were, yeah. You were one of those people that were there, huh?

Yeah, I went to the stadium Sunday. And I tweeted out, look, I don't take any particular satisfaction of somebody being hurt. So it's not like I was strutton as peacocking. But I tweeted out, what did people expect? I mean, why did people just, I mean, including national credible reporters, excited about Fitzpacic and what if the odds of something going wrong were far greater than the odds of succeeding? Well, you know why people were excited and you know why I was looking forward to it, because it was definitely an upgrade over what they had recently,

and he was coming off really and truly the two best two and a half years of his career. Yes, and I was convinced that the likelihood of him repeating that as he gets grows older, we're going to be diminished. Right. And plus, you know, you can say it was an upgrade, but the guy who was the starter for the second half of last season, and five and one. Yeah, I'm familiar with that.

Yes, I am. But he couldn't play anyway. Like he was not an option moving forward. He was done. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. I mean, look, this guy, like I wrote in my column, you know, he's a quarterback. Taylor Heineckee is a quarterback.

Kyle Allen is a quarterback. They are not the quarterback. Well, I don't disagree with that. I don't, I mean, they're not the one that we saw on the other side of the field on Sunday. That's a quarterback. Yes, that's what we're talking about. And you're going to see more of those in the coming week. Yes, you are. Yes, you are.

You know, and, you know, so let's start there. first segment plus is going to be on the Washington football team. I'm assuming everybody now knows that Ryan Fitzpatrick has a sublexation of his hip, whatever the hell that means. I had people who are medical people, including a friend of mine, reach out to me to say, at his age, this is more likely than not longer than three weeks, which was the initial, you know, come back from IR. And then Schefter said six to eight weeks, But some probably believe that it might be it. Like this could potentially be a very serious injury season long.

And we got, you know, we never even got any Fitzmagic in the quarter and a half that he played. We didn't get to experience any of the Fitzmagic. What we do get a chance at, though, now is what a lot of people are very excited about. And that is a legitimate shot for Taylor Heineke to be the starting quarterback and to prove that he deserves to be a starting quarterback in the National Football League. Tommy, this opportunity was not guaranteed. They did not think he was a starting quarterback after that Tampa game. They tried desperately, and they ended up settling on Ryan Fitzpatrick,

to find a starting quarterback to bring in here. He was never a threat to be a starter. He didn't wow him enough to even make it a conversation. But he's going to get this opportunity, even though there was no guarantee that he would. I mean, there was a possibility that, first of all, Fitzpatrick could have been good enough all year long where Heineke wasn't given a chance or didn't get a chance,

that Fitzpatrick, you know, was really good for eight games, then got hurt, and at that point, Kyle Allen had already emerged as a much healthier, better number two option for them, because we know they like Kyle Allen a lot. So this opportunity was not guaranteed, It was maybe in your mind and a lot of others, you know, a lock that at some point Fitzpatrick was going to fail or get hurt. That's fine.

He's not a guy that's been hurt a lot. He had COVID at the end of last year. But he's getting this opportunity. He's getting this opportunity. And there was no guarantee that he would, but he is. And so we are going to find out on Taylor Heineke. You know, he's got the next. I don't know, four to six games minimum to prove it.

You know, that's a better sample size than seven and a half quarters, which is the total amount that he's played since he got here. You know, one of the things I point out my column off the game Sunday was only in Washington could a backup quarterback become a legend after losing both games that he was in. I don't know that he's a legend. Come on. He is among this fan base.

There's some. That legend can disappear very quickly, and I tend to think it will once he's exposed over the course of time. But the reality is, I don't think this hurts them really that much compared to how the outcome of this season with Ryan Fitzpatrick. I don't think it's got, I don't think he's going to hurt them offensively, I don't think he's going to help them that much offensively either.

I think that my prediction of eight and nine would still be intact with Taylor Heineke as quarterback or even Kyle Allen as quarterback, which eventually that's going to happen. And that was your prediction. That was your bold prediction, is that Kyle Allen would be the starting quarterback when Fitzpatrick got benched at the by week. Right. And I still think that's going to happen because one thing, and again, I'm not wishing it on him, but Taylor Heineke has had a problem staying healthy over the course of his career. So, but I don't put, again, you know, I don't think this is a big step down. I think for what they can do, I don't think this gets in the way, really.

I think that all this talk of flinging down the field and all the weapons was cheerleader, illusion, you know, illusion, preseason illusion. and I just think they'll be kind of like what they were last year, maybe just a little bit better overall, because their roster is a little bit better overall than it was last year. This is not going to make a whole lot of difference. It's not going to make them better, and I don't think it's going to make them much worse.

So a couple of things that you've said, I want to address with Twitter polls from the last two days. You can find it at Kevin She and D.C., and I'm sure you already voted in them, and I appreciate that. Yes, I did. I always support your Twitter poll. The Twitter poll yesterday, and then we did a call segment today on radio,

is what is your confidence level in Taylor Heineke being the starting quarterback? And there were four potential answers. You're sold. He's the guy for the job, which I think would speak to those in the fan base that you believe have already, you know, anointed him a legend. He's a bet. He's number two, he's just a best. better option than Fitzpatrick. Number three, you have no idea really at all. Number four,

you're not confident at all. Well, 50.3% said have no idea, really. So I do, and only 11.9% said they are totally sold. He's the guy for the job. So I do think that maybe the Taylor Heinecke people are loud, but I don't know that they are massive in numbers. That's really beside the point. By the way, But you're probably right. You're probably right. Ivan, a long-time caller, a very affluent Del Rey Beach guy in Florida, plays golf every day, is retired. Ivan said that I posed the question incorrectly. He's always lecturing and always has great ideas for the show.

