The Kevin Sheehan Show - Thom's Answer? Colt McCoy

Episode Date: September 18, 2018

Thom Loverro has once again braved the long journey to join Kevin. Thom gives his thoughts on the Redskins home opener, both on the field and in the crowd. They also discuss what Chris Thompson said in the locker room, and what the Redskins players said they felt in the locker room and at practices before the game. The Redskins brought in two receivers, are either of them going to be helpful? They then share thoughts on the Nationals, including the somewhat-starting revelation that this week could feature the last 7 games in DC for Bryce Harper as a National. Thom also gives his thoughts on the GGG/Canelo fight, and reminisces about old Sugar Ray Leonard fights. Finally, The Sports Fix is officially back, as Kevin and Thom get into a fight about Colt McCoy. <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. You're listening to The Sports Fix. Yeah, Tommy's here. It's a Tuesday.

Tommy's here every Tuesday. And Thursday, it's a Sports Fix Redo or Redux. How do you say that? It's spelled Redux, but it's a redo. Yes. It's a sports redo Tuesday. And we're doing it Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Redskins were interested in Josh Gordon yesterday.

going to get to that. Thanks to Chatter here in Friendship Heights. Thanks to everyone here at the restaurant. Thanks to Tony and Nigel for inviting us here to do the podcast. And thanks, as always, to win donation, Tommy, our presenting sponsor. How long did it take you to get in this morning? Kevin, let me just say to you, first of all. First of all, I got strip search at the Montgomery County border. So that took some time. And I'll have you know, that I did not spend one minute on 270. Not one minute. I took Wisconsin Avenue from Frederick all the way down here,

because that was the better route. 355. 355 all the way down because 270, like I've told you before, from Frederick to Clarksburg, it's two lanes. Right. So it's usually backed up bad there. And then after that, for some reason, it was a parking lot the rest of the way.

So I took 355 all the way down here. That's how bad it was. How long did it take? Almost two hours. It took me less time than it did last week. The other day. But it may have taken you more time on 270 today because they had issues. I was watching that on the Channel 4 News this morning.

That's why I used ways and stayed off 270. You know, I don't think you have a concept of exactly what I do to get here. What you're doing for me? Your world, I think, is like it's this little enclosed like two miles in any direction. I've always had it that way. You don't go anywhere. Actually, the commute to Rockville for me was a five or six mile commute, but it was a reverse commute in the morning. I was going against traffic.

And it took me all of about 12 minutes to get to the studio. You see, I mean, you're the one who's old, not me. You're like the old guy who doesn't go anywhere within two miles to the house. I can't help it if you live out in basically like another, you know, zip, another area code. When's the last time you were north of Gatorsburg? Actually, I've been north of Gatorsburg multiple times over the last few months because my son is at Penn State. Oh, okay. So I'm driving up 270 to 15 or Tommy, there are a couple of ways to get to Penn State, one of which is the turnpike.

And actually, that's the prettier drive than going just 15 through Harrisburg. But I may be going up there Friday night because he decided last night, he's like, you know what, I'd like to come home this weekend. How are you going to do that? Well, we were going to come home with this one guy who's got a car, but now he can't drive the car home. He's got to stay here. Will you come pick me up? And you're going to do that. You know what?

We actually miss him. It's been a month. And so I was thinking it would be fun to go up, pick him up, come back, and spend the weekend with him back here. The only problem, of course, is then I'm not going to want to on Sunday night drive them back there. So we've got to figure out a solution for that. But I might do it on Friday. Okay. I mean, you know, 270 on Friday is... But I could leave it at a much earlier time.

Any time you leave, it's nuts. That's true. On Friday, because everyone's leaving town. It's true. On Friday. And listen, when's the last time you were in Virginia? I'm in Virginia all the time. When?

The last time I was in Virginia was three days ago. Okay. Three days ago. All right. I'm surprised. Actually, it was Friday because I had a meeting over there. Okay. About this podcast.

Oh, okay. getting people very interested. When I say people, we've got, look, you listeners out there, you're so nice, it's been so helpful, tell people, subscribe, rate it. The response has been so overwhelming, and the response to Tommy and I doing this together two days a week has been great. I mean, you and I have both, you know, traded things back and forth. It's like, who knew sort of a thing?

And so it's great to have that kind of a response. But there are advertisers out there that now are looking at sort of this as a really good vehicle to get in front of potentially new customers. So that's going to be important for us as well, because the more of that we get in, the more I'll be able to compensate you and me so that the drive down here isn't as painful. You mean I'm going to get compensated for this? Yes, you are. You are getting compensated for this. Well, that certainly changes everything. What did you think of the home opener Sunday? You were there, right?

Oh, my gosh. You know, I don't know how you can illustrate it any other way than a disaster. And it wasn't just the box office look, the empty seats. It was those who were there watching the product on the field. I mean, I wrote in the Times that it was a lost opportunity. Coming off that win over the Cardinals on the road, a chance to go 2 and 0 with a very tough part of her schedule coming up, a chance to win before at least the home fans that showed up for it. But, I mean, the 57,000 who were supposedly there, I mean, saw one of the worst efforts we've seen generally compared to expectations. The Redskins were expected to win

this game. And the Colts manhandled them on the defensive line, on the offensive line. And Andrew Luck picked them apart. And, you know, Jake Gruden, uh, slug. Black Pappy Jay got out coached by a rookie head coach, Frank Wright. I thought he did too. I thought he did too. And that's like that's one of those things that fans always say. But there were a couple of things that they just didn't adjust to until it was too late. They didn't adjust to this very soft zone coverage defensively.

And I pointed this out yesterday, Tommy, on the podcast. And I, you know, I hesitated to say it the way I said it, but I felt it watching it in the first half. And that was, no offense to Alex Smith because this isn't his fault. But Kirk would have thrown for a buck 75 in the first half. Yeah. That was the perfect defense that he and Jay, Jay would sometimes get frustrated because Kirk wouldn't chuck it down the field. But against Tampa 2 soft zone coverage, they pitched and catched it all the way down the field time after time after time. And Jay and Alex just aren't on the same page yet, nor should they be at this point.

It's still very early in their relationship. Kirk, remember, started games for Jay in 2014. So he had some... Yeah, but Kirk was a two-year NFL player then, not like a 12-year NFL player. But it's still, I think there's more to, you know, getting in sync with each other, you know, being on the same page with each other.

And I think that takes time. And I think they recognized it at halftime and they were better in the third quarter. But there was an opportunity to pitch and catch it all over the field. Why they couldn't run the football is a bigger question. J.P. Finley and I talked about it yesterday on the podcast. If you didn't listen to yesterday's, sort of the recap of the game, Tommy and I are going to do a lot of that today. But you can still, you know, you can listen to it whenever you want. But that was really confusing.

Jay said in his press conference yesterday that, you know, sometimes it was the back, sometimes it was the offensive line. And the D line was stunting and twisting. Well, stunting and twisting isn't new in the NFL. So for that reason and for them not adjusting to this easy, just throw it underneath and take five, seven, eight yards a chunk and move the chains, I thought they were out coach too. I did. You know, it's the second week they faced their rookie coach. First week was Steve Wilkes.

I might want to point out that they probably had three weeks to prepare for that first card. They probably started putting the game plan in after the second preseason game for that Cardinals. game. So they had three weeks to get ready for Steve Wilkes. He had one week to get ready for Frank Reich, and he couldn't handle it. And it's not just, not just the play calling or the strategy. You've got players lining up to tell reporters, we weren't very excited about playing. I mean, you know, I mean, it was the first home game coming off a big win, and the player said they had no energy. We've heard this time and time again about Jay Gruden's teams. In key games, he can't seem to get them up.

