The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Chase Young Game

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

Cooley and Kevin recap Washington's 23-15 win over San Francisco and in particular, the dominant Rookie of the Year performance by Chase Young. Also, Cooley's text to Kevin about Alex Smith during the game before the news that Smith was injured. They talked about the playoff picture, the Seattle game, and a ton of other NFL talk too. 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. On the sideline. And Chase Young has a Washington touchdown. That Chase Young's pretty good, Cooley.

He's a pretty good player. For those of you that have reached out to either Chris or me or anybody else and has said, what are you guys so hyped about Chase Young about it? got three and a half sacks. Watch the game, people. Watch the game. Yesterday it all came together for him. That was as good an individual defensive performance by a Washington defensive player

in a long, long time. I'd have to go back to maybe Sean Taylor, who you played with in some of those games, to see a player so dominant. The funny thing is Montez Sweat wasn't that far off. Well, Montez Sweat's been not that far off in three or four games this season. Right. It was dominant, though. The crazy thing about Chase Young is, even on the games where you don't see him,

I mean, maybe there's been two games where you think it could have had a better game. But even on the games where you don't see him making those principal on-play impacts, just watch you move. I know. Nobody moves like that. Nobody has that size, that athleticism moves with that kind of quick twitch ability. You just don't get that. You can see when you watch this kid play.

And then you add the high motor to it. At some point, it's just going to continue to click every single game. And he's a problem. It's a menace for other defenses or for other offenses. It's my favorite thing about him. And by the way, it's my favorite thing about sweat too. And it's what when we talked about sweat before that draft, I said, I just want somebody who is so high energy that is just relentless,

is chasing people down from the backside. They have two of those guys right now, two of them. And they're not only super talented, but they're high motor, they're energetic, they're relentless, and they are competitive. And then that goes with the talent, which is off the charts. Young's probably, you know, now matching how he was evaluated, which is one of the best sort of edge rushing defensive and, you know, havoc-wreaking defensive players that's come out in some time, and we're seeing that now. Now, will it be enough to lead them without great quarterback play? That's going to be the big picture question about this team, because defensively,

they have risen to the level that we thought that they could get to. And by the way, it's going to keep getting better. They're one to two pieces away from being elite next year, and a year worth of experience from being an elite. defense. And the key will be, right, Cooley? We don't want to waste this over the next year or two or three with average to sub-average quarterback play because we've seen that happen before in the NFL. I mean, that's down the road. Let's talk about the game now and the game yesterday. Look, four in a row surging towards a potential division title and a playoff birth. You know,

they've doubled their win total from last year. They're playing really well and with three games, left, they're in first place all by themselves. You know, the mocking about this division all year long is starting to quiet down because I think people around the league, let alone the people in this city are starting to realize that this team actually shouldn't be mocked based on their record, that they're going to be held a deal with if they make it to the postseason. And yesterday was the game of the year where they absolutely were desperate for the defense to essentially win the game on its own, and they delivered. They delivered in a big way. 17 points worth of it. Two defensive touchdowns. They had 193 yards of offense.

I know. They were 20 percent. They were 3 of 15 on third down. They had 193 yards of total offense. They achieved 12 total first downs. And at no point after the first score, did you think San Francisco had any chance of winning the ball game? I know. That was amazing. As bad as they were on offense, it went unnoticed to what they really did in this football game. Their defense won the game, and it was so easily handled. It's amazing, man. That's so funny.

That's why you can't put limitations on this team. It's really funny the way you said it. They were so good and so dominant on defense. It was unnoticed how bad they were offensively. And it's true. You know, they had a. couple of moments and they had a couple of self-inflicted, you know, plays that may be derailed potential drives. But, you know, it's very rare in the NFL where you're playing a decent team

and San Francisco is at least a decent team, although Mullins was horrible and made horrible decisions. That interception to curl was a gift. But it's very rare where offensively you have 193 total yards. You're three for 15 on third down. You only have 12, total first downs in the game. You punt eight times and you win the game. And you win the game comfortably. And it's because the defense scored twice, set up a field goal and was just, you know, outstanding throughout. Now, I do have one little nitpick on defense, which I'll get to when I get to my game take. But that was, that was really fun to watch. You know, in all of our conversations over the years, I think I've told you this before. But I,

I love my teams, whether they're football or basketball. I love them to be great defensively. There's something thrilling to me about watching a defense that's dominant, and it's your team, and you just feel like, I think there's winning with defense is like you're taking it from them. You're like disheart. Like you use the word oppressive a couple of weeks ago. You wanted to see them oppressive against maybe it was Dallas or Pittsburgh prior to that game.

I love oppressive defense. I love suffocating defense because I feel like if I'm watching that and it's the real thing, that that really can travel a long way. And I'm not talking about physically. I'm talking about figuratively in terms of winning games. And I know Denver and some other teams have had some really good defenses in recent years and they've wasted them because of bad offense and bad quarterback play. But I don't think they're bad offensively as long as Alex is ready to go and is healthy because

clearly he wasn't. But I find watching this kind of football thrilling. Like the Ravens teams with those great defenses so much fun to watch. Yeah. When the defense is so good that they can score. Yeah. It's awesome. That's exactly. When the defense is that good, it's like watching an offense. They ran the game.

They controlled the game. You're almost hoping, okay, don't take any risks. It's okay if we punt because I want to watch that defense again. You know, I want to watch 99 and 90. Couldn't take your eyes off here. What are they going to do next? Right. Exactly.

Clinton once told me this story. I think I've told it before, but before the 2004 draft, the draft that you were taken in, where they trade it up to get you in the third round. The talk before that 2004 draft, which was Joe's first year back, was they were going to take Kellyn Winslow Jr. at tight end from Miami with number five overall. And Clinton got wind of it, and I guess Joe reached out to some of the Miami players to ask about Winslow, and Clinton said, no, no, no, no, no, you have to take Sean Taylor. And he said, well, we really like Callan Winslow.

We like Sean a lot, too, but we really like Winslow. And we really feel like we need some offense. By the way, if they had drafted Kellyn Winslow, they would have never traded for the person I'm talking to right now. And we wouldn't be talking right now. But Clinton said to Joe, when Joe said we need offense, Clinton said, this is the way he tells the story. That's exactly why you should draft Sean Taylor. Sean Taylor will eventually give you more offense than Kellen Winslow. And I love that line, and that's what we're seeing with Chase Young and Montez Sweat.

They're providing not just big plays, but points or set up for easy points. It was awesome to watch. It was so awesome to watch. I don't know. It was just a fun game. It was a game that I thought they had control of the entire time. After that first San Francisco drive, the first drive, but the drive they took down the field running the football. there was nothing else for San Francisco.

Nothing else. Well, I mean, they had the one drive and the two-point conversion. Yeah, but that was so late and you weren't even worried about it at that point. I was never, I'm with you. I was never worried, but they did have two possessions down eight with the ball. And I'll tell you what, Brandon Ayuk, the rookie from Arizona State, was exceptional in that game. And I do think that, you know, and it's one of those years, right?

They're getting a lot of these breaks. They're catching teams hurt. You know, they're catching backup quarterbacks at times. And yesterday, you could tell Debo Samuel was more likely than not going to be a big part of that game plan. And he runs for nine yards on first down, and then he's out. And then their best defensive player, Fred Warner, knocked out of the game. Well, Moester was out for most of the first half. And Mostert missed some of the first half.

God, I love the way he runs. But I thought Ayyuk was the one guy. He was open a lot, a ton. and it looks like he's going to be an exceptional player. But anyway, it was such a big win. It's funny, Cooley. We have these conversations about the schedule all the time, and I do my mock schedule,

which is really even a mocking of the mock schedule, because I don't believe in schedules at all. It's been one of my go-to discussions for years that when the schedule comes out, I'm like, well, we have no idea what it's going to be. It's a joke. And like this schedule, obviously, at the beginning of the year, Oh, my God.

That stretch in late November and early December with three road games at Dallas, at Pittsburgh, at San Francisco. Better build up some wins before then. And then you've got to come home against Seattle. Well, they're 3-0, and they went 3-0 in those road games. And even three weeks ago, two weeks ago, it's like, you know, you got to get one of these next three. You're going to be an underdog in all three of them. You've got to get one of the next three, Steelers, 49ers, Seahawks.

And they've gotten the first two. And you just can't predict the NFL. God, it's what makes it so great and also so incredibly aggravating from trying to pick and trying to bet it in particular. But Seattle's coming in here, four-point dog, and the division is really interesting. Like yesterday, Daniel Jones shouldn't have been playing in that game. That was obvious. He could not move.

And the Cowboys win big, and the Eagles pull off. your lock of the week, one of my smell test picks. The Eagles pull off a stunter. I think you actually said you think they might win the game outright. I did. Yeah, you did say that against the Saints. They win the game and now, okay, the Eagles all of a sudden have Jalen Hertz. They're 4-8-1, and if they can beat the Cardinals and the Cowboys

the next two weeks to get to 6-8-1 and Washington loses to Seattle or Carolina, that game will be for the division in Philly. Like, Phillies all the sudden, like, legitimately back into it. Dallas, you can't, I mean, I think they stink personally, but they've really shown some heart over the last month with all of the issues and injuries and quarterback issues. They beat a bad team, don't get me wrong. But they play the 49ers this week.

That was the Sunday night game that got flexed out of Sunday night back to 1 o'clock. If they can beat the 49ers, then their game against the Eagles the following week is more likely than not in elimination game for one of the two of them. Now, Washington controls its own destiny. If we beat Seattle and Carolina, it may be over before the final week. They could actually clinch before the final week if they can win the next two. So anyway, crazy the way things turn. The Eagles and the Cowboys all the sudden are actually not out of it. And the Eagles in particular, if they are actually offensively better with Hertz,

and they were yesterday, their defense is good enough to get on a little bit of a role. There's no doubt about it. Their defense is good enough. And there's a little bit of spark with Jalen Hertz. I'm watching that game. You're like, you know, Wence hasn't had any of his guys all year, and now all of a sudden, the Eagles get healthy offensively. Here we go.

Janet Hertz, let's roll. But he made some big plays with his legs, too. I watched a lot of that ball game in the brakes. I watched football all day yesterday. I didn't get out the couch. Did you have snow yesterday? Was it cold and snowy out there? It's snowing right now.