But this time, in all seriousness, he really did. He said, your third option, have no idea, really, should have said, have no. no idea really comma, but I'm looking forward to seeing it. You know, and I, by the way, that's too many characters for a Twitter poll. I mean, you only get 25 characters. But I think the point is a good one that if you, if the answer was, I don't really have any idea confidence-wise, but I want to see it. I think that it would have been more than 50%.

I think that would have been 75% of the answer. I wanted to see what Fitzmajic could do here this year. I didn't know how it would go, but I predicted that he would at least continue on the path that he was on the last two years with maybe a better supporting cast and that that might be good enough for them to be a competitive team this year. You know, I predicted 8, 8 and 1. I didn't predict 4 and 13. So that speaks to, I think, what the, you know, on some level, I mean, it's 2,500, 2,600 votes speaks to some level of what's the, what's the, you know, on some level, of what's the, you know, you know, on some level. I mean, it's 2,500, 2,600 votes speaks to some level of what they really think of him. The fans do. And then today's poll was, does Taylor Heineke give the Washington football team a better chance to win?

57.8% say yes, 42.2% say no so far. And I think, Tommy, this speaks to what you were just talking about, which is nobody really feels like the chances of winning or any less. In fact, some people think they're greater than they were before. Yeah, that second poll really kind of addresses what I'm talking about here is that I think people don't think there's really much to gain or lose with Taylor Heineke a quarterback, or at least to lose, with Taylor Heineke a quarterback compared to Ryan Fitzpatrick. I don't think people think there was that much distance in between, you know, the outcome of these games. I think that if it works out, this would be the ultimate win for the franchise because they weren't planning on playing him.

And if it happens and it happens right away in the season as it just did, and it turns out that he can really do it, and he's a real legitimate possibility as the starting quarterback moving forward, that's a huge win for the franchise. And Fitzpatrick was always going to be short-term, a year, two years max, most likely. So they still, as you said Tommy and as you wrote, they don't have the other guy. And until they have the other guy, a guy like Herbert, you know, you really can't take this franchise seriously in terms of their chances to compete for a Super Bowl. So they're looking for the next guy, and Fitzpatrick wasn't the next guy. Heineke, I don't think, is the next guy either, but he's got a better chance of being the

next guy than Fitzpatrick, and so does Kyle Allen. Yeah, for no other reason, they have time on their side. They're both relatively young, although Taylor Heineke, I think, is 28 right now, which is not old, but he's no spring chicken either. Yeah, I mean, you know, they can compete with Taylor Heineke. I just don't think he's going to be able to stay healthy. I mean, again, I just think that, you know, it may happen before. I don't think it will happen later, but that string of four or five games before they go into their bi-week is nightmare scenario for whoever's the quarterback for this team moving forward. and, by the way, not to derail the whole conversation about the quarterback,

there's no doubt they have to win Thursday night. Yeah, I've got that on my list here. It's the most winnable game on their schedule looking forward. I've got Rivera recording tomorrow for Thursday morning's radio show. Should I ask him what we asked Zorn after one game? Do you think that your job? Depends on that. I wouldn't do that. But I am going to ask him definitely how, you know, is this, does this feel like must win? Two home games to start the season. You're then into a mini-buy before you go to a team that played in the AFC championship game last year. Oh, and two, with both of them being at home would be a pretty difficult, you know, pill to swallow. I just want to. No, no, wait, wait, wait, here's what you need to ask them. It's this a code red game.

Jay Gruden, your predecessor, called a game a Code Red game. You know what? That's exactly how I'm going to ask it. Code Red game. So, you know, I think you mentioned the Heineke age. I think it is important for those that are so, you know, sure. And I don't think it's a lot of people. You know, I think it's a small percentage of people that are absolutely sure

that he's going to be the next coming of Tony Romo or Kurt Warner, the two greatest undrafted quarterbacks in NFL history, in recent vintage, you know, since they went to a much shorter NFL draft. Back in the day, they used to have, I don't know, Tommy 20 rounds in the draft. So wasn't Unitas like a 19th round pick or something like that? Was he a 17th round pick? Unitas was like super late in the draft. Yeah.

Yes, he was. I don't remember what exactly it was. But let's understand. Not that, you know, a lot of people totally couldn't have whiffed on Taylor Heineke. On Thursday night, he's going to start his third NFL game. He is 28 years old. And there have been people like Bill O'Brien. Think whatever you want about Bill O'Brien as a head coach

and certainly as a general manager for that short period of time. He's terrible. But he is an offensive quarterback guy. Ryan Fitzpatrick gives him a ton of credit for teaching him how to play the position in a different way, in a way that he finally understood the game. Unitas, by the way, was a ninth round pick. I'm thinking of somebody else. Ninth round pick.

And he got cut by the Steelers in camp. Ironically, the guy who beat him out was Ted Marsha Brota. Oh, really? Yes, who would obviously become an NFL coach. And a Washington football assistant. He was a George Allen assistant when Alan got here in 1971. Yes. There is a great quarterback that was drafted like in the 17th round.

And I'm trying to think, might be Jim Hart. Not that Jim Hart was a Hall of Fame quarterback. I'm just thinking of quarterbacks from that day. Anyway, whatever. We get sidetracked, pretty usual. If he ends up being what a few of you think he is going to be, it really would basically beat all odds. The odds are stacked heavily against Taylor Heineke being a legitimate starting quarterback in the NFL.

They are stacked heavily against him. They are stacked less heavily, actually, against Kyle Allen, who has started a lot more games in the NFL, but not a lot and is younger. You know, he just recently turned 25 years old. And I would also point out that 28 years old isn't even probably prime years anymore for a quarterback. I think a quarterback in the NFL right now hits his prime years probably at 30. You know, 30 is when they start to figure it out. Ryan Fitzpatrick said, I've just started to figure it all out in recent years.