And when you're the head coach, you're the CEO of the team on the field. And that includes having your team ready to play mentally. And, you know, Jay doesn't seem capable of doing that. I mean, I don't know what it is. I don't know if he's fiery enough. I don't know if it's the right mix of players. But, I mean, time and time again, the inconsistency has shown that Jay Gruden, who I think as we progress this year,

is kind of overrated as a play call or two, by the way. Hold on. A lot of people think that about him, right? A bunch of fan boys, I think is what you referred to us as. No, they think he's a genius. I think he's a little bit overrated. Slap happy. Yeah, slap happy Jay.

I mean, all the media love him because he is. He's a fun guy. He's a good guy. He never gets mad at any question. He's an average head coach. Yes. If you don't see that at this point, you're really hoping, you know, more than being, you know, as objective as you can be as a fan.

an average head coach. I don't think he's a genius offensively. I do think that he knows how to design a first rate pass offense in the NFL. I do think he's good at that. However, this is, and we've heard this, we talk

about complaints of failing to adjust. One of the complaints that I've heard about Jay is once you get past the scripted, the 15 scripted plays that he has to open the game or the second half, he's not very good after that. He's not very good at going off script.

And that goes to adjustments, and he hasn't seemed to be very good at that. So, look, I think we've been told that this is the most talented roster that Jay Gruden's had. I think it's the best roster talent-wise, young talent-wise, they've had in 10 or 11 years. Okay, so that being the case, Jay's got to do better. He's got to do a better job. He has to have him ready to

play. Now, they could. Look, they have the talent to play Green Bay tough on Sunday and maybe win the game. Look it, we've seen them beat Green Bay before at home a couple years ago with Kirk.

They pummeled the Packers. You like that? Yeah. Yeah. So they're capable of it. What worries me is one of the reasons I thought the Redskins

might be better than maybe expected was the front seven. That was not there on Sunday. I actually thought defensively they were okay. But they didn't handle the third down and short pick plays. And Andrew Luck's really good, but they didn't adjust to

that either, which is a bit on Minusky. I will say this. You said he hasn't been very good at adjustments. I think the bigger issue, and you've written about this many times in your column over the years, I think the bigger issue is there are too many times where this team looks listless in big spots. A home opener, after a one in those start, is an opportunity, as you said, and they blew it because they didn't have much energy. They looked lifeless at times. They looked confused at times. And you go back and it's been sort of his MO in some of these spots, whether they're

home openers or openers in the past in general, three of which were home openers, right? You had, Houston was his first home opener, then it was a road opener. Then it was Miami, Pittsburgh. and Philadelphia, all at home, all right, that they were not really a team that looked like they were playing with the level of urgency you would see in an opening game. The giant game at the end of 2016, or in January 1, 2017, to get into the playoffs

against a giant team that couldn't have cared less, was the all-time non-ready, non-energized effort in a big spot. I don't do what you do, which is put it on last year's meaningless final in two-degree temperatures at the time. the Meadowlands. But the Redskins did. I know they did, but you always, you always take things so literally, you know, from coaches in the past. And Jay said this is a big game to get to 8 and 8. Well, guess what? The players at 2 degrees above zero with playing for nothing didn't feel the same way. Yeah, but somehow the Giants players managed to win. Well, they did because whatever. I mean,

somebody had to win the game. That's a good answer. Somebody had to win. It was a terrible game. The year before was much more of an indictment on him. So I think that's been a bigger issue. So yesterday, the Redskins, and I want to get to this. So the Redskins signed Brashad Paramann and Michael Floyd. Paraman can't catch, okay? Like, he can't catch. He was a first round pick for the Ravens.

He was, the Ravens, if you've watched them over the last couple of years, they've missed talent at wide receiver offensively. They've needed anybody to step up and even be an average playmaker. And Perman couldn't provide that. Now he was injured. He had a bunch of injuries. He also dropped every third ball that was thrown to him. Michael Floyd has talent, but there's a reason he's not on a roster.

Sean Payton said that he was overweight, and that's the reason he didn't stick in New Orleans. That's where he was over the summer was in New Orleans's training camp. The thought about Josh Gordon, so Adam Schepter, said the Redskins were one of those interested teams in Josh Gordon. Well, if you're a team, you've got to do some due diligence, don't you? I think you do. And actually, if the due diligence had resulted in, he's not on the verge of being suspended or kicked out of the league. It's kicked out of the league, the next one, right? Yeah. Isn't it? I think so with Josh Gordon. But here's what I wanted to get to,

is it related to Josh Gordon. First of all, on the other two receivers, I'm not overly impressed. I mean, look, I mean. They're here for depth. Yes, they're here for depth. I mean, they're here because they thought two of their receivers got hurt in the opening, their backup receivers got hurt in the opening game. Sims and Quinn, yes. And Mo Harris apparently still isn't ready.

Yeah. Bruce Allen and Jay Gruden should be desperate at this point to do something, Tommy, because they're not going to survive this season if it goes poorly. If Gordon had checked out in terms of eligibility, they should have been aggressive going after him. And personally, if they had given up a conditional fourth and he checked out from a due diligence standpoint, as a fan, at this point,

I don't think I would have had much of an issue with it. Here's the problem. It goes back to the quarterback. Just bear with me. When they decided that they didn't like Kirk Cousins for the long term and had no intention of ever making him a market-level offer, which they never did. did for all of you that are going to tweet me and say, what are you talking about?

They made the offer in July of 17. It was $30 million short of where the Vikings came in eight months later. They never made cousins a market level offer because they didn't want to. They didn't want him. And that was their prerogative. But once they made that decision, okay? And then by the way, Tommy decided not to trade him. Yes.

Okay. They, you know, after the 2017, 16 season, in the 2017 off season, they were on the clock. I said it at the time. I said, it's fine. This is your organization. You have the prerogative to make that decision, but you're on the clock because you better be right on this one. And remember, you know, all of the talk from Bruce Allen about all the precious cap space that not overpaying for a quarterback would create so that they could build out a really good team. that could compete around the quarterback.

Well, two games into this season, and I'm not panicking, but it's clear that they should have done more at wide receiver. Did you see Alan Robinson last night for the Bears? No, I did not. Ten catches last night. He's a number one wide receiver. He was a guy that Cooley insisted that the Redskins offer a deal to when free agency started. He's like, this is the guy.

You can offer him a package with all this precious cap space, and he'll be your number one guy next year, no questions asked. We don't know that they didn't go after him, but they didn't get him. So the season's two weeks old. It's far from over, even though it seems that way to many

after the look of the loss on Sunday. But all of the decisions they've made, all of the subtle and direct shots that they've taken at those that aren't here anymore because that's the way they do it. Oh, yeah. Okay? It's a breath of fresh air as the only,

owner said at the welcome home luncheon, he said the new quarterback is a breath of fresh air. Right. Breath of fashion. Like he would know what fresh air smells like. So all of those decisions, they're coming home to roost if they don't get to the playoffs this year. All right. This is, to me, some people disagree and say, well, it's context, it's nuance, all that stuff is true. Like what if they are two and six and six, you know, they go and they go eight and no? And 10 and six doesn't get them into the playoffs. Okay, that's different. I understand it. But this team better be better than nine and seven and playing a postseason game because I can't imagine that if they don't have a good season that Bruce and Jay are back. And it's these decisions, you know, going on the

cheap, making the decision a quarterback, which may pan out. And I like Alex Smith. I think Alex Smith is a good quarterback. He's not a great quarterback. I think he's a good quarterback. But not getting a wide receiver and somehow thinking Paul Richardson, you know, at a much lower dollar value than some of the others like Robinson you could have gone after. Not taking a chance. I have no problem with them not taking a chance on Des Bryant, actually. And I know you have no problem with that. Absolutely.

Des Brian is a loser. You've always said that. He is. And last week, in the first Sports Fix 2.0 redux version of it, when you had your big list of all the things you were going to claim to be right about, you know, over the last two and a half years, and it was like one thing or two things. No, you just didn't let me get to the whole. Well, one of the things you were right about was Des Bryant. You always said he's a loser, and I would never have him on my team. And you know what? I think the league agrees with you.