Yeah. We don't have that much snow, but it was cold and snowy. And I did nothing. I started with the Giants, Arizona, went back and forth with that game with the Red Zone channel and also back and forth with the Miami, Kansas City game. Yeah, I was going back and forth. Okay, honestly, I finally broke down. I've been trying to do Hulu, and I've been trying to do whatever to get just the Washington game.

And I broke down, and I finally got DirecTV. And it is amazing. I was glued to football all day, just thinking, why didn't I ever do this? Well, I never did it because I could. I had never watched games on Sunday. It was always working on Sunday. You're also very frugal. You don't like that.

No, no, this had nothing to do with money. This really didn't have anything to do with money. I just, I haven't watched games on Sunday. And it kind of, it slipped my mind almost how much I wanted to watch every single game. Yeah, yesterday was a good day. I mean, the giant game was never really competitive. So I actually wasn't a great day. I mean, most of the, like, if you look at the score differential in the 1 o'clock,

games going into the fourth quarter. It was almost every game was massive. Miami started to make their game a game. The rest of them were not great games. The Vikings Bucks game was, I was interested in it. I mean, not for all of the reasons that you guys are thinking right now. I bet the Vikings plus seven. I mean, what a disaster.

Dan Bailey misses three field goals in an extra point. An extra point. They totally dominated the game for the most part. Look at the time of possession of that game. It has to be the largest time of possession to lose a game. What was it? I saw at some point in the fourth quarter. It was 35 to 15.

3903 Minnesota had the ball. They had 27 first downs. Yeah, I mean, they moved the football on every single drive, and the kicker missed three field goals, an extra point. And then they started going for fourth downs. I mean, Zimmer basically said after the game, I read this quote that they weren't going to kick. Even if they had scored a touchdown at 23 to 14,

they were going to go for two. So I'm sure they're going to cut Dan Bailey today, I would think. But what happened? Dan Bailey's not a bad kicker. Well, he's been terrible recently. I know, but what happens? I just don't understand that. It's the weirdest thing.

It's the yips, isn't it? Isn't it just basically like it's all mental? Because he's got a big leg, doesn't he? I don't know if he does or doesn't. I think he does. He's fine. I mean, he is in the last two weeks, I'm looking at it right now. He is two for six on field goals.

Well, he was 0 for three this week. And he's one for four on extra points. How can you do that? I don't know. But you can't. I wonder what he's doing in practice. Because if he's not making him a practice, he should have never played in that game. That's a good point.

if they knew this was coming, I mean, and that's on Zimmer? Yeah, I mean, that, anyway, back to the one o'clock games, I needed some sort of backdoor cover there, couldn't get it. I had the Broncos, so I was paying attention to them. I just want to mention this real quickly, and we'll touch on the league a little bit later on. I know Vic Fangio is sort of an odd dude,

and he has said some, you know, things. That dude knows how. how to coach defense. I mean, and that guy knows how to coach. Denver is one of those teams. I mentioned Denver and Jacksonville, two teams that are going to spoil. I know they beat the Panthers, so what? They play Buffalo in one of the two Saturday games this week in Denver, although, God, man, Josh Allen looks so good. I think the bills might be the biggest threat to Kansas City now in the AFC. So anyway, whatever. Nobody gives a shit about Denver. I just have had a lot of, I had a lot of activity at 1 o'clock.

You were busy. Yeah. So it was a great day for you. No, it wasn't. Very busy with activities. It wasn't a great day. I had, what did I have? Well, it's still a great.

It's an exciting, it's an exciting three-hour period of your life. But then I really, you know, then I really gear up for our game. You know, it's like, I kind of like when there's a 425 kick. Although in recent years, to be honest with you, it's like, all right, let's play at one, get it over with. We're going to be, you know, we're going to be terrible anyway. Let's get it over with and we'll be fine. But I definitely enjoy.

I think these last few weeks are going to be really interesting. My son was saying to me last night, he's like, God, you know, the playoff games are going to be good. Like there's so many matchups. You know, if you think Kansas City is going to get the one seed, they'll probably get the one seed. And Green Bay now has the inside track to the one seed in the NFC. But that first weekend where you have a triple header now, you know, six games on wildcard weekend, they're going to be some phenomenal matchups. Phenomenal.

Like, in the AFC alone, think about the teams that are really playing well. You know, Kansas City just keeps eking games out. By the way, just one quick thing on them. They're about the only team that I can remember where it just doesn't matter if they lost the turnover battle. They turned it over four times in the game yesterday and won. It just doesn't seem to matter with them. They seem to sort of bust through all of our preconceived football idioms or cliches or, you know, keys to a game.

It just doesn't matter. They can turn it over as much as they want. They don't. They usually don't turn it over very often. But it doesn't matter. Two picks going into the game all season. But it doesn't matter if they do, is my point. They can overcome anything.

But in the AFC, you know, Tennessee is good. Indy is good. Indy might be really good. Buffalo is looks really good. You know, Miami's pretty good. Cleveland. We haven't even mentioned the Ravens. They may not make the postseason.

I know. And then in the NFC, you know, with the Saints and the Rams and Seattle and Green Bay. And now maybe an NFC East champion in Washington that won't be an easy out. No one's going to be laughing at them if they're in the postseason at nine and seven or eight and eight. Nobody. Right now, the. only team that I think hasn't lost to somebody that they shouldn't lose to is Green Bay. Really?

Like Green Bay got steamrolled by Tampa. But think of the formula for that. Yeah. That is exactly what Washington is. What Tampa did to Aaron Rogers. It was oppressive pressure on Rogers throughout the game. Couldn't get anything going. It was.

So is there anybody, like the AFC is a little bit different. I think there's some dudes, there's some teams with dudes. There's some real teams in the AFC. now but the NFC there's it's sort of wide open like there is no limitations on Washington making it through the playoffs right now wouldn't that be so and here's the other amazing thing is you I hate that wouldn't that you so 20 20 20 oh god 20 20 is we're gonna we're you know I hate what do I I can't see you mentioned to the I can't stand the people that that complain so much about 2020 it's okay

it's not been a great year, but it's not because it's the year. Like, does that mean that on January 1st of 2021, everything's going to change? Anyway, I don't know. But yeah, the 2020 thing that you mentioned, you would have never looked at the three-game road street, Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and said they better build up some wins. But you also, keep in mind, like, they aren't road games. They aren't road games.

And this game was not, it was a road game for San Francisco as well. although they're staying there. Right. Yeah. I mean, I know. You would, there was a huge road team advantage for Washington on a three-game road skid that should have been much tougher than it was.

It's, uh. But that said, that said, play San Francisco in San Francisco with fans. Are you going to be worse than 190 total yards of offense? Like it wouldn't have impacted the defense at all. No, true. Right. It's not like the, crowd noise would have slowed down that dynamic offense yesterday.

They may have hit 100 yards total passing. Come on. Yeah. They weren't good on offense. No, they weren't. And it's a shame because they've been pretty competent and at times pretty decent on offense. All right. Let's get to your uhs and ums.

My game take as well right after this word from one of our sponsors. snap Mollins it's it's another Washington takeaway Cameron Carl he's going to go

all the way it's a touchdown for the Washington football team and that was the second defensive touchdown of the day

oh poor Nick Mullins you throw the check down you better throw it early and you better make sure that the safety's not lurking there ready to

pick it off and go untouched down the sideline. Great block on that return by James Smith Williams, their other seventh rounder. It was the two seventh rounders on the interception return, Curl and James Smith Williams that made that happen, and that gave them a 23 to 7 lead. And, you know, there may have been some,

I'm sort of with Cooley, I never felt they were going to lose that game. It was better when they got the stops, you know, up 2315, but a big 23 to 15 win. That's four wins in a row, five of their last seven. The two losses were by three to the Giants, by three to the Lions. Both were winnable games, and now they get Seattle coming in here on Sunday. They are a four-point underdog to Seattle.

Two weeks ago, they would have been about, I don't know, a 7-8, 9-point underdog, something like that. They are a four-point underdog now, which really is the game. If they can get this one Sunday, then literally they would have a shot potentially of clenching the division the following week in a home game against the Panthers before they even got to the final. That's possible now. The Giants injury to Daniel Jones, he shouldn't have played yesterday. He was immobile yesterday, and for him, that's not good. All right, I'll get to my game take after Cooley starts with his.

follow up to the win over San Francisco. You've got some uhs and ums. Where do you want to start? I don't care, man. I just like hearing you say that. I don't like saying it anymore. I don't like you. I don't like it so much that you're going to take on.

You're the one that like, it was your idea. This was your thing years ago. Go ahead. Just did it one day. One day I heard that stupid thing. I saw this thing that I text you two weeks ago and I said, oh, let's do it that day and it evolved to you loving it. No.

Okay. Mm. Okay. No. Mm. Mm. Yeah. There was, it was a physical ballgame.

That's a physical defense. It's not just a fast defense. It's a physical defense that you could hear some of those hits. Like, mm. When Deshaezer Everett hit Moster about eight yards downfield on the touchdown drive. Right. It stoned him. it changed Moster.

He's a tough back. Yeah, he is. Does Shazer Everett hit him on that play? And I think that's the play that, although he finished the drive, I think that's the play that he ended up having to go in for, get checked out for. It changed the way he ran the ball. They had one or two decent carries after that into the second half of the game when he came back.

Right. Go pull up that play again. It's like an eight-yard carry where the Shazer just stops him in his tracks. Was it the, Was it his first carry of the game? No. I don't think it was the first carry of the game. But it was, I think it was on that second drive.

They gashed him a couple of times early. They were averaging 5.4 yards per carry on 10 carries at the end of the first quarter. I'm looking for the play you're talking about. Yeah, it was like it was about, it was a run to the right, the offensive right side, and it gets out to about 8, 10 yards somewhere and Everett just waxes it. Oh, yeah, I got it. You know what? I'm talking about it.

I got it right. I'm looking at it right now. Oh, yeah. Pain, by the way, is chasing him down laterally. And then every comes in and just leads with the shoulder. And Mosterts down and he looks up and he's like, ooh, okay. And then he gives a thumbs up to the bench. I'm all right.

