The Kevin Sheehan Show - Three Takeaways Snaps 3-Game Skid

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Kevin solo today with his complete recap of Washington's 24-16 win in Atlanta to snap a 3-game losing streak and improve to 3-3. Lots on Sam Howell including a 6-game hunch on what Washington has in the young QB. Thoughts on the Terps' tough loss to Illinois and some NFL recap 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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. 15th, three and out this year for Atlanta with James and Crowder, the deep man to receive the pun from Bradley Pinyon. Her creeps up to the 27th. A turnerboard for Crowder.

Right up the middle across the 35. There he goes. Crowder ripped up from behind at the 10-yard line. James and Crowder's 61-yard punt. return in Atlanta yesterday was the fifth longest of the NFL season so far, and it moved his punt return average to 14.3 yards per. That's fifth best in the league. It also set up Washington's first touchdown of the day, gave them their first lead of the day, and it was a lead they never gave up. They beat the Falcons 24 to 16 to even up to even up their record at three

and three and stop what had become a three-game losing streak. The show today is presented, as always, by Window Nation. Window Nation has their best sale of the year going on right now. It is their fall sale, buy to get too free with no limit, plus put no money down, make no payments, and pay no interest for two full years. If you've been thinking about new windows, now is the time to act.

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I promise you, it will work out for you. So Jameson Crowder's punt return, by the way, was the longest since this punt returner by Jameson Crowder in October of 2016 in Baltimore. Sam Cook with the high punt. Jameson Crowder on the return. Big return for Crowder. And he's going to go all the way. Touchdown Redskinsk. 85 yards.

That one was 85 yards for a touchdown. It made it 7 to 6 Baltimore in the first quarter. Dustin Hopkins, of course, missed the extra point. But Washington went on to win the game 16 to 10 and improve their record to 3 and 2. It's been seven years since we've seen a really big punt return, and Jameson Crowder's punt return yesterday was a big one. Two things real quickly. Number one, I was curious as to what the longest punt returns in franchise history were, so I went and pulled up the list.

The top five longest punt returns in franchise history, Bill Dudley, he's a Hall of Famer, by the way. In 1950 had a 96-yard punt return for the Redskins. Jock was green, remember him, one of Spurrier's Gators. He had a 90-yard punt return in 2002. That's the second longest in franchise history. Eric Metcalfe in 2001, playing for Marty Schottenheimer, the son of Terry Metcalfe, had an 89-yard punt return for a touchdown. That's the third longest. The fourth longest, Antoine Randall L in 2006, 87 yards. I think it was against the Colts in Indy.

And then Ricky Harris had an 86-yard punt run. return back in 1969. He was a big-time punt returner in the league for the skins in the late 60s. And that's your top five. Jameson Crowder's 85-yarder in Baltimore back in 2016 is number six on the list, and his 61-yarder yesterday is number 25 on the list. Washington's had, not in recent years, but historically, Washington's had some big-time returners. Obviously, Brian Mitchell, you know, a guy that is second all-time in the NFL in all-purpose yardage behind just Jerry Rice. B. Mitch's longest return was an 84-yarder back in 1992. He had a lot of big returns, though.

He had a 78-yarder. He had a 71-yarder, a 69-yarder, a 63-yarder, a 59-yarder. A 59-yarder. He had a lot of big returns. Mike Nelms, Pro Bowl returner as well, his longest was 75 yards back in 1981. The other thing that it reminded me of Crowder's punt return is that they signed him right before the Arizona opener, if you recall, because Dax Milne had gotten injured. Dax Milne was eligible to come off injured reserve after the fourth week of the season. and we never even talked about it.

I didn't talk about it. Maybe others did. But we just kind of forgot. Crowder is the punt returner. There's no questioning that. He had a 20-yard or and a 14-yarder also in the two previous games. He just looks confident and decisive. And it's nice to have the opportunity for a punt return

or even a kickoff return to set up points. And yesterday's, you know, put Washington at the 11-yard line in a game they were trailing seven to three. It was a huge play in the game. A game that they won and they needed to win. Let's face it. I mean, you know, it's possible they could have lost yesterday and won against the Giants and then eventually, you know, went on this November run that Ron seems to have them, you know, doing every year. But that was a big win to get, you know, especially if you're invested in this season beyond, you know, just the development of Sam Howl or hoping that ultimately they don't do enough so that, you know, Ron isn't the coach next year. I think that's pretty

much a given anyway. But I don't know. For me, when I'm in the middle of these seasons, you know, I look around like right now, Washington is actually, it's early. I understand that. I'm not going to hit you with playoff scenario talk now. But they are the seven seed right now, tied for the seven seed. They're also off to the best Ron Rivera start since he got here at three and three. That's kind of pathetic to talk about. It's their best start overall in five years in Washington. But they needed to end that three-game losing skid.

They needed to bounce back off of what was a really humiliating loss against the bears. And I think for the most part, they did. I mean, they got the win. and I know that Ron in his post-game presser wasn't like over the moon with the way they played and I understand that. They weren't perfect yesterday. But, you know, Ben Standing can mention to me

on the radio show this morning, you said, you know, Ron kind of referred to it as an ugly win. I don't think any win like yesterday's is an ugly win. You know, I just don't. There were good enough moments on offense in the first half. Lots of good moments on defense. But here's the bottom line. When you're a team in the middle playing another team in the middle,

it's like what Ken Beatrice, and I know we've quoted him saying this many times in the past, but he had this old saying, the pioneer of sports talk radio in this town, that Maugh games are lost in the NFL than won. And he's right. I mean, the vast majority of the teams are pretty close going, into games, the team that makes the fewer mistakes usually wins. Yesterday's game pretty easy to summarize. I mean, about as easy as it gets. Like if you walked into work this morning and somebody said, hey, I heard Washington won, but I didn't see any of the game, how did it happen?

All you had to say was, they had three takeaways and Atlanta had none. They won the turnover margin by three. We all know in this league up here, as Coach Joe would say, when you just win the turnover margin, you win more games than you lose. When you win the turnover margin by plus three, you win a lot more games than you lose. When you're one of those teams in the middle like both Washington and Atlanta are, turnover margin means so much in these games. Like if you just avoid making critical mistakes, you're probably going to have a pretty good chance to win the game.

There's nothing ugly about that to me. You know, they're not going to overwhelm teams. They're not a Super Bowl contender. I like to see teams that aren't Super Bowl contenders but are good enough to win nine or ten games do it by playing clean football. They weren't perfect yesterday, but they were more perfect than Atlanta. Those two teams were close in almost everything yesterday. Talent, skill, depth, coaching. The Falcons made the critical mistakes.