Yeah, although the Ravens did offer them. The Ravens supposedly made him a good offer. Yeah, they made him a good offer. But what I guess what I was going to say in netting it out is all of these things, you know, here we are week two, and it's parents. Harriman and Floyd and they needed Gordon and they didn't address this stuff with all the precious cap space. They're on the clock. And then you add in to what we saw Sunday in basically a stadium disguised with empty seats, filled with empty seats. It's burgundy and gold apathy, Tommy, right now at its highest level that we've ever seen. Yeah. This was right now. This was a nice weather day. It was a perfect football day. Well, the forecast.

was ominous during the week. During the week. But in the last 48 hours before the game, it wasn't. And it turned out to be a great football day. They're coming off a very impressive win in Arizona. They're not competing with anything else, really, in town at that point. 57,000. That speaks volumes to how far the whole is that this franchise has dug for itself. And, you know...

Did you see the TV rating? Oh, yeah, like 17. 17.8. The Cowboy Giant Game Sunday night did a 17.4. Locally. I know. Locally. I know.

So it nearly matched what the Redskins did at 1 o'clock. Now, that's prime time versus 1 o'clock on Sunday. But it is a 1-0 team playing a home opener with empty seats and for them a very porous local television rating. And, you know, this whole idea of not being desperate and not going to, for the big splash anymore, that may have to fall by the wayside this off season, because let's say this team's seven and nine, and they're out of the playoffs. Imagine the marketing going into 2019. What are you going to market?

You're going to have to make a splash head coach higher. Yeah, on opening day in 2018. Do you think Coach Joe has any coaching life left in him? I don't know. Because that would be the move again. Yeah, you're right. You're right. This would, and I, we talked about this last week when you were here on Thursday.

I actually do like, so far, Brian Lafamina. So do I. I think he has an understanding of the organizational arrogance that has existed here for too long, that when combined with the losing and the inconvenient stadium, you know, has created this apathy that we have right now. but if you get to a six and ten or seven and nine or eight and eight season and it was ho-hum all year, you're going to have, it's going to be Dan Snyder's first house cleaning in, you know, since Shanahan left. You would think so.

It's going to be a house, well, the total house cleaning didn't happen then. Right. Because Bruce stayed on. But Bruce, I don't think Doug Williams is ever leaving this organization, but Bruce and Jay, who are tied together at the hip, they, they have. have they've got 14 games left here to make it happen. I think Jay realizes that by his comments before the season, we got to win now. Yes. You know, this is not a rebuilding. We have to win now. I mean,

this is fifth year. He's here longer than any other coach under Dan Snyder. So, I mean, I get that. And as far as Brian Lafamina and the whole imported business team, they may understand the organizational arrogance that they're having. to deal with, but I don't think they, I don't think they've quite got a picture yet of the organizational deviousness. First time a story about Brian Lafamina gets leaked to the Washington Post, then you'll know about the negative story. Then you'll know about the organizational deviousness.

Well, let me, let me correct you. It would never have gotten leaked to the Washington Post because it always gets leaked to a national person outside the market. It gets leaked. It gets leaked one way or the other. But the leaks that come from one of the top two offices in Ashburn have always been to national people, not local people. Yes, let's not remember the famous quote in the Washington Post about Scott McLuhan. That came from somewhere.

Right. That was in the post. That one was in the post. Yes. You're right about that. That's true. I want to get to Chris Thompson's comments. He was upset with the booing that happened at FedEx Field on Sunday.

But first, give me a moment here to say thank you. to somebody and tell you that if you've been thinking about new windows, you've got to consider Wind Donation. I'm back doing this podcast. Tommy's with me two days a week. The first to reach out to support this new venture were Harley and Aaron from Window Nation. Harley and I have been friends for a while now. We talk three, four times a week. Usually it's about sports gaming and sports betting because Harley is always looking at point spreads and money lines. So we have a lot of conversations about that, but he and Window Nation were with me and Tommy on 980 for over a decade, and we can't thank them enough for having our backs now. If you like this show and you're thinking

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That's 86690 Nation or wind donation.com. And when you call, please tell them that the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast and the sports fix redux of Tommy and I together again two days a week, tell them that we told you to call. All right, I did want to talk about Chris Thompson's comments. And you corrected me earlier because I, for whatever reason, thought these comments were made on your radio station, 1.67 The Fan. But you said that... You're not as quick as he used to be. You still seem to pick up like he used to.

You've gotten old. How so? Because I read something that said, according to 106.7, his appearance on 106.7, the fan, that's what it said. Really? And what I read. Well, that's wrong. It was wrong. Yeah.

But is that me being old? Well, yeah. I don't. I mean, I know it wasn't. And I'm a lot older than you. I didn't. I just figured that he was on that station. Look, you know this?

That station never was at a disadvantage from the other station that I was on and you and I were on together because the Redskins were on 980 and the owner owned the station. There was no big advantage from that. No. And I might want to point out. that you can hear me with Chad Dukes on that station. 106.7 to fan every Wednesday from 4 to 6. I'm also on a co-hosts a show with Andy Paulin,

who I'll see here later today, from 9 to 12 Saturday mornings, 106-7 to fan. Did they just inside baseball stuff, did they ever just sort of yuck it up over the fact that there we were, we were the rights holder and we were owned partially by the owner of the team, and they seem to get more from Redskins PR than we got. I mean, there was a reason for that. They haven't done it in front of my face.

Yeah, there was a reason for that. I think Redskins' PR and some of those guys I like and whatever, but they seem to have this disdain for the radio station that broadcasts the games and talked about the games all the time. And I'll never forget Tommy just, I mean, well, it would happen a dozen times a year where we would just throw up her arms and say, wait a minute, we just asked you. We just asked you for Eric Schaefer for the last two weeks and you give him to 106-7.

Or we just asked you for this person and he's on their radio station. There was never, and by the way, and I've said this before, and you know this, never once did Dan Snyder in the 12 years that he owned that radio station ever tell any of us what we could say or couldn't say. Never happened. I think he only set foot one time in the, radio station in the 12 years that he owned it. I don't think he was ever there. There was only one time where he was a little bit upset with something somebody said it. It was Joe Jacoby with me on a

postgame show in 2007, I think. But it was other than that, did we ever hear from anybody? No. I never did. I've told this. You know, what's interesting, there's a narrative out there that when I criticize the Redskins now, it's because I was let go by 980. That's ridiculous. And it's It's like, didn't you listen to me when I was on 980 and was criticizing the Redskins for like six or seven years? When they deserved to be criticized, everybody on that station criticized them. We hammered them. Where do you think the aura of self-destruction came from? I didn't just make that up.

Right, exactly. Although I did make it up, but I made it up when I was on 9-80. Yeah, you did. That was probably like a 2012 description. No, it was really when the Shanahan thing melted down. In 2013. Exactly. But anyway, all right.

So Chris Thompson said the following the other day after the game to somebody. He said, quote, I noticed the booze as well. And that's not something that I'm a real big fan of. If you're a fan of a team, you shouldn't be booing them. Whether we're doing good or bad, we understand as players that we're not performing how we should. You don't have to boo us to let us know we're out there on the field. The one thing you should be doing, in my opinion, is cheering us on. But you know it is what it is.

As a team, we just got to get better showing. We just have to have a better showing than that, I think, closed quote from Chris Thompson, saying, don't boo us, cheer us. Okay. Now, you know, I'm not there every day, so I don't have any relationship with Redskins players. I know Chris Thompson a little bit. he came on my Cigars and Curve Balls podcast. He's one or the smarter, more sensitive guys I've ever met in pro football.

I like him a lot. I like him a lot. And I think if you read the context of his entire statement, he's saying, I understand it. I don't like it. I mean, that's basically near the end of what he said. You know, we have to play better. Well, hold on for a second. Part of that quote is, okay, I haven't listened to it in tone.

Right. Okay. It's a lot of it. But in print, if you're a fan of a team, you shouldn't be booing them whether we're doing good or bad. What's he say after that, though? We understand as players that we're not performing how we should, but you don't have to boo us to let us know we're out there on the field. The one thing you should be doing, in my opinion, is cheering us on. Okay.