No, you could tell. That changed your Mostert. I haven't seen anybody do that so far this season on Mostert. That was a big hit, Kev. Yeah. Yeah, he's. well, I mean, he ended up getting hurt in the game. I think he's okay.

I haven't heard. He came back in. He remember he walked off. He had to walk in. He went into the concussion protocol. I don't think he was concussed. I think it hit him right in the chest. I'm talking about Everett.

Oh, Everett. Yeah, that was later in the game. Yeah, that was later. Heard of shoulder or something that looked like. And then, like, Reeves ended up coming in and doing a pretty good job. Yep, he did. I thought Reeves came in and did a pretty good job there. they

let's just Chase Young amazing in the small game he was amazing in this ball game I hope I was awesome better than a B plus

let's just say right now Chase Young's an A plus yeah I think that was an A plus game I mean he was as Greg Jennings said 103 times

he's all over the field today yeah we he is he is Greg he is on the field and he is all over it running around but that's correct. They stuffed them in the run.

I get it, Sam Fran ended up with 108 yards, four yards of carry, but that's not good enough for that team on 27 carries. And if you take out that one drive, they're down to under three yards of carry. They really did a great job of minimizing the run without having to overcomit to the run. You saw IUC open on some of the run action stuff, but there was nothing big over the top. there was nothing glaring that they gave up and they made it hard they made san francisco have to earn everything they got they stuffed them man they adjusted really well after the first drive yeah i thought they did a great job when i mean when mostor was in he he was the impactful runner but when wilson

came in you could see it was tough i mean and there was a couple of those little plays like they had the one little pitch play where you had the kick out on the defensive end by by the sifting back or by the back coming out of the backfield that was a good little play for them but for the the most part, that zone run stuff did not get going. Well, it did in the first quarter. I disagree with you. In the first quarter of the one drive, the first drive that came out of the game, they didn't even try to run the ball.

It was interesting. The first drive was like four throws in a row. And I was thinking, is he trying to slow play and set up the run? After the Samuel run, yeah, exactly. On first down, Samuel had that nine-yard fly sweep, and then that was it. But I thought, you know, I thought they had a couple of good runs on the, on the drive, that Mullins ended up getting sacked, you know, on a third and two near midfield. On their touchdown drive, obviously, they ran it well.

I thought in the first half, like I was sitting there thinking because we had the conversation on Friday about how their last three opponents haven't even tried to run it and San Francisco is going to. I saw in the first half, you know, setting the edge like you had talked about, being disciplined in your lanes and your cutback lanes. I thought Mo Sturt and Wilson were off to a pretty good start. And then after that, I mean, I think you're right. After that, look, I'm doing the math in my head right now.

They were 10 carries 54 yards in the first quarter. And then the rest of the way, they went 17 carries 54 yards. So, yes, I mean, basically we're talking about a team that was at 5.5 yards per carry and then barely over three yards per carry the rest of the way. So it got a lot better. But I thought early on, they were, they were, I thought San Francisco had them a little bit off balance in that first quarter. I completely agree.

That first touchdown drive, I was concerned with their ability to run the football. Yeah. I mean, I kept thinking back to what you said on Friday that you thought this is not a great matchup. And I'm watching this. I'm like, damn, this is the first team that's tried to run it since Detroit and they're running it. They did a good job in that first drive, still getting to the edge, but not getting to the edge by immediately tacking the defensive end, by enticing them upfield and kicking them out and going underneath them,

but still collapsing and getting to the edge. Yeah. They just started doing such a good job with Allen and Payne and the interior guys flying to the ball that it started to take that stuff away and the end started collapsing a little bit harder on some of those fullback kickout type of plays. They adjusted really well to the run game plan. Yeah, they did. dude trustway was really important in this game he averaged almost 50 yards of punt but there were

what three drives kev in the late third fourth quarter where he flipped the field from around the 20 to the other 30 yeah he was really big like his his last three punts were massive he had he had a tackle too in the game on one of those punt returns He was involved in the tackle, which was interesting. But he had one not great punt, though. There was one punt. There was one punt late, but then they let it bounce, and it still ended up being okay.

Yeah. It was one of the punts in the fourth quarter that hit the 50, but then bounce for about 10. He's exceptional. I mean, it has been for years now, exceptional. No, he is. He's outstanding. I thought J.D. McKissick ran the ball really well in this game.

I thought they should have went to McKissick way more than they went to McKissick. You know, they had the one little fly sweep run to Sims. I talked about some of these little gimmick type runs to get to the edge on Friday with you. They go with one of the fly sweep scams in the first quarter early in the game. He gets five yards. Go back to that stuff. You should have absolutely went back to that stuff. They got way too excited thinking they had to throw the ball way too early.

Right. Keep going with McKissick average 6.2 yards per carry. I know he did. He was an effective runner. He really is an effective runner. He really is. I actually thought he missed some cutback opportunities for even bigger runs. I thought I thought Barber did too once or twice. But we've said it all year.

Like there was a point remember in the season where we both agreed. We both like McKissick more than Gibson. You know, and Gibson, I mean, what an addition, McKissick was. It's so crucial to this season, has McKissick. been. I mean, in some ways, almost as big as McLaurin. He's in the top five of most impactful players this season. And that's with Chase Young and Montez Sweat. Well, like if you wanted to make a list, we can do that another day. But it's like

Chase Young, Montez, probably Terry, I guess you got to say Alex Smith and then almost McKissick. Oh, yeah. As the most important players on this team this season. It's an undrafted free agent out of Detroit. Like four years of Detroit. But I liked him at Detroit. When they signed him, I'm like, I've always liked McKissick. He had a couple of good games against us. I don't think there's any doubt about it.

I would love to know, and I can find this somewhere, just how many catches for first downs he has this year, or even runs for first downs. But catches for first downs, he's, in terms of percentage of receipts, that go for a first down, he's got to be up there. And he almost got the one deep in their own territory. I mean, they challenged it. You could tell that was not going to get overturned.

I'm going to play by Greenlaw, though. Great play by Greenlaw. I mean, that was in my inms. Just what an unbelievable play by Greenlaw. Yeah. You think, I think McKissick thought he had the first, because that's one of those spots where you really could reach the ball out, just a little bit.

you don't have to you just extend it and pull it back but what a play by Greenlock backed up on McKissick that's one of the only plays I've seen McKissick not get a first down where he's anywhere near the marker 22 first downs catching the ball on the year out of 56 receptions keep in mind if a wide receiver catches a ball many times it's for a first down so I'd like to go in and compare it to the other running backs

that are catching the ball but he's really moved the chains for them. He's been a chain mover all year long. I love him. I love him. Terry ran a route on Richard Sherman where he stuck out and stuck in and spun him around and broke him off

at the top. And you just look at that and go, there's a lot. I mean, there's a lot that goes into that. That wasn't just running. That wasn't just speed. That was planned. That's thought out. that's having an idea.

I think that they should have went to Terry Moore in this game. I just, I did, I did. The kit that KPL had on, use check on the sack? Huge hit. What the hell? Yeah. I mean, he just dumped trucked him.

Get down. I was, I'm going to watch that again and again. And I don't know, like, it's actually hard to get those full blowups like that. I wondered if the back barely clipped his foot on juice check seal. The back's coming through there. If juice check or just, he just took it and went down. Yeah, exactly. You don't see that dude do that very often.

Nope. You just don't. No, I'm not talking about KP. I'm talking about juice check. Just, yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I know what a hit. That was amazing. They did a good job on third downs to,

I think I mentioned that. You know, I thought DeShayzer played well. I thought Bostic actually played okay in this game. I did too. Curl, the touchdown by curl. That's not Juice Check's fault that touchdown. That's Mullen's all the way. Oh, yeah.

That's like one of those really tough moments because you're out of the pocket. So anybody's short on that scramble drill is going to go deep and anybody deep is going to come short and he threw it right before. But you look at that play again. And let's just say Juichick sits right. where he's at. Carl's going to pick it anyway. You know, I think one of the things that's really interesting about Alex Smith, you know how Alex Smith, they basically at football outsiders, named a checkdown stat Alex, you know,

years ago. But what Alex does, and I've said this to you before, like, I don't have a problem when my quarterback gets to a checkdown quickly and it gets six or seven yards, or even five yards or even four yards on first down. What really is painful is when you get a quarterback that doesn't want to hit the checkdown until it's too late like Mullins does and then is indecisive and ends up throwing a ball with a safety baiting him into it. That was a terrible, terrible decision. And he's made a bunch of them as a starter. He, you know, he's made some plays over the years in starting games. He's not the worst backup quarterback, you know, I've ever seen. a lot. And I think part of that is, you know, being a product of this system, if you know how to run it,

you're going to get some results every once in a while. But God, man, there is something to be said. If you don't have what you want, get to the checkdown quickly while that guy can still make a playing before a defensive player gets, you know, into that general area. I can't believe Kyle left him in. What was his option? Bethard. Oh, Bethard. Yeah, you remember Bethard started warming up at one point. Yeah, you love Bethard.

I think Bethard's a good backup quarterback. Yeah, I know. But I think at the time, especially into the third quarter, they had no chance with Mullins in that game. God, I can't stand Mullen's face either. Oh. He has the worst smush face of all time. And they kept showing him close up,

and he's got those weird, like, weird lips and smushed in face a little bit. And he's, he looks scared every time you show him. His face just has scared face written all over it. scared face. Did it not? No, no, it's true. I can't stand to look at Mullins. No, it's, it's, he's not, I don't think he's a handsome man.

That's, that's, that's for sure. He's not that. If I were Mullins, I would grow a beard. Exactly. Get some facial hair. Yeah, you got to do something else. I just, he's got to do something else. I'd grow a beard.

I think facial hair would help him a lot. No doubt. No doubt. Maybe you ought to find out who his agent is and give him a call and make that suggestion. I think that I know enough. I'll call somebody else in San Francisco and tell him like, you got to get this. I wonder who you'll call. John Embree. Hey, John, Kyle, tell your quarterback to grow some facial hair. It is unattractive. Your team, you're killing yourself from a marketing standpoint. He is just unpleasant to look at. Oh, by the way, the other part of it is he stinks. He's not good. Happy holidays.