So I'm intrigued, I'm excited. I do think this is a big game. I think you're right. I think it's a massive game for them. It's definitely a big game for the business of the Washington football team, which we'll get to here shortly. But if they're going to be a competitive team and be a playoff team, I know they started 1 in 5 last year,

and maybe if they do start 0 in 2, 0 and 3 against Buffalo, there's plenty of time and maybe the division will go bad again this year. It would be nice to beat the Giants. They didn't beat them last year. They haven't beat them since 2018. They appear to be the only team that Daniel Jones consistently feasts on. He's had his biggest games against Washington. I'm telling you right now, Tommy, I don't like Washington Thursday night, minus the three.

I think it's a super short number. I think the public's probably going to be on Washington and Taylor Heineke because the Giants looked so bad. And let's face it, the Washington Chargers score was very misleading. Washington was beat up in that game. They were dominated in that game. It was a fluke that the game ended 20 to 16. But big picture, you know, on the quarterback thing is they had one on Sunday.

We didn't. And then as you look at the Fitzpatrick going out that quickly, it does make me go back and think. and I felt this way at the time, I don't know that they could have pulled it off, but maybe they should have been hyper-aggressive with the Stafford opportunity. That was the one that was legitimately available.

Darnold was legitimately available. Tyrod Taylor was legitimately available. So was Teddy Bridgewater. But with Stafford, maybe they should have made the Sean McVeigh offer of two firsts, a third, and a really key player to Detroit. And maybe Stafford would be their quarterback. I don't think you can think too big when you're talking about a guy that obviously will come in and give you a legitimate chance.

Rogers was never available. Deshawn Watson, they turned down three firsts and a second, Schefter reported, before the happy-ending addiction became obvious. James Winston was not available to anybody. I don't believe that he was. I think he saw Sean and they saw him as their long-term answer together. And not that one week tells much about the NFL, but he was pretty spectacular on Sunday.

So you can go back and say maybe on Stafford, and if you were a believer in Darnold, he could have been had for a second. maybe just a third. I think Carolina got a third, gave up a third and fourth for him. I like Darnold. I thought the Jets were moving on too quickly from Darnold. We'll see on him.

But you could make the case, and you could have made it at the time. Fitzpatrick is a road to nowhere. He's too old, no matter how much excitement he brings, no matter how much of an upgrade he is, no matter how well he's played recently, go after somebody that gives you more upside, trade whatever you need to do to get Stafford or roll the dice with a second rounder for Darnold.

I mean, I don't know about Darnold. And I mean, if Matt Stafford had a saying where he was going, I don't know why he would have agreed to a trade to come to Washington. Fair point on him. So all those are contributing factors. As much as we think it's now Nirvana with Ron Rivera in charge, I'm not sure the rest of the league is buying into that at this point. But, you know, the Giants look horrible.

I mean, from what I've read, and I didn't watch the game, I mean, the Giants were a disaster. And they have to travel now. They have to travel west to east on a short week to then come down to Washington. No, they played at home. They played at home. Oh, they played at home? I thought they played in Denver.

No, they played at home. Okay. Well, they played at home, but I mean, this is the game. You got to win. You got, this is a code red game. It absolutely is. Oh, my God. You've got your Friday morning, your late Thursday Friday morning column already written if they lose. Actually, you've got your pregame column written. This is an absolute must, and they can't lose this game because the Giants stink so badly. not the way the NFL works, as you know.

That's said. I'm still not, look. Let me give you kudos for being right about the Eagles, at least. I'm not right. No one's right about anything after week one in the NFL. It's full-scaled every year. Okay. But I'm going to lean towards you maybe right about the Eagles.

I like them. I think they're going to beat the 49ers this week, too. And the thing is, though, I don't think after one week we've seen any reason. to think that anyone in this division is going to, in the NFT East, is going to run away with it. So it's conceivable that Washington could take a beating and maybe win a handful of games between now and that five-week stretch at the end of the year where they play all division teams and still be able to compete for a division title at the end of the year. When Ron Rivera's teams are typically better.

Yes, they have been during his course of coaching. He's had a lot of Gibbs-esque runs at the end of years where his teams have played their best football in December. It feels like a have-to-have game because of two games at home. O-N-2 is a favorite in both games, especially considering that then you're into that mini-buy before you go to Buffalo and then to Atlanta, they got their asses. kick by the Eagles. Again, I can't, I think it's really hard to do anything week one. You look back

week one last year, the eventual Super Bowl champions got their ass kicked at New Orleans. There were several playoff teams that got their ass kicked in week one last year. It's not, it's usually a big head fake. But I do have this feeling of, of, you know, stomach pain over them being 0 and 2 Friday morning when I walk in to do the show. You know, selfishly, there's nothing worse for us than a season that goes south quickly. It's really, really bad. If they don't make the playoffs, that's not nearly as bad as long as they're competitive into November. You know, there's a lot of reasons for that.

The sales cycle and radio in particular, the fourth quarter, there's still big opportunities if the football team is in contention, and advertisers tend to be interested if they're still in contention and not interested if they're out of it. And so I really hope they win on Thursday night, and I hope that it doesn't start O&2, because if it starts O&2, it's going to get ugly. And that leads me to this, Tommy.