Washington didn't, and that's why they won the game. Atlanta turned the ball over three times twice in Washington territory. Washington didn't turn it over at all. That's it in a nutshell yesterday. We don't really have to do anything more today, but we will. We will. So, look, this season is a season in which it's so much more about things that don't have anything to do with what's going on on the field right now. You know, it's a season where there's a lot of context, new ownership, you know, a head coach that feels at times like a lame duck, an offensive coordinator. getting his first real shot with all of the responsibility that comes with being an offensive coordinator. And of course, a young quarterback with some ability and many of you really consuming this season as a season where you believe they will have discovered their franchise quarterback

finally after all of these years. And so I'm into the season, the record, the games, trying to, you know, play meaningful games post- Thanksgiving, trying to play meaningful games when the regular season ends as in playoff games. But I understand for some of you, you're not even into that this year. Like, you just want to see Ron gone. You want to see Jack gone. You want to see, you know, everybody in the organization gone and have Josh Harris, you know, with a clean. slate start all over. I get that and I understand that. And I think that's ultimately where we will get to. But I don't know. I am into the results. But I do understand the Sam Howell narrative here.

Like we need to find out, you know. And before the season started, I didn't think that we needed to give him 17 games to, you know, as just, you know, here it is. You get 17. games regardless of how you play. I wasn't on board for that, as many of you know. I hadn't seen what Sam Howell could do at the NFL level. What if he actually really sucked?

You were just going to give him blindly 17 games? I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have gone into the season thinking that way. I was going to have to see games and evaluate based on the games that he's playing. And so

before I get to my game take where I give you my list of things that I liked and didn't like from the game yesterday. I want to talk a few minutes about Sam Howl, because while it's still, in my opinion, way too early to have reached a conclusion on him, the truth, though, is that he's played now more than a third of a season, and it's okay to now have at least a more educated hunch. Not the hunch that says, I saw him against Baltimore in the preseason, I'm sure. not the hunch that says I saw him against Dallas and I'm pretty sure he's the guy. Now now we have six legitimate regular season games,

more than a third of an NFL season to look back at and give kind of a first blush hunch on Sam Howell. So here's mine. He's got a chance, man. He's got a chance. He has been a positive for this team. a net positive for this team. There's been a lot more good than not good in six starts.

I thought he played really well in the first half yesterday. I thought he looked really sharp. I don't think anybody being objective at this point could look at his first six games and say, nah, I don't see it. Guy, kid just doesn't have it. That's not a reasonable take if you've been watching him closely in these first six games.

Now, trust me, I'm not about to tell you I'm all in on Sam Howe. I'm not saying that you should be all in either. You know, I'm far from it at this point because he's got some flaws in a major one at that. And I'll get to that in a minute. But his first six legitimate NFL starts, and these are the legitimate NFL starts, the start against the Cowboys last year, was not a meaningful game for Washington, period. These six have been.

they've been good enough to demand, demand seeing more, a lot more. You're not going to need to demand it of the people in Ashburn. I think they've seen the same thing. You know, what have we seen? That's super positive. Well, a couple of things that we thought we'd see, but I wasn't sure until we saw it in an NFL game. I mean, I knew he could throw it at Carolina.

I knew he had the arm strength, and he can make all the throws, no doubt. He makes throws with really good arm strength. He can make throws with touch. He throws the ball accurately more often than he doesn't. He's got excellent mobility. That's a must in today's NFL. He is gritty. He is resilient.

He is tough. These are encouraging things. Again, some of these things we knew to a certain degree before the season started, but you never know for sure until you see. it in real games. And now we've seen a lot of that in real games. More positive from Sam so far through six games. When he sees it, the ball's out quickly. You know, he's got a really good release. When he sees it, the ball is thrown with good anticipation. These are all major positives because these are things that he has naturally. You know, you can't really coach up arm strength.

You can't really coach up mobility. Most coaches will tell you that, you know, a good quick release is something you either have by now or don't. And the same goes, by the way, with throwing the ball with anticipation. Any coach that understands quarterback play, Mike Shanahan has told me this many times, they'll tell you that throwing with anticipation is essential at the NFL level. You can't wait for the receiver to get open. you have to say, as they say, throw him open. And if a quarterback doesn't have that naturally, that can only be coached up to a certain level, not an elite level.

Sam has all of those things. It's clear through six games. He's got a lot of what it takes to be an NFL starting quarterback. I'd like him to be six three, but you can't change that either. The numbers so far are pretty damn good. 1,500 yards passing. That's ninth in the league. 67.8% completion rate, 10th in the league.

Nine touchdown passes, that's tied for ninth in the league. A 90.1 passer rating, that's 15th in the league. It's QBR's lower than that. It's 20th in the league. But, you know, pretty good across the board traditional numbers. I think we've learned a lot of really good things and encouraging things about Sam Hal over the first six weeks of the season. again, more than a third of the season in the bank now.

But he hasn't been perfect. You know, there's one concern, and I've talked about this, you know, a lot here recently, but we've got to continue to talk about it until it's not an issue or a much, or much less of an issue. This concern about him taking sacks isn't one of those concerns that you just blow off and you say, okay, I understand. He takes a lot of sacks. He's not perfect, but everything else he's got,

that will overcome this sack problem. He'll be fine. Uh-uh. That's not true. Sam Hal took five more sacks yesterday against a team that only had five in total coming into the game on this season in five games. The Falcons doubled their season sack total

in one game yesterday. Last week against Chicago, the Bears had two total sacks in four games coming into the game at FedEx Field. They got five against Hal. They more than doubled their season sack total in one game. Atlanta doubled it. Chicago more than doubled it in the last two games. Two teams that couldn't sack a quarterback. Sam Howell's now taken 34 sacks. in six NFL starts this year. He's on pace for just over 96 for the season, a number that would

completely shatter the NFL record by 20 sacks. 76 is the record taken by David Carr back in 2002. And if you look at the way the game's played today, more so than when David Carr took 76 sacks, you know, the emphasis on the ball getting out quickly, quick game, quarterbacks being protected more by the rules, you know, then if you just look at more recent football and you look at, you know, okay, well, 76 is a huge number. But what about here more recently is there's been more of an emphasis on quick game and getting it out quickly and sacks have become recognized as so much more impactful to the game. Sean Watson had 62 sacks taken in 2018.