Happy holidays. Call you next year. I'll text Kyle today. I'm sure he'll be happy to receive that text. Yeah, right. The things that I didn't like about this game, you'll have more on the things that you like. Yep.

And I'll leave you some of the rest of the things. They averaged 3.1 yards per point. play on offense. Is that good? Well, if you're wondering if it's good or just how bad it is, right now, the worst team in the league on yards for play is the Jets. They average 4.7 yards per play. Washington's offense averaged 3.1 yards per play.

They actually ran 62 plays. That is unbelievable that they ran 62 plays, especially. considering the fact that the defense scored twice. I know. Yeah, it wasn't that the defense turned him over and then the offense came on the field. The defense said, no, we'll take care of this ourselves. Yeah, we'll this go ahead and score here.

You guys don't worry about it. Oh, as a thing that I didn't like, in the last moments before the game, I made a couple decisions on my fantasy team that sucks anybody. One was swapping San Francisco's defense for Washington's defense. I thought, I just don't love the matchup. They might run the ball. I don't see Washington.

Washington gave you like some big turnovers in this game. I was so wrong on that one. Oh, you mean you took the 49ers defense instead of Washington's. Their defense wasn't bad. No, I mean, they held them to six sacks. They held them to three point one yards to play. Am I right about this? Now, how many sacks did they have?

Four. Four, yeah. Still, Washington scored. Washington's fantasy defense was outstanding this week. It was pretty good this week. Okay, let's go down my list. Check, Mullen's face. I already got that.

I don't like that. You're good. Greg Jennings, horrible. You know, you sent me that text. I didn't think he was horrible. I'm not saying that I thought he was good. Give me some examples of why you thought he was horrible. He continued to talk about the same things over and over again.

He was uber positive when he didn't need to be uber positive. He was wrong on so many different situations. What was he wrong about specifically? Do you remember? Okay, specifically. Bostick's been playing some really good ball this year. Oh, yeah, not true. Although he, I thought Bostic was good yesterday.

You said that. I thought Bostick was good yesterday, too. And you thought he played well last. I should have wrote down examples. I could go listen to the game again. I just, I actually like Greg Jennings. Why, do you know it? I just, yeah, I've met Greg.

He's a great guy. And he hasn't done a lot of games, has he? I don't think so. It's funny because at one point I was like, Who is that? Because I wasn't sure who was calling the game at that point. And then they did a two shot. And I'm like, oh, it's Greg Jennings. Let me just say this. He's likable. And what he was really positive about Chase Young and Montez, sweating the defense. Everything. He was really positive about everything. That part he got right.

The part about Chase Young being really good, he was definitely right on that part. At that part, right. It was interesting, though, to hear him describe some of the things as I sit and think about it, though. Like, he's a receiver. So he's talking about Terry McLaurin, or, no, it wasn't. It was IUC running a deep crossing route. It's a deep crossing route. And he's running a deeper, in-breaking type of route.

Like, there's no break on it. He's not running an in-breaking type of route. He's running a crossing route. You'd like to think that he would never. Terry cut a slant at one point. point and he said yeah and he's running the inside slant no clearly he's running the outside slant out of two slants it was just really interesting i didn't think he was you know what it is i like the analytical description of the game yeah to call it the way they're calling it right and he was more of the

fan watching a game right so maybe a lot of people did like him in that respect i just didn't think he was very good as far as uh well i guess my point as i thought he was i thought he was likeable Sure. For you? For me? Alex. I actually text you in the second quarter. You did before you knew he was hurt.

Before I knew he was hurt. And I said they got to think about benching Alex right now. It had nothing to do with, I didn't know he was hurt at the point that I had text you. Right. I didn't need it. But he was really bad. Really awful. And maybe it was. And maybe it was because he was hurt.

I think it had to be, right? I mean, he looked, I mean, he was so off on those throws, so, it's not even close on some of those throws. He also looked jumpy again early. And I thought something's not right here, or the 49ers are just confusing him, or maybe we're starting to see what, you know, he's capable of being, you know, certain games. The interception was terrible. It was bad. Yeah. He was missing throws. He it was just, he wasn't good. I liked that he threw the ball down the field a couple times early, but did you know who number 19 was? Uh, yeah, I actually do. I swear to,

I swear to you, when they went deep to number 19, I'm like, who the hell is number 19? And I see Foster, Robert Foster, by the way, he went to Alabama. Of course he did. I, I, I know, I I know, I know, I have, I know a little bit about that. Oh, you do? So. What do you mean you know a little bit about that? Is there any? I just have some inside information on Foster and the fact that he probably should have been playing six weeks ago.

Oh, okay. You never said, you never said anything to me about it. I think I did. I actually know I did. On the podcast? Not on the podcast. Okay. Why?

Because he, honestly, I do not remember. you saying this because he's got speed? Yeah. Now I remember the conversation. I do remember you telling me that there's a guy they're going to bring up who's got a ton of speed but I didn't remember him by name and I don't even know if you told me his name

when you said it. You know what I told you? I said I can't remember the dude's name. Okay, there you go. Well, that's why he... But I knew his name. I knew who it was. I knew where he Ben. I knew where he had played in the NFL. But you didn't want to tell me his name? I'm not saying I didn't want to tell you his name. The day we had the conversation, Robert Foster wasn't clicking in my brain. I got you. Okay. That's all. But I do remember now, you telling me, there's somebody that they think has a shitload of speed that, you know, is going to

play. I just didn't, I didn't know that was him. They did take a deep shot. And he, you know what? He slowed down. He slowed down. It was Alex's best throw. I think he could have got to it. Yeah. He was over the top. Right. I mean, where are these?

I mean, I had Cam Sims on the radio show Friday, you know, and nice, nice kid. And he, you know, he got more excited talking about the Bama days. You know, he was on that national, he was on two national championship teams. And he had a couple of catches in the championship win over Georgia. That was the two of a two of a two. Devante Smith as a freshman touchdown in overtime to beat Georgia 26-23. But, you know, just the list of all of the receivers from Bama. And it's like even guys that you would never even know who were on the, you know, on the roster.

Like, I don't even know if Robert Foster had any catches at Alabama. He's in the NFL. He probably had catches. But, wow. Robert Foster, by the way, has been, he was on, he was drafted or some. Excuse me by Buffalo. Buffalo. Yeah, he recorded 14 catches in his senior season at Alabama

for 174 yards. All right, there you go. Yeah. Oh, he's been in the league since 2018. Yeah, he's played a couple. He's played a couple different plays. He's got some really good preseason film. He's 26 years old.

Yeah, he's, no, he's got some good preseason film. He's in Buffalo. You can see him getting over the top in Buffalo a couple times, too. usually like if I'm watching the game with my boys and I was watching the game with two of my boys yesterday. And when Alex threw it deep, it went to Foster, one of my sons said, who's that? And I didn't have an answer for him. And usually I have an answer. Like who just, who's that guy?

And I'm like, yeah, they added him to the practice squad a couple weeks ago and then they just signed him to the regular squad before today. And I had no idea who that was. I must have just missed it. Anyway, that was out. You know the other thing I love about that? They benched Inman. Right. Oh, my God.

That's why Foster played because they benched Inman. You know what? God. Like, you can't keep playing at a low level and stay on a roster. You just can't. I didn't even take up on that. You're 100% right. Foster was active.

Inman was obviously down. I mean, let me go look at the, Inman didn't have a snap in the game, so I'm assuming. No, he was benched in it, so he's benched by coach's decision. He enacted for Sunday's week's 14 contest against the 49ers. Well, you know, oh, Cam Sims, I didn't tell you this. Cam Sims, I asked him, I said, on the trick play with Logan Thomas last week against Pittsburgh, were you supposed to be on the field?

Was Inman supposed to be on the field or were you supposed to be on the field? He goes, no, Inman was supposed to be on the field. Now, you think he would. And then he lined up on the wrong side. out of the field on the play and then he had no idea where he was i know and i said that and he goes no no no that he was in on the practice of that play so inman so that's a benching right there buddy it is and then whiffing on on the tackle i mean yeah you know what good because the look you know what we've seen this all year like people remember when when haskins got benched and just it's

so typical whatever of the conversation you know oh really you're going to bench him but you're not going to bench such and such? No, Rivera's benched a lot of people. All right. He benched Apkey. You know, Apkey got benched before Haskins initially, and Inman benched. You know, Wes, the guard, the one that sucked and got benched. Wes Martin, benched. No, he benches people. If they're not good enough and they can't help him win, he benches them. It's not just the quarterback. Anyway. No. All right. Continue. with your

Hopkins missed another kick. Yeah, he did. Now, the snap was a little bit off, but the ball got down, and he pushed it. He pushed it. Yeah. By the way, real quickly,

you didn't think when you texted me they should bench Alex that they were going to do it. Well, I don't think they benched him for performance. I think he couldn't play. No, no, no, no. When you texted me, You texted me in the first time.

Are you asking me if I knew they were going to bench him? No, I'm asking you, you didn't actually legitimately, even though you said you think he should get benched now, you don't think that it ever occurred to them. Without injury, okay, without injury. He would have never gotten benched for performance and had Dwayne come in in that game if he had been healthy. Why? Why? Well, I don't think it's common to bench a starting. quarterback for obvious reasons, as Mike Shanahan would say, because he's taking all the snaps.

And it's also because it's Alex and you think he might turn things around. But there was enough evidence to show clearly that Alex wasn't going to step it up in that game. I don't know. I would have thought about it. I know you would have thought about it. I just don't think they would have thought about it. Well, the other aspect of it is the political aspect. Well, let's say you bench Alex and Dwayne comes in and plays okay or has statistically a game that looks okay.

And now we're like, well, now we've got to play Dwayne again. Well, the other thing, too, is Alex has had some of his best games in the second half. True. Now, he hasn't looked nearly as bad as he looked in this. I mean, this was not ran. second half, but damn, it was starting to get close to it. He was really, really missing with the ball. Ooh.

It was bad. It was bad. All right. What else you got? God, can Stevens catch Sims Jr.? Can Steven Sims Jr.? Can Steven Sims Jr. catch? No. He had that deep crosser that, that was Dwayne that threw that ball.

Yeah. That was a good ball. I was certainly a catchable ball. He wasn't even close to catching that ball. I know. Like, he made no adjustment on that thing. He was wide open. Yeah.

