The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Wentz Opening Aftermath

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

Kevin and Thom today on the increasing confidence around Carson Wentz and the Washington offense after their season-opening 28-22 win over Jacksonville. Lots more on the Commanders in the opening segment before the boys got to the incredible decision the Broncos made last night to attempt a 64-yd field goal instead of letting Russell Wilson try to pick up a 4th and 5. Some Cowboys, Mug-Gate, and MLB rules' changes discussion on the show today as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show today presented by my bookie.

Chiefs Chargers Thursday night. What a game that is. The first on Amazon Prime this year. Tommy taught a class on Georgetown on Thursday night and discussed some of the games on Amazon Prime, I believe. I think that's what you said to me. in our last show. Yes.

Yes, that's a big topic of the business of sports media. Is what a dramatic change that is. And it will be interesting to see. It's an experiment of sorts. Not so much for people at home, but the whole sports bar thing, because, you know, there's some bars that don't necessarily have direct TV. Or Amazon.

Prime. They aren't going to be able to show the game. Yeah. That's going to be a challenge. You'll hear some stuff about that. Well, it may be a challenge to watch it. It's not a challenge to bet on the game. Just because the game isn't accessible to you if you don't have Amazon Prime or DirecTV,

doesn't mean you can't bet the game and follow it on your phone. The chances of winning or losing aren't in... Sometimes you're better off not watching after you. you bet a game. Well, the chances don't increase. Your winning chances don't increase because you're watching the game or not watching it. But my bookie offering a double deposit bonus to our listeners. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. deposit, $250. There will be $500 in your account. Deposit $1,000. There will be $2,000 in your account. It's quick, it's easy to claim your bonus. Register today.

Use my promo code Kevin D.C. Again, Kevin D.C. at mybookie.com or my bookie. It's only week two of the NFL season. Plenty of time to get in on the action. Don't miss out. Begin your winning season today exclusively at MyBooky. The smell test has not gotten off to a good 20-22 start. 3-5 in one week one, three-and-five this past weekend.

So that would make me 6, 10, and won through the first two weekends of the NFL season. And Tommy, I saw this on Twitter from, I don't know who put it out. It's one of the sports gambling guys on Twitter. In college football, the top eight teams in the country on Saturday, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame. were all big favorites, none of them covered. In the NFL, three of the biggest favorites on the board, the 49ers, the Bengals and the Broncos, none of them covered.

Not only that, in the NFL games, those three teams were beaten outright. And so for me, as an underdog better primarily, I was unable to take advantage of it. I had the wrong underdogs, damn it. But the NFL in college football this past weekend was really quite insane and fun and dramatic. And the game last night, which we are going to save for the second segment of the podcast today, just added to the week one zaniness. And what an ending and what a decision by Nathaniel Hackett. I'm pretty sure we won't talk about a worst decision by a head coach the rest of this year.

That's how strongly I feel about how wrong Nathaniel Hackett was last night in his first game. But we will get to that in the next segment. We start with your reaction. I gave my full recap of the Commander's debut game against Jacksonville on Sunday, a game that they came back in one in the fourth quarter behind Carson Wentz, 28 to 22. They're 1-0. They're headed to Detroit, where they are.

are now two, two and a half point underdogs, for those of you that are interested. They were last week at this time, one to one and a half point favorites in the look ahead line. They are now two, two and a half point underdogs. So a lot of sharp money has come in on the lions since Sunday because the lions looked good against Philadelphia. But they scored 35 points. They did. And they, you know, they lost the game to Philly by three. Now, they, they were down 17 in the fourth quarter. They were down 38 to 21 in that game, and they couldn't stop Philadelphia at all. I think Philadelphia is really dangerous offensively. But anyway, what did you think of the opener? Well, like I wrote in my column is, it was, there was more than just

the game going on. This was the first game of the new era of the Washington commanders. There was a crowd there that was clearly ready to root for the new commanders. They came not wanting to be disappointed, I think would have been pretty upset if they were disappointed. So it was an important opportunity for the team not to fail. You know, the whole first impression thing. And I want to go nuts about the crowd. look, it was still the lowest home crowd of any team in the NFL, 58,000. But it was 6,000 more than last year, and there were primarily commanders fans.

And they were pretty loud and pretty enthusiastic. And that, to me, was the more impressive thing than the actual, you know, what happened on the football field. So it was a timely opportunistic win, comeback win, I might want to point out by the commanders. I think it doesn't tell you anything about what the rest of the season is going to be like. Yeah, anything else? That's pretty much it. Okay. So real quickly, because I spent, you know, a minute acknowledging that it was definitely an enthusiastic crowd.

I watched it on television. You could feel it. It felt much different than the games at FedEx Field in recent years. I don't know. The giant game last year on Thursday night football, and I know there were a lot of giant fans. But I remember saying that crowd was, you know, it looked like you were watching an NFL game. Whereas at times when you see games at FedEx Field, you think you're. watching a game, you know, out of the Sunbelt.

But, you know, on a Tuesday night or a Mac game on Tuesday night. But it was very enthusiastic. And I know a few people that were working at the game and a few people who went to the game who said, really good crowd. Now, I just, the announced attendance, the paid attendance, excuse me, was 58,192, which is a good sign for them because that is an increase from where they were. a year ago. And what that means is, I believe more than anything else, is that their season ticket base has increased. You know, I think it's probably in that 35 to 40,000 range, you know,

somewhere in that range. Now, what I was told is the paid attendance was different than the actual attendance. The actual attendance may have been closer to like 50 or 51, but still, that's really good for this franchise recently. And it was enthusiastic, in part because it was really an exciting and dramatic game, you know, and it got off to a great start, although, you know, when went through the two picks, there were Taylor Heineke chance going on. So I, there are a couple of things that I wanted to talk about, you know, a day later, after, you know, kind of the, you know, recap, you know, post-game mode of Mondays. And I'm glad I'm able to do this with you.

The first thing that I wanted to ask you, and I'll give my answer after, is, you know, other than what you've said, and by the way, I agree with you, I think week one is very, very often fools gold, head fake, not much to really take out of it in terms of what the teams will be. Last year, I think I pointed this out on yesterday's show, the Packers lost 38 to 3 to the Saints on opening day in a game play. played on a neutral field in Jacksonville because of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. And Green Bay went on to have the best record in the NFC. And Tennessee lost its opener 38 to 13 and went on to have the number one seed, earn the number one seed in the AFC. So you get that kind of thing every year in week one. But I did have one major takeaway that I think has legs out of,

of week one. And I'm wondering if you have one or two. Well, I think, like I said, before, I know the defense played well in the second half. You know, everything has to be tempered with

Jacksonville Jaguars are a bad football team. They're bad. I mean, they're not much different. The team I saw on Sunday wasn't much different from the team that took the feel last year. I mean, they're, a bad football. I don't think the Jaguars could score 35 points if nobody else was on the field

with them. I don't think that we know that we're... I disagree. I don't think we know for sure that they're bad. I'm not saying that they're good, but I don't think... The team I saw was bad. Okay. I think that more likely than not, it's not a good team, but I would bet you that it's a better team than the team last year. I didn't see the team from last year. It would be hard not to be. It would be hard not to be better than last year. It's true. All right. So what else?

Is there a big takeaway? Well, again, I mean, I think the offense has a chance to be explosive. I think the offense is going to need to be explosive to win some games. I think when they start playing the varsity, the defense is really going to be challenged in terms of past, you know, past the year. defense and things like that. And their linebacking crew still is, I mean, you know, Rivera went out of his way pretty much to say, I mean, Jammin Davis continues to be a disappointment to them. So I just think that what I saw before the season, that if they're going to win games,

they're going to have to score a lot of points, I think is possible still. I think with the wide receiving court that they have and a health. Curtis Samuel, they have the potential to put up a lot of points. But I think defensively, they're going to struggle. So, yeah, well, we're kind of in agreement to a certain extent. I think for me, and I watched the game again yesterday, you know, condensed form primarily, and I went throw it pretty quickly. But I think what I had been talking about all offseason and all preseason, the biggest disappointment to me would be if the offense isn't significantly better, significantly improved. And that's a low bar considering what it's been. But I thought it had

real potential to be a really good NFL offense. Now, that's contingent on the quarterback being really good. And Scott Turner being the guy that I think he is. creative enough, smart enough to figure it out, which to me that was a really good sign what Scott Turner did with all of those weapons. I think he called a great game. I think he had them very well prepared. I think he had the advantage of Jacksonville

not really knowing what was coming, but Jacksonville for sure was confused consistently. And they've got real talent, real skill position talent, on the field. And I think the thing that I, in going back and watching it is, you know, assuming that they stay healthy, that Curtis Samuel stays on the field, that Dotson stays on the field, that Gibson continues to be a big part of what they do. And even when Brian Robinson Jr. comes back, Gibson is a big part of what they do. I gave Gibson, you know, just a slight nod as the number one star of the game over, you know, Duran Payne and Curtis Samuel and Derek

Forrest and I had a guy from PFF on who said Derek Forrest had the highest grade. Duran Payne had the second highest grade and Gibson had the third highest grade. I just thought Gibson was great. And I'm a Gibson fan, minus the fumbling. So I didn't know what we were going to get in the opening. Remember last week I was telling you, I wouldn't be surprised based on what Ron Rivera said if we see a lot of Jonathan Williams. Well, we didn't.