So if we use that, that's a little bit more of what you might refer to as a more modern record of sacks taken in a year by a quarterback. But still, at the current rate, Sam will have taken more than Deshawn Watson's 62 in 2018 by Thanksgiving. And he will shatter car's all-time mark before Christmas. I looked at the all-time sacks taken list, you know, in a season, and I found some interesting things. There are some quarterbacks who turned out to be pretty good, you know, but most of them, with the exception of Watson, were quarterbacks pre-21st century. They were, you know, 20th century quarterbacks. The game was different. If you look at the list of the top 10 quarterback sack seasons from this century, so since 2000, there are four names on it from this century of football, right, since the year 2000.

David Carr's name is on there twice. John Kittner is on there. Steve Berline is on there. And then Deshawn Watson's 2018 season is on there. Carr, Kitna, and Burline. These were at best NFL backups. The point is this, and I know I've made it recently, but I wanted to emphasize it a little bit more today

after he took five sacks yesterday against a team that couldn't get any sacks all year long, for the most part. The point is this. Sam Hal's coaches and Sam Hal have to fix this. We now know, right, that the number one reason he fell from a projected, you know, high round pick, first round pick to the fifth round in the 2022 draft. This is the reason. You know, he holds onto the ball too long and he takes too many sacks. For whatever reason or reasons, he just holds on to it too long, and because he holds

on to it too long, he takes a lot of sacks. It was an issue at North Carolina. It's been an issue in the NFL so far. That's the concern. through six games. Not breaking news, I understand. But it's a major concern because, as I said to Tommy last week, this is a near fatal flaw. His sacks have added up to 215 lost yards this year. 215 lost yardage in sacks in six games. This isn't hard, people. He's got a lot going to. He's got a lot going for him, but this one flaw either improves by a lot or he's not the answer. But the good news, the good news is that this is a flaw that we have seen in just six NFL starts, okay, infancy of his career. He had similar issues I know in Chapel Hill, and I know that

some would say this is one of those issues that doesn't always get better with time. But he's done enough good that they are going to give him ample time to try to work his way through this and improve. I think that's the right thing to do. But let's not, you know, let's not completely minimize that two opponents who had no success sacking the quarterback, both completely feasted on Sam Howe. So much to like, so much to be optimistic about. I am so much more optimistic than I was at any point because I wasn't anything before the season started. But this is not just a minor concern.

It's got to be fixed. It's got to be coached up. He's got to figure out a way to stop holding onto the ball and taking sacks. It's not a sustainable way to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. All right. more on his game. I'll have a grade on his game. But what I liked, what I didn't like and a lot more, my game take coming up right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. He's Kevin's Game Take.

The Game Take brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, DC, and you'll get a cash deposit bonus on your initial deposit. Tonight's game, Dallas right now. This line is shifted a little bit here. The chargers are minus one and a half. They aren't my bookie right now. Interesting. You know, the SOFI situation for the Rams and Chargers is an interesting one for odds makers.

They do not get any benefit of being a home team. If you've watched those games, they don't have home crowds. The Chargers have no fans, and the Rams have a few. But if we thought that the overtaking of FedEx Field by opponents' fan bases was a big deal, and it was nothing like SoFi in L.A. This is being perceived as a Cowboys' Home Game. But the line just shifted. The Cowboys have been kind of one and a half all week.

And at my bookie right now, unless this is a mistake, the Chargers are minus one and a half. That's late steam on the Chargers for sure. I wonder if there's any sort of breaking news on the Cowboys. I don't see it. Should be a good Monday night game. Big game for the Cowboys, for sure. Big game for the Chargers.

I mean, you know, the Chargers hoping to, you know, be a factor in the AFC West race and with the Eagles losing yesterday for the first time, the Cowboys have a chance to, you know, narrow the gap in the NFC East with a win. You've also got good baseball on today. You've got a double header. You've got the American League game with Texas in Houston after Texas, one game one, two to nothing. And then tonight, game one, that's a four o'clock start, I think.

And then game one tonight between the Phillies and the Diamondbacks. Good sports night. Again, I think we've got nothing but good sports nights ahead. Between now pretty much and like, you know, late January. Anyway, my bookie.orgie.org, use my promo code, Kevin D.C., Washington minus one and a half in the Meadowlands Sunday against a giant team that looked completely different last night with Saquan Barclay. All right, my game take.

Things I liked, things I didn't like, and a few other observations. I'll start with turnover margin plus three. The reason they won the game more than any other. You know, not all the time is turnover margin the reason? Because many times turnover margin is even, or it's just plus one or minus one and it's You know, a big deal, but it's not as big of a deal as it was yesterday. You know, last week it was defense, defense, defense, defense in terms of why they lost. Against Buffalo, it was offense, offense, offense, in terms of why they lost the game.

Yesterday, you know, it was neither of the big, you know, two of the three big units, special teams played a role in the game. It was turnovers, plus three, period. Three interceptions of Desmond Ritter in the second half. The first one by Kendall Fuller, man, he just, I've said this a lot about Kendall Fuller, going back to when he was here. Remember when he used to just sniff out wide receiver bubble screens all the time? He's just a highly intelligent football player. He's got high football IQ. Does Kendall Fuller run as fast as some of the best corners in the league?

No. Does he have the kind of stickiness and the kind of length that some of the best and bigger corners in the league have? But what he does is he anticipates so well. He sees it a half step before anybody else does. And that first series for Atlanta in the second half down 17 to 10, it's third and seven. Jack sends the blitz. And Kendall Fuller knows.

I mean, you coordinate rush and coverage. He knows that ball's got to come out quickly if it's going to get out at all. And once he saw him look in that direction, he broke on the ball and it was too late, man. The pressure, the getting it out quickly to avoid a sack on third and seven, Fuller picked it off, had a great return that set up the touchdown that gave him a 24 to 10 lead. The second one by St. Juice in the end zone, Washington also sent extra pressure in that one, and it was a nightmare sequence for Atlanta's offense with the delay of game,

with the plays getting in late, and Ritter gifted one off the back foot, young quarterback felt the pressure, threw it up for grabs. If he'd thrown that ball out of the end zone with five and a half minutes to go, they kick a field goal and it's 24 to 19. But St. Juice had to catch it, and he did. And then the last one by Jamie Davis, a really good play. On either a bad ball or a bad route by Bejan Robinson, I'm not sure which it was, but plus three, you know,

in the turnover margin category, against a team that you're kind of even with going into that game. That was the difference in the game. Number two on the things that I liked list. They stopped the run, man. That was obvious as a key to beating Atlanta. And it was clear that Jack Del Rio made that a priority. We saw how many five-man fronts they played, how much of the Cinco package they were in yesterday. John Ridgeway, a lot of snaps yesterday. I think a record number of snaps for him. I think Ben mentioned to me that it was their highest number of five-man fronts all year. That was obvious at 27. Ridgeway played 33 snaps on 27 of them. They were five-man fronts. Even seemed a bit more than that, but 27, I'll take his word for it, per next gen, I think that was. But that was an emphasis to

stop Bejan Robinson, stop Tyler Alger and stop the Atlanta run game. Atlanta's one of those teams, you know, that has not necessarily gone the way that a lot of 20, 23 NFL teams have gone. They're going to run the football and be physical. That's their identity. And they can do it. But Bejan Robinson, 37 yards, 13 carries, 2.8 yards per carry. The worst day is a pro for him through six games. Tyler Algier was held down as well.