I agree. I mean, that guy can play. He can legit play. Something's not right. Something's going on with his depth perception or his hand eye. Well, I mean, he missed a bunch of games, obviously, for injury.

But that's not it. They still have him back on punts. And, you know, he had a decent punt return yesterday. Yeah. But I'll wait until my game take because I've got a couple of things about him. Yeah. Duane. I'm not going to make this a big deal.

I just didn't think Duane played really well. But as a part of that, why are they trying to throw the ball in the fourth quarter? I didn't understand that. On a couple different drives, they're trying to throw the ball. You took a first and 10 sack. Yeah, big sack. McHicketts, it's averaging six yards per carry. The defense is impenetrable.

Run the ball. You're up to score. They were up to two scores, I think, when Duane took that. No, 2315. Okay, so you're up eight points. That was after the touchdown in the two-point make. Your punters hitting at 55 yards, 60 yards in the air. That was the one point.

That was the one moment where I was like, oh, fuck. They scored. The almost pick was a, I know. I understand that. It was a terrible throw. He could not throw that touch ball over the middle. No, I understand that. But when we both said earlier that we were never really worried that after they scored

made the two point conversion and then he took that first down big sack. I was like, oh, God. All right. Come on. let's get it back to a decent punting position because it was like a nine-yard sack. Yeah. He can throw it though.

He's got a good arm. Yes, he does. And it's a quick release, but it's just the one he missed to Terry that nearly that was picked and then reversed by replay is just a horrible throw. It's a horrible throw. And if you're going to throw it, go run action and let him throw deeper to the outside.

It's like he threw a great ball to Logan Thomas. Right. Right. Don't try to throw slants in the middle or deeper in breaking routes to the middle of the field. He's struggled with that, and I mean, I'm sure I've seen this. He struggled with it in games last year. He struggled with it in practice throughout last year in missing those balls high over the middle. Those are risk throws.

When you miss high over the middle, those are turnover potential throws. Don't throw those balls. I'll tell you the other thing. Shortfield, goal to go, third down. I'd come after him like San Francisco did. That was basically zero blitz because he just isn't comfortable. He just keeps going backwards, backwards. And I haven't seen the All-22 yet because it's not up on my thing yet.

But it looked to me like Sims Jr. is wide open, wide open. Are you wide open? Probably wouldn't catch it. Well, but Dwayne every. Might. It's not high like a punt. Dwayne didn't look at him. No, I know that.

I know that. I'm not, I don't want to get into depth too much on Dway. I know, you know, he was very emotional. You heard about that after the game. He was very emotional in his press conference, very appreciative. He said all the right things. He talked about what a big help Alex has been. I mean, look, regardless of what we think of him or what any of you think of him,

I mean, I really wanted to see him. And I was before this season started, look, I was like, I think there's something to him. And then when we watched him play earlier, he didn't have that same sort of urgency and swag and the whole thing. And, you know, this has been a major blow to probably a fairly healthy sized ego this year. And so it's been a humbling experience, I'm sure, for him over the last month and a half, two months. So this is actually an interesting conversation that they're going to have. They're not getting anything out of him. Oh, by the way, do you see what the Eagles said about Carson Wentz?

That he's still in play to start this coming week? That we love Carson Wentz and we believe in him wholeheartedly. And, you know, he's still a part of the future of Philadelphia. They just said everything you would have said about Duane if you wanted to trade Duane. Exactly. And in saying that, everybody still knows they're going to try to trade Carson Wentz. Yeah, but it's not quite apples to apples because people have seen Wentz at his best and nobody never seen that. But it is apples to apples in terms of getting the best value you can possibly.

Well, how about just in terms the way you handle it? Even if it's not increased leverage, how about just taking the high road? Sure. By the way, Peterson said today that he's not sure who the starter is going to be against Arizona. Well, why would you tell anybody

who the starter is going to be? It dynamically changes the game plan of Jim and Hurtz is going to be the starter. I totally agree. Everybody knows who the starters. Actually, it was interesting. Because they have weapons back now. Did Alshon Jeffrey played too? Alshon Jeffrey played a couple of weeks ago with Wince. What are you talking about?

Yeah. He's back and he's healthy and Ertz is back and he's healthy and Goddert's not back and he's Jackson. Jackson's not back, right? I know, but they have that other dude who, Travis Fulgum. Yeah. Who's playing decent football. Richard Rogers has been playing good football this year. This is a different direction. I don't know why we're going here. Back to my conversation with DeWain. You're not going to, you're likely not going to have a top 10 draft pick. Alex as long as he survives the year and this leg thing isn't a big problem, which I don't think it seemed to be. He didn't seem emotional about it.

It just seemed like he had a lot of stiffness. Rivera said he could have gone back into the game. Yeah, he's playing terrible. And if he's not feeling good, clearly he shouldn't. Right. But if Alex is going to be your guy next year, the thing I thought about Duane, I think you felt this way about Duane. is that he wasn't ready in the NFL.

It's another year under Alex Smith is not the worst case scenario without without drafting the quarterback next year. Matt Stafford. Carson Wentz. I mean, there's a lot of different directions you could go, but if it were Stafford or anybody else, that doesn't mean that Duane can't continue to be on this roster. That costing you that much money.

Yeah, but here's the reason that he's not going to be. in my opinion. It's what we talked about on either Friday or whatever. It's the kind of person and character that Rivera wants in this culture change. This is why I like him. Like I, he, really, you don't want to be here, Trump Williams? See ya. Quentin Dunbar, maybe some sketchiness there. See ya. Like, he's going to get his kind of person in here. And unless Dwayne does a 180, Dwayne's not his kind of person.

So I don't see Dwayne being here next year. If you told me it was Jay Gruden or, look, the owner could get involved. All of that's possible. You know what, let's live in the moment and talk about this year. I would say, I would bet you right now. I would bet you 50. It's something to think about. 100 bucks right now, I would say Dwayne's not on the roster next year.

Not taking the bet. I know. And you shouldn't take the bet. But it's something you can think about because he was a guy that needed to learn how to really work. You know what would have really helped is if he'd come in and played well yesterday and now maybe the trade value starts to increase a little bit. He didn't.

No. He certainly didn't. He didn't. You know, overall, though, it was a fun game to watch that led me to believe in this team more than I did going into the game. They are finding ways to win football games. You know, a lot to be said for that. They're finding ways to win them now versus finding ways to lose them.

And they're better than anybody they've played in the second half of every ballgame. You see that stat in the second half? Yeah. Defensively, they're giving up like 6.2 points per second half. It's unbelievable. It's been impressive. It has. And, you know, we're past the point of just saying that we are, we're being fooled because of the teams that they're playing.

And again, San Francisco. I mean, Mullen. no Debo Samuel after the first play. Fred Warner getting hurt early in that game. Trent Williams went out for a period of that game. Moster went out for a period of that game. Williams only missed one play, actually. Did he miss one play?

Because I think he got hurt on that second down, and then third down they punted, and then he was back in. Came back to the next series. Yeah. But I, but we can't say that. No Cellick in the ball game. You know, no Garoppolo in the ball game. Like there was a good situation.

No, Bosa, no Kittle. They're two best players. Yeah. I said Selik. I meant Kittle. Yeah. But, you know, this coming week, you said on Friday you like the matchup with Seattle more than the 49ers. I wasn't so sure.

I just think that Seattle... Based on the way they played defensively. I mean, it's just, I mean, the big, look, there's a massive difference here next this coming week. His name is Russell Wilson, and the guy you just faced, his name was Nick, Nick Smush-Face Mullins. No one wants to look at him without facial hair. And certainly if you're a 49ers fan at this point, you're squished. screaming for C.J. Bethard. Because that guy threw one of the worst checkdowns you'll ever see. All right, my game take, right after this word from one of our sponsors.

Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. I'll rip through the things I liked and I didn't like because some of it's repetitive. But I'm going to start with number one, and that is just how happy I am. We have a team that is relevant right now. It just feels like it's been so long. And it just feels different. To me, Cooley, it feels very much like the Marty Schottenheimer year. And they're actually going to be able to turn the Marty Schottenheimer year potentially into a postseason birth.

You know, Marty had Tony Banks and Kent Grammet quarterback in one audible. I mean, that was the joke. Like, literally, it was so super conservative. But the defense kept getting better and better. and Levar Arrington, it was like, oh my God, so this is what this guy's supposed to look like. And they just seemed to be on the rise. And there was a discipline and a toughness and an accountability and a guy in charge. And I just loved everything about that year.

And I've harped on it for years on this show or on the radio show about how I think it's the single biggest mistake that Dan made. I don't expect him to make that mistake again. You know, I mean, come on. He had to have learned. And part of what the problem was is they didn't go to the playoffs that year. You know, if Marty, they got from 0 and 5 back to 5 and 5. And if he had gotten to the playoffs and maybe won a game, there wouldn't have been any way that Dan Snyder could have said,

I'm not having enough fun. I want to be more involved. And Marty, you know, would have said, see you late. Sorry, that's not what my contract says. I'm out. He wouldn't have done that. And Tommy, I'll never forget, Tommy said it, you know, the day they hired Rivera, he said he better win that first year.

Like, he's got to, he's got to win enough so that he can keep the, he can keep the owner at bay. Now, the owner right now may be so tied up into so many other different things. He's at bay. Yeah, he's at bay. He's in Australia right now. But what would, is he really in Australia? No, no.

No. No. That's, he's just far away. But what would really help? What would really help is, you know what, the dude won the division in his first year, and he won a playoff game. I mean, now, will he want to be marginalized? Will he want to not feel like he was a part of it and try to insert himself? Maybe, but Rivera is, Rivera's doing a hell of a job.

He's doing a hell of a job with this team right now from where they were. And he sort of felt it, you know, he was saying all along, I like, some of the things. I like where we're at. We just haven't had it come through in terms of a result. I think it's a team right now that truly, if they make the postseason and they could play well over these final three weeks, which I expect them to do and not make the postseason. They could play well on Sunday and lose. They could play well in the season finale at Philadelphia and maybe lose and not make the postseason. But this thing in terms of the talent, in terms of, especially on defense and the coaching is arrow pointed upward. Now, again, to beat a dead horse, you got to get a

quarterback. You have to get a quarterback in this league. I'd hate to waste Chase Young and Montez-Swett and John Allen and Duran Payne and some of these young talented players over the next couple of years and be limited because you don't have an answer to a quarterback. All right, specific to the game. I mean, Alex Smith's record as a starter here has been excellent. I don't know what you're talking about. I know. But we think we both believe that there's a limitation there. There was in 2018, and I think there is now.