And I'm glad they gave Antonio that opportunity. He had 21 touches in a game two weeks ago before the Brian Robbins. Robinson incident downtown, there's no way that Gibson would have touched the ball 21 times. And he was outstanding. But to me, what really has legs, even though it was just the opener, is this has a chance to be not just a good offense compared to their recent offenses. That goes without saying. It has a chance to be a good NFL offense, like a really good NFL offense. Now, it comes down to the quarterback, not, you know, putting, you know, his own team and the other team in position to win games, which is what he's done recently and did it on Sunday.

You know, as people have described it, and I described it this way after seeing the ESPN.com headline yesterday morning, week one, Washington gets the full Carson once experience, you know, and we did in week one, because those two picks falling behind 2214, and then facing third down and eight from their own 24, this conversation that we're having today and the show I did yesterday would have been far different. But I don't know that I would have thought anything other than, yeah, maybe they blew it, but they still have a chance to be explosive

and really difficult to check offensively. I think Scott Turner is going to figure it out and continue to figure it out and have good game plans and figure out a way to spread it around. and I think Wence is an NFL armed quarterback. So this is a threat to a defense, but it comes down to him not making as many bad plays, decision-wise, as good plays. But that has legs for me, this offense.

I'm actually excited as dispassionate as I've become about this team because I really like Dotson, I really like Logan Thomas, I really like Terry McClorn and Anton. Tonyo Gibson. And I think Curtis Samuel is, you know, we saw what we were missing last year. I'm, and I like Scott Turner. These are guys that I've been pushing. So it's a little bit selfish here because I've been pushing these guys. And I've been saying, I think these guys are pretty good. And I think you're wrong about Scott Turner. I think he's got a chance to be a really good coordinator in this league because he was scheming it up on some Sundays the last two years with

nothing. But I feel good about the offense. The other thing, which is a concern, which I think has legs. It dovetails a little bit off of what you said, but it's not really the whole defense. I'm concerned about their ability to stop the run. Jacksonville's biggest, you know, complaint, if you're a fan or you're a media host in that town, has to be, how did we rush the ball for nearly seven yards a carry? and we let our quarterback who is a work in progress right now throw it 42 times and we only ran it 18 times. Well, guess what? Detroit's going to try to run it because they know that the best way for Jared Goff to be effective is to be balanced.

We know Philadelphia, the number one rush offense from last year, and they rush for 220 and their opener against Detroit. They're going to run the ball. Dallas isn't going to have any chance other than to run the football. then you get Tennessee coming in here in week five. I said that Duran Payne was a monster. I'm standing by that. Somebody sent me an email.

I'm going to read it to you in a minute. I thought that the front four actually was really good. I thought Allen was good. I thought sweat was good. I thought pain was outstanding. But I'm concerned about everything behind them. And their ability, for whatever reason, to not be consistent in stopping the run. And they weren't last year.

When teams needed to run the ball against them, they did. So I'm concerned about that, but I'm confident that this offense is going to be a fun offense to watch and a very productive one on the field. Relative to other good NFL offenses, not relative or comparative to what it's been here recently. That's an easy bar to clear. Now, let me just, we talk, you talk about Scott Turner a lot there, and I agree with you. you. And apparently Ron Rivera agrees with you because most of what he did in the postgame press conference Sunday was talk about Scott Turner and his play calling. You know, I don't know if I've heard too many coaches talk about their coordinators as much as Ron Rivera did after a win like that.

Both of them, the offense and the defense, and he wasn't particularly glowing about Jack Del Rio and the defense. He kept using words like, corrected and adjustments when it came to talking about Del Rio. There were a couple of compliments. There were a couple of compliments. Look, because he's smart enough to know how it sounded. He said he appreciated the way that Jack Dale Rio handled the defense.

Well, that's nice. Compared to what he talked about with Scott Turner, I mean, that's night and day. And I think you're right about it. I think Turner has a chance to be a head coach in this in this league. I think he's that good. And particularly if this offense is explosive at times as they can be, people are going to notice that. Plus, he's got the North Turner name behind them. But I still think that Jack Del Rio is in trouble. I think that the coach going out of his way

to mention things that they need to get fixed, they need to get corrected. He didn't say, for the most part, He didn't say, I need to fix this. He didn't say we need to fix this. He said Jack needs to fix this. It was unusual for a head coach to talk so much about their coordinators as Ron did on Sunday. And part of that was the byproduct of the questions. You know, there are a lot of questions about the coordinators. And I think the reporters that cover this team have come to the conclusion.

It's probably right that the coordinators have a lot to do. do with this team. You know, they have a lot to do to see what happens on the football field. Remember what you reported? It's not necessarily, yes. Remember what you reported last year? About Del Rio? Yes. What did you report? Do you remember what you said? Yeah, and this was when Rivera was going through his treatments in particular, that Del Rio was calling the shots on a lot of the team and was seen as a guy who was really running. the team. I'm not sure if that's the case anymore or not. But, I mean, the coordinators have a big

role in this, and I just don't remember that kind of profile happening in years past, not even with Jake, not even when they had these future head coaches as great, you know, as coordinators. I just don't remember them getting mentioned and talked about as much as this group is. and I'd feel a lot better. If I was Scott Turner, I'd feel a lot better in Jack Del Rio based on Rivera's comments. Well, I think, and I've said this before, by the way, the Scott Turner thing, I think we talked about together.

I said it would not surprise me if this offense becomes what it could become if Scott Turner, you know, at the end of the year, as one of those guys mentioned as a head coaching candidate. And, you know, it's because he's, you know, would have done a good job with a, you know, if it ends up being a highly ranked offense, especially if it's a winning team to go with it, but the last name's really going to help. But what you're describing Ron Rivera, and I think we had this conversation at some point in the offseason, he is more of a, in a CEO role as a head coach than he was in Carolina.

even though he had good coordinators and good defensive coordinators, you know, in Carolina. Sean McDermott, you know, as an example. And the guy that coached Wilkes, who coached for a year in Arizona before getting run as a head coach. But I think, you know, the coach-centric model, and I think a lot of what he's gone through, you know, personally, perhaps has put him into a different situation as a head coach. So maybe that's why you hear a lot of that as well. I don't have a problem with that. There are other, you know, again, I don't know what the breakdown would be. I'd have to think about this more.

How many coaches are truly like CEOs where they totally rely on an offense and defensive coordinator. At first blush, I would say, you know, most of the head coaches have an expertise and an intimate involvement, if not direct, like play-calling involvement in one side of the ball or the other. You know, like Robert Salad, I'm going down the latest, your favorite thing, the power rankings on ESPN.com, which just came out. Robert Salah in New York, you know, defensive guy, I think he calls the defensive plays. Doug Peterson and Jacksonville calls the offensive snaps. Lovie Smith in Houston probably, I'm guessing, is a bit of a bit of a CEO.

You know, last night they flashed up, you know, the oldest coaches in the history of the league. And did you know that Belichick and Pete Carroll, both at 70 years old and Pete Carroll about to turn 71, are two of the five oldest coaches in the history of the game? And the oldest is coaching right now, and that's Lovie Smith. Did you, I didn't. Yeah, I did see that.