You were there on Sunday. I've not had this confirmed, but I will tell you, nobody has reached. out to me as they've done in the past when I've said something and been dead wrong, no one's reached out to me to tell me that I'm wrong. I probably should reach out to them to confirm it, but I don't think they will. I think Sunday's game, the 52,752 or whatever it was, it was 52,000 plus, I think it's the smallest paid attendance crowd since they started to sell out DC Stadium in the mid-60s. The only way I would be wrong,

on that is if the attendance in the mid-60s wasn't 55,000. Because RFK became a 55,000 seat stadium sometime in the early to mid-70s, I believe. For all I know, it was 50,500 in 1969 when they started to sell out. But at least in the last 50 years, 40 to 50 years, I think Sunday was the smallest opening day home opener crowd in 40 to 50 years. And then on top, top of that, you probably saw John Oran tweeted out the ratings for the game locally, and I had John on the show today. The ratings locally were not very good. It was a 15.4 on television locally. That's down 7% from last year's opener against the Eagles. They did a 16.5 locally last year. And as John pointed out, the bad news is, is virtually every NFL home market in week one

was up and Washington was down. Now, I know what you're going to say or what you usually say. This isn't necessarily totally reflective of interest anymore with the way people are able to watch games. I mean, my own son last night, before the Monday night game with Eli and Peyton, you know, is screaming at me to send him my ESPN plus login and password because they don't have cable. and, you know, the kids, nobody gets cable at that age anymore. But anyway, the point John made this morning is that it's not a good number for them, period. This is a number they used to do just five, six, seven years ago in the preseason. So it's a bad number to start with, but what's really ominous is they may be one of the only markets in the NFL that is off in week one from where they were a year ago.

Now, some people were complaining that the game wasn't on CBS in some counties that border the Washington counties like Anna Rundle. Well, that isn't a Washington rated market. That's a Baltimore rated market. So it's irrelevant. You know, the ratings are based on the counties and what makes up the Washington, D.C. Metro or MSA for ratings purposes. So that really is not a factor. Anyway, look, you know I get into this stuff, but I think. think it speaks to what I've said to you a few times over the last couple months. There's optimism

for this team. There definitely is, but we could be in this bubble of dealing with a lot of people that are paying attention to the team, but it's not as many as we think. Look, I think you have to take into account with the numbers. The track record of the way this team has been going for the past two years. So I think the numbers do mean something and not something good for this team. The crowd, and apparently this was an important thing to some of the people in the cheerleading squad on Sunday. And they were right about this. The crowd was enthusiastic. Well, that's good. Sometimes 50,000 is more than good enough if they're really into it. So I'm glad that the environment was enthusiastic, and hopefully it will be on Thursday night.

You know what would generate massive enthusiasm? Did you see what RG3 said? I know. He's like a buffoon. It sounds really unbelievable. I think he's now actually graduated to really trolling the fan base. I think this was actually pretty funny. For those that missed it on Instagram and Twitter,

right when it was announced that Fitzpatrick was done in I-R'd, he put out video of himself, like including the highlight, you know, the electrifying run against the Vikings in 2012, saying make the call. Like, look, nobody's more lacking in self-awareness and more self-promotional than RG3, but I think he's playing us on this one. I mean, he knows there's no chance. You may be right. You may be right. You're probably right. What percentage of people that are fans of this team would actually still believe that that would be a viable answer? The ones that want to, the ones that think he was wrong, there's still a percentage that think he was wrong here in Washington. Oh yeah, there is.

10 to 20 percent. 20 percent, Tommy, one out of every five still thinks he got completely screwed by the Shanahan's. And if not for the Shanahan's, he'd still be a star quarterback in the NFL. You're probably right. I mean, I'm RG3 exhausted, to be honest with you. Yeah, me too. Although I think I've been that way. I think I've been exhausted with him for a while.

But if he is taking this new approach to the Washington football team fan base with tongue firmly placed in cheek, good for him. It's actually a better look. All right. Up next, Tommy has some thoughts on Sunday's game and a specific player that he wasn't very happy with. More on that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Get to Tommy's thoughts on Sunday's game.

A couple of other things from me on Sunday's game as well. Then we'll get to the Eli Payton broadcast from the Monday night game last night. Antonio Gibson was on the injury report yesterday with a shoulder injury. we are recording this podcast, don't know what his status was at practice today. Let me just point out that according to reports from Ashburn, from the media, Antonio Gibson was out there for stretching. Okay, well, that's good news. He's out on the field stretching, so that's good news.

We'll see if he takes part in practice today. I was going to point out that if Gibson couldn't go, and that would be a disappointment, and I know he fumbled, and I know he had a couple of drop passes, I think there was a lot of positive from Gibson on Sunday that continues to sort of say to all of us, I would think, that he's got some real ability to be a big time dynamic back. But if he couldn't go Thursday night, it would be Jared Patterson. I think that was one thing, and I didn't mention this yesterday with Gully. I think one of the things that was noticeable, Patterson had three carries and only two counted

because one was a seven-yard gain that got called back. but I think it's pretty apparent that he's the backup to Gibson if Gibson were to go down as the primary first down back when they're trying to run the football. It would be Jared Patterson. It would not be J.D. McKissick. They only had three backs up in Gibson, McKissick, and Patterson. Also, I wanted to mention to all of you that said ultimately they invested $10 million in the quarterback and 35 million in Curtis Samuel.

And they didn't have either one of them for most of game one and won't have either one of them for several weeks. And I don't know what the status of Samuel is right now. This continues to speak to how poor the training and the medical is in Ashburn. First of all, Fitzpatrick, I think was completely healthy before Sunday. I do not know if they handled the Curtis Samuel injury in the wrong way. I have no idea if they mishandled that at all. It's a completely different staff than the one that existed with Trent Williams and all the other issues that were going on.

None of those people are left, including right Tommy, the team doctor, who was the Alex Smith doctor. Yes, she quit. Right. So anyway, your thoughts on the game Sunday. I have not heard them. Go. Well, what really stuck out to me was the absence of Chase Young's name, you know, when they were calling out the various defensive plays during the game. Now, there were a lot of Chase Young jerseys in the stand.

he has sold them a lot of jerseys. Yeah. Okay. But on the field, there wasn't much visibility of number 99, unless he was getting manhandled by Roshan Slater, the Chargers tackle. But, I mean, wouldn't you say that was a disappointing performance? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to, I said this yesterday, it's hard to really identify any positives from the defense in that game. Somebody sent me this tweet, and I'm looking for it right now, and I think I can find it here.