The three backs, I think Cordell, Corderell Patterson had a carry or two. but between Robinson, Alger, and Patterson, they averaged 3.2 yards per carry. Excellent day stopping the run. They put the game on Ritter. Jack Del Rio put the game on Ritter, and while he delivered a little bit in the first half, Ritter did, he didn't in the second half, and it ended up being the difference in the game. Thirdly, big plays, big sequences on defense throughout. In addition to the three interceptions, there were two huge four.

fourth down stops and a big series at the end of the first half where, you know, they had great field positions starting in Washington's territory at their 48 yard line at 17 to 10. And Washington made him go backwards and punt. The first, fourth and three in the second quarter, big hit by Cameron Curl. He's on my list of players that I like, things that I liked. The 17 to 10 sequence at the end of the first half. and then at 24 to 16 in the fourth quarter next to last drive, four and out.

They get their second fourth downstop. That was a two-hill Danny Johnson, John Allen special on that drive. So the defense, you know, there's a theme here, and some of you probably won't like it that much because you just want to say the defense stinks. Look, they played Atlanta. You know, they weren't playing Buffalo or Philadelphia. So, you know, the results were bound to be better.

I thought they would be going in, but the defense had a good day. And, you know, they came out with urgency. They tackled well. They hit well. There is no way that any of you, with any sort of reason, would say that Jack Del Rio had a terrible game yesterday, or that the defense, because they gave up 400 yards, which they did, had a bad day. The defense had a good day yesterday. The yardage is a bit, you know, they picked up some third downs in the first half.

They picked up some chunk yardage in the first half. All right, they did. It wasn't a flawless day by the defense. I'm not suggesting that at all, at all. But this was a day in which Jack Del Rio said, hmm, they're not going to run the ball against us. We'll put the game on Ritter, and if he can beat us, so be it. And he couldn't.

Good game plan going in. got after the quarterback in some of those key situations, which led to the turnovers. They also played some new players defensively. You know, Kaleek Hudson was out there. When Montez Sweat got hurt, Casey Toohill was outstanding. On the list of things that I liked, a couple of those players I just mentioned, Casey Two Hill, a sack caused an intentional grounding. Man, he's athletic, he's quick. Maybe they should sign him right. now to a long-term deal because he is not under contract going into next year. Maybe it's just a

safeguard. They should try to get him signed to, you know, a reasonable deal for a KC2 Hill because he's played well when he's been given the opportunity if they decide not to sign both sweat and young and perhaps trade one of them. Crowder's punt return obviously on the list of things that I liked. You know, he's the guy. I mean, and that was a big play. Offensively, Curtis Samuel looks as good as he's looked to me in a while. The shovel pitch

that he took on that drive after the crowd or punt return super quick. Caught that touchdown pass, super quick. He's a tough cover right now, as is, of course, Terry McLaren, who is going to be on this list every week as long as he's targeted

and they targeted him, you know, often, early and often. Couple of names that usually don't make their way to this list, I just wanted to acknowledge. You know, To Hill, I've already mentioned. Hudson, I've mentioned a little bit. I loved his aggressiveness. He is undersized for sure, but he can really move. How about Chris Rodriguez?

How about Rodriguez coming into this game? First of all, if Chris Rodriguez is in the game, understand this if you're Washington's opponent. More likely than not, he's going to get the ball. He had four carries, 23 yards, three in a row. I think he, you know, going back to the preseason, I think he's got excellent feet, excellent vision, good power. He was four carries, 23 yards, 5.8 yards per carry.

He has, my producer Denton looked this up, because I said on the radio show this morning, if he's in the game, he's getting the ball pretty much. he's had 12 total snaps on the year, seven carries. So there's better than a 50-50 chance that if he's in the game, he's getting the ball. I thought that, yeah, so a couple of names there that I wanted to mention. You know, we talked to Hill, we talked Hudson and Rodriguez as well on the list of things that I liked. I think the offense in the first half, I like the offense in the first half.

he dropped him back a little bit more than I would like, but there was a lot of quick game in there, a lot of other kind of quick, you know, whether it was screens or movement to get the ball out quickly. I really like what Eric B. Enemy's doing. If you're one of those people that tweeted me and said that you hated Eric B. Enemy's play calling in the game yesterday, I just don't feel the same way. I thought the play calling in the first half, even though there were a lot more passes to runs called I thought that they had some really good play calls, some good play design, some good execution. Look, they scored. I know that there was a short field on the Crowder, you know, punt return. I know there was a short field on the fourth down stop, but, you know, this was a team

that was, you know, pretty good in the first half. The offense was pretty good in the first half. Second half, not so much. But the offense in the first half was good. So that's on my good list. I didn't see any problem with play calling yesterday. I really didn't. I don't know. I guess when they don't move the ball, and we'll get to that, and they are blanked for the most part, I guess it's play calling. It wasn't for me yesterday.

So that's the list of things that I liked. The things that I did not like. Well, let's start with the second half offense. Five drives, four punts, 58 yards, Ofer on third down. You know, Washington was two for ten on the third down. You know, Washington was two for ten on third down, and they made their first two. So they finished the game 0 for eight on third down. It just was an absolute blanking of them in the second half.

I mean, they scored the touchdown after the fuller interception, but they started that drive on Atlantis 24, and they had a really good play. It was their best play of the second half. The screen, which didn't look like a screen to start, it looked like Hal was a little bit off schedule, but the linemen were out blocking, so I think it was a screen. And Robinson took it in, man, you know, there are a lot of players in this team that I don't mind when they have the ball in their hands, whether, you know, especially in space, I think both of the backs apply. Maybe all three of them apply.

But that was, you know, that was powerful running and set up to score. And, you know, he barreled into the end zone. But other than that, they did nothing in the second half. After that, you know, Fuller interception set up that touchdown, five plays 15 yards punt, four plays 21 yards punt, three plays minus six yards punt, three plays two yards punt. And then, you know, you don't count the last possession because that was a kneel down after the Jaman Davis interception.