I would have figured that there were others along the way at some point. point. Hallis was up there and somebody else I'm forgetting. Anyway. Marve Levy. Marvee. Exactly. At 72. Hallis and Levy were both coaching at 72 years old. Anyway, I'm not going to go through this list. I would

guess that most coaches aren't you know, total delegators. And I think Ron is. Yeah, it is. And I don't know, I mean, as long as it work, Tomlin's a delegate. They're okay with it. Huh?

Tomlin's a delegator. Okay. You know, Belichick is a little bit. I haven't seen a lot of Tomlin press conferences. Right. So I don't know. You know, if he goes out of his way to mention him, or if the press corps assumes that the coordinators are running the team,

I just thought that was a bit unusual in the wake of a big win to go out of his way. And, you know, I mean, you know, I guess you could say that's a good thing, giving credit, spreading the credit around, you know, but he also spread someone to blame around, too. Pete Carroll, I'm just thinking about last night as a delegator. The, John Harbaugh is a delegate. There's probably more guys that are head coaches overseeing the whole thing and letting their coordinators do their thing. But there are also a lot of guys that, you know, Frank Reich and Sean McVeigh and

and Kevin O'Connell and Matt LaFleurr, you know, that are calling plays too. Anyway, whatever. Sidetracked. I wanted to read this quick tweet from Skins something. There's a combination of letters and numbers. Kevin, you love Duran Payne so much. I don't get it. He's replaced K.C., I'm assuming that means Kirk Cousins.

And Phil, I'm assuming that means Philip Rivers, as your latest crush. Pain was average in the game. They got run on. Lawrence missed so much. Defense wasn't very good other than the backup safety. And oh, by the way, how's Anthony Richardson doing with a laughing emoji? Love you, Kev.

We'll be listening. Anyway, so I wanted to just, first of all, say, because I didn't acknowledge this yesterday, I went nuts last week over Anthony Richardson, the quarterback at Florida and the performance against Utah in the opener, and he was not good the other night in their loss against Kentucky. I'm not off of him. I'm going to bet anybody any amount of money he's a first round pick in the NFL draft, and he might be a top half of the first round, first round pick. But you're right, Trevor Lawrence missed a ton.

One of the things that I noticed in going back over the game, I thought William Jackson, I thought the corners did not play very well at all. Derek Forrest was outstanding. The corners in particular, including Fuller, but really Jackson, for my money wasn't very good. And I think a really a much better quarterback other than Lawrence, who I'm a fan of, but he's a work in progress. I think, you know, that defense could have been shredded on Sunday.

But yes, I am a Payne fan. I've been a Duran Payne fan since the moment that we saw him as a rookie. I think the biggest disappointment with Duran Payne is his consistency. No one has debated Duran Payne's talent and his ceiling. Jack Dill Rio, One of the first players he mentioned in 2020 when he got here, he said, after watching the tape, I can't wait to watch pain. The reason that they didn't sign them to a contract extension is, A, they've got a lot of money

invested in the D-line and John Allen and a lot more to come in sweat and Chase Young. But the other part is that pain hasn't been consistent, you know, and I'm wondering if Sunday was a harbinger of things to come because this is a contract year. because if it is, he is a destructive, disruptive player on defense as an interior defensive lineman when he's playing at his top level. I mean, he by himself got Jacksonville off the field on four third downs in the game, including the last third down that Jacksonville had, which was a monster play to get the ball back after they had that big run by E.N. into Washington territory.

Do I love him? Do I have as much of a crush on him as Kirk or Philip Rivers? No chance. No chance. No. Philip, I think, I think Rivers is my all-time other teams player crush. I just loved Philip Rivers. I loved watching him manage a game. I just, you know, and by the way, in an opposite sense, you know, personality-wise from Cousins, The reason I root for Cousins is because this team butchered it so badly. And from the jump, as Tommy knows, because we were doing a show, I said from the jump, this dude's a starting NFL quarterback,

and he's going to be a starting top half of the league quarterback at some point down the road, which he's become, I've already won on Kirk Cousins. It doesn't matter what happens this year and next. I already won. I never said he was an MVP or an elite guy. He is what I thought he was, which. is why this team should have acted quickly and signed him with a legitimate contract offer. And then when they knew he wasn't going to stay and that they weren't willing to offer

him a big contract offer, they should have traded him. All these things I said in live time. Anyway, yes, I love Duran Payne. And I'm looking forward to the kind of season, as Doc says, as he's chasing the bag, as he's chasing the money, the kind of season that he could have. The problem, of course, with Washington right now defensively along that front is the loss of Mathis now for the year. They were counting on him a lot. I mean, they drafted him in the second round. They let Settle walk for peanuts. They let ionitis walk.

Ionitis wanted to walk. But they did not invest in depth other than Phil Mathis, and Big Phil's gone now. and Allen and Payne playing, you know, they played like 75 to 80% of the snaps on Sunday. Hold on, I want to look that up because I had that in a conversation this morning on radio. It was way too, 79 and 77% of the defensive snaps. That's too much on a hot day for an interior D-Linman. It should be in the 50s, 60s, tops. And, you know, D-Ns, a little bit different, but interior D-Lin.

defensive lineman, they get rotated. You need a rotation there. They signed some guy Donovan Jeter, so I don't know what'll happen there. They played at 97 Obata a little bit inside during the game. I noticed when I went back and watched the game as well. But, yeah, I think pain is up there in terms of true overall ability with sweat, with Chase Young, with Terry McCorn, with Antonio Gibson. You know, he's one of the true talents on the team.

I'd love to see him realize it. And then let the team deal with that when the season's over. They can always franchise them, although that's, you know, it's probably not the way. You know what we never talked about. What? We never talked about the Mike Silver report about the fight between Allen and Payne last year on the sideline. and how Silver reported recently that when they got to the locker room at halftime, it was much more brutal.

Yeah, you sent that to me. And they had a hard time breaking them up. And there were cuts and bruises out of that fight. You know, I mean, that kind of has gotten lost. Yeah, no, you said that to the Mike Silver reported, you know, for the first time that it went beyond the sideline dust up into the locker room and got very ugly. Yeah. There's been a lot going on with the defensive line group, room, coach who's gone,

Sam Mills over the last two years. A lot going on. There are personality differences, major personality differences among the D-Lineman. John Allen is the ultimate. pro. He's the ultimate grown-up. He's also the ultimate, you know, kick your ass if you're not doing what, you know, he thinks you should be doing to win, the kind of guy you'd like to have in that role. And not everybody else is in the same boat personality-wise. And then they all had an issue with the defensive line coach who's now gone. And so it's the strength of the team,

Well, it's not. The wide receiver and skill position group is the strength of this team. Right. That's clear now. But it's been the perceived strength of this team, and it still should be a really strong part of this team with the talent they have, especially when Chase Young gets back. But I don't think anything's ever gone smoothly among that whole group. I'll just leave it at that. Maybe with the new coach, maybe with the pressure on performing this year for everybody, it'll come to, together. Pain had a good game. Alan had a good game. Sweat had a good game, you know, on Sunday.

Let me stop you right there. Let me stop you there. Okay. Sweat wound up having a good game. Early on, he was somewhat invisible. I mean, the whole defensive line played much better in the second half, I thought, than they did in the first half. And sweat did wind up having a good game, which I think at least three quarterback curries. But, you know, early on, I did not think he played well. I went back and watched the game. I think Allen, well, I think pain was the star of the defensive line, but I thought Allen was really good at times. And I'll tell you what, Tommy, you know, one thing that is happening without Chase Young there is teams are really game planning for Montes Sweat. And I think Sweat took a lot of the heat, which allowed pain and some of the

inside guys to thrive. Also, Del Rio ran a ton of stunt. action, which also the attention goes to sweat fring things up. No, I would disagree with you. I don't think sweat had one of his best games, but I think sweat and I think the issue for them defensively on Sunday was linebacker and secondary minus Derek Forrest. That was their issue. What did sweat end up having statistically? I don't even know. I didn't even look at the stats. I know he had three quarterback, three quarterback hurry. Well, he had, you know, he obviously was the one who pressured Lawrence on that final play. He got through.

They actually got really good pass rush pressure. Some of it was schemed up with blitzes, with slot corner blitzes. In fact, I said yesterday, William Jackson, I thought had a bad game. And I stand by that. The only reason I would say he was not the worst defensive player on the field was he was really effective as a blitzer. So Del Rio was aggressive and more aggressive in the first half. I don't know.