I mean, I'm reading it. I don't have the tone to it. I know. I just think that, look, I don't agree with any of that. think that as long as you're not yelling, you know, derogatory language or, or creating a uncomfortable situation in the stands, I think you're, I think you have every right to boo. And I think as a fan of a, of this team in particular, uh, you should boo. Uh, here's what Chris Thompson doesn't get and other, you know, the caps, the Capitals players

didn't get it for a while, but they finally got it near the near near, near, near before they won the Stanley Cup, they finally got this. When you put on the jersey of that team, you inherit all the pain that came with it. Whether that's fair or not. I mean, the Redskins like to make a big thing about their tradition of

Super Bowls. And when players sign here, they always talk about that. Well, if you get that, you get the 20 years of pain under Dan Snyder too, because these fans have been there for all of it. Right. So whether players like it or not, they inherit the baggage

that came before them, baggage that they had nothing to do with, and they have to recognize that. And that's what the booing is about. The booing is not necessarily about that one-game performance. It's about all the performances put together. It's about all the years of lackluster play and frustration. That's what the booing is about. Well, sometimes it's about what's going on in the moment. And what was going on in the moment in the first half was a porous first half where the team didn't look ready to play. They looked out coached. They were being out hustled. They were being outplayed. And I get it. Look, I think the people that would be booing on Sunday based on what's happened in the past weren't their Sunday. I think the people

that were there on Sunday are really hardcore loyalists, you know, part of the Harvest Fest crowd, that are saying, I can't stand the way you guys are playing right now. I know a lot of it is all goes hand in hand. But in the moment on Sunday, that was such an ugly first half of football. I think if they're a playoff team last year, you don't have that kind of booing in that game. I just don't think so. You know what? Here's the thing.

You and I have talked about this in the past. And I dealt with this in conversations with the Maryland basketball program, not with the head coach necessarily, but with some of the PR people, some of the assistant coaches. This was like two or three years ago, and they're playing a home game against Minnesota on a Thursday night where it's four degrees outside. And the crowd, you know, is instead of 17,000,

it's 12,000. So they're 5,000 empty seats. And they got their ass kicked at home and there was a lot of booing. And they said, we had big-time recruits at the game. And I said, okay, you can't boo us. We got big-time recruits at the game. recruits at the game. And this is a big spot. And I said, look, this is the northeast. Maryland and the

Redskins crowd is a northeast mentality. Your recruits, if they're from the area, they understood it. They've heard it before. It's nothing new, and it's not going to be a turnoff. If you go out and you play well and you win, you're not going to get booed. But when somebody pays top dollar for a ticket, and you're in the stands expecting a certain level of performance. And by the way, you're sort of from a personality standpoint built that way anyway to jump on it if you're not getting your money's worth, which happens more in our area of the country than it does, say, in the Midwest where some of the coaches were from. It's just something you've got to get used to. And Chris Thompson and others that don't like it have to get used to it.

Perform, win. have a sense of urgency about you in a game in which people, not a lot of people, but enough people are coming to see you play a home opener to start a season. And by the way, Tommy, the most optimistic Redskin fans have had the opportunity to be is usually early in a season. Yes. Yes. Because it usually changes by November. Yes, it does.

And that's why the 2-0 start would have been so important for them on a number of levels. to deal with. It definitely would have been important. I like Chris Thompson. And Chris Thompson right now, you could easily say, is one of the top three players on the team. Oh, yeah.

Trent Williams, Jordan Reed when he's healthy, Chris Thompson. Hopefully John Allen becomes one of those players. I like DJ Swarendger. I like Zach Brown a lot. I know that he doesn't cover well, but I haven't seen him in coverage much

here in the first two weeks, which may be, you know, an adjustment by the coaching staff, which is a good one from last year. But I like Chris Thompson. Sunday, it's a week-to-week league. It could completely change. I get that. I get that. You know, people rely on that too much.

Why? To explain away bad performances. Oh, I agree with you on that. That. It is a week-to-week league, but you can't use that to explain away a bad performance. You can explain it, you can explain certain losses that way, but not a bad performance. No, and there's a trend here with this happening too many times over the years. Yeah.

So, I mean, you know, I mean, I get the week-to-week stuff, and it is. But you just can't say, oh, oh, that's football, you know, you can't get away with that. But that wasn't football on Sunday. No, it wasn't. But it wouldn't surprise me if Sunday they play well. It wouldn't surprise me either. And that they have a legitimate chance to win that game on Sunday to get them to two-and-one before a very early by week.

Now, if it goes the opposite way, which it will, by the way, and they don't win the game, and they don't look good in losing the game, and they're one and two going into an early bye week with New Orleans coming out on the backside of the by week, on a Monday night down there in the Superdome, I'll just ask you,

do you think Jay's in any trouble at all if they go out and lay another egg and have another stinker on Sunday at home. No. No. Any trouble this season? Going into a by week at one and two with back-to-back. No, I don't. Hideous losses. No.

I mean, because Bill Callahan would be the obvious guy to step in, a former head coach. And he may be part of the problem since the running game was so non-existent on Sunday. So I don't know for promoting him is going to excite anybody either or fill up any season. Any chance? No. I don't think so. Boy, this would have been your spot a few years ago. You've really softened up.

Well, it's too early. One and two, it's not, it's not, it's not, oh, and four. One and two, with the backdrop, drop, or the context being two horrible looking games at home. Now, the crowd will be bigger on Sunday because there will be Packer fans. They'll be Packer fans there. But if it's another stinker of a game where they look, look unprepared, and let me just add this to the context. There's some complaining and backbiting after the game.

Yeah, we weren't prepared and we didn't practice well. You heard that yesterday. Oh, yeah, yeah. Look, you heard that in training camp sometimes. You heard, I think, Sweringer and Josh Norman complain about the Jets practices that they had, that they shouldn't do them. There was complaining in training camp. It's just that no one was paying much attention to it.

You mentioned a word that has now become my favorite word in sports. Urgency. You hear it all the time. With the caps, you heard it. That was the language of playoff losing with the capitals, a sense of urgency. We need to get a sense of urgency. We're not playing with a sense of urgency. Then all of a sudden last year, they got to use that word in a different context.

You heard Barry Trot say, we're playing with urgency, you know? It's like, you know, this hidden. gem that coaches. You heard Dave Martinez say it this year about the Nationals. We need to play with more of a sense of urgency. It has become the holy grail now in sports, and no one can really define it or explain it or point to it, but everyone's searching for urgency. You love doing that. You love finding like the term de jour or the word or the description and just riddling it and mocking it. But I would just say this about urgency. That is one of those things that is a fan watching from afar, you have a sense of watching a team.

And Sunday, there was no urgency, no matter how you want to mock the description of it, watching them, it appeared as if they really didn't have a desperation to win the game. Right. It's harder to say that Trent Williams didn't, you know, have the proper technique in pass pro as a fan. It's easier to say, man, you know what?

Like, maybe, and maybe it's always when you get your ass kicked like they did on Sunday that they didn't have a sense of urgency. But there was a sense early in that game. They're getting run on early and then they're going three and out and they don't look very good. And the lack of energy in the crowd, we heard that because there wasn't a crowd at the game. I don't know. Maybe I don't mind that description. And I like when people recognize that in sports there's a level of energy that you have to have. Yeah, and I get that.