But with that said, I mean, it's been an incredible story, and he's played really well. All right. I'll start with Chase Young. Six tackles, a sack, two passes defended. One of those shovel passes, he nearly picked off. Seriously. One force fumble, two fumble recoveries, one return for a touchdown. The first rookie in NFL history to achieve all of those things in one game.

Just the third player to achieve all of that in one game in 21 years. Chase Young is going to be your defensive rookie at a year. He's headed towards that right now. For those of you, again, that were all hung up on the stats. And a lot of people were referencing the Boz column from a few weeks ago. And look, I'm sort of a Boz fan and I've always been a Tom Boswell fan. I think I knew what he was trying to say. What he was trying to say is, look, Chey Chung's really good, but when you take somebody number two overall and you pass on a potential franchise quarterback there, that player's going to have to be Hall of Fame good, elite good.

Chey Sheng is going to be elite good. Anybody that watched him knew that he had this kind of potential doesn't always mean it'll happen, but we're really starting to see it happen. He's the best defensive player in this organization, organization since Sean Taylor. and the combination of he and Montez sweat as the defensive ends, even in year one for Young and year two for sweat, is the best they've had since man and manly. There's no doubt. Before you move on,

they're the only player you could even think about passing for it right now is Herbert. I know, but right, but we were. If you were even going to think of it, like, it wouldn't be Tua right now. I think right now if you were to redraft, you'd still take Chase Young over Tua. You know what my son hit me with last. night. Dad, right now, would you trade Chase Young to the Jets for the number one pick and Trevor Lawrence? I'm like, that's a good, that's a good topic, but not for the next couple of weeks. That's an off-season topic. And a major hypothetical sitting at a bar

conversation. I don't know what I would do. I love Chase Young so much, and I love this style of football to watch. Montez Sweat is on my list of things that I love. Five tackles, two of which were for a loss, a sack and two quarterback hits and a couple of pressures. He's turned into a monster too, and as you said, he is a pro bowler. I mean, in year two, Montez Sweat really looks like a pro bowler. And you can tell, by the way, that the other, the opposing quarterbacks know where 90 and 99 are. But here's part of the problem. Duran Payne is also awesome and was good in the game yesterday, as was John Allen. I can't wait to hear your film breakdown defensively. because it seemed like 93 was on the other side of the line of scrimmage all day long.

I thought Alan was exceptional. I thought Duran Payne was exceptional. You know what they have to? Man, they've got four guys, three anyway, that are constantly disrupting passing lanes with big, long arms. And good anticipation. Sweeting and Young obviously do it. Duran Payne did it again yesterday, deflected a pass. How many passes in the last three games have they not?

knock down at the line of scrimmage. Do you know how big that is? That's huge. Because you don't know when you're watching it on TV, what's behind them? It might be somebody wide open for a 25-yard play. I thought Kendall Fuller had an outstanding bounceback game after he struggled mightily on Monday night. I thought Cameron Curl, I mean, not because of the interception return, but I thought

he was really good throughout. out. I thought, as you mentioned, I thought the linebackers played well. You know, Bostick, the one thing, even when we were talking about him last year, I would say to you, you know, he's got some speed, though, and he does. Like, he can run. Now, sometimes it may be in the wrong direction, but I thought he looked good yesterday. I thought Holcomb was flying around as well. And I thought Darby was good, too. It was really good. So, I mean, did I miss a player on defense? I thought KPL and I didn't see KPL on the field a lot. Let me check his snaps because clearly Holcomb and Bostick were out there a lot. KPL, KPL, Kevin Pierre-L. Oh, wow, I didn't realize it was this few of snaps. He was only out there for 15 of the 81 defensive snaps in the game.

81. That's a lot of defensive snaps. Oh, boy, that's going to be a long film breakdown. Although you really do just go. It doesn't mean it's going to take a long time on the air. It just means it's going to take me a long time to watch it. Right. So I basically just covered defensively almost everybody. Pretty much like everyone on the defense.

Offensively. Anyone you didn't like on the defense? No. No. I don't think so. I mean, sweat. I had the one roughing the passer. Yeah. Yeah. And that was a stupid roughing the passer too. J.D. McKissick was the best player on offense yesterday. And we've already gone through it. I just love McKissick. with you. I mean, I would have preferred that they gave him the...

He had 11 carries for 68 yards. We averaged 6.2 yards per carry. How about maybe 16 carries in the game at 6.2? 22. 22 carries. If he's getting 6.2, give him five more carries and let him get 30 more yards and he's pushing 100. I thought he was good. I thought he... Coach, our quarterback's really not doing a very good job here. We do have this one guy getting 6.2 per carry. What do you want to call this next position?

Yeah, well, I don't know. Dropback? Yeah, drop back sounds good. I thought both he and Barber missed some cutbacks. I thought they did. But, you know, I think it's hard when you're just watching it on TV. But even when he missed some cutbacks, McKissick still made yards. So that's pretty much the list of things I liked.

He was basically everything on defense and then J.D. McKissick. You know, I didn't have trustway in my original list, but you're right. He deserved to be there as well. Let me hit the list of things I didn't like. So we sort of talked about this earlier. I was worried in the first quarter about what they were going to do against the run. And then against the 49ers, obviously, then you get, okay, now we got to really set the edge. We've got to play discipline.

We may have to load the box a little bit, and here they come with play action and bootleg, and we're going to get moved on today. And I was concerned about that in the first quarter. I was. And I give Del Rio and Rivera and all the changes. And, you know, let's also understand that Debo Samuel is a dynamic player for them when he's healthy and he's missed some games. And the first carry of the game went to him for nine yards. He was going to be a big part of that game plan.

I guarantee you. Moster, big part of the game plan. Moster got banged up a little bit. Samuel never came back into the game. I thought Ayuk was open a bit too much at times. But again, the pass rush and the pressure up front and what they're doing up front was awesome. And having to be constantly concerned about the run.

Right. The offense is obviously on the things I didn't like. I mean, 194 total yards, three for 15 on third down, eight punts in the game. You know, they've been really good. They were four for 17 against the Steelers. but there was that stretch where they were hitting on nearly 50% of the third down conversions, and they weren't punting very much.

And, you know, Pittsburgh's a better defense, and the 49ers have some speed defensively. But really, it was the quarterback play as much as it was anything else that really, you know, bogged down the offense all day long. I also had Dustin Hopkins on my list. He missed another kick, and he made three. And he, you know, last week he made some big kicks. I just think, you know, indoors, 52, 53 yards, and it wasn't the greatest of snaps, and maybe, you know, he didn't get the ball exactly the way he wanted it, but you've got to make

these kicks. I mean, the field goal percentages, you know, outside of Minnesota in this league are pretty damn good. And Hopkins is, I think, bottom five, bottom six, and field goal percentage. Sims Jr. is on my list because of the drop pass that we talked about, which was the third and seven that would have been a first down. Big, big drop. and was the ball perfectly thrown?

No, but it was a catchable ball. But I didn't really like him fielding the punt at the end of the first half. That didn't make any sense to me. There were six seconds left, and he's fielding a punt at his own five-yard line. Why are you doing that? Because it's your only chance to score? No, you've got, you know, you're up at that point. What was it, 13-7 at halftime?

Was it 13-7-5-5? But you're afraid that he's going to muff the punter fumble. Is that what you're saying? We've seen them fumble punts. I think the direction in that situation is if that ball's coming, if you don't have a chance to field that, you know, coming up on a short punt or whatever, you're not fielding that punt inside your own five-yard line

or around your five-yard line with five seconds to go in the half. We're taking a knee on the next place, son. You're not going to go 95 yards, more likely than not. So let that then. We differ in this, though. Like, if you don't believe in a guy, to field that punt and have a chance to get something out of it, then he shouldn't even be on the field.

I don't. And I understand that you don't, you personally do not believe in him in that situation, clearly by what you're saying. No, I don't believe in the decision to field that punt. Like, he almost comes out of that. Yeah, I don't, what do you mean he almost came out of it? He had, he had, he had, he had, what did he have on the return?

I don't even, I don't remember what he had on the return. I think that was, though, I think that was one that he broke out to the left. No. No. Was that a different punt? He had a 22-yard punt return. in the game, which was the best punt return, I think, for him of the year. It might be.

I just, no, it wasn't him as much as it's, unless Devin Hester is back there, I'm not fielding a punt with five seconds to go inside my five-yard line. I'm not. I'm not going to take that risk. I don't understand. First of all, you shouldn't feel the punt at that point anyway. You should let it hit and go into the end zone, especially when your plan is to take a knee on the next play.

You want to get to halftime. I just realized your quarterback went back into the locker room early, and you got some planning to do. Here's one last thing. I hear what you're saying. But on the list of things I didn't like, you know, Dwayne on his first drive, he has a really good third and one throw to McKissick. Very decisive, you know, 12 yards, they move the chains.

So next plate makes a really good throw to Logan Thomas. They're on their move. They get down there and they fail in the red zone. They kick a field goal. The second drive, you know what? There's a little slant to a little throw to Sims. He had another throw in that drive to Logan Thomas on a third and six that moved the chains. And on that next play after that one in San Francisco territory, you're moving on his second drive.

They tried that trick play with Isaiah Wright going to throw. I thought that was a terrible call. I hated that guy. I forgot about that and I hated that call. I don't know why they tried that. I didn't like that at all. I thought that that made absolutely no sense in that spot. And then, you know, just the observations are this.

Number one, Alex really was bad, and it was really troubling to see him that off. But I'm assuming the calf injury that Rivera explained was tight and they never seemed to get warmed up and they sat him for precautionary reasons that that had a lot to do with it. And as far as Dwayne goes, you know, I didn't think it was good. I didn't see a massive improvement over the last month and a half in his mechanics. But I thought that I made this comment last year during the Callahan run at the end of the year. Remember the first game, we just went Dwayne to manage the game. And you know what he did?