But the offense got blank. Now, I sat here on Friday, and I said to you, I think they're much better Atlanta on defense than perhaps, you realize, I said it about Chicago's offense the previous week, Atlanta's defense is pretty good. You know, so they had some trouble in the first half, but they got it together, and they completely shut down Washington's offense. In the second half, if their quarterback doesn't turn over the ball, they probably win the game with the way they were playing defensively. because even if they had gotten field goals the rest of the way without the turnovers, they probably win the game.

But they didn't. They did turn the ball over, and they turned the ball over because of some really critical moment defensive plays. But the second half offense was dreadful yesterday. And the sacks overall, not just in the second half, because three of the five came in the first half, it's just too many. And I think at least three of them were on Sam.

You know, the first one was, initially it's just a three-man rush, too. They sent a fourth. These are the kind that have to drive Eric B. Enemy nuts. There's really not a lot of pressure on that first sack. And he just didn't have a lot of feel there. You know, maybe he is, you know, now to the point where he's doing his best to avoid them, so he wants to create something maybe off schedule. But he actually had time in the pocket.

it there and he stepped right into Grady Jarrett. He basically created that sack on his own. The second sack, when he had the back to back at the end of the first half, you can't hold it that long. You got to unload it with pressure coming. I thought the third sack was some quick pressure.

But, you know, five sacks against a team that had four total coming in is not good. A couple of other things on the list of things that I didn't like. Jahan Dotson, I mean, what in God's name is going on with Jahan Dotson? They get, you know, the stop there, they have a first and ten, they take a shot, and it's in his hands, and he dropped it. That was his only target of the day. I don't know what's the, I don't know what the issue is with Jahan Dotson. Part of me thinks it's just circumstance, and Sam's going to where the reeds take him.

but they fed it to Terry early. Maybe Dotson's not an Eric B. Enemy guy in the scheme. He's out there. It's not like he's not out there. I mean, Dotson yesterday offensively played 80% of the snaps. McLoran played 84%. After that, it was Samuel at 63% of the snaps, and Diami Brown at 22%.

It's not like he's benching Dotson. But the big time hands and the soft hands, he's had a couple of big time drops this year. Disappointing start to the year for Jahan Dotson, no doubt about it. There's no other way to say it. He's on the list of things that I did not like. I did not like the end of the first half when they got the field goal to make it 17 to 10. It was a tough sequence, I think, for Ron and for Jack, I would say.

Why? Well, let's start with this. It's third and 24. Okay, it's third down in 24. Washington is up 17 to 7 at that point. There's about a minute 50 to go, and they were very soft in coverage. They played it that way intentionally, and they allowed Ritter to throw underneath to Drake London in front of Kendall Fuller for 11 yards and field goal range. Now, I guess it's possible the ball being at the first.

41-yard line that Jack Del Rio felt they were in field goal range already, and he didn't want to give up the big play on 3rd and 24? Because they got some big receivers that they can throw it up to. I mean, London is 6-5, Pitts is 6-6, Mac Collins is 6-4, John Hsu-Smith is 6-3-6-4. They got some big-time size on that team. But I don't know, I just thought the coverage was too soft.

And then, you know, you move to after the field goal, first of all, on that third and 24, not after the field goal, before the field goal, on the third and 24, on the soft coverage, the play ends at a minute 46. Ron doesn't take a time out until a minute 36. What's better at the end of a half or an end of a game if you want to score, more time or less time? It just was sloppy. Ron took his third and final time out, you know, 10 seconds after he should have taken that final time out. So then it didn't matter ultimately because, you know, there were back-to-back sacks,

and then Washington's in this third and long situation on that next drive. And Atlanta's got one time out left, and there's about a minute two, minute three left, I think, at that point. and they throw a screen, they call a screen that Sam Dirts for an incomplete pass. No, you can't, it's third and 20, you're at your own 15-yard line. If you are not going to try to pick up the first down, which, by the way, I think was the right move, not a lot of plays for third and 20, you run the ball and make Atlanta use their final time out. So when you punt it back to them and they start their next drive, hopefully, you know, at their own 30 or whatever, it was a short punt.

It turned out they started that drive at the 48-yard line of Washington because there was like a net 40-yard, you know, it was like a net 32-yard punt and punt return on that. But you don't throw a screen into the dirt. You run the ball and make them use their last time out. You know, even Matt Ryan, who was on the call of the game, he's like, that's not very smart. No, it wasn't very smart. And then after the defense comes up big there and Atlanta goes from first and 10 at the Washington 48 threatening to either tie the game at 17, 17, 17, because they still have a time out left, or get a field goal to make it 17 to 13, they go one yard backwards. Great job on that drive. There was a false start that helped.

But then it was Fuller, Curl and Fuller on big plays. to get them off the field. And then here's the part that really frustrates me. Ron's not the only one that does it. But the punt goes to the four-yard line with 22 seconds left. It's 17 to 10. Washington has no timeouts left because they burn the previous one 10 seconds too late. And from first and 10 from their own four-yard line,

they hand the ball off to Brian Robinson, Jr. He gets nine yards and he goes out of bounds. why are you handing the ball off? Don't do that. Only bad things can happen. Somebody can get hurt or you can fumble. You have no intention of trying to score, nor should you, from your own four-yard line with 22 seconds left in the half and no timeouts. They only had one timeout. So here's what you do. You take a knee. If they call that timeout, then on second down, you take another knee and go to the locker room. Stop doing that. I'm telling you, one of these games, somebody's going to get a hurt on a play like that,

or they're going to cough it up for a back-breaking fumble. If you're trying to score, then try to score. You know, so they run a draw with Brian Robinson, Jr. He gets nine yards. Not a bad first-down chunk play. now there are 14 seconds left. If you had any kind of inkling that you were going to try to score, so now chuck it down the field.

Let's try to get a 25-yard play out of bounds, another one, and throw a Hail Mary. Or have Joey Sly come out and kick a long field goal. The chances of getting a field goal range are slim and none when you start at your own four-yard line with 22 seconds left and no timeouts. They weren't going to score because they took a knee on second and one. Take it on first and ten, you dummy. So that is the list of things that I didn't like from the game. A few other observations and a SAM evaluation and a grade.

First is this. I mean, Atlanta really messed up that situation, man, with the situation that led to the St. Juice interception in the end zone. Delay a game, the plays were getting in late, and it really messed ridder up. It's still a terrible throw. Don't get me wrong. but it really messed Ritter up.

On Ritter, I know that this is probably not the prevailing opinion, but it's my opinion. So he played his best game last week in their win over Houston by far. I actually thought he played pretty damn good in the first half. I thought he played well in that first half. I thought he was decisive. I thought he was quick. I thought he was accurate. They were four for eight on third downs.