I guess I just think like when you're my age, a sense of urgency means something totally different. Like get to the bathroom quickly. The Kevin Sheeon Show podcast and Sports Fix Redo Tuesdays and Thursdays is presented by Wind Donation. Tell people about it. Also, on iTunes or any other platform that you might be using to listen to us today, subscribe. It's free and it's better for us if you subscribe to it and also rate it if you. have time. That helps us get ranked on the iTunes list for sports podcasts. And we've been pretty high on that list over the first week and a half. As well, we should be. I'm not sure exactly how the

whole thing works, but I think subscribing and rating us highly really helps. And of course, you need to have a sense of urgency about rating and subscribing. Right. And for all, yes, you do. Yes. You have to have an additional, you have to have, you have to have new energy, a different level of energy, to just not listen to it, but say, all right, Where do I subscribe and where do I rate? Yeah, you can't be Jake Gruden and a Redskins. You've got to be better. And for those that you know, and this is really important for Tommy's age demographic,

for those that you know that are saying, I want to listen to it, but I don't know how to do iTunes or Stitcher or tune in or Google Play, just go to the website, Kevin Sheeonshow.com, the Kevin Sheeonshow.com. I had a really good friend of mine who's like, I don't listen to podcasts. I don't even know what it is. I'm like, just go to the website. It's right there. the play button. It's not very hard

to go to the, to go to what, isn't everybody capable now, even at your age, Tommy, of getting on the internet and going and using a website? Yeah, I think, let me point out something else too, Kevin. On your iPhone, there is an icon that says podcasts. Right.

All you got to do is go to that icon and in the search thing, just punch in the Kevin Sheehan show. And it will come up and you can subscribe to it right there on your iPhone. That's all you have to do. And if that's hard, just go to the website, all right?

All of you just tell people, it's not hard. The Kevin Sheehan Show.com. You can also just put in Kevin Sheeonshow.com, because I have both of them sort of redirect to each other. And it's a simple website. It's not very extravagant. Stop hitting them over the head with this. Come on. My God.

All right. I wanted to get to the... Stop begging, will you? I wanted to get to the Nationals who had a chance last night with a win over the Marlins to get to within six and a half. And I know that's not going to happen, but they're They would have been five and a half out in the wild card race. Yeah. But you said something to me before we started today that I want you to repeat because I hadn't even thought about it.

I don't think many people have. So go ahead. I think it's going to creep up on people. But they come home Thursday for a seven game, their last home stand of the year. That means for Nats fans, these are the last seven games. You'll probably see Bryce Harper in person in a Nationals uniform. This is it. This is, this is, we're probably looking at the end of the bright.

You're sure of that. I'm not 100% sure. Well, what percent sure are you? I'd say 90% sure. Really? Yeah. I'd say 90% sure of that. Couldn't they do just a quick short term deal, like a two-year deal for a lot of money?

Can you see the year he's having now? He's got to, he's got to get $400 million out there. Why? Because of the home runs and the, and the, at one point he was hitting 205. I know that, but now he's hit. in about $2.60 something. No, he's not. He's hitting like $249. No, he's not. Aaron, look that up. Bryce Harper is not hitting $250 right now. I'm pretty sure. That's something I look at every night. He's going to go over 100 RBIs for the first time in his career, I might want to point out.

He's got about 3435 home runs. Bryce Harper is hitting 247 with 347 runs and 97 RBI. And what's his on-base percentage and OPS? It's gone way up here recently. Although he struck out three times last night. Yeah, I know. Look, he's going to get paid. His on-base percentage is $3.89, which is much lower than average. Lower than average, but it's come up significantly in the last month and a half. It's really, and I'm going to, I have this theory and I'm sticking with it, is that he let the contract get to him in the first half of the season.

And he set the tone for that contract here in spring training when he stood before reporters and said, if you ask me a question about my contract, I'm walking out the door. I know. And finally, when he met with the media at the All-Star game and had to sit there basically be a captive for 45 minutes

where people were allowed to pepper all kinds of questions to him, and I stood right next to him the whole time. I mean, I was wondering, maybe my best move in years is that I was able to get the prime Bryce Harper spot, and that was the prime location,

Bryce Harper. I think that changes out. look. It wasn't just winning the home run derby, I think, kind of loosened him up a little bit. But I think finally, he was a little bit more relaxed with the media like he had been years past. He's built up

a wall for himself over the last couple years between him and the media for whatever reasons. Maybe he thinks he was wrong. Maybe he didn't like the idea I called him the minister fun when he said he was going to bring fun back to baseball. But he's had a different attitude to the second half,

and I think it's helped him at the plate. Well, I mean, you know, I hate this term. You hate the term urgency. I hate the people who use the description regression to the mean or progression to the mean because that doesn't really apply to sports and averages. All right, these are single independent events. But beyond that, he wasn't going to hit 208 for the year. No. You know, at some point he was going to get hot. He's got way too much talent. talent. And by the way, Tommy, I don't think it was ever about injury this year. It's been about injury at times when he's had rough spots before. It wasn't necessarily about that this year. It may have been about what you described. But to think about seven home games left with Bryce Harper in an att's uniform, when you said that to me, I immediately thought, I'm going to a game.

I'm going to go to one of those seven games. I think people, once they wake up and realize that, will show up for what would normally be a meaningless home stance. Right. I think they will. The 90% that you put it at is, I think that's high, but I would defer to you on that, but I just want to get the odds on favorite to be the team that he goes to. Right now you would say that there's a 10% he, 10% chance he stays here, but the highest percentage spot for his landing is where? I still think it's the Dodgers.

Now, if they did that, that means they're not going to sign Manning Machado. So I could be totally off base about that because I also think they're going to sign Manning Machado, the guy they traded for too. But I know Stan Kasten has coveted, the Stan Kasten, the former Nats owner, now the owner of the Dodgers, has coveted Bryce Harper. I know he has a very good relationship with the Harper family, going back to when he was drafted here. But I don't know if they can pull off the,

finances and without going over the luxury tax, which they don't want to do. The Phillies have emerged as a frontrunner in the sense that they have the money to do it. They have the money supposedly to sign Machado and Harper. So they have a lot of money available. And I think I've talked about this before. The Phillies and the Eagles are very aggressive in their war against each other in that town for attention. And now with the Eagles coming off, The Super Bowl, I think the Phillies might be more aggressive to, particularly since they've had a good year, probably a year earlier than they expected, to make a move in the free agency market.

And the worst nightmare for Nat's fans is to have Bryce Harper show up in 18 games in your division as an opponent. So you don't want the Phillies. I mean, the Cubs are a possibility. Talk about booing at home if he came into this park next year and had two home runs. for in a Philly's uniform. In a Philly's uniform. Yeah. Now, Philly might be a great town for him.

I mean, because they like the attitude. They like attitude, and Bryce Harper's got a lot of attitude. So they may like that. So the Phillies and the Dodgers may be followed by the Cubs. The Yankees are always a possibility, but they've got, you know, Stanton's contract on their payroll now. I just think he's going to be the highest price free agent in the history of baseball. Not only are these the last seven days. for Bryce Harper, but it means in a Nats uniform in person.

That means these are the last 88 days to see Anthony Rendon in a Nats uniform in person. Because what Bryce Harper is going through this year, unless the Nats do something in the offseason, Anthony Rendon will go through next year, and the Nationals can't afford to do that. That's a guy they can't afford to have leave. On Thursday, we can talk more about one of the reasons that there's only a 10% chance Harper stays here, and that's Juan Soto and the season he's having and the rookie of the year chances. We'll do that on Thursday. I did want to get your thoughts before I get into the coaching blunders of the week on, because you watched it. I did not buy the fight.

I was thinking about buying the fight, but I was watching Ohio State TCU on Saturday night, and the fight started, you know, sort of at the end of that game. I didn't see it, but I heard that Canelo Triple G was a very good fight with a reasonable score card decision. Like a believable one. Well, you know, I mean, some people think that Triple G got robbed. I thought he got robbed in the first fight. He definitely got robbed in the first fight.

I mean, you know, Canelo backed up most of the first fight. This time he stood his ground. He went toe to toe with Triple G. And I think he did enough to win, not the 12th round necessarily, which he was given. But I thought I had Canelo Alvarez. went in the fight by one round. Now, some of the best boxing writers who were ringside, Kevin Ioli,

and Tim Tallberg for AP and several others, four of the top boxing writers had her to draw. So that shows you how close it was. So if you think Triple G one... Can you imagine if you had gotten back-to-back draws? That would have been rough. I never tried to score a fight, a draw.