He managed the game. No false starts, no delay of games, no timeouts, et cetera. Made a couple of plays. And I thought, you know, at times, you know, at times, last year, if you even go back to the Carolina game that they won, that he was kind of a decent game manager, you know, and if you had to play him for a stretch, you know, let's not, let's not take big risks, let's not, although part of me wants them to take some shots down the field with his arm strength. But overall, like, I think, you know, they had some game management, you know,

going well on those first two drives, and then they tried that trick play. And then on a first down, you know, after San Francisco scored, they drop them back on first down and play action, and he gets sacked. I think Turner could have done a better job with him, you know, in helping him out. Now, the McLauran miss, by the way, the play before the McLaurin miss, what was that play? on the second down before the McClune, the interception that wasn't,

he throws back to Barber who's not even looking at the ball and there's a bunch of offensive linemen over there and maybe the play got called poorly in the huddle, which we heard was maybe an issue early in the year. But that was weird and was really weird. It was also dangerous. I mean, I know no one from the 49ers really got near it, but that was not. not a good play at all.

I don't know what that was. And then the next play was the missed McLorn, which was an easy first down. It's a 15-plus-yard play with McLoran turning it up the field. And he airmails it by a lot. Like, it's not even close. And you know, Cooley, if that ball was picked,

that could have been just an absolute season-wrecking play. It could have been. But somehow something makes me believe that the defense would have stopped up, at least stepped up, excuse me, at least on the two-point conversion. Like, was San Francisco really going to have two touchdowns and two-point conversions against that defense?

Glad we didn't have to find out. Me too. Or I'm glad that we didn't have to find out like if they had scored and it's 23, 21, and they missed the two-point to see an offensive possession with like three minutes to go or two minutes to go needing a first down to clinch the game. That would have been painful. Overall, though, I mean, we just had back-to-back. wins on, you know, sort of on the road, whatever you want to call it, against Pittsburgh and San Francisco, an 11-0 team, another team that was desperate for a win. They pretty much knocked San Francisco out of an opportunity to, you know, participate in the postseason as defending NFC champs. And now they can really, you know, they could really hurt Seattle's chances to win a division next week. I'm not saying they're playing spoiler, they're playing for themselves, but I just don't put any limit on them right now. I, you know, I wouldn't feel good.

about them in a Super Bowl game against Kansas City, he says crazily. I wouldn't feel great about a matchup against New Orleans with a healthy breeze. Right. A rematch with the Rams playing Aaron Rogers. I don't know. The Rogers thing would be interesting because Green Bay defensively is not that good. And, you know, the games in which Rogers has always struggled are against great defenses that just end up sort of ambushing.

There's no limit. With that said, Seattle's big, because this is the one that with Philadelphia and the Giants still sort of lurking a little bit, you know, this would be the one that if you ended up next Sunday, Philadelphia beating Arizona and Washington losing to Seattle, now you're looking at potentially playing the Eagles for the division in the final game of the year. Which, by the way, wouldn't bother me. I mean, I would have taken that and paid for it a few weeks ago.

But anyway, I'm looking forward to the Seattle game. I thought this team just was, you know, Rivera in the locker room afterwards was like, you know, maybe many of you have seen this already, was saying you deserve it, you deserve to be in first place, and nobody's going to want to play us right now. And look, if you had the choice in the NFC of playing the Rams or the Saints or the Packers or Washington, you'd still take Washington. But that five seed in the NFC playoffs that's going to get the NFC East champ isn't going to have the rollover that they thought they were going to have a month ago.

No, it's not. This is going to be an interesting division race. I think six wins could get it done. No. Yeah. No. Well, they should beat Carolina, which should get them to seven wins. seven wins is going to get it done.

Philly plays Arizona. That's a huge game this week. I know. That's the game because then they have Dallas and then us. Yeah, because Philly should beat Dallas. The Giants. So Philly beats Dallas. That gives them to five wins and they have us. But if we would get to seven, that means they have to beat Arizona. Yeah, I know.

So I don't think the, I don't, I'm not seeing it with the Giants right now with the injury. And they're not going to be. I just don't, I don't think the Giants beat the. to Browns. Browns are coming off a Monday night game. We'll see what happens in this Monday night game. And it's so 2020, so anything could happen.

The Browns could be out three guys because of COVID. But I think seven wins is going to get it done. It's really unlikely that six does. Yeah. Because the Giants just have to win one. But the Giants could lose to anybody. That's the other thing. They can lose the last three games.

They could win. I don't think they're going to, but they're not that good, that they're just a lock to. win the last, any one of the last three games they play. I think it's going to take seven minimum. I think Washington needs, you know, at this point, one more win, one more win gives them a chance, okay, two more wins does it. Eight and eight absolutely does it. Because I don't see the giants winning their final three to get to eight and eight. And I don't see the, I mean, and then the Eagles,

really the best they can do is seven, eight and one. So obviously, two of the final three does it for Washington. Two of the final three. So even if you lose to Seattle, but if you beat, you know, if you beat Carolina and beat Philadelphia, you should be an eight and eight division champ hosting a game more likely than not against somebody like Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay right now or Seattle would be the front runner for the five seed. You know, one of those two teams would end up the five seed and would come to Washington in a five-four game if Washington can win two of their final three. The Rams.

I think one. I would rather play Seattle than the Rams there, or Tampa. I know you would. I know. I would rather play Tampa. Those three, give me Tampa. It could be, there's so many opportunities for teams to become the five seed at this point. Yeah, no, there are.

The five seed is a green base clinched the division. The Saints have clinched the division. Okay. So the teams in the running for the five-seater are the Rams, Seahawks, buccaneers. Really, those are the three. The other team- I guess Arizona could, in theory, win out.

They could. It gets 10 and 6. But I don't even know if that would actually get them the five-seed. I don't know if that would beat out Seattle. It could. It could. It could, yeah. Yeah.

You know, Arizona played well against a Giants yesterday. I don't know. I think they're going to, I need to see that Philly game yesterday. We both loved them plus the number. You actually said you thought they could win the game outright. Good for you on that. I need to see, you know, offensively that they're more capable, a lot more capable than they were with Carson Wentz, because I do think defensively Philadelphia is good. You know, I don't know if they're as good as us, but I think they're good on defense. All right. We'll finish up with a few things right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, guys, it's the most wonderful time of the year that can't end soon enough. We all deserve a win. We all deserve a little extra money in our pocket.

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epic giveaways, and free contests. It's simple. Sign up, enter promo code Kevin, D.C., and get your deposit matched halfway up to $1,000. Head over to My Booky to make the most out of the holidays this year and strut into 2021 with cash in your pocket. This winter bet with the best bet with my bookie. The smell test was three and five. You hit your lock of the week. The game that I loved more than any other this week was Duke plus five against Florida State, which, by the way, Gully, the line went to three.

There was so much shark money on Duke against Florida State. And they got absolutely run into the building. It was funny. They were down 28-0-0. And then they came back and they closed it to 28-21 at halftime. And I was like, okay, well, maybe this is going to work out, you know. It didn't. They lost 56 to 35.

So they've now given up like 50 or more in like five straight games or something like that. You know, Maryland on Saturday, they were really involved in a game that was, you know, fun to watch. Rutgers hasn't been terrible. Maryland was without Leah, without Talia Tungavaila Vaila. He tested positive for COVID, was out. They started the kid, Lance Legandra,

the kid from Louisiana, the four-star guy. He was not good. And they came in with Eric Najarian, or Najarian from Dematha. I mean, this kid, I didn't know anything about him. And I thought he played really

well. He was 12 of 23 for 218 yards, two touchdowns. Jake Funk is one of my favorite players that Maryland's had in a while. 17 carries a buck 80 after missing the last game with what we thought was COVID. Back and fourth game, unfortunately, Rutgers made a field goal in Maryland missed theirs in overtime, and Maryland loses 27, 24. Weird year, the Terps have played the fewest number of games in the Big Ten. There are a couple of others that are also at five games. I think there was one other team.

guess Purdue's played less, and Wisconsin's played the same number, five games. Marilyn's going to play Michigan State in their final game this week, just a matchup of, you know, the East versus West and the Big Ten title game is Ohio State and Northwestern. Man, the shocker on Saturday, Cooley was Florida losing to LSU. Bad loss for Florida. And one of the, you know, just worst plays you will ever see. Did you see the kid for Florida throw the shoe? of the LSU player to get the 15-yard penalty after a third-down stop?

I saw it on ESPN, yeah, the highlight afterwards. Just an awful, awful play in that game. The name of the kid is Marco Wilson. Marco Wilson, they get a stop on third down, essentially to potentially get the ball back in a tie game, and he took the LSU player's shoe and threw it down the field, 15-yard penalty, LSU ends up kicking a game-winning field goal.

Florida missed. They had an opportunity. So Florida is eliminated from the national championship hunt. And that puts Texas A&M back into the picture. I don't know, man, this college football season's weird. But this weekend, this upcoming weekend, you're going to get Notre Dame Clemson number two in the ACC title game. And I think everybody's looking forward to that.

And then, you know, the Bama Florida game, a lot of the luster is off that one now. So, you know, we'll see. I mean, I don't think Alabama is going to lose. There are a 17-point favorite over Florida in that game. And Clemson, by the way, is a 10-and-a-half-point favorite over Notre Dame. I actually think Notre Dame's got a chance here. And I think if Notre Dame wins. They beat them early.

Yeah, well, that was with Trevor Lawrence. Now, they're going to have to face them with Trevor Lawrence. If Notre Dame, I think Notre Dame, if they play Clemson close, maybe even if they don't, I think Notre Dame is going to be in that final four. I think it's Clemson, if they win Notre Dame, Alabama. and then obviously Ohio State if they beat Northwest. It's so weird when you're looking at all these teams that haven't played more than five or six games to say that they are not the best team.

I think that you're still going to look at it and say who are the best five teams, or excuse me, four teams. Nobody's better than Bama offensively, that's for sure. No, nobody's better than Bama, but that fourth spot. Yeah. You're like who's the fourth spot. So if Clemson loses to Notre Dame, they're out. If they beat Notre Dame, then I think you have Clemson, Notre Dame, assuming Alabama wins, and then assuming Ohio State wins.

