The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Perfect Loss

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

Kevin opens with a complete Redskins-Giants recap along with his latest thoughts on who's going and who's staying in the Skins' organization. He weighed in on Dwayne Haskins' comment about Dan Snyder's instructions to him in the locker room yesterday. He also revealed the Redskins' 2020 scheduled opponents. He went "Around the NFL", talked playoff picture, and finished up with a quick thought on Isiah Thomas' suspension. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. I'm here. Aaron is here. No Tommy this week. We're doing two shows. We're doing a show today. We're doing a show on Friday. And if there is Breaking Redskins news specifically, we will try to get in here and do something short. I'm not expecting anything this week. I wouldn't be shocked if we got something this week. But I think at this point, it's more likely than not coming a week from today on December 30th, the Monday after the regular season ends, when they will finish either 3 and 13 or 4 and 12, where they will finish in dead last in the NFC East

for the ninth time in the 21 years that Dan Snyder has owned the team. And they will cement the number two pick in the draft. Hooray! That's what you've got to be happy about, is that they played well yesterday, offensively anyway, the young players made strides and yet they still lost the game. More on that coming up in a moment. But we will do a show today. No guests. We were going to try to get Cooley on, but I think he's busy. A lot of you are out and about. So you'll get to this whenever you get to this. But again, I think there's going to be significant change. This is what I would bet on.

I would still, if you told me I had to wager, I would wager that Bruce Allen is out and out completely and that there is a firing of the entire coaching staff, or most of it, with a new coaching staff being hired at some point after all of those announcements. That's my guess. Would I be completely shocked if none of that happens? No, I'd be very disappointed. I'll tell you what I would be shocked at. I would be shocked if Greg Minoski and the entire defensive staff isn't let go a week from today when the regular season ends. I would just mention this one thing, and that is it would not be beyond them to try to have all of these announcements come out during this holiday period when people are busy and not paying very much attention.

Remember last year they cut DJ Swerinj during Christmas Eve, but that'll pale in comparison to some of the big changes that should be coming. But again, that's what I would wager on. I was wrong last year. I hope I'm not wrong this year. I just can't imagine Bruce Allen being back in charge of this organization for another year. It would be really quite surprising, 62-98-1 since taking over as the lead front office person in this organization. But it's beyond that, as we know. He's insulted the fan base over and over again.

The media as well with things like winning off the field and we're close, and we have a damn good culture. can you possibly have a damn good culture and lose more than half your customer base in 10 years? That's really, really quite contradictory, right? A customer base is loyal as this one was for so many years, and yet they have lost over half of it by most measures. And yet they claim they are winning off the field. They claim that they're close. They claim they have a damn good culture. I think it's the opposite of all of those three things in this business right now.

And in any other business, really, would anybody at the top of this organization, unless that person is an owner in the organization, would any of those people survive? The answer is absolutely not. So I think just common sense, this is not a common sense organization. I understand that. But common sense would dictate the prediction here that Bruce Allen is going to be gone a week from today. I mean, I can't imagine that they would wait until further in the week for that announcement. Same thing on the coaching staff. They're going to be in competition with others to, you know, add front office people, to add a new coaching staff. That's what I'm expecting. We'll see. We will see.

You know, there was a story before we get to yesterday in the game, and I will have a game take. There was a story in the post yesterday written by Liz Clark, Mike DeBonis, and Fenet Nirople. who I think we had Fennett Norepul on the show once, Aaron. I believe on another stadium-related story we had him on the show. But the story essentially said that a provision to put the RFK site into D.C.'s control, because it's owned by the federal government, was left out of a recent federal spending bill, and that essentially means that for the second time in less than a year,

an effort on Capitol Hill to get the RFK Stadium site in the hands of the D.C. government has failed. And that will make it very difficult for the D.C. Council and the D.C. government. And by the way, Mayor Bowser has been very much a proponent of putting development down on the RFK site, which would include a Redskinned Stadium. This would basically take it out of their hands and make it a federal decision. and there is some opposition to that. So again, you have a lease with the city,

but the city needed that lease extended or they needed to essentially gain control of that land so they can develop on it. And it looks like for the time being that that plan was dealt a blow according to the Washington Post. Liz has done some great reporting on this over the last few years. Fennett and Mike DeBonis as well. Mike DeBonez, by the way, as a quick aside, if you saw the day after, the night after impeachment last week, there was a picture of a bunch of Washington Post people celebrating the impeachment. And they put it out on social media, which probably is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen done. I think Mike DeBonis was one of the people in that picture. If I'm wrong, I apologize, but I think he was. But anyway, that's a complete digression from the topic at hand.

point is, is that that RFK cite story, you know, Bruce Allen, if he's been kept around simply as the, you know, guy that's got political awareness and savvy, and, you know, he's the point guy on this new stadium. Well, right now, it doesn't appear based on all of the reports over the last year that they've made much progress with any of the three potential jurisdictions, Virginia, D.C., or Maryland. And right now, Tommy's prediction that they're going to be in Landover forever or certainly beyond 2027 when that lease runs out, he might be right based on the reporting here recently. All right, before I get to the game take, let me just say about the result yesterday.

Thank goodness. I mean, seriously. I mean, I don't have any problem really if you're, if you're, one of these diehard fans that, you know, just can't and don't have it in you to root against them. I understand that to a certain point, I guess. Please do not be critical of those of us who are rooting for them to lose because rooting for them to lose right now increases their chances of getting better via the draft. They're not going to the postseason. There's not a lot of carryover from year to year in the NFL. There's really no carryover week to week in the NFL, let alone something that's

going to happen eight months later after the fact. I watch a lot of college football. Aaron watches a lot of college football. We follow the NFL draft and the draft prospects. And the top two positions in the 2020 draft are critical this year because there are two players, a quarterback in Joe Burrow who likely will go number one overall to Cincinnati, who has locked in the number one pick in the 2020 draft. And then the number one prospect in the draft is Chase Young, a pass rushing defensive end out of Ohio State that will probably rank and be evaluated at a level that very few pass rushers have been evaluated at in a long, long time. And whether you want to draft them or not, being in that number two spot in having the chance to draft them or the chance to

leverage that position of being number two in the draft for someone who may want him. It's valuable. It's valuable and incredibly helpful. And I understand what a lot of you will say. You don't know about the draft and prospects, you know, that are evaluated highly, end up being busts all the time. I get it. I get it. But the bottom line is, you can't debate this. It's better to be higher in the draft than lower in the draft. You have more leverage higher in the draft than you do lower in the draft. Period. End of discussion. If you're not going to the playoffs and you're not fighting for a playoff spot. And you have a future, you know, or you're looking towards the future, a future that, by the way, quite honestly, means more likely than not, another non-playoff season

next year. And you're really building for 2020, 2021 and beyond. This is a good outcome yesterday. Yesterday's outcome was good for the franchise. Not bad. Now, if you want to say they're owned by Dan Snyder, they'll screw it up anyway, that's fine. And you're not unreasonable to suggest that. I personally didn't want them to win the game. I didn't want them to win last week. I've wanted them to have a chance at what I think is going to be a potential game-changing kind of player at number two overall. And yesterday in particular, how nauseating would it have been a year from now if the Redskins were playing the Giants? And not only did they have Daniel Jones lighting you up, but they had Chase Young chasing Dwayne Haskins down four times in a game to change a game

completely. And it happened because of Case Keenham winning. Right. You can't even say this would have been a big moment for Dwayne Haskins' learning curve, a big moment for him, because Case Keenham was the quarterback to lead the win. It was such a good outcome yesterday, minus what you just described. If they were going to come back from 14 down and lose an overtime, I would have preferred it had been Dwayne Haskins leading the comeback.