It just goes into my nature, but sometimes it happens. Now, you know, if you had triple G winning by a round, I had no problem with that. I just have a problem with people saying he was robbed. He wasn't robbed. It was a very close fight. It was a good fight. It wasn't a great fight.

We've forgotten what a great fight looks like. It's been so long since we've seen a great fight that anything that's not a disaster is a good fight. Leonard Duran won was a great fight. Yes. Leonard Hurns won. Leonard Hurons was a super great fight. Super great fight. Leonard Hagler was a great fight, which by the way,

you know, concluded with a lot of the same feelings that maybe you had, you just described about Triple G and Canello, which is if you had Hagler winning that fight by a round or Leonard winning that particular fight by a round, you weren't that far off.

I always thought Hagler won that fight. I always felt that Marvin Hagler won that fight. Leonard stole the last 15 seconds of every round, if you remember, from that fight. But you're right about that. You don't see the great fights that we, every once in a while. They're great fights, but they're not big fights. No, they're not the big fights. Yeah, they're not the ones that everyone's watching. Well, because boxing isn't a popular culture sport anymore. No, it's not. No, it's

not. It's a knit sport. And what's interesting, you know, Hagler, Hagler never fought after that Leonard fight. I know he didn't. And Ray tried to get him in the ring multiple times for a rematch, and he wouldn't do it. He felt he was robbed. Yeah, my philosophy on that, I thought Ray won, plus, if you're Marvin Hagler, you're the middleweight champion, and you're fighting a guy who's moving up and wait, who hasn't fought in three and a half years, and you can't knock him out, then, you know, you're going to have to deal with the hand that's dealt to you. Do you remember the hype for that fight? Oh, yeah. I mean, the hype for Leonard Hagler, because it was one of those Leonard fights that we hadn't seen

that everybody wanted. He was out of the sport with the, you know, the torn retina, the whole thing. And he came back and that fight in 1987, I think it was the spring of 1987, the buildup for that thing was off the hook.

And remember, that was 12 rounds. That was when fights were 15 rounds. Leonard smartly insisted on 12 rounds. That was the first of Leonard's big mega fights that was 12 rounds. Yeah. That was in just for that fight, they did that because Ray knew that, you know,

the longer the fight went on, I mean, the more trouble he would be in. I mean, and, you know, the ring was bigger to give Ray move, they negotiated a lot of terms. Right. For that fight. In their favor for that fight. This is why I always said,

I've always said from 78 to 88 was the best time to be a sports fan in this town in part because Sugar Ray Leonard was like a boxing sports franchise. He was. I mean, between the Duran fights, the Hearns fight, the Hagler fight, I mean, he literally was like

a sports franchise here. Yeah, and it started with him winning the title over Wilford Benitez, who was the champion. What was the one, I have one fight that I always wanted to see Ray take and make happen, never happened. I know what you're going to say. Aaron Pryor. Yes. A lot of people say that. And I always felt that Ray didn't want that fight. Well, who would want to

fight Aaron Pryor? fights Alexis Argueo. Well, that was another fight. To see Ray fight Argueo would have been interesting, but to see Pryor at his height, and we now know that Pryor was pretty juiced up for all these fights. Against Leonard would have been another one of those mega fights, but Pryor was so awkward, his style was so awkward,

he was so unpredictable in the rain. Yeah, he was. And I always felt like, for whatever reason, Ray was like, that's the guy, I don't want any part of it. Yeah, I get that. I think Ray would have outmuscled him. People that, you know, what thing the Hearns fight did, the first Hearns fight? Totally changed the narrative about Leonard.

I mean, he went from being a pretty boy to a tough guy. Right. And that's important. Well, he tried to become the tough guy in Leonard Duran won, and it didn't work for him. Right. And then he became the pretty boy in Leonard Duran, too, and embarrassed him at the Superdome. Yes. But the Hearns fight narrative going in was that Leonard has to avoid the knockout, has to out box

Hearns to win the fight, and it turned the other way. when Leonard hurt Herns early in the fight, and then Herns turned into the boxer, and that was the thing about Tommy Harnes that nobody ever, I don't think he ever got credit for, Tommy, is what a great boxer he was. Because nobody had a better right overhand than Herns did. If you ever want to see one of the greatest right overhands ever,

watch him knocking out Pupino-Quavis in the first round, I think it was. Peron. A very good fighter. A very good fighter. Or when he knocked out Duran in the second round. That was lights out. And that was what everybody was fearful of for Leonard in that first Hearns fight at Caesar's Palace. And it totally flipped.

And then Leonard, after getting outboxed for four or five rounds and losing on all scorecards, he had to knock Hearns out to win the fight. And he did. And remember his face? It was bruised and battered. The eye was closing. What a great fight that was. Yeah.

What a great fight that was. All right. Let's get to the coaching blunders for the week. Bad play calls. Clock management gaffes. Missed opportunities. It's Coach Sheehan's blunders of the week. A little nod to one Richard Doc Walker for the coach Sheehan part of the intro.

Tommy, plenty of coaches in need of help this week. I mean, we'll start with the Thursday night game between the Bengals and the Ravens. And Harbaugh is one of those coaches. I like Harbaugh. I think Harbaugh is usually good at this stuff. and he was not good Thursday night at the end of the game. Cincinnati was leading that game 3423. Baltimore down by 11.

Even you know this, and you're not very good with numbers. Down 11 means how many possessions must you have to have any chance to win the game? At least how many. Okay, let me answer the question for you. I didn't know there would be a test. Two possessions. There's no 11 points. play in the NFL or football? No. It might be in the Arena League. I have no idea. I don't watch

that. But under a minute to go, you got to score and get lined up for an onside kick to give yourself any chance of winning the game. It's a long shot. I get it. But 3423, the Ravens are driving late. And they had multiple opportunities with the best kicker in football. Oh, yeah. And Justin Tucker to kick the field goal, to get the 3426, line up, kick an onside kick. And if you recover it, you got a chance to actually tie the game with a two-point conversion down eight. And by the way, if you tie it, you have a chance to win the game if that's what your goal was. Harbaugh had no, he was oblivious to this, apparently, at the end of Thursday night, or he just was conceding the game and tapped out.

I think that happens a lot. Were they frustrated with the way the game's gone? I think they, I mean, I think they play the odds in their head. and they think the long shot's not worth it. They just want to get off the field, I think. It got to under 20 seconds, and, you know, they didn't even line up to kick it then. At that point, it's really even too late because when you kick the field goal and you recover the onside kick, then you got to throw a Hail Mary because you don't have one play to get in field goal range.

You got to kick that field goal with about 40 seconds to go. If you really are interested in winning that particular game, when you get paid $5 million a year, seriously, This is always, you know this is one of my things. When you get paid that much money and you can't compute first or second grade math at the end of a game, shame on you. I mean, the chances of them winning that game by kicking a field goal and recovering an onside kick are a long shot. But the chances of them winning that game by not kicking the field goal are 0%. Jay Gruden on Sunday, all right, at the end of the first half, and this is, you know, this is a weakness for him. It's been a weakness for him for a while.

They're at the end of the first half, and Matt Ionitis sacks Andrew Luck. And there's a minute 40 to go when the play ends. And the Colts are facing third and 12, and the Redskins have scored a whopping three points in the first half so far. You've got to be thinking about getting the ball back, and you've got to be aggressive. When you are a head coach in the NFL,

and your responsibility is clock management and game management, one of the easy sort of mantras should be, More possessions in the game are better than less possessions in the game. So you have to use your timeouts and the clock to maximize, to increase the possibility of having more possessions in the game and more time when you get possession of the football. Well, Jay didn't call a timeout after that second down sack. So 35 seconds run off the clock.