Because I think Alabama and Ohio State are going to win. So Alabama, Ohio State, and I think Notre Dame, unless they were to just get absolutely run out of the building, I think they're in. They beat Clemson once. I'll have one loss. I think they're still going to be in. And then Clemson will be the first. If Clemson loses Ohio State Alabama win, Notre Dame. wins, that opens the door for Texas A&M. That would give them a shot with Florida having lost

and having no, you know, if Florida beating Alabama is not going to do anything for Florida as far as the playoff is concerned, not after losing the LSU, but I think that would give A&M a reasonable shot to end up being the fourth team. Again, if Notre Dame beats Clemson. Now, if Bama loses or Ohio State loses, that would also give A&M a shot. Obviously, if Ohio State loses, that really gives A&M a shot. But I just don't see Ohio State or Alabama losing this weekend. I do see Clemson having a really difficult game and their rematch with Notre Dame. I think Notre Dame is really good. And the number one result for Notre Dame for me this year is that they were the one team defensively to slow down North Carolina.

Look at what North Carolina has done offensively to every single team in the country. They just beat Miami the other day 62 to 26. They beat, you know, they've scored 50 or 45 or more against almost everybody. And they were shut down completely by Notre Dame in the second half in that game. I think this is not a fake Notre Dame team. I think they're really good. But anyway, if you're into that thing, have at it. The other thing that I wanted to mention is I did watch John Wall a little bit the highlights of him in these two preseason games over the weekend.

And yeah, those of you that tweeted me about this, he did look like John Wall. I agree. I know it's the preseason, but you're really just looking to see some sort of physical, an answer on his physical ability. And Wall, in his first two games here in the preseason, has been outstanding. Outstanding. He looked like John Wall and knocking down shots too. Last night he had 21 points, four assists.

And then in the game, the other night that they played, in limited minutes in the first game that he's played in forever, Wall had 13 points and five rebounds and nine assists and two steals in 19 minutes. So, yeah, I'm paying attention to it. And I, you know, I'm rooting for him to a certain degree. You've got to root for him, but you've got to worry about his durability and longevity. Yeah, but some people thought, is he going to lose the speed? Is he going to lose the explosiveness?

No. Based on the highlights. Nope. Yes. But does he, can he maintain that is the question? Yeah. We'll see. James Harden wants to be traded.

It's just crazy. I mean, these. The NBA is crazy. And then, you know, the last thing I was going to just mention before we shut the show for the day. The Indians are changing their name. That came out yesterday in the New York Times. The Cleveland Indians, after 100-some years, are going to change their name. They don't know what the name will be.

But obviously, you know, they now will become the second professional sports franchise to rid themselves of a name with Native American influence and imagery and all of that. And my reaction to this was when they abandoned the chief Wahoo logo, that made sense to me. Like that was in many ways I could see people viewing that as an offensive mascot and logo. You know, to me, the Tomahawk Chop, you know, in Atlanta Braves games or Florida State football games is an open mocking of Native Americans. To me, that doesn't make any sense why that still exists. But the Cleveland Indians name, and I think you can maybe elaborate a little bit on this, but it's been a very debatable, a hotly debated issue in the Native American. community in terms of what they prefer in terms of the way people refer to them, whether it's

Native Americans or indigenous Americans or Indians. And there are many, many Native Americans that prefer Indian over Native American. And the thing about Indians, Cooley, is Indians is not what Redskins was with respect to dictionary definition. It's not a dictionary defined racist slur, which again, most of you know my position on that. Language evolves. I would have created a second non-pejorative definition because the word Redskins for 75 years, no one even thinks of it in the context of Native Americans. They think of it in the context of the professional football team that plays in Washington. That's always been my thing, but whatever. To me, language evolves and there changes to words in dictionaries based on language evolving, but nobody ever wanted to consider that,

not in this environment. But Indians is a high- debated name among Native American tribes about whether or not that's actually what they prefer to be called. So I don't know where we are. I guess the chiefs and the Braves and the Warriors, they're all coming next. But you spent a lot of time on reservations. I mean, was Indians a word that they felt was insensitive? Yes. Oh, it was.

I don't know if they felt insensitivity towards it. And also in saying that, although I didn't keep an exact count on this, I just felt that the Chief Wahoo logo was overwhelmingly the most worn logo on any reservation that I went to. That always cracks me up. I'm 100% sure of the fact that it was the most worn logo of any logo. What makes it really interesting is there's 570 tribes. 573, something like that. And they're, they're, like, their own nations individually.

Yeah, they're all different. The one, you know, kind of overarching comment that I got was, we're not Indians. They're from India. And they wanted to be called natives. Right. Not Native Americans because they didn't believe that they were necessarily American. Right. They wanted to be the natives.

That's what they were to this. Because they were native to this country. So that was the one name that I thought they wanted to be called more than anything. I mean, be interesting if you wanted to keep native imagery that you couldn't call your team the natives. I don't know how that would go over. It just seems like everybody wants to stray far, far away from that. That would be the move. That would be my suggested move if I were a consultant.

Why even risk it? Somebody's going to be offended if it has anything to do with Native American imagery or anything. You really have to... To your point, it opens the door to have the tomahawk chop. It opens the door to any kind of imagery that somebody is not going to like. It just, I think in the world we're in, it opens the door to insensitivity, which you don't want to do in any way, shape or form moving forward. You want your team to last or your team's name and your imagery to last for as long as possible.

Sure. But natives was the common term that I heard them described themselves as the intertribed term was skins. Like if someone was Navajo and they were talking about somebody else who was a Chippewa Cree, say, oh, he's a skin. They did use that commonly. Right. And not as a derogatory or a slur of the he's a skin. So that was something that I heard a lot of times. But also keep in mind, things change in the environment we've been in, with insensitivity in America, things changed a lot in the last 10 years.

And it's been 10 years since I've been on any of these reservations. Sure, understood. It's just interesting to me because there's been a debate about preference, Native Americans, indigenous Americans, Indians, you know, natives. And Indians, your experience was that they didn't like that. They didn't believe that they were Indians. Yeah, got it. So it's not even the fact that it was insensitive. They just didn't view themselves as Indians.

Got it. That people from India were Indians. Right. Anyway, you know, I mean, look, chiefs, braves, warriors, get ready. It's all coming your way. This is, you know, God, it's just weird. I just wonder how many, you know, natives, Native Americans, Indians, actually are going to miss some of these names. You said the number one logo was the Chief Waku logo.

I don't, I think the other thing was they don't want the native culture to completely disappear. Yeah. All right. But again, there's 573 tribes, and they're all individual nations, essentially. So it's hard to collectively put that together. Baltimore, maybe it's not as hard as I say. Baltimore, Cleveland's going to be a good game. Yeah, Baltimore is a three, three and a half point favorite in this game.

You know, if I didn't do the smell test, if I didn't understand. all of that, which my understanding isn't leading to success this year, whatever. And I was just betting on teams that I thought were good teams. Would you be better? No, some weeks, but most weeks, no. No, no, over the course of time, definitely not. But yesterday, like, I told you a few years. Would you be better this year?

I don't know. I don't know, because I was wrong about Carolina. I thought Carolina early was going to be a decent team, and I thought the Saints weren't that good. So there are two examples of where I would have failed miserably. I did think that Houston was much better than their record was for a while. And I thought that Minnesota was better than their record was for a little while. And I was right about that. But I'll give you a couple teams real quickly.

Like I told you a few weeks back, I really think Indianapolis is a good team. Like they could go deep into the postseason. And, you know, they destroyed Oakland, or Vegas yesterday. That not that home field advantage means anything. We understand that. But those are two good teams, the Titans and the Colts. They're both good teams. The Colts are really well-coached and really good defensively.

And they can run it. They can run it. And Rivers, since early in the season, when he was still learning the offense and people were all panicked, he's now having a really good season, as it turns out. Yesterday, Rivers, you know, didn't even have to do a lot because they ran it really well with Jonathan Taylor, but no turnover. for Rivers, who I think it's now, I could be wrong about this, but I think it's like three straight games without a turnover for Rivers.

When they beat Houston, they beat Vegas. They got run by Tennessee, but that Green Bay game obviously was, you know, the big win for them. But so I would have been, I would have been right about Indy, or at least so far, would have been right about Indy. I would have been wrong about Tampa. I thought Tampa was going to be the NFC champion. They still might be. you've been right about the Rams all year. You've been right.

Even before it became clear how good they were defensively, you liked that team. And right now they appear to be rolling. They're really good unless they play a very good defense. The couple games they'll lost to the 49ers and they lost to the dolphins, they struggle when they play great defenses because of golf. Really interesting, the Baltimore Ravens, who were the number one seed last year in the,

the AFC playoffs. This is a massive game for them tonight. You know, they are right now a half game behind the dolphins. A win tonight would put them at 8 and 5 and put them in a tie for 7th. I forget who would win that tiebreaker right now because they didn't play each other. But they then have, you know, the Ravens after tonight have Jacksonville, the Giants, and the Bengals. So tonight's really the game for them. If they can get this win in Cleveland, they've got a chance to run the table and finish 11 and 5.

You know, and a lot of that would be scheduled-based the way it finished up with Dallas, Cleveland, Jacksonville, New York, and Cincinnati. Cleveland, the only team with a winning record over that close. But the Ravens are in danger of not making the playoffs, and tonight could be a big loss for them. I think they'll play well, but I think Cleveland's good. I think Cleveland's good And I think Buffalo's really, really coming on. Yeah, I think Buffalo's really, really good. The Ravens have a four and five conference record

and a two and two division record. Like right now, Los Vegas. What's my... Las Vegas is seven and six. They have a five and four conference record. That would be better than the Ravens. Miami's eight and five. They have a five and four conference record.

Yeah. So the conference record would be better for Miami or Vegas. It's actually common opponents now, I think, before conference record. Is it common opponents before conference record? Yeah. So it would take a little bit more. bit longer to go through that. But anyway, good game tonight, Baltimore, Cleveland. Cooley will have his offensive film breakdown. I have a feeling it's not going to be very good.

Pretty average. But we'll have that tomorrow in the podcast. Have a great day and back tomorrow.