And we could have said somewhere down the road, remember that late season showdown between Haskins and Jones? Jones threw for five touchdowns, Haskins threw for three or four, and the game went to overtime and draft positioning was on the line. But no, it was Case Keenham, who did quite a lot to produce quite a comeback in the fourth quarter, but it would have been better had Haskins been involved in that. But it was the perfect outcome like last week in that all of those young guys, you know, Terry McLaurin, Kelvin Harmon, Stephen Sims Jr., Haskins before he got hurt.

All progressed, all showed promise, all played well, and they lost the game. By the way, I will tell you that it's impossible, and I totally understand this, for players and coaches to think the way fans think. Why would they ever want to lose a game in which they are playing and participating? And of course they're not going to think that way. Of course they're not. I get that. Nobody cares on the field yesterday or in the locker room yet.

yesterday about draft positioning. You know, and it was such a crazy dynamic over the last hour of the Redskins Giants game and the Bengals Dolphins game. You know, the four worst teams battling it out for playoff for draft positioning and all four teams are doing everything they can to desperately try to win their respective games. Of course they were. You know, the draft next April doesn't mean anything to those people. I would tell you, though, Aaron, would not surprise me of people in front offices in those organizations. Owners, scouts were privately hoping for the better draft outcome. But the players and coaches on the field yesterday, why would Ryan Fitzpatrick in Miami, or Andy Dalton, the Bengals quarterback, or Case Keenham, or even Chris Thompson,

or Daniel Jones care about next April? Of course they don't. They're competitors. Bad-ass competitors. That's why they're professional athletes. But for us, as fans, we can root for that and we got the perfect outcome in my view if you're a redskins fan just because there there are those people who are holding it and i think part of it is because well they're not really college football fans and i got a text last night as i was in the locker room and it was my buddy who you know is a big redskins fan but doesn't necessarily call it fall college football and he asked me who i i've heard a lot about chase young he seems to be the most high prospect you know defensive prospect in years what's your NFL comparison for him colliel mac you think it's

See, my first thought... Von Miller's a stand-up outside three-four backer. My thought was Julius Peppers. Peppers, athletically, yes. Yeah, that was kind of... He's a more polished Julius Peppers coming out of college, at least. But he is, he's the immediate off-the-snap of the ball, wrecker of a passing game.

You know, he's going to get compared, obviously, to the two boces that came before him in Ohio State, both of whom are very, very good. I think he's more athletic than both of them. Oh, he's much more quick twitch in more athletic. He is. Now, Nick Bosa is an absolute beast. If you want to look as a football fan at a box score and come to a conclusion on how somebody played, you can do that. But the perfect example of somebody who played great the other night that didn't register one sack or one tackle for loss is Nick Bosa in the game on Saturday night.

He was wreaking havoc the entire night, but if you just looked at the box score, you would have never known it. Never known it. In fact, if you had looked at the box score of the Rams 49ers game from Saturday night, you would have thought no defense in that game. Aaron Donald was a beast. They sacked Garoppolo six times. He was a great football game. We'll do that when we go around the NFL because I thought the Saturday slate start to finish was really exciting all three games. But for people who are wondering why people are so pressed over the idea of getting number two, this is what we're talking, we're talking about better, more athletic than, someone like the bosses, but more athletic, someone like Khalil, Max, someone like Julius Peppers.

I think there's a lot that goes into it. Number one is the talent and the comparisons to great players already in the game, but it's the position to. You know, when we're talking about a quarterback or a pass rusher, you're talking about the two positions on a football field that I think influence the final outcome of a game more than any other. And the Redskins have not had a great pass rusher, an elite pass rusher, in forever. Ryan Kerrigan's not ever at any point.

been elite. He's been very good. Okay, he's never been elite. Chase Young's the kind of guy, potentially, and look, he could bust. He could be another guy that, you know, got valued very highly that didn't turn out to be great. But, you know, here's the deal. The bottom line, I've said that five times already, is they're better off being in the number two spot than below that. If they choose not to take Chase Young, they'll be able to leverage that pick into multiple picks. they might be able to do that at number three, two for Tua. That's a possibility. But anyway, it was the good outcome, I think. And it also, in addition to meaning that they're number two in the draft right now, that could change. That could change. It's a position that they hold right now that could change in the season finale in Dallas. And what's become very clear, very clear, is that Bill Callahan's Redskins are going to do everything they can to win that game in Dallas.

count on that. I would take the Redskins plus the 11 and a half because they are going to fight their guts out, as Coach Joe used to say. Redskins also clinched last place in the division for the ninth time during the Dan Snyder era. Nine last place finishes in the 29 years before him when the NFCE started in the 1970 season after the AFL-NFL-N-FL merger, the Redskins finished last place just five times overall, nine times during the Dan Snyder era, a position they are too comfortable with. You know, the Callahan Redskins, before I get to the game take, I know I've said this a couple of times here in the last month, maybe, the last three, four games. They're not a good team. Okay, don't get me wrong. They're not a

good team. I think let's make sure we all understand that. They are three and seven under Bill Callahan, and the three wins are over the dolphins, Panthers, and lions, bad teams, all of them. But my God, do they try hard? Damn, if he hasn't done a real credible professional job of making the most out of this group of players, a ton of young players, a ton of rookies on the field. He has done an excellent job, and I mocked him early on,

and I still mock him for his press conferences. I mean, he just, he's quite an insufferable listen during these press conferences. But there's no debating the excellent job he's done producing a professional product on the field. It was an unprofessional product in the first five weeks of the season. You know, so much more professional during his 10 games as interim head coach than what we saw with Go Along, Get Along, Jay. You know, Jay had the opener in Philadelphia and after that, those were. were not professional games that they played in those losses to the cowboys, to the bears, to the giants, to the Patriots. Actually, the Patriots' first half may have been one of the better games

they played. But anyway, you can't debate what Callahan's Redskins have produced in nine of the ten games he's been the head coach in. The jet game was bad. That's the aberration. Every other game has been professional through and through. It wasn't good enough. Of course not. you know, because in part with the exception of a few games or halves of games, the defense is just atrocious. You know, yesterday I get it. There's a lot of new players in the secondary, guys off the street doing anything they can do to make sure that Josh Norman doesn't have to play in the game. You know, Callahan's Redskins have been professional, yes, credible yes, still nowhere near good enough. So as Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder, or hopefully just Dan Snyder, starts to think about this coaching staff and the team's future, it is totally acceptable to acknowledge and thank Bill Callahan for doing a very good job under the circumstances.