He had a couple of those really good throws on third downs. They have some big-time receivers. I mean, look, Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Mack Collins, John Smith, who's been a pro, they got Bejohn Robinson, they threw him a wheel route. There was a little bit of a miscommunication,

and I think it was Hudson and Curl ran into each other. But I thought Ritter looked great until he didn't anymore. But if you think, like I was listening to Rex Ryan this morning on one of the shows on ESPN, and he said, how can you put him out there for one more game, game, get Taylor Heineke in there. Well, first of all, no offense, but have you seen Taylor Heineke play a lot? He's a backup quarterback.

You drafted Ritter in the second round, and he just had the best game of his eight or nine games starting career last week. And in the first half, if you're watching the game, he's 15 to 24 for, hold on, I have the stats, 15 to 24, a buck 50. They were four for eight on third down. I thought he looked good. You know, I thought it was more about what they were doing offensively in the first half versus even Washington's defense, although I still don't love the coverage sometimes.

I still think coverage is the bigger issue than front four. But they were doing such a good job stopping the run. That's the other thing. You know, on the opening drive, he converts a third and eight to pits. He converts a third and eight to London. And then he throws a really good, it looked like an RPO. may have been play action. Touchdown pass to Pitts.

Perfect throw. You know, another drive, they had a, it was their field goal drive. Third and five, really good throw to Pitts for first down. Third and seven, really good throw. That was the wheel route to Robinson, where Hudson and I think it was Curl got a little bit mixed up. That was right before the two-minute warning.

I thought Ritter actually accounted for himself pretty well in the first half, But, you know, three interceptions, all of them pretty much on him. I mean, you know, the ball was coming out too quickly, Fuller Reddit. The St. Juice thing is all on him in the end zone. And then I don't know if Robinson was supposed to cross face with Davis on that last play. Davis makes a really good play. Whatever. But I think if you're Atlanta, you're so much more encouraged after the last two games with Desmond Ritter than you were before that.

because he showed that he can do something. And I thought they schemed it up well for him. Another guy that you don't want sitting there thinking a lot and holding onto it a lot because he'll hold on to it and take some sacks, took seven, and the loss to Detroit took four in their season opener to Carolina. So it looked like some pretty good offensive play calling for Desmond Ritter until it wasn't and he basically handed the game to Washington.

But that was on the list of other sort of observations. I thought Ritter actually looked good in the first half. For those of you that thought that Atlanta was completely stupid to go for two at 24 to 16, that's just two-point analytics in this day and age. A lot of teams do it. Atlanta, I remember, did it last year against the Rams. It was 31 to 17. They scored.

They went for the two to make it 3125. They lost the game. but the idea here, it's actually, look, most of you know this at this point. I like information as much as the next guy, but these people that are dying on the analytics vine for fourth down ideas and two-point ideas without like, you know, using some of their context, some of the context and some of their gut on the kind of play calls they have or the kind of situation the game's in in the moment. That's just ridiculous. And there are some coaches that They're just going blindly with their math guy, whoever that is.

That's stupid. But the two-point, you know, going for two down 14 when you score a touchdown to make it, you know, like in that case, an eight-point lead, there actually is some, you know, it's not, it's intuitive to me as long as you feel like you've got some two-point plays that'll work in the game that you're playing against the opponent you're playing against. See, the idea is that you should be trying to win the game in regulation, not scoring two touchdowns, kicking two extra points to force overtime, because forcing overtime is not winning the game.

You can still lose the game in overtime. You know, if you consider that to be a 50-50 proposition, you know, playing for the tie in overtime, it's better to play for the win in regulation. And the two-point analytics people will tell you, if you consider the two-point play to be kind of a 50% player, somewhere around 50%. It's actually 48.4%

over the last 10 years in the NFL as a whole. But if you think, you know, you can make pretty much one out of two, well, then you go for it on that first one to make it a six-point lead and then you're kicking to win the game. And if you miss it like the Falcons did, you still have a chance to come back

and make the second one to force overtime just as if you would kick both extra points. Now, of course, if you miss both, it's not good. You lose 24-22. But that's the thinking on that. No Emmanuel Forbes at all in this game. Did not play one snap defensively. I'll tell you what, it's probably the right game for him not to have appeared in if they are concerned about him.

They wanted to stop the run. That was the goal in the game. And Atlanta's got big physical receivers and a big physical offensive line. And Emmanuel Forbes has struggled tackling. So we'll see what happens. I have certainly not given up on Forbes. I think the whole conversation of giving up on these draft choices, five games into their career, is truly one of the dumbest conversations I've heard all season long by, you know, a lot of our fans and a lot of people that cover the team.

I mean, we've all watched enough football to know you can't evaluate a draft for three years. Look at it in three years and then call it. Now, if he doesn't play anymore this year and he doesn't play for the first four or five games this year, next year, of course, you can call it early, but five games is too early. I think actually he's shown some really good instincts. But yesterday was a pretty good game for him to sit. Chase Young got face-masked on a pressure, man. I mean, it was so obvious. Can't believe that that was a call.

Casey Two-Hill, I didn't think, deserved the roughing the passer call. I thought that the jump ball with Drake London, I didn't think that that would be overturned if it had been challenged by Ron. Sam. Let's talk about Sam. Okay, so I thought Sam had a good first half. I really do. I thought the play calling was great. I thought the design of the plays were great. That third and nine to Samuel, great throw with pressure. The quick game to Thomas and to Terry McLorn back to back on the opening drive. That first and ten deep shot that they took to Diami Brown was a great throw. Perfect. Lade it right in. there. I mean, could have been maybe defensive pass interference against Terrell.

I don't think he should have tried to one-hand catch it. You might say, well, I couldn't get the other hand up there because of the, you know, of Terrell's arm. I don't know. I thought it was catchable regardless. That was a great throw. There was that off-sides on a free play on a third nine where he found McLaren rolled, you know, extended. There's the third, here's a play that you wouldn't, a lot of you may not say it may not have struck you as a really good play.

but I go back to the Buffalo game when they were in field goal range and he threw the pick, and you can't do that. Well, there was the third and 16 in field goal range, and he took to check down to Samuel well short of the sticks. That's a smart play. That's growth. I think we saw that against Philadelphia also. You know, he's not trying to force something.

He's not holding on to it to take a sack in that spot. Hit the underneath to Samuel quickly and let's kick three. And that was the opening drive. on their second drive. I thought there was a really good slant to Terry. By the way, under duress, he threw a really nice screen pass to Robinson Jr. that was called back

because of the holding on gates. The fourth drive, Zone Reed on fourth and one, keeps it for three yards. Love to see that. The play action, a few plays later, to Terry for 17 yards. And then the touchdown pass to Chris Samuel, beauty.