Yeah, whatever. They've got a sweats the focus with Chase Young out of offensive coordinators. Well, I wasn't that the case last year when Chase Young went out. Well, because at times, sweat was out. And at times, sweat was injured as well. But it was at times. You know, it absolutely was, which is one of the reasons sweat didn't end up with a lot. Look, sweat really benefited from having Chase Young on the other side in Chase's rookie year.

I mean, the two of them together, playing the scheme and playing at their, you know, top end level is going to be a problem for teams. And we can go through the list of quarterbacks. We've done that before in 2020. That was certainly part of it. And last year, you know, it sucked even before the. the injuries started. And by the way, Chase Young wasn't always the guy. Montes Sweat, even with Chase Young on the field, was sometimes the attention getter

for an offensive coordinator. If you go back to that playoff game against Tampa, you know, sweat is isolated and focused in on by the OC as much as Chase Young was in that game. You know, that was the biggest misconception about Chase Young's poor playoff game against Tampa is that he had been doubled the entire game. Well, he wasn't. He was just owned in that game. But anyway, I wanted to play two back-to-back sound bites from Ron Rivera's press conference yesterday. The first one, he was asked on how the team was able to rally after they fell behind 22 to 14 and after two interceptions from Carson Wentz. Here's what he said.

A lot of it really falls on the quarterback, you know, in terms of getting the ball distributed and having somebody make a play. And you complete a big pass on third down and also there's some energy and, you know, we start rolling. And then he throws the deep one to Terry. And you could see the defense feed off and knowing we had to get the ball back. And the defense fell off of it very well. And so that energy sometimes created by playmakers, a guy makes a play, you know, a big conversion, a big throw. And next thing you know, we're off to the race.

races and and credit to Scott on that one because when Scott made the play call, he told Carson, hey, take a long look at Terry if he's there, throw it. And that's exactly what happened. And that type of energy, that type of play, you know, really sparked it because in the second, the pass rush really stepped up, you know, guys played really stout at the line, limiting their opportunities. And we made a couple of plays. You know, that was another, you know, Ron Rivera long answer, but, you know, he did once again give credit, as you mentioned, he did on Sunday. And again yesterday, you heard him giving Scott Turner credit. And he did that a lot. You're right. Man, you know, it falls back on the quarterback. You know, he's got to get it done. And I go back to the biggest

play of the game, in my opinion. It's the third and eight. You know, it's the third and eight down 2214 reeling. And our guy at that point hasn't, you know, has thrown a pass for a minus one yard to Curtis Samuel on second down. That was his next pass after two straight interceptions on the previous possessions. And now it's third and eight. You're down eight and you got to make something happen. And they picked up the blitz and he was patient and he hits Logan Thomas. And And the next play, they go deep. And they go deep on a perfect strike. And Scott Turner, as you heard Ron Rivera said, you know, he told Carson, hey, take a long look at Terry.

And if he's there, throw it. And that's exactly what happened. Man, these games are fine lines in the NFL more than maybe any other sport. They were reeling. They were about to lose. and in two plays, two plays, a third and eight and then a 49-yard bomb, which they are capable of doing this year, and turning it around in two plays offensively with the playmakers they have.

And with a quarterback, they can make those kinds of throws. They were back in the game, just like that. Here's the second part, and this is the important one that I wanted you to hear. The follow-up question to Rivera after, you know, he talked about rallying, you know, behind Carson. He was asked how important it was for him as a coach to see Wentz bounce back like that. Here's what he said. Well, I think that's very important. I really do.

But what I thought was really cool was, you know, in the post-game locker room talk he gave about, he accepted responsibility right away, saying, I got to throw the ball better. You know, I can't do that. I think speaking up like that, I think his teammates hearing him take responsibility and ownership of his own play, that was huge. And so that's important, not just to me and his teammates, but to him. You know, I think that was huge. Tommy, I felt the same way watching Carson Wentz's press conference after the game. I thought as it relates to the two interceptions, he took all the blame.

He did it in a, you know, in kind of a self-bend. deprecating way. And Ron Rivera pointing this out as what he thought was really important was the post-game locker room talk, accepting the responsibility of the two interceptions.

And when he says, speaking up like that, I think his teammates hearing him take responsibility and ownership of his own play, that was huge. That's important. Not just, you know, to me and his teammates, but to him, I think,

that was huge, closed quote. I know what I thought immediately after hearing this yesterday. I'm wondering what you thought. Well, again, I temper it with the knowledge that Carson Wentz isn't an idiot, and he knows the narrative about him. And I know part of the criticisms of him is that he's stubborn. But what overwhelms all that criticism is that he's difficult to get along with and doesn't accept blame. So he's going to face his reactions on the narrative that's out there.

And I don't blame. That's not a bad thing. I mean, it takes, you know, I mean, people need to be successful. You need to correct your failings. and at least make an effort, even if it's a sincere effort or an insincere effort, you still need to do it. So what didn't surprise me, he's been kind of self-deprecating, humble throughout all training camps. Right.

I mean, this has been his style. So to stand up there at the press conference and say your words, like things like that was an ugly stretch there and things like that, it's welcomed, obviously, compared, to the latter, but it didn't necessarily surprise me. Look, if there's a Carson-Went virus this year, it's a slow-growing virus. It's not necessarily one that starts off knocking you out right from the start. Well, it also doesn't start after a win. All right, so let's put it in context.

They won the game. It's easy to be self-deprecating and take the blame when you came back and you made all the plays. and led the team to a victory. But I get that from Carson's standpoint. But Ron Rivera, in that answer, for those that think that Carson Wentz in this narrative about him was just a Jim Ursay thing, or it was just, you know, well, the Peterson group,

they were leaving anything. And it's overblown. No, no, no, no. Everybody knows in the game, inside the game, inside Ashburn, what the issue was outside of the, on the field, decision-making accuracy. Because those are really the two things with him as a quarterback on the field. Decision-making and accuracy.

And by the way, we saw that on Sunday. The other part was stubborn, hard to get along with, and really unwilling to take the blame when he is to be blamed. Those are the things that came out consistently about his time in Philadelphia in particular. Ron Rivera is saying that, and Ron Rivera is saying about Carson Wrench, you are welcome here. We want you here. But Ron Rivera is, and I think understands his role as a leader, as a mentor. I think this is one of his strengths.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they've had conversations with Carson about some of this stuff. Like, look, when you get into a situation, which you will, every NFL quarterback does, where it doesn't go your way, except for, responsible. responsibility. You know, build up your teammates when you do well and take blame when you don't do well. And I think that Ron Rivera was really pleased with the way he handled it. Again, it's after a win, you know, and a win in which he played really well over those final two drives. So I just thought it was Ron Rivera telling you, if you didn't know this already, this is the thing that he's had some issues with, but it was huge that he walked in there and he took responsibility.

It was big for him. It was really big for his teammates to hear him take responsibility and ownership over his own play. Anyway, that stood out to me yesterday. It's also, by the way, I'm not using this as a way to criticize or to bring up the fact that this really is what happened. It's to say, hey, he bounced back, which he's done before as a quarterback, led them to a victory, handled the post-game presser in a way that the coach was thrilled with. You know, maybe he is potentially going to turn it around in Washington.

You know, the first week of real games went well for him, ultimately. They won, and everything about it was, look, in some ways, it would have been less dramatic and less revealing had they just won the game 27 to 10. All right. Anything else on Sunday or on this football team? Well, yeah, I wanted to compare Carson Wentz's debut as the starting quarterback for this football team to another starting quarterback's debut with this team. Carson Wentz's offense scored 28 points on Sunday. this other quarterback in his debut, his team scored 30 points.

Carson Wentz's total offense was 390 yards. This other quarterback's total offense was 407 yards. Carson Wentz's passing yards were 305. This other quarterback's passing yards were 320. Yards per play, Carson Wentz's averaged 5.6. yards per play. This other quarterback, 5.9 yards per play. Do you have any idea who I'm talking about? Well, are you talking about a quarterback from this weekend? No. Are you talking about another Washington quarterback who has a debut their first start with this team? Okay. I'm sorry because I was

thinking you were talking about compared to another quarterback in the NFL. I hate for people to have to hear this again, but will you go through those numbers one more time? My God. Okay. 30 points. Okay. Okay. The other quarterback, 30 points.