You know, circumstances which include for Callahan having to do what he's done in a building wrought with just dysfunctionalston. functional management and leadership at the top. Think about the environment in which he's produced a credible team for most of the 10 games he's coached in. It's okay to acknowledge that. Thank him for his impressive output, his impressive work, because it has been impressive. But don't fool yourself into thinking that he should be a part of the future. If your path to sustain success includes a plan.

that has Bill Callahanan, his head coach, you're not getting there, in my view. Doesn't mean that I can't appreciate and respect what he has done as an interim head coach. All right, with that, let's get to the game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right. I'll go through a list of the things I liked, the things I didn't like, a couple of other observations. And then we will hit on the Dwayne Haskins comments after the game about Dan Snyder telling him that he wasn't going to go back

in play after he got a lot of attention. Jaws dropped in the media room. You could almost hear them dropping as you were watching this thing. I'm just going to give you a little bit of a teaser, I guess. I'm not overly worked up over it, but I'll explain why shortly. So on the list of things I liked list, it starts with Dwayne Haskins. I feel really good about Haskins as a quarterback. on the field. I'm not totally convinced that he's going to be great yet, but I think his bust potential is super low after watching him now in seven starts. It is to me anyway. I had a lot of

you tell me that I had lost my mind when I came in here after a few of his earlier starts telling you that I see some things there that I really like, that I am more intrigued and more encouraged than, you know, discouraged, which I have been. I think the one thing that I'm thing I've learned about Dwayne Haskins, and I have no idea if he will play against the Cowboys, he injured his other ankle, it's not the same ankle that he hurt against Green Bay, that in seven starts, or six and a half starts, he's a competitor, he's got confidence, he's got talent, he does some things much better than I ever thought he would, he's got definite escapability, he's got good feel in the pocket, he extends plays, that first touchdown pass

was a perfect example of that. I just think his bus potential is really low. I mean, there's a lot going on there with Dwayne Haskins. I get it. On the field, on the field, he looks the part to me. He does. Sorry, for those of you that were convinced you were right after the Buffalo game or after the Jets game.

And I was telling you after he was inaccurate in the Detroit game, that I loved what he did in those final two drives. I thought there were plays yesterday he made from the pocket and extending plays that were brilliant. I think he's seeing the field much better. He gets into a rhythm. His accuracy has not been an issue here recently. There's a lot to like.

There just really is. It was his best game, and he unfortunately didn't get to finish it. And I think he is a little bit dramatic with these injuries. This apparently was not a serious ankle injury. He got carted off, not carted off the field. He walked off the field, but then got carted into the locker room. But, you know, up until that point, he was an A-minus yesterday, his best game of the year. He was a B-plus for me last week.

He was 12 of 15. I think he opened up the first quarter, seven for seven. 12 of 15, a buck 33, two touchdowns, no picks, a couple of sacks. One of them definitely not his fault. It was immediate pressure. The other one where he got hit on and got hurt on, I don't know, maybe Sims was open, Sims Jr. But, you know, quarterbacks miss guys, you know, professional veteran quarterbacks. you know, get to guys late occasionally.

He had a 96.5 QBR as best. He had a 143.2 passer rating. He was really good yesterday. You know, if you're one of these people that isn't open to changing your original thoughts about him, I think that's a bad way to approach this thing. You've got to watch him every game. Thank God he's been playing these games and he wasn't put in bubble wrap for a year. How stupid would that have been?

I mean, seriously. How completely insane on a 3 and 12 football team would it have been if they decided, you know, what Bill Callahan said early on, which was even Dwayne knows that he's nowhere near ready to play. Thank God Keenham got that injury in Minnesota. I mean, I'm not wishing injury on anybody, especially concussion. That's not the point. The point is if Keenham hadn't gotten hurt, Dwayne may not have played for a few more games after that. I mean, it just, I think when you have, it's instructive. for all of us, and it's instructive for some of the former players who are absolutely convinced

that he shouldn't play this year. It's probably instructive for some of the coaches out there. When you have a guy that is a competitor like him, that is fearless like him, he's fearless, man. Nothing rattles him. Nothing has him afraid. Nothing has him unsure, even when he is unsure. He doesn't appear to be unsure. When you have a guy like that, you put him out there. Get him the experience. He's not going to get rattled. He's not going to care about mistakes. Chris Thompson made a comment, and I'm going to pull this up right now. I didn't have it ready to go, but it'll take me two seconds to find it. I was reading John Kimes column from Friday.

He wrote a column about Dwayne Haskins being a totally different guy from his first professional appearance, which was off the bench against the Giants in week four. Remember how bad it was. He threw three interceptions, and people are just throwing up their arms saying, oh my God, huge mistake. And then people nationally, you know, criticizing the Redskins for playing him. I mean, you had people like Lewis Riddick saying he's damaged goods already, like the Redskins ruined him by playing him as a backup quarterback. Honestly, one of the worst takes I think I've ever heard. Said it at the time. And obviously, in hindsight, it looks even better to have been against the feeling of playing Dwayne in that.

game. But really one of the all-time worst takes. And by the way, he wasn't the only one. Riddick wasn't the only one. You had a lot of people saying, there go the Redskins, screwing up another quarterback. He was the backup quarterback. He came in and played the game because the first guy got hurt and wasn't playing well. I'm sorry. That's absurd to have that view. If you didn't want him to play in the game, he shouldn't have been the backup. And I guess that was their point. They should have had somebody else backed up. But I'm glad he, got in and had that experience. Because here's what Chris Thompson said in John Kimes column in talking about what he is now

versus that first appearance against the Giants. Chris Thompson said, quote, a lot of backups are told to prepare and be ready at all times, but you don't know that that's going to happen. I think it woke him up. It was like, I've got to get it together, meaning that's what Haskins said after that game. I've got to get it together. And then Chris Thompson said, quote, he's super competitive. So he didn't want to be embarrassed like that, closed quote.

It's probably a great thing that he went into that gaming and was embarrassed for a guy with his kind of competitive makeup. Because it served as a wake-up. And keep in mind this too. You know, it was not the best of situations for Haskins early in the year or in the off-season or in training camp. you had a head coach who should have never come back. And if he was coming back, it should have been with an understanding that we've drafted a quarterback and you're not going to be held responsible for your record this year. To bring Jay Gruden back and tell him playoffs or else, you know, with, oh, by the way, better

start fast or you're going to get fired, was so counter to developing a young rookie quarterback. Now, I don't have a problem with that. They thought they were close, delusional, but they thought they were close, and they didn't think Dwayne Haskins would give him the same chance to win early in the season that Case Keenham would. And by the way, they're probably right about that. But because Jay wasn't for drafting Haskins, had no incentive to develop Haskins, actually was counterintuitive for anybody to think that he should have incentive to develop Haskins, given that he needed to win games early.