And then Andrew Luck throws underneath to the tight end Doyle. And Jay finally calls a time. out there. Well, you just wasted 30 to 35 seconds, which at the end of the half, when Hopkins is lining up to kick a field goal on second down from 49 yards out, maybe it occurs to Jay Gruden. I don't think it does. I think he's completely, completely oblivious to this stuff and really doesn't understand it at all. But it should occur to you at that point. If I had used that time out on defense, I might have some time left here to get in better field goal range. Another four or five yards. How about another 20 yards? How about maybe even having a chance

if you manage the clock well on offense to scoring a touchdown on the drive? Jay Gruden did not handle the clock well at the end of the first half. But don't you think there's something to the idea that these guys just want to get off the field at some point, particularly going into the half? Look, there is context where you're like, we're really bad on offense, and I'd rather the clock run out and let's get into the halftime and make adjustments and figure this thing out. All right? And if that were the answer, I would say, okay, but you've scored three points.

You're down 14.3. You got to give yourself the best chance of getting into the best field goal range to kick a field goal at the end of the half. His mindset wasn't to get into the locker room, Tommy. His mindset was to score because when they got the ball back, they tried to score and they got into field goal range. I'm just saying they could have gotten into a lot of. better field goal range. Here to me was the biggest blunder of the weekend. And it's another coach

that I really respect when it comes to this stuff. And it was Sean Payton at the end of the Saints game. This was a crazy game. The Browns cut Zane Gonzalez yesterday. They signed Greg Joseph. I've never heard of him. Meantime, Dan Bailey goes to the Vikings after their kicker Carlson missed three field goals in the game against the Packers at Lambo. So the Saints, at the end of this game against the Browns. First of all, and I mentioned this yesterday, and I know that this seems like a reach right now because they've lost now, they're 1 in 34 in their last, one in 33 in their last 34 games. But the Browns are a completely different team this year, especially on defense. It may be exaggeration, but I'm going to tell you right now,

they don't have any worse than a top 10 defense, and they may have a top five defense. They have really shut down in back-to-back weeks. Rathlisberger and Breeze. They have a ton of talent on that defense acquired via the draft. Pepper's, Garrett, Ward, and the pick from this past spring. The Browns are a good defensive football team, and it's going to give them chances like it has given them in these first two games to win games. If they had a kicker, they'd be two and oh. Yeah. Now, Sean Payton's mistake at the end of this game came in a 21-21 game, game, New Orleans is at the Cleveland 25-yard line with 43 seconds left. You are in position now to kick a walk-off game-ending field goal,

or worst-case, go to overtime if the field goal's missed. Sean Payton runs the ball in first down at the Cleveland 25 and calls a timeout after the run. Kamara was stopped for like no game. Ball's still at the 25, and he uses a timeout. That makes no sense at all. Timeout 35 seconds left. Cleveland has one timeout left.

One timeout left. You have to get Cleveland to use their timeout. But it really doesn't matter at this point. You're in not chip shot field goal range, but a 43-yard or indoors in the Superdome for Will Lutz is a chip-shot field goal for all intents and purposes. And you have a chance to basically walk the Browns off here. On second down with 35 seconds to go,

Breeze throws the football, incomplete to Ted Ging Jr. on third and 11, Breeze throws it again. So he stopped the clock twice. Time out, now an incomplete pass. Third and 11 at the Cleveland 26. Now you've got to be thinking, hey, let's run a little draw here, pick up five yards, let the clock run down, call timeout, send the field goal team out to win the game.

He throws it again on third down, and it's incomplete. And it stops the clock with 30 seconds to go in the game. Lutz comes on, kicks the field goal to give them the 21 to 18 lead. By the way, I said it was 21, 21. It was 18 to 18. That was the score at that time. But here's what's happened in this whole, you know, butchering of the clock management here.

They have left 21 seconds on the clock for Cleveland to get in field goal range to tie the game. The kick by Lutz should have been a walkoff kick, but it wasn't. So now Cleveland gets the ball back. and they get into field goal range. And they had the one-time out left as well. And then the guy, Gonzalez, who had already missed two extra points and a field goal came on for a game-time, overtime forcing field goal, and he missed the kick.

But it was a terrible job by Sean Peyton of managing that clock. That really is bad. If that game goes to overtime, if that guy actually made the kick and somehow the Saints lost in overtime, that would have been on Peyton for that. That was one of those where I went back and watched on my old 22 just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Just terrible job by Sean Peyton, who's usually really good at it. A couple of other things. Did you see Deshawn Watson's final play for the Texans against the Titans on Sunday?

No, I did not. So there are 17 seconds left in the game. They're down three, the balls at midfield. And the final play, he's running around. pumping, moving out of the pocket, now moving back to the other side of the field, back to the other. Sean Watson can be elusive. Yes.

And by the time he threw it to Hopkins, the clock had run out. At 17 seconds, and they had a timeout left, you can throw the ball quickly over the middle of the field. You might have two plays, maybe three plays, if the plays get out of bounds to get in good field goal range to tie the game. And in one play with 17 seconds to Sean Watson. Used up the whole clock. Used up the whole clock. Wow.

Now he's a young quarterback, but you've got to be as a coach. You've got to tell the quarterback, look, you can't run around there and eat the clock up. We've got to get a play over the middle. It's fine. And we'll get our field goal team out there to tie it up. He ran the clock out.

And then there was one other thing real quickly. It's with a coach I like Zimmer in Minnesota. This guy Carlson missed three kicks in the Vikings lost to the Packers. Tie, excuse me, to the Packers. Packers, Kirk Cousins, four touchdowns, 425 yards in the game. I love doing that to the people. They just know that I love them and they can't stand him. He was really good in the game.

And oh, by the way, the one pick was not his fault. It was Laquan Treadwell, who's got bricks for hands going off his hands. Now, he did have an interception overturned by a terrible Clay Matthews, roughing the passer penalty. totally agree with you. Not terrible according to the NFL, though. I can't believe the NFL backed that call up. I know. Not just backed it up, but that was a textbook example of what not to do. Yeah, that's what they're using to teach people. Hard to watch football these days. But then again, I've got something that I want to share with you here in a moment about the first two weeks. It's very

interesting. But Minnesota at the end of overtime, I hate the 10-minute overtime rule. I hate that it's for, you know, for player safety. What's another five minutes? I said this before last year, Tommy, 10-minute overtime rule was going to create more ties, and it didn't last year. This year, you've got two and two weeks. It's over quickly. You get a couple of chances. Now, they had chances. This kicker missed two field goals in overtime that should have ended the game.

He's gone, by the way. He's gone, too, and they got Dan Bailey, who's been a really good kicker for the Cowboys. But Minnesota, on the last play on the Carlson missed from 35 yards at the end of overtime, it was a first down play. They wound the clock down to four seconds before kicking it. Can't do that in that spot, Zimmer. You've got to wind the clock down to about 12 seconds. You've got to plan for the worst case, which is a bad snap.

It's a first down play. If you get a bad snap, your guy gets up and, you know, run, or just kneels there, falls on it there because it's already a short field goal. So you're going to add seven yards to a 35-yarder. Now it's going to be a 42, 43, 44-yard field goal. So, but they wound it down to four seconds. So they had no safety net to a bad snap. So if there had been a bad snap and the clock ran out and the game ended in a tie,

that's when somebody would have said, hey, Zimmer, why didn't you try to kick that with 13 seconds, 14 seconds left? And you would have had another chance to kick it. I wanted to tell you something. That's the end of coaching blunders for the week. And there were several of them. And if you want to tweet me just at Kevin Shee and D.C., I love when you guys tweet the ones that I miss because I don't see all of them.

and I know that there were a couple from college. I just had a hard time going back and verifying some of the stuff. In a Bill Barnwell story yesterday on ESPN.com, you know Barnwell, right? No, I don't. I don't know. I've never read him. Well, you know who he is. No, I don't know who he is.