Right. Carson Wentz, 390 yards total offense. The other quarterback, 407 yards total offense. Mm-hmm. Carson Wentz, 305 yards passing. The other quarterback, 320 yards passing. Carson Wentz's offense. 5.6 yards per play.

The other quarterback's offense, 5.9 yards per play. I just thought it was an interesting contrast because everyone's fawning over Carson Lenn. So that's a hint that this quarterback didn't turn out to be very good. No, it's not. Okay. You said everybody's, you said it because everybody's fawning over the performance. By the way, nobody's fawning over it.

I had it as a B-minus C-plus performance. He turned the ball over twice at a critical time in the game. I don't know. Was it Brad Johnson? Was it Jay Schrader? Was it Gus Ferrat? A little bit closer to home. A little bit more recent.

G6. RG3? Taylor Heineke. Taylor He had 30 points in his first start as a court? His first start was that playoff game against Tampa. They got beat 3123. Okay, I meant his first regular season start. His first regular season start last year against the Giants.

Got it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, Carson Wentz is just almost as good numbers-wise as Taylor Heine. Okay. You know what? they both won too.

Yes, they did. Their first start. But really, if we're being fair, I mean, I know he didn't start the game, but he came in pretty much when the game started because Ryan Fitzpatrick was out pretty much after the first series in the game against the Chargers. But I'm trying to compare it totally like apples to apples.

I know you love using fruit to compare everything, you know. And I'm just comparing apples to apples here. Okay. Total start. You know? All right. And by the way, did the four touchdowns and two interceptions sound familiar to you by a Washington quarterback? The last, I'm going to guess that the last Washington quarterback to throw four touchdowns in a game had to be Kirk.

And two interceptions. Come on, buddy. I know you can do it. also recently? Was that Taylor Heineke? No. No. Was that Dwayne Haskins? Was that Case Keenham? Was that Alex Smith?

Was it Kirk? Was it RG3? The comparison I kept thinking of on Sunday after Carson Wences' performance was Rex Grossman. Oh, okay. Yeah, I disappointed you on that one. I don't think I disappointed you on the first one

because you actually didn't have the actual first start, correct? That's true. I had to amend my question. But it was Rex Grossman. It was a Rex Grossman-like performance on Sunday. There was, you know, I think I, after the game tweeted out, it was an, oh, no, oh, yeah, performance. And there were a lot of those with Rex. That's for sure. I mean, but the thing about Rex and Carson's got some of that in him, they will take risks. You know, that touchdown throw to Dotson, which turned out to be the game winner, on third and eight, very much in field goal range.

I love the throw. I love the catch by Dotson. I mean, that was an incredible catch, but I'm not surprised by that. But, you know, the defender, he's lucky he didn't turn around. Yeah, he had his back to him. But Carson, you know, I don't think has a long memory, which is really important. Rex didn't have any memory at all. all. Rex would stand out on the field after he threw an interception expecting that it was third

down coming up. He had already forgotten it. Okay. We've got to get to the game last night. The first Monday night game of the year, Russell Wilson's return to Seattle and what happened at the end of that game. We'll get to that and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. missed it and the Seahawks are going to win this game. And with that missed 64-yard field goal, the Seattle Seahawks last night at home in the welcome-back Russell Wilson game held on for a 17-16 win over the Broncos. Tommy, before we get to the field goal at the end, which I think has a chance to be the worst decision by a head coach this year in the sport.

maybe in both college and pro football. That was an intense game last night. The games in Seattle that are big always feel intense because the crowd really is a great crowd. And it's one of those stadiums in which you feel it right through the television screen. And that place was amped last night for the return of Russell Wilson. So I'll start with this. What did you make of, you know,

Russell Wilson being booed the way he was in his return? Did you expect that? I'm not sure what I expected, but that was a one-sided booing event when Russell Wilson took the field. Yeah, I don't know what to expect either, what I would have expected either. I was kind of surprised about that. You know, I mean, look, there have been lots of stories written about how, you know,

Russell Wilson is kind of like a phony. And a diva, yes. Yeah, in a lot of ways. So I'm sure the fan base, a well-informed fan base, would have that in mind and would concentrate, you know, would not be the kind of guy that they would like to have a beer with, per se. So I guess that was, that was, you know, the reason for the booing. You know, he was there for 10 years, right?

Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't have booed him if I was a Seattle fan, you know, based on what he did while he was with the Seahawks. I mean, the greatest era of Seahawks football you could argue in history. Oh, easily. I mean, they won the Super Bowl. They went to two of them. Yes. Yes.

I didn't know what to expect. I was kind of interested to see what it would sound like when he took the field. And they didn't receive the opening kickoff. Seattle received the opening kickoff. And Gino Smith, who played great last night. He was 17 of 18 in the first half. Let him down the field and threw a touchdown pass. So when he took the field, they were down 7-0.

I guess one of the things I was expected, I guess I didn't think it would be that one-sided because it's Seattle. It's not Philly. It's not New York. It's not Boston. It's Seattle. They're nice people in Seattle. But you nailed it. None of us ever really know the other teams, fans, and what they've lived through day by day and all of the detail with all that's gone on during those years. Just like it's really hard for people from outside the market to kind of tell us, you know, what to feel and what to think about the team, you know, here. Like, I remember, you remember this, the guy, and I always forget his name. He's on ESPN or used to be on ESPN. He

might not even be on ESPN anymore. But during the whole RG3 controversy and Kirk Cousins taking over, you know, he was, you know, essentially accusing the Washington fan base and media base of being racist. And I just said, why don't you come on my show and we can talk about it? Oh, Bimani Jones. Bumani Jones. Thank you. Oh, yeah.

I'll never forget how gutless he was. Yeah, and I tweeted back to him. I said, this is a town that rooted, cheered, and begged for Doug Williams over Jay Schrader in 1987. And you don't know what you're talking about. And, you know, we knew what was going on with Griffin behind the scenes. We knew what, you know, the coach. were saying and what the players were saying.

And so you never know unless you're living the day-to-day detail of what's going on from outside the market. Those people know, they know what you said. They know, if you read this story, did I suggest to you the other day to read that story about the Russell Wilson saga in Seattle that the guy from ESPN.com wrote? It was really interesting and revealing. You know, they offered him up to Cleveland in 2018 for the number one pick. I can't believe the Browns turned it down.

I mean, just like, you know, just like when Washington offered Cincinnati two first round picks for Chad Ocho Cinco and Mike Brown turned it down. I mean, what? Anyway, this guy, there's a real complex history in Seattle. The relationship he had with the team, the relationship he had with the fan base. And the bottom line is he begged out. He won it out. He won it out a year ago before this last off season when he put out his list of four teams that he would waive his no trade clause. That came from nowhere.

So I guess, you know, despite the fact that the guy was 104, 53, and one as a starting quarterback, he was an all pro five to five. times he was a pro bowler every single year in Seattle with the exception of one season. They were pretty much in the playoffs every year. And it didn't matter. They had this understanding of what they thought he was anyway. And this was not a team deciding to trade a player away. This was a player begging out. Now, the team was looking to replace him, according to this story,

You know, in 2017, when John Schneider was working out Pat Mahomes and said, we got to take this guy if he falls to us. Also, that story revealed that they think Russell Wilson, for all intents and purposes, is done that he's not the Russell Wilson that he was. And, you know, in watching him last night, he was good, but one of the things that was very noticeable, he doesn't run like he used to. He doesn't look to run. They don't have a zone read in the game, I don't think, last night.

There were no designed runs for him, even in short-yardage situation. There were scramble situations last night where I thought he could run, and he didn't. He didn't run a lot last year. Of course, he was hurt last year as well. But that situation was interesting. I think if I felt slighted as a fan by a player, no matter how great the player was, I think I would have booed. I'm not a big booer or a big loud cheerer in general. I usually watch games very nervously.

But yeah, that was interesting. The game itself, before we get to the end, there were a couple players I wanted to mention. Giovante Williams, the running back for Denver, who was in his second year out of North Carolina. Remember two North Carolina running backs got taken in last year's draft. Michael Carter to the Jets, he's a good back. Javante Williams is an elite running back, star running back. and he is really, I like Melvin Gordon a lot. I've always liked Melvin Gordon.