It was a bad situation for Dwayne Haskins. It was. Look, Callahan even said, Dwayne's not ready when he took over, and even Dwayne would know that. It seemed like everybody, and I got really upset about it at the time, if you go back and listen to one of those podcasts,

because I said, why do they keep saying publicly that he's such a project, that he's nowhere near ready? Stop saying that publicly. build up your guy. Stand behind your guy. You drafted him.

If you didn't like to draft too bad, you're stuck with him now. You know, be coaches, be developers of young people. Be positive publicly. You want to be critiquing and critical of him behind closed doors. That's fine.

Don't do it publicly. We had leaks coming out of the organization on this guy. We had national people taking pot shots at the organization at just the notion that they would play him. it was a rough situation for him, man. I'm not making excuses for any of the stuff. You know, Tommy's going to get all hung up on social media and all that stuff. That's fine.

I know as someone who has coached young people for a quarter of a century, you know, they're young and you should err on the side of building up, not tearing down, publicly. I'm not saying at the expense of being misleading or being delusional or creating false confidence. It has to be earned, but publicly, you should always be positive when it comes to somebody like him in that situation that he came into. I like Dwayne Haskins. I am not sold that he's going to be a great quarterback. I am now sold that his bust potential is nil. I don't see it being a bust situation. Now, if a lot of the so-called red flags, social media, marketing company, Haskins and Haskins, all this other stuff.

You don't like the way he conducts himself in press conferences, whatever. All the stuff that Tommy gets hung up on. And look, I get hung up on some of that stuff too. When my gut tells me that it's a problem, I will certainly be hung up on it. I see low bus potential. It could turn out differently. It could turn out that he's too cocky rather than just confident, that he is off-puttingly cocky, but you know what? Other quarterbacks have been that. You know, Ben Rathesberger is

apparently a first-rate A-hole. You know, great quarterback. You know, you don't have to be loved. You have to be respected. I think in that kind column, you can see his teammates starting to respect them more. I think you saw that on the bench when he came back in the second half with Keenham out there. There seemed to be, and I'm projecting here, we don't really know what's being said, but I think you see guys warming up to him. And one of the things I've been told from the beginning he's coachable and likable, and that he's not RG3. So I'm rooting for the kid. It's been that way for a couple of months now,

especially given the situation he came in. I like his talent. I thought he was excellent yesterday. Thought he was excellent. I think that first touchdown pass to Sims, where he came out of that pocket, found the open hole with his feel. You know who doesn't have that good a feel in the pocket,

and I'm a big fan of his too. Kirk Cousins. Kirk is not a great feel pressure, you know, in the pocket, you know, creating more time guy. He's a on-time, pre-snap, very smart, knows where to go, gets it out quickly, gets it out accurately, functional, very often at a very high-level functioning quarterback. Haskins has that innate thing. where you can see he can create and extend time, extend plays. I like that about him a lot.

I like that about him. And that proved to be the difference there in the red zone. You know, it's a play where he had to come off his first read. He had to create time for himself. And then he was a threat to run, but he also had his eyes downfield and made the throw to Sims Jr. For the touchdown. There was some hurry up in the game yesterday with Haskins,

which I thought was encouraging because they're confident enough to throw some hurry up in there. now. I thought pre-snap, he looked so much more comfortable. I thought there was some pistol formation out there yesterday, too, with some of those Sims Jr. in the backfield lineups. Haskins and A-minus yesterday. The three young receivers, rookie receivers, you got to be encouraged. I mean, if this were a normal organization and we were entering into a normal off-season, you would be thinking Terry McLaurin's a one. Sims Jr. is a potential poor man's Tyree Kill. Yeah. Yes. I said that. I get it. That's a tough one.

Well, you can swallow hard on that if you won. But he is very difficult to check. He's an excellent route runner. He's very good after the catch. He's got breakaway speed and burst. He seems to have been a major find as an undrafted free agent out of Kansas. Also, very mature guy, I've been told, knock on wood. You hear those things and it's like, oh, God. Just hopefully that turns out to be true. Kelvin Harmon, good number two. Diggs out safeties, his old Jay would say in the run game, can really block possession kind of receiver with some size. Through a pass yesterday, too.

Not a pretty one. All three of those receivers are on the list of things I like list. I like Chris Thompson a lot. I just want to mention a quick 30 seconds on Thompson. He's probably not going to be back with them next year. But I really have always liked Chris Thompson as a player. It's a shame that he has not been able to stay healthy during the course of his career. He's only 29 years old.

He's going to get an opportunity. You watch. It'll be like Kyle or Sean McVeigh, you know, or Matt LaFleur, or somebody who really knows Chris Thompson will take a shot on him. I would say if you're the Redskins and you can bring him back for not a lot money and maybe an incentive-laden deal, which I don't think is going to be possible. I would think about doing it. I like Chris Thompson a lot. He played well yesterday. That's it from the list of things that I liked. The list of things that I didn't like. Let's

start with the defense. Where we may not know a lot about Bruce Allen's future, coach Callahan's future. We have to know about Greg Minnowski's future, right? There's no chance Minoski can be brought back as the defensive coordinator. But you don't think Bill Callahan as head coach, Greg Mnusky as defensive coordinator as a possibility? No, I don't. I, Greg Mniewski is a quality person, a quality guy. This defense is terrible. Again, I'm not going to have anybody run the ball on.

Up front, we got to dominate the front. Take heed because we're going to come downhill, start striking iron and crack some skulls. Yeah, remember that. Remember that soundbite when he got hired in January 2017? striking iron, cracking skulls, going downhill. Look, Greg Mnowski's a great guy. His defenses have been just as bad as Joe Barry's defenses were and everybody that came before all of them.

For whatever reason, the Redskins cannot put together a competitive professional defense year and year out. Same thing. They are going to finish more likely than not with the worst third down defense in years in the NFL. You may have to go back more than a decade, depending on what Dallas does to him on Sunday to find a worse third down defense. The 2016 defense, which also finished dead last under Joe Barry on third down,

was the worst third and long defense in NFL history. It was a bad third down defense overall, 32nd in the league, but it was the worst since the merger on third and seven or longer, which to me, when you look at 2016, so many of you would just blame cousins for not making the playoff. That defense was god-awful in 2016. One of the worst the NFL's ever seen. This one this year is really disappointing because remember what they told us in August?

Top five. Top five talent. No team has talked more about what they're going to do in the upcoming season than this team does. I know that we're only living with this team in the day-to-day detail, so maybe there's another example. Cleveland talk quite a bit. Cleveland talked a lot. You're right last year. They did. The Redskins with, you know, the Landon Collins, who now is 0 for two against his former team. You know, six years, 12 times payback. He's 0 for two against Gettleman and the group that let him go to come

to a much better organization and a much better defense. You know, so the Rob Ryan top five talent. It's dead last third down. It's like 27th overall. yards allowed, which is a bad metric. You know, they've had a couple of decent halves, even a couple of decent games recently, but it's really been disappointing. You know, think about this, Aaron, and I mentioned this to Greg on the radio show this morning. You know, it comes from sort of the category of none of us know anything about anything when it comes to the NFL.