I mean, there were a lot of a really solid place in the first half. You know, there was the throw to Terry for 18 yards in the second half. The screen, you know, I don't give him much credit for that, although he sold it pretty well. So let's give him credit for that in the second half. But not much more to write home about in the second half. You know, I didn't think there were a lot of bad Sam plays necessarily either. There was a throw under duress that he made that hit the back of the heel of the defender.

That wasn't a great throw. He missed Terry on a third and 14. But he didn't make any crucial mistakes. I mean, the big mistakes is the holding onto the ball and taking sacks. And because of that, and because he took five against a team that only had four coming in, I can't give him like a super high grade. To me, C plus B minus yesterday. But again, the things that he does well are really encouraging.

I thought he had a really solid first half. In the first half, he was, where is it? He was 12 of 18 for 109 yards and two touchdowns. He didn't really have a close pick necessarily. He's had some of those turnover-worthy throws and games before. The sacks, the big problem with Sam right now, because look, of his six interceptions, four of them were against Buffalo. Other than that, he's a nine-touchdown two-interception guy, right?

Now, he did have a couple fumbles and had that big fumble in the Arizona game. But the encouraging positives outweigh the negatives. The problem is the negatives, there's one big one. And he's got to fix that, as we talked about in the last segment. But overall, I think B minus C plus, you know, somewhere in that range for Sam. And that's kind of been what this season has been. I think he's been a B quarterback this year. He's been a B quarterback.

And the sacks are just the big concern. All right. Finish up with some of the other NFL and a few thoughts on Maryland right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Caleb Griffin on the road for the win. Griffin upsets Maryland on Homecoming. Really tough loss for the turn. on Saturday. They lose to a team that had not yet won a Big Ten game. Illinois was a 14-point

underdog. I did talk about on the podcast on Friday that I thought this was going to be a much harder game for Maryland than many people thought going in. Just really disappointing because this was the year. I think a lot of us were hoping they would win all of the games they were supposed to win, which would give them a chance at a nine-win regular season, potentially 10 wins with a bowl win. Play Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, super competitive, and who knows, maybe pull one off. They were close last week for a while at Ohio State, but instead now they've lost two games in a row with Northwestern coming up after a buy week. But more on this game, and specifically more on this game as it relates to the people that are convinced that

somehow Mike Loxley was to blame for this loss. But first, let me just mention that this segment of the show is brought to you by Do South Dockside in Navy Yard, some of the best barbecue in town. If you're looking for a spot to watch games, to hang out with friends, whether it's, you know, a Saturday or Sunday afternoon or a Monday night where you've got Monday night football or a Tuesday night where you got a lot of football going on as well these days, yeah. college football pretty much every night now until the end of the regular season. But head to Duce South Doxide and Navy Yard, right on the Capitol Riverfront boardwalk,

stock bar, draft beer, and a menu full of the Duce South House-smoked barbecue favorites. Excellent barbecue, guys. Their waterside location is the perfect place to gather all season long or to host your next event. Come on down and do the queue at Duce South. more at do south dc.com. That's do south dc.com. So we'll get to some of the other NFL here to finish up the show in a minute or so. But I want to talk about Maryland's loss for a moment because this just happens all the time now when Maryland loses a football or a basketball game. Look, a lot of you are not part of the Maryland fan base. I understand that. But just, you know,

bear with me for a moment because I am passionate about it. I'm a passionate about this as I am anything else. Maryland basketball is my clear cut number one. Maryland football is certainly in my top three or four. And I've been excited about the team this year. And the team really in the last few years, Mike Loxley's done a great job. But it is certainly the Maryland thing to when they lose a game in basketball or football to a team that you don't think they should lose to. And I would agree, Maryland should beat Illinois. It should be a game that they win, you know, eight out of ten times this year, all right? But your automatic go-to is to blame the head coach.

Every loss in football or basketball is a coach's loss. It's the coach's fault. Stop it. They didn't lose to Illinois on Saturday because of Mike Loxley. Now, he took blame for it in the post-game presser. I watch his post-game presser every week, and he is the stand-up. of all stand-up guys. He always says, put it on me before we go anywhere else. I think it's one of the reasons he's a great recruiter. He's a phenomenal communicator, and he takes his guys off the hook.

But look, this was not a loss that I would put on Mike Loxley. They were on the verge of going up by two scores shortly before halftime, and their wide receiver, Caden Prather, fumbled after picking up a first down on a catch. So instead of it being 21 to 7 or 17 to 7 at half time, or let's just say they miss a field goal, it's 14 to 7, worst case, because they burn more of the clock. Instead, Illinois takes over, they go down and score, Mike tries a surprise on sidekick to start the second half. I didn't have a problem with that at all. Be aggressive. I mean, if you think that you've seen something special teams-wise in a 14-14 game that might work, it didn't. They had a chance to recover it.

But he didn't fumble the football. He didn't miss a 44-yard field goal in the game. He wasn't covering the Illinois wide receiver who made a phenomenal catch being covered that put them in range for their game-winning field goal. He didn't do any of those things. It was a great catch. Really good coverage. Just a great catch that put them in range for the walk-off field goal.

As far as the time out at the end of the first half, a lot of you jumped on him for that. Illinois had made the decision to kick a field goal at the end of the first half in a fourth and short situation down near the goal line. He wanted to emphasize, and I was watching him in his press conference, I wanted to take that time out. We had three of them. You know, we didn't need him for offense because the half was going to end with them having the ball there. But, you know, I didn't want my guys to jump off sides and give them an easy first down. I wanted to emphasize that. There's nothing wrong with that.

Now, the call that many of you have the biggest issue with was the third down call before the field goal that they made to tie the game at 24-24. It's third and six, and they handed the ball off. They ran the ball. But they had run the ball in medium, third and medium earlier in the game and picked it up easily. They clearly liked something based on a certain front

or a certain Illinois defense that they wanted to run against. And they got it and they just didn't execute. That call didn't lose them the game. The fact that the play didn't work cost them dearly, but it wasn't like this horrible play call. You never ever run the ball on third and six down 24-21. You go for the win. They're playing for the field goal.

They weren't playing for the field goal. They were playing for the touchdown. they thought that was the right play on third and six because it had worked earlier. I don't know, man. I live and die these games like a lot of you, Maryland people do. This is me. It's part of me.

It's part of my DNA like it is for many of you. That was a tough loss for sure. It wasn't on locks. You know, sometimes it's not the coach, Maryland fans. This tweet I got from Mikey, it's time for Loxley to go. You can't keep losing these games. Purdue last year, Illinois this year.