Yeah, Daniel. Shean, you really massacred the defense. What about the 20 points? And they actually only gave up 13. They held the Chargers to two for six in the red zone. the offense didn't score enough points. That's why they lost. It's just one of the dumbest takes I've ever heard.

But I've heard it before in games like this before. People that are just stuck on, you know, the team only gave up 20 points and the defense only gave up 13 and the offense only scored 16. It's a complementary game football is. The Chargers were two for six in the red zone. One of those red zone trips, Daniel,

was a kneel down at the end of the game after their 15th play on the drive that ran the final seven minutes of the clock out. Another trip to the red zone ended with a field goal after Keenan Allen was opened by every bit of five to six yards on a third and four and just flat out dropped a perfect throw from Justin Herbert. That was one of the stops. They also had a play that was an incomplete pass called a fumble. And, you know, and yes, Montez Sweat made a nice play on that. He did.

He made a really nice play, good pressure, maybe the best pressure of the day by Washington. But they owned Washington's defense for the entire game. They made 14 third-down conversions on 18 chances. If you think the defense played well, I can't help you. It did not play well. It played horribly. There were a few individuals I thought that stood out at times. I thought Cam Curl did a couple of times I thought William Jackson did.

I thought John Allen had a couple of plays that stood out in my mind. But the defense as a whole was completely befuddled, confused, and didn't execute against a really good team, you know, with some star players, a clear studded quarterback, two excellent receivers. and a really good back, and clearly a revamped offensive line, which includes their first round pick for Sean Slater, who had a great opening day. Washington's defense, Tommy, per pro football focus, take it for what it's worth, produce the least amount of pass rush of any NFL team in week one.

Now, part of that is, part of that is, balls coming out quickly, and it came out quickly, and that was part of the Chargers game plan. That's part of everybody's game plan. these days. You know, the ball's coming out quickly, but on a final drive, on 3rd and 16, the ball didn't come out quickly then,

and they didn't get anywhere near, near Justin Herbert. No, it was a massacring of the defense that was totally legitimate. That team spent the entire day with the football in their hands on offense, and much of the day converting third downs and in Washington's red zone where they did make some mistakes.

Not Washington. Washington made a good play on the interception by William Jackson. That's a good stop. And the Montez sweat pressure that forced the incompletion that somehow got called a fumble, it's a good play. I'll give you that. But kneel down, fumble that should have been incomplete, a dropped pass by Keenan Allen, you take those three out, and you're two for three on stops.

Now you've got one stop out of three in the red zone. Washington ran 55 plays offensively, 81 for the Chargers. Yeah. Yes. And it wasn't being. Dominated time of possession, 36 to 23. It was a total aberration, the final score. Anybody that watches even a small amount of football understood that most teams, the way they played, like the Chargers,

played, and most teams that played like Washington played, that that score typically is going to be a whole lot to a little bit. That Cooley said 35 to 10 yesterday is what it should have been. It would be a whole lot to a little bit in most cases, and it was flukish. It was flukish that it was there for the stealing. They had a chance to steal one. The Chargers had six dropped passes officially, six. And they had at least two that I remember roughing the passer calls again. against them. Well, one was legitimate. One I didn't think was a very good call, but whatever. And Washington was on the wrong side of a missed face mask against Antonio Gibson, which was an egregious miss. The other thing that came out of the game per pro football focus or next gen, I forget

which one it was. My sons sent me this, is that the offensive line had a disastrous day, which we all know, that the past protection was really bad, and that Sam Cosme in particular really struggled. And I wanted to make this particular point. And I think it's a bit of a reach, so I'll concede that going in. But Sam Cosmi was targeted by this team's front office and one coach in particular, Scott Turner, who really liked Cosmy. He really liked Elijah Moore, the receivers from Ole Miss that went to the Jets early in the second round. He really liked Diami Brown.

He really liked Sam Cosmy. Before the draft, before the second day of the draft, I said Cosmi and Diami Brown and Elijah Moore are three players that Washington would love to get one of those. Well, they got two of them. They got Cosmi and Diami Brown. Cosmi played incredibly well all summer long in practice training camp. And he won the right tackle job. They had a rookie in the lineup the other day because of how well he held up in practice against the likes of Chase Young.

and Montez Sweat. Now, again, that's practice, I understand. But if Cosme wasn't consistently doing pretty well against the likes of Sweat and Chase Young, he may not have been in the starting lineup on Sunday. Well, he was in the starting lineup on Sunday, and he faced Joey Bosa. That is a top-tier elite defensive end right now,

pass rusher, outside linebacker and a 3-4-winner 34. That's what an elite pass rusher looks like. I'm not saying that Chase Young and Montez Swet aren't going to be Joey Bosa, Nick Bosa, T.J. Watt, Chandler Jones. Jones had five sacks. T.J. Watt had two on Sunday. And I'm also acknowledging, I understand the sack stat can be a little bit more misleading than it has been in recent years because of how many teams are getting the ball out quickly, but T.J. Watt still had two sacks. on Sunday. And Chandler Jones had five. And Joey Bosa was wreaking havoc by himself all day Sunday. I think Chase Young is going to be that kind of player. I am predicting Chase Young will eventually be

that kind of player. And I think Montez Sweat can be that player. I was a huge Montez Sweat fan in college at Mississippi State. And I thought he had a great year last year, a big step forward year last year. But they're not there yet. That's the point. They're not there yet. they did not finally good finally I mean I just think the crowning of Chase Young has just

been too premature I think he's going to eventually get there though Tom I do I mean unless it would be shocking if he doesn't it would be I'd be shocked if he doesn't but you know he hasn't done it yet no but he