Javante Williams should get 70% of the touches minimum for Denver. That's number one. Number two, Rashad Pennies are really good running back too for Seattle. He had one of the great finishes to a season last year that was completely missed because Seattle was out of contention. But he averaged literally like seven and a half yards per carry and went for well, over 100, including 190 in his final game. As long as he stays healthy, he's also a big time back. I really, really thought that Seattle played a smart game, a well-coached game. Gino Smith, like Jacoby Brissette, I kind of feel the same way about both of them because I've always

liked both of them, even though I wouldn't want either one of them to be my starter. but clearly coaches of like these guys and believe in these guys. Jacoby Brissette won as a starter with the Browns on Sunday. Gino Smith won as a starter. It just goes to show you, Tommy, on quarterbacks. You just have to wait. It takes, if they're not stars right from the jump, but they keep sticking on rosters, there's still a chance.

I mean, Gino Smith was drafted in 2013. And I think he was the first quarterback taken in that draft by the Jets. He's bounced around between the Jets and then he got to play with Eli Manning in New York. He got to play with Philip Rivers with the Chargers and he got to play a couple of years with Russell Wilson in Seattle. Who knows? Maybe it's his time at 31 years old to have a couple of years. He was outstanding last night. And Brissette was pretty damn. am good. He's not as old, right? I don't think, as, as, Gino Smith. Bressett is probably in his late

20s, I'm going to guess. Yeah, he's 29, but Brissette's bounced around. You know, New England, Indy, Miami, and now in Cleveland, and he's going to start all, you know, most of the season until James Winston comes back. And he led, you know. Not James, Winston. Sorry, to Sean Watson. Thank you. I don't know. The quarterback position in general is one in which making early declarations on guys that are drafted high. You know, Gino Smith, I think was the first quarterback taken that year. He was in the second round. Bressett may have been a second rounder as well by the Patriots, by the way, who started him, remember, and they were confident starting him during that Brady deflategate suspension thing. Anyway, just an observation that it takes forever to really.

learn how to play the position well in the NFL. And it's never over if you're still in the league, because if you're still in the league, there's still people that believe in you. You know, Ryan Tannahill was written off. I'm not saying he's great, but he was written off, you know, as a quarterback, a guy that comes to mind, you know, on that. You know, who knows? Mitch Trubisky may have his career resuscitated. There's a reason that Mitch Trubisky is still around and that people are still paying for him. And now he's with a really good organization, and Buffalo loved him as Josh Allen's backup. All right, let's get to the end of the game. I don't know that I've, in recent memory, I've sat there and watched a situation unfold like the end of last night's game

and been more shocked at what I was watching. It started with, for those of you, I'm assuming most of you know what happened at the end of the game right now. Denver's trailing 17-16. By the way, Denver was moving the ball up and down the field in the second half. They dominated time of possession in the second half, but they couldn't get it in the end zone. They fumbled twice at the goal line going in. It was 17-16 Seattle. Russell Wilson and Denver take over at their own 22 with four minutes to go in the game. It's set up perfectly for Russell Wilson. Coming home, the booze, and he's going to do what he did so many times in Seattle, lead a comeback victory, last-minute drive for a win.

And they get out to midfield, and then they go backwards a little bit. And on third and 14 at their own 45-yard line, he throws a check down to Giovante Williams. He gets nine yards to the Seattle 46-yard line with a minute to go in the game. Denver's got all three of their timeouts. So now you're like fourth and five. It's going to come down to this one play.

Field goal never entered my mind. It's going to come down to this one play. It's going to be a huge play. I'm glad they got it back to fourth and five for him, so he's not facing a fourth and 14 or a fourth and ten. Fourth and five, you know, is a pretty, for a guy like Wilson in this league, somebody put up the numbers that he's 54% all time fourth and four, between fourth and four and fourth and six.

So it's better than a 50-50 proposition. It wasn't Seattle for him. And the clock keeps rolling. I'm like, call a time out with about 35 seconds to go. Unbelievable. All right. And they let it run down all the way to 20 seconds and they call their first timeout. That was the first mistake.

Before I was even thinking field goal, I'm like, here's the problem with 20 seconds. You don't want to call the time out right away at a minute. Okay, you don't do that because now, if you end up in a situation where Seattle can use their timeouts, they can end up with a lot of time left over if you kick a go-ahead field goal. So get it down between 30 and 35, and that gives you a bunch of plays to get in really comfortable field goal range. If you convert the fourth and five.

But they didn't take a shot at converting the fourth and five. They put their kicker, McManus, out there, for a 64-yard field goal attempt. Tommy, you know, in this day and age, kickers, it's not what it used to be. You know, today's 60-yard attempt is yesterday's 50-yard attempt. I get that, all right? I do. The legs on these kickers are outrageous. And the willingness to put kickers out at any point during the game for 57, 58, 59-yard field goals, 60-yard field goals,

It's a much different game. 64, however, in 30 years, there have been 35 field goal attempts of 64 yards or longer, and only two of them have been made. So that is, by my math, a 17.5 to one chance based on history. But for the guy that was kicking it, he has tried eight field goals over 60 yards and is one-for-eight career on those. By the way, most of those kicked in Denver, where it is much more acceptable to try a 64-yard field goal in thin air

than it is at sea level or 100 feet above sea level in Seattle. He's won, by the way, 0-4-6 in kicks over 62 yards. Ofer for him. And this Nathaniel Hackett in his first game is ahead. head coach. Hell of an offensive mind. Did a great job with the Packers and Matt Lafleur and Aaron Rogers the last couple of years. He puts his field goal kicker out there instead of giving Russ the ball. Look, the easy thing to highlight is the fact that the quarter of a billion dollar quarterback that you traded for, you're taking the ball out of his hands and putting it on the foot

of a kick who's never made a kick beyond 62 yards to kick a 64-yarder. On fourth and five, That's insane. It was literally insane. Now, there are a couple of things I know. First of all, ESPN did not have a particularly good night in their broadcast. I mean, when they were showing, one, they were showing like a first down, how close the ball was the first down. they gave a shot which basically showed the disc of the yard markers blocking the ball. So you couldn't see where the ball was.

There were a couple of other shots that were just really poor. Were you okay with Aikman and Buck? I like Akeman and Buck. Akeman at one point said Michael Jackson, he's a great receiver. I used to be a great singer. Akeman said that. Yeah, that was a stupid thing to say. But, you know, they did not see Russell Wilson walking to the sideline like we did.

We saw Russell Wilson go to the sideline, take his helmet off. But I thought he was walking to the sideline because it was a timeout, and they were going to discuss the play. I was shocked. I thought he was walking to the sideline that they were going to kick the field goal. Certainly, Aikman and Buck were shocked because. But they were caught off guard that they were actually kicking a field goal in that situation. Well, they were also hung up like I was on how long it took him to take a time out. It's like it's getting dicey.

Like if you convert this, you're going to use your second timeout, but now you're only going to have one to two snaps to get in much better field goal shape. I would have called it with 35 seconds left, so I was still thinking about that. No, but when Russell Wilson went to the sideline and took his helmet off, I just thought they're discussing what they're going to do on fourth and five. And then the next thing I know it, you see McManus coming onto the field. I'm like, what's he doing? I mean, again.

Here's the other thing. Yeah. Here's the other thing. Why didn't Russell Wilson put up more of a fight? Not only that. He said, you know, all of, I guess, the right things in his first game with his new coach. He said, we had an hack. said the same thing. The 46

was the target. 64 yards in that direction was the range. I mean, okay, that's in a desperation situation. Like, that's one second left. Are we going to throw the Hail Mary? Are we going to let this guy try a 64-yard or? Okay, he can make a 64-yarder. I'm putting him out on the field in that situation.

Because I got a better chance with that more likely than the Hail Mary. Okay? But not with fourth and five in 20 seconds left and what should have been 30 to 35 seconds left and still two timeouts. I still, by the way, even with 20 seconds to go, I got a chance to convert the fourth and five, all right, to get the ball to like the 40 yard line, maybe if it's just barely making the first down, call another timeout, and we can run another play or two before we kick a field goal. So we can get into that range of, you know, hopefully 45 to 52 yards, which is, you know, or maybe better. I mean, I got Cortland Sutton as a time.

target. I've got KJ. Hamler. I've got, you know, I've got Big Albert O running down the field all night long. You know, I've got Jerry Judy who might beat somebody deep for a touchdown. Who knows? I'm not putting, again, I want to make this clear. The idea of taking it out of Russell Wilson's hands in the context of they hadn't really been stopped between the 20s and the percentages of them making it with Russell Wilson on the field in that spot against a gassed defense are pretty good. There's certainly a lot better than making a 64-yard field goal. But to me, it wouldn't have mattered who the quarterback or what the situation is. If Ben Danucci had been the quarterback, if Nate Sudfeld had been the quarterback,

I would have had them out there running fourth and five. We got 64-yard or this dude's never made anything beyond 62. he's 0 for 8. 0 for 6 beyond 62, 1 for 8 beyond 60. Like the chances are much less than 10%. I've got a much better chance of converting 4th and 5, and if I have to then kick a 58-yard field goal, okay.