Think about the conversation in August that we as Redskinned fans had. Where were we concerned, wide receiver? They don't have any wide receivers. Who's going to catch the ball? Even if Haskins is good or Keenham's good. Well, wide receivers have produced probably more than any other unit on the team. And where was the one area of confidence? The defense, the defensive front in particular. You know, great talent could be a top five defense. I warned everybody. I warned everybody in August. I said they tried to replace their defensive coordinator. They were desperate to replace him and nobody wanted the job. So be careful about this top five talk.

I think it should be improved. Well, it's not improved. It's God awful. And they let Daniel Jones just light them up. And Saquan Barkley light them up. 41 points, 554 yards, 8 for 14 on third down. An embarrassing overtime possession right down the field for the game winner. I know they had a lot of players out in their secondary.

They were bringing in players from the street to do everything they could to keep Josh Norman off the field. Daniel Jones, who's been a turnover machine all year long, not only had his best day of the season, he had one of the greatest days in NFL history for a rookie quarterback. He became just the second quarterback, rookie quarterback, since 1950, Matt Stafford was the other one in his rookie year, to throw for over 300 yards in a game and five touchdowns.

Two people as rookies since 1950, 69 years. of NFL football have thrown for five touchdowns in a game in over 300 yards, and Jones did it yesterday. He was really impressive. You know, he's been impressive at times in some of these games. He's been a turnover machine yesterday, Daniel Jones did not have one turnover. He fumbled once, but they got it back. Sacked one time, outstanding day for him, 28 to 42, 352 yards, and five touchdown passes. And then there was Sequin Barclay. My God.

How good is Sequin Barclay? If he's not the most obvious, legit, elite player when you watch him at one time, it's so obvious how much of a difference maker he is. He had 189 yards on 22 carries, 8.6 yards per carry,

had a touchdown. Also had 90 yards on four catches with a touchdown. It set a giant record for, yards from scrimmage in a game. The Giants team record he's set for scrimmage yards. 279 total yards. How about what he's done to the Redskins? And what the Giants just have done to the Redskins in general

in their two games at FedEx Field over the last two years? Seguan Berkeley is now rushed for 359 yards in two games at FedEx Field. 359 yards. Okay. On just 36 carries. He is averaging 10 yards a carry in his two games. games at FedEx Field, and he scored four touchdowns. Incredible performance by Barclay. And the Giants in general, they have scored 40 and 41 in their last two games at FedEx

Field. And in the first half, 34 last year, 28 this year. You think Pat Shermer's got Greg Minusky figured out? Ah, man, Sequin Barkley was something else. The defense, number one on the list of things I didn't like from the game. The number two thing is that I really felt like the hit on Dwayne Haskins that knocked him out of the game should have been flagged. I don't know how that wasn't flagged. Marcus Golden hit him low. Number 44. It wasn't an intentional low hit, but intentions got nothing to do with it. The Redskins have been flagged for calls that shouldn't have been flagged for hits that were low on the quarterback. See Ryan Anderson a couple of times over the last month and a half. How they did not flag

Marcus Golden for hitting low on going low and hitting low on Haskins. Again, I I'm not saying it was intentional. He seemed to have been blocked a little bit and was stumbling into it. But how that wasn't flagged, that was ridiculous. A couple of other quick observations from the game yesterday or thoughts. Case Keenham played well, you know? I mean, give him credit, he came in off the bench and he let a 99-yard drive to tie the game. I mean, most of us were rooting against it, okay?

But 99 yards on 14 plays, and he converted a third nine out of his own end. end zone to Sims. It was really quite impressive, that drive. So, Keenham was good. The not going for two. So a lot of you had said, shouldn't he have gone for two in that spot, Callahan? You know what? I'm sort of glad he didn't because, you know, at that point, you know, maybe they make it win the game. personally I felt, and I was thinking about this in the moment. So if I really wanted them to win the game, and that's what Callahan's thinking, winning the game, what was the right decision there?

I actually think going to overtime was the right decision there. I do, and I'll tell you why. First of all, a two-point conversion play is sort of a 50-50 play. Secondly, Keenham has not practiced, has not taken the first team reps on their two-point plays during the course of the week. All teams practice the two-point plays You know, they spend a little bit of time practicing the two-point plays.

Keenham more likely than not, did not get those reps as the backup quarterback. Thirdly, the Redskins had actually stopped the Giants on a couple of possessions. And people that say that overtime is a 50-50 proposition, no it isn't. It's not a 50-50 proposition. The coin flip is 50-50. That doesn't mean that your odds of winning an overtime are 50-50. Sometimes losing the coin flip increases your odds, potentially. of winning the game if the other team takes the ball first.

The Giants had been stopped on I think four or three of their last four possessions, if not four of their last five possessions. They were stopped where they blocked the punt, where the Redskins blocked the punt. They missed a field goal on a drive which didn't travel very far. They were forced to punt and then they got stopped on their final drive trying to get in field goal range. Yeah, the Redskins stopped three of their final four drives. Now, the miss field goal, I don't count as a stop, but they forced them to punt or, you know, throw a Hail Mary on the final play

on three of the final four drives. And the truth is the Giants, you know, had just been on the field defensively for seven minutes or six minutes and 14 plays 99 yards. So, yeah, I mean, if you're asking me, if I had been a typical Redskin fan in a typical season and a typical game rooting really hard for them to win the game, I actually would have suggested in the moment that they, kick and go to OT. That's what I thought anyway. Certainly open for debate. All right, Nate Orchard had

that black punt. How about him? Nate Orchard. All right, I'm going to get to the comment that Dwayne Haskins made in the postgame show after I tell you about mybooky.ag. So if you're still looking for a place to bet, smell test this weekend, five, five and one. It was four oh and one on Saturday. It was four, oh, and one And I was like, all right, here we go. Going to be a big weekend. Let's do it. I had the bucks, which pushed on Sunday, and then had four winners on Sunday. Two bowl games, Washington and Liberty.

And then I had the Patriots and the Rams. That went four and oh on Saturday. And then yesterday, what was I yesterday? One in five? So a five, five and one weekend. Yesterday I had the Jags, they didn't get it done. Bengals, no. Titans, no. Jets, yes, browns, no, lions, no. Yeah, one in five. So a five, five, and one weekend. I'm still at 500, which is not good enough. I understand that. So if you're looking for a place to bet and you don't have a place to bet, consider mybooky.orgie.ag. They're reliable. They have quality lines and multiple ways for you to play. If you're just a straight better or you're a teaser guy or a parlay guy or an in-game action guy, or you like futures, they've got it all at mybooky.orgie.