he was a much better player last year than the statistics said. It's why he was the defensive rookie of the year. There was an acknowledgement that he was truly a difference maker, and he was for this team. But he was not a difference maker on Sunday, and he was not a difference maker in the playoff game against Tampa Bay. He was more often than not a difference maker last year. The defense as a whole had their best days against the worst offensive teams that they faced. And they're not facing those teams this year. year, at least not as of now. So the defense, to me, it was a big, there was a red flag on the

defense coming out of Sunday. I want to see a dominant performance on Thursday night. You know, Sequin Barclay did not look like himself Sunday. He's clearly not ready. They could not run. Denver's defense and Washington's defense have been compared to one another. The two teams have been compared to one another. Teams with good supporting cast, outstanding potential defensively, well-coached defensively, but quarterback is an issue, right? Will Denver completely shut down the Giants on Sunday? They shut down Saquoan Barkley. The Giants couldn't run the football.

They struggled to move the football. The Giants were, you know, they had a key turnover, another Daniel Jones key turnover. He doesn't seem to turn it over against Washington, but he had a big fumble in this game, and the Broncos blew him out. I didn't see the game. I'm not going to act like I watch the game. I'm talking about what I've read about the game. I'm going to watch the game before Thursday show to have a little bit more on the Giants on NFL game pass.

But they better step it up Thursday night. They needed one effing stop on that final drive. And they had a third and 16 and couldn't get anywhere near impacting the play. So yeah, you're right about Chase. and the rest of them, most of them, on Sunday. Now, he had a couple of good rushes. He got held once. And unlike the Tampa game, he was game planned for Sunday.

They were chipping him. They doubled him at times. They realized what he could do. But T.J. Watts getting doubled, too. And I guarantee you Chandler Jones and some of these other guys are getting doubled and chipped at times, too. So at some point, that can't be the reason you don't end up with double digits. sacks because you were game planned for the entire year. That can't be the reason. No. The real great ones, they overcome that. The T.J. Watts, the J.J. Watts, the Nick Boses,

the Joey Boses when he's healthy, they overcome all that. So he's got to play better than he's played in his last two games for this team. At the same time, he was a beast at times last year. He was against Nick Mullins and some of the other quarterbacks that they faced that weren't so good. But nobody on their defense in the last two games has reminded anybody of T.J. Watt, of Aaron Donald, of Miles Garrett. You know, nobody's approached that level. And I hope that they will soon. But he is only in his second year. But he's, you know, and I think he'll eventually get there. Okay. What else do you have on the game? nothing. It's just that you say he's only in his second year, but he's treated like he's royalty,

and he hasn't done anything. Well, I mean, Miles Garrett in his first year in Cleveland, had seven sacks, okay, four, three defensive ends, seven sacks. In year two, it was 13 and a half. Then 10, then, and by the way, then the injuries and then the suspension, remember, the suspension at the end of 2019. So he's been double-digit sacks the last three years as the same kind of player. I think people would equate Chase Young, the same kind of upside potential, disruptive, defensive end kind of a player. He's gone 13 and a half, 10, and 12 and been an absolute monster. He had four forced fumbles last year.

Four. Khalil Mack, same thing. Started a little bit slowly in year one. on year three. So they got 16 more games this year. I imagine that he's going to have a major impact on several games this year. I would be very disappointed if he doesn't, even against the best offensive teams. I'd like to see him have a couple of big games. I mean, Chandler Jones against Tennessee had five sacks on Sunday. T.J. Watt against Josh Allen, and that Buffalo offense was dominant the other day, had a dominating game.

the other day. So, you know, he not only did he have two sacks, he had a forced fumble in the game as well. Chase Young's capable of doing all that. Just have to see it consistently. And he was hurt last year. He wasn't healthy the entire year. So I just made an excuse for him for last year. But no excuses this year.

He's healthy and he wasn't good enough Sunday, nor was anybody else on defense. Anything else? Or you want to get to the Eli Payton stuff now? Yeah, let's get to the, the, uh, the, uh, the, Monday night broadcast and the Manning. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky Sunday night. Lamar Jackson head to head with Patrick Mahomes in a Sunday night game that's a can't miss matchup.

MyBooky has all of the action. Get started by making your first deposit at mybooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., to instantly double your deposit. That's double your money, double your winnings. with your first ever deposit using my promo code, Kevin D.C. We get a ton of football starting tomorrow night, Thursday night, excuse me, with Washington and the Giants and some college games, big college weekend, and then week two in the NFL,

and My Bookie's got all of it. Fair points spreads, fair money lines, very fair pricing. Make sure when you go to MyBooky.org for the promo code in your sign-up, it might have something in there. Erase that and put Kevin D.C. in there. That's the way you get your deposit double dollar for dollars. So if you open up the account with 500 bucks, you'll see a thousand in the account. And remember, you can't just do that and then think you can just withdraw the money.

They're not stupid, okay? They're not going to allow you to use my promo code and turn 500 into a thousand and then withdraw all the money. You've got to use that money to wager with over a period of time. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere with My Booky. Even if you've got another place where you're gambling on sports, you should have another place where you can comparison shop on point spreads and pricing. My bookie's a great spot. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C.

Hey, I was thinking first Monday night football game you and I have watched since 1993. I was a senior. You were in the seventh grade. You had braces filled. It was good, though. My acne had cleared up, if I recall, so I was looking good. No. Brothers Manning last night on the alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football. Tommy, did you watch, and if so, did you like it? Well, I watched Peyton and Eli for a while. And first of all, the audio sucked.