It's one of the dumbest effing decisions I think I've ever seen, analytically, mathematically, feel for the game, context, everything. And the irony is he nearly made it. It almost went through that left corner of the crossbar of the upright. He had the distance just barely, but it obviously hooked left. By the way, did you notice too? He got a chance at one of those practice kicks because Seattle called a time out.

And that kick went far left and was short. At that point, if I was Hackett, I would have said, whoa, Okay, special teams, coach. You liked 64 in this direction. You feel really good about it? Uh-uh. Did you just see that practice kick? I'm putting Russell Wilson back on the field.

But he didn't. And Russell didn't put up a fight. I mean, he didn't order the kicker off the field. No, he didn't. Like a lot of quarterbacks would have. Like Peyton Manning, who apparently went ballistic on the Manning cast, over the call would have would have ordered the dumb kicker to get on the drum kicker to get off the field

yeah i mean it's really quite amazing by the way this got me um this morning into this um deep uh conversation about field goal kickers and you're going to actually um like something here um because i'm going to ask you a question uh here in a moment i'm wondering if you'll have the answer we're asking a lot of questions of each other today um trying to stump each other, you with the quarterback questions. Justin Tucker's 66-yard field goal last year in Detroit is the longest field goal in

NFL history. It should have never taken place from 66 yards because the referees totally botched a delay a game penalty on that kick. Matt Prater had owned the record at 64 yards since 2013. And before that, Tom Dempsey's 63-yard field goal in 1970. Andy had held up as the longest field goal in NFL history. He shared that record with Jason Elam, a Denver kicker, who had tied that 63-yard length in 1998.

But that was a 28-year record, but really it wasn't broken until 2013. So, you know, add another 15 years to 28. It's a record that stood for 43 years, that's 63. But this got me to something else because somebody tweeted me and said, don't forget, Mosley tried one from 74. So I looked up the longest attempted field goals in NFL history. The longest attempted field goal in NFL history, Sebastian Janakowski tried a 76-yard field goal in 2008 and it came up short.

The second longest field goal attempt in NFL history, Mark Mosley in 1979 against the Giants at the end of the first half and it came up short. Now, here's the question for you. Do you know what the fair catch kick rule is? The fair catch free kick rule in the NFL? No, I don't. Most people don't. And this is where Mosley is how Mosley attempted a 74-yard field goal.

If you call a fair catch on a punt return, you can choose, as your next play, a free field goal attempt without the defense being able to rush the kicker. It's called a fair catch free kick. It is a rule. It's an obscure rule. but recently it came up, I want to say it came up either last year or the year before in an NFL game. But you'll see sometimes at the end of a half a fair catch and the contemplation of a free kick. And you can do that at the end of the game. You can do it whenever you want, actually.

But that is a rule. I know people, you know, people's heads are spinning. If you catch, if you fair catch a punt, there is a rule that says, you can choose to kick an uncontested field goal attempt without a rush. So literally a snap to a holder who puts it down, kicker takes his time, and kicks it without any rush on the other side of the line of scrimmage. You didn't know that rule. Yeah, I had no idea.

So Mark Mosley's 74-yard attempt in 1979 against the Giants was a free kick. He walked out there with Joe Thysman holding it. with probably Jeff Bostic snapping it, and he tried a free kick and it came up short. Interestingly, earlier in that season in the opener against the Houston Oilers, remember we talked about this last week, Houston Oilers, the Redskins, the Commander's PR group put out that Washington's home opener against Jacksonville was the first against an AFC South team since 1979, and I said, well, actually they got that wrong. Houston was in the AFC Central in 1979 when they opened.

There was no AFC South in 1979, but whatever. In that game against Houston in 1979 in the season opener, last play of the game, not a fair catch-free kick, Mosley tried a 70-yard field goal, and it came up short and they lost by two points. Mosley has two of the longest field goal attempts in NFL history. By the way, Steve Cox, who kicked for the Redskins and punted for the Redskins, tried a 67-yard field goal in 1987 that came up short and wide right in Miami.

But, you know, Tommy, it made me think about Mosley. He remember, you know, all of the Dallas talk about, you know, he's loaded up his shoe with cement and, and, you know, he had an absolute cannon for a leg, for a straight-off. And when he, in his previous shop with the Oilers, was nearly out of the league. I know. Yeah. Yeah. That's where he was previously, right?

Houston, not Philadelphia? Yes. Houston, I believe. Why did I think it was Philadelphia? I don't know. I could be wrong. Well, guess what? We were both right.

He was in Philadelphia to start his career. He was waived. He was picked up by Houston. he was waived and Washington picked him up in 1974. In fact, according to this, he was out of the league in 1973. And then Washington brought him in in 74. He thought his career was over pretty much. Yeah.

He wanted to win a league MVP. Yes, the only kicker to ever win a lead MVP. All right, a couple of other things to finish up on when we come back right after these words, from a few of our sponsors. So, Dak Prescott is not going on injured reserve. You know, the six to eight week report might be a little bit premature. Jerry on his weekly radio show at 105.3, the fan in Dallas, says that they're not putting them on IR,

and they now think a return in four weeks is a possibility for Dak Prescott. You know, whenever I read these, you know, Jerry, you know, basically making the statements on behalf of the team, and sometimes it conflicts with what coaches say or with what the PR people say. I mean, can you imagine if that was going on here? I mean, it would just, Dan reveres Jerry,

and at the same time, he's just the opposite of Jerry from a personality standpoint. I mean, Dan's a recluse, and Jerry can't get enough of it. I did want to mention real quickly, though, because I saw John Oran put out that he thinks that television ratings potentially could be down this year. And he cites as the number one reason the Amazon Thursday Night Games might generate half the audience of Thursday night games in the past.

And then he said, Dallas's schedule here early, with Dallas now looking like the season's over and looking more like 2020 after they lost the DAC. They are the primary national television game Sunday at home against the Bengals. Then in week three, they're on Monday night football against the Giants. Then they have Washington. That's not a national primetime game. God, I mean, saying that is amazing because that used to be a given as a primetime game. But after Washington, they played the Rams in the double-header national audience, Foxx. And game, and then they play Philadelphia the next week on Sunday night NBC national television. So four of their next five games are national televised audience games.

And Oran suggested that, you know, Dallas starting, you know, having to start the quarterback that they started the other night, Cooper Rush, thank you, I finally got to it. Cooper Rush would, you know, could potentially hurt ratings. meantime, Bucks Cowboys Sunday night did a monster rating. And the first weekend on CBS anyway was the highest in four years. But I don't know. Dak, I'm interested to see if the Cowboys make a move. Maybe Jerry is saying this in part because he wants some cover for not going out and getting another quarterback.

Because I said on the podcast yesterday, Tommy, if they don't go make an effort, to get a Jimmy Garoppolo or Tyler Huntley or somebody like that, they're essentially telling everybody that this season is over. And so Jerry coming out on his radio show saying they're not putting him an IR, and he might be back in four weeks, you know, in four games, you know, might be cover for him and the organization as to why they're not going out and trying to find another quarterback. So I don't know.

That's reasonable. I can see that. We'll see. I think your conclusion might be right there. They looked awful before he went out the other night. I mean, awful. Yes, they did. One other quick thing is I know you've got a baseball thing that you want to talk about real quickly, but I didn't really address the mug situation from Sunday,

but I thought you might want to. You know, I guess I'm kind of numb to these things anymore, but it just goes to show you how being a commander's fan, is sort of like the Carson Wentz experience right now. You're up and then you're down. I mean, it's really an in-the-moment experience now to be a commander's fan. Well, that's good for them, maybe. There's no consistency.