Are you kidding me, Mikey? Are you kidding me? Maryland football is in such a better place today than it was before Loxley got here. It's the best spot it's been in in 12 years. They've won back-to-back bowl games. They won eight games last year. They are debatably the fourth or fifth best team in the Big Ten this year. what do you actually want them to do against the teams in their league that have much bigger budgets than they have?

A much bigger NIL potential and NIL money than they have. I'm not even talking about Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State, obviously, but even a team like Illinois, Purdue. Lox has done a very good job. Tough loss, bad loss, if you want to describe it that way. But by just saying, by just saying the following, you can't lose to Illinois, man, can't lose Illinois. Think about that for a moment. That is nearly an admission that the program is in a much better place than it's been in a long time.

When you say as a member of the Big Ten at Maryland in football, you just, dude, you can't lose to Illinois. Sorry, you can't lose to Purdue. Can't lose those games. Okay, you can lose to Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan. You can't lose to any of these other scrubs. Right there is an admission of what a better spot he has put them into. I don't know what Maryland football can be.

I've always made the argument, and I hate saying this because it sounds defeatist. But I know what their budget is. I know what their stadium looks like. I know that it's a basketball first school, and it's not only a basketball first school, it's a basketball first school by a lot. You know, by a lot. You know, like Purdue is probably a basketball first school, but they packed their football stadiums,

their football stadium for games. You know, Illinois, big-time basketball school, but football's important at Illinois. Basketball, in the Big Ten, I mean, Maryland is probably, right, the number one example of a basketball first school. I guess Indiana, you would say the same. Indiana and Maryland are the two that are clearly basketball first schools. It's important at Michigan State.

It's important at Iowa. It's important at Purdue. It's important at Illinois. But the difference between basketball and football is, greatest at Indiana, probably first maybe. Maryland, a close second. Or they're probably tied for first. They're the two obvious basketball first schools in the league.

Rutgers, too. I don't even think of Rutgers in the league. Probably the same way that, you know, Iowa fans don't consider Maryland as part of the Big Ten. Whatever. Get used to it. Washington and Oregon are joining the league. Anyway, they have a buy and then they play Northwestern, and I bet that they pummel Northwestern.

They should. They absolutely should. If they lose to Northwestern, maybe a slightly different conversation in two weeks. Look, the other NFL, real simple, crazy games yesterday, right? The two remaining undefeated's lost to a backup quarterback and a third string quarterback. The Browns and the Jets have the two best defenses in the league. The Browns have the best defense in terms of total yards allowed through five games. Since 1971, they completely shut down the 49ers.

They knocked McCaffrey out of the game. They knocked Debo Samuel out of the game. They are so nasty on defense. And San Francisco's Brock Purdy had less than 100 yards passing until the final drive, got him into field goal range, and their rookie kicker pushed one to the right. So San Francisco loses for the first time. to PJ Walker, a third-string quarterback, and yet they were also playing the best defense in the league.

The second best defense in the league, the New York Jets. Just imagine, imagine what the Jets would be like with Aaron Rogers. Because it's not just their defense, which is exceptional. They've got Brees Hall, they've got Garrett Wilson. They've got weapons on offense too. And Zach Wilson, give him some credit. He's playing better, no doubt. He's another guy that takes a lot of sad.

but he's playing better. You know, he's not Aaron Rogers, that's for sure. The game, the play of that game was the Jalen Hertz interception, up 14 to 12, third down midfield. Jets, by the way, you know, at that point, the Jets have used all three of their timeouts, and it's third nine, just under the two-minute warning, and Jalen Hertz throws one of the worst balls you'll ever see. That was a terrible throw, off his back foot, picked off by Adams, and the Jets go down and score a touchdown, and they win the game 20 to 14. Terrible throw. Some of you actually really don't like Jalen Hertz.

I don't get what you're watching. Do I think he's Patrick Mahomes? No. Do I think he's Josh Allen or Joe Burrow? No. Do I think he's Justin Herbert? I don't think so. But he's in that next group, people.

Come on. He threw some picks yesterday. That's a great defensive football team. One quick thing about this game. First of all, they didn't pick up, I don't think, until too late, that the Jets actually scored that go-ahead touchdown with a minute 46 to go because Philly let Breece Hall score understood the idea of potentially letting him score being the right thing to do.

Like, it's a debatable thing. But I would have argued that it was the wrong thing to do. Philly still had two timeouts left. It was 14 to 12. If they can use both timeouts and then get a third down stop, even if it's in play, they're going to get the ball back with roughly a minute to go, maybe 55 seconds to go, and they have timeouts left. They have two of them left, and if it's 15, 14, they only need field goal range.

I actually would not have let them score on that first play following the interception. They did. That was their play. They got the ball back immediately, but they had to go down and score a touchdown with two timeouts and a minute 46 to go. I think I would have preferred zero timeouts only needing a field goal with like a minute or 55 seconds to go.

I think I would have preferred that against the jet defense. I don't think I'm going down there getting a touchdown to win the game against that defense. I might get in field goal range, but I'm not getting the touchdown. The other game last night, I mean the Giants with Saquan Barkley, a completely different team. That was definitely either defensive holding or pass interference or both on the final throw from Tyrod Taylor to Waller in the end zone. They should have gotten another snap. Give the Giants credit, they were the biggest underdog of the year.

They had a 6-0 lead at halftime. Of course, if we're watching that game, just a big. brutal end of the first half. Tyrod Taylor's got first down and goal at the one yard line with 14 seconds left but no timeouts and he checks to a run and the clock runs out as Barclay gets stopped short of the end zone. Horrendous. You should have been able to throw the ball two, maybe three times and then make a decision on fourth down whether or not you want to go for it or kick the field goal. Terrible, terrible job. He clearly checked to the run. I fault Brian Dable, the head coach. Even though Tyrod Taylor is a veteran and should have known better, you don't

give him a play with an option to run the ball, period. And you emphasize in his ear before the play, hey, dude, you have to throw the ball into the end zone. Here, we have no timeouts left. That's the only play we can make here is a throw into the end zone, period. That cost them, obviously. I also thought Daebel should have gone for the fourth and inches before kicking the field goal to go up nine to seven in the game. Hell of a game, though. I tweeted out at one point, it was six to nothing. I mean, they had shut the bills out going into the fourth quarter,

and I tweeted out, it's six to nothing, but this is one damn good football game, and it was. Terrible, terrible smell test weekend. Three and eight, two and eight? Had some close calls. None of them went my way. We'll try to do better next week. All right, enjoy the baseball and football tonight, back tomorrow with Tommy.