It was breaking up a little bit early, yes. Yeah. And after a while, fine. enjoyed it. After a while, I kind of got tired of it. I wanted to watch the game. And I found that it got in the way sometimes of actually watching the game. So I switched back to the traditional broadcast because I wanted to watch the game. And I tweeted this out. And there's no right or wrong on this. I'm not saying that if you liked Peyton and Eli, you know, you're wrong or anything like that. It's just a different, it

illustrated the different ways generations consume sports now. I mean, we have a younger generation that don't necessarily watch the games like we did. They watch highlights. When they're

watching a game, they're on their phone with their friends texting or talking. You know, they're on their computer and their phone at the same time. watching while on TV. They're not distracted by Peyton and Manning because they're Peyton and Eli because they're not really paying attention.

You know? If you watched Peyton and Eli, that's what you were watching. You weren't watching the game. And this is what happens on Twitch. People tune into Twitch to watch people watch people watch stuff. It's just a different. different way of consuming it. I mean, there have been surveys where young people, they consume

their sports now in highlights, not sitting down and watching a full game. They don't do that. So this was to me, and I think they're on to something here. I think ESPN was smart to do it, but I think this caters to a different audience. I think it's valuable. I think, you know, it'll last as long as Peyton decides it'll last, you know. You may get bored with it. at some point and decide not to do it anymore. But I think it illustrated the difference in generations and how they consume sports now. Yeah, on that point, I think that the team executives in sports all understand that to grow their business, they're appealing to a younger demographic that consumes their product differently.

I mean, I had somebody tell me a couple of months back that it's the people that come to games now, the in-stadium experience isn't necessarily designed for those that really care about the result of the game. It's about creating an experience for them when they're there, making it family friendly, making it, you know, bar-friendly, making whatever it is, making it technology-friendly. And obviously gambling will have something to do with it, but they're not attracting at a 70,000 seat stadium, 70,000 people that are there that totally care about the result of the game. Like, they are in it for the home team to win the game. I totally feel the same way about last night. There's no chance I would watch Washington and Seattle on November 29th,

Monday night football, on anything other than the actual game broadcast, because you weren't watching the game watching Eli and Peyton. You missed parts of the game. You missed parts of plays. They weren't analyzing the game. They were trying to entertain you. Now, at times they were analyzing the game, and at other times, in the midst of interviews,

they were talking about how Barclay did in gambling this weekend. I think it was very entertaining. And I wasn't going to turn because I didn't have action on the game last night. I didn't bet the game. And even though I was interested in the game, I was entertained by Eli and Peyton and all the guests they had on. But there's no way if you're really into the game that you can watch the game that way. I compared it this morning, Tommy. If you're interested in the results of a golf tournament and you really want to know what's going on in a golf tournament,

you're really vested in the actual competition, well, you can't go to a golf tournament. If you go to a golf tournament, you don't know anything that's going on in the golf tournament. So this last night, if you wanted to be entertained and have a good time and you didn't care what was going on in the game, Eli and Payton and all of their guests and all of their friends, it was a great option. I'd love to know what it is going to do ratings-wise. But if you're interested in the result of the game, you've got to watch it on the regular broadcast. I agree. I agree. But again, I'm not criticizing that.

I mean, I understand it was entertaining, but it's not what I look for when I'm watching a sporting event. But, you know, my senses are different than probably even a 35 or a 30-year-olds watch it, watching the game, let alone 20-year-olds watching the game. They consume it differently. and, you know, they like watching somebody else watch the game and talk during the game and all that. And that's fine. And again, I think it was smart programming, and I think you'll see a lot more of it from other networks

as a compliment to their traditional broadcast. But, I mean, I don't know, but it's ever going to replace the traditional broadcast in our lifetime. I don't know if it will or not, but it is. It's Twitch. This is what people, this is what young people watch on Twitch. Yeah. The game itself was great. And when I woke up super early this morning, not that anybody cares what time I got up, I had recorded it on the regular broadcast. So I watched that and then I watched the rest of it here on NFL Game Pass. And it was a great game. It was a wild game. The overtime, I knew what had happened by the time I watched this,

but the Raiders had it at Baltimore's one. They scored a touchdown in overtime. It got overturned and marked at the one-yard line. Then they got a penalty. Then Carr had a pass deflected and intercepted. So, you know, they had won the game, and then they were on the verge of winning the game, and then Baltimore had the ball back and still a tie game.

Lamar Jackson fumbled twice. Those were key plays in the game. It's funny, in watching the beginning of the game, I really, I'm like, God, the Ravens have had all these injuries. And people are down on the Ravens this year, I've noticed. I watched them. I'm like, man, it just looks like the same old Ravens to me.

Looks like the same old Jackson. They had this running back Tyson Williams from BYU who looked great. You know, they didn't have a running back, and now all of a sudden they've got this guy, Tyson Williams, and they sign Latavius Murray, and defensively they're out there hitting people. But by the end of the night, they had given up over 500 yards, 491 to be exact to the Raiders in an incredible shootout, 3327 Raiders and win it in overtime. You know, the question coming out of that for football fans is, you know, this question about Derek Carr, you know,

do you think he, you know, has that something, you know, is he a potential great quarterback? Because nobody's had them listed, you know, in the top 10 to 12, you know, 13, 14 quarterbacks. I mean, I think after last year, which was his best year, he moved. moved up everybody's, you know, on everybody's list into probably the top half of the league starters and maybe a little bit higher. I was never a huge Derek Carr fan. I thought he played better last year. Cooley was always a Derek Carr fan. Cooley said when he was drafted in the second round at a Fresno. I think he was the second round. I don't think he was the third round, but he was a projected first round. And Cooley said then he thought that the Raiders stole