And if you join right now, my bookie will match your deposit halfway all the way up to $1,000. So if you deposit $2,000, they're going to give you an extra $1,000 of free money to play with. You have to use my promo code, Kevin, D.C, to activate the offer. MyBooky.ag, my promo code, K-E-V-I-N-D-C, Kevin. DC. All right, before we go around the NFL, two more Redskins things. Number one, the press conference following the game, the Dwayne Haskins press conference, where Haskins said that he was told by Dan Snyder that he wasn't going back in the game. I mean, first of all, if you want to watch this, you need to watch it at Redskins.com and you'll see the silence from the media. Now, I think

there was an issue with the mic going from somebody to somebody. That's what J.P. Finley said to me this morning. It was a total natural reaction. I would have had the same reaction. Like, what did he just say? Did he say Dan told him he wasn't going back in the game? But anyway, it got a lot of reaction. I mean, that thing made the rounds after the game because, personally, I don't think that he probably accurately portrayed what happened. That's my guess. Now, he sent out a tweet a couple of hours after the game that read, I need to clarify something from my press conference. Dr. West advised me that I was done for this game.

Dan Snyder, who was in the locker room supporting me, told me, I've got to listen to the doctor. Looking forward to getting back healthy for Skins Nation, hashtag HTTR. That followed a team release. The team put out a press release after this that read as follows. And it came from Dr. Robin West, the on-field doctor. Quote, I evaluated Dwayne following his ankle injury, and after reviewing the x-rays and conducting a full examination,

I did not clear him to return to the game action, close quote. So, Dwayne says in a press conference, Dan told me I wasn't going back in the game. Press score delays, shocked. Wait a minute, Dan, as in Dan Snyder? Yeah, Dan Snyder. He told you not to go back in the game? Yes.

and he said that he was really thrilled that he was down there and very concerned about him. First of all, let me just say this. The owner being in the training room after the starting quarterback gets carted off the field, right, into the training room, is not unusual. And if I were the owner of the team, I would have been down there as well. I mean, that's an important player. That's an important player for this franchise, and he appeared to be seriously hurt. It's certainly not unusual, and I would actually be disappointed if the owner wasn't down there

to see how that player was. Now, you can be cynical and say, well, if it had been, you know, Jeremy Sprinkle, would he have been down there? Probably not. But it wasn't Jeremy Sprinkle. It was their first-run draft choice, their rookie quarterback, their hopeful franchise quarterback of the future. So that's not unusual that the owner was there. I would bet you that four-fifths of the owners would have been down there for their rookie quarterback, or for their starting quarterback, who had literally needed a cart to get off the field. I don't know if he needed it or not. I think one of the things we're learning about Duane. He's a bit dramatic with these injuries. That's fine. When I say fine, there's nothing serious about it. I think they're going to have an MRI today. Maybe we might

find something. I hope we don't. My guess is we won't. I bet you he plays against the Cowboys Sunday. If he doesn't, that's fine too. But it's fine that the owner was there. I'm actually totally fine with the owner being there. Now, as far as the owner making the call, it's totally reasonable and justifiable for many of you to say, oh, there we go. The owner's too involved. The owner's too involved with the player, a rookie player like he was with RG3 in 2012. The owner is involved in game day decisions. He's making the decision, not the team doctor. I think that's exaggerated. I bet you it didn't happen that way at all. I think there's context to everything, nuance to everything. It wouldn't surprise me if perhaps the young quarterback heard him say,

hey, you're not going back out there. Bottom line, doctor already said that. You're not going back out there. So what if he said that? And Dwayne heard it as the owner's not going to let me go back out there. I think Dan Snyder let the doctor make the decision on this. I do. And I think this whole thing is a lot to do about nothing. That's my personal opinion on this. You can take from it what you want. One of the things that was decided yesterday was the Redskins' 2020 opponents. Sometimes you have to wait until the final week of the season, but yesterday the Redskins clinched last place. And the NFC North and NFC South saw Detroit and Carolina respectively clinch their positions in their divisions. And so that means that the Redskins' schedule of opponents.

The scheduled opponents for 2020 are now set, 14 of which were set before yesterday. The other two were determined yesterday. The Skins next year at home will play the 3rd. division games, Dallas, Philly, and the Giants. They will also play the Rams in Seattle. They're playing the NFC West next year as the division in full that they will play in their conference. The Rams in Seattle will travel to FedEx Field. They've got the AFC North next year. Baltimore and Cincinnati will play in Washington next year. And then Carolina will play in Washington as well. So the home games are Dallas, Philly, the Giants, Rams, Seahawks, Ravens, Bengals, Panthers. The

road games are Dallas, Philly, and the Giants. They will also play at San Francisco and at Arizona. So next year on the schedule, both Sean McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan. And then they'll play Pittsburgh on the road, Cleveland on the road, and Detroit on the road as well. So there's your 2020 Redskins opponents. The schedule and the mock schedule coming in late March, early April, sometime around there. One last thing on the Redskins before we go around the league from the weekend. There was a story written by Dave Fleming at ESPN on Friday. It's a very interesting story in that he essentially went through the dregs of the NFL.

It's a story titled, where's the title here? From the Miami Dolphins to the Cincinnati Bengals, embarking an NFL tour of sadness. And basically he goes through the dregs of the NFL right now, the Bengals, the Dolphins, the Redskins, the Jets, the Giants. And he gives you a lot on all of these teams and why they are in the positions they are in. The Redskins section reads as follows.

And I want to read this to you because I think it was very, very interesting of a lot of what Dave Fleming wrote about the Redskins. He writes, at noon on Wednesday, when Redskins rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins strolls to the podium for his weekly news conference. The outside world's only glimpse into Redskins Park is through the narrow lens of a TV camera focused on a polished wooden podium in front of a large high-deaf TV. Pan those cameras just a few feet in either direction, however, and the reality of the Redskins situation comes into much clearer focus.

Dave Fleming continues to write. The scene reminds me of that great old John Clare. Clayton, this is Sports Center spot. What looks like a corporate auditorium to the outside world is actually a cramped garage straight out of hoarders. Just out of the frame to the left are boxes of sports drinks stacked halfway up to the wall, next to a row of steel dead lift bars, burgundy laundry carts, random piles of electronic equipment, and postal boxes. To the right is a blue floor cleaning machine the size of a pony parked between red metal dollies,

another tangle of electric cords and several restaurant-sized soda canisters. Inside the 22-year-old Redskins Park, the hallways are lined with orange-pleather liquidation-sale couches, while upstairs the lobby features white leather furniture that I swear I sat on while interviewing Norv Turner in the late 1990s. When the team's slogan, Everything Matters, appears on the back wall, I involuntarily start giggling until I realize, oh, they're serious. Imagine what this looks like from Haskins' perspective, though. At Ohio State, the quarterback spent all his time at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center an immaculate state-of-the-art 100,000 square foot facility with a Players' Lounge,

nutrition center, barbershop, arcade, cryotherapy chamber, and sleep pots. I would love to try one of those sleep pods, parenthetically. And that is just the east wing of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. After realizing his lifelong dream of making it to the NFL, Haskins, who's 22 years old, the Redskins' first round pick, was then forced to put his professional development and hundreds of millions of dollars in potential earnings in the hands of a franchise headquartered in a place

that looks like it should be selling CBD oil. This is Dave Fleming's story about all the dregs of the NFL. the Bengals, the dolphins, the giants, the jets, and the Redskins. He finishes, well, he doesn't finish. It goes on for a lot longer, but I'll just read you the next paragraph and then stop. He writes, The Washington Post was being generous when it called this place outdated five years ago, and it hardly matters that owner Dan Snyder is probably waiting to upgrade the team's facilities as part of a new stadium deal.