Why would you think that? Bill Barnwell? You don't know Bill Barnwell? Where would I know him from? ESPN.com. I've never seen him in a press box. I've never seen him at an event. Okay. Why would I know this guy? You don't know this guy. He's a big time, you know, writer on ESPN.com. He's one of these guys, Tommy, he writes war and peace, you know, columns. They are forever reads, but it's really good stuff.

But I don't read ESPN.com. Okay. I just thought you'd know who Bill Barnwell was. No. You know who Bill Simmons is? Yeah, I know who Bill Simmons is. I saw him on TV. Well, so when, you know, when Simmons was writing all that long, you know, form stuff, this is sort of Barnwell on ESPN.com. He writes very long stories. By the way... What's he looked like? I have no idea what he looks like. There you go. What do you mean?

There you go. What does that mean? He's a big guy. He's a big famous guy, but you don't even know what he looks like. I have no idea what he looks like. Actually, he was on TV once on ESPN, and he was not very comfortable on TV. And I don't think they put him on TV anymore. Is he a geek?

Yeah. Yeah. All right. He started at football outside. All right. Yeah. Oh, what are you even bothering me with this stuff for? Why are you wasting my time?

Bill Barnwell, he'd be bagging groceries, a giant if he wasn't such a geek. Okay, well, let me just say he does get, he can get geeky, but he's not massive analytics driven in his stories. There's a lot of common sense stuff, but he does have a lot of numbers in his stories. Anyway, I just picked out one nugget from it. I'm sorry I even brought this up. So am I. Through the first two weeks of this NFL season, scoring is up, Tommy. Scoring is up over three points per team, over six points per game. That's a significant statistical difference from a year ago. A year ago, on a per team basis, there was an average of 20.2 points per team scored in every game.

This year, 23.6 points per game so far. That's a big jump in average scoring. Also, 5.6 yards per play versus 5.2 yards per play. Through the first two weeks of the season, it's already on pace to become the highest scoring season and the highest yards per play season ever 2013 set that mark. I bring it up because one of the the reasons for this is, again, all of the rules favoring the offense. They have emphasized defensive holding and illegal hands on defense, and you're seeing a lot of those calls. You're seeing a lot of protection of the quarterback calls. So you're getting a lot of 15-yard chunk plays with the clock stopped also. And that's going to lead to more scoring. It's not naturally created.

it's artificially created by these rules changes and emphasis on defensive holding. I hate that. If you've seen some of these defensive holding calls, they've been terrible calls. I mean, these aren't traditional defensive holding calls. Did you see the end of the 49er Lion game? No, you did.

The Lions had a pick six. It wasn't actually a touchdown. It was a pick at the end of the game. It was a terrible throw by Garoppolo that would have set them up for either the game-winning touchdown or the game-winning or the game-tying field goal. And they called one of their D-Bs for a hold on the tight end, on the complete opposite side of the field,

on a quick throw, had nothing to do with the play, and the contact was suspect. Let me tell you what you just did with this Bill Barnwell thing. Imagine we're sitting around at the lunch table in high school. And everyone's talking about the booze that they managed to sneak from their parents' house that weekend, or the girl they had in the back of their car that weekend. And Kevin just typed up and said,

here's what I learned in algebra class. That's not what you... That's exactly what you just did. To me and to everyone listening to this podcast. We were not talking about stealing booze from our parents' liquor cabinet. Oh, my God. We were coming off a conversation. To me favor, if you want me to show up again, don't ever mention his name.

And I don't even know who he is. Just go ahead and read him. You'll like them. Actually, you want... I am surprised that you don't know who he is. I don't think I ever brought up what I learned in algebra class. I may have brought up whether or not I got beat by a pick six at the end with a team land free. That I probably would have brought up.

One last thing before we conclude for the day. Paxton Lynch was brought in for a workout yesterday. I know. Why? What is that? You know, there's got to be, there's all kinds of possibilities. One is Lee Steinberg is his agent and somebody doing a favor for him in the front office. But, you know, and we've seen that before.

Remember, they gave Demarcus Russell a look. Jamarcus. We were at the park. Do you remember who was with him? John Lucas. John Lucas. So they did it as a favor to somebody giving him a look. So a lot of times I think, you know, they do that thinking that it will garner some goodwill.

You know, it makes the agent look good, getting his client workouts. And maybe, you know, it'll help down the line with the negotiation. or else somebody in the front office scouted him in college and thought to, you know, in the right hands, he could be a different quarterback. One of those situations may have happened. Who picked up Kevin Hogan after the Redskins cut him? Somebody picked him up immediately. Denver.

Denver. Yeah. I actually thought Hogan, it's preseason, I actually thought he looked pretty good. Well, I'd take him over Paxon Lynch. I'm surprised that Hogan, well, they just haven't been, they traded for Hogan. Remember, they gave up a pick for Hogan to clean. Cleveland. Remember, their third string quarterback is up in Philadelphia dressing. Yes, he is. Yes, and their backup now.

The quarterback from Indiana that they draft. Yeah, Nate Sudfeld. Nate Sudfeld. Yeah, that was their backup quarterback. That was their quarterback and waiting. Oh, God, here you go again with that. I mean, you, like, they drafted him. They really like them, just like Colt McCoy. They like them so much that they traded a third round pick and Kendall Fuller to get, to get somebody to start. There's a lot of people I think that. that Jay Gruden wanted Colt McCoy years ago to be the starter instead of Kirk Cousins. Well, he had a chance to start him.

What are you talking about? I was telling you. Before 2015, he could have started Colt McCoy. No one would have cared if, other than me, would have cared if Kirk Cousins was the starter or not. And he started Cousins. Yeah, I know, but he didn't start Cousins. Yes, he did.

No, he didn't. Oh, who did? I'm just pointing out, who made the argument with Dan Snyder to start Cucson? McClewinn with Jay Gruden. But Jay Gruden was the one that said, We can't win with Griffin. That's different.

That's a different argument. We got to get that guy out. It's a different argument than we got to get that guy in. The only argument he could win was Kirk Cousins. Why? At that point, Kirk Cousins, the last time we had seen him in 2014, he was throwing picks against Tennessee. But McClellan believed in him. Bruce Allen could possibly sell it.

Bruce Allen didn't believe in Kirk. They had to sell it to Dan Snyder. They couldn't sell Col McCoy to Dan Snyder. I think that if Jay Gruden was going to stand on the table and say, sorry, I can't play Griffin if you actually care about winning games, he could have in that same moment, if he truly believed it, because he was already sticking his neck out, would have said, Colts the guy, I got to start if we want to win games. Yeah, but he's smart enough. No, you can't win that argument. He was more concerned with getting rid of the quarterback. He was more concerned. The primary focus was to get. Griffin added again. I agree with that, but I don't think that there would have been a difference in presenting McCoy as the solution or Cousins as the solution. There would have been a big difference.

Because Stan Snyder's a fan boy. Could you see the fan reaction if they started Colt McCoy? The fan reaction to Cousins wasn't favorable. Oh, it would have been not different compared to Colt McCoy. Colt McCoy was the one that had played at the end of 2013. I get that, but nobody on this fan base thinks he can play. Okay, I disagree with you on that. I would just, all, all I would say, say. How did this conversation start? This is a moment that we're back. This is the moment that shows the sports fix is back. Because we just argued about Colt McCoy. Well, I mean, but the thing about it is you've always had this thing about how Jay loves Colt McCoy. And yet Colt McCoy, fortunately, for all of us, hasn't been named a starter for a season. And I like Colt McCoy. He's a backup quarterback. I need

to set aside a couple of hours to read a Bill Barnwell column. So, you know, I've I got something I got to do to see. Well, you know what? You'll have plenty of time to actually do it by audio on your drive back. All right. That was fun today. Sort of. No, it was.

I love doing this. And we're back together again on Thursday. And there will be a lot of new topics to talk about on Thursday, I'm sure, between now and then. Absolutely. Thanks to Aaron Oster, who produced us. Thanks to all of you. It's been the sports fix on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thanks to chatter.

Thanks to Windon Nation, who is our presenter. sponsor. I'm back tomorrow.