Derek Carr, that he was going to be a great quarterback. And here's another example, Tommy, of a guy that may just start, you know, at the beginning of figuring it out. He's 30 years old. He's in whatever year he's in, seventh or eighth year. And really nowadays, with the game as complex as it is, this is his window to be great. And what's really interesting is the Raiders and John Gruden, you know, in the offseason, didn't seem to be committed to him. You know, there was a lot of rumor and discussion out there about how they were interested

in potentially trading him, that if Deshawn Watson had legitimately been available, how the Raiders may have been in play for him or Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rogers. I don't know. I think at this point, he's a lot better than most, and he's probably a top half of the league starter, so you've got to figure out a way to keep him. I know that he got it done on big drives last night, including a game. time field goal drive at the end in a back and forth, fourth quarter, and then in overtime on two different occasions. And that interception was a little bit flukeish. It was a ball through the hands of Hunter Renfro actually. I forget who it was through the hands of. I think it was Renfro

who couldn't pull it in and then it deflected off a couple of things, including a helmet and then the Ravens ended up with an interception. But Derek Carr is interesting because, who knows, maybe he has a chance to take that next big jump into the conversation of the really good quarterbacks. Doesn't Washington go out to Vegas to play the Raiders here? They do. Yeah.

December 5th. I know a lot of people that are interested in going to that game, much more so than any game at FedEx Field. I can't tell you how many. You know, it didn't sell out. You know, they didn't sell out yesterday last night. What? The tickets were in the thousands of dollars on Stubb.

They said it was not a sellout. Really? Now, that may have been the fact that you needed to prove vaccination to get in. Maybe that had an impact. But I read somewhere, let me double check that it was not a sellout. I heard the ticket. were through the roof for this game last night on, you know, on the aftermarket. That's, I didn't, I did not know that if that's true.

I don't know if that's accurate or not. Well, try to double check. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story? I, I will tell you that the, you know, people who aren't even friends of mine, who aren't even really paying attention that much, dude, We're going to Vegas, right, in early December, get tickets, go to the game, spend the weekend in Vegas. Everybody wants to do. That is going to be the biggest and most valuable and sought after road NFL trip for a couple of years,

especially for the NFC teams that are only going to get this opportunity once every, you know, eight years or whatever it'll work out to be. If I was, look, we've talked about this phenomenon before about how, you know, You know, Washington, we know Washington football fans rather than invest money in season tickets at Ghost Town Field have opted to invest it in road trips for games at two or three games over the course of a season. That's why you see a pretty good Washington contingent on the road sometimes for these games. People love to go to road games, no doubt about it. According to the Las Vegas Journal, they don't give a number, but they call it a near sellout crowd. Okay, 65,000 seats, announce attendance, 61,750s.

Well, what's the reason for that? Was it COVID? Was it vaccination? The team announced last month that fans attending game and Alleged Stadium must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter. There you go. That's interesting. You had, God, man, we had some crowds this weekend in the NFL, that's for sure. Hey, one last thing, Tommy, before we call it a show for the day. USC fired Clay Helton yesterday. This would have been the Urban Meyer spot, not the NFL. I'm not saying that Urban Meyer after one week.

I think Urban Meyer is a great coach, and it'll probably work out. But he's a college coach and made for college, and my God, he was. would have in L.A. I don't think he's going to leave after one year to take the Southern Cal job, but that would have been the job for him. And I don't know why, you know, S.C. stuck with Clay Helton for another year. I know there was some optimism about this year, and they had a horrendous loss the other night to Stanford. They gave up 42 points against Stanford, and Stanford couldn't even score, barely score the week before. But that job is still, I think, a big job, isn't it? L.A. West Coast recruiting, you know, the tradition?

Yeah. It's absolutely still a big job. And Urban Meyer is not cut out for the NFL. He's wound way too tight. I think they'll get it done there. I think that, you know, Trevor Lawrence will be fine after one horrible game to start his career. But, man, Urban Meyer and SC would have been the perfect fit.

I don't think James Franklin leaves Penn State for Southern Cal. I don't, even though I know Penn State people aren't thrilled with Franklin, but they're off to a good start this year. I'm going to the Auburn Penn State game Saturday, if I didn't mention that already. I can tell you, James Franklin isn't going to take the USC job because that's too far away from Rudy's in East travel. Yeah, well, that's your spot. That's his spot, too.

I know. Yeah. Matt Campbell at Iowa State would be the perfect hire, and so would Luke Fickle from Cincinnati. The only thing I don't know is I don't know West Coast ties and West Coast recruiting. Whoever they get, you just have to keep all of the Southern California and all the West Coast talent home and you're in good shape. I saw somebody tweet out something earlier that in the last, I think, 12 years, Oregon has six-packed 12 championships. USC only has won. Oregon, you know, has been. been in the playoff. USC hasn't been. And really, Oregon's been the team out of the Pact 12 that's become the powerhouse. And that's true. SC still is the traditional power.

And that's one of those places I think you can go quickly and turn it around pretty quickly. And the Pact 12 is off to a good start. UCLA with that win over LSU was huge for them. and then the Oregon win at Ohio State, which we didn't talk about on the show at all yesterday. We didn't get to any of the college football. It was alarming if you're an Ohio State fan because their defense is just horrible. But Oregon really, really got a big win for the PAC 12.

Because the PAC 12 time he's been irrelevant here in recent years, as far as the playoff goes. And now the win at Ohio State by Oregon and the win by UCLA over, LSU is huge for that league early in the year. And Oregon and UCLA play in mid to late October, I think. And that, I mean, look, there are other games that they all have on their schedule. UCLA is 2 and O.

They've got a really good running back to transfer from Michigan. They still, you know, they play at SC. They play at Utah. But they have a chance the Oregon-U-CLA winner to really be in the playoff conversation. and it's been a while for the PAC 12. I think their last playoff team was Washington. I think was their last playoff team in Washington got absolutely obliterated by Bama.

Anyway, that's it. You got anything else? I got nothing else for you, boss. All right, we're done for the day. Back tomorrow.