There's no long-term like waking up saying, wow, I'm a commander's fan. Because, you know, because you can leave the stadium and you can get home and you go online and you see everybody's writing stories about the mugs, your team screwed up. The bugs with the state of Washington on the logo. So, I mean, it sort of symbolizes what life is like

for these fans now. You know, I mean, they called the Carson Went to the roller coaster. It's a roller. And a roller coaster is an improvement. Right? I mean, if there's a roller coast, that means there's some up. Right. No, no, no. Exactly.

Roller coaster, there's, roller coasters are fun. Um, so this, this, this ultimately, though, yeah. Ultimately, you want the teacup ride to be your team. Nice and smooth. I can't. I can't. I can't do the teacups. I get sick.

I get sick on teacups. Well, you can't do the teacup ride. You don't want the roller coaster. But a roller coaster is better than, then what they've had here, where basically every day, you know, the arrow is pointing down. But that, that's what it illustrated to me. Life is a commander's fan. You know, we won a home game. We're going home.

We're happy. Carson went through four touchdowns. And all anybody can talk about is how the team shit on themselves again. Well, no, that's what people were talking about before the game, I think. And then I think the game kind of... It was... It got picked up as a national story. I know.

I know it did. But I'm talking about, you know, the focus group fan base was more do dialed in to the win and the excitement of the game, which was an exciting game. And fortunately for them out there, they won the football game. It's just, when I saw it, like, I showed my wife and she said, well, that's obviously fake. And I said, you know, in most situations, that's a good response and that's a natural response. But I'm going to tell you right now, I don't think it is fake. I bet you it's real. And I watch. watched, you know, the various people coming in on it, and it turns out it was real.

For those that don't know what we're talking about, we should have probably mentioned, they had these mugs with the new W logo on it, and they had the backdrop of the W logo on these coffee mugs, the state of Washington, Washington State, as in where Seattle is, where Tacoma is, where Mount Rainier is. and so I don't know Ron in the football operation I think are separate from all of this stuff look they got a lot of shit going on when you change

here I go I'm going to actually defend them for a brief moment when you change a brand and you have a massive overhaul of branding there are going to be some quality assurance quality control issues I would imagine the problem

is that that particular mistake, it probably speaks to some young person who really isn't very good with geography. A lot of people do make that mistake. They're not real bright, typically, but a lot of people do make that mistake. Oh, you're from Washington, D.C. It's pretty out there. It's pretty out there. What's like to live on

the West Coast? I know that. But, I mean, if there was a team, you'd expect to do this. It would be this team. They don't get the benefit of any doubt. You're right. I mean, if you're going to change over a whole new brand, you're going to have errors. But this team

doesn't get the break on errors. And they've earned that. They've earned that. The other thing too is the team tried to sluff it off as not them. You know, according to the reporting, they immediately responded. I think Pete Haley put out

the first picture of the mug. And the team responded with, these were not, you know, inside the stadium. You know, these were sold at a truck outside of it. They're on a truck outside. Well, the truck, as it turns out, was a team truck. And it was just outside the stadium. Outside, I guess, the store. And so they tried to, you know, minimize the damage there and actually once again

increased the level of disdain for what had happened. Just, you know, own it in those situations. You know what? We had a quality assurance, quality control issue. We didn't, we missed that. Sorry, we fucked up. Let's, let's go beat Jacksonville. You pull them off the market and then you put them back on the market as a charity fundraiser for a collector's item. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting the mug. Make fun of yourself. I know it's hard for them because everybody else is making fun of them all the time. But it's, but it's, you know. you know, they really just don't have sort of that QC area. Anybody good in that area right now. I'm always open to helping out. And so is Tommy and so are a lot of other people that can help you on.

We both knew, I'm pretty sure, that Washington, D.C. is not in the state of Washington. We're pretty sure. What did you want to finish up with? Or do you want to save this for Thursday? I just talk about, no, let's do it now. Okay. I mean, it's just a brief discussion we can talk about. Okay.

Last week passed some significant rule changes that are going to have an impact on the game. They're implementing a pitch clock where basically a pitch clock of 15 seconds with the base is empty. The pitcher's got to deliver the ball or 20 seconds with runners on. And they all enforce it. They've been doing this in the minor leagues, and it's been working. It's cut 15 to 20 minutes possibly off the time in some of these games. So this will have an impact on the length of games. I love it. People don't like – baseball fans don't like it because baseball takes pride in not having any clock. You know, the sport winners, no clock involved at all.

And still the clock isn't, you know, determining the outcome. But they're going to have a pitch clock. They're going to ban defensive shift. Right. In other words, basically two fielders need to be on either side of the second base bag with both of their feet in the dirt, not in the outfield. No shift. Okay.

Yeah. So no shift. I'm all in favor of that. I'm surprised that. I'm surprised that passed. Not the pitch clock. I'm surprised that past. Keep going.

Yeah. And the last one is they're making the bases bigger. Why? No, they think that will reduce injury. Okay. People's fighting in the bases and stuff like that. I'm not sure how much bigger. Okay.

It was a competition committee composed of six ownership-level representatives, four players and one umpire. All four players voted against the pitch clock and the shift changes. but they got outvode. So this is going into existence next year. And I'm all in favor of it. Minor league games this season have consistently clocked in under two hours and 30 minutes. Two hours and 30 minutes is, to me, an ideal time for a baseball game.

That makes sense to me. That's a minor league game. The major league game, is going to be a little bit longer, but still, it will be less than what we're used to. What do you know about this? Sometimes you don't dive into the minutia like I do, and I have not taken that dive yet. Tell me how, you know, who's responsible because the catcher has to be in position. The batter has to be in the batter box, I guess.

I guess the pitcher could pitch without the batter in the batter box, you know, if that clock's winding down. What are the mechanics of the pitch clock? Where is the pitch clock located for the pitcher, catcher, and batter to see? I don't know where the pitch clock will be located. The catcher must be in a position when the timer hits 10 seconds. The hitter must both have both feed in the batters box and be alert at the 8-second mark. and the pitcher must start his motion to pitch by the expiration of the clock. And what happens if he doesn't?

A violation by the pitcher is an automatic ball. So he goes over the clock and it's his fault. Okay, it's a ball and then it would be a strike if it's a hitter issue. Yes. Okay. That's the case. That makes sense. Now, the defensive shifts with four infielders need to be on the dirt.

the old, you know, putting these infielders out in the outfield, they're over. No more short right field, no more three infielders on the right side of the base. You know, the position of defensive players can re-reviewed. If the defense is deemed illegal, the batting team can choose to accept the outcome of the play or take an automatic ball instead. I'm not sure how that's going to work. that's going to i mean you're going to have managers you know coming out and asking that defensive players plays be reviewed right you know that's going to length in the game yeah unless they limit

the amount of times you can ask for a review i don't i don't love i don't love the shift thing i don't like watching the shift but it's you know it's part of the game i mean it's it's the pitch clock is an attempt to speed up the game, a game that has had some beauty to its length for a lot of the traditionalists. But for me, I would like baseball games to be much faster. I think I would watch more baseball if the games were faster. But I don't know if I like this shift, but both of them passed, correct? And the bigger bag, you said, as well? Okay. All right. Yeah, look, they have to do more to help the hitters. The pitchers are throwing 100 miles an hour now. and, you know, they're only pitching five innings,

and they're bringing another guy who's throwing in 95 miles an hour. I wouldn't be surprised at some point the mound gets pushed back at some point. Mike Trout, you know, hit for a seventh straight game, a home run. He's one short of the Major League Baseball record established by Dale Long in 1956, tied by Don Mattingly in 87, and then Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993. Trout's hit homers, hit at least one homer in seven straight games, and they play tonight against Cleveland with a chance to match that record. So there you go.

By the way, where is Judge right now in the home run total? I don't know. 55. I just looked at. Mike Trout team is for sale. I might point out. I know. The Marinos are selling them.

Right. We talked about that a few weeks ago. All right. Good job today. You brought it today. I appreciate it. Now I can spend the rest of the day in peace. I'm going to the Nationals game tonight.

I was at the Commander's game on Sunday, and now I'm going to the Nationals games because I'm all over town. You are all over town, and you will be, I'm sure, Shelley's when the game goes to the seventh inning because it's too long for you. All right, I'll talk to you on Thursday, thanks. All right. Back tomorrow, everybody.