If an owner can't even correct the simple non-moving parts like infrastructure, What possible hope does he have at the really vital complex stuff like hiring a coach or GM, developing a franchise quarterback, and building a culture and roster around him? You simply can't own a team worth $3.4 billion and continually promise to spare no expense in order to build a winner and expect your fan base, free agents, or franchise quarterbacks to believe you when there's a sign on your locker room door that reads, Hot tub down. Oh my God. He's so right.

He's so right. I've spent time out there. It is... Look, don't take my word for it. Take Cooley's word for it, or Doc's word for it, or Be Mitch's word for it. The guys who've spent much more time in the guts of that building.

Doc has been saying for years, their facilities are antiquated. They are way behind the times. They are way behind the times. behind other organizations. I mean, when Dave Fleming and ESPN writes, and it's so true, when he writes that last line that I read, where is it again? Here it is.

If an owner can't even correct the simple non-moving parts like infrastructure, what possible hope does he have at the really vital complex stuff like hiring a coach GM, et cetera, et cetera. This is what I said when they posted the London Flector salute during London Fletcher Day. Like if you can't get the little things right, if you consistently mess up the easy stuff, the stuff you have control over, how are you going to ever get the big stuff right? It's so reflective of them as an organization. It's a really good read and it's an accurate read. And it also, and I'll finish with this thought, for those of you that have argued with me about just how bad the organization is and just how miserable

a destination it is for potential coaches and players, et cetera. And then you'll say, as an add-on, Dan Snyder wants to win. That's not the problem. He wants to win. Really? When you read this, when you hear Doc over and over again over the years saying how antiquated, how behind the times they are with equipment, with nutrition, with facilities, I mean, they didn't have the bubble out there until a few years ago.

Do you really think he's doing everything he can to win? All right. Let's go around the NFL. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. All right. I want to start with the Saturday games because Aaron and I last week were building up the fact that the Saturday triple header was actually a pretty good triple header.

You had meaningful games. You had teams that had stakes in important playoff ramifications. in these games, and all three games were wildly entertaining. I will start with this. Aaron's a Tampa fan, and they've got a big decision to make on James Winston. He threw four interceptions in the game. His first two drives, he threw two pick sixes. One of them got called back for a block in the back on the return. And yet, if you watch that game, there's probably no chance the Buccaneers have to win the game if it's not for James Winston at times. Nobody shakes off a bad quarterback experience and focuses on the next play better than James Winston does.

He has a lot of practice at it. He gets a lot of practice at it. That is true. I've never seen somebody so unmoved by bad plays like he is. He comes right back and we'll throw into the same tight window and we'll throw the ball downfield and give his receivers, you know, man-to-man coverage a chance. And he didn't have his best receivers in the game on Saturday. He had backups out there.

You know, guys, probably you have. hadn't heard of. And he threw for 335, but he threw four picks in the game. Four of them. They had a really good chance to win the game. Really good chance to tie the game anyway. Houston looks really troubled right now because of Watson's injury. He just does not look like a player capable of leading them to a playoff win. They're in the playoffs. They won the game 23 to 20. They clinch the playoff. By the way, just as a quick aside, not some, like a friend of mine texted me and said, did Bill O'Brien have a chance on that final drive to knee out the clock? I go, yep, he did. And instead, he was running plays. And by running plays, they got an offensive

holding penalty, which stopped the clock, which gave Tampa the ball back with time to tie the game at the end. They got it back with like 25 seconds left. Yes, Bill O'Brien. None of this surprises me anymore, guys, that a coach doesn't know that he can take three knees and run the clock out. There's a minute 27 left, Tampa had one time out left. If you do that thing where the quarterback takes the snap and takes like three steps backward and then burns a couple of seconds and then takes the knee, if you had done that three times, the game would have ended.

He would have never had to run a play. Instead, Bill O'Brien is out there running Carlos Hyde, holding penalty, which essentially gives Tampa a second time out, and now Tampa gets the ball back with a chance to die. But anyway, the, you, yeah. Yes, if anybody else picked up on that. He could have need out the game but didn't know it. The other thing about the Texans that I think is really often really striking to me other than Watson's injury,

when Will Fuller is on the field and when he's not on the field, they are completely different. Oh, my God. Well, they had the stats on that during the game. That Watson's completion percentage, his quarterback rating is so much higher when Fuller's on the field. And Fuller got hurt and was not on the field. And it makes Hopkins much better when he's on the field too. But Watson is compromised right now with definitely a high ankle sprain, which I would assume that Houston has nothing to play for Sunday against Tennessee. Tennessee has everything to play for. I would assume that Watson is not going to play that game.

And they'll get him ready for a playoff game, which is going to be a home playoff game in the first round wild card weekend. What do you think the Bucks are going to do with Winston? I saw that. I didn't realize this. there is, I guess the CBA is slightly changing so that teams are allowed to use both the franchise tag and the transition tag. I saw an Ian Rappaport report that that's a thing. I could see them putting the transition tag on James. You know, they have a good coaching staff, a really good coaching staff.

I actually trust Ariens in the decision he makes here. I think Winston is for me going to be forever a very, very difficult call because he does have talent. He does have a confidence about him, but he keeps both teams in the game better than any quarterback in the game. The second game of the day on Saturday was a great football game. The Patriots Bill's game was a real intense, physical, big-time playoff stakes game, not stakes in terms of making the playoffs, seating division on the line there. Buffalo still had a chance with a win to win the division. I loved the way Josh Allen played. There's a perfect example. Don't look at his final stats, 13 to 26, 2008 yards, two touchdowns,

and tell me that he wasn't really good because he was really good in the game, very good in the game. Had them down there on the doorstep, had a touchdown pass, pretty much dropped. Brady was great. Man, these Patriots, these Patriots are, by the way, the two-point conversion was huge after the go-ahead touchdown. for those of us that had the Patriots minus six, minus six and a half. I think the Patriots are going to be really dangerous, really dangerous, because now they beat Miami, they get the two seed to get a buy. They'll play that game against the Chiefs more likely than not at home. The expectations are as low as they've been in a long time for the Patriots.

I think that they are rounding into form a little bit. I think we've got two incredible potential matchups to anticipate in the AFC playoffs. Kansas City at New England in the divisional round, and then the winner of that game at Baltimore in the AFC title game. I don't know that you're going to get, you know, Buffalo could win a game. You know, they could win a game. Buffalo's a good football team. So right now they are going to be the five seed.

They're going to be the first wildcard team. So they're going to go to Houston in that first wildcard team. in that first round, Aaron, they're going to beat Houston. They have a really good chance to win that game. And then they would go to Baltimore. And they played Baltimore pretty tough in Buffalo a couple of weeks ago. I don't think they can beat Baltimore, though. No, I think there's one team in the AFC that can beat Baltimore.

And I think it's the Chiefs. Yeah, I don't think the Chiefs can beat him. I think that... I don't think the Chiefs can be Baltimore. Again, I think the only way you're going to beat Baltimore is to get in the... is to score and the Patriots can't do that the Chiefs can. I don't know that they will. I wouldn't bet on it,

but if there is a team to prevent them from the Super Bowl, I think it's the Chiefs. I just envision Belichick coming up with some master strategy to slow down Baltimore in an AFC title game. Whatever. The last game Saturday was another great football game. It eliminated the Rams from postseason contention. 3431.

The 49ers won the game on a walk-off Robbie Gold field goal after Jimmy Garoppolo completed two third and 16s on the final drive of the game. He was exceptional in those plays. He got sacks six times. I mentioned earlier it's one of those games where the score indicates no defense, but there was some hard hitting defense. Aaron Donald, you know, Dante Fowler Jr. He had two and a half, three sacks, something like that.

Nick Bosa was a terror. Eric Armstead was a terror. But plays were made by guys. Kittles, great. Woods had a great game. Their tight end, Higby had a great game. Really good game. It eliminates the Rams from the playoffs

so the defending NFC champs are out. It meant that the Minnesota Vikings clinched a playoff spot. Now, they still have a chance to win the division. They play the Packers tonight if they can win that and then win next week against the Bears with the Packers losing in Detroit. Detroit, then they would win the NFC North. I think the Packers are going to beat the Lions.

So tonight in many ways is sort of meaningless now, except for, of course, Kirk Cousins' 0-N-8 Monday Night record on the line. But the game, as far as the Vikings needing it to clinch a playoff spot, is not meaningful. Yesterday, obviously, the game of the day was the game that was going to decide potentially the NFC East. It's not decided yet. if the Cowboys had won, they would have clinched the NFC East.

It was a great game for Carson Wentz. It was a prove-it game for Carson Wentz. He really hasn't had one of those key moments. And he went 31 of 40 for 319 yards of touchdown, only got sacked once, didn't turn the ball over, and Philadelphia beat the Cowboys 17 to 9. Prescott looked compromised. He was not accurate, throwing the football.

They got away from the run. Zeke Elliott 13 carries 47 yards. There was a moment there in the game where the Cowboys were down 10-6 at half time and opened up the second half on a long drive, and they got into a third-in-one situation, and Tony Pollard was in the game. And they ran a read option, pitched to him, and he fumbled, and that really turned the whole game around. The Cowboys had other chances, down 17 to 9. There were a couple of throws that Prescott probably once back, and a couple that should have been caught. I think Cobb had one that probably, Cobb or, um,

It may have been, was it Cooper? It may have been, I think it was Cobb that dropped the one, or maybe it was Gallop, that dropped the one that looked like it was a touchdown and should have been a touchdown. But the Cowboys lose the game 17 to 9, so the situation is really simple. If Dallas, if the Eagles beat the Giants in the Meadowlands, they win the NFC East, and that'll be four games against division opponents to capture the division title at the end of the year. If they lose the game and the Cowboys beat the Redskins, the Cowboys would get in as an 8-and-8 division winner.

I think the Eagles have a fight on their hands Sunday in the Meadowlands against the Giants. You know, the Eagles are not good, it's not a good pass defense team, and the Giants can throw the football a little bit. You know, they can throw it. I think the Giants actually, if I'm a cowboy fan and I want them to go to the playoffs at this point, I mean, you've got to really wonder, you know, about this team. team, but I would feel good about my chances of beating the Redskins for sure and of the Giants beating the Eagles. That point spread, Aaron, is only four, four and a half, right? I believe four, it might have gotten up to five.

I'm going to look at it right now. Games Sunday, the Redskins. Five and a half. Four-25. It's up to five and a half? Yes. Oh, I only, I've got it four and a half on my site right now. Oh, most Vegas books have it at five and a half right now.

I've got it at four and a half. You may want to play Philadelphia. Well, you're not putting it through me. Sorry. But anyway, so that's going to decide the last playoff spot in the NFC. The 49er Seahawk game Sunday is the late game, the Sunday night game, to decide the NFC West. San Francisco would capture the number one seed if they beat the Seahawks. They're favored at Seattle.

Seattle lost Chris Carson yesterday. They lost Rashad Penny a few weeks back. They are in big trouble. health-wise on offense with their running backs. I'm surprised San Francisco is favored, though, by three on the road at Seattle. But if San Francisco wins that game, they're the one seed in the NFC because they would have beaten the Saints and the Packers head-to-head. If Seattle wins it, then the Saints and or Packers will end up being more likely

than not the number one seed in the NFC. But that's sort of it. The games yesterday, the Saint game, they looked really good, Michael Thomas set the season marked for catches, breaking the Marvin Harrison record, which was pretty incredible. And really, the Cincinnati comeback in Miami, down 23 points with six and a half minutes to go with nothing to play for. And Andy Dalton let them back, and they made two two-point conversions. They were covered an onside kick and a miracle comeback to force overtime, even though they didn't win the game. The Steelers can't score.

they still are alive for that last AFC spots. Tennessee has the inside track, a win against Houston, and I think Tennessee gets that last spot, and I would think Houston doesn't have a lot to play for. Pittsburgh and Oakland are still alive. Boy, they would both need Tennessee to lose and then a bunch of other things to get that last spot

in the AFC playoffs as a wild card team. All right. That's it for the day. I was going to mention the Isaiah Thomas getting suspended, the Wizards Guard getting suspended for two games. If you missed this on Saturday night, he went into the crowd and confronted two 76er fans in Philadelphia who were middle-fingering him and dropping F-bombs on him. Why, you ask? Because he made the second of two free throws, which meant that the fans didn't get a free frosty. Isaiah, you can't go into the crowd, dude. Stay away from those people. The two fans were banned from the Wells Fargo Arena for a year, so I guess that's good. The Monday night game tonight,

I don't have a smell test on it. I don't have a smell test on any of the bowl games on Christmas Eve or the day after Christmas Day. So we'll be back here on the 27th on Friday with a lot of smell test picks for the weekend. But I just wanted to say, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, Happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanza, happy everything to all of you out there. I appreciate the support. Aaron does as well. Tommy does as well. Really hope you have a nice, pleasant holiday, and we will be back on Friday.